25 Life-Changing Tech Purchases You Need to Try

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! “Alexa, set a timer for tomorrow at 8 a.m. Alexa, turn the thermostat to 70 degrees. Alexa, can you make my budget?” Okay, maybe that last one is a stretch, but modern conveniences can be truly life changing. Find out Rachel’s and George’s take on what technology is worth the hype. Next Steps: 🎥 Watch our video “‘Harmless’ Purchases That Drain Your Bank Account” 📱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 Smart Money Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🥃 Cinnamon-Spiced Orange and Thyme Mocktail Recipe: Pick Up Limes 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup maple syrup 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger 1/2 lemon, juiced 2 cups ice cubes 2 cups orange juice 2 cups ginger ale Instructions: Add water, maple syrup, thyme sprigs and cinnamon to a small pan and simmer. Reduce heat to low and let it steep for about 3 minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature. Fill a shaker or mason jar halfway with ice cubes and strain in thyme syrup. Add grated ginger and lemon juice. Shake well. Strain contents from shaker over ice cubes, and add orange juice and ginger ale. Enjoy! Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Rachel Cruze?

  Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz.

• 0:06George Kamel?

  I'm George Kamel.

• 0:07Rachel Cruze?

  And this is

• 0:08George Kamel?

  Smart Money Happy Hour.

• 0:11Rachel Cruze?

  Cheers, George.

• 0:14Rachel Cruze?

  Wow, fall in a cup.

• 0:17George Kamel?

  This is autumnal best.

• 0:19Rachel Cruze?

  Amen, hallelujah.

• 0:21George Kamel?

  Thank you.

• 0:22Rachel Cruze?

  If you will. Well, this is the show where two friends who happen to be money experts talk about what you're talking about, everything from pop culture, current events, and money.

• 0:29George Kamel?

  And what are we talking about today?

• 0:31Rachel Cruze?

  I know, I don't want to be dramatic, George.

• 0:32George Kamel?

  You never.

• 0:35Rachel Cruze?

  But today's topic might be one of my proudest moments.

• 0:37George Kamel?

  Why?

• 0:38Rachel Cruze?

  Because I have found some technology apps that have helped me in my life, and I sound like you, but I am now being converted to this idea that technology can help us all.

• 0:49George Kamel?

  Nothing makes you sound tech savvy like saying, "I have found some technology apps." Well, to be fair, you did-

• 0:56Rachel Cruze?

  And other techs, tech stuff.

• 0:59George Kamel?

  You convinced me to buy a product that you love, which makes you a tech influencer now.

• 1:03Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh, there's so much to talk about, you guys, because there are some great things out there in the world that will help your life, and we're going to talk about it.

• 1:08George Kamel?

  But first, we are sipping on a cinnamon spiced orange and thyme mocktail. That is T-H-Y-M-E, so you're not confused.

• 1:16Rachel Cruze?

  Not thyme, thyme.

• 1:18George Kamel?

  Thyme. It's really good, so stick around if you like mocktails, because we're going to give you the rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end.

• 1:24Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm. All right, let's talk about the first piece of technology that I influenced you on, George. Okay, so there is a scale out there, you guys, that you can buy. It's like $30. It's not that expensive. You step on it, and you wait, and apparently, there's like, wait.

• 1:40George Kamel?

  Electromagnetic sensors and whatever.

• 1:42Rachel Cruze?

  Whatever that goes through your body.

• 1:43George Kamel?

  H-B-G-B.

• 1:44Rachel Cruze?

  And then you have an app, and it breaks down. Hold on, let me read you all. Hold on, I'll get it.

• 1:48George Kamel?

  Oh, wow, very vulnerable to, oh, you're not going to read the numbers.

• 1:51Rachel Cruze?

  I'm not reading my numbers. Oh my, oh, no. But it talks about body fat, BMI, skeletal muscle, muscle mass, muscle storage ability level, protein, BMR, fat-free body weight, sub-

• 2:07George Kamel?

  Don't you think they started making some up at the end there?

• 2:09Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, visceral fat, body, uh, um, body water percentage, bone mass, your metabolic age?

• 2:18George Kamel?

  Oh, wow.

• 2:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 2:19George Kamel?

  Can you tell us if your metabolic age is younger than you actually are?

• 2:22Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me go to mine. Cause Winston and I, we share the, we share that, but we have two different profiles.

• 2:24George Kamel?

  So this thing, based on your metabolism, this is how old you are?

• 2:28Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, of all the stuff. And I've been working out, y'all, "Oh, I'm 34."

• 2:32George Kamel?

  Younger than you actually are.

• 2:33Rachel Cruze?

  Two years younger. I know. So anyways, it's not like a doctor that's doing this, right? So it's not like super scientific. So like, give yourself some, a little bit of grace in the numbers, I think. But it's so helpful and it's amazing because I'm in my workout era, but it is fun to see like progress, right? Just like your money, you wanna see progress. That's why the debt snowballs, paying your debts off smallest to largest, cause you want that progress. Well, same with health, where you're like, "Oh my gosh, so it's actually working. Like I'm seeing muscle mass increase or whatever." Yeah, I don't know. That's, it's a, it's really fun. I like that one.

• 3:03George Kamel?

  And you convinced me to buy it.

• 3:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, what do you think about it?

• 3:06George Kamel?

  I'm like, how, I'm just confused. For so long, I just got on a scale and it told me one number.

• 3:11Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 3:12George Kamel?

  Little did I know, there was another world available at my fingertips, at my, at my toes.

• 3:17Rachel Cruze?

  Is it helpful?

• 3:18George Kamel?

  Very helpful.

• 3:19Rachel Cruze?

  What's your, what's your age?

• 3:20George Kamel?

  Oh, I haven't checked.

• 3:21Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, that's neat.

• 3:22George Kamel?

  So I am, uh, I'm 35 as of this recording.

• 3:26Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 3:26George Kamel?

  That could change.

• 3:27Rachel Cruze?

  When's your num, when's your birthday?

• 3:29George Kamel?

  In May.

• 3:30Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 3:30George Kamel?

  It's not, yeah, we're fine.

• 3:31Rachel Cruze?

  You're probably gonna...

• 3:32George Kamel?

  Ooh, here we go. So you were, you were two years younger than your actual age.

• 3:36Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 3:36George Kamel?

  Metabolic age is 32.

• 3:38Rachel Cruze?

  Oh!

• 3:39George Kamel?

  I have three-year differential.

• 3:40Rachel Cruze?

  Sure.

• 3:43George Kamel?

  Wow. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Now, otherwise, I'm a boomer. I am the youngest living boomer at heart.

• 3:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah, yeah. Internally, internally, you're a boomer, but no.

• 3:56George Kamel?

  But my body, still got it.

• 3:58Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. So anyways, there is, um, yeah, technologies, apps, purchases that can actually enhance your life, so.

• 4:05George Kamel?

  But it feels like every day we're being marketed to, and there's another version of the tech that we now need. There's a V4 that's even better, and if you have V3, it's trash. And so we wanna cut through some of that noise and give you our honest thoughts on what is worth the cost when it comes to technology. And not just, you know, don't think just digital and apps, all kinds of things we're gonna get into today. So let's start.

• 4:24Rachel Cruze?

  Can I go first?

• 4:25George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 4:25Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. Even though I'm a big conspiracy theorist, this doesn't, this doesn't...

• 4:29George Kamel?

  What a great disclaimer.

• 4:30Rachel Cruze?

  It doesn't correlate with it. But I love Alexa. We have Alexa.

• 4:36George Kamel?

  So Amazon's Alexa devices.

• 4:37Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, and we're always like, Alexa, what's the weather today?

• 4:40George Kamel?

  You just triggered like a thousand Alexas out there.

• 4:42Rachel Cruze?

  That's so true. Okay. Her name, what time is it? Her name, will you play "The Goodness of God" by Bethel? Love that song.

• 4:50George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 4:51Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know. But like if you're in the kitchen, you're like, oh yeah, I need some music. I need to know the time or the weather or like what's

• 4:58George Kamel?

  What's the weirdest thing you've asked Alexa and she answered appropriately? You got anything weird you ask her?

• 5:05Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, yeah, the kids will have random questions and then we'll like ask her something about like dinosaurs or something. We're like, Alexa.

• 5:10George Kamel?

  Does she know?

• 5:12Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, she usually does. And then you can play, are you smarter than a fifth grader with her? And that's pretty fun because you're like, oh yeah, there's some like, anyways.

• 5:19George Kamel?

  And that makes you feel good to be smarter than a fifth grader?

• 5:22Rachel Cruze?

  No, I don't know. She's just, it's a helpful gadget in our house that we use. We don't use her to shop with, like some people like tell her like, hey, buy more of this on Amazon. We don't do that. But just having her around for music and a clock.

• 5:37George Kamel?

  Well, we're a Google Home family because we have a distrust of large corporations.

• 5:43George Kamel?

  I'm kidding.

• 5:43Rachel Cruze?

  She just said Google. Talk about mistrust.

• 5:46George Kamel?

  It's a joke, Rachel.

• 5:47Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 5:48George Kamel?

  They both own us.

• 5:49Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, they do.

• 5:50George Kamel?

  In different ways.

• 5:51Rachel Cruze?

  We can't get away.

• 5:51George Kamel?

  But here's my favorite thing that we do is we use the broadcast feature. And so we can say, hey, name, broadcast. And Whitney from another room in the house will say, broadcast. Hey, can you get me two pacifiers in the nursery? I'll hear it from the bathroom.

• 6:07Rachel Cruze?

  No, it's like a walkie talkie.

• 6:09George Kamel?

  It's a walkie talkie.

• 6:10Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 6:10George Kamel?

  And that truly has been the most helpful communication tool in our marriage.

• 6:15George Kamel?

  Because I can't hear her. She has the wispiest little voice.

• 6:18Rachel Cruze?

  So sweet.

• 6:19George Kamel?

  So her yelling, I still can't hear across the room.

• 6:21Rachel Cruze?

  Man.

• 6:22George Kamel?

  You know?

• 6:22Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 6:23George Kamel?

  So anyways, there we go.

• 6:24Rachel Cruze?

  I like it.

• 6:24George Kamel?

  Alexa, that's a good one.

• 6:25Rachel Cruze?

  Another one I love. I love a Keurig.

• 6:29Rachel Cruze?

  So.

• 6:30George Kamel?

  You still use a Keurig?

• 6:32Rachel Cruze?

  Winston will make pour over coffee. I would say maybe four times a week.

• 6:37George Kamel?

  Like a good American?

• 6:38Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 6:38George Kamel?

  Would?

• 6:39Rachel Cruze?

  Um, but man, I still, I think it tastes good. The Keurig to me tastes good.

• 6:45George Kamel?

  But I think that should give you pause as to how good your taste is. You know what I mean?

• 6:49Rachel Cruze?

  When it comes to coffee.

• 6:50George Kamel?

  Like if you cracked open Chef Boyardee and you were like, this is some of the best spaghetti I've had.

• 6:54Rachel Cruze?

  This is some of the best ravioli ever.

• 6:57George Kamel?

  I would, we would all go.

• 6:58Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I really wanna do a blind taste test with you because you always rag on the Keurig. I bet if I had a Keurig and like two other types of coffee, I don't know if you would know the difference, George.

• 7:07George Kamel?

  I could smell that burnt plastic a mile away.

• 7:10Rachel Cruze?

  Stop it. Oh my gosh. Here's another technology that I love. We don't use it as much recent, but back in the day when we had our dog that shed, we used it a lot. The Roomba.

• 7:19George Kamel?

  Oh, that's a good one.

• 7:20Rachel Cruze?

  So great. I mean, what a fun invention. A robot that's a vacuum.

• 7:25George Kamel?

  My real estate agent got us a Roomba for like a housewarming after we closed.

• 7:29Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I've heard one horror story from a friend.

• 7:32George Kamel?

  Oh no. How about a Roomba? Oh, did it pick up dog poop?

• 7:35Rachel Cruze?

  Picked up dog poop?

• 7:37George Kamel?

  That's always my greatest fear.

• 7:38Rachel Cruze?

  Spread it all over the house? So bad, Joel, so bad. It was not good. But other than that, I think it's a, I think it's a great piece of technology.

• 7:47George Kamel?

  Because you can set schedules, it maps the house, like all the, especially the newer ones are fancy. I can't run it because my dog thinks it's trying to like murder us.

• 7:55Rachel Cruze?

  Oh no.

• 7:56George Kamel?

  So he attacks it. We can't run it if the dog's around.

• 7:59Rachel Cruze?

  Oh shoot. And your dogs are always around?

• 8:00George Kamel?

  And he's always around.

• 8:01Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Just the one dog hates it?

• 8:03George Kamel?

  Yes, the one dog.

• 8:04Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 8:04George Kamel?

  Blue, the, the boy. He doesn't like anything that moves or makes sound, which makes it difficult.

• 8:09Rachel Cruze?

  Blue.

• 8:09George Kamel?

  So like even a lint roller can't use that around him?

• 8:13Rachel Cruze?

  Or a baby?

• 8:14George Kamel?

  Well, the baby is fine.

• 8:15Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 8:15George Kamel?

  Well, like anything that goes around him, anything that kind of moves back and forth mechanically or makes a big sound.

• 8:20Rachel Cruze?

  He don't like it.

• 8:21George Kamel?

  Leaf blowers, uh, you know, sprinklers, pretty much everything.

• 8:26George Kamel?

  He is great.

• 8:27Rachel Cruze?

  Your dogs are so high maintenance.

• 8:28George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 8:29Rachel Cruze?

  Um, okay, a crock pot, we use this all the time. So there's like the, the crock pot, the Instapot and the air fryer.

• 8:36George Kamel?

  I have all three.

• 8:37Rachel Cruze?

  You do? I was gonna say, I only have the crock pot. Okay, which ones do you like the best?

• 8:41George Kamel?

  The one I use the most is the air fryer.

• 8:42Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 8:43George Kamel?

  Because easy to reheat food.

• 8:44Rachel Cruze?

  People talk about the air fryer, how great it is.

• 8:46George Kamel?

  I don't have a traditional air fryer with like the thing you just kinda like pull out in a basket. Mine is like a little French door, stainless steel.

• 8:54Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, it is.

• 8:55George Kamel?

  It's from Costco.

• 8:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, it is, of course.

• 8:57George Kamel?

  So I enjoy that, but I do need to get back, it's crock pot season. And Kelly Daniel, I was sitting next to her at lunch and she had this tiny crock pot warmer that's made for individual meals. You bring it to work, you plug it in, no need to go to the microwave.

• 9:10Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, no way.

• 9:11George Kamel?

  And it's heating it up for you over two hours while you're at work and then at lunchtime, it's ready.

• 9:15Rachel Cruze?

  Did you plug it in like downstairs or like at your desk or like pretty?

• 9:18Speaker 02

  Tell building services, but at my desk.

• 9:20Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 9:22George Kamel?

  Breaking the Ramsey law.

• 9:23Rachel Cruze?

  They don't listen to this podcast.

• 9:25Speaker 02

  You put your food in it?

• 9:26Rachel Cruze?

  It's fine.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  And then you just plug it in and it takes a couple hours.

• 9:29Rachel Cruze?

  Does it smell?

• 9:29Speaker 02

  No, you can't smell anything, cause it latches in and then your, your food's ready.

• 9:34Rachel Cruze?

  That's amazing.

• 9:35George Kamel?

  Technology.

• 9:35Rachel Cruze?

  Well done, Kelly, well done. All right, so you got, uh, yeah, crock pot's my favorite. You can get that for like, you know, 50, 60 bucks. Air fryer's more expensive. Um, you know, it's like $70.

• 9:46George Kamel?

  They've gotten cheaper over time as they've gotten more kind of out there.

• 9:49Rachel Cruze?

  But your Instapot is like, could go up, you know, anywhere from 80 to 130 dollars.

• 9:54George Kamel?

  And there's people that swear by the Instapot. I just, I haven't kinda gotten over the learning curve of how to use it, what to use it for.

• 10:00Rachel Cruze?

  I know, yeah, yeah.

• 10:01George Kamel?

  I'll get there. You know, another one I fell for that I have not used is the sous vide.

• 10:06Rachel Cruze?

  Winston Cruz sous vides.

• 10:08George Kamel?

  Oh, does he love it?

• 10:09Rachel Cruze?

  Loves it, steak. And people claim when he makes steak and they come over, that it's like some of the best steak they've ever had. Cause you get it to perfection.

• 10:17George Kamel?

  To the perfect, medium rare. And then he sears it at the end.

• 10:20Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, then you sear it. So like he'll do like the green eggs, sometimes he'll smoke it, like he'll, or the, just the grill. And it's pretty fantastic. And he'll do chicken the same way and then he'll sear it.

• 10:28George Kamel?

  Cause my greatest fear is overcooking slash undercooking chicken.

• 10:32Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and the chicken is like, perfect.

• 10:34George Kamel?

  Either way, it's ruined. Cause I'm either like, I'm gonna die from salmonella or I will not get through this rubbery mess. And I vow, I will never cook chicken again.

• 10:43Rachel Cruze?

  Wait, what?

• 10:44George Kamel?

  That was, that's what I vow. And then every time, I end up doing it again.

• 10:47Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, okay. I was like, God, we always eat chicken.

• 10:49George Kamel?

  And I have the thermometer and all that, but then like one piece is, and you're like, ah.

• 10:51Rachel Cruze?

  Wait, what are you, I don't understand. Like, can you not just cut it and be like, oh, that looks good? That looks right?

• 10:56George Kamel?

  You don't do it based on looks? How vain are you?

• 10:59Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, George.

• 11:00George Kamel?

  You don't just look at a piece of chicken?

• 11:01Rachel Cruze?

  George, you can cut it and be like, ooh, that is way too pink in the center. We gotta redo that.

• 11:05George Kamel?

  Yeah, well, it's not about pink. It's, it's all about temperature, because some chicken looks pink. Like if you smoke chicken, for example.

• 11:12Rachel Cruze?

  George, I've never died. Obviously.

• 11:15George Kamel?

  You have a good point. You have never died. That's all the, that's all the proof I need.

• 11:20Rachel Cruze?

  I eat a lot of chicken and make a lot of chicken.

• 11:24George Kamel?

  Okay. I need a recipe. But I think the sous vide could change that for me.

• 11:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but the sous vide is great. It's a little weird.

• 11:29George Kamel?

  Cause you're vacuum sealing it, it's in the-

• 11:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, you got the plastic that. I mean, it's a process.

• 11:34George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 11:34Rachel Cruze?

  But then he has an app for it.

• 11:36George Kamel?

  There's an app for that.

• 11:37Rachel Cruze?

  There's an app for the sous vide. I mean, it's crazy. It is crazy. So, yeah.

• 11:40George Kamel?

  Cooking. There's a whole bunch of gadgets there.

• 11:41Rachel Cruze?

  All right, one thing-

• 11:42George Kamel?

  This one was me.

• 11:43Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, yeah, this is you and Winston. Because all the smart technology around the house, I don't get it. I don't need to get it, but it is-

• 11:54George Kamel?

  Just leave it to Winston and I. We'll handle it.

• 11:57Rachel Cruze?

  Give me all of yours. Cause I don't think we have as much as you. You have a lot.

• 12:00George Kamel?

  We, I lumped all of these together as sort of smart home, hands-free devices. So this includes, uh, the, you know, Ring Doorbell, one of those. We have like the Nest Google one. Uh, smart bulbs are everywhere. If there's, if there's a bulb and a lamp, like a, you know, I keep them all on smart devices so that I can turn everything off with one button or just talking to Google.

• 12:21Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 12:22George Kamel?

  That changes the game. Thermostat control, again, you can do that by voice or by the app with Nest Google. Garage opener, I do that from my phone. I have it on schedule, so if I forget to close it or-

• 12:33Rachel Cruze?

  Ah, oh, that's smart.

• 12:35George Kamel?

  It'll automatically close at 9:00 PM every night. And the fun thing is, I never carry a key. I don't own a house key. I don't have a car key.

• 12:41Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 12:43George Kamel?

  So I use my phone to turn on the car.

• 12:45Rachel Cruze?

  And unlock your front door.

• 12:46George Kamel?

  And I have, yeah, my phone unlocks the front door. The garage actually opens as I pull my car up to the garage.

• 12:53Rachel Cruze?

  No, automatically?

• 12:54George Kamel?

  You can set that up with your car.

• 12:56Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 12:56George Kamel?

  I will teach you.

• 12:57Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 12:59George Kamel?

  It's like it, the house is awaiting my arrival.

• 13:02Rachel Cruze?

  It feels like Smart House, remember that Disney movie?

• 13:05George Kamel?

  That's my dream, is we're all just trying to get back to that reality.

• 13:08Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 13:08George Kamel?

  That is not reality.

• 13:09Rachel Cruze?

  That they set for us and we're trying to go there.

• 13:11George Kamel?

  And the door, I have the, you know, smart lock on the door.

• 13:14Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 13:14George Kamel?

  So just keypad. And so there is no, I don't need, I, as you can tell, in these skinny jeans, I can't fit any key. It's necessity.

• 13:22Rachel Cruze?

  There's no room.

• 13:22George Kamel?

  So those have changed my life and it's my one thing, if I was gonna upgrade your life, I would say go.

• 13:28Rachel Cruze?

  How much does all that cost, would you say?

• 13:30George Kamel?

  Well, I also have the cameras, so depending on how many cameras you have. So a front doorbell, one in the backyard, there's some inside the house, like living room, things like that. Nursery camera. All of that could run you, I would say, a thousand bucks, I'll get you like, set up.

• 13:45Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 13:45George Kamel?

  Two thousand bucks, I'll change your family tree.

• 13:49George Kamel?

  Yeah. That's like game changer level.

• 13:52Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, I should know this, are the apps, like the garage door app that we have, like, do we pay a subscription for that?

• 13:56George Kamel?

  No.

• 13:57Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 13:58George Kamel?

  I hope you don't, I don't know if you got scammed into one.

• 14:00Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I may have.

• 14:01George Kamel?

  No, the only one that's a subscription is Nest has one to, to be able to watch all the camera footage.

• 14:06Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 14:06George Kamel?

  On multiple cameras.

• 14:07Rachel Cruze?

  How do these companies make money if we're not paying for it?

• 14:10George Kamel?

  Um, the garage one, you pay for the product.

• 14:13Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, you do pay, okay, so we paid something.

• 14:15George Kamel?

  You paid something for the actual product. Or it was built in when you built your house. A lot of times the builder includes some of the tech features.

• 14:21Rachel Cruze?

  And that's just like a thing up in your garage?

• 14:23George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 14:24Rachel Cruze?

  Thing?

• 14:24George Kamel?

  So by other than that, I don't pay for, you know, thermostat control, it's built into the product, smart bulbs. There's no.

• 14:30Rachel Cruze?

  You gotta pay for that.

• 14:31George Kamel?

  Yep. Smart bulbs, though, you can now get really cheap from Costco or Sam's Club. You don't need to get like crazy fancy name brand. They all have Wi-Fi capability. It'll say works with Google Home or works with Alexa.

• 14:41Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yes.

• 14:42George Kamel?

  That's all you gotta look for.

• 14:43Rachel Cruze?

  There you go.

• 14:43George Kamel?

  There's your little, I, I would say that was a good five minute sort of tech summary.

• 14:47Rachel Cruze?

  I appreciate that, George, that's good.

• 14:49George Kamel?

  And those really have changed my life. I will say that is the number one.

• 14:52Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 14:53George Kamel?

  Probably the best part of my life, other than my wife, children and dogs.

• 14:58George Kamel?

  I'm a man of convenience. What can I say?

• 15:00Rachel Cruze?

  Love, love some convenience.

• 15:01George Kamel?

  Even the noise machines. I have everything on smart plugs. So I don't have to get underneath and turn on a machine. I just say, hey, name, turn on bedroom noise machine.

• 15:10Rachel Cruze?

  You know what we did for our Christmas decorations? Is we did smart plugs for that.

• 15:14George Kamel?

  Exactly.

• 15:15Rachel Cruze?

  And that was smart because it all goes off at like, you know, 11pm or whatever.

• 15:19George Kamel?

  And again, on a schedule. So at sundown, I have the Christmas lights automatically turn on. And at sunup, they automatically turn off.

• 15:25Rachel Cruze?

  I know. So smart.

• 15:27George Kamel?

  Long gone are the days of dad running out there, you know, unplugging nineteen things.

• 15:31Rachel Cruze?

  That foot thing. I know.

• 15:32George Kamel?

  Wow, I could go all day.

• 15:33Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, but keep going because the smartphone technology is, there's a lot there. It's kind of what we were just talking about, but there are things on the phone that make our lives better too.

• 15:43George Kamel?

  Number one attached to the phone or not attached is wireless charging. I know you're a fan of that.

• 15:50Rachel Cruze?

  You just said it right there.

• 15:51George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 15:51Rachel Cruze?

  And then it goes a little green light around so you know it's charging and you're good to go.

• 15:54George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 15:55Rachel Cruze?

  It's great. Instead of like, I, this would be me back in the day. You're laying in bed, you're like, oh, I just my phone. And I don't want to get out of bed to find it. So I throw half my body down on the ground and I rummage through the ground.

• 16:06George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 16:06Rachel Cruze?

  Find my cord and then I gotta hoist myself back up.

• 16:09George Kamel?

  I do like cord organization. You can attach one to your bedside table and it'll hang the cord there.

• 16:15Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah, and it's all there.

• 16:16George Kamel?

  But I do think long phone chargers, like getting an extension cable or just getting a six foot.

• 16:21Rachel Cruze?

  That's what I always do too.

• 16:22George Kamel?

  It's a game changer.

• 16:22Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, um, one that I'm not using, but a lot of people are, is ChatGPT.

• 16:27George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah, I use it every day.

• 16:28Rachel Cruze?

  I feel like we were on the front end of this technology because we did a smart money happy hour episode about Chat, ChatGPT, right?

• 16:36George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 16:37Rachel Cruze?

  On the cusp of it, like a year ago. Maybe it's been a lot longer, but I still don't use it. It's not a go-to for me.

• 16:43George Kamel?

  I use it to, if I have like a bunch of notes.

• 16:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 16:47George Kamel?

  I will use it to summarize. I'll use it to kind of give me some ideas. Um, I'll use to add things up. If I just have a long list of numbers and I don't want to figure out Excel. I'll just say, hey, add these up. So I use it for a lot of random things, recipes, meal planning, grocery lists. I mean, it's endless.

• 17:04Rachel Cruze?

  I use the notes app for all that.

• 17:08George Kamel?

  That's fine. But if I was like, hey, give me 10 gluten-free recipes for a crock pot. That involve chicken and steak. It was just, and I'd say, alright. Based on that, give me a grocery list that I can use at Aldi or Kroger. And I can copy and paste that into my note, and now I'm ready to shop.

• 17:26Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, that's, that's pretty unbelievable.

• 17:27George Kamel?

  So that, that kind of stuff, just think about anything that would save you time that you don't want to ask your spouse for.

• 17:31Rachel Cruze?

  It's so worth it.

• 17:32George Kamel?

  There you go.

• 17:32Rachel Cruze?

  Alright, here's some apps that I love, that I wish we had like back in the day. Cause I think it would make life easier. Venmo.

• 17:38George Kamel?

  For payments, absolutely.

• 17:39Rachel Cruze?

  For payments with friends. Like your splint payments, you gotta pay someone. You don't have cash always, so it's like, oh yeah, let me just Venmo it to you. Uber and Lyft as well.

• 17:48George Kamel?

  That's changed the way we live.

• 17:49Rachel Cruze?

  I'm more Uber, are you Uber, are you Uber or Lyft?

• 17:51George Kamel?

  I am a man of frugality, so I will check both every time.

• 17:55Rachel Cruze?

  You will.

• 17:55George Kamel?

  And I will choose the cheaper option.

• 17:57Rachel Cruze?

  Is there, is it usually pretty competitive?

• 17:59George Kamel?

  I would say lately, lately Uber's been a little cheaper for some reason. I, it used to be the opposite. I would find Lyft was a little bit cheaper.

• 18:06Rachel Cruze?

  Uh huh.

• 18:07George Kamel?

  Um, but Uber, now they have different versions, like hey, if you're willing to wait up to 20 minutes, it'll be cheaper. Or if you're willing to share a ride.

• 18:14Rachel Cruze?

  Which I would never do. That makes me so nervous.

• 18:17George Kamel?

  Well, here's the hack. I do it knowing, no one's sharing a ride in the suburbs. So if you're in the big city, sure, maybe.

• 18:25Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 18:26George Kamel?

  But Whitney and I did this when we traveled in San Francisco. And we just had lifts, and we'd always do shared ride, cause it was cheaper. And there was, I think maybe one time out of 10, there was someone in the car. And for a short distance.

• 18:37Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, okay.

• 18:39George Kamel?

  And they get in the front, and we get in the back, and it's fine. You know, it's a quick drop off.

• 18:42Rachel Cruze?

  No big deal.

• 18:42George Kamel?

  So, but they are great and very convenient.

• 18:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 18:45George Kamel?

  What is the threshold for you when it comes to requesting a payment on Venmo? Like if it's less than five bucks, don't even bother Venmo-ing.

• 18:54Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I'm gonna go.

• 18:58Rachel Cruze?

  Twenty bucks?

• 18:59George Kamel?

  Wow. So if I borrow nineteen ninety-nine, you're gonna go, "Don't worry about it."

• 19:05Rachel Cruze?

  Don't worry about it. Well, usually where that comes up is like if we have like a bunch of pizzas and like two other families come over or whatever and someone's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, we'll just Venmo you our part of..." You know, usually I'm like, "Oh, it's fine." Because it usually ends up being like twenty, thirty bucks and I'm like...

• 19:20George Kamel?

  Because pizza's pretty cheap and you're just like, "Let me just be generous and cover it."

• 19:23Rachel Cruze?

  It's fine, it's fine. What about you?

• 19:25George Kamel?

  I think it depends on the friend. Some friends really don't care, like, "Hey, just Venmo me for the fourteen dollars for the movie ticket," something like that.

• 19:31Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:32George Kamel?

  So I'll request it or whatever and we move on with our life.

• 19:34Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 19:34George Kamel?

  But yeah, for certain things, it just feels like I weigh out, "Is this worth it?"

• 19:38Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Okay, I will say I bought like seven movie tickets for a bunch of girlfriends.

• 19:42George Kamel?

  That's a lot.

• 19:42Rachel Cruze?

  We went, yeah, and saw it.

• 19:44George Kamel?

  Hundreds of dollars.

• 19:44Rachel Cruze?

  It ends with us together. Yeah, and I did, I think it ended up being like fourteen as we saw a matinee. So I think it ended up being less than twenty, but I did text them out because they were like, "How much do we owe you?" And I'm like, "Oh, it came out to be like fourteen bucks a ticket."

• 19:57George Kamel?

  If you purchased them on AAA, you could have saved big, Rachel. Because now you're a AAA member, I heard.

• 20:01Rachel Cruze?

  I am a AAA member, but I'm also a, um, the, I, I signed up for the movie theater membership.

• 20:08George Kamel?

  AMC Stubbs?

• 20:09Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 20:10George Kamel?

  Okay. Tell me about how that's changing. You don't, you don't pay for it.

• 20:13Rachel Cruze?

  I'm not sure. It's just a free one. Yeah, I know, but they give you discounts. Yeah.

• 20:17George Kamel?

  I'll check again.

• 20:18Rachel Cruze?

  No, they do. If you, if you buy a certain number of tickets.

• 20:20George Kamel?

  If you buy four tickets, they'll waive the convenience fee.

• 20:23Rachel Cruze?

  George, I am saving money. Yes.

• 20:26George Kamel?

  Can I tell you something I did, though? I went to the theater to buy the ticket in person for a show the next day to avoid the convenience fee.

• 20:32Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh. And the convenience fee is what, like a dollar ninety-nine?

• 20:36George Kamel?

  It's like three dollars.

• 20:37Rachel Cruze?

  Is it three dollars? Okay, I will say we went...

• 20:39George Kamel?

  Stick it to the man.

• 20:40Rachel Cruze?

  We did go to a Rockies game. We were in Denver with the kids and I bought everything through Ticketmaster. And I don't buy tickets a lot. That's not like, I don't, I'm not someone that like goes to cons. I don't use Ticketmaster often. And now I know what all the debacle's about because I like paid per ticket, like seeing like, oh, yeah.

• 20:55George Kamel?

  Oh, you see the fees.

• 20:57Rachel Cruze?

  And then, I mean, it was...

• 20:58George Kamel?

  Brutal.

• 20:59Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, I think it was almost a hundred dollars of all the...

• 21:01George Kamel?

  It could be like twenty-five percent of your ticket or thirty percent of just fees.

• 21:04Rachel Cruze?

  It was crazy. Anyways.

• 21:06George Kamel?

  Highway robbery.

• 21:06Rachel Cruze?

  Not good.

• 21:07George Kamel?

  All right, here's one that recently came into my life and I'm excited to use it more as we cook more and it's called paprika.

• 21:15Rachel Cruze?

  Oh yeah, you love this.

• 21:16George Kamel?

  And my brand leader Tyler told me about this. And what's really cool is, you know, when you see those Instagram recipes that look really good? And like Whitney will send them to me, I'll send one to her. And they always just sit there in like the messages or I save them to a collection.

• 21:30Rachel Cruze?

  A picture, yeah.

• 21:30George Kamel?

  Well, what's cool about this app is you can go to share, copy the link, you paste it into the browser in Paprika and hit download and it brings in the recipe into the recipe app. You can create grocery lists from there. So it's kind of a recipe keeper, if you will, digitally.

• 21:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 21:46George Kamel?

  And you can copy and paste things that you find on websites and it's a game changer. So.

• 21:51Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, we can't talk about apps without food because food and apps like come hand in hand these days. So order ahead apps like Instacart is one that my family, we use and we're actually using less and less of just because it has gotten pretty expensive. But you have like, yeah, tip, delivery fee, I mean, there's a lot that goes into it.

• 22:12George Kamel?

  Well, and they charge, a lot of the stores on there charge more per item when you order it through Instacart.

• 22:16Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 22:16George Kamel?

  So like Costco, they're gonna upcharge every item by like 10 or 12%.

• 22:20Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. So you're paying a lot more, I know. So we compared our grocery budget for like a week's worth of groceries and it was like $50, $60 less. So again, if you're in a season that you need the convenience, like I feel like we were like that for a little bit and it was, you know, it's like you pay it, it was worth it, just have the groceries right there. But now, yeah, we're shifting, George.

• 22:41George Kamel?

  Wow, that's big.

• 22:43Rachel Cruze?

  We're shifting, I know.

• 22:43George Kamel?

  Yeah, I use it in more like chaotic situations, emergency situations where I really, it's very difficult to leave. It would be a big strain on the family to, for someone to go out.

• 22:52Rachel Cruze?

  Rights, rights, yep.

• 22:54George Kamel?

  Here's another one, weather apps. What is your weather app of choice?

• 22:58Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh, radar scope and I pay a yearly subscription.

• 23:03George Kamel?

  Whoa.

• 23:04Rachel Cruze?

  But this is like the hardcore weather app because it does all the National Weather Service radars. So they're like all around and they all come up.

• 23:12George Kamel?

  Do you even know what you're looking at? Sometimes they hurt my face.

• 23:14Rachel Cruze?

  No, no.

• 23:15George Kamel?

  To just look at them.

• 23:15Rachel Cruze?

  No, they're great. Here, I'll show you. And it is so helpful because I am terrified of tornadoes and all the things like here we go.

• 23:24George Kamel?

  Oh wow, that's nice.

• 23:25Rachel Cruze?

  And then you can see this, but then it gets really nerdy and then you can go in and change like the velocity and stuff and then it'll show you.

• 23:32George Kamel?

  So you lost me here.

• 23:33Rachel Cruze?

  Like different type, yeah, I mean it goes, it goes real deep. But yeah, I don't do tornadoes. I feel like Helen Hunt's that like something traumatic happened in my childhood.

• 23:42George Kamel?

  You acted like it was mayonnaise, like I don't do mayonnaise. It's like, well, yeah, no one does torn- no one's like, yeah, I'm into it.

• 23:47Rachel Cruze?

  Some are, did you see the movie Twister? Some people are storm chasers.

• 23:51George Kamel?

  Yeah, I saw Twister followed by Twisters.

• 23:53Rachel Cruze?

  I did see Twisters. And it was actually great. Twisters was great too. No, but I, I don't do them, I don't like them, it gives me anxiety. I don't like storms, I don't like storms. So this gives me a level of control, what I feel like is perceived control. By having knowledge of the radar and knowing what is going on. Because it's very helpful because you can also see like where the winds are going and that's the key for tornadoes. Because if the green and the red start colliding, that's where circulation happens and that's when the tornado is possible. So we're always watching.

• 24:20George Kamel?

  Have you ever thought about being a meteorologist, like on the news?

• 24:23Rachel Cruze?

  Out of my own anxiety, maybe.

• 24:25George Kamel?

  I think you'd be great. Because you'd be good at like calming us when things are crazy.

• 24:28Rachel Cruze?

  And then doing it in like layman's terms.

• 24:30George Kamel?

  Yeah, then when things are great, you'd have a lot of fun with the green screen.

• 24:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, like guys, it's just sunny, it's a sunny day. We're all happy.

• 24:36George Kamel?

  Just like, just get a nice little throw on, wear something light, maybe some.

• 24:39Rachel Cruze?

  You may want to.

• 24:40George Kamel?

  Flip flops.

• 24:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, open toe shoes are still good for the season, you're fine, you're fine.

• 24:45George Kamel?

  That's the weather that we need.

• 24:46Rachel Cruze?

  That is the weather. Do you have a weather app you like?

• 24:48George Kamel?

  Um, I use the weather channel, but I hate the ads, but I'm also unwilling to pay. I'll say that.

• 24:53Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 24:53George Kamel?

  So it's time to upgrade. I do hate with every fiber of my being the Apple weather app.

• 24:58Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, it's terrible. I don't like Apple anything, I don't like the maps, I don't like the weather app.

• 25:02George Kamel?

  I feel like that app is made for a seven year old. It's like, could be sunshine. He's like, this is not, like, give me more here, give me more.

• 25:09Rachel Cruze?

  Hey, do you know what Apple does have in this, I saved money, George, let me tell you this.

• 25:14George Kamel?

  This is some girl math coming up.

• 25:15Rachel Cruze?

  I saved money, so I'm into walking now. I want to get my steps in, I'm trying to do it five days a week, I'm trying to get.

• 25:21George Kamel?

  How many steps, can you tell us the goal?

• 25:22Rachel Cruze?

  Seven to 10,000.

• 25:24George Kamel?

  Impressive.

• 25:24Rachel Cruze?

  Yep. And so I was like, oh, I need to count my steps. So I go and download an app and of course it's like a seven day free trial. And then you pay for the yearly subscription, which was like 30 bucks. And I was like, you know what? This is my new thing. So like, I'll pay for it because I'm going to use it. So I downloaded this app, free trial. And then I remembered that Apple has a health app or a health.

• 25:49George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 25:50Rachel Cruze?

  So I had deleted it because I wasn't in my health era back then. So I like took it off my phone and I went back and found it, put it back on. And do you know, it still was tracking my steps.

• 26:02George Kamel?

  Even after you deleted it?

• 26:03Rachel Cruze?

  Which is kind of woo woo. They're following us. But I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm going to save, I'm going to save money. So then I went back into the app that I had just downloaded, went down, unsubscribed. Uh, but they said, you know, you still have six days and 12 hours.

• 26:18George Kamel?

  Oh, like the trial or whatever?

• 26:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, but when you go on, so go to your Apple and health, the heart. You click on it and you get to see how many steps.

• 26:26George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah, I love it.

• 26:27Rachel Cruze?

  So it's so helpful and it's free. Saves money.

• 26:30George Kamel?

  Way to go.

• 26:31Rachel Cruze?

  That $30, I can go buy another necklace.

• 26:33George Kamel?

  If you just asked me, I could have told you that Apple Health tracks your steps, but you know.

• 26:40George Kamel?

  Okay, here's one, changing gears that I love is Audible.

• 26:43Rachel Cruze?

  Me too.

• 26:44George Kamel?

  I've been listening to Michael Richards, who is Kramer on Seinfeld. He has a big memoir. It's like 9,000 pages. And so he reads it. And so I always love to hear the author read it and tell the stories. And so I'm, I'm knee deep in that one right now. And Audible, you know, you get a credit. It's $7.95 per month after your first 30 days. And Spotify Premium also has audiobooks built into the subscription. You can listen to a certain number of audiobooks, including the audiobooks of our books.

• 27:09Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yes.

• 27:10George Kamel?

  That we read ourselves.

• 27:11Rachel Cruze?

  That is true.

• 27:11George Kamel?

  So.

• 27:12Rachel Cruze?

  We are there.

• 27:12George Kamel?

  Check it out if you're on Spotify and you don't want to pay extra because you're already paying. But I love, that's a great app because I'm not a big reader. I like to listen as I handle a baby and I'm walking around the house.

• 27:21Rachel Cruze?

  So I'm usually a book person, but I've gotten on Audible recently and I listened to a September 11th book on it. And it had all the audio like, like of it.

• 27:30George Kamel?

  You could hear the.

• 27:31Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. I mean, it was so, so sad.

• 27:33George Kamel?

  It changes the experience.

• 27:34Rachel Cruze?

  It does, yes. Because some books, I think, are better audio, so.

• 27:37George Kamel?

  All right, Rachel, can we do a speed round?

• 27:39Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, let's do it. Let's do, uh, car and travel technology and let's do some hygiene tech too that's out there.

• 27:44George Kamel?

  Okay, is that a personal dig or? You just said it like, "Let's do some hygiene." I think that would be good.

• 27:51Rachel Cruze?

  There's some technology around hygiene, that thing's fantastic.

• 27:53George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 27:53Rachel Cruze?

  All right, let's go. Car and travel, go.

• 27:55George Kamel?

  Dashcam is one that I swear by. I got a little, it's like a Garmin mini. So you barely can see it in the car. And it goes right behind my rearview mirror.

• 28:04Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 28:04George Kamel?

  And it records everything. And so if I were to be in an accident, it would record it. And I got this because I was in an accident a decade ago. And I had no way, it was my word versus hers. About what happened and whose fault it was. And so this will help you to avoid some very expensive insurance claims down the road that could hurt you and your premiums. So Dashcam is a good one. They can range from 39 to 130 bucks, depending on what you get.

• 28:29Rachel Cruze?

  Thanks to technology, Google Maps now is free. So if you're needing maps, because back in the day, you guys, you would have to print out MapQuest directions and carry actual physical sheets into the car.

• 28:38George Kamel?

  Which was still an upgrade from the paper maps that you'd unfurl.

• 28:41Rachel Cruze?

  That is true. So it felt like, "Oh, my gosh, it's giving me line by line directions."

• 28:44George Kamel?

  The good people over there.

• 28:45Rachel Cruze?

  No, they, they really, they walked. So Google Maps could run, let's be honest. But then there used to be the Garmin. So then you upgrade to the Garmin, which was like 400 bucks for the little GPS that would sit in your car.

• 28:55George Kamel?

  And now it's a free app on your phone.

• 28:56Rachel Cruze?

  Now it's a free app on your phone.

• 28:57George Kamel?

  And they're probably just collecting all of our data.

• 28:59Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 28:59George Kamel?

  There we go. We don't think about that.

• 29:00Rachel Cruze?

  Shh, George.

• 29:01George Kamel?

  They know where you're going.

• 29:02Rachel Cruze?

  Stop. Unbelievable.

• 29:04George Kamel?

  That's a good one. Uh, this is a fun one, but also not fun. ICE alerts, so in case of emergency alerts. Uh, this is a wild one. I saw a friend.

• 29:12Rachel Cruze?

  It's not a fun one, my friend.

• 29:14George Kamel?

  Well, it's fun because it, it could be life-saving. I think that's fun.

• 29:18Rachel Cruze?

  You know, we had a friend whose wife and daughter got into a wreck, y'all, and their Apple phone sent a, like, message about it.

• 29:25George Kamel?

  Yeah, it'll like call or send a text to your emergency contacts, letting them know, "Hey, this person was in a crash." And it'll automatically call, I think, the authorities and stuff. It's pretty crazy what it can do.

• 29:36Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 29:36George Kamel?

  So look into that and make sure you have your emergency contacts set up, because otherwise it won't contact anyone.

• 29:41Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, I also love travel apps. Because even like a Southwest, for instance, is so great at racking up points, not through the credit card. And you have to pay $150 for the credit card if you have it.

• 29:51George Kamel?

  Oh, that's right.

• 29:53Rachel Cruze?

  Or you could just rack up free points as you fly and keep track of your rapid rewards. But those, those kind of travel Apps.

• 29:58George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 29:58Rachel Cruze?

  They're great.

• 29:59George Kamel?

  I helped John Deloney save $230.

• 30:02Rachel Cruze?

  No way.

• 30:02George Kamel?

  This last week.

• 30:03Rachel Cruze?

  To find a airline to get?

• 30:04George Kamel?

  He was booking a hotel and he said, hey, help me do this. I know you can save me money and I did. So we went to hotels.com, researched the right hotel he wanted. Then I went to Priceline Express.

• 30:14Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 30:14George Kamel?

  And using the Travel Arrow browser extension, along with Priceline Express deals, I was able to get him that same hotel. 230 bucks cheaper.

• 30:23Rachel Cruze?

  That's amazing, George.

• 30:24George Kamel?

  Two hotel rooms for a night, 230 bucks cheaper overall. So it went from like 560 down to like 330 or something.

• 30:29Rachel Cruze?

  That's incredible. Well done. All right, let's go into hygiene. My favorite is the electric toothbrush.

• 30:35George Kamel?

  Rachel's very proud of this.

• 30:37Rachel Cruze?

  Because I don't go to the dentist.

• 30:39George Kamel?

  Again, don't know why you're bragging about this.

• 30:42Rachel Cruze?

  Cause I think it's a scam. And no cavities. Fantastic. And I've had the same one for 15 years.

• 30:48George Kamel?

  That, are you updating the, upgrading the little toothbrush head?

• 30:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh yeah, yes, that will change up.

• 30:54George Kamel?

  Just wanna make sure.

• 30:55Rachel Cruze?

  The actual like toothbrush itself. Isn't that crazy?

• 30:58George Kamel?

  That's amazing.

• 30:59Rachel Cruze?

  Love it.

• 30:59George Kamel?

  Yeah, I love my toothbrush. I don't know if it's, it's an Oral-B, I think is mine. Do you know what brand yours is? Like a Sonicare or something?

• 31:06Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, it's one of those. I think mine may be Oral-B.

• 31:08George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 31:09Rachel Cruze?

  Um, hair appliances, a good hair dryer is worth the investment for me. Hair straightener. There used to be the Chi straightener. Back in like, you know.

• 31:16George Kamel?

  Chi's?

• 31:17Rachel Cruze?

  Chi.

• 31:18George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 31:18Rachel Cruze?

  C-H-I. Like back in like oh four, that was like, that was the, that was the OG.

• 31:22George Kamel?

  Now the Dyson hair wrap is the thing.

• 31:25Rachel Cruze?

  People love it. I don't, I haven't tried it.

• 31:26George Kamel?

  It's crazy expensive. It was like 600 bucks.

• 31:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, it's a lot. But, but investing in a good hair dryer for me.

• 31:31George Kamel?

  I've had mine for probably close to a decade. I don't know.

• 31:33Rachel Cruze?

  Oh yeah. And then another one, George, is the technology around nails. Can we talk about that?

• 31:38George Kamel?

  There's nail tech?

• 31:38Rachel Cruze?

  Well, that used to just be polish. Then we went to gel and now we have dip. I mean, you get all the, and it lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks.

• 31:45George Kamel?

  And this is technology?

• 31:47Rachel Cruze?

  Well, nail tech.

• 31:48George Kamel?

  How does it work?

• 31:49Rachel Cruze?

  I'm not sure. Ask the technology people that create it.

• 31:52George Kamel?

  It's amazing.

• 31:54Rachel Cruze?

  All right, there's gotta be some financial apps in here, George.

• 31:57George Kamel?

  There's gotta be.

• 31:58Rachel Cruze?

  And financial products that are worth the money.

• 32:01George Kamel?

  The number one app on my home screen, finances, is EveryDollar.

• 32:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, fantastic.

• 32:06George Kamel?

  This is our budgeting app that our team created over a decade ago now, and they've just improving it every single day since, and it makes it super easy to, number one, plan all of our expenses for the month, number two, track it.

• 32:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 32:17George Kamel?

  And I've got the premium version where you can connect your bank, there's smart tracking now, so it knows, hey, Amazon probably gonna go in your shopping category, correct? I go, yep, one click, whoop, it's done.

• 32:26Rachel Cruze?

  I know, it's fantastic, honestly. I mean, we check it every day, and I track transactions, and it just keeps you on track, so I appreciate.

• 32:34George Kamel?

  Love that one.

• 32:35Rachel Cruze?

  EveryDollar is so good.

• 32:36George Kamel?

  Oh, we're gonna put a link in the show notes, too, for our listeners and viewers, if they wanna check it out, or you can go to everydollar.com/smartmoney and get started for free.

• 32:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, but we have some shopping holidays coming up, George. We have Black Friday, Cyber Monday.

• 32:46George Kamel?

  Oh, boy.

• 32:47Rachel Cruze?

  So again, these are apps and technologies that we've loved in our own personal lives. They cost, you know, a range of, you know, different price points, but maybe there are things in your life that can help you, you know, in the convenience aspect. So if you're gonna be planning on buying some of this stuff, or subscribing to it, make sure that you plan ahead, be strategic, especially about these shopping holidays coming up, because there can be some great deals happening.

• 33:09George Kamel?

  Yeah, not everything has to be like a giant surprise. Like, you know it's coming up, you should have a budget, you should have been saving for part of the year to go, I know what I wanna spend this year. The problem is, we tend to then spend for ourselves, too, because the stuff that we want is also on major discount.

• 33:23Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:23George Kamel?

  Or so we think. By the way, it's not always a major discount, just because it says 70% off MSRP. And one way to avoid that is camelcamelcamel.com, with Cs, no relation to this camel, but it's an Amazon price tracker. So you know, is this actually a good price, or is this the normal price that's on Amazon all the time?

• 33:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 33:43George Kamel?

  Or will it go down after Black Friday instead of up?

• 33:46Rachel Cruze?

  So good. So yeah, so I think the moral of the story, as you guys in this episode, is there are purchases, technologies out there, again, that can help you, but be strategic and plan, and making sure not only do you have the money, but you're, yeah, doing smart things, like looking at discount codes, doing a little bit more research to get the best deal, because, again, technology keeps improving, and it's not always a bad thing. It can help us in life. But George, I love hearing your stuff that you enjoy.

• 34:11George Kamel?

  I enjoyed hearing yours.

• 34:12Rachel Cruze?

  Thank you.

• 34:12George Kamel?

  It just goes to show you, different strokes for everyone, and what changes one person's life may not change someone else's.

• 34:17Rachel Cruze?

  That's right.

• 34:17George Kamel?

  But also, don't gatekeep, because Rachel's been telling me, I'm like, I need that weather app now. And maybe Rachel needs... Something that I enjoy.

• 34:25Rachel Cruze?

  A little, a little camera in my car.

• 34:28George Kamel?

  I feel like Winston is the tech guy. And so you've largely delegated all the tech stuff.

• 34:32Rachel Cruze?

  For sure. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But it's good.

• 34:35George Kamel?

  You need one person in the family who's, who's doing this.

• 34:38Rachel Cruze?

  For sure.

• 34:38George Kamel?

  All right.

• 34:45Rachel Cruze?

  All right. Well, it's almost the end of the episode and we close out every episode with Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty as charged question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip. So Kelly.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  All right. Have you ever pretended to talk on the phone to avoid an interaction?

• 35:02George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  And this comes from Instagram user at Haddon K three.

• 35:06Rachel Cruze?

  Ooh, I'm not sipping because I'm guilty. I'm sipping because I like to drink, but.

• 35:10George Kamel?

  I'm sipping because I'm guilty?

• 35:12Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. I don't think I've done the phone call thing, but I've done this thing. Just, oh, I'm just deep in my.

• 35:17George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 35:18Rachel Cruze?

  Weather app.

• 35:19George Kamel?

  Is that enough to avoid an interaction?

• 35:21Rachel Cruze?

  Just really, just going, I don't know, but I'll like look down and not make eye contact. I don't know if I have like done this and like walked around talking.

• 35:28George Kamel?

  I think I do, but I have.

• 35:30Rachel Cruze?

  I'm, I'm innocent on this one, y'all. I genuinely think I am.

• 35:32George Kamel?

  It's almost like PTSD where it's like, whatever it was, was anxiety inducing enough that my brain shut it out?

• 35:38Rachel Cruze?

  Blocked it off. Have you like looked at your phone and act like you're busy to like avoid eye contact with someone?

• 35:43George Kamel?

  I know, I know one.

• 35:44Rachel Cruze?

  Tell it.

• 35:45George Kamel?

  I was in Costco.

• 35:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 35:47George Kamel?

  As I am. And I saw someone I did not want to see.

• 35:51Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, no.

• 35:52George Kamel?

  And so I immediately turned around, grabbed my phone and just walked away on my phone.

• 35:57Rachel Cruze?

  Guilty.

• 35:57George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 35:58Rachel Cruze?

  Guilty.

• 35:58George Kamel?

  That's what it was. That's what it was.

• 36:01Rachel Cruze?

  Well.

• 36:01George Kamel?

  It's someone that I, I don't think it was like, I wouldn't say it was like major beef. This was just, this was an awkward one.

• 36:07Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 36:08George Kamel?

  I'll leave it at that. But yes, it's a, I think it's a great life hack to be kind, but also get out of the situation.

• 36:14Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. If you have to. That's fair. All right. Fair enough. Fair enough.

• 36:18George Kamel?

  We made it.

• 36:18Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, you finish your drink first.

• 36:20George Kamel?

  Yeah. This was a cinnamon spiced orange and lime mocktail. So there's no alcohol in this. So it's fun for the whole family and I'm going to rate this a 10 out of 10.

• 36:30Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, honestly?

• 36:31George Kamel?

  I could not improve on this mocktail.

• 36:34Rachel Cruze?

  I would agree.

• 36:35George Kamel?

  And I would order it if I was feeling like if I was in a mood for a mocktail at a restaurant, I wanted something fall.

• 36:40Rachel Cruze?

  It was honestly so good. I think all the ratios are perfect, from the cinnamon to the orange juice. What's in it?

• 36:44George Kamel?

  Here's what's in it. Spiced maple thyme syrup, which is maple syrup, fresh thyme and cinnamon.

• 36:49Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 36:49George Kamel?

  It also has fresh ginger, which I love ginger.

• 36:52Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I'm not a fan of, but you can't.

• 36:53George Kamel?

  Fresh lemon juice.

• 36:54Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:55George Kamel?

  Orange juice and ginger ale.

• 36:57Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, great.

• 36:58George Kamel?

  Beautiful blend.

• 36:59Rachel Cruze?

  Really, really nice. Really, really nice.

• 37:01George Kamel?

  And here's what it comes down to. The cost breakdown per glass without the garnish, which this has a cinnamon stick and whatever this is.

• 37:10George Kamel?

  What are this?

• 37:10Rachel Cruze?

  It's thyme. It's a clover.

• 37:12George Kamel?

  Oh, it's thyme?

• 37:13Rachel Cruze?

  It's thyme.

• 37:14George Kamel?

  I didn't know thyme looked like this.

• 37:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 37:17George Kamel?

  Good to know. Without the garnishes of thyme and cinnamon stick and orange slice, it comes out to $1.70 per glass. That's not bad for a fancy mocktail. Could be fun to make for your next fall party.

• 37:30Rachel Cruze?

  Fall gathering.

• 37:31George Kamel?

  As Rachel loves to do.

• 37:33Rachel Cruze?

  Love a themed.

• 37:34George Kamel?

  Maybe big games going on, Tennessee game?

• 37:36Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, there will be this season. Yeah, the train, it's orange. Great, we're doing it. We're doing it.

• 37:43George Kamel?

  Get the recipe in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend, whether you're a Vols fan or not.

• 37:47Rachel Cruze?

  All right, George, it's closing time. If you guys enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave a review. And if you haven't yet, make sure to check out our episode on harmless purchases that are draining your bank accounts. We'll leave a link in the show notes. And if you're listening on podcast, we'll leave a link as well so you can check it out. And make sure to subscribe too, so you don't miss an all-new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour, which comes out every Thursday. And hey, share the episode with your friends and your family.

• 38:14George Kamel?

  Please.

• 38:14Rachel Cruze?

  Spreading the word helps so much. So we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all-new episode of

• 38:19George Kamel?

  Smart Money Happy Hour.