Amidst my attempts to maintain a life of fiscal conservatism and frugality, there always seems to be something that tricks my money into divorcing my bank account and running off to the toilet to swirl with the rest of life's waste. Here's a quick look at 8 things that I consistently find myself wasting my money on...1) Alcohol.
Other than being in the moment, there's no reason to pay for the 500% markup on booze. Sure I'm paying for atmosphere, but I don't remember the last time I paid a 500% markup for a Gatorade just because I purchased it a swanky gas station and they opened it for me. Yet despite this, I still return to bars again and again...
2) Eating out for Lunch.
I spend about $45/week on lunch when I could instead wake up 10 minutes earlier to $15 with of bread, meat, cheese, and chips I could've purchased from Safeway. Another $30 swing on behalf of an extra 50 minutes of sleep per week. (That and Thai food tastes better than my sorry ass ham and cheese.)
3) Cabs.
Economic principles are obviously at work here when choosing to a take $20/10 minute cab vs. a $2/40 minute bus--although I can't lie to myself; half the time it's not even because I'm late...I'm just lazy. Then I wind up thinking to myself, "if someone told me they would pay me $18 to wait on them for 30 minutes, hell yeah I'd do it!" Of course no one thinks like that.
4) Gadgets.
Like every child in the US who got an RC truck for Christmas only to give it up come New Years, I always find myself with some gadget that's a fully functional 'nice-to-have-for-now'. I recently purchased an iPod, only to consolidate all of my music to my Blackberry. I also upgraded my computer's internal hard drive only to soon purchase an external drive onto which I've moved everything that matters to me. That money could've gone towards the purchase of a new netbook...which I bought anyway- guh.
5) Clothes.
If you're anything like me, you wear 30% of your wardrobe on repeat. I simply rotate in my jeans or shorts depending on the temp outside, my shirts stay the same, and if necessary, I throw a jacket on. I'm beginning to see however, that I'll buy things that look good- mmm, twice, then simply resolve that it doesn't work with anything else. I figure, "so what if I 'might' wear it?"...though- I'm not going to wear it.
6) Food Accessories for One-Time Meals.
It makes me ill thinking that I bought that value-pak of Anchovy Paste for that one sandwich I made myself 8 months ago. That's what poaching packets from the deli is for.
7) ATM Fees.
$2.50 from the machine + $2.50 from B of A = a $5 footlong. Yet somehow I'm always too lazy to walk down the street to my own ATM or to find a drug store to snag some cash back. Seriously though, it's theft.
8) Not Eating Before going to the Airport.
Random, but lets see...a $3 deli sandwich from safeway, or that SAME deli sandwich for $7.50 at the terminal. I never have the presence of mind to take care of this as I'm bolting out the door for a flight that I only had ALL DAY to prepare for. Either way, that money could go towards booze on the plane that'll make the screaming child and bad parenting a little more bearable. (That's a whole other post because I firmly believe that if you think you can bargain and/or reason with an unruly 4 year old, you're a moron.)
"Bitch, where is my money?" - Dave Chappelle (as The Count)
Do what I do for #7. Open a second checking account at schwab. Their online banking stinks, but that is what I have BofA for. I wire money there from BofA whenever the funds are getting low and use schwab for all my ATM needs. They refund you the cost of ATM fees. Which when I looked at my mint.com statement it looks like I spent over 100$ on in the last year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking?cmsid=P-990750&lvl1=banking_lending&lvl2=checking&