Money saving tips which are actually false

Ok, so we all want to save some money, make more money and all in all become millionaires in the end, but sadly when reality kicks we realize we most likely will never become one. This great desire is what created tons of blogs, websites and youtube channels, which greatly profit from our desire and are full of money savvy tips and tricks. However, as most of these sites, blogs and vlogs also happen to get one or more sponsorships, most often by money related businesses, they sometimes happen to feed us with tips related to these companies’ services and are actually not more than bogus.

After spending more than an hour on youtube listening to money saving tips and tricks, I got overall motivated to let the world know about some of the largest money saving lies, false tips which would not save you money, on the contrary, they would make you pay more. I hope you learn from this. This is also hopefully the first part of my money saving series and in the second part, I will let you know how you can really save more money ( although there is really no trick at all, just like it’s the case with losing weight, you will only lose weight if you eat way less and move way more).

• Credit card money back gurarantee

You won’t ever save money on credit cards in any way possible

Financial companies, and those blogs and vlogs sponsored by these companies love to encourage people to get credit cards and „profit” from their money back guarantee. The issue with the moneyback guarantee is, that it will not save you money. It’s only a small fragment of the overall sum of money, that’s deducted every month or year as maintenance cost. Also,  they would only pay this small sum back if you won’t miss the payback deadline. Once you miss it, you lose it totally. And again, no credit card is ever worth getting, it’s just like gambling: you’ll keep on losing.

• Buy more pay less?

Coupons and buy 1 get 2 actions. Let’s get this thing clear and try to watch it from a clear perspective. When you buy more, you spend more. Period. Yes you may get even more products as result of a coupon or other sales stragegies,  and you may think that if you buy more out of something they will generally last more and this way you won’t need to spend as much money in the near future. But, in most cases, when you buy more out of something, this will also encourage you to use or consume more of that product. Just think about your own experiences.

• Saving on petrol and/or car maintenance

The only realistic way to save on a car is not owning a car at all. There is basically no midway. Of course you can save a few bucks on getting a good, reliable car and you get petrol at cheaper places, yet still, owning and maintaining a car and paying all its costs and insurance is tons of money even in the best case scenario.

• Being a minimalist

Being a minimalist is a big trend right now, but there is no proof in any ways that minimalist people would spend less money overall than average people. On the contrary they may even spend way more. Unless they live in a tent out in the wild.

• Cooking for yourself

Cooking is fun. If you generally cook or you have ever tried cooking, you will realize, that it will sadly not save you much money, especially if you live alone. Sure it’s cheaper than actually going to a restaurant, but it’s way more expensive than ordering food or go to a take away most of the time. Who wants to eat the same meal for many days? Because this may be the only way you may perhaps save a little bit of money. otherwise you won’t.

• Paying with cash

Another so-called trick of blog and self made experts says if you use cash only, then you pay less. This is false in so many ways. Even taking money out of an ATM costs money. Also several people are tempted to spend all cash what they have with them. This trick may only work if you seriously cut back on the amount of cash you allow yourself to carry. Also, having cash with you increases the risk of losing it or your purse getting stolen from you.

• Stop buying favorite products

It’s psychologically proven that if we decided to stop using one product then we will ultimately want to redeem by using another product in return. When we decide to try to save money by cutting out certain products which we use a lot or like a lot, this will initially result in us simply switching this with another product. The solution is, never to do drastic cuts only buy less.

• Switching branded products to cheaper products

This works only if the quality is the same. Some brands are expensive for a good reason. We all need to go through our own ways of testing to find out what works for us and what doesn’t and what’s worth buying and what’s not. Although you pay more for a branded product you can still benefit from it on the long term, For instance, you can use it for a longer amount of time because of the quality or you can end up using way less from it from time to time also because of the quality. If you switch over to cheap products, you may pay less, but not only you’d end up disappointed in the quality, you will also end up having to buy more if the use is ineffective. This is true to all cosmetic, make up and even cleansing products. It’s even true for garments and accessories.

• Binging on your fridge leftovers

Bloggers and vloggers really love mentioning this all the time but really the few cents or pennies you may save would really not be worth risking your health and end up eating the slice of cheese which is in the frigde for a month or finding something else being way past due its expiry date. So, only do this when we talk about relatively fresh leftovers which are proper good food or direct ingredients to cook a simple meal. And this is not about saving. It’s about eating what you already paid for. It’s only about helping to waste less.

My upcoming post will be about the biggest sales tricks which lure people to spend way more than they should.

I hope you liked my new post. Please comment and let me know if I have left out any money saving tips which aren’t true.