12 Ways You’re Already Wasting Money, Without Knowing It

Written by imoney

You’re wasting your money and you don’t even realize it. It’s the little things that you do and the little decisions that you make. Call them indulgences to treat yourself for working so hard. But at the end of the day, money spent on these things can be spent on other bigger and more important things, and it can really go a long way. Get that calculator and let’s start computing.

1) Designer Drinks

If you can’t function in the morning without having your steaming cup of coffee from Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, or CBTL, you will seriously reconsider when you realize how much money you’re wasting away on designer coffee. A tall cup of cappuccino from Starbucks, for example, costs around ₱125. If you buy one every morning before going to work, you spend ₱625 each week for coffee alone. That’s a total of ₱2,500 on coffee in one month. Enough money to pay for your cellphone bill, or your internet subscription, or even a week’s worth of groceries.

2) Credit Card Interest

If you use your credit card all the time but only pay for the minimum every month, you are wasting away your money on interest. Ideally, you should pay your credit card balance in full, or make multiple payments in a month if you have money to spare. Pay more than your minimum balance and always pay on time to avoid penalties and charges.

3) Salon Services

How good you look is very important, but salon services can get really expensive. A manicure and pedicure cost around ₱300 to as much as ₱1,000. Waxing and threading also cost pretty much the same. Haircuts and hair treatments cost around ₱1,000 to as much as ₱7,000. If you will have all these pampering services each month, you’ll definitely go broke. Why not do your own nails, or learn how to shape and thread your eyebrows? You’ll learn a new skill and save money doing it, too. 

4) Cheap Items

You thought that power bank you bought online was a steal. But when it stopped working after using it only once, that’s still money wasted on a cheap and substandard product. A lot of us opt to buy the cheaper alternative without checking the quality. In the end, we still end up paying for the bad product and the replacement that we should have bought in the first place.  

 

5) Buying Items on Sale

When you see the word “Sale!”, your first instinct is to click the link or walk inside the store to check it out. And because that pair of winter boots is on sale, even if it’s hottest day of summer, you still buy it. Anything that you buy because it’s on sale, and which you also do not need, is still considered a waste of money.

 

6) Designer Clothes

There are people who live for designer clothes, designer bags, designer makeup, designer everything. But why buy a pair of jeans that costs ₱10,000 when you can get a pair for ₱1,000? It’s perfectly fine if you can afford them, but if you have to charge it to your favorite cashback credit card and pay for it in the next six months, that’s not something that a financially responsible adult would do.

 

7) Gym Membership

Signing up for that gym membership for a whole year and only going two to three times a month certainly is a waste of money. Before you make that commitment, make sure that you can maximize your membership by going regularly and using the gym facilities. If you’re not sure whether you can do a whole year, try to sign up for monthly memberships first, if available.

 

8) Online Apps

It’s so easy to get lost and spend money while you’re on your smartphone. After all, you have to get that extra pack of filters to make your selfies look even more flawless, even if they cost $3.99. You absolutely have to buy an extra set of lives to continue to the next stage. And you need to buy that digital magazine with your favorite celebrity on the cover. When the electronic invoice comes in, don’t be shocked that you have spent over a thousand pesos on apps alone.

 

9) Eating Out

Lunch out with co-workers and after office drinks with friends are what hardworking professionals look forward to in order to de-stress and unwind. It’s alright to go out once in a while. But if you do it every day, you will be spending a significant amount of your earnings on restaurants, coffee shops, and bars just like that.

 

10) Buying in Bulk

Why buy 10 cans of sardines just because you can save ₱15 when you’re not even that big of a sardine eater? Why buy a set of four pillows, even at a reduced price, when you need just one? Most people are guilty of buying in bulk so that they can stock them at home and use them when the time comes. But what usually happens is that you forget that you even bought them, and they end up going bad, forgotten, or not used at all.  

 

11) Letting Food Go Bad

You buy too much food and store them in the refrigerator or the pantry. They remain untouched until they expire and can no longer be consumed. One way to waste money is buying too much food and not knowing how to store them properly. It is estimated that up to one-third of all food worldwide is squandered, despite having hunger as one of the world’s most urgent issues. Avoid food wastage by eating leftovers, or rehashing them into tasteful new dishes. You can also invite friends and family over so that you can cook whatever’s in your kitchen and let them enjoy a good meal.

 

12) Smartphone Data Plans

Data plans are expensive to begin with. If your home or your office has Wi-Fi, you really don’t have to spend ₱2,000 each month just for your data plan. You can choose to downgrade or cancel your data plan as soon as your contract will allow it, and opt for a cheaper pay-as-you-go option instead.