Speaker 1: Hey, frugal Friends, this is Eric Sirianni, producer of this podcast,
Speaker 1: and I'm here to let you know that we have
Speaker 1: four bonus episodes that will be releasing over the next
Speaker 1: four Tuesday's starting today. But wait, there's more. These podcasts
Speaker 1: are actually videos that we recorded at Thin Coong two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen in d C, and they're also available on
Speaker 1: YouTube by searching Frugal Friends thin Con two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: or by clicking the link in the show notes Where's
Speaker 1: that beat? Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll
Speaker 1: learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver rit
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. We can
Speaker 1: edit this like so, yeah, hey frugal friends. I'm Jen
Speaker 1: and I'm Jill and we are coming to you live
Speaker 1: from Fincon nineteen in the video booth. And we don't
Speaker 1: usually do video, but we wanted you to see our faces.
Speaker 1: This is a new thing for us, so we don't
Speaker 1: We don't know how we look. We know that our
Speaker 1: mom's like our faces, but but I couldn't even commit
Speaker 1: to that much. Yeah, this is like a fireside chat
Speaker 1: out to fire right. It's with two mics between two mikes.
Speaker 1: Um similar to between two firsts in front of two mins,
Speaker 1: in front of two mics. So welcome to in front
Speaker 1: of two mics with Jen and Jill. How do you
Speaker 1: think this is going? I don't I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's going well, but well, but here we are. Here,
Speaker 1: we are, and we are hoping to be able to
Speaker 1: give you, guys, I mean, yeah, a little bit more
Speaker 1: of our faces since usually it's just our voices, but
Speaker 1: also to be able to talk about how you and
Speaker 1: I met, some of our backstory, what what got us
Speaker 1: into the Frugal's Friends podcast, also what you can expect
Speaker 1: from the Frugal Friends podcast. Why we like it so much? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's about it. Yeah, so let's started. Jill, how did
Speaker 1: we meet? Oh? I love this story. I've gotten to
Speaker 1: tell it so many times, every single time. I love it.
Speaker 1: So my you met Eric, my husband like ten years ago,
Speaker 1: who knows, going on twelve years ago now, because you
Speaker 1: worked for a similar organization or the same organization. It
Speaker 1: was one of those things where you were at the
Speaker 1: same event and then became friends on Facebook but never
Speaker 1: talked again. Exactly one of those. So that's the backstory.
Speaker 1: Then my husband and Eric and I lived in an
Speaker 1: RV and during that time we chose to do that
Speaker 1: to paid on debt but also try out the minimalist
Speaker 1: lifestyle tiny living. And during that time we went on
Speaker 1: a road trip and when we were in the St.
Speaker 1: Pete area, Eric put online, Hey, anybody in the St.
Speaker 1: Pete area want to hang out? Get together? Because he's
Speaker 1: an extrovert to the extreme, wants to hang out and
Speaker 1: expecting certain people to actually get back to him. But
Speaker 1: turns out you responded it showed up on your new
Speaker 1: speed Yeah, and nobody else responded and go figure because
Speaker 1: that's not your speed. Normally strangers come to the beach,
Speaker 1: but you happen to be hanging out at a bar
Speaker 1: that was serving free drinks at sunset, the frugal way,
Speaker 1: as we all know, free activities, free drinks, free stuff.
Speaker 1: Met up and I really I remember bonding over our
Speaker 1: debt payoff stories. You were very close to the end
Speaker 1: of your debt payoff. I was not as close, still
Speaker 1: still not quite there, but almost. Um So I think
Speaker 1: that's what really kind of started the ball around rolling.
Speaker 1: Do you remember anything else, I mean, other details? That
Speaker 1: was it? I remember when we got together, I felt
Speaker 1: like you and Eric and Travis and I were like
Speaker 1: kindred couples, like we were. We found our like a
Speaker 1: couple of soul mates. Yeah, that's how I remember it, right,
Speaker 1: And so we were friends before we even decided to
Speaker 1: start this podcast. We came down to see you a
Speaker 1: couple of times in Florida. You guys have since been
Speaker 1: up to see us. You were Eric's surprise thirty. You
Speaker 1: were a surprise for Eric's thirtieth Yes, which was amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: You've been blogging in the finance world, and I just
Speaker 1: like frugality. It's just in my veins. So I think
Speaker 1: that's what I like about what we bring to the
Speaker 1: table is the different perspectives on frugality, on the same topic,
Speaker 1: on debt, payoff, on minimal living, but yet coming at
Speaker 1: it from different angles. Yes, how would you describe your frugality?
Speaker 1: I would describe it as, uh, cutting back on things
Speaker 1: that I don't value um, but spending without guilt or
Speaker 1: shame in the things that I do. So I don't
Speaker 1: keep on. I don't pinch pennies like if I am
Speaker 1: at a gas station and guess is like a penny
Speaker 1: la us down the road, I'm still going to get
Speaker 1: gas at the gas station I'm at, usually because I'm
Speaker 1: already like I'm a mile away from fully running out
Speaker 1: of gas. So that's probably not like a frugal like
Speaker 1: a not frugal thing. It's just like I don't necessity
Speaker 1: just another part of your personality. Yeah, the check engine
Speaker 1: lit really doesn't mean much. But I am not about
Speaker 1: cutting corners or being cheap. I'm just about having as
Speaker 1: much value as possible um and saving on that value,
Speaker 1: so like getting designer clothes or getting really well made
Speaker 1: furniture but getting used so stuff like that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: definitely from from my perspective, frugality is definitely not cheap.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to define frugality based on what
Speaker 1: it's not, but I do think it can get very
Speaker 1: confused with oh those are the stingy people. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: version of frugality, very similarly to what you've described, is
Speaker 1: to be able to cut costs on the things that
Speaker 1: I don't care that much about but maybe need, but
Speaker 1: then be able to spend on the areas that I
Speaker 1: want to spend on. To me, frugality is on uh, efficiency, effectiveness,
Speaker 1: long term planning. So that could mean that I buy
Speaker 1: an expensive mattress because it's going to last me for
Speaker 1: twenty five years versus the cheapest thing that's going to break.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna say that I haven't made my mistakes
Speaker 1: and yet or I think I'm being frugal and sometimes
Speaker 1: it's borderline cheap, but and for me, it includes a
Speaker 1: lot of d I Y, So I'm definitely not opposed
Speaker 1: to the coupon. Although I've never been an extreme cupe honor,
Speaker 1: I will look for deals. I love thrift stores, I
Speaker 1: love the clearance racks, and I also like to make
Speaker 1: things with my hands. So that's kind of the uh,
Speaker 1: the angle that my frugality has come at has been
Speaker 1: really fun to engage with what it looks like for you,
Speaker 1: how you define it, and swap stories because I do
Speaker 1: not make things with my hands. You made a baby,
Speaker 1: not with my hand, with your hands. Let's keep this
Speaker 1: p well. Thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: this episode of In Front of To Mike, I'm jen
Speaker 1: I'm chill until next time. By that's always the face
Speaker 1: that we make right by Frugal Friends is produced, edited
Speaker 1: and mixed by Eric Syria