Indiana’s Historic Floods, Power Outages + Coupon Hacks

What's going on, Indiana? I hope you had a spectacular weekend. We've got a special edition of Get In here. We're talking all things who's your headlines. We've got Lindsay Erdi from Free Press Indiana News back on the show to get you caught [music] up on what you need to know. From the floods that have been happening here in central Indiana to power outages across the state, there are some really, really interesting things that I'm really excited to dive into.

Quick pause though. If you're listening on Apple, you're listening on Spotify, you're on YouTube, wherever you are, please, please, please, please, please, please, please go leave us a review. We're at like 60s something reviews. We're trying to get to 100 by the end of the year. Please, if you could, whether you're listening on Apple, Spotify, anywhere there, go subscribe on YouTube, listen to it. Uh, please give us a review.

It would mean the world to us and help us grow, help us get out in front of more Hoosiers. So, we're going to dive into an interview where we're talking with Lindsay all about what's going on in Indiana. And then we have one of Indiana's top creators as voted on by the indie star. We've got Emily from M's Coupon Clips coming on the show to talk about growing her profile. And obviously, if you've been in the news, we were both nominated as one of the indie stars top five creators. She actually won the whole thing.

The number one creator here in central Indiana. Honored to have her on the show talking all things coupons. You're going to love this show and uh let's dive into it and set the week off right. Before we get into the episode, let me tell you about my friends at Pence Media Group. Every organization has a story to tell, but getting the right people to hear it takes more than great ideas. It takes strategy, creativity, and a team that knows how to bring it all together.

That's where Pence Media Group comes in. As a nationally recognized public relations, branding, digital, and marketing consultancy, PMG helps organizations tackle everything from major announcements, [music] and marketing campaigns to community engagement, events, and long-term growth. [music] If you've met the team, you know PMG takes time to understand your goals, brings together the right expertise [music] for the job, and creates customized solutions designed to deliver real results. Whether you're building a brand, launching a new initiative, or navigating what's next, PMG becomes an extension [music] of your team every step of the way. Learn more at pence media. com.

Again, that's pence media. com. [music] Pence Media Group. Consider it done with PMG. Now, let's get into the episode. We're back with Lindsay Erdod, the editor-inchief of Free Press Indiana News for another round of Hooser headlines.

Lindsay is going to walk us through what's happening in Indiana right now, straight from the stories her team is uncovering across all 92 counties. Today's episode will cover what's been on the FBI news site in recent weeks. Plus, we'll give attention to the 100redyear flood that has caused extensive damage across Indiana. Not just here in our backyard in Broadripple, not just here in central the donut counties in Noblesville, but also spreading out to east central Indiana. uh the world the central Indiana has definitely been going through it and uh I'm really excited to unpack some of the stories you guys have uncovered. Welcome back to the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Oh man, I mean it feels as though not long ago we sat here and got to talk about fun things like the fair and all the different deals and visiting all 92 county fairs and and all that jazz. But uh there's there's some I mean interesting stories that you guys have have uncovered. Uh I mean I'm I'm not going to bury the lead on this one. I'd love to start with just stories and and what you guys have uncovered about central Indiana and the recent Yeah. 100red-year flood.

And this is on the wake of I just spent 5 days 84 miles down the White River from Muny to to Indiana. And it's crazy that now, you know, 6 weeks later or whatever that it looks a lot different than it did not that long ago. Definitely a a crazy news cycle all around Indiana. So, it started around August 11th with the storms that rolled through different parts of the state and that's like what took out power um for hundreds of thousands of customers in northwest Indiana. Okay. No one is talking about this.

Yeah. But is this NIPCO? Yep. They were NPCO customers. The company, the utility company called it the biggest outage in their history. Um so even they're saying like this is historic amount of outage that we're dealing with.

And what was where was that flood coming from? It wasn't flooding. that was from uh wind damage from the storm. So that's that's something that I think people have gotten confused too is everyone's talking about this flooding, but in northwest Indiana, it wasn't flooding that caused the problem. It was trees taking power lines down essentially. Yeah.

And I do feel like they've been I mean missed in a lot of this new cycle from a lot of places because I mean it is easy to see from Cambridge City to Muny, Newcastle, Henry County all the way into Noblesville, Anderson and then down here in Indianapolis like you see the flooding. It's obviously right closer to the proximity of us here in the studio. But I have talked to people that are like Northwest Indiana has been without power for a long time. There are lots of people that have gone that went a significant portion without power. Yeah. So, you know, we're recording this on August 19th.

It's been over a week for people in Northwest Indiana and uh a lot of them still don't have power. So, I just pulled up Nipkco's latest report and it's a little under 90,000 customers still don't have power. And Okay, so yeah, today's August 19th. It's a Wednesday and like when this airs hopefully, knock on wood that that will not be the number. No way, right? But like 90,000 people to spend over a week with like I mean almost a week.

Yeah. Over over a week at this point. And so it's one of our reporters was uh up in Lake County on would have been um two Fridays ago when if you're listening to this when this comes out and talked to people who were at the Maraveville Mall. She had stopped thinking people would been there um just trying to be in air conditioning, you know, and stay cool. And what she found was that was where everybody was charging all their devices and like every outlet in that mall was taken up by a family charging phones and laptops and battery packs and and all those things. The mall does have obviously they have power.

The mall had power. Did Did they have power from the grid or a backup generator? I believe it was a backup generator, but I don't know that for sure. Wow. And they had kind of invited like the community to come. Shout out to the mall there.

Who knew? Malls back in. Malls are hot again. Uh, [laughter] actually malls are cool. Uh, wow. So, that's going on in northwest Indiana.

I had no idea that it was based on the storm and the wind damage. Yep. So, that's interesting. I mean, a ton of work to do up in the region. Then you start to come down here and what really got this started? Like, I feel like it was it was rainy last week, but it wasn't that crazy here in like central Indiana in in Indianapolis specifically, right?

Yeah. Indianapolis specifically did not get a ton of that rain, but kind of like all around us did, right? So like Munie, Anderson, um going out east like Connorsville, uh Cambridge City got hit really bad. Um all those sorts of communities um got hit really bad with the rain. And then what has happened to Indianapolis is then the white wa the white river water rose and that flowed down into Indianapolis. And so those high waters that are coming from like Muny Anderson area got to us several days later in Indianapolis and then caused all the the major flooding here.

And the interesting and in some of the other um parts of the state that were dealing with the flooding like in Connorsville it wasn't the White River. Um it was the White Water River. White Water River. Yeah. Thank you. Yes.

There's a whole another river. Sounds very similar but different. It is. It's the same same but different, right? Whitewater. This is what goes through Cambridge City.

So quick Google search says during the 20 the historic 24-hour storm system that started on Tuesday, August 11th, Cambridge City 10 and a half inches of rain. Yeah, that is wild. That's a lot of rain. Okay, so Cambridge City is south of where the White River is. The White River is like headarters are up in Winchester. So that's kind of separately.

So it must have been a lot different rivers like being overwhelmed by the amount of rain that they got and then depending on where those rivers flowed and and how the water um kind of leveled out, you saw more more damage and more impact based on that. Wow. No way. That is wild. Muny accumulated I mean it's saying on on in that time period 48 hours was like seven to 7 to 8 ines of rain too. So that's where it's like being down river.

Obviously it flows from Muny down through Anderson through Noblesville because it almost felt like like kind of eerie. Yeah. as you like saw the devastation kind of like start out on the east part of town or the east part of the state early in the week and then slowly progress towards Indie like in your Anderson hit gets hit and then the next day the crest is getting down to Noblesville and like some of the stuff that was shown look straight out of like an apocalyptic movie. Yeah. Like when they I was running today with my I have a run club that meets on on Wednesdays in Broadripple and they were talking about like seeing them shut the floodgates. Like that's like kind of an eerie feeling here.

I mean that's just not common. Like one the floodgates. I didn't even know we had floodgates as an Indianapolis resident. I won't lie. I had no idea. You walk by now I see them.

Like people were like where were they? And I'm like we ran past them this morning like here they are. You can see them but no one's ever really thought about them. I did not know that's what it was. So like one of them is right by the art center in Broadbull. I got married at that art center.

I'm very familiar with it. Had no idea that that was a flip. That's See, I I sometimes I just like am observant of things every now and again. And I saw the track one day on the bottom and I was like, "What is this track?" Like clearly something goes along here. And then I like, you know, did some digging, whatever.

And I was like, "Aha, this is where the floodgates are." But I never really knew how they worked cuz in a lot of places I feel like you see floodgates come up from the bottom [clears throat] and ours like slide in from the side. Super interesting. Um, but this is the piece that I am so torn up and sad. So, okay, I'm not going to totally dox myself as I live, but I live near the White River. Okay.

And I live a few blocks off far enough that I am I believe I believe I am one of the last houses that does not my mortgage company does not require flood insurance. Yeah. And I was like, dude, I'm not trying to play fun. So I like like you could have it if you want like some it it's kind of recommended but I was like dude this part if this floods like I'm going to have bigger fish to fry. Mhm. And all of a sudden you know seven years later bigger fish to fry came.

Yeah. And luckily I don't know how I it missed my house like literally one ditch north like two d it's it's tough. Like it's real like I'm I'm near the Ravenswood area and it's like a still a baseball's throw away people are not as lucky and a baseball throw south it was like pretty high too and I'm just like I have no idea how one I got so lucky like one kudo like I don't know sometimes it's like better to be lucky. The other piece is I started looking into it and I was like well what if I would have like clearly homeowners insurance would cover that. No. No.

Well, not. You need flood insurance. Yes. And there are so many hooers along the river, but along the river, it's mandated. If you have a mortgage, you're going to probably flood plane. Yeah.

The mortgage will require you literally can't get the mortgage without it. So, one things that could happen if you own your home or maybe it was inherited or will down to you or you paid it off, right? If you own it outright. Yeah. You you probably had the option to you don't need it if you don't want it. Correct.

And it's not cheap. Renters in any of these areas would not have it. You would have to get it like you might have like a renters's insurance policy, right? But you would have to get some special like flood coverage on top of that. And I mean when I was renting places, I never would have thought of that. I didn't even take the renters's insurance like unless unless it was mandated.

I was like, "No chance." Yeah. Um and and really what we found was it's about 1% of Hoosiers actually have flood insurance. It is a tiny amount of people in this state that have flood insurance vers I I would love this too. 1% of Hoosiers have flood insurance verse how many percentage of Hoosiers live in an area susceptible to flooding. I asked that we couldn't we didn't get a good number on that you know cuz it's like less than 1% cuz it's like if there's 7 million Hoosiers something like that right is that the number?

[clears throat] Yeah 7 million and it's like less 1%. Okay. But it's like let's say it's if 5% of Hoosiers live in an area that is in a historic 100red-year flood plane, right? You know, like that's where like there is the devastation immediately, but like the second and third order of magnitude of okay, now it's you know, the water recedes like one I think as of today on the 19th seven people have lost their lives. Yeah, I believe it's seven. Yeah.

which is horrendous. Like you hate that. And so it's like one you're thankful. Okay, if you're if you're on the other side and you're not in one of those seven, you're like thankful for that. But then as the water, you're like, "Okay, let's go find my stuff. Let's go take a look at the damage."

And then like remediation and mold and like I think you have to like totally gut the house. I I hate to say it cuz it makes me sound like a negative Nancy, but I think the worst is uh some of the for some residents that obviously survived, the worst is still to come or like a bad part is still to come of like as things start setting in and you start trying to figure out where you're going to live. I think I saw the thing of a thousand Hoosiers are displaced. Yeah, that was a state estimate as of a couple days ago. Yeah. Like that's going to be something where I hope I hope I hope the generosity of Hoosiers like that's going to have to step up cuz that is like generationally lifealtering.

Yeah. You like if you had like I'm just imagining like I have my largest asset and if one day it was just like ruined. Yeah. Like I would be in a really tough place financially. Well, and the other tough thing too is like if your mortgage doesn't require the flood insurance and then you were saying, you know, maybe you'd consider it, maybe you wouldn't, but what um people who have looked into it find is that it's really expensive to get it if your mortgage doesn't require. I mean, even if your mortgage does require it, I don't think it's cheap.

Um and so people don't do it because they're like, well, you know, why would 100year flood like we'll take our chances kind of thing. Um, you know, and so we've talked to people who in various parts of the state do not have flood insurance. Um, you know, one of our reporters was in Anderson this week talking to a guy who had just redone this house. I mean, had been redoing it for like the past year and it's completely he'll have to gut the whole thing and and start from scratch and like you know this is not someone who you know has the means necessarily to do that either to do it twice, right? Exactly. Like imagine saving up I again I don't know the the total story of this one but just imagine I'm sure there's someone out there that's like you know we could go snowbird in Florida but instead we're going to spend our retirement right here.

We're going to make the house just perfect the way we want it right here on the river. Yeah. And then that would be so tough. Yeah. So, there's just there's so many sad stories of people out there right now like returning to home, having to throw all their furniture out, having to um you know, tear their walls down and pull out insulation, having to redo their floors, um having to get all new appliances, you know, all of these things that happen if water gets into your house. Um, what were the the biggest pieces of like structural damage that you guys found or like biggest like I know that the one is like the Hazel Parkway like that bridge washed out and like that quarry is has like 6 billion gallons or something in it.

Yeah, that's definitely one of I would say one of the biggest infrastructure issues I know of. The other one that I think kind of went under the radar cuz they quicked it real fixed it really quickly was uh I7 westbound towards the Ohio border buckled and [laughter] the look on your face suggest you did not know exactly. I'm like I feel like this really flew under the radar. Um the last thing I7 West needs is more badass. [laughter] It um part of it buckled. They got it fixed I think within like 48 hours and got the highway open again.

Um what but then I saw again like there were issues in in one of the lanes and I haven't uh checked to see what the latest is on it but yeah so I mean the state worked quickly but there there were definitely major interstate issues on top of what we're seeing in in Carmel with the Hazel Bridge. Wait, this is like I7 west here in Indie or out out towards the Ohio border? It was closer closer to Ohio. Oh yeah, parts of westbound I7. I believe it was Wayne County. Yeah.

Oh my. And I'll just say if you haven't driven that stretch recently, it is already it is already a tough stretch. They've been I feel like they're really putting some work in there. And I'm seeing this like image that is nuts. Yeah. Wow.

Oh, and then the southside levy breaks floods homes near Johnson Morgan County line. And this was like the next day. Uh a spokesperson with the Barkersville Fire Department said the levey is located near North Smoky Row Road and State Road 144 north of Waverly. And that broke Sunday night. So like you're watching this like hit all these different pockets like it's probably down somewhere in southern Indiana, right? Yeah.

With the White River. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's cuz it goes out towards like uh Gosh and Spencer like that area. Yeah. And so like I I it's not just stopping here in Indie which is is wild.

Um Yeah. It's crazy to kind of like see it like unfold over several days. And that's another thing I was going to bring up thinking about like the Hazel Parkway uh issue is now Caramel is really worried about the wastewater main and whether that's going to hold and if that doesn't like then we're going to have waste water flowing in the White River from Caramel. So that is another thing that uh which hopefully is fine when this comes out. Yes. So yeah, again this is recorded on the 19th and will go out later.

So, uh, hopefully we're putting some good karma into existence there. So, go go go Google that, check it out. Um, the other thing I want to talk about, you guys did do a piece with tips for residents that were facing, you know, these historic floods. What were some of the tips that you guys covered? I think there was nine that you put out in in the piece. Yeah.

Yeah. And so some of that was like from the beginning um you know if you need to get out of your house, things to do and then some of them were what to do when you get back in your house. And one of the ones about like going back to your house that I definitely would not have thought of is like to make loud noises because you don't know what animals might have gotten into your house while it was flooded. Um and to, you know, make sure you've turned off the electricity, make sure you unplug all the appliances. Um because if you're standing in flood water with electricity running through it, like electrocution is a real risk that you need to consider. Um making sure you're taking pictures of all the damage and documenting everything.

Um cuz hopefully you do have flood insurance [laughter] and you can be, you know, submitting that to your insurance company. Um, and if you don't have flood insurance and now this has you thinking maybe you should look into it, um, the um, federal government through FEMA has some resources for that that you can look into at least like the experts we talked to said at least get a quote and find out and like consider it if you um, you know, are worried about like being in a flood plane or being close to a flood plane. So, one thing about this show, we've had so many people come on and talk about how the people are what makes Indiana special. And this is one of those moments where I hope the people show up big. Yeah. Like you we really need our I don't know just our hooers to to come together and and support those that are going through this tough time.

And I've have seen we put out a video that had we tagged a bunch of organizations whether it's churches or river support groups. And there's just a ton of people that are trying to do something. So if you are an individual, which the state of Indiana has tons, if you're an individual that wants to do something, you're like, "Man, I should do something." Go there. Like go look around, find one of these organizations. I know that the Ravenswood area is is collecting volunteers.

So even if it's not like you're donating financially, you can donate your time. They're looking for volunteers to help clean up. Uh you can get involved and give your time. Obviously, there are organizations that are taking donations. Yeah. To help these displaced individuals or Yeah.

And and the don't have a short memory on this one. Like I think this is going to take a lot of work for a lot of these people to get to recover. So, these homes are not going to be repaired in a week or two weeks. And, you know, some places are collecting like cleaning supplies for people, you know, trying to get back in their house. Um, some people do just want donations. you know, um, one of the places that I saw that was really heavily damaged was the Yorktown Public Library, and they have like put out a call of like, please just like donate financially to us right now because they're not in a even in a position yet to take volunteers or to take book donations or or anything like that, but they're like, you know, when we are ready for that, we will let you know.

And so again to your point like that's something that they're going to need and two weeks, 3 weeks, a month, you know, so like definitely like keep paying attention to to what people need over the course of the next few weeks. And I would say keep one of the things that I it's an unfortunate thing to say, but I'm sure you guys are going to cover this soon. Tragedy brings just interesting characters out at times. And I'm sure like this is a big thing that happens with insurance or home repairs or different just like natural disasters can bring in bad actors and you never know when that's going to happen. So just watch out for each other. Yes.

Like I'm sure there will be content coming out if if those things start to arise. But I feel like this is something I always whether it's hail whether it's different storms that happen and natural disasters around the country. you hear about, I don't know, people that just are a little too opportunistic. And um that's just something that to keep on your radar. Be observant. Watch out for your neighbors.

Take care of each other. Yeah. Check things out if they seem too good to be true cuz they probably are or something just seems not right. Yeah. Okay. I'm I'm excited to transition into talking about some other big things from around the state.

One, uh I have a question. We have some notes put together for some of the big stories. the gas tax in Indianapolis or gas taxes around the state with funds for roads and like there was a huge thing in Indianapolis not too long ago where they overrode the mayor's veto and and there was a lot I think that had to do with wheel tax. That was the wheel tax, but it's different than the suspended gas tax. Correct. So, there's lots of different pieces at stake here.

Yes. Uh we're going to talk about the gas tax and what that means for Hoosiers. And maybe on a future episode, we'll dive into the wheel tax because I am still out there collecting my information on it. So, gas tax in the state of Indiana, gas tax is still suspended through September 6th, uh, right before Labor Day, uh, which is probably unfortunately when a lot of us will be traveling. So, heads up on that. Uh, maybe fill up on the 5th if you can.

Um, and but what we have found is so it's it's been suspended since about April at this point. And the uh the gas tax revenue that comes in to the state is sent out to cities and counties and and towns to help them repair, fix their roads, do new road projects, all of that, right? That's how that that funding mostly works. um to summarize it and the state has said, you know, we'll we'll reimburse cities and towns and counties for this money that they're not getting while the gas tax has been suspended. A few of those reimbursements have come through. They've been reimbursed for April, May, and most recently for June.

Uh but what happening is like that's still a delay, right? Like if a town thought they were going to get 10 million in April, well, they didn't get it until July, you know, and so that changes like how a community can consider what road projects to do or plan out for the rest of the year. Yeah. Exactly. Um and it's not like our local communities are flushed with extra cash. So, um it it is a a budgeting issue for them.

And so some places are continuing on with their road projects as planned. Other places have said, you know, like we're we're holding back and we're waiting because we need this money in hand. Um and you know, we also had heard too like this highway superintendent in Wayne County told us that receiving reimbursements into late fall, which right now like they would kind of be on track to do, would be a problem because road construction season pretty much winds down in September. And so if they're getting reimbursed after that, then they're not going to be able to pay for this year's projects. And so, you know, this was all happening before the storms, before roads started buckling under high water. And uh, you know, the governor so far has said, "We'll keep making everyone whole.

We'll keep providing the money. We have enough in our state surplus to to do that." Um, but I'm curious to see, you know, how we how that actually plays out over the next few months and and how communities are able to fix their roads. And this is interesting because this is probably I mean, specifically in Indianapolis, but I feel like in lots of places, people's number one complaint always is just about potholes, about roads, about potholes. And it's like, this is my uh quandry. If I could if I could give some commentary on this.

My thing is it's tough to both have your cake and eat it too on taxes and road projects. It's like well, you know, like if you follow dollars and cents there, it's like, well, we're paying this gas tax that goes to local municipalities to fund roads, but it's like if you don't have that, but then you're still like upset about like it's just tough to be I don't know complaining. It's tough to be upset on both sides of that. Yeah, exactly. Which is I mean, again, this is why I don't choose to go to politics because it's you never win anything. It's so hard.

But I feel like you're never going to make everybody happy. No. So, that's the thing, like you're making, you know, you and I happy when we go fill up our gas tanks. We paid a little less. That's great. But then we're going to go around and complain that our roads have potholes and need to be fixed.

This would be an interesting survey for you guys of how much either per gallon or per tank like how much would you spend extra per gallon to have better roads or like bless you know like how much like I would probably pay 50 cents a gallon if I knew that the roads were going to be pristine. Yeah. If I knew that my I think that's the problem. No one's going to trust that. No one's going to trust that the roads would be better. It's it's they're pretty pristine up in Hamilton County.

I will say like somehow it seems to work there. Even the Mon Even the Mon Trail is a little bit better up there. I had I had Mayor Frink on not too long ago. Uh the episode will be coming out soon and I was just like I don't know what you're doing and like I don't know how but you can clearly there's like such a defined line of where the Monon Trail changes hands. Um yeah, I don't know about the Monon Trail, but I will tell you with the roads, part of that is the state road funding formula in that they uh base it on miles of roads instead of the width. Like the width is not taken into account at all.

So like Indianapolis has wider roads. We have more lanes, right? Caramel has more like two-lane, four-lane roads versus six lane roads like Indie. And so so that's the thing. So like Indianapolis, they've they've made some tweaks over the years and the state is giving some more money to Indianapolis, which is where the wheel tax comes into play. Um but that that is for the most part the situation where like the six lane road in India is getting the same amount of funding as the two-lane road in other because it's on miles not surface area.

Yeah. Yeah. Like service area of 465 is huge. Like there so many lanes and and square miles of road. Wow. That's really interesting.

465 you can blame the state government. They would handle that. Oh, so that's not even Indianapolis. Correct. Oh, so we're [laughter] Okay. Can I confuse people even more?

But okay, even like Keystone is like two lanes in some places, three to four with two turn lanes off the side, which is bigger than a lot of places. That's interesting. Uh I know we didn't it's not on the list but I am curious because I'm just a curious individual of what we know about the wheel tax in the state in Indianapolis specifically. Uh this is a little bit off script so we if we're not totally prepared I understand but I'm curious because I saw from my perspective uh Mayor Hoget had said during his term he did not want to raise taxes for people. So he had vetoed uh a wheel tax. M then on the other side there was some like state funding being offered that we needed to get matching funds for so I believe it's 50 million for 5 years question mark I don't know about the years 50 million 50 million but you had to raise 50 million yes so you had to bring your own and the state would match that right well it's budgets are and that's to like fill that gap that I was just talking about with like the way they do the red road funding formula and so the mayor vetos it and then like in a bipartisan act of is it city county council?

Mhm. City county council. They override the veto and the wheel tax will be put into effect. Correct. Which is kind of I did great. You know, there we go.

I know things. I know things. I could be uh not a journalist, but I could provide some context. Um but thing was and I don't know if you know the number. It's kind of a significant increase from what uh this is all I get all my news. Not all my news, but I get a lot of news at my Wednesday morning run club.

It's a great place to be if you want to be informed of what's going on in Indianapolis. Um I I thought it was going from $20 to $100, but I could be totally off. Yeah, you're right. From $20 to $100. So like you're going to see which again this is the age-old question. If so for it it's 50 million and then a match we have to as Indianapolis citizens put up 50 million to get a whole whole pie of $100 million for roads for roads.

So that's the question. Are you willing to pay if every you pass the hat? Are you willing to pay $80 more a year and then hope that the city will and the state everyone keeps good on their words and will take uh good care of our roads? I mean, I think that was actually like the literal debate at city county council of like, is this worth it? is how what we should do and and how we should go about it and and the struggle that you know you saw counselors have um with whether or not it was the right decision to make especially as because you have that this is what would be so hard like kudos to all the people in local government cuz they're making again uh I think a lot of the decisions made in local government are so significant to every day like every day you get on a road every day you get on a sidewalk every day you're going into a building or like these are just like I don't know all forms of government really matter but when you think of like your daily commute and your daily life like some of these decisions are really big and on one side you have a huge thing going on with schools and property taxes and referendums.

So they're trying to balance that and what's going to happen and how that's going to shake out from the state to the local level and and like school referendums. On the other side, you have the wheel tax for roads because everybody like we're uh I mean it's kind of like a laughing stack of the the the United States and Indiana's roads and like the funniest ones I see are like you'll see truckers and it's like you could put a blindfold on me and I could tell you when I get into Indiana and it's like so it's so funny because I feel like people say that about whatever their home state is, right? Like I I'm from Michigan and I feel like people say that about Michigan too that our roads are terrible and they're always under construction and it's always such a mess. So that's fair. It's probably just like totally local bias. Like it's never good enough.

Like I think I said this that's why I'm like I feel like people would pay like the extra 50 80 whatever and then they'd still be unhappy with how the roads are. So uh I I said this and maybe in the last time we talked to you want to win a local office just like go all in like film your campaign marketing materials from an asphalt truck. like you'll win for sure. You're just like, I'm campaigning. Come join me. Come talk.

I'll literally fill these potholes. Um, okay. We're going to keep rolling through. Another interesting piece that we have seen is um homeowners insurance bills. You guys did uh you did coverage on this. Um talk to me about what we're seeing there and uh what do Indiana homeowners need to understand uh about insurance policies on their homes?

Yeah. So, interestingly enough, we did this uh before the storms hit or before we knew the storms were hitting. Um sometimes you're just like in the right place at the right time. Yeah. Um because the interesting thing I think that we found is you think about like homeowners insurance being really expensive for someone who lives in like a hurricane area or like somewhere on the coast, right? Like they're going to have like these crazy policies.

But what's actually causing um uh a lot of the claims from owners homeowners insurance is like these thunderstorms, hail storms, tornadoes, things like that that are so much more common widespread across the US than like a hurricane is for example, right? Cuz that's only hitting a couple parts of the the country. Um so that's part of it. Um more storms are happening in general. Um, an interesting stat from that is like, uh, the number of storms that caused more than a billion dollars in damage has increased from two in 20 uh, in 2004. So, two storms caused a billion dollars of damage in 2004.

That was 17 storms in 2024. That's a huge jump. Okay, so I have a few questions here. So two storms in 2004 that caused a bill that caused a billion dollars in damage. Is it due to more development that has created more things to break and things to be damaged slash prices of things. So like maybe you know if if now construction of a new build apartment is like if one gets ruined that's part of it.

That's definitely part of it that things do cost more now. Absolutely. Yeah. But I still think 2 to 17 is a huge jump. But I I do I like going back on Google Earth and looking at like things that have been built. And if you look at the last Do you do that in Hamilton County?

It's crazy. It is wild. We posted a few of those where it's like cuz one satellite imagery goes back into like I think the 80s or '9s. So you can see stuff. Well, one that's a cool one downtown. You can see uh before Victory Field was built, 1996.

So you can see there's a gravel parking lot with like a little hotel off the side. And then you see that get turned into a baseball diamond and then a JW Marriott go up across the street. Mhm. Pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah.

Um, super interesting though. Uh, so talking about premiums, talking about Yeah. the freak weather that happens, it does seem like from tornadoes to floods, like I don't know what's going on, but we need to get on the right side of mother nature. Uh the hail is also a big issue and that's um I think another thing worth pointing out with like coverage of replacing your roof. And so homeowners insurance policies have changed a little bit over the years and that like it used to just like automatically be covered whatever it cost to replace your roof like that's there. um those rules have been loosened a little bit in that um you should be paying attention kind of to the fine print and whatever your policy is to make sure that that's the case because they could also offer an option that um would offer you the actual cash value that something is considered to be worth.

And so like the English version of that is it's going to be less than what it costs to replace your roof. So, your premium, like what you're, you know, paying every month, every six months, every year, however often you you pay for your home owners insurance. Uh, yeah, same. Um, that would be it's like girl math or like boy math. It's like it's not real. It's not real money.

I don't Which but it is, which is so funny, but it's like, oh, it doesn't actually come out of my physical bank account. I pay for it like in roundabout ways. So, yeah. I'm like, I have no idea. You could tell me that my premium was like $1,000 a year or $10,000 a year. I would literally not know.

Well, that's bad. It's going to be more if you have a policy that will cover the actual the full cost to replace your roof. It's going to be a little less if you have one of these other policies that I said like is not going to cover the full cost to replace it. So, just, you know, a little like fine print thing uh that people should be looking out for. which like it seems good like going with the cheapest route seems good until it doesn't until life hits and you're going to be happy that you like again that's like I don't know costbenefit analysis right like that's some math stuff that's way over my head but like there's always trade-offs uh I do want to keep moving down there's an interesting story that you guys did that has to do with rural homelessness okay so one I think that this is an interesting piece that when you would talk if you were just to put out a survey or talk to people about like where do you feel like there are uh large pockets of Hoosiers experiencing homelessness a large part would say around urban areas.

Yeah. Uh like you know whether it's in downtown Indianapolis or you know different different neighborhoods and places like where is homelessness at in the state of Indiana. I would say people would think major metros, but you all did a story on more rural homelessness across the state of Indiana. Talk to me about what does rural homelessness in Indiana actually look like. Yeah. Um, so I think you're right that most people think it's, you know, I would guess a lot of people think it's centered around Indianapolis, too, where the homelessness problem is, but it's happening all around the state.

And so we have a couple stories. one um specifically about a camp um kind of outside of Bloomington. It's county-owned property um and and that's a bunch of tents in a wooded area. People have been there for a while. They've kind of set up home there. We also uh did a story about Clark and Lloyd counties and uh a camp there that's off of exit zero.

Right as you're kind of um coming into Indiana off I65 and um again it's it's tense. It's people who have been there for a while. They have belongings there. And part of the problem is that there's just not shelters and and places for some of these people to go. Um, and and the reason we kind of started looking into this was because of a new state law that went into effect July 1st that makes uh sleeping outside on public property a crime. Yes.

And and so this example in the Bloomington area, right, it's county owned property. Um, but you know, as of the beginning of August, they were kind of leaving them alone, letting it be. And then there was uh reports of gunfire in the area. And now the county has kind of given them notice that they need to get out. I believe it's by the beginning of September. And then in the Clark and Floyd County example, uh, INDOT has actually come in and is trying to to move them out of there.

Uh, and they're working with at least one group in the area to try to find people a different place to go. Um, but that's the thing. I mean, it's just like if if people aren't there, like they just shift kind of somewhere else. Like there was a there was a couple in Bloomington that a reporter talked to that said like, "Well, if we get kicked out here, we'll just we'll go further into the woods." Um, you know, so it doesn't doesn't remove the problem. It just [clears throat] shifts where it is.

That's interesting. So So in the story, in the research, like what are the options? Like what resources are available or like what put ourselves there? It's like, okay, you've you've obviously struck a whatever decisions or whatever happened like unfortunate circumstances or owned circumstance, whatever you did or whatever happened has got people to a point where they're living in county owned land in Monroe County. Mhm. And now it's like, okay, you have till the beginning of September to move.

What are the options there? Let's say you don't have family or like friends or anything like that to take you in. Like where do you go? I think it's it's like that couple said like farther into the woods. I mean, they don't have like and Bloomington is really set up in like they have way more resources for the unhoused community than a lot of our other surrounding areas. So, like Bloomington actually sees uh surrounding counties uh unhoused people will will come to Bloomington cuz they're like, "Well, I might be able to get some sort of services there, some sort of help there."

But like Clark and Floyd counties, for example, there is no like permanent shelter. So, there's a a winter shelter that's open, obviously only in the winter for people. Um, they're trying to get funding. There's a couple orgs that are like trying to get funding, trying to get a plan together to have like a permanent shelter. Um, kind of like a transitional housing for the the individuals in that area, but it one of I mean, fundraising aside, obviously is is always a challenge. And then the other thing um that I think you see happen a lot of places um but that we definitely heard in Clark and Floyd counties is this kind of like fingerpointing of where to put the shelter and no community really wants it, you know, like well this city would love it if we put it over here and vice versa.

Um and and so that's a problem too is like finding the land and finding the space for a shelter. Man, that's that's uh just like challenging problems that that who's your neighbors are facing. Yeah. And um I did wonder what the rep I don't want to say repercussions but like the uh what was going to happen after that cuz I think it was July 1 that the uh public camp I think they called it like camping or something like I don't remember what there was like a name for that uh the new law that went into effect about uh public ground overnight camping. Yeah. It makes camping living sleeping on a public property a misdemeanor.

And I think to to answer the the question, it's um it can result in arrest. It can result in 60 days in jail or um possibly a $500 fine. But then there was something I thought I read too about like they aren't taking people that are uh unhoused to jail. They're taking them to like emergency rooms. Like I think I talked to somebody, again, go fact check, do your do your own due diligence. I think I talked to someone that was like Methodists [clears throat] is just getting like a ton of the unhoused community is just getting dropped off there cuz they're like well we it's not punishable by going straight to jail 60 I don't know it's like well if you were unhoused and you had 60 days in jail like what it if it was winter that might be a better option like these are all things to think about with your who's your neighbors that I don't know I think it's hard yeah it is it is hard and that's you know uh again in the the Clark and Floyd counties, they came up with this plan in 2015 to end homelessness.

And now here we are in 2026 and it it didn't come to fruition. And like that is so common. Yeah. I feel like that is something. We had an episode with the leadership from Wheeler Mission. And there's so many complex layers that go into homelessness in the unhoused community that like can be tragic devastation on one side where I mean a historic 100red-year flood comes through and you don't have flood insurance and your house is you know condemned.

Yeah. And it's like you know and you don't have a nest egg of savings to fall back on and maybe you don't have any friends or family nearby. Yeah. like that that would put you in a tough spot. All the way to like um oh my gosh, we had this episode was I think I cried or like wanted to cry. It was so um just pulled on the heartstrings a bunch cuz a lot of it's just like also decisions and like the majority of people just have all these other underlying conditions and then and like challenges and adversity that they face and then the outcome ends up is like unfortunately you know homelessness and unbe house.

So yeah, again, I think that the name of the game on this episode is just look out for your neighbors, be kind and compassionate, like help what you can. Um, sticking in the vein of rural Indiana, there's a big play to help make rural communities safer for pedestrians, safer for walking and biking and doing all these things. talk to us about what you guys uncovered about how uh rural Indiana is uh thinking about accessibility and walkability. Yeah, I I love this story so much um because I think it's an example of like how you think something should be so small and so easy to do and then it ends up not being easy to do at all. Like you should you would think that like adding a block of sidewalk in a town like that shouldn't cost that much. that should be relatively easy for a town to be able to do.

Turns out no, it's actually really hard. And so, uh, we talked to people in a couple different towns. Uh, they're working with IU and in a program there that helps them apply for federal grants. And these federal grants are are great. They kind of help them do these like feasibility studies, but then they often times the towns have to get matching funds to then be able to actually like do the sidewalk construction and often times like that involves um you might have to move a utility pole for example or you might have to buy more property to put in the sidewalk. And so it's not as easy as that.

Um our reporter went to Holland which is a rural town about 20 minutes from Jasper. uh the the Holland Dutchman. RIP to that the high school mascot back in the day. People like to walk there. They like to walk into town and the sidewalks. Um our our reporter kind of did a video like trying to like walk through and show everybody and you'll see like some of them were brick sidewalks that have that are crumbled or grasses coming through them.

I mean, the the takeaway is really like if you I mean, walking on the sidewalk for safety is one thing, but then also like if you wanted to push a stroller, if you were in a wheelchair, if you you know, anything like that, you're not going to be able to use these sidewalks. Um, so Holland was one of the communities that had applied for a grant, got a grant to do this feasibility study. And I mean, they're they're hopeful and optimistic that they'll be able to move forward and and actually um repair some of the sidewalks, but what they had told us was it would cost close to $80,000 in local money to even do a small portion of the streets in downtown Holland. And by comparison, the town spends about $130,000 a year for all of its road work. So that's like again like it's something that seems like so easy and small, but it actually for that small town um is really expensive. And so they decided not to apply for federal funding again this year because they know they don't have the match quite yet.

So maybe next year um we'll see. And for for uh Gage, I think it's a town of 600 people. Mhm. So you think about like, oh, like philanthropy or what? It's like that's still a hefty sum from taxes or a philanthropy base to raise enough money for accessibility. And I do see the picture of the brick sidewalks like that.

There's literally like weeds and grass growing up through the middle of it. Yeah. Yeah. And then in another one utility pole like right in the middle of it. Explain this to me cuz I feel like Okay, this is Duboce County. These are builders and doers.

How can we not just get a group of people together on a Saturday morning and pour some concrete? Who's gonna pay for the concrete? Like I I I don't know. Like it can't be like that's where I'm a little bit wondering of like $80,000 on one. It's like come on. Like you know you get a few cubic yards of concrete and you go out there on Saturday and you you know grill up some pork tenderloins.

What if it's not property that the town owns yet? What if it's not in the rightway? What if they have to move a utility pole? You know, it's that's exactly my point. Like that's why we have you here. Yes, absolutely.

You think it'd be so easy and it's it's just not. The uh the final story I want to talk about today is one in a place that is near and dear to my heart. Uh I am an avid Indianapolis 500 uh race fan. I went for my first time in 2017 and I was blown away. I thought it was just like one of the coolest environments, one of the greatest places. And the interesting piece that nobody thinks about or or I guess a few people think about but not the majority of us is what happens when 350,000 plus people go to the bathroom at the Indy500 and what happens to the local facilities.

Yeah, I this is something I also never would have thought of. Uh Enrique, one of the Mirror Indie reporters, has done a great job covering this. I think it's such a unique uh Indy500 angle to take. [laughter] Yeah, man. Um sometimes you want the shitty stories. [laughter] It's so great though.

And so, you know, before the 500, he had already kind of reported on this. And so now afterwards this year, we find out that once again uh Speedways uh wastewater treatment plant uh had difficulty dealing with the chemical content of everyone peeing while they are at the Indy500. All those all those beers had to go somewhere. And um and it's again it's the chemical content of it. It's not that they can't handle the amount of liquid they're receiving. It's like the chemicals inside of it.

you are only discharge so much of that state and agree to that. And so for the fifth year in a row, the Speedway wastewater treatment plant has exceeded the amount of pollutants that they were allowed to discharge into the White River. And now they're kind of on this um new plan to try to fix that. Speedways agreed to undertake a $14 million expansion and modernize its wastewater treatment plant to hopefully help with this. That's supposed to be completed by June 2028. Uh and then they also had to pay a $16,500 civil penalty for exceeding the chemical $1,500 penalty.

Like what an odd because too many people went to the bathroom at the Indy500 because we uh cuz it wasn't hot. This is interesting. Interesting [laughter] take. It was It was not a really warm one. So, I wonder if when the temperature rises, people sweat more. They pee less.

That could save the wastewater treatment penalties that the town of Speedway has to pay. I mean, maybe it's been 5 years. You think it hasn't been warm at the Indy500 in 5 years? It can't be right. There's been hot years. I mean, one of the hottest years was right before co I feel like tw I went 2017, 2018.

I think it was 2018 or 19 was like a million degrees. Yeah. But like two years ago I had to have a sweatshirt. Wow. But I mean I I do think it keeps growing in popularity, but this is definitely a story that like sold out again. So that's part of it.

Yeah. Not [clears throat] a lot of people think about what happens when you have 350,000 plus individuals just absolutely having a great time, right? In a town that's not used to that. I mean, they're used to it obviously for the 500, but like that's not what their town is on a day-to-day basis. That's a wild one. Um, so crazy.

Well, uh, this has been super fun. Uh, so glad to have you on. We have you coming back on maybe in a month or so to, uh, to chat and catch people up about what's going on with the who's your headlines. As we wrap out, is there anything else? If you just thought of quick rapid fire hits, are there things that people need to know about when it comes to the state of Indiana? And if they want to learn about you or they want to learn more about what Free Press Indiana News is doing, how can they find and how can they learn more?

Yeah, I would just tell people to go to fpin newsws. org, follow all our work there. You can sign up for our weekly newsletter. Comes out Saturday mornings. It's packed with great content um from our team, from media partners across the state. Really has everything like you need to know to be an informed hooer.

Yeah, I love it. Well, thanks for coming on and sharing and we will talk to you soon. Sounds good. Thanks. Wow, tons of news from across the state, honestly. Uh let us know what you think about those interviews with Lindsay.

We're gonna have her on another time in September. We're talking all things current events. I'm loving unpacking those stories, getting to dive into it. Obviously, if you know me, you know I love all things Indiana, and it's it's always great to get more caught up on current events, what's going on in our communities. Now, we have a very special interview with M's Coupine Clips. Let's get into it.

Quick pause [music] in the action. You've probably seen burn workware around Indiana for years. Now, they've made it even better for businesses. Burn Pro Gear lets you customize that same durable Burn gear with your company logo. If you've got a construction crew, landscaping business, volunteer team, or just want your employees looking sharp, they've made the process incredibly easy. What I like is there are no minimum orders, no setup [music] fees, and the pricing is actually reasonable.

They print everything with industrial-grade technology that's built to hold up on the job without cracking or fading. If you're like me, you appreciate companies that make good products and keep things simple. Burn has been doing just that in northeast Indiana for more than a century and Burn Pro Gear is a great extension of that. Check out Burn Pro Gear today and outfit your crew with custom workware that's built tough and represents your business. Well, we have a set of it for the crew and we absolutely love it. Go check out Burn Pro Gear.

Now, let's get back [music] into the episode. Now, we've come to the part of the show where I get to sit down with Emily Norwich, and she is a digital content creator known for running the social media brand M's Coupon Clips, where she shares savings tips, coupon strategies, and deal finding content across platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok. Her content focuses on helping everyday shoppers save money through accessible short form videos and curated deals at places like Walmart, Target, Kroger, and CVS. I'm really excited to dive into this to learn how does one become an extreme cube bonner and what are ways that hooers listening to the show can save some money like what are the the weekly habits that we need to instill to help ourselves become a little bit more savvy of a shopper. So Emily, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited to be here. Okay. I'm I'm just guessing this journey had to have started as you know a young person watching Extreme Coupers. Oh yes. Or whatever that show is called. Yep.

Extreme Couponing, I think, on TLC. I was obsessed with that show. I was like, "Someday I will be like them." Well, isn't it crazy? I feel like they used to go in there and they would like buy $500 worth of stuff and and make money and get paid. Uhhuh.

Like, how does that even work? Yeah. So, unfortunately, that type of scenario doesn't really happen anymore. So, back in the day, they used to allow it's called coupon overage. So, let's say you have a $2 coupon for some toilet paper, but the toilet paper's on sale for a dollar. that week, they would get hundreds of the $2 coupon.

How would they get them? Most of them had a connection with a newspaper. So, they would get the coupon inserts from the newspaper. Cuz back in the day, there wasn't a lot of digital coupons. So, they would be like, "Oh, my husband runs a newspaper, so I get all of these inserts." They'd have their kids and their neighbors helping them clip all the coupons.

So they'd come in with a huge stack and if the toilet paper was a dollar and they had a $2 coupon, every toilet paper they got, they would get a dollar towards something else in their order. So they would do, you know, 500 toilet papers. That would mean $500 they could spend on other items. So you like build up credit essentially. Yes. Wow.

Yes. So unfortunately coupon overage has pretty much gone away at most stores. So they needed Oh my gosh. So they needed a coupon or a hookup a newspaper hookup. Yes. Yeah.

So that's like all the people from Extreme Keeping most of them. Other ones when it started to get digital in later seasons, you'd see them with like 50 computers because they would limit how many of one coupon you could print per IP address. So you could print two coupons. So they would get 50 computers so they could print 100. Wow. Now they've even updated that to where it's connected to your phone number.

So again, you can't, you know, you could have all the computers in the world, but unless you have a million phone numbers and and paper coupons are are more a way of the past as well. So we're moving more into the digital age. So couponing looks a lot different than it did in the show. Do you think that there was like a board meeting with like Kroger and they were like, we have to stop the couponers. 100%. 100%.

And honestly, I think they still have some of those meetings less so about how do we stop the couponers, but instead how do we stop coupon fraud. So, unfortunately, that has grown and they're doing a lot of changes in systems to make sure that couponing is more legitimate. I don't know if you saw the movie Queen Pins. It's a great movie. I believe it's on Netflix, but um it's about a woman that used to be an Olympic speed walker and she was at home one day and had a bad box of cereal and she wrote into them like this cereal, you know, something was messed up about it and they sent her a coupon for a free box and she somehow turned it into this mass scale printing of fake coupons for free items. She was selling them online, made millions of dollars, and they finally caught her.

This is a true story. So this was I want to say maybe 10 15 years ago. Wow. Um but since then again the landscape has changed a lot on what what you can get away with I guess. Yeah. Well I I wouldn't trust someone who is a professional speed walker anyway.

It's like either walk or run. Like you're already you're already in the middle there. So, uh, well, I want to know, okay, you watch this show, but it's one thing to like see about it and like, you know, fantasize, and it's another thing to like get off the couch and do it, and it's another thing to start posting about it to help other people. It's been quite the journey. Where did your journey of couponing before even creating content? Where did your journey of couponing start?

Yeah, so actually I have a long couponing journey before making content. I started making content in late 2022, so it's pretty pretty recent. Um, but I started couponing in 2008, so it's almost been 20 years. No way. Which is crazy. Yeah.

I What was the first really good deal you got? Oh my gosh. I look back cuz I would post it on like my personal Instagram or just send it to my friends and family and it's like the CVS receipt that's like taller than me was such a badge of honor. Um, but back in 2008, my grandmother, shout out to Nana, um, she would send me some blogs. I was in graduate school and I had a lot of time on my hands. So, um, I went to school for counseling.

I'm a mental health therapist by day. Um, but do couponing at night. So, coupon content creator by vigilante coupon. Yes, exactly. Um, so she sent me these blogs. Blogging was kind of the way of getting this information out back in that time.

And I was like, "Wow, these people went to the grocery store and got these items for like 80% off. I'm a broke grad student, so I need to try this. You know, I got hours in the day to kill, so let's go try this out." And so I had my little laptop and little printer in my room, would print off my coupons, go try it out. A lot of stuff too back then, not as much now, but they would give free samples. Like they'd release, hey, at noon, Kroger's releasing this certain sample or Walmart has this sampler box that you can sign up for.

So I started getting all these samples in the mail and I'd get little bins and I started filling them and I'd make gifts for my family for Christmas with like all the little samples and stuff. So, um it it started small, but that's kind of like the model of Birchbox and like things like that where they were getting the sample sizes of all of these um places and companies and brands and then selling them on to people who wanted to like you know ex that wanted to be uh adventurous and explore new whether it be like facial creams or personal items and oh here's a new shampoo and that kind of stuff travel size toothpaste like stuff like that. Wow. Okay. So, you were in grad school and you started to get like some different samples and different things you could sign up for and then like is it just a slippery slope where all of a sudden you found yourself like down a rabbit hole of like trying to get free men's deodorant even though you don't need it?

Yes. Yeah. That's when I started getting more into like the YouTube couponing. That was kind of the next stage. So, I would look at the blogs and I'd update them and be like, "There's not a new deal today, so what am I going to do?" So, I started branching out to see who else is posting about this.

That's when I started to learn. and they call it the drugstore game. So the drugstore game is it used to be write aid. They've since closed and we don't have those locally, but CVS and Walgreens where they would have certain deals each week and they had reward systems like at CVS it's called extra care bucks where you can purchase items and earn back extra care bucks that's like a CVS gift card that you can then use on future purchases. But the cool thing is you can roll them. So let's say I buy some deodorant for $5.

I have a coupon that takes $3 off. So, I pay $2, but when you buy that deodorant, you're also going to get a $3 extra buck. I now have $3 in CVS money to spend on my next item, and you can earn rewards on that one. So, each week I can essentially take the gift cards I've earned as extra care bucks and purchase new items. So, you can keep rolling them. It's an initial financial investment, but after that, you pretty much can keep paying with the reward money.

Okay. So, if we're thinking that in in terms of the if you were to buy 10 deodorants, okay, you buy those first 10 deodorants for they're listed at $5. So, that would be 50 bucks. Yep. But they're on sale for three. So, then you have to pay 30 bucks, correct?

So, you put 30 bucks in, but every time you buy the deal of the week, you get 30 bucks back, right? And then you have 30 bucks to just keep playing. And then next week, I go, "Okay, I have $30 in extra care bucks. What can I purchase with that to earn more back?" You just keep rolling them week after week. Wow.

And then it's like your initial investment just buys you some sort of group of items every single week. Right. Right. Wow. So like give me that like in recent context. Like does that still work today?

Oh yeah. So like what was what was like two weeks ago to last week to like for example th this past weekend I had my sister-in-law and her family in town and we recently moved to a new home so we're trying to like get everything settled and I was like oh my gosh we have no toiletries for the guests that are coming. So I was like, uh, we need like shampoo and conditioner and some body wash for them. So I pulled up CVS and I was like, "Okay, Pantene this week has a deal that and I know I have extra care bucks to spend. If I get two Pantines, I can use a $5 coupon and I'm going to get some extra care bucks back." So it ended up being like a dollar for me to get the Pantene stuff I needed for our guests to come.

So it's it's great for personal use. I've done it on a larger scale now since I like teaching people. And so I've got a little stockpile at home and I mean that's for my own family, my extended family, friends, and I do stockpile garage sales. So I'll do a really deep discount on the items so people can benefit from not, you know, if you don't have time to coupon, that's cool. I have stuff at a discount for you that you can save anyways. So Wow.

Okay. Wait. So, but what has there been one in recent memory where you like had your extra care bucks and you ended up netting even where you got like where your Oh, sometimes I'll earn where it's like, okay, I spent a dollar but I got $5 back. So, we call those money makers. The money makers. Wow.

Okay. So, the coupon or the sorry, the uh drugstore game, you're playing that. Yep. And this is like, you know, is this taking you through like where what gets you to 2022 when you decide to start posting? Yeah. So this it's kind of ebbed and flowed with life.

When I was in graduate school, it's like I need cheap food and I need shampoo to survive. So I kind of get my own supply. Um as I got older, as I'm living on my own, I focus more on groceries cuz I'm like, "Okay, now I need to actually like make real food for myself and can't live on ramen." So um I focused more Kroger is amazing. Like is Kroger like the best one? My jam.

Okay. Tell us how we can save money when shopping at Kroger. Yes. So level one beginner is looking at the Kroger weekly ad. So they have the paper version in the store, but in the app as well, you can pull it up. And on that first page is going to be what they call loss leaders.

So a loss leader is an item that Kroger maybe even loses money on, but because you want to go get that one item. Let's say, oh, grapes are a dollar this week. Everywhere else they're $3. I'm going to go to Kroger to get those grapes. Well, now they've earned your business for the rest of your grocery cart. So maybe they lose a little money on the grapes, but if you're buying all your groceries, you just spend a hundred bucks there instead of going somewhere else.

You got got with the grapes. Yes. Yes. You come in, you save 99 cents on grapes, but then you buy But you spend 100 bucks, right? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. The loss leaders. Yes. So watching for the loss leaders, especially the nice thing about couponing is you can put as much effort and time into it as you'd like. So I love it as a hobby. So I could do it all day long.

Whereas, you know, busy moms, busy parents, people working that they're like, "I have 30 minutes this week to deal with this." Check out the front of your ad and grab the things that are cheaper than normal and kind of stock up. Do you like have a spreadsheet or something where you track the typical price of grapes, for instance? I don't. There are some other creators that definitely do so that it's out there for you to look up. I think I've just decided what a good price is for me at that moment of, okay, grapes this week are five bucks.

I don't want them that bad. whereas somebody else might be like, I love grapes. I'm going to pay $6 for grapes. So, it's more based on what what fits you and what you need and is it a good deal for you at that moment. So, okay. So, level one is you're looking at the loss leaders.

Level one is look at the loss leaders and also look at the weekly digital deals. So, that's a specific like if you go into the coupon section in the app, always get the store apps cuz that's where all the savings are. So, you'll go into the coupon section and then there's a specific tab, weekly digital deals, and there's normally about 10 to 20 items that again are deeply discounted that they're wanting to get you in the store with and that's when I stock up on those. And a lot of times they're like shelf stable stuff. So, it's like, okay, cheese crackers, if your kids love those, you know, normally they're $3 a box, but it's $1. 50 with the weekly digital deal and maybe that comes up once every two months.

So you can grab up to five of that item at that price point with when you clip that coupon. So I focus on what are the weekly digital deals. Grab those. And the nice thing is you can do them for pickup. So it's literally you can go on your phone and do it while you're at work if you have 5 minutes. Clip the coupons, put in your order.

It's free to do a pickup order if it's over $35. So it's quick and easy. If you're getting your normal groceries, do you then does it discount does it discount the savings that you're getting? Like, do you have to be like disciplined and like, "Hey, I'm just gonna get the weekly digital deals. I'm just gonna get the loss leaders." Again, it kind of depends on what you're going for.

Me personally, I in my own head, I'm like, "Okay, this is just a grocery trip of like, I need these things cuz I saw a recipe and it's what I want to eat this week, so maybe it won't be that discounted. I might save 10 or 20%." Well, you go to different stores to get groceries. Like let's say let's say you're like okay I'm you know Kroger has the grape deal so I we want grapes so like I'm going to go in and pick has the corn deal. So you'll go to different stores. Yeah.

Again it depends on the week. Like sometimes I'm like if you had a limited time if it was just like the but it just brings me joy. I'm like oh yeah let's check out the new or let's look for clearance items. Meyer has great clearance items. Um like I found a bunch of toys 75% off like name brandand toys the other day at the Westfield Meyer. I was like these are great.

Do you find yourself do you find yourself buying stuff you don't need? I try not to. And and that's a huge tip with this savings strategy is even if something is if it's free, just get it. But if it costs money, if it's not something you or your family needs, don't get it. Even if it's a dollar, it's like it's still a dollar on something you don't need. I try and look at it as if it's not something I'm going to use, can I give it to family or can I donate it?

I like to donate like to women's shelters and stuff. So, um, most of the time I can find someone or like dog food. I don't have a dog, but my family works at the animal shelter. So, it's like, you know, there's a way usually that I can find someone to use the stuff. It's like, okay. It's like, okay, your $20 dog foods on sale for five, you get four of those.

You spend 20 bucks and but you make a huge impact at the animal shelter. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So, level one is the loss leaders. Level one is just looking for the loss leaders on your weekly and this works at any store.

Um, looking at the loss leaders, Kroger specific is the weekly digital deals, but most grocery stores are going to have some kind of weekly ad. Um, the only caveat to that is Walmart. They don't do weekly deals. Their whole thing is like we're always low prices. So, that's their that's their jam. So, you can't coupon at Walmart.

You can. It's tougher. I say if you don't have a lot of time, Walmart is the place to shop if you don't want to deal with really anything. They're going to have kind of the lowest prices without putting in a lot of effort. Um, if you're willing to clip some digital coupons, Kroger's where it's at. Walmart is a more advanced couponing because they you can do a lot with rebate apps.

So, yes. So, that's higher up in the levels. So, level one is just kind of planning out what are the loss leaders and what are the few coupons I can clip. Level two is being more intentional with the coupons you're actually clipping because you can stack coupons. So, I I recommend again if you don't have a ton of time to dig into this and you don't want it as your hobby, find a creator for the store that you shop. So, like you said, I do Kroger and CVS as my main two, but also do Target and Walmart, sometimes Meyer, but even people that live in different regions, like there's someone making content about your grocery store.

Yeah. Um, so being able to look and see when I pull up an items, like in the Kroger app, when you pull up a specific item, if you scroll down, it's going to show all of the coupons that attach to that item. Sometimes there's five, six coupons for one item. The key is knowing which coupons are going to stack together because there's two types of coupons, a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. So a store coupon means the store itself is giving you the discount. So at Kroger, a store coupon means Kroger said, "Hey, we want to give you a dollar off cereal."

A manufacturer coupon means General Mills wants to give you a dollar off cereal. So, when you look in the Kroger app, if you look at the coupon details, this is getting detailed. I have videos about this if you want to look this up for more details, but if you click on the coupon details, if it gives you information about where to send the coupon, like it'll say send to 87 North Street in Alabama, that means it's a manufacturer coupon. And that instruction, that address is telling Kroger where to send their um request for money back. Because if General Mills is giving out the coupon, they're going to pay Kroger when you redeem that coupon. If you go into the coupon and it doesn't have any address saying where to redeem it, that means that Kroger itself is creating that coupon.

The store and the manufacturer coupon can stack on top of each other. So, for example, a few weeks ago, I found a a Tide Pods that was on clearance for 10 bucks, but there was a $4 Kroger coupon and a $4 manufacturer coupon. So, I paid like two bucks for this big thing of Tide Pods because it was a store and a manufacturer that are going to stack together. Wow. That's the arbitrage you got to find. And if you have some like extra care points or whatever there, [clears throat] then you can start to really totally Yes.

Okay. So, it's looking through is there a way to easily find the manufacturer coupons? So, in the app, if you go to coupon, unfortunately, you can't sort them by store and manufacturer. Um, but like I said, a a creator normally is going to be who take like on Wednesday mornings I wake up and I'm like, "Let me look at all the coupons and see what's going to stack because that's fun for me." If you don't have time to do that, check out my page and I'm going to show you these are the six things this week that are stacking with coupons. Here's what to clip.

So, like this week, for example, by the time people see this, this will be no longer, but you can do this. Um, they had Crest toothpaste. They had a digital coupon that made it $1. 99 for the week, but there was also a $4 off two manufacturer coupon. So, I got two toothpaste for free for pickup at Kroger this week. So, because you have to hit $35 if you want to do it as a pickup order.

So, if you're getting other stuff, which I did. I was like, I'm getting my other groceries. Might as well add this on. Sometimes I'll even click clip some coupons, put something in my cart, and then wait until I figure out in a day or two what I need for the week. How long do you have? You have a week.

It comes out Wednesday. Yep. So, it's Wednesday to Tuesday. Wow. Yes. Two toothpaste for free.

Yeah. So, I was like, why not? That's great. Okay. What are some of the other like ways in which you like outside of Kroger? So their app is really really good.

What are the other ways that people can save money? Uh and the way like you know as you can think through the levels like we have level one, we have level two, what are the other levels of couponing? Yes. So level three, the the most timeintensive level is pairing all the things I've talked about with rebate apps. So there are apps that are outside of the store apps. You know, you have your Kroger, Myer, Walmart apps, but there's also apps like Ibata, Isisle.

I have a whole list of them um on my page that it's like the Upside app, right? Yes. Yep. Upside's another one I love. Um where you're able to get cash back for items that you How does that work? So, Upside, some people are a little iffy about it.

I've had no problem with it, but you put in um part of your credit card information, like the last couple digits, and then it's able to see when you make a purchase at a location. and their primary thing for upside is gas, but they're adding restaurants and grocery stores where you can get a percentage back. And so essentially, I pull up at a gas station that is connected with Upside. I go in the app and say, "Hey, I'm getting gas." And it'll tell me, "Oh, if you get um you know, the the lowest level, you're going to get 10 cents back a gallon." So, I say, "Yep, I'm here."

And fill up my tank. And then it's able to read that I've made a purchase. And within like 48 hours, it credits my account. So, it's like, "Hey, you just made $2. 30 30 cents getting gas at whatever location. And that is because like I'm thinking of the business model.

They work out deals with the gas. Yes. Cuz it's only certain gas stations. So to like aggregate like hey we can send people your way like people will change their consumer habits because they are upset you. Yes. Yep.

Yep. And they really push um convenience store items. So it'll be like 20% back if you go into the gas station. So gas might be 35. 7 cents a gallon, but inside you can get 20% back on what you're purchasing. So if you're like buying candy and energy drinks and stuff, upside is definitely something you want to check out cuz you can get 10 20% back on your purchases.

Now, do they do the same thing with Ibata? Like is that like a similar thing? Ibata is actually item specific. So it's another kind of marketing thing. It's often new items where oh hey Fredo just came out with this new chip flavor and so on Ibata they're going to have 50 cents back if you try this new chip flavor. The nice thing is though Kroger also wants you to buy the new chip flavor.

So Kroger might have a coupon for it and Ibata will have a rebate for it. So you can pair those together and that's where that kind of level three in-depth comes into play where we're clipping the coupons, we're submitting for the rebates, all of those pieces where it might take some more time, but it means I get the chips for 30 instead of, you know, it's normally $3. Wow. Are there any times where it all comes together and you get a manufacturer coupon, you get a retailer coupon, and you get an Ibata disc rebate? Yes. Yes.

And those are the best. I'd say normally maybe one one to two items a week that you can stack all of those things together. How many items do you see in a month that are free? 10 to 15 10 to 15 items that you can get for free. Uhhuh. Yeah.

Across all the stores. So mostly Kroger and CVS. What's the best thing you've ever gotten for free? When I'm able to do a big haul that I get a high percentage off. So, like I literally just got a whole cart of groceries that was normally 120 bucks, but I got it for $30. And so, it's like it it you know, one free thing is cool, but it's kind of lost a little bit of the joy for me.

Now, it's like I can provide for my whole family with $20. And like how is that just based on what they offer for the deals for the week where it's like, oh, it's like meat, cheese, bread, like the things that we need each week. Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's a a I won't say complaint, but that's the word that's coming to mind. that that's something that some people are kind of like, eh, I don't like couponing that much because most coupons are for like processed food or shelf stable food, which I would say is true.

A lot of times, you know, you're not going to see a coupon in the newspaper for ground beef, like it's going to be for this new product they just came out with that's shelf stable. But um the stores themselves often times will do deals or like for example Kroger gave me a bonus coupon that this week that was spend $100 for 3 weeks in a row and you'll get a $20 Kroger credit just on your account. So it's like well if you only want to buy produce and meat, yeah, maybe there's not a ton of coupons for that, but if you're spending the money anyways somewhere, might as well spend it at Kroger and then you get that credit. So, there are ways to kind of work around if there's not certain products that you want or if you have allergies and can't eat a lot of foods or whatever that there are still options to save money. I will say one other cool thing um that is something recently I started doing is if you need meal ideas, taking a picture of your fridge and pantry and putting into chat GPT, here's my current fridge and pantry.

Give me meal ideas. you know, either tell me other things I need to add that I need to pick up at the store to have meal ideas or I'm not going to the store. This is all I have. What can I eat? That's another great way to kind of stretch your budget of, you know, it it feels like we have no food, but we probably have classic I'm hungry. There's nothing to eat, right?

It's like, well, you have a full fridge, but yeah. So, that's that's a cool thing to do, too, that I've started doing. That's again a free thing to do. I want to know what got you into creating content about this. Yes. Yes.

So, I have loved couponing forever. It's been such a joy for me. I So, I originally I went to Purdue for undergrad and I originally went there for chemistry, which is funny cuz now I'm a therapist and that's like the most opposite thing, but I loved chemistry because I said it's math with a purpose. I really like math, but it was boring when it was just like do this math for no reason. So, chemistry was like, okay, I'm doing math cuz I'm going to figure out how we're going to mix these chemicals or whatever. But for me, couponing is like a puzzle or a game of like how can I make the math work to benefit me and my family.

And so I love talking to my sis. I have three sisters. I love talking to my sisters, teaching my dad how to do it. Like I said, my grandmother got me into couponing with these blogs. And so we play the drugstore game together. And people were finally like, "M, you talk about coupons so much.

You should post about it. Like this would be helpful to people." I'm like, "I don't know." I tried to start a blog like in 2014 or something and it was rough. So I was like, you know, it kind of faded away with busyness of life. But then in 2022, I was like, I let's just try.

You know, Tik Tok is a thing now. And I saw, especially during the co time, a lot of people like blowing up during co with Tik Tok being so big. I was like, yeah, I'll give it a try. And a coupon creator I followed and really liked actually put on like a a class about how to be a content creator. I was like, sweet. I'll take this and see how it goes.

It was so helpful. But looking back at my first videos, I'm like, these are rough. Yeah. I mean, that's everybody knows. Like they're all like the thing is that you started. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. I just started like my first video is like, "Hi, you can get bread at Meyer for a dollar this week." Like, I'm not even looking at the camera. It's rough. But, uh, it it looking back, it's really cool to see.

Like, I remember I was at the movies and I came out of the movies and I looked at my phone. I'm like, I have a 100 notifications. What is this? It was my first video that kind of blew up. I think it got like 10,000 views. That's amazing.

Yeah. And I was like, "This is crazy." So, and people were like with what you're doing, too. It was like everyone probably thought you were so helpful. And that's the thing. That's what I has really kept me going.

And what I've really loved, it's like even if no one watches the videos, I have so much fun with doing the couponing. To take a little video while I do it is like not that much extra work. So, I'm like, "Yeah, I'll post about it." But, it's been so cool to get like messages from people. Like recently, I had a lady reach out to me and say, "Hey, I'm a teacher at an inner city school. Thank you so much for your Kroger deals.

I've been able to like have a closet of snacks for my students that normally struggle with food insecurity and I've been able to like get snacks for them and I'm like, I'm going to cry. That's so cool." So, or or you know, families that are struggling and have been able to get food at a a better price and stuff. I'm like, this is why I do this to be able to I love helping people. Like I said, I'm a therapist, so that's that's just kind of me. But it's like to be able to hear the stories of how this has helped people has been really cool.

Have there been other moment I mean cuz now what you're your following is huge. Thanks. I can't even believe I was like I I need to think. I think it's like around 250K across platforms. So that's insane. Okay.

Do you think it's all because the deals are great or is it because you let your personality show too and people see how authentic you are of like wanting to help people? Yeah, I I probably both. Probably both. Like I feel like people they show up for deals and savings and they stay because cuz you're genuine. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. That's amazing. 250,000 followers across platforms. What's been the deal or the video that just like went gang busters. You know what's so funny? I think my my biggest videos are always Chipotle deals.

Oh, [laughter] Chipotle does deals. Yes. Yes. So they'll do like on certain days you can get like a three or a $5 burrito or a bogo burrito. So whenever I see like on Halloween they do $5 burritos if you come in a costume. Um just last week they did wear a hockey jersey and get bogo burrito and twice a year they'll have a game in their app where if you play it you can win like free burritos or free chips and salsa or whatever.

Okay. So wait what if it was BOGO burritos but you also had a free coupon within your wish. No. No. I wish. Like that's crazy.

But people love they go crazy about the Chipotle deals. That's like not even that good of a deal. Like it is good, don't get me wrong, but it's not like it's not like free two free tubes of toothpaste, right? Some people are like, I don't I don't like that toothpaste. So I'm like, okay, that's fine. You don't have to get it.

But yeah, for some reason Chipotle always does amazing. And also, I'll say when I do Kroger pickup orders, so like I said, for it to be free, it has to be $35 or more. But if I find, oh, hey, there's like six great items this week and you can get $70 of stuff for 35 bucks. Those will normally go pretty big cuz you literally just like go on there, you click a couple buttons and and then you show up, right? You show up to pick it up. So, people get excited about those, too.

Yeah. Mhm. That's so amazing. When you think about this journey now, you've been posting for 4 years. Yeah. Did you think it would get to a point where you had a quarter of a million people following you?

No. I remember when I first started, the huge deal was to get 1,000 followers cuz once you got 1,000 followers on TikTok, you could put your like website link in your bio. And so I was like, "Oh, I got to get to a,000 so I can put my little link in there." And cuz then people could see like if I talk about Ibata here, you can go to my page and sign up for Ibata that way or whatever. But yeah, so it was huge to get to a thousand. So now it's crazy to be like, "How is that possible?"

Yeah. What What's the goal? Is the goal to like be a coupon content creator? What's Yeah, my my dream would be to be able to do this full-time. No way. What is What do you have to do to become a full-time coupon creator?

I I think just getting to the point where financially it's able to support me a as my normal job. I was going to say, would you guys would you be more of like because it's also like you don't know if you necessarily want to be brands and deals or is it more like views? Like I talked about, I had a coupon content creator that kind of helped me through the beginning stages. Her biggest thing was you really want to diversify. So, kind of yes to everything. Um, as far as doing brand deals, like right now, I have a brand deal with Charmin for their new forever roll.

I don't know if you've seen that, but it's the giant toilet paper roll that lasts for like a month if it's a twoerson household. So, like Charmin reaches out to me and we have a contract for me to be able to post about that. Yeah. So, it's cool. So, doing brand deals, views through Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, um affiliate links. So, I also post a lot of clearance deals.

So, like totally random, but for example, yesterday Walmart had these hair clips that are normally $5, but they're a dollar right now. So, it's like, okay, if I post about this dollar thing at Walmart and someone purchases it, I make like two cents. So, you know. Yeah. [laughter] Heck yeah. Don't spend it all at once.

But, yeah. But if you do that, you know, 5,000 times, you could buy a thing of hair clips. Yeah. And then I also have my like stockpile and I do my stockpile sales. So that's, you know, a minimal amount, but it kind of funds me purchasing the items for in the videos. So, um, again, kind of diversifying throughout all of those options.

Hopefully, the dream is someday to be able to do that full-time. Wow. Wow. I mean, it's so clear you're so authentic. you have a passion for what you're doing and like as long as you're enjoying it and you're like yeah you're getting brand deals, you're making money and you're saving money and you're helping other people save money, right? So I'm like this just feels like a win-win.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, how can listeners follow you? How can they learn more about couponing um Emily the whole nine yards? Yes. So I am on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok. On Facebook, it's M's em apostrophe s coupon clips.

And then on Instagram and Tik Tok, my handle is em. cup. clipips. Feel free if you have questions to like message me, DM me. I'm happy to help. Um, it's just so fun.

Try it out. I was going to say if you want to test the waters with couponing this week, download your store app if you don't have it yet and find a creator, whether it's me or someone else. Find a creator that talks about couponing at your local store and try a deal out this week. I recommend just trying one thing at a time. Don't try and like get 50 things at once cuz you'll get overwhelmed. But pick one store, one creator, and try one deal and let me know about it.

It's so fun. I love it. Amazing. Okay, we've come to the end of the show where we talk all things Indiana. This question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond.

Check them out at homejart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home? I had such a great experience growing up in Indiana. So, I originally lived in Southbend and then in middle school, moved to the north side of Indie and both places had a great growing up experience. Loved the high school I went to.

I went to Purdue, like I said, for undergrad and IU for graduate school. Oh, you're playing both sides. I was going to say I'm a boiler maker through and through, but IU has a great counseling program. So, um, but it was just such a great experience growing up here that I want to be able to have that for my future family. Yeah, I love that. What's one local place you wish had more coupons?

I wish Walmart did. They used to be better with couponing, but they pretty much printable coupons they won't even accept anymore, which makes me sad. But back in grad school, I could get some good deals there. What if there was like a local business, like an Indiana business, if we could Yeah. If we could just like wave a magic wand in a local spot, home to Indiana, had better coupons, had more coupons, what would that place be? Absolutely.

Luciana's. So I actually we just moved out of here but I I lived in Broadripple for a few years and I would walk to Luciana's and it was the best. Yeah. Like you talk about Chipotle having we need Luciana's BOGO burritos and BOGO margaritas. Yes. Like and actually um in the state of Indiana it's illegal to have a coupon for alcohol.

So can I say locally they could change that and allow coupons for alcohol. So there you go. You hear that powers that be? [laughter] We got extreme coupon margaritas on Tuesdays. In other states they do have it. So my family used to live in Florida and it'd be so weird cuz like next time you're on vacation you'll notice it in grocery stores they'll have hang tags on bottles of wine where it's like $3 off.

I'm like why don't I have this at home? And it's like oh come to find out it's illegal to give coupons for alcohol in Indiana. That that that checks out. That makes sense. In Florida there's no rules anyway. So you know that's how it goes.

Florida man. The Florida the classic Florida man gets $3 bottle of wine. Okay. Wait. You said you moved out of Broad, but what part of town are you guys in now? Now we're on the north side.

So Oh, well like Caramel Westfield. Westfield. Oh gosh. That's where I was going to say that's where I grew up. So I went to Westfield High School. So now were there still fields in Westfield when you a little bit north of where the high school was, which is now Grand Park and all of that has really blown up.

So it's very crazy living there now. I'll literally be like, I have to look up directions on how to get somewhere only because the roads are so different. I know where the place is, but now all the highways and everything are different. So, okay, here's a question for you. If a celebrity saw your page and saved money couponing, who is your dream celebrity to help save money? Ryan Gosling is coming to mind just cuz he's my favorite actor.

Like, imagine like, [laughter] you know, you put out a you put out a discount on like Dove men's like deodorant and he's like, "Oh, you know, I can save money." Like, in fact, [laughter] like if if you become a millionaire and you're still extreme couponing just for like the love of the game, that would be awesome. There has to be a celebrity that still like enjoys couponing for for the love of it. Actually, funny enough, that made me think of another story. So, one time I posted a Chipotle video and it went really big and Dude Wipes the brand commented on the video and was like, "We're going to be busy tonight." [laughter] I was like, "Hey, I got another brand to comment."

That's hype. That's so good. Dude is like, "Thank you for keeping us in business." That's wild. Um, amazing. Okay, we've come to the final three questions that we ask every guest who comes on the show.

First, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? The world needs to know Indiana is more than corn fields. Like I mentioned, Florida. My family lived in Florida for a few years and we'd tell people we're from Indiana and they'd be like, "Oh, do you live on a farm?" And I was like, "Is this real life?" Um, I love that Indiana has so many different options for lifestyle.

Like we have downtown Indie, you can have city life, we have lake life, we have farm life if that's what you choose. I love the rolling hills of southern Indiana. We got trail life. Yes. So, there's so much more to Indiana than corn and there's a lot of options depending on what type of lifestyle that you want to live. So, Amen.

I love it. Okay, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Culver, Indiana. So, I had actually never heard of Culver, but my husband is from there. So, when we started dating, he was like, "Oh, yeah, I'm from Culver."

I'm like, "I don't know what that is." Um, but you're like, "I love your custard and cheese curds." I was like, "Yeah, exactly. Exactly." So, um it's the cutest town. Beautiful lake there.

Um they're actually home to a military academy and that's what a lot of the town is is um made around. Yes. Yeah. Gorgeous lake, cute town with shops and restaurants. Great place to check out. Yeah, they've got a spectacular drive-in.

Uh we like where you can you know get ice cream. Papa's Pizza. Incredible. Yep. The root beer stand. The root beer stand.

Amen. And uh what is it? The lakehouse. Yes. Lakehouse grill. The grill.

Like it's a total vibe. Culver military academy is beautiful. Like it's Culver Military for the boys. It's Culver Girls Academy for the girls. It's a total little vibe town. It's adorable.

Yeah. So, we love going there in the summers and swimming and they got a nice beach and everything. It's gorgeous. My uh my best friend and his family do lake week every year on Lake Max and Kentucky. So, they go up there and I've just like I've just like weled myself in to be part of the family so I can hang out. Adopt me, please.

Absolutely. And I just I just have never stopped showing up. That's how it goes. Love it. I love it. Finally, this is your opportunity to introduce us to someone that we need to be talking more about.

Who's a Hooser? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. I would say Aaron Brockett. He is the pastor at my church, Trader Point, and it's been really cool to see the growth and the impact that he has really spearheaded. So, I need to get Aaron on.

Yeah, he just started a podcast, too, recently. So, I was like, he's like uh I mean, everyone I feel like a lot of people know who he is. He's doing crazy things. The week after uh Easter, the Born Wild, they brought like a a a horse breaking pastor in. Yes. It was crazy.

It was crazy. So, I wish we could have joined in person. We ended up watching it online, but still the the guy essentially takes unbroken horses. So, I guess it was like local people that owned Unbroken Horses that they're just like, "Yeah, you can use my horse." So, they have the horses, they have this whole thing set up on stage and the guy just over the span of like an hour and 15 minutes goes from this is a wild horse to him riding the horse at the end. It was crazy.

while like preaching. Yeah. No way. Yeah. He essentially compared it to like, you know, we are as as humans are kind of wild at heart, but how Jesus cares for you and will kind of help guide you into a a greater existence, a purposeful existence. Yeah.

I mean, I saw the like a lot of it on social and I was like, that's why. Yeah. I guess one of the services he got bucked off. I was like, he was fine. Yeah. He was fine.

We didn't see that one. I feel like that's just part of the profession, right? you sign up to be like a horse breaker. Like, wow, that's a while. Okay, Aaron Bracket, I need to I need to reach out and get him on the pod. Um, amazing, Emily.

It's been so great to learn more about your story. You're almost 20 years into extreme couponing, great hobby, and it's so apparent why you've grown to over 250,000 followers, cuz you're passionate about what you're doing. Because you want to help people truthfully at your core. Keep up the great work. People know where to go find you. It's em.

cup. clipips on Instagram and Tik Tok and Facebook. And on Facebook, it's uh M's with an apostrophe. Yep. Coupon clips. Amazing.

Uh go check it out. Whether it's level one, whether it's level three, whether you download all the apps, go, you know, hog wild on it. I think saving some money, knowing about loss leaders, and just being a more [music] savvy shopper going to help tons of Hoosiers out. So, appreciate you coming on. We'll talk. Absolutely.

Thanks for having me. Holy smokes. We're saving [music] money. We're ready to go. Uh, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We've got our Who's Your Headlines, baby, talking all things current events in Indiana.

Please, one [music] last time, if you could leave us an honest review, Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get it, it would mean the world and help us increase our distribution. If you're on YouTube, please subscribe so you can get more of our great content. And as always, have a [music] spectacular week wherever you are. Set the tone for the week. Go out there, make a difference, make Indiana a better place, and we will talk to you