10 Bad Habits That Can Kill Your Budget

I read an article on WalletPop yesterday that talked about bad habits that can kill your budget. At first I wasn’t going to read it because I thought the bad habits were things like smoking cigarettes and eating fast food, which the article did include. But there were a few other things of which I am sometimes (still) guilty. So in case you need to review how your unconscious spending is killing your budget, here are, according to WalletPop, the 10 bad habits that could be costing you big time.

1. Drinking soda: $547.50 per year in spending for one soda @ $1.50 per day. Ouch. I must admit that there are times that I’m out and I’m craving a Diet Coke, but instead of  reaching for the $1.50 20-ounce soda in the refrigerator case of my local deli, I’ll “splurge” for the 2-liter bottle because at $1.99, it’s actually a better deal.
2. Reading gossip magazines: $182 per year if you buy your favorite weekly gossip magazine on the newsstand. I’ll admit that I treat myself to a People Magazine subscription every year for my brain candy. I spend about $100 on my subscription, which is for sure pricey. But it’s my one big indulgence and at least it’s $82 a year cheaper than buying it issue by issue.
3. Buying coffee out: $1,442. I recently purchased a cup of coffee at a Panera Bread but only because I had a gift card, so it was “free.” But other than that, I am a brew-at-home girl. I love that this change saves me more than $1,400 a year!
4. Playing the lottery: $365. My kids love the scratch-off lottery cards but I can’t ever justify that cost, so I don’t. Plus, I’ll never forget how when I was younger, my mother won it big (kind of) in the lottery, and the next day she lost a crown on a tooth. The cost of the crown’s replacement was about the exact amount she won in the lottery. I felt like that was lottery bad karma, and I’ve just been too worried to play it ever since.
5. Getting fries with your meal: $312. Seems that super sizing your meal–or at least ordering a meal rather than food a la carte when ordering at a fast food restaurant–actually costs you more. So if you hold the fries, you hold onto more of your money. Guess what? Don’t eat out at fast food restaurants at all, and you’ll hold onto even more of your money–and you won’t have to worry about those fries going to your thighs!
6. Texting: $240. OK, so I take issue with this “bad habit” as Wallet Pop outlines it, because with two teens in the house, I actually save money going with the unlimited texting plan–which costs $20 a month more than the other plan, thus getting you to the $240. Plus, I get more minutes for voice calls, which works out well since I use my cell exclusively for work. So I’m repeating this one here, because the article mentioned it, but I don’t buy it 100%, especially if you have kids that text as their primary means of communication.
7. (Not appropriate for my PG blog. Let’s just move on.)
8. Cigarettes: $7,300 a year. Don’t smoke, never did, never will. Moving on for this one, too. But if you do smoke, give this number a serious look because that’s some serious cash!
9. Gambling online: $5,200. (No comment.)
10. Not maintaining your car: almost $400. I firmly believe that $50 spent every 3,000 miles for an oil change is “insurance” every person can afford to extend the life of his or her car.