[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey, guys.
It's Chelsea from The Financial Diet.
And this week, we wanted to talk to you about all the things
that you might feel like you need to buy,
but which are, in the grand scheme
of things, pretty unnecessary.
It's inevitable that, in your adult life,
sometimes you are just going to make purchases
that you end up regretting.
But we can almost guarantee that you
will make a lot fewer of those stupid purchases
if you think really hard before you buy the items you're
thinking of buying, and more importantly, if you're
honest with yourself about what you really need versus what
just looks really good on that website or store
window or your friend's house.
So without further ado, because we have a lot to cover today,
let's go over nine unnecessary items
you think you need to buy.
Number one is elaborate exercise equipment.
Now we've talked a lot on this channel before about how paying
for a gym membership that you basically never use--
and I have definitely done this--
is a huge waste of money that's often
spent in the interest of feeling like you're doing something
good for yourself.
But the answer to this is not to just recreate the entire gym
experience at home so that you also never use it.
Getting very basic things, like a yoga
mat, some comfortable clothes to work out in,
and a decent pair of shoes is OK.
But feeling like you need to have the machinery or all
of the fancy things you saw on that fitness Instagram
is way too much.
For the average person, there are enormous amounts
of effective workouts that you can
do at home using just a mat, a wall, a chair,
and your own body weight.
And there are also plenty of awesome YouTube channels
you can watch totally for free that will go over
all kinds of home workout routines
that are catered to whatever your needs and goals might be.
Speaking more generally, we often
feel that buying something is going
to be what kicks our ass into actually using it or doing it.
But the effect is actually often the opposite.
When you buy these items, like, say, your fancy exercise
equipment, you're sort of almost telling your brain, wow,
I've already done basically half the work.
And you get to feel good about it
without having done anything.
And when you inevitably neglect these items,
they actually become a source of shame and guilt,
and you go out of your way to avoid them,
which totally defeats the purpose
of having gotten exercise equipment in the first place.
If you are interested in doing home exercise,
commit to doing one year of home exercising
without any kind of fancy equipments or machines.
If you make it to the end of that year
consistently and decide at that point
that there is one item that might really up your regimen,
then you can get it.
Number two is bulky or excessive kitchen gadgets,
things like a deep fryer, a smoothie blender,
a waffle iron, a fondue pot.
You've seen it all in various people's kitchens,
perhaps even your own.
And you know that thing goes untouched 363 days of the year.
Speaking personally, I have an extremely fancy fondue pot that
was gotten to me as a gift.
So there's really nothing I can do about it.
But I can 100% confirm that it gets used exactly once a year
and then takes approximately two days to properly
clean and shine again.
So whether you're excited about filling up a new apartment,
or you're putting a bunch of items in a wedding registry
that you don't need, or thinking about even asking them
for Christmas or a birthday, wait
on asking for anything kitchen-related that
is not a total necessity.
They might make you feel like you're
more established or adult or like you have
a serious, grown-up kitchen.
But they are very unlikely to actually make you cook more.
For items like this, I like to practice
what I call the five need rule.
Basically, when you're getting settled in any kitchen,
keep a little notepad handy for the first year,
or even just use the Notes app on your phone.
Any time you have a pang of, oh, I
wish I had this item or gadget, write it down.
If within that year you've seen that you've
written down the need for a specific item five times,
then you can justify getting it for yourself,
because then the chances are way higher that you will actually
use it consistently and get your money's worth.
If you haven't seen the need for it on a recurring basis,
don't buy it.
You're just going to watch it collect dust while you feel bad
about yourself.
Number three is highly specific ingredients or foods.
If you're someone who's gotten into looking up recipes
online to cook, you probably often
come across recipes that call for one very specific or often
expensive item that you really are only
using for that one dish.
And especially if you're new to cooking,
you might feel intimidated and feel
like you have to buy that exact item to do the recipe.
But if you commit yourself to having a basic familiarity
with different ingredients and flavors and textures,
you find that you can often substitute this item
or even sometimes go without it.
You can use the olives that you happen to have on hand
rather than running to your local overpriced grocery store
and buying the Castelvetrano olives that are specifically
called for in the recipe.
Or you can use rice instead of farro
if you don't have any on hand.
Or you can substitute one vinegar
for another you might have in your cabinet
as long as they have pretty similar acidity and flavor
profiles.
But it's not just ingredients.
It's also specific foods.
Things like diet foods, bars, smoothies,
things that you know are only serving you one purpose,
are going to be pretty useless when
it comes to feeding yourself in a sustainable and
budget-friendly way.
Any time a food manufacturer has taken literally
all of the guesswork out of any kind of meal product for you,
you can basically guarantee that you're
paying a ton more for it.
And buying a pre-packaged diet meal
is probably going to run you the same amount of money
as buying those basic ingredients
and making, like, three of those meals for yourself.
And lastly, when it comes to specific food items,
you want to think in the same way
when it comes to food storage.
You could spend your whole life accumulating things
like bento boxes and soup containers and things
to put your cereal in that keeps the air out and, like, weird
packaged things for all your vegetables.
But there's no point.
You can do, like, 90% of what you
want to do with a couple of Mason jars
with lids and, like, one little set of the Pyrex Tupperware,
which you can also use for baking.
And nine times out of 10, when it
comes to things like cereal or chips,
you don't have to worry that you're not
going to eat them quickly enough that they
need to be put into, like, a hermetically sealed vacuum
pack.
You'll eat them.
Number four is a bloated cable package.
Fun fact, when I first moved out of my parents' house years
and years ago into one of those big houses
with a bunch of roommates, one of the first things I did
was specifically get myself a cable package for my bedroom
so that I never, ever had to argue
with my many male, bro-y roommates about what we
were going to do with the television.
And here's the thing.
Despite this largely being, like, the pre-Netflix,
pre-watching whatever you want in 10 seconds on your computer
days, I still barely ever watched TV.
I actually think I more frequently
watched my DVDs of Sex and the City
than I actually did anything that just happened
to be on cable television.
But especially now, in the days of internet abundance,
there is really no reason to be getting a full cable
package just because that's what your parents had
when you were growing up.
First of all, a lot of the things
that you might want to be watching
that are either network-specific or, like, an event, like sports
or whatever, can be streamed online, sometimes
for free, but often just for a couple bucks a month.
And if you have things like YouTube Red or Amazon Prime,
there is an insane amount of television and movies
available to you for free.
Combine that with something like Hulu or Netflix,
and you have enough entertainment for basically 70
lifetimes.
But if you actually do want to get a cable package,
you must do it in the smartest way possible.
That means actually calling your cable company
and figuring out what is the lowest possible package that
still contains all the channels you want
and negotiating with them for your rate,
especially if you're bundling with other things,
like phone and internet.
There's actually a useful online guide
that we'll link you to in the description called The Cord
Cutter that shows you how you can watch all
of your favorite TV stuff online,
and it breaks down exactly how much it would cost.
Number five is paper storage.
So oftentimes when it comes to setting up a home,
we tend to think of things halfway.
In this example, you might be thinking
that the key to the organized, efficient, adult home
is just having all of your papers
super well-organized and sorted.
But the truth is, we live in 2018 now,
which means that approximately 70% to 80% of those papers
you're thinking of, you actually don't need physical versions
of.
Learning to routinely scan your important documents
and just having them available to you digitally
is hugely important, not just to maintaining an organized home
and making sure you have everything when you need it,
but also not wasting a ton of space
with things like filing cabinets, baskets,
shelving units, and other stuff that usually just
ends up being really cluttered.
For example, at TFD, we've gotten into the habit of,
every time we have something that
has to do with our billing or expenses,
just scanning it and uploading it
so that we have the digital copy that everyone can access.
Otherwise, I could literally fill
one of those giant, comically big Tupperwares with just
receipts, checks, invoices, and all
of those other pieces of paperwork
that serve no purpose once they're used.
And let's be clear.
Even a nice Dropbox membership costs way, way less than one
of those nice metal filing cabinets.
Don't think just halfway and organize all of your paper
into neat little stacks.
Think the whole way and start digitally
organizing them so that you can access them
exactly when you need to and not take up unnecessary space
or money.
Number six is fancy cleaning supplies for home and body.
Cleaning supplies, whether for your home
or for your actual body, are one of the easiest things
that you can get multiple uses out of one good product
or even DIY the products yourselves.
Things like body scrubs can be easily and effectively DIYed
with things like raw sugar, olive oil, coffee grinds,
coconut oil, et cetera.
And a good bar of soap works just as well as any fancy body
wash for actually cleaning your body.
And by the way, those body washes
are often full of unnecessary colorants and perfumes.
And when it comes to cleaning your home,
not only are there tons of cleaning
jobs that can be done with basic tools like baking soda
or vinegar, but getting one all-purpose cleaner will allow
you to clean about 90% of the surfaces in your home
effectively.
And aside from the fact that you don't
have to be paying for every different cleaning
surface based on its texture or material,
you also don't need to be taking up an insane amount of space
in one of your precious cabinets with just,
like, a million various cleaners you never really use.
And lastly, when it comes to those cleaning products that
you do actually need to buy, often that come in those spray
bottles, make sure to just buy a little set--
you can get them on Amazon--
of the plain, empty spray bottles.
You can label them with what they are.
And then just buy the refills to actually put
the product in them.
Any time you're buying the spray bottle itself with the product,
you're paying way more.
I think I've actually been using the same Meyer's
all-purpose spray bottle for approximately four years.
I just refill it every now and then.
Number seven is new or perfectly matching
furniture and appliances.
It's easy to feel like your pride is wrapped up
in having new things in your home that are just yours
or in having everything match perfectly so that you feel
like a fancy adult. It's so easy to lust
after, like, that perfect, beautiful set
of matching glasses or flatware.
But there are so many good things
to be found in places like thrift stores, Goodwill,
or even in neighborhood-specific Facebook
groups, where people are always looking to get rid of things.
Goodwill is a goldmine for things
like glasses, flatware, small appliances, coffee tables, et
cetera.
One of the members of the TFD team
actually was telling us about this time
she went to a New Year's party, where the host had
25 mismatched champagne glasses that she got from a thrift
store for a couple bucks so that she wouldn't care
if anything happened to them.
And actually, they ended up looking
extremely cute and festive.
And while obviously there are some furniture items
that you want to be a little cautious about buying
secondhand, such as anything with fabric,
it's also really important that you not
associate brand new with mine.
Something can be just as much yours,
just as meaningful and beautiful,
even if it's come third or fourth-hand from a yard sale.
And lastly, the items that you always
end up loving the most in your home
are the ones that you found on some random consignment store
trip and not the thing that you went specifically to IKEA
and bought off the rack.
Number eight is a sitting room.
Now I live in New York City, which
means that I use every last inch of square footage that I have
and have no options for anything even resembling a pointless
room like a sitting room.
But a lot of you guys might live in bigger apartments or houses
where you frankly have more space than you need every day.
And a lot of us also probably grew up
in homes where your parents had something like a sitting
room or a parlor or just, like, this fancy room with chairs
and a table that essentially never gets touched
and is used basically to dust once every six months.
There's still this weird lingering formality
in how we think of homes, that we
think there needs to be some sort of a formal sitting
area that is not where we actually sit or watch TV
or hang out or do anything with other people.
But if you have a room in your home
like a sitting room that is essentially just used for show,
stop it right now.
You are paying for every square foot that you live in.
So take the time to walk around your home,
really take stock of each room, and see what you're not using.
And if there is a room that you're not using,
ask yourself honestly, how could I get a lot of use out of it?
Things like a home office, a home workout room--
you could have a huge walk-in closet or a dressing area.
Whatever it is that you don't have right now and could use,
it's almost always guaranteed to be better
than just random room with fancy chairs
that no one ever goes to.
Every room in your home should be used and loved.
Number nine is the newest version
of your phone or laptop.
Especially in the past decade, the rate
at which new computers and phones come out way
exceeds our need to actually replace them.
One study showed that the average American doesn't even
wait two full years before they replace their phone.
And while sometimes there are great deals that
are offered with upgrading your phone, a lot of times
they're totally unnecessary and come
with sneaky financial elements that you might not
want to be signing up to.
Think about it.
The company is not a charity.
They're not giving you a free phone unless they get something
really good out of it.
If your phone or laptop is starting
to act all slow and weird, your first step
should not be get a new phone.
You can start by exporting the vast majority of your files
onto an external hard drive so that you can wipe your phone
and have way more free memory.
And you can also always visit the Genius
Bar or your local phone store to see what they
have to say about the issue.
The important thing is to make sure you take at least two
or three other steps with repairing and upgrading
your pre-existing electronics before jumping
to upgrading and replacing it.
It's not just for your phone or laptop.
It's also a mentality that things are not
meant to be temporary.
They're meant to be used to their fullest capacity
until you really feel the day-to-day pinch
to get a new one.
Changing this mentality about your electronics
is almost guaranteed to spill into other elements
of your shopping decisions.
And don't forget, every day that you get more
use out of a product that you paid
for, you decrease that cost per use down to pennies.
Now some of these items I've talked about today,
you may have already spent money on.
But don't feel bad about it.
The point is not to beat yourself up
over every little financial decision.
The point is to think hard about what is really worth it to you
and what you're just tempted to buy because our brain loves
shiny new things.
So as always, thank you for watching.
And don't forget to hit the Subscribe button
and come back every Tuesday for new and awesome videos.
Bye.