According to a recent study, Americans are wasting $18,000 on nonessential items a year.

$18,000. Guys, that could be going toward paying down your debt, retirement or even your emergency fund.

I mean, you could do so many things with that money.

Could you imagine if you had that money saved in the bank, how much better you would sleep at night versus spending it on stuff that really doesn't matter?

Well, I put together a list of categories of things that you do not need to spend money on, okay.

And I've broken them down into three different categories.

The first one: subscriptions.

Smartphone apps, yep. They can get expensive.

I may or may not have purchased workout app that I thought you had to pay a little bit each month.

No, no. They charged ole Rachel's account the entire amount.

So I got charged $109 for this dang workout app that later, come find out, it had workouts that basically you could get from the Nike app for free.

But, oh, it just broke my heart and still scarred me to this day.

But really, we can waste a lot of money on apps.

Even those games that you're addicted to.

Yeah, it's like well 99 cents to buy this thing here or that thing here, and it just seems harmless.

But when you look, Americans spend almost $100 a year buying stuff in their mobile games.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Also, subscription boxes.

Yeah, like Birchbox, Graze, Stitch Fix, BarkBox.

These are all really fun.

They're super convenient, but if you're getting out of debt, especially, or saving up for your emergency fund, places that you can cut.

Ah, cable, mmm, I'm sorry to say it, but it's true.

Things like cable, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube TV, all of these subscriptions that are around— you can cut those.

Because the average cable bill is $85 a month.

That's over $1,000 a year.

So remember, it's 2019. There's so many free or cheap options that you can have to watch TV, so look into that.

And I even went and looked at the top ten shows on TV right now, and eight out of 10 of them are on free TV.

So you don't need cable or a subscription to watch those.

So you can keep up with the trends of all the great shows without spending all the money.

All right, the next category that you don't need to spend money on is in the financial space, okay.

Timeshares, oh, no, no, no.

The average timeshare will cost you around $19,000, plus you have annual fees every year, and they're basically impossible to get rid of.

People are always wanting out of timeshares, and they can't get out.

Now if you're stuck in a timeshare and you really want to get out, there's an amazing company that will help you: Timeshare Exit.

So I'll put a link in the show notes to link to them, so make sure to check them out.

Also in the financial category is whole life insurance.

We talk about life insurance on here a lot, but it's just true. Whole life insurance is going to cost you 10 times more than term life.

Get it out of here.

Extended warranties. Research shows that if you need a repair on an appliance, the majority of the time, it is even outside the warranty time.

So save that average $126 people usually spend on the extended warranty. Put it back in your pocket.

Last but not least in this category is the lottery.

Yes, the average American spends $223 a year on the lottery, which equals $80 billion overall.

And we all know the stats about the chances that you're going to win the lottery.

Okay, it's not gonna happen.

Let's just throw it out there. It's not gonna happen.

So save your money there.

And the last category you don't need to spend money on is when it comes to clothes and fashion.

The average American spends $3,000 a year on clothes.

I mean, how many times have you walked into your full closet and said, "Oh, I just don't have anything to wear?"

Yeah, it happens to me. I'm guilty of that.

But you know what it comes back to?

It's not that you don't have anything to wear.

Obviously you do, but it's a heart issue.

It's a contentment issue.

And so contentment is a huge part of this money message, you guys, and so we put together a special bundle for this episode that pairs my "Contentment Journal" with my book "Love Your Life, Not Theirs," because they pair so well together.

And again, it gets you in this place of practicing contentment.

So you can check that out if you click the link in the show notes.