I find that at times, and although I consider myself quite frugal, that I indirectly waste money!
Typically at some point in time, we are all amazed when we look in our wallets, purse,s or checking accounst and find that we have much less than we thought! We thinking back in time, trying to figure out what we spend the money on, but draw a blank.
Today, I’m going to try to answer the question by identifying “10 Ways We Lose Money Without realizing it”
List of 10 ways to lose money without even knowing it
- Starting your car to warm it up in winter for 15 minutes or longer before you drive it. (not very green either!)
- Library books that were over-due a long time ago (another frugal sin of mine).
- Equipment rentals where you miss the contract time window and now you have to pay extra cash for it.
- Missed Credit Card Payment (at least make the minimum).
- I already blogged about electronics and their constant power drain, see Electric Vampires in Your House
- Not including your spare tire when you rotate your car tires. Using the spare tire extends the life your your regular tires by about 25%!
- Running electronics like the AC/Heating, TV, computer, etc… wastefully while you aren’t at home. (Casper says thanks)
- Not taking enough allowances from your paycheck, so that you get a huge rebate from taxes, which means that you gave the government a large “interest free” loan. (I’m guilty of this too).
- Leaving the house door open when the heater or air conditioner is running.
- Bar spending! Money flow much to easily after a few beers to tips and more alcohol. Unscrupulous bartenders may not give you the correct change back for your purchases so beware!
There are plenty of other way to lose money without realizing it!
Do you have any additions that I many have missed? Please do tell!
-MR
I do have one that I am not going to divulge because I have a post about it in the coming weeks. 🙂
However I always seem to owe something at the library. It drives me nuts. As a matter of fact, I have 2 overdue today!
lol, so do I… It’s only $1.00 but still…
Can’t wait to ready your article next week or so!
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I have a lot of outflow of money this month just due to not negotiating property. I bought 3 gadgets without much offers and deals not I am regretting.
Staying 100% on is hard for me to be at all times. Sometimes I let those things slid to, and by doing so I don’t be the best price in my interest.
I need to get better at shutting the computers down at night. That’s a big $$ waster for me. Thanks for the tips, MR!
Me too, it adds up to more than most people realize! Especially with the horsepower of pcs these days.
The library one was such an annoyance to me that I have been able to avoid late fees for the last few years. I still don’t know how I became late in the past: My suspicion is that they didn’t check-in my books in a timely manner in at least some cases.
I’ve had that happen too, where I got a late fee a few days after I returned them.
In my particular case, I frequent 2 librarys (one at work and one at home). And unfortunately, the borrowing time differ on both, so with my local one I’m always a few days late because it’s borrowing time is shorter.
Mostly, I return on time though…
I am all about the big tax refund. I don’t think I would change the extra 20 bucks a week for a big influx of a couple grand
Yeah, so am I, but it is definitely a potential money loss, even if it’s one that I knowingly ignore every year.
Some folk don’t realize the loss they are incurring by ignoring this though…
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There’s a good thing about living in Texas…no warming up the car, lol. 🙂
Very true! But think of all the fun snow shovelling that you are missing… Sad huh, I feel for you 🙁
MR- I’m guilty of a few of these things, but bar spending might be my worst! It’s just one of those guilty pleasures….you don’t want to be cheap when you’re at the bar with friends and before you know if you’ve racked up a big tab! If you were spending on anything else, you’d think twice about the same dollar amount.
Of course, I’m sure I will keep doing it because being social is just one of the things in life you need to enjoy!
I know where you are coming from! If that’s what you enjoy, so be it. We should all have some money allocated for fun activities! And personally, I know that the activity that you are talking about is fun!
Just try not to go overboard is what I am preaching… And keep your wits about you when you pay, it’s easy to lose a 5 or 10 spot with a bartender that knows that you are way to drunk, especially if it’s a bar you don’t go to often.