There's a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza

There's a hole in the bucket, dear liza, dear liza, there's a hole in the bucket dear liza, a hole!

I recently discovered an article at Bankrate.com that estimated that consumers will pay More than 4.4 BILLION dollars in ATM fee's this year.
I can practically hear you ask, "Why are people being charged an exorbitant amount of money?"

Well, for 1 dirty little word, Convenience.

The average foreign ATM surcharge fee (and by foreign I mean simply banking at any other bank besides your own), has risen to $3.03 per transaction.

Well wait a minute you say, "It's usually says $1.50 or $2.00". Well friend, the fee that you pay at the Foreign ATM (on average) is $1.78, in addition to that fee, Your own bank assesses a fee of $1.25 (on average) for a grand total of $3.03 per transaction. If you take money out of an ATM just twice per week, you've spent over $315 in one year just for the "Convenience" of having instant money at your fingertips.
It's not quite as convenient when you look at that way, is it.

Convenience, my friend, costs our wallets very dearly. If you have a receipt from your latest grocery shopping trip, I challenge you to grab a calculator and add up the cost of the "Convenience" food items on it.
Simple items that can be made at home in the same (or less) amount of time that it takes to make them from a boxful of overly processed contents, such as a Cake or brownie mix. Perhaps you have other items on there too, such as flavored coffee creamers or side dishes like Alfredo Noodles, but did you know that you can make many of these items at home, ahead of time, at a fraction of the cost of the store bought counterparts?

If you commit yourself to making just 12 homemade convenience mixes a month you would save an average of $300 per year. View Convenience Mix Recipes

If there's an inconvenient hole in your bucket, Fix it dear henry.

(C) Liss Burnell 2008