In December, ANZ Bank approached me with a brand new initiative they’re running next month. In order to encourage women to save, they’re launching an Australian campaign- Febusave.

Febusave

Febusave invites women to pledge one thing they want to give up (shoes, shopping, treats) for the month of February and setup a savings goal. There will be coaches, tips and tricks to help you out as an added incentive, ANZ is giving three Australian Febusavers $5000 each. At the end of the month, each Febusaver will report back on how they went with their goal.

• Skipping your morning latte can save you around $70 per month
• Bringing your lunch from home just 3 days a week can add up to $1,560 in your pocket

The month is part of the bank’s Being Money Confident program, which is designed to empower women and enable women to be smarter with money. As we know weddings, money, saving, marriage can be a controversial issue and with the recent discussion of money on the blog, I wanted to be a part of the initiative not because it’s run by a bank, but because I really believe in everyone (and not just women) becoming more in touch with their finances and more confident with money.

The research ANZ did prior to the campaign showed:
• 58% of women have less than $5,000 in savings and 33% have less than $1,000
• 56% of Australians do not save money on a regular basis
• 52% of women claimed they know they should have a financial plan but keep putting it off
• Only one in ten women are very confident in managing their investments, financial planning and superannuation
• Less than one third of women surveyed said they were very confident about managing everyday finances.

My thought is this- by pledging the savings during February and taking a deep breath and talking about it on Polka Dot Bride, you may be able to afford the vendor that is really important to you, or a honeymoon, or a house deposit, or even more importantly go into your marriage without debt.

By talking about Febusave on the blog, perhaps we can promote a little more thinking about why some of us (because I know Polka Dot Bride readers are smart) struggle with being confident when it comes to creating our own financial plans and dealing with financial security.

Febusave-1 Febusave-2

I pledged to give up snacks and treats for the month of February and have set my own savings goal.

In addition to saving through the month of February, we’re going to make the first week all about money. I have a few features and exciting people coming to visit us, so hopefully we can inspire each other to save! To register for Febusave check out the website here.