 Every social economic group spends money on things. However, a difference exists between what the poor and rich spend their money on respectively. In this video, I will be sharing with you the 9 things that poor people waste their money on. The point of this video is not to make you feel wrong about how you spend your money but it is for you to have a deep thought about the things you spend your money on and the value they add to your life. 1. Food waste and drinks Recent studies show that the average American household is wasting approximately $20,000 per year on food that they throw away. Most people tend to buy what they think they can use, not what ought to be consumed and 8 out of 10 times such people are wrong about what they assume they can consume. Because poor people do not always have the leisure of eating whatever they want when they get little bucks, they tend to buy more than they need and those groceries end up in the trash most of the time. Furthermore, poor people are mostly attracted to coffee and other drinks. They assume that two bucks are too little an amount to withhold from satisfying their cravings. Although $2-3 may seem small, the habit of continuously spending such amount for weeks and months often leads them to be broke in no time. 2. Underlying illnesses Do you ever look forward to your annual visit to the dentist? Hell no! That stuff is scary and will take much money as I don't have insurance so I will probably chill and wait till my tooth begins to ache before I visit a dentist. After all, then I will be paying for an actual service. That is the typical thinking of a poor person. Poor people often assume that general checkups are a waste of money so they will instead withhold that money. However, they fail to realize that the continual refusal to go for health maintenance may cause them to pay more later on. The fact about your health is that the more you ignore it, the more damaged it becomes. Finally, it might get to a point where you are forced to spend a fortune on implants and surgeries. 3. Games and in-app purchases You download a free game on your phone. You spend a reasonable amount of time playing this game and you get addicted. You get to a particular level and you run out of coins. Immediately, the app tells you that you can purchase more coins with a few dollars. Well, it's just a small amount and you already love the game so you pay. A few days later, you repurchase it again and again. Wait a second. Did you know that 70% of Fortnite players spend money in the game? The average amount these people spend for digital items in Fortnite alone is $84.67 and that Candy Crush was making $3 million per day from people buying extra lives or whatever they used to purchase in-game. Many poor people do not only waste their money on in-app purchases, they spend their mobile subscription plans playing games online and also they waste the hours of their time which can translate to money. Time is money. Guess what? The rich guys are the ones who build those games. 4. Coupons for buying random stuff What do you do when you are surfing on the net and a coupon ad pops up? No doubt tokens are incredible but they are beneficial only when you are buying something you already budgeted. A lot of people however waste their money on unnecessary things just because they see a coupon ad. For instance, 20% off the prices of all meals in an expensive restaurant nearby. Sure, it's a great deal but you can keep that money and eat your dinner at home as planned. For some reason, poor people see coupons and discounts as opportunities. However, for the rich, when you purchase items that you don't need or want because of a ticket you wasted some bucks that you would have used for other things on your budget. 5. Fortune tellers and lucky charms When things are not going well in a person's life it is only natural to seek for answers. Out of curiosity, people attempt to learn about their future to find direction or even get knowledge about their family background. However, most of these fortune tellers are scammers looking to make quick dollars from vulnerable individuals. And many poor people never learn. George Clayson wrote in his book The Rich's Madden Babylon that good luck can only be enticed by accepting the opportunity. While the rich understand that a person's future is an outcome of choices made the poor often think that they are just unlucky. Thus, they search for fortune tellers and waste money on lucky stones and charms to make their lives better. 6. Impulse Buy In an interview with Forbes, Warren Buffett said if you buy things you don't need soon you will have to sell things you need. Even the rich sometimes spend money on things they desire. However, they give proper thoughts about it and ensure that it is on their budget. Making a purchase whim is never an attitude of the wealthy. You really don't need to purchase a new phone case when the one you are still using still looks new. Even if your gas cylinder lighter is running low you do not need to purchase a replacement at a higher cost just because your attention was drawn to the fancy one you saw through a shop's transparent door. A study done in the UK showed that the average Brit would spend over £150,000 on impulse purchases in his or her lifetime. That's a lot of money that could be used for other better reasons. It pays to know the difference between your wants and needs and buy only items on your budget or of pressing need. 7. Latest Gadgets While it is fantastic to move along with technology as it advances it is also necessary to put your financial state into consideration. Often the motivation behind getting the latest kind of gadget is to keep up with friends. However, if you carefully compare you will observe that there are no remarkable differences between one phone and the next. It is mostly just a slight variation, maybe a better camera. Having the money to pay for a new phone does not make it a must for you to purchase. You cannot afford it. Changing your phone every time a new one comes into the market is not wise. Rich people do not do that. The rich use their gadgets longer than the poor and replace them only when they need to. They take good care of them and are not swayed by the latest ones. 8. Penalties for late payments According to Dave Bach, author of Smart Women Finish Rich, late fees can add up to a fortune. Rich people do not miss paying their bills because they detest wasting their money on some pesky penalties for late fees. When the poor tend to carry over their payments to a later time the rich diligently set up auto-pay on all their accounts. A report by the Mudley Fool showed that in 2016 credit card companies raked in $12 billion in penalty payments including late fees. Savvy spenders avoid late fees by automating their expenses but the poor ones struggle with delayed payments. 9. Gambling A 2012 study at Yale University found that those in the lowest fifth in terms of socioeconomic status had the highest rate of lottery gambling about 61% and the highest mean level of days gambled in the past year 26.1 days. Gambling can be anything from going to the casino to buying lottery tickets. The thought of putting a little amount of money into a machine and getting a more massive amount is quite irresistible. You also assume that it is just a small amount of money. If you lose it, it takes nothing from you. But when you try the first time and it does not work, you tend to try again. Again and again. It's indeed funny how people never give up when it comes to gambling but find it difficult to hold on to genuine opportunities that can change their lives. Gambling is addictive and in most cases it is the poor that gets entangled in it because of their quest for quick wealth. When you are aware and conscious of your spending habits you will find yourself climbing up the socioeconomic ladder faster than you can ever imagine. Take out time to ponder about what saps your money the most and fix it.