Works For Us Wednesday: The 52 Week Money Challenge

I have previously shared with you the envelope budget that I have been using and LOVE and the $5.00 savings plan with I also LOVE-both of which are so simple and so easy to use and they both are saving me money.  Today I want to share another simple money saving idea that we are starting in our house: the 52 week money challenge.  I just read about this and knew that this was something that we could totally do in our house.  Here is the breakdown:

So for 1 year you put away money once a week in increasing increments or decreasing (I read of some people that are starting with the large amount and working down-which is what I am doing) and at the end of the year you will have nearly $1,400.00 saved up.  The thing I love about it is that the most you will have to come up with is $52.00 in one lump sum.  My husband and I discussed it and both decided to start it now (yep in May) because school is just about out and if we start it now by the same time next year (when school is just about out and we are planning for the summer) we will have a nice little vacation budget saved up that we can use or save for one more year and double.  I love savings ideas like this; anyone can do this.  So I decided to share it now because many of you are also nearing the end of a school year and getting ready for summer and who doesn't need a little vacation fund, or renovation fund or adult only getaway fund.  I printed out the breakdown and taped it right next to our computer where we do our budgeting.  We are doing it online by transferring money from our checking account to our savings account each time rather than putting cash in a jar because we don't always have cash on hand. This couldn't get any easier.  I mean you aren't going to be able to retire on it-though if you did it year after year you could have a nice savings fund tucked away.  Man I love when I find stuff like this-just had to share.