14 Unnecessary Expenses That Hurt Your Wallet

If you’re trying to save more money than you’re already saving and learn about unnecessary expenses that hurt your wallet you’re at the right place!

Here’s a list of unnecessary expenses that you can get rid of right now:

1. Home phone service

Are you still paying for your landline phone service?

Your cell phone has all the features that your home phone has and even more! There’s no need to spend money on it.

We don’t use a landline in our home and honestly, we don’t feel a need for it.

2. Cable

If you’re trying to pay off your debt or save some money for your next trip, cutting the cable cord is one of the best ways to do that.

Is paying for your cable an unnecessary expense? It is!

Let’s be real, paying $70 or $100 a month for a bunch of channels that you don’t even watch is ex-pen-sive.

There are a lot of cable alternatives out there, which are cheaper and can save you more than $700 a year.

Some of the most popular alternatives are:

• Netflix – $9–16 per month
• Apple TV+ – $5 per month
• Hulu – $6 per month
• Hulu Live- $45–51 per month
• Disney+ – $7–13 per month
• Amazon Prime Video – $9 per month
• Showtime or HBO Now -starting at $15 per month
• YouTube- Free

And more!

So why would you pay $100 per month for a TV cable?

In my country, we can find any movie we want to watch on the internet for absolutely free!

Lifehack of a Russian (me): Sometimes when I cannot find a movie in English, I go to Google and type in the search bar in Russian ” the name of the movie watch online in English”. And it gives me a lot of websites where I can watch the movie for 100% free.

When I moved overseas, I was very surprised that people paid to watch movies on the internet.

Now though, living here I found it cheaper than using a TV cable.

Cutting your cable and watching less TV will also cut down on your electricity bill and help you save money faster.

If you’re still not sure if you want to eliminate it entirely you can at least downgrade from premium to basic cable.

14 Affordable Cable Alternatives To Save Money This Year

3. Storage

A storage unit can be useful when you don’t have enough space to keep your belongings. But I don’t want you to see it as a permanent solution.

The U.S. national average cost of a storage unit in 2020 is $87.89 per month, according to Sparefoot.

It means that eliminating your storage unit bill of $90 a month could potentially save you $1080 a year.

So if you have your belongings sitting in storage for years, you should come up with a plan to get it out of there.

Find a place for it in your home, and sell stuff on Craiglist or eBay. You should do the inventory and throw away things that are bad or broken.

4. Not using coupons

If you’re trying to save money, but ignore coupons and deals, you’re making a big mistake!

I always check for coupons and coupon codes for items that we buy all the time. I also use the Fetch Rewards App to scan my grocery receipts, so I can earn points and exchange them for gift cards.

Also, coupons have enabled us to enjoy many free items and services. Who doesn’t like getting free stuff? And if you pair coupons with ongoing sales at stores you can save more than 50% on your shopping budget!

I don’t understand why people who are trying to save up, ignore the coupons and apps that can help get it faster.

If you want to try couponing and see if it’s worth the time that you spend on sorting, scanning sale papers, apps, and websites, check this out:

• Track how much time you spend on getting and organizing your coupon inserts and codes. Write it down.

• Redeem all your coupons (Note: collect coupons only on the items that you usually buy and use).

• After you redeem them, write down how much you saved from each place.

• Decide if it was worth it. Let’s say you spent 2 hours gathering and organizing the coupons. And let’s say you saved $32 total. That means for your couponing efforts you “earned” $16 an hour.

I’m sure if you’re in a situation where you’re trying to pay off your debt as soon as possible or save up for an upcoming trip, COUPONING is a must for saving.

Read about the best cash-back websites that will save you money this year.

5. Buying cheap clothes

Do I love buying new clothes? I do!

But lately, I’ve been a minimalist with it. I used to spend a lot on buying clothes that I didn’t need. Or buying clothes thinking “I always wanted to wear this kind of style, let me buy it”, but I would never wear it after.

Now I buy clothes only when I need them. I buy fewer but high-quality pieces that I know will last longer.

Just remember you don’t want to spend money on low-quality clothes that will break apart very fast. Because you will have to regularly spend money on it.

When I buy clothes I also think about what I can match them with, and the more clothes I have in my wardrobe for that the better.

Pro Tip: Use Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates), an online service that gives you cashback on purchases you make online. Create a Rakuten account here. Make an online purchase of $25 and get $10 as a welcome bonus! So easy.

Top 21 Amazon Must-Haves That Will Save You Money

6. Eating out

Eating out is one of the biggest unnecessary expenses that hurt your wallet.

I know it’s easy and I love it too! In fact, when I was living in Korea, I used to eat out almost every day.

Spending around $7-$8 on a single meal didn’t seem super expensive. But when it added up to $40 a week and about $170 a month (when I was a student living in the dorm with no kitchen it was much more). I knew that I needed to make a change.

Just try to track for a month how much you spend on eating out and you will see how much you could be saving.

It is hard to cut it off completely and there’s no need for that. You can start with the habit of cooking at least 3 times a week if you eat out regularly.

The most important step to stop eating out is Planning Your Meals. Because it’s always easier to stop at a restaurant on the way home or order delivery if you don’t know what you’re having for dinner.

If you don’t know how to start I highly recommend that you check out a menu planning service.

It will help you save money and time on figuring out what to cook, how to cook, and what you need to buy for preparing your meals.

It also helps you control your weight with healthy and affordable recipes.

You can check out the $5 Meal Plan to see more details, it’s really worth it!

Click here to get a 14-day Free Trial. It’s absolutely risk-free.

7. Your mobile phone bills

There are several ways you can save on your mobile phone bills.

Try to:

• Lower your data limit
• Sign up for a family or shared data plan
• Ditch your unlimited data plan
• Ask your employer or carrier to find out if you’re eligible for these or other discounts.
• Reduce data usage and use WI-FI more often
• Switch to a different carrier

There’s no point in paying a lot for your phone bill, especially if you’re not a business person who constantly needs to contact people and use data.

Related article: 10+ Best Dave Ramsey Tips To Achieve Financial Freedom 

8. Warranty

Buying or not buying an extended warranty should be on a case-by-case basis.

Even if it sounds good to have an extended warranty when you make a big purchase, most of the time it is overpriced. Moreover, about half of what you pay will go to the salesperson’s commission.

Some warranties are not worth it at all, so always read the fine print and see if you should pay extra for the warranty.

A lot of manufacturers have a warranty that comes with the purchase at no extra cost, so you can fix it for free.

9. Check your subscriptions

Cancel subscriptions that you’re not using.

Companies make it so easy to sign up for their monthly services. But they are valuable only when you’re making the most out of them. Otherwise, it’s a waste of money.

Sometimes we forget to cancel a subscription that we don’t use anymore, and if we fall into autopilot mode of not checking our bank account often enough, we can lose hundreds of dollars.

I remember one time I signed up for one clothing subscription membership when I was making a purchase.

A month later I received a notification about being charged $49.95. I needed to go to the website and “skip” the month to not get charged. I wasn’t even aware of that.

So make sure you read the terms thoroughly.

10. Bank account fees

It seems that bank fees are not costly, but when you’re paying them regularly, they can add up.

There are good banks that can reimburse your ATM fees or simply have a lot of ATMs around for you to use. There are also many banks out there that won’t charge you a monthly maintenance fee, regardless of how much you have in your account.

That’s why I think there’s no reason to pay extra when there are many great bank account options available!

11. You don’t DIY

Buying every single thing is also one of the expenses that hurt your wallet.

Do-It-Yourself. You don’t have to spend money on things that you can do yourself.

For example, sometimes I make facial masks, and decorations for the house and I used to sew kitchen towels and more with the items that I have at home.

There are thousands of free tutorials for DIYers on anything you want to create, whether it’s some Christmas decorations or recipes for meals.

My favorite inspiration tools are Pinterest and YouTube.

Before you decide to DIY make sure that:

• The materials & equipment cost less than buying pre-made
• The quality is going to be as good as the quality of a store-bought item (or better)
• It won’t take too much time to make the cost savings worth it
• It won’t cause you too much stress
• It’s not something that should really be done by a professional

12. Downgrade your health insurance

We all know that medical bills are extremely high, so going unprotected for years would be unwise. However, you can try to reduce your insurance bill.

To downgrade your health insurance ask at work what options are available to you that can reduce your insurance costs. If you have children, check what options are available for families.

13. Buying coffee every day

I know that buying a coffee doesn’t seem like a big expense. But if you buy it every day (some people buy it several times a day) it can put a dent in your wallet in the long run.

When I was living in Korea I had at least one coffee a day, because you will see a coffee shop there on every corner. For sure, I spent a lot of money on it and I regret it.

Delicious Rice Bowl With Salmon and Vegetables

14. Grooming expenses

Maybe it’s okay if you trim the ends of your hair, but I wouldn’t recommend that you cut your hair if you’ve never done it before or had a bad experience. You will most likely regret it.

You can cut back on your grooming expenses though. For example, if you have your hair cut and styled weekly, cut it back to every other week. Or if you get your nails done every twice a month, cut back to monthly, or learn how to do it yourself.

Sometimes I do my nails myself – I find it quite expensive here, compared to my home country. You can get your nails done there for as little as $10! It’s also therapeutic for me especially when I watch a show haha.

I ordered an LED lamp on Amazon and was ecstatic about it! It saved me so much money over the past year.

This is the lamp that I currently use.

Well, you just read about 14 unnecessary expenses that hurt your wallet. I hope you enjoyed it!

What are your best tips to save money?

Read more:

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