Thanks to this beautiful weather we've been having lately, I've been in the spring cleaning mode and have been plowing through my room and closet and getting rid of stuff left and right! I've been packing up a lot of my winter clothes, and organizing everything that I can.... which is where the point of this post comes in!
I love to save my money, and am constantly thinking up different ideas to do with my spare jingle and dollars. In the past, I have put away $10 a week, so that when Christmas time rolled around, I would not be over stressed by all the expensive costs of gifts, decorations, dinners and traveling. I was recently inspired by the Stuck at Home Mom blog to try the "52 Week Money Challenge". It's really simple.. all you do is...
For every week of the year, you save that much in dollars.
So for Week 1, you save $1... Week 17, you save $17... and so on...
Get it? So by Week 52, you will have around $1,378.00 if you stick with it!
However, since I am using this for Christmas expenses, I will obviously have to dip into mine earlier, however I will continue to contribute the weekly amount! (I also realize it's May, so this may not be very helpful to you right now - unless you jump on board now, or take $171.00 and start from this week)
are...
I love to save my money, and am constantly thinking up different ideas to do with my spare jingle and dollars. In the past, I have put away $10 a week, so that when Christmas time rolled around, I would not be over stressed by all the expensive costs of gifts, decorations, dinners and traveling. I was recently inspired by the Stuck at Home Mom blog to try the "52 Week Money Challenge". It's really simple.. all you do is...
For every week of the year, you save that much in dollars.
So for Week 1, you save $1... Week 17, you save $17... and so on...
Get it? So by Week 52, you will have around $1,378.00 if you stick with it!
However, since I am using this for Christmas expenses, I will obviously have to dip into mine earlier, however I will continue to contribute the weekly amount! (I also realize it's May, so this may not be very helpful to you right now - unless you jump on board now, or take $171.00 and start from this week)
I made these spreadsheets in Excel to help me keep track of everything.
Right on track! $153.00 saved so far!
Time to take on WEEK 18, $18.00!
EDIT: I have provided a link to Google Docs with the template here!
If you're looking to help your kid earn an extra $344.50, you can upload the template that uses quarters here!
MORE TEMPLATE FOR THE 52 WEEK MONEY CHALLENGE CAN BE FOUND HERE!
Now obviously if I actually do complete this challenge, I'm not going to be needing all $1,378.00 for Christmas (I better not be!). I will put the excess money in either savings, charity, a jar of change, or maybe go on a little spending binge for myself ;)
I will try to keep you updated on my savings efforts!! (:
and NOW.. for a fun savings story.
I currently use, own and operate an ancient 2007/08 Macbook. Yes, yes... the big old white brick that they don't even make anymore! I've had this thing since I was a sophomore in high school, and it has never ever let me down! I've never had a virus, it still runs relatively fast and it's never blown up or crashed on me! I was really hoping that this antique would last me another two years... however I think it's past it's prime. The ONLY problem that I have had with it (other than it weighing a bajillion pounds) didn't start occurring until last October. The problem? It ran out of memory on its hard drive. I know, I know... that can barely be considered a problem and all you computer savvy readers out there are probably like "Kaylie, just buy an external hard drive thing". Yea, nope. I'm using this silly "problem" as an excuse to upgrade. Currently, I have all my documents stored on jump drives because my computer literally won't let me save one more thing on it... and if it were to crash, all of my photos and music would be goners =/
So my reasons from upgrading from this...
to this...
are...
1) New, clean, fresh hard drive
2) A more updated system
3) Lighter computer
4) A teeny, tiny bit faster
I realize those are the most pathetic reasons you have probably ever heard as to why someone would want to update their computer, but I've been looking for a reason to upgrade for awhile now... so when the opportunity presents itself... snatch it! ;)
Anyways... now that I'm done boring you concerning a day in the life of my computer, I will continue with the point of my story...
In October, when my computer started yelling at me for saving stuff, I decided I was going to buy a new one! I didn't want to dip into my savings because I'm keeping that money for more important emergencies like "I need a new car", "I need a house", or "I need to pay off some student loans"! My goal was to save $50.00 a week until mid May, and by then I would have enough to upgrade!
WELL... ladies and gentlemen... it is almost mid May, and so far I have $1,350.00 saved up! That's only three weeks away from my goal! Sometime this summer, I will be able to treat myself to some new technology! My sisters both have them, and they love them... and my current Macbaby has been awesome for the past 5 years, so I'm pretty confident with the purchase.
Feel free to share any of your own ambitious, accomplished or proud "saving money" stories!!
--Kaylie
Kaylie, love this idea. Any chance you have the spreadsheet link or something. I'm not a spreadsheet guy and I like the look of yours. Want to print several so I can have my three boys try it as well. Thanks Tim
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. I'm going to make these for my grown up kids for Christmas :)
ReplyDeleteI just found this on Pinterest and I think it's an awesome idea. I will be jumping on the Savings Wagon on January 1, 2014. Thanks for sharing your template too!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I'm thinking about starting a little smaller and doing $0.50 x week # but reversed (starting with 52...$26.00) as I'll have some Christmas money from gifts and it'll get easier as time goes on instead of harder. I think $600+ will be plenty to cover our expenses for next Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI uploaded some more templates under the "52 Week Money Challenge" tab. Some of them include saving in quarters (:
DeleteFound you on PInterest, and I love this idea! We ran a little short in our Christmas fund this year, due to a growing family size. I'm planning a starting a money jar in January and would like to share this on my blog, with a link to your blog, of course. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletelaura @ luckypennylove.com
Thank you for the idea! My son is going to be in Spain this year and I won't be able to visit him unless I start saving now. As for the computer, my old Dell laptop finally died and I got a Chromebook - it's awesome, affordable and no hard drive!
ReplyDeleteThe old mac may still have trade in value. Take it to Best Buy and ask them to assess the value. I was shocked last week when one of my customers brought one in and got $155 for trade!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kaylie, this is awesome. I'm definitely gonna start today...:)
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you about it On Dec 31, 2014.... (Y)
On board with this plan and trying to get others on with me from my family.
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight. In week 52, I'm supposed to put away $52, after just putting away $51 the week before, and $50 the week before that?? Yeah, I don't see that happening. You guys must be rich!
ReplyDeleteHi Cleo!
DeleteI'm working on a template that shuffles the amounts so that some months you are not pulling together $200 total.
I do have a template that goes backwards (week 1 you save $52, week 2 you save $51, week 3 you save $50…) and you can find it under the "52 Week Money Challenge" tab.
haha but I hear ya with all those 50's in one month. It was difficult, especially around Christmas time!
I'd love to see a "shuffle" template. Looking forward to starting the 52 week jar on Friday!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf someone without an income (but TRYING to get odd jobs) was trying to save, would they put in money that they already have aside but dip into once in a while or just put in whatever they have that they get? This sounds like a great idea, but wondering how I would do it!
ReplyDeleteIf I can make a suggestion. If you're looking for odd jobs, start with the quarters challenge, then you've built up say $100 (random off the top of my head number) use that jar to pay into your dollars challenge jar while working on getting yourself solvent again :D
DeleteSaw this idea on Pinterest! My husband and I have decided to take our kids to Disney World this year and this is going to be our "Park & Play" money for the week we are there!!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on your blog, and was very impressed with it :). I have currently put my 4 children and myself on a quest to save by the end of the yr. We are all excited about it! Thank you for your blog! Have a beautiful New Year!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this!! I want to save but I did not know how to start before this, now you just shed some light !! This will be my 2014 resolution!!
ReplyDeleteLove this......
ReplyDeleteI wanna try this! thanks for sharing <3
ReplyDeleteI loved the idea. Thanks for the spreadsheet.
ReplyDeleteI have a Jack o´lantern bank and I keep all my R$1 coins. I´m going to open it in two weeks and buy myself some birthday gifts.
I read the comments and some people are complaining it´s too much and blah, blah, blah. Come on guys! Adjust to your reality, use your creativity. It´s not a dogma and Kaylie was really nice to share the idea and the template.
I only get paid disability.. Can some one make a Monthly template or tell me where to find one.. I really want to do this.. thank you
ReplyDeletegreat idea. Thank you for sharing. Unfortunately I cannot download the spreadsheets. Can you please email me the dollar and a quarter spreadsheets?
ReplyDeleteDanielle.alana@cox.net
This article inspires me to create a 52 week savings challenge calculator.
ReplyDeleteWell we all know that each of us has different income. So this calculator is for us to easily determine the ideal initial amount we would like to save. I hope this will help you guys
http://www.geemiz.com/saving-investing/52-week-saving-challenge-calculator.html
Just checked out your calculator! WOW!
DeleteGreat Idea!! (:
Thanks for uploading documents :)
ReplyDeleteFound your post on Pinterest and think it brilliant savings technique. I mentioned you on my blog today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theoldebarn.net/2014/01/2014-savings-jar.html
Diane
Would it be possible for you to upload the actual Excel file and share? Because then we could adjust the dates if we're not starting in January or something.
ReplyDelete....so funny story; I found this blog as a result of a Google search for "accountability for kids". Little did I know I'd find so much more. I love this idea! It really puts things into perspective. We spend so much money on nonsense...I think my family, as a team...needs to buckle down and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. I've been saying for so long that we dont make enough money to save any...confession: excuses,excuses. I'm done, no more words. Got my mason jar...starting tonight. Thanks so much
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I'm thinking it's ok to start mid year to have some savings built up for Christmas, and not having to save the fifties during the holidays. I actually try to do two jars at once. One for me, and one for charity. I also had a special savings jar. I took tamoxifen for breast cancer for five years. Each pill I put a dollar in a jar I found that had a pink lid and a raised ribbon in the glass. My other jar I put in a dollar for every time I exercise fifteen minutes, and I have a specific amount for something I work towards to keep me motivated.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I plan to do is to split the weeks into months and then divide again buy putting in 1 high amount on week 1, one low amount on week 2 and then 2 mid range amounts for the other two weeks. I will cross them off of the list of amounts as they are put into the jar so that I know they are already "taken" and don't put them in twice. That way I can budget around other household/regular expenses and still end up with all of the weeks worth in the end without all of the high amounts all at once. Our budget couldn't handle the last 4 month straight of amounts, but mixing it up would work really good for me and then I have the flexibility to choose which amount will work best for my situation! Thanks for the $ amounts figured out, this isn't rocket science but you have made it VERY convenient for everyone else to use and I thank you for that!!
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