These Trending Budget Challenges Could Make Saving Money Fun in 2023

Boring spreadsheets and tedious money-tracking apps are so last year. Instead, budget-conscious Generation Xers and millennials will turn to gamified "budget challenges and saving games" in 2023, according to a Pinterest analysis. The social media platform's end-of-year predictions report seeks to offer users a "a window into the future" of trends using global search data from the past two years. And in the realm of personal finance, searches like "bi-weekly savings challenge" have seen search increases as high as 355% — a sign that fun and frugal are the future. Here are the biggest gamified moneysaving trends that people are searching for.

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Pin activity and engagement: +355%

Bi-weekly savings challenges saw the most growth on Pinterest, with a more than three-fold increase in searches. While plans vary, challenges on the image-sharing platform have savers put away money every other week to reach their savings goals. One ambitious plan has you alternate between banking $275 and $475 to reach $10,000 in one year.

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Pin activity and engagement: +185%

The 1,000 savings challenge brings structure to your short-term personal finance goals. The basic idea is that you save a predetermined sum of money each day until you reach $1,000, with most timelines lasting 30 days. Printable planners abound on Pinterest.

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Pin activity and engagement: +155%

100 envelope challenge: +145%

In this daily money saving game, you'll start by labeling a series of envelopes with different sums of money — $10, $25, $97, etc. — and place them in a large container. Each day, you'll pull from the pile and place the respective sum into the envelope. Like all of these challenges, there are different savings goals and timelines, though 100 envelopes — each labeled from one to 100 — is standard. At the end of 100 days, you'll have saved $5,050.

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Pin activity and engagement: +135%

The increase in searches for "budget challenge" speaks to the overall gamified finance trend. On Pinterest, you'll find everything from Christmas-themed savings plans to "no spend challenges," which ask you to only purchase essentials for a set amount of time. "As global living costs rise, money management is becoming more important across age groups," Pinterest's report reads. "People are trying to make a tough topic feel rewarding, turning to accessible and entertaining ways to kick-start their savings."

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