One of the best ways to save money is to take advantage of free stuff. It sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes our perception is a bit skewed when it comes to this notion. Why do we sometimes perceive something that’s free to be of lesser quality than what we pay money for? I honestly have no clue, that’s a psychology thing.

So instead of fixing the subconscious issue that makes us do that, I’ll have to offer something else.

Why not try to make a conscious decision to choose free over paid, when the quality is the same whether we pay money for it or not, most times it is. I’m sure there will be times when the “free version” might not be up to par, so that will be the exception.

There are a lot of people out there every day paying for things they can get for free instead. Does that make them dumb or wasteful? Not really, it’s just something we do. I’ve done it too.

I actually used to buy bagged ice at the gas station to use for my sodas. I could have made the ice at home, but instead I opted to pay $1.59 for each bag of ice. Why?

Aside from just being overall picky, I claimed that the bagged ice was superior to the ice I could make at home. The shape of it made my soda taste better and I believed it was made from filtered water instead of tap water.

I don’t really know whether or not they use filtered water to make the ice, also why did I think the shape of the ice impacted the taste of my drink? Crazy! Since December, I’ve been making my own ice and it’s been pretty much the same as the ice I used to pay for, I really feel like a dumb@ss now.

Another thing I used to do a few years back was paying for online bill pay. I was charged a few bucks each month to use MSN bill pay when I could have gotten it free through my bank. I still can’t figure out why I did that, it was probably out of convenience or something like that. Maybe I was just delusional.

Apps, apps, apps…oh my. When I first got my iPod Touch a few years ago, I wasted so much money buying apps for it. I didn’t even consider the free apps or even try them out before buying the full version. There were probably about 10 apps that I bought and ended up not liking for some reason or another. If I would have thought clearly, I could have downloaded the free version and saved myself the money on the apps I ended up not liking. By ignoring the free apps, I probably missed out on some great stuff.

Up until a few years ago, I also would pay for my credit reports each year. I knew I could get them for free online, but I thought the “paid” version would be more accurate and include more information. Does it? Nope, it’s the exact same as the free credit reports you can get.

Obviously, I’ve made a ton of poor financial choices based on my perceived quality of products and services in the past. I’m sure that in some area I’m still doing it now, I just haven’t noticed yet. The thing that helps me is to remember that I can have control of what I spend money on and that “free” doesn’t always mean it’s not as good. It gets a bit easier the more I remind myself, and someday I hope to have it ingrained in my brain.

Do you ever catch yourself doing this?