Saving Money by Learning from Your Mistakes
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Often times in our endeavors to save money, we can get tunnel vision. We think about “saving money,” but sometimes forget the “cost” involved in achieving that goal.
- A local store has a really great deal on pepperoni. It will save you fifty cents per package over the store right around the corner. But, Store A is a fifteen minute drive away and costs you $3 in gas to get there. Did you really save money?
- You find a beautiful sweater at a yard sale for $1. Other sweaters cost $15 to $20 on sale at the department store. You buy sweater A because it’s less expensive, right. Later you find out that it is dry clean only. If you really wear the sweater, cleaning costs will eat up your $14 savings pretty quickly.
- Your grocer has discounted what appears to be a gourmet coffee. You’ve never tried it, but for $4 a pound, what could go wrong? You buy 10 pounds. This is so cheap! Turns out you hate the coffee and are forced to make a decision: dump or give away $39 worth of mediocre coffee or force yourself to drink it. Either way you lose.
We all have these stories, do we not? We shop carefully, in the name of Saving Money, and yet, we sometimes don’t think the transaction all the way through to the end result.
photo source
Sometimes the gamble pays off and sometimes we’re drinking swill disguised as coffee to pay our “stupid tax.”
I’ve had this happen innumerable times. Things that help me?
Cleaning out the cupboards often
Not only do I see what I have so that I buy the right things, but I’m also reminded of dumb purchases that are languishing in the pantry. It’s a great reminder not to do it again.
Cut your losses
Sometimes you just can’t make it through that stash of bad coffee. Don’t stress over it. Just move on.
Laugh at yourself
Laughter is the best medicine. Don’t be too serious about a mistake or misstep. Laugh and then try not to do it again.
Learning from our mistakes can be a great way to save money in the future.
In our house the big money waster at the grocery store is lack of communication. I can’t tell you how many times my husband stops in at the store on the way home and picks up a lot of the same stuff I already bought that week. If he would just call me and say he is stopping I could let him know. He has the best intentions, but we have to work on the communication. 😉
I would return the coffee (most places are pretty generous with returns when all you want is store credit, Trader Joe’s really rocks in this department)
I would handwash the sweater. For $1 you don’t have much to loose and it is probably handwash safe since manufactures only have to list one safe cleaning method.
My frugal mistakes often revolve around expiration dates and forgetting about something in the cupboards. Or stocking up on something and then watching it get used up at a far faster rate than normal. That always happens to juice.
@Leigh,
Whenever I do a stock-up, I never buy snack food in great quantities, especially if it is close to the weekend. If I do, all the snack food will be eaten by Monday and all those “savings” will be out the door.
Here is my frugal mistake for the week. I buy the Smuckers Natural peanut butter, Target sells it for $3.99, & I usually get 2 jars. Recently they had it on sale for $2.01 a jar, I thought, I’m going to stock up. They ran out, so I drove 25 minutes to another Target, where it was priced at $2.06 per jar. I bought 6. When all was said & done, I was so excited to tell my husband about it, he pointed out that I probably burned more gas going out to the further Target to get the peanut butter. Lesson learned.
Bright side? I have (now) 5 jars of peanut butter in our pantry! 🙂
I loved this post, Jessica! 🙂
Thanks as always for your gracious hosting! 🙂
As a new mom with a now 1 year old (birthday was yesterday!), I find that the best activities for us are either free (parks, walks) or drop-in music & play classes. Paying ahead of time may either sound like a deal/breakdown to a few dollars a class, but we never make it to them all!
@Trissie, That is EXACTLY why I didn’t sign my kids up for any classes. With two babies at home, you never know when one is going to be sick, teething, cranky, of if you’ll be able to make it out the door on time. We kept missing classes and so I canceled everything and only commit to free stuff at the library or playdates with with friends. Much easier to cancel something free!
I am so guilty of this. Love how you go through your cupboards often to remind yourself of those bulk purchases that didn’t pan out. in my kitchen now? Several cans of coconut water (?!) and condensed milk that were on sale, but which I have no idea what to do with!
Now sometimes those mistakes can be blessings when you learn what to do with them! Both of those things can be used in baking, especially when you run out of milk. Google them both and you’ll come up with tons of recipes. Is the milk sweetened? That’s important to note before you start baking. Have fun!
We have a bad habit of always wasting one banana by letting it get too overripe. Well, I’ve taken to freezing those over ripe bananas and tonight I made a batch of home made banana chocolate chip muffins so we have breakfast muffins/snacks for at least the next few days.
That is a great post and I have made a few stupid buys in my days like the bargain den furniture that now only a few years later is lookin’ sort of bad.
When coffee is that bad, you almost feel guilty donating it to a food bank. Sometimes, you have to cut your loses, and live and learn.
Thanks for the link-up.
@Kristia@FamilyBalanceSheet, I was JUST thinking that coffee story was PAINFUL. I am a coffee freak, I go through almost an entire pot all on my own, so the thought of buying crappy coffee and then having to get rid of it was just making me wince to no end.
Thankfully…as I have gotten older I have also become wiser. I had to laugh about the coffee example. That usually happens to me. Or did. On the flip side. I would only buy a tiny bit of something and it turned out to be super good but no longer available! Live and learn. Thanks so much for hosting and I am loving this months Pantry Challenge!!