Speaker 1: Episode four sixty eight, How to Get Free Books.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live at your life. Here
Speaker 2: your 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 going to
Speaker 1: let you in on all the secrets on how to
Speaker 1: get free books.
Speaker 3: That's so great.
Speaker 1: You'll only pay for one book for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life after this, maybe two to say, but really
Speaker 1: that's all you'll need.
Speaker 4: And speaking of this episode is brought to you by
Speaker 4: saying thank you. It's just a nice thing to do,
Speaker 4: especially when someone does something really nice for you, like
Speaker 4: give you free money saving content for six point seven
Speaker 4: five years, and especially when those same people tell you
Speaker 4: how to get free books. But how on earth do
Speaker 4: you say thank you for something so generous? You buy
Speaker 4: their book called Buy What You Love without going broke? Yes,
Speaker 4: we are talking about us, yours truly, Chill and Jen,
Speaker 4: and we are being super transparent about all the ways
Speaker 4: you can get free books on this episode, and we
Speaker 4: do hope that you do that, but we also.
Speaker 3: Really hope that you pre order our book.
Speaker 4: It is what helps this thing do well, because pre
Speaker 4: orders are what counts towards identifying whether a book is
Speaker 4: or isn't doing well. Waiting until it's been on the
Speaker 4: shelves for a month, we'll still take it. But if
Speaker 4: you think you want this book, the best time to
Speaker 4: get it is now. It's what communicates to the people
Speaker 4: in the big offices that this is the type of
Speaker 4: content that we all want more of. It doesn't just
Speaker 4: help us, it helps our entire community. It helps other
Speaker 4: content creators who have similar messages to keep talking about
Speaker 4: this version of consumption, this version of mindful spending that
Speaker 4: we really do believe can be life changing, super impactful
Speaker 4: for you and your children and your children's children and
Speaker 4: your children's children's children.
Speaker 1: Buy what you Love book dot com.
Speaker 3: We are nearly on our.
Speaker 1: Knees if Frugal Friends has helped you save twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars in your life. We would be so honored, so
Speaker 1: grateful if you would get Buy what you Love without
Speaker 1: going broke and help us further this mission and help
Speaker 1: other people save twenty five dollars or more.
Speaker 4: Buy what you loovebook dot com, and if you do
Speaker 4: pre order, we're also giving you other little freebe incentives.
Speaker 3: We're doing an all year meal plan live together with
Speaker 3: you December twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're walking you through how to make your own
Speaker 1: one year meal plan and doing it with you.
Speaker 4: Then in January, we're doing a full year spending plan,
Speaker 4: walking you through how to plan out your finances for
Speaker 4: the entire year. That's live with both Jen and I.
Speaker 4: It's also then recorded. So go to buy what youolovebook
Speaker 4: dot com first pre order, then fill out the form
Speaker 4: on that same website and you'll get included into those
Speaker 4: live events.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, so let's not bury the lead. We
Speaker 1: are talking about how to get free books because we
Speaker 1: are trying to sell our book and we want you
Speaker 1: to buy our book and then never have to buy
Speaker 1: any other books again unless you are supporting the mission
Speaker 1: of an author like us. So we love free books.
Speaker 1: It is the primary way that we get our books.
Speaker 1: He because we're minimalists, right, we don't love, we don't
Speaker 1: value as highly the stacks of books and the bookshelves
Speaker 1: like books to grammers on instagrammer TikTok do for those people,
Speaker 1: that's fantastic, and maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: going to buy two copies of buy what you love
Speaker 1: without going broke. Yeah, but we hope that you'll buy
Speaker 1: our book, You'll read it, and if you love it,
Speaker 1: maybe you'll pass it on to a friend if you're
Speaker 1: a minimalist and you don't want to keep it around,
Speaker 1: or maybe you'll refer back to it. Whatever it is
Speaker 1: we want you to recognize, Yes, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of ways to get books for free, but if you
Speaker 1: want more personal finance messages that sound similar to ours
Speaker 1: out in the library and available to other people who
Speaker 1: may not listen to podcasts, then pre ordering our book
Speaker 1: is the way to do it.
Speaker 4: So this first article that we're gonna or there's the
Speaker 4: only article that we're going to go through, comes from
Speaker 4: making Sense of Sense a little play on words, Michelle. Yes,
Speaker 4: and it is titled thirteen ways to get free books
Speaker 4: online and sent to you, And I'm just gonna kick
Speaker 4: it off with this first one.
Speaker 3: We all know it.
Speaker 4: But the library, of course, your local library, you can
Speaker 4: rent out books and that costs you nothing.
Speaker 3: But also if you.
Speaker 4: Don't know, Hoopla and Libby are apps that you can
Speaker 4: connect to your local library through these apps and also
Speaker 4: rent ebooks and audio books through the Hoopla or Libby
Speaker 4: app for Jen and I, we're actually able to use
Speaker 4: both both Hoopla and Libby connect to our local library system,
Speaker 4: but check which one works for you. We are both
Speaker 4: a part of a book club, and this is entirely
Speaker 4: how we read our books. So even though we are
Speaker 4: reading regularly, we're not purchasing every book that we're reading,
Speaker 4: and this is we actually will make our selection based
Speaker 4: on what's available.
Speaker 3: Through Hoopla or Libby. So that's the best kind of
Speaker 3: book club to be a part of.
Speaker 4: But if you're not already a member of your local library,
Speaker 4: there's more more reason than one to do that. But
Speaker 4: certainly forgetting all the books you want.
Speaker 1: And speaking of the library, I should probably check to
Speaker 1: see if this is further down. I don't think it is. No,
Speaker 1: So you can actually if you don't have access to
Speaker 1: Hoopla or Libby at your library, you can get non
Speaker 1: resident card library cards for different states, and so some
Speaker 1: of them are free and some of them just maybe
Speaker 1: cost like fifty to one hundred dollars a year. So Alabama,
Speaker 1: there's Jefferson County that's fifty dollars a year. Anchorage Public
Speaker 1: libraries fifty dollars a year, but you get the first
Speaker 1: three months for free. There's Maricopa County in Arizona, Central Arkansas,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, San Diego, Sunny Vale, Palas Verdes, San Jose,
Speaker 1: so there's a lot and a lot of the ones
Speaker 1: in California are free, but so yeah, you can go.
Speaker 1: There's a Everyday Reading Everyday dash reading dot com has
Speaker 1: a list of all the places where you can get
Speaker 1: non resident library cards, along with how much they cost,
Speaker 1: if anything, and then you can see if they have
Speaker 1: access to Hoopla or Libby or whichever one you're not getting.
Speaker 1: So the next one on here is getting sent to
Speaker 1: your home. I love this one.
Speaker 3: She mcgirrel.
Speaker 1: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Dolly has given free books to
Speaker 1: kids since nineteen ninety five, and this is such a
Speaker 1: popular program if you have kids, this is a fantastic
Speaker 1: thing to sign up for and getting your getting like
Speaker 1: a gift in the mail every month for your kid
Speaker 1: that you didn't have to buy is so so fun.
Speaker 1: It's just like a fun event every single month when
Speaker 1: we we get a book. I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: from Dolly Parton, we do. I think it's just from
Speaker 1: Penelas County schools. But so yeah, check your school. Check
Speaker 1: your schools too. Ours is for atlass So it's like
Speaker 1: for up to until you get into school. They're for
Speaker 1: like early reader, it's for early readers.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They just send it to you and you can keep it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: you keep it. It's a gift.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So check to see what's local in your area
Speaker 1: and if you don't have one, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
Speaker 4: The third that will point out is little free libraries.
Speaker 4: These are popping up everywhere in both urban and suburban areas.
Speaker 3: I mean, even if you live rurally.
Speaker 4: I bet there's somebody out there with a little free
Speaker 4: library at the end of their driveway. It's just people
Speaker 4: in the neighborhood setting up small boxes with books.
Speaker 3: The ideas take a book, leave a book, or just
Speaker 3: take a book.
Speaker 4: When you come across a book you want to leave
Speaker 4: in its place, feel free to do that. I actually
Speaker 4: did this before I had I got called in a
Speaker 4: jury duty. This was over a year ago at this point,
Speaker 4: but I really wanted to. I was anticipating I might
Speaker 4: be here all day and I don't know what their
Speaker 4: deal is going to be with having cell phones on
Speaker 4: and whatnot.
Speaker 3: So I want to take a book, but the.
Speaker 4: Library was closed by the time that I learned that
Speaker 4: I was doing jury duty. I don't know, I don't
Speaker 4: know how it was happening. I just know I couldn't
Speaker 4: get to the library, but I wanted books. So Eric
Speaker 4: and I went on a bike ride, knowing that we've
Speaker 4: seen these little free libraries in our neighborhood. Let's just
Speaker 4: start going up and down the roads we came across
Speaker 4: on like a fifteen minute bike ride. I want to say,
Speaker 4: four little free libraries. So I stopped at all of
Speaker 4: them and found some really great options in these little
Speaker 4: free libraries.
Speaker 3: So that was so so fun.
Speaker 4: So take it, bring it back when you're done, or
Speaker 4: replace it with something else. These are such cool concepts.
Speaker 1: So number four and one that we are getting acquainted
Speaker 1: with is review books. So this is if you are
Speaker 1: beyond the library, if you're beyond getting your non resident
Speaker 1: library cards elsewhere. This is the rest of this episode
Speaker 1: is for you going into review books. This is a
Speaker 1: popular way for avid readers to enjoy new books without
Speaker 1: spending money on them. In return, authors and publishers get
Speaker 1: either honest feedback or reviews on Goodreads, and so this
Speaker 1: is if you prefer like physical books, you can do
Speaker 1: book Rebel. There's net Galley, Online, book Club, read z
Speaker 1: R E d s Y, Kirkus Review. I think the
Speaker 1: biggest one and I don't see this. I think net
Speaker 1: Galley is the biggest one right now. It's the one
Speaker 1: our publisher is using. If you sign up for a
Speaker 1: net Galley account, then you can start getting advanced reader
Speaker 1: copies arcs of books before they're published, and it's just
Speaker 1: and the only exchange that they might want is a
Speaker 1: review or sharing it if you have like a social
Speaker 1: media presence, and you'll figure out what your contribution will
Speaker 1: be as you're signing up for net Galley. But that's
Speaker 1: the one that publishers are really using right now.
Speaker 4: The next one on here is Project Gutenberg. They are
Speaker 4: a great place to find ebooks. So it has over
Speaker 4: seventy thousand books you can download or read online. It
Speaker 4: does say that most of them are going to be
Speaker 4: older works, meaning they're out of copyright, but you can
Speaker 4: choose books in different formats from epub or Kindle. Go
Speaker 4: to the website, pick out what you want, download them
Speaker 4: to your device. But they do have a range of
Speaker 4: genres from novels to nonfiction, classic literature, and you could
Speaker 4: stay updated on their new book. You can subscribe to
Speaker 4: learn when new titles are being added to the collection,
Speaker 4: so you can kind of know what's newly available for
Speaker 4: you to download through Project Gutenberg.
Speaker 1: The next one on here is my absolute favorite. No
Speaker 1: other way, no other way. Ask friends and family. So
Speaker 1: this is either you're putting out a call, like in
Speaker 1: person or on Facebook or Instagram, being like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: looking for a new book. Does anybody want to swap books?
Speaker 1: And this can be a great thing to do when
Speaker 1: you finish reading by what you love without going broke,
Speaker 1: being like I just read this amazing book and I'm
Speaker 1: ready for a new one. Does anybody want to swap books?
Speaker 1: Because we all have books that we own that we
Speaker 1: want to own, but we also feel bad that they're
Speaker 1: just sitting there. But also we kind of don't want
Speaker 1: to just like hand them out because we don't know
Speaker 1: we'll get them back right.
Speaker 4: Right, But with a swap, yeah, then you've got some collateral.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, So this is fantastic to do before any holiday,
Speaker 1: Like any time you think about it, It's just a
Speaker 1: fantastic way to figure out what your friends and family
Speaker 1: are reading, connect with them. If they loved the book,
Speaker 1: then you'll probably love the book, and then you'll have
Speaker 1: something to talk about. I've done this with many smutty
Speaker 1: books this year and last, so I know.
Speaker 4: Well we've probably mentioned this on another episode too, but
Speaker 4: this could also just make a good Christmas gift.
Speaker 3: If you do have a book.
Speaker 4: That you no longer that you own, but you know
Speaker 4: you're not going to read it again, you're fine with
Speaker 4: parting with it. You know some friend or family member
Speaker 4: would be interested in reading it. There you go, just
Speaker 4: give it as a gift free, not only free. You know,
Speaker 4: it's not just about receiving free books, it's about giving
Speaker 4: free books too. The next one on this list is
Speaker 4: openlibrary dot org, so you can find a lot of
Speaker 4: more free books on open library. It's like a digital
Speaker 4: library where you can read and borrow books online, and
Speaker 4: they've got millions available. They also come in multiple languages.
Speaker 4: I'm going to assume that most people here are primary
Speaker 4: English speakers if you're listening to us, but if you
Speaker 4: speak other languages, where you know people who speak other languages,
Speaker 4: this is a really great resource so you can search
Speaker 4: for books in your preferred language. Just simply type that
Speaker 4: language into the search bar look through their categories. But
Speaker 4: that's another website you can get free books from.
Speaker 1: Next is your buy nothing groups. Sure, and this could
Speaker 1: be a fun thread to start in your buy nothing
Speaker 1: group saying like, you don't have to do a full
Speaker 1: book haul, but being like, I have these books, does
Speaker 1: somebody want to trade or just have them? And in
Speaker 1: the thread be like, Hey, if you have a few
Speaker 1: books that you're looking to gift, then post them in
Speaker 1: this thread. Let's start a book thread for the next week.
Speaker 1: So buy nothing groups are great for that. These like
Speaker 1: these threads, these short term threads that are fun and
Speaker 1: you can have people post something like the funniest meme
Speaker 1: gets you know, the most popular book or whatever. But
Speaker 1: I love this idea for buy nothing groups because maybe
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of like maybe you have
Speaker 1: a lot of fiction readers in your friend group, but
Speaker 1: not a lot of nonfiction, and so you can start
Speaker 1: like a nonfiction book thread in your buy nothing group
Speaker 1: or vice versa. So this could be a really fun
Speaker 1: way to discover new books in a place that's already
Speaker 1: primed for gifting.
Speaker 4: The next one on here is book bub deals. So
Speaker 4: like book bub deals, this one isn't exclusively free books,
Speaker 4: but they will tell you about free and inexpensive books
Speaker 4: that you can save money on purchasing through Kindle, Nook,
Speaker 4: other places that you might be reading digital copies of books.
Speaker 4: So you would sign up for their free website, put
Speaker 4: you mail.
Speaker 1: They have a newsletter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they say sign up for free on the book
Speaker 4: bub website, but yes, yes to receive an email, and
Speaker 4: you would tell them exactly what types of books you like,
Speaker 4: what kind you want to read, and they will email
Speaker 4: you regularly with deals that are happening, maybe on the
Speaker 4: genres that you're interested in, either free or the steep discounts.
Speaker 4: They themselves do not sell books directly, but they'll show
Speaker 4: you where the deals are happening, whether it be through
Speaker 4: Barnes and Noble or Amazon or other.
Speaker 3: Book websites like that.
Speaker 4: So that would be maybe second level if you've kind
Speaker 4: of exhausted these other free options, to utilize BookBub because
Speaker 4: it's not necessarily always going to be entirely free, and
Speaker 4: you don't always want emails daily telling you to spend money,
Speaker 4: so proceed with caution and knowledge of yourself. But that's
Speaker 4: another resource you could look into.
Speaker 1: Well, I used BookBub when I was self publishing. So
Speaker 1: a strategy that a lot of self published authors will
Speaker 1: use is at least when they're going exclusive to Amazon,
Speaker 1: is the first couple days the ebook will be free.
Speaker 1: And so to get the word out about those free
Speaker 1: books or that free book, you take out an ad
Speaker 1: on BookBub or Free book c freebooks dot com, I believe,
Speaker 1: and those are how you get people to find out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Free books cy isn't even on this list.
Speaker 1: But freebook c dot com is free ebooks in a
Speaker 1: lot of different genres. And again you go to freebooks
Speaker 1: dot com, enter your email and subscribe and they'll send
Speaker 1: you every day. It's a lot of self published and
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fiction versus nonfiction. So both book
Speaker 1: Bub and Free books c will be more of your romance, horror, mystery,
Speaker 1: science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction. There is some nonfiction self
Speaker 1: help how to stuff, and you can actually tell them
Speaker 1: what you're more interested, if it's one and the other
Speaker 1: or both. But yeah, you're just gonna get because there
Speaker 1: are so many more fiction books being self published, you're
Speaker 1: going to get more of those in these newsletters. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you will find free kindle books on both BookBub and
Speaker 1: free Books. Next is the Overdrive app. So this is
Speaker 1: similar to Hooplah and Libby. This is I was actually
Speaker 1: using Overdrive before Libby and Hooplah were I don't know
Speaker 1: if they were a thing or before they were popular rise,
Speaker 1: but it's similar, so it's the same thing if you
Speaker 1: love reading. The Overdrive app has got ebooks, audiobooks, magazines,
Speaker 1: and it's all connected with your local library. So again
Speaker 1: you'll need to connect your local library card to Overdrive,
Speaker 1: and then if your library card does not use Overdrive,
Speaker 1: look into that list of I mean, there's a ton
Speaker 1: of them around the country of the non read library
Speaker 1: cards that you can get to see if they are
Speaker 1: connected to Overdrive, Libby, or Hooplah.
Speaker 3: This next one is really interesting.
Speaker 4: It's called book crossing and in the article they describe
Speaker 4: it as the practice of leaving a book in a
Speaker 4: public place to be picked up and read by others
Speaker 4: who then do likewise. So it's like a global library
Speaker 4: where you can find, share and track books. So definitely
Speaker 4: maybe similar to your community libraries. It's a fun, community
Speaker 4: driven way to share books, discover new ones without spending
Speaker 4: anything and kind of has that treasure hunt element to it,
Speaker 4: a little bit of geo caching going on. So again,
Speaker 4: that one's called book crossing and not only gets you
Speaker 4: some free books, but kind of connects you, gets you outside.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not like littering. You go to bookcrossing
Speaker 1: dot com and you download labels and then you print
Speaker 1: them and put them in the book, so the person
Speaker 1: knows this is a geocash kind of, this is a
Speaker 1: book geocash.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's got to be the first one to
Speaker 4: get to it. Yeah, we should do that with ours.
Speaker 4: Ooh oh what Okay, Okay, And it's not littering.
Speaker 3: It's not not littering.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, don't just leave a book without a geocash
Speaker 1: thing in it, all right. Next is the Amazon Kindle Store.
Speaker 1: So what I was saying with free books and BookBub,
Speaker 1: where self published authors will offer their books free for
Speaker 1: a couple of days, obviously, the most of those are
Speaker 1: going to be on the actual Amazon Kindle Store. And
Speaker 1: the reason that I want to like point this one
Speaker 1: out specifically on the list is because so many times
Speaker 1: Amazon wants you to purchase a subscription to Kindle Unlimited,
Speaker 1: and so it will take you you are you will
Speaker 1: be on a book and it will say like zero
Speaker 1: dollars now, right, There's a difference between buy now with
Speaker 1: one click for zero dollars or trying a Kindle unlimited
Speaker 1: deal for however many days, So when you are going
Speaker 1: and it's and they make it really confusing on purpose.
Speaker 1: I remember when I put my own books up for
Speaker 1: free on Kindle, I was confused on like it was free,
Speaker 1: and they still wanted me to get a subscription to
Speaker 1: these things. So I'm trying to find one so that
Speaker 1: I so when it's actually free, will say by now
Speaker 1: with one click, and it will the Kindle price will
Speaker 1: be zero dollars and it will be saved so much money,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. And when it is not, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to figure out the exact verbiage. Carry on, Jill, Well, I.
Speaker 4: Just want to add on some of my own things
Speaker 4: that were not listed in this article of other ways
Speaker 4: to get free books. So one one additional way could
Speaker 4: be entering book giveaways. This is a little bit more
Speaker 4: right place, right time kind of situation. But be following authors,
Speaker 4: following content creators, the people who are writing books. They
Speaker 4: will eventually do book giveaways, or even the guests on
Speaker 4: podcasts like I Know Haley and Justin from Price of
Speaker 4: Avocado Toast podcast had us on and they are doing
Speaker 4: a book giveaway. Five of our books they're giving away,
Speaker 4: So things like that happen, right, Yeah, go listen to them,
Speaker 4: get our book for free, but also pre order it
Speaker 4: please thank you. So as you're kind of engaging with
Speaker 4: content and the people that you love and trust, you
Speaker 4: might also find yourself able to enter some of these giveaways.
Speaker 4: You can request Galley's. So if you see that there's
Speaker 4: somebody that you really enjoy listening to reading from and
Speaker 4: this author is putting out another book, reaching out to
Speaker 4: them either through email or DM and saying that you
Speaker 4: are willing to give them a review on their publishing
Speaker 4: date in return for an advanced reader copy. They call
Speaker 4: it an ARC for short.
Speaker 3: Arc A lot of time.
Speaker 4: I mean, if someone want to reach out to us
Speaker 4: and say that yees yees. Actually we did do that
Speaker 4: for our Street Team. Street Team applications are closed at
Speaker 4: this point, wah wah, But yeah, the people who are
Speaker 4: going to be giving us reviews did get an advanced
Speaker 4: reader copy and from there just utilizing the internet for
Speaker 4: even short stories and poems. If you're just a reader
Speaker 4: who loves to read and you love to engage in
Speaker 4: kind of even small snippets. They don't even have to
Speaker 4: be full books. There's so many places that you can
Speaker 4: also find some of these shorter literature pieces. Of course,
Speaker 4: Project Gutenberg that we already mentioned, the Library of Short Stories,
Speaker 4: Poetry Foundation, certainly magazines that you can get from the library.
Speaker 4: So those are just some other ways to digest some
Speaker 4: other types of literature.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so it looks like they did correct the
Speaker 1: verbiage used on the free butts, so they aren't so
Speaker 1: much trying to trick you anymore to get that kindle
Speaker 1: unlimited subscription.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm glad that that's changed. And don't count
Speaker 1: self published books on Amazon, Like I'm looking at one
Speaker 1: right now that is free right now, and it is
Speaker 1: a Wall Street or a USA Today bestseller, so it's
Speaker 1: you know there, Yeah, there's just because it's free, it's
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean it is a poor quality. So definitely
Speaker 1: take advantage of all of these ways to get free books.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I personally love audio books on Hoopla and Libby.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite way to get free books.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Usually Audible has a thirty day free trial that you
Speaker 4: could take advantage of. There's also another website called archive
Speaker 4: dot org. So if you've never looked at our show
Speaker 4: notes before, yeah, this is a time to look at it.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this right now and you want
Speaker 1: to listen to our book, the audio version, you can
Speaker 1: get your thirty day free trial of Audible and use
Speaker 1: that free credit for our book. WHOA, Yeah, you can't
Speaker 1: because it's within like a month of publishing, so it'll
Speaker 1: just you'll get it on January seventh.
Speaker 3: Oh that's exciting. So yeah, and.
Speaker 1: If you want to help us out at no cost
Speaker 1: to you, Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash audible and.
Speaker 3: That's where you'd be away. Yeah. Oh that's smart, so smart.
Speaker 4: You know what else is smart and fun and exciting
Speaker 4: and welcoming and free.
Speaker 1: The Billa 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 paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
Speaker 2: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore.
Speaker 3: That's bill Loo Bills, Bill clear This is the bill
Speaker 3: of the week.
Speaker 5: Hey, Jen and Jill, this is Vilain. I'm calling you
Speaker 5: from Paris, where the Olympics frenzy is in full speed.
Speaker 5: My bill of the week is actually not a bill.
Speaker 5: It's some money I did not expect I would get.
Speaker 5: It's it's basically a bonus that my company was supposed
Speaker 5: to give us, but they gave us the gross amount,
Speaker 5: and I substracted more than I should from the gross
Speaker 5: amount to make up the net amount, and it's a
Speaker 5: lot more than what I thought. So I'm really excited.
Speaker 5: And now what I need to do is to not
Speaker 5: spurge on some Olympics tickets because those are expensive you
Speaker 5: don't see as well as on TV. And it's obviously
Speaker 5: very tempting because I have this full amount of money
Speaker 5: that I did not expect to get. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: going to try to do that otherwise. I have to say, Jen,
Speaker 5: your Olympics party sounded really, really fun. It was obviously
Speaker 5: very fun to be here too, although it rained the
Speaker 5: whole time. But we are all very excited and very
Speaker 5: proud and very excited to have all these American American
Speaker 5: people running around the city. And people are just so
Speaker 5: happy to be here. It's really really cool. So yeah,
Speaker 5: kisses from Paris Bizou.
Speaker 4: Oh my, yeah, we are the crazy Americans.
Speaker 3: It's running around our podcast studio right now. So excited
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. I am honored that you would think
Speaker 1: that my party would be even slightly as fun as
Speaker 1: what happened in Paris. And yeah, it was a good party.
Speaker 1: It was a good party, and it did not rain
Speaker 1: inside my house, and I did feel a little bad,
Speaker 1: but it was still so what I mean, Selene deyond
Speaker 1: can go? Can you even? No, Ken, you can't, you
Speaker 1: can't even.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that you were there.
Speaker 4: I heard so many people left the city in preparation
Speaker 4: for all the crazy Americans and others running around, But
Speaker 4: I'm so thrilled that you were there, got to partake
Speaker 4: in the energy of it. And congratulations on this unexpected
Speaker 4: bonus that you received, and how it's not only unexpected,
Speaker 4: but more than what you thought, even the take home amount.
Speaker 4: And I'm with you about the not being tempted to
Speaker 4: just spend it on who knows what, because it's money
Speaker 4: that you.
Speaker 3: Didn't even think you were going to get. I'd be
Speaker 3: so curious.
Speaker 4: To know what you did spend it on. I mean,
Speaker 4: whether you want to just email us, send us a DM,
Speaker 4: call in another bill.
Speaker 3: We're here for it.
Speaker 4: If you want to update us on how you ended
Speaker 4: up spending that bonus, I'm so curious, but thank you
Speaker 4: so much for leaving us such a kind Bill of
Speaker 4: the week. If you all are listening and you have
Speaker 4: a bill that you want to share, if it's about
Speaker 4: trying to figure out what to do with unexpected bills,
Speaker 4: or what you have done with unexpected bills, or you
Speaker 4: are a bill who someone didn't expect.
Speaker 3: Rugal friendspodcast dot com slash bill. We can't wait for it.
Speaker 3: And now it's time for the lightning round.
Speaker 1: Favorite book that you got for free. So my favorite,
Speaker 1: I think is The Nightingale by christ and Hannah. It
Speaker 1: is one of my top favorite favorite books and got
Speaker 1: it from the library and I love it so much.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have yet to read that one. I'm currently
Speaker 4: reading Four Winds.
Speaker 1: I mean, Christian all around. You cannot go wrong with
Speaker 1: any of her books.
Speaker 4: After reading Oh, what was the first one about the
Speaker 4: Vietnam War?
Speaker 3: The Women, The Women, Yeah.
Speaker 4: That one shook me hill because Jen was like, oh,
Speaker 4: if you don't cry at this your psychopath.
Speaker 3: And I was like, that's an extreme statement.
Speaker 4: I don't know what I hope happens to me, but
Speaker 4: I do know I'm going to be ostracized if I
Speaker 4: don't cry. But I'm like, I don't think I'm going
Speaker 4: to cry, Like I don't. I don't cry at movies,
Speaker 4: I don't cry at books. I do have a heart,
Speaker 4: but I just don't cry that often. I know this
Speaker 4: about Jill, and so I read it, put it down,
Speaker 4: was like, wow, that was the end.
Speaker 3: What a journey didn't cry?
Speaker 4: I was like, oh boy, What's I'm gonna have to
Speaker 4: say about this one? Four hours later, though, after having
Speaker 4: finished the book, I am full out sobbing. Eric comes
Speaker 4: into I don't know, the office, the kitchen, wherever, wherever
Speaker 4: I was, and he's like, what wrong? And I was
Speaker 4: citing all these other reasons, and there were other things.
Speaker 4: There were other like cumulative pieces that like were making
Speaker 4: me maybe a little sad, but none of it cry worthy,
Speaker 4: None of it would. I I'm just like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: it's just I don't know why I'm crying. And then
Speaker 4: thirty minutes after that, I was like, actually, I think
Speaker 4: I'm crying because of the book that I finished today.
Speaker 4: He's like, so, yeah, I think the book did make
Speaker 4: me cry.
Speaker 3: It was just like a delayed effect. But then what
Speaker 3: I wanted to.
Speaker 4: Do was I immediately downloaded The Nightingale. After that, it's like,
Speaker 4: what do I do from here? It's like a book,
Speaker 4: and I felt like I just needed to jump into
Speaker 4: the next thing. And then I had to pause because
Speaker 4: I'm like, this is a very extreme reaction. This cost
Speaker 4: my emotions and my mental state a lot. I loved it,
Speaker 4: I just.
Speaker 3: Don't know if I can do this again to myself.
Speaker 3: So I did. I went.
Speaker 4: I went to something much more lighthearted. But now I'm back.
Speaker 4: I'm back in it. I'm reading a Kristen Hannah book.
Speaker 4: Are really yeah, and we're just preparing ourselves. Okay, we're
Speaker 4: just gonna be ready for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah you can't. I mean, you can't go wrong with
Speaker 1: Kristin Hannah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, I don't know about my favorite all time book
Speaker 4: that I got for free, so I'm just gonna focus
Speaker 4: on this year. I enjoyed Transcendent Kingdom by Yaka Yasi.
Speaker 4: It was just a really cathartic book to me.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed it. Of course, I got it for free.
Speaker 4: It was a book club book that we read, and
Speaker 4: I just get them all through Hoopla our Libby. But
Speaker 4: all the children's books that I have, i've inherited from
Speaker 4: my own childhood, or my mom has gotten them for me,
Speaker 4: or a friend has gotten them for me because they
Speaker 4: know that I just like children's books. I meanwhile, I
Speaker 4: am not the one with children, but I do have
Speaker 4: a good amount of children come visit, so that helps
Speaker 4: to have some toys and books on hand.
Speaker 3: But my favorite children's.
Speaker 4: Book I think at this like today, if you're gonna
Speaker 4: ask me to day, is this one that my mom
Speaker 4: gave me called if You Find a Rock, And.
Speaker 3: I just think it's so fun. Oh that's fun. I've
Speaker 3: never heard of that one. I don't think it's popular.
Speaker 4: I think it's potentially written just by a children's author
Speaker 4: in the area that I grew up in. And there's
Speaker 4: no there's not necessarily some this is going to teach
Speaker 4: you to be a better person kind of book. It's
Speaker 4: just a sweet, cathartic like about all the different types
Speaker 4: of rocks you can find. I think one of the
Speaker 4: reasons I love it is because I was a child
Speaker 4: of the woods who did enjoy?
Speaker 3: Who did enjoy?
Speaker 4: Like making soups and stews out of grass and collecting
Speaker 4: rocks in the suburbs.
Speaker 3: Skipping rocks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I had woods on the property and that's
Speaker 4: where I would go into the woods and do my
Speaker 4: thing with my rocks.
Speaker 3: I love to climb on rocks. I love to skip rocks.
Speaker 4: So for me, I'm like, I get I get this
Speaker 4: book because I love.
Speaker 3: All the use of it. And then you also realize
Speaker 3: there's so much you can do with rocks. How cool
Speaker 3: is that?
Speaker 4: Okay, let's move on, let's you move out of this
Speaker 4: please too much vulnerability, rain and in.
Speaker 1: That's so fun. Yeah. But we get a lot of
Speaker 1: children's books, and we get them mostly from the library.
Speaker 1: Either we inherit a lot of children's books too. I think,
Speaker 1: like mom, friends, passing on books is a kindness. That's
Speaker 1: what I every birthday part I And here's a hack
Speaker 1: mom's I don't buy things for birthday parties for my kids' friends.
Speaker 1: I pick a book from the bookshelf. It either gets
Speaker 1: wrapped or goes in a bag, and that is the gift.
Speaker 1: It is a regifted book every single time.
Speaker 3: And it's on brand now it's just your thing.
Speaker 1: That's my thing. I don't know if I'm known for it.
Speaker 1: I hope I'm not known for.
Speaker 4: It, but are now I'm talking about a publicly Yeah, lead,
Speaker 4: you're a one issue voter. It's you're a one gift
Speaker 4: I know, support local libraries and.
Speaker 1: Give used books as gifts and that's my platform. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening. We hope that if
Speaker 1: you are a book lover, if you want to read
Speaker 1: more books in twenty twenty five, if you want your
Speaker 1: children to read more books in twenty twenty five, that
Speaker 1: you found this helpful, and I truly, truly hope that
Speaker 1: you will join us on our mission to make personal
Speaker 1: finance education more equitable and more inclusive. And that comes
Speaker 1: by purchasing books from people who do not all look
Speaker 1: the same who write all the personal finance books. So
Speaker 1: you have a great opportunity to do that this year
Speaker 1: with buy what you love without going broke, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just hope that you will will feel as passionate
Speaker 1: about the mission as we do and bringing more empathy
Speaker 1: to this traditionally callous subject. So wow, And if you've
Speaker 1: already pre ordered the book and you want to leave
Speaker 1: a kind review, about the podcast. While you're waiting to
Speaker 1: leave a review about the book, take a cue from
Speaker 1: kol A Lemmi, who says, amazing five stars. I've been
Speaker 1: listening to these ladies for the last few years, and
Speaker 1: I think I've heard them all. Jen Andjel are realistic
Speaker 1: about their money ideas and advice. I have been able
Speaker 1: to up my budgeting game the more I listen, but
Speaker 1: also give myself grace when I slip. Books and plants
Speaker 1: are my weakness. We're here for your calling time. Thank you,
Speaker 1: ladies for always giving us such good advice and making
Speaker 1: it real.
Speaker 4: Ooh, so this is a great episode for Collie Lemmy.
Speaker 4: I hope you're here and I hope you're hearing us
Speaker 4: call you out. Thank you so much for such a
Speaker 4: lovely review that will hopefully help other people know if
Speaker 4: this is a good fit for them. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: if you've not left a review, please do that.
Speaker 3: We would be so grateful. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: Book are you currently reading, Jennifer?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm in between books right now.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, how does that feel like you're just out
Speaker 4: in the water, no anchor, I know, I read I
Speaker 4: listened to all my books, and then I was waiting
Speaker 4: for some books, and.
Speaker 1: So right now I have let's see, I have a
Speaker 1: couple borrowed. I just finished up The Entire Suite of
Speaker 1: Emily Henry rom Comms, and I have The Invisible Life
Speaker 1: of Addie LaRue. And I have The Midnight Library by
Speaker 1: Matt Haig.
Speaker 3: So that one keeps coming up for me.
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I'm borrowed.
Speaker 4: Interesting, I'm the curious. Well, you should be reading our
Speaker 4: book club book. You shouldn't be in between book.
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: What is the book the Berry Pickers?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Okay, mm hmm, yeah, right.
Speaker 3: So that's that's what we're both reading right now.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 3: How's Berry Pickers?
Speaker 4: It's okay, I would say I'm about halfway through. Uh,
Speaker 4: I'll be interested to see how it keeps going from here.
Speaker 4: I feel like they're about to wrap up. It feels
Speaker 4: very much like you're to get this story. I think
Speaker 4: one more chapter I'll do it.
Speaker 3: So how many characters?
Speaker 4: I mean I have?
Speaker 3: I'm and listening to it, so there's got to be
Speaker 3: at least fifty percent more left to go. So I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 4: It feels like okay, So if Emily Henry feels like
Speaker 4: you're watching a Hallmark movie.
Speaker 3: This one feels like you're watching a Lifetime movie.
Speaker 1: Oh m hm, so I you got to be in
Speaker 1: the mood for I don't think Emily Henry is a
Speaker 1: Hallmark movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess that's true. She's like a close though.
Speaker 1: She's like a big screen rom com.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, either way, this one feels like you're watching a
Speaker 4: Lifetime Okay, okay, we have more time though that We.
Speaker 1: Got to keep fielding questions. Can I can I take
Speaker 1: a call from my husband?
Speaker 4: Yes, we've never done this before. We're taking a caller seven.
Speaker 4: Oh no, let's hope he wants to say something that
Speaker 4: we're willing to air. I'm I'm not going to air him,
Speaker 4: only your side of things. This is a very fun
Speaker 4: experiment that's making me a little bit nervous, a little
Speaker 4: bit sweaty. We are in our unhinged era. Though she's
Speaker 4: trying to call him now I'm doing play by play.
Speaker 4: She's trying to call him back, and he's not answering,
Speaker 4: even though he has called multiple times. Oh, he just
Speaker 4: tried face timing.
Speaker 1: I think it's because I think there's a problem.
Speaker 4: And if you're still staying for this part of the episode.
Speaker 4: You you are the real deal and you probably should
Speaker 4: be pre ordering our book. You can also take this
Speaker 4: time to pre order our book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're recording an episode.
Speaker 3: You're our special guest.
Speaker 1: You're our special guest.
Speaker 3: Just and I feel like I should fill some space now. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know what his update is about, but okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know how riveting it is.
Speaker 1: Okay, love you bye.
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, he's updated us, checking up on me. Oh wow, Yeah,
Speaker 3: just concerned that the call wasn't going through.
Speaker 1: There's something going on with his phone. Yeah, okay, so
Speaker 1: he's fine. Now he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 5: Are we are?
Speaker 3: We? And we're not yet? We about five seconds away.
Speaker 1: This is funny playing fun fun game.
Speaker 5: That we.
Speaker 4: We're gonna record another episode after this. Hopefully we can
Speaker 4: meet our time requirement on that one.
Speaker 1: We usually have no problem meeting our time requirement.
Speaker 4: We just are able to rattle off these book tips
Speaker 4: so fast that what what more? What more do you
Speaker 4: have to say about it other than buy what you
Speaker 4: loovebook dot com