Speaker 1: Episode five oh two, how to Save money on your
Speaker 1: Electric bill.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver life. Here your hosts
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Joe, and today we are talking specifically
Speaker 1: about your electric bill. Ways that you can get electricity
Speaker 1: for free, low cost, get a deal on it, or
Speaker 1: feel good paying for.
Speaker 3: It, which is our new method of how we're going
Speaker 3: about these episodes. We are not looking to the Internet
Speaker 3: in the same ways that we used to. We're not
Speaker 3: doing the old Google search and going through an article.
Speaker 3: We've got our own framework how to get it for free,
Speaker 3: low cost, deal, guilt free. But first, this episode brought
Speaker 3: to you by electrifying experiences, not the kind that hurt,
Speaker 3: but the kind that are fun, exhilarating, thrilling, inspiring, like
Speaker 3: the friend Letter, which is at least two of those things.
Speaker 3: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we're inspiring you with a
Speaker 3: weekly money move you can make to get one step
Speaker 3: closer to better financial management. And we're thrilling you with
Speaker 3: some freebies ways to save money on stuff you're already
Speaker 3: buying and helpful ways to reduce impulse spending and feel
Speaker 3: less guilt about buying the things you love. So get
Speaker 3: it for free at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Be
Speaker 3: electrified by our friend letter.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love checking out the friend letter. The gifts
Speaker 1: are always on point. I opened it one time and
Speaker 1: there was a ice skating dinosaur and I said, yep,
Speaker 1: this is this is these are my people. I don't
Speaker 1: write the friend letters, but I open them up and say,
Speaker 1: this is on brand. This is us all right. So
Speaker 1: we've talked about saving money on utilities and bills in
Speaker 1: the past, and this year we have committed to updating
Speaker 1: and publishing new information, new episodes everything how to save
Speaker 1: money on X, how to save money on Everything, because
Speaker 1: it's been quite a long time since we recorded episodes
Speaker 1: specific like this, and a lot has changed. AI technology
Speaker 1: has made a lot of lot, a lot of things
Speaker 1: more accessible and a lot of new things. So that
Speaker 1: is what we are talking about. If you do want
Speaker 1: to get some more summer specific episodes, check out episode
Speaker 1: four to eleven. Want to Budget for this Summer Episode
Speaker 1: three ozho one Frugal living Tips for from the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: It's not summer specific or bill specific, but people tend
Speaker 1: to like that episode. But all right, let's get into
Speaker 1: a ways to save money on your electric bill.
Speaker 3: So the first category that we want to look at
Speaker 3: is how can you get it for free? This is
Speaker 3: not going to be for everybody, but like our framework suggests,
Speaker 3: we want to offer you a way or an understanding
Speaker 3: of how you can meet these needs at various levels,
Speaker 3: depending on where you're at currently. So there are programs
Speaker 3: like lie HEAP stands for Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Speaker 3: Program that will assist low income households, particularly those who
Speaker 3: have low income but are paying a high proportion of
Speaker 3: their household income towards home energy needs. So this is
Speaker 3: a program that might just supplement how much money you're paying.
Speaker 3: There are times, however, where they might pay your entire
Speaker 3: electric bill through this program. So the guidelines are in
Speaker 3: a vary state to state, but usually it's around two
Speaker 3: hundred percent of the poverty guidelines. So if you are
Speaker 3: one person earning an income living alone, the guidelines would
Speaker 3: be about thirty one thousand dollars that you're making annually
Speaker 3: where you could be eligible for lie HEAP. Two people
Speaker 3: in a household would be forty two thousand dollars annually
Speaker 3: a year for people in the household sixty four thousand
Speaker 3: dollars a year. But you can find what you might
Speaker 3: be eligible for with your local lie heat program, so
Speaker 3: you can go to energyhelp dot Us to learn about
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you have kids, two or three kids, then
Speaker 1: this is something definitely to look into. If you're a
Speaker 1: single income household with multiple kids and your household income
Speaker 1: is around sixty four thousand dollars or less, definitely head
Speaker 1: to its energyhelp dot us and see if you qualify
Speaker 1: for light heap. There's also the Weatherization Assistance Program WOP.
Speaker 1: I think they made a song about this one, but
Speaker 1: it helps low income families improve the energy efficiency of
Speaker 1: their home and so are there are programs like this
Speaker 1: that help everyone, and we'll talk about that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but this one is specifically that it will not just
Speaker 1: tell you how to improve the energy efficiency, but will
Speaker 1: actually help you take those steps as well.
Speaker 3: I also know that many energy companies themselves will have
Speaker 3: their own grants and programs, so you can go to
Speaker 3: whoever your energy provider is directly and see if you
Speaker 3: might be eligible for discounts or free energy again depending
Speaker 3: on your need.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very often most of those programs are like
Speaker 1: funded by lie heap. But also so they will have
Speaker 1: separate ones as well. So even if maybe you did
Speaker 1: not qualify for this one, see if your electric company
Speaker 1: has any other grants or programs. All right, So the
Speaker 1: next one is how do we get it for low cost?
Speaker 1: How do we get our electricity at the lowest cost
Speaker 1: possible without doing anything illegal or sacrificing quality?
Speaker 3: So just plug into your neighbors.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, No, that's not what we're talking about. So
Speaker 1: I see on the internet a lot of all kinds
Speaker 1: of recommendations, and this is kind of where we're going
Speaker 1: to debunk some of those and tell you where you're
Speaker 1: going to get the most bang for your buck. So
Speaker 1: one thing I see recommended a lot is getting energy
Speaker 1: efficient appliances that will help you pay less for your
Speaker 1: energy bill. And so I think that is from doing
Speaker 1: research on how much your appliances actually contribute to your
Speaker 1: energy bill. It's full stop, pointless. If you have an
Speaker 1: appliance that works, if it is not energy efficient, keep
Speaker 1: with it, because you will you will spend more money
Speaker 1: upgrading than you will save on your energy bill. The
Speaker 1: place where you're going to get the biggest bank for
Speaker 1: your buck is your air conditioning and your heating or
Speaker 1: your furnace, And so that's really what we're going to
Speaker 1: hone in on the rest of the episode. That uses
Speaker 1: about fifty percent of your total energy cost. The second
Speaker 1: highest is at fourteen percent, and that's your water heater.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to focus on two things, it's
Speaker 1: going to be your HVAC and potentially your water heater
Speaker 1: only if you really need to. Everything else is kind
Speaker 1: of superfluous when we're talking about saving on your electric bill.
Speaker 1: You can want energy efficient appliances, you can want a
Speaker 1: new appliance. Sure they're all energy efficient at this point,
Speaker 1: but you're getting a new appliance to get a new appliance,
Speaker 1: not to save money on your energy bill.
Speaker 3: If you're already in the market for a new appliance,
Speaker 3: then great, that's just an added bonus. And to kind
Speaker 3: of think about what's going to be like I know,
Speaker 3: for us when we went from a duct system to
Speaker 3: mini splits, that significantly reduced our overall cost. Of course,
Speaker 3: it would be super expensive if your whole system wasn't
Speaker 3: broken already to switch to mini splits. I think we
Speaker 3: got quoted at one point seventeen thousand dollars for just
Speaker 3: like half of our house. So to your point, that
Speaker 3: wouldn't have actually saved us money to make that switch,
Speaker 3: just to make it, but our condenser was broken. We
Speaker 3: did need a new system, so it's like, all right,
Speaker 3: we might as well upgrade to something that's going to
Speaker 3: be energy efficient for the long term. It's also worth
Speaker 3: looking at whether or not there's rebates. I think we're
Speaker 3: going to talk about that at another point, but there
Speaker 3: can be reasons to replace for the sake of replacing
Speaker 3: if there's rebates being offered. Yeah, but back to focusing
Speaker 3: on what takes the most of our energy, that being
Speaker 3: your ac, your heating, then we want to be looking
Speaker 3: at insulating and air ceiling our homes. So and this
Speaker 3: has even been corroborated by my husband, who has worked
Speaker 3: in construction for many, many years, and he has worked
Speaker 3: tirelessly to insulate our home. And I think it's so
Speaker 3: ridiculous some of the measures that he takes, but he's like,
Speaker 3: this is the number one way that heat or ac
Speaker 3: escapes the home and the number one way bugs also
Speaker 3: get into your home. So there's a double WHAMMYE reason
Speaker 3: for making sure that the house is as sealed as possible.
Speaker 3: One of the things that you can do to figure
Speaker 3: out where you might be losing the most of your
Speaker 3: energy is by doing a free energy audit through your
Speaker 3: energy provider. So I know for us, Jen, I've done this,
Speaker 3: Eric and I have gotten the free energy audit through
Speaker 3: Duke who was our local supplier, and was really shocked
Speaker 3: by the level of service that they provided that they
Speaker 3: actually care to help us reduce our energy bill and
Speaker 3: then ended up giving us something in the mail to
Speaker 3: help reduce some of our energy costs, both on water
Speaker 3: usage as well as on electric usage, like probably fifty
Speaker 3: to seventy five dollars worth of things that they gave
Speaker 3: us to be able to install throughout our home to
Speaker 3: be able to reduce our energy. So look at this
Speaker 3: for whoever your energy is. Energy provider is see if
Speaker 3: they'll do a free energy audit for you.
Speaker 1: And if they won't, if they send you to a
Speaker 1: private energy company, it's not a scam. That company is
Speaker 1: probably subsidized buy your city. Your energy provider is subsidized
Speaker 1: by your city to do these energy audits. It benefits
Speaker 1: the city, so they subsidize it. So if you're like,
Speaker 1: is it a scam? No, of course they're going to
Speaker 1: try and push you to buy something, whether it's a
Speaker 1: private company or they're going to offer rebates from the
Speaker 1: energy provider to get kickbacks from a company to do
Speaker 1: the insulation and air ceiling for you. But you don't
Speaker 1: have to go with a company. There are things you
Speaker 1: can do yourself. And this is an example where if
Speaker 1: you need to buy some weather stripping or if you
Speaker 1: need to buy something in order to be more energy efficient,
Speaker 1: these are the things you want to be buying, not
Speaker 1: the energy efficient appliances.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so where you might see the most energy loss
Speaker 3: is in the attic if there isn't any insulation, or
Speaker 3: the insulation is going bad, is missing in certain parts,
Speaker 3: if you've got leaks in your duct work, windows for sure,
Speaker 3: doors for sure, even checking your thermostat settings. So the
Speaker 3: lower barrier to entry would be absolutely your windows and doors,
Speaker 3: making sure that you don't see any light coming through
Speaker 3: some of the cracks in there, or if you can
Speaker 3: kind of feel with your hand where you might be
Speaker 3: getting drafts. So that's where cock window ceiler can come in.
Speaker 3: Even the plastic weather stripping like you already mentioned for
Speaker 3: those of you in the north during the winter, even
Speaker 3: putting plastic over your windows. You know you're not going
Speaker 3: to be opening the windows, so getting one of those
Speaker 3: like plastic windows ceiling kits can be worth it to
Speaker 3: be able to keep the heat in. And then of
Speaker 3: course checking your thermostat settings, making sure that you're not
Speaker 3: overdoing it, but also that you're allowing your areas where
Speaker 3: you are living to be monitored by the temperature that
Speaker 3: you want it, but allowing a few degrees difference in
Speaker 3: maybe some of the rooms that you're not currently utilizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then if you're going to buy an appliance, well,
Speaker 1: if you're going to upgrade, so we talk about sinking funds.
Speaker 1: You should always have a sinking fund for repair, maintenance, upgrades,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So saving for your AC or furnace
Speaker 1: like replacement. If you know you're going to need a
Speaker 1: whole new system, like Jill died, start figuring out whether
Speaker 1: it's best to go with the with the standard that
Speaker 1: has been in most houses, the central system, or if
Speaker 1: it might behoove you to go to a mini split system.
Speaker 1: And there's also di you can get it done professionally,
Speaker 1: but you can get mister cool offers DIY mini split
Speaker 1: installation kits, so you can do that.
Speaker 3: That is what we went with. That's what we were
Speaker 3: able to do our whole house for I want to say,
Speaker 3: eight thousand.
Speaker 1: Dollars, three bedroom, two bath.
Speaker 3: Uh huh. So compared to the seventeen thousand dollars quote
Speaker 3: we got from a company to do it for us,
Speaker 3: eight thousand dollars was far better for it. But of
Speaker 3: course we had we did have to do it ourselves.
Speaker 3: It does take a little bit of no how, but
Speaker 3: there are plenty of YouTube videos out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you should have a friend in the HVAC
Speaker 1: industry who can help you if the free on goes
Speaker 1: a little hey wired, because not everyone will repair those.
Speaker 3: Systems, right.
Speaker 1: And then a tankless water heater, so a gas powered
Speaker 1: one if you're in the North. If you're in the South,
Speaker 1: you can go gas or electric.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tankless doesn't totally work in the North, but we
Speaker 3: love it here in the South. It saves until the moony.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All right, now we're onto a d How do we
Speaker 3: get a deal on this electric that we're paying for? So,
Speaker 3: of course, when it comes to insulating, sealing up our homes.
Speaker 3: Definitely look for rebates that might be offered to you
Speaker 3: from that free energy check that you ended up doing.
Speaker 3: Not only might they give you some free stuff. They
Speaker 3: gave us some weather stripping in that little package that
Speaker 3: they sent to us afterwards, but they also alerted us
Speaker 3: to if you were to replace these windows, we would cover,
Speaker 3: you know, fifty percent of the cost of that. I
Speaker 3: also know in a lot of places this is more
Speaker 3: to do with water usage, but to use it as
Speaker 3: an example, many cities might offer rebates on replacing your toilets,
Speaker 3: making it absolutely free. You know, you guys did that,
Speaker 3: and replacing old toilets that are going to use far
Speaker 3: less water and to get a free toilet totally worth it.
Speaker 3: So check into what rebates might exist when it comes
Speaker 3: to tankless water heaters. Check Black Friday sales. Water heaters
Speaker 3: are more likely to break in the winter, so that
Speaker 3: could be a time to consider replacing them kind of
Speaker 3: when Black Friday comes around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because if your water heater breaks in the winter,
Speaker 1: you don't have time to search sales and to get
Speaker 1: a deal, right, So if you know this is the
Speaker 1: season when most water heater break, then you'll want to
Speaker 1: be looking for these deals in the summer, the fall,
Speaker 1: stuff like that, so be prepared so that you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay more in a crisis. Next is the
Speaker 1: time of use discount from your energy company. Most energy
Speaker 1: companies offer this. I didn't even realize we had it
Speaker 1: in our area. I thought this was some kind of
Speaker 1: special thing that other people had, but no, we have
Speaker 1: it too, and it is deaf inconvenient times. So you
Speaker 1: would have to be doing your you know, most of
Speaker 1: your so like running your washer and your dryer and
Speaker 1: your dishwasher in the middle of the night essentially. So
Speaker 1: if you have one of those washer dryers that can
Speaker 1: switch automatically from washing to drying, this is a great thing.
Speaker 1: Just set it up to run in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. So I actually called Duke and wanted to
Speaker 1: know if it would benefit me to change to this,
Speaker 1: and they were so good in walking me through. They
Speaker 1: walked me through on I was on my laptop and
Speaker 1: they told me where to go so that I can see,
Speaker 1: this is my energy usage. This is what I'm paying
Speaker 1: for killowater, whatever unit of energy. This is what it
Speaker 1: would change to if I went to time of day
Speaker 1: discount program. It would increase the price per use during
Speaker 1: peak hours and then decrease it during off hours. So
Speaker 1: what I decided for me is that when I looked
Speaker 1: and it even did the math for me, they're like,
Speaker 1: this is what you're paying now, this is what you
Speaker 1: would pay with the same habits if you got time
Speaker 1: of use discount, and I would pay more, but obviously
Speaker 1: I would change my habits. But then I was thinking, actually,
Speaker 1: with the kids and everything, I don't really want to
Speaker 1: change my habits. So I think I'm just going to
Speaker 1: stay with what I have. But look it up, see
Speaker 1: how it would change for you, and really consider if
Speaker 1: you could change your habits. If you work nights, if
Speaker 1: you're a night owl or super early like you've got
Speaker 1: one of those four am wake up routines or something,
Speaker 1: check it out, do the math and see if it
Speaker 1: will work for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're not someone who's always cranking your AC
Speaker 3: or your heat, you know, through the evenings, or if
Speaker 3: you've got one of those newer washer dryers where you
Speaker 3: can tell it to start you don't even have to
Speaker 3: be awake, but do a delay start on at least
Speaker 3: one of those cycles. I think it could be worth it. Then,
Speaker 3: there is a thing called energy Wise Home, and this
Speaker 3: is something that can help, particularly when it comes to
Speaker 3: people who have a pool or a tankless water or
Speaker 3: is it tank or tankless water heater.
Speaker 1: It's regular regular water heater and AC, but I think
Speaker 1: it really helps people with pools. That's where I'm thinking
Speaker 1: this will have the most benefits.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of it's an automation that you can
Speaker 3: add to your system that will cycle your pool, pump,
Speaker 3: your water heater, your AC on and off automatic to
Speaker 3: reduce usage in peak times so that you can get
Speaker 3: up to one hundred and fifty dollars in rebates. So
Speaker 3: if you've got these types of systems in your home,
Speaker 3: this is definitely something to consider that you don't even
Speaker 3: have to be a part of the process. It will
Speaker 3: do it for you and you just got the one
Speaker 3: time installation and then set it and forget it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think if you're in a temperate climate like California,
Speaker 1: or you have a pool, or you have a tank
Speaker 1: water heater, I wouldn't do this with a tankless but
Speaker 1: definitely it's an energy wise home search that put it
Speaker 1: ask chat gpt if the program because it's a trademarked program,
Speaker 1: So this isn't just like a duke thing, but see
Speaker 1: if it's available in your area. More often than not,
Speaker 1: something like it is going to be. It's just a
Speaker 1: little thing that they install that's cycles the power on
Speaker 1: and off without your consent. So again something that I
Speaker 1: looked at and I was like, I don't have a pool,
Speaker 1: I don't have a tank water heater. I do not
Speaker 1: want them to turn my AC on and off at
Speaker 1: their leisure for whenever they feel like it, So it
Speaker 1: wasn't the right move for us.
Speaker 3: Final category is how do we pay for electricity guilt free?
Speaker 3: And I do think some of this has to do
Speaker 3: with making sure that our usage is really buttoned up,
Speaker 3: that we are not being wasteful or over consuming our
Speaker 3: electric usage. So I do think it's worth kind of
Speaker 3: going through these first three categories, raining in how we
Speaker 3: are engaging with our usage, being sure that when we're
Speaker 3: out of the house for the majority of the day,
Speaker 3: our AC isn't pumping sixty six degrees, like we're not
Speaker 3: leaving the doors and windows open. We are being aware
Speaker 3: of how much we're taking.
Speaker 1: But if you are somebody who likes your AC sixty
Speaker 1: six degrees when you're home? How can you do that
Speaker 1: guilt free? And so the thing we think for this
Speaker 1: is we're looking at the servicing and the services we
Speaker 1: get around our electric items, mainly our HVAC, but all
Speaker 1: of our appliances. Really how can we pay How can
Speaker 1: we save money and pay for that guilt free too?
Speaker 1: And so I'll let you in on a little stat
Speaker 1: Private equity investors have purchased nearly eight hundred HVAC, plumbing
Speaker 1: and electrical companies since twenty twenty two. In three years,
Speaker 1: private equity investors have purchased nearly eight hundred HVAC, plumbing
Speaker 1: and election companies. And what these private equity companies do
Speaker 1: is they go in, they clean house, raise prices, repaint
Speaker 1: the sign on the on the front door, make it
Speaker 1: look you know, a little less CD. And then every
Speaker 1: dollar you use in that company now leaves most of
Speaker 1: it leaves your community. Whereas when it was just the
Speaker 1: CDHVAC company, most of that money stayed in your community,
Speaker 1: not C, not CD. But you know, you know what
Speaker 1: it looks like. You're like, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: can trust Jed the HVAC gun, right.
Speaker 3: But Jed's been doing it for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Right and Jed, if you've just got to know him,
Speaker 1: he is legit, but he retired and nobody wanted to
Speaker 1: buy his business except for the private equity companies. So
Speaker 1: you'll be able to tell you know, the private equity
Speaker 1: back companies, they're very polished, they've got money, but the
Speaker 1: money goes to them, not your community local companies. They
Speaker 1: may not have the signs, may not be as shiny,
Speaker 1: the colors may not be as bright, or maybe they're
Speaker 1: too bright. But I'll also say when you go with
Speaker 1: a local company, you don't sacrifice quality to buy local,
Speaker 1: and you usually save money when you go with local companies.
Speaker 1: So that's how we believe that you can save money
Speaker 1: on your electric bill. Guilt free is when you need
Speaker 1: these appliances serviced, you go with locally owned companies. So
Speaker 1: what you can do is get your recommendations from your friends,
Speaker 1: go about how you would normally do, go search, narrow
Speaker 1: it down to a couple companies, and then you can
Speaker 1: actually ask chat GPT are these companies backed by private
Speaker 1: equity and chat GPT will tell you, which is an
Speaker 1: amazing thing because before AI you would have to pay
Speaker 1: for that answer from a company called pitch Book which
Speaker 1: details and tracks data of private equity deals so you
Speaker 1: don't have to You don't have to pay for that anymore,
Speaker 1: which is amazing. You can ask chat GPT and it
Speaker 1: will tell you if the company is publicly traded or
Speaker 1: backed by private equity. You have to answer. You have
Speaker 1: to ask those questions either separately or differentiate and you'll
Speaker 1: and you can find out quickly. So yeah, find out,
Speaker 1: take the time and go with a company that, yes,
Speaker 1: is you know, well rated but local.
Speaker 3: So to recap. If you are looking for ways to
Speaker 3: get your electric for free and you are low income,
Speaker 3: can to lie heap look into Weatherization Assistance Program WAP
Speaker 3: for short. If you're looking for low cost or a deal,
Speaker 3: go directly to your energy provider, ask for ask for
Speaker 3: an overview of your energy usage and maybe areas where
Speaker 3: you might be leaking, and you can do some of
Speaker 3: these things to make your home more energy efficient. Focus
Speaker 3: on what is taking up the majority of your energy,
Speaker 3: right it doesn't. You don't need to be worried about
Speaker 3: unplugging things that aren't in use or absolutely turning off
Speaker 3: every single light everywhere. Of course, we do want to
Speaker 3: be you know, utilizing like led wherever possible when they
Speaker 3: need to be replaced. But take take a look at
Speaker 3: your ac heating, your water heater. These are the things
Speaker 3: that are going to be taking up the most. Do
Speaker 3: some of these audits and do some of these simple
Speaker 3: maintenance things around your home in order to not be
Speaker 3: heating and cooling the entire neighborhood. And then spend guilt
Speaker 3: free by supporting local companies and knowing that your energy
Speaker 3: usage is enough where it should be for you and
Speaker 3: your family's needs.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know what else is there for my family's needs.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't help us save money on anything, but
Speaker 1: it does really make us feel good.
Speaker 3: It's electrifying.
Speaker 1: The bill of the week.
Speaker 4: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 4: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 4: is Williams. Maybe you off your mortgage, maybe your card
Speaker 4: died and you're happy to not have to pay that
Speaker 4: bill anymore. That's bills, butffalo bills, bill clean.
Speaker 1: This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 5: Hi guys, this is Jodan from Paris again. Oh my god,
Speaker 5: this is amazing. I am listening to my favorite podcast
Speaker 5: which happens to be on books, which are my favorite
Speaker 5: thing in the world. And I'm, you know, mining my
Speaker 5: own business, cleaning my apartment that is going to be
Speaker 5: on Airbnb during my Christmas vacation. And then what does happened?
Speaker 5: My voice is on the podcast. My bill of the
Speaker 5: week is on the podcast. This is so insane. By
Speaker 5: the way, it also shows that I my English is
Speaker 5: getting worse and worse, which brings us to the bill
Speaker 5: of the week. What did I do with that unexpected
Speaker 5: amount of money I was talking about on our last conversation. Well,
Speaker 5: you're gonna be so proud of me. Half of it
Speaker 5: was put on a life in sih ssurance, which I
Speaker 5: didn't have before, and the other health was put on
Speaker 5: a plane ticket to America. Yes, that did happen. I
Speaker 5: am so excited. I'm going to Boston and Providence and
Speaker 5: then Vermont in early January. Yes it's going to be cold, Yes,
Speaker 5: I'm aware of it. I'm visiting friends and they just
Speaker 5: invited me, and out of the blue, I decided to go.
Speaker 5: And I was able to because I saved the money
Speaker 5: I had in July. And this is all thing to
Speaker 5: thanks to you guys. Thank you so much. Vizoo from Paris.
Speaker 1: Yes, Oh my gosh, Vermont, New Rhode Island, Boston, Providence.
Speaker 3: She's a Providence, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Fantastic places, amazing and I'm never going to get tired
Speaker 3: of listening to your voice. You don't need to do
Speaker 3: anything with your English. I understood you. Just yeah fine,
Speaker 3: and I loved it. Thank you for giving us this
Speaker 3: follow up about what you did with this unexpected money
Speaker 3: that you received back in the summer, and I love
Speaker 3: that you were able to allocate it to a couple
Speaker 3: of different things. One thing that is maybe a little
Speaker 3: bit more responsible, achieving this goal of having life insurance
Speaker 3: that you didn't have before, and now this unexpected money
Speaker 3: allows you to be able to have that. And then
Speaker 3: something we're fun and life giving to get to see
Speaker 3: friends in the US. So glad that you came to
Speaker 3: our little almost neck of the woods since the East Coast,
Speaker 3: so we'll count it, and we hope that you just
Speaker 3: had such a lovely visit. Thank you so much for
Speaker 3: calling again. We love our follow up bills. If you
Speaker 3: all are listening and you have a bill that you
Speaker 3: want to share, if it has to do with an
Speaker 3: update on a previous bill that you left us. We'd
Speaker 3: love to hear it. If your name is Bill, if
Speaker 3: you were able to spend your bills on things that
Speaker 3: help you achieve financial goals or just help you spend
Speaker 3: time with friends, we want to hear it all. Frugal
Speaker 3: Friends podcast dot com slash Bill leave it for us,
Speaker 3: and now it's time for lightning round.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the highest your electric bill has ever been?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I changed the question.
Speaker 1: You did change the question. I don't have an answer
Speaker 1: for it.
Speaker 3: The other question was what do you spend the most
Speaker 3: a mount on your electric bill? And we kind of
Speaker 3: already answered that, like everybody spends the most on heating
Speaker 3: an AC.
Speaker 1: You're so right, Okay, you go first and I'll look
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 3: Okay, mine at one point was So I'll preface this
Speaker 3: by saying we live in a three bed, two path
Speaker 3: fourteen hundred square feet, not a large large home home,
Speaker 3: not not the tiniest either. We did at one point
Speaker 3: live in one hundred and seventy five square feet. So
Speaker 3: instead it's a burger from that. And our electric bill
Speaker 3: got up to three hundred and fifty dollars, which is
Speaker 3: a lot for us. Yeah, normally we sit around to
Speaker 3: thirty two fifty, so this was quite quite a shocker. However,
Speaker 3: we go in spurts of our I mean, our electric
Speaker 3: bill fluctuates throughout the year, as I think most people's does,
Speaker 3: because our heating and AC is on electric, but certainly
Speaker 3: through renovations using a lot of power tools, we would
Speaker 3: see an increase in our electric bill. But I remember
Speaker 3: that it might have even been three seventy Honestly, it
Speaker 3: was when we had a month where we had guests
Speaker 3: in our house literally every weekend, and Eric's parents were
Speaker 3: parked in their RV at our house, and in any
Speaker 3: spare time that we had we were doing renovations. So
Speaker 3: power tools so reasonable for how much we were doing,
Speaker 3: but it still was a little gut punch.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, ours August of twenty twenty three where we
Speaker 1: were doing renovations, for sure, we had renters in the back,
Speaker 1: so we actually started that in June of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: so that would have been our first for a right
Speaker 1: at the beginning three seventy seven, and we kind of
Speaker 1: just had three months back to back two seventy two,
Speaker 1: three seventy two, three seventy seven, three forty seven, And
Speaker 1: this is July August September. That is just what July
Speaker 1: August September looks like because it's all a c and
Speaker 1: this house is just an older it. The walls in
Speaker 1: most of the house are not insulated and we did
Speaker 1: not want to open them up to insulate them. So
Speaker 1: we opened up the walls in our bedroom and in
Speaker 1: the bathrooms and those got insulated. So any while we
Speaker 1: did open that was exterior did get insulated, but a
Speaker 1: lot of them did not. And then the windows just
Speaker 1: so this month it's like one wow, I see one twenty.
Speaker 1: April of last year was one twenty, even with guests
Speaker 1: in the back, one nineteen. Yeah, because the first, yeah,
Speaker 1: one twenty we had because it's just airy. We open windows,
Speaker 1: we enjoy outside and the AC doesn't run. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we make up for it. We pay, you know,
Speaker 1: those summer months guilt free because during the winter.
Speaker 3: We just.
Speaker 1: You know, let nature be our air conditioning. Yes, So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening. I hope this was
Speaker 1: helpful for you. I hope you're going to take action
Speaker 1: on something we talked about in the episode. If you're
Speaker 1: listening to this on Spotify, please leave a comment. If
Speaker 1: you're listening on YouTube. Please leave a comment let us
Speaker 1: know the action that you are going to take and
Speaker 1: if you have any other helpful tips. The hive mind
Speaker 1: is real. We may have missed something if it's not applicable.
Speaker 1: Really to know what we the knowledge we have access
Speaker 1: to and if it helped you. We'd also love if
Speaker 1: you leave a rating and review for the show and
Speaker 1: or for our book By What you Love Without Going
Speaker 1: Broke that released in January. This one, in particular is
Speaker 1: for the book. It's from KHF. Finally, a personal finance
Speaker 1: book we all can relate to. This book is spot on.
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill holistically present in a very digestible related
Speaker 1: approach many of the primary influences in why and how
Speaker 1: we value our financial resources and how we can find
Speaker 1: balance with them amidst all the social media and other
Speaker 1: noise that competes for our attention and it follows our money.
Speaker 1: I work in financial services, have read about twenty personal
Speaker 1: finance books, listen to many of the major personal finance podcasts,
Speaker 1: and By What you Love Without Going Broke has quickly
Speaker 1: moved to the top of the list in helping me
Speaker 1: understand my current mindset and behavior and how if at all,
Speaker 1: I can better align both with what has the most
Speaker 1: meaning and impact for me. Also, I'm a huge fan
Speaker 1: of the Frugal Friends podcast and listen to every episode. Wow,
Speaker 1: such a high compliment. Thank you so much. It means
Speaker 1: so much that somebody in this space would think like
Speaker 1: that about our book.
Speaker 3: So humbling because we hear this from both sides, both
Speaker 3: from people like yourself who are saying I've read so
Speaker 3: many personal finance books and this is becoming a beloved one,
Speaker 3: and people who buy what you Love Without Going Broke
Speaker 3: is the first personal finance book they ever pick up.
Speaker 3: That is so fun that our book kind of hits
Speaker 3: both people that it really could be the first book
Speaker 3: you ever read, or it could be the twenty first,
Speaker 3: and there still might be something in it for you.
Speaker 3: So thanks everyone for listening, Thanks for reading our book.
Speaker 3: If you have enjoyed the show, please leave us or
Speaker 3: rating a review for the podcast. If you read the book,
Speaker 3: please leave us or rating and review for the book.
Speaker 3: If you've done both, leave both. We love you and
Speaker 3: we thank you for it, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you want to get your own copy
Speaker 1: of the book, buy What you Love book dot com
Speaker 1: get it from bookshop dot org, or there's information on
Speaker 1: how to request it at your library if your library
Speaker 1: doesn't already have a copy. See you next time.
Speaker 5: Bye.
Speaker 1: Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: Jen. I just had, like I just I just had
Speaker 3: a core memory. I just had one of the best
Speaker 3: experiences of my life recently.
Speaker 1: Tell me about it.
Speaker 3: I thought you were going to know automatically. So Eric
Speaker 3: and I went to Cleveland, Ohio, the exotic Cleveland where
Speaker 3: my sister lives. She has four children, and we spent
Speaker 3: like a long weekend there hanging out with all the kiddos.
Speaker 3: And when we were out, one of the children, Lydia,
Speaker 3: who is the only girl, asks myself and Eric, can
Speaker 3: I come home with you guys? And we were like,
Speaker 3: h it was her spring break, so she had the
Speaker 3: rest of the week off and we were like, we
Speaker 3: don't see why not. And then she asked her parents
Speaker 3: and they were like, yeah, we can make that work.
Speaker 3: And what a dream to just last minute, spontaneously be
Speaker 3: able to say yes, you can come back with us,
Speaker 3: spend five days in Florida with us, and I mean
Speaker 3: we still had work to do, but she was able
Speaker 3: to come to the office and we went to the
Speaker 3: beach in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: She was probably our quietest employee. Yeah, she was the
Speaker 1: best definitely best behave employee all week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's ten. She kept herself busy with reading books
Speaker 3: and coloring and some fun videos and it was literally
Speaker 3: so fun, so cool that it was able to happen.
Speaker 3: But also side story with this, because she is a miner.
Speaker 3: We had to also then take her back to Cleveland,
Speaker 3: and she wasn't comfortable flying by herself, understandable, so while
Speaker 3: her parents purchased her ticket, her round trip ticket down
Speaker 3: to us, we got a ticket to be able to
Speaker 3: go back with her on a Sunday, and I was
Speaker 3: planning on doing this, flying her back to Cleveland, walking
Speaker 3: her out to the car to see her mom, turning
Speaker 3: right back around, getting on a plane home, and we
Speaker 3: plan for this. Then we come into the office one
Speaker 3: day and I look at my calendar and I realized
Speaker 3: that you and I have a book event for by
Speaker 3: What You Love Without Going Broke. There was a local
Speaker 3: bookstore doing a book club on our book and they
Speaker 3: invited us to go. Two months in advance to this
Speaker 3: event has been on the calendar for two months, but
Speaker 3: in my excited stupor of booking the flight making sure
Speaker 3: that Lydia could come down to Florida with us without
Speaker 3: her parents and enjoy her spring break here just ride
Speaker 3: out the dome, totally forgot I got the dome booked
Speaker 3: ticket for myself, and then we remember. I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 3: so what I was able to relatively easily change it
Speaker 3: to be from me to Eric for him to take
Speaker 3: her back. So bless him for doing a six hour
Speaker 3: kind of round trip fly to Cleveland, fly back in
Speaker 3: the matter of a few hours. But so that had happened,
Speaker 3: and you knew about it, like you did not book
Speaker 3: a ticket to fly to Ohio for this thing that
Speaker 3: we've had planned for two months, and I'm like, I totally did,
Speaker 3: as my bad. So then I get there that Sunday
Speaker 3: morning to our book event and I'm fifteen minutes early.
Speaker 3: And usually you beat me places you are. I am
Speaker 3: typically punctual, meaning like right on time, and Jen, you
Speaker 3: are usually early by like ten to fifteen minutes, so
Speaker 3: I was surprised to not see you there. So I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to shoot her a text like I'm
Speaker 3: here and glad I did because you show up a
Speaker 3: little later saying I totally forgot that we had this event.
Speaker 3: So we both took our turns in forgetting about this
Speaker 3: book event that we had. But you know what, we
Speaker 3: both showed up.
Speaker 1: We got up on time, and none nobody was the wiser.
Speaker 3: That we that both of us almost didn't show up, and.
Speaker 1: It was such a great event, like it was wonderful.
Speaker 3: We've been saying that it does take the two of
Speaker 3: us that like our two brains combined makes one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty percent brain. Like you bring seventy five, I
Speaker 3: bring seventy five, and it's more than enough.
Speaker 1: It's more, it's more than enough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look gay bite