2015 Piggy Bank Challenge

Banking on Books

Reading Reward

I found this challenge on the “Let’s Read” blog at http://momobookblog.blogspot.com

On her wonderful book blog Marianne posted the following challenge in English, which she discovered and translated from a German blogger. 

For every book you read, put $2.00 (or whatever you deem affordable) in a piggy bank, envelope, jar, etc.  Don’t touch the money until the following fiscal year and you will have some money to splurge on something fun. -- Probably not on books since that’s not a splurge, it’s a necessity, in my opinion.  :)

Marianne reads A LOT. Last year she read 72 books and saved $144.00 Euros!  I would have saved about half that, but that’s fine with me. 

This challenge is similar what I did to try and bribe my kids to read when they were small: for every two books they read, they either got a treat at Dairy Queen or $5.00, their choice.  I’m sorry to say, I didn’t have to shell out that much money.  My kids, for the most part, are not readers.  Unfortunately, I can’t choose their hobbies (not anymore since they’re all grown), but I still have this little hope burning in me that my (and my sisters’ and mother’s) enthusiasm for the books we discuss will ignite some kind of desire to pick up a book and find the genre that will inspire them to keep picking up more books. 

Special Savings

Another savings challenge a friend told me about is a weekly challenge.  Each week, she puts money in a jar corresponding with the week number.  So, at the end of week one of the year, she puts $1.00 aside, week two she puts $2.00 aside, etc.  At the end of the year she had saved $1,378!  That’s a hefty chunk of change!

My friend uses this method for vacation savings, but you could make it special savings for anything you want, maybe a Christmas fund, college fund for your kids, car fund, whatever.  If you stick to it, this may be the only fool-proof pyramid scheme truly working in your favor.

While this seems to work great for my friend, I can see that this may be a tad too rich for my blood.  Maybe I’ll tailor it to something more my speed, like ten dollar increments per month. For example, in January I will set $10.00 aside, February $20.00, March $30.00, etc.  By the end of the calendar year I will have $780.00.  Since it’s already April I’ll have some catching up to do, but I’m going to give it a whirl along with the book savings challenge. Next year I might start the monthly savings in reverse.  I’ll start with $120.00 in January, $110.00 in February and keep decreasing by $10.00 so come December I’ll have to put less aside instead of more.

Happy reading, happy saving!Annette


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