Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Frugal Fails that Might Actually Ruin You

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

💵 Sign up for EveryDollar today. Create a free budget! We love a heroic attempt to save money! Until it backfires. (Let’s be real: We’ve all botched at least one DIY project.) Join Rachel and George for a relatable recap of the internet’s best frugal fails and find out where penny pinching might cost you more in the long run! Next Steps ·      🔎 Get help from a financial advisor to avoid those sneaky loopholes that will leave you broke. ➡️ Don’t miss out on the tax deductions you qualify for—get help from a pro. ·      💵 Start budgeting today! Use code SMARTMONEY to get a free two-week trial and $15 off your premium membership to EveryDollar.   ·      📱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. Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍸 Dirty Shirley Recipe: New York Times Cooking Ingredients: ·      2 ounces vodka ·      1 ounce grenadine ·      8 ounces Sprite ·      1 maraschino cherry ·      Ice Instructions: Fill a glass with ice. Add vodka and grenadine. Top with Sprite and garnish with a maraschino cherry. Listen to More From Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 💼 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. My cherry got a little cray on me just there. Sorry about that. My bad. Wow.

You know? I'm trying to figure out what your reaction is here. Takes me back to my youth. That's what I'll say. How old were you? Because this is alcoholic, Rachel. Without the alcohol. Who was happening at the Ramsey household?

Without the alcohol. Well, this is the show. We're two friends who happened. money experts talk about what you're talking about. So everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And today, Rachel, we're talking about frugal fails. That's right. Fugality gone wrong. So in this episode, we are laughing at some of the hilarious ways that trying to save money can backfire. We're highlighting a few places you definitely should not skimp in your finances. And finally, we reveal the conspiracy keeping Americans from having nice things. Oh, that's my...

I thought that's a good hook for Rachel. That's my bullet point. She's... Hanging around for that bullet. Hanging around, you better hang out till the end of this episode, so you hear it because it's great. But what are we sipping on, George? This is a dirty Shirley. So if you've heard of the Shirley Temple, this is the adult version. And if you want to know what we think,

and you're going to want to know, stick around until the end. We'll give you the rating, reveal the cost per glass, and the recipe will be in the show notes. So stick around until the end for that goodness. Yep, delicious. Okay, so frugal fails. George, I feel like we've all been there in life, you know.

I love being frugal, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Yeah, and we're all about saving money around here. I feel like that's one thing Ramsey really promotes is where, like, we want you to save money, have an emergency fund, save up for things. So in the... Rice and beans. In the name of saving, sometimes cutting corners can go hand in hand. Yeah.

The same idea, right? You can get burned on some of those shortcuts. So this is what happens when you want to upgrade the bathroom with a new tile floor, but you decide to save money and do it DIY rather than hire. a pro. And then, you know, there's the whole like, oh, I'm going to make my own at home, like my own pad tie or like whatever the thing is. Oh, we've all been there. Yeah. And then you go when you look at the recipe, this has happened to me where it's like the peanut oil, the fish sauce, you know, the bean sprouts. The tamarin puree. The tamerun. Like it's like all this

stuff that you use a teaspoon for. Beep. And then you have all these extraveners. And you're like, oh my God, that's $7 for a beep. Yeah. Beep. I mean, how much, how much fish sauce am I really going to use in a lifetime? Better not expire. That's the thing you find in our refrigerator. That's what happens. I'm like, oh, yeah, we made Pat Tyre three years ago, and this fish sauce is still in here from Trader Joe's.

Time to dump it. I know. So... Something is dying in that fridge. But listen. And any crazy words. True to form, we have pulled some examples of frugal fails from our old standby, Reddit,

and other dark corners of the internet. Because as the proverb says, why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from someone else's? It's not actually in proverbs. It's more of just like a life proverb. It's an idea, a life proverb there. You know?

Yep. It's a good one. All right. Let's go. Let's go first. Here we go. I spent $60 on a wax starter set to do my eyebrows. Then I spent $180 at the ER for first-degree burns and no eyebrows.

That feels dangerous. That feels so sad. Can you explain how that works? I've never done it. I don't know if you can tell with these bushy boys. But what is the wax starter set? So it heats up and it creates a hot wax? Yeah, you have a thing of wax.

Yeah. And then you'll have like a thing that comes out with it. and then you put it on the hot waxed and then you put the paper on and you let it sit and then you go, oh wow. Yeah, and it...

But how do you know you're not going to pull off your actual eyebrow completely? Well, it's where you put the wax is where it should stay. So you're trusting your pinky to do all the work perfectly. Well, no, you don't stip your pinky in the hot wax.

You were using a pinky. Sorry, as an example tool. Okay. Not real pinky, example tool. Got it. There. And no eyebrows, that makes me sad. as a, as a,

2001. No, that's the thing. When I was like in middle school and high school, we plucked our eyebrows, y'all. Like, it was so bad. Okay, producer Skyler, can you tell me?

And now everyone had, they wanted the big eyebrows. Now I feel like it's going back to me. Isn't that the trend? Now I feel like the big, bushy eyebrows. It's going down now, though. No, I'm a big eyebrow person.

Tiny eyebrows are out. Those wispy little nothing eyebrows were done with that. Yeah, I don't. We've been done, George, for like a decade. No one told me. So are you saying my eyebrows are now in?

They've been in for a decade now. I bet for the last eight years or so, the big eyebrows. Timeless brow game over here. But I feel like what they, the really big ones now, they're not doing it. People aren't doing that as much. I feel like they're becoming medium size. Hey, these are my normal eyebrows. So this isn't a trend for me, guys.

Good for you. This is I'm saying it through and through. Good. Yeah, this is my life. Stay natural. They're going to stay bushy. Don't get in a time machine and go to high school. When was I in high school?

20, 2004? or like 0-204? 03? I wish I can get a time machine go back to before you said 20-04. I know. Frugal fails. 2000. 2004, 2003, 2001.

In your defense, we all of a sudden, once it hits 2010, we're like, it's 2010. Yeah, I don't know how to go back there. I don't know how to go back there. Well, hey, and there are times when being too frugal, we'll get you burned, your eyebrows and your insurance coverage. The purpose of insurance is to protect yourself by transferring financial risk. that you can't handle onto an insurance provider. That's the only point of insurance. It's not for the occasional unexpected expense

that makes the budget a little tight because there are things that can financially ruin you. And when that true catastrophe strikes, you don't want to be without adequate insurance coverage. So that's why we have things like catastrophic coverage. Health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, home and renter's insurance, those are the ones you want to focus on.

And I've skimped on this, Rachel, as a young man. And I got burned. Did you? Got an offender bender. Yeah? I was sued. Oh, I've heard the story. You know, the lady turned out to be fine until a few months later she apparently claimed she wasn't.

She was in her 40s, but she had the spine of like an 80-something-year-old. Oh, my gosh. And so I had like apparently aggravated her bulging discs and now wanted like $350,000. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know it was that much. So I got served with lawsuit papers as like a 23-year-old. She worked. And I was on my dad's insurance.

We didn't have adequate coverage. Oh, shoot. And so she sued. And she did not get that much, but she ended up winning and got up to the coverage amount. 25 grand from Liberty Mutual, my insurance at the time. You didn't have to pay out of pocket. And she sued her own insurance company and got another $25 grand. Wow.

So Homegirl was a professional ambulance chaser because Liberty was like her health files that are in boxes and boxes. Oh, no way. Shoot. Not her first rodeo. She knew. She saw you, George, pulling out of the... She saw this guy's easy money. driveway and she thought, I'm going to go after that little man with classes.

But here's the key. When you're on your parents' insurance, they can sue your parents too. Oh, no. So she's going after old Max. Sorry, Mr. Camel with the K. I'm glad it's all behind us. But hey, I learned my lesson. We upped our auto insurance and have never, we haven't bat an eyelash since.

Or an eyebrow either. And if you're not in an eyebrow, yeah, and if you're not confident in the insurance you have or if you should have more, we have a coverage checkup. It's actually a great. tool. It's at REMCSolutions.com. So we'll put that in the show notes. So you can make sure to feel like it's not going to be a fail. Yeah, it's not going to be a fail for you. And it'll tell you exactly what you need and what you don't need. All right. Next, you're ready for this? I found a wedding dress that I loved, but I thought it was a little too expensive and wanted to try to find it at a

discount. I ended up connecting with a seamstress in China who looked at the picture of the wedding dress of my dreams and claims she can make it for $100. Wow. When I got the dress, it was awful. Not shocked. I ended up having to go to a boutique, buy a dress off the rack, pay for expensive rush alterations to have it in time for the wedding. Wow. Man. That's a risky move. That's tough.

That's that. When you hear too good to be true, $100 for a wedding dress. Especially that far away. Yeah, that you're just like, unless it's there in the store and you're like, oh yeah, or you're buying it off Jay Crewe or, you know, or something. And you're like, oh, yeah, I know what I'm getting. But a random lady and another continent that you don't know. How didn't you even find out about this lady?

I don't know. So you may not remember this. I don't know, maybe the girls will. Why would I not remember? That's offensive. The Torrey Birch flats with the big Torrey Birch silver like emblem was on the top. Okay, that's what everyone was doing. But they were, I mean, I don't even remember.

Maybe $300, $200, $200, $200. Yeah, $200, $300. Exorbitant. And I was like, that's, it was expensive. I'm like, I can't. So I went online and I was like Tori Birch sale. You know, I was trying to find like a good sale. Anyways, a website came up that sold Tori Burch shoes for $35.

And that wasn't a red flag to you. George, I was naive. It was... It was 204. 204. And I didn't know. Yes. And I bought them legitimately, y'all, thinking that this...

Like, that I got a... I was like, oh my gosh, I found some... Was it like a sketchy website? You know, Rachel, back then, you just... You didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. And I bought it.

And I remember the... You're very trusting in general. Email address came back. And it was like all these letters and number. and I was like, oh my gosh, this is weird. It was like D.HL Express? That's how you know you got scammed. It was.

George. So then it shows up, y'all. This is so gross. Are you ready for this? I mean, not so gross, but it's just, I opened the box and the odor. It smelled. Oh, no. It just was gross, y'all.

And I took those shoes out. And I was like, oh, no. They were, I mean, it was the most fit. It was so bad. It was so bad. But of course, $35 for. for designer shoes. Ain't real.

But too good to be true, y'all. Wedding dresses, shoes. Purses. I bought Whitney that Louis Vuitton from Walmart. I thought it was a good knockoff. Like, I knew it was a knockoff. But it was like... Whitney's like, I'm not going to wear that, George.

Well, she was like, oh, that actually looks pretty real. And I was like, great. So I just bought it thinking, I'll be a hero. And she was offended when I handed it to her. Just not quite a real thing. It just can't do it quite with the logos. It's like the Chanel Cs, but their E's. You know, like...

Yeah. If you're going to go knock off, it's got to be one that, like, that's why I go Kirkland. It's timeless. It's offensive and yet inoffensive at the same time. It just goes with everyone. Yeah. Here's another one.

I replaced my truck's timing belt myself with the help of YouTube and my brother, thinking I'd save over a thousand bucks by doing it myself. All was fine for a while, but I ended up needing two trips to the mechanic, including one toe to fix things that went wrong from my repair. Shoot. Ended up spending more than I originally would have

had I just taken it to the shop in the first place. I know. This is classic. And this is hard, too, because we do talk about a lot when you're paying off debt. Yeah. That, like, you just do what you can to get by, right? And a lot of people are like, oh, my gosh, I need to upgrade my car. But it's like, where can you just push through?

Yeah. And keep paying off that debt, keep that momentum. And there's some things you feel like, oh, I can do that, right? Like the DIY. Especially car stuff. A lot of guys are like, I can figure it out. I'm like, I don't trust myself doing the brakes for a car that my wife will be driving with my infant child. Yeah, no.

I don't trust it. Right. But then it becomes this whole thing of, like, how much do you put into a car? versus selling it. True. Right at that point, looking at the value of it. I mean, it's all of that. But trying to just do it yourself

if you don't know your skill level or maybe you're unaware of your skill level. What's your level of skill when it comes to car maintenance? Like, could you replace splinker fluid? Nope. I know nothing. I can't replace splinger fluid either. I know nothing.

Winston will do... Well, what would Whitney say? Not to be sexist in like two... 1950s, but... Well, I would send you to AutoZone and ask them there and say, can you just, can you guys have... Do you have blinker fluid? Does Whitney know how to do it?

Can you replace my blinker fluid? Does Whitney know how to do it? I think Whitney is... You're shaming me, but if... I'm not shaming you. But if Whitney is... You did this! Well, I'm saying Whitney...

I would hope that the woman I married would be sharp enough to go, I don't think there's such a thing as blinker fluid. Oh! That's a hope. And I could be wrong. Stop! Did you say blinker blurt?

If you roll the tape back, Stop! You may have heard me say Blinker followed by fluid. Why did you say that to me? Why are you tricking me? It was a trick. You fell right into my little trap,

and honestly, it felt pretty good. I feel pretty good about myself, because I know Winston is at home right now, listening, going, tis, tis, tisk, SMH, Rachel. SMH, have I not taught you anything? Let's move on. Let's go to number four.

I bought $160 and gift cards online for $80 through Groupon for a chain restaurant that I visit once every few months. I did not see the promotion was different for a state four hours away. No refunds and customer service was no help. The gift cards have since expired. Oh, wait, a gift card expires. That's rough. I guess some of these Groupons do have an expiration date.

Yeah, no good. Have you ever done something like that? Like you didn't read the fine print on one of these? Probably. I'm trying to think. I did one. It was a Nashville gift card, like Nashville restaurants, like good restaurants,

and I fell for it. And I was like, well, they have a little bonus. If you spend this much, you'll get an extra $20 bonus. Yeah. What I didn't know was that the gift card is devalued over time. What?

So I didn't make it downtown to use my downtown dollars fast enough. And it dwindled from like $80, and the next month it was 70, and then six, to where it just, like, disappeared. And I was like, I didn't know you could legally do that. Oh, that's a good scam. Because I did not read the fine print.

And they said it, though, in there. Apparently? In tiny invisible font. In tiny invisible font. So that one hurt. Make sure you read the fine print and be aware of some of these groupons and things and look for expiration dates. That's right. Okay, let's do this one. Through a big birthday party for my husband over a year ago, my sister-in-law suggested hiring a taco truck. I said, no, that's way too expensive. I can do everything else myself. It'll be way cheaper. When it was all set and done, I spent more on ingredients than it would have cost just to hire the truck.

Plus, of course, all the time I spent cooking. Man, this is one, the food thing is big because you do save money, usually, when you do stuff yourself, right? Unless it's a very intricate thing or it's a big quantity, right? Because sometimes it is cheaper just to go and buy in bulk or like to have someone just do it. Yeah. And so looking into the cost of both,

what would it take to actually get the ingredients, how much time is it going to take me, to cook for 50 people, 100 people, versus the cost of outsourcing it. And especially, like, tacos. We did this. We threw mom and dad an anniversary party, surprise anniversary party.

I can't remember what anniversary it was. A big one, apparently. Yeah, I think, probably. And we did Mexican from, like, a local taco shop, and it was, like, and it was perfect. Like, it wasn't crazy expensive, but it fed a lot of people. Yeah.

Which was huge. So Mexican, it's the way to go. For the win. Yeah. Yeah. All right, here's another one. I bought a new boiler to replace the ancient one in my house because the new one was supposed to be more efficient.

The ancient one was almost 100 years old, but still chugging. The new efficient one cost seven grand and lasted four years before failing. Oh, no. They don't make them like they used to. They don't make them like they used to. And this brings me to a concept. Have you heard of this? What is it?

Planned obsolescence. I have heard about this. Do we think it's true? I think it's very true. If you look at technology especially. Yeah. I have a lot of opinions on that. The lifespan of a laptop?

Don't say the word iPhone, because I have complete conspiracies around that. Oh, that they do updates to slow your phone down so it forces you to get a new phone? And the battery dies, like so fast, yeah. Okay, so plans obsolescence, if you don't know what that is. It's a business strategy where companies and manufacturers intentionally designed products

to break quickly or become obsolete after a few years. so then you have to go buy a new one. So it's taking, yeah, advantage of the customer, promotes materialism and waste, you know, just buying and buying. This happens in fashion, too. I mean, you look at, you know, H&M, like the quality of some of the clothing out there,

it's not made to last. Yeah, and if we throw a little devil-wears prada into the mix, too, is the fashion industry somehow getting these kickbacks of something because they change the style? It's like even jeans. Every year I got to buy new jeans to keep up with Skylar and to keep up with all the cool people. I've always said if you follow the trends,

you fall for the traps. And mom jeans, I was not falling for it. I said, I'm going to stay true to my skinnies. And I'm hoping they come back around. Yeah, and they might. Yeah. But also, don't you think they're making things cheaper because... But the quality is this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They can save money because people think with their wallets and shop with their wallets a lot of the time. And so we're okay buying a $20 pair of jeans twice a year instead of getting one good pair for $80. That's me. Quality over quantity. I'm quantity over quality.

Wow. I would rather look in my closet and have tons of options. I would. I'm like, what do I feel like today? Versus having like two-swain. But when it comes to drinks, your quality over quantity. Just think about it. And you know what?

And I'm going to say this too, food. Even though I love going out to a great restaurant, getting my apps. and I'll probably get blown up in the comments about like, oh, whenever nutrition. We'll tell people, hey, don't, no comments about what she's about to say. We don't want to hear it. But I love a good fast food.

I don't, like, I'm like, Rachel, do you know what that's doing to your body? It's not real. Did you see the McDonald's hamburger a hundred years later? It was perfectly intact. It's not real. Because Monterella sticks at Sonic, you can't beat them. They are so good. So, I think I think your body will be.

I'm a quantity person. I don't know what that says about me and my character, but... I think you're just, you just like the fun nature of go big or go home. And just change and, like, yeah, we'll change it up. I don't feel bad. Like, it's fine. Yeah. And science will study your body and go, what happened?

Like, how many mozzarella sticks does it take? I know. It's so good. So here's some examples of what planned obsolescence does. They make products impossible to repair. Company using materials that wear out faster. They make electronics run slower or less efficiently when you update. to the latest software,

and they release new versions of items in different colors or styles to make the old ones feel done or outdated. So they play on our psychology to go, you don't want, that's out. That was so last year. It was so last year. It's, oh, man, so psychological.

Okay, how about these? Planned obsolescence. Are you ready? iPhone. 100% yes. Me too. I think so. I think they do it all.

I think they know when the new one's coming out and they put something in the towers and it makes your battery go down faster, everything. I met someone the other day, still had an iPhone 8. And I was like, how are you doing it? And like, well, I just have never updated. I don't know what that means.

Well, we're on the iPhone 15 now. Oh, oh, oh. So think about having an eight-year-old iPhone. It just boggles my mind as someone's out there. But it's fine, but they've never updated the software. So that's their... That's the key. Don't fall for it.

Don't fall for it. Also, too, Apple did pay $113 million to settle a battery gate investigation into its practice of intentionally slowing down iPhones. Oh, my gosh. I know that sounds crazy. I don't feel like they paid enough. Nope. I don't think they've learned their lesson

because I think they're still doing it. That's right, yeah. Don't sue me for saying that. But I feel like you are. You think Apple's going to sue you? I don't know if they hear this. I doubt anyone... I guess I know.

I'm kidding. They're busy printing money. I'm kidding. They're not listening to smart money happy. All right. Up next, here's two kitchen gadgets. You ready? Okay.

Crockpots and kitchen aids. I feel like those lasts a good while. I've had each of those since we've had those 15 years and they still are going. And to be fair, I feel like crockpots are reasonably priced. Now, KitchenAid mixers, I feel like, are a little bit egregious. Yep.

But I think they last a while. I did it, yeah. Couches. Oh. I could see furniture being that. Yeah, a lot of furniture wears out too soon. I try to go quality with furniture because I want it to last a while. Yeah, I'm kind of medium.

What's your oldest piece of furniture you have that you've used for years now? We have a, what was our dining room take? in our old house. We got it at a clearance, furniture, clearance warehouse sale. And it's up in our playroom now. Our kids have it in our playroom. So, yeah, it's 15 years old, and it's great.

Wow, 15. 15. That's impressive. I was going like five years with, you know, because as long as we've been married, we got like a dining table on the couch and they've held up pretty well. All right, ready for this, Rachel?

You're going to love this. Did you know that the whole planned obsolescence thing started as a conspiracy? started as but then proven true. Prior to 1924, the average life of an incandescent light bulb was 2,500 hours. In December of 1924, the biggest light bulb manufacturers from around the world got together. At Lake Geneva and Switzerland, it hatched a secret plan to increase their sales by bringing the average lifespan of the light bulb down to a thousand hours instead of 2500.

Oh my gosh, they did it on purpose. The group later became known as the Phoebus Cartel. They created a monopoly on the light bulb market. place saw 25% boost in profit over the first few years, and they disbanded in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, and their strategy later came out in court when the U.S. government came after General Electric on antitrust charges. Wow. Wow.

Juicy stuff. Who knew light bulbs? It's real, y'all. Conspiracies are real. Do you think LED light bulbs are a scam too, then? That's been the new thing. Get rid of the incandescence, guys. LED is the future.

You know, Winston is an LED guy, so he's changed out so many of our light bulbs. L.D. And I think they do work. Wow. You know his color? You know what he likes to go with? Is he a 2,500 guy, a warm white? I was going to say warm sounds right to me. Okay. Because is there a warm white. Yeah. That's going to be it. That's the key with L.D. Because L.D. can be a little bit... Too bright. Too jarring. Daylight is a little much for me. I'm a warm white guy. Yeah. I think Winston has two. Good y'all. Too peeing a pod. I haven't talked Kelvin with him. We'll have to get into that at some point. All right. Burning question, Rachel. If we're up against a

Is it even possible to, quote, buy it for life these days? That's a trend where people go for the quality over the quantity. Is it possible? Because this is the idea you spend more to buy high quality that will last you forever. Yeah, I think certain products, yes. Okay. Because I do think there's certain companies that pride themselves on quality. But I don't think it's the mass companies anymore.

Well, there's a store in Columbia, Tennessee. I wish I knew the name because I'd give them a shout out. But it's like a clothing store that does leather. Bradley Mountain. Bradley Mountain. Okay, that's it. It's like a hip outfitter kind of vibe. But I see that jacket.

I'm like, that feels like a, but again, it's a small shop in the middle of Columbia, Tennessee, right? It's not Abercrombie. Sorry, Abercrombie. Love you. But, you know what I mean? Like, you just, you just. So here's your quiz. First of all, any brands or products that you trust to last?

Like, because brand association is powerful. Yeah. You got any out there? You're like, I just trust this brand. I'm going to go all clad. Potts and Pants. Oh, nice. Those feel like good quality to me.

Yeah, what's the one that make the cast iron, the company? It's like the brand of cast iron. Oh, Le Crosay. Oh, there's one, too. That's a good one. Pass that on your kids. Yeah, that's a legit one. Okay.

Yeah, so again, but you pay for it, right? All these things are so expensive, but I think... That's why I buy Kirkland. I can return it at any time for any reason. And they don't judge me. We all sponsor us, please. Can we get paid for George? to like talk about y'all.

It happens all the time. I do trust Apple, even though I don't think they're built to last. I think part of that is my own just like need for the newest, greatest item. Look at you. Are these products worth a slightly higher upfront investment? A nice queen bed from childhood. So you don't have to upgrade from a twin later on. Yes.

I think that's weird. I think there's too many, they do studies on like all of the dead skin that gets buried in the bed and it's like it makes the bed heavier and over time. I think every eight years you're supposed to replace a mattress. Are you all with me on this? I hear that. How long have you had your pillow? No, we could talk pillows.

Pillow talk. Yeah, that's a new segment. I'm going on 15 years, y'all, for me. 15 years? I've changed up the pillowcase. I've gone silk pillow case recently because of the trends. See, I fall for everything. I fall for the trends, George.

If that pillow could talk, Rachel, it would spill some dirty secrets. It's mostly just dead hair and skin cells. Oh, gross, George. It's not you. It's the human nature. It's not you, but it's you. Everyone does that.

Never mind. Lodge. That's the one. Lodge cast iron. Lodge makes great. Yeah. A classic leather belt or shoes. Yes, great.

I'm not big on, I think leather shoes, sure, like a good quality pair of boots. If you have a good belt, though, that would last. And our friend Ken Coleman, he's had a pair of boots that he loves from Jay Crew. And he loves to tell people. If you meet Ken and he's wearing a little. wearing his J-Crew boots, he'll tell you. They've had these 25 years now. Just re-sole them.

Resole them, keep them brand new. Patagonia or L.L. Bean jackets are outerwear. I feel like those high quality, some of the outerware companies. Okay, yeah, but they have styles to them. So I have some from, like... Oh, they don't hold up style-wise. You know, the North Face jacket, the black one everyone had? Yeah.

In 2009, you know? Like, no one wears those... I mean, if you wear them, that's great. I'm not mad at people that wear off. But, like, it is a... Like, their styles change. So I feel like it's so important to do capsule wardrobe So you don't have to change so much

For sure, yes, yes And a Stanley Cup built to last That is true We all saw the TikTok of the car fire And the Stanley Cup survived And they bought her a new car Which props to Stanley great brand marketing Oh such a great man

We're here talking about Stanley now And I don't even like Stanley You know my feelings about Stanley Cups That is quality though George Go watch the S&L Big Dumb Cup making fun of Stanley Tumblr's. It was chef's kiss. So good. Chef's kiss. So funny. Oh, George.

Well, what do we have to learn? Frugal fails. Listen, there's me stuff you buy in life. You're going to have to replace because that's the world we live in. And if you don't feel like you can do it yourself fully all the way, sometimes it's worth the outsourcing. And here's what I will also say, be frugal when you're broke.

And then once you're not broke anymore, upgrade your life. It's okay to buy quality items that lasts a long time and to outsource and hire people to do things for you? That's great. Support local businesses. That's right. Love it.

All right. It's almost the end of the episode. And we close out every episode with Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer, Skyler, gives us a new guilty-as-charge question every week. And if we are guilty, we take a sip. So, Skyler. All right. Did you ever have a frugal habit that you now consider cringy?

Oh. Hmm. I feel like Rachel would say my current frugal habits are considered cringy. I would, I was in the habit for a while of taking like the hotel shampoos and stuff. Yes. I don't do that as much anymore unless it smells like fantastic. Yeah. No, if it's in tiny bottles, I'm taking it.

If it's like a mid-grade to nice hotel. Yeah. Like I'm not at the Lakeinta Inn trying to like, you know, hustle my way. But I'm still in the shower right now. I have a tiny hotel conditioner. You do it. It lasts forever. I know.

But I used to do that all the time. I don't do that as much anymore. I always take the laundry bags from the hotel. I don't get laundry done, but I take the bag. George, like the nice ones? No, like the free plastic ones. Oh, oh, I was thinking like a dry cleaning bag. Yeah, too.

Like, you should do that. Tyler and I were traveling. I was speaking at a church, and there was like nice big Fiji water bottles. And I was like, I can't drink all this water. And so I put it in my suitcase. And Tyler was like, what are you doing? Traveling with water bottles in your suitcase. I was like, this is nice.

This is like $16 worth of water. Fiji water is fancy. You know you're rich. You got Fiji water. You know what? I put it on Whitney's side table, and I felt like a hero. Just a Kirkland King. Yeah.

Because unbelievable. Isn't that the American dream? It is the American dream. When you open up someone's refrigerator and they have Fiji. And they have Fiji. You're like, oh, yeah, they're rich. They're rich. Because you know what I have?

if I have bottles of water? Kirkland? Kirkland. Because you can get a whole pack of them and I know I should recycle and all the things. I hear everyone out there. But you can get a whole thing of them

for like $4. I know. But here's the, can I be extra bougie? Oh, no. I'm totally good with purified. Whitney likes spring water. And so I put spring water

on her side and I put purified on my side. Wait, what are you talking about right now? What are these words you're saying? Purified water is not from a natural spring. It's just like water that's been, you know, filtered and freshened up essentially. Where is it coming from? Exactly.

It's basically tap water. All right. I'm not mad at that. Spring water comes from a natural spring source. It's got all the minerals in there. It's the best you can get, essentially. So give me brands that are... The one here is, like we have Poland Spring in the North.

Here we have Deer Park. And that's Springwater? Zephyllis in South Florida. And is that spring water? Those are all spring waters. Okay, what's like the purified water? Kirkland? Yeah, Kirkland.

What's Aquafina? Definitely purified water. Purified. Desani, all of those are purified. If it's from a Coca-Cola or Pepsi, you're one of those, it's not good water. So that's how I follow it. I just feel good about myself when I drink water, let alone the type of water I drink. I know.

But people will come at you in the comments. I believe it. But they'll also come at you for just not drinking tap water. And from Monterella sticks. You're somehow too boozy but also not boozy enough. It is so true. I can't with George. You really can't.

Thank you for feeling my pain. You just got to pick a side and be confident in it. I feel so seen. And you know what side I'm going to pick? Rachel's side. That's right. I'll send you. There's a water sommelier on TikTok, and he's wonderful.

I think he's Austrian. He's very sassy, and he goes to stores and shows you the best water to buy. Like he'll be in a whole food, just raiding waters. I'm like, this is my future. Does he? Anyways, we'll save water for another episode. What is your frugal pal, George? My frugal habit that I now consider cringy.

Oh, gosh. I mean, I feel like I was the guy who would like, I would use a coupon on a first date, which I now get, like, not a good vibe. But I would do anything to save a buck because I felt like I was winning. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, you know those situations where, like, your spouse is like, I'm going to wait in the car. I don't want to be a part of this?

That's the level that Whitney feels when it comes to my frugality. She's like, I'm going to wait. I'm just going to wait in the car. Let you go. Regardless of any kind of negotiation, it's a little bit cringy. But, you know, like at Target, when I... try to return an item and they said no. Yes.

And then I said, I'll do a no receipt return and I threw away my receipt. That was cringy. I think I can look back at that. Not really. That's just beating the system. Yes. For a stupid rule.

But the rule is stupid. It's like, I. I go the extra mile. Like, I'm not okay with no. Yeah. I'm very persistent. I believe that. And that's why Rachel and I don't hang out

outside of this podcast. She can't be seen in public. We do. So good. I finished my drink first. Congratulations. What do you rate it? I'm going to give this dirty Shirley a two out of ten.

Okay. How about you? I was going to go five out of ten. I went and order it at a restaurant. And it's not because of the maker of the cocktail. That's right. Taylor, because we didn't have resident bartender Michael here. But Michael would have made the exact same drink.

We would have rated it the exact same way. It's just not, it was not. It's very sugary, very syrupy. You know what it tasted like? It tasted like a red popsicle that just melted. Yeah. And got watered down. Yeah.

Just red popsicle flavor. Couldn't tell you what it is. Yeah, I don't know. The best part, honestly, the cherry. Cherry is fantastic. Yeah. Maraschino cherry all day long. I know.

All right. Not our favorite. Here's what's in it. I couldn't taste the vodka, truthfully. Me neither. Was there? There was. All right. She's claiming there was. So what was your rating?

Five out of ten. So collectively we're out of seven. If you add both of ours up. The Dirty Shirley includes vodka, grenadine, Sprite, and a merino cherry. Cost breakdown, $2.44 per glass. And if you want to try it for yourself, if you love a Shirley Temple, you might actually enjoy this. So the recipes and the show notes, give it a try this weekend. So good.

closing time. If you enjoy these episodes, make sure to leave us a comment, leave us a review. We love reading them and hearing what you guys say. Make sure to subscribe and share the episodes with your friends and family because we love being here with you guys and we'll see you next Thursday on an all-new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.