The $3 Dinner Challenge & Home Depot Penny Hacks

Hey everybody, welcome to the Red, White, and Green Show. Every week we bring financial advice for people who love America. If you love capitalism, you love money, you love America, you are going to love the Red, White, and Green Show, of course, every week. I'm here with my co-host, Southside Steven

Rickman. >> Yeah, come on. And I love America. And I definitely love money. I do. I do. >> We got a great show for you today. We're going to get in some news you can use.

People want to know, is a $3 dinner legitimate. Steve and I are going to talk about that in just a minute. I've got a They didn't teach you this about what you should do with gift cards. I'm getting a lot of questions on that. I'm going to teach you the ins and outs about how to maximize your gift cards.

And then Steve, when we give the money hacks today to get the green, I'm going to show people today how to get things at Home Depot for a penny. >> Okay. Hey, you've hit in my backyard. I live at Home Depot and I don't know anything you can get for a penny.

>> Oh, yeah. >> Nor do I know a dinner you can get for $3. Not even at a fast food. >> Oh, yeah. Not even at the Crystal. >> Not the Crystal. We do have the Crystal.

Some people have the White Castle, but we have the Crystal. All right. Every week in America here, we bring you news you can use. These are America's money headlines, and we like to tell you what's going on out there. Tell you, at least the things that Steve and I pick that we like. Steve, this is true or

false. The US Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, came out here this past week and basically said that it is true that you can make dinner for $3. >> Oh, make dinner. All right. Well, this I'm I'm all ears. Is this Hamburger Helper?

>> Well, we I thought you were going to say something like that, but No, not Hamburger Helper. This isn't Craft Macaroni and cheese. >> Not anything that mixes with ground beef. It's not that you just went to Costco and bought a case of ramen noodles. It's not any of that stuff.

You're going to like this even more. But study was done here by the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal went through this. Reporters went out and they said, "Yes, in fact, you can make a meal, a healthy meal underneath the new uh maha headlines of like what is supposed to be healthy." They inverted

the pyramid like they do every three years. It changes all the time. Nobody knows what's really healthy, but this is what it is now. >> Yeah, we're inverted now. I know that from the wife. You're exactly right.

What we thought was healthy isn't. >> Here's the meal, Steve, for $3. I'm going to read it to you. >> It is 3 ounces of chicken. Wait, wait, wait. A cup of vegetables.

>> Okay. >> A tortilla. >> And then one dairy item. The government guidelines would then be covered would go uh for what they're talking about say to be healthy. And they say that you can make that whole dinner, which is really one piece of chicken if you think about

it. Maybe a wing. Okay, >> not wings, but a wing. some vegetables. I'm a breast man, but go ahead. A little a little piece of bread, a tortilla, >> and then something dairy, like a small piece of cheese. You can make that for $3.

>> No, that makes perfect sense. And I will tell you that the wrap is genius. Uh rather than bread or any of those things that you don't need too much of, I do like the wrap.

>> Well, when I read it at first, I thought, "This is bullshit." I really did because you know who's going to do that? Who's going to make the dinners like that? Then I thought something, Stephen, and I'm going to offend a few people today. I know I am what I'm going to say.

>> Well, I hope you don't offend me. >> I'm not going to offend you because you you look you look good. But the truth is >> America is fat. >> Yeah, it is.

>> America is fat. And I'm not saying it's everybody's fault because there is a lot of bad food that's out there, >> right? >> But when you go over to Europe and you see how the Europeans eat, it is not necessarily they eat some very bad things over there, right? People say

pasta is bad for you, but it's an Italian. They eat pasta all the time in Italy. It's portion control. >> Wow. >> And what they're really talking about here, and part of the reason food's gotten so expensive in America is we eat so much damn food. Well, even when you

go out, you go to the cheesecake factory, there's 82 pages of what to order, and you you're like, "Oh, I'm just going to get this salad." What in this salad? It's like they pulled out the whole garden from the backyard, put it in a bowl. It's unbelievable.

>> It is. Everybody's taking to-go boxes. And then there's the buffet. Buffets catch hail because a lot of people just keep going back. I was just in Las Vegas. I saw an unusually amount of fat people eating at the Wind Buffet. When the wind buffet is like $100, it's not three. It's expensive.

>> But I walked in there just to see what it was. It was everything from crab claws to ice cream sundaes. I mean, how much damn food do you need to eat? >> I don't know. It's almost like those people camp out.

>> So, $3. You can you can make a meal. Uh maybe I'll put something up on the red, white, and green about different meals that you can make for $3. >> I love it.

>> So, this is the second one. See, this came out of Australia. Should there be a social media ban for those under 16 years of age, they have done this in Australia now that they've now put in requirements for all the main social media companies that if you're under the age of 16, you cannot sign up for social

media. >> I love this. I really do like it. I do cuz I've got a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old and I see how it poisons kids. I'm telling you, I think this is great. I think they should extend the age to 46 because the most of the people honestly that are on social media,

they'd be a lot wealthier if they weren't sp if you spend an hour a day thinking about making money and how to create revenue for your family and not scrolling on your friends dumb vacations and what their kids are doing and all this other stuff. You would make a lot more money and I think you'd be

healthier. Forget about the the $3 dinner. >> Yeah. >> What what good does it do for you? How much time, just to throw this at you, would do you think is responsible looking at social media?

>> Zero. >> No. Look, I would say a half an hour a day. >> Half an hour day. >> An hour a day. You have to think about that. If you if you do something, >> there's a great book in there called Buy Back Your Time. And one question I would

ask most people be thinking about financially here if you love yourself and love America, >> Steve, is what is your hourly rate? >> Oh, wow. I skip.

>> So if you look at what you made last year and you assume that you worked 50 weeks >> during the year assumption >> figure that out.

>> Okay, 40 hours a week. Let's say you work 2,000 hours. Take your income divided by 2,000 hours. That's going to tell you your hourly rate. >> Look at that.

>> Anything that you're paying for that that you could that you do for less than that hourly rate, you should just delegate it out, pay it out. It doesn't make any difference. You make more money doing what you're doing.

>> That is something everybody should do. >> Do you know what your hourly rate is? >> No. I'll have to figure it out. I never thought about it. I know what I charge when I go out. I know what I've made in the past. I got a father-in-law that told me, "Your goal is to make $1,000 a day."

>> Yeah. >> I don't know if that's good or not. But how can you make $1,000 a day? You look at every day you looked at 365 days. I mean, not every day is a work day. Even at 250 work days, it'd be 250,000.

Pretty great income. >> That is That is And what can you do to make money? I like the fact that staying off social media, thinking about it, what can I do for my family?

>> So, I think you're going to see this implemented in other places as well. And the last one on here, the inflation numbers came in for 2025. >> Oh, boy.

>> And the good news is at least eggs have come down in price. >> The half you can get eggs cheaper. >> I mean, >> is that a good thing?

>> Were there that many people at home peeling back hard-boiled eggs and having that in the morning? >> I don't Yeah, I know that eggs was a big deal for some reason. I'm like, damn, why eggs? I mean, it's good source of protein.

>> I don't remember the last time I came to work and people like, I had three eggs this morning. You know, you don't hear that stuff anymore. >> Sunny side up.

>> Truth is though, Steve, besides eggs, most things went way up over the last year. The biggest one on the food side was coffee. >> Yeah, >> coffee was up 20%.

>> I do see that. That is nuts. Do you think that that is why the surge in Sam's and Costco and these places where you go to the discount centers, but you got to buy in bulk?

>> This isn't complicated to me. Get a Kurig. They're like 79 bucks. You can get, you know, a whole bunch of K Cups. Do you really need $8 at Starbucks? >> I do not.

>> You know what I mean? Or you go to these latte shops and and then it's eight bucks and then they spin you the thing for an extra three buck tip before you even get the latte. You're at $11. Do you feel much better after that latte?

>> Tell you what, Steve, you and I will draw people little hearts and things to make them feel good like they put at the top of the coffee. >> You don't need the 11 bucks, eight bucks coffee. Have a carriage. It's not That's not so terrible.

>> It was insane. And it gives you what you're looking for. A little bit of caffeine. >> And this is why we do the news you can use.

>> I can use that. I'm not going for the little fancy coffees. I can't even order them. >> So, I got an exciting topic for you as we get into uh they didn't teach you this because I know every single year, not just during the holidays, but it feels like birthdays and every time you

got something, people are lazy with gift giving now. So, the number one gift that's given is gift cards. >> Yeah. And I want to challenge you on lazy because I' i've been asking my wife to do this. It's what I asked for. If you don't know my sizes, what I wear, or maybe what I want or my kids, give me a

gift card. I'll figure it out. I know what they like. >> Well, that's true. >> And I don't want you to buy them something they already have.

>> Why not just give you cash, though? I might as well just give you cash. Cash feels cold. >> Cash feels good. It's better than plastic. There's something about cash. I love cash.

>> Still works in America, as far as I know. >> Put cash in a card for somebody's birthday, they'll smile. Do people get a little snoody at restaurants sometimes?

Because I do pay in cash. Yeah. >> And then they say like, "Do you want change?" "Yeah, I'll put $200 here. Give me change. I'll figure out what I'm going to tip you." >> Yeah. The money comes back to me, then I tip.

>> You know why cash will save you money? Because when they put those point of sale systems in front of you from Toast is a good example and it just they they they it's it feels like an immediate psych psychological rush. The bill comes, they just stick this thing in front of you. They kind of look away for

a minute like cough and put 15, 20, 25%. Right? And you're gonna you feel guilty. You always pick the middle because you want to feel cheap. You want to feel like you're too much. So you pick the middle. Now they move the middle. Not from 15, 20, 25, but now it's 20, 25, 30. What are you going to do?

>> Hit zero and just be like, I can never come in here again >> with cash. So you take your time. You figure out what to tip. Oh, gift cards. Steve, here are a couple things just just so you know. Gift cards that sit in your cupboards or drawers or wherever you have them at home. If you get a $100

gift card today, in a year from now, most people will say this, "I got a $100 gift card to still use at Lululemon." No, you don't. >> You don't.

>> Why? >> Because of inflation. $100 a year later is not worth $100. So, you might be better to turn the money into cold, hard cash. There are websites called cardcash.com, giftcash.com, and giftcard granny. Yeah, I said,

>> "Wow, >> giftcard granny that you can turn them into cold hard cash." >> I didn't even know you could do that. That's fantastic. You just sell them and >> Yeah, you sell them >> and then you get >> You're not going to get a dollar a

dollar. A lot of cases you might get 90 cents or 80 80 cents, but you got to shop them. You got to you got to shop the cards. But if you got $90 in your pocket today, on average, people spend 30% more on the gift card when they go into the store. So if you have a $100 gift card, you're going to spend $130.

Now I got $90 in my pocket. I'm not going to spend it at the store and I could even put it into an investment account like a Roth IRA or my kids education or just use it. But if it sits in your drawer for a year or two or three, which it does for people, >> right,

>> you lose value on those gift cards. No, that makes perfect sense because a gift card is nothing more than a tiny billboard. It gets you into that location which you might not even go to anyway or have any desire to be there, but you're there because you feel like you have money to spend there and then

you spend more than you should. >> So, Steve, here's the other side of the coin. You can buy those gift cards on a discount as well. It's a it's a marketplace.

>> So, you can sell and buy. >> Well, why would you pay $100 for a $100 gift card when you could pay $95 to get a $100 gift card? >> I'd rather do that. But but people don't because they go to Whole Foods or they stop at CVS or Walgreens, wherever it is. They pick the things off the end cap

and they pay for them. That is a dumb thing to do. You could go on these websites, Steve, and you could get the gift card for less than $100. >> I've been dumb a few times cuz they're there. Hell, I bought a gift card once at the post office.

>> I don't want hate mail in the comments here and stuff like that. >> He is down when you're talking about that these services are available to sell and to buy gift cards.

>> Okay. So then what you do is that you look for the discounts. When you get a $100 Nike card, you buy it for $95. Then when the Nike stuff goes on sale, it's almost like you're paying $70 or $65 for $100 worth of stuff. So the worst time to use those cards are right after Christmas because everyone's like,

"Everything's on sale." No, it's not. >> That's not when things go on sale. You want to look at winter clothes and use that Lulu stuff to get the winter stuff. You do it right at the tail end of winter when they're moving into the next season.

>> That's exactly >> because they got they got to get get the merchandise then. So you've got to look for those sales so you can I call be stacking the cards.

>> Use the cards with the discount and you buy them at a discount. That's how you get the maximum value out of the cards. >> That's awesome. And I don't think you're saying stupid. Don't buy them off the rack.

>> My last tip on this, Steve, is that a lot of people get a gift card and they don't register them. And it, you know, somebody steals your gift card, you ain't getting it back.

>> No. >> And and a lot of times they don't give you the gift receipt. If someone gives it to you, they don't give you the receipt for the store. So, register the cards on on uh online and uh you try to keep them secure.

>> Got it. All three of those things are really good. So, this is how you make the most of those gift cards. Uh I look for peak demand periods. But all those three sites I gave you today, cardcash.com, giftcash.com, there's one called raise, r a i s e, raise.com, and gift card granny are all great.

>> I like gift card granny. I don't know why. I just do. You should say that to the grandparents. You'd be gift card gift card granny right now.

>> That's definitely I'll tell my mom. >> And that was this week's episode of They Didn't Teach You This. And every week right here on the Red, White, and Green Show, we bring you the green room. This is where we talk about entrepreneurs, capitalism, and everything that's happening in America. Always the guy

that runs these interviews the best. Southside, Steve, >> you know what? I've been in a lot of green rooms, and I saw Ed, I saw you look around. No, the room's not green, but it is the green room. This is where we talk to people that have made it.

Just like I interviewed, I don't know, comedians, rock stars, anybody famous, A, B, and C actors to you. Uh, first off, Ed, you know, I gotta let you know Ted's my ride or die, but if you're driving, if you're driving the car, we're not gonna die.

>> Probably not. >> You know why? This guy held the record for five, it's either five or six years. The Cannonball Run, the Bert Reynolds movie you saw, New York to California.

Six years he held the fastest time in the Cannonball Run. >> How fast from New York to California? >> Uh, 28 hours 50 minutes. So 100 mph >> flying average speed as you're driving through neighborhoods where kids play.

>> Uh we were on the highway but uh we averaged about 100.3 but that meant cruising 130 140. >> Is that only legal like in Montana or something like that?

>> No it is not. They're talking about bringing it in Arizona getting away with speed limits. But uh for now there are speed limits anywhere there's federal funding on the highway.

>> Love it. And was it a twoman or a threeman crew? >> Two drivers plus a navigator. >> So you got a guy in the back. It's just like in the movie where the guys like watching, they had things, Ted, that could turn red lights to green. They had things where they knew they knew where

police were at home having breakfast before going to get in their car to sit somewhere. They were that advanced. So, you knew exactly where the police were. Did you ever have to slow down to an insanely slow speed because you couldn't get around where maybe a cop was sitting?

>> We followed a couple for a few miles, but fortunately on that run, it wasn't a big deal. I've done it a lot of times since then, mostly in just cheap cars for fun, which is a lot well a lot different than just, you know, the like your hair is on fire. But we had a lot of fun and it was a cool experience that

led to a lot of great opportunities in the automotive world. >> Well, that's what we want to talk to you because I it's my job to find out how the hell you got rich.

>> When I figured out, how did you become a millionaire? >> Well, uh, by keeping good credit mostly. You know, I obviously I've been around the automotive world in a variety of capacities, both traditional and entrepreneurial, for now 20 years or so.

Back when I was at Georgia Tech, uh when you could just tell banks how much money you made and they'd give you loans for uh exotic cars. I started an exotic car rental company from my dorm room. Oh, wow. Uh so did that for a little while, then became the director of sales at Lamborghini Atlanta. And about 10 years

ago, I left there and started an app called Vinwiki that also has a big media brand. We've got a couple million subscribers on YouTube and get about I don't know 100 million views a year.

>> Yeah. I got to tell you, man. Vent Wiki, have you seen that yet? >> Oh, yeah. Crazy views on there. >> Crazy. I mean, a billion views. And then you're also got 2.1 million subscribers.

Yeah. >> And that is something. Your studio is probably what, 10 minutes from here? >> It is. Yeah. Just in a spare bedroom in my house now. It's been a few different places, but uh it just gives that kind of, you know, big old warehouse feel where people just sit around and tell

their best car stories. Yeah. Is it, you know, I I feel like uh I read a book a number of years ago. It was called luxury has lost its luster. And there was a day that, you know, a Mercedes was a status symbol and a BMW is a status symbol. What today in that luxury car market for wealthy people out there,

people that love money. What What would you consider now? You made it, right? Because Mercedes to me, you had made it. I mean, kaka, you can get one of those anywhere. I know Mercedes drivers, I'm not trying to offend Mercedes or BMW. It ain't a status symbol. It's just not.

>> Well, there's been such an explosion of production of, you know, $100,000 plus cars and the ability to finance them for 60, 72, 84 months at least, even up to, you know, 10 the 100 month loan. Now, it's unbelievable.

>> Don't sign that paperwork. >> Well, unless the car is going up in value, right? >> Then you sign and sell it. That's it. >> Well, one day you do. And you know, to me, it's more than just having the coolest, latest, greatest, biggest, baddest car. It's more about finding

something that that really does resonate with you that feels like the the manifestation of that goal that happened when you were a kid and falling in love with cars for the more genuine reasons.

The thing about social media, the thing about the way that we consume information today is that it's easier than ever to take on somebody else's goal of what success looks like. And the people that are really happy are the people who have the goals that were correct for them. So that when they

achieve them, it's not that empty feeling of like what am I going to do next? It is that mountaintop experience of like I did what meant the right thing to me. And and in seeing so many people chase so many different things, especially in the automotive world, there are guys that you see, they're

like, "No, I found the right car. I drove it 250,000 miles because it's just the greatest thing ever. I've taken it to car shows for decades. I'm going to give it to my kids and they they won't appreciate it half as much as I do. But it's just that to me seems like somebody who has really found that level of

happiness that we should be chasing rather than the guy that said, "Look, this guy told me that a Lamborghini Huracan was the greatest car ever made and so I just decided I was going to do whatever it took to finance one and now I barely drive it." >> That is unbelievable. And lastly, just

because of your fame and we we hit on it. Uh, and your fame comes in because everybody I mention it to, all the guys down at Regal Nissan where I go, they know who you are. Uh, my, uh, Amanda, my wife's uncle, and I have to call him Uncle Rob, even though he's like 12 years younger than me. He's a huge fan.

And he just moved here. He wants to meet you. And I'm like, everybody knows you. So, you started the podcast lastly, kind of like what we're doing here. We're doing the red, white, and green to help people. And we know if you love America and you love money, this capitalism, this show can help you. And that's what

we're trying to do. And here you are as a guy made it. But did you just do the Vin Wiki as an afterthought just because why not? Well, we like to think it's all on purpose, but very much it's just a series of happy accidents that kind of stemmed from my, you know, war stories of selling exotic cars, time in the

rental business and things like that because you learn different things seeing all of these different people. And the the fundamental premise of Venwiki is that we're immortalizing the best car stories of people's careers and time in the hobby or the industry. And that's really fun because there are

always these unique nuggets of, you know, wisdom or ideology that you can glean from it. You know, one of the things that really stood out for me in selling these cars and watching really really rich people and people that were not as rich as they that they seem to be was, you know, their attitudes towards

money were so interesting from somebody's perspective that had none and was just, you know, huge loans on everything. But, you know, what what really resonated with me was you see these people and the the way that money impacts their mood. And that's what I immediately learned to say like, "All

right, if I step back here and I see this guy that's worth a quarter of a billion dollars getting upset about a part being $100 more than he thought it was going to be, that is an unhealthy relationship with money. This this shouldn't work." And so I started, you know, trying to have a pretty meaningful

internal discussion every year about based on how much wealth I have, how much money am I going to make the conscious decision to not let it impact my mental well-being? How much money cannot matter? It doesn't mean I'm trying to be reckless, but am I going to let nothing under $100 matter? Am I

going to be able to let nothing under $500 matter? And I always kind of had this fantasy of like if that number was $5,000, like imagine going through life and saying if something pops up, some subscription I forgot to cancel or some thing that doesn't get refunded or

something unexpected home repair that's under five grand, I'm not going to let that change the way I feel. And I think that is wealth to me is getting to a point where your perspective on money means that your mental health is managed with respect to it a lot better than most people who seem to have a lot more.

And you don't want to stretch it too far because then you end up making bad decisions. But at the same time, thinking about it in that way to me is more effective than thinking about, you know, what is 4% of what my invested assets are so that I know if I'm not going to ever run out of money. You

know, it's like how am I going to have a healthy relationship with each dollar? I love it. Well, I love the relationship and I'm glad that you were here in the green room. Uh, he is famous to me. This is Bert Reynolds, man. I'm telling you, the Cannonball run for six years. You will go down in history. I do love the

exotic cars you pull up in. And Ed Bolan, our guest today on the red, white, and green in the green room with Ted Jenin and myself, Southside Steve. >> Thanks for having me.

>> This is the one that I wanted to talk about today. uh really getting into the money hacks and where we get the green. And we did this in these first few shows because we live in Atlanta. I wanted to talk about Atlanta based companies.

Although Home Depot Yeah. >> is a national company and this is going to be one of the greatest money hacks you get here in 2026. >> Well, show open. You told me one cent.

One cent gets you something at Home Depot. I don't even know how that's possible. This is not going to be a guarantee, but I'm going to tell you how you play the game at Home Depot because I'm going to up your chances there because Home Depot in each aisle and it'll be dependent upon the skew item.

Skew meaning, you know, there's one for this kind of light bulb and one for that kind of hammer or whatever it may be, they basically have clearance tags that they put on those aisles.

>> So, the question is, how do I look for the clearance tags? And here's what I've learned going to Home Depot many, many times and playing this game. And then I'm going to tell you where you have to run fast out of the store. Okay. Yeah.

It's not only had a clearance. >> You're not stealing anything. You're not stealing anything. >> No, we're not talking about theft. That's wrong.

>> So, if you look at the clearance tags and the price ends in ' 06.06, it's generally 25% off the actual price. >> Wow. So, if something says it's$ 19906, that generally means it's 25% off. If it says like $304, it typically means it's 50% off.

>> 06 is 25% down those aisles. 06 04, which leads you down the aisle to 03, >> which is 75% off, and then 02 is 90% off. >> An O2.

>> So, you want to be looking down those aisles and Yeah. You're there. And see, most people go through these stores in a phase. They know this. You're like a a mouse in like a little cheese maze, right? Because they run you around the store. You're like, I got to get light bulbs. I got to get rope. I got to get

some paint. You know, before you know it, it's like going in a tar. You got $200. You're like, what the hell did I get for $200? What did I get? To be a smart shopper. You want to build wealth.

This is how you do it. When you go into Home Depot, you may need things or not right now, okay? But if you need it, look, 06, 04, 03, 02. >> I will totally be looking at that. I do walk into Home Depot with blinders on, though, cuz everything that in the first 10 ft is everything they're trying to

sell you uh on the cheap and things you don't need. If you buy it, you made a mistake. >> So, in all of these, what Home Depot doesn't tell you is a lot of these prices work on a on a I'm going to put this checklist up on here. I call it my Home Depot penny hunting checklist that

we will we'll put up on here. It'll do a quick flash on the screens uh for you, but they have like a 14-week pattern on Home Depot. And if you think about it, when you carry a skew, some SKs last forever and over time uh different products that they have in the store because they have thousands and

thousands of SKs, eventually the manufacturer makes something new, it's upgraded, it's a little bit different, it's seasonal, whatever it may be. >> So, Home Depot has to sell that inventory. And there are scanners that you'll see in the aisles in many stores now. You can price scan something. You

know what I mean? You probably didn't realize that when you're think you can scan something. So you may be able to uh score uh a wall scone, a step ladder, power tools, screwdrivers, light bulbs, and you might only pay a penny because if it hits this 14 week pattern on the clearance items that I told you, you

could scan it and it will say one penny. And that's when you run for the damn selfch checkout because when people are there, you're gonna scan it. And not even the Home Depot, they don't track this stuff in there. They don't know which things are a penny. This is crazy.

>> So, you get there and then you scan it, it comes up a penny, they're going to think like you did something weird like you changed the barcode or something like that. You can't do that, by the way. No.

>> But but you change a barcode, you scan it for a penny, and then man, once you do it, stick it in your bag and you run like hell because they're going to be like, "Wait a minute. What was that?

What was that thing for a penny? This is absolutely uh real and I will tell people the best time to try to get these is early mornings before restocking. >> Okay, >> after any holiday because all these places like Home Depot, what do they do?

>> They want to basically get things in the holiday stuff and then everything goes on sale. >> So things in the holidays and then obviously in seasonal traditions, you know, because when it's Christmas time, as an example, Home Depot carries that seasonal Christmas stuff. What are they

gonna do with it when the season's over? >> Yeah. All those lights that nobody bought or all those decorations. >> Yeah. Or they realize, man, this product didn't sell really.

>> Nobody wants the snowflake lights anymore. They only want the little clear bulb lights, you know, whatever it may be. So, the only real way to tell if an item cost a penny, scan the barcode at the selfch checkckout. That is the way to do it. And um you can always scan the regular barcode while you're in the

store, but like I said, I I wouldn't ask employees. Don't go up to an employee and go, "Steve, is this a penny?" >> Yeah, you don't ask. You just go up and scan it yourself. It's legal. That's what it's priced at. And you leave.

>> So, what do you do, folks? You want to get the real green is the money hacks. Going to Home Depot this weekend. Look for 06 04 032. That tells you, baby, go time.

>> Go time. And if you're down at that 0302, that's when I would generally go up, selfch checkck it out. By the way, it might be 75 to 90% off. So, so what? That's still a good deal, but it could be a penny, >> dude. If that happens to me, I will be the first to let you know.

>> So, that is how you get the green, Steve, at Home Depot. So, every week as we wrap up in here, we do something called Red, White, and Scene. My main thing, Steve, I wanted to tell you today is that upcoming here on Monday, January 26th, guess what begins? It's officially the start of tax season.

>> Oh, that's right. Everybody's going to get all that stuff coming out and then you got to get it done by what? April, whatever. >> Do you know the number one when people self-prepare? Do you know the number one reason that people's tax returns get kicked back when they do it on their

own? >> No. >> They put in the wrong social security number. >> How do you mess that up?

>> I'm not saying anybody's dyslexic, but people do transpose numbers and things like that. >> That that's supposed to be memorized. That shouldn't be a problem. But okay, >> real real problem. And the number one reason that people get delayed refunds is because they don't get all their damn

forms together. >> Oh yeah. >> Get your W2s, your 1099s, your interest forms. Otherwise, you may get delayed. This year, Steve, and I'll predict it right here in the red, white, and green because I love capitalism. I love money, and I love America, is that this is

going to be the biggest refund season in the history of the United States. >> What? >> And that's because of the one big beautiful bill.

>> Okay. and that there are major changes to the standard deduction, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, all those things happen. And guess what people didn't do during the year? They didn't adjust their withholdings.

>> So what happened is more money got withheld last year than should have happened. And that means they're going to get a bigger refund. So two safety tips as we wrap up the show today.

Number one, don't blow that refund. Pay off your high interest rate credit card debt. build up an emergency cash reserve and then maybe go see a movie, have a little bit of fun, something like that for yourself. Something like that.

Number two, you should be talking to your employer right now about adjusting your withholdings or you're going to have the same problem in 2027 as is going to happen here in 2026. In the end, folks, a refund isn't a gift from the IRS. It's an interest free loan that you gave them. You never want to give

anybody an interest free loan, let alone the United States government. and I love our country, but what are they going to do with the money? Nothing. It should be your money earning interest in the bank.

So, make sure you get your stuff together. As always, you can hit us up on the website on redhand green.com. You can go on the YouTube channel. Ask us whatever tax questions you have. I may actually put up my top uh 1099 tax deductions for those people that are thinking about your last minute tax

deductions that are out there. The show, Steve, people can get everywhere. If you're good in podcasting, you can get it on Apple, Spotify, any one of the major channels that are out there.

Certainly, I would tell you if you love what you're getting here in Red, White, and Green and here, the interviews that Steve does and all this great content, just click the subscribe button. Make sure you subscribe to the channel, share with your friends, and that's this episode of Red, White, and Green,

financial advice for people who love America. >> Yeah, come on.