Ipon Challenge Results: How Did It Go?

Another year, another set of goals. Don’t you agree? And one of the top goals being set this time around is about finances. Last year, I posted about money saving challenges or ipon challenges. You can read all about it here. As I mentioned in my post last year, I decided to do the invisible 50 and 200 for 2018. And now that the year has ended, what’s my ipon challenge results?

January last year, I bought another moo bank (aka piggy bank, but in the shape of a cow) to fill. By mid-November, it was already full that I couldn’t insert another rolled 50-peso bill. So I decided to open it before November ended. The only opening on the moo bank is the slit where you shoot the bills (or coins). So I literally had to saw a part of it just to get all the bills and a few coins out. That took me about half an hour to do. LOL!

Most of the bills were rolled so unrolling, sorting and counting took another 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours! But you know, it was quite relaxing unfolding and sorting all those bills. I guess I was too stressed out with a lot of things back then.

Anyway, even if I opened the moo bank by November, I still saved up my 50- and 200-peso bills until the end of the year. And my final ipon challenge results are:

Invisible 200 – I saved a total of Php 8,000.00
Invisible   50 – I saved a total of Php 29,000.00

That’s a total of Php 37,000 all in all. Whew! Not bad, eh?

I am actually happy to have done the challenge and finish it by the end of the year. Now it is still hard for me to spend my 50  and 200 peso bills so I might as well continue this challenge this year, too. Apart from this invisible money challenge, I plan to come up with another challenge for myself as well. I might blog about it sometime soon. I just have to figure out how to do it first.

So, do I say that the invisible money challenge is a success? Definitely, yes! I recommend this challenge to anyone who wants to start the habit of saving. It doesn’t have to be 50. One could do an invisible 20 challenge. Or even invisible 5 or 10-peso coin. At the end of the day, what’s important is to cultivate the habit of saving. (side note: given the shortages with coins in circulation, if you decide to do invisible coin challenges, I recommend opening a bank and deposit whatever you collect regularly – either monthly or quarterly. Just so the coins go back in circulation).

Did you do any of the ipon challenges last year? What’s your ipon challenge results?