Mark Cuban may be a billionaire businessroundups.org now, but his humble beginnings taught him how to make ends meet when his wallet got heavy.
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Cuban recently appeared on the “Club Random with Bill Maher” podcast when the two men started talking about wealth and how their lives have changed since making it big in their respective industries.
The duo shared how having money has given them the ability to do what they want, when they want, something Cubans refer to as a gift.
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When talking about what the “best part” of being rich is, Cuban said the answer is “time.”
“I’m in control of my time,” he said.
Yet he was not always rich. When Cuban was in his 20s and first moved to Dallas from Indiana, he told Maher he didn’t have much to his name, so he invented a money-saving grocery store.
By eating out of business hours, he was able to get lower prices on easily perishable items. Since most supermarkets can’t put items like cooked poultry back on shelves that are past their expiration date tomorrow morning, some vendors will lower prices into the late hours.
“I used to go to the grocery store at midnight because they lowered the price of chicken and these big fries to $1.29,” Cuban explained to Maher about his late night shopping. “And I would buy a lot of them.”
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The billionaire also spoke about his love of canned cheese and the unsanitary way he consumed it – then left it for unsuspecting customers.
“I’d take the Cheez Whiz, open the top, [eat it]and put it back,” Cuban said.
Cuban current net value is estimated to be $4.6 billion, which tells us he’s probably not going for midnight cheese runs anymore.
