It’s easy to do very stupid things with your money. The world is full of great marketers who will happily shovel up all your hard-earned cash and bag it up while doing a private celebratory dance. Don’t do the things on this list and you’ll be doing a little jig of your own – because you’ll have more cash in your stash.

Here are 10 insanely stupid things you can do with your money this week

1. Buy stuff on hire purchase

You will have seen them: The little advertisements at Hi-Fi shops offering deals where you don’t have to pay until 2017. Will guess what? If you can’t afford it now, you won’t be able to afford it later, and you certainly won’t be able to afford it with interest added. Don’t get sucked into these deals. They are designed to rob you dry of your money. Instead, save your pennies and you will have your item and also own it. You can also enjoy the pleasure of owning your new thing, without worrying about having to pay for it.

2. Don’t hire an insurance broker

If you have many insurances in your life for home, car, health, and so on – you would be silly, not to hire an insurance broker. Firstly an insurance broker will get you the best policies and do all the legwork. Do you really have an entire day to call insurance companies? But more importantly, if you have to make a claim, your insurance broker will be able to advise you on the best course of action.

3. Spend all your money and don’t save anything

Go out today and open your wallet to just about anyone who will take your money. Don’t go out with a plan when you go out today, and bench around the shops aimlessly looking at stuff that you might like to buy. This is a sure way to spend a quick $50 and come home with a little bit of junk and a little less money in the kitty.

4. Eat takeaway food every week for a year

If you’d like to throw some good money into the wind you should consider eating takeaway food at least once a week.  Go for it! Jump in the car with the entire family and head off to your local buffet or pizzeria. Make sure you are all extremely hungry before venturing out. While you are there spend up to $70 digging into some pricey tucker. Definitely don’t go out for lunch instead of dinner if you want to spent lots of money, because lunch certainly costs less than dinner if you venture into a restaurant. If you are a family of four, say goodbye to about $3640 dollars this year by eating out every week.

5. Buy a house that  is well beyond your means

If you are looking for a house, definitely go for the house that is at least $40-$50,000 more than you can afford. With the compound interest you will be paying throughout the year you will surely be up for a good dose of mortgage stress. As the years go by you’ll be paying much more for your house. Definitely don’t go for a house that needs a little bit of renovation, because houses like these cost less and this way you might actually save money and have a little bit of money left over for managing daily cashflow, as well as your family’s living expenses. Just go for the type of house that will impress everyone you know. You may enjoy seeing the look on your jealous friends’ faces but you might have to eat noodles for dinner and work like a slave all year to pay for your overpriced house. Buy hey – at least your house is awesome 🙂 Warning: Your friends won’t be the hungry mouths staring back at you at the dinner table!

6. Tell all the people in your life you are rich

A great way to lose more money in life, is to tell all your friends that you’re richer than you are. If your friends believe you are rich, they will expect you to put your hand in your pocket every time you are out at a restaurant, bar or at other establishments and events. If you don’t put your hand in your pocket, and you profess to be rich, they will think you to be very much the miser. You are better to tell the truth to your friends. Tell them that you are on a budget. Don’t gloat or boast about your economic status. If you have friends you have to lie to, they aren’t really worth having – are they?

7. Avoid checking the money in your bank accounts regularly

Another great way two throw money into the wind like confetti, is to not check your bank accounts daily. This way companies, such as insurance companies or those taking direct debits from you, can happily extract money from your bank account without you seeing the amounts coming out. If you don’t check your bank accounts you will find it very easy to lose money every day and you will feel insanely stupid when you check your bank account next. It is very hard to get money back after the fact, so you are best to check debits as they happen. Stay focused and stay on top of your accounts daily. There are automated ways to do this these days, so there really is no excuse.

8. Randomly buy items at the supermarket without a shopping list

If you want to open your wallet and throw some money down the toilet, consider heading to the supermarket today without a shopping list or budget. Happily open your wallet at the checkout after filling your trolley up with lots of goodies that you don’t need. Then allow the checkout person to take your money with a big fat smile on their face. You may find that if you have paid an exorbitant amount of money at the supermarket, you may not enjoy the meals and goodies you wanted to enjoy in the first place. Eating becomes a real downer when you can’t afford anything else because you spent all your money at the supermarket!

9. Visit shops and stores regularly for absolutely no reason

Screw up more money into a little ball and throw the ball over a fence. This is what you will be doing if you visit shops and stores regularly for absolutely no reason. Consider walking around the store for an hour or two, browsing the shelves of home decor shops and clothing stores. All the marketing in these stores will make you feel very special indeed. After that, you will probably buy something you saw and put it in a bag and take it home. Say goodbye to another $50 or $100 after your random trip to the shops!

10. Don’t do regular cost slashing exercises

Finally, don’t do this:

• Don’t sit down every three months with all your accounts and expenses in front of you.
• Don’t look through all your bank accounts and find out what’s been coming in and out.
• Never question what you need as opposed to what you want.
• Never find those unwanted subscriptions that you signed up for, that you now realise you’ve never used.
• Never look at your accounts to see if anything that you have signed up for has gone up in price.
• Never read up on how much you spent on groceries or utilities in the last quarter.
• Never compare what you spent as opposed to other quarters.

If you never do any of these things, you could easily fill up a wheelbarrow full of cash, with all the money you might otherwise throw away. If you’d like to do something really stupid with your money, take the wheelbarrow and dump it into a river. Because that’s what’s happening to your hard-earned cash if you don’t slash your expenses regularly.

Got any other insanely stupid things you could do with your money? Share them in comments below.