5 Stupid Ways We Waste Money
I like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy, but I have to admit that I still do pretty stupid things from time to time. We all do. I also like to think that I live a pretty frugal lifestyle, but I know that, occasionally, money still slips through the cracks. This post is about how we let that money slip through the cracks because of 5 stupid ways we waste money.
1. Buying too much food
Have you ever gone grocery shopping on an open stomach? Worst idea ever. Never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I’ve made this mistake a few times, and it usually goes something like this. Everything looks mouthwatering, so I end up buying enough food to make a five course meal every day of the week. Of course, that never happens, so the food ends up spoiling. I have to throw it out, leaving me with nothing to eat, so I go the grocery store on an empty stomach. Repeat.
2. Buying too many clothes
I’ve always found it fascinating how we buy clothes that we never end up wearing. How much of your wardrobe do you actually wear on a regular basis? I’m a guy, and I’d say it’s around 50% for me. I’m almost afraid to ask what the percentage is for my female readers. Having grown up with sisters and seeing what was in their closet, I’m going to guess that it’s well below 50%.
3. Having expensive hobbies
After asking my readers to share their most expensive hobbies, I’ve come to the conclusion that not only are hobbies expensive, we tend to have a lot of them. Whether it’s collecting more books than you’ll ever be able to read or buying more DVDs than you’ll ever be able to watch, hobbies tend to become money pits. Most of us can’t afford to blow money on all of our hobbies, so we usually pick our favorite one (at the time) and waste all of our money on that.
4. Upgrading stuff
Who wouldn’t make it a large for only 25 cents more? Why wouldn’t you upgrade to a nicer rental car for only $8/day? If I’m already going to spend $200 on a cell phone, what’s another $100 to upgrade to a better one? We waste money on upgrades that we don’t need. The salesperson’s job is to get us to do just that. The scary part is that we still fall for it even though we know exactly what they’re doing.
5. Misplacing stuff
How many sets of audio/video cables do you have? How many of those sets did you buy because you couldn’t find your old cables at the time? We all misplace stuff every once in awhile, so we end up buying them again. Of course, we usually end up finding the missing stuff later on, so we’re left with duplicates. This is why I own enough Ethernet cable to wire a small computer lab, enough contact lens cases to use a different one each day of the week, and enough screwdrivers to be really productive if I had 4 arms (and actually knew where the other 3 screwdrivers are).
Related posts:
