Find the top simple money saving challenges that really help beginners save money. Learn how to create real saving habits by starting slow, and your financial goals will be achieved faster
Here are some easy, money-saving challenges which do work, especially if you are new to saving money
To most individuals new to saving money, the issue is not that they do not have motivation, but they just are unsure of where to begin, maintain consistency and create a system that is applicable to actual life situations as opposed to a budget outlined in a book.
When you go on a money saving challenge, it helps you achieve your three main goals. The challenge gives you a clear structure to follow (i.e., how to achieve your goal, etc.), a timeline by when you will achieve your goal, and an actual measurement of progress towards achieving your goal. So you’re not just attempting to spend less, but you have a specific plan of action and can build momentum from the very first day of the challenge!
You’ll find the easiest money saving challenges for beginners in this guide. I explain how the challenges work and assist you in picking out a money saving challenge that fits your circumstances. If you’d like to save $500 for the first time, create an emergency fund, or simply want to strengthen your ability to manage your money, there’ll be a challenge for you in this list.
What to Know Before You Start a Savings Challenge
When you are getting started with this savings program, there are some core basics to consider that will ultimately effect whether or not you are successful or whether you will throw in the towel after two weeks.
If the challenge you choose does not fit your income, then it probably will not work for you. For example, if you make $1,500 a month, and you select a challenge that someone who makes $5,000 a month would use, then you will probably get frustrated trying to complete the challenge. so Choose a challenge that reflects your current financial situation, not one you are hoping to have in the future.
You must also have a separate savings account. Challenge money disappears before you even realise it when it is left in your checking account. So, open a separate savings account, even if it is just a basic one, so you can keep your challenge money separate.
The last and most important thing to do is to keep track of your progress. You can either keep a written record of your progress, use a spreadsheet, or use a printed tracker that you keep on your wall. The more you see your progress, the more likely you are to complete the challenge, and not just give up on it.
52 Week Money Challenge.
This saving challenge has been among the most popular ones especially for beginners who are looking for ways to start saving money, and it’s an excellent one! The structure of this challenge is: You will be asked to save $1 in the first week, $2 in the second week, $3 in the third week and it will continue to increase every week until you reach the 52nd week where you would have to save $52 during that week. Then by saving on all those weeks, you will have saved $1,378 by the end of the year.
What makes this challenge so brilliant is that it has such a low-barrier of entry due to it only costing $1 to participate in the first week. The habit develops prior to the amount of money becoming difficult
One big problem with this challenge is that you are making your biggest monthly payments at a time when you are most likely making other expensive purchases (gifts and holidays, etc.) at the end of the year. There is another good alternative: instead of $1 per week for 52 weeks, start with $52 in the first week and end up with $1 at the 52nd week. While technically you will still be saving the same total yearly amount, it will help to avoid those end-of-the-year expenses.
Another form of the challenge is the biweekly version and is basically optimized for people paid every two weeks. The principal method of saving is from your pay period, so you can stay within your budget while at the same time having the right amount of money coming through.
The No Spend Challenge.
A no spend challenge is exactly what it sounds like (a chosen month) where you spend your money on “Necessities” while cutting out most of the areas where you have spent your money (most commonly) i.e. coffee shops, new clothing, take-out food, subscription services and impulse buys.
One of the most powerful aspects of this challenge is that it forces you to realise that some of your discretionary purchases have become so normalised that you probably had no idea how much you spent on them. Most individuals who participate in a no spend challenge for 30 days come away surprised with how much money they were spending on items that weren’t absolutely necessary.
The $5 Bill Challenge’
A good/realistic starting point for novice is a ‘no spend weekend’ before attempting a no spend month. The importance is that it cultivates the mental muscle without the full scale commitment. Once you have successfully completed two or three no spend weekends, moving on to a no spend full month is much more reasonable.
One very important factor is that each dollar you saved while on a no spend challenge should be transferred to your savings account right away. It should not be allowed to remain in your checking accounts.
Once you have decided a dollar amount that you will save, it should be completely removed from your checking accounts immediately so that it does not become available for use/temptation to spend!
The rule is simple: Just keep aside every $5 bill you get as change. That’s all there is to it, so there are no weekly goals to set, or formulas to calculate, or no spreadsheets to fill out.
Because of this rule that allows for easy participation because individuals are not required to create, monitor, or adjust a budget. Instead of imposing a dollar amount that is to be saved, the rule simply requires that anytime a $5 bill is received, it is to be set aside. Many individuals who frequently use cash will save between two hundred to five hundred dollars per year using this method, and without experiencing any extra burden on their finances.
The Round Up Challenge
A combined digital and cash version of this approach can work well for those that use their credit or debit card most of the time for payments. You would manually transfer $5 to your savings account when you make a purchase at your bank (such as a $27 dollar purchase), which is not an automated process, but it does help to develop the same habit of making small contributions on a regular basis as the automated option does.
Several banks and apps now provide automated procurement of funds through incremental utility. Each time you make a purchase, it is automatically rounded up to the next great dollar, with the remaining amount being put into your savings account. For example, if you buy coffee for $4.60 your purchase becomes $5.00, with $0.40 will go into your account as savings.
The Round Up Challenge.
This challenge is great for newbies and those who have trouble staying on top of their finances because once set up, you don’t have to do much at all. Over the course of a year of normal spending, you can usually accrue anywhere between $300 and $600 in round-up savings depending on how many transactions you make.
The original idea was started by Acorns but now most big banks all have round-up options in their apps so check with your bank before signing up for an outside source.
The 30-Day Rule Challenge
This challenge is specifically designed to curb impulsive buying habits. The rule is very straightforward: if you are considering making a non-essential purchase that costs more than $30~$50, you must wait 30 days from the date you decided to make the purchase. If after 30 days have passed and you still want to purchase an item, then you can do so. If you no longer want the item or have forgotten about the item completely, then the money should be saved.
Many studies have proven that a lot of impulse buying decisions lead to buyers’ regret within a very short period of time. To combat this tendency, the 30-day rule was developed as a means of protecting consumers from making impulsive purchases due to emotional needs.
To successfully complete this challenge, create a list of all the things you have decided not to buy and post it somewhere visible. You’ll satisfy the psychological need to purchase something by simply writing it down instead of buying it. Plus you’ll give yourself time to see if you still really want the thing you were impulse purchasing before you made the 30 day rule decision.
The Pantry Challenge
This challenge basically takes aim at one of the three biggest areas where people spend money freely (food). It asks you to go for a full month (or just two weeks if you’re new) eating pretty much only stuff that’s already in your house before you go grocery shopping again.
Many pantries and freezers contain weeks worth of food that remain unused because more are purchased before the first items are consumed. By simply doing a pantry challenge, you force yourself to create new meals using what you have, lowering your waste level and potentially saving between $100 and $400 per month depending on how much you typically spend on groceries.
The rules are flexible, too. For example, you can choose to allow yourself to purchase any fresh produce or dairy items while holding back all other grocery purchases. The point is to be intentional about your purchases – evaluating whether they are truly needed or if you are simply making the purchase out of habit.
table (A Comparison Table for the best Saving Money Challenges for Beginners)
Challenge / Difficulty/ .Estimated Annual Savings/ .Best for
52-Week Challenge / Easy / $1378 / Developing Consistency
Reverse-52-Week Challenge / Easy/ $1378/ Habit Maintenance
No Spend Month/ Moderate/ 200 to 600 / Self-Awareness and Resetting
$5 Bill Challenge/ Very Easy/ 200 to 500 / Frequent Cash Users; Low effort
Round Up Challenge/ Very Easy/ 300 to 600 / Card Users; Passive Saving
30-day rule | Varies in difficulty from easy to medium | Used by impulse buyers
Pantry Challenge | Moderate difficulty | $100–$400/month, Used by families who waste food
The 1 percent challenge:
Income-based, not fixed amount; therefore scalable to all income levels. You agree to save 1 percent of your gross monthly income each month, over a period of 12 months. After 6 months, that increases to 2 per cent. After 12 months, that increases to 3 percent.
A person who earns $2,000 per month can start saving $20 per month. This is an amount that almost anybody can save. They will then be saving $60 per month in the twelfth month and $80 per month in the twenty-fourth month. The savings habit develops over time, and the incremental amount feels smaller because it is based on their income and not a set dollar amount.
This challenge really helps people who have already tried some type of strict savings plan and could not stick with it, because the amount will never be arbitrary; it will always be in proportion with what you make
Weekend Warrior Challenge
This challenge targets weekend spending which is where almost everyone spends too much money without knowing it. The rule for this weekend challenge is that you have to plan for four weekends in a row to do stuff that is free or almost free instead of paid entertainment.
This would include free days at a museum, hiking, cooking meals at home, local public gatherings, or using movies you already have for a movie night. The plan is not to deprive yourself of things you love, but to swap out these things for another item with purpose. At the conclusion of 4 weekends, you would calculate the total amount of money that was spent on your normal weekend activities to what you actually spent, and any difference would be applied to your savings.
Unexpectedly, most participants in this challenge discover free weekends to be as pleasurable, or sometimes even more pleasurable, than their usual weekends of expenditure.
SELECTING AN APPROPRIATE SAVINGS CHALLENGE
Your income, your biggest current spending weakness, and your need for structure are the three things that will determine which challenge is correct for you.
If you find yourself making quick buying decisions, try either the 30-Day Rule or the No-Spending Challenge. If you need a STRUCTURED APPROACH TO building your savings but don’t have specific spending habits, try the 52-Week Challenge. If you want a completely automated way of saving money, Round Up will be the perfect place to start!
Don’t try to take on the biggest challenge you can think of to begin with. Start small, but make sure the challenge you choose has impact. Completing a small challenge will always produce better results than starting a big challenge and not finishing it.
You can also stack challenges. Many people do the Round Up Challenge in the background for a year and also do the No Spend Month challenge one or two times during the year. Combining the two leads to success without burning out.
Tips to Help You Complete the Challenges You Start
Automate as much as possible because willpower is removed from the picture when motivation is at a low point by automating the processes.
You should share the challenge you are taking on with someone. The presence of accountability significantly improves the chances of attaining your goal, regardless of how formal or informal that accountability is.
Finally, make a visual record of your progress. A paper chart on your fridge would probably work more effectively than a mobile application for many people, because it is always there in front of you and requires no use of screen time to check.
Finally, provide yourself with an enjoyable reward at the end of your challenge. The reward should not be costly or cause harm financially, but should have meaning to you. At the end of the year-long challenge, you deserve to be rewarded!
Expect that you’ll have a few weeks that don’t go as planned and be prepared for that. If you miss a week of a 52 week challenge, it doesn’t mean you have failed. It just means you missed one week. So just catch up the following week and continue on with the challenge.
Key Takeaways:
Money Saving Challenges work because they turn your “I want to save money” into a specific, concrete plan with rules to follow. The most appropriate challenge will be the one you finish, not necessarily the one that looks best on paper. I recommend that you take very small steps, automate as much as possible, choose to monitor your challenge visually, and then add another once you have developed the confidence from one. If you can save $500 through this process, that’s $500 more than you previously had, and you will have developed a savings habit, which is far more valuable than $500.
FAQ
What is the simplest way to save money for someone just starting out?
The Round Up Challenge is a very easy way to save because you can set it up once and then it works all by itself. For someone who wants to save by hand and not use a computer to help them, the simplest way to do that would be the $5 Bill Challenge.
How much can I realistically save with these challenges in a year?
It all depends on which of these challenges you choose and how much money you bring in. Realistically, if you are a beginner and you combine the 52 Week Challenge with the Round Up Challenge, you would have the potential of saving $1,600 – $2,000 in a year without having to significantly change your lifestyle.
Do I need a special savings account to do any of these challenges?
You don’t have to open a special type of bank account for your fund, but you do need to keep your challenge savings separate from your regular spending. If you mix challenge savings with everyday money, you might accidentally end up spending some of your challenged funds. Any basic, no fee savings account at your local bank will do well.
After you finish the challenge, you will need to figure out what to do with all of the money that you have saved.
It basically depends on your intention. If you don’t have an emergency fund with three to six months of expenses, use the money to build up that emergency fund. If you already have an emergency fund, put the money toward a specific purpose ie; debt repayment, investments, a big purchase you have planned, etc.
Conclusion
Money saving challenges are not based on which has the highest potential for return. The right one for you will fit into your daily routine and will be something you enjoy doing, along with being able to build some long term habits. Every challenge we talk about in this book has helped someone who couldn’t save before start saving money.
You’re going to pick one now. You’ll start on it this week, and you’ll keep track of your results in someplace you can see every day. Remember, while saving may seem hard at first, if you keep practicing your savings habits, eventually you’ll find it is just like any other skill.
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