Recently, u/wide-management5808 asked people on Reddit to share their tales of people "tripping over dollars to save a dime." For example, they shared, "My wife went to the expensive grocery store because milk was on sale. Bought everything else regular (expensive) priced."
In response, people chimed in with stories of when trying to save money turned into a giant waste of cash. Here's what they had to say:
1. "Went to Las Vegas because the flight was basically free 💸."
2. "My mom wanted to renovate our roof but did not think professional contractors were worth the money, so she hired some guy from a local church and paid him under the table. A storm came the following weekend, and it rained inside our house. It cost more to replace everything than it would have to have gotten a professional roof installation."
3. "Driving around for cheap gas."
"I had an uncle who, every Saturday, would go down to a gas station about 35 miles away because the gas was 10 cents per gallon cheaper. He drove a Chevy pickup with a V8 that held 21 gallons, so total savings for a tank of gas was $2.10, and he wound up using probably four gallons to do it."
4. "Constantly having to get new hires and train them, but they leave after around a year because you don't pay them well. So you never have loyal or skilled employees. Well-paid employees are more loyal, and long-term employees are more skilled."
"I worked at a place that did this. The boss was screaming that there were three times more people working on something, and it's still taking longer. They had fired basically anyone who worked there for longer than a year a week prior — after saying how much money they made in a meeting."
5. "A friend briefly lived with a guy who burned candles at night to cut the electric bill. My friend moved out after the dope managed to set fire to the coffee table, and he still wanted to keep using the candles all night."
6. "I know a guy who built a house in the country. To save $2K, he got a small septic tank instead of the large one. Well, now he has to get the thing emptied twice a year at the same price as the larger one that needs to be emptied every three to five years."
7. "My father-in-law drives all over creation to save $0.04 on bananas or $0.49 on noodles. He spends more on gas by far than he saves on anything else. I understand being alert about sales, using coupons, price matching, etc., but this approach has always seemed unwise to me."
8. "I used to manage a bar and grill. One time, we had a mandatory meeting that brought all the employees in during off hours, and the bar owner spent half an hour telling us to try to get the pens back from the patrons who had borrowed them. We were paying our employees about $100 to talk about pens that I could get at the office store for about $5."
9. "Spending a ton of time to do something yourself instead of paying for a service or good that could do it easily or instantaneously. I know it's technically saving money to do the thing yourself, but time has value, and some frugal people forget that."
10. "People who don't understand the progressive tax system and turn down raises because 'it'll put me in a higher tax bracket.'"
"So many people don't understand that if you go up to the next tax bracket, only the portion of your income that surpasses the previous bracket is taxed at the higher rate."