I have seen so many versions of this challenge, I don’t even know which one to follow.  Kuripot Pinay was great in taking it up and Minimum Compliance upped it a notch by adding more denominations.  But really the idea came from two people:  the ultimate fangirl and friend Adah, and my new sister-in-law Aidel.  Talk about straight As.

Aidel is a very prudent person, so when she first shared the challenge, I thought to myself, “Here she goes again, bookmarking in public the things she wants to read in private.”  But when Adah and I were planning a quickie out of town trip and she mentioned she will have an extra P27,000+ by the end of the year, I asked her to define extra.  Loud and proud, she said, “I’m doing the kuripot challenge.”

That was the sign I needed, so I decided to do that as well, even though I already started some time ago shelving a portion of my salary in investments.  Then Le Beau commented that the challenge was too difficult.

It wasn’t though.  It was merely kicking off a good starting point to create the habit of saving.  Traditionally, Filipinos will spend first and whatever’s left, they will MAYBE save.  Or people in general actually.  With the challenge, though, you are given a deadline to meet a specific savings point.

And I will never forget what Mo Twister tweeted to me before when I commented on his spending capacity — that you must increase your saving capacity first.

So, like the loving fiancée that I am (teehee, fiancée), I added lower denominations to the kuripot challenge, making it applicable to dollar too:

Same rules apply.  Pick the denomination you wish, and build from there.  Adding the same amount weekly, you will end up with a minimum of $1,378 and as much as $68,900, assuming your obligations are not that burdensome.

I guess this is also my subtle way of advising my cousins abroad to start a saving habit for their kids too.  They can earn their dollars through extraordinary chores (ordinary being putting away toys, extraordinary being choosing toys to give away), and by the end of the year, they will actually have enough savings to invest in something bigger.

Again, as advised by Minimum Compliance, you can always choose to step down a notch or two should that week be riddled with unusual expenses.  You can also break it down to daily savings, still following the weekly target amounts.  This calculator comes quite in handy.

So what’s the ending to this story?  Le Beau making his own piggy bank and contemplating which denomination to start with. :)

Are you ready to take on the challenge?  Catch up and sound off below!