With plans to scrap the triple lock looming and petrol prices rocketing above £2 a litre, many Brits are worried about surviving retirement. But what if we told you that you could add an extra £49,000 to your pension pot without earning a penny more? Even better, some of that pot could be ‘free money’ from HMRC.
As unlikely as this sounds, it is potentially achievable by making some small changes to your spending to find £100 a month to invest in your pension.
Pensions expert Hannah Martin says: ‘According to Retirement Living Standards, the current full new State Pension is not enough to live on if you are single, and only just affords you a minimum standard of living if you are in a couple
‘And this assumes you have no rent or mortgage to pay.
‘The current full new State Pension is not enough to live on if you are single,’ says pensions expert Hannah Martin
‘This also depends on the State Pension staying at its current value, relative to the cost of living; an assumption we can no longer confidently rely on following the recent decision by Andy Burnham to scrap the triple lock.’
While we are still waking up to the fact that we cannot rely on a basic State Pension to be comfortable in retirement, a recent interim report by the Pensions Commission found that at least 15 million people in the UK are currently under-saving for retirement. Some 45 per cent of working-age adults are not saving into a pension at all, and just 4 per cent of wholly self-employed people are saving for retirement.
Martin says: ‘If you’re worried that you haven’t yet started saving enough for your retirement, the good news is that, thanks to tax relief and compound growth, your money has the potential to work hard for you. But you do need to act - and fast.’
How saving just £100 a month could add £49,000 to your pension
If you can find £100 a month to invest in a pension, over 20 years, with an average annual growth of 5 per cent and tax relief, that could grow to £49,000. Even if you only have ten years until you retire, you could still potentially boost your pot by almost £19,000.
But where can you find that kind of money if you are already feeling the pinch of the cost of living, and you can’t get a pay rise or work more hours?
Martin says that cutting back and saving relatively small amounts in different areas of your life can accumulate to build a healthy sum to save for your future – without feeling like you are scrimping or giving up everything that gives you joy.
‘The goal is to save money without even noticing you’re doing it,’ says Martin
‘The goal is to save money without even noticing you’re doing it. Or at least without feeling you’re missing out. There are six tips I offer my clients which are all easy-to-implement without feeling the squeeze.
Hannah Martin’s six tips for a bigger pension pot
1. Stopping subscriptions you don’t use
Potential savings: £10 a month for unused subscriptions and a possible £30+ a month for gym membership.
‘The first saving you can make without even noticing is cancelling subscriptions you’ve forgotten you’re paying for, or don’t use. So go through your bank account and credit card statements and look for regular amounts going out. If you don’t recognise or use them, check if they can be cancelled.’
Martin suggests cancelling gym or fitness memberships that aren’t used. Research shows that 18 per cent of people who joined a gym in January 2025 stopped going within four months but didn’t cancel their membership until 11-12 months later.
‘At an average saving of around £30 a month for cancelling a gym membership, that’s the first win for your pension… if not your waistline!’
2. Rotating streaming subscriptions
Potential savings: If you cut down from three platforms to one a month, you could save £20.
‘Next on your hit list are streaming subscriptions. Over the years, the number of streaming platforms vying for your money has rapidly increased. Today, according to Samba TV’s State of Streaming report, 77 per cent of UK homes have more than one streaming platform, and 54 per cent of homes have at least three.
‘While streaming services can seem cheap, when you’re paying for three or more, your monthly bill quickly adds up.’
Martin says this doesn’t mean ditching them all and reverting to the radio, but instead rotate them. ‘Every month, choose one platform to sign up for and binge all the shows and films on that. The next month, you can stay on that platform or move to another.
‘This way you see all the shows you want, but only pay for one service a month.’
3. Cutting down on takeaway coffees and meal deals
Potential savings: £50 a month.
‘Spending less usually means buying less of the things you want, or constantly feeling like you’re having to restrict yourself, which isn’t fun. So what I like to do is to make a game of it by setting myself targets to reach.
‘Let’s say you want to find an extra £50 a month to go towards your pension. That means you need to save around £12 a week. And reducing spending on things like takeaways, coffees and workday meal deals is often an easy win.
‘If you get takeaway coffees regularly, cutting back on two a week could save you £7 or more. And switching from buying lunch just one day a week at work to bringing in sandwiches from home could save you another £5. So already you’re on track to reach your target, without having to completely give up on coffees and meal deals.’
4. Save money on your weekly grocery shop
‘Another place you can save money for your pension is your grocery shop. Again, I find budgeting easier, and more fun, with a target to reach rather than just a vague ‘spend less’ approach. Decide how much you want to or can cut from your budget.
‘Saving £10 a week is reasonably achievable without feeling like you’re missing out.’
Martin, founder of the Rich Retiree retirement planning platform, suggests:
- Swapping brand names for own-brand products
- Buying frozen vegetables, meat and fish to save and prevent waste
- Avoiding ready meals and pre-chopped veg
- Planning a big shop once a week rather than small trips to convenience stores
- Writing a shopping list and sticking to it, or shopping online
- Cutting back on snacks
She says: ‘Another way to gamify budgeting is to bargain bin surf. If I’m working from my office in town, on a Friday afternoon, when I leave work, I’ll visit my local supermarket to pick up something for dinner for my family.
‘But I challenge myself to only buy items that have been marked down. It makes it more of a game - we try things we wouldn’t usually buy and save money. Yes, you have to get creative but that’s half the fun!’
Potential savings: £40 a month
5. Set a budget for shopping and going out
Potential savings: £40 a month.
If you don’t already know how much you spend each month on shopping and going out, Martin says it can help to work this figure out, then look at it in the context of your overall budget - wages coming in and essential bills going out.
She asks: ‘Can you easily afford your current leisure budget, or would cutting back a little give you money to save?
‘Again, you don’t need to give up everything you enjoy, but instead weigh up whether you’re happy spending a bit less now in order to have more to enjoy when you retire.’
Cutting your shopping and going-out spending by £10 a week can make a significant saving over the years.
6. Monitor your pension pot
Martin says that once budgets have been reassessed, there is also a bonus reward in the shape of that ‘free money’ from HMRC.
‘If you are a basic rate taxpayer you’ll usually get a 25 per cent tax top-up on eligible personal contributions. So if you pay £100 in, £25 is added, bringing the total to £125. Invested over 20 years with an average return of 5 per cent, that extra boost from HMRC takes your potential pot from around £39,000 without it, to more than £49,000.
‘There are some things in life we can’t control, and our boss choosing whether or not to give us a pay rise, and the government deciding to make changes to the State Pension are two of them. But what we do have some control over is how we manage the money we earn, and what we spend it on.
‘And if you could give up a couple of takeaway coffees and meal deals a week, cut down on a streaming subscription or two, and spend £10 less a week at the supermarket in return for a potential extra £49,000 when you retire, wouldn’t that be worth thinking about?’