Kandi Burruss is opening up about her penny-pinching ways during her days with ’90s girl group Xscape.
On May 5, Burruss shared a clip on Instagram from her “Verzuz” interview. Taking a trip down memory lane, she talked about one of her favorite memories with Xscape. She started off explaining that she was still in high school when their songs first came out so it was “kind of crazy” to have to go to school, then go out of town to perform.
But what she “loved the most” about those trips is getting “$25 or $30 a day per diem. Anytime you was doing record promotions they had to give you per diem, which is like the money they give you to eat every day.” She explained after getting her money, “I would not eat the entire day. I would save my little $30 a day. I would only go out to eat when say, for instance, the rep from the record label would take us out to eat once a day when we were with them because they would take us to the radio station. So I knew I would go out to eat with them at least once for the day. So the rest of the day I just wouldn’t eat.”
She continued, “Every time I would come back home from the trip, I would have me a whole little stack. I was stacking up my little hundreds of dollars. I thought I was doing it. I thought I was balling.” She admitted that she was the “cheap one in the group.” Burruss, who was 17 at the time, said, she would just “come home smiling” because “that just made my little day.”
Fans commended Burruss for being smart with her money at such a young age. One person said, “And that’s why you’re so rich and successful! My inspiration ❤️,” and another wrote, “That’s that BOSS mentality right there!! 🙌👏👏👏👏👏.” Someone else said, “See, this is a celebrity that I would actually take financial advice from!”
“Live with Kelly and Ryan” host Kelly Ripa also praised the singer and shared her own story about saving her per diem. “I know we were related in another life. I NEVER spent per diem either. Eat craft service…..it was like free money! (Unless i had rent to pay, then it was rent 😂)”
Today, the singer-songwriter is a serial entrepreneur who has managed to create multiple streams of income for herself since leaving the group. She owns an intimate toy line called Bedroom Kandi, a cosmetics line, a children’s products business, and restaurants in Atlanta: Old Lady Gang and Blaze Steak & Seafood. She’s also explored reality television with a few shows, one of them being “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” which she’s been on since 2009.
Catch Xscape and SWV going head to head on “Verzuz” this Saturday, May 8, at 8 p.m. EST.
