“I used to be known as the coupon lady,” says Lauren Cobello, 43, who commanded $5,000 per YouTube video as a personal finance influencer. “I was a regular on the Today show and Good Morning America, I was blogging, working with newspapers. I had no financial background but I’d got my family out of $40,000 debt by couponing and budgeting and people wanted to know how I did it.”
“Life revolved around it. I was engrossed. The last Sunday of every month was ‘budget night’ where I’d share everything I’d spent in a Facebook Live. It became a family thing, too. The kids were in my YouTube videos, I did family finance videos and I’d lay out all my groceries on the table, take a picture and break down costs. My kids thought that was normal. It became my image, who I was, and it was very hard to detach.”When her marriage fell apart in 2017, her financial view changed.