17 Biweekly Money Saving Challenges to Boost Your Savings (2024)

Money can be a problem for some of us. I’m not saying that we earn less or are living in poverty. Not at all. Instead, some of us are avid spenders, and we end up with more spending and little savings. In such cases, what can be done?

Surely, we tell ourselves that we will spend lesser in the next week or next month. And once a year, we make a New Year Resolution saying that we will save a particular sum of money during the coming 12 months. Sadly, such ideas always fail.

This could make us wonder: what are the best ways to save money? Are there any good ways to begin with? Or, how can she save more money every month but not me?

If you’re facing such a question about how to save money, don’t worry. In this article, I will write about 17 awesome bi-weekly money saving challenges. As a matter of fact, these bi-weekly money saving challenges can boost your savings. If you’re unable to save anything at this point in time, these bi-weekly challenges could help start the savings habit too. Therefore, I encourage you to read this article fully and save as much money as possible.

Why Bi-Weekly Savings Challenges?

If you’re wondering why I repeat the term bi-weekly savings challenges, here’s my simple explanation.

Bi-weekly means once every two weeks or a span of two weeks or fortnightly. All of us have 52 weeks in a year. We get paid every week or every month. Some of us get paid daily too.

A bi-weekly money savings challenge means we do something every two weeks that would help us to save more money or launch the savings habit. It means we take the challenges for only 26 weeks of the year.

That means you challenge yourself or another competitor to save more money every two weeks.

Sounds good? So, what are the best and most awesome bi-weekly savings challenges? Here we go.

17 Amazing Bi-Weekly Savings Challenges

These challenges are very simple. However, it requires some effort and determination to ensure their success. But I can promise you that the results of taking these challenges will be simply amazing. As a matter of fact, there are no losers of these challenges. It creates a win-win situation for everyone. And you can start them at any time of the year too.

1. The Half Salary Challenge

The half-salary challenge is at the top of my list. This simply means that you put away as much as two weeks of your salary as savings. I know this sounds difficult, but believe me, it is possible. Imagine that you’ve worked for only half a month and hence you’ll get only half the pay. Manage your finances in that half salary. You’ll be shocked to find that it is actually possible to meet all your needs in this 50 per cent of your salary.

2. Spending Blackouts

A spending blackout is perfect for persons that get a weekly or monthly paycheck. Select any two weeks during a month during which you will not spend anything. Obviously, this requires a lot of planning since you should have all the needs ready for this challenge.

Once you enter the challenge week, put aside your credit cards, debit cards and other things that you use for spending. Ensure that you have no expenses during these two weeks.

3. No Spending Days

I began this challenge by downloading an expense tracker. This expense tracker informs how much money you spend daily and where the money went. It also alerts you about income from any sources. These mobile apps come with daily, weekly and monthly no-spending days.

Decide on the days when you won’t spend anything and continue that strictly for a couple of days. Especially during weekdays, ensure you don’t spend. That way, you’re managing the most crucial days on which you would otherwise spend lots of money.

4. The 52-Week Saver

The 52-week saver is a simple challenge. In this, you challenge yourself to put aside some money at the beginning of the week. This amount can be anything from $10 onwards. If you save $10 for 52 weeks, at the end of the year, you have $520 extra in your pockets.

The amount of $10 a week appears small and hence, is manageable. However, you can step up the amount depending on your needs. I suggest that you begin with a minimum of $10 only.

5. The Kitchen Challenge

This is another superb way to save money and actually have good health. The Kitchen challenge means you won’t buy any food items till everything in your kitchen, pantry, and fridge is over. Of course, I am not implying that you should starve.

Not at all. Instead, use creative ways to prepare food from whatever food items you have in stock in the pantry and the fridge. That way, you save a lot of food from going to waste, enjoy cooking and food and also save money.

Also read: 10 Tips on How to Save Money on Food

6. Loose Coins Hoarder

Americans throw away a whopping $63 million worth of small change in the form of coins. These include dimes, cents and quarters. Instead of throwing these away or leaving them unattended around the house, collect them in a coinbox or a jar or any other container.

Encourage your family to do so. Continue hoarding coins for a period of 52 weeks. Sort out these coins, roll them in bunches of 100 each and exchange the coins for notes at any bank. You will be surprised at the amount of money you collect at the end of the year.

Also read: 75+ Free Coin Counting Machines Near Me

7. No Credit Card Spends Challenge

The next on my list has to do with credit cards. For a couple of weeks every month, stop using your credit card to order or buy anything. Simply use cash to pay. Also, don’t use your debit cards during this period. And avoid using other electronic means to spend as well.

You can shop only till the hard cash in your pockets, purse, or wallet runs dry. Prolong the number of days you can go without spending. This might require some earlier planning to ensure that you can fulfil the challenge successfully.

8. Holiday Bank Challenge

There’re lots of banks and credit unions that allow you to open a special savings account to save for a holiday. Open such an account and start saving some money each week for 52 weeks.

The bank or credit union gives you a small bonus at the start of the holiday season for which you are planning. This bonus or incentive can be anything from $10 to $25, depending on the amount that you save.

9. No Dining Out

Surely, all of us love to dine out occasionally. Yet, it is not something from our list of basic needs. Therefore, not dining outside during the week can help boost your savings. You can fix blackout periods for yourself and avoid dining out. This rule also applies to food deliveries and takeaways from restaurants.

You would surely be amazed at the amount of money that you save by skipping one week of not dining out. You can do this every two weeks or bi-weekly and extend the blackout periods whenever you return.

10. Empty Pockets Challenge

The empty pockets challenge means spending only whatever money is left in your pockets, literally. This means you won’t be withdrawing any money from your bank or spending on credit cards and debit cards. Nor will you take out money from any coins that you have saved.

If you’re married or have kids, tell them too to contribute to the empty pockets challenge. All expenses for the week should come from whatever cash is in your hands only, with no allowances such as withdrawals from banks and savings.

11. No Booze Challenge

Another way to save money and step-up savings is the no booze challenge. This simply means that your family and you won’t consume alcohol during that specific week or month. Research shows that an American, on average, spends $300 per month on alcohol of various kinds.

The amount gets larger when you add snacks and other food that goes with alcohol. Saving on booze isn’t difficult. At the same time, you can consume all the liquor that’s stored in the house during these periods. But a word of caution: drink moderately and responsibly.

Also read: 10 Simple Ways to Save Money while Drinking at Bars

12. Alternatives Challenge

I can easily understand that you, as well as others in your household, would have certain preferences when it comes to buying something. Basically, this means that you and your family prefer goods from a specific brand. During this bi-weekly challenge, you can look for cheaper alternatives for such stuff.

There’s no need to compromise your lifestyle. However, you save a lot of money by using alternative brands. In fact, you might come across some superb yet cheaper brands of a particular product that you never knew before through the alternatives bi-weekly challenge.

13. The Weatherman Challenge

What is the weatherman challenge? Actually, it’s a unique way to save money and was made popular by some financial news websites. It goes this way: First, you decide on a particular day of the week for the challenge. Let’s say that you fix Wednesday. In such a case, every Wednesday, check the temperature in your city and put that much money in your savings.

If the temperature on summer Wednesday is 100 degrees Fahrenheit, save $100. And in winter, if it goes to minus eight degrees Fahrenheit, save $8 only. This can be a very funny yet exciting bi-weekly money savings challenge.

14. Black Notes Challenge

All of us know that there are no black-coloured notes in the US currency. And nor am I talking of what some people call ‘black money’ or money on which tax has been evaded or earned by illegal means. No. Instead, I am discussing a challenge where for a particular week or month or even a year, you stop spending notes of any particular value.

For example, if you choose the $10 notes, you will not spend any $10 notes that you get and instead save them in a jar or a container. Keep doing so for 52 weeks and see how your money collects to a big amount.

15. The Robinhood Challenge

Robinhood is an app that allows Americans to invest as low as $5 on stocks, currencies, commodities, cryptocurrencies, mutual funds and other assets. To take this challenge, you will have to download the app on your smartphone. It is free of cost, though premium versions are also available for a small fee.

Start investing some amount of money. The next week, double the amount. Keep adding more and more money to step up your investments. It should be more than the previous week. For example, if you started investing $5 this week, aim for $10 next week and $20 the following week. This is a superb way to make your money grow.

Also Read: Best Investment Apps

16. Pay Yourself Challenge

The Pay Yourself challenge can be exciting, provided you are committed to winning. It simply means that from the salary or wages that you earn, pay yourself first. You can slice off 10 per cent of your salary as a payment from you to yourself.

Keep aside this 10 per cent at a bank or invest it somewhere to make it grow. During the following weeks and months, pay incentives and salary raises to yourself. This keeps the money savings challenge more exciting.

17. Money Manager Challenge

For families with pre-teen and teen kids, this is a superb bi-weekly money savings challenge that can actually boost savings. It involves appointing one member of the family as the money manager for a week. They have to handle all the money for a week and try to save as much as they can.

At the end of the month, the person that managed to save the highest amount of money after all expenses is the winner. You will have to set budgets for such a challenge since losing track and overspending can also occur due to a lack of experience and money management skills.

Using the Saved Money

The golden rule of all the money that you save with these 17 awesome bi-weekly money savings challenges is that it should not be spent. Instead, invest the money in something and make it grow.

As I mention earlier, there’re superb apps in the US that allow you to invest in stocks and other assets. Putting your money into these assets can help you grow and make you rich.

In Conclusion

As you can see, all these money saving challenges are simple, exciting and fun. You can take one or more of these challenges, depending on various factors such as your needs and the size of your household.