Are you someone who doesn’t know where your money is going and don’t know why you can’t save money or don’t have enough money at the end of the month for all your bills, so you pull out a credit card to pay them? Today and tomorrow I will go over some ways you may be wasting your money. Of course, you are welcome to add your own at the end of the posts.

1. Lottery- Just a smidge better than smoking your way to greatness. Your chances of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 120526770

2. Buying a new car every few years — Buying even a used car can be a waste if you do it every few years. The minority might be someone like my uncle who can take the car apart to the last screw, clean all parts and make it look better than when it was bought and make money on the trade in.

3. Anything you already have that’s “new and improved” — cell phone, computer, most technology or house ware appliance

4. Credit Life Insurance — This is a waste as it only prolongs payments you have to make anyway and the annual percentage just keeps ticking away on what you owe.

5. Investing with a strangers advice — The newspapers can tell you how wasteful this is, there are so many scammers out there it is scary.

6. Fancy restaurants — These are fine once in a while. But if you are having trouble paying down credit cards, eating out in general might be an item you will want to cross off your list until at least one credit card is paid off.

7. Sales — Are you buying something just because it is on sale and you might wear it once. No good.

8. Courses that teach you how to buy real estate for no money down — There is so much information on the web that you can get for free on real estate and the no money down idea has been torn up and down.

9. Optional cable and Satellite services — Again, if you are hard-pressed for money then extra cable channels aren’t a good idea. Unless, one, your job depends on it or two, you are laid up in bed due to illness.