Are you looking for new and creative ways to save money? Do you like 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 your savings. By challenging yourself to breaktraditional 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. If you have a tight budget, choose a savings strategy that allows you to save a little monthly money. Or, if you have a good income, you can pick a strategy that allows you to save more.
How To Choose Which Money-Saving Challenge To Do
Knowing your goals and yourself can help you be successful with the challenge you pick.
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 goals should determine the kind of challenge you will try.
Challenges aim to let you do something beyond what you would typically do, but they shouldn't be completely different from your current plan—you're more likely to give up quickly if you try to overhaul your habits in a short time span.
Start with a challenge 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 your income accommodate the type of challenge you are undertaking?
If you make minimum wage, a challenge that requires you to 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. Tailor the challenge you choose to your income, not necessarily what is easiest for your lifestyle.
18 Challenges To Make Saving Fun
After you assess your goals, habits, and finances, you can start the challenge of your choice. Remember, you don't have to commit to a long challenge to be successful in saving money- shorter ones work just as well. If a challenge isn't working for you, there's no harm in switching it up, though you shouldn't bail on your goals because you're being pushed to save in areas where you'd normally spend. We call these challenges for a reason!
1. The 52-Week Money Challenge
With the 52-week money challenge, you save $1 the first week of the year, $2 the second week, $45 the 45th, and so on. If you commit to this challenge, you'll have saved $1,378 by the end of the year.
You can switch this up by increasing your savings if your income accommodates such changes, such as starting with $3 instead of $1 and saving in increments of three.
2. 100 Envelope Challenge
For the 100 envelope challenge, you save an equivalent amount of money in a labeled envelope for 100 days.
The concept is similar to the 52-Week Money Challenge. The highest amount per envelope is $100, and the lowest is $1. If the envelope is marked 50, you put in $50; if two, you put in $2.
3. $5 Savings Challenge
If you are looking for a money challenge that will save you a significant amount without straining your bank account, try the $5 daily challenge. For three months, a daily savings of $5 will add up to $450. If you keep up with it for a year,you will have $1,825 in savings.
Another version of this challenge is to save every $5 bill you get. The amount you save 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 coins can add up to a significant amount quickly, and if you're interested in putting your change to good use, you can invest it via Acorns,a spare change investing app.
5. 26-Week Savings Challenge
The 26-week challenge, or a biweekly savings plan, requires you to save money every other week. The catch is that you must increase the amount you save as you go.
You'll save $4 for the first two weeks and increase in increments of four, with the next cycle being $8 and the following one being $12. 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. The goal is to keep adding a nickel daily, which brings you to a total of $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 fun and unpredictable, but it requires a little advance planning. Based on your regional climate, assign a dollar amount to various weather phenomena. For example, rain might be equal to $10, snow to $20, and sunshine to $15. Check the forecast every Wednesday and set aside cash based on the weather near you.
For a more extreme version of this challenge, you can save money equivalent to the day's high temperature—if the thermometer hits a sweltering 98 degrees in the summer, you'd set aside $98; if you're enduring a snowstorm and the daily high tops out at 21 degrees, you'd save $21.
8. $1 Savings Challenge
Keep every $1 bill you get. To get the most out of this challenge, prioritize using cash. If you spend primarily using credit cards, you won't have much to save.
9. No Spend Challenge
If you are an impulsive spender, try a no-spend challenge, though it might be difficult on your first try. To start, pick a spending category and avoid buying anything from that category for a full month. This could mean eating dinner at home instead of out or not buying clothes in favor of wearing what's already in your closet.
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 or work on a minimum wage salary. Start the first day of your challenge with a penny and increase the amount by one penny every day.
After 365 days, you'll have saved $667.95!
11. The Round-up Challenge
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 easily 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? Brew at home instead of buying out and paying yourself instead. Whenever you make yourself a cup of coffee at home or work, charge yourself for it and put a few dollars into savings. Whether your homemade coffee costs $2 or $5 is up to you.
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, eliminate 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. If you go this route, save the donation receipt, as you can write this off on your taxes and save more money.
15. The $20 Savings Challenge
Depending on your savings goals, this savings challenge can last a full year, a month, or six months.
If you set aside $20 weekly, you will have $1,040 at the end of the 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 Stackopoly 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 requires you to pick an amount to save each month based on your expenses. It works best for people with a variable budget. For example, during a month when everything that could go wrong does go wrong, your goal could be to save $25; during a good month when you don't need to spend as much, you could choose to save $200.
Because it is entirely customizable, anyone can use it, though this challenge isn't as gamelike as others.
Benefits of Money Saving Challenges
Many benefits come from taking part in a challenge to save money, the first of which is you're obviously saving more. When you prioritize saving some money, you spend less overall, setting yourself up for a better financial future.
Thanks to the customizable challenges, you can save money regardless of your income—simply pick one that suits your lifestyle. Participating will help you build habits that will set you up for success for years to come. While you can and should splurge once in a while on possessions or experiences that make you happy, having a savings challenge will help you change your mindset and grow your wealth.
Plus, let's face it, saving money can be boring. Turning the process into a game will 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.Set up a tracker to see how much you're saving- you don't want to lose track of what you're setting aside, and seeing how much you've saved up will motivate you to keep saving more.
If you feel comfortable doing so and the challenge allows it, automate your transactions. The less manual transfering you do, the more likely you'll stick with your plan. Set reminders as you settle into your challenge, and they'll help you get used to saving rather than spending.
Most of all, be patient. Your savings 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; small, incremental steps can be meaningful when sustained over time.
Saving money requires dedication, but the potential rewards are well 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 and set you toward greater security and opportunity.
