Speaker 1: Episode four thirteen, How Megan paid off twenty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of debt in six months.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here
Speaker 2: your hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast and welcome to Debt
Speaker 1: Free Summer.
Speaker 3: Oho. It's a debt free story and a debt free summer.
Speaker 1: This begins our Debt Free Summer series. If you are
Speaker 1: trying to pay off debt or if you are inspired
Speaker 1: by debt free stories, you are going to want to
Speaker 1: tune in every week this summer because we have ten
Speaker 1: for you. These are interviews that originally aired on our
Speaker 1: YouTube channel about two years ago, a year and a
Speaker 1: half ago, and they we are replaying them on the
Speaker 1: podcas Cast with updates from our Debt Free Stories participants
Speaker 1: and some additional insight to ponder on if you are
Speaker 1: looking to become debt for yourself.
Speaker 4: I love a good before and after, and here we
Speaker 4: are highlighting an after story of debt, of a debt
Speaker 4: payoff and then getting another after from them which is
Speaker 4: even better and also definitely listen to this episode. But
Speaker 4: if you want to get a glimpse of the video
Speaker 4: of it. It could be worth it to see what
Speaker 4: our backdrop used to look like.
Speaker 3: We had these.
Speaker 4: Streamersumers what do you call them? Shiny shot pinging. I
Speaker 4: was pregnant, so like, I don't know, you were sitting
Speaker 4: so far away from the mic because you couldn't breathe. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so if jen.
Speaker 1: Sounds why to see what was going on in our
Speaker 1: lives at that period.
Speaker 4: I was so deep, deep into renovations, which is why
Speaker 4: we were at your place because there wasn't anywhere to
Speaker 4: sit in our house.
Speaker 1: And then we moved it over here when there wasn't
Speaker 1: anywhere to sit in my house.
Speaker 4: But that's not what you came to this episode. Now
Speaker 4: you learn how you wanted to learn how. Megan, who
Speaker 4: spoiler alert, is an average income earning teacher at the time.
Speaker 1: But not an average person.
Speaker 4: No, she is exemplary no, and so she shared some
Speaker 4: really helpful, implementable tips on the ways that she cut
Speaker 4: expenses and found creative ways to save again as a teacher,
Speaker 4: paying off twenty thousand dollars of debt in six months.
Speaker 4: We're really excited to share her story with you.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by counting
Speaker 1: to one hundred. I recently learned that Kai was one
Speaker 1: of only four students in his class that could count
Speaker 1: to one hundred. Wow, and he.
Speaker 3: Is Mom loves money.
Speaker 1: Because mom loves money.
Speaker 3: You don't deal with money less than one hundred US.
Speaker 1: YEP. I lost it. I lost it. I don't have
Speaker 1: anything written down for this one. I was really riffing
Speaker 1: and now and I have lost where I was going.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to lose where you're going, then
Speaker 1: sign up for the Friend Letter. We send it out
Speaker 1: three times a week Monday, Wednesday Friday. We've got tips
Speaker 1: for where to find free food, tips on how to
Speaker 1: save money where it really counts in the high impact areas,
Speaker 1: not those three dollars decisions. And then also help on
Speaker 1: your values based spending journey that's at Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. Don't lose your way like I did.
Speaker 3: Interrupted you.
Speaker 1: So we have nine more of these episodes coming up
Speaker 1: after today. They're going to be coming out once a week.
Speaker 1: I believe this is airing on I believe they're Fridays
Speaker 1: that they are airing. Yes, every Friday through June and July.
Speaker 1: We are airing these episodes. So we are going to
Speaker 1: be talking all about debt freedom this summer because we
Speaker 1: think it's important. It's not the end all, be all,
Speaker 1: but it when you can pay off your debt, it
Speaker 1: is a huge weight lifted. And we also want to
Speaker 1: encourage you to call in with your Bill of the
Speaker 1: Weeks if you have paid off debt and you have
Speaker 1: not been able to celebrate it, like calling in to
Speaker 1: celebrate it on any podcasts, for instance, because you don't
Speaker 1: meet any like a certain criteria. We are a safe
Speaker 1: space for you to do that. We want you to
Speaker 1: call into the Bill of the week line and celebrate
Speaker 1: with us. So if you like debt payoff stories, check
Speaker 1: out episode four h five, which is actually my debt
Speaker 1: payoff journey, How I paid off seventy eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of debt in two years with my husband, and then
Speaker 1: episode two ninety five what to do if you have
Speaker 1: more debt than you make in a year. But let's
Speaker 1: get into Megan's story. She's sharing the mindset shifts and
Speaker 1: strategies she used to pay off twenty thousand dollars of
Speaker 1: debt as a teacher, with tips on cutting expenses and
Speaker 1: creative ways to say, let's do it.
Speaker 4: We've got an amazing guest and fellow Frugal Friends podcast listener, Megan.
Speaker 5: Megan, welcome. We're so glad to have you.
Speaker 6: Awesome. I'm so excited too.
Speaker 7: I tell everyone that I meet, like all of my
Speaker 7: debt payoff tips now and do you have you have
Speaker 7: to listen to the Frugal Friends You'll help you. So
Speaker 7: I'm so excited to finally share it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we are so honored to be a part of
Speaker 8: the tips that you share with everyone listening to the
Speaker 8: Frugal Friends podcast and just the small part of the
Speaker 8: journey that we've been that.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, and back to you. Tell us
Speaker 4: about yourself, where you're from, what's your life, sit you
Speaker 4: and just lay the groundwork for us.
Speaker 1: Let us get to know you.
Speaker 6: Right while. I live in South Florida and I teach
Speaker 6: third grade.
Speaker 7: This is my twenty first year in the classroom.
Speaker 6: So part of my debt payoff was why have i
Speaker 6: been teaching for twenty years eighteen at the time and
Speaker 6: I'm still paycheck to paycheck, Like where is my money going?
Speaker 6: Because it's happening, it's coming in.
Speaker 7: So the teacher's salary, I think pays in it plays
Speaker 7: into this story as well. And yeah, I love things
Speaker 7: that have to do with frugality, simplicity and you know,
Speaker 7: less consumerism, less creating, less waste, and it all kind
Speaker 7: of ties together.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So was there any like epiphany or like
Speaker 1: event that happened that kind of led you to the
Speaker 1: realization that after eighteen years of teaching your living paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck. Yes.
Speaker 7: So I did go through a divorce during that time,
Speaker 7: and you know, there are seasons of life that change,
Speaker 7: and I knew at that point things needed to go
Speaker 7: on a credit card and.
Speaker 3: All of that.
Speaker 7: But it was the end of twenty eighteen and I
Speaker 7: had joined a step bet where you pay into a
Speaker 7: group and then they give you a certain number of
Speaker 7: steps each day and as long as you make your
Speaker 7: step goal, you get that money back plus a portion
Speaker 7: of the pot. And a friend of mine was over.
Speaker 7: She was like maybe it was her second year of teaching.
Speaker 7: She worked with me, and she was like, I was like,
Speaker 7: I have to get my steps, but I'm not going
Speaker 7: to It's just forty bucks.
Speaker 6: And she was like, no, get up, We're going it's
Speaker 6: forty dollars. And so I was like all right, well
Speaker 6: she's going to take me along. Let's go.
Speaker 7: And we walked through the neighborhood and she started not
Speaker 7: not teaching me, but she started talking about this fire
Speaker 7: concept that she had learned about. And again second year
Speaker 7: of teaching, and she was taking on another job waitressing
Speaker 7: so that she could retire early. And I was like,
Speaker 7: that's incredible, and it just started to like click in
Speaker 7: my head. She's so young and she's doing this. Now
Speaker 7: where would I be if I had done something similar?
Speaker 7: And so that was like December, I think, and January
Speaker 7: I was like, this is it. This is my goal
Speaker 7: twenty nineteen. I am paying off my debt.
Speaker 6: And I told myself, I'd I could do it in
Speaker 6: a year, but I'm really competitive and I ended up
Speaker 6: doing it in six months because I am really competitive.
Speaker 6: So yeah, yeah, so that's where it started.
Speaker 3: It started there.
Speaker 4: So powerful to hear, and I think highlights how important
Speaker 4: community is. I think we've experienced that, we've hear it
Speaker 4: from our listeners all the time, and similar for you,
Speaker 4: not only with physical exercise and other types of goals
Speaker 4: that we might be having in life, but.
Speaker 5: Also with financial goals.
Speaker 4: Just to hear what else might be possible to have
Speaker 4: others inspire and motivate us. It's such a powerful part
Speaker 4: of what got you started on this journey.
Speaker 7: You know, I called her a lot in the beginning,
Speaker 7: and I would ask her like what does this mean?
Speaker 7: And she would explain it to me, or she would
Speaker 7: refer me to like nerd wallet, and I'd look it
Speaker 7: up myself, and you know, I was learning it, but
Speaker 7: it was just that inspiration. So from there, I just decided,
Speaker 7: I'm a paper and pencil girl, and I know my
Speaker 7: strengths as a teacher, so I needed to gamify everything
Speaker 7: because I'm competitive and I needed to be creative. So
Speaker 7: I just got a binder. I didn't want to buy
Speaker 7: a planner because that was part of my problem. Was
Speaker 7: I need this, I should buy it. So I got
Speaker 7: a binder and I filled it with regular loose leaf paper,
Speaker 7: and I put a plane paper for each month, and
Speaker 7: I just I just said, just track where your money's going.
Speaker 7: I would highlight and then like categories. I needed to
Speaker 7: see where that was. That was like two months of
Speaker 7: trying to cut down spending and see where my money
Speaker 7: was going. I knew that, you know, my career is
Speaker 7: not the type where you can go in say I've
Speaker 7: been rated highly effective for six years in a row,
Speaker 7: I'd like a raise, Like, it doesn't work that way,
Speaker 7: and I'm not at a spot where I was comfortable
Speaker 7: taking on a second job. So I figured out, Okay,
Speaker 7: if I can't make more money, I either need to
Speaker 7: stop spending it or like get better discounts, save more
Speaker 7: on what I am buying. And I think it was
Speaker 7: a combination of that. You know, I did the typical.
Speaker 7: I cut expenses. I didn't need to go get.
Speaker 6: My nails done. I could do it myself.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: We we like to go to concerts and things like that,
Speaker 7: we don't have to go to all of them, like
Speaker 7: we can.
Speaker 6: Pick our favorites.
Speaker 7: A huge thing was your Pantry Challenge episodes and websites
Speaker 7: or even on Alexa. You can ask her Alexa Alexa
Speaker 7: asks save the food if my celery is good, and
Speaker 7: she'll give you tips on the quality and like what's
Speaker 7: wrong with it? How to revive it? Is it still okay?
Speaker 7: So we cut down our food waste. We started getting
Speaker 7: really creative. I've always been like a leftover for lunch person,
Speaker 7: but we got really creative with turning a leftover into
Speaker 7: something brand new.
Speaker 6: Oh, don't save this the end of the onion. Put
Speaker 6: it in the bag in the.
Speaker 7: Freezer because I'm gonna make stock out of it in
Speaker 7: a week. So, you know, we did all of these
Speaker 7: little things like that to cut expenses in groceries. I
Speaker 7: stopped buying paper napkins. I know, it's like little I
Speaker 7: took on. I took on any tutoring job that I could.
Speaker 7: I cashed in all my coins, you know, all the
Speaker 7: coins that are sitting in the closet. I took more
Speaker 7: of an inventory of my bathroom toilet trees. I don't
Speaker 7: need to get another shampoo. I have two under the sink.
Speaker 7: This is a good price, but I don't need it.
Speaker 7: And once I started to make little extra payments with
Speaker 7: that money coming in, it was like it just went
Speaker 7: from there. It was like keep going, keep going. What
Speaker 7: else can I cut? I tried to do. I said gamifying,
Speaker 7: like you guys always recommend. I would make like a
Speaker 7: goal for the month, and it was like the first
Speaker 7: I think gin it was like ten days where I
Speaker 7: didn't spend anything.
Speaker 6: So then in February it.
Speaker 7: Was like just one more All I had to do
Speaker 7: was just one more day than the month before. Now,
Speaker 7: I tried for so many but it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 7: like I felt any kind of failure.
Speaker 6: It's like, Okay, you did it, can you do it again?
Speaker 6: But plus one?
Speaker 7: Just like I said, the things that I would do
Speaker 7: with the kids to motivate them, like I had to
Speaker 7: do that for myself.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. It's so crazy, like when you have this
Speaker 1: singular focused goal, it wakes you up to things that
Speaker 1: you could be doing that you kind of maybe always
Speaker 1: knew but never had a reason or motivation to do.
Speaker 1: And there's so so many opportunity it is just lying
Speaker 1: around that. Once you have this singular focused goal, you
Speaker 1: now have the motivation to actually take advantage of them.
Speaker 5: Right when it's connected to something greater.
Speaker 4: The debt payoffs is a reason to kind of just
Speaker 4: get a few percentage points better in all of these areas,
Speaker 4: Not one of them is.
Speaker 5: Going to make you rich and wealthy, but that shift.
Speaker 4: In mindset and thinking about how you're cooking that week
Speaker 4: or setting something aside to make chicken stock, and it
Speaker 4: becomes exciting and fun when it's connected to something more important,
Speaker 4: a goal you're trying to attain.
Speaker 7: I had to completely tell myself, you're not allowed in
Speaker 7: Target anymore.
Speaker 6: You can't go to Target because well so during my.
Speaker 7: Divorce, that was an activity, go to Target and go
Speaker 7: up and down the aisles, or go to Tjmax and
Speaker 7: look what they have. But when I started selling those
Speaker 7: same things on Facebook marketplace because I needed to figure
Speaker 7: out a way to make money, you know, that's that's
Speaker 7: pretty telling. When you're like, I spent twenty five dollars
Speaker 7: on this and I'll take five just to get it,
Speaker 7: just to have the five back, that is something that
Speaker 7: changes the way you shop also.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So let's hear a little bit more about the debt.
Speaker 4: How much was it, How long did it take you
Speaker 4: to pay off? Give us some more of those details.
Speaker 7: It was around nineteen thousand, and it was my car
Speaker 7: and the rest of my student loans, and like I said,
Speaker 7: twenty years or it was like eighteen years at the
Speaker 7: time of teaching, and I still was paying student loans
Speaker 7: because when the bill came, it was you pay the
Speaker 7: minimum because then I need the other money to go
Speaker 7: and you know, live life or shop. But that's not
Speaker 7: the case, Like you can live life and you can
Speaker 7: do these other things by putting more money, because then
Speaker 7: you have that freedom and you don't feel the stress
Speaker 7: of I'm.
Speaker 6: Going to go to the mailbox and there's going to
Speaker 6: be a bill in there. You know, It's just it's
Speaker 6: just gone. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my gosh. And six months down from how
Speaker 1: long did you think it would take you?
Speaker 7: I told myself I could do it in a year.
Speaker 7: Actually I told my mom, I said, mark my words,
Speaker 7: a year from now, this will be gone.
Speaker 6: And because I just kept hustling.
Speaker 7: No, you know, my at that point, I had moved
Speaker 7: in with my now husband, so like the life situation
Speaker 7: had changed, and I know that that's important. I wasn't
Speaker 7: you know, I wasn't paying a mortgage payment at that time.
Speaker 7: But I hadn't been paying a mortgage payment either, so
Speaker 7: you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, so, wow, nineteen thousand dollars in six months,
Speaker 4: when you thought it was going to take you a
Speaker 4: year and you had life changes happening in the midst
Speaker 4: of that's some beneficial So I'm probably not some beneficial
Speaker 4: either way. It's quite an incredible payoff in just six months.
Speaker 4: In that debt payoff, were there any kind of lump
Speaker 4: sums that you utilized to pay that off. Did you
Speaker 4: sell anything large, did you use savings, any kind of
Speaker 4: big tackling that you implemented.
Speaker 7: I mean I did go through like some of my
Speaker 7: jewelry that I didn't wear, and I sold back the gold.
Speaker 6: But we're talking like one hundred dollars here and there.
Speaker 7: There wasn't really anything that was a lumpsom.
Speaker 6: I remembered. The other thing one of the tricks. We
Speaker 6: live next to.
Speaker 7: A more wealthy, more affluent neighborhood, and their trash book
Speaker 7: trash night is Sunday. So I would take a drive
Speaker 7: around the lake on Sunday and see things that were
Speaker 7: easily sold on Facebook marketplace and clean them up, and
Speaker 7: I mean like with a rag, not like anything major,
Speaker 7: clean them off and post them for like ten dollars
Speaker 7: just for something.
Speaker 6: And I did. I did, like keep track of this.
Speaker 6: I put it all into a free Google sheet. When
Speaker 6: I did it, I did it from paper, and then
Speaker 6: I the nerd, went to the Google sheets. But I
Speaker 6: wrote it in seven hundred and sixty nine dollars worth
Speaker 6: in a year of stuff that I sold on Facebook
Speaker 6: Marketplace that I either had in my house picked up
Speaker 6: for free, and it was like five and ten dollars items.
Speaker 6: So it My grandmother was a gambler, and she used
Speaker 6: to say a successful gambler.
Speaker 7: If that's a thing she used to say. She just
Speaker 7: say any money is good money, even if it's not
Speaker 7: much money. And that's how I felt about that. Yes,
Speaker 7: I was giving this thing away for five dollars and
Speaker 7: I paid more, but it's five more than I have now.
Speaker 7: And when those when that number started to grow on
Speaker 7: my spreadsheet, like this is incredible. This could be my
Speaker 7: summer gig. I could just find things that people don't
Speaker 7: want and flip them. It's not my summer gig, but
Speaker 7: it's it's another way where I couldn't. I couldn't make
Speaker 7: more at my current job, So how else can I
Speaker 7: bring in money?
Speaker 1: And that was just another way that's amazing, so creative. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So how much were you earning from your actual job?
Speaker 1: I assume since it was six months, it.
Speaker 7: Was it was it was the same salary each time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: and how much was it? Around fifty thousand?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So you're a teacher.
Speaker 4: It's not like you're making massive amounts of income able
Speaker 4: to pay off this debt in a super short amount
Speaker 4: of time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're making a really standard income and paying off
Speaker 1: this big debt in a really short amount of time.
Speaker 1: That's that's super cool.
Speaker 7: It was definitely cutting expenses and you know, thinking like, well,
Speaker 7: we already don't pay that much. Well, I'm spending money
Speaker 7: on contacts every year, and I have glasses. So if
Speaker 7: I wore my glasses like half the time, my contacts
Speaker 7: now last for two years. You know, it was it
Speaker 7: was just being more aware. You know, you fall into
Speaker 7: this trap of like it's three dollars at Starbucks and
Speaker 7: it's a it's the dollar spot item and it's it's
Speaker 7: ten dollars over here or something.
Speaker 6: At work.
Speaker 7: I had to be very honest with coworkers. I'm not
Speaker 7: in a time right now where where I can pitch
Speaker 7: in money for gifts. I will wrap the gift, I
Speaker 7: will make cars, I will get I will do a plant,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. Like I can participate in
Speaker 7: another way. I could bake something, but I can't give
Speaker 7: you the ten dollars that you need for the next gift.
Speaker 6: And they respected that. You know, it was not harsh.
Speaker 7: You just have to be upfront and people understand that
Speaker 7: because everybody wants to save their money. You just have
Speaker 7: to stand up for yourself and say I can't give
Speaker 7: this to you right now.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, that boundaries and self restraint, to be able
Speaker 1: to say no to people you love or like or
Speaker 1: see frequently. That is a lesson that is a byproduct,
Speaker 1: byproduct of you know, paying off debt that will transcend
Speaker 1: your bank account. There's so many lessons that we take
Speaker 1: for granted on this journey. We think it's just about
Speaker 1: getting to net zero or getting to see a number
Speaker 1: on a screen, But it is so much more about
Speaker 1: the lessons you pick up on the journey. And one
Speaker 1: that I have learned and I keep, and I think
Speaker 1: and we'll serve you for like far beyond what debt
Speaker 1: freedom will do to your bank account.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I absolutely agree. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 4: So what's coming up next now that you've paid off
Speaker 4: this debt? What's your next financial goal on the horizon.
Speaker 7: We would like to pay off our mortgage, but right
Speaker 7: now that rate is steady. We we are in need
Speaker 7: of new windows and slider doors.
Speaker 6: So we did get.
Speaker 7: A company to come and they're coming and we are
Speaker 7: putting our money into a HI. I split my now
Speaker 7: that I have I get to keep the money most
Speaker 7: of the money coming in, I split my paycheck. I
Speaker 7: did a direct deposit into my regular credit union and
Speaker 7: to a high yield savings. I do have the card
Speaker 7: for that one, but we're not pulling from it because
Speaker 7: now it's at three point twenty five and I'm putting
Speaker 7: we're putting half half of every paycheck goes into that,
Speaker 7: and that's to pay for the windows. So they're gonna
Speaker 7: do the windows, I believe, like February or March, and
Speaker 7: we will. We know, we know because we've done it,
Speaker 7: we can have that money in. Aren't ready so when
Speaker 7: the windows are done, they say, here's your first payment,
Speaker 7: we can say, no, no, here's all of it. So
Speaker 7: that's our that's our current goal. Yeah, and it's it's
Speaker 7: still a reminder, it's still practice.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: We have stickies on the bathroom mirror with the amounts.
Speaker 7: We cross it out and we write the new amount
Speaker 7: so that we see it every day, which we thought
Speaker 7: might cause anxiety but actually is very motivating for us.
Speaker 7: You know, we get excited about, you know, we should
Speaker 7: get the family together and like get a cabin somewhere,
Speaker 7: and we're like, after after the windows are done, that's
Speaker 7: the next thing we say.
Speaker 4: For Wow, that is amazing how you're thinking ahead and
Speaker 4: stashing money aside. How do you think you would have
Speaker 4: felt about the need for new windows had you not
Speaker 4: paid off at how about have gone?
Speaker 7: When he first showed us the amount after discounts, which
Speaker 7: there was a teacher discount to because it never hurts
Speaker 7: to ask, never hurts to ask, it was still the
Speaker 7: same feeling of where do you get that money from?
Speaker 7: You don't just like pull it out of the air.
Speaker 7: And then it was just maybe like an hour or
Speaker 7: two of us like stomaching that giant number and going wait, wait,
Speaker 7: we can do this, like we've done it, there's there's
Speaker 7: proof we've done it. We can do it again, you know.
Speaker 7: And I've got my husband on board. Like I said,
Speaker 7: I was. I was nervous that seeing the money amount
Speaker 7: each day would give him anxiety as well. But he
Speaker 7: saw me work so hard and really change how I
Speaker 7: am as a as a consumer. So he's on board
Speaker 7: and it's it's fun. Now it becomes the thing that
Speaker 7: we how.
Speaker 6: Much how much did you get to put in today?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 6: Me too? Okay?
Speaker 4: Cool?
Speaker 6: But I don't think that I would have had that hope,
Speaker 6: you know, it would have just been. It would have
Speaker 6: just been in this state of dread, like, oh great,
Speaker 6: here's another thing.
Speaker 7: How do I pay for that? I'm still paying off
Speaker 7: this like the negative snowball instead of a positive snowball.
Speaker 1: Wow, a negative snowball instead of a positive one. That's
Speaker 1: a that's a really good way to look at it.
Speaker 1: It does debt. Freedom really does create. It eliminates those
Speaker 1: negative snowballs that we very much create for ourselves. So
Speaker 1: I want to know, what would you say to somebody
Speaker 1: who is where you were when you had this epiphany
Speaker 1: that you had been working eighteen years and still living
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck or maybe it's not even that severe,
Speaker 1: but they're just they have this desire to be where
Speaker 1: you are now, and they're an average income earner who
Speaker 1: you know doesn't have time for a side hustle. They
Speaker 1: don't think it's possible. What would you say to them?
Speaker 7: I would tell them that even though they think they're
Speaker 7: not that they're not spending as much and they have
Speaker 7: cut expenses, there are things to still be cut. There
Speaker 7: are expenses that you still have. Sometimes it takes someone
Speaker 7: else to look at it too. I have offered for
Speaker 7: a friend of mine, like if you want to do
Speaker 7: that and write it down for a month. I will
Speaker 7: come over and highlight for you and help you, like
Speaker 7: sort them out categories. I would also, So I would
Speaker 7: I would say that you have to know where it's coming,
Speaker 7: where it's going, and there are things you can cut.
Speaker 7: And I would also tell them that the hint of
Speaker 7: using cash envelopes, having that cash in your hand and
Speaker 7: knowing that you're about to give it to someone else
Speaker 7: makes you stop and think thinking about that, you know,
Speaker 7: marketing company sitting around their office table like laughing, like
Speaker 7: haa she fell for our marketing.
Speaker 6: Let's go, we're taking her money. It just makes you think.
Speaker 7: So I would say, you know, write it down or
Speaker 7: use an app ork help really and be honest with yourself.
Speaker 6: Just do it for a month. Be honest with yourself,
Speaker 6: write it down, see where your money's going, see what
Speaker 6: you can.
Speaker 7: Cut, and try to use cash because it's so helpful,
Speaker 7: so concrete.
Speaker 4: Those are some great tips. And you're a fantastic friend
Speaker 4: to have.
Speaker 5: Yeah, right, willing to come. Oh here's how you can
Speaker 5: do this and let me help you.
Speaker 1: That's me glad to have you as a frugal friend.
Speaker 4: Yes, well we are now at that time for some
Speaker 4: fun celebration, and you know us, we like to keep
Speaker 4: it lucy goosey and really whatever's going to benefit you.
Speaker 4: Similar to how your debt free journey is not the
Speaker 4: same as everyone else's, probably the way you want to
Speaker 4: celebrate is not the same as everyone else.
Speaker 5: So this is your time.
Speaker 4: How do you want to celebrate this debt payoff of
Speaker 4: almost twenty thousand dollars and six months?
Speaker 7: All right, I'm going to do one that we do
Speaker 7: in the classroom when someone has like a fantastic response
Speaker 7: to something and we want to like acknowledge like that's
Speaker 7: the that's what we're looking for.
Speaker 6: We just do it like a go mee go Megan.
Speaker 1: Y.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Megan, Thank you so much for sharing your
Speaker 1: debt payoff story. I know that there are so many
Speaker 1: people in a similar situation that are going to find
Speaker 1: this really inspirational and really take to heart the tips,
Speaker 1: all the good tips that you shared.
Speaker 4: Well done and inspiration for anyone watching to set a
Speaker 4: goal and then cut it in half.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we double it. Either way, we can do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's anything that we can take away from Megan
Speaker 4: or other people's stories, it's the ability to do this thing,
Speaker 4: to pay it off, take the small steps, find friends
Speaker 4: and community around you to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know you can.
Speaker 6: You can do it. It doesn't feel like it, but
Speaker 6: it's so much. It feels so much better when that's
Speaker 6: when that's gone. There's there's ways, you know, Like I said,
Speaker 6: I felt really trapped in the financial side of you know,
Speaker 6: you hear people say like, well, ask for a raise
Speaker 6: or it's time for a raise. Well, there's there's.
Speaker 7: Not much I could do besides taking on a second
Speaker 7: job and tutoring was an okay thing, but I didn't
Speaker 7: want to learn a new skill or learn a cash register.
Speaker 7: I'm already exhausted from this job. So finding ways finding ways,
Speaker 7: And like I said, you two have been so helpful.
Speaker 7: Every time I listened to the podcast during the jet payoff,
Speaker 7: I would get this feeling of like.
Speaker 6: I'm doing it right, I'm doing it.
Speaker 7: Look how encouraging because you always felt like friends that
Speaker 7: I was like listening in on and it was like, Yep,
Speaker 7: I'm doing that, I'm doing it right, I'm doing a
Speaker 7: good job. And it was like providing me the feedback
Speaker 7: I needed to keep going. Yeah, there were other podcasts
Speaker 7: that offered kind of like tough love, and I'd listen
Speaker 7: to those when I was driving because it kept me
Speaker 7: from stopping at a store.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 7: There was some I would listen to when I was out,
Speaker 7: like taking a walk, and that was Those were more
Speaker 7: like motivating for the future, and yours was like reassuring
Speaker 7: and uh new ideas. So thank you so much for
Speaker 7: doing this because you're reaching so many people and you're
Speaker 7: you're giving them a better financial life.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, thank you so much. Yeah, so many. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, thank you, Thank you so much, Megan. We're
Speaker 1: always honored to just play us like small small part
Speaker 1: in people's journeys. But like it was you who did
Speaker 1: all the heavy lifting.
Speaker 5: You did it. You did it, Megan. Congratulations, do one.
Speaker 1: More go, Megan. I love that.
Speaker 4: Oh but's so great, all the different ways of celebrating.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that we got to hear that one again.
Speaker 1: I loved her, her shift, her realization and from like
Speaker 1: going to it's just forty bucks, you know, like and
Speaker 1: to somebody who's like, no, that's that's money, Like we
Speaker 1: I don't know the sunk foss, sunk sunk cost fallacy,
Speaker 1: like we hate losing forty dollars, but if we've already
Speaker 1: parted with it, then it's already gone and we don't
Speaker 1: feel it as harshly. And marketers will prey on that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, like by having people pre pay. It's
Speaker 1: like that girl math thing. If I've already prepaid, then
Speaker 1: when I do it it's free. Or when I don't
Speaker 1: fulfill my commitment, then I'm not really losing anything because
Speaker 1: I lost it a while ago. So to come to
Speaker 1: that realization and be like, no, your money is your money,
Speaker 1: whether it was then or now, and just having that
Speaker 1: like mindset shift.
Speaker 4: I really resonate with the gamifying that payoff that was.
Speaker 4: That was what worked for me and Eric. It was
Speaker 4: so too whenever I could have any level of a
Speaker 4: chunk of money to throw towards it, not just every
Speaker 4: month I'm gonna put this amount, but wherever I could
Speaker 4: find it, however I could be creative in getting it.
Speaker 3: That was what worked for us as well. So it's
Speaker 3: cool to hear her story and resonate with her.
Speaker 1: Yes, and she has an update for us. The update
Speaker 1: is that because of the shift values based spending played
Speaker 1: in my life. This is Megan talking post step payoff.
Speaker 1: I was able to save an emergency fund that was
Speaker 1: right for me and leave teaching. I am still debt free,
Speaker 1: but that decision and hustle to make it happen allowed
Speaker 1: the freedom for me to change careers and change my happiness.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: That is so like when we talk about fulfilling work.
Speaker 1: So like the things that you value most are the
Speaker 1: things money can't buy, family, friends, faith fulfilling work. A
Speaker 1: lot of the times, it doesn't mean you have to
Speaker 1: decrease your income. What that means is that you are
Speaker 1: making the financial decisions that get you closer to work
Speaker 1: that you love, whether that is an increase or decrease
Speaker 1: in income. We don't think that you have to live
Speaker 1: in poverty to be frugal, and we don't you think
Speaker 1: you have to be super rich to be financially independent
Speaker 1: or financially secure. That richness comes from the freedom to decide.
Speaker 1: And Megan because one of the big reasons she was
Speaker 1: able to decide was she didn't have to worry about debt.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for some they want a career out of teaching
Speaker 4: long term, and for others it's a great career for
Speaker 4: a time. But to be able to have the flexibility
Speaker 4: to shift is sometimes something that your chosen career path
Speaker 4: won't allow unless you are really intentional about it and
Speaker 4: can give yourself some of the freedom like debt freedom
Speaker 4: do for you. So I'm so thrilled to hear that update.
Speaker 4: I also like how she referenced in her update about
Speaker 4: an emergency fund that's right for her, because we do
Speaker 4: talk so often about what's the right amount of money,
Speaker 4: and it is so true that it depends. Some people
Speaker 4: want to save their have their deductible medical deductible set aside.
Speaker 4: Others want three months worth of living expenses, others want six.
Speaker 4: And what living expenses mean to you is drastically different.
Speaker 4: And what are you going to want to be paying
Speaker 4: for or not paying for if.
Speaker 3: You are out of work.
Speaker 4: So it's cool to see that even that has resonated
Speaker 4: with her, that she's found what works for her, was
Speaker 4: able to leave a job. So many crazy things have
Speaker 4: happened in the last two years, and I'm so thrilled
Speaker 4: to be here.
Speaker 1: You know, what hasn't changed in the past.
Speaker 3: Two years or six years.
Speaker 1: Hasn't changed in the past six years. Every episode, without fail,
Speaker 1: even when we had to call our friends in the
Speaker 1: early days and get them to participate because we didn't
Speaker 1: have enough.
Speaker 4: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 2: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore. That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Claron, this
Speaker 2: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 9: Hi, Jen and Joe. I want to say my bill
Speaker 9: of the week and several months is you. Because of you,
Speaker 9: I started to realize how much I spent every month,
Speaker 9: started to eat at home more, which my body loves it,
Speaker 9: and called the car insurance to lower the rate. I've
Speaker 9: found that our state could help with the health insurance.
Speaker 9: I read more about the roth Ira and opened up
Speaker 9: a savings account for the future. Thank you so much
Speaker 9: for everything you two. I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Stop it.
Speaker 3: We can't. We can't. It's us. We are a bill.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, a bill.
Speaker 4: Hire.
Speaker 1: So many things to unpack on this, like a like
Speaker 1: you're eating it home more and your body loves it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 1: We could minimize so much talk about like the diet culture,
Speaker 1: the fitness industry, the healthy food industry. If we just
Speaker 1: talked more about eating at home, regardless of the food
Speaker 1: that it is, just that it's eating at home, it's
Speaker 1: ten times healthier. You called your car insurance and got
Speaker 1: that rate lowered.
Speaker 4: You open a wroth, I ra your future better health insurance.
Speaker 4: You've put in the work. I'm so glad that we're
Speaker 4: your bill. However, you put in the work.
Speaker 1: Like beating so hard. I am so happy.
Speaker 4: We've had a wild day so far, and this is
Speaker 4: just putting us both over the tops. Our eyes are wet,
Speaker 4: we have wet eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah it could. I mean, I'm just gonna throw like out.
Speaker 1: It's also that time of the month for me. But
Speaker 1: also I am my eyes are moist. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4: This is beautiful. It's so beautiful. Thank you for your
Speaker 4: for sharing your bill with us. And we're so glad
Speaker 4: to be a part of the journey and to be
Speaker 4: a help and a support. If you all are listening,
Speaker 4: and if if we're none of those things to you,
Speaker 4: but you just have a bill to.
Speaker 3: Share, that'd be great. We love to hear it.
Speaker 4: Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill leave it for us,
Speaker 4: make us cry and now it's time for.
Speaker 3: The round shoo. Shoot, oh, I'm still recovering. I know,
Speaker 3: I'm still recovering that bill was. We're gonna have to
Speaker 3: put that on replay for ourselves.
Speaker 1: It is like some days we it's tough, like we
Speaker 1: split a salary, like Jill and I behalf of a
Speaker 1: salary doing this job, and so clearly we're not that
Speaker 1: good at it. I guess maybe that's what that means.
Speaker 4: But this is the vulnerability around where we say we're
Speaker 4: not that good at our jobs.
Speaker 1: We're really good at our jobs. We're not like good
Speaker 1: at like getting people to give us money. But that
Speaker 1: I mean, it's every time we hear stuff like that
Speaker 1: where it's like that's awesome because it's thank god we
Speaker 1: know how to values base spend and it does feel
Speaker 1: like deprivation yourself.
Speaker 4: I would rather be sitting here with you with these
Speaker 4: hot pink pop filters.
Speaker 3: That's not what they're called wind screens.
Speaker 1: Wind screens. We call them pop filters.
Speaker 3: For a long long time, Eric let us call them that.
Speaker 1: His fault because we looked like losers in the podcast
Speaker 1: community call them pop filter.
Speaker 3: Nobody in the podcasting community knows audio.
Speaker 1: Nobody carried us.
Speaker 4: Anyway, what's the most creative thing you've done, Jen to
Speaker 4: lower your expenses?
Speaker 1: I would like to call back, and only because we
Speaker 1: just recently talked about this. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: was with you or somebody else. Oh well, I think
Speaker 1: it was with someone else. But you had a similar
Speaker 1: story that Travis once spent six hours on the phone
Speaker 1: with T Mobile to get like two free iPhones and
Speaker 1: to lower our bill. And six I mean for the
Speaker 1: amount iPhones alone, that's worth six hours of work, So
Speaker 1: it was time well spent. But it was also I
Speaker 1: think maybe crazy. I think it was the craziest thing
Speaker 1: we've ever done to lower our expensive Oh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Sometimes you have to be willing to put in
Speaker 4: time in order to get back some version of a
Speaker 4: monetary value or money savings.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the most obvious one for me is
Speaker 4: living in an RV and house sitting. I think hacking
Speaker 4: housing has been the biggest impact and some of the
Speaker 4: most creative I guess, but I also will do just
Speaker 4: random creative stuff. I can't even keep track, but this
Speaker 4: is making me think. Our background right now, so again
Speaker 4: referencing our YouTube video, we were at Gen's place and
Speaker 4: we put up a little studio at the time time
Speaker 4: to film those videos. But now our studio is at
Speaker 4: my house, Jill's house, and we put our backdrop on this,
Speaker 4: like we have a Neon sign, which that was a
Speaker 4: good investment, but when building out the studio, we wanted
Speaker 4: to save as much money as possible. So the sound
Speaker 4: panels that we have, so if you've watched us or
Speaker 4: seen us on Instagram or anything recently, you'll see like
Speaker 4: our updated studio. We so Eric and I we got
Speaker 4: I got fabric on clearance.
Speaker 1: This is is this velvet? What is this?
Speaker 3: What is it? Is it real velvet? But I don't
Speaker 3: think it's real velvet.
Speaker 1: But it's gorgeous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels really nice.
Speaker 4: So nice and Eric built them out and we did
Speaker 4: that together. I think you were still on maternity leave.
Speaker 4: But the round piece that our frugal friends Neon sign
Speaker 4: is on now is our old coffee table.
Speaker 1: And just now realizing this, but I not told you
Speaker 1: that before. Now, I mean, I know you made it,
Speaker 1: but like I didn't realize what. Yeah, the circle was.
Speaker 4: So we had gotten a new couch off at like
Speaker 4: a discount place where I negotiated for cash and the
Speaker 4: warehouse in the back room, didn't know where it was,
Speaker 4: and I didn't have room for the coffee table anymore.
Speaker 4: And plus the new couch was like a recliner, so
Speaker 4: we didn't even really need a coffee table. But I
Speaker 4: was like, that could be the background. I'd love to
Speaker 4: have a circular background. And by the way, that coffee
Speaker 4: table was made by us. We had gotten it and
Speaker 4: clearance at like loser home depot because it was fractured
Speaker 4: and like, I don't know, there was parts of it missing.
Speaker 1: I'm somehow, yeah, and.
Speaker 4: Discos, so we and then I had like stained it
Speaker 4: and I found legs at a yard sale that we
Speaker 4: put on it, and it was our coffee table for years.
Speaker 3: And then now we took the legs off.
Speaker 4: I actually sold the legs because they were like mid
Speaker 4: century legs on Facebook marketplace for like twenty bucks. And
Speaker 4: then we made the backdrop for the Neon sign out
Speaker 4: of our old coffee table. Yeah, And and I had
Speaker 4: no mind you still had a coffee table that it's
Speaker 4: been so long that no, yeah, no, this is the
Speaker 4: coffee the coffee tables on the wall now and the
Speaker 4: smushy stuff on it is from an old bed.
Speaker 3: What do they call those mattress pads?
Speaker 4: It was a mattress pad that I had for forever
Speaker 4: that I didn't like anymore, but I didn't want to
Speaker 4: get rid of it, so I cut up the mattress
Speaker 4: pad to use a sound deadening.
Speaker 1: I guess I was so I was nurturing a newborn
Speaker 1: when this all happened. So that's why I missed. I
Speaker 1: miss a lot of things. No, it's totally hard. I
Speaker 1: missed all of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got no money to build out this little
Speaker 4: frugal friend studio and it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: We repurposed things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes me.
Speaker 3: There you go, there's some creative before you remember.
Speaker 1: Also, Travis last night came home with six trash bags
Speaker 1: full of used toys that he bought for twenty dollars.
Speaker 4: No, Travis, Yeah, but no one needs stress bags of toys.
Speaker 1: But for Kay's birthday is in three weeks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you're digging through and finding the best thing.
Speaker 1: Yes, and that's what that's what we're going to give
Speaker 1: him for his birthday.
Speaker 4: What are you going to do with the rest of
Speaker 4: the six and a half bags of toys?
Speaker 1: So some of them were going to save for Christmas, okay,
Speaker 1: and then some of it we're going to maybe like
Speaker 1: just post for free on Facebook Marketplace.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, but it's twenty dollars. Like you can't get
Speaker 1: two Lego sets for twenty.
Speaker 3: Dollars, So there Legos in there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's Legos, but there's definitely Mario
Speaker 1: Pop Patrol, Ryan's World. There's some things for the baby.
Speaker 4: I mean, if I ever had kids, I feel like
Speaker 4: yard sales, Facebook, Marketplace.
Speaker 1: Marketplaces all I atle do gold Yeah, because all they
Speaker 1: want is new stuff. They don't realize that it's not
Speaker 1: like brand new, like they just want it new to them.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, kids are dumb. I'm on hens.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: Leave us your review.
Speaker 4: Truly, thanks for listening, and we do love your kind reviews.
Speaker 4: And most of your children are very very smart, just like.
Speaker 3: We love. Especially.
Speaker 4: This review from Ari eleven eighty eight said amazingly fun
Speaker 4: and informative five stars. This podcast is a treasure trove
Speaker 4: of information and insights on so many aspects of living frugally,
Speaker 4: and it's delivered in a very fun and engaging way.
Speaker 4: Jen and Jill are great to listen to and speak
Speaker 4: about the topics in a relatable and inclusive way, which
Speaker 4: is always refreshing. This is one of my favorite podcasts.
Speaker 3: Ari. Yeah, that's amazing, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Ari.
Speaker 4: I also want to give a little call to action
Speaker 4: here because we are so close to reaching eleven eleven thousand,
Speaker 4: thousand reviews, close to a thousand. That's benchmark on Apple
Speaker 4: podcasts is one thousand reviews. Obviously we love more than that.
Speaker 4: I'm shocked we don't have that many yet. We've been
Speaker 4: at this for six years. But again, we're not.
Speaker 1: That great of our jobs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but if you're if you're looking for a call
Speaker 4: to action, something to do instead of spend money on
Speaker 4: your debt pay off journey.
Speaker 3: Please leave us a kind review.
Speaker 1: Here's somebody helped us for titles not good at their
Speaker 1: jobs five stars, five stars. They never asked me to
Speaker 1: buy their online course by stars five stars. The Taco
Speaker 1: Bell of podcasts. That one's already been used, but it's
Speaker 1: way back in the archives, so it could use a refresh.
Speaker 1: I heard a reel the other day that said taco
Speaker 1: bells like a thrift store. They just keep reusing the
Speaker 1: same products over and over, like inventing them. So like
Speaker 1: that could be part of your review or your favorite
Speaker 1: fast food restaurant. Carabas, the Carabas of podcasts would all
Speaker 1: so accept the hot dog of podcasts, like, yes, hot dogs,
Speaker 1: any of those gum gum.
Speaker 3: It's like chewing gum all day, you never get bored.
Speaker 1: So proud of Jill for as much as she loves
Speaker 1: chewing gum, she never choos gum while recording.
Speaker 3: My kids are smarter than your kids five.
Speaker 1: Stars, five stars. Yes, you can definitely say that about
Speaker 1: my children. So any of those ideas. Those are just
Speaker 1: some things to jog your creativity. But go wild and
Speaker 1: five stars, Thank you, See you next time. Google Friends
Speaker 1: is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: We're going to get ourselves the opposite of with he.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love seeing like five star reviews that
Speaker 1: just like I don't know, I don't want negative reviews
Speaker 1: left even if they are five stars, but just like
Speaker 1: satirical reviews because you know it's the host that was
Speaker 1: like in on it with them, like you know there's
Speaker 1: an inside joke, yeap.
Speaker 4: What bums me out the most is when you know
Speaker 4: someone meant to leave five stars because the review is glowing,
Speaker 4: but they accidentally pressed one star. And that hurts us more.
Speaker 4: That hurts than the other version, like leave us five
Speaker 4: stars and then say what you want to say about.
Speaker 1: It, trash, throw us under the bus, Like it's fine
Speaker 1: as long as just leave us five stars.
Speaker 4: Let us keep doing this job that we both make
Speaker 4: half an income doing.
Speaker 1: That we love doing. And if you know how to
Speaker 1: make money, then come at us. We'd also love to know.
Speaker 3: That that's weak. Two It okay,