Money Challenge - Update

I spent the morning today reading more about the 52 Week Money Challenge that I posted about last night.  A lot of things that I read actually made a lot of sense to me, and so, while I am still going to do this challenge, I'm going to do it a little differently.

The last four weeks on the year, I would have to be putting $49, $50, $51, and $52 into the jar.  That's $202 right at Christmastime, when money is already stretched thin after having bought everyone's Christmas presents.  So when I've decided to do, for the most part, is to do this challenge backwards - putting the larger amounts of money in the jar at the beginning of the year, when I have some extra money that I got at Christmas.  Each week, the dollar amount I put in the jar, instead of increasing by a dollar, will decrease by a dollar.

However, I want to try to be realistic.  If I miss a week, odds are that I would give up on the whole thing.  So, if money is ever to tight to put in the amount I should be putting in on a certain week, I'll just put in what I can, and check off that week on the chart instead of the week that it is.  That sounded confusing (because I am terrible at explaining things).  So basically, if on week 2 I can't afford to put $51 in the jar, but I can afford to put $20 in the jar, I would put in the $20 and check off week 33 (when I should be putting in $20) instead of checking off week 2.

Like I said yesterday, I'm keeping my loose change in the jar as well.  After adding a penny I found on the floor in my room to the jar, I'm at $13.34 in change.  If saving $13 counts as saving money, then I've already accomplished my goal of saving money!  (No, I'm not actually counting saving $13 as saving money.)

Even though I put in $1 yesterday, I put in $52 today because of doing this challenge backwards.  I didn't want to take the dollar out because I had already checked it off the chart...

Using Microsoft Excel, I recreated the chart I had printed out, but I typed it so it would match how I'm doing the challenge.  I took down the chart I'd printed off yesterday and taped this one up in its place.  You can see that I've checked off the first and last weeks.  On Sunday, I'll be adding the next amount and checking off week two!

I have to think about what I want to do with the saved money at the end of the year.  I think it might be a good idea to put it into a bank account that I earn interest on, but I don't know how that works, so I'll have to look up more information on that.  I also could put the majority of it right towards my student loans... Or it could remain "concert ticket money"... I don't know!  Good thing there's still a year to think about the options I have!