A Simple Guide to the 100 Envelope Savings Challenge

Much like 2022, loads of folks are entering into 2023 with budgeting on the brain. It’s unsurprising, really, considering the whole cost-of-living situation we’re dealing with lately. So, it’s not shocking to hear that certain savings hacks are taking off on TikTok right now. One, in particular, is the ‘100 Envelope Savings Challenge’.

If you’re looking for fun, simple ways to build better savings habits this year here’s a peek at the ‘Envelope Savings Challenge’ and how to do it.

What’s the ‘100 Envelope Savings Challenge’?

The concept behind the ‘100 Envelope Savings Challenge’ is one that has been around for a while now. In fact, it is fairly similar to the savings bingo hack we wrote about a while back, courtesy of She’s On the Money.

In essence, it is a way to gamify the process of regularly putting money away. In this particular example, this is how it works.

• Take 100 envelopes and number them from 1 to 100
• Shuffle the order of your envelopes
• Pick one random envelope every day for 100 days and put money in the envelope, corresponding with the number written on it
• After 100 days, you should have $5,050

@amoochlife

100 envelope challenge to save 5,000 #budgetingtips #savingmoney #personalfinancetips

♬ You – Petit Biscuit

Another approach, if you don’t want to stick to the ‘100 Envelope Savings Challenge’ exactly, is to personalise the process to suit your goals.

• Decide how much money you want to put away and over what time period (for example, $1,000 in 100 days)
• Take one envelope for each day you’ve allowed yourself
• Divide your savings goal, unevenly, by the days allocated – you can use a tool like this to help you out
• Write the numbers on each envelope and mix up the order
• Then, same as above, pick a random envelope and match your money to the number on it

Budgeting trends for 2023

If you want to keep the momentum going to save better in 2023, Pinterest trends have highlighted some other popular terms floating around right now.

According to the social platform, ‘Envelope challenge savings’ has increased in interest by 155 per cent recently. Similarly, ‘100 envelope challenge’ has spiked by 145 per cent. Moving away from envelopes and cash, ‘1000 savings challenge‘ has grown in interest by 185 per cent, ‘budget challenge‘ has had searches spike by 135 per cent, and ‘bi-weekly savings challenge‘ came out on top with an increase of 355 per cent in searches.