If You Joined a Money-Saving Challenge in January, How Much Would You Have Today?

Saving money doesn't sound like a lot of fun at first, especially when you think about everything you would have to deprive yourself of to hit your target. However, turning it into a game, even for a short while, can be a great motivator in the money-saving venture. The game itself is a money-saving challenge.

You probably heard of money-saving challenges at the beginning of the year but were somehow skeptical about getting into one. It's understandable but also regrettable that most people are too careful to take risks, especially on 'new' ideas. It's time to unlock the reality behind these saving options.

Let's look at some money-saving challenges for 2022 and discover how much you'll have saved by today, depending on your preferred challenge.

1. 52 Week Savings Challenge

This money-saving challenge has existed for some time and is perhaps one of the most straightforward options one can ever take up. It involves setting aside a specific amount weekly. 

If you save a consistent amount weekly, you would probably have some insignificant amount. What does this mean? If you were to save Ksh100 per week; by now, you would only have about Ksh2,600. 

The typical 52-week savings challenge involves saving in hundreds per week. For the first week, you would set aside Ksh100, then add Ksh 100 for the following week to make it Ksh200, and so on. By now, you would have saved Ksh35,100. Quite a good sum of money, right?

Read Also: How to Save Up for A Big Purchase, Painlessly

2. 26- Week Bi-Weekly Saving Plan

A 26-week bi-weekly challenge is more like the 52-week plan, but the difference is that instead of setting aside some set amount weekly, you'll combine two weekly payments and set it aside at once. 

This saving alternative might be ideal for individuals who receive weekly payments. However, it doesn't lock anyone out as long as you can keep up with it.

Using the same scenario as the previous challenge, by now, you'd be having Ksh137,800 as part of your savings. Since you are making bi weekly payments, you’ll set aside week 1 and 2 contributions (300 bob) and give it at once, then week 3&4 (700) and so on. It's pretty appealing to think of how much you can accomplish with such an amount.

Read Also: How to Boost Your Monthly Savings

3. Monthly Saving Challenge

The monthly saving challenge is an excellent alternative that a salaried person or a person with a consistent income flow can explore. It involves setting aside a specific amount monthly and increasing it successively for the next six months. The amount stagnates in the seventh month before reducing successively for the rest of the months.

Ideally, the pattern it presents is climbing up a ladder on equal steps before descending it. Depending on your monthly budget and earnings, you can start by setting aside Ksh2,000 in the first month, and then increase it by Ksh1,000 monthly. Following this plan, you'd now have Ksh27,000.

Read Also: 6 Saving Tips for Low-Income Earners

4. 365 Day Money Challenge

The 365-day challenge enables one to save daily. Starting your savings with a shilling might seem like a big joke, but how much it can yield will surprise you. The idea is to save an amount corresponding to the day of the year you're in. Alternatively, you can decide to save in multiples of five daily.

Regardless of your choice, the idea is to have you save daily for the entire year.

Using the basics of this model of starting with a shilling, you'd now have Ksh16,338

Read Also: Stability: How to Budget and Save A Lot Early in your Career

5. The No Spend Challenge

The no-spend challenge is where you select a day or duration you commit to spending nothing but saving the amount you could have used. While it may seem like a hard challenge, you can still make it doable or interesting by doing it with your friends or family members.

However, you need to factor in all bills and necessities. Therefore, you spend nothing on non-essentials. This challenge is helpful, especially if you want to develop healthier spending and money management habits by participating more frequently.

It might be tricky to quantify the amount you would save by taking up this challenge since non-essentials vary. However, if you want to make it more worthwhile, you can do it weekly. After completing each duration, remember to reward yourself for remaining motivated.

Read Also: 10 Warning Signs You Are Living Beyond Your Means

6. The Pay Yourself When You Make a Money Mistake Challenge

Many people tend to slip before they can keep a steady path on their financial journey. So now, for this challenge, whenever you make a money mistake, you penalize yourself by setting aside some money.

The mistake could be waiting until your electricity tokens deplete before recharging or paying your rent late. Although some mistakes might be beyond your control, you can use this challenge to teach yourself to plan for eventualities.

You can select how much you would set this penalty to be. However, do not make it an amount you can easily settle. Instead, choose a denomination that would make you feel the pinch for committing the money mistake. Ksh500 might be a great start.

As you become a better financial manager, these savings might reduce. The amount you'd have will depend on the number of mistakes you made and the penalty amount you decided to use.

Read Also: 11 Worst Money Management  Mistakes To Avoid

7. The Kick a Bad Habit Money Challenge

Various bad habits could be choking your finances as long as you keep them going. This challenge is effective if you want to overcome some tendencies and put your money to better use. It could be smoking, drinking, or the extreme usage of soft drinks. The list can be endless.

Let's use an example of tropical sweets or juicy fruit you buy daily from hawkers every morning on your way to work. For instance, the least amount you'd spend is Ksh20 bob. In a month, you'll have spent Ksh400, which by now could be Ksh2,400.

If you were to kick out this habit, your savings or emergency fund account could have a Ksh2,400 boost. If you worked on multiple habits, this amount would increase significantly.

Read Also: Trying to Save With No Progress? Here Are 9 Things You Are Doing Wrong

8. Spare Change Challenge

Since the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, most people prefer using digital payment platforms like M-Pesa. Even so, it doesn't negate that, in most cases, the total cost of your purchase has some pending coins. So whether you use mobile, electronic means of payment, or cash, you can still have some change to spare.

You can decide to save all the coins that you receive as change. You can also figure out the coins from your mobile app payment and set them aside. Alternatively, you can decide to save all the Ksh20 bob coins you get.

You could be buying your groceries weekly, shopping monthly, and buying daily essentials whenever required. All these buying periods would have given you significant money by now.

Read Also: 8 Grocery Shopping Tips That Will Save You Money

9. No Eating Out Challenge

You might not sit physically at an eatery to order some food however, you might make a call to have your favorite food delivered to your doorstep or office—all these amounts to eating out that this challenge helps you overcome.

If you order your lunch for five working days at Ksh250, in a month, you'd have spent Ksh5,000, and by now, that would be Ksh30,000. 

If you think about it, this is quite some amount to spend on only a single meal, not considering the fluctuations that are bound to arise. It would have been the average amount you'd have in savings by taking part in this challenge.

Read Also: 5 Lifestyle Changes to Make If You Want to Save Money

10. The 100 Envelope Challenge

To participate in this challenge, you need 100 numbered envelopes. The numbers represent denominations in hundreds. Place these envelopes in a bucket after shuffling them. Daily, you pick an envelope and put the money represented by the envelope's number. For example, if you pick number ten, you put Ksh1,000 into the envelope and seal it.

The downside of this challenge is that it might be tricky to have these amounts at your disposal daily. However, you can engage in this challenge twice a week to make it more workable to last you the whole year. For anyone who had taken up this challenge at the beginning of the year, you'd now have Ksh127,500.

Read Also: 11 Ways to Save Money Without Driving Yourself Crazy

Wrapping Up: You Can Still Save Using a Money Challenge From Now Till the End of the Year!

After looking at all these challenges, there's none that locks anyone out regardless of your starting point. All you need to do is identify your most preferred challenge and modify it as you deem fit. You cannot afford to miss out on these saving opportunities after seeing the yields they can get you.