It’s almost the end of another month and you check your bank account only to find out that your funds are going on the decline, worse even, it’s becoming a trend that you can’t seem to figure out for several months already.
Even before you go beyond the negative mark on your funds, you need to figure out what is mysteriously draining your hard-earned money in the bank, and hopefully, devise a plan to increase your savings for other more important things such as planning for your next travel vacation or holiday with your family. In this post, we share some of the things you may be unknowingly losing your money to:
3 Expenditures You May Be Losing Your Money from Every Month Without Realizing It
1. Online and Offline Paid Subscriptions
With the help of the Internet, it’s become so much easy to get and sign up for subscriptions that you may (or may not) remember to have. As most companies would typically ask for your credit card information to let you sign up for a “free trial”, it’s also easy to fall into the trap of accumulating your fees over time through monthly services you might not realize you had all along.
The best thing to go about this is to regularly review your credit card transactions to identify expenses which you may have “accidentally” or “unintentionally” have signed up for. Once you identify these services (i.e. Spotify, Netflix, Office360 etc.), you can immediately contact your provider(s) and ask to cancel your subscription immediately and not missing the chance to request for a refund it not much time has passed since your first subscription date.
2. Coffee Money
For many working individuals, coffee is the fuel that revs up their engine to get started for the day. It keeps us afloat and on top of our game when our boss throws us that impossibly close deadline requiring us to work long hours in the office, or even at home, just to be able to deliver.
However, what many of us do not realize is that coffee has become a go-to expense which we don’t put much thought into anymore as it is very easy to integrate it into our system as a mindless habit. Imagine, you head your way for the office early in the morning when you’re still half asleep and you get that cup of coffee at, say, Starbucks then after lunch, you do the same thing to get you through the dragging hours in the afternoon.
As the high we get from drinking coffee is simply temporary, it’s best to do some other things that can get you pumped up without hurting your budget on a daily basis. Like, for example, doing a 10-15 minute basic exercise like walking or going up the stairs to get your adrenaline and stamina up. This has far more lasting effects to your health, and it’s a habit that won’t cost you a single penny.
3. Money people owe you when you pay for the group.
This is an all-too familiar situation whenever you and your friends go out together. When someone flashes a credit card to pay for his/her own expenses, other people in the group may volunteer that everyone else pay the person with the credit card for their share of expenses to make it simple and faster for the cashier to process.
However, while this may be ideal for the group (and the cashier), the one with the credit card usually has it the worst only because when people promise to pay him/her for their share but do not do it right away, eventually it becomes an added expense which the concerned person may eventually have to shoulder on his/her own, simply because people who owe you money can give you a thousand reasons in a heartbeat as to why they can’t pay you at the moment, that is if they don’t vanish from the face of the Earth altogether.
So, if that’s you (unfortunately), we just described taking the short end of the stick, then you may want to clarify to people in the group that you are only paying for your share with your credit card because if they can pay for something when they go out, they should be able to give you or the cashier their share right then and there. Just remember to communicate these things openly and tactfully so as not to send the wrong message to the group.