Transcription
It's no secret that life is feeling more and more expensive every single day. Like every time you walk out the door these days, it feels like you need to spend a minimum of $100, and what you end up buying isn't even that good. It's smaller, it's worse quality, and it just doesn't feel worth it anymore. And I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sick of it.
So today, I'm going to talk about 17 things that are no longer worth the money because I'm just not willing to pay more for less, and neither should you. So, let's start with the first one that I think actually was never worth it. And that is Starbucks or any kind of specialty coffee for that matter. I'm not gonna hate on just the Starbucks people. Okay. Okay. I know I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this, but I think Starbucks was actually never worth it. If you like it, then I think really you like sugar and you don't necessarily like coffee. But those specialty coffees that did seem like an affordable treat will really set you back these days. And you're really in trouble if you start adding things like oat milk or matcha to it. These sugary drinks like Frappuccinos, caramel macchiatoos and salted shaken whatever, all of these are loaded with sugar. They're extremely high in calories and they're more expensive than they've ever been. A drink that used to be around a $5 treat can easily set you back $7, $8, $9 or more. And I just don't think it's worth it.
But you know what? I'm going to play fair. I'm not going to take these fancy coffees away from you. You can make these treat coffees at home for so much cheaper. There's thousands of creators out there that show you exactly how to recreate your favorite recipes for cents on the dollar. If you are going to go out to a cafe, go to a local business in your community. You're supporting small, supporting local, and the coffee is actually going to be good.
Next is any cheap that you get off websites like Teimu or Amazon. One of my favorite sayings about money is "I'm too broke to buy cheap," which means if you want to get the most out of the money that you do spend, you should try to spend it on more high-quality things. And even though a lot of the things that I'm going to talk about in this video are getting more expensive at worse quality, it doesn't necessarily mean that you go ahead and buy the cheapest thing possible. These drop-shipped plastic junk products that you get off of websites like Teimu, Alibaba, and Amazon are not really any better. They're kind of the bottom of the barrel, cheapest of cheap, which means they're not going to last more than a couple of uses. And you know what I'm talking about. It's that really brittle, cheap plastic junk that you ended up buying almost because it was so cheap. These things are not meant to have any longevity in your life, and they're just going to end up broken in a landfill sooner than later. In fact, when you buy things and you only focus on price, you're probably going to end up having to spend more in the long run just to replace these things. To me, buying cheap junk off of these websites is one of the biggest scams because they're designed to just take your money and break. But if budget is an issue and you do find yourself needing to buy some things off of these websites, at the very least read the reviews because if you just buy off of price alone, then you're going to end up spending more money in the long run just replacing these junk items.
Next is going out for breakfast. Listen, I love a greasy spoon. And growing up in my family, our version of going out to a fancy restaurant was actually just going to a hole in the wall for breakfast. And it was awesome. You used to be able to get a stacked breakfast of two eggs, hash browns, a side of toast, and bacon for under $5 a person, and unlimited coffee refills, too. But nowadays, forget it. Now, a simple basic breakfast costs just as much. A simple classic breakfast for two people can easily set you back $30 these days. And so, it's starting to feel as fancy as a brunch should be, but it doesn't even come with avocado toast. It's just not worth it anymore.
And in the same token, neither is buying lunch. I feel this so deeply in my soul. I just absolutely refuse to buy lunches these days. First of all, the food options aren't even that good or healthy. But a single salad or paella will easily set you back $14 before you add any protein to that. By the way, as expensive as groceries are getting right now, it is always going to be more affordable to make your own food at home. And if you think about it this way, too, most of us are paid by the hour. So, think about how many hours you had to even work that day just to pay for that mediocre lunch. It is absolutely not worth it. And if you do it every day, that really adds up.
Going to the movies. Yeah, no longer worth it. I think things like Netflix and streaming services have really kind of decimated the whole movie theater industry. Like, I can't even remember the last time we went to the movies. This is money that we still do spend on occasion, but it seems like going to the movies these days has to be a special occasion rather than something that you could just go pick up and do on a whim. Between two people, going to the movies can easily set you back over $100. Between the tickets, the popcorn, and the drinks, it is absolutely wild. There are definitely movies that I'm willing to pay the money to go see in the theater, but it feels like every single time the experience is just getting more and more expensive. But the thing that always holds me back is that that movie that I want to go see is just going to be available on Netflix within the month. So why not just watch it at home at a fraction of the cost? It's really hard to justify the prices these days, unless you really, really want to see that movie.
If you want to talk about an industry that I think is an absolute scam, let's talk about mocktails. I don't drink alcohol, but I don't find that mocktails are worth the price whatsoever. It was always kind of my understanding that the way that restaurants and bars make their money is through the markup on alcohol. But you're basically paying that exact same markup for some fancy soda water. And you know what? Some of these mocktails, they can get really fancy. I'm not going to say that it's not an art or whatever it is, but it is just not worth the money. It is way too expensive. Personally for me, if I'm going out to eat, I am more than happy to just have a water or a Diet Coke. I'm not down for paying $17 for artisanal juice. Just saying.
And you can start to see this trend of premium prices on basic ingredients pretty much everywhere. And the place that I see it a lot is in luxury skin care. This is absolutely not worth the money. If you guys didn't know, I'm also a pharmacist, so I can tell you that luxury skincare is really just all about branding. You're not paying for better ingredients. You can get the most basic and effective skincare routine completely at the drugstore, and you'll probably tolerate it better because it's not going to be full of weird essential oils and fragrance that can really irritate your skin. If you have the budget to pay for luxury skincare, fine. Sometimes luxury brands will add certain ingredients to make the experience of using the product feel a little more luxurious, but at the end of the day, a lot of these basic ingredients are the same and they'll deliver the same result. And the premium you're actually paying for is not necessarily on things like ingredients, but more for packaging and marketing. If you want good skin, you don't need to pay an arm and a leg for it. Period.
This next one makes me very sad as a gym girl looking to make some gains, but beef. So, what's your beef? I've got beef with beef right now. Especially in Canada and the US, the cost of beef has risen due to a shortage of cattle. And this shortage in cows is thought to be driven due to things like drought, which increases things like the cost of feed for the cows. So you end up with things like smaller herds, but the demand for beef is still high. People want their beef. But every time I go look at a steak at a grocery store, I cringe a little bit because it does definitely feel like a luxury when you buy it. And the other problem here is too is that because the price of beef is so high, it's actually driving up the price of things like poultry and other meats because people are turning to those as cheaper alternatives.
This next one I feel like had a real fall from grace because it used to be the better option and that is Airbnbs. We have stopped looking at Airbnbs altogether anytime we travel. We strictly only stay in hotels because it's always a more comfortable and more seamless experience than any Airbnb experience we've ever had. Airbnb used to be the more appealing and affordable option, but it's just not that anymore. You might see an Airbnb for a certain amount of night, but then by the time you go to check out, on top of things like cleaning fees, all these random service fees, running into things like poor communication with the owners, strict rules, it's just no longer worth the cost. Hotels are reliable. They offer consistency. They offer better service. You can often use things like credit card points to book the rooms. And I find overall it's just a much more reliable experience than Airbnb. What used to be a deal and kind of a cool experience is just no longer worth the hassle or the money.
And the same thing is happening with flights. Flying, especially economy, is getting worse while costing you more. It's no secret that seats are getting smaller. Leg room is disappearing. And now there's some planes that don't even let the seats recline. On top of all the extra fees you have to pay, you have to pay a fee to book your seat. You have to pay a fee to bring a carry-on. You have to pay a fee for pretty much everything. You're paying more and more for a less comfortable experience every time you fly. Not to mention the rising prices of fuel. It makes the entire travel experience a lot less pleasant and a whole lot more expensive.
Next are smartphone upgrades. And I say this as a loser who updated to the iPhone 17. And the only reason I did that was because my old phone was on the outs, but I plan on keeping this thing until it absolutely dies. And you know what? In the era of planned obsolescence, I'm curious to see if this lasts me even a couple of years. When I upgraded to this phone, it felt like I didn't even have my old phone for that long, but it would struggle to hold a charge for more than an hour. And a lot of me feels like that's by design. If you have a certain model of whether it be your phone or your tablet, they intentionally design it so that that model can't support that upgrade. So it basically becomes a paperweight after a while. So your tech that is otherwise working perfectly fine becomes no longer usable. So you're almost forced to upgrade. If you do need to upgrade your technology, I would say go the refurbished or used route and try to use it for as long as you possibly can. But it really pisses me off that a laptop that I could have used for 10 years, I can now only get around 5 years out of just because of the software updates making it unusable.
Have you ever heard the saying, "You will own nothing and be happy"? That's how I feel about subscriptions. Everything is a subscription these days. From music to TV to apps, even the GPS in your car, you pay for everything now on a monthly basis. If I need to buy things, especially if it's like a digital product or software, I go out of my way to buy the one that is not by subscription. I want to buy it once and own it and be done. And I feel like people are actually so fed up with this subscription model that they're turning back towards physical media like books, CDs, and DVDs. And because these subscriptions can really add up fast, I think it's important to make sure that you're auditing your subscriptions every once in a while to make sure that you're actually using them. And if you're not, cancel because it's not worth the money.
And speaking of subscriptions, the next thing that is absolutely not worth the money is auto-replenish. Have you ever noticed when you're shopping online, especially for personal care or beauty products, that there's an option to do a one-time purchase or a recurring monthly purchase? Just don't do it. This is the fastest way to waste your money on top of building up a backlog of clutter that you will just never keep up with, especially if it's personal care or food products that have a shelf life. I've also seen a lot of complaints online about these auto-replenish features being really hard to cancel. So, just don't go there. Use up what you have before buying more and then get the replacement when you need it. You're just never going to be able to keep up.
Buying organic. With the cost of even conventional groceries going up, I think that buying organic food is a complete waste of money.
Prepackaged snacks. I actually stopped buying all forms of snack food like cereals, fruit snacks, granola bars, protein bars, anything like that. Not only do they not really provide anything meaningful in terms of nutrition, but they are so expensive. And I just found it more affordable and more fun to make my own snacks at home. I started making my own granola. If I want a sweet kick, then I will usually eat dates, put a little peanut butter and salt in there. Chef's kiss. So good. A lot of the times, if you have the time, you can make these things at home and it's going to be much more affordable and much healthier for you.
Cheap synthetic clothing. It's no secret that brands are cheaping out and it's becoming harder and harder to find clothing that is not only affordable, but high-quality and made of at least majority natural fibers. There's a phenomenon that I'm calling "polyester creep" that's showing up more and more in our clothes. And brands that would frequently use primarily natural fibers like cotton, wool, and silk are slowly sneaking in more and more synthetic blends into their garments, almost to the point where synthetics are taking over the fabric composition. And I'm not saying that synthetic fibers don't have their place in fashion, because they definitely do. But these are all cases where this is clearly to save money and cheap out on the product. It feels like every time I go shopping, it's more and more difficult to find clothing that feels like it's worth buying and isn't just some kind of synthetic blend bomb. And I think brands are really not going to stop doing this anytime soon. So, it's really important when you do go shopping for clothes to make sure you look at the care label and see if the amount of synthetic in that garment actually makes sense for it. The sweater might be cute, but it doesn't need to be made of 95% polyester for $80. It is just not worth the money.
Next is anything to do with buy now or pay later. Buy now, pay later companies act like they're doing you a favor so that you can buy that thing you want sooner, but if you let those payments get away from you, it is the number one way to keep yourself broke and stuck. Buy now, pay later uses your own psychology against you by breaking down larger payments into smaller ones that feel more doable. But if you're not paying attention or you even miss one payment, that can spiral into a debt problem that can take years to get out of. All buy now, pay later does is encourage overspending. It makes you feel richer than you actually are. And it's making you waste way more money than you ever intended to. All because they coerce you into spending more money than you can probably actually afford. And it'll often leave you in a position where you're still making payments on something that you probably forgot you even bought to begin with. If you can't pay for it in full, then guess what? At that time, it's not worth the money.
And this one may piss a lot of you off, but it's tipping. And I'm going to start this point off by saying that I am more than happy to tip. I am not a cheap tipper and I understand that especially if you work in the service industry, it is how you make a lot of your income. More than happy to support. But in the last few years, there has been a phenomenon of tipping fatigue because it seems like everywhere you go and everything you buy now prompts you to tip where a lot of these tipping prompts are not tied to any kind of service whatsoever. The default tipping prompts are also much higher and it just feels like in some cases it's really getting out of hand.
"Are we tipping at drive-throughs? 15-20% on a sweatshirt purchase."
"I'm purchasing an office chair online and they're asking me if I want to leave a tip."
"Tipping culture has gone way too far."
So, I've actually been a bit more discerning when I do decide to tip. And you know what? Even saying this, I feel like a bit of an ass. But at the same time, you can't tip for everything. I think it's one thing to tip for service at a nail salon, a restaurant, your coffee shop, whatever it is, and it's entirely another to tip for like buying just a random thing at a random store. So, it just seems like there's more pressure to tip at point of sale no matter where you go these days. And I just feel like that's not necessarily worth it in every situation.
So, those are just a few more things that I think are not worth spending your money on. Let me know down in the comments below if you agree. And if you want to know even more things that I think are no longer worth it because they're kind of cheap, check out this video next. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week. Bye.