Money saving challenges can be a great way to teach your children about the basics of saving money. There are almost limitless challenges to choose from so we scoured the internet and selected 8 challenges that we feel are educational yet exciting enough to keep your children engaged all year long. These are definitely Moola approved!
The Penny Challenge
I love the Penny Challenge for smaller children. My children get excited by dropping coins in their piggy banks everyday. While $667.95 over a year is by no means an astronomical amount, it is a fortune to kiddos and more importantly teaches them the value of saving your pennies. The Penny Challenge is in the typical 365 day savings format. On the first day you put in a single penny and by the last day you put in 365 pennies. That’s less than your daily Starbucks. This is great because for such a modest amount the impact that this lesson could have on your kiddos is priceless. That’s the kind of return on investment we love!
Year End Amount: $667.95
Ages: 3 and up
52 Week Dollar Challenge
This challenge is as simple as it sounds. Simply add one dollar in the first week and add another dollar each additional week. By the end of the 52 weeks you will have accumulated $1,378.00. While it’s not a huge amount, it will be more than enough to grab a kids attention and show them the real power of savings.
Year End Amount: $1,378.00
Ages: 3 and up
The Matching Money Challenge
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. If that is the case this challenge must have been what they had in mind. This Matching Money Challenge provides no clear way for kids to make money but would be an ideal complement to any other savings challenge out there. In this challenge whatever money children come up with has to be matched by their parents. This way $10 quickly becomes $20. If kids get into this they may start getting creative as to how to come up with cash. They may start selling old toys or doubling their cash on birthdays. Grandma’s $100 birthday gift could cost you an additional $100 if they are wily and paying attention. This may work best for older kids as some of the concepts may be too much for younger kids.
Year End Amount: ?
Ages: 6 and up
The Good Habits Challenge
No one is born knowing how to do the right thing. It is through teaching and gentle persuasion that kids learn how to develop good habits. What better way than to incentivize desired behaviors. Whether it’s additional math problems or donating money to those in need, kids can bring in the dough by being the kind of person any parent would be proud of.
Year End Amount: ?
Ages: 5 and up
$7 Days a Week Challenge
This is a rather easy challenge to follow. On the first day of the week you invest $1. Every following day of the week you add another dollar. So, on the second day you invest $2, on the third day you invest $3 and so on. By the end of the year you will have accumulated $1,456.00. Not only will this help your child start to understand savings but your kids will start to associate Wednesday with $3 and Sunday with $7, what better way to learn your days of the week?
Year End Amount: $1,456.00
Ages: 3 and up
“Earn It” Challenge
This has to be my favorite challenge for kids. It couples the power of saving money and begins the foundation of a healthy work ethic. Similar to the series of chores that most of us had as a child, in this challenge the children must select a chore or series of chores that they want to do. Once they have completed their end of the deal, parents pay the children the agreed to amount.
Year End Amount: ?
Ages: 5 and up
Pro Tip: I let my kids negotiate what they will work for. It teaches them to value their time, to be brave enough to say what they want and be ok with disappointment.
Weather Savings Challenge
This is a really fun challenge. It gets kids excited about savings and about the weather. First you must select a day of the week that you will use to determine the temperature. It honestly doesn’t matter but putting it smack dab in the center of the week might break up some of the mid week monotony and give kids something to look forward to on a Wednesday night. Whatever the high temperature is for that day is the amount that you put into savings. This challenge can rake in the dough. From a rough estimation for the area I live we could be looking at putting $4,000 towards this challenge over a year. Depending on where you live, it could be more in places like Arizona or less in colder climates like Alaska.
Year End Amount: ?
Ages: 5 and up
Weekly Quarter Challenge
This is the same format as the Penny Challenge but packs a lot more of a punch to your savings. Instead of investing pennies, you are investing quarters daily. On the first day you invest $0.25 and by the final day of the year you are investing $92.25. While in no single day are you investing a ton of cash this is by far the most aggressive savings challenge. By the end of the year you will have saved a massive $16,698.75!
Year End Amount: $16,698.75
Ages: 3 and up
Whether you are saving pennies, quarters or dollars the amount doesn’t really matter. The lesson that children can learn from a Money Savings Challenge can help form a habit of savings that can last a lifetime.
As important as it is to teach your children about the concepts of saving money as early as possible, loose change can be a very real choking hazard for toddlers. Please be sure your child is well over putting things in their mouth before introducing them to coins.