I can hardly believe that 2021 is approaching so quickly. It seems like just yesterday the world was shutting down and we were all learning how to navigate this new next together. Around December every year, I try to prepare a money-savings challenge for me to tackle the following year.

In 2019, I decided that I would do a “coin savings” daily challenge, as explained below. I was on track to complete this ahead of time; however, the money I had saved turned out to be a good savings to use when we found out our four-year-old had to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. This was his fourth surgery in about three years. While I was a little bummed my coin savings challenge was blown, what better way to have helped pay for this surgery than a bunch of change I had been saving for the entire year?

Below I share money challenges that you can choose from to help kick start some savings in 2021.

4 Money Challenges for 2021

52-Week Savings Challenge

This is probably the one that is most common. There are 52 weeks in one year. For every week, you save that dollar amount. Week 1 you save $1, week 2 you save $2, week 52, you save $52, etc. By doing this, you will have $1378 saved by the end of the year.

Like any of these challenges, you can choose to get ahead. If you have an extra $52 one week, mark that one off your calendar, and move on. Additionally, whether or not you skip around, or stick to the exact schedule each week, it doesn’t matter. Just save that money!

Pick a day of the week to always add to your challenge savings. Then every week that day rolls around, cross off a new dollar amount and wait for the next week! Print a PDF out here:

52-Week Savings Challenge Printable

Coin Savings Daily Challenge

This one is like the 52-week challenge, except tackled in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, on a daily basis.

There are 365 days in one year. So on day 1, you save one cent; day 100, you save $1; day 365, you save $3.65, etc.

By the end of this challenge, you will have over $600. This one can be completed on a daily basis, monthly, or as you have some extra money. This one is also a great one to get the kiddos involved with! Print a PDF out here:

Coin Savings Daily Challenge Printable

$5 Challenge

If you never use cash, go ahead and skip reading this one. If you are a cash user, then this one might be right up your alley; you save every single $5 bill that you receive. There is no end amount assigned to this as it varies per person. If you think about it, once you break a $20, $50 or $100, you almost don’t even know where that money went.

So why not save every $5 that comes into your wallet? If you do this one, please let me know how much you have by the end of the year!

Spare Change Challenge

This one is as simple as the name. Save all of your spare change throughout the year. You can throw it into a jar or make a cute box. But whatever you do, don’t cash in that change until the end of the year!

You can then take it to one of those change counters at the end of the year, but be aware that they charge a fee. Or if you bank with Bank of Texas, like I do, you just take your bagged-up change and hand it over to the teller behind the counter. They then send it off to their corporate office to count up and deposit into your bank.

If you have a money-savings challenge that you love that I didn’t list, comment here and let us know!

Whichever challenge you take on, please let me know how you are doing with it! You can find me on Instagram here or you can always comment on this post here.