Speaker 1: Episode three nine nine, How to Spend when your values
Speaker 1: income don't align.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, And how the heck are we
Speaker 1: three hundred and ninety nine episodes in? Next week?
Speaker 3: Is gonna be it? Mean?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not even next week, it's just in
Speaker 1: it is next week. I guess this is a Friday episode.
Speaker 1: Is gonna be so fun? I can't wait.
Speaker 3: If you know how to count, you know, episode four
Speaker 3: hundred is coming.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, but it's gonna be very fun. So please we're.
Speaker 3: Celebrating six years to Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you are a longtime listener, new listener, you will
Speaker 1: find something fun to laugh about. It's not going to
Speaker 1: be financial, but it's gonna be a really good time.
Speaker 3: We'll probably talk about money, well probably, yeah, we will.
Speaker 1: But today's episode is about how to spend, How to
Speaker 1: prioritize your spending when what you love, what you value
Speaker 1: does the amount that it costs does not align with
Speaker 1: the amount of income you are currently bringing in.
Speaker 3: It sounds so good to spend on your values. That
Speaker 3: only really works if you have the money to spend.
Speaker 3: It's like the Marie condo thing, like throw out anything
Speaker 3: that doesn't bring joys, like, well, I gotta keep my
Speaker 3: spatula and my pots and pans.
Speaker 1: Well, Jill, And so I think this is like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Marie would say, maybe the spatula in itself does not
Speaker 1: spark joy, but the times you get to cook with
Speaker 1: your child dispatch lots. So that's kind of the approach.
Speaker 3: We're taking a new mindset with it, because, yeah, you
Speaker 3: may not love paying your electricity bill, but how do
Speaker 3: we find room for that and begin to prioritize other
Speaker 3: values and be able to make space for being able
Speaker 3: to spend guilt free?
Speaker 1: Yes, but first, this episode is brought to you by
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Speaker 3: I love this. Yeah, we're six years in, but we
Speaker 3: still grassroots.
Speaker 1: We're still a small business. So thank you and sorry
Speaker 1: and thank you.
Speaker 3: But if you are getting the friend Letter, you know
Speaker 3: that there are polls at the bottom of every friend letter.
Speaker 3: Some of them are just goofy because we just feel
Speaker 3: like being goofy and goofy. Some of them help us
Speaker 3: to plan the content of our episodes and learn more
Speaker 3: about you guys. We just sent out a poll recently
Speaker 3: that asked how do you decide what to spend on
Speaker 3: when your values and your income don't align? This very
Speaker 3: episode title essentially, and sixty four percent of you do
Speaker 3: say that you prioritize what you will buy. We've got
Speaker 3: a very judicious group of people, yes' soving dirient level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's kind of what we're gonna kind of
Speaker 1: like form this episode to better help you prioritize. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a few other episodes to queue
Speaker 1: up after this one, episode three twenty eight What to
Speaker 1: do when you feel broke with a six figure income.
Speaker 1: This can really be any if you feel like you're
Speaker 1: making enough. Your budget says you're making enough to cover
Speaker 1: saving and expenses, but reality is not showing that. That's
Speaker 1: a really good episode to queue up. And then episode
Speaker 1: two seventy four, How to align your spending with your values.
Speaker 1: That is a big values based spending primer that is
Speaker 1: really a good foundation for what we're talking about here.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So this first article comes from Forbes and it
Speaker 3: is titled how to prioritize your money based on where
Speaker 3: you are in your financial life. And we want to
Speaker 3: go through a few of the things on this article
Speaker 3: because we think it's important to highlight if we're feeling
Speaker 3: as though our money and our income is not aligning,
Speaker 3: it's worth the refresher on what are some of the
Speaker 3: basics that we should be doing with our money can
Speaker 3: be doing with our money to be able to continue
Speaker 3: moving closer and closer to really aligning all of our decisions,
Speaker 3: including money decisions, with the things that we value, the
Speaker 3: lifestyle we want to be aiming at the person we
Speaker 3: want to become. So they begin by talking about just
Speaker 3: the foundation for those kind of just getting started and
Speaker 3: wondering what even should I be doing with my money?
Speaker 3: What are the priorities that are going to help me
Speaker 3: get to this spending in alignment with my values? And
Speaker 3: it includes the basics of financial literacy, like establishing an
Speaker 3: emergency fund. So they list an establishment of if you're
Speaker 3: just beginning about two to three thousand dollars in emergency
Speaker 3: savings to kind of kickstart what's going to come next
Speaker 3: for you. I think eventually we want to aim at
Speaker 3: an emergency savings that is larger than two to three thousand,
Speaker 3: something that is closer to three to six months of
Speaker 3: your basic living expenses, taking it into consideration your medical
Speaker 3: deductible some of these things that you might need access
Speaker 3: to cash, and you don't necessarily want to put some
Speaker 3: of these emergencies onto a credit card. This is that
Speaker 3: buffer that's going to help you. So the two to
Speaker 3: three thousand dollars is going to help with kind of
Speaker 3: some un first seen maybe car trouble or home or repair.
Speaker 3: But eventually we're going to want to get it larger
Speaker 3: than that, but it is a great place to start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these foundational these first three foundational things, these are
Speaker 1: more important than anything you value. So these are the
Speaker 1: things you want to stop. Like, nothing is more important
Speaker 1: than these, Nothing you value is more important than these
Speaker 1: three like foundational things. So stop what you're doing with
Speaker 1: your spending until you are getting until you have that
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars emergency savings, and hopefully it doesn't take
Speaker 1: you that long. If you if your income is a
Speaker 1: lot lower and your expenses are a lot lower, then
Speaker 1: your emergency savings doesn't have to be sky high. It
Speaker 1: may not have to be two or three thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: But getting something into a high yield savings account that's
Speaker 1: separate from your regular spending account that can't see set
Speaker 1: it forget it. That's super important. That's priority one. And
Speaker 1: then priority two is to take the free money that
Speaker 1: you get with your four oh one K match. So
Speaker 1: if that's if you have it available to you, if
Speaker 1: your employer offers a four oh one K match, to
Speaker 1: be contributing at least that much into your four oh
Speaker 1: one K. And if you're not sure, if you don't
Speaker 1: know how to set it up, then you can contact
Speaker 1: your HR department and they will walk you through it.
Speaker 1: A lot of employers are just auto en rolling people
Speaker 1: into the four oh one K with the match, so
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's going in there you don't
Speaker 1: even realize it. So that could be a super easy one.
Speaker 1: And then the third one is they're saying so prioritizing
Speaker 1: paying off debt with a high interest rate, and so
Speaker 1: this article is saying anything above six percent, and so
Speaker 1: we're because we really believe these foundations should be like
Speaker 1: first foremost, really go after them. I'm going to say
Speaker 1: ten anything double digits. So basically credit card debt, like
Speaker 1: just getting to a place where you're not in recurring
Speaker 1: credit card debt is so important. So doing something big, drastic,
Speaker 1: like you know that can get you out of that
Speaker 1: credit card debt, obviously not cashing out retirement accounts, but
Speaker 1: looking at your lifestyle and thinking, Okay, I can do
Speaker 1: this one thing and it will make a huge impact,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to do it. Those are the three things.
Speaker 1: I think that they're going to be more important than
Speaker 1: any monetary thing that we can love or value.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and once you've done those things, you consider you
Speaker 3: can consider yourself to have built the foundation of your
Speaker 3: finances and you can move beyond that or keep building
Speaker 3: onto that. And so some of the things that they
Speaker 3: then reference in this beyond the foundation stage is listing
Speaker 3: your financial priorities that matter to you. Most really common
Speaker 3: ones could be I want to buy a house, or
Speaker 3: I want to grow my family, or I want to
Speaker 3: get married have a wedding, and putting a monetary value
Speaker 3: to all of those things. If it's a home, do
Speaker 3: you want to be able to put twenty percent down?
Speaker 3: Then calculate what twenty percent of the type of house
Speaker 3: that you can afford might be. We also know that
Speaker 3: for first time home buyers you don't have to do
Speaker 3: that either. So depending on your situation, what is the
Speaker 3: amount that you want to have for a down payment?
Speaker 3: If you want to start a family. What do you
Speaker 3: anticipate the parental costs are going to be, the medical costs,
Speaker 3: the cost to welcome a new human into the world
Speaker 3: and into your home. They're listing five to ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: I'm going to imagine it's a little bit more than
Speaker 3: that for immediate expenses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that's that's about right.
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, but yeah, depends on your medical deductible. How
Speaker 3: much do you need for a wedding, So just yeah,
Speaker 3: what are your financial goals? List them out and attach
Speaker 3: a monetary amount to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so these are this is where we start
Speaker 1: getting into your values. These are the values. Your financial
Speaker 1: priorities should be the four f's sort of thing. So family, friends,
Speaker 1: faith fulfilling work. If you're going after those things, then
Speaker 1: you are going to have your financial priorities are going
Speaker 1: to reflect those big things. So we're you know, we're
Speaker 1: saving for the home, We're saving for the baby, We're
Speaker 1: saving maybe to you know, quit our job, like build
Speaker 1: a business, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: I like how they put a calculator in here as well,
Speaker 3: so they link to this savings calculator. I think a
Speaker 3: lot of times we can kind of choose a number
Speaker 3: and then not totally know how to get there. And
Speaker 3: there is this handy dandy thing on the internet where
Speaker 3: you can type in what is your goal amount. So
Speaker 3: let's say I want to save five thousand dollars to
Speaker 3: be able to take a couple of trips next year,
Speaker 3: So I've got twelve months. You can type in the
Speaker 3: time period in which you want to save that amount
Speaker 3: within months, if you have any current savings that you're
Speaker 3: already putting towards that goal. And then if these the
Speaker 3: money is going to be in an account that's returning
Speaker 3: you like an annual rate of return. Honestly, for checking accounts,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be much. And they are talking
Speaker 3: how you don't want to invest for short term or
Speaker 3: mid term savings goals in the stock market. That's more
Speaker 3: so we're talking retirement investing. But if you're using a
Speaker 3: high yield savings account like the one at CIT Forrugal
Speaker 3: Friends podcast dot com slash cit, you could earn an
Speaker 3: annual percentage yield back on the money that you put
Speaker 3: in if you don't need to touch it for a
Speaker 3: certain amount of time, and we do recommend that, but
Speaker 3: if it's a very short term goal, it's just going
Speaker 3: to be sitting in a checking account. It's not going
Speaker 3: to earn you much all that to say, you plug
Speaker 3: in all these numbers and it spits back out a
Speaker 3: monthly required savings. So if I wanted to save five
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in one year and essentially not banking on
Speaker 3: any percentage return on my money, it's going to be
Speaker 3: four hundred and twenty nine dollars a month that I'd
Speaker 3: have to save. So helpful to kind of put it
Speaker 3: into perspective, how much am I going to have to
Speaker 3: set aside? What might I have to rearrange in my
Speaker 3: spending currently to be able to achieve this goal?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And then the third part, the most important is
Speaker 1: to prioritize these goals based on their importance. So if
Speaker 1: you don't, I mean, if you don't have unlimited income,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to say for all of
Speaker 1: these at once, and we don't think you should even
Speaker 1: if you do have the income. We've seen time and
Speaker 1: time again, when you set your focus to one thing
Speaker 1: at a time, you achieve it faster, and you achieve
Speaker 1: things that you know are really in direction of where
Speaker 1: you want to go, that you can really take the
Speaker 1: time time to make sure that your those second, third,
Speaker 1: fourth priorities are actually priorities and they are where they
Speaker 1: want to be, because a lot of times they can shift.
Speaker 1: And when you're trying to put all your money towards
Speaker 1: all these financial goals all at once, you can sometimes
Speaker 1: realize you've been saving for something that you don't actually
Speaker 1: need to be saving as as aggressively for, or maybe
Speaker 1: at all. Uh So try to so list out these
Speaker 1: things first, we'd say, like list out the four fs
Speaker 1: and and under each category, define what that is for you,
Speaker 1: Define what matters in there for you, and then think
Speaker 1: about the financial goals you're gonna need to achieve to
Speaker 1: get to each. So for me, when we were paying
Speaker 1: off debt, I wasn't into the idea of paying off debt.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to become debt free. I had no
Speaker 1: desire to become debt free to say I don't have debt.
Speaker 1: That was Travis. Travis just didn't like debt. For me,
Speaker 1: it was wanting to foster eventually, we want to foster kids.
Speaker 1: I worked in group homes for years, and foster care
Speaker 1: has always been something that I'm super passionate about. So
Speaker 1: I know how hard it is to foster. I know
Speaker 1: the time required is much more and the energy and
Speaker 1: emotions required is much more than a lot of people
Speaker 1: realize going into it. And so Travis really like encouraged
Speaker 1: me that, like, think of how easy, how much easier
Speaker 1: this really hard thing will be to do if you
Speaker 1: do not also have the pressure of making a debt payment,
Speaker 1: therefore having to be beholden too a job that you
Speaker 1: may not want, and having all these responsibilities around it
Speaker 1: because of the debt. And that is what got me
Speaker 1: to that financial goal. For me, It was not paying
Speaker 1: off debt because I quote unquote should It was because
Speaker 1: I had that family goal and that fulfilling work goal
Speaker 1: to push me in that financial direction. So that's why
Speaker 1: it's important to first prioritize the things money can't buy,
Speaker 1: and then list out the financial goals you're going to
Speaker 1: need to accomplish to get to those things.
Speaker 3: This next article comes from Psychology Today, and it's you
Speaker 3: can't do it all, so prioritize your values. This one
Speaker 3: is not explicitly about financial values or prioritization, but it
Speaker 3: certainly intersects with all those pieces, because again, we're whole
Speaker 3: people and just like Jen was describing the four fs,
Speaker 3: is what can really guide our spending and our financial goals.
Speaker 3: And so when we can really understand ourselves, know what
Speaker 3: we've value, we can kind of plan everything else around that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was written by near Il, which is who's
Speaker 1: a really really great author. I love his work. So
Speaker 1: he's he's best known for like productivity. But and I
Speaker 1: think while in this article he's talking about like core values,
Speaker 1: we're going to kind of restructure it to be about
Speaker 1: things you love to buy. So maybe the things outside
Speaker 1: of the things money can't buy. That next step is
Speaker 1: just like I like buying lattes because there is literally
Speaker 1: there's no deeper meaningful reason. There's no like childhood trauma
Speaker 1: I'm trying to correct by buying a latte.
Speaker 3: I just like it.
Speaker 1: It's like it's that stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So they first describe converting your values into time,
Speaker 3: so with what we've already talked about here of listing
Speaker 3: out and categorizing faith, family, friends, fulfilling work, the things
Speaker 3: that you value most, the things you want to do.
Speaker 3: And I love the way that this particular article describes values.
Speaker 3: They summarize it as who you want to become the
Speaker 3: type of person that you want to be can also
Speaker 3: help us get at well, then what does that say
Speaker 3: about what I value? And then be able to talk
Speaker 3: about from there, what are the tasks that are going
Speaker 3: to get me there? So, like you just mentioned, Jen,
Speaker 3: debt payoff is one of the things that will help
Speaker 3: get me there. For me, flexibility with work is what
Speaker 3: helps get me the time that I want with the
Speaker 3: people that I love. But there's obviously monetary decisions that
Speaker 3: have to go with that of how do I make
Speaker 3: more or how do I live at this amount and
Speaker 3: be content with that and it be enough. So all
Speaker 3: of these things do eventually tight into our money, but
Speaker 3: then identifying what tasks will help you move towards that
Speaker 3: and again prioritizing from there and recognizing that that could
Speaker 3: mean that a task or a goal takes you longer
Speaker 3: than you thought it was going to take, or you
Speaker 3: are deciding that that's not for you right now, you'll
Speaker 3: revisit it later, or you're going to try to determine
Speaker 3: how to do more with less because of the various
Speaker 3: things that you have listed out. They talk about categorizing
Speaker 3: things into work, relationships, and self So still a little
Speaker 3: bit jacent to the four fs of faith, family, friends,
Speaker 3: fulfilling work, so whatever kind of seems to resonate with you,
Speaker 3: but listing out your values in each of those areas
Speaker 3: and the monetary pieces that would be attached to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the talk about like time boxing. It's
Speaker 1: very like productivities. But I do find that I think
Speaker 1: that I am capable of more in a time block
Speaker 1: than I am actually capable of. And the more that
Speaker 1: I time block, the more I realize what my actual
Speaker 1: mental and physical capabilities are. So instead of feeling like
Speaker 1: a failure for not being able to get everything I
Speaker 1: think I should get done in a time block, I
Speaker 1: can then either give myself more time for things or
Speaker 1: I can expect less of myself in a time block.
Speaker 1: If you're not measuring that, then you don't. Then you
Speaker 1: just keep feeling guilty for not getting everything done that
Speaker 1: you feel like you should get done in a day,
Speaker 1: Like it's just this continuous like guilt. But if you
Speaker 1: can measure it through this, then it becomes more of
Speaker 1: like a learning experience. And maybe that's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a pivot because I don't have any like tie
Speaker 1: back to money, But I do appreciate the time boxing well.
Speaker 3: I think that some of what this is getting at
Speaker 3: is the reality that so often what we value we
Speaker 3: don't have to spend money on. So it's a little
Speaker 3: bit of a bait and switch on our title of
Speaker 3: what to do when your money and your values don't
Speaker 3: align well. In reality, so often we can engage in
Speaker 3: our values without spending money. So we will most likely
Speaker 3: find that as we actually list out our values, there
Speaker 3: are things we can do that really aren't costing us much,
Speaker 3: and we can get a lot out of this life
Speaker 3: without needing to hemorrhage cash. And we can realize, oh,
Speaker 3: I didn't actually need to spend in order to have community,
Speaker 3: spend time with friends, have an adventure, or I didn't
Speaker 3: need to spend as much as I thought that I
Speaker 3: needed to. Again, not advocating for deprivation or never spending,
Speaker 3: but recognizing that we can get at these things. I
Speaker 3: can seek to learn a language, read more, spend time
Speaker 3: with family, have trips, that all of it doesn't need
Speaker 3: to cost anything or much that maybe I would have
Speaker 3: thought it needed to if I didn't engage in this
Speaker 3: process of first identifying values and backtracking from there.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, but there will be things outside of your
Speaker 1: values that outside of your you know your core four
Speaker 1: that you want to buy. And so they give some good,
Speaker 1: like tried and true techniques for prioritizing competing values. So
Speaker 1: the first is give seasons to your life, and we
Speaker 1: say that all the time. Embrace your seasons. But you
Speaker 1: can create essentially like time limits, time limits seasons. So
Speaker 1: they say like ninety days to a year. I would
Speaker 1: say probably closer to ninety days play into your your
Speaker 1: limits for instant gratification. For a lot of people, a
Speaker 1: year is too far into the future to feel like reality.
Speaker 1: And depending on where you are in your life, if
Speaker 1: a month for you feels like a month, then maybe
Speaker 1: three months is okay. If a month for you feels
Speaker 1: like it's a second, then you know, maybe six months.
Speaker 1: Whatever stage of life you're in, however fast you feel
Speaker 1: like it's moving, gauge it. But you can set these
Speaker 1: limits to where you focus on one thing before moving
Speaker 1: to the next. So if a vacation is something that
Speaker 1: you really want to prioritize, then setting a ninety day
Speaker 1: almost challenge for yourself to save the amount you need
Speaker 1: for that vacation, that's a really good season to implement.
Speaker 1: And then you know that you're not just arbitrarily saving,
Speaker 1: you're saving with a deadline. And so maybe something comes
Speaker 1: up and you are, you know, tempted to spend at target,
Speaker 1: and you have the choice to buy the planner or
Speaker 1: to save the money for your vacation. Without with having
Speaker 1: this self imposed limit, it's easier for you to say
Speaker 1: to saving versus spending instead of if you just had
Speaker 1: like I'm in general in theory saving for this vacation,
Speaker 1: or I have the rest of the year to save
Speaker 1: for it because I'm saving for five things at the
Speaker 1: same time. No, if you've got five things to save for,
Speaker 1: split them up into two month increments and just save
Speaker 1: for them. That way, it will it will be much
Speaker 1: more doable for that instant gratification part of your brain.
Speaker 3: I love this tip and I think it's it can
Speaker 3: make sense probably for a lot of us, because our
Speaker 3: life is lived in seasons. Maybe you get paid weekly
Speaker 3: or bi weekly or monthly. That's kind of a version
Speaker 3: of a financial season. We go through actual weather seasons
Speaker 3: and seasons of the school year, and so we can
Speaker 3: kind of harness that lived reality to our money and
Speaker 3: be able to say, Okay, well, what do I want
Speaker 3: to do with my money in this season and use
Speaker 3: that as a goal too. Yeah, the next one on
Speaker 3: here is to identify what's urgent. We can ask ourselves
Speaker 3: what matters most right now. There could be five to
Speaker 3: ten things that you want that all feel really important,
Speaker 3: But what is the most important? What if nine of
Speaker 3: them had to leave, what could you absolutely not do without?
Speaker 3: And that's kind of related to the foundations that we
Speaker 3: were talking about, Like the most urgent if you don't
Speaker 3: have it yet, is a two thousand dollars emergency savings
Speaker 3: and paying down high interest credit card debt. But then
Speaker 3: beyond that, what's most urgent? For Eric and I? Recently
Speaker 3: we've been spending a lot of money on just random
Speaker 3: medical costs. Both of us have kind of come into
Speaker 3: a season recently where there's just been a lot going
Speaker 3: on and it has really depleted what we had saved
Speaker 3: for our deduct the bull which is great that we
Speaker 3: had it, but now that's the priority to begin saving
Speaker 3: again to replenish what we've spent. So, yes, I want
Speaker 3: to go on vacations. Yes, maybe eventually we'll want to
Speaker 3: buy a second car. There's still more repairs we want
Speaker 3: to do on the house, but this is the most
Speaker 3: urgent because our physical health, physical bodies need to be
Speaker 3: there to even be able to enjoy a vacation or
Speaker 3: a working door to the patio. So that's just an example,
Speaker 3: kind of low hanging fruit of what that looks like
Speaker 3: for me to identify urgency.
Speaker 4: M hmm.
Speaker 1: Next is to use the bubble sort method. So I
Speaker 1: had never heard of this. So list your values on
Speaker 1: a horizontal grid and then ask yourself which of the
Speaker 1: two values is most important, and then move the most
Speaker 1: important to the left. Then compare the second and third
Speaker 1: and move the most important to the left, and can
Speaker 1: you until your values are in order of importance from
Speaker 1: left to right. So with your spending, this is a
Speaker 1: little bit more like honestly, don't know how you do
Speaker 1: this with core values either. I think it's a little
Speaker 1: easy to say, hard to practice. But with your spending
Speaker 1: not everything. You're not going to be saving for the vacation,
Speaker 1: saving for the medical procedure one hundred percent of the time, right,
Speaker 1: you need to also balance that or hold the tension
Speaker 1: of that with instant gratification type stuff like small rewards,
Speaker 1: So how do we decide what's worth it? Like in
Speaker 1: your small rewards and what's not And so some of
Speaker 1: it is being aware of marketing and advertising, knowing like
Speaker 1: what desires are being manufactured for you and what your
Speaker 1: true desires are getting swept up by all the advertising
Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok, and using those physical barriers like
Speaker 1: the thirty day cart, you know, keeping something in your
Speaker 1: cart for thirty days, but also just kind of going
Speaker 1: through your ninety day transaction inventory or even a month
Speaker 1: if this is just something you wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: you know, gloss overdo kind of semi quickly for the
Speaker 1: last month and look at what your expenses are. What
Speaker 1: expenses got you the result that you wanted them to get, like,
Speaker 1: what gave you the happiness you were after whatever, And
Speaker 1: what expenses do you not even remember what were a
Speaker 1: result of poor planning or et cetera, et cetera. So
Speaker 1: go back and look at your transactions to see what
Speaker 1: which ones were meaningful and prioritize your past expenses and
Speaker 1: that'll be very indicative of how you should spend moving forward.
Speaker 3: The next tip on technique here for prioritization is to
Speaker 3: tackle the values that are simple to fulfill first. So
Speaker 3: similar to when we go declutter our houses. We don't
Speaker 3: want to begin with the most complicated area that feels overwhelming.
Speaker 3: We don't want to go first to our memory box
Speaker 3: and start slicing and dicing photos and meaningful cards. We
Speaker 3: want to go to maybe one junk drawer or.
Speaker 1: The packet drawer, the back drawer.
Speaker 3: Yes, the food drawer. So we just eat it and
Speaker 3: declutter it in that way.
Speaker 1: Eat snacks. That's the easiest way to declutter. Eat snacks.
Speaker 3: But if you've got this whole list of things, start
Speaker 3: with what's simple too. And that may not mean this
Speaker 3: is going to be a little bit like I'm talking
Speaker 3: out of both sides of my mouth. It may not
Speaker 3: mean that it is the biggest priority, but if it
Speaker 3: can give you a quick win, then great. So let's
Speaker 3: say getting yourself life insurance is on your list of things,
Speaker 3: that this is something I really want to do with
Speaker 3: my money, and it might not feel like the highest priority,
Speaker 3: but it's something easy to accomplish, and you can find
Speaker 3: an inexpensive term life insurance policy, get it done, automate it.
Speaker 3: If investing is really important to you, and maybe you
Speaker 3: don't have all of the money to be able to
Speaker 3: invest right now, but you can start small and you
Speaker 3: can invest twenty to one hundred bucks a month, put
Speaker 3: it on automation. Start there that it doesn't take you
Speaker 3: a lot of time and isn't going to necessarily cost
Speaker 3: you a lot of time, energy or money going forward.
Speaker 3: Give yourself some wins to kind of keep the momentum going,
Speaker 3: and then identify, Okay, now what comes next. Tackle the
Speaker 3: maybe the smallest debt first, even if it isn't necessarily
Speaker 3: the most high interest, although I am going to encourage
Speaker 3: you high interest at first, but give yourself some wins
Speaker 3: and be able to take advantage of seeing that and
Speaker 3: allow it to encourage you to do the next thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do what you need to do. The first thing
Speaker 1: I thought of was like, don't save for the vacation first,
Speaker 1: it's start. If you're new to prioritizing your values with
Speaker 1: a limited income, then start small. Maybe you just say
Speaker 1: for a date night and that means a dinner out
Speaker 1: and a babysitter. That is the first thing we say
Speaker 1: for because that can be saved for quick, and that's
Speaker 1: a place where you can spend in alignment with your
Speaker 1: values and see the result of that very quickly. And
Speaker 1: once you get that, once you're able to afford a
Speaker 1: beautiful dinner out with your partner and no kids. Like,
Speaker 1: once you experience that, you want more of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want fewer planners from Target and you want more
Speaker 1: of that good stuff.
Speaker 3: And the same strategies that you implemented to be able
Speaker 3: to set money aside for that will be the exact
Speaker 3: same strategies for say for maybe a larger goal or
Speaker 3: wanting to set even more money aside quicker so that
Speaker 3: you don't have to wait so long to achieve this goal.
Speaker 3: And that's where all the stuff of earning more, paying
Speaker 3: attention to the heavy hitters of our spending, and really
Speaker 3: honing in.
Speaker 1: Well that would be helped leads us to our last
Speaker 1: part is follow the eighty twenty rule. And so he says,
Speaker 1: you know, identify the twenty percent of your values that
Speaker 1: contribute to eighty percent of what you want. For us,
Speaker 1: we use the eighty twenty rule in saving essentially. So
Speaker 1: I was talking to Haley from a price of avocado
Speaker 1: toast and I and she was saying, like, when they
Speaker 1: started paying off their debt, they sold like a high
Speaker 1: price like paid off car and got a smaller one,
Speaker 1: so they had like ten grand and that immediately paid
Speaker 1: off all their credit card debt. That and one other thing,
Speaker 1: and that was the thing that gave them the motivation
Speaker 1: to say, like, oh my gosh, I think we can
Speaker 1: pay off a debt. Before there was so much debt,
Speaker 1: they didn't think they could. But with a big quick
Speaker 1: win like that, that's what set them off. And that
Speaker 1: was the Transportation is one of those eighty twenty things.
Speaker 1: When you make one decision in a category like housing
Speaker 1: and transportation, you can make so few other decisions and
Speaker 1: the impact doesn't matter. And so that's why we like
Speaker 1: harp On, especially housing and transportation so much, because those
Speaker 1: are decisions that if you make those right, you make
Speaker 1: them once every five, ten, fifteen years, and they make
Speaker 1: a difference every day whether you're making the right decision
Speaker 1: or not in the day to day. Because you made
Speaker 1: one decision right, it impacts, you know, for decades later.
Speaker 1: And so it really gives us like when you're focusing
Speaker 1: on the twenty percent that makes the biggest impact, then
Speaker 1: you can just the eighty percent of the time, you
Speaker 1: can just kind of be at rest, right, Like you
Speaker 1: don't have to be constantly overanalyzing all of your saving
Speaker 1: decisions and so that's what we think. And with spending again,
Speaker 1: if you're doing twenty percent of it right in the
Speaker 1: highest impact areas, eighty percent can just be whatever and
Speaker 1: you will still be okay.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful. Do you know what I think? Makes two
Speaker 3: percent of our effort but ninety eight percent of our
Speaker 3: return and reward.
Speaker 1: It is an oversized return for the effort, for sure.
Speaker 5: The bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
Speaker 5: the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 5: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died,
Speaker 5: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Dust bills, Buffalo bills, Bill clon.
Speaker 2: This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 4: Hagee and Jill. This is Amber from East Tennessee. My
Speaker 4: bill of the week is actually my rent because normally
Speaker 4: this time of year rent goes up, but mine actually
Speaker 4: went down by six dollars. I was so excited because
Speaker 4: I was really stressing out about it, and now I
Speaker 4: don't have to worry as bad. Thanks. I really love
Speaker 4: what you do here.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. Take the wins. When you're expecting something to
Speaker 3: increase in price and it decreases in price, even by
Speaker 3: six dollars, But if you were anticipating it increased by
Speaker 3: one hundred, then that's it's a big span.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, we just renegotiated for our tenants to
Speaker 1: stay in our house and I was trying to increase
Speaker 1: it and all they did was like, hey, we want
Speaker 1: to stay, but we really needed to stay the same.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, okay, but has a landlord.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to deal with all of I
Speaker 1: don't it's going to save me money, honestly, Like it's
Speaker 1: going to cost me that twelve hundred all of the
Speaker 1: move out and the time to look for another tenant
Speaker 1: and stuff like you know, I'm so negotiate with your
Speaker 1: landlord and yes.
Speaker 3: Wow, hopefully they're not listening to this. They're gonna call
Speaker 3: you up. Can you reduce our rent by six dollars?
Speaker 3: Like Amber, this is very exciting. Amber, thanks for thinking
Speaker 3: to call us and celebrate this little win. Here, if
Speaker 3: you all want to submit your bill of the week,
Speaker 3: if it has to do with something you thought was
Speaker 3: going to increase but it decreased instead and you're just
Speaker 3: over the moon about it, or again, if you're a
Speaker 3: human who was born with the name Bill. We just
Speaker 3: love to hear from you, Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 3: slash Bill. We can't wait for it, and now it's
Speaker 3: time for around you. All right.
Speaker 1: So this this question is kind of like tongue in cheek,
Speaker 1: But is there a time you really wanted to spend
Speaker 1: but your finances wouldn't allow it? What did you do? Jill?
Speaker 3: I did write this question?
Speaker 6: Good for you, Jill, and I I do feel like
Speaker 6: all the time, like all that's why she wrote this
Speaker 6: because she wanted to answer it, and you should.
Speaker 1: You should be able to ask questions that you want
Speaker 1: to want to answer just because you want to share
Speaker 1: the answer to that.
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing though, too. You love vulnerability, and
Speaker 3: I feel like this is right on par with this.
Speaker 3: I think we love to say how we have gotten
Speaker 3: to a place of guilt free spending, but I think
Speaker 3: it's important to still acknowledge that there are times that
Speaker 3: I want things that it just isn't for me, and
Speaker 3: I can feel okay about that. Again, it doesn't feel
Speaker 3: like deprivation. Sometimes it feels like sacrifice. I've been able
Speaker 3: to implement creativity to get the things that are important
Speaker 3: to me. But yeah, even though I would qualify myself
Speaker 3: as a little bit more of a saver than a spender,
Speaker 3: I don't really struggle with impulse spending. But there's still
Speaker 3: things I want and it's just like, yeah, that's not
Speaker 3: necessarily in my spending plan. So, for example, right now
Speaker 3: you've heard us talk about this. Jen and I are
Speaker 3: working on a book. We're in the throes of it.
Speaker 3: We're in the deep, deep trenches.
Speaker 1: My brain hurts of it.
Speaker 3: And because of this, we don't really have the time
Speaker 3: to travel as much. Like this, Jen asked me, Hey,
Speaker 3: what's your schedule for next month? We need to update
Speaker 3: our calendar. Blah blah blah. I'm like, we're writing a book.
Speaker 3: I'm not going anywhere. No one's coming here, We're not
Speaker 3: doing anything.
Speaker 1: Sa We're so used to her blocking out half of
Speaker 1: the month for recording, so when she says she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going anywhere, I'm like, oh my gosh, you're right.
Speaker 1: We are writing nothing. We are actually writing a book.
Speaker 3: I am just I'm just sequestered to my home and
Speaker 3: and that can feel different to me. And also there's
Speaker 3: been some other demands for our money that have put
Speaker 3: a bit of a financial pinch on us, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: What that means is I had to take a deeper
Speaker 3: look at what I really like about travel. Like I
Speaker 3: always say, travel is a value, so I make room
Speaker 3: for it, and it still is, but what exactly of it?
Speaker 3: And I think one of the things that I realized
Speaker 3: was the trying new things, the feeling like I'm having
Speaker 3: an adventure, the getting out of the house, and then
Speaker 3: to realize I can still have that. I can get
Speaker 3: all of those things without needing to buy a plane
Speaker 3: ticket or get a hotel. I can find those things
Speaker 3: right here in my area. Hear me. I'm definitely going
Speaker 3: to be traveling again in the future, but it's created
Speaker 3: kind of this fun challenge to see what are the
Speaker 3: things that I can do within driving distance and explore
Speaker 3: within my area. So Eric and I have checked out
Speaker 3: a state park that's like two hours away that we've
Speaker 3: been wanting to check out. I have followed more accounts
Speaker 3: on Instagram of fun things to do in Florida. We
Speaker 3: found a race track, an amateur race track in our
Speaker 3: area where they do bus races in figure eights. And
Speaker 3: if that's not an adventure and an adrenaline rush.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else is.
Speaker 3: And so we've been to this race track that you
Speaker 3: pay in cash and it's really inexpensive to go, and
Speaker 3: just exploring some things that are pretty low cost but
Speaker 3: really fun. And I didn't know about until this new
Speaker 3: kind of experience in my life where I've got these
Speaker 3: boundaries and these parameters that are telling me that life
Speaker 3: can't look exactly maybe how it did look a year ago.
Speaker 3: But then to find ways to lean into that has
Speaker 3: been really thrilling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you kind of hit the nail on
Speaker 1: the head, Like for the purpose of this episode is
Speaker 1: to take like a critical look on the things that
Speaker 1: you quote unquote value and really dig deep to think
Speaker 1: about what are the things about those things that I'm
Speaker 1: actually after. Because I say this all the time, like
Speaker 1: people are like I buy experiences, not things, and they're
Speaker 1: talking about traveling vacations to these destinations. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's not what it means. You don't want to travel.
Speaker 1: You want X X or X, Like you want the
Speaker 1: things that travel brings, and you can have those things
Speaker 1: an other way. Traveling is not bad. Like we're going
Speaker 1: to Mexico in June. I love it, but like I
Speaker 1: am not a big traveler because I've identified like the
Speaker 1: things that I want, I don't have to like get
Speaker 1: on a plane for most of the time. Sometimes I do,
Speaker 1: and I will do that, but I'm not like a
Speaker 1: digital nomad traveler because I don't I can get experiences
Speaker 1: without taking a road trip or get on a plane.
Speaker 1: Those are actually my least favorite things about traveling planes
Speaker 1: and cars.
Speaker 3: I love a plane ride because it is the only
Speaker 3: time I can truly disconnect, Like I don't have Internet,
Speaker 3: I can't text you or call you. I just feel
Speaker 3: complete permission to disengage. Lane rides. Yeah, well that's okay.
Speaker 3: We can enjoy different things, but for now I'm staying
Speaker 3: put and I'm enjoying it. Yeah. Anyways, do you have
Speaker 3: an example, Jen, Oh.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I kind of forgot about it because I got
Speaker 1: really invested in.
Speaker 3: Your You're listening so well, you're active listening.
Speaker 1: Yes, but I think, like, gosh, I let me see
Speaker 1: if I can remember it. When I really wanted to
Speaker 1: spend but my finances so okay. So I did want
Speaker 1: to take a cruise with Kai and Travis this year,
Speaker 1: but with the end of the renovation nearing, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to like, I just want to have enough in
Speaker 1: the bank account to accommodate any unforeseen things happening, and
Speaker 1: they do, and they do, right, they have a reasonable Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we said no, even though it's something I've wanted
Speaker 1: to do for a year, Like I've wanted over a year.
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to do this, and I didn't intentionally
Speaker 1: say for it because all the savings have been going
Speaker 1: to the renovation. It's just not the season for it.
Speaker 1: It's just not And then yeah with the book, like
Speaker 1: it's just I haven't had the capacity to plan for
Speaker 1: any other financial goals other than this renovation and all
Speaker 1: of my babies dayg medical expenses, gosh, this kid. So
Speaker 1: so yeah, like we just had to decide that it
Speaker 1: was not something normally we would do this stuff like
Speaker 1: when we get quote unquote distributions from the business, which
Speaker 1: sounds so not for business candidates, when we pay ourselves
Speaker 1: a living wage. But it's just like not where I
Speaker 1: budgeted our distribution this time around, which is how are you?
Speaker 3: How are you managing that though? Like you wanted to
Speaker 3: go on a cruise with your family and you're realizing,
Speaker 3: I just need more, I need that money to just
Speaker 3: stay in the account.
Speaker 1: Well, I use my comforter to cry into. That's why
Speaker 1: I wash it regularly. But when I'm not doing that,
Speaker 1: I am. I think we might go to a Disney World,
Speaker 1: just Travis and I to like the after they have
Speaker 1: an after hours party with shorter lines and Travis hat's lines.
Speaker 3: So which for most people going to Disney World would
Speaker 3: be the more expensive option than a cruise, but for you,
Speaker 3: being a Florida resident a day's drive of Disney.
Speaker 1: Right, it is actually it is actually cheaper. So that
Speaker 1: is maybe what we will do instead, Okay, But other
Speaker 1: than that, I'm just kind of trying to, like, you know,
Speaker 1: grip my teeth and get through it.
Speaker 3: It's lessons and contentment, I do think, and that's an
Speaker 3: okay lesson to engage in. Yeah, thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 3: We really are enjoying reading your reviews. Speaking of things
Speaker 3: we can do that don't cost us money, reading your
Speaker 3: reviews and for you writing reviews, that's the way you
Speaker 3: can support us without spending money. We really liked this
Speaker 3: one from teeg in one four nine two The Perfect
Speaker 3: Frugality Podcast, five stars, longtime listener who still enjoys every
Speaker 3: new episode episode. Food full of relevant tips on how
Speaker 3: to enjoy a frugal life, whether as a single person
Speaker 3: or with a large family. Even when I think the
Speaker 3: episode subject won't apply to me, I always hear accessible
Speaker 3: tips with a bit of humor thrown in. I especially
Speaker 3: love the tips and meal planning episodes. Keep up the
Speaker 3: good work.
Speaker 1: I don't know how crying into my comforter is funny
Speaker 1: to you take it.
Speaker 3: And I'm laughing.
Speaker 1: Guys, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show,
Speaker 1: please take a minute to leave a review. It would
Speaker 1: be helpful if it was five stars. But we want
Speaker 1: you to be honest, and.
Speaker 3: Be honest in the email.
Speaker 1: Yeah, remember I cry so when you're writing these reviews.
Speaker 3: See next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: You did something really nice today that I'm excited about.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm excited. Well, I did it partly for me,
Speaker 1: but mostly for you. I was in I was in
Speaker 1: publics this morning buying my lunch, and I saw I
Speaker 1: was going to buy some Jalipano kettle chips because we
Speaker 1: finished your bag yesterday. And but as on my way
Speaker 1: to the chip aisle, I passed an end cap with
Speaker 1: chips and saw this special public's brand Jalapanio popper chips
Speaker 1: kettle cooked, and I'm like, I, well, we have to know,
Speaker 1: we gotta know, we have to know. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to.
Speaker 3: Know, me too. And that was so kind and thoughtful
Speaker 3: to bring chippies because we realized yesterday when we ate
Speaker 3: sandwiches together here that because that's a perk, that's a
Speaker 3: perk of this situation. We can work together, we can
Speaker 3: have lunch together, we can chit chat and laugh cry
Speaker 3: into our comforters that we feel it is a tragedy
Speaker 3: to serve sandwiches without chips. You've got to have the chippies.
Speaker 1: It's really it's rude to serve a sandwich without chippies.
Speaker 3: And so you should be on the watch list if
Speaker 3: you're just out here eating sandwiches no chippies.
Speaker 1: Well, I was saying, like, I will at home, will
Speaker 1: make myself a sandwich without chippies. But that's a self
Speaker 1: worth issue. I would never treat my friends the way
Speaker 1: I treat myself, and I will always add the chippies
Speaker 1: for them.
Speaker 3: We really work on that. Deserving of chippies.
Speaker 1: I deserve them, and I just need to like continually,
Speaker 1: like believe that just.
Speaker 3: A little crunch with the sandwich.
Speaker 1: If somebody could write a review and just like expound
Speaker 1: on how chip worthy like is like five chippies.
Speaker 3: Like give us five chips, five chippies, and don't come
Speaker 3: at me with carrot sticks and apple slices. You can
Speaker 3: have those too, but you need the chippies.
Speaker 1: You need chippies.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes,