52 WEEK MONEY CHALLENGE

I saw this blog last year and totally remember having printed out the 52 week challenge and I'm pretty sure that's as far as I got with it.  So I've chosen to start this year off on the right foot :)

The guidelines are simple you should put away a set amount of money once a week for all 52 weeks of the year and if you do that by the end of the year you'll have $1,378!!!!!  Ummmm awesome, if you actually commit and do it.  To start my year off right I printed off two of the versions that are posted, one is the 52 week challenge backwards, so it starts with $52 the first week and goes down from there.  Then I printed the challenge that's for every other week, so you combine two weeks deposit into one.  I think this will be best for us as we get paid twice a month!  To jump start my savings I already put the first deposit of $10 into a secret spot so that I forget it's there and that will cover me for the first 4 weeks of January doing the every other week challenge if I take it starting at $3 for the first two weeks and $7 for second two weeks.

Our budgets are a bit crazy around my house and we usually have a little more money for groceries and other fun things one pay check and not so much the next, so I plan on the paychecks that offer more wiggle room to start with the bigger amounts of money and the tighter paychecks I'll set aside smaller amounts.  So I won't do this exactly as outline, but I will highlight which amounts I've set aside and keep up with the amounts so that I have the same income.  I'm just thinking realistically especially come next December it will probably be harder to save the $103 for the last two weeks, so if I get them done earlier that would be best.  I'll do as many bigger amounts as I can during the months without birthdays or holidays and use smaller amounts during the other months.  Makes it sounds more reasonable in my head at least!!  I'll come back to this post at random times and update to how it's worked out, but as I said so far $10 is in because January is gonna be a catch up month from all our Christmas spending :)

So without further ado, here's the link for the blog that talks this all over and has the fab printouts that you can use to do your own money challenge.  Would love to hear what you think and if your going to adopt the challenge this year!!!

LIFE AS YOU LIVE IT: 52 WEEK MONEY SAVINGS CHALLENGE

Elf on a shelf

Our Elf adventures:

 So my fabulous mother in law purchased the Elf on a Shelf for us when our oldest was not so old and we've committed to yearly bringing this magical elf out and I not our home! He's kinda creepy looking, but brings a bit of magic I it our home! If you want your own he's right here on Amazon (affiliated link).

Now don't get me wrong the added magical touch to Christmas and new tradition for our family isn't a bad thing, but man the world has turned this little elf into mischievous little guy who does different antics every night! Thankfully my daughter doesn't know that some people elves create so much chaos and act out such elaborate scenes!!! For the first several years we would simply move the little guy from one spot to the next because it says in the story he simply watches over the kids during the day. Well, after seeing some friends posts and getting a Pinterest email with elf on the shelf ideas we decided to up our game!

We didn't choose to up the anty til day 3 and our elf didn't appear til December 2nd, guess his flight was delayed :) , so day one he brought in our Merry Christmas sign and set it up for us since we didn't have any decorations up. I think he's hinting we should get to work! Day 2 the little monkey got on the light fixture over my kitchen sink.

Here's our little guy one day 3! He decided to get crazy and write a few notes on the girls bathroom mirror and hang from their light fixture when done!!

Now I'm a planner, it's what I like to do!!  I'm always making lists and organizing things, so after we established we'd up the elf trickery we looked through some ideas and made a list!  This also will help us out because with two kids and our busy lives I like to be prepared!  So we gathered a list of what we wanted and I ran to the store for a couple supplies to help us out with the few we didn't have items for.  

Now these are in no particular order, but I'll share our list so maybe it'll help you plan out the rest of this Holiday's antics!!!

1. Fishing
2. Taking a marshmallow bath (seen this done so many cute ways, I'm thinking we will borrow the barbie bathtub and use it to pose him)
3. Wrapping paper messiness
4. Lifting weights (this has been done several ways, one is with a straw between two big marshmallows)
5. Sleeping on the tissue box with a folded tissue for his pillow
6. Dry erase marker mayhem (he's been known to put mustaches on photos)
7. Driving around in a toy car
8. Parachuting down from somewhere (I'm thinking my daughters closet)
9. Drinking a cup of coffee
10. Roasting marshmallows over a candle flame (we picked up some of the battery candles so it can stay lit and add to the scene)
11. Writing on the Grinch movie that the Grinch is on the naughty list
12. Papering the door to our daughters room to lock her in
13. Hanging out in the Christmas tree (he usually does this by hugging our angel on top)
14. Hiding in the stockings
15. Hanging out with our owls on our entertainment stand
16. Putting up snowflakes (I've seen people have him look like he cut out snowflakes and put them on a door or window, but I'm cheating and I got some cute glitter foam ones to tape up)
17. Elf repelling from kitchen cabinets
18. Baking Elf (he'll set up my mixer with whatever treat he feels we should bake)
19. Hanging from a swing (these I've seen done with him sitting on a toilet paper tube swing)
20. Robbing our candy bags
21. Cuddling with our Lambie from Doc Mcstuffins, because she always needs a cuddle
22. Here's where I ran out of ideas, because while typing this out I realized we repeated two of our ideas so I will have to fill in the blank, or we won't move him which is what I saw on one posting somewhere they did this several times and told the kids he knew they were naughty so he didn't move.  I'll have to find the page because it was cute!!!

So there's our ideas for this Holiday season!  I'll add pictures of our Elf in action as he switches antics, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas this year and always!!!

Hanging with the owls

decided we needed to bake these

Shhhhh he's sleeping

Just a little late night snacking

dang elf took over my tub for a fishing hole

fishing

Elfie wrote on our DVD and tried to hide on the clock!

He's practicing his mountain climbing, by rappelling from cabinets

naughty elf strikes again

papered my daughter in her room