102: Why You Still Feel Broke (Even If You Have Money)

Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought… “Why do I still feel broke?”

The bills are paid. Your income might even be decent. But somehow, money still feels stressful, tight, and like it’s constantly slipping through your fingers.

In this episode of the Money Mom Podcast, I’m breaking down why you can have money and still feel broke—and what’s actually going on beneath the surface.

Because here’s the truth most financial advice won’t tell you:
 👉 It’s not just about how much money you make.
 👉 It’s about how safe you feel with the money you already have.

Inside this episode, we’re diving into:

• Why making more money doesn’t fix financial stress
• The hidden reason your money keeps “disappearing”
• How emotional spending is quietly keeping you stuck
• The difference between reactive vs. intentional spending
• How to stop feeling broke—even before your income changes

If you’ve ever found yourself:

• Overspending on Amazon, Target, or takeout
• Wondering where your money went at the end of the month
• Feeling guilty, stressed, or anxious about money
• Or stuck in a cycle of “I just need to make more money…”

This episode will completely shift how you see your finances.

Because the goal isn’t just more money…
 It’s creating a calm, confident, and intentional relationship with money.

And that starts today.

If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe and share it with a friend who needs to hear this.

And if you’re ready to feel more in control of your money (without restriction or overwhelm), register for my free LIVE training next week! 💛
JOIN US HERE

Keywords: budgeting for moms, why do I feel broke, emotional spending, money mindset, financial stress, grocery budgeting, intentional spending, stop overspending, personal finance for moms, money habits, scarcity vs abundance

xoxo,
Rachel

Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons

Join me for my free training to cut your grocery bill by $600 every month: Register HERE

Transcript

hy You Still Feel Broke

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Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought, why do I still feel broke? The bills are getting paid. Maybe your income is actually pretty decent, but somehow money still feels stressful, right? Like it's constantly slipping through your fingers. If this sounds familiar, this video might change how you see your finances forever. So stay tuned. Hey friends, welcome back to the Money Mom channel. I am your host, Rachel Coons. And if you're new here, I help moms create calm, intentional, and confident relationships with money, especially when it comes to your grocery spending and everyday finances as a mom. And today we're going to talk about something that a lot of people experience but don't always know how to explain because it's not very tangible. Why you can have money and still feel broke. I'm going to walk you through the four things that might actually be happening and more importantly, what you can do to fix it. Because here's the truth that nobody wants to acknowledge the problem isn't that you need more money, it's that you haven't created safety around the money that you already have. And once you understand that, everything can change. One of the biggest myths that happens in the personal finance world is that more money will just fix everything. And while there is a certain amount of income that you do need to absolutely help you in certain situations, it doesn't automatically fix your relationship with money and how you feel around money. Because if that were true, every single person who had a lot of money would feel good about it or would feel safe around it. And then every single person who didn't have enough money wouldn't feel safe, wouldn't feel peace around money. And we know that's not true. That there are certainly situations in our world today where there's people who have money that don't feel good, and there's people who don't have money that feel good. I've worked with lots of women who make over six figures and yet they still feel financially stressed. They still feel like there's not enough money at the end of the month. They still feel like they're living in scarcity. And the inverse is true that I've worked with a lot of families who don't have very much income, yet they feel confident with their money. So what's the difference? It's not the number in the bank account. That's not the big difference. It's how safe they feel with money. Think about it. If money feels chaotic, if your spending feels reactive, if checking your bank account makes your stomach drop, more money's not going to fix that. It actually makes the patterns and the subconscious beliefs even bigger. I've seen it this way: a woman gets a raise, she's excited, she makes more money, and then within a few months, that same stress, that same feeling of being broke comes back because the belief system didn't change, the subconscious identities didn't change. So the goal isn't earning more money. The goal is to learn how to feel safe and intentional, the money that you already have. The second reason people feel broke, even with a good amount of money, is that their spending is happening automatically, not intentionally. It's the quick Amazon purchases, it's the quick target runs that turn into$200. It's grabbing takeout at the end of the day because you're exhausted. It's buying something everyone else has that you seem to need to have as well. And none of that actually means that you're irresponsible. It just means you're human. But when spending happens automatically, money disappears quicker. And then we look at our bank account and think, where did all the freaking money go? But the truth is it went to dozens of small decisions that happened without awareness, without intention, without you even realizing that it's happening. Now, here's where things go deeper, and this is the part that changes everything. A lot of spending isn't about what we're actually buying, it's the feeling that we're trying to create from the thing that we're buying. So here's an example: you're scrolling Instagram and your friend's video comes up of her just redoing her kitchen, and it's beautiful, and it's everything you've ever wanted in a kitchen. And so you start to feel feelings of jealousy, of maybe inadequacy, of judgment on your own situation. So then you ended up going to Home Goods and purchasing some new decorations for your house to be able to feel a little bit better about yourself. We didn't actually need to go spend hundreds of dollars at home goods. What we needed to do instead is to diagnose the feelings that we're currently have and sitting with those feelings. So many times people are using their spending as a way to mask underlying emotions. So if you aren't feeling good about yourself, if you don't feel worthy, if you don't feel successful, if you're not happy, money is not going to be able to make you feel any of those things. But so often we are using our spending to feel better about ourselves. And money can't fill that void. Money actually can't give you any emotion. Maybe it can in the short term, maybe for 20 minutes you'll feel happier when you buy something for yourself. But in the long term, you're gonna feel unhappy about yourself when the credit card bill comes up and you spent$200 that you didn't actually intend to spend. If spending becomes the way that we regulate the emotions that you're having or masking the emotions that you're having, money is always going to feel tight because you're throwing money into a void that can't be filled with money because the underlying real needs are not being met. You're not actually solving the problem, you're just temporarily numbing it. And that can feel really uncomfortable for someone who is just introduced to this idea. So the next time you experience a negative emotion and you're trying to mask it with buying something, just sit with the emotion for a second. Allow yourself to feel the things you're feeling, and then you may find that you're able to work through those emotions better without money. So here's the thought I want to offer you today. Most people believe I just need more money to be happy. But what if the real shift is I just need to create more safety and awareness around the money that I already have. Because when money starts to feel safe, you stop reacting to it. You stop avoiding it, you stop using spending to regulate your emotions. And that's when money starts to feel peaceful instead of stressful. That's when you stop feeling broke. And I want to say something really important here that I think a lot of people may feel some shame around this. If you've ever struggled with emotional spending or you've ever wondered why money feels hard, you're not broken. You're actually very normal because most of us weren't taught how to have a healthy relationship with money. Most of us weren't taught to handle our emotions correctly. We were taught how to earn money. We were taught how to spend money. But very few of us were taught how to feel calm and grounded around money. And that's beautiful because that's something you can actually learn. So if you feel like you're constantly chasing more money, I want you to ask yourself a different question this week. Not how can I make more money? Instead, ask yourself, how can I create more safety with the money that I already have? And sit with that for a second. And I bet some answers will come to you. If this video resonated with you, make sure you click that subscribe button for more conversations around money, grocery spending, and creating a calmer financial life as a mom. I'll see you in the next video.