Ever feel guilty about that $7 airport coffee or the mystery fees that somehow turn your $15 DoorDash order into a $40 financial regret? You’re not alone. This episode, Joe Saul-Sehy is joined by Paula Pant (Afford Anything) and Justin Peters (The Struggle Is Real) to unravel the sneaky ways convenience drains our wallets.
In this episode:
- Airport Food: The Ultimate Financial Heist – Why does a sad turkey sandwich cost more than a steak dinner? We investigate.
- Concert Tickets & Junk Fees – You found $50 tickets… but somehow the total is now $127? Yep, we’ve been there.
- The True Cost of Convenience – From Uber Eats to express shipping, when is paying extra worth it—and when are we just being lazy?
- Trivia Time: Pie Day Special! – Who knew McDonald’s pie sales could spark heated debate? Well, now we all do.
- Wedding Costs Gone Wild – Creative ways to cut costs without making your guests eat ramen.
- The Ben Franklin Effect & Social Hacks – Want better connections without breaking the bank? Turns out, old Ben had some wisdom on that, too.
All this, plus some hilarious personal finance confessions that will make you feel better about your last impulse buy.
🎧 Tune in, laugh, and learn how to keep more of your Benjamins!
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Watch On Our YouTube Channel:
Our Topic:
Are You Splurging on Food and Drink Before Departure? Your Airport Really Hopes So (Wall Street Journal)
During our conversation, you’ll hear us mention:
- Airport food prices
- Overspending habits
- Why we overpay
- Negotiating medical bills
- Concert ticket fees
- Saving on tickets
- Airport taxi costs
- Travel convenience fees
- Time vs. money
- Guilt-free spending
- Expensive food delivery
- Pre-cut food costs
- Pricey premium coffee
- Wedding budget hacks
- DIY wedding savings
- Ben Franklin effect
- McDonald’s social proof
- Rental car refueling
- Parenting Xbox hack
- Pie vs. cake
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Justin Peters
Another thanks to Justin Peters for joining our contributors this week! Hear more from Justin on his show, The Struggle is Real: Making Financial Independence Feel Achievable and Fun at The Struggle is Real: Making Financial Independence Feel Achievable and Fun Podcast – Apple Podcasts.
Paula Pant
Check Out Paula’s site and amazing podcast: AffordAnything.com
Follow Paula on Twitter: @AffordAnything
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- At their peak, how many pies did McDonald’s sell in one year, back in the late 80’s?
Mentioned in today’s show
- Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
- Do You Know You Can Negotiate Your Medical Bills? Here’s how. | E161 Dr. Virgie Bright Ellington (The Struggle is Real Podcast)
Join Us on Monday!
Tune in on Monday when we’re all about seven steps to creating a dynamic, sustainable drive.
Miss our last show? Check it out here: The Best Tax Prep Software of 2025 (SB1655).
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] bit: Okay, let’s talk about something besides cake pie. That’s like liquid cake, isn’t it? Pie. Can’t compete with cake though. Put candles in a cake. It’s a birthday cake. Put candles in a pie. Someone’s drunk in the kitchen. Go check on grandma. [00:00:24] Doug: Live from the basement of the YouTube headquarters. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:39] I am Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. And have you eaten at an airport recently? I did and it was really fun. You know, especially the part where I refinanced my house to a afford a second beer. Today we’re talking places where we know we’re overpaying. How do we make a better plan and save some Benjamins? [00:00:58] While I know you’re thinking. That’s amazing. Doug, thanks for coming up with such a great topic for today’s round table. What you should be thinking is that I haven’t even talked about the best part of all my incredible trivia question and now. Here comes a guy who gladly sell you his secrets to wealth, right after he finds them. [00:01:18] It’s Joe Saul. See? Hi. [00:01:28] Joe: It was going so well until the very end, Doug. So, so well. Hey everybody. Happy Friday to you. Welcome back to the Stacky Benjamin Show. I am Joe Saul Sea. Hi, and we’re gonna have a ton of fun during the next hour because. We have these amazing people with us. First of all, the guy behind the microphone, across the card table from me, Mr. [00:01:47] OGs here. Uh, you have a place you need to be. So we are going to ski Daddle on today’s episode. [00:01:54] OG: It’s always about me. I know. I apologize in advance. [00:01:57] Joe: We just need to remind people though, it isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. You’re about to get 56 minutes quality [00:02:03] OG: That’s right. [00:02:03] Joe: Of pure grade A. Yeah. [00:02:06] OG: Okay. Quality Pike, [00:02:08] Joe: maybe grade B plus, uh, magic, I don’t know. But the woman who always brings grade a, uh, stuff to this podcast, Paula, Pam from before Anything’s here. How are you, Paula? [00:02:19] Paula: Oh, I’m, I’m fantastic. It’s a weather’s getting warmer. It’s a good day. Let’s make a show. [00:02:25] Joe: New York City in March. Weather’s warmer. [00:02:26] That means it’s what, 14 degrees today? [00:02:29] Paula: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Up from 13. Yes. Now you look [00:02:32] Joe: all dressed. Uh, [00:02:33] Paula: did you dressed up for us today. Uh, I did, I did, but not sure it was for you. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll go, we’ll go with that. [00:02:40] Joe: Perfect. That’s exactly what I thought. Well, uh, uh, sure. Yes. [00:02:45] OG: As, as Joe and I are wearing hoodies [00:02:49] Joe: and the guy who, when I wrote him, I’m like, how come I’ve, I’ve known this guy forever and we haven’t had him on the po. [00:02:55] I don’t know what the hell we were thinking. Finally, finally, the guy behind the struggle is real. Mr. Justin Peters is here. How are you, man? [00:03:03] Justin: I’m doing great, Joe, and honestly, I’ve been waiting those four or five years for, for this email. I was sitting there on the keyboard, finally it came. [00:03:09] Joe: He’s like, I can finally get up. [00:03:12] I can finally get up and walk and do something else. I was listening, Justin, to a recent episode you had about medical bills and how easy it is to negotiate your medical bills and man, you, you cover some of these cool areas. Tell everybody what you do. If the struggle’s real. [00:03:25] Justin: I like to cover personal finance topics for people that are on the path to financial independence, but put a little bit of post PHI wisdom in there too. [00:03:33] That episode in particular is something I was really passionate about. I got pretty fiery about. I just think there’s a lot of things that are broken with medical bills here in the United States and found a good expert for it. [00:03:43] Joe: So you found that out firsthand though. You were in, where were You were in Japan. [00:03:47] Justin: I was in Japan, yes. I had an ear infection. I was like, oh no. This is gotta be a nightmare. I tried to fix it myself. That didn’t work out. Then I finally looked up the local, just [00:03:57] Joe: stick your finger all the way in there. Yeah. [00:03:58] Justin: Yeah. Honestly, I went in to this place to buy something that they could potentially work. [00:04:03] He didn’t know what I was talking about. He pointed to a lot of random things. I was like, all right, I gotta find an ENT. I was like, this gotta cost me an arm and a leg. And I walked out and it cost me $40. Uninsured in Japan. Craziness. I think even insured here, that’s about what it is in [00:04:16] OG: America, right? [00:04:17] Justin: For healthcare, even insured. I think that would’ve cost me 10 times the amount. So I was gonna give ever take a [00:04:22] Joe: zero. Right? Yes. Yes. [00:04:24] Justin: It’s all where you put that decimal [00:04:25] OG: point. [00:04:26] Joe: It was a great episode, and what I really loved is that your expert, I don’t remember her name, I apologize, but she was saying, you don’t have to be a great negotiator, which was great. [00:04:33] Just ask for these facts. Just, just ask them. I need, I need these codes. I need to know exactly what’s going on. It was, it was pretty powerful stuff. We’ll link to it in the show notes as we do with all of our contributors every week. But today, Justin, we’ve got you here to talk about airport food, which is. [00:04:49] Pretty, pretty exciting. Where are we getting ripped off? Seriously? Where are we getting ripped off? And we know we are and we keep doing it anyway. How can we maybe put the lid on some of the overspending that happens? What plans can we have to make that better? But before all that, we have a couple sponsors that make sure this is free for you and we can keep on keeping on without you paying a dime. [00:05:08] So we’re gonna hear from them. And then Justin, Paula, OG Doug and I talking about curtailing some of the outrageous spending that you do on the fly. [00:05:25] OG: Our piece today comes to us. See what you did there. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Nobody else got that. The spending you do on the fly. Okay, ninja. Now let’s talk about airplane food. Weird. So ninja, [00:05:40] Joe: I didn’t even get it. That’s, that’s how Dja I am. It just, I like, it just comes naturally. Og. Yeah. Uh, the piece that inspired this actually was in the Wall Street Journal. [00:05:50] It was written by, uh, John Ro. John Rowe. Are you splurging on food and drink before departure? Your airport really hopes so. And the crux of this is that hungry travelers may determine the future of airport finance. 2024 more flyers than ever passed through London’s Heathrow airport, spending more money at stores. [00:06:08] The company running it said last week, yet total revenue decline because Britain’s aviation regulator lowered the maximum fees the airport can charge to airlines. So airlines hoping that you have some of that. Uh, just second class food that you can get it, any airport. I will say this, Paula, I think the airport food’s gotten better over time, but man, it still is a slog [00:06:31] Paula: typically. [00:06:32] There’s no way to say this without you guys making fun of me. Typically, when I go, I love how [00:06:42] gonna get. I’m usually in airport lounges, which means I, oh, for God’s sake. [00:06:49] OG: Ok. Og. I’m not with the commoners where the restaurant would be. Exactly. [00:06:54] Paula: Don’t be [00:06:55] OG: unwashed. [00:06:58] Paula: Yeah, exactly. I’m not out with the, the huddled masses in the airport where people are paying for. Food. [00:07:04] Joe: Okay. So Justin, [00:07:08] Justin: I’m gonna break it to you. [00:07:09] Nice seeing you, Paula. I’m a peasant. I am a peasant. [00:07:14] Joe: Yes. ’cause I know gee well enough to know that he doesn’t sit with a commoners either. Tell me, Justin, that you travel and you’ve paid $87 for a beer at an airport recently. [00:07:23] Justin: Unfortunately not. I’m the guy that packs a lunchbox into the, the airport and the security’s like, what is going on here? [00:07:28] So, yeah, no, I’m with the peasants. It’s like your Flintstone lunchbox. Yep. Exactly. [00:07:32] Joe: That’s, that’s good. No, that’s great because seriously, I remember, this is horrible. This is a few years ago. I wanted to celebrate my birthday. With my brother. We were on our way to go on a trip together that day. There was nothing we could do ’cause we had to catch a plane. [00:07:48] So we decided that we would get drunk at the airport before, before the play took off. Talk about something dumb. Uh, not only were we paying $89 per beer, but we also found that that very nice bartender that likes you at an airport when you first sit down makes all their money from turning those over quickly. [00:08:06] ’cause everybody’s gotta catch their plane. And we sat there for an hour and a half. The last 45 minutes of it. Justin, she was downright mean. Like she was not even, she was so mean to us just to get us to leave, but it was my birthday, so that wasn’t gonna happen. But you’ve already solved that problem. [00:08:23] Where’s an area, Justin, in your life where maybe you overspend? [00:08:28] Justin: Oh, concert tickets. I splurge on conscious tickets all the time. Anytime I see a good show coming into Austin, I’m, I’m going ahead and buying it. [00:08:35] Joe: We almost, we almost dug, did some trivia on the junk fees that are on concert tickets. I think we decided not to do that one, but what was the amount of money that are just junk fees? [00:08:47] A percentage? Do you remember? [00:08:48] Doug: Well, I think it was 27% of your total. Spend for a given ticket is actually for extra fees and that convenience fee and service charges, it’s so convenience. Nothing to do with going to the artist or, or the venue. Yeah, [00:09:01] Justin: it’s ridiculous. [00:09:02] Joe: But the frustrating thing about that, Justin, is, I mean, that’s an experience. [00:09:06] And what are you gonna do? Just show up at the hotel where the star’s staying and hope that you catch ’em on the way to their hotel room so you get an autograph. There’s not a lot [00:09:13] Justin: of great alternatives that I found. If I wanna catch an act, you know, those junk fees are crappy. The resale market is even worse. [00:09:19] I don’t know. I’m, I’m looking for some advice if anyone’s got it. [00:09:22] Joe: Yeah. Paula, you go see many concerts. I’m not a big concert person. All, why did I come to you? I’ve known you forever and why did I even go to, you? [00:09:32] OG: Remember Paula’s in the corner at the airport lounge by herself in the ultra elite section where there is no one else [00:09:40] Joe: exactly doing oxygen shots, listening [00:09:42] OG: on her AirPods. [00:09:43] She definitely [00:09:43] Joe: doesn’t have a movie on either. [00:09:47] Paula: Oh, I did actually, in an effort to see more movies, I got a pass to the local movie theater, $99 Unlimited movies for a year. [00:09:54] OG: Whoa. They’re gonna clean up on you, Paula. Yeah, I was like, the average movie cost for Paula is $99, so I saw this $99 movie this year. [00:10:06] It wasn’t very good. I don’t think I’ll go back [00:10:10] Joe: and after the $36 for popcorn. Yeah. More junk. Well, uh, OG you go to [00:10:15] OG: concerts? Yeah, a little bit. We’re more of a Broadway type of family. Mm-hmm. Like we’ve seen a couple of concerts and we’ll go and do, do that. A band or a group that we really particularly like did not succumb to Taylor Swift World, probably should have with my daughter, but I just couldn’t swallow that. [00:10:33] That was, that was insane. But we’ll do a lot of, you know, lion King or Les Mis or what, you know, whatever family of the opera when it comes back. Um. Like Justin was saying, it’s more of an experience and for us it’s more of a family thing. Kids like it, uh, you know, they can get behind the music and the story and that sort of thing. [00:10:51] And I don’t feel like it’s as egregious of a cost as what you’re talking about, about the airport thing of I. Of the travel of that, you know, it’s like, it seems like when you go to the airport, you’re already getting hammered on whatever the airline ticket is, which is not inexpensive. And then God forbid you have a family or you’re traveling with a partner or something, and that’s gonna be two x three x, four x, five x, whatever that number is that you see. [00:11:17] But then all the stuff that you do once you’re there at the airport. Right. Okay. Well you wanna speed through the line? Oh, you need TSA precheck. No problem. We’ll just get that a hundred dollars times five. Yeah, for a period of time, oh, you guys are gonna travel internationally, no problem. You just have to get a passport. [00:11:33] That’s $200. Or you know, oh, you have little kids now you and your spouse have to go to the passport office and take half a day off of work and schedule it. You know, it’s like all that stuff piles up around it to be able to do the one thing that you wanna do, which is get on an airplane and go. I feel like by the time you even get there, not withstanding baggage fees and all that other sort of stuff, you’re just mentally, you’re mentally spent and you just have, maybe that’s the plan. [00:11:59] They’re trying to get you to cave. Like by the time, by the time you get to the airport, you’re just like, whatever. I’ll just take a beer. Like, sir, you just take my wallet. At least tell me you have an American Express Platinum card for this beer. You’re like, well, that’s, yeah. They’re like, good, ’cause you’re gonna need it all. [00:12:13] Whatever the limit is, we found it. [00:12:16] Joe: We’ll make sure you go just over it. So there’s some over limit fee. [00:12:19] OG: Yeah, exactly. Sponsored by American Express. [00:12:23] Joe: I don’t know if this is right or wrong, but this is just what, uh, Cheryl and I have done. When we go to one of the bigger productions where it’s not like a general admission thing. [00:12:31] If I really am a huge fan, I will splurge for the upfront stuff. Sure. But otherwise, I’m fine in the cheap seats just because I just like being in the building. I just like being in the place and the people around me and having fun, you know, in the crowd of people. I’ll do that. And I don’t know, Justin, if you’re going to the big concerts where that can happen, or if it’s general admission, you just, you know, you’re just paying the fee to get in. [00:12:52] Justin: Yeah, I like general admission. The other thing that I will do to save a little bit of money sometimes is if it’s a mid-tier band, I’m kind of excited about them, but if I miss it, it’s no big deal. I’ll wait around until the headliner comes on. Until they’re old. I’ll check Marketplace or resale market right whenever the concert starts. [00:13:08] Go ahead. Grab a cheap ticket now that the ticket prices are dropping and then go head that direction. [00:13:12] Joe: Oh, like the scalper who’s bailing because they know they gotta get a a dollar too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What’s interesting, I think there’s another side to this when it comes to concerts too, which is, you know, if I know I can’t save money, and we do this every year with our theme park episode with Robert Niles from Theme Park Insider, if we know it’s gonna be really hard to save money, how? [00:13:31] How do we just make it so that night doesn’t suck? I. You know what I mean? If I’m gonna pay a ton of money, let’s make sure that it’s actually a memorable night instead of some of the concerts I’ve seen where, you know, you get done, you’re like, really? I paid for that? Like, that was absolutely horrible. So, I don’t know. [00:13:45] So you’re [00:13:45] OG: saying like, add stuff around it to make sure the whole night is, uh, memorable to insulate from that? Is that what you’re saying? Insulate from the fact that maybe the band will suck. It’s like, but at least I had a nice dinner. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. [00:13:56] Joe: Do whatever I can to make it just a, just a nice night. [00:13:59] It doesn’t have to be an expensive night. Sure, yeah. But make it memorable in other ways with entertainment, before, after, or, you know, a concert I went to recently, we were able to stand in line and meet the artist afterwards. I wasn’t gonna buy anything, but I got to meet, uh, Josh Rouse and have my picture taken with him, which is cool when you got a 56-year-old guy who wants to have his picture taken with you. [00:14:17] I’m sure he was thrilled, [00:14:19] OG: especially since. [00:14:21] Joe: I know this is the fan I’m looking for. Exactly, yes. And I, and I don’t need your album. I don’t have a record player. Paula, what did you think of when you thought of this as something where people spend a bunch of money or maybe you spend a bunch of money that, you know, you’re just getting hosed, [00:14:36] Paula: you know? [00:14:36] Uh, so on the topic of the airport, the taxi to and from the airport. Mm. Getting from my home to the airport itself. Every single time I tell myself, this is the time I’m going to take public transportation, and every single time I don’t, I usually will do it on the way back because coming back home, I’m not in a time crunch, but going there, I. [00:15:01] Every single time I’m like, this is the time that I’m going to allow for ample time. So there’s a margin of error. So I can take public transit and even if it’s slow, or even if I have to wait for a connection, nope. Every single time I’m rushing out the door and then I have to take a taxi [00:15:16] Joe: Back when we were together in New York in, mm-hmm. [00:15:20] In mid-December, I told you and Nick Majuli, who also lives in New York. That I spent 90 bucks on a taxi from the airport. [00:15:29] Paula: Yeah, that is so normal. So normal. You guys weren’t even faced. I was like, that [00:15:33] Joe: is highway robbery. You’re like, yeah, whatever. It is what it is. [00:15:35] Paula: That’s standard par for the course. [00:15:38] Estimate about a hundred bucks every time. You know, getting to the airport and then if you decide to take a taxi coming back, estimate that it’s gonna be a $200 round trip. [00:15:48] Joe: That is a key though. I remember a couple of Fincons, this industry conference that we all often attend and um, I remember this last one in Atlanta and just taking the time to learn how the, the, what’s that system called? [00:16:01] Paul Na Marta. Yeah, learning how the Marta worked. The Marta, the Marta went two blocks away from our hotel. [00:16:07] Paula: Yeah. [00:16:08] Joe: And what was funny was I saw so many attendees just immediately grab an Uber and even sharing an Uber where they’re spending a bunch of money versus I think the Marta was six bucks. [00:16:17] Paula: Yeah. [00:16:17] Yeah. The Marta’s good, but don’t take it at night. [00:16:21] Doug: Hmm. Yeah, I’ve heard similar things about Chicago. I, I read an article on the Points guy once, where three people from the points guy were all leaving a work thing downtown. They might’ve been in the Sears building. Yes. I’m still calling it the Sears building. [00:16:36] And, uh, that’s your protest. That’s your boycott. Yeah. I mean, it just pisses me off Anyway. And they decided to compare, somebody took the, the l somebody took an Uber and I think somebody drove themselves and. Unquestionably, the L was faster and I think it was $4. And I know people who live there and they still don’t do that. [00:16:54] Yeah. Now same thing though, Paula, I’ve heard you don’t wanna do that line later at night because it’s one of the few lines that runs late at night. And so a lot of sort of, I. Unsavory might ride that train because they can hang out there and stay warm and you know, I don’t wanna get us into a different topic, but, so that’s, you wanna be cautious about that at night, but there’s still a lot of other hours of the day where that makes the most sense and people don’t do it. [00:17:18] Joe: After Paul and I and the people at our meetup group and OG was there after we said goodbye, but Paul, I said, you and I, ’cause we walked to the station together. And then you went one way and I went the other way. It was that night that I got the New York experience. There was a gentleman sleeping on the train and then he got up. [00:17:33] I thought he was getting up to get off the train. He wasn’t, he was getting up ’cause he had to urinate and he did it right in front of the door, which is funny and sad altogether. Right. I mean, on one hand I got to check the bingo box in another, you know, I mean that’s, yeah. That truly is. [00:17:46] Paula: Yeah. No, I’m, I’m, I’m laughing only because it’s so familiar. [00:17:49] Yes. You know? Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a lack of recognition. Familiar. It was, it was called the New [00:17:53] Joe: York Experience ahead of time. Uh, by me, or not by me, by me, by me. I called it that. [00:18:00] OG: Joe was like, hold on a second. I didn’t know we could do this. I don’t have to hold it. Excuse me, sir. Higer, [00:18:09] Joe: uh, maybe not. Oh gee, how about for you? [00:18:12] OG: Are you asking what I spend money on that’s frivolous, that I shouldn’t everything? See all of the above? Yes. Uh, what don’t I, um, you know, I, I, I really strongly believe in the work hard, play hard, uh, methodology. I. So I play hard and then I have to work hard to pay for it all. [00:18:31] Joe: Yeah. But there’s gotta be some things, like, as an example in, in the example I gave all of you when I was introducing this topic, I said, you know this, this one drives me crazy. [00:18:40] I know that the gas station right across from the car rental agency has the most jacked up prices on Earth. Hmm. And yet, maybe a month ago, I’m in Seattle and I’m flying back to the place, and all of a sudden I looked at and I go, why didn’t I fill it up? Oh my goodness. And I paid maybe, oh, [00:18:56] OG: I [00:18:56] Joe: do [00:18:56] OG: way more than, way better than that, Joe. [00:18:58] I don’t even bother. I just return it as is. But do you prepay for the gas then? I’ve done that on occasion. If I think about it or if I think, okay, I’m probably gonna drive a lot on this trip, but a lot of times I just turn it back in. I don’t even care. Paul is aghast. She’s like, do you realize what’s their, he’s got people screaming [00:19:20] Joe: at you at their device. [00:19:22] OG: There was a comedian that did a bit one time where he said, he’s like, he was running late for a flight and he just stopped the car in front of the terminal and called up Enterprise and was like, Hey, I left your car there. And I’m like, you can’t do that. And he’s like, well, I did. So anyways, bye. And he said, in that moment I realized. [00:19:43] That was totally normal and they were on the hook for that car. So I’m gonna do that from now on. Obviously it’s a comedy bit, but Sure. I, I’m, I’m getting the look from Paula, like, wait, you can just return cars with empty gas and Yeah. It’s okay. I mean, it’s okay. They, I don’t know what the cost is. They jack up the price. [00:20:00] I, I was thinking about this the other day in a different context. I was talking to a friend who was having a project done on his house. I think that I spend money. Very, very, very liberally on things that will free up time based on what I value. My time around that thing would be. So like, I’m not gonna stop and get gas unless it’s convenient for me. [00:20:24] Like if I was gonna stop anyway and get it back a gum, yeah, I’ll put gas in the car and go, oh, that was easy, like save some money. But if I’m just driving around Chicago and now I’m going back to the airport, I’m not gonna purposefully stop and get gas. Just to save a dollar a gallon and they charge, it’s like $20, right? [00:20:42] Like I don’t, I don’t really care about that. You don’t know like I would. [00:20:45] Joe: Yeah, no, it could be $20 million. Justin, he would not know. [00:20:49] OG: Doug and I were talking about this with the kids and their Xbox. If I can avoid having to deal with something by putting money at it, like I will do that because, so my kids, when they were younger, we had an Xbox. [00:21:04] And what do boys do? They fight about the Xbox, right? I want, it’s my turn. Hold on. I gotta, I have one more level and you know, so you taught them a lesson here? He’s about to teach them [00:21:14] Joe: a lesson. Yes. [00:21:15] OG: I taught them a lesson. All right. I said, you with me? Well, why He’s, how come he gets to play? I go, trust me, this will be worth it. [00:21:22] We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and bought another 60 inch TV in another Xbox and put them right next to one another so that I don’t have to deal with that problem anymore. I know. You think it’s, it’s like, like, this is ridiculous. This is parenting people. Listen, hear me out. This was less than a thousand dollars, 10 or 12 years ago. [00:21:42] That has solved 12 years of It’s my turn. It solved a dozen years of going, that’s not no come he that, no, no, you got yours. You got yours. You guys wanna play against one another. Awesome. You can do that. Xbox has a way to like share games, right? You, so we’re not buying double games or anything like that. [00:22:01] So I would spend money on that sort of stuff. And when it comes to travel, yes, I, I pay for clear. I mean, it gets reimbursed with a credit card somewhere, but I pay for clear and I pay for pre-check and I pay for global entry and all of those things that are going to. Speed up the experience of getting me to the, I’m not traveling because I like to travel. [00:22:22] I’m traveling because I’ve got somewhere to go and I want to be there at some reasonable time, at some reasonable amount of energy when I get there. And so if I can come back from our trip and go through global entry because that line is short, you know, I’ll do that. [00:22:41] Joe: I wanna dive into some of those topics because og, what started off as incredulously, non frugal, I think there might have been a couple points there that I’d like for us, there was a little nugget. [00:22:49] Did I? Did I? There might have been a nugget and we’re gonna grab onto that and the second half. Of today’s discussion, but at the halfway point of this shindig, Justin, every week we have this year long trivia competition between our three frequent contributors, og Paula and Jesse Kramer. You’re sitting in for Jesse today. [00:23:09] That brings up some good news and some bad news. Justin, you want the good news of the bad news? Ah, let’s go. Bad news. Well, the bad news is that Jesse has not figured out a way to score a point yet this year, despite all of his cheating, he was two and oh immediately when he entered the show last year, and now he’s on this drought. [00:23:26] So Justin, no pressure, but maybe you can save our mutual friend Jesse Kramer’s fortunes by getting him on the board. The good news is you’re only one point behind Paula Pant who finds herself precariously in second place with one. And man, what I wish for both you and Paula is that you beat our reigning champion, Mr. [00:23:44] Og, who has four already four points. So that’s, [00:23:49] OG: there’s the trophy, [00:23:49] Joe: that’s the stakes. The other good news, Justin, you get to go last so you get to see what these two people do ahead of you. OG will guess first. Paula guesses second. And Doug, each week gives us the trivia. What’s our question today, man? [00:24:02] Doug: Joe, I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far into today’s show and we haven’t talked about the fact that today is pie day. [00:24:12] It is [00:24:13] Joe: pie day, isn’t it? I was just looking at what you said in the chat. Are, are you seriously, are you seriously thinking about getting a pie tattoo on your, like every digit? I mean, don’t get me wrong, you certainly have room. [00:24:30] Doug: I’m not talking about that thing either. I’m talking about the other thing. What’s happening. I’m not sure I’m following Joe, but actually I don’t know what you mean by digits. I was thinking about getting peach. You want a peach pie tattooed on your butt, [00:24:45] Joe: you know, like the emoji the kids use. Yeah. Okay. Do you know what pie day means? [00:24:52] Doug: Do you have any idea what pie day actually means? Well, duh. I mean, it’s the middle of March. It’s a crappy month. It’s like raining everywhere. We all need something to cheer us up. Paul was talking about the weather getting better, but look at the [00:25:02] Joe: date. Three 14. [00:25:04] Doug: Yeah, so [00:25:06] Joe: look, [00:25:08] Doug: think. Oh, snap. It’s right there in front of me. [00:25:13] How could I miss that? Geez, that’s embarrassing. Well, in that case, I’ve got the perfect question for pie day for a round table. Here’s the question. At their peak, how many pies did mc. Donald sell in one year, back in the late eighties. I’ll be back right after I go figure out a way to bring the pies back. [00:25:34] Think Joe’s mom can help me out. I think he still doesn’t get it, but [00:25:40] Joe: we’ll take it from there. Oh gee, how many, how many pies if one of the banner years in the late 1980s. Did McDonald’s sell? [00:25:51] OG: Uh, this is cumulative nationally, globally. Globally in one year. Global pies and, um, inclusive of both flavors. I believe there were two cherry and apple. [00:26:04] I think there [00:26:05] Doug: was [00:26:05] OG: cherry [00:26:05] Doug: and apple total. There was total pies sold. [00:26:07] OG: Total pies sold globally in 1989, you said? [00:26:11] Doug: Well, in their peak year, during the eighties. The peak year was in the eighties. You’re stalling. Just give us a number. You’re the one that has to [00:26:19] OG: leave. I know, but I need some clarity. Just a second. [00:26:24] I believe that, uh, at the time it said hundreds of millions sold on the thing on the McDonald’s banner. The average person gets what? Let two pies a visit. Um, no, that’s not that what you guys did. Okay. You stop at two. All right. Four, whatever. Exactly. They we’re bite-sized. I’m gonna say that the number of pies sold in the peak of McDonald’s was six 1 million pies. [00:27:00] 61 million. 61 million. [00:27:03] Joe: Paula, what are you gonna do with that? [00:27:06] Paula: I was also thinking about, you know, ’cause the late eighties was when McDonald’s on the sign every year it would say like X. Items sold or whatever. You customer [00:27:17] Joe: served, [00:27:18] Paula: served, customer served, [00:27:20] Joe: yes. [00:27:20] Paula: Yeah, customer served. And I remember every year that number would, it would climb and climb and climb and climb. [00:27:27] And then eventually they just gave up and they were like billions and billions. But there was a time when they would routinely update that number. So I was trying to remember what that was and I, geez, I was thinking lower. Well, ’cause you also, you know, you also have to anticipate that not everybody who goes to McDonald’s is going to get a pie. [00:27:51] Like some people go there for the hot fudge sundae, right? [00:27:57] Justin: The McFlurry. [00:27:59] Paula: Some go for the french fries. [00:28:01] Doug: Look at Joe Joe’s like, how do I reel this back in? Please God shoot me. Now. Just some people go there for the quarter Pounder. Some people go there for a filet of fish. Always just listing the whole [00:28:14] Joe: menu. [00:28:16] Paula: Some just want the chicken nuggets and then it is some time at the McDonald’s playground, [00:28:20] Joe: whether it be a 20 piece of, of a four piece, [00:28:25] Paula: right? Some just want the toy that’s in the kids. [00:28:30] I’m gonna say 22 [00:28:33] Joe: million. 22 million pies. All right, Justin, you’ve got, wait, what was og? 60? 60 million. 61. I said 61. 61? Yeah. 61 and 22. Justin, what are you thinking? I. [00:28:47] Justin: Well, part of me feels like I have a disadvantage here ’cause I’m a kid of the nineties and I didn’t see the sign this amount served that you guys were talking about, [00:28:55] Joe: but do you think it matters? [00:28:56] You’ve been on the show now for 25 minutes, [00:29:00] Justin: but the other part of me is I feel like I have insider knowledge because I worked at McDonald’s for three years while I was a teenager, so I did too. I, I do see how many pies go out the door and I’m, I’m trying to do some mental math right now. And I’m gonna get Jesse on the board for sure, and I’m feeling pretty good at 40 million. [00:29:21] Joe: 40 million pies. All right. We got 61, we got 40, we got 22. Who’s right? Is Jesse fondly on the board? Is Paula gonna start sneaking up on og or is the dark Lord gonna pull ahead? We’ll find out in a moment. Og you started off with 61 million, both, uh, Justin and Paula thought you were way too high with that number. [00:29:45] What are you thinking? [00:29:46] OG: I, I don’t know. I, I don’t have a good feeling about this. I’m really mad because, uh, behind the scenes, what you guys don’t know is that some of this show is thought of. And it was, as soon as you guys started to talk about Pie Day, I was thinking I know what the trivia question’s gonna be. [00:30:00] ’cause we talked about this. It was gonna be a random number of pie. Out into the future. So I memorized pie to like a thousand digits and I’m super mad that you guys didn’t use that because I had, I had that in the bag. I was gonna nail it right on the button. We did think about that to throw ’em off. Doug, [00:30:16] Doug: we were gonna ask for everybody listening when we were brainstorming this today’s question, we thought, what if we just said, tell us what the 130 second and 130 third digits are of pie, [00:30:30] Joe: which I knew. [00:30:31] Yeah, totally new. Totally had that 16. Uh, so you don’t know one way or another, Paula, how are you feeling? You’ve got the low number. [00:30:39] Paula: Yeah, yeah. You know, I’ve captured all of the downsides. So if the answer is anywhere between zero to what? 30 something million? Yep, I’ve got it. So I’ve, I like that. I’ve got a good range. [00:30:50] Justin: And Justin at 40, you got the field goal. You’re right in the middle there feeling good. I feel a hundred percent confident on this one. I feel really, really good. [00:30:57] Joe: I, I like that. That’s great. Well, let’s see if the confidence is well deserved or not. Uh, Doug, what’s our answer? [00:31:07] Doug: I don’t wanna re, I mean this, I’m just so, the enthusiasm has been sucked outta me. [00:31:12] Hey, there Stackers on Pie Lover and the guy who knows a good 3.14 when I see it. Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. Ah, pie day. I love ’em all. You got your apple. You got your Dutch apple. Where are you, Paula? You got your apple crumble. You got your sour cream apple. You got your apple tart. You even got your rhubarb of apple. [00:31:35] Alright, that one kind of sucks. Hey, you’ve even got Doug’s craw dad pie. Nope, that’s a good one. Nope, it’s, well, it’s real. Look it up. Look it up. Also true. I can eat about 3.14 pies in a single sitting, but today’s question was about McDonald’s pies. How many. Her year was the fast food chain selling during their peak years in the late eighties. [00:31:57] Well, I don’t just come right out and tell you ’cause OG hates it when I do that. He likes it when I stretch it out and when I do the math. What I will say is that it was, uh, well, it was in the millions, so you guys had that part right. It was 210 million more than what Justin slash Jesse guessed. 228 million more than what Paula guessed. [00:32:21] Unbelievable. Just, just 189 more unbelievable. The grim reaper of sadness guest, he guessed 61 million. Uh, the correct answer is 250 million. Making jerk face, OG our winner. [00:32:37] OG: 250 million. That’s a lot of pie. [00:32:41] Joe: That’s insane. Wow. In a year, what I wanna shine a light on is something Paula and I were talking about on the Afford Anything Show recently, which is her uncanny ability. [00:32:49] Doug: To [00:32:50] Joe: every [00:32:51] Doug: time go the wrong way. And I’m listening to Justin, who’s all confident and he is like, I work there. I saw him and he went out the door. I think I got this one in the bag. All he had to say was 62 million. [00:33:06] Justin: I probably should have took the high on that one. That’s my bad, Jesse. [00:33:09] Doug: Yeah, and for, and to be all like puffing your chest out, like, oh, I got this in the bag. You don’t go to the middle, Justin, you don’t hedge yourself in either. Go way low or way high. Oh my god. [00:33:21] Justin: Doug. Doug, I’m just setting up a, a comeback story for Jesse here. [00:33:24] I, I don’t want, I don’t wanna put any points that he didn’t earn on the board here. [00:33:28] Joe: Yeah, when they make the Hallmark movie about this at the end of the year. Incredible comeback of Justin and Jesse. Uh, let’s jump into the second half of this discussion about things we overpay for. And I wanna highlight before we move on, on a couple things that OG said, because Paula, I kind of like the thing about valuing your time, right? [00:33:47] Mm-hmm. I mean, there’s different types of wealth is you’ve had a recent guest on talk about, but this gift of time we have is something we can’t get back. [00:33:54] Paula: Exactly. Yeah. And I 100% agree with that and stand by it. I do think not filling your gas tank is a little extreme. That’s just ’cause the surcharge on that is so massive. [00:34:06] OG: It is big compared to what though? I mean, it’s like an extra what, 20 bucks? [00:34:10] Paula: Uh, I mean, I guess it depends on how much you drive and Yeah. How many gallons that is. But alright, let’s say you’re paying a, I don’t know, a $6 surcharge per gallon times. Oh, it’s [00:34:20] OG: not that much. No, no, no. Yeah. No [00:34:22] Paula: really. All [00:34:23] OG: right. [00:34:24] Paula: This could be the next double check trivia question. I’ll double check. [00:34:26] OG: You could be right and I would be way wrong. I think I would notice if it was like, Hey, your rental was forecast to be $61 this week. Turns out it’s 605. You know, I think I probably noticed that being off, but I think it’s like, ’cause it tells you when you leave, it says like, yeah, gas right out, right behind there. [00:34:42] If you don’t do it, it’s four 15. And I’m like, all right, well it’s maybe a buck 50 or $2 a gallon. [00:34:48] Paula: Oh, is that it? [00:34:49] OG: Yeah. Yeah. Huh? Maybe it was more before Paula. Interesting. [00:34:54] Joe: Yeah. Okay. Alright. That’s [00:34:55] Paula: not as bad as I thought then. [00:34:57] Joe: I [00:34:57] Justin: don’t know. I just don’t like parting with that money. I don’t know. Where are you at on that one? [00:34:59] Justin, I’m with you on this one. Joe. I don’t like to spend money frivolously. I’d rather spend it on the things that really bring me joy. I. I don’t know. That would pain me to know that I just spent an extra 20 or 30 bucks on, on the gas when I could have just probably taken two or three minutes of planning and stopping on the way there. [00:35:15] I got three [00:35:15] OG: more minutes with my friends. [00:35:18] Justin: Yeah. Yeah. [00:35:19] Joe: That is valuing your time. Pretty high though, Justin. I mean, it is a value of your time. I remember when, um. When I was with American Express, I got to this point in my career where I thought of this amazing thing. I was like, I want somebody to buy me groceries. [00:35:31] I don’t care what it cost. I mean within reason. I don’t care what it cost, but the amount of time I spend in a grocery store versus the amount of money I could make if I had that time, I. My multiple on that time was huge. Was absolutely huge. And then I decided I wanted to, so tell [00:35:45] OG: me, tell me that you started the idea of Instacart. [00:35:49] It was, did you, you saw that all the way to fruition, right? Like you’re a founding No, but, [00:35:53] Joe: well, clearly I didn’t, ’cause I’m here with you. Ah. But the, but what is funny is OG the people I called Meyer, our local regional chain in the Midwest, I called the people at Meyer and I explained what I wanted to do and they kept bringing me further up the food chain and the regional manager was like, yeah, I don’t know anybody that would pay for that. [00:36:12] Like, like, we don’t have anybody to do that. We don’t have any way to get that done. Yeah. I’m like, I would totally pay. To have somebody do my grocery shopping for me. He’s like, I’m sorry. We just don’t have a way to do it. So yeah, thought of it and let it go. And now a bunch of people do it. And now I’m suing Instacart for the rights to that idea. [00:36:28] Talked about it on the podcast. [00:36:29] Paula: Did you hear the expenses that will fly spending it on the fly and now pass you up the food chain? Right. [00:36:37] OG: I didn’t. Didn’t. Right. Yeah. There are some things that I regret, like DoorDash really kind of slapped me around sideways the other day I wasn’t paying attention. The misses was out. [00:36:47] Cooked this fantastic dinner, but it wasn’t for us. It was like out of a movie like everyone was upstairs. You’ve seen like the cartoons where like the dog smells the food and he is like floating to the smell of whatever it is. All of a sudden you could smell this garlic chicken thing come and, and like all the kids were upstairs. [00:37:05] I was upstairs watching a game and. We’re like, wow, that smells pretty good. And we all kind of float downstairs like, wow, that smells really good, mom. What’s for dinner? She goes, oh, this isn’t for you. This is for my mom’s group. We’re like, ha, seriously, it smells really good. What’s for dinner? She goes, no, seriously, this isn’t for you. [00:37:19] I’m taking it to my mom’s group. You guys are on your own. We’re like, wait, what? You know? And so we ordered DoorDash, Wendy’s, which is a terrible idea on every front. Because Wendy’s is bad. Wendy’s cold is worse, and apparently they don’t charge you market prices on DoorDash for fast food. It’s a multiple. [00:37:39] It literally, you know, I’m not gonna say how much it was ’cause that’s, that’ll really set Paula off, but it was like putting $6 of gas in my car, you know, 15 gallons of it. It was a [00:37:50] Joe: lot. Well, I’m glad this entire show that was supposed to be helping people avoid charges has become OGs like confessional. [00:37:57] OG: Well, I’m just saying like, I wish I would’ve paid attention to that because that I would’ve said, you know, I can drive to Wendy’s for the kids. You know what I mean? Like, I just did it on the phone, like whatever. And. Yeah, that was four days ago. I’m still, I’m [00:38:08] Paula: actually with you though. I use Uber Eats to order Taco Bell delivery. [00:38:12] Oh [00:38:12] Joe: God. [00:38:13] Paula: Oh yeah. I’ve done that twice. I just can’t do [00:38:15] Joe: it. I can’t do the DoorDash. I enjoy leaving my house. I enjoy just going out and getting it myself. I don’t wanna pay some. More on, I’m sorry. If you do Uber Eats, you do. I just don’t wanna be somebody’s side hustle when I can go get it myself, because [00:38:32] OG: address is, uh, on, uh, you know, Marigold court If you wanna spit this food next time, [00:38:38] Doug: Jill, I’m gonna jump in here and say, this just happened to me the other day and, and it’s something that I’ve, I realized. [00:38:44] For years I’ve been being overcharged out of convenience. I kind of knew it, but I actually left the house thinking I’m not gonna go get food. I’m gonna go get ingredients at the grocery store to make dinner. I wanted to make fajitas, so I needed bell peppers. And it’s nice to have a, you know, red, green and yellow bell peppers, but if it’s not in season, usually you can’t, they don’t have like piles of them in the produce section. [00:39:07] So I have gotten in the habit of grabbing those prepackaged. Where there’s one yellow, one red, and one green bell pepper. And in the produce section that they have, those are like you, oh, I’ve gotta take ate to the cocktail party at my country club. ’cause I do that every week. And, uh, gotta do what? And this is very quickly becoming a show of the people. [00:39:29] So, I mean, I’m regular, I’m like everybody else, so there [00:39:32] OG: I am. So. Having gevs order me some crut for my country club party [00:39:37] Paula: and, and you’re making fun of me for airline lounges, you can’t stand [00:39:40] Doug: there in your, in your plaid trousers, in your sport coat, cutting up the cauliflower. So you buy the stuff that’s precut. [00:39:48] Oh, and I did that. I bought the. Individual bell peppers or you know, the, the all in cellophane. Mm-hmm. And you pay so much more for that when you could have just gone, it’s like [00:39:57] OG: $3 for a jar of cut up watermelon or 99 cents for a watermelon. [00:40:02] Doug: Exactly. Right. And these are things, these are habits we get into that are. [00:40:06] They’re so easy to avoid. Just buy ahead of cauliflower, ahead of broccoli and some carrots. Put it on a plate and, uh, and, and show up at Augusta National. You’ll be well liked. I, I had, and if you dress [00:40:21] Joe: right, everybody will think you’re the waiter, so you’re good. I didn’t realize the cost of cutting your own vegetables until I remember in my life it was actually Len Le Penso that brought that up and was like, the surcharge on cutting your own or on having your food cut for you by the grocery store is a monster number. [00:40:39] Doug: It really is. [00:40:39] Joe: So here’s a question, Justin. Why do I feel so good paying a ton of money for a cup of coffee at my local place? Like I get done even going through the drive-through, I get done and I got the warm coffee in my hand and I just. You know, had to, uh, take out a small loan to afford this coffee, but I feel great. [00:40:58] Justin: Maybe it’s the caffeine. I’m not sure it [00:41:00] Joe: must be. [00:41:02] Justin: No, I do think there is a point. If you’re making the localization or supporting a small business, maybe you can get behind something like that. Sure. Or just buying something that you really, really enjoy. Which is kind of what I was getting back to, uh, the initial question with, with the gas tank. [00:41:16] I do not wanna pay a surcharge for just the avoidance of filling up my tank, but I’m happily will buy a hundred dollars concert ticket. That’s totally fine with me. So just aligning what I’m spending on with what I really value is, is where my heart is. [00:41:29] Joe: Is there another place though that makes you groan? [00:41:31] I. Where you spend money and you’re like, why, why, why, why, why? [00:41:34] Justin: Oh, there’s lots. Well, the one right now that I’m, I’m really struggling with is wedding vendors. I have recently been exploring wedding vendors and the outrageous cost there. I’ve had a lot of friends get married, and I’ve been wanting to do a podcast episode around five ways to reduce your wedding cost. [00:41:48] I went out and started figuring out how much does a wedding really cost? There was this like number that $35,000 is the average wedding cost, and I was like, that seems ridiculous. No, I call a venue in Austin, a caterer in Austin, and a photographer. And videographer, and I’m already blowing through that 35,000. [00:42:05] Wow. So I, I was like struggling to even fit within the, the average, and I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So I’m, I’m still struggling there. [00:42:13] Joe: How do you get around these things? So I think you gotta plan a little more creatively. I know I’m going to a wedding this weekend and it’s in somebody’s backyard. [00:42:20] And I think just the intimacy of this beautiful backyard might even make it a nicer, assuming the weather holds out right. Might make it a nicer event. [00:42:27] Paula: Yeah. The most inexpensive wedding that I ever attended, the couple threw it at a park. It was potluck and they had a big spreadsheet and everybody was assigned a different type of a dish, so they had a good selection of appetizers, main courses, desserts. [00:42:44] They had their friends, volunteer people took shifts, so friends volunteered to be the bartender. One of our good friends who is. Pretty talented at photography. She’s not a professional, but she’s, her pictures are always really nice. Was their unofficial, or was, I guess their official, unofficial, official photographer. [00:43:02] So it was really just, uh, everybody pitched in, like kind of like a community barn raising type of a wedding. Did anybody care? Uh, I think we all enjoyed it more because we felt a sense of ownership. There was that participatory element or sometimes it’s, it’s nicer to be a participant than it is to simply be a spectator. [00:43:20] Justin: Yeah. Justin, I think I stepped on something you were gonna say. That was exactly what I was gonna ask. I was kind of curious what the sentiment was by getting a job in that wedding. [00:43:27] Paula: Yeah. Yeah. I think it gave all of us a, it was sort of a bonding thing because it’s like, wow, I feel honored to be a close enough friend that you would ask me to like make a dish for your wedding. [00:43:40] Not everybody can be in the wedding party, but there’s a certain intimacy of like, wow, we are close enough that you would make that request. What a wonderful thing. It’s the Ben Franklin effect. [00:43:51] Joe: What do you mean by the Ben Franklin effect? [00:43:53] Paula: So the Ben Franklin effect, it is a theory by by Ben Franklin. Huh? [00:43:57] If you ask somebody to do you a small favor, that person will actually end up liking you more. And so Ben Franklin would frequently ask people if he could borrow a book, and it wasn’t even that he needed that particular book. It was that for the person that, to whom he was making the request, the very fact that they’ve. [00:44:17] Now just invested a little bit of time into him. It, it can’t be too onerous of a request. Sure. But like they invested just a little bit of time into him now. They kind of like him more because they’ve invested into him. They want him to succeed. It’s, it’s sort of like, you know, you bond with a pet because you take care of it. [00:44:35] That that caretaking element often leads to increased closeness. [00:44:39] Joe: It is interesting, you know, they talk about life being about connections and this book, uh, Keith Ozzy’s book, never Eat Alone, talks about having a party and asking people, you know, and even if you don’t have a super nice house, you live in an apartment. [00:44:49] And, and he says in this book, nobody cares. If you don’t have any money for food, just do a potluck and serve like a soup, because just the, and this might go over differently after Covid than it did before Covid, but just the communal nature of eating out of a big pot of soup together kind of brings you closer together. [00:45:08] Um, that’s disgusting. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t mean eating outta the same spoon. Just ladling it out. Are cavemen. What whatcha doing here? It’s not filet mignon beef wellington. Yeah, that’s interesting. Anyway, I think we’re going to leave it there like a lot of Fridays. I’m glad we solved the problem of the Xbox problem by buying a second Xbox. [00:45:30] We saved our time by making sure, [00:45:32] OG: I think there’s gonna be people who write in and go. That is one of the most egregiously excess things that I’ve heard. But I think there might be a person or two that goes. That sir is brilliant tip of the hat to you, sir. Yeah, well done. Maybe somebody [00:45:47] Doug: like, uh, Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffet. [00:45:51] OG: Yeah. The, the guy who owns stock in Nebraska Furniture Mart. Yeah. Right. As you’d name drop the company. Thank you for visiting [00:45:58] Joe: that. Well, and I was also thinking, I think another important part of this episode, the social proof that McDonald’s had when they had the, you know. The number going up like everybody eats here. [00:46:07] OG: Yeah, [00:46:07] Joe: we could do the same thing og. We should put both stackers served by today’s episode, tens [00:46:12] OG: and tens of listeners, [00:46:14] Joe: four or five listeners served on today’s episode. Let’s send those four or five people to the brilliant work that you guys do. Well, let’s start off with og. What do you got going on this weekend, man? [00:46:26] Ooh, [00:46:26] OG: uh, this weekend upcoming is, uh, spring Break weekend, and uh, of course it’s the, uh, basketball tournament’s, uh, kicking off. Yeah. End of the Big 10 tournament this weekend. Yeah, so it’s a big conflux of, of stuff. Well, I guess this is Friday, so this weekend not starts spring break, but we, we we’re gonna go skiing next week, so. [00:46:45] So I’ll be gone. See ya. Awesome. Best wishes you taking the 60 inch TVs with you and no, the condo that we rent has all that stuff. [00:46:55] Joe: And well of our guest, the last, our, our guest of honor go last, Paula, what’s going on to afford anything? [00:47:01] Paula: So on the Afford Anything podcast, we have a debate between Paul Merriman and Big Earn Karsten Ska. It was inspired by the Forget About Money podcast, which is where the idea originated [00:47:13] Joe: Friend David Boyer. [00:47:13] Yeah. [00:47:14] Paula: The debate started off as, should you just V-T-S-A-X and chill, or should you have a more diversified portfolio that has some small cat value in it? That’s where we started and we went, I mean, it was a two hour debate and by the end of it, they were talking about the existence of God. [00:47:33] Joe: I wonder, by the way, who started that debate. [00:47:35] How do you think that debate first got started? Ooh, no, I joking [00:47:40] Paula: because of course it was you and me. Wow. I. We seeded the efficient frontier conversation, but like, I think we started off by saying V-T-S-A-X is stupid. Yeah. V-T-S-A-X and chill is stupid. Yes. Yeah. That is how it seeded. Yeah. [00:47:55] Joe: And to be clear, not for beginners. [00:47:57] For beginners, it’s perfect. Right. But later on, and then big earned by the way, called me a, uh, small cap value fan fanboy, which earn I’m still upset about, [00:48:06] Paula: uh. [00:48:08] Joe: Not a fan boy anyway. Uh, and that’s all at the Afford Anything podcast. [00:48:12] Paula: Yes. That’s at the Afford Anything Podcast. [00:48:14] Joe: Debating the existence of God, right? [00:48:15] Yes. [00:48:16] Paula: Small cap value and existence of God. Justin, [00:48:18] Joe: it’s about time we got this done, man. [00:48:21] Justin: Yeah, I’m glad we did. I, I’m stoked to be here today. If you guys wanna hang out with me a little bit more. The struggle is real on all your favorite podcast players. You can come and find some things like how to negotiate your medical bills and I got some fun ones coming up around real estate investing and how to get started with that. [00:48:35] Oh, cool. And how to double your income in the next year, uh, with Andrew G and Cola. So should be some fun ones coming out. Ooh, [00:48:40] Joe: awesome. Andrew is, uh, such a great guy. He’s [00:48:42] Justin: a rockstar. [00:48:43] Joe: Yep. Super. And that’s on The Struggle is Real Podcast. We Finest. The Finest podcast. Yes. Are found. Big thanks to you Justin, to you, Paula, and thanks to all of you for hanging out with us stackers, if you’re live on YouTube with us, or if you’re listening later. [00:48:58] Thanks a ton, Doug. You’ve been making the to-do list. What should be our top three? [00:49:03] Doug: Well, Joe first take some advice from our very own polysyllabic. Paula, tell us again why it’s okay to mooch off your friends, Paula. [00:49:11] Paula: Well, your friends make the best soup, and if you can get your friends to just, oh God, lale the soup into your mouth, then you never have to buy groceries again. [00:49:20] Ah, [00:49:22] Doug: gross. Second, even though he prances around all day, showing off the fact that he has two first names, just in Peters had a single brilliant thought. Justin, can you summarize for us again why none of us should ever, ever, ever get married? I mean, how to save money on a wedding? [00:49:40] Justin: Yeah, I, I don’t know. Uh, I’m still trying to figure that one out, Doug. [00:49:43] I’m sorry. [00:49:44] Doug: Alright, get back to us. But the big lesson. If you’re too young to remember the McDonald’s pie, here’s all you have to do to replicate the process. Take something fried, shove it in the microwave for like 68 minutes, so it’s just the surface of the sun hot, and then shove it right into your mouth the second it gets out, that’s just step one. [00:50:02] Step two, start screaming and like just don’t stop screaming. Step three, wait too long then to finish it and eat as much. Too cold apple pie and the taste is just disgusting. And voila, you’ve replicated the McDonald’s pie experience. Thanks to the Justin Peters for joining us today. You’ll find the struggle is real podcast wherever you are listening to us right now. [00:50:28] We’ll also include links in our show notes at Stacking Benjamins dot com. Thanks to Paula Pant for hanging out with us today. You’ll find her fabulous and loquacious podcast afford anything wherever you listen to finer podcasts. And finally, thanks also to OG for joining us. Looking for good financial planning help or a good scorekeeper for your baseball game. [00:50:48] Head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash OG for his calendar. This show is the property of SP podcast LC, copyright 2025 and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy. Joe gets some help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. [00:51:14] Come say hello. Oh yeah, and before I go. Not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
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