People really love to overspend their money.
Why is that?
I account for every nickel.
The line "it's just money" is also tossed about while someone is making a ridiculous buy.
I mean yes, have fun, treat yourself.
But pay attention before you toss it down the drain.
A savings account is a good thing. Not 10 iPhones.
Redditorcaloriedeficit101wanted to talk about all the ways we should be saving coin instead of throwing it away.
They asked:
"What in your opinion is the biggest waste of money?"
Let's see where people like to spend the most.
Useless Bits
happy snow GIF by MasholandGiphy"Gold flake covered food."
TheShoot141
"Looks tacky. Has no nutritional value. No enhanced flavor. It's one of those "because you can" status symbols, but it's a stupid one."
buttgers
The Scam
"Ticketmaster’s fees. F**k that company."
JuanPancake
"I worked in that industry - specifically a company who started with the goal to do the same thing without the fees. You learn very quickly that 'Ticketmaster's' fees are not actually Ticketmaster - Ticketmaster is happy to be the bad guy face for the venues and often the performers themselves simply wanting more money than the face value of a ticket costs."
"Promoters and venues are used to Ticketmaster being the bad guy and looking like it's getting all this crazy money, but it's really going to places you think are the good guy. Live events are a luxury item. Ticketmaster makes people think they are fair priced items and there's an evil gatekeeper."
conipto
Foot Love
"Name-brand shoes for toddlers and pre-schoolers. They’re not gonna stay clean and they’ll grow out of them faster than you think."
nollyson
"Brand name clothes for kids in general. I always shopped secondhand or target and old navy. They grow too fast and completely wreck everything, especially my son, the knees in his jeans only lasted like a month I swear."
katindra
Claims Death
"Unused gym memberships. Subscriptions to services I rarely (if ever) use. Insurance, when as soon as you make a claim, your premium increases."
Teacher-Investor
"The thing that gets me is when the claim is demonstrably not your fault but it still goes up. Like I'm sorry fate decided to f**k me with circumstances completely beyond my control, can you not f**k me for that too? Your literal sole purpose is to solve my financial issues during this not elevate them. I pay you to stop me from being messed with."
bob0979
Every Other Year?
electronics GIF by South Park Giphy"Buying new electronics every year just because it’s a new model."
Primary_Asparagus_58
This is so true. I'll say it again... we don't need every new IPhone. It's an updated camera!
Not soo rare...
Fashion Style GIFGiphy"Diamonds because of all the artificial scarcity, I was told if anything buy precious stones. That’s why if you look at royalty they always have rare or precious stones."
MarcoNoPollo
Bad Peak
"Often out of season fruits (like strawberries in the winter) are really expensive and taste like water."
qquackie
"I saw some Ontario greenhouse strawberries at Farm Boy for $6/lb and put them back, picked up some American strawberries for $4/lb and they're surprisingly tasty! Not peak summer tasty but definitely worth the $4."
mamoocando
Product Share
"Buying products from the Kardashians. Literally from any celeb."
Redittoranian
"Haven’t tried Rare Beauty, but I swear by the Fenty foundation, all the other brand I tried made my face all sweaty and wet after some time. This one stays a while and leave my face soft. Cannot say about other Fenty products tho, but love the foundation."
Nyctangel
"I bought Lady Gaga branded Oreos once because I wanted the Oreos (though I am a fan of LG nonetheless) and I felt stupid handing them over to the person on the till."
cragglerock93
Picture It
"From what little I understand of it I’m going to say NFTs."
Daydreamer631
"At least with crypto, when you lose big all you do is lose your house. When you lose big with NFTs, you lose your house, and also 'own' a picture of a monkey forever to remind you that you’re financially incompetent."
DanF**kingSchneider
"They may take my house, but they'll never be able to take away my NFT picture I took of my house."
nonnativetexan
Burn me Baby
Back To Black Dirt GIF by Amy WinehouseGiphy"Funerals."
EatingUranium
"I told my hubby if I die before him find the cheapest box available, heck build it if they allow it, for my body. I’m getting cremated anyway! I said no fancy crap, just burn me and fulfill my wishes for my ashes. He agreed to the same. I don’t wanna thousands spent on me when I’m alive and especially not when I’m dead. I don’t care!"
dawny2scotland
Big Day
"Weddings. A family member will have spent over $60,000 on her wedding that is this summer. They don’t even own a house. And 65% (after gifts from both parents) is credit card debt . If you have the money spend it on what you want but I just find it incredibly narcissistic to get yourself in so much debt because you need your ‘big day.'"
lidder444
Smoked
"Cigarettes."
AimlessCreator
"This is only gonna make sense to ex-smokers or who people who never were. I quit between 2 and 3 years ago. I'm sure that this time it's for good. The trick is waiting for it to make you physically sick. I can smell a lit cigarette from like a block away now and it makes me so nauseous."
"I got extremely angry and stressed a few months ago and bought a pack on impulse, smoked one, and hated it. I think I'm in the clear now. But. There was a time in my life when I did still smoke, and that I was so broke that there were more than a few times where I had to choose between a pack of cigarettes or food. I would choose the cigarettes every time."
fokkoooff
Good Health
"The medical industry. Not the actual providers, all those middlemen, managers, CEOs, and companies (with all their shareholders)."
brushpickerjoe
"Absolutely criminal. I have a friend who used to be an EMT and was similarly paid; she works as an Amazon delivery driver now and makes more with the added bonus of less stress. Thank you for your service, but you all deserve a 10x raise. The US healthcare system needs to be burned and rebuilt from the ground up."
Lev0nia
Mealtime
youtube lol GIF by Guava JuiceGiphy"All the food delivery services. It’s obscene how much more expensive it makes a meal."
chadwicke619
"I received a DoorDash gift card a few months ago. I can't bring myself to use it, the pricing is just insane. If I won't get in my car to go get the food then I just don't want it badly enough and can go without."
bumpercarbustier
Border Issues
"Invading a neighboring/foreign country. As we are seeing right now Russia is doing a marvelous job of creating so many financial problems for itself and its people in the very near future. Like Monday near future."
deejayhill
"Military conflicts just aren't economically viable anymore. Between electronic documentation and media and public opinion, and MAD, there's no way anyone can see going to war as a good long-term decision."
Red-7134
cheap, but not good...
"Not having money. Stick with me here:"
"When you need shoes, you buy cheap and they don’t last. Fast food is convenient and cheap, but not good. You end up renting and can’t build equity. Being financially unwell is a waste of money."
smack4u
"So much this. People who say that poor people are poor because they don't know how to manage finances or don't invest can suck a fart. Poverty is a vicious cycle. You can't invest in things that will improve your life long term because you need what little money you have to survive right now."
mascottaricotta
Air Pressure
"Paying to have nitrogen put in your tires. It’s a total scam!"
VTX1800F
"Costco installed my tires, and they filled them with nitrogen for free. It definitely took a lower temperature to set off my car's TPMS, but it wasn't a huge difference, around 10 - 20 F. Useful if you live in a colder area (if it's free)."
NoBreakfast4061
Roll with it...
Dice Vegas GIF by The WeekndGiphy"Spending money on games, had a friend who spent over $1000 on Genshin Impact… and he doesn’t think he has a gambling addiction."
Rykona26
Entertainment Issues
"Cable."
Excellentbees
"It's not a waste if you watch a lot of sports."
"Most sports are still not on streaming services, and the illegal streams are usually pretty hit-or-miss as far as picture quality, and the possibility of them getting shut down in the middle of your game and needing to find another stream. There are non-traditional cable options, like YouTube TV, Sling, etc, but those are still basically cable. They're just over the internet and with more transparent pricing."
JMS1991
Walk Away
"Shoes for babies. It won't be walking for months why the fuck does that screaming pink blob need Jordans when it can't even hold it's own head up yet?"
"Baby shoes interfere with them learning to walk. They need to be able to use their toes to help balance. My son got a pair of baby shoes as a gift, but we sold them, unused. How do you like that, Hemingway? (Actually we donated them to a thrift store)."
CrabbyBlueberry
Save your coins. You don't need all the things.
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I mostly know disturbing facts about serial killers. As if that isn't enough. This should be fun.
Rest Well
Hand Pain GIF by PetelskiGiphy"The skin mites that live on your cheeks come to the surface at night to find mates and do the deed. Sleep well."
Hullaba-Loo
Cannibals
"If you were to eat another adult human being, it would be approximately 125,822 calories. I went down a rabbit hole on Google and yeah."
ItsmeTrev
"How come it's almost 126K?"
Blablabblue
"Math. Average human is say 70 kg, has 20% bodyfat, so 14kg of fat. Fat has 9kcal per gram, which makes it. 126,000kcal. Math never lies! But I do make plenty of mistakes. Probably it's more complicated - but directionally seems legit."
NekkidApe
Decay
"Within three days of death, the enzymes from your digestive system begin to digest your body."
floopowdertravels
"I guess it’s reassuring to know your body decays before bugs can even get a shot to help your body decay, sort of like a medical death except your body willingly does it for you instead of doctors."
Standard_Zero_3152
People on Earth
season 11 people GIFGiphy"If you are 25 years old, approximately 1/3 of the entire world's population that existed at your birth, have since died."
ColSurge
How do people just stumble upon this sort of info? Y'all must read.
Gotcha
Katy Perry Sharks GIF by VevoGiphy"Some species of shark will 'waddle' onto land in order to catch more prey."
CARMBLOVER
War
"During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague."
XoGossipgoat94
"Man they were just straight attempting to kill as many civilians of possible with that one."
JesseAster
"This is why a large portion of Chinese loathe the Japanese."
dicker_machs
Crush
"It's believed the USS Thresher or USS Scorpion (don't remember which one) took around 20 minutes to go to crush depth in it's free fall."
Jigsaw_isnt_a_puppet
"My Uni mate is a navy submariner and he said that if a problem isn’t your department you just ignore it, because ultimately it either gets fixed or you die, neither of which are scenarios you can do anything about. Him and a friend were playing Fifa in their bunk when the whole sub tipped to 45 degrees. They just kept playing at 45 degrees… it got fixed eventually but they’re reactor crew so nothing they could do to help either way."
FreegardeAndHisSwans
"body farms"
"There are places called 'body farms' were scientists and researchers look at the decomposition process of human remains in different circumstances. Basically a big area somewhere outside were human, sometimes pig corpses are laid out to be exposed to the natural elements or they're even enclosed somewhere (like the trunk of a car). They're actually important e.g. for forensic anthropology to help solve crimes. And you can donate your body for research after you die!"
ThisMessOfMe
Miles Long
art GIFGiphy"Your body makes blood vessels of about 7 miles in length for every pound of fat you gain. This in turn strains your heart as it has to work harder to pump blood through the new network of blood vessels."
macaronsforeveryone
Well there are things I never needed to know. But now we do.
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I just don't have the trust in humans that some of y'all do. How do you get into a stranger's car? Oh no...
Among the Horses
Laughter Wtf GIF by ADWEEKGiphy"So a few years ago I was working in a small resort in the French Alps for the ski season."
"About 15-20 of us all worked in a hotel in one valley, the only bar that stayed open past 11 was in a different valley, it was a pretty flat and straight road to it but a good 15 minute drive or hour walk. We would regularly split up into smaller groups to try and hitchhike cause ain't no one stopping for 15 people with their thumbs out."
"Well one time we couldn't be bothered to split up and we just decided to do the walk and not worry. We decided to chance it anyways and stuck our thumbs at to every car that went by, got a lot of honks, shouts etc, all fun and games until one guy stops with a horse trailer."
"He asks where we're going and we say where and he says hop in. Que 4 of us in his truck, 4 in the bed of the truck and the rest in the horse trailer next to this guys horse."
HAZZ3R1
I'm Innocent
"Got picked up in Queensland Australia and after a few quite pleasant hours the driver started freaking out as we came to a police checkpoint. Turns out my new friend had broken out of jail and had stolen the car. I got stuck at Bowen cop shop until I could prove my innocence."
--bedevil--
"not far!"
"I accidentally picked up a hitchhiker once. I was at a red light at the transition between a village and town road (no more sidewalk, road gets busier and a bit more dangerous to walk). A man walked up to my window from the sidewalk and waved like he was going to tell me something (I assume tell me I had a flat tire or something about my car)."
"I rolled down my window and he mumbled something with a smile, and when I motioned that I couldn't understand him, he just nodded happily, grabbed my door handle and got in my car. Once he was in, it was clear that he spoke little to no English (he was Asian, about 25-30 years old, and very polite)."
"He motioned that he appreciated the ride and I asked how far. He understood and said 'not far!' I told him I was only going home which was a mile down the road and that's as far as I could take him. He nodded politely but I'm not sure he understood."
"I drove the mile down the road, and right in front of my neighborhood was a Blockbuster. He motioned to the Blockbuster and said, 'Here, here!' I asked if he was sure and he nodded, thanked me profusely with gestures and bowing with his hands together. I waved and drove off. To this day I've never seen him again and it remains a strange encounter for sure."
User deleted
zest for adventure...
"I have only ever hitchhiked twice in my life, and both times, a ruinous hike was involved lol. In this story, I was left behind by the shuttle because it took me longer to complete the mountain traverse. I was in the middle of nowhere, it was getting dark quickly, and my phone wasn't working."
"An old couple in their 60s, whom I had been chatting with on and off on the trail, noticed my agitation and asked if I was okay. I told them the bus had left me behind and I had no way of getting back to my lodge, which was 30 kilometres away. They offered me a ride even though it was out of their way."
"We got to talking during the drive. I told them that the hike was a first for me as I wanted to do something memorable for my birthday; they joked that maybe I should stick to dinner and movies next time. As for my good Samaritans, they had been travelling the world to celebrate their recent retirement."
"Prior to doing the trek, they had just completed a cross-country motorcycle trip with their son. I was awestruck by their kindness and generosity, their obvious zest for adventure, and the fact that they were still so, so smitten with each other after all these years."
gagagamgee
"you like hasish?"
Fx Networks Indian GIF by Reservation DogsGiphy"Hitchhiking in Israel with my partner in the 90s. We were picked up by these Palestinian brothers."
"After a bit of chit chat the one in the passenger seat says 'you like hasish?' Pulls out a big joint which we all smoked. He then says 'my brother, he's a cop,' then pulls out his glock and starts waving it around. 'It's all good' he says. We had a good chat, many laughs and after half an hour they dropped us off. We realized we were only about 100 metres further down the road from where we were picked up."
theotherbruce
How have so many of you survived this long? Luck.
In Scotland
Sam Heughan Dancing GIF by Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and GrahamGiphy"About six years ago I was hitchhiking in Scotland, heading north to do some wild camping."
"My second ride, I got picked up by a Scottish guy, I could barely understand what he was saying because of the accent. He was heading into Glencoe to climb a hill and camp at the top, so I joined him. Long story short I now live in Scotland, we've been married for 4 years, and I now understand 99% of what he says."
Affectionate-Rub-936
Maine
"My most memorable ride was also my shortest. A guy pulled over in the middle of nowhere Maine. He said our path's would diverge just over the bridge but he'd give us a ride anyway. So we got in for the 100 foot ride. After we got out, he leaned over to the open passenger side window and said in a gravelly voice, 'Life does not give a rat's @ss who lives it.' And he drove off."
valleymountain
The Racoon
"I once picked up a guy wearing a black leather trench coat in 100 degree weather. He was young and friendly, made good conversation, but he absolutely reeked. Finally I couldn't really stand it and was like, 'Man, I'm sorry, but I gotta tell you that you f**king stink.' And he goes, 'Oh haha yeah, it's probably my racoon,' then he opens his jacket and he has a freaking racoon pelt tacked to a piece of cardboard."
maselsy
The Blizzard
"Memorable more for the reason I was hitchhiking. I had driven a few hours away from where I live and payed my last past penny to get training for my desired career. I barely had enough money to attend, and couldn't afford a hotel, so I packed a sleeping bag, and everything I needed to sleep in the back of my van at the training center."
"It was mid spring and was supposed to be pretty warm in the day, and a tad nippy at night, but we ended up having a freak blizzard. The Van was absolutely freezing so I decided to turn it on to keep warm and hope I didn't use too much gas. As it turned out my battery had died in the cold and I had a 2-hour walk, in a blizzard, to get in to town to try and get help."
"By some miracle I spotted a truck about an hour in. The driver had arrived too early to drop off his load, and decided to park on this empty dirt road to rest for the night. He ended up giving me some food, and jumping my car. I managed to stay warm the rest of the night, and get home after the last of the training."
"Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life, because I don't think I would have made it town with all my toes if I'd had to walk another hour."
Vypernorad
This is nice...
Music Video Desert GIF by Red Bull RecordsGiphy"Not a naughty story, sorry... but I got a lift once while hitching during my army days. Hopped into the car, slightly distracted. Noticed wood panelling, leather seats, etc. That bonnet going on for 2km in front of the car. Turned out to be a vintage Rolls-Royce."
Namibbat2
This is why I fly. Y'all are crazy.
And while some bad choices warrant reprimanding, there are other instances where yelling is not really necessary.
Curious to hear examples in which people were berated for inconsequential reasons, Redditor Ratzink asked:
"What is the stupidest thing you've ever been yelled at for?"
Students being disciplined at school is expected. However, there are exceptions.
No Phone Zone
"I was in 8th grade waiting to be picked up from school. I didn't see my mother after awhile, so I got my cell phone out (it was a nokia block phone) and was about to call her to see if she parked somewhere."
"This older woman came over and got in my face. She yelled at me to put my phone away or she would confiscate it, and if I had to make a call, I would have to cross the street and do it."
"A really congested street full of cars with no crosswalk nearby; I would have to leave the pickup zone by myself."
– SarahTheJuneBug
"It was WELL past 3 pm (school was out and I was not breaking any rules) and this hag got pissed by just seeing a block phone that barely did anything beyond calls. I just put my phone away and waited for her to leave."
"Thankfully, Mom showed up not long after that. She was angry when I told her what that lady said. She told me she was a b*tch and that I did nothing wrong, and added that if anyone actually ever confiscated my phone for trying to get in contact with her after school was over that she'd deal with it for me. I also asked a teacher about it the following day; she was just as baffled as I was and agreed I wasn't breaking any rules."
– SarahTheJuneBug
Bitter About The Funeral
"I told my Math teacher I was leaving class in 15 mins to go to a funeral, my friend had just died."
"She said no, and I was like 'thats fine, but I'm still going... its my friends funeral.'"
"And then her face went so red and she shouted in front of the class 'I watched my mother and father die right in front of me, what makes you so special.'"
"I was like woah. The whole class was like woah. The teacher must have been having a bad day but she screamed so loud, and her parents dying was not relevant to me going to a funeral. Was super weird."
– [deleted]
Playing With Food
"I once measured a Fruit by the Foot with a ruler when I was in third grade. Lunch lady accused me of playing with my food and I got in trouble. I genuinely really wanted to just measure it to see if it was actually three feet long."
– TheRealOcsiban
Looking For A Place To Sit
"In 5th grade, I got sent to the principal's office for the first time. I asked the secretary where I could sit and I immediately got scolded, telling me I'm wasting her time for even asking her that question. She even brought the principal over and told me to repeat my question just to further lecture me on how stupid of a question it was and how much it wasted her time. Yea."
– MrJerhomie
People got all in a tizzy with these work-related issues.
The Deal Breaker
"I was dating this girl. She had been looking for jobs for a while with no luck, and I was looking too. My friend offered to pass my resume to their boss for a job in my field after they got one that paid better. I ended up interviewing, then getting the job."
"The first thing that happened after I told the ex was her she yelling at me for getting the job. 'Why did I have to accept a job?' 'Why did you have to take the easy route by getting a job through a friend?' 'Why did you have to apply there?' 'You lied because you didn't want to work with friend.'"
"And no the relationship didn't last much longer after that."
– Responsible_Yak832
Mad Customer
"My absolute favorite: I was working at a bakery, helping out a dude who I could tell was about two seconds away from losing his entire sh*t."
"Nothing due to anything I or the bread were doing; he looked to just be having one of those days and was only barely keeping it contained. After handling the entire interaction like a ticking explosive, I finally ring him out, hand him his stuff, and offer the customer service standard, 'Have a nice day!'"
Which was apparently the thing that sent him over, as he spat out, 'I will NOT!"' spun on his heels, and stomped away like a petulant toddler."
– mus_maximus
People need to be clear about who did what before accusations fly.
Who Hit Who?
"When I was 11, my mother started yelling at me for hitting my 5yo brother. That's understandable, if I had hit him. He had hit me. Literally walked up to me, slapped me in the face, and ran away laughing. Turns out he had run to our mom after fake crying and told her that I hit him. She thought I was lying about it until she realised he had started laughing."
– Hot_Interaction7245
Mistaken For A Menace
"On my local summer swim team when I was maybe 8 years old I had the same first name as some other kid who was a total menace. He’d splash water in girls’ faces and pull on their bathing suits thinking it was flirting, etc."
"One day at practice we’re all hanging out on the edge of the pool and I’m talking to my buddy, and there’s a girl on the other side of me. Suddenly her mom, let’s call her Karen, comes rushing over and says 'HEY! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?' I’m confused and look around me to see if she’s talking to someone else and she says 'YEA YOU!' So I say 'uuuuh… {my name}. Why?'”
"She then grabs my arm yanking me halfway out of the pool and starts yelling at me and I don’t really remember what all she said but it was some mix of 'YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER' (the girl who happened to be next to me) and 'WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS??' all while spitting as she yelled."
"And I was just a terrified, confused kid who’d been assaulted for no reason by this crazy lady and was trying to ask what she was talking about, who her daughter was, what I had apparently accidentally done, but she wouldn’t let me get a word in."
"Finally her daughter got her attention yelling 'Mom… MOM… MOM!!'”
“WHAT!?!”
“That’s the wrong boy…”
"She dropped me pretty quickly and looked super embarrassed but was probably still just red from yelling. She gave me a quick 'oh sorry' and just walked away."
"When I got picked up and my mom asked how practice was I just said 'fine… some crazy lady yelled at me but it was a mistake.' My mom looked confused, took me home, and that was it."
– DunderMifflinPaper
Embarrassingly, I was the idiot who yelled at someone for a stupid reason.
Years ago, I felt water sprinkles periodically hit my face while watching Jurassic Park in a packed movie theater.
I may have imagined it but I thought I heard giggling following every splash of water I felt. I was so convinced some kid had a water gun and was targeting me throughout the movie.
During the climactic T-Rex scene–where the tension is amplified without a score to accompany the encounter–I snapped and filled the silence with my wrath.
"Knock it off!" I yelled behind me, generally addressing the audience.
The kid sitting next to me leaned over and whispered in my ear, "It's the ceiling. It's leaking from the bad AC unit."
As soon as the credits started rolling I bee-lined it out of there before anyone could match the face to the temperamental, but very daft, moviegoer.
