George Kamel - Frugal People Share Their Best Money-Saving Habits

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

📁 Get a personalized insurance action plan with our free Coverage Checkup.    In today’s video, we’ll check out a list of 21 “easy” frugal habits (courtesy of BuzzFeed) to see if they really are as easy as they say and, more importantly, if they can actually save you enough money to be worth it.    Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video 12 Rules for (a Frugal) Life. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • 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

If you know me, you know I love to save money. I use coupons, I shop for deals, and I'm not afraid to ask the cashier at home goods for a discount on the metal rooster statue because there's a blemish on the water. But I don't want to do hours of work just to save a few pennies, and I don't want you to either. So you can imagine my delight

when I saw this BuzzFeed article showcasing the easiest ways frugal people are saving money. So in today's video, we'll check out these 21 frugal habits to see if they really are easy, and more importantly, if they can actually save you enough money to be worth your time.

But before we jump in, hit those like and subscribe buttons and share this video with everyone you know who has a blemish on their wattle, which, by the way, is the fleshy coruncle on a rooster's neck. Or a human's neck. Looking at you, Mitch McConnell. Sorry, I just McColling myself. It's frozen in time. All right, here we go. Frugal tip number one. Writing down every expense in an actual budgeting notebook.

I've tried budgeting apps on and off for years and never stuck with them. Having an actual notebook where I physically write all of my expenditures, has made me way more frugal in every aspect of my life. Something about writing it and seeing it made me want to stop spending it. Just slow clap, just beautiful on that one. I love this concept. And truthfully, you know, I'm a big fan of budgeting apps. I work smarter, not harder.

But do what works for you. If you want to write it all down on pen and paper, do it. The key here is paying attention to where every dollar is going. That is how you get control of your money. If you want to know my favorite budgeting app, I'll drop a link in the description below. It's not pen and paper. I promise you that.

Love this one so far. One for one. Number two, put things in the Amazon cart, but don't buy right away. Come back a few days later and realize I don't need that. Remove, repeat. This one's great, too. This is kind of a, you know, the 24-hour rule. You can add it to cart, but do not purchase it for 24 hours.

If you still want it, and you have the money for it, ready to go, hit purchase. Go for it. But if you don't, most people go, eh. I don't really care about that. Safe for later. Delete. That one takes discipline, but that is a true life hack. And truthfully, how many things in the Amazon cart are a need?

Very few. Number three. Started shopping at the discount grocery store. Ours has lots of things that are nearing or just past sell-by dates, and I was nervous things might not be good. Haven't had a single issue, and we're literally saving hundreds per month on groceries. Brilliant.

Change where you shop for groceries. And to be fair, these sell-by dates nearer. during, you know, expiration. These companies, they slap these things on there. A lot of time, this food will last way longer than they let on. But they're just trying to cover their bases. They don't want to get anyone sick. But I think this is a pro move.

And maybe you don't have a discount grocer near you, but you probably have like an Aldi. That's a great place to go grocery shopping because they don't carry a thousand name brand things. It's a lot of Aldi brand things. And they pass on the savings to you, the customer. And it's worth it to put that quarter in the cart. Number four.

Finally got a library card and connected to my Kindle via Libby. I haven't bought a single book, e-book, or physical all year. I'm a huge fan of this one because I've done it myself. So if you download the Libby app, you can use your library membership in your local community to then connect into Libby and rent audiobooks and e-books completely free. And you don't have to worry about returning it on time because it does it for you digitally. So if you're a big reader or a big audiobook listener, go check out Libby, hashtag not sponsored, just a big fan of saving money. Next up, use the envelope method for groceries and my fun money.

It makes me pay attention to how much money I'm spending and what I'm spending it on when I have to count out the cash. Yes. You know what this is? This is introducing friction back into your life. And doing that will cause you to spend less naturally. So instead of just swiping the card or Apple Pay or tap to pay, when you have to count out $48 for groceries,

you're going to go, okay, maybe I'll put that junk food back. And so any area you can, get the envelope. put cash in there, and when it's out, it's out. You got to get resourceful. That is a great way to start taking control of your money. I got to say, BuzzFeed, I'm really impressed so far. Let's see if they can keep impressing me. Number six, buy powdered drink mix for my sports playing kids instead of bottled sports drinks after every practice. Okay, all right, so this is like the Gatorade drink mix and stuff like that? I guess that is cheaper than buying Gatorade. I would just go, like, can your kids just drink water? That feels like the ultimate

life hack, but I'm not mad at this one. You've got to wean them off that sugar somehow, right? All in all, I'm a fan. I'll probably be biting my tongue when I do this for my own kids one day. Number seven. One morning, when I had some downtime, I went through my email and unsubscribe from basically any email list I was a part of, all of it. Not only has this completely cleared up my inbox, but I no longer get tempted by sale days, coupon codes, etc. It has helped curb impulse spending immensely. Love this one. Change your inputs. If you're constantly being marked, to, remember, you have some say in that you chose to be marketed to. So I love when I open up, you know, the mail app on my phone, and Apple has included a little

unsubscribe button at the top, so I don't have to scroll down and find the unsubscribe link in 0.4 font, an invisible link. But this is a great one to remove the temptation and just in general to just stop the spam. It's simply too much. Number eight, I switched my savings from my account I've had literally forever to a high yield savings, 4% API or something. It's not an account I can easily withdraw from, so that money is sitting safe. I went from getting like a single cent from my money every month to $30 or so.

Again, clap, clap, clap, big fan of this one. Stop letting your money earn 0.01% interest in a boring old savings account. Move it over to a high yield savings account. Just make sure it's FDIC insured. Make sure there's no bogus fees they charge you and make sure that it's easily accessible. So a big fan of this one, this is something frugal people definitely do. They want to earn some interest, they don't want to pay it. get a high-yield savings account.

Number nine on the list, canceled cable. No one was watching regular TV. We kept Prime and Hulu. No one in the house has noticed. I can count on about one or two fingers the times I was like, dang it, I wish I could watch the television right now.

Because truthfully, there's not a lot of good stuff on there, and most good stuff can be found on your streaming platform they are already paying for. And let me tell you, YouTube TV, enough. Stop charging us more and more every single year. We're sick of it. We're dropping like. flies. So I agree. Cut the cable. You probably won't miss it. You'll probably find more productive

things to do with your life. Number 10. Stop using DoorDash and started using frozen chicken strips and tater tots when I need a quick fix. Okay, truthfully, this is a camel life hack as well. We always keep some chicken tennies and fries in the freezer ready to go for our cheat meal, lazy meal. I want a DoorDash, but I don't want to spend all that money. End quote. Sick of it. All right. You know how much money you're wasting? You know how much the extra they charge you for that same meal because you were too lazy to get in a vehicle and go get it, stop overpaying for your meals and then complain that inflation is high and you're broke. I don't want to hear it. Number 11. I have started to go through all drawers, cabinets, wardrobes, etc., having a clear-out.

Not only have I discovered things I'd forgotten and organized things in such a way that I know how much of everything I have, but it's illustrated to me where I was making impulse purchases that I regretted. That's helped me to stop repeating those same mistakes. For example, I am done with eye shadow. I've never really got how to do it. I end up. looking awful and I've chucked the lot out. It wasn't a matter of finding the right palette. It's just not for me. That was my submission to BuzzFeed and I'm glad it made the cut because I am. I'm done with it. What do we do with eyeshadow? We don't need it in 2025. Where we're going, we don't need eye shadow. I don't care what others say. That's today's mantra. But for real,

a lot of wasted money on makeup and things. Just you're beautiful as you are. All right, you don't need the eye shadow. I heard he wears makeup. Makeup? Yeah, to scare people. Number 12, switching auto and home insurance. Our auto went down by two-thirds and our home by half. I don't even want to think of the money we overpaid over the years. This one is so clutch. A lot of people don't stop to go, hey, maybe I should shop around for my insurance with an independent broker instead of sticking with the same jackleg that I've had for 12 years that I went to college with from State Farm. Just reshop it. It's not that hard. I can even drop a link in the description if you want to find an independent broker to shop it for you. That's what I do. It saves me big money and you can get better coverage at a cheaper

price. Do it. Number 13, removed my saved credit card info from every online store. It's safer, but also my want for an item goes down significantly if I have to get off the couch to grab my wallet. I've been there. You ever been there when they're like, hey, got to reenter your debit card info because your boy ain't using credit? And I'm like, just, forget. I didn't want it that bad. I didn't want it that badly. So this is a great life hack is to remove the card info that's saved in all these sites because again, it adds friction. And they want you. They want you to have a frictionless experience where you can just one click and it's at your doorstep. But the more we can add steps in between, the more intentional we can be, the less impulsive will be. It's that simple. Number 14,

getting rid of paper towels at home. I bought a thing of painter's rags for my art space and brought most of them into the kitchen. They go in a bag to use and into the laundry to wash. Love this one in theory, personally, I'm not there yet. I aspire to be this person who can get rid of the paper towels. But our life is pretty chaotic, pretty messy, and I have trust issues with dish rags.

I don't know why. I don't know why. It's probably in my head. Probably not science. But I like the idea of using the paper towel, tossing it, let the germs go wherever germs go in the trash. Somewhere else. But I applaud you. I applaud you for not wasting

like I am not destroying the earth. And while dishrax can be gross, you know what else is gross? Shady people search websites that continue to collect and sell your personal info without your permission. But you can take care of that with DeleteMe, one of the sponsors of today's video. Delete Me scrubs your personal info from these data broker sites, and they keep doing it all year long in the background for you. And they'll even send you a detailed report showing you exactly where they found and removed your data from and how much time they've saved you. So help protect yourself from the risks of online scams and data breaches with Delete Me. And right now, you can get 20% off by going to join Delete Me.

or click the link in the description below. Number 15, meal prep, exclamation point. I prep five oatmeal breakfast, five chicken pasta and sauce meals, and five chicken rice and black bean meals. This saves me so much money in time. I mix in fruit cups for breakfast and lunch. I usually go with pineapple or mandarin oranges. I eat way healthier, and I'm saving money.

I got to say, that was almost too much information. You were really riding the line there, but I think it was very helpful to remind people that simple is sometimes the best. And a lot of people, they boo-hoo on this meal prep life because they go, that's so boring. Can you imagine eating the same thing every day? Bro, you get the same thing a Taco Bell every single time. And even if you get something different, it's still the same food, just in a different device. Okay? So don't judge this sweet soul. Stay away from my friend. Okay, we get it. Moving on. Number 16, this one's a doozy. Stay with me. Fewer trips to the grocery store. After routinely popping

in three or four times per week for odds and ends forgotten on my primary weekend trip, I started going to the grocery store just once a week. This restricts opportunities for unhealthy impulse purchases, pressures me to use and consume the fresh food and pantry items I already have on hand instead of letting them go to waste, and sometimes save on fuel for short, inefficient card trips to the neighborhood grocer. If I'm desperate, I make myself ride a bike. Holy run on sentence, Batman. We're not done. The main grocery store chain in my area offers a weekly coupon for four times fuel points on Fridays. By restricting most grocery purchase to Fridays, I can also optimize that perk, which is a great bonus. I assume you're a lot, just in your friend group, your family, but I love

the detail here, and it's true, the fewer the trips, the less stuff you're going to buy, right? If you do four trips that are 50 bucks each, that's 200 bucks, what if you could do one trip that was 150 bucks? Because you were mega intentional, you stuck to the list, you got everything you needed, and were less tempted by each trip. Great advice. Number 17. I often met up with friends at restaurants just by default, and that got really expensive, even when they weren't that special. The friends are the restaurants. All right? I started volunteering ideas of just meeting for dessert, instead of a drink and meal, going for a hike, or just meeting at a park to sit and chat. Sounds like my worst nightmare.

The whole point was to just be together, so no one really paid attention to the switch, and they were actually a little glad not to have to plan the outings themselves. My budget is happy about it. As much as I dogged you, I really like this. You put the ball in your court, not their court. You did this on your terms and said, hey, I'd love to hang out. How about we do X, Y, Z? And instead of them going, you're a cheap skate, why do you want to go hang out with us? They went, oh, cool, we're going to save money too.

Pressures off of everyone to waste a bunch of money. Get friends like that. Number 18. Went back to doing my own manicures. I have such a collection of polish to use up. Love this one. I want to see. Is this like an obsession?

Like, how big is a collection? Is this like seven or a hundred? I don't know. But I like the idea of saving on the trips to the salon, saving on the manny-petti, the tip, all of that. Tip yourself. Hey, you do a good job. Give yourself a tip. You'll still save money by doing it at home.

And I feel like there's a lot of kits out there. Again, I don't do that. But I feel like people go on Amazon and they buy the do-it-yourself kits and they work out great, right? Right? No, George. Number 19. Starting to cook my own meals more and not eating in restaurants. Every time you cook a meal, you make it better.

I'm at the point now where food served in restaurants isn't good enough for me. Go YouTube. What a great reminder. There's some great cooking YouTubers out there showing you how to make great food at home. And you'll be shocked. After just a few videos, you're going to go, I get the hand in there. Throw a little butter in there, a little avocado oil, a little salt, a little seasoning, little spice, little braze, a little sear.

You start throwing around words like that. You're on to something. But for real, you'll save a ton of money. A ton of money. You can get a grass-fed ribby steak, potatoes, Brussels, Brussels, Brussels, and a bottle of wine from Aldi for $22. You couldn't even get one steak for that price eating out. Come at me, bro.

Number 20. Finance hack here. If I need a big power tool for something, I buy it on Facebook Marketplace. Use it and then resell it on Facebook Marketplace. Usually it's for the same price, but sometimes I get more. For example, my kids wanted an in-ground basketball. hoop. I bought an auger for 100 bucks, used it, and sold it for 160 bucks. I bought a concrete mixer for 150, used it, sold it for 175. For another project, I bought a table saw for 100 bucks,

used it and sold it for 100 bucks. I love this. You know if you've watched this channel, I'm a big fan of not buying brand new tools that you're going to use one time, but instead borrowing it or renting it, worst case. And this is a great way to do that by buying it used on Facebook and then selling it used on Facebook. And this can even be a little side hustle. This guy's making money instead of spending it. Number 21, went on a no-buy. Sounds nuts, but gamifying, making do with my existing wardrobe, decor, cooking utensils, gardening tools, et cetera, has made it so easy. And it simplifies the process of figuring out whether a purchase is worth the money because it doesn't matter. I'm not allowed to buy it anyway. I did a no-by month and wondered if I would make

it through, but wound up breezing through it and found it so helpful and easy that I'm committing to it for a year. That is impressive. Very impressive. So this is like a no-bye. So this is like a spend month. So choose a month where you know you don't have anything crazy going on. Let's say that's March and you go, all right, for the entire month of March, I'm not going to buy anything I don't absolutely need. So food on the table, cover the rent. Outside of that, I'm not buying new clothes, I'm not going to go out, I'm not going to have new experiences, I'm going to make do with what I have, and you'll be shocked at how well you can make do. All right, overall, I think this might be the best advice I've ever seen in a BuzzFeed article. And that's saying something. There's some

solid tips for saving money here, and most of them really are easy ways to be more frugal. And remember, being frugal is not about being cheap. It's about being intentional with your money. And one of the best ways you can do that is by giving every dollar a job with a monthly zero-based budget. And like I mentioned, I use an app called Every Dollar that I use to track my expenses. It's free to download. It's super easy to use, and I'll drop a link in the description for you below, or you can go to Everydollar.com slash George. Now let me know in the comments if you've got an easy money-saving habit that you would add to this list. And if you want to be extra frugal-licious,

check out this video to see My Twelve Rules for a Frugal Life. Or click the link in the description. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.