Introducing the Jason Norman Challenge!

Before Fawnda took her leave from teaching, we set a budget, and I am proud to report that we have been holding to that budget (for the most part). As you all know, life deals a few unexpected blows from time to time, and you just deal with those the best you can. Even so, I had been a little frustrated, because we were making very little progress on increasing our “rainy day” fund, or as some call it, “padding” our account. We were holding to a budget, but that budget was based on the amount deposited into our bank account every payday. To sum up, I found that it was possible for us to hold to the budget, but still find next to nothing sitting our account just before the next payday – in a sense, we were living paycheck to paycheck. For this reason, I designed the “Jason Norman Challenge”, and I am happy to report that we have been successful for 4 paydays now. Here’s how the challenge works:

GOAL: To have $XX.XX more in the bank at 5pm on payday, than at the same time on your last payday.

REWARD: Spend up to ½ of the increase on something fun after 4 successful paydays. NOTE: if you set your goal at $20, then you would have up to $40 to spend on something fun after 4 successes ($20 X 4 = $80 X 1/2 = $40). If you were paid every week, this means that after 1 year, your bank account would have at least an extra $520 in it ($20 X 52 = $1,040 X ½ = $520)! Plus, you will have been able to have some fun and spend some money on yourselves along the way!

STEPS:
1. Determine when your payday is (Friday’s? every week? every other week? once or twice a month?).
2. Set a dollar amount for your goal. We decided to start out aggressively, so we set the dollar amount at $50.00.
3. Dig out your online banking username and password, or the bank’s phone number, your account number and PIN, so you can access your account information at 5pm on payday. NOTE: you will probably want to check in regularly between paydays too, to ensure that you are keeping on track.
4. Start a log. Your first entry will be at 5pm on payday. Write down the date, your current account balance, and your goal for the next payday. Your next entry will be at 5pm on your next payday, and you will write down the date, the current goal, your current account balance, and the goal for the next payday.
5. Manage your spending between paydays to ensure that you hit or beat your goal by next payday.

STRATEGIES:
1. We opted to require our 4 successful paydays to be in succession. If we don’t meet our goal during week 1, 2, 3 or 4, we start over. We don’t reward ourselves until we’ve had 4 in a row.
2. This one’s still up for interpretation, but we decided to enact the “rollover clause”. For example, let’s say we started out with $100 in our account at 5pm on payday, and our goal is $50. That means that our threshold for the next payday is $150. If at the next deadline we have $170 (thus exceeding our goal), we decided to set our goal for the following week at $200 ($150 + $50), rather than adding our goal to the current balance, thus “rolling” over any additional surplus to the next payday’s spending.
3. This challenge requires a different theory of “saving”. Instead of only finding the best deals, you must manage your cash, which could mean that you postpone purchases, or buy in smaller quantities during the week. Instead of buying the jumbo pack of paper towels on sale, you might only buy one or two rolls because you end up spending $2 instead of $14.
4. We have had times where our gas tanks were getting low a couple of days before payday. We had the funds to fill our tanks, but we opted to only put $20 in the tank to leave some extra cushion.
5. COMMUNICATE! If you have a joint bank account, then communication with your better half is of the utmost importance. In order to make this work, both of you will need to inform the other of any significant purchases being posted to your account. Depending on your budget and goals, the two of you will need to define what “significant” is.
6. In addition to #4, decide with your significant other on what you would like to spend your reward on.
7. If you decide to use a credit card to manage the flow of funds out of your account, remember that it all must be paid back at some time. If you need to put something on the credit card to meet your goal for the week, you best have a game plan on exactly how that will get paid back timely.
8. If you have larger out-of-the-ordinary bills coming due (such as tabs for your car, a hospital bill, etc.), start planning for that payment weeks in advance, so you have the surplus to pay that bill before it comes due.
9. We decided that we would each get an allowance each week. A little jiggle in our pocket to spend on what ever we want. We take it out as cash at the beginning of the week and when it is gone it is gone. On weeks that we have been really close we have had to use our "fun money" on not-so-fun things like groceries but it was our decision to spend it that way. Since we are being so tight in most of the areas in our budget it is nice to have a little freedom. If there is something that you want that is more than the allowance you could save your money from the week before.
10. You could tell your family about it too to help keep you accountable! Or tell the whole world by posting it on the Internet! : )

TRICKS:
1. Since this is all about managing your spending and your cash, postponing when a purchase is posted to your account is one of the best tricks in your bag.
2. Dust off those checks, and play the “float” game. NOTE: it’s best to understand that with the current banking rule of Check 21, your “float” could be as little as just a few hours. However, it could be days or weeks. This trick is truly a gamble!
3. Don’t buy something until after 5pm on payday (or maybe not at all). Just remember that what you postpone until after 5pm comes out of what you have to spend before the next payday.

I wish you the best of luck if you decide to take on the challenge! I would also enjoy hearing any thoughts, tips or tricks that you can think of, or that you figure out while going through the challenge. I will also make myself available if you need an official ruling. I’ll keep an eye out for those emails or comments!