Yahoo Finance The 9 Most Expensive Spending Habits
When it comes to spending money, it’s easy to fall into routine purchasing habits. These common purchases can be necessities – such as groceries or bills – or they can be from occasional splurging.
Be Aware: 5 Unnecessary Bills You Should Stop Paying in 2024
Check Out: How To Get $340 Per Year in Cash Back on Gas and Other Things You Already Buy
However, these habits may take a toll on your finances over time. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of which habits are the most expensive, how much money they cost in the long term and how to watch your spending when it comes to these purchases.
Here are some of the most expensive spending habits the average American consumer may partake in.
Purchasing Unnecessary Laundry Products
Some laundry items – such as scent beads or fabric softeners – do more to hurt your expenses than they do to take care of your clothes. According to Choice, an Australian consumer advocacy group, not only are these products bad for the environment, but they also add unnecessary chemicals and scents to your clothing.
To put this into perspective, a 12.2-ounce bottle of Downy Unstoppables Laundry Additives is $10.49 from Target. If you purchase one bottle a month, this adds up to $125.88 a year. While this may not be a large expense, it’s a hefty price to pay for an item that doesn’t clean your clothes. To save money on your laundry expenses, consider opting out of unnecessary products.
Learn More: 5 Frugal Habits of Mark Cuban
Buying Coffee From a Coffee Shop Every Day
According to a 2024 survey from DriveResearch, more than half of all Americans – 51% – purchase coffee from a coffee shop at least once a week. Many may purchase multiple cups a week, as 87% of Americans admit to having a coffee addiction. The average price for a coffee from a coffee shop is around $6 or $7 after taxes, add-ins and a tip.
While $6 isn’t much, this can add up over time. Around 16% of Americans spend $21 to $30 a month at coffee shops. If one were to buy a $6 coffee once a week for a year, this would add up to an annual spending of $312.
To break this expensive habit, consider making the occasional coffee at home or limit the trips to the cafe that you make every week.
Subscribing to Streaming Services You Don’t Use
With each streaming service offering a different selection of movies and TV shows, it’s easy to end up subscribing to several different options. The average American household spends $61 a month for four different streaming services, or $732 a year, according to Deloitte’s 18th annual Digital Media Trends report. This report also stated that 36% of those surveyed said the price of streaming is not worth it, and 48% would cancel their subscription to their favorite service if prices rose by $5.
As streaming service prices continue to rise, a good way to save money on this habit is to cancel any streaming service subscriptions you don’t heavily utilize. Additionally, opt for streaming bundles that combine different services and offer them at a discounted price.
Retail Therapy
Shopping for the things that make us happy can be highly therapeutic. While it’s great to reward yourself with an occasional splurge, too much retail therapy has the potential to be a very expensive habit.
Whether it’s food and drink, beauty products or clothing, Americans of all financial backgrounds are guilty of splurging. High-income consumers spend an average of $50 on a retail therapy purchase, middle-income consumers spend around $27 and low-income consumers spend about $20, Forbes reported. If a middle-income consumer made one retail therapy purchase a week, this would amount to nearly $1,404 spent a year.
To limit any potential retail therapy splurges, pay in cash instead of a card, which can help you physically see how much of your money is being spent. Also, consider opting for other things that will improve your mood that don’t include shopping, such as exercise, practicing self-care or seeking out free or low-cost activities in your community.
Drinking Alcohol
Whether it’s occasional cocktails with friends or a glass of wine with dinner, frequently drinking alcohol can add up to a costly habit. According to American Addiction Centers, drinking a glass of wine a day can add up to $1,456 spent a year. If you drink around five to six bottles of beer every day of the week, this may add up to roughly $120 spent a week – that’s $5,760 a year.
To cut down on alcohol spending habits, consider limiting the amount of alcoholic beverages you consume both at home and when dining out.
Wasting Food
More than 80% of Americans throw away perfectly good packaged foods simply because they misunderstand the expiration date, thus throwing their food – and their money – in the trash. In addition, the average family of four will throw out $1,600 a year in produce.
There are several ways to ensure that consumers don’t make a costly habit of wasting food. Understanding food labels and expiration dates is a good way to prevent yourself from throwing away food that is still edible. Additionally, meal planning and freezing perishable food items that can’t be eaten right away are great ways to save both your food and your money.
Paying For Food Delivery Services
When it comes to dining out, the convenience of food delivery apps makes it easy to regularly utilize their services. However, this convenience comes with a cost. Ordering food from a delivery service costs twice as much as if you were to go to the restaurant and pick up the food yourself, according to Vox. A survey from Circuit found that the average American spends around $1,850 annually on food delivery services.
To break this expensive habit, consumers could stop using these services entirely or limit themselves on how often they order food to be delivered.
Going Out for Dinner Too Often
While going out for a meal is a nice indulgence every once in a while, partaking in this activity too often can rack up your expenses. Similar to other goods and services, the cost of dining out has risen in recent years, making eating out too often an expensive habit to maintain. The New York Post reported that the average American spends over $2,500 a year dining out.
There are several ways to cut back on this expense, such as utilizing coupons or special offers at restaurants, making dinner at home and ordering smaller or less expensive meals.
Smoking
Not only is smoking bad for your health, but it is also incredibly harmful to your finances. Around 28.3 million Americans are tobacco users, and although the cost of cigarettes varies by state, studies show that a smoking habit may cost Americans millions of dollars over their lifetime. Smoking is most expensive in the state of New York, where the average smoker will spend almost $5.2 million throughout their life.
To break this unhealthy and costly habit, consider nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), seek out support and create a smoke-free environment for yourself to avoid potential triggers.
The Importance of Breaking These Habits
While many of these spending habits might not seem significant, the cost of these habits adds up to large amounts over time. Money spent on these habits could be saved and used for other important purchases in one’s life, such as vacations, bills and even retirement savings. Setting budgets for yourself and limiting the amount you spend now allows you to have more money saved up for larger purchases and long-term savings.
More From GOBankingRates
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The 9 Most Expensive Spending Habits
