I have made more money mistakes then I care to think about. Sometimes this blog is more about learning what NOT to do than good ideas for saving and generating money. I wrote a few of the worst decisions and a few of the good ones down at work today. I have wasted a lot of money.
Let me start with a few good things I do.
- I drink tap water
- I am maximizing my credit card rewards/points and still paying my cards off monthly
- I don’t use my clothes dryer or the dry function on my dishwasher
- I don’t water my grass because my city charges for every drop of water.
That was a very short list and it should be shorter by 1. I don’t water my lawn because the more you water the more you have to cut it. It is not a decision I have made to save money.
This is the 1 thing I do that saves me a lot of money but if you do it you could go BLIND!
- I wear my daily wear contacts for more than 1 day. Sometimes I wear them for a week.
The contact lens manufacturers and my optometrist strongly advise against it.
Things I do that wasted money. You can learn from my mistakes.
- ignoring funny brake noises on my car leading to a costly repair
- fast food
- making home-made detergent – lots of work, not much savings
- pizza delivery
- buying shoes that were a tiny bit snug and thinking they would stretch
- buying shares in Shopper’s Drug Mart
- take out suppers
- fixing the screw holes in my kitchen ceiling myself and making it worse
- letting the carpenter who installed my shower stall do the plumbing as well (slow, costly leak)
- drive through dinners
- not quitting my last, lower paying unsatisfying job sooner
If you can learn from my mistakes that would be good. If I can learn from my mistakes that would be great.
Side Hustle Update
I have a great idea for a small business but I am not qualified to run it. Seniors must complete confusing health care forms in order to purchase out of country health care insurance. Lots of stories in the news of seniors being denied payment for out of country health care claims because of errors in the way they completed the forms. I do not think that most seniors are fraudulent but many seem to have trouble with the required paperwork. Feel free to start this as your own business but be sure that you are qualified and have lots of liability insurance. If the form is completed incorrectly the seniors may come after you to compensate them for the denied insurance claims.
January No Spend Update
The money is all gone. I spent the last $17.00 for gas so there is just a bunch of change remaining. There is enough food in the house if I can keep away from my debit and credit cards and not lose my own challenge. I have the Amex cheque for just under $9.00 to spend on milk at Costco.
I will have to rely on the frozen fruit and vegetables in the little freezer on top of my fridge because I will need the change from the milk purchase to buy a smallish bag of dog food. Dog food will come before people food. The dogs didn’t mess up the challenge I did. I will have to use any extra change to put gas in the car. I will be the person ahead of you at the gas bar counting out quarters and dimes and making you wait.
I still have lots of toilet tissue.
I’m sure I do plenty of “bad” things too. Last night I went out with some girlfriends and ended up spending more than I’d planned. I also forgot to budget for grooming for our dog, so that will set me back in February’s budget. Right now I’m wearing glasses because my eyes are so dry, but I also probably wear my monthlies for a month and a half.
I am done with fast food (for the rest of January) and I will set a budget for weekly junk and work very hard at not going over that amount.
The daily contacts are best for me. I am very clumsy and I tend to drop or rip the lenses. I don’t feel so badly about wrecking one because they are so inexpensive.
Those snug shoes could be fixed with a $30 contraption you can keep forever from Moneyworth’s or a similar shoe repair store.
I bought slightly snug (BEAUTIFUL LEATHER) shoes for $150 from a thrift store, I put the shoe stretching contraption in there and now they’re amazing and very comfortable.
I do other stupid things like not wait 5 hours and made a mistake which ended up costing me $300 in fixing said mistake.
I put on a thick athletic sock and wore the tight shoes around the house but they just wouldn’t give. I still have the shoes but I don’t know why. I think feet grow as we age and I doubt if they will ever fit.
Maybe I keep them to remind me of the waste.