Do you have gift cards in your wallet? Do you have unused items in your home? Do you need instant gratification when you go shopping? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be making a money mistake and not even know it.
Most people recognize big money mistakes, for example not paying off your credit card or not having a savings plan. However, many people fail to recognize smaller money mistakes that are not uncommon to make.
Here are three little money mistakes that you may not realize are costing you big.
Not Using Your Gift Cards
Gift cards have become one of the most popular gifts for people to give. Whenever my birthday comes around, I end up with numerous gift cards to places like In-N-Out, Dominos, iTunes, and Jamba Juice. Sometimes I even get lucky with American Express or Visa gift cards. The catch with a lot of these cards? If you don’t use them within an allotted time span, the value of the card goes down because companies start deducting the amount on the card. Awhile back, I was shocked to find that one of my gift cards depreciated by $20 just because I hadn’t used it quickly enough. Now that $20 has to come out of my pocket if I want to make a purchase at that store. Major bummer. Let this happen to enough gift cards and it will end up costing you big time.
Not Taking Stuff Back
We all make purchases we never end up using. Some of us fail to return the purchase either because we put it in our closet and forget about it or we keep meaning to take it back but never get around to it. If you went through your closet, how many of your clothes would you find still have tags on them? Is everything in your house open and being used or are there things you bought that are sitting around unopened and unused? Here is my advice: every time you make a purchase, keep tabs on the item you bought. If you haven’t used it within a week or two of buying it, take it back. Don’t let it sit around unused. It’s a complete waste of your money.
Not Looking (or Waiting) For The Best Deal
Tons of people are guilty of this. We are going about our day and find something at our favorite store that we absolutely MUST have. So we buy it. We don’t check around to see if another store has it for a cheaper price. We don’t look to see if we can get it on Ebay or Amazon or Craigslist. We don’t wait a few days to see if it will go on sale. We just buy it. But why would you buy something without first seeing if you can find it for less? Yes, it takes a little more time to do your homework on something (which of course means you don’t get instant gratification), but if it saves you at least a few bucks, why not take a little extra time to make sure you are getting the best deal? Do your homework before you hit the grocery store to make sure you are getting the best deal on your favorite cereal. Wait to see if that cute shirt will go on sale within a few days (let’s face it, you don’t need to buy that shirt right now). Check craigslist and ebay to see if you can find that awesome iPod Touch for less than it retails for in the Apple Store. Or download any of the awesome apps listed at the bottom of this article to help you do your research on prices while you are out and about.
It is so easy to fall into the habit of doing these things. But every time you make one of these mistakes, it adds up and eventually costs you big. Don’t lose money, avoid making these mistakes!
Have any little money mistakes that cost people big that aren’t listed here? Please share them in the comments section!
