Speaker 1: Episode three point fifty nine. Do you need frugality to
Speaker 1: reach Financial Freedom? With Jamiala Sifront.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity and life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 2: and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and.
Speaker 1: Today we are having a really fun conversation with our friend,
Speaker 1: Jamila Suffrant of the Journey to Launch podcast. She just
Speaker 1: wrote a book that releases in just a few days,
Speaker 1: Your Journey to Financial Freedom, a step by step guide
Speaker 1: to achieving wealth and happiness.
Speaker 3: We are so excited for it.
Speaker 1: We're so excited for her, and so we wanted to
Speaker 1: have a conversation that was maybe a little different than
Speaker 1: the conversations she's.
Speaker 3: Going to have on other podcasts promoting the book.
Speaker 1: But just because we've like known her for so long,
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about do you need frugality to
Speaker 1: reach financial freedom? And if so, to what extent? So,
Speaker 1: because we all know that frugality can only go so far.
Speaker 1: Cutting expenses and spending on your like in your values,
Speaker 1: can only go so far, but how far? So that's
Speaker 1: a really fun conversation.
Speaker 4: Yes, we are really aligned in a lot of our thinking.
Speaker 4: But something that I found fun about this conversation is
Speaker 4: some of the different ways that Jamila describes these concepts
Speaker 4: that you and I Jen talk about a lot, but
Speaker 4: fresh perspective, new metaphors we could all use that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and where you can find your radical middle in
Speaker 1: using frugality to reach financial freedom or financial independence. But first,
Speaker 1: this episode is brought to you by Cheesecake Clan. Glynn,
Speaker 1: a subscriber the Friend Letter, told us I just had
Speaker 1: my free Cheesecake Factory slice of Heaven for my birthday
Speaker 1: thanks to your free Cheesecake Day post. That by far
Speaker 1: was the best birthday freebie out there. And you too
Speaker 1: could be getting all these freebies by signing up for
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: We don't just send you like free digital worksheets and
Speaker 1: spreadsheets like all these other people are doing. We're telling
Speaker 1: you where to find free food on your birthday, but
Speaker 1: every single week we tell you where to find it,
Speaker 1: not just on your birthday. So head to Frugal friendspodcast
Speaker 1: dot com sign up if you're already It's free, So
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you if you're already a member? Receiving the
Speaker 1: friend Letter for free. Share your unique link at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the friend Letter, shared in your Slack channel,
Speaker 1: the nearest Microsoft teams, anywhere. There's people in your Instagram
Speaker 1: stories because you can get free frugal friends merch for
Speaker 1: every friend that you have that signs up for the
Speaker 1: friend Letter.
Speaker 3: That's my favorite part.
Speaker 4: Fourth, and you could even get a sweatshirt if you
Speaker 4: refer so many people.
Speaker 1: Yes, but the stickers are cool too. I love the stickers.
Speaker 1: My son loves the stickers. I'm looking at one on
Speaker 1: his dresser right now. So it's December first, and you're
Speaker 1: probably expecting some holiday content. We are going to do
Speaker 1: all of our holiday savings tips. We took an inventory
Speaker 1: of what you guys wanted and we're going to give
Speaker 1: you everything you want in the friend Letter. So that's
Speaker 1: another reason you should sign up for the friend Letter.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about tips for saving on food,
Speaker 1: tips for saving on parties, decor gifts. All of that
Speaker 1: is coming to you in the friend Letter, But we
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you the episodes we've done in the
Speaker 1: past if you wanted some audio content, and those audio
Speaker 1: the podcast will also be in the front letter. But
Speaker 1: we'll just tell you up front because you're listening today.
Speaker 1: So our episode last year two sixty one, let's normalize
Speaker 1: secondhand gifting.
Speaker 3: Love that one. That one's my favorite.
Speaker 1: We got Episode one eighty four Tips to prepare for
Speaker 1: holiday sales Early episode one thirty three Tips for avoiding
Speaker 1: holiday impulse buying, and then all the way in the archives,
Speaker 1: episode thirty three, Frugal Christmas Fun. We talk about free
Speaker 1: holiday activities and frugal traditions that you can look for,
Speaker 1: So queue those up for all your holiday listening.
Speaker 3: Needs, and.
Speaker 1: Please reque up our Black Friday episode if you haven't
Speaker 1: listened to it yet, episode three point fifty seven. Frugality
Speaker 1: is giving big impact energy. Listen to that before you
Speaker 1: do any holiday shopping.
Speaker 4: It's the mindset you need. So Jamila Suffrant is the
Speaker 4: author of Your Journey to Financial Freedom, a step by
Speaker 4: step guide to achieving wealth and happiness, which you can
Speaker 4: pre order now, I believe she said on the pod.
Speaker 4: It launches December fifth, so you're right in the pocket
Speaker 4: and there's a sports reference for you.
Speaker 1: You have a few more days to get the pre
Speaker 1: order freebies, which is why we're putting this episode out
Speaker 1: today and not in three more episodes, because we want
Speaker 1: you to get the freebies.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but act fast. Jamila is also the host of
Speaker 4: the Journey to Launch podcast. She and her husband saved
Speaker 4: one hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars in two years.
Speaker 4: She's also the mother of three young children. She lives
Speaker 4: in Brooklyn, New York. Those are just some fun stats
Speaker 4: about her, but also she's a fun person. She's got
Speaker 4: a lot of really unique, approachable, helpful things to say
Speaker 4: about financial freedom. So let's get to her.
Speaker 1: Jamila, Welcome back to Frugal Friends podcast. Love having you here.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: This is so exciting for us to get together with
Speaker 4: some fellow financial people and talk about some of our
Speaker 4: favorite topics together, including your book.
Speaker 3: Thanks for being here.
Speaker 4: Just to kick us off, Jamila, I am curious to
Speaker 4: hear your perspective on the difference between financial freedom and
Speaker 4: financial independence. And of course, as you answer that question,
Speaker 4: feel free to introduce yourself. We're just diving right in
Speaker 4: for you versus financial independence.
Speaker 5: Let's get straight to it.
Speaker 6: But you know I'm you did the innsru belefore, but
Speaker 6: you know I'm jamila'sufront of the journey to launch podcast
Speaker 6: and now writer author of this book, Your Journey to
Speaker 6: Financial Freedom. And honestly, I know that people tend to
Speaker 6: describe or use the term financial freedom and financial independence interchangeably,
Speaker 6: especially if you're not in the fire movement or the
Speaker 6: financial independence retire early movement, and so for the purposes
Speaker 6: of my content and especially the book, I wanted to
Speaker 6: differentiate what I meant by it. And you know, I
Speaker 6: mean they can be similar, but you know, ultimately, financial
Speaker 6: independence is the ability to not have to work actively
Speaker 6: ever again, because you can live off of your investments
Speaker 6: and your portfolio. And I mean that sounds amazing. It
Speaker 6: sounded amazing to me when I first heard and found
Speaker 6: out about it. And then financial freedom, I believe, is
Speaker 6: something you can achieve on the way to financial independence.
Speaker 6: It's not necessarily tied to a number in your account
Speaker 6: or what you can or can't do, but more about
Speaker 6: flexibility and options. And so you can still be in
Speaker 6: debt and have some level of financial freedom, or still
Speaker 6: working in a job and have financial freedom if you
Speaker 6: can pay your bills, or you can choose to go
Speaker 6: out with friends and family without feeling overwhelmed with that choice,
Speaker 6: or just you have some sort of control over your
Speaker 6: money as much as you feel comfortable. So freedom is
Speaker 6: something you can obtain and have on the pathway to
Speaker 6: financial independence.
Speaker 5: You don't need to wait for a number in the
Speaker 5: account to feel that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that distinction.
Speaker 4: To me, it sounds like it is more accessible to
Speaker 4: people almost at any point, and it doesn't have to
Speaker 4: be tied to an income level or a savings amount,
Speaker 4: but that we could kind of define how it looks
Speaker 4: along the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're definitely like financial freedom people.
Speaker 3: It's this.
Speaker 1: It is truly like the radical middle of like between
Speaker 1: financial independence and kind of yoloing right, Like when we
Speaker 1: start like financial independence sounds great, and then somewhere along
Speaker 1: the line, it's like, why am I working all of
Speaker 1: this time to what about the right now? Right?
Speaker 5: Well, it's funny you say that.
Speaker 6: So in the book, I talk about imagining going and
Speaker 6: walking into a like finance high school, and you see
Speaker 6: all these tables, you know, not like you walk int
Speaker 6: high school. There's all these tables associated with groups. So
Speaker 6: that's the jocks, it's the art club, it's like whatever.
Speaker 6: And so I thought, okay, if you walk into this
Speaker 6: financial and financial high school, they have all these clubs
Speaker 6: and tables, and then there is the regular personal finance table,
Speaker 6: where you know they're talking about like the basics and
Speaker 6: you know, put away maybe ten percent of your income
Speaker 6: and budget and look at your credit score and all
Speaker 6: the great things we should be doing. And there is
Speaker 6: the yellow table. I talk about that, where it's just like,
Speaker 6: screw that, going to live our lives. What are we
Speaker 6: working for, Let's get to it. We'll figure it out after.
Speaker 6: And then there's the elite fire table where they are
Speaker 6: crunching the numbers. They're saving fifty percent or more of
Speaker 6: their income, and.
Speaker 5: It's very appealing.
Speaker 6: So like you walk in and you're kind of interested
Speaker 6: now in getting your finances in order, and like you're
Speaker 6: you're looking at them, you're like, Okay, who can I
Speaker 6: sit with?
Speaker 5: Who do I want to sit with?
Speaker 6: And that's how I felt what I intentionally embarked on
Speaker 6: getting my fireinances in order. It's like I definitely tried
Speaker 6: to sit at the elite fire table and did those
Speaker 6: things for the first couple of years, and they were amazing.
Speaker 6: And I definitely was aware of the general personal finance stuff,
Speaker 6: but I knew I didn't want.
Speaker 5: To do that.
Speaker 6: The basics because the basics would keep me locked into
Speaker 6: like a basic path to retirement if I ever got
Speaker 6: there based on what they thought. And then I didn't
Speaker 6: want to live yolo, but I wanted I wanted some
Speaker 6: parts of that. I still wanted to enjoy my life.
Speaker 6: And so how do you take elements from all of
Speaker 6: that so that you can craft a unique journey? And
Speaker 6: so I believe that's what I've done with my book.
Speaker 6: But I love that you brought that up because I
Speaker 6: do think a lot of people are faced with that,
Speaker 6: or if they're starting to get more aware of finances,
Speaker 6: they come to that decision and have to make a choice.
Speaker 6: I also want to say it's okay to move around
Speaker 6: to different tables. You don't have to choose one and
Speaker 6: sit there forever.
Speaker 4: Yes, what a fun visual I was imagining Jen and
Speaker 4: I just kind of going to every table and getting
Speaker 4: the free samples and cook these and chips offered at
Speaker 4: every table. That's kind of how everybody go to Jill.
Speaker 5: You're friends with everybody.
Speaker 1: That's that really was Jill's reality. She went to every
Speaker 1: table and they actually.
Speaker 3: Did get her chips In Salta.
Speaker 1: Everybody just gave her part of their lunch. Yeah, for
Speaker 1: the rest of us, it was not cost We did
Speaker 1: not go to high school at costco. So all right,
Speaker 1: here's here's a tricky question. Do you have to be
Speaker 1: frugal to reach financial freedom?
Speaker 6: Oh? Okay, It all depends on your desires and what
Speaker 6: you want your lifestyle to be. So if frugality feels good,
Speaker 6: and there are levels to frugality, because you can be
Speaker 6: frugal in all areas, like your overall life and budget
Speaker 6: is frugal, like you just do not spend in anything
Speaker 6: or many areas and that's fine to you. That feels good.
Speaker 6: And if that feels good, then your journey to financial independence.
Speaker 6: Depending on how much you make and all those other factors,
Speaker 6: it's very possible to hit that mark and to hit
Speaker 6: that financial independence number. And if you do not feel
Speaker 6: happy living a frugal lifestyle in all areas of your life,
Speaker 6: or you desire more to spend more in different areas,
Speaker 6: it's not that it's harder or impossible, it just will
Speaker 6: take more effort and income to support your lifestyle desires.
Speaker 5: And so reality is.
Speaker 6: Definitely a superpower in reaching financial independence, especially if you
Speaker 6: have a good income, which I find a lot of
Speaker 6: people in like intentionally in the movement do but doesn't
Speaker 6: make it impossible if you don't. But you don't need
Speaker 6: to be frugal in all areas to reach financial independence
Speaker 6: or get to freedom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so succinctly said, yeah, it can be that superpower,
Speaker 4: but you don't have to be implementing that in order
Speaker 4: to find this financial freedom, which I do think aligns
Speaker 4: a lot with what we talk about as far as
Speaker 4: values based spending, that there are areas that you can
Speaker 4: spend guilt free and other areas where you might just
Speaker 4: say no and it's really no harm to you. It's
Speaker 4: not hard to say no to these things once you
Speaker 4: really realize what's actually important. And like you're saying, how
Speaker 4: you even define financial freedom, Like, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 4: sure it shifted for you along the way, but I'm
Speaker 4: curious kind of what did that look like for you
Speaker 4: kind of through the thick of it, Like to what
Speaker 4: degrees was frugality a part of it?
Speaker 6: So I believe that depending on the stage of the
Speaker 6: journey you're in.
Speaker 5: And I also have I have a lot of frameworks.
Speaker 6: That I hope are helpful to people because they were
Speaker 6: helpful to me in figuring out, and so I have
Speaker 6: five Journeyer levels in which you need to travel to
Speaker 6: to reach financial independence. And then I have something called
Speaker 6: which I know will get into five WUAK levels.
Speaker 5: And that's more tie to how much.
Speaker 6: You want to spend and for me, because when I
Speaker 6: discovered financial independence, I just I did not enjoy what
Speaker 6: I was doing full time. I had an hour and
Speaker 6: a half normal like one way driving commute. I was
Speaker 6: starting to have kids, so I was pregnant with my
Speaker 6: first child. That really prompted me to be like, no,
Speaker 6: this is not going to be it. I have to
Speaker 6: figure something else out. And so with those external circumstances,
Speaker 6: a job that I didn't really love, starting a family,
Speaker 6: a long commute, I was more energized and motivated to
Speaker 6: do whatever it took to get myself out of that situation,
Speaker 6: which meant when I started my journey intentionally to financial independence,
Speaker 6: I was more inclined to cut back in spending so
Speaker 6: that I can leave my job. And so I discovered
Speaker 6: financial independence. So I started listening to the podcast and
Speaker 6: all the blogs or reading the blogs and started to
Speaker 6: plot my journey and I thought, okay, well I don't
Speaker 6: like this job, so I rather cut out things in
Speaker 6: my budget that will allow me to quit this job
Speaker 6: and reach this mark or this number in my account.
Speaker 5: And at that time, I had.
Speaker 6: Declared by forty years old to be able to do that,
Speaker 6: and I was going to do it by any means
Speaker 6: because it meant more to me to be able to
Speaker 6: leave that situation. So in the two years we intentionally
Speaker 6: saved and invested money, we were able to invest in
Speaker 6: save one hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars of our
Speaker 6: income towards all the accounts, and optimize and do all
Speaker 6: the things as I started moving further on my journey,
Speaker 6: I started journey to launch as a blog and podcast
Speaker 6: and got by then now my third child I'm pregnant with,
Speaker 6: and realized, even though this job I'm in is good
Speaker 6: in terms of money, it's still not something I love.
Speaker 5: And now there's even more on my plate. I have
Speaker 5: more kids.
Speaker 6: You know, I have this business that seems to be
Speaker 6: growing and doing well in terms of reach, not necessarily money,
Speaker 6: because it wasn't making money then. And then you know,
Speaker 6: this commute, all these things, and you know, I said
Speaker 6: to myself, what's more important? So should I stay in
Speaker 6: this job because I'm getting the money and just thug
Speaker 6: it out for the next few years so I could
Speaker 6: reach financial independence or do I have a different route.
Speaker 5: And for me, the cutting back our.
Speaker 6: Saving was helpful to get me to a stage in
Speaker 6: which I could quit my job because we had all
Speaker 6: the money saved. Now we had the FU fund together.
Speaker 6: I put myself in a better position. But I also
Speaker 6: realized that that lifestyle for me wasn't as sustainable, Like
Speaker 6: I wasn't as happy cutting back, but it was necessary
Speaker 6: in those first couple of years, in the beginning journey
Speaker 6: or stages for me to do that. And I think
Speaker 6: a lot of people come to that realization And you
Speaker 6: don't know some of these things until you start the journey.
Speaker 6: What feels good, what does it? But you can adjust,
Speaker 6: and for me I did. I adjusted what I thought
Speaker 6: I wanted to spend. I leaned more into spending in
Speaker 6: certain areas, still cut back in certain areas because really
Speaker 6: what was important to me was my lifestyle and how
Speaker 6: I was going to do that with three kids and
Speaker 6: a husband in New York City while still feeling good
Speaker 6: about my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's great to point out that you
Speaker 1: live in New York City, you have three kids, and
Speaker 1: you were the breadwinner, like you were the breadwinner of
Speaker 1: the family.
Speaker 3: And you're cutting back to like leave your job.
Speaker 1: This isn't like like some people who like reach out
Speaker 1: to us to be on the show are like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can't.
Speaker 3: We're like me, hi. There.
Speaker 1: We find out that both of them are making like
Speaker 1: six figure like entrepreneurs and just have these like lifestyles
Speaker 1: that of course they lend themselves to financial independence, no children,
Speaker 1: low cost of living, high income jobs like of course,
Speaker 1: but that's so unrelatable. So like the path that you
Speaker 1: took of of prioritizing different things, sitting at different tables
Speaker 1: in the lunch room at different times in the times
Speaker 1: that made the most sense is is so relatable, and
Speaker 1: that's what's hard to navigate, and you like navigated it
Speaker 1: so well.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it's understanding when to get up from like
Speaker 6: the table, like it's okay, And it doesn't mean like
Speaker 6: I'm not friends with those people anymore. It's just not
Speaker 6: I have another priority or thing to do and people
Speaker 6: that need to get to know or things I need
Speaker 6: to learn, and it's okay to change your mind in that.
Speaker 5: And I always say so I.
Speaker 6: Believe frugality, like income is a big driver of any
Speaker 6: of this. And I'm like you, so I interview a
Speaker 6: lot of people and know a lot of people, and
Speaker 6: even in my story, you know a lot of people
Speaker 6: who are choosing to spend a percent percent of their
Speaker 6: money with a high income. That's a privilege, right, because
Speaker 6: you have people so y'all hear someone say I only
Speaker 6: spend twenty thousand dollars at twenty five innutes, it's like,
Speaker 6: and they're able to reach a lot of their goals
Speaker 6: because they're earning a lot of money. But then you
Speaker 6: have people who are literally like barely earning that and
Speaker 6: have to live that way, and they don't enjoy it, right,
Speaker 6: It's not a choice they would make, which is why
Speaker 6: I feel like like it's someone like me and a
Speaker 6: lot of people when they think of pursuing this, and
Speaker 6: they maybe talk to family and friends, especially like coming
Speaker 6: from people who maybe did not grow up with a
Speaker 6: lot So for example, my mom, she didn't grow up
Speaker 6: with a lot of money. She was for a lot
Speaker 6: of her childhood, didn't have running water. She grew up
Speaker 6: on the island of Jamaica, that's where I was born.
Speaker 6: And so to choose for some people to choose to
Speaker 6: spend less, like when you don't have to, it just
Speaker 6: doesn't seem like it seems like you're hustling backwards, Like
Speaker 6: then why you know come to this country or why
Speaker 6: make the money you make if you only want to
Speaker 6: spend that Because that's how much I was forced to
Speaker 6: spend and I didn't enjoy it. And so I think
Speaker 6: it's a layered level of when we talk about frugality
Speaker 6: that when it's a choice, it's definitely a superpower. It
Speaker 6: feels good, you feel empowered. For some people who don't
Speaker 6: have the choice, it doesn't feel that way. They don't
Speaker 6: want to live that life. They want to spend more.
Speaker 6: They feel you know that they deserve to spend more,
Speaker 6: and I can see that. But I think for some
Speaker 6: people there's a conflict there, especially when they're just getting
Speaker 6: into learning about maybe personal finance, we're cutting back or
Speaker 6: frugality just feels like more of a like why would
Speaker 6: I don't want to do that? Like why did I
Speaker 6: go to school? Why do I work so hard if
Speaker 6: I can't spend in the way that I want.
Speaker 4: You're hitting on so many important pieces and it's making
Speaker 4: me recognize in maybe some new ways my own definition
Speaker 4: of financial freedom and where I feel drawn to. Sometimes
Speaker 4: I can oscillate between let me just reduce my spending
Speaker 4: as much as possible, and then other times and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I want to make money and how much can I
Speaker 4: possibly make? And let me just hustle, And then other
Speaker 4: times I'm doing better at holding the tension there. But ultimately,
Speaker 4: what I'm discovering about myself is I would rather have
Speaker 4: time flexibility, and so I'd like to make a decent
Speaker 4: amount enough. I'd like to identify enough and be able
Speaker 4: to just live a comfortable, simple life within the midst
Speaker 4: of that is how I would define it. Like you said,
Speaker 4: it's not a number, and I so appreciate what you're
Speaker 4: describing too, of it being so important to understand your
Speaker 4: background and money story, in how it's playing into your
Speaker 4: definition of financial freedom. What aspects are life giving to
Speaker 4: you in it, what aspects are depleting, what mindsets need
Speaker 4: to be shifted, and what's good what will just help
Speaker 4: you and can stay there. So the story you've described
Speaker 4: of yourself and your journey is so helpful, and I'm
Speaker 4: curious what you would also say, Jamila to others in
Speaker 4: their own defining of this, like you've found your path
Speaker 4: the financial freedom. What do you see are the different
Speaker 4: types of paths for others in here?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's so as much as a lot
Speaker 6: of what we talk about is external, like doing a
Speaker 6: lot of external work and relying on external circumstances, which
Speaker 6: is it's true, like you know, you know you have
Speaker 6: other people you need.
Speaker 3: To work with.
Speaker 6: You may have a boss, the markets, like you know,
Speaker 6: news cycles, all the craziness happening in the world. Like
Speaker 6: there's so much external things happening that impact our lives.
Speaker 6: But I think there's a lot on as much as
Speaker 6: the journey, it's external, it's internal about like who we are,
Speaker 6: how we feel. You know, what we feel when we
Speaker 6: wake up in the morning. You know whether that is
Speaker 6: feeling safe or happy or not. And that can change
Speaker 6: on a day to day basis. You know, it changes
Speaker 6: for me. Some days I wake up energize, some days
Speaker 6: I'm just like, oh man, you know, Like it's so
Speaker 6: I think understanding who you are is the real journey,
Speaker 6: and that's not easy.
Speaker 5: That's not an easy one.
Speaker 6: Also giving yourself grace and changing your mind because you
Speaker 6: don't know all the things you need to know yet
Speaker 6: to make all the decisions. And so in the like
Speaker 6: in the book, like I say, like you are going
Speaker 6: to chart and like map out what your initial plan
Speaker 6: may look like. But you are going to come back
Speaker 6: to this plan because as you start moving forward, you're
Speaker 6: going to change.
Speaker 5: Your mind about things. And that's okay.
Speaker 6: You know, you got to recalibrate, you got you have
Speaker 6: better you know, you have better information now you know
Speaker 6: more about yourself. So I think understanding who you are
Speaker 6: and starting the journey is important. You don't have to
Speaker 6: have all everything correct or everything right, but then as
Speaker 6: you get more information, you can choose like, wow, you
Speaker 6: know I try to do this thing. I try to
Speaker 6: budget in this way or cut back in this way,
Speaker 6: and it feels good or it feels like a lot
Speaker 6: of friction. Now is that friction that is good friction?
Speaker 6: Because I believe that friction is good. Hard work actually
Speaker 6: is good. You know, I go to the gym, and
Speaker 6: so when I'm pushing myself, there's a point where you're
Speaker 6: pushing yourself too much and it's not healthy, and it's
Speaker 6: a point where you know you're breaking through to another level.
Speaker 6: So understanding that within yourself and which takes awareness and
Speaker 6: time will help you decide like what feels good and
Speaker 6: important to note that because I make mistakes still now too,
Speaker 6: so you know what feels good? What doesn't you know?
Speaker 6: All that I decide on a day to day basis.
Speaker 6: I take the information I have now to make better decisions.
Speaker 6: And that's what people just need to do on the journey.
Speaker 6: And it's going to be different for everyone.
Speaker 4: We don't love hearing that we have to start with
Speaker 4: self knowledge and understanding because that does sound like work.
Speaker 4: But man, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it is lifelong work.
Speaker 1: Like anybody who says they have it, like, oh, I
Speaker 1: have the formula and I've come and come to completion
Speaker 1: and I have reached I've reached mecca.
Speaker 3: I am done.
Speaker 1: Like they're probably dead and you probably yeah, they are
Speaker 1: right if it's not lucky, right, most people like don't
Speaker 1: master anything. Things are not meant to be mastered in life.
Speaker 1: It's just meant to like keep pursuing forward. And so
Speaker 1: it's yeah, like every that's the beauty of like a
Speaker 1: content like podcasting or blogging or videos.
Speaker 3: Is that that? I mean? Books are great. We're also
Speaker 3: writing a book.
Speaker 1: But like the books don't change, but you can always
Speaker 1: change your mind throughout like a content series. And so
Speaker 1: as you grow, like people know and people know why
Speaker 1: you're growing and how you're growing.
Speaker 3: So like I I love that. But yeah, like.
Speaker 1: I've still you know, talk about like not buying fast
Speaker 1: fashion because it's like not it doesn't last as long
Speaker 1: and it ends up, you know, doing costing more money
Speaker 1: in the long run. And like last week I bought
Speaker 1: a shirt from Target and a sweater from Old Navy
Speaker 1: and and some leggings from Walmart. You know, so like
Speaker 1: nobody's perfect and I'm outing myself.
Speaker 3: You are right more than you needed to because you.
Speaker 1: I'm horrible at keeping targets. Yeah I did, and I'm
Speaker 1: here for it. But but yeah, like these are guidelines
Speaker 1: and discovering yourself and and what feels good not just
Speaker 1: a process but also changes like every I would say.
Speaker 1: So when I was in acupuncture school, they really talked
Speaker 1: a lot about like I don't know, moon cycles and
Speaker 1: cycles of yin and yang, and for women it was
Speaker 1: like every seven years is a yin cycle and you
Speaker 1: change like completely every seven years. And I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: I really feel that actually, like now that I'm in
Speaker 1: my thirties. I'm like, I really feel like I have
Speaker 1: fully become a different person every seven years of my life.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so yeah, I don't know that's why true for
Speaker 6: me too.
Speaker 1: Oh it's so it's so hard to like and then
Speaker 1: anticipate reevaluating every seven years and coming up with a
Speaker 1: whole new plan frustrating.
Speaker 3: So moving, sir, Let's say, question, how do you so, Tomia?
Speaker 1: Like how do you like balance what you sit with,
Speaker 1: like what feels good, like what you're frugal in versus
Speaker 1: like what what you're not like?
Speaker 3: What do you really lean into?
Speaker 1: And then how do you decide I'm not going to
Speaker 1: lean into this because it just doesn't feel good anymore.
Speaker 6: So I think what feels natural to me to not
Speaker 6: do where I'm not forcing or doing it for other
Speaker 6: people's gaze or expectations, so for example, and part of
Speaker 6: this is laziness, so you know, you know, laziness gets
Speaker 6: a battery for that, but it's saved me a lot
Speaker 6: of money. I think I'm now coming to a realization
Speaker 6: too about myself.
Speaker 5: You know, I am a lazy.
Speaker 6: I'm lazy in terms I'm lazy in terms of physical
Speaker 6: appearance outside of like I like working out and like
Speaker 6: looking fit, but when it comes to beauty related things,
Speaker 6: I've never been into those things, which has saved me
Speaker 6: a lot of money, like nails, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes like
Speaker 6: I and I love when I end up doing it
Speaker 6: and I look great. But what I learned about myself.
Speaker 6: I even did this thing when I turned my birthday.
Speaker 6: I turned forty earlier this year, and I did what
Speaker 6: I called Operation City Girl, because I was just like, Okay,
Speaker 6: what will it be like if I did all the things,
Speaker 6: especially for my birthday because we're going away on a
Speaker 6: birthday trip, got my hair done, got my like eyelashes,
Speaker 6: you know the individual lashes that take forever to like do.
Speaker 5: I got my nails done. I did like all the things.
Speaker 6: So I was like, Operation City Girl, Let's see about
Speaker 6: like time that it takes to do all this the money,
Speaker 6: the energy, and I did like a whole episode on
Speaker 6: it because it wasn't just the money, Like the money
Speaker 6: was a lot to do, but it was also the
Speaker 6: time it takes to do these things, which again for me,
Speaker 6: it was outside my norm. And when I don't do
Speaker 6: those things, I'm completely happy, Like I if I don't
Speaker 6: have to get my nails done, a go to do
Speaker 6: these things. It makes me feel good. So naturally for
Speaker 6: me being frugal in those areas or cheap or lazy works,
Speaker 6: it doesn't feel like friction. It feels like that's better
Speaker 6: for me. Of course, when I have to go to
Speaker 6: events and do things, I do those things, you know whatever.
Speaker 6: But that's an easy choice. Some other things, like when
Speaker 6: it comes to going out to eat or maybe vacations,
Speaker 6: I don't that feels that feels a little harder.
Speaker 5: It feels like more friction.
Speaker 6: Like I want to be able to eat and go
Speaker 6: out to eat and not think about it too much.
Speaker 6: Like of course, like I'm not just buying everything on
Speaker 6: the menu. I still kind of base things on price
Speaker 6: a bit, if I'm being honest, But I want to
Speaker 6: be able to go and order the guacamole, which is
Speaker 6: why I like talked about like it in guac life styles,
Speaker 6: and so I think when it's natural, like for me
Speaker 6: in terms of beauty stuff, I save hundreds of dollars
Speaker 6: versus someone like my friend, my best friend, she has
Speaker 6: been getting her lash is done, I don't know, for
Speaker 6: years now, and she has to go every three or
Speaker 6: four weeks she spends her money and she feels good.
Speaker 6: That is an investment for her and it's worth every
Speaker 6: dollar and time or minutes it takes.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, no, ma'am that I don't want.
Speaker 3: To do that.
Speaker 6: And so I think, and there's no judgment, like she
Speaker 6: she's fine, like that's what she wants to do. And
Speaker 6: I think it's just realizing, like what that looks like
Speaker 6: for you, what feels natural, what feels good not to
Speaker 6: do and not to get bullied because I have like
Speaker 6: some friends whould be like, you know, like you should
Speaker 6: do more. I'm like, why, Like, I'm fine without doing more,
Speaker 6: like not to be like to influenced by outside people
Speaker 6: or things or expectations. But then also if you do
Speaker 6: like those things and it does make you feel good
Speaker 6: and you show up in the world, you know, not better,
Speaker 6: but you feel like it's authentic to you, then do it.
Speaker 6: But no, there's a trade off. So I think all
Speaker 6: that it's going to be like individual a process and
Speaker 6: being honest with yourself about what that feels like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because it sounds like you like you like it.
Speaker 4: It looks good also to have your nails done, but
Speaker 4: it's also not this high value priority to have it
Speaker 4: all the time. You can be happy with I'm going
Speaker 4: to do it for my birthday, and I'll do it
Speaker 4: for a speaking event, but otherwise this isn't something I
Speaker 4: do all of the time. And I'm also content and
Speaker 4: happy with that too, And like you said, that's going
Speaker 4: to take self knowledge. But I'm curious about this guawk
Speaker 4: lifestyle because any food reference we're all here for, WHOA what.
Speaker 3: Are you talking about? Was this was this guawk lifestyle?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 6: So you will be the first podcast episode. I think
Speaker 6: I officially told this, So you know the name of
Speaker 6: the book is your Journey to Financial Freedom. But one
Speaker 6: of the things that when I went out with a proposal,
Speaker 6: I mentioned the quak lifestyle levels in it, and so
Speaker 6: then I thought of why don't like the name of
Speaker 6: the book could also been by the damn guac But
Speaker 6: then I thought it was too like specific. And then
Speaker 6: when if people don't like guacamole, but I envision like
Speaker 6: a guacamole, like not a guacamole either guacamolely or avocado
Speaker 6: on the cover and being green and all these things.
Speaker 6: Someone don't see my idea because you know, I may
Speaker 6: still do something like that.
Speaker 4: But.
Speaker 6: I wanted to talk about how people feel about how
Speaker 6: they spend and like the lifestyle levels because it varies
Speaker 6: for everyone, and sometimes you like blanket conversations or ideas
Speaker 6: around personal finance. And if a person doesn't want to
Speaker 6: spend or likes to spend in a certain way, how
Speaker 6: do you get it on like a level in which
Speaker 6: it makes it just more relatable and you have a
Speaker 6: base point of what things mean. So the guac lifestyle
Speaker 6: levels are a range of how you want to spend.
Speaker 6: And so guac level one is you're more frugal, you
Speaker 6: don't spend much on anything. You would never buy guacamole
Speaker 6: at the restaurant because you will make it at home.
Speaker 6: You'll figure it out. Guac level five is the highest
Speaker 6: level of expense. You have your own guac fact three
Speaker 6: a guac chef. I don't know you you live a
Speaker 6: higher level lifestyle where you spend a lot more. And
Speaker 6: then there's a range in between that one to five.
Speaker 6: So guac level one, two, three, four and five. And
Speaker 6: if you don't like guacamole, you know, replace it with
Speaker 6: something else you enjoy, wine, cheese, could be anything, and
Speaker 6: that helps you figure out Okay, am I actually living
Speaker 6: the current guac lifestyle I enjoy? And if you are
Speaker 6: and it's at a lower level, then some of the
Speaker 6: things we talk about in finance, like cutting back and
Speaker 6: doing certain things actually excite you, like you're like, that's
Speaker 6: no problem, let's do it. But if you don't enjoy that,
Speaker 6: like you're living at a guac level one or two
Speaker 6: by force. So kind of like what I talked about
Speaker 6: earlier about not wanting to be frugal but having to
Speaker 6: because of circumstance, but you really desire a four or
Speaker 6: five and you actually try to live that way, it
Speaker 6: kind of it will explain why it's so hard for
Speaker 6: you to get out of the journey or stages I
Speaker 6: talked about, like getting out of the earlier levels or
Speaker 6: part of your journey, and so just understanding where you
Speaker 6: are and what your desires are, you're willing to maybe sacrifice.
Speaker 5: So some people who truly like guack style three, four.
Speaker 6: Or five may say, like I did, I'll do one
Speaker 6: and two to get me to this level to allow
Speaker 6: me to quit my job and then I can adjust back.
Speaker 5: To more of a three to four level in which
Speaker 5: I actually enjoy.
Speaker 6: Some people live the one too, and they want to
Speaker 6: do that throughout the journey and when they reach financial independence.
Speaker 6: Some people are living a four or five and can't
Speaker 6: afford really a four or five, and they should like
Speaker 6: hold off on that until they get in a better
Speaker 6: financial situation. So it's just, I hope, a relatable, fun
Speaker 6: way to think about how you spend and what you
Speaker 6: want your lifestyle to look like.
Speaker 1: I love it because it's it's actually like guacamole is fun,
Speaker 1: but it's something that's kind of not tied to your
Speaker 1: motions that if you gave an actual range of this
Speaker 1: is kind of the lifestyle, you can look at it
Speaker 1: like objectively and be like, oh gosh, I am like
Speaker 1: living at four or five and I should probably be
Speaker 1: two three.
Speaker 3: In this season.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily like owning a guacamole factory, but I was thinking,
Speaker 1: like table sidequalk that seems like the ould.
Speaker 5: For me.
Speaker 1: But if I'm trying to get off debt, maybe like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm foregoing table side gualk and you know, getting
Speaker 1: the pre made guak at Trader Joe's like just moving
Speaker 1: back a little bit. You don't have to move all
Speaker 1: the way back to one if you're not ready. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, taking something that's like outside of you know,
Speaker 1: your actual because so often I feel like we we
Speaker 1: say we ask ourselves like why am I doing this?
Speaker 3: Why? Why?
Speaker 1: This? But I think Jill like taught me using questions
Speaker 1: that are not why, but like how is that how
Speaker 1: you phrase it?
Speaker 2: Jill?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: Where? When?
Speaker 6: Why?
Speaker 4: Is a great question in certain circumstances, but when it
Speaker 4: comes to understanding ourselves sometimes it can put us on
Speaker 4: the defense. When we start there, it's much different to
Speaker 4: say why did you just spend so much time shopping
Speaker 4: versus what is it about shopping that you really enjoy?
Speaker 4: Like I'm asking the same thing, but different responses. One
Speaker 4: posture we clam up, we're defensive, the other one we
Speaker 4: become more curious.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I actually love that.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, did you were you here with me
Speaker 6: writing the book because I'm trying to find a part
Speaker 6: in here where I say I actually say, you know,
Speaker 6: we have to ask ourselves better question. So for people
Speaker 6: who are just learning about maybe this movement and what
Speaker 6: they need to do to get there, if you ask
Speaker 6: yourself like the wrong type of question, it could be discouraging,
Speaker 6: like can I reach financial independence? And so like that
Speaker 6: is like usually like a black or white like answer
Speaker 6: like yes or no, But you don't have enough information
Speaker 6: to answer it that way, and so most likely you
Speaker 6: answer it negatively because you don't know what you don't
Speaker 6: know what you don't know yet. Versus how can I
Speaker 6: reach financial independence? Is like a different like requires you
Speaker 6: to become more creative and figure out and be a
Speaker 6: problem solver instead of oh, I can't do anything about it.
Speaker 1: So I love that, And we love solving a problem,
Speaker 1: and we love answering questions in new way, and we
Speaker 1: love asking questions in the same way every week.
Speaker 3: Never changes.
Speaker 4: We usually yell the question, yeah, it's the bill of
Speaker 4: 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 William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 2: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore. That's bill, but flow bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 2: this is the bill of the.
Speaker 3: Week, Jamila.
Speaker 1: Every week we yell at our guests or our listeners
Speaker 1: and ask them what is your bill of the week?
Speaker 3: Not why is your bill of the week?
Speaker 1: But what is your A healthy question, and it builds
Speaker 1: everybody up, and so we would love to know yours.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, So I took my kids to Disney for
Speaker 6: the first time in the summer, and you know, we
Speaker 6: did all the things, and I realized they didn't really
Speaker 6: have a lot of Disney like references they because they
Speaker 6: don't they didn't watch a lot of Disney movies. And
Speaker 6: I was like, wow, Like, so they enjoyed a lot
Speaker 6: of the things, but I'm like, they would have enjoyed
Speaker 6: this so much more if they would have watched a
Speaker 6: lot of the movies or had knowledge. So came back
Speaker 6: home and finally, after putting it off, subscribe to the
Speaker 6: Disney Plus whatever thing they have streaming service so that
Speaker 6: they could start to understand or learn more about, like
Speaker 6: all the Disney stuff when they go again, which we're
Speaker 6: going back next year. And so I'm like excited about that.
Speaker 6: And I had no problem paying for it. You know,
Speaker 6: it was like should I pay monthly or annually? Of course,
Speaker 6: I was like, ooh, I could save money if I
Speaker 6: do it annually, So let me do it that way.
Speaker 6: And so I feel like I'm excited about that bill
Speaker 6: because hopefully now though they will watch it because you know,
Speaker 6: how kids are. I'm like, you're still really going to
Speaker 6: go bad and do rollblocks like I just did Disney
Speaker 6: for you, so we'll see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 1: I So we live like an hour and a half
Speaker 1: from Disney in Saint Pete, and so we're I mean, I, personally,
Speaker 1: I don't want to put this on my family. I
Speaker 1: have been a Disney person since my son was born,
Speaker 1: and so the minute Disney Plus came out, we signed up.
Speaker 1: And I literally just signed up to cancel the subscription
Speaker 1: last because they're we've had it for a really long time.
Speaker 1: We love we love Star Wars, we Marvel, we love
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and so it was a requirement. But
Speaker 1: they're they're spending or they're charging us like forty dollars
Speaker 1: more per year, and it's not like a big jump,
Speaker 1: but usually the jump is like ten dollars per year.
Speaker 3: And we're like, none.
Speaker 1: Of the shows that we want come out for like
Speaker 1: six months, so like, let's skip it for six months,
Speaker 1: We'll do something else, and then once the first show
Speaker 1: we want is fully on, we'll sign up again and
Speaker 1: binge it.
Speaker 3: But I have found that my.
Speaker 1: Son doesn't really he would rather watch like somebody play
Speaker 1: Mario Kart than watch a Disney We tried last night, Jimilate.
Speaker 1: We tried to watch the New Little Mermaid and then
Speaker 1: the Shark came on like five seconds in and he's like, I.
Speaker 3: Don't like it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, well whatever, that's the thing.
Speaker 5: I feel so same thing I have.
Speaker 6: My kids are nine, seven and five and so no,
Speaker 6: they're really into watching people play video games now and
Speaker 6: playing you know, on NBA two K, three K or whatever.
Speaker 6: And I'm just like, so my son, I said to him,
Speaker 6: if I buy this, because he's the main one, my
Speaker 6: oldest one, he wants to watch Star Wars all the movies.
Speaker 6: So I was like, are you going to watch it?
Speaker 6: And I'm like, you know, it's okay because I want
Speaker 6: to watch it. So for me, you know, ultimately, if
Speaker 6: they don't end up watching it as much, I will
Speaker 6: be using that subscription.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the perscription was for me and my husband.
Speaker 4: Well, I think this is a good bill too, because
Speaker 4: you are talking about investing in something so that you
Speaker 4: can make the most of the money you invest on
Speaker 4: your vacation, because you're not necessarily getting the most out
Speaker 4: of it if all of it's being lost and the
Speaker 4: levels of enjoyment. You are buying enjoyment by buying a subscription.
Speaker 4: That's amazing. If you all listening have a bill about
Speaker 4: a subscription you don't mind paying for, or a vacation
Speaker 4: you don't mind paying for, or a bill you don't
Speaker 4: have to pay suddenly because who knows why, you just
Speaker 4: don't owe them money anymore. Or your name is Bill.
Speaker 4: None of these things have happened to you, but you're
Speaker 4: just you are Bill, and you've moved through life with
Speaker 4: that name. Visit gruglfriendspodcast dot com slash Bill. We cannot
Speaker 4: wait to hear from you, especially if your bill. And
Speaker 4: now it's time for.
Speaker 1: The learning round, all right, So this is the vulnerability
Speaker 1: round of the show. And if Disney Plus wasn't vulnar
Speaker 1: Disney Plus cantilely Disney Plus and telling people about my
Speaker 1: three item shopping spree, if that wasn't vulnerable enough, get ready.
Speaker 1: So our question today is what was the first step
Speaker 1: you took that you believe had the most significant impact
Speaker 1: on your journey towards financial freedom? So what did baby
Speaker 1: Jamila do to really baby Jamila?
Speaker 3: Maybe like.
Speaker 1: I'm confused to infant infant me, No, like when you
Speaker 1: what was the most street ryde?
Speaker 3: What are you thinking about?
Speaker 1: Baby?
Speaker 3: Is that what you're thinking?
Speaker 1: I'm thinking like if I said like baby, Jen, it
Speaker 1: would have been me like in my twenties.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, that was helpful. Now I'm glad we like that.
Speaker 5: Okay, I like that.
Speaker 4: You can send all of your hate mail to Jen
Speaker 4: at Frugal Frien's podcast dot com.
Speaker 3: She's also the one who bought from.
Speaker 4: Target, Walmart, Old Navy, so all of it on podcast
Speaker 4: dot com.
Speaker 3: Don't don't act Jill. She has straight hair.
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 3: Really hair?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 6: Okay, So I love this question and I try to
Speaker 6: like make the short this. But so in in the book,
Speaker 6: I also talk about something called hyperlinks. And you know,
Speaker 6: you read an article or a story and ade like
Speaker 6: it's highlighted and you click on it and takes you
Speaker 6: down the rabbit hole and more hyperlinks. And so I
Speaker 6: really do believe our life is a story that it's
Speaker 6: made up a lot of hyperlinks that we choose to
Speaker 6: click on or not. And so when you ask that
Speaker 6: about like what did I maybe do that helped me
Speaker 6: a lot? It's like even when I pinpointed that moment,
Speaker 6: it's like another moment led to that moment. It's like
Speaker 6: kind of reversing back, like reverse engineering the hyperlinks in
Speaker 6: my life, where it's just like so I you know,
Speaker 6: probably the most biggest impact was being able to buy
Speaker 6: my condo at twenty two years old in Dumbo, Brooklyn,
Speaker 6: which I didn't know would blow up to be such
Speaker 6: an amazing, very costly place to live. So that was
Speaker 6: my greatest investment. But in order to be able to
Speaker 6: do that, something else had to happen before that in
Speaker 6: order to do that, And so it's just like there's
Speaker 6: no way to pinpoint because the hyperlinks are all connected.
Speaker 6: And I really do feel like the journey, you know,
Speaker 6: for me at least and for a lot of people,
Speaker 6: is so connected and it's just not one thing. It's
Speaker 6: just like everything compounds, and you know, interest rates compound.
Speaker 6: I believe the moments in our life compound, and you know,
Speaker 6: I had to go all the way back, like it
Speaker 6: really starts from my mom and the sacrifice she made
Speaker 6: when she came here to the State's at twenty years
Speaker 6: old and had to leave me behind to find a
Speaker 6: better life, and so all that I think impacted this
Speaker 6: person you hear today.
Speaker 4: So it does begin with baby Jamila.
Speaker 1: It done, wasn't wrong, that never happens.
Speaker 4: Actually, Wow, that's so beautiful. I resonate with that so much.
Speaker 4: I don't know that I could truly tell you exactly
Speaker 4: what was the first step I took that had the
Speaker 4: most impact, but if I ty trade it down, I
Speaker 4: do think it comes to my thoughts and belief systems,
Speaker 4: and I can't totally tell you what helped me make
Speaker 4: the shift, but probably if I were to take some
Speaker 4: educated guesses, it would be opening up and talking about
Speaker 4: finances with people, being more more willing to have these
Speaker 4: conversations with myself, with my spouse, with trusted community, with
Speaker 4: people who I perceived were a few steps ahead of me.
Speaker 4: That all helped me to believe that I could make
Speaker 4: beneficial decisions and changes in my finances. I mean, many
Speaker 4: of our listeners know that my background is in social work.
Speaker 4: I still hold some work in the social work field
Speaker 4: and have historically not made a ton of money in
Speaker 4: that career, and I think it was recognizing I can
Speaker 4: still work towards paying down my debt, I can still
Speaker 4: make good financial decisions and it doesn't have to mean
Speaker 4: I need to change my career I think beginning to
Speaker 4: believe that really really was a massive help and impact
Speaker 4: on my journey.
Speaker 1: What about you, Jen, So for me, I'll say, I'll
Speaker 1: give two events, but they happened in this span of
Speaker 1: six months. So for me, it was like the path
Speaker 1: that led me down, specifically talking about frugality when there
Speaker 1: are so many more profitable subjects that I could have
Speaker 1: talked about in my life. But the change that did
Speaker 1: it for me was getting shingles. So and that was
Speaker 1: prompted by deciding to pay off our debt when we
Speaker 1: got married. So we made this decision to pay off
Speaker 1: the seventy eight thousand dollars, and I thought I could
Speaker 1: side hustle my way out of it. I was not
Speaker 1: going to choose frugality at all. I was never I
Speaker 1: was not going to live on guac level one. Like,
Speaker 1: I was just going to side hustle my way out
Speaker 1: and make more money and not change my lifestyle. And
Speaker 1: after two months of that, I got shingles from stress
Speaker 1: from like overworking myself. And that's what forced me to
Speaker 1: really inspect like my spending, my ideas about spending, ideas
Speaker 1: about budgeting and deprivation and how budgets are deprivation and
Speaker 1: I still don't love a budget, but it was that
Speaker 1: it was getting shingles that led me down this path
Speaker 1: of like I want everyone to know how freeing frugality
Speaker 1: is and how there are different levels in this radical middle.
Speaker 1: And it didn't start out that way, but it's evolved
Speaker 1: as a direct result of the podcast. That's maybe the
Speaker 1: third event.
Speaker 3: Like that was life changing. So yeah, what's that?
Speaker 4: It was lovely, lovely lightning round. Yeah, I love that, Jamila.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being here with us. You've
Speaker 4: got a lot going on, so if people want more,
Speaker 4: can you tell us about what you've got? Where can
Speaker 4: they find you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you can buy my book, Your Journey to
Speaker 6: Financial Freedom, A step by step guide to achieving wealth
Speaker 6: and happiness. It's available now, I believe depending I mean
Speaker 6: if you can buy it now, but it's officially in
Speaker 6: sour December fifth. You can go to your Journey to
Speaker 6: Financialfreedom dot com see what special bonus I have for
Speaker 6: anyone who's pre ordering order it from anywhere bookshop dot org.
Speaker 6: To support your local bookstores of course, all the other
Speaker 6: online retailers, Amazon, Target, Walmart, your local walking into your
Speaker 6: local bookstores, Barnes and Nobles all those places, and then
Speaker 6: I'm at journey to launch on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Speaker 6: I'm mostly on Instagram. I'm trying to build TikTok, but
Speaker 6: that's been, oh my gosh a lot. So Instagram is
Speaker 6: where you can mostly find me, and I love meeting
Speaker 6: new journeyers. That's what I call people on this journey
Speaker 6: with me and say hello.
Speaker 1: Awesome, thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Speaker 1: It's always it's always fun to hang out with our
Speaker 1: fellow like podcasting friend. We don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: them like that have been around with us, like for
Speaker 1: all six years, but yeah, you're one of them, so
Speaker 1: so is a delight.
Speaker 5: That was great.
Speaker 3: Thanks, Jamila was great.
Speaker 1: I shared a little bit too much, but it just
Speaker 1: felt like a safe space. And I have to remember
Speaker 1: that thousands of other people are going to be in
Speaker 1: this space, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: I still feel safe. It is safe.
Speaker 4: And you know, what I'm learning is we are not
Speaker 4: all things to all people. And the more salacious things
Speaker 4: we say, the more hot takes we have, the more
Speaker 4: frugal fails we partake in, the more we identify our
Speaker 4: truest of true.
Speaker 1: Audience, our real frugal friends exactly.
Speaker 4: Thank you all our truest of true frugal friends. Clearly
Speaker 4: that's what you are if you've made it this far.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening. You already know. We've got a newsletter
Speaker 4: called the Friend Letter that goes out three times a week.
Speaker 4: Each day of the week there's a different theme. So
Speaker 4: Mondays we're telling you what's for free, what food for free,
Speaker 4: activities for free. Wednesdays we're giving you a savings tip.
Speaker 4: Fridays we're talking about life hacks and money mindset shifts.
Speaker 4: So hopefully at least there there's something for everyone. And
Speaker 4: we want to give a shout out to this friend
Speaker 4: who replied to the email, because that's another perk. You
Speaker 4: can just respond to us. We get them, we read them.
Speaker 3: They said.
Speaker 4: This is from Michelle, who said, Hi, Jenna, Jill, I
Speaker 4: hope you ladies are doing well. I've been a listener
Speaker 4: for years and I just wanted to take a minute
Speaker 4: to let you know that the budget Toolkit emails are
Speaker 4: the most helpful thing I think I've ever received from you.
Speaker 4: I'm finally being consistent with actually looking at my spending
Speaker 4: and making a plan for the coming month. Each and
Speaker 4: every month and I seriously feel so emotional about it.
Speaker 4: My husband and I started a little tradition of going
Speaker 4: out for froyo on the last Friday of every month
Speaker 4: after we have our budget party at home to celebrate.
Speaker 4: I feel like you guys are our own personal acountability
Speaker 4: buddies cheering us on. This has been such a huge blessing.
Speaker 4: Thank you, cry face heart Emogi, cry face heart Emogi,
Speaker 4: cry face heart Emogi, and all of that needed to
Speaker 4: be said and described.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, thank you so much. Yeah, jildn't even mentioned.
Speaker 1: The last Friday of every month, we send out a
Speaker 1: budget toolkit, which tells you what goes on sale the
Speaker 1: next month, what produce will be in season, like what
Speaker 1: you should be meal planning, what you should be budgeting for,
Speaker 1: so like helping you make your budget for the next
Speaker 1: month on the last weekend of every month. And people
Speaker 1: have really enjoyed that, and again it's all free.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad that this was helpful for you, Michelle,
Speaker 4: and that it has become this looked forward to tradition.
Speaker 4: It's clearly a way that you're getting your husband involved,
Speaker 4: which it's all just so beautiful. So if you're missing
Speaker 4: out on this this is all sounding really good to you,
Speaker 4: and you want some frugal friendspodcast dot com go get
Speaker 4: you some of these goodies and then tell your friends
Speaker 4: about it and get more goodies.
Speaker 5: See us.
Speaker 3: Gorugal Friends is produced by Eric sirianni oh Jen m Hm.
Speaker 4: I am in my Sourdough season about three years late
Speaker 4: to the game. But I mean there are still people
Speaker 4: like super into sourdough. Sourdough I think transcends, like people
Speaker 4: have always been into sourdough and they still are. Yeah,
Speaker 4: sourdough happened to me. I had girlfriends visit me in September.
Speaker 4: Shout out to Britney Rizzo. She brought me down some
Speaker 4: sourdough starter. She got it past Tsay and made three loaves.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think that they'd have a problem
Speaker 4: with it whatever. She just was concerned that they'd take
Speaker 4: her starter. I'm like, I don't think TSA wants that burden,
Speaker 4: and so she brought it down, made three loaves, then
Speaker 4: left me some starter or discard. I don't know. I
Speaker 4: still can't figure out the difference between the two.
Speaker 3: It's like leaving you a pet. It's like, yeah, puppy.
Speaker 1: It is yeah, I can't let it die. You're responsible
Speaker 1: for that now, uh huh, only worse.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like a tamagachi. It's like more responsibility than
Speaker 4: the pets, than a puppy.
Speaker 3: So it's just been sitting.
Speaker 4: Here for now months and finally I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 4: do something with this, and I did. It took me
Speaker 4: three days for one loaf of bread. And I'm over
Speaker 4: here thinking I better not like this. This better be
Speaker 4: a flop, this better taste horrible because I can't commit
Speaker 4: to this kind of journey. Unfortunately, it turned out so well.
Speaker 3: It was so.
Speaker 4: Christy on the outside, smoogie on the inside, had all
Speaker 4: the holes that you would want in all the right places,
Speaker 4: fit butter perfectly. You know how I am with bread? Here,
Speaker 4: I am how you are with bread.
Speaker 3: Making my own.
Speaker 4: I think that it took three days because I'm new
Speaker 4: to this. I think it can take less than that,
Speaker 4: but still the recipe I'm using at best you're gonna
Speaker 4: have it's gonna take two days. But I am on
Speaker 4: my next loaf. I started my I did my I
Speaker 4: fed my starter yesterday. This is things you don't want
Speaker 4: to know. This is you talking to me about mutual fund.
Speaker 4: So here you're here for it. You're stuck with me.
Speaker 4: Fed my starter yesterday, then this morning. See that's the
Speaker 4: thing to you at a time it right, fed my
Speaker 4: starter at nine pm, woke up, made my bread this morning.
Speaker 4: Had to set my alarm for thirty minutes through on
Speaker 4: three separate occasions to fold, to stretch and fold before
Speaker 4: we started podcast recording, because I know I'm not gonna
Speaker 4: be able to get up and stretch and fold. My
Speaker 4: soured out, so I had to time it all correctly.
Speaker 4: Now it's doing its bulk rise. So by ten pm.
Speaker 1: Bulking, it was cutting, and now it's bulking.
Speaker 4: By ten pm tonight it's gonna be ready to be shaped.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna shape her. Then I'm gonna put her in
Speaker 4: the fridge overnight, and then tomorrow i'll be able to
Speaker 4: I'll be able to bake her, put her in the oven.
Speaker 4: So Tuesday we fed the starter. By Thursday evening we'll
Speaker 4: have a loaf of bread. And you know what, you
Speaker 4: can complain all you want about five dollar loaves of bread.
Speaker 4: And this is why I mean, yeah, I should just
Speaker 4: pay the five dollars. But here I am because I
Speaker 4: got starter or a discard TBD.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean cool.
Speaker 1: I also have to I have similar to a sour
Speaker 1: Dough starter.
Speaker 3: I have children.
Speaker 1: I must feed them, and I don't cut them, but
Speaker 1: I definitely bulk them and have to shape them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You gotta get the time in just right, yep.
Speaker 1: And then eighteen years later you have a fully formed adult.
Speaker 4: Uh huh, and just like sourdough, none of it actually
Speaker 4: saved you money. Nope, I'm I'm at just like qualk
Speaker 4: level five. I think I'm at like Sourdough level twelve
Speaker 4: right now. Yeah?
Speaker 3: Wow, Well, there you have it. Similar, similar life stages