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Matt, Yeah, I woke up Yester yesterday morning because we're recording this on Monday. It's obviously out on Friday.
Welcome to close friends. By the way, everyone, Hey, I just get stray with these ones.
My stepmom text me and said, Matt is going on TV because you must have seen like some little snippet that they played beforehand, saying coming up, Matt. So Jackie's messaged me quick turn on the TV. Meanwhile, I don't know what channel is what on the TV, Like you know when you're like, what's channel seven?
Is probably channel seven.
But you don't like TV's now they've got like a thousand channels and I'm like trying to fucking flick through to find it. Anyway, I finally got there, your.
TV one of those ones that's like where one fifty six it's actually Channing.
Y yes, And I'm fucking flicking through our message in Jackie saying what fucking channels it on? I was panicking. I was going to miss it anyway. I watched it.
You were on? Was it the Sunrise weekend? Sunrise Weekend?
Sunrise ye in your news era?
Well, I don't know. No, I don't know about that. Why do you want me to tell you all about it? Do you?
Yeah? So why were you on there?
Settle around the campfire, mum? As good as story for you. So I made a video a couple of weeks ago which I'll circle back to this at the end and tell you about my journey with cash. I've spoken about it on the podcast before that. Earlier this year, I decided I would start using cash and see if that could help me save some money or what it would do to my brain. I don't really know. I didn't
really think about it at the start. At the start, I was just like, we're going to do our budget exactly the same as we always have, but this time I'm going to start using cash. Because my first thought behind it is when I was younger and i'd spend cash, something in my brain never made me want to spend coins. Yes, so I'd always put those in money box and then you'd have all these coins at the end and then there's like twenty backs at the end of the when
it gets full, you know. So that was the thinking behind it. I was like, maybe I'll just carry notes and then I'll save all these coins and then you know, that's that'll be how I helped build my savings and things like that. Anyway, I made a TikTok last week because I have now been doing that for six months and it has really changed so many aspects of my life, which i'll get too later in this episode of Close Friends.
But that video went viral, news articles were posted about it, blah blah blah, and then Weekend Sunrise reached out and they were like, we want you to come on and talk about it, and I was like, okay, And then I was a little bit like, because it's my first live TV appearance ever. Have you ever been on live TV before?
No, And it scares the fuck out of me. But you tell your story first and we'll come back to my.
Thoughts, okay, Okay. So basically I was really nervous, but I also think it was almost good that it was so early in the morning, because I just didn't give a shit, so I couldn't. I was so tired that I couldn't be bothered being nervous in a way. Plus I got three hours sleep before I went on because I was up the night before. We actually hosted a book club at my house the night before, so my friends were over, we were out late, and I went
to bed at probably like one thirty. My call time was eight point fifteen at Channel seven Studios on Sunday morning, and I only had a few hours sleep, got up, cut myself shaving. It was a mess, hairs all stuffed at the back. I'm like, I can't be bothered, but here we go. And I booked ubers because I was like, I'm not driving in because I was too tired. So I booked an uber there and back cost me about
seventy dollars in ubers. And when they asked me to go on, how it worked was they were like, we love you to come on, and I was like, yeah cool. My manager was kind of like doing all the talking, but I was kind of like yeap, sweet, all good. What's funny is just a few weeks ago we had actually asked Sunrise if we could come on to talk about the arts in industry and the coming back to life after COVID, I guess, and obviously then to promote my shows at the end of the week and they
were like, politely decline, we don't we're not interested. So it's funny that, like a few weeks later, they now want me to come on to talk about using an ATM, because that's apparently what gets across to the people these days.
You know, someone actually dam me and was like, I should have screenshot it because I don't know where it is now. Soone was like, they obviously didn't know that you made this TikTok that went viral, and they're like, to be honest, why did Matt go on to talk about cash? And I'm like, because he had a viral video.
Yeah it. Let me tell you. It is so off brand for me. And I was like, and here's the thing that is not what I like. I was not excited to go on Weekend Sunrise to talk about using cash. But when we spoke to the producers, we were like, Okay, we will come on if you let me promote my live show at the end, and they were like, yeah,
no worries, that's all good. What we'll do is to keep it in the segment, we will get the host to ask you, you know, like, so what do you think you're what do you think who were saving a bit of money should be spending their money on? Which is then where I was going to say. In the live entertainment industry, we're still coming back after COVID. I've got my national tour coming around the country over the next couple of weeks. So come and see me if you can. Do you think they asked me the question
on national television? I didn't absolutely not that I'm just slip their mind. So I went there, spent seventy dollars in ubers, got there, did my what felt like forty seconds on national TV, and didn't even get to like promo anything. Also, the questions that they asked me, And this is no shade till weekend Sunrise. I'm not trying to call anyone out. This is just my experience. I don't care, as I said, like it was Sunday morning, I really don't give a shit, But I'm just sharing
what the experience was. Like, I felt the questions that they asked me as well, weren't the questions that we had prepared with the producers in advance. Like when the host asked me, so you know you're saving money and can't transaction fees, I was like, well, yeah, I guess, but that's like, that's not what I'm here to talk about, because that's not the reason I'm saving money. The saving money, I.
Just went rogue and said what you wanted to say it anyway, it's live TV.
But it's actually kind of hard as well, because they had TVs in front of me, Like, I don't know when you were watching. Was I looking off to the side a lot? Okay, So the thing is you were like, okay, yeah, see that's so awkard because I haven't watched the footage back yet and I haven't seen because they have all these TVs around the camera that you're looking at, and they've and I was under the impression that they were
doing B role. But the B role just plays and that's just when someone's talking, and like you know, the other pictures come over, like stock images of people pulling out cash from an ATM and things like that, you know when they do that in the news. So all those things were playing around the camera. So I'm thinking that that's what Australia is seeing. No, it was just you the whole It was just me the whole time,
and I didn't realize that. So I was, like she told me, looked down the barrel of the camera the whole time. But obviously I'm thinking, and there's a fucking distractions the other biggest like lol, of the whole thing everyone is I'm just gonna let you know. It looked like I had been flown in vast satellite for that. The hosts were four meters away from me. They were in the same room as me. Across the room, I could see the host like literally five meters away from you do that.
Instead of just putting you on the couch next to that.
I don't know if they do.
They not want you to not go near them, I don't know.
I don't know if it's some sort of it might be like a COVID protocol. Though no one was wearing masks in the studio, but I mean it might be something like that. It's kind of might be easy to get people on and off if they have them around there. I don't know, but I was just.
Like this, expected to see you on the couch with them.
Well, same I don't know what I was doing anyway, The point is just like the most surreal. I was just kind of like, what the fuck am I doing here? And you're doing this for ten years and I'm talking about fifty dollars notes. It was really random and I was trying to inject comedy into it, but also the segment moved so fast before by the time I got my point out, I didn't ever even have time to make a joke or like, I will be honest, like I do not think live TV is for me, and
I did not enjoy the experience. Then it was really weird, Like once it was over, I was just like because when I got there, you know, people greeted me, took me to the green room, blah blah blah, and then once it was over, I was just kind of sitting there. Someone came and took my earpiece and my microphone off.
It's very like foutine then.
But then that was it. I was like, so do I just do I just see myself out? Do I just leave now? Like I when I got my jacket and I was like.
I guess then, yeah, Like I get it, Like I totally get it, but I'm just kind of like it was just so so.
Weird to like see it all unfold in front of me and be like, oh, this is not because for me, like one of my like things, I've always wanted to be on live TV, not for spending cash, like for something a bit more exciting than that. But I was kind of like, oh, I don't think this is actually like what I would I don't. I actually don't want to do it again, if I'm honest, if they ask, if people ask, and today I'm going on the project
as well. We're recording that later, but that's recording and then putting into a segment later, right, So that's fine. But I think live TV for me, there was just so much unnecessary like anxiety and stress and just the whole production of like the hosts are over because of course they're talking across the room, but I'm hearing them in my ear, but I'm also hearing them across the room. It was all weird like that.
Yeah, your eyes were like shifting side to side. Yeah, well it was an experience.
Yeah, for sure.
I don't think if given the opportunity, I would want to go on live TV. Uh huh, because I don't know. I don't watch it that much, but maybe like the TV's on in the morning, and then I'll just like watch what they're doing, and I can see like how much of a well oiled ship they run, Like it's this person's on, that person's on. Now, it's this segment. Now it's a food thing, now it's a beauty recommendation.
Like the whole thing feels very robotic to me because it's all timed down to the second and everyone's on a script. I would be worried, like if I ever got invited on there for whatever reason to talk about business or podcasts or whatever that Like one of my biggest fears with getting interviewed is that you can be very badly interviewed and it can make you look like
an idiot. And so not that I've ever been given the opportunity to go on to talk about business or anything, but I can just imagine, like if I went on a morning show and just say it was to talk about business or fate, they'd be like, oh, so like your brand, like this is your little business, Like I can see like it being downplayed and then me coming across like a dumb idiot, And I will say I have been on one podcast before, which was an amazing opportunity,
and it's not in the Nova network. I'm going to say that, but I went on a podcast once before and I walked out of there and I felt like I came across really stupid or like I didn't get to say amazing things because the questions that were asked to me were not good questions. So yeah, I've experienced not a bad interview before, but just being asked like the wrong questions. And if it's live, then that pressure is there to just answer those questions and it's really
hard to divert it to anything else. So I think I'd be too scared to go on it just coming across like a fucking idiot.
Yeah, that's what that's I don't I mean, I didn't really feel like an idiot, but I just the moment that the question started being different, I mean, still the same crux of the story. It wasn't like they threw me huge curve balls, but like I had been told what they will ask and there was kind of a storyline to follow, Like it was like why did I start using? What have I learned? How much have I saved? What should people spend their money? On it was only
meant to be a four minute segment. It was like a minute forty Yeah, So it was just really like, I don't know live dv NOL, it's cracked up to me. I was kind of like, oh, I'm gonna have to think about whether I because also to cost me money to come in for blah blah blah. And the funniest thing was I was off. Like the minute it was off, I was like out the door in the uber, back home, like back in bed. Twenty minutes later, I was just like,
what a fucking whirl win. But anyway, if you're wondering what I've learnt since changing, you know, swapping to using cash, basically what happened was at the end old, I'll tell you everything that I was going to say on Sunrise. How's that? Here's the high scroll was exclusive. This is what it was meant to happen. So last year I noticed that my spending was a bit out of control.
The budget that I would give myself each week. I found that when I was tapping my card, I would always go over that and I would just not care about it. You know, say, everyone's budget is different, but let's just say for example, I gave myself one hundred dollars a week to spend. Well, I would just tap my card, tap my card, and oh, suddenly, I've spent two hundred dollars this week when I was only meant to spend one hundred. And so what I did at the start of the year is all my regular expenses
like rent, phone bill, groceries, petrol. Those things don't really change very often, so I know they're going to be exactly the same amount of money. So I still put all those on card. But any of my wants, or any of my splurge money, or any of my extracurricular activities and recreational spending, so that is movies, dinners with friends, new clothes, new outfits, whatever that may be. The things that aren't like necessities. But you know your budget that
used to spend on whatever whatever you want. I've always in my budget allocated all my things, put a little bit in savings, and then I have, you know, a couple hundred dollars to spend on whatever I see fit that week. As I said, though, problem last time was that I was going over that budget because it was so easy to tap. So I was like, okay, instead, I'm going to be taking the money out each week
when I get paid, and it'll be cash. And at the start of the year, I was definitely still spending one hundred dollars and having a couple dollars left over obviously from the change, but I was pretty much spending the one hundred dollars every single week. Now I find that it's changed my financial literacy and also my relationship with money has changed that now I find myself saying, you know, if it's Tuesday, I might be like, oh,
do I really need to buy this? Because on Friday I might be going out for dinner and I might want to spend sixty It.
Just feels like not real, like ring, like you don't even think about it, which is dangerous.
So now I like consciously think about every single thing that I purchase, and it's rewired my brain. And it obviously was clunky at first. It was hard to do it. First. It was awkward to pull out cash, especially when you're at a cafe and they've already like pressed the f force machine and turned around to start making a coffee, and like you've got to stand there and be like, sorry, I'm paying cash and a lot of people say, like, oh, but businesses, some businesses don't take cash anymore. And in
my six months, I've not experienced that one time. There hasn't been one instance where that has happened.
I will say, like, from a business standpoint, I can understand when businesses do no cash. Only reason being is like from a convenience standpoint, it is so annoying to handle cash in your business. It's like a whole I'm sure you would know from back in the day when you worked at macas and wherever, Like the whole cash handling part within a business is like a whole other part that's super annoying. Then you've got to trust your employees with cash. Cash is a thing that they can
easily steal. And then there's the whole thing of the till was down today and who hasn't done the banking Like so I can kind of get it, Like from a business standpoint, just been able to go tap tap tap, and all your transactions are online. It's a lot more streamlined for businesses that way. I would love to not fucking have cash in our businesses, just because it's so annoying handling it and dealing with the till being down seventy five dollars and having a fucking fine where it went.
But I also get that people don't want us to become a cashless society because it is good to have cash.
Yeah. Cash is king, Yeah, cash is king. And like, I'm not salty if you don't want to take cash in your business. But I have just told people because a lot of people said, what if you come across a business that doesn't take cash? As I said, that hasn't happened to me yet. But honestly, why are you making excuses like if you really want? I mean, what I found when I made that video is a lot of people were like, this sounds like a great idea,
but what about this? And I'm like, there's a really fucking easy solution to that matha let's just sort it out, because I'm like, are you wanting to save money or are you just lazy and looking for an excuse. I feel like everyone who had a complaint is just looking for an excuse to not make it work. For I love to complain my lifestyle right now and my needs and what I need to live. The lifestyle that I would like requires a business to take my cash because
that is what I have decided. If your business does not take cash, I'm not salty. I'm not some boomer who's like, I'm just simply going to go elsewhere because your business does not fit my needs. Why would you shop at any business that doesn't fit your needs? Do you know what I mean? Like, get over your excuses, get on with it. Look, it's not revolutionary. It's not some life changing hack that's going to make you a million dollars. It's just like, in this economy, every cent counts,
and it has really helped boost my savings. So now at the end of the week, let's say I give myself one hundred dollars in my budget, I'll find that I have around twenty to forty dollars left over at the end of the week because I have consciously made decisions. Do I need that coffee? Do I need to buy that book? Do I need to buy that new outfit? Do I need to buy this? Do I need to go out for dinner? And if I do go out to dinner, do I need to order four cocktails or
maybe just the one? Because I want to there might be something else in the week. So obviously it takes a lot of discipline. But anyway, if you're looking to save a bit of money, try switching to cash and see how it improves your relationship with your money. Because for me, personally, it's done wonders, So I recommend it.
That's your recommendation of the week.
Any other questions or comments or concerns from Brittany today, No, thank you for making this episode all about me. We'll be sure to make next week's an't all about you, darling. Thanks for listening to close friends. I don't know how to wrap this up, so let's just.
Go get some cash out.
Oh no, actually I've already got it out. So it's Monday, I've already got my cash.
Out for the week, and I else go get your cash out.
Oh right, okay, so ready, No, but I'll usually do like because my I'm with Irong. So no atmfs anyway. Oh that's good because they don't have any physical branches or physical ATMs, so they can't charge. Well, they don't charge for atmfs because they're like, we don't have any of our own, so so we get them refunded. We have to pay it, but then at refunds automatically shout out to ing. Yeah, Iron G is a great bank to be with, if you want to say Barefoot Investor,
girls and boys and everyone in between. If you read the Barefoot Investor like we all did in the fucking pandemic, I have twenty fucking buckets and it's all working out well since switching to cash anyway. So there you go, have fun, have a good weekend. We'll see on Tuesday. Downs. Bye bye.