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How Much Money Would You Have If You Saved A Penny a Day?
If you saved a penny a day for a year you would have $3.65. If you did the penny challenge instead, you would have $164.71 after 6 months and $667.95 after 1 full year.
Saving money is hard!
All of the money saving challenges that go around seem to require that you have sometimes $50 or more per week to save. What if you can’t manage that? It’s hard to get started with these savings challenges when things are tight.
That’s where the penny challenge comes in.
It’s easy to get started and the highest amount you need to be able to save in any given week is $25.27. Now that is much more doable!
What is the Penny Challenge?
The Penny Challenge is a money saving challenge that focuses on incrementally saving starting with 1 penny on day one, 2 pennies on day two and $3.65 saved on the last day of the challenge. With this challenge, at the end of a year you will have saved $667.95.
What do You Need to Know About the Penny Challenge?
- You can get started any time.
- Mix it up if you want to! Here are some ways we’ve thought of:
- Reverse Penny Challenge
- Penny Challenge Mashup
- 52 Week Penny Challenge
- Reverse 52 Week Penny Challenge
- 52 Week Penny Saving Medley
- 26 Week Penny Challenge
- Reverse 52 Week Penny Challenge
- 26 Week Penny Saving Medley
- Double Trouble Penny Challenge (the regular penny challenge, doubled)
- The most you have to save in any week is $25.27
- The most you need to save on any day is $3.65 (less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks!)
All of the printables shown here are available free for personal use in our FREE resource library which is available for newsletter subscribers only. Sign up here or scroll to the bottom of the page!
The Penny Challenge Explained
For the very first day, you have to save 1 penny. in a specific jar that you assign to your penny challenge. On the second day, you have to put two pennies in the same jar, and so on. As the challenge progresses, you’ll increase the amount saved by a penny each day. You’ll be saving 50 pennies on the 50th day of your challenge, $1.00 on day 100, etc.
The great thing about the challenge is it’s manageable. It’s easy enough to pull $1.00 out of your cash envelopes or save $.50 out of the spare change in your pocket. That’s what makes this challenge easy.
Reverse Penny Challenge
With the reverse penny challenge, we reverse the order of savings so you start with the higher amounts and move towards the lower amounts. If you are starting this challenge at the beginning of the year, this can be helpful so that you aren’t trying to save the larger amounts during the holiday season.
Penny Challenge Mashup
Mashups are my favorite way to do any savings challenge. Some weeks I have more to save, some weeks I have less. With the mashup version of the challenge, all the amounts are there but you can pick which number you want to save. If you pull $0.54 out of your pocket that day, check off that box. If you save $3.65 that day, color in that one. The end result is the same but you can choose your own saving adventure!
52 Week Penny Challenge
If you get paid weekly this is the challenge for you. Instead of worrying about daily amounts, I’ve listed everything in weekly totals. This makes it easier for you to pick a day and save the total amount for the week all at once. This is especially useful if you are saving digitally vs in a jar.
We’ve included the 52 week penny challenge charts for the reverse method and medley method in our free resource library as well.
26 Week Penny Saving Challenge
For those of you who get paid every other week, the 26 week saving challenge is a great option. Once again we’ve made sure you can choose to do the regular challenge, reverse challenge or saving medley. Your choice! All the printables are in our resource library.
Double Trouble Penny Challenge
Are you looking for big savings? If so you may want to consider the double trouble version of the challenge. This is the same as the regular challenge except we’ve doubled the amount for each day. At the end of 365 days you’ll be saving $1335.90.
If you are worried this amount seems high, there is another way you could spin the double trouble challenge. Instead of doubling EVERY amount. Try doubling every 5th day or doubling the amount on paydays. When you’ve doubled an amount, highlight it so you can see how often you were able to do double trouble in a month.
Where to Save Your Pennies
The easiest way to start saving is to just grab an empty jar or can and throw in the first penny. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You could also transfer funds each week from your checking to your saving account or even designate a specific piggy bank for this challenge.
Here are some ideas for where to store your pennies:
- Cleaned out can.
- Cleaned out clear jar.
- Mason Jar
- Vase
- Piggy Bank
- Electronically
The Deeper Meaning of Penny Challenge
This challenge is not only fun but also it has some hidden meaning and values to it. For example, this challenge teaches us that how conveniently we have forgotten the value money holds and also the quote that says “every penny counts”.
We all know for a matter of fact that we have never really concentrated on how and where our pennies go and we’ve always cared about the big amount, but once you participate in this challenge, you’ll understand the meaning that a penny holds and also the value of it.
It may help you realize that even the smallest changes in life can add up to big rewards.
Encourage Kids to Participate in the Penny Saving Challenge
This challenge is a great challenge for most kids to get started with. The amounts are manageable and kids can be encouraged to earn money a variety of different ways to meet the savings goals.
This challenge should also help them to realize the value of money and the the benefits of saving even small amounts over time.
Every Penny Counts
Every penny counts, that’s the whole concept behind the penny challenge. You can start this challenge any day of any month. 365 days later you’ll be $667 richer.
Now, if you have a penny in your pocket, just put in that jar and call it as the penny challenge jar and get this challenge started!
If you are looking for a different challenge, I have outlined the main types of money saving challenges in more detail including monthly challenges.
If you have found this post helpful please Pin any interesting images and/or share on social media. These quick steps really do help me out!
Antoinette Belton
Monday 3rd of January 2022
Need penny challenge printable