People manage their money in a variety of different ways, sometimes in ways that others fail to understand, but that work well for them. The research in this new report focuses on one of those ways: informal saving.

Informal saving can take many forms: saving in cash at home (sometimes literally in jam jars), careful spending and shopping, letting a current account balance mount up, savings stamps and over-payment on prepayment meters. However, there has been very little research carried out into what motivates people to save informally. This report plugs that gap. In so doing we find that low income individuals and households employ a variety of informal savings techniques that help them to be more financially resilient, particularly with budgeting and preparing for unforeseen expenses.

Overall this report helps to dispel the myth that people on a low income do not have savings methods or personal techniques to build financial resilience.