10 Things No Longer Worth Your Money

These days, it feels like every time I log in to see how much money I've spent in the past month, I've spent more than I thought. I know I'm not the only one who I log into my credit card and I'm like, "How did I end up spending that much? " Inflation really, I feel like, has caught up to us where I'm like, "Dang, everything costs more. " So, I got to be more ruthless with cutting out things that just are not worth spending on. So, today we're going to go over 10 things that I found to no longer be worth the money. Let's get into it. All right, so number one is grocery shopping for elaborate dinner meals if you're

single. The amount of times I have gone to the grocery store and spent way more on ingredients than it would be to go out to a nice dinner. It's just not worth it. Grocery shopping did used to make more sense. Food was a lot less expensive in 2019 and earlier. Take a look at this graph. You can see that the cost of most ingredients have surpassed normal inflation levels. It's not just in your head. Food really is more expensive. Now, I do think grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch items is totally worth it because the cost of the ingredients is relatively low versus the cost of buying breakfast out is actually a lot more expensive, but in general, when it comes to grocery shopping for dinner, you often need more ingredients and they're more expensive like beef, chicken, or fish. A lot more expensive than a carton of eggs that will last you the whole week. So, I used to find these elaborate dinner meals like this from Pinterest that required a lot of ingredients. And I thought that I was saving money because I was cooking at home, but actually the total cost to buy all this stuff would be like $40 to $60, meaning I would have to eat this for leftovers an additional two nights just to break even. Not even to save money versus if I went to somewhere like Chipotle. But actually Chipotle, I break it into two meals. My cost per serving is like $7 when I go there. And in reality, I don't want to eat the same thing three to four nights in a row. I just don't. So I found if you're single like me, it's not really worth grocery shopping for dinner. for families. Yes, it's usually still worth it. And I know you guys are probably like, "Well, Shelby, you're at Whole Foods. Duh, it's more expensive. " But actually, the cost at these Kroger owned grocery stores like Ralph's is just as much, if not sometimes more than Whole Foods today. These Kroger stores are not worth it, you guys. They've reported record profits because they've increased the prices of things, and the shopping experience is just not really that good. It's not good enough to justify the price increase. I'm always amazed at what they're charging for cereal these days. eight bucks. So, I totaled up the cost of ingredients to make the tacos that I make on occasion from Ralphs and from Whole Foods. And Whole Foods was $6 cheaper. I think people still have it in their head that Whole Foods is more expensive. But actually, these Kroger owned grocery stores, they're the ones charging more. I just go to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods cuz I feel like it's a much better value. And I don't really buy ingredients for dinner very often. I kind of know now if I'm making my own dinner. It's kind of just for the fun and convenience of it because it costs about the same to just go to a fast

casual place. The next thing that no longer makes sense to buy honestly is a gas vehicle. Not only is gas itself way more expensive right here, $6. 29 a gallon, but also maintaining a gas car is a lot more expensive. With an EV, you don't have to get oil changes. You don't have transmission fluid, spark plugs, an exhaust system. There's just a lot more things that can go wrong with a gas car that you eventually have to pay for. You also don't have to get the brakes done as often because that has regenerative braking. And the thing is now you can get a used EV for less than $15,000. All in all, the cost of ownership when you include both fuel, but also maintenance tends to be less with an electric vehicle. But one thing that is worth the money if you have an EV is our sponsor right here. This is EVJ and this allows you to break away from your car while you're charging. Here's the thing. When you're charging an EV, you're kind of a sitting duck because you have to get out of the car and manually unplug it to drive away normally, which there have been times where I'm all alone at an EV station. There's no other cars or people near me. And it's kind of creepy. Like, anyone could just come up to you and they know that you'd have to get out to escape. And it's really easy to use. So, I'm just popping this thing in anytime I'm charging now. It just pops in like this, super easy, and you're good. It really is for an emergency scenario. So, I backed up my car out of this supercharger. And you can see it breaks away and I'm able to keep driving. This is what it looks like after. And you can still easily take it out. You really only want to do this if it's absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you just take it out like you normally would. So, I think EVJ is worth the money for the peace of mind more than anything. Hopefully, I never need to actually deploy it. But it's nice knowing that if I do have to, I can get away because I have been at charger stations late at night by myself, ones where it's I'm all alone and it's just kind of creepy cuz anyone can kind of come up to your car. So, I will link EVJ below. Thank you to them for sponsoring

this video. Now, let's get into more of the stuff that I don't think is worth the money anymore. The next thing that I actually did cancel recently was Clear, the airport security service that lets you get through faster, or so they claim. As time has gone on, I've noticed that the TSA pre-check line was sometimes faster than clear. Always had trouble scanning my eyes. You They'd have to scan it multiple times and still check my ID. I would arrive at the airport with another person who went through TSA PreCheck. And on occasion, they would get through before I got through the clear lane. I just don't think you need clear when we have TSA pre-check. And usually the line is about the same amount of time, maybe a couple minutes longer, but TSA pre-check goes

pretty fast. This next one is something I've never found to be that worth it, and it's valet parking. Where I live in LA, all the nice restaurants offer valet parking. And because of that, I think people just don't even think to street park. But most of the time, you can still find a street spot. Just the other day, I went to an event that had $30 valet parking. Uh-uh. I knew cuz I know the city quite well that like two streets over I could park for free. If you're okay with a quick five, maybe 10 minute walk, you can almost always find street parking. Usually the weather is beautiful on my little walk, so I really don't mind it. If I live somewhere cold, I might be more likely to, but I don't mind a little walk. It's got to be truly impossible to find parking for me to

ballet. Like, I'll do it on occasion, but most of the time that's not what I'm doing. Next is a lot of the nationwide fast casual food spots like Panera. Now, there are some that I do still think are worth it, like Chipotle, for example. I still get that all the time, but Panera is a great example of one that once private equity got a hold of it, it really went down in food quality and up in prices and just isn't worth it anymore. This sandwich from Panera costs nearly $16 and it is mid at best. And the thing is, Panera used to be under $10 for a sandwich. The whole you pick two thing is also just trying to get you to spend closer to $20. This is just not the same Panera that we grew up with. It changed a lot since 2017. So, a lot of people online have noticed that since Panera sold out to private equity, the portions have gotten smaller, things are previously frozen, and the quality is not good. Workers have said online that back in the day they used to make the bread fresh, but now even that is frozen. I hate to pick on Panera because this is the case with a lot of chains, but yeah, it's not worth it anymore. We have way better options for better prices. That's a lot better quality, too. For example, Mendescino Farms. It's a newer chain. It's smaller. It's not nationwide. The food quality and the prices are so much better than Panera. So, this is comparable to that Panera sandwich I got and it is $3 less expensive. I'm telling you guys, this sandwich, it's so good. It's very filling. I can really only eat half of it in a sitting. So, I get two meals out of it. Like, I'll have this for lunch and then for dinner. And the quality is just so much better. And this is true of a lot of the chains that we grew up with. I mean, take IHOP as another example. They're charging $16 for a breakfast burrito, and it's not exactly getting rave reviews. At that price, you could go to almost any breakfast spot in Los Angeles and get an amazing quality breakfast burrito. This one is kind of subjective. You might love Panera, but I do think across the board, you're going to get better quality at a local chain than a big national chain. It's crazy that Panera doesn't even toast the bread. Like, that makes the sandwich so

much better. And while we're on the topic of food, please don't tell me that you're still ordering from food delivery app. This is proof, you guys. I'm going to pick up my own food. This is what I do. I feel like I know so many people who Postmate everything, including you, Lauren, who videographer. You Postmate a lot. It's a bad habit. Listen, every once in a while, if you're in a pinch and you truly don't have the time, then it is worth it to Postmate or whatever. But if you're just chilling and don't feel like picking up the food, just get up and do it. The thing is, these food delivery apps are ripping you off in a way that you might not have even realized. Yes, they have the delivery fee and a tip, but on top of that, they're also just charging more for the base item. So, this sandwich that I got from Menesino Farms earlier, it's actually $2. 55 more on Uber Eats. And they're not very transparent about this. So, once you add it all up, you're paying double for the same thing. I don't mind going to pick up food myself. Really not that hard to do. And I kind of enjoy having the break from work.

Actually, this next one, in my opinion, is not worth the money, but I still pay for it, and it is health insurance in America. Since 2021, my health insurance premium has gone from like $200 to $400 a month, and the deductible is still quite high. It's $8,000 for the year, even if it's at just an urgent care. I got charged $500 to go to urgent care once. Like, they said the facility was out of network or something like that. I still pay for it because I'm afraid, you know, I'm jinxing myself if I stop paying for it. That's going to be when the catastrophic thing happens. I just want to acknowledge for a second that healthcare costs in America are so inflated. We pay so much more than other countries. There's nothing I can really do about it. I am still paying the health insurance. I just don't think it's worth the money. And I just kind of wanted to put that one out there even though I still pay for it. One thing I decided was no longer worth the money a

couple years ago now was regularly getting my nails done. And I'm not alone on this one. — My life quality has improved substantially since I stopped doing my nails. — No one in Vogue gets the nails done anymore. — I never thought that I would enjoy bare nails like this ever. Getting your nails done, if you're getting gel, if you're getting any kind of extension to it. I mean, that is easily $50 to $70 in a major city. I know some influencers paying up to $200. More than just the money. It kind of felt like a chore to me and I like having that extra couple hours to go do anything else. There's enough beauty standards. I spend enough time and money on my hair and makeup. Like really do I need to be fixated on my nails as well? It's just kind of overkill. And don't get me wrong, I do love how they look when they're done, but it just feels like a chore to have to get them done every couple weeks. I'm over it. I don't think it matters that

much. Next up is Starbucks. Back in the day, this was the place to be. It was kind of the best coffee option in town. You know, when Starbucks first came out, it was sort of revolutionary bringing espresso drinks to America, but today it's really not the best option. I'm sorry, but it's just not. Okay. The CEO said that they want to start charging $9 for a latte. Are you kidding me? — A $9 experience does feel like you're splurging. And in other cases, uh people believe, well, this is a really affordable premium experience. Well, it's less than $10 and I get a really premium experience. — I only go here if there's no other option. When I'm in LA, when I'm at home, I'm not going to Starbucks. I'm going to the local coffee shop. Way better quality coffee. This is just this is eh like I can make a better coffee at home. I'm not even kidding. — The thing is, Starbucks is acting like they're giving this premium experience that they really aren't. And you can already get from a local coffee shop that has better quality beans and a better ambiance. And look, I'm not one of those people who's saying that buying a latte every week is the reason you can't buy a house. I think a good cup of quality coffee can be worth it. I'm just

saying Starbucks isn't really that. And the last thing I feel is no longer really worth it is the airline lounge credit cards. Not only are these lounges more crowded than they used to be, but some of the cards are capping how many times you can go. So, let's take the Delta Sky Club for example. That business card, they've actually now capped the number of visits you can do to the Delta Sky Club to 15 per year. So, that's $43 per visit. If I'm going in the morning, I'm just getting some breakfast food. Like, that's pretty much it, which I could get for $15 to $20 in the airport. If I go in the evening, yeah, maybe I'll get a drink. Maybe you break even on it. And for the price, the food is not as good as what you would get in an airport restaurant. You know, it's nice if you need to get some work done, but I'm not saying I'm going there specifically for the food. Like, it can be hit or miss. I think it really just depends on if there's a Centurion lounge in your home airport because this one you can generally visit an unlimited amount of times if you have the right airline credit card and the food and overall vibe is better. If you travel two times a month or more then it probably is worth it in that case. But I'm honestly not traveling as much these days and so I'm like hm should I cancel this credit card? But I've also found that these lounges are also way more busy. So sometimes I don't even have time to go in before my flight. You know, maybe if you're really going to maximize all the other perks that these credit cards have, it could still be worth it. But if you're getting it just for the lounge access, I don't know. I just don't feel like they're as worth it as they used to be. So, those are some things I feel like are not really as worth the money anymore. Let me know if there's anything that I missed that you feel like isn't worth the money. I feel like some people are going to say Chipotle because I see this discourse online that the portions are smaller. I still like Chipotle. Even though, yeah, the portions probably are smaller, they're still like more than enough for me, I feel like. All right, I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Comment down below what you think is no longer worth the money, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.