Ways You Are Throwing Away Your Money

Do you constantly find yourself trying to make ends meet? Are you forever running out of money at the end of every month? Do you cry yourself to sleep each night because you can't pay all your bills? Well, clearly that is your own fault, but by making some of these subtle (and extremely obvious) changes, your financial situation can be fixed in no time. You must be throwing your money away!

Did you know new "helpful" articles appear all over the internet everyday to tell you how to save money? As a matter of fact, you are reading one right now! Gasp! What an amazing coincidence. You are probably just wasting your money on silly things, but I will help you figure this all out.

I know this might sound crazy, but did you know Starbucks is really expensive? How shocking! I've read several articles recently informing me that buying Starbucks coffee is really my downfall.

Apparently, some of you folks out there are buying Starbucks coffee everyday, and I take it from reading these articles, you've never once even considered the price. It seems as if you are not even aware that you pay for Starbucks at all. You just hand over a card, a cashier swipes it, and wham... you are out of 5 bucks a pop.

Oh yes, I said it. Many of the coffees at Starbucks are $5 per drink. Yep. If you go there 7 days a week, you are paying roughly $35 a week. Since we are all apparently unable to do the math in these situations, I am happy to help you, my dear readers.

Of course, I know what you are thinking, "Jeannie, I am so poor I already do not buy Starbucks coffee. Please give me other tips." Well, I had assumed based on these other articles everyone bought Starbucks coffee and merely suggesting no longer drinking coffee would solve all problems, but I am happy to give other ideas.

So in case you did not know, if you are not paying down your credit card balance each month, you are probably paying a lot in interest. Why yes, credit cards often charge interest and some even have monthly fees!

My best suggestion for you is simply never have credit cards or just pay those annoying balances off in full immediately. I know you are having a tough time making ends meet, but surely you have the extra hundreds or thousands of dollars to completely pay off all your credit cards right this instant.

I do realize you probably went into debt in the first place because you were not making ends meet, and that is why you needed the credit cards... but surely you must be able to find the money to pay off all those bills now. At least, according to all the articles I read, it just makes sense to go without food and possibly just live on the streets so you can pay off those pesky credit cards once and for all.

Food is expensive, so why are you buying so much of it? Food is just another example of throwing your money away. Let me explain.

If you stock up on food, it is likely you will have to throw some of it out if it goes bad. So therefore, you should only buy exactly how much you need so you can save money....

But wait! I thought I was supposed to buy food in bulk to save money. So now I need to make sure to not buy in bulk so I don't waste food. Well, OK, I guess I can just have only what I need on hand, and attempt to predict each meal and when I might get hungry...

But wait! What if I go to my cabinets and they are totally empty because I stopped stocking up on food, but I don't have time to buy more? I guess I have to order takeout food....

But wait! It is so expensive to order takeout food. Then I have to tip the driver, too. I would save more money if I just had food at my own home, but I am not supposed to do that anymore because some of the food goes to waste and throwing it out is bad.

What am I supposed to do? I guess sitting around starving and wishing I had food is the only way to really solve this dilemma. No need to just throw my money and food away anymore!

How dare you pay for cable and internet? If you are reading this hub, obviously you are in debt or totally broke or in some other type of terrible financial situation. Do you really think you deserve cable and internet at the same time? Shame on you!

Sure you are trapped at home during your free time (which you probably don't have since you likely work more than one job or overtime just to pay down your debt which you are not allowed to have in the first place) since you can't afford to go out anymore. The last thing you deserve is something to keep you entertained. You'd better get some books from the library to read by candlelight at home, and use the free internet connection at the library while you are at it.

You might be concerned that using WiFi or public computers can be dangerous. After all, identity theft is a serious issue. Don't worry about it! With the credit you are likely to have since you are still reading this hub, no one is going to steal your identity anyway. And if they do, they will surely give it back to you.

If you have a car, you are probably paying too much for it. Or at least that is what I gather from these articles. You are overspending on:

• Gas
• Insurance
• Repairs
• That Yankee Candle air freshener dangling from the mirror...

Why are you paying so much for a silly vehicle just to get to your job or stores? How about you give up that car and just walk? Forget about ever picking up a couch at IKEA or anything like that... but hey, you can't afford a couch anyway!

If you have a retirement plan, a 401K, or savings plan, good for you! After all, it is going to be pretty expensive to retire one day. Any of your retirement money should strictly be used just for retiring.

Unfortunately, we live in a difficult economy, so some of us are not able to save our money for retirement. It is kind of difficult to focus on saving for retirement if you can't afford to pay your bills today. You see, you must actually survive long enough to make it to retirement in order to really worry about having that extra money. That means eating food and having shelter today.

In some cases, despite our best effort, we have to dip into our retirement funds to pay rent, pay bills, or pay for an unexpected expense. No one wants to do that, but many of us must do that. I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty silly waiting years to cash out on my 401K while living in an alley behind 7-Eleven.

Wow, this hub sounds a tad bitter, doesn't it? I suppose my frustration is constantly stumbling upon articles giving advice that most of us already know. (Some of which I may have written myself a time or two!) Sure, I know there are people out there that are still searching for basic articles on how to save money, and perhaps they genuinely never considered the cost of a Starbucks coffee. But what about those of us that gave up on Starbucks coffee years ago?

I want to read the article that helps me. I want an article out there about a person who already does not own a car, walks to work each day because she can't afford public transportation, and lives check to check while still working full-time and doing freelance work. How do you save money when this is nothing left to give up? Where is that article? If you find one, please send it my way because that is the article that might actually help me out.

Oh, and make sure to send me a huge check so I can pay off all this debt that, according to other articles, I am not allowed to have in the first place.

Copyright ©2013 Jeannieinabottle