False Economies

The Drummer was truly awful with money, but he really did want to be better. He used to call me "The Money Magnet" because he felt like not only did I manage to pay half what anyone else paid for the same product, but money tended to fly into my hands in the form of (what seemed like) windfall rebates and random income. (They are rarely windfalls or random--I plan and work hard to get them.) He was always trying to learn frugality from me... but just kept making well-meaning missteps. Example: he "saved tons of money" by buying a Rolex (that naturally he didn't need) used on ebay, instead of buying new. Moreover, he paid for it on a credit card, on which he carries thousands of dollars, at about 20% per year in interest.

But bless his heart, he really did try.

So I thought I'd post about efforts to save money that are either misguided or just plain going to backfire. Here are some of my favorites:

1) Coupons. "Coupon queens" save 20% at the grocery store... buying a bunch of prepackaged "food" crap that they otherwise wouldn't have bought, or could have made more healthfully from scratch. Moreover, they spend hours a month "clipping" them (hey, time IS money), and still often spend more than they would have by buying the same item in a generic brand.

2) Rebates. These aren't always a bad idea, of course, but they are dangerous. Not only are they likely to tempt you to buy something you don't need (or something with more features than you need), but very few people go to the effort to fill out all of the paperwork. I, for instance, virtually NEVER get around to it--manufacturers make rebates cumbersome on purpose. I have gotten to the point where, when evaluating price, I completely ignore any rebates that require action on my part. If I buy something that is eligible for a rebate and I happen to actually send it in, that is just icing on the cake.

3) Regular contact lens solution. I got suckered by this accidentally just last month. The kind that is "no rub" is substantially more expensive. So you save money by spending the extra ten seconds a night, cleaning your lenses by hand, right? Not really: you have to use a lot more solution if you hand clean them, which pretty much cancels out the price differential. Moreover, rubbing causes more wear-and-tear on the lenses, making you more prone to rip them, or otherwise wear them out and have to replace them early.

Okay, what are some of yours?