How To Complete A Money Challenge When You’re Broke
Inside: Saving money doesn’t have to be a painful or stressful process. With these simple daily and weekly tips, I’m going to show you how to make saving fun by completing a money challenge!
Setting a goal to save money and improve your finances is the second most common New Year’s Resolution in the United States. This is not just the start of a new year… It’s the beginning of a whole new decade, which brings with it much excitement and promise of change.
One of our family goals each year is to save money for family vacations or local activities.
If you want this to be the year that you successfully complete a money challenge and get your finances back on track, or simply save for that much-needed vacation, you need to listen up.
Even if you’re broke or live on a fixed income like our family, you can start regularly putting some cash aside and complete a money savings challenge in 2020. All kinds of money challenges could help you save anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars this year.
Please keep reading to learn about all the different money savings challenges you could embark on and which one is the best fit for you this year!
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What Is A Money Challenge?
Money challenges are also known as savings challenges. Completing a savings challenge is first about realizing your potential to save money. The second step involves taking the necessary small action steps every day to turn saving into a habit.
News flash: You can complete a money savings challenge even if you’re broke! If saving money is something you’ve struggled with in the past, a money challenge is a perfect way to get you motivated. Make 2020 the year that you start being conscious of your finances.
Saving money doesn’t have to be a painful or stressful process. With these simple daily and weekly tips, I’m going to show you how to make saving fun!
Types Of Money Challenges
There are tons of different money challenges. Which one you decide to undertake will depend on how much money you want to save and which one you think you can achieve. There’s no sense starting a savings challenge that you don’t think you can stick to. Some of my favorite savings challenges are:
- 52-week money challenge – You deposit $1 in the first week, $2 in the second week, $3 in the third week, and so on for the whole year. Total saving: $1,378.
- No spend money challenge – You vow not to spend money for a certain amount of time or on a certain day of the week. Total saving: Variable.
- 26-week money challenge – Similar to the 52-week money challenge but you deposit money every other week going up by $3 each week. Total saving: $1,053
- 365-day savings challenge – You should start with just five cents and add five more cents to your daily savings rate every day. Total saving: $3,339
- Spare change challenge – Save up all of your spare change over the year. Total saving: Variable
- Little vices savings challenge – If you get a coffee from Starbuck every day, you could be spending over $1,000 a year on coffee… Now imagine what you’d save if you put that money aside for a whole year. Total saving: $1,095
- $5 savings challenge – Save every $5 bill you get for a year in an envelope. Total saving: Variable
- Penny savings challenge – Save 1 cent on the first day, 2 cents on the second day, three cents on the third day, and so on for a year. Total saving: $667.95
52 Week Money Challenge
The 52-week money challenge is my favorite because it starts off small and gradually builds up every week of the year. If you’re not used to saving, this is a great way to ease yourself into it.
All you need to do is save $1 in the first week, $2 in the second week, $3 in the third week and so on until the last week of the year when you save $52.
By the end of the year, you’ll have saved a massive $1,378! Imagine what you could do with all that money! You could pay off Christmas or even treat yourself and your family to a weekend getaway in the new year.
Download this FREE 52 Week Money Challenge Printable to help you stay on track and keep tabs on your progress!
Alternative 52 Week Savings Challenge
If you don’t think that the 52-week savings challenge is for you, there are plenty of alternatives money-saving challenges you could try. As I listed above, there’s the $5 money challenge, little vices savings challenge, 365-day money challenge, and the spare change money challenge.
But the ones that I want to talk about, and the ones I think you’ll more easily be able to accomplish with significant reward, are the 26-week money challenge and the penny savings challenge.
26 Week Money Challenge
The 26-week savings challenge is incredibly similar to the 52-week savings challenge, but instead of saving every week, you save every other week, and the amount you save goes up in threes.
So you’ll save $3, then $6, then $9 and so on. By the end of 26-weeks, you’ll have saved a total of $1,053! Not as much as the 52-week savings challenge, but still a significant amount!
Penny Saving Challenge
Look after the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. By merely saving 1 cent on day one, 2 cents on day two, 3 cents on day three. And so on for the whole year ending by saving 365 cents ($3.65) on the final day of the year.
You will have saved a total of $667.95 without even realizing it!
How To Complete A Money Challenge When You’re Broke
Even if you’re broke, you can successfully complete one of the many money challenge options in 2020. Completing a challenge sets you up for future years. It doesn’t matter if you’re entirely new to saving and think you don’t have a penny to spare.
Start small! You will be surprised how saving just a few cents here and there can add up over time.
I believe that there’s a savings challenge that everyone can succeed with. How would you like to end 2020 with a few hundred dollars saved? Or even a few thousand dollars saved up in the bank?
And what would you do with all that extra cash? Saving money is a great life skill to have. It is also a critical life lesson for your kids. You can make it super fun by involving the entire family. Your family will find any one of these challenges rewarding.
Your Turn
Are you doing a savings challenge for 2020? I’d love to know which challenge! What do you plan to do with all that extra cash at the end of the year?
