Because of so many self-proclaimed frugality experts, there are also just as many frugality advices with exaggerated “results” that can be considered mere urban legends, created and promoted in the name of marketing hype and similar motives. There are many who were led to practice frugality, even an extreme tightwad lifestyle, because of false promises made by some frugality advocates. Sharing them to serve as warning for others is a good way to get even with the fake “promoters,” and educated the lot who just wants to save for real. Hence, we rounded up the usual suspects in the most detested frugal mistakes category to help eliminate bad frugality practices.
We focus on frugality mistakes in these five areas of our lives where we often want to save – taxes, investing, credit card, travel and household budgeting.
Our tax experts from Leave Debt Behind warns us that tax mistakes may be genuinely made in error but can be costly if tax penalties are enforced and if an audit is the result of your mistake. Human error like spellings and number sequence can be expensive. Find out how misspelled names, wrong sequence numbers and other tax mistakes can make you pay more.
Meantime, Tom Becker who writes for Money Choices says that almost everyone makes investment mistakes. “Yet, these mistakes may benefit us in the future, as we utilize our knowledge to make better and more informed business and investing decisions even if they cost us money the first time around.”
The idea of having plastic money that gives off rewards and savings is great, but still, be careful. “Credit card offers landing in your mailbox might look like an answer to a prayer. Don”t succumb to temptation,” warns our credit experts in this revelations about credit card payments from www.creditcard.com.
Traveling is a tricky thing when it comes to being frugal, so we listen to personal finance writer Jeffrey Strain of Paid Twice when he says “careful planning and foresight can help avoid problems that can be embarrassing and costly.” We couldn’t agree more, what with this good mix of old and new common travel mistakes to avoid.
Finally, we wrap up with a great short video on the most common money mistakes that we may be committing in our daily frugal routine that isn’t so smart after all. Simply put, frugal to a fault. Farnoosh Torabi of Financially Fit Videos gives the lowdown on freebies, fast food, Dollar Stores, couponing and DIYing. Bottomline, everything should be in moderation.
Indeed, sometimes our attempt to be frugal can backfire. Knowing these frugal mistakes and avoiding them will restore our faith on the benefits of frugal living done the right way.
Do you have a frugal mistake experience, even a extreme frugality horror story you want to share? Tell your story now! We can’t wait to learn from it.
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