5 Money Saving Challenges to Try in the New Year
Money Monday is back my friends! Y’all loved this series last fall and it took a bit of a back seat during the winter holiday season and I am beyond excited to be starting it back up. Money and personal finances are one of those extremely important life things that unfortunately becomes this taboo topic nobody talks about. I’m here to break down that barrier and make it an accessible topic to help you feel comfortable and be successful with your finances.
We’ve covered a lot of the basics so far in the Money Monday series and in case you’re new around here, these are the topics we’ve covered so far…
With it being the start of a new year and a new decade, I wanted to kick off Money Monday with some fun ways you can challenge yourself to save money all year long. Because who doesn’t love a good challenge AND saving money?! Sign me up!
I’ve done one of these in the past but wasn’t exactly successful on making it the entire year. Now that I’ve made my personal finances a top priority this last year, I am eager to and excited to give one of these money saving challenges a try. Personally, I will be using this is an additional way to save money on top of my go-to monthly savings plan. I understand the goals I have, like traveling more, buying a home and paying off the rest of my college loans, and I know being diligent with saving is a priority in making things like that a reality.
So without further ado, here are 5 money saving challenges to try in the new year. Here’s to saving money and taking control of your finances!
ONE DOLLAR A DAY
This first money saving challenge is the easiest of the bunch and requires the least amount of contributions throughout the week, month and year. With that said, it will add up to the lowest amount of savings at the end of the year but it is a great place to start if the whole idea of savings is new to you.
With this method, you will put aside just $1 each day of the year, giving you $365 in savings at the end. When you think about it, $1 a day is nothing! You could put $1 in a jar each day or transfer money to your savings account at the end of the month for the total number of days respectively [ie: $31 for January, $28 for February, $31 for March, etc].
52-WEEK MONEY CHALLENGE
This is the challenge that I attempted several years ago that I was not too successful at. Personal finances weren’t top of mind and I enjoyed spending my extra money rather than saving it. Fast forward to today, and I’m in a much better head space to focus and accomplish it.
With the 52-week money challenge, you are saving the amount of the week of the year it is. So $1 week one, $2 week two, $3 week three…$50 week 50, $51 week 51 and $52 week 52. At the end of the year you will have saved $1,378! Not too shabby, right?!
What I found challenging with this was having the larger saving amounts towards the end of the year with the holidays and traveling is more prominent. So what you could do is basically just reverse it and start with week 52 and use it as a countdown to the end of the year. So week 1 you’d save $52, week 2 you’d save $51 and so on and so forth. Either way, you’ll still be adding an additional $1,378 to your savings!
$20 PER WEEK IN 2020
This money saving challenge ties into the theme of 20’s for the new year. With this $20 per week in 2020 challenge, you’ll be saving $20 each week of the year. At the end of the year, you will have saved $1,040! Pretty simple, huh?
This is another great challenge for first-time savers because it’s the same dollar amount each week of the year. There’s now worrying what week it is and how that translates to a dollar value, you know it’s always $20 each week.
$2,020 IN 2020
This next challenge really plays off of the theme of 20’s and the goal is to save $2,020 in 2020. Not bad if you ask me! This challenge offers one of the highest values saved at the end of the year. If you’re really looking to overhaul your savings or have a goal in mind you’re saving for, this is the challenge for you!
With the $2,020 in 2020 money saving challenge, you will be saving $20 on the first week, 26th week and 52nd week of the year. All other weeks of the year you’ll be saving $40. I like that the amounts again are the same all year, with the exception of the three $20 weeks, so it’s consistent and easy to remember. Add it all up and you will have saved $2,020 in 2020!
DOLLAR PER DAY OF THE MONTH
This next money savings challenge is definitely for the seasoned saver…and my goal for next year! With this challenge, you are savings the dollar amount per day of the month it is and at the end of the year you will have saved $5,767!!! Yup, over $5k saved!! That’s super impressive if you ask me!
So to break it down, in January you’d save $1 on the 1st, $2 on the 2nd, $3 on the 3rd…$30 on the 30th and $31 on the 31st. Then you’ll start over again on February 1st with $1, February 2nd with $2 and so on and so forth. Here’s the total saved per month using this technique…
Jan: 31 = $496
Feb: 29 = $435
Mar: 31 = $496
Apr: 30 = $465
May: 31 = $496
Jun: 30 = $465
Jul: 31 = $496
Aug: 31 = $496
Sept: 30 = $465
Oct: 31 = $496
Nov. 30 = $465
Dec: 31 = $496
At the end of this dollar per day of the month challenge, you will have saved an incredible $5,767! Talk about planning for your future and goals!
So there you have it my friends, 5 money saving challenges to try in the new year to help you get on your way to the beautiful and perfect future you envision. I’m so excited to have the Money Monday series back! Which money savings challenge are you going to be trying this year?! Share below in the comments!