{"id":73530,"date":"2025-07-18T20:17:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73530\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T20:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:17:18","slug":"5-essentials-not-to-waste-your-money-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73530\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ‘Essentials’ Not To Waste Your Money On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"man-running-tracker-armband-fitness-app-tracker\" <\/p>\n

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Commitment to Our Readers<\/p>\n

GOBankingRates’ editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services – our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines<\/a> and our products and services review methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Social media has shortened the time it takes for consumer fads<\/a> that appear out of nowhere to fully entrench themselves into consumers\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

GOBankingRates recently looked at some of the more wasteful of these out-of-the-blue \u201cessentials,\u201d and invited Mary Clements Evans, an accredited behavioral financial professional, bestselling author and founder and president of Evans Wealth Strategies<\/a>, to suggest money-saving alternatives.<\/p>\n

Skincare Routines for Kids<\/p>\n

Children and adolescents have turned skincare into a hobby. The most zealous are the \u201cSephora kids\u201d obsessed with expensive products and elaborate skincare routines. Not only are many of the products a waste of money, some contain ingredients that can damage young skin.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAny good dermatologist will tell you that the best thing you do for your skin or for your children\u2019s skin is to keep them out of the sun,\u201d Evans said.\u00a0\u201cA good tube of sunscreen will cost you a fraction of skincare routines, and last a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meal Kits<\/p>\n

Meal kit subscribers like the convenience of selecting recipes, then having the ingredients delivered to their doors. But despite claims that the kits save money by reducing waste, they\u2019re actually quite pricey \u2014 often $11 or $12 per meal under some of the most popular plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great news is, most large supermarkets have so many things that are partially prepped for you,\u201d Evans said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a working mom, Evans prepared food in large batches because it didn\u2019t cost much more to make 12 servings as it did to make four.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou save yourself a lot of money, and now you don\u2019t have to prepare dinner a few nights a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bachelor and Bachelorette Trips<\/p>\n

Brides and grooms used to celebrate their last days of singlehood with a party or a night on the town. Now, bachelor and bachelorette trips are increasingly common, and they\u2019re stretching the budgets<\/a> of brides and grooms as well as their attendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people need to ask themselves: What is the best part of being with friends? I know with my group of girlfriends, it\u2019s just being in each other\u2019s company, talking, laughing and having a good time,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIf you get together for a party in someone\u2019s home, that can be just as memorable as going someplace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cIt might not sound as exciting when you post on social media, but having money in the bank is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitness Trackers<\/p>\n

People are using fitness trackers to collect data on everything from heart rate to steps taken, calories burned and the length and quality of sleep. Maintaining healthy habits is a good thing. But obsessive monitoring doesn\u2019t necessarily provide more benefit, and it can cost a small fortune in expensive devices and subscription fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping yourself fit is not just healthy, it\u2019s a way to save money,\u201d Evans noted, but she acknowledged that most people aren\u2019t taking action based on all of that data.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly buy one [tracker], that has the data that you will really use. Don\u2019t pay for data you don\u2019t use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Designer Water Bottles<\/p>\n

Remember when you only drank water if you were actually thirsty, and you drank it out of a plain old glass? As awareness about the importance of hydration has grown, water bottles have become as much an accessory as a way to carry fluids while you go about your day. Name-brand bottles easily cost $30 or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe return on the investment comes from drinking the water, not from what the outside of the bottle says,\u201d Evans said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9Shutterstock.com Commitment to Our Readers GOBankingRates’ editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,8726,255,7545,2107,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-73530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gobankingrates","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-saving-money","12":"tag-shopping","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114876084806131323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}