Looking for some inspiration to help you save some money? You’ve come to the right place! Here are some fun and creative money-saving challenges that can help you become better at money management and saving for the long run.
The 52-Week Challenge
This is a challenge that takes up the whole year, but it is pretty easy to manage so it’s not hard to keep up with. With the 52-week challenge, you begin from the first week of the year, saving just $1. On the second week, you save $2, $3 the third week, and so on. On the 52nd week, you put aside $52, bringing your savings to a grand total of $1,378!
Even if a couple of months of the year have passed by, it’s still not too late to join in on this challenge because the savings upfront are pretty meager. You can easily make them up in one go and then continue on.
The No-Spend Month Challenge
This challenge will help you realize just how much unnecessary spending goes on in your life. To do this, you need to do away with any spending that is not related to essential expenses such as basic groceries, rent, utility bills, mortgage or insurance payments, and other similar charges.
This means saying no eating out, buying new clothes or toys, traveling for fun, movie or theme park trips, etc. You could save a small fortune this way! You can motivate your family to join in by promising them something fun with the money you save, like a new gadget or a vacation down the line.
It’s also important to pick a good month for this challenge. For instance, your family won’t be too pleased if you pick December to be a no-save month. You’ll be the grinch that ruined Christmas! January, on the other hand, is a great time for it as everyone is still buzzing from all the fun, gifts, and food carried over from the previous month. If you find it daunting to go an entire month without spending, you can start with a week and work your way up.
Roll-Dice Savings Challenge
This is a pretty simple one. All you need is a dice and at least $6 a day. You simply roll the dice every day and put away as many dollars as the number you draw, the least being $1 and the most being $6. You can save anywhere between $365 to $2000! This is a fun challenge that you can even do with children, and a great way to teach them about savings and money management.
The Bowl-Grab Challenge
Here’s another fun savings challenge that you can try with your friends, roommates, or even your children. Grab a bunch of paper scraps and write down different dollar amounts on them, anywhere between $1 to $50, or as much as you are comfortable with. Then put them all in a bowl and have everybody draw one. Each person should then put aside the dollar amount on the paper they drew into savings. Maybe you can each have jars with your name on them where the money would be collected. You can do this every day, week, or month, according to what you prefer. The challenge can also run for as long as you like, be it a month or a year.
In the end, all the participants can count up their savings and you can crown the “king/queen of savings”. If you’re doing this with kids, you can have a fun reward for the winner to help motivate them!
The 1% Challenge
If you are new to saving the 1% is a great way to start. The concept is pretty simple: you set aside 1% of your monthly salary in a savings account. The best part about this challenge is that it won’t even feel like one! You probably won’t miss it as it’s just 1% of your income and you can set up the transfer to be automatic, which means you won’t even have to think about it.
It might seem like a pretty small amount to save, but it can build up over time and leave you with a tidy little sum. You can also increase the percentage of savings to 2%, 3%, or more if you feel comfortable doing so!
The Borrow-Not-Buy Challenge
Whenever you need something, your first instinct may be to run to the shops, but why not consider asking around if you can get it for free? Chances are that one of your friends or family might have that exact thing lying around without any use for it. Alternatively, you can also trawl free sharing apps and websites such as freecycling, Budlee, or a number of others where strangers offer up perfectly good items for free.
Not only is this a great way to save a ton of money, you are also helping the planet by reducing the amount of wastage. You don’t have to feel like a freeloader because you can do your part as well by offering up things you own that you may not use anymore.
The Only-Cash Challenge
It’s a proven fact that people tend to spend less money when they pay using cash as opposed to other payment methods such as debit or credit cards. Therefore, this is a great way to keep your spending in check and save a ton of money too.
This challenge is as simple as it sounds; whenever you spend money, do it using only cash. Withdraw a certain amount as per your budget every week or month, then lock away your cards so they aren’t with you at all times. Do a comparison of your finances between the challenge month and the one previous to it to see just how much you’ve saved.
Lose-Weight-Save-Money Challenge
If one of your goals for the new year is to get fit, here’s a fun way to tie that into a money-saving challenge. This way, you can achieve two goals at one go and feel all the more accomplished for it.
For this challenge, you will need to save $1 for every pound you lose (or any other set amount you prefer). Before you know it, your waistline will be getting slimmer while your savings account gets fatter. You can plan to get something fun for yourself from part or all of that savings if you manage to reach your desired goal by the end of the year!
Save the Spare Change Challenge
This is a pretty common savings challenge, but it’s a good one. With this challenge, all you have to do is save the spare change you get when you purchase things with money. You can do this every day you get home, dropping the change into a piggy bank until it is full and then transferring that money into a savings account.
Alternatively, you can also do this digitally. There are a number of apps that will calculate your purchase to the nearest dollar and put away the spare change in a savings account. There are even some banks that offer a similar service!
30-Use Challenge
Every time you buy something new, be it a kitchen gadget or a piece of clothing, challenge yourself to use it at least 30 times before you buy something else. This is a great way to practice mindful spending because it forces you to stop and think about how you will use something before spending money on it. At the same time, you may want to buy something but may end up realizing you don’t need it by the time you come up to 30 uses in the previous item you purchased. Ultimately, this challenge will help you reduce wastage and save money at the same time!
