This Money-Saving Challenge Starts With Just a Single Penny (2024)

This Money-Saving Challenge Starts With Just a Single Penny (1)

by Nicole Dow

Senior Writer

What difference can saving your pennies make? A lot, it turns out, if you’re doing the penny challenge.

This money-saving challenge helps you put aside $667.95 in a year — or $671.61 in a leap year. To participate in the challenge, follow these steps:

  1. Start by saving one penny on the first day.

  2. Each day that follows, add one cent to the amount you saved the day before. For example, on day two, you’d add $0.02 to your savings. On day three, you’d add $0.03 and so on.

  3. Continue this pattern every day for an entire year.

Now, please note: You’re not simply saving one penny a day. If you did that, you’d wind up with only $3.65 in savings at the end of the year. Pretty pointless.

The key to growing your savings with this challenge is adding an additional penny to what you’re depositing each day, not to your total savings. So on day two, your total will be $0.03 because you’re adding $0.02 to the penny from the first day. On day three, you’ll have a total of $0.06 after making your daily savings deposit.

This chart shows how much you’d deposit each day — along with your savings balance — for the first week of the penny challenge.


Penny Challenge at a Glance

DayDaily SavingsBalance

1

$0.01

$0.01

2

$0.02

$0.03

3

$0.03

$0.06

4

$0.04

$0.10

5

$0.05

$0.15

6

$0.06

$0.21

7

$0.07

$0.28

You’re starting out with super small amounts, but your money will grow over the course of 12 months. And because the daily saving amounts are nominal, you don’t have to stress about needing a bunch of money to build your savings.

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Saving Money With the Penny Challenge

If you stick with this money-saving challenge for an entire year, you would deposit $3.65 on the last day of the challenge and you’d end up with a total of $667.95. (Trust us, we did the math.)

That’s $667.95 you could add to your emergency fund or use to pay down debt. It’s money you could put toward a future vacation or a shopping spree.

Plan out how you’d like to use your savings. Having an end goal that really matters to you will serve as great motivation to stick with this challenge all year long.

Tackling the Penny Challenge by the Month

While it’s easy to find enough spare change to get this challenge started, it gets progressively difficult as the days and weeks pass — especially if most of your financial transactions are cashless.

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You can hack the challenge by putting your savings aside once a month rather than once a day. By grouping together all of your daily savings for the month and making one deposit, you won’t face the struggle of coming up with exact change each day.


Savings Growth Month by Month

MonthAmount

January

$4.96

February

$12.74

March

$23.25

April

$31.65

May

$42.16

June

$49.95

July

$61.07

August

$70.68

September

$77.55

October

$89.59

November

$95.85

December

$108.50

Pay yourself first by making your monthly savings deposit before you spend money on bills or other expenses. Or schedule automatic transfers from your checking to your savings account so you don’t even have to think about saving.

Let the money sit in your account without making any withdrawals and by the end of the year, you’ll have over $600 to spend as you please.

Nicole Dow is a former senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Deputy editor Tiffany Wendeln Connors updated this post.

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This Money-Saving Challenge Starts With Just a Single Penny (2024)

FAQs

What is the 1 penny challenge? ›

The 1p saving challenge is a popular money saving challenge where you make a minimal daily deposit to grow your savings over time. This challenge requires you to save 1 penny on the first day, gradually increasing the amount by adding 1 penny each day, and maintaining the daily incremental increase for 365 days.

What is the money saving challenge pennies? ›

On the first day of the challenge, you start by saving one penny. This rises to two pennies on the second day, three pennies on the third, four pennies on the fourth, and so on. On the last day of the year, which is the 365th day, that amount rises to £3.65.

What is the penny method for saving money? ›

The premise of the Penny Challenge is simple: You start by saving one penny on day one, two pennies on day two, three pennies on day three, and so on. Each day, you increase the number of pennies you save by one until day 365, where you will save $3.65. By the end of the year, you'll have saved a total of $667.95!

What is the 1p challenge? ›

WHAT IS THE PENNY SAVING CHALLENGE? The idea is straightforward – save 1p on January 1st, 2p on the 2nd, 3p on the next day and so on. You simply add a penny on every day. By the end of December, you'll have saved £667.95 (or £671.61 in a leap year)!

How do you save starting with 1p? ›

If you need proof that little changes can add up throughout the year, look no further than the 1p challenge. The idea is simple. You save 1p on the first day of the year and add a penny to the amount each day. So on January 1st you'd save 1p, 2p on January 2nd, 3p on January 3rd… you get the idea.

What if you start with one penny and double your money every day? ›

After one month, the penny doubling every day earns more than $5 million. Yet, notice how the bulk of the wealth was built during the final week. With compounding, as the base amount of money grows, it's easier and easier to earn magnificent sums.

How to do $1 savings challenge? ›

Match each week's savings amount with the number of the week in your challenge. In other words, you'll save $1 the first week, $2 the second week, $3 the third week, and so on until you put away $52 in week 52.

How much is a penny a day doubled for 365 days? ›

Clearly, the answer is one penny doubling in value every day for one year is worth more than $1 million. Had it been a leap year, compound interest would have doubled the value of the pennies one last time. Logan is absolutely amazed when he learns the answer, while Madison feels as smart as Albert Einstein.

What is the 5 savings challenge? ›

The fiver challenge - save £7,000

This challenge works the same as the 52 week challenge, but you go up in multiples of £5 rather than £1. So week one = £5, week two = £10, all the way up to week 52 at £260. Alternatively, if you're not in the position to save these larger amounts, you could save £5 every week instead.

How long is the penny challenge? ›

365-day penny challenge

You'll put one penny in the jar on Day 1, two pennies on Day 2, and so on until you're putting 365 pennies on the last day of the year. (Of course, you could start using larger denominations as long as you're putting in the correct amount).

What is the 70 30 savings method? ›

In doing so, they miss out on the number one key to success in investing: TIME. The 70/30 Rule is simple: Live on 70% of your income, save 20%, and give 10% to your Church, or favorite charity. This has many benefits in addition to saving 20% of your income.

How do you double a penny everyday for 30 days? ›

On day one, we have one penny, and on day two, we have two pennies. On day three, we have four pennies, and on day four, we have eight pennies. This doubling pattern continues for 30 days. By the end of the 30th day, we have $5,368,709.12!

What is the 365 day money challenge? ›

Having a limited budget isn't a good enough reason not to save. With the 365-day penny challenge, you'll set aside a penny amount based on the day. For instance, day 1 – one penny, day 2 – two pennies, so on a so forth until the end of the year. At which point, you'll have almost $668 in the bank.

What is the 52 week savings challenge? ›

There are no complicated rules to remember. Week 1, you save $1.00. Week 2 you save $2.00, and it continues through the year, adding one more dollar to each week's savings goal. By Week 52, you'll set aside $52.00, which will bring the year's total savings to $1,378!

How to save $10,000 in a year? ›

6 steps to save $10,000 in a year
  1. Evaluate income and expenses. To make room for saving, you'll need a meticulous budget that outlines all your sources of income and all your expenditures. ...
  2. Make an actionable savings plan. ...
  3. Cut unnecessary expenses. ...
  4. Increase your income. ...
  5. Avoid new debt. ...
  6. Invest wisely.
Apr 2, 2024

How does the $1 challenge work? ›

Match each week's savings amount with the number of the week in your challenge. In other words, you'll save $1 the first week, $2 the second week, $3 the third week, and so on until you put away $52 in week 52.

How much is 1 penny a day for a month? ›

When you think about saving money, you might think about your money adding up. That is, if you save a penny per day, at the end of the month you'll have 30 cents.

What is more 1 million dollars or a penny that doubles everyday for 30 days? ›

This doubling pattern continues for 30 days. By the end of the 30th day, we have $5,368,709.12! This means that in just 30 days, our initial investment of one penny has turned into more than a million dollars.

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