We all have expensive habits. Some of these expensive habits can be justified, the vast majority cannot. Here are the worst culprits!
19. Choosing Takeouts
I get why people do this.
Some peope haven’t got the time to cook a meal for themselves. Others are eprhaps a little lazy and don’t really want to.
However, it is one of the biggest waste of money you do!
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have takeouts- one takeout every once in a while is fine. Several takeouts a week is certainly not!
Not only are takeouts more unhealthy than regular meals, they are also more expensive!
Take this for example: a pizza from Dominos costs $5 where I live. To make a pizza of a similar size myself, costs $2.50!
Bottom line: Minimize takeouts, but know when to have them!
18. Magazine Subscriptions
Ok, not all magazine subscriptions are inherently expensive habits. Not all are even that bad!
For some jobs, a magazine subscription is helpful, almost mandatory. For many who run their own business (including myself!) a subscription to Forbes or Entrepreneur, is justified.
And I know many other industries are the same!
But it’s the unused magazine subscriptions that are an expensive habit. Or even over-subscription!
I have to admit that I’m guilty of having done the latter. At one point in time, even recently (whilst I have been running Finance Friday!) I had five subscriptions to five magazines costing $15 a time!
That’s $75 I could’ve (and now do) use better!
Bottom line: Look at your magazines- can you get the same insight online or for a cheaper price (trust me, you can!)
17. Shopping Sprees
My wife isn’t going to like me for this… but she has a soft spot for shopping sprees.
She has a tendency to go out and buy lots and lots of clothes. any of which she wears only once or twice.
Not only is this one of the most expensive habits, but also a really annoying one (at least for me anyway!)
On these shopping sprees, she can spend anywhere from $50 to $100 do. Something that is very expensive all on it’s own.
$50-$100 to be worn once or twice! That’s a serious waste of money! (Sorry 🙂
Bottom line: Avoid shopping sprees and buy clothes that last for a while, not just a few weeks!
16. Children
Ok, I am NOT saying that children are an inherent waste of money. Personally, I am lucky enough to have two of my own, with a third one on the way!
However, I am able to see that children are really, really expensive.
If done right, you can have a child and still remain financially stable. If not, the reverse is true.
What I am saying, though, is that children are very expensive if you don’t do it right. Anyone who has had small children or has small children can attest to how whiny they can be.
Sometimes, when you’re shopping, it’s just easier to give them what they want than not to. For example, my son always wants to buy Lego when we go to the store.
If I said yes every time he asked for it, I would splurge out around $100 per month on Lego. I know that other friends of mine have similar issues, some with sweets, chocolate and other items.
Bottom line: We need to learn to say “No” to our children, and explain why to them.
15. Peer Pressure
We’ve all had it. Your friends are going out after work for a few drinks, or you’re using your credit cards for a meal.
It’ tempting I know. But it is one of the most expensive habits you need to break… NOW!
It’s just not worth it sadly…
For my wife and I, we get it for our house and cars. We live in London, which is stupidly expensive.
Our house is fairly big, and we live in a good neighborhood. But for people with as much money as we do, many of our friends and family expect that we should have bigger house.
We also don’t splurge out on cars. I drive a seven year old Audi and my wife drives a six year old Mercedes. Both cars are worth a fair bit, but again, not nearly as much as our friends and family expect!
And we get ridiculed for it almost every day!
Bottom line: It doesn’t matter!
14. Morning Latte
A morning latte is what makes America run.. or so the saying goes anyway.
To many, that $2 each morning may not seem like much, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s a lot of money.
Excluding vacations and public holidays, you probably work 261 days of the year. Probably more like 245 after vacations and public holidays.
Simple math dictates that 245 times by $2 equals $490 over a year.
This is perhaps one of the most expensive habits that you don’t realize you do!
Just think, where could that extra $490 go? If you don’t want to save or invest it, $490 could go a long way to a fairly decent vacation!
If you were to make that coffee at home, you’d save the environment and save a fortune!
Bottom line: Buy a coffee machine and only buy coffee when absolutely justified!
13. Expensive Hobbies
A few years ago, my friends rings me and asks if I’d like to come flying with him. He’s an ex-RAF pilot and said if I paid for my half of the fuel, he’d take me up for a few hours. (I have wanted to get my PPL for a few years now!)
I am all up for having some fun. But not to a serious detriment to your wallet. Whilst a fuel is much cheaper than I had anticipated, it is still a very expensive hobby.
In the aircraft we were in, four hours of fuel cost $200. I paid my $100 and he paid his $100.
Whilst I have never gone with him since, nor have I got my PPL, I know that my friend goes almost every week.
This means he is spending $200 every week (or $50 per hour!) on a hobby. Something that doesn’t pay him or anything!
Whilst I am not knocking him for having found a passion in life, I struggle to fathom why or how he can so much money for such an expensive hobby.
And it doesn’t just have to be having a plane! It can be any hobby that results in a big bill at the end.
Bottom line: If you are spending more than $200 per month on a hobby, it probably isn’t worth it!
The following is going to be a bit wacky… ENJOY!
12. Tank
OK, I know what you’re thinking “A tank?! Who buys a tank?!”
I had a friend a few years ago, who for some reason decided to buy a tank. He didn’t own a museum, nor did he plan to donate it to a museum. He wasn’t going to recreate a famous battle or anything similar.
It was just going to sit on his front lawn. (He had a big front lawn, and was a former tank commander in Afghanistan!)
*This tank wasn’t the same type of tank he had commanded in Afghanistan, but one from about 20 years previous.
And this tank wasn’t cheap either- it set him back over $50,000 which he paid for in cash!
Whilst I would doubt that many other people would do this, there is something to be learned from it.
Bottom line: If you are going to spend fifty grand on a garden ornament, you need to re-evaluate your finances! That’s fifty grand that could’ve gone to your 401(k), stock portfolio or even an investment property!
11. Buying New Cars on Finance
OK, this is another thing I’m guilty of.
I went through a period where I loved cars, I wanted to establish my own mini car collection.
I either wanted these cars to be brand new, or vintage. Either way, worth a lot of money.
I bought most of these cars on finance, essentially me borrowing money from the dealership to buy their car.
This wound up with it being very expensive for me, and most of these cars- especially the new ones, severely dropped in value, even ten years on, their prices have never recovered!
Bottom line: Buy used, you get the same car for less!
10. Breaking the Law
Ok, breaking the law in any degree will wind up becoming a very expensive endeavor.
And plus, I really hope that you don’t make a habit of breaking the law… It’s generally not a good idea financially speaking!
But I’m talking about those people who are serial speeders. I once knew a guy who had 15 speeding tickets in a three week period, all of over $50!
One speeding ticket is bad enough, but if you’re someone who does it a fair amount of times, you might want to think about stopping.
Bottom line: Don’t do it!
9. Waiting to invest
I have a friend, we’ll call him Kevin. He’s currently 35 and doesn’t have children, only a wife and a dog.
For the past five years, he has been putting off investing. Instead, he has chosen to spend that money on luxury vacations.
One day, he decided to tell me how much he’d spent on his luxury holidays (this is the same friend from my “How much should you be spending on dating?” article a while back!)
I can’t remember exactly, but this figure was somewhere in around ten grand. I took a piece of paper and did some *rough* calculations.
If he’d investing instead of going on luxury vacations, he’d have an investment portfolio worth almost fifteen grand (assuming he got average returns of 7% for stocks or 10% for real estate!)
Bottom line: Not investing now is one of the most expensive habits you can do (not to mention financially stupid!)
8. Buying Lunch
Buying lunch is probably one of the most expensive habits that you’re in right now!
A $3 Subway or a $5 pizza probably doesn’t seem like a lot. But over time that all adds up.
If we take the average, $4 for lunch, over 245 days, that’s $980. Just think what that extra $980 could do! An extra vacation, some extra stocks in your stock portfolio, or even milestone for retirement!
Whilst once in a while is ok, doing it everyday is pointless. It’s cheaper and healthier to do it yourself!
Bottom line: Make your own, only buy if you need to!
7. Binning Financial Statements
It’s probably quite tempting to get the financial statements from the bank or your credit card company and dump the in the bin.
If you’re paying only the minimum amount, or just above it, they’re absolutely vital!
These statements contain information such as balances and interest rates. all thing you need to know.
But we do it because we are “too busy”. Something that is one of the most expensive habits.
Not because are wasting money in the traditional sense, but because we aren’t educating ourselves as to how much money were wasting!
Bottom Line: Read the financial statements!
6. Expensive Habits
Drinking, smoking, vaping. You name it, if it’s addictive, it’s probably going to be really expensive!
These habits are are usually detrimental to your health and your wallet.
But there’s usually a catch to these things: the more you consume, the more you need.
These often end up being quite detemental to your investments portfolio. If you smoke a pack a day, you spend arouund $3650 per year on smoking, That’s money you could use elsewhere!
A vacation or some stocks or real estate would do quite handsomely!
Bottom line: If you can, try to quit. If you can’t at least try to cut down. If you don’t, don’t start tem in the first place!
5. Throwing Instead of Selling
We’ve all been there. My mother in-law is the queen of this- she’s turned it into a fine art!
We go through the garage or the attic and find a whole bunch of stuff we never knew we owned! More often than not, we are inclined to throw it!
Little do we know, that this stuff that’s been in our garage or attic for years, is actually worth a pretty penny! A few years ago, we were going through our garage. In there, we found an old Bible from sometime in the 1940’s.
Now, we aren’t that religious, but we had no use for this old Bible. We were going to donate it to our local church, but my mother in-law happened to know that this old Bible was worth $60!
Bottom line: Google whatever you’re about to throw out… it might be worth something!
4. Driving
If you drive everywhere driving everywhere is one of the most expensive habits you could ever get.
Not only is it bad for the environment, but it it is also bad for your wallet.
Driving uses up either gasoline, something that is usually quite expensive. So if yo are driving around all of the time, you are probably using a lot of time and spending a lot of money.
Try getting a bus or a train, or some toher form of public transport.
Yes, it may not be glamorous, and it may be slower… but it is also far cheaper than gasoline is too!
Bottom line: Taking a bus or train is slower, but often far cheaper!
3. Binning Food
Every year, Americans waste 222 million tonnes of food. That’s one of the biggest wastes of money I have ever seen!
Usually, this is because the food is out of date- more often than not, but one day.
Unless it’s dairy or something similar, it’s probably best to have a look at it. If it tastes alright and mold isn’t growing on it, it’s probably safe!
Not only would this save you so much extra money, but it would also cut down on the amount that you spend on groceries!
Bottom line: It won’t kill you to try it. If it’s horrible, bin it, if it tastes fine, it usually is!
2. Wasting Energy
This is one of my pet peeves.
I hate it when people leave lights on, or even leave their car running!
I understand why people do it- they either forget, are to lazy to turn them of, or just don’t want to. But it isn’t just hurting the environment, it’s hurting your wallet too!
In fact, it is one of the most expensive habits that so many people do… and it’s so avoidable!
Bottom line: Switch the light off when you leave the room!
1. Not Negotiating
You can negotiate on literally everything!
Whilst it’s unlikely that you can go to Walmart and expect to be able to negotiate the price of bread with them, you could do so with your energy bills or something similar!
In fact, the simple act of ringing up your energy company or insurance company or mobile phone company, could save you hundreds each year!
Yet so many people don’t do this! Why? Because they’re too “busy”.
And that’s why these companies do it! Only a few out of millions will ring up and negotiate. So why not be pone of those few?
Bottom line: Negotiate!
How many of these expensive habits have you done? Tell me in the comments!
