Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Out With the New, In With the Old: Money and Lifestyle Trends

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

💵 Have a money question? Ask Ramsey is here to help. If you love 90s nostalgia (or you just hate change), you’re in luck! Apparently, right now it’s trendy to do life the old-school way—and when it comes to your money, we 100% agree.Next Steps: 🎙️ Catch our episode Weird Money Habits That Will Make You Rich. 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour 📱 Submit a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George! Leave us a voicemail with your question at 877-306-1517 or 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.  💵 Create a free budget and find more margin with EveryDollar.   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: 🍹 Dr. Pepper Margarita      Recipe by Lauren Milovich (@thats.thespirits): 1 1/2 ounces tequila 1/2 ounce orange liqueur 3/4 ounce lime juice 1/2 ounce cinnamon syrup 1 ounce Dr Pepper  Instructions: Rim a glass with cinnamon sugar and set aside. To a cocktail shaker, add tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice, cinnamon syrup and ice. Shake to combine. Strain over the rimmed glass filled with ice, and top with Dr Pepper. Garnish with a lime wheel and maraschino cherry.    Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love 90s nostalgia or you just hate change, you are in luck. Because the old school way of life is trending, and when it comes to your money, we 100% agree. 80s, 90s. Which feels like 20 years ago. But it ain't. We overparent in the physical world and underparent in the digital world. Throw them under the bus. I want to like it, though.

That's what's happening. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Campbell. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. You not cheers me. I just wanted to see what it was like. I didn't have the arm strength. I got excited. I went an extra 60. I told myself. I said, Rachel, make sure to reach. Go as far as you can go. Can you guys tell on camera, is that even 50%? Do what? No, no, no, no, go pack. I was going to go.

Whoa. I've never seen you this far in the shot. It's like a 3D movie. I'm like it's too close. Very much intentional. I don't always think during that time. And then friendship rejected. Cheers. This is great, though. Honestly, I was just so excited about the drink. I know. Well, this is the show where two friends who have to be money experts to talk about what you're talking about,

everything from pop culture, current events, and money. But first, and foremost, the drink. Very important, apparently. More important than our friendship, but it's fine. Well, it's such a fascinating drink. We're sipping on a Dr. Pepper Margarita. And it's exactly what you think it would be, and yet so much more and yet not enough.

It's a very confusing drink. We're going to give you our rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode. You don't want to miss that. Oh, I like it. Okay. George, I don't know if you know this. But society, everyone's kind of going back to the basics in life. It's kind of a trend happening right now.

Like Little House on the Prairie? How far back are we going? That's pretty far. Okay. Let's go back just like 80s, 90s. Okay. Which feels like 20 years ago. I know, but it ain't.

It's not. Is that not weird? Do you do that math, too? In my head, if someone's like 1980s, I'm like, Oh, 20 years ago. 40 years ago. 86 to 26 is 40 years. Is that not wild?

That's crazy. Which makes sense because we were both born in the 80s, and yet we know our ages and it still feels like it was more recent than that. Oh, very much so. So bizarre. So bizarre. But anyways. But yeah, everyone's kind of going back a little bit.

I mean, everything from housing styles, right, your interior design to clothing to even money habits. It's like people are kind of trending back, and I like it. I like it too. It's called Out With the New, In With the Old. I like the name. Switch it up. I saw a video that I think kind of helps sum it up.

Would you watch it with me? I would love to. And the people at home will make sure to put this clip up there. Here we go. I love when I get to pull my phone out during an episode. Oh, it's the best. It feels like I'm in class, and my teacher's like, you can pull out the phone. You can pull up the phone.

Okay, here we go. Let me see. Starting out strong with Open Concept Homes. Those are new. We're kicking them out. The outside world already feels like a stand. old asylum. We don't need our homeschooling that way. We want character. We want charm. We want cottage. We want vintage. We want colonial. We're bringing back old school health benefits. We're

not buying the new gadgets that are coming out. We're not buying the vibration plates. We're not buying all these things. Go outside. You have arms and legs at work. Go do some jumping jacks. Go do some cartwheels. Whatever you got to do. Get the sun in your face. Maybe take some protein, some fiber. We are not doing what all the new influencers are saying because our bank accounts say no. We're laughing now. We love this. We're not doing this new sensitivity. training. This new, my feelings matter more than reality. It doesn't. The new saying is suck it up, buttercut. We're going back to the old way. Now that's the 80s living. Speaking of that, we're out with modern therapy. We're done with the word therapy. We don't need it. We're going

back to the old way. We're getting in smaller villages. We're getting in stronger solid biblical churches. That's what we're getting. Out with the new, in with the old. We're done with AI. Oh. We're done with it. It's new. Maybe it can advance things, but here's my philosophy. It's not to be done, though, girl. I hate to say it to you. Something that doesn't have a soul should not be feeding our souls. All the breaking news, we're done with it.

We're out with it. We're going to get back in our small villages. We're going to know what's actually going on with our neighbors, with our small churches, with our community. We're going to invest there, and we're going to shut off the outside world. We weren't made to know everything. So say it with me. In with the old, out with the new. Wow.

It was a lot there. Well, we went from cottage living to to AI taking our souls, even though I don't like AI. I don't like the girl you talk to on your phone. Feeding my soul is not what I'm looking for from AI. I agree. I agree.

I'm not, but some people might be. Have you seen the robots that are being built that look like humans? Have you seen this? Are they accurate? Like they look like a human being? It's, I'm just telling you. Not like Elon's robots.

I do. I don't know who's they are. Like optimist. They don't look like. came up on my feed. I don't know, but she had like a face, like a real crazy. So I'm with, I'm with parts of this, 100%. Yeah. I do think, yes, we miss the neighbors, you know, and I've heard people talk about this. Like, you don't ask for rides anymore to the airport. You call an Uber. You don't, like, right, there's a level of like our souls. I think do die when you're like,

okay, I just want to like be with people. We don't want to be a burden. We don't want to annoy people. That's right. Yes. We want convenience over everything. Yes. So I think I think a lot of of that is true. I do think we can't hold everything. We're not supposed to know what's happening all over the globe at any moment. Like we can't. I don't think our, yeah, our anatomy can't hold that. Well, now you're hated if you don't care as much about I do about the thing that I'm angry about. That I think about. Yes, I know. I agree with that. I know. I know. But back to the housing thing, George. Yeah. Man. I've been seeing some aesthetics, though, that are beautiful. And it does. It looks like 90s homes again. Like you have your smaller rooms, cozy, dark.

darker colors, it's warm. I could do it. I could do it. You could. Yeah. All right, you heard it here first, folks. She's selling the house. They're moving to a little cottage. A little Renault. We went last weekend, and my wife loves, like, the vintage antique stuff.

Yes. And we bought some pieces that are, like, from, I don't know, a different time. Time. A different time. It's beautiful. You know, you smell it, and you go, yeah, that's a different time. So, like, a true antique. It does, like, it's not new, but looks antique.

No, they felt like it was worth the money. This is not like a... Antique... This is not like your Goodwill antiques. This is like... This is scoured across the globe. Yes. Antique Road Show?

Great show. Must have. I'm like, I think royalty must have owned this at one point. You're going to be charging these prices. Wait, can I ask? Yeah. Upwards of like more than 500? Yeah.

Over a thousand? Yeah. Oh my geez. Whitney, she has such good style. Whitney, his wife has such good style. But it is very tasteful. I bet. She deserves it.

So now we have this beautiful two antique lamps on this beautiful sort of bureau. Yes. I'll show you a picture. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. That's to say my wife is very much in with the old. With the old, yes. What do you think about like parenting styles, like where you would just go roam the neighborhood?

You wouldn't know where the kids are. I do miss that. And there was no phones. Like I'm almost shocked that my parents just let me. Like I would take a train. into downtown Boston, skate all day, and then I would just be back. How old? How old?

14? Really? Yeah. Yeah, that's intense. Public transportation. That's a wild one. For a 14-year-old, just to jump in there. And I mean, I probably maybe had my first little tiny flip phone.

Yeah. Where they could call. Or like you borrowed someone's. I mean, I remember going to pay phones and calling my family. For sure, absolutely. Simpler times. Simpler times. And now we need to track our kids at all times.

And they better be in before the sunsets. I will be that dad Why, I know Why are we like that? I think we know too much I think that's it too It's back to the knowing too much information We know too much

You know And your algorithm will scare you into Being like you shouldn't let your You're a terrible parent If you let your kids stay out I let my kids walk to school one day And because we're pretty close to our school And I posted it

Did I tell you the story? No Just on a story I think I was driving to work I was driving by them And there are three of them down And it's a full sidewalk Like kids bike and scoot

I mean it's a very like walkable area where we live, especially for elementary school. They're all in a remote forest. No, no. But in the shot, there was nobody, which I remember thinking, oh, okay, I'm gonna take a quick video of them

and that's so cute, it's just them. Anyways, I put it on my stories and I just said, like, oh my God, you know, them walking school. I don't even know what I said. I got more. Roasted? Yes.

How I'm negligent, how could you put your kids faces on social medias and let them be by themselves? Like, all this stuff. And I was like, okay, well, number one, if I had just panned the camera this way,

You would have seen 20 other people around walking to school and kids biking on their own, you know. But yeah. They thought this was going to be an episode of 60 minutes. I don't know, but I thought, oh, my gosh, we literally, we, that's it. We overparent in the physical world and underparent in the digital world. That is not my quote. That was from the anxious generation book.

I will not take that quote. That's a great quote. But yeah, people just throw their kids an iPad or an iPhone and they're like, here, good luck. But God forbid, you walk down to the neighbor's house and you're, You know what I mean? Like, no, no, no, it should be flipped. Well, this is perfectly into the next one. Treating processed foods like the sixth love language and forcing kids to finish every bite of it at dinner.

Yes, the Clean Plate Award. I don't remember looking at ingredients when we were young or our parents looking at ingredients. No, no. And some boxes, you can see the cereal boxes and it was like, well, it was simpler ingredients. I do wonder, is that true? But also, we ate like lard and Kool-Aid, and that was our meal. So I'm like, we ate toaster strudels all day. She would make sweet tea y'all every night for dinner in this, like, yellow.

Low pitcher. Old school sweet tea. I mean, sugar. I mean, and we would down sweet tea almost every night at dinner. But then you had to clean your plate. I were sitting there. And I didn't. And I'd sit there until like 8.30 because I was so stubborn. Like you're not getting up until, yes, you had to finish. I love that attitude. Do you? That's exhausting. I'm a clean plate club kind of guy. I don't put on more than on my plate than I know I can finish. Oh gosh, you would hate, this is why we can't double date, George. Because Rachel's like, I'll take all the apps.

I did, I ordered five appetizers when we went on, we went out with Winston's brother and his wife last weekend to a great Italian spot in Nashville. I mean, it was artichinis. I was like, I loved that camera. I loved that. And they had a pizza in the apps, which is like a, well, duh. That's a meal. You can't put that on the app. I don't care.

I ordered five appetizers. And Winston was like, but I was like, it's okay. It will have leftovers, you know, and we did because everything. and came out a lot, and I was like, maybe we shouldn't order dinner. Did you eat all the leftovers? No, George. No, I did not. You weren't excited about it the next day, were you? Who wants to see Calamori the next day?

That is a bold move. Sketchy. Sketchy. I'll give you that. So anyways, I would say, I am a classic. Eyes bigger than the stomach. Yeah. But it's so fun.

I just got roasted on Instagram because I posted gluten-free cheese hits. I was very excited. They were hard to find. Oh, I'm very happy for you. I finally got my hands on a box. Why'd they get mad? This lady replied. and said, wow, way to poison your body.

Maybe check the ingredients before you. And I was like, lady, listen. My gosh. Nobody's policing my snack choices except for me and maybe my wife. And you guys are healthy. And Whitney's very. I'm doing great. I just got my physical, all right?

You worry about your own self, lady. Anyway, she apologized after I called her out. No, she didn't. Yeah. Stop it. She's like, oh, I didn't. Wait, wait, wait, wouldn't you call her out? Did you DM her back?

I confronted her in the DM. No, you didn't. Yeah. Give me the detail. If you did. DM me trying to spew that hatred, I will not stand for it. I got hate. Should I DM someone back? Well, you know what? You know, here's the hack. And I think, um, was it Annie F Downs or Carlos

Whitaker? Yes. John Deloney, they all agreed to this. Yes. You respond with a voice memo. Okay, I'm about to do it. Responding to them. Should I do it? And it disarms the situation every time. All right. Read the... Mine was, we had a warm weekend this past weekend in Nashville. Okay. So my kids swim in a pool. And I just thought this is really sweet and pretty And our Tennessee flag was flying Yeah, I saw the photo The great angle

And I thought oh that Tennessee flag looks good in there too Not gonna lie Yeah And I was like oh that's sweet So I just did it I was like I'm you know Capture the moment Yeah and I just put up on stories I try to be active a little bit

Just like you know Cool so you're rich and have a pool Super interesting how tone deaf can someone be Okay okay what if should I say back? I mean there's no good response to that But I want to see you try live Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Hey, Jonathan, so sorry that my pool picture was so triggering to you. So I apologize. If that was tone-deaf, I will make sure that my backyard is concealed in upcoming photos. I just sent it. Oh, maybe, oh, I should have said. You can unfollow me, because he follows me.

The old you should have said. Oh, okay, so I'm going to do one more. Okay, actually, I realize that the summer's coming up, and I do post my life, so I probably will post some photos of it. So if that is, you can unfollow me. I totally get it. So don't worry. And, yep, hope you're having a great day. Nailed it. All right. If you respond.

I found mine. Can you guess her name? Mine was Jessica. No. Oh. Think older. Karen. Patty.

Oh. Really? You better read the ingredient label with an A instead of an E there. Oh, she misspelled it. If you're smart enough to control your money, you should be able to control what poisons you put in your body. Sorry, George. I said, appreciate the concern. I manage my finances and my health just fine. Don't have time or interest

in strangers policing my snack choices. Cowboy hat emoji. My favorite massive aggressive emoji. She said, oh darn, I didn't mean to interfere that way or give you that impression. Please forgive me. No, she didn't. Do you think Jonathan's not going to ask for forgiveness? I love Patty. I think Patty.

Look at you, and you just got a fan. I don't know if she's a fan. I don't know if she's a fan. But I hit the heart button on it. I didn't respond, but I thought, I see you. Not Not ready to apologize to accept your apology yet, Patty. This is a fun game. This should be a new segment of the show, George. It's great.

We respond to the haters. I think that's great. But then they're just going to be sending us hate hoping well respond. So we don't want to encourage that behavior. Y'all would never. The smart money happy hour audience is nice. Wow. All right.

So in with the old. Back to the basics. Let's go into thrifting. Well, yes. You guys. Well, vintage is what she wasn't necessarily thrifting. I wish it was the opposite of thrifting. But all the good.

It's the opposite of thrifting. But estate sales, Facebook marketplace, all of that, they are, they are bustling. We want the old school charm. We don't want the new fancy gadget that was, you know, on a production line made with shoddy quality. Yes. So, yeah, there's something about, people are doing this also with their kids' toys. I saw a girl that I follow. And she, like, went back to the Old Fisher Price and she found it on Facebook Marketplace.

I mean, it had to been from the 90s. Like, it reminded me of, like, what I played with as a kid. And she paid, like, $120 for it. Like, it was a pricey, but it was, like, kind of vintage. But then it was like the old, I don't know. The nostalgia from when she was a kid. Yeah. That happened to with kids' books a lot for me.

I want to read her the books that I read growing up. Okay, well, you still have to introduce her to bear hunt if you haven't already. Well, someone came to Ramsey Solutions and gave me a copy of that book, a fan of Smart Money Happy Hour, gave me the book and said, hey, I know you haven't read this to your daughter. You all remember this? We talked about this in another episode. And then I read her the book, and it's frightening. It's not too scary. The bear shows up at their door as they all frantically try to escape.

What kind of Gatlinburg gone wrong book is this? Closed door, up the stairs, in the covers. We're never going on a bear hunt again. Oh, it's so cute. I like it. Okay, debit over credit. So this less is more is coming back. Get this, ready?

Gen Z, 56% of them say the spending method that they use most frequently are debit cards. Oh my gosh. Way to go. I've never felt so connected. I love this. To Gen Z. Here's what I get a lot. Debit cards are so dangerous.

You should never use your debit card. Oh, my goodness, the fraud. And then I see the headline today, credit card debt at an all-time high, $1.28 trillion. I say, oh, but my dangerous debit card. God forbid. God forbid.

Goodness gracious. I know. And it is hard because, I will say, it can be inconvenient for a moment of time if your identity is stolen or your card number is stolen, whatever it is, money's taken out of the account. It takes a hot minute for the bank to put it back in, right?

All that. So I get that. But again, rarely happens the fraud protection at least on mine like I will be somewhere and swipe it and it is like you're you need to call your bank or oh yeah if it's a transaction amount that's over a certain amount they won't even let it go through I mean so much so like I feel like the protection is so high right now yeah that's how I feel on my debit card I mean there's a lot of protections I'm not going to go into the nerdiness of it but there's the electronic funds transfer act which protects

debit cards and so you're only liable for like 50 bucks if you report it and so there's all kinds of things that you can do I write about it in my book neither here nor there, but I do love that Gen Z is really going, hey, I don't want to even have the chance to go into debt. I want to be more aware of my spending. And just spend what I have, because that is a psychology. That's so real. When you swipe money and knowing it's coming, it's gone, like, it's out of your account, there's something about that that number one gives me peace just because I'm like, okay, I have no bill at the end of the month. Like, I'm done. I'm done spent, like, the transaction's over. There's no, there's no baggage at the end of the month, right? You're done. And then also,

So it does subconsciously make you think twice of like, okay, this is actual cash leaving. That's a different psychology than like I'll worry about it at the end of the month. Yeah. Great analogy, you're a kid at Chuck E. Cheese. You have $10 of your own money versus mom and dad's line of credit. And they go, hey, just have fun in there. Try not to spend too much. You're going to spend 30, 40, 50 bucks if it's mom and dad's money that you have to pay back later versus your precious $10.

Now you're like, should I play ski ball? Is this worth it? I don't know. What a dad analogy? Bring some friction back in. Go, Chuckie. cheese, huh? I have not taken my daughter yet. I'm still scared. Yeah, the kids are obsessed. I mean, my kids are out of that now. They're done with it.

They're done with checking cheese. But man, there was a three, four, five-year-old time span, and it is like Vegas for kids. I'm always shocked. It's still open. I know. The franchise has stayed strong. Way to go. You know what else is back in is trade schools. So how much all the college stuff is crazy, the tuition, the student loan debt. So a lot of people are just like. Like, I can avoid debt and go make upwards of. Six figures. Putting breaks on it, yeah. So welders, cosmetologists, woodworkers, medical techs, car mechanics, linemen. I mean, so much. And a lot of them can make so much money. Like you can have a great living by doing the trades. I just hired an electrician. He came by, very nice guy. It was kind of an emergency situation. The fridge was out and the food was about to go bad. Oh, no, George. He showed up in less than 10 minutes. No way. Swap the breaker and charge me his. He was like, hey, I'm not even going to charge you for the breaker.

It'll just be the, you know, fee to visit. $125. He made it in 10 minutes plus his drive time. How'd you find him? Like how? It was through a Facebook group recommendation. Okay, good. So shout out to Facebook groups.

Yeah. You know? I just search electrician in the Facebook group. Oh, yeah, yeah. It pops up. Reach out to this guy. Love it. So all that to say, the trades are where it's at.

You know, I'm not Colin Jr. with his philosophy degree to help me change the breaker. And so there's a real need for these kinds of jobs. Real problems, real needs. That's right. Real solutions. Trade school. You just are happy to pay.

That should be that tagline. What was that tagline? I don't know. It just came out. Mike Rowe, if you're listening, that one's free. Real problems, real solutions. Trade schools. Trade schools.

Trade schools. Oh my gosh. Well, I know one solution that has helped me in life a lot. To what problem? To not being cozy enough. Is that a real problem for you? It could be. Yeah, cozy earth products, the quality and everything that it provides me is just solution after solution.

I feel like, I don't even know I had a problem until I was introduced to cozy Earth. After you put it on, you're like, where, how was I living? How was I living? New tagline for cozy earth, they can have this one. First class solutions to first world problems. Not being cozy enough. Not being cozy enough. Because put me on the marketing team already.

This is great. But it's so true. This morning, throw on the joggers to take the dog out. Yes. It made it a pleasure. It was a quick. Big pleasure to hang out back there with them. I know, it is.

Their stuff is so, it's so, so nice. The sheets are still my favorite. My kids now want to, I probably need to get some sets. Speaking of sheets. Already boozy, these kids with their luxury bed. My kids, they always like, does Mia get in y'all's bed? Does she like jump in? Oh, yeah, she loves it.

So yeah, but they're always like, mom, you're sheets. I'm like, I know. Say one day if you work hard enough, you too can own cozy earth sheets. You too can own, yes, cozy earth. But the good news is for everyone out there, these grown adults, you can just go buy this stuff and you can even get a discount by going to CozyEarth.com slash smart money

use promo code smart money at checkout and you'll get 20% off. We'll also drop a link in the description. All right up next is side hustles. This is in with the old? Yeah, well all the trades they can definitely translate to side hustle money too, right?

So usually like what your guy did, if you can go direct to the person you usually can make more money. So whether you're like teaching piano helping, you know, someone fix if you're an electrician. If you're handy. Yes. Just hired a handyman.

He's my go-to-guy. Oh, yeah. $125, he charged me for like an hour and a half. I feel like your rates are very consistent for all the people helping you. Listen, I try to keep it right there in that window. But he hung up like a 70-pound mirror. Again, vintage. Okay.

I was like, I'm not going to attempt to hang this thing. Yeah, no. Trying to find the stud? No, thank you. No, and he did. He crushed it. Look at you. George, well, you're such a.

outsourcer. Thank you. You're a delegator. I am a delegator. I know my strengths and being a handyman isn't one of them and I don't care how uncool that is. I love it. I'm going to support local people to do it for me. Okay, something else of the old coming back in and it's been around for probably a year or two but I love it. It was the cash stuffing. So the envelope system. Yeah. I think that this still like makes me laugh because again, it's been going on for probably two years or so, this trend cash stuffing but people like they're on tic-tok and they're like this is what you do you cash out your paycheck and you have envelopes for all the areas you spend on mind-blown and you put the amount of money you plan to spend in each envelope and that's all you spend in that category is what's in

that envelope you know yeah and they're all like oh my gosh and like hey uh dave ramsie from 1993 called he wants his method back he wants his method back but old school i love which i appreciate uh tyler who we work with, he was just saying that there was a meme that was like, I'm so frustrated with today's world because to find $7 for my daughter's field trip. Impossible. The amount of work it takes to find a $5 bill to once. Like it's just, it is. But hey, it's coming back around, the old cash system.

It is. And I'm happy for it. And those videos are very relaxing. There's something calming about someone just calmly putting the money into each envelope, very tidy. For those of you who are like, hey, I'm not going to go get cash and stuff envelopes. We have a great digital app for budgeting called Every Dollar. can check that out in the app store.

And that's where people like me. Yes. I feel like money's dirty. But I handle it. I handle it frequently every week. Well, every two weeks in my haircut. So I have, I go to the bank and I get envelopes with the exact amount I need for that haircut plus tip. Yes.

And I have it ready. Oh my gosh. You know what? I did the envelopes for, I did a girl's trip to Vegas. Did I tell you the story already? Yes. And I, and then. Put the gambling money in the envelope.

I did. Okay. And then this sounds super boogie. But it just is the truth. But it was a bunch of 40th birthday. and we went to Vegas, and then we ended up going to Cabo for just three nights. We did a two-hop, which never done that before.

That's some living. That's fun. That's so fun. But in Cabo, you spend cash a lot for like, like we had a driver take us from the airport to the house, you know, that kind of thing. But I did. I got envelopes for everything.

Genius. Yes. And I felt like so good. And I texted all my friends. And I was like, if anyone asks, if I practice what I preach, you can say our girl's trip is all in envelopes, including an envelope called Vegas.

All right. Cash envelopes into, in with the old, openly talking about budgeting. Oh yeah, we mentioned every dollar. They're calling it loud budgeting now. I don't know what makes it loud because we're doing it out in the open. I think just saying like, oh, it's not in my budget or I budget and so I can only have this much to spend. Just having boundaries. Just talking about it. It's so good. Being honest and having boundaries. Now that I can get down with. That's a great old school concept. Yes, that's a good old school. We're going to put back in. Put back in. Yeah, the normalizing. normalizing, budgeting, that you live on a budget, that you're aware of where your money's going,

that all of that is... Just admitting, I can't afford this right now and not being ashamed by it and just putting the boundary up. That's right. And you know what else is out in the open, Rachel, if you're not careful? Your personal info. Oh. That's not a good one. That's something you don't want out in the open.

Yes. Keep it to yourself. Keep it to yourself. So delete me, actually. We'll go in and remove that info. Yeah. And we're not talking about budgeting here. No, no.

We're talking about your home address. your cell phone, your kids' names, like stuff that is out there, and it's on sketchy websites, too. These websites are bizarre. Like, when Delete Me sends you the report and like, some of the sites. Just got a fresh one the other day. You did? It's so exciting. I know I nerd out, but I'm like, I've said 139 hours. Yes, that you're like, what kind of website is this? Well, new ones pop up every day. And so it's like whack-a-mole. And so instead of you having to keep tabs on that, search it, try to remove it, fill out the right form, wait for them to remove it, delete me handles all of that for you. And so if budgeting has,

helps you take control your money. Delete Me helps you take control of your digital privacy. Yes. How's that for a analogy? Well done. That's the tagline. I love it. I'm coming up a lot of taglines for everyone today. Yes, you are. Yep. So make sure to go to join delete me.com slash smart money. And you can get 20% off an annual plan, which comes out to be around $9 a month. So make sure to check it out. That's a deal. We'll drop a link in the description as well. All right. Next up on In With the Old, Out with the New, no spend challenges. Like a dry January for your money. Which you tried that.

I did do this. I say try with a heavy emphasis on the trial. No, I did. I did pretty good, actually. Yes. It's easier to do it for my kids and tell them they can't. It's easier for your kids not to drink? Drink.

Spend. Oh. Oh, you're saying I tried dry January. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you meant to spend. I was like, Rachel. I don't think this is an activity for the kids. Oh, dry January.

If they're doing dry January, there's a problem in the cruise household. You know, I think that it's good at the beginning. And then But then I'm like you I'm like, okay, I don't know And I know like not good Like I, we know the health Literal poison to the body

Right But then a part of me I'm like I'm a grown woman I work out I eat semi-healthy Like I can have a glass of wine Yeah, you have the bone density To support a glass of wine

I don't know So that's where my attitude's at I know Wow And even the Yeah we don't get it to it But anyways I didn't know it was very upsetting to you

But you publicly talked about it on Sparmoney Happy Hour. Yes. No, no, no. Because you chose to do it. I did. Where they had to make you a mocktail or not sip the cocktail. I know. And I did that for a few shoots.

It was great, yes. And I'm a method actor. I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it. I'm a method actor. But no spend challenges. I think it'd be easier if you did a no spend challenge. What do you think? I think I did it.

That's what I was saying. I did a no spend challenge. How did it go for you? That's what I'm saying. I did okay. I did okay. And it is very revealing. It's very revealing.

That's true. It's less about how much money you'll save. It's more about what it reveals about your heart. That's how it is for me because I'm such a spender. Your vices. Like, well, I need this thing. Yes. And when I would go and I'm like, I'm not going to do it, not going to do it.

What's the last useless expense you noticed in your every dollar budget that you're like, I need to cancel this or I did cancel this? Okay. It happened yesterday when I was tracking my every dollar expense, my transactions. I had an Uber one is what it said. $9.99. What? I didn't... Where did that come from? Yep.

Why? What is it? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. You signed up at some point when you were... You clicked it in the Uber app. Probably in Vegas. Well, I was the last time I did Uber. I was like, hey, you can save $2 if you do a trial.

I don't think I even remember doing that. And then I went to my profile on the Uber app, and I can't find it anywhere. That's how they like it. So is it going to charge me every month? If you didn't cancel it. I can't find it, George. We're a new segment called tech support with George, where I help Rachel cancel a subscription. are though that came through and I have a stupid line item in our every dollar budget because stupid stuff comes up like the kids goes at auction and they're not sick and you're like well that's so stupid not to pay for that like you know that's one win in the stupid categories I said I didn't sign up for you and now you're charging me 10 bucks it's brutal yes and they never tell you beforehand they're like like hey it's about to come up you want to cancel I didn't know I signed up for like genuinely I don't even remember hitting a I mean I must have legally if I search your email I guarantee you'd say like Uber one membership

initiated. All right, one more, George, and this is one of my favorites. Being debt-free is a flex. Love this. That you're like, oh, I'm debt-free. Which means you're sort of flexing on your, you know, used 10-year-old car that impresses nobody. That's right, yes. That's sort of the new flex.

That you got no payments on it. It's kind of the new way to live. That you have a simple home that doesn't have all the bells and whistles and the modern kitchen, and you go, this is what I want, because it allows me. to do X, Y, Z. That's right. And I'm not in debt. I can actually afford this life.

Yes. Being in a massive amount of debt to keep up a lifestyle that you can't keep up with and cause a stress, it's out. We're not living that life anymore. Simpler things that we can afford within our means that creates peace and margin. That is, that's the new trend, George. Well, that's a person who's just secure, you know? They don't need all the things.

They're not trying to compare their lives to other people. They're happy with what they got and they have their values in the right place. That's right. That's it. I love it. You know, who else has their values in the right place? Who's that? Fairwin's credit union.

I thought you were going there. Yes, they did because they are a, their credit union, but essentially like a bank, right, that you have your savings account with, high-yield savings, your checking account. But they are not sitting there trying to pull you into debt like so many banks do. They're not trying to sell you all these products. They are there to actually support you in your financial goals and doing it the Ramsey way, which we love. That's one reason we partner with them is because,

Who they are behind the scenes is as wonderful as the service that they provide in their credit union. So their app is amazing. Their banking system is amazing. We love them. Yes. And that smart bundle is incredible. And with their high-ield savings account, you can actually have up to 10 accounts within there, which I like for all my sinking funds. You love a sinking fund. So the vacation, the car upgrade, the home renovation. You can just add all these sinking funds and keep it all organized right there within the Fair Ones app and sign up within minutes. Yep. So Fair One's Credit Union is where it's at. Make sure to do. check it out and George and I both use them, love them, or great.

Go to fair ones.org slash Ramsey to get that smart bundle. We'll drop a link in the description as well. Okay, so I would say, yeah, going back to simpler times, I think is great. But I do think there's new things that can help us advance in the world, right? Obviously, like that lady was kind of dogging on AI. It's feeding your soul. But we actually created a Ramsey tool called Ask Ramsey that's AI generated with all of our shows. and content on the Ramsey show and articles.

So if you do have a money question, you can actually go to Ask Ramsey. It is AI. But everything that's feeding that engine within that specific, you know, search engine is all Ramsey stuff. So you're going to get all Ramsey answers. Articles on our website.

And so you don't have to wonder, is this accurate information, is this on brain with the Ramsey plan? And it does have a soul because all the information came from something we've said at one point. That's right. So there you go.

Check it out. Ramsey Solutions.com. You'll see the big search bar there. It says Ask Ramsey. Use it. Try it. Well, I love the trend that we're kind of going back old school, because that is the principles we talk about every day with money. Like, it is kind of common sense, old school way of living with money.

It's not flashy. It's not new or trendy or exciting. It is kind of just like, hey, it just works. And so the fact we're going back there from going back to more walls in our homes. More walls. To talking about budgeting. I love it. Well, and there's a level of, you know, the world feels chaotic.

Everyone's super anxious. I think simplicity just sort of helps you stay centered and grounded in a sense, too. Yes. So I love all of these trends and appreciate Gen Z, really leading the charge on these. I mean, they've done great. Without them and their content, how would we know that these even exist? We do appreciate that about you guys. All right.

Well, before we spill the tea on our guiltiest charge segments, when we rate the drink, George. I like it. I'll go an 8.5. I'll go six and a half. Mm-hmm. I think it's fun. But it keeps drawing me back in.

I know. Why does it keep like... It's such an interesting combination. So here's what's in it. If you're curious. If you're not curious, scroll on by. The Dr. Pepper Margarita has tequila, orange liqueur,

lime juice, cinnamon syrup, and Dr. Pepper. And the cinnamon syrup and Dr. Pepper combo is beautiful. The rest of the ingredients are a traditional margarita. Yes. But you don't really get the hit of lime and orange liqueur. Not too terribly.

And the aftertaste is great. You know, I mean, some of these drinks that are kind of bizarre, they have like a weird aftertaste. Yeah, it's not medicinal at all. It almost is like a nice tea, if you will. What a word. Like, think about like a fruit tea. Is that a good description? Yes.

Yeah, but it's got all the chemicals of a Dr. Pepper in there. Yep. That's what your friend would say. The chemicals. What's her name? Putting more poison in our body, Patty. Patty. Sorry, we're drinking a Dr. Pepper.

I would hate that I enjoy a diet, Dr. Pepper. Oh, man. Oh, she would not be okay with that church. But once I migrated to the south, we don't have Diet Dr. Pepper to the North. I don't even know if they sell it in Massachusetts. Oh, really? Yeah. I just don't remember anyone drinking that growing up. Man, Dr. Pepper's great. But Diet Dr. Pepper really hits.

It comes out to $2.84 per drink. So if you want to make it for yourself, get the recipe in the show notes. I think you'll enjoy it. All right. Now it's time for. Guilty as charged. And this is where we ask each other a new guilty is charged question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip.

All right, George, is there a pricey trend that you jumped on to that did or didn't live up to the hype? Ooh, that's a fun one. Yeah. This one's pretty easy for me. It's the Tesla full self-driving. Okay. Didn't live up to the hype? No, it did for me.

It said did or didn't. Oh, I'm sorry. Gotcha, got you. No, this one changed my life. It is amazing. I can't. If I'm going down the street to pick up the mail, I'm hitting the button for it to drive me there. I feel like a little prince

It's so great It really is Like at first you're like This is how I die This is my final destination Because you watch that wheel Start to move and you're like But then it saved my life the other day

And I went Now I need it Wait it what? A car pulled out And I couldn't see it And I was like barreling down a hill Toward a stop sign Car pulls out

And the car just jerked to a stop And I was like whoa Why did it do that And then I see the car Do you think you would have seen the car If you were actually having to drive? I wouldn't have seen it genuinely.

I would have had a much later reaction. I'll say that. I would have seen it later in the car did. Because of all the cameras and it's constantly watching. I think it's actually 99% of the time safer than a human driving who's distracted. Okay, how about you?

Is there a pricey trend you jumped on that did or didn't live up to the hype? Yeah. Man. Throw them under the bus. I want to like it though. That's what's happening inside my heart is I'm like, no, it's so great.

But then I'm like, the reality is like, it's fine. The dice and blow drive. The air wrap or whatever it's called? No, it's not the air wrap. What is it? It's just like the, I don't even know. It was actually very confusing because I bought it on Black Friday back in November. Okay.

And there's many different models. I chat GPT, I AI'd a chart to compare all the different versions because there were so many. I was so confused because they're kind of expensive. Hundreds of dollars for these dices. I know. So, you know, I'm like, it is fine. The hair dryer I had before, I think, was as good. Now there's like the really cheap ones.

You can get 20 bucks at a drugstore, and it's loud, and it's not very efficient. So there's definitely like that range of blow dryer. But then you can get a nicer one that's like not a Dyson, but like I think has the same, like, it's quiet, but it's like powerful, which is great. And the Dyson's like another level. And I just don't know if the levels. If it was worth the jump and price. I know. For what you're getting out of it.

I know. So that would be mine. Wow. But I want to like it, but maybe I do. I don't know. Well, Dyson's not sending you anything in the mail. I'm torn. Thanks for the mention, Rachel.

Oh, man. Well, if you have a guilty-of-charge question for us, make sure to DM us at Rachel Cruz and at George Camel. We use them. We appreciate it so much. And if you love this episode, then you're going to love our episode,

weird money habits that will make you rich. We will link it for you. And make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an all-new episode of. Smart Money Happy Hour.