6 Ways You’re Wasting Money Without Knowing It

As you get older, your budget gets more complex.

You own more things and those things need maintenance. You might have a house, which includes a laundry list of associated bills. You have subscriptions you signed up for over the years and sometimes you forget you even have them!

Today, we’ll cover ten ways you’re potentially wasting money without even knowing it. Use it as a checklist to scour through your budget to see if you’re wasting money in these ways.

Not Earning Interest

If you aren’t earning a high rate of interest on your savings account, you’re leaving money on the table. In May 2025, high yield savings accounts are offering at least 4% and you should be getting at least that amount.

It’s the simplest way to earn a little extra cash with zero risk. Savings accounts are FDIC insured and there no reason why you shouldn’t be settling for anything less.

Paying for Unnecessary Subscriptions

In our home, we pay for five streaming-type services – Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Spotify. I can only watch one streaming service at a time and so we’ve looked at ways to reduce the number of streaming services.

If you’re paying for multiple services, consider how much you really use them. Keep a journal that tracks how often you use a subscription to see if it’s really worth keeping around.

Dining Out at Restaurants

How often do you dine out at restaurants? If the answer is more than a few times each week, it’s possible you’re dining out too much.

Dining out is convenient and it’s delicious, otherwise we wouldn’t do it as often. But it’s more expensive than cooking at home, especially once you factor in the gratuity, and it’s worth investigating whether you can cook more yourself and save.

Food Waste

Food waste is a huge issue in the United States and it’s one place in your budget that could use a closer look. According to a MITRE/Gallup study, we waste 2.1 pounds of edible food each week.

If you’re able to better plan your meals and utilize your leftovers, 2.1 pounds of food a week is a significant savings.

Not Buying Generic Brands

You will have to pry Heinz Ketchup from my cold dead hands but for practically everything else, I’m fine buying generic brands. This is especially true for over-the-counter drugs, where the only thing that matters is the active ingredient.

If you’re paying extra for the brand name rice puffs, that’s just silly.

Negotiating Bills

Whenever possible, you should be negotiating your bills. Whether it’s your insurance policy or your property tax assessment, you need to try to get it lower.

Just the other month, I emailed my insurance agent to see if there was anything we could do to lower our bill. I did this in lieu of shopping around and after answering a few questions, my homeowner’s policy dropped in price by $200.

It always pays to ask!