3 Savings Challenges That Will Boost Your Budget

Saving money can feel like a terrible chore. If you’re not motivated enough to get through that chore, why not make it more interesting? Take on a savings challenge!

Why You Need More Savings

One major reason to get more savings out of your budget is that it can help you have an easier time handling emergency expenses. You can use the savings to cover the costs and still be able to pay your bills, grab groceries and fill the family car with gas. You don’t have to panic.

What are your options without emergency savings? You could put the urgent expense on your credit card if your balance is not too close to the limit. Then you could handle the repayments later. Another option is to apply for a personal loan and use those funds to deal with the problem. See whether you meet the qualifications for small personal loans online and then send in an application. You just might get approved. 

However, you can avoid this tricky situation by starting a savings challenge and give your budget the boost it needs.

What Savings Challenges Can You Try?

1. The No Spend Challenge

At face value, the No Spend Challenge sounds like an impossible challenge for the average person to follow. How can you avoid spending money for more than a few days? You still need to pay the bills!

Don’t worry — during the No Spend Challenge, you’re encouraged to cover all of your essentials like rent/mortgage payments, utility bills and groceries as normal. You’re supposed to abstain from spending on non-essentials for as long as possible. It will be hard, but it will be worth the savings that you add to your pocket.

What are some ways you can stop spending on non-essentials?

• Using a refillable water bottle instead of buying bottled water.
• Brewing your coffee at home instead of going to a café or drive-thru every morning.
• Skipping the takeout and cooking your dinner instead.
• Using the library instead of buying a pile of new books at the store.

2. The 52-Week Savings Challenge

The 52-Week Savings Challenge is very simple. In week 1 of the challenge, you save $1. In week 2 of the challenge, you save $2. As the weeks go on, you ramp up the difficulty and save more money. In a year’s time, you’ll have collected over $1000 in savings.

3. The Envelope Challenge

With the envelope challenge, you will need 50 envelopes. Label each envelope with a number between 1-50 — this represents the dollar value that you will have to save. 

Every week, you will have to pull one envelope out from the pile at random and add the labeled cash amount inside. So, if you grabbed envelope number #25, you would have to stash $25 inside it by the end of the week. Then, seal the envelope and put it in a box for safekeeping. Repeat the process every week until you’ve run out of envelopes. You’ll end up with over $1200 in savings.

And if you’re really up for a challenge, you can also do the envelope challenge with 100 envelopes and save approximately $5000 in the process. Are you willing to put your wallet to the test?

Challenge yourself! You could give your budget a huge boost in a short amount of time.