After mentioning my use of the IFTTT app on a Saturday Savers Club post 
I was introduced to the app by a regular in the cafe I used to work in. She told me how she had set it up to do the 1p saving challenge automatically. You start by saving 1p on the first of January and increase the amount by 1p everyday. This is something which was championed by the Saturday Savers Club and from what I gather was very successful last year.
IFTTT stands for If This Then That. The idea being that if something happens then the app automatically does something else. There are all sorts of Applets you can turn on in your device not just related to saving.
For example, the app can be linked to Gmail and send emails to or for you, to inform you when it’s going to snow, to inform someone you’re on your way etc. You can link your Twitter and Instagram, connect to your Spotify, Alexa, get your phone to turn off Bluetooth in order to conserve battery and many more. The overall aim seems to be to create greater synergy across apps you already have on your phone. The possibilities certainly seem endless, or they will be when they get this platform on there!
So far, I’ve only used the savings applets. Very ambitiously, I initially linked quite a few to my Monzo mobile banking app. I set up the 1p saving challenge and the reverse (start at 365p and save one less penny a day), the weekly saving challenge (£1 on monday £2 on Tuesday etc, saving £1500 a year) the £1 weekly savings challenge (£1 on week one, £2 on week two etc). Blinded by the potential savings and the ease of swiping to add them to your homepage. I was sure to be a millionaire in no time! It quickly transpired that even with the best intentions I could not afford to be putting that much away. If I did have enough money to not miss those kinds of outgoings I probably could have more in savings to start with.
I reeled myself in, and cut down to the 1p saving challenge I was most interested to begin with. I like the ease of the automatic movement of money trickling into my account. The idea being that these savings become incidental. For a lot of people the idea of moving a significant sum of money into a savings account on payday can be pretty daunting as you never know what’s going to come up and you don’t want to be caught short. You are much less likely to miss a few pennies eeked out across the month.
Other saving Applets I found that were of interest were ‘Donate when I eat out with Monzo’ where a charity donation will automatically be made everytime you go for dinner and ‘Save for a holiday whenever it rains’.
I do have a fear that this app and how I use it is a little UK-centric. To my knowledge Monzo is only available in the UK but I would love to hear if IFTTT is compatible with anything else around the world. Or if any of you have any similar apps you have found that you can recommend.