George Kamel - 11 Places Frugal People NEVER Spend Money

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

📗 Listen to my audiobook, Breaking Free From Broke. Think you’re living the frugal life? In this episode, I’ll share 11 places frugal people avoid and how to tell if it��s time to rethink your money habits. Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video ⁠12 Rules for (a Frugal) Life⁠. • 📈 ⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.⁠ • ⁠💵⁠ ⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠•  Connect With Our Sponsors: 🔒 Get 20% off when you join ⁠DeleteMe⁠. • 💸 Learn more about opening a high-yield savings account with ⁠Laurel Road⁠. 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

Are you actually frugal? Or are you just wearing a costume and fooling yourself? Well, you're about to find out. Because today, we're going over 11 places frugal people refuse to spend money, and the list came straight from you. For real. I threw a post up on my YouTube community and on social media asking you guys which stores and websites frugal people avoid at all costs,

much like I avoid a Girl Scout troop trying to sell me docee doze outside my local Pigley-Wigley. Not falling for your solicitation, young girl. Try it elsewhere. There's cookies inside the grocery. Go places where there's not cookies nearby. You know what I mean? I said good day. So let's see if your shopping habits make the cut,

or if you're just squeezing a champagne lifestyle into a LaCroix budget. And before we hop in, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel, okay? Be a friend, not a freeloader. Up first on places people refuse to spend money? Amazon. Here's the comment from Rupert M. Duck. Amazon Prime.

More than the annual or monthly cost, the service gets people to buy junk they don't need of low quality that needs to be replaced way too soon. Instead, when I can't get what I need at a brick and mortar store, I shop around in order from the trustworthy site offering the best deal. Often for large enough orders, I get free shipping anyways. I just have to wait some extra days. Now, of course I use Amazon, but my boy Rupert here is on to something with the whole Prime gets you to spend more argument, because I found this out. Average Prime member spent $1,170 bucks in 2024 compared to

$570 per year for non-prime customers. You get? in this, prime people spend almost double of non-prime customers. If you want to save some money, cut the Amazon Prime all together, not only will you save the Amazon Prime subscription fee, but also you'll spend less. Here's the deal with Amazon. It's all about convenience, okay? So if you want the best price, you can do better in most cases. And for that, I say, good job on this one, frugal people. Next up on our list of places frugal people refuse to spend money at is Tymu. Here's the comment from Robert. Timu, freaking Timu, my daughter likes it. and that site only sells single-use garbage.

I hate it with such a passion. Robert, you said it so poetically. T-Moo, freaking T-Moo! I love where he was going with this. Now, if you're not familiar with T-Mu, this is their tagline, shop like a billionaire. But it's just low-price garbage

that takes 17 weeks to get there if it ever does at all. They sell a ton of supposedly budget-friendly items like clothes, electronics, and home goods and gadgets. I've never personally shopped there, no judgment if you have. Maybe they have some great stuff. Not only does it come with the curtain.

It comes with the window. So let's see their collection of T-shirts here. Let's see what they got from Men's T's T's. Ooh, security verification. I love completing a puzzle. Okay, slide. Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, wait. Nothing makes me feel smarter than security verification.

Sometimes I'm like, is my IQ high? And then I'm like, oh, I know where that Apple should go. All right, I'm looking at their shirts, $5 for I still play. with Block shirt? Who's the... 466 reviews? Okay. Your design or text here? $5.75. Okay. Uh, oh, that, we can't show that. That's an expletive. A Yahweh shirt for $2.71. A Yahweh shirt. Okay. Why is his arm inside of the shirt? I don't know what he's doing there. That's uncomfortable.

Goonies never say die. $6.48. A shirt that just says Milano, Italy. $6.61. So far, I don't know who the target demo is here. Oh, here's an... I like this one. ASAP, always stop and pray. Well done, guys. Evangelism at its finest. Oh, here's a good one. If you bring up my past, you should know that Jesus dropped the charges.

Nobody was asking if you were a convicted criminal, man. What the heck is this guy doing? Looks like he just got out of prison in this photo. But for $5.93, I kind of want to buy it. Because who's going to think I committed a crime? They're like, that guy, really? Was it embezzlement or like a finance, like a tax-related issue? Because I don't think he can actually commit serious felonies.

All right, last one here. God knew I needed an angel, so he gave me my wife. Very sweet. But I feel like if I wore that, my wife would leave me. So it has an opposite effect. Okay, I think I've seen enough here. I get the point. I understand now.

So much better. Yeah, I can't imagine a frugal person shopping at Timu. Even though they have really cheap prices, it just seems like absolute garbage that, of course, is disposable in single use based on the quality you can get for $5. With shipping included? I have no idea.

I have no idea how the shipping works here. Free returns up to 90 days, no import charges. They have an app. Okay. Next, I'm done with you, Timu. Next on our list is Starbucks. I knew this one would be here.

I knew it. Here's what ER Ram Medge had to say. Starbucks overpriced coffee. For me, it feels more like people buy it to look cool or make a status. statement. I got to say, very generous use of the quotes there, friend. Now, I will admit, treating yourself to Starbucks every now and then, I'm okay with that. Spending $7 a day, five days a week, well, that comes out to nearly two grand a year on coffee. So I'll tell you how

I do this. I use Starbucks as an occasional treat. I'm not a hater. I enjoy their blonde roast drip coffee, their nitro cold brew coffee. But again, this is like a little Saturday treat for me. I usually make coffee at home or I get it for free from work. That's how I save. So frugal people, yeah, I don't think they're going to Starbucks. I think they're absolutely getting the old Folgers crystals out and going to town, you know? Maybe a curing if they're getting real excited. So frugal people definitely would not be darkening the door of a Starbucks,

and so this one gets a thumbs up for me. Next on the list of places frugal people refuse to spend money at, Lulu Lemon. Here's the comment from Kimberly Burns on Instagram, Lulu! Not paying $100 for leggings. I actually need to see. I have not been inside of a Lulu Lemon, so I don't know what the prices are here. Okay, 15% off. That's a nice deal. Thank you. Men's joggers, all right?

128 bucks, $18, $98. So yeah, this is for the men's stuff. So yeah, $100 is normal. That's cheap for Lulu. Now, I'm definitely down to pay for quality. Let me say this. I'm not mad if you spend good money. I imagine these will fare better than some leggings on Amazon. understand that what you're really paying for when you buy a brand like Lulu is brand association. If you're buying it because it makes you feel good, you feel like you're connected to something bigger than yourself, a fancy workout community, people who wear athleisure to go grocery shopping, you feel better than people, you love your bar instructor, I get it. But we also have to admit, there's plenty of quality leggings out there that won't cost you a leg just for the name brand flex.

So, game recognized game Lulu, but if you want to send me some ABCs, I ain't mad about it. I would be very mad. Do I look like I jog? What am I doing joggers? You got walking pants? That's what I need. A pair of walking pants. I hate moving.

Next on our list of places frugal people refuse to shop at is boozy grocery stores. Let's see what our friend Whitney Buck had to say. Bougy grocery stores like Publix. Aldi is just fine. Yass. Yes. Yes. Queen.

I am with Whitney on this one. Ditch the boogie grocery store for somewhere more affordable. Now, I got nothing against Publix, but you can do better if you're trying to save on food. Now, personally, I am a big Aldi fan along with Whitney. Here's a real stat. Shopping at Aldi can save you 36% on a typical shopping list, which is nearly $4,000 a year for a family of four. So the savings are very real. So let me tell you some things I do.

If you want to make this easy on yourself to go grocery shopping instead of eating out more and to do it affordably, I go in with a list, usually on my phone and an iPhone note of here's exactly what I came in to buy. Here's the recipes I'm making. And to help with this, I use ChatGPT to give me some meal ideas for my dietary needs, the goals. Hey, I got 20 minutes. I want some gluten-free in one pot that is going to be delicious and nutritious. It'll just spit out a bunch of ideas for you. Here's a bonus tip.

Put the cooking times on the calendar. Tell yourself, right, Monday night, I'm going to cook. Thursday night, I'm going to cook. I'm going to eat leftovers for a few days, and that's going to get me to the weekend. Don't waste the food you bought and then shame spiral into the DoorDash app to cope. You can do this. watch YouTube videos for inspiration and to build your confidence. But I'm telling you,

boogie grocery stores are a big budget killer, especially now. So this is a great area to cut. Kudos to the frugal people out there, shopping at Aldi. Next step on our list is restaurants. I guess just in general. Let's see what Jessica had to say about this. I mostly refuse to pay for sit-down restaurants anymore unless it's a special occasion.

I think the cost of eating out these days is a rip-off, and that's coming from someone whose main lifestyle was frequenting restaurants until January of 2025. when I started the baby steps. I love this. Well said, Jessica. Now, I've got nothing against restaurants, but you need to understand that restaurants and eating out, it is entertainment and luxury,

way more than it is utility. How luxurious, you ask? Well, here's a stat. Restaurants typically mark up their prices as much as 300% to cover overhead and make a profit. That's 4x. That means you wind up paying 20 bucks for a meal that you could have made at home

for $5 per serving. Now, here's some things I do to keep it frugal if I am going to eat out. I try to avoid the sit-down restaurants, which are generally more expensive, not to mention tipping your server. So instead, I'll do to go orders, take out orders to save money, or I'll stick to fast casual spots like Kava, where my wife and I can split one entree and it's very filling, and it comes out to that five or six bucks per serving.

That's the only way I'm doing it, unless it's a date night. And then we're splurging, baby. It's in the budget. Three words for you. Treat yoke, so. Next on our list of places frugal people refuse to spend their money, gambling sites. Took a turn there. You weren't expecting that.

Not on your bingo card. See what I did there? Gambling, bingo. Bingo can be seen as a form of gambling, especially in nursing homes. It's how they move money. It's how they wash money in the nursing home. Why they bingo?

I've seen better call, Saul. None of us has ever seen this, God-Forsaken wasteland. Here's the comment from Mike Dindu on YouTube. Anything to do with gambling, lottery, casinos, online betting. I lump all that together because they all have one thing in common. It's for schmuck. Love this guy. Love the use of schmucks. Bring it back. Bring Schmucks back. Bring Schmucks back.

Here's the deal with gambling. At best, it's an expensive form of entertainment and unfortunately for many at worst It's an addiction that can wreck your finances and your relationships and the real epidemic I'm worried about lately is sports betting because it's become so normalized So socialized it feels like well this is just a part of the fun of the game we all put a little money in and use Fandul and bet on some random parlay And get this, in states where sports betting is legal, net investments decreased by 14%. So we're not building for the future, we're just gambling it all away and making fan duel billions of dollars. In 2024 alone, Americans wagered almost $150 billion on sports betting. So what if instead of literally throwing your money out the window by spending it on gambling, do something more responsible, like putting it in a high-yield savings account with online bank Laurel Road,

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And that's why I recommend using a service called Delete Me, another. the sponsor of today's video. Delete Me will comb through hundreds of data broker sites to clean up your digital footprint and make sure that your personal data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. It's a great way to help protect yourself from serious online threats like fishing scams and harassment. And right now, you can get one of their annual plans as low as $9 a month. That's a 20% off discount. So to get the deal, head to join deleteme.com slash George or click the link in the description below. All right, back to our list of places frugal people refuse to spend their money, high-end department stores. Here's the comment from

Lil Fitz 1, high-end department stores like Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel, paying for a designer label. Yeah, I mean, high-end department, the word high-end already entails, it's not frugal. That's hard to do together at the same time. So let me check out Nordstrom's selection of jeans here to see what we're talking. What does a pair of jeans cost these days? $215 to look like that guy? No, thank you. $161?

Is that really what jeans cost these days? Is there any cheap jeans? Nope. These are on sale for $215. Get out of town. I've never even heard of these brands. AG, 7 for All Mankind. Oh, wow, Santos Studio.

Look at these wide legs. Look at the legs on this guy. $200 to look like, I don't know, a city slicker Aladdin? I don't know what's going on here with these jeans. Not here for it. Okay, I have seen enough. No thank you, Nordstrom. So here's some tips to stay frugal while being bougie.

You could buy used. There's apps like Poshmark. Go to a consignment shop. If you're dead set on buying new, use an app or a browser extension that can help you research prices and compare, like Camel, Camel, Camel, Retail Me Not, Recutin, Slick deals. And then if it is a bigger purchase, budget for it. Don't use buy and out pay later. Don't put it on the credit card, save up and pay cash.

And if it hurts too much to let go of that cash to get that item, maybe you don't really want that item that badly. And that's a great way to avoid impulse and regret. Next up on our list, we've got Target. I thought we'd find this one here. Here's what they had to say. Retro beauty. Target, overpriced on a lot of stuff you don't need. Decor is trendy, not timeless, bad quality.

I mean, sure, I get it, but you could do a lot worse than Target. The real superpower is the vibe, right? It's the branding. You feel good walking to a Target more than you do, a Walmart. So while I agree that Target doesn't always have the best prices, and it is more trendy than it is timeless, you're not going to Target to buy the highest quality item, you're going for convenience and to have a good shopping experience.

And for that, I'm a little iffy on this one because I go to Target a lot. I'm not mad about that, but I don't buy timeless items. I'm not trying to buy things for life from Target. I know I might be paying a little more. I do try to look for the deals and look for what's on sale and get 5% off using the Target debit card. So that's the way I do it. Let's keep it going. This next one is interesting.

Airports and stadiums. Here's the comment from Yogi 112. Airport slash stadiums, not paying $45 for a dry sandwich and a bottle of water. I wholeheartedly agree with Yogi on this one. You got a captive audience at the airport in the stadium. You can't get a bottle anywhere else, so you gotta pay $7 for a bottle of water at the airport and at the stadium. And the prices for food are outrageous, especially at these stadiums.

I'm gonna pull up some average hot dog prices to show you what I'm talking about here. Yeah, this is what I do in my spare time. I find stats on average hot dog prices in MLB stadiums. No, you don't. Here we go. Podrace, eight bucks for a hot dog, And as you go down, let's see who has the cheapest one. The Arizona Diamondbacks, three bucks.

That's a deal. I mean, that's a borderline Costco level there. Yankees, three bucks, Marlins, three bucks, twins, four bucks. Where's my Red Sox at? That's my hometown. $6.42 wouldn't put it past them in New England. They charge those kind of prices for a dog. Because what's that called?

What is a dog even made of these days? We don't know. Mechanically separated pork parts? No, thank you. Spectacular. Give me 14 of them right now. Really? Do you know what's in here?

I don't care. Don't tell me. So, yeah, I try to eat before I go to the stadium, eat before I go to the airport, and minimize all purchases happening in these places. That's me personally. You do you. All right, let's get to our final one. Number 11 on our list of places frugal people refuse to spend their money.

Food delivery apps. I was hoping this one was on here. Here's the comment. Patricia said DoorDash or Uber Eats absolutely a waste of money. This might be number one on my list for modern wastes of money. You wind up paying way more than you need to because of all the fees. You've got delivery fees, typically ranging from two to eight bucks depending on the app and location.

You've got service fees, which are often calculated as a percentage of the order total, usually between 15% and 30%. Then you've got small order fees. Some apps charge an additional fee of two bucks for orders under a certain amount. Then you've got tips. While optional, and you should tip generously if you use these apps, tips are commonly added and can further increase the total cost. So what do I do instead? I become my own Uber driver. I got legs. I got a vehicle. I'm going to go to the place and get the takeout myself, which means no delivery fees, less tip, and I'm paying the actual menu price at that restaurant, not getting upcharged, which is what's happening in these apps. So this one, I'm going to give a resounding two thumbs up. I know I have weird thumbs, guys. All right, second grade, six stitches, Kool-aid six-pack, razor blade. I don't want to talk about it, okay? The wound is still healing. I had a very traumatic childhood. So based on this list, tell me, are you actually frugal?

Or are you just good at justifying bad spending? Let me know in the comments. Tally up how many of these places have become a habit or a money leak in your life. And the more that you're guilty of, the less frugal you are. That's science. But let me clear the air for my frugal friends out there, okay? Frugal people are not cheap. They're just intentional.

Okay, we're not talking about an HGTV show where they're recycling bathwater. Okay? Frugal people know what they value. They know how to get the best value, and they spend accordingly. So being frugal means making choices today that build the future you want, instead of propping up a lifestyle that you can't afford. So if that's not what you're doing, it's time to change. And if you want more help becoming a smart spender,

I break down this whole framework in my book called Breaking Free from Broke, specifically in the chapter called Spending is Self-Control. You can also get it as an audiobook read by yours truly. I'll drop a link to all of that in the description below. But look, being frugal requires more than just avoiding stupid purchases. It's as much about what you do as what you don't do. And that's why I made this video where I break down 12 rules you need to follow for a frugal life. Keep watching to check it out or click the link in the description below.

That's it for today. We'll see you next time.