This past weekend my group of friends all went out to have some good ol’ fashioned fun! Fun is a word in our adulthood we don’t use as often as we should. With the demands of life, work, and families, I don’t think we have nearly as much fun as we ought to.
So to shake things up, my close group of friends and I all decided we would go out for some fun to enjoy ourselves and take a short break from the strenuous task of adulting. We all got together and attended a nice brunch with adult beverages after we went high-speed go-kart racing, and ended our night at one of those paint and sip classes where I channeled my inner Picasso and made a beautiful masterpiece (by my standards at least).
While all of these activities were super enjoyable and very relaxing and therapeutic I could not help but think, how should one properly save for fun without having to dish out a pretty penny for a weekend full of fun.
Hence, why I’m here to give you 4 fun tips to save for something we all need more of-F.U.N.
1. Start A Competition Amongst Friends
One of the biggest challenges most face when saving for anything is the lack of commitment and motivation to be consistent. Committing to a savings plan is difficult so
it’s always best to incentivize it. One fun way that I’ve found that works for me and my friends is to start a small competition in order to motivate us all to save more.
Not only does it make it fun, a competition holds each party involved accountable as well. So why not, take a friend trip and make it a fun competition all the way leading to the day of the trip. This way you have a double celebration.
2. Save your 5’s
This is one fun way that I’ve been saving for years now. If you follow a cash savings plan, saving your 5’s can make saving a bit fun. It’s simple and easy.
Every time you make a purchase and receive change take all of the five dollar bills and store them away to save. Typically, I’ll do this when I have an event I want to attend or some other fun activity I want to save for.
You’d be surprised at
how many 5’s you can rack up each week when you put them away. A tip to make this even more fun is always asking for 5’s when you receive change.
3. No-Spend Days
This is a cool idea that I got from one of my favorite finance bloggers David of Zero Day Finance. David discusses on his blog how adding a no-spend day to his weekly routine helped him save $18,432 in 6 months.
Basically, no-spend days are the day of the week you dedicate to not spending any money and instead save those funds. For me, I try and challenge myself to have a couple no-spend days per week. I’ve gotten as far as adding a no spend week every quarter. Small things add up. Try it!
4. Make a FUN jar
This is a cool idea to make sure you not only have a
fun night out or weekend but also you save towards that. This is easy to do, take two empty jars and fill one with fun ideas under $50 that you can do and another to save each week.
Each week take all of your extra change or leftover cash and put in the empty jar. At the end of each week on a Sunday count the cash and see how much progress you’ve made. Once you finally get to your goal you take out an idea from the fun jar and do it next week.
Saving for fun doesn’t always have to be a task. Finding ways to save for some fun in a creative way can make it all the more worthwhile. Follow the tips above and it’ll help you decompress after a long work week and also have some exciting fun in the process.
Brandon Herring is a financial professional by day and ratchet scholar by night. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign his areas of specialty include personal finance, entrepreneurship, business, and marketing. He Is a self-proclaimed know it all with a love for his community, and seeks to contribute philanthropically through financial education amongst African Americans.
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