30 People Share Examples Of People Blindly Wasting Money When They Think They’re Saving
Interview With Expert
Unfortunately, nothing in life is black and white. Not even saving money. A cheaper couch might seem like a great option in the moment, but it can come back to bite you when it needs to be replaced only a year later. And spending more up front, like buying items in bulk, can sometimes cost you less in the long run.
Living a frugal lifestyle might feel unnecessarily complicated at times, so today, we’re going to focus on what not to do. Redditors have recently been sharing examples of "tripping over dollars to save a dime," so we’ve gathered some of their tips and anecdotes below. Keep reading to find a conversation with Toni Graham of Simple Frugal Life, and be sure to upvote the mistakes that you’ll be sure to avoid!
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Constantly having to get new hires and train them but they leave after around a year because you don't pay them well. So you never have loyal or skilled employees. Well paid employees are more loyal and long term employees are more skilled.
Something so many businesses haven't learned yet, as well as promoting within including competitive raises. There's a reason why workers are continuously jumping from gig to gig because it's the only way to get yourself a meaningful raise.
My company decided that the way to solve our quarterly budget issue was to fire the highest paid support representatives, instead of curtailing the CEO’s pay that was 200% higher than anyone elses and a 25% reduction would have saved these jobs.
Guess what. The most SENIOR repa got paid more because THEY KNEW WTF THEY WERE DOING. We increased churn by 2x, making the next quarter deficit EVEN WORSE.
Guess if they learned their lesson, folks. Guess.
Driving around for cheap gas.
Well that depends how far away the station is, how much of a price difference it is and how frugal your car is. I recently managed a straggering 15p/litre price difference up near my parents. It is too far away to go for regular fillups, but I can either defer filling up until I get there, or do a top-up whilst I am there. More locally, I have several stations within a couple of miles, and so I look at the prices online and will often go straight to the cheapest one.
To learn more about what money-saving habits are actually worth it, we reached out to Toni Graham, creator of Simple Frugal Life. Toni was kind enough to get in touch with her Facebook community and share some of their examples of frugal habits that don't actually save any money with Bored Panda.
First, Toni mentioned buying something cheap, in particular clothes, tools, and furniture. "These things do not last long or are not fit for purpose. It is better to save up and buy a good quality item in a sale or buy good quality second hand from a thrift store," she explained.
Buying food just because it is on sale is another habit that's not worth it. "This might be a 2 for 1 offer or near date, discounted offer. If it is something you use often and like, that is great, but otherwise these things will languish in your cupboard or freezer and actually cost money as you are not inclined to eat them," Toni shared.
My mom wanted to renovate our roof but did not think professional contractors were worth the money..so she hired some guy from a local church and paid him under the table.
A storm came the following weekend and it rained inside our house. Cost more to replace everything than it would have to have gotten a professional roof installation.
No license, no contract = no warranty and no legal recourse when things inevitably go wrong.
Probably mentioned elsewhere, but here it is again. If you’re living alone, it makes *no* sense to buy the bigger version just because it’s cheaper per ounce/pound/liter/ml whatever than the smaller one *if it is going to go bad before you use it all!!*
Because then you’ve wasted 5 dollars instead of using 3 effectively.
You don't have to use it all, just enough to justify the spend. If the $3 one is 500g and the $5 on is a kilo then using more than 500g means you've saved money. Why? Because you'd have to have bought two of the smaller ones. I see this all the time with bagged spinach. The small bag is $2, the big bag (twice as much) is $2.20. I don't use the full bag, but I use more than the small one. So it makes sense. On the other hand I only ever buy a tiny jar of coffee even though it's the worst possible value. Because I never drink coffee, it's only for the occasional guest. I'm usually throwing out most of even the smallest jar because it's "gone bad" before it's been used.
My dad used to take my brother and I the BWW every Monday. He’d pay for wings and beers for the three of else. It was at least a hundred bucks a week he was spending. One day he asked for more napkins and the waiter said he wasn’t allowed to. They were trying save money by reducing the amount of napkins each table got. We’ve never been back.
Next, Toni and her community mentioned buying the latest money-saving gadget like a dehydrator or freeze dryer. "The equipment that you already have will probably do the job or there are alternative methods of preserving," she noted.
The expert also says, "Doing DIY yourself if you do not have the knowledge and skills can cost a lot more for a botched job."
And when it comes to food, prepping and bulk buying things that you don't actually like will probably backfire. "Members had bought lots of dried beans or things that will store well, but not things that they actually want to eat," explained. "Also stashing food and not regularly checking the dates and rotating, regularly ends in wastage."
Growing food if you don't have the time or access to recycled materials or second hand tools isn't very efficient either.
Buying cheap clothes. I went to Walmart and bought a knit shirt. A year later it stretched out and it’s only good for when I have a dirty job to do. Meanwhile, I went to a nice stand spent 3x as much for a shirt made of better fabric and it still looks good 10 years later.
People who don't understand the progressive tax system and turn down raises because "it'll put me on a higher tax bracket."
That guy who unplugged his fridge for a 2 week vacay, and all his food went bad and his fridge was full of mold and got ruined, all to save like a dollar in electricity.
Toni also warns people not to buy things when you don't actually need them, just because they are a bargain or cheap. And unless you're going to use a lot at once, don't bother buying large containers of paint. "It only has a short life span and will crack if used a couple of years later. Also cheap paint needs more coats," Toni says.
The expert says not to waste your money buying books on frugality. "Go to the library or look online," she suggests. Not having pet insurance or holiday insurance can also come back to bite you if something goes wrong.
And finally, Toni says keeping things for special occasion, such as China and clothing, isn't always worth it. "They rarely get used and you go off them, or grow out of them," she noted.
My father in law driving all over creation saving $0.04 on bananas or $0.49 on noodles. He spends more in gas by far than he saves on anything else. I understand being alert about sales, using coupons, and price matching, etc. but this approach has always seemed unwise to me.
For some older people who lived through hard financial times, the quest to "save" becomes obsessive.
My ex's dad wanted a truck bed cover. He wasn't Internet savvy so he asked me to look into it. They don't make em for that truck, but I found a website who would do it custom for about $500. He said naw, that's too much. So he went out and bought a $300 cover for another truck and $100 in paint and other materials. Tried to cut it and reshape it so it would fit, and couldn't make it work. Scrapped that project and built another out of wood and some type of heavy duty canvas. That one cost around 250 and he ended up scrapping it too because it was way too heavy. All told he spent almost $700 trying to save $500 and wound up with nothing to show for it.
I had a neighbor offer to pay me $200 to clean his apartment when he moved out so he could get his $150 deposit back
Yeah, not getting your deposit back puts a black mark against your name in the landlord world and makes getting rentals harder.
When it comes to frugal habits that actually work, Toni says there are plenty, but that changing your mindset is what's most effective. "Recognizing that material things only bring short term happiness, but usually bring long term debt," she explained.
Here are some of the habits she recommends for a more frugal lifestyle: making do and mending; buying high quality items that last a long time; budgeting and meal planning; cooking from scratch and eating what is in season; having absolutely no waste in food, possessions, or resources; making saving money fun, a game, or a challenge; and using what you already have.
Stayed at a hotel further away from Disneyland, ended up paying more than the difference in Uber fares.
I know a guy who built a house in the county and to save $2k he got a small septic tank instead of the large one.
Well, now he has to get the thing emptied like twice a year,
at the same price as the larger one that needs to be emptied every 3-5 years.
Adding more things to your cart to hit the free shipping minimum
Toni suggests taking advantage of community sharing resources to gain knowledge and experience from others as well. She also notes that "thinking outside of the box and continually learning new skills like foraging, upcoming, preservation, etc." can be helpful.
And avoid falling into the trap of using shopping for a leisure activity or because you feel down. "There are so many free leisure activities out there," Toni added.
When I was in my early 20s and didn't know about things like frozen pipes, I turned the heat off when we left for the weekend. We returned to water all over the floor, a washer destroyed, and, well... A major life lesson learned
Friend of mine briefly lived with a guy who burned candles at night to cut the electric bill. My friend moved out after the dope managed to set fire to the coffee table and he still wanted to keep using the candles all night.
I used to manage a bar and grill. One time we had a mandatory meeting that brought all the employees in during off hours and the bar owner spent a half an hour telling us to try and get the pens back from the patrons who borrowed them to get the phone number of the person they wanted to hook up with. . Back before smart phones, this is how it was done. I was thinking that we were paying our employees about 100$ to talk about pens that I could get at the office store for about 5$.
As far as why it's important to live frugally, Toni says living frugally gives us more choices. "I was able to retire early despite being a lone parent on a low wage for a lot of my life," she noted.
Toni also pointed out that debt can be harmful to our mental health. "Having no debt meant I could pay off the mortgage early, and I felt more secure," she explained.
"[Being frugal] is good for the environment. It is easier to live within our means," the expert says. "Being frugal can be empowering. You are not as reliant on supermarkets or other commercial organizations. You are making the decisions about how you spend your money."
"The less money spent, the less you need to earn. This means more time with family or doing what we want to do," Toni added.
Our very large company decided to “save money” by letting go of the cleaning people (paid $25/hr) because each staff member (paid 30-250/hr) could do the work for each of their own offices (trash removal, etc).
OOF! I remember way back as a junior clerk my boss explaining why it made sense for me to do filing and photocopying instead of the director. "The director is paid four times as much as you are. It's a waste of expenses to have him photocopying. His time needs to be spent on more important stuff."
Spending a ton of time to do something yourself instead of paying for a service/good that could do it easily/instantaneously. I know it's technically saving money to do the thing yourself, but time has value and some frugal people forget that.
I had a boss stop everyone from working for 2 hours to look for something he lost. The lost item was spray mount and at the time cost less than $6. Seriously dude, just go buy another one. Lost $200 in billable hours for a $6 replaceable item.
"People think that being frugal is about being poor, poverty, deprivation, etc.," Toni told Bored Panda. "It isn't. It is about choice and saving money in some areas of your life so that you can afford to spend in the areas that important to your values."
"We still like to travel and have breaks away and also try to only buy ethical good quality meat, and free range eggs," she explained. "We couldn't do these things on a low income if we didn't drastically cut down in other areas of our life that are not important to us."
My former employer had a policy that you had to take the cheapest flight available. We'd put hourly employees on flights with 2 stops and save $200... Then pay them time and a half sitting in airports all day. It cost more but the people who accounted for travel kept costs down on their metrics, payroll was on different books.
They had a similar rule for car rentals. Unless you were in a group you had to get the smallest car available because it was usually cheaper. It got stupid when you'd get a bigger car for the same price and then you'd have to fill out a report on why you violated the travel policy. It got really dumb because if you paid and expensed it they wouldn't audit the expenses. I'd just put an SUV on my card and get reimbursed. On the company card you were stuck with the compact car.
When I was young and single I had a traveling sales job in the US, demonstrating software. I had an agreement with my employer that they would pay for the hotel and rental car if I stayed over a Saturday night to get a cheaper air fare. I got to explore almost every state, free.
A relative ignoring a small upstairs bathroom leak rather than paying a plumber. Then years later having to pay to replace the entire bathroom floor AND a major section of her kitchen ceiling before she can sell her house.
Our bathroom was leaking for a long time. We didn’t know as the it was leaking into the corner of the kitchen above the units. So we couldn’t see it until it spread on to a part of the ceiling in view. We had to move out into temporary accommodation. Due to the builders being useless we were out for 4 and a half months. Thankfully all covered by insurance.
Driving 30 miles to Costco just to get gas, not even going into Costco. My mom does this but I think it's really just an excuse to take the dog for a ride.
Sneaking around with no auto insurance and then having to get it out of impoundment after paying a ticket and buying insurance…not me thankfully but it’s a thing
My mother used to drive around to every grocery store, using every coupon that came into her hands, buying things that she didn't need or even have a plan for. Her food hoarding progressed over the years and is now completely out of control. Pantry moths, maggots, rats. I don't even know what else. But she still has a stockpile of hamburger helper from when it was on sale 25 years ago so, I guess that's what matters most to her.
That's not frugality, that's hoarding. Or it could be an early sign of dementia. She needs help.
Pet grooming. Decided to do it themselves, buy subpar equipment to do it themselves and either do a horrible job or cut their animal. Have to go to the groomer to get it fixed and/or vet bills.
Some of these grooms they basically cut down to the skin and they are so proud of themselves but if the groomer did that they would have a b***h fit.
Meh.. as long as it's a bad hair cut and no physical harm I think it's ok. Maybe let a groomer assess what needs to be done and what not. (cutting hair/fur on a dog that should have only have their dead hair pulled for example)
Grocery stores have been doing this for decades, it's called a "loss leader" , the cheap item is a profit loss but gets people in the door.
My relative will drive 25 miles from home to get gas from Sam's Club, when she has multiple gas stations close by. She just cannot do the math.
I HATE paying .20-.30 more per gallon on gas. But doing the math, it would cost double to drive 60 miles to save .30/gal. We just make sure to fill up on cheaper gas when we need to go that way.
My biggest client is a total cheapskate. Owns 28 residential and commercial properties. He hires the same sh**heads to do non urgent remodel and repair jobs and then I have to clean up their mess. One of the usual suspects he hired to replace a roof once. This idiot had worked on this roof 3x before (fixing his mistakes twice) and he somehow still managed to put the new roof on a building across the street, not even owned by the cheapskate I'm talking about. This guy loves to have things done half a*s even after being told it'll be cheaper in the long run to do it right once. Never wants things done right, just band aids. There's no reasoning with him or talking sense to him. He's easily wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars long term in the 12 years I've been dealing with him just by saving money in the short term.
Went to Las Vegas because the flight was basically free.
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important point basically is this: if you do things "on the cheap" you end up paying more in the end. Here's my story. Hired a rando to do a garage door. He disappeared with the cash deposit, never saw him again. Should have just hired an actual company, even though they quoted double.
I add only enough things to my cart to hit the free shipping minimum, if I'm going to pay the money anyway I might as well get something out of it 🤣
Yeah, if the amount extra you have to spend to get free shipping, is less than the shipping fee, it makes more sense to just pick out something. And if there are things you can add that you will need eventually, and that won't go bad, it can make sense to do that. You just have to watch out that you don't get sucked into buying $20 worth of random junk just to avoid a $5 shipping charge.
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Use it or loose it budgets, the idea is that if a department does. It need there full budget this year they will not need that much in the future so the future budgets are reduced by the savings. As a result everyone spends their entire budge every year even if they do not need anything. This is more common than you would think.
important point basically is this: if you do things "on the cheap" you end up paying more in the end. Here's my story. Hired a rando to do a garage door. He disappeared with the cash deposit, never saw him again. Should have just hired an actual company, even though they quoted double.
I add only enough things to my cart to hit the free shipping minimum, if I'm going to pay the money anyway I might as well get something out of it 🤣
Yeah, if the amount extra you have to spend to get free shipping, is less than the shipping fee, it makes more sense to just pick out something. And if there are things you can add that you will need eventually, and that won't go bad, it can make sense to do that. You just have to watch out that you don't get sucked into buying $20 worth of random junk just to avoid a $5 shipping charge.
Load More Replies... Use it or loose it budgets, the idea is that if a department does. It need there full budget this year they will not need that much in the future so the future budgets are reduced by the savings. As a result everyone spends their entire budge every year even if they do not need anything. This is more common than you would think.
