Speaker 1: Episode two oh four is episode how to make the
Speaker 1: transition from spender to saver her. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights,
Speaker 1: and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: M mmmmm, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name
Speaker 1: is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are
Speaker 1: re airing one of our most popular episodes from from
Speaker 1: Not Real. It's like it was point two is what
Speaker 1: this episode is from before really hit. Yeah, we were
Speaker 1: we were blissfully in a blissful days. Yeah, we're re
Speaker 1: airing it a because it's popular and b because we
Speaker 1: want to remember the good old days, because are the
Speaker 1: good old days and we want you to experience what
Speaker 1: we were like back then. So hopefully you can find
Speaker 1: yourself in this episode as well and take some tangible
Speaker 1: tips away. Absolutely, but first our sponsors. This episode is
Speaker 1: brought to you by none other than February of The
Speaker 1: Final Frontier, The Last Hurrah. Today's episode literally came out
Speaker 1: on February, and while many things published in that month
Speaker 1: have not aged well, this one has because I literally
Speaker 1: went back and I was like, oh, let's just make sure,
Speaker 1: everything's okay. Something else that has aged well our Modern
Speaker 1: Frugal Living e book. We published this e book with
Speaker 1: over two dred ways to save money in February of
Speaker 1: two and I think it's going to hold up as
Speaker 1: well as this replay. So if you want to grab
Speaker 1: your free copy, head to Frugal Friends Podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash e book Again. That's Frugal Friends Podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash e book. Nice transition, Jen, thank you. Also brought
Speaker 1: to you by the Glow Up, the phenomenon that has
Speaker 1: swept the globe is sponsoring this very show. We all
Speaker 1: know those kids we went to school with that appeared
Speaker 1: very normal, blending in, just getting their homework done, and
Speaker 1: then bam, they're in their twenties and unattainably attractive. It's
Speaker 1: the glow Up here to say, if it's happened to you, congrats,
Speaker 1: If not, try it on your finances. The glow Up
Speaker 1: going from good to grade since two thousand eight. M wow,
Speaker 1: are you talking about yourself in this one? Well? I
Speaker 1: wasn't until two thousand eight. Rhymed with great and I
Speaker 1: did graduate in two thousand eights, so you know, take
Speaker 1: take with that what you will, all right, although I
Speaker 1: do think I peaked in high school. Absolutely not. No,
Speaker 1: you have not hit your peak yet, Jill. You are
Speaker 1: still climbing girl. I would rather I'd rather see the
Speaker 1: glow up in my finances, though, all sacrifice appearance for
Speaker 1: a financial glow up that happened. That happens when you
Speaker 1: get to your thirties. It's like my body and my
Speaker 1: health are deteriorating rapidly. So I just want more money,
Speaker 1: and we are here to help you get that. Because
Speaker 1: we're not health podcast. We are a money podcast. And
Speaker 1: so if this is a topic that is specifically of
Speaker 1: interest to you, here are a few other episodes you
Speaker 1: should queue up to listen to after. So the first
Speaker 1: is episode one ninety and that's how to prepare for
Speaker 1: a no spend challenge, because we do talk about no
Speaker 1: spend challenges in this episode, episode five going from overspender
Speaker 1: to Millionaire with Wally Miller. That one was a really
Speaker 1: good interview. And then one how to identify and improve
Speaker 1: spending habits. That's another really good one to play. After
Speaker 1: so many options, well, just keep be engaged for the
Speaker 1: rest of your afternoon or whatever time you're listening to this.
Speaker 1: Enjoy so our first article on how to transition to
Speaker 1: saber from spender is from J. D Roth over Get
Speaker 1: Rich Slowly dot org and he goes through the ways
Speaker 1: he went from spender to saber, and I thought this
Speaker 1: was a cool to start with. Instead of like a
Speaker 1: list on how to do it um, his is a
Speaker 1: lot of his story on how he did it, which
Speaker 1: is always relatable when you hear what has actually worked
Speaker 1: for somebody else and then figuring out how to tweak
Speaker 1: it for yourself. Yeah, and a lot of it came
Speaker 1: from going ru getting out of debt. He paid off
Speaker 1: his debt, built his savings and is now living in
Speaker 1: this place where he could spend money if he wanted to.
Speaker 1: But he spent all of this time like changing his
Speaker 1: money mindset that he is now a saver and and
Speaker 1: these are kind of the biggest things that have helped him.
Speaker 1: So the first is opening a high yield savings account,
Speaker 1: so he opened one UM online. A lot of online
Speaker 1: accounts are great for this. Uh they offer way more
Speaker 1: interest than brick and mortar banks so and and they
Speaker 1: are just as safe. The only thing they don't have
Speaker 1: is like cash deposits. But uh, so, opening an account
Speaker 1: at a separate place from where you regularly bank and
Speaker 1: regularly transferring money over to it. So just like you
Speaker 1: can do that, there's also apps that do have auto
Speaker 1: safe features, like in power um where they will try
Speaker 1: for small amounts that you don't know, but that's not
Speaker 1: really going to that'll build your savings, but it's not
Speaker 1: going to build a habit. So doing this that is,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're doing it automatically, but I would argue
Speaker 1: that maybe doing it in addition to doing it regularly automatically,
Speaker 1: you also do it manually. UM. I believe you should
Speaker 1: automate everything just because it forces you to save, but
Speaker 1: if you're really trying to build a habit, you really
Speaker 1: want to do it for yourself, you can't rely on automation. Well,
Speaker 1: and you can always do automation and then build a
Speaker 1: habit of putting an extra Yes, you know, even if
Speaker 1: it's really on the amount, you're still practicing and growing
Speaker 1: that muscle. Yeah. So the next thing that this article
Speaker 1: lists is to set a medium term savings goal. They
Speaker 1: really like this one so different from obviously short term,
Speaker 1: different from long term medium terms. So they're describing that
Speaker 1: time frame from about eighteen months to five years and
Speaker 1: setting goals like saving up for a big trip, vacation,
Speaker 1: saving up for a car, something that would take about
Speaker 1: that time frame eighteen months to five years to save
Speaker 1: four And what this does is it gets us excited
Speaker 1: about saving because sometimes long term goals can feel so
Speaker 1: far in the future and so unattainable that we don't
Speaker 1: have the motivation to do it. And short term is
Speaker 1: short term that's not going to get you very far.
Speaker 1: But a medium term goal where you're working towards this
Speaker 1: thing but it's not taking you forever, and then you
Speaker 1: achieve that, it's just the excitement, a motivation continues to
Speaker 1: build upon itself. So I love this idea specifically for
Speaker 1: like we're talking about transitioning from spender to savor, this
Speaker 1: is a really good place to start. Yeah, for me,
Speaker 1: I think the eighteen month is a really good sweet
Speaker 1: spot because the six month is more short term for me,
Speaker 1: and then five years does seem long term. Um, well, retirement,
Speaker 1: that's really what long term, but for me it still
Speaker 1: feels like a long ways away. But I think eighteen
Speaker 1: months is a sweet spot. If you can have eighteen
Speaker 1: month goals just in succession, you can really do a
Speaker 1: lot of think like good things with your money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or set your long term savings goals in medium term
Speaker 1: increments by the next by eighteen months from now, I
Speaker 1: want to have saved three to five tho dollars for retirement.
Speaker 1: And then when you get to the eighteen month mark,
Speaker 1: move it over. I mean you can. You can gamify
Speaker 1: this thing, Yeah, you can, It's really sweet. The next
Speaker 1: is when you receive a windfall, such as your upcoming
Speaker 1: tax refund, don't think about how to spend it, think
Speaker 1: about how to save it. Uh. Windfalls we usually think
Speaker 1: of them as fun money. And if you're receiving a
Speaker 1: large windfall like an inheritance, some of that should be
Speaker 1: used as fun money. But something like a tax refund
Speaker 1: that's only a couple grand you can use maybe like
Speaker 1: fifty dollars to you know, take your family out on
Speaker 1: a nice fun day and spend it on an experience.
Speaker 1: But don't let that be the first thing you think about.
Speaker 1: Think about how you want to save it to get
Speaker 1: like closer to your goal, and then once you fund that,
Speaker 1: then use the leftover two take a fun day with
Speaker 1: your family. Yeah. And the next one is to avoid
Speaker 1: situations that would cause you to spend this you know,
Speaker 1: hails back to our sponsor restrained. It starts by just
Speaker 1: not putting yourself in situations where you know you're going
Speaker 1: to buy all of the tiny bowls or whatever it is. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to save money and you've got other
Speaker 1: things that you do want to be spending your money on,
Speaker 1: and you know that you're going to spend all your
Speaker 1: money on photography equipment or biking year or you name it,
Speaker 1: don't go to those places or don't visit those sites.
Speaker 1: That's another thing, right, we talked about not putting yourself
Speaker 1: in these situations. Okay, it's relatively easy to just not
Speaker 1: stop in a store, but to not search certain things
Speaker 1: on your phone that are readily available, that's and that's
Speaker 1: a whole other animal. And that's where we can put
Speaker 1: up barriers for ourselves of you know, whether that's like
Speaker 1: it takes some extra steps to get to your browser
Speaker 1: or to get to certain apps on your phone, um
Speaker 1: or just saying no, just practicing or train and not
Speaker 1: doing those things. And we'll we'll talk about in our
Speaker 1: upcoming episode on motivation, how your environment is so much
Speaker 1: more important to staying motivated to something than quote unquote
Speaker 1: motivation is um so, yeah, just form your environment to
Speaker 1: support saving. Yeah, it's a double edged sword because sometimes
Speaker 1: even being online can be tempting for to purchase things.
Speaker 1: But by the same token, you can use online platforms
Speaker 1: to help you where being in person might be more tempting,
Speaker 1: like for those target people who just cannot get out
Speaker 1: of target for less than fifty dollars. Yeah, maybe you're
Speaker 1: better off going online for your groceries or your one
Speaker 1: item that you need than going in store, because then
Speaker 1: you can just specifically say I need diapers and I
Speaker 1: need milk, and that's it. I'm not doing the one
Speaker 1: dollar aisle, which ends up being five million dollars by
Speaker 1: the time you get to the cash or chaster. How
Speaker 1: how does it get there? How did that happen? Where
Speaker 1: did all those zeros come from? How did my diapers
Speaker 1: cost two? I mean that's diapers can cost you hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: that's a real but how that's a real question to
Speaker 1: how did one box of diapers? Big diapers? Big diapers?
Speaker 1: His next one is he started considering alternatives to buy
Speaker 1: new stuff, which we're so into this. So instead of
Speaker 1: going out assuming that you need to replace something, or
Speaker 1: assuming you need to buy something new to create more
Speaker 1: convenience in your life, take the time to look around
Speaker 1: your house see if you can fix what you broke
Speaker 1: or if you can use something else you already have
Speaker 1: to to make do. Um and then next is to
Speaker 1: buy you. So he goes to goodwill. Um, I love
Speaker 1: Facebook Marketplace or eBay. I really love eBay. Um, so
Speaker 1: go online or go to a thrift store. Um, see
Speaker 1: if you can get it used. eBay has so many
Speaker 1: crazy niche items that you're gonna spend days at a
Speaker 1: thrift store looking for or weeks on Facebook Marketplace looking
Speaker 1: for and eBay's got them for like a quarter of
Speaker 1: the price they are new. Um, so just take it.
Speaker 1: Doesn't take that long if you're using the right methods
Speaker 1: to see, like if there's any alternative to buying new Yeah,
Speaker 1: and watch yourself right. Sometimes we get excited when something
Speaker 1: gets broken because it's like, oh, I get to go
Speaker 1: out and buy a new thing. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: do you really need it? Can you do without it? Second?
Speaker 1: Can you fix it? Maybe you do want a new
Speaker 1: one of those things, but can it be fixed? And
Speaker 1: can it last a little bit longer? Or can you
Speaker 1: replace it used rather than going to the store and
Speaker 1: buying news. So just putting these again, some of these
Speaker 1: routines in place of switching the mindset of something breaks,
Speaker 1: I go out and buy a new thing, thinking through
Speaker 1: what are my alternatives here? Those are going to be
Speaker 1: the little things that move us from spending a lot
Speaker 1: to being able to save a lot. And and one
Speaker 1: thing I will say to finish up this thought is
Speaker 1: that we're not saying by lesser quality by buying used,
Speaker 1: you can often find something of better quality that will
Speaker 1: last longer. By buying used on on eBay or Facebook marketplace,
Speaker 1: then you would buying new because you want to you
Speaker 1: don't have the money saved, and you want to buy
Speaker 1: it cheap. At the same price point, you can often
Speaker 1: get something better and more quality. It does require a
Speaker 1: bit more research and time investment in that miss worth
Speaker 1: payoff can Yeah, it is worth. It's worth the time.
Speaker 1: So the last thing on this article is don't spend
Speaker 1: your time looking for ways to spend your money. And
Speaker 1: this is a really important point that he's making because
Speaker 1: we often think that to save money means we're not
Speaker 1: doing anything or we're not having fun. Like the alternative
Speaker 1: to spending is just sitting at home twiddling your thumbs like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm saving, but I'm not doing anything, and that is
Speaker 1: complete falsehood. So rather than thinking, Okay, if I'm not
Speaker 1: spending money, then I'm board look for ways to save
Speaker 1: your money or to do things that are free. I
Speaker 1: mean he starts off by talking about out just investment
Speaker 1: ways to save and get the maximum amount out of that.
Speaker 1: So of course, you know, Roth I ra s you
Speaker 1: could have absolutely get into stock market investing, investing all
Speaker 1: kinds of different things. But then beyond that is what
Speaker 1: can I be doing with my time that doesn't cost money?
Speaker 1: You can still have loads of fun and entertainment and
Speaker 1: time with friends and rest and relaxation without spending money.
Speaker 1: I mean literally reference any previous podcast that we've done.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that, but look in your area for
Speaker 1: what can I be doing rather than just sitting around
Speaker 1: and kind of get this idea out of our heads
Speaker 1: that to save money means that we're boring and we
Speaker 1: sit on our couch all day. Yeah. So uh, we
Speaker 1: love j d story and the things that he did,
Speaker 1: and so our next article is is more of like
Speaker 1: a detox, like how can you detox your habits two
Speaker 1: build up a fresh habit of saving. And I found
Speaker 1: this really great article. Who is it written by? I
Speaker 1: wrote it. It's on my website, are very own Jen Smith. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I write for a living, so one of
Speaker 1: these days I was going to put in my own.
Speaker 1: But it's on Modern Frugality dot com and it's how
Speaker 1: to use a no spend month to improve your finances.
Speaker 1: And I really love the idea of using no spend challenges,
Speaker 1: not just for the amount of money that you'll save
Speaker 1: in a month of not spending on non essentials, but
Speaker 1: for what they do for you mentally. They are a
Speaker 1: reset for your habitual spending, your impulse spending, and all
Speaker 1: of the mindless spending that we do, and it hand
Speaker 1: and you can replace that with habits that are more
Speaker 1: geared towards saving. So that's why I love no spend challenges.
Speaker 1: It's why I wrote the book The No Spend Challenge
Speaker 1: Guide UM on Amazon, and it's it's why I love them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you you are an expert on this topic,
Speaker 1: so yes, glad we're using your article. Yeah. So, so
Speaker 1: what is a no spend challenge other than what I
Speaker 1: just said. It's just a and write this down. Don't
Speaker 1: write it down if you're driving, but committed to memory.
Speaker 1: A no spend challenge is a commitment to not spend
Speaker 1: money on certain things for a predetermined length of time.
Speaker 1: That's all it is. It is not more complicated than that.
Speaker 1: You decide what you're not spending money on, and you
Speaker 1: decide the length of time. Do not follow rules that
Speaker 1: are predetermined by somebody else, because that takes away your
Speaker 1: ownership and your authority from the challenge. And there are
Speaker 1: some things you can spend money on that you don't
Speaker 1: struggle with, while there are other things you spend money
Speaker 1: on that our real struggle for you. And so the
Speaker 1: idea is just to find out what those things are
Speaker 1: and and you do that by committing and deciding those
Speaker 1: are step one, step two. So that's all it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So just to get into a bit more about how
Speaker 1: to do this, you you need to decide what you
Speaker 1: are going to spend on and what you are not
Speaker 1: going to spend on. And just like Jen said, it
Speaker 1: depends on you. You get to decide this, which I
Speaker 1: love this that there's so much freedom which listen to
Speaker 1: any of our episodes and you'll hear us talk about
Speaker 1: the freedom that there is. So obviously you need to
Speaker 1: pay your bills and necessary expenses to live and to eat.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, are you gonna what are you going
Speaker 1: to be able to spend on? What are you going
Speaker 1: to cut? I like what you say here in your article, Jen,
Speaker 1: just saying talking about there's no need to cancel subscriptions
Speaker 1: or gym memberships if you use them and if you
Speaker 1: would plan to just start them back up again once
Speaker 1: the challenge is over. So feel free to keep those things,
Speaker 1: but take a look at it. If you've got a
Speaker 1: magazine subscription that just gets thrown in the trash day two, yeah,
Speaker 1: cancel those. The point is to determine. Really, it helps
Speaker 1: us see where our values are, to pare down and
Speaker 1: and and learn. Am I actually spending money on things
Speaker 1: that don't really matter to me? I'm just doing it
Speaker 1: out of muscle memory. It really doesn't add value to
Speaker 1: my life. So there's these peripheral perks of a no
Speaker 1: spend challenge that help us that to like detox are
Speaker 1: spending Like what you're saying, Um, So the true lessons
Speaker 1: and a no spend challenge come from the everyday spending
Speaker 1: sit situations, the saying no to the I want it
Speaker 1: now mentality. Uh, and the lie of it's such a
Speaker 1: good deal. I think that that's such a big one too.
Speaker 1: Between like being frugal and being cheap is like it
Speaker 1: was cheap or it was on sale, so I bought it. Well,
Speaker 1: you still bought it, you still spend the money. So
Speaker 1: this is what a no spend challenge will do, is
Speaker 1: it will cut those things out at the base and
Speaker 1: and help you to really identify what do I need
Speaker 1: to be spending on and am I spending money on
Speaker 1: things that aren't actually important to me? Those will be
Speaker 1: the results of a no spend challenge. Yes, I love that.
Speaker 1: So how do you do a no spend challenge? Well,
Speaker 1: first you have to prepare. So just like you don't
Speaker 1: want to start paying off debt without a starter emergency fund,
Speaker 1: you don't want to start a no spend challenge without
Speaker 1: the essentials that will ensure your success. So first you
Speaker 1: want to get your necessities. Um, so those essential items
Speaker 1: and products. Go through what you use every day and
Speaker 1: see if you're going to need to replace anything in
Speaker 1: the next month, and just uh get it replace it now. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is a big one. You're gonna want to tell
Speaker 1: friends and family. So not just to say like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this no spend challenge because I'm so awesome
Speaker 1: but you are. That's not what you're telling them because
Speaker 1: you don't want them to invite you to uh bars
Speaker 1: or restaurants or invite you to spend money on something.
Speaker 1: And when they do, inevitably throughout the month, you can
Speaker 1: remind them, hey, I'm doing this challenge, but let's think
Speaker 1: of something else that we can do. Or let's think
Speaker 1: of something else I can bring to the potluck, something
Speaker 1: I already have from my pantry, or you know, come
Speaker 1: over to my house and I'll open up my space
Speaker 1: to you and give you water. Yeah. So it's not
Speaker 1: about saying no to people. It's about saying but, like no,
Speaker 1: but to do this offering up an alternative idea. Getting
Speaker 1: creative is really what a no spend challenge is going
Speaker 1: to teach you how to get creative because we're so
Speaker 1: used to solving all of our problems with money by
Speaker 1: buying something, and this offers you a month to pause
Speaker 1: and think, how can I solve my problem creatively? How
Speaker 1: can I think for myself? And so that is that's
Speaker 1: a big part. And then you can also take to
Speaker 1: Instagram and find other people doing no spend challenges. There's
Speaker 1: even been a group coming from the Frugal Friends community
Speaker 1: on Facebook where they're doing a no and low spend
Speaker 1: So we have our own like off, we didn't create it,
Speaker 1: it's just an offset group from our group. So there
Speaker 1: are plenty of places like even if you know nobody's
Speaker 1: supportive in your real life, you can find virtual friends
Speaker 1: that you can commiserate with and make fun, make light
Speaker 1: of all of your situations. Man, when you're doing it
Speaker 1: with other people, that just help. Yeah, it does. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, make a visual representation of your why. I
Speaker 1: have found that it is really hard for me, and
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, it is impossible for me to do
Speaker 1: a no spend challenge just for the challenge of it.
Speaker 1: I have to have a very important why if I
Speaker 1: am going to actually succeed with one, because I mean,
Speaker 1: the reason I started doing this is because I'm not
Speaker 1: good at them. I don't just do these for fun,
Speaker 1: I don't. I rarely do them anymore, like never, so,
Speaker 1: but when I did, I definitely didn't do them for funzies.
Speaker 1: I had a really important and significant why. And and
Speaker 1: I would dare to say, like most people are not
Speaker 1: going to get through this unless they have a really
Speaker 1: significant why. So make a visual representation of it. Put
Speaker 1: it as the background of your phone, on the background
Speaker 1: of your desktop, anywhere you see things that you can
Speaker 1: make a purchase and put in your car, and just
Speaker 1: be really intentional about it. Which is why this is
Speaker 1: so strongly linked to number two, which is determine a
Speaker 1: time frame. And that's I can't I can nearly almost
Speaker 1: not say this strong enough that this is not a lifestyle.
Speaker 1: You are not forever and always not spending. Certainly, it
Speaker 1: could be a lifestyle that you regularly do a no
Speaker 1: spend challenge, but we are not saying that there's longevity
Speaker 1: in hardly ever spending any kind of money. This is
Speaker 1: a very specific thing for a very specific time, for
Speaker 1: a very specific reason, whether that's to identify your priorities
Speaker 1: in spending, to say, for a certain goal to pare down.
Speaker 1: I mean, you name it, just like Jen said, find
Speaker 1: out what your y is for doing it, but put
Speaker 1: a time frame on it. Now, there's freedom in this.
Speaker 1: You can do a day, a weekend, a week, a month,
Speaker 1: a couple of months, a year. Whatever it is, though,
Speaker 1: put a time frame on it and determine how long
Speaker 1: and what are the boundaries and the rules within that.
Speaker 1: Certainly I love the idea of days or a weekend
Speaker 1: or a week specifically for starters. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's a fantastic place to start. Start small, figure out
Speaker 1: how this is working for you. You know, we just
Speaker 1: recently talked on a previous podcast about doing days scattered
Speaker 1: throughout the month. Our episode with Kate from that Debt
Speaker 1: Free Life, she did fifteen days a month and at
Speaker 1: the end of the year she had essentially done a
Speaker 1: six month no spend challenge. But it's just sprinkled, which
Speaker 1: is amazing, and that can feel a whole lot more attainable. So,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, put a time frame on it so
Speaker 1: that you know when it's when it's done. Of course,
Speaker 1: don't use that time frame as an excuse to starve
Speaker 1: yourself and then just spend like crazy the next day,
Speaker 1: because that will inevitably more than save it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: time frame is super important to this process. And I
Speaker 1: have um on my website a seven day no spend
Speaker 1: challenge where I will email you every day for seven
Speaker 1: days UM and go through every email will have something
Speaker 1: that might come up and how you can combat it,
Speaker 1: and you can find that modern frugality dot com, slash,
Speaker 1: no spend kit K I T and uh and yeah.
Speaker 1: So you can start with seven days and see how
Speaker 1: that works for you. And so next is decide what
Speaker 1: you're going to spend on. Just like I said at first,
Speaker 1: it is important for you to figure out what you
Speaker 1: are going to spend on as much as what you're
Speaker 1: not going to spend on. So you can choose to
Speaker 1: not spend on particular items. So if there is something
Speaker 1: specifically tripping you up, like trips to Starbucks every day,
Speaker 1: or those Boston cream donuts at Duncan Donuts, um anything
Speaker 1: Chipotle at night after work, uh, you can just choose
Speaker 1: that or a few items. Otherwise, no spending on impulse.
Speaker 1: So if it's not planned, if it's not written down,
Speaker 1: then it doesn't get spent on. So if you know
Speaker 1: you want to go to a coffee shop with a
Speaker 1: friend on a Saturday, and you know that's going to happen,
Speaker 1: you schedule it in and that's something you can spend on.
Speaker 1: So not spending on impulse. Then there's we get really
Speaker 1: really deep and so only spending on groceries and gas,
Speaker 1: no other purchases. You pay for your bills and then
Speaker 1: like like non perishables and gas and nothing else um
Speaker 1: or zero spending. Maybe you prepay your bills and you
Speaker 1: put all your cash and cards away. UM. I would
Speaker 1: probably only do this on the days you don't have
Speaker 1: bills do or if you can change when your bills
Speaker 1: are do. That's probably not attainable for most people, but
Speaker 1: it can happen if you're super super oversolves about it.
Speaker 1: And some people will do zero spend for a week
Speaker 1: when they know I've got enough in my fridge already,
Speaker 1: fridge and pantry for food, and we can do this
Speaker 1: thing for a whole week where we're not Some people
Speaker 1: have gone a little crazy with it and are able
Speaker 1: to do a full month, like they've got enough in
Speaker 1: their pantry, freezer, fridge to have food. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's it's we have these pantries and we just buy
Speaker 1: we buy two of something because it's bogo, and we
Speaker 1: only use one, and so the leftover just keeps they
Speaker 1: keep piling up in the pantry, and then we have
Speaker 1: these full pantries that we don't know what to do
Speaker 1: with So it's really a great way to um to
Speaker 1: incorporate to to clear out your pantry and declaring your
Speaker 1: pantry when you're doing a no spend challenge, and it's
Speaker 1: going to help you understand your spending. We mentioned that already.
Speaker 1: There's there's a whole lot of benefits to this of
Speaker 1: helping us in habit formation, reducing stress, decision fatigue, Holy
Speaker 1: smokes already decided for you. You just take a month
Speaker 1: off of deciding should I buy this or not because
Speaker 1: the answers are already no, nope, take a break, nope,
Speaker 1: practice restraint, and then lastly, just figure out how you're
Speaker 1: going to fill your time right so we can't just
Speaker 1: pull something away that's meaningful to us or has been
Speaker 1: typically how we spend our time and replace it with
Speaker 1: nothing that's not going to be sustainable. Figure out what
Speaker 1: you're going to do instead of going out spending the money,
Speaker 1: whether that's on food or shopping or whatever. And some
Speaker 1: ideas excellent ideas jin have friends over, invite people over,
Speaker 1: do a bit more hosting, and that's where you can
Speaker 1: have a pot luck, invite other people to bring food,
Speaker 1: utilize food that you already have on hand, have a
Speaker 1: pantry party. I love this idea where you it's like
Speaker 1: a gamified pot luck. It's telling everybody, what do you
Speaker 1: have on hand? Bring that thing over, and who knows
Speaker 1: what we're going to have, but it'll be in eclectic
Speaker 1: combination of food, which I think is kind of fun.
Speaker 1: And then you just get yeah, just have a bunch
Speaker 1: of randos like foods, not people. I mean people don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do, have a pantry party with randos,
Speaker 1: says Jen. She wrote the article so I'm not going
Speaker 1: to take that from um exercise, start forming these other
Speaker 1: healthy habits that aren't free. Yes, it can be free.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have a crazy expensive gym membership,
Speaker 1: YouTube have a movie night. This is another thing that
Speaker 1: you can do with friends. You can do it by yourself.
Speaker 1: Whatever you want to do. Uh, figure out a way
Speaker 1: that a no spend challenge can work for you. But also,
Speaker 1: once you're done, reflect I think this is a big
Speaker 1: piece to doing this of what did you learn in
Speaker 1: the process, What did you notice about your spending habits?
Speaker 1: What was the most difficult part of it? That's very
Speaker 1: telling about who we are and are there areas that
Speaker 1: you realize actually it's not that important for me to
Speaker 1: spend money in that area. I found out how a
Speaker 1: lot of fun doing X Y Z instead. So don't
Speaker 1: just do it and then move on. Do it and
Speaker 1: reflect and then implement changes as a result of what
Speaker 1: you've learned. And then you know what else is it
Speaker 1: reflected on as a result of what I've learned? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: is it the the that's right, It's time for the
Speaker 1: best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was
Speaker 1: born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off
Speaker 1: your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to
Speaker 1: not have to pay that bill anymore. That's built buffalo bills,
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton, this is the Bills of the week. Hi,
Speaker 1: Jenn and Jail. This is Leslie from Saskatchewan calling um.
Speaker 1: Your show is awesome. Not to tell you that first off,
Speaker 1: but I'm just calling in with my bill of the week.
Speaker 1: I made my very last debt payment on my favorite bill,
Speaker 1: which was dept to treat my cat for cancer. So
Speaker 1: he got cancer from a vaccine and it's taken me
Speaker 1: two years to pay off his surgery bill and his
Speaker 1: radiation treatments, and he's faster pass to that expectation. He's
Speaker 1: two years almost Caunter free, so that is by far
Speaker 1: my favorite bill of the week. Thanks your show by
Speaker 1: Leslie End Leslie's Cat, Leslie's cat, both of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh that's amazing. It feels so good to pay off debt. Congratulations.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that wasn't easy, especially the reason for the
Speaker 1: debt is not good. But you you just called us
Speaker 1: with all the good news. Though your cat's going well,
Speaker 1: you paid off the debt, so so glad to be
Speaker 1: on this side of that journey. Well done, Leslie. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you have a pet related bill, because we have
Speaker 1: a lot of pet related duds, yes, and we love them,
Speaker 1: every single one of them. We never get tired of him.
Speaker 1: Please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill uh
Speaker 1: to leave us a voicemail or a speak pipe message
Speaker 1: and we will play your bill on the air and
Speaker 1: we will celebrate with you. That's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1: That's why we do this is to celebrate. Yes, that's it, um,
Speaker 1: And that's why we're doing video now so you can
Speaker 1: actually see us like fist pumping in the air. The
Speaker 1: reason we are doing this because we always are going
Speaker 1: like that, but nobody can see how excited we are. No,
Speaker 1: we just tell you and you have to believe us,
Speaker 1: which who does that, right? Nobody? Well, now it's time
Speaker 1: for the Lightning Round. I whispered. It's that's one percent
Speaker 1: the reason we started doing YouTube so you can see
Speaker 1: Jill do the Lightning Round intro that I've noticed that
Speaker 1: I've gone more lighthearted with it since since we've been
Speaker 1: in the same room. Really well, because now you're happy
Speaker 1: because you're in Florida. Before you were in Pennsylvania and
Speaker 1: your magsion so people, Yeah, it's much happier. Now, what
Speaker 1: are we going to do for our lightning round? Jen
Speaker 1: our We're gonna have to relive these Remember we already
Speaker 1: went through these once before. But our spending fails and
Speaker 1: Saving Winds twenty twenty edition, that's both. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: my last spending flub. And I feel like I've talked
Speaker 1: about this like ten million times, and it is this
Speaker 1: purchase that will haunt me. I was in Target, of course,
Speaker 1: and I was in the stationary paper office supplies stile,
Speaker 1: you understand me, and I saw a planner and I
Speaker 1: love planners, and I looked at it and it was
Speaker 1: so cool, and I was like I have two planners.
Speaker 1: I don't need a third one. And so of course
Speaker 1: I did what anyone would do, and I put it
Speaker 1: in my cart anyway, and I bought it, and I
Speaker 1: got me a hard time about my tiny bowls. And
Speaker 1: I got it home and I started writing in it,
Speaker 1: and I realized, I'm writing the same dang thing that
Speaker 1: I've written. It's like you had both of your planners
Speaker 1: out and you're like transcribing to anyone. I'm so dumb,
Speaker 1: what am I doing? And so now this planner, like
Speaker 1: I've already written in it, so I can't return it.
Speaker 1: This planner sits on my counter as a constant reminder
Speaker 1: that I am not perfect? Is that why you're keeping? No,
Speaker 1: it's not why I'm keeping. It's because I can't return it,
Speaker 1: and everybody, I can't throw it out either. I can't
Speaker 1: throw it out because personal reasons beautiful, right. And then
Speaker 1: everybody I asked, I'm like, do you want to plan
Speaker 1: or do you want a planner? And they're like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't use paper planners. Yeah, I use a paper
Speaker 1: planner too. Do you want to us? No? I have one, alright,
Speaker 1: And that's what everyone, everybody keeps saying and so this
Speaker 1: is this planner will haunt me for the rest. Well,
Speaker 1: at least that was like a ten dollar spending flub.
Speaker 1: You want to hear my spending fail, I'm going to
Speaker 1: call it a fail, not a flub. Holy smokes. You
Speaker 1: could see in my outline I literally wrote next to
Speaker 1: spending fail, uh, January dot dot dot because January was
Speaker 1: my spending fail. And and here it is, y'all because
Speaker 1: you're admitting you're not You're not perfect, and so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be vulnerable to and tell you all that I'm
Speaker 1: not perfect. So we killed it. We crushed it actually
Speaker 1: in December, as we normally do because we're like we're
Speaker 1: we think that unplanned gifts are ridiculous, like why just
Speaker 1: spend to spend, and you know, we tell people that
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna do experiences, we're going to do
Speaker 1: time together. Eric and I did not get gifts for
Speaker 1: each other like we we did the holidays, man frugal.
Speaker 1: But then January comes and it's like this problem with
Speaker 1: with the potential problem with a no spend challenges, like
Speaker 1: all right, we deprived ourselves, let a dog and and
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Eric's birthday is in January. It's January's
Speaker 1: actually exactly one month after Christmas. So then it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't get him anything for Christmas, and now it's
Speaker 1: his birthday, and let's do that. And also food, and
Speaker 1: let's have fun with that because it's the dead of
Speaker 1: winter in Pennsylvania, and what is their fun to do
Speaker 1: but go eat out. And then I wanted to have
Speaker 1: a party for him, but then I wanted nobody to
Speaker 1: have to bring anything, so I provided all of the food.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that I did, Like I'm thrilled
Speaker 1: for that. But anyhow, this is getting along. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I spent so much more money.
Speaker 1: Oh and then we had issues with our car and
Speaker 1: we had to get all of the expenses, which that's
Speaker 1: why you have an emergency fund, like so that's not
Speaker 1: our fault. But at the end of the day, we
Speaker 1: definitely spent more in January than we brought in. Thankfully
Speaker 1: we had the money because we have an emergency fund.
Speaker 1: But I keep accountable next January. Like Jill, you probably
Speaker 1: crushed it in December, but January is coming. Practice restraint, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: My gosh, I give your husband gifts for Christmas or worth,
Speaker 1: skip it all, save it for your birthday. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I take it back the best. Sorry Eric.
Speaker 1: All right, well, okay, moving saving wins wins, let's talk
Speaker 1: about wins. Okay. So my latest win was opening a
Speaker 1: five for kai. Yeah. So I had a really good
Speaker 1: January money wise, like bringing an income so okay, but
Speaker 1: January is always the best month of the year for
Speaker 1: personal finance. So like, let's not get it twisted. In July,
Speaker 1: nobody cares about budgeting and I will make zero dollars. No,
Speaker 1: we're going to make them care. Yeah, we try, but
Speaker 1: it's Christmas. Send July. Let's do finances in August. Okay,
Speaker 1: if that's how that works whenever I keep going. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I had a really good month in January. So I
Speaker 1: started a five twenty nine for Kai uh, and we
Speaker 1: talked about nine plans in episode fifty six, and we
Speaker 1: had college Backer on and I actually started one with
Speaker 1: college Backer because I really loved their interface when we
Speaker 1: were doing the interview with Abby so and you can
Speaker 1: go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash college Backer
Speaker 1: and they actually matched. Um. They gave me twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars um for funding. Yeah. Yeah, if you use that
Speaker 1: link you actually like, college Backer will give you money
Speaker 1: towards the account that you opened. So for girl Friends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash college Backer or we've got the
Speaker 1: link in our show notes. And so that was I
Speaker 1: was super excited because I could I put a thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in there, and I could, and I set up
Speaker 1: a recurring uh invest meant and I'm very looks like
Speaker 1: you might go to college maybe, but if he doesn't
Speaker 1: go to college, that's fine. I'll just transfer it to
Speaker 1: another child or grandchild or someone or yourself. Get your
Speaker 1: second master's. Girl. Man, no, I almost sudden expletive, girl,
Speaker 1: don't make don't don't make me. Okay, here's my savings.
Speaker 1: When I actually invested in a Vanguard rof, I ra a. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know that's for anyone who knows me. You know
Speaker 1: that's a big step. But I also did it. This
Speaker 1: is no lie, This is no lie. This is embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I did it because I got a twenty dollar Amazon
Speaker 1: gift card for linking that account to personal capital. Like
Speaker 1: that's why I did it. I'm super glad that I
Speaker 1: did it, and it's like I should have motivation beyond
Speaker 1: a twenty dollar Amazon gift card to do it. But whatever,
Speaker 1: and this is still happening. This is a available to
Speaker 1: you all. Go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: p cap, I mean, set up your account right, set
Speaker 1: up an investment account with over a thousand dollars in it,
Speaker 1: at least a thousand dollars, and then go to Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash pcap link your accounts and
Speaker 1: you'll get a twenty dollar Amazon gift cards. So if
Speaker 1: you're similar to me and like you're only going to
Speaker 1: make wise choices for yourself as someone's like dangling a
Speaker 1: Karen in front of you, here you go. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: I love the personal Capital does that because it's motivates
Speaker 1: and incentivizes people getting started because now you have that
Speaker 1: rath eyre a. So you had very easily set up
Speaker 1: a recurring investment and now I'm putting money towards it.
Speaker 1: So so thank you Personal Capital. I loved you before,
Speaker 1: but I love you more now. Frugal Friends dot com
Speaker 1: slash pc a p get your own. And that is that.
Speaker 1: That's the last episode. That's the last episode. That's what
Speaker 1: the universe didn't want you to hear, but you heard it,
Speaker 1: you did, and we're so glad. We're so glad to
Speaker 1: have been able to record it a second time, and
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening the first time. We
Speaker 1: want to thank you for all of your listens and
Speaker 1: your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher. We love them,
Speaker 1: just like this one. It's from Bluebird and Thorn, just
Speaker 1: what I needed to hear. It's five stars. I've been
Speaker 1: searching for a podcast, book, audio book, YouTube video along
Speaker 1: the lines of this podcast, and it's ticked every box
Speaker 1: that I was looking for. Excited to listen to more episodes.
Speaker 1: Finding Peace without breaking the budget is so down to
Speaker 1: earth and reminds you to take a step back and
Speaker 1: focus on the here and now. Loved the gratitude board
Speaker 1: for the partner. I'll try something like this myself heart
Speaker 1: eyes emoji, which is referencing a recent podcast that we
Speaker 1: did where we talked about you writing down gratitude piece
Speaker 1: is about Travis. Yeah, something that I'm thankful for for
Speaker 1: my husband every day, which can totally shift relate. Not
Speaker 1: that you need to shift in your relationship, it can.
Speaker 1: It can shift a struggling relationship, but it can also
Speaker 1: build upon better and better, and we actually did a
Speaker 1: whole episode on gratitude and contentment and you'll be hearing
Speaker 1: that in the next few weeks. Well, we hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this replay, but we also wanted to give you
Speaker 1: a little update because we realized this is a perfect
Speaker 1: opportunity in replace to follow up. Mm hmm. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all know what happened after February, so you can
Speaker 1: fill in all of those blanks. But we were interested
Speaker 1: to follow up on just our lightning round of our
Speaker 1: fails and winds. And it's so funny because like January,
Speaker 1: my January sending fail is always this. I know what
Speaker 1: it was then, I know what it is now. Oh food,
Speaker 1: it's always that's not just January. Yeah, but like coming
Speaker 1: off the holidays, I don't know food foods and you
Speaker 1: were so you you felt dramatic about it, and like
Speaker 1: looking at it in perspective between like then and now,
Speaker 1: it seems like such a So it seems like nothing.
Speaker 1: It is nothing from how much we door dashed in.
Speaker 1: I just embraced it. It's no longer a fail. It's
Speaker 1: how I helped to support my community. Yeah, so my
Speaker 1: I have not bought a superfluous planner. Since then, I
Speaker 1: am glad to say I have only purchased the planner
Speaker 1: I use from July to June. That's it. That's awesome
Speaker 1: and probably too because it's really difficult to find a
Speaker 1: planner that can capture like a whole decade within one year,
Speaker 1: you know, like right, and that planner not the planner
Speaker 1: that I flubbed on. No, I didn't use it, just
Speaker 1: like I knew I wouldn't, and I did use the
Speaker 1: planner I was already using, So that is great. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: the win I'm excited about because Okay, so I had
Speaker 1: opened Vanguard roth Ira. I had just opened it, and
Speaker 1: the motivation was the twenty dollar at the sign gift
Speaker 1: cards so you know, which you can still get now
Speaker 1: from Personal Capital for Girlfriends podcast dot com slash PCP.
Speaker 1: But for a while you didn't have anything invested in it. Yep, No,
Speaker 1: that's true. I made the mistake that everyone said you make,
Speaker 1: and I knew I'm probably making that mistake, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to rectify it. So I came over
Speaker 1: to your house tail between my legs, and I have
Speaker 1: upped my contribution monthly to that account and it keeps going.
Speaker 1: It's on automatic withdrawal and we save in for retirement
Speaker 1: A men and yeah, so I yeah, I opened that
Speaker 1: five nine and I was putting I was doing monthly,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, forget this. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: put five grand in it and forget it because that time,
Speaker 1: instead of stretching out the five grand over several years,
Speaker 1: I just put it in there in one lump sum
Speaker 1: and that will get me a little edge versus doing monthly.
Speaker 1: And that's something I could do. So it worked for me.
Speaker 1: But anything is good even if you can't do a
Speaker 1: lump sum, but if you do get like a bonus
Speaker 1: or something, doing something like that with a bonus is
Speaker 1: really really good. Or your retirement account if you don't
Speaker 1: have kids. But you can also still get uh matching
Speaker 1: bonus from it's called Backer now not college Backer anymore,
Speaker 1: but Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash backer open account there.
Speaker 1: If your state does not offer tax incentives for doing
Speaker 1: a five twenty nine in your own state, well that
Speaker 1: was fun. I'm glad to see us still consistent in
Speaker 1: our fails and our winds, but hopefully our winds will
Speaker 1: win out long term. Yeah, thank you, so much for
Speaker 1: listening and leaving kind reviews on Apple podcasts like this
Speaker 1: one from Cake Bread three. Cake and Bread and the
Speaker 1: number three are all things that I like and it
Speaker 1: just happens to be five starts called Jen and Jill
Speaker 1: want you to succeed. Not only for Jen and Jill
Speaker 1: do Jen and Jill provide meaningful content in their podcasts.
Speaker 1: They have many free resources for their listeners to be
Speaker 1: successful with personal finances. There's a Facebook community so that
Speaker 1: listeners help each other with frugal tips and finances, and
Speaker 1: it's delivered in a lighthearted manner. This podcast is entertaining
Speaker 1: an educational highly recommend Okay Bread, Thank you, Kate Bread.
Speaker 1: It's great. It sounds like you've got great taste in
Speaker 1: food and podcasts. We also want to thank our friends
Speaker 1: who share these episodes on social media, So when you
Speaker 1: share the latest episode on Instagram, we're adding you to
Speaker 1: our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we
Speaker 1: get each month, we're giving away fifty dollars for you
Speaker 1: to spend in the Frugal Friends Shop, Yes, Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: Dot shop on the Internet. So keep leaving us reviews
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. And sending the screenshot to
Speaker 1: reviews at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: tag us on social See you next week. Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: is produced by Eric Sirianni Jill. Yes, are you a
Speaker 1: person who wears green on St. Patrick's Day? No, but
Speaker 1: I might start. I don't know, because I'm in my
Speaker 1: thirties now and traditions are more meaningful. I have to
Speaker 1: tell you. Every St. Patrick's Day that comes up, I
Speaker 1: realize I don't own anything green. Oh that's right, you
Speaker 1: don't buy green? I don't, And it's not like it's
Speaker 1: not on purpose. I would love to find something green
Speaker 1: to put in my wardrobe, but I just can't. And
Speaker 1: like I've even looked on threat up and filtered out
Speaker 1: just for green. I've looked for just green in the
Speaker 1: thrift store, Like I make an effort because, like in
Speaker 1: preparation for St. Patty's one. Sure, but I also like
Speaker 1: the color green. I like it. Yeah, I think you'd
Speaker 1: look good and green. Hopefully it's not like a decision
Speaker 1: based on not thinking you'd look good in it. No,
Speaker 1: I'm trying, Jill, I'm really trying, all right. I'll be
Speaker 1: on the lookout too, because I feel like olive green
Speaker 1: or green or lime green. Yeah, any kind of would
Speaker 1: look good on you. My house is lime green. My
Speaker 1: house is green like sharp trous it's like a like
Speaker 1: a I don't know what sharp truth means. It's what
Speaker 1: your house is. Okay, that like combo between yellow and green? Yes,
Speaker 1: trus Oh wow, I'll learn something new about green. I do.
Speaker 1: That's the glow up. You get more words in your vocab,
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. But yeah, no, I'm not somebody who
Speaker 1: wears green on St. Patrick Day because I just don't
Speaker 1: own any green's mostly by that mostly black. We're going
Speaker 1: to change that, yeah,