Image courtesy of cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Do you take good care of your money? Think about that question for a few minutes while I tell you a story.
My daughter went to an outdoor swimming pool over the weekend with a friend’s family. The weather was hot making it a perfect day to go swimming. Even though the pool was crowded, my daughter had a fantastic time.
Until she discovered that the $20 she brought with her was missing from her swim bag.
She wasn’t the only one that had lost money, either. Her friend’s mother had $40 stolen from her purse as well. Apparently, the group left all their belongings unattended at a table while everyone was in the pool for a period of time. My daughter was extremely lucky the $20 was all that was taken as her iPhone was also in that bag.
She had called us from the pool to tell us what had happened. When she returned home we had a discussion regarding never leaving your valuables unattended. We reminded her of our recent trip to Wisconsin Dells, and how we always had someone in our group sitting by our possessions or we got a locker to secure our stuff. By not caring for her possessions properly, the end result was her money being unnecessarily taken away from her.
On that day, my daughter did not take very good care of her money.
So, back to my question. Do YOU take good care of your money? By lack of taking action, would you ever allow someone to just take your money?
Do you not clip coupons to save money on groceries or household goods because you feel like it’s an inconvenience or not worth your time? You’re just letting retailers take more of your money for no reason.
Do you not adjust your thermostat to save energy costs when you’re leaving home for the day because it’s too much of a hassle to remember to press a few buttons? You could just as well visit the office of your local utility company each month, drop a couple of twenties on the floor, and walk out.
Do you not price compare when shopping for a major item just because you can afford it? Not shopping for a better price just because you have the financial means to pay a higher price doesn’t make any sense.
Do you have the biggest cable package but only watch House Hunters marathons on HGTV? Do you even know if you utilize your entire cable package? Your cable provider doesn’t care, as long as you keep sending them a payment each month.
Do you refuse to use generic or store brand products because it’s just not cool? I hope you’re enjoying that fancy packaging, because in many cases that’s the only difference.
When was the last time you called your cell phone carrier to inquire about any plan packages you could take advantage of? Mobile phone providers change their pricing structure frequently, but they don’t necessarily tell you.
If any of the above, or anything similar, sound familiar to you then you are not taking good care of your money. Look, we all leave our money unattended at a crowded swimming pool every now and then. But we need to learn from our mistakes, and treat our hard earned money with the respect it deserves.
Don’t just give it away for no reason. Unless you want to give it to me, I promise to take great care of it for you. (wink, wink)
Have you witnessed someone seemingly just giving their money away for no reason? Have YOU done it?
I ask again, are you taking good care of your money?
I would say for the most part I am. I’m not going to go so far as to make my life a compete hell thinking about it ALL the time (for instance last night, despite having practically no income for August, I went to cold stone because I have been fighting an ice cream craving for a week!), but for the pretty major stuff I do. I do have a 401k monkey on my back though so thank you for the reminder. I do need to take care of that, otherwise I’ll be “leaving my important belongings unattended.”
We can all do better, Tonya….progress, not perfection right? 😉 I love the very vanilla shake from Cold Stone…it’s THE BOMB!
Great article. Always good to periodically reset and take a step back to consider if you have any budget ‘leaky faucets.’ No one is going to pay more attention to your money than you, so always be on the lookout for deals, ways to reduce your costs, and consider if you even need the expense (to your point of paying for more cable channels than you use).
Great comment, Kirby – which is exactly why my wife and I are in a constant mode of re-evaluating all our monthly expenses to ensure they’re still worth the value we’re getting out of it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Awesome post, Travis. I think most people don’t think about these little things, like the thermostat, as being wasteful, but they surely are. Now, after a year and a half of counting every penny, it’s super easy for us to “see” wasted money, whether it’s in our energy bills, our gas tank or whatever. I believe that training our minds to quickly recognize when we are potentially wasting money has made the difference for us between sink and swim as we whittle down our DTI.
You’ve made great progress, Laurie…and I have really enjoyed following your story. The excuse I hear so often (as mentioned in the article) is “why worry about it, I can afford it.” Yeah, I could probably afford to drop some money on the ground too, but that would just be stupid. I’d rather put forth a little effort, and use the money for something other than paying for being lazy!
Excellent article, Travis! Hubby and I are getting ready to review our homeowners and auto insurance policies, to see if we can save some money there. I think I’ll check out the cable bill, too. I do watch a lot of the same shows/channels each week! Thank you for the reminder.
Review, review review, Sassy Mamaw……it’s ALWAYS worth re-evaluating your monthly expenses. What once brought great enjoyment and value may no longer do so. I’d love to hear if you were able to save any money on your homeowners or car insurance! Thanks for stopping by!
A great reminder Travis. I think I am, but is good to check in on these things like cell phones, cable etc periodically and see if you can cut costs. You can allow laziness to cost you cash!
The cost of being lazy…man I wish I would have used THAT as my blog post title. 🙂
It is amazing to me how often I find money on the street. I think in addition to minding your daily money transactions, one must also think about how they handle their actual money (in their wallets). I think that there is general lack of respect or awareness of the importance of every single dollar that crosses our path.
Great comment, Michelle – I like to call it “being selfish with my money.” I work HARD for the money I earn…..I refuse to waste it!
Mostly yes, but there are admittedly areas I could improve- especially when I’m in a time crunch or I failed to plan.
Those are always times when we just throw money at a situation just to make it go away……we’ve all been there. It makes me more motivated to plan better the next time, Stefanie. Thanks for being honest! 🙂
I think you’re never done on this job. There’s always some thing that can be looked at, but then there’s also the law of diminishing returns. We need just cut cable recently, need to look into our homeowner’s insurance and still tackle the grocery monster. 😉
True story, Debs…just when you think you’ve become as efficient as you can be…BAM, there’s something else you can do to be more conscientious with your spending. Continuous active involvement is the key – great point!
I think it’s a never ending battle. When you think you’ve done all you can to save, start over because you never know what new deals might be available. That sucks for your daughter but I bet it was a great life lesson.
This is the first time she’s ever had something stolen from her….and to be honest I’m surprised about it. She’s usually the one making sure we don’t leave anything in plain sight when we get out of the car – she’s VERY careful with her possessions. But yeah, I would guess she’ll be much more careful about leaving things unattended from now on, Kim!
Ugh I think nothing is worse for teens/pre-teens than getting something stolen. When I was a in middle school I had my golf clubs stolen out of our garage. I’m still upset about it! But you bring up some good points. It’s really easy to throw 20s out the window by being careless or lazy. I think couponing is relatively simple, at least to save ~5% or so on your purchase. You can save a lot more if you invest more time, but retailers know there are a lot out there who are just too lazy to clip them.
Coupons do adhere to the rate of diminishing returns….so I look for the low hanging fruit. BUT, with just a little effort I can usually save about 10% on my groceries – which is about $10-15 a week. Not a huge amount, but I’ll take an extra $40-$60 in my pocket each month, wouldn’t you? There’s a difference between paying for convenience, and paying for laziness!
I do take good care of my money…weelll…not always and not as consistently as I’d want. You raise poignant points…those “little money losses” maybe what end up derailing our financial independence. There is this saying, “It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”
Great perspective, Elstad….that grain of sand doesn’t seem like a big deal, but eventually the friction causes a gash in your foot leaving you unable to walk. Being a little careless and lazy with your money starts small, but eventually it grows and spreads (potentially) into a huge problem. Thanks for your comment!
I had a really epiphany today as I checked my credit card statement. I have been spending too much on food lately. I have NOT been taking care of my money because I have been spending too much on take-out. I will have to make some adjustments because this will no longer do.
Funny you should mention that, Debt and the Girl…..we’ve once again allowed our dining out to eat up (pun intended) a larger portion of our funds than I’m comfortable with. Time to reign that in and do more cooking at home! Good luck with your adjustments…I’d love to have you come back and report how you’re doing!
I do take care of my money, Travis. But it wasn’t always this way.
Back when we were running up debt a few years ago, I would routinely stop at gas stations or McDonalds in the morning to grab a (craptastic) Breakfast. These often would cost a$5 or more, and when done several times p/week– It really added up.
Since paying off debt, I tend to pay attention to where all of our money is going. If I choose to spend money, I make sure to stop and consider where that money came from and when it will be paid back.
Oooh, Jefferson, the fast food craptastic Breakfasts are a sore spot for me. If there’s ONE meal out of the day that is pennies to eat at home, it’s breakfast. I can whip up a delicious Omelet in minutes…..it’s all about value and getting the most for your money. Great to hear that you’re more conscious about where your money goes these days….and THAT’S why your finances have turned around!
I have definitely been careless at times- In fact, I wrote about it today! I need to get better and stop letting other people dictate how I spend =/
Letting other people influence and pressure you to spend money is a whole different ball game too, Holly. I like to think of being selfish with my money……and while I’d like to think that I wouldn’t let someone pressure me into spending my money, I’m not sure if I’d be as firm as I’d like to be. 🙂
These are some great points and I’d never thought about it as “taking care of my money” before, but you are so right. I do pretty well most of the time now that I’m trying to pay off my debts, but before not so much. Though today I did turn down the AC while I was getting ready for work because I was hot and I forgot to turn it back down before leaving 🙁
Ah HAH! Especially on hot days, you sort of feel like money is just pouring out of your house when you forget to turn it back, doesn’t it? That’s how I feel. 🙂
I’m really all for the coupon clipping, buying generic (which I don’t always do) and searching for discounts. But I think most people often forget about the real biggie — do you frequently evaluate your financial products to see where you can save more money?
Great point, Broke Millennial – my bank pestered me for years to come in and have them reevaluate my mortgage and a personal loan. We couldn’t do it because we were in a DMP, but after we were done, we were able to take advantage of some lower interest rates. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!