Speaker 1: Episode three eighty three, Overcoming Emotional Spending with Megan Dwyer.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here
Speaker 2: your hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: specifically emotional spending. If you were here with us a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, we did an episode on the psychological
Speaker 1: reasons behind why we spend, and one of those was
Speaker 1: emotional and we are doing a deep dive into just
Speaker 1: that one today with our friend Megan.
Speaker 3: Great conversation, of course, a lot of the more emotional
Speaker 3: whole person perspective, and with Megan's background, she brings such
Speaker 3: an awesome perspective and just some helpful tips, tools, questions
Speaker 3: we can be asking. Megan is a certified financial planner
Speaker 3: and she hosts the Money Isn't Scary podcast. After spending
Speaker 3: fifteen years watching women take a passive role in the
Speaker 3: management of their money, she is on a mission to
Speaker 3: help them stop playing small. So she's got so much
Speaker 3: experience in helping people know all of the ins and
Speaker 3: outs of what to do what not to do with
Speaker 3: their finances, but also has really excellent insight on the
Speaker 3: other aspects to this bigger picture of why we might
Speaker 3: be spending the way that we're spending.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by the
Speaker 1: Friend Letter. We have a weekly newsletter that we publish
Speaker 1: three times a week sent straight to your inbox, where
Speaker 1: we are helping you overcome all of your overspending, whether
Speaker 1: it's emotional, impulsive, habitual, mindless, whatever it is. We want
Speaker 1: to help you spend better and consume less of what
Speaker 1: doesn't matter so you can afford more of what does.
Speaker 1: So if that is something that you need help with,
Speaker 1: then head over to Frugal Friends podcast dot com. This
Speaker 1: newsletter is free. We also share freebies and different spending hacks.
Speaker 1: We are very much getting into how to afford quality
Speaker 1: products over cheap quantity and sales getting swept up by
Speaker 1: sales on cheap things, So that is really what we're
Speaker 1: focusing on in the Friend Letter. Please Frugal friendspodcast dot
Speaker 1: com get the Friend Letter. It will very very much
Speaker 1: help you on your spending journey.
Speaker 3: It'll change your life, really, I hope drastically.
Speaker 4: That is my hope.
Speaker 3: Yeah, between that the podcast following us on social media
Speaker 3: life changing.
Speaker 1: Yes, we hope so so. I mention at the end
Speaker 1: of the interview wanting to look into some healthy coping mechanisms,
Speaker 1: and I did look those up after the interview, So
Speaker 1: stay around to the outro and I'm going to quickly
Speaker 1: run through those after the interview.
Speaker 4: Cool, let's get with Megan.
Speaker 1: Megan, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are so
Speaker 1: happy to have you here.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me, and I'm so excited to
Speaker 5: be here.
Speaker 3: I had such a lovely conversation with you when you
Speaker 3: did me the honor of coming onto your show, So
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to have you here talking about a
Speaker 3: really important topic. And I do want to say I
Speaker 3: think we can talk about emotions in such a negative
Speaker 3: way and that can be like this socialized thing that
Speaker 3: happens in our culture. But when our emotions are not
Speaker 3: helpful with our finances is kind of what we want
Speaker 3: to be looking at. And I'm curious for you, Megan,
Speaker 3: when it comes to your experiences your work with clients
Speaker 3: in the financial space. What have you noticed are some
Speaker 3: of the patterns coming triggers of emotional spending that maybe
Speaker 3: isn't the most beneficial for their finances.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, I mean I think really anything that can
Speaker 5: be stressful or uncomfortable, or that we're really using coping
Speaker 5: as kind of a I mean, that we're really using
Speaker 5: spending as kind of a coping mechanism or a quick
Speaker 5: fix to feel better in the moment is something that
Speaker 5: we see a lot, right. I see this with myself personally.
Speaker 5: I have get overwhelmed and stressed out, you know, full
Speaker 5: time working mom, two young kids, and I find that
Speaker 5: it's again, it's like more socially acceptable to go to
Speaker 5: target when you're feeling overwhelmed than it is to like
Speaker 5: go to a bar or something like that. So I
Speaker 5: think emotional spending sort of gets a more of a
Speaker 5: like a positive reputation in our culture. But I think
Speaker 5: these are all kind of common, common triggers, and it's
Speaker 5: it's situational. It's different everybody's life like everybody's life. So
Speaker 5: some of those feelings, right that we get, can be
Speaker 5: that I just said, overwhelm, sadness, fear, It can be boredom,
Speaker 5: it can be stressed, it can be even jealousy, and
Speaker 5: then there are some positive emotions that can also be
Speaker 5: triggers for spending, and that can be I don't know,
Speaker 5: excitement or like you're proud of something or you want
Speaker 5: to celebrate, right, So I think it really could be
Speaker 5: anything honestly that are triggers, and it's all about sort
Speaker 5: of knowing yourself. There's also, interestingly enough, there's also some
Speaker 5: behavioral health conditions that people can be sort of more
Speaker 5: predisposed to impulse spending right than others. So things like
Speaker 5: addiction or a substance misuse ADHD is a really common one,
Speaker 5: anxiety depression, certain personality disorders. So those are things that
Speaker 5: may you know, if that's something that you identify with
Speaker 5: or your you kind of resonate with, that you may
Speaker 5: want to think about. You know, how is how am
Speaker 5: I impulsively reacting when it comes to spending or when
Speaker 5: I'm out shopping?
Speaker 1: And so you, as a certified financial planner work with
Speaker 1: clients who are like higher net worth and higher income,
Speaker 1: and so like, how do you see the more money
Speaker 1: you have, does the emotional spending does the impulse spending
Speaker 1: like become less of an impact? Or like what do
Speaker 1: you notice in your clients or when you're around the
Speaker 1: water cooler with other cfps, Like, what should we who
Speaker 1: is maybe like not multimillionaires and want to be what
Speaker 1: should we know about how spending happens at the higher
Speaker 1: net worths?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think honestly, everybody, it doesn't really
Speaker 5: matter how much money you have. I think I think
Speaker 5: deep down, emotional spending is really a very personal issue, right,
Speaker 5: It's it comes from knowing, well, it comes from emotions,
Speaker 5: and emotions are something that is universal. We're human, We're
Speaker 5: not robots, right, so every single person is going to
Speaker 5: have emotions in big feelings and things that are going
Speaker 5: on in our lives that, like I just said, elicit
Speaker 5: those big feelings in their lives. I think that the
Speaker 5: higher net worth you have, the less that emotional spending
Speaker 5: tends to be an issue. And that's only because cash
Speaker 5: flow may not be as big of an issue. Right,
Speaker 5: If you have more income coming in, then what's going
Speaker 5: out may not be as as important. We don't necessarily
Speaker 5: look at when I'm doing this work for clients, we
Speaker 5: don't necessarily look at where the money is going. We're
Speaker 5: looking at trends in spending so we can see what's
Speaker 5: coming in. When we look at kind of pre imposed
Speaker 5: tax dollars and then where and then what is going out?
Speaker 5: So that's really my job as a financial planner is
Speaker 5: to take that data and then sort of project forward,
Speaker 5: how is this spending sustainable on a on a long
Speaker 5: term basis, But that doesn't really where the dollars go
Speaker 5: is really where we're kind of getting at here. So
Speaker 5: on you know, maybe the average person right that may
Speaker 5: not have a quite as high as an income or
Speaker 5: a net worth, The issue really comes down to where
Speaker 5: the dollars are going and is this sustainable for you
Speaker 5: in your everyday life, right? And if it's not, and
Speaker 5: that's when we identify that there might be an issue
Speaker 5: and there might be something that needs to be worked on.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 5: The other piece of this too is yes, there's the
Speaker 5: there's the numbers, there is hey, what's coming in and
Speaker 5: what's going out? And then there's also the the emotional
Speaker 5: reaction to it. So if you are feeling if you're
Speaker 5: buying something and you feel so much guilt and shame
Speaker 5: and maybe overwhelmed after that purchase, then that's a huge
Speaker 5: kind of red flag that something is off. So that's
Speaker 5: where I think we need to kind of like focus
Speaker 5: on those two things regardless of what your net worth
Speaker 5: is or or what you're kind of cash situation is.
Speaker 3: I think it's encouraging, in part to me to hear
Speaker 3: that there's benefit to working on some of these more
Speaker 3: internal pieces of our behaviors and thoughts and actions and
Speaker 3: habits around our spending, around how we manage our emotions,
Speaker 3: regardless of the amount of money that we make, because
Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter a lot of times, it's not
Speaker 3: I need to make more. Oftentimes it's I need to
Speaker 3: learn more about myself and refine the things that are
Speaker 3: going to point me towards more well being and benefit,
Speaker 3: and then more money could help us. But until we
Speaker 3: kind of know ourselves and are able to spend on
Speaker 3: our values and cope with life's difficulties in ways that
Speaker 3: are beneficial, then money doesn't have much to do with that.
Speaker 4: But we can hurt ourselves financially.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's also encouraging, is like if you're
Speaker 1: coming up in your career or your pursuing doing a
Speaker 1: higher level of income, knowing that just putting into perspective like,
Speaker 1: while I work on this, I also need to be
Speaker 1: working on the internal stuff of why I'm spending money,
Speaker 1: Because yes, I want to make more money. Making more
Speaker 1: money does make these things less of a burden, but
Speaker 1: less of a financial burden and not less of an
Speaker 1: emotional burden. Like there are. It is still an unhealthy
Speaker 1: way to cope with emotions or celebrate emotions, Like spending
Speaker 1: money is still an unhealthy way to do that. So like,
Speaker 1: while yes, it might have less of a financial impact
Speaker 1: at a higher income, it still doesn't meet the need.
Speaker 1: It is still just a treadmill that leads nowhere.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you're still not getting to the root of the issue.
Speaker 5: There's something else going on here, and spending buying yourself
Speaker 5: something to fill that void. It's like putting a band
Speaker 5: aid on a bullet hole.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, So let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: specific emotions. I found while doing research for this episode,
Speaker 1: this study from lending Tree. It's two thousand US consumers.
Speaker 1: It passes my study test, it does pass my standard.
Speaker 1: And it's a financial survey, a general financial survey from
Speaker 1: a financial company, which also it's not skewed, but it's
Speaker 1: like targeted. So and they say sixty nine percent of
Speaker 1: Americans say their emotions have influenced their spending. And what
Speaker 1: really surprised me was that the survey found that overall,
Speaker 1: Americans are more likely to spend when they're in a
Speaker 1: positive mood, but some still seek retail therapy. So it's
Speaker 1: that almost half of Americans have made in a purchase
Speaker 1: in an attempt to prove their mood, with women much
Speaker 1: more likely to do so than men, at least vocally,
Speaker 1: but people. And it lists down here the different reasons
Speaker 1: people have said that they spend. So fifty percent say
Speaker 1: stress is the top, so that is number one, but
Speaker 1: the next one was excitement. Forty four percent said they
Speaker 1: shop because they're excited, so like maybe you got a
Speaker 1: new job, maybe you're excited to go on vacation, like
Speaker 1: all these things. Excitement and then happiness. You're just in
Speaker 1: a good mood, like you're feeling yourself and you, you know,
Speaker 1: want to buy some new makeup or something. So I
Speaker 1: was really surprised to see that a lot of people
Speaker 1: spend out of We knew this, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: how high the statistics skewed toward positive emotions. So let's
Speaker 1: let's kind of start there. What are some of the
Speaker 1: ways that maybe you've experienced or seen in your in
Speaker 1: your practice, Like some of the ways people can curb
Speaker 1: their spending when they're spending out of these positive emotions
Speaker 1: or want to celebrate something.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's funny like like let's think about that.
Speaker 5: You know, we a family and I we just booked
Speaker 5: a trip and the winter. I live in Boston, so
Speaker 5: we wanted to go somewhere warm. So of course, you know,
Speaker 5: my brain starts thinking like, well, I need to get
Speaker 5: a bathing suit, I need to get new sandal, you know,
Speaker 5: and I need to get stuff from my kids and
Speaker 5: all this stuff. And I'm just like I hear you,
Speaker 5: Like I get, I guess we get. It's that anticipatory
Speaker 5: excitement around it. And then same thing, like I think
Speaker 5: about the celebratory right, like wow, I just maybe I
Speaker 5: got a promotion or I just nails that interview, or
Speaker 5: I did something like so great right at work, and
Speaker 5: it's like you want to celebrate yourself for it, right,
Speaker 5: So what do we do? We ought to dinner or
Speaker 5: and this is again like this is just kind of
Speaker 5: cultural things that we've been taught. Right, we go out
Speaker 5: to dinner, or we go treat ourselves to I don't know,
Speaker 5: a new pair of shoes or something like that that
Speaker 5: makes us feel good oftentimes we can also say, hey,
Speaker 5: coffee on me this morning, or I'll buy a bagels
Speaker 5: for the whole office or something like that, right, And
Speaker 5: I want to get across that there's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 5: like in my mind, and this is going to be
Speaker 5: probably radical, I really think that all spending is emotional.
Speaker 5: I think that we are taught that emotions in our
Speaker 5: culture are a bad thing. I think emotions are actually
Speaker 5: a really good thing because they're telling us things. They're
Speaker 5: telling us things that we need to know. So if
Speaker 5: we actually can kind of listen to our emotions, we
Speaker 5: recognize that there's there's something that goes a little deeper
Speaker 5: here that maybe we need to dig into. And money
Speaker 5: is emotional, like there's no way around it. You can
Speaker 5: say it's not, but of course it is. Because money
Speaker 5: helps us to feel all the things that we want
Speaker 5: in life, right like security, safety, being able to take
Speaker 5: care of our kids and our families, and you know,
Speaker 5: or being taken care of ourselves. So there's like some
Speaker 5: kind of core I think, like foundational level emotions that
Speaker 5: you can't deny, and just denying denying it isn't going
Speaker 5: to get us anywhere, right, So money is emotional how
Speaker 5: we earn money is emotional, and how we spend money
Speaker 5: is emotional. But when it comes to the positive, we
Speaker 5: tend to think of like the emotional spending as the negative, right,
Speaker 5: And that's what we were just just getting into the
Speaker 5: But the positive stuff we almost like brush off, we
Speaker 5: brush aside. So what are some strategies you know that
Speaker 5: you can kind of work with around those positive emotions?
Speaker 5: Like maybe instead of you know, going out to dinner
Speaker 5: and spending one hundred and fifty dollars, maybe you just
Speaker 5: make a special dinner at home. You can go to
Speaker 5: the grocery store, you can get the ingredients and make
Speaker 5: something at home, and that saves a good amount of
Speaker 5: money there. And I love this what I'm going to say,
Speaker 5: because this is the financial planner in me. I love
Speaker 5: thinking about like your future self versus your current self.
Speaker 5: So instead of saying, like, hey, I just got that promotion,
Speaker 5: why don't I go buy myself a new pair of
Speaker 5: shoes right, these super cute shoes or this bag that
Speaker 5: I've been eyeing, why don't you make an investment in
Speaker 5: yourself instead? So maybe make a contribution to your IRA,
Speaker 5: or you know, create put a depositing into you, I
Speaker 5: don't know, you're kids five twenty nine or something like that.
Speaker 5: I think we forget that there is a future self
Speaker 5: because we get so caught up in the moment and
Speaker 5: the emotions feel so strong in that moment. But there's
Speaker 5: plenty of ways to kind of like slow down. Like
Speaker 5: that's the biggest thing, especially for women and moms, which
Speaker 5: is kind of more my audiences. We're on this treadmill
Speaker 5: constantly and we're just feeling like everything coming at us,
Speaker 5: and we don't take the time to just slow down
Speaker 5: and actually feel what is going on here, what is happening,
Speaker 5: and what do I really want and think about not
Speaker 5: only future you or not only current you, but future
Speaker 5: you as well.
Speaker 3: I do think it's so important to be able to
Speaker 3: attach action to something that is going on in our
Speaker 3: life circumstances, especially when it comes to celebrating. I know
Speaker 3: Jenna and I talk a lot about often flying past
Speaker 3: accomplishments or things that have happened in life that are celebratory.
Speaker 3: Is I can especially understand why we'd want to make
Speaker 3: a monetary action when we get a raise. It's here's
Speaker 3: a way to celebrate the fact that I can now
Speaker 3: I can afford to go out. So I think there
Speaker 3: even can be times where it does cost us money
Speaker 3: and we're okay with that, but we're always talking about
Speaker 3: but where does it become non beneficial for us? And
Speaker 3: so I think some of the foundations that you're laying
Speaker 3: are really helpful for us to think through. Will this
Speaker 3: help me or hurt me in both the short term
Speaker 3: and the long term. Is there a way that I
Speaker 3: can celebrate that's going to feel really good. It doesn't
Speaker 3: mean it doesn't It doesn't have to cost money. It
Speaker 3: could mean going out to dinner. But would I be
Speaker 3: just as happy if I stayed at home too, but
Speaker 3: was still able to attach action to this thing just happened.
Speaker 3: It's worth putting a pause on and ritualizing it in
Speaker 3: some way that I can feel really good about.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the thing I'll add to that too, It
Speaker 5: doesn't have to be so black and white. I'm somebody
Speaker 5: that's I'm a recovering perfectionist. I always think like in
Speaker 5: this all or nothing kind of kind of mindset, so
Speaker 5: I have to kind of coach myself out of it.
Speaker 5: But I really think that, yeah, it doesn't have to
Speaker 5: be to one extreme or the other. You could still
Speaker 5: spend money. You could still you know, buy something for
Speaker 5: yourself if you really want to, and I want I
Speaker 5: don't want you to think that you can't, right, because
Speaker 5: that's totally okay. It just has to be within something
Speaker 5: that feels good for you. And you'll know if it
Speaker 5: doesn't feel good. Your body will tell you that your
Speaker 5: emotions because you'll have feelings. You'll have there might be guilt,
Speaker 5: it might be shame, whatever it is, or discomfort or
Speaker 5: something will come up and tell you that, hey, this
Speaker 5: doesn't feel right. But if it's within your means and
Speaker 5: it's something that feels good to you in this moment
Speaker 5: and it's you know, not that expensive, cool do it.
Speaker 5: I don't want to discourage somebody from not celebrating or
Speaker 5: doing something that that is important to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of the reasons I wanted to start
Speaker 1: with the positive emotion aspect because unfortunately it happens so
Speaker 1: much less than the stress emotion, and we do tend
Speaker 1: to gloss over. And we should celebrate more. We should
Speaker 1: celebrate more achievements, celebrate smaller achievements, and I think we
Speaker 1: should memorialize them in some way. Usually that way can
Speaker 1: spend that can cost money, and I loved Megan your
Speaker 1: suggestive instead of going out to eat, maybe making something
Speaker 1: at home. But it doesn't have to be that. Like,
Speaker 1: people are going to have different standards of celebration, right
Speaker 1: Some people's celebration is like a five hundred dollars dinner
Speaker 1: at a really nice restaurant. So maybe if that's not
Speaker 1: in the budget you have, because sometimes we want to
Speaker 1: celebrate outside of the capacity that we are already earning,
Speaker 1: fit something into it. So maybe it's just a less
Speaker 1: nice restaurant. It doesn't have to be a dinner at home,
Speaker 1: or maybe like Carabas is your idea of a nice restaurant,
Speaker 1: and so maybe right now in your capacity, that means, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not going to spend the money at that,
Speaker 1: you know, that restaurant, but maybe I'm gonna spend I'm
Speaker 1: gonna splurge at the grocery store on the wagu like
Speaker 1: beef steaks that I would normally not get, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna be my celebration. So it's not not spending on
Speaker 1: these celebratory things. I think we also have to put
Speaker 1: them into perspective too, because like, if you've got nineteen
Speaker 1: credit cards, with like one hundred dollars and you pay off,
Speaker 1: you know, eight credit cards in a month. You're not
Speaker 1: going out to dinner eight times in a month. Probably
Speaker 1: that's probably like too much. But if you get a
Speaker 1: raise and you really fought for that raise, it's not
Speaker 1: just like you're you know, you're three percent, then then
Speaker 1: that can be like a heightened celebration. So I think
Speaker 1: it's also good to kind of prioritize, like what are myself,
Speaker 1: what are my goals, and how I'm going to celebrate
Speaker 1: each So that might be like and it also forces
Speaker 1: you to celebrate them, right, Yeah, it forces you. You
Speaker 1: can't just gloss over it and then really like you
Speaker 1: feel how significant a success is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and because it's something different, right, So if it's me,
Speaker 5: you don't want to do the same things that you
Speaker 5: always do. Like for me, you know, go on a
Speaker 5: target is something that I talk about a lot on
Speaker 5: my show and how I have this love hate relationship
Speaker 5: with targets. But if I'm using going to target as
Speaker 5: a as a reward for doing something great, then what
Speaker 5: is it? Every other? It almost like devalues, right, Like.
Speaker 1: If it's a reward for getting your kids to school,
Speaker 1: then that's probably something to pay attention to.
Speaker 5: Totally exactly, exactly, yeah, And I think that, like, also,
Speaker 5: we need to it's important to maybe list out what
Speaker 5: our ways to celebrate so we don't kind of automatically
Speaker 5: go back to that default, right, So what are ways
Speaker 5: that I can celebrate myself? Right, which again I feel
Speaker 5: like is something where we need to slow down and recognize,
Speaker 5: like what's going to feel good to me? And you're
Speaker 5: the only one that can answer that, Unfortunately, you know that.
Speaker 5: I think culture tells us what self care is and
Speaker 5: what celebrations should be, right the champagne and all that stuff,
Speaker 5: But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way for you, right,
Speaker 5: Like everybody has their own definition of it and how
Speaker 5: and how we actually take that into action.
Speaker 3: I appreciate your radical perspective on all spending is emotional
Speaker 3: and it really is just defining what is going to
Speaker 3: be best for each one of us when it comes
Speaker 3: to the ways we implement and understand our emotions when
Speaker 3: it comes to our spending behaviors. And so the flip
Speaker 3: side of celebration and happiness and really good things happening
Speaker 3: is some of what we've touched on a bit of
Speaker 3: overwhelm and fear and stress and anxiety and jealousy, and
Speaker 3: some of these quote unquote negative emotions are not as
Speaker 3: comfortable emotions and how that can lead us to spend.
Speaker 3: Are there any different different techniques or tips that you
Speaker 3: have found for your clients or from your clients that
Speaker 3: work when it comes to if my spending is primarily
Speaker 3: triggered by those types of emotions.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I don't. I think we're getting at sort of
Speaker 5: the ultimate the same ultimate thing, right, which is knowing yourself.
Speaker 5: So I think the application of how to like that
Speaker 5: comes later, how to stop spending our curb your spending.
Speaker 5: But I think we need to really like dig get,
Speaker 5: like hop off the treadmill, slow down, dig beneath the
Speaker 5: surface to see what actually is going on here, right,
Speaker 5: because I think it's not. I think the answer to
Speaker 5: not spending is going to look different depending on what
Speaker 5: the need is. Right, So what is that void?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 5: And this is something again that can be so hard
Speaker 5: for women to do, especially when you're just overwhelmed and
Speaker 5: there's so much coming at you. I myself, I started
Speaker 5: my podcast in twenty and I was at the time
Speaker 5: my husband had lost this job. I was working full
Speaker 5: time from home, and I had a three and a
Speaker 5: one year old at home, and I found myself online
Speaker 5: shopping because I was there was nowhere to go, right,
Speaker 5: I couldn't go to stores, and I was trying to
Speaker 5: make myself feel better. I was trying to fill this
Speaker 5: void essentially, and then I would start to feel this
Speaker 5: guilt and shame because those things would my closet with
Speaker 5: the tags on, and I would never use them because
Speaker 5: again I had nowhere to go. But then I'd almost
Speaker 5: like crave, crave, spending more, crave more shopping, even though
Speaker 5: it wasn't the thing that was going to solve my problem.
Speaker 5: And this is what I always says. It's never the thing,
Speaker 5: it's never the object, it's the feeling behind the thing.
Speaker 5: So I started this podcast because I knew I couldn't
Speaker 5: have been alone during that time. I think a lot
Speaker 5: of us were struggling during that time, and I really
Speaker 5: wanted to figure out with myself what was going on.
Speaker 5: And I know that, and I made it a public
Speaker 5: thing because I wanted other women to be able to
Speaker 5: really to it as well and know that they're not
Speaker 5: alone in this. And so yeah, I mean there was
Speaker 5: a lot of big feelings going on at that time,
Speaker 5: and I think some of the big ones and the
Speaker 5: big themes there were connection, you know, appreciation, feeling overwhelmed,
Speaker 5: feeling scared, feeling anxiety. There was a lot of things.
Speaker 5: And I discovered that kind of like episode by episode
Speaker 5: and through kind of journaling and getting it out right,
Speaker 5: that there was more beneath the surface. Right, So it
Speaker 5: wasn't buying the J crew headband and the new sneakers
Speaker 5: and stuff. It was that was not going to solve
Speaker 5: the issue. Was it was peeling back those layers and
Speaker 5: figuring out what was really underneath. And I feel like again,
Speaker 5: for so many women, there's so many of those overwhelming
Speaker 5: emotions that come up. And it's not just the emotions,
Speaker 5: because they feel like the emotions are a reflection of
Speaker 5: the time that we're in, in the circumstances, in the
Speaker 5: situation that we're dealing with. There's also beliefs underneath that.
Speaker 5: So where do these what are the beliefs that I
Speaker 5: have and how are those impacting how I'm feeling right now?
Speaker 5: And a lot of that, especially when it comes to
Speaker 5: money and everything, comes from how we grew up and
Speaker 5: so there's kind of the two pieces. There's how we
Speaker 5: grew up, and then there's also the culture that we
Speaker 5: live into and how we kind of live in this
Speaker 5: materialistic and consumeristic consumerism culture that's encouraging us to spend
Speaker 5: and kind of praying off of our insecurities and our
Speaker 5: emotions and saying, spend more, spend more, right, because this
Speaker 5: is going to solve your problems when really it's it's
Speaker 5: it's not. I'm just going to say it.
Speaker 4: It's not.
Speaker 5: So Unfortunately, there there is no in my mind, quick
Speaker 5: fix to this, right. There's no quick fix to all
Speaker 5: of a sudden stop spending money or start spending money differently.
Speaker 5: It's it's a it's a process. It's a journey to
Speaker 5: self awareness and really getting to know how you operate
Speaker 5: right and what are those core beliefs and what are
Speaker 5: some of those things that I want to maybe you know, change.
Speaker 3: Such a tough one because when we're feeling uncomfortable emotions,
Speaker 3: one of the last things we want to do is
Speaker 3: uncomfortable work of what those emotions are attached to. Usually,
Speaker 3: our go to coping mechanisms are some sort of escape,
Speaker 3: and that can help for a time, but eventually I
Speaker 3: think we're all going to find ourselves in a place
Speaker 3: where we recognize that what we try to fill the
Speaker 3: void with didn't actually meet the need. The void is
Speaker 3: still there, but now I have spent more than I
Speaker 3: wanted to, I've collected things that are still stressing me out,
Speaker 3: and I think it's only until we kind of get
Speaker 3: to that point a couple of times that then we
Speaker 3: see the fruit the benefit of all Right, I'll do
Speaker 3: some of the uncomfortable things because that might get me
Speaker 3: closer to actually finding what's going to meet my need here.
Speaker 3: I think we avoid it because we think it's it's
Speaker 3: just all going to be discomfort, but to find that
Speaker 3: eventually we do learn more about ourselves, and we can
Speaker 3: find activities and ways of relating that more closely connect
Speaker 3: to the deeper need, and we can feel more satisfied
Speaker 3: and at peace and content for the long term than
Speaker 3: some of these quick fixes that continuously lead us on
Speaker 3: this cycle. Yes, all that to say, I'm curious, Magana.
Speaker 3: You've talked a lot about doing some of that deeper
Speaker 3: work getting to know yourself. Are there a couple of questions,
Speaker 3: like your kind of top of mind that either you
Speaker 3: go through or you recommend to clients when they are
Speaker 3: wanting to know what it's attached to, Like, what can
Speaker 3: we be asking ourselves in those moments?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean there's some good ones. So I think
Speaker 5: if you're struggling right now again, finding kind of a
Speaker 5: quiet space and just saying, Okay, how am I feeling?
Speaker 5: What is it that I'm feeling, and I write it down,
Speaker 5: identify and there is I think people forget right that
Speaker 5: there's more than just like three emotions. It's not just sad,
Speaker 5: it's not just overwhelmed. There's a whole list of emotions
Speaker 5: out there. You can google it. It's there's a whole list, just.
Speaker 4: A good emotions wheel exactly.
Speaker 5: Yes, there's a lot of emotions that help you very
Speaker 5: much narrow in and identify what it is that you're feeling. Right, So,
Speaker 5: so what is it that I'm feeling? And how do
Speaker 5: I I guess one of the other questions that I
Speaker 5: would say is how do I want to feel? And
Speaker 5: this is something that women, especially again, I feel like,
Speaker 5: don't take the time to work through. So I'm feeling
Speaker 5: this right now and oh I'm going through it. I'm
Speaker 5: having a really tough time. But how do I want
Speaker 5: to feel instead, right, instead of feeling overwhelmed and stressed
Speaker 5: out and like like I'm not in control of my
Speaker 5: own life. Right, how do I want to feel? I
Speaker 5: want to feel at ease, I want to feel peace. Right.
Speaker 5: These are things that again we don't really like talk about,
Speaker 5: or we don't imagine, we don't envision because we just
Speaker 5: don't see it in our reality. Right, So what is it?
Speaker 5: Is it pent up energy or is it connection that
Speaker 5: I'm craving or what is it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 5: What is it that I'm feeling right now? And and
Speaker 5: what do I want to feel? And what's that gap
Speaker 5: in between?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: How do I get myself there? And again, only you
Speaker 5: can do that. But it's again it's I really encourage
Speaker 5: like small incremental action. It's not again, it's not a
Speaker 5: quick fix. It's not going to happen overnight. But if
Speaker 5: you want to feel if you have this pent up
Speaker 5: energy and you want to feel connected, go for a
Speaker 5: walk with a friend or you know, go for a
Speaker 5: walk by yourself, get that energy out and then come
Speaker 5: back and call a friend or something like. Little things
Speaker 5: like that that we can sort of back into. And
Speaker 5: I think by asking yourself these questions, we can sort
Speaker 5: of come up with like a toolbox of tools tricks
Speaker 5: that we can use when we're in those moments when
Speaker 5: we're struggling.
Speaker 1: What have you found in your journey from being in
Speaker 1: that place in twenty twenty and using online shopping as
Speaker 1: your coping mechanism to now, what do you feel like
Speaker 1: for you? And your story has kind of helped you
Speaker 1: bridge the gap the.
Speaker 5: Most, definitely the self awareness, like I will now take
Speaker 5: the time to pause when I'm struggling. If we just
Speaker 5: had a morning at my house, and it's to say
Speaker 5: it's a weekend, it's a Saturday morning, and and then
Speaker 5: you know, I have a few minutes to myself. I'm like,
Speaker 5: I just need a break, you know, I really will
Speaker 5: instead of just like default driving to target or driving
Speaker 5: to the mall or something like that, I'll send the
Speaker 5: car and I'll take a few deep breaths and I
Speaker 5: will literally go through that in my head and I
Speaker 5: will ask myself, what do I need right now? What
Speaker 5: am I feeling, how do I want to feel, and
Speaker 5: what's going to help me that helps me back into
Speaker 5: like how to spend that hour that I have to myself.
Speaker 5: And again it's it may not be and maybe it
Speaker 5: is driving to the mall, but maybe it's just walking
Speaker 5: around and maybe and sometimes I do. Honestly, I think
Speaker 5: it's fun to just like windows shop to fully knowing
Speaker 5: I'm not going to shop because I just like to
Speaker 5: see what's going on and for me, it's kind of fun.
Speaker 5: But that doesn't mean that I'm going to go spend
Speaker 5: a bunch of money that I didn't intentionally want to buy,
Speaker 5: right and it'll it just forces me to slow down again.
Speaker 5: I also journal. That's something that I do if I'm
Speaker 5: really having a hard time, I will just pull out
Speaker 5: a piece of paper. And I don't do it like
Speaker 5: in a formal journal necessarily, but I pull out a
Speaker 5: piece of paper and I'm just like, what's going on
Speaker 5: because it allows me to get that all those feelings
Speaker 5: that are inside me out physically out somewhere, and I
Speaker 5: usually feel better afterwards and I'm like, Okay, now I
Speaker 5: can come back to this in a different in a
Speaker 5: different place.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Connecting with yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it helps for the rest of the day too,
Speaker 1: like put like doing work and being present for your
Speaker 1: kids and for your coworkers. Like not just in the
Speaker 1: money saving aspect of not spending to cope. But if
Speaker 1: you want to show up better in your relationships, having
Speaker 1: these alternative cope mechanisms, and you can definitely like google
Speaker 1: coping mechanisms as well, and in addition to your emotions weel,
Speaker 1: but like having these alternative coping mechanisms helps in so
Speaker 1: many other aspects.
Speaker 3: What you're describing megan to me seems like the difference
Speaker 3: between playing darts with a blindfold on or a blindfold off.
Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong, I'm bad either way.
Speaker 3: I will like holes in your wall, put up quirk
Speaker 3: around it, But it's like throwing a dart and not
Speaker 3: knowing even where remotely the bullseye is yeah, versus I
Speaker 3: can at least see it. I know. What I'm aiming
Speaker 3: at is that difference between checking in with myself, what
Speaker 3: is my need, what's it attached to, and is there
Speaker 3: a way that I can meet that need that is
Speaker 3: more focused on where the need lies. Sometimes we just
Speaker 3: go to spending and shopping because maybe it has worked
Speaker 3: in the past, but it's shopping buying something impulsively is
Speaker 3: not actually going to solve my relational need that I'm
Speaker 3: feeling as a result of tension that's going on with
Speaker 3: close friends. That's going to come from a relational reorientation
Speaker 3: and connecting with people. Shopping is never going to meet that.
Speaker 3: But if we don't take the time to ask ourselves
Speaker 3: whares that's coming from, then we will find ourselves on
Speaker 3: that never ending cycle.
Speaker 1: Spot on.
Speaker 5: It is matching the solution to the need.
Speaker 3: Basically, Yeah, and you know what else matches a solution
Speaker 3: with a need. It hits the bull's eye every single time,
Speaker 3: blindfolded or not.
Speaker 1: Definitely a healthy coping mechanism.
Speaker 4: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 2: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died
Speaker 2: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 2: Fuck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3: This is the bill of.
Speaker 1: The week, Megan. Every week we invite our listeners and
Speaker 1: our guests to share with us their bill for the week,
Speaker 1: and we would love to hear yours today.
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, I'm so excited to share this. It
Speaker 5: is my very last daycare bill ever.
Speaker 1: Get out of here, bye.
Speaker 5: It was it was so my youngest. I have two
Speaker 5: boys that are seven and five, and my youngest started
Speaker 5: kindergarten this past fall, and when I no longer had
Speaker 5: that auto debit from his preschool coming out, it was
Speaker 5: like the best day of my life.
Speaker 1: One day I almost got there, But one day I
Speaker 1: too will be there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Kids, kids get older, they get older faster. That's amazing.
Speaker 5: It's such a good thing for you. Anyone who has
Speaker 5: kids is like, oh my god, it's like the it's
Speaker 5: you just got the biggest raise of your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah you did. Yeah. I purposely waited to only pay
Speaker 1: for daycare for one child at a time, so literally
Speaker 1: just swapped them out. But still, like an infant is
Speaker 1: more expensive than a two plus year old, so it
Speaker 1: did cost me more for daycare, but only for a
Speaker 1: few years.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do you know what you're going to do with that
Speaker 4: influx of cash?
Speaker 5: Oh I am, I've already allocated for it. I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm sucking it away.
Speaker 4: About your future self.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I'm putting it in cash at the moment because
Speaker 5: there's so much stuff that the kids need with like
Speaker 5: right now, we've got camps coming up, yeah for the summer,
Speaker 5: which is crazy. There's always something. So it's a small
Speaker 5: amount but I feel like it's it's what goes in
Speaker 5: goes out when it comes to the kids. So I
Speaker 5: just want to have something there in an account that
Speaker 5: I can pull from when I needed. And of course,
Speaker 5: you know, interest rates are pretty competitive right now, so
Speaker 5: it's not a bad place.
Speaker 4: To just park it in cash, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you all listening, have a bill that you
Speaker 3: want to share, if it's about the very final last
Speaker 3: daycare bill because your kids are getting older and it's
Speaker 3: a good thing they're getting smarter and wiser, or if
Speaker 3: your your name is Bill and you run a day care,
Speaker 3: just a bill you don't mind budging whatever it is.
Speaker 3: Vis Approval, Friends Podcast dot Com, slash Bill, Leave us
Speaker 3: your boo, and now it's time for the.
Speaker 1: Lightning roun all right, So in today's Lightning Round, Megan,
Speaker 1: you kind of went into this this question a little bit,
Speaker 1: so we're going to vary it up a little. So
Speaker 1: the question is how do you tell the difference between
Speaker 1: what you truly need and what you impulsively want? But
Speaker 1: I would love for us to share here you go,
Speaker 1: here's vulnerability when she's just pulling out right, we have
Speaker 1: an outline, but it's a it's lose. What was your
Speaker 1: last positive emotional impulse buy positive?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just talked about it. I we booked a
Speaker 5: trip to Florida. Yeah, I live in Boston and we
Speaker 5: booked a trip and that was intentional. That was not impulsive,
Speaker 5: like we had planned to do that. I had money
Speaker 5: saved for that. All good, but yeah, I mean then
Speaker 5: I decided that I was going to go to again.
Speaker 5: I said, I want to Target, and I didn't at
Speaker 5: that time because I was with my son, go and
Speaker 5: get a new bathing suit. But however I did when
Speaker 5: I came home ordered it online because I could, I
Speaker 5: had the I had a discount code, So.
Speaker 4: Yes, you go any more time?
Speaker 1: Okay, I good because I have mine. It was also
Speaker 1: not impulsive, but and it was not the last one.
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I'm sure that in the last like nine months,
Speaker 1: i've or yeah, eight or nine months i've. But my
Speaker 1: favorite one, maybe of last year, was on my birthday
Speaker 1: when we got a book deal and we went out
Speaker 1: to celebrate with Margarita's and chips and salsa. And that
Speaker 1: purchase was a celebration half my birthday, half of getting
Speaker 1: the book deal.
Speaker 5: Amazing.
Speaker 1: I love spending money on all those margaritas.
Speaker 3: You know what, though, we got affordable quality over cheap
Speaker 3: quantity in that because we went at a happy hour.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, well there you go, that'u.
Speaker 4: Although we also got quantity.
Speaker 1: We did get quantity. We got both and that's where
Speaker 1: you really go, right.
Speaker 5: Was it endless chips and salsa?
Speaker 3: Yes? Oh, you you can't find a non endless chips since.
Speaker 1: We're not going to find us bablished they don't include
Speaker 1: endless chips and salsa. You won't find us there if.
Speaker 3: You don't sell pictures of margarita that happy how are
Speaker 3: you also won't find us there.
Speaker 5: And you know what though, I love that that answer
Speaker 5: because you don't regret a thing about it. Sounds like
Speaker 5: you are so proud of doing that. And that's what
Speaker 5: this is all about.
Speaker 1: And if we're going to talk about ways we saved
Speaker 1: money on it, I had my husband drop me off
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't have to uber there you go, having
Speaker 1: to go having your man drop you off in front
Speaker 1: of the Mexican restaurant so you can have endless chips
Speaker 1: and salsa and pictures of margs.
Speaker 5: Perfectly.
Speaker 3: That was a good We had accomplished something else, finishing
Speaker 3: the book, Jill finishing it.
Speaker 4: I want to let.
Speaker 1: All right, Jill, you have had your time.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, I guess it was emotional.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I should be a more attached person than I am,
Speaker 3: probably so. The last time I spent money was around
Speaker 3: the holidays. Eric and I decided that we would instead
Speaker 3: of getting gifts for each other, we would go shopping,
Speaker 3: which is not a super common activity for us. But
Speaker 3: I had been putting money aside for Christmas, and so
Speaker 3: we had money in the bank, and this is how
Speaker 3: we chose to spend it. But some things I had
Speaker 3: written down of this is what I want, and other
Speaker 3: times I just let myself make an impulsive decision on
Speaker 3: what stood out to me in the moment. One of
Speaker 3: those things are the pants that.
Speaker 4: I am not wearing today.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I've.
Speaker 3: Been wearing pretty much every day of last week and
Speaker 3: this week.
Speaker 1: I literally looked down and I was like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: not wearing the pants.
Speaker 5: I know you're getting your money's worth, though I am.
Speaker 4: That's the thing about me.
Speaker 3: When I buy something, I use it all up.
Speaker 5: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I picked up these pair of pants and I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: they are my size. They are the specifications of what
Speaker 3: I'm looking for, But this is a lot of fabric.
Speaker 4: Truly.
Speaker 3: I tried it on just because I wanted to know
Speaker 3: what they were going for, like I had, I said
Speaker 3: that out loud.
Speaker 4: I'm like, I gotta know what they're even.
Speaker 3: Trying to do with this amount of fabric. And it
Speaker 3: ended up being the only thing that I bought it.
Speaker 1: And now her personality is these pants. She wore them
Speaker 1: every day last week and I love gosh darn it.
Speaker 1: If they don't look comfortable, and you know what, it's good.
Speaker 3: There is an emotional choice because they made me happy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and they still make They do still make me happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And that's a that's a topic that I feel like,
Speaker 5: you know again, can money make it? Can money make
Speaker 5: you happy? I think it can to an extent, I
Speaker 5: think so it all depends, right, I mean I can't.
Speaker 5: I think it can in the short term, and that's
Speaker 5: what it's doing for you, right, But at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, like it's not going to make all
Speaker 5: your problems go away, but having these pair of pants
Speaker 5: makes you good, that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I feel good about the purchase because I
Speaker 3: had set the money aside, so I think you know,
Speaker 3: even to your point, all of our spending is emotional.
Speaker 3: I had the money to spend, but I still purchased
Speaker 3: based on somewhat informed by my emotion. How does this
Speaker 3: make me feel? Do I want to buy it? And
Speaker 3: that's an example of where our emotions can be helpful
Speaker 3: when it comes to spending.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I think the true lesson that we've learned
Speaker 1: today is dopamine isn't happiness, but pants are. And buy
Speaker 1: the true money by.
Speaker 3: Drink the marks that happy hour and get the pants
Speaker 3: with more fabric than you know what to do with.
Speaker 4: Just plan for it, I'm band.
Speaker 1: Yeah, budget for it, and if you're going to be
Speaker 1: impulsive about it, budget for impulsivity.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, well, I love Megan, We've had a blast
Speaker 3: with you. Can you tell us where people can get
Speaker 3: more from you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So you can check out my website which is money
Speaker 5: Isn't Scary dot com And you can also check out
Speaker 5: the podcast money Isn't Scary anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 5: And I also I'm on social media so Instagram, Facebook,
Speaker 5: all at Money Isn't Scary, and I am also have
Speaker 5: a Facebook group, the Mindful Money Mamas, which is where
Speaker 5: I am a little bit more intimate with people and
Speaker 5: I'm trying to just gather a community of women that
Speaker 5: are all looking to create a healthy relationship with money.
Speaker 3: Love that we're here from some here for some alliteration.
Speaker 3: Thanks for being here, Megan.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, that was fun. I had fun with Megan. Also,
Speaker 3: I really love her reframe about all.
Speaker 4: That thing being emotional.
Speaker 3: I think it helps to take some of the guilt
Speaker 3: out of this being an emotional person seen as a
Speaker 3: negative thing. We are all emotional people. They play into
Speaker 3: all aspects of our lives. And there are helpful, beneficial
Speaker 3: ways of managing our emotions and recognizing them and non beneficial.
Speaker 3: And it's not as if we detach ourselves from our
Speaker 3: emotions to make the best financial decisions. Our emotions can
Speaker 3: be informative when making the best financial decisions. And that's
Speaker 3: my takeaway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I loved how she made it a safe space
Speaker 1: to be an emotional person. I really hate when emotions
Speaker 1: are vilified professionally in the business world. I think that
Speaker 1: it really is is a weapon against women. Viewing people
Speaker 1: as emotional and valuing emotions. I think it helps us
Speaker 1: celebrate things like our accomplishments and it helps us cope better.
Speaker 1: So we mentioned coping mechanisms and the pausing and the
Speaker 1: asking of the questions that Megan said was really great.
Speaker 1: It was one of the one of these like healthy
Speaker 1: coping mechanisms, whereas shopping tends to be the unhealthy. So
Speaker 1: I just wanted to find the tell you about the
Speaker 1: five that I found on good therapy dot org and
Speaker 1: Jill has allowed me to say them. So the first
Speaker 1: is support, so talking about a stressful event with a
Speaker 1: supportive person. So that's something we talked about in the episode.
Speaker 1: That is an actual thing that is science back that
Speaker 1: does help with coping. I think some of these we
Speaker 1: think we read them on the internet and we're like, oh, sure,
Speaker 1: that's really easy for you to say, but really practical
Speaker 1: to do. But I think hearing them from an actual
Speaker 1: like therapy website and me like, oh gosh, okay, it
Speaker 1: is an actually science backed thing that if I paid
Speaker 1: to go see a therapist they would probably tell me
Speaker 1: to do. Maybe I should try it. So support relaxation,
Speaker 1: so relaxing activities like meditation, progressive muscle relaxation or other
Speaker 1: calming techniques. So that's again Megan sitting in her car
Speaker 1: taking the deep breaths. That's another coping mechanism. Problem solving.
Speaker 1: So this involves identifying a problem that is causing stress
Speaker 1: and then developing and putting into actions some potential solutions.
Speaker 1: So when we were talking in our episode on psychologically
Speaker 1: psychological reasons, we impulse spend making that list of these
Speaker 1: are the things that I'm going to do when I
Speaker 1: am celebrating positive motions. These are the things I'm going
Speaker 1: to do when I'm feeling negative emotions. That's that problem
Speaker 1: solving coping mechanism. Humor this when we love making light
Speaker 1: of a stressful situation that can teeter into unhealthy so
Speaker 1: uh just be aware of that. And then also physical
Speaker 1: activity exercise can serve as a natural and healthy form
Speaker 1: of stress relief that can also sometimes teeter into unhealthy
Speaker 1: so uh so yeah, So those are the five coping
Speaker 1: mechanisms that this therapy website recommends.
Speaker 3: Yes, all of them can be so helpful, so try
Speaker 3: them out see what works for you. And thanks for listening. Everybody,
Speaker 3: we had a blast with you along with us. Thanks
Speaker 3: for listening. We also love reading your reviews. That something
Speaker 3: else we have a blast doing We especially like this
Speaker 3: from this one from och Widgeous.
Speaker 4: Letters.
Speaker 1: But is I think how I would pronounce it?
Speaker 3: I'd pronounce it. I think they said love this the
Speaker 3: best financial podcast I have found. Jen and Jill keep
Speaker 3: me entertained while teaching me all the financial tips. Some
Speaker 3: of these tips I didn't even know I'm needed. Thank you, ladies, Yeah,
Speaker 3: so thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show,
Speaker 3: please take a minute to leave a rating and review
Speaker 3: on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or both. It helps potential
Speaker 3: new listeners know what they're getting into, so if they're
Speaker 3: not into healthy coping mechanisms, then this might be not
Speaker 3: be the place for them.
Speaker 4: See you next week.
Speaker 1: Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni So Jen mm hmm.
Speaker 3: We during No Before No Spend January, you and I
Speaker 3: shot a lot of b roll together, which is basically
Speaker 3: video where you're not going to hear us talking, but
Speaker 3: we might put our voices over top of it or
Speaker 3: music over top of it, usually text YEP. That then
Speaker 3: goes out on social media so you can see our faces,
Speaker 3: but we can still be giving you content there. One
Speaker 3: of the things that we did was go to the
Speaker 3: thrift store and kind of show how we were shopping
Speaker 3: at the thrift store, how we're using our color palette
Speaker 3: to find the clothing that we might be looking for.
Speaker 1: I don't think we bought anything, though, Yeah we did.
Speaker 3: We bought the shirt that I wore yesterday and a
Speaker 3: well I did. Oh, I mean frual friend's botty.
Speaker 4: Because it was a business.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Pence, I got a red sweatshirt that was
Speaker 3: in my color palette and a blue linen shirt that
Speaker 3: was also in my color palette. However, in the b
Speaker 3: roll video, I am now realizing I don't think you've
Speaker 3: used it yet, so maybe this mistake will be unrecognized.
Speaker 3: But only after purchasing it did I realize that when
Speaker 3: I first tried it on and you took video of
Speaker 3: me with it on, that I had it on backwards.
Speaker 3: It has buttons like all down the center of it,
Speaker 3: vertically down the center, and I thought, and buttons that
Speaker 3: don't work. They're more aesthetic. And I thought that they
Speaker 3: go in the front because jenuine generally that's.
Speaker 4: Where buttons would go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I put the shirt on in the front,
Speaker 3: thought it was cute, purchased it because I liked it,
Speaker 3: got home realized that's where the tag is them buttons
Speaker 3: are supposed to be in the back. Still like it.
Speaker 4: That is how I wear it now. But interesting if
Speaker 4: that little video of me ever comes up and.
Speaker 3: I'm wearing a blue linen shirt with buttons down the front,
Speaker 3: that's backwards.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, mm hmm. Well, I'll make sure that makes
Speaker 1: it up on the internet. By the time you listen
Speaker 1: to this, it probably will be somewhere on our Instagram.
Speaker 4: The whole world is up down?
Speaker 1: You know what else is upside down? All the people
Speaker 1: on your blouse right now? Did you know that?
Speaker 4: Well, there's no way to turn it the other.
Speaker 1: Well, I know, I know, but like it's printed upside down.
Speaker 3: Well not to me because I'm able to look down
Speaker 3: from my vantage point and see the people. But look
Speaker 3: they look right side up.
Speaker 1: I look at your arm the whole time we're recording,
Speaker 1: just looking at these people being upside down, just holding hands.
Speaker 3: Well, it's artistic with our giving elementary school art teacher
Speaker 3: with this, you.
Speaker 1: Really do very much? Are you're loving very Gulf Port vibes?
Speaker 3: Oh? We'll take it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it. And those trees are right side
Speaker 1: up though, that's just that's art right there,