Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Luxury vs. Dupe (Can You Spot the Difference?)

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

📙 Check out George’s book Breaking Free From Broke. Taste tests, TikTok trends, a little friendly competition—today may be all about “dupe” culture, but don’t worry, this episode is the real deal as always. You don’t want to miss it!   Next Steps: ·   🎙️ Catch our episode Financial Experts Rank the Worst Spending Habits! ·    💵 Create a free budget and find more margin with EveryDollar. ·   🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour ·   📱 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: ·   Check out the FAIRWINDS Credit Union exclusive account bundle. ·   Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. ·   Get 20% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth.   Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍸 Strawberry Kiwi Smash Recipe By: cocktails ·   1/2 kiwi, peeled and diced ·   3 small strawberries, diced ·   2 ounces vodka ·   Juice from half a lime ·   3/4 ounces simple syrup ·   Club soda or flavored seltzer for topping off ·   Diced strawberries and kiwi for garnish   Instructions: Muddle fresh kiwi and strawberries in glass, add vodka, add juice, add simple syrup, shake with ice, pour over ice, then top with club soda. Stir, garnish with diced strawberries and a kiwi slice, serve, and enjoy!     Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taste test, trends, friendly competition. Today we're breaking down dupe culture, but don't worry. As always, this episode is the real deal. Is that true? Amelia's in the room. I want to just get verification. Oh, my gosh. You need my husband to come in.

Hey, my gosh. You hold it up to the light. Uh-huh. Ooh. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. George is.

All right. All right. Well, this is the show. friends who happen to be money experts talk about what you're talking about. So everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And before we get to the content at hand, let's talk about what we're sipping on. This is a strawberry kiwi smash as evidenced by the... And it looks happy. A garnished kiwi. I've never seen that. I never thought about doing that. Are you a Kiwi fan? I don't know if I'm eating a strawberry. What do you just eat?

A big old hunk of strawberry. Strawberry is in it. Stick around for the end. You're going to want to know our rating. And we're going to reveal the cost per glass at the end. end of the episode. All right, today we're camping out in Doob City, population us. There you go. Can you explain Duke culture? Because people out there, especially the men. This is a great.

This is like a dream come true of an episode for me. Don't you know that? Because you love a dupe? I love a dupe. You love the fake out. I don't need, I don't need designer shoes. I don't need name brand clothes and stuff. You know, like, I can appreciate something nice.

But every now and then, I'm like, or most of the time, it's like, yeah, Give me the dupe. And so we're going to, though, start this episode and in this episode, George, in a little competition. Why does everything have to be a competition? It's the best because I win. I like to win. All I do is win. But then I just let you win, which takes out all the fun for you.

Oh, stop. Come on. Play the game. Which means I would. Play the game. All right, I'll play. So dupe culture is big. And we're all about, you know, smart spending around here, saving money where you can. And I think dupe culture is one of the best. better trends to come out of the more recent generations.

I think that's fair because it's saying, hey, I don't need the name brand thing. Yeah. You can give me anything that's maybe a little less quality, but I'm going to be paying a fraction of the price. Yes. And I'm good with that. And this is across all categories, makeup, clothing, food. Yes, through it all.

You name it. There's a generic brand for it, including medicine. Take that big pharma. We're coming after you today. All right. So we're going to do a guest to Duke food challenge later on. But first, we're going to try to spot the designer outfit. versus the dupe version.

And we're going to do a couple rounds of this because Rachel will demand that there's a clear winner. Can't just be won and done. No, no, no. We're going to go three rounds in this one. Okay, so you got video number one, George, you got to... All right, here's our first dupe video, courtesy of producer Jenna and see what she whipped up for us. The way your wrist is angled.

I'm trying real hard. Oh, okay, here we go. One of our outfits cost $3,616 pounds, and the other cost $267. And we're asking the public to guess which one is more expensive. I watch these online and I'm always like, if I was ever that, I would know. That looks more expensive to me, that stitching. Maybe not. I don't know.

Oh, that feels quite expensive. That one, not so much. The stitching on this, this looks really quite nicely done. I'm actually going to say this one now. Which one is more expensive? I'm going to say the outfit on the left. Like the more purple versus the more pink? I don't know. I'm not sure.

Like more of a lavender? Let me. Just the one on the left. Yep, I think that one's more expensive. I agree. You do? Okay. I could tell it does the material look like higher-end suede or something?

That's what it feels like. Okay, all right, here's the reveal. You're incorrect. You're incorrect. You are correct. Annie is more expensive today. Her outfit's over $3,000. We were right.

We were right, George. We were right. Okay, so I'm zooming in here. Way to spot texture of outfits. And there was something about the design that just looked like a little different, not your run of the mill. They do look similar. I'll give them that. 3,600 pounds?

That's crazy. So much. 36, 16 pounds. I know it's fairly close, but let's just see. That's $4,800. U.S.D. $4,800. Yep.

Good night. Versus what? Like, 300 something? 200 something? 200, yeah. Which is probably like 300 bucks, USD somewhere. Yeah, yeah. That's crazy.

So what I'm learning is nobody cares. No. Who's walking down the street going, oh, wow. Stitching. Let me look at the stitching. If you're that close, you're a creep. And if your friends care about that, getting friends. Wow.

So we were right. All right, the next one, George, is she did this lady did her makeup. Half of her face is drugstore makeup. Okay. So think like L'Oreal, Mabelin, yeah, yeah. The other side, like YSL Chanel, like very nice. Oh, higher-end. Designer, designer makeup.

Okay, so not necessarily generic brand, but just a lower-tier brand. That's right. That you'd get at like a CVS or a Walgreens. Okay, it looks very similar. I mean, she did a fabulous. job. Is she a makeup artist or are all women makeup artists? I mean, it's like a subway sandwich artist. Like, I've made a sandwich. I'm capable. I mean, it literally looks the same. I'm not seeing much. The only thing I'm noticing different is a little slightly different color. Yeah,

the purple, a little more pink versus orange shoes. I'm with you. But her lips are literally the same. Oh, the lips too. I didn't think about that. There's some wizardry here. Okay, I'm with you, George. The only big difference. Which one is drugstore? Which one is high end? I'm going to say drugstore's left. High end's right. I'll go with you on that.

Okay. So high end is on the left side. Drugstore is on the right. What? For real? We got it wrong, George. You're not Josh and me? Nope.

I was looking at mascara too. Is any of them a little clumpier than the other? Yeah, her middle eyelashes is in the bottom, a little clumpier on the right. So that may be drugstore. You see? Oh, I missed the clubs. They're together a little bit more. for the clumps. Okay. All right. You know what though? Doop. Got us off guard.

What are your feelings on dupe for makeup? I'm great with it. Do you have your go-to brands or are you like, no, I know this one? How do you even get into it? Do you all influencers? Because how do you know what's... My foundation came from Instagram. I kept seeing this brand. It's like ILM something, something. I don't even know. Okay. But it's called Wake Up Like This. And I thought that's a great marketing foundation name. But I love it. It's the one I've used. It's supposed to look more natural. And then I do wear Mac for camera.

Mm-hmm. Because it's been around for freaking like ever. And it does show the best on camera. But all my mascara is like thrive. I'll do drugstore mascara. Yeah, I'm not like a... You don't have allegiance to one brand. Now, NARS is great too.

Oh, I've heard of NARS. That's middle of the road, I would say. You're not quite like on the Chanel level there. But Nars is nice. I like Nars because it always sounds Australian. Nars. Nars. Nars.

Arnars. I like that. So, yeah, I'm a middle of the road gal. I think is what I would say about all that. Well, I found out some fun facts here. Loreal owns Mabeline, Nix, Urban Decay, Lancombe, YSL, and It Cosmetics. Okay. So you think in your head...

Oh, Urban Decays, luxury... No, it's just the same company. Different marketing. Different marketing. That's crazy. Estée Lauder? Is that how I say it? Yep.

I don't want to offend Esté. No. You guys. Owns Bobby Brown, Mac, Klinique, Smashbox, and Tom Ford Beauty. Mm-hmm. That's wild. So a lot of these brands are made in the same factory, same packaging as what you can find in your local drugstore. That's pretty wild. And under just that same umbrella, so you think about the marketing, you think about it all, and it's all coming from. It's all a scam. One ownership, for sure. I mean, each of those brands are run individually, too. Yeah. But the mothership of it all. They own it all. So if you see two, it's like a false choice in the store. That's what bothers me.

Yeah. You think you have a choice. You don't. It's all the same. Yeah, you don't know. It's all the same. Which product from P&G do you want today? That's right.

All right, this next one, it's apparently a viral robe pajama pattern sold by a European influencer. Matilda, Dierf. I don't know what DJERF sounds, but it sounds very like Norwegian. Dhrf. I don't know. Finnish maybe. But it's priced over $100 and remains sold out online for literally years. Until cheaper brands learn how to learn how to.

Copy the design. Let's check it out. That's the dupe for one or number two. On the bottom is probably... Okay. Check it out. Take a good look. Take a gander.

Which one is the dupe? I mean, from the way the pictures are, you would think the first number one is the real in the second because it's like lifestyle, but I'm going to switch it. I'm going to say number two is the real. You think it's a ruse? Yeah. I think they're pulling a fast one on us, George.

I'm going to say number two is the real one. All right. I'll go number one's the real one? Just to be different. That's what the obvious says. Just to be different. Probably. The original and that one is the dupe.

So you think number one is the dupe? Probably. Am I round? You're correct. How much do you think each of them are? Oh my God. It's going to be something horrific. I'm going to say what I want them to be.

Yeah, yeah. I want that one to be like 40 and that one to be like 20 max. The dupe is 22 pounds. Wow. Wow. Wow. And the real one is 110 pounds. All right.

Wow. $100 difference. I love her accent. I think you just. just if you're European, you get a pass. Like, everything's more interesting. You just sound classy. You just sound classy. It's not fair.

Can you imagine if I had a British accent? What if you were just talking to me and smart money happy? The instant riz if I had a classy British accent. Not a, you know, some British accents, rough. Yeah, no, but the classy, the Kate Middleton one. Yeah. That's just so. That's the accent you went with.

That's the example. So dainty. So dainty. So dainty. Yeah, so elegant Love it Love it We love an elegant

I know Okay All right So that's the point though That you can Now the quality I'm gonna be honest You'll have a quality difference

Hard to tell Just based on the look Yeah now some dupes Like if you look at Lula Lemon like yoga pants And that kind of thing Someone's on Amazon Have very much the same percentage

of material similar too So like sometimes it's not always Sometimes you will get more quality sometimes not always. Which that's a hack. If you see the ingredient list, you see the material it's made of, check both. That's right. And see if it's close.

Okay, now you mentioned this earlier, but medicine. This one is the biggest scam of all time. Generic versus name brand. And I'm a name brander. I don't know why. In your head, it's better. Tylenol advil. I'm going to buy Tylenol advil.

Be honest because you're scared that it says a sydimenophon? A sedimentifine. You're scared to grab that box. It's just too big of a word. Sedentine. Well, I'm just like, do I, can I trust them? I don't know why I can trust Tylenol, but I can't trust that, I don't know, that brand. Wow.

So you think Advil technically has higher quality ibuprofenic. I do. It's what my subconscious says. Well, stick with what you know, Rachel. Stick with what you know. Do you go off brands for medicine? 100%. Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes, I'm trying to think if there's one. Like Benadryl? I know the name brand is slightly better. Okay. Well, what would that be? No, Benadryl, for sure, go generic brand. Oh, man, really?

Yeah. Makes me so nervous. Neosporin? It's just an anihistamine. Neosporan is no better than a different brand to me. Okay, all right, because those are my go-to. Now, Band-Aid brand or off-brand? Oh. You know what?

I only own Band-Aid brand, but I don't think it's on purpose. It just happens. They just have market share. I bought Band-Aids 17 years ago, still have them. Does Mia not go through Band-Aids? My kids go through so... Not for fun. Like injury-based?

Yeah, and just like they just would put band-aids on it. Like, we went through so many band-aids. Wow. Is that true? Amelia's in the room. I want to just get verification. Yeah. My sister used it for her stuffed animal when it ripped.

And then I had this like glass elephant thing that I got from Hobby Lobby, and it's leg broke. So I used a band-aid to put it back. Wow. Okay. So we use it like tape. It's basically what we do in our house. I was like, how injured are your children getting on a regular basis?

You ever see kids, though, that are constantly covered in band-aids? and you're like, are they hurting you? No, I think that means you're being a child and you're outside and playing and not playing video games. People can get hurt playing video games. Carpal tunnel is a real condition, Rachel. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. Gosh.

Okay, yeah, the medicine thing, I know. But yeah, growing up, I feel like in the house, we had name brand Advil. Yes, growing up, yeah. And then as time went on, I think generic brands kind of got more popular. Yeah, because the 90s, the Dube thing wasn't big in the 90s. It was. I mean, we, like, did burnt CDs and fake-ups.

Not that I ever did. You didn't do either of those. No. If I had to guess, you didn't know how to burn a CD. I, oh no, I burn CDs all the time. And I got so many viruses on our home computer because of it. I downloaded lime wire. Yep.

And oh my gosh, it would be like virus and dad would be so mad at it. He's like, stop putting viruses on our computer. And I'm like, sorry, I just wanted to listen to vitamin C graduation song again. You know what I mean? Illeguily. That was a bomb. Well, the longer the file name, the more you're like, this is probably a virus. So sketchy.

They just kept adding to the file name. No, but like Lincoln Park. I don't know. I can go through probably all the bands that I, like, illegally downloaded. Wow. I know. It's so bad. How did we all just do that and never have any ethical issue with it?

It was because we were like, this is the entire industry is a scam. Well, in my head, I'm like, they, I bought so many Mariah Carey CDs that I deserve, like, some free songs. You deserve to rip it. Some free songs, yeah. That's fair. Not good, though, people. Not good. And I also did Chinatown fake designer purses too.

Oh, yeah. That's become a thing people are intentionally. They want to have the Chinatown experience. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. I've heard it's an event. Yeah, you go like behind like a door.

You're like going to a van and they take you down some stairs. We did that. Yes. Yes. And that was back when I was in. That was like 20 years ago. And my mom was like, all right, it's a good deal. Let's go.

Oh, with my mom. That's amazing. Full on. Yep. Ripped it. So sad. All right. I needed a whole episode.

Me and Chair in New York City, Chinatown fake bag experience. I know. I know. She's haggling in a basement somewhere. That was more of our stuff. It's like you just, I don't know,

it wasn't as classy as the dupes today, I would say. Don't you think? Yeah. I think we've come a long way in the dupe world, and I think there's more ethics now involved. Yes, for sure.

Wow. Do you have any iconic dupe wins in your own life? Things you're like, man, I got this. It's not the name brand, but it does the job as good, if not better. But it's great.

I think Amazon has conquered that. Because every brand I get on Amazon, it's a name I cannot pronounce. Yes, yeah. It's a lot of, I'd say a lot of my athleisure and stuff is Amazon. I feel like they are probably knocking off some Lulu, some Allo, if you will. I did this yesterday. I was looking for a spray mop, like a little, you know, almost like a Swiffer. And instead of going with that brand, Swiffer, O. Cedar, I just found a generic one that was,

cheaper. That was great. There you go. And it's shipped the same day. You know, that's, I don't know how they do it. Where's it coming from? We don't know. They've all of these items in a single warehouse.

That's crazy. That's what all, isn't that wild to think that I need this random shirt that's in this crazy blue color? And I'm like, shirt be there at three o'clock. Do you ever feel bad when they deliver it and you see them? Like you have an interaction with the delivery guy. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

I know. Because it's his fourth time coming by that day. You feel bad. They're like, they're stacked on the front porch. I know. But I apologize once. And he said, oh, don't apologize. I'm employed thanks to you.

Yeah. I went, you know what? You should be thanking me. I take it back. I take it back. You're welcome. You're welcome. That's good.

Well, someone on our team in the content meeting for this episode, they reverse image searched, an $1,800 set of leather chairs, found them for $600, a version of them for $600 at Home Depot. Oh, my gosh. Half off. Yeah. Over, I mean, a third. That's pretty crazy.

Amazing. Oh, yeah. And I've done this with furniture in our own house. is I'll do the reverse image search. I never have done that. Whitney has this amazing thing. You probably experienced this too. Whatever the thing she finds,

she doesn't know the price, but she happens to find the most expensive version of that thing. The lamp or the rug. So then my job is to find a dupe that will satisfy... That will look like it. Yeah, her taste.

You know what? That's fair. It's a fun game. So we did find that. World Market had some chairs for a living room that were just like the ones that we saw that were 10 times the cost. of somewhere else.

Yeah, a couple hundred bucks at World Market, thousands. And you found it because you searched, you did the reverse image. Yeah. So you knew it was at World Market. What's done, George. Man.

Who said, I have no skills. I didn't call you more. That would be a fun game. You call me, I'll help you find the dupe. I know. Why don't I do this more? Does Winston enjoy that or not really?

Yeah, he likes finding cheaper. Yes, I'd say cheaper items. And he's okay with it too. He's like, oh, yeah, this is great. He's a man of simplicity. Yeah. He likes to save the pennies, if you know what I mean. Well, you know, the fact that you're on the internet so much, George,

looking at those dual images. You got to make sure. Got to make sure that your information is protected. And that's why delete me so big for today in 2020. It gives me confidence when I'm online, entering all those forms, buying stuff, because they scour all these data broker sites who somehow have your information

who are about to package it and sell it to scammers and spammers. They remove it. And they do that all year long behind them. the scenes. Team of real people. Real data privacy experts. Going in there. Doing it all.

It's not just like AI doing its best. Real people are doing this. You can even submit your own if you find it somewhere. You can just send them the link. And a real person handles it and sends you updates. It's great. They have a customer report. They'll send you every couple months showing you where they removed it, how much time they saved you.

And it just gives me a little more peace when I'm on the internet, which is always. So you can get 20% off an annual plan. If you go to join delete me. dot com slash smart money we will leave a link so make sure to click on it and yeah get this ASAP you guys so important taking control of your privacy so important all right so people love to throw shade on my my Kirkland way of life if you will do they yeah i don't know why you know i was on the show with uh Dave hosting ramsay show last week he meant and we were talking about at funeral someone called about a funeral Dave was like Costco has has caskets and I said did you learn that from

George Camel because you, you're making an impact, George. I taught Dave Ramsey something. Whether you like it or not, you're making an impact. Do you think Dave would ever change in life? Change in life. By a Costco casket? No, I don't think so. Does he have specific, like, wishes for that? I know you guys have the like annual family planning

meetings. Yeah. You know, for the funeral itself, not really. Isn't that funny? Everything else is taken care of but that. Wow. Yeah. He's very much the mindset of we'll be dead anyway. Who cares? Kind of feeling. You know what I mean? He's like, I don't. He's like, I don't. He's like, I don't. Who cares who's on the invite list?

Yeah, like, I mean, I'm going, I'm going, you know. Wow. I think he doesn't care about that as much. I just thought, I know he likes, you know, to have as much control as he can, control the controllables. And who's on the invite list for the funeral, what the food is, what the music is, who's doing the eulogy? I know, not as picky. Okay. Yeah.

Do you have that stuff right now? I haven't thought about it. I haven't written out explicitly, but I think about it a lot. It's all up here. Really? Well, get it out before that shuts down, George. Well, people have ideas and go, ooh, that's a good idea. I want to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Okay. I like a color-themed. Oh. Celebrational life. What does that mean? Everybody wear blue and black or something.

I don't know. And it's like everyone's color coordinated. Wow. Okay. Are you thinking of the Backstreet Boys album? Yeah. That is a Backstreet Boys album. Blue and Black.

Oh, no. Are they so in my subconscious of my funeral? Also, traditionally people tend to wear black. Black and blue. What is there? No. They wear dark colors at funerals. That sounds like a bruise.

Black and blue. They have a different album. The album is blue and black. Blue and black. Someone Google it. I thought it was black and blue. That just sounds better. Black and blue.

Who's right? I got it. I got my phone right here. Who's right? Black and blue. Neither of us. Black and blue. Black and blue?

That just feels like a bruise. I don't know why that feels not great. It is. Looky here. All right. I know my backstreet. Hey, will you please have everyone wear those colors? At yours?

Yeah, kind of like a blue. and white, though. Why are you putting me in charge? I don't know. Why am I responsible? I'll text my husband. I'm going to be busy grieving your law. I can't also plan it. I'm too close. Okay. Okay, but we're putting you in a Kirkland casket, George. We know that. We know that for sure. Yeah, but as of August 2025, Kirkland generated $90 billion in annual sales across their groceries, household goods, clothing, electronics, with total sales around $270,000, billion the brand accounts for about a third of Costco's total sales.

I wonder how much of that I can account for. I think it's great. I've rarely, with one exception, everything I've tried from Kirkland's signature is great. I think I'm going to say the same. Or I'm thinking maybe more Amazon, not Kirkland, but batteries. Oh. Well, for a while, like Durracell was making Costco's batteries. You don't get as great of a time.

You've noticed that? Yes. I think, but maybe I'm thinking Amazon batteries. You don't seem like the kind of person who's like tracking battery usage. No offense. I know. I just feel like when we put them in remotes and stuff, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like, this dies so quickly.

You have to change it and it's always like the Kirkland battery. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. I imagine Winston's the battery change her in the house. Hey, I know how to change batteries, George. It's not a matter of knowing how. Do you think I am the head helpless that if I'm home and the remote didn't work? And I'm like, oh my gosh, your name my husband to come in and change my batteries.

Plus and minus, what does this mean? I don't know. I guess I have to wait for my husband to come. I can change. change batteries, George. Again, it's not that you can't. It's not that you're damsel in distress. It's just that you'd be like,

I'm not going to watch TV right now. Winston can deal with it. Work ethic is basically what he's questioning. My effort level. That is strong. Can I give you a fun fact about Kirkland though? When Kirkland, which is Costco's in-house brand, they drop a version of a high-end product,

sometimes the original product then has to drop its prices to stay competitive. Because it's so popular to Kirkland. Think about it. Costco comes out. with their own version of Lulu's. Well, the Lulu's are 70. Costco's selling it for 35. So Lulu goes, all right,

we've got to drop the price down to 45 or 50 just to stay competitive. Because they feel it, obviously, in the revenues. So Costco's doing the Lord's work, is what I'm trying to say. Now, one thing I will not get a dupe of, cozy earth. 100%. It can't be replicated. No, you've got to get the real thing

because it feels so great. I'm thinking about the pajamas, my robes. I got two ropes from Cozy Earth, by the way. Oh. Yes. You got the kimono. I did like a bamboo kimono, and then I did like a big terry cloth one that I wore this morning.

It's wonderful. I love it. Our sheets. I mean, so the athlete you wear all of it. The bath towels, you use that today? Oh, not great. The bath sheets, even bigger. Oh, that's the one I have.

So good. I mean, I'm a small guy, so it's not hard to, like, cover me totally in it. But I'm cocooned. Coquoned with that beach. I love a bath sheet. Yes. But yeah, Cozy Earth is amazing. and their products really are quality,

and it is worth the price for sure. Well, the other thing we didn't talk about with dupes is sometimes the name brand just has better service. They stand by their products, and this goes for Cozy Earth for sure. It's a risk-free purchase. You get 100-night sleep trial with their betting, 10-year warranty.

That's pretty impressive. Amazing. Absolutely incredible. So whether it's for you or someone you love, give the gift of everyday luxury, go to cozyearth.com slash smart money, and you can get up to 20% off. All right, next up, George. Grocery edition.

Now we're talking. One hill that I would die on is Honeynut Cheerios. They have a hill. Not going, yeah, that little bumblebee. You will not buy generic brand Honey Nut Cheerios. That is where I draw the line when it comes to cereal. You can tell a difference. Well, I've bought in some, like, healthy dopes that are clearly trying to be Honeynut Cheerios.

Definitely not. Can I drop the name of one brand that I just tried? I think it's called Seven Sundays. They make a lot of, like, sort of healthier cereal. Cereals. Wow, it sounds so magical. And it was the most flavorless, tough little cheerio I've ever experienced. So terrible. Why even eat? Yeah. I lost my appetite. Yeah. I'd to pour honey on top of it. Oh my gosh. You had to like do the work. Just to make it edible. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Where's the honey? There were just nut churrios. Where's the honey? Okay. So our team put together

a lot of food that we're going to, we're going to taste test, George, if we can find the dupe. So the name brands versus the generic brand if we can tell a difference. Okay, I'm excited about this. Another competition. All right, so first up of those, yeah, frosted flakes. So we're trying to figure out which one is the real frosted flakes. Oh my gosh, these are so good. I have frosted flakes in yours.

Okay. Very good. Not bad. Okay. Now let's test the other one out. Next up. Oh, that's Frosted Flakes. 1,000%.

Wait, really? Yeah. I was going to say opposite, George. These are so thin. That's why I think frosted flakes are thinner than you remember. The crunch on them. That one had a tougher crunch. Very different texture.

Flavor, very similar. You know what I realize? Frosted flakes kind of tastes like a rice crispy treat. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to go with my gut, George, on this one. I may be different than you. All right. You're thinking the first one is the real Tony the Tiger.

Man, maybe you are right. Maybe they are thinner. You don't have to agree with me. You're such an influencer. I'm going with you. I do think, okay, I think,

first one. Number two is the real frosted. Number two is real frosted. Correct. Oh my gosh. You know what I took me back to? And I'm like five years old with a bowl of frosted flakes.

Oh, yeah. And you can just chew them so fast. And they go soggy pretty quick. Yes, you got to go fast. So I did context clues. Yep. All right. Wow, that brought me back.

With ice cold milk, let's go. Should we have more frosted flakes in our life? Yeah, can you, Do you have a tiny amount of milk you can pour into these? I know. Just a little. All right.

We're doing pretty good. Yep. All right. Next step, we're going to do Lays potato chips. Here we go. Lace potato chip. We got the ridged edition, which is a good one. No.

I love potato chip too. Something is wildly off about this. A little stale. But aren't they a new bag? They're new. How are they stale? I know, but the texture's a little stale. Agreed.

It's a little extra. The crunch is not as deep as I want it to be. I don't think it's stale. I just think it's a mealier, Yeah, but the texture is stale-ish. All right. Next one. Oh.

Crunch. This is like anti-ASMR right now, if you're listening at home. You got to watch this one. It's at least a little more enjoyable. Sorry. Sorry, everyone. Two is real. Yep.

That's correct. I also notice a little more salt content on the second one. Yeah. Frost of Flakes, you go either way. I wouldn't skip out on the potato chip. You got to go real. Way to go, Lays. Lays nose.

Way to make a brand. I love a chip. Were you a Lay's family growing up? Mm-hmm. Were you classic yellow bag Lays? Yeah. But I also love the baked ones now. Oh, yeah.

So good. I like the barbecue ones and salt and vinegar. You mean some salt and viney's? I miss Vicki's salt and vinegar. Oh, those really hit. Amazing. I do like kettle cooked. All right.

Next up, we're going to go sweet here. We're going to go Reese's cups versus Trader Joe's peanut butter cups. Okay. Can I tell you who the most annoying person is? The person says, you know it's not Reese's, right? It's Reese's. Wait, what? Yeah, Reese's Pieces.

Rees. It's not Reese's Pieces Pieces. Rees pieces. Rees. But then every time I say, can you hand me the old Reese's? I like Reese's. I'm keeping my pronunciation. Okay, looking at it, I know. We know.

Are we mad about it? We're not mad about it. Well, I think the dupe is dark chocolate, to be fair, which I prefer anyways. Can I say the Trader Joe's, these are. to die for. Are these the Trader Joe's ones? Yeah, the dark ones are. Okay, because I can already tell.

Yeah, and it's got this, you see this on top. A little. Oh, you're right. It's not smooth. All right. That's really good. I don't like sugar as much as salt. Oh, you're salty.

I think I prefer, though. Just a standard Reese's cup. Well, milk chocolate tends to be a little softer. I'm curious how it'll hold up. Oh. Oh. No. Five second rule.

face down. Here. It's fine. Oh, wow. It's so good. The textures. I'm going milk chocolate. I'm going Reese's.

Sorry, Trader Joe's. All right, that for sure was the Reese's. Which one do you like better? I want dark. Okay. It's a little gummier. I get stuck to my teeth more. I know.

Isn't it great? That's how you get cavities. Can't risk it. If you brush and use your electric tooth brush. Wow. Okay. So we're three for three so far. Yeah.

All right. Next up is sweetest fish versus smart sweets. Oh, this one's going to be an easy tell. I want to hold both up just for a comparison here. Oh, yeah. You can really tell. I am not a sweetest... You hold it up to the light.

Uh-huh. Ooh. Oh, shoot. It says it on it. George, we just cheated. They, why would they put the name on it? They put the name on the candy. They're so proud of their brand.

I will say Swedish fish is like... These are difficult to eat. eat. Oh. I don't like this kind of stuff. Oh, she's spitting it out. I just took a bite. It's like a gummy bear.

It's so difficult to... I'm not a sweetish shrimp. All right, try the dupe. It's like wax. I can't even spit that out. It's all disintegrated in my mouth. I much prefer the dupe, though. I kind of like the dupe better.

Wow. It's got a sharp sweetness to it. You ready for this? You're going for it. Going for another bite. Entire bag. Entire bag. Entire bag is three grams of sugar.

But also those bags have like 98% fiber, so be careful. You're just saying words. I'm not like knowing. Have you ever looked at the back just to see? Mostly for protein or calories, I'm guessing. No. Less so for sodium fiber. If I'm like going for protein and I'm eating something, it's not like chicken breast,

I need it to tell me on the front. 20 grams of protein, 40 grams, I'm like, there we go. I don't need to. Wow. So you have eat protein bars? That are like shakes. Like fair life or something. Yeah. Okay.

All right. So we know which one is which and we actually like the dupe better. So there you go. I like the dupe better. Save your fiber. I forget how difficult Swedish fish are to just chew through. That was terrible. Like to the point that I spit it out.

Okay. Last but not least. Oh, we got a little drinky drink. We got a little cherry pop. This will be fun and a cherry Coke. I love a cherry Coke. We love a cherry Coke moment. Cannot wait.

Okay. All right. I think I know just by the color. Is that bad? Okay. Here we go. I get a little sippy sip. Which tells you something about the name brand cherry Coke.

What the heck is in it? All right. I took a sip of the dark one. It's not great. Okay, I know. Okay. And for what it is, I appreciate a lollipop for what it is. Ollipop.

Oh, yeah. I was like, we're not eating lollipops. I mean, I'm assuming Ollipop Cherry Coke. Yeah. 100%. Now, this dupe is more expensive. Let me call that out. Olipop is a, it's a luxury tea.

But more. Okay. They know they're worth. They're charging, you know, two bucks a can out here. Coke, though, I'm not mad at the syrupyness. It's thick. Yeah. Which I'm not mad at. When I moved to the South, I found out about diet sodas.

Yes. And then I started drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. I mean you moved to the South and found out about diet. Well, in Boston, we didn't have, like, I didn't grow up drinking diet sodas. I think it was bigger in the South. Oh, really? Yeah, we had fresco, which is technically a diet soda. Oh, I love a Fresca.

We had fresca and V8s at the Camel House. Okay. live in large. You were living big, yeah. But I just think the diet ones don't have the syruppiness, and I appreciate that. I think Olipop has the better flavor and consistency. I kind of do too. I kind of do too. All right.

Where you go, Oli Pop? Yeah, more expensive, though. But save your money on the Swedish fish. Again, smart sweets, wildly more expensive than Swedish fish, but you get to which. They are? Yeah. Oh, shoot. Never mind. We're making the people spend more money, George.

But here's the thing. Oli pops and... We live in a very health-forward culture. And so you got to know. You know what you're putting in your body, look at the ingredients list, and go for the lower sugar, cleaner. That's just where we are in today's society. You know. So I appreciate it.

They got to charge more for that. I'm mad at it. The less ingredients, the more you charge. That's just kind of how it works in America. You notice that? Isn't that funny? Yeah, the most processed foods have 48 ingredients. 100%, which not ideal.

Definitely not. But, you know, science will study our bodies to figure out what happened. Well, you know, we saw the point. positive and negatives of the dupes, you know? Yeah. Like some of it's like, yeah. I'm not anti-name brand, but I'm always curious, hey, is there a generic brand where I can save money and still get the same exact result?

Yes, yes. That's the thing to think through. Any horror stories that you heard? Horror dup stories. I mean, it's tough to say in the food world where it's just like you try, want you like, well, that was rough. Not good, yeah. Whatever it is, the store brand version of that thing does not hold up.

Yes. That's where I think it happens the most. Mm-hmm. And so food, I do think if you love that brand, you can always try the generic brand, you'll probably come running back for that name brand you know and love. I know, like a mustard for instance. You know, that has a specific taste. It's what I like. A rants dressing.

You know what I mean? Like there are certain. Oh, yeah. Are you a Hidden Valley girl? I am. I'm not as picky with ranch. I do find homemade ranch, though. That's a game changer.

Oh, wow. You can taste a difference. I didn't know you could make it at home. Oh, yeah. Homemade ranch? Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't. But I've had it before.

thing is to find out what's in it. And you're like, this is so good. And they're always like, yeah, we make it in house. And you're like, I can tell. I can tell. I want to know what the heck is in ranch now. Yeah, got some dill in there. I think it's mayonnaise-based ranch.

Buttermilk. I don't know. I'm making up ingredients now. Sure. There's buttermilk. That's a flavor of ranch. Maybe that's why I subconsciously, yeah. But it is always interesting to see the marketing.

When you walk into a store, where's the name brand in place? Do they have the whole N-cap? Is the generic brand sort of tucked away? Yes. Compare the prices. Go like, what's the price per unit or per ounce? And if it's wildly different, it's worth checking out the generic brand. At least to try it, yeah. Give it a go. But also I would say dupes when it comes to financial advice, George, I wouldn't go the dupe route. You got to go the real deal. I'd go the tried and true route when it comes to your money. So, yeah, don't try to have shortcuts. Think, oh, I'll just do this cheaper here and it's fine. Like, make sure that what you're doing with your money, especially your habits, those are building blocks for.

for your life. And so any shortcuts usually don't take you where you want to go financially. So you think about it's your long-term investing, living on a budget, living on less than you make. It's kind of the old-school way of living with money overall. It's the way to do it. And you talk a lot about it in your book, Breaking Free from Broke. Oh, yeah. Well, I say in the book, if you follow the trends, you'll fall for the traps. And I talk about the marketing and how it affects us psychologically. I have a whole chapter called Spending a Self-control, where I walk through all of that. So check it out. We'll drop a link in the description. to breaking free from broke so that you're confident your purchases next time you go out. Yeah, so you know what you're doing. Yeah.

Yeah, and also where you keep your money, you don't want that to be a dupe either. And some of these banks are just like... Sketchy banks. Not good. The flavor, not good. Well, sometimes you go, like, oh, they have a high APY in their savings account, but I've never even heard of them. You're like, well, if it's just a sketchy thing you saw online, maybe don't put your money there.

Yeah, don't do that, yes. But putting your money with someone you trust, like Fairwin's Credit Union, is worth it. So fair ones is amazing. You can open up a smart bundle so you have a no fee checking account, up to 10 high yield savings accounts, and the debt as normal, be weird blue Ramsey debit card, which I love. I love it. And they've been around for decades. That's one way to spot a dupe. If they just popped up out of nowhere, that's when your spidey senses should go off. So these are good people. They want you to win with money. They're huge fans of us here at Ramsey. They want their own team to become debt-free, and the product is wonderful. So go check out that smart bundle.

Just go to fairwins.org slash Ramsey. Yep, so make sure to check it out. We love it and use it, and so it is worth it. So again, fair ones.org slash Ramsey. All right, before we spill the tea on our guiltiest charge segment, George, let's share the details. This was a strawberry kiwi smash. I'm trying to figure out a rating that feels fair here. I know, y'all. I might be a three on this one. I'm sorry. Yeah, I might go too. I might go too. I can't. I'm not trying to dog the person who made the drink because they're in the room. No. But you know what?

I'm not getting flavor out of it. It's too light. I want a little more punch. Can I say a smash? I don't need food in my mouth when I'm drinking. I'm getting some strawberry mush and I'm like, not what I want. A muddled strawberry isn't doing it for you? Not what I want.

Again, not the person, not the muddler. She doesn't like a, I'm going to call it floaters. The ingredients. Also, is there a bug in there? It might be a spectrum of a key. That's a seed. That's a seed. Oh, that's a seed.

Oh, that's a seed. A fruit fly. Fruit fly and seaweed. Or, guy, my fruit flying, kiwi seed. It tastes a season. Seafood, kiwi seed. Yeah. I mean, here's what's in it.

Vodka, Kiwi, strawberries, lime juice, simple syrup, club soda. I mean, that sounds good. In theory, it should be good. Yeah, we're going low on this one. But I think it needs a little bit more punch with the fruit and maybe a little bit sweeter. And maybe strained.

It almost tastes like a mock. Yes. I'm not really getting much of any of the ingredients. So it comes out to $1.32. If you want to make it at home and perfect it, let us know what the new recipe is. We'll try it on a future episode. How's that? Love it. Get the recipe and the show notes. All right, now it's time for guilty as charged. And this is where we ask each other a guilty's charge question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip. All right, George, have you ever bought a dupe that totally backfired? Oh, man. Oh. The most famous one was for my wife. She wants a designer purse. Yeah. She's wanted one for years. Sure. We'll eventually pull the trigger.

But in the meantime, I went, hey, I found this one at Walmart. And it's a dupe. It's clearly a dupe. They're not trying to fake it. But it looks just like the Louis Vuitton purse, like the white and brown checker. You know that one? What it's called? You probably know the name.

No, I don't. But I know what you're talking about. In online, it was like that is, that's, you could have fooled me. Did it look so cheap when it arrived? Until it arrived. It was like I got catfished. Oh, no. It was so clearly fake.

The leather looked terrible. Obviously, it wasn't real leather. The stitching was off, and it was an immediate return. Oh, man. So I had to go back to Walmart, go to the customer service desk. Say, here, tried to get this dup, but I won't, can't pull it against Whitney. She's going to be like, no. Whitney's no fool.

She knows. She knows. Now I have to get her a real designer purse one day. Yeah. Okay, so I bought, which I didn't know it was a dupe. So this may not be a true, this may not fit the story for the guilty charge. But back, this would have been, man, 2011, I'm going to say.

When Torrey Burr, if you remember, you may not. When Tori Birch had her flat ballerina shoes with the big silver Tori Birch symbol on the front, on the top. Those were like really big, like 2011-ish. Well, they were, I mean, those were like, what? $150, $200, I guess, I don't know, I can't remember, but like, they're nice shoes. Maybe even more. But I was like, oh my gosh, I could, yeah, I couldn't, I wasn't going to spend that kind of money. And so I found online, it was like sale. And I was like, oh my gosh. So maybe this is more of a scam story.

But I clicked on it and I bought like six pairs for a hundred bucks or something. And I thought, I got a deal of a lifetime. I mean, this is unbelievable. They take for, it took like three or four months to get to me. Now listen, I don't mean to be putting what I don't, I'm not trying to offend anybody. Don't offend the scammers. But the label was all in Chinese. Yep. On the package, on my box.

And this is before Amazon. This is before you ordered stuff from China, like on Amazon where you knew like, oh, yeah, this is totally. This is before all that world, y'all. You're used to saying, like, the name brand on there. Yes, and I thought it was going to be a beautiful box. You know, when you buy, like, something like a brand like that, the packaging. That's what you're paying for.

Well, so I open it and I will say, it smelled terrible. Like chemical smell? It had like a smell to it. And then the shoe, like, you could hit. It was like a brick. It wasn't even like a real shoe. Anyways, I guess that's more of a scam. But that was terrible.

So I had a throw them away. And I was like, I can't even wear these. So terrible. I know. Did you contact them? It was sad. I think I tried, but I think the email address was like all these, like, letters and stuff. You know what I mean?

So, yeah. I want to know what website this was. Yeah. But I think it said, like, sale, Tori Birch. I think, look at me. Like a good deal. An ad? I don't remember.

This was like over. 10 years ago, 15 years ago. But anyways, that was a bad dupe. I'm so sorry. Not good. It's fine. Apparently, it still affects me, the fact that I remember it. That's trauma.

It was. They were like not real shoes. I was like, this is so bad, so wrong. Bless it. Yeah, so maybe, I don't know. But that was unintentional duping. Sometimes you dupe yourself. That's the truth.

Wow. Well, if you have a guilty of charge question for us, make sure to DM us at Rachel Cruz and at George Camel. We love them, we see them, we screenshot them, and send them to our producer, Jenna. So we appreciate you. Now, if you love this episode, you're going to love our episode.

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