Money Saving Challenges. Stockpile Thousands!

How would you like a fun way to save thousands? Well, as you may have guessed from the title, money saving challenges are a way to do it!

Money saving challenges aren’t just a creative way to save, but they’re actually a great way to make progress towards your financial goals.

Here we have a list of 10 money saving challenges for you to check out (some well-known, some brand-spanking new) to help you stash some serious coinage!

While you can do the challenges you pick for as long as you want, we recommend a month or so to see how well it works for you.

Here we go!

52-Week Challenge

This is probably one of the most well-known money saving challenges out there. But the basic premise is that you save one dollar in the first week and increase the savings amount by a dollar for each following week.

So, in the first week, you’ll save $1, in the second week, $2, in the third week, $3 and so on…for a whole year (52 weeks).

If you actually do it for the whole year, you’ll have $1,378 when all’s said and done.

Pretty sweet, right?

But there is one criticism of this money saving challenge though.  And it’s that if you start the 52-Week Challenge during the first week in January (which many people do because of New Year’s resolutions), you’ll have to save over $200 during the month of December!

Looks like Santa Claus won’t be coming to town this year!

But, of course, if you don’t wait until new years to start this challenge you won’t run into this problem.

52-Week Challenge Breakdown

$5 Challenge

The $5 challenge is another one of the well-known money saving challenges.

This challenge requires that you save every $5 bill you get. It works very well, and the fact that you’re stashing cash prevents you from spending your savings inadvertently.

If you use cash on a regular basis, you can save a nice stack in a few months.

Just put it somewhere where you won’t be tempted to spend it!

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Sunrise Challenge

There are a number of benefits to waking up early; enhanced productivity, better concentration, more time to exercise…the only problem is that waking up early can be a pain.

This is what the Sunrise money saving challenge takes advantage of. The way it works is that, every weekday, whatever time you wake up is the amount of money you save.

For example, if you wake up at 6:33am you’d save $6.33 that day.

Here’s a sample week:

As you can see, the earlier you wake up, the less money you’ll need to save that day.

The idea behind the Sunrise Challenge is to encourage us to wake up earlier and be more productive.  But in case we just can’t drag ourselves out of bed early, we’ll end up saving more money.

So either way, whether you’re an early bird or a late riser, you’ll get some kind of benefit out of it.

The sunrise money saving challenge is a pretty big one. Saving between 5 and 8 dollars every day could be pretty steep, but you can always modify it.

If saving Monday-Friday is too much, you can lower it to three days a week, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Alternatively, instead of saving dollars, you could save cents. So, a 6:33 wake up time would be $0.63 in savings. Saving something is better than saving nothing!

Battery Life Challenge

Are you as addicted to your cell phone as I am? Well, these next two money saving challenges are for you!

If you spend a lot of time browsing through your Twitter feed, Facebook, or just searching the internet, you may be wasting a lot of your most productive time.

The Battery Life Challenge is here to encourage you to stay off your phone as much as  possible.  Because the more you use your phone during the day, the more you’ll have to pay (save).

It works basically by requiring you to save an amount of money equal to the battery life that you’ve used during the day.

Check your battery life every day at 5:00pm. Let’s say it’s 34%.

That means you’ve used 66% (100%-34%) during the day. So you’ll have to save $6.60.

Easy Peasy.

But of course, if you’re constantly charging your phone your phone may be at 100% at the end of your work day.

In that case, either ditch the charger or skip this challenge.

Again, if this challenge is too steep for you, you can always save cents instead of dollars.

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Data Usage Challenge

This is another one for us cell phone lovers. Check your data usage at the end of every week and for every 100MB used, save $1.

And obviously, the more data you use, the more you’ll have to save.

The assumption behind this challenge is that the less cell phone data you’re using during the week, the less time you’re spending on your phone, and the more time you’ll have to do other things, like working on a side hustle.

The weekly amount you’ll have to save from this challenge shouldn’t be too much of a strain. If you’d like to save a little more, combine the Data Usage Challenge with the Battery Life Challenge to boost your savings!

10,000 Step Challenge

There are a lot of fitbit-wearing people out there who make an effort to get 10,000 steps daily.

If that describes you, then this is one of the money saving challenges that was made just for you.

The way it works is that uring the day, for every 1,000 steps you take, you have to put $0.50 in your savings account.

So, if you get all 10,000, you’ll save $5 (10,000 x $0.50). If you only get 6,000 steps, you’ll save $3 (6,000 x $0.50).

If you get your steps, that’s a great thing for your health and your savings account.

Elimination Challenge

During this Challenge, you’re basically going to eliminate something from your daily or weekly routine. For example, if you go to Starbucks at least 2-3 days a week, you’re going to remove that for the duration of the Challenge.

But you’re still going to pay for the coffee. You’re going to pay yourself, that is.

So let’s say that every day, you go and spend $4.95 at Starbucks. Now instead of going to get that coffee, you’re going to pay yourself $4.95 and skip the coffee.

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Surtax Challenge

This one is for the people who can’t bring themselves to do the elimination challenge.

Trust me, I understand that we all have our favorite little treats that we can’t live without.

Maybe you can’t start your day without a tall latte from Starbucks.

Or perhaps it’s a favorite food item that comforts you during those soul-sucking work weeks.

Whatever it is, it’s a part of your life and it’s here to stay.

I understand. And if that’s the case, the Surtax Challenge is for you!

For this Challenge, every time you get that tall latte from Starbucks (or whatever it is), you’re going to add a $1 tax on to the price.

The only difference is that the dollar will go to your savings, not to the Government.

So, that tall coffee no longer costs $4.95, it now costs $5.95.

That $1 “surtax” may make it too expensive to get that latte every day, but hey, you’ll save money by cutting back and also when you do buy your coffee.

Hulu/Netflix/YouTube Challenge

How many hours a day do you spend watching either TV, YouTube or Hulu? Well, this Challenge requires that you save 25 cents for every 15 minutes a day you spend watching some form of visual entertainment.

I realize that a lot of us listen to YouTube videos at work or at the gym. But I wouldn’t count this time as part of the challenge. I would only count the time that we’re watching and giving our undivided attention to the screen.

Here’s a sample week:

The idea behind this money saving challenge is to encourage us to minimize our unproductive hours by making us pay for them. If we don’t have extra money to save we’d be better off skipping the TV and perhaps picking up a side hustle in our freed up time.

Spare Change Challenge

Wrap Up

If you’re looking to build yourself a rainy day fund, money saving challenges are a fun way to make it happen.

Out of the ten here, we hope that you’ve found one (or two) that resonate with you and your lifestyle.

So, which one are you going to try? Let us know in the comments below!

Cheers!

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