Speaker 1: Episode four eighty seven is episode three point fifteen, how
Speaker 1: to build and break habits that cause you to overspend.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your
Speaker 2: 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 replaying one
Speaker 1: of our most downloaded episodes from a few years ago
Speaker 1: about habits and specifically spending habits.
Speaker 3: Turns out we've been talking about this type of thing
Speaker 3: for a long time. There's a part of me that's
Speaker 3: thought we've kind of begun to talk about impulse spending
Speaker 3: and habit building for our book. It's like, nah, it's
Speaker 3: just that we've been talking about this forever and we
Speaker 3: finally thought, let's put it into a book. So if
Speaker 3: you want our tape from kind of the inception when
Speaker 3: we were first beginning to talk about habits, that's what
Speaker 3: we're looking back to. But still really good relevant stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, But first, this episode is brought to you by
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Speaker 1: So a couple good episodes to q up for after
Speaker 1: this one that came up after this episode was originally recorded.
Speaker 1: Episode four sixty two. Willpower and self control in spending.
Speaker 1: There's this illusion that spending is self discipline and self
Speaker 1: control and higher willpower. But we don't necessarily believe that.
Speaker 1: We believe that there's other ways you can work with
Speaker 1: your body instead of against it against your brain. And
Speaker 1: then episode four fifty nine, five Ways your childhood impacts
Speaker 1: how you spend money, so this can be the root
Speaker 1: of where a lot of our habits are. So those
Speaker 1: are two good ones to queue up. But let's not
Speaker 1: waste any time.
Speaker 3: Let's get into it. Let's get into this. We've got
Speaker 3: some really great articles for you. The first one comes
Speaker 3: from CNBC and it's titled three habits that actually cause
Speaker 3: you to spend more money according to a behavioral researcher.
Speaker 3: So they are citing a lot of the findings of
Speaker 3: Mary L. Beasley, who's the co founder of common Sense Labs,
Speaker 3: where she's talking about these habits, and then it's kind
Speaker 3: of an overview of that behavioral research that was done,
Speaker 3: and just begins by talking about how often we can
Speaker 3: have the best of intentions but still make mistakes along
Speaker 3: the way because we're human. And I know for myself
Speaker 3: that is still true. Even though I have a personal
Speaker 3: finance podcast for five years alongside Jen who I've learned
Speaker 3: so much from, I still am not hitting every goal
Speaker 3: and crushing my savings and spendings and investing in all
Speaker 3: of that, and we can all have the best of intentions.
Speaker 3: I love the example that they give at the beginning
Speaker 3: of we can think and plan. When we're going out
Speaker 3: to dinner, we're just going to have one glass of wine,
Speaker 3: but then you know we're with really good friends, we
Speaker 3: end up having three. Or I am going to challenge
Speaker 3: myself to save fifty bucks a month, but then by
Speaker 3: the end of the month only find twenty five dollars
Speaker 3: in saving. So I think that this, in a really
Speaker 3: succinct way, gives some other reasonings to why that happens.
Speaker 3: And the more we can understand that reality, the more
Speaker 3: we can respond well and see shifts. So while I'm
Speaker 3: not perfect, I know, Jen, you would say you're not perfect,
Speaker 3: there can be improvement along the way. However, within this
Speaker 3: any overarching thoughts from you, Jen on this one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I so I once we get we're going to
Speaker 1: say the three habits. But I think traditionally when we
Speaker 1: think of quote unquote bad spending habits, we think of
Speaker 1: that ordering the two extra drinks at dinner. We think
Speaker 1: of the Starbucks drive through on the way to work,
Speaker 1: ordering takeout for lunch. So those are not the real
Speaker 1: habits that we're focusing on today. And so I just
Speaker 1: thought this was a very cool, like there are deeper issues,
Speaker 1: deeper habits that cause those more superficial ones, and so
Speaker 1: I love that this article goes into those and then
Speaker 1: the next article will go into more specifically how to
Speaker 1: break them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the first habit, habit number one is that
Speaker 3: we can often tend to rely on our will power
Speaker 3: to restrict our spending. We can think that that's enough
Speaker 3: if I just grit my teeth and white knuckle this thing,
Speaker 3: that's going to be what helps me restrict my spending.
Speaker 3: And the researcher explains that motivation like anything else, and
Speaker 3: you've heard us describe this it ebbs and flows. Motivation
Speaker 3: can't be the thing that we're waiting on to just
Speaker 3: happen to just befall us and then the rest of
Speaker 3: life suit. So if you're just relying on sheer willpower
Speaker 3: to prevent you from making purchases, it's going to wear
Speaker 3: down overtime and won't always be effective. They also reference
Speaker 3: how budgeting can be one of those things, like, well,
Speaker 3: we try and restrict our spending through budgeting and then
Speaker 3: thinking it's our willpower that's going to help us keep
Speaker 3: in that place. Now, I love budgets, but I do
Speaker 3: think that this is highlighting an important thing about the
Speaker 3: way that we approach budgets. So creating a budget can
Speaker 3: help us know where our money goes, how to allocate it.
Speaker 3: But a lot of times if we're trying to use
Speaker 3: that as the motivator for our will power in this
Speaker 3: effort to curb spending, it can lead to this cycle
Speaker 3: of overcompensation where maybe it works for a little bit
Speaker 3: of time. Oh yeah, I just saved all that much,
Speaker 3: but now we feel deprived, and then we overspend and
Speaker 3: the gains are hardly anything because we've then overcompensated for them.
Speaker 3: So this just sheer relying on willpower doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's like so when we talk about decision fatigue,
Speaker 1: it's that for you know, for those of you who
Speaker 1: don't know, decision fatigue is by the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like in the morning, your decisions are great because your
Speaker 1: mind is fresh, but by the end of the day
Speaker 1: you are, you know, eating ice cream in pulse, shopping
Speaker 1: on Amazon, because your your willpower literally has been depleted
Speaker 1: from your body. Your brain only has so much capacity
Speaker 1: to make decisions. And so instead of working against that,
Speaker 1: which is the real mistake, we need to be working
Speaker 1: with our minds. So we need to be looking for
Speaker 1: those ways to kind of internally motivate ourselves to keep going.
Speaker 1: So part of that is, you know, quote unquote find
Speaker 1: your why, But there are other smaller things that we
Speaker 1: need to be doing to really move on our own
Speaker 1: lition and not rely on willpower.
Speaker 4: Yeah, have it.
Speaker 1: Number two is focusing more on immediate satisfaction versus long
Speaker 1: term benefit. So like when I was just saying, when
Speaker 1: your willpower is depleted, then it makes it even harder
Speaker 1: to focus on the long term benefit versus the immediate satisfaction.
Speaker 1: And I would say it's not a bad thing to
Speaker 1: focus on immediate satisfaction. Our brains are kind of wired
Speaker 1: to do that, but not doing it every single decision.
Speaker 1: So most of our decisions have to be for long
Speaker 1: term benefit. So I'd say it's probably like an eighty twenty.
Speaker 1: If eighty percent of your decisions are sound and provide
Speaker 1: long term benefit than twenty percent, you can just like
Speaker 1: go off and impulse spend all of it at target,
Speaker 1: you know. So we're not looking for perfection. We're just
Speaker 1: looking to do eighty percent right so that we can
Speaker 1: have the freedom to not think about it and not
Speaker 1: be so guilty with that other twenty percent or whatever
Speaker 1: ratio feels.
Speaker 3: Good to you, and that's a little bit just default mode.
Speaker 3: I feel as though immediate satisfaction is innate, and it
Speaker 3: does take work to be able to identify long term
Speaker 3: benefit and create ways for us to see some degree
Speaker 3: of short term benefit while we're working towards long term benefit.
Speaker 3: But that's so often what habits are. They are these
Speaker 3: things that have worked to some degree or have created
Speaker 3: shortcuts and efficiencies, but many of them aren't actually working
Speaker 3: in our favor. And so a lot of this is
Speaker 3: just becoming aware of those habits that aren't benefiting us
Speaker 3: and how can we shift that Again, we'll get to
Speaker 3: that in the second article. But yeah, it's natural that
Speaker 3: we would want to focus on immediate satisfaction, but that
Speaker 3: in the long run is going to lead to that overspending.
Speaker 3: So that's another reason that we can find ourselves like
Speaker 3: in that run, why I had the best of intentions,
Speaker 3: Why did it end up this way? And these are
Speaker 3: some of the top three reasons. And the final one,
Speaker 3: habit number three is just simply following the crowd, keeping
Speaker 3: up with the Joneses or whoever it is that you
Speaker 3: follow on Instagram. This can highly and heavily influence how
Speaker 3: much money we spend and what we spend it on.
Speaker 3: We often will take cues from those around us on
Speaker 3: what we should be doing, how to belong again, this
Speaker 3: is one of those just innately programmed things of humanity.
Speaker 3: We want belonging, we want immediate satisfaction, we want efficiency,
Speaker 3: we want to believe that we've got the grit and
Speaker 3: willpower to just say no to whatever whatever. But the
Speaker 3: reality is there's a lot lot more forces at play here,
Speaker 3: and especially if we are not actively aware or intentional
Speaker 3: about that, we can find ourselves buying the things, doing
Speaker 3: the things, having the experiences that maybe we don't even
Speaker 3: love that much. It's just what's happening with those around us,
Speaker 3: and it's influencing the decisions that we're making.
Speaker 4: They reference research.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Granted I did not click on this to see if
Speaker 3: it met Jen's standards of research, but apparently the Federal
Speaker 3: Reserve Bank of America, I'm sorry, the Federal.
Speaker 4: Reserve DELCA Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: I'm from Philadelphia, so America, the best of America comes
Speaker 3: from Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check this now, Okay, The.
Speaker 3: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that if your neighbor
Speaker 3: wins the lottery, you're more likely to file for bankruptcy.
Speaker 3: This sounds like a woudicrous fact. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 3: how many people have they been able to actually study
Speaker 3: who won the lottery and then look at the behaviors
Speaker 3: of those lives, winners, neighbors.
Speaker 4: I can't imagine it was more than five.
Speaker 3: Feel free to report back, Jen, But still, the point
Speaker 3: that they're trying to make here is we are heavily
Speaker 3: influenced by those around me, around us, whether that is
Speaker 3: our neighbors, the place, just our immediate community, our friends,
Speaker 3: our coworkers, the people that we're choosing to follow on Instagram,
Speaker 3: social media. We will be influenced by their spending habits.
Speaker 3: And if we are not intentional about choosing something differently,
Speaker 3: that's just how it's going to shake out in our
Speaker 3: spending behaviors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to note that to quote the study
Speaker 1: to examine this question, we rely on match data on
Speaker 1: the universe of lottery winners and the universe of bankruptcy
Speaker 1: filers in a single Canadian province.
Speaker 3: What and it's the federal banks Philadelphia doing this research.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your rigorous citing standard. CNBC I just
Speaker 1: wanted it because it sounded so crazy, right, But so
Speaker 1: to bring it back around, these three habits are really
Speaker 1: important to look at. That's why it's important that we
Speaker 1: look in habits because we only have a finite amount
Speaker 1: of willpower at the end of the day, so we
Speaker 1: want to put our actions on autopilot. That's what habits are.
Speaker 1: We focus more on immediate satisfaction. It's the way our
Speaker 1: brains are wired. So we want to have good habits,
Speaker 1: and we want to just be intentional about our habits
Speaker 1: so that we're not falling into unintentional like limiting ones.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say bad versus good habits, because
Speaker 1: one person's bad habit could be another person's good habit.
Speaker 1: But limiting and growth habits, And yeah, we follow the crowd,
Speaker 1: So we want to have eighty percent of our habits
Speaker 1: being are actions being good habits. So in those times
Speaker 1: where you do follow the you know what the Federal
Speaker 1: Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is saying, you might do, you're
Speaker 1: mostly taken care of. So I do. I When you
Speaker 1: were saying this one, the habit number three, I was remembering,
Speaker 1: I follow this guy at I think it's Shabaz or
Speaker 1: Shabaz says or just chabez. Yes, the rich people in
Speaker 1: the post. The rich Yeah, all the rich people. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if they're rich, but they just carefully
Speaker 1: and luxuriously curate all of this designer stuff. And like
Speaker 1: apparently there's a part of TikTok where like fancy ice,
Speaker 1: like filling your freezer with like fancy ice is a thing,
Speaker 1: and it's just all so pointless. But if that's all
Speaker 1: you're seeing, and he and he'll make just really funny commentary,
Speaker 1: like poking fun at it, not the person, but just
Speaker 1: like how ridiculous practices are. Like, if that's all you're seeing,
Speaker 1: you can think that's normal and you can follow the
Speaker 1: crowd with your fancy ice, but you really have to
Speaker 1: ask yourself why, you know, is this what I value?
Speaker 1: Or is this just something like I'm seeing in my
Speaker 1: brain is just automatically going to I should do this?
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's all right, I do love what following
Speaker 1: their sources.
Speaker 3: Thanks for checking checking that source, jet, because that was
Speaker 3: a wild fact that turns out to not be maybe
Speaker 3: all that factual. And this is why we scour the
Speaker 3: internet on your behalf to save you from this insane research, absolutely,
Speaker 3: but sometimes the research doesn't take that long.
Speaker 1: So I actually I love this next article and I
Speaker 1: can't believe we haven't covered it before. I actually looked
Speaker 1: at episode the show notes for one eighty one. I
Speaker 1: was like, we should have. I've read this article a
Speaker 1: million times, not a million, but a lot. I was like,
Speaker 1: we have to have used it in one eighty one. No,
Speaker 1: we didn't. So the next article is James Clear's how
Speaker 1: to Break a bad habit and replace it with a
Speaker 1: good one. It is one of my favorite articles on
Speaker 1: the internet, but in one eighty one we used it
Speaker 1: James clear article on how to build good habits. So
Speaker 1: this one we're focused on breaking habits and then to
Speaker 1: build habits. Follow up with one eighty one. I know
Speaker 1: that's in the title, but the point of it is
Speaker 1: to get you to listen to one eighty one after
Speaker 1: this one. That's the biggest one.
Speaker 3: James Clear is just a good resource too in learning
Speaker 3: more about habits. So it's why we reference this work
Speaker 3: so often. And you know there's not necessarily oh ten tips,
Speaker 3: five steps, blah blah blah, just kind of taking us
Speaker 3: through what causes bad habits? What can we do about it.
Speaker 3: What are some techniques that work. So we're just going
Speaker 3: to work our way through that. Yeah, feel free to
Speaker 3: start jen with what causes bad habits?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: So what causes bad habits? Most of your bad habits,
Speaker 1: according to clear, are caused by two things, stress and boredom.
Speaker 1: And I would say boredom in the sense that you're
Speaker 1: just not being intentional. It is always easier, our mind
Speaker 1: always takes the road with fewer obstacles, and so I
Speaker 1: would say, maybe you're not bored, but your mind might be.
Speaker 1: So I would maybe even add a third. It's just
Speaker 1: like just like situational, like seasonal kind of where you're at,
Speaker 1: not being intentional about where you want to go. A
Speaker 1: lot of bad habits, especially spending habits, can be caused
Speaker 1: from that, but also stress and definitely also boredom. I know,
Speaker 1: sometimes especially with a newborn, if I just want to
Speaker 1: get out of the house, like I'm going to Target
Speaker 1: because it's too hot outside.
Speaker 3: Vica hands, it's like water. Our brains will take the
Speaker 3: path of least resistance. And I will caveat this by
Speaker 3: saying all of the other principles that we've talked about
Speaker 3: throughout this podcast still remain. We still have to recognize
Speaker 3: the season that we're in, our current capacities. What does
Speaker 3: kindness to ourselves and well being look like right now?
Speaker 3: And we can't tackle everything all at once, and so
Speaker 3: really measuring whether you're in a season of maybe just
Speaker 3: maintenance or in a season of growth or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: I think you know, Jen, I hear you say, oh, man,
Speaker 3: there's these things that I'm doing. Yeah, but you have
Speaker 3: a brand new baby and a four year old and
Speaker 3: you're getting back into the pace of work life. That
Speaker 3: going to target might not be something that you want
Speaker 3: to be doing to cope in a year from now,
Speaker 3: But is it okay for now? Like there is still
Speaker 3: this spectrum of what is and isn't beneficial for us,
Speaker 3: and going to target is still far better than.
Speaker 4: Going to the bar.
Speaker 1: So it is far better than taking my newborn into
Speaker 1: the bar.
Speaker 4: And that would be a coping mechanism too. So I
Speaker 4: think also.
Speaker 3: Learning where you are along the way and being kind
Speaker 3: to yourself in this and recognizing that Okay, you bite
Speaker 3: your nails, you go on shopping sprees, you overspend, or
Speaker 3: you like you might not be able to shift all
Speaker 3: of that all at once. Pick your thing, decide what
Speaker 3: is okay, maybe for a season, check back in with yourself.
Speaker 4: It's all a part of this equation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he says that the end of this, recognizing
Speaker 1: the causes of your bad habits is crucial to overcoming them.
Speaker 1: And so I think that just reiterates. So you have
Speaker 1: to recognize the season that you're in and no, is
Speaker 1: this a season where I can change my bad habits
Speaker 1: or my limiting habits, or is this a season where
Speaker 1: I can you know, focus on this limiting habit but
Speaker 1: not this one for this reason. So that is definitely
Speaker 1: number one awesome.
Speaker 3: Then the article goes on to explain how we don't
Speaker 3: eliminate bad habits, we replace them. So there's snaps, there's
Speaker 3: no pause there, Okay, picking back up. So there is
Speaker 3: no reality where we can just cut out of our
Speaker 3: lives something that is hill informed, misplaced, miss directed, non beneficial,
Speaker 3: without replacing it with something else, without identifying, well, what
Speaker 3: will I do instead? If you're accustomed to going to
Speaker 3: Target every single Saturday as a way to just get
Speaker 3: out of the house and you end up spending money,
Speaker 3: you can't just stop that cold turkey. And that goes
Speaker 3: back to that first article of relying on willpower, Well,
Speaker 3: it just doesn't work. There would need to be something
Speaker 3: else coming in to replace that. What will you do
Speaker 3: instead needs to be a really crucial integral part of
Speaker 3: this equation, just even just that recognition that I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna I'm not just gonna get rid of this habit.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to identify how to redirect it.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, you It's like when you dig something out
Speaker 1: of a dirt road and you're driving over it. You
Speaker 1: want to replace that that thing that was in the road.
Speaker 1: You got to fill it back up with dirt in
Speaker 1: order to drive over the road. Considering if it's a
Speaker 1: if it's a big thing that you dug out.
Speaker 4: Of the road, So how big is a shovel?
Speaker 1: How I mean, how big is the thing you were
Speaker 1: I don't I want to say like it was a
Speaker 1: dead animal or something. But you've got to fill it
Speaker 1: back up in order to drive over it. You don't
Speaker 1: just take it out and then you know, drive over it,
Speaker 1: you'll get stuck. So that's kind of the idea, is
Speaker 1: that you don't take something away without replacing it, because
Speaker 1: your brain just works easier, It works more easily when
Speaker 1: you replace so then we go into how do we
Speaker 1: replace how do we break the bad habit? So I
Speaker 1: like James Clear's habit loop. It's a smidge different than
Speaker 1: the traditional habit loop of three phases. So he basically
Speaker 1: takes that habit loop and for every reason that you
Speaker 1: would perform a habit, he just like takes the opposite.
Speaker 1: You just do the opposite. So, like the first part
Speaker 1: is well, first you have to choose the substitute for
Speaker 1: your bad habit. But the first part of the habit
Speaker 1: loop is the queue. So you just make the queue
Speaker 1: like obvious, or you make the queue. That's how you
Speaker 1: build one. You make the queue kind of as disguise
Speaker 1: it as much as possible, or ignore it as much
Speaker 1: as possible. So like if your habit is picking up
Speaker 1: Starbucks on the way to work and the drive through
Speaker 1: you go a different way to work, or you get
Speaker 1: in the lane farthest from the Starbucks, so you make
Speaker 1: it as hard to do the habit as possible, cut
Speaker 1: out as many triggers as possible. And so that's the
Speaker 1: first step to breaking your bad habit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So which is two fold. It's that first choosing
Speaker 3: what the substitute is going to be then cutting out
Speaker 3: as many triggers the thing that's going to come just before,
Speaker 3: Like if you always eat cookies when you're home and
Speaker 3: you're watching TV, then it might be something that don't
Speaker 3: watch TV at night, Like there might be cutting out
Speaker 3: these different triggers that always lead to the next thing
Speaker 3: of the habit. Of course, as it relates to finances
Speaker 3: and spending, there's different things to talk about there. Of
Speaker 3: if I always go to Starbucks on my way to work,
Speaker 3: then maybe I need a different path. I need to
Speaker 3: take a different way to work so that I'm not
Speaker 3: passing that Starbucks, and eventually that will turn the external
Speaker 3: motivators into internal motivators. But initially our brains do need
Speaker 3: these things to just be removed. We can help ourselves
Speaker 3: out by eliminating some of those unnecessary temptations. The next
Speaker 3: thing that they recommend is to join forces with somebody.
Speaker 3: We love this because we think we go further together
Speaker 3: and having community is a massive part of experiencing well
Speaker 3: being and quote unquote success in feeling empowered in your
Speaker 3: personal finances and achieving goals. If we bring someone else along,
Speaker 3: whether you are aimed at the same exact goal or
Speaker 3: similar goals or you both are just trying to achieve
Speaker 3: something somebody else. To be able to talk about that with,
Speaker 3: share what your goal is, share what works for you,
Speaker 3: what's not working, be able to have someone to celebrate
Speaker 3: together with when those little victories and big victories happen.
Speaker 3: Having someone else is a really powerful motivator. Not that
Speaker 3: motivation is the thing to be the driving force, but accountability.
Speaker 3: Community in this process is going to really help us
Speaker 3: stick to it.
Speaker 1: And I think that can go into the that kind
Speaker 1: of So there are the three laws of inversion of
Speaker 1: the habit loop to break that bad habit. The first
Speaker 1: one is to make the cues invisible. The second and
Speaker 1: third are to make the habit unattractive and difficult, and
Speaker 1: that can that's where community really comes in. It's really
Speaker 1: important and this is maybe one of the most difficult things.
Speaker 1: That your community supports the direction you are going, whether
Speaker 1: that is family, friends, the people you surround yourself in
Speaker 1: your career, at your job, whatever, those are the people
Speaker 1: that are either going to make it easy to continue
Speaker 1: with limiting habits or make it difficult or unattractive to
Speaker 1: follow through with those habits. If you are surrounding yourself
Speaker 1: with people who lift you up and encourage you to
Speaker 1: reframe your mindset to be better. Then it's going to
Speaker 1: be unattractive to be overspending on things that you don't
Speaker 1: truly value. And if you are spending time with people
Speaker 1: who like to do free things as much as you,
Speaker 1: it's going to make it difficult to overspend in the
Speaker 1: areas you don't want to spend on. So that's why
Speaker 1: we are so invested in having people around you who
Speaker 1: live the way you want to live.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the next portion of this article and talking
Speaker 3: about how to reform redirect our habits has to do
Speaker 3: with mindset. I'll just list off the three that come next,
Speaker 3: and it's related to visualizing yourself succeeding, not needing to
Speaker 3: become someone else, but return to the old you, and
Speaker 3: some of the things that we can do to interrupt
Speaker 3: negative self talk.
Speaker 4: And so I think.
Speaker 3: Each one could be implemented depending on your own personnel
Speaker 3: and what makes sense to you. If you are someone
Speaker 3: who enjoys visualizing things and imagining yourself at the place
Speaker 3: that you want to be, then that might be a
Speaker 3: really helpful mindset for you in really daydreaming and envisioning
Speaker 3: this new life can help. It's not going to be
Speaker 3: the only thing. It's not some magic pill, but it
Speaker 3: does help us to imagine and keep that goal in focus.
Speaker 3: The next tip related to the not needing to be
Speaker 3: someone else, just return to the old you. That's a
Speaker 3: mindset shift of recognizing that you don't need to become
Speaker 3: a new person. Chances are that the habits you're trying
Speaker 3: to break is in some form a return to maybe
Speaker 3: who you used to be.
Speaker 4: Like they use the.
Speaker 3: Example of smoking, chances are you weren't born smoking, so
Speaker 3: it's not it's not that you need to quit smoking.
Speaker 3: It's more this mindset of you need to return to
Speaker 3: being a non smoker. You probably have not spent money
Speaker 3: your whole life, so it's not like I don't I
Speaker 3: need to just not be this type of person, but
Speaker 3: rather go back to the more simple ways of life.
Speaker 4: This, I think.
Speaker 3: Breaks down at some point, but I think that that
Speaker 3: mindset can be helpful in I think what it's primarily
Speaker 3: getting at is the narrative and the story we tell
Speaker 3: ourselves about who we are, and that can be a
Speaker 3: big barrier in us achieving and experiencing change. Is well,
Speaker 3: this is who I am. I'm an overspender. I'm a smoker,
Speaker 3: I'm a couch potato, like whatever words you would want
Speaker 3: to put on it, and we take that on as
Speaker 3: an identity. And I think that this exercise is mostly
Speaker 3: pointing at how do we shed those negative self talks
Speaker 3: that aren't beneficial to us mostly even aren't true that
Speaker 3: these aren't identifying identity pieces. So there's that one and
Speaker 3: then using the word but overcome self talk, and I
Speaker 3: like the examples that they give. You know, maybe moving
Speaker 3: from if you feel like you're a person who's a failure,
Speaker 3: you might have this narrative in your head going I'm
Speaker 3: a failure, I'm a failure, and maybe it's shifting it too,
Speaker 3: I'm a failure, but everybody fails sometimes. Or if you
Speaker 3: feel like no one respects me, I'm not a respectable person.
Speaker 3: No one respects me, but I'm working to develop a
Speaker 3: valuable skill. So it's really shifting where we typically go
Speaker 3: what we say about ourselves to the action that we're
Speaker 3: trying to put towards change. And again that's all that's mindset,
Speaker 3: that's taking our thoughts, being aware of them, how they
Speaker 3: are moving our behaviors, and shifting that because it all
Speaker 3: begins in our mind and when we can shift the
Speaker 3: way that we think, then we can shift the way
Speaker 3: that we behave.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and these mindsets are you know, the I'm stupid,
Speaker 1: I'm the failure. Those are not the mindsets you want
Speaker 1: to stick with. The butt is simply just something to
Speaker 1: add at the end, yes, instead of a period. Eventually,
Speaker 1: you want to be able to say, I'm not a failure.
Speaker 1: I failed at this one thing. Yeah, but failing and
Speaker 1: failing better is part of success. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Adding the butts is just the first step. Good voice, Jen,
Speaker 4: You don't.
Speaker 1: Want to stay there, right, And the more you dive
Speaker 1: into creating a growth mindset and developing good habits and
Speaker 1: breaking limiting ones, the more you develop this language. It's
Speaker 1: it's language that you have to learn, and it's difficult
Speaker 1: to learn. After years of saying like I'm bad with money,
Speaker 1: I need to spend money to feel better, all of
Speaker 1: these narratives that we talk to ourselves about money, it's
Speaker 1: hard to break those narratives. You have to learn the
Speaker 1: language to replace the narratives you're telling yourself, and that
Speaker 1: kind of leads the last one is to plan for failure.
Speaker 1: And this is so important because we all slip up
Speaker 1: every now and then. It's what the article says, and
Speaker 1: it's not even I we see failure. It's like this,
Speaker 1: it's a big negative thing. But failing at something or
Speaker 1: just not most of the times is just not succeeding
Speaker 1: in the way that you thought you would succeed. It's
Speaker 1: not failure. So I think the idea is that if
Speaker 1: you plan for failure, it's not in a self sabotaging
Speaker 1: way where you try something but you don't give it
Speaker 1: you one hundred percent because you just assume you'll fail.
Speaker 1: So we're not talking about that, but we're talking about
Speaker 1: know that you're going to make mistakes, know that you're
Speaker 1: not going to be perfect, Know that you're not going
Speaker 1: to succeed in the way that you think you should
Speaker 1: succeed in order to define success. So when you're building
Speaker 1: a habit, there's a lot out there that says it's
Speaker 1: going to take you twenty one days to build a habit,
Speaker 1: and the reality is it takes you know, at least
Speaker 1: sixty six, somewhere closer to one twenty. So whatever you're
Speaker 1: working on, whatever habit you're working on, you'll be working
Speaker 1: on it for three to six months at least, and
Speaker 1: you're not going to be perfect, especially in the first
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and that's when most people will give
Speaker 1: up when they're trying to break a limiting habit. So
Speaker 1: plan to not be perfect, plan to not succeed in
Speaker 1: the way you think you should.
Speaker 4: Yes, so true.
Speaker 3: I also love the way that this article wraps up
Speaker 3: in this where to go from here? Section, and I
Speaker 3: appreciate the way that they highlight that it's very easy
Speaker 3: for us to get caught up in how we feel
Speaker 3: about our bad habits, or you know, we might label
Speaker 3: them our bad habits and we can feel guilty, or
Speaker 3: we will spend our time dreaming up how we wish
Speaker 3: things were, But our feelings are not necessarily what's going
Speaker 3: to actually be the factor that moves us to action.
Speaker 3: It's more so an awareness of what's happening, gathering up
Speaker 3: information that's going to actually make the change so great,
Speaker 3: intro into kind of next steps to take. So I
Speaker 3: would encourage anyone to check out this article. But they
Speaker 3: list out questions that you can be asking yourself, like
Speaker 3: when does your bad habit actually happen? How many times
Speaker 3: a day are you engaging in this habit? Where are you,
Speaker 3: who are you with? What triggers the behavior and causes
Speaker 3: it to start? And so even just simply tracking, very
Speaker 3: similar to how we approach our personal finances from the
Speaker 3: start of just tracking where's my money going, how's it
Speaker 3: being spent?
Speaker 4: Who am I with?
Speaker 3: What happened just before it? All these things are so interconnected,
Speaker 3: and if we can remove some of those feelings emotional
Speaker 3: baggage around it and just be curious about ourselves, the
Speaker 3: our own researchers, if you will, gathering this information, it's
Speaker 3: that information that's going to fuel and inform the next
Speaker 3: steps after you've tracked all of these things, and you
Speaker 3: can look back on that with that curious eye and think, okay,
Speaker 3: then what can I do? What triggers this? How can
Speaker 3: I eliminate those triggers? What's the Q craving reward? What
Speaker 3: can I be doing instead? Just before this habit might
Speaker 3: be triggered? How can I replace it? What would be
Speaker 3: something that's effective? Where is this beginning? What does this
Speaker 3: tell me about myself? What is it that I'm trying
Speaker 3: to avoid? Are there other coping mechanisms that I'm going
Speaker 3: to feel better about? And all of these things, all
Speaker 3: of these questions will move us towards growth where we're
Speaker 3: not going to fall into those first three habits that
Speaker 3: we talked about in that first article. We are more
Speaker 3: equipped once we go through this process to combat some
Speaker 3: of those other ways that we might be tend We
Speaker 3: might tend to pull in that direction, but we can
Speaker 3: be more intentional as a result of asking ourselves this
Speaker 3: and paying attention and replacing, not just eliminating.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know what will never replace or eliminate, and
Speaker 1: that I have missed so much.
Speaker 5: The bill of the week.
Speaker 6: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 6: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 6: is Williams.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 6: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 6: to pay that bill. Anymore bills, butfalo bills, bill claim.
Speaker 6: This is the bill up the week.
Speaker 7: Hey, Dan and Jail, I have a very small, but
Speaker 7: sweet bill of the week for you reguarding eggs. I,
Speaker 7: like many Americans, have not been able to find eggs
Speaker 7: that cost less than I don't know, eight to ten
Speaker 7: dollars a dozen. So I was shopping at my local
Speaker 7: big box store and I wasn't completely floored that there
Speaker 7: were no eggs left that weren't the very very high
Speaker 7: natural whatever variety, and I just wanted I just wanted eggs,
Speaker 7: some large eggs. I saw one cart and left of
Speaker 7: eggs kind of lurking in the back behind the price
Speaker 7: tag at dollar ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Open them up. One of the eggs was cracked, and.
Speaker 7: I thought, you know what for dollar ninety nine, I'm
Speaker 7: just going to get eleven eggs. So I get to
Speaker 7: the front, start to check out, and I tell the
Speaker 7: cashier like, ah.
Speaker 1: You know, he's very sweet, and I say, oh, I this.
Speaker 4: Was the only one left.
Speaker 7: I ken't believe I'm buying eggs that you know, has
Speaker 7: cracked egg in them.
Speaker 1: And he just kind of laughed.
Speaker 7: And when he ran across the scanner, I saw they
Speaker 7: rang up four forty nine. So I said, oh no,
Speaker 7: this must have also been in the wrong place. But
Speaker 7: you know, I'm still desper for eggs.
Speaker 1: I'll buy them.
Speaker 7: And he just laughed very kindly and said, you know what,
Speaker 7: because i'll give them to you for that, I'm going
Speaker 7: to take off more too. He changed the price of
Speaker 7: those eggs to a dollar forty nine, and it was
Speaker 7: just it's just a really nice day, and I just
Speaker 7: went through those eggs very slowly because I was just
Speaker 7: so grateful to have a dozen eggs. And yes, I
Speaker 7: even use the crack one for a dollar forty nine.
Speaker 7: All right, thanks, Jen and Jill, have a great day.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Katie, your eggs for a dollar forty nine. Hey,
Speaker 1: what a relatable and sad experience. B congratulations, your kindness
Speaker 1: got you a discount, and that is fantastic. Kindness always wins.
Speaker 4: Sometimes it doesn't, but I love it.
Speaker 1: When it does. Wow. In this community, kindness always wins,
Speaker 1: even it's not monetary.
Speaker 4: Oh that's so true. Jen.
Speaker 3: You know what, I don't think I've ever heard a
Speaker 3: story of an egg negotiation, but I love this. I
Speaker 3: don't even know if you intended to be negotiating, Katie,
Speaker 3: but that's the way that I'm interpreting this story is
Speaker 3: that you took your cart and of eggs and you
Speaker 3: negotiated it down to a dollar forty nine. You negotiated
Speaker 3: with kindness, And what an amazing bill. And how interesting
Speaker 3: that something like that can really just shift the course
Speaker 3: of a day. I'm so glad that you had a
Speaker 3: great experience with this cashier that you even use the
Speaker 3: cracked egg. I hope you didn't get sick, but well done. Yes, well,
Speaker 3: we love hearing about deals.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it is I mean eggs. Man, they have
Speaker 1: had their fifteen minutes this year, for sure.
Speaker 4: All the people who have been raising chickens are like, say,
Speaker 4: this is why.
Speaker 1: Yep, your one thousand dollars investment has saved you money
Speaker 1: in the long run. But I have been using So
Speaker 1: I'll make a baked oat meal like almost every weekend,
Speaker 1: and it calls for two eggs, and this year I
Speaker 1: have been going down to one egg and one flax egg.
Speaker 1: It works flax a flax egg, and I could do
Speaker 1: two flax eggs. I just kind of like to split
Speaker 1: the difference. But it's a tablespoon of ground flax seed,
Speaker 1: two tablespoons of water. You mix it up and let
Speaker 1: it sit for a few minutes and it gets a
Speaker 1: kind of a gelatinous consistency and it works just like
Speaker 1: an egg in baked goods.
Speaker 3: So you've got some great tips, Jhen. You should start
Speaker 3: a podcast thank you about having babies.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Maybe I will.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I will replace eggs with apple sauce. Yes, another
Speaker 3: the apple sauce is any cheaper than eggs.
Speaker 1: Vegans are having their moment for sure, because they're like em, No,
Speaker 1: no eight dollars eggs for us. No, we've been we've
Speaker 1: been living this life that is, and that's what we
Speaker 1: got out of this Bill of the week, and well done.
Speaker 3: If you all listening, want to submit your bill, If
Speaker 3: you're a vegan having your fifteen minutes, or you're a
Speaker 3: chicken farmer having your fifteen minutes, or you are just
Speaker 3: out there slighing like Katie negotiating your eggs at the
Speaker 3: checkout counter, we want to hear about it, or just
Speaker 3: any other podcast or any other bill related to anything
Speaker 3: related to bills. We keep it Lucy Goosey, visit Frugal
Speaker 3: friendspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill. We
Speaker 3: are here for it, and now it's time for.
Speaker 1: Your own.
Speaker 4: Well go back, Chack shelf.
Speaker 1: I hope you've been saving those intense sound effects for me. Ah,
Speaker 1: just still like.
Speaker 4: You've been missing missing my aggression.
Speaker 1: Yes, I am excited for this lightning round because I
Speaker 1: had an immediate answer, and I've heard Jill's answer was
Speaker 1: also immediate but has changed. But we'll see. Do you
Speaker 1: want me to go first? Or you you need time
Speaker 1: to think very one, please go first. All right, So
Speaker 1: the question is what's a recent habit you had to
Speaker 1: replace and how did you do it? So for the
Speaker 1: first six weeks of my new son's life, I ate
Speaker 1: frozen waffles every morning for six weeks?
Speaker 3: Is that it's now holean? Can I can I pause
Speaker 3: you in your story? You go to interject? Was there
Speaker 3: any shame in that? Was that an active choice that
Speaker 3: you felt good about?
Speaker 1: It was not a choice that I made intentionally. At first,
Speaker 1: before I went to the hospital, I filled up my
Speaker 1: freezer with food because and just easy food, and waffles
Speaker 1: were the first thing to go. It was my treat
Speaker 1: for making it through the night. I got through the
Speaker 1: night because I knew waffles were in the morning. It
Speaker 1: was that was a real thing. I literally was up
Speaker 1: several times a night, but I'm like, in the morning,
Speaker 1: I'm making waffles in the toaster.
Speaker 4: Yesm shrag.
Speaker 1: Yes. So that really got me through the first few
Speaker 1: weeks and then just became a habit. It just became
Speaker 1: a habit every morning for six weeks. And at that time,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is not a treat anymore. I need
Speaker 1: to redirect this. So I have replaced it with eggs
Speaker 1: because I have an endless amount of money at my disposal,
Speaker 1: and so I have been eating egg cups and breakfast burritos.
Speaker 1: So like you know, turkey bacon and eggs inside of tortilla.
Speaker 1: That is literally my breakfast burrito. Two slices of turkey bacon,
Speaker 1: an egg, and a low carb tortilla. That's my breakfast burrito.
Speaker 1: It's not fancy, but I love it. Or like an
Speaker 1: egg cup each like muffin tin has one egg and
Speaker 1: a like an apple, an apple, a chicken sausage, a
Speaker 1: morning chicken sausage. So that is what I have replaced
Speaker 1: my waffles with.
Speaker 4: But that's work, and you might not have been able to.
Speaker 1: I was not weeks right, and no meal plant them.
Speaker 1: So like on Sunday, I'll go through a dozen eggs
Speaker 1: between making my egg cups and my breakfast burrito, and
Speaker 1: I'll just bake both. So like I'll do six eggs,
Speaker 1: whip them up, put him in the egg cups with
Speaker 1: the chicken sausages, and then the other stix I'll put
Speaker 1: into a glass baking dish and I'll put all those
Speaker 1: in the oven, bake them and then they're there for
Speaker 1: the week. So it's not that much work because I
Speaker 1: still my son's you know, almost like just nine weeks old,
Speaker 1: so is he's still very tiny? No, I mean he's huge,
Speaker 1: he's a chum, but he's, you know, compared to regular
Speaker 1: sized humans tiny, right, and he still wakes.
Speaker 4: Her other babies' size, he's right in the pack. But yes,
Speaker 4: oh my god, so well and how interesting.
Speaker 3: I think what you're saying is bringing up such a
Speaker 3: good point. I think sometimes we can identify this has
Speaker 3: now become a bad behavior, what a behavior we want
Speaker 3: to replace, where it was a habit that.
Speaker 4: Was intentional to begin with.
Speaker 3: So it was almost as if, you know, when we
Speaker 3: talk about Q craving reward and one of the ways
Speaker 3: to replace a habit is to give yourself some sort
Speaker 3: of reward, And what's that going to be? And it
Speaker 3: sounds like that was the response to a previous larger
Speaker 3: issue of sleepless nights and how will I get through
Speaker 3: this sleepless night with a good attitude doing the things that.
Speaker 4: I need to be doing.
Speaker 3: Your reward, which made sense at the time, were waffles,
Speaker 3: And now that's kind of turned into this coping mechanism
Speaker 3: habit whatever you want to call it that, now you
Speaker 3: want to replace, and I think that will probably that
Speaker 3: cycle will probably keep happening about.
Speaker 1: And I replaced it with something just as delicious and
Speaker 1: just I mean almost just as easy to make because
Speaker 1: in the mornings, I literally just pop them into the
Speaker 1: microwave and they're good, very quick to prep I'll prep
Speaker 1: them when I make dinner on Sunday night. That's when
Speaker 1: I throw the eggs in the ovens. So I've been
Speaker 1: doing that for a few weeks and it's been great,
Speaker 1: and it has been like an even replacement I just made.
Speaker 1: So I was saying, how I made like an oatmeal
Speaker 1: bake every weekend until I gave birth, and I've in
Speaker 1: those two months. I've just made my first one again
Speaker 1: this past weekend. So that was something I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: That has been too much work up until this point,
Speaker 1: and I probably still am not going to make them
Speaker 1: every weekend. Just this weekend was a you know, a
Speaker 1: good I found myself a thirty minutes of time to do.
Speaker 3: So I think it just highlights that it might be
Speaker 3: for some it's a bad habit, for others, it's a
Speaker 3: fine habit for for some seasons of life, it's okay,
Speaker 3: and then other times we want to shift it. So
Speaker 3: I think it really your story in this is highlighting
Speaker 3: just the permission there and to just focus on one
Speaker 3: thing at a time. Before it was sleep and survival.
Speaker 3: Now it's okay. How can I feed my body a
Speaker 3: little bit more healthy sustainable foods.
Speaker 1: And it's why I don't like using the term bad habit,
Speaker 1: because long term eating waffles every morning is a bad habit.
Speaker 1: But for me, it was not a bad habit. It
Speaker 1: was just a limiting habit, and it was for intentional
Speaker 1: for a reason. And then when I decided that I
Speaker 1: didn't want that anymore, though I do still love waffles,
Speaker 1: I went through a lot of maple syrup. I my
Speaker 1: check book could not handle the amount of maple syrup
Speaker 1: I went through.
Speaker 3: I had to switch to right, the same, same, same,
Speaker 3: like my parent, A bad habit.
Speaker 4: You know, it serves me.
Speaker 1: This makes me sound so like more PG, but like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I could have the same Jill and I could be
Speaker 1: telling the same stories. So don't don't get it twisted.
Speaker 3: Okay, Jen has encouraged me to not eliminate what I
Speaker 3: was the only thing I could think to offer to
Speaker 3: you find folks listening to this podcast, and she's encouraging
Speaker 3: me towards vulnerability.
Speaker 4: And here it is.
Speaker 3: I do like to be authentic and I'm not ashamed
Speaker 3: of this, and I am a work in progress now.
Speaker 3: I have been on a journey of what I feel
Speaker 3: is an okay amount of consumption of alcohol. I have
Speaker 3: no problems with alcohol, like as far as the way
Speaker 3: that I view it or the way that I engage
Speaker 3: with it. But there are times that I can kind
Speaker 3: of ebb and flow with Oh, I would like to
Speaker 3: be abstinate from this thing for a time, and so
Speaker 3: I would say more recently it's been I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's honestly, I think I've heard from so many people
Speaker 3: through the pandemic how alcohol consumption went up a little bit,
Speaker 3: because what else are you going to do when you're
Speaker 3: sitting at home and working from home, And not that
Speaker 3: I drank while I was working.
Speaker 4: Still have some standards around that stay tuned, though, and.
Speaker 3: I think just there were times where I went months
Speaker 3: without consuming alcohol and then I was like, I enjoy
Speaker 3: it though. It's a fun thing to do out with
Speaker 3: friends and we've got people visiting. So anyhow, all that
Speaker 3: to say. More recently, I've just been trying to limit
Speaker 3: how much I'm consuming, keeping track of what that is.
Speaker 3: I never will have more than one or two drinks
Speaker 3: like on any given day. I'm not I hate the
Speaker 3: feeling of being drunk. I just enjoy a nicely crafted
Speaker 3: cocktail or a glass of wine. But even still, I
Speaker 3: don't want to do that every day. I want my
Speaker 3: body to be able to get nutrients. And so anyhow,
Speaker 3: I've gone through seasons where a glass of wine or
Speaker 3: a cocktail almost marks the end of the day for me,
Speaker 3: and realizing that, okay, this might have become a habit,
Speaker 3: this kind of ritualized behavior. It's how I'm marking the
Speaker 3: movement of one of you know, maybe work life into
Speaker 3: personal life kind of a thing. And so I have
Speaker 3: worked on replacing that with something, realizing I can't just
Speaker 3: not do this, I'm going for something in the fridge,
Speaker 3: and so I've replaced it with either tea or.
Speaker 4: Something I've really been enjoying.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I know this sounds so silly, but just like
Speaker 3: iced lemon water is so refreshing to me as we're
Speaker 3: getting into the summer month, So that has really worked.
Speaker 3: But also I'm not abstinent from alcohol altogether. So there
Speaker 3: you have it. Like there, I'm trying to hold the
Speaker 3: radical middle in that even as I see all of
Speaker 3: these people moving towards abstinence on all things is the
Speaker 3: key to well being, I think for me, there's permission
Speaker 3: for that to be different while also identifying what's going
Speaker 3: to be best for me. And can I replace some
Speaker 3: of this with enjoyable bevy bevyes enjoyable non alcoholic bevies.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean I too enjoy an alcoholic bevy and
Speaker 1: I've been abstinate from them for nine months.
Speaker 3: So yeah, being pregnant kind of forces your hand in
Speaker 3: that regard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the worst. So I could say the same thing,
Speaker 1: but no, mine was waffles. But to each their own.
Speaker 4: We just love food and drink, folks. What more can
Speaker 4: we say?
Speaker 1: And that's going to be I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people is one of I mean, probably you should probably
Speaker 1: work on one habit at a time, and probably the
Speaker 1: first habit is going to be something food related, and
Speaker 1: so know that we are with you on that. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you replace cheap waffles for very expensive eggs, but sometimes
Speaker 1: you replace expensive alcohol with really inexpensive lemon water. So
Speaker 1: look at your habits, pick one and start to replace it.
Speaker 1: Know that you will not do it perfectly, just like Jill.
Speaker 3: I'm not doing it perfectly, but I will say though,
Speaker 3: as it relates to spending, because there is an intersection here,
Speaker 3: you know, especially when it comes to food and alcohol.
Speaker 3: One of the shifts that Eric and I have made
Speaker 3: in the last few months is not buying alcohol out,
Speaker 3: which might not be everybody's story, but for us, that's
Speaker 3: a big expense.
Speaker 4: Is alcohol out.
Speaker 3: For us, we'd rather and we used to like do
Speaker 3: bartending events and that kind of thing so we can
Speaker 3: make really enjoyable cocktails, so we do that at home.
Speaker 3: The other voice that we made is to not have
Speaker 3: all the different types of liquor on hand and feel
Speaker 3: like we have to keep stocking our cabinet, but choosing one.
Speaker 3: So right now we've chosen. We're just gonna have gin
Speaker 3: on hand, and that has helped to cut down the budget.
Speaker 4: And when the gin's gone, that's it.
Speaker 3: When the gin moved on the next until the next
Speaker 3: I don't know, month or whatever. I can't tell you
Speaker 3: exactly my timing on all of that, but making ways
Speaker 3: where it can be connected to some of these financial
Speaker 3: decisions and then creating some of those limiting factors, removing
Speaker 3: some of those triggers, putting some parameters in place.
Speaker 4: That is also helping our finances too, which is great.
Speaker 3: Well, that was a fun one. And follow up on
Speaker 3: the Lightning round. Still limiting my alcohol consumption, which is great.
Speaker 3: I did do dry January, continuing it on into February.
Speaker 3: Eric's able to just use whatever alcohol we already have
Speaker 3: in the house. But we're also doing a February No
Speaker 3: spend challenge, so of course purchasing alcohol is not on
Speaker 3: the list, so we are just finding alternatives. It's not deprivation.
Speaker 3: I've been really digging some sparkling water.
Speaker 1: Yeah you have. You have been in on that, uh huh.
Speaker 3: The La Croix Lemonchello is amazing. I'm on some key
Speaker 3: line right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I have still broken my habit of eating waffles
Speaker 1: every morning for breakfast. I have moved on to overnight oats.
Speaker 1: I do overnight oats most days, and eggs and bacon.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll prep that on Sundays, do that a
Speaker 1: couple of days a week. But yeah, I am definitely
Speaker 1: eating healthier than I was when we originally recorded the
Speaker 1: episode and man follow up to the bill of the
Speaker 1: Week Katie Eggs for one forty nine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, could you imagine remember those days?
Speaker 1: Wow, it just brought me back to a sad space.
Speaker 1: It brought me forward into sad spance.
Speaker 3: So this wasn't even that long ago, but it has quadrupled.
Speaker 3: And you know what, that's why we still exist, so
Speaker 3: that we can keep telling you the best ways to
Speaker 3: spend even when the world is going crazy all around
Speaker 3: us and eggs are six dollars, it doesn't. Yeah, well,
Speaker 3: thank you everyone for being here for listening. We hope
Speaker 3: that you enjoyed this episode, and we also love reading
Speaker 3: your kind reviews about the book. That's right, we wrote
Speaker 3: a book by What you Love Without Going Broke. It
Speaker 3: can be purchased wherever you buy books. And for those
Speaker 3: of you who are reading it and loving it, you're
Speaker 3: leaving such kind reviews like this one from Samantha Saint
Speaker 3: amand it is five stars, says this book is for you.
Speaker 4: Buy what you Love Without Going Broke.
Speaker 3: Is the ultimate guide to help you figure out a
Speaker 3: system for your spending and finances that works for you.
Speaker 3: The method that Jen and Jill lay out in This
Speaker 3: book is so versatile. It's a budget guide for those
Speaker 3: who love budgeting. It's a how to guide for managing
Speaker 3: spending for those who hate budgeting.
Speaker 4: It's for folks making minimum wage and for folks making
Speaker 4: six figures. It's for high school students their first job
Speaker 4: and retirees. It's for single households and parents with six children.
Speaker 4: Whatever your life or financial situation, this book will help
Speaker 4: you figure out how to buy what you love without
Speaker 4: going broke. This is really amazing.
Speaker 3: It could sound from this or review that the book
Speaker 3: is all over the place and doesn't know itself, but
Speaker 3: part of the reason is because we are sharing foundational
Speaker 3: principles about how to spend well and that they are
Speaker 3: very versatile and can be individualized to your life. Season
Speaker 3: than giving an exact how to or blueprint or exact
Speaker 3: math with money, We're giving these foundational concepts that if
Speaker 3: you can take them, really grasp hold of them, and
Speaker 3: implement upon them, they can.
Speaker 4: Work for you at any stage of life. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the show, please take a minute leave a rating and
Speaker 1: review on Spotify or Apple. If you have purchased the
Speaker 1: book or read it from the library. Please take a
Speaker 1: minute to leave a review on Amazon or good Reads.
Speaker 1: It helps us so much, and it helps potential new
Speaker 1: listeners and readers know what our stuff is all about.
Speaker 4: See You Next Time by Frugal Friends is produced by
Speaker 4: Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 1: So the book isn't just for high school students. It's
Speaker 1: also for high school students. And I couldn't stop you.
Speaker 4: You were on ron, but you really got it. I
Speaker 4: really emphasized going.
Speaker 1: Somewhere, and then you made a you made a sharp stop,
Speaker 1: and you went somewhere else.
Speaker 4: Liten.
Speaker 3: I don't read the reviews before we are recording, and
Speaker 3: so you don't necessarily know where to put the inflection,
Speaker 3: you know, So no reprats, no take backs. It is
Speaker 3: for high school students.
Speaker 1: Like high achieving, high performing, that kind of high for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely be all kinds of high school students, but also
Speaker 1: just regular high school students, you know, without any highness.
Speaker 4: We do hope that you read the book. Yeah,