Speaker 1: Collectibles are peak consumerism, talking le Boo Boo, Sonny Angel, Stanley,
Speaker 1: and more.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity and life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 2: and Jill.
Speaker 3: M Welcome to Frugal Friends.
Speaker 1: I'm Jen, I'm Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: collectibles because I don't know what side of social media
Speaker 1: you are on, but if you're on the side that
Speaker 1: I am, it is now completely taken over by le Booboo.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know about it until I watched some
Speaker 1: commentary channels on YouTube, and then after I did, then
Speaker 1: that's when I got all of all of those videos.
Speaker 4: Don't know about La Booboo. You told me not to
Speaker 4: look it up. You needed my actual genuine reaction. So
Speaker 4: that's what's happening in this episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it got us thinking about why, or me
Speaker 1: at least, why we have this propensity to collectibles to accumulate,
Speaker 1: because it does feel like peak consumerism. Is it all unhealthy?
Speaker 1: Can there be a healthy level of it? And if
Speaker 1: you're looking at the little Booboo people and you're gawking
Speaker 1: and saying that could never happen to me, thinking about
Speaker 1: how it could and already does happen to you. But first,
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Speaker 4: They help us so much with our spending and deinfluencing
Speaker 4: ourselves from things like what we're talking about today. Currently
Speaker 4: it's le Boo Boo and Sony Angels. Last year it
Speaker 4: was Stanley and Squish Mollege.
Speaker 1: Funny Angels. You haven't even pronounced it correctly.
Speaker 5: I don't even know what they are and that's why
Speaker 5: it's written Sony angels.
Speaker 1: So it is written Yeah, Sony only has one n
Speaker 1: where he asked, that's how.
Speaker 4: Uninvolved with these collectibles I am. But I did hear
Speaker 4: about Stanley's and Squish Mellows and I absolutely was a
Speaker 4: part of the beanie baby craze.
Speaker 1: Yes, so let's find out a little bit about these
Speaker 1: things booboo.
Speaker 3: Boxing, and look what we found. We got some special ones.
Speaker 3: I think they're just harder to buying, Babe.
Speaker 6: I'm convinced everyone who's calling the booos ugly is just
Speaker 6: mad they can't get one.
Speaker 1: Okay, So for those of you who are not on
Speaker 1: La Boo boo TikTok La boo boos are key chains
Speaker 1: with stuffed animals on them that look kind of like monsters,
Speaker 1: like the Where the Wild Things Are booked?
Speaker 3: Do you remember that book?
Speaker 1: That is what people are referred like, kind of comparing
Speaker 1: them to and they are kind of cute.
Speaker 4: They're kind of what were the what were the ones
Speaker 4: that we did back in elementary school?
Speaker 5: I want to say, like fur.
Speaker 3: Baby Ferbie Ferbie furbies. Yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so impressed by how outside of consumerism you
Speaker 1: have been your whole life and continue to be.
Speaker 4: They look like ferbies to me, and I did not
Speaker 4: like ferbies when they were a thing, like neither. They're
Speaker 4: ugly and I had so cute. I never did because
Speaker 4: I'm like, they're ugly.
Speaker 1: No, So my dad would put a Ferbie when I
Speaker 1: was sleeping in the morning he wanted to wake me up.
Speaker 1: He would put it by my ear and when I
Speaker 1: was letting sleeping through my alarm and just wake up
Speaker 1: the Ferbie. So it would have its little creepy like woo.
Speaker 3: Like and that would get me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that would get you up.
Speaker 3: That would That'd be it.
Speaker 1: But so the the scarcity in these is pretty much
Speaker 1: we'll talk about what's making them popular, but it's a
Speaker 1: lot of uh scarcity, and there's secret ones. And this
Speaker 1: is how the same thing with sunny Angels. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're as spirit.
Speaker 5: You mean sony angels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they are these plastic little dolls that are
Speaker 1: naked and have different hats on them. I think that
Speaker 1: is as far as I got on there. But it's
Speaker 1: not just those. So those are the most popular ones
Speaker 1: right now, but there's all kinds of little collectibles and
Speaker 1: so we're wondering are collectibles inherently bad as people who
Speaker 1: want to be frugal.
Speaker 4: And we don't think that it's bad. But there's some caveats.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, because that's what we've come to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is something that can connect people. It is
Speaker 4: something that can be aligned with our values. Depending on
Speaker 4: kind of what that collectible item is, it might have
Speaker 4: a lot of meaning behind it. And so we are
Speaker 4: not saying all stuff is bad, just like we don't
Speaker 4: think spending inherently is bad or debt is entirely bad.
Speaker 5: So this kind of falls into that.
Speaker 4: However, when we are just so caught up in the
Speaker 4: consumption of it and it's not actually something we even want,
Speaker 4: we're just being told it and eventually we succumb. That's
Speaker 4: where we really want to keep a pulse on it
Speaker 4: and be able to identify how are there other ways
Speaker 4: for maybe me to find belonging rather than needing to
Speaker 4: spend in order to get it. But but I mean,
Speaker 4: we want to say we both collect truly, I don't,
Speaker 4: and I'm so sorry, but but I do collect seashells
Speaker 4: at the beach. I love to scroll stroll, not scroll stroll,
Speaker 4: collect the seashells that I think are like really adorable,
Speaker 4: then I take a picture of it.
Speaker 3: You collect plants.
Speaker 4: And then I throw them. But I haven't bought a
Speaker 4: new plant. I don't buy plants. I haven't not a
Speaker 4: whired a new plant in over a year. Like I
Speaker 4: don't know if I could say I collect.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is one of the things we'll talk
Speaker 1: about in like our healthy like collecting. So we're not
Speaker 1: going to bash on collecting in this video. If you
Speaker 1: love someone who collects and your planning to show them
Speaker 1: this video to say how bad it is, that's I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry. But hopefully if you are collector and you
Speaker 1: feel guilty about it, or you have somebody in your
Speaker 1: life who you're trying to understand why they collect, then
Speaker 1: this will be a really good video for you the
Speaker 1: person who is watching it. Even my husband Travis, who
Speaker 1: is the most frugal slash cheap person I know, he
Speaker 1: used to collect Spider Man comics. He has a whole
Speaker 1: box of them, and you know we still have them
Speaker 1: in our atticts. So like, even frugal people collect things.
Speaker 4: I guess especially frugal people can collect things. So do
Speaker 4: you get it inexpensive or free? Then it's like, well,
Speaker 4: who cares and we're not actually thinking about the space
Speaker 4: that's taking up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're going to talk about why collectible trends
Speaker 1: like this can get all of our money.
Speaker 3: But first this.
Speaker 1: These particular collectible trends are a little unique, and I
Speaker 1: want to like preface that because it might make a
Speaker 1: difference for what we're talking about in the rest of
Speaker 1: the episode. Is that these particular ones have an added
Speaker 1: level of scarcity because of the blind bag slash blind
Speaker 1: box component.
Speaker 6: I bought some sunny Angels from Japan, so let's open them.
Speaker 4: I got three of these preschool animal boxes.
Speaker 5: These look so cute.
Speaker 3: Hey, guys, um box some sunny Angels with me.
Speaker 4: I'll also be happy with hope, stridity or the secret
Speaker 4: all is a secret one.
Speaker 6: I don't care about anys.
Speaker 5: It's okay.
Speaker 7: I'm having fun when I get what I want, I
Speaker 7: have fun.
Speaker 6: Bay wake up. New signing Angel series just draft in.
Speaker 5: They're wearing little raincoats and boots.
Speaker 1: So when you buy a La Boo Boo, a sunny Angel,
Speaker 1: A know me all these they have so many different right.
Speaker 3: Now you've never heard before just a sony angel.
Speaker 1: Then you don't know what you're buying so you know
Speaker 1: what category you're buying it in, like there are seven
Speaker 1: different usually options in each like run and so you
Speaker 1: know what the possibilities are except for one secret.
Speaker 3: You don't know what you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna get, and you don't from social media you'll know
Speaker 1: what the secret is. But everyone wants the secret one,
Speaker 1: and it can become this thing where people are buying extras.
Speaker 1: They're getting the same like of same green one three times,
Speaker 1: but they're trying to get the whole set and they're
Speaker 1: trying they're trying to get the secret. And so I
Speaker 1: think that's an added component to some of the craze
Speaker 1: in this collection, which.
Speaker 4: Is very fun. I mean, you want to talk about
Speaker 4: a dopamine ratsh. Not only have you spent money something
Speaker 4: comes to your door, but then there's an extra surprise
Speaker 4: during your unboxing that's looking for a hit of dopamine.
Speaker 5: If I ever have.
Speaker 4: Seen one, I remember those little toys where they came
Speaker 4: they were like little dogs or bunnies, and they came
Speaker 4: with babies inside, but you didn't know how many babies
Speaker 4: it was going to have, like how many were in
Speaker 4: the litter, and that was very fun. Or what the
Speaker 4: genders were going to be like, you could have between
Speaker 4: three to six babies popping out of this dog's belly
Speaker 4: and they were going to be you know, different never genders.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that was fun.
Speaker 4: But this is what's standing out to me is that
Speaker 4: these are toys. I have heard of these types of
Speaker 4: trends and marketing tactics for kids and understandably, so I
Speaker 4: think we're gonna have a lot of people watching this saying, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm not totally on that trend, but I see my
Speaker 4: kids on that. And you know, we're going to talk
Speaker 4: in another episode about de influencing kids with toys.
Speaker 1: But the thing with this is that kids are not buying.
Speaker 1: These adults are buying. And I've even seen that argument
Speaker 1: in other videos that this is a toy, this is
Speaker 1: for kids. They're actually key chains. And the way that
Speaker 1: lab boo boos in particular got popular were from celebrities.
Speaker 1: So like Lisa from Black Pink, which is a really
Speaker 1: popular K pop group, she went into a Vanity Fair
Speaker 1: interview all about her obsession with these La boo boo
Speaker 1: and their key chains. So people are buying designer handbags
Speaker 1: to match their laboo boos. So this is very much
Speaker 1: and then they're buying tiny designer bags for their La
Speaker 1: Boo boos. So this is this is definitely an adult thing,
Speaker 1: and I think adults and children are both like prone
Speaker 1: to collecting. But I think that this we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: specifically about, why do we, in the Year of Our
Speaker 1: Lord twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: Five do this?
Speaker 1: Do this, keep doing this even though we've seen it
Speaker 1: with squish males, We've seen it with beanie babies, We've
Speaker 1: seen it with Stanley's.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, and clothing handbags. You know, we're talking about
Speaker 4: La Boo boos. But there's all different ways that this
Speaker 4: can show up. And so there are three main reasons
Speaker 4: that we will end up purchasing the La Booboo, the Stanley,
Speaker 4: the Sonny Angels. And it has to do with first frequency. Yeah,
Speaker 4: hot take. No one actually wants a Stanley or a
Speaker 4: Lubuo Boo. You did not ever actually want it.
Speaker 1: This is so true because I found so many videos
Speaker 1: saying I I don't know why, I don't know what
Speaker 1: the point is, and then progressing to if I was
Speaker 1: gonna get it, where would I get it? And then
Speaker 1: to like find getting it.
Speaker 3: I have been fully influenced by Sam tong.
Speaker 1: Never before have I heard of a wa cuckoo, and
Speaker 1: now I have two wakuckoo.
Speaker 3: Why did I do this?
Speaker 1: The only reason I even bought these One I kind
Speaker 1: of felt left out, and two I don't get it.
Speaker 3: I don't understand bestiees.
Speaker 5: I finally caved and I bought a sunny Angel. I
Speaker 5: don't know.
Speaker 3: I kind of just got sucked in the toy store.
Speaker 5: Really just like gets you.
Speaker 1: So how do so many people go from not wanting
Speaker 1: it to wanting it? And I really think that it
Speaker 1: is this kind of like bandwagon effect or or really
Speaker 1: it's specifically called the mirror exposure effects.
Speaker 5: So it's the.
Speaker 1: Psychological term that our brains like familiar stuff. It's something
Speaker 1: shows up enough then it becomes familiar, and our brains say,
Speaker 1: this is safe, this is acceptable, and this is what's
Speaker 1: culturally appropriate to like to enjoy. And so the more
Speaker 1: we see something, the more we want it. And so
Speaker 1: this happens really fast with social media. Before, when it
Speaker 1: was beanie babies, the only opportunities you had to see
Speaker 1: this stuff was on the news when people are talking
Speaker 1: about the beanie baby craze, or when your friends would
Speaker 1: bring them to school, or when you're seeing you can see,
Speaker 1: you know, one outfit a day per person, right, and
Speaker 1: then slowly trends happen in social media. You can be
Speaker 1: scrolling and see a hundred videos about La Boo Boos
Speaker 1: or Sunny Angels or Stanley's in a day. So this
Speaker 1: mere exposure effect happens ten times faster now than it
Speaker 1: ever did before.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's what can take you from first time exposure
Speaker 4: being like absolutely not, which is me right now you're
Speaker 4: seeing it real time, fifth time being like why do
Speaker 4: people keep buying these? But then by the tenth time, fifteenth,
Speaker 4: twentieth time, when you're seeing it on TikTok and YouTube
Speaker 4: and these celebrities carrying them around to their interviews, you're like, Okay, wait, they're.
Speaker 5: Kind of cute, though maybe I do want one.
Speaker 1: And for some reason, and I've seen people say this
Speaker 1: the Labooboo thing. People are saying they've never seen more
Speaker 1: videos about any other product than Little Booboo, Like even
Speaker 1: just like scrolling through and maybe casually interacting with one video,
Speaker 1: and then the entire feed is unboxing criticizing. I saw
Speaker 1: a tiny scooter for a La Boo Boo and the
Speaker 1: thing was it said, this is how I spend my
Speaker 1: adult money, and it's a La Boo Boo riding around
Speaker 1: on a scoot like a motorized scooter so and then
Speaker 1: buying clothes for it and dressing them up and showing.
Speaker 3: Off the collection.
Speaker 1: So there is I tinfoil hat for a minute. Maybe
Speaker 1: I think there could also be a correlation between mean,
Speaker 1: how profitable labuboo is for TikTok, because a lot of
Speaker 1: the ways that you get them, because they're so scarce,
Speaker 1: it's through TikTok shop. So La Boo Boo's I believe
Speaker 1: are super profitable for TikTok, and that's why they're pushing
Speaker 1: pushing them out. Yeah, I don't know that for certain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean social media pushes out what is most
Speaker 1: beneficial for its platform. Its algorithms are not neutral.
Speaker 5: We know this.
Speaker 4: So here's what to do when it comes to the
Speaker 4: familiarity that the mere exposure effect is to ask yourself,
Speaker 4: do I actually like this door, I actually want it?
Speaker 4: Or am I just familiar with it? You can also
Speaker 4: limit your exposure, which literally means unfollowing, muting, not being
Speaker 4: on social media, taking a little break, block a take
Speaker 4: a walk, and waiting seventy two hours before buying anything trendy.
Speaker 4: I love the seventy two to our rule for really
Speaker 4: kind of anything discretionary or anything that might have been
Speaker 4: an impulse purchase. Just give yourself some time in between,
Speaker 4: because you can kind of cool off a little bit,
Speaker 4: let the La Booboo craze, just calm down a bit,
Speaker 4: and then see if you still want it in seventy
Speaker 4: two hours, all right.
Speaker 1: And that is super important for collectibles because some of
Speaker 1: these more rare collectibles, like La Boo Boo is so
Speaker 1: hard to get. So it is truly it's taking people
Speaker 1: who are just casual to if they have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to get it, they feel special and like it's they
Speaker 1: have a responsibility to get it and then just buy it.
Speaker 1: That's I saw a lot of videos on that too,
Speaker 1: Like if you have an authentic Laboo Boo, because then
Speaker 1: there's also knockoffs they call them lafoufous.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: So if you are in the vicinity of an actual Labooboo,
Speaker 1: even if you don't want it, going to get.
Speaker 7: It just because it's available.
Speaker 1: And that this this collectible craze thrives off of impulsivity.
Speaker 1: So so sometimes wait seventy two hours, you won't even
Speaker 1: be able to get it. So that is not a risk,
Speaker 1: that's actually a reward. View it as a reward.
Speaker 4: The next reason that we might be drawn to some
Speaker 4: of these trends and collectibles is there affordability. We're not
Speaker 4: talking about the five hundred dollars air pods or the
Speaker 4: two hundred dollars ninja creamis, although I have heard you
Speaker 4: talk about wanting one.
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: I am close to getting one on Facebook market okay.
Speaker 4: And there you go, and it is I talked about
Speaker 4: it for a while too, so expulsive. I don't know
Speaker 4: if it's the mere exposure. Well, I'm also following ninja
Speaker 4: creamy accounts, so I'm being allowing yourself.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean, but that's like a part of it too.
Speaker 1: Like last year I was like, you don't need to
Speaker 1: buy a two hundred dollar ice cream maker to make
Speaker 1: ice cream, and then now I'm seeing so many like
Speaker 1: good ice creams.
Speaker 7: I don't even eat ice cream a lot.
Speaker 1: It's and it makes you feel crazy, right, like there's
Speaker 1: no shit, there's no shame in getting caught up in
Speaker 1: these things because our brains really do have like they
Speaker 1: just are drawn to stuff like this and you don't
Speaker 1: know why or what's happening, but that that's been easier
Speaker 1: to say no to because that's two hundred dollars.
Speaker 4: Yes, but yeah, So especially for things like the Stanley
Speaker 4: Cup being forty five dollars, that's expensive but not unattainable.
Speaker 4: And then some of these other things that we're talking
Speaker 4: about are usually twenty dollars are under Yeah, and so
Speaker 4: that just feels like I can be a part of
Speaker 4: this thing. I can say yes to this because it
Speaker 4: feels so affordable. I don't have to second guess it.
Speaker 4: And decreasing that barrier is huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can get one, I could eat, can afford
Speaker 1: two to see if I can get the one I want,
Speaker 1: get the special one. Now I already have to might
Speaker 1: as well get the whole set, spend another forty dollars
Speaker 1: on another one or two. It's just easier to slip
Speaker 1: down the slope. It has a lower buy in, a
Speaker 1: lower barrier to entry.
Speaker 7: I ordered a really rare Stanley off of EVA, and
Speaker 7: I'm not sure if it's like real, because it was
Speaker 7: like really she if. I think it was fifty dollars.
Speaker 7: It's just normally like one hundred to two hundred.
Speaker 5: How much.
Speaker 1: I let it go for about forty dollars dollars. Some
Speaker 1: people say that this is a recession indicator. That's interesting,
Speaker 1: which is so a recession indicator indicates like sinking consumer confidence.
Speaker 1: So people would normally purchase, like make big purchases like cars, houses,
Speaker 1: even expensive skincare, luxury items, and when that starts to
Speaker 1: decline and the purchase of lower priced items like you know,
Speaker 1: la boo boos goes up. That some people will call that.
Speaker 1: People will call that a recession indicator. It's it's an
Speaker 1: indicator of one. I don't think that that's what's happening
Speaker 1: with these I really do believe that it's a just
Speaker 1: a combination of people tend to go toward affordability. It's
Speaker 1: why people buy so much fast fashion. And it's the
Speaker 1: blind bag component for a lot of these Stanley cups,
Speaker 1: people owning a lot of them. That was rare because
Speaker 1: those are you know, you know, forty five to fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: But I think it's a lot more common to see
Speaker 1: collections that you know of things like fungo pops or
Speaker 1: action figures that started out low and then just the
Speaker 1: more the deeper you get in than the higher the cost.
Speaker 1: But we thanks to dopamine, the future doesn't feel real enough.
Speaker 1: We always want to you know, the future doesn't feel
Speaker 1: real enough to compete with the present, right, so we
Speaker 1: always think of what can I do to get my
Speaker 1: dopamine hit in the present. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: big reason why collectibles are so popular.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it can be so much easier to buy a
Speaker 4: twenty dollars thing that's going to give me the dopamine
Speaker 4: of purchase the dopamine of the mystery that's inside, and
Speaker 4: not really think about what could twenty dollars have done invested?
Speaker 4: What could I do if I were to be saving
Speaker 4: that money instead, And that's that long term reward that
Speaker 4: isn't going to give us that dopamine in the future,
Speaker 4: but it can help us to look back and realize,
Speaker 4: what what did life look like, you know, five ten
Speaker 4: years ago? What would have happened if I could have
Speaker 4: put one hundred dollars into the stock market. The S
Speaker 4: and P five hundred has had a rate a return
Speaker 4: of twelve percent in the last ten years. That could
Speaker 4: have met three hundred and twenty dollars today.
Speaker 1: And I want to also, if you're not a collector
Speaker 1: and you're watching this and you're like, oh, I can't
Speaker 1: I can't relate because I'll just invest. There are other
Speaker 1: things that you may not be physically collecting, but if
Speaker 1: you look back through your ninety day transaction inventory, you
Speaker 1: see you are collecting transactions. That's why we think doing
Speaker 1: a ninety day transaction inventory is so important if you're
Speaker 1: not familiar with one. It's going back through your last
Speaker 1: ninety days, all of your transactions and seeing where you
Speaker 1: have been spending your money with a mindset of neutrality
Speaker 1: and learning, not like shame or making you feel bad.
Speaker 1: And I think you're going to start to see you're
Speaker 1: collecting things. And it may not be toys, it may
Speaker 1: not be water bottles, but there is something on there
Speaker 1: that you are collecting. Maybe it's lattes, maybe it's Chipotle
Speaker 1: or take out like fast casual take out. There is
Speaker 1: something you are collecting. We would love to know about
Speaker 1: that in the comments. If you do a transaction inventory
Speaker 1: and you're like, dang, I never looked at it like collecting,
Speaker 1: but I am doing that.
Speaker 7: Let us know what it is.
Speaker 1: And if you're a collector and you've figured out how
Speaker 1: to you know even out you're collecting. We'd like to
Speaker 1: know that in the comments too, maybe somebody can find
Speaker 1: some extra wisdom down there.
Speaker 3: But there are two ways that.
Speaker 1: We can start to get over this kind of affordability trap,
Speaker 1: whether it's things you're collecting or transactions. And the first
Speaker 1: one is to look back. We're going to take into
Speaker 1: account this kind of like recession indicator, you know, quote
Speaker 1: unquote that says that we don't trust the future, and
Speaker 1: we're going to take that into account, and that's how
Speaker 1: we're going to combat it. So first we're going to
Speaker 1: look back, see where you were five years ago, ten
Speaker 1: years ago, and have and get some perspective. If you
Speaker 1: don't feel confident about where you're going to be in
Speaker 1: five or ten years, think about where you were five
Speaker 1: or ten years ago and look at the positive things
Speaker 1: and the positive growth that has happened, even amidst all
Speaker 1: the craziness that has happened in the past five and
Speaker 1: ten years. I don't think, I mean, in our generation,
Speaker 1: this is the craziest five to ten years we've probably
Speaker 1: had since we've been alive as millennials. So see where
Speaker 1: you were five ten years ago, see where you are now.
Speaker 1: Put it into perspective, Like what you said, the S
Speaker 1: and P five hundred has had a cumulative growth of
Speaker 1: a return of about twelve percent over the last ten years.
Speaker 1: So one hundred dollars invested would have made an additional
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty dollars.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so if you would prefer to think shorter term,
Speaker 4: so that's one strategy. Looks back and realize both that's affordable, right,
Speaker 4: like putting one hundred dollars five ten years ago, it
Speaker 4: would have had been ten years ago, could have returned
Speaker 4: this amount of money. But also realized that if one
Speaker 4: of the hesitancies is that uncertainty about what does it
Speaker 4: mean to release my money into the stock market to
Speaker 4: invest now? And you know, knowing that that money, I'll
Speaker 4: get to see the growth on it by the time
Speaker 4: I'm sixty seventy eighty, but that feels so far away.
Speaker 4: Then recognize that there is a short term reality here too,
Speaker 4: that we can pull whatever money we put into those
Speaker 4: accounts out. We can't draw upon the interest we've earned
Speaker 4: without penalty before a certain age, but even then there
Speaker 4: are some caveats to it. But whatever you put in,
Speaker 4: let's say you do put in one hundred bucks twenty bucks.
Speaker 4: You can get that back out no penalty.
Speaker 1: In five to ten years if you need it. So
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we're not because the
Speaker 1: dopamine says like we hate losing more than we love winning, right,
Speaker 1: which is why we choose the immediate gratification over the
Speaker 1: long term success, because we overestimate what we can do
Speaker 1: in a year and we underestimate what we can do
Speaker 1: in ten years. But if we're thinking about our money, like, yes,
Speaker 1: I will have access to it in five to ten years,
Speaker 1: even though it's in a retirement account, then that could
Speaker 1: make it easier to It won't take away the dopamine
Speaker 1: of instant gratification one hundred percent, but it could make
Speaker 1: it easier to say no to these things upfront. To
Speaker 1: say bigger yes is to things down the line, and
Speaker 1: it's not just with investing, but if you're in that mindset,
Speaker 1: it is easier to say no to instant gratification because ultimately,
Speaker 1: if you build a habit of saving, then it is
Speaker 1: very unlikely you'll take that money out in five or
Speaker 1: ten years because you're going to see the growth and
Speaker 1: you're going to then when you look back, you're going
Speaker 1: to see even more growth in your five to ten
Speaker 1: year look back. So but just knowing you can access
Speaker 1: it makes it feel safer.
Speaker 5: So true.
Speaker 4: And the last reason we might collect is for community
Speaker 4: and friendship. Friends are hard to find. Yeah, doing fun
Speaker 4: things is hard to find, and so oftentimes collecting can
Speaker 4: feel like that fast track to friendship, to a connection,
Speaker 4: to an experience of belonging to a community. And that's
Speaker 4: why we don't think that collecting is inherently bad. You know,
Speaker 4: anything that can kind of connect us with others and
Speaker 4: provides that in for relationship and friendship is great. But
Speaker 4: wherever relationships are based upon purchasing something in order to
Speaker 4: be a part of this group, or every time I
Speaker 4: get together with this friend we are always going out
Speaker 4: to eat or going shopping, then the friendship is an
Speaker 4: actual connection. It's consumption, right, based on consuming things together.
Speaker 1: So if you're meeting new people because of your shared
Speaker 1: collections and then forging like real relationships with them, relationships
Speaker 1: where you know you're sending gifts back and forth and
Speaker 1: you're hanging out at each other's houses and you're really
Speaker 1: investing each other like that is beautiful. I think that
Speaker 1: is a beautiful aspect of the collector community, but it
Speaker 1: gets dangerous when relationships are only about spending money together.
Speaker 1: And so that's ultimately how to make this collecting journey healthy.
Speaker 1: So like, personally I don't really collect anything either, but
Speaker 1: if I had to think of something I do collect,
Speaker 1: I would have to say it kind of run Disney metals.
Speaker 1: That would be like the only thing I could think of.
Speaker 1: I really like doing Disney races specifically. I don't love
Speaker 1: running races in general, but like half marathons at Disney,
Speaker 1: I really love those exactly. And I could do all
Speaker 1: of them and you know, be fine and spend so
Speaker 1: much money there, but I love it, so I want
Speaker 1: to keep it special. I love the community of people
Speaker 1: that do it. A lot of the relationships I've built
Speaker 1: there are parasocial, so I'm just like following other people
Speaker 1: on social media who do it. So I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: that's the healthiest way. But thankfully I have a lot
Speaker 1: of really, really great relationships here.
Speaker 3: But there is a.
Speaker 1: Friend that I made recently who also runs, and we
Speaker 1: decided to run the Wine and Dine half marathon this
Speaker 1: October together, and so like it's getting us closer because
Speaker 1: we're sharing, aring our training runs, and so that has
Speaker 1: been a good part of like how collecting has brought
Speaker 1: me closer to somebody who is kind of like in.
Speaker 5: That community how you meet your people.
Speaker 3: Right, but it's not.
Speaker 1: Right, but it's not based on the race aspect and
Speaker 1: the registering for the race aspect. We would still be
Speaker 1: friends and will be better friends after it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that if you're collecting is bringing you
Speaker 1: closer to people and it's building community, which we think
Speaker 1: is kind of like the purpose of everything in.
Speaker 7: Life is to get closer to people.
Speaker 1: Right. When are things when when we alienate ourselves, even
Speaker 1: if it's to do better financially, that's not healthy, And
Speaker 1: when we spend money to get closer to people also
Speaker 1: not healthy. So like, how can we form the best
Speaker 1: relationships possible and spend the right amount of money for us?
Speaker 1: Like that is the key. So like, that's what we
Speaker 1: want to hear about in the comments if you have
Speaker 1: anything to say about that.
Speaker 4: The final tip that we have here is to do
Speaker 4: a thirty day no spend challenge to really be able
Speaker 4: to find out who you are apart from consumption. This
Speaker 4: can really give you an opportunity to be creative, learn
Speaker 4: some of the things that you love doing that maybe
Speaker 4: consumption is getting in the way of you even realizing
Speaker 4: some with a more fun free activity. So we talk
Speaker 4: about how to do a thirty day no spend challenge
Speaker 4: in our book Buy What You Love Without Going broke.
Speaker 4: You can get it anywhere books are bought by what
Speaker 4: youlovebook dot com. We'll have it linked with the YouTube
Speaker 4: video here as well. We think that these can be
Speaker 4: really fun challenges. Not to say that spending is bad
Speaker 4: or that you'll never ever spend again. Really gives the
Speaker 4: opportunity to see what do I actually love doing? What
Speaker 4: are the things that are fulfilling that I can feel
Speaker 4: really good about spending on, and realize the things that
Speaker 4: aren't so important and I don't need to keep spending
Speaker 4: on those.
Speaker 1: Yes, So, in conclusion, collecting is peak consumerism. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be, and it teaches us a
Speaker 1: lot about our overall consumerism. So that's why we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about it. I think collecting transactions is a
Speaker 1: really important key piece to take away from this, and
Speaker 1: collecting can go really well, but it can also be
Speaker 1: very destructive. And yeah, so I hope you got something
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 5: Do you know what's not destructive.
Speaker 1: It's always uplifting and does get at our core value
Speaker 1: of building community.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is Williams.
Speaker 3: Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 2: Maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have
Speaker 2: to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 2: this is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi Jen, Hi Jill. This is Candice from New York
Speaker 6: and I just found a really good bill of the
Speaker 6: week Today's New York Times game the Connections. One of
Speaker 6: the groups was what Bill might refer to a banknote,
Speaker 6: a beak, an invoice, or william I cracked up and
Speaker 6: thought of you have a great day.
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, yes, all of those.
Speaker 5: That's so fun.
Speaker 4: I have heard people talk about these New York Times games,
Speaker 4: and it's very fun speaking of ways to connect with
Speaker 4: people and have fun. That's a great one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is. I mean, it sounds like we have
Speaker 1: more things to add to the song. That's what it
Speaker 1: sounds like.
Speaker 4: A banknote and an invoice. I don't think we talk
Speaker 4: about that in the.
Speaker 5: Song, so we'll see.
Speaker 3: Well that is perfect, Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Yes, thanks Ca, So that's very fun. If anybody watching
Speaker 4: or listening have a bill that you want to share,
Speaker 4: if it has to do with connections, games you're playing online,
Speaker 4: or uh literally your name is Bill, we'd love to
Speaker 4: hear from you. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill
Speaker 4: hearing it now, it's time for the Lightning raw.
Speaker 1: All right, today's Lightning Round question would be it should
Speaker 1: be what do you collect?
Speaker 5: I know we could we did kind of already talk about.
Speaker 4: That, yeah, but but anything you've ever collected your favorite
Speaker 4: to okay, thing you've collected.
Speaker 1: In childhood, I collected turtles, like anything turtle related.
Speaker 3: I loved turtles.
Speaker 5: I did not know this.
Speaker 1: The problem began arose when everyone took it as an
Speaker 1: excuse to not think about what to get me, but
Speaker 1: just like, get me random turtle stuff that I didn't
Speaker 1: really wants. My mom would anytime she would see something
Speaker 1: with a turtle on it, she would get me it,
Speaker 1: like even if I didn't. It was just the dumbest stuff.
Speaker 1: Has it stopped?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Well, I had to tell her, like in college, just
Speaker 1: like I have too much turtle stuff I just want
Speaker 1: to get rid of all of this. I still like turtles,
Speaker 1: but I'm not obsessed with them, and I was never obsessed.
Speaker 3: I just had like a collection of little turtles.
Speaker 1: If I had the option to like get something and
Speaker 1: there was a turtle option, I'd always go with the turtle.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That was how it started, and it ended with too
Speaker 1: much turtle stuff.
Speaker 5: So that was my thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is always funny when collections are pushed on you,
Speaker 4: which I do believe was probably most of my collections
Speaker 4: as a child, but I did have a few.
Speaker 5: Now I'm realizing the role of that is going. Okay.
Speaker 4: I talked about my snow baby collection in the books.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna choose something different because it wasn't my only collection,
Speaker 4: which was a weird one. I would dip my fingers
Speaker 4: in hot wax and then wait for it to dry
Speaker 4: and then peel it off, and they would for it
Speaker 4: in like these little molds, and I would put them
Speaker 4: into this like chest, this wooden chest, and just whenever
Speaker 4: I had the opportunity to dip my fingers in wax.
Speaker 1: And how often do you have the opportunity, how often
Speaker 1: do you come across wax?
Speaker 4: Well, I well, because another one of my collections was
Speaker 4: candle snuffers, So I had candles like.
Speaker 3: To come off as this.
Speaker 1: I don't have any collections, and I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't now, but I'm realized I'm just.
Speaker 4: Too good can yeah, yeah, I'm wow the things I've
Speaker 4: blocked off, I did it enough. I had my own candles.
Speaker 4: I would dip my fingers into the wax. Then I'd
Speaker 4: use my candle snuffer and then when they were all dried.
Speaker 4: I loved the sound of them. I was quite like
Speaker 4: tactile person, so just to like put these little wax
Speaker 4: finger molds back and forth between my hands, they'd create
Speaker 4: such a nice, calming noise.
Speaker 5: It was my own like ASMR creation.
Speaker 4: And then I'd put them into this wooden box and
Speaker 4: that lived under my bed. Wo yep, but you know
Speaker 4: what mere exposure effect. You're judging me now, But if
Speaker 4: I come in with any of these wax bolts on
Speaker 4: my fingers, you're going to get into it. Uh huh, yup,
Speaker 4: just you wait. Oh wow, Okay, that was weird. Well,
Speaker 4: thanks everybody so much for listening for watching. As you know,
Speaker 4: we have a YouTube channel. Uh so, if you have
Speaker 4: not seen this on YouTube. Please go to our YouTube channel,
Speaker 4: Frugal Friends Podcast subscribe. That's like the best way that
Speaker 4: you can possibly support us. And we want to read
Speaker 4: you one of our favorite comments on a YouTube video.
Speaker 4: Maybe not a favorite, just a recent one. This is
Speaker 4: just happening real time for you all. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 4: A recent comment from real Classroom one two seven eight
Speaker 4: says on one of our spending intervention videos between my
Speaker 4: two sons, I spent about ten years in a row
Speaker 4: taking advantage of all the free summer programs at the
Speaker 4: public library.
Speaker 3: Which one shot you know what?
Speaker 4: I had to do it on the fly, Jen, And
Speaker 4: we love libr editing. So there's library.
Speaker 5: That's what I'm choosing.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: So if you if you want there to be better
Speaker 5: comments on our.
Speaker 4: YouTube videos, then go ahead subscribe.
Speaker 5: Comment on our YouTube videos. Let us know what you're.
Speaker 4: Collecting or what you used to collect if you can
Speaker 4: cop me, ask us.
Speaker 1: To read your comment on the air and we will.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay bye.
Speaker 3: Gorugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Speaker 4: Jen, what are your kids starting to collect? Probably Kai right,
Speaker 4: he'd probably be into collections, nothing.
Speaker 1: Like he likes iron Man right now. Okay, So, given
Speaker 1: the options to consume something tangible, he prefers it to
Speaker 1: be Iron Man themed.
Speaker 4: Oh cool, Yeah, I remember it used to be monster trucks,
Speaker 4: but he's off of that now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Monster trucks were big for a long time. They were
Speaker 1: our potty training incentive of choice, and we still love them.
Speaker 1: Atlas is getting into them, so that's really nice. I
Speaker 1: think we'll take all the monster trucks away and then
Speaker 1: six months later to start to potty train him and
Speaker 1: then give them out again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, is my plan.
Speaker 1: So I still got about six months of playing and
Speaker 1: cleaning up monster trucks before that, but yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: about it. The two year old doesn't collect anything.
Speaker 4: The two year old collects climbing. He climbs on things.
Speaker 1: Eventually, yeah, climbing experiences collect climbing stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, probably