5 Easy Biweekly Money Saving Challenges to try this year (2024)

The easiest and most successful way to improve your finances is to challenge yourself. Most money saving challenges seem to be weekly or monthly. Not helpful when you are paid biweekly. When you get paid biweekly you want a biweekly money saving challenge to aim for.

One of the best ways to save money is to do it every time your get your paycheck. For everyone who is paid biweekly why not take advantage of one of these awesome money saving challenges?

Why savings goals are important

Money saving challenges and goals are important because a bit of extra savings can provide a cushion in case of tough times. They are a great way to jumpstart your savings habit.

It’s easy to find excuses not to save, but when you have a set goal and timeline in front of you, it becomes much harder to procrastinate.

Once you’ve established the habit of saving biweekly, it will come more naturally to you and become easier over time. So if you’re looking for ways to improve your financial security, give these money saving challenges a try!

How can I save money every two weeks?

You can save money every two weeks by adjusting your biweekly budget to include a line for your bi-weekly savings challenge. Putting part of your wage away as soon as you are paid means you are not tempted into spending it instead of saving it. Reduce your weekly spending by:

• Cut your food bill by creating a grocery list and sticking to it.
• Brown bag your lunch instead of eating out.
• Cancel your cable subscription and find alternatives like Netflix or Hulu.
• Combine errands to reduce fuel consumption
• Shop at thrift stores (you could up to 90%)

Open a separate savings account

Whichever biweekly savings challenge you decide to do, the most essential bit of advice I can give you is to open a separate account for the cash you save. You need to see your numbers clearly to keep you motivated enough to keep going. Not mixed in with a vacation or college fund.

5 Biweekly money saving challenges to try

1. The 52 week money saving challenge bi weekly

When you are paid biweekly it makes sense to save biweekly. Many of the 52 week money challenges I have previously written about are based on weekly savings so you would have to mentally adjust every savings payment made to account for your biweekly paycheck.

Instead I have broken down the original weekly year long savings challenge into a biweekly savings plan amounting to the same total of $1,378.

How to do the 52 week savings challenge bi weekly

This challenge is about saving $1 for your first week, $2 for your second week and so on. but on a biweekly basis. So

• With your first paycheck you’ll save $3 ($1 for week 1 and $2 for week 2).
• Your second paycheck means you’ll save $7 ($3 for week 3 and $4 for week 4)
• With your final paycheck you’ll save $103 ($51 for week 52 and $52 for week 52)

Yearly saving challenge tip – If you are starting this bi weekly 52 week challenge in January as a new year savings challenge, consider doing it in reverse order. I.e. Your 1st paycheck you save $103 (week 52 and week 51), And your final paycheck you save $3 (week 1 and week 2).

Starting a January savings challenge means your final week are around Christmas as you could struggle to save these amounts at that time.

how much would you save if you did the 52 week challenge?

The 52 Week Challenge is a savings plan where you save a set amount of cash each week. If you save $1 the first week, then you save $2 the next week, and so on. In total you will save a total of $1,378 by the end of the year.

2. 26 week money saving challenge biweekly

If yearly money challenges feel too long to get started with then a 26 week savings challenge is going to be perfect for you. A biweekly money saving challenge lasting half the year will give you a good lump sum of savings without tying up your paychecks for the entire year.

Doing a money saving challenge for 26 weeks can help you save for a vacation, get your emergency fund off to a great start, or top it up. And it allows you to not have to be trying to save during months where your expenses might be much higher e.g. over the festive season.

For help in getting your biweekly budget up and running check out this post:

5 Simple Steps To Create Your Perfect Biweekly Budget

How do you do the 26 week money challenge?

To successfully complete the 26 week money challenge you need to save something from each of your 13 paychecks you receive during the next 6 months. The 26 weeks money challenge total is yours to choose. Save $39 every biweekly paycheck and you’ll have $507 in 6 months. Other calculations you might want to try are:

• $78 every other week = $1,104
• $100 every other week = $1,300
• $154 every other week – $2,002

Grab your free bi-weekly money saving challenge printables and loads more money saving printables from the free resource library – subscribe below

3. Bi weekly money challenge $5,000

If you need or want to save more then the $5,000 bi weekly money challenge is going to be your favorite challenge

If you want to save 5000 in a year then you can of course do it biweekly. Saving 5k is a much bigger number to aspire to so you will need to save more from every paycheck to reflect the bigger goal. The easiest way to save $5000 this way is to save $200 every paycheck which is $100 a week. 25 paychecks (or 50 weeks) will net you $5000.

Alternatively you could vary the amounts you save each paycheck, you just need to ensure they add up to the $5k total you are aiming for.

How can I save $5000 in 6 months with 100 envelopes?

You can save $5000 in 6 months with 100 envelopes if you prefer to save in cash. To achieve this bi weekly envelope challenge means saving a straight $50 into each of your 100 envelopes over the course of 26 weeks. To save $5,000 in 6 months you will need to pick and fill 4 envelopes a week for 24 weeks and 2 envelopes in the final 2 weeks.

How can I save $5000 in 3 month challenge?

You can save $5000 in 3 months using cash by following the original 100 envelope savings challenge. You number each envelope 1-100 then fill one each day. The challenge works by picking an envelope at random every day for 100 days until you fill all the envelopes. When you successfully do this you will have saved $5,040.

How can I save 3000 in 3 months biweekly?

You can save 3000 in 3 months biweekly by putting aside 500 every other week for 6 paychecks. If you have 7 paychecks during this 3-month money saving challenge then you would need to save 428.57 every paycheck to hit your target. Given it’s a short 90 say savings challenge you could cut spending back to a minimum in order to free up the necessary cash.

4. The bi weekly savings plan $10,000

A bi weekly savings plan for $10,000 requires you to earn enough to be able to actually save this amount of dough and some simplification to make life easier. The easiest way to save $10,000 is to save $385 biweekly. That is a lot of hard cash to find from every paycheck but a great financial goal to achieve.

You could also vary the amount you save depending on your expenses and financial situation. For instance, if you get a $2k bonus each year from your employer then you could put this straight into your emergency fund account. Or you could make it part of your $10,000 challenge. Then you only need to find $8,000 to achieve your savings goals.

You could of course vary the time it takes to achieve your goals. To achieve $10,000 in a 12 month savings challenge you could:

• Save $385 biweekly for a year
• $769.23 biweekly for 6 months
• Or even $1,428.57 every 2 weeks for 14 weeks (you need a lot of disposable income for this!)

Alternatively, if you are wanting to save less each paycheck but for a longer time period then saving $192.50 biweekly for 2 years will help you achieve your $10k target.

For other challenges to save 10,000 check out these posts:

How To Save 10000 In 6 Months: 7 Tips For Success

How To Save 10000 in A Year, And Some!

Grab your free biweekly money saving charts and loads more money saving printables from the free resource library – subscribe below

5. Biweekly savings challenge for tight budgets

Paid biweekly but on a low income and/or a tight budget? Living on a tight budget can mean it’s difficult to find spare cash to throw at a savings target. But financial targets really do help you achieve more than you think possible so here’s some money challenge ideas to suit your pocket:

• Save $50 biweekly as a 12 monthly money challenge (total saved $1,300)
• Save $25 biweekly for a year (total saved $650)
• $100 biweekly will net you a total of $2,600

If you’ve never saved consistently before then regardless of your income an easy savings challenge like one of the above is probably a great starting point. You want to achieve everything you set out to achieve so a mini savings challenge is a really good starting point. Prove to yourself you can save consistently then aim for a bigger target next time.

Fancy something other than a bi weekly savings challenge?

Maybe you are paid biweekly but don’t want to tie your savings to your paycheck. Or maybe you like the idea of creative savings targets that are also fun. There are numerous money saving challenges you can try, here are a few fun ones that to consider:

penny savings challenge

The penny savings challenge really does start out small. If you work in dollars and cents then just switch cent for penny. The traditional way to do this daily money saving challenge is to start on January 1st and save right through until December 31st. How to do it:

• On 1 January you save 1p
• 2 January you save 2p
• Then 3p on 3 January
• And so on until on 31st December you will save £3.65 (or $3.65).

After 365 days of daily saving you will have the grand sum of £667.65 in your savings account. The easiest way to do this is to transfer your daily amounts into an account every paycheck, weekly or monthly. No need to work in actual cash.

2 different envelope money challenges

I mentioned the 100 envelope challenge earlier on. saving $5040 in just 100 days is hard going and not possible for many people. So how about the 50 envelope challenge? You will save $1,275 in 50 weeks stuffing one envelope with cash every week.

Or how about the 200 envelope challenge? Very similar to the 100 envelope challenge but spread over 200 days (6.5 months) instead of 3 months.

30 day save money challenge

Ever heard of the 30 day rule? It’s a low key way to do a 30 day savings challenge. You’re not aiming to save a specific amount of cash, all you are doing is deciding to wait 30 days for any large item you see and think you want to buy. At the end of the 30 days, if you still want it, go right ahead and buy it. If you’re not longer so keen, you’ve saved the price of it.

7 day savings challenge – no spending

Completing a week long no spend challenge is the perfect opportunity to reset your spending and focus on using what you have. It takes a little planning. What will you eat and drink at work? How will you deal with friends asking you out for a drink? But really, a 7 day no spend challenge is not too hard. Just one week of your life.

Change saving challenge

A simple way to do the savings jar challenge is to put all your spare change into a jar or box every night. When you get home from work, empty your wallet and place all your coins into the container you have chosen for this.

Some people call it the piggy bank challenge – because you use a piggy bank to save your change. Either way, see how long you can do this before you either fill up your piggy bank or break it open because you want those coins!

new year money challenge

A New Year’s money saving challenge is something I think most of us have tried at some point, New year, new you, new plans. The no spend January challenge is ideal if you want to start the new year afresh. No envelopes to stuff full of cash, just don’t spend if you can help it.

Final thoughts on the best biweekly money saving challenges to save money

So there you have it – 5 easy biweekly money saving challenges you can try this year! Whether you want to tackle a 12 month money saving challenge or start quickly with a mini savings challenge, the choice is yours. What are you waiting for? Choose your challenge today and start saving!

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Last Updated on 5th April 2022 by Emma