Each year countless Americans resolve to save money. In fact, the Nielsen’s Global Health & Wellness Survey found that Americans’ third most popular resolution in both 2015 and 2016 (after staying fit and losing weight) was spending less and saving more. That can be a worthwhile goal, but if we take thriftiness to extremes or don’t pay attention to what’s happening, we may regret that choice — or wind up spending even more money than we’d planned.
[See: 10 Financial New Year’s Resolutions.]
Just ask Tiffany Aliche, founder of The Budgetnista and a former U.S. News contributor. Aliche freelances from home and for three years resisted buying a printer. Instead, she drove to Staples and paid 10 cents a page every time she needed to print and scan a contract or other document. “When I went to Staples and they knew me, [and] when I found myself helping the patrons with the machines, I realized I was there too much,” Aliche says. “There was an opportunity cost. It was costing me money in time not working,” she adds. Now that she spent the money on an all-in-one printer, scanner and copier for her home office, she says it’s saved her a lot of time and unnecessary headaches.
“There should be a purpose behind the savings,” Aliche says. “You’re saving because you’re putting that money towards retirement, or saving with a goal in mind to make sure that you’re not just saving for savings’ sake,” she explains. Otherwise, “you can get into the habit of not enjoying life ,” she adds.
Read on for stories from savvy consumers whose resolve to live frugally and cut costs may have gone too far.
The Internet Abstainers. Roughly two years ago when Mike Shubbuck and his wife, Tara, the authors behind the travel blog TwoTravelaholics.com, returned from an around-the-world trip, they got an apartment in the District of Columbia and decided to see how long they could go without paying for internet. “We thought work access and library or cafe access would be enough,” Shubbuck says. Turns out, it wasn’t. Shubbuck was freelancing at the time, so after doing a video or photography shoot, he’d have to upload footage to get it to a client and needed internet access. Plus, in the afternoons, after school let out, kids would fill the library, making it hard for Shubbuck to focus on work. After a few months, the couple got internet installed at their home and wished they’d made the switch sooner instead of trying to penny pinch.
[See: 8 Big Budgeting Blunders — and How to Fix Them.]
The Great Coupon Mix-Up. When Crystal Stemberger, who lives outside the Houston area and blogs at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, tried to use a coupon for kitty litter last year, she ran into an unfortunate snag. “[The cashier] rang up the coupons incorrectly, but I didn’t notice they had also rang up the wrong size of kitty litter,” she says. That error meant that Stemberger paid an extra $8 overall. “It was a ‘Doh!’ moment,” she adds. Whether you’re using a coupon or not, it never hurts to inspect your receipt for errors before you leave the store.
The Cocoa Worm’s Revenge: Bargain shoppers love stockpiling food and pantry staples when they go on sale. But that strategy hasn’t paid off for Chelsea Lowe, a professional writer and editor who lives outside of Boston. “Every time I’ve tried stocking up when a favorite item’s gone on sale, I’ve ended up throwing away most of the purchase,” she says. This summer, she bought about 20 stevia-flavor chocolate bars, most of them at half price. But cocoa worms got into the cabinet where she was storing the chocolate bars, and she estimates that she had to toss roughly half of the bars. Of course, cocoa worms aren’t the only potential problem with stockpiling; limited storage space, excessive heat or expiring foods can also foil a well-intentioned bargain shopper. Plus, if your storage area floods or you decide to move before using up the items, you could wind up wasting money.
[See: 25 Fast Financial Fixes.]
The Newlywed Bed Debacle: Last year, when Bailey Cummins and her new husband let family members know they were looking for secondhand furniture, one relative offered a mattress and box spring. “Unfortunately, we discovered a few months later that we had bed bugs,” Cummins says. She’s not sure if they came from the mattress and box spring or the temporary apartment where they were staying before moving into military housing, but they wound up tossing the mattress and box spring and buying new ones. Fortunately, because they’re now in military housing, pest control was free, but the incident still caused a major headache for the newlyweds, who live in the Midwest. Cummins took it in stride. “It makes for funny stories that we’ll look back on when we’ve been married for ages,” she says. But if they’d had to pay for pest control themselves, it could have been cheaper and easier to buy a new mattress from the start.
Before you drive out of your way to save a few bucks or otherwise economize, Aliche suggests asking yourself: “Does it diminish another part of my life?” If the sacrifice is too great or involves health or safety concerns, you may want to cough up the extra cash and cut back in other areas instead.
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Frugal Confessions: When Saving Money Backfires originally appeared on usnews.com
