These are the three harmless expenses that sabotage your finances and “suck up your money constantly and silently”

When we plan our domestic economy We write down the income and expenses and we always try to ensure that there is a certain balance in the budget we prepare. so that reaching the end of the month does not become a real ordeal. However, it is common that, due to certain circumstances, We always end up spending more than planned.

Buying a coffee or a bottle of water at the vending machine at work, a subscription to a platform streaming that we do not have control over or the charging of bank fees for our credit cards are some Avoidable expenses that sneak silently and discreetly into our personal finances but, little by little, they are harming our private economy without us realizing it.

“They are consumptions that They seem harmless, but over a long period of time they can affect the budget and avoiding them can lead to saving a good amount of money, without making much effort” he explains. BBVA in his blog specialized in savings in reference to those known as ant, ghost and vampire expenses. From Openbankfinancial institution on-line of the Santander Group, point out that these three expenses “although small, can drain your budget without you realizing it” because “they ‘suck’ your money constantly and silently.”

To put an end to these unplanned expenses that deteriorate our finances, it is advisable prepare a detailed record of all our expenses during a certain period of time and establish approximately what amount and percentage they represent of our income. In this way, we can know how they are really affecting our budget to become aware and eliminate them immediately.

All personal finance experts agree that to achieve healthy finances you must plan well how we should spend our income and be disciplinedin addition to doing everything possible to save. In general, It is recommended to use around 10% of your salary to saveas long as it does not affect the payment of commitments that we may have acquired (housing, supplies, car bill…). Below we review in detail what exactly the ant, ghost and vampire expenses consist of.

Ant expenses: an insignificant cost that becomes gigantic

As small as the tiniest insects but with a huge impact on the consumer’s pocket at the end of the month. Actions as everyday as having a coffee in a bar, buying a bag of chips or a bottle of water It may seem that they do not involve an economic effort.

However, persevering in them can be very detrimental to our family finances. They are part of the group called ant expenses, known as such because of the apparent insignificance of their cost. It is about avoidable and repeated payments you make almost without realizing it and spontaneously, so they give you the impression that they do not affect your personal finances, but that they can become the most fearsome enemy for your economy.

“They are small expenses that you don’t realize on a day-to-day basis but that in the end end up adding up quite a bit and having a significant impact on a person’s budget. If, for example, If you drink two coffees a day for 1.5 euros, that’s 90 euros a month.which for twelve months is more than 1,000 euros a year simply in coffees,” he says Richard Gracia Ansosavings and finance expert and author of The RICO Method (Independent Publisher, 2020) and Super savers (Alienta Editorial, 2022).

Phantom expenses: you don’t see them but they appear suddenly

According to Openbank, it is “those that you don’t remember doing or that go unnoticed” despite its notoriety. They are carried out suddenly and without having them planned, so we forget them and they can give us a good scare when reviewing our accounts. It can range from the gym fee you don’t go to to the periodic payment for the use of a mobile application that you don’t use or contracted insurance that you don’t know you have.

From Asesorae, a company specialized in business advice, which indicates that among phantom expenses one of the greatest dangers is “impulse purchases”that is: those unplanned acquisitions that are made out of an emotional desire instead of a real need.

Vampire expenses: be careful because it is not

They are considered due to their enormous impact as the older brothers of the so-called ant expenses. “They are those expenses that, despite being fixed, cannot be easily detected because they are not considered in the budget and they have an even greater impact compared to the other two,” explains BBVA.

“If they are constant they can suck money until your wallet is lifeless, well “they take 30% of the monthly income”warns the Condusef (National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services in Mexico) about vampire expenses. Within vampire expenses too There are those related to the misuse of household appliances or electrical devices. and problems with supplies.

A small water leak in a pipe that cannot be seen, electronic devices that remain in standby consuming energy while not in use or subscriptions to audiovisual platforms that do not appear in our monthly budget are some of the most common examples of vampire expenses.

Tips to try to avoid them

-Keep exhaustive monitoring of our expenses. To know our ‘enemy’ we must first analyze it in depth. That is why it is convenient to write down the expenses we are making in a list. “After a month, add them up to realize how those expenses actually go. This helps to gain awareness,” explains Gracia Anso.

-Establish a budget. Once you know the amount of these expenses, you must establish a budget for them. A fixed amount, whether daily, weekly or monthly, that must not be exceeded. This will help you greatly reduce the total cost of these expenses. For example, instead of eating in restaurants four times a week, do it only twice.

-Plan purchases. Planning is an essential requirement to avoid this type of expense, although it must be accompanied by enormous discipline. Making a list of what you really need helps you avoid temptations and buying whims, especially when going to the supermarket.

-Look for a free or similar alternative. There are always cheaper or free options that can give us an identical or similar result. If every day, for example, we buy a bottle of water at the machine at work, we can choose to buy that same bottle at the supermarket or bring our own container and drink tap water.

-Control impulses. Try not to buy things compulsively. Don’t buy just to buy. “You have to give at least 24 hours of reflection, although there are experts who advise 48 hours and even a week, because many times in the heat of the moment you think that something is very necessary but after a few days you realize that you really don’t need it,” says the author of Super savers.

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