The $100 weekly budget challenge: How to cut costs
These days, $100 may not be enough to cover a week’s worth of retirement needs. But if you’re trying to reduce your spending to preserve your long-term wealth, working as close to a $100 budget as possible can be a good challenge.
You can get creative with how you allocate $100 to key categories, like groceries and gas, while giving some money to fun. After that, you can take cost-saving courses throughout your retirement.
Budget allocation
If you only have $100 to spend per week, you’ll have to prioritize your priorities before setting aside money for discretionary spending. A violation may look like this:
- Food: $60
- Services: $10
- Fuel: $20
- Sweet: $10
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When you go shopping, you can do more than look for deals. Buying in bulk, planning ahead and using food loyalty programs can help.
Utilities can be more difficult to fit into your budget, especially since you pay for them every month and sometimes, they can expire. But you can try to negotiate with your suppliers or shop around to get the lowest prices possible. And if you’re really trying to bring prices down, heating a smaller home and using energy saving techniques like insulating your home or using a smart thermometer can help.
Lowering your fuel costs can be effective if you live locally and can walk or bike to nearby areas. You can search for free events or friends who join you in your house to have fun. After that, you can spend $10 on an inexpensive item or subscription that you want to buy.
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How to stretch your $100
If you’re looking for strategies to help you get as close to the $100 spend as possible, consider the following:
- Look for discounts: You can often exchange one ingredient in a recipe for another that sells at a discount, or choose products with lower prices.
- Save leftovers to reduce waste: Freezing leftovers can not only save you money by serving an extra meal or two, it also saves you time and limits food waste.
- Use Cash-back apps: Cash Back apps give you money back on certain purchases – and they’re often easy to use. Combining Cash Back programs with Cash Back Credit Cards can increase your rewards.
- Take advantage of peak shopping hours: These hours are often filled with high-end customer discounts and usually occur when the store is at its busiest.
- Cook in batches: More food available can make you prone to compulsive food shopping. Also, it saves time.
- Compare prices for each: This strategy allows you to determine the best amount of different food items. Getting more ounces for less money will lower your food bill.
- Use store loyalty programs: Many stores have loyalty programs that give you cash back for frequent shopping with them.
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The benefit of sticking to $100
Living on $100 a week is impossible for most people in retirement. But it can be a good challenge to teach you how much you spend, and encourage you to look for new ways to cut costs.
The money you save can be used to pay off debt, cover your short-term needs in the future and invest for the long-term.
