For years, I thought I was saving money.
At least, that's what I told myself. Whenever I received money, I would decide that I wasn't going to spend everything. I'd transfer some of it into my bank account, leave it there and feel good about myself. For a few days. Then something would happen. I'd need to buy something I hadn't planned for. I'd see something I wanted. I'd go out with friends. An unexpected bill would show up. Or I'd simply have one of those months where I kept telling myself, "I'll replace it next month." Next month would come. I'd do the same thing again.
The money wasn't disappearing because I was spending on one ridiculous thing. That would almost have been easier to understand. It was disappearing in small amounts. Five thousand here. Ten thousand there. A few transfers that didn't seem important at the time. Then, suddenly, I'd check my account and wonder where the money had gone.
The most annoying part was that I genuinely wanted to save. I wasn't against saving.
I just wasn't very good at leaving money alone. I needed some kind of barrier between me and the money I had decided not to spend. That's what eventually made me try PiggyVest. I had heard about it before. Friends mentioned it. I had seen people talking about saving with it. But I kept putting it off because I already had a bank account.
In my head, another savings platform seemed unnecessary. Why couldn't I just save in my bank account? The answer became obvious after I failed to do it for the hundredth time. Because I could reach the money too easily.
Why I finally downloaded it The decision wasn't dramatic. I didn't suddenly wake up one morning and become financially responsible. I had a specific amount of money I wanted to keep aside, and I knew myself well enough to know that if it remained mixed with my spending money, I'd eventually touch it. So I decided to try something different.
I downloaded PiggyVest and started looking around. My first impression was that there was more to it than I expected. I wasn't immediately interested in every option I saw. I didn't want to start doing complicated things with money just because an app gave me several choices.
I wanted one simple thing. I wanted to put money somewhere and stop touching it.
That was my starting point. My first savings goal. I decided to create a savings goal for something specific instead of simply transferring money and calling it savings. That made a difference for me. When I was saving in my bank account, the money didn't really have an identity. It was just money sitting there. If I needed money for something else, I could take it. But when I gave the money a specific purpose, I became more reluctant to touch it.
I could see what I was working toward. That sounds like a small psychological difference, but for me it mattered. I started putting money into the goal whenever I had money available. Sometimes it was the amount I had originally planned. Sometimes it was less. There were months when I was doing well and months when I wasn't. I stopped pretending that every month would look exactly the same.
The first time I wanted to withdraw it. This was when I realized why I had needed the account in the first place. A few weeks into saving, I wanted to spend some of the money. It wasn't an emergency. I simply saw something I wanted and started doing that familiar calculation in my head. "I can take some and replace it later." That sentence had already cost me enough money over the years. This time, I stopped. The fact that the money wasn't sitting in the account I used every day made me think twice. I didn't have the same immediate access I was used to. And honestly, that little bit of inconvenience helped me.
I know some people hate anything that makes their money harder to access. I understand that. But I had the opposite problem. My money was too easy for me to access. I needed the inconvenience. I started treating the money differently Something changed once I had been using the savings goal for a while. I started thinking about the money before spending it. Not every naira.
I'm not suddenly calculating every purchase with a spreadsheet. But I became more aware of the difference between money I could spend and money I had already decided not to spend. That distinction had been missing before. When all my money was in one place, everything felt available.
Now I had money that was mentally off-limits. That made my normal spending easier to understand.
If I wanted to buy something, I knew what money I was actually allowed to use. If I didn't have enough in my spending money, I couldn't casually convince myself that my savings would cover the difference. That was probably the biggest change for me.
What I liked about using it
The biggest thing I liked was the structure. I needed something that would make saving feel like an actual activity rather than a promise I made to myself every payday. The savings goal gave the money a purpose. I also liked being able to check my progress without having to remember how much I had put away.
Seeing the amount grow was motivating. There were times when I transferred a small amount and thought it wasn't worth bothering with. Then I looked at the total later and realized those small transfers were actually adding up. That was something I had underestimated. I had always imagined saving as putting away a large amount of money at once. I wasn't earning enough or disciplined enough to do that consistently. Smaller amounts were much easier for me to maintain.
What I didn't like
PiggyVest didn't magically make me disciplined. That needs to be said. There were months when I didn't save as much as I wanted. There were times when I had to prioritize other expenses. And there were moments when I found myself looking at the money I had saved and thinking about what else I could do with it. The app could create a barrier. It couldn't make the decision for me.
I also had to get used to having another financial app on my phone. I don't like having too many apps that deal with money. I prefer knowing exactly where my money is and what I'm doing with it. So at first, I was cautious. I didn't immediately move a large amount of money into it. I started small. That made me more comfortable with the whole process.
I stopped trying to save whatever was left. This was probably my biggest mistake before PiggyVest. I used to spend first and save whatever remained. The problem was that there was almost never much left. So I changed the order. When I received money, I tried to put something aside first. It didn't have to be an enormous amount. The important thing was making the transfer before I started spending.
That one habit made more difference than all the motivational posts I'd saved over the years.
I stopped waiting to see what would be left at the end of the month. I decided what I could afford to save first. Then I worked with what remained. The part that surprised me. I expected the biggest benefit to be the money itself. It wasn't. It was the way I started thinking about money. Before, saving felt like something I was supposed to do. Now it felt like something I was actively doing. There's a difference.
When I opened my bank account and saw money sitting there, I saw money I could potentially spend. When I opened my savings goal and saw money sitting there, I saw something I had already decided was for another purpose. That mental separation helped me more than I expected. It also made me less impressed by small unnecessary purchases. I'd see something I wanted and think, "Do I really want this more than I want the thing I'm saving for?" Sometimes the answer was yes. I bought it. Sometimes the answer was no. I left it. I'm not pretending that I became extremely disciplined overnight. I didn't. But at least I started making the decision consciously.
What I would do differently
If I were starting again, I wouldn't begin by trying to save an amount that made my monthly life uncomfortable. I've done that before. I'd get excited, set an ambitious target and then struggle to maintain it. When I couldn't keep up, I'd abandon the whole thing.
Now I'm more interested in consistency. I'd rather save an amount I can realistically maintain than set a target that looks impressive for one month and disappears afterward. I also wouldn't move money into savings that I knew I might need for an immediate bill. That defeats the point.
Money for regular expenses should remain available. The money I put aside needs to be money I can genuinely leave alone. That has made the whole process less stressful.
Is PiggyVest the reason I'm saving now?
Not exactly. I still have to make the decision to save. The app didn't suddenly turn me into a different person. What it did was make the system fit the way I actually behave. I had already proved that keeping everything in one easily accessible bank account wasn't working for me. So instead of repeatedly blaming myself for being undisciplined, I changed the system. That was the useful part.
Sometimes people talk about saving as though all you need is enough willpower. Maybe that works for some people. It didn't work particularly well for me. I needed separation. I needed a goal. And I needed enough friction to make me stop before touching money I'd already promised myself I wouldn't spend.
Would I recommend it?
I wouldn't tell somebody to download PiggyVest simply because it worked for me. I'd tell them to think about the problem they're actually trying to solve. If you're already disciplined about keeping savings separate from spending money, you may not need an app to convince you to leave your money alone. But if you're like I was — constantly saying you're saving while repeatedly dipping into the same money — having a separate place for your savings can make a real difference.
For me, it did. I also like that I started small. I didn't need to make some huge financial decision on the first day. I put away money I could afford to leave alone, watched how the system worked for me and gradually became more comfortable with it. That felt much better than trying to become a completely different person overnight.
THE VERDICT
Product/service: PiggyVest
What I liked: Having a separate place for savings, setting specific goals and creating enough distance between my savings and everyday spending.
What I didn't like: It doesn't remove the need for discipline, and I still had months when saving was difficult.
Best for: Someone who struggles to keep savings separate from everyday spending and wants more structure around saving.
What changed for me: I stopped treating saving as whatever money happened to remain at the end of the month.
Would I use it again: Yes.
I still have months when money is tight.
I still spend money on things I probably don't need.
I still have moments when I'd rather buy something now than wait.
But I don't tell myself I'm saving anymore just because there's money sitting in my bank account.
I actually have money set aside.
And for someone who spent years saying, "I'll start saving properly next month," that feels like progress.