5 Items You Don’t Need to Buy, According to Reddit

The purchases we make in our day-to-day lives are often products of habit. Sure, there are little necessities that we buy regularly, but there are absolutely items we could do without. With this in mind, we’ve consulted Reddit to see which items people think you can do without. Unsurprisingly, r/Frugal has some interesting suggestions. Here are some of our favourites from the mix.

5 things you don’t need to buy (but probably do)

Loads of streaming subscriptions:

If you’ve ever taken a moment to look at how much it costs to sign up for every streaming service, you’ll know that it’s an expensive affair.

Substantial_Ad_533 shared that they have begun “rotating our streaming service. One month we’ll do Netflix, then the next Disney or whatever, so we’re only paying for one service per month instead of 4-5.”

This works if you know when the shows you’d like to watch are dropping, so you can plan your subscription rotation well.

Dining out:

Seems like a fairly obvious one, but a number of Redditors shared that they were floored when they realised how much they were spending on dining out or ordering in. Obviously, this is a difficult one to cut out completely, especially if you’re busy – but dialling down the habit of buying food out can make a massive difference.

Paper towels:

Sure, there are loads of uses for the humble paper towel, but there were a handful of Redditors who shared that they either stopped buying or limited their use of this household staple by swapping to reusable cloths instead.

DangerousLawfulness4 shared they only “use paper towels for greasy messes, [and instead use] cloth towels for everything else. Saves so much money.”

Body wash:

Bit of an interesting one, but no one is suggesting you don’t bathe. Instead, Maximum-Plate4247 shared that “Bar soap is cheaper and I love how it feels on my skin”. In short, don’t buy body wash; buy bar soap.

New razors:

Disposable razors can add up over time, so pumpkin_spice_enema shared that “partner and I changed to refillable and just replace individual blades from time to time, which are cheap as hell. It’s a more challenging shave, but works.”

Other suggestions spanned across buying your coffee and lunch out when working from an office (unsurprising), as well as avoiding purchasing alcohol and only shopping for clothing at thrift stores.

Have you stopped buying something because it was draining your bank account for no good reason? Let us know in the comments section!

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