Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Sneaky Marketing Tactics That Aren’t Your Friend

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan Remember signing up for that “free” trial of Apple TV+ . . . and four years later, you’re still paying $9.99 a month for it? In this episode, Rachel and George reveal sneaky marketing tactics like this to help you avoid wasting money.   Next Steps: 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🍸 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: 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. 🌿 Get up to 40% off at Cozy Earth with code SMARTMONEY.   Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🥃 Classic Amaretto Sour Recipe: Real Simple   Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces amaretto liqueur 1 ounce simple syrup 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon) 1 orange slice, for garnish (optional) 1 maraschino cherry, for garnish (optional)   Instructions: Pour the amaretto, simple syrup, and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry, if using.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 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

Today we're talking about sneaky marketing tactics pretending to be your friend just so they can steal your money. The free trial, if you will. You give them your information to sign up for the free trial and then they start charging. Can I give you my hack for this? Yeah. Hey guys, it's Rachel Cruz. And George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour.

Wow. Delicious. Well, this is the show where two friends who have many experts talk about what you're talking about. So everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And what are we going to sip on, George? We're shipping on. Rachel's, I assume, first drink, an amaretto sour. A classic.

I will say. Is it nostalgic for you? It is. My Bachelorette party, 15 years ago. This is what we all drank because we were young. Probably didn't have great taste. It's good. Tastes like candy. It's good.

So stick around until the end. We're going to give you our rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode. Yep. Okay. So I'm like the resident conspiracy. theory. Thank you for owning it. Friends here, right? And I know there's many of you out there. Thanks for reaching out.

Appreciate you. But, you know, one of the conspiracies, I think, though, is that, like, companies will do things to get you to buy more of the product, right? And one of those expiration dates. That's the one you feel like is the conspiracy. I don't know. It is a very interesting thing. It scares me to death. They got me. So even if it is a conspiracy, I am one that I don't do well when I see that something is expired because I immediately think food poisoning.

Yes. There's a range of like, oh, it loses some quality and taste or you will die. I think there's a spectrum we can agree on. And I think the smell is big, right? If something is... I think smell is big.

Yes, so that is one. But they have the sell-by date. Yep. Where stores have to, you know, stop allowing the food to be on the shelves and they have to get rid of it, right? So sell-by is my favorite. because it means it's fine for a long time after that.

The stores just can't sell it. Yes, which is tricky because if you see a date on a package, I immediately go to. You see sell by. I see expiration, but it's not. So you got sell by, you got Best Buy, so it's like the optimal flavor of the product. You're going to eat the most quality, but beyond this date, you'll start to lose some of that.

Yep, and then we got expiration date, which is the manufacturer's guarantee or responsibility for food safety. What do you think? I think companies, I'm not going to try to defend corporations, not what I'm here for. But I will say, part of it is liability on their part. They're going to try to err on the side of being conservative and being safe

because the last thing you want is like, there's an E. coli outbreak and it hurts your company and their brand and reputation. Remember Jack in the Box? Yeah, did you go there? No, but they had the worst E. coli breakout in America. It was like 20 years ago. Do you not remember that? No.

Now, any time, so this proves the point. I was 15 years old. I wasn't really concerned about. Jack in the box. You don't watch the nightly news? Well, there's not a jack in the box near me. Okay, yeah. At the time.

Yeah. You know what I mean? So it wasn't a big, it wasn't my problem. But it can, it can harper a negative feeling towards the brands if it makes national news. Like lettuce was a big one. Remember there was lettuce e coli for a long time? I was like, I just won't eat salad. Fine.

Twist my arm. Twist my arm. Won't touch the stuff. I'll say no. Just yes to the gluten-free pizza. Okay. You know who's the worst at this? when we go through her refrigerator, refrigerator.

Sharon Ramsey. Y'all, there is stuff in there. And what does she say? It's fine. It's fine. I mean, bad. What does your mom know that we don't? I don't know, but she's fine.

Well, she's from a generation where you didn't just throw things away because a date said you should. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Do you? What do you do? Usually, it depends on the item. Like, I know, I'm not going to trust for,

I think Meets is one. Like, I just have an issue Can I give you examples and you tell me what you would do? All right. You cook chicken. You have some extra chicken, put it in the refrigerator because you think, oh, we'll use it later this week for other recipes. Cooked chicken?

Yep, cooked chicken. But you don't. How long? I'm giving it three or four days. Okay. Beyond that, it's a toss for me. It's a toss for you. Okay.

I'm not willing to risk it. I'm a five or six day. But to be fair, I try to eat everything soon after. I'm not going to like leave it till the last second. And I'm like, I guess I should eat this. Yeah, yeah. How about you? Fair.

Yeah. Five day? Five day, five to six day. When we're hitting a week, I get a little nervous with like a leftover situation. I just saw a thing about rice. Cooked rice. Yeah. If it sat out before you put it in the fridge becomes poison apparently.

No. Whitney sent my wife sent me the Instagram real and there was some doc talking about it of like the actual enzyme. Yeah, bacteria that forms as it sits on the counter. So I say if you cook rice, don't let it sit out too long before you put it in the fridge. Gosh, good to know. Oh, thanks for saving lives, Whitney. I'm just here to be a blessing,

and my wife is the one who tells me all this. And, yeah, is Whitney more conservative on the expiration days? I think now that we have a child, if it's going to be eaten by our child, she's a little more, you know, on edge. For us, as adults, we're less concerned. But, you know, we pulled out the fridge. There's some, like, mold.

Oh, yeah. I'm like, once I see mold, I'm not like, I'm not working my way around it. You know one thing I don't do either? When stuff's been left in the car? Oh. Do you know who doesn't care about that? Winston Cruz.

Are you ready for this story? A real man's man. Are you ready for this? I left pimento cheese. Pimento cheese overnight in the car, because I forgot about it in a grocery bag. The next day I see it and I was like, crap, because it was the jalapeno. I love pomeo cheese. That's it.

I know which one you're talking about. I know exactly the brand I can picture it. And I was like, shoot, I totally forgot about this bag. Winston's like, I don't care. I'll eat it. I was like, no, I was like just put in the fridge. I'll eat later. ate the whole thing.

Man of steel. And I would not touch it. The whole time I was like, but that's dairy. Dairy. But I want to know. Like, you see the wheel of cheese sitting out at Whole Foods. Like, why can they do that? Well, and he claims in Europe, cheeses and meat sit out overnight all the time.

There we go. But Europe's a different story. Let's just be honest. That's fair. Better situation you have here. Milk I'm a little more on edge about. Oh, gross. Gross.

I feel like milk is one I'm just, I'm going, that's not risky. I mean, if it's the date of expiration, it's out. Like, and I have a very sensitive. knows, and I can smell that stuff. Ooh. That's a tough one. Eggs? If it says like Best Buy and it was a week past, user toss.

A week? I'm tossing. I just don't think it's worth it for the cost savings. I agree. To me, it's a risk analysis. Yes. And I'm like, was this a $100 item or a $3 box of eggs? That's right.

That's right. I'm going to toss it. Condiments. We'll go six months to a year on a ketchup. I feel okay with that. That's impressive. What about like a chick-fil-a condiment? Like you got it in the bag, didn't use it, you saved those?

We do, yes. How long? We don't know. Because there's no dates on those. I know, I know. It feels like a, it's like Russian roulette with chick-fil-a sauces in my fridge right now. Yeah, but it's all sealed. And it doesn't have to be refrigerated.

That all feels preservatives to me. Which also feels concerning. But if, well, that we're putting it in our body in the first place, sure. And we don't know when they made that sauce. It could have been 2002. But everyone's feeling great, right? So food is one. Yes.

What about like skin care? prescription medicine, supplements. Like, do you feel more conspiracy theory about those? Yeah, expired medicine. Is that terrible? Well, I think it depends on what it is. Tylenol? Like, there was one that was three years old the other day,

and I went, I'm going to hard pass on that. I'm going to toss that. But like six months, taking on Tylenol that six months expired, I think you just lose some of the potency. Okay. Same with supplements. That's what I would want to wonder. Yeah, yeah.

But I don't think they're going to hurt you. Yeah. One that is interesting, I had a face lotion on this last trip I took and it expired eight months ago. But I thought it's face lotion. What could go wrong?

Did it go wrong? It didn't go right. It wasn't a full breakout but it was a little bit like clumpy. Like I could just tell one, like I was like, oh, that didn't look right. Did you shake it? I don't think I didn't think it was like something to be shaken.

I've never shaken. I always do my lotions. I'll like kind of mess with the bottle. No one told me you should shake your lotion. This is why I listen to this. This podcast is the reason I live. Okay, yeah, I have makeup from a long time ago that I still use. But part of it is like I spent good money on this and I don't want to waste it.

Do you ever feel that way? Yes. Oh, 100%. Especially makeup. Yeah, and especially if it's like little things and you just need like a dot every now and then. And you're like, I don't like, what are you going to do? It'll take 19 years to use this whole thing. Yeah, I had stuff from high school through college.

I mean, I kept stuff forever and ever. You still have like your bath and body works? Not today. No, but I wish. If I could go back to that warm vanilla smell, that would take me back to the mall in seventh grade. I feel like you were a cucumber melon kind of gal. No, it was warm vanilla.

Oh. Yes. Wow, not cold vanilla, warm vanilla. It was called warm vanilla. I'm pretty sure it was. I think it was warm vanilla. Those names are crazy. Okay, so today we're going to dive into more of these marketing schemes

that pretend to be looking out for you, but we are cautiously skeptical. So let's play a little game. Helpful tip or a marketing myth, Rachel. Oh, I love. Oil changes. Oh, man. They always tell you need no change.

I say marketing myth, Winston would say, needed. He's big on oil changes, like taking care of your car. Me? Eh. It'll be fine. But then what if your car, like, blows up because you didn't do any oil changes? Are you an oil changer when it's like, it's time? Because I think my car indicates it later than the little sticker they give you up at the top.

Oh, yeah. Because they want you coming in more. Because they also come to you and they're like, well, your tire, your engine, your whatever, whatever. And I'm like, all of you. That happened to me when I got, I had a tire situation. Of course, they like measure all your tires. Like, hey, these things are so bald

that you're putting your entire family in jeopardy right now as you're on the road. I'm like, okay, I'm not going to pay $1,000 to get four new tires right now. It's insane. But oil changes, I will follow the actual, if the car has a meter that shows you like the percentage. I'll follow that versus the sticker. Me too, me too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's just me. Also, I'm like... But to me, out of all the things you could do to keep your car going, an oil change, I'm happy to do. I do try to go synthetic blend, so that I don't have to go as often. It lasts longer than the traditional oil changes.

Good for you, George. Full synthetic's a little pricey. It's a little rich for my blood. Yeah. But you do it. I don't go full synthetic. I do the blend. The blend.

I'm sorry. Okay. It's a blend. Wow, you're so bougie, George. Now I'm bougie for doing synthetic blend oil changes. Which, by the way, neither of us have to do with our cars. That's right.

Our spouse's cars. That's honestly one of the best parts about owning an electric car. They're underrated. It's got nothing. It's a computer. Never have to go to a jiffy loop. That's pretty wild. He's got to change tires.

Some guys sell me on why my air filter needs to be replaced. Yeah. That's a scam. I've heard they show you a fake air filter that's dirty. No. I've heard. I'm not saying all places do this, but they always show you like, hey, your air filter needs to be replaced. And it's always like $700 to do it through them versus just.

just buying a cheap one. That's it too. Do it yourself. Even I can change in air filter. Good for you, George. Even me. I like that. Okay, how about the next?

Is the free trial, if you will? So you get in, you give them your information to sign up for the free trial, and then you get charged. They start charging you. Can I give you my hack for this? Yeah. I use a site called privacy.com that creates virtual debit cards. So I use that for trials and you can say, hey, don't let this charge more than a dollar,

or let this expire after a certain amount of time. So you can set all these parameters around this virtual debit card. Oh, so smart. So then when they charge, there's no... And you can just delete the card as if it never existed. So take that free trials. You're not getting me. Yes.

I've gotten scammed a couple times with them just taking money out. Well, and a lot of free trials, you get to enter all of your personal info and data, which they can then use to remark it or sell to data brokers. Who knows? One reason, delete me, though, is a subscription that I am all about because in our world today, how often we put our information out there, and data brokers will go and buy, sell, trade your personal data out there. They're making money off of your data.

They're using our info like Pokemon cards out there. Yeah, and then they send it all, and then you get tech scams and email, all this stuff. It is frustrating. Like, if you go and buy, like, I bought tickets to something, and I swear they sold my data. Because you're getting inundated with all these offers. With all these other random, like, ticket company stuff. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. But delete me goes in, and they swipe all these data broker websites and take your information off.

Find it, remove it, send you a report. We'll put a link down below because we have actually a discount for smart-hap-hour users. They get 20% off any of the plans. If you go to join deleteme.com slash smart money or just click the link in the description, it'll take you there. And we love having them as a sponsor because we want to protect our listeners and viewers out there from getting scammed and fraud and all the stuff that's happening.

That's right. All right, George, how about good return policies, good being in quotes, if you will? Like you can return it at any time. or up to a year. Yeah. So is this a scam? Is it a marketing tactic? I think it's definitely marketing.

They know that you're more likely to spend money once you're in the store. And, you know, if it's a good return policy, I do feel better about buying it. That's why I love Costco. You send so much stuff back in life. It is embarrassing. It's an embarrassing amount of stuff. It's pretty wild, George. I have no shame when it comes to returns.

You really don't. I've returned things as we were sitting here, I think. That's how much I return things. This stuff is just getting returned as we speak. Yeah. As we speak. Okay, you know, one scam. that got all of us in the 90s, got milk.

Oh, my goodness. Do you remember that whole campaign? Yeah. It was everywhere. Every celebrity had like a milk mustache. Like everyone, the milk. Great campaign. I think we just say that out loud.

It was a great campaign and it worked. And where did it go? Did like almond milk override cows milk? Like what happened? I don't know what happened there. Isn't it weird? How did it just die? And isn't it weird that we were told as kids you had to drink milk.

Like you had to drink a glass or two of milk because your bones. are going to be frail, calcium. It was like a whole... How much milk do you drink today? Very little? Zero? No, zero. When's the last time you had a glass of milk?

I mean, honestly... I'm worried about your bones. I know. I mean, that's a... You could bump into a door and be surgery. We buy milk every week because my kids like cereal, but I don't eat cereal.

So a glass of milk, I cannot tell you. You? No, only for our daughter. I will use a cereal. I'll use like an oat milk or something like that. I try to go dairy-free.

these days, anti-inflammatory. Good for you. If you know, you know. So I'm saying, did nuts take over milk? I don't know. And here's the conspiracy. I'm not blaming dairy farmers at all. I just go with me, people.

But like, did they have some stake in how much milk was being sold across America that funded, you know, the FDA to promote the milk? And then they made a lot of money on the back. Like, is there a cahoots happening? And then one day, the farmers were like, we're good. We don't need all this milk. We have enough money. Yeah, we're billionaires. And then they stopped the campaign.

I don't get it. Who funded the milk campaign? Milk? Big dairy. Cows? I mean, like, it's a barrier. I guess the companies that produce milk. Exactly.

And then the farmers benefited. I know. But I do follow Ballerina Farm, who's like a homesteader. Oh, yeah. She milks her cows and just drinks that sucker right out of the jar. No plastic, the jar, the glass jar. Which I also have concerns about. Straight up, y'all.

I mean, it's pretty... What other liquid from an animal would you consume straight out? I don't know, but she's... No processing. So something's right. I've seen, like, raw, unpasteurized goat milk or cow's milk is supposed to be great for you. I don't know.

I don't know what's happening in the pasteurization process other than avoiding me dying at an early age. So I appreciate that, but I could be wrong. I know. But anyways, got milk, very interesting campaign. This was 1993 to 2014 was the got milk campaign. 2014, where were you? Now where were you? Now

they took spreads out in 17 magazine. You'd open up 17 magazine. There would be Jennifer Aniston, all the friends cast with their... And how much were they getting paid? They weren't because they got to pay the celebs for... Oh my gosh, it goes so deep. George, it goes so deep.

You think Jennifer Aniston is doing anything for free? No. She has a good heart. Here's some other 90s food scams. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A concept inventing. by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. No!

So, of course, they would push breakfast is so important. Also, here's a great option for breakfast. Sugar crunch. That's all it is. That's what you're giving your kids, Rachel. It's so true. No, mine are like Trader Joe's Brace. It makes you feel better.

I don't know that they're any healthier, but if you feel that way, it's great. I got a Costco, organic, chocolate, like, oat thing that I feed them. That feels better. And honey nut chorios. Yeah. Anyways. Another one?

Okay, for real, though. Breakfast, I do think breakfast is important. Starting your metabolism, getting energy for the day. But now intermittent fasting is all the rage, and people are saying it's great for you. That's so true. Not to eat to lunch. Yeah. You eat between a certain window, like 12 to 6 is your time to eat, which means skipping breakfast altogether. That is true. Are you a breakfast eater? I'll just do like a bar. Yeah, me too, a bar. Like a perfect bar. Those are my favorite. The perfect bar. Where is this? I get my Costco, as one does. The refrigerated.

Fancy. And I like the dark chocolate chip peanut butter. It kind of tastes like a Reese's cup. All right. But healthier. That's good. So that's my go-to. I wouldn't say it's healthy.

If you look at the ingredients, it's not, but it's got a lot of stuff in it that I think most people would be like, oh, you need to do better. Not looking for your judgment. Thank you, though. Yeah. I used to Lara bars. I tried RX bars. Yeah. Way too gummy for me.

Yeah. Well, Chewy. I'm chewing. Like three days later, I'm still chewing back there. Like, it's some dip that I've had stuff. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. So no thanks.

Breakfast for you? Okay. I feel like you're not a breakfast person. I'm not, yeah, if I'm like on vacation, I enjoy breakfast. But if it's like normal, I'll do my protein shakes. Yep. In the morning, if I work out. If I don't work out, I get the fig bars from Costco.

Both Costco breakfast. I know. I don't work out and I just have, I'll like grab coffee, bat, and eat in the car. Okay. I thought you'd be the type to be like, I had a big gust of wind on the way in. I'm good. A bowl of ice for breakfast. I'm fine.

No. But my protein shake, it does fill me up, though. It keeps me. Wow. Well, can I say, this is a little behind the scenes, in the Ramsey Cafe, in the cafeteria where we all eat lunch, Rachel has a sandwich named after her on the menu called The Rachel. It's true. It's a wrap. Guess who doesn't have anything named after him on the menu? Turkey, pepper jack, cheese, lettuce, bacon, tomato, and honey mustard in a wrap. Heated, toasted. Try it at home. See if you can recreate it. That's a good one. Speaking of which, clean plate, plate. club, a scam invented by Gen X parents to avoid the feeling of grocery budget waste. Yep, we have that in our house.

Were you a clean plate? Like Sharon was like, you must clean your plate. Whatever you put on your plate you must eat. Mom and dad were a strict, you have to sit there and eat. And sometimes it was down to like, you need three bites of that. And we would, y'all, in protest, we would sit at that table and the food would become cold and all of it. And they would not let us get up until we ate. It wasn't that you had to be clean, but it was like, no, you have to have three

bites of that, whatever, whatever, whatever. And yeah, we, uh-huh. But you were, like, celebrated if you cleaned your plate. Oh. The clean plate club was a real thing. Yeah. Yeah. I feel I try to do it.

Because what I try to do is not put so much food that I know I can't eat it. So what I do is put a little bit less, knowing that I'll probably be full if I just take my time, eat slowly, let it sit. And if I want more, I can always get more. Yeah. Now, I do like when my kids clean their plate, because I know they're going to be full, and they want to ask me 45 minutes later and tell me they're hungry. Oh, but really when they say they're hungry,

do they want like a snack or dessert? Oh, yeah. A treat. Oh, oh, oh. And you're just like, we just ate dinner. I just cleaned the kitchen. I swear, they watch me, dump the plates. We're in some point in dishwasher.

We're so hungry. Oh, my goodness. I would pick it out of the trash. Look at that. I know. I found some food. It's frustrating. It's frustrating.

And see, I'm the opposite. My eyes are bigger than my stomach. Like at restaurants, I'm the worst. You're like, let's get four apps, three entrees. That side looks at the potatoes. Yes, you got brought that, and we'll do the spinach. Someone will eat it. And then I eat like four bites of everything.

And I'm like, I'm good. I take everything home. You flew. If there's like one ounce of food left, I'll get a to-go box. Oh, this is true. From New York City to Nashville, put a bag of ice at his hotel, put the to-go food in the bag, and flew home. Flew home with food.

I can't believe you did that. It was worth it. I cannot believe you do. It was so much food. We did a gluten-free Thanksgiving in New York City. It was stupid expensive. I was already angry at how much we paid. How much we tell us?

This is fun. I want to say... Like 200 a person? I want to say like maybe 150 bucks a person total. Yeah, so it was expensive. Drinks, tax tip, all of that. And we barely ate. I mean, it was so much food.

It was like where you were eating for eight and it was just the two of us. So I thought there's so much food. Box it all up. I'll figure it out. So we get back to the hotel, get our luggage. And I went, I'm going to go to the ice machine in the hotel. I got a laundry bag, filled it with ice, put it at the bottom of the bag,

stacked it all, and then carried it through the subways. Oh my gosh. Plus his trains, planes, automobiles, I lug that thing home. What do they do? Their security. They judged me. But they let food through. I don't think so.

They probably just in their hearts judge me. It wasn't like a public like, sir, what are you doing with all this food? You're a little guy. Like hush puppies. But to be fair, I ate on that for like four days after. Yeah. It was an incredible amount of food. That makes me.

But I did wonder, should I be eating all this food that, like, sat this long? Yeah. Maybe not properly refrigerated for seven hours. Exactly what we were talking about. Yikes. All right, let's talk about regular appointments. I'm going to go down a list and let's just do a quick hit. Oh, you've got a lot of conspiracies on this one.

Okay, ready? Okay. Dentist. Scam. Twice a year for cleanings, I try to say no when they're like, hey, you have 19 cavities that need to be filled. I'll go, I'll wait on those. And I say no to fluoride now. Oh, wow, look at you.

Get some crunchier than I thought. Yeah, I think it's a scam. No offense, Dennis out there. Wow. People are upset in the comments. Every time we talk about this, like Rachel doesn't floss, she doesn't trust the dentist, and all the dental hygienists and they're all very upset with you.

I bet they are. This is their living. I get it. Well, I do think genetics plays into it. Yes. You must have, like, did you ever have braces? No. Hold on.

I know. How are your teeth perfectly straight? I never have braces. But I will say I got a gumectomy last year. Do you remember this whole thing? Oh. Do you remember that? Yes, this is when they add to your teeth?

Yes, I always had small teeth. That was always my thing. And I kind of was on a kick of like, I don't know. It was one of those things, like, if you had to change anything. I think my teeth, I would have made, like, I would have bigger teeth if I could. And I went to this dentist, yeah. And he was like, well, veneers. You know, you can go all these options.

I'm like, I don't know if I want, you know. He's like, well, we could do what's called a gumectomy. And you, it's gross. I'll just tell you. But they basically laser off part of your gum to see if you have. have more bone, more tooth up there, that the gum is just overlaid. And sure enough, a lot of tooth, a lot of tooth up there. They excavated some more tooth for you.

But my gums have settled. They're not as big as they were because he did tell me the gums may settle. So I did do that. Wow. They look great, honestly. Thank you. Thank you. The higher the gums, the closer to God.

That's what I always say. I know. So anyways, maybe it's genetics, but I do think twice a year. It's silly. Okay, chiropractor. Oh, gosh. I do, okay, I don't want to like sally the good name of some chiropractors out there. There's some great ones. Winston goes. Winston's a regular.

But there's some heby-giby ones and I was guilty. Like I went because they would do a free exam and a free whatever they do where they crack your back. And of course they go, hey, we examined your spine and, well, you're going to need about a year. It's going to be $3,600 for the treatment plan. And I'm like, oh, you know exactly one year from now? I will magically be better with exactly this many treatments. Yeah. How about I go and when I can tell that it's solved, I'll stop.

Yeah. So I feel like there's a lot of scamming going on because they got to pay for their chiropractor school and the practice. And so they just have to jack up the prices, I feel like. Okay, that's fair. I will say Winston goes regularly. He actually went today at three. What does he think? And his, he was having like neck stuff and they took an x-ray and legitimately.

They showed him the difference. Yeah, and it's, yeah. How do we know that's his spine? What if they have... Well, if it's like the air filter. And they're like, this is a different x-ray. Oh, man. I would have my spine from Adam.

I mean, you got to... George, it's a great question. Couldn't they have fake images of someone's spine adjusting over time? But we did get recommended this chiropractor from a really great reputable friend. I'm sure the chiropractors will come after me now. They will. They probably will.

What are you going to do? Crack my back? Oh, my gosh. Massages. Oh, I feel like this one's not a scam because there's instant results. I do think that's real. But I do think the effects wear off faster than I'd like.

Fair. And it's not a habit that I could sustain. It's like I get a massage every month. Mm-hmm. You know, now if I had like an actual injury, I want to make this clear. If it's like an injury or like a medical thing, different. For the average person, this is more just therapeutic. Okay.

I got an injury thought coming up next because we got physical therapy. Oh. I broke my toe two years ago. Do you remember this? I broke my toe. I don't know why you'd remember, but broke my toe, ran into the door. Did you make a big deal? It was stupid.

Did you have a little, like, toe cast? What do they do? They just wrap your toe. Oh, okay. It was so stupid. It was, I checked in my friend. You kicked a door? I kicked it.

Well, I was walking fast. And my, yeah, my foot hit the frame of the door. Like at night? I want to know the scenario in which you would kick a door. During the day, I just was walking fast. I had a purpose. Did you not see the door? Did you think the door was open?

Nope, it was the frame. I mean, I was just walking fast and I just didn't angle myself, right? and my foot hit the, yeah, my big toe was fine, but the rest of my toes, yeah. The rest of your toes? Well, one broke. Oh my gosh. Okay, okay, let's focus.

So one of my toes broke, and I went, they got an X-ray, fractured. I was like, this is so, oh, so mad, I was so stupid. So then they make you come back to the orthopedic, like a lot to like re-look and all that. And every time you go, you're paying. You're paying. They're billing insurance every time.

Yeah, and after like the fifth. I was like, I mean, I think my toes the, like, I think, like, it's fun. We don't need to check on it again. So I just stopped going and have felt fine since. Oh. So I think that possibly, probably over-cautious for the average person, but I question how much you got to go. Yeah. Now, to be fair, Whitney just finished PT.

She just went, her back was jacked up. Oh, she was going to PT school. No, my wife is not a physical therapist. But what's funny is they call it graduating. She graduated from PT, like as in she did. And I think, you know. She did what she was supposed to do. But here's what's a life hack.

I didn't get a graduation. I'm so sorry. There's like, you need to come forever for your toes. Well, she graduated, and then she did a bar class. And she was like, it was almost exactly the same, but more enjoyable because it's a bar class workout versus PT. So there's your life hack. Just do bar.

And it's kind of like PT. Oh, man. All right, George. So what do we think about all this? Oh, yeah, I think you need to be careful where and how you spend your money but also don't walk through life, paranoid that everything's a scam.

But it's just an exhausting existence when you're that and there's a level of cynicism and skepticism that I think will exhaust you personally. That's fair. I want you to have a healthy level of skepticism. Do your research, make sure it's recommended by other people and feel free to say no because their sales tactics

they make you think you need this and you need it now or else you're going to harm your body. Yes. They, yeah, the pressure is big. They know how to push the buttons. They do. On a lot of these areas of life. So you need to be really good at saying, no, thank you, or, you know, I'm going to look into that. I'll call back if I'm interested. That's what I always say. Oh, yeah, let me look at my calendar and everything and I'll call you back. Do you ever say, I'm going to talk to my husband? Do you ever play that card? I play the calendar card more. Let me look at my calendar and kind of get some dates situated,

and I'll call you back and reschedule. What about when, like, the cashier asks you if you want to donate? Do you think that's a scam? subs last week. No shock to anyone. And they went to Jersey Mikes today. What? I just love a sub, you know. Does Firehouse no?

No, but Firehouse did ask me to round up for the local fire department. And I said yes, because I thought, why am I being Stengie with 63 cents? That's fair. So I might be a rounder-upper these days. I think the Franklin Fire Department appreciates your donation.

I know. So, yeah, I round up now. So I've decided. My dad pulled this one. I was with them recently, and he said to the cashier, we've already committed all of our, we donate through our church and we've committed all of our giving. I went, wow, what a life hack flex.

Wow. Yeah, he was sharing his faith at the same time. I was like, this is a beautiful. So good. Well done, Mr. Camel. Way to go. Oh, man. So good.

So just be aware, you guys, money can easily slip out of your hands if you're not careful, but there are some great things in life that we should be, you know, as a society joining forces with because it's good for us. Trust your gut. Yeah, it's good. Physically, I mean, theoretically, metaphorically, trust your gut. Unless you drink a lot of unpasteurized. Yeah.

If it looks too good to be true, it is. If it looks stinky, it is. You don't know, possibly. If it smells off to you, metaphorically or physically, don't do it. Smells fishy, throw it out, unless it's fish sauce. Which even then, fish sauce. I did buy fish sauce for something. I thought that they're in their refrigerator.

That feels like they should just make them an individual single use. Very much so. Why do we need a bottle? Because a single drop of that stuff leaks out and something died in your fridge, my friends. But one thing I can be confident in is that Cozy Earth has some of the best quality products, George. Not a scam. On this planet. And in fact, I got a lot of Christmas gifts this year for people via Cozy Earth.

Yes. Because it is so great. I'm like, people have to know. It's like one of those gifts you can get for the person who has everything. You know they don't have the Cozy Earth blanket or sleep set. Or the pajamas or the sheets. And I went through and I bought new. lounge pants and a shirt.

A little something for you too. I did. I'm Christmas shop myself. You're that person. Because they were running some good deals at the time. But for real, cozy earth, you guys, their products, phenomenal. Like the quality, it's worth it. Like, that's one of those things that you're like, I have like a Target sweatshirt that's like really silky and nice.

But you go up against the cozy earth and you're like, oh no, this one's way more brief. You can tell. The quality matters. Like, it's real. It's very real. And the good news for our listeners and viewers, they've got good deals because they listen to Smart Money Happy Hour.

So you can go to cozy earth.com. slash smart money or use the promo code smart money at checkout and you'll get up to 40% off, which is nuts. That's a very kind of them. That's a great percentage off. Go check them out for sure. All right, before we get to guilty as charge, what are we sipping on, George? We are sipping on the Amaretto Sour.

The Amaretto Sour, which is Rachel's Bachelorette party drink back in 2009. I think it still hits 15 years later. I'm going to give this a 9 out of 10. You know, I'm going to go 9 out of 10, too, George. It's not a 10 out of 10 because I don't think I'd probably like always order it at a restaurant. But if all my friends came back and they were like, Amarito Sowers, I would be like team. Well, this is a high quality.

Like some of them are made with like nasty mixes and low quality liquors. This one is really well made. It costs $2.95 per glass. It's got, wouldn't you know it, Amaretto, which is a sweet Italian lique. I feel like it's got some almond or cherry notes. It's like a hazel. Yeah, it's really nice. And you got fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, a lemon slice or peel for garnish.

Fresh lemon juice. It's got to be fresh. Thank you, Ibu. She did it for us. So check out the recipe and the show notes. Give it a try this weekend if you're of age. Correct. Good reminder.

Drink responsibly. All right. Now it's time for Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty charge question every week. And if her guilty, take a sip. Kelly. All right. Have you ever scammed your kids gotten scammed by your parents?

Not like literally like your parents stole all your money. Oh. Kind of scheme. A figurative scheme. But like the things that you tell your kids or that your parents told you that you grew up and you're like, that's not true. Shoot. You know the lie. I tell my kids a lot.

And I need to start unwinding it probably soon. Is that they're going to get arrested. What? What a little-seal turn. Because they're not putting on their seatbelt or they're not sitting. And I'm always like, if the cop pulls us over, you could be arrested. They could be arrested. as the parent.

I just say arrested and they all freak sit down and put on their seat belts. I know I should stop. I'm sorry. I know. I guess out of all things. And then now every time they take cop, they're like, are we okay?

And I'm like, oh, shoot. We need you to be like, no, they're for us in our community. Like, you don't be so funny though. If you told the cop like, hey, would you go over there and tell my kids they're getting arrested? Oh, my. Just to cause some trauma for fun. That would be so traumatic.

Yeah. I think even just getting pulled over is scary. Mine involves a car too. Okay. My dad growing up, if the car light was on, we were going to get pulled over and arrested. Oh, up there. Oh, they make you feel like they're going to wreck. The light inside the car.

I would turn it on for who knows what. And you're going to jump, we're going to get pulled over and arrested. What are you doing? That's how my dad sounds, by the way. Okay. So you were threatened with an arrest threatening my kids. Are you okay? You're okay in life.

I'm okay. We did get pulled over once, though, but it was because he was speeding. Oh, there you go. Uh-huh. Isn't that funny? You're on a way to church. That is one thing. My dad would yell at us if we turn the line on.

My dad did the same. You told me it was illegal. That's what I feel like is the biggest scam. Okay, but my kids do it now and I'm fine. I'm like, what is the big deal? Did windows change? You're a well-adjusted adult. Maybe that's what it is, but I'm like, it's really not that big of a difference.

I will say it's bought, like the lights back in the day, you know they had on the cars? And maybe it was. Maybe it was like brighter and now they're like dimmed to a certain level. Well, they're more like focused lighting. Back in the day, it was just like, you're lighting up the car. If you're driving at night. Yeah, it was that big light in the middle of the car that you just tapped and everything was lit up.

Yeah. So, what can you do? We didn't have screens to light our way back then. No, we played with Barbies on the floorboard. We never wore our seatbells. While driving? How big was this floorboard? We had an astrovan through an astrovan.

Oh, wow. That was like a playground. We had a blue astrovan growing up. And yeah, we would, yeah, go into... Just going 78 down the interstate. Oh, yeah. And then why am I? threatening my kids with arrest.

I don't know. Wow. I haven't figured out how to scam my one-year-old yet, but if I can figure out how to do it, I will. I can't wait to hear it because we all have that as parents. We all have the thing. Those little white lies that we do to protect ourselves and our kids. It's all about control. Stay out of jail, Amelia.

We need you. Charles, good luck. Oh, my gosh. So good. Well, that was a great episode. George. If you guys enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, share it with a friend. leave a review. We love hearing from you guys. And we have a great episode on ridiculous things people

spend their money on coming up next or we'll put the link in the description. We'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.