Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - 25 Life-Changing Tech Purchases You Need to Try

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! “Alexa, set a timer for tomorrow at 8 a.m. Alexa, turn the thermostat to 70 degrees. Alexa, can you make my budget?” Okay, maybe that last one is a stretch, but modern conveniences can be truly life changing. Find out Rachel’s and George’s take on what technology is worth the hype. Next Steps: 🎥 Watch our video “‘Harmless’ Purchases That Drain Your Bank Account” 📱Submit a Guilty as Charged question for Rachel and George! Send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it. Connect With Our Sponsors: 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe 🌿 Get up to 40% off at Cozy Earth with code Smart Money Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🥃 Cinnamon-Spiced Orange and Thyme Mocktail Recipe: Pick Up Limes 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup maple syrup 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger 1/2 lemon, juiced 2 cups ice cubes 2 cups orange juice 2 cups ginger ale Instructions: Add water, maple syrup, thyme sprigs and cinnamon to a small pan and simmer. Reduce heat to low and let it steep for about 3 minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature. Fill a shaker or mason jar halfway with ice cubes and strain in thyme syrup. Add grated ginger and lemon juice. Shake well. Strain contents from shaker over ice cubes, and add orange juice and ginger ale. Enjoy! Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers, George. Fall in a cup. This is autumnal best. Amen, fallelujah. Thank you.

Well, this is the show where two friends who have a new money experts talk about, which you're talking about everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And what are we talking about today? I know. I don't want to be dramatic, George. But today's topic might be one of my proudest moments. Why? because I have found some technology apps that have helped me in my life

and I sound like you, but I am now being converted to this idea that technology can help us, y'all. Nothing makes you sound tech savvy like saying, I have found some technology apps. Well, to be fair, you did... And other tech stuff out in the world. You convinced me to buy a product that you love, which makes you a tech influencer now. Oh my gosh, there's so much to talk about you guys, because there are some great things out there in the world that will help your life. and we're going to talk about it. But first, we are sipping on a cinnamon-spiced orange and thyme mocktail.

That is T-H-Y-M-E. So you're not confused. Not thime. Time. It's really good. So stick around if you like mocktails because we're going to give you the rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end. All right, let's talk about the first piece of technology that I influenced you on George.

Okay, so there is a scale out there, you guys, that you can buy. It's like $30. It's not that expensive. You step on it and you wait and you wait. Apparently there's like, wait. Electromagnetic sensors and whatever. That goes through your body. And then you have an app and it breaks down.

Hold on. Let me read you all. Hold on. Oh, wow. Very vulnerable to, oh, you're not going to read the numbers. I'm not reading my numbers. Oh, my God. No.

But it talks about body fat, BMI, skeletal muscle, muscle mass, muscle storage ability level, protein, BMR, fat-free body weight, sub... Don't you think they started making some up at the end there? Vestral fat, body water percentage, bone mass, your metabolic age. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Can you tell us if your metabolic age is younger than you actually are? Because Wednesday and I, we share the app, but we have two different profiles. So this thing, based on your metabolism, this is how old you are. Yeah, of all the stuff. And I've been working out, y'all, I'm 34. Younger than you actually are. Two years younger. I know.

So anyways, it's not like a doctor that's doing this, right? So it's not like super scientific. So like give yourself some, a little bit of grace in the numbers, I think. But it's so helpful. And it's amazing because I'm in my workout era. But it is fun to see like progress, right? Just like your money. You want to see progress.

That's why the debt snowball is paying your debts off smallest to largest because you want that progress. Well, same with health. We're like, oh, my gosh, that's actually working like I'm seeing muscle mass increase or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. It's really fun. I like that one. And you convince me to buy it. it. Yeah, what do you think about it?

I'm like, I'm just confused for so long. I just got on a scale and it told me one number. Yeah. Little did I know. There was another world available at my fingertips at my toes. Is it helpful? Very helpful. What's your age?

Oh, I haven't checked. Ooh, that's so I am, I'm 35 as of this recording. Okay. That could change. When's your birthday? In May. Okay. It's not.

We're fine. You're probably good. Oh, here we go. So you were two years. younger than your actual age. Metabolic age is 32. I have a three-year differential. Sure.

Wow. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Now, otherwise, I'm a boomer. I am the youngest living boomer at a heart. Oh, yeah, yeah. Internally, you're a boomer, but no. But my body, still got it. Yeah.

So anyways, there is some, yeah, technologies, apps, purchases, that can actually enhance your life. But it feels like every day we're being marketed to. And there's another version of the tech that we now need. There's a V4 that's even better. And if you have V3, it's trash. And so we want to cut through some of that noise

and give you our honest thoughts on what is worth the cost when it comes to technology. And not just, you know, don't think just digital and apps, all kinds of things we're going to get into today. So let's start. Can I go first?

Yeah. Okay. Even though I'm a big conspiracy theorist, this doesn't... What a great disclaimer. It doesn't correlate with it. But I love Alexa. We have Alexa.

So Amazon, Alexa devices. Yes, and we're always like, Alexa, what's the weather today? You just triggered like a thousand Alexis out there. That's so true. Okay. Her name, what time is it? Her name, will you play The Goodness of God by Bethel?

Love that song. Oh. I don't know. But like, if you're in the kitchen, you're like, oh, yeah, I need some music. I need to know the time or the weather or like, what's 30 minus? Alexa, and she answered appropriately. You got anything weird you ask her? Yeah, the kids will have really.

random questions, and then we'll, like, ask her. Something about, like, dinosaurs or something. We're like, Alexa. Does she know? Yes, she usually does. And then you can play, are you smarter than a fifth grader with her? And that's pretty fun because you're like, oh, yeah, there's some, like, anyways. And that makes you feel good to be smarter than a fifth grader.

No. I don't know. She's just, it's a helpful gadget in our house that we use. We don't use her to shop with. Like, some people, like, tell her, like, hey, buy more of this. I don't hear of something. We don't do that. But just having her around for music and.

A clock. Well, we're a Google Home family because we have a distrust of large corporations. I'm kidding. She just said Google. Talk about mistrust. It's a joke, Rachel. Oh, okay. They both own us in different ways.

We can't get away. But here's my favorite thing that we do is we use the broadcast feature. And so we can say, hey, name broadcast. And Whitney from another room in the house will say broadcast. Hey, can you get me two pacifiers in the nursery? I'll hear it from the bathroom Because it'll play on It's like a walkie-talkie.

It's a walkie-talkie. Wow. And that truly has been the most helpful communication tool in our marriage. Because I can't hear her. She has the wispiest little voice. So sweet.

So her yelling, I still can't hear across the room. Man. You know? Okay. So anyways, there we go. I like it. Alexa, that's a good one.

Another one I love. I love a curig. Still. You still use a curing? Winston will make pour over coffee. I would say maybe four times a week. Like a good American would.

But man, I still, I think it tastes good. The curate to me tastes good. But I think that should give you pause as to how good your taste is. You know what I mean? When it comes to coffee. Like if you cracked open Chef Boyardee and you're like, this is some of the best spaghetti I've had. This is some of the best ravioli ever.

I would all go. Okay, I really want to do a blind taste test with you because you always rag on the curag. I bet if I had a curag and like, two other types of coffee. I don't know if you would know the difference, George. I could smell that burnt plastic a mile away. Stop it.

Oh, my gosh. Here's another technology that I love. We don't use it as much recent, but back in the day, when we had our dog that shed, we used it a lot. The Roomba. Oh, that's a good one. So great. I mean, what a fun invention.

A robot, that's a vacuum. My real estate agent got us a Roomba for like a housewarming after we closed. Okay, I've heard one horror story from a friend. Oh, no. About a Roomba? Oh, did it pick up? Dog poop. Picked up dog poop.

That's always my greatest fear. Spread it all over the house. So bad. Jail's so bad. It was not good. But other than that, I think it's a great piece of technology. Because you can set schedules, it maps the house. Like all the, especially the newer ones are fancy.

I can't run it because my dog thinks it's trying to like murder us. Oh no. So he attacks it. We can't run it if the dog's around. Oh, shoot. And your dogs are always around. And he's always around. Yeah.

Just the one dog hates it? Yes, the one dog. Okay. Blue. the boy. He doesn't like anything that moves or makes sound, which makes it difficult. Blue.

So like even a lint roller, can't use that around him. Or a baby? Well, the baby is fine. Okay. Well, like anything like a vacuum, anything that kind of moves back and forth mechanically or makes a big sound.

He doesn't like it. Leaf blowers, you know, sprinklers. Pretty much everything. He's great. Your dogs are so high maintenance. Yep. Okay, a crock pot. We use this all the time.

So there's like the crock pot, the instapot, and the air fryer. I have all three. You do? It's embarrassing. I only have the crock pot. Okay, which ones do you like the best?

The one I use the most is the air friar. Okay. Because easy to reheat food. People talk about the air friar, how great it is. I don't have a traditional air friar with like the thing you just kind of like pull out in the basket. Mine is like a little French door. Stainless steel. Yes, it is.

It's from Costco. Yes, it is. Of course. So I enjoy that, but I do need to get back. It's crock pot season. And Kelly Daniel, I was sitting next her at lunch and she had this tiny crockpot warmer. that's made for individual meals. You bring it to work, you plug it in,

no need to go to a microwave, and it's heating it up for you over two hours while you're at work, and then at lunchtime, it's ready. Did you plug it in, like, downstairs or, like, at your desk? Don't tell building services, but at my desk. Okay.

She's breaking the ramsy water. They don't listen to this podcast. It's fine. And then you just plug it in, and it takes a couple hours. No, you can't smell anything because it lashes in, and then your food's ready.

That's amazing. Well done, Kelly. Well done. Okay, so you got, yeah, Crockpot's my favorite. You can get that for like, you know, 50, 60 bucks. Airfare is more expensive.

You know, it's like $70. They've gotten cheaper over time as they've gotten more kind of out there. But your Instapot is like, could go up, you know, anywhere from 80 to $130. And there's people that swear by the Instapot. I just, I haven't kind of gotten over

the learning curve of how to use it, what to use it for all that. I know, yeah, yeah. I'll get there. You know, another one I fell for that I have not used is the sousvied. Winston Cruz, suvies. Does he love it?

Yes, loves it. Steak. And people claim when he makes steak and they come over that it's like some of the best steak they've ever had because you get it to perfection. To the perfect medium rarer.

And then he sears it at the end. Yeah, then you sear it. So he'll do like the green eggs and he'll smoke it or just the grill. And it's pretty fantastic. And he'll do chicken the same way and then he'll sear it. Because my greatest fear is overcooking slash

undercooking chicken. Yeah, and the chicken is like perfect. Either way, it's ruined. Because I'm either like, I'm going to die from salmonella or I will not get through this rubbery mess. And I vow, I will never cook chicken again. Wait, what? That's what I vow.

And then every time I end up doing it again. Oh, okay. I was like, God, we always eat chicken. And I have the thermometer and all that, but then like one pieces. Wait, what are you? I don't understand. Like, can you not just cut it and be like, oh, that looks good? That looks right?

You don't do it based on looks. How vain are you? Oh, George. You don't just look at a piece of chicken. George, you can cut it and be like, ooh, that is way too pink. in the center. We got to redo that. Yeah, well, it's not about pink. It's all about temperature because some chicken

looks pink, like if you smoke chicken, for example. George, I've never died. You have a good point. You have never died. That's all the proof I need. I eat a lot of chicken and make a lot of chicken. Okay. And I need a recipe. But I think the suvi could change that for me. Yeah, but the suvi is great.

It's a little weird. Because you've got the plastic that. I mean, it's a process. Okay. But then he has an app for it. There's an app for the Sufi. I mean, it's crazy. It is crazy. So, yeah.

Cooking. There's a whole bunch of gadgets there. All right. This one was me. Okay, yeah. This is you and Winston. Because all the smart technology around the house, I don't get it. I don't need to get it.

But it is. Just leave it to Winston and I. Okay, we'll handle it. Give me all of yours. Because I don't think we have as much as you. You have a lot. I lumped all of these together as sort of smart home hands-free devices. So this includes the ring doorbell, one of those.

We have like the Nest, Google one. Smart bulbs are everywhere. If there is a bulb and a lamp, like a, you know, I keep them all on smart devices so that I can turn everything off with one button or just talking to Google. Yep. That changes the game. Thermostat control, again, you can do that by voice or by the app with Nest, Google.

Garage opener, I do that from my phone. I have it on schedule. So if I forget to close it or, you know, it'll. automatically close at 9 p.m. every night. And the fun thing is I never carry a key. I don't own a house key. I don't have a car key. Wow.

So I use my phone to turn on the car. And unlock your front door. And I have, yeah, my phone unlocks the front door. The garage actually opens as I pull my car up to the garage. No, automatically. You can set that up with your car. No. I will teach you.

Oh, my gosh. It's like the house is awaiting my arrival. It feels like smart house. Remember that Disney movie? Yes. that's my dream, is we're all just trying to get back to that reality. Yeah, that is not reality. That they set for us and we're trying to go there.

And then the door, I have the smart lock on the door. Yep, yeah. So just keypad. And so there is no, I don't need, as you can tell, in these skinny jeans, I can't fit any keys. It's necessity. There's no room. So those have changed my life, and it's my one thing if I was going to upgrade your life. I would say go.

How much does all that cost, would you say? Well, I also have the cameras, so depending on how many cameras you have. So a front doorbell, one in the backyard, there's some inside the house, like living room, things like that, nursery camera. All of that could run you, I would say, a thousand bucks, I'll get you, like, set up. Okay. $2,000, I'll change your family tree. Okay. Yeah.

That's, like, game changer level. I should know this. Are the apps, like the garage door app that we have, like, do we pay a subscription for that? No. Okay. I hope you don't. I don't know if you got scammed into one. I may have.

No, the only one is a subscription is not. Nest has one to be able to watch all the camera footage on multiple cameras. So how these companies make money if we're not paying for it? The garage one, you pay for the product. Oh, you do pay. Okay, so we paid something. You pay something for the actual product. Or it was built in when you built your house.

A lot of times the builder includes some of the tech features. And that's just like a thing up in your garage thing. So by other than that, I don't pay for, you know, thermostat control. It's built into the product. Smart bulbs. You got to pay for that. Yeah. Smart bulbs, though, you can now get really cheap from.

from Costco or Sam's Club. You don't need to get like crazy, fancy name brand. They all have Wi-Fi capability. It'll say works with Google Home or works with Alexa. Oh, yes. That's all you got to look for. There you go. There's your little, I would say it was a good five-minute sort of tech summary.

I appreciate that, George. That's good. But it's made your life better. I will say that is the number one. Probably the best part of my life, other than my wife, children, and dogs. I'm a man of convenience. What can I say? Love some convenience.

Even the noise machines. I have everything on smart plugs. So I don't have to get underneath and turn on a machine. I just say, hey, name, turn on bedroom noise machine. You know what we did for our Christmas decorations is we did smart plugs for that. Exactly. And that was smart because it all goes off at like 11 p.m. or whatever comes on. And again, on a schedule.

So at sundown, I have the Christmas lights automatically turn on. And at sun up, they automatically turn off. I know. So smart. Long gone of the days of dad running out there, you know, unplugging 19 things. Clicking that foot thing. I know. I could go all day.

Okay, but keep going because the smart phone technology is, there's a lot there. It's kind of what we were just talking about, but there are things on the phone that make our lives better too. Number one, attached to the phone or not attached, is wireless charging. I know you're a fan of that. You just set it right there. Yes. And then it goes a little green light around so you know it's charging and you're good to go. Yes.

It's great. That's a good one. This would be me back in the day. You're laying in bed. You're like, I church my phone. And I don't want to get out of bed to find it. So I throw half my body down on the ground and I rummaged through the ground. Wow.

And then I got to hoist myself back up. I do like cord organization. You can attach one to your bedside table and it will hang the cord there. So I've used those. But I do think long phone chargers like getting an extension cable or just getting a six foot. That's what I always do too. It's a game change. Okay.

One that I'm not using, but a lot of people are is chat GPT. Oh, yeah. I use it every day. I feel like we were on the front end of this technology. Because we did a smart money, happy hour episode about chat GPT, right? Yeah. On the cusp of it, like a year ago. Maybe it's been out longer.

But I still don't use it. It's not a go-to for me. I use it to, if I have like a bunch of notes. Yep. I will use it to summarize. I'll use it to kind of give me some ideas. I'll use it to add things up. If I just have a long list of numbers and I don't want to figure out Excel, I'll just

say, hey, add these up. Okay. So I use it for a lot of random things. Recipes, meal planning, gross. I mean, it's endless. I use the notes app for all that. That's fine. But if I was like, hey, give me 10 gluten-free recipes for a crock pot that involve chicken and steak.

It was a, and I'd say, all right, based on that, give me a grocery list that I can use at Aldi or Kroger. And I can copy and paste that into my note and now I'm ready to shop. Yeah, that's pretty unbelievable. So that kind of stuff, just think about anything that would save you time that you don't want to ask your spouse for. So worth it. There you go. All right, here's some apps that I love that I wish we had like back in the day, because I think it would make life easier.

VINMO. For payments. For payments with friends. Like your split payments, you got to pay someone. You don't have cash always. So it's like, oh yeah, let me just VINMO it to you. Uber and Lyft as well. That's changed the way we live.

Are you Uber or Lyft? I am a man of frugality. So I will check both every time. You will. And I will choose the cheaper option. Is it usually pretty competitive? I would say lately. Lately.

Uber's been a little cheaper for some reason. It used to be the opposite. I would find Lyft was a little bit cheaper. But Uber, now they have different versions like, hey, if you're willing to wait up to 20 minutes, it'll be cheaper. Or if you're willing to share a ride. Which I would never do. That makes me so nervous.

Well, here's the hack. I do it knowing no one's sharing a ride in the suburbs. Okay. So if you're in the big city, sure, maybe. Yeah. But Whitney and I did this when we traveled in San Francisco, and we just had lifts, and we'd always do shared ride because it was cheaper.

and there was, I think, maybe one time out of 10, there was someone in the car in a for a short distance. Okay, okay. And they get in the front and we get in the back and it's fine. Yeah. It's a quick drop off. No big deal. So, but they are great and very convenient.

Yep. What is the threshold for you when it comes to requesting a payment on Venmo? Like if it's less than five bucks, don't even bother Venmoing. Yeah, I'm going to go, 20 bucks? Wow. So if I borrow 1999, you're going to go, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Well, usually where that comes up is like if we have like a bunch of pizzas and like two other families come over or whatever,

and someone's like, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll just Venmo you are part of, you know, usually I'm like, oh, it's fine. Because it usually ends up being like 20, 30 bucks. And I'm like, it's fine. Because pizza's pretty cheap. And you're just like, let me just be generous and cover it. It's fine. What about you? Yeah.

I think it depends on the friend. Some friends really don't care. Like, hey, just Venmo me for the $14. for the movie ticket, something like that. Oh, yeah. So I'll request it or whatever, and we move on with our life. Yeah. But yeah, for certain things, it just feels like, I weigh out.

Is this worth it? Yes. Okay, I will say, I bought like seven movie tickets for a bunch of girlfriends. That's a lot. We went, yeah, and saw it. That's hundreds of dollars. It ends with us together. Yeah, and I did, I think it ended up being like 14,

as we saw a matinee. So I think it ended up being less than 20, but I did text them out because they were like, how much do we owe you? And I came out to be like 14 bucks a ticket. If you purchased them on AAA, you could have saved big, Rachel. because now you're a AAA member, I heard. I am a AAA member, but I'm also a,

I signed up for the movie theater membership. AMC Stubbs? Yeah. Okay. Tell me about how that's changing. You don't pay for it. I'm not sure. Yeah, I know, but they give you discounts.

Yeah. I check again. No, they do. If you buy a certain number of tickets. If you buy four tickets, they'll waive the convenience fee. George, I'm saving money. Yes. True.

Can I tell you something I did, though? I went to the theater to buy the ticket in person for a show the next day to avoid the convenience fee. Oh, my gosh. And the convenience fee is what? Like $1.99. It's like $3. Is it $3?

Okay, I will say we went. Stick it to the man. We did go to a Rockies game. We were in Denver with the kids, and I bought everything through Ticketmaster. And I don't buy tickets a lot. That's not like, I don't, I'm not someone that, like, goes to comes.

I don't use Ticketmaster often. And now I know what a debacle's about because I, like, paid per ticket, like, seeing like, oh, yeah. Oh, you see the fees. And then, I mean, it was. Brutal. I mean, I think it was.

almost $100. Yeah. It could be like 25% of your ticket or 30% is just fees. It was crazy. Anyways. Highway robbery. Not good.

All right. Here's one that recently came into my life and I'm excited to use it more as we cook more and it's called paprika. Oh yeah. You love this. And my brand leader, Tyler, told me about this. And what's really cool is, you know,

when you see those Instagram recipes that look really good and like Whitney will send them to me, I'll send one to her. And they always just sit there in like the messages or I save them to a color. collection. Well, what's cool about this app is you can go to share, copy the link, and you paste it into the browser and paprika, and hit download, and it brings in the recipe into the recipe app, and you can create grocery lists from there. So it's kind of a recipe

keeper, if you will, digitally. Yeah. And you can copy and paste things that you find on websites, and it's a game changer, so. Okay, we can't talk about apps without food because food and apps like come hands-in-hand these days. So order-ahead apps, like Instacart. is one that my family we use. And we're actually using less and less of just because it has gotten pretty expensive. But you have like, yeah, tip, delivery fee.

I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. So you end up paying more. A lot of the stores on there charge more per item when you order it through Instagram. So like Costco, they're going to upcharge every item by like 10 or 12%. Yeah. So you're paying a lot more, I know.

So we compared our grocery budget for like a week's worth of groceries. And it was like $50, $60. dollars less. So again, if you're in a season that you need the convenience, like, I feel like we were like that for a little bit. And it was, you know, it's like you pay it. It was worth it.

It just have the groceries right there. But now, yeah, we're shifting. Yeah. Wow, that's big. I use it in more like chaotic situations, emergency situations where I really, it's very difficult to leave. It would be a big strain on the family for someone to go out. Right, right.

Yep. Here's another one. Weather apps. What is your weather app of choice? Oh my gosh. Radar. and I pay a yearly subscription. Whoa.

But this is like the hardcore weather app because it says all the National Weather Service radars. So they're like all around and they all come up. Do you know even know what you're looking at? Sometimes they hurt my face to just look at them. No, they're great. Here I'll show you. And it is so helpful because I am terrified of tornadoes and all the things.

So like here we go. Oh, wow, that's nice. Yeah. And then you can see this. But then it gets really nerdy. and then you can go in and change, like, the velocity and stuff, and then it'll show you, like, different type. Yeah, I mean, it goes, it goes real deep.

But, yeah, I don't do tornadoes. I feel like Helen hunts that, like, something traumatic happened in my childhood. You acted like, it was mayonnaise. Like, I don't do mayonnaise? It's like, well, yeah, no one does torn. No one's like, yeah, I'm into it. Some are, you don't see the movie Twister? Some people are a storm chasers.

Yeah, I saw Twisters. I did see Twisters, too. And it was actually great. Twisters was great, too. No, but I don't do them. I don't like them. It gives me anxiety. I don't like storms.

I don't like storms. So this gives me a level of control. What I feel like is perceived control by having knowledge of the radar and knowing what is going on. Because it's very helpful. Because you can also see where the winds are going and that's the key for tornadoes. Because if the green and the red start colliding, that's where circulation happens.

And that's when the tornado is possible. So we're always watching. Have you ever thought about being a meteorologist, like on the news? Out of my own anxiety, maybe. I think you'd be great. Because you'd be good at calming us when things are crazy. And then doing it in like layman's terms. Yeah.

Then when things are great, you'd have a lot of fun with the green screen. Yeah. Hey, guys, it's just sunny. It's a sunny day. We're all happy. Just like, just get a nice little throw on. You're right. You're right.

You may want to get. Flip flops. Yeah. Open-toed shoes are still good for the season. You're fine. You're fine. That's the weather that we need. That is the weather.

Do you have a weather app you like? I use the weather channel, but I hate the ads, but I'm also unwilling to pay. I'll say that. So it's time to upgrade. I do hate with every fiber in my being the Apple weather app. Oh, it's terrible. I don't like Apple anything. I don't like the maps.

I don't like the weather app. I don't like that app is made for a seven-year-old. It's like, could be sunshine. It's like, this is not, like, give me more here. Give me more. Hey, do you know what Apple does have? And this, I saved money, George. Let me tell you this.

This is some girl math coming up. I saved money. So I'm into walking now. I want to get my steps in. I'm trying to do it five days a week. I'm trying to get it. How many steps? Can you tell us the goal?

Seven to 10,000. Impressive. Yep. And so I was like, oh, I need to count my steps. So I go and download an app. And, of course, it's like a seven-day free trial. And then you pay for the yearly subscription, which was like $30. And I was like, you know what?

This is my new thing. So like, I'll pay for it because I'm going to use it. So I download this app, free trial. And then I remembered that Apple has a health app or a health. Yes. So I had deleted it because I wasn't in my health era back then. So I, like, took it off my phone, and I went back and found it, put it back on. And do you know, it still was tracking my steps.

Even after you deleted it? Which is kind of, woo-woo. They're following us. But I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm going to save money. So then I went back into the app that I had just downloaded, went down, unsubscribed. But they said, you know, you still have six days and 12 hours or whatever. Yes, but when you go on, so go to your Apple and health, the heart. You click on it and you get to see how many steps.

Oh, yeah, I love it. So it's so helpful and it's free. Saved money. Way to go. That $30, I can go buy another necklace. If you just asked me, I could have told you that Apple Health tracks your steps. But, you know. Okay, here's one, changing gears that I love is Audible.

Me too. I've been listening to Michael Richards, who is Kramer on Seinfeld. He has a big memoir. It's like 9,000 pages. And so he reads it. And so I always love to hear the author read it and tell the stories. and so I'm knee-deep in that one right now. And Audible, you know, you get a credit.

It's $7.95 per month after your first 30 days. And Spotify Premium also has audiobooks built into the subscription. You can listen to a certain number of audiobooks, including the audiobooks of our books. Oh, yes, we're there. That we're there. Check it out if you're on Spotify and you don't want to pay extra because you're already paying. But I love... That's a great app because I'm not a big reader.

I like to listen as I handle a baby and I'm walking around the house. So I'm usually a book person, but I've gotten on Audible recently. And I listen to a September 11th book on it. And it had all the audio like of it. You could hear the... Yes. I mean, it was so sad. It changes the experience.

It does, yeah. Because some books I think are better audio. All right, Rachel, can we do a speed round? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do a car and travel technology. And let's do some hygiene tech, too, that's out there, okay? Is that a personal dig or... What?

You just said it like, let's do some hygiene. I think that would be good. I mean, there's some technology around hygiene. That thinks fantastic. Okay. All right, car and travel. and travel, go. Dash cam is one that I swear by.

It's like a Garmin mini. So you barely can see it in the car, and it goes right behind my rearview mirror. And it records everything. And so if I were to be in an accident, it would record it. And I got this because I was in an accident a decade ago. And I had no way it was my word versus hers about what happened and whose fault it was. And so this will help you to avoid some very expensive insurance claims down the road that could hurt you in your premium.

So dash cam is a good. they can range from $39 to $130 $130, depending on what you get. Thanks to technology, Google Maps now is free, so if you're needing maps, because back in the day, you guys, you would have to print out MapQuest, directions, and carry actual physical sheets into the car.

Which was still an upgrade from the paper maps that you'd unfurled? That is true. So it felt like, oh my gosh, it's giving me line-by-line directions. The good people over there. No, they really, they walked, so Google Maps could run, let's be honest. But then there used to be the Garmin. So then you upgrade to the Garmin, which was like $400 bucks for the little GPS that would sit

in your car. And now it's a free app on your phone. Now it's a free app on your phone. And they're probably just collecting all of our data. Yeah. There we go. We don't think about that. Sh, George.

They know where you're going. Stop. Unbelievable. That's a good one. This is a fun one, but also not fun. Ice alerts. So in case of emergency alerts. This is a wild one.

I saw a friend. It's not a fun one. Well, it's fun because it could be life-saving. I think that's fun. You know, we had a friend who's wife and daughter carton to a wreck y'all, and their Apple phone sent a message about. it. Yeah, it'll like call or send a text to your emergency contacts letting them know, hey, this person was in a crash and it'll automatically call, I think, the authorities and stuff.

It's pretty crazy what it can do. So look into that and make sure you have your emergency contacts set up because otherwise it won't contact anyone. I also love travel apps because even like a Southwest, for instance, is so great at racking up points, not through the credit card. And you have to pay $150 for the credit card if you have it. Or you could just rack up free points as you fly and keep track of your rapid rewards. But those kind of travel apps, they're great. I helped John Deloney save $230. No way.

Just see this last week. To find a airline ticket? He was booking a hotel and he said, hey, help me do this. I know you can save me money. And I did. So we went to Hotels.com, researched the right hotel he wanted. Then I went to Priceline Express.

Yeah. And using the Travel Arrow browser extension, along with Priceline Express deals, I was able to get him that same hotel, $230 bucks cheaper. That's amazing, George. hotel rooms for a night, $230 cheaper overall.

One from like $560 down to like $3.30 or something. That's incredible. Well done. All right, let's go into hygiene. My favorite is the electric toothbrush. Rachel's very proud of this. Because I don't go to the dentist. Again, you don't know why you're ragging about this.

I think it's a scam. And no cavities. Fantastic. And I've had the same one for 15 years. Are you updating the upgrading the little toothbrush head? Oh, yes. That will change out. The actual, like, toothbrush itself, is that crazy? That's amazing.

Love it. Yeah, I love my toothbrush. I don't know if it's, it's an oral B, I think, is mine. Do you know what brand yours is? Like a sonic hair or something? Yeah, it's one of those. I think of mine maybe oral B. Hair appliance is a good hair dryer is worth the investment for me.

Hair straightener. There used to be the cheese straightener. Back in, like, you know. Chee. Oh. C-H-I. Like back in like 0-4. That was like, that was the OG.

Now the Dyson hair wrap is the, People love it. It's crazy expensive. It's like $600. Yeah, it's a lot. But investing in a good hair dryer for me. I've had mine for probably close to a decade. I don't know.

Oh, yeah. And then another one, George, is the technology around nails. Can we talk about that? There's nail tech? Well, it used to just be polished. Then we went to gel, and now we have dip. I mean, you get all the, and it lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks. And this is technology.

Well, nail tech. How does it work? I'm not sure. Ask the technology people that create. It's amazing. All right, there's got to be some financial apps in here, George. There's got to be. And financial products that are worth the money.

The number one app on my home screen finances is every dollar. Yes, fantastic. This is our budgeting app that our team created over a decade ago now. And they've just improving it every single day since. And it makes it super easy to, number one, plan all of our expenses for the month. Number two, track it. Yes. And I've got the premium version where you can connect your bank.

There's smart tracking now so it knows, hey, Amazon probably going to go in your shopping category, correct? I go, yep, one click, it's done. I know, it's fantastic, honestly. I mean, we check it every day, and I track transactions, and it just keeps on track. So I appreciate every dollar. Oh, we're going to put a link in the show notes, too, for our listeners and viewers if they want to check it out,

or you can go to every dollar.com slash smart money and get started for free. Yep. But we have some shopping holidays coming up, George. We have Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Oh, boy. So again, these are apps and technologies that we've loved in our own personal lives.

they cost, you know, a range of, you know, different price points. But maybe there are things in your life that can help you, you know, in the convenience aspect. So if you're going to be planning on buying some of this stuff or subscribing to it, make sure that you plan ahead, be strategic, especially about these shopping holidays coming up, because there can be some great deals. Yeah, not everything has to be like a giant surprise. Like, you know it's coming up. You should have a budget.

You should have been saving for part of the year to go, I know what I want to spend this year. The problem is we tend to then spend for ourselves, too, because the stuff that we want is also on major discount. Or so we think, by the way, it's not always a major discount just because it says 70% off MSRP. And one way to avoid that is camel camel camel.com with C's, no relation to this camel,

but it's an Amazon price tracker. So you know, is this actually a good price or is this the normal price that's on Amazon all the time? Yep. Or will it go down after Black Friday instead of up? So good. So yeah, so I think the moral of the story is you guys in this episode is

there are purchases, technologies out there again, that can help you, but be strategic and plan and making sure not only do you have the money, but you're, yeah, doing smart things, like looking at discount codes, doing a little bit more research to get the best deal, because, again, technology keeps improving, and it's not always a bad thing. It can help us in life. But, George, I love to hear on your stuff that you enjoy. I enjoyed hearing yours.

Thank you. It just goes to show you different strokes for everyone and what changes one person's life may not change someone else's. But also, don't gatekeep, because Rachel's been telling me, I'm like, I need that weather app now. And maybe Rachel needs something that I enjoy. A little camera in my car. I feel like Winston is the tech guy.

And so you've largely delegated all the tech stuff. 100%. 100%. But it's good. You need one person in the family who's doing this. For sure. All right. All right.

Well, it's almost the end of the episode. And we close out every episode with Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty-as-charged question every week. and if we're guilty, we take a sip. So, Kelly. All right. Have you ever pretended to talk on the phone to avoid an interaction?

Oh. And this comes from Instagram user at Hadden K3. I'm not sipping because I'm guilty. I'm sipping because I like the drink. I'm sipping because I'm guilty? Okay, I don't think I've done the phone call thing, but I've done this thing.

I'm just deep in my weather app. Is that enough to avoid an interaction? Just really just going. I don't know. But I'll look down and not my guy. contact. I don't know if I have, like, done this and, like, walked around talking. I think I do. I'm going to say no. I'm innocent on this one, y'all. I genuinely think I am. It's almost like PTSD, where it's like, whatever it was was anxiety-inducing enough that my brain

shut it out. Blocked it off. Have you, like, looked at your phone and act like you're busy to, like, avoid eye contact with someone? Oh, I know. I know one. Tell it. I was in Costco. Yeah. As I am. And I saw someone that did not want to see. Oh, no. And so I immediately turned around, grabbed my eye. phone and just walked away on my phone. You're guilty. Yeah. Guilty. That's what it was. That's what it was. Well. It's someone that I don't think it was like, I wouldn't say it was like major beef. This was just, this was an awkward one. Okay. I'll leave it at that. But yes, it's a, I think it's a great life hack to be kind, but also get out of the situation. Yeah, if you have to. That's fair. All right. Fair enough. Fair enough.

We made it. You finish your drink first. Yeah, this was a cinnamon, spiced, orange, and time mocktail. So there's no alcohol in this, so it's fun for the whole family. And I'm going to rate this a 10 out of 10. I mean, honestly? I could not improve on this mocktail. I would agree. And I would order it. If I was feeling like if I was in a mood for a mocktail at a restaurant, I wanted something

fall. It was honestly so good. I think all the ratios are perfect from the cinnamon to the orange juice, all of. What's in it? Here's what's in it. Spiced maple thyme syrup, which is maple syrup, fresh time and cinnamon. Wow. It also has fresh ginger, which I love ginger.

Okay, I'm not a fan of, but you can't make a taste. Lemon juice, orange juice, and ginger ale. Yeah, great. A beautiful blend. Really, really nice. Really, really nice. And here's what it comes down to. The cost breakdown per glass without the garnish,

which this has a cinnamon stick and whatever this is. What are this? It's time. It's a clover. Oh, it's time? I didn't know time look like this. Yeah. Good to know.

Without the garnishes of time and cinnamon stick and orange slice, It comes out to $1.70 per glass. That's not bad for a fancy mocktail. Could be fun to make for your next fall party. Fall gathering. As Rachel loves to do. Love a theme. Maybe big games going on, Tennessee game.

Yeah, there will be a season. Make a punch bowl with this. Yeah, it's right. And it's orange. Great. We're doing it. Perfect. We're doing it.

Get the recipe in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend, whether you're a Valls fan or not. All right, George. It's closing time. If you guys enjoy this episode, make sure to leave a review. And if you haven't yet, make sure to check out our episode on harmless purchases that are draining your bank account. We'll leave a link in the show notes.

And if you're listening on podcasts, we'll leave a link as well so you can check it out. And make sure to subscribe too so you don't miss an all-new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour, which comes out every Thursday. And hey, share the episode with your friends and your family. Please. Spreading the word helps so much. So we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all-new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.