Speaker 1: Episode how to save money raising young children. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, and live with your life. Here your host
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill Do Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jen, my name's Jill, and we are
Speaker 1: super excited as always anytime we have a guest, but
Speaker 1: I'm a little extra excited today because we have our
Speaker 1: good friend Caroline Vincil on the show, and she is
Speaker 1: just a power house money saving mama. There is nobody
Speaker 1: doing it better than her. Prove it to us if
Speaker 1: you think right, and we picked her brain on how
Speaker 1: to save money on everything related to young kids, so
Speaker 1: whether it's at home, at school, birthdays, like everywhere. So
Speaker 1: if you have young children or are about to, this
Speaker 1: is definitely the episode for you. Also excited because we're
Speaker 1: recording this in the same room. That's always exciting for me.
Speaker 1: Sharing a microphone too, yes, between one mike, one shared mike.
Speaker 1: We've got approximately a microphones. But we're sharing this, right,
Speaker 1: So let's get into our sponsors and then we'll dive
Speaker 1: into our interview. Also brought to you by Travis. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's a shout out to Jen's husband because it's his birthday.
Speaker 1: A little about our sponsor. He's five ft ten inches.
Speaker 1: No idea how much he weighs, nor would I tell
Speaker 1: you all. He has beautiful, long, curly hair and a
Speaker 1: beard to be admired. He likes long walks through flea
Speaker 1: markets to find treasures which he can resell out of profit.
Speaker 1: In his spare time, Travis finishes up home projects, buys vehicles,
Speaker 1: then resells them and buys them again, considers ways to
Speaker 1: get free food. Travis is an excellent father and shows
Speaker 1: deep concern when his son cries and always make sure
Speaker 1: he doesn't fall off the couch. Furthermore, Travis is a
Speaker 1: great friend and will help you repair your broke down
Speaker 1: car on the side of the road. I have experience Travis.
Speaker 1: Everyone should have one in their lives, but this one's mine.
Speaker 1: Oh well, he's kind of shared. Let's be honest. Happy
Speaker 1: Birthday Travis by by bar And if you are in
Speaker 1: our Frugal Friends community on Facebook, share a gift wishing
Speaker 1: sweet Travis a happy birthday. Yes there because they're they're free,
Speaker 1: so yes, he'll love them all right, So without further ado,
Speaker 1: Caroline Vencil is an award winning blogger. She is a mom, mom, mom,
Speaker 1: prenewer to the max. I tried to make up a word.
Speaker 1: She is all that and a bag of chips and
Speaker 1: a fantastic friend. So super excited to share her knowledge
Speaker 1: with you. Here is Caroline. Now I want chips. Caroline,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the show. I
Speaker 1: am so excited to have you. You were one of
Speaker 1: my very first friends in the personal finance space and
Speaker 1: so I've I've just loved you for so long and God,
Speaker 1: we're finally getting on the show. Oh thanks, Jen. I
Speaker 1: just think that the star is aligned. And we found
Speaker 1: each other in that random fin Con group of like
Speaker 1: who wants to share a room, and it's like we've
Speaker 1: been friends ever since. And then I ruined your your
Speaker 1: pregnancy announcement. That a whole another story for any secrets,
Speaker 1: and I didn't need the first thing you need to know.
Speaker 1: But and I'm excited because we're from the same state,
Speaker 1: and apparently we live an hour and a half away
Speaker 1: right in Pennsylvania right now. I'm in Florida, yes, and
Speaker 1: we are right next to each other, all right, So
Speaker 1: we didn't invite you to reminisce as much as we
Speaker 1: could do that for so long. We really want to
Speaker 1: hear about tips on how to save while raising young kids.
Speaker 1: This is something I am especially interested in as I
Speaker 1: have I will soon have young children because my baby
Speaker 1: is eventually hopefully going to turn into one and I
Speaker 1: want to hopefully if you do it right. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's what I want to know. But first
Speaker 1: I want everybody else to hear how you became the
Speaker 1: ultimate money saving my on that like why we brought
Speaker 1: you on here. I want everyone to hear that story.
Speaker 1: That's a lofty title. Holy Carol, you burned it. Thank
Speaker 1: you off with that title. Oh my gosh, crown a
Speaker 1: sash like princess waves in the mail. Yes, I'm looking
Speaker 1: for it, guys. Okay, So hi, I am Caroline vincil Um.
Speaker 1: I am a mom of four, wife of one for
Speaker 1: mom of three cats and a dog. And my whole
Speaker 1: claim to fame, I guess, is really that my husband
Speaker 1: and I got pregnant in our freshman year of college,
Speaker 1: unexpectedly obviously because he would do that. Don't do that, um,
Speaker 1: And we lived off of his income of ten dollars
Speaker 1: an hour, which went up to eleven dollars an hour,
Speaker 1: which was a big deal for us for four years UM.
Speaker 1: And in that period of time, we round up buying
Speaker 1: two cars, um, saving up enough money to put down
Speaker 1: a down payment on a house that we still own, UM,
Speaker 1: and adding two more kids to our family. And it
Speaker 1: has been quite a journey um. But we lived off
Speaker 1: of seventeen thousand dollars take home for four years and
Speaker 1: it was tough. And we are very opposites in our relationship.
Speaker 1: I'm a saver by nature. He is a spender um,
Speaker 1: boardering on a compulsive for both of us. So we
Speaker 1: are like constantly like at odds all the time about
Speaker 1: like we should buy this, and like no, we should
Speaker 1: save that. Um. But it has been quite a journey
Speaker 1: and it doesn't happen overnight. But yeah, I am still
Speaker 1: at my very nature like frugal. Like when we get
Speaker 1: together for finn Com, we're like, all right, guys, where
Speaker 1: are we getting free food today? Like that is our
Speaker 1: whole thing because there are are my people, yes, oh my gosh, yes.
Speaker 1: And what are the ages of your kids? Okay, So
Speaker 1: I have a nine and a half year old, a
Speaker 1: six and a half year old and almost five year
Speaker 1: old and an almost one year old. Wow. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of children. So literally, any mom or
Speaker 1: dad listening into this, like you're the expert here, right,
Speaker 1: four kids and four animals and just the what you've
Speaker 1: had to overcome to get to where you're at, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And even still that you are now like bringing home
Speaker 1: an income, you're living you're still living on your husband's
Speaker 1: just your husband's income. Yeah, it's actually like it sounds
Speaker 1: like really silly to say this because it's like I do. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I work. This is my job is talking to you
Speaker 1: amazing people and helping other people to save money. But
Speaker 1: we still live off of his one income, like we are.
Speaker 1: Our bank account is still just his money. We use
Speaker 1: that for our groceries, for our mortgage expenses, for like
Speaker 1: the electric bill, gas, All that stuff comes right out
Speaker 1: of his paycheck, and all of mine go to savings
Speaker 1: and building college funds and saving for another down payment
Speaker 1: on another house. Yes, so it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: than seventeen thousand now, but yeah, but yead for four years,
Speaker 1: that's no joke. Yeah, that was our take home every
Speaker 1: other week. I'm so sorry if you heard that. That
Speaker 1: was my son throwing something on the floor. Um, every
Speaker 1: other week he would get a seven D and fifty
Speaker 1: R paycheck. Wow, every other week. I know this is
Speaker 1: not in the outline, but those are a lot of
Speaker 1: barriers that you had to work through, getting pregnant unexpectedly
Speaker 1: when you had other goals in mind, and then living
Speaker 1: off of low, low income Like okay, that was ten
Speaker 1: years ago, but that was still that's still a low
Speaker 1: income even ten years ago. Yeah. Yeah, I like full
Speaker 1: disclosure because I know that we didn't plan on talking
Speaker 1: about this, But my whole life aspiration was I wanted
Speaker 1: to be the youngest CEO of a fortune company by
Speaker 1: the time I was well. So this is kind of
Speaker 1: my favorite thing in the world is I started my
Speaker 1: blog when I was twenty four, and then the day
Speaker 1: before I was twenty five, I filed my LC paperwork
Speaker 1: as a CEO, so I got to be a CEO.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun. But that was my plan,
Speaker 1: was like I'm going to go and I had my
Speaker 1: whole like I'm going to do with my junior year
Speaker 1: in college abroad in France, and then I'm going to
Speaker 1: go to Spain and I'm going to be a marketing
Speaker 1: executive and then a CEO and then it was just
Speaker 1: like pregnant crap. Everything changed, Everything changed, and it was
Speaker 1: like this mental shift of like, now I get to
Speaker 1: be there for this little person and it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what my aspirations were, like survival was the thing, Like
Speaker 1: we had to survive and I had to figure out
Speaker 1: a way to make that happen. So thus the story
Speaker 1: of frugality beginning. Yes, yeah, has borne in you some
Speaker 1: amazing expert tips and and an ability I think to
Speaker 1: weather a lot. Which we all come to frugality for
Speaker 1: different reasons, but yeah, that's it's a it's a main
Speaker 1: one right out of just life circumstances forcing us to
Speaker 1: figure this out. And we either we either don't. We
Speaker 1: either succumb and we amass crazy amounts of debt or
Speaker 1: we say no and I'm still going to get at
Speaker 1: some of my aspirations and we're still going to do
Speaker 1: this thing and live a life that I'm proud of.
Speaker 1: So well done, and let's keep going. So with all
Speaker 1: these children that you have, what have you noticed with
Speaker 1: your biggest expenses? I'm sure they shift throughout the years,
Speaker 1: but when you're seeing so clothes are a huge one
Speaker 1: that like I mean, I'm thankful that I have three
Speaker 1: boys who all just wear hand me downs. My poor
Speaker 1: youngest son has never I don't think ever worn a
Speaker 1: new outfit to him. But like I go thrift shopping constantly. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't. I don't do like trendy stuff. We don't
Speaker 1: do like you know, getting ugg boots or something for
Speaker 1: my kids because they're boys. I'm realistic, Like they get
Speaker 1: holes in every pair of jeans, So I'm not going
Speaker 1: to spend thirty dollars and kids jeans like I'm going
Speaker 1: to get it at Salvation Army or Goodwill. Um. So, definitely,
Speaker 1: clothes is a big one. Food not surprising when you
Speaker 1: have a horde of children is like this big thing.
Speaker 1: And trying to feed them like good food because we're
Speaker 1: casually a little bit bougie. Um, we like to try
Speaker 1: to feed them like homemade meals, organic food if we can. Um.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times they've eate an organic
Speaker 1: beans and rice because it was cheap, which is so
Speaker 1: good because a lot of people are like, oh, I
Speaker 1: can't bring my grocery bill down because I'm really committed
Speaker 1: to buying organic, Like they make organic beans and rice.
Speaker 1: Young I mean, it is sixty cents more than the right,
Speaker 1: but that's still only a dollar. It's true. And I mean,
Speaker 1: like we also shop at like al d, we shop
Speaker 1: at Costcow. But my favorite thing is like discount grocery stores,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like Aldi. And I'm told that
Speaker 1: it's not like this everywhere. Maybe it's just like a
Speaker 1: regional thing. But like if you google like discount grocery
Speaker 1: stores in your area, there's a lot of places where
Speaker 1: it's like they have like bent boxes and they'll sell
Speaker 1: it to you for like seventy five cents in the
Speaker 1: three bucks. So I am about that your area, Lancaster
Speaker 1: really does have the hook up. Like there are people
Speaker 1: from our area who will drive an hour and a
Speaker 1: half two hours to where you live for some of
Speaker 1: those grocery stores, even if they're not directly in your area,
Speaker 1: they might be an hour, hour and a half away,
Speaker 1: and you do a trip a month or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's worth it. I mean, we spend seventy five
Speaker 1: dollars a week on groceries. That's our budget for six people.
Speaker 1: And it has them are boys, and four of them
Speaker 1: are boys, and they eat a lot. Guys boys are different.
Speaker 1: They ate dinner, and before I could even get to
Speaker 1: the table to sit down with my food, my nine
Speaker 1: year old was like, can I get another bowl? I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? More than I do. But so
Speaker 1: that's like a big expense clothes, food, Um, I think
Speaker 1: that those are kind of are really our biggest expenses
Speaker 1: with them right now, because you can make the choice.
Speaker 1: Like with our our son, he's really good at baseball,
Speaker 1: he could have gone onto the like five travel team,
Speaker 1: but instead, because I'm not about that like traveling all
Speaker 1: around the state kind of life. Right now, he's on
Speaker 1: the seventy five for the year local wreck team. And
Speaker 1: then if he gets good enough and we can promise
Speaker 1: that he won't be good enough like then we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that later. But I mean, you don't have to
Speaker 1: put your kids in a ton of different activities like
Speaker 1: there are free there are free or frugal options, like
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a choice. You don't have to.
Speaker 1: I have no plans to put my daughter into ballet.
Speaker 1: I don't. I think that that's a huge one, certainly
Speaker 1: what you've talked about food, clothing, Yes, and then there
Speaker 1: are ways to figure that out if you want to
Speaker 1: figure that out. But then these extracurriculars. I feel like
Speaker 1: people don't talk about that. What do you do? You've
Speaker 1: got kids who are of the age where there is
Speaker 1: soccer and baseball and dance and and school stuff, like
Speaker 1: you want to stay after and do a craft at
Speaker 1: school and it's fifty dollars. I don't have kids, so,
Speaker 1: but that's like, that's my impression of what's happening crafts
Speaker 1: or or you know, bringing in my mom's being the
Speaker 1: snack person every couple of weeks, and then you and
Speaker 1: you've got to be the craft And then all these
Speaker 1: holidays are coming up, and I see all these moms
Speaker 1: on Facebook. Oh, I'm responsible for the Valentine's Day craft.
Speaker 1: I'm responsible for the St. Patrick's Day aft And it's
Speaker 1: just like for how many kids? What for the whole school?
Speaker 1: What do you what's happening here? How do you handle that?
Speaker 1: How do you get all those things vying for your
Speaker 1: money and not even not even enjoyable for you? I know,
Speaker 1: I steer into the skid. I am not a Pinterest mom.
Speaker 1: I have said this from day one. I will burn
Speaker 1: water if you give me an opportunity. I am not
Speaker 1: about the crafting and like we're just gonna make snow
Speaker 1: flakes out of coffee filters for fun. And then's not me,
Speaker 1: like you want to start a lemonade stand, Like let's
Speaker 1: talk about business plans and marketting like all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But like, so here's what I do is I volunteer
Speaker 1: to bring napkins brandy napkins and it's actually toilet paper.
Speaker 1: But don't tell anybody. It's not even like holiday branded napkins.
Speaker 1: Like it's literally like I get the giant box of
Speaker 1: like the Costco brand napkins, and I grab a bunch
Speaker 1: of them and I bring it in. Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: super ratchet when I say things a guy, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, like I'm not going to spend six
Speaker 1: dollars getting thirty Valentine's Day theme napkins for a kindergartener class.
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to do it. Like I know
Speaker 1: my limitations and I know where my skills are. Um,
Speaker 1: and so I will either not offer to bring anything,
Speaker 1: which I have done because I can use the excuse
Speaker 1: of like I got four kids, I'm not paying for
Speaker 1: a Valentine's Day party for each one of them, or
Speaker 1: I volunteer to bring something that I know, I can
Speaker 1: like go out and get bred solo cups because they're
Speaker 1: red and look, it's Valentine's theme here. You go be
Speaker 1: happy with it, you know. Like I try to take
Speaker 1: as easy of a route as I can. Um it's
Speaker 1: maybe this is just my personality type or this is
Speaker 1: just years and years and years of practice. But like
Speaker 1: I am completely done with mom guilts. I like of
Speaker 1: the guilt of like, well you should be bringing in
Speaker 1: the cute little heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day with
Speaker 1: the frosting, like do a cry as it's like, that's
Speaker 1: not what I'm about. Like, if you want me to
Speaker 1: be there, I will be present. I will help, I
Speaker 1: will do the crafts, I will take the pictures, you know,
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to bring I'm not going to
Speaker 1: spend thirty dollars for my kindergartener and another thirty dollars
Speaker 1: for my third grader. It's not going to happen. Like
Speaker 1: next year're gonna have three in school. It's not going
Speaker 1: to happen. It's just not so y'all get napkins period.
Speaker 1: I love that you feel fine and that you've let
Speaker 1: go of that mom get in what you're comfortable bringing
Speaker 1: what you can bring, what you have capacity for right now.
Speaker 1: I think so much of that relates to certainly a confidence,
Speaker 1: but also boundaries that you're comfortable having and and to
Speaker 1: be able to say, yeah, this is where I'm at
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to pick up what somebody else
Speaker 1: expects of me. I think that's where we can get
Speaker 1: caught up in this trap of spending money. Right We
Speaker 1: talk about this when it comes to friends, like don't
Speaker 1: go out for drinks and dinner if you've got food
Speaker 1: at home, save your money. It's the same concept here
Speaker 1: with kids. Don't feel like you've got to bring the
Speaker 1: most amazing craft that laughs at last last a lifetime.
Speaker 1: Craft that last a lifetime. That's a tongue twist, but
Speaker 1: it's so true. Yeah, it's like peer pressure, but for
Speaker 1: moms like, oh it's so real, which I've heard is
Speaker 1: stronger than regular peer pressure from birth. It happens from birth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like how long was your labor? Oh? Mine was
Speaker 1: eighteen hours more and I did it without nbadural And
Speaker 1: people are like they throw that around from like the
Speaker 1: second they're born. But it's like that with like we
Speaker 1: send our kids because obviously we've chosen that this is
Speaker 1: important to us, and this is where we spend our money.
Speaker 1: We send our kids to private school instead of our
Speaker 1: local public school. Um, and it is like so rampant
Speaker 1: because it's a private school and so people like to
Speaker 1: throw on their money and a sure and I until,
Speaker 1: like the past year, we drove around in our two
Speaker 1: thousand and five Honda Odyssey with two d thousand miles
Speaker 1: on it where the doors wouldn't open and so we
Speaker 1: had to like yank them open. And like there's Becky
Speaker 1: in her Tahoe and she's like, I brought all of
Speaker 1: these that I had at a place in Philly, which
Speaker 1: is an hour and a half wish, Like it's not
Speaker 1: a big deal, it's gourmet. I'm like, I brought napkins,
Speaker 1: napkins from Costco that are in a ziploc bag because
Speaker 1: I'm not bringing the whole thing, Like you can't have
Speaker 1: all my napkins. No, No, we don't even use toilet
Speaker 1: paper from the bathroom and broken up into pieces that
Speaker 1: looks like a nap because it might be that would
Speaker 1: do me. This is why I'm not a mom. I
Speaker 1: would care so little. But that's like it is there's
Speaker 1: something so freeing and just not caring, like when you
Speaker 1: show up there like, yeah, here are my napkins. No,
Speaker 1: they're not branded for Valentine's Day, they're not for St.
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day, they're not for Halloween. But here you go.
Speaker 1: It's what I said i'd bring them. Here's here are
Speaker 1: the napkins that will eventually end up in the garbage
Speaker 1: that you're going to wipe your kindergarteners like messy faith on,
Speaker 1: I don't care what they look like. Right, Speaking of
Speaker 1: classroom parties, I know that in in the course I
Speaker 1: ran in January, a lot of my students had problems
Speaker 1: with their spend challenge. They didn't want to force it
Speaker 1: on their kids, and so one of them had a kid.
Speaker 1: Their kids birthday party was their kid's birthday was coming up,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to spend money on their kids birthday
Speaker 1: and they're like, can I spend money on my child's birthday?
Speaker 1: I'm on a no spend child And I was like, well, yes,
Speaker 1: you can do that, But like, the point is to
Speaker 1: get creative and how you do it not just assume
Speaker 1: that you have to do the same thing all the
Speaker 1: other parents are doing. So like how do you do
Speaker 1: birthdays and birthday parties in your house? I feel like
Speaker 1: you have a lot of great ideas. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is actually the first year that we've ever thrown
Speaker 1: a party for one of our kids. It was for
Speaker 1: my oldest he turned nine. This was the first year
Speaker 1: I ever did a party for him. And that like,
Speaker 1: I know that there are some people who are like, mom, shame,
Speaker 1: how dare you? And it's like, I have four kids.
Speaker 1: I have four kids, and we have like never really
Speaker 1: like come from a place of like money, Like we
Speaker 1: just were like, this is what we do. And so
Speaker 1: every year I have this is so embarrassing. I have
Speaker 1: crepe paper, like you know, the giant like rolls of
Speaker 1: like the tissue paper that you get for like the
Speaker 1: doily thingies that you hang. I don't even know how
Speaker 1: to explain it. It's like to the paper and you
Speaker 1: we like spiral it around the house. So we put
Speaker 1: it in front of their door so they get to
Speaker 1: walk through it. There's balloons. We've had this stuff though
Speaker 1: for years, like because I have it, and I get
Speaker 1: it in the kid's favorite colors and then we just
Speaker 1: do like a rainbow of it. They get to pick
Speaker 1: out their favorite breakfast make it. It's usually chocolate chip pancakes.
Speaker 1: They get to pick out their dinner, which is usually
Speaker 1: macaroni and cheese, and like, I don't even know if
Speaker 1: it's like French fries, Like it's not, no, I know,
Speaker 1: how dare I write like I'm such a sackerge But
Speaker 1: it's the truth is like they get to be the
Speaker 1: king for the day and they make their decisions about
Speaker 1: like they tell us what we want to do. We
Speaker 1: do whatever they want. And a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: something like we go to the park that they want
Speaker 1: to go to, and we have an aquarium that we
Speaker 1: have in membership too. For the year, we go to
Speaker 1: the aquarium. Like it's things that don't cost money. So
Speaker 1: this was the first year ever that we spent on
Speaker 1: our kids for like an actual birthday party. Um, And
Speaker 1: we went to a laser tag place that I said
Speaker 1: to my son, I'm like, you can pick four or
Speaker 1: sorry five five friends that you want to bring and
Speaker 1: I will pay for them. And it still wound up
Speaker 1: being a hundred dollars, but it was for five hours
Speaker 1: for six people playing laser tag and video games and
Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. That's something special. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was a memory that I know that he's
Speaker 1: going to to really enjoy um. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: my whole thing is I grew up rich. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a total jerk thing to say, but like I
Speaker 1: grew up where my parents would always buy us stuff,
Speaker 1: like whatever we wanted, we were given. And then they
Speaker 1: went through a nasty divorce and both filed for bankruptcy
Speaker 1: and it was terrible. But the thing that it taught
Speaker 1: me was like, I don't remember any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't remember any of the like mountains of Christmas
Speaker 1: presents that we got. I don't remember what I got
Speaker 1: from my birthday. I remember the dumb things that we
Speaker 1: did when we went to the fish store and like
Speaker 1: looked at all the cool fish together when we went um,
Speaker 1: like learned how to skip rocks across the river, like
Speaker 1: things like that. And so I take those memories that
Speaker 1: I have as a kid and I reply that to
Speaker 1: my own kids, where it's like they're not going to
Speaker 1: remember what to buy them, They're gonna remember what we
Speaker 1: do together. And that's kind of how I tried to
Speaker 1: treat their days, is I want to make them feel special,
Speaker 1: not buy them something special to me. It's kind of
Speaker 1: I'm trying to build a relationship with my kids. I
Speaker 1: want them to like each other. I want them to
Speaker 1: like us. I don't want them to look back on
Speaker 1: their childhood and be like, we didn't do anything. It
Speaker 1: was boring. I don't have any fond memories, and that,
Speaker 1: to me was more important. You know what's not boring
Speaker 1: The bill of the weed. That's right, it's time for
Speaker 1: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 1: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 1: off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy
Speaker 1: to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's built
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the build of the week, Caroline.
Speaker 1: Every week we ask our us and listeners to share
Speaker 1: with us their favorite bill from recent times. Do you
Speaker 1: have a bill for us, any kind of build anything. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's my father in law, Bill. But wait, wait wait.
Speaker 1: He has a YouTube channel with more than a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers as of this week for ambient guitar music
Speaker 1: Bill Bill, Bill Music and Music. What's the channel. It's
Speaker 1: Chords of Orian I know, Wow, he's the coolest Bill
Speaker 1: I know. He sounds like the coolest Bill I know,
Speaker 1: the only Bill I know. Actually, we've been waiting to
Speaker 1: meet many actual Bill. Have Bill call in. We have
Speaker 1: yet to have an actual Bill. If your name is Bill,
Speaker 1: or you know somebody named Bill, please is you will
Speaker 1: be our Frugal Friends dot Com slash Bill and leave
Speaker 1: a voicemail or speak pipe message and we want to
Speaker 1: hear like from somebody named Bill. That's our dream. But
Speaker 1: the universe somebody named Bill has to call into the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast. Yeah, and now it's time for the
Speaker 1: Lightning Run. Thank you very soon, very soon, as soon
Speaker 1: as we get this audio. Yeah. Alright, So for today's
Speaker 1: Lightning Round, I really want us all to share one
Speaker 1: thing that we wanted that our parents just would not guess.
Speaker 1: Go first, Caroline first, as as our guest, what is
Speaker 1: one thing your parents that your parents would not get
Speaker 1: you that you really want to YEA gift you just
Speaker 1: never got? A Fellow nineties babies, do you guys remember
Speaker 1: the catalogs where it was the mom and the daughter
Speaker 1: with the giant hats and the matching dresses. Wait wait,
Speaker 1: and the doll that had the matching dress with that
Speaker 1: and it was always sunflower. Yeah, Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: always wanted that my mom was super fashionable and was like,
Speaker 1: I would never wear that, So you wanted to match
Speaker 1: your mom? I did. Oh. I didn't mean to make
Speaker 1: you guys sad. I think that's the whole point of
Speaker 1: the second We're all just gonna feel sad for our
Speaker 1: younger self. Oh next level. Oh yeah, but I remember
Speaker 1: those dolls, like the American Girl dolls and stuff, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't get one of those either. That could have
Speaker 1: been mine. It wasn't, but that could have been mine.
Speaker 1: I did have an American Girl doll, but it was
Speaker 1: never my desire to match with the doll and with
Speaker 1: my mom simultaneously. Oh my gosh, that could have been
Speaker 1: so good. Like why weren't more Christmas portraits taken that way?
Speaker 1: I know, it's opportunities. What about um? So mine was
Speaker 1: life size Barbie products, so like life size Barbie. Um,
Speaker 1: and then like you could you could theoretically like wear
Speaker 1: her clothes, but like I was always a chunky girl,
Speaker 1: and I would have never been able to fit into
Speaker 1: her clothes. Chunky I was, I mean, I was cute, chunky,
Speaker 1: I just wouldn't have been into the life size Barbie clothes, Like,
Speaker 1: let's just put it that way. It would have been
Speaker 1: a letdown. But I knew that. I still knew that,
Speaker 1: and I still wanted one because I was an only
Speaker 1: child and I really wanted a friend. You know this
Speaker 1: really like heart breaking, don't You wanted didn't mean to
Speaker 1: take this is deep stuff like Caroline, you just wanted
Speaker 1: to be like your mom and she wouldn't let you.
Speaker 1: GEN just wanted a friend. Like we are getting into
Speaker 1: counseling territory. I didn't know that this is where it
Speaker 1: would go. Guys, when I came up with the question,
Speaker 1: I also wanted to cheap. I wanted the Barbie deep
Speaker 1: you could ride into No why because you town run
Speaker 1: away from your problems one of the five clothes you
Speaker 1: can fit in. So okay, Joe, what was your conversation?
Speaker 1: I think I might redeem this because it's very lighthearted.
Speaker 1: Apparently I wanted I looked it up. I wanted one
Speaker 1: of those. It's called a fairy flyer. The one way
Speaker 1: you would launch, you would you would pull the string
Speaker 1: and the fairy would like twirl into the air. I
Speaker 1: thought they were the coolest things, guys. They're only currently
Speaker 1: right now, six dollars online, and I can beg you
Speaker 1: any amount of money. That's probably all. It was fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago. How old am I? Oh my gosh, no,
Speaker 1: twenty years ago or five years ago. Really wanted one
Speaker 1: my freshman year. Okay, years ago, they still were probably
Speaker 1: on these six dollars. Um. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: I see. The thing is, I'm not even sure that
Speaker 1: I told my parents that I really wanted one. I
Speaker 1: may not even verbalize this desire, but all of my
Speaker 1: friends had them. I probably did. I don't know my
Speaker 1: parents just if they thought it was junk, they weren't
Speaker 1: going to get it for me. Plus, there were a
Speaker 1: few periods where we were just pow and I never
Speaker 1: got a fairy flyer, but I could play with my friends. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember those. Yeah, they were cool. It felt like
Speaker 1: a helicopter that but like you didn't need a remote control,
Speaker 1: because lord knows, I would not have been able to
Speaker 1: operate a remote control fairy, so it was good. You
Speaker 1: just pull a string and launched the thing into the air.
Speaker 1: I thought it was cool. Control ferry the next thing,
Speaker 1: right now, Yeah, you're drone ferry. That's I don't want
Speaker 1: that I didn't want to have to control and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to pull a string and watch it fly
Speaker 1: in the air. Imagine that I could fly to It
Speaker 1: was a lot less depressed, you going, We're getting there.
Speaker 1: You were sick twisted child too. Wow. Alright, Well, now
Speaker 1: that we've like bared our souls, if you are part
Speaker 1: of our Frugal Friends community and you have something either
Speaker 1: traumatic or lighthearted either one, let us know in the
Speaker 1: group if you had something similar, or if you also
Speaker 1: had the same once that we did, whether it be
Speaker 1: emotional or or plastic. Let us know Frugal Friends community
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Frugal's podcast dot com slash group. Uh, Caroline,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for hanging out with us. We had
Speaker 1: some technical difficulties that I don't know if you'll be
Speaker 1: able to catch on the actual podcast, but man, this
Speaker 1: was fun. We got to meet your child. I think
Speaker 1: we got to meet your cat hat in the background,
Speaker 1: like you heard your husband laughing. It was Yeah, it
Speaker 1: felt like this family episode definitely felt like a family
Speaker 1: affair and it was it was perfect. I think Caroline
Speaker 1: for having me. Yeah, where can people go to learn
Speaker 1: more about you and what you do? You can find
Speaker 1: me at Caroline Bencel dot com and Vencel is spelled
Speaker 1: like pencil but with a a um. And same thing
Speaker 1: at Caroline Bencel on Instagram because I am in there
Speaker 1: every day sharing more our real life with messy bun
Speaker 1: and no makeup. Yes, and she's always in Instagram stories
Speaker 1: being real and helping other moms get through the realness.
Speaker 1: So definitely go find her and yeah, thanks and we'll
Speaker 1: see guys. Wow, that was awesome. I love talking to Caroline.
Speaker 1: She is in my mastermind and we talk every week
Speaker 1: sometimes twice a week and on Instagram and I still
Speaker 1: cannot pick her brain enough. Yeah, it always amazes me
Speaker 1: to hear people's stories really of overcoming I don't think
Speaker 1: that ever gets old, and I think that's what it's
Speaker 1: what we need to hear on a regular basis. But
Speaker 1: it's especially inspiring for those of us who find ourselves
Speaker 1: and positions of really pinching pennies or in a season
Speaker 1: of deep struggle to hear my word, this person gets it.
Speaker 1: This isn't just somebody talking at me because they've written
Speaker 1: a book. This is she's been there and and really
Speaker 1: gone through it and has come out the other side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's in some ways. In some ways, you know, she's
Speaker 1: describing like being the mom of four and like multiple pets.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she's she's got so much going on and
Speaker 1: she does so much. But what I really appreciate about
Speaker 1: her is that she also delegates when she knows she's
Speaker 1: at her limit. And that is something I know deeply
Speaker 1: struggle with. Have limits. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, bring
Speaker 1: the paper plates. I admire her. So I'm I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that you guys got to hear and thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening. Thanks for sticking around to the end. Um,
Speaker 1: and we want to thank you for listening and reviewing
Speaker 1: and sharing the show. So every month we do a
Speaker 1: ten dollar Amazon gift card giveaway to our friends who
Speaker 1: Sharon review the show kind of like our friend oh
Speaker 1: some but it's oh, I think it's stay at home mom.
Speaker 1: I think it's an acronym. Um. But she gave the
Speaker 1: start the show a five star review and said good
Speaker 1: information and also fun. I'm loving this podcast. They present
Speaker 1: useful information in a very fun way. So I come
Speaker 1: away encouraged on my debt free journey. So thank you.
Speaker 1: I hope you listen to this episode. I hope you
Speaker 1: got something out of it. Yeah, So, as Jenn mentioned,
Speaker 1: we want to thank all of our friends who share
Speaker 1: these episodes on social media. Uh and when you share
Speaker 1: the latest episode by tagging us on Facebook or Instagram,
Speaker 1: we will add you to our monthly drawing. So that
Speaker 1: includes for every five tags and reviews we get each month,
Speaker 1: we pick one winner for a ten dollar Amazon gift card.
Speaker 1: So that means that there can be multiple winners in
Speaker 1: a month, depending on how many tags and reviews we receive. Yes,
Speaker 1: so keep leaving us those reviews on iTunes and Stitcher,
Speaker 1: or if you listen somewhere else where you have the
Speaker 1: option lead review, use screenshot it and send it to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com and also tag
Speaker 1: us at Frugal Friends podcast on Instagram or Facebook. Perfect.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by
Speaker 1: Eric Syria. It's very late at night, Mike. So the
Speaker 1: great thing about Jill living in my backyard right now
Speaker 1: is that we have access to record whenever we need to.
Speaker 1: And and the bad thing about Eric living in my
Speaker 1: backyard is that I can't get in bed after a
Speaker 1: shower and pull out my phone. And here we need
Speaker 1: to rerecord this is natural, and then I have to
Speaker 1: get up out of my bed. I mean, Eric, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: well you don't have a microphone right now, so you
Speaker 1: can't talk. I'll talk, he I mean, I will say
Speaker 1: I'm glad that he edits it. I'm glad for the
Speaker 1: attention to detail. And then if it were up to me,
Speaker 1: if it were up to me, this podcast would have
Speaker 1: gotten the fake sponsor half cut off. We wouldn't have
Speaker 1: done an outro, and what you get is what you get, right.
Speaker 1: If it were up to me, I'd never have my
Speaker 1: right mike audio and I'd said just blank. Files would
Speaker 1: pretty much just be. We never would have made into
Speaker 1: five hundred downloads, guaranteed, absolutely not. It takes a village
Speaker 1: all that to say, thank you, Eric, and happy birthday,
Speaker 1: trapped birthday, all right, turn it off, Eric, Eric,