MMM Challenge: Save 100 Dollars This Week

I love this idea! Since reading this my gf and I have made up our own tally and we treat it like a game. Whoever tallies up the least “savings” puts $5 in a jar at the end of the week. We then put that money towards our vacations or treating our self to a rare night out! Thanks for the continuous great ideas MMM!

I’m cutting out barting to work and bussing home. That saves me $3.60 three days a week–a total of $10.80/week. And it gets me in better shape because I’ll walk instead. I bring my lunch every day and only go out to coffee with coworkers a couple times a month, and I’m not ready to cut that out. I’m also planning to get up earlier on Sundays to walk to church–it’s 2.1 miles away.

It was the Mashable article that brought me here. It’s the freedom: I want it. I must have it. I will do whatever it takes to get it.

My goal is to save $50,000 in 2015.

Dear MMM,

I just started reading your blog. I am absolutely shocked as to how much money I am actually spending on nonsense. I never realized it until I tried one week without spending.

Money not spent for one week:

1 x hazelnut mocha ($5.24) (five times a week) = $26.20
1 x American Spirits ($6.30) (two times a week) = $12.60
Assorted candy I buy when I pump gas = $15.00
I-Tunes (apps and/or songs) = $5.00
Store bought lunches ($2.50) = (five times a week) = 12.50

That’s approximately $70.00 a week on NOTHING.

I am turn 34 next months but I am starting my way to financial freedom immediately.

Thank you MMM

I know of two ways that might help others to save money every week.

First is to lower your hot water tank temperature as much as possible. The sweet spot temperature is when you can take a shower using only hot water. When you need more heat for things such as doing dishes by hand, you can simply heat up the amount of water needed on the stove. No need for a fifty gallon tank to stay hot 24/7 for the few times you need a small amount of hot water. Our natural gas usage (for out hot water tank and cook stove) costs us about $10 per month and we are a family of five. We also cook a lot as we almost never go out to eat.

Second, and this one might be obvious, is not to have a cloths dryer. One can use drying racks if you live in an apartment. We did so during the five years we lived in an apartment. Or for a few dollars one can get nylon string, hooks, and cloths pins from a hardware store. During a four year period we strung up an outdoor line between fence posts and trees (knots or hooks are not required, if you wrap the string around the post/tree about four or five times, there is no way for you to pull off the line). Now that we live in San Diego we have strung up lines inside the garage as not to sun bleach our cloths.

Another Ottawa person here (I’m impressed by our showing on this blog. .considering Ottawa has the highest median household income in all of Canada thanks to cushy government jobs.

Here’s an extreme black belt money saving technique that I am currently using: Alternate Day Fasting

I needed to lose 10 or 15 pounds and can’t stand the idea of counting calories. . so I’ve started just not eating every 2nd day (actually I do eat 2 apples on fast days . just eat under 400 calories). The days I do eat I eat normal meals of whatever I like. . I’m saving almost 50% on personal food costs and lost weight and I’ve started walking to work so I’m getting quite slim now.

Calorie restriction and fasting have been shown in animals to fight disease and prolong lifespan by up to 30%. . So I’m sticking to it!! If I get too thin I’ll add in some extra eating days.

Hi MMM,

I’m new to the site, but became addicted instantly. I’m reading through all the posts from the start now :D

This challenge can definitely work!! I have a 60K per year job and for years now I’ve been fairly steady financially, although with a couple of holidays I guess I could say it’s going backwards slowly. Last month I decided to make a change and bring lunch from home every day. It’s not as fancy as some bought things, but it’s still pretty good and does the hunger busting job. I also decided stopped drinking as much as I did.

In that month, I went from being able to pay about $300 to $500 off my card to taking off $1600 this payment alone. That can definitely continue into the future, and within three months I should have paid off my credit card in full. The money will then go into saving for a deposit on a house!

Thanks for the great advice mate, I look forward to more articles!

This is the small goal we started with when we began our FIRE journey. Saving $100 sounds easy on paper, but in reality it’s much tougher than you think it’ll be! In the beginning we drastically cut our food costs, phone bills, and impulse buys. We thought this would make us feel deprived, but you’d be surprised how these small changes make a huge difference for your finances and your outlook on life.

Hello, I am new to MMM too and actually I live in France. With my husband we have no TV (less 120 audiovisual tax per year and less 30 euros per month for cable tV). We shop in grocery once a week. We (especially my chéri :)) buy new clothes rarely (between 400-600 eur per year for we three). We goes to restaurant once-twice per year…As an ex-URSS I can saw, cook and so on (so we need not to pay a third person to sew an jean’s hem). But I buy some books cause in our library there is not books in my native language, its about 30 eur per year. Some things we could find via ” french craiglist” (leboncoin) or facebook’s pages.
I grow up our child of 2yo. But cause of mortage and a lot of work with our new-very-old house we have no any trip and I see my husband once a week cause house it’s not really habitable for we three (so I live in opposite side at his family). And 4 month like this, without my bike, without my husband, without breakfast together – it’s not simple. My goal is make a trip with my family. I look forward to find a part-time job (as my husband a full-time worker I need a nanny or nursery). And actually my husband spent 4 hours for round trip for his work. He has no time to look at another for a moment. And his directer put in his contract 2 days of distance work from home but it’s only on the paper not in reality. So for us it’s not so simple…But our life style is very close of this MMM blog. Thank you.

I love reading your blog. I always thought my $50,000 salary for a family of five was barely enough to live on. Well I was wrong. After reading your blog i started looking at my finances differently. I was so upset to find out that month after month that I was some spending $553 and nothing to show for it. So in two days of reading you blog I have gone from, ” I barely make enough to provide for my family”, to , ” I have some serious buying power each month that I can put to good use. ” I am only 31 and I am taking more control of my finances more than anyone else I know. Thanks and keep the posts coming. I would like as much details on how you structure your portfolio. Thanks again

Andrew

I’m happy to report that I saved about $150 last week when I took the challenge. There was an easy $20 per day by not eating out. In the recent past I have had to strictly limit myself to ONLY one meal a day in restaurants as it would be easy for me to eat both lunch and dinner out. It’s now been nearly three weeks and I have eaten out twice, once for my boyfriend’s bday (he’s an advanced moustachian so our restaurant of choice was Sweet Tomatoes for the unlimited salad bar, soups, and breads with a 25% off coupon) and once with my father for an Indian meal that feeds us both at least twice for $50.

Thanks to the challenge I also saved about $1 for a load of laundry I chose to line dry rather than put through the dryer. I saved an additional $7.50 on fresh herbs I would have purchased in the supermarket. Rather than buy the exact herbs I was used to using in particular recipes I chose to use the herbs I had growing in my garden instead

The challenge was extremely fun and engaging and has me even more motivated to keep up the savings.