Speaker 1: Episode four ninety eight, Transform your Budget in thirty Days Challenge.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jen and Jilloo.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and this is not a joke.
Speaker 1: We are challenging you to transform the way you budget
Speaker 1: for the month of April or for the next thirty
Speaker 1: days whenever you're listening to this.
Speaker 3: We love doing challenges. We think that there are some
Speaker 3: of the best ways to kind of gamify our finances,
Speaker 3: get us really focusing on one thing at a time
Speaker 3: and can surface a lot about ourselves versus just not
Speaker 3: doing a challenge. It's one of the things that we
Speaker 3: do for our monthly membership. It's a ton of challenges
Speaker 3: all to get you spending better, saving money, understanding your
Speaker 3: own spending habits more.
Speaker 4: But this one we think is going to be.
Speaker 3: Particularly helpful for you also, so why we wanted to
Speaker 3: create a podcast around it to look at specifically your budget,
Speaker 3: how you approach it, and help us all just to get.
Speaker 4: Better at it.
Speaker 3: But before we get into that, this episode is brought
Speaker 3: to you by before and after photos. Who doesn't love
Speaker 3: a good transformation, especially the kind you don't have to
Speaker 3: be a part of, like the year's long renovation someone
Speaker 3: else on the internet did that you didn't even know
Speaker 3: about till right now when they're showing you before and
Speaker 3: after where you get to skip all the headaches, tears, injuries,
Speaker 3: unforeseen problems in the late nights, just beautiful immediate results.
Speaker 3: Kind of like a high heeld savings account. You can
Speaker 3: do your own before or after experience with your bank account,
Speaker 3: taking the money that you have right now and growing
Speaker 3: it with interest, and just like looking at someone else's reno,
Speaker 3: it's free from the overwhelmed, distress and fatigue that typically
Speaker 3: comes from making money, like through your job. So transform
Speaker 3: your money with CID, our current favorite high yield savings
Speaker 3: account at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash CIT. Get
Speaker 3: that before and after feel and baby.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is a that was great? Thank you for that?
Speaker 4: Ye all right?
Speaker 1: You know, we love talking about budgeting, not in the
Speaker 1: specific term budgeting. We prefer to you spending plan, but
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that later. But we wanted to propose
Speaker 1: this challenge because it's always good once a year to
Speaker 1: take some time and figure out if what I have
Speaker 1: been doing is still working. So we have a couple
Speaker 1: other episodes you can queue up for after this that
Speaker 1: will also be helpful if you decide to take on
Speaker 1: this challenge. They'll be very good ones to queue up throughout.
Speaker 4: The thirty days.
Speaker 1: So we've got episode four seventy one, which is budgeting
Speaker 1: Tips for twenty twenty five, and episode two oh eight
Speaker 1: Budgeting Basics. I think we also have one coming up.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's in the challenge, but we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about I think the fifty to thirty
Speaker 1: twenty budget at some point. But we also just recently
Speaker 1: did a zero based budgeting guide episode, so scroll back
Speaker 1: you won't have to scroll back too far for that one.
Speaker 1: So lots of budgeting episodes because the term budget is
Speaker 1: the one we're all familiar with. So all right, let's
Speaker 1: get into the challenge. So this episode will be unique
Speaker 1: and you will start to see this more we'll talk about.
Speaker 1: So it's episode four ninety eight. In episode five hundred,
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about some of the changes
Speaker 1: that we're making to frugal friends that will be better. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm not taking away the episode numbers because those are
Speaker 1: for me personally. I like them. I know they don't
Speaker 1: help you find the episodes. I know that's frustrating. So
Speaker 1: that's one change that you've asked for that won't be coming.
Speaker 1: But there have been a lot of changes over the
Speaker 1: last seven years, and with anything good that hopes to continue,
Speaker 1: we have to change as well. And one of those
Speaker 1: changes is that we will be using fewer if any
Speaker 1: articles as reference points for our episodes, so instead of
Speaker 1: only because it's been harder and harder to source legitimate
Speaker 1: articles from Google when we started the we'll go into
Speaker 1: more depth of this in a week, but when we
Speaker 1: started the podcast, it was to help you figure out
Speaker 1: if what you were googling was real or fluff. Now
Speaker 1: you can you can really just assume everything you google
Speaker 1: on the first page is going to be fluff. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to find that real stuff, a lot harder
Speaker 1: than it was seven years ago. So instead we are
Speaker 1: drawing on our you know, almost decade of experience studying
Speaker 1: personal finance, and we are going to use our our
Speaker 1: knowledge and googling skills as well as AI to help
Speaker 1: us craft better episodes for you. And so today is
Speaker 1: one of those episodes where we're not using an article.
Speaker 1: We've crafted our own challenge and we're going to walk
Speaker 1: you through it, the importance of each step and how
Speaker 1: to execute each.
Speaker 3: Just flying fast and loose over here. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 3: that's what you can expect from us.
Speaker 1: So that's a change you didn't ask for that is coming.
Speaker 3: I think we've always been flying fast and loose, but
Speaker 3: now we're just like, all right, now we're going to
Speaker 3: be ill with the internet, in with our minds.
Speaker 4: Here's what we think.
Speaker 3: Okay, so here's the challenge, and we're going to go through,
Speaker 3: day by day these steps that you can take. So
Speaker 3: assuming you are doing this four thirty days, on day one,
Speaker 3: Step one, throw away your old budget. Throw it away,
Speaker 3: that's right, crumple it up, get it out of here,
Speaker 3: right into the trash can, the filing cabinet we call
Speaker 3: the trash, or if you have your budget on a computer,
Speaker 3: you know, the metaphorical trash, or just hide it, or
Speaker 3: if you're using an app, just abandon it for a
Speaker 3: little bit of time.
Speaker 1: We're not saying the way you've been budgeting is not working.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's working fine, but we want to visit
Speaker 1: these extremes and try new things to make sure there's
Speaker 1: not a better way to do something for us. There's
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways to budget, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different ways to make spending plan, and you won't
Speaker 1: know if there's a better way for you to do
Speaker 1: something if you don't abandon what you've been doing for
Speaker 1: at least a short amount of time thirty days and
Speaker 1: try something new.
Speaker 3: So we're not saying that you may never come back
Speaker 3: to it. So don't get rid of the app if
Speaker 3: you found an app you like. Don't actually delete all
Speaker 3: of your spreadsheets on your computer. But really, we want
Speaker 3: to come to this challenge with the framework of we're
Speaker 3: going to try something entirely new so that we might
Speaker 3: be able to experience a transformation here. So day one
Speaker 3: is kind of reorienting the mindset that we're starting fresh,
Speaker 3: blank slate, all right.
Speaker 1: So days two through three, so this is a two
Speaker 1: day process, is to do a ninety day transaction inventory.
Speaker 1: If you haven't done one recently, this is the time
Speaker 1: to do it because you cannot make a plan for
Speaker 1: the future if you do not know the basis and
Speaker 1: the path you have already been going on. You need
Speaker 1: to know where you have been how you have ended
Speaker 1: up right here in order to make a feasible path forward.
Speaker 1: And so if you do not know what a ninety
Speaker 1: day transaction inventory, it essentially is taking all of your
Speaker 1: transactions that's discretionary bills, everything, debt payments, investing all of it,
Speaker 1: and you're going to literally copy and paste it from
Speaker 1: either your bank account, credit cards. It's usually going to
Speaker 1: be a combination of several And this is a really
Speaker 1: good time to figure out how many cards you actually
Speaker 1: have transactions going from, too, because sometimes we can track
Speaker 1: our transactions, but we don't realize like, oh, I have
Speaker 1: five credit cards all going like I should maybe reevaluate
Speaker 1: if it's time to cancel one of those or not.
Speaker 1: So we're taking all of our transactions from all of
Speaker 1: our accounts and putting them in one place so that
Speaker 1: we can put them in a spreadsheet and look at
Speaker 1: them by date. We're gonna sort them by date, we're
Speaker 1: gonna sort them buy category. We're going to sort them
Speaker 1: buy the actual transactions so the place and so we're
Speaker 1: gonna look at them in different sortings so we can
Speaker 1: see patterns like on Mondays, I am you know really
Speaker 1: good about my budget, but on Fridays, I am always
Speaker 1: getting takeout or I am always going, you know, to
Speaker 1: Chipotle two or three times a week. I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's not a specific restaurant. Maybe it's just
Speaker 1: takeout and I am getting like the category of takeout
Speaker 1: like way more than I thought I was, or less.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we anticipate it to be really bad and we
Speaker 1: look at it and it's not as bad. So maybe
Speaker 1: it's you don't have to, you know, focus on that.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's something else you want to focus on.
Speaker 3: You did a great walk through of how to do
Speaker 3: a ninety day transaction inventory. So if you've purchased our
Speaker 3: book By What you Love Without Going Broke wherever books
Speaker 3: are found, there's a free resources page attached to that
Speaker 3: that you can go to and get that walk through video, but.
Speaker 1: You and a template. You can get a template for
Speaker 1: doing the inventory, and I walk you through how to
Speaker 1: do it with a.
Speaker 4: Template in your walk through video.
Speaker 3: It was interesting you had an observation that you were
Speaker 3: going out or getting takeout pretty regularly within the last
Speaker 3: ninety days, but you also realize that it wasn't as
Speaker 3: expensive as you thought and that there were times where
Speaker 3: when you were in a really busy season, it actually wasn't.
Speaker 4: The worst idea to do that.
Speaker 3: So there's all sorts of things that we can realize
Speaker 3: when we do a ninety day transaction inventory. So that's
Speaker 3: what you're doing days two to three. Then you're moving
Speaker 3: into days four to six where you are tracking every
Speaker 3: transaction as you make it. So notice we're not making
Speaker 3: you do this for the whole thirty days. We get
Speaker 3: it that that would be a lot, but we really
Speaker 3: want to be attached to the times that we are
Speaker 3: spending and really have you have a full awareness of
Speaker 3: this for at least those three days, days four, five,
Speaker 3: and six that you're either having a mobile spreadsheet on
Speaker 3: your phone or you've got a little journal pad of
Speaker 3: paper that you're carrying around with you and marking down
Speaker 3: every single time that you are making a purchase. And
Speaker 3: so this would be you know, date, location, how much,
Speaker 3: what was it, and of course, if there's any other
Speaker 3: additional journal points that you want to be able to track,
Speaker 3: like the emotions that you're having about that purchase or
Speaker 3: kind of what prompted the purchase, you're reasoning for buying it.
Speaker 3: This is going to get us a lot more aware,
Speaker 3: even beyond the ninety day transaction inventory, of the reasons
Speaker 3: we buy, what we buy, how we feel about our spend,
Speaker 3: kind of the money narrative that we're telling ourselves. There's
Speaker 3: even more observations that can surface through that, which can
Speaker 3: ultimately help to inform the way that we create a
Speaker 3: spending plan down the road. But this we're not really
Speaker 3: making any shifts. We are more or less just continuing
Speaker 3: our observations as they happen. The important part here is
Speaker 3: that you are doing it as the transactions happening. So
Speaker 3: we're not saying, oh, by the end of day six,
Speaker 3: you're going to go back and track it all. No,
Speaker 3: we're saying, in the moment we're writing it down, we're
Speaker 3: putting extra action to those purchases.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and these days are chosen intentionally. So this release
Speaker 1: is on April first, which is a Tuesday. So these
Speaker 1: days four, five, and six are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Speaker 1: So gottam, Yeah, if you're doing this challenge on a
Speaker 1: different month, try to align it so that your challenge
Speaker 1: starts on a Tuesday, so these days can be on
Speaker 1: the weekend. And so then days seven through twelve. We're
Speaker 1: starting Monday. We're doing a no spend week. So after
Speaker 1: you've done your ninety day transaction inventory and you've gotten
Speaker 1: kind of savvy to your habits triggers where you're spending
Speaker 1: what you maybe have been anxious about but isn't as
Speaker 1: bad as you thought it would be. You've tracked every
Speaker 1: transaction as you made it for a couple days. Now
Speaker 1: we are going to abstain from all discretionary spending for
Speaker 1: an entire week. Obviously, if your car needs gas to
Speaker 1: get to work, we're putting gas in the car. That
Speaker 1: doesn't count. If we have a bill due this week,
Speaker 1: we are paying the bill that doesn't count. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about discretionary expenses that are not necessary. So the extra
Speaker 1: trip to the grocery shore, the takeout, the coffee out,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And you'll know what it is because
Speaker 1: you just spent a week looking at those things. And
Speaker 1: so this is where we pull back all together and
Speaker 1: see what are the most difficult things to abstain from.
Speaker 1: Because right when you're doing a fast, all you think
Speaker 1: about is food. Right when you can eat, I could
Speaker 1: go all day, I can forget to eat all day.
Speaker 1: But when I'm fasting. It's all I think.
Speaker 4: It's like, all of a sudden, I RT breakfast.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of the concept. We're thinking, what
Speaker 1: are these mind things that come up with the no
Speaker 1: spend week, and so we're trying to get that. Just
Speaker 1: like we threw away the budget on day one so
Speaker 1: that we could find something else that may work or
Speaker 1: or know that it doesn't, we're kind of doing the
Speaker 1: same with a no spend challenge. So for one week,
Speaker 1: you're pulling all the way back, You're visiting the extreme
Speaker 1: of extreme frugality so that afterwards we can find our
Speaker 1: radical middle more easily.
Speaker 3: Next is days thirteen to eighteen. This is may a
Speaker 3: meal plan and stick to it. So this is since
Speaker 3: meal since food really is one of our highest expenses
Speaker 3: every month, you know, next to housing and transportation, it's
Speaker 3: one of the areas that we have the most control
Speaker 3: over when it comes to decreasing expenses and really being
Speaker 3: able to kind of rain in our spending. And so
Speaker 3: there's so much alignment between revamping and transforming our budget
Speaker 3: and revamping and transforming the ways in which we feed ourselves.
Speaker 3: So taking this nearly one week little less than that
Speaker 3: to primarily look at food. Creating a meal plan, trying
Speaker 3: to stick with it for these about five days can
Speaker 3: also really help us know what's possible in the future.
Speaker 3: And this one again, if you're doing it in May,
Speaker 3: the thirteenth is a Sunday, so that allows you that
Speaker 3: day to create the meal plan on that Sunday, maybe
Speaker 3: do any shopping if needed. Of course, the meal plan
Speaker 3: should include items that you already have in your pantry,
Speaker 3: in your freezer, in your fridge, and create the meal
Speaker 3: plan based off of that. Honestly, AI is so helpful
Speaker 3: with this. You can just go to chatchypt and be like,
Speaker 3: make me a meal plan with these ingredients for five weeks.
Speaker 3: Include this many lunches, this many dinners, all of that.
Speaker 4: So make that decide what you want to eat, make
Speaker 4: it yummy.
Speaker 3: Like actually something that you're going to want to eat
Speaker 3: and not feel super bummed about that you're doing this
Speaker 3: challenge and try your darnedest to stick to that plan
Speaker 3: for the thirteenth to eighteenth.
Speaker 1: And then we get into the nineteenth and twenty, which
Speaker 1: are a Saturday and Sunday, and we want to do
Speaker 1: a free activity maybe two maybe you do a free
Speaker 1: activity each day, but we want to start to exercise
Speaker 1: our free activity muscles so that we interrupt our usual
Speaker 1: weekend patterns of going shopping, going to the farmer's market,
Speaker 1: going to a movie, going out to eat with friends,
Speaker 1: things that cost money. We want to reprogram into seeking
Speaker 1: free activities first. So that might start with getting your
Speaker 1: city's weekly email or monthly. My city is technically a municipality,
Speaker 1: and they still send out a weekly email with all
Speaker 1: the things going on, like over the next several weeks
Speaker 1: in the municipality, So I'm sure your city sends something
Speaker 1: with free activities. You can also check Facebook and event bright.
Speaker 1: These also have free activities that are maybe from smaller
Speaker 1: retailers and places. Check your favorite places to go that
Speaker 1: might sometimes spend money or cost money and see if
Speaker 1: they're having any free days, you know, like museums or
Speaker 1: like indoor playgrounds stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Also a lot of times local venues will give free
Speaker 3: tickets to maybe concerts or comedy shows if they haven't
Speaker 3: sold out all of their tickets.
Speaker 1: And these are going to be big names, obviously they're
Speaker 1: gonna be local apps.
Speaker 4: Yeh yeah, yeah, but that's something to look into.
Speaker 3: What are your local venues and join their mailing list
Speaker 3: or check out their website and just see if you'd
Speaker 3: be able to score some last minute free tickets. Okay,
Speaker 3: So days twenty one through twenty three, this is going
Speaker 3: to be all about assessing our subscriptions, looking at our
Speaker 3: fixed expenses and identifying what can be dropped, what can
Speaker 3: be shifted, what do we want to keep the same.
Speaker 3: So now that we've entered kind of the tail end
Speaker 3: of this challenge, we're starting to look at the ways
Speaker 3: in which we want to re build our spending plan
Speaker 3: going forward. So this is going to include dropping the
Speaker 3: things that we no longer need. So really considering now
Speaker 3: at this point in the thirty days, do I really
Speaker 3: need to have three different entertainment subscriptions? Do I even
Speaker 3: really read that newspaper or that magazine?
Speaker 4: Do I need that.
Speaker 3: Clothing subscription still? Or do I now have a good
Speaker 3: understanding of the types of clothing that I want to wear?
Speaker 3: And maybe now I'm going to go more secondhand with
Speaker 3: my shopping. There's a lot of new ways that we
Speaker 3: can look at how we want to live life, the
Speaker 3: type of lifestyle that we're taking on that it doesn't
Speaker 3: have to look the same as it did in the
Speaker 3: previous thirty days or the last year of our lives.
Speaker 3: This could be where we even bring in new challenges
Speaker 3: for ourselves of what if I just went down to
Speaker 3: one entertainment subscription, or what if next month we decided
Speaker 3: no entertainment. We're int bring into some really beautiful springtime
Speaker 3: weather and we would rather just spend our evenings outdoors
Speaker 3: or cooking together or learning a new skill, and I
Speaker 3: really want to try less screen time for myself. There's
Speaker 3: all sorts of things that you could decide here, but
Speaker 3: going back through that ninety day transaction inventory can help
Speaker 3: you to highlight what subscriptions do I just want to
Speaker 3: get rid of try out life without them, and what
Speaker 3: fixed expenses might I possibly be able to drop or
Speaker 3: shift or change. You're going to talk about the next
Speaker 3: thing that you can do with your fixed expenses, but
Speaker 3: just know that everything is.
Speaker 4: Up for debate. Even where we.
Speaker 3: Live now, we're not saying that at the end of
Speaker 3: thirty days, most people are going to say I'm going
Speaker 3: to go move somewhere. But I think we often don't
Speaker 3: question our fixed expenses. We don't look at, well, is
Speaker 3: there a way to get my utility bill lower? Or
Speaker 3: what if I did live in a lower cost of
Speaker 3: living area, I didn't even realize how much my home
Speaker 3: is actually costing me month to month. So just allow
Speaker 3: yourself to explore what we would typically consider fixed, see
Speaker 3: if there's any creative alternatives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the next two days twenty fourth and
Speaker 1: twenty fifth is negotiate something. So after you've looked at
Speaker 1: your subscriptions, your expenses, now it's time to choose one.
Speaker 1: Call up the provider negotiate your rate. So this works
Speaker 1: a lot better when you are closer to your renewal
Speaker 1: so auto insurance, phone, internet, stuff like that. If you
Speaker 1: are not near that, if you're not in a good
Speaker 1: time to negotiate, look on Facebook marketplace. Think of something
Speaker 1: that you are going to buy new and try to
Speaker 1: find it on Facebook, Marketplace, poshmark eBay, whatever, and see
Speaker 1: if you can negotiate it down and then get an
Speaker 1: even lower price than the secondhand price. Negotiation is a
Speaker 1: muscle and we need to be exercising it. Really every
Speaker 1: month we need to be negotiating something just to remind
Speaker 1: ourselves that we can get I often get into this
Speaker 1: thing where like I don't think I deserve discounts or
Speaker 1: to pay less and so I don't ask for it,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what that says about me. But
Speaker 1: I need to practice negotiation and just assume that everything
Speaker 1: can be negotiated so that I remember that that is available.
Speaker 1: I need to intentionally go in and do things like that.
Speaker 1: So on other times when I clam up and I
Speaker 1: don't think I deserve it, I am reminded, hold on,
Speaker 1: I am doing this all the time in this area.
Speaker 1: It is worth it for me to try to see
Speaker 1: if it applies in this area, and so often it does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is one of the things.
Speaker 3: I am not the greatest at carving out time to
Speaker 3: do this, but most people are successful in one way
Speaker 3: or another when it comes to negotiating.
Speaker 1: And this is small. This isn't spending, but it has
Speaker 1: a greater impact when we are negotiating business deals, sales, promotions, salaries.
Speaker 1: This is where this skill is going to make a
Speaker 1: big difference. But we need to practice with the small
Speaker 1: things if we're going to have a chance succeeding the
Speaker 1: big things.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, so day's twenty six to twenty seven. Once
Speaker 3: you've done all of the other things we've listed out,
Speaker 3: now we're gonna declutter.
Speaker 1: And twenty six and twenty seven, that's another weekend. So
Speaker 1: it's right, last weekend of the challenge.
Speaker 3: Only two days, so we are not saying this is
Speaker 3: an over hall of our entire living spaces.
Speaker 4: It's two days. So let's be realistic, not.
Speaker 1: Even all day on two days, right, realistic about what
Speaker 1: you wanted to clutter and decide that ahead of time.
Speaker 3: Is it just a drawer in your kitchen, Is it
Speaker 3: just your closet, Is it just even the car. Let's
Speaker 3: not forget that the car decluttering as well. So you
Speaker 3: choose what it's going to be. But this is going
Speaker 3: to do a couple of things for us. It's going to,
Speaker 3: first of all, kind of cross off the list probably
Speaker 3: something that has been hanging over us for a long time.
Speaker 3: We've finally found the weekend that we're going to do it.
Speaker 3: It's going to free up physical space, which can also
Speaker 3: free up mental space. For most of us, when we
Speaker 3: live in kind of a cluttered, overwhelming, chaotic feeling space,
Speaker 3: it stresses us out more, and when we have higher
Speaker 3: stress levels, we are not able to make as good
Speaker 3: of decision as we would have made if we were
Speaker 3: feeling a little bit less stressed, So that can also
Speaker 3: help us monetarily, maybe even help to build this skill
Speaker 3: set and habit of decluttering more often. And we're not
Speaker 3: talking about minimalism, and we're also not talking about just
Speaker 3: straight up organization. We're talking about the things that you
Speaker 3: no longer need in your space anymore, having the opportunity
Speaker 3: to sell them secondhand, throw it away if it truly
Speaker 3: is just trash, find it a new home in whatever
Speaker 3: way that that makes sense, but also finding a home
Speaker 3: within your own home for some of these things that
Speaker 3: just might be out of place. So decluttering can kind
Speaker 3: of just also give us a new, fresh, new beginning
Speaker 3: on our physical spaces, as we're also kind of transforming
Speaker 3: our budget.
Speaker 1: So then next we have days twenty eight through twenty nine.
Speaker 1: We're getting to the end. List a few items to sell.
Speaker 1: So of the things that you have decluttered, take a
Speaker 1: few things that you think might sell and post them
Speaker 1: on Facebook Marketplace. Honestly, I would say even if you
Speaker 1: don't think it will sell, because honestly, the things I
Speaker 1: buy on Facebook Marketplace are bizarre. I wouldn't automatically list
Speaker 1: them like I bought yarn or floss for my embroidery
Speaker 1: I am looking for a lunch box and I have
Speaker 1: found one. I just haven't reached out to the person
Speaker 1: selling it yet. But so stuff like that. Honestly, if
Speaker 1: it's newer, I think the quality matters more than what
Speaker 1: the actual thing is. So if it's pretty new, looks
Speaker 1: good and you're like, who is gonna want this?
Speaker 4: Do you don't know?
Speaker 1: Post it and see. We once took a bunch of
Speaker 1: clothes to Plato's Closet, which is a consignment like franchise,
Speaker 1: and there was there were long pant overalls that had
Speaker 1: Pooh Bear on the front, and I was like, Travis,
Speaker 1: why is this even in here? This should be in
Speaker 1: the thrift store. Bile like, nobody's gonna buy this? And
Speaker 1: I when I tell you, they bought one thing and
Speaker 1: it was those Pooh Bear overalls.
Speaker 4: Amazing.
Speaker 1: I am. I was shook. And so don't assume you
Speaker 1: know what's going to sell unless you are doing this consistently.
Speaker 1: Just post it and see post a few things and see.
Speaker 3: The nice thing too, is you can do porch pickup.
Speaker 3: I usually do porch pickup for things that are like
Speaker 3: thirty five dollars or less. It's to me, okay, if
Speaker 3: you choose to steal it off my front porch. Well,
Speaker 3: first of all, I've got your information and I have
Speaker 3: security cameras. But also this thing was probably gonna end
Speaker 3: up at the thrift store anyways. So fine, no big
Speaker 3: deal and just a lot less headache going back and forth.
Speaker 3: I can just send them you know, my my Venmo
Speaker 3: or zell or cash app or whatever, and you can
Speaker 3: just have it be contactless. That has reduced my barrier
Speaker 3: to entry and selling things online, yep, And because so
Speaker 3: often that is that's the collection of things that I
Speaker 3: have is things that are five, seven, ten, twelve dollars
Speaker 3: And it's like, am I really gonna go through this
Speaker 3: whole regular role for five bucks? But if you've got
Speaker 3: twenty things for five dollars, yeah, that's kind of worth it.
Speaker 1: And you know what, they're gonna be sitting in the
Speaker 1: trunk of your car for a couple months before you
Speaker 1: bring them to the thrift store anyway. Yeah, just have
Speaker 1: them in the trunk of your car and try to
Speaker 1: sell them at the same time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay, we've done a lot, but we're not done yet.
Speaker 3: This is the last step. The last day of the
Speaker 3: thirty Day Challenge.
Speaker 4: Day thirty.
Speaker 3: It's set up an automatic transfer of money to your
Speaker 3: four to oh one K or roth ira, and don't
Speaker 3: skip this step. It is not the next month yet
Speaker 3: we did tourt over.
Speaker 1: We didn't say an amount, no, just set some kind
Speaker 1: of transfer.
Speaker 3: And hopefully you've been able to discover by this point
Speaker 3: kind of where some of your money is going that
Speaker 3: you wanted to make shifts on, that you don't need
Speaker 3: to be spending on that subscription or that much money
Speaker 3: on eating out. Like you've now discovered, you're now ready
Speaker 3: to create what this new spending plan looks like, and
Speaker 3: it needs to include automatic transfers into your entire retirement
Speaker 3: investing accounts. Again, doesn't matter how much, but make it automatic,
Speaker 3: make it recurring, that this is going to be happening
Speaker 3: regularly with or without you, that you don't need to
Speaker 3: be making these monthly decisions in order to set yourself
Speaker 3: up well for the future. Make it a part of
Speaker 3: your spending plan, but also make it super super simple
Speaker 3: so it's not a decision you have to make every month.
Speaker 1: Even if you're paying off debt. This is the time
Speaker 1: to oh up that brokerage or get that four A
Speaker 1: one K set up and start putting little bits of
Speaker 1: money in there. You can now start with as little
Speaker 1: as ten dollars at fidelity. There's it's so accessible. It's
Speaker 1: just time to start and start building the habit. Bake
Speaker 1: it into your budget, make it automatic.
Speaker 3: And if you already have this, if you've already got
Speaker 3: automatic transfers, consider if you can invest even more if
Speaker 3: you're not maxing it out. What's one small step you
Speaker 3: can make to get yourself closer to maxing out your contributions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've done thirty days. I just want to
Speaker 1: recap how this is going to transform your budget because
Speaker 1: some of these things seem peripheral to it, but they
Speaker 1: all have an impact in transforming your budget going forward.
Speaker 1: So we are trying new things, seeing if new ways work.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're trying a new budgeting app. Were looking at
Speaker 1: our spending to make sure that we are on top
Speaker 1: of our spending habits so that we can accurately prepare
Speaker 1: a budget for next month. We are tracking our transactions,
Speaker 1: being aware of our spending in the moment again so
Speaker 1: that we can make better decisions. Once we make the budget,
Speaker 1: we can better execute it because we're more aware of
Speaker 1: our actions in the moment, we're trying to to spend
Speaker 1: weeks so that we can see what are the things
Speaker 1: that I've been budgeting for that maybe I don't need
Speaker 1: to budget for anymore, Or what are the things I
Speaker 1: feel guilty budgeting for that maybe I need to budget
Speaker 1: for guilt free in the future. We're doing a meal
Speaker 1: plan so that we can get back on track with
Speaker 1: meal planning if maybe we've fallen off. We have a
Speaker 1: couple like we have a week to just really dedicate
Speaker 1: to that, looking at free activities so we can incorporate
Speaker 1: more of those, maybe lower our experiences budget. We're lowering
Speaker 1: our subscriptions, our fixed expenses, We're lowering our spending on
Speaker 1: buying new things because we are thinking about how to
Speaker 1: negotiate things that we want, maybe thinking secondhand first. We're
Speaker 1: decluttering and selling a few items, so maybe we get
Speaker 1: into that habit. So that's a little bit more income
Speaker 1: in our budget every month. If we're selling something for
Speaker 1: I don't know, twenty even if it's twenty bucks a month,
Speaker 1: that's something to add to your guilt free spending. And
Speaker 1: then we are also automating retirement contributions so that we
Speaker 1: can just have those in the budget moving forward and
Speaker 1: not worry about them. So these all have an impact
Speaker 1: on how you budget moving forward. And if you do
Speaker 1: all thirty days, I promise you you will see changes
Speaker 1: and you will transform your budget for the year.
Speaker 3: Because you're transforming kind of the way that you think
Speaker 3: about money and your behavior. Like we're not talking a
Speaker 3: thirty day budget transformation challenge because we got really good
Speaker 3: at understanding spreadsheets and apps, because that's not actually what
Speaker 3: the what a failed budget is attached to. It has
Speaker 3: to do with our own spending habits and understanding our
Speaker 3: relationship with money. That's what these thirty days are going
Speaker 3: to do. Then you plug in the numbers, make it
Speaker 3: simple with your your income, your fixed expenses, your discretionary spending,
Speaker 3: you're investing, you're giving, and just move on from there.
Speaker 1: And if you want a checklist with all of these things,
Speaker 1: head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com sign up for
Speaker 1: the friend Letter. We are going to be sending out
Speaker 1: a checklist with all of these things in the friend
Speaker 1: Letter tomorrow February second. And if you are not on
Speaker 1: the friend Letter and you're listening to this after February second,
Speaker 1: sign up anyway and let us know emil and we'll
Speaker 1: send it to you whenever that is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can still sign up for the friend letter
Speaker 3: and then you can email us back through that friend letter.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And you know what else we can do right now,
Speaker 3: that is a challenge that we've been doing for the
Speaker 3: entirety of this podcast.
Speaker 1: It has transformed my life.
Speaker 5: The bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
Speaker 5: the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 2: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 2: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 5: Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 5: of the week.
Speaker 4: Hi, Jen and Jill.
Speaker 6: This is Ellen from California and I love you guys,
Speaker 6: and you've moted me so much. My bill of the
Speaker 6: week is that I just paid off all of my
Speaker 6: consumer debt just under fourteen thousand dollars and it feels
Speaker 6: so so good and so freeing. Thanks so much for
Speaker 6: everything you do.
Speaker 1: Bye, Ellen, you are consumer debt Bread.
Speaker 3: Ellen from California. We love you too, and we love
Speaker 3: hearing from you, and thank you so so much for
Speaker 3: choosing to celebrate with us just under fourteen thousand dollars
Speaker 3: is nothing to sneeze at. And I imagine that that
Speaker 3: took some time and some dedication, probably a few sacrifices
Speaker 3: along the way.
Speaker 4: And we are cheering you on.
Speaker 3: What a great, great feeling, what an excellent bill of
Speaker 3: the week. Congrat sellen. If you all are listening, you
Speaker 3: have a bill that you want to submit, if it
Speaker 3: has to do with paying off debt or a bill
Speaker 3: that you don't mind paying. Where your name is Bill
Speaker 3: and you also live in California or literally anywhere else
Speaker 3: in the world, visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash bill,
Speaker 3: leave us your bill. We cannot wait to hear it.
Speaker 3: And now it's time for the light background shoot.
Speaker 1: All right, So for today's lightning round, what's one habit
Speaker 1: that makes the biggest impact on your budget slash suspecting plan.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: So for me, I don't know if this is a
Speaker 1: good answer.
Speaker 4: My kids.
Speaker 1: Have the biggest impact. I guess it's not a habit
Speaker 1: have the biggest impact on my budget.
Speaker 3: Oh, you're going the opposite direction, like biggest negative impact
Speaker 3: on your well.
Speaker 1: Actual, No, I was going positive. Okay, They keep us
Speaker 1: from doing a lot of expensive things, because I'm like,
Speaker 1: why am I gonna spend all this money to do
Speaker 1: something with these ungrateful like rockets that are just gonna
Speaker 1: be shooting around and it's not gonna be fun for me,
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be fun for anyone, So why do
Speaker 1: I I'm not gonna do a kind of things.
Speaker 3: Okay, to clarify, Kai is not an ungrateful child. He
Speaker 3: is like girl, is he not? Okay, maybe I just
Speaker 3: see a different side of him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean he's just are are not perfect?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it keeps me from doing very
Speaker 1: expensive things, Like there's no way we take them to
Speaker 1: a sit down restaurant. It's just gonna be horror. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that has the biggest positive impact. And they're
Speaker 1: not honestly, they're not that expensive. They don't eat a lot,
Speaker 1: which is actually troublesome because they will eat anything that
Speaker 1: I make. But they that's not expensive. They're not you know,
Speaker 1: they're overwhelmingly healthy. Thankfully. We had to go to the
Speaker 1: doctor for an ear infection yesterday, but that is rare.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Like, I know that's a weird answer, but.
Speaker 4: No, I mean it's the reality of this life stage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like I don't hear many parents say
Speaker 3: that having kids is inexpensive.
Speaker 1: It's not inexpensive. I will say that, but it's not.
Speaker 1: I guess we're in a phase right now where it's
Speaker 1: not super expensive. We get a lot of their stuff secondhand, and.
Speaker 4: Not paying for a ton of kids activities we.
Speaker 1: Don't pay well. Kai's not very athletic, so we're not
Speaker 1: signing him up for any sports, because again, why would
Speaker 1: we do that to ourselves. I did try to sign
Speaker 1: him up for a run club and it actually got
Speaker 1: canceled because not enough people signed up for it. And
Speaker 1: then he comes home me he complains to me, He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't like peat because I am the slowest and
Speaker 1: everyone beats me. And I was like, well, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that run club got canceled, so or.
Speaker 4: He would have gotten better at running. That's what I
Speaker 4: was cold. Look at both ways.
Speaker 1: He's not great at team sports, so I was thinking
Speaker 1: maybe an individual sport golf. I already did you imagine
Speaker 1: I already little six year old playing golf And Travis
Speaker 1: was like, absolutely no way, and I was like, I.
Speaker 4: Am, we are actually too frugal for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's not like we're just in a season
Speaker 1: where we're we're doing a lot of parks, we're walking,
Speaker 1: we're doing a lot of free stuff, libraries so great,
Speaker 1: second hand close, not a lot of like virtually no
Speaker 1: paid activities, just daycare. Really for Atlas, which I guess
Speaker 1: you could argue is I mean, it is honestly one
Speaker 1: of the largest expenses we have every month. But that
Speaker 1: won't be for that's an investment, so I don't have
Speaker 1: to work expense.
Speaker 4: It's an investment.
Speaker 1: I see it as an investment. How about you?
Speaker 3: For me, I don't scroll online shopping websites. And I
Speaker 3: here's the thing about that. It's not because I'm better
Speaker 3: than anyone who does do this. It's not because I
Speaker 3: think it is truly because I don't understand Internet, Like
Speaker 3: I half the time really don't even know what to
Speaker 3: do on my phone, Like I scroll Instagram occasionally throughout
Speaker 3: the day. I honestly couldn't tell you what ads people
Speaker 3: are trying to give me. So I'm not buying things
Speaker 3: that influencers are trying to sell. And then I'm just
Speaker 3: not scrolling shopping websites, which I've learned recently is something
Speaker 3: people will do like that that is a thing, so
Speaker 3: I just happen to not do it. So I'm gonna
Speaker 3: call that a habit. I might as well not ever
Speaker 3: start love that for you because I don't need that temptation.
Speaker 3: That's not something I need to do on my phone. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just text people do that instead. Send people memes.
Speaker 1: Send memes. I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about this and
Speaker 1: preach it for I guess several more weeks. Send memes
Speaker 1: to your friends. It's just a good way connect, to
Speaker 1: connect and not spend money. So thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. We love having you here and we're excited
Speaker 1: to share all the changes coming up in just two episodes,
Speaker 1: so not next. It's run one week, so please tune
Speaker 1: in for episode five hundreds me a good one. But
Speaker 1: we also love reading your kind of reviews. Reading your
Speaker 1: review U is on episodes is not going anywhere like
Speaker 1: this one from Anon. I wonder if that's short for
Speaker 1: anonymous or just a noon. This book it's about our
Speaker 1: book by What you Love without Going Broke, And they
Speaker 1: say this book ties a beautiful bow around the concept
Speaker 1: of only spending money on things that you value. It
Speaker 1: helps to define your why and ultimately what makes you happy.
Speaker 1: I've read countless finance books that have never really changed
Speaker 1: my attitude and mindset about money. However, after reading this
Speaker 1: book and listening to the podcast, I understand that I've
Speaker 1: been spending on things that will mean nothing to me
Speaker 1: by the time they arrive at my doorstep. This book
Speaker 1: has helped me understand myself and the psychology aspect of
Speaker 1: money while giving useful money tips. Reading this book is
Speaker 1: like reading a letter from a long lost friend. My
Speaker 1: millennial heart has been filled with reminiscent moments. The book
Speaker 1: in this podcast have changed my view and life on
Speaker 1: money and on life and money for the best. Thank
Speaker 1: you frugal friends, who are the friends I've never had,
Speaker 1: and I have finally found a community of people who
Speaker 1: understand me.
Speaker 4: Anon.
Speaker 3: Wish you weren't anonymous unless that is your name, and
Speaker 3: thank you Anon. This is such a beautifully written review
Speaker 3: of the book, and it's so heartwarming to know that
Speaker 3: it is really helping people, especially in some areas where
Speaker 3: there are gaps in what is written in other personal
Speaker 3: finance books. We think that there's so many different ways
Speaker 3: that we can get our financial knowledge and that we
Speaker 3: can take a collection of podcasts and books and resources.
Speaker 3: We know we're not the only voices, but it is
Speaker 3: really beautiful when we can be an additional voice to
Speaker 3: help put that next layer that's needed on top of
Speaker 3: just spending better saving more so so so grateful and
Speaker 3: thank you all for listening. So if you've read the book,
Speaker 3: please do leave us a review. It's superful and also
Speaker 3: just encouraging for us. And if you like the show,
Speaker 3: we would also love it if you'd take a minute
Speaker 3: it even has It doesn't even need to take a
Speaker 3: full minute.
Speaker 4: You don't have to leave a longer review.
Speaker 3: Just something like like this show, enjoyed that things, Jen
Speaker 3: and Jill anything you know. I'm not gonna tell you
Speaker 3: what to write, but it just doesn't need to take long.
Speaker 3: We'd super appreciate it if you'd do that.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much and we will see you next time.
Speaker 4: Bye.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: All right, Jen, give it to him straight baby.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: So this is one of the changes, and this is
Speaker 1: a preview of another one of the not changes but
Speaker 1: new it is new things. So starting this Monday, so
Speaker 1: this comes out on a Tuesday, Starting Monday, April seventh,
Speaker 1: we are launching a new project called Weekly Money Move.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, every Monday, we will be sharing with you
Speaker 1: a move probably five minutes, maybe an hour. You know,
Speaker 1: nothing big, but.
Speaker 4: What the move will take you five minutes to an right.
Speaker 1: And whether you are new to personal finance or you
Speaker 1: are a fire nerd whatever like personal Finance nerd, you
Speaker 1: will be able to do this money move each week
Speaker 1: to get ahead with your finances, stay on top, organize, refine,
Speaker 1: make sure you're being as efficient as possible. This is
Speaker 1: a move for everyone on any level to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are succeeding with your finances. It is accessible
Speaker 1: to every level and we are going to be posting
Speaker 1: it first in the friend letter so Frugal friendspodcast dot com.
Speaker 1: Make sure you're getting the friend letter because every Monday morning,
Speaker 1: this money move is coming to your inbox. We're going
Speaker 1: to tell you what it is, how to do it,
Speaker 1: and what its impact is. And we have started a
Speaker 1: new Instagram account that you can follow and see the
Speaker 1: video version of it at Weekly Money Move. And the
Speaker 1: reason we started a new account is so that we're
Speaker 1: only going to be posting these once a week and
Speaker 1: we want it to be accessible so you can see
Speaker 1: all of them. You know, there is going to be
Speaker 1: fifty two in a year. We want you to be
Speaker 1: able to see all of them easily, so maybe you
Speaker 1: missed one and youniqu catch up. We don't want you
Speaker 1: to scroll through all of the things we post on
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast Instagram to find the Weekly Money Move.
Speaker 1: So that's why we have started at Weekly Money Move.
Speaker 1: Go to Instagram, follow it. You will not only get
Speaker 1: it in your inbox every Monday, but it'll also pop
Speaker 1: up on your feed on Instagram every Monday. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we are so excited about this. It's going it's a
Speaker 1: very well rounded it's fifty two money Moves right, So
Speaker 1: it's not just frugality, but it's all about good stewardship
Speaker 1: of our money and the things that touch our money,
Speaker 1: that our money touches, so you can be very organized
Speaker 1: on top of and ahead of the game with your finances.
Speaker 4: Super excited about it.
Speaker 3: I love the cohesion kind of across the board that
Speaker 3: you know we've got this on Instagram. It will be
Speaker 3: we will share it to Frugal Friends as well. Yeah, Coloud,
Speaker 3: you'll see it, yeah, and then to be able to
Speaker 3: talk about it more in the friend letter. There's just
Speaker 3: so much marrying of all the different places that you
Speaker 3: can find us and get more from us.
Speaker 4: But we just I was.
Speaker 3: The other day I said this aloud, genuinely. I was
Speaker 3: working on a reel for our Fugal Friends podcast Instagram
Speaker 3: account and was just overcome with this emotion of how
Speaker 3: much I love creating helpful content. I think, in as
Speaker 3: much as I do scroll on Instagram, not a lot
Speaker 3: of it is that or people are just trying to
Speaker 3: hawk products at me. And it just feels so good
Speaker 3: to be in these spaces and actually giving content that
Speaker 3: I truly believe is useful to people.
Speaker 4: Like if they.
Speaker 3: Scroll upon this and they hear us just describing something
Speaker 3: like not clouded in some like paywall, like we're gonna
Speaker 3: tell you about.
Speaker 4: This, but you got to do x y Z.
Speaker 3: Like we're literally just giving steps that we think will
Speaker 3: help people financially. And yeah, and I'm not It may
Speaker 3: sound like I'm bragging, but I truly am just so
Speaker 3: excited about it. It does light me up to be
Speaker 3: useful people just give it, give it for free. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but we are also giving some stuff for paid because
Speaker 3: we do have to, We do have to support the
Speaker 3: thing that we love to.
Speaker 1: Do, but it's not going to be just things like
Speaker 1: useless things like we after seven years with you guys,
Speaker 1: really think we have found what you have asked for
Speaker 1: that is different than what the rest of the market is,
Speaker 1: because that's another thing, like we can always point to
Speaker 1: something that's already been made, But I think we've found
Speaker 1: a few things that our listeners want that are unique
Speaker 1: and not done before, and I am very excited to
Speaker 1: share those things.
Speaker 4: Same all right, see you next time. Bye.