52 Weeks Money Challenge - Customized

One of my New Year’s Resolution this year is to Save Money. Last year, when I was introduced to Mommy blogs, I was also able to see Kurpot Pinay’s template of the 52 Week Money Challenge. Back then, she took the 50 increment and monthly, she’s having an entry on her blog to report her progress. I was really amazed on how she managed to keep her goals. Dahil jan, peg ko na sya this 2015!

Yahoooo!!!

Since I am in the new phase of living my life – my own rented house, having a nanny, everyday food etc., I am trying my best to discover the world of budgeting. Before kasi, dedma lang sakin yang budget budget na yan. If I want something, go lang ng go.

So what I did early this year was to write down the things that I want to accomplish then cross them out when it’s done. Good thing meron din akong planner kaya I am reminded of the plans. It’s my first time to do all these things so come and join me in fulfilling this goal of mine!! =)

For me to save this year, I chose the 52 weeks Money Challenge in 10 peso increment. I think for our budget, it would be enough lang. At least it would be realistic and hindi ako mahihirapan when I reach the highest amount particularly in the next couple of months.

I have read, Mommy Joy of Happiness of Joy that she took this challenge too, only she started from the higher amount going to lowest.

You see, you can customize this challenge on your liking. Of course you have to consider your budgets, money and as to when do you get your pay from your employers. You have to set a challenge that you think na kaya mo naman unlike setting up a higher goal then on a later part, hirap na hirap ka naman ma fulfill at ang ending, give up ka na lang.

Let me show you my template, 

I copied the template from Kuripot Pinay’s blog and printed it out. I am actually thinking if I can reach the goal on the later part. I think I would have a hard time so I decided to jumble the template.

I actually sandwiched the small amounts with the bigger ones so I won’t be that stressed with the amount that I’ll save. In my case, I get paid every 2 weeks so biweekly, I can manage to at least get the required amount for me to save. I actually got the first month of January covered since small amount pa lang so I did the sandwich approach to the months of February – November. I left the December as it is because I would have my 13^th month pay to cover that month. It might look confusing to you but what I did was, I had the small amounts increasing every week while the huge amounts are decreasing. It would appear that I will pay Php530 biweekly.

As I mentioned, I got the January covered that’s why hindi ko na sya sinali sa arrangement along with December. So far, I had Php100 as per tracker.

I think this template would work if you:

* are too excited to see your savings grow. I admit that my previous goals in saving money wasn’t successful because I get so bored waiting for it to grow. I want to see it doubled or tripled but since minimum amount lang, mejo mabagal ang pag grow ng money which in the end, tinatamad na lang ako. With this template, there were weeks that you would save a bigger amount which would build up fast din.

* are being paid biweekly or twice a month (15^th and 30^th). Most employees get paid twice a month only so it would be a burden if you would have to save for the weeks that you don’t get your salary. I actually encountered this last year where I was only able to complete a month. Aside from the fact that my goal was unrealistic with what I can save every week,  I had a hard time saving for the weeks na wala akong sweldo. I learned from so I customized it to give way for those weeks in the middle of payday to save a minimal amount. With this template, I would save Php530 biweekly. In this way, I am aware of this certain amount that I have to save on my salary every now and then. Say for example, the week of Feb 1 – Feb 7 and Feb 8 – Feb 14 would be a total of Php530. That same goes to other weeks.

* don’t want to get bothered on how much your next two weeks would be since you would only pay a certain amount. Using the regular template, there were weeks that you have to pay Php210 and Php220 which would be a total of Php430 then the next two weeks after that would be Php470. Although it would be couple of tens higher, it would be a lot harder for the months of July, August and September onwards.

I took up this challenge so I’ll be able to fulfill one of my New Year’s Resolution for 2015. I customized it the way that it would be fun and easy considering my budget and my salary. Who knows? If I can ace it by the end of the year, I may be able to go up to 20 increment right? =) #positivebivelang

San ko ba gagamitin ang pera?

Emergency Fund. I wanted to have what they call “Emergency Fund”. This would be used only for emergency purposes like hospitalization, calamity, or unemployment. They said that Emergency Fund should be 6x of your monthly salary. I won’t go to that yet kasi it would be really hard for me so I would start with this. I am looking to put this on a savings account for the mean time. I am also considering the amount of Php13,780 to open an account and play a game with stock markets but I don’t want to go that far yet. I don’t know anything about stocks so ngayon, savings muna ako. Who knows? Magka idea ako in stocks before the year ends. =)

What I was planning to do as well is, instead of saving Php530 pesos bi-weekly, I would make it up to Php600 so there would be an extra Php70 which will become a total of  Php1,540 if my calculation is correct. (52 weeks – weeks of January and December (8) = 44 divided by 2 (biweekly) multiplied by Php70). Tell me if I calculated it wrongly ha?! So with these, I would end up having a total of Php15,320 by the end of this year.

Anyone can actually make this 52 weeks money challenge. You just have to make sure that you customized it based on your capability. I hope I could stay on focus in reaching the goal! So help me God! =)

How about you muthers?! How do you plan to save money?