Hello #needleworkmondayers, happy new year!

I'd like to invite you to join the needleworkmonday 365 savings club. This means saving a little every day for a year and ending up with £667.95 in the kitty on the 1st January 2021. I really liked the idea, initiated by @spinvest. You can read the full post here.

How Does It Work?

There is not much to it. Starting on day 1, you save 1p, on day 2, you save 2p, day 3, you save 3p and so on until you reach day 365 and you save $3.65. You can use the sheet below to track your progress. To print this sheet, right-click over the sheet, save image as (to somewhere you remember) and then print it out.

By starting at 1 penny and compound saving by adding 1 penny to the last day's amount, we can see that it really adds up very quickly into hundreds of dollars. Letting your kids, grandkids are even your spouse get involved with yours can help to learn them about the power of compound saving. It might inspire them to try it for themselves. The penny a day challenge is set up to encourage savings while not getting in the way of your budget that much. Source: the Penny a Day Savings Challenge

Source: the Penny a Day Savings Challenge

Planning for Success

Mr Spinvest adds lots of good tips to help you be successful. He says:

• Have a plan in place for what you want to spend the money on at the end of the year - this is your motivation.
• Add your own touch - some people add extra rules to save a little bit extra.
• Have a special jar or container and name it: his is called Bert.

I'd add a fourth one to that, based on some tips about saving in an email I received on 1 January:

• Be part of a savings group that is working towards the same thing. I'm inviting you to join the #needleworkmonday 365 savings club. This helps us stay on track. Plus, it's more fun and I think Mr Spinvest has some things up his sleeve that he's not telling us yet!

Get your free SPI tokens

There are two ways you can get up to 7 free SPI tokens:

First: I will give 2 free SPI tokens to anyone that:

• posts using the #needleworkmonday tag on Monday 6 January or Monday 13 January and
• uploads a picture of their printed out "365 DAY SAVING MONEY CHALLENGE" sheet including their steem username written at the bottom.

This offer will last until Wednesday 15 January at 10am UTC and is limited to the first 10 people that upload a picture into the comments below.

Second: Mr Spinvest will give 5 free SPI tokens to anyone that uploads a picture of their printed out "365 DAY SAVING MONEY CHALLENGE" sheet including their steem username written at the bottom. (This offer is open to anyone, you don't have to post in #needleworkmonday).

Mr Spinvest's offer will last until the Penny a Day Savings Challenge post pay outs and is limited to the first 20 people that upload a picture into the comments on that post.

Money for Jam

Source

"Money for jam" is an informal British expression which, nowadays, means money earned with little or no effort. It originated in the Army where jam was a ubiquitous part if the diet, that is, everywhere; so money for jam meant it was money that was easy to find.

Source

"Money for old rope" has a similar meaning. The phrase is nautical in origin: the fibres from old ropes were jammed between the planks on a ship, and then covered in tar to make the seal watertight. So there is value in something that appears to be useless - like pennies :)

I also think about money for jam as "extra" or "free" money - it's discretionary and additional to your bills and other things that have to be paid: you can spend it on jam or other treats.

The Penny a Day Challenge - My Way

I'm not very good with cash or with things that need doing everyday. On Saturday I forgot to bring the milk in. This is not unusual, sometimes my neighbours knock on the door to remind me.

My experiences of having cash in the house are not great, either. One time a friend helped themselves to a little pile of five pence pieces I was saving and spent them down the pub. Another time, nearly £10,000 sitting in a jar was confiscated by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in a raid ( that's a story for another time). My forgetfulness could extend to forgetting about the project altogether, and coming across a tin labelled Bert tucked away in the garage in several years time.

However, I am good at Steem Saturday, the day I sit down and do my Steem housekeeping. It's also my regular day for buying Steem.

So I've set up two accounts: one called @moneyforjam and one called @moremoneyforjam. I'm going to save into both of them using the 365 day money saving challenge.

• @moneyforjam will operate like a normal account, posting, voting and curating, plus receiving my 365 day contributions. I'll be posting under this account with my progress in the 365 day challenge and any other money saving tips I come across, including the #needleworkmonday savings club.
• @moremoneyforjam will just receive my 365 day contributions which will all be transferred for SPI tokens.

I want to see how the two accounts grow over the year. At today's prices, I estimate I should have about 7,000 Steem in the @moneyforjam account - grown through compounding pennies.

This is a great method for anyone who wants to grow their holdings of any coin or token in a structured way that's easy to manage within your budget.

I'm also interested to see if there is a difference in value at the end of the year between the two accounts. I already know I'm going to have a problem spending it (as in, I won't want to spend it) however much it is, but we'll deal with that when we get there.

Other ways you can save with SPInvest

There are some other great ways you can save with Steem Powered Investments:

SPI Beneficiary Payments

You can set @spi-payments as a permanent beneficiary for a percentage of all your post rewards, and then receive the equivalent amount in SPI tokens. This is probably the top and easiest way to save as the money is put away before it ever reaches your wallet. More info in this post

SPI Monthly Fiat Group Buys

SPInvest runs a monthly fiat to SPI group buy. This now has no currency exchange fees. I wasn't using this before, but it now makes sense! More info in this post

Leo and Neoxian Delegations

If you have any LEO or NEOXIAN sitting in your Steem Engine wallet that you're not using, you can delegate them to @spinvest-leo or @spinvest-neo and receive SPIs in reward. Please see either account for more information.

Don't forget to post your picture of the 365 money saving challenge with your Steem username in the comments below for your free SPIs.