Speaker 1: Episode forty four, Frugal Pregnancy and Parenting with Mrs Frugal Woods.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver with your life. Here
Speaker 1: your host Jen and Jill. Hello everyone, welcome to another
Speaker 1: Friday edition of the Frugal Friends podcast. This is your
Speaker 1: trusty co host Jen. Hey, Hey, it's Friday. This is Jill,
Speaker 1: and this might be an episode that I am most excited.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm hands down at this is the most
Speaker 1: excited for any interview we've ever done. But it might
Speaker 1: be my favorite episode we've ever done. She is kind
Speaker 1: of your like celebrity crush, so I am yeah fan
Speaker 1: girl of a little hard. I kept it together real
Speaker 1: good in the interview. Looked real cool. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: We have list Thames, the Mrs frugal Woods from frugal
Speaker 1: Woods dot com and she is talking with us about
Speaker 1: frugal pregnancy and parenting. So you've heard her talk about
Speaker 1: financial independence, you've heard her talk about homesteading, and today
Speaker 1: she talked with us about all the things I needed
Speaker 1: to hear because I'm on this podcast and I make
Speaker 1: the show outline. So so there you go, that's your
Speaker 1: only about you fan girling hard. This is also super
Speaker 1: relevant for you, So this is definitely this is definitely
Speaker 1: Jen's episode And if you're like Jen in any way,
Speaker 1: this episode is also for you. Yes, and if you
Speaker 1: will be like me one day, which hopefully you will,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you want to be? You know? I could
Speaker 1: be like a commercial like if you are pregnant or
Speaker 1: ever planned to be pregnant, or have children or ever
Speaker 1: planned to have children, this episode is for you if
Speaker 1: you're a person. So before we get in to this awesome, awesome,
Speaker 1: jam packed episode, we gotta give thanks to our sponsors.
Speaker 1: We have to pay homage. And the first one is
Speaker 1: modern frugality dot com. It is my blog and shop
Speaker 1: and if you didn't think I will self absorbed before
Speaker 1: you do now. The Modern Frugality shop has free and
Speaker 1: low cost printables, resources e books to help you reduce
Speaker 1: your spending, minimize your stuff, and organize your life. So
Speaker 1: visit shop dot modern frugality dot com to see all
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Speaker 1: frugal Friends nineteen and you get fifty percent off anything
Speaker 1: and that's includes anything on sale to fantastic. This show
Speaker 1: is also brought to you by All Natural. We don't
Speaker 1: know what it means when it's listed on the side
Speaker 1: of cereal boxes, but in most cases, all natural sounds
Speaker 1: like a good thing. Thinking about dyeing your hair. Don't
Speaker 1: go all natural, thinking about shaving your legs or armpits.
Speaker 1: Don't go all natural, thinking about getting an epidural. Don't
Speaker 1: go all natural. Going all natural the scary frugal thing
Speaker 1: to do. I get behind none of that. I know,
Speaker 1: I love your face. You start to realize how much
Speaker 1: all natural is not actually a good thing. It usually
Speaker 1: means nothing when it's on the side of boxes that
Speaker 1: you eat, and in real life, tangibly, people who go
Speaker 1: all natural are the scary ones. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess so props. Props were sponsor today. Lucky for you,
Speaker 1: Liz does not recommend going that natural. She has such
Speaker 1: a really balanced view on all this, on all this
Speaker 1: stuff that people say could cost like tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars, and she did it very frugally, was able
Speaker 1: to reach financial independence with a kid, and now she
Speaker 1: has to She just has a fantastic story. So I'm
Speaker 1: really excited for you guys. To hear this interview, so
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Enjoy, Liz, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming on the show. We're so stoked to have
Speaker 1: you here. Oh, thank for inviting me. I'm excited. Awesome.
Speaker 1: So let's start with pregnancy. So how were your pregnancies
Speaker 1: and how did you conquer all the hormonal urges to
Speaker 1: buy all the things because I'm struggling with that in
Speaker 1: the midst I so understand. So I have two kids.
Speaker 1: I have a three year old and an almost one
Speaker 1: year old, two girls. So I have been pregnant or
Speaker 1: breastfeeding for the last like four years. So I'm okay,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of ready to move past this phase of life.
Speaker 1: Your Yeah, So I've been pregnant a lot lately. So
Speaker 1: you know, with my first pregnancy, I felt really fortunate
Speaker 1: because I got pregnant after my husband and I had
Speaker 1: already embraced this really sort of financially conscious frugal ethos,
Speaker 1: and so the pregnancy and the baby really kind of
Speaker 1: slotted into that lifestyle that we were already living. If
Speaker 1: you're not very financially conscious and you're pregnant or thinking
Speaker 1: about getting pregnant, I cannot stress enough to do it
Speaker 1: before the baby comes. You have more free time, more sanity,
Speaker 1: and more energy now than you ever. No. I mean
Speaker 1: I'm care when they're like eighteen, but no, no, this
Speaker 1: is this is a real favor that you can do
Speaker 1: for yourself before the baby comes. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: kind of had that money conversation, either with yourself or
Speaker 1: if you have a partner, if you haven't sat down
Speaker 1: and you know, done sort of the basic financial management
Speaker 1: tools that you need to do, do it before you
Speaker 1: have the baby's start from there. It is interesting to
Speaker 1: hear for a lot of people that is the motivator.
Speaker 1: I mean, it'd be great to even start prior to
Speaker 1: seeing that positive pregnancy test. But for a lot of
Speaker 1: people that is it like, oh, there's somebody else that
Speaker 1: we're bringing into this world that is going to be
Speaker 1: impacted by our decisions and our lifestyle. Let's get it together. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and it's fine. You know you've got nine months, Like
Speaker 1: it really is first song from someone who's been pregnant twice.
Speaker 1: It's a long I know it really it feels like
Speaker 1: I've been pregnant forever. How far along are you? Twenty
Speaker 1: four weeks so you're I know, I know I know
Speaker 1: it's I understand. So you know, for people who are
Speaker 1: like despairing, they're like, but I'm already thirty weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you still have like ten or twelve weeks. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got plenty of time. So really, truly, you're doing
Speaker 1: this before you have the kids. This is just a
Speaker 1: great favor to yourself to feel like you are financially
Speaker 1: empowered before you ever know the person who's depending on you.
Speaker 1: So in terms of the hormonal urges, they kind of
Speaker 1: never go away. I really focused on what I needed
Speaker 1: to have done in order to feel prepared and feel
Speaker 1: kind of secure in my nesting instinct because I really
Speaker 1: needed to nest and like get everything writing. And for me,
Speaker 1: it was like having the car seat installed. I swear
Speaker 1: I had my husband installed it. I think I was
Speaker 1: still in my first time muster. Um He's like, okay,
Speaker 1: what ever will make you feel, but so know yourself,
Speaker 1: know what you need, you know. And for me, it
Speaker 1: wasn't really buying things so much as just feeling really prepared.
Speaker 1: So I had my hospital back, I had the baby's
Speaker 1: room ready. Um. At the beginning of my third trimester,
Speaker 1: carseat installed. We had a plan of action, for who
Speaker 1: is going to watch our dog? This is with the
Speaker 1: first kid, And so I think knowing yourself and knowing
Speaker 1: what you need, and a lot of times the root
Speaker 1: of it is not actually buying things, it's feeling prepared.
Speaker 1: So I've read a ton of books. I read like
Speaker 1: every book on newborn wellness and like baby raising because
Speaker 1: that helps me. You know, it was nervous. If you're
Speaker 1: not nervous before you have a kid, you are like
Speaker 1: woefully uh mistaken, you know, I mean it should be.
Speaker 1: It's that's normal and having that anxiety, if you can
Speaker 1: just channel that into Okay, I'm gonna read research, take
Speaker 1: a class if you want to, you know, talk with
Speaker 1: friends who have kids, find ways to have yourself feel prepared.
Speaker 1: And then in terms of the actual stuff, I'll say
Speaker 1: it now, and I'll probably say it a million more
Speaker 1: times in this interview. Go used secondhand hand me downs.
Speaker 1: I cannot stress this enough because I am an advocate
Speaker 1: for this in all aspects of life. But even if
Speaker 1: you're like not into used stuff and not a super
Speaker 1: frugal person, you want to do it for kids, especially
Speaker 1: for tiny babies, because they cycle through their clothing and
Speaker 1: their gear at a just like an alarming alarming So
Speaker 1: my youngest says, um, she's a year old, but she's
Speaker 1: really small. But by the time she was six months old,
Speaker 1: I had already gotten rid of like three bins of
Speaker 1: clothing and a ton of gear. You know, because once
Speaker 1: they start sitting up, you don't need the bumbo seat,
Speaker 1: once they start crawling, you don't need the bouncer, you
Speaker 1: don't need the exer saucer. So find these things used,
Speaker 1: and there are so many different ways to do that.
Speaker 1: Craigslist obviously, um garage sales free by the side of
Speaker 1: the road. I found a number of things that way.
Speaker 1: Talk to your friends like me have kids and who
Speaker 1: are not having more kids. They want to get rid
Speaker 1: of their stuff. So I can't even tell you how
Speaker 1: badly I want this stuff out of my anybody needs
Speaker 1: an extra sauce or please, I've been the classic seriously
Speaker 1: dam out. I just get it out. All the New
Speaker 1: World clothes, I just immediately give it to my friend
Speaker 1: whose baby is a couple of months to anger. So
Speaker 1: find those people they want this stuff out. Same thing
Speaker 1: from maternity clothes. I didn't buy any maternity clothing at all,
Speaker 1: and I was still working a professional job in an office,
Speaker 1: you know, get hand me downs if you have to
Speaker 1: buy something by like one pair of nice black pants,
Speaker 1: I don't wear those, and like we're a different top.
Speaker 1: You know. It just you do not need to like
Speaker 1: set a fashion trend while your pregnant, because you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm uncomfortable anyway, and I even the cute clothes, You're
Speaker 1: like whatever, I don't know. I'm still like a whale
Speaker 1: over here. So it says, I mean it, really, it
Speaker 1: just I cannot emphasize enough. It does not that. UM.
Speaker 1: And again, these are such brief phases of life, and
Speaker 1: so other good sources of you staff find your local
Speaker 1: parents list, serve. Sometimes it's by emails. Sometimes it's on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Become a member even before you have your baby. It
Speaker 1: is like your source for friends, play dates, free stuff advice, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, heads up on preschool applications. It's everything you
Speaker 1: really want to get plugged in with that, UM. And
Speaker 1: then find your places where people with little kids congregate.
Speaker 1: So free play groups, free read alongs at the library.
Speaker 1: Just get plugged into this network of people, UM, both
Speaker 1: both for the free stuff and for a place to
Speaker 1: give your stuff away too, but also for you know
Speaker 1: the fulfillment that comes from having those friendships. So that's
Speaker 1: a really long answer. Just through so much at us
Speaker 1: that I feel like it's gonna if I were pregnant
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, I would probably stop right there
Speaker 1: and re listen because you just gave so many really
Speaker 1: good to us. The one that really stands out to
Speaker 1: me is and I read this on your blog about
Speaker 1: a frugal pregnancy, and it really struck me because I
Speaker 1: think it's so profound and wise, but getting to the
Speaker 1: root of why people would want to just buy and
Speaker 1: buy and buy in preparation for a child, and a
Speaker 1: lot of it is fear based. And you even said
Speaker 1: in your blog that marketers know that they know that
Speaker 1: you feel ill equipped, ill prepared, and so by this
Speaker 1: thing and buy that thing. And you gotta get your
Speaker 1: bottle warming, you gotta get your your your other warmer,
Speaker 1: you gotta get your diaper, pale trash stuff and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And what it really is is I don't
Speaker 1: feel prepared, and so buying all these things makes me
Speaker 1: feel more prepared. But the better route is to say,
Speaker 1: let's get some resources, free resources from the library, let's
Speaker 1: read about it, and that that can kind of ward
Speaker 1: off these other things that really aren't necessary or wait
Speaker 1: to see, do I actually need the white warmer? You don't.
Speaker 1: You don't think that I didn't register for that. You
Speaker 1: don't need that. One of the ways that I did
Speaker 1: that as I took your tip for joining the buy
Speaker 1: nothing group. I mean, we've always we've loved by nothing
Speaker 1: groups in you know, this podcast community. But I posted
Speaker 1: just there that like, we're having a boy, so I'll
Speaker 1: take whatever, and oh my gosh, I have clothes for
Speaker 1: the first two years of his life already. And just
Speaker 1: just the act of like washing those clothes and putting
Speaker 1: them on hangars or folding them like that was kind
Speaker 1: of like enough to like quell me, Like yeah, so
Speaker 1: there's something to be said there. You can still like
Speaker 1: nest even when you're like getting your stuff for free,
Speaker 1: and yeah, and I would argue it's you. I love
Speaker 1: the clothing. Oh my gosh, the kids clothing. I have
Speaker 1: kids clothing up to like age six at this point
Speaker 1: because I just keep and my advice to people with
Speaker 1: taking hand me downs for babies, take it all. So
Speaker 1: if someone says, do you want this like huge car
Speaker 1: load of stuff, just say yes, take it because I
Speaker 1: was really surprised at what I ended up using and
Speaker 1: what I didn't end up your kids, you know. It
Speaker 1: just it was very hard for me before having my
Speaker 1: first to gauge what I would actually need. And so
Speaker 1: there are things that I never used and I've just
Speaker 1: passed along to someone else. And then there's stuff that
Speaker 1: I have used every day that when we got it,
Speaker 1: my husband and I said to each other, how dumb
Speaker 1: is this? This is like we we're never going to
Speaker 1: use this stupid thing, and we've used it every single day.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, take it all. It's overwhelming. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff, especially if you don't have a
Speaker 1: storage space. But you can just pass it along as
Speaker 1: you know, the minute that you're finished with it. All
Speaker 1: of it is washable. Clothing obviously washable, but all of
Speaker 1: the other things they have removable covers. You can take
Speaker 1: everything apart. I've washed like car seat buckles, entire it
Speaker 1: all comes apart. It's all washable, and if it's not
Speaker 1: just right down with vinegar and a bit clean, and
Speaker 1: then your baby will throw up all over it. The
Speaker 1: first day I take before my second, I didn't really
Speaker 1: clean the stuff because I was like, what was my
Speaker 1: first baby. Anyway, it's my dirt, so it's fine. And
Speaker 1: so as far as getting getting used things, either through
Speaker 1: buy nothing groups or through friends, I noticed that you
Speaker 1: had some tips for people who might have some safety
Speaker 1: concerns with high chairs or maybe strollers are different things.
Speaker 1: What do you suggest there Someone's like, no, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: afraid to not buy new what about safety? You can
Speaker 1: research the model number and the serial number, So look
Speaker 1: on the bottom of the car seat or the side
Speaker 1: of the high chair or the crib and just google that,
Speaker 1: you know, Grey CO four five six, whatever the information is,
Speaker 1: and find out if there have been any recalls on
Speaker 1: the product. So we found there had been a recall
Speaker 1: on our high chair. However, you get from the manufacturer,
Speaker 1: you can get the free fix it kit. So we
Speaker 1: just signed up and said, we have this high chair,
Speaker 1: we need the free fix it kit. They nailed it
Speaker 1: to us and my husband I don't even know what
Speaker 1: it was, but he, you know, put it on there
Speaker 1: in the way that it was supposed to be installed.
Speaker 1: So I know that for things like that, you can
Speaker 1: often receive the recall item for free in order to
Speaker 1: fix it. For car seats, um car seats expire. However,
Speaker 1: I will say that the exploration date is very close
Speaker 1: to the creation date, and I think intentionally so I
Speaker 1: think everybody needs to do their own research on what
Speaker 1: they're comfortable with with car seats. In general, if a
Speaker 1: car seat has not been in a car accident, is
Speaker 1: probably fine. Would I buy Would I buy and expired
Speaker 1: car seat from somebody I didn't know? Probably not. But
Speaker 1: if someone I know, and all of my car seats
Speaker 1: have come from close friends of mine, they've given them
Speaker 1: to me for free, so they have nothing to gain by,
Speaker 1: you know, telling me that it hasn't been in an accident.
Speaker 1: So I say, no, be a little bit cautious with
Speaker 1: how you source your car seat. But I you know,
Speaker 1: I don't really necessarily think you need to purchase new.
Speaker 1: I will say that some hospitals will check the expiration
Speaker 1: date on the car seat. So with my first child,
Speaker 1: UM baby number one, they did not check the exploration date.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you it was expired. We left the hospital
Speaker 1: find whatever. Um second child born at a different hospital,
Speaker 1: they checked the exploration date and they wouldn't let us
Speaker 1: leave the hospital. So my husband ran to Walmart and
Speaker 1: not any one for thirty bucks. Oh my gosh, So
Speaker 1: you know, have that awareness and because that was a
Speaker 1: major pain and so had I known that, I would
Speaker 1: have like gone to Walmart a little bit out of
Speaker 1: time and bought one. So you can just ask your
Speaker 1: hospital if they have a policy about that, if they
Speaker 1: check the expiration date. I don't, you know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I think, so you need to do your own research
Speaker 1: on that. For everything else, you know, use common sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if the item looks like it's broken
Speaker 1: or it's going to be a choking hazard, probably don't
Speaker 1: get it. I mean, in you know, in general, these
Speaker 1: things are pretty lately used. Let's really go through this
Speaker 1: stuff quickly. And so most of my things are you know,
Speaker 1: they came to me like on maybe their fifth child,
Speaker 1: and I've no pass them alone and they're still fine.
Speaker 1: That's good to know. Yeah, that's fantastic. As far as
Speaker 1: the actual necessities, what have you found? I mean, it
Speaker 1: seems like, especially for someone having their first, they may
Speaker 1: start to collect. And I think that is the downside
Speaker 1: is that you can think you need all these things
Speaker 1: to you buy it. It's different if someone just gives
Speaker 1: it to you and you're holding onto it just to
Speaker 1: find out. But what have you found for yourself? Are
Speaker 1: the important things to have before bringing home a baby? Well,
Speaker 1: this is a tough one because it depends on you,
Speaker 1: depends on how you and you if you have a partner,
Speaker 1: how you too want to parent, what kind of home
Speaker 1: you want. You know, if you're in a one bedroom
Speaker 1: apartment in Manhattan, it's going to be different than me
Speaker 1: in a four bedroom home. So I think you need
Speaker 1: to think about what's going to work best for your
Speaker 1: family and your lifestyle. You know. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: like these are they things you need and you don't
Speaker 1: need anything else, because for somebody who's walking to the
Speaker 1: subway every day, you're going to need a stroller. Gonna
Speaker 1: need a stroller, you know. So it's just you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to think through your routine and what you need
Speaker 1: to do with baby every day. And like I was
Speaker 1: speaking to a friend who's having twins, and my advice
Speaker 1: to her is a little bit different. You know, I said,
Speaker 1: you you've got to get car seats that snap into
Speaker 1: the stroller because you can't carry two car seats at once.
Speaker 1: Two but too heavy. So she needs to be able
Speaker 1: to you know, whereas if you have one car seat
Speaker 1: you can't. So I think it it's just it's really
Speaker 1: going to depend. I didn't buy anything before my first
Speaker 1: It was all used and it was all handed down.
Speaker 1: And what we decided is, you know, we'll wait after
Speaker 1: she's born. If we need to buy some things, we'll
Speaker 1: buy them. And I would say, give yourself a budget
Speaker 1: for I call it like the ridiculous baby thing you
Speaker 1: have to have because I had to buy, like had
Speaker 1: to buy a shopping cart cover fifteen dollars. But you
Speaker 1: just why is why? Um? So you can you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, give yourself that like budget for on Amazon.
Speaker 1: You know, don't it shouldn't need two hundred dollars a week, right,
Speaker 1: you just you don't need that much stuff, But allow
Speaker 1: yourself to like, Okay, I need to buy this ridiculous
Speaker 1: baby thing. I bought these like handprint like baby handprint kits.
Speaker 1: It's a frame and it's like the handprints, but we
Speaker 1: couldn't get my daughter's hand, so it's two feet so
Speaker 1: she just kept My husband was like, we're just doing
Speaker 1: the feet. I was like, well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: so that's not it shows on the butt sun up
Speaker 1: it's like he's like, oh my god, so your feet,
Speaker 1: our next daughter, second baby. I just want to say,
Speaker 1: it's a hand in the foot. I got that hand.
Speaker 1: So things like that. If you really want to buy that,
Speaker 1: buy it, but be conscious, be thoughtful. You know, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't impulse by a five jogging stroller. You know, I
Speaker 1: got a jogging stroller for five dollars at a thrift store.
Speaker 1: I got a double jogging stroller for sixty bucks off
Speaker 1: of my parents listener. So and be cognizant of what
Speaker 1: you're gonna need. At the outset, you don't need very much.
Speaker 1: They don't do anything, They eat, and they sleep. I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask, and I don't know how realistic this is,
Speaker 1: but I imagine that if I ever have kids, I
Speaker 1: will probably purchase beforehand one outfit and a car seat.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious how realistic would that be to literally
Speaker 1: practically buy nothing and then decide what's needed from someone
Speaker 1: who has kids. Could that is that possible? I need?
Speaker 1: I will tell you something, anything is possible. I have
Speaker 1: seen people, thank you. I mean, I've seen it. All
Speaker 1: of your dreams, to truly leave your dreams. I will
Speaker 1: do that because I like to be prepared. I told you,
Speaker 1: like a prepare o phobe. So I had to have
Speaker 1: everything like washed in the drawers, you know, like um,
Speaker 1: like baptism outfit picked out like I just to be
Speaker 1: prepared the challenge. I think with your approaches that then
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna end up buying new and then you're
Speaker 1: just gonna and you're just gonna buy it and start
Speaker 1: in your early pregnancy. Just as Jen, as you were describing,
Speaker 1: start early, you talked to your buying nothing group, start
Speaker 1: trolling Craigslist. You know it's gonna take you a while
Speaker 1: to find this stuff. I mean it took me, like
Speaker 1: I don't know how many months to find my double
Speaker 1: jogging stroller, you know. And so I bought the double
Speaker 1: jogging stroller while I was still pregnant with my second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna want it. I knew sixty
Speaker 1: bucks was a great deal. Um. I made my husband
Speaker 1: go get it that day because it was such a deal.
Speaker 1: It's like, you have to pick this up right now.
Speaker 1: So if you you know, if you start early in
Speaker 1: the pregnancy, you're just giving yourself a lot of opportunity.
Speaker 1: And again, just give it away and get rid of it.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't buy a ton of new stuff before the
Speaker 1: baby scorn, but I would stock up. And they do
Speaker 1: need a lot of clothes. Uh oh my gosh, the
Speaker 1: like the both friends. It's just there's a lot of laundry.
Speaker 1: Um what you need to do, you know, But you
Speaker 1: don't need complicated clothes. You just need a one piece sleeper.
Speaker 1: You're not going to know. I feel like I have
Speaker 1: so much clothing, and I did. I gave myself a
Speaker 1: thirties thrift store budget to buy clothing, buy some of
Speaker 1: my own at the threat store. I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, but yeah, I feel like I have so
Speaker 1: much right now. I'm like looking at it because my
Speaker 1: office is in the baby's nursery. It's got the best internet.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you'll use it or you'll just give
Speaker 1: it away, you know. And I just end up using
Speaker 1: that like zip up onesie thing, like the whole shirt
Speaker 1: and pants for a newborn. No, it just no, it's
Speaker 1: so hard to get them in at their hands, Like
Speaker 1: you mean, I don't need like a tiny tuxedo. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, so, I just love the dresses, but just
Speaker 1: wait till they're older. Because when you go out and
Speaker 1: about they're mostly going to be on you in a carrier.
Speaker 1: So the other thing I recommend, if you're going to
Speaker 1: go your route of buying one outfit in a car seat,
Speaker 1: I would get it an infant carrier. I my kids live.
Speaker 1: My one year old is still in the carrier on
Speaker 1: your body. You know what I'm talking about. It's I'm gesturing.
Speaker 1: But these people can't so like a wrap, so there's rass.
Speaker 1: The movie Rap is very popular. I am not skilled
Speaker 1: enough to do the Moby Rap and my children split out.
Speaker 1: I prefer the Ergo Bay like a back snap snap.
Speaker 1: You can't mess it up. They're not going to fall out.
Speaker 1: They can go on the front or on the back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we actually have an Ergo Baby and my husband got
Speaker 1: it like right after we got married because it was
Speaker 1: free on Craigslist and just like oh yeah that things
Speaker 1: like five hundred bucks, you know yeah, And I was like, well, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you saying because we just got married, and
Speaker 1: be like your take you this away from somebody who
Speaker 1: could use it in like the three years that we
Speaker 1: have not been pregnant since stuff. But we held on
Speaker 1: to it and we're gonna use it. And then they
Speaker 1: pass it on we will pass it on to somebody
Speaker 1: who needs that. We'll get pregnant faster. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I and I took me a long time to get pregnant,
Speaker 1: and so I like had this stuff in my house
Speaker 1: for a long time. And then after my first was born,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, well I won't be pregnant again
Speaker 1: for a while, so I lent out all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And then I got pregnant like really quickly with my
Speaker 1: second and it's like, um, she was like, oh, what
Speaker 1: do you need him? I was like kind of like
Speaker 1: this week. So you know, I lent them mountain between.
Speaker 1: But you know, but yeah, so having a carrier. I
Speaker 1: find this really imperative. And you and your husband might
Speaker 1: find that you like different carriers. My husband is not
Speaker 1: like the same carrier that I use. It's just different bodies,
Speaker 1: different people. So you'll have to figure out you might
Speaker 1: not like the ergo. You know, you there are often
Speaker 1: baby wearing groups in towns. It's like baby wearing Mamas
Speaker 1: or baby wearing whatever, and then you can go and
Speaker 1: try out their carriers. Oh interesting, try out the cars
Speaker 1: because depending on your body, your back, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of weight on your back and you want to be comfortable,
Speaker 1: you know, because I have mine in there while I'm cooking,
Speaker 1: while I'm doing housework. They love to be in there.
Speaker 1: But it's heavy, but it's good. So I just have.
Speaker 1: I just got a new nephew, can you say it
Speaker 1: that way? Yes, My sister just birthed another human. And
Speaker 1: I was out there like living nannying for two weeks
Speaker 1: and I got to wear him on me, and it
Speaker 1: is like the most amazing thing. He's so warm, he's
Speaker 1: so heavy. Like my lower back hurt for a long time.
Speaker 1: Three hours of that stuff, but he was so content
Speaker 1: for three hours of me just moving around cleaning up, cooking.
Speaker 1: It was so sweet. Though I have like serious back
Speaker 1: pain because of it, and I continue to do it
Speaker 1: because they're so they're so content. Yeah, so happys sleep
Speaker 1: Mama or whoever. And Jill, you know, good the body.
Speaker 1: They're pretty like not discriminating when they're exactly that's on
Speaker 1: the next best thing to mom. That's what I like
Speaker 1: to think. Yeah you are you are? Um? So, so
Speaker 1: once maybe is home, what kind of expenses should we anticipate, um,
Speaker 1: and which should we anticipate trying to avoid not just
Speaker 1: like stuff, I guess but like all the other things, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I feel like we've covered stuff. Something that we
Speaker 1: did that was a great plan, which was not my idea,
Speaker 1: somebody else's idea. We stopped our chest freezer with pre
Speaker 1: made meals, so adult meals. So my husband, he's a cook.
Speaker 1: He cooked up like tons upon tons of soups and
Speaker 1: stews and chilies and stir fries. We froze them in
Speaker 1: just court size zip block bags. But you don't need
Speaker 1: to get We tried to get like fancy freezer boxes.
Speaker 1: It was ridiculous, just quart sized bags. Um. And then
Speaker 1: what happened is we could just eat that over rice
Speaker 1: every night, so he would just warm it up, pop
Speaker 1: it over rice. Because you're not gonna feel like cooking.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna feel like anything. So it's kind of like,
Speaker 1: either do that or be prepared to spend a lot
Speaker 1: on take out. People will want to bring you things,
Speaker 1: tell them to bring you food. You know, be very
Speaker 1: grateful for a meal that we did that with both
Speaker 1: of our kids, and it's so helpful. It's it's hard
Speaker 1: to overstate sort of how exhausting one little person is
Speaker 1: and how much it sort of SAPs the reserves of
Speaker 1: two or more adults. If you have the luxury of
Speaker 1: preparing the food ahead of time, that's awesome. What about
Speaker 1: for prior? You know, you hear all these women saying,
Speaker 1: oh my word, food craving. I just have to get
Speaker 1: in my car and go run and get fringe fries.
Speaker 1: And it's like happening every day, and they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: eating for two. What's your take on that? How to
Speaker 1: save money, how to fight some of those cravings or
Speaker 1: given in a frugal way. What do you think? I think?
Speaker 1: You know talked here Obi about how your weight gain
Speaker 1: is going. I was really cognizant of that because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to have to lose like tons of weight afterwards,
Speaker 1: and my back was already hurting, so I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So I was really kind of conscious of
Speaker 1: just trying not to gain too much weight for that perspective.
Speaker 1: I ended up My second was eight pound two ounces anyway,
Speaker 1: like she was. It was nine five. Oh I wasn't
Speaker 1: you are looking at a nine five baby? You're train.
Speaker 1: That's so funny, all them brains, you know that. M Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean for the cravings, like I give into the
Speaker 1: cravings for for me. It was always just the first trimester,
Speaker 1: and so I didn't I knew it wasn't gonna last
Speaker 1: the whole time. With my first it was tomato sauce
Speaker 1: like spaghetti and neat bel tomato sauce. So I just
Speaker 1: had my husband make it from scratch at home and
Speaker 1: he made me like, I mean that's I would just
Speaker 1: eat like barely any noodles, just like eat the tomatoes.
Speaker 1: He was like. And then with my second and the
Speaker 1: first trimester, it was beef tacos, very bisser my cravings
Speaker 1: all the time. I like, I need just tacos. So
Speaker 1: it would be like nine in the morning and it's like,
Speaker 1: I need some beef tacots. So it was so again
Speaker 1: I had my husband, my chef, just he made me
Speaker 1: a huge, like you know, misan plas of all these
Speaker 1: different taco fixings so he may love that, like cook
Speaker 1: this all up. He cooked it up in the morning.
Speaker 1: He was so disgusted. He's likely so, yeah, I have
Speaker 1: a toddler, so you know, sure, if you need to
Speaker 1: eat it, eat it. Because there really was a point.
Speaker 1: I'm swearing it was like a medical condition. All the
Speaker 1: beef tacos. So do that cook it at home if
Speaker 1: you can be reasonable. You know, you don't need a
Speaker 1: McDonald's burger. You could make a nice burger at home,
Speaker 1: you know, So think about just think about it the
Speaker 1: way you would with anything else. You already more and
Speaker 1: you're gonna eat more if you decide to breastfeed. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, you will just eat so much. And just
Speaker 1: do it. You know, you need to buy yourself good food.
Speaker 1: You need to feed yourself. Yeah, and like you said
Speaker 1: with the clothing, it's it's a season, like it's passing.
Speaker 1: It won't you won't forever and always be eating beef
Speaker 1: tacos at nine am. So just let it happen for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, couple of months, whatever. Yeah, mine
Speaker 1: was Mine was Chick fil a chicken sandwiches. And I
Speaker 1: was a vegetarian, I have I was a vegetarian up
Speaker 1: until like several weeks ago for ten years, and was
Speaker 1: the Chick fil a chicken sandwiches. I had three in
Speaker 1: one week and that was it. No, two of them
Speaker 1: were in one day list. Two of them. No, trust me,
Speaker 1: I totally. You just go through this place and I
Speaker 1: think it just crave protein. I think that's why I
Speaker 1: wanted the beef so because we don't really eat that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I need meat. And even still
Speaker 1: with breastfeeding, I'm like, it's like, what do you want
Speaker 1: for dinner, I'm like chili with chicken, Like I want,
Speaker 1: I need a lot more meat, you know, well pregnant
Speaker 1: and breastfeeding, because you just don't need more and you
Speaker 1: should be eating more good stuff, you know, chicken instead
Speaker 1: of Yeah. Yeah, I started. I started making like chicken
Speaker 1: at home because I was like, if I'm gonna do this,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it the fried way, I
Speaker 1: want to do it like real and healthy. So I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be a vegetarian who just eats Chick fil
Speaker 1: a sandwiches. Yeah that's what I was, like, I'm a
Speaker 1: vegetarian except except yeah, that was me. Speaking of caring
Speaker 1: for yourself in the midst of pregnancy and after having children, Liz,
Speaker 1: you shared really personally and intimately about some of the
Speaker 1: things that you went through and how you had to
Speaker 1: care for yourself on your blog after giving birth to
Speaker 1: your second child, and I wonder if you wouldn't mind
Speaker 1: sharing some of your story with some of the postpartum
Speaker 1: things that you experienced in any advice that you would
Speaker 1: give to other women who might be experiencing that, it
Speaker 1: sounds like a fairly common thing, like how to identify,
Speaker 1: how to treat it, how to care for yourself, and
Speaker 1: like work towards well being in that m So, I
Speaker 1: had postpartum depression, which went undiagnosed with my first and
Speaker 1: then was diagnosed about six months after my second child
Speaker 1: was born. So that's a fairly long period of time.
Speaker 1: And now that I'm in treatment, what I've come to
Speaker 1: recognize is that I think I've had sort of like
Speaker 1: a low level of anxiety and depression for many decades,
Speaker 1: and then the hormones of pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding
Speaker 1: just really ramped it up. And with the second um
Speaker 1: sort of having the constraints of already having a toddler
Speaker 1: being even more sleepless, it was so pronounced that my
Speaker 1: husband finally said, you know, something's wrong. You need to
Speaker 1: go get help. It's like this is no longer a conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you, I'm telling you that you're going
Speaker 1: to do this. I've made you an appointment. You're going. Well,
Speaker 1: that was pretty clear. So you know, I went to
Speaker 1: a therapist and I described how I'd been feeling, and
Speaker 1: she pretty much immediately said, that's very much textbook postponum
Speaker 1: depression and anxiety. And I thought, really depression. I don't
Speaker 1: feel depressed, but the symptoms that I was having, I
Speaker 1: now recognize our sort of hallmarks of depression and anxiety.
Speaker 1: So I was exhausted. You're exhausted after having a child anyway,
Speaker 1: you know, that's just a fact. But it was this
Speaker 1: was beyond that. Um. I was so hungry all the
Speaker 1: time again like above and beyond this, like knating chicken
Speaker 1: and beef tacos thing, just trying to like sort of
Speaker 1: sleep more, trying to eat more. UM. I tried to
Speaker 1: exercise as much as I possibly could. I was very angry.
Speaker 1: I had just a very short temper, which is really
Speaker 1: not good when you have a three year old and
Speaker 1: a baby, you know. So I wasn't losing my patients
Speaker 1: with them. I was using my patients with my husband.
Speaker 1: UM and he can take it. But he's like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is this is not you, you know, He's like,
Speaker 1: this is not who you are. You don't yell and
Speaker 1: scream at me, and not fun for you either to
Speaker 1: be UM. And I've subsequently learned that anger is another
Speaker 1: symptom of depression. I had no patience, I had no resilience.
Speaker 1: So something bad happened, Um, I just would fall down
Speaker 1: into this deep despair like and this could have been
Speaker 1: something really minor, like if my daughter I didn't eat
Speaker 1: her lunch or something. I just would like go spiral
Speaker 1: into gosh, she's not healthy. We're not doing the right things,
Speaker 1: like the wrong food for her. Again, I can't do
Speaker 1: anything right right. So this was just constant is daily
Speaker 1: and it's so difficult to function, let alone when you
Speaker 1: have two kids. And so I think for me, not
Speaker 1: understanding the symptoms was the reason that it went undiagnosed.
Speaker 1: And so I really encourage people before you have your child,
Speaker 1: after you do your financial preparation meeting, after you get
Speaker 1: all your used stuff, do some reading on postpartment depression.
Speaker 1: You know, I had done very cursory reading, just kind
Speaker 1: of flipping through like, yeah, I'm not depressed. Um, really
Speaker 1: dig into kind of how these symptoms are described and
Speaker 1: be very open to recognizing if you think that's happening
Speaker 1: within yourself, because the treatment is quite easy in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases and quite life changing. So for me,
Speaker 1: I was able to start taking an S s R
Speaker 1: I Zoloft, which I can continue breastfeeding while taking. So
Speaker 1: I had a fear that they were going to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't breastfeed anymore. You can absolutely breastfeed with Zoloft.
Speaker 1: And there are a couple other S s R s
Speaker 1: as well, so that was not a barrier at all.
Speaker 1: I was concerned that I would have side effects, that
Speaker 1: my personality would be different, not at all. I just
Speaker 1: feel normal, you know. I just feel like a normal
Speaker 1: person and a happy, funny, resilient UM person. And so
Speaker 1: I I really emphasize this with people that if you
Speaker 1: even think you're having trouble after your baby is more,
Speaker 1: there's just no harm in speaking to your doctor about
Speaker 1: whether or not medication or therapy might be something that
Speaker 1: would help you. And if it doesn't help, then maybe
Speaker 1: it's something else. You know, have your fire checked, have
Speaker 1: UM all of these other vitamin levels checked. I had
Speaker 1: every blood test done, you know, trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what this might be UM. So go that route. It's
Speaker 1: it's very worth it. And what it did for me
Speaker 1: is it allows me to actually enjoy this time with
Speaker 1: my kids. And I've heard from many Unfortunately, I've heard
Speaker 1: from a lot of people after I wrote that that
Speaker 1: they did not recognize the depression until their children were
Speaker 1: one to ten eighteen. They went their children's entire basically
Speaker 1: entire lifetimes, or even the entire babyhood or toddlerhood, and
Speaker 1: they think back like, oh, it could have been so
Speaker 1: much better. And that's how I think back now for
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, like, oh, my gosh, I
Speaker 1: can't believe you know, that was kind of suffering under
Speaker 1: this cloud. So get home. See, there's no shame in it.
Speaker 1: It can happen to anyone. It's a chemical imbalance. So
Speaker 1: you know, I tell people that get over yourself, like
Speaker 1: this in your brain, there's not It's not like some
Speaker 1: sort of like personal shortcoming or which I think is
Speaker 1: a stigma that surrounds mental illness generally. So you can
Speaker 1: read my posts, you can read someone else to post subsequently. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: I'm good friends with our pediatrician, and I've had quite
Speaker 1: a few conversations with her about how to screen people
Speaker 1: for postpartum depression, because your pediatrician is your main point
Speaker 1: of contact after you have a baby. Before the baby,
Speaker 1: it's like you at the obie every day after. It's
Speaker 1: like with pediatrician all the time. So I tell people,
Speaker 1: find a pediatrician that you trust and that you like
Speaker 1: and who could give you a referral if you needed
Speaker 1: it to a therapist or would help you identify if
Speaker 1: what you're feeling is normal or you know. But when
Speaker 1: I say, it's like, if you think it's not normal,
Speaker 1: just talk to somebody. Yeah, your your story like inspired
Speaker 1: me when I read it on your blog, because like
Speaker 1: I felt a lot of those symptoms in my first
Speaker 1: trimester when I was like go, go go, and then
Speaker 1: got pregnant and then like I couldn't do any of
Speaker 1: the things that I was normally doing and I was
Speaker 1: like angry about it. I was anxious about this pregnancy.
Speaker 1: I didn't know about like all of all of these things.
Speaker 1: And then like that's it might have been around the
Speaker 1: time that I read your post. It was then that
Speaker 1: I realized, like, oh, I might be kind of at
Speaker 1: risk for that after the baby, if this is how
Speaker 1: I'm feeling now, And I would have never known that.
Speaker 1: And yeah, nobody wants to go their babies entire infancy
Speaker 1: or toddlerhood like feeling like that. Nobody has to um
Speaker 1: so I'm so thankful that you were like honest about that,
Speaker 1: and I can you know, having raised that baby unmedicated
Speaker 1: and non medicated, it's much better because it's so hard.
Speaker 1: It's the hardest thing you'll ever ever do. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: went to I got my master's degree while I was
Speaker 1: working full time and going to school full time. Raising
Speaker 1: babies is harder. You know, there's just that it's it's different,
Speaker 1: it's a different utilization of your skill set. But don't
Speaker 1: do it suffering from depression. And what I would say
Speaker 1: to people who are currently pregnant um is sometimes possible
Speaker 1: to start taking a low dose of an S s
Speaker 1: R I before you give birth. And I really wish
Speaker 1: I had done that and known that because I was
Speaker 1: so anxious around my seconds birth and I was so
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just crying in the hospital before
Speaker 1: she was born. I'm so anxious. So I wish that
Speaker 1: I had, you know, kind of had that that understanding
Speaker 1: at that time. So if you talk to your obe nails,
Speaker 1: see if there's something that you could take. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of these things are safe with pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Speaker 1: I think it's such a great conversation for us to
Speaker 1: have particularly in this frugal community, because I think a
Speaker 1: lot of us might approach well we we approach any
Speaker 1: topic from a problem solving d I y how can
Speaker 1: I save the most amount of money in this situation.
Speaker 1: We also talk about how frugality can help us live
Speaker 1: the life that we want to live and to save
Speaker 1: up and prioritize and be able to spend the time
Speaker 1: on what we want to spend time on. But still
Speaker 1: there can be this deep rooted let's do it ourselves,
Speaker 1: don't pay someone else to do it mentality. So I
Speaker 1: think this is so good to even hear from you, Liz,
Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing and breaking down this stigma to say
Speaker 1: this is one of those things that falls under the
Speaker 1: priority part of Yes, spend money on this because it
Speaker 1: leads to well being, It leads to better family relationships,
Speaker 1: It leads to a better sense of self that it
Speaker 1: leads into. It makes you more capable of doing those
Speaker 1: other things in life of the problem solving the d
Speaker 1: I y ng. But this is not an area that
Speaker 1: you would want to compromise on. That's not to say
Speaker 1: that there aren't frugal things in the midst of that
Speaker 1: that you could do. You know, ways to get your
Speaker 1: prescriptions at a lower cost, or therapy at a lower cost.
Speaker 1: But this is of high, high importance and comes into
Speaker 1: priority whether you're frugal or not. So yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing that. I appreciate it. And I just one
Speaker 1: more thing on that. You know, if you have a
Speaker 1: baby and you're listening to this and you're like, I
Speaker 1: can't get out of the house, can't get to the
Speaker 1: doctor because I don't have maybe to watch the baby,
Speaker 1: just take the baby to the doctor, you know, I
Speaker 1: just I can't emphasize this enough. I know people who
Speaker 1: have not gone to the dentist for three years because
Speaker 1: they don't have child care. Just take them with you.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not the end of the world. It
Speaker 1: may not be the most ideal doctor's appointment ever, but
Speaker 1: trust me that they've had babies in the office before,
Speaker 1: so don't let that be kind of the barrier to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Wow, that was great. Let's transition into something
Speaker 1: a little lighter, and I think it's Yeah, it's that
Speaker 1: it's time for that time of the week. It's it's
Speaker 1: a fun time of the week. Yes, yes, it's time
Speaker 1: for the bill of a week. That's right, it's time
Speaker 1: for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
Speaker 1: baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you
Speaker 1: paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're
Speaker 1: happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's
Speaker 1: bill Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of
Speaker 1: the week, all right, Liz. Every week we have a
Speaker 1: listener call in and give us their favorite bill, whether
Speaker 1: that's lowercase or upper case whatever. We leave it vague
Speaker 1: for a reason. And so as a guest on our show,
Speaker 1: we'd love to invite you to share your favorite bill.
Speaker 1: What do you have for us? I think right now
Speaker 1: I have to go with the duck bill. We have
Speaker 1: this book that was a hand me down, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. That quacks. It's about ducks and you push
Speaker 1: up o. My God, and my kids, both of them,
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, they just like, absolutely adore. It's
Speaker 1: not loud, but it's just this little quacking sound and
Speaker 1: it's all be in the other room and I just
Speaker 1: hear the ball. Yes, that's great. That is. Duck bills
Speaker 1: are Jill's favorite kind of bills a week, actually, so
Speaker 1: I do like them. They're unexpected. Yes, So if you
Speaker 1: have a duck bill or any other kind of bill
Speaker 1: that you want to share with us, Please visit Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us a
Speaker 1: Google voicemail or speak pipe and uh and we'll play
Speaker 1: your bill. And if it quacks, even better, So especially
Speaker 1: if you have recordings of the quacks, we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear that too. We love it. We're entertained by it too. Yes,
Speaker 1: all right, it's time for Jill's second favorite time of
Speaker 1: the week. The lightning round. To the lightning round. It
Speaker 1: really means nothing other than I like saying lightning. There
Speaker 1: is literally no pressure to it. It's not yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I calling it a lightning round for so long, and
Speaker 1: then I would label it different things in the outline
Speaker 1: and Jill would still call it the lightning round anyway.
Speaker 1: So I just started labeling it. I don't even know
Speaker 1: why I did it. I just felt right, even though
Speaker 1: there's nothing that would make it be a lightning round.
Speaker 1: It's just shorter than the last segment. It's just shorter
Speaker 1: than the last segment, and I like saying it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's so first question, baby, freebie or deal you
Speaker 1: are most proud of getting. Probably it's like the large
Speaker 1: ticket stuff so like crib, changing table, baby carrier, hi chair.
Speaker 1: I love that I was able to get all those things.
Speaker 1: You got all those for free? Those are from friends
Speaker 1: whose because we're older and they wanted them out of
Speaker 1: their house. Yes, I've gotten crib and bassinet for free. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah did it come with the mattress? So
Speaker 1: the pre match actually got a crime match for eighteen dollars.
Speaker 1: It was an online return at Target. Nice. You're like,
Speaker 1: you are so set and you do need more than
Speaker 1: one sheet. I'm just gonna tell you right now. People
Speaker 1: have given me a lot of sheets from the buy
Speaker 1: nothing group. Perfect, but I still need more. I mean
Speaker 1: it does on how often you do launch. Not often. Oh,
Speaker 1: they get so much fluid all kinds of believe it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: But it's a state like over time it abates, you know,
Speaker 1: my like my three year old, I mean I changed
Speaker 1: her sheet once a week, just like everybody else's. It
Speaker 1: slows down. Nice. Yeah, I find it. Also, Speaking of
Speaker 1: the resources that we're talking about earlier, what are let's say,
Speaker 1: the top three books that you would recommend for new
Speaker 1: moms to be read. Love this topic that I cannot
Speaker 1: emphasize this enough, it's free, it's easy read these books.
Speaker 1: So heading home with your newborn from birth to reality.
Speaker 1: This is staying very straightforward. It's written by pediatricians. Um
Speaker 1: a really easy way to understand how to care for
Speaker 1: an infant and safely. It's very helpful for people who
Speaker 1: have not been around infants recently, which was my case
Speaker 1: when I had one of so that that is really helpful.
Speaker 1: Read that before the kids come. Okay, solve your child's
Speaker 1: sleep problems. I read this one also before our kids
Speaker 1: were born, and that really helped my husband and I
Speaker 1: to create, like what kind of culture we were going
Speaker 1: to have around sleep. There are a lot of different
Speaker 1: ways to do sleep. There's co sleeping, there's sleeping in
Speaker 1: different rooms, there's sleeping hammocks. My friend's son sleeps in
Speaker 1: a hammock anyway, so there's there are a million different
Speaker 1: ways to do sleep. I think it can be really
Speaker 1: helpful if you and your partner have a have a
Speaker 1: really honest conversation about what you're comfortable with ahead of time.
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize quite how hot button that
Speaker 1: can be when you are both just absolutely exhausted. So
Speaker 1: that's a good one to read. Ahead of time. And
Speaker 1: then thirdly, I would recommend Simplicity Parenting, and he's got
Speaker 1: both the Simplicity Parenting Book in general and then the
Speaker 1: Simplicity Parenting Discipline Book. You're not going to use those
Speaker 1: with a newborn. But for my husband and I that
Speaker 1: sort of like forms the ethos of how we parents.
Speaker 1: It's like the lens through which we see all of
Speaker 1: our parenting decisions, and it helps us to be on
Speaker 1: the same page, to have a plan, and to be
Speaker 1: really consistent and firm with our kids. That's awesome, And
Speaker 1: I will share links of these in our show notes
Speaker 1: for anyone listening. You'll be able to have access to it.
Speaker 1: But find it in the library Petersburg Library. Don't even
Speaker 1: try because I've already researched them. Know, I had one
Speaker 1: book from the library for so long I had to
Speaker 1: pay like so many fines on it. It's like, why
Speaker 1: don't just buy this pregnancition week by week or something. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I've done that with a few books. It's like, a
Speaker 1: don't I feel like it's a donation to my library
Speaker 1: for all the other books? Return to feel good about
Speaker 1: it tax right off? Yeah, maybe I don't know, Well, Litz,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for coming on what's happening at Frugal
Speaker 1: Woods blog and with your we're reading your book for
Speaker 1: book club this month, so everyone should already be reading that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, what's going on the blog. So over the blog,
Speaker 1: we have new posts every week unless my kids totally
Speaker 1: fall apart, but usually it is mostly I have to
Speaker 1: say I'm pretty happy about that. And also on Frugal Woods,
Speaker 1: I have my Uber Frugal Month Challenge, which is a
Speaker 1: free thirty one day program. It will help you save
Speaker 1: money whether you have a kid or not, and you
Speaker 1: can sign up to take that at any time. You
Speaker 1: can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It's
Speaker 1: all at Frugal Woods. Yes, and I've taken the Uber
Speaker 1: Frugal Month Challenge. It's great to email every day for
Speaker 1: a month and a lot of helpful to so definitely
Speaker 1: check it out. Liz, yours was the very first article
Speaker 1: that we referenced on our Frugal Friends episode one, so
Speaker 1: there's some there's some history here for us, so we've
Speaker 1: appreciated having you on all your good wisdom and tips.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic my pleasure. This was definitely as awesome as
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be everyone else done
Speaker 1: that too. Liz just really hit us with a ton
Speaker 1: of tips. I'm honest when I say that I would
Speaker 1: probably listen to this again if I was going to
Speaker 1: have a kid, because there's so much good meat in
Speaker 1: there that Yeah, she's done this, so that's something. Right.
Speaker 1: She has two kids, so that helps with her you know, resume.
Speaker 1: But also she she's so good on this topic and
Speaker 1: has some really good, profound insight on how to like
Speaker 1: meet our needs without breaking the bank. So just fantastic,
Speaker 1: and she's so level headed about it. I love because
Speaker 1: even I haven't even had a kid yet and I
Speaker 1: am hearing things from like parents and not parents, just
Speaker 1: like on all the things that I should do, And
Speaker 1: just to hear like a clear, level headed um chat
Speaker 1: with her is just so refreshing. Yeah, seriously, I didn't
Speaker 1: expect the freedom she was going to give on like whatever,
Speaker 1: just eat eat food. Yeah, anybody that tells me to
Speaker 1: eat food is my friend. Seriously, it's a great thing
Speaker 1: to hear. And so that's why we're so stoked. We
Speaker 1: are reading Meet the Frugal Woods by LISZT. Thames. We
Speaker 1: love that book and I didn't even get to tell
Speaker 1: Liz she's the reason I don't want makeup anymore. I
Speaker 1: forgot to mention, Well, maybe if she listens to this,
Speaker 1: she'll know now. Thanks Liza, thank you going on Natural
Speaker 1: one woman at a time. Yes, going on Natural looks
Speaker 1: good on you though, Jen, thank you. Yeah so we
Speaker 1: are continuing to read that book. Yeah, so get in
Speaker 1: on it. And if you want a free copy of
Speaker 1: this amazing book by this amazing woman who you just
Speaker 1: got to hear talk in your ears, leave us a
Speaker 1: review on iTunes or Stitcher. Screenshot the review and send
Speaker 1: it to us at Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: and we will select the winners at the end of
Speaker 1: the month. We give away one book to every five
Speaker 1: for every five reviews that gets sent to us. So
Speaker 1: the stakes, you know, the odds are pretty good that
Speaker 1: you if you do that, you might be getting yourself
Speaker 1: this book by Liz. Yes, you have a one in
Speaker 1: five chance. That's good. I mean, I'm no mathematician, but like,
Speaker 1: yeah so. And if you want an example of a
Speaker 1: really great review, we're gonna We're gonna highlight a great
Speaker 1: review for you. It's five stars. It has all the
Speaker 1: makings of a good review because it has fine stars. Yes,
Speaker 1: and it is from Bonnie, and she says, Ladies, I
Speaker 1: love your podcast. I mean I binge listen to them
Speaker 1: just so that I could be all caught up in
Speaker 1: like a couple of weeks. You know, I had to work,
Speaker 1: sleep and other frugal fund in between. You spark great
Speaker 1: conversations for me to have. I love how you talk
Speaker 1: about your husband's and how they perceive frugality. Your podcast
Speaker 1: totally helped me start twenty nineteen off with my own
Speaker 1: no spend year. Yes, thank you, Kate Flanders. I love
Speaker 1: the balance you showed frugality. The tips and tricks you
Speaker 1: give are awesome. Keep up the amazing work. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I love the voice that to Jen. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's the voice she was using, So that's what I
Speaker 1: had to do. But fantastic. Thank you so much, Bonnie.
Speaker 1: Thanks Bonnie. I'm glad to talk about my husband. I'm
Speaker 1: glad it's and holy smokes that you are going to
Speaker 1: do a no spend year, because go for it and
Speaker 1: keep us updated in our Frugal Friends Facebook community, Yes,
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash group and come chat
Speaker 1: with us. Tell us you're amazing stories and what you're
Speaker 1: doing to be frugal and until then, see you next
Speaker 1: week by Easy Frugal Friends. Is produced, edited and mixed
Speaker 1: by Eric Syrian. Oh my gosh, do you remember in
Speaker 1: the first episode where I referred to Liz as like
Speaker 1: the godmother of frugality or like you referred to her
Speaker 1: as so many things, god mother, goddess, the queen, um
Speaker 1: what other things are? They're like you, the mother, the
Speaker 1: woman on top, the woman all the way up there
Speaker 1: knowing all this stuff. No, you, You've used so many words,
Speaker 1: and they're all so extreme and intense, but they place
Speaker 1: such high honor and value and respect me on Liz
Speaker 1: and her work. Okay, are you afraid to have this recorded? Like?
Speaker 1: It's true? But I don't want to admit it. I
Speaker 1: just like her a lot too. Jen. You know, I
Speaker 1: have never used the word goddess, but I've never used
Speaker 1: the word either. Don't deny it. Just given. If you
Speaker 1: can't beat them, join them, That's what I he say. Okay,
Speaker 1: it works out for me, all right, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: got to interact with the Goddess today. To your face,
Speaker 1: those are daggers. I probably shouldn't mess with a pregnant woman.
Speaker 1: Actually it's a good thing though, that we do live
Speaker 1: a couple hundred miles apart, I know, right, or I
Speaker 1: just won't open mail from you. I would never. I
Speaker 1: would never, You would never, Okay,