What Is The 100 Envelope Challenge and Is It Doable?
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If you struggle to save money, the latest viral savings trend may just be the answer to changing your financial situation…
It is dubbed the 100 envelope challenge (or the 100 envelope money savings challenge) and the point of this envelope savings challenge is to help you save money in a fun way. Completing the challenge will help you save over $5,000 in less than a year.
What is the 100 Envelope Challenge?
The 100 Envelope Challenge is a fun way to save money. You start with 100 envelopes and write numbers from 1 to 100 on them. Every day, pick one envelope at random. If the envelope says ‘5’, put $5 in it. Keep doing this each day. When you’ve filled all the envelopes, you’ll have $5,050 saved up!
How to Do The 100 Envelope Challenge
Step #1: Gather your supplies. You will need 100 envelopes, a black Sharpie or pen, stickers to seal the envelopes (optional), a box or container to store the envelopes (optional) and cash.
If you don’t keep cash around, you can make a withdrawal at the bank or ATM or withdrawal money each paycheck to set aside for the money challenge. I also created a 100 Day Envelope Challenge Printable that you can color daily as you fill each envelope with cash to help you keep track of your progress!
Step #2: Prepare your envelopes. Take your pen or marker and write a number on the front of each envelope. Start with ‘1’ and keep going until you reach ‘100’. You can choose to keep these in numerical order or shuffle them so you are randomly choosing a number each day.
Step #3: Choose an envelope to fill each day. Every day, pick one envelope. Then, put in money that’s the same as the number on the envelope. For example, if one day you draw the number 67 you would deposit $67 into that envelope and seal it. If you draw the number 3, you’d deposit $3 into that envelope and seal it and continue this for 100 days.
Step #4: Assess your accomplishment. Congratulations! You’ve completed this fun challenge. At the end of 100 days, you will have 100 envelopes filled with cash totaling $5,050.
Step #5: Decide what to do with your money. Once you’ve completed the challenge the hardest part is deciding what to do with the money. You can put the money into your checking account, a high-yield savings account or a separate savings account that will keep you from spending it until you need it. You can even use this money to start sinking funds to create savings accounts for reoccurring expenses.
Is the 100 envelope challenge doable?
As someone who has personally completed the 100 envelope challenge (twice), I can tell you that this method of saving money does work and it is doable. However, it truly does require patience, time, dedication and of course, money.
If saving this much money in such a short amount of time is not feasible for you, you can adjust the time frame and customize the 100-envelope challenge to fit your unique financial situation.
The reality is, most people don’t have extra cash lying around to complete a filled envelope every day. Some even take on side hustles and cut unnecessary expenses to be able to afford to complete the challenge.
In the end, this trend is perfect for saving on a down payment for a house, paying off credit card debt, paying off student loans, saving for a big purchase such as a vacation, establishing an emergency fund, starting a savings habit, etc. The possibilities are endless!
What is a digital version of the 100 envelope challenge?
You can do the 100 envelope challenge digitally by depositing money into a bank account either manually or by direct deposit. Since you won’t be using physical envelopes and there isn’t a way to use digital envelopes, you can use an online random number generator to help you pull a number for that day or week. You can also use my 100 Day Envelope Challenge Printable to help you keep track of the amounts.
Don’t let the large amount of cash to complete this 100-day envelope challenge scare you away from reaching your financial goals. If this method of saving doesn’t work for you, there are many other money-saving hacks you can choose from.
The point with any money savings challenge is to make saving money fun and easy so make sure you give one a try!
Other Money Savings Challenges
- 50 envelope money savings challenge – You can save $1,275 over 50 days.
- 200 envelope money savings challenge – You can save $5,050 over 200 days.
- 52 Week Money Savings Challenge – You can save 1,378 in 1 year.
- 52 week $5 challenge – You save $5 each week (increasing it by $5 weekly) and save ovfer $7,000 in a year
32 envelope challenge: just put 1 penny into the first, 2 into the 2nd, 4 into the 3rd, 8 into the 4th, and so on. In just over a month, congrats – you have $43 million!
Or you can just not spend $35 a day on coffee and eating out and BOOM you saved $12,775 in a year.
If you have to run to the bank to get the money, you already have it..lol
@Tony,that’s the same thing my daughter and I said.
You should mention the 365 day penny challenge. Where on day 1 you put 1 penny in the jar, on day 2 you put 2 pennies in the jar, on day 100 you put $1 in the jar, on day 365 you put $3.65 in the jar and by the end of the year you will have $667.95 which isn’t even close to 5000 dollars and takes much longer but it doesn’t even seem like a lot of money throughout the year, and the $667.95 could come in handy
@Katie, oh my gosh thank you! Not only did you give me the best idea ever, you did the math for me! I can’t afford NOT to do this one!♥️
This is a great idea that I just started, however, I’m doing it every paycheck so it will be much longer than 3 months. More like 2 years. But the end result will be worth the wait!
Something else to try is save money every week doing this: week 1 save $1, week 2 save $2, and so on. If you start the first week in January you will have a little over $1000 saved by the end of the year. Start a savings account where you have your checking and then just transfer it over, and you won’t miss it.
On average, this comes out to quite a chunk each week/month. A privilege if you have it. A privilege to even talk about. (A car, if i had it.)
It may be more doable for some to envision a goal, divide it by weeks toward that goal, and see if the result is a hearty stretch, but possible. Adjust, if not. Next…
Decide that you are the most valuable person on your payroll, if the result will benefit you, your goal or savings, or if benefiting someone else or some cause, decide this person or cause is your most valued beneficiary.
Then, give (not pay) towards the “value.”
The beauty with these money savings challenges is that you can customize it to find your budget and lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you do it 100 days straight or 100 days throughout the year, it just matters that you get into the habit of saving. For some, physical money challenges like this, works best. For others, it’s digitally.
Second envelope stuffed an sealed I’m on a role watch out now $2!!! Lol!!!
Wahoo!! Keep going, you got this!
What me and my wife have been doing is we take $20 each week in envelopes and we race to see who can finish before Christmas every year…basically a challenge of who can save more…we have an extra $2080 every year around the holidays
That is a great idea!
My income would not work for this. It’s good if you have extra money.
@Billie, right who has that much extra money to set aside each day let alone each week or monthblol
@Billie, try just saving $1.00 a day. At the end of the year you would have $365.00. That’s better than nothing at the end of the year. Even $2.00 a day and you’d have $730.00 at the end of the year. I don’t know anyone that can’t put away $1.00 or $2.00 a day if they really want to.
For people with less money…save it in change! Nothing greater than $20…. Some people just pay cash and whatever change is left they save in a jar no matter what it is just pay each time with $10s or 20s
Those of you who are worried about the daily aspect of it another way to go about it is this. Still do 100 envelopes or write on 100 little pieces of paper (like if you were to draw from a hat or a bowl). If you get paid weekly, then on your pay day draw 7 envelopes or 7 slips of paper. If you’re paid monthly pull 30 envelopes or papers, paid bi-monthly, pull 14. Easy, same principle, same process just do it all at once on your payday. P.S. whoever mentioned the piggy bank, brilliant! I don’t trust myself with envelopes either 🙂
@Nancy, So..I get paid 2x a month. DO I do 100 envelopes or 14 and number it 1-14. I’m so confused 😄, but this sounds so fun!
@TRISH, you would do 100 envelops. And you take out 14 envelops each pay period if u get paid twice a month
For the 100 envelope challenge I would number my envelopes 1-100 and just start saving from #1 to me that seems more easier than just randomly picking an envelope…
You can totally do that! It doesn’t matter how you save, it just matters that you save 🙂
It’s a good idea but saving anything above $50 every day becomes tedious I have divided the 100 envelopes in 5 different sections like 1-20,21-40, 41-60,61-80,81-100 in different colors. I pickup 7 envelopes every week from 5 different colors and 2 from any color to balance my contribution. Cos anything above $50 daily would be difficult for me. Sometimes I have extra money.
@Sneha, thanks for that idea, that makes it more doable for me!!genius!
@Derek, if you went in order, that last week would be kinda brutal… The last seven days being
$94
+$95
+$96
+$97
+$98
+$99
+$100
(Plus paying any regular bills due at that time)
Most people that can swing that type of thing probably don’t have problems with lack of cash to put down.
@Nick, I’m doing it 1-100 I’m at $50 today 💰
@Nick, Maybe try it backwards making the large amounts during summer when heating bills are non existent and maybe you would have a little extra to save instead of the large amounts being right before Christmas
@Sneha, I love this idea! It spreads the pain out a bit more!
I get paid monthly how do I go about filling envelopes?
If I were you, I’d start with a budget and then look at how much extra money you have after all the bills and then take that amount and fill as many envelopes as you can. You don’t have to complete the challenge in 100 days. You can customize it to fit your pay/budget. That is what I did since I am paid monthly as well. 🙂
@Shanique,
You can pull 30 envelopes on pay day.
I think maybe an envelope every (weekly)pay check, not every day would be good. With the exception of adding a little more on weeks
1-10.
You can do it however it works for you. The goal is just to complete the challenge 🙂
@Arleen,
How would you accomplish this? I would rather do weekly or bi weekly amounts other than daily.
Hi Aundrea, you can certainly adjust this to what fits your paychecks or needs. If you get paid bi-weekly, you could pull several envelopes for those 2 weeks and fill them. The same works for weekly.
@Brittanie, The amount doesn’t have to be $5,000.00 although that’s a great amount if you can do it, but whatever amount you save should be comfortable for you. You just need to dedicate yourself to that amount and not give up.
Can you please give me more info about this challenge
Hi! What questions do you have?
@Brittanie,
How you get the cash is my biggest one? Is this only meant for people who have additional cash income like waitresses or baristas? Or do you just pull a chunk of money out of the bank account in a variety of bills and go from there?
Anyone can do this! I get paid once a month being self-employed and I was able to do it. When I started, I made sure I had a budget in place and took any extra money we had and put it away for the challenge. You don’t have to complete it daily either, the goal is just to complete the challenge so you can save the $5,050. You can also sell items around your home, pick up a side-hustle, babysit, host a Yard Sale, etc. I always tell people that a strict budget is key. And one way to make money without additional cost is to sell things around your home you no longer need.
@Brittanie, What if I do not want to buy 100 eveolpes what can I do
You really need envelopes to do the 100 Envelope Challenge. If you’d rather do it digitally or on a piece of paper, you can do that as well. Just keep track of the days/amounts you are putting away each day.
@Nubian Lloyd, You can do a piggy bank. where you have your calendar to mark what you deposit in the piggy bank. I did not trust myself with the envelopes because I can easily tear it up to get the money. Lol.
@Razz, everybody shouldn’t think too much about it. Just get the envelopes, get the cash and every single day just randomly choose an envelope. It’ll be easier then u think
@Aj,
I’m going to do this starting my next pay I get paid biweekly so I figure when I pull a envelope I’ll just double up the number for example if I pull 50 then I’ll add 100 so on and so forth. I’m horrible at saving but I’m on this self love journey and my end goal at the moment is to complete this goal and if I can then I’ll keep it going
@Nubian Lloyd, Go to any Dollar Tree store. You can buy a box of 80 6″ envelopes for $1.25, perfect size for bills. If you buy the 2nd box, when you’re done with the 1st challenge, start over. Then you’ll have $10,000!
@Nubian Lloyd, sandwich baggies
@Dona Patterson, I love everyone’s idea. I just may change one thing. On my envelopes I will put removable #’s on the envelopes. I don’t want to know how much I’ve saved til the last few envelopes. make it fun!