Money Envelope Challenge Setback
The year is 2022 and having set to make this my year to save/make money, I started off the year with a money envelope challenge. The challenge is you label 100 white envelopes 1 to 100 and place in random order. Twice a week you pull out two envelopes and put whatever number is on that envelope money into it. The challenge is once every envelope is full which should take until the end of the year you will have saved around $5,000 dollars. Thinking this was a great idea, and how I could take said $5,000 dollars and use that for something big like for example a down payment of a piece of land.
I have to say this challenged ended up being a lot harder than I have expected, when January came around, I had some extra money coming to me for house watching for my boss while she was out of town. Knowing that January heating bill was going to be on the high side, I also decided that I would start with the lower number envelopes and fill them up first. The first few months weren’t that hard at all. I even had it down to a science and then April hit and none of my bills really went down in cost thank you inflation! So as of August 2022, I have not added to my envelope challenge in 5 months!!!
Now don’t get me wrong, I have been doing some smaller money saving challenges like putting $100 dollars away a month to pay for a Sam’s Club run, my animals vet bills, and a little extra just in case money. I have also challenged myself to the $20 dollars a week for 15 weeks challenge that will end with $300 at the end of the challenge. The goal was to try and do that 15-week challenge twice a year, I have completed the first goal and starting in August will be the second challenge.
Being a person that wants to complete something and get it down in a timely fashion, I have to say I felt defeated that I couldn’t even keep this 100-envelope money challenge going. But as I sit across from my great friend Deb at our almost weekly get together dinners to talk about our futures and goals we want to get done before the end of the year. One dinner we were talking about how we have 5 months left in the 2022 and that gives us 5 months to do something! Deb went on to make us some great motivations to keep us on track, one being those two cute signs that I have hanging in my bathroom so I see every day, “Make it Happen” the second a notebook with the meaning behind the number 5.
- "The number five symbolizes freedom, curiosity, and change – a desire to have adventures and explore new possibilities" -unknown
The number 5 represents new opportunities, and also new beginning that can be coming your way. Number 5 can also relate to big life changes, so this is the time to go after the dreams you desire.
Even though it may look like I have failed the envelope challenge since I will not have saved all the money by the end of the year. Instead of giving up, I am taking on the challenge to keep working on it, even if that means only getting one envelope filled a month. The goal is never to give up. Because I have a dream and I plan to go after it, it might take a little extra time right now with everything be so high but that might not be a bad thing.
So instead of getting mad at yourself and quitting something that is hard or you know you will not get finished in your time frame, how can you change the goal a little to “Make it happen”.