The first thing that every person who decides to manage money wisely begins to pay attention is expenses. Some groups of them are obvious, but the danger is the so-called hidden costs. They skillfully camouflage, while absorbing, like a huge black hole, decent amounts of money, not allowing them to get out of the debt hole or come to their financial goals. It is about such expenses that one can often hear a similar phrase - “I don’t buy anything superfluous, but there is no money”. A blogger named Louis identified the enemy and shared his experience in this matter.
Simple arithmetic
“Last week I went to the store to buy a new pair of shoes, as the old one was already quite worn out,” says Louis. - I looked at the pairs in the window and suddenly thought about when I bought the pair of sneakers that was on me now. How much time did I wear them? How much did they pay for them? And it was precisely these issues that helped me identify and realize what I called invisible expenses. ”
What is Louis talking about? Let's say you bought a pair of shoes for 3,000 rubles. It turned out to be successful, so you wore it, almost without taking it off, all year long. What is the cost of such shoes per month? We divide 3000 by 12, we receive 250 rubles a month. And if this trend persists, then you can write to the budget that shoes cost you 250 rubles a month. Similarly, it is worth analyzing your clothes and other things.
Of course, the amount given in the example is not huge, but the essence is that all the things that you buy and use or do not use have a cost that must be taken into account in the monthly expenses.
Keyword "use"
Let's think further. Are you ready to pay for what you do not use? Say, take and pay a stranger a bill for utilities or his purchases in a supermarket? Probably not. And why? Of course, because you do not want to pay for something that you do not use yourself. But what about all the things that you bought, but that are still in the package or with a label?
Are you ready to pay several thousand rubles to use the thing only once? Not? But what about the pair of shoes that you bought and put on only once for the holiday? And if it were one-time cases, but how many things are actually bought that in fact were not needed or were useful only once.
The numbers don't lie
If you analyze your purchases on this basis, you will see where the money is flowing. Understand how much you can save if you change your smartphone not every year, but for example, every three years, or a car. It is these invisible expenses that lead to serious financial losses.
Louis on his blog advises readers not to follow trends and fashion, which changes very quickly, analyze their consumer habits, often rent or exchange items instead of buying.
Still such an analysis often leads to the conclusion that it is not always worth agreeing to cheap, but short-lived things for the sake of economy. Often, it will still be more profitable to purchase an expensive and high-quality item that will last for years.