Speaker 1: Episode two ninety going plant Based on a Budget with
Speaker 1: Tony Akamoto. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll
Speaker 1: learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rice and liver rich
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Mmmmmmmm, Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, And today is an episode. We have
Speaker 1: an episode that I've always wanted to do on this
Speaker 1: show but have always been a little nervous. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: love that reason for doing it though. Push through the
Speaker 1: nervousness usually makes for the best episode. Yeah. Well, when
Speaker 1: we talk about diet, it is very it's a very
Speaker 1: heated like topic, and we are by no means a
Speaker 1: nutrition podcast, so we're not telling people how to eat.
Speaker 1: But when I was paying off seventy eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of debt with my husband, I was a vegetarian and
Speaker 1: I noticed when meal planning and cooking that my budget
Speaker 1: essentially was much lower than that of other people I
Speaker 1: talked to, and the biggest difference was the amount of
Speaker 1: meat we were consuming. Yeah, and so I've always been
Speaker 1: an advocate for eating a more plant based diet, especially
Speaker 1: while paying off debt. But just in general too, for
Speaker 1: health reasons, for sustainability reasons, but like, I'm not on
Speaker 1: a high horse where I think that that's the only
Speaker 1: way to do things. So I'm glad we've got Tony
Speaker 1: on to talk about it, because she does give a
Speaker 1: very kind, yeah explanation. We're on a very much shorter
Speaker 1: horse over here, and while we're not nutritionists by any means,
Speaker 1: we're trying to tell people what to do with their lives.
Speaker 1: We recognize that a big portion of our income will
Speaker 1: go to buying food, and of course there's many in
Speaker 1: our communities, including ourselves, who are interested in how to
Speaker 1: also eat well. How can we get the nutrients that
Speaker 1: our bodies need into our diets and regular routines, and
Speaker 1: how can we also be conscious of our food budget
Speaker 1: and our spending in that regard, and also just kind
Speaker 1: of like sift through and weed out some of the
Speaker 1: misconceptions about various styles and types of eating. And so
Speaker 1: Tony's here in a really non judgmental way to explain
Speaker 1: all of that to us and help make this a
Speaker 1: more approachable topic, I think absolutely. But first, this episode
Speaker 1: is brought to you by changes turning the beat around.
Speaker 1: Whether you're deciding you don't care that much anymore. If
Speaker 1: your house is clean, or you're trying a new method
Speaker 1: of wearing the same outfit all week, or you're considering
Speaker 1: a new way of eating. We're all making changes, hopefully
Speaker 1: for the better. And if you want to know about
Speaker 1: the changes some of your fellow listener friends made in
Speaker 1: order to become debt free, then tune in to our
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. That's right, Frugal Friends are on YouTube and
Speaker 1: you can watch some super inspirational debt free stories again
Speaker 1: from fellow Frugal Friends podcast listeners calling in talking about
Speaker 1: how they became debt free. You get to see their faces,
Speaker 1: our faces. It's on video. It's on YouTube. Go there, subscribe,
Speaker 1: cliptical and a vocation button. It's beautiful and nobody's joint
Speaker 1: to give you the advice to not change your outfit
Speaker 1: all week. That is my tip that anybody gave to
Speaker 1: pay off debt to change it. Changes were changing. The
Speaker 1: change I'm making is not changing. Yes, that is not
Speaker 1: a thing. We even made an edit of somebody giving
Speaker 1: a tip that we didn't agree with. We to get out.
Speaker 1: So all of the tips in there from our listeners
Speaker 1: are very useful, very inspiring. So definitely go search frugal
Speaker 1: friends on YouTube. Do it. And so whenever we talk
Speaker 1: about food, it's a popular topic, especially when we talk
Speaker 1: about eating healthy on a budget, because that's the thing
Speaker 1: that people don't want to give up. It's eating healthy.
Speaker 1: And when people have a certain diet they want to
Speaker 1: stick to, they are very adamant about that. So we'll
Speaker 1: get emails about like, oh, I want to be paleo,
Speaker 1: but how do I like bring my grocery budget down?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, you don't really. That's You've chosen
Speaker 1: this one thing to value, so there has to be
Speaker 1: other things that you value lest and you cut those things.
Speaker 1: And so, but this is a way going plant based,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about kind of what that means. We
Speaker 1: are saying kind of synonymous with vegan, but really just
Speaker 1: all ingredients are plant based versus animal based. That's kind
Speaker 1: of how we're referring to that. But this is a
Speaker 1: very affordable way too. Of all the diets on the market,
Speaker 1: this is a very affordable one. We are huge advocates
Speaker 1: for incorporating whole foods into your diet. It is definitely
Speaker 1: the best way to save money on being healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so We're going to just dive into kind of
Speaker 1: what makes a plant based diet expensive, what makes it affordable,
Speaker 1: and even how you can customize it if maybe your
Speaker 1: whole household doesn't agree with what you found so much
Speaker 1: to get into. Yeah, and if this concept of eating
Speaker 1: healthy on a budget is intriguing to you, you can
Speaker 1: queue up some other episodes. Episode one eighty two Eat Healthier,
Speaker 1: More Affordably and Easier with Cassie Joey Garcia. That was
Speaker 1: an awesome episode. Episode one forty seven, How to Eat
Speaker 1: Healthy on a Budget. Those are just to name a few.
Speaker 1: We've got plenty about just food in general. And this
Speaker 1: one two from Tony Yes, and we're so happy to
Speaker 1: have Tony as an expert in this. I know we
Speaker 1: talk about it a lot on our own, but Tony
Speaker 1: she's the founder of plant Based on a Budget, so
Speaker 1: this is her whole thing is talking about how to
Speaker 1: go plant based affordably. It's a popular website and meal
Speaker 1: plan that shows you how to save money by eating veggies.
Speaker 1: And she's also the author of plant Based on a
Speaker 1: Budget and the co host of the Plant Powered People podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh know, we love a good alliteration. Changes and her
Speaker 1: new cookbook is called plant Based on a Budget, Quick
Speaker 1: and Easy, So we're covering the gamut. Tony is literally
Speaker 1: the best person um to talk about this with. So
Speaker 1: here she is. She's a gem. Tony, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on the Frugal Friends podcast. This
Speaker 1: is going to be a really fun episode. I think, yes, welcome, welcome,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I love saving money and so
Speaker 1: your podcast is like my jam Yes to hear that
Speaker 1: from our guests, definitely jam us up. All right. So
Speaker 1: you are an expert ongoing plant Based on a Budget.
Speaker 1: So our first question for you is what's the biggest
Speaker 1: misconception about going plant based? The biggest misconception about going
Speaker 1: plant based for me and from what a hero often
Speaker 1: is that people believe it has to happen overnight and
Speaker 1: it has to be all or nothing. And for me,
Speaker 1: it took six years to become plant based. I gradually,
Speaker 1: very slowly moved away from the foods that I was
Speaker 1: very familiar with and very comfortable eating. And I still
Speaker 1: feel as plant based is the next person, it just
Speaker 1: took me a little bit longer. And I also made
Speaker 1: sure that I set myself up for success long term,
Speaker 1: and I know that doing something before you're completely comfortable
Speaker 1: can set you up for failure. You can think, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I messed up, tried it didn't work for me, instead
Speaker 1: of continuing on a little by little by little by little.
Speaker 1: And I also feel like that's about money saving too.
Speaker 1: That could be applied to so many any different things.
Speaker 1: That's such a good point. The familiarity aspect that can
Speaker 1: be such a barrier for many of us. It might
Speaker 1: not be that oh I would never like it or
Speaker 1: I couldn't sustain on that. It just might be I'm
Speaker 1: not familiar with it, I've never We kind of stick
Speaker 1: to the things that we know, but oftentimes when we're
Speaker 1: willing to branch out try new things step by step,
Speaker 1: we learn more about ourselves and we might be open
Speaker 1: to things we didn't think we were open too. So
Speaker 1: I love that point about it. I think applies to
Speaker 1: a lot of different aspects of life too, not just
Speaker 1: our diets. So true it actually it reminds me of
Speaker 1: the time the very first time I went to a
Speaker 1: vegetarian restaurant, a friend who was vegetarian brought me and said,
Speaker 1: order anything you want, and I looked at the menu,
Speaker 1: didn't know of any of the things on there, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll have the white rice, and I
Speaker 1: literally only ordered white rice because I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: on there. And me becoming plant based what really opened
Speaker 1: my world and my palette up to all of these
Speaker 1: different international cuisines and different types of ingredients because I
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of courage to venture out before that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it also has this element of like the all or
Speaker 1: nothingness that we're so used to. It's either I'm all
Speaker 1: plant based or I'm all nothing, all not plant based,
Speaker 1: you know, I eat everything, yet it's Yeah, it's that
Speaker 1: identity thing. And I think your journey to like over
Speaker 1: six years to slowly become fully plant based that gives
Speaker 1: permission to a lot of people, Like I'm not a
Speaker 1: vegetarian anymore, but I eat like probably two or three
Speaker 1: plant based meals a week. So that doesn't make you
Speaker 1: wouldn't think like, I don't identify as that anymore, But
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean I can't incorporate it into my life exactly.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I've surveyed my audience and about sixty
Speaker 1: five percent of people who are part of my community
Speaker 1: eat everything but want to incorporate more plant based dishes.
Speaker 1: They realize that it's healthier for you to have very vegetable,
Speaker 1: heavy fruit heavy meals in your life and want that
Speaker 1: for their families. Could we take a moment just to
Speaker 1: define some of these different words. I know that like
Speaker 1: we use vegetarian or plant based sort, but I know
Speaker 1: that there's differences between all of these things and some
Speaker 1: overlap as well. When you talk plant based, Tony, what
Speaker 1: does that primarily mean for you? Or maybe what's the
Speaker 1: spectrum that you've seen? This is a really really heated
Speaker 1: subject for many, but for me it's not. You can
Speaker 1: really if I don't ever judge anybody. So if you
Speaker 1: want to call yourself vegetarian like I did, and pick
Speaker 1: the pepperoni off of your pepperoni pizza and just not
Speaker 1: eat that part like you do, you That's that's how
Speaker 1: I started. And so vegetarian is not eating meat, and
Speaker 1: there are some ingredients that other vegetarians don't eat as well,
Speaker 1: but they tend to eat eggs and cheese and other
Speaker 1: dairy products. And then there's vegan. Vegans often are a
Speaker 1: little bit more on the ethical side, but there are
Speaker 1: other vegans who are not and they just want to
Speaker 1: eat less animal products or no animal products, but that
Speaker 1: tends to be more of a lifestyle, so no leather,
Speaker 1: no fur, They try to buy cruelty free products not
Speaker 1: tested on animals, and so it's more of a lifestyle.
Speaker 1: And then plant based, this is the one that's a
Speaker 1: little bit tricky. I know people who are plant based
Speaker 1: and are die hard plant based, but they still eat
Speaker 1: meat sometimes. There are still there are people who are
Speaker 1: plant based who they believe that they don't eat oil.
Speaker 1: I believe oil came from plants, and I use plant
Speaker 1: based synonymous to vegan. So there are there's like a
Speaker 1: whole spectrum of just the word plant based. And I
Speaker 1: feel like, if you want to eat more plants and
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable labeling yourself plant based, us you do
Speaker 1: you that's amazing. If we just want to stick to
Speaker 1: the basics of plant based, meaning plants, then yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how I feel. That's how I feel. I eat
Speaker 1: food that was made from plants, and that is a
Speaker 1: very very vast range of food. Yeah. So for someone
Speaker 1: hearing this and realizing great, I can intersect with this concept,
Speaker 1: this way of eating and living on a variety of ways.
Speaker 1: What would you say is the easiest way for someone
Speaker 1: to get started if they're also considering their budget. I
Speaker 1: know that Jen has a lot of thoughts about this
Speaker 1: with meal planning, because that's always where I start. I
Speaker 1: feel like having a plan with saving money period is
Speaker 1: going to get you far, and really taking stock of
Speaker 1: what's in your pantry so that you're not buying ingredients
Speaker 1: that you don't need and not finding it, not finding
Speaker 1: recipes are that are online that require a whole new
Speaker 1: list of ingredients that you have to spend money on
Speaker 1: and maybe don't go together. So you can't use the
Speaker 1: salary that you have left over in your soup because
Speaker 1: now you're making a pasta and pasta doesn't have that salary.
Speaker 1: So being a little bit thoughtful and smart about your
Speaker 1: planning and then using that planning at the grocery store,
Speaker 1: because the grocery store is like a very hard place
Speaker 1: to navigate when you're on a budget. Yes, I know
Speaker 1: that the marketing is so fantastic. They've got colors and
Speaker 1: beautiful signage. And what we don't know as consumers off
Speaker 1: in is that there is a lot of paid placement
Speaker 1: at the grocery store. So when you go in and
Speaker 1: you see this big sale sign Tomato sauce is one dollar.
Speaker 1: You're thinking, oh great, this is I needed tomato sauce.
Speaker 1: But often that's not the cheapest, and it's better for
Speaker 1: you to avoid that intro section and then also the
Speaker 1: end caps and go straight to the aisle look for
Speaker 1: your tomato sauce. Don't even look just in your line
Speaker 1: of sight, look all the way around because that could
Speaker 1: be paid placement too, And look for the cheapest by
Speaker 1: price per ounce. So often that's private label, but still
Speaker 1: do your diligence and make sure that's the cheapest. And
Speaker 1: there are so many hacks like that when you're at
Speaker 1: the grocery store, just shopping smartly, making sure that you've
Speaker 1: eaten before you've gone, so that you don't purchase impulsively.
Speaker 1: Make sure you have a plan, so that you're not
Speaker 1: randomly grabbing ingredients because they're on sale, or because they
Speaker 1: look good, or because you just want to try them
Speaker 1: and stick to the plan. Yeah, it seems like such
Speaker 1: a misconception that going plant based would be more expensive
Speaker 1: when the reality is that meat is what usually costs
Speaker 1: us a lot of money. Although I know, even for myself,
Speaker 1: if we're starting to talk about cutting dairy, then there's
Speaker 1: a lot of other alternatives, and sometimes I see that
Speaker 1: those alternatives to whatever recipes are going to call for
Speaker 1: that might have dairy in it, the alternatives might be
Speaker 1: more expensive. And so I'm curious your thoughts on how
Speaker 1: to begin, Like if someone were at that end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum with I also want to cut out, like
Speaker 1: the dairy and the cheeses and the eggs and all
Speaker 1: of that, and yet trying to find some reasonable alternatives, how,
Speaker 1: oh how might they go about yeah, planning for that
Speaker 1: well and wisely within their money. I've found that sticking
Speaker 1: to plants like Whole Foods is going to be the
Speaker 1: cheapest option, and you can still have a very delicious
Speaker 1: and familiar experience with tastes and textures with your seasonings.
Speaker 1: And one thing that I go back to all the
Speaker 1: time because I come from a family of meat levers
Speaker 1: and I don't eat meat. But I've also been on
Speaker 1: a budget for my whole adult life. Would I lived
Speaker 1: under the poverty line until maybe in the past four years,
Speaker 1: and so I was on a tight budget. And one
Speaker 1: meal that I kept going back to our lentil tacos.
Speaker 1: Lentil tacos are my favorite. You use all the same thing.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't put cheese on it, but it's still delicious,
Speaker 1: and you would cook the lentils instead of the beef,
Speaker 1: and you'd flavor them the same you'd use. I use
Speaker 1: a taco seasoning packet, but if you if you use
Speaker 1: all the if you make your own blend, that's fine too.
Speaker 1: With some onion, lettuce, tomato and corn tortillas. Oh my gosh, delicious.
Speaker 1: My meat loving family loves it. So it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a sacrifice. And also, if you give food
Speaker 1: a try without the alternatives, because those can get pricey,
Speaker 1: you'll find that with the right seasonings, it's so filled
Speaker 1: with flavor and it's healthier for you. Yeah, and we're
Speaker 1: all about values based budgeting and spending anyway, So if
Speaker 1: this is a decision that we want to make with
Speaker 1: the way that we're feeding ourselves and interacting with the world,
Speaker 1: then we can find room to do that and cut
Speaker 1: in other places as well. But also, it's like anything else,
Speaker 1: like going minimal or you name it, where there's a
Speaker 1: way to do it expensive and there's a way to
Speaker 1: do it within our means, and both can be really
Speaker 1: really amazing and really great and really tasty. I find
Speaker 1: the people who like our primarily plant based eat that way,
Speaker 1: they make incredible food. I think maybe because like there's
Speaker 1: more time and not maybe not a ton of extra
Speaker 1: time and effort, but like you care more about like
Speaker 1: the main if the main dishes, the vegi chill, we
Speaker 1: just actually use spice, Like if you're cooking meat all
Speaker 1: the time, if you're like, you don't have to do that,
Speaker 1: but then you never get really good at cooking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so true. I when I first started my cooking journey,
Speaker 1: did not know how to mix the different spices and
Speaker 1: blend different ingredients. And I grew up I had two
Speaker 1: faces of my life. I was brought into this world
Speaker 1: by teenage parents, but my dad went into the Navy
Speaker 1: full time right after he found out that I was
Speaker 1: went to be born, and I lived with my grandparents
Speaker 1: during that time. They were retired and they both were
Speaker 1: very interested in food. My grandpa was a Japanese gard
Speaker 1: ner here in the Central Valley and my Central Valley
Speaker 1: of California, and my grandma was a Mexican woman who
Speaker 1: took his food and made us delicious meals from scratch.
Speaker 1: And so they were very rich in plants and fresh foods.
Speaker 1: But then I went and moved in with my dad,
Speaker 1: and we ate like bachelor's. So I moved in with
Speaker 1: him when I was eleven years old, and I loved
Speaker 1: hamburger helper, I loved hot dogs with chili. I loved
Speaker 1: top ramen, mac and cheese, you name it. We ate
Speaker 1: like bachelors. That's just how it went. And so I
Speaker 1: didn't develop the cooking skills because I was too young
Speaker 1: when I was living with my grandma, and I relied
Speaker 1: heavily on packaged foods, and so going into learning how
Speaker 1: to cook vegetarian and then bent bass later on, I
Speaker 1: had to experience. And what I did was I would
Speaker 1: go to the library and check out books and I
Speaker 1: would invite a few friends over for we called it
Speaker 1: womanly Wednesdays, and we would watch a rom com and
Speaker 1: make food together where we all brought different ingredients because
Speaker 1: we were all very budget conscious and trying to save
Speaker 1: money and didn't have a lot of money. So we
Speaker 1: would cook together and make these huge meals where maybe
Speaker 1: it would be like a big pot of vegetable soup
Speaker 1: with a loaf of bread and a salad, and everybody
Speaker 1: brought certain ingredients and we shared the costs, share the food,
Speaker 1: and also had a meaningful time together. So it was
Speaker 1: a really beautiful experience. But it allowed me to play
Speaker 1: with things in recipes, like ingredients and recipes that may
Speaker 1: be too expensive. So if if kale was called for,
Speaker 1: but spinach was what I had on hand already, I
Speaker 1: would say, hope this works and give it a try.
Speaker 1: And so that's really how it happens all the time. Yes,
Speaker 1: and in plant based on a budget, Quick and Easy.
Speaker 1: My new cookbook, I actually have lines in every recipe
Speaker 1: that just say my tips, and they're for the reader
Speaker 1: to customize each of the recipes based on their own preference,
Speaker 1: because that's how I cook. I take something as a
Speaker 1: guide and I change it up based on my family's
Speaker 1: preferences based on what I have on hand, and I'll
Speaker 1: say things like, well that didn't work, try to swap
Speaker 1: this out, or it did work. Yes. I love the
Speaker 1: tip of doing this with a community exploring something, especially
Speaker 1: going back to what you said at the beginning about
Speaker 1: familiarity being a barrier sometimes to trying new things or
Speaker 1: exploring a different way of life or eating. But then
Speaker 1: when we bring other people into it and we can
Speaker 1: do it together, you've got that element of familiarity. And
Speaker 1: then also just like sharing the cost together and having
Speaker 1: fun cooking together, probably learning new skills, trying new things.
Speaker 1: There's so much that I love about your womanly wednesdays
Speaker 1: that doesn't have to be called bad, but oh it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of other ways to do
Speaker 1: this too, like food sharing. I love food sharing. That
Speaker 1: is my love language. I want to feed you and
Speaker 1: I want to celebrate your birthday by making you a
Speaker 1: big cake. So that is how I express love. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of waste to save money and
Speaker 1: time in the kitchen by using those practices, whether you're
Speaker 1: cooking together and making a big, giant, giant batch of
Speaker 1: food and having your friends bring their temperware so that
Speaker 1: they can take them home for leftovers and you can
Speaker 1: have leftovers. Or another thing that I've done in the
Speaker 1: past is if I'm making a dish for dinner, maybe
Speaker 1: I'll ask my co worker to also make a double
Speaker 1: batch for dinner and we can swap the other one.
Speaker 1: So by'm making two casseroles and you're making two cast
Speaker 1: roles that are both different, you can swap the next
Speaker 1: day so that you're not having to make two separate
Speaker 1: dishes by two separate recipe ingredients, yet you still share
Speaker 1: food and cut back on the labor and time in
Speaker 1: the kitchen. Yes, yeah, Oh my gosh. We get a
Speaker 1: lot of our single listeners asking like how do I
Speaker 1: meal plan and make like this full recipe and then
Speaker 1: I don't want to eat it for the next five days?
Speaker 1: What a great idea, And like just emphasizing further the
Speaker 1: value of community and doing this thing in community to
Speaker 1: be able to like, hey, I'm just going to cut
Speaker 1: it in half and then we can like swap. Yes,
Speaker 1: I also have a tip for the single listener and
Speaker 1: maybe the single listener who's an introvert and doesn't have
Speaker 1: or maybe want a big community. So I actually have
Speaker 1: had that experience one hundred million times where I've made
Speaker 1: a big pot and then I hated it five days later.
Speaker 1: And one thing that I've really loved doing, and I
Speaker 1: include some notes on this in my book too, are
Speaker 1: if I make a big batch of chili or soup,
Speaker 1: I'll take split piece suit. For example, i will make
Speaker 1: it very plain. The first day it'll be very plain,
Speaker 1: and then the next day I will take a ladle
Speaker 1: and I'll spice it differently with nutritional yeast, and now
Speaker 1: it's got a cheesy flavor. The next day, I'll take
Speaker 1: another ladle and I'll put some hickory smoke in there,
Speaker 1: and it's going to have a smoky flavor. Now the
Speaker 1: next day, I'll take another ladle and I'll put lemon
Speaker 1: juice and some sarachia and maybe some pepper, and now
Speaker 1: it's got a tangy, spicy taste. And so you can
Speaker 1: put in the effort make a pretty plain dish and
Speaker 1: change up the flavors every day so that you really
Speaker 1: have a slightly different experience and not hate it. Oh,
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say, you make a
Speaker 1: bunch and you put some in the freezer, which is
Speaker 1: still a really great tip. We love the freezer. But
Speaker 1: you're my mind right now to the next level. I
Speaker 1: think you've just done a beauty like you have beautifully
Speaker 1: emphasized how eating more plant based does not have to
Speaker 1: be more expensive that it can. There are tons of
Speaker 1: ways that it can save you many I feel like
Speaker 1: in the times where I've seen people spend a lot
Speaker 1: on it, it's like the times where they're trying to
Speaker 1: replace like product for product. Um so like doing the
Speaker 1: plant based pizza, buying the ready made frozen one, it's
Speaker 1: like obviously going to be more expensive. But also I
Speaker 1: think and I am I have been guilty of this
Speaker 1: um in my early days of doing like procrasta spending
Speaker 1: so like instead of you oh yes, and it was
Speaker 1: it was inspired by a friend of mine who like
Speaker 1: wanted to get back into running, and so he bought
Speaker 1: new running shoes, new running shirts, shorts, everything, and then
Speaker 1: never got back into running. But he thought he was
Speaker 1: doing something because he was spending money on the thing,
Speaker 1: and that was the same with like, um, like going
Speaker 1: vegan or vegetarian is okay, I'm gonna buy all of
Speaker 1: these foods that are vegan vegetarian and totally do an
Speaker 1: overhaul of my kitchen and get ready and then follow through.
Speaker 1: They feel like they've done something because they've spent money
Speaker 1: on it. And I have done this before, and that's
Speaker 1: where that's where we find ourselves thinking, oh, this is
Speaker 1: too expensive. But the reality is that in going small
Speaker 1: and doing these just small common sense things like oh
Speaker 1: it is, it saves you so much money. I love
Speaker 1: I love what you just said because it reminds me
Speaker 1: of a book that I read quite some time ago,
Speaker 1: called Born to Run, and it was pretty much the
Speaker 1: same thing. Stop buying fitness gear, get in the running first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: try it out, see if you like it, and then
Speaker 1: maybe fifty miles one hundred miles after of running later,
Speaker 1: get new shoes first, then put in another fifty miles
Speaker 1: or hundred miles, then get new pants. Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to come before the actual doing of
Speaker 1: the thing and h and so that's such a good comparison. Yeah,
Speaker 1: try the lentils, try the black beans before the tenth
Speaker 1: bay and THEO and say tan. Yeah, start small and
Speaker 1: not all at the same time, like one plant based meal.
Speaker 1: Also start and then keep trying. Because I hated brown rice.
Speaker 1: I had never had brown rice before and I did
Speaker 1: not like it to like the tenth try. So sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to try it like ten times and then
Speaker 1: you might like it. They do say that. I think
Speaker 1: the research I'm using air quotes is you have to
Speaker 1: try something eleven times before you acquire a taste for
Speaker 1: it if it's a new thing. Also, it takes you
Speaker 1: like ten times to figure out how to make brown rice.
Speaker 1: I think like ten times of making it to start
Speaker 1: making your right. I make it like pasta now, so
Speaker 1: I'll just put a lot of water in and then
Speaker 1: drain it at the end. Then you never run out
Speaker 1: of water. You never worry about it being too dry. Wow.
Speaker 1: So that's my that's my brown rice. Okay, So let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the time involved with plant base,
Speaker 1: because especially for following these tips for the less expensive
Speaker 1: foods that are not the prepackage, that are not like
Speaker 1: necessarily the pre prepared, Like, how can we cut the
Speaker 1: time cost of going plant base or does it even
Speaker 1: do you even find that it costs more time? It can?
Speaker 1: When I started plant based on a budget, I had
Speaker 1: very little money. I was negative a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and then the cash I had in my life was
Speaker 1: very little, and so I made a lot of the
Speaker 1: food that I ate from scratch. I made my bread,
Speaker 1: I made my pasta sauces, and I really if I
Speaker 1: wanted to eat that way, because I just I had
Speaker 1: more time at that point in my life than I
Speaker 1: had money. I made it work. But now I have
Speaker 1: more disposable income than I do time. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm super stressed, strapped for time, and I splurge now
Speaker 1: on a can of beans instead of making my beans
Speaker 1: from scratch. Not one hundred percent of the time, but
Speaker 1: that's something that's a good example of what I would
Speaker 1: splurge on now, even though it's so much more economical
Speaker 1: to make them yourself, and they taste better. So I
Speaker 1: will say you can't spend a lot of time, but
Speaker 1: some of the ways to avoid that are thinking simply.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be an elaborate meal. You can
Speaker 1: make maybe a pot of brown rice for the week
Speaker 1: and throw things together like a hummus wrap or a
Speaker 1: burrito with a can of beans and your rice and
Speaker 1: some tomatoes and some lettuce and salsa, and that's your
Speaker 1: lunch for the week. Or put some hummus and vegetables,
Speaker 1: so that's something that's quick and easy. Pasta with frozen veggies,
Speaker 1: a can of cannellini beans and red sauce also very quick, easy, familiar.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take more than fifteen minut it's to throw
Speaker 1: any of those meals together. So that's one I am
Speaker 1: on the go. I tend to or trying to get
Speaker 1: out of the kitchen as quickly as possible. Those are
Speaker 1: the meals that I rely on, but the style of
Speaker 1: eating that I do at home. The most is cooking
Speaker 1: a legume and a grain and then mix and matching
Speaker 1: those throughout the week. So I'll throw them in a
Speaker 1: soup with veggies. I'll throw them in a burrito. I'll
Speaker 1: do some fried rice with some brown rice and some vegetables,
Speaker 1: and and I use tofu, I use beans, I use lentils,
Speaker 1: I use split peas. I use different types of lentils, red, brown, green.
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of protein sources that are
Speaker 1: very inexpensive, and you can play with those to decide
Speaker 1: which ones you like better. But I use one of
Speaker 1: those a grain, and then either a store bought sauce
Speaker 1: or a sauce that I make plus some vegetables and
Speaker 1: I throw them all together. It makes that match them
Speaker 1: throughout the week. That's my style of eating. But there
Speaker 1: are a lot of others. You can do the one
Speaker 1: pot thing that I mentioned earlier with the soup or
Speaker 1: chili and change it up. You can do the freezer
Speaker 1: friendly mules that you mentioned earlier. And there's a way
Speaker 1: of meal prepping for everybody. Again, it sounds like a
Speaker 1: spectrum of however you want to intersect. You can find
Speaker 1: a way that doesn't take a lot of time, and
Speaker 1: you can find a way that takes a ton of time.
Speaker 1: And I also like how you're giving yourself permission to
Speaker 1: trade off time and money. Sometimes we don't have a
Speaker 1: surplus of both. Sometimes we have a surplus of neither.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's you know, you've got more than one
Speaker 1: than the other, and so figuring out what kind of
Speaker 1: trade off works for us. Maybe We've got a little
Speaker 1: bit more money than time, so I'm willing to pay
Speaker 1: for convenience, or I've got more time than money, so
Speaker 1: I'm going to do a lot of the things myself.
Speaker 1: And that's just a really helpful kind of foundational concept
Speaker 1: appt here. I love that you said that because it
Speaker 1: also puts your head into thinking what actually costs more
Speaker 1: and if you value your time at a certain amount,
Speaker 1: and then you look at the thing, will say beans
Speaker 1: or pizza dough as two dollars at Trader Joe's and
Speaker 1: can sometimes I can put together two personal pizzas with
Speaker 1: that versus it will take me about an hour to
Speaker 1: make pizza dough if I do it from scratch and
Speaker 1: I let it rest. What am I valuing my time
Speaker 1: at and making those decisions based on what's going to
Speaker 1: actually cost you more. Yeah, speaking of a spectrum and
Speaker 1: making decisions. I resonated a lot with you when you
Speaker 1: were describing like growing up and the difference between being
Speaker 1: with your grandparents and then being with your dad, and
Speaker 1: kind of what the eating's landscape looked like. And I
Speaker 1: think you're describing a lot of people's household now when
Speaker 1: you've got maybe one spouse who wants to eat one
Speaker 1: way and another partner who wants to eat a different way.
Speaker 1: And I can kind of relate just personally with the
Speaker 1: way that my husband enjoys eating. Now, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: the I am down for like a good mac and cheese, um,
Speaker 1: but there are times when I'll go a little bit
Speaker 1: more healthy, plant based, and sometimes he's on board, sometimes
Speaker 1: he's not so like for someone like me or anyone
Speaker 1: else who can relate to that situation, do you have
Speaker 1: any advice for maybe one person wants to go plant based,
Speaker 1: but the partner loves meat or loves bachelor eating. They
Speaker 1: you just can't get away from their ramen and hot dogs.
Speaker 1: I have. I have a different scenario in my house
Speaker 1: where even though I eat pretty healthy ish, my husband
Speaker 1: eats super ultra healthy and doesn't use oil and doesn't
Speaker 1: like salt and all the things I think are tasty.
Speaker 1: And so the way I get around that as I
Speaker 1: make in a way that I think you can do
Speaker 1: this if your partner wants to eat meat or cheese,
Speaker 1: is a make a meal that is pretty plain again,
Speaker 1: and then I take the we'll say pasta and sauce,
Speaker 1: and in mine, I can really flavor it up with
Speaker 1: what I want. I can saute my own veggies if
Speaker 1: I want. But in his, I've used the same pasta
Speaker 1: and the same sauce, and he can be responsible for
Speaker 1: what goes in that. I can put some vegan cheese
Speaker 1: if I wanted that, I can put in you name it,
Speaker 1: whatever he doesn't like. That's what I can do. I
Speaker 1: hate mushrooms. I know I'm the worst vegetarian, but in his,
Speaker 1: he loads his up with mushrooms. He'll put nutritional yeast
Speaker 1: for the cheesy flavor, and I don't want that pasta.
Speaker 1: So you can make the same base and then take
Speaker 1: it and create your own preferences. Yeah, using that base
Speaker 1: negotiation station. I love that that your tip isn't here's
Speaker 1: just how to manipulate them into your way of thinking
Speaker 1: and doing. But here's a way that you both can
Speaker 1: get what you want and need and value, and there's
Speaker 1: space for that. That's wonderful. Yeah, I have been vegan
Speaker 1: for sixteen years now, and there's one thing I've learned
Speaker 1: is that you cannot force anyone to do anything. You
Speaker 1: can only be kind and loving and hope that they
Speaker 1: will support you and accommodate you. And I have found
Speaker 1: that approach. My friends want to make sure that I'm included,
Speaker 1: so often they'll look for a vegetarian restaurant or they'll
Speaker 1: make mostly everything the sides at Thanksgiving vegan except the
Speaker 1: protein on the table so that I can enjoy all
Speaker 1: of them. So that has been my experience, and I've
Speaker 1: tried a lot of different approaches. That's the one that works.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to try to push someone into something
Speaker 1: that they don't want to do, and they can resent you,
Speaker 1: they could make life harder for you. But if you
Speaker 1: just say, you know, this is what I'm doing, if
Speaker 1: you want to change yours up, I'll give you the
Speaker 1: meal before I dressed mine in the way that I
Speaker 1: want to. Yeah, we had a similar experience because I
Speaker 1: was a vegetarian when I met my husband. And for
Speaker 1: the first I guess five six years of our relationship
Speaker 1: until I got pregnant and I craved a Chick fil
Speaker 1: a chicken sandwich and that was it, and I just
Speaker 1: I would cook only vegetarian and he never stopped eating meat,
Speaker 1: Like he would eat it if he went out somewhere,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't buy it if it was in the house.
Speaker 1: He bought it and like or it was leftovers, and
Speaker 1: he was very I mean, I'm very lucky in that
Speaker 1: he was very you know, okay with that happening. He's
Speaker 1: He's like, I wouldn't eat healthy on my own, so
Speaker 1: this is kind of like the only way I would
Speaker 1: eat help And sometimes he says he misses it, and
Speaker 1: then other times he says, I'm glad you cook meat.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, but I do. Yeah, I do,
Speaker 1: like cook half like vegan or vegetarian meals every week.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, I think it was really if he
Speaker 1: wanted meat, he was on his own, and it's not
Speaker 1: like I was like, oh, meat can't be in my house.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wasn't going to cook it. That's how
Speaker 1: my best friend from childhood, she told her husband, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm making and if you want to do
Speaker 1: your meat, if you want to cook your chicken, you
Speaker 1: can do that and add it to the meal that
Speaker 1: I make if you really want to. And he was
Speaker 1: gung ho about it for like five seconds and then
Speaker 1: realized how much effort it was to put in the time.
Speaker 1: To one, he bought this like big giant Costco pack
Speaker 1: of chicken, and he was like, I'm never gonna eat
Speaker 1: this if you're not eating it, it's like it's taking
Speaker 1: up so much space. So one he was thinking, gosh,
Speaker 1: I did I wish I didn't buy that big thing
Speaker 1: because now I don't want to do it. He did
Speaker 1: the runner thing. He bought the product before he realized
Speaker 1: he did not want to cook before he gave it
Speaker 1: a chance. Yeah, yeah, for crass to spending. Do you
Speaker 1: know what, We always give a chance and it hits
Speaker 1: all ends of the spectrum. Never procrastinate. This one the
Speaker 1: bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the
Speaker 1: best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was
Speaker 1: born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off
Speaker 1: your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to
Speaker 1: not have to pay that bill anymore. Bill Bufalo Bills,
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton This is the bill of the week, Tony.
Speaker 1: Every week we invite our listeners and our guests to
Speaker 1: share with us a bill that they love, hate, lost, gained, whatever,
Speaker 1: It's vague for a reason, a person named Bill money,
Speaker 1: we would love to hear yours. I very very rarely
Speaker 1: go to Starbucks. But I went there and someone before
Speaker 1: me paid for my bill, and I knew that that
Speaker 1: was a thing that happens to other people, and it's
Speaker 1: like something you hear exists but not to me, And
Speaker 1: I almost hugged that person. We weren't like post COVID
Speaker 1: times and people were a little bit weird about hugging.
Speaker 1: Wait for me, um, I probably. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: It was so nice and it made me want to
Speaker 1: be in a place where I could do that too. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's great. What did you end up getting? I got
Speaker 1: a hot chocolate with soy milk. Yeah. I don't know
Speaker 1: why that sounds like so adorable to me. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've heard, like I've grown adult talk about getting
Speaker 1: hot chocolate so long and it's so endearing. It was delicious,
Speaker 1: and especially with swy milk, because I still order swy
Speaker 1: milk at Starbucks. I know it's like not in anymore,
Speaker 1: but oh it's not anymore. Not old school about it too? Yes, wow,
Speaker 1: well I'm not a big Starbucks fan, so that'd be
Speaker 1: the only way to get me there, as if someone
Speaker 1: else bought my fine, So I'm here for it. I'm
Speaker 1: here for that bill. Just send a different perspective. Oh man,
Speaker 1: if anyone listening has a bill where someone else maybe
Speaker 1: paid for you, bought you your hot chocolate milk or
Speaker 1: your bar. Yeah, but you know we're here for the
Speaker 1: people named Bill. We don't get enough of them. Visit
Speaker 1: Rugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill. Be a bill
Speaker 1: or leave a bill. The choice is yours. And now
Speaker 1: it's time for the Lightning Round. All right, for this
Speaker 1: week's Lightning Round, we will all take turns answering this question.
Speaker 1: Tony already answered this like a ton of times, but
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for her. What's your favorite inexpensive plant
Speaker 1: based meal to make? Tony? This is the vulnerability, her
Speaker 1: vulnerability round. It gets a little vulnerable when we have
Speaker 1: a guest. But um, I love soup. Soup is so
Speaker 1: comforting to me, and some people say that they love
Speaker 1: soup and soup season. But here in Sacramento, it gets
Speaker 1: like a hundred and ten degrees and I'm still eating soup. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I can't. I have a soup season, and
Speaker 1: so there's only a few months a year that I
Speaker 1: can eat soup. The closest I get to eating soup
Speaker 1: is chili, but then I gotta have it with rice
Speaker 1: or something. But I do I love a soup. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your two? Right now? Right now? I've been loving
Speaker 1: a super vegetable heavy but with a like a clear
Speaker 1: broth and um, I do a little tofu cube so
Speaker 1: that I can feel like it's chicken noodle like. And
Speaker 1: I'll put in a pasta or something like that to
Speaker 1: make it HARDI or white rice, my grant like a
Speaker 1: like a chicken and rice type soup with um white rice.
Speaker 1: That's delicious too. I love the word hardy. Give you
Speaker 1: tack on the term hardy to any meal. I am
Speaker 1: here for it. Yeah. I love a minestrone. Minestrone, however
Speaker 1: you say it with a little shell, pasta and veggies. Yes,
Speaker 1: what about you? Jen? Okay, okay, So I don't want
Speaker 1: to toot my own horn, Please don't, because that's something
Speaker 1: for us. But I feel like I have perfected two
Speaker 1: things in the kitchen, and only two things. I am
Speaker 1: not a chef. I have perfected the kale salad. So
Speaker 1: in salad season, I am making delicious kale salad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I will do this like um kind of mayonnaise
Speaker 1: based dressing. I make my own dressings and you use
Speaker 1: like a plant based mayonnaise with um mesh. Just use
Speaker 1: the mayonnaise instead of oil. And then like an apple cider,
Speaker 1: vinegar and other stuff and strawberries and walnuts. Yeah. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: my stomach literally just grumbled. I wish, I wish I
Speaker 1: had my my Yeah, I really, I really grumbled. You
Speaker 1: might go back and listen. I hear it, hearty tales.
Speaker 1: I love. It's so much better the next day you
Speaker 1: just got a massage and count to sixty. Massage your
Speaker 1: tale or if it's not salad season. I have also
Speaker 1: perfected crispy tofu, which is hard to do. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is um. So I will put tofu in everything, and
Speaker 1: even my husband loves it. Even yes, so all I
Speaker 1: will mix it. The secret is and I got this
Speaker 1: from I Think Cookie and eight. The secret is um.
Speaker 1: A tablespoon of soy, a tablespoon of oil and a
Speaker 1: tablespoon of cornstarch. Just make up that slurry. Toss your
Speaker 1: cubes in bake. Yeah, that is slurry, slurry slurry. I
Speaker 1: like that word too. Yes. Um, you can use like
Speaker 1: liquid aminos too if you're not on gluten. But like, yes,
Speaker 1: like that is that is everything. I'll put it in
Speaker 1: the kale the other day, warm kale salad with the
Speaker 1: tofu and oh my gosh, I put I roasted some
Speaker 1: butternut squash. I had some keen wa um and some almonds.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, maybe Pepita's. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, yes. And so it was warm when I
Speaker 1: served it, and then next day for leftovers, it was
Speaker 1: a cold kale salad. So it was like, that's that's
Speaker 1: that's Tony's thing right back. But my husband did call
Speaker 1: me the next day and was like, should I microwave this?
Speaker 1: It feels weird to mic gave of salad. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I mean it should feel weird. You know. You want
Speaker 1: to know what John's real response was, because she was
Speaker 1: at mine house and I heard her on the phone
Speaker 1: with her husband. She's like, these are the kinds of
Speaker 1: decisions you need to be able to make on your own.
Speaker 1: I'm like what She's like, yeah, that was Travis, Like,
Speaker 1: why did okay? I couldn't tell. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you could tell. I was just telling you. I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, you gotta like you gotta make
Speaker 1: these decisions for your life, you know, like you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta know thyself. Yes, ye um. For me, it's
Speaker 1: like a chickpea rice bowl with all sorts of other
Speaker 1: goodies into it. But I love what can happen with
Speaker 1: chick peas with a variety of seasoning. Baked, they get
Speaker 1: just a nice crisp to them, and then other veggies
Speaker 1: thrown into there, and that's fun for me. I did
Speaker 1: a chickpea and sweet potato curry last night. I'm just saying, oh,
Speaker 1: oh nice. I just made this recently, and then I
Speaker 1: saw you that night. We went like midnight bowling and
Speaker 1: which was fun. And my husband was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm really hungry. Why am I so hungry? I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: because normally we're not up at this time and your
Speaker 1: body's just now like expending energy. But also I did
Speaker 1: make just a vegetarian meal. He's like, I think it
Speaker 1: was because there wasn't any meat dinner tonight. And then
Speaker 1: Jen sitting there, she's like, no, it's because you didn't
Speaker 1: put enough protein in your meal. And that was fun
Speaker 1: just recently. See that's what happens I think sometimes is
Speaker 1: there's like these ideas around what it means to be
Speaker 1: plant based enough food, but you can. You can get
Speaker 1: enough food and all your nutrients. You just don't stay
Speaker 1: up till midnight bowling. That's the trip. Really. When you
Speaker 1: said midnight, I was like, Yeah, anybody's gonna need animal
Speaker 1: they are. This one's pregnant, so I know she was
Speaker 1: the real hero. I spent all day conserving my energy
Speaker 1: for that outing. It's a special occasion. So well, Tony,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Please tell everyone
Speaker 1: where they can find more from you, find your book, etc.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me and I loved
Speaker 1: our conversation. People can find me at plant Based on
Speaker 1: a Budget dot com. My book is called plant Based
Speaker 1: on a Budget, Quick and Easy, and it's available anywhere
Speaker 1: you buy books and at plant Based on a Budget
Speaker 1: Cookbook dot com and I'm on Instagram. I'm at plant
Speaker 1: Based on a Budget amazing, just everywhere plant Based on
Speaker 1: a budget. So great. Thanks for being with us, Tony,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you again. Were hungry now though we are.
Speaker 1: I had to go get some food before we recorded.
Speaker 1: She's not lying. Also super pregnant? Is that? Oh? I
Speaker 1: I anytime we have a guest and I walk away
Speaker 1: with tips, it's so it's a glorious day and I
Speaker 1: feel like win win, win, win win. I hope you're
Speaker 1: listening have something to take away, whether you're gonna go
Speaker 1: like all in on, all plant based, or you're going
Speaker 1: to intersect with it and dabble and become familiar. There's
Speaker 1: tips throughout here. And my biggest takeaway is that community
Speaker 1: learning piece. I loved that, like trying something new but
Speaker 1: with others. Yeah, I love the permission she gave to
Speaker 1: start slow. Yeah, to go take your time, start small.
Speaker 1: One meal a week is all is all it takes.
Speaker 1: Try it out, don't procrastsuspend trying to like change everything
Speaker 1: at once, Just try it a little bit. Chances are
Speaker 1: a lot of us are already eating a few meals
Speaker 1: that are at least vegetarian. Yeah, you don't have to identify,
Speaker 1: like change your identity to do this, so you don't
Speaker 1: have to become anything, any stereotype that you don't want
Speaker 1: to identify it with, you can find the radical middle here.
Speaker 1: I love, love, love that, so thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening. Many of you know we have a membership
Speaker 1: for our listeners who are paying off debt where we
Speaker 1: do monthly money challenges we actually just it and eat
Speaker 1: at home challenge, and we also have got accountability groups,
Speaker 1: book club, all kinds of stuff the book Clubs episodes
Speaker 1: you hear on the show. Our members will read together
Speaker 1: in our club and it's really awesome. So we want
Speaker 1: to congratulate one of our members for a big win.
Speaker 1: This one's from Jacqueline and it says gratitude. She says,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to share my gratitude for Frugal Friends Club.
Speaker 1: After receiving blank stares, excuses about their own financial life,
Speaker 1: outright hostility or a change of subject from friends, I
Speaker 1: shared my no spend move towards debt free living journey
Speaker 1: with She goes, hey, I understand that finances are a
Speaker 1: loaded subject. I'm not taking it personally. I realized that
Speaker 1: if I'm going to have community around this, it isn't
Speaker 1: with the people I currently spend time with, and it
Speaker 1: may have even been a part of the reason it
Speaker 1: took me so long to make a move in the
Speaker 1: direction I wanted to go in. Not that I'm absolving
Speaker 1: myself from responsibility. I need to do some work on
Speaker 1: my boundaries as well. I'm so glad you all are here, Jacqueline,
Speaker 1: that's legit, and I think so many people's stories and experiences.
Speaker 1: It's hard to read and hear that you experience so
Speaker 1: much hostility and some of the ways that you wanted
Speaker 1: to manage your own personal finances. But there is a
Speaker 1: reality to others finding a different lifestyle offensive. It could
Speaker 1: feel like an attack on the way that they are
Speaker 1: choosing to live, and sometimes that can lead to some hostility,
Speaker 1: but not allowing that to inhibit you from choosing something
Speaker 1: that you know is right for yourself and finding the
Speaker 1: community that's going to support you. Even if it's online,
Speaker 1: and we know that online communities can be of great support.
Speaker 1: It might not be exactly the same thing as being
Speaker 1: in person with other people and kind of doing life
Speaker 1: in that regard, but there is a touch point and
Speaker 1: connection that is very real that we can still get
Speaker 1: what we need from others and relationships through the internet
Speaker 1: and through clubs, like the Frugal Friends clubs. So congratulations.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you're there in the club, Jacqueline.
Speaker 1: We need people in our immediate you know, with us physically,
Speaker 1: but we don't need to get everything from them. If
Speaker 1: we need something different, you can go seek it somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and there's no shame in that. I'm so glad you
Speaker 1: found your place in Frugal Friends Club. So thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. If you want to check out the membership,
Speaker 1: if you're experiencing something like that, then head to Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash club. Check out all the courses, interviews, challenges,
Speaker 1: all the stuff we've got inside, in addition to the
Speaker 1: community and the accountability groups. See you next time. Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. I forgot what we
Speaker 1: were doing for a second. I was thinking about midnight bowling.
Speaker 1: I thought about that too, and like always we should
Speaker 1: we hang out a lot outside of the podcast, and
Speaker 1: I'm like we should. I guess we should like post
Speaker 1: it on social media or something, and they're taking any pictures? No, yeah,
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, then we, you know, have conversations
Speaker 1: like we did it bowling the other night. It's like,
Speaker 1: this isn't even suitable for social media. Well, we don't
Speaker 1: have to tell people what we're talking about. We're we're
Speaker 1: absolute weirdos. But you are not a nerd, Jill. That's
Speaker 1: the one distinction we make. Jill is not a nerd
Speaker 1: weird though. Yeah. I learned that just some you know,
Speaker 1: some of the conversation that we can let our listeners
Speaker 1: in on was all the salacious content you know about
Speaker 1: my lace IRUs and her recent song. You know, when
Speaker 1: you are almost bedridden, Um, because because of pregnancy, you
Speaker 1: find a lot of information out that otherwise you would
Speaker 1: not have cared to know and still don't really care
Speaker 1: to know. Yeah, but um, you have to make yourself
Speaker 1: useful in some way, you know, when you can't be
Speaker 1: physically useful. Yeah. And you you're useful in getting the
Speaker 1: celeb guys, yes, yes, And I you know, will definitely
Speaker 1: do a Wikipedia search of a celebrity for the greater
Speaker 1: good and I appreciate that. And something I learned about you,
Speaker 1: Jen is that you bowl your best when you dedicate
Speaker 1: your frame to one direction. So here's the context of
Speaker 1: that story. This one direction song comes on at the
Speaker 1: bow at the bowling Alley and Jill's like, what happened
Speaker 1: to One Direction? They're still a band? And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think it's just Harry Styles. I think the rest
Speaker 1: of them died, which I go really because I'm not
Speaker 1: up on this. The lads, I'm like, how like how
Speaker 1: intense and traumatic and I just like regale and all
Speaker 1: being gone. I just regaled like everyone with like very
Speaker 1: specific details about Miley Cyrus's like life. And so I'm
Speaker 1: the expert here right in this in this scenario of minutes,
Speaker 1: I think you're starting a rumor that now now that
Speaker 1: we're like putting it on air, I was joking, I
Speaker 1: don't know where One Direction is. Yeah, I just see
Speaker 1: a lot from Harry Styles and I don't know, and
Speaker 1: had a moment of silence for the other members of
Speaker 1: One Direction that became yeah, it became my turn, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to dedicate this frame, which
Speaker 1: I learned it's called a frame around, not an inning,
Speaker 1: definitely not that uh, And I was like, I'd like
Speaker 1: to dedicate this frame to the fallen members of One
Speaker 1: Direction and that was really the best, the best around together. Yes, Jed,
Speaker 1: what was your final score? I don't know, like eighty five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was the best one. No bumpers though, no bumpers.
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of me. I'd like to thank me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one time that taking the boundaries away was a
Speaker 1: good thing. Jill actually beat all of us. Jill is
Speaker 1: a professional bowler. No, I'm not. Yeah, I do remember
Speaker 1: your score because it was higher than all of ours,
Speaker 1: all the boys except for Eric. Yeah. Yeah, Eric goat
Speaker 1: me by two points. You were the You guys were
Speaker 1: the best bowlers. But again, I'm not a nerd. She's
Speaker 1: not a nerd, but nerds are great. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with being a nerd. I wish I was a nerd.
Speaker 1: She's just extremely talented at nerdy things.