How to Spend 100€?

How to Spend 100€?

How to spend 100€?

No, it’s not an instructional post… It’s a question.

I’ve been struggling for a while trying to figure out what can I do with all this money. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I decided to broadcast my ask for help.

But before jumping in to say “buy a _____”, let me set some rules to the game.

Rules of the game

Restrictions:

• The money needs to be spend today – in a single ordinary working day (no emergencies and natural disasters);
• My net-worth should decrease by at least 100$.

Let’s assume that:

• My transportation costs are fully reimbursed;
• I already function in the society (I have a phone, a lap top, more than 10 pieces of clothing, etc.);
• My housing costs are covered;
• I’m self-confident (don’t have an urge to impress people);
• I’m living a relatively healthy lifestyle (no drinks and sugar (any sense of the word));
• I’m smart (won’t buy a bottle of water at work if I can drink water for free).

Exclusions:

• Bills and taxes
• Inflation and opportunity costs

So, given all these conditions, my best attempt of spending 100€ would be to buy something to make someone happy.

But that’s so easy… So let’s make another restriction: 100€ on myself.

That’s it. Ready?

Let’s get materialistic.

How to spend 100€?

No idea… 🙁

Okay, I’ll just throw something.

Supermarket

Okay, let’s try to prepare a nice meal for dinner. A few options and their estimated prices include:

• Rice (2€), chicken (5€), carrots (2€), mushrooms (2€);
• Broccoli (2€), cheese (4€), rice (2€);
• Eggs (3€), cheese (4$);
• Salmon (6$), lemon (2$);

Add a max of 10$ for salad / vegetables and 10$ more for sauces / extra ingredients (which I don’t usually use), and we’re looking at a total of maximum 30€.

Let’s try harder now.

Okay, supermarket visit… What else can I spend money on?

Toilet paper (10€), cleaning items (20€), shampoo (5€), soap (2€), new toothbrush (4€), … Milk (2€)? Cashews (5€)?

By the way, my apologies if the assumed prices are higher than in reality. But that’s fine… The total amount is so below the threshold of 100€ that we won’t reach it even if we double them once more.

Anyway, not only we’re not even remotely touching 100€, but all of these things will be functional and usable for the near future as well. So even if we somehow did reach 100€, we’d still have failed – it violates the rule of spending the money today.

Okay, so does it mean that the full amount needs to be spend on one item that need to be consumed today?

Well, it doesn’t matter… Let’s first reach a 100€ and then I’ll discard it if I feel it’s not an adequate answer.

A grocery bill can easily skyrocket if we’re loose on the “healthy lifestyle” thingy. Add a few sodas (who drinks that?), a bunch of chocolates, a dozen beers, and some cigarettes… And there you go! However, the answer is unacceptable, as I’m really not a consumer of those kind of stuff.

I’m not sure if I’m missing something, but I think that this is as far as I can get my grocery bill…

I think it’s time for us to move to another option.

Restaurant

Let’s say I’ll eat in the center of Amsterdam. It’s so tight and uncomfortable, but still.

So, what should I eat?

• Sushi
• Thai food
• McDonald’s – one Big Mac and 2 cheeseburgers?
• Fries?

Whatever I pick, I can’t find a meal that would cost more than 30 € unfortunately…

Let’s get a drink with that. But what? I hate coke and try to avoid alcohol.

But let’s do it! Two beers alsjeblieft! 8€.

Damn…

Okay, I’ll just eat more. Give me another round of everything!

Total:

No success here as well. Next option!

Entertainment / night out

Okay… Entertainment!

Let’s try the cinema (not my go-to place for entertainment, but anyway). I’ll get a ticket, pop-corn, … No idea what else, so let’s just assume that somehow 10€ more were spent.

That amounts to 20€ + 5€ (I guess) + 10€ = 40€?

It’s 40€, right? Doesn’t matter, let’s use 40.

And by the way, I won’t need any of these things. Pop-corn is not a must and doesn’t contribute to the joy of watching a movie. Even if it did, we’re still more than 50€ off.

What can be an alternative way of reaching our goal…

Museums?

Sure, which ones?

Well, doesn’t matter… The tickets are all up to 30€ anyway. Even with a combo of 3 I’ll still be 10€ short.

Hey, what about buying a nice watch?

Ah, it violates a rule… I don’t have an urge to impress other people and already own a phone where I can check the time.

Discretionary shopping is not allowed.

Going in a bar / discotheque / club maybe?

I don’t see myself spending more than 20-30€. Maybe some combo of cinema + cafe + disco can do it, but I highly doubt it.

Indeed, cinema (

Don’t forget that drinking alcohol is not allowed.

Travel

This might get the job done, but there is some uncertainty about whether it’s allowed or not.

“Today” was defined as an ordinary day of the week, so it’s not like we can plan a vacation or something similar.

But we can take a trip to the other side of the country to visit a zoo. Okay, let’s add up the costs:

• Transportation – free
• Entrance –
• Food / drinks / other –

Same goes for going in any amusement park, city center, beach, or whatever.

However, we can take a trip to a neighboring country. Let’s visit Brussels and come back tonight. What would be the transportation cost? Well, let’s visit NS International – around 15€. Add an upper limit of 70€ for eating / drinking / entertainment… Still haven’t reached our goal.

I’m doing a one-day trip because the “ordinary day” has a 5/7 chance of being a day followed by a working day. Also, staying the night disqualifies the rule of one day of expense.

Damn… 100 EUR is really hard to spend.

Roulette

Valid point.

But it’s not really applicable because a game of chance is a game of chance. Roulette doesn’t equal losing money.

Same goes for sports betting, day trading, or any type of gambling. There is a chance that it’ll be a lucky day.

Maybe being scammed by a cups and balls trickster would qualify… The problem is that I most probably won’t be.

Value

Now we’re talking!

Buy yourself something that has value to you.

Beautiful!

…

Okay, what?

If I buy more stocks, my net-worth won’t decrease, thus the answer doesn’t qualify.

What can be an item that I can spend money on to improve my life?

Books maybe?

Okay… Let’s say I’ll buy Rich Dad Poor Dad, 4 Hour Work Week, and Intelligent Investor. I think it’s more than a day’s worth of reading. But how much did we spend? Less than 50€, guaranteed. Won’t even check.

But if I did, while checking, I could’ve also searched for “[the book name] pdf” and get results, but I wouldn’t. I never did – I bought the three of them.

What else can be valuable?

Some experience maybe… But which one? I already explained that the correlation between joy and money spent on or around the experience bringing it is really, really low… And the ultimate experience, traveling, didn’t turn out that expensive either.

But I hear you! I hear those saying “Cmon man, just relax! Spend some money for Christ sake!“.

I hear you!

And I’d do it.

Believe me… I want to spend this money!

But the question remains…

On what? 🙁

What do I actually spend money on?

Well…

On nothing, basically.

I’m not trying to act frugal or pretend like I’m something I’m not… I’m really out of ideas. To be completely open, though, I own some expensive things. But all of them were infrequent or one time outflows not associated with ongoing expenses and bring value or convenience to my life until today. Examples include technology and furniture. I also spend on (fancy :)) vacations, but that’s not even remotely a one day expense.

My regular daily budget, without planning for it, is most often below 15€.

Should I enjoy life more? Doubt it.

Can frugality and enjoying life coexist? Hell yeah!

I’ll take a pleasant walk with a person I like and fill it with deep discussions on topics we both have interest in. Believe me, the experience is incomparable to drinking a cocktail with a person you dislike or owning a watch while making small talk and waiting to die.

Your turn

What do you spend money on?

Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to share this post with your friends.