2016 Penny Challenge

Have you set a goal to complete the 52 week money challenge every year?

Have you failed miserably?

I certainly have! First, my husband gets paid bi-weekly, so that makes it tough to remember and keep track of, granted, not that tough, but tough enough that I would forget! I get through a few weeks and then forget about it, then need cash a few months later for something dumb (usually lottery tickets, or a snack when I will be out of the house for the day) then think "Eh, I've already screwed it all up anyways!" Then my jar is empty, again.

I am a part of a sounding board group on Facebook for my community. It's mostly just locals complaining about how no one can park and that the streets have too many potholes. Occasionally people post things that they have questions about, since there are thousands of people on the page it's a quick way to get a quick answer. I've seen a few people post about how to cook things, or asking what rules are about certain things (like dogs, fences, etc.). A few days ago a woman posted a picture of a jar that someone had shared on Facebook. On the jar was a note for the year long penny challenge. She was confused and didn't understand how it works, and there were no directions or explanations. I saw it and was thinking "That's genius!!!!" So I explained it to her, and decided since I'm in my fiscal famine this would be a good topic to discuss!

Here's how it works. You start out the first day of the year by adding a penny to your jar (or whatever container your little heart desires). The next day you add 2 cents, then 3 cents, and on and on and on every day. Then, the last day of the year (and since this is a leap year) you will add $3.66. Now, the person on Facebook was confused because it said that the total at the end of the year would be over $600!! She was confused because she was just thinking of adding a penny everyday, instead of adding a penny to the total that you put in the previous day, which would only get you $3.66. So, grand total you would get $648.26! And you never put more than $3.66 in at a time! It's much different from the 52 week challenge, where at one point (and during Christmas even) if you get paid bi-weekly you are putting over $100 each pay, over $200 for that month in the jar. Now what are the odds that you will do that? I say slim, especially since I can't even keep up for more than a month or so!

Here's a chart I created with all your totals!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!! Who said pennies are worthless??

Keep in mind, the great "they" says that it takes 21 days to make a habit! So DON'T, I repeat, DON'T think "Oh, I will just put in for the week/month, etc. You know why? Chances are that you won't go back to it, and if you do, you won't catch it up. You need to do it daily to form the habit of placing the money in the jar daily.

Here's how I got started. I went and got my fancy little jar. Ok, not fancy, it's actually one of those change counting jars you buy at the pharmacy, the people that lived in the house before us left it in a box of stuff that they left behind when they moved, so I kept it! Anyways, I've started by rounding up all the areas of the house where there is spare change. Top of the dresser, bottoms of drawers, bottom of my purse, on top of the washer and dryer, and of course all the areas where my 3 year old likes to stick pennies randomly throughout the house. Who knows, maybe I already have 648 bucks laying around! Wouldn't that be nice? I'm going to continue with that method until all that change runs out, but considering my husband regularly brings change home, it should be a little while. 

I also took a little dollar sign rubber stamp ($) and stamped each day of my day planner and wrote the amount I need to put in my jar. That way I have the reminder, and I can check it off when I put my change in. I love checking things off my list!!

So, print the chart and mark it off, or just write it in your planner like I did! Start saving, every penny counts!