4 Money Saving Challenges You Can Start Today

4 Money Saving Challenges

Are you looking for ways to save? You’ve come to the right place.

Ever since I can remember I would “save money” by stashing cash in random places. Words my husband has said to me, “I think your spirit animal is a squirrel.” #truestory I have always loved the idea of finding a $20 bill in your back pocket that you forgot about. Day = made. Well, sometimes you just have to create your own luck.

At any given time there may be bills stashed away in the oddest little compartments of my car. (Dear internet, please do not break into my car.. trust me, these are really good hiding places.) I try my hardest to forget about them. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the locations pop into my head at the most ~~opportune~~ inopportune times, e.g. driving past a drive-thru.

Thanks to the internet, we now have access to more.. refined.. ways of saving. A quick “save money” search will yield TONS of tips, tricks, hacks, and challenges. I have compiled 4 money saving challenges below.

52 Week Money Saving Challenge

The most popular one out there is the 52 Week Saving Challenge (PDF here). You put money away each week for 1 year. Week 1: $1. Week 2: $2 and so on, all the way to Week 52 where you put away $52. Seems simple enough. At the end of the year, you will have saved $1,378. You start out small and build momentum as you go along. It might get addicting. Kind of like the debt snowball.

Related: How the Debt Snowball Works in 4 Easy Steps

No Spend Month

Pick a month, any month. Sit down and figure out the essentials in your budget. Bills. Bills are essential. Food. Food is essential. Think about it like this: if you lost your job (extreme example but you have an emergency fund in place, whew!) and needed to go into budget emergency mode, what would you need to continue paying? Mortgage, utilities, food, transportation, etc.

Related: A Beginner’s Guide: Emergency Fund

What would you put on pause? Eating out, lattes, entertainment, online subscriptions (include but not limited to Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and even… Amazon Prime), etc. Put a pause on all things non essential for 1 month. I find that if you have a clear end date, it’s easier to suffer through the rough days.

Related: Stop Buying Coffee | Money Saving Challenge

Automatic Payments to a New Savings Account

If the sight of cash tempts you to spend, you need to put it somewhere. Like a savings account. Find a bank that lets you open up multiple savings accounts or sub-savings accounts free of charge. You need to open one separate from your checking account, one that you do not have access to via debit card. While you’re at it, set up automatic payments into that account. Come up with an amount and a frequency. E.g. $50 every paycheck or $100 every month to be automatically deposited into this new savings account.

Bill Save Challenge

Pick a bill, any bill: $1, $5, $10, etc. Let’s go with the $5 bill. Now every time that $5 bill comes into your hands, save it! Put it in a jar. Lock it away. Sprint to the bank if you have to. DO NOT spend it. At the end of 1 year, count up how much money you’ve saved!

There you have it: 4 challenges that I thought were the best to start TODAY! Out of the four: 52 Week, No Spend, Automatic Payments, and Bill Save, what was your favorite? Let me know below which one(s) you will start!

Happy Saving!

Looking for even more ways to save? Check out these below!