Speaker 1: Going plant Based on a Budget with Tony Akimoto.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are replaying a
Speaker 1: listener favorite from several years ago about going plant based
Speaker 1: because it is such a great way to save money
Speaker 1: on groceries. Because meat is the most expensive thing in
Speaker 1: most of our grocery cards. It might not be the
Speaker 1: only reason that you want to go plant based, and
Speaker 1: you already are, and you're looking for more ways to
Speaker 1: think critically about how.
Speaker 3: You spend money. Maybe you are wanting to make a
Speaker 3: couple of meatless days a part of your meal plan.
Speaker 3: You just need a diet change. We know that that
Speaker 3: can be one of the biggest barriers people recognize. Sure,
Speaker 3: there's plenty of ways to reduce my grocery bill, but
Speaker 3: what about when I have a special diet. And so
Speaker 3: this is one of those episodes where we turn to
Speaker 3: an expert. So it is a replay of an old favorite,
Speaker 3: but we think it's a good one. So we're excited
Speaker 3: to share it with you. But first, this episode is
Speaker 3: brought to you by saving money. It's what we're all
Speaker 3: interested in. It's what we google. It's the reason we
Speaker 3: give for not doing something, or shutting off the lights
Speaker 3: or eating beans and rice at home. But what if
Speaker 3: you could identify ways to save more, spend better, even
Speaker 3: track your debt payoff goals, all from your phone. You can,
Speaker 3: and you can do it the Frugal Friends way with
Speaker 3: our new mobile optimized Spending planner. It's beautiful, it's simple,
Speaker 3: it does math, it's easy to navigate from your phone.
Speaker 3: It's inexpensive. You can save money, track money, spend money,
Speaker 3: get good at money. Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash planner.
Speaker 1: Yes, amen, Amen, and nothing more to say. For a
Speaker 1: few more days. I'll give you this for a few days.
Speaker 1: At the end of this is a Memorial Day sale.
Speaker 1: At this point, May fifty will get you an additional
Speaker 1: fifty percent off that planner.
Speaker 3: Ooh, feeling generous.
Speaker 1: We're not advertising that everywhere. We are really only advertising
Speaker 1: it on the podcast. So you are special. This isn't
Speaker 1: something that we're just doing for everyone.
Speaker 4: I want you to know.
Speaker 3: That they fifty You're special.
Speaker 4: Do it, Try it, see what happens.
Speaker 3: Save money all right.
Speaker 1: So we are in our save Money on Groceries era
Speaker 1: and we are doing lots of episodes. Our next episode
Speaker 1: is about saving money on meat, so we encourage you
Speaker 1: to listen to both. Whether you are plant based or carnivore,
Speaker 1: We've got something for you. We want you to get
Speaker 1: healthy food, nourish your body, and not be angry and
Speaker 1: not go broke doing it. And so that's what this
Speaker 1: episode was all about, because sometimes plant based living, going vegan,
Speaker 1: all that stuff can be associated with privilege and high prices.
Speaker 1: And Tony is such an accessible like food blogger, instagrammer,
Speaker 1: plant based recipe creator. We love her and we know
Speaker 1: you will too because our listeners several years ago loved her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Tony, thank you so much for joining us on the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast. This is going to be a really
Speaker 1: fun episode.
Speaker 3: I think, yes, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I love saving money and so
Speaker 5: your podcast is like my jam yes love good to
Speaker 5: hear that from my Yes we love JATSA definitely jam
Speaker 5: us up.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: So you are an expert ongoing plant based on a budget,
Speaker 1: so our first question for you is what's the biggest
Speaker 1: misconception about going plant based? The biggest misconception about going
Speaker 1: plant based for me and for what I hear often
Speaker 1: is that people believe it has to happen overnight and
Speaker 1: it has to be all or nothing. And for me,
Speaker 1: it took six years to become plant based. I gradually,
Speaker 1: very slowly moved away from the foods that I was
Speaker 1: very familiar with and very comfortable eating. And I still
Speaker 1: feel as plant based as the next person.
Speaker 5: It just took me a little bit longer. And I
Speaker 5: also made sure that I set myself up for success
Speaker 5: long term. And I know that doing something before you're
Speaker 5: completely comfortable can set you up for failure. You can think, oh, well,
Speaker 5: I messed up, tried it didn't work for me, instead
Speaker 5: of continuing on little by little by little by little.
Speaker 5: And I also feel like that's about money saving too.
Speaker 5: That could be applied to so many different things.
Speaker 3: That's such a good point. The familiarity aspect that can
Speaker 3: be such a barrier for many of us. It might
Speaker 3: not be that oh I would never like it or
Speaker 3: I couldn't sustain on that. It just might be I'm
Speaker 3: not familiar with it. I've never We kind of stick
Speaker 3: to the things that we know, but oftentimes when we're
Speaker 3: willing to branch out try new things step by step,
Speaker 3: we learn more about ourselves and we might be open
Speaker 3: to things we didn't think we were open to. So
Speaker 3: I love that point about it. I think applies to
Speaker 3: a lot of different aspects of life too, not just
Speaker 3: our diets.
Speaker 4: So true.
Speaker 5: Actually, it reminds me of the time the very first
Speaker 5: time I went to a vegetarian restaurant, a friend who
Speaker 5: as vegetarian brought me and said, order anything you want
Speaker 5: and I looked at the menu, didn't know of any
Speaker 5: of the things on there, and I was like, I'll
Speaker 5: have the white rice. And I literally only ordered white
Speaker 5: rice because I didn't know anything on there. And for me,
Speaker 5: becoming plant based what really opened my world and my
Speaker 5: palate up to all of these different international cuisines and
Speaker 5: different types of ingredients because I didn't have a lot
Speaker 5: of courage to venture out before that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it also has this element of like the all
Speaker 1: or nothingness that we're so used to. It's either I'm
Speaker 1: all plant based or I'm all nothing, well, all not.
Speaker 4: Plant based, you know, I eat everything.
Speaker 1: Yet it's yeah, it's that identity thing, and I think
Speaker 1: your journey to, like over six years to slowly become
Speaker 1: fully plant based that gives permission to a lot of people,
Speaker 1: like I'm not a Aian anymore, but I eat like
Speaker 1: probably two or three plant based meals a week. So
Speaker 1: that doesn't make you wouldn't think like I don't identify
Speaker 1: as that anymore, But it doesn't mean I can't incorporate
Speaker 1: it into my life exactly. And in fact, I've surveyed
Speaker 1: my audience and about sixty five percent of people who
Speaker 1: are part of my community eat everything but want to
Speaker 1: incorporate more plant based dishes. They realize that it's healthier
Speaker 1: for you to have very vegetable heavy, fruit heavy meals
Speaker 1: in your life and want that for their families.
Speaker 3: Could we take a moment just to define some of
Speaker 3: these different words. I know that like we use vegetarian
Speaker 3: or plant based, or but I know that there's differences
Speaker 3: between all of these things and some overlap as well.
Speaker 3: When you talk plant based, Tony, what does that primarily
Speaker 3: mean for you? Or maybe what's it's the spectrum that
Speaker 3: you've seen.
Speaker 5: This is a really, really heated subject for many, but
Speaker 5: for me, it's not you can really if I don't
Speaker 5: ever judge anybody. So if you want to call yourself
Speaker 5: vegetarian like I did, and pick the pepperoni off of
Speaker 5: your pepperoni pizza and just not eat that par like
Speaker 5: you do, you That's how I started. And so vegetarian
Speaker 5: is not eating meat, and there are some ingredients that
Speaker 5: other vegetarians don't eat as well, but they tend to
Speaker 5: eat eggs and cheese and other dairy products. And then
Speaker 5: there's vegan. Vegans often are a little bit more on
Speaker 5: the ethical side, but there are other vegans who are not,
Speaker 5: and they just want to eat less animal products or
Speaker 5: no animal products, but that tends to be more of
Speaker 5: a lifestyle, so no leather, no fur, They try to
Speaker 5: buy cruelty free products tested on animals, and so it's
Speaker 5: more of a lifestyle. And then plant based, this is
Speaker 5: the one that's a little bit tricky. I know people
Speaker 5: who are plant based and are die hard plant based,
Speaker 5: but they still eave meat sometimes. There are still there
Speaker 5: are people who are plant based who they believe that
Speaker 5: they don't need oil. I believe oil came from plants,
Speaker 5: and I use plant based synonymous to vegan. So there
Speaker 5: are there's like a whole spectrum of just the word
Speaker 5: plant based. And I feel like, if you want to
Speaker 5: eat more plants and you feel comfortable labeling yourself plant based,
Speaker 5: us you do.
Speaker 3: You that's amazing. I just want to stick to the
Speaker 3: basics of plant based, meaning plants. Then that's yeah, that's.
Speaker 4: How I feel. That's how I feel.
Speaker 5: I eat food that was made from plants and that
Speaker 5: that is a very very vast range of food.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So for someone hearing this and realizing great, I can,
Speaker 3: I can intersect with this concept, this way of eating
Speaker 3: and living on a variety of ways. What would you
Speaker 3: say is the easiest way for someone to get started
Speaker 3: if they're also considering their budget.
Speaker 5: I know that Jen has a lot of thoughts about
Speaker 5: this with meal planning, because that's always where I start.
Speaker 5: I feel like having a plan with saving money period
Speaker 5: is going to get you far and really taking stock
Speaker 5: of what's in your pantry so that you're not buying
Speaker 5: ingredients that you don't need and not finding it, not
Speaker 5: finding recipes that are online that require a whole new
Speaker 5: list of ingredients that you have to spend money on
Speaker 5: and maybe don't go together, so you can't use the
Speaker 5: salary that you have leftover in your soup because now
Speaker 5: you're making a pasta and pasta doesn't have that salary.
Speaker 5: So being a little bit thoughtful and smart about your
Speaker 5: planning and then using that planning at.
Speaker 4: The grocery store, because grocery store is.
Speaker 5: Like a very hard place to navigate when you're on
Speaker 5: a budget. I know. Yeah, the marketing is so fantastic.
Speaker 5: They've got colors and beautiful signage. And what we don't
Speaker 5: know as consumers often is that there is a lot
Speaker 5: of paid placement at the grocery store. So when you
Speaker 5: go in and you see this big like sale sign
Speaker 5: tomato sauce is one dollar, you're thinking, oh great, this
Speaker 5: is I needed tomato sauce. But often that's not the cheapest,
Speaker 5: and it's better for you to avoid that intro section
Speaker 5: and then also the end caps and go straight to
Speaker 5: the aisle look for your tomato sauce. Don't even look
Speaker 5: just in your line of sight, look all the way
Speaker 5: around because that could be paid placement too, And look
Speaker 5: for the cheapest by price pernounce. So often that's label,
Speaker 5: but still do your diligence and make sure that's the cheapest.
Speaker 5: And there are so many hacks like that when you're
Speaker 5: at the grocery store, just shopping smartly, making sure that
Speaker 5: you've eaten before you've gone, so that you don't purchase impulsively,
Speaker 5: make sure you have a plan, so that you're not
Speaker 5: randomly grabbing ingredients because they're on sale, or because they
Speaker 5: look good, or because you just want to try them,
Speaker 5: and stick to the plan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like such a misconception that going plant
Speaker 3: based would be more expensive when the reality is that
Speaker 3: meat is what usually costs us a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Although I know, even for myself, if we're starting to
Speaker 3: talk about cutting dairy, then then there's a lot of
Speaker 3: other alternatives. And sometimes I see that those alternatives to
Speaker 3: whatever recipes are going to call for that might have
Speaker 3: dairy in it, the alternatives might be more expensive. And
Speaker 3: so I'm cure vious your thoughts on how to begin,
Speaker 3: Like if someone were at that end of the spectrum
Speaker 3: with I also want to cut out like the dairy
Speaker 3: and the cheeses and the eggs and all of that,
Speaker 3: and yet trying to find some reasonable alternatives, how might
Speaker 3: they go about, Yeah, planning for that well and wisely
Speaker 3: within their money.
Speaker 5: I've found that sticking to plants, like Whole Foods is
Speaker 5: going to be the cheapest option, and you can still
Speaker 5: have a very delicious and familiar experience with tastes and
Speaker 5: textures with your seasonings. And one thing that I go
Speaker 5: back to all the time because I come from a
Speaker 5: family of meat lovers and I don't eat meat. But
Speaker 5: I've also been on a budget for my whole adult life.
Speaker 5: I lived under the poverty line until maybe in the
Speaker 5: past four years, and so I was on a tight budget.
Speaker 5: And one meal that I kept going back to our
Speaker 5: lentil tacos. Lentil tacos are my favorite. You use all
Speaker 5: the same thing. You wouldn't put cheese on it, but
Speaker 5: it's still delicious, and you would cook the lentils instead
Speaker 5: of the beef, and you'd flavor them the same you'd use.
Speaker 5: I use a taco seasoning packet, But if you use
Speaker 5: all the if you make your own blend, that's fine too.
Speaker 5: With some onion, lettuce, tomato, and corn tortillas. Oh my gosh, delicious.
Speaker 5: My meat loving family loves it, so it doesn't have
Speaker 5: to be a sacrifice. And also, if you give food
Speaker 5: a try without the alternatives, because those can get pricey,
Speaker 5: you'll find that with the right seasonings, it's so filled
Speaker 5: with flavor and it's healthier for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we're all about values based budgeting and spending anyway,
Speaker 3: So if this is a decision that we want to
Speaker 3: make with the way that we're feeding ourselves and interacting
Speaker 3: with the world, then we can find room to do
Speaker 3: that and cut in other places as well. But also
Speaker 3: it's it's like anything else, like going minimal or you
Speaker 3: name it, where there's a way to do it expensive
Speaker 3: and there's a way to do it within our means,
Speaker 3: and both can be really amazing and really great and
Speaker 3: really tasty. I find the people who like our primarily
Speaker 3: plant based eat that way. They make incredible food. I
Speaker 3: think maybe because like there's more time and not maybe
Speaker 3: not a ton of extra time and effort, but like
Speaker 3: you care more about like the main if a main dishes,
Speaker 3: eventually we just actually use rice. Like if you're cooking
Speaker 3: meat all the time, if you're like, you don't have
Speaker 3: to do that, but then you never get really good
Speaker 3: at cooking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 5: I when I first started my cooking journey, did not
Speaker 5: know how to mix the different spices and blend different
Speaker 5: ingredients and I grew up. I had two faces of
Speaker 5: my life. I was brought into this world by teenage parents,
Speaker 5: but my dad went into the Navy full time right
Speaker 5: after he found out that I was went to be born,
Speaker 5: and I lived with my grandparents during that time. They
Speaker 5: were retired and they both were very interested in food.
Speaker 5: My grandpa was a Japanese gardener here in the Central
Speaker 5: Valley and my Central Valley of California, and my grandma
Speaker 5: was a Mexican woman who took his food and made
Speaker 5: us delicious meals from scratch, and so they were very
Speaker 5: rich in plants and fresh foods. But then I went
Speaker 5: and moved in with my dad, and we ate like bachelors.
Speaker 5: So I moved in with him when I was eleven
Speaker 5: years old, and I loved hamburger helper, I loved hot
Speaker 5: dogs with chili. I loved top ramen, mac and cheese,
Speaker 5: you name it. We ate like bachelors. That's just how
Speaker 5: it went. And so I didn't develop the cooking skills
Speaker 5: because I was too young when I was living with
Speaker 5: my grandma, and I relied heavily on packaged foods, and
Speaker 5: so going into learning how to cook vegetarian and then
Speaker 5: Blint based later on, I had to experiment, and what
Speaker 5: I did was I would go to the library and
Speaker 5: check out books, and I would invite a few friends
Speaker 5: over for we called it Womanly Wednesdays, and we would
Speaker 5: watch a rom com and make food together where we
Speaker 5: all brought different ingredients because we were all very budget
Speaker 5: conscious and trying to save money and didn't have a
Speaker 5: lot of money, so we would cook together and make
Speaker 5: these huge meals where maybe it would be like a
Speaker 5: big pot of vegetable soup with a loaf of bread
Speaker 5: and a salad, and everybody brought certain ingredients and we
Speaker 5: shared the costs, share the food, and also had a
Speaker 5: meaningful time together. So it was a really beautiful experience.
Speaker 5: But it allowed me to play with things in recipes,
Speaker 5: like ingredients in recipes that may be too expensive. So
Speaker 5: if cale was called for, but spinach was what I
Speaker 5: had on hand already, I would say, hope this works
Speaker 5: and give it a try. And so that's really how
Speaker 5: it happened all the time. Yes, and in Plant Based
Speaker 5: on a Budget, Quick and Easy, my new cookbook, I
Speaker 5: actually have lines in every recipe that just say my tips,
Speaker 5: and therefore the reader to customize each of the recipes
Speaker 5: based on their own preference, because that's how I cook.
Speaker 5: I take something as a guide and I change it
Speaker 5: up based on my family's preferences based on what I
Speaker 5: have on hand, and I'll say things like woo, well
Speaker 5: that didn't work, try to swap this out, or or
Speaker 5: it did work.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love the tip of doing this with a community
Speaker 3: exploring something, especially going back to what you said at
Speaker 3: the beginning about familiarity being a barrier sometimes to trying
Speaker 3: new things or exploring a different way of life or eating.
Speaker 3: But then when we bring other people into it and
Speaker 3: we can do it together, you've got that element of familiarity.
Speaker 3: And then also just like sharing the cost together and
Speaker 3: having fun cooking together, probably learning new skills, trying new things,
Speaker 3: like there's so much that I love about your womanly Wednesdays.
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be called that, but oh it's
Speaker 3: so amazing.
Speaker 5: And there are a lot of other ways to do
Speaker 5: this too, like food sharing. I love food sharing. That
Speaker 5: is my love language. I want to feed you and
Speaker 5: I want to celebrate your birthday by making you a
Speaker 5: big cake. So that is how I express love. And
Speaker 5: there are a lot of ways to save money and
Speaker 5: time in the kitchen by using those practices, whether you're
Speaker 5: cooking together and making a big, giant, giant batch of food,
Speaker 5: having your friends bring their tepperware so that they can
Speaker 5: take them home for leftovers and you can have leftovers.
Speaker 5: Or another thing that I've done in the past is
Speaker 5: if I'm making a dish for dinner, maybe I'll ask
Speaker 5: my coworker to also make a double batch for dinner
Speaker 5: and we can swap the other one. So if I'm
Speaker 5: making two cast roles and you are making two cast
Speaker 5: roles that are both different, you can swap the next
Speaker 5: day so that you're not having to make two separate dishes,
Speaker 5: buy two separate recipe ingredients, yet you still share food
Speaker 5: and cut back on the labor and time in the kitchen.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: We get a lot of our single listeners asking like
Speaker 1: how do I meal plan and make like this full
Speaker 1: recipe and then I don't want to eat it for
Speaker 1: the next five days. What a great idea, And like
Speaker 1: just emphasizing further the value of community and doing this
Speaker 1: thing in community to be able to like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to cut it in hay, and then we
Speaker 1: can like swamp.
Speaker 5: Like Yes, I also have a tip for the single
Speaker 5: listener and maybe the single listener who's an introvert and
Speaker 5: doesn't have or maybe want a big community. So I
Speaker 5: actually have had that experience one hundred million times where
Speaker 5: I've made a big pot and then I hated it
Speaker 5: five days later. And one thing that I've really loved doing,
Speaker 5: and I include some notes on this in my book too,
Speaker 5: are if I make a big batch of chili or soup,
Speaker 5: I'll take split piece soup, for example, i will make
Speaker 5: it very plain. The first day, it'll be very plain,
Speaker 5: and then the next day I will take a ladle
Speaker 5: and I'll spice it differently with nutritional yeast, and now
Speaker 5: it's got a cheesy flavor. The next day, I'll take
Speaker 5: another ladle and I'll put some hickory smoke in there,
Speaker 5: and it's gonna have a smoky flavor. Now the next
Speaker 5: day I'll take another ladle and I'll put lemon juice
Speaker 5: and some serachia and maybe some pepper, and now it's
Speaker 5: got a tangy, spicy taste. And so you can put
Speaker 5: in the effort make a pretty plain dish and change
Speaker 5: up the flavors every day. So that you really have
Speaker 5: a slightly different experience and not hate it.
Speaker 3: Oh I thought you were going to say, you make
Speaker 3: a bunch and you put some in the freezer, which
Speaker 3: is still a really great tip. We love the freezer.
Speaker 3: But you're blowing my mind right now to.
Speaker 4: The next level.
Speaker 1: I think you've just done a like you have beautifully
Speaker 1: emphasized how eating more plant based does not have to
Speaker 1: be more expensive that it can. There are tons of
Speaker 1: ways that it can save you money. I feel like
Speaker 1: in the times where I've seen people spend a lot
Speaker 1: on it, it's like the times where they're trying to
Speaker 1: replace like product for product, So like doing the plant
Speaker 1: based pizza buying the ready made frozen one, it's like
Speaker 1: obviously going to be more expensive. But also I think
Speaker 1: and I am I have been guilty of this in
Speaker 1: my early days of doing like procrass to spending so
Speaker 1: like instead of oh yes, adult.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: It was inspired by a friend of mine who like
Speaker 1: wanted to get back into running, and so he bought
Speaker 1: new running shoes, new running shirts, shorts, everything, and then
Speaker 1: never got back into running. But he thought he was
Speaker 1: doing something because he was spending money on the thing,
Speaker 1: and that was the same with like like going vegan
Speaker 1: or vegetarian is okay, I'm gonna buy all of these
Speaker 1: foods that are vegan and vegetarian and totally do an
Speaker 1: overhaul of my kitchen and get ready and then ever
Speaker 1: follow through and they feel like they've done something because
Speaker 1: they've spent money on it, and I have done this before,
Speaker 1: and that's where that's where we find ourselves thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: this is too expensive. But the reality is that in
Speaker 1: going small and doing these just small common sense things
Speaker 1: like oh it is, it saves you so much money.
Speaker 4: I love I love what.
Speaker 5: You just said because it reminds me of a book
Speaker 5: that I read quite some time ago called Born to Run,
Speaker 5: and it was pretty much the same thing. Stop buying
Speaker 5: fitness gear, get into running first, Yeah, try it out,
Speaker 5: see if you like it, and then maybe fifty miles
Speaker 5: one hundred miles after of running later, get new shoes first,
Speaker 5: then put in another fifty miles or one hundred miles,
Speaker 5: then get new pants.
Speaker 4: Like it doesn't it doesn't.
Speaker 5: Have to come before the actual doing of the thing,
Speaker 5: And so that's such a good comparison.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the lentils, try the black beans before the tempe
Speaker 1: and thew and satan. Yeah, start small and not all
Speaker 1: at the same time, like one plant based meal. Also
Speaker 1: start and then keep trying because I hated brown rice.
Speaker 1: I had never had brown rice before and I did
Speaker 1: not like it till like the tenth try. So sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to try it like ten times and then
Speaker 1: you might like it.
Speaker 3: They do say that. I think the research I'm using
Speaker 3: air quotes is you have to try something eleven times
Speaker 3: before you acquire a taste for it if it's a
Speaker 3: new thing.
Speaker 1: Also, it takes you like ten times to figure out
Speaker 1: how to make brown rice. I think like ten times
Speaker 1: of making it to start making it. I make it
Speaker 1: like pasta now, so I'll just put a lot of
Speaker 1: water in and then drain it at the end it
Speaker 1: Then you never run.
Speaker 4: Out of water. You never worry about it being to dry.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 4: So that's my that's my brown rice.
Speaker 3: Okay. Wow.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about the time involved
Speaker 1: with plant based because especially for following these tips for
Speaker 1: the less expensive foods that are not the prepackaged, that
Speaker 1: are not like necessarily the pre prepared, Like, how can
Speaker 1: we cut the time cost of going plant based or
Speaker 1: does it even do you even find that it costs
Speaker 1: more time it can.
Speaker 5: When I started plant based on a budget, I had
Speaker 5: very little money. I was negative a lot of money,
Speaker 5: and then the cash I had in my life was
Speaker 5: very little, and so I made a lot of the
Speaker 5: food that I ate from scratch. I made my bread,
Speaker 5: I made my pasta sauces, and I really if I
Speaker 5: wanted to eat that way, because I just I had
Speaker 5: more time at that point in my life. Then I
Speaker 5: had money, I made it work. But now I have
Speaker 5: more disposable income than I do time. I feel like
Speaker 5: I'm super stressed, strapped for time, and I splurge now
Speaker 5: on a can of beans instead of making my beans
Speaker 5: from scratch. Not one hundred percent of the time, but
Speaker 5: that's something that's a good example of what I would
Speaker 5: splurge on now, even though it's so much more economical
Speaker 5: to make them yourself, and they taste better.
Speaker 3: So I.
Speaker 5: Will say, you can spend a lot of time, but
Speaker 5: some of the ways to avoid that are thinking simply.
Speaker 5: It doesn't have to be an elaborate meal. You can
Speaker 5: make maybe a pot of brown rice for the week
Speaker 5: and throw things together like a hummus rap or a
Speaker 5: burrito with a cann of beans and your rice and
Speaker 5: some tomatoes and some lettuce and salsa, and that's your
Speaker 5: lunch for the week. Or put some hummus and vegetables,
Speaker 5: so that's something that's quick and easy. Pasta with frozen veggies,
Speaker 5: a can of cannellini beans and red sauce also very quick, easy, familiar.
Speaker 5: It doesn't take more than fifteen minutes to throw any
Speaker 5: of those meals together, So that's one I am on
Speaker 5: the go. I tend to or trying to get out
Speaker 5: of the kitchen as quickly as possible. Those are the
Speaker 5: meals that I rely on. But the style of eating
Speaker 5: that I do at home the most is cooking a
Speaker 5: legume and a grain and then mix and matching those
Speaker 5: throughout the week. So I'll throw them in a soup
Speaker 5: with veggies. I'll throw them in a burrito. I'll do
Speaker 5: some fried rice with some brown rice and some vegetables.
Speaker 5: And I use tofu. I use beans, I use lentils,
Speaker 5: I use split peas. I use different types of lentils, red, brown, green.
Speaker 5: There are a lot of protein sources that are very inexpensive,
Speaker 5: and you can play with those to decide which ones
Speaker 5: you like better. But I use one of those a
Speaker 5: grain and then either a storebot sauce or a sauce
Speaker 5: that I make plus some vegetables, and I throw them
Speaker 5: all together and mix them match them throughout the week.
Speaker 5: That's my style of eating. But there are a lot
Speaker 5: of others. You can do the one pot thing that
Speaker 5: I mentioned earlier with the soup or chili and change
Speaker 5: it up. You can do the freezer friendly meals that
Speaker 5: you mentioned earlier. And there's a way of meal prepping
Speaker 5: for everybody.
Speaker 3: Again, it sounds like a spectrum of however you want
Speaker 3: to intersect. You can find a way that doesn't take
Speaker 3: a lot of time, and you can find a way
Speaker 3: that takes a ton of time. And I also like
Speaker 3: how you're giving yourself permission to trade off time and money.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we don't have a surplus of both. Sometimes we
Speaker 3: have a surples of neither. But sometimes it's you know,
Speaker 3: you've got more than one than the other, and so
Speaker 3: figuring out what kind of trade off works for us.
Speaker 3: Maybe we've got a little bit more money than time,
Speaker 3: so I'm willing to pay for convenience, Or I've got
Speaker 3: more time than money, so I'm going to do a
Speaker 3: lot of the things myself and That's just a really
Speaker 3: helpful kind of foundational concept here.
Speaker 5: I love that you said that because it also puts
Speaker 5: your head into thinking what actually costs more and if
Speaker 5: you value your time at a certain amount, and then
Speaker 5: you look at the thing. We'll say, beans or pizza
Speaker 5: dough is two dollars at Trader Joe's and can sometimes
Speaker 5: I can put together two personal pizzas with that versus
Speaker 5: it will take me about an hour to make pizza
Speaker 5: dough if I do it from scratch and I let
Speaker 5: it rest. What am I valuing my time at and
Speaker 5: making those decisions based on what's going to actually cost
Speaker 5: you more?
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of a spectrum and making decisions. I resonated
Speaker 3: a lot with you when you were describing like growing
Speaker 3: up and the difference between being with your grandparents and
Speaker 3: then being with your dad, and kind of what the
Speaker 3: eatings landscape looked like. And I think you're describing a
Speaker 3: lot of people's households now when you've got maybe one
Speaker 3: spouse who wants to eat one way and another or
Speaker 3: partner who wants to eat a different way. And I
Speaker 3: can kind of relate just to personally with the way
Speaker 3: that my husband enjoys eating now don't get me wrong,
Speaker 3: like I am down for like a good mac and cheese,
Speaker 3: but there are times when I'll go a little bit
Speaker 3: more healthy, plant based, and sometimes he's on board, sometimes
Speaker 3: he's not. So like for someone like me or anyone
Speaker 3: else who can relate to that situation, do you have
Speaker 3: any advice for maybe one person wants to go plant
Speaker 3: based with the partner loves meat or loves bachelor eating
Speaker 3: that you just can't get away from there, ramen and
Speaker 3: hot dogs. I have.
Speaker 5: I have a different scenario in my house where even
Speaker 5: though I eat pretty healthy ish, my husband eats super
Speaker 5: ultra healthy and doesn't use oil and doesn't like salt
Speaker 5: and all the things I think are tasty. And so
Speaker 5: the way I get around that is I make a
Speaker 5: way that I think you can do this if your
Speaker 5: partner wants to eat meat or cheese, is make a
Speaker 5: make a meal that is pretty plain again, and then
Speaker 5: I take the we'll say pasta and sauce, and in mine,
Speaker 5: I can really flavor it up with what I want.
Speaker 5: I can saute my own veggies if I want, But
Speaker 5: in his, I've used the same pasta and the same sauce,
Speaker 5: and he can be responsible for what goes in that.
Speaker 5: I can put some vegan cheese if I wanted that,
Speaker 5: I can put in you name it. Whatever he doesn't like,
Speaker 5: that's what I can do. I hate mushrooms. I know
Speaker 5: I'm the worst vegetarian, but in his he loads his
Speaker 5: up with mushrooms. He'll put nutritional yeast for that cheesy flavor,
Speaker 5: and I don't want that pasta. So you can make
Speaker 5: the same base and then take it and create your
Speaker 5: own preferences using.
Speaker 3: That base negotiation station. I love that that your tip
Speaker 3: isn't here's just how to manipulate them into your way
Speaker 3: of thinking and doing. But here's a way that you
Speaker 3: both can get what you want and need and value,
Speaker 3: and there's space for that. That's wonderful.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I have been vegan for sixteen years now, and there's
Speaker 5: one thing I've learned is that you cannot force anyone
Speaker 5: to do anything. You can only be kind and loving
Speaker 5: and hope that they will support you and accommodate you.
Speaker 5: And I have found that approach. My friends want to
Speaker 5: make sure that I'm included, so often they'll look for
Speaker 5: a vegetarian restaurant, or they'll make mostly everything, all the
Speaker 5: sides at Thanksgiving vegan except the protein on the table
Speaker 5: so that I can enjoy all of them. So that
Speaker 5: has been my experience, and I've tried a lot of
Speaker 5: different approaches.
Speaker 4: That's the one that works.
Speaker 5: It's really hard to try to push someone into something
Speaker 5: that they don't want to do, and they can resent you,
Speaker 5: they could make life harder for you. But if you
Speaker 5: just say, you know, this is what I'm doing, if
Speaker 5: you want to change yours up, I'll give you the
Speaker 5: meal before I dress mine in the way that I
Speaker 5: want to. Yeah, we had a similar experience because I
Speaker 5: was a vegetarian when I met my husband and for
Speaker 5: the first I guess five six years of our relationship
Speaker 5: until I got pregnant and I craved a Chick fil
Speaker 5: a Chicken sandwich and I pregnant and that was it,
Speaker 5: and I just I would cook only vegetarian. And he
Speaker 5: never stopped eating meat.
Speaker 1: Like he would eat it if he went out somewhere,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't buy it. If it was in the house.
Speaker 1: He bought it and like or it was leftovers. And
Speaker 1: he was very I mean, I'm very lucky in that
Speaker 1: he was very you know, okay with that happening, He's
Speaker 1: He's like, I wouldn't eat healthy on my own, so
Speaker 1: this is kind of like the only way I would
Speaker 1: eat healthy. And sometimes he says he misses it, and
Speaker 1: then other times he says, I'm glad you cooked meat.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do like cook half like vegan or vegetarian
Speaker 1: meals every week. So but yeah, I think it was
Speaker 1: really if he wanted meat, he was on his own,
Speaker 1: and it's not like I was like, oh, meat can't
Speaker 1: be in my house, but yeah, I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: cook it. That's how my best friend from childhood she
Speaker 1: told her husband, this is what I'm making, and if
Speaker 1: you want to do your meat, if you want to
Speaker 1: cook your chicken, you can do that and add it
Speaker 1: to the meal that I make if you really want to.
Speaker 1: And he was gung ho about it for like five
Speaker 1: seconds and then realized how much effort it was to
Speaker 1: put in the time. To one, he bought this like
Speaker 1: big giant costco pack of chicken, and he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to eat this.
Speaker 4: If you're not eating.
Speaker 5: It, it's like it's taking up so much space. So
Speaker 5: one he was thinking, gosh, I did I wish I
Speaker 5: didn't buy that big thing because now I don't want
Speaker 5: to do it.
Speaker 4: He did the runner thing.
Speaker 5: He bought the product before he realized he did not
Speaker 5: want to cook, before he gave it a chance.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for crass to spending.
Speaker 3: Do you know what? We always give a chance and
Speaker 3: it hits all ends of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: Never procrastinate this one, Mmm the bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is Williams.
Speaker 4: Maybe you've paid off.
Speaker 2: Your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to
Speaker 2: not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills,
Speaker 2: Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the.
Speaker 4: Week, Tony.
Speaker 1: Every week we invite our listeners and our guests to
Speaker 1: share with us a bill that they love, hate, lost, gained, whatever,
Speaker 1: it's vague for a reason a person named Bill Honey,
Speaker 1: we would love to hear yours.
Speaker 5: I very very rarely go to Starbucks. But I went
Speaker 5: there and and someone before me paid for my bill,
Speaker 5: and I knew that that was a thing that happens
Speaker 5: to other people, And it's like something you here exists.
Speaker 4: But not to me.
Speaker 5: And I almost hug that person. We weren't like post
Speaker 5: COVID times, and people were a little bit weird about hugging,
Speaker 5: like the wait for me, I probably, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 5: It was so nice and it made me want to
Speaker 5: be in a place where I could do that too.
Speaker 3: Oh that's great. What did you end up getting?
Speaker 5: I got a hot chocolate with soy milk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know why that sounds like so adorable to me. I
Speaker 3: don't think I've heard like a grown adult talk about
Speaker 3: getting hot chocolate so long, and it's so endearing.
Speaker 1: It was delicious, and especially with swy milk, because I
Speaker 1: still order swy milk at Starbucks.
Speaker 4: I know it's like in anymore.
Speaker 3: But oh, it's not a trend anymore.
Speaker 4: Not old school about it too.
Speaker 3: Yes, wow, well I'm not a big Starbucks fan, so
Speaker 3: that'd be the only way to get me there is
Speaker 3: if someone else bought mine. So I'm here for it.
Speaker 3: I'm here for that bill, just in a different perspective.
Speaker 3: Oh man, if anyone listening has a bill or someone
Speaker 3: else may be paid for you bought you your hot
Speaker 3: choco chocolate milk or your you know, we're here for
Speaker 3: the people named Bill. We don't get enough of them.
Speaker 3: Visit Brugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, be a
Speaker 3: bill or leave a bill.
Speaker 4: The choice is yours.
Speaker 3: And now it's time for the light Round.
Speaker 1: All right, for this week's Lightning Round, we will all
Speaker 1: take turns answering this question.
Speaker 3: Tony already answered this like a ton of times, but
Speaker 3: I'm so excited for her.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite inexpensive plant based meal to make? Tony,
Speaker 1: this is the vulnerability for vulnerability around. It gets a
Speaker 1: little vulnerable when we have a guest.
Speaker 5: But I love soup. Soup is so comforting to me.
Speaker 5: And some people say that they love soup and soup season,
Speaker 5: but here in Sacramento it gets like one hundred and
Speaker 5: ten degrees and I'm still eating soup.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I know, I can't.
Speaker 1: I have a soup season, and so there's only a
Speaker 1: few months a year that I can eat soup.
Speaker 3: The closest I get to eating soup is chili, but
Speaker 3: then I got to have it with rice or something.
Speaker 1: But I do love you. I love soup. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your two? Right now?
Speaker 4: Right now?
Speaker 5: I've been loving super vegetable heavy but with a like
Speaker 5: a clear broth, and I do a little tofu cube
Speaker 5: so that I can feel like it's chicken noodle like.
Speaker 5: And I'll put an apasta or something like that to
Speaker 5: make it hardy or white rice. My like a like
Speaker 5: a chicken and rice type soup with white rice. That's
Speaker 5: delicious too.
Speaker 3: I love the word hardy. If you tack on the
Speaker 3: term hardy to any meal, I am here for it.
Speaker 1: I love a MINESTRONI miniestrone, however you say it with
Speaker 1: a little shell pasta and veggies.
Speaker 3: Yes, what about you?
Speaker 5: Jen?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So I don't want to toot my own horn, please.
Speaker 4: Don't for us.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I have perfected two things in
Speaker 1: the kitchen, and only two things. I am not a chef.
Speaker 1: I have perfected the kale set salad.
Speaker 3: Yeah you have.
Speaker 4: So in salad.
Speaker 1: Season, I am making delicious kale salad.
Speaker 4: Yeah you have.
Speaker 1: And I will do this like kind of mayonnaise based dressing.
Speaker 1: I make my own dressings and you use like a
Speaker 1: plant based mayonnaise with my gosh, it's just use the
Speaker 1: mayonnaise instead of oil, and then like an apple cider
Speaker 1: vinegar and other stuff and strawberries and walnuts.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh sounds delicious.
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, my stomach literally just grumbled. I wish I
Speaker 5: had my my Yeah, I really, I really grumbled.
Speaker 4: You might go back and listen to it.
Speaker 1: If I hear it a hearty kales, I love, it's
Speaker 1: so much better. The next day, you just got a
Speaker 1: massage and count to sixty massage your kale or if
Speaker 1: it's not salad season. I have also perfected crispy tofu, which.
Speaker 4: Is hard to do. Yeah, it is, so I.
Speaker 1: Will put tofu in everything, and even my husband loves it. Even, yes,
Speaker 1: so i'll I will mix it. The secret is, and
Speaker 1: I got this from I Think Cookie and Kate. The
Speaker 1: secret is a tablespoon of soy, a tablespoon of oil,
Speaker 1: and a tablespoon of corn starch. Just make up that slurry.
Speaker 1: Toss your cubes in bake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is slurry, slurry, slurry.
Speaker 3: I like that word too.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can use like liquid aminos too if you're
Speaker 1: not on gluten. But like, yes, like that is that
Speaker 1: is everything.
Speaker 3: I'll put it in the kale sell the other day, warm.
Speaker 1: Kale salad with the tofu, and oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: put I roasted some butternuts. She had some keen wah
Speaker 1: and some almonds. I think, yeah, maybe Pepita's. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Oh gosh, yes, And so it was
Speaker 1: warm when I served it, and then next day.
Speaker 4: For leftovers, it was a cold kale salad.
Speaker 3: So it was like, that's that's that's Tony's things, right.
Speaker 1: But my husband did call me the next day and
Speaker 1: was like, should I microwave this? It feels weird to
Speaker 1: microwave salad. I'm like, no, I mean it should feel weird.
Speaker 4: No, you should know.
Speaker 3: You want to know what jens real response was, because
Speaker 3: she was at my house and I heard her on
Speaker 3: the phone with her husband. She's like, these are the
Speaker 3: kinds of decisions you need to be able to make
Speaker 3: on your own.
Speaker 4: I'm like, what what.
Speaker 3: Thing? She's like, yeah, that was Travis?
Speaker 4: Like, why was it joking? Okay, I couldn't tell.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you could tell.
Speaker 4: I was just telling you.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, dude, you guys like
Speaker 1: you got to make these decisions for your life, you know,
Speaker 1: like you got you gotta know thyself.
Speaker 3: For me, it's like a chickpea rice bowl with all
Speaker 3: sorts of other goodies into it. But I love what
Speaker 3: can happen with chickpeas with a variety of oh yeah,
Speaker 3: seasoning baked, they get just a nice crisp to them,
Speaker 3: and and then other veggies thrown into there, and that's
Speaker 3: fun for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did a chick pea and sweet potato curry
Speaker 4: last night.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, oh, oh nice, I just made this recently.
Speaker 3: And then I saw you that night. We went like
Speaker 3: midnight bowling and which was fun, and my husband was like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: I'm really hungry. Why am I so hungry? Like, well,
Speaker 3: because normally we're not up at this time and your
Speaker 3: body's just now like expending energy. But also I did
Speaker 3: make just a vegetarian meal. He's like, I think because
Speaker 3: there wasn't any meat in the night. And then Jen
Speaker 3: sitting there, she's like, no, it's because you didn't put
Speaker 3: enough protein in your meal. And that was fun that little.
Speaker 1: Exchange just recently.
Speaker 3: See. That's what happens I think sometimes is there's like
Speaker 3: these ideas around what it means to be plant based.
Speaker 2: You're not going to get enough food.
Speaker 3: But you can, you can get enough food and all
Speaker 3: your nutrients, you just don't stay up till midnight bowling.
Speaker 3: That's the trip.
Speaker 4: Really, when you said midnight, I was like, Yeah, anybody's
Speaker 4: gonna need animal they are.
Speaker 3: This one's pregnant, so I know she was the real hero.
Speaker 1: I spent all day conserving my energy for that outing.
Speaker 4: It was a special occasion.
Speaker 1: So well, Tony, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Please tell everyone where they can find more from you,
Speaker 1: find your book.
Speaker 4: Et cetera.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me and I loved
Speaker 5: our conversation. People can find me at plant Based on
Speaker 5: a Budget dot com. My book is called plant Based
Speaker 5: on a Budget, Quick and Easy, and it's available anywhere
Speaker 5: you buy books and at plant based on a Budget
Speaker 5: cookbook dot com. And I'm on Instagram at plant based
Speaker 5: on a Budget.
Speaker 3: Amazing, just everywhere plant Based on a Budget.
Speaker 4: There you go, It's easy.
Speaker 3: Thanks for being with us, Tony, thank you, Thank you again.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed talking to her. That was a fun one.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm I'm still into kale salads. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring it back. A good massaged kale is such a
Speaker 1: hearty green, It's so good, so filling, and with a
Speaker 1: crispy tofu. That's a good protein right there. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll do it with other proteins, but I do so
Speaker 1: being vegetarian was a big reason we were able to
Speaker 1: spend so little on food when we.
Speaker 4: Paid off debt.
Speaker 3: This was a good reminder of how much I love chickpeas.
Speaker 3: I have not made chickpeas in a long time or
Speaker 3: done something with them, but it's funny. Just this week
Speaker 3: I put them back in my meal plan. I'm going
Speaker 3: to make a chickpea, heart of palm and beat salad.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I have all of those cans in my
Speaker 3: pantry from the hurricane. I went a little nuts, so
Speaker 3: during the hurricane this past season, didn't and just bought
Speaker 3: all kinds of random stuff that I'm like, oh, maybe
Speaker 3: this will feel elevated if we are without power for
Speaker 3: weeks on it. It didn't ever end up eating them,
Speaker 3: but now I just have like a can of pickled
Speaker 3: beets and hearts of palm and chickpeas, and like, what
Speaker 3: do I do with this? Anyways, I'll probably talk about
Speaker 3: it in the Sunday reset. So if you're not subscribed
Speaker 3: to our YouTube channel, you definitely need to be, because
Speaker 3: we give six recipes every week. We talk about our
Speaker 3: meal plans. The recipes we liked so you can know
Speaker 3: they've been tested by the Frugal Friends. So I'm going
Speaker 3: to end up talking about that in our Sunday reset perfect.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for listening. We hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode as much this time around as you
Speaker 1: did the first. And if you have listened to the
Speaker 1: show and enjoyed it, we would love if you would
Speaker 1: leave a rating and review on Spotify. If you've read
Speaker 1: our book by What you Love without Going Broke, we
Speaker 1: would also love if you would leave it a rating
Speaker 1: and review on Amazon. That's the place most people go
Speaker 1: to determine if a book is worth reading, even if
Speaker 1: you don't buy it from the platform, which we would
Speaker 1: encourage you to buy it from bookshop dot org. Like
Speaker 1: Jennifer Carney left this Amazon review five stars. An absolute
Speaker 1: gem of a book that's focused on spending. I loved
Speaker 1: this book so it's a breath of fresh air from
Speaker 1: other personal finance books. The focus is not on budgeting
Speaker 1: or baby steps, and instead is on understanding values and
Speaker 1: all the things that trigger spending. If you already have
Speaker 1: your budget, this book is the next step to think
Speaker 1: more about spending habits. It's worth coming back to reread
Speaker 1: and reference Jen and Jill's words. The writing is non judgmental.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest takeaways retail therapy can feel like
Speaker 1: one thing we can control when things are chaotic. Wow,
Speaker 1: that is a good takeaway. I love that that was
Speaker 1: one of your biggest takeaways because we very often think
Speaker 1: of a lack of self discipline with spending as some
Speaker 1: kind of failure or lack of control, when really it
Speaker 1: is a small thing we can control when other bigger
Speaker 1: things are outside of our control.
Speaker 4: So way to go.
Speaker 3: I appreciate how some people look at our book as
Speaker 3: like a great place to start, and other people find
Speaker 3: it to be helpful when they've already begun and kind
Speaker 3: of dig deeper like I, Yeah, it's I do think
Speaker 3: we offer both to people. Wherever you're at, you can
Speaker 3: find something for you. So thanks Jennifer for that, and
Speaker 3: thank you all for listening. If you have not yet
Speaker 3: listened or rated this show, please do that wherever you're listening.
Speaker 3: If you've not yet read the book, feel free to
Speaker 3: do that. Had we would love to hear what stood
Speaker 3: out to you, what your biggest takeaway is, and for
Speaker 3: you to leave a rating and review of the book
Speaker 3: on Amazon. On Goodreads. That'd be so so helpful.
Speaker 1: Yes, by what youlovebook dot com and we will see
Speaker 1: you next time.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So Memorial Day
Speaker 1: is coming up, right? Yeah? It is my kids last
Speaker 1: week of school, well one of them. The other one's
Speaker 1: in daycare and he gets to go through. But two
Speaker 1: and a half more days.
Speaker 3: Until summertime and the living's easy. No, something tells me
Speaker 3: that's not going to be your experience. Yeah, no, all right,
Speaker 3: tell me all of your plans, hopes and dreams for
Speaker 3: you and Kai.
Speaker 1: Fun fun Boy Summer I, Fun Boys Summer I. Okay, coined,
Speaker 1: I am definitely going to go to the gym more
Speaker 1: because I'm going to be out of the office much
Speaker 1: more so. I actually switched gym memberships to one that
Speaker 1: has a daycare, so I'll be able to have Kai
Speaker 1: there and move my body a little bit more, which
Speaker 1: will feel better in this time of like height and
Speaker 1: stress and anxiety for me and getting outside in the mornings.
Speaker 1: Just kind of having an excuse to be lazy and
Speaker 1: not feel.
Speaker 4: Guilty about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So probably clean the house more, do laundry more consistently.
Speaker 3: What if you fall in love with fun boy summer.
Speaker 1: No, I don't force that.
Speaker 3: For the silver linings.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm looking at the silver lining, but I will
Speaker 1: miss the office, and I will look forward to getting
Speaker 1: back to the office. I already have a plan to
Speaker 1: put cut, like to do the YMCA thing the before school.
Speaker 4: I'm going to get him in that next.
Speaker 1: Year doesn't cost a lot, so I could drop him
Speaker 1: off earlier, so I have like a full work day
Speaker 1: instead of.
Speaker 3: Just to get busted from the YMCA to school.
Speaker 1: No, it's at his school.
Speaker 3: Oh, the YMCA posts up at school. Yeah, that's schools.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't have that if at your schools or
Speaker 1: your mom just like was able to take you to
Speaker 1: and from school like a like a regular mom.
Speaker 3: I don't remember my childhood. I don't know. I was
Speaker 3: homeschooled for a year. I went to private school for
Speaker 3: like a year. I went to public school for a year.
Speaker 3: I don't if we're going to remember what happened, all right,
Speaker 3: my mom.
Speaker 1: Had a regular job, so she had to drop me
Speaker 1: off the YMCA in the cafeteria in the morning so
Speaker 1: she could get to work at nine, and then I
Speaker 1: had to go there after school too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think our school. Our school had a program
Speaker 3: in the morning. I don't think it was run by
Speaker 3: the why though, it was just the teachers. Some teachers
Speaker 3: were there early and that was that nice. Yeah, so okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see how fun Boy summer goes well?
Speaker 4: What hold on?
Speaker 3: Though? These are all like what you're going to do?
Speaker 3: What does would Kai have an answer to what he's
Speaker 3: looking for forward to this summer?
Speaker 1: He's looking forward to whatever.
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to laundry working out perfect yet him,
Speaker 3: but that is his answer. Fun Boys summer starts in
Speaker 3: two days. Whoa