Overwhelmed at where to start saving money? These 30 beginner-friendly savings challenges help you learn how to start saving through achievable and fun challenges. Whether you can save a little or a lot each week doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you are consistent in creating healthy financial habits that will help motivate you to continue your journey to become financially healthy.
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What Are Beginner-Friendly Savings Challenges?
Savings challenges are ideal for budgeting beginners because they are structured in a way that money is set aside consistently over time.
Of the challenges listed below, some don’t require you to budget in advance, while others won’t negatively impact your budget at all. Some savings challenges are best automated, while others increase or decrease gradually. Both help the challenge feel more manageable.
Most of all, every savings challenge listed below not only helps encourage you to start consistently saving, but they are achievable and motivating ways that also encourage positive financial habits overall.
Perfect Savings Challenges For Beginners
1. $5 Challenge
Every time you receive a $5 bill, save it rather than spend it. Over time, those small bills can add up surprisingly fast. This challenge is easy since it doesn’t involve budgeting in advance, just discipline to save when you come across $5.
2. Round Up Challenge
This is a “set it and forget it” challenge. Link an app or join a bank that rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar and saves the difference for you. For example, if you spent $3.25 on coffee, $0.75 would automatically be deposited into savings.
3. Spare Change Challenge
Every evening, empty your pockets and wallet of coins. While spare change may seem insignificant, it can add up to hundreds over a year. It’s also a great way to involve kids and teach them about saving.
4. 52-Week Savings
A 52-week savings challenge is a great way to save money each week. You can gradually increase or decrease the amount you save each week, or you can save a set amount each week. Whatever way you decide to complete this challenge, it is a great one for beginners because it makes savings feel manageable and achievable.
5. 26-week Savings Challenge
The 26-week savings challenge is a slight modification of the 52-week challenge. It is ideal for people who are paid bi-weekly, and can help smooth out any budgeting inconsistencies.
6. Pantry Challenge
This savings challenge is a little different, since you commit to using only what is already in your pantry, freezer, and fridge for a week or more. The savings you see here are within your grocery costs. It also helps to reduce food waste. To make your savings more visual, keep a list of what you avoided buying simply by eating what you already had on hand.
7. No Takeout Challenge
Similar to a pantry challenge, this one focuses on not ordering takeout for a set period, such as a week or a month. Instead, plan meals at home and transfer the money you would have spent eating out into your savings account. To increase your chances of success as a beginner, don’t attempt this at a time when you would naturally eat out more. (For us, that’s Friday nights during marching band season.)
8. No-Spend Challenge
Whether you decide to pick a weekend, a week, or an entire month, avoid spending money on unnecessary expenses. A no-spend challenge resets your spending habits and encourages creativity for activities that can be done for free. Remember to track your progress each time you save.
9. Weather Savings Challenge
This savings challenge incorporates a seasonal twist! Check the temperature each week, and deposit an amount that is equal to the high temperature for that week. For example, if it’s going to be 75°F, then set aside $75. If you need to simplify it, make sure you cap the maximum dollar amount if it’s needed.
10. Save-The-Change Challenge
Once a week, check the balance of your checking account and transfer any “odd” dollars and cents into savings. For example, if your balance is $368.87, then transfer $8.87. This not only creates a habit of saving money, but also checking in with your bank account balance (rather than dreading it).
11. Coffee-Break Challenge
If you normally buy coffee out, skip buying it for a set period and save that money instead. Saving even $6 a week from the local cafe adds up to over $300 a year. You can still enjoy your coffee, just make it a mindful treat, not a daily habit.
12. Found Money Challenge
Any time that you receive some unexpected income, save 50% to 100% of it. This could be rebates, gifts, refunds, or even money from side hustles. Since you weren’t expecting the money, you won’t miss it. Plus, it’s a nice way to build savings quickly without negatively impacting your budget.
13. Monthly Theme Challenge
Assign each month a savings theme, such as Dry January, Frugal February, Make-It March, and give each theme rules that help you to focus on creating better financial habits. This gives your savings challenges the ability to feel new and fun all year long.
14. One Thing A Day Savings
For 30 days, avoid buying one non-essential item. Track daily what you skipped buying, and add up the total savings at the end of the month. This savings challenge increases awareness of impulse spending and shows how small spending decisions can have big financial impacts.
15. Subscription Audit Challenge
Review your current subscriptions, and cancel at least one that is unused or underused. Add the subscriptions’ monthly cost to your savings account instead. This savings challenge only takes a few minutes, but it can permanently free up funds.
16. Beginners 100-Envelope Savings Challenge
Write the numbers 1 through 100 on some envelopes. Each week, randomly choose one of the envelopes, and save that amount. To make this challenge beginner-friendly, start with envelopes 1 through 50, or limit the number of envelopes you pull per month.
17. Goal-Based Savings
Pick one larger savings goal you have, and break it down into mini weekly or bi-weekly deposits. This could mean that a $500 emergency fund is broken down into $25 deposits each week. Don’t forget to use a visual tracker to help you stay motivated as you watch your savings account increase.
18. Digital Detox Challenge
Spend a weekend off from your digital devices to avoid temptations to shop online. At the end of the weekend, transfer what you would have spent into your savings account. This challenge isn’t only great for your budget, but also your mental health.
19. Declutter & Save Challenge
Declutter one area of your house each week, and sell any unused items. Put what you make from the items into your savings account. Not only do you gain space, but you also gain money.
20. 3-Month Rule Challenge
Any time that you want to buy a non-essential item over $50, write it down and wait 3 months. If you still want the item after three months, you can buy it. You can also skip purchasing the item and save the money instead. This challenge helps to fight impulse spending and helps to build delayed gratification.
21. $20 Weekly Savings
Commit to saving $20 each week over a year. After the year is done, you will have $1,040, which is enough for even a baby emergency fund. You can even automate your savings transfers to make them easier to stick to.
22. No-Lunch-Out Challenge
Same concept as the coffee-break challenge, the no-lunch-out challenge aims to reduce what you spend on eating out for convenience. Whether it is a daily lunch or two sodas a week from the gas station, saving even $7 a week leads to $364 saved over a year. Use part of that to reward yourself at the end of the year, or add it to a long-term savings goal you have.
23. 365-Day Nickel Challenge
This savings challenge shows that even small, daily increments can grow impressively over time. Start by putting aside $0.05 on the first day, $0.10 on the second, and so on until you get to the final day, where you deposit $18.25. The small deposits throughout the year add up to $3,339.75 that you set aside!
24. Dice Roll Challenge
Once a week, roll a 6-sided die, and save that amount. You can level this challenge up by multiplying the rolled amount by $5 and setting aside that much. This adds a game-like twist to saving, keeping it unpredictable and fun.
25. One-In-One-Out Savings
If you’re looking for a savings challenge that encourages mindful spending while budgeting, give this one a try. For every new purchase, save the equivalent amount, or more, into savings. For example, if you spent $30 on a new sweater, then add at least $30 to your savings account as well.
26. Birthday Month Challenge
During the month of your birthday, save an amount that is equal to your age in years. This could be in dollars or in change. It’s a fun challenge that you can do once a year, and it will grow as you do.
27. Habit Streak Savings Challenge
Commit to saving $1 to $5 every day that you complete a healthy habit, like walking, skipping soda, or even journaling. This stacks good money habits with overall self-discipline, as well as rewards your consistency.
28. Alphabet Savings Challenge
Assign a whole dollar value to each letter of the alphabet, so A=$1, B=$2, and so on. Save an amount that is based on your name, a favorite word, or even random word selections like the solution to the daily Wordle. This creates a personalized and quirky challenge that helps build healthy money habits.
29. Zero-Based Budget Savings
This method takes a savings spin on the zero-based budget method. Each month, when you “zero out” your budget, make sure that you include a fixed savings amount. You could start with just $20 a month, or more. This savings challenge helps to teach budgeting skills as it forces you to prioritize savings within your budget.
30. Holiday Countdown Savings
Similar to creating a sinking fund, this challenge has you count how many weeks are left until a holiday, like Christmas or a summer vacation, and save a fixed amount each week until then. This reduces the stress you’ll feel when that time arrives, and helps you prepare for some of the seasonal expenses in the process.
Beginner-Friendly Savings Challenges Create Healthy Financial Habits
Challenges are meant to take the dread out of saving money and add an element of fun. Try a few of these beginner-friendly savings challenges to help motivate change in your financial habits and achieve your savings goals.
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