Speaker 1: Episode one is episode seventy four, How Budget Girl Sarah
Speaker 1: Wilson paid off thirty eight thousand dollars of debt on
Speaker 1: a low income. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where
Speaker 1: you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver with
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. M m
Speaker 1: m m m m m m m. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: episode of Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, and today we are plucking one of
Speaker 1: your favorite episodes from the archives to replay for you
Speaker 1: because we believe if you haven't heard it, you definitely should.
Speaker 1: Now is the time and you know us interviews are
Speaker 1: our favorite. Debt payoff stories are favorite. This one was
Speaker 1: your favorite from the archives, so it's a good refresher. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you are unfamiliar with Budget Girl, her real name
Speaker 1: is Sarah and she is just a wonderful human being.
Speaker 1: We love her so much, so we're excited to re
Speaker 1: share this episode. First, we got to thank our sponsors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so our first sponsors brought to you by the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Florida meet up. What you hey, You were expecting
Speaker 1: alliteration though we always deliver on that, so this year,
Speaker 1: we're doing two fingers crossed in person meetups. Mark your
Speaker 1: calendar for the first SWAN. It is April seventeen in St. Petersburg, Florida,
Speaker 1: the Sunshine City. More details to follow, but if you're
Speaker 1: itching to visit Sonny St. Pete and hang out with
Speaker 1: other frugal friends, this is your opportunity. Will hopefully be
Speaker 1: doing another one in Austin, Texas and September her but
Speaker 1: we've definitely learned to stop planning ahead, so try to
Speaker 1: make it to this one. If you're in the area,
Speaker 1: visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash meet up to
Speaker 1: let us know if you're coming. It will be outdoors,
Speaker 1: we will be careful. Yes, it will be all the
Speaker 1: things that are required mandated by us, absolutely, and you
Speaker 1: know those are the most frugal get togethers anyway, So
Speaker 1: we would have done it even like Preach twenty this way,
Speaker 1: so like there's no worries exactly. Yeah. This episode is
Speaker 1: also brought to you by YouTube videos. When you need
Speaker 1: to know what to do but reading just won't cut it,
Speaker 1: YouTube videos are there to show you how it's done.
Speaker 1: YouTube videos are also salvation when trying to distract a
Speaker 1: Toddler one word, you know it, Jill Flippy YouTube videos.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can even listen to podcasts on there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: go listen to the Frugal Friends podcast on YouTube. Not
Speaker 1: a bit, I know, I mean not right now because
Speaker 1: we don't have any new episodes, but I hope maybe
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Speaker 1: releasing on there. If you've not seen the others that
Speaker 1: are on YouTube, yeah, then go back right Yeah. Anyways,
Speaker 1: let's dive into this great episode with Sarah Wilson and
Speaker 1: be ready for some great knowledge bombs. Welcome Sarah from
Speaker 1: Budget Girl. We are so excited to have you on today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Hey, Sarah,
Speaker 1: glad to have you. Yeah. When we were starting the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast, I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker 1: but I emailed you and I was like, we have
Speaker 1: to get you on. You would be a perfect guest.
Speaker 1: And then we just started getting all these other guests,
Speaker 1: and now over a year and a half later, now
Speaker 1: we finally have you on. I'm very glad. I'm very glad.
Speaker 1: I lived around the crowd that kind of came in
Speaker 1: when we had our site set on One Girl off
Speaker 1: in the distance and that everyone else came and we
Speaker 1: just kind of had to weed through it to get
Speaker 1: You know, I am always happy to be waiting the wings,
Speaker 1: ready to like com party anytime, anywhere, any place. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was perfect because we actually had a lot of
Speaker 1: interest in our Facebook group, the Frugal Friends community about
Speaker 1: paying off debt when you're single. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of single people, and um, we got to comment on
Speaker 1: there that she just found that a lot of personal
Speaker 1: finance advice wasn't applicable to her because she was single,
Speaker 1: and at least that's what she thought. And so I
Speaker 1: instantly thought, of you no better person to talk on
Speaker 1: this subject as you who paid off so much debt,
Speaker 1: So first, can you tell about your debt payoff journey
Speaker 1: and just get everybody up to speed who doesn't already
Speaker 1: know about you. Absolutely. So in I lost my job.
Speaker 1: I was a um section editor for a newspaper and
Speaker 1: they found someone who could do it cheaper. So I
Speaker 1: was out of work for like five months, and I
Speaker 1: was terrified because to that point I hadn't been paying
Speaker 1: on my student loans. I was deferring them because I
Speaker 1: was only making about like grand a year I was
Speaker 1: also not budgeting, so I can't tell you exactly what
Speaker 1: I was making, um, but I swore being in that
Speaker 1: place of on unemployment thinking that I had all this
Speaker 1: debt above me thirty three grand to be exact, and
Speaker 1: it was just growing every day, and thinking that I
Speaker 1: was going to have to go work like food service
Speaker 1: to survive, and that like the entire college experience was
Speaker 1: going to be for nothing, and that I was just
Speaker 1: I was just done. I was. I was worried about
Speaker 1: being done. I was worried about being able to eat.
Speaker 1: And I swore that when I got new job that
Speaker 1: I would do whatever it took to get out of debt.
Speaker 1: So after about five months on unemployment, I took a
Speaker 1: job in another state and moved from Mississippi to a
Speaker 1: small town in Louisiana as a beat reporter for a
Speaker 1: small newspaper for twenty six thousand dollars a year. I
Speaker 1: moved into the cheapest department that I could find. It
Speaker 1: was it was in a good night, okay, And I
Speaker 1: started budgeting, and I budgeted every single cent that was
Speaker 1: coming in, and I made it my job in my
Speaker 1: hobby to make more money to try to pay off debt,
Speaker 1: so I delivered. I'd worked. I worked a full shift
Speaker 1: with the newspaper, try to get as many overtime hours
Speaker 1: as I could. I did as many side hustles as
Speaker 1: I could. I trained dogs with side hustle. It was
Speaker 1: a side hustle and trained dogs that it's well trained.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yes, Um, I did secret shopping. So um.
Speaker 1: One of my secret shoppings was going to Walmart gas
Speaker 1: stations and attempting to buy cigarettes because at this point
Speaker 1: I was like I was in my early twenties and
Speaker 1: like twenties and seeing if they carded or not. I
Speaker 1: don't ask me do not for my age, um, and
Speaker 1: usually they did not, and so they would get in
Speaker 1: trouble and I would have just a lot of cigarettes
Speaker 1: that I would for more money, which was recently pointed
Speaker 1: out to me is probably illegal. Um. So yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: get paid like eight bucks to go purchase cigarettes at
Speaker 1: a gas station, and I'd get remburse for the cigarettes
Speaker 1: as well, and then I'd resell the cigarettes for like
Speaker 1: four bucks to a coworker of mine. So that turned
Speaker 1: like doing that once a week at some of the
Speaker 1: local gas stations turned into a little bit of a
Speaker 1: good side hustle. I Um, when that wasn't enough, I
Speaker 1: started like flip being things that I found at yard
Speaker 1: sales and on the side of the road. And then
Speaker 1: I started delivering pizzas from ten pm to three am
Speaker 1: after my shift at the newspaper. I gamified getting out
Speaker 1: of debt. So after two years paying off ten grand
Speaker 1: each year, making twenty six thousand dollars a year living
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, I took a better position in Arkansas, and
Speaker 1: there I was making thirty grand a year, and I
Speaker 1: did the exact same thing. I put all of my
Speaker 1: rays to debt and I kept gamifying it. Um. I
Speaker 1: had purchased things a yard sales and flipped them to
Speaker 1: the local thrift store or consignment store. I would you know,
Speaker 1: I started the YouTube channel, which at that point was
Speaker 1: actually making me a little bit of money, and I
Speaker 1: threw all of that a debt, and after three years
Speaker 1: and three months I had it all paid off. WHOA
Speaker 1: on such a small salary too. How did you have
Speaker 1: the energy to do that like that kind of hustle NonStop?
Speaker 1: I mean we all have capacity. How did you keep
Speaker 1: that rhythm up for three years? Well, a lot of
Speaker 1: people looked at the videos that I was doing towards
Speaker 1: the end, and they're like, I can't achieve that level,
Speaker 1: and therefore I shouldn't even try. But what I always
Speaker 1: tell people is that frugality is a muscle. You have
Speaker 1: to build it up. So I started with trimming my
Speaker 1: grocery bill and doing some meal planning and shopping the sales,
Speaker 1: and that cut down my grocery budget a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then I started doing this just one little side hustle,
Speaker 1: and I figured out how to do another one that
Speaker 1: made me a little more money. And I did only
Speaker 1: do the pizza delivery for about five months because I
Speaker 1: just couldn't handle not sleeping. So there are places where
Speaker 1: there's a breaking point good and I found them. I
Speaker 1: found them definitely. You gotta find your breaking point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I also least all of my hobbies with things that
Speaker 1: would make me money. So I actually a roller derby,
Speaker 1: which is very fun thing. Roller dermide you money. No,
Speaker 1: I replaced hobbies with things that made me money, So
Speaker 1: derby you became a professional roller derby as that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Roller derby pizza insane sounds like an insane but you
Speaker 1: could probably charge for ads on your shirt and make
Speaker 1: some money doing roller derby. I mean, yeah, test it
Speaker 1: out so specifically from the perspective of someone paying down
Speaker 1: debt without another person to aid in the bill. So
Speaker 1: as a single person when this was happening, what did
Speaker 1: you find were some of the challenges of paying off
Speaker 1: debt as a single person and advantages like both sides
Speaker 1: to this, But curious to pick your brain on that piece.
Speaker 1: So there's the obvious downfall of what I can bring
Speaker 1: in as much as there's going to be. I cannot
Speaker 1: pay outside of my capacity to earn, so a hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the responsibility is on me. However, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of freedom in not having anyone stopping you. I
Speaker 1: see a lot of posts online about like how to
Speaker 1: get your spouse on board, or when two people are
Speaker 1: kind of at different levels of effort in trying that,
Speaker 1: or meet money equals. Because I was just me, I
Speaker 1: could focus in one on what I was doing and
Speaker 1: then achieve it without having to essentially form a committee
Speaker 1: to make any discisions with my money. I wanted to
Speaker 1: eat Braman for a week, nobody to stop me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I probably should have stopped me, but but you know,
Speaker 1: I could pick things that I would want to eat.
Speaker 1: For instance, I'm in a relationship now, figuring out something
Speaker 1: to eat is like half of the energy, isn't it? Though?
Speaker 1: Half relationships do want? What do you want? How about
Speaker 1: this place? No, I'm down for anything, but not that
Speaker 1: or that for that you want to eat there? So
Speaker 1: I didn't have to deal with that. I only had
Speaker 1: to focus in on what was between me and my goals.
Speaker 1: So if I wanted to eat peanut butter and jelly
Speaker 1: sandwiches for two weeks straight for lunch, that's on me,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to eat I'm not doing anything
Speaker 1: like that. Everything was my decision, and therefore I had
Speaker 1: a lot of freedom towards how fast I wanted my
Speaker 1: pace to be. That's as such a good point because
Speaker 1: the other day my husband and I were on our
Speaker 1: way to a concert and I was fine with apples
Speaker 1: and chick pea salad and he was not. So I
Speaker 1: ain't that in the car and we had to go
Speaker 1: through the drive group Chick fil A for him to
Speaker 1: get something he wanted. Luckily, though, get this, Chick fil A.
Speaker 1: This is such a side tangent. I'm sorry Chick fil
Speaker 1: A has drive thru day, and they gave us like
Speaker 1: a gift card for a free sandwich on our next
Speaker 1: visit because it was drive thru day. So there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of like a I still kind of one,
Speaker 1: but usually it doesn't work that way. That's funny. I mean,
Speaker 1: good for Eric to not just be to stand on chickpeas,
Speaker 1: salad and apples, Like is that good for Eric who
Speaker 1: sired you on here? I mean, you got your just
Speaker 1: I've just balanced because he hears all this. I mean
Speaker 1: I can, I can honestly see it both ways, because
Speaker 1: like there were some days where I was like, I've
Speaker 1: got you know, dinner ready, it's planned. I don't want it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use like some of them, personal money and
Speaker 1: go do something else. And there was no one that
Speaker 1: I was disappointing by doing that, and there was no
Speaker 1: one to stop me or encourage me or anything. It
Speaker 1: was all my decision. Did you have any accountability like
Speaker 1: partners or or anybody that you were talking to about it?
Speaker 1: I had YouTube, So I started a YouTube channel, and
Speaker 1: at the time I was the only single person or
Speaker 1: low income person out there with like a debt payoff
Speaker 1: channel that I knew of. There were a few people
Speaker 1: in the space. There's like Lydia Sin, there was debt
Speaker 1: is dumb um. There was his and her money, but
Speaker 1: like all of those guys are married. All those guys
Speaker 1: were making more than when I was. There was no
Speaker 1: one really talking about single person money or low income
Speaker 1: money or depthree journey. That's the key is that not
Speaker 1: only did you pay off debt as a single person,
Speaker 1: but such a low income. That's what gets me because
Speaker 1: I think for my husband and I would still have
Speaker 1: a bit more debt to pay off, hopefully within a
Speaker 1: year will be done. But the thing with us is
Speaker 1: that we've had such low income and so you know,
Speaker 1: I thought that there was gonna be some some trick
Speaker 1: to it. When I kind of got into this world
Speaker 1: of how do people do it, I'm like, oh, they
Speaker 1: make a lot of money. Like there's no way you
Speaker 1: can pay off a hundred ten thousand dollars in two
Speaker 1: years unless you're making six figures. Like, there's no real
Speaker 1: magic to it. You just have to make a crap
Speaker 1: ton of money to pay off a crap ton of debt.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, that's why I love what you're doing
Speaker 1: and kind of showing that this is accessible for anybody. Now,
Speaker 1: if I had had a hundred thousand dollars in debt
Speaker 1: and was making twenty six thousand a year, it would
Speaker 1: have been been a different story and I would be
Speaker 1: slogging through it. But the yeah, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: the ratio of my income to my debt was not ideal,
Speaker 1: it's not impossible to do it on a low income.
Speaker 1: You just might have to work a little harder. It's
Speaker 1: not going to be just cutting out coffee or restaurants.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be you have to increase and I my
Speaker 1: income and through all of that at debt. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you still have more debt than you had income. And
Speaker 1: I think that mental barrier stops a lot of people
Speaker 1: because somebody that makes seventy dollars of debt has the
Speaker 1: same block, even though they are just as capable as
Speaker 1: you were to pay off that amount of debt in
Speaker 1: as little time as you did. So there's a big
Speaker 1: mental barrier to get through, especially because there is a
Speaker 1: kind of minimum cost of living in my area. But
Speaker 1: everyone's going to have to pay rent, everyone's going to
Speaker 1: have to buy food. It's gonna cost a certain amount
Speaker 1: for you and your family to live. And I was
Speaker 1: very privileged to be operating above that, and for much
Speaker 1: of my debt free journey, I was operating out of
Speaker 1: blow the poverty line, so I understand how tight that was,
Speaker 1: and that's why I put so much effort into earning
Speaker 1: additional income on the side while I waited for opportunities
Speaker 1: to earn more regular income. Nice. And it was kind
Speaker 1: of a blessing to be single during that time, because
Speaker 1: if I had had a kid, I wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: able to spend my nights delivering pizzas or all these
Speaker 1: side hustles, um, especially if I hadn't had a husband.
Speaker 1: But because I was alone, it gave me the freedom
Speaker 1: of whatever time I could dedicate. Yeah, excellent job man,
Speaker 1: that takes determinations. Yeah, I and I love following your
Speaker 1: journey on YouTube. Budget Girl on YouTube, so definitely if
Speaker 1: you haven't subscribed, definitely head over there and check out
Speaker 1: her archives from her debt free journey. And also, you
Speaker 1: have a ton of great videos now on just different
Speaker 1: frugal things, so you're still and the quality of the
Speaker 1: videos just keeps getting better and better, so they're all great.
Speaker 1: Back when I was getting out of debt, I wasn't
Speaker 1: investing any money the YouTube I was shooting on the
Speaker 1: iPhone four. Yeah, they probably shouldn't have if you did
Speaker 1: not live in a good neighborhood. Like that was a
Speaker 1: good decay. Yeah, our studios were literally my phone balance
Speaker 1: on a bunch of books because I didn't have a tripod,
Speaker 1: because you were a budget girl. From the very beginning, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It would have been weird if you had
Speaker 1: high like it would have been disingenuous, is what it
Speaker 1: would have been. I would have gotten called out so
Speaker 1: hard so fast. I know, people would call me out
Speaker 1: for like McDonald's and they'd be like, you could have
Speaker 1: put towards that, towards it, and I've my man, oh,
Speaker 1: thank you, yes, thanks. Remember that. Now that you have
Speaker 1: a boyfriend, how do you guys handle money together? So
Speaker 1: I have always always been a fan of equality in
Speaker 1: a relationship and that extends to finances. Not everyone has
Speaker 1: to agree with me, but that's just the way my
Speaker 1: little brain works. So, like from the beginning, we were
Speaker 1: splitting dates, not necessarily going Dutch, but he'd buy dinner
Speaker 1: one night, I'd buy dinner the next night. That kind
Speaker 1: of thing. He did pay on our first date, but
Speaker 1: it was it never seemed right to me to expect
Speaker 1: him to bear the financial burden. There was also the
Speaker 1: issue of he was still a student when we started dating,
Speaker 1: so I was and I was defree, so I was
Speaker 1: in a much better position financially. So now that we've
Speaker 1: been together for two years and we lived together, we
Speaker 1: split the household, built so rent electricity, internet equally. Just
Speaker 1: down the center. He has a full time, very good job.
Speaker 1: Now he makes more his day job than I do
Speaker 1: it mine, but we split those equally, and then we
Speaker 1: both take out of our individual budgets for like groceries,
Speaker 1: So he'll buy one week, I'll buy the next week,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. And we still kind of go
Speaker 1: on and off for dates. So is he the one
Speaker 1: who then on his week for groceries, does he pick
Speaker 1: out and meal plan? Does it go that deep or
Speaker 1: is it? Is it just solely weekend to meal plan together?
Speaker 1: If we do for it's an aemonium. Yeah, he's more
Speaker 1: of a foodie than I am. Uh see my reference
Speaker 1: about what I was eating when I was getting out
Speaker 1: of debt, Like I could, I could totally eat cereal
Speaker 1: every night. Um, So I have increased the food budget
Speaker 1: points just to make sure it's eating because he likes
Speaker 1: e little boogier. That's awesome. Yeah, at least his tastes
Speaker 1: go that way. My husband is like white bread and
Speaker 1: ego waffles all the way yesterday. Yep, that's him, And
Speaker 1: I'm the boogie one and I just like like to
Speaker 1: make my own waffles. So what would be your biggest
Speaker 1: piece of advice, Like, as you look back on this
Speaker 1: journey when you were a single person, what advice would
Speaker 1: you give to somebody else in a similar situation being
Speaker 1: single and trying to pay down debt and and live
Speaker 1: more rugle away. What are some tips you have? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you won't be surprised by this seeing as
Speaker 1: my online moniker's budget girl, But I believe ten million
Speaker 1: percent in the power of the budget because by accounting
Speaker 1: for every single dollar that your make that you make
Speaker 1: and writing down where it's going to go, you make
Speaker 1: sure that it's doing what you wanted to do. So
Speaker 1: before I was a budget or, I was always just
Speaker 1: kind of spending based on whether it had the money
Speaker 1: in my account, and that does not leave a lot
Speaker 1: of room for goal planning and doing like some things
Speaker 1: with my money. When you don't have a budget, it
Speaker 1: just kind of disappears. Your money just goes away and
Speaker 1: you don't know where it was. So there's something very freeing.
Speaker 1: It's not restrictive. It can be very freeing to have
Speaker 1: a budget in place, and you know that as long
Speaker 1: as you follow that budget that you've made, you're going
Speaker 1: to meet your money goals. So I write, really now
Speaker 1: have way more money than I even want to spend
Speaker 1: available for me to just kind of spend on fund
Speaker 1: stuff or personal stuff. It gives me permission to spend
Speaker 1: within that and have a good time and do and
Speaker 1: get the things that I want need without jeopardizing my
Speaker 1: retirement or my savings for like a house and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So in back when I was making
Speaker 1: so much less, every penny was imperative. Every single penny
Speaker 1: that I could put towards debt was important to getting
Speaker 1: me out of it. So by accounting for every single
Speaker 1: penny in there, I could pay all my bills and
Speaker 1: pay on debt and get out of debt as fast
Speaker 1: as I could. I love what you said about gamifying
Speaker 1: it and just using that term. Can you describe that
Speaker 1: a little bit, because I feel like there's some really
Speaker 1: good principles in that for anybody trying to get out
Speaker 1: of debt, like single or married. So I've also I
Speaker 1: also talked about how frugality is a muscle, so gamifying
Speaker 1: me being able to save money, it was me cutting
Speaker 1: down my budget by ten dollars for that week or
Speaker 1: forty dollars for that month, and then having to make
Speaker 1: a game out of it of Okay, what am I
Speaker 1: going to do differently that's gonna save me that money
Speaker 1: so that I can put that forty dollars towards debt,
Speaker 1: so that I can get out of debt one month
Speaker 1: sooner or one day sooner um. And that would sometimes
Speaker 1: involve like going to multiple different grocery stores, or like
Speaker 1: making a crazy meal plan, or volunteering at a place
Speaker 1: where they were like serving food volunteers and then volunteer
Speaker 1: and to take the leftovers home. Like I never did
Speaker 1: anything unethical other than selling cigarettes, which I didn't realize
Speaker 1: until I'm sure the person who bought the cigarettes was
Speaker 1: super grateful and normally there's seven dollars a pack and
Speaker 1: they could get over four from you, so no one
Speaker 1: is upset there. Pointed out to me very recently my Marissa,
Speaker 1: the budgeting wife, that that is probably very illegal with
Speaker 1: sale cigarettes with that a license. We won't tell anyone
Speaker 1: he was he was up age. He was my coworker,
Speaker 1: and yeah, your friend was giving you a donation for
Speaker 1: something you had already purchased. So and once I had
Speaker 1: kind of like my personal spending under control, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, meal prepping, and that's sage. So I brought
Speaker 1: food to lunch every single day, and I never ate
Speaker 1: out because that's a huge money drain, and I use
Speaker 1: that more as a treat um for like if I
Speaker 1: if I did need out for two weeks straight, i'd
Speaker 1: go eat out and that would be a treat And
Speaker 1: I kind of reimagined how that worked in my head
Speaker 1: and seeming thing with my trestling. I'd go to yard
Speaker 1: sales that I used to go just to buy stuff
Speaker 1: I didn't be Instead, i'd go with the intent to
Speaker 1: purchase things for resell, and I'd set myself a challenge
Speaker 1: like I want to make fifty dollars reselling and I
Speaker 1: only want to spend five. And so I put that
Speaker 1: work in and when you get the payoff of you
Speaker 1: sell something that you've got five dollars for like fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: it's it's like you want a game and it starts
Speaker 1: to become addicting. It is if you set it up
Speaker 1: in that way for yourself. These a little challenge. When
Speaker 1: I the No Spend Challenge guide, that's what I marketed
Speaker 1: it as as it's gamifying frugality, like it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1: Doing a no spend challenge isn't a no spend lifestyle.
Speaker 1: It's just a way to gamify figuring out what you
Speaker 1: value and to become more frugal and to develop like
Speaker 1: values based spending. Uh So I love that concept too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so every month it seemed like I had a
Speaker 1: bigger amount of money that I could put towards debt,
Speaker 1: and that also felt like winning because I could see
Speaker 1: that debt number row down and I even put it
Speaker 1: when I was in debt on each video, like the
Speaker 1: day that I published the video, I would put in
Speaker 1: the title how much that I had that day. So
Speaker 1: it also became accountable for me because I didn't want
Speaker 1: to discappline anyone. I wanted to see my number going
Speaker 1: down and going down fast. It's amazing what community can
Speaker 1: do for us also, and we've seen that just in
Speaker 1: the one year that we've been doing the podcast, just
Speaker 1: the support that can come from it, the understanding, the
Speaker 1: different tips and ideas, and just wanting to stay on
Speaker 1: track because you feel like you're a part of something.
Speaker 1: So in addition to gamifying, there's something else that we
Speaker 1: really love. This is the most fun part of the show.
Speaker 1: It's that's right. It's time for the best minute of
Speaker 1: your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his
Speaker 1: name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe
Speaker 1: your car died and you're happy to not have to
Speaker 1: pay that bill anymore. That's built build Bill Clinton. This
Speaker 1: is the build of the week. Every week we invite
Speaker 1: someone to share with us their favorite bill, and as
Speaker 1: a guest on show, we would like you to do
Speaker 1: the honor of sharing your bill of the week. So
Speaker 1: do you have one for us? Well, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't have many bills left anymore because I'm out a
Speaker 1: debt um. So my my bill of the week, the
Speaker 1: one I've been working for and towards, is kind of
Speaker 1: a dream of a bill. I I dream of a mortgage,
Speaker 1: you guys, I I have. My current big money goal
Speaker 1: is to purchase a multi family property and house hacking
Speaker 1: house hack it yeah to rent out some one or
Speaker 1: two units and then live in like a third or
Speaker 1: fourth or you know, duplex. Divide that math as you will,
Speaker 1: and so my my dream is to have that bill
Speaker 1: one day and for my tenants to pay it for me. Yet,
Speaker 1: if you're that's the best bill someone to build someone else.
Speaker 1: If you're unfamiliar with house hacking, we talked about it
Speaker 1: in our Buy or Rent episode a few few episodes back,
Speaker 1: but yes, I love that concept. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: we're doing. We have just a single family, but we
Speaker 1: rent out the front room and bathroom on Airbnb. And
Speaker 1: it is fantastic to have your bill paid by somebody else.
Speaker 1: Mortgage to that end, I'm currently trying to say about
Speaker 1: the big old funkin down payment, and I just closed
Speaker 1: out my July budget today, yesterday today is the first
Speaker 1: and I put eight hundred and seventeen dollars towards that
Speaker 1: future bill. That feels good. Yes, yes, And you're in
Speaker 1: Texas where housing is like as cheap as water from
Speaker 1: a river, So that's fantastic. Some places here here it
Speaker 1: can be a little There's a triplex or duplexes near
Speaker 1: the college will go for a quarter of a million
Speaker 1: dollars just because of their locations. They do, but there
Speaker 1: is it is more affordable than like California or York
Speaker 1: or something. Obviously, so it can be reasonable here, but
Speaker 1: obviously I wish you were. I just think of all
Speaker 1: the h G TV shows that have come since Fixer
Speaker 1: Upper and how they're turning all these affordable diamonds in
Speaker 1: the rough into like really nice neighborhoods, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: can you stop? Okay. I was at the gym this
Speaker 1: morning and I saw a Fixer Upper episode on one
Speaker 1: of the TVs where one of the houses was fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I was like, no, you can for fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars around it? God? Now, yeah, nothing like that
Speaker 1: in Florida anymore. Yeah, it's unfortunate, at least in St. Petersburg.
Speaker 1: How far off are you, Sarah from this this bill?
Speaker 1: You hope to have? Pretty far off, unfortunately, because I'm
Speaker 1: looking for, like, ideally a triplex um. I was looking
Speaker 1: at one the other day that was not very close
Speaker 1: to the and was therefore a little more affordable because
Speaker 1: it would attract like families instead of college dues. And
Speaker 1: it was to forty for a triplex, and no down
Speaker 1: payment on that would be like fifty brand and right
Speaker 1: now I have liked, Yeah, and that's more than we
Speaker 1: put down on our house. We didn't do the recommended obviously,
Speaker 1: so I would really like to avoid the p m I.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I'm I'm such a cautious person,
Speaker 1: and I'm such like a slow person when it comes
Speaker 1: to money stuff like it forever to figure out where
Speaker 1: I was going to like invest in which in Nick's
Speaker 1: funds and stuff like that. I'm just I'm slow as molasses.
Speaker 1: So I'm a little I'm a little scared that, like
Speaker 1: the house fever is gonna get to me, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna know this is one let me put down, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, if you've
Speaker 1: got money coming in from the property you've bought, then
Speaker 1: you've made a much wiser decision than most. So yeah,
Speaker 1: if it's a good property, that's a good deal that
Speaker 1: doesn't require a ton of work. I pay for the
Speaker 1: p m I to avoid stress of a major fix up. Gladly.
Speaker 1: This leads us right into my next favorite time of
Speaker 1: a week, the lightning round pere pere peer pew to too.
Speaker 1: This is this is Jeels thing. Sometimes it's Jen's thing too.
Speaker 1: Non Remetter secretly loves this. Who doesn't secretly love as
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. We'll probably about it
Speaker 1: in there. Yeah, we'll see it in a review for sure.
Speaker 1: Please don't let us know how you feel about the
Speaker 1: lightning round in the region unless you love it, unless
Speaker 1: that's the reason for your five stars have at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, So, in honor of having Budget Girl on
Speaker 1: the show, Sarah, we want to know some of your
Speaker 1: budgeting tips. So I'm sure you are very used to
Speaker 1: giving these, so just give us a few of your
Speaker 1: budgeting tips for budgeting beginners and people that maybe want
Speaker 1: to hone their budgeting skills. Okay, first off, double check
Speaker 1: your numbers. Just double check your formulas or your numbers
Speaker 1: or your math or however you're doing it on pin
Speaker 1: and paper. Always go through twice because sometimes a cell
Speaker 1: will not like crossover, or you'll forget to carry a
Speaker 1: number and things will go crazy and that's going to
Speaker 1: take you a while to fix. So even I do that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes check your math so you're still on the spreadsheet, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: spread cheat girl. I do recognize that some of the
Speaker 1: apps are probably a little more fool proof than my spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: But I like making there you go, help to feel
Speaker 1: in control, because if I can make a mistake, it
Speaker 1: feels like so couldn't Appeah, you know, I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just as good as an app. And apps get bought
Speaker 1: out and they change, and stuff like Google sheets ain't
Speaker 1: going nowhere. Right. I could pull up my my budget
Speaker 1: from January right now and tell you exactly how much
Speaker 1: I made and how much I spent at the grocery store,
Speaker 1: and for some reason that brings me a lot of
Speaker 1: joy and I and that's weird. I mean, they don't
Speaker 1: call you budget girl for nothing. Next up, give yourself
Speaker 1: a category where you have just a little bit of
Speaker 1: kind of miscellaneous wiggle room. So that is for when
Speaker 1: you need shampoo, or a shoelace breaks, or something just
Speaker 1: weird happens that doesn't work into anywhere else in your budget.
Speaker 1: For me, I always had kind of a dollar a
Speaker 1: month cushion in what I called my personal line, and
Speaker 1: that accounted for a lot of things that I couldn't
Speaker 1: put into, like groceries or you know, gas rent, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And just having a place for the weird expenses to
Speaker 1: go is mentally helpful, just like a drunk drare. You
Speaker 1: need that for your budget. For your budget, can I
Speaker 1: steal that, I'm gonna Oh my gosh, a category copyright
Speaker 1: frugal Friends, another T shirt, another bumper sticker, and three.
Speaker 1: Have a goal that you're working towards. So whether you
Speaker 1: are trying to get out of debt or whether you
Speaker 1: are trying to like save for a house or a
Speaker 1: vacation or a car, have something so that at the
Speaker 1: bottom of your budget, if you have any leftover money,
Speaker 1: you can put it towards a mission and not just
Speaker 1: spend because it is so tempting to just spend it.
Speaker 1: But if you have something that you are working towards,
Speaker 1: it can go there, You can feel accomplished. It will
Speaker 1: reinforce this habit of budgeting and help you get there
Speaker 1: just that much closer. Nice. Besides your house your future house,
Speaker 1: what are some of the other things that you've like
Speaker 1: saved up for since paying off debt, Because that's the
Speaker 1: question we get, like how do we keep up our momentum?
Speaker 1: And like state committed after we payoff debt. So when
Speaker 1: I got out of debt, I started putting a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month into a travel fund, and I have
Speaker 1: gone on a cruise since then, which was so much fun.
Speaker 1: I can sit my debt free vacation, paid for entirely
Speaker 1: in cash that I had saved up my travel fund.
Speaker 1: I have got some new furniture that Oh my gosh, yes,
Speaker 1: I've seen your couch on social media. It is my
Speaker 1: dream couch. You have a lot of time on that
Speaker 1: shase and it's one of my favorite things in the planet.
Speaker 1: Like that is where all of my video editing gets done.
Speaker 1: That is where I'm at my desk right now in
Speaker 1: my office, which is never used. It's only used as
Speaker 1: a backdrop, but because I didn't want to hold the microphone.
Speaker 1: But that's a new furniture. I haven't done a lot
Speaker 1: of upgrades. I haven't gotten a new car, though I
Speaker 1: saved for when I do need a new car. I
Speaker 1: guess the big thing I've been saving for his retirement
Speaker 1: because I didn't put anything away while I was in debt.
Speaker 1: So now I'm really baxing out my um rath eye
Speaker 1: right for that and just making sure that I have
Speaker 1: a ton of money for when I retire so I
Speaker 1: can live affect live it good. Yeah, I think retirement
Speaker 1: is a great place to stash your extra money. So
Speaker 1: where can people find more about you? And what do
Speaker 1: you have going on? Over at budget Girl? Absolutely so.
Speaker 1: I make videos every week on YouTube and my channel
Speaker 1: over there is budget Girls so YouTube dot com slash
Speaker 1: budget Girl. I also have a brand new website, go
Speaker 1: budget Girl dot com, where I do lots of free
Speaker 1: printables and articles and just fun ways to help you
Speaker 1: save money and live a more frugal, fabulous life. And
Speaker 1: I am on every social media It's up Snapchat because
Speaker 1: I think Snapchat is stupid and come at me at
Speaker 1: go budget Girl. Good. I love that. Yes, I've never
Speaker 1: had a Snapchat either, so I admire you for that.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what snapchat is. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: honest with you. This is why I'm the eighty two
Speaker 1: year old who feels like a millennial sometimes because when
Speaker 1: I do things that millennials do, it feels awkward to me.
Speaker 1: But I'm proud of myself. Yeah all right, Sarah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on the show and we
Speaker 1: will catch you next time. Absolutely, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for joining us again for our interview
Speaker 1: with budget Girl. Yeah, I hope you liked it. Hope
Speaker 1: it was inspiring for you and even an encouragement for
Speaker 1: those of us who are paying off debt on a
Speaker 1: low income or as a single person. Whatever your circumstances are,
Speaker 1: there's a story for you to connect with and motivate you.
Speaker 1: So I hope this was one of those. Also, we
Speaker 1: want to thank you for listening and for your kind
Speaker 1: reviews on iTunes and Stitcher like this one. It's called
Speaker 1: My favorite podcast Happens to Be five stars comes from
Speaker 1: Britty seven They right. I love listening to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast. Jen and Jill make it feel like you're
Speaker 1: chatting with a couple of your best friends, not just
Speaker 1: friends best friends. The podcast has given me great tips
Speaker 1: along with helping me to attempt my first no spend
Speaker 1: month a little over one week ago. Thank you, ladies,
Speaker 1: Thank you Britty So glad to be your best friends
Speaker 1: and your frugal friends. I need more best friends. I
Speaker 1: love that. We also want to thank our friends who
Speaker 1: share these episodes on social media. So when you share
Speaker 1: the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram,
Speaker 1: we're gonna add you to our monthly drawing for every
Speaker 1: five tags and reviews we get. Every month we give
Speaker 1: away one copy of the Frugal Friends workbook, So keep
Speaker 1: leaving reviews on iTunes or Stitcher and send us the
Speaker 1: screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com. That'll
Speaker 1: enter you into the drawing, and of course don't forget
Speaker 1: to tag us on social We see you there, yes,
Speaker 1: and we will are you here next week? Bye? Gorgal
Speaker 1: Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Are you excited for
Speaker 1: our meet up next week? Yeah? Yes, next week of April. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'll be there totally. Who be there? We talked about this, Jill.
Speaker 1: We've gone over this. We've changed the dates to better
Speaker 1: be there. Um. Yeah, I mean any opportunity to connect
Speaker 1: with people real time rather than pretending to when I'm
Speaker 1: recording in my spare bedroom is perfect. Yeah. The last
Speaker 1: time we tried to do one of these, the world
Speaker 1: shut down, but it was poorly planned to We didn't
Speaker 1: really realize people wanted us to do a meet up,
Speaker 1: so we didn't plan one. And now we see that
Speaker 1: they do. And now the world has changed and people
Speaker 1: don't want to be as face to face anymore. So,
Speaker 1: but an interesting world. We'll see what happens, but it'll
Speaker 1: definitely be frugal. It will definitely be fun. There will
Speaker 1: be friends and probably food and more things that start
Speaker 1: with F. It won't be on a Friday, though, it won't.
Speaker 1: It will be on the day following Friday. Oh yes, yes, okay,