Are you wasting your hard-earned dollars? Well, we're going to find out today or at least give you a better idea of what might be worth it and what might not be when it comes to some of the crazy products we see online. You know, social media has become routine for so many of us. We use it to keep up with our friends and follow people. However, TikTok and Instagram have become some of the largest platforms for selling, shopping, and e-commerce. We actually have some statistics to show you how crazy that is. 40% of young people go to TikTok or Instagram when looking for a place to eat instead of going to Google Maps or just searching on Google, which is wild. This is significant. You and I are of the age where we were around when social media came into being. Hearing people say that they'll look for a restaurant recommendation or decide where to go by checking TikTok or Instagram is crazy, right? But what it shows us is that people are using these platforms to make decisions, and it's not just about where to eat. It's also about where to spend our money, our hard-earned dollars. I'm excited because I hope we can prevent you from wasting your money because we know how powerful our dollars can be. It's so easy to just swipe, click, and buy on TikTok. The average user spends 89 minutes per day on the platform, which is significant, especially when you consider that it's an average. Two out of three TikTok users are likely to buy something that they saw on the platform, and 50% have bought something after watching a TikTok live video.
Are you wasting your hard-earned dollars? Well, we're going to find out today, or at least give you a better idea of what might be worth it and what might not be when it comes to some of the crazy products that we see online. Social media has become routine for so many of us. We use it to keep up with our friends, follow people, and even for shopping and e-commerce. TikTok and Instagram, in particular, have become some of the largest platforms for selling and shopping. We have some stats to show you how crazy that is. For instance, 40% of young people go to TikTok or Instagram when looking for a place to eat instead of using Google Maps or searching on Google, which is wild. It's significant, and it shows that people are using these platforms to make decisions, not just about where to eat, but about where to spend their hard-earned money.
I'm hoping we can prevent you guys from wasting your money because we know how powerful our dollars can be. It's so easy to swipe, click, and buy on TikTok, where the average user spends 89 minutes per day on the platform. Two out of three TikTok users are likely to buy something they saw on the platform, and 50% have bought something after watching a TikTok live video.
This statistic is hard to wrap my head around because I'm looking over at our production table right now, and some of the younger folks might be on TikTok. Two out of three that we're going to buy something seems like an asinine statistic. Social media is no longer just a place to scroll and waste our time. People are now influencing us to make purchases. It's a marketing giant, and influencers are testing it out by sharing their opinions and reviews. As an Instagram user, I've seen how it can happen. You start thinking you need a certain thing.
At the Money Guys show, we follow the financial order of operations, saving that 25%. We don't want you to feel like you can never spend on something that matters to you, or something that's fun, or something that you'll enjoy. That's why we have rules in the first place. However, experiencing social media and seeing these stats, it's foolish to make a quick decision. Do I really want to spend my money on that? That's why we're here.
The overarching thought that inspired this show is that any time we decide to use our dollars for something, it doesn't matter what we're spending it on. It matters that we're choosing to spend it very purposely. If you like coffee and want to spend $5 on a latte, that's okay. But don't allow yourself to waste money. Unfortunately, society wants us to waste our money, and we live in a world where that is prevalent.
We thought, what if we had some fun and checked out some of these top products that TikTok is pushing, specifically some of the products that our team has purchased. Some of these things may be legitimate, but some may not be. We want to talk about them and see what you guys think.
We're going to see some products today that maybe they're a waste of money or maybe they're not. Are they worth it or not? So let's kick it off with our first product. This is the Go Youth 2-in-1 under desk electric treadmill. Now, this one's interesting to me because, as you know, here at Abound Wealth and the Money Guy show, a lot of our folks like standing desks. Yes, that's the thing that they say they want to utilize. They want to be able to stand up and sit down. And I can get on board with that. We want to support our folks if it's going to make you happier at work, more productive at work, and enjoy being at work more. That's perfectly fine. But this one might be a bridge too far for me. An under desk electric treadmill. Let's see what TikTok has to show us on that. It's literally a treadmill under the desk. She's just walking and she's got a cool standing desk, but that's not part of this product. It's not a part of it. Oh, so an under desk treadmill. I feel like I would get distracted doing this. I agree with you. I agree with you so much so that I told the team, "Well, this is ludicrous. This would never make sense because there's no way you could actually do your job. There's no way you'd actually be able to focus." And they all fought me on this and said, "Oh, contrary, both. No, you can do your job. You can still be productive even if you're walking on a treadmill." And I said, "I don't believe you." And they said, "Okay, let's put this to the test." Because what's interesting is that every Tuesday from 10 a.m., my job is to sit here and hang out with you guys and talk with you guys.
So we've decided that today we're going to see if that job can be done with an under the desk walking treadmill. So we're going to do a little transition here. We actually have the treadmill right here in place of both seats, and he's going to do the rest of this TikTok segment. Wow, testing out this treadmill. So yeah, we're going to see how he does. And at the end of this segment, we're going to see what his review is on whether or not it's worth it, whether or not he can actually do his job while walking on it.
All right, I'm getting going because I could just stand here and pretend like I'm walking with that." "You could, but no, we're this is real. We're really trying these out as best we can. That would not be truth and advertising.
Now, the thing we didn't say to is this one retails for $380, which is like compared to some of the other products that you can buy on TikTok. It's kind of a pricier one. I mean, is it like an actual treadmill?" "I mean, you're on it." "Yeah, I mean, you're on it. A thousand dollars, you know, it's a four-figure purchase." "Right. But what stops someone from just getting on their actual treadmill and bringing their laptop over to it and working on that? That seems to me." "You can use your regular desk setup. You know, you don't have to like move things around and you don't have to have some platform for your computer. Okay. Well, so far, so good. We're going to see how this works. One, it feels weird to be moving right now. It's not like a normal thing. But let's keep going. Let's talk about the next product that we found on TikTok.
Moving on to product number two, it's the Sosmento Dip Clip. You can get two of these for ten bucks. And it's literally, I have one right here. Let's check out the internet first. The internet says this is a dip clip, something to put in your car so you could eat fast food and dunk into the sauces with ease. Like I needed another excuse to eat McDonald's, I'll take that. Thank you very much. She's sturdy, I'll give her that. All right, now let's test this on the best sauce ever, hot mustard with nuggets. I thought this was going to be dumb, but it's a ten out of ten, highly recommended.
Now, this one I'm intrigued by, right? Because I have to confess when I'm driving and eating fast food, I'm a sauce person. I like my ketchup, my Polynesians, my barbecue, and my Chick-fil-A sauce. But when I'm driving, because I recognize it's a losing endeavor for me, it's bad and dangerous. I choose to go sauceless when I'm in my car. When I'm out of my car, it's irresponsible. I could put my ketchup up there, put my Polynesian up there, but if I'm not mistaken, didn't she plug it into her air conditioning vent? She did. There's a little rubber, grippy thing that literally goes into your air conditioning vent, and it sits right there. It does seem convenient. I would not use this while I'm driving. How come? I just feel like it's a recipe for disaster. Not only is it distracting and you're looking down and moving, but also, what if it does fall off? Well, then it's cost you ten dollars. It's a hundred dollars to get your car in your car. Yeah. And I think that sauce viscosity is probably a pretty important delineated. Yes. Because maybe you're having a barbecue sandwich and you want to dip it in a vinegar-based, super thin sauce. But then it's a hot day, so you turn on your air conditioning and you blast barbecue all over yourself. So I don't know if I'm in on necessarily saucemoto, but I'd give it a try because of the cost.
Yeah, Rebie, let's talk about this. This is a good one - a TikTok product. This is the cat carrier backpack retailing for $40. What problem might this solve? Maybe you want to go on a walk and you want to spend time with your cat, but they might get tired, run away, or not want to walk on a leash. Well, if that's the case, I present to you the cat carrier backpack. Alright, let's see what TikTok says about this cat pack. Let's do it. I got my cat. I think you need to click one more time there to play the video. I think that's what happened. My cat has a backpack, hoping he was distracted by the judgment. This video is hilarious. Who thought of this? What angle was that? Cats upside? I mean, I guess maybe the kid was upside down. Is down or something. So, I gotta be honest, I'm not a cat person, but we have some people here that are cat people, and we asked, 'Hey, would this be something about?' Because I guess, and again, I'm not a cat person, I can't just put a leash on a cat and go for a walk. So, this provides a mechanism where you can take the cat out and do that. But it seems well-made. But, is it the whole point of having cats to have them at home, scratch your stuff, and there's no litter box in there? So, what happens when nature calls? Do you just let the cat out to go? Or do you just have to risk it? Yeah, I personally am not buying it. I would not purchase one. I grew up with cats, I grew up with outdoor cats, so I say just let them go be an outdoor cat. You know, and Daniel, indoor cats or outdoor cats? He said indoor cats. Yeah, this is actually, you may not know, that's actually his cat. I know we're going to out Daniel in this one. He owns this. Granted, I think he said that maybe some gifting was involved here, but they've used it. And so, I'd say this one's not worth it to me, but if this is something that really makes you happy, you can't get that out with a straight face. No cat backpack for me. Alright.
The next one is kind of interesting. And this one I'm curious about because you said that you put this to the test. Okay, this is the one that intrigued me the most by far. It's the Scrub Daddy sponges and the Pink Stuff cleaner. It's only like six to twelve dollars depending on whether you can get a pack of three of the Scrub brushes or different things, so it's not super expensive. Let's see what it does because this is what intrigued me. My first question before I click this: so it's a sponge, but it just has a smiley face on it, or is there something different about the sponge that's more unique than a smiley face? It is unique. Like, it feels here. I have one. It feels different. It's very heavy duty. Oh, so it's like a normal kitchen sponge? No, it's not a normal kitchen sponge. And then that smiley face actually has some utility. Like, you can put your fingers in the eye holes, or you can stick a spoon in here and clean it out. Great. But also, just the material is very good at getting the sticky, grimy stuff off, supposedly. Alright, let's see how effectively this works on the internet. I know I got a good place. That's the big stuff. That's the big stuff. And so these are two separate products, but you're seeing them using combo on TikTok and Instagram. That was a really dirty oven door. Yeah. It's very satisfying. It is very satisfying. It's very ASMR though. Mm-hmm. Oh, wow. Have you gone down the rabbit hole of these cleaning videos? But this may surprise you. No. See, I feel like you would love these. I can't. Honestly, watching this, I am kind of liking that. And that looks effective. It's different. But here's what I always assume before and after. You know, like when Billy Mays slapped the duct tape on the canoe, I'm thinking that they actually fixed the canoe before he slapped the duct tape on. So I had seen these Scrub Daddy sponges before, and when I saw this video that Nate and Daniel posted, I was like, so my oven looks like that because it's an old oven. Like, it's when we want to replace it, like when we moved in a couple of years ago, we were like, eventually we're going to replace this. So I just haven't even thought of it. But I was like, I need to try this. No. So I'm putting myself on blast. I did the before and after. And you can see it. Oh, look at that. And it actually did work. So it's not just a nip. So Billy best clean the glass or the glass service. It cleaned the other services as well. And so it legit. Like, I don't want to take it inside my oven now and see what happens. But it definitely worked. I mean, you can kind of see on the photo if you're watching, like, the inside. Like, there's some inside of the glass. It's still this color, but that's just because it's so old. Honestly, so I can't get rid of, you know, the years and years of grime inside. But as far as the outside grime, it did a great job. I would totally do it again. I'm sold on this. And it's weird how confirmation bias in this world works. I'm seeing how many folks in the chat right now say, "Hey, I've got that sponge. I use the pink stuff. Hey, it's incredible.
There is something about having other people whose opinion you respect. That's me thinking about respecting y'all's opinions. It says, "Yeah, this stuff works. This stuff is legit. This stuff might make sense." And again, the thing that I love is the barrier to entry. Pretty low, six dollars. It's very inexpensive. Yeah, especially, I mean there are some cleaning products out there that are crazy. So I would definitely do this again. So if I'm thinking through this right, and I'm going to summarize this, it seems like if you are using social media, whether it be Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, to figure out how to make your consumption decisions, barrier to entry matters. If I'm going to buy something inexpensive, like maybe a brush or a cleaning product or maybe even some type of clothing like Legend shorts or something along those lines, it's okay to use social media as your affirmation. But when it comes to making bigger purchases, I'm thinking like financial products, investment accounts, strategies, things that you do with your army of dollar bills that is not just like the vacation money, it's not just like that little froth on the top, but major financial decisions, perhaps social media is not the place that you want to focus. Perhaps that's not the place that you want to get your information from, or at least you want to make sure you do your due diligence. So I think this is interesting. I think a lot of those are not so bad, right? Not so bad, but I think it's good to be aware that these are so pervasive and social media can be so convincing. Like the whole point of this is just like think twice before you click and buy. Like is this actually, are you actually where you need to be? Are you actually, are you doing like a ton of these little purchases that are adding up? Or is it really not that big of a deal for you? That's why we have the financial order of operations and all the principles that we share on the show so that you can know where you are, know where you're going, and know where your next dollar should be. Alright, maybe obviously we like to review TikTok products, but if you're going to the channel, it's not what we're known for. This is not our bread and butter. We're not obviously on treadmills most of the time. So while I get myself reset up, would you have to give us a review of the treadmill? How did it like, did it distract you? Obviously, we did have the clicking incident where you needed to play the video. I'm not out of breath, right? I've got my watch on so I can see how many calories I'm burning. So I'm actually getting some exercise, but I don't know that this would be my go-to. I think for $380, if I wanted to get this amount of exercise while I was working, I'd probably just take a walk in the middle of the day. Yeah. I don't know that taking a walk at my desk is going to be the ticket, but if this is what it takes to get you active on a huge phone with activity, so maybe or don't do it or just go for a walk. We would say go for a walk. Thanks for hanging out with us while we reviewed some fun TikTok products and talked about the crazy e-commerce that is social media.
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