Ways To Save Money – The 52-Week Challenge

If you’ve struggled with saving money, the problem could be the lack of an easily attainable goal. There are so many great ways to save money and build credit, but you probably just haven’t found the right method that works for you. It could also be the fact that you have no idea where to start, how to start, or what your plan should be. Some of us get discouraged by the very little amount we feel we are able to save, and others just have no idea where to begin.

Introducing the 52-Week Challenge

For those of you who have struggled to save your money for any of these reasons at all, there is the 52-week challenge. It’s been talked about on many blogs and in many books and magazines before us, but it continues to make the rounds because it is the easiest, most simple way to start your savings (or boost it!).

What the 52-week challenge proposes, is that each week you put a certain amount in your highest interest savings account. During week 1, you put $1 in there. In week 2 you’d put $2 in your account. Week 3: $3. All the way until you reach week 52, during which you would put away $52.

By the end of the 52 weeks, you’d have $1,378 in your high-interest savings account, plus any interest it has earned over the preceding year.

The challenge is to make it to the end of the year, never missing a week of savings. Putting your money saving goals in the context of a challenge adds an extra motivation factor to it, which many of us need. There’s an element of fun to it as you track each week’s savings and you see yourself get closer to completing the challenge.

Make your version of the 52-Week Challenge

There are, of course, twists and minor adjustments you can make to your 52-week challenge. If you’re worried about the weeks you have to save $40-$50 falling within expensive months, or if you’ve had some sort of windfall, you might consider doing each week out of order. Let’s say you get a big tax return in spring. Why not use that unexpected money to get all the big savings weeks out of the way. Just cross each week you’ve done off the list and go out of order.

You can also choose to double the challenge - by adding another 52 weeks to the challenge, you’ve then brought your total savings up to $5500. Again, whether or not you complete each week of savings in order is entirely up to you. There’s also no one there to say you can’t save more that the allotted amount each week and get your 104-week or 52-week challenge done in less than a year or two years.

Setting up automatic transfers from your chequing to your savings account is also going to make this challenge much, much easier to complete. It’s 52 less things you have to remember if you use the tech we all have access to.

52-week plan not in the cards?

Maybe you just feel you have too much debt to be tackling right now to consider saving money. There are other ways to save money. For instance, you can start on a credit building program from Refresh Financial, which you can use to pay off higher interest debts. If the 52-week challenge seems too overwhelming for your financial situation, prioritizing saving is even more important. If you find yourself in a bad position with no savings to fall back on, that debt you’re fighting to bring down is only going to grow and get worse. You can learn more about Refresh Financial’s programs here.

The other possibility is to get creative with ways to save money. Our Refresh Financial blog features ways to save money, advice, tips and tricks for lowering your monthly expenses and freeing up some cash for your savings. Have a browse and see where you can cut down on your own expenses.

Getting through this 52-week challenge is not just going to give you a good sized start to your savings at the end, it’s also going to get you into some good habits. It’s going to become second nature to you to put money away every week. You’ll have created a new habit, and a good habit at that!

Do you think you could complete the 52-week challenge? What about the 104-week challenge? Let us know in the comments!