Life is full of unnecessary stuff. I recently posted about the evils of stuff. Stuff costs money but it doesn’t deliver value. Stuff saps your pocketbook and takes you further away from your financial goals. You should strive to eliminate stuff from your life.

Stuff is insidious and it’s ubiquitous. Sometimes, stuff is so obvious we fail to notice it.

With this in mind, I hereby present five types of stuff you can eliminate from your life today. You won’t notice any reduction in your quality of life. You’ll simply have more money in your pocket!

Fabric softener. Try this little experiment. Next time you wash your clothes, do so without the aid of fabric softener, then check to see whether your clothes come out hard. If not, you can quit buying fabric softener! The same thing goes for dryer sheets.

Drano. In almost all cases, one or more of the following remedies will clear up a tough clog: 1) Take a plunger to it. 2) Pour about half a cup of baking soda paste down the drain, then follow up with vinegar. This should create a fun, bubbly mess and will likely dissolve the clog. 3) Dump a potful of boiling water down the drain.

Garbage bags. Get a small garbage can and line it with plastic bags from the grocery store.

Premium gas. Unless your car’s manufacturer says you need it, premium gas offers no benefit. It doesn’t increase your gas mileage, it doesn’t make your engine last longer, and it doesn’t bring you good luck. It’s simply a waste of money!

Bottled water. I know, I know, it tastes better than tap water (in most places I’ve lived, anyway). But you know what tastes about like bottled water? Tap water that’s been run through a filter. I’ve used Brita and Pur filters and both brands have worked great. Tap water is literally about 1000 times cheaper then any kind of bottled water, so if you refuse to drink H2O directly from the tap, you’ll save big bucks by purchasing a filter. I recommend the pitcher type rather than the type that screws onto the faucet.

These are far, far from the only examples of stuff, so don’t stop with these five. Come up with some more, then simply stop buying those things. It’s so easy - you close your wallet and you never notice the absence of the thing you didn’t buy. How satisfying!

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