Free Savings Challenge Printable and Ultimate Savings Guide

With the end of the year approaching, many of us are thinking about our goals for the New Year. For some of us, those goals are financial goals, whether it’s saving for a big purchase like a new car or even a new home, building up our emergency fund, or paying down debt. In this blog, I’ve talked about prioritizing savings goals, investing, and saving money. But I’ve never brought those together in terms of how to actually save for money goals. What can you do to keep yourself on track? And how do you contribute to savings goals with a tight budget?

In this post, I’ll go over my best tips for saving for big financial goals. I also include a free savings tracker, available as a printable PDF, so you can track your financial success over time! For those looking for even more resources to help you save and budget for a big goal, you can check out my Etsy printables. I offer a visual tracker, budget spreadsheets, bullet journal financial habit tracker, and much more.

My Own Savings Goal Progress

Why do I care so much about savings goals? Well, it’s no surprise that graduate students make very little money. And I was no exception to that until I graduated in 2019 from my PhD program at the age of 29. I therefore felt like I got a late start to saving for my financial goals. Since that time, I’ve worked hard to catch up and make progress towards my financial goals.

In fact, I’ve worked up to regularly saving 40% of my take home income per month. I don’t say that to brag. I just say that to highlight that I want you to feel like you can set big goals and achieve them. And I feel like I can help you do that.

Of course, it’s important to note that there are many things that make this level of saving easier for me than others. I don’t have kids or pets, I share an apartment with my partner, I live a little over a mile away from work and so am able to walk and avoid commuting costs, and our household income is roughly average for the area.

But there are also things that make this level of saving harder, including the fact that I live in Seattle, one of the highest cost-of-living areas. I also have Celiac’s disease and am prone to injury. So my grocery and medical bills are regularly on the higher end. I can therefore speak to the savings strategies that work for me and that may be helpful for you as well.

Tips for Increasing Your Savings: Reduce Your Big 3 Expenses

On average, households’ 3 biggest expenses are: housing, transportation, and food. Consequently, for most people, the best way to save money for financial goals will be by reducing expenses in these 3 areas and diverting those savings to their goals.

How to Save on Housing

For housing, this might mean downsizing to a smaller house or apartment. Conveniently, a smaller home also means lower utility bills! And less time cleaning!

You can also save money on housing by having a roommate or, potentially more palatably, house hacking. For example, you can rent out a room or even storage or parking space for hundreds of dollars a month! Check out my post on house hacking for more information.

For me, splitting rent with my partner and living in a 1-bedroom apartment has saved tons of money. True to form, our small apartment is also easy to heat and cool. We’ve never had to heat our apartment from May through October. And we live in Seattle, so while we bought a small air conditioner this year, we only used it a few times and instead strategically opened windows and doors for venting and cooling. All of these cost savings have allowed me to divert thousands of dollars to my goals.

How to Save on Food

To reduce food expenses, the first step I recommend is meal planning. Meal planning is powerful for reducing food waste and impulse purchases. If you’re new to meal planning, start by asking yourself whether you can you make meals with overlapping ingredients. Likewise, do you regularly have food waste and can repurpose leftovers or eat them more often for lunch or dinner?

My partner and I have found that if we make 3 dinners a week, the leftovers usually end up covering dinners for the week. I’ve posted a typical grocery list I use for myself below. In a typical week, I have yogurt, berries, and homemade granola for breakfast. I’ll eat half a bag of salad mix with half a can of beans for lunch. Nuts, homemade banana chips, and generic brand chips are common snacks. And I’ll frequently make dishes like gluten free caprese pasta with Beyond Burger or breakfast tacos for dinner. I make 2 dinners a week and my partner makes 1 dinner a week.

If you’re looking for a meal planner, check out my Ultimate Budgeting Bundle and Grocery Store Bundle, both of which include meal planning pages and grocery lists.

Finally, before going to the grocery store, check for coupons on your grocery store app. Clipping coupons may sound kind of silly. But what seems like a small amount of money can add up to a lot across multiple purchases and grocery trips. There are even coupons where you can save $10 on $80 of groceries. So you can save tons of money over time with coupons.

And it’s easier than ever to do so on many grocery store apps. We have found that Kroger particularly offers good coupons.

Save Money on Transportation

Last but certainly not least, with fuel costs increasing, transportation eats up an increasingly large portion of many families’ expenses. If you can, consider using public transportation or walking. Walking is incredibly good for your health, including weight loss and mental health. Or if you’re feeling more adventurous, you can bike, scooter, skateboard, or heck, even hoverboard to your destination.

My partner and I share a car. I walk or jog to and from work the couple of times a week I go into the office. And I pretty much bus or walk/jog everywhere else. I also paid off the car soon after I bought it (thanks to my savings from these tips!) so my transportation expenses are about $0 a week. I know, please don’t hate me.

Of course, the important part with all of these tips is to actually shift that saved money to your savings goals! So keep track of your spending for a few months and use the tips below to get into the habit of saving that money automatically.

Set Up Spending Roadblocks

The tips above can save you money on some of your big necessary purchases. But what about all those non-necessary purchases that eat away at your expenses and savings?

Marie Kondo Those Purchases That Don’t Bring You Joy

I believe strongly in the importance of spending money on things you love. Similar to how diets fail if you don’t allow yourself room to enjoy foods you like occasionally, financial goals fail if you are overly restrictive. Thus, you may want to reflect on your spending habits and identify where you love spending money, and where you tend to spend money on things you don’t value.

For example, if you love your monthly massages, prioritize those. However, if you spend money on streaming subscriptions you rarely use or Starbucks lunches you could almost as easily pack yourself, consider limiting those purchases.

Set Up Spending Envelopes

An easy way of limiting frivolous spending is to create a spending envelope or checking account for non-necessary purchases within one of your bank accounts. Many financial institutions allow you to create envelopes or separate checking accounts for particular goals or spending categories, at no extra cost to you. At the beginning of the month, put a specified amount of money into that envelope or checking account. You can then draw money from that account for your non-necessary purchases. Once you’ve used that amount of money, you cannot use more.

This strategy can help you be more intentional about your purchases and prevent you from spending extra money on non-necessities without thinking about it.

Create Spend Days

Additionally, you can set up spending days for non-necessary purchases. You know how easy it is to put things in your Amazon shopping cart? When we put things in our shopping carts and when we buy them, we get a hit of dopamine. Often our brains are chasing that dopamine effect rather than the actual purchase.

So instead of buying those things instantly just for the dopamine effect, set up 2 days a month where you will go into your online shopping carts on Amazon, Target, wherever and decide if you want to buy the things you have put in your carts. You’ll still get the dopamine hit from putting an item in your cart. However, you’ll have a better perspective of the value of those items if you give yourself space from that emotional rush.

Similarly, you can keep a list of things you’d like to buy throughout the month. On those two days a month, you can evaluate whether you actually want to go buy them or whether you don’t want those things as much you thought.

Use the Power of Peer Pressure to Limit Spending

Finally, consider getting friends and family on board with your money savings goals. People can often relate to your desire to save money. That is, as long as you’re not overly miserly or stingy about it. You might discuss your goals with them and find ways of spending time together that do not require spending a lot of money.

For example, you might have a nice date night once a month with your partner instead of going out for more frequent but less meaningful dinners.  Or you might enjoy the outdoors with friends instead of grabbing drinks.

Loved ones can help you stay track on your goals, limit temptations, and keep you motivated.

For even more ideas, check out my post on money-saving tips. Again, make sure you are actually shifting saved money to your goals. The tips below will help you do that.

Set Up Automatic Savings for Savings Goals

One of the easiest ways of saving money for your financial goals is taking yourself out of the decision-making process. We only have so much self-discipline. Science shows that we have a progressively tougher time making responsible decisions the more decisions we have to make and the more self-discipline is involved with those decisions.

Have you ever eaten healthy all day, resisted the donuts at work, resisted the Starbucks run, resisted going out to eat, only to eat half a bag of chips in front of the TV before bed? Part of the reason for that is that your self-discipline exhausted itself. The cheat for this is to not have the chips visible or even in the house. Consequently, your brain doesn’t have to decide whether it can resist them or not.

Similarly, you can avoid making tough decisions by automating your savings. Simply set up your bank accounts so that a percentage or amount of your paycheck goes into your savings each month or on whatever regular basis works best for you. Now your brain doesn’t have to decide whether it can defer gratification and save money instead of going out to eat. It’s done for you!

Use Rounding Up for Savings

Some bank accounts also let you set up automatic rounding. In other words, if you pay $6.56 for that Pumpkin Spice Latte (why so expensive, Starbucks?!), your bank account will round up the cost to $7 and place the remaining $0.44 in a savings account. Because these are such small amounts, they can feel like free money in your savings account. And these small savings add up surprisingly quickly.

Use High-Yield Savings Accounts (HYSAs)

Make sure you are putting your money for your savings goals in a high-yield savings account to get the most bang for your buck. The average savings account has an interest rate of 0.46%. Compare this to the average HYSA which has an interest rate of 4.5%.

4-5% can add up to a lot of extra money over time. If you put $10,000 into a conventional savings account, you’ll only earn $46 in interest over a year. However, if you put that money into an HYSA, you’ll earn $450 in a year!

What’s the catch with HYSAs? Virtually nothing. HYSA’s are generally offered by online institutions that do not have the same footprint costs of brick and mortar financial institutions. As a result, they’re able to offer better benefits and interest rates at no additional cost. You can check out more information about HYSA’s in my post on savings.

Make More Money

There is a limit to how much money you can cut from your budget. But there’s no limit to how much money you can make. I therefore recommend exploring opportunities to increase your income. For example, you might look into pursuing a promotion or raise. I included guidance on how to ask for a raise in another post. I used these tips myself recently when I asked my boss about receiving a promotion within the next 6 months.

Alternatively, in your spare time you might pursue a side hustle. I include a variety of side hustle ideas in another post. I recently started guest lecturing as a way to make extra money. And I’ve started creating digital products with the hopes that they make a little extra money as well! Hint, hint, wink wink, nudge, nudge to my Etsy store.

You could also look for things to sell. We recently sold some outdoor gear we weren’t using at an outdoor retailer and made a few hundred dollars. Clothes, furnishings, items related to hobbies, and more can often net you a decent return.

The key for your savings goals is to resist lifestyle creep. When we get a raise or earn extra money, it’s tempting to just start consuming more. Instead, try to live on a similar amount to what you made before and divert the new money to your savings goals.

Create a Money Savings Challenge

Creating money challenges is another one of my favorite ways for building my savings. It also helps gamify the process. A money challenge can last a few weeks, months, or even the whole year. The end goal with a money savings challenge is generally to either save a particular total amount or to not spend money on non-necessities.

Implement a No-Spend Month

For example, Nerdwallet’s podcast promotes no-spend February. With this money saving challenge, you don’t spend any money on non-necessities for the month of February. Conveniently, this is a shorter month so this challenge is slightly easier as a result.

A no-spend month is a great way of cleansing your spending habits. It also helps identify the things that are important to you to spend money on. And it frees up a little extra money to shift towards your savings goals.

Create a Monthly Savings Challenge or 52-Week Savings Challenge

Alternatively, you can set up a savings challenge where you aim to save a specific amount of money weekly or monthly. Over the past year, I have set myself a savings challenge to save at least $2,000 a month in my down payment fund, $500 a month in Roth IRA, and $500 a month towards other goals. Some months are harder than others. But the most important thing is to make consistent progress towards your goal over the long run.

The 52-week savings challenge is a popular and more accessible version of this. With this goal, you start by saving just $1 in the first week. You then increase your weekly savings by $1 each week so that in the second week you save $2, in the third week you save $3, and so on. By the last week, you add $52 to your savings. By taking these regular, small steps towards saving, you end up saving $1,378 throughout the entire year! This is an easy way of building up a starter emergency fund or fund for a savings goal like a family vacation.

You can create your own 52-week challenge by either following the steps above or saving a larger amount each week depending on your goals. To give you extra motivation to achieve your goals, I’ve provided free savings challenge printables below. You can use this digital product for the 52-week challenge or a monthly challenge. I have also included versions where you can write in your preferred weekly or monthly savings goal.

And if you’re saving for a home, I include a visual savings tracker to help you reach your down payment savings goals.

Printable Savings Trackers

The printables below are designed for your personal use. You can download them as a PDF document and print them out at home or at your local library or print shop.

As you reach particular dollars amounts, you can color in the piggy bank or mason jar to track your progress towards your goal amount.

I love using printable templates because they are a fun way of keeping track of your progress and easily viewing your total savings. If you’re a visual person like me, they are also a great visual aid. And they provide a daily reminder of your goal to prevent you from spending your savings.

If you’re looking for more comprehensive saving tracker templates, I recommend checking out my Ultimate Budgeting Bundle, which comes in a variety of different colors. You can download these printable pages in PDF format and get not just the savings goal tracker, 52-week savings plan, and house savings tracker, but also goal setting sheets, monthly budget worksheets, annual personal finance review worksheets, meal planning documents, a grocery list, holiday planning budgeting worksheets, and more printables to get your personal finances on track. It’s the perfect way to set yourself up well for the New Year.

Important Things to Keep in Mind for Achieving Your Savings Goals

Before closing, I want to note that there are a few important things you should keep in mind before embarking on a savings challenge. First, make sure you have built up your emergency savings. If you do not have a few months of bare bones living expenses saved, that is an important personal finance goal to start with.

Likewise, if you have high-interest debt, make sure you are focusing on debt payoff before moving to these other savings goals. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a one step forward two steps back situation. You can check out my post on methods for paying down debt.

If you are having trouble prioritizing different savings goals, check out my post on prioritizing savings goals.

Finally, if you don’t have a specific goal in mind to save for, it’s helpful to spend some time working on this. It’s easy to dip into our savings contributions if we don’t have a goal in mind. You might consider creating a vision board, journaling, or talking to a partner, friend or relative to help clarify what you’d like to save for over the long term.

Final Thoughts

Saving for a big financial goal is hard work and it takes a long time. It’s easy to feel like a big goal savings amount is unachievable. However, with a few money saving tricks, you can accelerate your savings and develop a consistent savings habit that will serve you well in the long term.

Plus, you can download my free printable savings tracker today to help keep you on track and provide motivation when things start to feel challenging. Whether it’s saving for a rainy day, a nice vacation, retirement, a home, or even just a new outfit, I hope these tips and free printables help you meet your target savings goals and achieve your dreams! Good luck and let me know your goals in the comments!

Last but certainly not least, keep in mind that I am not a financial advisor. This information is solely provided for informational and entertainment purposes, before making any financial decisions, speak to a financial professional.