Wasting Money: Just Stop Doing It

Money is not the most important thing in life to be sure. But when you don't have enough of it, it really can make life difficult to navigate. And, despite what anyone says, it can also make life less enjoyable. When you are strapped for cash and living paycheck to paycheck, it's like having an albatross constantly flying over your head.

When it comes to saving, though, there's a common utterance by most people. "I can't afford to save." That's because when people think of money or savings or even wealth, and especially building it, they think of income.

I continue to argue that money is rarely an income issue and almost always a spending issue. Having money comes from having a good mindset about money. It comes from constantly thinking of money in terms of its real value.

The pennies are what matter more than anything, and it's the pennies we tend to rarely think about when we consider saving. That hurts us really bad in the end because pennies tend to add up faster than dollars, and because we think of them as less important, they leave our hands far faster than the dollars do.

How many times have you said, "What's five cents?" Say that 20 times and you've wasted a dollar.

The key to saving is simply understanding where you are wasting your money. It's not the only thing you need to think about. But especially if you happen to be one of those people who say, "I can't afford to save," this is the first step to realizing you can actually afford to save if only you think about your spending differently.

It may sound absolutely ridiculous to consider, for example, cutting open an "empty" tube of toothpaste. But it may surprise you to know that when you can squeeze the tube no longer, there's still about 3-5 brushings worth left inside.

It may not make you rich to get every last drop out of the tube. But if you throw the tube away when there's still more toothpaste inside, you are literally throwing money away. You'd never consider tossing a nickel into the trash, would you? But even if it's not a literal nickel, many people do this all the time.

Avoid buying coffee at the coffee shops. Heck, avoid K-Cups for that matter. It is costing people a fortune. And many people who say they can't afford to save are at least using K-Cups which cost about twice as much as regular coffee does.

Avoid eating out for lunch, especially during the workweek. Pack lunches and save. Beyond that, avoid the after-shopping lunch out. Does it make sense to anyone that you are hauling $100 worth of groceries home in your trunk and then stop at Burger King for a hamburger before you get home to unpack them?

Sure, many people may say, "But I consider my coffee and my lunches out to be a treat." Okay. Fine. Fair enough. But if you also say you can't afford to save, how do these treats fit into the why? The reality is that most of the time anyone can afford to save. They just don't realize where they are wasting their money.

There is some truth to the saying that a cheapskate can squeeze a penny out of a wooden nickel. It simply means finding value where there is none otherwise perceived.

I could write a hundred different ways to save money. In fact, this blog is loaded with tidbits and details if you dig around a bit. But the basic idea for this post is to simply help to instill a sense of thought about money and saving not in terms of how much you make—or even how much you don't make. But to think of it in terms of what you waste.

I don't care if you make minimum wage and have four kids to feed. You can save if you know where to look. But of course, you have to look.

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