Top 10 savings challenges
No spend challenge
The no spend challenge is pretty straight-forward - don’t spend any money! Pick a period of time - a weekend, a week, a month, or even a year - and don’t spend money on ANYTHING that isn’t required for basic living (food, rent, etc.).
If not spending ANY extra money at all sounds too extreme for you, try a modification of the no-spend challenge. You can target just your spending problem-categories, like clothes or going out to restaurants, and go a week or a month without spending in those specific categories only.
2. Pantry challenge
Groceries are a problem area for a lot of people’s budgets. If you want to try to get your grocery bill down, consider the “pantry challenge”. The idea is not to spend any money on groceries until you’ve exhausted all of the food that you already have in your pantry (and your fridge).
Get creative with your meals! I like to challenge my partner to cook-offs to see who can come up with a better dinner using what we already have. You’d be surprised how good these meals can be and how much money you save - as a plus, it’s pretty fun!
3. Round-up challenge
Rounding-up your every-day spending is another great challenge that’s surprising powerful.
If you’re a fan of the cash envelope method of spending, then this will be as easy as taking your spare change from each day and storing it in a jar or piggy bank for a set period of time, be it a month or a year.
If you never carry cash - don’t worry! You can still participate in this challenge using online accounts like Acorns to monitor your spending and round-up each transaction for you.
4. Find extra money challenge/30 day minimalism challenge
Preparing to move cross-country has made me realize just how many items we have in our home that we don’t use and that, quite honestly, we forgot we even owned.
If you’re like me and love a good decluttering session or are just feeling overwhelmed by your things, I challenge you to list one item a day for sale online and see how much money you can make in a month!
Facebook Marketplace is great for large items like furniture and there are plenty of options for used clothing, such as Depop and Poshmark! Look around - all that clutter used to be money… and it’s not too late to turn it back into money again!
5. Kick a bad habit challenge
Look - we all have our vices, some of us more than others! This challenge doesn’t have to be permanent, but if you’ve always wanted to stop smoking, stop drinking, eat less take-out, cut back on Starbucks coffee, or take a pause on whatever your guilty pleasure may be - cutting back, even temporarily, is a great way to save money.
You can either stop the habit and just observe the extra money left in your bank account each month OR every day that you have the urge to spend on your habit, transfer the cost of acting on that urge to your savings account.
For example, if your bad habit is buying Starbucks coffee too often, then every day you think about buying a coffee - DON’T! Transfer the cost of that coffee to your savings account instead.
6. 365-day nickel-saving challenge
When I heard of this challenge, I was SHOCKED at how much the savings totaled by the end of the year.
The rules of this challenge are that you save one nickel on day one, two nickels on day two, three nickels on day three, and so on and so forth, adding a nickel a day to your savings amount.
Want to guess just how much you’ll save in 365 days?
Did you make your guess? I don’t want to spoil it!
Okay, okay…
It’s… $3,339.75! On the very last day, you’ll have to save a whopping… $18.25!
Starting to sound doable and worth it? I knew it would!
7. Trim 1% of your salary challenge
If I asked you if you could save just 1% of your salary, you’d probably say that anyone could do that.
So why not try it? Every month, look for a way to save whatever 1% of your monthly income is - that can be from your gross income before taxes or your net income after taxes. As long as you’re saving money, it’s a win in my book!
8. Weather Wednesday challenge
This challenge is great for those who love variety and don’t want to be tied down to any sort of predictable schedule.
Every Wednesday, you’ll transfer the day’s highest temperature point into your bank account. So if the temperature reached a perfect 72 degrees on Wednesday, you’ll transfer $72 to your savings account.
If you live in Arizona and it’s summer time, you might end up saving $120 each Wednesday with those soaring temperatures! In the winter, you’ll get a break and save less as temperatures cool off - perfect for those who celebrate holidays like Christmas and need extra funds available around that time of the year!
Oh, and you’ll be able to afford all those Christmas gifts with those high-temperature summer savings!
9. 52-week savings challenge
The 52-Week savings challenge is a simple and popular challenge. On week 1, you’ll save $1. On week 2, you’ll save $2. On week 3, you’ll save $3 - and so on, saving $52 on week 52. With this challenge, you’ll save $1,378!
I think a fun and practical twist on this challenge is to randomize which week you save what amount - so on week 4 you might save $52, and on week 5 you save $5.
This is a good modification if what’s holding you back from starting the challenge is the fear of not being able to save those high amounts at the end of the challenge ($49, $50, $51, $52) all in one month!
10. $20 savings challenge
If keeping up with all those nickels in the 365-day nickel-savings challenge sounded like too much of a hassle, then maybe you’d prefer the $20 savings challenge!
It’s simple and straight-forward, and, best of all, deals with easy-to-online-transfer dollar amounts - just save $20 a week for a year! At the end of the year, you’ll have $1,040.
That’s it - that’s my list of top 10 savings challenges! Let me know in the comments below which one is your favorite & happy savings!