Speaker 1: Episode one thirty four is episode forty seven, Creating a
Speaker 1: Minimalist Kitchen with Kristen mar Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast,
Speaker 1: where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity rights, and
Speaker 1: live with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and this is take two of
Speaker 1: recording this intro. I finally hit record and we are
Speaker 1: so excited to be replaying one of our most downloaded
Speaker 1: episodes about creating a capsule pantry and a minimalist kitchen
Speaker 1: with Kristen Maher of Live Simply Mom. Excited to put
Speaker 1: this in front of you all again, especially because we
Speaker 1: know most people do not go this deep into our
Speaker 1: archives to listen to episodes. And I think very fitting
Speaker 1: for this time of year as well, to be looking
Speaker 1: at what are the essential things that I need in
Speaker 1: my kitchen? How can I curate them to be most
Speaker 1: useful uh and build contentment, especially during the holiday season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a great time to use up all that
Speaker 1: stuff you haven't used for the past eleven months and
Speaker 1: then throw it away because you probably won't use it
Speaker 1: for the next eleven months either. So this is a
Speaker 1: good one. But first we got to thank our sponsors.
Speaker 1: On this episode, we're brought to you by the debt
Speaker 1: Free Christmas Planner. So every year, I you, all of us,
Speaker 1: we have the best intentions about controlling holiday spending and
Speaker 1: then every year something just blows our mind and we
Speaker 1: don't even think about it, and then our budget is blown.
Speaker 1: So that's why I've made this free Christmas Planner to
Speaker 1: help you record every cost so that you can more
Speaker 1: easily stay on budget. So this planner will help you
Speaker 1: keep track of spending on family traditions, recipes, dinners, parties, gifts, etcetera,
Speaker 1: so that you don't miss anything, and then you can
Speaker 1: use it. There's planning chart in there to make sure
Speaker 1: you're on track to saving the right amount next year.
Speaker 1: So if this sounds like something you need, head to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Holiday to get your
Speaker 1: free planner. Also brought to you by the Essentials. All
Speaker 1: the essential people and things have gathered together to sponsor
Speaker 1: the show. The nurses, the grocery store clerks, the toilet paper,
Speaker 1: the water bottles and so many more have united to
Speaker 1: say you're welcome and We're tired the essentials. Let's keep
Speaker 1: valuing and being grateful for them. Amen. Yeah, the toilet
Speaker 1: paper is tired. It's had a year. The toilet paper
Speaker 1: is tired. Yes, being bought up, being mass produced and
Speaker 1: then actually serving their purpose. Holy smokes. Serving your purpose
Speaker 1: is exhausting, especially when you're doilet baby. So it's a
Speaker 1: dirty job that somebody's got to do it. Uh, keep going,
Speaker 1: let's yeah, let's get into the episode again. This is
Speaker 1: a replay. We have curated a very specific list of
Speaker 1: our most downloaded episodes, and we're excited to share the
Speaker 1: next one on the list with you. Hey, Kristen, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this podcast today. We're
Speaker 1: so pumped to have you. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. Yeah. We love what you're
Speaker 1: doing over on your blog. Super cool. You've got words
Speaker 1: and videos and pictures so yeah, live simply so beautiful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love reading your articles because it's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I can stop here and do a video, and then
Speaker 1: I can keep going. Nice pictures and then it's so
Speaker 1: well done. It's so fun to interact with. So great
Speaker 1: job right there. Yeah. So it all makes me wonder
Speaker 1: how did you get started on this journey? You talk
Speaker 1: about real food, and I know this is kind of
Speaker 1: a buzzword right now. I'm sure you've been into this
Speaker 1: for much longer than before it came at became a buzzword.
Speaker 1: But this concept of eating real food, how do you
Speaker 1: define that? And what was your journey to becoming so
Speaker 1: passionate about this? Yeah? So it actually I didn't grow
Speaker 1: up knowing about like quote unquote real food or um
Speaker 1: anything like this. In fact, they grew up very much
Speaker 1: like a product of the eighties and then the early nineties,
Speaker 1: So we're talking like kool Aid and Velveta cheese and
Speaker 1: all of that, you know, like the little freezer meals
Speaker 1: that had like little tattoo with it, you know, you name.
Speaker 1: That's how I grew up. And then so it wasn't
Speaker 1: until around two thousand and eight that this idea of
Speaker 1: like real food came into play, which I can share
Speaker 1: a bit about um that, but it was really because
Speaker 1: of Michael pollen Um, who's a big real food advocate,
Speaker 1: UM and writer and journalist, and he was part of
Speaker 1: a movie called Food Inc. Which came out was one
Speaker 1: of the first documentaries about Since that, there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of documentaries, A lot of them I don't think
Speaker 1: paint a great picture of food. But Food Inc. Really
Speaker 1: was like one of the first documentaries that really got
Speaker 1: you thinking about what you were eating. And so we
Speaker 1: watched that and um, my husband and I both we
Speaker 1: had only been married a few years at this point,
Speaker 1: and we kind of looked at each other and we're like,
Speaker 1: what in the world, Like, we've never even thought that
Speaker 1: what we were eating wasn't actually food, um, but the
Speaker 1: idea that you could actually recognize ingredients that they came
Speaker 1: from the ground or from from an animal, and we're
Speaker 1: very minimally processed m versus these like chemicals that were
Speaker 1: being created in food labs am to look like food, right,
Speaker 1: And we're like, like, we've never even thought about that basically,
Speaker 1: I mean, the idea of real food. I think it's
Speaker 1: like a word these days. But if you go back
Speaker 1: like a hundred years or even today, if you visit
Speaker 1: like cultures where um industrialization hasn't really happened or they
Speaker 1: hold on to a big food culture, you know, like
Speaker 1: real food is just food, Like that's just what they eat,
Speaker 1: like food in America because so far from like what
Speaker 1: food actually is because there is such a thing as
Speaker 1: fake food. Yeah, why exactly. Yeah, but like if you
Speaker 1: look at those cultures, that's still very much adhere to
Speaker 1: like traditional eating the way like our grand like great
Speaker 1: great great grandparents, ay and before that, like that's just
Speaker 1: the way they ate. They came from an animal or
Speaker 1: it came from the ground. It wasn't like highly processed.
Speaker 1: They didn't like grow corn and then turn it into
Speaker 1: the substance that doesn't even resemble corn at all. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so I very much grew up like eating
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and then two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: we really began to think about what we were eating. Um.
Speaker 1: And honestly, at the time, like I didn't know that
Speaker 1: there were great altern relatives to things like meat or dairy,
Speaker 1: which we're very much painted in a bad way in
Speaker 1: food in so my automatic response, I'm very much like
Speaker 1: an all or nothing kind of person. And I was like, Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna become vegan, Like that's the solution. We're
Speaker 1: literally plants, and that's what I decided to try. And
Speaker 1: I did that for a number of years. My husband
Speaker 1: never fully embraced that because he was like, you're crazy.
Speaker 1: I can't do this, UM, but I end we ended
Speaker 1: up embracing veganis UM, trying to get away from the
Speaker 1: process food, which the funny thing is I kind of
Speaker 1: just swopped out like meat for like soy products, which
Speaker 1: now I realized wasn't my best idea to do, but
Speaker 1: it was. It was when I um became pregnant with
Speaker 1: my son and then he was born and he ended
Speaker 1: up developing UM some speech issues, a big speech delay
Speaker 1: around two and a half. He should have been talking
Speaker 1: and he wasn't, and we ended up going to a nutritionist,
Speaker 1: and the NUTRITIONISTUM as well as some other therapies, and
Speaker 1: she said, look, he needs fat, like you have to
Speaker 1: put him on fat. And at the time I was
Speaker 1: like low fat and vegan, like this huge like storm
Speaker 1: basically of bad, bad choices, which I really thought I
Speaker 1: was doing the right thing because you know, we're trying
Speaker 1: to eat more um, you know, real food at the time,
Speaker 1: and that's what I thought it was. It was at
Speaker 1: that time that I learned about something called Weston a
Speaker 1: Price Foundation, which is the idea of basically getting back
Speaker 1: to like a traditional form of eating, so instead of
Speaker 1: like looking out just like fads, but looking at like,
Speaker 1: how have people for generations upon generations been eating And
Speaker 1: if you look at that, people have very much been
Speaker 1: eating plants and animals. But the difference was that you
Speaker 1: could actually, um, these animals were like pastured, you know,
Speaker 1: they were out roaming grass. They weren't in these like
Speaker 1: feed lots that we have in this industrial system. UM.
Speaker 1: So we decided to incorporate meat and dairy back into
Speaker 1: our diets. But it came now from local farms. Um,
Speaker 1: from you know, grass fed cows and chickens that were
Speaker 1: out pecking the ground and eating you know, bugs and
Speaker 1: everything else. Um. And so once again, like our real
Speaker 1: food journey kind of evolved even more. UM. So that's
Speaker 1: where we went. And then I got pregnant with my
Speaker 1: next child and we continued to eat that way. And
Speaker 1: around that time, I just said, I friends were noticing
Speaker 1: how we were eating, that we really were away from
Speaker 1: all these packaged foods and we were buying from local farms.
Speaker 1: And I was cooking at home and I was also
Speaker 1: a stay at home mom during this time. I had
Speaker 1: left my career, so I had time to be doing this.
Speaker 1: And they were like, hey, can you share, like what
Speaker 1: you're making? What are you doing these changes, like how
Speaker 1: you're getting your family away from the box macaroni and
Speaker 1: cheese and um, you know, all this processed food. And
Speaker 1: and so I started like sharing on Facebook, and I
Speaker 1: think people got a little tired, so they're like kind
Speaker 1: of a blog. I don't know if they actually by
Speaker 1: blog or they just were like, get this girl off Facebook,
Speaker 1: like she's clogging my feet. This was back when my
Speaker 1: Facebook was the thing, you know, and um, so yeah,
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and thirteen I started Lived simply
Speaker 1: it was like this poorly done website. I mean it
Speaker 1: was you know with iPhone three photos, which I mean
Speaker 1: now the iPhones and this amazing camera and back then,
Speaker 1: you know, they were really bad photo and yeah, and
Speaker 1: it just grew from there. I mean over time, like
Speaker 1: we had hundreds of thousands and then millions of people
Speaker 1: coming to the site, which I didn't even was. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my goodness, people are interested in this. Um.
Speaker 1: And then it evolved into what it is today, which
Speaker 1: is a blog and a now a podcast and um,
Speaker 1: just a community of people who are very much on
Speaker 1: this journey, whether they're starting this journey or they just
Speaker 1: want to figure out how to make it easier to
Speaker 1: put real food on the table. Um. And during this
Speaker 1: time I also began like questioning the products I was
Speaker 1: using as far as like all my skin and cleaning.
Speaker 1: It was just like this very natural progression. And so
Speaker 1: lives simply has not just become about food, but also
Speaker 1: about like a full on lifestyle of getting away from
Speaker 1: overly processed everything to really embracing um, simpler ingredients that
Speaker 1: you can actually recognize. Wow, and it sounds like for
Speaker 1: the for the health of you and your family. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting to hear what had happened with your son.
Speaker 1: Did they directly link his delayed speech to diet? They
Speaker 1: he was diagnosed with UM. We went through like a
Speaker 1: speech screening through a local children's hospital, and they had
Speaker 1: diagnosed him with a praxia, which is basically like the
Speaker 1: simplified form of explaining it's like this brain to mouth
Speaker 1: disconnected something with the brain. And so children's brains are
Speaker 1: made up of fat, like they need fat in those
Speaker 1: developing years. And so for me, who grew up first
Speaker 1: like believing in low fat everything, having been a child
Speaker 1: of the nineties, you know, when like fat was bad,
Speaker 1: and then to embracing veganism, which also really restricted my
Speaker 1: fat amount. Um. I like it was he didn't have
Speaker 1: any fat basically in his diet for the first couple
Speaker 1: of years. So yeah, they um, while like the conventional
Speaker 1: system didn't recognize that when we saw it like more
Speaker 1: holistic treatments, which we also did therapies through speech and
Speaker 1: everything else. Um, they were the ones that were like, hey,
Speaker 1: like I knows that may sounds so crazy, but why
Speaker 1: don't you consider some dietary interventions um. And Yeah, within
Speaker 1: we were told he wouldn't talk until he was eight
Speaker 1: or nine years old. Yeah, seriously, and within like six months,
Speaker 1: we started seeing dramatic improvements and we were he was
Speaker 1: going to like speech therapy two to three times a
Speaker 1: week at that point. On top of the dietary interventions
Speaker 1: we were doing, we were giving him you know a
Speaker 1: lot of egg yolks cream from a local farm. We
Speaker 1: were buying raw milk at the time. UM, just like
Speaker 1: really up. And we were giving him fish oil, like
Speaker 1: just a ton of fat to really help his brain development. Um.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of like information out there these
Speaker 1: days on that both in like the conventional medicine um,
Speaker 1: you know, realm and like the holistic functional medicine doctor realm.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, it's just something like I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I thought I was doing the best I could as
Speaker 1: a parent and that's all we can do in the moment.
Speaker 1: But and um, and I was just really amazing to
Speaker 1: see the power of food and how it really can
Speaker 1: aid in the body. Yes, yes, I am so interested
Speaker 1: in that, like it's and being pregnant. I'm becoming more
Speaker 1: aware of what I'm putting in my body because I
Speaker 1: feel like I was thank you, um, because I feel
Speaker 1: like I was. So I was a vegetarian for ten
Speaker 1: years and I just recently started incorporating meat back in
Speaker 1: my diet and so and yeah I was guilty of
Speaker 1: taking out like those bad processed things and just replacing
Speaker 1: them with other processed things. Right, yeah I did that too.
Speaker 1: And I think like vegetarianism, you can definitely like do
Speaker 1: do it well, so to speak. But like veganism, it
Speaker 1: just cuts out like every like you can still have
Speaker 1: eggs being a vegetarian, you know, just such a great
Speaker 1: source of fat or even butter which is from grass
Speaker 1: fed cows, which is like such an amazing source of fat.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like vegan goes like a step further and
Speaker 1: nothing against my bays vegan, but I would definitely do
Speaker 1: your research because, um, there's lots of studies that show that,
Speaker 1: like over time, it can deplete deplete the body of
Speaker 1: the nutrients you need. Yeah, so while you're making this
Speaker 1: transition and you're a stay at home mom and like
Speaker 1: trying to get this you know, grass fed, locally produced stuff, Like, so,
Speaker 1: how do how did you manage your budget with all that?
Speaker 1: Because I know all of our listeners are also interested
Speaker 1: in eating this way or eating more real food, more local,
Speaker 1: but like price is such a big deterrent. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, in the beginning, I had issues
Speaker 1: with it. I mean I struggled with it and my
Speaker 1: grocery budget at the time. You know, we were like
Speaker 1: a one income family. My husband worked for a church
Speaker 1: at the time period. You know, so it's not like
Speaker 1: we had this large amount of money. Um, And so
Speaker 1: I was really guilty of like blowing our budget in
Speaker 1: the beginning, Like I went all out out. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, just like spending money everywhere I could on
Speaker 1: all these ingredients I thought that I needed, um, but
Speaker 1: I ended up finding you know, kind of tweaking things after,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of being scolded by my husband over
Speaker 1: and over again. He's like, this has to be sustainable,
Speaker 1: you know, like you have to make this work over
Speaker 1: the long haul. So I've kind of developed some tips
Speaker 1: over the years, um, and and like, no matter what
Speaker 1: your budget, like I know, it can vary. You know,
Speaker 1: my friends in the Midwest and they pay like five
Speaker 1: dollars a pound for grass fed beef, whereas like we
Speaker 1: live in Florida and we're paying a whole lot more
Speaker 1: for for you know, so it's gonna vary depending on
Speaker 1: where you live. But I feel like these tips kind
Speaker 1: of apply, um regardless. And the first thing is like
Speaker 1: we had to cut other areas in our budget, Like
Speaker 1: we had to realize that food was our top priority,
Speaker 1: and so like there were areas that we were spending
Speaker 1: that honestly we didn't need, like certain forms of entertainment
Speaker 1: or whatever. And I feel like, if you're living in
Speaker 1: America and if you have or any kind of you know,
Speaker 1: Western society, and you have like a cell phone and
Speaker 1: you have internet, and you have all these things like
Speaker 1: we generally are spending, we're spending in areas that are
Speaker 1: like luxuries, right, and so if we look at some
Speaker 1: of those luxuries, there's definitely areas we could be cutting
Speaker 1: back on in order to make things a priority. But
Speaker 1: second off that said, um, like there I had to prioritize. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: like everybody talks about organic, but for me, I would
Speaker 1: rather buy something like pastured meats and eggs and dairy
Speaker 1: because you can't wash that off, like you can't wash
Speaker 1: off all the you know, like the you can't wash
Speaker 1: off the fact that that cow has been basically sitting
Speaker 1: on a feed loot and eating an unnatural diet for
Speaker 1: however long. But it is like something a piece of
Speaker 1: produce you can you know, make like a simple vinegar
Speaker 1: wash or something you can do your best to like
Speaker 1: wash it off or you compeel it a lot of times.
Speaker 1: So I was like, you know what, instead of focusing
Speaker 1: on spending my money on organic all things organic, which
Speaker 1: can be more expensive, I'm gonna save a few extra
Speaker 1: dollars and instead just by like the conventional produce, go
Speaker 1: to produce stand um, that kind of thing, and use
Speaker 1: that money towards you know, be our grass fed beef
Speaker 1: for past your chicken or eggs. The other thing is
Speaker 1: like eggs are pretty even if they're like seven or
Speaker 1: eight dollars a dozen, which I mean like our food
Speaker 1: system has really messed up our view on the price
Speaker 1: of food because people don't realize like how expensive it
Speaker 1: is to actually produce food well because our food system
Speaker 1: is so messed up. But I mean even at that,
Speaker 1: like those eggs can stretch a long time. You can
Speaker 1: make like a veggie fried rice and add like two
Speaker 1: eggs in there and feed an entire family of four
Speaker 1: six people, you know. So he's same with meat, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean like I'll buy a whole chicken from a
Speaker 1: farm and it's not cheap. I'll admit, it's like twenty
Speaker 1: bucks for that whole chicken, but that whole chicken is
Speaker 1: not feeding us for one single meal. Like that chicken
Speaker 1: will be stretched across maybe two days, and then after
Speaker 1: that the bones will be turned into broth with which
Speaker 1: will then make a soup. So I'm not buying froth um.
Speaker 1: So I think we really have to get away from
Speaker 1: the mentality of like what I'm buying as far as
Speaker 1: meat or eggs is just like this giant meal, like
Speaker 1: this giant steak on my plate, But instead thinking about
Speaker 1: how you can like stretch those across multiple meals, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense, and we've talked about that in other
Speaker 1: episodes to that even our view, our portion view of
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of times will make meals and
Speaker 1: the biggest portion on our plate is the meat or
Speaker 1: the protein, and then smaller are the and when you
Speaker 1: refer to them as sides, the main dish is the
Speaker 1: meat and this side, the smaller thing is the veggie.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be that way, Like you
Speaker 1: can still get your protein, your meat, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to take up half of your plate, and in
Speaker 1: and of itself, you can save money exactly. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: you know, to the other thing is if it's available
Speaker 1: in your area, is shopping a farmer's market, Like seriously,
Speaker 1: that's going to save you a lot of money. But
Speaker 1: when you shop a farmer's market, you get in touch
Speaker 1: with farms and then you can if you choose to
Speaker 1: buy me if you eat meat, you you can a
Speaker 1: lot of times, um, go in and buy like a
Speaker 1: quarter cow or a half a cow. Um. And granted,
Speaker 1: yes you have to like save up for that, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna like save drastically. You saved sometimes three to
Speaker 1: four dollars a pound buying it that way versus buying
Speaker 1: it if you're you know, and then you're still smart
Speaker 1: about what you're doing. You know, You're not um, You're
Speaker 1: not You're not like you know, I mean like steak.
Speaker 1: Like we've eaten steak once in the past like six months,
Speaker 1: and that was from my husband's birthday, and like we've
Speaker 1: spent a pretty penny on that steak. It was like
Speaker 1: a grass fed steak from the farmers market. But even then,
Speaker 1: if you calculated it, it was cheaper than going out
Speaker 1: to dinner. Um. But at the same time, like that's
Speaker 1: not something that's on our plate every week. Generally, it's
Speaker 1: like these, like you said, these cuts of meat that
Speaker 1: are stretched across days or they're like accompanied with grains
Speaker 1: or vegetables so that they're really um. Just like I
Speaker 1: lived in West Africa for a number of years and
Speaker 1: like that's how they approached their their meat was. It
Speaker 1: was very much like a flavoring for food or like
Speaker 1: an accompaniment accompaniment to a dish. First is like this
Speaker 1: idea of like a quarter pound hamburger, which granted I
Speaker 1: love a hamburger, right, but like if you're on a budget.
Speaker 1: How can you stretch that, you know, like maybe you
Speaker 1: use like half a pound of beef and then use
Speaker 1: like beans, right, and you make together instead of like
Speaker 1: a full pound of beef, and that gives you another
Speaker 1: half a pound for another day, which you can do
Speaker 1: with hamburger and meatballs too. You can shove that thing
Speaker 1: with some cauliflower and spinange and beans and meat, and
Speaker 1: it can have a tons of flavor. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: really have to be like wise and intentional about how
Speaker 1: you're using that. You didn't change your mindset, like you
Speaker 1: said about like the portions on your plate. Yeah, speaking
Speaker 1: of making the most of our ingredients, I know that
Speaker 1: you talk about on your blog this idea of a
Speaker 1: capsule pantry, and I'm wondering if you have any tips
Speaker 1: for us on how to do this, how to start
Speaker 1: to pare down, Like, if we've got this cluttered pantry
Speaker 1: with a ton of stuff in it, how can we
Speaker 1: make the most of what we have and figure out
Speaker 1: what what that even is? What what do we need? Yeah? Definitely,
Speaker 1: So I think first you have to think about what
Speaker 1: you actually use. So I actually recommend that people, first
Speaker 1: of all, in order to simplify meal planning, that you
Speaker 1: create like a list of things, uh, meals that you
Speaker 1: can regularly rotate over and over again. So if you
Speaker 1: sit down and do that, then you really know like
Speaker 1: what you need to build these meals, and then you
Speaker 1: can take a look at your pantry and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do I actually use regularly to create meals? I mean,
Speaker 1: now that you know what you make and a lot
Speaker 1: of us I think have like I love making like
Speaker 1: specialty recipes and like cookbook you know, recipes and cookbooks
Speaker 1: that call for specialty ingredients and on Pinterest. But the
Speaker 1: problem with like constantly making new recipes is that a
Speaker 1: lot of times they require buying like all these specialty ingredients,
Speaker 1: and that's going to send your grocery bill sky high, right,
Speaker 1: But if you have like a list of rotating meals
Speaker 1: that you really you rely on constantly and maybe just
Speaker 1: like once a week or once every couple of weeks
Speaker 1: you're you're inserting one of those like extra new meals
Speaker 1: to you, then your pantry can really you can really
Speaker 1: pair down your pantry to just what you're using on
Speaker 1: a regular basis, so you can take a look at
Speaker 1: those meals and say, okay, like what do I use.
Speaker 1: I know that I use rice salt a lot, I
Speaker 1: use keen wall a lot to make these meals. I
Speaker 1: use these spices and then everything else donate or get
Speaker 1: rid of, right, so that UM really have. And that's
Speaker 1: not to say you're not going to occasionally have like
Speaker 1: a specialty ingredient. Like I have black sesame seeds sitting
Speaker 1: in my pantry right now. How often do I use that? Not?
Speaker 1: I didn't know that was a thing. Yeah it is,
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, And so I mean, like I used
Speaker 1: it for a specialty ingredient, but it's one of those,
Speaker 1: like very few items that I don't use very often.
Speaker 1: Most of what's sitting in my pantry or things that
Speaker 1: I know that I'm using regularly to make our favorite meals,
Speaker 1: the meals that are constantly being rotated. Not to mention,
Speaker 1: Google is so good with substitutions sometimes if if it
Speaker 1: does call for a specialty ingredient, before I go to
Speaker 1: the store, I'll say what's a good substitute for DA?
Speaker 1: Da DA? And it comes up with a lot of options.
Speaker 1: Usually there's three to five substitute options, and I've done
Speaker 1: just fine typically that way. Yeah. Absolutely, Now, as a
Speaker 1: recipe creator, if you mess up on the recipe, don't
Speaker 1: go blame now. I get commets sometimes that are like
Speaker 1: one star, well, I did change this and this and
Speaker 1: this and oh and this, and I actually banked it
Speaker 1: instead of actually made a completely different recipe and I
Speaker 1: did not like it. I used apple sauce instead of butter,
Speaker 1: and it had just like this weird orchard flavor. So
Speaker 1: I don't know that's her fault, Christian, clearly, I think
Speaker 1: that I think, like I in a Garten wrote like
Speaker 1: a whole post, like a blog post somewhere out there
Speaker 1: about that or something like all like the weird comments
Speaker 1: she's received over the years for people who are like
Speaker 1: the completely change your recipe. But yeah, like a lot
Speaker 1: of times you can do like subs, you know, and
Speaker 1: like you can google and find like easy subs that
Speaker 1: you might have on hand. But yeah, I mean like
Speaker 1: just keeping those like ingredients that you constantly use. And
Speaker 1: the great thing about that is it like simplifies, like
Speaker 1: we said, meal planning, because you're relying on the same meals.
Speaker 1: You always have ingredients stocked in your pantry to make
Speaker 1: these meals, but also you can pick things up on sale.
Speaker 1: So like, I know, I used canned tomatoes all the time. Um,
Speaker 1: so like when they go on sale and I can buy,
Speaker 1: Like I I like this brand called Jovial, which let
Speaker 1: me tell you is not like the cheapest brand, but
Speaker 1: there's this amazing brand as far as like quality and
Speaker 1: commitment to what they do. And it would cost me
Speaker 1: a fortune to buy those tomatoes if I just like
Speaker 1: randomly went and bought them. But because I know it's
Speaker 1: a staple in my pantry, those things go on sale
Speaker 1: down to like two dollars a jar, which is like
Speaker 1: two dollars and fifty cents off or whatever. So when
Speaker 1: that happens, I like stock up on those things and
Speaker 1: I fill my pantry. So the idea is like having
Speaker 1: ingredients you actually use allows you to really be smart
Speaker 1: with you know, keeping a simplified pantry using those ingredients,
Speaker 1: but also making sure that you're saving money by stocking
Speaker 1: up when those things do go on sale, because you
Speaker 1: need feeling okay about buying in bulk. Then it helps
Speaker 1: with that if you know, okay, I do I use
Speaker 1: this all the time, then fine, get a ton of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us just like them, or
Speaker 1: we buy stuff because somebody on Instagram told us we
Speaker 1: need it when we don't actually use it ever, or
Speaker 1: you see the sale and then you like stock up,
Speaker 1: but then how many boxes of Zatarans do you need
Speaker 1: for some inspiration? I'm curious what are some of the
Speaker 1: essential capsule pantry items that you have, Kristen, I actually
Speaker 1: just f y I'll share, but I did. I just
Speaker 1: did a video which just came out, by the way,
Speaker 1: you can find it over on YouTube, which I kind
Speaker 1: of like showed the well I didn't kind of, I
Speaker 1: did show I find it because my pantry is like
Speaker 1: we don't have coats in Florida really, so it's a
Speaker 1: coat closet which doing the feel and there was like,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, the poor guy doing the video, He's like,
Speaker 1: you seriously want me to like go in that closet
Speaker 1: with you. It's like, yeah, yeah, I come see that.
Speaker 1: Though you can see like in you know, if you're
Speaker 1: a visual person, like what's in my pantry. But some
Speaker 1: of my favorite are definitely rice, Like rice is so
Speaker 1: cheap and you can I mean people are like, oh rice,
Speaker 1: but you can really make that nutrient vents. I mean
Speaker 1: you can like mix it with veggies or cook it
Speaker 1: and broth. You know. I mean that just like ups
Speaker 1: the nutrients right there. Um. So definitely rice and if
Speaker 1: you look at a lot of cultures around the world,
Speaker 1: they definitely rely on rice. Why we have this idea
Speaker 1: that rice is like inferior, I think it's because quene
Speaker 1: wa really you know, became like a star in the
Speaker 1: past few years. I will use like keene wa. Um.
Speaker 1: That's another staple and I picked that up at Costco
Speaker 1: and it's really inexpensive. Costco is amazing if you're looking
Speaker 1: to save money and buy and balk, especially on some
Speaker 1: of those staple items. Like I said, canned tomatoes. I
Speaker 1: always have pasta. I like the pasta for um, the
Speaker 1: brown rice pasta from Jovial, like I mentioned. Um, I
Speaker 1: just think it tastes really good. It doesn't have like
Speaker 1: a heavy wheat taste or like a heavy taste. It
Speaker 1: taste like white pasta. Um. But again it's expensive, but
Speaker 1: I know I always stock it, so when it drops
Speaker 1: drastically in price, that's when I like stock up on
Speaker 1: it and keep in my pantry. Um. See, like spices,
Speaker 1: seasonings or something I always keep on hand. So cinnamon um,
Speaker 1: a reggano human um, let's see garlic powder and ginger
Speaker 1: are definitely my go to. I think you can you
Speaker 1: can add so much flavor to any dish if you
Speaker 1: season it right. And salt, like salt is. The power
Speaker 1: of salt is amazing. There's a really good documentary which
Speaker 1: actually was a book to begin with, called Salt, Fat,
Speaker 1: Acid Heat. I watched it. She's but like seriously, like
Speaker 1: I think she goes to show people the power of salt,
Speaker 1: like how you can use salt and it just like
Speaker 1: instantly transforms a dish. Um, let's see what else. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, oh, dry beans or something I always keep
Speaker 1: stocked again like super cheap, and you can use them
Speaker 1: in so many different ways, like you can cook um, chickpeas.
Speaker 1: I cook my beans in my instant pot, which I
Speaker 1: know people are like, oh my goodness, that's not very
Speaker 1: minimalistic to have like an extra appliance. But let me
Speaker 1: tell you, I am, Like I don't use a lot
Speaker 1: of appliances, but I feel like the instant pot is
Speaker 1: one that everybody needs. Um, it's just amazing and will
Speaker 1: really transform Like if you're busy or don't know how
Speaker 1: to cook stuff, um, so be the thing. Um and
Speaker 1: I'll cook them in like a weekly chickpeas in the
Speaker 1: instant pot and then I'll use half of those to
Speaker 1: make hummus or I'll roast them in the oven. Um.
Speaker 1: And they're great for like salads or hummas is constantly
Speaker 1: my kids lunches, or for snacks. Um yeah, roasted with
Speaker 1: some seasonings and they are a great snack. It's so simple,
Speaker 1: but it's so it adds like so much, like all
Speaker 1: the things that you say are so simple, but they're diverse.
Speaker 1: And that's why you can have like this minimalist like
Speaker 1: paying tree and fridge if you just have the right things,
Speaker 1: like the right diverse things. Yeah, and like you said,
Speaker 1: you can use them in multiple ways to build multiple meals.
Speaker 1: And I think that's like the idea of really minimalized,
Speaker 1: minimizing your pantry down to like the basics, is thinking
Speaker 1: like can I use this in multiple you know, in
Speaker 1: multiple ways to build multiple meals. Which I think that's
Speaker 1: the difference between real food and like processed food. It's
Speaker 1: like processed food, like everybody's like, oh, it's so expensive
Speaker 1: to eat. Well, I'm like wait, wait, wait, sorry, if
Speaker 1: you buy like a box of pop tarts that it's
Speaker 1: going to cost you like three dollars and it's literally
Speaker 1: going to get you through one meal and it's not
Speaker 1: going to fill you up, and you're gonna be hungry
Speaker 1: with them like an hour. But if you look at
Speaker 1: these real ingredients, so sometimes maybe you're gonna work over
Speaker 1: a little bit more for some of them, like pastured
Speaker 1: meat or something, but a lot of them are really cheap,
Speaker 1: like rice and beans, And when you think about that,
Speaker 1: like those are going to last you a really long time,
Speaker 1: feeds you for multiple meals, and they're going to fill
Speaker 1: you up, so you're not going to be like you're
Speaker 1: not snacking throughout the day and you're not stopping at
Speaker 1: the drive through on the way home because you're filled
Speaker 1: with actually nourishing food and the vitamins and the minerals
Speaker 1: and the fat and everything your body needs. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And if you make like most of your meal those
Speaker 1: inexpensive items and then apport smaller apportion the more expensive
Speaker 1: ones than then there's your budget. Yeah. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: feel like it's like a nice balance. Um definitely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like you don't need to like live off just chia
Speaker 1: seeds and hemp seeds and you could literally eat real
Speaker 1: food and never buy any of those things, you know.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that. Yeah, even like collagen, Like I
Speaker 1: love college and I take collagen right now mainly because
Speaker 1: I was working on healing my gut last year. But like,
Speaker 1: you literally don't need collagen or any of these like
Speaker 1: special powders or like any of these special seeds. Like
Speaker 1: you can buy you know, almonds if you want. I mean,
Speaker 1: like seriously, it doesn't. You don't even need that buy
Speaker 1: pumpkin seeds, you know, I mean, like if you want,
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of really, like um, finding what works.
Speaker 1: You've got to think, like there are cultures around the
Speaker 1: world that don't spend a lot on food and that
Speaker 1: eat eat well. You know, we just become like obsessed
Speaker 1: with health that it's turned into this like giant industry.
Speaker 1: It's almost like we've gone from extreats the other extreme
Speaker 1: health and wellness has become like this megamillion dollar, billion
Speaker 1: dollar probably indstry. But really you get back to it
Speaker 1: and it's like what would like great great great Grandma
Speaker 1: would have been eating, and it's probably like carrots and
Speaker 1: some rice and a little meat here and there. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to have the juicer and the mixer
Speaker 1: and the grinder and the spiralizer exactly, like you got
Speaker 1: those and you want to use those. Awesome, but it's
Speaker 1: it's like it's a disservice to people to show that
Speaker 1: like those are a must. You know. It's like eating
Speaker 1: well isn't just for the rich and the famous. Huh.
Speaker 1: That's so good to hear, Kristen. So how do you
Speaker 1: deal like with those times that you do have to
Speaker 1: buy ingredients that you wouldn't normally keep in your capsule pantry,
Speaker 1: like black sesame seeds? You know, it's just because I'm
Speaker 1: mainly relying on those recipes we're making over and over again,
Speaker 1: right that are like our favorite recipes, which I know
Speaker 1: that sounds boring, by the way, But it's not like
Speaker 1: you can change them up based on seasonality. Like a
Speaker 1: stir fry doesn't always have to be broccoli and write peppers.
Speaker 1: It could be whatever is at the market that week,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. But anyway, when I do have to
Speaker 1: buy something because let's say I'm gonna make like a
Speaker 1: special um ingredient, then I'll try to find other ways
Speaker 1: to use that. So, like you said, the power of Google,
Speaker 1: Like if I have black sesame seeds. I might try
Speaker 1: to find like other ways to use that, and I
Speaker 1: might not get something just by using, um, by googling
Speaker 1: black sesame seeds, but I might be able to use them,
Speaker 1: um in other ways that you could use sesame seeds.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's adding them to like a granola. I
Speaker 1: think you just have to really get creative honestly in
Speaker 1: the kitchen. I mean, like even overnight oats or something
Speaker 1: that's really popular right now, and um, I thought it
Speaker 1: was like a fad, but what we we recently went
Speaker 1: overseas and like they were all over there and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we've been eating these forever. You guys thought you were cool.
Speaker 1: I think we're in Germany and they're like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is like at a staple of ours forever. I was like, okay, wow, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought this is like something we just invented in
Speaker 1: the past year. Apparently not, but anyway, like you could
Speaker 1: add like sesame seeds are really good in that kind
Speaker 1: of um, like an overnight oat. So I think it's
Speaker 1: just for one it's like a matter of like having
Speaker 1: some experience in the kitchen and really like knowing how
Speaker 1: to take one thing and add like diversity to it
Speaker 1: um and using those ingredients UM. But it's also like
Speaker 1: like you can google and find out how to use
Speaker 1: you know, different ways to use that UM. But even
Speaker 1: like when I'm meal planning, like if I'm going to
Speaker 1: buy a specialty ingredient, like even a piece of produce,
Speaker 1: and i know I'm not going to put it all
Speaker 1: to use, then I'll try to find other ways that
Speaker 1: week to be able to put that to you. So
Speaker 1: it's not like I'm ever buying one ingredient for one purpose.
Speaker 1: R They never, it's just rare. If it's going to
Speaker 1: be left over, I'm all is looking for ways that
Speaker 1: I can put that to you. Or I know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, a lot of people if
Speaker 1: they have extra veggies that they that they're just not
Speaker 1: using and they are about to go to waste or
Speaker 1: even scraps, you know, from that that bit of the
Speaker 1: end of the tomato that you didn't end up using,
Speaker 1: keeping a stash of it in a freezer, and then
Speaker 1: when you get enough of it, creating a broth, and
Speaker 1: like you said, even then cooking rice in that or
Speaker 1: making a soup in that, and somehow just using all
Speaker 1: of these things that they don't have to go to waste, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and I think in all that comes with time, Like
Speaker 1: the more you do it's like riding a bike. The
Speaker 1: more you do it, the better you get at it.
Speaker 1: And the more, like you said, you're going to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can do this and I can do that, you know,
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden, these ideas come. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean in the beginning it's hard, but like as
Speaker 1: you you know, as you go you you have more
Speaker 1: ideas than how do you use stuff like how to
Speaker 1: make save your scraps and make broth and all of
Speaker 1: that kind and it's fun. It starts to get fun
Speaker 1: when you're my goodness, I know what I'm doing and
Speaker 1: I'm being creative exactly. And when you think about it,
Speaker 1: like that's how like that idea of like getting back
Speaker 1: to the way we've always consumed food and been traditional,
Speaker 1: Like that's the way like our great great grandparents knew
Speaker 1: how to consume food, like they knew how to use
Speaker 1: their scraps, and they knew how to use ingredients and
Speaker 1: all of that, and it's just something we've lost in
Speaker 1: like our age of business, which and like the age
Speaker 1: of like not having like parents in the kitchen, which
Speaker 1: are teaching their children, you know, all of that, Like
Speaker 1: we've lost those traditions of knowing how to use food
Speaker 1: and use it in multiple ways and how to you know,
Speaker 1: make broth out of scraps and all of those stuff.
Speaker 1: So I think, like it's a little bit harder for us,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely possible. It's especially since the age of
Speaker 1: the Internet has come about. You know, ten years when
Speaker 1: we started this, it was a lot harder to find information,
Speaker 1: and now like it's so easy. Nobody has an excuse
Speaker 1: not to can literally google, like you said, and find
Speaker 1: out anything you want. Practice to say, I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of myself this week. I had a breakfast of yogurt
Speaker 1: that I had made in my instant potana I had
Speaker 1: made in the oven, and this like strawberry like preserved
Speaker 1: thing that I had made myself, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, everything in this bowl. I was the
Speaker 1: most proud I've ever been. You are pregnant nesting woman.
Speaker 1: Next level. I have yet to make yogurt in my
Speaker 1: instant pot so maybe you can give me some tips
Speaker 1: on that, because I get so many questions. People are
Speaker 1: like have you made yogurt? Like no, great, I did
Speaker 1: the I did the hot the boil method first, so
Speaker 1: I would only have to buy the like organic milk
Speaker 1: that I got it all di not the like the
Speaker 1: other special stuff. Because I know there's like two ways
Speaker 1: to do it, but I wish I The only thing
Speaker 1: I wish I had done differently is strained it in
Speaker 1: like a cheese bag because it was a little thinner
Speaker 1: and used to yogurt. So that was the only thing
Speaker 1: I would do differently, So definitely more like Greek yogurt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you have that way. Yes. Speaking of having fun, though,
Speaker 1: I think we're about to the funnest portion my second
Speaker 1: proudest moment episode. Yeah, it's hill. It's probably the worst
Speaker 1: year's ever done that. It's fun to be awkward. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's right. It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 1: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 1: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 1: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 1: that bill anymore. That bill, Bill, Bill Clinton, This is
Speaker 1: the bill of the week, all right, Kristen. Every week
Speaker 1: a listener will call in and give us their favorite bill,
Speaker 1: and as our guests, we'd like to invite you to
Speaker 1: share your favorite bill lower case or upper case with us. So, okay,
Speaker 1: what do you have? Oh I can the only okay,
Speaker 1: the only thing I can think of is literally all
Speaker 1: of our bills are on auto responder, because if I
Speaker 1: didn't have it on auto responding, my bills would never
Speaker 1: get paid. And then hail all I can think of
Speaker 1: auto pay, like all hail auto pay. I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about like how what areas can you delete in
Speaker 1: your life in order to simplify, And I feel like
Speaker 1: that's what I've deleted in my life, paying my billsh
Speaker 1: I mean, the bills that you can avoid but still pay.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, Yeah, exactly, easier than ever. Yeah exactly. I
Speaker 1: think we recently had to do that. We had to
Speaker 1: fill out some form and they were like, can you
Speaker 1: lift out all the bills you pay? And I was like,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm checking this obviously, I check our bank
Speaker 1: account and whatnot, but still like, uh like like it's
Speaker 1: different than when you're like sitting there writing a check.
Speaker 1: You know. Anyway, here's not knowing what bills you six cheers.
Speaker 1: Okay that sounds awful, but you know I problem. I'm
Speaker 1: a responsible bill pay yes, you are because of auto Yes,
Speaker 1: if you are listening and you have a bill of
Speaker 1: the week to share with us, please visit Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash bill and you can leave us
Speaker 1: a bill on our Google voicemail or speak pipe. And
Speaker 1: we want to hear what bills you have if you
Speaker 1: can remember them. Yes, don't don't call us if you
Speaker 1: can't remember your bill. That would be the only thing
Speaker 1: that I would say. Yeah, it's all good, It's all good.
Speaker 1: Oh man, are we ready for the lightning round? We
Speaker 1: are as we as we love to call all it
Speaker 1: Really it has nothing to do with lightning other than
Speaker 1: the fact that it's a little bit shorter than the first.
Speaker 1: We have to hear that. Yeah, quick, quick, think on
Speaker 1: your feet. I know. So we are curious, Chris, and
Speaker 1: what are your top three go to weeknight recipes? It
Speaker 1: sounds like you rotate some meals. What are some good
Speaker 1: ones that you found? Definitely beans, black beans are my favorite.
Speaker 1: Like I could eat black beans all the time. Um so,
Speaker 1: like whether that's paired with like rice or we make
Speaker 1: it with tacos black beans and it's always in the
Speaker 1: instant pot and you can flavor them. However, um, and
Speaker 1: it varies all the time. Um. Some type of rice
Speaker 1: dish that will either do stir fry or like a
Speaker 1: fried rice. I just put up a recently a fried
Speaker 1: rice that uses like part rice, part cauliflower, part broccoli,
Speaker 1: um or like whatever is in season vegetable wise, stir
Speaker 1: frying that up some as well. Add meat sometimes eggs
Speaker 1: all I mean sometimes like if you haven't made by
Speaker 1: the way instant pot, if you haven't made um, soft
Speaker 1: boiled eggs. They're not boiled, but soft eggs in your
Speaker 1: instant pot, like they're amazing. Keep like game changing, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like you need an instant pot just to
Speaker 1: make beans and eggs like it would just it's like
Speaker 1: a can change. Um. And then generally, like I'll roast
Speaker 1: a whole chicken, and generally that's on Sunday night. I'll
Speaker 1: roast like a big thing of chicken, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a big chicken um with some vegetables, and then I'll
Speaker 1: debone it and whatever the leftover meat is becomes lunch
Speaker 1: the next day, and then the bones go in the
Speaker 1: instant pot to make broth, and then we have soup
Speaker 1: another time that week. So generally some type of soup
Speaker 1: of some sort, and it's all based on like what's
Speaker 1: in season, which also lowers our grocery budget by the way,
Speaker 1: like buying season. Yeah, definitely, thank you. It's making me hungry, yes,
Speaker 1: all right. And then second question, top three places that
Speaker 1: you have traveled too, because I see you're like a
Speaker 1: traveler and you're right about it on your blog and
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, travel Um, my husband actually travels
Speaker 1: for a living. Um. So that's why we travel a lot,
Speaker 1: is because we amassa a lot of hotel points in
Speaker 1: airline points, so we might So Iceland is like my
Speaker 1: top number one spot that we've been to, I know,
Speaker 1: trendy and whatnot. Um. And it was because of Instagram
Speaker 1: that I found Iceland. I was like, I want to
Speaker 1: go there after seeing pictures. Um. So we actually went
Speaker 1: there in May of last year. We took our kids
Speaker 1: and we took my parents and then my husband and
Speaker 1: I obviously went um and and literally, like we've been
Speaker 1: to a lot of places in the world, and Iceland
Speaker 1: was like number one. Like I feel like everybody should
Speaker 1: go there because it's kind of like untouched and there's
Speaker 1: only like a hundred and thousand people that live in
Speaker 1: the country. So most of the countries, you know, it
Speaker 1: can't be um. You know lived in so Um it's
Speaker 1: still very like untouched and just like beautiful and amazing.
Speaker 1: And we've stayed on a farm for a few days
Speaker 1: through an Airbnb and like saw baby sheet. I was
Speaker 1: just like, oh my goodness. And the food talk about
Speaker 1: a food culture like I've never seen a food culture
Speaker 1: like Iceland, like the best food I've ever had. I
Speaker 1: would not have expected that. I would have thought, like whale, whale,
Speaker 1: they eat whale, I mean they do like that, like
Speaker 1: the tourist side of the menu. Um, but like a
Speaker 1: lot of lamb, Like lamb is a huge staple there,
Speaker 1: and fish and like greenhouses um, like galore because it's
Speaker 1: so cold there all the time. Anyway, really amazing food culture.
Speaker 1: And let's see what else. Um. We just recently over
Speaker 1: Christmas went to Europe, so we did Switzerland, Germany and France. UM.
Speaker 1: And I would say Switzerland was definitely like one of
Speaker 1: the top places we've been to. I would love to
Speaker 1: go back to Switzerland. We were in Zurich and then
Speaker 1: spent some time the Alps. We are actually in the
Speaker 1: German Alps, just um, just next to Switzerland but absolutely amazing,
Speaker 1: Like the Swiss culture in the countryside was gorgeous. Let's see.
Speaker 1: And then finally, oh, Alaska. We went to Alaska my
Speaker 1: husband I a couple of years ago, and um, it
Speaker 1: was like, not Anchorage, we want five hours outside on
Speaker 1: a prop propeller plan to the Aleutian Islands, which are
Speaker 1: like basically the islands before you get to Russia, like
Speaker 1: the closest I think city was like, yeah, five hours away,
Speaker 1: by my gosh, like we almost got attacked by bears.
Speaker 1: But it was cool. It was the craziest thing I
Speaker 1: think we've ever done in our entire life. My husband's
Speaker 1: nineties six year old grandfather took all of us. Um,
Speaker 1: I know, talk about like life goals there. They are
Speaker 1: a hardy people in these cold climate areas. Yeah, absolutely crazy,
Speaker 1: Like people are like, oh, where's the one place you'd
Speaker 1: never want to return to it. I was like Alaska,
Speaker 1: but at the same time it was one of the
Speaker 1: most amazing experiences. I love it. That is awesome. Ye Iceland,
Speaker 1: the Alps or Switzerland and then Alaska. Wow, you have
Speaker 1: single handedly in our lightning around made me very hungry
Speaker 1: and very motivated to travel. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't until just the past couple of years that we
Speaker 1: started traveling again because our kids are finally old enough
Speaker 1: to travel um and like go on an airplane so um.
Speaker 1: And we don't have anybody like watch your kids for
Speaker 1: an extended period of time, so if we go somewhere,
Speaker 1: we have to bring them. Um. Yeah. Yeah. So it's
Speaker 1: been great for them to to have those experiences. We
Speaker 1: started something where I'm a former teacher, so like I
Speaker 1: feel like that's that's like stayed with me. So I
Speaker 1: was like, we should have them keep travel journals. So
Speaker 1: every location we go to, they keep a travel journal
Speaker 1: and they like write every single day and they're at
Speaker 1: the end of the day like what they remember from
Speaker 1: that day. And then when we get home, we print
Speaker 1: off the pictures and they put them in their book
Speaker 1: and they draw a little picture each Do they love
Speaker 1: it or are they like, Mom, it's really funny to
Speaker 1: hear like the stuff that they remember, because the stuff
Speaker 1: that I think made that day like epic is the
Speaker 1: stuff that they don't even mention. And like in Iceland,
Speaker 1: we get stuck in the mud for like three hours
Speaker 1: somewhere and like that was like the highlight of their day.
Speaker 1: I'm like, we did all this other amazing stuff. They're like,
Speaker 1: that was the highlight was getting stuck in the mud.
Speaker 1: So it's funny to hear from perspective of you know, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Christen. It has been so fun to have
Speaker 1: you on. If people aren't already obsessed with Live Simply,
Speaker 1: where can they find you? And what do you have
Speaker 1: coming up on the blog and podcast? Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: can find us that live Simply Adopt Me UM, and
Speaker 1: also you can find the podcast which has lives Simply
Speaker 1: the podcast, and I spend a lot of time, most
Speaker 1: of my time on Instagram these days, so um, I'm
Speaker 1: live Simply mom over on Instagram. UM. And as well
Speaker 1: as we have some free crash courses on the blog, UM,
Speaker 1: we have a really large email community UM that gets
Speaker 1: like the crash courses and all of these little extras
Speaker 1: UM that are really um extra resources is to help
Speaker 1: you live out a real food and natural wellness lifestyle.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's where people can connect with us. The blog,
Speaker 1: the podcast, UM, Instagram, and then of course email is
Speaker 1: always the best. So thanks for having me on, ladies,
Speaker 1: It was fun awesome. Thanks for joining us. This has
Speaker 1: been so good to remember my bills going for it. God,
Speaker 1: we have helped you as Yeah, there's no shame in
Speaker 1: auto pay, Kristen, You're good. We hope you enjoyed that
Speaker 1: replay of Kristen's interview. It was great then and so
Speaker 1: even if you did listen to it the first time around,
Speaker 1: I hope you've got something new out of it. And
Speaker 1: it's always good to refine the minimalism in your kitchen
Speaker 1: m hm. And life seasons have changed too. I think
Speaker 1: when we recorded that, I was in the camper. Now
Speaker 1: I'm in a home, So there's new things for me
Speaker 1: to now be thinking about because that I have more space,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, how do I curate things now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed this episode, um a few more
Speaker 1: that you might like, our episode seventy where we talk
Speaker 1: about the most frugal way to buy groceries. And then
Speaker 1: also episode ninety two, which is another one on the
Speaker 1: curated list. It's reducing food waste with debt, Kick and Mom.
Speaker 1: So those seventy and ninety two are awesome episodes to
Speaker 1: also play. Interviews are always my favorites. Yeah, they are
Speaker 1: good and they're they're special. So thanks for listening. We
Speaker 1: want to thank you for your kind reviews on iTunes
Speaker 1: and Stitcher, like this one from apes zero four to
Speaker 1: zero eight nine. Humor and informative, this podcast has been
Speaker 1: serving me well and becoming more frugal. I'm such a spender,
Speaker 1: and while doing the debt payoff currently, these two have
Speaker 1: been keeping me motivated while being very informative. I also
Speaker 1: love the zippy humor that make you feel like you
Speaker 1: are part of this squad you to have. We should get.
Speaker 1: We should definitely get mugs or something that's a squad,
Speaker 1: frugal squad. Yeah, yeah, that makes me feel cool. One
Speaker 1: is the year for um unnecessary merch? I think probably yes.
Speaker 1: I've been wanting friendship bracelet since we started to get
Speaker 1: those and sure not making them, so I don't know
Speaker 1: we'll get there. In addition to figuring that out, we
Speaker 1: want to thank you our friends who share these episodes
Speaker 1: on social media. So when you share the latest episode
Speaker 1: and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add you
Speaker 1: to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews
Speaker 1: we get each month, we give away a copy of
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends workbook we do and so keep leaving
Speaker 1: us those reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, and sending those
Speaker 1: screenshots to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and
Speaker 1: don't forget to tag us on social See you next week.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric syria Um.
Speaker 1: During our last recording of an episode not this one,
Speaker 1: did you pick up your phone and take a picture
Speaker 1: of the computer screen? I did? I put it on Instagram? Uh?
Speaker 1: Did you get my permission? Did I sign a release
Speaker 1: of information? Yeah? In our in our business agreement that
Speaker 1: either one of us has signed. I I said, I
Speaker 1: can take um pictures if I'm in them, uh and
Speaker 1: post them anywhere. That's amazing. I take a picture of me, Jill.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I am almost. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, what's happening right now. I did it
Speaker 1: because I thought, oh, she won't she won't notice right
Speaker 1: now because she's like looking at the article. Um, And
Speaker 1: then I was looking at you. Yeah, she's what keeps
Speaker 1: me grounded. I know. I'm so sorry for throwing you off, Um,
Speaker 1: but I thought I was. I thought it would be
Speaker 1: fun to share more behind the scenes like pictures with people.
Speaker 1: But that was like in my mind. I immediately went
Speaker 1: to oh, no, am I frozen? Is she's taking a
Speaker 1: picture because my face is frozen and I'm doing something
Speaker 1: silly like if I'm frozen. Though, she would say, something
Speaker 1: is messing up our recording all of this while I
Speaker 1: was trying to say, but I'm so sorry to get it. No,
Speaker 1: you're good when you going yeah, when you are frozen
Speaker 1: or on repeat like your mike did that thing, I
Speaker 1: just like put both my hands up or one of
Speaker 1: my hands and like true when that, yeah, we have
Speaker 1: now signals that we're learning. When just your hammer goes up,
Speaker 1: then I know, like how I'm probably looking cute. I
Speaker 1: should keep going, Yeah you are? You're looking fly today? Yes,
Speaker 1: popping collar and everything. Do you remember when we used
Speaker 1: to do that? Nope, never did that. Layered polos with
Speaker 1: popped collars was a bit of a style for a minute.
Speaker 1: It was also a style here, but like this is
Speaker 1: Florida and polos are thick enough, and so I'm like,
Speaker 1: y'all are dumb. Yeah, it was really you're covering your necks,
Speaker 1: there's no airflow on there. You're doubling up your material.
Speaker 1: Then you actually are because you've got so many polos happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was like, where do you live? I don't
Speaker 1: know where that came from. Yeah, but I'm glad it's over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't worry that this will come back around, because apparently
Speaker 1: we've got a quick turnaround. Like styles of the nineties
Speaker 1: are back, so and I thought those would never come back.
Speaker 1: That was like the ones that was the worst. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, at least the nineties won't
Speaker 1: come back, and all these twenties some things are like
Speaker 1: that was so cute, and we're like that was our
Speaker 1: worst nightmare. It was, Uh, but you know I can't.
Speaker 1: I can get in with a little crop top every
Speaker 1: now and then I can get there. Probably shouldn't though,
Speaker 1: because we're in our thirties now, and oh, you're so right,
Speaker 1: but just like an inch, just it's just an inch.
Speaker 1: That's like the Britney Spears reveal, you know, like right
Speaker 1: Britney Spears Christina Aguilera. That was like the like the
Speaker 1: one inch with the belt with like that white belt
Speaker 1: with the grammets on it. I wasn't I guess I
Speaker 1: want to remember that either. Jeez, I should quit well ahead,
Speaker 1: I'm not even ahead. I should quit quit while I'm
Speaker 1: behind