A Complete Guide on Which Objects are Slowly—Or Quickly—Draining Your Bank Account
Summer’s coming to an end, and with it, comes the exhausting yet necessary obligation to go back to reality. Work, early mornings, school, chores…But also saving money. Maybe for Christmas presents? Next year’s vacation? Most people think saving money means great sacrifices. If you stop to think about it, it’s just some expenses that you need to avoid or cut off. Don’t try to negotiate— treat those expenses like a toxic relationship. Just slam the door shut. Pick a few from the guide of objects to commit to and stop unnecessarily draining your bank account!
Buying name brands
Let’s be honest: can you actually taste the difference between Nutella and the Walmart or Tesco version? And if you can, is it really worth the 1 or 2 dollar difference that piles up at the end of your grocery store receipt each week? If it is, by all means, continue. But the name on the label is a very typical hidden cost we should at least be aware of.
Food delivery
Getting food in a restaurant is far more expensive than cooking it at home, let alone having it brought to you. Whether it’s UberEats, DoorDash or Glovo, the unnecessary extra you pay for a sandwich instead of crossing the street to buy one is mind-blowing. Yes, it’s practical when you’re tired, it’s freezing outside or you’re at an age where it’s harder to go out for your food. But if, let’s say, you’re watching a football match with your friends at your house, what’s stopping you from eating food you’ve previously bought at the grocery store or gas station?
Daily cup of coffee
For an average American, getting a cup of coffee on their day to work from Monday to Friday has a cost of about 1200 dollars every single year. Now, that may not be much, but it can be the difference between a standard hostel or a nicer room at a 4 star hotel for a weekend. What can you do instead? Buy a coffee-maker and carry it in a reusable bottle to work. The amount you will save will astonish you. I know what you’re thinking, but I love my Starbucks! Trust me, I do too, but I love my bank account more.
Airport food
They’re crazy if they think I’m going to spend 7 dollars on a Banana or 5 dollars on a pocket-sized bag of M&Ms. Studies show airport food is between 20 to 30 per cent more expensive than street-level equivalents. I’ve already paid a very expensive ticket for an economy seat on a plane, why should I increase that even further? We all know it’s unnecessary, but somehow we end up putting everything on the suitcase at the last minute and, when we reach the airport, we realise we forgot to pack food. This is why I always pack my suitcase the day before, and in the morning, I dedicate 5 minutes to making a sandwich or something similar that in the long run will save me hundreds of dollars.
Food waste
Not only is this terrible for the environment, as it’s responsible for 10 percent of global greenhouse emissions, but it slowly drains your bank account as well. In fact, according to the United States Protection Agency, ‘by throwing away less food, a family of four could save up to 56$ a week’. Multiply that by 52 and after a year, you’ll have saved 2912 dollars. Amazing, right? Think: how many times have you cooked too much and thrown the leftovers away? Or not planned meals ahead? Or not checked the expiration date at the grocery store? It’s not too late to follow this advice and become more financially independent as well as eco-friendly. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover some fancy recipes along the way.
That one brand new car
The second you drive the car out of the dealership its value has decreased and after its first year it’s worth 20 to 30 per cent less. The thing is, most people have sports cars, SUVs or trucks they can’t afford, and even if they wanted to sell them, they would get much less than what they paid for. My recommendation? Only buy a car once you can afford 10 cars. Live like the poor in order to live like the rich. Also, buy a car that’s basically new but has been used for a few years. For instance, the Toyota RAV4, an SUV, is 33, 000 dollars straight out of the dealership. But after 2 years, it’s about 26, 400, so you save 6,600 by buying the exact same product in exactly the same conditions, even if it isn’t as impressive. But really, who do you need to impress? If you need to have the latest car, bag, shampoo, etc. for your friends to respect you or like you, they’re not real friends. They’re fake. That’s something I can’t help you with.
Online courses
Most online courses offer you information that’s basically free on the internet. In my opinion, when people pay for those online courses they are buying the fantasy of a better version of themselves, not the content itself. But buying education is different to taking action. If you’re not going to do anything with the information you learnt apart from telling your next door neighbour during an incredibly long and awkward lift ride, why are you paying for it in the first place?
Alcohol and cigarettes
Everybody likes the occasional drink on a Friday night or at a special party. But for people who drink regularly, it’s more than that. According to the US Bureau of Statistics, the average household spends around 637 dollars annually on alcohol. That’s more than half the price for the iPhone 17 Pro Max! And as for cigarettes, why would you pay to ruin your health and smell bad? I’ve never understood it. Cigarettes are responsible for 20% of cancers and 80% of lung cancers and kill over 7 million people globally per year. If you smoke one pack a day (average price in the US at 10.15), you will spend 3,704.75 in just a year. That’s more than three iPhone 17s! So please, if you have to pick one out of all the lists on this article, prioritize this one. How many signs do you need to stop smoking?
Lottery and gambling
Americans spend more than 100 billion dollars on the lottery each year. As well as that, 57% of adults in America gambled in 2025, generating 79 billion dollars. Unsurprisingly, the most frequent lottery ticket buyers are poor and live by the fantasy of one day getting rich, which is highly improbable. But even if they did, it would be after they spent hundreds on other tickets, which reduces the reward overall. If they actually had an urge, a dream, a goal of becoming rich, they wouldn’t have spent their children’s education money, their car insurance money or skipped amazing vacations around the world just to buy a small piece of paper with a number and hold on to the small hope of one day winning because of luck and not real work. For example, they would’ve launched a company, just like I am helping you do by teaching you about business and economics.
Fast fashion
This one is tricky. Most people believe they are actually saving, but because the products are low quality, they don’t last long, which means they buy it all over again. In fact, the average American throws away 37 kilos of clothes per year. The key idea here is ‘buy nice, don’t buy twice’. Buying clothes that last, especially once you’re an adult and you’ve stopped growing, is of immense help if you want to save money or just reduce unnecessary costs.
Buying impulsively
Here’s the deal: if you use the 30 day rule, which means you wait 30 days since you see a product you like before buying it, you will ensure you are only buying things you actually want, and not something you momentarily like. This is very useful since the average American spends about 254 dollars a month on impulse purchases. Most of those items end up forgotten in the back of a closet, never to be seen again.
Unused subscriptions
Paying for subscriptions from streaming services to the gym that you are no longer using is one of the dumbest ways of wasting money. Here’s what you can do instead: each month, look at the list of subscriptions that you paid for, and underline the ones you actually used. For the ones you didn’t use, you have two options: one, use them the next month (if it’s the gym for example and you haven’t had time to go this month) or two, just cancel them. It may be 20 dollars off Netflix or Spotify, but it’s the small changes that matter.
Extended warranties
I recently read one quote that said, ‘we gotta learn how to save more money by spending less money’. It can be applied to all of the tips above, as well as this one. Extended warranties are usually a way that companies have to get you to continue paying even after you bought the product itself. Most of the time, it’s included in your credit card benefits (so it’s useless to pay extra when you already have it) or it’s even less expensive if you buy another identical product altogether. So next time they offer you an extended warranty at the shop, just decline politely and remember this article.
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