Amanda Turko
Whether you want to put aside some extra money for a rainy day or to treat yourself to a vacation, there are a ton of easy ways to potentially save hundreds of dollars without making any drastic lifestyle changes. Here are a few ideas and challenges for putting aside some spending money in the New Year.
Collecting Coins
A classic way to save some extra dough is to put all your change into a jar and count it up at the end of the year. It could result in hundreds of dollars in money set aside, but as society becomes more and more cashless, it might be better used as a challenge amongst family members. Give everyone their own jar to save up coins and at the end of each month, whoever saved up the most gets to choose an activity for the family to participate in. A bonus to this is you aren’t “spending” any money because you can use the saved coins to fund any activities.
Saving $5 Bills
This money-saving hack is exactly what it sounds like save every $5 bill you encounter in 2024 and put the bills in a designated envelope or jar. Make sure you don’t spend any of the bills and count them all up at the end of the year. Unless you frequently pay with cash, you might not end up with tons of money set aside using this method, but it’s an easy way to start a small saving without having to dedicate a large amount of money to a fund each month.
Weekly Savings Challenge
For this challenge, put the amount of money into savings that corresponds with the week of the year. For example, in the first week of 2024, you would put $1 into savings, in the second week you would save $2, and so on until week 52 where you would put $52 into savings. This results in $1,378 put aside at the end of the year. (This challenge can also be reversed by starting with $52 and working your way down so that you don’t have to save as much money each week during the holidays next year.)
A Dollar A Day
Just as the name suggests, this challenge has you save $1 each day for a final total of $366 at the end of the year (2024 is a leap year). This challenge is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of extra money in their budget to set aside for a bigger savings challenge. Although the final results aren’t as high, they are perfect for treating yourself to a shopping trip or spa day without having to make any budget sacrifices throughout the year.
Whatever savings method you decide to follow in the New Year, the most important thing is to make sure you stick with the challenge. Don’t be tempted to borrow from the stash if you want a little extra spending money one month. Unless you need the money for bills, leave it untouched. It makes the end-of-year results even more satisfying.
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