How to make £100 go further

It's not often you're given £100 to play with. Five crisp twenties, if you leave them in your pocket, quickly crumble into coinage over a fast-forgotten lunch, a quick trip to the supermarket and a spot of parking. £100 in itself may not be a fortune, but you'll be amazed - choosing the fritter-free route - at how much it could earn you long-term as an investment. Here are seven suggestions on spending a little and making a lot:

Get a bike

Opting out of public transport and into cycling can, quite literally, save you £000s. Second-hand road bikes are easily bagged for £100 via the bargain-lover's best buddy, eBay. As an example, those living in London's Zone 3 could be saving the shocking sum of £4,860 over five years by not taking the train. What's more, you'll be super-fit and seeing a lot more of your city. Yes there's maintenance to consider (fixing punctures, oiling the chain, replacing brake pads, etc) but we're talking only a few pounds a month.

Buy a home energy monitor

Warning: this may turn you into an energy bore, constantly alerting anyone who'll listen to your kilowatt consumption - how many per washing cycle, piece of toast or cup of tea. But a home energy monitor, in illuminating how much energy you're wasting around the house (for example, leaving lights and computers on), saves you more cash than you'd imagine through a change of habit, and it cuts down your carbon footprint. The very best of these - a Wattson 01 (£99 via Amazon) - is easy to install, lets you download up to 28 days' worth of data for analysis, and could save up to 15% off the average annual bill - an impressive £675 over a five-year stretch.

Keep chickens

It's obvious which comes first - the fun and then the financial benefit. The main cost is housing for your birds, and decent dwellings start at around £90 new on eBay. You'll need at least two chickens (else they'll be lonely, and thus non-laying), but you can save pennies and battery hens' lives by getting them from littlehenrescue.co.uk. Over a five-year period, you'll be saving about £390 that would otherwise be spent on supermarket eggs. A more poultry sum, perhaps, but add to this the organic benefits and you'll be laid up laughing.

Master massage

There's no better indulgence, physically or emotionally, than massage. And since experts now estimate that over 90% of disease is stress related, there's never been more of a need for such therapy. But budgeting for it, especially in these austerity-addled times, takes a backseat. Learn the skill as a couple, or with a friend - be it Indian Head, Thai foot, Swedish or Shiatsu. Typically a massage workshop costs between £75 and £125, and practising on each other you'll save in the region of £1,300 a year in fortnightly massages.

Get a coffee machine

Add up the amount you spend on your macchiatos, mochas, cappuccinos and lattes and you'll certainly be losing sleep over it. Several brands now sell dependable coffee machines for under £100, and adding skimmed milk, squirty cream and a sprinkle of cocoa are not skills exclusive to Starbucks. With the average caffeine-boost costing you £2 a pop at said establishment, it works out at £730 a year. Two hits a day and you can double that figure. There is the cost of the coffee capsules to bear in mind when buying a machine, but at 30 pence each, you're still massively quids in (and dodging the blueberry muffin temptation).

Buy your child a house

No matter how advanced, educational and all-singing toys have become (robots that recite times-tables; tractors that emit farm smells) the timeless fact remains that the most basic playthings engage children best, and for longest. At Nigel's eco store, you can buy your child a house, a rocket and an aeroplane (large enough for them to play in) for under £100 - all blank canvases made from re-cycled cardboard, ready to be decorated in whatever way they like. And, importantly, they fold away. Who knows how much you'll save, but it's a gift that'll definitely keep giving.

Join a car club

Owning a car, despite its obvious convenience, is an enormous and interminable financial commitment. You've just paid out again on insurance, tax, a new parking permit, and suddenly you find yourself on the M3's hard shoulder wishing you'd been as efficient on the servicing and AA renewal. Ditch the motor and join a car club such as zipcar or citycarclub. Membership is around £55 with hourly rates from £5. Carplus estimates that if you drive less than 6,000 miles per year then a car club could save you up to £3,500 annually.

With each of these investments comes a little adventure: stepping out of familiar territory to embark on a new approach that will doubtless save you money (and, in most cases, a significant amount), often be environmentally advantageous, and almost certainly create some fun.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article were commissioned by MSN. The views or financial advice expressed do not reflect those of Halifax.