Money Mom Podcast

69: 6 Things I No Longer Waste Money On As A Mom of 4

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Is your money quietly slipping through the cracks without you realizing it? In this honest and eye-opening episode, Rachel shares six surprising things she no longer spends money on, and how those small decisions have saved her family hundreds (if not thousands) over the years.

From birthday parties to bulk food shopping, Target runs to trendy kids' clothes, Rachel walks through the mindset shifts and intentional choices that make a massive difference in your family’s finances, without guilt or restriction.

You’ll hear:

  • What to consider before buying in bulk (hint: it’s not always a deal)
  • Why fancy birthday parties aren’t the only way to create magic
  • A fresh take on emotional spending (and how to cope without swiping your card)
  • How to simplify your pantry and still eat well
  • Permission to spend where it matters, and save where it doesn’t

If you’re trying to reset your spending and ditch the pressure to "do it all," this episode will feel like a deep exhale and a financial pep talk.

💬 Ready to share your own “I don’t spend money on that anymore” list? DM Rachel on Instagram @heyrachelcoons

xoxo,
Rachel

Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons

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Speaker 1:

Hey there, welcome back to the Money Mom Podcast. I'm your host, rachel Koons, and I am sitting here today having a really hard time fathoming that we are already in the month of August. Like where did the frickin' summer go? It is mind-blowing to me that my kids start school on Thursday of this week, which I know a lot of people don't start this early. Some people do, some people have already started school and I'm over here just like really sad that summer is over and mind blown that we've. We're already like back into the, back to school, shopping and all of the things. But summer was really great and looking forward to the fall, obviously.

Speaker 1:

I really like the fall time, sending the kids to school, getting back into a routine of sorts where I can systematize things a little bit better, have some time for myself, because summer is just chaos right. Like we're just constantly feeding the children, doing activities, not really thinking about how to take care of ourselves as moms, and so I feel like I kind of get a breath once the kids go back to school and for the first time, I have a middle schooler, which is also mind-blowing to me, like I literally remember dropping my son, my oldest child, off at kindergarten and now I am taking him to middle school and on top of that, my youngest child so I have four kids oldest is going to middle school. My youngest child is starting TK on Thursday, so I now have every single one of my kids in school. He's going to go to afternoon TK, which means it's like the second half of the day. He'll be with me in the morning and they'll drop him off, and he went to preschool last year, so it won't be like that big of a transition for us. We do have some really exciting episodes coming out in the next couple of weeks to help you get back into that school groove and get you resetting your grocery budgets, because I'm guessing a lot of people probably spent a lot of money on groceries over the summer and maybe feeling that extra financial pinch because of that. So stay tuned for some really good episodes on school lunches, on a budget, how to systematize your grocery process, how to save money back to school shopping all of those things. Those are coming in the next couple weeks. We've got that planned for you.

Speaker 1:

But for today I wanted to drop this episode because I actually did a post on Instagram and got a ton of comments and people just had things to say about what I no longer prioritize or spend money on as a mom and what I've kind of siphoned out as, like, these are the things that I really want to focus my spending on and these are the things that I'm just not willing to spend a bunch of money on. And it's like where am I going to really move the needle in our finances and where I'm going to find extra money in our budget? And so these six things that I have kind of laid out have saved me so much money over the course of my budgeting journey. My budgeting journey started just five years ago. I really didn't jump into the world of budgeting until 2020. And since then, not really like a restrictive budgeter. I'm not all about spreadsheets, I'm not someone who just likes to crunch numbers and run the numbers every single month, but I am a very intentional spender. So the things that I do spend my money on are things that are really important to me, and then the things that I don't spend my money on are things that I don't prioritize, I don't value as much, and kind of separating my budgets that way has really helped me feel good about my spending and feel like my money is going towards things that I really love and want, and it's also been able to save me a ton of money in doing so. So I'm going to go through this list of things that I don't like to waste my money on, but I'm going to give a little caveat before we go into it.

Speaker 1:

You are not me, we are not the same, and you are not the same as your friends or your family or anybody else out in the world. Nobody can tell you what things you should spend your money on and what things you shouldn't spend your money on. Now there are things that I would recommend you not spend your money on, especially if budgets are tight and money is tight. There are definitely things that maybe we shouldn't prioritize. They're always going to be those things, but when it really comes down to it, I don't want you to think that, as I'm sharing these things, that it's not important to you. If it is important to you, you 100% get to prioritize your spending your money.

Speaker 1:

The problems I have with the budgeting world is that we induce a lot of shame. We tell people they can't spend their money on certain things or they should feel bad if they spend their money on certain things. There's nothing wrong about spending your money if you have the money to do so. You're not going into credit card debt or anything like that. So as I'm explaining these, it's a good chance for you to kind of think like, oh, am I actually spending a lot of money on that? And like I don't prioritize that? Or you can hear me talking. You're like well, I actually do prioritize that and I really like having those things and so I'm happy to spend my money on, as long as it's intentional, as long as it's conscious, as long as it's intentional, as long as it's conscious, as long as you make a decision yes or no and you're not just spending your money for no reason or without thinking about it. That's when we run into trouble. So that's the whole point of this episode is to kind of give you some things like maybe you are spending money in these areas and you don't really want to or you don't really value them. Then maybe you can take a step back and say oh, this is somewhere that we could have some extra money because we don't spend it on those things.

Speaker 1:

So the first one and I think a lot of people get into this trap is I don't purchase in bulk if it doesn't make financial sense. People think automatically that if I buy in bulk I am saving money and that, honestly, is not the case. A lot of the times, especially when you are purchasing in bulk for a lot of different items and especially when those items are perishable items. You all know what I'm talking about. When you go buy that massive bag of spinach and you're saving money and I'm doing air quotes for anybody who's not watching this episode You're saving money because you're purchasing in bulk, but then what happens to that food when you don't use it up? So, especially when it comes to vegetables, fruits, dairy items these are a lot of the things that, like, I'm going to save money because I'm going to buy. You know, the huge bag of shredded cheese, but then that huge bag of shredded cheese only gets used halfway through and you end up throwing food away which didn't actually save you money in the long run.

Speaker 1:

So again, just being really intentional about what am I wanting to purchase in bulk? And if I purchase in bulk, is it actually cheaper? That's the first question you should ask, because sometimes it's not actually cheaper If you look at the price per ounce certain things at Costco and those big bulk stores aren't actually cheaper than what you could get them at a local grocery store, especially if you can get it in the generic brand in a smaller size, and then also saying is this shelf stable? Is it going to go bad? And if it is, maybe I should just purchase less bulk so that I don't have to worry about food waste. That's number one purchasing items in bulk that don't actually save me money. Items in bulk that don't actually save me money. Number two is and this might be an unpopular opinion hot topic, but I have a really hard time spending a ton of money on my kids' wardrobes.

Speaker 1:

For me, clothing is not a huge priority, and especially when my kids are literally trashing their clothes where they're. You know, I buy them a $15 t-shirt and it gets holes and stains within the first couple weeks or months. So I do not waste money on clothing for my children. There are so many ways to save money when it comes to kids clothing. I'll I'll give some of them here, but again, this is when you comes to kids clothing. I'll give some of them here, but again, this is when you get to decide like do I really want to have my kids wear the latest and greatest clothing brands and trends and whatever and decide if you want to spend your money on that or not. For me it's like no, I don't prioritize that. I don't need my kid in the latest Nike shoes. I don't need my kids in really expensive high-end clothing. So one of the ways that we've been able to save a ton of money and actually I was just talking to Brad about this recently I think I probably have spent less than $1,000 on my kids' clothing since I started becoming a mom. I just don't spend a ton of money on my kids clothing. Like since I started becoming a mom, like I just don't spend a ton of money on my kids clothes.

Speaker 1:

One of the ways that we do this is getting hand-me-downs. I have a lot of friends and I think you can find hand-me-down options 100%. They're out there. Find somebody who has a kid a year or two above you and just say hey, if you ever have any clothes that your kids grow out of, I'll take them off your hands. For me, as a mom, when my kids grow out of their clothes, I have like bags of clothes that I drop off to Goodwill or some other thrift store that I donate because I don't have anybody to give them to. I have friends that are like yeah, I totally will give you hand-me-downs, like I'll bring a bag by whenever and like I'm serious.

Speaker 1:

We have probably outfitted our kids. 75% of their wardrobes are hand-me-downs and my kids really don't care that much about it. If they do need to purchase clothing, we do shop at thrift stores a lot for their clothes as well. It's actually funny. We just went back to school clothes shopping last week and I do get my kids. I like to buy my kids new shoes because they do go through shoes like crazy and like never, very rarely, do the shoes that we find at the thrift store last very long because they're just kind of worn in and broken down. So we go get brand new shoes, but for their clothing.

Speaker 1:

All of my kids were like mom, can we go to Goodwill? Like that's where they wanted to go shop for back to school clothing. And I just was laughing because I was like I have taught them well. They got so excited. They really like it because they can get more items like my. My son got like three pairs of shorts and a couple shirts that were all very good quality and he gets really excited because they're only like two to three dollars a shirt, whereas if we went to a store that we were buying full price items, we would spend spend like $10 to $15 a shirt. So that's a really easy way to save money is shopping secondhand, getting hand-me-downs or being really intentional about sale items. You can get really affordable clothing, brand new. If you're like ick gross, I don't want to buy secondhand, I don't want my kids in secondhand clothing, that's fine. Then be really intentional about shopping sales. There are a lot of sales out there that you can get very affordable kids clothing and it's just not something that I want to prioritize my money on. So that's number two.

Speaker 1:

Number three is and I don't know how to say this correctly, but it's basically just having a massive stockpile of food in my pantry. I go to people's houses that have big pantries and I'm jealous, like I'm so jealous that people have the storage, because I actually don't have a pantry in my house. We just have to put the pantry items in cupboards. I would love to have a bigger size pantry, like a walk-in pantry, but I don't. But even if I did have that, I would not have stockpiles of food, where you're like you know 15 cartons deep of pasta and you have every canned item you know multiple rows of it where you are stockpiling food in your pantry. I don't think that that is an easy. I don't think that's a good way to spend your money, especially when it comes to grocery shopping, because chances are you are purchasing more and more food and you're not using up the food that's already in your pantry.

Speaker 1:

And we know, if you've been listening for a while or you're a member of the Money Mom Club, you know that the first part of my method is called shopping the shelf, using the food that you already have in your house. Most of that stuff is in your pantry. If we can focus on using that, then we can be successful in saving really a lot of money really easily. I don't think you need a stockpile of food in your pantry. I just like to have basic staples. So I do want to have, you know, different types of canned goods. I do want to have pasta. I do want to have those things in my house so that they're like quick and easy meals, and I have essentials for basic recipes. But I don't think you need three plus of any one item. So using through that and then just re-getting the food that you do need is a way to really save money and not spend way more money on groceries.

Speaker 1:

Number four is birthday parties Again another thing that might be a hot topic for certain moms that want to create a very luxurious, elaborate birthday party for their kid, but I think a really easy way to not spend hundreds of dollars when you have multiple children and birthdays often throughout the year is to not spend your birthdays at a special trampoline park or an indoor play gym or, you know, laser tag, whatever it is. Those birthday parties cost hundreds of dollars to supply. I like to keep our birthday parties really simple. We've had some really fun birthday parties over the year and I host them at my house so I can keep the cost down. We do really basic food, snacks, games, whatever. The kids have so much fun. I just don't. I don't prioritize going to those expensive birthday party places for my own kid and I think we get into this comparison culture where, like you know, but Susie Mae invited us to Chuck E Cheese for her birthday party. Now I feel like I have to throw a really cool birthday party for my kid. You do what's best for you and you know your finances. You know if you can afford that and if you can't. I don't think a birthday party should stretch you financially and I think keeping it simple really creates just natural, traditional fun.

Speaker 1:

Some of the birthday parties that we've done for my kids one of them, my son, who when he turned like eight or nine he wanted to have a massive Nerf gun party and people still talk to me about this party. It was over two or three years ago and people are still talking about it. I had everybody bring a Nerf gun because, again, it was like nine-year-old boys, everybody bring a Nerf gun. I ordered a bunch of bullets on Amazon. I think I purchased like $40 worth of Nerf bullets. We got Costco pizza because it was cheap and I got, like you know, juice and whatever and cupcakes and we had everybody bring a Nerf gun to the party and we had like 35 kids there and they did this massive Nerf gun war and it was so fun and so chaotic and so crazy and it was so cheap. It was so affordable for me. I didn't spend that much money and still it was wonderful memories for those kids. They loved that experience.

Speaker 1:

So I'm just giving you permission. You don't have to spend a bunch of money on birthdays. I don't prioritize that. It's not something that I want to prioritize, so keep it simple. I have four kids. You may only have one kid. You get to decide how often you want to do big birthday parties and if you want to do big birthday parties and create that culture within your own family.

Speaker 1:

Number five is being really careful about Target runs, homegood runs, nordstrom runs to cope with emotional stress, overwhelm anxiety, any of those shopping trips. Overwhelm anxiety, any of those shopping trips and I am 100% guilty of having done this where, when I was a young mom like I got to get out of the house, what am I going to do? I would go to Target and walk the aisles, buy myself a couple new pairs of shirts or pants, a new candle or two and feel like that was regulating my emotional distress. When I was able to really get to the bottom of that overspending experience, I now no longer use shopping as a means to cope with stress. I have other tools in my pocket that I can pull out and not spend my money on those trips. One of my favorite things to do is go for a walk by myself when I'm feeling overwhelmed, those target runs and you may be guilty of this too those you know really innocent, I'm just going to go walk around and look If those are happening, you know, weekly or monthly or whatever they are, and they're adding up to hundreds and hundreds of dollars really really thinking about, is this helping me? Is this helping me financially? Is it pushing me towards my goals?

Speaker 1:

And for me, when I really got down and deep with myself, I realized it wasn't. It wasn't helping me, it was just spending money and it was like covering a Band-Aid on a wound that didn't fix the underlying problem. It wasn't like it helping me long term. It was just, you know, helping me cope, you know, with the feelings that I didn't want to handle right away. So I don't take shopping trips to Target very often. In fact, I can't remember the last time I like went and did a shopping trip at Target without a like intention behind it, where it's like I have to go get this item or I have to pick up, you know, a pickup order, or whatever that is. So that was just for me, not something that I wanted to waste money on. And then number six, the last one and maybe one of the most important ones is paying, and this is one that I think people don't think of very often. They don't realize how much they're spending and why it's happening, and that is paying for convenience that doesn't actually save you time. So we're paying for the convenience and not having to waste time doing something, but if we look at time spent, you actually are spending the same amount of time with both things.

Speaker 1:

The idea of convenience in our world in 2025 is very sexy. We're all busy, we all have a to-do list a mile long and we all want to save time and energy and whatever that looks like. So when someone preaches convenience, your ears will perk up. As a mom 100%, I'm all about you know your ears will perk up. As a mom 100%, I'm all about you know. Systematizing, making my life easier, convenience is really sexy, but some of those things not all of them some of them don't actually save you time.

Speaker 1:

So let me give you an example of this. If I am tapped out at the end of the day and I forgot to pull out the meat in the freezer for dinner time and I want to save myself time, it is really sounds really good to get my kids in the car and like, go drive through Chick-fil-A to save myself time, you are going to spend extra money on doing that, for sure. But if we look at what you could do on the flip side, instead of getting everybody in the car and you know buckling everyone in, driving to chick-fil-a, waiting in you know a 10 to 15 minute drive-thru line, driving home eating, you know, unpacking the kids eating at the dinner table, like we're talking like a 30 to 45 minute experience, depending on how far away you live from the takeout. But on the flip side of that, if you just decided, hey, I'm like really tapped out tonight and I don't, I need to save time, I need to get dinner on the table quickly, and you're like, oh, I'm just going to keep it easy and I'm going to make breakfast burritos for my kids, or we're going to just do like pancakes and eggs, most people could whip up a dinner within 15 minutes 20 minutes tops where you like you know, boil some pasta, put some chicken on the grill and you're good to go within 15 minutes. In fact, there are so many Instant Pot recipes where literally all I have to do is like go to my freezer and pour in like chicken and like some seasoning on it and like I have a meal ready to go that I didn't even like spend energy on, within like 15 or 20 minutes. You're going to save so much money.

Speaker 1:

Looking at your life with like is it actually saving me time? Is it actually more convenient? One of the other things I think people really get sucked into is those like purchasing meals online. I'm trying to think of like specific, like ready-made meals, like there's subscriptions for it. I can't like Hungry Root or I'm sure you're thinking of things in your head right now, but I can't think of the name where you like online purchase. You know pre-made meals that come to your house and then you pull them out of the freezer and put them in the microwave. You're going to spend so much more money on those meals like three, four times as much than if you had just purchased the ingredients.

Speaker 1:

And a lot of times, people who try to do that to like say they think they're going to save money and save time doing that. A lot of them are like no, those actually like I still had to cook the dang food and I was spending so much money on that. It's not actually making my life easier and then I had to like purchase more of the food because it doesn't. The four serving sizes doesn't feed my whole family. So be really, really careful about just that golden nugget of convenience. Is it actually convenient, is it actually saving you time? And is it more important to you to save money, save time. We're always weighing that out as moms and for me, I don't want to waste money on that. I don't waste money on takeout. If I am tapped out for the day, I really just try to think of something really easy. I'll give myself a break if I need to and throw in mac and cheese for the kids. Again, we are busy as moms. I want to acknowledge that and I know that we're trying to do so much, and so you have to figure out where you're at, what works for you. That's kind of the theme of this podcast episode.

Speaker 1:

Right Is like step back, look at what you're doing, make intentional choices with your money, and those are the six things that I don't spend my money on. First, buying in bulk when it doesn't actually save me money. Two kids wardrobes saving money on that, really not trying to purchase a bunch of new kids clothes. Fancy pantry stockpiles having a huge pantry full of tons of food not something I'm going to spend my money on. Birthday parties are number four. Number five was those target runs to cope with stress, anxiety, overwhelm, all those things. And then number six, paying for convenience. So those are my hot takes. I'm curious what you think if any of these resonated with you, or if you have some other ideas like, yeah, I would never spend my money on that, I'm curious to hear about it. You can shoot me a DM on Instagram, drop it in the reviews or anything like that. But thank you for being here, thank you for tuning into this episode and I will see.

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Rachel Coons

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