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I recently read a blog article from A Binge Worthy Life about way to stop wasting
money. There were 20 to be exact. Although, I subscribe to many of the ideas
that were mentioned, I thought I would go through the list and give my thoughts
on those money wasting actions.
via GIPHY
First on their list was greeting cards. Greeting
cards are expensive and it is a shame that many people don’t even kept cards
that they receive for any amount of time.
She suggest making your own.
That’s a great idea if you have kids.
Or buy the cheap ones from the Dollar store. What we do it subscribe to an online card
company and print our own. It’s a year
fee, and you make it up, especially if you print a lot of cards. Not only that, you can customize and
personalize the cards. I believe people
appreciate them more, but that’s my opinion.
#2 is cable. Get rid of cable. I think many of us have gotten addicted to
cable television when it first came out and now we seem to be a slave to the
cable company and pay up the wazoo. With
so many digital options today, cable has some composition. My daughter has never had cable and gets by
fine. So what are we going to do? We’re going to start slow and get a Roku for
one television to see how it works. That
will get a receiver rental and if all works out then we say goodbye to cable
for good and save about $1,200 a year!
Moving right along to #3 are magazines. I stopped my
subscriptions years ago and read what’s online or at the library. Don’t need no stinking magazines.
From magazines to books: I used to collect books and had many of
them. And then I would get rid of
them. Rarely would I reread a book. Turns out used book stores (do they still
exist) wouldn’t give much for them. Then
I discovered paperbackswap.com, but then shipping costs were too much. Since downsizing, not only books but life in
general, I get my books from the library.
I don’t buy books either hard copies or digital. If the library doesn’t have it, I can still
request from paperbackswap. But there
are so many free book sites out there, like goodreads, librarything and
netgalley, where you can win copies, that I don’t need to buy books to
read. Then there are little libraries
all over the place where you can exchange books. My town has about eight of them all around
the town.
Next is Starbucks
or other coffee houses. Since I make
my coffee at home and drink at home, we never go to a coffee house and if so, a
coupon or gift card is how we save money there.
And only when we travel. Speaking
of traveling, when staying at a hotel they always supply free coffee anyway!
She mentions that bottled
water is a waste. Yeah, it is a
waste of plastic. One can buy bottled
water so cheaply now, but the waste comes with the plastic. We don’t drink bottled water at home, since
we filter our water. But I recycle the
bottles of water at home to fill up once with filter water before recycling the
bottles. Bottled water comes in handy
when traveling long distances. Short
distances we have our own larger reusable water bottles.
Manicures and
Pedicures: Since I don’t get either,
no money spent there and now my wife cut back to only a few times a year.
#8 is Paper plates. Who uses paper plates? I understand they are great for picnics and
barbeques, and are a time saver, but they are a waste of money. I have no problem washing dishes and I don’t
own a dishwasher!
#9 Individual
bottles of soap. I don’t buy liquid
soap, so I am already saving money. Ha-ha!
#10 – Dryer Sheets.
So she says they are a waste of money and also can cause harm to your skin
because of chemicals. I am not sure
about the harm to skin but I am agreeing that they are a waste of money. I see no different with my fabrics whether I
sue dryer sheets or not. So I think, I
will stop buying them altogether.
#11 – Fabric Softener. I don’t buy that either as I get the laundry
detergent that already has it in it.
Saves money and space and garbage.
Staying with the laundry theme here, #12 is Laundry Detergent. I am NOT going to make my own but I buy in
the largest size when I have a coupon and when it is on sale. Just check the price per ounce when buying
and you can see the savings in buying bigger.
#13 is Salon Hair
Care Products. Don’t buy them. If I buy shampoo and conditioner it is always Suave
products. But I get a lot of little
bottles from hotels when we travel so I am saving big time there!
#14 – Name Brand
Products. There are some name brand
products that are much better than the generic brand. She doesn’t buy generic cereal or generic
butter or cream cheese. To me, there’s
no difference, raisin bran is raisin bran. All you are paying for is the
advertising. Canned foods are similar. The two things that I always buy Name brand
is Q-Tips (nobody does it better) and if I feel like indulging, Oreo cookies
(but that is rare, we bake our own cookies).
#15 – Name Brand
Medication. We don’t buy much
medication, but when we do it is generic.
We don’t use it a lot so why waste the money.
#16 Dining in
Restaurants. Yes, that is a big dip
into one’s budget and we’ve cut back a lot.
Eating healthy is expensive and we don’t do fast food restaurants. We go out on special occasions, when there is
a coupon/deal or when we are traveling.
I love to cook, so our grocery bill is bigger than our restaurant bill.
Almost done going through the list. We’re up to #17 – Shredded cheese. Yes, it is convenient, but check out the cost
per ounce and you’ll see you’re almost paying double then block cheese. And I buy block cheese when there is a BOGO
sale so it is even cheaper. I can shred my
own no problem.
#18 – Frozen TV
Dinners. The only ones we used to
purchase were Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine because they were cheap and we were
trying to lose weight. But now I just
cook healthy and freeze extra proportions for the time when I don’t have the
time to make a fresh meal. And that’s
not too often.
#19 – Pre-cut
Fruits and vegetables. Again, it is
all about the convenience and you are paying up the wazoo for someone else to
do your work for you. I don’t buy precut
produce.
Last but not least is Alcohol. Now, that’s a tough
one. One would save a lot of money is
one stopped drinking alcohol. Me, I can
get beer on BOGO sales and with Ibotta, I can get cash back which saves on
buying liquor.
What are you ways to stop wasting money? You can check A Binge Worthy Life to see the original
post as she also has added tips. Enjoy!
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