Money is one of the most important resources you have, and whether you’re naturally frugal or let it burn a hole in your pocket, money can make people do foolish things. We waste it when we’re trying too hard to save, we spend it on things we don’t really need, and overpay on our recurring expenses. Here are a few ways you might be being foolish with your hard-earned money…

You Spend More by Trying to Save

This may seem like a paradoxical statement, but being frugal has its drawbacks. When you go out of your way to save as much as possible, you can often wind up wasting your money in the process. For example, if you skip dentist and doctor’s check-ups it can save you a few hundred dollars a year. However, this means that there could come a day when your negligence of preventative care leads to a much higher medical bill. Penny-pinchers may choose to crunch through their taxes using a cheap or free piece of accounting software, but if this software has any holes or bugs, it can really come back to bite you later. While there are a lot of things you can certainly scrimp on, it’s essential that you consider the risk in every individual saving.

Using Coupons Unwisely

For most of us, coupons are a little convenience that come along every once in a while, and give us access to pretty trivial discounts on various products. However, these little scraps of paper can be exceedingly powerful savings tools, provided you know how to use them. Stacking store and manufacturer coupons to multiply your savings, choosing the right order in which to cash in coupons, saving on taxes and so on are all tricks that can mean getting way more out of your coupons than you usually would. You can get more details from this article. If you’re not using your coupons economically, or you’re not using them at all, you need to turn this around. There are countless coupon sites you can tap into, and once you get used to some of the nuances, using coupons can become an exceedingly useful tool for savings.

You Overpay for Stuff

When you see a price tag on an item, or receive a bill in the mail, it’s easy to assume that the price is non-negotiable. This is where you’d be wrong. If you blindly accept the offer that’s given to you, you can easily end up paying for all kinds of things, and creating a massive hole in your personal finances. Bills, for example, can be lowered in a couple of ways. Firstly, you can make a few phone calls over the course of the year and negotiate your rates. Doing this twice a year with your TV bill can result in a discount, free upgrade, or both. From car insurance to gym memberships to credit card interest, there are all kinds of things you can talk down. Just ask them directly for a better deal, and always be persistent.

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