Things We Shouldn’t Pay Money For
Ever wondered where you hard earned pay went each month? Maybe you are spending money on things that you should be paying money for.
Chances are you are like me, you spend money on things that could likely be done yourself but you feel too lazy to do so.
You may end up spending money for the sake of convenience, rather than necessity.
This pattern of spending can be very dangerous, as after many years of behaving like this – I have awoken to the fact I could have saved a lot of money for myself by simply putting more effort into my life and doing these monotonous tasks on my own, effectively pocketing the money I would have spent.
Lawn Mowing
At around $40-$50 per mow minimum, that is a lot of money to be spending on mowing the lawns. I am certain I could do this in less than 2 hours and effectively save myself nearly $1500 a year (plus I may even get fitter?). Why do I continue to do this? Because I feel that I am time poor, with too much to do. Surely I could spend an hour or so mowing the lawn though for that kind of savings.
Bottled Water
Remember when you were younger? D o you ever remember buying a bottle of water when you were thirsty? I sure don’t. I always managed to have water and never be thirsty all while never purchasing a bottle of water. The main reason for buying bottled water is the convenience, yet at $2-$3 per bottle (this applies to diet drinks, juices and more) the spending on these items greatly increases over the course of a year.
Why not try taking a bottle of water with you when you go out? Keeping a cup or bottle with you at work. The savings over the year will be amazing and you will have more money to contribute towards your savings account.
Pool Maintenance
Does your house have a pool? If so, many people tend to outsource the maintenance of pools to local pool shops. The cost of doing this includes; cleaning, chlorine, ph testing and more. Why not visit your local pool shop and learn the best/easiest way to clean your pool, check the chlorine level and ph test it? The pool shops are more than happy to help and will continue to make money from you regardless of servicing as they will still need to sell you the require chemicals and accessories.
Basic Car Servicing
When it comes to servicing a car, it is important to ensure that nothing you do will void the warrenty. If you have an older car, why not try doing the general services yourself? A quick search of the internet and your make and model of car will provide extensive information on how to save money on oil checks, spark plug changes and more. This can cost anywhere between $100 to $1000 a year depending on car make, so why not do a bit of research?
Eating Take Away Night after Night
Eating out was always seen as a luxury, yet these days the majority of us eat out at breakfast, lunch and dinner for the sake of convenience and boredom.
I personally am trying very hard to limit my spending on takeaway to a maximum of once a week, if that. The money I am saving is through the roof and will very quickly add up towards my savings goals.
House Cleaning
House cleaning is something that can easily fall into the ‘to hard category’, so why not regain that energy and do it yourself for the savings?
You can see it as exercise, a chore or just plain old cleaning – but what I like to do is designate 1hour of cleaning time and run around like a crazy person trying to get as much done as possible. It is sort of like a race for me, but I get a lot done in that time as I am constantly rushing.
Washing your Car
Now I am certain we are all guilty of this one. Putting the car in for a wash on the weekend or when we park in a carpark that offers car washes.
With water restrictions a prominent topic in Australia, it may very well be the right thing to do for the environment, but not necessarily the right thing for your wallet.
This one comes down to choice – if you think you can actually wash your car with as little water as possible, save the money. If you worry it will take you hours and millions of litres of water – get it washed elsewhere.
Ironing your shirts and doing your Laundry
It is all to easy to get someone to iron your shirts and wash them. In fact, my local Laundromat makes it very hard to realize whether it is cheaper to do it yourself or not, as they only charge $2 a shirt. But I have to keep telling myself that it is in fact easier to do it yourself and will save me money.
Do the washing in bulk, save time and money and get it all done as quick as possible.
Related Posts
