What is false economy?
False economy is when you do something that seems like it’ll save you money, but in the long term ends up costing you more than if you’d just gone with the more expensive option to begin with.
False economy in house moves
The last time we moved was the most stressful thing ever. We were only moving a couple of blocks, so we just relied on friends to help us get everything moved. In hindsight I really wish we’d used a company like https://www.mybekins.com/ to help us to move. I think not using a proper removals firm can easily end up becoming a false economy where you end up spending more time, money and energy trying to sort things out yourself.
As you get older you also acquire more and more bills and services – people who send you bills and things through the post. The false economy approach is “oh, I’ll just contact all of these companies individually and tell them my new address.” The reality is that some companies only send you mail once every few months, and you might not even think of them until your mail doesn’t get to you. Just pay for mail redirection! It costs more up front, but you save so much time in chasing missed invoices, statements and appointments!
Hire a professional plumber!
Another thing that seems like a good idea at the time but quickly becomes a bad one is trying to do plumbing jobs yourself. I have done this precisely once, and definitely learned the hard way that it’s much better to just look at this website and hire someone to do it for you. This way if there’s a leak or a breakage, it’s someone else’s problem to resolve!
Pay off as much of your credit card as you can
It’s so tempting to look at your bank balance and think “I’ll just make the minimum payment this month” – I get it, I’ve been there! Until I realised that it’s actually cheaper to pay off as much as you can on your credit card each month – even if that means you end up resorting to using the card later in the month.
Let’s say you pay off £100 on your balance, and then at the end of the month you’re short of cash and spend £50 on the card. You don’t get charged interest on that £50 until after the next statement date, so as long as you pay it off it’s free lending – which works out better than paying off the minimum amount and then being charged interest on the £100 you didn’t pay off.
Engineering a disaster
When it comes to building a new engine, that might sound like a fun project you could work on in the garage at the weekend… until you find that your garage floor has been littered with parts for months, you’ve forgotten where you were up to and you need several parts you hadn’t considered. Easier to just use something like this website to get your engine built for you. Problem solved – and fewer grease stains on your garage floor!
There’s a reason that household appliance is so cheap
Have you ever bought a “bargain” vacuum cleaner, then got it home and found that it’s only a bargain if you enjoy picking up bits of dust and hair from the carpet with your hands? I have! Now when I’m replacing my household appliances I go for the best option I can afford – not the most expensive but the one with the best specifications, the best reviews and so on. That way I can spend less time using it, and less time doing the job it’s supposed to do myself!
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