5 Money Challenges for 2023!

Do you struggle with saving money? Do You get your paycheck only to realize your paycheck is GONE by your monthly bills and expenses? I’m going to go over some simple ways that you can save money and have FUN saving money! Click here to watch my YouTube video on this topic!

Before we get into the challenges I want to touch on how important it is to tack your goals. First sit down and come up with some solid savings goals. I recently did a video on my personal financial and business goals as well as what steps I take to make sure I hit those goals (click here to watch).

Where to keep your money?

The next thing I recommend is keeping your savings in a high yield savings account so that you can make the MOST interest on your money!

Right now CIT Bank has an interest rate of 1.80% APY! Just for some context, Bank of America is 0.03% APY and charges fees if you don’t maintain a minimum balance.

Brew your coffee challenge

We’ve all heard that if you stop getting coffee on your way to work each morning at the local coffee shop you can save a ridiculous amount of money. That may be true BUT you are really only saving money if you put that money into savings. The average person will just end up spending that money on something else. I challenge you every time you brew your own coffee or drink the free coffee at home or work add $3 to your savings. You can change the amount that you want to save per cup depending on how aggressive you want to save and how much you think that cup of coffee is worth!

52 Week Challenge

Saving over $1,300 in a year may sound really hard, especially if you aren’t used to saving money. The 52-Week Savings Challenge helps you to gradually save up the money. The first week you are only saving $1! Yep, that’s right, only $1! I know you can hit that goal! The following week you save $2, the week after $3, halfway through the year you are saving $26 that week until you get to the last week of the year and saving $52. At the end you will have saved $1,378!! The only downside of this challenge is you are saving the MOST amount of money during the holiday season which may be tough. But if you have a Christmas Sinking fund (click here to learn more about sinking funds and how they can help save your budget) then that shouldn’t be an issue.

I have also created this 52-Week Savings Challenge printable which lets you save at your own rate. You are still saving the same amount but on weeks where money is a little tight you can choose a lower amount to save and months that you receive a bonus or have a 3 paycheck month, you can tackle some of those higher savings weeks. Once you save the amount for that week and transfer it into your savings account simply color in the corresponding hexagon.

The Bad Habits Challenge

Let’s be honest, we have had some bad habits that we want to kick to the curb. Let’s not just make it a New Years Resolution but also save some money while doing it! The Bad Habit Challenge is like the ultimate swear jar that your mom or spouse had trying to curb your potty mount around the kids! Every bad habit that you do, you will put the corresponding amount of money in the “Bad Habit Jar.” Write down a list of the bad habits that you would like to break and next to each habit put a corresponding amount next to each one. For this challenge, the less you save, the better! That means you are kicking those bad habits to the curb!

Spare Change Savings Challenge

If you are a cash user save all your spare change in a cute jar or even one of these change counters. Seeing the amount grow will be motivating for you. If you use a card, for every purchase round up to the nearest dollar or even round $10 and then transfer that into your savings account. So if the total comes to $6.43 you transfer $0.57 if you are doing the level one challenge or if you are doing the level 2 challenge round it up to $10 and transfer $3.57. Be sure to keep your jar in a place that is convenient for you make it a habit to empty your change each day in the jar rather than tossing it into a junk drawer. If you need some extra motivation there are jars that are locked and automatically count the change for you as you insert it (Check it out here)!

Save $1000 in 3 months!

Saving $1,000 may sound really overwhelming, especially if you aren’t a natural saver. BUT if you save just $11 a day you will be saving $1000 in just 3 months! There aren’t many places that you can eat out for under $11 a meal! Can you challenge yourself to just $11 a day to reach your goal in 3 months?

Ways I save money:

• Billshark negotiates lower prices on your monthly bills to save you time, money and hassle.

• Fetch Rewards is a free grocery savings app that rewards you just for snapping pictures of your receipts. That’s really it. Free gift cards on groceries on thousands of products every day, no matter where you get your groceries. Just scan your receipts and get gift cards from places like Amazon, Target, Ulta, Applebees. Use code QHKBH to earn 2,000 points ($2)!

• Credit Sesame offers Credit Score and Monitoring, Savings Recommendations and Identity Theft Protection. ALL FOR FREE.

• CIT Bank offers CDs to provide a safe, secure way to grow your savings. With the CIT Bank No-Penalty CD, you get the security of an 11 month CD with no withdrawal penalty seven days or later after funds have been received.

• Gabi is a full-service, online advisor who compares all your insurance options to find you the right policy, all in under two minutes.

• M1 Finance is an easy to use brokerage platform that allows you to invest in Fractional Shares and auto reinvest!

• Webull Get 2 Free Stocks on WeBull when you deposit $100 (Valued up to $1400).

• Glasses USA Save money by buying your prescription glasses, contacts or prescription sunglasses online. They have an easy to use virtual mirror so you can see what they look like on and carry tons of name brands up to 65% off your first pair.

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