The Convenience Trap That Left Me Broke

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. This is Money Mom.

[00:00:02]Welcome to the channel. Confession.

[00:00:04]Convenience has made me broke. Let's get right into it. Now, I've improved over the years, but I have to be honest. Some of my laziness has cost me money. And I wanted to share with you how. I used to, and I occasionally do it now, used to buy a lot of prepackaged fruit instead of chopping it up and prepackaged and pre-made things rather than me doing the cooking from scratch myself. Now, back in the day, it wasn't that bad when groceries are cheap. But they're not so inexpensive. Now, the best way for people to save money on groceries, as we know, is to the more you do for yourself, the more money you're going to save. The people I know that don't spend a lot on groceries, they tell me this.

[00:00:41]They don't buy any pre-convenience, prepackaged foods. They buy things and they buy ingredients and make the food themselves. Gotten a lot better, but I could still improve. Number two, impulse buying because you just don't want to wait. Instant gratification. How many of you have impulse buys? I have really made big progress in that. But I used to rationalize my spending. Have you guys ever rationalized some of your poor choices and friends go along with you and validate you? Oh, you've had a hard week. You deserve it. Oh, it's okay. You know, you're getting better. Things like that rather than calling you out on your stuff. Okay. Another thing, not using my house as a store and not checking my stash of stuff before I leave the house.

[00:01:24]mostly going grocery shopping and not realizing what I have at home already before buying things. And a lot of times I would buy things just because it was a good deal. I mean, I used to really know how to rake in the good deals all over the Metroplex. But luckily, one positive thing with inflation is because many things are higher cost than what I would want to pay, it prevents me from buying them and making do with what I have. My biggest problem is when there's something like 70% off and it's something I use, I want to buy it. But guess what? Is buying something you really don't need or don't go through that fast even at 70% off a good deal?

[00:02:03]Probably not. But I'm still struggle with that one. Okay, another one right here is not wanting to pay for simple repairs and have people do it for me.

[00:02:14]And I admit that is probably where more my money goes is having handyman things like that rather than me trying to research and study and learn how to do things myself. I'd rather pay somebody a little something. I don't really think it's that bad. Maybe I'm rationalizing this because at least I'm helping another business and a the my handyman, his name is Bob, is a phenomenal person and he way undercharges me. That's why I always give him more than what he asks be and he does a phenomenal job and so hey, you know what? He's got a big family and that money goes towards helping his family out. But so I could do better on maybe learning to do some things myself. Okay, another thing and I have a confession on this one. This happened a long time ago. Throwing things away instead of like cleaning it up, wiping it up, fixing it up. I know people that buy furniture or other items that are maybe just haven't been taken good care of and they'll clean it up, repair it, and then they'll resell it and make a profit. Me, if something's not in good shape, I tend to want to get rid of it and get a new one. As a matter of fact, I've been known before, have you guys ever had a pan that for whatever reason you cook something in it and stuff's baked on it so hard that you don't think you can get the stuff off?

[00:03:25]There's been a couple times I've actually thrown the pan away. I know you're going to say, "That's terrible, money, mom." And you're right, it is. I don't do that now. Uh, but I have before. So, that's mentioned. Sometimes on something that's really that I think might bake on. Sometimes what I'll do is I'll just do it in the slow cooker, which makes a big difference. Um, or what I'll do is I'll buy the dis disposable pans on really hard to bake things. I have been known to do that.

[00:03:51]Basically, not doing things for myself and not doing research and learning skills so that I'm able to do things for myself is probably the biggest area where I have wasted money on convenience. There's a lot of areas that I can improve. When I started the channel in 2017, which I cannot believe that I started the channel in August of 2017, I thought I was frugal, but I'm way more frugal than I am now than I was 8 and 1/2, 9 years ago. So, I'd like to hear from you. What are some areas that you do spend money on convenience? And if so, are there areas that you feel like it's worth paying for the convenience?

[00:04:33]That's all I have to say for now. Love you. Appreciate you. Hope to see you on the next video. Bye everybody.