8 Ways to Stop Throwing Your Money Away!

Never pay full price for anything! And I mean ANYTHING!!! Get coupons, wait for the item to go on sale, or negotiate! Stop trying to keep up with the Jones. They live in a big house, drive a newer car and are probably in debt up to their eyebrows! Be smart like the Smiths, who live below their means, save their money, and live a frugal lifestyle!

Stop wasting your money! Stop giving your money away! This blog will show you 8 different ways to cut back on your budget and stop buying needless items.

Here are 8 ways to stop throwing your money away:

1. Late Fees. If you’re paying late fee charges, you’re throwing your money away. Mark your calendar ten days prior to when the bill is due. Pay the bill on that day! It is such a waste of money to pay a late fee charge on something that you have control over.

2. Warrants/Upgrades. Think twice about adding that extra money for that already expensive appliance or car. Many times, if something breaks, it may not be covered under warranty. Read the fine print. Remember, salespeople earn a higher commission on selling upgrades or warranties. They are usually not worth the money.

3. Interest Fees. Pay your credit card bill off each month. If you buy something on sale and you cannot pay it off at the end of the month, are you really getting a great deal? You need to factor in the cost of the interest in that purchase.

Do you have credit card debt? STOP USING YOUR CREDIT CARD!!!! Shop around to see what credit cards has the lowest interest rate. Do they have an interest free period (six to twelve months) if you transfer your credit card balance from another company? Can you pay off that balance within that time period? You can save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on interest depending on how much debt you have incurred.

Should you refinance your mortgage?  Check to see if you can get a lower rate or reduce the time of your mortgage. Don’t forget to ask about closing costs and other fees that you may have to pay to refinance.  A bank lender in our area sometimes run a promotion that waives all fees and closing costs on refinancing your mortgage. It never hurts to ask!  Perhaps you can go from a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage and save a ton of money on interest as well!

Always be looking to see how you can save money.

4. Lottery Tickets.  Let’s face it, we all dream that someday we’d win the lottery and never have to worry about money ever again!  If you spend $3 on a Powerball ticket with power play twice a week for an entire year you would spend $312.  If you can’t afford the necessities, you can’t afford a lottery ticket!

5. Magazine/Newspaper Subscriptions.  Why are you still paying for something that you will be throwing away?  Go online.  Go to the library.  Google whatever you want online for FREE!

I used to subscribe to the Sunday newspaper in our area just to get the coupons.  There are so many coupon sites out there, that you don’t need to have that subscription.  There are apps out there as well that will help you with saving money.  Stop throwing your money away!

6. Memberships.  Every January and May people flock to the gym to try and lose weight.  By February and June, they’ve stopped going to the gym, but continue to pay their gym membership fees.  The “cheapest” or “most affordable” gym member in my area is $10 down and $10 per month.  Why spend $130 a year when you can go online and get free workouts?  There are tons of ideas to workouts on Pinterest and YouTube.  Why spend the money going to the gym to walk on a treadmill when you could go to the park or mall and walk for free!

Need weights?  Go on to Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and look for used workout equipment.  You can get barely used equipment for pennies on the dollar.

7. Movies/Books/Music.  I cannot tell you the last time we went to the movies!  We also have never “bought” movies on television either.  We do have Amazon Prime and there a ton of movies on there for free, as well as free movies from our cable company.

Go to your local library.  Get yourself a FREE library card and get as many books, movies, and music as you want! (Check out the blog How to Save Money at the Library.) And put some of that money back into your pocket where it belongs.

8. Services That You Can Do Yourself!  Why pay someone to mow your lawn, spread mulch, shovel the driveway, or change the oil in your car? Save your money and learn how to do it yourself. Not sure how to change your oil?  Go online to YouTube.  There are a ton of videos that will show you how to do it.  My husband is ALWAYS on YouTube learning how to do all kinds of things to fix around the house. That way we don’t have to spend our hard-earned money on something that we can do ourselves.  Stop paying money to have someone do your grocery shopping or even your nails.  If you can’t pay your bills, don’t have an emergency fund, you shouldn’t be doing those things anyway!

What have we learned?  Your time will be better spent doing research on how to do things yourself and find cheaper alternatives or even FREE alternatives and start putting that money back into your pocket or even a vacation fund!

Remember what my husband always says, “Saving Money IS Making Money”!