52 week money challenge!

Anyone up for a 52 week money challenge?

There are 52 weeks per year. The idea is to put the equivalent amount of money according to the calendar week, into a jar and save it.  For example, if we are at week 26 on the calendar, you put $26 into the jar. At the end of $52 weeks, you have $1,378.00 saved!

A bunch of us at work are doing it.

http://thehousemadehome.blogspot.ca/2013/06/52-week-money-challenge-are-you-game.html

I like this idea.  I've just moved from a healthy pay cheque and easy saving to pay cheque that won't cover living expenses never mind anything else but anxious to have something put by for vet bills and the like for Mouse.  I doubt I'll be able to make the bigger amounts towards the end of the year but hey, if you're in the habit it has to be easier right? And something is better than nothing. 

I'll be on £1 rather than $ though.

Nice one Natalie_ca

I like it, and I think it's something I can try - thanks for posting! 

I like it, too-- great idea!!

Me too, l'm in for sure!

I'll try it! Thanks for the idea!

MServant said:

I'll be on £1 rather than $ though.

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Well hey, one Canadian dollar currently equals about 57 pence, so you can just do half as much!

This is a good idea. It would be nice to have a little extra cash kicking about at the end of the year, just in time for Christmas.

You can also work it backwards. Sometimes money is tight at Christmas, so it may be hard to put away $50 per week during that month.  So you can start putting the higher amounts away now, and by week 52 you are  putting only 1 dollar away.

l like that idea.

By the end of today, l'll have spent $1500 on my car this week, ugh. l was going to reverse the chart, but l think l'll print it off, and pick and choose which payment l want to put in that week. That way l can make the lower payments when l buy something big (or my car goes kaput) and make the larger payments when l have the money. l'll check them off through the year so l can strategize for lower payments towards Christmas.

I'm going to have two jars going this year!  My sisters, mom and I decided to try this one for 2014:  http://blog.ctnews.com/offbeat/2014/01/02/jar-of-happy-thoughts-for-2014/

betsygee said:

 
I'm going to have two jars going this year!  My sisters, mom and I decided to try this one for 2014:  http://blog.ctnews.com/offbeat/2014/01/02/jar-of-happy-thoughts-for-2014/

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Oh, I like that one!!! I think I'll start it too, can't guaranty that I'll do it for the year, but I'll try!

I put my first dollar in yesterday. I also started a piggy bank for my daughter and am going to put any quarters, dimes and nickles I get in it. Also putting any money from any of her stuff I sell (I am trying to clear out old toys). We started it off by putting $8.50 in it and my husbands grandma gave her $3.

I have a pretty box I keep positive thoughts and ideas in, and little notes about achievements and things I have learned from experience.  I like to keep the notes in nice note books and it is all nice and bright.  There are things in there that help me relax as well.  It's something I started on last year and I like to keep it beside my bed so I can look in it or add to it if my mind is busy at night when I don't want it to be.  It's a lovely thing to do and the jar sounds similar to some of the things I would put in my box.  

I put my first £1 away today: made it up out of all the little coins I had in my purse. 

   I think I might have to change over to doing multiples of 50 pence by about half way but it's still better than not saving anything! 

MServant said:

 
I have a pretty box I keep positive thoughts and ideas in, and little notes about achievements and things I have learned from experience.  I like to keep the notes in nice note books and it is all nice and bright.  There are things in there that help me relax as well.  It's something I started on last year and I like to keep it beside my bed so I can look in it or add to it if my mind is busy at night when I don't want it to be.  It's a lovely thing to do and the jar sounds similar to some of the things I would put in my box.  

I put my first £1 away today: made it up out of all the little coins I had in my purse. 

   I think I might have to change over to doing multiples of 50 pence by about half way but it's still better than not saving anything! 

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I have a similar box, only mine is Warren Kimble and it has a large orange and black tabby on the top. It's so cute; my kids gave it to me several years ago for my birthday. I put my first dollar in the box.

Rick and I use Quicken for our budget. He has it on his computer for the household budget, but I also have it on mine to keep track of where my personal spending goes throughout the year. Well, I started another account "2014 Spending Challenge" and I have it set up so that it will transfer the money from my account to the Spending Challenge account. An easy way to keep track in addition to actually have the physical money in the kitty box.

Winchester said:

 
I have a similar box, only mine is Warren Kimble and it has a large orange and black tabby on the top. It's so cute; my kids gave it to me several years ago for my birthday. I put my first dollar in the box.

Rick and I use Quicken for our budget. He has it on his computer for the household budget, but I also have it on mine to keep track of where my personal spending goes throughout the year. Well, I started another account "2014 Spending Challenge" and I have it set up so that it will transfer the money from my account to the Spending Challenge account. An easy way to keep track in addition to actually have the physical money in the kitty box.

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Sounds interesting, what is Quicken?  I've never kept a formal track of my spending: I've always had a pretty good sense of what money I have and what I've spent, but things are about to be much tighter and maybe should start to budget more thoroughly and plan ahead.  I have a nasty hunch most of my non-essential spend goes on chocolate and cake.... 

catlover19 said:

 
I put my first dollar in yesterday. I also started a piggy bank for my daughter and am going to put any quarters, dimes and nickles I get in it. Also putting any money from any of her stuff I sell (I am trying to clear out old toys). We started it off by putting $8.50 in it and my husbands grandma gave her $3.

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I have a container that I dump in my change a few times a week. It adds up because here we have coins for $1 and $2 denominations.   My 52 week money jar is on top of that.

MServant said:

 
Sounds interesting, what is Quicken?  I've never kept a formal track of my spending: I've always had a pretty good sense of what money I have and what I've spent, but things are about to be much tighter and maybe should start to budget more thoroughly and plan ahead.  I have a nasty hunch most of my non-essential spend goes on chocolate and cake.... 

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Quicken is a software program that helps you track your money, helps with budgeting, and essentially tells you where your money is going. We have the Quicken Deluxe 2011 (last time we bought it and the only reason we have the Deluxe version is because it was on sale at a great price and I had a coupon from Staples)  

It also helps you with stuff in your house. We have taken pictures of everything in the house; it's on thumb drives and the drives are in our safe deposit box at the bank. We add / delete stuff from it once a year....we have to add the new fridge this month. That way, if anything happens (fire, burglary, for example), we have proof that it was in the house.  You don't need Quicken to do that, but we already have the program, so we used it. And it's really a good idea to know what's in your house. 

We work on a budget every December for the following year and we really try to stay within the budget. I can tell you pretty much what we spend on cat care: food and litter, vets, etc. I know how much we spent for groceries in 2013 (and I was not amused by the total amount spent). We can see how the costs of everything continue to go up....and it's scary when you can actually see it. You can enter info and even split the amount to include tips, sales tax, the whole bit. You can enter $30 and then split it up, if your sales receipt shows that you spent $15 of that amount on cosmetics and $15 on your chocolate and cake. 

I use it to keep track of my personal spending money. I know how much I spent on gas and for which car (the Tucson or the Cruiser).  I know how much I spent on clothing, on hair appts, pretty much everything. 

But it's only as good as the person entering the information, so if you're not going to keep up with it, it's not going to tell you anything. Rick is notorious for not keeping up with the check book information, so I usually sit down at his computer once a month and enter the information. He does have it set up to automatically withdraw some of our online payments, so that helps. I'm good about making sure that our checkbook balance matches Quicken's and the bank's statement.

It's also password-protected, both the main household accounts and my account. And we don't include any banking or credit card names. Just like Bank 1, CCard 1....things like that.

There are other programs that do the same thing. We happened to start with Quicken many years ago, so we've stuck with it.

Quicken: http://quicken.intuit.com/?cid=ppc_...Code=1275300000&kw=Quicken&srid=sr3_772158_go  The Budget one is about $30.00, so if you're looking for something to start you off, that would work well. It does not upgrade though, but if you don't have it to start with, upgrading doesn't really matter. 

Thanks Winchester.  From the link it looks like this programme only works in dollars but I'll do a wider on line search and see if this product or a similar one works in £.  The principle is good though.

FYI - Quicken is fantastic.  Every company I've ever worked for uses it for their bookkeeping.  Meaning,I've been using it for decades lol.

This is a great challenge, but I've just signed up for our company 401K plan - which is brand new as of January.  This way, the money is taken automatically from my paycheck, no if's, and's or but's about it!  

sivyaleah said:

 
FYI - Quicken is fantastic.  Every company I've ever worked for uses it for their bookkeeping.  Meaning,I've been using it for decades lol.

This is a great challenge, but I've just signed up for our company 401K plan - which is brand new as of January.  This way, the money is taken automatically from my paycheck, no if's, and's or but's about it!  

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I have money deducted from my cheques too.  But this is an extra way to save some emergency or mad cash!