Adding to the savings account throughout the year can be a difficult task. Here are three fun money-saving challenges for varying budgets. The penny challenge is a daily savings plan for those on the strictest budgets. The 52-week money challenge, for saving on a weekly basis throughout the year; and finally, the monthly weather track savings challenge.
Weather Track Savings
On the first day of each month, whatever the temperature is outside is the amount you add to your savings jar. Always use the high temperature of the day (for maximum savings). Now, here’s the caveat, if you live in a very cold climate area and the number is negative, you must add DOUBLE the amount of the lowest temperature of that day! For example, if it was -18°F on January first, you’d add $36 to the jar.
- Last year, this savings plan netted me $919.
- Jan 1st: $60
- Feb 1st: $48
- March 1st: $65
- April 1st: $71
- May 1st: $78
- June 1st: $93
- July 1st: $106
- Aug 1st: $97
- Sept 1st: $86
- Oct 1st: $79
- Nov 1st: $71
- Dec 1st: $65
If you have the ability to save more, pick two dates, for instance the first and fifteenth.
52 Week Money Challenge
The 52 week money challenge is a weekly challenge that reduces the amount you must save by one dollar each week. On the first week you set aside fifty-two dollars, on the last week, you set aside a single dollar. Try this simple 52-week challenge and by Christmas, you’ll have $1,378 in your account!
For many families, by the end of the year, money is very tight, particularly around the holidays, so instead of starting the savings out small and ending big, we choose to start out a bit bigger and end small!
- The easiest method to get started, grab a box of envelopes and number them 1 through 52.
- Start out with $52. the first week and each week drop it down $1., by the time Christmas rolls around you’ll have $1,378.00
- Printable 52-Week Money Challenge Saving Chart
Alternatively, if you’re like many families who literally don’t have an extra $52 to start out with, Save just $4.00 per day and put it in your envelope. That’s the cost of a single Starbucks coffee.
Set it and Forget 52 Week Challenge
If you want to participate in the Challenge, but you DON’T want to handle Cash all year long, you can set your bank to do an automatic transfer of $26.50 into your savings account every single week through your online banking. You don’t have to remember to put any money in the envelope or to transfer it if you set it for automatic transfer and you’ll save the exact same amount of money!
If you put $4.00 in an Envelope every day for 1 year, you’ll have a whopping $1,460. in your envelope by next New Year’s Eve!
365 Day Penny Challenge
What if you just don’t have an extra $52 bucks to start with (or end with) each week? What if you’re literally living week to week and you don’t really have much at all?
Then Try the 365 Day Piggy Bank Penny Challenge, here’s how it works-
on Day 1: Save $0.01
Day 2 Save $0.02
Day 3: Save $.03 . . . . . . (continue every day adding 1 more penny to the amount)
on day 100 you’d save $1.00
on day 101: you’d add $1.01
on day 360 you’d add $3.60
on day 361 you’d add $3.61
365 you’d add $3.65 to the piggy bank.
Literally every single day, you just increase the amount saved by one more penny. By the end of the year, you’ll have saved $667.95 just by saving an additional penny per day!
Set it & Forget it (& an Option for Canadians!!)
If you want to participate in the Challenge, but you DON’T want to handle Cash all year long, you can set your bank to do an automatic transfer of $12.85 into your savings account every single week through your online banking. You don’t have to remember to put which day you’re on or how much money to put in the jar or to transfer it if you set it for automatic transfer and you’ll save the exact same amount of money!
This is perfect for our Canadian friends who no longer have pennies available to save!
For those that are really strapped for cash a dollar a day would yield $366 at the end of the year since this is a leap year. Or, start out at $1 a day for January, February, and March. Then increase to $2 for the next three months.
Move on to $3 during the summer and finally $4 for the last three months of the year. The yield for that would be — $917!
That is a brilliant idea!!! However, I would reverse the amount order.
Another option would be to balance out across the whole year. If your goal is $1378 / 52 weeks = $26.50 per week.
I tried to do these. However, I had an unexpected surgery that put me out of work for a few weeks. I do not have medical benefits through my job nor do I have paid leave.
Therefore, bye bye savings. Thats okay. I am just happy i had some money socked away.
Next year will be here soon enough! I am still saving money even now, but just not following either of these challenges until 1/1/18.
I did the 52-Week Money Challenge last year, and it was such a simple way to build up my savings! 💰📅 What really helped me was setting up automatic transfers, so I never had to think about it. By the end of the year, it felt like a huge accomplishment. I’m thinking of doubling my amounts this year to save even more.