5. Pizza – I’m not talking about ordering pizza once or even twice. I’ve ordered in pizza four times over the last two weeks for the kids and I for dinner.
4. Giving Kids Lunch Money – For the past month I’ve probably given the kids each money to buy lunch 4 out of 5 days a week. Two teens with big appetitites.
3. Late Fees – Over the past two months I’ve not been organized, have missed deadlines, due dates, etc. and have had to pay several late fees as a result
2. Not Planning My Shopping Lists – Last week WalMart Canada had their annual Anniversary sale. It’s a huge event and often items I use throughout the year such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. are 50% or more off their regular price. It’s also a great time to do some gift shopping as they have many items throughout the store at seriously reduced prices. I knew the sale was last week but I neglected to make a list of the items I wanted. When I did arrive at the store I could only remember a few and came home with few of the items I’d wanted. I also left the shopping to the last day of the sale due to procrastination so had no time to return. I literally could have saved several hundred dollars stocking up on items I use regularly and on gift and household purchases had I been organized.
1. Not Sending in Rebates – Over the last two months I’ve purchased several items that had mail-in rebates and never “got around” to spending the 3 minutes required to fill out a form and send it in. Now the offers have expired and I have lost over $125 in rebates due to procrastination.
The frustrating thing about the above money wasters is that each and every one of them could easily have been prevented had I been more organized or had procrastinated less. They’re the easy holes in the budget to fix. They’re also the most common areas money writers tell you to save money on.
When we’re stressed or busy or lazy it’s easy to fall back into bad spending habits. We make excuses (“I’m moving again!”) and try to justify it (“I’m moving again!”) to ourselves but deep down we know we’ve fallen off the path.
I just deleted the pizza guy’s phone number from my cell phone. Boy, I’m going to miss him.
