1. Bank fees
Most notably when I write a cheque and they take forever to cash it.
I. Hate. Writing. Cheques.
I like keeping a $0 balance in my chequing account and I always forget that I have a cheque out (even if I remind myself a billion times), and I hate pestering people to cash it.
Solution: Keep a buffer amount of $2000.
Why it works: I rarely ever write a cheque over $1500 (usually it’s to BF to pay for expenses, but now the tables have turned), so keeping $2000 is a good buffer zone for anything that might need to be paid.
2. Parking
I really loathe paying for parking. I know it comes with the territory, but when I add up parking costs, and it comes to $1200 a year or more, I cringe, because that’s pretty much the price I paid for my car in full.
Some parking is mandatory, like at the client site (and no, I can’t walk, bike or take transportation to get there, it’s way too far & too dangerous!!)
If I lived closer to the client site, I’d certainly walk if I could.
Solution: Walk & bus EVEN MORE, or choose a centrally-located apartment
Why it works: I generally always walk if I can help it. If a grocery store is about 3km away, that’s “walkable” for me, because I know I can tote groceries at least that far without dying on the sidewalk from the weight.
That, or I just make more trips on foot.
Choosing a centrally-located apartment is a tad harder. The cheapest & quietest apartments tend to be far away from grocery stores, but I try.
3. Not checking my receipts or my change
When you lose $0.10 here and $0.05 there, it surely adds up over time, even if it’s only $500 at the end of the year.
Solution: Never leave without checking your receipt or your change
Why it works: I almost never leave without checking my receipt and I keep all my receipts to enter into my budgeting spreadsheet.
If it’s just one or two items, and I know the price of it plus taxes, I don’t bother checking the receipt.
It is at the grocery store where I keep a quick mental reminder of how much per kilogram the produce costs, and then I recall that memory bank go through and check every single line item.
I also go through the change in my hand and tot up the amounts. You’d be surprised how many times someone forgot to hand me back a $5 bill (or more!) in change, because they weren’t paying attention to the bill I handed them.
4. Not checking policies on pricing, returns or exchange
This hits me when I am in hotels. If I don’t check the rates as well as the calculations of how many nights I was really there, I could be out $100+ in a blink of an eye.
I don’t think I ever had a problem, but that’s because I’m really diligent on pre-calculating expenses, particularly if I am not coming back to that city and it will be harder to argue over the phone with the manager than in person.
Solution: Pre-calculate how much everything should cost
Why it works: If a hotel room costs $99.50 a night, and there’s a 13% tax, I calculate everything before and after tax, and then check the figures against what was invoiced to me. Once, I caught a $140 mistake by a clerk. Tsk tsk.
5. Currency exchange
Exchanging money becomes a big thing when you are out of your own country. It’s something you just don’t realize. Also, using a different currency at the counter and letting your money be at the mercy of a store’s mandated currency exchange policy is a bad thing.
Some stores KNOW all you carry is USD or CAD, and they know your belly is growling so they rack up double the exchange rate to make a whopping profit off your small food court purchase.
That stuff adds up.
Solution: Set a budget and change your money before you go
Why it works: It is easier to hand over cash than it is to hand over a card in a foreign country and pray it doesn’t get blocked by your loving, super-paranoid credit card company.
Also, the exchange rate on the credit card is ALWAYS higher than what you can get if you change your money beforehand.
I must admit, I get lazy when I go to the States, but I do try to change into USD beforehand.
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I find it hard to change my money sometimes. We made the BIGGEST mistake going to Prague and not changing over to Euro first. There was only one place that took Israeli shekels and every other place charged you an arm and a leg for changing USD.
It is really horrific the rates they charge you. We just changed the money
back here in Canada, and with our own personal banks, they only charge a
small nominal fee.
Is the exchange rate from CAD to USD really that bad on a credit card as opposed to getting US money beforehand? Because I tend to always use my credit card when I go shopping state side.
I always use my credit card too, but I noticed that Mastercard takes a
slightly higher cut on my conversion than if I take USD instead.
Amen sister! I feel you. My bf and I go to this restaurant every Thursday to hear a local band play. My uncle and aunt go as well, we always order artichokes because they are on “happy hour” special. This place is fancy and over priced so a happy hour artichoke is $7. Every week for the past nine weeks they have been charging is $9. ( I just assumed this is how much they were) until last night. SO…. for nine weeks we have been over charged $2. Stupid. If we would have just checked our receipt this could have been avoided. I am now an AVID receipt checker….or at least moving forward I will be. But I also hate paying for parking.
This is interesting – it got me thinking about the places I’m most likely to stupidly waste money too. Bank fees, for sure. I would also say buying books – I have a library card but for some reason I’m buying books every time I turn around. Magazines too. I end up inadvertently wasting money on food because I buy fresh produce and then it doesn’t get eaten in time so I throw a lot away. The fifth dumb money-waster would probably be on plush toys for our dog because he destroys them in 15 minutes anyway!
I think the best currency exchange is going to a country, and using the ATM there … that way you’re paying the “bank rate” currency exchange, not some third-party vendor rate.
I just had to comment.
1. I eliminated the banking fees in two ways. I bank with ING Direct and, like you are doing now, I keep a healthy buffer in there.
2. I live in a small town where parking isn’t an issue and I’ll be moving to a very rural area, more like wilderness, soon. Parking hasn’t been an issue in many years for me.
3. I learned this lesson when we were overcharged $7 at a grocery store once. Now I don’t even leave the store until I’ve looked over my receipt.
4. I made this huge mistake last year when I canceled an extended hotel reservation. Not only did I lose the $150 deposit, but was asked for $400 more, which I promptly paid. This year, I’m not even going to make a reservation. The place I’m going to will have empty rooms considering the time of year, so it’s not even necessary. I know it’d make me feel better to have a reservation, but if I make one, something will come up and I’ll be out again.
5. I rarely leave the country, so this is not an issue for me. I would love to travel to Asia though like you are doing right now. (Speaking of which, I swear I remember you saying we wouldn’t hear from you while you were gone, but you’ve posted regularly, which has left me a bit confused, but I’m glad to get your posts.)
I’m totally with you about the paying for parking. I absolutely abhor paying for parking. I will do anything to avoid paying for parking, but my favourite trick is usually finding the nearest grocery store or Tim Horton’s and parking there and then walking to where ever I have to go.
#4 made me laugh. My BF went on a work trip and they double charged him for the room – it was like a $400 error. He actually paid and then thought about it, and realized that something wasn’t quite right. They figured out the problem and they refunded him the difference. He was so proud of himself! He was pretty close to just walking away, but it would have been a pain to deal with from home, since this hotel was hours away.
Parking is painful.
My big concern is pulling out quite a lot of money on long journeys and the safety aspect. I’m going to be traveling with straight cash on our upcoming trip but the prospect of pulling $4,000 or so out of the bank and where to stash it kind of worries me and I can’t access my USD account through the ATM machines. Fortunately, in an RV there are places to hide it, not so much if you’re doing normal tourist travel.
I’ve read that it’s best to change money IN the airport. Don’t know if it’s true. I hate wasting time looking for a conversion place when I’m on the road.
Ouch! I have never EVER found changing money in the airport to be advantageous. The rates are usually atrocious.
I have found taking money out of an ATM at the airport to be a good deal though. Those ATMs are the most likely to take a variety of ATM cards, if they’re past security (like when you first get off the plane) they’re highly unlikely to have been tampered with, and you just get the original bank fee on currency exchange (if they ding you with one- mine doesn’t).
Many hotels will exchange currency as a courtesy.
Yes, I think we’ll do that from now on.
I thought so too. We tried looking at the rates, but they were HORRIBLE! The
money changers were taking a 30% CUT on the exchange rate.