Speaker 1: Episode three forty six, how to put good money decisions
Speaker 1: on autopilot.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and deliver your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: My name is Jen, my name is Jel.
Speaker 1: And so many of the things that are quote unquote
Speaker 1: busting your budget actually come down to the spending decisions
Speaker 1: you are making, whether that is the small day to
Speaker 1: day stuff or the big things that you've decided to
Speaker 1: spend money on. You're housing, your transportation, even your food.
Speaker 1: And so we think one of the keys to saving
Speaker 1: money and spending better is putting good money good spending
Speaker 1: decisions on autopilot or being efficient with how we make
Speaker 1: these spending decisions. And so that is what we are
Speaker 1: talking about in today's episode. It's another one with just
Speaker 1: your girls, thoughts, no articles, just what we got to say.
Speaker 1: Welcome using the brains. Welcome to another one in our heads.
Speaker 1: This is one where we're gonna use our own brains. Welcome,
Speaker 1: not the brains of other people.
Speaker 3: It's what you're here for five and a half years
Speaker 3: in and we're gonna do what we want. It's all
Speaker 3: about efficiencies, simplifying.
Speaker 1: If you've been listening to the show for a long time,
Speaker 1: you don't want us to use our own brains. You
Speaker 1: like it when we don't use our brains. But if
Speaker 1: you're new here, maybe you'll like this. We'll see.
Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you and us by pilots,
Speaker 3: auto pilots, pilot episodes, pilot gas stations, helmsman plane pilots,
Speaker 3: the real leaders of important tasks, and speaking of leaders
Speaker 3: in their own spaces, shout out to Matts Flights, who
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Speaker 3: Those are the kinds of daily updates I want, just personally.
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Speaker 3: check out mats flights dot com.
Speaker 1: They did not pay us to say that Matt is
Speaker 1: just a really nice guy with a really great service
Speaker 1: that we wanted to tell you about, So Matts flights
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pilot gas stations did pay us, though. Pilot gas
Speaker 3: stations are like, yeah, you do need to know about
Speaker 3: Matt's flights. Yeah, that's also false. I like to lie,
Speaker 3: but I won't lie when I'm using my brain. Don't worry.
Speaker 3: When we get into the real episode, it'll be nothing
Speaker 3: but truth.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, all right, Well, if you like these episodes
Speaker 1: where we are we're talking about the things that we
Speaker 1: are going to be writing about in our upcoming book,
Speaker 1: I believe spring twenty twenty five, we'll see, No, we
Speaker 1: won't see.
Speaker 4: It will be early twenty twenty five, will contractually obligated TVD.
Speaker 4: But we are yeah, yeah, I should not say that
Speaker 4: so nonchalantly. It is actually happening. But we've done a
Speaker 4: few other episodes like this where we are kind of
Speaker 4: not like, not spitballing. But we wanted to actually have
Speaker 4: on record episodes where we are talking about the things
Speaker 4: that we're sharing in the book because we thought we
Speaker 4: probably owe that to the community. So episode three forty two,
Speaker 4: The Importance of Honoring Your Season, that was the last
Speaker 4: one we did. Episode three thirty seven, how to Adopt
Speaker 4: a Frugal Mindset, and episode three p thirty What is
Speaker 4: the Radical Middle and how to of It? Those are
Speaker 4: just those are a few of the ones that we
Speaker 4: have done that we are just the two of us
Speaker 4: talking about what we have been sharing on other podcasts
Speaker 4: on stages in front of you know, small groups of
Speaker 4: people at parties and talking about whether there might be
Speaker 4: a stage all of that where there might be a stage.
Speaker 1: So yeah, let's let's get into talk about this topic
Speaker 1: on efficiency. So so far, in addition to those episodes,
Speaker 1: the actual principles that we have covered on different episodes,
Speaker 1: or what values based spending is, what the radical middle
Speaker 1: is the importance of curiosity in finding your values and
Speaker 1: refining your spending, the importance of recognizing your season, and
Speaker 1: then how to prioritize values and financial goals when your
Speaker 1: income is limited. And efficiency is the next of those
Speaker 1: principles that help you live out and ca carry out
Speaker 1: this idea of values based spending. Because while it can
Speaker 1: be great to talk about and it's a great concept,
Speaker 1: where the rubber really meets the road is in how
Speaker 1: do we actually make decisions to spend money in alignment
Speaker 1: with our values.
Speaker 3: I think the important thing to highlight to about all
Speaker 3: these episodes that we've done that are a little bit
Speaker 3: more of our original thought, as much as it can
Speaker 3: be considered original, is that these principles we're highlighting that
Speaker 3: are in a girl and foundational to a frugal mindset
Speaker 3: just build upon one another. They're not necessarily steps or
Speaker 3: a linear pathway that you have to go in order,
Speaker 3: but they all do intertwine really beautifully. So this is
Speaker 3: when we're choosing to talk about it. But we can
Speaker 3: implement efficiency at any stage. We love talking about the
Speaker 3: heavy hitters when it comes to our finances, and so
Speaker 3: when we talk about efficiency, this particular topic, this particular principle,
Speaker 3: what we are recognizing is that the definition of efficiency
Speaker 3: is producing desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy.
Speaker 3: I love this definition. I mean, thank you, Miriam Webster,
Speaker 3: but I think that it's a helpful caveat to say
Speaker 3: that it's getting a desired result without wasting those items.
Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean that you're not utilizing those items.
Speaker 3: So getting a desired result with materials, time, and energy,
Speaker 3: but not the waste of them. And I think so
Speaker 3: often it does take refining for us to recognize what
Speaker 3: is the most efficient way of doing things. There can
Speaker 3: often be multiple pathways. One might not be better than another,
Speaker 3: but there could be a more efficient pathway, especially when
Speaker 3: it comes to the disc visions we're making around our finances,
Speaker 3: and so the ways in which that this kind of
Speaker 3: connects to values based spending is that we want to
Speaker 3: be able to conserve our mental resources so that we're
Speaker 3: not bogged down by decision fatigue day in, day out,
Speaker 3: moment to moment, when we could just be making one
Speaker 3: or two spending decisions quarterly that actually make a massive
Speaker 3: difference in our finances rather than the daily decision of
Speaker 3: smaller purchases. Those do matter, But when it comes to efficiency,
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about the heavy hitters.
Speaker 1: And you've heard us talk about it before and you'll
Speaker 1: hear it again throughout this episode. That that sheer willpower,
Speaker 1: which is what we're usually told is supposed to keep
Speaker 1: us going, or external motivation that enhances our willpower, those
Speaker 1: are not enough. We need to focus on the actions
Speaker 1: that we can do, and that is what we think
Speaker 1: is most efficient. Efficiency is not productivity. Productivity is so
Speaker 1: hot right now, but productivity seeks to add more to
Speaker 1: pack in, while efficiency seeks to complete tasks faster with
Speaker 1: more ease. And you can have both. But we talk
Speaker 1: about values and prioritization first, not independently or as a step,
Speaker 1: but first so that you are aware of those and
Speaker 1: you know you're not packing in what doesn't need to
Speaker 1: be there, and so again we'll just reiterate what Jill
Speaker 1: said is that these different principles, they're not steps. They
Speaker 1: can work independently of each other, but having an understanding
Speaker 1: of all of them will help you do the others better.
Speaker 1: But we try to put them in an order to
Speaker 1: where you can best understand them by reading or listening
Speaker 1: to the prior principles. And that's a key reason why
Speaker 1: why prioritization comes before efficiency, because I think I heard
Speaker 1: somebody once say that action is not the goal, like
Speaker 1: to take action to do the next right thing like
Speaker 1: that sounds great in theory, but you have to know
Speaker 1: if you're taking action in the right direction. That's the
Speaker 1: first thing is making sure that the direction is appropriate,
Speaker 1: and then you can determine the action based on your
Speaker 1: season and focus on efforts that you can control to
Speaker 1: get there.
Speaker 3: To me, the goal of efficiency is less work, less
Speaker 3: time energy exerted, maybe more time for relaxation if we're
Speaker 3: going to be honest or whatever you want to do
Speaker 3: with that ergen where you're honest, productivity is how can
Speaker 3: you get the most done so that you can do more?
Speaker 3: And I just I like efficiency better for a lot
Speaker 3: of reasons. So amen, when it comes to our money,
Speaker 3: different ways of developing this efficiency mindset. Leaning into this principle,
Speaker 3: we're going to want to look at automating first. Automating everything.
Speaker 3: I mean, why need to tether yourself to needing to
Speaker 3: remember certain due dates and deadlines and doing the actual
Speaker 3: manual work. We can automate everything as often as you can.
Speaker 3: This can include saving, investing your bills, even your variable bills.
Speaker 3: When it comes to your electric or your water. Most
Speaker 3: companies have an opportunity for you to automate bill pay.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean that you can't have your sights on
Speaker 3: it and know what it is that you're spending, or
Speaker 3: have an alert when that bill gets higher than a
Speaker 3: certain amount, and you're going to need to be needing
Speaker 3: to do some manual things if it is an unexpected
Speaker 3: higher cost. But you can still automate all of these things,
Speaker 3: and then it takes out some of that temptation that
Speaker 3: could be there to not save on any given month
Speaker 3: or for just forget investing, whether it's a simple mistake
Speaker 3: of forgetting or an intentional error in choosing not to
Speaker 3: because you just want to go to brunch every weekend.
Speaker 3: I don't know, speaking for myself.
Speaker 1: Brunch is fun. But so we hear automation, we almost
Speaker 1: gloss over it because it's on every single list of
Speaker 1: what to do with your finances, right, and we're like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: automate it. I've heard it before. But in addition to
Speaker 1: automating what you already have automated, like maybe your car payment,
Speaker 1: your mortgage, your rent, what have you look at ways
Speaker 1: to get creative, cultivating that mindset of creativity again, ways
Speaker 1: to get creative in automation. So one, this isn't financial.
Speaker 1: But for me, I want to drink more water, and
Speaker 1: I will not remember to drink more water. So I
Speaker 1: have alarms on my phone set to go off every
Speaker 1: three hours that remind me when I need to finish
Speaker 1: the water that's in my bottle.
Speaker 3: And that is true, that's not a lie.
Speaker 1: Yes, I also have an app that kind of nudges
Speaker 1: me to drink water every couple hours, and you can
Speaker 1: choose to ignore those nudges. But this is a creative
Speaker 1: way that I have automated, and it's you know, yes,
Speaker 1: it's a little stretch of the word automate, but it
Speaker 1: is a reminder that I have automated for me to
Speaker 1: drink water to reach a goal that I want to reach.
Speaker 1: The goal is to drink more water, but it's an
Speaker 1: arbitrary goal. The actions are what I am looking at.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to drink water whenever the alarm goes off.
Speaker 1: That's real action. That's something I can can measure and
Speaker 1: really train myself to do. So we want to combine
Speaker 1: this habit, this mentality of creativity and think of, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are ways that I can automate things that are
Speaker 1: outside of the box. And you will know what that
Speaker 1: looks like in your own life once you start to
Speaker 1: look at your recurring tasks, look at your schedule and
Speaker 1: all this. And we'll talk more about schedules later, but
Speaker 1: in future episodes or chapters depending on where you're at. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where we want to get this automation in, Yes,
Speaker 1: the tried and true, the stuff that can be automated easily, yes,
Speaker 1: but also getting creative in things we can you didn't
Speaker 1: maybe think you could automate, but there are ways to
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where our routines and habits are going to
Speaker 3: come into place. The routine being a regularly established rhythm
Speaker 3: that you have a part of your daily, weekly, monthly,
Speaker 3: maybe even quarterly or annual rhythms. That would be what
Speaker 3: we're talking about when it comes to routine. And there's
Speaker 3: a lot of things that we can make almost on
Speaker 3: autopilot because we've formed habits around our rhythms, and they
Speaker 3: almost feel as though they're becoming a bit involuntary because
Speaker 3: we've so trained ourselves that this is how we respond
Speaker 3: to this requirement task thing that has to be done
Speaker 3: in a way that is going to be actually most
Speaker 3: beneficial to me. So those routines can create habits. Not
Speaker 3: every routine's going to become a habit, but like you're saying, Jen,
Speaker 3: we can be creative in what that looks like. So
Speaker 3: as a concept, whenever we can't just absolutely automate our savings,
Speaker 3: there are other ways when we can look at rhythms, routines,
Speaker 3: habits to create just a beautiful blend of we're not
Speaker 3: expending or wasting time, energy attention on this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So like the water is the routine or the habit,
Speaker 1: and the alarm is the automation. And so for things
Speaker 1: you can't automate, then you have to have these cognizant
Speaker 1: routines that hopefully will turn into habits. But you can
Speaker 1: start those routines with something automated, all right, So how
Speaker 1: do we know which routines to adopt, especially for our finances?
Speaker 1: So in life, creating routines for anything that doesn't require
Speaker 1: critical thinking is a good rule of thumb. You can create, Yeah,
Speaker 1: routines keep your mind in autopilot. Hopefully there does take
Speaker 1: a little bit of cognizant effort. That's why it's not
Speaker 1: a habit. That's the difference. So, but you're not going
Speaker 1: to need to be fully mentally there to do it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, like for a child, brushing your
Speaker 1: teeth is a routine, we have a bedtime routine. As
Speaker 1: an adult, brushing my teeth in the morning is very mindless.
Speaker 1: But the actual like morning routine I have is not mindless.
Speaker 1: I actually do like put thought into it. But that's me.
Speaker 1: My husband does not put any thought into his morning routine.
Speaker 1: He could, I think, sleep through it, and I think
Speaker 1: he actually does sleep through it. So what a routine
Speaker 1: in a habit looks like is going to also be
Speaker 1: different for everyone. But when it comes to spending, we
Speaker 1: want to look at routines first, before we think about habits.
Speaker 1: We want to create them for things that don't really
Speaker 1: require nuanced thinking, but will require some forethoughts. So this
Speaker 1: could look like logging your transactions at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, budgeting or creating a spending plan at the
Speaker 1: end of every month. That's a routine. You're not going
Speaker 1: to just buy habit, make a budget, meal planning, and prepping.
Speaker 1: You're going to think about these things, but you can
Speaker 1: create routines around them. And really you can use the
Speaker 1: rule of like the eighty twenty rule. So it's also
Speaker 1: known as the Pareto principle. It's a tool for prioritization,
Speaker 1: and it helps you identify the things that are going
Speaker 1: to be most beneficial. And I think we talked about
Speaker 1: this in the prioritization episode, but essentially eighty percent of
Speaker 1: the output results from twenty percent of the input, and
Speaker 1: that's the Paretto principle. And so you're looking at routines
Speaker 1: that can give you, quote unquote the biggest bang for
Speaker 1: the buck.
Speaker 3: I think that's the term scientifically speaking.
Speaker 1: Scientifically speaking, so so yeah, meal planning and prepping, I
Speaker 1: think hands down we can agree that that's one of
Speaker 1: those twenty percent routines that get you eighty percent results.
Speaker 1: Budgeting again, yes, logging transactions, I would say to customize
Speaker 1: it for you, I would say follow the big three rule.
Speaker 1: The big three in your spending are housing, transportation, and food.
Speaker 1: So when you are looking to create routines, focus on
Speaker 1: those first. Anything that can lower your housing costs, lower
Speaker 1: your transportation costs, or lower your food costs. Those are
Speaker 1: the biggest part of the budget for most people. And
Speaker 1: if you can just start with your routines around one, two,
Speaker 1: three of those, then you're going to be creating routines
Speaker 1: that lead to habits that will get you the biggest
Speaker 1: bang for the quote unquote theoretical book.
Speaker 3: And routines. You most likely already have some established rhythms
Speaker 3: and routines. I think with this first step that you're describing,
Speaker 3: genet can include a refining of that what's working, what's
Speaker 3: not working in the midst of that routine, figure out
Speaker 3: what's going to be the best course of action. That
Speaker 3: has gone through the prioritization filter as well as the
Speaker 3: efficiency filter, as well as the values based filters, but
Speaker 3: on all the filters.
Speaker 1: So many filters.
Speaker 3: Yes, we like it, especially when they can be easily
Speaker 3: adopted and practiced. That's the thing too. We don't have
Speaker 3: to be perfect at all of this, and you can
Speaker 3: decide what's the most important filter, but they all blend
Speaker 3: together well, so it's not like you've got eight sunglasses
Speaker 3: on to be able to see this thing clearly. It's
Speaker 3: the different questions you're going to be asking yourself and
Speaker 3: then that's going to lead into greater refinement of habits
Speaker 3: that correlate to those rhythms and routines. And this is
Speaker 3: where creativity comes into play, and even stacking. We can
Speaker 3: have multiple habits playing into any one routine that we have,
Speaker 3: so we want to have a good understanding of what
Speaker 3: those rhythms and routines are. Then look at what habits
Speaker 3: can I be building around this that are going to
Speaker 3: help me. So you've given examples already, Jen of teeth
Speaker 3: brushing and water drinking. I know you've talked on previous
Speaker 3: episodes too about how you will stack by brushing your
Speaker 3: teeth and tracking your expenses for the day. It's something
Speaker 3: easily that you could do on your phone and kind
Speaker 3: of baking it into what is already happening in my day.
Speaker 3: That's efficiency Some might call it productivity, and maybe it's
Speaker 3: a little bit of both, because you are getting a
Speaker 3: lot done, but at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 3: so that you do free up time not just to
Speaker 3: do more, but to do less. And we love that.
Speaker 3: So you want to go back to some of those
Speaker 3: prioritization questions, apply it here. What habit can I create
Speaker 3: now that are going to make other things easier or
Speaker 3: unnecessary later? And it of course can be baked into
Speaker 3: all of the other examples you just gave of logging, transactions, budgeting,
Speaker 3: meal planning, prepping. What habits can I put around my
Speaker 3: meal planning, shopping prepping. That's going to be a representation
Speaker 3: of twenty percent of my effort, but give me eighty
Speaker 3: percent of my output.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yes, again, productivity and efficiency can be intertwined,
Speaker 1: but they are not the same, and so we always
Speaker 1: want to make sure we're being efficient and not just
Speaker 1: productive for the sake of productivity. But something in like
Speaker 1: the stacking, So tracking your transactions while you're brushing your teeth,
Speaker 1: the actual start of that action can become a habit,
Speaker 1: even if the tracking of the transactions is still something
Speaker 1: you have to put like some mental thought into it
Speaker 1: still has to be a routine. I start with my
Speaker 1: credit card, and then I start with my debit card,
Speaker 1: and then I go to my spouse's you know. So
Speaker 1: that's the routine of tracking the transaction. But the actual
Speaker 1: taking out the phone, sitting down at the computer, sitting
Speaker 1: down at the graph paper with the pencil, that can
Speaker 1: be habitualized. So I know, sometimes it's difficult to decipher
Speaker 1: the difference between the habit stacking and the routines and stuff.
Speaker 1: But the actual practice of tracking a transaction or making
Speaker 1: a budget would be a routine.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: For the spending plan, we start with what's our income,
Speaker 1: We go to our foundational expenses, we go to our
Speaker 1: financial goals. That's the routine, sitting down to do the action,
Speaker 1: getting over that. Something at rest stays at rest, something
Speaker 1: emotion stays in motion, going from rest to motion. That's
Speaker 1: what we want to habitualize. So that's the goal, is
Speaker 1: to create habits that put your spending decisions on autopilot.
Speaker 1: So how do we do this in the real world?
Speaker 1: What should these habits look like in the real world
Speaker 1: with our spending and so this could look like when
Speaker 1: you are about to make an impulse decision. You just
Speaker 1: stop for thirty seconds and you have an awkward pause
Speaker 1: before putting something in your cart, or anytime you put
Speaker 1: something in your cart, you ask a question and be like,
Speaker 1: what is this going to do for me? Or how
Speaker 1: is this going to grow me? Or you know, something
Speaker 1: like that. We haven't come up with the questions yet,
Speaker 1: we're still work shopping them, but we'd love to hear
Speaker 1: your ideas. What questions you ask yourself. Maybe they'll make
Speaker 1: it into the book. So, but taking the pause, that
Speaker 1: is the habit, and hopefully the question is also the habit,
Speaker 1: or having the habit of when you're online shopping instead
Speaker 1: of instantly buying, putting something in the cart for thirty
Speaker 1: days before buying it. That's a habit that you can build.
Speaker 1: When you're in the grocery store, we have the routine
Speaker 1: of making a grocery list, and we can habitualize the
Speaker 1: action of starting it, and then when we're actually grocery shopping.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be a habit to stick to
Speaker 1: your grocery list. I'm sorry, but the way you grocery
Speaker 1: shop can become habit. We either avoid the aisles that
Speaker 1: we are most prone to impulse on or we can
Speaker 1: make a habit of doing our shopping on an app
Speaker 1: so that we don't even enter a store to make
Speaker 1: impulse buys. So you've got to look at your life.
Speaker 1: Where am I prone to impulse spend? And this is
Speaker 1: where that ninety day transaction inventory can come and clutch.
Speaker 1: Where am I prone to impulse spending or spending outside
Speaker 1: of my values? And how can I break up that trigger,
Speaker 1: break up that queue so that I can create a
Speaker 1: routine that is better. Okay, I create a habit that
Speaker 1: grows me instead of mindless habits that just suck the
Speaker 1: money out of you and you don't even realize it's
Speaker 1: being drained.
Speaker 3: And you may have some habits that are great they
Speaker 3: don't need to be shifted, and others that do need
Speaker 3: to be shifted. But being mindful and aware of any
Speaker 3: hab that we want to break, we are going to
Speaker 3: need to replace it with something else aimed at the
Speaker 3: desired outcome that we want to see. And so I
Speaker 3: love what you're highlighting here, Jen that it doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be everything all at once, But look at where
Speaker 3: are you experiencing the most hemorrhaging of finances or spending
Speaker 3: or decisions that you don't even remember making and somehow
Speaker 3: there's boxes showing up at your door. That's going to
Speaker 3: be a great place to tackle. That's another efficiency and
Speaker 3: prioritization topic, because you don't want to start where maybe
Speaker 3: someone else is starting. If you're fine in that area,
Speaker 3: if you're doing stellar at meal prepping and cooking, but
Speaker 3: it's not so great when you're scrolling shopping sites in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night, then that's where you want
Speaker 3: to begin. So figure out what it is going to
Speaker 3: be for you. Implement your own creativity with this principle
Speaker 3: of efficiency in mind, with this concept that just being
Speaker 3: busy is not an indicator that you are doing well
Speaker 3: with things. You don't even have to spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time on this just being smart intentional wise about
Speaker 3: the rhythms you're looking at, the habits you are breaking
Speaker 3: and forming or shifting, and the impact that that's going
Speaker 3: to have on your finances in the short term and
Speaker 3: long term.
Speaker 1: Yes, So one last thing that I wanted to touch
Speaker 1: on is we always are making habits. You can choose
Speaker 1: to make intentional habits that lead you in a direction
Speaker 1: that you want to go, or you can live by
Speaker 1: habits that are made of circumstance or season or energy level,
Speaker 1: and you can let those habits guide you to wherever
Speaker 1: they're going to take you. Either way, you're our brain
Speaker 1: is making habits. So we've talked a lot about making habits,
Speaker 1: but how do you break the habits that your mind
Speaker 1: has created? And I love to follow James Clear's Atomic Habits,
Speaker 1: his very easy four step model for making and breaking
Speaker 1: and so the best way to break a habit is
Speaker 1: to replace it with a good one. But you can
Speaker 1: get a little bit more granular on that. He's got
Speaker 1: four laws for behavior change, So of for making a habit,
Speaker 1: and that's make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy,
Speaker 1: make it satisfying. But honestly, you could just like simplify
Speaker 1: that to make it obvious and attractive, because the easy
Speaker 1: thing is going to be attractive and obvious and it's satisfying.
Speaker 1: Like if it's attractive, it's going to be satisfying. So
Speaker 1: just think about the first two and so you can
Speaker 1: inverse those two. Break a habit. And so the first
Speaker 1: one is you want to hide it, So whereas if
Speaker 1: you wanted to build a new habit, you make it obvious.
Speaker 1: If you want to break a bad habit, you make
Speaker 1: the queue or trigger hidden. So if your habit is
Speaker 1: going through the drive through at Starbucks, then you find
Speaker 1: another route to wherever you're going so that you don't
Speaker 1: pass by it. If that's not a feasible option, then
Speaker 1: you take the Starbucks app off your phone. You make
Speaker 1: it very hidden, as hidden as you can, and then
Speaker 1: make it unattractive instead of attractive, so you can either
Speaker 1: And this is where we toll a line of like,
Speaker 1: so for Starbucks drink, you can maybe do research and
Speaker 1: how much sugar or calories or in your particular drink,
Speaker 1: or how much money you're spending in a year. Some
Speaker 1: of that can be like shame based unattractiveness. So I
Speaker 1: would kind of geared towards I never like to gear
Speaker 1: towards like negative though, Like in everything, you do need
Speaker 1: to be aware of the negative and positive of your choices,
Speaker 1: but I don't like to focus on the negative. I
Speaker 1: like to focus on the positive. So something else that's
Speaker 1: attractive that is going to make this bad habit less attractive.
Speaker 1: So again prioritizing. I love coffee, but if I'm getting
Speaker 1: takeout coffee every day, I'm not going to be able
Speaker 1: to save as much money for the all inclusive resort
Speaker 1: I want to go to, So which one's more attractive?
Speaker 1: But the all inclusive resort thing is a little far
Speaker 1: in the future. I might say, I want to go
Speaker 1: to a nice restaurant this Saturday. I have it planned,
Speaker 1: I have it in the budget. But if I am
Speaker 1: buying all the Starbucks all week long and I'm spending
Speaker 1: my twenty five dollars there, then I can't get the
Speaker 1: appetizer that I want at the restaurant I'm going to
Speaker 1: on Saturday. You toe the line. You kind of have to.
Speaker 1: You can't think too far ahead. You kind of get
Speaker 1: to look at the near future on these ones. But yeah,
Speaker 1: breaking a habit, hide it and make it less attractive,
Speaker 1: and then take the opposite to build a habit. Make
Speaker 1: the queue obvious, i e. Automate the queue and then
Speaker 1: make it attractive.
Speaker 3: So, and all of this is just an example. We
Speaker 3: would still encourage you to start with the big three food, housing, transportation,
Speaker 3: the food that's most expensive, your particular spending decisions that
Speaker 3: are really causing some unnecessary strain on your finances, that's
Speaker 3: where you're going to want to be looking because again
Speaker 3: that's the efficiency thing. If it is coffee, great, that's
Speaker 3: an example, but more often than it's probably going to
Speaker 3: be bigger decisions that you're making, whether they're regular or not.
Speaker 3: So often that's where we're going to want to give
Speaker 3: our first focus, and then we can get into some
Speaker 3: of these smaller line items and that sufficiency.
Speaker 1: But I get that it can be easier to start
Speaker 1: with the smaller things because they're more obvious, and so
Speaker 1: if you are not, if you don't know all the
Speaker 1: ways to start in the big three, just like with anything,
Speaker 1: you want to start with things that are easy, but
Speaker 1: you don't want to stay there. So looking at your
Speaker 1: transaction history and you see a lot of coffee, start
Speaker 1: with that. That's going to be the lowest barrier to entry.
Speaker 1: But you can't stay focused on these six dollars decisions.
Speaker 1: Once you've refined a few of them, then you have
Speaker 1: to jump to the big three. And coffee still is
Speaker 1: technically a food item, so it is still under food,
Speaker 1: but you want to jump to housing and transportation. But
Speaker 1: you definitely make food decisions more frequently than housing and transportation.
Speaker 1: But so be aware. You can start with the food,
Speaker 1: but you want to make those money saving housing and
Speaker 1: transportation decisions as quickly, as early as you can as
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable.
Speaker 3: And you know what, I'm always comfortable with. It's part
Speaker 3: of my big three. But it doesn't cost me very
Speaker 3: much out It.
Speaker 1: Is the big one, if I'm gonna be honest, it's
Speaker 1: the big one.
Speaker 6: The bill of the week, that's right, It's time for
Speaker 6: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 6: was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 1: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your.
Speaker 2: Car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore.
Speaker 6: Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 6: of the week.
Speaker 5: Hi, jillan jen. My bill of the week is that
Speaker 5: my husband and I recently went to a gala event
Speaker 5: to support a local nonprofit organization that donates to schools,
Speaker 5: and during the live auction, there was a pro sports
Speaker 5: fan weekend getaway package that started at twenty three hundred dollars,
Speaker 5: and my husband, being the sports enthusiast that he is,
Speaker 5: thought it would be funny to throw his paddle up,
Speaker 5: not thinking he was going to win, but he accidentally
Speaker 5: did so we now have an unexpected bill to go
Speaker 5: on this trip, and I wanted to especially thank you
Speaker 5: for your travel hacks episode because I will be using
Speaker 5: as many as I can to reduce the cost of
Speaker 5: this weekend getaway. All right, thanks for all you do.
Speaker 1: Have a good day.
Speaker 3: Ha ha. Oh, this is the first time we've heard
Speaker 3: this long girl. I hope we're laughing with you. I
Speaker 3: do hope that that's what's actually happening here. This is
Speaker 3: a wild one, but you know what, Yeah, here's here.
Speaker 3: We're gonna look at the bright side with you. One,
Speaker 3: it sounds like you've been listening long enough and taking
Speaker 3: enough ownership of your finances that this isn't gonna break you. Secondly,
Speaker 3: you can you can rest easy knowing that this is
Speaker 3: not just getting you a weekend away, but it is
Speaker 3: practicing generosity. That money is going to this nonprofit. So fantastic,
Speaker 3: well done. But a sports getaway package. I'm probably gonna
Speaker 3: need a follow up, and you can do that. If
Speaker 3: you happen to meet anyone named Bill. I guarantee you
Speaker 3: you will like one at a sports getaway.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be oh yeah, you're for sure going to
Speaker 1: meet someone named.
Speaker 3: A handful of Bills. But I'm I'm gonna need to
Speaker 3: know what this means, and yeah, feel free to tune
Speaker 3: into the travel Hacks episode.
Speaker 1: I am envisioning men in a spa in like jerseys
Speaker 1: and football helmets, Like that is a sports getaway in
Speaker 1: my head.
Speaker 3: They're at the spa with their helmets on.
Speaker 1: They're at the spot, yes, or riding horseback with the
Speaker 1: jersey and the helmet. And I don't know why the
Speaker 1: fans have the helmets. It doesn't make sense. I don't
Speaker 1: watch sports.
Speaker 3: But hopefully the money you have bid is going to
Speaker 3: cover your travel expenses. I don't know. We need more,
Speaker 3: We need so much more information.
Speaker 1: So here's one extra hack. If you or your spouse
Speaker 1: has a business, pay for the donation from that business.
Speaker 1: And then now that is also a tax right off.
Speaker 1: Or if you itemize your deductions, you can pay it personally,
Speaker 1: but that could lower your taxation, saving you a little
Speaker 1: bit more. But yeah, I'm gonna need to know what
Speaker 1: a sport getaway.
Speaker 3: Is like, because Lord knows, I will never be on one.
Speaker 3: We will never find myself on a sports getaway.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of an episode of Bluey that I
Speaker 1: was watching last night, where the dad thinks it's funny
Speaker 1: to like he's acting like a claw machine for his
Speaker 1: kids to like get stuffed animals out of. And he
Speaker 1: puts a little block in there that says unlimited ice
Speaker 1: cream after dinner, and he's thinking he's gonna just hold
Speaker 1: on to this one with his other hand and the
Speaker 1: kids won't be able to like get it because right
Speaker 1: he's the claw and his daughters pummel him like tickling
Speaker 1: and get the unlimited ice cream from him. And then
Speaker 1: he is thus forced to give his children unlimited ice
Speaker 1: cream after dinner because they hold the cube and it
Speaker 1: says the holder of the cube gets unlimited ice cream
Speaker 1: with no caveats, And Mom at the end is like,
Speaker 1: what did we learn from this experience? And I can
Speaker 1: see you in this gala saying what did we learn
Speaker 1: from this experience? That was the exact where my mind went.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that you will that you will
Speaker 1: share a follow up with us.
Speaker 3: I think this is probably the longest response we've ever
Speaker 3: given to a Bill of the week. We're so in,
Speaker 3: we're so invested. This is going to be like a
Speaker 3: podcast spin off of what happens at sports getaways that
Speaker 3: are the result of bidding at nonprofit gala fundraisers. This
Speaker 3: is just it's so wild and we're so glad you
Speaker 3: called in because this is what reminds us that we
Speaker 3: have such good friends in this community. And please do
Speaker 3: call again if you all listening. Happen to find yourself
Speaker 3: at a sports getaway and you also can answer what
Speaker 3: happens there? Or you are a person named Bill. You
Speaker 3: know how this goes. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill.
Speaker 3: Leave us your bill clearly. This is what it's what
Speaker 3: we live for. And now it's time for the hiking round.
Speaker 1: You can catch the follow up to that Bill of
Speaker 1: the week on our sports podcast, Helmet Honeys. Oh, I
Speaker 1: don't hate it A long time to think of. I
Speaker 1: don't really don't hate we are And the cover art
Speaker 1: is us in helmets and jerseys, uh in a spa.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's the cover art.
Speaker 3: I think my head would be hot, but I would
Speaker 3: do it. I'd do it for the fans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, all right for the lightning round. What's one
Speaker 1: habit you can't leave out of your daily routine no
Speaker 1: matter what. I will go first, because I actually tried
Speaker 1: to leave this habit out of my daily routine and
Speaker 1: found that I could not because of the place that
Speaker 1: I am at in my life, the season that I
Speaker 1: am honoring, and it is coffee. I tried to take
Speaker 1: it completely out. That's not happening. I haven't slept a
Speaker 1: full night in over six months, probably longer because our
Speaker 1: four year old also wakes up every night. He just
Speaker 1: doesn't require me to get up with him. So that's it.
Speaker 1: I have never been a person who needed coffee. I
Speaker 1: always just enjoyed it, like I could, you know, do
Speaker 1: a thirty day coffee fast no problem, and I can't
Speaker 1: right now. Maybe that will change when the house isn't
Speaker 1: always reeling from being sick. The cold lasts three days
Speaker 1: and the fallout of the cold lasts three weeks for
Speaker 1: all the family to get through it. And that's what
Speaker 1: we've been just going through for the past several months.
Speaker 3: So that's real. So you'll drink coffee now as an
Speaker 3: actual energy boost, like to wake you up, not just
Speaker 3: for the fun of it.
Speaker 1: Correct. Yes, as soon as I drop off Atlas at daycare,
Speaker 1: I'll either go to the gym, come home, shower, make
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee, or come home and make a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee like I before I start doing work
Speaker 1: that requires cognitive function. I need it. I thought it
Speaker 1: was just a habit, and I thought I could just,
Speaker 1: you know, try without it, and I quickly learned that
Speaker 1: it is now a habit I can't leave out of
Speaker 1: my daily routine.
Speaker 3: Yeah for now.
Speaker 1: So for now, for now, I get it.
Speaker 3: Maybe it'll get it, yeah, no matter what.
Speaker 1: Maybe it'll go back. Jill yeap.
Speaker 3: Y'all can guess that if you've been listening for a while.
Speaker 3: Chewing gum, drinking water, wiping my counters. I do those things,
Speaker 3: you know, the counter thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm realizing it
Speaker 3: about myself. I probably wipe my counters in my kitchen
Speaker 3: approximately five to eight times a day.
Speaker 1: It's a life sure, that's not like a it's like
Speaker 1: a coping mechanism.
Speaker 3: However you want to define it. It's it's something that
Speaker 3: happens daily that I don't think you could get me
Speaker 3: to leave out, no matter what the thing is. I mean,
Speaker 3: bugs anywhere are a possibility, but especially in Florida, you
Speaker 3: just can't. There's we got sugar ants right now, and
Speaker 3: it's not because they're finding anything, because Lord knows, there's
Speaker 3: nothing to be found here in this very sterile environment.
Speaker 3: So there's there's partially that reason, like I don't want
Speaker 3: there to be any degree of food for animals to
Speaker 3: think there's something we found it. Come on, guys, let's
Speaker 3: invade right now. I think we just have shragglers because
Speaker 3: they found themselves here and they're like.
Speaker 5: I don't know why I'm here.
Speaker 3: I'm wandering in the desert. There's no food. Yeah, report back,
Speaker 3: report back.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: But yeah, every after, like I prep any food, I
Speaker 3: wipe the counters and sometimes during food prep.
Speaker 1: Your counters are stark white, like there's no graining, there's
Speaker 1: no marbling, there's no breakup, like your counters are just white.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which I wanted. I didn't want a countertop that
Speaker 3: was going to hide the dirt because I don't like that.
Speaker 3: I want to be able to see it. But there
Speaker 3: is the consequence to being able to see it, then
Speaker 3: you are you don't to doing something about it, And hey,
Speaker 3: that's I guess that's that's forcing myself like what Q
Speaker 3: can I implement where there is no other option? And
Speaker 3: my queue is I see the dirt, didn't hide it?
Speaker 1: So yes, good, Well, thank you for listening. We hope
Speaker 1: that you've learned something about habits routines efficiency and that
Speaker 1: you are inspired to First subscribe to the podcast. Second,
Speaker 1: sign up for the friend letter at Frugal friendspodcast dot com,
Speaker 1: and you will be notified when we start pre sales
Speaker 1: for our book, which will happen sometime in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four date tbd. And third was that third or fourth
Speaker 1: whatever step you're on. We love reading your kind reviews
Speaker 1: on whatever platform you're listening to us on. We especially
Speaker 1: loved this one from a TOV ninety one titled Windfall Throwback.
Speaker 1: They say, Hi, Jen and Jail. Before I get into
Speaker 1: my mini experience with a Windfall, I want to start
Speaker 1: by sharing how incredibly important what you ladies are doing
Speaker 1: is for your ever growing community. I love listening to
Speaker 1: both of your soothing voices, but I also love the
Speaker 1: wonderful advice you give in a variety of ways. You
Speaker 1: speak to me in a way that makes me feel
Speaker 1: like I'm the third friend you're talking to. So thank
Speaker 1: you for your vulnerability, you're honest, suggestions, and kindness. My windfall.
Speaker 1: When I was eight years old, my very frugal mom
Speaker 1: was seriously saving to take me on a dance trip
Speaker 1: to Europe. We did fundraising, I saved my allowance. Family
Speaker 1: members chipped in and one afternoon, my grandmother and I
Speaker 1: were walking downtown and I found a wad yes, way
Speaker 1: more than two crumpled up findes and not a cell
Speaker 1: phone to be found. It was a tough year for
Speaker 1: my family with the loss of my grandfather, and that
Speaker 1: money allowed for some extra fun when we landed. Anyway,
Speaker 1: thanks for everything you do. Can't wait to tune into
Speaker 1: more episodes. Yes, so next step, leave a li lovely
Speaker 1: review like a tab ninety one did, and we will
Speaker 1: read it on the show and say thank you. I
Speaker 1: love that story. If you leave a story in your review.
Speaker 3: Thanks for that kind review. Yes, yeah, and thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. Google Friends is produced by
Speaker 1: Eric Siriani.
Speaker 3: We are getting to a place where I think there's
Speaker 3: going to be a lot of episodes coming out where
Speaker 3: people hear Jen's alarm and you're going to know that
Speaker 3: the exact time we're recording. Every day, it's the reminder
Speaker 3: to go pick up her son. And if it's been there,
Speaker 3: then you know we're recording out two I know, but
Speaker 3: if they're not, you know, they probably are cut out.
Speaker 1: But that's the only alarm I have noise on. I
Speaker 1: don't even have a ringer. My phone is always on silent.
Speaker 1: My alarms are always vibrate. But that is the one
Speaker 1: alarm because I need other people to know that something
Speaker 1: has happened. And yeah, has happened.
Speaker 3: That's more important than your reminder to drink water.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. It is actually because I will get
Speaker 1: I can be and still pick him up right. I
Speaker 1: don't know how I'm going to get in trouble, but
Speaker 1: they have drilled it into me that I will be
Speaker 1: punished if I don't pick up my child on time,
Speaker 1: and and I will deserve it.
Speaker 3: You know, aren't you a little curious to find out? No,
Speaker 3: not me, what happens, not me.
Speaker 1: I love breaking rules, but I'm not about to break
Speaker 1: this one.
Speaker 3: I respect that.
Speaker 1: So it's because I love them and I want them
Speaker 1: to love me.
Speaker 3: Oh good point, that's important. Yeah, yeah right, go get
Speaker 3: yourself right.
Speaker 1: May