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Don’t Waste Your Money by Buying Things You Can’t Consume

on 5/21/18 by Miguel A. Suro
8 Comments

This is one of the banes of my financial existence, and has surely cost me thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars throughout my life. I’m talking about overestimating my needs (or wants), and buying things to meet such inflated needs. The result is stuff I don’t need, and money down the drain.

So, let’s learn from my mistakes.

Don't Waste Your Money by Buying Things You Can't Consume

We Tend to Overestimate Our Future Consumption

In my experience, I (and pretty much everyone I’ve ever known) tend to overestimate wants and needs. A few examples can bring this into focus:

The Food Waste Facts

Have you ever gone to a supermarket and bought lots of delicious and healthy fruits and vegetables, only to watch a big part of them rot a week later? I think this happens more often than we care to admit. At the store, we think “it’s not a lot of stuff; we’ll definitely eat it in the next few days”. Then, life happens, and we wind up ordering delivery, or eating out, or even making a frozen meal because we’re just exhausted. However, the fresh spinach you bought won’t wait, and you wind up having to chuck it. Not good.

In fact, it turns out that this is a big, nationwide issue. Here are some food waste facts:

  • About a third of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.
  • In developed countries, most food waste is attributable to consumers.
  • In the US, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted.
  • Also in the US, at the retail and consumer level, around 31% of the available food is wasted, adding up to about $161 billion dollarsΒ per year.
  • Overall, an American family of four spends around $1,500 every year on food they end up throwing out.

Since this site is about personal finance, I’m going to zero in on that last one. Did you know that if, starting ten years ago, you had taken just half of those $1,500 ($750) and invested them in Apple every year, you’d have about $33,482.27 today?!? That’s a market gain of about $25,294.77!

food waste facts and excess unnecessary consumption; plus, save money at restaurants

Credit: Capital One

So, indeed, food waste costs us real dollars – lots of ’em.

The Big Cars

For another example, take buying a big car, like a three-row SUV or minivan. You think “this has got the space for all those road trips we’re going to take – we’ll see the grand canyon!” And maybe you do take that road trip, but the other 99% of the time you spend in the car would have been fine with just two rows of seats. Wouldn’t it have been much cheaper just to rent the big SUV for that trip?

Let’s take a couple of cars, for comparison. A three-row GMC Acadia is advertised as starting at $29,000, while a two-row GMC Terrain starts at $24,995:

do a realistic needs assessment

Assume you buy a new car and keep it for the average time (which is about 6 years). That means that, if you buy a new Terrain every 6 years, you save about $4,005 with each purchase, which comes out to $667.50 per year. To go back to the Apple investment scenario, if you invested that money each year for a 10-year period, you’d have aboutΒ $29,587.68. (I know I make a lot of assumptions annualizing the numbers and whatnot – I’m not trying to make a precise example; I’m just trying to make a point).

Credit: Capital One

Neglecting to Save Money at Restaurants by Over-Ordering

This one has happened to all of us. We go to a nice restaurant, and everything looks so good, plus we’re hungry. So, we order a drink, appetizer, and main course. And then after getting stuffed, we get that desert menu, and that chocolate cake looks delicious (at least that’s my desert weakness). You know what happens next – you order the cake. In the end, we’re not just satiated, but instead in a food coma, and with much lighter wallets.

via GIPHY

Once this becomes a recurring pattern, we’re probably wasting thousands of dollars every year on excess food and drink. But to take a conservative estimate, let’s make it $20 per month. To use the Apple investment example one last time, after 10 years of investing that money, you’d haveΒ $7,726.52:

Credit: Capital One

The Lesson: Estimate Your Needs Realistically

I think one solution to this over-estimation problem starts with recognizing it. For some reason, it seems to be a natural human tendency to consistently overestimate our future consumption. I don’t know if it’s an innate desire to accumulate resources or some sort of buyer’s excitement, but I know that I have to consciously fight it in order to not wind up overspending cash on “excess capacity”. (And don’t think I’m being some sanctimonious jackass, all up on his high horse – I overestimate my needs all the time, despite my best efforts).

Once you recognize the tendency, try to take it out of the equation and do a realistic needs assessment before a purchase. Ask yourself questions like:

  • Do I really need this in the first place?
  • Does it need to be this big? How often do I need all of this capacity?
  • How often will I actually use this?
  • Am I just having an impulse that will pass?
  • If it’s food, will I actually consume this before it spoils?
  • If you’re at a restaurant, maybe try ordering just an entree? If you’re still hungry, you can order an appetizer later – no one’s going to arrest you for eating “out of order”.

And hey, in the end, if you wind up under-estimating your needs, you can usually just upgrade. But, I suspect that will rarely be necessary.

Summing It Up

From my own life, I’ve noticed that we tend to overestimate our consumption needs quite frequently, leading to enormous wastes of money over the years. Perhaps by just recognizing the issue and doing a realistic needs assessment before each purchase, we can make ourselves a lot richer over time.

Here’s to saving that money!

Do you find yourself frequently overestimating your consumption? How would you do a realistic needs assessment?


Note: I had some technical issues and had to restore the site from a backup, resulting in the loss of most of the comments to this post. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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Budgeting, Life Hacks & Tips, Mistakes, Personal Finance

About Miguel A. Suro

I'm Miguel A. Suro, a Miami dad, attorney, journalist, and entrepreneur devoted to helping you live well for less. I've been seen on the NY Times, CNBC, NBC News, and more. Get to know us on:

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Comments

  1. Mr. Financial Freedom Project says

    May 22, 2018 at 1:20 pm

    Good points, all of them. I’m a saver by nature, so I tend to think long and hard about most non-food related purchases before making them and don’t often suffer from over-consumption.

    That said, Mrs. FFP and I will occasionally order an appetizer if we’re at a new restaurant. While we always take leftovers home, the appetizer is usually always a mistake. Typically approaching the size of an entrΓ©e with much smaller sample size, it’s simply far too much food when combined with another meal.

    For some reason, we keep forgetting this lesson!

    Reply
    • The Rich Miser says

      May 23, 2018 at 11:41 am

      Hey Mr. FFP,

      Thanks! We try to minimize food waste, and are getting better at it over time, but still have room for improvement.

      It’s hard to gauge portion sizes at restaurants if you haven’t been there before. Plus, it’s tempting to over-order when everything looks delicious! πŸ™‚

      Cheers,
      Miguel

  2. BusyMom says

    May 22, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    I noticed our neighbors basket balls the other day. I think he has around ten of them. I don’t know a thing about basket ball, and don’t understand why you would need that many. Maybe you do, maybe you don’t.

    Buying extra happens everywhere. Maybe we just don’t know the stats for the non-perishables…

    Reply
    • The Rich Miser says

      May 23, 2018 at 11:42 am

      Hey BusyMom,

      Haha yeah, 10 basketballs seems like a lot.

      I hear you with the non-perishables. I have to make a conscious effort to reach into the back of our pantry to consume some food that’s been there for months. Otherwise, it’s easy to forget about it.

      Cheers,
      Miguel

  3. Steveark says

    May 24, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    My wife and I always split entrees when we eat out. We are runners and tennis players and are very active but as older athletes we just do not need the average size portions served by most restaurants. One side benefit is there is usually nothing left on our plates that gets wasted.

    Reply
    • The Rich Miser says

      May 26, 2018 at 12:33 pm

      Hey Steveark,

      Sounds like you have it right! My wife and I definitely need to improve.

      Cheers,
      Miguel

  4. Finsavvy Panda says

    May 27, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    Hey Miguel!

    I love your point about wasting money at the restaurant by over ordering. This is sooo true! Haha we tend to call this the big eyes but small stomach syndrome πŸ˜› Our eyes tell us that we can eat so much but the truth is that our stomach can’t hold THAT much……. hehe that’s how they get your money at the all you can eat buffetts too (though I enjoy them very much) πŸ˜€

    One of my biggest weaknesses used to be shopping. I’d buy so much stuff (that I don’t end up using) because everything looks so nice. Thankfully I don’t do that anymore. I realized how much of my financial freedom is being thrown away by doing that.

    Love this post, Miguel! πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • The Rich Miser says

      May 29, 2018 at 11:54 am

      Hey Panda!

      Exactly, even trying to be vigilant for this, we still over-order sometimes (especially when we want totally different dishes and therefore aren’t inclined to share).

      I’m not a big shopper, though I used to pay full price until I met Lily. She taught me how to be a savvier shopper πŸ™‚

      Cheers,
      Miguel

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