The 7 Worst Money Mistakes (Almost) All Everyone Makes

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I’m a massive coupon/savings nerd, and an embarrassing amount of my time is spent talking to people to find out how they’re spending their money.

In my experience, the average person is making pretty serious financial errors on a daily basis.

Here are the 8 worst mistakes I typically see (and how you can save money by avoiding them):

1. Not getting paid for screentime (Earning potential: up to £3k/week)

Sounds nuts, obviously, but the idea of playing cash solitaire as a side gig has been around for years, and can be surprisingly lucrative (if you’re good enough, anyway).

The whole thing revolves around Solitaire Cash (a free iOS game).

The game itself is really simple: You play solitaire head-to-head against another real person. Whoever solves their deck the fastest wins real cash.

If you can get good at the game, it can be surprisingly lucrative: typically up to £60/game for the winner. Each game takes ~2 minutes, in my experience.

You can grab the game here.

2. Not using an ad blocker.

If you aren’t using an ad blocker yet, I ambeggingyou to try one. I am not exaggerating when I say it will change your life.

3. Not getting solar panels.

It’s a common misconception that in the UK it isn’t sunny enough to have solar panels (we can understand why most people would assume that).

But, the truth is the UK is more than sunny enough to not only have solar panels, but for them to generate power all throughout the year.

In fact, some people report saving up to 70% on their electricity bills after switching to solar energy.

Yes, solar panels come with an additional cost, but they should last you 25 years, (at least). So even if it takes 10 years to pay them off, that’s 15 years of solar energy and massive savings on your energy bill.

If that interests you, there’s this site called We Are Solar which will help get you quotes from a range of different, vetted, companies across the UK.

4. Not getting paid to test games.

There are a bunch of apps that will pay you to test out new games & apps and provide your feedback (sometimes physical products too).

I typically useTesterUp, but there are others too. It’s free: you just sign up and pick which tests look fun/interesting to you. I’ve seen tests pay as much as £120, which can add up pretty quickly.

Here’s a link to the app.

5. Playing games for free (when you could be getting paid up to £2,000/week).

If you get a minute, take a look atBingo Cash– it’s kind of like the solitaire game I mentioned above, but with speed bingo instead (perfect if you’re not that into solitaire).

You play against a real opponent, and the winner of the game wins a real cash prize.

Check out the leaderboards sometime to see how much the pros are making (it’s absurd – sometimes £2k-£3k/week).

Get the game here.

6. Not paying off credit card debt.

Debt can be really overwhelming, and sometimes the idea of taking control back of your finances seems impossible.

But, believe it or not, there are companies (like Flexible Debt Solutions) that are willing to help you pay off your debt.

Here’s how it normally works:

A company like Flexible Debt Solutions (or another similar company) will negotiate on your behalf with your credit card companies, banks etc. and try to reduce your debt.
If they can, they’ll consolidate it all so you only have to make one monthly payment to one place.

A lot of times you’ll end up paying much less than you originally owed. Here’s a quick form you can fill out to connect with experienced debt experts (free of charge).

That’s all (for now).

Thanks for reading!

Companies mentioned in this article have not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by included advertisers. Opinions are ours alone.

The 7 Worst Money Mistakes (Almost) All Everyone Makes – Betterbuck™ (2024)