Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Staying on The Path On a Budget is Surprisingly Easy.

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

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This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 191 sitting here with Echo Charles E.C. in the house. We got some questions from you all, and we will do our best to provide guidance. Courses of action that you can take and answers in some cases. It's true. Yeah, life is a maze. Can be. There's choices. Got some directions.

Left, right, or straight. Yeah, sure. Sometimes you've got to backtrack a little bit. Yeah, which is no problem. No, no big deal. We don't like to do it. We want to avoid it if possible. So we're here to tell you, maybe you can go left, maybe go right, maybe go straight.

It's true. Maybe you need to backtrack. We'll let you know. Improve your chances of success. All right. First question. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Always wisdom that connects whatever challenge I'm facing.

And I'm grateful for that. Okay. I'm a 23 year old, I'm a 23 year old male recently went back to college for engineering. I work as an electrician now and hope to move up in the field, possibly because becoming an engineer. I enjoy it, but my real passion is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts. In a world of, okay, in a world full of distractions, partying, girls, etc., Jiujitsu and MMA have kept me focused, discipline, and on the right path. Over the past three years, I've transformed from a skinny, out-of-shaped guy into a warrior. I even made my amateur MMA debut

recently, winning by first round, Rear Naked Choke. Since going back to school, I had to cut work hours and lost income. I'm okay living simply, but I'm struggling to afford training and quality food. My diet has been a key part of my progress, and I worry losing that will set me back. What's your advice for making extra money on the side or maintaining top-level training and nutrition on a tight budget? Thank you again for all the guidance and wisdom. Yeah, check. Awesome, man. Sounds like you're on a good path.

Let's talk about food I think at this juncture Low on money You got to get in the meal prep game You got 100% getting the bulk by meal prep game Ground beef. Then you have some ground beef combo That you got going on? I have more now

Go go go the quick ground beef recipe Ground beef rice You can buy huge sacks of rice By the way For next to nothing Pennies on the dollar And he's on the dollar Seasoning of your choice

ground beef some salt and pepper in there whatever but like I said season of your choosing ground beef rice I put spaghetti sauce but you can put whatever kind of sauce soy sauce

whatever and I put honey mustard and then sometimes I put salsa there's a bunch of different ones but that's the base one for me chopping up onions

gives ground beef so much extra flavor you know what I mean and the other thing is you throw a little bacon in there there's just so many options so anyways you get meal prep you cook a bunch of it

and you're just eating it Dude, it's just no factor. So that's one. Tin chicken is one that I, has always been a friend of mine. Basically, because I don't really like tuna fish in a can, but you can get tin chicken at Costco. Like, it's, I forget how many grams of protein in there, but it's a lot of protein. 40-ish, yeah.

Yeah, it's like 40-ish grams of protein and some, a little bit of fat, no cars. Very little fat. Yeah, yeah, not a lot of fat, like very low fat. So those kind of things, meagle prep all day. And then go to the right stores. Like there's stores that have discounted stuff, man. Either big, giant box stores like Costco or Walmart or you go to a place like grocery outlet where you're getting stuff that's like going to go bad in three days.

But they had it in a big store for six days and it didn't sell. So they moved it over here for a day, three days, two days, something like that. You can get some really good deals on that stuff. Cook it up, put it in the freezer. That three days just went out to a month, bro. another thing you can hit so you know you hit the grocery outlet types called Lindy I think or Liddy there's a store called a Winco food there's a bunch of stores depending on where you are regionally and then you got your grocery stores you go to a regular

grocery store H-E-B Meyer like you will get you get the bulk activity in there but you got to go in there with the right mindset right attitude right attitude uh farmers markets too you can find some little you can get a connection you can build a relationship with somebody that is going to bring chicken. You build that relationship or they you make a make a relationship with the butcher. You know like hey man I got to buy like start buying massive like all the ground beef that they have. They'll give you a good discount dude. Protein powders let's face it protein powders when you look at it what it costs to buy protein versus protein you go go and get some of that mulk you're getting good clean protein and it's not

expensive. So add that in there. And then you just got to get your meal prep on. That's what we're doing. As far as side money goes, there's a bunch of different options right now. You know, you got Uber, you got Uber, you got Lyft, you got Instacart, you got all those things. And those are all little money makers. However, you're an electrician, bro. You have a skill that is, you could hopefully make more money, handyman activities, emergency work for other electrical companies. Like there's problems that happen in people's houses where they need someone to come in not as often as plumbing because let's face you, people have plumbing

problems all the time and plumbing problem you need help immediately. You know, power goes out, yeah, but that's that doesn't happen as often where an electrician is going to come in and handle it. You know, you don't short circuit stuff as often as plumbing, you have plumbing issues. But general handyman stuff

if you're an electrician, you know how to do all kinds of stuff. So you throw that ad on Craigslist or Facebook ads or whatever and you can go and to start making that little bit of money on the side, doing little projects on the weekends. Checking with a big contractor.

Because big contractors, they might have some stuff that they didn't get caught up on. They need someone to come in on the weekend. You can get that work done. There's a way to make a little bit of sign money. Then you got the doorman slash bouncer activity. Echo Charles, very skilled in this arena. How much you make on a Friday night?

Oh, yeah, depending on the club, obviously. But yeah, yeah, you can do, yeah, a few hundred dollars. In tips. A few, meaning $300. Yeah. Ish. 300 bucks in a night, dude. Friday and Saturday night, that's 600 bones.

Plus you got that minimum wage rolling. Do they pay you minimum wage on top? No, no, no. Oh, you legit? Yeah, yeah, legit. Yeah, because only the front door. It's, it really depends on the club. But yeah, look into that 100%.

Yeah, because you're training Jiu-Too. You're training in MMA. You got a skill. Put that skill to work. So those, that's what we're doing there for side money. And then also, you know, the price of the gym. Well, this is why we go and we talk to the gym owner. We say, hey, man, listen, I want to,

what can I do to get my need to save 50 bucks a month you know you're charging me 150 bucks a month can I save 50 bucks a month if I sweep up can I can I get a free membership I'll sweep up I'll be here I'll help with the kids class what you know whatever whatever you got to do you can't even you know maybe helping out with classes is a bit much because then now you're all of a sudden you're dedicating time to be an instructor but sweeping up the mats at night sweeping up in the mats in the morning or whatever cleaning up the place doing some electrical work around there dude I got a big ass gym we need electrical work sometimes you know what I'm saying you got a row with the light goes out even if something simple like that you're like hey lights go out I'll get it yeah you need some

rewiring done I got it you just put yourself kind of on retainer yeah yeah you know and you know what's so then then you can save some money there so those are the things I would do epic food prep bulk buying in bulk cheap places epic food prep side money there's a ton of side gigs you can do Hustle, what do they call it? No, they don't call it hustle economy. Gig economy. Gig economy. We're doing little side projects, whatever that is.

But you've got skills. Put those skills to use. And then see what you can do around the gym. Form that relationship. By the way, all these things, good relationship stuff. Butcher. Butcher has leftover cuts, dude, sometimes. They want to get rid of.

You know? If they got your number, you come by, pay half price. You know what I'm saying? Build some relationships. People used to just barter for things. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jocco underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this.

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