Teaching Brave
Last month I wrote an article on 10 Ways to Cope with the Rising Cost of Living as a Single Mum, which you can read here, and sticking with the money theme for this month, I thought I would take a look at the other side of money – wasting it.
We’ve all wasted money before, but some of us are wasting more than others. And you may not realise how and where you’re wasting money either!
So I thought I would point out 10 Surefire ways you can WASTE your money as a parent so hopefully you can avoid it and make smarter choices!
ONE
Paying lots of interest on your credit card, personal loan, car loan or on other consumer debt.
Just pay the minimum amount, don’t ever pay large chunks off your loan. That will waste your money really fast!!
Consumer debt is a dangerous kind of debt. It’s your credit cards, any personal loans, car loans etc. that attract high interest repayments. Getting rid of these kinds of debt ASAP will put you in a much better financial position as you will reduce the amount of interest you are paying which is the real money waster. That interest is just making those financial institutions richer and not going towards paying off your debt at all.
Where you can, try to prioritise paying off any consumer debt ASAP and future you will thank you.
TWO
Never look at or audit your bills.
When your bills arrive, just ignore them. Just put them on direct debit and never read them or compare them with previous bills or other providers. Just blindly pay them and never question the contents. That’s an awesome way to waste your money!
OR.. when bills arrive, audit all of them. Take a look at what you’re getting charged and question whether you can make adjustments to your consumption to reduce the amount you’re paying or call up other providers, compare prices with them or simply call up your current provider and ASK for a better deal. I’ve done this numerous times and often saved hundreds by switching companies or by asking for better prices.
If you don’t try, and you don’t ask, you’ll never know how much you could have saved. It can be very satisfying!
THREE
Always buy brand new clothes, for yourself AND the kids.
Never shop clearance, never use hand-me-downs and don’t ever think about visiting an Op shop! HUGE waste of money!
Kids grow out of clothes so fast! And buying brand new clothes all the time gets really expensive!
Op shopping can be really fun! It can also be very hit-and-miss in terms of being successful, but if you do it semi-regularly and you have found some really good op shops, it’s a fantastic way to save money on clothes!
My best finds have been:
$10 – almost brand new soccer boots
$8 – brand new Myer dress
$3 – Louis Vuitton scarf (resold for $420! Yes, you read that right)
$12 – brand new wool David Jones jumper
$2 – brand new board shorts for my son
$4 – hardly used leather wallet
Shopping for items on clearance or taking a look on Gumtree or FB marketplace can also be a great way to pick up bargains that other people no longer need.
FOUR
Buy takeaway food on a regular basis from Ubereats, Menulog, DoorDash etc
Order away, pay top dollar for service and delivery fees, and chuck in those drinks and sides to the orders to rack up those prices!
Buying takeaway for delivery or ordering food delivery services can get very expensive, especially if you’re doing it regularly and you’re buying for the whole family!
Sure, every now and then, we like to treat ourselves or order food for a special occasion but doing it regularly rather than batch cooking or researching and cooking cost-effective meals for the family will drain your bank account really quickly.
Just a little bit of food planning for the week can save you heaps of money.
And if you know you might have nights where you’re going to be disorganised, try to stock up the freezer with some frozen pizzas or some chicken nuggets that can go in the oven, to save yourself spending big on that takeaway.
FIVE
Don’t compare prices when grocery shopping.
Don’t look at grocery prices, don’t compare unit prices and don’t look on higher or lower shelves for home-brand items at cheaper prices. You’ll throw heaps of money away doing this!
If you’re comparing grocery prices, be mindful when you’re doing comparisons to look at the unit prices – that’s the amount per 100g or per 1kg, or per 100ml. This will help you figure out whether the larger box is actually a saving or not. Sometimes we can be misled by price labels and it’s super important to know how to compare those unit prices and labels.
SIX
Buy lots of the following: Bottled water, fresh herbs, soft drinks and lunch box snacks
These items will gobble up your money! In Australia, our drinking water is perfectly safe to drink and it’s free from our taps, so go ahead, pay $2-$6 per bottle for bottled spring water and throw that money away!
Fresh herbs are SO easy to grow yourself in pots at home, and they will keep producing. You can even propagate them easily to make new plants, and yet buying one bunch of fresh herbs from the supermarket will set you back a few dollars a bunch, each time.
Soft drinks have zero nutritional value and are a waste of shelf space in my opinion, as well as a huge waste of money.
Lunchbox snacks also seem to be incredibly expensive for what you’re actually getting, which is generally a bunch of added salt, preservatives, sugar, colouring, trans fats and empty calories.
It’s generally much more cost-effective to make a big batch of homemade snacks (such as muffins, pizza scrolls, zucchini slices, pikelets, protein balls or cupcakes), freeze them and pack these in lunchboxes rather than continually buying the high priced individually wrapped chips, muesli bars, fake ‘fruit’ snacks and sugary rice bars I so commonly see in all the kids lunchboxes at various primary schools.
SEVEN
Unnecessary purchases because they’re ‘on special’
If it’s on special, or it’s on a clearance rack, it’s always worth buying, right??
Wrong.
Not always.
If you didn’t really need it anyway, then just because it’s on special, doesn’t justify the purchase.
I have family members who do this so regularly and end up with cupboards full of items that ‘only cost $$$’, yet the items sit alone in that cupboard, unused, unopened and taking up space.
If it’s on special or clearance and you actually really needed it or really wanted it, then sure! You scored yourself a bargain, but maybe do yourself the favour of walking away first to reassess whether you really need to make that purchase or whether you’re actually just spending money you don’t need to spend.
EIGHT
Buy a brand-new car, keep upgrading to brand-new cars, and drive A LOT.
Awesome way to waste HEAPS of money!
The markup on brand-new cars is incredible, and in most cases, you’ve already lost heaps of money by the time you get your brand-new car home.
Cars depreciate. A lot. So you’re generally not investing in an asset when you buy a brand-new car. By the time you actually come to sell it, if you do so, you will be losing A LOT of money after considering what you paid and what you would have spent on it over the years.
That’s not even taking into consideration any financing you may have taken out on the car which brings me back to point number one which was about consumer debt and interest repayments.
Possibly consider second-hand car purchases to save yourself a lot of money.
Driving a lot will also cost you a lot. Petrol, tolls, wear and tear on the car, general maintenance etc.
The less you drive, the more you will save. It might seem obvious but every bit counts and if you can walk somewhere rather than drive, or car pool, or catch public transport (depending on the cost, availability and time factor), you might find yourself pocketing savings.
NINE
Buy a bigger house than you need. With more bedrooms than you need, and buy in an expensive location.
Look, housing is a very individual decision and is based on many different variable factors, but whether you’re buying or renting, don’t make the mistake of getting something way bigger than what you actually need, because you’ll definitely be paying for that decision!
I’ve had friends and family who have chosen houses with 5 bedrooms when they only really needed 2 bedrooms, just to store their extra stuff! This ended up costing them about an extra $200 – $500 per week! in rent or mortgage payments when they didn’t really need all those extra rooms.
Again, this will be based on your personal situation and your family’s needs, but if you’re paying for a huge house with lots of bedrooms that is surplus to your actual requirements, this can be wasting your money BIG TIME!
TEN
Saying ‘I’m not good with money’
Whether you have said this to yourself or to others out loud, saying that you’re not good with money is like being closed minded to the idea that you CAN learn, improve your habits, educate yourself and change your financial situation.
The world has changed and you can now access SO much FREE information when it comes to personal finances, money education, money management, budgeting, saving, investing, getting out of debt and working towards financial independence!
Think FREE podcasts, FREE personal finance blogs and websites, borrowing money management books from the library, FREE videos on YouTube, as well as a multitude of social media accounts that pump out HEAPS of FREE content that’s engaging, informative, helpful and inspiring when it comes to changing your money habits and your financial situation for real improvement.
You CAN learn and you can improve and simply changing your mindset around money and how you’re willing to learn and improve can make a huge difference to your actual situation.
Summary
So, there are 10 ways to pour money down the drain! I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of engaging in one or more of these at some stage but the important thing is being aware of how much money can be wasted in these (and many other) ways and making small changes that can lead to big improvements in your overall money management for yourself and your family.
