Shadowing Practice: When Convenience Starts Costing More Than It's Worth - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Everything is so convenient now.

Exactly.

And that's the problem we're talking about today.

It starts small.

A delivery instead of cooking, a subscription instead of buying, a ride instead of walking.

And before you know it, you're not saving time, you're losing money.

It's not that you're broke, it's that you are over -convenient.

Yeah, you and 67 % of consumers who pay for convenience to save time.

My name is Kelly.

My name is Jasmine.

Let's start with the biggest one, food.

food delivery apps oh yeah they are not the bane of my existence

but they might be the bane of my wallet sometimes tell me um i went back in 2024

and i printed out all my bank statements for the year scary

and the amount of money

that i donated to the charity of food delivery apps was quite astronomical um in the thousands oh i bet

that hurt when you saw it all on paper in front of you yeah

and i thought like okay monthly budgeting is one thing weekly

budgeting is another thing yearly no i was very distraught my

husband was like what are what are you doing what is this

and i was like it was from my fun account i budgeted

but i didn't actually budget for it

so yeah what do you do different now okay

so now okay i promise myself that I only will spend the delivery fee

and tip once or twice a month um I cook more you know we have a child now

so we're saving money in that aspect anyway um but

if I really feel like I need

that extra I don't want to cook um I force myself to go pick it up

because that's going to save me money um but also

if I need to do delivery okay we have it in there already set in mind for once

or twice a month so you're budgeting for it so it's not

that it's all bad no you just have to have planned

for it budgeted for it be ready okay what else are we spending our money on subscriptions

so many other things

that we can subscribe to like streaming you know originally i was saving money

because i canceled the you know the cable got canceled i'm like oh look i just got 150 back

but now i subscribe to all of these different streaming apps

and if you don't pay attention you have one two three ten

and they start adding up really quick and it got higher than my cable bill.

And so just taking time to go back and audit them, take a look at them.

What am I paying for?

What am I not paying for?

And just some tips and tricks that I've used is if you're paying things with your credit card, and even if you do it just with your regular debit card or bank,

you can search and sort by the name.

And you can also search and sort by subscriptions on a lot of the credit card websites.

And it shows you all the things that are recurring.

And you can very quickly, very easily see those and go, oh my gosh, I didn't realize this is what I was spending on

and you can take note

and it's not just things like streaming it can be other

things there's subscriptions for everything now there are subscriptions for grooming

boxes there are subscriptions for pets I have two dogs at home

that I love and I would like to buy them all the things

and they could come directly to my door

but it's just keeping track of it all

and I know I made a mistake

and I had a subscription to something at one point in time

that I thought I had canceled they were still sending me emails saying join us join us

so I thought for sure I canceled right why would they ask me to join

and i found out i had been paying for 18 months

and i hadn't realized it because i wasn't stopping to audit

and take a look 18 months i paid without using the

thing was it thousands like me it was yes it was

79 a month oh for 18 months yeah how dumb was i

so you've got to just pay attention absolutely i mean subscriptions

aren't all bad no i mean i have a new baby um

and so we have a couple apps that we use to keep us on track and And yes, everything needs a subscription.

There's one that we use for tracking his feeding, his nap time, his bedtime, his diaper changes, all the things.

So it's very helpful.

But that's something that we budgeted for.

And we did do the annual subscription.

And it ended up saving us more money in the end if we did the yearly subscription versus doing the monthly.

With my boys, that stuff didn't exist when they came into the world.

And so there's so many new ways to get roped in.

And especially when it's a baby, you want to do all the things.

You want to do them all right.

You want to get everything you can for them.

And like you said before, all subscriptions aren't bad.

Sometimes they can actually save you money if you stay in control and you do the right thing.

Absolutely.

So I have a subscription to one of the big chain grocery stores and it delivers the food for me.

And while there is a cost for that annually and I pay annually to save money over monthly, it really helps me stay on track with what I'm buying and what I'm ordering.

So I stick to my list.

I'm not walking up and down the aisle, smelling the things, seeing the things, wanting to buy everything that I don't need.

It holds me accountable to my meal prep too, because if I order the things and they show up, then I have to make them and I have to use them.

And I do a better job with that.

And it's even been really beneficial when I travel because I typically like to stay and rent a home versus a hotel.

And I use that same delivery service to that address and it helps me go, okay, I'm on vacation.

I'm not going to dine out all five nights.

I'm going to.. make some meals three nights with this order

that I did it keeps me from buying all the fun things you buy on vacation like the extra desserts

and and the ice cream and all this stuff

so it's been very helpful as long as I stick to my plan stuff

and I'm aware of it you have a reminder

which is really smart

because I didn't for mine you were going to cut the one the one subscription off

because you don't need it any longer but once you do

that what do you do with

that money something I did for myself is I applied it to our mortgage my husband

and I were like you know what we did this audit

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one time years ago we realized we had too many streaming apps like i mentioned before

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we had a couple other things i had one of those like boxes

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that shows up and you don't know what's going to be inside it's

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so exciting and you open it but i never used it

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and it ended up at the goodwill

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so i i thought to myself what can we do with this money

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and at that time we were really trying to get our mortgage paid off

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so we started putting all of those dollars instead of just absorbing them into our budget for dining out

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or this out or the other we applied it to our mortgage

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and it helped us pay it down even faster nice

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and there's other things you can do with those dollars they

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could go towards savings whatever might be your top priority at that time

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so that's a good way to find money savings yeah we're

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not at the uh mortgage only yet we're still on our financial freedom journey

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but that is something

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that i didn't think about until yeah kind of finding money you didn't know you had yeah

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because you were wasting on something else we're good at

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that okay so subscriptions we just went through food subscriptions

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but the other thing

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that we have are just delivery apps in general oh yeah

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you can get anything delivered i have everything delivered okay not everything

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but i have realized

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that it's very easy to just be on the app you're just on your couch monday

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and you just swipe swipe add to cart add to cart

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add to cart before you know it your card is already linked

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and then you're like purchase and then you have this beautiful box at home

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that arrives and you know it's in it because you've been anticipating it

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because you did it um but there's danger in that

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because you're just mindlessly buying and purchasing

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and before you know it you get a little ding

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and you're looking at your budget and you're like oh spin up

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and so that can be a problem sometimes

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so um number one I try to use my phone less in general

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when I'm home especially because I'm at home with family at

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that point um but also just being careful of okay maybe it sits in the cart

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and it's not an impulse buy um I'll go

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and look at our budget real quick

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and I'm like okay where are we at for the month

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especially with it being the 29th tomorrow it ends okay let's

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look at what we did do we have anything we can roll over okay

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that can go to savings do I absolutely need this item

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if I do okay then I can make this purchase

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and maybe I had to pull it from another section

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but it's still within the budget overall um

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or just go to the store and there's things outside of

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that so not only can we get things fast and delivered

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but we can choose not to drive ourselves at all

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and we can take advantage of different ride sharing options too

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and that can get out of control i am it does

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and when we're talking about delivery delivery for everything there really is a cost to

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that so it's not just the convenience of them bringing it to your house

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and you don't have to go yourself

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but i know my boys love pizza my boys they choose to eat odd pizzas

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but whatever it's what they like what's odd barbecue sauce they

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don't do red sauce they do barbecue sauce for the beast try it sometime

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and they always want it from one particular place and it's rather close to our house but I'm thinking, okay, I'll just order it.

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I'll have it delivered.

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I'll tip the guy, whatever.

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And then I look at the breakdown and I've got my total.

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Okay.

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I'm already budgeting for the dining out portion, but then there's this additional like $4 .99 delivery.

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And that doesn't go to the gentleman who's bringing it to me or whoever's bringing it out.

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That goes just to the company itself.

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And then on top of that, I need to tip the driver as well, who is doing the work for me and bringing it to my house.

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And then I go, do I tip off of the total?

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Do I tip off the total before the delivery fee?

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But I ended up taking something that could have been, let's say, $26 if I drove five minutes down the road and picked it up.

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And I just added another $10 to $12 to it for tip and for delivery fees.

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And so there's a cost.

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And you're paying more than what the actual product was in general.

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I've seen that before.

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I've done that before where it's an ad and it's like, oh, $12 for this meal.

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I'm like, OK, great.

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I'm only spending $12.

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And before you know it, it racks up.

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And I'm like, wait, where did $28 come from?

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That's more than double what it costs.

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Could have eaten twice if he'd driven near your stall.

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Correct.

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Correct.

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Yeah.

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So it gets expensive.

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It does.

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We just have to keep track.

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We're not telling you to cut out convenience completely.

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But be intentional about it.

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If this made you rethink your spending, send it to a friend who needed to hear it.

187

Right.

188

And don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Smart Money Hap.

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130 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 188 sentences and 2133 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:36. The speaker talks fast, about 222 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/ (noun) — Access to a resource for a period of time, generally for payment.
mortgage /ˈmoɹ.ɡɪd͡ʒ/ (noun) — A legal agreement in which a borrower pledges real property as collateral for a loan used to purchase or refinance that property.
cancel /ˈkæn.sl̩/ (verb) — To cross out something with lines etc.
cart /kɑɹt/ (noun) — A small, open, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by a person or animal, often with two wheels on one axle, more often used for transporting goods than…
meal /ˈmiːl/ (noun) — Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
audit /ˈɔːdɪt/ (noun) — A judicial examination.
convenience /kənˈvinjəns/ (noun) — The quality of being convenient.
subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/ (verb) — To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name).
bone /boʊn/ (noun) — A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.
helpful /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ (adjective) — Furnishing help; giving aid; useful.
pizza /ˈpi.tsə/ (noun) — A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables.
vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — An extended trip or journey away from home for rest or pleasure.
versus /ˈvɝsəs/ — Against; in opposition to.
annually /ˈæn.jʊə.li/ (adverb) — Once every year without fail, yearly
convenient /kənˈviː.niənt/ (adjective) — Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
do with (verb) — Only used in to do with
end up (verb) — To bring to a conclusion.
show up (verb) — To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
add up (verb) — To take the sum of; to total.
come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
come into (verb) — To obtain (usually money or property), especially through inheritance.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 64 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/
Long words — get the stress right: priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, astronomical /ˌæs.tɹəˈnɑm.ɪ.kəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like subscription, mortgage, cancel.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	it's even been · it's been · have realized
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was saving · was spending · were still sending
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might be
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start adding · started putting

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: When Convenience Starts Costing More Than It's Worth - Learn English Speaking with Video

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