52-Week Savings Challenge!

Christmas 2018 has come and gone, which means that a brand new year is nearly upon us. Does anyone else wonder how an entire year can pass by quicker than two shakes of a lamb’s tail???

And does it also not seem like the holidays cost money every single year? I don’t know about you but I rarely ever wake up in mid-December and say to myself: “Self, it’s a good thing that I found that mysterious pot of money in the closet the last time that I was putting away the vacuum cleaner – I’ll need that money for this year’s celebrations!”

Nope! I have never – not even once – had that particular conversation with myself. I’ve always managed to fund my Christmas celebrations with cash, but I’ve never made a challenge out of it. And this 52-week savings challenge will ensure that I have more money than I usually do for the festivities of 2019.

For those of you who enjoy having extra money kicking around, I thought that the following chart might be of assistance in helping you to figure out how to fund your goals for 2019. I discovered this wonderful little nugget during my forays through the labyrinth of the Internet so I can’t take credit for inventing it. Happily, I found this particular gem at Clever Girl Finance.

The following chart burrowed its way into my memory and I decided it would be a good one to share with all of you. I know I can’t be the only one who likes to pour herself a nice glass of wine, settle in on my couch with my journal and favorite pen, and set about writing down my financial goals for the upcoming year… Or am I?

It hardly matters. One of next year’s goals is to ensure that I continue to pay for all of my Christmas expenses with cold, hard cash. This challenge will help me to achieve this particular goal. As a matter of fact, it will give me ample cushion since I rarely ever spend more than $600 on Christmas! Such is a benefit of coming from a small family that is slowly moving towards a less-is-more attitude when it comes to gifts. While my brother wants to eliminate the gift exchange entirely, my mother still likes to receive things. My sister-in-law and I are of the same mindset – consumables are best! Baking and wine are perfectly fine presents. 🙂

The concept behind the challenge is simple. There are 52 weeks in a year. Your assignment – should you choose to accept it – is to save an amount of money equivalent to, or more than, the number of the week of the year. By this time next year, you’ll have over $1,300 sitting somewhere waiting to do your bidding. It’s not a complicated challenge, but it does require that you engage in a wee bit of self-control to make sure that you squirrel away the requisite amount of money each week and that you don’t spend it before the 52 weeks are gone.

If you’d like to hit a higher target, then double or triple the weekly amount. There’s no rule saying that you can’t save more. Stretch yourself to see just how much you can set aside. After all, if you wind up saving …<cough>… too much money, you can always get a head-start on another goal that will no doubt require money.

Happy New Year, Everybody!!!