Saving is a huge part of becoming (and remaining) debt free. If you don’t have an emergency fund things can pop up and cause you to rack up some serious debt. Similarly, you can go into debt buying things if you don’t save money for big events like birthdays and Christmas. But, saving money is hard. Really hard.
Thankfully, the internet has come up with fun, catchy challenges to make you more financially aware and help you save money. After looking at some of the different challenges, I’ve decided to create my own 12-week challenge for savings.
Savings Challenges
About five years ago savings challenges began popping up on the internet. First, it started with the 365-Day Money Challenge. This challenge lasts throughout the year, as the name suggests, and helps you put aside small sums of money each day. The first day starts out with you saving just $0.01.
Next, is the 52-Week Money Challenge. Like the 365-day challenge, it lasts the entire year. However, this challenge ends with a larger amount in savings and focuses on putting money away weekly. The first week, people participating in the challenge put $1 into savings and work their way up to $52 by the end of the year.
Both of these are easy and help people who aren’t so great at managing their money or saving get some cash put away (even if it is only a penny at a time). Many people have been wildly successful at saving this way. So much so that they’ve put other twists on it, like the Bi-Weekly Money Challenge, Reverse 52-Week Money Challenge, and the Mega Money Challenge.
My 12-Week Challenge
For the most part, each of these challenges takes an entire year. If you’re also actively trying to pay off debt it can be overwhelming trying to put money into savings while effectively snowballing what you owe. That’s what got me thinking about a savings challenge with a shorter timeframe: 3 months.
Here is what I got figured out for a 12-week challenge…
- Week 1: $100 total
- Week 2: $250 total
- Week 3: $350 total
- Week 4: $500 total
- Week 5: $600 total
- Week 6: $750 total
- Week 7: $850 total
- Week 8: $1,000 total
- Week 9: $1,150 total
- Week 10: $1,250 total
- Week 11: $1,400 total
- Week 12: $1,550 total
For the first week, we will start by putting $100 into savings. Then, the second week, we will increase our contribution to $150 (making our total savings $250). Throughout the 12 weeks, we will alternate between putting $100 and $150 into savings. The fluctuation will account for the weeks we have “additional” expenses like health/beauty supplies or cleaning items around the house.
We are going to attempt this challenge at the beginning of 2019 and we’d love for you to join us! Comment below and let me know how you plan to attack savings next year!
If you had your heart set on a new car or buying some real estate but you have been turned down for the finance you need, you must start to think about the reasons for that happening and address them one by one. If you do that, the next time you make a realistic application, you may well succeed.
Contact lenses are those items that you need but hate to buy because of the price. Every time I buy them it hurts, especially if I can get them cheaper elsewhere! My husband and I both wear contacts and our vision insurance covers our yearly eye appointment and one of the following: up to $300 for glasses or up to $130 for contacts. Because of the better deal, we always opt in for using the insurance for glasses when our vision changes. So, that means we are paying out of pocket for contacts for the entire year.
When you are trying to pay off debt and save toward financial freedom you can get pretty creative in trying to save money. But sometimes taking