Ways to save money by NOT doing something
Any time I talk with people who speak about their money problems I keep hearing the same old excuse repeated:
It’s too difficult to save money, I cant be bothered to save money, It’s too much effort to save money
And really; who could blame them? In a modern world where we are constantly bombarded with advertisements and marketing aimed at getting us to spring into action and spend our hard earned money. Companies who make it as difficult as possible to cancel and yet will bend over backwards to sign you up for re-occuring subscriptions. Services which make promises of convince and time-saving at a small monthly expense to yourselves.
So I thought it would be interesting to make a list of ways to cut your expenses by NOT doing something. Things which actually take LESS effort to achieve than if you went for the more expensive option. It sounds so utterly ridiculous when I think about it and yet each day I see people wasting their time and effort to do things which I know will actually cost them more.
Speeding
Everytime I see someone overtake me on the motorway I imagine how important that person must be. Maybe they’re a doctor rushing to perform a triple heart bypass? Or a big shot lawyer on their way to save an innocent person about to be sentenced? Perhaps a scientist who has just had an eureka moment in their car and must rush to the laboratory before they forget the cure to cancer…
It gives me a few moments of excitement before I come to the cold hard realisation that they’re not. These people are just like you and me. On their way to the 9 – 5 office job they hate in order to fund the stupidly fuel inefficient motor vehicle they happen to be doing 95mph in.
Most cars have a pretty big fuel efficiency drop off above 60mph, plus by speeding you take the risk of a hefty police fine. Save yourself some cash by not speeding
Eating out
How many times have you come home from a hard day at work and decided that you couldn’t be bothered to cook so went out for a meal? I’ll admit to being guilty of this a few times myself back in my younger years. The logic being that by having someone else cook for you; you’re saving yourself the time and effort.
Except when you take into consideration the time it takes to drive to a restaurant, choose from the menu, wait for the server and then wait for the food.. it’s probably taken at least an hour. And have you really saved yourself any effort over just throwing something in the oven and then dishing it up?
Eating out should be an event. An occasion you’ve planned for with a purpose such as a celebration or meeting up with family. It’s certainly not quicker or easier than cooking for yourself so save the cash by not eating out.
Water
I went over to a friends house last week and he offered me a drink. Having been a hot day, I just asked for some water and my friend returned from the kitchen with a 2l bottle of mineral water. I told him that tap water was fine by he insisted, stating; “I only drink bottled water”.
I’ve spoke about it before and yet it still amazes me that people will pay a 2000% mark-up for something they can get served directly to their house for pennies. It’s not only the cost.. water is heavy. How much effort did he expend lugging those packs of water around the store, into the car and then into his kitchen? If it’s the taste you don’t like then buy a bottle of concentrated squash which for 50p will last you a month.
Save yourself cash by utilising that tap in your kitchen.
Shopping
For many people shopping is their go-to activity for a Saturday. They’ll spend ages queuing in traffic and driving in circles to find a spot before paying for the privilege of parking and wandering through the crowds of other shopaholics each week. I know people who will go shopping every weekend despite openly acknowledging they don’t need to purchase anything! It’s become a past-time to wander around tempting themselves by the fancy displays and soothing mall music.
While I appreciate and support the convenience of having local shops for occasional speciality or time-sensitive purchases.. I’m amazed that people continue to endure the effort required in order to buy things in the town centre so readily available at a discount online. In the time it takes them to arrive at the already full parking lot each week; I’ve logged online and made my purchases before even coming downstairs for the day. I’ve saved myself the fuel, parking fee and often bought the item cheaper than avaliable in the stores.
Can you think of any other ways to save money by NOT doing something.. ways which actually take less time or effort than if you were to spend the cash? Let us know!
17 thoughts on “Ways to save money by NOT doing something”
Nice post! I must admit to being a bit guilty of eating out too much. Me and Miss DD are often found in a restaurant. We have been cutting this down drastically recently as both Miss DD and myself will be seeing “wage shrinkage” soon and we have become far more aware of just how much we were spending.
Water is one I really don’t get. I don’t see the benefit at all. The taste is minimal difference but the price difference is mahoosive!
I can’t think of any others off the top of my head. You were pretty thorough with examples!
Great post. Saving money is pretty easy if you look at it from a different perspective. Avoid buying that latte each day is one way to save yourself some money.
totally agree!
I Never buy water to drink at home, don’t really speed as my car doesn’t go that fast and don’t generally eat out that much, although recently, it’s been creeping up bit by bit due to social activity!
Those people who go shopping every weekend despite not needing to buy anything – that used to be me, particularly when I was in a lot of debt! I wasn’t spending a lot of money when I went out but it all added up as I was out buying stuff (‘bargains’ I though) every week. These days, I only go to the shops if there is something I need to buy.
Not doing something? It’s June and not that particularly warm but I’m not turning on the heating (unlike my colleagues) – I just put on an extra layer of clothing!
Well done weenie! Ive never understood people who consider shopping as a hobby, especially when in debt! Glad you’ve kicked the habit.
All great words of advice. Loved them all. Thanks for the post
Thanks ADD!
The bottled water thing drives me CRAZY! Especially considering I live in drought-stricken California, where Nestle is still bottling water, defending themselves with the fact that they are simply “responding to consumer demand.” I wish more consumers understood and cared about where they put their money.
Great write-up! Thanks, Guy!
Hi Nicole,
Wow that sounds pretty bad. Not quite as bad as the people i’ve seen on the news who have amazingly green gardens right next to the masses of brown fields.. clearly wasting that precious water on lawn sprinklers.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Nice examples there ERG!
One thing which obviously relates to your point #4 would be to think twice about actually purchasing something, for example a new time saving gadget or device. I have fallen into the trap many a time and very nearly did again when I saw some kitchen gizmo on holiday that said it was going to save me time peeling, chopping and grating. It was only 3 Euros but I stopped myself and thought, what is the point!? I have a knife, a potato peeler and a grater already and it would almost certainly not actually save me any time and probably be really hard to clean as well (and probably break as it was such a cheap item). So I didn’t buy it. That is actually a poor example though as I find that the more expensive the gadget the more ballache they actually are to maintain and clean etc so in the long run they end up probably wasting more time than they promised to save you!!!
Save money, don’t do it! :)
Oh wow, I can relate to the kitchen gadget problem. I’ll even admit to having a couple myself; all under £5 but all used only once I reckon. That’s a very expensive gadget in cost per use!
I do most of your list bar one. I do buy water, but I prefer it fizzy which is the main reason. That’s just me. Although my tap water is horribly chlorinated I can easily can get rid of that by standing it in the fridge for a bit. As long as you don’t have fish or strong cheese tin the fridge because that will taint the water instead.
I looked at doing tap water with a sodastream gadget but the running cost would’ve been more. Aldi carbonated spring water runs at 2l for 21p ISTR which is within the groove for me. There is the argument that I’m a slight needless hazard to the environment but the cost isn’t too bad. I didn’t rate Tesco’s value carbonated tap water which is 16p / 2l so that’s where I stuck.
Everybody has to have some PF vices. Bottled water is one of mine.
I’d probably argue that carbonated water is a totally different product to that which comes out of the kitchen sink and so I think we can let you off for purchasing it.. especially as it’s alot cheaper than coke or other soft drinks.
I agree on the vices; I occasionally buy a bag of ice cubes purely because I enjoy them with a bourbon and I’ll go through more than my own freezer ice trays can produce in an evening.
Totally with you on shopping. I’m amazed at how many of my friends consider “going to the mall” as a fun family activity.
Some of them also do “Family sales” of big brands. Every time I went with them, I end up with overpriced crap that I end up not wearing. An Adidas T-shirt at 50% off is still 5 times the price I’d like to pay for a t-shirt.
I hate malls, with a passion. Busy, bright, loud and expensive. Why anyone would actively want to ‘hang out’ in one is beyond me.
Totally with you on all of the above, particularly shopping – I would rather pull out my own toenails than hang out in crowded and depressing malls. Online shopping is a different matter (though I also avoid this) – think it has replaced going to the mall for a lot of people as a way of frittering away cash. Re water, I have a glass carafe that I fill with tap water and that lives in the fridge. It has a drinking glass that sits on top of the carafe as a lid, which protects it from anything pungent that might also live in the fridge. Because the water is chilled and because you are drinking from glass, not plastic, it has quite a pleasant taste, certainly better than water straight from the tap. It cost a fiver but looks rather nice and a bit posh, like a restaurant carafe, so you feel the water is a luxury. Having chilled water at hand is particularly good in the summer. Also useful at night, when I put it in the bedroom in case I get thirsty. Those are my two bobs’ worth on the water question. :)
Glad to have found a kindred spirit. I think if you avoid going into shops in the first place it makes it much easier to avoid the impulse purchases.
Good thinking on the fridge water tactic, I’ve heard others saying the same that it makes it taste better. Personally I do actually like the strong metallic taste of the tap water we get around here (Thames Water) and so can drink it ‘as is’.