During times of economic struggles locally seen in high inflation rates and stronger foreign currency, frugality is key. Currently, precuring real estate assets are harder than ever, and saving up is the only way to attain them. But saving is more difficult than spending, so people look for different ways to save money to finally get their dream home. That is why people resort to ipon challenges to save up for your home.
But what are ipon challenges?
An ipon challenge or a money saving challenge is a budgeting activity with having extra money after a certain period as the end goal. What separates a money saving challenge from just simply saving up is that the ipon challenge is saving money periodically, strategically, and creatively.
In addition to this, more so saving up for a particular thing like a house and lot is having extra money when the challenge is over. In your case, you keep doing these ipon challenges or try other money saving challenges until you can buy your dream home.
These ipon challenges not only make saving fun and creative, but it also assists you in achieving specific financial goals you set like buying a house. Even after you purchase what you want, engaging in these challenges will help you develop good money saving habits and become financially tempered.
So, before you jump to the conclusion that saving money is just too difficult to do, here are some ipon challenge tips.
- 52-week savings challenge
Perhaps the most popular money saving challenge, so much that this existed way before Pinterest and Facebook. Additionally, this is probably one of the best ipon challenges to save up for your home.
The challenge is simple, you must save a certain amount per week until the year ends.
The key is to save a specific amount that is doable and guilt-free. Save too little and reaching your goals may take too long while too much may be more burdening than relieving.
For example, if you make a net income of 1,000 pesos a week, putting away half will leave you with 500 pesos a week. By the end of the year, you will have 26,000 extra pesos.
- No spend challenge
From the name, you must pick a challenging period where spending is common like a weekend or a specific week. And as the name suggest, do not spend a dime on anything unnecessary.
Things like gas, rent, utilities, and the like are necessary. On the other hand, you can go a week or weekend without watching a movie, eating at a restaurant, or going to the nightclub.
A night or a weekend out with friends are notoriously expensive so do not be surprised to find out how much money you saved when going a whole week not spending on the unnecessary and leisure things.
- Do not eat out challenge
While on the topic of eating out, people do not realize how expensive dining in the Philippines is.
These days, restaurants charge roughly 500 pesos per person. In a family of four that eats out thrice a week, that household will be spending approximately 24,000 pesos a month.
With a hefty monthly expense of this much, getting your dream house and lot will take longer than expected.
Therefore, instead of dining out, you can eat out less or not eat out at all by trying this next challenge.
- Pantry challenge
This challenge goes together with the previous challenge. What the pantry challenge entails is exhausting every ingredient in your refrigerator and pantry. If there is food in the fridge, you cannot restock on supplies.
This challenge will require a lot of sacrifice because it may come to a point where you are left with ingredients that do not go together, hence, being forced to come up with a dish poorly put together.
To succeed in this challenge, plan a menu before going to the grocery so that all your supplies go together and are all used up before being replenished again.
- A dollar-a-day challenge
A dollar a day keeps the poverty away. Regardless of how politically incorrect that statement may be, setting a dollar a day will yield surprisingly excellent results for your finances.
For the purposes of this article, one dollar will be 50 pesos. Set aside 50 pesos a day and you will reap 18,250 pesos.
Repeat this for many more years on top of other savings you are doing and soon, real estate will look more affordable.
- Weather Wednesday challenge
This is one of the trendier ipon challenges to save up for your home, which originated with personal finance site TrendyMoney.com.
Every Wednesday, you will have to deposit an amount of money relative to the temperature of the day. Since the Philippines uses Centigrade over Fahrenheit, the number to deposit will be low.
In lieu of depositing money equal to the temperature of the day, you can multiply it by 10, 100, or even 1,000 if permissible. So, if on one Wednesday, the temperature is 30 degrees Centigrade, multiply it by 100 to get 3,000 pesos to be deposited that day. At the end of the year, you should have 144,000 pesos. That is a lot!
- 33.3 percent of payday challenge
This is a quick way to save up loads of cash by as fast as one month. Consequently, you will be loaded by the end of the year.
Every payday, which is bi-monthly, set aside 33.3 percent of your net salary. For context, if you make 20,000 pesos after deductions, deduct 33.3 percent more, which is 6660 pesos. At the end of the month, you will have already saved 13,320 pesos and by the end of the year, you will have 159,840 pesos extra.
- Roll the dice challenge
This may feel more like a game than a challenge. Do note that you can make your own rules—just be sure to stick to them. More importantly, the fate of your saving depends on what the dice says.
As an ipon challenge tip, every day, before your day begins, roll a dice where one dot represents 50 pesos. The money you save should range from 350 to 3,150 pesos a week.
Just like the nature of dice games, you can raise the stakes by using a pair of dices or equating one dot to 100 pesos. Regardless of the rules, the outcome will assure you of extra cash.
Your future home
While this article talks about ipon challenges to save up for your home, the goal of these money saving challenges is not to immediately be able to purchase a house and lot. Rather, the goal is to gradually increase the amount of extra money you have after a certain period.
Buying a house is never an easy thing, and if you do not make colossal amounts of money, saving may be the only way. With the list of money saving challenges written down above, you can see which among the ipon challenges are the most feasible, most creative, and most importantly, the most fun.
It is always easier to spend than to save so saving money should feel fun instead of feeling like a chore or burden.
All in all, you will come away with a more disciplined financial disposition and perhaps, a new house.
By: Cholo Hermoso
