How I Wasted $447.52 Last Month – OUCH!
Image sourced by Jazmin Quaynor @jazminantoinette
Welcome back!
Last month, my spending went haywire. Oh My!
Even though I have developed detailed moneysaving systems, automated my savings and pay close attention to my spending – how I spend my money – Every now and again, things go awry. . .
Take last month. . .
There was a Ton of Stress at the Office.
My Dad got sick. Thankfully, Dad is OK now.
And my girlfriend moved on to what she feels was greener pastures. While sad, she had too many priorities ahead of me anyway.
I dusted myself off and moved ahead in a new direction.
I set aside a few minutes when my credit card statements and checking account statement arrived and took a sobering look. Oh my!
Sure Glad I took a look!
Here’s How I Wasted $447.52 Last Month – and. . .
Now You Can Avoid the ‘Error in My Ways’.
Please, by all means, Get Some Value from my missteps. . .
| Money Wasters | Amount |
|---|---|
| DMV Fine: forgetting to get my car inspected before the expiration date | $40.00 |
| Streaming Service: missing the deadline to cancel my annual subscription to Paramount+ before the automatic renewal date | $119.99 |
| Twelve visits to Starbucks | $68.88 |
| Leaving my Iced Coffee on my dining room table instead of bringing it with me to work. | $4.20 |
| Buying bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches for breakfast instead of eating at home – 8 times | $39.60 |
| Failure to cancel my Unused Subscription to a marketing newsletter | $29.00 |
| Buying lunch at the company cafeteria instead of bringing lunch from home – 6 times | $48.00 |
| Buying “The Natural Dentist Healthy Gums®” mouthwash, when I came home only to find two unopened bottles in my closet. | $9.49 |
| Buying a commuter rail ticket and leaving it in the vending machine (I told you I was stressed out) | $13.75 |
| Defrosting leftover steak and not eating it before it spoiled – Boo! | $15.00 |
| Spoiled green grapes and wilted celery sticks – two times for each | $17.96 |
| Leaving the lights on when I went to work – three times | $5.00 |
| Wasted Commuting (travel) – wasting gasoline and tolls because I forgot to confirm a business meeting, which got canceled | $24.65 |
| Bank Account Fees – not understanding my bank’s rules regarding how they calculate the checking account minimum balance | $12.00 |
| Total money Wasted Last Month | $447.52 |
As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth 1000 words.”
The point is: Seemingly Small Expenditures and Small Expenses ADD UP to Big Dollars!
Annually, that’s $5,370.24.
WOW!!! Who Knew?
And that’s after-tax – after having to work and after paying income taxes.
Please note, I am not suggesting that you adopt a life of austerity, unless you have to.
But I am saying that with a few tweaks in your behavior and keeping an eye on your spending, before you spend your hard-earned money, you can save bank!
Before I share 13 ways you can use to save money every month, let me shed a little insight into some of these items.
Most of the numbers are exact, actual amounts – money I wasted. But few were estimates since the exact amounts weren’t handy.
Paramount+. I ended up watching several shows and a movie or two; so in the end, I enjoyed the service and it paid for itself. Especially when I compare the cost of the streaming service to a night at the movies.
That being said, I do subscribe to Amazon Prime and Netflix, so I’m not really sure that I need to carry three streaming services. People call this cutting the cord.
I made a note in my Outlook calendar several weeks before the cancelation deadline, to decide whether to cancel or renew!
To be technically accurate, one could divide the annual fee to arrive at the monthly equivalent (monthly fee) of $9.99.
But it’s not too off base to consider the annual amount in one month because people probably have some leakage – losses – here and there throughout the year.Twelve visits to Starbucks. If you’ve been following Budget and Grow Rich®, you know that I’m a big fan of McDonald’s iced coffee and prefer McDonald’s coffee over Starbucks any day of the week. With McDonald’s in-App promotion: buy any coffee once a day for 99₵. That tramples the cost of Starbucks. Hands down. At the same time, going to Starbucks is often a social outing and well, it’s not always such a smart thing to bring a date to McDonald’s – at least not on the first date HA.
Buying eight bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches at the local deli. Needless to say, eating breakfast or for that matter any other meal at home, is almost always less expensive than dining out.
The Natural Dentist mouthwash – technically, I didn’t exactly waste my money because the expiration date on the bottle was 18 months after the day I purchased it. But I certainly could have put my money (cash) to better use. Oh and be sure to comparison shop; while CVS was offering this bottle of mouthwash at $9.49, Amazon was offering the same product at $6.78 – a 29% Less. I could have saved $2.71.
Defrosting leftover steak – from one of my favorite steakhouses. UGH! My schedule often changes last-minute given my business activities. I should have brought the steak to work, before it spoiled. Oh well.
Here’s how you can save money and save more money every month:
Analyze your spending carefully, to get a handle on where and how you spend your money.
Analyze products and services – do you use them? Are they worth the price? Have your habits and preferences changed? Should you postpone, cancel or stop buying any products and services?
Consider stopping automatic shipments/refills, especially if you aren’t using the product. Recently, that happened to me with a certain vitamin; I thought I had canceled the automatic monthly shipments on Amazon, but it didn’t take for whatever reason. I could have returned the bottle but decided to keep it and share it with my friend Laura.
Buy only what you need and will use, especially for perishable items – like my green grapes and celery sticks.
Be on the lookout for changing habits, especially when it comes to food. When my children were younger, yesterday’s favorite cereal tasted horrible today. . .
Take inventory Before you buy more or new items. Like my Natural Dentist mouthwash.
Confirm meetings a day or two before the meeting, the night before or maybe that morning to avoid unnecessary commuting costs and wasting time.
Eliminate waste, whenever practical. Believe me, after a while, You won’t miss the stuff. You’ll be glad you did.
Enter key deadlines in your Outlook calendar to remember filing deadlines, payment due dates, etc.
Pay your bills on or before the deadlines. Be sure to pay your bills on time.
Take your time and take a deep breath.
Pay attention and read the rules of the road.
Think twice before spending your hard-earned money.
Enjoy your newly found savings – money in your pocket, money in your bank account!
To save more money, Start with Your Grocery Bills. Click here.
Have a great week,
Arthur V.
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