The 5 Stupidest Things Americans Overspend On (Hint: Coffee Isn’t One of Them).

I’m a massive coupon/savings nerd, and an embarrassing amount of my time is spent talking to people to find out how much they’re spending.

In my experience, the average American is overpaying for things on an almost daily basis.

Here are the 5 worst culprits for overspending (and how you can save money by avoiding them):

(Note: this page has affiliate links, I get paid when you click on them, so click on them a lot!)

1. Online shopping

You might be surprised how often you’re overpaying on Amazon and elsewhere.

Big stores like Amazon know that no one has time to price shop through dozens of sites, so there’s often no incentive for them to offer bargain prices.

I typically hate browser extensions with a fiery passion, but if you don’t have Capital One Shopping installed yet, do yourself a favor and grab it.

When you shop online (on Amazon or elsewhere) it will:

1. Auto-apply coupon codes for you to save you money
2. Compare prices from other sellers to make sure you’re not missing out on a better deal

It’s saved me a ton of money more than once. Here’s a quick example:

Savings will vary, this is just an example, of course.

That same exact blender was $26 cheaper at another store (with 2 day shipping) when I shopped.

Here’s a link to install Capital One Shopping, if you’re interested.

2. Auto insurance.

Believe it or not, the average American family still overspends by $417/year¹ on car insurance.

Here’s how to quickly see how much you’re being overcharged (takes maybe 30 seconds):

1. Pull up Coverage.org – it’s a free site that will compare prices for you
2. Answer the questions on the page
3. It’ll spit out a bunch of insurance quotes for you.

That’s literally it. You’ll likely save yourself a bunch of money.

Here’s a link to Coverage.org.

3. Get paid for your screentime

Very few people know about it, but Nielsen (the company that measures TV ratings) will actually pay you for the time you spend on your phone or PC.

You basically are part of a mini-research study: you just install an app on your device that will give Nielsen anonymous data on how much you use your phone, etc.

Not everybody qualifies for it, but if you do, it’s a sweet gig.

4. Make money by giving your opinions

There are companies that pay for you to give feedback. Really.

Sites like Branded Surveys are super simple. Sign up, set-up your profile with basic information about yourself, then you can start completing surveys.

In exchange for the time you spend responding to service, you’ll be rewarded with gift cards.

5. Credit card debt

There is nothing worse than stressing over credit card debt. Interest rates are nasty and if you have multiple credit cards, you could just be making your bank richer, and yourself more stressed out. Bankrate is a site which can help you pay them off before your next bill comes in.

Here’s how it works: After answering a few quick questions, Bankrate will match you with a loan which you can use to pay off your credit card debt. This may seem counterintuitive, but it actually means you’ll be able to get out of debt faster because you only have one bill to pay each month at a much lower interest rate.

How much you can get as a personal loan will depend on your credit score, etc but you could qualify for up to $100k.

It only takes two minutes and is 100% free to find out if you qualify, you can check online here. It could save you a ton of money in interest rates, so it’s worth finding out if you can get a better deal.

That’s all (for now).

Those are my top 5 savings tips for the time being (as of 5/2/23) but I’ll keep adding to this article as I find new tips for you.

Thanks for reading!