Fun ways you can save money
Yes, making the lifestyle change from over-spender to obsessive-saver really can be fun. Today, we’re diving into the world of money-saving challenges. They’re a great way you can feel in control of your savings and actually enjoy the process because every time you save, you’re “beating a challenge”. That’s pretty satisfying.
These ones come from Cristina Brown, who describes herself as a Savings-Challenger Designer. She’s the author and founder of Happy Savings Co, and says money-saving challenges personally helped her build significant savings when other methods hadn’t been right for her. Cristina says, “Saving money doesn’t have to be a chore. Happy Savings Co is all about providing fun and creative savings challenges to help you save more money to achieve your financial goals!”
Count us in!
Step one: review.
Before you jump into the challenges, you have to review your budget and expenses. This will determine which challenges you can take on, because challenges have set difficulty levels.
Step two: assign.
Assign a goal to your challenge to help you stay motivated and on task. This is essentially determining what you’re saving for — an emergency fund, a new car, or even that fancy suit you’ve had your eye on.
Step three: choose.
The Happy Saving Co website has heaps of challenges to choose from, but we’ll lay out our favourites for you.
Keep the change challenge.
Difficulty: easy
Let’s start super simple. Keep the change is a great challenge for hesitant savers or even young children. It uses a passive savings strategy, which means there’s very little effort on your part. Here’s the deal: for a designated amount of time (could be one month, could be one year), you put aside every $1 coin and $5 note you receive from cash transactions. If the time-period isn’t appealing to you, you can do this same challenge with a financial goal. For example, challenge won when you get to $300, however long it might take.
Seeing as we don’t use a lot of cash these days, it’s a relaxed way to break into the savings lifestyle because you won’t need to do it very often. Or, you can get into the habit of using cash more, and leave your card at home to make overspending through card transactions impossible.
The 52-week challenge.
Difficulty: easy
This is a fun accumulative challenge where you up the savings by $1 each week, depositing the assigned money into a designated savings account. So in week one, you’ll transfer $1, week two is $2, and so on until week 52 — you guessed it, $52.
At the end of the year, you’ll enjoy $1378. That’s enough for a good emergency stash or a large purchase.
Weather Wednesdays challenge.
Difficulty: Moderate
If you’re already a confident saver with a steady cash flow, this challenge offers big savings. The catch? It’s pretty unpredictable.
Every Wednesday for one year, you have to deposit money into your savings based on the day’s temperature. If it’s 20 degrees, that’s a $20 transfer. We suggest starting in winter so it’s more manageable, and you can prepare for the hot Perth summer. The good news is, you’ll probably never have to make a transfer larger than $40.
100 envelopes challenge.
Difficulty: hard
This challenge is a little more difficult. First, number envelopes (or scraps of paper) from one to 100 and shuffle them. Draw one randomly every day (ipso facto, the challenge goes for 100 days) — the number you draw determines the amount of cash you must transfer into your savings account that day.
It’s difficult because you could draw high numbers consecutively, so we suggest only using this one if you have a good cash flow. If you’re up to it, you’ll save $5050 in just 100 days!
No spend challenge.
Difficulty: almost impossible
The title says it all. You commit to only spending money on essentials over a certain period. This is significantly harder than it sounds, so we suggest starting off with a two-week period, and making it longer depending on your success. This challenge is also very subjective — what you determine as essential, your partner may say is a splurge.
Usually though, you’ll cut back on nonessential pantry items (no more treats), stay away from shopping trips, and avoid simple pleasures like eating out, UberEATS, or recreational stops like the cinema.
Are you up for the challenge?
These saving challenges are highly effective and engaging — a great way to save whether you’re a high-income earner or low one. If you’d like some savings tips from an accountant that aren’t challenge-based, we’re ready when you are!
Contact us to explore personalised ways you can save.
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