A fun and effective way to speed up your savings efforts, whether that is for your emergency fund, to pay off debt or for your 3 months living fund, is by starting a coins jar.
Whilst you are unlikely to save up your entire 3 months living fund by just adding some loose change to a jar, every little bit helps and what is more important, each time you contribute something to your jar, you not only reinforce your goal and the fact that you can be in control of your money, it also works as a visual representation of your financial progress. It is always fun to see your money grow and what better way than having a coins jar that fills up a little more each time you add in another coin?
You can decide on your own “rules” for the jar: when to put something in and how much. Some ideas:
- Put in $1 each day or $5 at the end of each week;
- At the end of each day or week, put in however much money you have saved from the Limit 1 expense challenge;
- Add in any loose change at the end of each day;
- Save up any $1 notes and put them in the jar.
As you can see there are lots of ways you can personalize this challenge to make it work for you. Make sure to empty your coins jar at the end of each month to assign the money saved up to your savings goal!
Although a coins jar can be anything from an ugly old box to a nice looking spiced up mason jar, use what you have lying around and add some nice stickers to it if you want to. Either way, take a photo of your coins jar with your first contributions and share a photo on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and make sure to add #31DayChallengeToFE. As always there is also a step in the 100 Steps Mission to Financial Independence dedicated to a coins jar: Step 29: Start a Coins Jar for some more ideas.
100 Steps Mission 