TikTok 100 envelope challenge claims it can help you save £5,000 in 100 days

If you’re finding it difficult to put savings away, try out the 100 envelope challenge and see if you can save £5,000 in 100 days. 

Tik Tok saving and budgeting trends like cash-stuffing or zero-based budgeting are increasingly popular. But if you want to save a lot of money quickly, could the 100 envelope challenge work for you? 

TikTokers claim you can save £5,000 in 100 days. Not a very realistic figure for most of us, but here we explain how you can use the principles of the 100 envelope challenge to reach your savings goals.

Can you save with the 100 envelope challenge?

How does the 100-envelope challenge work?

Use this step-by-step guide to follow how the 100 envelope challenge works.

• Get 100 envelopes and write the numbers 1 to 100 on each one. So there should be one number on each envelope, for example, ‘1’ on the first envelope, ‘2’ on the second envelope, ‘67’ on the 67th envelope and so on. 
• Then, mix all of the envelopes up, randomly put them in a pile and place all of the envelopes inside a box. 
• Now you’re set and you can start saving with the 100 envelope challenge. All you do each day is pick an envelope out of the box at random and whatever number it says on it, you put that amount in the envelope. So if you picked envelope 43, you put £43 into the envelope and if you picked envelope 2, you put £2 in. 
• At the end of the 100 days, count your money and you should end up with £5,050.

The important thing is even though it’s a form of saving, you can have fun with it and as mentioned before, you don’t have to stick to 100 days. 

If you want to start off small you can try this budgeting method out for 30 days and end up with £465. 

Or you can even stick to the envelope challenge once a week- if you put away money once a week over a two-year period, you could still end up with around £5,000. It just eliminates that pressure of saving money every day and unrealistic amounts, especially when pockets are strapped. 

If you want to save a lot of money quickly and have the spare cash to be able to do so, you could do the envelope challenge for 365 days and end up with around £10,000. This means the most you put away on a single day is £365.

Who to follow on Tik Tok doing the 100 envelope challenge

These are the Tik Tokers you can search or Google to follow how they’ve done with the 100 envelope challenge.

Senorita Sandy | @_financial_proverbs_101 (opens in new tab)

3833 followers

50.3K likes 

On Sandy’s Tik Tok, you can find a range of budgeting techniques, follow her journey and she has the 100 envelope challenge pinned to the top of her profile. 

Brigitta | @Brigitta.tth (opens in new tab)

14K followers 

582.1K likes 

This Tik Toker has a feed of things ranging from beauty to budgeting and she has a category at the top of her account dedicated to the 100 envelope challenge. 

Mooch | @amoochlife  (opens in new tab)

380.3K followers 

7.9M likes 

Mooch has the 100 envelope challenge pinned to the top of his account which has a whopping 352.3K views on the video. Scroll through his feed for more budgeting tips and techniques.

What do money experts think of the 100 envelope challenge?

Sammie Ellard-King, founder of the money website Up the Gains (opens in new tab), said: “My advice would be that you can still follow the 'idea' of the challenge, but not to feel pressured into putting those specific amounts in. Even if you only manage to put £1/$1 in per day and keep it at that, it'll be a nice quick way of saving some additional money.

Similar to the 50/30/20 budgeting tip too, these methods are only to be used as examples and ideas and not to go out of your way (or financial comfort zone) to stick to the exact rules. 

In terms of tweaking the percentages, a lot of costs can be saved through cutting down the 'nice to haves' in the 30% section. This means whatever's saved can be added to the 50% to make it more of a priority with bills rising across the board. 

Sometimes social media leads us into believing you HAVE to follow set rules, especially when it comes down to savings and budgeting but my advice as mentioned above would be to only follow the idea, not necessarily the rules."

Jo Threlfall, Embryo (opens in new tab) brand manager and money-saving expert, said: “The aim is to create a healthy habit and encourage people to get towards their saving goals. 

Depending on people’s financial income you can adapt the money you put away to what you can afford as you may not be able to do the max amount. 

So for example if you save £1 for 100 days you’d save £100 or £5 a day you can save £500 it’s about making a goal that’s realistic to you that can help you put money away for something that’s valuable for you.”

Other saving and budgeting and techniques to try

If the 100 envelope challenge isn’t for you, there are a few other techniques that have taken Tik Tok by storm, which might better suit your finances.

• The 1p challenge. This challenge is similar to the envelope challenge, but on a smaller scale. Instead of saving several pounds each day, you save penny’s. The aim of the challenge is to save an extra penny each day until the end of the year and end up with £667.  
• Use the 50/30/20 rule. This budgeting technique gives you a methodical way to split your income into three spending categories: wants, needs and financial goals. During the rising cost of living, a 70/20/10 might be better suited depending on your outgoings. Find out how to use the 50/30/20 rule. 
• Zero-based budgeting. This technique requires a bit of planning before you start budgeting. You need to note down all of your expenses and outgoings into categories and allocate a pot of money for each. The aim is to use up your income for the month in the pots so you’re left with zero. This doesn’t mean all of your income should be spent for the month though. Follow our step-by-step guide on zero-based budgeting. 
• Cash stuffing. Another great way to budget, but again you need to do some planning and set categories aside before you start putting cash aside. This method is more about physically stuffing cash into pockets/ envelopes. See how cash stuffing works and which Tik Tokers you can follow who are also cash stuffing. 

Related articles

• What is budgeting and how can you do it? 
• Women are better budgeters but don’t realise it: how to boost your budgeting self-belief 
• Why are ATM cash machine withdrawals rising in a ‘cashless’ era? 
• The best money saving apps