5 things to give up for Lent and how much money you could save

While fasting is not as widely practised these days, many people still undertake a period of abstinence – usually from perceived bad habits or indulgences – to recognise Jesus’ time in the desert in the New Testament.

The modern world provides plenty of temptations and distractions, many of which can put a dent in one’s wallet.

As such, we’re providing 5 ideas of things you could give up this Lent to make yourself healthier, a little bit wealthier, or just simply to prove to yourself that you can.

Smoking

There are plenty of devices to help smokers quit – with the arrival of handheld vaporizers the latest in an arsenal including gum, patches and hypnotherapy.

The fact is: quitting can be very difficult. But looking at the damage it can do to your purse might help persuade you.

Lent is the ideal time to put your will power to the test. And if your will power doesn’t work – here are some sobering figures to convince you.

If you started smoking roughly 10 cigarettes a day aged 18 – priced around £4.50 for a 20-pack – then you’ll have already spent around £11,634 on cigarettes by the time you’re 30. That’s enough for a deposit on a house.

The same person quitting today could save £776 for the rest of this year and quitting during Lent would be a good start – saving you around £100.

Figures obtained using canstopsmoking.com

Drinking

Supermarkets and discount alcohol stores have helped drive down the price of drink over recent years, but indulging in the odd tipple can still be costly.

With so many different products out there – not to mention wildly fluctuating bar prices on a night out – getting a definitive value on how much you could save by quitting drinking is obviously dependent on what, when and you like to drink.

For a simple illustration, a person consuming only seven pints a week at £3.50 a pint will be spending £106 per month. That’s £1,274 a year.

What’s more – if you stopped drinking and transferred your monthly saving to a savings account, you'd have £1,292.73 in a year’s time (assuming 3.2 per cent net interest), so you'd make an additional £18.73 by doing nothing.

The same person quitting during Lent would save £140.

Figures obtained from whatsthecost.com

Gambling

How much you could stand to save if you quit gambling obviously depends on A. How much you gamble and B. If you’re any good at it.

Online apps have made it easier than ever to have a flutter, with incentives like ‘cash-out’ early and ‘first bet for free’ helping entice the punters.

Then there’s the National Lottery, an evening at the Bingo or the quiz machine at the pub.

gambleaware.co.uk provides a calculator to see how someone with certain gambling habits could save.

We’ve taken the example of a football fan putting a £10 accumulator on five times a month (roughly one for each round of league matches) and winning half the time.

Someone with those gambling patterns can expect to lose approximately £300 a year – or £25 during Lent.

Of course, there’s no saying you won’t back a long-odds winner the other half of the time and take home many multiples of £300, but it’s worth remembering that there’s a reason casinos are a viable business – the house usually wins.

Fast food

As well as saving money, a lot of people use Lent as a springboard to a lasting diet.

Giving up indulgences in Lent could lead to lasting habit changes that make you a fitter and healthier person.

If you’re spending £5 on a fast food meal every week then you’re spending £260 over the course of the year.

As an example - the Big Mac Meal with a regular coke contains roughly 1,150 calories, according to calorielab.com If you’re eating one of those a week then you’re consuming 59,800 calories.

Given that a person weighing 10 stone needs to walk roughly 20 minutes at 3mph to burn 100 calories, then it would take just over 8 days of your year to remove the calories you’re putting in by eating a Big Mac Meal and coke each year.

Given the above, those expensive looking gym passes seem to look like a bargain – the £260 spread over 12 instalments means you could join a gym at £21 a month.

Social Media

A more recent entry into the ‘things to give up for Lent’ pantheon – Facebook and Twitter et al are so entwined with people’s lives as top make going cold turkey seem nigh-on impossible.

With this in mind, it’s worth looking at how much time people are spending online.

Figures from Ofcom in 2015 – the UK’s communications regulator – revealed that people aged 16-24 spend an average of 27 hours per week on the internet. That’s twice as much time online as in 2005.

If those hours were spent in a job earning the minimum wage, the money accrued would be £175.50 a week and £702 a month. Enough to buy the latest smartphone. Or is that missing the point?