Money can be hard to come by these days. There’s often no room for error or waste.
A global study from 2014 showed that only 33% of adults were financially literate. The study measured the individuals understanding of basic numeracy, interest compounding,
inflation, and risk diversification.
With only a small percentage of the population able to understand 3 out of 4 of these concepts, there are a lot of ways people can waste money.
So we went to AskReddit to learn about the biggest wastes of money so we don’t make the same mistakes.
Redditor Animeking1108 asked:
“What is the most expensive waste of money?”
Get your note pads ready!
Scams around water.
“Designer water.” – invalidpassword
“Voss, Fiji etc.” – SnooPoems5454
“Voss has a good quality bottle. Buy it once then refill it from the tap for 6 months.” – Dr_D-R-E
“Smart water bottles are popular with backpackers for a similar reason. Thin, durable and lightweight.” – sctbct
“Or structured water.” – VattghernCZ
Phone psychics.
“My ex-girlfriend had an obsession with phone psychics. Not all at once, but over the course of a single year she spent over $15k getting ‘life advice’ from multiple psychic lines.”
“No one in her circle of family or friends could convince her to stop. I haven’t spoken with her in a few years but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still wasting her money on them.” – Hollywood899
“Haha my friend used to be a phone psychic and she got paiiiiid. She said the people who typically called would obviously want to hear her say certain things so she would say them and they’d just keep calling.” – wasabitamale
“She spent at least 41 dollars per day in psychics. Wow. Why not just learn magic herself at thst point?” – Yokhen
Forgotten on the train.
“Well, I bought some Christmas presents and then immediately forgot them on the train so I would say that lol. I went back the next day and literally bought the same stuff. I just hope whoever found it either needed it or uses it for their own gifts.” – FluffDuckling
“I bought Chanel glasses once and left them in a taxi before ever putting them on my stupid face.” – northshorebunny
“I forgot sh*t I purchased once in the cart when I got to my car. I didn’t take anything out.” – IronyIntended2
A mobile app.
“The I’m Rich app. When launched, the screen only contains a glowing red gem and an icon.”
“It cost $999.99. You can’t buy it anymore but it was an expensive waste of money.” – GonnaGoFat
“The guy did it as a joke too and people bought it thinking that no one would actually dump thousands on an app.”
“This message brought to you by [mobile app]. Use my code and save 5% on the $999.99 Christmas beginner package.” – PM-Me-Your-TitsPlz
“I feel like he could probably sell the NFT for that app.” – runawaycity2000
Shopping while hungry.
“Shopping when I’m hungry.” – thatluckyfox
“Lol oh yeah, go shopping for sponges and come out with $50 worth of junk food. Stopping at McDonald’s for fries beforehand has saved me so much money.” – Slight-Ad-1744
Cable is dying.
“Cable service, especially since half the channels are f* cking ads.” – Firebolt164
I was paying for YouTube TV for a while and then realized sh*t, I’m paying $65 a month for this and have a sh*t load of commercials. I could take that $65 a month and subscribe to the ad free versions of Paramount +, Disney +, Peacock, HBO Max, and Discovery + get all the same channels and have no ads.”
“TV service is f*cking insane.” – CrowGrandFather
“It’s even worse for us. We live out in the country 15 miles from the nearest town. Other only tv or internet service available is Satellite. We have Hughes net and Direct TV as the players. We have satellite internet and we had their TV service. It was atrocious. First, the 5 second lag between changing channels made channel surfing impossible. Second, they advertised a 200 channel package and we had 35 actual channels with content. The rest were all infomercials or music channels. We need to f*cking sue them for that ad practice.” – Firebolt164
Gender reveal party.
“A gender reveal party that burns down half of the state?” – wickedblight
“It really sucks that half of California is on fire but hey it’s a boy!” – DogsAreCool69420
“Too many people have tried to go all out for their gender reveal parties, and end up burning their house down, at the very least. Don’t understand it myself really. They already have baby showers. Just reveal the gender there. Why withhold what parts your child will be born with from friends and family to make a party out of something everyone is going to find out eventually anyway?” – Unabashable
“It’s very self indulgent. People act like they’re withholding information that you’d just die to hear when they make you wait for a gender reveal party. I’m happy for them but I couldn’t care less about the sex . My aunt asked me if I ever had kids what would I do for a gender reveal party. I did not mince my words: ‘I will take out my phone, find the family group chat and be like ‘what’s up fam! By the way it’s a boy. Now who’s up for painting the nursery?’” – blonderazor
What is it good for?
“War. Having a sworn enemy is expensive.” – theProfileGuy
“Did you know the war in Afghanistan cost the USA $300 million per day for two decades?
“Insanity.” – PM_ME_AYY_LMAOS
“Only expensive to the taxpayer and the ones fighting it. Profitable for everyone else involved.” – roundbrain5
“But free healthcare would be a waste of money?” – New_Needleworker6506
Payday loans.
“Payday loans. Is that still a thing?” – kincage
“Oh man I know this one. My dad lost his cushy a** job and had to take a massive pay cut so with all his expenses he’s on payday loan from A to pay back B to get more cash to pay off C and it goes on and on. My grandma always said my dad borrows from Peter to pay Paul. I’m not quite sure who those people are but it sounds right to me. Poor guy is still on that track almost 20 years later.” – PretendThisIsMyName
“I let them ruin my life. You think by the looks of things I must have had a serious drug problem to skid into the curb like I did, but no, it was predatory/payday loans. I got caught in cycle of bad credit and low liquidity. And worst of all, I believed it was ok. I’m nearing retirement age and it’s sad to think that if I hadn’t gotten on that treadmill, I could have done twice as much with my life than I did.” – NoPensForSheila
Being poor.
“Being poor is expensive as f@#k!” – Sterling_Thunder
“Yup, in many ways. One that I forgot about until recently was how much food budget is saved when one has a good fridge. I am currently in a temporary living space that has bottom of the line appliances. The fridge, while it keeps things cold, nothing lasts! I bought a weeks worth of veggies and by day two, the carrots in the crisper were no longer crisp. The second day! Poor people have challenges getting good fresh food but then it can go bad quickly even with working appliances.” – GorginaSpica
“Aka ‘the boots theory of socio-economic unfairness.’” – 84147
There are so many ways to make financial errors that lead down a rabbit hole.
Whether it’s the small moments like forgetfulness, or the big moments, like taking out loans that you can’t pay back, those mistakes can add up.
The cycle of poverty is incredibly difficult to break.
It’s not just about finding ways to reduce money waste for the individual, but the systemic and community based solutions that break generational poverty.
Though, this list is a start.