Money Knack's Monthly Money-Saving Challenges for Lasting Savings Success
Welcome to Money Knack's monthly money-saving challenges. These aren't just quick fixes for temporary savings - they're about developing habits for long-term financial health. Each challenge is straightforward and effective, showing you how to save money now while teaching skills that pay off down the line.
Whether you're a big spender or a savvy saver, these challenges are useful for everyone, helping to improve your financial habits one month at a time.
The Key to Successful Money-Saving Challenges
Before starting the monthly money-saving challenges, it's highly beneficial to determine and understand your financial goals. This first step is about defining what you aim to achieve with your savings, whether it's building an emergency fund, reducing debt, or saving for a specific purchase. Understanding your objectives helps you stay focused and makes the process more meaningful.
In essence, having concrete goals means you have a clear target to work towards and can measure the effectiveness of each challenge. Your goals will also keep you motivated and committed to continuing the challenges.
Read more: How to Set Your Financial Goals
How the Monthly Challenges Work
The Money Knack's monthly money-saving challenges are pretty simple, yet you will soon see that they offer more than immediate cost-cutting. The challenge is to stop spending on something you usually buy that is not beneficial for your wallet or health and direct that money towards something that will benefit you.
For example, let's look at the "No-Beer Challenge." Say you typically spend $25 a week on a 12-pack of beer, which adds up to about $100 a month. In the challenge month, you skip buying beer altogether. The $100 you would have spent on beer goes to something useful, like your emergency fund or paying off your credit cards. It's all about cutting out an expense and saving that cash for something important.
Finding out how much money you spend on something is a key part of the challenge because we often don't realize how much we're actually using up. To figure this out, look at your receipts and bank statements or how much you usually spend. If your spending changes a lot, check your spending for a few months and work out an average. Seeing the actual numbers can be eye-opening and might be the push you need to embrace a challenge and commit to it.
The challenges do more than just prevent you from spending money - they encourage you to take stock of your financial priorities by setting and actively working on your goals. These challenges also help you recognize the true extent of your non-essential spending, urging you to consider what might be more beneficial for your future self. This realization can lead to positive and lasting changes in your spending habits, helping you focus on what truly matters for your long-term financial well-being.
A Challenge for Each Month
Go with the suggested lineup, or feel free to switch things up. If a particular challenge doesn't suit you, replace it with another from the list. You are also welcome to mix different challenges to match your preferences.
And if you find a challenge that works well for you, it's perfectly okay to do it more than once. The key is to find what helps you save effectively and stick with it.
Let us know how much you saved by completing a challenge - tag us on social media and use the hashtag #MoneyKnackSavingChallenge. We love seeing your success stories!
January: No-Alcohol Challenge
Welcome to the first of our Money Knack monthly challenges: The No-Alcohol Challenge. This challenge is a great way to kickstart your savings journey and make a significant impact on your finances.
Begin by figuring out how much you usually spend on alcohol each month. Check your receipts, and bank statements, or just estimate based on your habits. Whether it's a few beers after work, a bottle of wine for dinner, or weekend outings - get a total estimate for the month.
Finding the exact figures can be an eye-opener, as you may not have fully realized the amount you spend on alcohol. This newfound awareness can be a powerful incentive to take on the challenge and highlight the potential savings you could redirect toward your financial goals.
Challenge yourself to either completely cut out alcohol purchases or cut back as you see fit. Then, take the amount you would have otherwise spent on alcohol and add it to your savings.
If you don't drink alcohol, no worries - you can substitute this challenge with any of the other challenges or replace alcohol with something else you might spend regularly on, like coffee, smoking, vaping, or any other habit you're looking to change.
Keep an eye on this page for upcoming challenges, or subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates. Subscribe.