5 Weird Ways You Waste Money at Home
Are you wasting money every day? Probably. Most people are letting money leak through their fingers in all sorts of small ways. It’s easy to wave away these little expenses, but they add up dramatically.
There’s an old saying that if you watch your pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves. Think about the math; if you can find ten ways to save ten dollars a month, that’s $100 each month, and over the course of a year you could save enough for a trip to the Caribbean. If that sounds good, let’s start looking for those savings.
Late Payments
How much did you spend on late fees last month? Consider your credit cards, rent, and utility bills. If you’re consistently late paying bills, you can easily rack up over $100 in late fees every month.
Put those bills on auto-pay so you never miss a due date again. Have your paycheck automatically deposited, and your whole financial life could be on autopilot.
Subscriptions You Forgot to Cancel
Advertisers offer free trial periods for services because they know how easy it is to sign up and then forget to cancel. Look over your bank statement and see what you’re paying for every month that you don’t use.
Common offenders include gym memberships, credit monitoring services, and subscription software. Set aside an hour to cancel all the monthly bills that you aren’t actually using, or subscribe to a service like Trim that will monitor and cancel your subscriptions for you.
Your Utility Bills
As long as they’re not outrageous, we tend to think of our utility bills as a necessity and don’t think too hard about cutting those costs. But a few small tweaks can cut your bills dramatically. Reducing the temperature of your water heater is an easy trick.
Upgrade to a programmable thermostat and stop spending money to heat and cool your whole house while you’re asleep. Proper maintenance will help your entire HVAC system run more efficiently, too.
Overspending on Beverages
Water and coffee are available in your kitchen for just pennies per serving. Invest in a good travel mug and reusable water bottle and stop overspending on bottled water and coffee shops.
As an added bonus, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint and waste production dramatically, as well.
Paying for Data You Don’t Use
Do you pay for an unlimited data plan? Would it cost you less to pay for metered data? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, find out. Remember that how much data you use is well within your control. You don’t need data to navigate, text, or make calls. If you store music on your phone instead of streaming and wait until you get to a Wi-Fi hotspot to check your social media, how much data would you really need?
These small money-wasters can add up dramatically over the course of a few months or a year. Making a few minor changes in your daily routine could make a huge difference in your lifestyle by the end of a year.
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Category: Family Finances
