13 Things You SHOULDN'T Buy so You Can Save Money

You probably clicked this video because your finances feel fickle and saving money is just really hard to do. For whatever reason, you need some inspo or someone to tell you what not to buy to get you into gear. And that's why I made this video. All right, my friend, I'm here to tell you exactly what you should not be buying in order to save money. Save for that vacation, save for that new car, save for the emergency funds, save to, I don't know, get out of debt. We need to stop spending money on things. And here are 13 items, 13 things that'll help you reign it all in. Starting with number one, subscriptions that you aren't using. There are so many subscriptions out there that people just put on autopay and then they forget about, and then they're not actually utilizing those services. So you can use an app like Rocket Money that will link up to all of your transactions and collect all of your subscriptions into one spot. You can even pay Rocket Money to cancel your subscriptions on your behalf. If you are time strapped, otherwise plan to book some time on your calendar in order to cancel those subscriptions and save yourself some dough. Number two, food delivery services. I'm talking Uber Eats, DoorDash, Instacart. Don't be lazy. Go get it yourself. There are so many fees strapped to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart. I'm not talking about just the delivery fee, but did you know there's a service fee? Yeah, there's a service fee to use their app on top of taxes, on top of tipping your driver. There are so many fees when it comes to food delivery services. So just get off the couch, get in the car. Better yet, on your way home from work, just go ahead and place that mobile order and then go pick it up. It's going to save yourself some money. Number three, daily Starbucks or just multiple coffee shop outings in the week. With specialty drinks averaging around $5 to $6 a piece, this is an easy one to nix in order to save some money, but I hear you. You're like, fancy coffee drinks on my way to work is how I live. Okay, I get it. Here's what you do. And here's what I do to help me avoid being in the coffee shop all the time. I like to buy specialty syrups from Marshall's. So they're like $5 for the big Tarani. Is it Tarani bottles? You know what I'm talking about? The hazelnut vanilla syrups are just so good. And they make you feel like you're having a specialty coffee drink, but you actually made it at home. Get those. That's going to help you save some money and help stretch out kind of that coffee fix for you. Also, I love using at home cold brew coffee makers. This is an easy one to just buy once and use over and over again. And it gives you that cold brew effect at home without paying for it every single time. Number four, house cleaners. If you have debt and you lack savings, you cannot afford to put a house cleaner on payroll. Think about the cost involved when it comes to house cleaning. Now, rates can vary depending on frequency of cleaning and how large your house is. But you can pay anywhere between $200 and $500 per clean on house cleaning services. So what you're going to do is you're going to DIY. You're going to do this yourself. I highly recommend that you pick up my friend Callie Brant supports cleaner person in 30 days workbook. This workbook kind of outlines how to tidy up your home clean up your home without it costing you a lot of time. I'm talking like 10 minute blocks of time where you can tidy up your home and be much more efficient and save you a lot of money so that you can put it towards bigger financial goals. Number five beauty enhancements or salon treatments. I'm talking full lash sets, lash extensions, powdered brows, laser hair removal, salon colored treatments, haircuts. Am I missing anything like anything that's tied to beauty that you're paying for? Like that should absolutely be put aside in order to save money. Now you can think about temporarily reducing or maybe extending time in between your treatments. If you're like, I really cannot give up getting my nails done. Please just extend, go, go past the normal, the normal time that you usually do because it's so expensive right now to do all of these beauty enhancements. That's exactly why I ended up switching to an at home hair coloring service called Madison Reed. So when I was going into the salon to get my hair colored, a full color was $80 just to do one color. When I was doing balayage, that was like 200 plus and that was six years ago. I can't imagine what the costs are now. So when I switched to the at home hair coloring kits, now I'm paying a, I think it's between 30 and $35. It depends cause sometimes I will talk about it and get like referral links for it. But Madison Reed, I'm telling you is one to check out if you want to color your hair and do it. That is very affordable and still have it look nice. Think about how you could do those beauty enhancement treatments, but do it in a very budget friendly way. Number six, multiple quantities of items. I'm talking lotions, tops, multiple sandals of the same color, but different straps. You only, you know, you only have one or two go-to favorites that you're constantly wearing again and again. And I'm sure you've seen this photo floating around the internet with all of the shower gels and shampoos and body scrubs. I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous. This is over consumerism to a tee. You do not need this many product for your shower. Stick to your one, one or two go-to favorites and then skip out on the rest. You need to be using up all you have before you buy a replacement. Number seven, full priced meals. I'm a foodie. I love going out to eat. I hate paying full prices for full meals. So here's what you do. You hit up every single local happy hour in your area. What happens during happy hour, you get half price drinks, you get discounted drinks, you get discounted appetizers, pick three to four appetizers, and that's your meal. You fill up on that. Now the catch is you do have to go early. Oftentimes the happy hours are between like three to six, four to six, three to five, whatever. So if you can swing it and make those happy hour times early, I'd say it's a win-win because you're paying less, you're getting more, you're skipping the whole like waiting for a table. So I think this is a really great hack to still get that foodie experience without paying full price. Number eight, seasonal decor. This can get really expensive and I'm not talking about just Halloween and Christmas. I'm talking about literally seasonal items that are tied to the seasons. Summer welcome mats, the candle that smells like fall, you get the picture. Anytime that you're buying seasonal decor can really add up and it's costing you a lot of money. So just skip the, skip the seasons, skip the seasonal decor altogether. Number nine, a car, new or used. The cheapest car to drive is the one you already own. Okay. When you are keeping up with regular maintenance, that is how you extend the life of your car. Now, if we're talking about a blown head gas or you're having transmission issues, then I can totally justify spending money on a car, but getting on another car payment is not the answer to saving money. The answer is keeping up on regular maintenance checks for your vehicle by taking it into the shop. So many people are quick to think as soon as a repair is needed or as soon as something happens, a check engine light pops up on their car. Oh my God, I got to get a new one. No, you just need to go check the engine, make the repair. A one-time $500 repair is a much cheaper than a $500 ongoing monthly car payment for the next three to four years. Think about it. Number 10 credit cards with annual fees. I'm a huge advocate for taking advantage of credit cards and their credit card rewards program, but I do not want it to be an added expense for you. Take a look at your credit cards by logging into your accounts and see which ones have annual fees better yet switch to a credit card that has no annual fees. I'm talking about cards like the chase freedom card that has a really good cashback rewards program tied to it without an annual fee. If you've got cards with big annual feeds, cancel them. Number 11, long care and pest control. I've seen this item on a lot of people's budgets, and this is one that you can absolutely DIY. Kyle and I like using home defense to spray for bugs. We have bait traps to set out for rodents saving us $690 annually. This is one that you can absolutely take advantage of. If you are paying for a lawn care treatment to treat your lawn for mosquitoes, guess what? I have a hack for you where you take a bucket, you fill it with water, sticks and leaves. You put a mosquito dunk in it that you can buy on Amazon or your local home and garden shop. And it's going to help keep your lawn free of mosquitoes. Kyle and I just did this and we have yet to find a mosquito out in our backyard. Also a lawn care service is not mandatory. It's a luxury. Just mow your own damn lawn. Number 12, new furniture. If you want to save money, buying new furniture is something that you should avoid. Now, if you're really in the marketplace for buying something, shop Facebook marketplace. This is one where Kyle and I have found a lot of really amazing deals. In fact, the desk that I'm using right now, we found on marketplace, we've picked up coffee tables, we've picked up leather chairs, we've picked up a ton of stuff using marketplace and not paying full price. Number 13 kitchen gadgets. I mean, really, how often are you using that meat mallet? What about the Instapot collecting dust? I mean, think about all the little gadgets and gizmos that are single use items. Really? This is one that you should be avoiding because it's just collecting more and more space. And then you're purchasing for something that you're only using occasionally. It's just not worth it. Now tell me in the comments, was there anything that I missed in terms of things that you should not be buying that would save you money? Tell me in the comments and I'll catch you in the next video.