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Today we’re happy to be sharing another collaborative post, written by an S&S reader! Thanks Eleanor for your tips on things we’re wasting money on and how we can avoid them.
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The Top 5 Things You’re Wasting Money On
It’s true that a lot of money-saving tips are obvious. You know you could save a ton by cutting back on eating out and not smoking. You may have also heard that you should book cheaper hotels and use comparison sites when doing your shopping,.
There are thousands of other ways for you to save money. And there are thousands of ways to stop wasting it as well. Here are the top 5 things you’re wasting money on.
Brand Names at the Supermarket
We’ve all been there. You’re at the supermarket trying to spend your grocery money carefully. But the store-brand items just look cheap. Totally unappealing. Especially when compared to their beautifully packaged brand-name counterparts! Surely the brand-name items are worth the extra cost, right? You don’t want to cheap out on nutrition, after all.
But in most cases, you aren’t actually benefiting from buying branded items anyway. If you check the label of whatever you are buying, you’ll usually find that the generic version has the exact same ingredients.
The only thing that you are truly missing out on is the fancy packaging. So if you want to stop wasting money every single day, stop buying branded items unless there’s a real material difference in the ingredients.
You’d be surprised at what a difference it can make!
Paying Someone Else
What do you do when your car breaks down? You probably take it to a high-priced mechanic. Oh, and you’ll have to pay for some other transportation while it’s in the shop.
Why wait for a mechanic to get to your car, and pay their high rates, when many of the repairs are actually very easy to do yourself. We have YouTube now, people! You can find detailed tutorials online, and this is a brilliant way for you to save money.
There are a couple of things that you won’t want to touch when it comes to your car. Brakes, steering, and serious engine issues, for example. But if you need to change a tire, check your suspension, or change your oil, head to YouTube, not to the mechanic!
High-Interest Credit Cards
High-interest credit cards (i.e. almost all credit cards!) are one of the biggest ways most people are wasting money.
If you absolutely can’t pay off that balance in the next few months, or if you have bad credit, look for credit cards for people with bad credit, and find one with a lower interest rate.
There are plenty of comparison sites to help you with this, and it doesn’t take long to apply. This could save you hundreds every single year! And you could have the whole thing sorted out in the next 24 hours.
Of course you still want to pay off your credit card debt as quickly as possible to really save money. So make sure you check out How to Pay Down Debt (When You Can’t Even Pay All Your Bills).
Going Shopping When You’re Hungry
Let’s face it: if you go shopping when you are hungry, you will end up buying groceries that you absolutely do not need.
You waste your money and you’re more likely to grab unhealthy junk because everything looks delicious when you’re hungry.
Only go shopping after you’ve had something to eat. And try to think about the reason why you are buying things. Do you really need those doughnuts? Probably not. Whole foods may be less convenient, but they are cheaper and so much healthier!
Want more ways to stop wasting money? Keep reading:
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