Here’s another great challenge to try if you’re looking to up the game!
>> Save an extra $1,000 over the next 100 days! <<
Think you could do it? :)
Torrie’s going for it over at ToLoveAndToLearn.com, and thought it made for an excellent short term goal no matter what your plans for the money are. Particularly if you’re aiming to hit an even larger one, like, say, $10,000 for an emergency fund as she is. It’s much more motivating hitting a few smaller milestones while climbing that mountain than going for the whole shebang!
And you know what they say, the first $1,000 is the hardest! Or was it the first billion?
(Can’t ever get enough of that burn, haha…)
If you break that $1,000 down into even smaller goals it seems even more fathomable too:
- $300/mo for the next 3.33 months
- or $70/week for the next 14.3 weeks
- or $10/day for the next 100 days
I prefer the $70/week option as it seems easier to hit than the others ($10 every day feels like you’d be scrambling for 100 days, haha, and going with the monthly route leaves too much wiggle room to be lazy!), but really whatever it takes to get the job done.
And honestly, even if you only came away with $10.00 at the end of it, it’s still $10.00 more than you had before! You never know what hacks you’ll stumble across that might lead to future savings/earnings too (that end up turning into multiple thousands over the years!).
As far as how to find this new $1,000, well, that’s up to how badly you want it. But here’s a handful of the usual ideas that gets passed around since it’s always the same with money ;) Only two ways to get it – earn more or spend less!
- Challenge all your bills
- Start a new side hustle/take on extra hours at work
- Go on a “no-spending” spree
- Hawk crap around your house
- Flip crap you scored at yard sales/thrift stores!
- Use up all the food in your pantry
- Live like a poor college student
- Never use credit cards, take out a loan, lose your wallet, get a divorce, go on vacation, have kids, give to charity, play video games, or allow a natural disaster to occur. (<– True tips from “experts” I like to insert wherever applicable ;))
Now who’s in?? ;) I’ll be sitting this one out as I’m already knee deep in two other challenges right now, but if you wanna join Torrie she’ll be using hashtag #save1000in100 on Instagram and elsewhere to follow everyone’s progress. You can find her original post on this here as well (she’s about 3 weeks in).
Love that she featured one of my favorite images from one of my favorite books (Essentialism) in it too! It’s what got me to my own current (and simpler) lifestyle!
“[This] basically illustrates the principle that if you focus your energy on several different things simultaneously, you’ll only make a little bit of progress in each (something I’m totally guilty of doing all the time!), but if you focus all your energy on just one thing, you will make an ENORMOUS amount of progress toward that goal.”
We could all be a bit better at this, eh?
Happy savings! 💰💰
*******
PS: Another way to hit $1,000 if this one bores you too much –> The $1,000 Money Saving Chart
Get blog posts automatically emailed to you!
“Hawk crap around your house”
Hawk? That sounds cool!!
“To carry around and offer (goods) for sale, typically advertising them by shouting.”
synonyms: peddle, sell, tout, vend, push ;)
We’re already at a pretty optimal level with savings so I don’t think this will be a good challenge. This challenge is better if there is more slack in your finance. The only thing that would work is to make more money somehow.
Good luck to everyone who joins the challenge, though. :)
What if I double dare you? ;)
Or…look for ways to actually *save* money (reduce expenses) to equal $1000 in 100 days, not just to put that money aside? Double-check the quotes for your insurances, use coupons on something and save the difference, drop an unused subscription? I’m in the same boat as Joe right now but that was what I’m thinking of doing to hop into the challenge. I’m paying down my mortgage with the savings – goal is to be done by July 16, 2023 (23 years early).
The other thing I’ve done in the past is to bank on the things I was going to buy but decided against. Was going to buy something on Amazon, decided against it? Put the money away. You were going to spend it anyway. Did that a few years ago and saved $500.
YES to all of this!!! I’m at $3,825.34 for the year so far with those “Spavings” ;)
https://budgetsaresexy.com/spavings-savings-account/
The point is more about pushing your limits than it is the actual money, although of course that’s a bonus win from it haha…
Good luck killing that mortgage so early – that’s going to feel amazing!
I’m doing the other $1000 challenge this year, the one you link to at the bottom. I’m sticking with it, too! I find making a bit of a game out of money helps me keep with it. I’m also doing the $5 challenge, where every $5 bill you get you throw into a bank. I’ve used that for spending money when I go on trips.
Very cool!! Whatever does the trick in the end! :)
OK. I am closing in on changing home/auto/umbrella policies and that will save me over $3,000 a year. Next up is the old cell phone bill which I am targeting at least a 30% savings. Have been working on reducing dining out and changing to eating in (great for relationship with Mrs. r2e too!). We approach this similarly – break down what may be a BIG goal into smaller, more manageable goals and you will be there before you know it!
You know it! Taking on a “no spend” month (or even week) will help with the not eating out part too :) Or just setting it to eating out once a week or something only, that way you still get to enjoy it (and look forward to it more!), but it cuts back on the # of times. Fwiw.
Great Challenge-and love the essentialism diagram.
I’d hit up Craigslist for this one…cash side jobs seem to be EVERYWHERE right now, and at $50-$100 or so a pop I think that would be the simplest way to nail down $1000. Good luck to everybody!
yes, excellent idea!
we actually had a guest post on that a couple years back:
https://budgetsaresexy.com/made-money-with-craigslist-gigs/
This guy tracked all the different gigs he took and rated them and everything, haha…
Lots of random things people will pay you for out there :)
Thanks for the shout-out, J. Money! I had already considered myself working at the upper end of my frugality, but this challenge is showing me what’s possible when I’m even more focused! (And, like you mentioned and like others have mentioned, it’s made me more motivated to do some side hustles, since that seems to be the best way for us to make up that ground!).
Glad to hear it! You’ll have to do a follow up post when the 100 days is over to let us know how it all went :) I bet you’ll hit $1,383.00.
Does anyone else wish they stilled issued bills larger than $100? Granted I never use cash anymore, but there’s something about holding such a large amount of money in such a small amount of space.
$1,000 in the next 100 days is certainly feasible, although I’d rather put it towards my student loans rather than stash it somewhere. The principal on those puppies goes down at least $1000 a month. Can’t wait until they’re no more!
That’s gonna feel real good, man!
And as a collector of course I wish we’d go back to $500 and $1,000 notes :) I actually picked up a $500 one a few years ago but haven’t ponied up the money for a $1,000 one. Which is now much more valuable than just that, haha…
Nope! My husband’s normal paycheck is less than $1000 a month, after tithe and withholdings.
We are putting tons of money into his 401k and living off my temp job income which is about to stop and then we’ll start living off savings. A very weird strategy, I know. But we are giving less money to the government and building a retirement. This is also temporary. :) Our bills are low and we are debt free including our house and our savings are high.
Not weird at all! In fact, I did just the same thing years ago where I lived off $90/paychecks until I maxed out the $15,000 or whatever the max was for 401k back then… Big rewards come to those with big moves ;)
I heard a Christian radio show – they mentioned putting a lot into retirement and used the words, “I’m using the government’s money to make me more money” – simplified but true. (I guess this would depend on your tax bracket, etc.) And when I say tons, I mean tons for us. We don’t have a very high income but we are blessed!
Blessed indeed :)
A while ago, I had an idea where people could do “savings bets”. You know how diet bet or healthywage makes bets with you to see if you can lose weight? I thought they should do that for savings (401k, IRA, 529, etc). However, friends told me it wasn’t a good idea because some people might lose money and be unhappy. :(
This is a great list though! We all have so much crap around our house we need to sell and starting any side hustle is a great idea.
I guess in theory they could lose $$$ yeah, but if you put $0.00 in you’ve already lost! So you’d still come across as a winner no matter how it went! (you know this, I know, but putting it out there for anyone else who may be reading ;))
Count me in!
I’m currently at a 54% savings rate for the year. I will need to save a bit more than $1.000 in the next hundred days to reach my goal of 60%. The “No spending approach” will probably be my choice of strategy. Any advice is appreciated though!
Nice!! You’re crushing my savings rate over there, so I need to be taking pointers from YOU :)
Interestingly, my husband just started his electrical school training last night, for which his employer deducts $75 or so per week to pay for. But, at the end of each semester, the employer cuts him a check for 100% of it back, or around $1000 . . . so we joked that’s it’s just a forced way to save, one that’s sure to work! :) It will be fun in a way to receive two of these checks a year for the next four years.
Yeah it will be! Haha… Plus, he gets some good knowledge along the way too! If only we all did every time we saved ;)
Count me in. I recently stumbled across all these cool financial independence sites and over the course of a week me and my wife are now starting on our path to fi. I was working out how to make more money other than just saving more so I’m gonna star hawking stuff till my basement is empty. Thank you for such a great sight J Money
Great man – love to hear it! Keep me updated with how it goes over time. That first stage when the light bulb goes off is the most fun! :)
Actually did this last month, by selling a bunch of stuff around the house that we no longer need. Generated $1,130 in cash on FB Market in less than 2 weeks, and as a bonus gained a bunch of storage space in my garage/shed. Sold 2 BBQ Grills, a generator, power tools I have multiples of, camping equipment, and even a bunch of Christmas lights…….Hoping to start round 2 in the next couple of weeks, although may be more difficult to get to $1,000 this time………Love your blog, keep up the creative content!!
Heyyyy congrats!! That’s awesome – less stuff AND more money. Gotta love it! :)
Great challenge. My wife an I have started going through all of our junk -> mass eBaying weekend I think! Good luck all
Man those always feel good! I’m currently doing a decluttering project too trying to get rid of at least 1 thing a day for 30 days: https://budgetsaresexy.com/im-getting-rid-of-one-thing-every-day-for-the-next-30-days/
So far so good!
Love this and great timing! My AC went out and cost over $900 to repair! Maybe I’ll use one of these challenges to get my savings back up!
Ack! Perfect timing for sure – do it! :)