Speaker 1: Episode one, Recognizing and Reversing Lifestyle Creep. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights,
Speaker 1: and liberate your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: lifestyle creep and lifestyle inflation. So yeah, tricky, but not
Speaker 1: that tricky, not that tricky. We have been seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of people in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook
Speaker 1: have been paying off debt like crazy. You guys have
Speaker 1: been having awesome success. We see you, and we celebrate you.
Speaker 1: And so this one is specifically for you guys who
Speaker 1: are there who are working on furthering your other financial
Speaker 1: goals and maybe close to debt freedom, close to working
Speaker 1: on other financial goals. This is going to be a
Speaker 1: really good gut check for you to keep with you
Speaker 1: moving forward, because I know we're three years out of
Speaker 1: paying off our student loans and I needed this gut
Speaker 1: check for sure. When I saw this topic in this outline,
Speaker 1: I was reading the articles, I'm like, is this for me?
Speaker 1: Is Jen? Is this like a back door? Right? We're
Speaker 1: happening here. I think people are going to come in
Speaker 1: behind the door behind you, Jill, because this is planned.
Speaker 1: It just comes with the territory. I think, as as
Speaker 1: we accomplish goals, or even if we earn raises within
Speaker 1: the jobs that we're in, or we have a career
Speaker 1: change and we see a different income level, whatever the
Speaker 1: circumstances are, there are opportunities throughout life where we can
Speaker 1: experience lifestyle creep. So I'm looking forward to talking about
Speaker 1: what this is and how to be careful and prevent this. Yes,
Speaker 1: so first we want to shout out our sponsors. This
Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by Drumroll. Please the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Florida meet up. It is April seventeen. So if
Speaker 1: you are in Florida, there is no reason you should
Speaker 1: not be at our meet up in St. Petersburg unless
Speaker 1: you physically can't get there, right, I mean Florida is
Speaker 1: a big state, but yeah, you should drive three hours,
Speaker 1: right or if you have rewards points, you gotta flight.
Speaker 1: Nobody else plan right now, so come on down. But
Speaker 1: we are doing a meet up in St. Petersburg. You
Speaker 1: can get more info about that at Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. Slash meet up. It will be outside, it
Speaker 1: will be safe as safe as we can get it,
Speaker 1: and we will just be, you know, geeking out about frugality.
Speaker 1: There will be some food and we're going to write
Speaker 1: it off on our taxes. So that's that good summer
Speaker 1: reach out. You're coming. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: meet Up. This episode is also brought to you by
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Speaker 1: was good when I read it, and it's better when
Speaker 1: I heard you say it. Thank you. Sometimes my fig
Speaker 1: sponsor is good, sometimes it's mediocre. But I was definitely
Speaker 1: about this one, like, yeah, well, we are not talking
Speaker 1: about those types of creeps. Uh, we are talking about
Speaker 1: lifestyle creep, which isn't a bad thing. Let's like get
Speaker 1: this out of the way. It is okay when you
Speaker 1: are increasing your income and lowering your expenses, and you
Speaker 1: have developed values based spending to spend a little more
Speaker 1: on the things that you love when you have the
Speaker 1: capacity too. But we want to avoid falling back into
Speaker 1: traps that we worked really hard to get out of.
Speaker 1: Thanks for saying that, Jen, because I think sometimes I
Speaker 1: can get confused on Oh man, I used to be
Speaker 1: able to live off of so much less what's happening
Speaker 1: to me? But it was just the reality that I
Speaker 1: was living very meek early and now I'm living just
Speaker 1: a bit more normally or typically. It's kind of unrealistic
Speaker 1: to expect that my expenses are going to be the
Speaker 1: same living in a home that I own as when
Speaker 1: I lived in a vehicle. So yeah, it is helpful
Speaker 1: to kind of keep into perspective. What is lifestyle creep
Speaker 1: versus why is just kind of what comes with the
Speaker 1: territory of maybe taking on some new expenses, but not
Speaker 1: necessarily unwise expenses. Absolutely, this is where we're going to
Speaker 1: talk though about when our saving is not keeping up
Speaker 1: with our spending, as we might see some flux within
Speaker 1: our income. So we'll get to that. Thanks for that caveat.
Speaker 1: Of course, let's define for Spaceline, what is lifestyle creep
Speaker 1: also known as lifestyle inflation. So for the purposes of
Speaker 1: this episode, it's basically when you kind of get a raise,
Speaker 1: or even not, maybe it's just your living life and
Speaker 1: you see other people getting more things just as life progresses,
Speaker 1: Like I know that it's not even that I'm getting raises,
Speaker 1: it's just that I'm in my thirties and I see
Speaker 1: people getting second houses and better cars, and it's I
Speaker 1: thought I'd be okay, like when I was in my twenties,
Speaker 1: like when I bought a house, when I upgrade in
Speaker 1: my car. But now now I'm in the thirties and
Speaker 1: everybody's buying like new houses now and they're upgrading to
Speaker 1: like minivans and stuff. That's the lifestyle creep that we're
Speaker 1: talking about, is just increasing more than what your surplus is.
Speaker 1: So when we don't keep these two in balance, then
Speaker 1: we start to develop habits and lifestyles where are spending
Speaker 1: ken outpace our earning and it's a slow, steady increase,
Speaker 1: but it does make an impact long term. Or you're
Speaker 1: spending exactly matches your income, and there's no room for
Speaker 1: any level of increased savings or debt payoff or you
Speaker 1: name it, and it's tough because on the one hand,
Speaker 1: it's good to have goals and to have drivers and
Speaker 1: motivators and be onto the next thing. But sometimes our
Speaker 1: desire to be onto the next thing decreases our ability
Speaker 1: to be content in the moment and kind of live
Speaker 1: within or below our means so as to yeah, get
Speaker 1: at some of these other goals. So it's that it's
Speaker 1: that radical middle again of holding on to some motivation
Speaker 1: and some long term dreams and goals and hopes while
Speaker 1: also learning contentedness currently. Yeah. So our first article today
Speaker 1: is from Forbes and it's by christ and mckennet's called
Speaker 1: The True Cost of Lifestyle Inflation, And so I liked
Speaker 1: this one because it really dives into like how lifestyle
Speaker 1: inflation can derail your finances. So you get to the
Speaker 1: points I'm sure we know, like older adults are parents
Speaker 1: and stuff, and we're like, how did you get here?
Speaker 1: How did you get to this place? And this is
Speaker 1: how So it can overtime small adjustments, so a new
Speaker 1: car with a down payment and a higher monthly payment,
Speaker 1: some new furniture, maybe we start paying for laundry service
Speaker 1: or a cleaning or a better gym membership, all of
Speaker 1: these things individually not a big deal, but after doing
Speaker 1: them in compounding, after a few years, ten fifteen years,
Speaker 1: they make up a lot of our budget. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure if you've started paying off debt maybe a little
Speaker 1: later in life, in your thirties or forties, I don't
Speaker 1: call that later in life. You're still in the primary life,
Speaker 1: but you can see it. You've already you've already experienced
Speaker 1: lifestyle creed versus other people who start paying off debt
Speaker 1: in their twenties. I like how they describe it as
Speaker 1: when your expenses increase with your income, and that it's
Speaker 1: mostly an issue when your savings doesn't keep up. They
Speaker 1: give a lot of really great tangible examples of how
Speaker 1: something like this might happen and you might be spending more.
Speaker 1: Let's say somebody gets a raise. The majority of that
Speaker 1: can often go to what you're describing jen a new car,
Speaker 1: the gym membership that you name it, and the savings
Speaker 1: does not increase to the same percentages even though the
Speaker 1: income has I also want to state here at this
Speaker 1: point that what we're talking about here doesn't just apply
Speaker 1: to those who are increasing wealth significantly. This can happen
Speaker 1: to anyone in any bracket of earnings. Right, Let's say
Speaker 1: we've got somebody who was making minimum wage and now
Speaker 1: they earned a dollar extra an hour. Anybody in any
Speaker 1: situation can experience this lifestyle creep, lifestyle inflation. It's something
Speaker 1: we all need to keep a pulse on. And as
Speaker 1: you mentioned at the top of the episode, Jen, it's
Speaker 1: not even just about earning raises. It might just be
Speaker 1: about I've paid off debt and so now I've got
Speaker 1: an increase of spendable money or saveable money, depending on
Speaker 1: how you're looking at it, So any type of or
Speaker 1: I decreased my housing expenses and so I've got more
Speaker 1: available money to me. Maybe it's not even about an
Speaker 1: income increase. So we're talking to anybody at any life
Speaker 1: stage in this. It's something we all need to be
Speaker 1: aware of. I love this um headline from the articles
Speaker 1: as lifestyle inflation is like running in place, and it's
Speaker 1: so true. You you think in your twenties, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: when I'm finally making like twenty grand more than i'm
Speaker 1: making now in like twenty years, then I'll really be
Speaker 1: able to save for retirement. Then I'll really be able
Speaker 1: to make a dent in my finances. But it's it's
Speaker 1: so possible to just run in place, and when you're
Speaker 1: getting that raise, like I've worked so hard, I deserve this,
Speaker 1: and chances are in a few years when you get
Speaker 1: another race, you're going to deserve more stuff. It's about
Speaker 1: what you want from life, and if you it's not
Speaker 1: a problem to treat yourself when you deserve it, But
Speaker 1: do you want to deserve things now or do you
Speaker 1: want to balance it out and deserve things in the
Speaker 1: future too, like in retirement and possibly early retirement stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So you just kind of have to balance
Speaker 1: out when you are treating yourself when you get these races. Jen,
Speaker 1: it's not about what you deserve, it's about what you
Speaker 1: want out of life. Mic drop, thank you. I can't,
Speaker 1: It's understand, and it would be an auditory nightmare. So
Speaker 1: I like the tips that they give in here. They
Speaker 1: just give three, and of course we'll get into more
Speaker 1: tips in the next article, but they do give some
Speaker 1: ideas on ways that we can and avoid some of
Speaker 1: this lifestyle inflation, and one of them is to automate savings.
Speaker 1: It's a really simple one, but a really useful and
Speaker 1: helpful one because we often aren't going to have sights
Speaker 1: on oh am I saving for thirty, forty fifty years
Speaker 1: down the road this week. We're more concerned with what's
Speaker 1: happening in our current lives right now. So letting these
Speaker 1: automations do it for us. Automatically saved to your four
Speaker 1: oh one K, automatically saved to your auth I a
Speaker 1: automatically save into your savings account. Put these things on
Speaker 1: automation so that it's happening when you get that raise
Speaker 1: or when you pay off that debt, Increase the amount
Speaker 1: that you're giving, max out your retirement savings, and then
Speaker 1: move on to other savings accounts. Don't just stop there,
Speaker 1: but put it on automation. That's one of the best
Speaker 1: tips that we can give to ourselves and one of
Speaker 1: the best gifts we can give to ourselves. So once
Speaker 1: you're emergency fund is fully stacked in a high yield
Speaker 1: savings account, then focus on your rath ira. There is
Speaker 1: literally like no reason to not max out your rath
Speaker 1: ira every year unless you just literally don't have the
Speaker 1: money to pay your bills. But it's such a low
Speaker 1: minimum given everything else in the scope, like your four
Speaker 1: O one K is like nineteen five, so it's just
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars a year in a roth ira. It's
Speaker 1: so good, and you might think like, hey, I don't
Speaker 1: have enough to max out my rath all right, that's
Speaker 1: five dollars a month. I don't have that. It is
Speaker 1: going to be so much easier to do it earlier
Speaker 1: in life than to do it later in life. You
Speaker 1: have to invest so much less the earlier you start
Speaker 1: versus if you start later. A lot of people don't
Speaker 1: realize this, but this is how compound interest works. Like
Speaker 1: if I am investing, you know, a hundred dollars a
Speaker 1: month right now, and I slowly start to increase that
Speaker 1: and I'm maxing it out, you know, by the end
Speaker 1: of the year, then I can invest Gosh. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: actually did the math on this the other day. It
Speaker 1: can be like a hundred thousand dollars less and still
Speaker 1: get to the point of a million dollars at the
Speaker 1: same time. You know, if you start when you're twenty,
Speaker 1: you're going to spend like a hundred thousand dollars less
Speaker 1: than somebody who starts at thirty or something. The math
Speaker 1: is not correct on that, but you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Time in the market is much more powerful than the
Speaker 1: amount invested. And so even if you feel that it
Speaker 1: is difficult to save, do it anyway. Do what you
Speaker 1: can with what you have, and automated so you don't
Speaker 1: have to think about it. It's that whole notion of
Speaker 1: pay yourself first, that's what we're talking about. And if
Speaker 1: you just have that automatically coming out every time you
Speaker 1: get paid or whatever, then you don't notice it. So
Speaker 1: when your income goes up, like if you're already maxing
Speaker 1: out your roth IRA, you can't do anymore. So if
Speaker 1: I get twenty extra bucks a month, I don't have
Speaker 1: to feel guilty about spending all of that because I'm
Speaker 1: already doing what I can with what i have. So
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Setting yourself up maybe suffering for like
Speaker 1: a year or two on a tight budget so that
Speaker 1: you can utilize those raises and stuff when they come
Speaker 1: and enjoy them nice. And the third tip on here
Speaker 1: is to spend responsibly. There's not much more I'm going
Speaker 1: to say on this, because we're gonna get into more
Speaker 1: tips in the next article. Certainly lots of Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast episodes on this mindful spending being more in tune
Speaker 1: with the decisions, understanding ourselves and what might lead to
Speaker 1: some of those impulse purchases, and really being a whole
Speaker 1: lot more intentional to spend responsibly, being a good steward
Speaker 1: of our money, so that we don't find ourselves in
Speaker 1: this place of lifestyle creep m. And if for some
Speaker 1: reason you do have more money to invest beyond your
Speaker 1: rath EIRA, it also says on here to invest outside
Speaker 1: of your retirement accounts, So definitely focus on your tax
Speaker 1: advantage accounts first, because why wouldn't you You save a
Speaker 1: lot of money in taxes with them. So um RATH
Speaker 1: IIRA if you're eligible RATH four oh one K, regular
Speaker 1: four oh one k, stuff like that. Depending on what
Speaker 1: your income is and what you're you know, what you
Speaker 1: plan to do in the future, that's going to determine
Speaker 1: whether you do RATH or regular. But beyond that, you
Speaker 1: can invest for some things, mainly real estate and homes
Speaker 1: I think is probably what I would say. Or if
Speaker 1: you are maybe like a doctor or something, you want
Speaker 1: to buy a practice down the road something like that,
Speaker 1: but you can open just a brokerage and save in
Speaker 1: a really conservative index fund and save like that. And
Speaker 1: this says it's for like high earners, so this is
Speaker 1: definitely not the norm. I think most people will just
Speaker 1: be focusing on their retirement guts, but it is an option.
Speaker 1: The article does mention it. M hm. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about our next article, which we're going to dive into
Speaker 1: actual tangible tips to avoid lifestyle creep. And this is
Speaker 1: from sabology dot com. It's Lifestyle Creep one O one.
Speaker 1: Eight Ways to Avoid Lifestyle Creep by Chris Borgison. Would
Speaker 1: you like about this one, Jill? This is a great one.
Speaker 1: I like all of the tips on here. I think,
Speaker 1: of course, they pair beautifully with so many of our
Speaker 1: frugality concepts. There's a quote in here that I just
Speaker 1: want to read aloud because I think it helps us
Speaker 1: to get a grasp on this. They say getting a
Speaker 1: raise and increasing your income should be looked at as
Speaker 1: an opportunity to improve your savings right and retirement accounts. Instead,
Speaker 1: it's often perceived as an open invitation to spend more
Speaker 1: and to spend often. And I what stood out to
Speaker 1: me about this quote is the perspective shift. I think
Speaker 1: we talked about that so much much as we look
Speaker 1: at our spending and our habits and how to live
Speaker 1: a more frugal lifestyle. This is it that shifting some
Speaker 1: of those thought patterns to when more money comes in
Speaker 1: or when I see an opening in my income, that
Speaker 1: my mind should immediately go to what is the best
Speaker 1: way to utilize this money? Where can I be saving this?
Speaker 1: Where can I be investing this? Or what debt can
Speaker 1: I be paying off with this? Rather than what what
Speaker 1: nice luxury item can I get for myself? How can
Speaker 1: I spend this? How can I get rid of this
Speaker 1: as fast as I can? On something that is super mindless?
Speaker 1: So I like that shift to start to train ourselves
Speaker 1: to think in that way where the long term benefits
Speaker 1: come first rather than the short term benefits. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: read a statistic the other day that says most side hustlers,
Speaker 1: most people that have a side gig or something, are
Speaker 1: just doing it for extra spending money, And how crazy
Speaker 1: is that. The the first uh TikTok video that I
Speaker 1: had that went uber viral was how you could make
Speaker 1: a million dollars with any side hustle, but it involved
Speaker 1: you had to make a hundred and fifty bucks a
Speaker 1: week with your side hustle. If for some reason you're
Speaker 1: a W two at your side hustle, you could do
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifteen dollars a week. But if you
Speaker 1: just find a side hustle that makes you a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty dollars a week, and instead of spending that hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a week on eating out and stuff,
Speaker 1: instead you invest it in a rath I A and
Speaker 1: SMP five hundred index fund, and in thirty five years
Speaker 1: you would have one million dollars from that side hustle alone,
Speaker 1: and only two thousand is money that was actually made
Speaker 1: from the side hustle. The other eight hundred was made
Speaker 1: from compound interest in the market. So if you could,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's opportunity cost, right, Like if you can
Speaker 1: put your excess and your surplus to good use, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't even have to be like in the stock market,
Speaker 1: that's just a very common example. But to good use,
Speaker 1: you will get so much down the road and it
Speaker 1: will free up other income. I mean, especially if it's
Speaker 1: a side hustle, it'll free you up with other income
Speaker 1: that you can spend without guilt. Probably most people weren't
Speaker 1: expecting the thirty five year piece, but you will thank
Speaker 1: yourself in thirty five years. Yeah, I mean, and that's
Speaker 1: using only a rath I RA. That's not counting any
Speaker 1: four oh one K or any other stock market investing
Speaker 1: that you do. Like that's just one really low max account.
Speaker 1: And the reason it's a hundred and fifty is because
Speaker 1: you have to put some away for taxes and expenses
Speaker 1: in the side hustle. But yeah, the bath works out
Speaker 1: and it's crazy. So definitely looking for ways is like
Speaker 1: how can I use my surplus? Or even when you
Speaker 1: don't get a raised, maybe you cut an expense and
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, how can I be a good steward
Speaker 1: of this money? Like I don't have debt anymore, I
Speaker 1: don't have a goal that's immediate, and so what can
Speaker 1: I do with this money that's going to be good.
Speaker 1: I don't need to save an emergency funding anymore. So
Speaker 1: I think it's good to have. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is one of the eight. But to have shorter terms,
Speaker 1: oh yeah it is. It's number two. It's the one
Speaker 1: I'm reading right now. To set and track financial goals.
Speaker 1: So for me, I think that's like having shorter term
Speaker 1: financial goals, so not just the goals that are I
Speaker 1: want to have a million dollars and retire at sixty,
Speaker 1: but to have like five year goals, like you need
Speaker 1: goals and even two year goals, like if we don't
Speaker 1: have those goals that we can get immediately, then it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot harder to stick with them. And
Speaker 1: I think that's why, like financial independence, the fire movement
Speaker 1: is really popular with some people, is because it takes
Speaker 1: that long term goal and it gets it closer and
Speaker 1: that makes it easier for them to wrap their mind around.
Speaker 1: But instead, if you don't want to be that gung
Speaker 1: ho about it, you can keep your retirement age at
Speaker 1: you know, six, six, five and and just have smaller
Speaker 1: goals before then the other So we want to go
Speaker 1: through all eight tips, so I'll jump back to number one.
Speaker 1: That's fine. It's number one is one time rewards. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna sound like we're talking out of both sides
Speaker 1: of our mouths, but bear with us. Where we're talking
Speaker 1: about not just giving ourselves what we deserve we earned it. No,
Speaker 1: we can still do that, right if we've accomplished a
Speaker 1: big goal and that's what's freed up our income, or
Speaker 1: we changed careers and we got a raise, or we're
Speaker 1: in our same career and we got a bump in
Speaker 1: our salary. Fantastic. Those things are worth celebrating. We're not
Speaker 1: living life if we're not like congratulating ourselves or celebrating
Speaker 1: some of these things. But the point ain't that this
Speaker 1: article is making that I agree with, is to say,
Speaker 1: let's plan for that celebration. Let's celebrate it one time
Speaker 1: and even go all out, but do it once. This
Speaker 1: isn't a ongoing. Oh I got a raise, so therefore
Speaker 1: I can go and do all of the things every day,
Speaker 1: spend more, spend often. No, We're going to do one thing,
Speaker 1: will go on a vacation, we will go out to
Speaker 1: a really nice restaurant, we will you name it, do
Speaker 1: the thing, get the reward, but then rain it back
Speaker 1: in and live an ongoing, consistent lifestyle below your means
Speaker 1: that prioritizes savings rather than the constant rewards. Plan it
Speaker 1: for one time, love that tip. Yeah, and it can
Speaker 1: become like if you have a few hard weeks at
Speaker 1: work and you're like, I'm just gonna I'm gonna treat
Speaker 1: myself because I've had a hard week. It becomes easier
Speaker 1: to do that every few weeks and then it's every
Speaker 1: other week, and then it's every Friday, and before you
Speaker 1: even realize that you're doing it so many times a month.
Speaker 1: So being aware and just a little bit of planning
Speaker 1: goes a long way. Yeah. Yeah, even if you're not
Speaker 1: outspending your earning, if you're spending a lot. This article
Speaker 1: gave the example of going out to dinner constantly and
Speaker 1: spending you know, a hundred dollars or more out to dinner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's even if you can affoard that. Think of the
Speaker 1: opportunity cost of that where that money could be going,
Speaker 1: if saved or invested or towards debt, you name it.
Speaker 1: Think about what you really love about going out to
Speaker 1: eat too. Maybe if you're treating yourself, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: need to go to the hundred dollar restaurant. Maybe all
Speaker 1: you want to do is just have a nice dinner
Speaker 1: where somebody waits on you and does the dishes. Could
Speaker 1: you get the same thing done for fifty dollars and
Speaker 1: then you have that other fifty dollars, So being intentional
Speaker 1: about that, just like could your spouse or roommate do
Speaker 1: that for you? You can pay them twenty five ye
Speaker 1: pay them nothing, just you know, do a trade off.
Speaker 1: Let us know how go tonight you're cooking and clean
Speaker 1: and uh so we went through number two, which was
Speaker 1: set in track financial goals. The number three is budget.
Speaker 1: You're spending money. You knew it was coming. There's there's
Speaker 1: no way we're gonna go through raining in spending and
Speaker 1: not talk about a budget. It's funny every time I
Speaker 1: put this in our outline, I always think that there's
Speaker 1: got to be like a new fun way to present
Speaker 1: what a budget is like. It's always the same. I
Speaker 1: can't give you anything different. We're just going to keep
Speaker 1: coming back to this. We've got a budget. We've got
Speaker 1: a budget or spending money really just to have a
Speaker 1: snapshot of the money coming in the money going out,
Speaker 1: to create greater freedom of what we're able to spend,
Speaker 1: how we're saving. And budgets even serve as a tracking
Speaker 1: mechanism of where is my money going. Certainly we want
Speaker 1: to we want budgets to do the next step of
Speaker 1: telling our money where it's going, but it certainly does
Speaker 1: act as a nice way to track as well. Am
Speaker 1: I spending in certain categories more than I want to
Speaker 1: be spending? Can I be spending more wisely? Saving? More wisely,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely going to be a part of keeping a
Speaker 1: handle on keeping the reins on not experiencing lifestyle inflation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think, Jill, you do a really good job
Speaker 1: of sustainable budgeting. Is like doing the budget and then
Speaker 1: doing every two weeks doing the check in. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's really good. Once you've paid off your debt
Speaker 1: and you've got your emergency funding, you're kind of just living.
Speaker 1: Then you don't have to be super vigilant about your budget.
Speaker 1: It says it's that's not a sustainable lifestyle, and I
Speaker 1: know for me that is why gets hard. I don't
Speaker 1: love budgeting, and so it's hard for me to keep track.
Speaker 1: But last night, She'll, you'd be so proud of me.
Speaker 1: We did go through our expenses for the first half
Speaker 1: of the month. We did it. You're having an amazing
Speaker 1: week so far that you crushed it this morning between
Speaker 1: exercise and showering and budgeting last night. My goodness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I thought about you, and you'd be proud of me.
Speaker 1: I am proud of you, Jen, I'm always proud of you.
Speaker 1: But I will say, when you are frugal and when
Speaker 1: you are intentionable about not allowing lifestyle creep to come
Speaker 1: into your life. You don't have to be so strict
Speaker 1: about your budget. You're literally just checking in to make
Speaker 1: sure there's nothing weird in your accounts, like there's no
Speaker 1: like identity theft, or there's no weird transactions. You're doing
Speaker 1: like a just a five minute check. And that's the
Speaker 1: benefit of being frugal is that you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about so much. That is a benefit of budgeting.
Speaker 1: We just in the last my last two week check in,
Speaker 1: I saw some charges that I didn't recognize, and sure
Speaker 1: enough my card had been compromised, so I was able
Speaker 1: to be on top of that immediately. I mean, thankfully
Speaker 1: my card reimburses that money. I've not lost it, but
Speaker 1: it was a whole lot less to go through because
Speaker 1: I am keeping a pulse on it regularly and was
Speaker 1: able to remedy it quickly. So the fourth one on
Speaker 1: here I've already talked about, it's max out your retirement
Speaker 1: funds and so this is a good short term goal.
Speaker 1: So first getting a match if it's available to you, Second,
Speaker 1: getting your IRA a maxed out that's just six thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year, and then going back to your four oh,
Speaker 1: one k if that's what you want to do, and
Speaker 1: that's again nineteen five. So if you are lucky enough
Speaker 1: to be able to go beyond that, then you can
Speaker 1: definitely invest in a regular brokerage. But um, I think
Speaker 1: for most people the goal of just maxing out retirement
Speaker 1: funds is absolutely sufficient, and depending on when you start,
Speaker 1: you may eat not even need to max but it's
Speaker 1: definitely a great goal. Yeah, and beyond that, once you've
Speaker 1: maxed out retirement funds, if you are fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: be earning an income where there's extra money above and
Speaker 1: beyond that, you can certainly consider investing that extra money.
Speaker 1: This article mentions beefing up your emergency fund. Certainly we
Speaker 1: would recommend three to six months living expenses. Well, that's
Speaker 1: a little bit beyond an emergency fund, but depending on
Speaker 1: your circumstances, that might be what you want to see.
Speaker 1: Six months is reasonable. Now, Yeah, nobody is blinking an
Speaker 1: eye had a six month emergency fund. Now that's becoming
Speaker 1: the standard. And a high interest account for your sinking funds.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different places that we can be
Speaker 1: putting our money before we're just blowing it on things
Speaker 1: we don't actually need. Absolutely six is to avoid dramatic
Speaker 1: life changes. And this is interesting because you can't. You
Speaker 1: can't always avoid dramatic life changes. I don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I could avoid dramatic life changes, I absolutely would,
Speaker 1: But most of the time you cannot. So I guess
Speaker 1: if you love drama, just try not to put too
Speaker 1: much in your life. I took that one to mean
Speaker 1: just because you might earn more income doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you should go out and drastically change your lifestyle. Meaning
Speaker 1: just because you could afford a brand new, really nice car,
Speaker 1: don't just because you could afford to now increase your
Speaker 1: the square footage of your living space, don't. That's how
Speaker 1: I took that. A lot of times, when we do earn,
Speaker 1: you know, increases in salary, it's like, let me go
Speaker 1: out and do this dramatic thing in my life that
Speaker 1: now I'm going to have to keep up with. I'm
Speaker 1: going to have to keep up with this higher mortgage,
Speaker 1: this higher car payment, you name it, which actually is
Speaker 1: what we will be seeing now. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are getting houses at low interest rates, and they may
Speaker 1: be getting more house than they can afford, and we
Speaker 1: may see people struggling with mortgage payments in the future.
Speaker 1: So this is definitely a time, like if you're getting
Speaker 1: if you've got a mortgage payment that you feel like
Speaker 1: is a stretch, this is definitely the time to lower
Speaker 1: your expenses, just in case your salary doesn't pace on
Speaker 1: track with what you think it will, because I mean,
Speaker 1: most people are not making fifty dollars and then going
Speaker 1: out and getting a hundred thousand dollar job. They're getting
Speaker 1: three percent raises, So I think definitely. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you do come into money, um, whether it's from a
Speaker 1: life insurance pay out or something, Yeah, don't make dramatic
Speaker 1: life changes. If you have a like mental breakdown, which
Speaker 1: is these are totally normal, it's nothing to be ashamed of.
Speaker 1: But if you are experiencing, you know, emotional things where
Speaker 1: you're like, I need to change everything, definitely seek help
Speaker 1: before you start spending money. Yeah, anytime we experience a
Speaker 1: big transition, it's not the time that we want to
Speaker 1: be making big decisions wherever possible. We want to kind
Speaker 1: of maintain stability. Yeah, So if you've got a transition
Speaker 1: in your career, it's not the time to also be
Speaker 1: going out and spending on these things that you're going
Speaker 1: to have to keep up with number seven on here
Speaker 1: is to review and change your circle this one and
Speaker 1: I know you love to talk about this one, and
Speaker 1: I do affirm it. While I haven't had to experience
Speaker 1: this in my personal life, thank goodness for a really
Speaker 1: great community of friends, I do see this happening that
Speaker 1: the circle and community that we're in does have a
Speaker 1: big impact on even just our worldview, our outlook. And
Speaker 1: so if we're finding ourselves in a community or circle
Speaker 1: of friends where it's all about the next thing that
Speaker 1: we're going to spend on keeping up with the Jones,
Speaker 1: is getting that next car, that next house, spending spending spending,
Speaker 1: going out to eat constantly, then that is where we
Speaker 1: want to do an audit on who am I allowing
Speaker 1: myself to be primarily influenced by. Again, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that we can't be friends with wealthy or unwealthy people,
Speaker 1: but what are their expectations on us? Are they giving
Speaker 1: us a hard time guilt tripping for not doing the
Speaker 1: things that they're doing. That's when we want to maybe
Speaker 1: introduce some other people into that circle or step away
Speaker 1: from that circle for a time if it's proving toxic.
Speaker 1: Not all wealthy or unwealthy people aren't toxic, so right,
Speaker 1: it's it's a matter of what is the influence of
Speaker 1: that relationship. Currently, find friends like Jen who are going
Speaker 1: to stitch it down and say, you need to be
Speaker 1: investing in a roth Ira. Let me set this up
Speaker 1: for you right now. Those are the good influences, not
Speaker 1: only someone who's not going to pressure you into bad things,
Speaker 1: but someone who's going to pressure you into good things.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you appreciated that. I didn't appreciate that, And
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, five year old me is going to
Speaker 1: appreciate you even more time in the market. So I
Speaker 1: love this one. It's so nuanced, and yeah, I have
Speaker 1: experienced it in my life. And I had a fantastic
Speaker 1: group of friends. They were great then, they are great now.
Speaker 1: They were great the whole time, but they spend spend
Speaker 1: money to have fun and I couldn't afford it, or
Speaker 1: at least not to reach the financial goals I had
Speaker 1: at the time. And so they weren't pressuring me. They
Speaker 1: were just doing what they wanted. And if I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to come along, they weren't going to change for me.
Speaker 1: They weren't ready, they weren't in a place to do that,
Speaker 1: and so I had to find other friends, and so
Speaker 1: I was kind of forced into this mindset. But I
Speaker 1: found and they're saying that goes like you're the sum
Speaker 1: of the five people you spend the most time with.
Speaker 1: And I found that to be true. When I was
Speaker 1: kind of forced into having other friends that weren't so spending,
Speaker 1: I spent a lot less and I did just as
Speaker 1: much stuff as I did before, And now I count
Speaker 1: all of the people as my friends, like and there's
Speaker 1: just there's no like people that spend money are not
Speaker 1: bad people. You just have to be intentional with the
Speaker 1: people you spend the most time with. That's my two
Speaker 1: cents on that. So the last one on the list
Speaker 1: is to create a financial plan and stick to it
Speaker 1: um And so this is not necessarily a financial plan
Speaker 1: that you create with a financial planner, though you could.
Speaker 1: I personally don't think you need one of those until
Speaker 1: you kind of get closer to retirement, so you could
Speaker 1: for sure do this on your own at first, but
Speaker 1: kind of saying like, Okay, what do we want to
Speaker 1: do in life that's going to cost money? Do I
Speaker 1: want to work? Do I want to start my own business?
Speaker 1: Do I want to be a stay at home parent?
Speaker 1: Do we want to adopt? Like? What are the things
Speaker 1: that are going to cost money? When do we want
Speaker 1: to retire? Why do we want to retire at that age?
Speaker 1: Don't you? Let's just not pick arbitrary numbers for our
Speaker 1: retirement anymore, Like, let's be intentional with the numbers we
Speaker 1: choose the age for retirement, So kind of getting a
Speaker 1: sense of the numbers and creating a savings plan around
Speaker 1: that and automating it. I really like this one, and
Speaker 1: I think as we explore this topic, I have gotten
Speaker 1: more in touch with my own financial story and why
Speaker 1: I approach money the way that I approach it. I
Speaker 1: think it's a good exercise for all of us to
Speaker 1: kind of dig deeper at different points. And being that
Speaker 1: I am accustomed to having very little money or being
Speaker 1: in low earning, low income jobs, I never really had
Speaker 1: to consider these pieces before it was enough to say,
Speaker 1: am I paying my bills? It wasn't really much about
Speaker 1: where are the best places to put my money because
Speaker 1: I didn't have the money to make those decisions with.
Speaker 1: That mindset works when when you're in a low income
Speaker 1: earning position, but if your lifestyle changes. These are the
Speaker 1: things that we need to start thinking about. And I've
Speaker 1: found myself in that position, thank goodness, some of the
Speaker 1: decisions that I've made in the ways that I've invested
Speaker 1: in myself and my education, I am earning more and
Speaker 1: I'm needing to consider some of these things. The lifestyle
Speaker 1: that I used to live is not working anymore because
Speaker 1: I hadn't previously considered where do I put excess money.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any excess money to consider that with,
Speaker 1: but yet now kind of reaching that place. And so
Speaker 1: if that's you, or if you hope that that's you
Speaker 1: at some point, these are the things that we need
Speaker 1: to be thinking about, not just a budget, but also
Speaker 1: what's my financial plan? If I ever do have money,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do with that? If we
Speaker 1: don't have a plan going into it, it will go,
Speaker 1: it will be spent, it will be accounted for if
Speaker 1: we're not intentional and mindful about it. So I just
Speaker 1: want to state that for those who might find themselves
Speaker 1: in a similar place to where I have found myself,
Speaker 1: recognizing that mindset can be helpful and yeah, moving forward
Speaker 1: well and even knowing what should I be having my
Speaker 1: sights on because I've never had to consider this before.
Speaker 1: Good word, good word. You know what else is a
Speaker 1: good word? Tell me Jen the we us right, it's
Speaker 1: time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe
Speaker 1: a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and
Speaker 1: you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Tough bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week. Hello, my name is Haley. I wanted
Speaker 1: to call in my bill of the week, which is
Speaker 1: my car payment. Um. So this comes with a little
Speaker 1: bit of a story, but it is a pretty exciting story. Um,
Speaker 1: with some twist and turns. So here it goes. My
Speaker 1: husband and I were meant to get married back in May,
Speaker 1: but of course, due to the pandemic, we had to
Speaker 1: push our wedding date back, and we pushed it till September.
Speaker 1: So we had been saving for about a year for
Speaker 1: all our wedding expenses that we were anticipating. But when
Speaker 1: August rolled around, we realized that our wedding was still
Speaker 1: not going to be what we thought it would be,
Speaker 1: so we made the decision to still get married in September,
Speaker 1: but we dramatically downsized our wedding guest count to make
Speaker 1: it safe for everybody who was attending. So dramatically downsizing
Speaker 1: our wedding discount meant that we were saving a lot
Speaker 1: of money on our wedding, um that we had an
Speaker 1: anticipated saving. So after the wedding, we realized we had
Speaker 1: a lot of leftover money that we didn't end up spending,
Speaker 1: but we had already saved. So what we decided to
Speaker 1: do with that was we decided to pay my car off.
Speaker 1: So right now I'm recording this in my car, which
Speaker 1: I paid off, which is very exciting. So yeah, due
Speaker 1: to downsizing our wedding in the pandemic UM, we were
Speaker 1: able to pay my car off. So that's my bill
Speaker 1: of the week. Thank you guys so much for what
Speaker 1: you do, and I love your podcasts and have a
Speaker 1: great day. Haley. First, I'm so sad that your wedding
Speaker 1: was not what you pictured, but in five years it
Speaker 1: won't matter. But you're paid off car will That's awesome.
Speaker 1: There's so many amazing things in this and I just
Speaker 1: want to highlight, Haley your choice to focus on some
Speaker 1: of the gratitude pieces within COVID. I mean, what amazing
Speaker 1: disappointment it is to have your wedding interrupted by this pandemic,
Speaker 1: and yet to look at the ways that there's kindnesses
Speaker 1: in the midst of it and really good things that
Speaker 1: have come out of some really awful things. So well
Speaker 1: done in looking at this where there could potentially be
Speaker 1: lifestyle inflation with your saved money and just paying off
Speaker 1: your car, what an amazing way to use that extra money.
Speaker 1: And also to be looking at the bright side and
Speaker 1: some of the good things that have come out of
Speaker 1: this time. And congratulations I'm getting married, Yeah, and doing
Speaker 1: some really great things with that saved money. Awesome. Alright,
Speaker 1: so our next bill of the week. Hi, Jin and Jill.
Speaker 1: My name is Rochelle Pond, and I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: submit a Bill of the week. But first I just
Speaker 1: want to say that I am so thankful I found
Speaker 1: you guys over a year ago. You guys have really
Speaker 1: helped me and my debt free journey and prooval journey,
Speaker 1: and I've just enjoyed like listening to you guys talk
Speaker 1: almost every single week. But um, anyway, so back to
Speaker 1: the bill of the week. My bill of the week
Speaker 1: is a bill that I am not having to pay today. Um,
Speaker 1: I am getting my car back from the mechanic and
Speaker 1: the repair was about a two thousand dollar cost, and
Speaker 1: it turns out that our warranty was still active and
Speaker 1: our warranty covered it all except for a one dollar deductible.
Speaker 1: So my bill of the week is a nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: dollar bill that I'm not having to pay today. And
Speaker 1: I'm just so thankful that we got that warranty three
Speaker 1: and a half years ago and it was still active.
Speaker 1: That is my bill of a week and I hope
Speaker 1: you guys have a great day. Another car one. Thanks Michelle.
Speaker 1: That's amazing well done. So glad the warranty covered that,
Speaker 1: I imagine, and it was probably a bit of work
Speaker 1: to look into whether or not that was covered, but
Speaker 1: it's really paid off pun intended. But thanks for sharing
Speaker 1: that bill, and thanks for listening in for over a year.
Speaker 1: So glad to have you part of this community. Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely recognize your name from the Frugal Friends community, so
Speaker 1: thank you for being active there as well. I'm participating
Speaker 1: in helping others. So if you want to submit your
Speaker 1: bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash bill to leave us a bill and now it's
Speaker 1: time for the lightning round, all right. So today we
Speaker 1: are getting real and raw with our lifestyle creep experiences.
Speaker 1: And you just love the vulnerability, don't I. I love
Speaker 1: I love being bail your stories. I feel like, because
Speaker 1: you love it so much, John, you should go first.
Speaker 1: I love it when people are vulnerable on social media,
Speaker 1: and so I want to be I want to be
Speaker 1: that for other people. So that's what I'm doing. I
Speaker 1: am feeling this with small kitchen appliances. So I I've
Speaker 1: bought my share of small kitchen appliances, and our kitchen
Speaker 1: is small, and sometimes I wonder, like why do I
Speaker 1: have like an air fryer instant like a it's a
Speaker 1: ninja foodie. So it's an air fryer and a pressure
Speaker 1: cooker and I use it a lot. And then I'm like,
Speaker 1: but why, Like I have this over here? This is
Speaker 1: a large stove, Like why do I have this? And
Speaker 1: then I also have a spiralizer, I have a skillet.
Speaker 1: I have a airless or smokeless grill that was a gift.
Speaker 1: I have so many small kitchen appliances. And and the
Speaker 1: more you have, the more you want, is the thing.
Speaker 1: And we say this with decluttering all the time. When
Speaker 1: you declutter it, you actually want less because it feels complete.
Speaker 1: But like when you have a lot, you always want
Speaker 1: the next thing, and so that has been me recently.
Speaker 1: I think I definitely need to go through my kitchen
Speaker 1: and get rid of stuff in there because that's going
Speaker 1: to spend me some money. Also got a new bicycle,
Speaker 1: but like that was worth every penny. That's a nice
Speaker 1: bike you did, just go on along benefits. That's that's me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you really are crushing this week. Oh my goodness, I
Speaker 1: gotta keep up. The thing is, Jen, you use your
Speaker 1: I mean not to, I'll let you have your truth,
Speaker 1: but you use your air friar combo ninja thing, and
Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder how much that has helped
Speaker 1: in cooking at home for someone who I know. Hopefully
Speaker 1: I'm not embarrassing you on this one, but cooking was
Speaker 1: not previously something that you enjoyed or would have called
Speaker 1: yourself good at. But you have still you primarily cook
Speaker 1: at home, and you use that a lot. I can't
Speaker 1: help but wonder how much that has helped with that.
Speaker 1: But then I wonder if it's like an entry thing
Speaker 1: to now what can I do. Could I operate without this?
Speaker 1: I think it's that because I do use the pressure
Speaker 1: cook a lot, because I do not look at my
Speaker 1: oven during the summer in Florida, Like looking at it
Speaker 1: makes the room hotter. So it does like save there.
Speaker 1: So it does serve a purpose. But it has been
Speaker 1: a gateway into like the instant pot was the gateway
Speaker 1: to the air fyer and then sold those to get
Speaker 1: the ninja and then that was the gate way into
Speaker 1: the spiralizer and you know stuff like that. So that's
Speaker 1: the creep. That's the creep portion. Yeah. It starts with
Speaker 1: something yeah, and then kind of goes off. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you're going to get rid of it, just
Speaker 1: that Okay, this is enough and I'm not gonna go further. Okay,
Speaker 1: race yourselves. This is a big one, my lifestyle creep.
Speaker 1: We were not going to talk about this on the podcast.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. But you open the door and
Speaker 1: you're making me because you're a good friend. We we
Speaker 1: bought a boat. Don't say it like that. That was awesome. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: probably benefit didn't love it, I know, right, So maybe
Speaker 1: are you are you a support in this? Are you?
Speaker 1: I have to be balanced. I'll to you to invest
Speaker 1: and then also take rides on your boat. To be fair.
Speaker 1: It was a used and broken boat, very broken boat.
Speaker 1: We bought it broken. It still is mostly broken most
Speaker 1: of the time. Still a boat, still something that we
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily need. We moved to Florida, there's water all
Speaker 1: around us, and it's like, well, we can't afford it.
Speaker 1: We didn't go into debt for it. But what else
Speaker 1: could we have done with that money. I will say
Speaker 1: we are now adjusting. I don't know if you know this, Jen,
Speaker 1: I probably have mentioned it. We are going to sell
Speaker 1: the boat. The boat is going to go bub Eyes,
Speaker 1: and we will make money on the boat. Eric has
Speaker 1: fixed it. He's put a lot of time and energy
Speaker 1: into fixing this boat, which is part of why we're
Speaker 1: selling it, because it's like there's not just financially, there's
Speaker 1: other things that we could be doing with that time
Speaker 1: and energy that is going towards the boat. As great
Speaker 1: as it is to be out on the water, We're
Speaker 1: gonna enjoy our kayaks for the next foreseeable future, make
Speaker 1: some money on the sale of the boat, learn from
Speaker 1: our decisions. It's been a great ride, honestly, so it's
Speaker 1: and you could afford it. It did slow some other
Speaker 1: things down, but good you experience the lifestyle creep and
Speaker 1: then you cut it in check. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: That's the thing, editing and auditing ourselves. It's going to happen.
Speaker 1: I think, just creating space and opportunity to identify is
Speaker 1: this what's happening, and how can I course correct? Thankfully
Speaker 1: we can course correct and make some money in the process.
Speaker 1: That's not always the case, and that's okay, but better
Speaker 1: to do that than to consistently ignore what's happening and
Speaker 1: to keep going to find yourself twenty years down the road.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not in a great place. Good, proud of you. Thanks.
Speaker 1: I want one more ride on the boat if I can. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to test it out and make sure
Speaker 1: that all these fixes actually worked perfect. Glad about that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the boat rides, and thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Haven't forgotten about you, You're still here. We want to
Speaker 1: thank you for your kind reviews as well on iTunes
Speaker 1: and Stitcher, like this one from metal Smith Mama. Hello,
Speaker 1: fantastic real life advice just happens to be five stars.
Speaker 1: This is a great podcast with real life advice for
Speaker 1: being frugal and financial freedom. I started just looking for
Speaker 1: ways to cut bills, but they have turned me onto
Speaker 1: so many great ideas for saving money. It's reshaping my
Speaker 1: relationship with money and saving Thank you, Thank you Metal
Speaker 1: Smith Mama, what a really thoughtful review. Thanks for leaving that.
Speaker 1: We also want to thank our friends who share these
Speaker 1: episodes on social media. So when you share the latest
Speaker 1: episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add
Speaker 1: you to our monthly drawing. Here's what our monthly drawing is.
Speaker 1: For every five tags and reviews we get each month,
Speaker 1: we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook
Speaker 1: just to keep you rolling on those financial goals and accomplishments.
Speaker 1: So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, sending
Speaker 1: the screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: and don't forget to tag us on social We do
Speaker 1: see it. See you next week by Frugal Friends is
Speaker 1: produced by Eric Sirian. So when are you selling the
Speaker 1: boat and when are we going back out? Mm hmm,
Speaker 1: well Eric still has it apart currently. For the most
Speaker 1: recent fix that hated to happen, I think he was
Speaker 1: hoping to have it fixed by this weekend. We'll see,
Speaker 1: so at least within like the next one or two weeks,
Speaker 1: we could take it out again. But it is a
Speaker 1: good time to sell it right now as we turn
Speaker 1: into the summer. So I would say within the next month,
Speaker 1: we'll have that thing sold. Okay, Well, let us know
Speaker 1: the next time you take it out, and I'll make
Speaker 1: sure that we're honest, we bring snacks and drinks. Not
Speaker 1: gonna argue with that one. So we can really live
Speaker 1: up that lifestyle before we go back to being stingy
Speaker 1: and frugal, not stingy, just not stingy, I know, just
Speaker 1: you know, without a boat, life without a boat, life
Speaker 1: without a boat, frugal boat and frugal without a boat.
Speaker 1: They're still fruit. Yeah, and we can values based spend
Speaker 1: in the future and be more intentional and planful about
Speaker 1: getting a boat. This definitely was a bit of an
Speaker 1: impulse by an excitement just about being near water, and
Speaker 1: we can call it breaking gale and get these other
Speaker 1: financial goals. So we'll just we'll do that