Speaker 1: Deinfluencing Memorial Day sales.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are doing something
Speaker 1: a little unique. We are going to explore some of
Speaker 1: the videos you might be seeing on social media and
Speaker 1: giving you an overall picture of what it's trying to
Speaker 1: do to use psychologically to get you to spend money
Speaker 1: on Memorial Day and why you don't need to.
Speaker 3: We talk about marketing tactics, and we talk about social
Speaker 3: influence and some of the reasons that we end up
Speaker 3: impulse buying or spending unnecessarily. But today we're really doing
Speaker 3: it on giving some examples cool exams where it's like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: but what does that actually look like? Whoa here it
Speaker 3: is and no holds barred here, and we might be
Speaker 3: opening up something that we can't close because now we're
Speaker 3: really into deinfluencing all of these things because what we're
Speaker 3: about to talk about is pretty wild. But first, this
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is where I keep my emergency fund. And
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Speaker 1: How much did my hild savings account protect me from inflation? Oh,
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Speaker 1: but it is meaningful security.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: But I mean, if you've got your emergency fund in there,
Speaker 3: it's not insignificant. Absolutely not. No, it shouldn't be an
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Speaker 1: Yes, but let's let's not bury the lead. Let's get
Speaker 1: into what we're really doing today, and that is talking
Speaker 1: about Memorial Day sales and Memorial Day things that you
Speaker 1: probably don't need buy, but you are going to see
Speaker 1: a lot of on social media for the next week.
Speaker 1: So we are going to go into some of the
Speaker 1: heavy hitters, and we're going to tell you why we're
Speaker 1: doing this episode with a few stats, the first one
Speaker 1: being fifty seven percent of US consumers plan to celebrate
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend in twenty twenty four, so not everyone,
Speaker 1: but over half of you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a significant amount. And among those who are
Speaker 3: planning to celebrate, ninety five percent intend to make purchases.
Speaker 3: This is primarily going to be on food and alcohol,
Speaker 3: and twenty three percent expected to spend more than they
Speaker 3: did the previous year. They're looking at this year saying,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna spend more money on more things.
Speaker 1: Which is crazy in this economy. Yeah, but I think
Speaker 1: what it might come down to is that the state
Speaker 1: of the world is really chaotic right now, and so
Speaker 1: to have these small things that can maybe be an
Speaker 1: escape is what's driving more of this stuff. So it's
Speaker 1: not going to be lavish like our Christmas or our Halloween,
Speaker 1: but it can be a small scale escape. And we're
Speaker 1: not against escapism, but we need to do it in
Speaker 1: a healthy way and one that is not going to
Speaker 1: make you regret looking back at your credit card or
Speaker 1: your bank account in several weeks.
Speaker 3: Did those two things go together? Don't you know what.
Speaker 3: We're not gonna We're not gonna sit here long enough
Speaker 3: to okay social workers. So the top plan purchases are food.
Speaker 3: So eighty three percent of this spending is on food,
Speaker 3: forty four percent on alcoholic bever thirty three percent on
Speaker 3: non alcoholic beverages, seventeen percent on decorations. So these are
Speaker 3: the things we plan to spend on. It just sounds
Speaker 3: like we want to have a good time and we
Speaker 3: want to eat good food. And to that end, also,
Speaker 3: restaurants experience an increase in visits up forty one point
Speaker 3: nine percent compared to an average Monday, So that's a
Speaker 3: seven point one percent increase compared to Memorial Day of
Speaker 3: the previous year. So we're we're just we're prioritizing food
Speaker 3: and parties and getting together and so there's a lot
Speaker 3: that comes with that. There's a lot of things that
Speaker 3: we will end up spending on, but.
Speaker 1: We're not forgetting the sales either, So it's not just
Speaker 1: the parties, it's also all the bombardment with discounts and
Speaker 1: sales and coupons. Walmart dominates the online Memorial Day space.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, they captured approximately sixty two percent
Speaker 1: of the online marketing market share marketing and an eleven
Speaker 1: percent year over year increase. And so the numbers themselves
Speaker 1: shouldn't mean a lot to you, but the year over
Speaker 1: year increase numbers, those should mean a lot because when
Speaker 1: they outpace inflation, that doesn't just mean that means we're
Speaker 1: not just buying the same things and we're spending more
Speaker 1: for them. It means that we're buying more things. And
Speaker 1: that is what we're seeing. And we're not sure what
Speaker 1: we'll see this year, but I think it is important
Speaker 1: to know we'll see the same marketing that we saw
Speaker 1: last year. We'll see the same push to spend. Even
Speaker 1: for travel, gas stations experienced their busiest day of the
Speaker 1: year on Friday May twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, which
Speaker 1: is the Friday of Memorial Day. It's foot traffic up
Speaker 1: thirty two point three percent compared to an average day.
Speaker 1: So even if you're just taking a short little staycation
Speaker 1: or a short road trip and you're we're not going
Speaker 1: to be spending a ton. We still need to identify
Speaker 1: some of these the marketing that influencers will do, how
Speaker 1: it targets the psychology of how you are influenced to buy.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about some social media videos.
Speaker 1: We're not going to play the ones that have copyrighted music.
Speaker 1: Eventually we'll start recording the video of these so you'll
Speaker 1: be able to see, but we will link to all
Speaker 1: the videos. We will play the ones that don't have
Speaker 1: copyrighted music, but we will talk about not the influencer themselves,
Speaker 1: but they are just one example of the sea of
Speaker 1: sameness that you'll get across the Internet.
Speaker 3: And we want to be able to look at what
Speaker 3: is happening with each of these so that we all
Speaker 3: can be really equipped as we're scrolling and we're seeing
Speaker 3: these things, to be able to easily identify what's happening
Speaker 3: here and make informed decisions rather than kind of knee
Speaker 3: jerk reactions spending or thinking that something is expected of
Speaker 3: us that is just really absurd. So the top three
Speaker 3: categories that we're seeing influencers push when it comes to
Speaker 3: Memorial Day is outfits, parties and decor. So we're going
Speaker 3: to look at each of those categories. Starting with outfits.
Speaker 3: We found this video. It's an example video about kind
Speaker 3: of how we should be dressing and the things that
Speaker 3: we should be buying. So we're going to play a
Speaker 3: clip of that for you all.
Speaker 4: The red two piece set, it's really easy to add
Speaker 4: blue jewelry to the outfit. And you can also never
Speaker 4: go wrong with a denim vest or go for the
Speaker 4: super trendy oversized blue den of jacket, or really any denim.
Speaker 1: You can never go wrong with a cutey little blue.
Speaker 4: Romper good pair of denim short alls. This is just
Speaker 4: the top half of that red two piece set. Or
Speaker 4: you can take this top half of the red two
Speaker 4: piece set sell it with g or some good denim shorts.
Speaker 1: First of all, what are shortles? You're watching the video
Speaker 1: and I'm just listening to it, so I'm not seeing.
Speaker 1: But like I read the caption, and I first I
Speaker 1: loved that she was just pulling out things from her
Speaker 1: quote unquote closet, and in reality, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's true because the caption says all of these things
Speaker 1: can be available via Amazon Prime by Friday.
Speaker 3: Well I think some of the stuff is from her closet,
Speaker 3: but she shows a lot of different outfits. You can't
Speaker 3: totally tell it from the audio, but there's a lot
Speaker 3: that she's you know, when she's like triagraphic tea or
Speaker 3: a print or it's like fast to those images.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that you have to go to the link
Speaker 1: in her bio to her LTK and see them slowly.
Speaker 1: But what a lot of influencers like this will do
Speaker 1: is they'll order all this stuff from whatever store, Amazon, Target,
Speaker 1: and they'll return most of it, but they just want
Speaker 1: to show it all to you so that you'll buy
Speaker 1: one or two pieces using their link. So like very
Speaker 1: often it's not from their closet, especially if they're saying
Speaker 1: it's all available by Friday on Amazon Prime. You know
Speaker 1: the things in my closet, some of those are like
Speaker 1: five years old. You can't get that anymore. It's not
Speaker 1: available by Friday.
Speaker 3: Any right, right. Yeah. And while I like opportunities to learn, Okay,
Speaker 3: how can I put together new outfits? I think recognizing
Speaker 3: that the key here is to get you to buy
Speaker 3: and not just that get you to think that you
Speaker 3: have to have a certain outfit for kind of every
Speaker 3: occasion and even just that mindset, even if you don't
Speaker 3: click on her Amazon link, but to be embedded and
Speaker 3: steeped in this type of thinking that, oh, I've got
Speaker 3: to have something special. I've got to look at the
Speaker 3: part you've got to have the uniform is not helpful
Speaker 3: long term mindset about our wardrobe, like what.
Speaker 1: You have is fine for a Memorial Day party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was saying so much blue stuff. She did give
Speaker 1: tips that would encourage you to just shop your closet, right, So,
Speaker 1: like I did like that about this one. It wasn't
Speaker 1: an overt like here's everything I got on Amazon, you
Speaker 1: know for a Memorial Day or Fourth of July. But
Speaker 1: it was a subtle like, oh, if you don't have
Speaker 1: all this stuff in your closet like I clearly have
Speaker 1: in mind, then you can buy it. You can be
Speaker 1: like me and have more of the stuff in your closet.
Speaker 1: Just use the link that I've provided.
Speaker 3: Along with clothing. In case we haven't convinced you yet
Speaker 3: that everyone's going to get you to try and buy
Speaker 3: clothing on Amazon. Here's another example. We don't have the
Speaker 3: audio for it, so I will just describe it. It
Speaker 3: is a woman who is showing you two different types
Speaker 3: of sweaters that you can get for Memorial Day that
Speaker 3: has an American flag on it, the types of shorts
Speaker 3: you can put with it, even shoes. So literally everything
Speaker 3: she's wearing she has a link for showing it off.
Speaker 3: A white sweater with the American flag, a kind of
Speaker 3: neon green yellow sweater with the American flag, and then
Speaker 3: everything else that she's wearing with the link that you
Speaker 3: can get at a TikTok shop.
Speaker 1: TikTok shop. I'll link it all below, but I have
Speaker 1: to say the neon yellow sweater is so bad. It
Speaker 1: is a bad looking sweater.
Speaker 3: You can tell that the sweaters are not quality. You
Speaker 3: are just buying. The sweater almost does a one time use.
Speaker 3: She got two of them now, making it seem like
Speaker 3: she bought both and it's worth it to have multiples
Speaker 3: of the same thing. No, no, don't be fooled. She
Speaker 3: was given both, right.
Speaker 1: Or she plans to return one, right, hopefully the yellow one.
Speaker 3: And let's also not skip over the fact that none
Speaker 3: of us, really, regardless of whatever climate, were in need
Speaker 3: a sweater in the summertime.
Speaker 1: I will say, unless you are in Canada, you probably
Speaker 1: aren't looking for a sweater.
Speaker 3: And certainly not was an American fly exactly.
Speaker 1: If they're in Canada, you probably are not going to
Speaker 1: be shopping for an American fly sweater.
Speaker 3: You're probably not celebrating my my all right, no, so.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, yeah, So the fact that it is a
Speaker 1: sweater as well. Uh, and I can imagine the mesh.
Speaker 1: Was she looking at her shoes? I got mesh on
Speaker 1: shoes never lasts very long. I didn't see if they
Speaker 1: were if they looked quality, but if they were from
Speaker 1: TikTok shop, it's probably like a like a drop ship operation.
Speaker 3: So here's what's going on here. I mean, there's a
Speaker 3: lot that's going on here, but particularly with these two,
Speaker 3: we've got some tradition and just normative behavior, so making
Speaker 3: it seem like everyone shops Memorial Day sales, everyone wears
Speaker 3: themed Americana clothing for Memorial Day. So it's kind of
Speaker 3: this mass advertising that is utilizing social proof, where you're
Speaker 3: going to see all over the place tons of people
Speaker 3: trying to get you to buy from their stores, that
Speaker 3: this is what we do, kind of hanging onto the
Speaker 3: coattails of a cultural momentum that is happening as we
Speaker 3: all kind of celebrate this current thing and utilizing that
Speaker 3: for marketing. It is for marketing.
Speaker 1: All right. Let's look at parties, and so this is
Speaker 1: where obviously food and drink is the most purchased. This
Speaker 1: is where most of the money is going to these parties.
Speaker 1: And we just believe social media is giving an unrealistic
Speaker 1: standard for what your Memorial for a that you need
Speaker 1: to throw a Memorial Day party and be what that
Speaker 1: party should look like.
Speaker 3: All right, so let's listen to this little example of
Speaker 3: party prep.
Speaker 5: Let's get ready to host a party for Memorial Day.
Speaker 5: On Friday, I did all of my grocery shopping, so
Speaker 5: I brought everything home and put it away and made
Speaker 5: some cute little flower arrangements just to set out. I
Speaker 5: just threw some blue and white hydrangers in a vase
Speaker 5: and tuck some American flags in there. I think it
Speaker 5: looks really cute and really festive. Now, we just got
Speaker 5: a new griddle for outside, so on Saturday morning, I
Speaker 5: had to get that all completely seasoned and ready to
Speaker 5: go to cook on Sunday. Let me know if y'all
Speaker 5: want a video about that, because I'm happy to share
Speaker 5: all the details. Saturday night, my sister Caroline and I
Speaker 5: just kind of hung out in the kitchen and prepped
Speaker 5: a whole bunch of stuff for the party. And we
Speaker 5: have been obsessed with dance moms lately.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we had to leave the dance mom's part
Speaker 1: in because Helen Keller first fourth places.
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it should have gotten a place
Speaker 1: for that one. But the ultimate is just the amount
Speaker 1: of prep. So, like this creator, their job is to
Speaker 1: create social media content around party planning. So I looked
Speaker 1: and this was her Memorial Day last year. Obviously they
Speaker 1: haven't thrown their Memorial Day party this year. They got
Speaker 1: seven videos out of this party, so this was a
Speaker 1: good thing for them to do to create all of this,
Speaker 1: you know, this extravagant party because they literally got He
Speaker 1: did a a burger video and a grill video and
Speaker 1: making a ranch dip video like so video, different videos
Speaker 1: of all of these things and creating this content. He
Speaker 1: gets paid for it. He gets more followers, and therefore
Speaker 1: he can charge more for brand deals. But we are
Speaker 1: not professional party planners, and I like it just holds
Speaker 1: us to this unrealistic standard. This is a multiple day
Speaker 1: party prep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I really shouldn't have watched this video hungry. Honestly,
Speaker 3: it all does look so yummy, and I love to
Speaker 3: find myself at that party. But he didn't invited us,
Speaker 3: He didn't have to do so much like he made
Speaker 3: his own ice cream sandwiches. And maybe that's his joy.
Speaker 1: That maybe a video though he loves.
Speaker 3: To do that. Yeah, But also what stood out to
Speaker 3: me is that for this he got a new Griddle.
Speaker 3: I mean he just mentions that in passing references, how
Speaker 3: there's gonna be.
Speaker 1: Another video affiliate and that is gonna be.
Speaker 3: An affiliate link for the griddle, And it just kind
Speaker 3: of like for me, Yeah, even watching this, it kind
Speaker 3: of instills Okay, this is the level of party prep.
Speaker 3: If I'm gonna throw a party. These are the types
Speaker 3: of things I should be doing if I want them
Speaker 3: to be a certain way and I want my guests
Speaker 3: to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And this is the new standard it starts. That's the
Speaker 1: problem it can create. So yeah, that anchoring bias for
Speaker 1: us if we see enough content like this that this
Speaker 1: is what we need to be doing. Even though we're
Speaker 1: not content creators, we're not professional party planners. We're not
Speaker 1: hosting elaborate gatherings constantly. But then it could lead us
Speaker 1: to swing the other direction of Okay, well, then I'm
Speaker 1: just not going to do it because it's not going
Speaker 1: to look like that. I'm not going to invite people over.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be in community because I can't
Speaker 1: throw a party like this. Yeah, that is the extreme
Speaker 1: we don't want to go to.
Speaker 3: Here's here's another party example.
Speaker 6: You're hosting a Fourth of July party, y'all. This is
Speaker 6: so good and everything will be linked to my Amazon
Speaker 6: sore front. I love these reun white surf runners. I
Speaker 6: did two of them, and then I added my floor arrangements,
Speaker 6: a large cutting board because we did a mini slider
Speaker 6: bar of chicken and burgers. And then I love these
Speaker 6: little white risers. I adds to mention to your like
Speaker 6: food and overall pearance of the look. And then in
Speaker 6: those star shaped cardboard boxes, I did like snacky items
Speaker 6: like chips and things like that. The blue and white
Speaker 6: gingham print is so good. And then I add little
Speaker 6: bows to the crowded glasses. All the small details is
Speaker 6: like key for hosting parties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for me, it's the risers. Why they are white
Speaker 1: boxes that they're putting plates of food on, and for me,
Speaker 1: it seems like an unnecessary expense. It looks great, right,
Speaker 1: it's another one that's beautiful. And again she makes her
Speaker 1: money when you go to her Amazon storefront and buy
Speaker 1: the things she's talking about. But again this and I
Speaker 1: feel like this is what I see the most of,
Speaker 1: like in my feet is parties like this.
Speaker 3: For me, it's the waste. There is so much single
Speaker 3: use plastics from the containers to she had individual salad
Speaker 3: dressing bottles that went to every individual salad.
Speaker 1: Well now, wait, depending on how often you can to
Speaker 1: cracker barrel, you could reuse those maple syrup bottles from
Speaker 1: cracker barrel.
Speaker 3: Thing that they actually let you take those anymore. I
Speaker 3: think that's like, I.
Speaker 1: Think they don't let you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, that's not That is not what she's
Speaker 3: doing here, because a cracker barrel that often, and then
Speaker 3: buying putting little ribbons on every single coke bottle, and
Speaker 3: then just some of the time, I mean, certainly putting
Speaker 3: every little watermelon into star shapes. That's fine, spend your
Speaker 3: time how you want to spend your time. But it's
Speaker 3: interesting to me because I watch these videos, and I think, well,
Speaker 3: but it's not leading us to do this much, right,
Speaker 3: And our listeners are probably going to say the same,
Speaker 3: I'm not doing this at my parties. And yet it
Speaker 3: still is the content we're consuming. So it still is
Speaker 3: necessary for us to push back a little bit, not
Speaker 3: on this singular individual, but on these types of concepts
Speaker 3: and the type of content that we are consuming, and
Speaker 3: to be really aware of how is this actually affecting me?
Speaker 3: Because we can't watch video after video of that and
Speaker 3: it not affect us, even from just how fast paced.
Speaker 3: I mean, she sped up her audio, so you're kind
Speaker 3: of you're you're already on the edge of your seat.
Speaker 3: You've got the sense of urgency, there's this call to action,
Speaker 3: there's this expectation that's happening that there are subconscious things
Speaker 3: that go on when we are watching these types of videos,
Speaker 3: to an extent that we may not even realize. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I might not do all twenty of the things she's
Speaker 3: doing in that video. But down the road, as this
Speaker 3: leaks into my mindset, at what point am I going
Speaker 3: to find myself doing one of those things?
Speaker 1: Absolutely five of.
Speaker 3: Those things, thinking that this is the standard, and.
Speaker 1: How does it feel to be somebody going to a
Speaker 1: party like this and then feeling inferior because this is
Speaker 1: not something I'm gonna do, or feeling bad like I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm taking advantage of this person because I'm
Speaker 1: never going to be able to or want to provide
Speaker 1: this experience back to them. It can be also isolating.
Speaker 1: Even if it isn't in your social media feed, you
Speaker 1: might experience it.
Speaker 3: Or even just anxiety about I'd never be able to
Speaker 3: afford to do that. This woman must be rich, and
Speaker 3: maybe she is, but maybe she's not because this is
Speaker 3: her business, so she might she's she is getting paid
Speaker 3: to do these things and trying to sell to us
Speaker 3: this idea of a lifestyle that we are not getting
Speaker 3: paid to do, to film, to put out into the world.
Speaker 3: So I think it's also worth looking at how it's
Speaker 3: affecting our well being. Even if we don't throw a
Speaker 3: party like this or spend money on any of these things,
Speaker 3: what is it doing to us emotional to be watching
Speaker 3: this type of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think what's going on here is fomo.
Speaker 1: So I think these people want you to see the
Speaker 1: parties and be like, Oh, I should be throwing a party.
Speaker 1: I should this is what people do, right, So it's
Speaker 1: kind of like that bandwagon or tradition normative behavior as
Speaker 1: well as fomo. So we are maybe missing out if
Speaker 1: we don't throw a party.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it made me like I want a friend
Speaker 3: like that, I want to go to that party even
Speaker 3: just that.
Speaker 1: Right, Like what am I doing if I'm not going
Speaker 1: to a party or throwing one?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It makes like socially, I think there's such a big
Speaker 1: social component too, because we all want to connect to
Speaker 1: each other, but how are we going to connect? Are
Speaker 1: we going to connect authentically or just show people were
Speaker 1: better than them by cutting all of our watermelon into stars?
Speaker 3: And those parties kind of touched a little bit on
Speaker 3: this next category. But we're going to now take a
Speaker 3: little deep dive on some of the decre that can
Speaker 3: happen around Memorial Day and some of the expectations there.
Speaker 3: So here so both of these videos we will link them,
Speaker 3: but they are music only. There's no words, so we're
Speaker 3: just gonna talk about them. This first video is a
Speaker 3: Memorial Day tree, so it it is exactly as it sounds,
Speaker 3: a Christmas tree that is decorated Memorial Day themed, so flags, red, white,
Speaker 3: and blue, ribbon like posters. It's it doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: Can you can you play it and wee on mute
Speaker 1: and we'll just like walk through it, because this is
Speaker 1: what I would see the whole creator. All she does
Speaker 1: is wreaths and trees for every single.
Speaker 3: So there's like wooden hearts that have the American tree
Speaker 3: painted onto.
Speaker 1: That, every military branch's flag, and big balls.
Speaker 3: Big ornaments, red and blue goblets.
Speaker 1: Red white and blue starbles. There is you cannot see
Speaker 1: tree anymore. Oh, there's a sunflower that's red, white and
Speaker 1: blue with the blue and white stars in the center
Speaker 1: and then red and white striped sunflower petals.
Speaker 3: The thing that stands out to me on this one
Speaker 3: is it doesn't it doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: No, it's like the neon yellow flag sweater. It don't
Speaker 1: look good.
Speaker 3: It's like those like Pinterest fails, you know, nailed it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the kind of And that's not to say that she
Speaker 3: doesn't have an eye for things. It's just that there
Speaker 3: isn't a way to make a Memorial Day Christmas.
Speaker 1: Here's what I think is happening. She makes all of
Speaker 1: her money obviously around Christmas, but she has to create
Speaker 1: content through the rest of the year, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of these holiday trees and wreaths and stuff reads.
Speaker 1: Probably she does do well seasonally, but I think it
Speaker 1: might just be rage bait of like why are you
Speaker 1: keeping your tree up all year? But also these are
Speaker 1: decore things that don't just have to be used on
Speaker 1: a tree. She's highlighting decre that you can get on Amazon,
Speaker 1: you can use anywhere, and she's just put She's just
Speaker 1: using the tree as the backdrop.
Speaker 3: The hope is that you will just buy one of
Speaker 3: these twenty items, and I think you do that. She's one.
Speaker 1: It's really key, like she heavily plays into like every
Speaker 1: branch of the military being like represented on the tree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's okay. So we've got one more example of
Speaker 3: a table scape that somebody does because obviously you've got
Speaker 3: to make your table look exactly on theme. You can't
Speaker 3: just have a plane table.
Speaker 1: Four plates, four plates, yeah, four utensils. The cups, and
Speaker 1: the napkins are all hydrangeas.
Speaker 3: American called, like red, white, and blue. So the types
Speaker 3: of cups that you're not going to utilize throughout the
Speaker 3: rest of the year. Like a lot of this stuff
Speaker 3: is specific for I guess Memorial Day and American four plates,
Speaker 3: you could use it twice in the year, but otherwise.
Speaker 1: Yes, unless you are unless you live in DC and
Speaker 1: your life is America themed, that's probably only going to
Speaker 1: be the two times a year you'll use it. But
Speaker 1: like that is and the thing that gets me about
Speaker 1: table scapes is that they're typically not used. Unlike a
Speaker 1: party where you're putting out plates, those are definitely going
Speaker 1: to get used. Your formal dining room. The decor in
Speaker 1: there most likely not getting used because when do you
Speaker 1: ever have like a Memorial Day like family dinner, Like
Speaker 1: it's much more synonymous party, whereas like Thanksgiving and Christmas
Speaker 1: use the formal dining room. So she probably isn't using
Speaker 1: this stuff. It is just for show. Yeah, and people
Speaker 1: rarely go into the formal dining room, so it's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna get seen.
Speaker 3: She may not have had anybody over in order to
Speaker 3: create this video, honest to goodness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you're right, I laughed, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was.
Speaker 3: Having that is seating the exact number of seats that
Speaker 3: you have at your table, no more, no.
Speaker 1: Less, and you got to keep that.
Speaker 3: They're all momming for a sit down for Memorial Day.
Speaker 1: Right, you just don't do that for memorial dath.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's a couple of things going on here.
Speaker 3: If we wanted to dig deeper into some of the
Speaker 3: marketing tactics, there is some patriotic and emotional appeal happening.
Speaker 3: So utilizing the American flags, red white, blue, color schemes,
Speaker 3: military appreciation either language or shown, and a lot of
Speaker 3: just commercials advertising will do this using messaging of gratitude
Speaker 3: for veterans, honoring service member themes, linking patriotism with consumer spending. Sic.
Speaker 1: Is patriotic. Yeah, we couldn't play it. But like it's
Speaker 1: America the beautiful it is this, you know, really reverent
Speaker 1: music set to creating beautiful you know, throw pillows and
Speaker 1: American flag plates.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not that those things can't be a part of
Speaker 3: one's experience, but it is being preyed upon really in
Speaker 3: order to buy.
Speaker 1: Right, if I want to show my respect for the
Speaker 1: for veterans, then I should celebrate this day to the fullest.
Speaker 3: And across all of these examples, we've got scarcity and
Speaker 3: urgency happening where limited time off this weekend only ends
Speaker 3: Monday night, and so this kind of fear of missing
Speaker 3: out the fear of losing out on the deal, the
Speaker 3: desire to kind of fit in this idea that everybody
Speaker 3: else is doing this and just buying all of the
Speaker 3: unnecessary stuff because it's being we're being bombarded with it.
Speaker 3: I mean, if we're scrolling, then we are seeing this
Speaker 3: message over and over and over again, and our will
Speaker 3: powers are only going to go so far, and our
Speaker 3: understanding of reality and how most people live is only
Speaker 3: going to be so intact the more that we steep
Speaker 3: ourselves in this type of content. And so I think,
Speaker 3: you know, what do we do as a result of this?
Speaker 3: I think in part being aware of, like utilizing some
Speaker 3: of this language, like those questions of Okay, what's really
Speaker 3: going on here? Asking yourself that as you're scrolling, start
Speaker 3: to become kind of the person on the other side,
Speaker 3: almost an observer of what's the marketing tactic at play?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's going on behind the scenes?
Speaker 3: Uh huh? Is this really reality? Or is this somebody
Speaker 3: who is running a business trying to make money and
Speaker 3: curating our.
Speaker 1: Feeds curating an experience?
Speaker 3: For sure? Not only I mean, I think we can
Speaker 3: all do well in just decreasing the amount of time
Speaker 3: we spend on social media, but also when we are
Speaker 3: there that we have curated and created our feeds to
Speaker 3: be beneficial to us, that it's the type of content
Speaker 3: we want to see. Because while there are so many
Speaker 3: creators like this who are pushing over consumption and purchasing
Speaker 3: off of prime and living a certain lifestyle that's unattainable
Speaker 3: and unsustainable, there are also creators creating content about how
Speaker 3: to shop your own closet, how to throw a great
Speaker 3: party without worrying about your place looking perfect, how to
Speaker 3: wrap single.
Speaker 1: Ingredient low ingredient.
Speaker 3: Things and throw a potluck and have other people over like.
Speaker 3: Those accounts also exist, so finding those following, those watching,
Speaker 3: those engage engaging.
Speaker 1: Like watch the full video, because your algorithm, your feed
Speaker 1: is no longer just based on people you follow, It
Speaker 1: is based on where you are spending time and engaging.
Speaker 1: So if there's something you want to see more of,
Speaker 1: you have to like it, you have to comment, and
Speaker 1: you have to watch that because there's really no way
Speaker 1: if you don't like something and you watch it because
Speaker 1: your hate watching it, the algorithm don't know that. So
Speaker 1: if you're watching something because you do like it, you
Speaker 1: have to be more intentional. If you want to keep
Speaker 1: it in your feed.
Speaker 3: Do you know what I'm intentional about keeping in my podcast?
Speaker 1: And we play this every week and it never leads
Speaker 1: us astray.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 7: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 7: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 7: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your
Speaker 7: card died, and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 7: that bill anymore. Best bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this
Speaker 7: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 8: Hijen and Jill. It's m in Nashville, Tennessee, and I'm
Speaker 8: calling with my bill of the week this week. My
Speaker 8: bill is my credit card bill, and we put all
Speaker 8: of our normal purchases on our credit card for points.
Speaker 8: And this week it's really high from last month because
Speaker 8: we had some unexpected medical bills in our family. My
Speaker 8: daughter has some ongoing health problems. I was sick for
Speaker 8: us to December, and we just had some unexpected bills.
Speaker 8: So my credit card bill is really high and I
Speaker 8: had to dip into savings, and I was really bummed.
Speaker 8: But then I realized that I have been putting money
Speaker 8: into savings into my emergency fund all year, and this
Speaker 8: time last year, I switched jobs so that I would
Speaker 8: be paid more, and I realized that it kind of
Speaker 8: stinks to have a high bill that you have to
Speaker 8: pay and to dip into savings. But if I had
Speaker 8: not followed you all's advice and been saving aggressively and
Speaker 8: switched jobs to make more money than I would have
Speaker 8: been in a whole heap of trouble. So I just
Speaker 8: so appreciate you all in what you do for your community.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 1: That's so great. I'm so glad you s shared that
Speaker 1: with us.
Speaker 3: This is so encouraging that these really difficult things still happen.
Speaker 3: That being frugal didn't save you from emergencies and high
Speaker 3: medical bills, However, it did create a lot more cushion
Speaker 3: and peace throughout that experience, some stability that you still
Speaker 3: had to dip into savings. However, your sites have been
Speaker 3: on earning more saving aggressively, which allows you to be
Speaker 3: able to navigate this without finding yourself deep deep into
Speaker 3: trouble and overwhelm. And that is just If that's not
Speaker 3: the goal, I don't know, I don't know what is. Congratulations.
Speaker 3: We're so thrilled for you. We hope that the worst
Speaker 3: of all of that chaos is behind you, and then
Speaker 3: you're able to keep that credit card bill low. And
Speaker 3: congrats on getting a job that pays you more. That
Speaker 3: is that's a huge part of this whole journey.
Speaker 1: So let's be frugal with your time being doing the
Speaker 1: same amount of work for more money.
Speaker 3: I like that. If you all listening, have a bill
Speaker 3: you want to submit, if it has to do with
Speaker 3: a high bill, a low bill, a no bill, or
Speaker 3: you are bill, a no bill man, frugal friendspodcast, dot com,
Speaker 3: slash bill, leave it for us weekend, not wait for it.
Speaker 3: And now it's time for polite around all right.
Speaker 1: What is your biggest sales tactic?
Speaker 3: Ick, and.
Speaker 1: I think we will have similar ones. I think mine's
Speaker 1: slightly different. Mine is fear based marketing. It is the
Speaker 1: worst and usually just like bros on YouTube, will do it,
Speaker 1: but car dealerships will use this. I there was a
Speaker 1: man yelling at me about avoiding the car price increase
Speaker 1: from tariffs. I have to act fast because car prices
Speaker 1: are increasing because of tariffs. Avoid it by now just
Speaker 1: yelling at me. And I was like, hush, just stop, hush, hut.
Speaker 1: Well that's not what I said. In reality, but that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying now. Just stop.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the biggest dick. I would never go
Speaker 1: to that dealership just because of that.
Speaker 3: App Mine is the emotional appeal. I can't stand it.
Speaker 3: I have a visceral reaction where brands try to sell
Speaker 3: you a lifestyle and an idea of kind of transcending
Speaker 3: your experience, and it's so cheap to me and exploitive.
Speaker 3: It feels in a lot of ways too, Like here's
Speaker 3: here's something to get you to cry. This man is
Speaker 3: coming home from serving overseas on military duty, and he's
Speaker 3: coming home and surprising as child and buy this car. Like, no,
Speaker 3: your car does not create family values. It's a car.
Speaker 3: I am getting this. My blood is boiling right now
Speaker 3: as I think about it. Like, No, a car is
Speaker 3: not gonna make you get up to go see the
Speaker 3: sunrise and like become a better person who finds themselves
Speaker 3: on top of a mountain. A car is going to
Speaker 3: get you to and from work hopefully.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna get you to and from Chipotle. All right,
Speaker 1: you're not going to watch the sunrise.
Speaker 3: Just you're killing me. It is enough to say, here's
Speaker 3: something that might make your life more efficient, or here's
Speaker 3: something you are already looking for. Here's reasons to buy
Speaker 3: this particular one. I think it feels like it's treating
Speaker 3: us like we're dumb, and I hate that. It feels manipulative, exploitive, cheap,
Speaker 3: like people are gonna buy cars. Tell them why they
Speaker 3: should buy this car. Don't take them on an emotional
Speaker 3: journey where they're crying by the end of it and
Speaker 3: then being like.
Speaker 1: Now give us your money.
Speaker 3: It's not even just an ick. It hicks me off.
Speaker 1: So car brands and car dealerships.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, it's not just cars who do it, but
Speaker 3: like they are the easiest to point to, they are
Speaker 3: good examples. Plenty of other brands do this, yes, clothing
Speaker 3: brands in the ways that they take their pictures and
Speaker 3: market you on social media. It's discosto.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for listening. Let us know if you
Speaker 1: liked this format, if we should put it on YouTube
Speaker 1: and show some videos. You can leave a comment on
Speaker 1: the YouTube video for this episode, or leave us a
Speaker 1: comment on the episode on Spotify. Let us know what
Speaker 1: you liked, and if you want more from us, then
Speaker 1: our book by What You Love Without Going Broke is
Speaker 1: available now by what you loovebook dot Com people tend
Speaker 1: to like it, like this guy Eric left at a
Speaker 1: five star review. Everything I've ever wanted in a personal
Speaker 1: finance book. This book is so relatable and helpful. From
Speaker 1: all the examples stories given to the action steps and
Speaker 1: journal prompts at the end of each chapter, the authors
Speaker 1: not only help me understand the psychology behind spending, but
Speaker 1: how to make better spending decisions. I feel so much
Speaker 1: more confident about my money and equipped to reach my
Speaker 1: longer term financial goals. For anyone looking to curb impulse spending,
Speaker 1: paydown debt, or just experience more freedom with their money
Speaker 1: without all the strict budgeting, this book is for you.
Speaker 3: Wow. I mean, it's probably just coincidence that my husband's
Speaker 3: name is Eric. He did read the book, but like
Speaker 3: I guarantee you, he did not leave this review.
Speaker 1: And you didn't leave it for us on.
Speaker 3: His I'm not entirely sure that that's not true, because
Speaker 3: I left a review for Travis.
Speaker 1: For my for our book.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, But did you put Travis's
Speaker 3: name down?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 1: You know whose name I put who? I just picked
Speaker 1: a random name. It's Teresa.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: So if you see a Teresaesa review.
Speaker 3: You don't trust it.
Speaker 1: Trust it.
Speaker 3: It could be an inside job.
Speaker 1: I just want to be transparent that I reviewed my
Speaker 1: own book.
Speaker 3: I did too, and I don't know if we just
Speaker 3: might read it or not. I do like the use
Speaker 3: of slashes, and there is a slash in this one.
Speaker 3: I might who knows. I was on a rampage and
Speaker 3: I can't remember what I did.
Speaker 1: I might have wrote this one.
Speaker 3: Eric might not exist.
Speaker 2: It might be me.
Speaker 1: Please help us by leaving your own review for the
Speaker 1: book on a very our own reviews of our own book,
Speaker 1: by getting yours up at the top. It's only it's
Speaker 1: only two of like one hundred and sixty, so we're
Speaker 1: not the only two reviews there are overruning.
Speaker 3: We didn't create one hundred and sixty second Amazon account.
Speaker 1: I did not do that. I can assure you we
Speaker 1: do not have time for that.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Well you're still with us. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 3: Thanks for reading our book. If you liked either one
Speaker 3: of them, please do leave us a review. It helps us,
Speaker 3: it helps other people, and we'll see you next time. Bye.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. All right, Jill,
Speaker 1: you let's talk about exploitation. Okay, yeah, because you use
Speaker 1: the word. We talked about this a few days ago.
Speaker 1: You used the word exploitive.
Speaker 3: And you were quick to correct me with what's your
Speaker 3: version exploitative?
Speaker 1: And I was like, wait, could they both be right?
Speaker 3: Huh? I mean we didn't. We didn't. We didn't jump
Speaker 3: to that. It was definitely you thought you were right.
Speaker 3: I thought I was right right, and then as I
Speaker 3: googled it to realize we both right.
Speaker 1: We were both right, are the same, you can use both,
Speaker 1: and it just was very indicative of our personalities. I
Speaker 1: add an extra syllable, because why not add something extra
Speaker 1: if you can, if you can make it more complicated,
Speaker 1: why not.
Speaker 3: I'm less as more and you are more as more. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and we're both right, and we're both expressing our ideas
Speaker 3: and opinions, but in different ways.
Speaker 1: Just like the book, in different ways. So on brand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, glad we have that settled. And you know what,
Speaker 3: both of us love being right, so we neither one
Speaker 3: of us had to walk away being wrong.
Speaker 1: And that was the best. That was the best takeaway.