Meaghan is Burning Through Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Mojo in the Morning Show, Megan, this is so real.

(00:03):
I was, you know, thinking of this topic and then
seeing a story that came out this morning that said
that thirty eight percent of people are waiting for their
tax refunds to come because they say they cannot pay
their bills without their tax refunds. But this is a
this is a time where it's like clamping down trying
to figure out what to do.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, And I want to be very clear before we
get into this, Like I understand that I am in
a position that isn't the same as everybody else. I'm
very grateful to be financially literate and I don't have
a car payment right now, which is a huge, huge.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Blessing, And I fully understand that.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So like, I'm in a place right now where I'm
nervous that if I feel this way about finances, how
is a lot of people who are in a worse
position than me feeling about finances Because it feels like quickly,
very quickly, I do not have the financials to build
that I had a year ago. And I have been
following a lot of different financial advice accounts online and

(01:09):
I have gotten memberships through certain places to lower the
costs of my groceries or my gas or whatever it is.
And I've done all the math, and I have essentially
spreadsheets of my finances that are monthly and whatever. I'm
not to get too nerdy about it, but I feel
like I'm actually spending more money trying to save money lately,
and it's so incredibly disheartening just trying to go to

(01:33):
affordable grocery stores, but you can't buy all of your
groceries there. They don't provide everything, so you're spending more
money driving to other grocery stores. And it feels like
just the hardest lessons to be learned right now, and
the only person it's hurting is my own bank account
learning them.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
It's so incredibly frustrating.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I just feel like I'm burning money trying to save it.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And it's tough too, because you're trying to be healthy,
and being healthy is.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Also something that way more expensive.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
It's way more Yeah, So so I listen. We do
things on our show all the time because we think,
you know, it's relatable. There's probably nothing more relatable that
you'll hear on the show today than what you just said.
How crazy it is and difficult. It is to try
to live in expenses that every single year feels like
they just keep going up and up and up.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah, I am.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
I recently, you know, was feeling like this maybe two
months ago, especially around the holidays is when it really
started to peak, and it sounds like you're doing all
the right things from a visibility standpoint. I downloaded an
app called Rocket Money because I feel like I'm just
blowing money and not having that visibility. I'm not a
spreadsheet person, like I'm not just I'm not about to
be about that life like that, but like that app,

(02:46):
putting things into perspective, showing me how much I'm spending
where it's going, being able to categorize things I'm not.
I wouldn't say it's a game changer because I'm not.
The ship isn't doing a one eighty, but it's definitely
not going in the direction it was.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
So Wes and I just sat down and did like
a like a budget. Wes is total. He's a numbers guy.
He's a software guy, an engineer, you know, so his
nature is to put everything into a spreadsheet. And I
think it's a Dave Ramsey thing that because he said
every every dollar should have a name, Like everything that
you spend you need to know exactly where it's going.
And not that I'm a huge Dave Ramsey fan, but

(03:21):
when we sat down and put everything in a spreadsheet
and like really try to figure it out, and he
was like, this is how much money we should be
saving every month and at the end of the year,
this is the amount that we should have in our
bank account. And I was like, why have I not
been able to do that? And he's like, because it's
like these little It's all of these little things that

(03:41):
you're like, Oh, I'm going to go to Target and
buy some like cute little Valentine's things for the kids,
or oh, I'm gonna grab you know, these tank tops
on Amazon, like all of those things that are not necessary.
It's great that I want to do them or purchase them.
What are they add up so freaking quickly? And I'm
really say, by whatever.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah no, And I think that's my most frustrating part
of all this is that I don't do that.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
And it's still a struggle.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Like gas has gone up so much and groceries have
gone up so much. I've canceled all of my streaming services.
I don't do that. I haven't purchased any clothes and
probably the last time I bought clothes was for jingle
Ball before that was probably four months before that. Like,
I don't I don't do little shopping. I don't take vacations,
I don't go on trips. We did a very low

(04:27):
key Christmas this year. Like it feels like my money
is just going towards living.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
You have said this because you moved from Toledo to
Detroit and you have gone back and forth where you
said maybe I'll go back.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Is that still a possibility that you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
I can't afford to live here.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
So is it the is it the cost of living here?
Or is it also because I know you go back
to Toledo a lot for you know, different appointments and
stuff like that. Is it would it be cheaper for
you to find some sort of like you know, I
know you have doctors and stuff there, like move move
your doctors or do you just not want to?

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Honestly, if it's if it's like three or four trips
a month keeping me from affording my bills to go
to Touledo, then I should just move to touledo, because
I don't think a couple of trips forty five minutes
away a month should be the determining factor.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
And if I can afford to live somewhere.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
You talk that your biggest expense right now is groceries
and gas. Correct and in the price of gas actually
has gone down, believe it or not. I mean, I
know it's gone up in like the last week, but
it's way cheaper now than it was like a year ago.
So I'm trying to figure out like I do think,
And I know you say that you don't, but I
say it too, and I'm always yessing myself. I go

(05:43):
online and make I think that Jeff Bezos is the
reason why I hate everything. He's made it too easy
for us to just go I need this boom, I
order it, where in reality, I put things in a
cart all the time now, and half the time I
end up not even buying stuff because I really don't
need half the stuff I put in there.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Do you do you ever do that?

Speaker 7 (06:04):
Or no?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Do you buy it?

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
No, no, I don't. I haven't bought anything off of
Amazon in months either.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Can you guys buy outfits?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Every time we have a.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
The last time I bought an outfit was for jingle Ball.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
And do you feel like you bake it a lot?

Speaker 7 (06:20):
Like?

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Is that like become a new expense?

Speaker 2 (06:22):
But again, baking is actually really inexpensive. And I did
that because I canceled all of my other stringing subscriptions
and it was something to do in the house.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
And if I.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Can't afford ten dollars in flour, that's that's not the
make or break factor.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It's I mean, listen, if things are expensive, everything's expensive.
And honestly, if it keeps you from you know, finding
your you know, if it's your happiness, you know, to
do certain things, you know, there's got to be ways
to be able to do the things that make you happy.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
They be listening.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Why just tell me you blank last week that's thirty
percent less than normal.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
That I think we were just talking about. Yes, like
literally just sit glarification. That's crazy, by the way, really weird.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
I can hear that.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Essentially at this time, this is normally one really initial
h brings up the most expensive of expenses, especially with
the weather that we have. What's going on? Uh h,
you're being voice disguised.

Speaker 8 (07:29):
Yes, my energy bills are like so high right now, Yes, unbelievable.
How much this month?

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, but the weather the.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
Worst energy I honest to god, my last bill, so
I thought that they had the wrong house.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
It was so it was so over the top.

Speaker 8 (07:47):
Somebody was tapping into my energy, yes, because I was
like it went from up like seventy five dollars to
the chart.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
I talk about DT all the time. I do their careers,
and there's an there is a website DTE energy dot
com slash save Energy, and people think that it's you know, oh,
that's all just a commercial.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
You're just doing anything.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
It truly is, if you do the things that they
tell you to do, you will lower your energy costs.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
I agree with the DT. I'm talking about consumers by
the way, well.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
But sometimes if that's if it's just for homeowners too,
which is so frustrating. And I know the number one
thing people are going to say is, well, it's because
of where I live. And absolutely part of the problem
is because of where I live. But if my only finance,
my only big purchase goes to my living space and
it's not even cable or any of that, it's just
heating and cooling, the gas bill and rent, and that

(08:39):
is now making my life so unaffordable.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
That's where I want to move home.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'm acknowledging that it is expensive to live there, but
I know the first thing. And then we're getting text
about this is what you chose to live downtown. Look
at the prices of rent and apartments not in downtown
around the city. They're very comparable. It's not like I
looked at Royal Oak. I look it Forndale. My rent
in downtown Detroit was cheaper.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
And rent prices just in general, because I've been looking at.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Moving back to Toledo, are insane there as well. And
home ownership is now becoming not a thing for me anymore.
That's not something I can do because I already had
my I bought a house one the deals for first
time home buyers now no longer apply to me. So
it's very frustrating.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Rewind for just one second, because I do want to
say this. I do want to say what the energy costs.
We talked on the air about what temperature we should
keep our homes at, and you guys all thought it
was crazy because I was telling you that, you know,
I keep my house at like sixty seven degrees thought
that was too cold. Literally just putting it to sixty
seven degrees and putting on socks around the house or wearing,

(09:44):
you know, a pair of sweatpants instead of putting shorts
on in the winchtime has literally dropped my bill from
year to year. And it was one of the things
that they said, Now, I get it, you know, you
want to wear what you want to wear, but you know,
stop being naked around the house and you'll be okay.
But as far as housing is concerned, Megan, I read
an article that was out like a week or so
ago on Daily Mail that said that hostile living is

(10:07):
now a deal. People are living in doing hostile living
where they're randomly just going out and now, because expenses
are so high, just not even living with people they know,
just randomly living with ten people in a home that
might be only for apartment that might only be for
four because of the price, we shouldn't have to do that.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
I thought about this, Megan.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
I'm in the same boat as you where I feel
like nothing I do, I can't catch up with my finances,
and I'm thinking I see these posts on Facebook where
people have houses and they have a room to runt
and I'm like, I might as well just live in
somebody's house and live in their room.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
Can pay way.

Speaker 7 (10:41):
Cheaper rent than having my own place to myself. And
that's crazy that as a twenty five year old adult,
I can't afford to live in an apartment with.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
A full time job, with a full time, full time job.
And it's like, I like, it's crazy to me that
people are like, you need a roommate or you need
to move, Like that's not a full expense in and
of itself, just moving, And it's like, but what else
do you expect me to do? When I work forty
plus hours a week full time and it's still difficult

(11:08):
and I don't even have a carpet. I'm one car
accident away from moving.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Initial B is who a majority of our listeners are.
Initial B. What's happening? Are you there?

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Your voice disguise, which it's okay to be voice guys.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
A lot of times people are just embarrassed or don't
want people that know that they're calling in.

Speaker 8 (11:28):
You're a single mom, yes, single moms who children five
or fifteen, And like I was telling them, like I
understand being a single mom. After I paid my rent,
and utilities. I barely have money for food.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, it's brutal, and I in childcare is the is
the most expensive part of probably your existence, right, trying
to just find a place for your kids.

Speaker 8 (11:57):
Well they're both at school, thank god.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
But summertime, what do you do in the summer time?

Speaker 8 (12:03):
Will mean I got family and like I got a
sixteen euro so he helps out unfortunately, but yeah, that's what.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
We gotta do.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
Wow, man, that is uh.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
I you know know that we try our best to
We're paying bills, we're doing you know, one thousand dollars
an hour, you know, thirteen hours a day. We try
to give back as much as we possibly can with
some of the promotions that we're doing, giving you opportunities
to go to places like Florida or you know, concerts
that you're not gonna be able to afford. But even
go into a concert, even if you got free tickets,

(12:37):
the parking is expensive. Right, So we appreciate your call.
Thank you, thank you. This is a Monday uplifting topic,
but it's real. What's going on, Jackie? How you doing, Jackie?

Speaker 9 (12:51):
Harry?

Speaker 4 (12:52):
What's up all right?

Speaker 9 (12:55):
I was just being to Megan. I'm a first time caller,
and I've been listening to you guys for over two years.
And the reason why is I live in Slovania, Ohio,
and I drive to Farmington every day, sometimes seven days
a league for the company I work for, and everyone's like,
why don't you move to mission here. I'm a single

(13:18):
mom with two kids that both live with me. My
daughter is seventeen, my son's twenty one. He goes to
the University of Toledo. So I keep telling everyone Ohio
is cheaper, that the insurance is cheaper. Trying to buy
a home for what's the home. I have a beautiful
home in Slvania, but buying a home of the mission,
it would be simple, but shripleah. And I love the

(13:42):
company I work for. I love all my coworkers. I mean,
this company is amazing. And I do this drive every day,
and I'd rather do the drive every day, and I
do it. I listen to you guys every morning. But
I understand, Megan, because I went to the grocery store
yesterday and everything that I bought for some reason, like doubles,

(14:03):
and I remember coming home and tell my son yesterday,
like all these groceries seventy and like one hundred and
fifty were like two hundred and fifty. It's getting insane.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's like I'm getting so much backlass right now, which
is insane. But like people are acting like I didn't
budget this when I moved there two years ago. I
don't think anybody's in the same financial situation they were
in two years ago.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Why don't you do this?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Why why don't you rent a room from Chelsea and
I the kids are away? Is that gonna make you
cry more? You can, I'll rent it to you for
thirty cents and baking goods.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Could you imagine waking up in the middle of the
night and seeing Mojo's flatters?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
No one?

Speaker 7 (14:51):
What?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Seriously? Well, we'll all it will be trade for mentions.
You coming, you come? You lived with Scott Mick, you
can live with me. I'll I'll hide the Hawaiian shirt. Cameron,
what's up, Cameron? What's going on? It's Mojoe in the morning?
High Cameron, How you doing, Buddy?

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Hell?

Speaker 9 (15:17):
Hi?

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Hey Cameron?

Speaker 9 (15:19):
Hey, yeah, Hey, I get where megan some from with
groceries and the cost of living.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
Uh, my wife is stay at home.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Mom and I got two kids.

Speaker 9 (15:31):
And every year our land text and go off, our
orang shairance goes up.

Speaker 8 (15:34):
Hold orange shair goes up. They're going up, but our
paychecks are staying the same.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and I and I'm assuming that her being a
stay at home mom is in many cases obviously better
for your kids, but it's also probably cost effective because
you put her out in the workforce. The money she's
bringing in probably going to watch those kids.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, we got We have a friend that put third
kid in daycare and a cost still five hundred dollars
a week.

Speaker 7 (16:06):
Yeah, daycare and yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Filler probits.

Speaker 8 (16:10):
You know, it's hard out there.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, I think, uh, I think that this is the
thing that that I think makes people fed up. And
I think that honestly the world is fed up right
now and are and hopefully hopefully things you know, uh
can change. I I've talked to a guy that told
me that one of his things that he's now offering

(16:34):
as a way to keep employees because he wants to
keep good employees instead of having employees that you know,
come in and then they go leave for a job
that they're going to make another two thousand dollars a year.
So it's always kind of like chasing the paycheck. He's
now offering housing as one of his things, so, which
is an amazing thing to think about that, But I mean,

(16:55):
it used to be the benefits were insurance. Now the
benefits are, you know, putting a roof over your head
or even groceries.