Speaker 1: Episode two thirty six is episode one one, Why You
Speaker 1: Need a Budget with Jesse Meekom. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity,
Speaker 1: rice and liver with your life. Here your host Jen
Speaker 1: and Jill m. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we
Speaker 1: are re airing a listener favorite from several years ago,
Speaker 1: almost two years ago, where we will follow up with
Speaker 1: some lightning round statements. You'll find, especially Jills to be entertaining.
Speaker 1: But the bulk of it is our interview with the
Speaker 1: creator of You Need a Budget Software or why nap
Speaker 1: for short, Jesse Meekum. Let's get back into it. Well,
Speaker 1: but first you know a sponsor. Here you go more sponsors.
Speaker 1: This one's brought to us by Mice and Men, just
Speaker 1: a small, tiny collection of mice. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a few paired with a grouping of average men have
Speaker 1: joined their money's together to sponsor today's episode. They had
Speaker 1: highly organized goals and objectives for sponsoring other more successful podcasts,
Speaker 1: but you know what they say about the best laid
Speaker 1: plans of Mice and Men, So here they are to
Speaker 1: support our message about our free e book, check it
Speaker 1: out at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book
Speaker 1: to get your free copy with over two hundred money
Speaker 1: saving tips. You're gonna love it because your plans are
Speaker 1: going to be better than mice and men's plans. And
Speaker 1: if you're wondering if the sponsors have gotten better since
Speaker 1: we first aired this episode, yes, you'll be sorely disappointed
Speaker 1: they have. We are reaching and stretching for creativity, but
Speaker 1: you know right, we are still bringing you some solid
Speaker 1: resources in the you'll love the episode much more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But if you want to queue up a few other
Speaker 1: episodes that we have released since we first aired this
Speaker 1: episode about budgeting, this is a great one. But we
Speaker 1: also have episode two eight which is budgeting Basics one
Speaker 1: eight six how to budget without Deprivation. That one's a
Speaker 1: very popular one that will probably make it into the replaylist.
Speaker 1: And then episode one seventy five psychological tricks for sticking
Speaker 1: to a budget. So those are some of our favorite
Speaker 1: and most popular budgeting episodes. So two oh eight cum
Speaker 1: up to play next. But first let's revisit this really
Speaker 1: good episode with with Jesse. We've got four rules for
Speaker 1: successful budgeting that you are going to that we still
Speaker 1: apply to this day. Let's get into it. Jesse, welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're so thrilled to talk with you and here just
Speaker 1: all of your wisdom and insight about budgeting. As we
Speaker 1: said when we weren't recording yet, you have quite a
Speaker 1: cult following and I cannot tell you. We're about two
Speaker 1: years into this Frugal Friends podcasts, and I have had
Speaker 1: so many people when I tell them about my podcast
Speaker 1: immediately jumped to have you heard of winehap? Okay, so
Speaker 1: I have, So I've heard of it, and so now
Speaker 1: I'm so thrilled to have you on. We are really
Speaker 1: excited about getting into what you call the four rules
Speaker 1: for successful Budgeting. I think that we can't talk enough
Speaker 1: about budgeting. When we think we've moved beyond it, we've
Speaker 1: got to come back and revisit it. So we want
Speaker 1: to hear from you how you approach it, what your
Speaker 1: ideas are on this, and just kind of give us
Speaker 1: a general layout with what budgeting looks like, how to
Speaker 1: do it successfully. So your first one is give every
Speaker 1: dollar a job. Can you tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that. Yeah, the first the first rule is well,
Speaker 1: the other three rules that will get to are all
Speaker 1: kind of derivatives of that rule. So this is the
Speaker 1: rule if there were just one. Um. And essentially, what
Speaker 1: we're trying to do is just introduce the idea of
Speaker 1: trade offs for people right away out of the gate.
Speaker 1: It's something that people are less familiar with doing once
Speaker 1: they become an adult. So kids are really good at
Speaker 1: trade offs. They're really good at saying like, I don't
Speaker 1: have money for this, so I can't buy it, but
Speaker 1: I do want this, so I won't buy that other thing.
Speaker 1: But adults we tend to just kind of think we
Speaker 1: can buy everything. Um, we don't confront the idea of
Speaker 1: if I do this, I maybe can't do that. And
Speaker 1: so a zero based budget, which is exactly what rule
Speaker 1: one is. It's just the idea of, you know, only
Speaker 1: money you have on hand, how much do you want
Speaker 1: to give towards rent, towards you know, bills, towards a vacation,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. But you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you recognize that there's a finite amount of money
Speaker 1: and that you're just prioritizing. We we want to be
Speaker 1: proactive with what our money should do and not reactive
Speaker 1: and kind of lamenting about what it did. Um, that's
Speaker 1: that's pretty fruitless. So that's that's the idea is introducing
Speaker 1: trade offs and with that that scarcity, we actually want
Speaker 1: you to feel like money has run out, because it
Speaker 1: really has, and we want you to get used to
Speaker 1: the idea of your priorities kind of being fleshed out
Speaker 1: in an environment where the money is finite. So part
Speaker 1: of rule one is just giving every dollar job, just
Speaker 1: straight up on a piece of paper. You don't have
Speaker 1: to use fancy software. Just here all the jobs I
Speaker 1: want my gonue to do. And then here's how much
Speaker 1: money I have on hand right now, Not here's how
Speaker 1: much I'll earn, not only in a couple of days,
Speaker 1: not even in tomorrow I'm going to be paying it,
Speaker 1: but money on hand only. And then when new money
Speaker 1: comes in, you just repeat that step again and you
Speaker 1: you know, you start giving that money jobs, but don't
Speaker 1: fall into the trap of projecting what the money will be,
Speaker 1: because then you're not dealing with finite resources anymore. You
Speaker 1: can you can forecast yourself right out of a scarcity situation. So, um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of rule one. You know, we've talked about
Speaker 1: it for about fifteen years, but that's it in too much.
Speaker 1: It's funny that you say like scarcity and like physical scarcity,
Speaker 1: because I feel like we think, like scarcity mindset causes
Speaker 1: us to want to spend everything because we think that,
Speaker 1: you know, we won't have enough or we won't get more,
Speaker 1: And so that's how people start living in this paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck cycle. Is this scarcity mindset. But then when
Speaker 1: you kind of flip it and you're like causing physical scarcity,
Speaker 1: then it can cause the opposite effect. Yeah. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they're not not to be confused with like fixed and
Speaker 1: growth mindsets or like what doctors what came up with
Speaker 1: a while back. We're we're talking about addressing finite resources.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people that are living pycheck to pycheck,
Speaker 1: they they're used to not having money, but in a
Speaker 1: weird kind of counterproductive way where when they do have money,
Speaker 1: they want to use it. So they so they because
Speaker 1: it's going to run out anyway, and so we might
Speaker 1: as well kind of make hay while the sunshines. And
Speaker 1: that's that's the issue that we're addressing. We want people
Speaker 1: to say Okay, I have this money, what do I
Speaker 1: want it to do? The end? If it means that
Speaker 1: you are you spend it all that day because you
Speaker 1: have a pressing bill and it's the only thing you
Speaker 1: can possibly afford them, that is what you do. But
Speaker 1: we we take thousands and thousands, thousands of people that
Speaker 1: have on average, about three hundred dollars in their checking
Speaker 1: account when they start. And we're not talking about people
Speaker 1: that are living below the poverty line are out. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about people that make good money that carry around
Speaker 1: three in the checking count on average. It goes really
Speaker 1: high when their paycheck lands, and then it just precipitously drops,
Speaker 1: and it's because there they have this pile of bills
Speaker 1: that's just waiting for money, and then as soon as
Speaker 1: that money comes in, the bills just suck it all
Speaker 1: the way. And so we try and start to flip
Speaker 1: that around. Instead of being reactive, we're proactive. The amazing
Speaker 1: thing is someone with just three dollars in their checking account.
Speaker 1: If you tell them, okay, only deal with that three hulls,
Speaker 1: what do you want your money to do, They'll immediately say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm getting I'm actually gonna get paid in five days
Speaker 1: so and you're like, no, don't do that. Well, in
Speaker 1: five days, we'll do it, but we're not talking about
Speaker 1: that today. So what do you want your money to
Speaker 1: do that? Three and again again, without fail, they'll try
Speaker 1: and bring up the paycheck that's coming because they're so
Speaker 1: used to thinking about when money does come then this
Speaker 1: problem will go away. So we ran them back in
Speaker 1: again and then we just say, okay, thank you for
Speaker 1: telling me again for the third time about your future.
Speaker 1: We really want you just to focus on the three
Speaker 1: dollar and so you get them there and it's just
Speaker 1: it's just the mind just habitually goes there for them.
Speaker 1: It's they're not like not able to, it's just they're
Speaker 1: in this kind of ingrained process. So you get them
Speaker 1: there with that three hundred bucks, you see, what does
Speaker 1: it need to do? They'll say, well, my guests tank
Speaker 1: is a little low, um, the fridge is a little empty,
Speaker 1: and there's this one bill that's actually kind of late already.
Speaker 1: I really need to pay it or I'll start getting
Speaker 1: late fees. You say a boom boom boom, Okay, we're done.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how many people with that still only in
Speaker 1: their checking account will then say, wow, that feels really
Speaker 1: good for once they're actually taking control and they're dictating
Speaker 1: like a good dictator. They're dictating what their money would
Speaker 1: do instead of just kind of waiting for something to
Speaker 1: explode on them where they're in panic mode. And so
Speaker 1: it's all about just orienting forward and dealing with that
Speaker 1: finite pile of cash when the new check comes in.
Speaker 1: Same exercise. Yes, we've talked about this concept before of
Speaker 1: being the CEO of your personal fine An says, and
Speaker 1: this kind of falls in line with that of you
Speaker 1: are giving your dollar bills a job and you need
Speaker 1: to delegate that and in a lot of ways that
Speaker 1: does put power and control, rightfully so back into our
Speaker 1: hands rather than being victim to whatever might be happening
Speaker 1: with my finances. Yeah, people are familiar with that. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're if you ever tried to lose weight or
Speaker 1: you know, dialing your fitness or finance, not finances, but
Speaker 1: food a little bit. It's the same thing. Everyone knows
Speaker 1: if you plan your meals, you do better if you
Speaker 1: try and be a little more productive during the day.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that if you plan your day. It's it's
Speaker 1: that same principle that we see all over the place.
Speaker 1: I mean, heck, plan your career. Like people that really
Speaker 1: rise in their career, they have a plan, they have
Speaker 1: an idea. They aren't just waiting to see what happens
Speaker 1: with their boss or waiting to see with some job
Speaker 1: opening that comes up. There proactively strategizing and figuring out, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do this, and there's this,
Speaker 1: and I should be on this project because it's big.
Speaker 1: They're planning and we're doing. We want to do the
Speaker 1: same thing with our money. We spend all of this
Speaker 1: time and effort and energy to make money, and then
Speaker 1: for some reason, once all that effort is converted into dollars,
Speaker 1: we suddenly just for like, oh well whatever, I'm just
Speaker 1: bad with money. It's it's horrible, oh gosh, louder for
Speaker 1: the people in the back. Yes, oh my gosh, a
Speaker 1: plan and a strategy for all that time and effort,
Speaker 1: and like most people don't even like their jobs anyway,
Speaker 1: So you're gonna do all this stuff and then the
Speaker 1: fruits of your labor come in and then you're not whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, let me get this straight. You went to
Speaker 1: school to get an education, to get this job. You
Speaker 1: went into debt to get an education to get that job.
Speaker 1: You work around people that maybe you don't like. If
Speaker 1: you work at wine and you lack our people, but
Speaker 1: you work around people that you don't like. Um, you're
Speaker 1: doing a job that maybe isn't that fulfilling all of
Speaker 1: that pain and suffering, and then when it's converted into
Speaker 1: money you're like, oh whatever, I mean, it's just bizarre, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have so much debt and job I don't like
Speaker 1: I have to treat myself at TJ Max. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: do like that treat yourself thing and parks and wreck.
Speaker 1: I can't put enough for that. I say that a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, it happens one day. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: plan for it, have a treat yourself category and you
Speaker 1: just fill that up absolutely the budgeting like that. The
Speaker 1: job is to do that, and then that's perfectly okay.
Speaker 1: We actually tried really really hard, really hard not to
Speaker 1: try and tell people what their money should do. We
Speaker 1: just say decide, and we just repeat that over and over.
Speaker 1: Just decide, well, I wanted this, should I do that?
Speaker 1: I think I spent too much on these shoes or
Speaker 1: this golf club or name. You're a tool, whatever, name
Speaker 1: your thing, Like we have somebody stereotypical like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: they wasted money. It's like, it doesn't matter as long
Speaker 1: as you're being intentional about what you love. I mean,
Speaker 1: go for it. I'll never step into a hobby lobby
Speaker 1: and buy anything, but it doesn't or target for target
Speaker 1: actually is a really popular one because in our Facebook group,
Speaker 1: it's you mentioned target and people are like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like throw pillows like you meant and throw
Speaker 1: pillows and people are like, yeah, you have to throw
Speaker 1: pillow situation. But even then you have to just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you're doing some kind of retail therapy, like name
Speaker 1: the category retail therapy, like call it out and be like, yeah, therapy,
Speaker 1: I do therapy with shopping. Okay, at least you're calling
Speaker 1: it out and you know, not not hiding from it,
Speaker 1: but just be intentional with it. It's it works. Be
Speaker 1: aware of what you're doing with your spending, that's that's first,
Speaker 1: and then you budget, and if you don't like what
Speaker 1: you're doing with your spending, then you can refine your
Speaker 1: budget to be how you want it to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean just the other day, I was sitting there
Speaker 1: eating ice cream from like a Ben and Jerry's and
Speaker 1: Julie's like, what are you doing. I'm like, I'm just
Speaker 1: eating my feelings. She's like, yeah, okay, I mean that's
Speaker 1: basically what it is. You know, I had a long
Speaker 1: day work, I'm stressed. I'm just gonna eat my feelings.
Speaker 1: At least at least you're calling it what it is,
Speaker 1: you know, let's not pretend. Yes, yeah, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I ate a spoonful of cookie dough last night, you know,
Speaker 1: in case we're confessing, well, I think that's the latter
Speaker 1: part of the podcast. Us Confessions not there yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: thanks Jesse, keeping us on trail. Then let's let's move
Speaker 1: on speaking about expenses. The second rule is to embrace
Speaker 1: your true expenses. What's all about about? So if rule
Speaker 1: one is to take a finite pile of money and
Speaker 1: give every dollar a job, kind of like we're in
Speaker 1: the present moment only and we're just dealing with like
Speaker 1: current fires, even rule two is to look ahead to
Speaker 1: less frequent expenses that are coming up and break those
Speaker 1: up into manageable monthly amounts. So we talked about embracing
Speaker 1: your true expenses kind of means like, get real about
Speaker 1: the idea that all of your expenses aren't these nice
Speaker 1: little tidy paycheck cycle timed things that land. So if
Speaker 1: you have, um, I don't know, Christmas coming up, like
Speaker 1: Christmas does land every year like same day, like it's
Speaker 1: never changed, and people are like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: just really stuck up on me. Well, use that as
Speaker 1: an example. So we're at the time of this recording
Speaker 1: a couple of months out right. If you said you
Speaker 1: wanted to spend six dollars on Christmas and we have
Speaker 1: October November December to get there, I would say, well,
Speaker 1: you need to set aside two hundred dollars for this month,
Speaker 1: two for the next, two for the next. You're just
Speaker 1: making little sinking funds for all kinds of large, less
Speaker 1: frequent expenses that normally surprise you. A lot of people
Speaker 1: make good money, make plenty of money, and they look
Speaker 1: at only their monthly bills that come in nice, tidy
Speaker 1: little envelopes, and they say, I don't know why I'm
Speaker 1: not getting ahead. I clearly make more than my monthly bills.
Speaker 1: But then they don't think about the car tires they're
Speaker 1: gonna blow out in four months. The h v a
Speaker 1: cun that will die three days after the warranty expires.
Speaker 1: The roof will need repairs, the dishwasher doesn't work that well,
Speaker 1: like it just goes on and on. Like. There's this
Speaker 1: in accounting they call it depreciation, where you know, the
Speaker 1: asset value declines over time. And that is how life works.
Speaker 1: That is how cars work, that's how houses work, that's
Speaker 1: how so many things work. Things just wear out. And
Speaker 1: so all we're saying is, we recognize that car tires
Speaker 1: do not last forever, and so we're gonna set aside
Speaker 1: a little bit of money for the car. If you
Speaker 1: drive a two thousand two Honda Civic, I can tell
Speaker 1: you it's like a hundred bucks a month. That'll keep
Speaker 1: you pretty steady, right, and you're just paying those bills
Speaker 1: as you go every month. Now you're not actually paying
Speaker 1: them because those piles of money are building up over time.
Speaker 1: But the really cool thing about this is then you
Speaker 1: have a person that's going back to rule one and
Speaker 1: they're saying, I'm gonna give every dollar a job. And
Speaker 1: now they're debating like should I go to sushi or
Speaker 1: should I go to Little Caesar's in light of the
Speaker 1: fact that their car tire will blow out and they
Speaker 1: don't know when it will go, but they do know
Speaker 1: that they don't last forever. So they're like, should I
Speaker 1: go to sushi or Little Caesar's. I'm also paying for
Speaker 1: car tires for the future, and then they may be
Speaker 1: elect to go to Little Caesar's or it might be
Speaker 1: better just not to go anywhere, you know, it might
Speaker 1: be better eat it is gross. I mean, like I
Speaker 1: don't want to say anything bad about it, but you
Speaker 1: could eat the box and you'd be like, am I
Speaker 1: is this the pizza? And then so that's that's the call,
Speaker 1: right that you're they're they're saying like it's kind of
Speaker 1: like future version of Jen walks back and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: current Jen, Like just so you know, like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be on the side of the road and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to call a tow truck and you better not
Speaker 1: leave me high and dry. And Jen's like, Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: have the Little Caesars. That's cool. Like that's the negotiation
Speaker 1: that you're doing with yourself. You know, if you're sharing finances,
Speaker 1: you're doing it with each other. There's like four people
Speaker 1: at the table. If you're with your partner. It's like
Speaker 1: current you guys and then future you guys, and future
Speaker 1: you guys are like, we're going to go on an
Speaker 1: anniversary trip and you're like you are, Yes, we are,
Speaker 1: and you better fund that thing because we don't want
Speaker 1: to go there. We don't want to put it on
Speaker 1: a card. We don't want to live chinsey. We want
Speaker 1: to live high for a couple of days, and we
Speaker 1: want to do it without having to worry about our money.
Speaker 1: And so the current versions of you are like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds pretty good, so we'll we'll make a few
Speaker 1: adjustments here. You know, that's the future. The future jan
Speaker 1: is uh intending side of the road. But I think though, Jesse,
Speaker 1: you're identifying what can cause so many people to feel
Speaker 1: like they cannot get ahead in their budget or in
Speaker 1: their finances. You know, we we might even know how
Speaker 1: to create a budget, but it only includes my my food,
Speaker 1: my shelter, and my bills and not thinking about those
Speaker 1: other unexpected expenses that that are what can keep us
Speaker 1: at a certain level and not able to move beyond.
Speaker 1: So whether or not we do make a decent amount
Speaker 1: of money, and I would say this is especially an
Speaker 1: issue for those who don't make a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and we've we've got a lot of listeners like that.
Speaker 1: I've been there at various points in life. So I
Speaker 1: think even having our sites on this when we don't
Speaker 1: bring in a lot of cash every month, is a
Speaker 1: really helpful muscle to begin building of Okay, I know
Speaker 1: that there's going to be some sort of emergence the
Speaker 1: situation where future me is really mad at the current
Speaker 1: me for not thinking about this. UM and being able
Speaker 1: to be more intentional and planful for those things can
Speaker 1: help us cross that barrier from UM saying being stuck
Speaker 1: really where we don't want to be absolutely and most people, UM,
Speaker 1: most people they've run out of real money and they
Speaker 1: have an emergency and they have to go to a
Speaker 1: card and and put it on a bill. And it's
Speaker 1: always like when then, when the month is normal, I'll
Speaker 1: be able to pay that bill off, when things kind
Speaker 1: of normalize, when things settle down. I mean here I
Speaker 1: am talking about that, like what a joke, But the
Speaker 1: the idea of things kind of settling down and normalizing,
Speaker 1: there is no such thing as a normal month. You
Speaker 1: could go back to your credit card statement that you
Speaker 1: may be paying full and you're super responsible about it
Speaker 1: or whatever. Or you go to your bank account and
Speaker 1: you just can scan down the column really old school
Speaker 1: like and just look for a digit to pop out
Speaker 1: that makes the number a little bigger and find those
Speaker 1: and be like, was that normal? And without fail, every
Speaker 1: month he'll be like, oh, yeah, we had that so
Speaker 1: and so's birthday. I had to grab him a gift
Speaker 1: that I'd forgotten about her. Oh it was this. Every
Speaker 1: month is abnormal, and people just slowly tack on the
Speaker 1: debt because they have that little emergency, that little one
Speaker 1: time thing. It's very rarely a massive medical emergence here
Speaker 1: something where you're like, this, this is clear. It's it's
Speaker 1: these deaths by a thousand cuts. What's really cool about
Speaker 1: it is people will make the right, smart financial decision
Speaker 1: when they're presented with those trade offs. To go back
Speaker 1: to a one, it's like, do you want to be
Speaker 1: ready for car repair or do you want to I'll
Speaker 1: say blow it, or do you want to blow it
Speaker 1: on this or that impulse thing. Nobody says I'm gonna
Speaker 1: blow it. Once presented correctly with that information in context,
Speaker 1: people are smart with their money when they're given that
Speaker 1: decision at the right time, with the right context and
Speaker 1: the right implications tagged along with it. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: I love that. And I know if I used to
Speaker 1: get really overwhelmed with the idea of multi full sinking funds,
Speaker 1: like for saving for multiple things. So if somebody listening
Speaker 1: is like me, this is what I did to kind
Speaker 1: of help me wrap my brain around it. I needed
Speaker 1: to go with just one single sinking fund in a
Speaker 1: separate account. So I have like three checking accounts. I
Speaker 1: have the regular one I spend out of, I have
Speaker 1: my emergency fund, and then I have my sinking fund account.
Speaker 1: And it's like I have a list of things that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need in the future. So, like, we know
Speaker 1: our a c and our water heater is going to
Speaker 1: blow in the next few years, um. And we just
Speaker 1: replaced some windows that we're really like bringing down raising
Speaker 1: our electricity costs. So we just we calculated the cost
Speaker 1: of each of those and saved that amount um for
Speaker 1: each in the sinking fund. And so when it came time,
Speaker 1: we chose, you know, we chose to do the windows,
Speaker 1: you know, before the other things broken. So we just
Speaker 1: took that money out of one account. But like say,
Speaker 1: my tires blow and I didn't pay for those, I'd
Speaker 1: already have that money in the sinking fund. I can
Speaker 1: still just take out of there and then just fund
Speaker 1: it with that cost later. I still have the money.
Speaker 1: It's it's like allocated, and it just makes more sense
Speaker 1: for me because it's not like I don't feel like
Speaker 1: I'm taking from the water heater fund to pay for
Speaker 1: the tires. I'm just taking for the future protection fund
Speaker 1: as it would be UM And so I don't feel
Speaker 1: as like overwhelmed by having a lot of different sinking funds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that. We I mean people use spreadsheets to
Speaker 1: track that. In our software. We that's the software is
Speaker 1: built to basically have all of your money in one
Speaker 1: account and you never look at the account balance. It's
Speaker 1: not even a thing for you. So you just are
Speaker 1: looking at your h v A C category and you
Speaker 1: can be more or less granular depending on how much
Speaker 1: you care about these things. So I don't, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think you should save up for the next
Speaker 1: tube of toothpaste, but I but there are like large
Speaker 1: material things where you could say, okay, this makes sense.
Speaker 1: So in your instance, if you had all these different
Speaker 1: sinking funds, and why not. It would look like a
Speaker 1: long list of categories, each with a goal amount attached,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna fund it sixty seven dollars and twenty
Speaker 1: eight cents every month. Well, you just set up that
Speaker 1: up one time, and then you're kind of just clicking
Speaker 1: and on autopilot. If you do ever have to move
Speaker 1: money around, which happens, that's our third rule, to roll
Speaker 1: with the punches. When new information comes up. Then you're
Speaker 1: you're just still planning. You're just still going back to
Speaker 1: rule one and you're saying, you know what, the car
Speaker 1: tire went out a lott quicker than we thought, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna move it from here. We'll catch up. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll be fine. And so it is kind of this
Speaker 1: overall future protection fund. I don't like the idea of
Speaker 1: just a savings fund like no labels, because it tends
Speaker 1: to be a little bit of a revolving door. So
Speaker 1: people like I gotta save. I just actually heard on
Speaker 1: a podcast I've got to say, so I'm gonna save,
Speaker 1: and they're feeling really good, and then they raid the
Speaker 1: savings account six weeks later, and then they're feeling really bad,
Speaker 1: and and so you want to put a job to
Speaker 1: that money to make sure that you're clear what it is.
Speaker 1: Four that way, when you do go in and grab it,
Speaker 1: you don't feel guilty because you did need to buy
Speaker 1: a new computer or whatever. But you can also be clear,
Speaker 1: like all right here, here's why I like we have
Speaker 1: we have some intention attached to this, and you can
Speaker 1: keep it all on one account like you do. You
Speaker 1: can keep it. I mean, heck, we keep everything in
Speaker 1: one checking account. It's just like it's the most boring.
Speaker 1: I mean every time you go to the bank, well,
Speaker 1: I mean not that we go to the bank very often,
Speaker 1: but they would be so alarmed by the size of
Speaker 1: our account bounce. It's because because we're saving for a
Speaker 1: car in there, we're saving for house repairs, we're saving
Speaker 1: for Christmas. And after a while, thousands and thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars start to pile up and the person at the
Speaker 1: bank's like, what are you what are you doing? And
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm what are you doing? That's so don't
Speaker 1: give me that dirty look. I know I don't want
Speaker 1: bill or overdraft protection. So this is why I do
Speaker 1: everything online. But that I like the idea of assigning
Speaker 1: that uh, those savings accounts real jobs, so that there's
Speaker 1: some there's some specificity there. What's weird is most wine
Speaker 1: abbers start to not need that third thing you mentioned,
Speaker 1: that emergency fund that kind of just general just in
Speaker 1: case they find that they use it. Not that I
Speaker 1: advised against it, but like a three month deal is
Speaker 1: probably fine. They find that they've started to anticipate what
Speaker 1: used to be emergencies, like a car tible announce not
Speaker 1: an emergency because they're not infinitely useful, so it's just
Speaker 1: part of living, you know, Like someone said I had
Speaker 1: to go to the doctor. That was an emergency. It's like, well, no,
Speaker 1: you're alive, so come on, you know, yeah, we knew
Speaker 1: that was coming. But then there are the catastrophic massive
Speaker 1: you know, this meets our insurance deductible type emergencies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's where they come into play. I totally agree
Speaker 1: with you. A lot of people are saying things that
Speaker 1: are emergencies, but it's like you could have anticipated that
Speaker 1: for at least a few months ago, like oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like other baby came and you're like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm no O B g U I N, but I
Speaker 1: think I know. Forty weeks is usually standard. Yeah, you week,
Speaker 1: something's happening down there. Yeah, yeah, we know. It was
Speaker 1: months was never a thing for us, it was weeks.
Speaker 1: It was like, and I was I wasn't allowed to
Speaker 1: be like, hey, Julie, aren't you like week twenty two.
Speaker 1: She's like, no, I'm week twenty one in three days.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm sorry. I was not allowed to
Speaker 1: round up. I'm not allowed to round up on that.
Speaker 1: And I'm not allowed to run up on the baby's age.
Speaker 1: So if Brooks are new one, if he's you know,
Speaker 1: like five months in twenty five days, I can't do like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's six months old. She's like, no, he's not. He's
Speaker 1: five months old. It's so important. They're those mom want
Speaker 1: to age them too quick. Their developmental milestones are so diverse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's like, no, he's not. He's developing just fine. People
Speaker 1: think he's behind. What a good example of you rolling
Speaker 1: with the context. I'm bringing us back. Don't worry. It's
Speaker 1: like I didn't know so many things about all these things.
Speaker 1: So I'm learning. I'm learning to Number three on on
Speaker 1: your rules is to roll with the punches. Can you
Speaker 1: can you tell us about that? Who's punching you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're alive. If you're alive, you know, like we
Speaker 1: we're getting a little bit of sport. I don't know
Speaker 1: how sports oriented your group is, but I think everyone
Speaker 1: can understand this. Like you if you were to watch, um,
Speaker 1: let's do let's do basketball, you have like the coach
Speaker 1: reviews game film, becomes a master at that opponent does
Speaker 1: all of this legwork. The team is like like they're
Speaker 1: pretending to be the other opponent. They're mimicking it, they're scrimmaging,
Speaker 1: they're doing all this prep work, and that's like your budget.
Speaker 1: You're thinking about it. You're like, okay, what will you hear?
Speaker 1: What's here? And it's this perfectly laid plan. As soon
Speaker 1: as the game starts. If if they're a good coach,
Speaker 1: then they're like, oh well, let's change that a little bit.
Speaker 1: We thought they would use this guy. I don't even know,
Speaker 1: you know, we thought they do. You're deep in it now,
Speaker 1: keep going it's or chess, let's do chess. That's probably
Speaker 1: this is probably more they're like they they make a play,
Speaker 1: Like everyone goes in with a plan and then you
Speaker 1: see how your opponent reaction. You're like, all right, I'll
Speaker 1: do it a little different that that's budgeting. So for
Speaker 1: some reason people they'll set their budget and then they're like, oh, also,
Speaker 1: I've started budgeting and I predict the future. Like that's
Speaker 1: kind of what they've decided is their thing, and they're
Speaker 1: like they're clairvoyant. There's a really horrible movie with with
Speaker 1: Sandra Bullock called Premonition. I think, horrible movie, but it's
Speaker 1: his idea. She look like, see the future and then okay,
Speaker 1: now you've got it, or even worse Nicolas Cage with
Speaker 1: another horrible movie called Next Horrible Good let's talk about
Speaker 1: although I recommend that one because it is so bad
Speaker 1: it's actually enjoyable. But the idea that you could see
Speaker 1: into the future and then you have this firm plan.
Speaker 1: Nobody can do that, and so you have a beginning
Speaker 1: budget or that's never gotten there. They're head wrapped around
Speaker 1: any of this, and suddenly their conditioned for for saying like,
Speaker 1: good job you is so astronomically high. This level of
Speaker 1: perfection is so high it blows my mind. And so
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say is, Okay, you'll set your
Speaker 1: plan for the next three days and then as soon
Speaker 1: as something new pops up. We're just going to change
Speaker 1: the plan. And so all rule three is and I
Speaker 1: can't even believe we have to make it a rule,
Speaker 1: but the rule is change your plan as needed. Okay, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're going on vacation soon, if you're so lucky,
Speaker 1: right and you've planned to go to some sunny place
Speaker 1: and then it rains, does that mean you you say, now,
Speaker 1: vacations don't work. I mean that was like, but that's
Speaker 1: what people do with budgeting. They're like, oh, budgeting doesn't work.
Speaker 1: I knew this wouldn't work, you know. I listened to
Speaker 1: that one dumb guy on that one podcast, and he
Speaker 1: was wrong. And it's unfortunate because what we're really trying
Speaker 1: to do is say, hey, you made a plan, just
Speaker 1: adjust as you go. Budgeting is not a thing, it
Speaker 1: is a process. So rule three is just going back
Speaker 1: to rule one and saying, hey, given the new information
Speaker 1: you have, you want to maybe give every dollar a
Speaker 1: job slightly differently than you did before, and you're still winning. Like,
Speaker 1: this is you being successful, This is you doing it perfectly.
Speaker 1: If you need me to say that, recognizing that the
Speaker 1: future is not static, how often would you say or
Speaker 1: how much of a pulse. Would you recommend somebody have
Speaker 1: on their by daily when they're first starting daily. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as as your skill level is low, meaning you don't
Speaker 1: have this habit, you haven't done like the whole atomic
Speaker 1: habits James Cleared thing or whatever, and so you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I have no skill or low skill here. That means
Speaker 1: you need a high frequency of interaction with the budget.
Speaker 1: The other side of it is if you don't make
Speaker 1: a lot where you don't have a lot of that
Speaker 1: wiggle room. Some people can, like they just make more
Speaker 1: money so things just don't affect them as much. If
Speaker 1: you are one of those people that make a lot less,
Speaker 1: that also means you should be in the budget more
Speaker 1: because there's there's just less wiggle room, less room for air.
Speaker 1: The other one is if you're on a highly volatile income,
Speaker 1: you should be looking at it more often because there's
Speaker 1: more room for here and there. So those three things.
Speaker 1: This is brand new to you. Being it daily, make
Speaker 1: it like a part of your coffee thing right, sip
Speaker 1: your coffee, swipe through your budget, stare at it, see
Speaker 1: what happens. That works if you're tight, If money is tight,
Speaker 1: look at it more often and if money is really volatile,
Speaker 1: you know, like your I don't know, your commission based
Speaker 1: something or other, look at it more often. Yeah, unemployed,
Speaker 1: the last rule that you have is age your money.
Speaker 1: And I feel like this is the most unique and
Speaker 1: interesting role and I would love to hear the story
Speaker 1: behind it. So it's not a good story. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not interesting, That's what I mean to say. So
Speaker 1: I I when Julie and I were first married, we
Speaker 1: were students, were super young and super poor, and we're
Speaker 1: watching the money really closely. And I built this little
Speaker 1: spreadsheet that eventually became the wine app software and all that,
Speaker 1: But at the time it was just she and I
Speaker 1: just doing our thing, and we were on hourly pay
Speaker 1: working as students, and our hours would fluctuate, and I
Speaker 1: didn't like going back to rule one and knowing how
Speaker 1: hich we had to budget. I didn't like not knowing
Speaker 1: because my hours could be twenty five or thirty five
Speaker 1: and hers would be varied. And so I just had
Speaker 1: this idea. I took some money from our wedding money
Speaker 1: that we had actually been given. I took some money
Speaker 1: from there. I said, let's live off of this money
Speaker 1: and then we'll work for a month and we'll have
Speaker 1: money in our hands now for the next month. And Julia,
Speaker 1: because we were in our honeymoon phase, she was just
Speaker 1: like cool, like and I could do anything wrong at
Speaker 1: that point. She's like, yeah, that's fine. You are brilliant
Speaker 1: and good looking and that is a good idea. So
Speaker 1: so that's that's where we landed on. So it was
Speaker 1: really just for me. I was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a money hack to be like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be waiting to see what I will earn in order
Speaker 1: to be able to budget. I just want to know
Speaker 1: what I already have and budget money I had earned
Speaker 1: a while ago. And so that turned into about thirty days.
Speaker 1: And then as we taught people, people are like this,
Speaker 1: instead of having a pile of bills waiting for money
Speaker 1: to arrive, it was flipped around. They had this pile
Speaker 1: of money, and then when a bill would come, people
Speaker 1: are like, this is awesome, I'll just pay it. And
Speaker 1: then you start putting stuff on auto pay and it's
Speaker 1: and then you've gotten out of that game. There's like
Speaker 1: there's a total game that everyone plays, this huge game
Speaker 1: with all kinds of rules and orchestrations where timing their
Speaker 1: bills to their paychecks and doing this like song and
Speaker 1: dance and like sticky notes in places and and just
Speaker 1: like what about this, And then you're sharing money with
Speaker 1: a partner, it's like, well did you spend that there?
Speaker 1: Oh that was for this bill, this this weird song
Speaker 1: and dance, and it adds no value. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you think about the value of paying your electricity bill,
Speaker 1: it's just that the electricity stays on. But anything extra
Speaker 1: beyond the payment of the bill is just wasted effort.
Speaker 1: And so you think about all the effort people put
Speaker 1: into that song and dance. So we get rid of
Speaker 1: all of that, and then when a bill comes, it's
Speaker 1: just paid. And then suddenly people are like, my finances
Speaker 1: The best thing they ever say is they'll write in
Speaker 1: and they'll say, my finances are super boring. Nothing exciting
Speaker 1: ever happens, Like everything just kind of seems pretty ho hum,
Speaker 1: and you're like you've arrived, Like you have arrived. Yeah,
Speaker 1: life is still like coming at you with all kinds
Speaker 1: of things, but your money kind of like normalizes it
Speaker 1: and you're not living right on the edge. So when
Speaker 1: we talk about aging your money, we're really saying if
Speaker 1: you earned a dollar yesterday. That's like a baby dollar.
Speaker 1: And you don't send babies out into the world. You know,
Speaker 1: you protect them, You keep them closed for a little while.
Speaker 1: When they're ready, you let them go, and when they're
Speaker 1: too old, you like you kick them out right to
Speaker 1: get out. But at first you don't do that. And
Speaker 1: that's what we want with our dollars. We want to
Speaker 1: have them like hang out for a while. Thirty is
Speaker 1: sixty days. The cool thing about this is you get
Speaker 1: to a point where you're staring at let's say the
Speaker 1: beginning of November, and you're like, I have all of
Speaker 1: the money I would need for November, including funding those
Speaker 1: sinking funds from Rule two. Like you're fully flushed out.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, okay, yeah, that's all here. And
Speaker 1: then you work in November, you earn that money, it refills,
Speaker 1: and then you're staring at December and you're like, we're
Speaker 1: ready to roll, and we have money for Christmas unless
Speaker 1: you finish Christmas shopping like in October, which makes you
Speaker 1: kind of weird, but people do that so that the
Speaker 1: idea of living ahead instead of behind at paycheck to
Speaker 1: paycheck stress cycle is so bad. We were talking about
Speaker 1: sleeping I think before we recorded maybe, I mean like
Speaker 1: it literally steals sleep from you. Literally, strange relationships where
Speaker 1: some benign comment from a spouse or partner about money
Speaker 1: suddenly becomes this big deal only because you're artificially stressed,
Speaker 1: not because it actually is a big deal. So there's
Speaker 1: so much there that you can get away from if
Speaker 1: you just live thirty to sixty days. The dollar you're
Speaker 1: spending you learned thirty days ago, forty days ago. It's
Speaker 1: it's wonderful now to get there, just follow the first
Speaker 1: three rules. It will happen over time. There's no magic there,
Speaker 1: there's you just follow them. It takes people on average
Speaker 1: about six months to get there, um with not doing
Speaker 1: anything extraordinary beyond just being really intentional and cutting expenses
Speaker 1: where they realized they didn't like them, and uh, just
Speaker 1: work in the system. I like the example that you
Speaker 1: gave of how you did this when you were young, married, uh,
Speaker 1: still respected and and because I think that we can
Speaker 1: often talk about budgeting and how you can have all
Speaker 1: these different funds and savings and it's just this thing
Speaker 1: and we can get it to work out so well.
Speaker 1: And then we have people who are not making a
Speaker 1: lot of money, and and this can feel really overwhelming
Speaker 1: or maybe even depleting to be like, that's not my reality.
Speaker 1: But to hear your example of how you did this
Speaker 1: even when you weren't making a lot, even when you
Speaker 1: were hourly part time. I mean, of course it had
Speaker 1: something to do with gifts that have been received, But
Speaker 1: there are other ways of going about that. I mean,
Speaker 1: input side hustle, uh, living, living in an environment well
Speaker 1: below what you're bringing in, whether that means needing to
Speaker 1: move so that you're living expenses are last, right, there's
Speaker 1: some ways of getting creative. But I think that I
Speaker 1: just want to highlight what you mentioned there, that this
Speaker 1: is possible even if you're not making six figures, and
Speaker 1: some of these concepts and the framework of it we
Speaker 1: can put into place regardless of where we may find
Speaker 1: ourselves currently in our current financial circumstances. Of course, the
Speaker 1: goal is always how can we bring in more so
Speaker 1: that we're not stuck in there. Every one of these
Speaker 1: rules I came up with at my poorest and I
Speaker 1: say poor meaning financially, so I had I had all
Speaker 1: kinds of of family structure and support that I'm I'm
Speaker 1: blowdy forever grateful for that. You can't even price tag
Speaker 1: at all. Um, But we we lived in an apartment
Speaker 1: that costs three a month and we are not. So
Speaker 1: that was eighty years. That was a long time ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I age well actually, but it was. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was early two thousand and it was a junkie. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a horrible apartment. So we could have spent more.
Speaker 1: I mean we could have lived somewhere else. It was
Speaker 1: more expensive. But um, we had respiratory issues while we
Speaker 1: lived there, Like I think there was stuff in the walls.
Speaker 1: It was. It was bad. But we lived there for
Speaker 1: a year. We didn't have cell phones, we didn't um,
Speaker 1: we didn't own a car for the first little while.
Speaker 1: We didn't own a computer for the first little while.
Speaker 1: I would use computers on campus when we were simple
Speaker 1: students in the sense that we had like one objective,
Speaker 1: like we got to get through school. Um, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were making Julie was making eleven bucks an hour.
Speaker 1: I was making ten fifty or something. She was full
Speaker 1: time at the end, working in social work where you
Speaker 1: don't they don't pay you, so she's full time making
Speaker 1: eleven dollars an hour. And we we were like, okay,
Speaker 1: we can make this work. We actually saved money, um
Speaker 1: and that, but we lived cheap. Little Caesar's was a
Speaker 1: big deal back then, you know, and maybe that's why. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like like once a month we're like, oh sweet, we
Speaker 1: get that five dollar hot and ready, and it was awesome.
Speaker 1: It's so those rules, they aren't just like pick and
Speaker 1: choose because your situation is tied. I would say, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, those rules came about and were used to
Speaker 1: great effect in my situation that was the tightest. Now
Speaker 1: I make more money, thankfully, I feed way more people,
Speaker 1: not you know, not necessarily thankfully, a lot more bills,
Speaker 1: all of that, All of that is so much more expensive,
Speaker 1: but the rules still are working. It's just it's about
Speaker 1: being super intentional. And like we went back, all that
Speaker 1: effort you put into earning money, that eleven bucks an
Speaker 1: hour that Julie was working toward, we're going to waste
Speaker 1: that when you know she's having to go to this
Speaker 1: place she doesn't really like to make a pittance. Were
Speaker 1: when we're supposed to waste it then, I don't think
Speaker 1: so no, way, quite the opposite, right, So it it
Speaker 1: works at every income level. Yeah, well said man, you
Speaker 1: know what else works, and we never get tired of
Speaker 1: every income level. The bill of the week. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 1: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: That's built buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the build
Speaker 1: of the week, Jesse. Every week we have a listener
Speaker 1: or guests submit their bill of the week for us
Speaker 1: to share. Um, it is your turn. Do you have
Speaker 1: a bill for us? I was going to use watching
Speaker 1: the trailer of the sequel of Bill and Ted's, I
Speaker 1: was like, that could that could work? But I only
Speaker 1: watched the trailer and I thought that's about enough of that.
Speaker 1: But my my favorite bill that has just started becoming
Speaker 1: my favorite, my electricity bill. So I got it a
Speaker 1: week two weeks ago. It was sixteen dollars and forty
Speaker 1: two cents and that's not too shabby. Ready, three pizzas.
Speaker 1: Everything is in pizzas at our house as yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it was the first, my first bill that I
Speaker 1: received after I had paid a whole lot of money
Speaker 1: for a fancy solar system. So it was, and it
Speaker 1: was not for financial reasons like oh this makes sense.
Speaker 1: I just really liked the idea of the solar and
Speaker 1: like so many other parts of it appealed to me
Speaker 1: besides the long payback period, so I didn't finance it
Speaker 1: or anything. I saved up for it. I got all
Speaker 1: those panels on, and then I became obsessed with our
Speaker 1: power consumption at that point, so I can tell you,
Speaker 1: like our base house rates points six kill lots an hour,
Speaker 1: like it just does that if the ovens on, I
Speaker 1: know that if like it's gotten better. But Julie was like,
Speaker 1: is this going to be a thing now forever where
Speaker 1: you're on your phone and being like what what what
Speaker 1: are you doing over there? Is there? Ah, you're baking bread?
Speaker 1: I apologize and that is that's totally okay. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought maybe you're a blow drying your Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: was it was super fun. But yeah, that's my favorite bill.
Speaker 1: It's been fun to see like this magic. And I'm
Speaker 1: not like even a big environmentalist right like, but it
Speaker 1: was it did feel like magic. It was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, the sun. You know, this is what you
Speaker 1: can look forward to when your budget becomes boring you
Speaker 1: get super into electricity consumption. Yeah wow, Jesse, thank you.
Speaker 1: If your life has become all about your energy consumption
Speaker 1: and you want to tell us about it, please visit
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us
Speaker 1: your bill. Or maybe your life is about something else
Speaker 1: like water consumption or or air whatever. We'll play your bill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some sort of bill. Yeah, now it's time for round.
Speaker 1: We tried out to yell someone I want to plug.
Speaker 1: I want to plug the counselor thing because I went
Speaker 1: to a councilor for like five years. Um it was awesome. Yes,
Speaker 1: And like people are like there's a stigma. I think
Speaker 1: it's going away, but man I I started going to
Speaker 1: see her and suddenly it was like my back pain
Speaker 1: went away weird, and I I just I was so nice.
Speaker 1: I was just like unload on someone who's just kind
Speaker 1: of like cool, cool, cool cool. Did you know this?
Speaker 1: And you're like, no, I didn't you know? It was
Speaker 1: that's how they do it. Highly recommended. It's for it's
Speaker 1: I think it makes you. I don't know if if
Speaker 1: you're like this, like I don't know, go hard like
Speaker 1: money hungary, performances everything. Even then you're like, you should
Speaker 1: go see a therapist. Like. They will bring you your like,
Speaker 1: they will up your game wherever you're at, You'll see
Speaker 1: you'll see it. Increasing mean to extend it. No, you're good.
Speaker 1: I'm a counselor, so I can't say enough about it.
Speaker 1: Thanks Jesse for sharing. Yeah, it's always good to just
Speaker 1: continue to chip away at the stigma that can surround
Speaker 1: seeking help and knowing that there there is help out
Speaker 1: there that can be affordable and can help us. But
Speaker 1: were whole people. I mean, I know that we really
Speaker 1: focus in on finances, but it does affect us physically
Speaker 1: and relationally and emotionally and financially. So yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: say enough good things about caring for our whole person. Perfect,
Speaker 1: absolutely all right. So in this lightning round, we are
Speaker 1: going to get into our latest budgeting flubs and how
Speaker 1: we recovered from them. So Jesse, as guest, will allow
Speaker 1: you to go first, because your will probably be the shortest.
Speaker 1: I was I was hoping I could go last to
Speaker 1: kind of get a read of the room a little
Speaker 1: bit to figure out what kind of a flub we're
Speaker 1: looking for. So that's why you're going first. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: I've taken over the Costco run for the family because
Speaker 1: like the baby came, so he's kind of a priority,
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, I'll do the Costco run. So
Speaker 1: Tuesday's my day and I this is embarrassing, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know how much we had spent when when I
Speaker 1: walked out and then came home and Julie was like,
Speaker 1: what was the She goes, man, you got a lot,
Speaker 1: and I was like, now to be clear, like I
Speaker 1: do her list, like she we have a sync up note,
Speaker 1: you know, on her phone, and I'm like update the note.
Speaker 1: She gets it all updated, and then it's just like
Speaker 1: this line, and it's it's nerve wracking because she might
Speaker 1: say something like chicken and I'm like organic, boneless, skinless,
Speaker 1: organic tenderlines, like what are we doing here? You know?
Speaker 1: So we're working on We're working on like full communication,
Speaker 1: like how how is this? You know? She's like I
Speaker 1: really wanted this kind and she's a phenomenal cook, which
Speaker 1: means her standard of like what she wants is is
Speaker 1: up there. So I'm already nervous. And then she's like, well,
Speaker 1: how much was it? And I had I couldn't even
Speaker 1: tell her. I'm like I did not notice the cost
Speaker 1: It's one of those zone out moments. I was like
Speaker 1: I was, but was I was I there like like
Speaker 1: guys like, here's your card. I'm like okay, And I
Speaker 1: didn't even like it's that was that that was yesterday.
Speaker 1: So I'm giving you a reason, like there's some recency
Speaker 1: bias there. But I was pretty bothered by the fact that,
Speaker 1: like I just dropped and I'm telling you, like our
Speaker 1: family size, we have seven kids with two like some
Speaker 1: teenagers in there that eat like three people's worth each,
Speaker 1: And so we're not talking about like, oh he spent
Speaker 1: ninety dollars and didn't realize it. And I only wish
Speaker 1: I can't get out of there for less than two No, no, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no one can get out of Costco under just
Speaker 1: going to get some milk. It's like, now you won't
Speaker 1: you can. You'll get like a flat screen TV on
Speaker 1: one shoulder and then like milk on the other side
Speaker 1: and socks and underwe here like do you guys have
Speaker 1: throat pillows here? Because no, but we do have swing sets. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And there were like Christmas full full boer Christmas going on,
Speaker 1: like I mean full on. I'm like, oh, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if we didn't have a reminder already through our budget
Speaker 1: and funding it monthly everybody, we would have it if
Speaker 1: we went to Costco. Yeah anyway, yeh, I didn't even
Speaker 1: realize it. So I'm embarrassed by that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you'll listen to the cash here a little bit
Speaker 1: more closely now that is your total comes to so
Speaker 1: that you can be aware of the spending just a
Speaker 1: little earlier a little. I mean, you're supposed to put
Speaker 1: it on your phone. We have the app. You're supposed
Speaker 1: to put it on your phone recorded in the moment
Speaker 1: it knows you're at Costco, and it's like, hey, cool,
Speaker 1: Costco normally groceries, right like it does all this fancy stuff.
Speaker 1: I was totally spaced out. I think, yeah, anyway, well Jesse,
Speaker 1: you're gonna look great next to me. Uh. I was
Speaker 1: your your number one rule was resonating with me a lot.
Speaker 1: And when you were talking about children aren't good at this.
Speaker 1: Children are good at recognizing if you can't have this,
Speaker 1: then you can have this. Um. Yeah, So I just
Speaker 1: bought a house. Well not just me, my husband and
Speaker 1: I we together collectively bought a house. And I have
Speaker 1: had in my mind. I just haven't really thought about
Speaker 1: it a ton. I mean, we did set a lot
Speaker 1: of money aside. I mean, first of all, I mean
Speaker 1: just buying a house is expensive beyond the down payment,
Speaker 1: but then also set some more money aside knowing that
Speaker 1: we want to do some renovations. But I didn't fully
Speaker 1: think through how much each renovation that I want to
Speaker 1: do is going to cost, and the timing of it.
Speaker 1: And I'm just kind of having my head like I
Speaker 1: want to do it all. I want to do it
Speaker 1: all right now, and that's just not the reality I'm
Speaker 1: learning when you own a house. We used to live
Speaker 1: in a camp and I kind of could have it all.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, everything costs ten dollars done, the whole
Speaker 1: thing's renovated. Um. And so I am slowly coming to
Speaker 1: grips with the fact that I got new ceiling fans
Speaker 1: and I will probably not be able to have a
Speaker 1: kitchen for a couple of years. This kitchen is a
Speaker 1: dumpster fire, by the way, it is functional. So how
Speaker 1: I'm how I'm coping slash recovering with that is really
Speaker 1: an adjustment in my perspective of Okay, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to take out a loan for these renovations. We do
Speaker 1: want to cash flow them, so I recognize that that's
Speaker 1: like a little bit next level, but it's where we're
Speaker 1: at as frugal friends over here. So I am learning
Speaker 1: what I can do to make it a little bit
Speaker 1: more livable at where we're at right now for very
Speaker 1: minimal cost until we can get to the point of
Speaker 1: actually paying for these bigger renovations out of pocket. So
Speaker 1: luckily it has not thrown me into debt, but it
Speaker 1: is one of those kind of wake up calls of oh,
Speaker 1: I can't do it all at once, and if I
Speaker 1: do this one thing, then that takes this other thing
Speaker 1: out of the mix. So we might just have to
Speaker 1: get many splits instead of a new kitchen next and
Speaker 1: you know, I'll paint the walls and be happy with it. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: no debt on kitchen, Reynolds, no way. Yeah, no, time
Speaker 1: can tell you. It needs to be set on fire.
Speaker 1: We threw out a lot of it already. A lot
Speaker 1: of it is in the dumpster. The rest of it
Speaker 1: is on fire. Yeah, it's so ugly it wouldn't light
Speaker 1: on fire if you tried. So all right, Well that's
Speaker 1: all we have today. Jen's perfect, I'm fine. Um No.
Speaker 1: So Travis has been off of work for the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Um. He's works in the airline industry
Speaker 1: as a mechanic, and so they gave him a voluntary
Speaker 1: leave several times this year. He's in literally his third
Speaker 1: month off this year, and uh, he's taking half pay.
Speaker 1: And I am in my slow season in my business.
Speaker 1: So I have like my income is natural ebbs and flows,
Speaker 1: and I'm in a natural like I don't know what
Speaker 1: the ebb and with the flow is, but I'm in
Speaker 1: the lower one. But I I didn't change our budget
Speaker 1: to reflect that. I kept it as it was. And
Speaker 1: then I realized, oh, that's not our income that right,
Speaker 1: and which we have the money that it's like not
Speaker 1: affecting us this month, um, but next month month it will. Um.
Speaker 1: So I didn't. I didn't cut my expenses in half
Speaker 1: or you know, cut them like I should have. I
Speaker 1: just totally went straight over my head. Then how are
Speaker 1: you recovering? Yeah, what's the first that's going to go
Speaker 1: on the expenses? Um? I probably Kai Probably he's probably
Speaker 1: her song Okay, like he's expensive. It's the new type
Speaker 1: of soy. Yeah, I think so. I mean, we haven't
Speaker 1: made November's budget yet, but um, I think we're just
Speaker 1: gonna probably not eat out. Um, probably just you know,
Speaker 1: living on bare bones stuff just for one month. I'm
Speaker 1: in a sugar detox right now, so I can't think
Speaker 1: about that. I can't think about November right now. My
Speaker 1: mind is he and not eating out. It's probably a
Speaker 1: good combo to do it, right. I'm not eating out
Speaker 1: right now anyway, So it's not that bad. When we
Speaker 1: ask people how they paid off dead or how they
Speaker 1: got ahead, and we never prescribed like you shouldn't eat out.
Speaker 1: We never say that. But everyone, without fail, without exception,
Speaker 1: they will say they cut eating out to free up money.
Speaker 1: So it usually it's a one. Yeah. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: maybe the largest sum of money, but it's it can
Speaker 1: save you a whole lot more than just cutting out
Speaker 1: buying coffee. Um, it can eat up a good chunk
Speaker 1: of that monthly budget. It's not large, but we call
Speaker 1: it squishy. It's a squishy category. There's some room. I
Speaker 1: like that, and it makes me like, it kind of
Speaker 1: makes me feel weird are eating out. It's like, why
Speaker 1: you just call it squishy category? And see how appetizing
Speaker 1: that squishy squish and the follow up spills will turn
Speaker 1: the lights off for a whole month. Yeah, that goes.
Speaker 1: It's vendor. Jesse, thanks so much for coming on the
Speaker 1: show to talk with us about budgets. Where can people
Speaker 1: find more about you? What's up next for why now?
Speaker 1: What do you want to say? People can find us
Speaker 1: that you need a budget dot com so we're there
Speaker 1: always the best thing to do. If I were to
Speaker 1: recommend one thing, uh for people, it would be to
Speaker 1: take one of our twenty minute workshops. They're they're fast,
Speaker 1: they're live, you can ask questions, they're not recorded there,
Speaker 1: there's a real teacher there. You can test them and say, like,
Speaker 1: say this random word. They'll say it like it's live.
Speaker 1: We've we've had that happen and um, they just they
Speaker 1: succinctly tell you, like, okay, Jesse's four rules that you
Speaker 1: heard on this in kind of a really long winded way.
Speaker 1: They'll tell it to you very succinctly, and then they'll
Speaker 1: show you in the software how that's implemented. And so
Speaker 1: it's kind of like theory and then practice in twenty
Speaker 1: minutes and it is just well worth the time. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different way to think about money,
Speaker 1: and so we want to get that learning happening fast.
Speaker 1: But do do the workshop if they're free. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to sign up or do anything like that.
Speaker 1: You just go in and jump on and they run.
Speaker 1: I think we run about a hundred fifty a week,
Speaker 1: so like there's one that'll hit your schedule. All right,
Speaker 1: that's great, sweet, Well, thanks so much for coming on, Jesse,
Speaker 1: and we will hope to see you sometime when people
Speaker 1: are seeing each other again. But this was this was
Speaker 1: quite nice. Just this remote video thing is as good
Speaker 1: as it can get. I didn't have to smell each
Speaker 1: other's coffee brows, so true. Okay, well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I appreciate him. Thanks Jesse. Well, Jill tell us about
Speaker 1: that kitchen. Oh my, this was so fun and alarming alarming.
Speaker 1: It's like going back through a journal to listen to
Speaker 1: these episodes. That was it was literally almost two years ago,
Speaker 1: and listen, I wasn't wrong. I still don't have a kitchen,
Speaker 1: and you really don't have a kitchen like it is.
Speaker 1: It is walled off behind plastic, It is non existent.
Speaker 1: Right now, still enjoying those ceiling fans that I was
Speaker 1: able to acquire early on, and still no kitchen. We
Speaker 1: have demoed, so it's not so much a dumpster fire
Speaker 1: kitchen as it is just not a kitchen at all.
Speaker 1: There is nothing there except for studs. Not the good kind.
Speaker 1: Well they are the good kind of support the house,
Speaker 1: but yeah, the kind of wall right now, studs and studs.
Speaker 1: I'd go with studs. Jen, It's so I mean, just
Speaker 1: to have it right in my face, the you know,
Speaker 1: disappointment that I experienced two years ago of knowing that
Speaker 1: it was going to take years, and here I am
Speaker 1: two years later saying, yeah, it's you're you're still not
Speaker 1: that close to having a kitchen. But we have continued
Speaker 1: to cash flow. We have not taken out any loans,
Speaker 1: which might be partially wise. I don't have a kitchen
Speaker 1: at all, but we have made progress. I have a
Speaker 1: makeshift kitchen in my laundry room. The laundry room is
Speaker 1: completely renovated, and that is pretty beautiful, and it's a
Speaker 1: pretty functional makeshift kitchen. It's almost to makeshift because then
Speaker 1: it prolongs the amount of time it takes to get
Speaker 1: the kitchen done. But oh, nevertheless, stay tuned for two
Speaker 1: more years from now and hopefully hopefully by then, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you you're done. It's done. I'm cooking it, cooking
Speaker 1: with gas, all those at home meals, not eating out
Speaker 1: because of the squishy budget. Yeah, what about you, Jen,
Speaker 1: what's your update? I mean, we are still ebbing and flowing.
Speaker 1: I guess you're still on your sugar detox. I laughed
Speaker 1: when I heard that, and I laughed, But no, I
Speaker 1: mean now, we are also in a renovation, but we
Speaker 1: had a bulk of savings already to do that with,
Speaker 1: so we're still dipping into that, and that also could
Speaker 1: take us several years. I would cry, But you know,
Speaker 1: at least the rental portion, please please Lord. No. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's um, that's about it. Yeah, I mean take it
Speaker 1: from me. If you're living in it and your cash flowing,
Speaker 1: it is going to take triple or quadruple the amount
Speaker 1: of time you would hope. Yeah, And I still, I mean,
Speaker 1: my my work income as an entrepreneur still ebbs and flows,
Speaker 1: and so it is. That is, that's entrepreneur life. It's
Speaker 1: gotten a lot better with my heart, the partnership there,
Speaker 1: that has been a big, big weight off my shoulders.
Speaker 1: So are our updates sound depressing? I am very happy
Speaker 1: with so glad I'm got are great. Yeah, things are great.
Speaker 1: It's just we were I guess we were in like
Speaker 1: a low point. Well, no, this was this was a
Speaker 1: low point for everyone when we originally recorded this. So
Speaker 1: just now the updates seem low. But I mean we're
Speaker 1: two years happier. But so thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: our sad updates. But um, but what brings us a
Speaker 1: lot of joy is our private community where we do
Speaker 1: monthly challenges UM and a lot of you are in it. UM.
Speaker 1: We also offer accountability groups in there. So we want
Speaker 1: to congratulate one of our members for a big mindset
Speaker 1: shift they had during last month's mindset challenge, and it's
Speaker 1: Sam w. She says, I'm not a morning person. I
Speaker 1: used to beat myself up over my inability to do
Speaker 1: focused work before noon, but now I just lean into it.
Speaker 1: I spend my morning's doing tasks and chores that forced
Speaker 1: me to move around, then settle in for deep work
Speaker 1: sessions in the afternoon. Learning this about myself has made
Speaker 1: me so much more productive. So, Congress, Sam, I loved
Speaker 1: reading this and I resonated it with it. So much
Speaker 1: that we do put a hierarchy around who gets up earliest,
Speaker 1: as if somehow better than those who stay up later
Speaker 1: and find what works for them. So I'm just so
Speaker 1: glad for that perspective, mindset shift for you say, I'm
Speaker 1: well done, absolutely so thank you for listening. If you
Speaker 1: want to check out our monthly challenge community had to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what
Speaker 1: challenge we have coming up next. See you next time.
Speaker 1: Crugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni Jill. So just
Speaker 1: to like an update. You can't see it on the podcast,
Speaker 1: but um, last night Jill and Eric and Travis and
Speaker 1: I installed our new background or new recording background. So
Speaker 1: we are looking at it right now. Oh yeah, we
Speaker 1: have a studio. We are going to get new microphones,
Speaker 1: and we're going to go to a podcasting conference and
Speaker 1: hang out with other podcasters, and we have a background,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get sign lighting so that we can
Speaker 1: actually take video so that we can share the joy
Speaker 1: of the Neon sign and fake boxwood hedge with everybody,
Speaker 1: and everybody can see who we are and I will
Speaker 1: always be to the left so that everyone knows. Jen
Speaker 1: and Jen And first, yeah, we read left to right,
Speaker 1: so I will always be on the left so that
Speaker 1: you can tell us apart and be great. And we'll
Speaker 1: have the neon sign. We're really you know, you may
Speaker 1: not have a kitchen, but we have a neon sign,
Speaker 1: and so what more could you need? And that's our focuses,
Speaker 1: our priorities are in the right place. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't need to eat anymore now. I just look
Speaker 1: at the neon sign and I'm nourished. I'm full of joy,
Speaker 1: and I live on joy. Yep.