$1000 Money Savings Challenge

I think we can all relate to feeling the financial strain come November/December. As the seasonal gatherings ramp up, we find ourselves spending money on food, travel, and gifts for those near and dear to us! This money savings challenge is easy and fun - and it doesn't have to be for adults. In fact, we have a money savings challenge going on for our toddler as well! The funds in his savings will go into his (and his little brother's) savings account at the end of the year, while the funds my husband and I are saving will go towards their holiday gifts and the vast amount of holiday expenses. 

This is a slight variation of the 52 week money challenge where you contribute a dollar amount associated to each week in the year, either starting with $52 and finishing with $1, or the reverse ($1 to $52). If going this route, you'll end up with with a little more in your pocket - $1,378 to be exact.

My only complaint with the original money savings challenge is that you need exact change - and once you get into the 20s, I just don't have those random amounts on me. In my opinion, there's less chance of success. I suppose if you're doing an electronic transaction, like moving money into a separate account, then you can easily do it, but then you lose out on the physical/visual/tangible aspect of this challenge. 

As an educator, I find physical printables to be the best way to engage everyone - the more people involved, the better the chance you'll make it to the end! The printable I created this year looks like a honeycomb, and each hex has a number within that corresponds to a dollar amount. As we are doing $1000 for the year, these come in variations of 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 / 25 / 40 and 50. You can somewhat plan in advance to have these dollar amounts on hand - and you can choose, based on what you have in your wallet. Whereas the 52 week challenge keeps you locked into whatever week you're on.

We have a jar that sits on our kitchen counter - it's actually a repurposed candle - that collects our pocket change. We started to utilize this as our money challenge jar. It's glass, so the kids can see what's in there, and it was already something that collected money, so it makes sense to them that we just continue to put money in there. As I said before, this particular money savings printable makes it a lot easier to contribute because I intentionally kept it in denominations that we are likely to have on hand, or at the very least, be able to get from the ATM if we forget. 

So there ya have it - an easy way to teach the importance of savings and also create a nice little nest egg for the end of the year expenses! Fun for all, easy to use, and a nice little money savings challenge! 

This printable is available on my Etsy shop if you're interested in using it! You can use the code "HappyDuck10" for 10% off any purchase in the shop!