Speaker 1: Episode two seventy two, Managing Money The Lazy Genius Way
Speaker 1: with Kendra A. Dachi. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast,
Speaker 1: where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity right, and
Speaker 1: liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: M m m m m m. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill,
Speaker 1: and Happy New Year. Our first episode of the New Year,
Speaker 1: New you still in podcast, yes, but if you're joining
Speaker 1: us for the first time, welcome. You are starting with
Speaker 1: a bang. Super excited for this one. This one claps
Speaker 1: or slaps. I don't know what's the expect us to
Speaker 1: know the sling. We won't try and use it either.
Speaker 1: I did just try. But we are chatting with Kendra Dachi.
Speaker 1: She is the New York Times bestselling author of The
Speaker 1: Lazy Genius Way and The Lazy Genius Kitchen and has
Speaker 1: a fantastic podcast called The Lazy Genius Podcast. And her
Speaker 1: philosophy of systems and simplicity and seasons so many s
Speaker 1: is obviously alliteration aligns with our philosophies, but her systems
Speaker 1: also a line and so you're gonna see a lot
Speaker 1: of overlap. So knowing that there are different words and
Speaker 1: phrases and ways to say the same thing I think
Speaker 1: is really important. And she just offers some really good
Speaker 1: insight as well. Yes, I cannot wait to dive into this,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do that very shortly. But first we're
Speaker 1: talking about a values based spending plan and this is
Speaker 1: gonna be so timely, especially after you listen to this episode.
Speaker 1: You'll see why once you hear more from Kendra. But
Speaker 1: you may know that we just started our free free
Speaker 1: I need to highlight that one week spending makeover and
Speaker 1: if you haven't been able to join yet, we want
Speaker 1: to invite you to what we're calling the main event
Speaker 1: of the whole challenge. On Wednesday, January four, which is
Speaker 1: tomorrow night if you're listening the day this comes out,
Speaker 1: will be hosting a live values based Spending Plan workshop.
Speaker 1: I love that word workshop. We'll be walking you through
Speaker 1: how to make a budget that prioritizes what you value
Speaker 1: and the financial goals you want to reach this year.
Speaker 1: So if this sounds like something you need, head to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover to join us.
Speaker 1: Everyone who attends live will get a copy of our
Speaker 1: values based spending Google sheet. That one's a stunner as well.
Speaker 1: So again that's Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash makeover
Speaker 1: and you can just pause it right now and go
Speaker 1: do that, go to type that in or even as
Speaker 1: you're listening, but especially after you listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1: Is it's so in line with what we're talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we love a good looking Google sheet, and we're
Speaker 1: given one free to everyone. So, like I said, Kendra
Speaker 1: is the creator of the Lazy Genius collective and she's
Speaker 1: a systems expert and professional permission giver and you will
Speaker 1: hear a lot of that in this episode. So without
Speaker 1: further ado, let's learn how to lazy Genius our money. Kendra,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on the Frugal Friends Podcast.
Speaker 1: We are delighted and excited to chat with you today.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: We are big, big fans. We were talking a little
Speaker 1: bit before we pressed her Cord about just some alignment
Speaker 1: of what we talk about often, what you've been talking
Speaker 1: about and a variety of platforms. So I think our
Speaker 1: listeners are really gonna just eat up everything you have
Speaker 1: to say. All so I hope it's so tasty. Yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. For our listeners that are unfamiliar, Can you
Speaker 1: describe or explain the core concept of the lazy genius
Speaker 1: way and like how we can use it to manage money?
Speaker 1: Sure can so. A lazy genius is someone who is
Speaker 1: a genius about the things that matter and lazy about
Speaker 1: the things that don't. And the important thing about that
Speaker 1: sentence is you are the only person who can decide
Speaker 1: what matters to you. I'm not going to tell you,
Speaker 1: y'all are going to tell the people listening, Like each
Speaker 1: individual person gets to decide what matters to them and
Speaker 1: all kinds of areas. And I feel like money is
Speaker 1: one of the most tangible expressions of what matters to
Speaker 1: a person, and you spend money on things that matter
Speaker 1: to you, and it's really easy to get caught up
Speaker 1: in how other people are spending their money and therefore
Speaker 1: what matters to them, and to make that decision of well,
Speaker 1: just because they're doing it this way, just because they're
Speaker 1: spending their money this way, doesn't mean that I have
Speaker 1: to because we have different priorities. But I just think
Speaker 1: that like money is so like adult you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, it's so I mean, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: I turned forty one in like just a few days,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm still like I've kind of
Speaker 1: been like a forty three year old in my heart
Speaker 1: for like a couple of decades. But I'm also like
Speaker 1: still sixteen, being like where's my twenty dollars? Like how
Speaker 1: am I going to spend this twenty dollars at Barnes
Speaker 1: and Noble after school, you know, like and wanting to
Speaker 1: see what my friends are going to spend their money on,
Speaker 1: and like what kind of clothes that they're going to buy,
Speaker 1: And well, I can't I need to spend that much
Speaker 1: money on a Geen jacket if they are, and like
Speaker 1: all those different things like that comparison is still there.
Speaker 1: But then you also add in all of these like
Speaker 1: rules and money and banks and investing in all these
Speaker 1: adult things that I like, I don't know that we're
Speaker 1: really taught very well growing up. And so I think
Speaker 1: that being a lazy genius is such a beautiful place
Speaker 1: to being a lazy genius. It's so great to apply
Speaker 1: it to money and to budgeting and to spending, because
Speaker 1: it's such a great way that you can practice naming
Speaker 1: what matters to you and then following through on that
Speaker 1: by how you spend your money. Yeah. Absolutely, And there
Speaker 1: are so many things in personal finance that can get
Speaker 1: so complex. And when you I love how you say,
Speaker 1: like you you very much emphasized like naming what matters,
Speaker 1: and I think it's kind of an alignment when we're saying, like,
Speaker 1: find your values and decide like how you're going to
Speaker 1: prioritize what you spend money on, because when you can
Speaker 1: do a few simple things, then all the really complex
Speaker 1: stuff can become peripheral because you're taking care of like
Speaker 1: what's most important to you and you and feel confident
Speaker 1: in that. So I love how lazy genius sing and
Speaker 1: managing money can just like flow so well together. There's
Speaker 1: such good pals. There's such good pals because I think
Speaker 1: what it does is it like it it being a
Speaker 1: lazy genius and sort of adopting this framework is such
Speaker 1: a permission slip to to do what matters to you
Speaker 1: and to not feel guilty that you're going to spend
Speaker 1: the money on the Taylor Swift tickets because you love
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift and you prefer that, right, You're you prefer
Speaker 1: that and you would rather spend your money on that
Speaker 1: experience because you value experiences more than you value like
Speaker 1: having two books on your shelf like Kindred does. So
Speaker 1: like that's how I spend my money is on books.
Speaker 1: I don't go to concerts, I don't go do things
Speaker 1: like I like to be at home with my books.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it just gives you that permission
Speaker 1: to go. This is what matters to me, And it's
Speaker 1: okay for me to spend my money on the US.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to say no to these other things,
Speaker 1: just like this other person is going to say yes
Speaker 1: to something I'm saying no to. It doesn't make either
Speaker 1: choice better or worse than the other, Like they're all
Speaker 1: neutral personal choices, and so we can just let each
Speaker 1: other choose those things and not feel guilty about our own.
Speaker 1: You might value breaking the internet too, so you value
Speaker 1: experiences and being a swift ee and just breaking the
Speaker 1: internet for a day. What a story. We all value that.
Speaker 1: We have quite a few members members in our Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Club that value the Taylor Swift tickets and they
Speaker 1: are going to be there. Well, Jill and I are
Speaker 1: over here, but I don't know what we'll be valuing
Speaker 1: the Internet. We're valuing Jill's wine subscription. I do invest
Speaker 1: in that subscription occasionally, I'm I'm off and on until
Speaker 1: until it runs out. I really also love what you're
Speaker 1: saying here in highlighting, because I've heard it said not
Speaker 1: and in the personal finance space that you can very
Speaker 1: easily figure out what you value by looking at what
Speaker 1: you spend money on, and there is a lot of
Speaker 1: truth to that. I think it can really bring us
Speaker 1: face to face with our real self, not our fantasy self,
Speaker 1: where I could say I value generosity, but if I'm
Speaker 1: not seeing any of my money go towards the betterment
Speaker 1: of my community, then isn't really a value. But yet
Speaker 1: you're highlighting something really important that I feel is kind
Speaker 1: of not necessarily the flip side, but just another facet
Speaker 1: in here of that's true. And sometimes we spend money
Speaker 1: on things that just we don't value but we've not
Speaker 1: given much thought to. And I think the way that
Speaker 1: you're describing that permission slip of identify what that is,
Speaker 1: allow yourself that pause to say, Okay, this is what
Speaker 1: my money is showing me. I value, but do I
Speaker 1: feel like that's congruent with what I'm actually saying and
Speaker 1: giving space to kind of reprioritize. I totally agree with that,
Speaker 1: and I think that we forget that we are impacted
Speaker 1: by outside sources, like how we were raised, you know,
Speaker 1: like who whichever grown ups you grew up with, like
Speaker 1: how they spend money is going to be part of
Speaker 1: your own financial paradigm, whether you like it or not,
Speaker 1: you know. And so like you said, if you're not
Speaker 1: intentional about it, if you're not thinking about it, it's
Speaker 1: just going to keep going. It's just going to keep
Speaker 1: rolling as the default. And you don't you haven't necessarily
Speaker 1: named yet. Oh wait, I don't actually value this. I'm
Speaker 1: just doing this because it's what my mom did or
Speaker 1: my dad did or whoever. And so I think that's
Speaker 1: You're right. It's like there is a there is this
Speaker 1: facet of we can look at how we spend our
Speaker 1: money to demonstrate what matters to us, but it is
Speaker 1: not a complete picture because there are things that we
Speaker 1: absolutely are spending money on that we think we should
Speaker 1: or like you said, that we we just are because
Speaker 1: we haven't really thought about it yet. And I do
Speaker 1: think that there is I mean, it's great that shows
Speaker 1: like yours exists because I think it's really important for
Speaker 1: people to be given small steps. There are there are
Speaker 1: thirteen Lazy Genius principles and the first book I wrote,
Speaker 1: the Lazy Genius Way, and one of those principles is
Speaker 1: to start small. And I don't know if there's a
Speaker 1: better principle to apply to money than start small, because
Speaker 1: it does feel so overwhelming, like all of these things
Speaker 1: like what matters to me and my whole budget and
Speaker 1: you're thinking about investing, and you're thinking about your future,
Speaker 1: and you're thinking about your debt, and like it just
Speaker 1: feels really overwhelming, and so maybe that could be a
Speaker 1: place that you could start small. It's just too maybe
Speaker 1: not even like over your monthly budget. But if you're
Speaker 1: like really in the early stages of this of naming
Speaker 1: what matters to you in your life and therefore in
Speaker 1: your spending, to just look at the next week and
Speaker 1: go what really matters to me about my life right now,
Speaker 1: my people's lives right now, and how do I want
Speaker 1: my money to reflect that just right out, you know,
Speaker 1: like you don't have to look at it for like
Speaker 1: your twenty year plan, your fifty year plan, in your
Speaker 1: retirement plan, or whatever. Just look at it right now
Speaker 1: and start small with starting to name that. Because the
Speaker 1: more I have found this to be so true, the
Speaker 1: more we get practice in naming what matters and all
Speaker 1: kinds of areas, the better we get at it. It's
Speaker 1: a skill to develop, it really is. So to just
Speaker 1: start small with naming what matters about something small right
Speaker 1: now can really pay dividends long term. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: hear more from you, Kendra, regarding what you've seen here
Speaker 1: in relation to focusing on or prioritizing our own personal
Speaker 1: satisfaction or our own values, or how you've termed identifying
Speaker 1: what matters. How that then relates to our money mindset?
Speaker 1: What have you seen? Can you say more about the
Speaker 1: correlation between those two. So I do think that we
Speaker 1: can get stuck a little bit on the expectation that
Speaker 1: we have to be happy with every single financial decision
Speaker 1: we ever make, and I just think that's unrealistic and
Speaker 1: that puts a lot of pressure on all of our choices.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think about people you know there
Speaker 1: are I'm sure there's a book called mastering your Money.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there is somewhere, because you know that phrase
Speaker 1: is used you know, like master your money. And I
Speaker 1: think that even that word like what makes someone a master?
Speaker 1: And you might think it's that they know everything and
Speaker 1: that they've gotten everything right and whatever, and I would say, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, I think what makes someone a master is
Speaker 1: that they have remained curious and they have seen that
Speaker 1: every single step, even once that other people could deem
Speaker 1: as failure, as something to learn from, and then they
Speaker 1: just continue and they continue and they continue, and so
Speaker 1: we can do that. We can adopt that same mindset
Speaker 1: about our own choices. And if we're like if we're
Speaker 1: looking at if we're looking at our happiness, and maybe
Speaker 1: a word that I tend to use a little bit
Speaker 1: more for my own life, just because I can get moody.
Speaker 1: And so if I put happiness is like the key,
Speaker 1: well that's not gonna happen sometimes. So uh is fulfilling
Speaker 1: that there's a deep, like grounded fulfillment in my day
Speaker 1: and I can have that whether I'm happy or not right,
Speaker 1: and that there're a thing It leaves room for, It
Speaker 1: leaves room for grief and difficult circumstances that come come along.
Speaker 1: And this thing that you've been saving for this experience
Speaker 1: that you've been saving for you know, someone gets sick
Speaker 1: and you can't take it, you can't reschedule, and it's
Speaker 1: a whole you know, Like they're all these different there
Speaker 1: are all these different examples of that. But ultimately I
Speaker 1: think that if we see our happiness, our fulfillment kind
Speaker 1: of how well we live our lives, not as some
Speaker 1: sort of end goal or end game or linear path,
Speaker 1: but instead we see it with curiosity and openness. And
Speaker 1: it's like, just because you if you name something matters
Speaker 1: to you right now, and you adjust your budget accordingly,
Speaker 1: and then in three months, six months, a year, or
Speaker 1: five years, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you did it wrong before. It doesn't mean that you
Speaker 1: chose wrong, or you saved wrong, or you spent wrong.
Speaker 1: It just means you change. You're allowed to change your
Speaker 1: mind about things. And as our seasons of life go on,
Speaker 1: like different things are gonna make us happy and feel
Speaker 1: fulfilled and all of that. So I am my default
Speaker 1: is to be very linear and like, what is the
Speaker 1: correlation between happiness and spending? And I'm like, I will
Speaker 1: give it to you in five bullet points. That is
Speaker 1: my default, And so I have to actively every day.
Speaker 1: I was going to say work hard, but it's actually
Speaker 1: not hard work. It's more just awareness. Every single day
Speaker 1: at want to be really aware of the fact that
Speaker 1: our life is so fluid. We can change our minds.
Speaker 1: We can pay attention to to our hormones just as
Speaker 1: much as we pay attention to the stock market, Like
Speaker 1: there are lots of things that are in fluctuation, and
Speaker 1: so being really kind and generous with ourselves in that process.
Speaker 1: I think it's just it removes the pressure of each
Speaker 1: individual choice, each individual spending and saving choice, to be like,
Speaker 1: did the all end all? You know, It's just we're
Speaker 1: just living. We're just doing our best, one decision at
Speaker 1: a time. Thanks everyone for tuning in. This has been
Speaker 1: the Friends podcast with Genius. If you didn't get something
Speaker 1: out of that, it's probably not the show for you.
Speaker 1: I'm being over here to that we should be playing
Speaker 1: as much attention to our hormones as the stock market.
Speaker 1: What permission? That's the subtitle of the book that somebody
Speaker 1: needs to write. Oh my gosh, maybe that's maybe that's
Speaker 1: the book subtitle of our book. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean inside just it just sounds like so in alignment
Speaker 1: with with everything that we love, like write down to
Speaker 1: like saying your core values right now may not be
Speaker 1: your core values in the future. Uh. And it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you're doing anything wrong or that you miss like
Speaker 1: you know, misnamed what mattered in the moment. It's people
Speaker 1: change and evolve. And then we as far as like
Speaker 1: the fulfilling side of things, Like I feel like in
Speaker 1: personal finance, we get this like misnomer that, um, you
Speaker 1: either make a lot of money or you do something
Speaker 1: you love and you don't make anything. And so we
Speaker 1: we really advocate for fulfilling work. But fulfilling work doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be like your greatest passion either. It can
Speaker 1: be something that allows you to practice your greatest passions
Speaker 1: or allows you to get other things that money can't buy.
Speaker 1: So like, there's there's just so much to look at
Speaker 1: and filter through when you're looking at your personal finances.
Speaker 1: And I just, yeah, my mind was just racing the
Speaker 1: whole time you're talking. I'm so glad. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: So I know that you have like with a magic question,
Speaker 1: and I would love to see, like what is that
Speaker 1: magic question that we can ask ourselves to start uncomplicating
Speaker 1: our finances so ask the magic question is another one
Speaker 1: of the thirteen Lazy Genius principles, and the magic question
Speaker 1: broadly is what can I do now to make something
Speaker 1: easier later? And that's something could be anything. So you
Speaker 1: could say, what can I do now to make my
Speaker 1: personal finances easier later? I will also say that feels
Speaker 1: like a real big question. So one thing that I
Speaker 1: tend to encourage people, and it's kind of like, uh,
Speaker 1: in tandem that principle of start small and ask the
Speaker 1: magic questions? How can you make that question smaller? How
Speaker 1: can you keep making that question smaller? So if you're like,
Speaker 1: what can I do now to make paying my bills
Speaker 1: easier later? Maybe just the actual act of being a
Speaker 1: responsible grown up and paying your bills is so depressing
Speaker 1: to you, and you like put it off, and then therefore,
Speaker 1: like sometimes you put it off so much that you
Speaker 1: get like a lafy with your credit card payment. Even
Speaker 1: though you're paying your credit card and full, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: there's another twenty dollars that's so sad. Or maybe you're
Speaker 1: in a financial situation that you don't want to be in,
Speaker 1: you know, like you do wish that you had more
Speaker 1: margin in your finances and so paying your bills as
Speaker 1: a reminder of a place that you don't want to be.
Speaker 1: So I think that it's really important when you're saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: what can I do now to make something easier later?
Speaker 1: It begins with what is the thing that's difficult? You know,
Speaker 1: what is it that you're trying to make easier? And
Speaker 1: try and make that smaller. You know, if it's like
Speaker 1: a finances or so overwhelming? Okay, well, what specifically about
Speaker 1: it is overwhelming? Is it the investing? Is that the budgeting,
Speaker 1: is that the bill paying? Is it getting on the
Speaker 1: same page as your partner? Is it that you don't
Speaker 1: make as much money as you need to to make
Speaker 1: ends meet or whatever? Narrow that down and then say, well,
Speaker 1: what's the hardest part about that? What's the take this
Speaker 1: challenge about that, and then get to a place where
Speaker 1: you can say, so, what can I do now to
Speaker 1: make paying my bills on time easier later? Or what
Speaker 1: can I do now to make contributing to my four
Speaker 1: oh one k easier later? It could be it's talked
Speaker 1: to a financial planner or open a four oh one K.
Speaker 1: It might be you don't have one yet. It might
Speaker 1: be I need to google what a four oh one
Speaker 1: k is because I still don't understand, you know, like
Speaker 1: to really back up and think about what you're going
Speaker 1: to need later and just do the tiniest something right
Speaker 1: now to benefit that. It's like a version of cheat
Speaker 1: yourself from Parks and you know, and they have like
Speaker 1: their cheat Yourself Day. It's kind of like taking care
Speaker 1: of your future self, but asking yourself that question in
Speaker 1: the smallest way that you can, you know, so like
Speaker 1: I would even ask you guys, like, because you know,
Speaker 1: you know the people listening, like if you could what
Speaker 1: is something that your listeners like really do super dupe
Speaker 1: struggle with, like a small challenge maybe that they struggle with,
Speaker 1: And then like how might you answer? Because listen, I'm
Speaker 1: not a financial expert. I hire financial experts like that
Speaker 1: is not that is how I magic question my finances
Speaker 1: is that hire people to do it for me. So
Speaker 1: um so I don't know that I have like super
Speaker 1: strong answers for this, but I would be curious for
Speaker 1: you guys, like how could you what would be a
Speaker 1: small question you could ask and answer for your listener.
Speaker 1: It ranges the gam and this is a great question.
Speaker 1: I would say, investing and lowering grocery bills and to
Speaker 1: eat today, yes, yeah, my entire future and what I'm
Speaker 1: having for dinner? How much just rice costs today? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So so I can. I can't speak to
Speaker 1: investing very much because again I hire people to do
Speaker 1: that for me. But the grocery stuff, like that's a
Speaker 1: little bit I can talk about that. Um, But I
Speaker 1: do think, like thinking about how you can even make
Speaker 1: that question, like what can I do now to make
Speaker 1: my buying groceries easier later? Saving on groceries easier later,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it might be. I think that one
Speaker 1: thing that we used to do we don't as much anymore.
Speaker 1: But one thing that we used to do, we would
Speaker 1: have like a two week rotation of meals that were
Speaker 1: arranged around a very limited number of ingredients. Now we
Speaker 1: kind of eat that way like all the time now
Speaker 1: because I have three children who won't eat anything green
Speaker 1: and it's deeply frustrating. But we would sort of plan
Speaker 1: on we would have like a couple of weeks worth
Speaker 1: of meals that involved a limited number of ingredients and
Speaker 1: so in a protein, like one protein, and so if
Speaker 1: that protein was on sale, like when we were really
Speaker 1: pinching pennies when my husband and I were both in school.
Speaker 1: We're both in college, and we were like not making
Speaker 1: any money. We were like we had to depend on
Speaker 1: whatever protein was on sale, and it was really really
Speaker 1: on sale, and then we would just eat that, you know,
Speaker 1: and like people think, well, you can't eat chicken two
Speaker 1: days in a row, you can. You can. You can
Speaker 1: eat it twenty days in a row if you have to, Like,
Speaker 1: it's fine. So you know, that is one thing that
Speaker 1: you can just make. That's the way that we used
Speaker 1: to make saving money easier is we would make a
Speaker 1: decision ahead of time and do a little bit of
Speaker 1: planning around it so that when the time came, we
Speaker 1: weren't reinventing the wheel every time it was time to
Speaker 1: go grocery shopping. You know, guess so much of your
Speaker 1: lazy genius method also seems to be interchangeable with the
Speaker 1: way that we use the word hack life hacks nowadays.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more thought, there's a lot more genius
Speaker 1: that goes into it, certainly, but not not over complicating.
Speaker 1: I don't know why we're so drawn to that flame
Speaker 1: of complicated and chaotic, But where can we be kind
Speaker 1: to ourselves and make it simpler. Although I appreciate how
Speaker 1: you're describing, that doesn't always mean simpler right now. It
Speaker 1: is this kind of how can I be kind to
Speaker 1: myself in a day from now or twenty years from now.
Speaker 1: It's something I have the energy to do that's going
Speaker 1: to set me up even better. Yeah, exactly, exactly, And
Speaker 1: I love how it's like a simplified version of like
Speaker 1: The One Thing is one of my favorite books. And
Speaker 1: then so I'm always thinking, like, what's the one thing
Speaker 1: I can do to make something easier or unnecessary? But
Speaker 1: that is quite a complicated sentence to like you have
Speaker 1: to say like a hundred times to really understand it.
Speaker 1: And what's something I can do to make something easier
Speaker 1: later is a very comprehendible sentence, So thank you. It's definitely. Yes,
Speaker 1: It's like I say to myself all the time. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what can I do now? What can I do now
Speaker 1: to make this easier later? I mean a lot of
Speaker 1: times it really does involve dinner, because dinner is so constant,
Speaker 1: like food is, doesn't change, it doesn't go away. That's
Speaker 1: why I wrote a whole book about the kitchen, because
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't need another cookbook. I love cookbooks.
Speaker 1: I love recipes. I love them so much. But also
Speaker 1: no one taught me like when to think about how
Speaker 1: to grocery shop and where supposed to put cups? But like,
Speaker 1: is there supposed to is there one place to pook cups?
Speaker 1: Or can I decide where I want to put my
Speaker 1: ownt cups? The answer is you can decide where you
Speaker 1: want to put your own coups. But it is It's
Speaker 1: like the kitchen is so it never stops. And because
Speaker 1: it doesn't stop, and we spend a lot of money
Speaker 1: in the kitchen on food, on appliances, we think that like,
Speaker 1: this is the magic skillet that is going to make
Speaker 1: everyone in our family eat dinner. Now, you guys, it
Speaker 1: will not. It will not. So it's we spend a
Speaker 1: lot of money in that room, and we that room
Speaker 1: does not give us a lot of space to breathe
Speaker 1: for long enough to make intentional decisions about it because
Speaker 1: that room does not take days off. The kitchen does
Speaker 1: not take days off. So I think that that's a
Speaker 1: really lovely example, you know, like how can we spend
Speaker 1: less on groceries? I just want everybody listening if that's like,
Speaker 1: what is stressing you out? If that's what's overwhelming anything
Speaker 1: related to the kitchen. To remember, you are not the
Speaker 1: one person who is struggling with that question or overwhelmed
Speaker 1: by your kitchen. Every but struggles with that in some way.
Speaker 1: Everybody does because dinner in kitchen is like the one
Speaker 1: thing that never stops. So that is another opportunity for
Speaker 1: you to be kind to yourself, which is another way
Speaker 1: to genious principle. Be like you were saying, be kind
Speaker 1: to yourself because we are not usually, especially about things
Speaker 1: that we feel like we're supposed to be better at.
Speaker 1: And I think we think we're supposed to be better
Speaker 1: at dinner. And it's okay that you're not. Really is
Speaker 1: it's really okay that you're not well, And I it's
Speaker 1: such a fluid thing. We are dynamic people, were not static.
Speaker 1: It's not we can be really great at dinner or
Speaker 1: mule planning one week and just not have the energy
Speaker 1: the next, or really stellar for an entire year, but
Speaker 1: then a transition happens and now we've got to totally
Speaker 1: redefine our routine. And I think similar to their being
Speaker 1: freedom and flexibility for the values and the things that
Speaker 1: matter and the things that bring fulfillment. There can be
Speaker 1: freedom and flexibility and the degree of like motivation or
Speaker 1: enthusiasm we have for being in our kitchen that demands
Speaker 1: so much from us, and that's where everyone lives. Like
Speaker 1: you don't need a lot of square footage in your house,
Speaker 1: you just need like a kitchen somehow. That's where everybody
Speaker 1: ends up, no matter how many people are over or
Speaker 1: even like even when you're not eating, it's like everybody
Speaker 1: just it is. It's one of those ever ever people
Speaker 1: ask us, are you ever going to run out of content?
Speaker 1: It's like, as long as we all keep eating, no,
Speaker 1: because the question keeps coming of how can I save
Speaker 1: on gargeries? How can I reduce food waste? How can I?
Speaker 1: How can I? How can I? And really what we're
Speaker 1: looking for is that for them, is there a way
Speaker 1: to improve this? And yes in some small ways, and
Speaker 1: then really it's what you're describing our own view of
Speaker 1: self is where a lot of the improvement is going
Speaker 1: to come. Is how much space and permission am I
Speaker 1: giving for their to be flexibility in this aspect of life?
Speaker 1: And even thinking about you can't like what we were
Speaker 1: talking about before, so many things can matter in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: so many things, and in the same way that you
Speaker 1: cannot make everything matter in your financial goals, or you
Speaker 1: will not have financial goals, like you cannot make everything
Speaker 1: matter the same as true in your kitchen. So you
Speaker 1: think like I want. I call it the house hunters syndrome.
Speaker 1: You know, they go into their like I would like,
Speaker 1: we want to relive b backyard and we want a
Speaker 1: big open floor plan for entertaining, because everybody entertains, and
Speaker 1: we need five bedrooms and three bathroom in Dada. And
Speaker 1: it has to be the list all that I wanted
Speaker 1: for I want it for a hundred dollars. It happen
Speaker 1: to be a butterfly catcher. I want lots of land
Speaker 1: in the middle of the city in a good school district,
Speaker 1: but not a lot of noise from other kids. Like
Speaker 1: it's like all these things. You're like, guys, this is
Speaker 1: not real. Like this is not real. But we we
Speaker 1: do that. Though we do that with our own lives.
Speaker 1: We do that with our money, with how we and
Speaker 1: how we spend it. And because how we spend our
Speaker 1: money again, is that tangible expression of what matters to us?
Speaker 1: And if you try and make everything matter. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be hamstrong with how you spend your money, so you
Speaker 1: have like with food, you cannot be equally concerned with
Speaker 1: saving money, like healthy meals, quick meals, food waste variety,
Speaker 1: like exposing the people in your family to new things.
Speaker 1: You cannot hold all of those with equal weight. You
Speaker 1: cannot do it. This is why you're all frustrated. This
Speaker 1: is why everyone listening is like, this is so hard
Speaker 1: because you're trying to make everything matter. So in the
Speaker 1: season that you're in, if you can choose one thing
Speaker 1: that leads the charge, this is the thing that matters,
Speaker 1: whether it's for one week, you know, like you're saying,
Speaker 1: like this is the thing this week, this is the
Speaker 1: thing these next three months, over this next season, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, this is what matters most about our meals.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna let this be the decision maker until
Speaker 1: it doesn't work anymore, and then we're gonna make a
Speaker 1: different decision. I love how you break it down so small,
Speaker 1: like the season can be a week long, Like we
Speaker 1: can make this decision for a week. The decision we
Speaker 1: make today is not indefinite, it's not forever, and seasons
Speaker 1: are not forever. They can be in conjunction with actual
Speaker 1: weather seasons, or they can be like a few weeks
Speaker 1: or something. But yeah, like taking that time to identify
Speaker 1: where you are at and to name what matters for
Speaker 1: the duration of that time and just focusing on that
Speaker 1: will get you far better results, far better progress than
Speaker 1: trying to plan twenty years down the road and trying
Speaker 1: to make big overarching decisions, like just focusing on the
Speaker 1: next best thing. It's almost and we almost don't like
Speaker 1: to say that because we don't want to like get
Speaker 1: into a you know, a scarcity mindset that's just you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about the next paycheck or thinking about the next
Speaker 1: you know, so and so we want to think in
Speaker 1: a bigger picture to an extent, but when we're thinking
Speaker 1: about our actions, then really thinking small gets us those
Speaker 1: bigger desires and goals. It's kind of counterintuitive, but I
Speaker 1: love how you break it down. That's why I say
Speaker 1: that starting small is the most annoying advice I ever give.
Speaker 1: It's so annoying. Yeah, it's so annoying because it's like,
Speaker 1: why I want a big thing. I want a big system,
Speaker 1: I want a big solution, I want a big machine.
Speaker 1: That's going to run the whole thing. And like we
Speaker 1: have all said multiple times, multiple ways, like we're dynamic people.
Speaker 1: Life changes their seasons. We're not robots. Like you cannot
Speaker 1: have the expectation that what you choose right now is
Speaker 1: going to be the way things that are going to
Speaker 1: be forever, like they're just not. And so to release
Speaker 1: that pressure. It changes more than I think people realize
Speaker 1: it does. What you're describing is such a breath of
Speaker 1: fresh air. Kendry. I just feel so much weight lifted
Speaker 1: even just hearing this come from your mouth. And he's
Speaker 1: just not gonna be possible to focus on all the things,
Speaker 1: So why bother. It doesn't mean some things can't be important,
Speaker 1: but exactly just really identify where you want your time, energy,
Speaker 1: attention resources to go. Which, speaking of, I wonder if
Speaker 1: we can get a little more personal on your particular
Speaker 1: lazy genius way of budgeting and managing money. What does
Speaker 1: that look like at this point? I love that you
Speaker 1: said at this point because we're on like iteration number
Speaker 1: eight probably of pretty big you know, like ways that
Speaker 1: we approach money. So for a long time, like when
Speaker 1: my husband and I got married, we, like I said,
Speaker 1: we were both students at first, and had way more
Speaker 1: bills than we had money, and so that was like
Speaker 1: real tight. There were a lot of tears shed by
Speaker 1: knee when I would do our budget and when I
Speaker 1: have to pay our taxes and I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to pay property text, I don't know how
Speaker 1: we can't afford it. I forgot about that. Like the
Speaker 1: first time we got a property tax bill that I
Speaker 1: did not budget and our to the penny budget, I
Speaker 1: wept because I was like, we don't have this money.
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do? So we've gone through, you
Speaker 1: know when you add we have three kids, and um,
Speaker 1: my oldest is now in middle school and he eats
Speaker 1: so much food. He eats so much food. So um,
Speaker 1: we've kind of gone through like all of these seasons
Speaker 1: where we had one working adult, now we have two
Speaker 1: working adults, like all these different things. So the way
Speaker 1: it is right now, I mentioned this earlier. I find
Speaker 1: you know, how are like, Okay, my brain doesn't speak money,
Speaker 1: it doesn't speak financial I don't want to say jargon
Speaker 1: in a derogatory way, but like I just you could
Speaker 1: explain what a four oh and K is to me
Speaker 1: seventeen different ways and I still would not be able
Speaker 1: to speak it back to you. The same is true
Speaker 1: of gardening. I can't I can't grow a thing. I
Speaker 1: just can't do it. You could, the most amazing gardener
Speaker 1: could sit next to me and try to teach it
Speaker 1: to me. But there's something in my brain that's like,
Speaker 1: we don't, we don't do this, Like it just doesn't
Speaker 1: work right now. That might, that might change, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, it's just not something that I fully understand.
Speaker 1: So because of that, um and because you know, I
Speaker 1: have a business, and so when you your finances when
Speaker 1: you own your own business are definitely a lot trickier,
Speaker 1: right There are a lot more things to a lot
Speaker 1: of hoops to jump through, a lot of things to
Speaker 1: be careful about. And so the way it looks right
Speaker 1: now just kind of like big picture long term is
Speaker 1: I have a c p A who does my taxes
Speaker 1: and advises us on things like a reporter. And then
Speaker 1: we we've had a financial planner when cousin I barely
Speaker 1: had any money at all, because we thought, well, we
Speaker 1: likely are going to live a life without a whole
Speaker 1: lot of income because my husband is a middle school
Speaker 1: counselor so that's not a super lucrative job, but he
Speaker 1: needed Thank you, it's so needed, it's so needed it
Speaker 1: and he and he really loves it and finds a
Speaker 1: lot of fulfillment in that. But you know, for a while,
Speaker 1: we were like, if this is our only income for
Speaker 1: a long time, we have to have someone who is
Speaker 1: incredibly knowledgeable to help us invest the little that we
Speaker 1: are able to say, the little that we do have,
Speaker 1: so that it can become something else down the road.
Speaker 1: So we have had the same financial planner for ten
Speaker 1: years hold on moly, I think ten years. And and
Speaker 1: I have an accountant. And then outside of that, the
Speaker 1: two bigger things is we have like a separate account
Speaker 1: for um I don't know if I can say like
Speaker 1: business names and bank names and such, but we have
Speaker 1: you know, their capital one does like just an account
Speaker 1: that you can just open pretty much. It's like there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of hoops to jump through. And we
Speaker 1: almost see it as like a like a bucket. This
Speaker 1: is where we're saving. It's like our project saving bucket.
Speaker 1: So we have a project one and we have a
Speaker 1: like a fun one. So if we're going to take
Speaker 1: a family vacation or whatever, so we kind of have
Speaker 1: those like buckets that we that we pour into for
Speaker 1: for things. And then for the most part, I tried
Speaker 1: to for a while, I tried to um different ways
Speaker 1: of budgeting. Some of them worked in the season, some
Speaker 1: of them didn't. And I found that because of how
Speaker 1: diverse our spending is, and by hour I do mean
Speaker 1: my family, but I also think just like in general,
Speaker 1: you know, like you could one trip to Costco in
Speaker 1: a month, it changes your monthly grocery bill. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just like a whole thing. And so I started
Speaker 1: to operate under this idea of like outside of bills,
Speaker 1: like anything that is being spent that is not just
Speaker 1: sort of regular and expected, like food and clothes and
Speaker 1: the books that I have for myself, all of those
Speaker 1: things are sort of part of one bigger bucket, and
Speaker 1: we just keep it above a certain amount, like or
Speaker 1: below a certain amount, however you want to look at it.
Speaker 1: You know, like we're like this is we're not going
Speaker 1: to spend more than this. This is just what exists
Speaker 1: in our in our checking account, and we pay for
Speaker 1: most things with credit cards. We pay it off every
Speaker 1: single time, and then we see, like we see what
Speaker 1: that bucket looks like and if we're towards the end
Speaker 1: of the month and that bucket is lower, it's like,
Speaker 1: let's wait till next month to get to get the coat,
Speaker 1: or I won't I won't go to the bookstore this
Speaker 1: time and I won't get those books or whatever. Like
Speaker 1: that really helped me because I was finding and this
Speaker 1: is it's different for everybody. This is so important. Looking
Speaker 1: at the particulars of our budget brought me a lot
Speaker 1: of anxiety because I felt like I was trying to
Speaker 1: fit everything into all of these small categories, and our
Speaker 1: lives were such that certain categories would just be um
Speaker 1: in different balances month to month, and I felt like
Speaker 1: I couldn't get it right, that I kept missing the
Speaker 1: mark somehow, and it's like, well, I picked the wrong
Speaker 1: number for this bucket and all of that. So looking
Speaker 1: at it is just one general living expense bucket has
Speaker 1: been really, really helpful for us. I don't know how
Speaker 1: long that system will last for us, but it works
Speaker 1: really well right now. So that's kind of how we
Speaker 1: do our finances at this point. And there's a few
Speaker 1: things that stand out to me. First of all is
Speaker 1: the iterations. Again, if you haven't heard it already here.
Speaker 1: It is again that flexibility and freedom to morph and
Speaker 1: shift as life does, as we do, to have different
Speaker 1: ways that we go about it. The way that I
Speaker 1: budget now similar to what you're describing, is not the
Speaker 1: same way that I budgeted ten years ago. But also
Speaker 1: this idea that sometimes the lazy genius way of doing things,
Speaker 1: the thinking about what we can do now to make
Speaker 1: life easier in the future includes hiring out some tasks, jobs, responsibilities.
Speaker 1: Whether you do not have to be the genius at everything,
Speaker 1: you do not have to be the let other people
Speaker 1: be the geniuses. Some some geniuses need to not be lazy,
Speaker 1: They need to really work hard for you. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that may not only be in finances, that could be
Speaker 1: in other parts. You know, maybe we're hitting a season
Speaker 1: where cooking is just really overwhelming it. Again, by season,
Speaker 1: I might mean a week to a month. And does
Speaker 1: that mean you just want to pay a friend to
Speaker 1: make you some meals or you decide that your your
Speaker 1: takeout budget is going to increase your that's hiring out
Speaker 1: your food, if we want to term it that way.
Speaker 1: And then the sinking funds that you've identified of how
Speaker 1: you will put money away for certain goals, and then
Speaker 1: the guidelines that are just kind of these metrics, these
Speaker 1: parameters that you live within. It's not super stringent, it's
Speaker 1: not really restrictive. It's just this kind of guideline of
Speaker 1: here's what we have to spend on a variety of
Speaker 1: different things. And yes, that does ate so much more
Speaker 1: room to breathe for most of us. Most of us
Speaker 1: don't love to go down to the penny and make
Speaker 1: sure we're being super rigid with ourselves. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: for sure, I love that you even um spoke that
Speaker 1: back to me, that you're right it is. I love
Speaker 1: a guideline. I love a guideline. And I find that
Speaker 1: my default, my like go bigger, go home, be all lazier,
Speaker 1: all genius, like I don't exist in the middle by default.
Speaker 1: Very well, that's something I have to be really aware
Speaker 1: of and intentional about. And that's such a good word
Speaker 1: that hadn't really put around my own financial choices. But
Speaker 1: I do love a guideline, but I don't want it.
Speaker 1: I don't want a straight jacket that makes me sad.
Speaker 1: Absolutely I feel the same way because that's similar to
Speaker 1: how we budget as well. And yes, I want a
Speaker 1: guideline not a straight jacket. Do you want to know
Speaker 1: what else is a very loose guideline? Just a few
Speaker 1: one such real parameter to live within, and that' said otherwise,
Speaker 1: there's no rigidity here, and it is the week. That's right,
Speaker 1: It's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died,
Speaker 1: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week, Kendra. Every week we invite our listeners
Speaker 1: or our guests to share with us their bill for
Speaker 1: the week. And it is truly the definition of a guideline.
Speaker 1: There is no rigid rule to this ill and we
Speaker 1: would love to hear yours. I first of all, I
Speaker 1: just this That segue was masterful. That was masterful, by
Speaker 1: the way, seventy some episodes, they're always funny, but they're
Speaker 1: not always professional. They're laughing with us or at us.
Speaker 1: But hopefully you're laughing. Yes, absolutely, Oh that's amazing. I'm
Speaker 1: with right now. I'm laughing with My bill of the
Speaker 1: week is the five dollar bill I had to put
Speaker 1: under my son's pillow because the tooth Faory forgot his
Speaker 1: tooth multiple days in a row, and he got really
Speaker 1: mad and he was like, Mom, if the tooth Theory
Speaker 1: does not bring me at least five dollars, I'm going
Speaker 1: to get so mad at her and I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: up all night and wait for her. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, so I had to find that's my bills.
Speaker 1: The five does. Sometimes the tooth Fairy is just lazy,
Speaker 1: not always genius, really really busy. You know, she got
Speaker 1: things to do. You know, the kids got a lot
Speaker 1: of teeth. They'd be losing them just left and right,
Speaker 1: sometimes before they should come out. It is one of
Speaker 1: the weirdest things that I often forget about. I don't
Speaker 1: have children, and I like probably blocked out that time
Speaker 1: in my life, but the fact that we lose our
Speaker 1: teeth out of our heads is insane to me, Like
Speaker 1: that that's just a normal thing for like first second
Speaker 1: third graders, Like, oh yeah, I'm like learning about the
Speaker 1: world and I'm losing all of my teeth. That's terrifying
Speaker 1: and it's what makes up most of our nightmares. I
Speaker 1: don't know yer about losing teeth. This is awful it is,
Speaker 1: and then you're like, let's take it though and sleep
Speaker 1: on it and see if a stranger with wings brings
Speaker 1: this money instead. It's just the most absurd. It's the
Speaker 1: most absurd thing. Yeah, it doesn't, but kids don't seem
Speaker 1: to be fazed by it, like, oh, yeah, I got lose.
Speaker 1: My nephew was here recently and he lost a tooth
Speaker 1: like right in front of me. Was like, look and
Speaker 1: chill and it's like, oh, I like felt so squeamish
Speaker 1: in all of my body and he's like, can you
Speaker 1: pull it out for me? I'm like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling that out for you, Like how I was
Speaker 1: not that brave when it came to losing a lot
Speaker 1: of things for you and pulling your tooth out. And
Speaker 1: he just stared me dead in the eyes and ripped
Speaker 1: out this tooth. Didn't even flinch. I'm like, what is happening?
Speaker 1: It was amazing, truly, But I don't mean to hijack
Speaker 1: your bill. This is this is something the tooth Fairy
Speaker 1: thanks for. I'm glad to bring that that fear up
Speaker 1: for everyone, that weird fear that we all have for everyone.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad it was only five dollars, because I
Speaker 1: hear sometimes the tooth Fairy's got to pay out a premium,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, this kid, too many teeth. This
Speaker 1: kid of mine doesn't actually believe in the tooth Fairy.
Speaker 1: He doesn't believe in the tooth fairy because when his
Speaker 1: little sister lost her first tooth a few months ago,
Speaker 1: guess what he did without my knowledge. He took a
Speaker 1: twenty dollar bill from his own personal wallet and put
Speaker 1: it under his sister's pillow, and she came to me
Speaker 1: the next morning, Mom, Mom, look, the tooth fairy brought
Speaker 1: me twenty dollars. And I was like, what two fairy
Speaker 1: is that must have thrown you for a loop? Like what?
Speaker 1: And so then that kid, my son, looked at me
Speaker 1: and winked, and I was like, oh, you're so sweet
Speaker 1: and adorable. Also, no, because this sets a terrible precedent
Speaker 1: that your mother cannot fulfill a long term. He was
Speaker 1: tricking you, He was tricking me. But then he also
Speaker 1: so he doesn't even believe. But he's like, hey, Mom,
Speaker 1: the tooth fairy keeps forgetting Mike tooth. I love the
Speaker 1: story even more now, it's just it's for me like, oh,
Speaker 1: your son sounds so cool. He is. He's pretty great.
Speaker 1: He's like he's like a crotchety seventy three year old
Speaker 1: man in his heart. It's adorable. He's like a seventy
Speaker 1: three year old poet, like he gets he's just a
Speaker 1: who who demands two three justice as well, if you
Speaker 1: all listening have a son that the tooth fairy needs
Speaker 1: to pay a five dollar bill for the teeth that's
Speaker 1: coming out of his face. Or you know a person
Speaker 1: named Bill you paid off a bill, you know, the
Speaker 1: usual kind of set off five dollar bill for your
Speaker 1: lost two if you'd like to report that for real
Speaker 1: friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill.
Speaker 1: We are here for it. And now it's time for
Speaker 1: Pew pew. So today's vulnerability segment is not super vulnerable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: today is a fun one. What are you lazy genius
Speaker 1: saying today? What's what's on the schedule? I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's okay or not. It's your brain what Oh, oh,
Speaker 1: it's totally we verb it all the time, like what
Speaker 1: do you need a lazy genius? Absolutely, it's totally so.
Speaker 1: The thing at the moment of recording, I am five
Speaker 1: days away from having to uh sing many songs in
Speaker 1: a in a public setting, and I woke up with
Speaker 1: the beginnings of a cold and scratchy throat. And so
Speaker 1: I have never been more dedicated to my zinc ta
Speaker 1: salt water gargling situation. I am like a lazy genius
Speaker 1: is someone who is a genius about the things that
Speaker 1: matter and lazy about the things that don't. What matters
Speaker 1: to me right now is it I can sing in
Speaker 1: five days, so I have. I don't know that I've
Speaker 1: ever put this much commitment into because I have today
Speaker 1: and will be for the next couple of days. But
Speaker 1: I am just I made one of those uh my
Speaker 1: own Starbucks medicine ball drinks, even though I didn't have
Speaker 1: half of the ingredients that the recipe called for. I'm
Speaker 1: just like lemon, honey, salt, and oregane down my throat,
Speaker 1: Like you know, it's just a whole thing. So that
Speaker 1: is what I'm lazy genius thing today is keeping my
Speaker 1: voice for as long as possible. Oh, you do have
Speaker 1: some time, so that's good. It's not tomorrow. Five days tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We're with you, Thank you, thank you, although we are
Speaker 1: kind of working against you because wet for an hour today.
Speaker 1: What you did? You didn't ask me this morning, So
Speaker 1: it's really not your it has been. It has been
Speaker 1: on account of for a while. I do not hold
Speaker 1: it against you at all. But that is the thing, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the genuine answer is I have to be a
Speaker 1: genius about my voice today. So after we stopped recording,
Speaker 1: I probably will try to not talk for two hours
Speaker 1: before the children have all the questions. Glad we're getting
Speaker 1: you at your best and you sound fantastic. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: I'm not glad, Jen, what about you? What are you lazy? Genius?
Speaker 1: Thing today? So this is maybe a long term thing,
Speaker 1: but I every morning, not every morning, like three or
Speaker 1: four times a week, I work out in order so
Speaker 1: that my pregnancy body will not work against me, because
Speaker 1: by the end of the day, like my organs are
Speaker 1: like pushing up against my ribs. So working out now
Speaker 1: is making my future pregnancy not as miserable because we're
Speaker 1: coming into the third trimester and that's when things get
Speaker 1: real uncomfortable. So I've been working for these first two
Speaker 1: trimesters to stay away from that. That's what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1: Let's try to keep the liver sort of in place, right,
Speaker 1: It's just like, yeah, not impaling me in the ribs
Speaker 1: so much that I can actually sit and they don't
Speaker 1: have to lie down for three months. Yeah, oh wow,
Speaker 1: look at you guys, just caring for your bodies. I
Speaker 1: guess mine is a version of caring for my body.
Speaker 1: It's related to food, you know me, I love food
Speaker 1: or bread or smoothie related close, it's like all of
Speaker 1: the above. So at the moment of recording, we are
Speaker 1: about six days away from traveling and we're going to
Speaker 1: be gone for like seven or eight days, so I
Speaker 1: don't want to leave any food in the house. It
Speaker 1: is a big value to me for low to no
Speaker 1: food waste, and also it's the holidays, and I also
Speaker 1: want low amount of money spent on food, knowing that
Speaker 1: when we're gone, we're going to be spending money on food.
Speaker 1: So I have gone through my entire pantry and freezer
Speaker 1: and fridge and came up with a meal plan for
Speaker 1: the next few days until we leave on vacation to
Speaker 1: utilize everything that we have. And I only needed to
Speaker 1: get a handful of items from the grocery store, so
Speaker 1: all of that is in my possession and I am
Speaker 1: just now following my meal plan. It's so nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and those ingredients better be pigs in a blanket ingredients.
Speaker 1: No party, someone else promised that for me. I'm not
Speaker 1: making that. Jen and I are going to a similar
Speaker 1: holiday party, and my husband apparently promised that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be a similar It is the same. It's not
Speaker 1: just similar. It is like houses next door to each other. Like,
Speaker 1: tell me more about will be there, but like we'll
Speaker 1: pretend like we don't see each other. Yeah. Basically, apparently
Speaker 1: my husband, without me knowing, like promise that I'd make
Speaker 1: a version of pigs in a blanket that are sausages
Speaker 1: wrapped in pancakes. I don't know. I've never made anything
Speaker 1: like that, and I don't have that stuff in the house.
Speaker 1: What I do have in the house is stuff to
Speaker 1: make buffalo chicken dip. So that's what I'm bringing to
Speaker 1: the holiday party. Real big letdown, Sorry, pant our interview
Speaker 1: with you, Kendra has not been a letdown. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us. And if people want more
Speaker 1: from you, where can they get more goodness from you?
Speaker 1: In the segways? So solid um, I am everything is
Speaker 1: the lazy genius something. So I am on Instagram at
Speaker 1: the Lazy Genius I have a podcast called the Lazy
Speaker 1: Genius Podcast. I have two books, The Lazy Genius Way
Speaker 1: in the Lazy Genius Kitchen, and then everything is sort
Speaker 1: of like contained at the Lazy Genius Collective dot com.
Speaker 1: Just it's a one stop just Lazy Genius, and you're
Speaker 1: all over the internet. I'm not even kidding if you
Speaker 1: Just like people will ask me and d M like
Speaker 1: do you have an episode on organizing paper? And I
Speaker 1: will literally google Lazy Genius paper to see because I
Speaker 1: don't want to know the answer, So like, literally lazy
Speaker 1: Genius this, google Lazy Genius and the thing, and you
Speaker 1: will likely find at least four hits like almost certainly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so good, so good. Almost broke me just like t Swift,
Speaker 1: just like Swips. You're close. Yeah, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us, Kendra, thanks for having me. This was great.
Speaker 1: I loved that as much as I thought I would,
Speaker 1: and I love Kendra as much as I thought I
Speaker 1: And that's a lot. That time for me really flew by.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I jumped on the call today
Speaker 1: just feeling tired and I feel so energized, just hearing
Speaker 1: Kendra chat about the things that she's clearly expert in
Speaker 1: and the permissions she gave, and as you said at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the episode, kind of saying very similar
Speaker 1: things but in a little bit different of a way,
Speaker 1: identifying things using different vernacular. It's just really helpful. It
Speaker 1: encourages us to continue on this path of permission freedom,
Speaker 1: identifying what's important to you, letting go of the rest,
Speaker 1: and ultimately that leads to kindness of ourselves and greater
Speaker 1: self awareness, curiosity with self. It just and and then
Speaker 1: some really amazing tips coinciding it as well, Like it's
Speaker 1: my biggest takeaway on this one is you're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to do all of it super well.
Speaker 1: I can fall victim to that as much as I
Speaker 1: can know it logically without really thinking about it or
Speaker 1: being super mindful all the time. I try to do
Speaker 1: everything to a degree of excellence that just isn't possible
Speaker 1: to maintain, and so really honing down titrating down to okay,
Speaker 1: but what's actually most important? Who cares if my base
Speaker 1: boards are clean? Are the crumbs on the floor at
Speaker 1: least picked up so that ants don't come into my house?
Speaker 1: Like I can I can really narrow it down and
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to do everything. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think there is nowhere we see that more than
Speaker 1: in January, where we are making New Year's resolutions, or
Speaker 1: if you're not a resolutions person, you're probably still starting
Speaker 1: something new, whether that's a new project at work, a
Speaker 1: new season in school for children, Like you're starting something new,
Speaker 1: A lot of new things are starting in January, and
Speaker 1: so to know that you don't have to be perfect
Speaker 1: or even excellent at all of it, that you can
Speaker 1: give yourself grace where things are busy or where things
Speaker 1: are unknown, and that you can just start with one
Speaker 1: thing that's going to make something else in the future easier.
Speaker 1: Is that when you don't know what to do, do
Speaker 1: one thing that makes something easier for your future self.
Speaker 1: And I that was my biggest takeaway, is that simplified
Speaker 1: version of that phrase that is much easier to understand
Speaker 1: and put into action. So thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: We hope you got as much from the episode as
Speaker 1: we did. Many of you know we have a private
Speaker 1: community where we do monthly money challenges and calls kind
Speaker 1: of like the one we're doing tomorrow. If you're listening
Speaker 1: to this on the day it releases. So Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash Makeover if you want um. But
Speaker 1: we have a private community full of people trying to
Speaker 1: pay off debt and reach financial goals where we focus
Speaker 1: a lot on small changes. UH, and we want to
Speaker 1: congratulate one of our members for a big win. This
Speaker 1: one's from Vanessa. She says today we stayed out of debt.
Speaker 1: She said, my husband and I bought a new to
Speaker 1: him car yesterday. It was bitter sweet because we were
Speaker 1: planning to buy a minivan, but they're at least thirty
Speaker 1: more than when we started shopping for them. It would
Speaker 1: have been easy to finance a new car with low payments,
Speaker 1: but we worked so hard lately to cut expenses in
Speaker 1: our budget that I didn't want to add additional payments,
Speaker 1: and knowing myself, I would have tried to pay back
Speaker 1: the loan as fast as possible. I don't want to
Speaker 1: trade my lifestyle for a new car, so I'm proud
Speaker 1: of us. We actually bought a small sedan within our
Speaker 1: budget and decided we would start saving again for a
Speaker 1: minivan to replace the car I'm currently drying. Well done,
Speaker 1: yea Vanasa This is so exciting. I am so thrilled
Speaker 1: that you were able to attain this goal. I know,
Speaker 1: with the way the car market is currently looking, it's
Speaker 1: not as easy to buy within our budgets as it
Speaker 1: used to be. But you did it, you really and
Speaker 1: part of this is because you were so aware of
Speaker 1: what your actual values are that you were able to
Speaker 1: really draw a line in the sand and find something
Speaker 1: that works for you all. And I just could not
Speaker 1: be more thrilled. Well done, Yes, well done, Vanessa. So
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. If you want to check out our
Speaker 1: private community where people are paying off debt and staying
Speaker 1: out of debt. I had to Forgirl Friends podcast dot
Speaker 1: com slash club to see what challenge and of course
Speaker 1: we have popping up next inside see you next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Okay, Jen, I
Speaker 1: cannot get out of my mind like Kendrew was saying
Speaker 1: about following our hormones as much as we follow the
Speaker 1: stock market, which doesn't mean like necessarily being led by them.
Speaker 1: Well and really we would probably shouldn't be paying that
Speaker 1: much attention to the stock market unless we're like super investors.
Speaker 1: But anyhow, it reminded me that. Recently, I was with
Speaker 1: two friends and we talked about a variety of topics,
Speaker 1: but one of the things was laughing a bit about
Speaker 1: the lack of education around biology and our bodies there
Speaker 1: is for us, and I would assume kind of still
Speaker 1: rings true for kids today and how little particularly it
Speaker 1: seems like men know about women's bodies. And one of
Speaker 1: my friends made the point, and she's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: that may be true, but like we as women don't
Speaker 1: know a ton about our bodies, Like we don't know
Speaker 1: much about the menstruation phase except for like that that
Speaker 1: one week of a month, Like there's so many other
Speaker 1: phases which I don't I still haven't taken like a
Speaker 1: deep dive into this, although it's very intriguing to me.
Speaker 1: But there are four phases that we go through within
Speaker 1: like a twenty eight to how how much can I
Speaker 1: go up to like thirty four days of various phases
Speaker 1: like menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation in the luteal phase,
Speaker 1: And there's different things that are happening to our bodies
Speaker 1: horrimonally in each phase that drastically impact kind of the
Speaker 1: way in which we're experiencing ourselves and the world around us,
Speaker 1: And I found this infographic at one point that kind
Speaker 1: of lined up that typically these might be good things
Speaker 1: to consider doing in each phase, kind of like harnessing
Speaker 1: what's the what's the power that I have within each phase,
Speaker 1: what might come more naturally to me, and what might
Speaker 1: be a little bit more difficult or have like greater
Speaker 1: barriers to them. We can't like not all of life,
Speaker 1: like life just goes on and usually like we've got
Speaker 1: day to day task. But it was so interesting to
Speaker 1: kind of think that way about it, like considering what
Speaker 1: like the whole picture, what's happening in my body and
Speaker 1: in my hormones and in my life right now that
Speaker 1: I could be considering in the things that I'm doing.
Speaker 1: It was quite um an interesting thing to ponder. I
Speaker 1: am so glad that you have found so much in
Speaker 1: this topic. I'm currently in unface. That's interesting. Wonder long
Speaker 1: forty week face. But I bet there's so many cycles
Speaker 1: and hormonal changes you go through throughout the trimesters that
Speaker 1: I wonder what people would say because there were specific
Speaker 1: things I forget, what goes along with big hormone cluster, cuss,
Speaker 1: dumpster fire just altogether. Now this one infographic was like
Speaker 1: it was particularly geared towards like within the workplace, what
Speaker 1: you might want to consider. It's like the luteal phase
Speaker 1: is great for like getting all the tasks done, like
Speaker 1: invoicing out and drafting your emails and like doing this
Speaker 1: and this, and then the ovulation phase is great for
Speaker 1: I think, like public speaking and trainings and like doing
Speaker 1: the more kind of like extroverted type things. It's I'm
Speaker 1: not saying like build a whole life around this. It
Speaker 1: was just really fascinating. It's an aspect of my personhood
Speaker 1: I haven't totally considered, but I'm kind of leaning into it. Good. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe our next life workshop will be how to Manage
Speaker 1: your money in Your Moon Your Mean Faces, led by
Speaker 1: Moonmother Jillian Syrians with the Moon, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: And that has a lot to do with the menstruation cycle.
Speaker 1: It does follow very similar to what women's bodies experiences. Great.
Speaker 1: Can't wait to attend