What would you do if I handed you a hundred dollar bill right now? Save it, use it to pay a bill, or spend it on something special? A hundred bucks is a pretty nice amount of money and it can go pretty far.
Luckily, you don’t have to depend on a good Samaritan (or me!) to randomly give you $100. You can be your own good Samaritan! If you save $100 out of your monthly spending, you put that same amount of money back in your pocket.
Cutting expenses is something that pretty much anyone can do at any time. It’s something that’s entirely in your control. You can’t always time a raise, or find a stellar deal at the store. But you can choose to control your spending.
Saving an extra $100 a month means you’ve got an extra $1,200 a year. The possibilities are endless for what you can do with that amount of money. If you invest $100 a month on a principle balance of $1,200 for ten years, at a 6% interest rate you’ll have $17,965.97 in a decade. Not bad for just $100 a month!
Similarly, if you have $10,000 worth of credit card debt, you can be out of debt sooner if you add an extra $100 to your monthly payments.
Here are a few ways you can cut costs and find an extra $100 in your budget.
Save $100 From Your Monthly Budget
Everyone’s money situation is different. I’m going to list some general ways to save $100 across most middle class income levels.
-Cut cable. Americans spend an average of $103 a month on pay TV. {Leichtman Research Group.}
-Carpool. Carpooling a few days a week can mean big savings on your gas and your car upkeep.
-No eating out for a month. It’s one month; no one is saying give up restaurants forever!
-Use less water. If you’re still leaving the tap running when you brush your teeth, you need to stop like yesterday. You can also take shorter showers, measure water you use for cooking, and handwash dishes to save on water usage.
-Count your coins. You can do this for free at home!
-Save all your $5 bills. This depends on how much cash you use, but if you are dedicated to this, you can put away a chunk of money every month.
Looking for more great articles on how I handle my money? Try these articles:
Why I Have Trouble Spending Money
How I’m Paying Off That $1,200 Credit Card Bill
Kara Perez is the original founder of From Frugal To Free. She is a money expert, speaker and founder of Bravely Go, a feminist financial education company. Her work has been featured on NPR, Business Insider, Forbes, and Elite Daily.