Slow Money Moves Still Matter

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

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Rachel Cruze (0:15)

Normal is broke and common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the FAIRWINDS Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. And I am Rachel Cruze, hosting this hour with my good friend and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, George Kamel. We'll be answering your questions, so give us a call at 888-825-5225 and we're going to talk about your life and your money. All right, first up, we have Amanda in Portland, Oregon.

Hi, Amanda, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_3 (0:46)

Hi.

Rachel Cruze (0:48)

How are you doing?

SPEAKER_4 (0:50)

I'm okay.

SPEAKER_3 (0:51)

I'm nervous. I've never done this before, so yeah.

George Kamel (0:55)

Not crushing it so far.

Rachel Cruze (0:56)

You're doing great, Amanda.

SPEAKER_4 (0:58)

I just want to encourage you.

SPEAKER_3 (0:59)

How can we help? Well, I guess I'm trying to gain an outside perspective on if my opinion on hiring an outside exterminator is warranted or like is justified because me and my fiance have different opinions on that.

Rachel Cruze (1:22)

Okay. What needs exterminating? George is not the rodent's kind of fella over here.

George Kamel (1:26)

I mean, who's a rodent fella?

Rachel Cruze (1:28)

That's a weird thing to be. A lot to see.

What needs to be exterminated?

SPEAKER_3 (1:33)

Well, I guess we've just been doing with the rodent issue. Our house is kind of old. It's been on and off for a few years now. I am a stay-at-home mom, so I deal with it, well, if I see one.

Rachel Cruze (1:47)

What's a one? What is it?

SPEAKER_3 (1:49)

Oh, a rat. A rat or a mouse. It's gotten into our pantry. It's eaten through our food.

George Kamel (1:55)

When you say it's, I'm guessing there's more than one.

Rachel Cruze (1:57)

No, there's usually just one, right? Is it the same guy?

SPEAKER_3 (2:01)

It's burst out. So I trapped one in our closet at the beginning of the year. It escaped. We patched up a hole we found.

Now one is back. I haven't seen it. My fiance has it chewed through our pantry. We took everything out.

Rachel Cruze (2:17)

They're destructive. It like, you'll get behind your dishwasher and like chew cords.

SPEAKER_3 (2:22)

I mean all of it. I know. And so we have a small child. And so my anxiety is through the roof because I don't want our child to get sick. I don't want our child to get bit. They're young enough where they think it's fun. Like, oh, I want to play with the mouse. And I'm like, no, you don't. You scream and run.

So my anxiety is through the roof about it. I would feel better hiring someone to find holes, figure out where they're coming in, create a better plan. And I know it can be expensive. So that's reasonable on my fiance's part.

But he feels like what are they gonna do that we can't do? But I feel like all of our resources weren't really working, like sticky traps, snap traps, rat poison. He did actually just catch a rat this morning. But it's definitely, I feel like, put a strain on us, so it's made me feel very distant and like my anxieties aren't being heard. So it's just like, I've kind of been like, don't talk to me about it. Don't.

Rachel Cruze (3:27)

Okay, dismissive. So he's getting dismissive with you.

SPEAKER_3 (3:30)

Sorry.

George Kamel (3:31)

He's tired of you talking about it. He doesn't want to pay for it. So he's like, we'll deal with it. We'll figure it out. It's gonna be fine. And you're like, it's not fine.

SPEAKER_3 (3:40)

Yeah. And it's like, it's understandable. The finance aspect, I understand.

George Kamel (3:45)

How much does it cost?

SPEAKER_3 (3:45)

You're living with a rat. Yeah. And it's, you know, like I'm...

George Kamel (3:50)

Is it $1,000?

SPEAKER_3 (3:52)

Can I try to go? Oh, no, I was looking up like estimates and it was saying maybe like 350 in our area might be like the highest, but I think it could be less than that for an inspection.

Rachel Cruze (4:06)

Okay. So from his side of the fence, are you guys financially in a good spot? Do you have money that you were like, yeah, we can write a check and get this done with?

SPEAKER_4 (4:17)

Or are y'all broke?

SPEAKER_3 (4:18)

Are you broke? We have cash in a safe that we could use, but then there's like, this is on the list of a million other things that need to be repaired or fixed, or so then there's that, what does that money go towards first?