This article will provide a few things that people tend to waste money on, including a brief explanation. Anything that you genuinely want to spend money on is to be considered useful, the rest might fall under the title referred category. Remember time is also a valuable commodity that can be expensed.
At the very top of the list: Fancy feasts, spending a huge amount of money on something that is immediately digested is just plain wasteful. The occasional bottle of delicious booze or regular food delivery is absolutely fine, but going to an expensive restaurant will result in a massive upcharge which you could spend on even more great food at the grocery store. Any form of social spending could be considered as part of this: You spend money to be amongst people, but what return are you going to get on that expenditure? Holidays tend to be good example, as they are wildly expensive and rarely offer any form of relaxation beyond the first day of getting back to work.
Purchasing an item simply because they feel like it: The most common wasteful spending is small purchases made by short term decision with little to no thought. The best example is buying a coffee on the go, which usually costs a lot and does not even offer short term advantage as you can easily take coffee with you from home or any other beverage. There actually are people who have second jobs/mortgages to support these kind of expenses without realising it.
Buying items, for general us or hobby, and claim that it is an investment or equal to their friends actual investments. Items created for usage can certainly bring benefit or even result in more/better production, but that would require a huge bag of money and several hours of research to ensure such a result; therefor something that you just don`t buy on a regular basis. The difference between non and actual investments can be blurry, just think about the mid to long term benefit compared to purchasing price and time invested, and you know the answer.
Entertainment is also a common error: Spending money on something just to keep you occupied is usually not the wisest choice*. We at Opinion Economics have rule of trying to spend less than 1 EUR per hour of entertainment received, this is used to decide whether or not the choice to spend was a good one. This relatively low budget does mean social activities are generally off the board (a movie ticket already costs over 10 EUR and the travel expense alone would require nearly a quarter of a day). But there are other options, such as video games, which can be replayed after some time, or media streaming services. The entertainment per hour rule is not limited to the immediate, it can be spread over time. Although the immediate entertainment offered is a good rule of thumb as anything beyond that is just speculation at time of purchase.
Besides earlier hints at social interactions, quite possibly the biggest waste of money, and time, is for someone who you just do not like. The likely reason behind such spending, in experience of the author, is because it is mandated by either work or family. In case of work, you probably should abide to avoid losing income or opportunity. With family, it does make you wonder if members who force you to waste two highly valuable commodities on a anything, should not also be considered a waste as well.
Now an attempt at a basic rule to avoid frivolous spending: If you do not really need something, or are having difficulty in deciding if it is worth it; don`t spend!
*The author realises that this blog is an example of precisely that, proving the listed exception in the intro: If you really want something, it is not frivolous.
