How does the Bingo Money Challenge work? This money-saving game can help you put more cash away for a rainy day, an emergency car repair, or even a vacation. The Bingo Money Challenge is deceptively simple but has the potential to save you a lot more money than you might think.
How The Bingo Challenge Works
This money-saving strategy is something we defined as a “game” in the opening paragraph, and it’s true; this is basically gamifying your personal finances as a way to make saving easier and more fun. You basically need to create three things to take part in the challenge:
- A “BINGO” card that features different numbers for all 52 weeks of the year
- A plan to deposit the money you set aside by playing the Bingo Money Challenge
- A plan on how to use the money at the end of the year
You’ll need to create a bingo card that can accommodate all 52 weeks of the calendar year, or create a series of cards that would let you play each month and start over at the end of the new month. Some find this easier than trying to make a bingo card that has 52 weeks' worth of numbers. And you don’t have to create your own cards--you can always buy pre-printed bingo cards and use those instead.
Playing Bingo And Saving Money At The Same Time
The basic idea is that you are playing Bingo--each card has a row for each letter of the word--B, I, N, G, and O. Each space has a number, just like the regular bingo game. You pick your space each week and deposit the dollar amount of the number in that square. The idea here is to deposit a different amount each week, higher or lower depending on what you choose, until you spell out B-I-N-G-O.
So B-25 would result in you depositing $25 this week. Next week if you choose N-36, you would deposit $36 in the bank. Doing this every week may sound costly, but don’t forget that there are single-digit numbers on your bingo card as well as double digit numbers; you can choose lower amounts in the weeks when you can’t afford to put so much away.
Tips To Playing The Bingo Challenge Successfully
This money-saving trick sounds easy, but there are things you can do to make the process more of a habit and less of something you have to constantly remind yourself to do. This bingo money challenge follows the advice of an article by Business Insider, which reminds consumers to pay themselves first.
- Play consistently--pick the same day of the week and the same time of day to play the Bingo Money Challenge. Habit is an important part of saving money, and this is no exception.
- Pay consistently--pick the same day and time to transfer your money over to the savings account.
- Choose your accounts carefully--try to select a savings account option you cannot easily withdraw money from. The harder it is to get instant gratification from your savings account, the more you will save.
- Experiment--some people aren’t as comfortable depositing larger dollar amounts every week--at first. It may be wise to play with smaller dollar amounts at first until you get used to how the money challenge will affect your day-to-day spending habits.