Mind games to grow your savings

Finding the ‘fun’ in funds with clever money challenges

July 30, 2025

Saving isn’t a new concept, in fact, piggy banks have been used as savings tools since medieval times. Back then, these clay pigs had to be smashed to access the money, turning both saving and spending into serious commitments. These days, the clay pig is mostly reserved for teaching kids about saving; a reminder that it isn’t instinctive. Fortunately, there are now more modern and even enjoyable ways to build a savings habit.

With July being National Savings Month, we’re shining a spotlight on some of the more innovative ways we can learn to tuck money away.

Spotlight

When it comes to money decisions, saving is often the least exciting. It can feel painfully slow, like watching paint dry, while spending offers that instant hit of satisfaction. Luckily, there are concepts like temptation bundling (Kirgios et al. 2020) which can help us become more diligent with unpleasant tasks. This concept involves pairing an activity you dread doing (like saving money) with something pleasurable and rewarding. The goal is to create the illusion that saving is appealing because of the enjoyable reward that has been matched with it.

Stokvels or group saving schemes are a good example of temptation bundling. At their core, they bring people together in a social setting (the reward) to contribute money regularly towards a saving or investment goal.

We explored the deep-rooted history of stokvels in our previous newsletter. Catch up here.

To make saving more fun, here are some creative and unconventional methods to try.

100 envelope challenge: This challenge involves setting aside money in 100 separate envelopes, each marked with a value starting at R10 and increasing in increments, for example, R10, R20, R30, and so on, all the way up to R1,000. The goal is to add the corresponding amount of cash to each envelope when you can. Once all the envelopes are filled, you’ll have saved R50,500. The real challenge is to avoid dipping your fingers into the sealed envelopes, but that’s where discipline literally pays off.

You can follow Cash Stuffing with NomazDiary on TikTok where the South African creator details how she has used the envelope method to save for everything from a laptop to a wedding.

Vault22: This app connects to your bank accounts and offers tools like spending tracking, budgeting, transaction categorisation, educational content and automatic reminders to help you avoid late payment fees. It also scores financial fitness, from rookie to elite, giving users a clear benchmark to aim for. According to its website, over 700,000 South Africans have used the app to take control of their finances.

Treat match: Each time you indulge in a non-essential treat, like a pastry or a fancy coffee, set aside the same amount in your savings account. This is a great way to enjoy life’s small pleasures without feeling guilty, while still building up your savings in the background.

Showcase

Making good financial decisions can be learned and playing games like Monopoly is a safe space to practice, make mistakes and to improve decision-making.

Even MBA students can learn a thing or two about financial decision-making by playing Monopoly. A study by Professors Adrian Saville and Charlene Lew at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) (2009 to 2018) involved a modified version of this game. The simulation mainly focused on the underlying psychological processes and biases in investment decision-making (behavioural finance).

The original Monopoly game was changed to introduce:

Bias: Players experienced how biases influenced their investment decision-making. For example, 63.6% of players expected to win when asked to predict their performance, expressing overconfidence bias.

Disruptive events: Unforeseen events required skills to deal with uncertainty, complexity and one’s own erratic behaviour. Market volatility, new taxes and regulations, banking collapses, and so on, were introduced to mimic real-world financial disruptions.

Inequality: Status affected decision-making and interpersonal behaviour. Each player was assigned to one of three groups at random before the game started: wealthy, normal or poor. This inequality affected how much money each player started out with and how much they would collect after passing “Go”.

Moral dilemmas: Irrational behaviour resulted in unethical decision-making. Moral principles were tested by introducing cards which prompted bribing to get out of sticky financial situations. An average of 31.5% of players also admitted to cheating during the game.

Diversity: Groups consisted of six players from mixed cultural backgrounds to encourage different perspectives.

Playing Monopoly is an effective way to gamify financial decision-making. This modified version of the game helped students engage with economic theory, build practical insight into unpredictable financial events they might not otherwise face and reflect on how they can make better investment decisions.

There is a lot we can learn about our personal spending patterns and decision-making through games and simulations. Learning-by-doing in such a safe space may just provide personal insights that are often hard to acquire in traditional learning environments.

Reading material

In this post, Old Mutual shares some of its money saving tips including everything from budgeting to switching to a low-cost bank account.

Saving money isn’t just an adult habit, it’s a life skill best taught from a young age. This Investec article offers practical tips for parents on how to encourage saving in their children, from using a piggy bank to setting a strong example through everyday actions.

Watch this

Ever heard of mental accounting? This short video by Citizens Bank explains the process: Start by creating spending categories and assigning a set amount to each one. When it’s time to pay for something, like entertainment, you only use the money set aside in that specific envelope.

Games and helpful apps

Act your wage! is another boardgame that teaches players how to handle money. The objective is to budget your income, build an emergency fund and pay off your debts. The first player to meet the criteria and shout, “I’m debt free!” wins the game.

Fortune City is a digital game that combines budgeting with city simulation. As you track your real-life expenses you get rewarded with new citizens and missions to complete in your city.

 

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