Vote: Top 2006 $20 Challenges

[jeffrey]

Here are the ten $20 challenges from 2006 that people nominated. Please take a look at them and <b>vote for your favorite three</b>:

http://divajen.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://flash.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://imasaver.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://koppur.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://laceshawl.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://lrjohnson.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://luxliving.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://miclason.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://mjrube94.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/
http://veronak.savingadvice.com/20-challenge/

[PRICEPLUS]

This will be a tough choice to make as all the candidates are worthy!

[Broken Arrow]

Yeah, tough one.

[Ima saver]

I wonder why no one is voting??

[LuxLiving]

How do we vote Jeffrey?

[Broken Arrow]

There are 6 voters so far, but only 12 votes. It's possible that some may not realize that you can vote up to 3 candidates. Just thought it's worth mentioning that....

[Gruntina]

My thinking may be pretty biased. I do not do the challenge but every time I think of the $20 saving challenge, Ima pops in my mind. She is often encouraging people to do it. I been a slow poke to get this started myself and then there is always Ima persistent encouragement. I think she is a great advertiser for that and that is why I chose her.

I still have not given up on getting started with this.

[veronak]

I agree with gruntha, I have been trying to keep up with her...lol

Amber

[Ima saver]

Thank you Gruntina. Now, have you started this year's challenge yet??

[PRICEPLUS]

I know I have!

[scfr]

I'm wondering if the nominees would be willing to write a brief summary of their $20 challenge for the year (their project or goals, and the results), or if they already did a year-end summary in their blogs, point us to that entry? Perhaps I'm just dense --- I want to vote but I'm having a bit of a tough time backtracking reading all of the entries. I joined the forum in September so didn't follow the challenges throughout the year.

[mom-from-missouri]

Originally Posted by Gruntina

My thinking may be pretty biased. I do not do the challenge but every time I think of the $20 saving challenge, Ima pops in my mind. She is often encouraging people to do it. I been a slow poke to get this started myself and then there is always Ima persistent encouragement. I think she is a great advertiser for that and that is why I chose her.

Well, if Ima does win, we know where her $20 will go!!!

[Ima saver]

You are right, If I win any money, it will go into my current $20 challenge. Saving money is fun![Automated by GetSmile]

[Ima saver]

scfr (smart couples finish rich), this is what I did.
I started with $20 and started saving using coupons. (I had not been a big couponer before) I add that money. I also got store cards for all the grocery stores and drug stores. I save everything I can using those cards.
I pay myself $1 for every mile I walk on my treadmill and everytime I do 20 flights of stairs in our house.
I pay myself if I have a "no gas" day. It costs $1 to get to town and back.
I read my meter every day and keep the hot water heater off. I budget $160 a month for electric and when I am below this, I put the difference in my challenge money.
My husband does house plans once in a blue moon, (draws them) and I add that money to the challenge.
I take surveys and receive small checks from them.
I save all my change and deposit it once a month.
Once in a while, we will get an unexpected check or a bonus.
Sometimes other envelopes will become overbudgeted and I can use that money.
The biggest thing I did was have a talk with a building supply company that we have dealt with for 23 years.
I pointed out that I get 10% coupons all the time from Home Depot, but we continue to buy most of our stuff from the local store.
They decided to give us a rebate back and we received 3 checks during the year that total more than $5000 and I added that to my challenge.
I was able to save a total of $20,025.00 this year on the challenge. This was above and beyond my usual savings out of my husband's earning.

[miclason]

LOL! I didn't even realize I had been nominated! I started my $20 challenge in 2006 by paying for a copy of my police records and other stuff that I needed to apply for an English-teaching position, and, taught 8 hours/week during the first few months...later on switched to provinding administrative services to non-domiciled people (foreigners trying to set up businesses in my country, just making basic phone calls, typing up some documents, some light translations, etc.) all these were included in my $20 challenge...alternative sources of income that were not considered were: toy and school supply sales that we generally do every year....total without these was: $3,690.95 ($309.05 "short" of my goal of $4,000 for the year)...if we were to include the sales, then total for the year would have been $4,640.95

[LuxLiving]

I find, scrounge and accept donations. As I already had tightened to the bone, was attempting to show what you can come up with that would normally just slip away - it's goes to our mortgage paydown.

How's that for brief??? hahahaaaaa

[scfr]

Wow - Such an ambitious bunch here!!! Holy cow!

Thanks so much Ima, Miclason, and LuxL for posting the summaries ---It REALLY helps. I see the poll closes on the 22nd so I'll wait a day or two more and see if anyone else posts.

[lrjohnson]

My Challenge was to live on California Minimum Wage for a year. I started March 1, so I'll be continuing until Feb. 28.

By living on CA Minimum Wage, I am limited to $1026 a month, after taxes. My monthly summary recap for December gives figures here.

I had already been frugal, so I had already been saving plenty; I only counted increased savings on My Challenge; I compared spending to 2005.
In 2005, I spent $1592 a month average on all bills/needs/wants. (I have been tracking every penny in Quicken since 1998.) I'm actually living on less than half of my net income. The only exception I made was for world travel; I did go to Croatia and Bosnia and London for 2-1/2 weeks, and posted details of costs here.

My favorite post about My Challenge is here.

As of December 31, I have spent an average of $942 each month; I have spent less than my "allowed" $1026 because I have banked/budgeted for certain categories that aren't routine monthly bills, such as car repair. The $20 portion is that I spent $19.95 to purchase the YouNeedaBudget spreadsheet in order to keep track of My Challenge.

From the above recap post:
I spent $1592 a month last year. My Challenge savings are the difference, $1592-$1026= $566 times 10 months = $5,660.

Add to that $263 in “savings” and $24.48 in my emergency fund, I’ve saved $5,947.48. If I take out what I spend in Europe, $1809.64, which is not part of my Challenge, I’ve saved $4,137.84 living on CA Minimum Wage for 10 months.

(I've saved a lot more than $4,137.84 in terms of how much of my paycheck I'm spending; I consider "only" the $4,137.84 (so far) as Challenge Savings because it only includes increased savings due to My Challenge. )

Didn't know I was nominated; thanks, guys.

[veronak]

Originally Posted by scfr

I'm wondering if the nominees would be willing to write a brief summary of their $20 challenge for the year (their project or goals, and the results), or if they already did a year-end summary in their blogs, point us to that entry? Perhaps I'm just dense --- I want to vote but I'm having a bit of a tough time backtracking reading all of the entries. I joined the forum in September so didn't follow the challenges throughout the year.

Originally I started off saving for a house and then I decided to use the funds to pay off debt, and pay off debt is what I did. I paid off a total of 9 credit cards close to $6000 so I am happy and one student loan ($300). Some things I did was:

*added a buck for the days i did not spend any money
*If I spent money on things I did not need I matched that amount
*Rounded up all my change
*I pay bills online so what I would have paid in stamps I added to the challenge
* I also matched what I saved in coupons
basically that was it, I am just happy I have no more cc debt
Now for 2007 I will save for my first home and pay off my last student loan

[LuxLiving]

*Bump*, and of course, I'd be 'ahem' honored...

(and nice to note that some of my nominees are front runners!! Way to go ladies!!)