3 Low-Income Money Challenges That Save Thousands

Who doesn’t like fun money challenges?

Me!

I don’t like money challenges. They literally make me feel poor because they ask me to put aside an unrealistic amount of money every day (or week) and tell me I will save hundreds in no time (as if it were that easy).

Money challenges that make you save more than a couple hundred are unrealistic (in my opinion) because if I am able to put aside £500 every month, I wouldn’t need a challenge to do it. I will (kind of) notice that I have it spare in my account and transfer it into savings.

No!

I like money challenges that are designed for people who struggle financially, often live paycheck to paycheck and for whom every penny that goes aside is a penny they feel happy and proud to have saved.

If you’re into these type of challenges, I’ve got a few of them in this post for you (printables included).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you sign up or make a purchase I might get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my business. See full disclosure.

You Want to Try These Money Challenges If…

I call the 3 challenges below “poor people challenges”. Now, I understand that the phrase “poor people” might disturb you and it does the same for me.

In the past, people who were considered poor barely had anything to eat, could never afford new clothes and would usually be behind on taxes and debts.

I mean, I am not poor. I have a roof over my head, I manage to pay my bills, my child wears new clothes, I have all the appliances every other modern housewife has, and we always pay our mortgage on time (thank God!)

Yet, this is what I call “modern-day poverty”.

Because we always live on the edge of making ends meet. We use the current salary to get our plane tickets for our summer holiday. The next salary’s ‘extra’ will go for gifts for my mother and my sister’s birthdays. The salary after that goes for the dog kennel we need to book for our dog (again, for the summer holiday). The salary after that… you get the point.

Having something aside is much better than having nothing, but many people believe that an extra £50 saved this month won’t help them in any way, so they’d rather cover their “wants” now.

I believe every family should have at least one month’ worth of bills and living expenses saved aside before giving up on saving. And if it takes them two years to get there, because they only save £50 a month, then so be it. Time would pass anyway, but the difference is that in two years, they will have that month of expenses covered. It is all about the money habits you create for yourself.

So, if your goal is to save “something” and you struggle financially (and mentally) to do it, then this post is for you. I will show you three easy ways to save without it feeling like a burden.

Low Income Money Challenges

There is only one rule to all the challenges below (and to any other challenge you see out there) and it’s this: once the money enters your savings, it does NOT exist to you anymore. That’s it. You’ve given it away, you’ve moved it into the account and you cannot use it anymore, transfer it back into your current account or do anything with it (unless it’s a real emergency, of course).

The biggest mistake most people make is that they see their savings account as an extra pot to grab money from when needed.

I see my savings as… actually I don’t see them as anything. I purposefully forget that there’s money in there. I do not care how much I have in it. I do not consider touching it if I’m low on funds. I prefer to use my credit card if needed, but not my savings.

Why?

Because I know I will recover the credit card money, I am obligated to do so. Savings, on the other hand, need nothing more than discipline from me to recover what I’ve taken out and I don’t have that. I am not disciplined enough to go back and recover the full £300 once I get paid. So I pretend that I don’t have that money.

Round the Numbers

This is my absolute favorite and the easiest way to save “something”, even when it’s the end of the month and I have another three more days to get by before being paid.

It is a super simple way to save and you have the freedom of choosing how much to save.

Let’s say tonight (usually before going to bed) you check your bank account and see that you have a balance of £1564.36. Those £4.36 should go into savings, and you should be left with £1560.00 in your main account.

Tomorrow, before you go to bed, you do the same. Maybe you did some shopping, maybe a bill got paid. Your balance could be £1353.50. Those £3.50 should go to your savings as well.

Do that for the next 30 days and tell me it isn’t the easiest way to save money without depriving yourself of stuff. Yes, you won’t save thousands, but as I said, this isn’t the goal here.

What if you’re really on the edge by the end of the month?

Instead of saving the £4.36 and the £3.50 save just the pennies.

That way, you are working on the habit of saving and can still tick the day off as a day you’ve put aside “something”.

Many years ago, I managed to pay off a credit card and a loan using this technique. It doesn’t feel like you’re doing much by saving that way, but you actually are putting aside around £60 every month. If you do it for a year, you would have around £700 (or even more) saved.

The best part about this challenge is that you can do it alongside any other money challenge without disturbing your finances too much.

Set up a Direct Debit

This is a yearly challenge I’ve already started at the beginning of this year. I decided I want to put aside £1.00 every day, but instead of doing it manually or search for coins everyday, I set up a direct debit of £7 from my current account into my savings.

Think it’s lame?

When I finish the challenge I will have £365 extra in my savings. Add them to those £700 from the previous challenge and I’ve reached a total of £1,000 just like that.

Weekly Bingo Saving Challenge

This is a well-known money challenge, but instead of having the goal of saving £1,000 at the end of it, we will go for something more realistic – saving “something”.

On the bingo card you have 52 circles with the numbers from one to fifty-two (because that’s how many weeks are in a year). Your task is to choose a day of the week (I would recommend Friday), then choose a number from the bingo card and put that amount of money aside.

Key point: You choose how much you’re able to save this week. You can start with the higher numbers and you’ll know it will only get easier. You can choose the amount based on how much you can actually afford to save this week.

By the end of this challenge you will have £1,378 saved. Add them to ANY or BOTH of the previous challenges and you would be absolutely shocked at how much you are actually able to save without depriving yourself from something every month.

If you do ALL of these challenges in a matter of 12 months you’d have saved at least £2,460.00 and I think that’s a lot of money. For some, it could cover one month of bills. How awesome is that?

Grab the Printable

As promised, I’ve got all three challenges as printables and you can grab them by clicking here. Don’t be alarmed or offended that I’m charging you £2 for them, there is a scientific reason I’m actually recommending you to pay for them. It is proven that people tend to stick to treatment, read a book or follow a course of action when they’ve paid money for it.

You can absolutely do these challenges without the printables, and I will be still very happy for you. You can also grab the printables from my Etsy shop by clicking here and enjoy ticking boxes off and collaring bingo cards. Have fun!