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The 100 Envelope Challenge is a trend that originated and gained traction primarily on social media. When done correctly, you can save just over $5,000 in 100 days.
What is the 100 Envelope Challenge?
The 100 Envelope Challenge is a savings challenge that helps speed-run saving by making you save $5,050 in 100 days — if you stick with it.
To do the challenge, you need some cash and 100 envelopes. Next, label each envelope 1 through 100. Then, for 100 consecutive days, add cash to an envelope that equals its number. For example, you would add $1 to the envelope marked ‘one’ and $10 to the envelope labeled ‘10.’
There are a few ways to tackle this challenge, such as going in order, starting from the first day: $1 in the ‘one’ envelope, $2 in the ‘two’ envelope and so on. You could also bounce around, such as doing envelope 100 first and then doing a smaller amount the next day. Whichever order you choose, the goal is to save something each day for 100 days straight.
Physical envelopes appear to be the most common way people are doing the challenge, since it offers a simple way to track savings. There are also many influencers on social media selling envelope books with sleeves for cash and a calendar to check off each completed day.
However, you can do the challenge without physical envelopes or a special book.
You can track contributions with pen and paper and simply send the contributions to your preferred savings account each month. For example, you could write out each day and draw a checkmark next to the completed days:
$1
$2
$3 … and so on
Our expert says: Pro saving tip
"Whether you’re completing a savings challenge or just trying to build an emergency fund, consider placing your funds in a high-yield savings account where they can grow passively. To save even more, look for an account with no balance requirements, monthly fees or messy APY tiers to keep life simple."
The challenge requires saving $5,050 in just over three months, which is a bit of a time crunch and can be challenging for many people.
If you go in numerical order, the first 10 days of the challenge require saving just $55, which is fairly manageable. But in the final days of the challenge, following numerical order, you must save $1,045 in just 10 days.
An easier approach to the challenge is going out of order based on how much you can save on a given day. For example, you could fill the $100 envelope on your payday and save smaller amounts on non-paydays.
5 alternatives to the 100 Envelope Challenge
If following the 100 Envelope Challenge to the letter (pun intended) isn’t doable for you, you can modify the challenge to something more feasible or consider other money-saving strategies.
Modify the 100-day challenge. If saving something every day is too much, consider turning the 100-day challenge into a 100-week challenge. While it would take nearly two years to complete, it offers more flexibility.
Consider a 50-day saving challenge. Saving for 50 days straight with the same concept as the 100-day challenge can yield $1,275.
Opt into savings round-ups. Included with some modern accounts like the SoFi Checking and Saving account, the savings round-up feature automatically rounds up each debit card transaction to the nearest dollar and deposits the difference into your savings.
Automate your savings. If saving manually just isn’t your thing, you can automate it. This automation can include changing how your direct deposit is distributed, for example, allocating 90% of your paycheck to checking and 10% to savings.
Increasing retirement contributions. Saving for retirement takes time. If your employer offers a 401(k) or you have a Roth IRA, consider trying the 1% retirement challenge. This challenge involves increasing your retirement contributions by one percent each year until you reach the limit.
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What is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score crunches over 250 savings accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's interest rate, fees, opening deposit and features - this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of savings accounts against FDIC-reported national averages as a baseline. Accounts with rates well over the national average are scored the highest, while accounts with rates well below are scored low.
The 100 Envelope Challenge can be great for those looking to build discipline and savings quickly. If you struggle to save, this challenge might help you build the habit and a nice chunk of cash within a short period.
However, saving $5,050 in 100 days is a lot of money. If that’s way over budget for you, consider modifying the challenge to fit your budget better, such as stopping at day 50 or turning the daily challenge into a weekly one.
Bethany Hickey is the banking editor and personal finance expert at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto.
Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt.
Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others.
Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine. See full bio
Bethany's expertise
Bethany has written 435 Finder guides across topics including:
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Finder.com is an independent comparison platform and information service that aims to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions. While we are independent, the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which Finder receives compensation. We may receive compensation from our partners for placement of their products or services. We may also receive compensation if you click on certain links posted on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of product information, it doesn't influence our assessment of those products. Please don't interpret the order in which products appear on our Site as any endorsement or recommendation from us. Finder compares a wide range of products, providers and services but we don't provide information on all available products, providers or services. Please appreciate that there may be other options available to you than the products, providers or services covered by our service.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
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