5 Biggest Money Wasters
By: Christian Soschner
Tags: Money, Rich, Saving Money, Wealth, Money Management

5 Biggest Money Wasters

And How to Overcome Those Damn Habits

All images in the article are CANVA Pro pictures

“You do not understand, my friend. I make so little money that I cannot save anything for investments.”, some of my coaching clients say.

“Did you see the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery on Netflix,” I ask?

“Nay. I am not so interested in Sci-Fi. I watched the movie XYZ instead.”, she replies.

Got you. When you make so little money, why do you waste your valuable time and money on binge-watching Netflix?

This is not a rhetorical question. Why?

Why?

Why?

Let me tell you why, because it is a habit. And the thing with habits is:

“Chains of Habit Are Too Light to Be Felt Until They Are Too Heavy to Be Broken” — Warren Buffett.

Nobody can not not afford to save money. Everybody needs to break stupid habits. And life flows better.

Let’s dig first into the

5 biggest money wasters

according to studies. Let’s walk through them one by one.

Eating out

Going out for breakfast, lunch, dinner. According to a survey done in the United States, based on the answers of 2,000 people, eating out is the number one money waster of Boomers, Gen X, and Millenials.

“This wasting habit unites all generations”, I hear you saying, but it is so much fun meeting friends. Yes, I have to agree. It is fun, and I love inviting friends home.

In the pandemic world during the day. Speaking of the pandemic, this cost item is automatically reduced to zero during the lockdown. A perfect time to change this habit and re-evaluate how much quality dining out really gives you.

How you can overcome this habit:

It mainly depends on how much you go out. Some of my friends have breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily in a restaurant. Summing it roughly up, they pay about 100 to 200 Euro per day for eating out. No wonder that there is one thing they lack in their lives: Money.

There are a few things they could do. And everybody else who goes out less:

Skip every second night out and stay home. Is it really so that going out often adds value to your life quality? Or do you have the same quality when you skip every second time?

If you must go out to meet friends, why don’t you have a snack at home so that you must not eat? Only a few drinks.

Why do you need to invite people you do not know? I know there is this American dating culture. A man meets a woman, and everybody expects the man to pay for the evening. Why do you want to invite strangers that you mostly will never see again?

Uneaten, expired food, and grocery

I remember those childhood days. Low income prevented to buy more than everybody could eat. I guess scarcity throughout the history of the human race was the norm rather than the exception.

Eating was a special event. Maybe this is the reason why eating together usually is celebrated still today.

Somehow the human race made it into an abundant society. At least in the United States and Europe. Can we really handle that abundance well?

Looking at the rise of diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cancer, I would say no. Our bodies are trained to eat food whenever they get it. They expect starvation afterward. Since the 1970s, for most of our society’s members, it isn’t the case anymore.

We can eat anytime we want. Lewis Howes emphasized that in a Podcast Interview.

This world of abundance harms our physical health and our financial health. A survey shows that about 250 USD are thrown away each year per person.

Another study shows that about 1,600 USD are thrown away per family.

A rough calculation shows that putting this 1,600 USD in an S&P 500 ETF could result in about 700,000 USD after 40 years. Enough for a retirement.

How you can throw less food away and save money:

Shopping list: A real game-changer for me was making a shopping list before grocery shopping. The key was to do it after a solid breakfast. There is nothing worse than going shopping hungry.

A real game-changer for me was making a shopping list before grocery shopping. The key was to do it after a solid breakfast. There is nothing worse than going shopping hungry. Be true to yourself: Observe your eating habits. Figure out what you really eat and what goes into the waste uneaten. It’s a habit. Please write it down in a diary.

Observe your eating habits. Figure out what you really eat and what goes into the waste uneaten. It’s a habit. Please write it down in a diary. Shopping schedule: Empty your fridge. Unless the fridge is empty, don’t go grocery shopping. I realized when I am hungry; I eat whatever is in the fridge.

Empty your fridge. Unless the fridge is empty, don’t go grocery shopping. I realized when I am hungry; I eat whatever is in the fridge. Time limit: I have set myself a time limit for eating. After 9 pm, I do not currently eat. And I start eating after I am done with running and a shower. The first thing I realized — I eat less food and need to buy less.

Binge Watching — Cable TV or Streaming

Isn’t it lovely to have a romantic evening with your significant other watching a movie? For decades I have regretted that there are only so few “Video on demand” options.

In the 90s, when my partner and I wanted to watch a particular movie, we had to go to a video rental store. The blockbuster movies were mostly rented out. We had to plan.

The typical movie night looked like:

We agreed on a specific evening.

We planned everything around this evening.

Either we had to buy the movie in a story, which cost about 15 USD back then.

Or we had to reserve it in a rental shop.

We prepared food and a bottle of wine.

And finally watched a movie from the beginning to the end.

As Netflix came to Europe, I celebrated. Gone were the days of day-long preparations. At least we could watch a movie anytime we wanted.

Netflix has a huge library of movies to watch. Apple TV offered a similar service. We could rent for a small amount every movie we wanted to see. In the beginning, the Netflix Europe library was almost empty. Amazon Prime had a similar service.

The thing is, the movie nights with partner or friends changed slightly. The evening was planned, but we disagreed on a movie. Why?

Because every movie is available anytime now, these days, we sit in front of the television and browse through the library. Once we decided on a movie — FOMO (fear of missing out) hit, switch to another one. And the game begins.

The second habit I am aware of is binge-watching—especially series. In the 90s, every week a new episode came to the TV stations. No entire series with all seasons hit the streaming services in a minute.

On top of that, the small monthly fees sum up. Netflix started really cheap and tripled the price within a few years. Due to FOMO, many people didn’t cut the cable cord. Got Amazon Prime subscription on top of it, and another Apple plus subscription and Disney plus for the kids.

And in no time, the subscription fees some up to 100–200 USD per month. And mostly we do not use the offer and the abundance of movies in the libraries.

How can you cut on these expenses?

Cancel all subscriptions now

If you really love movies, keep one only to feed your habit.

And at least watch movies in foreign languages. Use it to learn new languages.

It will save you a lot of time and money.

Drinking — Starbucks and Alcohol

I love spending evenings with friends. Chatting about how to improve the world. After all, we are still the young boys who believe in changing the world for the better. Being a creator.

Even though we already had our share of losses, failures, and defeats. We stand up again and carry on.

Such evenings — it’s great to celebrate them like a feast — delicious food and fine wine.

Celebrating such night outs mean, they do not happen every evening. Those are special joyful evenings, once in a while. That’s what makes them special and memorable.

I know people — friends and clients — who love to go out and have conversations every evening. It’s fine as long as they are aware of the expenses. It’s fine if they do not worry about all the money they spend.

I once sat down and calculated the expenses of the lifestyle. A bottle of fine wine is somewhere between 30–50 Euros in a bar. Even sharing a bottle with a friend means 15–25 Euros. Making this a daily habit means 600 EUR/USD per month.

The thing is -it is socially fully accepted. Our society has the habit of drinking a bottle of wine every day fully accepted.

I decided that having conversations is best done during the day. The result of that thought process was a podcast to which I invite my business partners to chat with me about life science, business, and philosophy.