We all waste money one way or another.  I thought I’d list some ways I waste money.  The list was actually pretty hard to come up with because I am very careful how we spend out money.  But I’m sure I could come up with a few more.

  1. Driver too fast - I like to drive fast.  I try to keep my speed to 75 mph or lower but this still eats up a lot of gas.  At least I’ve only received 2 speeding tickets since I started driving.  Speeding tickets can cost a fortune in some counties in California.
  2. Eat lunches out - I don’t like taking a lunch with me to work so I frequently eat out.  I can get a decent lunch for about $5 but it still adds up. 
  3. Long commute - I drive 48 miles to work.  That’s 96 miles of driving every day I go into the office.  With my old Saturn SL1 this takes abut 3 gallons of gas to make the round trip.  This means I have to fill up my gas tank every 3 trips to work.  OUCH!!! is all I can say with the current gas prices. 
  4. Pay for oil changes- I’m a computer programmer not an auto mechanic.  I ‘ve tried doing my own car repairs before with OK results but I do not like to.  Over time I’ve developed a rather strong dislike to working on cars so I am usually quit happy to pay someone else to do the work for me.
  5. Pay for cable TV - I watch TV maybe 30 minutes a day but I still pay for cable TV.  I just get the basic and extended service.  Its nothing fancy but it still expensive.  I just like the variety of channels, the convenience of all the shows available, and clear picture quality. 
  6. Buying new cars- The last 2 cars we bought were new cars.  At the time I actually thought I was saving money.  We did our homework on the cars and got real good deals on both of them.  We didn’t even consider a used car at the time.  When someone would mention a used car all we thought about was 15 year beater cars that cost $2,000 a year in maintenance cost to keep running.  We know better now and can thank many financial bloggers for helping to set us straight.
  7. Eating ice cream - My who family loves ice cream.  Every month we go through about 2 gallons of ice cream.  It doesn’t matter whether its hot or cold outside.  We’d eat even more but we set a limit on how much we buy and when we buy it.  We get 2 gallons at the beginning of month and can’t buy any more until the next month.
  8. Drink soda and juice instead of water- We keep some soda and juice around to have with meals.  With 4 people we can easily go through a full bottle or more in a day. 
  9. Don’t exercise enough - Not exercising enough can lead to increased medical problems and bills.  My work is very demanding at times and not exercising enough has lead to a decrease in my bodies ability to handle stress.  Over the last several years I’ve had medical issues at times when my work and life was the most demanding. 
  10. Have a computer for everyone in the family - My whole family loves computers.  We spend much of our free time in front of one reading news, playing games, blogging, working, and just goofing off.  Each computers sucks up a lot of electricity which can significantly to our monthly electric bill. 

Tomorrow I’ll put up a list of some ways I save money.  See my post 12 Ways I Save Money.