Are you looking for some new and creative ways to save money? Are you someone who likes to play games and complete challenges?
Then look no further!
In this article, we'll cover a variety of exciting money-saving challenges that will help you reach your financial goals while also providing opportunities to be inventive with how you choose to save.
By pushing yourself out of traditional money-saving habits like clipping coupons or trying generic methods, these challenges will help open up a world of possibilities for reaching your savings targets.
So what are you waiting for? Let's explore some fun and innovative ways to put aside more cash today!
What Are Money Savings Challenges
Money-saving challenges are a fun and effective way to beef up your savings account. It's a challenge where you set a goal to save a certain amount of money over a specified period. You can participate in a money-saving challenge alone or with a group of friends.
The best part is that you can create rules and tailor them to your budget and lifestyle. So if you have a tight budget, choose one that saves you a little monthly money. Or, if you have a good income, you can pick a saving strategy that allows you to save more.
Taking part in a challenge gamifies saving so you stick to a plan longer, thus helping you to reach your goals.
How To Choose Which Money-saving Challenge To Do
To help you be successful with the challenge you pick, it's helpful to ask yourself these questions first.
Know Your Goals
What are your savings goals? Are you saving for retirement, a vacation, or a down payment on a house? Or are you looking to start saving money to change your spending habits?
Your savings goal should determine the kind of savings challenge you will try because if what you want to do at the end of the day is to get a car, the savings challenge to do will be different from someone whose end goal is a retirement nest egg.
Know Yourself
Challenges aim to let you do something beyond what you would typically do, but at the same time, a challenge should not be something that is completely different from what you currently do. This is because you will most likely give up quickly if you try to overhaul your habits.
Start with something that does not change drastically from your current money habits. After saving for a few months, you can move on to a different savings strategy.
Check Your Finances
Another point to note is knowing how much money you make. Will the amount you make accommodate the type of challenge you are doing?
If you make minimum wage, picking a challenge that have you save $20 a day will not work for you. Likewise, if you make $50,000 a year, you should save more than $5 a month.
18 Challenges To Make Saving Fun
After thorough consideration, you can proceed to select the challenge you'll like to participate in, and here are some of the top picks.
1. The 52-Week Money Challenge
With the 52-week money challenge, you save $1 the first week and keep adding a dollar each week. The entire amount at the end of the year will be $1,378.
You can switch this up by increasing your savings if your income accommodates such changes.
2. 100 Envelope Challenge
For the 100 envelope challenge, you save an equivalent amount of money in a labeled envelope for 100 days.
It means the highest savings is $100, and the lowest is $1. If the envelope is marked 50, you put in $50; if 2, you put in $2.
3. $5 Savings Challenge
If you are looking for a money challenge that will save you a significant amount without strain on your purse, try the $5 daily challenge.
For three months, a daily savings of $5 will add up to $450. Try keeping up with it for a year, and you will have $1,825 in savings.
Another version of this challenge is to save every $5 bill you get. The amount you end up with will vary by person, but you should be able to save a few hundred dollars.
4. The Spare Change Challenge
Do you have spare change lying around? Or do you get change from your grocery purchases? You can save it. Get a piggy bank for coins, a money envelope, or a money box for bills, and start saving.
Depending on your purchases, your spare change can add up to a significant amount quickly.
Also, you can invest your spare change using Acorns – Invest Spare Change
5. 26-Week Savings Challenge
The 26-week challenge, or a biweekly savings plan, has you save money every other week. The catch with this challenge is you must increase the amount you save.
Save $4 for the first two weeks and add $4 for the next two weeks. At the end of the year, you'll have $1,404.
6. 365-Day Nickel Challenge
You do this savings challenge for 365 days! On the first day, you save a single nickel – 5 cents, and the goal is to keep adding a nickel daily. Counting the nickels saves $18.40 on the last day.
At the end of the year, you have $3,339.75! How amazing is that?
7. Weather Wednesday Savings Challenge
The weather savings challenge is so fun and unpredictable. Every Wednesday is a day to save, and the amount you save depends on the weather!
Check the local weather update on your mobile device or the news and add the exact amount to your savings account.
8. $1 Savings Challenge
Every time you get a $1 bill, keep it. To get the most out of this savings challenge, you need to prioritize using cash. If you spend primarily using credit cards, you won't have much savings.
9. No Spend Challenge
If you are an impulsive spender, try tno-spendend challenge, although it might be difficult on your first try. It works by picking a spending category and not spending monit for a month. This could mean no eating out or no buying clothes. You can change the category every month or stick with the same one.
10. The Penny Challenge
The penny challenge is a fun and easy way to build up extra money, especially when you have no savings allowance. Start the first day with a penny and add one daily.
After 365 days, you would have saved $667.95!
11. The Round-up Challenge
This challenge is exciting.
When you make any purchase that isn't a round figure online or in-store, round it up and save the extra. For example, if you buy a pair of slippers at Walmart for $9.45, round it up to $10 and save the $0.55.
The trick to making this one work is saving the round-up. If you pay in cash, you can save the change. But if you pay using a credit or debit card, you must manually transfer the $0.55 from your checking account to a savings account.
12. 1% Salary Saving Challenge
As the name implies, you set aside 1% of your annual salary to save. For example, if you earn $60,000 annually, 1% of that will be $600, which means you will save $50 each month.
As usual, you can improvise and make it 10% instead. Just determine how much you can save without negatively impacting your budget.
13. Coffee Break Challenge
Are you addicted to Starbucks? Try saving money instead of buying coffee. Whenever you crave Starbucks or make coffee at home, put some money into savings.
Your savings can easily add up to $1,000 yearly, depending on how much you love coffee.
14. 30-Day Minimalist Challenge
For the minimalist challenge, get rid of a single item you do not need daily. You can sell these items on Etsy, eBay, or Craigslist and save the money you earn.
Alternatively, you can donate the items to a local charity in town. If you go this route, save the donation receipt, as you can write this off on your taxes, saving you money.
15. The $20 Savings Challenge
This savings challenge can be 52 weeks, a month, or half a year, depending on your savings goals.
If you set aside $20 weekly, you will have $1,040 in one year. If your budget doesn't allow you to save $20 a week, you can save every two weeks or once a month.
16. The $33.33 Challenge
If you can spare as much as $33.33 daily, try saving it for 30 days. Keeping $33.33 per day for 30 days will get you $999.90! If this is too much for you to put in daily, how about adjusting it to suit your income?
For example, $33.33 every three days will be $333 monthly. If you keep this up for the whole year, you will have $3,996 in 12 months!
17. Stackopoly Game Challenge
The Stackpoly game challenge is from a military wife who was conscious about budgeting. You play a Stackpoly game by rolling a die to determine how much you have to save per week.
You can purchase a printable version of the game on Etsy or create one yourself. Set it up like Monopoly, where each space is a different dollar amount. Roll the dice, and you save the amount on the space you land on.
18. Monthly Savings Challenge
This challenge has you pick an amount to save each month. It works best for people who have a variable budget. For example, during a slow month, your goal could be to save $25; during a good month, you choose to save $200.
Because it is entirely customizable, anyone can use it.
Benefits of Money Saving Challenges
Many benefits come from taking part in a challenge to save money. Here are the most significant ones.
- Spending less money. When you make saving some money a priority, you spend less overall.
- Customizable. No matter your income, there is an opportunity to save money. All you have to do is find a challenge that fits your lifestyle.
- Build good money habits. Over the long run, you will build habits that will help you save money for years.
- Teach you to live frugally. While you can still splurge on things in life, these challenges will help you to change your mindset, helping you to grow your wealth.
- Make saving money fun. Putting away money into savings can be tedious. Making it a game, it can motivate you to save more.
How To Be Successful With a Money Savings Challenge
No matter how fun and exciting a challenge to save money is, it helps to have some built-in fail safes. These include the following.
- Set up a tracker. Seeing how much you save can motivate you to keep saving more.
- Have an accountability partner. Doing a challenge with a friend or even keeping a friend updated on your goal is a great way to ensure success.
- Automate if you can. The less manual saving you must do, the more likely you will stick with it.
- Create reminders. Reminders are great, especially initially, as you get used to saving instead of spending.
- Be patient. How much money you save will depend on your income and expenses. If you can only save a small amount now, accept it, and work on increasing your income to save more.
Conclusion
Money-saving challenges are one of the most exciting and effective ways to work toward personal financial stability. You don't have to break the bank to make a difference. Even small, incremental steps can be meaningful when sustained over time.
It requires dedication, but the potential rewards are worth it. Overcome any money-related hesitations by reminding yourself that you have the power to take control of your financial future. Doing so will provide freedom and comfort like nothing else in life and set you on a path toward greater security and opportunity.
This post originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.
