Speaker 1: Episode four seventy eight is episode two ninety seven, Tips
Speaker 1: for Living on an Extremely tight budget.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity and life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 2: and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, and today we are revisiting one of
Speaker 1: our most popular episodes from two years ago that is
Speaker 1: still extremely relevant, and that's living on a extreme tight budget.
Speaker 1: And we're talking extreme low income, not extreme low income,
Speaker 1: but extreme type budget, as in, there is not an option.
Speaker 1: It's not like a volunteer hairily extremely tight income tight gotcha.
Speaker 3: Well, or maybe it is.
Speaker 4: I think sometimes we can find ourselves in seasons where
Speaker 4: we've chosen to live on a little less and we
Speaker 4: want some more tips for that. And then there are
Speaker 4: times where our circumstances have decided for us that this
Speaker 4: is the amount of money that you're earning a month
Speaker 4: over month. And I think we had made these caveats
Speaker 4: in the initial episode when when we launched it for
Speaker 4: the first time. What I do want to say again
Speaker 4: here that I think a lot of people are a
Speaker 4: good handful will come to Frugal Friends Podcast. Assuming that
Speaker 4: this is all we talk about, that we talk about
Speaker 4: how to just get as much as possible for as
Speaker 4: little as possible. That we're going to talk to upondrive yourself, Yeah,
Speaker 4: to be okay with depriving yourself, how to say no
Speaker 4: more often, how to white knuckle this thing and that
Speaker 4: is not us. So we are going to need to
Speaker 4: make that statement very clear at the start of this
Speaker 4: because we might be finding some new listeners with this
Speaker 4: episode that we are reclaiming the word frugality. We are
Speaker 4: redefining it as being good stewards of all of our resources.
Speaker 4: So this includes our physical resource, our emotional, relational mental resource,
Speaker 4: our financial resources, our physical spaces, our natural resources. That
Speaker 4: all of these things come together and formulate how we
Speaker 4: engage with the world around us, how we view ourselves
Speaker 4: and our circumstances, and then the actions that we take
Speaker 4: as a result of that. And so our perspective in
Speaker 4: this is that it's not bad to spend, It is
Speaker 4: not bad to splurge, it is not bad to impulse spend.
Speaker 4: There are people who are frugal who make a lot
Speaker 4: of money, and there are people who are frugal who
Speaker 4: don't make a lot of money, and we can all
Speaker 4: find ourselves at this frugal table where we can live
Speaker 4: a long term lifestyle, because there's joy to be found
Speaker 4: in intentional living and conscious consumption, not just for the
Speaker 4: sake of deprivation or race to the bottom, or how
Speaker 4: can we live on as little as possible, or kind
Speaker 4: of stay in this place. So you will hear messages
Speaker 4: throughout this episode two of encouragement and ideas hopefully filled
Speaker 4: and sprinkled with gentleness and kindness, that there is also
Speaker 4: permission for ourselves to identify ways to earn more. That yes,
Speaker 4: we may find ourselves in this place, and we may
Speaker 4: choose this place at various points in life, but we
Speaker 4: also don't need to stay stuck there in whatever is
Speaker 4: within our control. We recognize there's so many external factors
Speaker 4: at play here and sometimes this is not our choice
Speaker 4: that feels very suffocating, And we absolutely see you in
Speaker 4: those places too. But we are also always going to
Speaker 4: look at all the parts of financial management, which include earning,
Speaker 4: spending and saving slash investing, And so when our earnings
Speaker 4: is not enough, we do want to help you there.
Speaker 4: We want to have some good tips and tangible takeaways.
Speaker 4: But we also want to say that hopefully this isn't
Speaker 4: the goal of frugality to stay in a place where
Speaker 4: what we bring home is not enough to sustain us.
Speaker 4: We don't want that for anybody in the long term,
Speaker 4: and so we also hope that our content helps people
Speaker 4: to identify ways to be able to be creative with
Speaker 4: your skill set and earning, so that you can feel
Speaker 4: more comfortable and stable as well. But first, this episode
Speaker 4: is brought to you by getting the most, like a
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Speaker 4: can be getting the most out here helpful tips, actionable steps,
Speaker 4: stories mixed with research, all aimed at helping you get
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Speaker 1: Get it, get it, And I hope that you get
Speaker 1: something from this episode, like so many others did the
Speaker 1: first time we aired it. So let's get into it.
Speaker 3: Let us do it. Circle comes from Caroline Vensel.
Speaker 1: Caroline and her family of five lived on seventeen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year. They were family four at that time,
Speaker 1: but now they are a family of six and they
Speaker 1: still only live on one income. But for a very
Speaker 1: long time, Caroline was a teen mom and they lived
Speaker 1: on her husband's seventeen thousand dollars a year income, which
Speaker 1: I think, Jill, that was, I mean similar to your
Speaker 1: income at one point. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I got Eric's permission. Eric's my husband to share. I
Speaker 4: asked him just before this episode. I'm like, Hey, we're
Speaker 4: talking about living off a low income.
Speaker 3: Can I share this?
Speaker 4: And He's like, yeah, totally, but thanks for asking. And
Speaker 4: this is pretty recent for us too. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: our take home pay was eighteen thousand dollars. So when
Speaker 4: I say I can commiserate with the pinch and the difficulty,
Speaker 4: like I mean it. And thankfully we had a place
Speaker 4: to live and we had food, and we were provided
Speaker 4: for and it was not easy, and it required creativity
Speaker 4: and all of the things. But when we say like, yeah,
Speaker 4: we get it, we've been there, like we're not saying
Speaker 4: we get it, we've been there, like we've made fifty
Speaker 4: sixty grand a year, like eighteen thousand dollars in twenty
Speaker 4: eighteen take home pay. So I can relate to a
Speaker 4: lot of the things that Caroline mentions in this article,
Speaker 4: and I think yeah can also comment on some of
Speaker 4: the things that worked for us. We did not thankfully
Speaker 4: stay in that place. So fast forward to twenty twenty
Speaker 4: one and we are bringing in a lot more money
Speaker 4: than that, and a lot of that took intentionality and
Speaker 4: took a lot of different efforts on our parts to
Speaker 4: not stay in that place. So that's another piece that
Speaker 4: I think we're going to talk about on this episode
Speaker 4: today of are there ways to not stay in this place?
Speaker 4: We understand some of the different dynamics that would lead
Speaker 4: us to be in a place where we are living
Speaker 4: below the poverty level, but also shifting mindset, finding opportunities,
Speaker 4: honing in skill set to not continue to find ourselves
Speaker 4: in this place year after year. And again, that looks
Speaker 4: different for everybody, and I'm not saying that you have
Speaker 4: to aim at being a millionaire or even making six figures,
Speaker 4: but living below the poverty line is not a place
Speaker 4: that we want to set up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. But Caroline goes into detail about the things
Speaker 1: that she and her family did while they were living
Speaker 1: on seventeen thousand a year to make it through those
Speaker 1: multiple years that they had to do that. So the
Speaker 1: first thing that she goes over is they had to prioritize,
Speaker 1: and so this one is really really important. What needs
Speaker 1: to happen? Do you need a new car or is
Speaker 1: the one you have doing just fine? You just like
Speaker 1: a new car or even smaller? Do you need the
Speaker 1: full price brand name products or can you go for
Speaker 1: the generic or maybe even make it yourself? So there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things. Or even I would go
Speaker 1: and step further and be like, do you really need
Speaker 1: the products that you are buying? Or can you skip
Speaker 1: a week, skip a month, or do without get creative
Speaker 1: and skip it. Caroline says, we learned pretty quickly that
Speaker 1: if we want to splurge, we'd need to plan ahead
Speaker 1: for it. So but if splurging meant that our grocery
Speaker 1: budget would take a hit, we would opt for a
Speaker 1: night of frozen pizza and Netflix. So I think that's
Speaker 1: it's really important to point out that you don't have
Speaker 1: to be living on rice and beans, beans and rice, like.
Speaker 1: You can have little treasures, but A you have to
Speaker 1: plan ahead for them and budget for them, and B
Speaker 1: they have to be proportionate to the income you have
Speaker 1: coming in. You know, a night at Carabas may not
Speaker 1: be in your best interests in this season of your life.
Speaker 1: And it's different for everyone. The things that people tend
Speaker 1: to get tripped up on are different for everyone. So
Speaker 1: you just have to be aware of Okay, what are
Speaker 1: the things that I like that I'm overspending on and
Speaker 1: how can I still incorporate them into my life but
Speaker 1: do them for cheaper, less expensive?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: And the next one, I think it connects with the
Speaker 4: prioritizing aspect, and that is live below your means? Okay,
Speaker 4: So I just I need to pause here because I
Speaker 4: know that that, like, even inside me, it gives me
Speaker 4: this like cringe defense mechanism, like pops up of like,
Speaker 4: what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Live below my means?
Speaker 4: If I'm making eighteen thousand dollars a year, twenty thousand
Speaker 4: dollars a year, like, no, this is not possible, and
Speaker 4: so yes, I want to acknowledge that. So depending on
Speaker 4: where you find yourself on an extremely low income, what
Speaker 4: that means for you in the area that you're living.
Speaker 4: But I still want to highlight this concept of not
Speaker 4: approaching it from what all can I buy? But where
Speaker 4: can I cut? And recognizing that sometimes okay, so I'll
Speaker 4: speak for myself. When in this place of being very
Speaker 4: tight financially, whether it was making eighteen thousand in a
Speaker 4: year or maybe thirty thousand in a year, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 4: it all felt pretty.
Speaker 3: Tight to us.
Speaker 4: I had this idea on the back of my head,
Speaker 4: like this is so difficult, This feels like such a pinch,
Speaker 4: like I deserve something here for all my hard work,
Speaker 4: for like how much I've sacrificed for how little I
Speaker 4: actually get to have in life. And that would mean
Speaker 4: that sometimes I would blow my budget on certain things.
Speaker 4: And this is I know that a lot of financial
Speaker 4: people will talk about cutting coffee and everyone's like, that's
Speaker 4: not going to make you rich. It's like, no, it's not.
Speaker 4: But for when we're living on extremely low incomes, that
Speaker 4: can quickly derail a budget. If we are thinking that
Speaker 4: we're just going to treat ourselves in this way or
Speaker 4: that way, or it might lead us to a mindset
Speaker 4: of making payments, and so we might get an nice
Speaker 4: or car than what we can actually afford because we're
Speaker 4: just making payments, and so recognizing where our mindset is
Speaker 4: at and shifting to a mindset of how can I
Speaker 4: approach this as if I'm going to spend less than
Speaker 4: what I'm bringing in, and even if you can afford,
Speaker 4: even if you do get a little bit extra money
Speaker 4: that you weren't anticipating instead of maybe going out for
Speaker 4: a nice dinner, that might mean how do I put
Speaker 4: this aside for savings or how do I pay off
Speaker 4: a bill? It's not easy. It's not a place that
Speaker 4: we want to live for a really long time. But
Speaker 4: I think approaching it in this way and also approaching
Speaker 4: it in a way of how do I not stay
Speaker 4: here can help us make those sacrifices along the way.
Speaker 3: If this isn't forever.
Speaker 1: And that's another thing we want to emphasize that it shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Your mindset shouldn't be I'm going to live on a
Speaker 1: low income forever, even if you are in a job
Speaker 1: or a position that is historically low paying. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you have to be living on a low
Speaker 1: income forever. Jill is in a profession that is historically
Speaker 1: low paying.
Speaker 3: Social work, right, it's going to call it out. I'm
Speaker 3: a social.
Speaker 1: Worker, Yeah, and still prioritized increasing her income. And so
Speaker 1: this is a big mindset aspect to this too. You
Speaker 1: are living on a low income right now, but you
Speaker 1: are not a low income person. This is separate from you.
Speaker 1: And so this is a season that you are in
Speaker 1: in life. And I think even when you start to
Speaker 1: separate yourself from that mindset, it becomes easier to actually
Speaker 1: live below your means because you're living below your income's means,
Speaker 1: not necessarily living below your means like it's like it's forever.
Speaker 1: Because when you think it's forever, and when you see
Speaker 1: no way out, that's when you start to overspend on
Speaker 1: three four, six, eight dollars purchases because you need something
Speaker 1: to hold you over, something to reward yourself, because you
Speaker 1: see no way out of this low income trap. But
Speaker 1: when you start to separate yourself from this and start
Speaker 1: to put your attention and focus on getting out of
Speaker 1: that and just seeing this as the season that it
Speaker 1: is you can say, Okay, I can give up all
Speaker 1: this stuff for however long it takes, because I won't
Speaker 1: be here forever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly, And so we're going to be weaving
Speaker 4: in some of these mindset shifts along with tangible tips.
Speaker 4: The next one on this list is a more tangible
Speaker 4: tip of what do we do when we are in
Speaker 4: those places of low income and maybe it's going to
Speaker 4: be a few years before we do even see a
Speaker 4: way out shop only discount nearly. Make this a rule
Speaker 4: across the board for yourself. So if you need clothing,
Speaker 4: you need some furnishings, you need, you name it secondhand,
Speaker 4: so Goodwill, go to Facebook marketplace. Of course, we are
Speaker 4: only talking necessities like my shoes are completely worn out.
Speaker 4: I need a new pair of shoes Goodwill. And again
Speaker 4: these are tips for extremely low income earners. Remember this
Speaker 4: is this is who we're talking to right now, that
Speaker 4: these are the spots that you need to be going
Speaker 4: to find a discount grocery store and if you don't
Speaker 4: have one in your area, look for buy nothing groups,
Speaker 4: look for farmers' markets, look for swaps like what do
Speaker 4: they call those where you can like work at a
Speaker 4: farm and also take home some of the produce. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: thank you, find a co op, find a way to
Speaker 4: cut cut, cut your grocery bill if you've not found
Speaker 4: if you've not done all the yet, yes, all the
Speaker 4: is your best friend, and so are buy nothing groups,
Speaker 4: discount grocers, and of course scratch in dent places. So
Speaker 4: you know this is definitely getting into some more like
Speaker 4: if you own your home and appliance breaks, holy smokes,
Speaker 4: scratch and den if you actually need to replace something
Speaker 4: or build up skill sets problem solving YouTube DIY fix
Speaker 4: it yourself is also your best friend. Look into fixing
Speaker 4: that thing first, or figuring out how to go without,
Speaker 4: or check your buy nothing group for the thing that
Speaker 4: you need before you jump to purchasing or replacing. I
Speaker 4: would say, wash your clothes by hand before you move
Speaker 4: to how do I buy this new washing machine? When
Speaker 4: we are living bare bones, our mentality needs to be
Speaker 4: bare bones absolutely at that point with the focus on
Speaker 4: how do I not stay here?
Speaker 1: Tell them about your your scratch and dent appliance.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, so Eric and I just moved into a home.
Speaker 4: We were able to purchase a home this past year,
Speaker 4: and the fridge needed replacing and so we went to
Speaker 4: Year's outlet has scratch and dents, so let's look for
Speaker 4: one in your area. If this, if you're in need
Speaker 4: of this. But there's a big old den on the
Speaker 4: front door of this fridge. And so we got like
Speaker 4: a sixty to seventy percent discount off of what this
Speaker 4: refrigerator would normally be. And so I just so we
Speaker 4: bought it because there's nothing else wrong with it other
Speaker 4: than cosmetics. And I just got a magnet chalkboard for
Speaker 4: the front of it. And now it also forces me
Speaker 4: to meal plan, so you don't even notice the dents anymore.
Speaker 4: I put up this black magnet a meal plan, so
Speaker 4: it's like a win win win across the board because
Speaker 4: now I'm more planful with what we're going to eat,
Speaker 4: which also helps me to save money. And I got
Speaker 4: a really dope appliance for super Inexpensive.
Speaker 1: I love that story, and I love your refrigerator. And
Speaker 1: one more thing on shopping discount and secondhand thrift stores
Speaker 1: are not just for clothes. You can get almost anything
Speaker 1: from a thrift store, and thrift stores aren't your only
Speaker 1: way to get secondhand stuff. I love shopping eBay. We
Speaker 1: got so much stuff and I almost love eBay more
Speaker 1: than thrift stores because it takes a long time for
Speaker 1: me to search in a thrift store. I don't love shopping,
Speaker 1: so I don't love searching for things in thrift stores.
Speaker 1: But if there's something I know I need and then
Speaker 1: I can instantly go on eBay and search for it
Speaker 1: secondhand and it comes up and I get it. Like
Speaker 1: we did this recently. We bought a sleepsack for when
Speaker 1: Kai was an infant to help him sleep through the night,
Speaker 1: and it was forty dollars new, it was thirty dollars
Speaker 1: at our baby consignment shops, found it on eBay for
Speaker 1: twenty So I love eBay for that. When you need
Speaker 1: to buy something that is hard to find at a
Speaker 1: thrift store, still look for it secondhand first because literally
Speaker 1: there's all most nothing that we buy firsthand now. And
Speaker 1: I want to point out, like Jill and I still
Speaker 1: do these things because these are habits we cultivated when
Speaker 1: we didn't make a lot of money. So if you
Speaker 1: adopt these habits now, later on you can pick and
Speaker 1: choose what you want to take with you, and it's
Speaker 1: going to free up so much of your income later on.
Speaker 4: And connected with this, again, I want to highlight that
Speaker 4: if you're living on an extremely low income, purchasing items
Speaker 4: is not something you.
Speaker 3: Should be doing off right.
Speaker 4: So true, and this ties in with the next tip,
Speaker 4: which is rethinking necessities. When you're living on a low income,
Speaker 4: you are really focused on the basics. Transportation to your
Speaker 4: job so that you can make money, food.
Speaker 3: Shelter bills. That's it.
Speaker 4: And if that sounds tough, yeah it is yeah, And
Speaker 4: it is a reason and a motivator to be creative
Speaker 4: and look for ways to not stay at an extremely
Speaker 4: low income. But while you're there, you need to be
Speaker 4: rethinking necessities. So this means even down to paper towels.
Speaker 4: Do I really need to buy paper towels? Or can
Speaker 4: I be using rags? Can I be making use of
Speaker 4: reusable items? Do I really need to be buying detergent
Speaker 4: for a month? Caroline gives us an example fifteen dollars
Speaker 4: for detergent for a month versus twelve dollars to make
Speaker 4: your own for the whole year, and she has a
Speaker 4: link to how to do that, how to make your
Speaker 4: own detergent. So this is the type of mentality that
Speaker 4: we need to be taking on of. How can we reuse,
Speaker 4: how can we diiy, how can we make our own
Speaker 4: and how can we make spending and buying things outside
Speaker 4: of transportation, food shelter bills very very minimal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this like might sound like, uh uh no, I
Speaker 1: don't make a lot, but at least I make something.
Speaker 1: I'm not destitute. I need to have like some luxuries.
Speaker 1: But if your focus is on bettering your life, bettering
Speaker 1: your financial situation, which I assume it is because you're
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, you're interested in it, you're interested
Speaker 1: in doing better, then these are things that you're only
Speaker 1: going to be doing for a little time, like a
Speaker 1: short amount of time, maybe a few years, And that
Speaker 1: seems like a long time while you're going through it.
Speaker 1: I understand two years seems like four ever when you're
Speaker 1: in it, But in the grand scheme of things, it's
Speaker 1: not that long. So if you are and it can be,
Speaker 1: it can be really ego deflating when you don't have
Speaker 1: enough money and you're living like trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: wash your clothes without a washing machine like that sounds flating.
Speaker 1: But if you separate yourself from the situation and from
Speaker 1: what you are doing and realize you're not doing it
Speaker 1: because you have to. You're doing it because you're bettering
Speaker 1: your situation. This is what you have to do right now.
Speaker 1: To do that, then it becomes mentally a little easier.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it doesn't mean that you can't have any joy
Speaker 4: or fun in the midst of this either. It's not
Speaker 4: as if I can't spend any money, so I just
Speaker 4: need to be downtrodden. There are plenty of free things
Speaker 4: that you can enjoy and so go on walks, find
Speaker 4: beauty in your surroundings, get together with friends in a
Speaker 4: way that doesn't cause you to have to spend money.
Speaker 4: There are still things that you can do. It just
Speaker 4: really needs to be with the mindset that this needs
Speaker 4: to not cost financially.
Speaker 3: It needs to not cost me anything absolutely.
Speaker 1: And then I like that she says hand me downs
Speaker 1: will be your way to upgrade. Yeah, we do this
Speaker 1: if I like with my office chair, I was sitting
Speaker 1: at a dining table chair and then found a chair,
Speaker 1: actually found it on the side of the road in
Speaker 1: front of my friend's house, so I knew where the
Speaker 1: chair came from and upgraded that way, and then upgraded
Speaker 1: to a little better chair found on Facebook marketplace. So
Speaker 1: like the first upgrade was free, but I did pay
Speaker 1: for the second one, so it's yeah, upgrades don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to be new.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was my life saver.
Speaker 4: It was amazing, Jen, like, how many, how many really
Speaker 4: cool things Eric and I had even in our times
Speaker 4: of living financially below the poverty line, because we would
Speaker 4: get hand me downs, pick up things on the side
Speaker 4: of the road, find free stuff you name it, or
Speaker 4: fix something up that somebody didn't have any use for
Speaker 4: anymore and just had some really cool stuff. And I
Speaker 4: got to say I had a rule for myself, like
Speaker 4: we did not buy anything even if I needed new
Speaker 4: I mean I didn't never really need new clothes, but
Speaker 4: you know, I would never buy new clothes. I wasn't
Speaker 4: doing those things, but I would somehow still get new
Speaker 4: things because friends were cleaning out their closets and they
Speaker 4: always knew to like, ask me if I wanted to
Speaker 4: dig through it, because I always did so shout out
Speaker 4: to Chelsea. I get so much of my wardrobe was
Speaker 4: given to me for my friend Chelsea.
Speaker 3: And that was fun too.
Speaker 4: And yeah, a great way to be able to make
Speaker 4: use of other people's things that they might be getting
Speaker 4: rid of and Caroline talks about paying people for their
Speaker 4: old stuff. That's great if you can afford it, but
Speaker 4: if people just know that, hey, before I take something
Speaker 4: to the thrift store, like maybe I'll check with so
Speaker 4: and so and see if.
Speaker 3: They want it, Like, go for it.
Speaker 4: Let your friends know that, Hey, let me know before
Speaker 4: you're getting rid of your clothes or you're such and such,
Speaker 4: like I'd be interested to pick through it. If that's
Speaker 4: not too ego deflating for you. That was something that
Speaker 4: was super or helpful for Eric and I.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you are in the mindset you're a
Speaker 1: frugal person, not a charity case, like you can be like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I love the free stuff. Let me know what you're
Speaker 1: getting rid of, instead of like I really need this,
Speaker 1: and that's more deflating. But you're listening to this show,
Speaker 1: you're a frugal person, you love free stuff, so your.
Speaker 3: Friends know it.
Speaker 1: Yes, live in this. Did you have anything else, Jill,
Speaker 1: because we have to there's so many good things in
Speaker 1: this article, but we do have to move on to
Speaker 1: the next one.
Speaker 4: I just like the tip of just make your own everything.
Speaker 4: I think that's a really good way to shift some
Speaker 4: things in a tangible tip when you're living on a
Speaker 4: really low income of what can I make? Can I
Speaker 4: make my own snacks? Can I make my own bread?
Speaker 4: Can I make my own laundry detergent? Do I have
Speaker 4: to have like soap, body wash, shampoo bar, soap condition
Speaker 4: or like or can I just have.
Speaker 1: Like one thing for all of that?
Speaker 4: So just really really pairing down on the essentials and
Speaker 4: even cutting bills. Find out where you can cut your bills,
Speaker 4: and then beyond that, Okay, the things that I do need,
Speaker 4: can I make it myself? These are the places that
Speaker 4: are really going to hone in our budgets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then last thing that I'm going to say
Speaker 1: is her very last paragraph, is accept that this is
Speaker 1: where you are. So this was the biggest factor for them.
Speaker 1: They had to stop trying to live well, I'll just
Speaker 1: read it. We had to stop trying to live above
Speaker 1: our means and just accept that we didn't have the
Speaker 1: money to spend like other people did. By accepting this,
Speaker 1: we were finally able to stop working against ourselves and
Speaker 1: reach our goal. And she says, if you're constantly looking
Speaker 1: for the next, bigger, better thing, life is going to
Speaker 1: be hard. The sooner that you accept this as your life.
Speaker 1: The better. Once you're content right where you are, you
Speaker 1: can actually start to enjoy this life that you live.
Speaker 1: So and that doesn't mean that she stayed where she was.
Speaker 3: She makes a.
Speaker 1: Lot more money now, but this is where they lived
Speaker 1: for several years with children. But they were even able
Speaker 1: to buy a house on this income, so they live
Speaker 1: in a low cost of living area. But it is
Speaker 1: totally in your capabilities to live here and to progress
Speaker 1: from here, And.
Speaker 4: I would encourage anyone interested in taking a deeper dive
Speaker 4: check out this article.
Speaker 3: She also talks about some of the things she.
Speaker 4: Wished she had done on a low income that were
Speaker 4: available to her, but she didn't even know about it.
Speaker 4: So if you are in this place and you're kind
Speaker 4: of like, what other options do I have? What walls
Speaker 4: going to be pushing on? She talks about different side
Speaker 4: hustles that she wished she would have gotten into, certain
Speaker 4: diy things she wished she would have done to cut costs,
Speaker 4: particularly as a mom on a low income.
Speaker 3: So definitely check her out.
Speaker 1: Yes, So our next article is a little transition from
Speaker 1: how to live on the low income, and it's to
Speaker 1: how to pay off debt on a low income, and
Speaker 1: so that is going to level. It's gonna look so
Speaker 1: different for everyone. And I'm not saying that paying off
Speaker 1: debt should be your ultimate goal if you're on a
Speaker 1: low income, but it is certainly not collecting debt, absolutely
Speaker 1: not doing that. But sometimes you're at a place where
Speaker 1: paying off debt is right. You just need to get current.
Speaker 1: Like our recent conversation with Lydia Sen, she was talking
Speaker 1: about the baby step nobody talks about is like getting current,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that takes some time. So that may be
Speaker 1: where you're at, but as you work on getting better,
Speaker 1: then maybe paying off debt is your goal. So this
Speaker 1: one is from nab Or you need a budget dot
Speaker 1: com And it's going through somebody's budget who wants to
Speaker 1: pay off twenty six thousand dollars of debt with a
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand dollars per year income. So you can
Speaker 1: see big difference where Caroline was making seventeen thousand and
Speaker 1: this couple is making thirty five. So what did you think, Jill?
Speaker 4: I like this article because it gives you real time
Speaker 4: examples of where is the money going, what is the plan,
Speaker 4: and not that this is going to look like everybody's
Speaker 4: situation by any means, but it does give us some
Speaker 4: ideas of how we can go about tackling this because
Speaker 4: and the reason we're including this in this particular episode
Speaker 4: is because this is a reason for a lot of
Speaker 4: people to not pay off debt. I don't make enough money,
Speaker 4: and so we're kind of pushing back on that a
Speaker 4: little bit to say, well, maybe you can't pay off
Speaker 4: six figures of debt and five months while you make
Speaker 4: a thirty five thousand dollars a year salary. But what
Speaker 4: can be done and what creative ways can we be
Speaker 4: looking at this? So I like the real time example
Speaker 4: of here's how much money they bring in. This is
Speaker 4: where the money goes. This is the plan for how
Speaker 4: they're going to do this. One of the that stood
Speaker 4: out to me and just looking at their budget is
Speaker 4: where they really cut back extremely However, and the article
Speaker 4: does highlight this, it is for a time, This is
Speaker 4: not for forever.
Speaker 3: This is for a.
Speaker 4: Season to be able to get out of debt quickly.
Speaker 4: So they made some drastic life changes from extremely limiting entertainment,
Speaker 4: if not having nearly zero entertainment, I mean they are
Speaker 4: paying for like Netflix and Hulu on this example, budget,
Speaker 4: but there's no gifts, there's no presence, there's no vacation,
Speaker 4: there's no birthday parties, and that is extreme and that
Speaker 4: seems like bah humbug type stuff. However, they continue to
Speaker 4: highlight it's for an eighteen month period. They're not going
Speaker 4: to forever and always not do Christmas presents, birthday presence,
Speaker 4: no vacation.
Speaker 3: It is for this time so that they don't have
Speaker 3: to stay.
Speaker 4: In this rut of making a low income and having
Speaker 4: the burden of debt, so cutting back really extremely for
Speaker 4: a season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this article was super convicting to me because I
Speaker 1: had a thirty five thousand dollars income before I met Travis,
Speaker 1: and I had fifty thousand dollars of debt, and I
Speaker 1: thought I will be in debt forever. There's no way
Speaker 1: I can get out of this. Thirty five thousand is
Speaker 1: too low. And to see a budget that has this
Speaker 1: couple paying it off in eighteen months and realizing I
Speaker 1: could have done it in three years, like I could
Speaker 1: have done it in three years and I just didn't know.
Speaker 1: And when I say that, I'm like, man, there are
Speaker 1: how many other people are out there making thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and in the same place I was, And
Speaker 1: if you're really like gung ho about it, you could
Speaker 1: be done in three years, not forever. And part of
Speaker 1: that was like I didn't want to waste the rest
Speaker 1: of my twenties paying off a debt. But then I
Speaker 1: was like, three years from then, I would have still
Speaker 1: been in my twenties. Yeah, So it's just it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Your mind will say you can't do this, like this
Speaker 1: is impossible, it's too big, but the numbers say it's possible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you follow the numbers.
Speaker 3: A magno mistake. This is bare bones.
Speaker 1: It does git small.
Speaker 4: There's like there's little things that are laughable on this budget,
Speaker 4: like why spend You know they have both Netflix and Hulu,
Speaker 4: but yet they're cutting out like so many other things,
Speaker 4: Like they've only got ten dollars for medical expenses, so
Speaker 4: I'd be like, well, cut out at least one of
Speaker 4: those TV subscriptions. And then it's also funny they have
Speaker 4: his and her spending. His spending is a bit more
Speaker 4: than her spending, So I don't know about this. What
Speaker 4: are their names, Jenny and Aaron? But yeah, a good
Speaker 4: example of kind of all right, where can we put
Speaker 4: this money. Certainly their mortgage is very low, their water
Speaker 4: and electric bill are very low. So certainly this is
Speaker 4: dependent on what your particular expenses are, how much money
Speaker 4: you're bringing in. But to show you ultimately, my takeaway
Speaker 4: on this is this is bare bones. We've got to
Speaker 4: go sew bare bones, and we've got to get really
Speaker 4: creative on how to cut to be this bare bones.
Speaker 4: And I think it goes back to Caroline's article of
Speaker 4: they're probably diying a lot. They've really cut their grocery budget.
Speaker 4: They're definitely eating at home a lot. They are not
Speaker 4: going out, they're not doing any of the extras. They're
Speaker 4: not spending money on gifts or presents or even any
Speaker 4: version of luxury items for themselves, including just a small coffee.
Speaker 4: It's not happening in this budget.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the things that we can get into
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty on this, so like they have two
Speaker 1: thirteen to fifty paychecks per month, health insurance and retirement
Speaker 1: contributions are withheld so they don't appear in the budget,
Speaker 1: as well as some four oh one K loan payments
Speaker 1: are also withheld. Something that I found really interesting in
Speaker 1: the budget is that this couple is giving to charity
Speaker 1: every month, and like significantly, they're giving three hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month two in tithing in other charitable donations, So
Speaker 1: this is something that they have prioritized. Like you can
Speaker 1: see everything else, there's no like, no birthdays, no anniversary,
Speaker 1: no date nights, no like gifts, no nothing, and then
Speaker 1: but three hundred dollars to charity. So there is even
Speaker 1: room in this budget for wiggle room if that's not
Speaker 1: something you're going to do as much. So it's not
Speaker 1: like they're maxing out their budget on just their bills,
Speaker 1: like there's there is room in this budget.
Speaker 4: Something else that did stand out to me is that
Speaker 4: they are setting aside money monthly to kind of go
Speaker 4: into a pot for different spending. So the one thing
Speaker 4: is weekend fun. So they are putting ten dollars a
Speaker 4: month aside for weekend fun. So that certainly doesn't mean
Speaker 4: that they're having weekend fun every weekend. That means maybe
Speaker 4: once a quarter they've got forty to fifty bucks to
Speaker 4: spend on a weekend, or you do small things here
Speaker 4: and there, but that there is still small amounts of
Speaker 4: money that they are setting aside that they can pull
Speaker 4: from that would be minor luxuries, minor rewards in this process.
Speaker 4: So I think that is something worth considering, even setting
Speaker 4: aside a few bucks here and there that you can
Speaker 4: utilize for those times when you really do need just
Speaker 4: a little bit of a pick me up for all
Speaker 4: of the work and sacrifice that you're putting in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think it's essential while you're paying off debt.
Speaker 1: I recommend that people create milestones within their debt payoff
Speaker 1: and have it be a milestone you can reach at
Speaker 1: least every other month to every three to four months,
Speaker 1: and you're saving every month, and then when you hit
Speaker 1: those milestones, you get a reward that's proportionate to the
Speaker 1: milestone that you're hitting, and you take it from that fund.
Speaker 1: So then again you're planning for it in advance. It's
Speaker 1: also something that you're working towards. You know it's on
Speaker 1: the horizon, and so you work towards it to get
Speaker 1: to it, maybe a little faster, because you really want
Speaker 1: whatever that reward is. So it's essential to be doing
Speaker 1: something like that. But when you plan for it, it
Speaker 1: stops being one of those things that, oh my god,
Speaker 1: i'm so bored. I haven't done something in so long,
Speaker 1: let me spend forty dollars to do this, and then
Speaker 1: you bust your budget and you feel guilty, and it
Speaker 1: starts being something like, oh my gosh, I can't wait
Speaker 1: to do it. It's forty dollars. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: do it. And then you do it and you feel
Speaker 1: good about it, and you spend the money and you
Speaker 1: feel good about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I also like with this example of paying down
Speaker 4: debt on a low income is the process then that
Speaker 4: they lay out, so not just the budget that they're
Speaker 4: going to be working off of, but a plan of action.
Speaker 4: And so they first describe how they're going to pay
Speaker 4: off to credit cards with savings, followed by using a
Speaker 4: little bit of the extra savings to pay down a
Speaker 4: final credit card, moving into focusing on the fourth credit
Speaker 4: card with the payments that they're going to make monthly,
Speaker 4: which moves into using a work bonus to pay off
Speaker 4: the credit cards, then work bonus and snowballing your monthly
Speaker 4: payments to pay down the car loan. Like it's actionable
Speaker 4: steps going in consecutive order of one another. So they've
Speaker 4: even said, like, here's what we're going to do from
Speaker 4: now until the end of the year, here's what we're
Speaker 4: going to do the first three months of the new year,
Speaker 4: here's what we're going to do through the summer. And
Speaker 4: it's kind of laid out in this way, which I
Speaker 4: think is a really great plan of action. In this
Speaker 4: person's example, they're apparently getting a three thousand dollars bonus.
Speaker 4: So I know that that's not everybody's reality, that's what
Speaker 4: they're able to work with. But again, all of our
Speaker 4: situations are different, and what works for one is not
Speaker 4: going to work for another. However, we utilize all these
Speaker 4: examples to say, what is your story and where can
Speaker 4: you utilize creativity? Where might you have something that other
Speaker 4: people don't have that you can use to your advantage
Speaker 4: to get out of debt, or to reach a savings goal,
Speaker 4: or to increase your income. You know, I know for me,
Speaker 4: I often use the example of living in really non
Speaker 4: traditional housing that we house sat for a little bit.
Speaker 3: We lived in a trailer.
Speaker 4: I know that that cannot be everybody's circumstances, but I'm
Speaker 4: going to keep highlighting it in case it works for somebody.
Speaker 4: But also to recognize there is wiggle room for creativity here.
Speaker 4: There are ways that we can say well, is there
Speaker 4: a non traditional path that I can take that will
Speaker 4: help me get out of this very difficult circumstance. So anyhow,
Speaker 4: all that to say, it is good to have a plan,
Speaker 4: and it is good to kind of put it in
Speaker 4: consecutive order of once this is done, what comes next?
Speaker 4: What's our plan for how we're going to get there?
Speaker 4: And then, as you mentioned, Jen, celebrate. You know, after
Speaker 4: you've done and accomplish each one of these steps, do
Speaker 4: something small. Doesn't even have to cost you anything. You
Speaker 4: can do something for free, but give yourself these little
Speaker 4: rewards as you accomplish each one of these steps along
Speaker 4: the way.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and then the last thing I want to point
Speaker 1: out about the strategy is that it emphasizes putting the
Speaker 1: focus on one thing at a time. When you are
Speaker 1: trying to dig out of a big hole with a
Speaker 1: little shovel, that hole can feel overwhelming. All you see
Speaker 1: is the big number and you say, I can't do this.
Speaker 1: And so what the key is is to focus on
Speaker 1: one thing at a time, one financial goal at a time,
Speaker 1: one milestone at a time, and just work towards that
Speaker 1: one milestone and ignore the bigger number and say, okay,
Speaker 1: I may not get to it, But I'm going to
Speaker 1: get to this one, okay. And then maybe after I
Speaker 1: do that, I take a break for a month or something,
Speaker 1: and then I get right back on track and I
Speaker 1: work to the next milestone, to the point where I'm
Speaker 1: not taking any more breaks anymore. I'm just keeping going
Speaker 1: and going and going. But focusing on one thing at
Speaker 1: a time is a powerful psychological tool to make big breakthroughs.
Speaker 1: So that's the last thing I liked about this.
Speaker 3: But you know what else is a big breakthrough and
Speaker 3: something I like to move on to.
Speaker 1: The bill of the week.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 5: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 5: is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 5: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 5: that bill anymore. That bills, butffalo bills, Bill Claion, this
Speaker 5: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hey, for wel friends, my name is Ellie here in Israel. Well,
Speaker 6: I actually got a promotion at my job, and my
Speaker 6: husband and I decided that we were gonna celebrate later
Speaker 6: that night. We were getting ready and I randomly found
Speaker 6: twenty one dollar bills just laying next to my bed.
Speaker 6: It was a little random, just because we haven't used
Speaker 6: US currency in the past about two years, but that's okay,
Speaker 6: I'll take it. That ended up going towards our date night,
Speaker 6: so we didn't have to dip into our date night fund,
Speaker 6: which was totally amazing and made me extra happy that day. Anyways,
Speaker 6: you ladies, keep up the good work.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what a gift from the universe.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love finding money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that wasn't expected, but how great. There's so many
Speaker 4: layers in this one. That you were about to go
Speaker 4: celebrate a promotion. Congratul suns. That's what we hope for.
Speaker 1: On this frugal journey.
Speaker 4: But then even that your celebration didn't really have to
Speaker 4: cost you anything because of this nice gift of US
Speaker 4: dollar bill currency that you found. What a way to
Speaker 4: just enjoy a night together and celebrating growth in your life.
Speaker 3: Congratulations.
Speaker 1: Really stoked for everything in your life right now. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we hope twenty twenty one brings you more promotions and
Speaker 1: more date nights and more random money. I wish that
Speaker 1: for everyone listening.
Speaker 4: For everybody, random money, Yes, you'll get a money you
Speaker 4: get a money, not.
Speaker 1: Me, though. You find the money, you'll find a money.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: If you find a money, please visit us at Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash bill and tell us about it.
Speaker 3: Yes, we want to hear it.
Speaker 4: We want to hear about the money you found, the
Speaker 4: money you spent, the money.
Speaker 3: You saved, all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially the money you saved.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and the money you spent if it's on
Speaker 3: paying on your debt trick.
Speaker 1: Now it's time for us slighting world.
Speaker 4: Which turns into a song somehow always So, Jill, you
Speaker 4: came up with did you come up with this lightning round? No?
Speaker 1: You know I did. I forgot out of yourself. Well
Speaker 1: I forgot I didn't write the last lightning round toil
Speaker 1: the last minute. I didn't remember writing this one. I
Speaker 1: wrote these outlines last week. So that's where my head
Speaker 1: is at. But it's a good one. I'll bring on myself.
Speaker 1: We're sharing the key to bringing yourself out of the
Speaker 1: low income trap. So as two people who have lived
Speaker 1: on relatively low incomes like I won't lie like thirty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars isn't super low, you know, but it's
Speaker 1: not average. So it felt so even though it wasn't
Speaker 1: as low now that I know more people who have
Speaker 1: actually lived on low incomes. When I was living in it,
Speaker 1: it felt low, and compared to my parents and my parents' friends,
Speaker 1: it was low. So low isn't always a number. Low
Speaker 1: income isn't always a number. It's a state of mind.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it can be relative, and sometimes we can look
Speaker 4: back and think, man, that that was really low compared
Speaker 4: to where I am now, or oh wow, I could
Speaker 4: have actually done more with that because it wasn't as
Speaker 4: low as I thought. Which leads me to my tip,
Speaker 4: which is mindset shift, where I think in getting out
Speaker 4: of this low income, I think this is a big component.
Speaker 4: It might not feel as tangible as we want it
Speaker 4: to feel. I talked about this in a previous episode too.
Speaker 4: I think like mindset shifts we need to make that.
Speaker 4: I would often tell myself, like my internal narrative was,
Speaker 4: I'm never going to make a lot of money. I'm
Speaker 4: a social worker, my husband works for himself. Our income
Speaker 4: is irregular, and we are always going to be quote
Speaker 4: unquote poor. Granted, I have always recognized and hoped that
Speaker 4: I continue to recognize it. We have amazing family and
Speaker 4: friends that we've not experienced homelessness, although some people might
Speaker 4: have considered me living in a vehicle to be that perspective. Yeah, perspective.
Speaker 4: But this thought that I'm never going to make a
Speaker 4: lot of money that was keeping me stuck. It meant
Speaker 4: that then I wasn't working towards anything beyond that because
Speaker 4: I was just like, I'm just poor. Some times I
Speaker 4: viewed myself as a charity case, like well, yeah, people
Speaker 4: should give me free stuff, or if somebody gives us dinner,
Speaker 4: thank you, like I need that. And I did, granted,
Speaker 4: but it kind of kept me in this place. And
Speaker 4: when I started to make the shift and started to realize, oh,
Speaker 4: this isn't a place that I need to set up
Speaker 4: my tent that I need to live out of, that
Speaker 4: really shifted some things for me that yes, I'm still
Speaker 4: a social worker, I'm still living in the field. I
Speaker 4: didn't switch to being a lawyer suddenly. But I am
Speaker 4: making more money and it is possible for me to
Speaker 4: make more money, whether it is I mean, even maintaining
Speaker 4: my social work job, but maybe doing some side hustles
Speaker 4: of things that I enjoy, or looking to cut expenses
Speaker 4: in ways that I didn't think was possible, you name it.
Speaker 4: Mindset shift has been a huge one for me that
Speaker 4: it doesn't have to stay in this place, and it
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that I have to change what I do
Speaker 4: or what I love to make more money, because I
Speaker 4: know that's a big thing too for people in low
Speaker 4: income careers like social work or teaching or any kind
Speaker 4: of human service profession. It's like, I make a low income,
Speaker 4: but I love what I do, or you know, you're
Speaker 4: not going to be able to pull me away from
Speaker 4: these kids or this population. I get it, But that
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that you need to be devalued in your
Speaker 4: financial earnings. It doesn't mean that you have to stay there,
Speaker 4: and that is like the banner over you for the
Speaker 4: rest of your life. You can stay in the work
Speaker 4: that you're doing and find creative ways, whether it is
Speaker 4: inside hustles or whether it is equipping yourself further so
Speaker 4: that your income potential grows.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Amen. Yeah, I mean I can't say much more
Speaker 1: than that, But again, I think my answer is also
Speaker 1: mindset shifts. When I think of the biggest things that
Speaker 1: I have done to specifically earn more income when I
Speaker 1: was willing myself into it by trying to use just
Speaker 1: physical force, like my time and my body, like most
Speaker 1: of you probably know. Like I tried that for two
Speaker 1: months when we were starting to pay off debt, and
Speaker 1: I worked myself into shingles, Like I got shingles at
Speaker 1: the ripe age of twenty six from overworking. So it
Speaker 1: didn't work out for me just to like be sheer
Speaker 1: brute strength to increase my income. But when I started
Speaker 1: to familiarize myself with other people that were making more
Speaker 1: money than me, then I started to see like, oh,
Speaker 1: this person has And then I got to meet these people,
Speaker 1: and I was like, these people are not more special
Speaker 1: than I am. They are not more educated, they are
Speaker 1: not more talented. They don't work longer, they don't work harder,
Speaker 1: but they have found a way to make more by
Speaker 1: simply getting creative and believing a they are worth more
Speaker 1: and that there is more to be made even in
Speaker 1: their selected profession. For me, I was making thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year and I was an acupuncturist, and
Speaker 1: that's not a lucrative job.
Speaker 4: And I took a lot of investment in yourself. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's the equivalent of a master's degree that you have
Speaker 4: to do that I did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a master's degree, and that was the
Speaker 1: debt I paid off. And like a lot of other
Speaker 1: people that I'm sure got master's degrees for fields that
Speaker 1: did not give them the pay increase they thought they
Speaker 1: were going to get. And so I did that. But
Speaker 1: then I realized like I had hit the cap for
Speaker 1: what I was going to make with acupuncture, and so
Speaker 1: it was a super difficult decision, but I decided to
Speaker 1: leave the industry to pursue a career in writing that
Speaker 1: I saw could be much more lucrative. So it provided
Speaker 1: a small income jump initially, but I knew the room
Speaker 1: for income. The ceiling was a lot higher, and in
Speaker 1: some cases for some people know ceiling. But that was
Speaker 1: a really hard decision, and so now I very much
Speaker 1: advocate for people not staying in the jobs that they
Speaker 1: are in that if you want to raise your income
Speaker 1: and you don't want to work a side hustle, then
Speaker 1: look for another job in the same field whatever, maybe
Speaker 1: a different city made the same city that pays more.
Speaker 1: Because raises are hard to come by, I was getting
Speaker 1: a three percent raise every year at the clinic. My
Speaker 1: boss was amazing and consistent with that, but three percent
Speaker 1: every year was only going to keep up with inflation,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to. I was at the point where
Speaker 1: I was like, I know people are doing this, and
Speaker 1: I know I can do it, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've hit the ceiling. And that was me, Like it
Speaker 1: was really hard to leave something that I loved, but
Speaker 1: I was able to find something I loved even more.
Speaker 1: And honestly, when I quit, I didn't know. I wasn't
Speaker 1: confident that I was going to like writing full time.
Speaker 1: I knew I liked writing on the side when I
Speaker 1: was like, I could hate this, I could start doing
Speaker 1: full time and hate it. Yeah, but I needed to
Speaker 1: take that risk and just see so that I wasn't
Speaker 1: wondering what if.
Speaker 4: Well, and I want to highlight for you too, because yeah,
Speaker 4: it's kind of different sides of a similar coin. That
Speaker 4: you did leave your career, but that didn't mean that
Speaker 4: you left it just to make money. You left it
Speaker 4: for also something that you enjoy and that helps people
Speaker 4: that you are encouraging others in their finances, showing people
Speaker 4: what's possible, giving tools, equipping others. So while I say
Speaker 4: you don't have to leave your field if you love
Speaker 4: it to make more money. It is also possible that
Speaker 4: maybe you're a multifaceted person and you have more than
Speaker 4: one interest and you can pursue something else that might
Speaker 4: be a bit more lucrative for you.
Speaker 3: And yes, I will acknowledge this can take time.
Speaker 4: You know, I talked about how I made eighteen that
Speaker 4: we both my husband and I, So this is jointly.
Speaker 4: We made eighteen thousand dollars take home in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: and that was partly the sacrifice in the investment that
Speaker 4: we made so that I could equip myself. So this
Speaker 4: is not going to be like snap your fingers and
Speaker 4: jump to stage fifteen. There are going to be steps
Speaker 4: that we have to take and sacrifices we make along
Speaker 4: the way. But consider what your options are and consider
Speaker 4: shifting your mindset to think outside of the box that
Speaker 4: I don't have to stay in this place, or if
Speaker 4: I do want to stay in the field I'm in
Speaker 4: and I'm only getting incremental salary increases, Maybe consider moving
Speaker 4: to a different location or practice or business doing a
Speaker 4: similar thing. But you're more likely to increase your pay
Speaker 4: exponentially switching companies than staying with the same one and
Speaker 4: just taking the standard pay increase every year. So there's
Speaker 4: lots of different things to consider there, but ultimately thinking
Speaker 4: outside the box, creativity, equipping yourself, considering location change, considering
Speaker 4: field change. Yeah, all of these things can help us
Speaker 4: when we're on low incomes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And two more things I want to say. The first
Speaker 1: is if you keep hearing suggestions over and over and
Speaker 1: over again about how to lower your expenses and increase
Speaker 1: your income, and to every suggestion you say, I can't
Speaker 1: do that, I can't do that, I'm not willing to
Speaker 1: do that, And to the point where you say I
Speaker 1: just can't get any useful information out of anybody, then
Speaker 1: you have to start to re examine, like is it
Speaker 1: the people giving you the recommendations or is it your
Speaker 1: unwillingness to change for a season. So that's like a
Speaker 1: hard realization thing. Yeah, you have to be willing to
Speaker 1: do things that you don't want to do for a
Speaker 1: period of time in order to better your life.
Speaker 4: And then because there is no magic, like there's no
Speaker 4: magical that any one of us can give to any
Speaker 4: person who's making eighteen thousand dollars a year, it doesn't exist,
Speaker 4: it doesn't and saying what needs to happen to move
Speaker 4: forward from this place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then one last thing on my story. So
Speaker 1: I think when I recommend people switch their jobs, they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: but the job. You know, market is so volatile, what
Speaker 1: if I lose that job? Like I'm in a really
Speaker 1: safe job right now, I will say from experience, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's possible you lose your job. I got fired from
Speaker 1: that writing job a year after I took it, and
Speaker 1: which forced me into honest, gosh.
Speaker 3: You got laid off.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you for having a They had a mass layoff.
Speaker 1: I was one of forty five people laid off. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you do so bad as a writer
Speaker 1: that you would get fired but at a personal finance website.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and I lost it. And I took the
Speaker 1: skills that I had gotten from that job and implemented
Speaker 1: them immediately to start working for myself. So like, there
Speaker 1: are very few reasons why anything is a bad idea,
Speaker 1: like any of these recommendations, Yes, there's could always be
Speaker 1: a downside to doing one, but there's always an upset.
Speaker 1: I may have never gone full time into my business
Speaker 1: had I not been laid off. I mean I always
Speaker 1: wanted to, but I may not have had the courage too.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying like everybody has to be self employed.
Speaker 1: That is not the path for everyone. But there are
Speaker 1: jobs out there. They do pay more, they are not finite,
Speaker 1: they are out.
Speaker 3: There and more and more.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: One of the silver linings of this pandemic is how
Speaker 4: many companies have moved to online remote work, so that
Speaker 4: whole avenue I think is opening up more and more
Speaker 4: where people might be able to switch jobs more easily
Speaker 4: because spots that maybe aren't super local to you are
Speaker 4: starting to open up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, opportunities.
Speaker 1: I really liked the love low income trap part, like
Speaker 1: to round it out because our hope and our idea
Speaker 1: is that low income may be happening to you, either
Speaker 1: by choice or by circumstance, but it is never a
Speaker 1: place that is sustainable, so and it's not going to
Speaker 1: help you grow financially or mentally or in the things
Speaker 1: that money can't buy. So if there is a level
Speaker 1: of income that is really stifling, then working on getting
Speaker 1: out of that low income trap I think is truly.
Speaker 4: The first key, the best place to be putting our time,
Speaker 4: energy and attention, because there's only so much we can
Speaker 4: do to cut our expenses. I know that we talked
Speaker 4: about that in this episode, but eventually we it's going
Speaker 4: to need to cause us to look at how can
Speaker 4: we earn more? And related to the low income trap,
Speaker 4: you and I Jen have learned more kind of on
Speaker 4: this topic how we engage with the world and the
Speaker 4: ways that things are sold to us. Since we recorded
Speaker 4: this episode, we've been in the process of writing this
Speaker 4: book now. The book is available in Buy What You
Speaker 4: Love Without Going Broke. We talk about marketing and the
Speaker 4: ways in which marketers try to appeal to us, and
Speaker 4: I think you know, with the low income trap, it's
Speaker 4: not just marketing. There's like a whole system at play
Speaker 4: here that can kind of keep us down. But certainly
Speaker 4: the ways in which products and experiences and services are
Speaker 4: marketed to us can help to perpetuate some of this
Speaker 4: trap that we can find ourselves in when we don't
Speaker 4: give ourselves that space to identify why am I spending?
Speaker 4: Are there other ways that I can meet my needs
Speaker 4: that are free or low cost? And so I think
Speaker 4: sometimes building out this knowledge and understanding and being able
Speaker 4: to identify where where we are being cheated, where we
Speaker 4: are not getting the most that we actually truly deserve
Speaker 4: can also be helpful in this in this space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't think it just the marketing aspect
Speaker 1: doesn't just get us to buy things, but when we're
Speaker 1: in this low income space, it gets us to think
Speaker 1: that we deserve less, that we are not capable of
Speaker 1: being more, accomplishing more, doing more, and so if we're not,
Speaker 1: if we're not capable, then we might as well just
Speaker 1: take the little treats that they throw at us. So
Speaker 1: that I think is the true disservice that a lot
Speaker 1: of this marketing plays. It's not just when your low income.
Speaker 1: You're not buying a ton of stuff anyways, so you
Speaker 1: think this, you know, can't be helpful, but it does
Speaker 1: perpetuate this idea that we can't lift ourselves out of
Speaker 1: where we are, so we might as well just you know,
Speaker 1: treat ourselves to little things over and over. So I
Speaker 1: hope that maybe this has inspired you to think bigger,
Speaker 1: to think more, and if you can't, to surround yourself
Speaker 1: with people who can think that for you in real life,
Speaker 1: not just on the internet, like not like internet scammers
Speaker 1: that are like you can build up a million dollar
Speaker 1: business just like me, that's.
Speaker 3: Not what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Put yourself in community with people that can help you
Speaker 1: think bigger, and it will take time. And that's why
Speaker 1: we like to talk about saving money and optimizing our spending,
Speaker 1: because that's something you can do today, even if the
Speaker 1: income piece can't be handled today. And if this has
Speaker 1: helped you, I hope that you will leave us a
Speaker 1: rating and review on Apple or a rating and comment
Speaker 1: on Spotify, kind of like britty ka, did they say
Speaker 1: great podcast? I have never been a podcast girly, but
Speaker 1: I listen to Frugal Friends every day that I work
Speaker 1: from the office. I listen to one episode on my
Speaker 1: way in, one episode on my way home. This podcast
Speaker 1: has given me a bunch of tips and tricks on
Speaker 1: how to be a better adult all around. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that consistently listening to this podcast has helped me stay
Speaker 1: true to my goals and make progress more quickly. I've
Speaker 1: always been a consumer and changing the mindset to values
Speaker 1: based spending is hard, but Jen and Jill make it
Speaker 1: a lot easier. Thank you for all that you do
Speaker 1: and the information that you are putting into the world.
Speaker 3: Ooh pretty kay, this is really fun review.
Speaker 4: Thank I love the fact that you've never been a
Speaker 4: podcast girly, but you're listening to us twice a day.
Speaker 3: Really, you're getting the most.
Speaker 4: You dove head first into the deep end and are
Speaker 4: listening to us constantly. But it sounds like it's just
Speaker 4: helping you to kind of stay on track and rethink
Speaker 4: some things. This is a really encouraging review for us,
Speaker 4: and I imagine a really helpful review for other potential listeners.
Speaker 4: So if you are one of those current listeners who
Speaker 4: also wants to be helpful and you haven't left us
Speaker 4: a review or rating, please do so if you can
Speaker 4: do that on Apple or Spotify. Again, it's encouraging to us,
Speaker 4: and it's helpful to other people identifying.
Speaker 1: Will this be a good fit for me? Will this
Speaker 1: help me?
Speaker 3: I'm not a podcast girly, but should I give it
Speaker 3: a try?
Speaker 1: So thanks for doing that, Thank you, and we will
Speaker 1: see you next time. Google Friends is produced by Eric
Speaker 1: Sirianni Okay. I don't think we have any ideas for
Speaker 1: what to talk about right now. We're looking at each
Speaker 1: other like this comes out usually organically that one of
Speaker 1: us will have something to tell the other, But I
Speaker 1: think we have seen each other so too much in
Speaker 1: the past six weeks. There is nothing left.
Speaker 3: Here's the only though. We're not in person right now.
Speaker 4: We're not.
Speaker 1: Because I need to go home. I need to be home,
Speaker 1: like I need to see my family. I'm just kidding
Speaker 1: like that when the stuff happens, I need to see
Speaker 1: my house. My house needs love, and like, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't keep doing this leaving the house every day
Speaker 1: for work, Jill, I.
Speaker 3: Can't keep coming to your place. You need to meet
Speaker 3: me in the middle.
Speaker 1: Even meeting in the middle. We tryed a co working
Speaker 1: space for two weeks and I was like instantly, I
Speaker 1: did like that. No, it was okay, I would have
Speaker 1: loved an office. Okay, you wanted to drop so much
Speaker 1: money on this, that's I know.
Speaker 3: Okay, But we have a private office in my home.
Speaker 3: So what's that.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I prefer like doing that. I also
Speaker 1: just want to be home like two days a week.
Speaker 1: M Yeah I do.
Speaker 3: I yeah, I do. And that's I'm glad you're getting
Speaker 3: that today.
Speaker 1: It's not that I want to be home, it's that
Speaker 1: my home looks like a twister went off in it,
Speaker 1: and it takes time to reset, like literally Atlas just
Speaker 1: runs through the house and anything we have on a counter.
Speaker 1: He's like one of these minimalism gurus that's like like
Speaker 1: clear your spaces, your horizontal spaces, because he'll just clear
Speaker 1: our horizontal spaces for us, our countertops, coffee table, and
Speaker 1: then it's just all stands right, but it's all on
Speaker 1: the ground. So he's like not there yet, but eventually
Speaker 1: I think he will possibly be like a minimalism guru.
Speaker 1: He is that extreme. He's either he's going to one
Speaker 1: end or the other. And I I don't know how
Speaker 1: I'm going to teach him radical middle.
Speaker 3: He's never gonna learn it.
Speaker 1: I don't say, I don't know, I don't know se
Speaker 1: but like that's what I have to do when we
Speaker 1: get off of recording, is pick up the other the
Speaker 1: larger horizontal space in my house.
Speaker 3: Well, god speed, thank you,