The microwave story

When microwaves hit the market, everyone celebrated. Cook a potato in 10 minutes instead of an hour? Amazing. Reheat leftovers in seconds? Revolutionary.

The problem wasn't the technology. The problem was what we stopped doing because of it.

We stopped chopping vegetables or measuring ingredients. We stopped tasting as we cooked and adjusting the seasoning. We even stopped taking notice of the time to know when the chicken was done or whether the sauce needed more time to thicken.

All hands-on involvement? Gone.

And something shifted. People lost the ability to cook. Not because they couldn't learn but because they never needed to pay attention anymore. Just press a button and wait for the beep. The convenience was real. But we traded something valuable for it.

We traded awareness for automation.

The consequences

Year on year we see the growing health statistics. Obesity rates started climbing in the '80s and haven't stopped. And no. I’m not saying microwaves are to blame? But they're part of a bigger picture.

When you cook from scratch, you are aware of things. How much butter goes into the sauce. Sugar content. You're aware of what you're eating because you're involved in making it.

When you microwave a frozen dinner, pies, or anything else, you just eat what someone else prepared. You have no idea what's in it. No connection to it. No awareness.

And here's what I've noticed working with hundreds of clients: your bank app is doing the exact same thing to your spending.

What this is really costing you

Here's what you lose when you let your app do all the tracking:

You don't notice when your spending starts creeping up. One coffee a day has become two. Drinks with your workmates is now $80 not $18 like it first started several weeks ago. You don't see it happening because you're not watching the individual transactions.

You don't catch patterns like how you tend to spend more on takeout when you're stressed. Or how those "just this once, it’s a good deal" purchases are now a weekly occurrence.

You don't feel the impact. When you manually track your spending, you feel each purchase differently. You're aware. You're involved. 

And just like cooking from scratch makes you more conscious of what you eat, tracking your own spending makes you more conscious of where your money is really going.

The banking app isn’t helping you change your spending decisions, it’s just calculating it for you and guess what?

That’s why everyone gets annoyed when a bank makes a judgement call based on your bank transactions. You can’t really blame them, they are backing their decision with actual data.

Data that can only change if you actively monitor the transactions and not just the totals then take action accordingly.

The solution

I'm not telling you to ditch your banking app. I wouldn't suggest you throw out your microwave and I’m not recommending ditching your banking app either.

But here's what works. Track your spending yourself for four weeks. Just one month.

Write it down. Use a notes app. Whatever works for you because the method doesn't matter. What matters is that you're the one doing it. You're paying attention. You're involved.

Then every week ask yourself, "Was this of value to me?" Not "Is this good or bad?" Not "Should I stop doing this?" 

Just ask yourself "Did I get the value I wanted from this and would I spend it again next time?"

Clients I coach are often shocked at what they start discovering. Not because they're spending on "bad" things because they're spending on things that don't actually matter to them. They're on autopilot. Following the herd. Pressing buttons and waiting for the beep.