6 ways you are wasting your money, and how to avoid it

Wasting Money : Money has no value unless you spend it. Agreed. But can you ever justify wasting your hard-earned cash on things that are absolutely worthless? Or can you let people just cheat you out of your hard-earned money?

Read on to find out the biggest wastes of your money and how you can stop it.

1. Designer clothes

This is one of the biggest wastes of money there is. Generations of human beings are brainwashed into thinking that if they wear a particular brand or a designer’s name on their clothes they are somehow ‘cool’ and ‘classy’.  So they spend a fortune on designer shirts, shoes, sunglasses, handbags, watches, jackets and just about anything that they use.

Let us open our eyes to the fact that designer clothes are just ordinary clothes that have the same production cost as any other decently sewn clothes. What hikes up their price is just the designer name. When you wear those clothes, what you do is just to tell everybody else ‘hey, you notice the logo on my shirt? That means I spent a lot of money on this shirt and that means I am very rich!’

Do you really have to walk around announcing to the world that you are rich enough to spend a fortune on a shirt? After all, who cares? If you have friends who value your friendship just because you wear designer shirts, do you think they really love you as a person? What kind of friends are they?

Only those who have very low self-confidence need to spend exorbitant amount of money on designer clothes so that they can hide their own insecurities and lack of self-confidence.

Just wear clothes that suit you, are of good quality, and are well-maintained and neatly pressed. You can look elegant and well-dressed at half or one quarter price of those really high-priced designer clothes.

2. Buying new cars

If you are in the habit of ditching your old car and buying new cars every time, remember you are wasting your hard earned money on something that will keep depreciating in value as time passes. The moment you drive you brand new car out of the shop it depreciates by up to 40% of what you just paid for it. The satisfaction of buying a new car does not last long; regret of wasting money does last long!

As long as you have a good car that serves you well, why you do have to pamper your vanity and announce to the world that you are rich enough to buy the latest car on the market?

3. Bottled water

Surprized? Bottled water is an absolutely unnecessary item and is really harmful to the environment.

There is no reason to believe that bottled water is healthier than the water that you use at home. Your tap water may not be clean, containing harmful elements in it, but how do you know that bottled water is cleaner than that? Many people have asked about the body’s benefits of alkaline water as opposed to bottled or tap water. The best you can do is to buy a water filter for your tap water, if necessary boil the filtered water and cool it, and fill water in your own BPA-free water bottles at home, to take with you.

You can save a lot of money by taking drinking water with you from home in reusable BPA free bottles, instead of buying bottled water.

4. Cleaning products

Have you ever calculated how much money you are spending in a month on dish washing liquid? Floor cleaner? Heavy stain cleaner? And so on and so forth?

You may be surprized to know that all of those bottles of dangerous chemicals that cost you a lot of money can be replaced by a few simple substances you can make yourself at home.

Just white vinegar, certain essential oils, lemon zest and baking soda can take care of many of your cleaning needs. Baking soda in particular is one ingredient that has literally scores of uses at home. For example, a mixture of white vinegar and baking soda in water can clean and disinfect perfectly. While saving money, remember that these options are non-toxic and will not dry up your hands.

Save money by making your cleaning products at home.

5. Weddings

If there is any event in the life of human beings that can cost you a fortune unnecessarily, it is the wedding. The decorations, food, wedding dress, photography, invitations, and takeaways for guests – all these inevitably cause a big hole in your pockets through which your hard earned money just vanishes. Wedding invitation design and photography can be really expensive as well, which is why I recommend wedding photography staffordshire and to make your own invitations, you can get some royalty free images to decorate them and you will be happy with the result.

Why don’t we keep weddings simple yet meaningful? Do we have to spend a fortune on companion maids cleaning service that will be forgotten in a few days? Do you know that many of the guests at a wedding just throw away your takeaway gifts the moment they reach home?

The reason is simple. You wedding has a meaning only for you. To others it is just another extravagant function to attend, for which they have to spend money on a suitable gift for you.

Remember: An extravagant wedding is no guarantee that you are going to have a happy and meaningful life. There are any number of websites that give you information on the creative ways in which you can have a simple, elegant and unforgettably beautiful wedding.

Keep your wedding a low cost yet unforgettable experience.

6. Cosmetics

Do you know that the cosmetic products you use for makeup are priced at many times their production cost?

It is estimated that an average woman of middle class or higher income spends around $15,000 on make up during her life time. In other words, you spend thousands of dollars on chemicals to keep up how you look.

It is important to take care of your body, but you do not need expensive cosmetics for that. You can control the money spent on them, by substituting with home-made products for skin care.

Save the money spend on cosmetics and try home made products instead. Your skin and your wallet will thank you!

Do you know of other ways to avoid wasting money? Do send us your suggestions.