January #52weekmoneychallenge Update
January is over and it’s time to do an update for the 52 Week Money Challenge.
So how did you do for January? Were you able to get all 4 weeks and $1o invested in your bucket? I wan to hear all about it, so spill. 😉
If you are new here, check out the post at Stuck at Home Mom. She’s the one who promoted this and Nicole over at Frugal Maine for getting me sucked into it!
The husband and I were originally planning to do the challenge backwards so that we would pay the higher amounts now instead of worrying about them during the holidays. The only problem with that was this is his last semester of school and clinical’s. That means he’s only working a few hours a week so those higher amounts were not going to fit into our budget right now. Instead, I opted to do a spin on the challenge.
I have a change dish by the door so when the husband comes in he can dump his change. I also know there is plenty of change to be found in pockets during laundry days and most likely, his office as well. Oh, and, his car. It’s like change overload. So, kiddo and I made a plan to check these places regularly and add it all to the bucket as “extra.” I also adopted a plan to add any extra we could when we had it. That means when I go shopping and actually use cash to put the change away for our bucket. This is good for me because I don’t shop or spend cash all that often so when I do have change it just collects dust in the corners of my wallet.
Another thing with the 52 Week Money Challenge that we had to change was the time we add to the bucket. We have some weekends where kiddo isn’t here and since I want this to be a lesson in saving for her, I keep the money handy until she is here so she can add it all up and put it in the bucket.
All of these little things worked out well for us in January because we were able to get a few weeks ahead. I believe we made it to week 6 and we even have extra money. I know some change got dumped in before I could add it to the back of the printable. But, I believe we are up to about $30 in our bucket.
I’m pretty excited about it and I know kiddo is too because she’s really hoping for a little family trip with the money.
Past challenge articles:
Join Me in the #52weekmoneychallenge
#52weekmoneychallenge Started for Us
So give me the good, bad and the ugly of your money challenge!
I’m kicking myself…I saw this on another site just before Christmas and meant to do it, but totally forgot. I may still have a go…better late than never, right? 🙂
I say go for it! I won’t cost you much to get started and get up to date with the amounts!
The idea is to come away with savings so adapting it to work for you as long as you come away with the goal is perfect. For people who get paid once a month or biweekly making their deposits then is just as good as once weekly as long as they stick to it.
The change thing does really work. My DH was a slow convert. While he went along, he just couldn’t see how that change was going to make a dent in our overall car or mortgage debt. Now he carts it off willingly because he can see the difference in our savings and how close we are to paying off the mortgage.
My husband still has a hard time comprehending savings, paying off debt and budgeting. He thinks “oh well that monthly payment is only $30” but doesn’t take into consideration that something $200 with interest over the course of the monthly payments is going to cost $500.
Just wanted to drop back in and say that I’ve been doing this and so far it’s been easy as pie. I came into a couple of extra bucks this weekend so I added enough to cover all of February and I have $45 in there already! I hope I can keep this up as the weeks tick by!
Yah! I am so glad you have been able to take part. I know there are ups and downs in life right now, so even if you can just put in the leftover pocket change, that is better than nothing!