Hole in your pocket? The totally avoidable money-wasters costing you $5,000 each year

You might think your little vices, like cigarettes, a punt on the pokies or forgetting that you have a gift card at the bottom of your purse don’t add up to much in the end - but you’re wrong.

Mozo research has found that Aussies are shelling out an incredible $5,000 every year on avoidable spending habits, including things like cigarettes ($1,217 bill per year), food waste ($950 per year) and household energy waste ($511 per year).

“The silver lining is that these money-wasters are largely things you can control, which means you have the power to turn $5,000 of wasted money into $5,000 of savings,” said Mozo Director Kirsty Lamont.

“Changing a few of your bad spending habits can mean saving thousands of extra dollars, so it’s well worth the effort.”

One of the habits costing Aussies big time is letting bank charges pile up. Between credit card interest, bank fees and ATM charges, $1,200 a year is drained out of the average household budget - a whopping $10.4 billion in total.

“With our credit cards about to get another workout over the festive season, now is the perfect time to work on reducing your credit card debt and the interest you're paying. Transfer your debt to a 0% balance transfer card and work on clearing your card balance as quickly as possible. The quicker you can get on top of things, the better it will be for your wallet,” said Lamont.

Ready to stop wasting your hard-earned on credit card interest? Check out some of the top balance transfer credit cards below.