8 Fun, Easy, and Unique Savings Challenges
Saving is an important aspect of your personal finances. The fact of the matter is that the “sticker prices” on some of our needs and wants are a little higher than what our here-and-now income is built for. And that’s okay! That’s why we save!
You may have a short-term savings goal, like building up a starter emergency fund of $1,000 or so.
Maybe you’re focusing on a mid-term savings goal, like saving enough this year to fund next year’s vacation.
Or, you could be aiming for a long-term savings goal, like setting aside enough to buy a house.
No matter what your goals are, sometimes a good savings challenge is just what you need! A savings challenge can:
make saving fun
motivate you to keep on keepin’ on
give structure and consistency to how you save
help you achieve your goals!
So, find one you like, and get saving! Just be sure you’ve identified a specific reason and use for your savings. That’ll help you stay committed and not spend it on other things.
1) 52-Week Challenge
How it works:
It’s pretty straight forward. Each week of the year, you save a dollar amount that matches what week it is. In week 1, you save $1. Week 2, save $2. By week 52, you save $52.
In the end, you’ll have a total of $1,378.
What’s to love:
It’s super easy to do and build up momentum in the beginning because you’re putting aside such small amounts.
And even as the weeks go on and the amounts get larger, the most you’re ever putting away in a week is $52. Psychologically and budget-wise, this may feel a lot more doable and less daunting than having to set aside hundreds of dollars at a time.
This challenge is near and dear to my heart because my husband and I used it back when we were engaged. We used the money to help pay for our honeymoon. ♥️ Knowing it was for our honeymoon made us look forward to saving money each week.
2) 52-Week Challenge Backwards
How it works:
Just like with the original 52-Week Challenge, you’re saving money every week of the year. And by the end, you’ll also have $1,378.
The difference is that you start by saving $52 in week 1. Then, you save $51 in week 2, $50 in week 3, and so on. You continue saving one LESS dollar each week. By week 52, you’re saving just $1.
What’s to love:
If you’re someone who likes to get the harder part of things out of the way first, this could work well for you! With this challenge, saving gets easier and easier over time because the amount keeps getting smaller.
It’s also worth noting that, for many, the end of the year can be more expensive than usual because of the holidays. So, this challenge works well because you’re devoting very small amounts to savings by the time the holidays come around.
Plus, if you’re using this challenge to save for Christmas, it’s nice to start by saving the larger amounts at the beginning of the year, so you have the majority of the money from this challenge by the time November and December arrive.
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3) Weather Savings Challenge
How it works:
There are a few different ways to go about this one:
Method 1: Choose a specific day of the week. Let’s say, Friday. Every Friday of the year, you check the weather. The high temperature for the day is how much you’ll save that week. So, if the high is 68 degrees, you’ll save $68 that week.
Method 2: If you live in a place where it’s blazing hot for just about the whole year, you might be thinking, “Saving $115 every week is a little steep for me.” I’m thinking, “God bless you for being able to function in that kind of extreme heat on a regular basis.”
But the point is, you can still make this challenge work for you. Instead, when you check the weather, look for the low temperature for the day. And let that be the amount you save. 😉
Method 3: If, in general, you feel like this challenge would be a tight squeeze, no worries! Instead of saving every week, save once a month. On the last day of each month, check to see what the highest temperature was for the month and make that your savings amount.
What’s to love:
This is a great challenge for those who want to shake things up a little. Traditional saving – just deciding to save $100 a week, for example – might be boring to you. And when things are boring, they’re also very hard to stick to. So, if that’s you, you might really benefit from this challenge that keeps you on your feet and wondering what dollar amount you’ll save next.
I gotta be honest. I’m a lover of traditional saving. And even so, I can appreciate the fun in this savings challenge. I’m here for it! 😃
4) Spending Match Challenge
How it works:
For this one, choose one category of spending that you do. Then, every time you do that kind of spending, commit to saving the same amount that you spent.
Some spending category examples:
Going out to eat
Grocery shopping
Clothes shopping
Paying the electric bill
There are SO many possibilities. But let’s say you choose to match your going-out-to-eat spending. If the bill comes to $43, you also put $43 into savings. And you match the bill amount every time you go out to eat.
What’s to love:
There’s a lot of room to make this challenge what you want it to be.
If you want to save a lot, choose a spending category that you know you spend a pretty penny on each year. If you’re looking to save more conservatively, choose whatever spending category is appropriate for that.
Depending on how your budget and your cash flow is set up, you may be in a position to match spending that happens unpredictably and/or often (like going out to eat). But your money circumstances may be such that it makes more sense to match your spending in a more predictable and/or less frequent category (like paying the monthly electric bill). It’s all up to you!
Another great thing about this challenge is that it can help you strike some balance in your life. Spend some, save some!
And lastly, what I love about this challenge is, based on how much you save by the end of the year, you’ll have an idea of how much you spend in that category. And this can be eye-opening!
5) $1 For Every Purchase Challenge
How it works:
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Every time you make a purchase – be it paying for groceries, buying a shirt, grabbing a coffee, purchasing the stuff that’s been sitting in your Amazon cart – put $1 in savings.
Just remember, purchases count as ANY time you’re buying something. If you buy a car this year, that’s a purchase. If you decide to get a Groupon, that’s a purchase. If you’re buying gifts for others, those purchases count too.
If you REALLY want to challenge yourself, save $1 every time you spend money at all. When you pay a bill, save $1. If you get your nails done, save $1. If you pay for your child’s field trip, save $1. Paid for parking? Save $1. You get the idea.
What’s to love:
One dollar is such a small, doable amount. It makes this savings challenge feel very easy on your wallet, while still helping you to save quite a bit when all is said and done.
Like with the previous challenge, this one can help you recognize some things about your money habits. By the end of the year, however many dollars you save equals how many purchases you made throughout the year. Again, this can be some insightful stuff.
6) Credit Card Rewards Challenge
How it works:
If you use credit cards, I REALLY hope they come with rewards. (Always make sure your money is working for you and making you more money, when possible). With that being said, for this challenge, as you rack up rewards (but NO debt) on your credit cards, match your rewards by putting that amount in savings.
If you have cash-back rewards, save that amount.
If you have miles rewards, there should be a cash-back equivalent for those miles. Use that to determine how much to put in savings. But if you’re looking for an even greater challenge, match however many miles you earned!
If you earn points, either match the cash-back equivalent or the exact number of points. Again, it’s up to you which level of challenge you prefer.
What’s to love:
Spending on credit cards (and always paying them off in full each month) will now give you a double benefit. You earn the rewards AND you build up your savings!
7) Save the Difference Challenge
How it works:
In a nutshell, if you spend less than you expected on a certain expense or on a line item of your budget, put the difference in savings.
Here’s what it would look like to focus on a certain expense: Let’s say you’re going grocery shopping and you think you’ll spend $250. But you get to the cash register and your total is $218. That’s $32 less than you expected, so you put $32 in savings.
Maybe you expected the heat bill to be $325, but it was only $276. That’s $49 less than you thought, and that’s $49 more to add to your savings!
If you choose to focus on line items in your budget for this challenge, then instead of looking at individual expenses as they occur, you’d wait until the end of the month. Then, you’d look at your budget line items. If there are any where you spent less than you budgeted for (in other words, less than you expected), you put that difference in savings.
For example, let’s say you budgeted $200 for gas for your car for the month. But by the end of the month, you only spent $175. You spent $25 less than you budgeted. Throw that $25 into savings!
What’s to love:
It’s always nice when things aren’t as expensive as you thought they’d be. 🎉You can reward yourself in those moments by using that money to build up your savings.
And since you were expecting to spend that money anyway, that means you were counting on it no longer being there. That makes this kind of saving easy because you’re saving money that was going to go away anyway…except now it’s “going away” into a savings fund that will benefit you later!
8) Round Up Challenge
How it works:
For this challenge, you use a round-up app like Acorns, Chime, or Qapital. There are others to choose from as well.
You link your bank accounts and credit cards to the app, so that whenever you spend, the app will automatically round your transactions up to the nearest dollar. Then, it saves that rounded up amount.
For example, if you check out at Target and your total is $67.12, your round-up app will automatically round this up to $68, and put the additional 88¢ into savings for you.
What’s to love:
This is truly saving that you don’t have to think about at all. So if you’re looking for something that requires no effort on your part, this is it!
Just make sure that if you’re tracking your expenses for budgeting purposes, you always round up the amount you enter into your budgeting app or notebook. Honestly, the bi-product benefit here is that budgeting becomes a little simpler when you’re always entering whole dollar amounts instead of things like $127.54.
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Conclusion
So, there you have it! Eight different savings challenges to consider using for the year (or longer, if you’d like). Choose one that will best suit your savings goals and that will be fun and easy for you to stick to.
Happy saving!
Are there any other savings challenges you’ve tried and loved? Share in the comments below!
