52 Week Challenge

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for ways to save money preferably easily and without too much effort like the 52 Week Challenge. For anyone who may not know about the challenge, it’s pretty simple. Every week, you save the number of weeks that it is in dollars. So for the first week, you put aside a dollar. The second week, two dollars. The third week, three dollars. So on and so forth until week 52, when you put aside $52. That’s when you’ve saved a grand total of $1,378! Here’s a chart to help you keep track.

I’ve read about a lot of people starting this challenge in January. New year, new start, right? But that makes the heavy savings during the months of November and December when we are already trying to make every penny count. To remedy this, you can always move your start date or even start in November or December.

Another alternative is to work backwards. So for the first week, you put aside $52. Second week, $51. Third week, $50. Therefore the 52nd and final week will be an easy $1! This gets all the difficult weeks out of the way so you can have more smooth sailing towards the end. If you prefer more of a steady savings, you could save $26.50 a week for the same end amount.

Another way which is very customizable is to just print out the sheet. Then you choose how much you want to save each week and cross if off the chart when you’re done. That way for the weeks you are doing well, you can save the higher numbers immediately and if you have unplanned expenses, you can save the lower numbers.

However you decide to do the challenge, remember to stay motivated! Also don’t forget to share with me your decision and your experience if you’ve already done the 52-Week Savings Challenge.