A money savings challenge can be an awesome way to jump-start your savings and get motivated to stick to a budget. You may never have heard of a money savings challenge, so I’m here to give you some ideas and tips on how to start.
This article contains 17 different money saving challenge ideas to get you started, along with an explanation on what these challenges are and how they work.
Are you ready to make some serious savings? With this handy guide you should be able to pick a challenge (or two or three!) that fits well with your lifestyle and is achievable and motivating.
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Money Savings Challenge: What is it and how do I start?
What is a money savings challenge?
So what exactly is a money savings challenge? As you might guess from the name, it’s a way to save money. Because saving can be really hard, a challenge is a way to make it more exciting and hopefully get yourself a little more motivated.
A money savings challenge allows you to really focus on saving in a specific way for a short period of time. It often feels more approachable than just trying to save up hundreds of dollars, but when you finish you’ll hopefully be motivated to continue with the savings.
Why is a money savings challenge a great idea?
I understand how hard saving money can feel. After all, there are a lot of daily expenses, and it can feel like you’re pinching pennies just trying to buy the groceries you want or spend time with friends.
The process of building up savings can feel so intimidating. The goal of a money saving challenge is to get rid of that intimidation factor. These challenges break saving down into one specific area, period of time, or method of saving.
By following the challenges, you should be able to find a method that works for you. Some of these challenges are published here and are intense, so you can modify it a bit in the long-term to make sure it works for you.
Saving money is so important. Not only will it help you in the far-off future, but it can serve as an emergency fund if you have car problems, lose your job, have a medical emergency, or even just get a pet.
17 Money Savings Challenge Ideas
Are you feeling motivated yet? Here are 17 different challenges to get you started on your journey towards saving!
52 Week Money Savings Challenge
The 52 Week Money Savings Challenge is a fun challenge to start with, because it helps you really see how savings can build!
In this challenges, you’ll start by putting away just $1 into savings. However, each week you’ll increase the amount you save by $1 more. So, on your second week you’ll save $2, and on week 52 you’ll add $52 to the savings.
Even though it feels like a small amount, just a few dollars a week, these small savings really add up. By the end of the challenge, you’ll have saved $1,378!
No Spend Challenge
There are actually a few ways to take a no spending challenge. In essence, a no spend challenge is exactly what it sounds like. For a set period of time, you don’t spend any money.
People often do the no spend challenge over a weekend, over one week, or over one month.
If you’ve never done a money savings challenge, I suggest you start slow. Try this challenge over a weekend and see how it feels. If you jump right into a month of no spending you could feel overwhelmed. The trick is to find a savings challenge that you can succeed at!
If you do decide to do the no spend challenge over a long period of time, it’s okay to allot some money to necessary expenses like gas, rent, and groceries. The idea is not to have any extra or unnecessary spending.
Inspired Budget has some more tips and details on how to succeed at this challenge.
Little Vices Money Savings Challenge
Take a second to think about some of your vices. What are your guilty pleasures in terms of spending? Some common ones are:
- Prepared coffee drinks (Starbucks, anyone?)
- Drinks at the bar
- Eating out for lunch
- Super fancy dinners out
- New clothes
- Candy from the checkout counter
- Soda
Once you figure out what your vices are, this challenge is easy. (Well, it’s simple, anyway.) Choose a period of time, like a week or a month, and cut out these vices.
The savings here might not add up to a lot, but this challenge can help you identify areas of unnecessary spending. Odds are, after finishing this challenge, you’ll find that you don’t actually need that latte every morning or don’t mind making your own lunch after all.
31 Days to Improve Your Financial Life
Part Time Money outlines an awesome money savings challenge that you can do in just one month, with lifelong benefits.
With tips on how to get the most out of retirement savings, get the best deal on health insurance, and trim your spending habits, this guide will have you feeling like a finance master by the end of the month.
By doing this challenge in just 31 days, it feels easier to stick with. This challenge covers everything you need to think about though when creating solid budgeting and saving habits.
No Eating Out Saving Money Challenge
This challenge is pretty self-explanatory. Choose a period of time and don’t eat out in that time.
For this challenge, a month isn’t an unreasonable amount of time. It can feel like a long time, but I promise it’s possible!
My husband and I love eating out at fancy restaurants, but the costs add up so quickly and can easily become the most expensive category on our budget. By taking this challenge, you can save a lot of money.
If it feels especially hard, you can choose a restaurant to eat at as a celebration if you make it through the month successfully!
100 Envelope Challenge
This challenge is somewhat like a mystery savings game, but it can lead to over $5,000 in savings over the course of a year. Awesome, right?
Basically, you’ll number 100 envelopes from 1 to 100, then mix them up and store them somewhere. Each week, you’ll pull out two envelopes. Whatever the number on the envelope, you’ll put that amount of cash into the envelope to save.
For example, if you draw envelope #5 and envelope #67, you’ll put $5 and $67 into the envelopes respectively to save.
If you aren’t into carrying cash (though cash can be great for savings!) you can always write the numbers down on pieces of paper and then transfer the dollar amount into a savings account digitally.
If you still have questions or need more motivation, thirtyeight. has all the info you need to get started, as well as details for how to do this as a six-month challenge instead of a year.
The $5 Saving Money Challenge
I love the $5 challenge as detailed by Fabulously Frugal. If you use cash even occasionally, this challenge might quickly become a favorite.
The premise is simple. Every single time a $5 bill comes into your hands, you stash it for saving! You can store the bills in an envelope, a box, or a jar. The important thing is that you don’t spend $5 bills, and instead save them.
This method feels very doable, because you don’t need to save tons of money at a time, just the occasional $5.
However, you’ll be blown away by how much money you have at the end of the year. It can easily be thousands of dollars saved!
8-Week Vacation Savings Plan
This 8-Week Vacation Savings Plan detailed by The Soccer Mom Blog is a money savings challenge designed to get you and your family on a vacation, with only 8 weeks of saving!
This is a two part challenge which includes saving and scaling back. In order to make the savings aspect of this challenge a little easier, you start by building up the amount you save each month and then half-way through you get to decrease the amount you put into savings.
With this plan, the most you have to save in one week is $150, which feels like a lot but is much easier than putting away $1,000 all at once!
The second part of this money savings challenge is to scale back on some of your less necessary spending. This means eating at home instead of eating at a restaurant and brewing your coffee instead of stopping at the drive through for that cappuccino you usually get.
Challenge Yourself to Save $5,000 in One Year
This money saving challenge lists out several ways you can cut back on spending and save money instead. Gathering Dreams gives you several attainable savings goals, like not buying movies and books, skipping your morning coffee, stopping unnecessary subscriptions, and meal prepping.
This challenge shows you the average amount that people spend on various different things, so you can see just how much you can save by skipping on these things.
14 Day Money Savings Challenge
Another great savings challenge comes from Money Done Right. This challenge just takes 14 days! You can do anything for just two weeks, even if you’ve never thought about saving your money before.
This challenge breaks each day down into one simple goal or task.
Not only will this challenge result in some immediate savings at the end, but it also sets you up for long-term success by encouraging good financial habits and teaching you what you need to pay attention to in order to maximize savings.
The Pantry Challenge
A pantry challenge involves trying to use up all the items that have been taking up space in your pantry, fridge, and cupboards.
There are a few ways to do this challenge: don’t buy any new groceries, buy minimal staples like milk and eggs, buy groceries but use at least one food from your pantry in every meal.
You can find lots of details and tips on Happy in the Hollow. This challenge can definitely be modified to your situation, so don’t be afraid to get creative as you work your way through the pantry.
Spare Money Savings Challenge
This is one of the oldest challenges in the book. How many of you had a piggy bank when you were a kid? Well, piggy banks can be as effective for adults trying to save as they are for kids.
Let’s be honest; spare change is actually pretty annoying. Coins take up a lot of space, and weight, in your wallet, and it takes so much time trying to pull out exact change when you need it.
Instead, setup a box or jar at home where you can put all your coins. This won’t be a huge amount, but it can really add up, especially if you are intentional about saving quarters!
If you don’t use cash, there are also some apps like Acorn that let you invest or save spare change digitally.
Weather Saving Money Challenge
The Weather Saving Money Challenge is so fun, though the amount you save will vary a lot depending on where you life. The premise is pretty simple. For one year, you save as much as the high temperature of that day!
If you like somewhere hot, with high temperatures of over 100 degrees, you’ll have a lot of savings by the end of the year!
If you want to do this challenge but aren’t sure if you can put that much into savings each day, you can also complete the challenge using Celsius so that you’re still saving, just not as much. Check out Trendy Money if you have any questions about how this challenge works.
Monthly Savings Challenge
A monthly savings challenge consists of intentional savings for one month. This could easily be couples with a no-spend challenge. For 30 days, don’t spend any money.
Any time you see something that you would like to buy, put that amount into savings instead!
A month is relatively short, so it should be totally doable to really focus on saving during these 30 days. You can even set up some kind of reward for yourself if you make it through the month successfully.
Cancellation Challenge
The cancellation challenge is a bit like spring cleaning for your finances. This is the time to buckle down and make sure you haven’t been accidentally throwing away money.
How do you do this? Check your bank statements and track down each payment. Are you paying for subscriptions you don’t use? Have you been signed up to magazines that you don’t actually read? Do you get monthly makeup samples that you never use?
For this challenge, comb through your spending and cancel everything that you don’t actively use and love. You’ll be amazed how much you might save over the course of a year after canceling these subscriptions.
Money Throwdown
Do you have a hard time actually staying motivated? If you’re one of those people (no shame!) who tend to start challenges like this but never follow through, the money throwdown was made for you.
For a money throwdown, you will challenge a friend or family member to a money savings challenge. The competition might get you saving even more, and you’ll have another motivation to keep going.
Having some accountability in a money savings challenge can make all the difference. Plus, you’ll have at least one friend that will also be looking for ways to hang out without spending any money!
Expense Tracking Money Savings Challenge
For this final challenge, it’s all about tracking. Choose a period of time, a month, three months, even a year, and dedicate yourself to actually tracking your spending and making a budget.
There are a lot of ways to track your spending and plenty of budgeting resources, like Mint and Every Dollar. You can also use a budgeting planner if you like to handwrite things.
By tracking your money, you’ll identify areas of unnecessary spending and find places where you could be saving. It’s totally worth it and a great way to start managing your money for the long-haul.
How to Stay Motivated During Your Money Savings Challenge of Choice
When you start a money savings challenge, the hardest part can be sticking with it. Keep yourself on track by writing goals down on a calendar, giving yourself a useful source of motivational notes, and constantly reminding yourself of the long-term goal.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of different money savings challenges, so it should be easy to find one that will work for you. Don’t be afraid to modify a challenge in order to make it work best for you.
These challenges are all about keeping yourself on track and staying focused on the end goal: saving money! If you remember that, it’ll be easier to stay focused and excited about your goals.
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