Want money for a big weekend? Or maybe you need it to pay a bill next week. Or you may just want to start saving more.
No matter what you want it for, if you follow what’s written below you could have an extra $100 by Friday.
And it’s not difficult either. It’s simply a matter of finding the money you waste and saving it instead.
Cook your meals for the rest of the week
Go home tonight and spend 30 minutes looking online for recipes you can cook for the rest of the week. No take-away, no eating out, no pizza delivery – you are going to eat home-cooked meals.
It isn’t hard, and it will only take about 30 minutes, maybe less.
A few meals I would suggest are stir-fries (chop up meat and veggies and cook for a few minutes), slow cooker meals (if you have a slow cooker, use it as it will cook your dinner while you are at work), and spaghetti (brown the mince, add a sauce and cook the pasta).
There are many websites that you can use: AllRecipes (The US version of this site allows you to search for recipes based on what ingredients you have at home), Taste, and Best Recipes.
One additional piece of advice when cooking your dinners: make more than you need. You will find out why in the next step.
Saving for the week: $30-$50
Pack your own lunches for the rest of the week
You can’t do much about today, but for the rest of the week you will be brown-bagging it.
You will be bringing your own lunches from home. And this is where your home-cooked dinners come in. You will be using your leftovers from the night before as lunch for the next day. That’s a free meal and a big saving!
You don’t have to have left-overs every day either. Mix it up by making your own sandwiches in the morning (yes, that means getting up an extra 10 minutes early) and taking it to work.
All you need to bring with you is something for lunch, perhaps dry biscuits and cheese, and some fruit for that afternoon sugar craving. Oh, and a re-usable bottle of water that you can fill from home and re-fill throughout the day.
Saving for the week: $30-$40
Make you own morning coffee
While you are making your lunch in the morning you can also make your first coffee (or tea) for the day so you won’t have to get it on your way to the office, saving you dollars.
Sure, it might not taste as good as the barista’s, but it will give you that morning caffeine hit you crave and, long term, you can invest in a fancy coffee maker if you want to have better coffees and save more over time.
Savings for the week: $15-$20
Only drink tap water
Don’t buy expensive soft drinks, energy drinks, bottled water or any other type of drink for the rest of the week. Only drink refreshing tap water. If you find you are not used to the taste, refrigerate it so it’s cold.
Savings for the week: $10-$20
Total savings for the week
The total you will save will entirely depend on what you spent before and how strict you were, but the figure below is a pretty good average.
Total savings for the week: $85-$130
. And there you have it. Four ways you can be $100 richer by Friday. And, who knows, you may just end up saving more!
The question now is, what are you going to do with your new found money? Blow it on a good night out? Save it? Or pay off some debt? It’s up to you – it’s your money.
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