35+ Money Saving Challenges For Every Budget! (2024)

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Okay, here’s the deal, according to this article, less than 40% of Americans have enough money set aside to pay for a $1,000 emergency fund – and that’s pretty scary.

If you fall into this category, don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to start saving money and building that starter emergency fund. One of my favorite ways to increase my savings is by doing a savings challenge.

I’ll share with you some of the more common / basic savings challenges that you can use to get started, and I will also share some other challenges from other personal finance bloggers that you can try out yourself.

I have a good assortment of challenges, I have some that are great for smaller budgets, and some for people with bigger goals!

XX Money Saving Challenges

Here are some creative money saving challenges to save money that you can start using at any time!

52 Week Savings Challenge

This is probably the most popular savings challenge out there! Here’s how it works: you start out by saving $1 then you add a $1 each week to the amount you should be saving, so by the time week 52 rolls around, you will be saving $52! After saving for 52 weeks, you will have saved up $1,378 (perfect for starter emergency funds!).

Reverse 52 Week Savings Challenge

One of the issues I’ve had with the 52 week savings challenge, is that if you start it at the beginning of the year, by the time week 40-52 roll around, it will be around the holidays! And I don’t know about you, but the end of year is when I spend the most money, I mean between gifts, decorations, FOOD?! I don’t think I’d have an extra $40-$50+ to save!

So, what’s the solution? A reverse 52 week saving challenge!

The challenge works similar to the regular 52 week savings challenge, but there’s a twist. You start by saving $52, then each week you subtract a $1 from the amount you need to save.

Don’t worry, at the end you will have saved $1,378 just like the normal saving challenge.

Daily Quarter Challenge

This challenge comes from Mom Managing Chaos (who has a download that can help you keep track!).

This challenge works similar to the 52 Week Money Saving Challenges, but for this challenge you start by saving just $0.25, then you add $0.25 to the amount you will save every day. So day one is $0.25, day two is $0.50, day three is $0.75 – you get the idea!

If you want to take on this challenge, and you successfully do it for one year, you will have $16,786.25 saved at the end.

$5 Savings Challenge

This one is exactly what it sounds like – save up every $5 that comes into your possession. This savings challenge is great for anyone that uses a lot of cash, for example, people that do cash envelope budgeting.

$1,000 Saving Challenge For Biweekly Paychecks

Get paid biweekly? Here’s a great savings challenge from Inspired Budget that will help you save up $1,000 over 26 weeks!

Savings Challenge For Tight Budgets

This savings challenge comes from Simple Money Mom and is great if you have a smaller budget, since you won’t need to save more than $60 in a week! After 26 weeks (or paychecks) of saving, then you will have saved up $1000!

Spare Change Saving Challenge

This one is where you save up all your spare change! This is also sometimes called the “Keep All the Change” challenge. How much you end up saving depends on how much change you usually have!

Save $5,000 in One Year Challenge

If you’d like to save up a nice emergency fund quickly, here is a savings challenge from Gathering Dreams that will help you save $5,000 in one year.

Save $400+ In 30 Days Challenge

If you have want to save for something quickly, you could try out this 30 day savings challenge. You start by saving $1 then you add $1 each day (so day 2 you would be saving $2, day 3 you would save $3, etc), and by the end of the 30 days you would have saved up over $450!

Save $10,000 in One Year Challenge

For this savings challenge, if you’re willing to save $193 every week, you could have $10,000+ saved up after one year!