Skyrim is Bethesda’s open-world RPG masterpiece. It has been around for over a decade and still has tons of fans who are playing to this day. There are plenty of relatable things every player does in Skyrim, but there are also many things you shouldn’t do and most of them involve money.
While you’ll have more gold than you’ll know what to do with come endgame, it’s best to be more frugal with your coins in the early game and focus on the essentials. These are the things you should never spend your gold on in Skyrim.
9 Horses
While horses are a great way to get around Skyrim, they’re incredibly expensive in the early game. It will cost you 1000 gold to buy a horse, which is not worth it at all. It’s a better idea to save that money and put it towards better weapons and gear.
If you really want to get a horse, you can get a free one. North of Windhelm and south of Bleakcoast Cave is the Horker Hunter's Camp. There, you’ll find a Dapple Grey horse that you can mount, and it won’t be considered stolen. It’s worth the long trip north.
8 Training
There are plenty of trainers in Skyrim that will increase your level in one skill for a price. You can only use a trainer five times per level, and they will become incrementally more expensive as you level up that specific skill. Depending on their proficiency, they can train you in a skill up to level 50, 75 or 90.
These trainers are not worth the money and, through a simple exploit, you can save a bunch of gold while still leveling up skills. There are seven trainers in the game who can also become followers. By making them a follower and getting trained, you can simply trade with them afterwards to get your money back. It’s brilliant.
7 Food & Drinks
While the food and drinks in Skyrim look amazing, they're not worth spending any in-game coins on. The food offers very minimal health restoration and often has no positive status effects at all. The same can be said about the drinks in Skyrim. They’re useful in hardcore mode, but serve little purpose outside the mode unless you’re really into role playing as your player character.
The best thing to do with food is to eat each new ingredient, so you learn about their status effects. These ingredients can be quite useful for alchemy when brewing potions later in the game.
6 Mercenaries
At the tavern of every major city in Skyrim, there’s a mercenary that can be hired for 500 gold. These mercenaries will act as a follower and do whatever is asked of them until you tell them their services are no longer required. There are loads of good and bad followers in Skyrim, and the best followers are those you don’t have to pay to be by your side.
By doing quests and helping out the people of Skyrim, you will inevitably come across some characters who would like to accompany you on your adventures for free. Some of these followers are essential characters, meaning they can never actually be killed. Those are the ones you should target.
5 Enchanted Items
The enchanted items that merchants sell are almost always overpriced, costing you thousands of gold. It’s best to avoid these enchanted items completely and buy items with no special abilities. These regular items are almost always cheaper and can eventually be given an enchantment of your choice once your enchanting skill is at a high enough level.
In the endgame, you can splurge on items that have an enchantment you’ve never seen before, but they are not worth it early on in your journey. Building up your library of enchantments is something you should only do later in the game.
4 Breezehome
Breezehome is likely the first player home you’ll get the option to buy in Skyrim. After progressing through the first few main quests, you’ll become the Thane of Whiterun and be allowed to buy property in the city. Sadly, the house will cost you 5000 gold, so it won’t come cheap.
There are plenty of player houses in Skyrim, but the best ones are those you get for free. By joining the Companions, who are also in Whiterun, you will be given a room in the basement of the ancient mead hall known as Jorrvaskr. There, you can store your gear and do most of the things you’d normally be able to do in a player home at no cost.
3 Spell Tomes
There are some spell tomes worth buying and some that are worth finding on your own for free. If you have the money, it’s probably best to just buy any new spell you haven’t learned yet from a merchant, but that's not the case in the early game.
There are plenty of spell tomes you can find for free in the early game that will be very useful, including Transmute Mineral Ore, Bound Bow and Bound Sword. Going out to find these spell tomes is an adventure on its own, so you’ll discover much more by searching for them than you will by simply purchasing them from a merchant.
2 Potions
Buying potions may be the biggest waste of gold in all of Skyrim. Seriously, there are potions all over the place in the game. You’ll find them in houses, taverns, dungeons and many other places. Sure, it’s technically stealing if you snatch them from all the rooms in an inn, but if you never get caught, then you’ll never lose them.
Only in very specific cases is it a good idea to buy a potion. For example, if you see a Potion of the Berserker, you’re going to want to buy it. The potion is not quite as powerful as Berserker Rage, the special ability of the Orcs, but it can make you deal some serious damage.
1 Bounties
If you’re ever caught committing a crime in Skyrim, don’t pay off your bounty unless it’s below 100 coins, and you don't have any stolen goods on you. If your speech skill is high enough, you’ll likely be able to persuade the guard to look the other way.
If all else fails, just try to become a thane in that specific hold before committing any crimes there. As long as you don’t rack up a bounty above 1000 gold, you’ll be able to get out of any situation by letting the guards know you’re a thane. Once they realize you’re a part of the hold’s nobility, they’ll refrain from arresting you.
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