If you’ve struggled to save money or with impulse buying, these challenges might just be the extra push you need to motivate yourself. We’ve gathered seven different money challenges that you can try out now or add to your list of New Year’s resolutions for 2026.
From TikTok to Reddit, there’s no shortage of viral money challenges out there. From the hundreds of unique money challenges, here are the lucky few I feel are worth trying.
I’ve covered the 100-envelope challenge before, and to be frank, it’s not easy, but the payoff is nice. By the end you’ll save $5,050 in just 100 days.
Challenge rules: You either need 100 envelopes labeled 1 through 100, or you can make a list of numbers 1 to 100. Then, for 100 consecutive days, you simply add money to an envelope that matches its number or check off one of the numbers. For example, you would add $5 to the envelope marked ‘5’ and $50 to the envelope labeled ’50.’ After filling all 100 envelopes or checking off all numbers, you’ll have saved $5,050 in a little over three months.
Challenge modifiers: You don’t have to do the 100-envelope challenge in order, such as 1 through 100. Feel free to bounce around the days, or even start at $100 and go backward.
How many weeks are there in a year? Ding, ding, ding — 52. This challenge dares you to save something every week for an entire year.
Challenge rules: Similar to the 100-envelope challenge, the 52-week challenge involves saving different amounts, but on a schedule. For this challenge, you save $1 for week 1, then $2 for week 2 and so on. At the end of the challenge, you save $1,378.
Challenge modifiers: Instead of changing your contribution amount each week, you can just save $26 per week, which would yield $1,352 after one year.
As the name implies, the no-spend challenge involves stopping all unnecessary spending for a set period, usually for at least one month.
Challenge rules: Pick a month where you don’t spend any money on nonessentials. For example, for the month of March, you’re not allowed to spend money on things like hobbies, eating out, clothes or home decor. Don’t worry — you’ll still pay essential living expenses (housing, insurance, transportation, groceries, etc.) throughout the challenge.
Challenge modifiers: If one month feels too hard to halt all spending, try a no-spend week instead. You can also just make the no-spend challenge impact specific categories, like stopping all spending on fast food or hobbies.
A lot of people store their loose change in a jar or piggy bank, but this money challenge involves rounding up each transaction you make.
Challenge rules: For each purchase, round up the transaction to the nearest whole dollar and save the rounded-up amount. For example, a $1.25 purchase gets rounded up to $2, saving you $0.75. You can do this with physical cash or a bank account with this feature built in, such as SoFi Checking and Savings, Revolut Account or a Bank of America checking account.
Challenge modifiers: Bank accounts with round-up features usually let you choose where the rounded-up amounts are sent, such as savings or investing accounts. With an account like SoFi®, you can create savings Vaults to sort your savings goals and send the round-ups to a specific Vault.
Taking a break from savings challenges for a second, this challenge involves taking a stab at how much you need to save for your eventual retirement. Will you really need one million, and are you on track?
Challenge rules: Simply guess how much money you’ll need to have saved by the time you retire. After you guess, you can use a variety of retirement estimators to see how close you were to how much you need, and then see whether you’re on track.
Challenge modifier: If you’re way off track to save enough for retirement, you can add the challenge of opening up a Roth IRA or increase your contributions to your 401(k).
If you’re like me, you probably have a few subscription services that are draining your funds each and every month.
Challenge rules: Go through your subscription services and cancel the ones you don’t need or use, including streaming or music services, gym memberships, cloud storage, mystery box subscriptions, software packages and so on. After cancelling, add up the total amount you’re saving, such as $46 per month after cancelling two services. Then, set up automatic savings contributions for the same amount.
Challenge modifier: You can take this challenge to the extreme by cancelling all your monthly subscriptions — at least temporarily. Once everything is cancelled, you can evaluate which ones you really don’t want to cancel, reactivate them and leave the others in the dust.
Similar to the no-spend challenge, this challenge focuses on those little guilty pleasures.
Challenge rules: From coffee runs, gas station snacks, fast food, lottery tickets and even video game microtransactions, little purchases we make can really add up without notice. For an entire month, halt those little vices to challenge yourself and save some extra cash.
Challenge modifier: Having physical cash for the week might help curb your impulse buys. Pull out cash you need for essentials, like transportation, grocery shopping and so on.
Need a place to store those hard-earned savings from completing a challenge? Narrow down top savings accounts by fees, features and APYs.
We currently don't have that product, but here are others to consider:
How we picked theseThe Finder Score crunches over 250 savings accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's interest rate, fees, opening deposit and features - this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of savings accounts against FDIC-reported national averages as a baseline. Accounts with rates well over the national average are scored the highest, while accounts with rates well below are scored low.
Money challenges are designed to be somewhat difficult. You’re either limiting your spending or prioritizing savings. And if you don’t do it, who will?
Compare more top bank accounts and money guides to help organize and grow your savings.
Our budget calculator helps you manage your expenses using the 50/30/20 rule: 50% for expenses, 30% for wants and 20% for savings or debt.
Origin is an all-in-one financial management app with budgeting tools, a high-APY cash account and more. See pros and cons here.
Nearly 49% of Americans abandon their yearly goals by February. Here’s how to set yourself up for success instead.
Compare the best budget apps designed for two or more people.
The popular Mint budgeting app is shut down. Try these apps like Mint instead: YNAB, Origin, Empower, Rocket Money and more.
Cut the long road to financial freedom with our list of the best finance blogs for women, by women, to save, earn and invest more.
Do you use a spreadsheet to manage your budget? Automate it with Tiller Money.
A budgeting app and debit card combo that uses the cash envelope budgeting system.
Learn how to choose a budgeting method, avoid common mistakes and build a plan that fits your goals.
YNAB is a budgeting app that helps you give every dollar a job and track progress.