10 Unnecessary Wastes of Money You May Have
By Tony Yeung, Originally Published at The Financial Examiner “10 Unnecessary Wastes of Money You May Have”
You have some obvious money saving tips, such as cutting back on eating out or ditching bad habits.
In fact, you may waste money in some common habits but you often overlook.
Here are 10 things you did not know you could save and you could stop wasting money on them.
1. Buying Brand Name Products
You are affected by many advertisements and brands promotions. You may ignore the store or generic brands products. From food to skincare, the local grocery or drug store should have a store brand for them.
In most cases, the store brand products have the same as the brand ones, but you do not have to spend more money on the big brand names.
Also, if you have prescriptions, you can ask your pharmacists for the generic version. They work the same as the brand ones, and you can save more money.
2. Grocery Shopping When You Are Hungry
You need to avoid two scenarios when taking a trip to the grocery store. If you shop for groceries when you are hungry, you are more willing to buy more things you do not need or that you will waste later.
This also happens when you go for a leisure grocery trip. If you make your trip when you have other things to do, or you only have a limited amount of time to do, you will be less likely to spend time exploring everything in the store.
3. Paying for cable
If you are a tech-savvy Millennials, you can agree with this one easily. There are movie streaming services and other non-cable options in the market. Most streaming services are cheaper than paying for cable, and you do not have to pay for the extra channels you never watch.
4. Your bank
Banks can be evils. They can charge many different kinds of fees (admin fees, card fees, transfer fees, etc). Most of the big banks offer the most expensive fees but the lowest interest rates to the customers. Take a look at your bank accounts and see if there are any better options than what you are having.
Also, you should avoid using ATMs from another bank institutions because you end up paying more fees when you withdraw the money.
5. In-Game Purchases
Games are addictive. It is hard to break this habit. The small amounts of purchases eventually will add up, and you will suddenly be shocked how much money you spent on the game (and then you feel shameful or regret).
You should remove your credit card information from any games or apps.
You can go to YouTube or Google “how-to” finish the level if you are upset by a level you cannot finish.
6. Irresponsibly Couponing
Using coupons is good to save a little money. But, if you are thinking to use ALL coupons, you will end up wasting money.
In fact, you may convince yourself to buy things on the discount site, but those things are not necessary.
Do not use coupons as the excuse to buy things you do not use normally, even if it is only $5 to your usual purchase. You will end up doing this more and waste a lot of money.
You should stick to coupons for the things you always need or buy or something you really need to spend on. For example, you can’t fix your car and you really need to find someone to fix it.
7. Paying Full Price for Products, Especially Clothes
This sound silly, but you should not pay the full retail price for clothes. You can check the online stores, such as Amazon or Ebay. You can find many new and good quality products. Buying better quality clothes
Instead of buying cheap new clothes, you should buy some better quality clothing. It is because the better quality clothes last longer. Cheap clothes can easily break and tear in a short period of time.
If you really want to buy the branded clothing or shoes in the retail store, you should be patient. The retail stores usually mark up the price of the merchants more than what it cost to make them. Rather than paying the full price, you can keep an eye on them and wait for the discount. This is also a good way to think whether you love enough the items to buy.
8. Laundry Junk
You may use dryer sheets or fabric softener for your laundry, but are they necessary?
There are many cheap and easy alternative ways to replace the dryer sheets or softeners. You can even skip the dryer and line-drying works well.
9. Pre-sliced or Pre-packed Anything
When you buy the pre-cut meat and cheese in the store, you are likely to spend more money. You also pay for the labour cost (i.e. you are paying for the person who cut the items for you).
On the other hand, the packaged food is usually more pricey than making something similar by yourself. Many things are not difficult to make when you spend some time to prepare.
10. Disorganisation
Being disorganised can waste more money than you realise, at some point. You never look at the small service fees, forgetting where you left your keys, etc.
Your mess can cause you less motivated to be organised, and you end up spending more money in some ways.
Spend some time to organise your stuff and your life. You may end up finding the missing items and realise you spent more money for nothing.
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About the Author
Tony Yeung is a digital marketing specialist and the owner of Apartment Number 2, a consultancy focused on helping entrepreneurs and marketers see results with SEO, social media, and content marketing. Apartment Number 2 has worked with a range of clients from Publishing Company and Medical Company to a new startups.
