Money Savings Challenge: 9 Fun And Easy Challenges To Save Money

Money savings challenge: 9 fun and easy ways to trick yourself into saving more money by the end of the year. Top challenges to save money.

Saving money is a crucial part of the financial independence journey.

If you can’t save money, you will never be able to retire early. It’s that simple.

Even if you are a savvy investor, your ability to generate returns will be limited without money to invest.

To put it bluntly, saving money is even more important than investing.

The problem is that many people find themselves unable to save after the bills are paid.

After rent, the car payment, food, and other expenses are subtracted, there isn’t enough money left over to save. 

At least, that’s what they think before learning to think outside the box. 

In truth, non-savers are looking at it all wrong.

They just need to find the right money savings challenge or way to motivate themselves. 

In this post, I will show you 9 money saving challenges to trick yourself in saving more money.

Let’s dive in.

Money Savings Challenge: 9 Fun And Easy Challenges To Save Money

Money Savings Challenge: 9 Fun And Easy Challenges To Save Money

1. No-Spend Challenge

If you find that you don’t have enough money left over after you pay the bills, you have two options: spend less or earn more.

Of course, earning more usually takes time, because you will need to obtain a new job or start a side hustle.

So, the quickest way to be able to save more money is to spend less.

But spending less is easier said than done when you’ve developed years of bad habits.

To break the bad habits, you need to try something drastic and set a challenge for yourself.

One option to consider is a no-spend challenge. 

If you are new to the concept, a no-spend challenge is where you attempt to not spend money for a period of time.

For example, you could try to not spend money for a month other than necessities. 

If this is your first time trying a no-spend challenge, you could try not spending for a shorter period of time. You could even try to not spend money for one day or a week at first.

Alternatively, a no-spend challenge could be focussed on a specific expense. 

For instance, you could try to not spend money on alcohol or coffee for period of time.

At the end of your no-spend challenge, you can save the difference.

2. Increase Your Savings Each Pay

Since I am a progress-orientated person, I really like the idea of incrementally increasing your savings each time you get paid.

For people that struggle with savings, this is an excellent way to develop the habit.

To get started, you could even start by saving as low as 1% of your salary.

I would actually recommend starting low so you can keep up the money savings challenge for as long as possible. 

After you have successfully saved 1% of your salary, try to save 2% of your salary the following pay.

Then repeat this process until you can no longer increase your savings rate. 

By the end of the challenge, you will know how much you can afford to save and you will have developed the habit of saving.

3. Set A Savings Rate Goal

If you want to reach early retirement, you need to save at least 20-to-50% of your income.

If that’s your goal, then you should challenge yourself to save a specific percent of your income.

Since my income fluctuates, I am forced to save less during the winter months. 

But during the summer, I move my savings rate up to an early retirement level.

This summer, my goal is to save at least 50% of my income.

Related article: What Percentage Of Your Income Should Go To Retirement Savings?

4. Start A Savings Competition With A Friend

Competition is a great motivator.

For some people, it brings out their best effort.

If that’s you, try having a savings competition with a friend, significant other, or family member.

The competition could be centred around who can save more by the end of the year.

I actually tried this competition with a friend years ago.

Unfortunately, I lost because my friend got an under-the-table job on the side. 

Even though I was upset that I lost, the competition still forced both of us to save more by the end of the year.

5. Create An Annual Savings Goal 

If you would rather work in numbers than percents, choose an annual savings goal.

For example, try to save at least $5,000 by the end of the year.

Then, increase that goal annually. 

Once you reach your annual savings goal, you have already proven to yourself that it’s possible to save that much.

So, saving an extra $500 to $1,000 per year is entirely possible.

Since I switched to part-time work and my income fluctuates, I set an annual savings goal and make sure it increases annually. 

6. 52-Week Money Saving Challenge

The 52-week challenge is a popular money savings challenge on Pinterest and around the blogosphere. 

It’s a great way to trick yourself into saving more money, or it can be used to save for short-term goals such as a trip.

Basically, you save more money every week for 52 weeks. Even if you start at a low number, you end up saving a surprising amount of money.

The most common way to do this challenge is to save $1 on the first week, $2 on the second week, $3 on the third week, and so on. By the final week of the challenge, you save $52 in one week and you have $1,378 saved. 

By increasing the amount you save in small increments, you hardly even notice the difference. 

If you want to save more than that, try starting a $2 per week.

7. Save Whatever You Don’t Spend Challenge 

The save-whatever-you-don’t-spend challenge is a money savings challenge I personally made up and used a few years ago.

Essentially, you go about your regular day and save whatever money you don’t spend that you would normally spend.

Let’s say you would normally buy a coffee on your lunch break. If you can convince yourself to not buy it, you can immediately save it, because that money would have been gone anyways.

So, instead of buying the coffee, you immediately transfer over the $1.60 to your savings account.

Based on my personal experience, this is a great way to spend less money on coffee.

8. Challenge Yourself To Pay Yourself First

If you read this blog regularly, you would know that I’m an advocate for paying yourself first.

In my opinion, it’s the best way to save money.

This way, you don’t even need to budget or be frugal with your spending money. You just spend whatever is left after you pay yourself first. The best part is that it’s guilt-free spending.

If you are new to the concept of paying yourself first, challenge yourself to try it.

The next time you get paid, pay yourself first before you pay any other bills.

It might seem like you will be leaving yourself short. But just like anyone who lives pay cheque to pay cheque, you will find a way to make it work.

Related Article: Pay Yourself First – How To Pay Yourself First

9. Reward Yourself Challenge

The reward yourself challenge is a way to save money and still buy yourself something.

It might seem counterintuitive, but as long as you save more money than you spend, you are saving more than before. 

An example of how this might work is you get to buy a new MacBook if you save at least $5,000 this year.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend that you subtract from your savings to reward yourself. That creates a bad habit of taking from your savings.

You should always leave your money to compound. 

So, choose a savings goal that allows you to comfortably reward yourself without subtracting from your savings.

Money Savings Challenge – Final Thoughts

Saving money doesn’t have to be something that takes away from your lifestyle.

In addition to providing more options and flexibility to your life, saving money can also be fun.

If you struggle with saving money, you can use a money savings challenge to build the right habits.

Whether you are saving to reach early retirement or for a trip, these challenges will make saving money fun and easy.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried any of these money savings challenges? Are there any other challenges you have used?

Related Articles On Saving Money

How To Save Money As A Teenager

What Percentage Of Your Income Should Go To Retirement Savings?

How To Stop Spending Money: 10 Tips That Will Immediately Impact Your Savings

How To Save Money On Cable TV, Internet, And Phone

Pay Yourself First: How To Pay Yourself First

I am not a licensed investment or tax adviser. All opinions are my own. This post may contain advertisements by Monumetric. This post may also contain internal links, affiliate links to BizBudding, Amazon, Bluehost, and Questrade, links to trusted external sites, and links to RTC social media accounts.

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