Hi, my name is Vanessa and I'm 21 years old.
Hi, my name is Anthony, I'm 22 years old from Houston.
And this is the Financial Audit.
THE Financial Audit!
We'll start with you, Vanessa.
What do you do for a living at 21?
I'm a meat wrapper.
Meat wrapper. Wrapping that meat, that's exciting.
I bet you love that. So...
How much do we make doing that?
An hour, or?
Yeah, sure.
16.50 an hour.
Okay, 16.50 an hour.
How many hours a week are we working, currently?
30 to 40.
30 to 40. How inconsistent?
Kind of inconsistently. I just started to get into it, so, yeah.
This is a new job?
A new position. I've been working at
the same store for like, over a year now.
I just transferred.
And what do you do for a living?
For right now, I'm a stay-at-home dad, but I...
You guys have a kid?
(Both) Yeah.
Okay.
I know people used to have kids when they were young.
I guess it's actually a very normal thing
For so many people,
But to me it just blows my mind,
As a 29 year old who's like,
I can't even imagine having a kid yet,
I'm like, "please, I'm just a little baby,"
So, it's like, how the (censored)? Like...
- (Anthony) Yeah, we're... - Whoo! But, okay.
Good for you guys. Planned?
- (Anthony) Hmm... - (Vanessa) No.
- (Anthony) 50/50. - (Vanessa) We knew what we were doing.
Okay, you're a professional meat wrapper, you should've wrapped that meat.
Yeah. That wasn't my job yet.
(laughs) Not yet, okay.
Wow. So how old's the kid?
He's two.
Woah, so this was— this was young.
Similar to, like, when my parents had me.
Okay. Wow.
So we're relying on the single income of 16.50?
At, potentially, sometimes 30 hours a week?
How are we doing off of that?
We're barely making it.
I mean, we're still going past it, but it's kind of...
We don't have no extra money for nothing.
Yeah. If I need money, I would ask my mom.
Be like, "Oh, can I borrow this much?"
Borrow? How much are we borrowing from your mom?
Right now? I owe her 50. Not much.
50 dollars?
But, how often are we doing this?
Pretty often.
We're paydaying from our mom?
Okay. Stay-at-home dad, obviously, okay, we're
Breaking gender stereotypes, woah!
Wait, but they're two.
Okay, I guess we're avoiding daycare. Daycare is expensive.
Why is the stay-at-home dad what we've chosen?
Well, for right now, I mean— I was waiting for a job interview 'cause
I've already had the interview. I just—I had it on Thursday, but
I was just waiting for them to call me back.
How long have you been waiting?
Two to three weeks.
It was more like a month.
Over a month.
How long have you been out of work?
A month.
Oh, what happened— what were you doing?
I was working at my friend's shop.
- But, um... - Your friend's shop.
Yeah, but I had gotten kind of, like, fired from there.
From your friend? You have to be really bad at your job
To get fired from a friend, don't you?
Yeah, I was... well, I mean, I was...
I was working there for a little bit, for like, a week, but...
Her and her mother
were complaining that it wasn't enough pay
And that I was away from home for a long time
- Even though it was a really easy job. - You and your mom were complaining
To his friend, who was his boss at the same time?
No, we weren't complaining to his friend.
- We were complaining to him... - And I was complaining to my friend.
What were you making?
I was making like...
He was making, like, 13-something an hour.
What was the shop and what was your position?
It was like, a... it was a small shop,
And I was just in the back, just...
Taking out the orders that they'd order.
But he was selling.
Selling...
Oh, under the table?
- Yeah, type stuff. - Yeah, so not really legal.
(censored)
Yeah.
Behind your friend's back?
(both) No, no, no. That's what the shop was.
Why wasn't it legally sold?
- I mean, it was just... it's Texas, yeah. - It's Texas. It's not legal here.
But the shop was to sell it?
- Well, I mean... - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
The shop wasn't registered, basically,
So it wasn't—it wasn't, like...
'Cause I know next to my condo when I used to—
I can say it, because I don't live there.
It was on (censored) Boulevard.
And there's like— like, this collection of shops,
There's an Alamo Drafthouse right there,
And there's a shop that grows (censored) in the window,
And they sell it in a way where they're like,
If this catches on fire,
And smoke comes from it, you know,
That might be something that happens.
And that was their legal way of being able to sell it
They sell, like, a certain strain that's legal
- It sounds like you guys weren't doing... - This was not...
Okay, so I'm trying to understand.
'Cause I know it's illegal in Texas, but, like, places in Austin,
They don't enforce it.
Yeah, well, I mean...
things happen
Yeah so it was just like
uhmn
under
under the table
like you said like
like stuff on Instagram
that we have like customers
Why'd you get fired
Uh my complaining
Complaining and they didn't have the money
for it either I wanna say
Well it's not that I mean like
Why didn't he just say no