The $100 Weekly Budget Challenge: How to Lower Costs in Retirement
Nowadays, $100 may not be enough to cover a week’s worth of needs in retirement. But if you’re trying to cut down on your spending to preserve your wealth for the long term, implementing as close to a $100 budget as you can may be a good challenge.
You can get creative with how you allocate $100 to key categories, such as groceries and gas, while allocating some money for fun. Then, you can take the lessons on cost savings that you learn into the rest of your retirement.
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The budget breakdown
If you only have $100 to spend in a week, you’ll have to prioritize the essentials before setting aside some cash for discretionary spending. A breakdown could look like this:
- Groceries: $60
- Utilities: $10
- Fuel: $20
- Fun: $10
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When shopping, you can do more than just look for deals. Buying in bulk, planning ahead and taking advantage of grocery loyalty programs can help.
Utilities may be a bit more difficult to fit into your budget, especially since you pay them monthly and sometimes, they can be somewhat out of your control. But you can try to negotiate with your providers or shop around to get the prices as low as possible. And if you’re really trying to bring prices down, relocating to a smaller home and implementing energy savings techniques like insulating your home or using a smart thermometer can help.
Lowering your fuel costs may work if you stay local and can walk or bike to nearby areas. You can seek out free events or host friends at your house for fun. Then, you can spend the $10 on an affordable 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 spending amount as possible, consider the following:
- Look for discounts: You can often swap one item in a recipe for another that's selling at a discount, or choose brands that have lower prices.
- Freeze leftovers to reduce waste: Freezing leftovers not only saves you money by providing an extra meal or two, it also saves you time and limits food waste.
- Use cash-back apps: Cash back apps offer you money back on certain purchases — and they’re often easy to use. Combining cash back apps with cash back credit cards can maximize your rewards.
- Take advantage of senior shopping hours: These hours are often filled with discounts for senior shoppers and typically take place when the store is less busy.
- Cook in batches: Having extra food available can make you less prone to impulsive food shopping. Plus, it saves time.
- Compare per-ounce prices: This strategy lets you determine the best value of various food items. Getting more ounces for less money will trim your grocery bill.
- Use store loyalty programs: Many stores have loyalty programs that offer you money back in exchange for shopping with them regularly.
The benefit of sticking to $100
Living on $100 a week is not feasible for many people in retirement. But it can be a good challenge to teach you about how much you’re spending, and inspire you to look for new ways to cut costs.
The money you save can be used to pay off debt, cover your short-term essentials in the future and invest for the long term.