George Kamel - 11 Frugal Habits That Made Me A Millionaire

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! Today, I’ll be sharing 11 frugal habits that helped make me a millionaire—so you can use them to stop wasting money and start stacking it. Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video 9 Things Frugal People Know About Saving on Vacation • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. • 🛡️ Re-shop and save with a Ramsey Trusted Pro.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle!   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are all kinds of habits out there. Good habits, bad habits, atomic habits, and my favorite, the ones worn by members of your local convent. That is right, my writers have let me know that nuns don't have outfits, they have habits, sleight queens. And what's going on under the habits? None, you business. They're not watching. Do I have any nuns watching?

Can you have YouTube in the convent? It feels like that's anti-convent. I've seen Nacho Libre. It's very stoic in there. It is in the Bible not to wrestle your neighbor. But today there's only one. one type of habit I want to talk to you about, the kind that helped make me a millionaire. Specifically, I'll be sharing 11 frugal habits that empowered me to stop wasting money and start stacking it, a la chairs, bricks, and suntan city promos. I think the tanners don't work when I'm there.

Nice tan. Any last words? The list starts with frugal habit number one. Always ask, how can I pay less? This one's very important. Everyone just looks at the price and I go, all right, swipe, I'll take it. Instead, you got to do some research. Search for the promo code. Ask for the discount. Negotiate if it's in person.

Buy used if you can. Thrift it. Maybe get a refurbished version or open box version. All of that can help save you money. Because the problem is, we're impulsive creatures. And too many people just jump on the first price they see at the first retailer they see. So ask yourself this question before you buy anything. Is this the best option, retailer, and price? That will help you build wealth. Frugal habit number two, shop at budget-friendly grocery stores. Here's the deal. If you change where you shop, you'll change how much you spend. Too many people complain about grocery prices, yet continue shopping at the same overpriced grocery

stores, buying the same overpriced stuff. My family has made Aldi our first stop, and it has changed our grocery budget. It's hard to spend a lot of money at Aldi. You really got to go for it, like a supermarket sweep. Okay, and here's the stat. Shopping at Aldi can save you 36% on a typical shopping list, which is nearly four grand a year for a family of four. And also, shop what's on sale. So let's say you're at Publix, which is notoriously one of the more expensive grocery stores. Well, maybe you just shop the Bogo stuff, to buy one, get one, because then it can actually be a decent bargain if you're buying stuff you actually need, which is the next point. Only buy what you need.

Buy what was on your list. And if you don't have a list, make a list before you go and eat before you go. Otherwise, you'll shop with your tum-tum. And lastly, go for generic brand whatever possible. If there's a store brand available, it's going to be cheaper than the name brand most of the time. Enough. Enough about the... We're done. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear about the groceries. They're sick of it.

It's true. Frugal habit number three, reshopping insurance every year. Rates can go down. Providers can offer new discounts. There can be new customer offers. And the problem is, you've been using the same big name company for a decade now, not realizing you've been getting ripped off. So here's what I do. I use an independent insurance broker who shops the top companies for me to find me the best coverage at the best price. And I do that every single year. So I'll drop a link below to the one I use if you want to save some money on your insurance. Frugal habit number four, buy used when you can.

Listen, buying stuff brand new, fine. Fair game if it's like a mattress. But a lot of things you can buy used from Facebook Marketplace and save big. For example, let's say you're in the market for some Bowflex adjustable dumbbells, as I tend to be, constantly in the market. Well, on Amazon, as you can see, these dumbbells are $260 plus tax, which in Tennessee is almost 10%. But if I go to Facebook and search for my Bowflex dumbbells, let's see what we have.

Bowflex? Come on, come on, big man. Look at that. $80 for the same exact pair of dumbbells from Kimberly, who, let me just say, has a four-star review out of five. What happened, Kimberly? Do you scam someone? She's doing a lot of 80 reviews. This woman has more reviews than my local Bojangles. This is wild.

But, hey, I'm still going to save close to 200 bucks, so I'm, I'm going to save close to $200. So I'm taking the risk. And I'm going to meet Kimberly in the Walmart parking lot. One of my favorite things to buy on Facebook, mirrors. You know why? Because everyone's in the photo. Look at this guy's hand. Peaking out.

I like to see inside people's houses. What's going on? Wow. Nice chair in the garage. Great tile in the bathroom. Beautiful furniture in this living room. Anyways, I digress. But for real, when we had our first baby,

Facebook Marketplace was our go-to. baby stuff is crazy expensive. So we got our crib from Facebook Marketplace, we got a recliner from Facebook Marketplace, and fun fact, it happened to be for one of my favorite banjo players, Noah Pekalny. Nobody has a favorite banjo player. Maybe you need hobbies, bro. Speaking of which, frugal habit number five, choose affordable hobbies and entertainment. And think through these categories to get your brain going. A creative hobby, an active hobby where you're moving your body, a hobby you can do at home, like knitting or sewing, or Dungeons and Dragons, and a social hobby,

where you can go out with people and be amongst humanity. And then put it through these filters, low cost, high enjoyment. If you can find those, you're gonna do great. Now, if you wanna go join your local country club, be my guest, but that's not exactly a frugal hobby. And whatever hobby you choose, here's my rule of thumb. Start as inexpensively as possible,

because you're likely to give up the hobby after you realize this really isn't for me and I thought it was for me because I saw a video of Taylor Swift making, sourdough bread? And I thought this could be fun. Taylor Swift makes sourdough, but you don't even like sourdough bread. You're gluten-free. What were you thinking? You almost killed your family. The bread puns have to stop. Yeah. Anyways, start inexpensive, then work your way up. This goes for pickleball too. All right, you don't need a $100 pickleball paddle when you're just getting started

trying to cook up in that kitchen. You got to start easy. Get a use one from Facebook. Get a cheap one on Amazon and then upgrade as you're fully committed. How did this happen? I didn't even know about this two months ago. Look at me now. Oh, and if you hate yourself, go high cost, low enjoyment. Looking at you, golfers. Every time, hey, how was it out there? Ah, man, not my best game. I'm like, but you got a high score? Isn't that good? They're like, no, that's not how golf works. It was a part three. I got a birdie. Okay, grown men talking about birdies. Do better. And a great thing to do is look at events in your own community. And in my community here in Nashville, there's something called do 615. And I think it's like seven bucks a month I pay. And they'll send me

tickets to events happening in Nashville and I can select which ones I want to go to, and you get a pair of tickets for seven bucks a month. So that's a cheap way to go out and explore new things. Just please, whatever hobby you choose, don't let it be Dungeons and Dragons. Okay, it may be affordable, but it will cost you your dignity. You can't get out. It's a forever game, I found out. It doesn't have like an end date. Nobody wins. Everybody loses. Six plus five plus four plus three plus six. That's 32 damage. Nice. Frugal habit number six. Don't sleep on the kids' meal.

Okay, here in America, I don't know if you've been to a restaurant in America. The portions are just simply too much. Okay, we're all out of shape. I think we can do better by going with the kids' meal, which is still calorically plenty enough food for a guy my size, and you can still get a big meal for a fraction of the price. So here's what I do, for example, at somewhere like Chick-fil-A. I'll get a five-grilled-nugget kid's meal.

It comes with the fries. You get the drink. You get nine Chick-fil-A sauces, which is 4,000 calories, and it's enough food to sustain me, especially when you trade in the toy for an ice dream. Or if you want to keep the toy, free hobby. Another hack, kids' meals almost always come with drinks. Adult meals usually don't.

Bonus points if you have kids, and if you don't have kids, just try to look like you're under 12? I don't know. That's ethically on the line if you put your knees in the shoes when you walk up to the counter. And if kids' meals aren't for you because you're a grown adult, Here's Frugal Habit Number 7. Split entrees when eating out.

This works great at restaurants and even fast casual spots, like a Chipotle or a Kava. Here's what I do. I load it up with every ingredient I like, and that usually gives me a sizable bowl, especially if it's takeout. Then you just order it, grab it, and you're out of there. And I can split that with my wife to turn it into two meals. Or if you're single, it means saving some for later. But hey, you spend $11 on the bowl, you split it in half and make it two meals.

That's 550 a bowl. That's actually reasonable. Frugal habit number eight, don't miss out on a good coupon. Now, this is not extreme couponing, and this is not your grandma trying to save 12 cents on milk, and we're not sitting here cutting out the coupon out of the Sunday paper. These days, we've gone digital. There's tons of apps out there that can make this super easy, like Rackatin or Ibota, and promo codes work too.

You can even use ChatGPT to help you search for coupons and promo codes. And locally, there's an app I use called Citysaver, which is all over America. and this can get you Bogo deals at restaurants and it's like 25 bucks for the book and it supports your local school. So I'm always happy to do that and you can make your money back pretty quick if you just use a few of those coupons.

And don't forget about email signups. Lots of places give you something for free just for signing up for their email newsletter or you get something on your birthday. Take advantage of those because it all adds up. Now, after you sign up for all those email lists, know that your personal data might be floating around out there. But have no fear when it comes to digital privacy

because you can use Delete Me, the sponsor of today's video. Delete Me combs through hundreds of data broker websites to remove your personal info before it gets sold to spammers and scammers, which comes in super handy after you subscribe to a thousand email lists. Not only will it give you peace of mind, but it can also help prevent you from getting targeted by online scams and fishing attacks.

And right now you can get 20% off their annual plans, which comes out to about $9 a month, when you go to join deleteme.com slash George or use the link in the description below. All right, back to our frugal habits. We've got frugal habit number nine. Number 9, rotate your subscriptions. Get this, 42% of people have stopped using a subscription service but forgot they were still paying for it.

And the companies love this. The average US adult spends $1,080 per year on subscriptions and nearly $200 on unused subscriptions, according to CNET's second annual subscription survey. Shout out to CNET for doing the Lord's work. Because who's trying to sign up to do the subscription survey? CNET, they're still out there. They're doing it. So how does this work?

Well, if your favorite show is on your favorite platform, then cut the rest of them. And once that show is over and you've binge watched it, move on to another one. So maybe you have Hulu for a season and then you switch over to Disney Plus to catch the latest bluey, and then you switch over to Netflix, and then you cut Netflix and you get peacock. You don't have to have them all at once because there's simply too much content. It's overwhelming. Frugal habit number 10? Budgeting.

I know. I know. You're like, of course you had dementia. Listen, if you don't make a plan for your money, someone else will. Companies are plotting their next marketing schemes and billboards and digital ads to entice you to buy their stuff. So you've got to be proactive instead of reactive. And the every dollar budgeting app makes this super easy because I make a plan for my money before the month begins

and I tell my money where to go with line items in said budget. And that way, when I'm tempted, I just look at the budget and go, nope, didn't plan for that. Maybe next month. Sorry, Spanx. Gross. Disgusting. Moving on to frugal habit number 11. Let's talk travel.

during off seasons. You're going to pay way more for hotels and flights during school breaks and holidays, not to mention waiting in longer lines and sitting in traffic. Some of the busiest times of the year include summer vacation, which is mid-June to August, Christmas and New Year's, spring break, and Thanksgiving. On the flip side, some of the most affordable travel windows include mid-January to early March, late April to mid-May, and September to mid-November. So if you can be flexible with your travel, you're going to save big, and that's what frugal people do. And it's really just scratch the surface of ways to save money on vacation, which is why I made this video breaking down a full list

of ways frugal people cut costs when they travel. So click here to check it out next, where you use the link in the description. That's it for today. Be sure to hit like on this video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you next time.