17 Exciting Money Savings Challenges To Help You Save Happily

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Do you always find it difficult to save? Does your money always seem to disappear with no explanation or account for it? Then you are among a million others.

Saving has never been fun—till now because we just might want to buy that pair of Air Sneakers or eat out at the new restaurant by the street corner rather than put money in a piggy bank. I mean, who cares? We only live once.

That is a big NO!

The first step to financial ruin is the inability to reserve a part of your income for rainy days that, more often than not, actually happens. So, how do you reconcile a lack of motivation to save and the need to save? A money savings challenge bridges the gap between the need to save and a lack of motivation because it brings all the fun into savings.

How does it feel to keep your fingers crossed when you decide to go for the Wednesday weather challenge or have to test your mathematics skill with the round-up savings challenge?

The truth is that this money savings challenge is the best bet for most of us to make some worthwhile savings and form a healthy money habit while at it.

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What are money savings challenges?

A money savings challenge is a fun, planned way of saving money over a period. So, you plan a way to go beyond your normal inclination and get a reward at the end. You can do it with friends and family, and let’s see who can fight it out to the end!

There are different money challenges on the internet; maybe you can even come up with one. But, there are things you need to consider when doing any money savings challenge.

How to choose which money savings challenge to do

Know your goals

What are your savings goals? Is it long-term? Is it for a big project? Or is it to get something from the boutique across town?

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 or someone who wants to buy the latest Fendi.

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 widely far from who you are. This is because you will most likely give up along the line.

Start with something strictly close to your money habits, and when you have developed some control, you can move on to something stricter.

Check your finance

Another point to note when starting a money savings challenge is how much you make daily. Will the amount you make accommodate the type of challenge you are doing? If you make $100 daily, you don’t want a savings challenge that drains you of 20% of that money—depending on your needs.

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Money savings challenge to help you save happily.

After thorough consideration, you can proceed to select the savings challenge you’ll like to participate in, and here are some of my top picks:

The 52-week money challenge

With the 52-week money challenge, you get to save $1 the first week and keep adding a dollar per 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.

100 envelope challenge

For the 100 envelope challenge, you save an equivalent amount of money in a labeled envelope for 100 days. If the envelope is labeled 50, you put in $50; if 2, you put in $2. It means the highest savings is $100 and the lowest is $1.

$5 daily challenge

If you are looking for a money challenge that will get you a significant amount of money without a lot of strain on your purse, try the $5 daily challenge.

For three months, a daily saving of $5 will add up to $450. Try keeping up with it in a year, and you will get $1,825 in savings.

The spare change challenge

Do you have spare change lying around? Or do you get change from your grocery purchases? You can save them. Get a piggy bank for coins, a money envelope, or a money box, and keep the spare change over a period.

Depending on your purchases, they can add up to a significant amount in a short while.

26-week savings challenge

Like the 52-week savings challenge, the 26-week challenge lets you save every two weeks. So, instead of saving every week, you can extend the timeline to two weeks, but you have to increase the deposit. Save $4 every two weeks and keep adding $4 every two weeks. At the end of 26 weeks, you’ll have $1,404.

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. At the end of the year, you would have saved $3,339.75! How amazing is that? When you add the nickels, you save $18.40 on the last day, which is very fair.

Weather Wednesday challenge

This savings challenge is so fun and unpredictable. Every Wednesday is a day to save, and the amount you save depends on the weather! So, who cares if the temperature in winter is minus degrees? You can save more in the summer.

Simply check the local weather update on your mobile device or the news and add the exact amount to your savings box.

$1 savings challenge

This challenge is similar to the spare change challenge but pretty specific. This savings challenge can quickly add up, but at the same time, it might not be substantial enough.

Every time you get a $1 bill, keep it. Depending on you, you can save for the whole year or half a year.

No spend challenge

If you are an impulsive spender, you might want to try the No spend challenge, although it might be difficult on your first try. How about spending money only on bare necessities like feeding and transportation? Not including fast foods, discount sales—no matter how good, splurging on cabs, and night outs.

Start with a simple goal like a day or a week and extend it as far as possible. Let’s see how much you can save in 12 months!

The penny challenge

The penny challenge is a fun and easy way to build up extra money, especially when you have no allowance to save. Start the first day with a penny and keep adding a penny to your stack each day.

After 365 days, you would have saved $667.95!

The round-up challenge

This challenge is pretty 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 worth $9.45, round it up to $10 and save the $0.55 in your shoebox. Set a time range and count the change afterward.

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 when you divide monthly, it will give you $50 in a month.

Find ways that you can save $50 in a month, and you will have that much saved in a year. As usual, you can decide to improvise and make it 10% instead. Just determine how much you can spare without overindulging in your wants.

Coffee break challenge

Are you addicted to Starbucks? Try saving on it instead.

Set up a portable money box, or just set one beside your coffee pot. Every time you have a craving to go to Starbucks or any time you make your coffee, give yourself a coffee break challenge and fill up your money box with the amount you would’ve spent in Starbucks.

It can quickly add up to $1,000 in a year, depending on how addicted you are. haha

30-day minimalist challenge.

For the minimalist challenge, get rid of a single item per day that you do not need. When you get rid of something, you take your mind off spending. You can sell these items on Etsy, eBay, or Craigslist and save the money you earn, or you can donate the items to any of the local charities around you.

The $20 savings challenge

This savings challenge can be a 52 weeks challenge, a month, or half a year, depending on your savings goals.

If you set aside $20 weekly, you will have $1,040 in 52 weeks. You can break this down if you think you won’t be able to spare that amount in a week or if you think you might spend it all. Try saving $2-$3 daily, and it will add up.

The $33.33 challenge

If you can spare as much as $33.33 daily, try saving it for 30 days. Saving $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!

Stackopoly game challenge

The stackopoly game challenge was created by a military wife who was conscious about budgeting. You play a stackopoly game by rolling a dice to determine how much you have to save per week. The prices are fair and range between $10 – $30. You can get a digital download of the game as a printable or as a PDF.

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Benefits of a money savings challenge

It is easier to save money using a money savings challenge. Your financial goals might seem too big compared to your income, but the savings challenge will break it down.
Money savings challenges are fun, especially those you can do with friends and family.
The best part of these savings challenges is that you can predict the amount it will add up to, making it easier to plan ahead.
A money savings challenge is a motivation to keep saving.

How to be successful with a money savings challenge

No matter how fun and exciting a money savings challenge is, it is easy to give up on it. Here are some tips to help you stay on track and complete any challenge you decide to do:

Set up a tracker
Have an accountability partner
Automate if you can
Create reminders

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Conclusion

Money savings challenges will help you become a better saver and grow healthy money habits you can share with your friends and family.

You can make savings more fun by engaging with those around you, and you should tailor your savings to suit your current financial state. Any savings challenge you do, simply make sure it is not burdensome on you.

CTA: which money savings challenge would you want to try out? What do you think might limit you? Do tell.