Looking for the charts? Every printable and A6 binder insert in one list. Or the one with no amounts in it — the 30-day no-spend challenge.
A chart tells you the ladder. These tell you what it totals, what the hardest stretch costs, how long it really takes, and how much cash that is in bills.
| Challenge | Total | Deposits | Each | Takes | In bills |
|---|
| 100 envelope challengePrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $5,050 | 100 | $1–$100 | 1.9 years | 51 |
| 52 week money challengePrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $1,378 | 52 | $1–$52 | 1 year | 19 |
| Reverse 52 week challengePrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $1,378 | 52 | $1–$52 | 1 year | 19 |
| 26 week savings challengePrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $351 | 26 | $1–$26 | 1 year | 5 |
| 365 day penny challengePrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $667.95 | 365 | $0.01–$3.65 | 1 year | 11 |
| $5,000 in 100 daysPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $5,000 | 100 | $50 | 3 months | 50 |
| $1,000 in a yearPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $1,000.48 | 52 | $19.24 | 1 year | 10 |
| $5,000 in a yearPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $5,000.32 | 52 | $96.16 | 1 year | 50 |
| $10,000 in a yearPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $10,000.12 | 52 | $192.31 | 1 year | 100 |
| $2,000 in 6 monthsPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $2,000.18 | 26 | $76.93 | 6 months | 20 |
| $1,000 in 30 daysPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $1,000.20 | 30 | $33.34 | 1 month | 10 |
| $1,000 in 3 monthsPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $1,000.09 | 13 | $76.93 | 3 months | 10 |
| $5,000 in 3 monthsPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $5,000.06 | 13 | $384.62 | 3 months | 50 |
| $5,000 in 6 monthsPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $5,000.06 | 26 | $192.31 | 6 months | 50 |
| $10,000 in 6 monthsPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $10,000.12 | 13 | $769.24 | 6 months | 100 |
| $10,000 in 26 paychecksPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $10,000.12 | 26 | $384.62 | 1 year | 100 |
| $10,000 in 100 daysPrintable chart →A6 binder cards → | $10,000 | 100 | $100 | 3 months | 100 |
The total is not the difficulty
Two challenges can save the same money and feel completely different. A rising ladder is easy in week one and brutal at the end, which is where people stop — the plan gets more expensive exactly as it stops being novel. A flat plan asks the same thing every time, which is harder to start and much easier to finish.
Match the cadence to your payday
A weekly challenge on a biweekly paycheck means half the deposits land on a week with no money arriving. The 26-week ladder exists for exactly this reason: one deposit per payday, so the plan never asks for money that has not turned up yet.
If it is cash, count the bills
A chart tells you the total. It does not tell you that $1,378 is nineteen bills, or that a $347 envelope split five ways needs twenty-six rather than eight. Every page here works that out, because the number you hand a teller is not the number on the chart.
Building your own instead? Name any goal and the tracker builds the ladder.