Here's a twist on the internet-popular weekly savings challenge. For those who haven't seen it, the challenge begins with saving $1 the first week, $2 the second week and so on until on the 52nd week $52 is deposited for a total of $1378.00. Another popular idea is to do the challenge backward so that the largest deposits are made in January and the smaller ones in December.
Some gracious person broke this challenge down by pay cycles. I really appreciate this because we have 26 pays per year and would like to participate in the challenge. I'm also doing it backward with the first deposit at $104.00. At the end of the year, if we faithfully make our deposits, we'll have $1404.00 set aside. Since today is payday, I've already set aside the first deposit.
I'll join you. I am doing a little different though. I am using the first saving chart and putting $26.50 in weekly. At the end of the year I will have $1378.00 saved up.
I'm planning on doing the reverse method. I have the money for the first three weeks (Christmas money) and then I should be on track with pay periods to add to my stash every week. I have no idea what we'll do with the money at the end of the year, but I'll sure be excited to see the pile of cash!
Me too! If I had an idea of what the money would be for, I could be so much more focused with my savings. As it is, we talked about using the money to renovate our kitchen after our daughter is done with college.
Thanks for the link! I wasn't sure about doing this but I went to the page and it suggested doing it randomly so when you had more money you could mark off those boxes. That sounds more doable to me.
Exactly. I disregarded this concept for a couple of years because it never "fit" our pay cycles or the random nature of cash needs for the week or month.
I love your signature line: Reboot My Life Challenges. Awesome!
Update: I'm on the reverse biweekly schedule. I put $100.00 gift money for this cycle's allotment into the savings category as well as next time's $96.00 allotment. Gas has been so cheap that I've developed a surplus so I moved it to savings. I won't adjust my gas budget down because I'm confident that this current phase of cheap gas is temporary.
I have $300.00 toward my year-end goal of $1400.00.
I'm so glad my husband and I decided to participate in this challenge. The money is going to come in handy to take an impromptu and much needed family weekend vacation. Every expense for this trip is already covered in cash so we won't be wondering how we're going to pay for it after we get home.
I did not have a firm goal in mind when I joined this challenge. I just knew that I wanted to do it. Now I'm delighted that I did and that I started with the big deposits first. When we jump back in, we can still expect to set aside $1200 for the year.
I've already saved up $110 this month. But that's including my change bowl cash which has been sitting around for years. Can't expect that much for the rest of the month.
You can count me in too! I already have $175 saved up and plan to put $50 every 2 weeks in, so I should probably have over the amount stated in the chart! WE CAN DO THIS!
Progress report: We've been faithfully setting aside our money for the 52-week savings challenge. So far we have put away $644.00. We're on track to save up the full $1404.00 for the year. With the next deposit we'll be past the halfway point. That's when it gets so much easier. (We're on the reverse biweekly schedule.) We replaced the money we took out for our trip in January.
The best side benefit of doing this project is that I sit down and work out a new budget every pay cycle, based on the balances in each of my accounts and the anticipated needs. I'm toying with the idea of capping some of my budget categories and then just replacing the funds when the total drops below a particular amount.
It's interesting to me that when I'm motivated, I can always find a way to carve some money out of the budget.
Well I had to spend my money on a long distance trip to a funeral in Feb. I saved up more and now we have another long distance funeral to go to. We'll see what I come back with, if anything. We paid to feed 15-20 people twice at the last one...I think this one will be more organized food wise. But we'll see.
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