How to Trim the Waste, How to Save Money

When my friends got together once, I started a little topic of discussion - how to save money, and what the stupidest mistakes were that any of us ever made that had undone all we had done for quite some time to save a little. Here are some of the mistakes I heard everyone talking about; it helped me learn how to save money, listening to them. Maybe it could help you.

One of the best ways to put yourself in a financial hole is to invest in personal exercise equipment. One friend said she had invested $2500 in a home treadmill. It was in pursuit of keeping her commitments to a New Year's resolution to lose weight. After about two years with no use, the treadmill began to look really silly in her rec. room, and she gave it away. She then resolved that her next resolution would involve not buying silly home gym equipment. It turned out this was a very popular way in which to waste money. Every one of my friends had a really embarrassing gym equipment story. For one of my friends, her treadmill was a great way to entertain her sister's kids who came home to visit, nothing more. Whatever people may not know about how to save money, they amply make up for with creative insight into how to waste money. It turns out that with our problem with our weight, what we lack is not a way to lose weight; we lack the commitment. No amount of money is going to fix that. There were lots of friends who had wasted untold thousands of dollars on gym memberships they never used too.

Getting a car on lease was another big bummer. If you are thinking of how to save money, be sure to not take on a lease, they said. Lease contracts usually have specific mileages built into the arrangement. If you drive any longer than the agreement says, you pay them for each mile. Here's the thing that's supposed to tip you off that a lease isn't a good arrangement: if you see that you couldn't really afford the car if you had to pay for it to own outright, it is too much car for you. A friend of mine bought a lease, bled himself white paying for the mileage overages, and then got so fed up with it that he borrowed money to buy the car and get out of the lease. He ended up paying far more than he ever would have had he bought it outright in the first place. If you want to know how to save money, according to my friends, one of the best ways is to buy your car outright, and then to run it for at least 15 years.

Every one of my friends, and I too, have a cupboard full of clothes we no longer use because we don't like them. And yet, shopping for new clothes always seems like a good idea. If you wish to learn how to save money, try placing a moratorium on clothing shopping. You don't go out grocery shopping without a list, do you? Clothes are supposed to be utilitarian more or less, and we need to shop for them in just such a way. The clothes we buy for no reason and then discard a couple of years later usually end up clothing millions of people in the Third World though. And seen that way, this may be a good idea after all.

Owning a pet happens to be one of the most expensive things you can do; a large dog will usually cost you about $1500 a year to own. One friend of mine brought in a kitten that seems to be helpless on the street. There was furniture she ruined, treatment she needed for things she swallowed and so on. Of course, animal companionship can be a wonderful thing; but when you're thinking of how to save money, you might want to take a look at this as an activity to cut out.

One of the most emotional areas to deal with when it comes to saving money is lending to friends and family. Nearly every friend of mine noted how they had lent money to a cousin, a boyfriend, and never seen the money come back. And there wasn't any gratitude for added closeness either.