The Price Ain’t Right! (How Things Have Changed)

Remember 50¢ snacks and sub-$1 gas? UNC & Arya stack 90s prices against 2025 reality—gas, groceries, fast food, rent, and the sneaky tax of shrinkflation—then give real moves to stretch your money without losing your mind. Real talk → real tools: budgeting you’ll keep, bill negotiation, subscription audits, cook once/eat twice, and income stacking without burnout.

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Transcript

0:09

Welcome to All in one, ladies and gentlemen. This is a podcast where we keep it real. We keep it authentic. Tonight, you know what? We're going to take a trip down memory lane and do some comparisons. And like, I remember when I was a kid, I could go to the little corner store to get a 12 ounce can, a soda, bag of chips, and five of those little cookies out the jar off the counter for 50 cents When I first started driving, gas was 88 cents a gallon. And my boy used to ride down the road, we bumping. I got five on it. You know what I'm saying? I got five on it. You know what I'm saying? Like, in today, it's like, bro, you damn near got to do a credit check just to get a combo meal. You know what I'm saying? So let's get right into it. We're going to talk about it today. You know what I'm saying? So, all right, talk to me. What do you remember about the prices from back in the day to today? Yeah, I mean, I remember you used to go to the store all the time and we used to like get the drinks and stuff like that. And I don't ever remember drinks ever being over a dollar, like ever being over a dollar. And the fact that they are now$3 and $ four dollars or a little, this whole thing right here for this thing, it used to be less than a dollar. I don't recall ever spending more than dollar. And I was trying to remember, like, when was the first time I spent even 99 cents for one of these things? Like, I have no clue. when that was. It just feels like it just came out of nowhere. And we used to go to the store and they used to have like a pack of naters is it now and later? I think it's now and later. Because he used to say eat it now, hard and chewy or hard and fruity. Eat it later soft and chewy. So it was now and later. Right. Yeah. So right. But they used to have like the little single pes or they used to have a triple packs. Either way, it didn't matter which one you got. It was still super cheap. Like we get to choose for like one tent literally, the little Tsie roll shoes, those things were super cheap. They were like one cent for those shoes and you just buy a whole bunch of them. And now they're like, oh no, it's like five dollars an ounce. And it's like, five dollars an ounce? That's like 10 Jews in that. Like, who are y'all selling these two? Kids is broke. Y'all can't be selling the kids. The thing is, no one's complaining about it, and people are still buying it. And that's why it's okay. Now, people just was like, you know what? I'm done. I'm never buying this ever again. We're not doing this anymore. They might have to rearrange, you know, how they start selling, though. But no. I mean, even the Candy Lies expensive nowadays. I'm just saying, like, how in the world can you go to the candy lady and now one bag of chips? Because we kind of had something like that in our school, at the school I teach at. And like the small, I'm the small bag, little be small bag of chips for $2. 250. The kids buy it. The little candies, whatever. Kids buy it. be $3. Kids buy it. I'm telling you, like, it's, she sells, like, the little canned sodas that used to be like 25 cent that then went from 25 to 50 cent, that then went from $ 50 cent to 755. And now it's like, I don't know. She charges a hundred. She charges $1.50. Hey, you might say 100. Yo. Oh, my God. And the kids not some plane. You know what they do? They buy it. They buy it, they don't complain. Somebody need toulate y'all candy lady, because that ain't right. Today's price is not yesterday's price. Your candle lady over there getting it in. M she is getting it in. Let me tell you. I'm not even joking. Like, freaking she sells freeze cups. She sells freeze cups. H. She sells those freeze cups. I think they're either $1.50 or $2. But either way but either way. A pack of Kool-Aid didn't cost them much. The sugar didn't even cost that much. It sure didn't. It's. It didn'. The water came from tap. It sure did. I'm like, bro, we used to get those for like 25 cent 10. I used to get them from 10. 10. He used to get them for 10. I'm like, that's crazy. Pack of Kool-Aid was only like 10, 15 cents at the time. If that. has never been that expensive. I don't even know what it is now, but I know it has never, ever been expensive. It was always the most I've ever seen it was $4, $4, and I'm pretty sure it's probably still about that around that price. Because no, nobody messing K though no more You know what? We're going to have to fact check that one. We're going to have to see. I don't know. I haven't bought Kool-Aid in a very long time. Yeah, I haven't I haven't bought. Let me see how much. We're definitely going to have to fact check that price. But I think Kool-Aid might have hit a bottle already. I don't know. For a single pack that sounded crazy. But yeah, it's like, it's about supply and demand. You know, if you have something and somebody wants it bad enough, they will pay for it. Unfortunately, like you said, you know, we just keep buying into the system because it's what's presented in front of us. Everybody still wants that American dream, you know, which is funny because I was just watching this video and it was showing like the inflation chart, I guess you could say. Or basically median incomes and how before the 80s, basically everybody was coming up as a group together And then right after the 80s, the Reaganomics, you start to see the differences in the price gaps at the income gap, how the top 1% just start gapping folks by at least, you know what I'm saying, 26% So like to nowadays, it's like, well, into the hundreds of percent, the top 1% make way more than we were ever fathom making, you know? But like I said, we continue to push forward. I see that look on your face. You don't look the Kool-Aid price. Talk to me. Yo, not 42 cents a pack. That's crazy. Yeah, two for a dollar with taxes. Exactly. So you talking like at least 50 cents for one pack of foulet. That's crazy That's crazy. For one pack of Foolet. What's a flavored sugar? That is wild. That is crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. Kool Aid. Everything is gone up, though. I mean, like, you used to be able to buy the two liters for the price of the little 20 ounces now, you know? Candy, candy bars. It don't be in one of those high tourist areas. Oh, my goodness Look, so I have my kids to have little prizes, whatever. They do certain things, we do prizes, whatever case I be. Sometimes I ask them, what do they want, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Man, I went into the gas station for a small small bag of freaking' M&M's. Small bag of M&M's. And that thing was $22. and some change. And I was it was like $249. I was like, excuse me? For this little bitty bag of nothing? Excuse me? No, I don't think so. We're not doing that. We're not even doing that. And I'm just like, it's no better going to the Dollar Tree because Dollar Tree is not even the Dollar Tree anymore. Dollar Tree is1.25 tree. Sometimes it's a three dollar tree and sometimes it's the $5 tree. You know, they got a three and $5 section at the Dollar Tree. That's a premium section. You know what I'm saying? Don't come over here and let you got some money to spend. I mean, but that's just like five below is no longer five below. It's like five and up. Five below and up. I don't even know what they call it anymore. But I'm just like, you can't be like the whole purposeose of you even coming here is because you were supposed to be a dollar. Everyone knew that if they weren't coming to you, however many items they get is how much much they are spending. Give or take taxes. You get 10 items. For the most part, you're paying $10 plus the taxes. You get 20 items, you're paying $20, whatever, plus the taxes. People don't care about that. Now you got to be like, 0, one,5 or just 125, oh, four I got to be four. Like, on purpose, I go to the Dollar Tree and I' hurtosely buy in fours. If I only have two items, I am looking for two more items just because I'm like, I have to buy in four Like, I cannot buy in anything else. So they actually bank off of me because I can't, if I'm not buying in fours to me, the math doesn't make sense. And I'm just like, no, I got to account for these quarters. So I know that if I spend $4, I'm technically spending $5. dollars, so I can count an increism of four items. Oh, my God. And that's just how it works for me. I Like, why why y'all can't just leave Dollar Tree alone? Why? Do Who owns Dollar Tree? I'm speaking to you. Why are you coming? Doll, Dollar General? Well, see, Family Doar, Dollar General were never a dollar. Right. They were never a dollar. Facts. So I'm at least giving them the benefit of the doubt because they were like, you know, we're like in the dollar range. You know, you're not going to spend that much money here but Dollar Tree, we all know knew was a dollar for years. But you have to think about it. Like, how are they really making money, especially in the economy today, when it cost so much to run everything. We know because it costs us a lot to buy anything. Right. You know, so it's like, but how are they surviving? I'm wondering. I mean, I got a theory of how some of these stores, I'm not going to call no names because I don't want a lawsuits or a theory. But have you ever noticed that certain stores are always on like back roads or dimly lit streets where there's no, so you and then they got low prices, but you in these locations, deliberately. I feel like that's part of your business model. I'm not calling those stores out. I'm just saying, though, but if I had a store that I would probably get somebody to run up into it every so often, I can cla, I can write off a whole lot of stuff. See, I don't know what stores you talking about, but I know the Dollar Trees is in some really nice neighborhoods now, which is interesting, because usually, you know, they keep out of low-priced stores out of high-priced neighborhoods but I see Dollar trees everywhere. High neighborhoods, low neighborhoods. Now, you won't catch a Walmart in a high neighborhood. I've never seen a Walmart in a high neighborhood. dollar out there. Yeah, right, exactly. But I'm pretty sure they're like, they own one of them. I don't know which one it is. Are they both? Probably both. And it's just like, it's so weird. It's like, come on now. You could have given us this one story that everybody could work with. And I get it. You know, yeah, they got to figure out how they're going to make the prices work or whatever. But at the same time, there's just certain things you don't have to sell there. Like, you don't have to sell energy drinks, the Red Bulls in the Celsius. You don't have to sell those. You can sell those cheap ones that you were selling before. The one with that little M on it. I don't know what that stuff is. I don't know what's in it, but I'm just saying, you can leave it with that now name brand stuff. And stop trying to upgrade and sell all the other stuff there. Say in your lane of what you were supposed to do. I think they're getting the stuff at a discount, though. You know, it's For sure. It's probably the stuff that didn't meet quality checks. So they send it down to a different store. I mean, that's just the package. I don't really think so because I've gotten, I've gotten some really nice stuff from Dollar True before. And I'ten some really, I've gotten some really good good products from them. I do think it's, I kind of think it's one of those things where it's like, maybe they're getting it from out of the country, possibly. Or maybe it's because they purchase so much This is all speculation, but I'm just saying, maybe because they purchase so much, they can sell it at these discount rates at the $1.25. I don't know. They. They're catching my man an old girl at the store with a trunk pot lo. You already know what, Tommy. Look, okay? I got I got these cheeseburgers. Oh, man. I got these cheeseburgers. pop up, but they be having all kinds of stuff. I'm letting it go. I'm about to let it go. I went to, I'm not going to even say where it was but I'll say the name of the store. But in one of our areas here in the Atlanta region, y'all know what I'm talking about you know what I'm I'm talking about. But I went into one of these Walmarts. Literally, everything was in one of the lock cases Everything. I couldn't even get deodorant without having to find somebody to come unlock the damn case. That means you was in the hood hood.ed in that hood hood. They were like everything to lock up socks, y'all. We locking up. T-shirts. T-shirts. We locked up. The Hayes, the Fruit of the looms, locked up. Like, for real, bro. I was was just walking around like, I don't even believe this, but it's like, it's like this. You know what? I'm going to go do, I'll do a video. I'm going to go back over there and I'll do a video. Y'all think I'm playing. Wild. That's crazy. I've never seen that. Didn't get bath soap, couldn't get deodorant, couldn't get any toiletries. You can get the stuff off the travel aisle. Oh, I like those stuff. The dollar. Yeah, but you couldn't get the regular stuff. You know what I'm saying? So that was like, that was wild on me. I was like, bro, y'all can't be, I was like, how y'all not in the pool stay in the damn parking lot? So a house, right? Well, anyway, so they passed those savings right along to the consumers. That's wild. So we end up paying more for less. I like to call it skimp flation. Which is so crazy because, you know, they are they are actually saving so much more money now since COVID happened because if you think about it, when COVID happened, back in 2020, like in that March era, whatever when they was telling people that they didn't want everybody open and, you know, all that stuff like that. Walmart changed their hours. So they changed their hours from 24 hours because they were open in 24 hours a day to closing at 11 and open at 6. So now they are only open from 6 a.m. to 11 PM. And all of that money that they were really not doing anything with in the first place because I was that person that would go to Walmart at one, two o'clock in the morning and do my shopping because I knew nobody was there. And that's really the fact. No one was there. So like all those hours between that 11, we'll just say midnight. between that midnight time and 7 a.m., nobody's in the store. Nobody's shopping for anything at that time. You've got a handful of people that's in there. You talking to the lights, all that electricity, the refrigerators and all the other stuff like that that they had going on for all those hours and nobody was there. Well, the refrigerators, they got to run anyway because you have food that must stay frozen and you have food that has to stay at, you know, saying certain temperatures So those things are going to run all day either way. But I get what you're saying. They cut down on overhead, but did we really benefit from that? Did they pass those savings? I mean, as a consumer, we know we didn't get them But did the employees, I mean, I know they had to make certain, legally, they had to raise prices for wages for people, which means that everything else went up. Because I was sitting here one day and I was looking at my son because my son was working at Bojangles at the time, I was picking them up, taking them back to work back and forth to work. And it was like, I'm looking at the display board, damn family me, $50. For chicken? And I was was like, bro, I can't even I can't see that. You know, it's like, I would much rather go to the store and buy the package season, and you know what I'm saying, and kick it myself, then to spend $50 for, you know what I'm saying, just a bucket of chicken and we're not even talking 20 pieces. You know, to me, that's kind of crazy. I mean, the prices that we pay, and I get it because minimum wage came up, which means that they had to raise their prices in order to cover their salaries now, or the wages or whatever the case. You'll be amazed at how much some of these people make. Like, you know, I was looking at Zaxby one day and they managers get paid very well Oh, no, for sure. Because I used to work at Walmart. I worked at Walmart for five years. I gave up because I was trying to be become a manager because the co-manager and the store manager they making six figures. Everybody else? Even a customer service manager, which I've managed to get up that far, but, like, they were they weren't making any money. Not for real, 30 a year, maybe. Nothing compared to making six figures. 120. Yeah. Yeah. That was back in... 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Oh, like 10 years years ago. So I can only imagine how much more they make. But back then, to make, you know, 120 just starting off, like that's that's great, you know? But then they would have cashiers coming in at like $8 an hour. Really? And then not even give them full hours. I was about to say, because I've never been to a Walmart at any hour throughout the day where all the lanes were opened. It's like, Never. And even me. Except except for one day. Christmas. Nope, nope. That Black Friday. Black Friday all hands on deck. On Black Friday, everyone is required to work. Every single employee is required to work. That's the only day that is legitimately a only day and that doesn't even exist anymore, not for real. Now it's like just shop on Thanksgiving day. Cyber Monday. Cyber Yeah, Cyber Monday is cyber Monday is the following Monday. But yeah. Crazy. So, but yeah, it's like with everything's changed, though. Even the prices of housinges, bro. So like I said, you know, back in the day, 2011, it was in 2011, I bought a house. It's a bedroom, four bath. The house was less than $200,000. Let's do it that way. It was actually in the80s. you know? Today. That same house is worth a lot more. Let's just do it that way. You know, and it's like, today, you can't even find a house. Hell, for what the mortgage was. You can't even find a two bedroom apartment. A two bedroom apartment caused more than the mortgage was on that. It's crazy. It does not make any sense to me whatsoever. You know, it's like how you respect anybody to survive in today's economy with the wages and stuff that we are making making. And then the prices of the house is just shit, two, three times a damn salary. You know, it's like, but you expect people to be able to survive with this. It's like the American dream is really a pipe dream Just being honest, you know, is it attainable? Yes, it is attainable, but not to everybody. And that's just the reality. You know what I'm saying? It's like certain things are just set up to just, you can only make so much You can only go so far. You know, that, that proverbial glass ceiling, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I know like, um, I was looking up the prices of homes back in like the 50s and 60s and like the average home was like $7,000. And I'm just like, Wait, what? Excuse me?$7,000 for a home. Let me find out. that I can get a house for $7,000. You can't even rent for $7,000. Not for the whole year. Even if you did. If you did a six-mon mortgage, you you might get away with $7,000. You might get away with $7,000. You got a small place, though. It's going to be like 500 square feet. box. You got Gonna be real tight. Don't be trying to're trying to have a full bed in there, you full queen's size or a king size bed. You need a full size twin size bed. And you need you know, and the one that folds up a wall. Right. Yes, we got to fold up. You got to fold up into a wall or the one that folds the futon. That's what you need. You got to get a futon. You got to have the couch with the bed all at one. Got that's what you're going to get for $7,000? Actually, you can go to third world countries and live pretty good. I've been looking at a few of them. That Facts. Those are facts.m saying. 7,000. Those are facts. It's starting to look real good to me. I'm not going to sing you about it. I get it. Only thing is, got to work here, make the money, and then bring it there. for some of us. Digital nomads. There are so many positions. You guys need, if you don't know nobody, you need to look into it. Digital nomads. You can work from anywhere, as long as you got an internet connection. and you can get to it. Or you can start your own podcast and get to it as well. Hey, you know, then you can do whatever you do, however you want to do it. And you want to do it. Live life like it's a dream. Great, yo, crises have changed and things are different And Will it ever get back to, will it stabilize? That's the question, you know what I'm saying? And if not, how do we survive off of what we have? Yeah. I mean, because honestly, it's just getting harder and that's for everybody, you know? Because, like, I was just having this conversation with my sister. I was like, you know, I know people with money, but, like, even the people with money, like, they have to work hard. They can't just, it's just not. Bam, it's there. And I could just like do whatever I want, whenever I, no, you still have to actually put in time. You still have to actually do work. You know, it's not just like you're sitting here and you're just like, and the money's just flowing and you're not doing anything. Because it doesn't work that way. You know, even if you have an inheritance, guess what? It's going to die. It's going to go. And if you're not working or allowing your money to work for you, then guess what? You're going to lose it. You're going to absolutely lose it, you know? And nowadays, too, I'm hearing a lot of even like celebrities. They're like, I'm not giving my child my inheritance. They're not going to inherit this. They're going to have to work hard And then some of them, I'm just like, wait, did you work that hard? That's another topic. Right, right. That's another topic. It's hard for for this money. So your money was given to you, and now you're going to tell your child that they have to work hard. Oh, make, that make sense. Okay. But anyways, hi packers. You never know. The child might be acting real spoiled and, you know, I'm saying, true. That's true. So maybe their ultimate goal is to teach them that everything in life does not come as easy as I've handed it to you. Right. That when I'm gone you're going to have to learn how to survive on your own. So, I mean, I can understand the concept of not leaving a whole lot behind or anything at all behind. And It's a tough pill to swallow, especially if you was just expecting to inherit the throne. That's true, too. That is true too. I get that. Yeah. But it's just like, you know, everywhere, all the way around, it's like cost of living these homes, you know, minimum wage and stuff like that, how that's increased. But even though minimum wage is increasing, it has never increased to living wage. That's the crazy part. It has never increased to living wages. So it's like yeah, we want the funds to go up, but we also want living wages to be equal. Like, the whole point of people fighting for minimum wages to go up is so that we can have living wages. It's like they're like, fine, we'll give you the, we'll increase the minimum wage. But guess what? We're all going going to increase everything else. So it's like, y'all could have just kept the minimum wage down and kept the price of living down because it doesn't make any difference. It doesn't make any difference. If I had $100,000 and you're like, okay, I'm going to give you $100,000 but then you raised my rent up to $3,000 a mom. That's That $100,000 means absolutely nothing. It means absolutely nothing. We want it to go up so that we can actually afford where we are right now. That's crazy. Biggie said it best. More money, more problems. Yeah. You know? So is making money the solution? Or is it just a gateway to more issues that's coming, that's to come, you know? I think it all depends on perspective. I think it depends on your standard of living and how you you money. Like since I retired, I realized that I had to create a much tighter budget than what I was accustomed to living on. So I get paid once a month. You know, so any bill that I have must be calculated out of, that payment because, you know, I'm saying, unless I decide to go do something different that check is the only source of income that's coming in at a particular time, right? So you have to learn how to live within your means, separate your wants from your needs. And that was something that I had to learn at a very young age. It was actually right around the time I had my technically my third child, I had twins off the rip. So by the time my oldest son, my youngest son, I should say, it came about, that's when things kind of really, really changed in my mind, mindset. So it was like you got to separate your wants from your actual needs. And I might want these, whatever, you know what I'm saying? Insert whatever is it might be. But it's something that I got to have in my, you know what I'm saying? So for me nowadays, it's bare minimums up front, right? You cover everything that you need. Do you have food? Do you have water? Do you have shelter You have those three minimum things that you're doing okay. You might not be leaving the life that you want to live, but you are doing okay. Um Other things you have to say is like, okay, I can't go to this fancy restaurant or whatever the case. I might have to go to one of these lower inn restaurants. And sometimes that restaurant might have to be fast food. And if you have to survive all of fast food learn where your money goes the far. I'm going to advocate for Derren Queen. I'm an advocate for a Wendy's. You know what I'm saying? A four for four meal. You ate today. You know what I'm saying? You know, Do they actually still have that a four for four? Take their biggie bag and a little time. You know what I a five piggy bag still. You know what I'm saying? They got a $5 biggie bag. The only thing they got their, I don't know. I haven't been to Wendy's in ages, but still, because Wendy's used to have chili without the meat in it, and now they've added meat to the chili And then they also used to have the taco salad. And I used to get the taco salad with the chili because the chili didn't have the meat and now I can't, I can't eat it because they put meat in it. I'm like, great, okay? Can't go to can't kill you no more. Can't eat your food anymore. You've literally taken everything off the menu that I can eat. But no, like, what's funny is like, you naming these, even these particular places, like, their meat is not even the same anymore. Like, it's so expensive. I went to, um what was it? McDonald's. They' the one that they have the McFlurry, right? Right. Long time ago. I don't remember, but it wasn't that long ago, but it was still long enough where it was I think it was probably like earlier last year or something like that. And I got to McFlurry. And that thing was like $3 and some change. I said, wait a minute I spent almost $4. dollars And what's so crazy I don't remember it ever being this small, but this couple was like this small. The couple's this small. Right. The last one I got, they put that shit on a little cardboard box. That shit wasn't even in a cut. That shit was actually in a cardboard box. Like, real shit? Yes, I said that's wild. But yeah, they add the the ice cream maintenance fee inside of there for us, you know what I'm saying, for the machine. Because you know that motherfucker used to always be there. Always broke. Always broke. I remember when that documentary came out and everybody was like, oh, ask, Tony, ask Terry or something like that, whatever his name was, because they had to always call the same guy to come fix the machines. Anytime the machines had to be fixed, no matter where it was at, it was this one, because what happened was McDonald's had a, um, they had one contract so that this one contract said that you have to specifically contact this person. And I get it. It saves you a lot of money. But as a company that's clearly everywhere, you can't just be like, it's this one small company. You need a bigger company that way they have multiple people, you know, that can actually come out to you. Because I'm like, first of all, McDonald's, why are you doing that? That's like the cheapest thing that you can do is hire one individual that has to come to your machine. Did't we just talk about that the other day? It's like, if I come up, I'm going to bring all my people up with me. I guarantee you that's a family business. You know, you're probably right. That anytime I got any problems, you going to call for maintenance. That's crazy. And then a lot of times they were saying you have to reset it. And when you reset it, it takes hours for it to like get reset and cool back down and all that other stuff like that. So it's basically out of commission for the whole day if they have to reset it And I'm like, are you kidding me? That's crazy. But what was even wilder is the fact that all the employees was snitching. All the employees was like, yeah, no, we all. No, they told us to say that.. They don't like to clean the machine. That the machine was down. Yup. Machine was down. It was either accidentally left on, it wasn't cut off properly. It wasn't cleaned or something like that. And they would just be like, ohh, our machine is down. Well, that's what the managers told us to say, the machines are down. It's like, no, please, come on, now. I want my ice cream. Oh, seriously. But even, oh, yeah, no, actually, just recently. I want to say like, not long ago, maybe a month ago, I went with my mom to McDonald's. I didn't want anything, but she wanted a little cone of ice cream. A little cone of ice cream.$2. Since when? Since when? Oh. She was like, I'll never buy ice creamers because she was so mad. I was I was like,M, calm down. Ma, calm down. She was so. She was like, wait a minute. She she didn't even think about it until it was already paid for. And she's like, wait a minute. That I just spent. And I was like, bro.. Yes, ma'am. Welcomeation. And that's the thing. Like I said, skimp flation, because they still charge you more and give you less nowadays. Am I the only person that's noticing that? No, it's true. Because I know anytime I pick up a bag of chip, I'm shaking before I grab and decide which chip I'm getting, because I don't want all the air in my bag. I want actual chips You know what I'm saying? I don't got to the point now where I'll just spend the money on the, where they don't at the Pringles. You know what I'm saying? At least I have the clues. Yeah, I've gotten into that too now. And that's what every tip, they make they put Doritos in there now. They put Cheetos in there. They have all kinds of stuff in the tubes. If you want to get your money's worth stickle the tubes because they actually do fill it all the way up. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm trying to make my little dollar stretches as far as I possibly can nowadays. You know what I mean? So, it's just, you just got to learn certain things that you can do, where to go, what time of day to hit certain places You know, like, I give a tip to people who's, you know, I'm saying, have electrical vehicles. If you charging your vehicle during the middle of the day during one of these charge stations, you are paying premium prices. If you charge that vehicle at night after, say, 11 p.m. depends on how you feel or where you are. You know what I'm saying? Most people should be able to charge at home during that timef frame, but if not, if you're on the road and you need to charge, if you charge at the 11 p.m., it costs you almost it's ridiculously cheaper. Let's say if you spent $20 in a day, that same charge with would it only cost you $5, $6 at night, you know what I'm saying? So it's a difference between, you know what I'm saying, when you go. And it's just little things that you have to learn just to make make your dollar stretch a little bit farther. And that's one of the things that I've had to learn to do, you know, I'm saying, to be able to, you know what I'm saying, just get past some of the nuances and stuff. You learn where to shop and where not to shop. Believe it or not, certain stores do have cheaper prices. And that also includes meat markets. I might want to take some out, especially if you're your neighborhoodhood. That's where I love shopping as a meat market. Meat markets, like, I mean, I have my fish markets. I only eat fish, but still, like way cheaper than going to like Publix, you know, I can get that same, that little bitty old, four ounce of salmon that I pay freaking a $4, I mean, $5 to$7 dollars for depending on, you know, whatever time it is, I can go there and pay like $ three dollars, you know, or $2. It depends, especially like when it's like super fresh, like they just, and then they just got it, you know, like before the crowd comes in the rest of the day, like when you go and they're first, like loading up everything on the store, a lot of times, sometimes they're cheaper, you know, because they know it's like lower hour rush hours. I mean, because they can technically charge whatever they want. It's a private, you know, company But yeah, you go there early in the morning. The prices be on sale. You go there later during the day and the prices go up because they know a lot of people are coming in there. They just got off of work, you know, whatever the case may be, and they're coming into the source. flying the van. Exactly.cul Especially. And I know it takes because I love fishing. So like, I know sometimes you get in there and or you get out there and sometimes it's be like, dang, we're all fishing. Like, what they doing right now? But then there's other times you go and it's like, back to back. You just, you just reeling them in back to back. And so I get it. They're just basing off of like how much they get in during the day or if they're catching a lot, then maybe they'll have a better price. They're not catching a lot. They going to probably raise up the prices. They're like, look, we ain't catch this much, but we need so we need to make some money off of this. You know, we don't spend all of our hours and everything like that out there, you know, fishing trying to catch everything So, you know, you just, yeah, you just got to figure out timing. You got to figure out like who has better priz shop around. Like, a lot of people, like my ex, he did not like shopping around. Like, I'm the type of person like, look, I'm going to pick my stores. I know my certain stores that I get certain things from. Like I don't like to shop at Walmart, but honestly, like, as far as the, like toiletry stuff, I will go there all day day and get toilet tree stuff because I'm sorry, I use Charmin and like, It's expensive as hell. And like, and then I'm not getting ready to, I'm not going to go to Publix and get it. You know, I'm not going to go, even Amazon a lot of times is more expensive, you know? Sometimes people be like swearing up and down on Amazon, but I'll be like, you got a price match with Amazon too. Because sometimes you'll find something somewhere else, you know, now food I'm picky with. I stick to my stores that I like to get my food rum. But like tissue, I'm like, okay, it's the same company. I'm going to get my tissue wherever it's cheaper, that part, you know. So you figure out where you can go for certain things and you shop around and make make your money work for you, you know, and don't feel obligated to do certain things that you don't have to do. Like, i.e. tipping, you know, like, I'm sorry, but like I'm a huge tipper, but. certain times I don't tip. Like, if I go inside, I don't know why, but when I go inside of a Starbucks, sometimes I feel like, oh, okay, I want to tip. And I'll tip if I go inside. But if I'm going through a drive through I'd be like, I don't want to tip. I just don't want to tip, you know? And then, like, like Subway. I like going to Subway sometimes, and I'm like, I don't want a tip. Like, you getting paid already. Like, they don't lower your money. Like, you still get paid the same that you were getting paid before. They have not done anything differently with you. Now you got a tip. Now you have to tip on the screen. What am I paying you for extra? What extra did you do for me? Now, sometimes if they do go out of their way, like, you get you get some of them, the baristas that would be like, oh, you want me to do this for you? Or you want me to add this or do this, or let me try this? Or have you tried it with this, you know, giving you off ideas and stuff like, oh, you should try this and this and this So like, when they're going the extra mile, like and really like putting themselves out there, this, sometimes I'm just like, okay, yeah, you deserve a tip. But if you're like, can I take your your order, you give them your order and they say, okay, a name on that order and then you give them your name and that's it. What What extra did you give me? What do you mean? Those great customer service. They didn't cuss you out of nothing. Yeah. Well, if that's the case, you should be tipping the Walmart service. Walmart't.' them anybody? It's the Waffle House employee. God damn it. fucker always brawl them. They' going to put. Let me tell you, on a good day when I do go to Waffle House, because them grits be hitting. I'm not going to lie. When I want my grits, there's two places I go for grits. And that's Peach Valley. I don't know if you have a Peach Valley out there but we have them all over the place here in Florida. But Peach Valley, they make their greeks with like a like Gouda. I don't know why it's so good. It is so freaking good. What's crazy is I thought the same thing. I thought the same thing. I didn't know it had Gouda. I was just like, oh, okay, it's like, maybe this is white American or, you know, I didn't know what it was. I was just guessing. I was like, oh, okay, they put white American. That's interesting. I was like, because, you know, at Waffle House, they use yellow American. So I'm thinking it's white American. I'm talking to them. I'm like, man, this is like one of the best grits I've ever had. I was like, I ain't gonna lie on my mama. Like, she makes some amazing grits. But, like, these grits kind of like, they up there with my mama grits, and I swear my my mama grit. But my mama used American cheese And so I asked him, I like, can you know what cheese is in here? So they asked the, I guess, the cook or whatever. And they said like a garlic and g or something. And I'm just like, Why are we? You sounded like Eddie Murphy right now. If you're starving and somebody throw you a cracker, it'd be like, Godd damn, that's the best cracker I ever had. Was this rich? You know what I'm saying? Like, this is definitely a rich. Well, that's what you sounded like right now. It's like I was like, ooh, this is delicious.icious because I'm picky. When I tell you I'm picky, I'm probably the pickiest eater. Like, I literally like, I mean, you seen me eat when I was like looking at the, I was looking at my salmon. I was like, I'm like, oh, okay, let me me. That's crazy. That's crazy. It was okay. No, it wasn't too bad or whatever. I don't know if I would get it again, but it wasn't too bad. Too bad. Wasn't too bad. It was bad enough. I just never had any Alfredo with a whole bunch of vegetables in it. I've never had that before. My Alfredo is like... Maybe tomatoes, cilantro parsley kind of thing. Right, right. That's it. You know, in garlic, of course. But that's it. No, like, they had bell peppers banana pepper or something. I don't even know. It was like a tricolor, you know, pepper or something up in there with some onions. And I was like, they doing too much. It was like. It had peas in there. They put They threw all the extras in there. They'm like, motherfucker, I was just told you we was getting ready to close. Make sure your ass get everything you want. I know, you don't, we don't want to throw this away. Just throw it in there. Just throw it in. This shit crazy. Yo, but I'm telling you, my ass just, oh, I don't know. I just like, even stuff like that, I just be like, do I want to tit? Like, I don't like the food. But then I have to like, okay, I don't want to get the server in trouble because the cook did something and the cook get in trouble because the server did something. I always try to like separate the two you know, because I hate when I get really good service, but then the food is so bad. And I I'm just like, I don't want the server to get in trouble for the food being so bad. But sometimes I'm like, didn't you look at my food before you brought me my food So then it's like, okay, maybe you should be in trouble for this. Because you should have looked at my food before you brought it to me. Why are you bringing me burnt bread? It's not burnt. It was Cajun. It was Cajun. It was definitely Caj. It was It was Cajun. It was Cajun. Okay. Yeah, we call it. That's what we call it. It's not burnt. It's crazy. See, if you just scrape, it's not layer off. It's just.... Give it It gives it flavor. It gives a character. Right, right, right. It gives a character. Yeah, okay. Shef is an artist. Sometimes he, you know, some oval colors in some areas. just, you know, it was painted on there. That's not actually the bread, you know. Actually, I'm trying to remember what movie that was when they had burntt bread and then they were like, oh my bread is burnt. I don't know what movie it was. And the server picked it up and grabbed a butter knife. It's great. I was black. games of the same bread back. I was like, yo. I know what you're talking about. I just can't remember the name of the movie. I've seen that happen before. Yeah. I'm like, hey, what movie was it? That's was fun. It's like Getting back, getting back, getting back to it. You know, it's like, well, yo, you got to learn where to go, win the shop, where to shop. And then also you have to, this is your local farmers's markets for crying out loud. deals out there. Oh, yeah, for sure. And the thing about the farmer's market is you can always hackle them, you know, because they they don't really care for real, for real. Look, I stay, five dollars? I don't think I could. You got $ four dollars? Oh, I think maybe like three, $3. Okay, okay, okay, I getll give it to you for $3. Like, legitimately it's that simple. It's that simple. I mean, they have a surplus of stuff that obviously they're trying to sell. And you know what I'm saying? I mean, you can get a lot of things for a cheaper price in one of the box stores. It just do it that way if you shop locally, support those guys because they need it just as much as the big box stores do as well. You get fresh products. You know what I'm saying? NGMO, they own their own seeds type stuff, you know, organic. You get it all. As we say, everything is MSG free, right? You just put a label on it. Right, exactly. Nowadays, everything is MSG free organic. They're trying to make everything organic. Right. Come on now. Everything ain't organic. So, but yeah, so, I mean, um, there's just like so many things that just, the prices just have changed so drastically. Like I was, um, even looking at my car, I'm just like, I love my car so much, but it's like, it's so expensive. And I'm just like, I remember when cars were cheaper. Like, why and when did that happen that we just felt like, even though, and and the crazy thing about vehicles going up is like the material has gone gone down. Like, first of all, you mean to tell me that I used to get a sturdy metal. Now I got this face ass plastic chicken that they just like. They just is like, oh, you know what? It's cheaper I can make a lot of these, and I can raise the price. But then they don't have the same safety security either. And people not even thinking about that. It's like, you don't have the same safety security features because nowadays, cars are crushing. You'll hit a car in a good in bag. It's crushing. Man them old cars. The LT. They're cutting them them. That thing was holding.. That thing was holding. You could do a little bit if it got a little dent in it, you and then it'd be fine. Like, but no, like, I just I mean, the cars now, they just so cheap. And like, you can tell they're made so different from the cars back then. I used to have a 64 Mustang, man, let me tell you. Beautiful car. Beautiful, beautiful car. I was so mad because my ex sold it without my permission. which I didn't know you could do if both your names are on a vehicle. Didn't know you can do that. But anyways, it was done. which sucks. Because I'm like when am I going to get that again? You know when I'm ever going to get that again. And it was literally one of my dream cars and one of my dream cars. But yeah, like, you, you know, these cars, like they were just made so right and so strong and you can tell, even just like feeling it, like the touch of it. You could tell you opened the door and you can feel the sturdiness of how strong and powerful that door was. Now these doors are slinging. Like These doors are weak as I don't know what. They just slinging. I'm just like, yo. Like, but we paying more for them. Like, cars were just like $3,000.$5,000. Even seven for a high-end car. Now, I mean, you lucky if you can find a car in the 20s. You lucky. And more than likely is old. Yeah. More than likely it's used. It's got about 20,000 plus miles on it at minimum. You know the funny thing about that? Because because this is the lesson I had to learn the hard way the hard way. Because again, nobody taught me anything growing up, right? So. When I got promoted and then I bought a vehicle. I was very proud. It was It was next year's model. You know what I'm saying? So we here and it's like right, what is it, like Labor Day or whatever, whenever they do, Memorial Day, Labor Day, when they do the vehicle sales for the next year model. So I go in, and I get the next year's model. Four miles on, it drove it right out the short room floor. It wasn't until it was a Lincoln navigator. All right? It wasn't until I had to have maintenance done on that vehicle for the very first time that I popped the hood because again, it was brand new right off the show room room floor. I had no issues with it. I popped the hood and everything underneath the hood says Ford. Everything underneath the hood says Ford. The only thing that said Lincoln was the plastic cover that they had over the engine. Everything else said Ford. So in essence, I just bought an expedition that's red wrapped in a different name. I could have saved $30,000 and just bought the damn expedition. Mm hmm. It's the exact, because if you put them side by side, those particular models, if you put them side by side, you strip off all the emblems, you couldn't tell which one is which. Right. All the interior and everything was the exact same. Mind said, Lincoln, there said four. It's the same shit. The exact same ceiling line. So it's like. The lesson learned was, stop chasing brand names. Because they, they really don't mean anything. Here's a fun fact for you, right? So. Like I said, I traveled a lot when I was in the military. Everything we buy here in the States, especially the name brand stuff, it says that it's made in Korea. You go to Korea, you actually see the people making the stuff, but it says, made in Taiwan, Made in Guana. And it's like, when I tell you. I found during the timef frame that I was over there, that's when the Mitchell and nest, the throwback jerseys and things of that nature were popping, right? Like big money, they was going for $200 over here, you know what I'm saying? Close to, you know, whatever But I'm telling you, you don't get these hitsits for $20 exact same jerseys. And when you really sit down and you think about it, purses. Had a lady pull me into, you know what I'm saying? And it's like you know, she's selling coach bags and stuff that Louis Vuitton, she had it all crowder bags. I go in, I look at the stitching on it and I'm like, you can't tell the difference. And then that made me realize that I'm sitting here watching them and it's just an embroidery machine. Mm. That's all it is. Exactly. You're paying for stitching. You're paying for somebody to stitch it and they're charging you so much more. And it's like, in the ens of the day, we call it original. It's Things can have value that we give it value too to bring it back full circle. Certain items are really worthless. You know, certain items we pay a lot of money for, you know, we place value on it and people have bought into that. You know what I'm saying? So if you find yourself in one of those situations where maybe you can't afford the name brand things uh, especially in this economy. It's okay. Mm. I can take it back to what I said before. Do you have food? Do you have water? Do you have shelter? As long as you have those three basic needs, you have what you need. And everything else is just extra. A lama playing in it. Yeah, no, you're right. And I there's this guy, I've been seeing him on my feet too I can't even remember his name. I should have followed him. But he actually lives out and out there where they actually make the persons and stuff like that. And he was like, look, I don't even care anymore. He was like, y'all come to us. Just come directly to us because we're the ones that actually make it. And he's literally showing that they're the ones that actually making these name brand purses and stuff like that. And he's showing like how they make them and how they just embroider whatever, whoever is buying from them, Louis Vu or Coach, whoever is the same freaking product. It's just one company is wanting their name on it and another company is wanting their name on it, and another company is wanting their name on it. And you know what? That's what they do. And then they ship it out to them. and then we, the consumers, decide, oh, my God, this bag is so beautiful. I love this bag. And it's not even just that you love the bag. You love the name on the bag. And it's like, be honest, that's what you love. Like, oh, my God, I love this bag, you know, I'm going to spend$15,000 on this bag because I'm I'm an idiot. at the end of the day, I would have spent the $15,000 on the bag. And what makes me so mad is a lot of people that do spend money on these bags don't actually have the money to spend on those bags. Like you don't even have enough money that the bag costs to put in the bag. So what are you actually doing? That part. So you going to spend, let's even go on a low end. and say you want one of the cheaper bags. It's like $500. You don't even have $500. You trying to figure out how to pay your car on. You like a whole car no to a car car note or bag, car or bag. That' Come on now. We got to be smarter. Got to be smarter, a little wiser, you know. And it's crazy because like, even when you think about even those bags and stuff like that, like, they're going up too And people are still buying them. So it doesn't matter if the bag $500,$1,000, $15,000. People are going to be like, I need this bag. I want this bag. I will spend my life savings on this bag. And the price is still going to keep going up. And then a lot of people, they are like, okay, yeah, sure, it's an investment. But is it, though? What do you do when that investment, when you your staps starts freeing or brakes or, you know what I'm saying, do they have a you know, I' saying money back guarantee or a return policy? Do you have to buy another straprap? Right. I'm just asking because I don't own one of those bags. I don't plan on owning any of those bags because me personally, like I said, I learned my lesson between what's really important. And just having name brand, yeah, looks good. It makes you cool, whatever the case. But at the end of the day, it's all about how you feel about you. You know what I'm saying? Stay within your means. Don't try and keep up with the Joneses. Definitely don't try and keep up with the Cones. Seriously. Because I'm like, right now, we just trying to focus on getting this money right and getting getting in with getting in with times. And I'mm feeling like, is this going to be a never catch up? Like at all. Like, I remember when I, it's so funny, I was just talking to a girlfriend of mine and I was telling her, I was like, you know, I never thought. I'd be almost 40 years old. She got mad at me for saying that because she's the same age as me. She was like, wait a minute. We ain't 40 yet. I'm like, girl, it's knocking at the door. It's like pink a boo. Here we are. Two years, girl. Two years gonna fly. We' gonna blink, and we're going to be 40. Okay? So, so, but yeah, I'm just like, I can't believe like, I thought, like, I was going to be sitting here, you know, I was like, I'm going to make sure that I'm making six figures. And now I'm just buy, fuck, six figures. Like, okay, I need to make sure that we talking more than just like a$100,000 We need to be talking between like three hundred thousand 300 plus thousand dollars because $100,000 just ain't going to cut it no more. Like, not for real. Not for real? Because it doesn't even matter, like, with the housing and, you know, because you get a house, let's say you get an apartment. You get an apartment and you're spending money on something that you can't even invest in. You're losing money every day that you are in this apartment, and that you're spending however it is, whether it's the upkeep or, you know, or whatever, even just, I mean, even just a rent by itself is not doing anything for you. It's paying for you to live somewhere of, of course. Yes. But there is nothing in it for you outside of a route But then you look at buying a house and it's like, yeah, but houses are just as expensive. It's not a little bit more because there's sometimes a lot of upkeep that you got to do. You got to do your lawn and, you know, all of the other maintenance, you got to be the one that's in charge of all of that. And then you have your car, and then your car's, insurance, and then the cars gas. And if you live in a place like where I live, I got to take a toll everywhere. You know, there are some places and now they really, they're talking about putting tolls everywhere. So literally nobody's going to be safe We all going to be driving around toes, paying for something that we're already paying for. We're already paying for the streets. And then you're going to charge me again to pay for the streets again? And I don't have a choice because I have no way around it. That's why. Why and a man? I know. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Because I'm like, when I first moved to Florida, like, I really didn't even have to get on any tos. There was really no tolls around in the main area. But now there's tolls everywhere. Even off of I four, there are tos. They weren't there before. Like, because I've been here since 2006, so I know I've seen it. Like, It's like you, you want to catch up and you want to try to make things at least sway a little better. But you just, you're doing this. Like the prices are going up and you're like, I'm trying. I'm trying. And you just never get to the top of that mountain. Just never do. That's by design, though. Like I said, ever since the 80s, when the game and the rules change and we had that separation of class classes again. You know, seriously, if you go through and you look at the charts, you'll notice that gap after the 80s. It just expanded exponentially. And it's like. The glass ceiling has been placed. I will let you see what you can achieve. But I'm going to put these limitations down here to make it so that you can't actually achieve what you think you can achieve. Yeah. Now, I'm not saying that to be doom and gloom, what I am saying is that is the way that the system is designed to do. Right. There's always a glitch, neo in the matrix, though, you know? You can, you know what I'm saying, glitch out and you can break past that glass ceiling. It's not something that is that is permanent. It's something that you have to figure out what is everybody doing and then do something different. Right. And the only reason that I say that is, and I know we get into, even with the podcast, we get into something that's completely saturated. Right. But then it's like but you have your niche. You have you. You are a unique. So I always tell people to do what you love. Do whatever it is that you love to do, find a way to monetize it. Right now, being on social media sites, I'm watching people blow up their accounts. You know, they live all day, but at the same time, a lot of people are saying me being live all day is making more money than me working my regular nine to five. So you have to look at it like, okay, what's your potential? What do you bring to the table? Right. How can you separate yourself from everything that everyone else is doing? Be a part of that 1% and not a part of the 99% But do what you love, find a way to monetize it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. He's hard out there, but, you know, just got got, like you said, you got to do what works for you. I think that's really the main thing that we have to look at, you know, it's the one thing that's going to keep us surviving. That's the one thing that I look at. It's like, if I can try to at least continue to keep my eyes on the things that I love doing, then I feel like even if I have hard times and things aren't looking the way that I want it to look right now, like, like eventually I will get there. I just got to stay positive about it and got to keep, keep pushing and don't stop pushing. I want to stop pushing. Nothing's going to happen. Yeah.. Faith without works is dead, right? That part. Well, this has been another episode of All in One. I mean, as you guys can see, everybody goes through something. We have, you know what I'm saying? It's hard out here for a pimp. This is it is. You know, it's hard out here full pimp. No, you got to say how she said it in the movie. Oh, you got to say fo. Can I say fo? Oh, man.. Like I said, man, this is another episode of All in One. Thank you guys for coming out. Don't forget to hit the merch stores. Check out our other videos. We were right here in these corners. Mer stores is in the description Catch you guys on the next one. All in, all in one. See.