If you are looking for a simple and easy way to save a few bucks, why not try the 52-week Money Challenge? If you haven’t heard of it before, here’s how it works. Every week you put away the same amount of money as the week of the year. So, week 1 you put away $1, week 2 you put away $2, week 26 is $26, and so on. At the end of the year, you will have saved $1,378.
It’s a simple, effective way to build up an emergency fund, save for a vacation, or just build up your savings account on top of any contributions you already make. It’s also really easy to get started – no paperwork, no confusing instructions.
Have you already tried the 52 week challenge? Well, why not try these variations!
Work backward – For some, socking away $50 during the holidays is hard, so why not start week 1 off with saving $52, week 2 is $51, and so on. This way once you get to December, you are only putting away a few bucks a week and you won’t be stretching yourself thin during the holidays.
Let the bank do the work – Keep your money in a savings account vs. on hand. It makes it much harder to spend when it’s at the bank vs. in a piggy bank, safe, or under your mattress. And the best part is, as a Litchfield Bancorp customer, you can even set up automatic payments from a checking account to a savings account, so you can set it and forget it.
Double it – no issues saving up to $52 a week, why not double it and start Week 1 at $2 and end week 52 at $104 dollars OR extend the 52 week challenge to 104 weeks and do it over 2 years.
Set goals – if you want to keep it interesting, set goals along the way to add extra money. They can be as simple as meeting step goals for a week – add an extra $5, or finally tackled cleaning that storage room – deposit an extra $10. OR if you are doing the challenge with a friend or spouse, you can have specific tasks or goals and whoever reaches those first gets a rewarded by the other person. The first person to reach $200 in their savings gets $5 from the other person – sounds fun right?
Saving money should be easy and fun – that’s the best way to make it work. Stop into one of our branches today and ask us about the different accounts Litchfield Bancorp has to offer – including our Club Accounts!
Laura Murphy
Branch Supervisor
860.393.9173