diff --git a/helpers/apt-download b/helpers/apt-download
index da5d535..b3eb2ed 100644
--- a/helpers/apt-download
+++ b/helpers/apt-download
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ function check-and-download() {
 	remote_file=$1
 	local_file=$2
 	echo "downloading ${remote_file}"
-	timeout -s INT 300 wget ${WGET_OPTIONS} -q -N -O ${local_file} ${remote_file} || {
+	timeout -s INT 300 wget ${WGET_OPTIONS:-} -q -N -O ${local_file} ${remote_file} || {
 		rm ${local_file}
 		return 1
 	}
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ function apt-download-binary() {
 		while [ $downloaded != true ]; do
 			echo "downloading ${pkg_url} to ${dest_filename}"
 			if [[ -z ${APT_DRY_RUN:-} ]]; then
-				wget -q -O ${dest_filename} ${pkg_url} && {
+				wget ${WGET_OPTIONS:-} -q -O ${dest_filename} ${pkg_url} && {
 					echo "${pkg_checksum}  ${dest_filename}" | ${checksum_cmd} -c - && downloaded=true # two space for md5sum/sha1sum/sha256sum check format
 				}
 			else