The Rachel Cruze Show - Surprising Things I’m Learning About Money Right Now

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

No matter where you are on your debt-free journey, there is always something new to learn about money. Today, we’re talking investing, kids’ money habits and more. Plus, I chat with Kallie Branciforte (who you may know as But First, Coffee) about affordable Amazon products that are worth every penny.   In This Episode:   ·      3 Things I’m Learning About Money Right Now ·      Best 10 Amazon Products Under $20 with But First, Coffee ·      How to Break Bad Money Habits   Helpful Resources:  ·      Christian Healthcare Ministries  ·      Financial Peace University  ·      EveryDollar  Sponsors pay the producer of this show, The Lampo Group, LLC, advertising fees for mentioning their services or products during programming. Advertising fees are not based upon or otherwise tied to any product sale or business transacted between any consumer or sponsor. The following sponsors have paid for the programming you are viewing: Christian Healthcare Ministries.  Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices  Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know that 40% of Americans can't cover a $1,000 emergency in cash, but how many of those are carrying around a $700 car payment, right, every month? Life is so expensive, including debt. And if you didn't have that, how much more margin you would have? Hey, guys, welcome to this episode of the Rachel Cruise Show podcast. I'm so glad that you're here. So in this episode, we're going to talk about surprising things that I'm learning right now about money. And I'll go over how to break bad money habits.

Then you'll hear a conversation I had with YouTuber and blogger Callie from But First Coffee. Callie is an Amazon shopping experts, and we're going to talk about her top Amazon fines under $20, so you don't want to miss it. But first, let's talk about what I'm learning about money right now. Take a listen. There's a quote from author and philosopher Vernon Howard. Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will. So be on the lookout.

That's what's always important. And sometimes I'm not always great at this, but when I find myself being like, okay, I want to learn something new, right? You want to keep expanding your minds. And so whether that's through conversations or reading, it's just a great place to be. To stay curious, keep your eyes open,

because again, we all have something to learn every single day. So when it comes to money specifically, a couple of things that I'm learning, first and foremost, about investing. Okay, so we talk about investing on the show, a lot. And I am not a certified financial planner. So digging into the weeds of specifically investing is not my gifting. It's not what I do. Right? I give you guys really high level tactical things. But then I always encourage you to go to a smart vester pro and sit down with

someone who does this day in and day out. But we had an event a few weeks ago for a live stream, our building wealth live stream. Maybe some of you watched it. And so they wanted me to do a 25-minute keynote on the market and the S&P 500 and go. in and explaining how the market works. What are we seeing? Are there trends? You know, how do people have confidence when they're putting their money in

when we have a down year like we did last year? So I spent a good amount of time just digging into all the nerdy details of like the S&P 500 and all that stuff. But it was really good for me because I'm like, I feel like I haven't done that in a little bit. And so even though I talk about money every single day, digging into stuff like that is still so, so good

because, you know, it reminds me when I go back and I look at numbers and I look at stats of why I encourage you guys to invest and why I personally even invest in Winston, because I can have confidence still in the market. And that's what that research did. You know, looking back at graphs from even over 100 years ago and looking at the trends and what it's doing was really helpful.

And so even when you look back just a few years ago, you know, March of 2020, the market fell 9.5%. But by August of that year, it went back up and it met there. And then by December of 2021, the market hits, hit an all-time high. Now, granted, 2020, went back down. But what's crazy is when you zoom

out and you have perspective of the market overall, even over the last hundred years, you watch the graph and the whole thing is going up. Now, within that, there are ups and downs that you experience, but the trajectory of the market still is going up. And so being able to have confidence, and again, give other people confidence

that I just believe that we can depend on the economy here in America enough to put our money in, even when times are slow, instead of stopping investing or pulling money out to continue the ride, because you can look back. So even just doing some of that research, it helped me. It did. So that's one thing that I was digging into recently.

Another thing that I just keep learning is when it comes to my kids and their personalities when it comes to money. It's so funny, I feel like I could have predicted this, you know, even a few months ago of kind of how they'd be. And then as they just get older, even six months, even a year, right? They just come into their own. And so it's just so funny to watch how different they are. Now, Charles is three.

He counts in my heart and in life, but not when it comes to teaching goods and money. He's just kind of like all over the place. But the two girls, I'm like, man, Amelia, our oldest, she is like so on top of it. She wants to work and she's such a saver. It's so funny. She will put money away in her room. She has a goal. She knows what she wants to save for.

I mean, it is like this whole strategy play. And she will go and do stuff and tell me, Mom, I unloaded the dishwasher. or can I get paid for it? I mean, she's on it. And my middle, Caroline, she's the spender. She's me. And I'm always like, okay, well, in order to go buy something, Caroline, you have to work, you have to do something.

So you want to help me make lunches? You want me bringing the groceries? I try to, like, give her opportunity. And she's like, no more, I just want to go buy it. I just want to go. There's a toy store here called Brilliant Sky. She just want to go to Brilliant Sky and buy something. I'm like, we can't just go buy something.

It costs money. And she's like, isn't that why you go out of it? work. I was like, well, yes, mom goes to work. But the money I make pays for the lights that are here. The heat in our house, the food in our refrigerator. We just don't have money just go and just buy toys whatever we want. And she's like, oh, like everything is such a big deal. Anyway, she had $2 this weekend. And she's like, I want to go to a brilliant sky. I want to go to Brilliant Sky. And I was like, you know what? You've been asking me forever. You got two bucks. You can't, you're not going to be able to buy anything. Like, it's an overpriced toy store.

Sorry, Brilliant Sky. People, I love you. But. it's expensive. And we're in the car. I'm like, Caroline, we're going to go in, but we will leave empty-handed. We're going to walk out with no toys if there's something that's not less than $2. Do you understand?

She's like, yes, mom, yes, I promise, I promise, I promise. I'm like, okay, we're not throwing a fit, but we're going to go in and see. Of course, right, we walk in at the very front. It's like, $1.99 was like this cheap toy. She's like, so she bought something. And of course, she opens it.

She's like, I don't even want this anymore. I was like, oh, gosh, I can't win. We can't win. But she's me. so me when I see myself in her. I'm like, yeah. So again, it's just how our kids already are dealing with money so differently. And the same parenting tactic doesn't always work, kid to kid. And I'm learning that more and more each day. But it is so fun to see what they're doing and how they're experiencing life and money already, even as little ones. So I love it. It's so,

so fun. All right, the last thing, it's kind of just a random fact, but I learned this the other day. It kind of blew my mind. I was co-hosting The Ramsey Show. And we are reading an article about car payments. And so used cars, new cars, and how much more expensive payments, monthly payments are than they were even, you know, 12 months ago. So the average car payments for a new car today is $717. And it's just crazy to me because I'm like, I remember when it was like $4 to $500 was the average, right? And it just keeps going up, up and up and up. And I'm like, oh. And it's those little facts that I think And I'm like, man, you know, when we know that 40% of Americans can't cover a $1,000 emergency in cash, but how many of those are carrying around a $700 car payment, right,

every month? And if you didn't have that, how much more margin you would have? And so it just kind of just was like that dagger to the heart. I'm like, man, it's getting so expensive. Life is so expensive, including debts. So that's one reason that we talk about staying away so that you don't have payments and your budget is freed up and there is freedom. so much freedom in that.

And so again, just to give you the encouragement to be doing that. And I can get stuck in a rut sometimes. I'm like, eh, you know, I don't want to look around and research and stuff. But it is really good. It's good to continue to learn. So that's the learnings, you guys. When I look back, I'm like, yep, I feel like what I continue to learn day in and day out when it comes to money.

So whether you're learning something professionally, maybe in a relationship in your life, or even if it's just some random stats and figures that you just think are interesting. I think it's one of the best things in life is to continue to learn. Continue to ask questions. Stay curious because that's how you expand your mind when you start to learn new things. I'm so excited about this episode because not only do I have a returning guest on the show,

but also we're going to talk about Amazon, which is one of the favorite places that I buy stuff. So I have Callie from But First Coffee, which she's the host of a popular YouTube channel. Many of you know who she is. and I just love the content that she puts out because it's very practical and very helpful. So, Callie, thanks for being back on. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited. For sure.

So you are definitely an expert when it comes to Amazon. I would say I just frequent it when I see an influencer say, like, you should get this. And I'm like, oh, it's inexpensive. So I'm going to try it. It's great. But you really dive in and you've, like, made this part of your message because people are spending money and you want to make sure that they're spending money wisely on things that they're going to use. So I can't wait to dive in because I want to just hear an overarching viewpoint from you on the top 10 Amazon products that you think are worth it that are under $20.

Yes, yeah. And I have tried definitely way more products than probably the average person has. And I try to be very specific because I think you and I probably look at Amazon the same way. Like it'd be easy to just share like all of these cool products on Amazon. But like I don't want people just have stuff in their house that's not really going to help them out. So I tried to really think about the top 10 things I bought under $20 that I legitimately use all of the time. So I've got like, I've got a product around me. We kind of have a little bit of a grab bag.

Are you ready to dive in? I am, you have no idea how excited I am because let me say this. Last time I had you on, you gave me the tip not to buy like great makeup or hair care products from Amazon because sometimes they can like, they're not true. Callie, I two, three weeks ago, a girl told me about new shampoo and I went on Amazon and I got nervous, and I went and looked at the, like, the store, and it looked a little sketchy. I was like, you know what? I'm going to take Callie's advice.

So, anyways, you just teach me a lot that I've already used in my real life. So the fact that all these products are around you, I can't wait to see what you have to say. Okay, so what's the first one? Okay. Okay. So the first one is this is a clip-on strainer. Okay, this thing, every time I whip it out when people are at my house, they're like, what is that?

Because anytime you need to drain water from a pot or a bowl, right? You have to get out the whole colander, it's chunky, or you're like, looking for the top, the strainer top that fits on. This literally clips on to anything. So you can clip it on to like you're washing some vegetables or you're washing some veggies in the bowl. And then you can just clip it on and you can just drain out the water without having to get a whole colander out.

Because I don't have like a tiny kitchen, but I don't have room for a bunch of extra stuff. And colanders are huge, right? Yes. Okay. Is it like rubber? What's the material? Silicon?

Probably like it. Probably like silicone. It doesn't get hot. So, like, you can also put it, like, literally right onto a pot. So that's what's great. It's like adjustable. So you get a huge pot, it'll sit right on there as well. Doesn't get hot so you can more hot water right now.

Yes. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. How much is it? It is the best. It's definitely under $20. The thing with Amazon is I never want to quote exact prices.

Right? Because they always change. I would say it's about $15. Okay. That's great. Yeah. Love it. Brilliant.

I love that thing. Brilliant. Okay. Another kitchen product. This is actually one of my. all-time bestsellers, almost like month after month. And I always kind of laugh like that so many people are buying this product, but it makes sense because it's really brilliant. It's an oil mister. Okay, so do you have an air fryer? No. No, and I didn't either. I didn't have

an air fryer for the longest time. And I was just like, sometimes when things get really hyped, it makes me hesitant about them. I'm like, there's no way that it's that great. But we did a huge kitchen renovation. We didn't have a kitchen for a couple of months. And I was like, I'm going to try it in an air fryer. Whatever, we're obsessed with it now. But a big portion of an air fryer is lots of times you need just like a tiny bit of oil and you need to spray a little bit of oil on the product to then fry it in the air fryer. And a lot of oils that you buy at the store, like you can't use your oils, right?

You can use an olive oil or I like to use avocado oil. So this, you could just pour your favorite oil right in here. And I'm not going to spray it because we're going to get oil everywhere. But it just can mist. So I bought it originally for the air friar. but now I use it for everything because you can mist it on your vegetables before you go out to the grill,

you can mist it onto stuff before you throw it into the oven. And I love it because I'm somebody who's sort of like picky about my oils. And, you know, in the grocery store, the misting oils, they're not usually what you want to use. Right. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Okay, can I even say this? I didn't even know that misting oils even existed. Like to me, I'm like right now my mind is like blown because I mean, Kelly, I didn't even know there was missing oil options out there. So the fact that you can just buy the container for it, put the oil you want. in and then that has to be a little satisfying too.

Just like missing. Oh, it's very satisfying. I love it. But it's great for like everything. Like I don't even have to worry about like baking, you know, like the canola. If you're going to do like muffin tins or whatever, you can just use your own oils. And it's so much easier. I feel like I can be a little more light handed with oils, especially if I'm roasting

veggies or I'm like grilling up veggies. You could just, instead of having to like pour the oil all over and then you're like mixing it up, you just spritz it. Okay. So this is probably a nutrition question, not an Amazon question. So like Pam. I'll try to help. Pam, would that be considered a spray oil?

That would be, right? Yeah, the ones that people traditionally use for. Yes, the non-stick stuff. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not as healthy. I wouldn't think her as good for you. Right, it's like, canola oil.

Yes. And it's not really like, it's ego-friendly, right? Because I don't have to buy a new one every single time. That's right. So I feel like a lot of us have become a lot more conscious about the oils we use when we cook. For sure. And so I love this because you can do your own. You can have that.

Yeah. So just to set the record straight, everyone, I know what. Pam is so just, that is spray oil. I get it now. Spraying and misting are a little different. All the same. Oh, good. So good.

Okay, I love that one. All right. Next one is sort of like a combo one. But I have recently started, or when I say recently the last probably year, buying all of my sink, kitchen sink type stuff from Amazon. So I'm talking about sponges. I'm talking about bamboo scrubs and just like these little guys, right? And this is for a couple of reasons.

One at the grocery store. or just like the normal places that you're going to buy this stuff, they're designed for you to buy them. So they're like neon yellow and like hot pink, right, to make you buy them. But who wants that sitting out on their sink? Like you make it all nice. And so some of it was aesthetic.

But then as I started to dive into it a little bit more, I found that the prices are really great on Amazon. All of these products are between like $8 to $15. And a lot of them you can get sustainable. You can get bamboo. You can get eco-friendly ones. So I've like totally stopped buying all this stuff at the grocery store, which usually did for convenience,

and now I'm saving money and I'm buying products that look nice, right? I mean, it doesn't hurt. Totally. Absolutely. Yeah. Right. And they're better products, you know, for the environment. I love it.

I love it. So I've got these little natural sponges. I love these. I love this little guy. He comes like with the little guy that you can't get in. Yes. To just grub. Right.

They're so much better. And, you know, they just, they make me feel nice. I spend so much time in my kitchen. I know. It makes me feel nice that it looks. For sure. Yes. It's good quality.

And, yeah. And it fits the aesthetics of the kitchen. So I love that. It's so good. All right. Moving right along, I sent you guys some video of this. I can't necessarily show it here on this. But this is an over-the-door laundry hamper.

I got this specifically to keep on a backdoor in our kitchen because a kitchen is not necessarily somewhere you always think of needing laundry, but you do, right? You have, like, dish towels. If you have young kids, they're, like, spilling stuff everywhere. Like, someone comes in and you've got, like, a dish rag or whatever. So the idea is you can hang this on the back of a door, back of a closet door, pantry door.

We have it on the back of our basement door. It's got just like you can either manually screw it in or it's got these little suction cups that you can suction it on to. And then it's got a perfect little size hole. You can just throw the laundry in. And what I love about this is it just pulls right off the hooks. When you're ready, you take it right to the laundry room. And it's a zipper at the bottom.

So it just like... And it dumps all out. Pops right in. And this thing has not... I keep waiting for Amazon to raise the price on this because I was like, I don't know how people aren't catching on. Because when things get popular on Amazon, they get smart and they raise the price. It is still under $20 to this day.

So this is, I love this. It would be so good in kids rooms or like an RV if you had like a small space like that, apartments dorms. I'm thinking like a dorm and then you could just carry it to the laundry room. When I like it because it's hidden, it's behind the door. And then also just the convenience of how they've structured it, of what you said. I'm like, yes.

Oh, man. The zipper. That's a great one. Yeah. Whenever you get that little extra, you're like, oh my God, it's a zipper out of the body. It makes it so much easier. You're like, who did that?

Who thought of this? Because you're just so smart. Okay, this is the adjusted cup. This thing is brilliant. It's, okay, a measuring cup has been the same for how long, for a thousand years. I don't know when measuring codes were first invented, but it's always been the same,

except that like we made it cute colors. Somebody finally reinvented it into a way that is so much smarter. So I have the two cup one. You can get the one cup one. one too. And it goes like standard as well as metrics. So you get a lot of options, which is nice. I mean, I'm mostly using cups. But it's nice that it's built in there. But this is what's great about it is it just plunges down to whatever size you need. Okay. So now you don't need eight cups. You need one cup. But this is what's even better about it is that, okay, I'm doing flour.

Flowers fine. I can pour it. But what about when you have like coconut oil? Sure. Or like peanut butter. You have to put it into the measuring cup, right? And then you've got to scoop it back out. This one, it just pops in. You're like, why haven't we done this forever? My number one so far on your list. This is, this is it. That's it. I cook a lot with peanut butter and a lot with coconut oil. And I'm, I always like in my mind, I'm like, it's so stupid that I have to put it in the cup and then scoop it out of the cup. But I just, I was like, this is just the way we do it. And it's a two cup, which is nice too, because I have the glass ones that are like pirate or whatever. and it's like it's huge and then it's small

but it's like it's all in one and the with the solid Oh it's the best. Honey, like maple syrup. Yep, all that. It's airtight. It's got this little like rubber guy here so water like even if you're doing water

like it'll hold it. It's not going to like drip down. Right, right. I tested it too because I was like, does this thing leak? I'm going to find out it doesn't. Okay, it's my favorite so far. Yeah. Love the measuring cup.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Next one, this is another one. It's sort of like an aesthetic type of thing but for under $20, I'm very big on, like, reducing too much, like, again, with the sponges, like visual clutter in my home, like anything that can kind of just make it feel a little bit more clean. I just think it makes our minds happier. I think it makes us more productive.

So these are tissue box covers. So I have one that's already covered so I can show you. Okay. So they come in, like, you know, different sizes and shapes. And it just goes over the tissue box. Because, again, the problem with tissue boxes is, like, I feel like they try. Like, it's watercolor. You know, they're trying, they put flowers on it and they try to make it look nice.

But it never really matches in, like with your aesthetic. And it's always sort of, again, they're trying to market it. They like want you to buy it when you're in the store. So it doesn't look so nice. So you can buy them in the little square shapes too. And they just like stick right over the top of it. Brilliant. I love it.

Because again, it's just like, oh, it just makes things just a little bit cleaner. It's just a little bit cleaner. Just a little bit cleaner. It's one of those, like I always feel like I know I'm really onto a product when I'm really enjoying it. and then you have company over, and like multiple people are like, what a britt? And you feel vindicated. You're like, oh, my God, I thought that it was just me who really cared about having her tissue box covers. But now everybody also cares.

They feel very vindicated by that. And they appreciate it. And you're like, thank you. Yes. Thank you. I do too. So good. Okay.

Another product that people might already own, but I have a sort of smarter way or like a more innovative way to use it that I found using it. So this is a milk frother. Yes. it does what it's supposed to do. It frothed milk. But what I have found, this product is an amazing, just like kitchen versatility product

because I can quickly make up sauces with it. I will use it when I'm like mixing up salad dressings. If you need to like, you know, mix together your olive oils and your vinegar. So like this is sold as a milk frother. And certainly it works as that. I use it every morning to froth my milk. But I use it almost every single night at dinner,

whether I'm like mixing up a sauce of some sort of kind, if I want to make whipped cream really quick, but I don't want to get out the whole, you know, blender and I'm going to blend it up. The whole thing. And for salad dressings, one of these little things, it's like, these are like $8.99, and I use it all of the time.

Use it everywhere. Well, I mean, like that's, yes, yes, the salad dressing thing, you got me there because I was like, oh, yes. Because I'll sit there with a, like, emulsifies it. Ork or something. I'll like, go, go, go, go, go, go. But you just stick it in and it's done. There you go.

I use it from all my sauce. You milk frother, we thought. We found some other. stuff for you. I love that. That's great. Okay. My next product is sort of a beauty-related product, and it always makes me laugh when I talk about it because it's sort of a funny-looking thing, but man, does it work? Okay, you know about silk pillowcases? Yes, yes. Right? This is all the rage. They're good for your skin, which is fine. But I always found they were like really hard to maintain. I was like having to buy new ones a lot. So I came on to these little silk hair caps about a year

and a half ago. Now I'm somebody who has like longer hair and I don't want to deal with like styling it every single day. But I would wake up, even with the silk pillowcases, and your hair is always a mess. And it's like, you know, you got the bed head sort of deal. So this is essentially just like a silk pillowcase, but you put it on your head. So if I've just washed my hair or I styled it, you just kind of roll it up and you put this over your head. And it just protects your head from bedhead. It's, I mean, it's like brilliant. The first time I wore it and I took my hair out, I was like, oh, I don't have knots. I don't have bedhead. Like, oh, this is nice. Yes. Do you sleep okay in it? Does it, is it just like? Yeah, I sleep fine.

Yes. No. No, it just sits right on. It's super comfortable. Yep. Yep. It's definitely a mom saver product for sure. And it's nice because I think the silk pillow cases can be expensive.

Like I feel like they've kind of niched the market and like they know what they're doing now. And so, and like you said, if you're having to replace it and all of that. But just for the hair. Yeah. Just for the hair. The silk. Silk nightcap. I love that.

It's good. It's good. All right. Next up, I put this in like everyone stocking this year. This is an electric lighter. If you haven't switched over to these yet, they're like so satisfying. There's something really satisfying

about like starting fire with electricity. But also there's just so much better than having to buy new lighters all the time. So it's got a little US, like many USBs, so you just charge it up. And then when you flip it on, it's going to create a little tiny bit of electricity here. And then you can light, you know, your candles with it.

And I like it again because it is satisfying to do this with electricity. It makes me feel like I'm a welder. I try, you know, obviously not. But I like feel. But it's also not. I'm not buying new lighters all at the time. I can just have one of these downstairs and one of these upstairs. What a great product to not have to, like, again, get rid of like some of that, you know,

single-use stuff. Yes, I know. Because we even bought probably a year ago a bunch of lighters because, yeah, the juice or whatever ran out. And it comes with like four. And I'm like, we don't need four. And then someone got us that, but it's a smaller version of it. And now it's like, oh, it's so easy. Yeah, and it's so easy.

I like this one because I mostly am doing it for candles. So the neck is nice. But there are, you know, there's a few different varieties, but this is the one that I really like. I love it, the electric lighter. Yep. Okay, I think we're on to number 10. And the last one, I'm not, I'm currently wearing it, but I'm not going to really model it for, I'm currently like 30 weeks pregnant or something.

You don't want to see it. But these are the Amazon Essential Women's T-shirts. They are, I have bought them now in the V-neck, in the scoop neck. They come in two packs. Okay. Sometimes the two packs are occasionally $25. They're still less than $20 each. but very often you're getting a two-pack for about $15 to $18.

And I even ended up buying some of the maternity ones. The one that I'm wearing today is like the active wear. So it's like the quick dry. So I've literally tried every single variety of the Amazon Essentials, women's tea. They are the best basic t-shirt. Like, you know, every woman needs some basic t-shirts in their life. Yes.

They are the absolute the best ones. They wash well. They wear one. So most of them are just like a cotton blend. Yeah. This one, like I said, is the, it's like a quick dry. Yes, yes. Yes.

They don't shrink on you. I always size up one because I want like a loose. They're going to fit, like, true to size. So I always size up one if you like a loose fit tea. So I would go to like a medium or whatever. But I'm just saying like if you need the basic tea, like it's one of those products like jeans, right? You like buy it and trying to find the perfect one. You found it for the T-shirt.

Well, and I feel like I wear those kind of T-shirts a lot, even under blazers. Like, I mean, I feel like I use them for sweaters all of time. And then at home I'll put on like joggers. And I'm like, and I just want, like, a soft t-shirt that, yeah, that fits and feels good and all that. And so any basic item like that, that's basically my wardrobe, I feel like, especially when I'm home. Yes. So the Amazon basic t-shirt. Okay, that's the measuring cup, Callie.

I'm probably going to buy after we get off. I'm not going to lie. All right. Oh, that's so, so good. Okay, so people, I feel like with Amazon, too, they question the quality of the product. So I know we kind of talked about this last time, but I would love just to hear your opinion on it because you've tried. so many Amazon products. So you know, like, oh, yeah, that's not great.

That's great. But how do you know before you buy something if you're getting quality? It's hard. And I think, you know, Amazon, every year, like, gets a little bit different. It gets a little bit harder because more and more product comes on.

So I think, one, you have to still, like, be a smart shopper when you're buying. You know, like, think about, like, the general stuff that you would think about when you're buying. I like, you know, stuff like this. So getting recommendations from other people, following other people who are

Amazon people, but people who are sharing the kind of stuff that you generally like. Because certainly there's a lot of stuff. They're just like viral Amazon. And a lot of that's just like clunky stuff you don't need. So finding some people that, you know, that share a lot of Amazon products and sort of are in your niche is helpful.

The other thing that I like doing is I like not necessarily looking at the reviews, like just because something, the other day my mom was here and she was buying something on Amazon. She's like, oh, it's got four and a half stars. And I'm like, that doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I feel like everything has four and a half stars. Unless it only has two reviews, then maybe it has three stars. You actually have to like go down to the reviews. And I like to sort my reviews by the most recent. Because Amazon can be tricky that way sometimes too, where the actual

product from that listing has changed. So like old reviews, maybe an old product. So don't just look at the star, but take a few minutes to just like actually read the reviews. Yes, yes. Because that will give you a lot of insights. Sometimes do you look at the number of reviews? because for me, I'm like, oh, if something has 4,000 versus 70, I'm tempted to go with the 4,000. I guess that's a fair assumption. Yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely. I usually don't buy something, but it's got like two or three reviews.

Because I'm like, unless it's something I'm like, I'll try it, like I'm going to test it. Right. I want to know that it's going to work. And the other thing that I find is usually a good fallback is lots of times when you are shopping, it'll say like Amazon choice or like Amazon suggested or bestseller. Very often those ones, what almost? never let you down because they sort of like Amazon has sort of vetted them. Okay.

So sometimes if I'm between two, I will often go with those. And another thing I love doing is if you're searching for a specific thing, you type it. It usually will show you a few rows. And then you get that bar where it's like highly rated. I like to look in at those too because that will help you sort of a weed them through. But again, even though it's got close to five stars, like I like to take a look and sort of see what exactly it is that people are saying in the last six months about it. It's so smart.

That's so smart to do the recent ones, too. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. That's so great. Callie, thank you so much. I just, I love these kind of shows because it's helpful. You're saving money, and when you're buying something, it's actually going to improve your life, right?

And it's just nice. It is. It's convenient and it's great. And where can everyone find you? If you search me on YouTube, you could search Callie Brands for it, Buffers Coffee. That's probably the best place to find all of my other content. Awesome. So great.

Well, guys, make sure to check out everything that she is doing. and remember when it comes to buying stuff, look at the quality of the product and make sure that it is in your budgets. So I know at this point, a lot of people, they have slipped on their money goals. Listen, it happens, right? You make a New Year's resolution.

You start a new year and you think, I'm going to change. I'm going to do something different. I'm going to work towards this thing and then you start slipping away. Yeah, and it's actually very common. So according to Forbes, about 80% of people abandoned their New Year's resolutions by February, yep,

which again means you may not be making as much headway as you'd hoped when it comes to your money habits and your bad money habits specifically. So whether you are, you know, changing your money goals to make it more realistic or maybe you've just neglected them altogether, you need to know how can I break my bad money habits? And let me tell you, it is simply a mindset shift. So the good news is that you still have a lot of time in the year to get back on track. Okay? So we're just here at the beginning of the year still.

You have a long way to go. But I do want to dig into some strategies that will help you break your bad money habits for good. So first and foremost, you have to take ownership of your bad money habits. So you have to be able to acknowledge what they are to even know what to change. So maybe you say, oh, man, you know, I tend to spend. money when I'm stressed or I make a budget but I just I never stick to it halfway through the month I just think ah screw it whatever I'm just going to do what I want to do uh maybe it's that you you know make purchases and you don't want your spouse to know so you just kind of tuck those

shopping bags away maybe it's that you tend to overspend at the grocery store every single month and don't adjust the budget where whatever the money habit is the bad money habits you want to be able to be able to name it and then you still stay have to take control of your money. So first, you do want to acknowledge, again, your bad money habits, but you have to understand the root of it is that it starts with you. And that first step of controlling your habits is you have to take ownership and say, hey, it is up to me. Now, I know people start life in all different circumstances, right? For some of you, maybe you graduated college with no student in debt because you had scholarships or your parents helped pay for it. So you're

starting off, you know, life that way. For some people, they have, you know, six figures of student loan debts, or maybe for some people, they grew up in a home where money was never talked about, and maybe, you know, grew up watching really bad money habits, and that's what they have to start off with. They have to break those. For some people, they grew up in a home where money was taught, and they knew from a young age how it worked, right? So, like, we all start in different circumstances. And so we can't necessarily take that and blame it. I think it is a purpose to be able to say, hey, this has happens, and this is why I am where I am, but still have the belief in taking ownership that you can still change your habits regardless of where you started or

where you are, because that's the truth, right? Everyone, again, starts at a different spot, but you have the ability every day to wake up and say, okay, I'm going to change my bad money habits to good. I'm going to make different decisions. So that's a really important part of it. And again, being able to have the awareness of what the bad money habit is and name it and know that you have the ability to change it. All right, next step, when it comes to our bad at money habits is that a lot of us don't keep track of what we spend. So this is not a great money habit. And let me tell you, this is one that you have to do. You have to be able to know where you are spending your money. If you have a budget in place,

you have to be able to track and know exactly where your money is going to stay on track. for your budget. So you need to create that plan, which is your budget. So again, don't worry. If you haven't done it before, listen, there is very simple things you can do. You can download an app. You can do this on a sheet of paper, but it's your income minus all of your expenses, including giving and savings, should equal zero. So every dollar coming in is assigned to a category. You can do that on a sheet of paper. I love using every dollar. It's a budgeting app. It's really simple. And it really does help. And then once you make the budget that, you want to be able to track your spending. So when you are spending money, you want to be able to take it out of that category

and know how much money you have left in each specific category to be able to know how much you have left to spend. The tracking transactions for sure is a great money habit to have when it comes to winning with money. Another way to break your bad money habits is to unpack your feelings and beliefs towards money. So don't underestimate the power of this, you guys. So when you have bad money habits, you need to know where are they coming from so that you have the power to change them. To be able to say, gosh, you know, I'm doing this all the time. Why is that? Is that because I, you know, saw how my parents, you know, spent money,

it's because my personality is this a coping mechanism? Like, when you start to really understand why you do the things you do with money, it helps you change your bad money habits to good. So when you know where your bad money habits come from, then you have the power to change them. So take a moment and just think about, okay, where do my sense? spending habits come from. You know, ask yourself questions like, what did I learn when it comes to money from my parents and growing up? What did the household look like? I mean, believe it or not,

you pick up a lot, whether it's intentionally or not intentionally taught when it comes to your childhood home of what your parents were doing and, again, just the emotional state of the household. Also, what are you consuming and surrounding yourself with on a daily basis? Because, listen, There are thousands of images and ads all over the place from social media to, you know, even TV, right? You're watching a show. Like, it's amazing how much influence our media has on us. So what all are you putting into your brain?

Also ask what imaginary standard of living are you holding yourself to? Let me tell you, what people just assume today of what life should be like is a pretty high standard of living and that's not always realistic to be able to say, okay, it may not look like everyone else. but gosh, I would rather sleep at night and have less stress and pay for things than go into debt for this lifestyle that I'm trying to keep up with. So just some questions to ask yourself again. I think it's really important to understand, you know, how you got to your bad money habits,

first and foremost. All right. Last, make sure your money goals are specific and realistic. So when you understand why your bad money habits are keeping you from reaching your goals, you want to look at that and be very specific. So maybe your goal is unrealistic. You know, maybe there's an emergency that you have to spend money on and you have to dip into your emergency fund. Maybe you're in a time in life where you're strapped for time.

And so you're ordering food to your door or you're finding conveniences. And again, because your schedule is so tight, you're paying for all these extra things. Also, set small doable goals to help you get back on track. So, for example, try tracking your transactions every day for three days. Maybe cut your budget by $30. You know, find these small goals and these small wins to get you some momentum. All right, you guys, oh man, every day we are making decisions when it comes to our money. And that's either going to take you forward towards your financial goals or set you back.

But knowing your strengths, your trouble spots, and tendencies is key to winning with money long term. So take advantage of those. Also, my book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. check that out if you're interested in learning more about how to get unstuck from your old money habits. So again, going into your tendencies, how you grew up, your personalities, your fears, your dreams. So much of that impacts how you look and view money. All right, if you have a friend or a family member who is trying to do things differently with their money, make sure to send them this and help them get back on track, whether you, again, are reaching your money goals this year

or maybe you've fallen off the bandwagon, but you can get back on because every single day you get to wake up and make choices with your money. Oh, those bad money happens, you guys. They are tough to break, but you can do it. All right, thanks so much for listening to this episode. And thank you Callie for being a guest on the show. And if you guys love this podcast, make sure to hit that follow button. And if the spirit leads, you can leave a review. And as always, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.