Looking over the ‘demotivator’ calculator from MSE has made me consider some of the items I’ve managed to avoid wanting or purchasing over the years and just how much of an impact they’ve made on the finances during my reasonably short life so far. The additional bit of this calculator is that it will work out how many weeks you would have had to work to pay off this expense from a given salary after taxes.

I thought it would be interesting to list some of the most obvious ones and run the figures for each with my 5 year working career so far:

Car

I have never owned a car. Infact, I’ve only learnt how to drive one earlier this year specifically as a requirement for moving into a new job role. When the other kids in my college were off buying bangers and then working 16 hours every weekend to afford the petrol + insurance, I was out cruising the streets on my trusted peddle bike (which I still own 10 years later despite needing some minor repairs).

Cars absolutely leech money. Even parked up on the drive way they are oozing out the pounds in the form of insurance and taxes. Combine this with petrol (gas), maintenance and parking fees pretty much make an early car purchase almost fatal to a young person’s finances.

Assuming a relatively cheap 2nd hand initial purchase of £1000. Petrol of £200 a month, Yearly maintenance of £200, Taxes of £50 a year and insurance average of £500 a year averages at a massive £280 a month!

Total Cost: £16,750

 

Smart Phone

That above is my trusted Nokia phone. Before it, I had another similar model for many years which I only replaced once the keypad had completely worn away and the speaker no longer worked. Despite proving their resilience and thus value many times over, I still receive comments about my phone from friends and family who attempt to convince me of the benefits of buying a flashy new smart phone.

The truth is though: I cant see any real benefit for myself. I work in IT so am at a computer all day, and have both a desktop and laptop at home so can easily jump on one in the evenings should I wish. I commute on a motorbike and rarely go out to restaurants/bars so would have few opportunities to sit playing on a phone anyway.

I’ve also never had a mobile phone contract. 1000 minutes, unlimited texts, all the data you can eat.. How does anyone even come close to needing all this?! It’s huge wastage but on a digital scale.

Smart phone contract at £25 a month for 5 years.

Total Cost: £1500

 

Daily Coffee

Many people claim they need a cup of coffee just to start the day, and I’ll confess to being part of that camp. However, I’ve never actually bought a cup of coffee. No Costa, Starbucks, Coffee Republic or any other of these highstreet invading brands. The coffee produced by my office machine tastes just fine to me and has saved me countless hours stood in queues at coffee shops getting shoved by busy commuters late for their trains.

Personal finance bloggers frequently use the coffee example as a relatively minor expense which can massively compound given a daily purchase and a few years of the habit. It’s a great example because the expense is so seemingly small and yet has surprising figures.

£3 a day, 5 days a week and 50 working weeks.

Total cost: £3750

 

Bank loan/overdraft

Before I headed off to university and whilst still in school I was working every weekend and evening I could. When the time came to head off to uni, I’d managed to save over £7000 adjusted for inflation. Not a bad figure for a 17yr old I reckon!

Fortunately, I was also the last year group to attend university during the lower fees which limited them to just £1025 a year. This was easily covered by the government issued student-loan and living expenses came out of my pre-uni savings. Result: Never needing a bank loan or overdraft. Ever.

It’s hard to put a figure on this as the bank charges and very dependent on the amount borrowed, interest rates etc. However a conservative estimate would put it at a few hundred pounds.

Total cost: £300

 

All together, over the past 5 years, I’ve saved a massive £22,300 by not purchasing any of these ‘essential’ items. Sometimes it’s been tough.. particularly on the cold wet morning commutes fully exposed on a motorbike. However calculating the figures helps remind me that it’s been worth the sacrifice.

 

What other ‘essential’ items have you managed to live without? And how much has it saved you over the years?