I’ve spent $300 on a pen…and I don’t regret it.

There are, however, plenty of things I do regret buying. And after auditing dozens of people’s finances for free every week, we see the same money-wasting over and over again. Here are three examples that prevent your finances from being optimal:

Five bucks here, twelve there, $30 for the gym membership you swear you’re starting next month (guilty). It all adds up. And because subscriptions are automatic, most of us barely register that the money is leaving our accounts. Companies know this. They’re counting on you forgetting.

Six forgotten $15 subscriptions cost $1,080 a year. Invest that money every year for 30 years instead, and it could grow to well over $100,000.

The fix is simple: every three months, look through your bank and credit card statements for recurring charges and ask one question: If this disappeared tomorrow, would I sign up again? If the answer is no, cancel it.

My wife and I once spent $50 getting burgers and fries delivered. You know what actually arrived? Cold burgers and soggy fries.

Marked-up food. Delivery fee. Service fee. Tip. You’re paying an absurd premium to eat worse food from your couch.

We recently had a guy on an audit call who was 31, making $5,600 a month after tax, and carrying $100,000 in debt—including $35,000 on credit cards at around 25%.

Eating out was costing him roughly $20 a day. That’s about $600 a month going toward something that was actively making his financial situation worse.

The problem isn’t the occasional emergency DoorDash order. It’s when delivery becomes the default. Food delivery belongs in your fun-money bucket, which might be anywhere from 0–30% of your income depending on your financial situation. If you’re drowning in high-interest debt, that bucket needs to be a whole lot closer to zero.

My wife and I wanted a smart bidet for a squeaky-clean you-know-what. Instead of paying $1,300 for the Japanese model we really wanted, we found one for $750.

Massive savings.

Also: massive leakage.

Even after paying another $300 for installation, every flush sounded like a passenger jet taking off. Eventually, we gave up and bought the $1,300 model anyway. Trying to save $550 ended up costing us roughly $1,000 extra.

Going cheap isn’t always wrong. If you’re buying something you’ll use twice a year, cheap might be exactly right. But before automatically choosing the lowest price, ask: How often will I use this? How long do I want it to last? Am I actually getting more value by spending more?

For things you use every day, especially anything related to your health or quality of life, buying quality once can be a lot cheaper than buying cheap twice.

Find out the other five biggest wastes of money here: