Penny Challenge
Hey friends, I recently made a video about starting up a penny challenge and asked if you guys would love to have a penny challenge sheet you can follow along with. Well look no further, I have finally made this quick and simple penny challenge sheet.
But first, lets talk about that video I posted that started the request.
*Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, just a mom learning how to better my finances. As a Health Coach finances do play a part in our health overall so I would love to be your cheerleader on your journey.
I am a big fan of cash stuffing and starting on the debt free journey because bills and the cost of living are just way to high these days. It’s really a fun topic to watch if your interested in starting a debt free journey I highly encourage it, or even if your looking to just save a little more in your daily life.
I also do a lot of “No Spend Challenge” in my daily life, I do this for practical reasons but I haven’t put a big video out on it yet so if your one of the people who would like to see one please let me know in the comments on this post or the above video posted.
Back to the Savings Challenge.
I usually see the “52 week challenge” or the “Save $5 Challenge” and other really cool savings challenges that for someone like myself living paycheck to paycheck are really hard to do. If it’s not hard to start, they can be hard to finish. Often I will have to take out of whatever my savings are to cover emergencies or even just normal things like covering groceries or even filling up the gas tank for the week. That’s my nature, I’m not going to hold onto this money when it needs to be used for my kids or family. So this made a lot of these challenges unattainable for me, no matter if I said it’s a “car fund” or even a “one month ahead fund.”
Having these issues with money, living paycheck to paycheck, isn’t a new concept and actually 60% of Americans are living this way. We are told to have an emergency fund by everyone; our financial planners, David Ramsey and even those “friendly money BFF’s” on the internet. So how are we supposed to do this when we can’t save anything from our checks?
This is where the Penny Challenge comes in for me, I was scrolling these videos and found a few creators that do these very low amount challenges with the hopes of it all just adding up in the end. The concept is simple, start at one cent and add one cent to each space up to the desired amount you want to end at. I’ve seen this challenge go up to $10 and I’ve seen this in a much smaller amount like up to $.50 (one to fifty cents adds up to $12.96 when done in this style) and even in much bigger amounts. It’s really up to the person creating it, so it’s completely customizable.
I made this image below, like I made the ones in the video I posted above. These are starting at 1 cent, the one in the video goes up to $1, creating a savings of $50.50 (I can make one of those if you would like it as well this is just the first “cute” image I made for you guys.)
Free Penny Challenge Image by That Mom Mercedes. That Mom Wellness Coach.
If you’ve watched the video you will know my kids are also doing this challenge with me. Why?
It’s a modern day version of those quarter books we had as kids, remember saving the yearly quarters? I do.
It was fun and made me want to save as a kid, I hope that this does the same for my kids. Make saving fun by showing them that small amounts add up big time. That’s very similar to what I tell my coaching clients, Small Steps Add Up Big Time. I do intend to let my kids spend there savings how they want to, they both keep telling me about Christmas and being able to buy something for each other (aaww cutie pies).
Myself on the other hand, I plan on using this for my business because again, I live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have disposable income to put into my business without many clients. Any business owner will tell you most of the amount we get for a service goes to taxes, life’s greatest joy.
If I didn’t have anything in my business to put this amount towards I would actually put it into my “month ahead” category, this is a part of something small I don’t mind sharing with you as a part of my takeaway from taking in every single bit of financial information I have been able to find. The most basic savings is the “One Month Ahead Savings”, that is one month of your rent and/or bills. One month of a cushion to help you when the month hasn’t been going right, because we all have heard those no nonsense landlord stories where you are late one time but they still terminate your contract because of some tiny tiny print on your housing agreement. I have been homeless before, as a teenager so not much I could have done in that moment but the experience has told me I never want to be homeless again and I defiantly don’t want my kids to experience that. I am lucky to have married someone that also shares that life experience, so we both never want to go back to those realities. It’s something I haven’t been too concerned about because we have made enough to just get by but as I mention in the video above, we are actually under the median line of low income. Yikes!
So, how do you do this? By just stashing away what you can, if you have $5 left in your wallet the day before you get paid. Take it out and put it away. Set up your savings with your bank if the minimum amount is something you can accomplish, that way if you can take that $5 when you get paid and transfer it right away that’s one less thing to worry about.
Other ways to save a little money to be able to save are as followed:
-Meal Prepping (I have a whole blog here about meal prepping along with a video series available on my YouTube.)
-Turn off the lights when your not in the room.
-Unplug electronics not in use.
-Line Dry your cloths.
-Don’t impulse buy and live more Sustainable. Not only does it help the planet it keeps money in your pocket at the end of the day.
-Take care of your things, don’t treat them as something that is replaceable instead see each item as the only one of those in the world. I do this and it has helped me, especially when it comes to brining my own silverware to work.
There are many, many more things you can do. I can put together a video and blog on all the ways I save money in my life if you would like, and I am currently in the process of updating a lot of my meal prep videos due to rising costs everyone is experiencing. As I mentioned above, leave me a comment below to let me know if this blog resonated with you and what part does the most.
And as always if your on your own journey and need a cheerleader, I am here for you. Click the Book button below to get started.
