5 Simple Challenges to Boost Your Savings in 2019

Whether you are participating in a challenge to boost your savings, starting a new project and/or setting life goals, it’s important that you start with a “self-trust mindset”. You must believe in yourself and know that you can achieve anything you put your mind to. Beginning with the right mindset will help you move through the process with confidence. Bill Gates famously said, “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” So, if you’ve failed in the past, don’t hold on to the feelings of failure. Forgive yourself, evaluate the situation and isolate the issue. Reviewing the situation will allow you the opportunity to work through any unresolved feelings. Begin this new challenge and/or project with a “can do” attitude. Remove any thoughts of scarcity from your mindset. Your thoughts should focus on abundance. See yourself successfully completing the boost your savings challenge and celebrating your success. Lastly, be realistic about your current finances. If your budget can’t accommodate the amount included on the original boost your savings challenge, modify the dollar amount to something that you can afford. As you successfully complete the boost your savings challenge, you’ll increase your confidence. Now you know that you’re capable of saving money. As the start to celebrate these small milestones, you’ll feel more comfortable challenging yourself to save more. If you’ve heard it once, I’m sure you’ve heard it a thousand times, write it down.So, let’s start the process. 1. How much do you want to save? 2. Why are you saving the money? 3. How will you feel when you achieve this goal? My Story: In prior years, I failed at these boost your savings challenges. Primarily because I didn’t include the money for the challenge as a line item on my budget. And, I kept the money at home.  If I wanted to succeed this time around, I needed to do something different. In the past, if I missed a week and I couldn’t catch up, I would abandon the challenge.  And, I would spend the money that I was able to save on something other than the intended purpose. In 2018, I decided to participate in both the penny challenge and the reverse 52-week challenge. My process:

• Create a printable tracker reflecting the weekly contributions and balances.
• Add both challenges to my budget.
• Open a separate savings account. Although the funds were deposited to the same savings account, each challenge had a separate savings goal.
• Link my savings account to my primary (direct deposit) checking account.
• Each payday schedule a transfer to move funds from my checking account into my savings account. My thought process for transferring the funds electronically was if I don’t touch the money, I won’t spend it. And, it worked.

5 Money Saving Challenges to Boost Your Savings in 2019:

1. Penny Challenge – save a penny for 365 days. One penny on January 1st, 2 pennies on January 2nd and so on until December 31st ($3.65). At the end of the year, you will have saved $667.95.
2. $5 Challenge – the great thing about this challenge, there’s no set amount. Skies the limit. So, the rules for this challenge are simple, save every $5 bill that you receive. Every time you receive a $5 bill, put it up in safe place. Don’t count it until the end of the year. If you think you might be tempted to spend the cash, deposit the funds monthly and/or quarterly.
3. 52-week Challenge (Modified Versions: Reverse 52-Week Challenge and $.50 52-Week Challenge): Each challenge is an incremental savings plan that is designed to help you save money throughout the year. The concept is simple: start the year off by saving$1 the first week, and then put away an additional dollar each week after that. At the end of 52 weeks, you’ll save $1,378.
4. Spare Change: For one year, put all your change in a container. At the end of the year, roll the coins and deposit the funds into your savings account.
5. Spend only paper money: For one year, you can only spend paper money. If the cashier asks…do you have exact change? Do you have a penny etc.? No, I do not. Put all your change in a container. At the end of the year, roll the coins and deposit the funds into your savings account.

I recommend picking one challenge from the list. Remain consistent throughout the year. After successfully completing your 2019 boost your savings challenge, you might try a different one next year. Or, set up multiple savings goals next year and participate in a few. Track Your Progress.  Download FREE printables today!