Vampire Expenses: What They Are and How to Get Rid of Them to Save More

In everyone's financial life, there are creatures that take money from our accounts, just like vampires in movies suck our blood. You can't see them, you can't hear them... but when you least expect them, they're there, draining your euros as if there were no tomorrow. We talk about the Vampire expenses, those small everyday expenses that, when accumulated, can shake your budget.

What are Vampire Expenses?

Vampire expenses are those small payments that you make almost without realizing it, but that leave your account dry at the end of the month. These can be seemingly harmless things, such as a subscription to an app that you no longer use, that coffee machine that you consume as if it were air, or even that habit of ordering something quick for food when you don't feel like cooking.

Think of them as a collection of small bites: each one doesn't hurt much, but all together they can cause your account balance to plummet.

Common Types of Vampire Spending

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To help you identify them, here's a list of the most common vampire expenses hidden in your daily life:

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Forgotten subscriptions: Spotify, Netflix, gym, meditation apps... If you're not using any, it's time to say goodbye!

Bank fees: Reviewing your bank's charges can give you a good scare. Fees for maintenance, for transfers, for withdrawing money from cash machines... Do you really need them?

Phantom energy costs: Appliances that we leave plugged in, lights on, chargers connected... everything adds up to the electricity bill without you realizing it.

Impulsive online shopping: Amazon, sales, last-minute purchases. Surely more than once you have bought something that you did not need just because of the discount.

How to Save and Get Rid of Vampire Expenses

Now that you've identified these mini thieves in your budget, it's time to hunt them down and get your money back. Here are some tricks to curb these expenses and start seeing your savings grow.

Review your subscriptions every month: Make a list of the subscriptions you have. Ask yourself if you really use each one of them. If the answer is “no”, cancel it without regret.

Avoid bank fees: Investigate if there are accounts without commissions and favorable conditions. Changing banks or talking to your current bank can save you a lot each year.

Control “energy vampires” at home: Disconnect devices that you are not using. Use power strips with a switch and turn them off when you don't need them.

Buy with a head: Every time you go to buy something, ask yourself: “Do I really need it?” Wait a day before making the impulse purchase; many times, you won't even remember what you were going to buy.

Activate rounding to save without realizing it: A simple technique to start saving while “hunting” these vampire expenses is to activate a rounding function in your account. With this tool, each purchase is rounded up to the nearest euro, and the difference is accumulated as savings. Effortlessly and without realizing it, you get rid of those mini expenses that slip away every day and build an extra mattress.

How Much Can You Save by Eliminating Vampire Expenses?

Save effortlessly by making small changes. Imagine that you manage to cut those coffees to go or that you discover that you were paying for two streaming platforms that you barely see. In a year, you could add up to several hundred euros in savings just by eliminating these small expenses.

In short

Identifying and eliminating vampire spending is a simple way to improve your economy. Although they seem insignificant, these expenses can affect your ability to save. So open your eyes wide, review your spending and start saying goodbye to these financial vampires.

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