This is one of the best things I tried last year, and you should try it too! I didn’t want to blog about it until I had done it myself, and I’m definitely going for it again this year. I already have $202 saved in 2017.

Christmas is expensive. Add two birthdays in November onto that, and the end of the year gets pricey for us really fast. So…enter the Reverse 52 Week Savings Plan. It was actually fun!

Here’s the deal. The first week of the calendar year, set aside $52 (because there are 52 weeks in a year). The second week, save $51. Third week, $50. The fourth week, $49, and so on in descending order. Save one less dollar each week, and by the last week of the year, save just $1. In the end, your savings total $1,378!! {That’s worth two exclamation points at the very least.}

Let me tell you, that savings account made the end of the year a lot less stressful! We paid for birthday gifts and Christmas gifts for family and friends out of that account. And we even used the leftover money to cover some travel expenses.

Here’s how it played out throughout the year. I would transfer money from our checking account to an online savings account immediately after payday.

Since Stephen gets paid every two weeks, the first pay period of 2016, I saved $103 ($52 for the first week + $51 for the second week). The next pay period (two weeks later), I saved $99 ($50+$49), and so on.

Later in the year, I added a Christmas Transfer event to my Google financial calendar to remind me to transfer the money twice a month. Since the amount changed each pay period, I couldn’t set up a recurring transfer, so finding some way to remind myself was a must.

I say this plan is self-motivating because the amount you’re saving decreases each week. If you stick with the plan, $52 is the most you’ll have to save any week of the year. Just by starting the plan, the hardest step is done!

Save up for whatever you want. Start your fiscal year whenever you want. But in the end, if you keep at it, you’ll have $1,378 without feeling the strain for more than a few weeks at the beginning. You’ll be glad you tried the Reverse 52 Week Savings Plan.