Weekend Money Traps

Here's a list of weekend money traps from Money Magazine:

1. The Movie Theater
2. The Car Lot
3. The Mall
4. Restaurants
5. Open Houses
6. The Furniture Store
7. Big Ticket Events
8. The Weekend Road Trip

Here's how my family does on these:

1. Nope, don't do the theater on the weekends. We go on Tuesdays when the movies are $5.75 versus $10. That's if we go at all (we're pretty picky on which movies we "have" to see in theaters. We NEVER get popcorn or soda either.).

2. I don't shop for cars. I have dealers submit bids through email, each bidding lower until all fall out but one. Then I pick the car up whenever I want. I try to avoid weekends at the car lot because it gets too crowded.

3. My days of cruising the mall are way over. I think I left that behind in the 90's. Unless you count the outlet mall. Then that can be an issue as I love me some Nike at outlet prices.

4. Restaurants can be an issue for us as we often like to go out and eat after church. But we try and keep a reasonable handle on this.

5. I do love looking at real estate, but I do not like to go to open houses simply for the sake of seeing a place for fun. And I'm not in the market to buy, so this is not a temptation for me. We do go to the Parade of Homes each year with tickets a real estate agent friend gets us for free.

6. I'd rather have my eyes poked out with hot irons than go furniture shopping.

7. I'm past the days where big events got me excited. Now all I see is the huge expense accompanied by an even larger hassle (getting in and getting out).

8. We do take road trips but generally plan them in advance and work to balance savings and fun.

So, their list wasn't really an issue for me.

Are there any on here that trip you up?

Comments

[Divi Cents]

Great list.
I find that almost anything these days in a money trap. I like figuring out ways to do these things for free.
Movies, at home with family.
Dinner, beach picnic and so on.

[Charles Dale]

Then what go you do when you need new furniture? Let the wife do it or just do it because you know it needs to be done?

[FMF]

I suffer through it.

Needless to say, we don't get new furniture often. ;)

[Charles Dale]

True. If you buy good quality furniture, it should last you at least 10 years.