Saving need not be a boring activity where you grudgingly knock off your expenses and live sparingly to achieve your savings goal. It can be fun if your family joins hands. Using creativity can make it much more interesting.

Savings Contest

Try out a healthy saving competition among family members – akin to employee or student of the month competition. It could be linked to the percentage of savings made by each of the family members from their income or their pocket money. Or it could even be linked to cutting expenses. The winning categories could be the Savings champion of the month and the year.

Saving Strategies

At the individual level, college going students can save money by using public transportation instead of taxis. Or provide home support and earn extra pocket money. Kids could earn by giving a helping hand in the kitchen or by doing daily chores like ironing clothes.  

Students could walk or cycle their way to college. Parents in turn might want to knock some unused services like gym membership or magazine subscriptions. Or carpool to office with packed homemade food. 

To make the contest work, it is important that all members give a detailed account of their saving efforts. Winner should be chosen taking into consideration the effort levels of each member and not necessarily based on the absolute amount saved.

Powerful Reward

To make the contest work, it is important that all members give a detailed account of their saving efforts. Winner should be chosen taking into consideration the effort levels of each member and not necessarily based on the absolute amount saved. 

Moreover, the reward should not be monetary. Rather the winner could be given the authority to decide the family outing destination for the next one month or dinner menus. 

Group Goals

While every family member strives to save at the individual level, how to incentivise them to slash common household costs like electricity bills or dine-outs? One of the best ways to do so is to link group saving targets to group goals. For instance, save Rs 20 lakh in two years and go on a vacation to Rome. 

Ensure, however, you are not funnelling all your savings into vacationing or other expenditure. Earmark portion of the group savings to meet long-term financial goals like children’s education. 

Saving Strategies

Have group discussions to look at ways to save money. For example, AC bills usually rise to stratospheric levels during summers. You can work out family strategies to optimally utilise it. 

Moreover, if your family is a movie buff – visiting the theatre twice or more in a month – beef up your home theatre system. Subscribe to streaming services to watch movies from the comfort of your home. 

Got an Idea 

Here again, there could be a savings contest like ‘Genius of the month/year’. If someone gets a creative idea, reward him or her with the title. For instance, it could be for coming up with an idea to save electricity bills.

Takeaway

In short, the process of saving need not be a drag. By making it a fun game, family member tend to work together and move closer towards achieving their savings targets.