World Savings Day: the Mozo office lunchshare

Have you heard of World Savings Day? It started in Italy way back in 1924, to promote thriftiness and depositing your savings at the bank, instead of sticking them under your mattress.

Since then it’s become something of a tradition, celebrated on October 31st in countries around the world - in Austria, the day has an official saving mascot called the Sparefroh (literally: Happy Saver) who was more well-known than the President and even had a street named after him.

World Savings Day is right up Mozo’s alley as well, and while we don’t have a mascot quite as cute as the Sparefroh, we’re joining in the fun with our own World Savings Day event this Monday.

What the Mozo office is doing:

Did you know Aussie workers spend an average of $16 a day on food and drinks? That’s $80 over a 5 day week. Don’t worry - if that seems like a lot to stomach, you’re not alone. The diehard savers at Mozo was horrified to realise how much everyone was spending on lunch and so we came up with the Mozo WSD Lunchshare.

Here’s how it works:

• Everyone in the office chips in $5. Individually, that’s not a big spend - in fact, on average, it’s a saving of $11 - but when you pool it all together, Mozo should have a lunch budget of over $100.
• The Mozo WSD Chefs then head out to Woolies to shop up a storm. Since the weather’s heating up, we’re opting for fresh salads and cold cut meats for sandwiches (and don’t forget the halloween treats). By buying in bulk instead of pre-packaged single serves, we’ll save a tonne of cash shopping for the whole office at once.
• Last step - it’s out into the summer sunshine on the Mozo balcony to enjoy our feast! Make sure you like us on facebook to be part of the action.

That’s all there is to it, and not only will we all get to enjoy a lunch break together, but collectively, the Mozo office will be saving $220. Not too shabby!

We might even make a habit of it - after all, if we teamed up for a Mozo Lunchshare once a month for a year, we’d save $2,640 which could go toward charity, or another fun Mozo event.

What you can do:

Want to get in on the World Savings Day fun? You could hold your own office Lunchshare (if you do, jump on FB or Twitter and let us know how it goes and what you save!) But if that idea doesn’t float your boat, then here are some other top ideas for your own World Savings Day event.

• Start a book swap club. If you’ve got a few readers in the office, you’ll probably have a blast and save some serious cash by swapping your old books. And you can still do this if your office is more digitally inclined - Amazon Kindle lets you lend your digital books to a friend for up to 14 days, even if they don’t have a Kindle themselves. You can try setting up Stuff Swaps for just about anything - books, clothes, even baked goods - but remember that these are coworkers, and it might feel a bit odd to show up to work in clothes you swapped for the week before.
• Team up and ditch the gym. Gym memberships are notoriously expensive, and are often the first thing to go when you’re looking at cutting costs. So this World Savings Day, consider teaming up with a bunch of coworkers and ditching your gym membership for a group sports team or a running club. It’s a win-win — you’ll save money and work on your team building skills all at once.
• Commuter competition. Put a competitive spin on getting to work by challenging your co-workers to see who can make their morning commute for the smallest cost. Not only will this spur people to save money on their travel, but it will also probably promote public transport, cycling or even walking - which is good for the environment and your health. Consider offering a fun prize for anyone who can get to work absolutely free, or for the most creative approach.

What to do with the money you save:

After World Savings Day is done and dusted, you’ll have all this cash saved up - so what do you do with it? Some of our top suggestions are:

If you’re pooling your savings...

• Give it to a charity. Trade your savings stash for some warm and fuzzy feelings by donating it to a charity. This is also a great way to get other people involved in your savings event - everyone likes to give to a worthy cause.
• Hold an office event. Use the savings from your World Savings Day event to hold a lunch, an office outing or even a pub crawl for the people involved. Hint: this works even better if you commit to saving as a group for a while, and build up a bigger budget.

If you’re keeping your individual savings...

• Put it towards Christmas shopping. It’s that time of year again, when you’re hitting the shops to find the right gift for everyone and try to stick within your budget. Having a little extra cash in your pocket certainly won’t hurt!
• Save it! Stick that loot in a high power savings account and watch it grow. By next years WSD, you’ll have earned a nice little bonus in interest.