5 Mistakes Your Making With Your Money

I've always been bad with money. Recently, I've started getting a better handle on it. Here are some of the mistakes I was making.

You’re Eating Out Too Much

I get it. Life can be hectic and it’s way easier to call out for pizza or grab a burger on the way home. This isn’t a problem on occasion but when you get into this bad habit, you’re wasting so much money.

There are a few ways to fix this problem. The simplest is that instead of ordering a pizza you can grab some at the grocery store instead. A large pizza from most pizza places will cost you anywhere from 10 to 20 dollars. While the store bought pizzas aren’t as good, they are much cheaper. Even the more pricey ones are around 7 to 8 dollars. I personally like the Jack’s brand as the pizzas are pretty good and priced around 3 dollars.

That’s a big difference in price. As for time commitment, it’ll take about 20 minutes to cook the pizza. You probably had to wait at least 30 minutes to get your pizza delivered. That means you’re not only saving a lot of money but times as well.

Now, if you would like to eat better, healthier food but don’t have the time to cook every night I would suggest getting a crockpot. That or finding the one you likely have hidden somewhere. There are a large number of easy crockpot recipes where you just take the ingredients, toss them in and walk away.

A final bit of advice on this one is that you can prepare your meals ahead of time. When you’ve got an hour or two you can do a lot of the prep for the next couple of days or even a weeks worth of meals. By getting a lot of the prep out of the way it makes finding time to cook that much easier.

Living Outside of Your Means

This one is becoming more and more common. People are getting credit card after credit card. There are several problems with this for a lot of people.

The first is that even if you’re paying them off in full, you’re still paying a fee or a percentage to use that card. If you spend $100 on that card, you’re likely paying at least an extra $10 for the privilege. That’s just a waste.

The next problem is that a lot of people don’t actually pay their cards off in full. They spend way to much and can’t. So, what do they do? They pay minimums. This takes the first problem and compounds on it. You’re paying even more and eventually, you’ll have to pay those off. That or perpetually make minimum payments on cards you can’t even use anymore.

The solution here is to generally avoid credit cards. They ARE good for building up credit but you want to keep your total below 30% of the available funds or they can actually hurt you. If you think you need one, just don’t think of them as extra money, because they aren’t. They’re at best, a tool to increase your credit score. A credit card shouldn’t change your spending habits.

Not Saving Money

I read a study and it says something like 22% of Americans don’t have any savings. This is disheartening to read. Saving money is really important after all. Nobody wants to have to keep working until they die. Social Security is a pittance that is hard to actually live on. Honestly, it’s hard to SURVIVE on.

“I don’t have any money to save!” you might be saying. Well, if you follow this advice you might actually find that you do. As it is, you don’t have to save hundreds or thousands of dollars per month. The more the better, but as a doctor once said “Half assed is better than nothing,”. This means that even if all you can sock away is $20, that’s better than nothing.

You just need to get into a habit of saving money where you can. Got a change jar that’s getting pretty full? Don’t spend it, take it to the bank. Saved $100 dollars following my advice? Well, you should probably do yourself a favor and save at least half of that.

You Aren’t Researching Your Purchases

This is a problem a lot of people have. There are some things where it makes more sense to buy a more expensive option because it has a good reputation for being a quality product. Other things, like toilet paper, you should buy the cheapest possible that doesn’t feel like sandpaper, lol.

The answer to this is pretty simple. Do a little bit of research before making any significant purchase. You don’t have to be a detective and spend hours looking things up. Spending 30 minutes to figure out what brand gives you what you need at the right price is a good idea though.

You Keep Replacing Your Phone for the Newest Model

I said phone but this can also be a car, computer or other kinds of technology. A lot of people have gotten into the habit of replacing these things on a regular basis. Not because the old one is broken but because they want the latest thing.

This is something you should avoid. Even when you can get decent value out of trade ins you’re still losing money on the deal. You don’t NEED the newest phone. Your current phone is just fine. I know a lot of people have the fear of missing out but you’ve just got to get control over it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the newest thing isn’t much better than yours. If you want to see significant upgrades when you get a new phone, car or computer it makes far more sense to wait until your current one breaks or is unusable. At that point, you do actually need it and the differences will actually be noticeable.

I’d rather keep using something I have that works well and when I need to upgrade, it’s an actual tangible upgrade.

Final Thoughts

So, those are some of the mistakes you might be making and some advice to help you stop making them. I’ve honestly made pretty much all of these mistakes and it’s definitely experience talking here, lol.

Was this helpful for you? Do you have any other mistakes that I missed? I’d love to hear from you!