CO-HOST | Make Money Without Wasting It: Grocery Store Hacks, Dad Life & Everyday Money Traps

Summary

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Travis Makes Money Podcast

Episode: "CO-HOST | Make Money Without Wasting It: Grocery Store Hacks, Dad Life & Everyday Money Traps"

Host: Travis Chappell

Guests: Eric (Producer), Brandon Berkmeyer (Salt Shaker Podcast)

Date: July 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode takes a lively and relatable dive into the everyday financial traps and money quirks people encounter, with a strong focus on grocery store spending, "dad life" pet peeves, and the humorous realities of family routines and saving money. Travis, Eric, and Brandon combine personal stories, practical hacks, and comedic banter to explore how seemingly small expenses—or habits—can add up, and why making more money is often more effective than extreme frugality. The tone is casual, playful, and honest, packed with actionable insights and memorable conversation.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Grocery Store Economics & "Pet Peeves"

Maple Syrup, Receipts & Sticker Shock

• [02:09] Grocery store frustrations: Brandon shares how every grocery run seems to come with a surprising total, highlighting how a single, unexpected item can blow the budget.
  • Quote: “There's one thing that always surprises me on the receipt that I'm like, what did I spend that got me to this total?” — Brandon [03:20]
• [04:21] Instacart vs. in-store shopping hack: Eric explains saving money by shopping in-store with a list generated from Instacart, revealing app markups of $0.25–$2 per item that can total up to $100 extra per trip.
  • Quote: “Everything that I went to was like 25 cents to a dollar more in the app... it was an extra a hundred bucks with our full grocery list.” — Eric [04:21]
• [04:55] Delivery fees add up: Travis points out, “That’s how they get you,” referencing the hidden costs in the convenience economy.

2. Dad Life & Household Quirks

Lights Left On, Drawers Left Open, and Family Routines

• [05:41] Light bill myths exposed: Eric is surprised that the "turn off the lights" mantra from childhood barely affects his real electric bill, but Travis admits it’s “an OCD thing” for him.
  • Quote: “The purpose of a light is to see things... And when you leave the room, you just turn the light off.” — Travis [06:41]
• [06:49] Morning routines: Brandon venting about his kids not closing drawers morphs into a tangent about shared household pet peeves.
• [07:17] Spousal dynamics: Eric confesses to putting dishes away but leaving every cabinet open, which undoes his "good husband" points and annoys his partner.

3. Organic vs. Regular Food: The "Price of Health"

• [10:33] Maple syrup showdown: Brandon describes sticker shock with organic maple syrup costing up to 10x “normal” syrup.
  • Quote: “Fine, I’ll buy the one... and I look at the receipt, and that one is $40. $40 compared to two. Forty.” — Brandon [11:17]
• [12:53] Cultural food gaps: The hosts muse over how growing up lower-income affects tastes later—Eric jokes margarine (not butter) was a “government-approved” health food.
  • Quote: “Our parents were told by the government this was healthier.” — Travis [12:56]

4. Store Brand Traps and the Cost of "Healthy" Living

• [12:05] Whole Foods price roulette: Eric highlights how some items are outrageously marked up (like napkins at $30), while others (like certain meats) are occasionally cheaper.
• [12:32] Poor Roots, Taste Barriers: The crew discusses how upbringing shapes food perceptions and justifies paying more (or not) for certain brands or qualities.

5. Nostalgia & Missing Pieces of "Fun" in Shopping

• [14:42] Loss of store charm: The absence of grocery store kiddie rides and quirky fun is lamented; everything is “beige and boring” now.
• [15:04] Sticky hands & Best Buy traditions: Sticky hand toys and tech store adventures as kids are fondly remembered.

6. Modern Shopping Irritations

• [16:09] Checkout Evolution:
  • Self-checkouts can save time for small orders but become a headache with large ones—especially the “put it in the bagging area” prompts.
  • The shift towards fewer cashiers, more automation, and the looming possibility of tip requests is discussed lightheartedly.

7. Costco Stories & “Value Meals”

• [17:00, 22:03] Costco as a Budget Eatery: Eric's basketball camp stories highlight stretching a meal budget with Costco hot dogs or value menu burritos—often with amusing digestive consequences (“If Taco Bell gives you diarrhea, your bloodline is weak.” — Eric [22:44]).
• [23:03] Inflatable Adventures: Humorous tale of a teammate sleeping on a pool raft at a church, and the mischief (and mild rule-breaking) that ensued.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On hidden markups:
  “You just invented grocery lists.” — Travis [04:21]
• On daily household annoyances:
  “Not because of it is quite literally part of my morning routine to get up, to shut cabinets, turn all the lights off.” — Travis [09:59]
• On food upbringing:
  “Do you feel like you have like a poor barrier to certain higher quality things? Cause you’re used to the one…” — Eric [12:32]
• On rebranding social language:
  “Not everything needs a rebrand.” — Travis [21:41]
• On childhood guilt:
  “I took a Sharpie and I wrote the names of the A-Team on the back seat. And I convinced them that my brother did it. He got punished.” — Eric [25:14]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:09] – Grocery store sticker shock and maple syrup prices
• [04:21] – Instacart vs. In-store hack, app markups exposed
• [05:41] – “Dad life” debates: lights, cabinets, morning routines
• [10:33] – Organic vs. regular maple syrup debate
• [12:05] – Whole Foods price roulette and brand preferences
• [14:42] – Remembering store rides & quirky shopping fun
• [16:09] – Checkout automation and modern grocery annoyances
• [17:00] – Costco self-checkout and hot dog “value meal” stories
• [23:03] – Basketball camp “pool raft” prank story
• [25:14] – Confessing to childhood crimes (A-Team Sharpie story)

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Takeaways & Tone

• Empowerment over penny-pinching: The recurring theme is that while hacks and small savings matter, you “can’t save your way to your dream life”—you need to find ways to make more money.
• Relatable, real-world humor: From bemoaning maple syrup prices to poking fun at “dad” hangups and the loss of childhood shopping fun, the show is both practical and entertaining.
• Mindset and practical hacks: Tips like using Instacart just for the list and shopping in-person reframe how listeners approach everyday money decisions.

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Summary

This episode blends practical grocery shopping tips, family finance revelations, and comic storytelling to demystify the "everyday traps" that sabotage budgets. Travis, Eric, and Brandon remind listeners that the real win isn’t in agonizing over every cent—but in using creativity, connection, and a bit of perspective to make and manage money more joyfully.

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For more laughs, real-life money wins, and insights, catch the next episode of Travis Makes Money!

Transcript

[Travis]

I was recently on whatnot the other day, just shopping around, looking frankly, because I was just blown away that this is something that people are doing with their time. And so I was like, I got to go see if this thing is real before I talk about it on the show. And so I'm browsing whatnot, looking around, finding things, and it's crazy to see the volume of people that are just having fun in the chat. They're watching people do live shopping. It's like, it's like, you know, QVC directly on your phone. It's something you need to try, I'm telling you. Not just buying, but the selling piece too, where these people are just starting up pop up shops and businesses, selling whatever product, finding their people, building community, getting repeat customers that come back to see your face as the seller. Not just a logo or a brand, anyone can sell. Whether your business is big, small, or yet to exist, people selling on whatnot sell 10 times more than on any other major marketplaces. And that's because you're not just listing products, you're building real connections with buyers across whatnot. The number of sellers making over $1 million a year has now doubled. The consistency pays off for those sellers. It's not just side hustle, it's a real path to building something that lasts. Because whatnot buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app, they're not just browsing around, they're engaged, they're buying, they're coming back. You go live, show off your products in real time and turn what you love into real income. So search whatnot whnot in the app store, download it today and get started selling right away.

You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast.

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast where it's our mission to help you make more money on this episode of the show. I have my producer Eric, who's sitting here salty as ever. And I have our other friend, Brandon Berkmeyer from Salt Shaker podcast. What?

[Eric]

Because he's making me more salty every second. He's a salt shaker. I thought I was the pepper.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I thought I was the pepper to your salt.

[Travis]

Pepper to your spray.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Travis is more paprika.

[Travis]

Anyway, I am pepper. Did you have something for us to chit chat about?

[Eric]

No, I thought the branding guy would have something. So you said something interesting about grocery stores. Let's dive into that.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah, what about what I say about them?

[Eric]

You said you had a great pet peeves about grocery stores. Let's See how that episode goes. Love to see that.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I'm feeling attacked.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Travis]

This is not a safe space.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

He closed his laptop. That's how much he doesn't want this episode to go well.

[Eric]

Yeah, no, I want to go.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Great. I am out. No, you see if you can do this without me.

[Ad Voice]

No, you.

[Eric]

You pitched. You pitched a. You pitched a topic because you. You decided to crash the. The episode recording batch today. And then Travis said, hey, send some ideas. And you sent a list of really preposterous ideas. And then one of them was grocery store pet peeves. And. And then I said, what the heck is this? What are we gonna do about this? And he said, maple syrup prices, am I right?

[Travis]

And then you said, let's talk about that.

[Eric]

Let's talk about it. So.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

So what's the deal?

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

With maple syrup.

[Travis]

What frustrates you about maple syrup?

[Eric]

Yeah, what's going on?

[Travis]

So enough to actually pull your phone

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

out and make it say it?

[Eric]

No, I do like the idea that you were in the grocery store and you were like, you know what? I wanna talk about these damn grocery stores.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Okay. So unfortunately, I'm the person who every Monday goes grocery shopping. Right? So, like, not much interest there, but it's.

[Eric]

It's there for yourself or are you doing, like, a family?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

The family. The family. We buy, you know, the groceries, and I get a receipt, and I'll be like, I'm always surprised. There's one thing that always surprises me on the receipt that I'm like, what did I spend that got me to this total?

[Travis]

That if you were on the prices. Right. You definitely would have gotten it wrong.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah. And, like, I usually wouldn't have looked, except I'm like, what happened today?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

And that's every time I order doordash.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Well, there you go.

[Eric]

What happened? Who ordered all this, by the way?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I'm not ordering doordash. Is that the only way you guys shop? Like, I don't understand.

[Travis]

No.

[Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Travis]

Instacart, though, is. Is fan favorite here. Although Jackie's been going to the store recently.

[Eric]

Can I. Can I say something, please?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Are you gonna open your laptop back up, though?

[Eric]

Yeah. Okay, so let me crunch the numbers. No, so we were doing a lot of Instacart. Honestly, Amazon Fresh is a way better deal. They have some great deal on meat brought to you by Amazon Fresh. But we were doing Instacart, and then one of the days we were. I was just like, I'll just go to the store. But. And this is a good hack. She had already Made the list. So I just went with the Instacart list. And, dude, I should do a video on this.

[Travis]

You just invented grocery lists.

[Eric]

No, she made the list in. She made the list in Instacart. So I went in the app, and I was just removing stuff from our list. So I went to Smith's. Everything that I went to was like 25 cents to a dollar more in the app. So as I was going through. Then I pulled out my calculator. I was like, let me tally this up as I'm going. And it was like an extra a hundred bucks with our full grocery list of just like Cheez Its were. Court powers are 4.99 in the store. It was like 6.99 in the app. Cheez its were like five bucks.

[Travis]

They mark up and it was six bucks.

[Eric]

Damn. Maple syrup was $20 in the store. $25. You know, but everything was like that. And I was like, right. We're spending so much more delivery fee doing this. And it's like, if I can do this and take a phone call and throw some stuff in, it's a lot.

[Travis]

That's how they get you.

[Eric]

Yeah. So that's how they get you.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What's that from?

[Travis]

I just watched a standup special.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Me too.

[Travis]

Is that we were talking about. Yeah. Jeff Arkiri.

[Eric]

Yes. Trying to leave you two alone right now.

[Travis]

That was hilarious. I watched it.

[Eric]

I didn't watch it. He's glad you guys liked it.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Travis]

He had a whole bit in there about being a dad and becoming older. And he's like. That was one of the phrases that he used. Like, have you ever said that's how they get you?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So now it's, like, top of mind for me.

[Eric]

Can I ask a dad to dads? Yeah. Yeah. Question. That's a podcast.

[Travis]

Dad to dads.

[Eric]

Dad to dads.

[Travis]

Yeah.

Yeah.

[Eric]

It's like a bunch of, like, dads that fall in love.

[Travis]

Dad to daddy.

[Eric]

From dad to daddy. From dad to Zaddy. What are we doing? So that's the goal now.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What do we do?

[Eric]

So, no, but dad to dad. One of the things that everyone says when you're a kid is turn the lights off and they freak out about it. One of the things I'm most surprised about as a dad is how little lights add to your electric bill. And I could care less still about lights being turned off.

[Travis]

I care.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Travis]

I care.

[Eric]

That checks.

[Travis]

Not necessarily. I genuinely have no idea what it

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

does to the electric bill. It does.

[Eric]

Literally.

[Travis]

It's like an OCD thing to Me, when I walk out and all the lights in the house are on, I'm just like, why are you. Like, why. Why is the light in the mini bathroom where the toilet is, why is that on? And the main bathroom light is on.

[Eric]

Sure.

[Travis]

The bedroom light is on and the

[Eric]

closet light is on.

[Travis]

Lights, there's not. We only need one light to be able to, like. The purpose of a light is to see things.

[Eric]

See, this is. This is a light.

[Travis]

Like. And when you leave the room, you just turn the light off.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

For me, it's part of my morning routine. My kids don't shut their drawers.

[Travis]

That's another one.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I don't understand how that's even psychologically something you can walk away with open.

[Travis]

Exactly.

[Eric]

Well, okay.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Do you do that?

[Eric]

You're a drawer opener. No, no. Get a rope. You guys really caught me with my drawers down. No, but one thing that I do that makes my significant other very upset is I will open. Like, I'll put dishes away from the dishwasher. Good husband. She pisses me off, but I leave.

[Travis]

She hates when I do that.

[Eric]

Yeah, she hates it. But I leave. I'll always forget. And I leave every single dishwasher, cabinet, door open with the dishes put away.

[Travis]

That is annoying. I'm on. I'm on her side.

[Eric]

And how.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Well, I don't understand.

[Eric]

I just forget about it.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

You just had to leave really quickly to save someone's life. Yeah, but how do you.

[Eric]

How do you know? I don't.

[Travis]

How do you forget about it? They're all directly in front of your face.

[Eric]

I don't know. But she. It happens every time. And same thing with. With. What was I going to say? Well, not drawers, but, like, I'll do that. Like, I'll put something away, like clothes in the closet, but then I leave the closet door open. Or I'll do like. I always feel like I forget that last. But what stinks is it eradicates all the goodwill of me doing the dishes. And it's just. You fucking monster. You left the cabinet open. You know, and then I feel really bad.

[Travis]

Well, you should feel bad.

[Eric]

And then I say, well, fine, I won't do it anymore then. Yeah.

[Travis]

How did that go?

[Eric]

Well, I need to sleep here tonight. Actually, I need to sleep here Sunday.

[Travis]

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[Ad Voice]

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[Eric]

Anyway, go ahead.

[Travis]

Not because of it is quite literally part of my morning routine to get up to shut cabinets, turn all the lights off.

[Eric]

What if her routine is to turn them all on?

[Travis]

It is.

[Eric]

And you guys have just been at

[Travis]

odds, her and the kids. Both of them? Yeah. Oh, all three of them.

[Eric]

It is a strange thing that me and Tara and you and Jackie are just the same but gender swapped.

[Travis]

Yeah, right. You know that is true.

[Eric]

Because everything, every, everything is just mirrored.

[Travis]

You know that is true.

[Eric]

Like the way she twists her beard when she talks. I'm just kidding. She doesn't have a beard.

[Travis]

Doing it again. I have a stress ball and I'm still doing that.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Anyway, anyway, so what I wanted to say about maple syrup grocery stores to

[Eric]

bring it all back.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

It was literally the maple syrup I grew up with with was the regular one you see in the ads the like sugar syrup.

[Eric]

Back in his day they had to take a hammer and a peg and hit it into the tree to get the maple syrup out.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

But my wife's you know, more into organic and whole food and whatever, all that stuff. And she's like, that's not even syrup. It's not maple syrup. It's sugar added with flavor plus whatever. I was like, I don't.

[Travis]

Whatever it is.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What does it taste like?

[Eric]

So good.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What does it taste like on pancakes? Right. It's correct, but it's like two bucks. And then the thing that I. She's like, you have to buy this one. It's for our kids. It has to be cool. Fine, I'll buy the one. And I look at the receipt, and that one is $40.

[Travis]

$40 compared to two. 40.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Actually, maybe it's 20. Maybe it was 20.

[Eric]

I don't know. I wasn't.

[Travis]

Either way.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's less dramatic.

[Eric]

I don't hang out with rich people, so I don't know. I just buy the $2 one.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

But it was somewhere between those two prices. But either way, it was just a point that if I can get the same thing for two bucks, I can imagine, like, you can double the price

[Travis]

for it being organic.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

But it was so drastically crazy for the same amount of syrup. I just was baffled.

[Eric]

That's what I hate about Whole Foods. The store.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

The store in general.

[Eric]

Because I live next to a Whole Foods, and I'll go in sometimes just to, like, run and grab something. And like, it's such a crapshoot when you pick up anything. It's like, oh, Napkins. That'll be $2. Like every store.

[Travis]

Yeah, right.

[Eric]

Oh, it's $30. It's like, compost friendly. Whatever. And then you'll also be like, I'm gonna get meat, but that's gonna be way too expensive here. And you pick it up, it's like, oh, this is cheaper than anywhere else. And there's no rhyme or reason, but.

[Travis]

And then you feel weird about leaving there just to go get napkins.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Somewhere else.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So you just buy $30 napkins.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Can I. I'm waiting for the angry mom posts that are always like, if you feed your kids sugar maple syrup, you're a monster.

[Travis]

Yeah, but we're all gonna hold that opinion.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Eric]

Can I ask you this? Cause we all grew up with less money than some people. Do you feel like you have, like, a poor barrier to, like, certain higher quality things? Cause you're used to the one. Cause, like, for me, I used to have a really hard time liking butter. Cause we always use margarine. And so everything with butter, like, when people would serve me and I go, to people's houses and they give me butter and bread. I was like, what is this?

[Travis]

Yeah, that's true. But I.

[Eric]

Same with syrup, though.

[Travis]

That wasn't really a poor thing. That was because they. Our parents were told by the government that this was healthier.

[Eric]

My God, look at. See what happens? You start recording long enough, and then it's like, you know, the Epstein list and this. It's like, dude, what are we talking about, bro?

[Travis]

That is. That is the fact, though. Margarine was. It wasn't just more popular because it was cheaper. It was also like, this is better. Don't die from a heart attack.

Stupid.

[Eric]

Is this kosher?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Ours was Velveeta. That was like, the cheese. I grew up with that. My wife's like, what are you even talking about?

[Eric]

You guys could afford Velveeta, right?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

But the ads.

[Eric]

We had powdered cheese, but that was.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

That was a splurge. Right? But the ads was. It has. It's made with more milk and less oil or whatever. The ad was for Velveeta, but it's. I don't think it's better for you. It's just. They found a good way to sell it. But, like, that's what I'm used to on a grilled cheese was. Was milk cheese.

[Eric]

Velveeta is crazy.

[Travis]

I was used to the craft. The little. The little squares of cheese that. Yeah, it was like a exercise to see if you could open it without cutting the cheese off where the little plastic thing was, you know, talking about the cheese.

[Eric]

I can't believe you just did that, you buffoon.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I can't believe you would say that.

[Travis]

I can't believe you talk about things.

[Eric]

Cut the cheese.

[Travis]

Anyway.

[Eric]

Anyway. Grocery stores. Yeah, how about that? Any other pet peeves you have? Or is it literally. Did you just come in, like, steaming about maple syrup?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

No, I thought that I. You guys would also have pet peeves, like things that you don't like.

[Eric]

I mean, I also don't like that

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

when I go to grocery store, I want to bring home a chicken. Like those whole chickens that are already cooked.

[Eric]

Rotisserie.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

They're not available in the morning. They're only available, like, noon and beyond. That really grinds my gears again.

[Eric]

Yeah. You know what? You know what? Actually, I thought about yesterday. That drove me. That drives me crazy. Now, I mentioned the Instagram thing, which. That. That is crazy. But I don't like that stores don't have little rocket ships in front anymore.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What to ride.

[Travis]

Oh, the little rides.

[Eric]

Because I was thinking about that I was like. Because you know how everything now is like beige. Like beige and boring. And, you know, it's like there's no. There's no caricature or there's no caricature. There's no character to the world anymore. And I was thinking, I was singing the other day, I was like, hey, you know what I always look forward to when I went to the grocery store? Riding the rocket ship outside.

[Travis]

You know what I looked forward to was the little sticky hands in the machine.

[Eric]

Yeah. They still have those, do they? Yeah, you just have to look. There's sticky hands everywhere with those. For those who have eyes to see. Is that even me? Jordan Peterson.

[Travis]

That was a Best Buy gift for us. So whenever we go to Best Buy, like a bouncy ball or a. Or a sticky hand.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Travis]

It was a good day at the tech store. Yeah.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Travis]

I don't know. I don't know why.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Okay.

[Eric]

There's nothing like.

[Travis]

That was back when you had to go to Best Buy to get anything electronic.

[Eric]

Right? Yeah. Remember that? To go get a dvd.

[Travis]

Yeah.

Right.

[Ad Voice]

Oh, yeah.

[Eric]

We gotta go get a movie. You want to go to Best Buy, Right.

[Travis]

When's the last time you went to Best Buy?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Not. Not for appliances.

[Eric]

I go, how often you buy appliances? Yeah.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Well, if I had a rental for my quarterly appliance.

[Eric]

New fridge. New fridge.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Basically my quarterly appliance.

[Eric]

Yeah. What's your. What's your pet peeve from grocery stores? He's like, he doesn't go, I have

[Travis]

not frequented grocery stores.

[Eric]

The butler shops for you.

[Travis]

So I don't. I don't have much for grocery stores.

[Eric]

Can I say, are they asking for tips yet?

[Travis]

So I feel like that's only. That's around the corner.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

No, but there's one in the morning, there's one. There's one checkout person. Everything is check yourself.

[Eric]

So self checkout or checkout with a

[Travis]

person depends on the volume of food that I have or like the volume of items.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Right.

[Travis]

If it's like less than 30 or 40, then I'll self checkout. But if it's like a lot, then I'll just wait in line and do normal checkout.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

It's hard when I used to go to the line because I have so many grocery items, but. And if you're doing it yourself, it's like you ran out of space in the bagging area and the thing. Put it in the bagging area I'm waiting for.

[Travis]

Oh, that's annoying as hell.

Yeah.

When it's like no items Detected in the bagging area. It's like. That's because I put it somewhere else.

[Eric]

You should do that. When. Put my hand on it when the bagger's doing it at the checkout line.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

You didn't put that in the bag.

[Travis]

That didn't go in the bagging area.

[Eric]

Yeah. Give me that camera right there.

[Travis]

You're actually not allowed to check out the next item.

[Eric]

Yeah. So you don't have any other. Can I say this?

[Travis]

But at Costco though, shelf checkout is actually pretty, pretty clutch because it's not really even self checkout that people come in and help.

[Eric]

You know the amount of times I've actually bought something at Costco, next to nothing. You know how many times I've bought hot dogs at Costco?

[Travis]

Like from the restaurant?

[Eric]

Yeah, a million times.

[Travis]

I was gonna say a lot, but those hot dogs are fire though.

[Eric]

I was just talking to somebody about this recently and I used to play basketball, as you can tell. I mean, I athlete. But one time we went. What's that? What sound does that mean?

[Travis]

I was trying to disguise my laugh with.

[Eric]

Oh, you're doing the I robot Will Smith. Yeah, sorry. I'm allergic to bullshit.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eric]

Or as my TV guardian would say, bull crud.

[Travis]

Yeah, bull crud. This episode of the show is brought to you by Chime. Chime is changing the way that people bank. They offer the most rewarding fee free banking built for you, not the 1%. Chime members can benefit from up to 1150 in annual rewards. Fee free direct deposit unlocks the most rewarding way to make it chime. It's rated five stars by USA Today for customer service with real actual humans 24 7. Which is enough to do the thing by. Come on. You're not just switching banks. You're upgrading to America's number one choice for banking. With a Chime checking account, you get 5% cash back on a Chime card. And category of choice, like gas or groceries, you get savings to grow faster with a 3.75% APY, which is nine times higher than the national average. They also have SpotMe, which lets you overdraft up to $200 fee free. And you can even get up to $500 of your pay. When you say with something that they call my pay, I know my younger self would have benefited from this and you will too. Chime not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. So join the millions who are already banking fee free today. Head to chime.com travis that's chime.com travis only takes a few minutes to sign up.

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[Travis]

disclosures Scaling a business takes the right expertise at the right time and upwork helps growing teams quickly. Bring in specialized freelancers so that you can move faster and take the business to the next level. Upwork is a one stop platform to find, hire and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations and more. Plus with Business plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork. And with AI powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelance in under six hours. It's free to sign up and posting a job is super, super simple guys. I have probably, I don't know how much money I've spent on upwork over the years but it's not a small number because they are very, very efficient.

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[Eric]

upwork.com but anyway, we, we went to a basketball camp. We, we, we did went to a basketball camp and what's up?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

No, I was, I was imagining you at basketball camp.

[Eric]

Imagine me at basketball camp.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I was like is this like one of those All American basketball camps?

[Travis]

Yeah, it's like where the Special Olympics kind of the same program.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Got it.

[Eric]

That's funny. Let's make fun of people with different abilities.

[Travis]

I'm not.

[Eric]

I'm making fun of people differently abled people. You're going to make fun of them. That's crazy dude.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

You know what?

[Eric]

Wait, can I say, wait, let me say to you now I have to say something else because you just started this.

[Travis]

Here we go.

[Eric]

Because now they say like you should be different, you're differently abled. And I think that's fine. I think that's good that we're being more conscious of our language. The only one that I don't like is this feels like way more. The way you're looking at me makes me feel like I'm gonna get in trouble. The only phrase that I don't like that we've changed is you can't say homeless now. You have to say unhoused. Because those two things literally mean the exact same thing. That one bothers me because I understand, like saying like, oh, you're disabled versus differently, like. Cause we all have things that are different about us. And like that. I like that. That's good. That makes sense. But the unheal. Like someone. I heard something the other day and someone's like, oh, they're homeless. Like, no, no, no, no. They're unhoused. And it's like, yeah, that you're just moving.

[Travis]

That's the same.

[Eric]

The descriptor.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Exactly.

[Eric]

It's. It's unhoused or homeless. It's the same.

[Travis]

Not everything needs a rebrand.

[Eric]

I don't like that. Anyway.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

How do you feel about retarded?

[Eric]

Yeah, dude, I like you just fine. Anyway, so.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Boom.

[Eric]

Sorry, it's a little too quick for that one.

[Travis]

Holstered.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Anyway, I would never say that. That's crazy.

[Eric]

Well, I don't have a problem with that. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Let's bring it back to Seinfeld. Anyway, so I went to basketball camp. Thanks for derailing this. And we had a very small budget for meals. And so every single day after basketball camp, they would say, do you want value menu Taco Bell or do you want Costco? So we were literally fueling our bodies on like one Costco hot dog or one beefy five layer burrito. Five layer burrito. I gotta tell you this.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

We don't want to be in that gym running su.

[Eric]

Running suicides after you've had a beefy five layer burrito. Is crazy. When you're leaving a trail, like a snail trail everywhere you go. No kidding. Can I tell you?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Well, there's also, like, people who eat. There's an ad that's like people who eat Taco Bell were built different. Yeah.

[Travis]

You have to be.

[Eric]

I do like. I do like the thing because I've. I've never gotten.

[Travis]

Sides are on fire.

[Eric]

Taco Bell really doesn't mess up my stomach. I feel like I'm built different. But I do love the. The trend now where people say, if Taco Bell gives you diarrhea, your bloodline's weak. And I feel that's. That's it. I know. I was just saying it better. So the. Can I. I'll say one thing just to close out. I'll give you guys a story. Cause now I'm feeling alive.

[Travis]

We're so happy.

[Eric]

So good. But at that basketball camp. So we all went to. I think we all went to Costco for one of the things. And as you do at a basketball camp. Yes, you do. We went to Costco to get our meal for our meal for the day. We had Kool Aid for lunch, but we went to go get our meal for the day. And one of the guys was a senior who actually worked a job. So he's the guy that's like, I got some money. And we were all sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor of the church. This is really sad, honestly.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Are you okay?

[Eric]

So we all were. We literally. There was, like, classrooms off in the gym, and they just cleared the classroom out, and we just all laid next to each other in sleeping bags. But one of the guys was like, I'm gonna buy an inflatable, like, pool raft to sleep on, so I'm more comfortable. I don't know why he didn't just get an inflatable air mattress.

[Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Cheaper.

[Eric]

But anyway, so he blew it up. It was like a green pool thing, and he was sleeping on it. But I took the front of the picture of the packaging. Was a woman in a bikini on the pool thing. Very chill. Whatever. Just a lady in a bikini. Tell me more and let me paint a visual picture. And so anyway, I had the funny idea. I was like, oh, I'll cut that out and I'll put it in the little tiles in the ceiling so we can look up at it at night. And so literally, what happened? And you know, the coach who this was, he came in and he's talking to us, and we're very conservative. Christian school. And he's like, I just want you guys to know I'm so proud of how you guys were doing out there. Blah, blah, blah. And right behind his head is this bikini lady laying sideways. And he literally turns. We're all kind of like. He turns around, looks up, and his whole demeanor changed. And he's like, who did this?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Women are the devil.

[Eric]

And the best part of the whole story is I convinced them that it was somebody else and not me, so I didn't get in trouble.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

So just.

[Travis]

Everybody just went along with that. Nobody was like, it was there.

[Eric]

No. Yeah. We all teamed up there, but. And the and that. But it doesn't matter because when you're. When you're in things like that, the team pays every time. So it's like, get on the line.

[Travis]

Yeah, but all that stuff about you guys being good is out the window

[Eric]

if we have one more minute. The worst thing I ever did that about. Right. Deferred responsibility about something in general was I used to be a big fan of the A team as a child. And in my parents Buick, I took a Sharpie and I wrote the names of the A team on the back seat. And I convinced them that my brother did it. He got punished. And I told my dad like two years ago that that was me.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

What are their names? What are their names?

[Eric]

B.A. barakis. Mr. T. He played him face Hannibal and Murdoch.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

And what about the sixth Beatle?

[Eric]

The Beatles. Why are we talking about the Beatles?

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Wait, hang on.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Sorry.

[Eric]

All right, close this out. That story time with Eric is over.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Mr. T's.

[Travis]

That was the B team.

[Eric]

That was nice.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

Mr. T's the best.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, dad.

Classic.

[Eric]

I just watched Pee Wee's Big Adventure and he has the Mr. T cereal I never watched. Pity the fool doesn't eat my cereal.

[Travis]

The new 18 movie was great though.

[Eric]

It was underrated.

[Travis]

Yeah, I'm very underrated.

[Eric]

Very.

[Travis]

Yeah, I watched it like maybe six months ago.

[Brandon Berkmeyer]

I do like it.

[Travis]

Five, six months ago. That was a good one. Okay, anywho, that's it for this episode of the show. Remember, money only solves your money problems. But it's easier to solve the rest of your problems. You got some money in the bank, so let's start there. Here on the Travis Makes Money podcast.

Thanks for tuning in.

Catch you next time. Peace.