Speaker 1: Episode one, Simple Living but make it frugal. 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. M m m m m m. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we are talking about simple living,
Speaker 1: how we define it, how you can live it, and
Speaker 1: its role in frugality. Hot take, How we haven't. We
Speaker 1: haven't taken anything hot yet. Chill. Just you wait, even
Speaker 1: the title, you know, just yes, we're going to get
Speaker 1: into it. We will, but first we're going to get
Speaker 1: into our sponsors. So this episode is out to you
Speaker 1: by meeting in person. So again, do you live in
Speaker 1: the Austin, Texas area? Would you like to meet me?
Speaker 1: I'm the one with the curly hair. You can head
Speaker 1: to our instagram Frugal Friends podcast at Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: and you can see which one I am and if
Speaker 1: you say, oh, yes, I would like to meet her
Speaker 1: and I am in Austin because she has curly hair,
Speaker 1: not the straight haired girl, the current haired girl, not
Speaker 1: the straight haired girl. But if you want to meet
Speaker 1: the straight haired girl and you live in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Speaker 1: Then send us a d M on Instagram if you're
Speaker 1: in Fairbanks, Alaska or Austin, Texas, because between September two,
Speaker 1: that's where we're gonna be, not together but separate. We're yes,
Speaker 1: and um, I don't know what my schedule is going
Speaker 1: to be. Like, Jill's a very busy woman, so don't
Speaker 1: count on her. But I would love to meet some
Speaker 1: of y'all if you're in Austin, Um, so send us
Speaker 1: a d M either at Frugal Friends podcast or at
Speaker 1: Modern Frugality. I'm on both and maybe we can meet
Speaker 1: up see how many d m s I get and
Speaker 1: what kind of shenanigans we can get into in Austin.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're brought to you by. There's so
Speaker 1: much in that sponsor that I want to dive into,
Speaker 1: but mostly I think I'm just gonna want the clip
Speaker 1: of your audio saying Jill is a very busy woman,
Speaker 1: so don't count on it. Like I want you you
Speaker 1: know those buttons you can get from Staples like that,
Speaker 1: I want one of those. I'll just pressed the button.
Speaker 1: Don't count on it, don't count on it. She's busy.
Speaker 1: It'll be my entryway into simple living. That doesn't what
Speaker 1: a segue, but still we have another sponsor, also brought
Speaker 1: to you by It's Complicated here to tell us that
Speaker 1: it's not just a relationship status we're trying to avoid.
Speaker 1: It's also a lifestyle we want to avoid. Use code,
Speaker 1: intentionality and communication for ten percent off. It's complicated complications.
Speaker 1: That is a complicated promo code. And I don't actually
Speaker 1: even know what it gets me? How do I do that? Conscious?
Speaker 1: That's Complex'll get there someday. So that is what we're
Speaker 1: talking about today, is simple living. And I think when
Speaker 1: I think about it, I think first of maybe like
Speaker 1: simple living home blogs or mom blogs telling you how
Speaker 1: to get your kids to go to bed or clean
Speaker 1: up their messy things and maybe cook better. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of like what I think of when I think,
Speaker 1: what do you think of with simple living? Jill am
Speaker 1: I weird. No, I'm just still laughing about the messy things,
Speaker 1: the kids messy things. I mean, I I have an
Speaker 1: association probably with the magazine. But yes, I think I
Speaker 1: picture somebody out in a field closing their eyes at
Speaker 1: peace simple life. Yeah, I mean I think of a
Speaker 1: stay at home mom. That's like you can do everything
Speaker 1: just like me, as long as you have forty hours
Speaker 1: a week to do it. And that's not us a
Speaker 1: spoiler alert if you've listened to the show for any
Speaker 1: amount of time, we we all know Jills a busy woman,
Speaker 1: don't so don't count on her. So don't count on
Speaker 1: it if that's what you're looking for. But Wikipedia has
Speaker 1: a better, I think definition. I get all my information
Speaker 1: from Wikipedia. Sorry to my high school English teacher. So
Speaker 1: simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with
Speaker 1: what they have have rather than want, and so I
Speaker 1: think that's really the heart behind the frugality that we
Speaker 1: talk about and that we want to live is to
Speaker 1: be individuals who are satisfied with what they have rather
Speaker 1: than what we want, but still looking, always looking to grow.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the thing. It's not stagnant, it's not.
Speaker 1: And that's where I say my image of what comes
Speaker 1: to mind when I think of simple living that's not
Speaker 1: obviously Actually it someone on a hill like closing their
Speaker 1: eyes and mine. As we're living, we don't want to
Speaker 1: just be there, but there is a contentment that can
Speaker 1: happen here. Yeah, So the opposite of simple, So that
Speaker 1: what we're trying to avoid our antonyms like difficult, hard, demanding, complicated, complex, elaborate,
Speaker 1: So those are kind of the words that we don't
Speaker 1: want to describe the things in our life. And so
Speaker 1: it's rare that any one thing in your life is
Speaker 1: going to be the opposite of simple, and that's how
Speaker 1: we create these complicated and demanding lives and elaborate, complex schedules.
Speaker 1: So it's important to view your life as a whole
Speaker 1: and to really be relentless in saying no to things
Speaker 1: that make the overall picture really difficult or complex or elaborate.
Speaker 1: And these articles that we've chosen today kind of go
Speaker 1: into what we like to think simple living is um
Speaker 1: and its connection to frugality, and then some tips on
Speaker 1: implementing it. So yeah, our first article is from Hearts
Speaker 1: Content Farmhouse and it's called the Ultimate Guide to Simple
Speaker 1: Living for Beginners. How did you feel this related to you, Jill?
Speaker 1: I thought this was super beautiful and I like the
Speaker 1: approach that they take and I know we'll get into
Speaker 1: it as we talk about the content a little bit more,
Speaker 1: but just the concept that there can be some things
Speaker 1: that might seem simple or promise to simplify or make
Speaker 1: your life more convenient, but when you look at the
Speaker 1: whole of it, it actually makes it more complicated. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll talk more about that as we moved through the article,
Speaker 1: but I think that was what stood out to me
Speaker 1: most from this of Oh, we need to look under
Speaker 1: the surface, not just at cost of something or convenience
Speaker 1: of something, but how they all blend together in their
Speaker 1: total simplicity quotient. I might use that word in a
Speaker 1: lot time. I was really pleased that this was the
Speaker 1: first result on Google. So, for those of you that
Speaker 1: don't know, the way we pick our article that we
Speaker 1: go through is that we google the topic, see what
Speaker 1: comes up on the first page, and then we kind
Speaker 1: of go through what you would get if you did
Speaker 1: the same Google, and we kind of dissect it. We
Speaker 1: you know, we test Google in a way. And so
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not always the first article that we go
Speaker 1: with because it's just not my favorite, and this one was.
Speaker 1: And I was super pleased that this one was better
Speaker 1: than many others on the first page. So we're going
Speaker 1: to kind of go through what the author defines as
Speaker 1: simple living and then her like approaches to it. So
Speaker 1: I like her definition it's it's different. There's well, she says,
Speaker 1: let's avoid the cliche of giving the dictionary definition. That's
Speaker 1: why I went with the Wikipedia. And so typically, what
Speaker 1: simple living means to most normal people, if you're not
Speaker 1: me and Jill, is minimalism, old fashion living, which I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've heard that. Frugal living, yes,
Speaker 1: and self sufficiency and so I actually, I mean had
Speaker 1: forgotten about that. To me, self sufficiency seems more complicated
Speaker 1: because I'm just bad at that. But for some people,
Speaker 1: self sufficiency is simpler, Yeah, just even going through the
Speaker 1: motions of not needing to rely on the outside world.
Speaker 1: And it's not that it's that it is necessarily the
Speaker 1: most simple in its action, but I think it can
Speaker 1: bring about this sense of simplicity. And catharsis with that
Speaker 1: kind of theme, but she's saying it's it's not really
Speaker 1: any one of these things, the combination of them, right.
Speaker 1: I like she says, the pursuit of a simple life
Speaker 1: is about rejecting what is unnecessarily complicated. I just loved
Speaker 1: I love that line. What's uncomplicated? Yes, And I like
Speaker 1: the way she's summarizing. And you kind of mentioned this
Speaker 1: and you're beginning intro about Wikipedia versus the opposite of simplicity,
Speaker 1: the opposite of simplicity, and the reason she's saying that
Speaker 1: all of those other associations aren't necessarily simple living. They
Speaker 1: intersect with it, but it's not the opposite of modern
Speaker 1: or expensive or dependent. The actual opposite of simple is complicated.
Speaker 1: So looking at how do we make sure that it
Speaker 1: is as unnecessarily not complicated? Am I saying that rights
Speaker 1: as little unnecessary complication as poss There you go, thank you,
Speaker 1: because yeah, we do understand that sometimes there's going to
Speaker 1: be complicated things in your life. Um, but hopefully those
Speaker 1: complicated things are for a season, and there are things
Speaker 1: that you literally just cannot avoid. So now that we've
Speaker 1: said what we're not talking about, here's what we are
Speaker 1: talking about. The some of the basics, and of course
Speaker 1: this is not an exhaustive list, but rejecting what is
Speaker 1: unnecessarily complicated in pursuing people over things, living with less,
Speaker 1: learning to actually enjoy the small things, the simple pleasures.
Speaker 1: If you will no longer chasing after more and more
Speaker 1: and more, that's the next thing that I have to do.
Speaker 1: It's what will make me happy. It's what everyone else
Speaker 1: is doing and being happy or I might say content
Speaker 1: with what you do have already. So in some ways
Speaker 1: we're talking about perspective and mindset. And of course what
Speaker 1: what this list has just talked about does intersect with
Speaker 1: frugality and minimalism and maybe even old fashioned living, but
Speaker 1: it is not only about those things. It's kind of
Speaker 1: where all of these pieces combine. Yeah, the one thing
Speaker 1: I always like when I hear contentment, I always want
Speaker 1: to like remind people is that we're not okay staying
Speaker 1: where we're at. We're happy and we're grateful to be
Speaker 1: where we are, but we are always pursuing the opportunity
Speaker 1: for more. We're not chasing it. It's not more will
Speaker 1: not fulfill you. More will not take you to the
Speaker 1: identity that you are looking for. It's not going to
Speaker 1: fulfill your purpose. But I think things that stop growing
Speaker 1: are considered dead, and we should always be looking to
Speaker 1: learn and grow and refine ourselves. Um So being happy
Speaker 1: with what you have, but also looking for opportunities to
Speaker 1: capitalize on the talents and the gifts and all of
Speaker 1: that that you have to learn and grow. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: holding that tension between not becoming stagnant, but also not
Speaker 1: being overtaken or consumed by whatever it is you think
Speaker 1: needs to happen next. Yeah, definitely. So then she talks
Speaker 1: about going deeper into simple livings. So, so's what do
Speaker 1: we mean here rejecting what is unnecessarily complicated? Does that
Speaker 1: mean making life as easy as possible? Um? Because that's
Speaker 1: another thing that sometimes people looking for simple living can
Speaker 1: go to that extreme to where they're looking to make
Speaker 1: life so easy that it actually becomes a burden for
Speaker 1: other people. And we know, as frugal people, we can
Speaker 1: do that same thing, looking to be so frugal and
Speaker 1: spend so little money that sometimes it comes at the
Speaker 1: actual monetary expense of other people. And so that is
Speaker 1: not what we are looking to do in simple living.
Speaker 1: So yes, is it going to sometimes be an inconvenience
Speaker 1: to the people in our life. Yes, because sometimes we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to say no, just like a hard stop
Speaker 1: no without a good explanation. But you can build that
Speaker 1: muscle to um enact that boundary. So yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: that's what I think. I think that's what she meant
Speaker 1: with this going deeper into simple living. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: also like the example that she gave that it's not
Speaker 1: just about convenience, because you could decide I'm going to
Speaker 1: stop cooking because that doesn't feel simple to me, or
Speaker 1: life giving. It feels complicated. I'm going to go out
Speaker 1: for every meal, But then there's a cost to that.
Speaker 1: You'll and she mentions this too, you'll likely find yourself
Speaker 1: and poor health and potentially credit card debt. I mean
Speaker 1: hopefully not credit card debt for meals. But you never write.
Speaker 1: If we're just saying we're gonna go out for every
Speaker 1: meal and avoid all other peripheral impacts of that, you
Speaker 1: you can't. It will take over another area. So it's
Speaker 1: not just about convenience, it's not about avoiding all complication.
Speaker 1: But again that unnecessary complication piece, So and again she
Speaker 1: digs into this more. And I think this is helpful.
Speaker 1: Some things in life that are complicated and would likely
Speaker 1: be rejected by someone looking for simplicity. So these are
Speaker 1: things that are typically touted as this will make your
Speaker 1: life better, more enjoyable, maybe even more convenient. But let's
Speaker 1: go through them. She lifts off potentially a high stress
Speaker 1: job with a long commute, or an expansive home renovation
Speaker 1: that requires you to take out a loan that you
Speaker 1: can barely afford, or a new designer wardrobe that's dry
Speaker 1: lean only, or sports car that requires expensive maintenance. I've
Speaker 1: never even heard of a wardrobe, by the way, that
Speaker 1: only requires dry clean. I hate that many authors are
Speaker 1: just very extreme when they give examples and it's not
Speaker 1: actually practical. Typically you, it's hard. It's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: to see in your own life where these things happen,
Speaker 1: because they're they're not obvious. Like these things, they're subversive.
Speaker 1: You have to really look at what in your life
Speaker 1: is complicated, and it may not be the same across
Speaker 1: the board. So then but she gives like alternative to these,
Speaker 1: So she's like, what about a job that pays less
Speaker 1: but it is in walking distance to your house and
Speaker 1: has a nice boss. Well, you may not get both
Speaker 1: of these. You may have to choose do you want
Speaker 1: walking distance or do you want the nice boss. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a given take on this stuff, too
Speaker 1: write so too small, but it's easily affordable. Uh it
Speaker 1: could be or is you know, maybe a further drive
Speaker 1: from your job or maybe closer to job. I I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's probably gonna be one or the other
Speaker 1: clothing that's comfortable and can be washed at home. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's in our audience is going to
Speaker 1: have a problem with this, but it could be uh
Speaker 1: taking the extra time. I mean, this is where thrift
Speaker 1: ing kind of gets involved for me because, like, to me,
Speaker 1: thrift ing can be a little complicated. Um, and so
Speaker 1: I tend to pay a little bit more to go
Speaker 1: to threat Up, which is the online thrift store, because
Speaker 1: that feels less complicated to me. Online shopping feels less
Speaker 1: complicated to me. So it gives and takes on that too, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and everybody's answer to that is going to look different.
Speaker 1: What feels simple to me is not going to feel
Speaker 1: simple to you. Case in point, the way Eric and
Speaker 1: I approach our calendars. I think it is much more
Speaker 1: simple to have a pen and paper calendar. And he's like,
Speaker 1: why aren't we sharing calendars and in grading this and that.
Speaker 1: I was just like, maybe you think that's simple, but
Speaker 1: not for me. Yeah, Travis and I need to figure
Speaker 1: out something. When he had an iPhone, we used to
Speaker 1: share a calendar and he would just always know when
Speaker 1: things were happening. And now he's got an Android and
Speaker 1: we can no longer do that, and so it's always
Speaker 1: like what are we doing? And I was like, maybe
Speaker 1: we need a paper calendar or something. I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's off topic. I'm so sorry. Um. But the last
Speaker 1: one is to buy a used, reliable station wagon that's
Speaker 1: good enough. I do agree with that one. Don't get
Speaker 1: your dream car, get a car that's good enough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, if you've got a car
Speaker 1: that is old and just good enough, sometimes it puts
Speaker 1: you in precarious situations. And I am speaking from very
Speaker 1: real and raw and recently your car was not good enough.
Speaker 1: Your car, your car was about to be deaf on wheels,
Speaker 1: So that's not good enough. That was That was a
Speaker 1: situation where we were like, Jill, please get a new car,
Speaker 1: because is you are be on the edge of being unsafe.
Speaker 1: So I'm saying, not one with all the top of
Speaker 1: the You don't need all the top of the line
Speaker 1: luxury things just because the dealers telling you to test
Speaker 1: drive it and it looked pretty and so great. And
Speaker 1: believe me, I want Alexis who doesn't, but I gotta,
Speaker 1: I gotta hun day because it's good enough. Alexis does
Speaker 1: don't even looking that nice anymore. So that be all right,
Speaker 1: We'll all be all right, all right, whatever used to tesla?
Speaker 1: Al right. So, and just to summarize too, I like
Speaker 1: how she wraps up this portion of the article by
Speaker 1: talking about looking at these pieces holistically. That a lot
Speaker 1: of times there is a price beyond the money of
Speaker 1: time and stress that can complicate your life. So we
Speaker 1: are not just looking at one of these components how
Speaker 1: much how much time does it take me, or how
Speaker 1: much money does it cost me, or how much stress
Speaker 1: is involved. We've got a look at all of them
Speaker 1: and identify what's the most simple option when I take
Speaker 1: all of these factors into consideration, because there's always going
Speaker 1: to be an alternative peace, uh, the cost benefit analysis
Speaker 1: of it in all of these areas. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: harder to do that because we want a set of
Speaker 1: rules that we can just live by and follow for everything.
Speaker 1: And we can kind of do that when you find
Speaker 1: your core values and you can live by those, those
Speaker 1: are a good filter. But still for for big things,
Speaker 1: we have to look at the picture holistically. And if
Speaker 1: I mean our life obviously is one of those big things.
Speaker 1: Our schedule, our time, our money, those are big things
Speaker 1: that we have to look holistically at to really inspect
Speaker 1: how we can execute simple living, not just by a
Speaker 1: set of rules that maybe somebody else creates, um, but
Speaker 1: by a set of rules that we ourselves create. So
Speaker 1: next article has nine tips for executing simple living, and
Speaker 1: I liked that these were not just uh maybe cookie cutter.
Speaker 1: They are simple, but they do um. They caused me
Speaker 1: to think a little harder. How do you feel about them? Chill?
Speaker 1: Such good tips here, and I think within this list
Speaker 1: there's at least one actionable items. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: go through all nine of them because I think and
Speaker 1: hopefully more than one we can each take and and implement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the first one was quiet the digital noise. This
Speaker 1: makes me feel personally attack but I agree with it.
Speaker 1: I think I'm discovering like more a d h D
Speaker 1: tendencies in myself and knowing that I can't my brain
Speaker 1: just can't sit still, like I'm trying to get off
Speaker 1: social media more and I have just replaced it with
Speaker 1: solid tear. I feel like I've mentioned this before. I
Speaker 1: actually watched this happen real time in the car driving
Speaker 1: Jen is both having a conversation with us and playing solidaire.
Speaker 1: It's it's been a very big struggle for me to
Speaker 1: turn my mind off. But I know my mind and
Speaker 1: my eyes for that matter, really do need this simplification
Speaker 1: of existence. Uh, and not so much bombardment from digital noise.
Speaker 1: And so well, I mean one of the ways that
Speaker 1: she says dedicated time of the data, reply to emails.
Speaker 1: I actually my assistant now does all the emails for
Speaker 1: every inbox we have, So that has been a really
Speaker 1: great simplification strategy for me. Well, she does give some
Speaker 1: really helpful tactics. Sometimes it's like you feel thrown to
Speaker 1: the wolves. If I know, I got to be off
Speaker 1: this phone more, but how And so yeah, unsubscribing to things,
Speaker 1: dedicating time to reply to emails, removing social media apps
Speaker 1: from your phone, making regular times for digital detoxing, turning
Speaker 1: off non essential notifications, not sleeping with your phone next
Speaker 1: to you, right, And you don't have to do all
Speaker 1: of these things, and some of it can just help
Speaker 1: the brainstorm and get started, but there are some really
Speaker 1: specific ways that we can do this. Yeah, I took
Speaker 1: Facebook off of my phone, which is a little inconvenient
Speaker 1: sometimes but for sure worth it. And then Also, I've
Speaker 1: turned off pretty much all notifications, So those have been
Speaker 1: my major things. I haven't done everything on this list,
Speaker 1: but definitely the Facebook one and the notifications. I don't
Speaker 1: think all of them are realistic for everybody, and certainly
Speaker 1: not even long term. It's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things that you put into practice to retrain yourself to
Speaker 1: make better decisions about what you do want to let
Speaker 1: back in. So some of it there's a rhythm to
Speaker 1: some of it is just determining the best way to
Speaker 1: live and operate. It depends on the type of business
Speaker 1: that that you're a part of or running, or the
Speaker 1: way that you work. So, but just being more intentional
Speaker 1: about it and knowing and recognizing the space that it
Speaker 1: can take up to have all of these things vying
Speaker 1: for your attention constantly. Number two on here is to
Speaker 1: watch less TV. This one can feel like a personal
Speaker 1: attack too. And they say, and I wouldn't disagree with this,
Speaker 1: although there's some parts of it that I might push
Speaker 1: back on, but that watching TV isn't actually going to
Speaker 1: provide rest to us. I think sometimes we think, oh,
Speaker 1: I just I just want to sit and watch a movie,
Speaker 1: and and that's okay. We're not saying, and I don't
Speaker 1: think this article is saying like cut it all out
Speaker 1: always in forever, but that you probably would have an
Speaker 1: experience better benefit if you've got some time in the
Speaker 1: evening and you choose to do some stretching or engage
Speaker 1: in the hands on hobby, then just sit and binging TV?
Speaker 1: Like what is actually going to produce life inside of you? Now,
Speaker 1: I will say finding a good show can absolute produce
Speaker 1: some disconnection, but I will absolutely agree with like not
Speaker 1: binging things constantly, but finding something else to do with
Speaker 1: your time that can bring life. Absolutely Yeah, But my
Speaker 1: a d H D mind douzled to vedge on a
Speaker 1: TV show at night, especially if it's about cults. Is
Speaker 1: this something Jen and I definitely bond over beyond all
Speaker 1: the other things we bond over is cult information on cults,
Speaker 1: you know, joining cults, starting our own call we love
Speaker 1: it um No, not really, We just like cold doc
Speaker 1: docu series. Just yeah, they're they're super intriguing to me.
Speaker 1: Uh So. The third one is to live in accordance
Speaker 1: with your means, And obviously we very much promote this
Speaker 1: UM So, don't spend what you don't have on things
Speaker 1: you don't want that is the first sentence. But again,
Speaker 1: we we love to say stuff like that, but in
Speaker 1: the moment, it is hard um to keep yourself from
Speaker 1: not wanting things. We love instant gratification, and so we
Speaker 1: just have to be more committed to this simple lifestyle
Speaker 1: and know the things that it can bring for us,
Speaker 1: know what living within our means can give us, so
Speaker 1: that we have incentive to say no to things like
Speaker 1: I love being able to work for myself twenty five
Speaker 1: hours a week, and we don't rely on my income,
Speaker 1: and so in order to maintain that we have to
Speaker 1: just live on we choose to just live on traps
Speaker 1: his income. So I mean that idea, the beauty of
Speaker 1: this lifestyle I've built is a bigger motivation to spend
Speaker 1: within our budget than anything any external motivation could be.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah. The next one on here, number four
Speaker 1: is to de clutter your home. I could not agree
Speaker 1: with this more and I know for some this is
Speaker 1: We're all going to have different standards of this, right.
Speaker 1: Some of us naturally want very few things in our
Speaker 1: living spaces, and others of us prefer more eclectic style,
Speaker 1: and we like to keep things around and tinker I
Speaker 1: definitely fall in the former category. I just don't want
Speaker 1: things around and I never have, so I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want things. I'm busy, I'm a busy woman. I'm busy.
Speaker 1: But in all seriousness, and wherever you fall on that spectrum,
Speaker 1: I will say that for all of us, it is
Speaker 1: helpful to have less again wherever we're starting from. Clutter
Speaker 1: in our spaces and our physical spaces can correlate to
Speaker 1: clutter in our minds and bodies, And sometimes it happens
Speaker 1: in our minds and bodies first, and what we see
Speaker 1: in our homes and living spaces is reflective of that.
Speaker 1: So where we're able to declutter, it can also produce
Speaker 1: this weightlessness. It can remove some of the burden and
Speaker 1: free up capacity and emotion and mental space when we
Speaker 1: don't feel so physically weighed down by everything that our
Speaker 1: eyes are looking at and drawn to. It's like competing
Speaker 1: for our attention. Absolutely, and you can have one or
Speaker 1: two things that you collect. It does not mean you
Speaker 1: can definitely consider yourself of minimalists. Definitely, definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: practice simple living if you like to collect things, it's
Speaker 1: just not like twenty different things. But like I know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people, especially in our frugal friends community,
Speaker 1: love books and love to just have a wall of
Speaker 1: bookshelves and books, or if they don't have it, they
Speaker 1: dream about it. So that is, you don't have to
Speaker 1: get rid of something you love to practice simple Just
Speaker 1: know that your collections will collect dust. That's so true,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk we'll talk about about cleaning. Your collections
Speaker 1: will collect. As you collect, they will collect. But beyond that,
Speaker 1: you can love things and still practice minimalism, still practice
Speaker 1: simple living. Uh, just can't love everything you know you
Speaker 1: don't have them. You won't be able to walk in
Speaker 1: your right. You don't have the capacity to love everything
Speaker 1: like you can like a lot of things. But you
Speaker 1: have to find what you love, keep that and be
Speaker 1: willing to discard the rest. So the lext one is
Speaker 1: I love this one. I love it so much. Single task.
Speaker 1: Who hates multitasking? Who can multitask? Nobody can fully multitask?
Speaker 1: It's not actually, it's no. And when you try to
Speaker 1: do it, you only create stress in your life. And
Speaker 1: then that stress becomes guilt and shame because you can't
Speaker 1: multitask in the same way all the other moms or
Speaker 1: gen ze ears are multitasking on TikTok and Instagram, So
Speaker 1: stop and just single task. Choose your one thing, and
Speaker 1: everyone knows I'm obsessed with the one thing. The book
Speaker 1: they also have a podcast and it's the theory is
Speaker 1: just what can I do now? What is the one
Speaker 1: thing that I can do that by which everything else
Speaker 1: becomes easier or unnecessary. So that just means finding your
Speaker 1: highest r o I tasks throughout the day and and
Speaker 1: really focusing on the things that are most important and
Speaker 1: either delegating out, hiring out, or just saying no to
Speaker 1: the things that are not high r a I Right,
Speaker 1: And then I think we can be more satisfied with
Speaker 1: ourselves when we give ourselves permission to have the one
Speaker 1: task versus I'm trying to juggle at all and none
Speaker 1: of it's going well, and then it all just feels
Speaker 1: like a failure. Which relates to number six, which is
Speaker 1: set realistic goals and reward yourself. And I just want
Speaker 1: to read this first paragraph under the number six. I
Speaker 1: think it's helpful. The author says we often underestimate how
Speaker 1: long a task will's cake, and then we beat ourselves
Speaker 1: up over not making enough progress, or we expect too
Speaker 1: much of ourselves when trying to embrace a new lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Then we tell ourselves were just too busy or not
Speaker 1: motivated enough to make a change, and the self fulfilling
Speaker 1: prophecy comes true. So I think connected to this idea
Speaker 1: of single task is setting realistic goals and then celebrating afterwards. Again,
Speaker 1: that then correlates to how we view ourselves, the permission
Speaker 1: that we give ourselves along the way setting realistic goals
Speaker 1: achieving them. Doing them with a singular focus is not
Speaker 1: only less complicated, but also actually produces beneficial results rather
Speaker 1: than complicated, messy results, the messy things that you're trying
Speaker 1: to get picked up. And yeah, so I love this.
Speaker 1: I love the like single tasking in goal setting and
Speaker 1: like having fewer goals and shorter goals. And it so
Speaker 1: also single tasking doesn't mean you're like focusing on just
Speaker 1: like one thing a day and forgetting all your other responsibilities.
Speaker 1: We're talking about this along with your goals in a
Speaker 1: reasonable you know, something that fits with the responsibilities that
Speaker 1: you are actually obligated to. But like, so for me,
Speaker 1: it really rears its head when I'm trying to clean
Speaker 1: the house and I'm trying to I'll do one thing,
Speaker 1: and then I'll get distracted and start to clean another thing,
Speaker 1: and then I'll get distracted clean another thing, and then
Speaker 1: I'll go back to the original thing because I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I mean for me, like having the goal,
Speaker 1: maybe setting a timer and being like, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do this one thing. I can only do this one
Speaker 1: thing for as long as the timer is going off,
Speaker 1: and then I can move on even if I haven't
Speaker 1: finished it. Typically, once the timer goes off, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: far enough into it that I want to finish it.
Speaker 1: And so that's a very basic example, but it can
Speaker 1: apply to other things in our lives as well, and
Speaker 1: then it gamifies that, yeah, gamifies it. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: all of this is within reason seven is appreciate the
Speaker 1: little things and practice gratitude. I love this much more
Speaker 1: than like contentment. But I love gratitude because it really
Speaker 1: the more grateful you are, the less you want. Like
Speaker 1: you still want to achieve more and you still want
Speaker 1: to serve the world and the people around you more,
Speaker 1: but it's not out of a sense of just trying
Speaker 1: to achieve or get more. It becomes the sense of
Speaker 1: like I am so thankful for what I have and
Speaker 1: what I've done, and I would love to serve the
Speaker 1: world more with more of that. So she recommends like
Speaker 1: a few prompts to experience gratitude. I love gratitude journals,
Speaker 1: but she's like, you can write in the evening in
Speaker 1: detail about three things you're grateful for that day, even
Speaker 1: small things. Or you can list three things that you
Speaker 1: value and appreciate about your partner or family, and you
Speaker 1: can do that, maybe with a different person every day.
Speaker 1: You can. I love this one. Describe a challenge you've
Speaker 1: dealt with recently and what you learned from the experience.
Speaker 1: I think we reframing your personal finance journey, especially with budgeting.
Speaker 1: I think so many people think when they mess up
Speaker 1: with budgeting or they have a challenge with budgeting, that
Speaker 1: is actually a failure, but it is They're just surprises
Speaker 1: that come up and you can't help them. And so
Speaker 1: when you can view these bumps in the road as
Speaker 1: challenges and then reflect on what you learned from the
Speaker 1: experience and be grateful that you went through it and
Speaker 1: that now you have something that you have learned from it,
Speaker 1: that makes budgeting takes it something that you hate to
Speaker 1: something that you love because it allows you to learn
Speaker 1: more about yourself. And so the last one is right
Speaker 1: about three people who have made the biggest positive impact
Speaker 1: in your life. It's beautiful. I love gratitude. I love
Speaker 1: what it produces short term and long term. Number eight
Speaker 1: on here is embrace the white space. And they don't
Speaker 1: just mean like find yourself in a white room and
Speaker 1: enjoy yourself. But and I would even term this margin
Speaker 1: like if you're looking at a piece of paper, you
Speaker 1: know that the space of the paper that you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to write in or or could be used for
Speaker 1: some notes, or the side of the road that gives
Speaker 1: you a little bit of wiggle room to be able
Speaker 1: to pull off like not filling it up, not so
Speaker 1: filling every single space of your life, and not not
Speaker 1: only not filling it, embracing it and fostering gratitude for
Speaker 1: those times and identifying how you want to engage in
Speaker 1: those times of just really slowing down. This article talks
Speaker 1: about doing nothing. I would probably push back on that
Speaker 1: a little bit. I think that there are things that
Speaker 1: we can quote unquote do that our life giving that
Speaker 1: are slower pace, that help us to engage in our
Speaker 1: full personhood. I don't think it necessarily means we have
Speaker 1: to just sit and let our minds go blank. And
Speaker 1: they talked to about letting yourself experience boredom might might
Speaker 1: be a decent thing. I will say that is healthy.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I have, and we've talked about this.
Speaker 1: I talked about this with a friend and Eric too.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever felt bored since maybe
Speaker 1: middle school possibly for that and and I don't Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's probably not a great thing, but it's an interesting realization.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that like boredom is the sign
Speaker 1: that you've now embraced space. I think you don't have
Speaker 1: to just be like I don't know what to do
Speaker 1: with myself. There could be things that you do that
Speaker 1: aren't just meaningless. They give the example of taking a
Speaker 1: hike or wander your neighborhood on a walk with no
Speaker 1: real destination in mind just and I like the example
Speaker 1: they give to if you've ever been in the shower
Speaker 1: and had a great idea, then you can understand the
Speaker 1: benefit of giving yourself space to just let your mind wander.
Speaker 1: It's kind of that idea, doing something cathartic. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: not not feeling the pressure of filling space is one
Speaker 1: practice that could be really helpful. Embrace the white space,
Speaker 1: embrace the margin, make room for a margin. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: will say that having a young child really forces you
Speaker 1: to do this because there's only so much blippy I
Speaker 1: can watch before I'm just like staring into the white space.
Speaker 1: That's probably why I play so much solidaire. But I
Speaker 1: think it would be helpful maybe if you are like
Speaker 1: me and you have a hard time turning your brain off,
Speaker 1: to set a timer to just give yourself ten minutes
Speaker 1: to sit in the white space and you know, let
Speaker 1: your mind wander, so that way you're including it, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like it's indefinite or will cause you
Speaker 1: anxiety because you don't know when it's gonna end. So
Speaker 1: the last one is don't expect miracles because the simple
Speaker 1: living will improve your life, it can improve it even drastically,
Speaker 1: but it will not prevent stress or grant you unlimited
Speaker 1: happiness and fulfillment, which is so unfortunate. But with most
Speaker 1: good things, it's not perfect, and so it just creates.
Speaker 1: It's like having an emergency fund. Emergency funds don't prevent
Speaker 1: emergencies from happening. But when you have one, emergencies no
Speaker 1: longer feel like emergencies. They just feel like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: this expense that I really don't want to have to pay,
Speaker 1: but I have the money for it, So they become
Speaker 1: annoyances is what happens. But when you don't have the
Speaker 1: money to pay for something and you need it, that
Speaker 1: is an emergency. That's a crisis, and so that's going
Speaker 1: to take way more stress than than when you have
Speaker 1: the emergency fund. And that's the same thing simple living
Speaker 1: does it. It turns what can become crises, eliminate them
Speaker 1: completely or just turn you know, complicated situations that you
Speaker 1: can't avoid, turn them into annoyances. Yeah. Yeah, it just
Speaker 1: says with anything, nothing's going to be a magic wand
Speaker 1: but it can get us closer to experience and saying
Speaker 1: deeper satisfaction and benefit. Yeah, turning crises into annoyances. I
Speaker 1: like the goal and you know what gives me margin
Speaker 1: and kind of like is some white space in my day.
Speaker 1: It's not magic, but it is the goal. It is
Speaker 1: great the week, that's right, it's time for the best
Speaker 1: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 1: and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 1: maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That's build Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: this is the Bill of the Week. Hello, Jenn and Jill.
Speaker 1: This is Molly from Nebraska and I, I don't know,
Speaker 1: discovered your podcast back in January and it's been one
Speaker 1: of the biggest resources for me as I've been learning
Speaker 1: more about personal finance. And I am calling about the
Speaker 1: Bill of the Week because I just paid off my
Speaker 1: credit cards two days ago. Yeah, I had a lot
Speaker 1: of credit card debt and I just paid it off
Speaker 1: the last one. So thanks so much or earlier, all right? Bye?
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah, congratulations. I'm so glad that we
Speaker 1: could be on this journey with you doing this awesome thing.
Speaker 1: M I've been together since January and already got the
Speaker 1: credit cards paid to hop the hat is legit. Congratulations. So,
Speaker 1: if you have a Bill of the week, whether it's
Speaker 1: a paid off credit card or any other kind of
Speaker 1: debt or something completely unrelated to Bill, you like to
Speaker 1: pay a bill, you hate paying a guy I named Bill.
Speaker 1: We just really love the ambiguity of the segment. We
Speaker 1: love listening to you all, So submit your bill at
Speaker 1: Frical Friends podcast dot com slash bill. We're excited to
Speaker 1: hear it. Absolutely and now it's time for Wound. So
Speaker 1: we are going to share complicated things in our life
Speaker 1: that we have simplified because we are not immune to them.
Speaker 1: They happen, and I will be fully transparent. I will
Speaker 1: go first, thank you. I'll be fully and embarrassingly transparent.
Speaker 1: So everyone knows that I do like personal finance. Educating
Speaker 1: is my full time job. This podcast and writing and
Speaker 1: all of that, that is what I do for a living.
Speaker 1: And in it I tell everyone focus on one thing
Speaker 1: at a time, whatever that is, whatever order you do
Speaker 1: it in, do what's right for you. Do one thing
Speaker 1: at a time, you know, very much like what we
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. And so in my business, I
Speaker 1: at one point I was doing maybe six different things
Speaker 1: at a time. I was doing this podcast, I was
Speaker 1: doing TikTok YouTube, freelance writing, trying to build a blog,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's it, but there's probably more, honestly, and
Speaker 1: I and somebody had to point it out to me
Speaker 1: that I was, um, I hadn't chosen my one thing.
Speaker 1: I was trying to do so many things because I
Speaker 1: have the scarcity mindset that I'm always dealing with, because
Speaker 1: I thought, if I just choose one thing, I eliminate
Speaker 1: i've income streams and I lose four fifths of my money,
Speaker 1: which is untrue. You can do it for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but long term, like a lifestyle and a business like
Speaker 1: that is unsustainable. And so this summer I decided to
Speaker 1: just do one thing, which is this podcast. I stopped
Speaker 1: doing everything else except for a little bit of freelance
Speaker 1: writing because I do actually enjoy that, but just a
Speaker 1: few articles a month. And I really had to take
Speaker 1: my own advice because it was easy for me to
Speaker 1: do it in one area of my life and my
Speaker 1: personal finances in my living, like the things. I wasn't
Speaker 1: being hypocritical about the things I teach, but it was
Speaker 1: just I hadn't I'm like, not a business person. I
Speaker 1: don't teach business. I don't know that side. Like it's
Speaker 1: just I am constantly learning that and I didn't see
Speaker 1: it just crept up, so it wasn't obvious. I had
Speaker 1: to have somebody who didn't know me tell me, like,
Speaker 1: this is what you're doing. Do you see this? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't see that and so that was a simplification
Speaker 1: I made over the summer. Well, I'm super excited about
Speaker 1: it because this podcast is our our little love child.
Speaker 1: That's not the right word, but it's what came to mind,
Speaker 1: our baby. So that's fun for me. But I will
Speaker 1: also say I think it's a consolidation. Like from my perspective,
Speaker 1: it's not as if now all of these other things
Speaker 1: are no longer. It's just under one umbrella. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there's still an Instagram account and a YouTube channel and
Speaker 1: this and that, but in the podcast, but it's not
Speaker 1: as disjointed, which I think in that Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: like a now it's just super simple, easy, but it
Speaker 1: is less complicated. Absolutely nice. Gen Well, I mean that
Speaker 1: was beautiful. My examples are nowhere near that that complex
Speaker 1: or involved or insightful or in depth. Uh. And maybe
Speaker 1: that means that I need to look at my life
Speaker 1: more or maybe it just means you've mastered it more
Speaker 1: than I have. Oh No, there's still edits that need
Speaker 1: to happen, for sure. I think some of the things
Speaker 1: that come to mind. So just a couple of different examples,
Speaker 1: like for me, exercise like that related to the nine tips,
Speaker 1: and that last article that that we were talking about,
Speaker 1: like focusing on one thing or single task or setting
Speaker 1: small realistic goals. Exercise was always something that I knew
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, but the way that everybody else
Speaker 1: did it was never super attainable for me. Like I
Speaker 1: try this and I'd get disc ridged and I'd be bummed.
Speaker 1: I didn't see the results that I wanted to see,
Speaker 1: and it just became really complicated until now I figured
Speaker 1: out what works for me, and it is a short
Speaker 1: amount of time every morning with YouTube, and I've been
Speaker 1: doing that for like six months now, so I know,
Speaker 1: all right, I think I found it. I think I
Speaker 1: found the sustainable, simple at home thing for me. Some
Speaker 1: other things and again these are just more just like
Speaker 1: lifestyle tips, but for me, it means so much. I
Speaker 1: clutter is overwhelming to me. Paperwork in particular. I mean
Speaker 1: I have so much already automated. But whatever does come
Speaker 1: into my home, I immediately deal with it, or I
Speaker 1: put it if it's the weekend, because I also have
Speaker 1: pretty strong boundaries amount around my weekends, they're really sacred
Speaker 1: to me. I put it on my desk, close the door,
Speaker 1: and come back to it. If it's an important piece
Speaker 1: of paper, I take a picture of it and I
Speaker 1: keep it in my phone in certain files of what
Speaker 1: that falls under, but I just I don't keep paper around,
Speaker 1: and that is something complicated that feels more simple to me. Now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like choosing the few things that are very
Speaker 1: important to you that make the have the biggest effect
Speaker 1: on your mental health. I think that's the greatest place
Speaker 1: to start. So, like when we were paying off debt,
Speaker 1: we did everything to save money. We just did everything.
Speaker 1: And now that we're not, now that we're living in sustainability,
Speaker 1: really the biggest thing we do is wei meal plan.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest thing that we can do to keep
Speaker 1: our spending in check. So that's like the only thing
Speaker 1: we focus on um And granted, those two years of
Speaker 1: paying off debt did train us in good habits and
Speaker 1: we needed that, but it wasn't a sustainable lifestyle. And
Speaker 1: so now we choose our you know, the one thing
Speaker 1: that we focus on, and that's a version of simple spending.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it is in these smaller areas of life that
Speaker 1: can produce so much breathing room for us. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: the big things, but oftentimes it's identifying these little things
Speaker 1: that can work for us. That is that margin, that
Speaker 1: white space. It's also interesting to think about this topic
Speaker 1: and see the irony of it too. I know that
Speaker 1: we've we've touched on this a bit, but as I
Speaker 1: think back on my life and some of the edits
Speaker 1: that I've made over time, you know, you would think
Speaker 1: tiny living, Oh, that produces simplicity, that's simple living because
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot, you don't need a lot,
Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of expenses. But having done it,
Speaker 1: I realized, yeah, part of that's true, and then part
Speaker 1: of it is it becomes super complicated the second that
Speaker 1: the weather hits below freezing or the second that your
Speaker 1: pipes aren't working to get your black water tank, and yeah,
Speaker 1: look it up. It's what you think it is. It's
Speaker 1: your actual physical body waste that you've got to interact with.
Speaker 1: Like there's so many piece is to it, and where
Speaker 1: do where do I park this? And where do I stay?
Speaker 1: And what happens if I get a flat tire on
Speaker 1: my home? So there is a give and take, I
Speaker 1: think to all of it, and that really identifying and
Speaker 1: trying things out. I think, you know, we we also
Speaker 1: it's been a goal of mine to have one vehicle,
Speaker 1: and we're there, and I love it. And for the
Speaker 1: most part, it's simple and it's less expensive to only
Speaker 1: have insurance on one vehicle, to only pay for the
Speaker 1: maintenance on one vehicle. But when that one vehicle breaks,
Speaker 1: it causes a storm all around. Now, how do we
Speaker 1: get from point A to point B to get our groceries?
Speaker 1: Now we've got to rent a car. Now we've got
Speaker 1: to do this and that, and that just happened. So
Speaker 1: just just for permission that even when we identify the
Speaker 1: things that we believe are simple or the world defines
Speaker 1: as simple, there's always gonna be consequences to it, alternatives
Speaker 1: to it. And we're doing the best we can to
Speaker 1: look at all aspects in its entirety and the whole
Speaker 1: of it. What is going to ultimately lead to the
Speaker 1: least amount of complication. And when we do come upon complication,
Speaker 1: how can we make room for margin, for opportunities to rest.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes our days require eighteen hours from us, that's okay,
Speaker 1: But learning to be able to recognize the days where
Speaker 1: it only requires six hours of our time, energy and
Speaker 1: effort and rest in some of that margin and look
Speaker 1: for that margin I think that's my summary. Okay, great, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's uh, it's worth it. I think all
Speaker 1: is all I had to say. The simple living is
Speaker 1: worth it. I think it's uh, it's fulfilling, and uh,
Speaker 1: you can't love everything, So let's find the things we
Speaker 1: do love. And thank you for simply listening to the
Speaker 1: show and simply being present with us. We want to
Speaker 1: thank you for your kind reviews, sharing on social media
Speaker 1: all the things that help more people find Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast and give us a try so that they can
Speaker 1: hear these tips and this message as well. So like
Speaker 1: this particular review that we got from Alpine, Emmy says,
Speaker 1: these ladies got me motivated. Five stars. Thanks for the
Speaker 1: great podcast. I've been listening to all the episodes and
Speaker 1: trying to take action or at least notes on how
Speaker 1: to apply to my own debt free journey. I'm a
Speaker 1: ski instructor slash rec center instructors, so I have to
Speaker 1: learn about a regular income side, hustling, budgeting, etcetera. While
Speaker 1: I was already minimalists by force of living in an
Speaker 1: expensive area, Jen and Jill have encouraged me to pursue
Speaker 1: creative new avenues to make sure, I'm financially advancing myself.
Speaker 1: Great energy and fun. Thanks again, lovely, I mean thank you, Emmy.
Speaker 1: That was beautiful. I love to know when we are
Speaker 1: part of people's motivation or something like that extra boost
Speaker 1: that's needed. That's what we hope from having frugal friendships. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: we also want to thank our friends who are sharing
Speaker 1: these episodes on social media. So when you share the
Speaker 1: latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we
Speaker 1: add you to our monthly drawing. Here's what it 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: So definitely leave us a review and send the screenshot
Speaker 1: to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com to get
Speaker 1: yourself entered into that drawing, and don't forget to tag
Speaker 1: us on social and that will also enter you in
Speaker 1: to see the Frugal Friends work quick which is best
Speaker 1: a bunch of one week challenges to more simple living
Speaker 1: to send Julian financial freedom, more gamifying stuff. All right,
Speaker 1: see you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian.
Speaker 1: How have you simplified me all planning? I use cook smarts? Ah, yes,
Speaker 1: I mean point Blank, Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash
Speaker 1: cook Smarts. It didn't mean for our post role to
Speaker 1: be up, but it's reality great yeah, um yeah, did
Speaker 1: I tell me what to make? If I don't like it,
Speaker 1: I'll pick something from the archives, add it all to
Speaker 1: my Walmart, uh, pick up grocery, pickup and h I'll
Speaker 1: add like a frozen pizza or something frozen for like
Speaker 1: one day, then eat out twice a week. I love it.
Speaker 1: That's about it. Just really yeah, I don't scheduling your life.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's obviously flexibility in that, but to know
Speaker 1: what to expect to take out the decision making so good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love it when I don't have to make decisions. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really it's really great. I love to be told
Speaker 1: what to do in some areas, only in some areas, right,