What convenience saves you on time and effort, it wastes tenfold on money. If you’re trying to save money, target choices you make out of convenience. By cutting the following three spending habits out of your budget, you could free up a lot of cash.
1. Putting it on Credit When You Have No Cash Life’s Convenience
A credit card is one of the many conveniences of the modern world. This piece of plastic taps into a credit limit that’s often worth far more than what you would feel comfortable carrying around in cash.
With a tap of your card, you can take care of your online shopping list or cover an unexpected expense. But on the flip side, the convenience of this payment method can encourage you to spend your money on last-minute, unplanned things you don’t need.
If you aren’t careful, you can wrack up a big balance you can’t pay off all at once.
Any time you carry over a balance into another billing period, you’ll have to pay more interest and finance charges. You’ll also tie up a portion of your limit until you pay off what you owe, which could mean you don’t have enough space to cover an unexpected expense.
While you might have another line of credit or personal loan to handle these surprise expenses, keeping your credit card free is easier in the long run. A financial institution like MoneyKey provides fast applications for online personal loans, but nothing is as fast as using an existing credit card or line of credit you already own.
The online personal loan experts at MoneyKey recommend you only ever borrow money when you have the money to pay off what you owe. This applies to your credit card, too. If you can’t pay off a purchase in full by the next due date, consider waiting until you save up that cash for fun splurges.
2. Hailing a Ride Instead of Taking Transit Life Convenience
When getting home from work involves taking a bus to the subway to another bus stop, ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber offer a more direct, faster way home. You can skip the inconvenience of public transit with just a tap of your finger.
Hailing your very own personal driver on special occasions won’t make or break your budget, but it can leave an impact if you get an Uber several times a week.
Each trip adds up, and since these apps sync up to your credit card, you won’t even feel the pain of the charge until it’s too late. That’s how most people who use ride-sharing apps spend, on average, more than $4,000 a year on trips.
Keep this in mind the next time you feel like hailing a ride. If you’re on a tight budget, sticking to your usual commute on public transit is the cheaper option.
3. Ordering Takeout Instead of Making Food at Home
After a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is spend time in the kitchen cooking over a hot stove. So, you do what many busy people do — you pick up a burger or curry on the way home.
Takeout, dining in, and meal kit subscription meals are more convenient when you’re hungry and tired, but they cost more per serving than meals cooked from scratch.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spends $3,000 on dining out. Even cutting how often you eat out in half could deliver some serious savings.
Cut Conveniences to Cut Costs
Think twice before you order takeout, hail a ride, or splurge on credit. These small decisions can wind up costing you the big bucks.
