There’s a 52 Week Savings Challenge (or 52 week savings plan) that’s been doing the rounds over the past few months (maybe years) and the more I search, the more posts I find on it with variations and new ideas. It’s such an awesome concept and really relevant now since it’s National Savings Month in South Africa. Of course, no matter where you are or when you read this, any month can be your focused savings month and you can start this savings challenge at any point!
In fact don’t delay this challenge, just start right now!
Download the 52 Week Savings Challenge Progress Tracker here, and track the 52 weeks saving plan in rands.
Save almost R14,000 in one year!
The 52 Week Saving Plan is quite simply really and the way it works is that you start by saving R10 in the first week, R20 in the second week, R30 in the third, and so forth. By the end of 52 weeks you would have saved R13,780. That’s pretty amazing isn’t it! (And of course if you save your money in an interest bearing account you can end up with a little more)
Have a look at the image to see how you increase your weekly savings by R10 each week.
The trick is to stick to your savings goal each week and even though it all looks quite easy in the beginning, in reality it get’s harder and harder each week! You see the last 4 weeks where you have to save R490, R500, R510 & R520? Will you really be able to do that? That may seem a little crazy!
Here’s an alternative way to do this. There are 52 weeks and each week has a value assigned to it. It doesn’t actually make any difference in which order you complete the savings, as long as each amount is saved. With other words, in month 1 you may be able to do a R400 week as well as a R50, R20 & R10. In the second month you may only be able to do small amounts do to some circumstances. That’s okay, swop it up but be sure to mark off a value each week.
See how I’ve mixed it up here, it makes no difference to the total but it may help you with your cashflow.
I like both versions of the weekly savings plan. In the first variation where you save your money consecutively you should be able to get better and better at it each week which is why you’re able to save more and more. And in the second variation you allow yourself to have some “bad weeks” where you save a lesser amount. Either way you’ll end up with the same total.
And if you really like patterns and logic you could work the standard list from both sides. So R10 in Week 1, R520 in Week 2, then R20 in Week 3 and R510 in Week 4, etc. So many options!
I would like to encourage you to start this 52 week savings plan now!
You can download this free 52 Week Savings Plan Progress sheet to keep track of where you’re at. (And you can obviously make a nicer one to suite your specific creative style!)
Better yet, join the challenge and receive your weekly email giving the savings goal for the week along with motivation to keep going!
Too easy? Why not double up?
Want a monthly savings plan instead? Just open the last email I sent at the end of the month and catch up! This way you can make your own 12 months savings plan in Rands.
Join the 52 Week Savings Plan
You can join the 52 week saving plan mailing list to receive a weekly email which matches the “mix it up” version in the image above. Each week I’ll send you an email with the amount to save along with the running total of how much you should have.
JOIN THE 52 WEEK SAVING PLAN HERE
But before you start…. Know your “why”
It’s easy to start a new challenge. Whether it’s weight loss, exercise, money saving, studying or whatever. It’s hard to stay motivated though without knowing why you’re doing it. You need a reason and just reading a cool idea on a blog isn’t really reason enough to keep you going for the full 52 weeks!
Think about why you would want to take this 52 week saving plan. Having the money at the end of the year is obviously a great bonus, but is there anything specific you’re wanting to save towards? Will saving money help you be in control of your finances and will that make you feel better? What will drive you to complete this? Possibly just proving to yourself that you have the self-discipline.
Figure out what will motivate you enough to keep doing this.
Whatever you reason, write it down somewhere and keep referring back to it whenever you feel like giving up.
And read this post for some tips to help you stay motivated and focused one the goal.
As a final thought do you know what your Savings Rate is? It’s an interesting little number that can legally change your financial life!
Hope you enjoy the 52 week savings plan 🙂