Speaker 1: Episode four eighty three, Why It's so important to buy local.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity and life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 2: and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today's episode is an important
Speaker 1: one and one that differentiates us from a lot of
Speaker 1: other frugal living experts. Oh yeah, wow, that's a big
Speaker 1: statement in that we are willing to pay more to
Speaker 1: invest in the local economy, and we do that by
Speaker 1: buying less of the things that do not invest in
Speaker 1: the local economy.
Speaker 3: I am finding myself having so many more conversations like
Speaker 3: this where people know that we have a Frugal Friends
Speaker 3: podcast and we just wrote a book about it, and
Speaker 3: they're like, Oh, you'd be so upset with me. I
Speaker 3: just spent money the other day. No, no, No, we
Speaker 3: all spend money. It's just about making better spending decisions
Speaker 3: and feeling really good and confident about our money. Which
Speaker 3: all of you Frugal Friends listeners know this, but I
Speaker 3: think you're going to be hearing it even more from
Speaker 3: us this year in twenty twenty five and no in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, we talked about quality over quantity, and
Speaker 3: we're not ditching that that still remains and kind of
Speaker 3: even taking deeper dives into understanding marketing tactics under consumption
Speaker 3: lower spending on the things that don't matter, but maybe
Speaker 3: higher spending on the things that really do, like buying local.
Speaker 3: And so you will not hear us always getting the
Speaker 3: best possible, lowest price on any given item. We might
Speaker 3: be willing to spend more on something if it gets
Speaker 3: us more of what matters in other categories.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that you got a shirt
Speaker 1: brand new for three dollars. I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: of the little trinket you got in Amazon for five dollars.
Speaker 1: Those are things we no longer want to talk about well,
Speaker 1: and we never have talked about. But this is something
Speaker 1: yes for twenty twenty five. This is our theme going
Speaker 1: into your personally is to invest in our local economies
Speaker 1: and what I need to change about the way I
Speaker 1: shop to be able to do that more. But first
Speaker 1: let's get you know, let's get a little backstory. This
Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by my favorite coffee shop
Speaker 1: from when I was in college in August twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: a local Orlando coffee shop that was near and dear
Speaker 1: to my heart I went to college in Orlando closed
Speaker 1: its doors, and the impetus for this closing was due
Speaker 1: to lack of sales that were out of their control.
Speaker 1: They had multiple locations, and last summer they were forced
Speaker 1: to close their busiest location because the landlord refused to
Speaker 1: renew their lease and would not give them a reason why,
Speaker 1: at least that they were able to say to the public,
Speaker 1: and that led to a decrease in sales where they
Speaker 1: had to completely close. They still sell coffee, but do
Speaker 1: not have a brick and mortar to my knowledge. Four
Speaker 1: months later, in that location, which is inside a hospital,
Speaker 1: a Starbucks opened in that location. Now, I legally cannot
Speaker 1: say why a hospital in Orlando would kick out a successful,
Speaker 1: locally owned coffee shop in favor of a publicly traded
Speaker 1: company with a lot of money, but I will say
Speaker 1: I no longer give my money to Starbucks for this reason.
Speaker 1: And so this episode is dedicated to that coffee shop,
Speaker 1: the people that worked there, the people that not just
Speaker 1: worked there, but invested heavily into the Orlando community. It
Speaker 1: was the entire core of that coffee shops being to
Speaker 1: take their profits and invest more widely in the Orlando community.
Speaker 1: And so this one's for them, and I hope that
Speaker 1: this will drive you to think about what are the
Speaker 1: local businesses in my community that are being driven out
Speaker 1: by companies that just have more money to pay rent
Speaker 1: or just have fancier branding. What are those things?
Speaker 3: There's a lot not within our control, and I think
Speaker 3: that can be a really overwhelming part of this conversation
Speaker 3: when it comes to the economy and finances. But I
Speaker 3: think we can often lose sight of what is within
Speaker 3: our control. Like fast fashion exists because we keep buying.
Speaker 3: Starbucks exists and is pushing out smaller coffee shops because
Speaker 3: we keep buying from them, And so that is something
Speaker 3: that within our control, is to choose where we're going
Speaker 3: to put our dollars. Certainly, sometimes it's not like you
Speaker 3: and I one hundred percent of the time or only
Speaker 3: buying local things. But what are the ways that we
Speaker 3: can take some of these smaller steps in that direction
Speaker 3: where there could be an easy pivot to I just
Speaker 3: didn't think about that. I'm so accustomed to just going online,
Speaker 3: but I could have driven ten minutes down the road
Speaker 3: to get that thing right?
Speaker 1: What are the barriers that we can put in place
Speaker 1: that keep us from sending our money out of our
Speaker 1: communities that we could just inconvenience ourself a smidge more
Speaker 1: by driving, waiting, paying a couple dollars extra to invest locally.
Speaker 1: And you'll hear throughout this episode we're not talking about
Speaker 1: really like paying double or really inconveniencing yourself or you know,
Speaker 1: having it be a detriment to whatever. That's not what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. But it's those small barriers that can
Speaker 1: put up to inconvenience ourselves, possibly a little bit. Many
Speaker 1: times it won't inconvenience us. But if it can't, how
Speaker 1: can we be okay with it? Because we've been conditioned
Speaker 1: to believe that the easiest route is the best route.
Speaker 3: So this article that we're going to go through today,
Speaker 3: just one comes from Metro Family Magazine and it's titled
Speaker 3: fifteen reasons to shop locally, and the first reason being
Speaker 3: that it keeps money local. And before they even talk
Speaker 3: about this, they talk about the math behind why and
Speaker 3: really compelling numbers here. They cite that for every one
Speaker 3: hundred dollars spent at a locally owned business, seventy three
Speaker 3: of those dollars remain in the local economy compared to
Speaker 3: that same one hundred dollars spent at a non locally
Speaker 3: owned business, we're only forty three percent or forty three dollars,
Speaker 3: which you I guess would be forty three percent to
Speaker 3: forty three of those dollars would remain in the local economy.
Speaker 3: And that local eateries even higher. Seventy nine percent of
Speaker 3: revenue at local restaurants remains in the community compared to
Speaker 3: just over thirty percent at chain restaurants. And so when
Speaker 3: we can buy local, it increases the community's wealth, tax revenue,
Speaker 3: standard of living. And these are the things that fund
Speaker 3: vital services like policemen, fire protection, street repair, trash collection.
Speaker 3: Everything in your local community can be better, get better,
Speaker 3: be more service oriented, improve quality of life when you
Speaker 3: are just putting your dollars back into the local economy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you've ever looked at like Jeff Bezos's rocket ship,
Speaker 1: or Elon Musk's or I mean any of these other
Speaker 1: like big all the tech overlords standing behind the president
Speaker 1: at the inauguration, if you've ever looked at that and
Speaker 1: been like, why are they all there? It seems fishy.
Speaker 1: Remember you are funding them. We are funding them, We
Speaker 1: are the reason they are there. So the next one
Speaker 1: is the local investment. And so this kind of piggybacks
Speaker 1: on the funding. Keep money local, and so local businesses
Speaker 1: are less susceptible to national downturns and more likely to
Speaker 1: work harder to stay open. Local ownership means that important
Speaker 1: decisions are made by people who live in our community
Speaker 1: and feel the impact of those decisions. I just looked
Speaker 1: at a coffee shop online and they were not in
Speaker 1: my community, not in Florida. But when Starbucks announced they
Speaker 1: would no longer have an open door policy, so in
Speaker 1: order to be inside you had to buy something. Before
Speaker 1: it was you didn't have to buy something to, you know,
Speaker 1: come in and sit down. That coffee shop immediately took
Speaker 1: to social media and it was like, you can come here.
Speaker 1: This can be a third place for you, even if
Speaker 1: you don't buy something. And I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that we are so numb or maybe apathetic to
Speaker 1: Starbucks is because they used to have standards like this.
Speaker 1: They used to have empathy like that, which is why
Speaker 1: they enacted that policy. But now it has become more
Speaker 1: profit driven, and we're we already have trust built, they
Speaker 1: already have our trust, and so by doing something on
Speaker 1: the sly like this, it doesn't really impact us because
Speaker 1: we're buying something, but it does, you know, impact other people.
Speaker 1: And so local people see that and they make decisions
Speaker 1: that best impact the community, not shareholders.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not people outside of your community making decisions
Speaker 3: for them community, which we're beginning to see a lot
Speaker 3: of in the Tampa Bay area.
Speaker 1: And this I'll say also it's not just products, but
Speaker 1: this is in credit unions. It's why we are so
Speaker 1: at We advocate for credit unions so often because the
Speaker 1: money that they keep is invested back into the community.
Speaker 4: They have a.
Speaker 1: Responsibility to whatever they you know, represent some represent like teachers,
Speaker 1: and they invest in education, some just in the community
Speaker 1: at large. You put your money in Bank of America, Chase,
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo, and they are investing in the highest profit
Speaker 1: like businesses, you know, like crude oil and all these
Speaker 1: fast fashion tech, all of those things that so not
Speaker 1: even the money you're spending, but just the money in
Speaker 1: the bank is going to support things where do you
Speaker 1: want it to go.
Speaker 3: The third reason to buy local is often you're going
Speaker 3: to also be purchasing locally made products, So they're citing
Speaker 3: that oftentimes local business owners, if they're selling a product,
Speaker 3: it's often made with local ingredients, and that can also
Speaker 3: help to preserve a little bit of the community's uniqueness.
Speaker 3: It can create more jobs locally, so again just keeping
Speaker 3: more within the community and providing employment for more people
Speaker 3: in the local community.
Speaker 1: Next is when we come to nonprofits, and so I
Speaker 1: think this one. It's not just where you give, but
Speaker 1: also how you're shopping secondhand. So obviously we want you
Speaker 1: to shop secondhand first, So in whatever capacity you can
Speaker 1: do that, But if you're in an area that has
Speaker 1: a local nonprofit benefiting thrift store, try that one first.
Speaker 1: If you only have time to go to one thrift
Speaker 1: store and you have that available to you, go go there.
Speaker 1: If you've already been there recently, they didn't have anything,
Speaker 1: then go to another, or as a last resort, choose
Speaker 1: a goodwill or something like that. Local businesses support good
Speaker 1: work in our area, and you know that's even more
Speaker 1: so for nonprofits. The article says, studies show that nonprofits
Speaker 1: receive two hundred and fifty percent more support from small
Speaker 1: businesses than large ones. So when you're partting money into
Speaker 1: the local economy through local businesses, they are supporting local
Speaker 1: nonprofits as well because they're connected. Even if you don't
Speaker 1: know of local nonprofits, these people are connected in the
Speaker 1: community and when they go to support they are supporting
Speaker 1: local because they know how beneficial it is. It's not
Speaker 1: to say that large corporate nonprofits are bad, but the
Speaker 1: larger the nonprofit, the more overhead that it's going to have,
Speaker 1: which again, yea overhead is not bad. People need to
Speaker 1: be paid for their work. They should be paid well.
Speaker 1: But when you are investing in local nonprofits, then your
Speaker 1: dollars are more effective, they go further, and so you
Speaker 1: are helping to employ and give raises to people who
Speaker 1: work for those nonprofits who are also in your community,
Speaker 1: and your giving is just more efficient. If you want
Speaker 1: to be an efficient giver, giving to local nonprofits and
Speaker 1: then your local business purchases know that those also are
Speaker 1: going to support local nonprofits.
Speaker 3: I am going to combine numbers five and six, which
Speaker 3: are discovering interesting things and people and creating personal connections.
Speaker 3: So when you are buying local, you are most likely
Speaker 3: going in person. You're meeting people you're probably even being
Speaker 3: able to meet the business owner themselves. You're able to
Speaker 3: see what makes the community unique, what are the things
Speaker 3: that are being bought, because local business owners are able
Speaker 3: to tailor their offerings to the people right in that
Speaker 3: community and make it really unique and specialize in individualized
Speaker 3: to that specific area. And so you might come across
Speaker 3: products or services that are unique or bring it kind
Speaker 3: of a different perspective, and you might meet new people.
Speaker 3: And just when it comes to community building and what
Speaker 3: that can lead to. The more connected you are in
Speaker 3: local economy with local business owners, local workers, we can't
Speaker 3: even say exactly where all of that can go, but
Speaker 3: I think both Jen and I have experienced firsthand just
Speaker 3: what it is to interact with people in our community,
Speaker 3: and this provides so much more opportunity to do that
Speaker 3: when we're not just purchasing on Amazon from our phones
Speaker 3: at midnight, but going in person and being able to
Speaker 3: meet people. And that's not to say that we can't
Speaker 3: shop online. We could shop locally online too, h There
Speaker 3: is something really rich and meaningful about being engaged in
Speaker 3: the community in which we live, spending in the community
Speaker 3: which we live, and building relationships within that community. We
Speaker 3: are going to feel more peaceable, less chaotic, more satisfied
Speaker 3: and content.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well so this actually, just this morning happened. I
Speaker 1: went to the early release, not the midnight release, but
Speaker 1: early release for the new Onyx Storm book.
Speaker 4: If you're any Fourth Wing.
Speaker 1: Readers out there, So I went to their release party
Speaker 1: at tom Below Books this morning and was able to
Speaker 1: interact with other people who had the same interests as
Speaker 1: me and meet new people. And if I had just
Speaker 1: bought the book on Amazon and stayed in my house
Speaker 1: and read it, I would have not been able to
Speaker 1: interact with people. And that is what we are so
Speaker 1: starved for. Right We're always saying, how I wish it
Speaker 1: was easier to meet people. I wish that I could
Speaker 1: build more relationships, and prioritizing shopping locally helps with that.
Speaker 1: It prioritizes that. So if if you're feeling you're not
Speaker 1: like getting enough people interaction, put yourself in situations like
Speaker 1: that where you will be put in to proximity with
Speaker 1: people who have similar interests as you. The next I'm
Speaker 1: going to combine seven and eight, and this is product
Speaker 1: knowledge and diverse products, so local business owners are well
Speaker 1: informed about their products and know what they are selling.
Speaker 1: Because they know their customers, they can easily adjust their
Speaker 1: inventories and include goods and services local people want to buy. Again,
Speaker 1: I'll bring it back to books. This is what saved
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble. They were in decline and because they
Speaker 1: were treating it like a corporate entity. And then they said, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're losing out to Amazon. How can we make this
Speaker 1: a different experience and more incentivized than just buying a
Speaker 1: book from Amazon. And so what they did was they
Speaker 1: took the model from local owned bookstores and created inventories
Speaker 1: that were custom to the community to what most people
Speaker 1: were buying. They created events that were accustomed to the community.
Speaker 1: And so when they started to do that, Barnes and
Speaker 1: Nobles on the up again. They're opening more stores now.
Speaker 1: And this is what locally owned not even brick and mortar,
Speaker 1: but just locally owned stores can do. And then also
Speaker 1: diverse products. Local stores carry inventory you might not find
Speaker 1: at national chain stores, so they can choose products based
Speaker 1: on what their customers want and often carry unique items
Speaker 1: from local artists and farmers. And so this is one
Speaker 1: reason I think a local business there are sometimes so
Speaker 1: like I will joke on going to like farmers markets,
Speaker 1: and everyone there is selling chochkeys that nobody really needs,
Speaker 1: but people will just buy it to support local businesses.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily what I'm talking about. I don't think
Speaker 1: you need another choch key for your home, and that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily like a it's different from art.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: If it's art that you believe will be unique to
Speaker 1: your home, then that's right. But chotchkes bought for the
Speaker 1: sake of just support and not thinking about your own
Speaker 1: well being and your own home. Right, We're not into that.
Speaker 1: But what we are into is trying new things too.
Speaker 1: So this could be a local food like gourmet food stores.
Speaker 1: So maybe we're not going to William's Sonoma. Maybe we're
Speaker 1: trying a locally owned Italian cafe. There's actually one that
Speaker 1: both Jill and I have been meaning to try. But
Speaker 1: finding these places and making some room in your budget
Speaker 1: to try them because it feels good too, right as
Speaker 1: sometimes when we're being frugal, we think, oh, I have
Speaker 1: to shop and get everything at Walmart because it is
Speaker 1: the cheapest, or get everything in al d because it
Speaker 1: is the cheapest. But we really do think that maybe
Speaker 1: you should just spend less on Amazon, so you can
Speaker 1: spend more on fun things at the local Italian grocer
Speaker 1: and have fun with your money instead of stress scrolling
Speaker 1: and accidentally one click.
Speaker 4: Buying, Okay, the next one.
Speaker 3: I'm going to combine three now because we're just getting
Speaker 3: really bold over here. Number nine is what I'm going
Speaker 3: to look at. They're pretty similar so that shopping local.
Speaker 3: Buying local can be cost effective, a better experience, and
Speaker 3: you might experience better service. So on the cost effective piece,
Speaker 3: sometimes prices at local businesses can be better because they
Speaker 3: don't have the overhead that larger stores may have. They
Speaker 3: may be more willing to negotiate to be able to
Speaker 3: meet your price needs. This is going to be hit
Speaker 3: or miss. I do recognize. I think sometimes we will
Speaker 3: not buy local for the better price. I understand that,
Speaker 3: and I have been there. Sometimes we are outpriced on
Speaker 3: certain things. I know that this existed. During our renovation,
Speaker 3: we tried to get as much local as possible. We
Speaker 3: did got local lumber for some of our projects. We've
Speaker 3: gone to you know, local plumbing distributors or electrical distributors,
Speaker 3: particularly on those things. Though what we would find is
Speaker 3: the opposite with some of these more small business mom
Speaker 3: and pop shops that because they're not able to have
Speaker 3: the level of inventory that a big box store can have,
Speaker 3: then they do need to increase their prices. So sometimes
Speaker 3: we were able to buy you know, lighting or electrical
Speaker 3: needs from a local place, but other times it was
Speaker 3: we just are not going to be able to afford
Speaker 3: this and have it finished within a good timeline unless
Speaker 3: we got to lose our home depot. So sometimes that's
Speaker 3: going to happen. But also be aware that it's not
Speaker 3: always the case that it's going to be more expensive,
Speaker 3: but also there are times where it might be worth
Speaker 3: spending the ten to fifteen percent more on the local
Speaker 3: thing because of all of these other benefits that we're
Speaker 3: talking about. It's going to get you out of the house,
Speaker 3: it's going to get you off your phone, it's going
Speaker 3: to cause you to meet new people. It's going to
Speaker 3: put money back into the economy. And for that reason,
Speaker 3: I'm going to pay a few bucks more on this
Speaker 3: thing to be able to have this experience and give
Speaker 3: back to my community.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had the so we also went to the
Speaker 1: same place, Anderson Lumber. Yeah, and we found that they're
Speaker 1: pricing on some things were less expensive than home depot,
Speaker 1: but then other times it was a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But they also had wood that home depot did not
Speaker 1: carry because they were only lumber, so they had a
Speaker 1: much more like a diverse and they would cut it
Speaker 1: for you and they would bevel it, which home Depot
Speaker 1: wouldn't do.
Speaker 3: And a lot of times those if we're talking specifically
Speaker 3: construction shops where you could buy home renovation tools and items,
Speaker 3: that they might be more likely to have salvage that
Speaker 3: you can purchase from. So even we got our countertops,
Speaker 3: both of us from a local granite place and they
Speaker 3: had just tons of salvage countertops that we were able
Speaker 3: to utilize and then negotiate on pricing. They're just a lot,
Speaker 3: like this article says, a lot more open to some
Speaker 3: of those conversations. Well, I think for furniture too, if
Speaker 3: you're going to locally owned furniture shops, the negotiation really
Speaker 3: goes farther when you're looking at higher priced items. Right,
Speaker 3: So maybe we're not getting all of our groceries at
Speaker 3: the farmer's Market, but when it is time when we
Speaker 3: do need a couch, we're looking at a vintage furniture
Speaker 3: store for something that's very good quality, and I actually
Speaker 3: it was Julia Louis Dreyfus who they were asking SNL stars,
Speaker 3: what did you do when you got your first check
Speaker 3: from SNL? And I'm pretty sure it was her. It
Speaker 3: could have been another female comedian with dark hair, but yeah,
Speaker 3: it was Julia Louis Dreyfus's on the CNL. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 3: it was Tina fe.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, it wasn't her. It but she was like,
Speaker 1: it probably wasn't. Julia Louis Dreffis was on there, but
Speaker 1: I digress. She's like, I bought a couch and I
Speaker 1: have reupholstered that couch three times since then. I had
Speaker 1: an interior designer come in and say, no, the arms
Speaker 1: are too high on that couch. We got to get
Speaker 1: rid of it. And I said, no, we're getting rid
Speaker 1: of you. And so so she has had like this couch.
Speaker 1: This woman who has lots of money, very successful, could
Speaker 1: have had as many couches as she want, bought a
Speaker 1: really good quality couch and has had it reupholstered several
Speaker 1: times over her life.
Speaker 3: You know, I I think that that's something of our grandparents'
Speaker 3: generation that we could do well to reclaim. Is that
Speaker 3: ideally where we would think, oh, I don't have the
Speaker 3: money to be reupholstering my furniture. That's a luxury that
Speaker 3: the wealthy do. But what if we had the mentality
Speaker 3: of I'm going to buy something that I'm going to
Speaker 3: make sure can last me decades, from furniture to dishware
Speaker 3: to I don't know, appliances. If we were to take
Speaker 3: that approach to it, then you are going to say
Speaker 3: far more over time. I mean Eric and I have
Speaker 3: been married coming up on thirteen years. I think we've
Speaker 3: had about seven different couches. But what if I had
Speaker 3: my grandmother's perspective and we had bought one couch and
Speaker 3: covered it in plastic.
Speaker 1: I think that where don't go too far, Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: go that far, but yeah, re upholstering when needed, and
Speaker 1: trying not to change your style seven times over thirteen years, right,
Speaker 1: trying to get something that's a little more time liss
Speaker 1: but really good quality. And you know how you do
Speaker 1: that is you have to save for it. You can't
Speaker 1: just decide you want to redo your house or get
Speaker 1: into a new house and decide I have to fill
Speaker 1: it all up within three months. Right, you take your time,
Speaker 1: and you save and you do without until you have
Speaker 1: saved enough to get the really good quality item.
Speaker 3: Man, but we really got to slow down. I'm digressing too,
Speaker 3: but this is it's so I'm having my own mindset
Speaker 3: shifts and aha moments that it would cause us to
Speaker 3: have to slow down. I think we see so many
Speaker 3: of these quick transformations on Instagram, and we can know
Speaker 3: that they're not quick, but we're seeing a transformation in
Speaker 3: sixty seconds, and that's what we want. And you know what,
Speaker 3: we can actually kind of get it because we can
Speaker 3: buy all of the products that can ship overnight, that
Speaker 3: can be at my door before I am even out
Speaker 3: of bed in the morning, and I can recreate this
Speaker 3: whole thing. But then at what long term cost and
Speaker 3: economic call and labor cost is that happening at? Okay,
Speaker 3: keep going, Yeah, take us on the next thing we
Speaker 3: need to learn.
Speaker 1: Did we go through all of all of your three?
Speaker 3: Well? Yeah, I mean a better experience, better service. I
Speaker 3: think you know that this is kind of self explanatory
Speaker 3: that with everything we've described of being able to engage
Speaker 3: in community, being able to have some of that tailored
Speaker 3: individualized experiences that can happen with locally owned businesses that
Speaker 3: you can have a better experience shopping. You're probably going
Speaker 3: to get better service because these local people are really
Speaker 3: probably passionate about the products or services that they're selling.
Speaker 3: They are very knowledgeable and are able to help to
Speaker 3: inform you on the things that you need to know,
Speaker 3: make quality recommendations, you know, desire your business, you know,
Speaker 3: not like a I don't care, I'm just the manager, right.
Speaker 1: But they have more incentive. They have better bosses because
Speaker 1: they know their bosses. Their bosses live, you know, and
Speaker 1: work beside them, and they have more incentive and more
Speaker 1: joy in their community. And I will say I'm a
Speaker 1: stickler for service too, Like I'm very you know, I'm chill.
Speaker 1: But if I get bad service, I don't go back,
Speaker 1: you know, like I I will, you know, forgive somebody,
Speaker 1: and not like I don't go back to the same person. Right,
Speaker 1: if it's just one person, then maybe somebody different.
Speaker 4: But like, you don't have to live.
Speaker 1: With bad service if you have experienced it at a
Speaker 1: local shop before or restaurant, right, you could probably get
Speaker 1: good service at the same place from another person. Don't
Speaker 1: give up local altogether. If you've had bad experiences with
Speaker 1: service in the past because generally then they are better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And then the last one is your dollars in local
Speaker 1: in the local economy support future growth. So the article says,
Speaker 1: our experts agree on the last reason, shopping locally is
Speaker 1: the best way to show pride in your city and
Speaker 1: help protect the businesses that make your city unique. And
Speaker 1: just how do you want your city to look in
Speaker 1: ten years, because that's something that Saint Pete has struggled with.
Speaker 1: It really valued. We had a local community that very
Speaker 1: much valued shopping local, and over I think it was
Speaker 1: two years, our city gained fifty thousand new residents over
Speaker 1: two to three years, and those fifty thousand new residents
Speaker 1: did not value local businesses like we did. And so
Speaker 1: in the past four years since that's happened, we've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot more chains, a lot more chain restaurants, a
Speaker 1: lot more service providers that are owned by hedge funds
Speaker 1: and private equity or franchises. It's just kind of exploated.
Speaker 1: So you have to if you love your city, if
Speaker 1: you love where you live and you want to be
Speaker 1: there long term, you need to consider what you want
Speaker 1: it to look like in ten years. Because you are
Speaker 1: responsible for what your city looks like in ten years
Speaker 1: to a small degree. Obviously, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: things you can't control, but the way you act gives
Speaker 1: permission or leads by example of how you want the
Speaker 1: other people around you to act, and so what your
Speaker 1: city looks like in ten years is truly up to you.
Speaker 1: Do you want another Chipotle, another Starbucks? Or do you
Speaker 1: want another locally owned Mexican restaurant or another locally owned
Speaker 1: coffee shop or neither of those things. If you don't
Speaker 1: care about Chipotle or Starbucks, what do you want to see?
Speaker 1: What kind of different things do you want to see
Speaker 1: in your community? And invest there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, keeping the money local is what will allow for
Speaker 3: growth and more local businesses and some of the things
Speaker 3: that the community itself really wants to see, and probably
Speaker 3: even events and activities that bring the community together is
Speaker 3: funded by the local economy of the local city. And
Speaker 3: if you know you're keeping more money, if seventy three
Speaker 3: dollars of one hundred dollars is able to stay there,
Speaker 3: imagine what that can do for what you're even able
Speaker 3: to do as hobbies and recreation as a result of
Speaker 3: having previously purchased in your local community.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I just want to reiterate that when we
Speaker 1: talk about all this, we're not talking about drastically increasing
Speaker 1: your budget just to support the local economy. We're talking
Speaker 1: about spending less overall so that you can afford to
Speaker 1: put and you're incentivized to put more barriers in place
Speaker 1: so that you choose to purchase locally on something you
Speaker 1: would have purchased anyways. So whether that is you know,
Speaker 1: the special edition of Onyx Storm that you know, my
Speaker 1: friend really wanted, she said, so she bought it from
Speaker 1: our local bookstore and then found out that Target had
Speaker 1: a special edition that you couldn't get anywhere else except Target,
Speaker 1: and it was a colored map and colored pictures. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, but you have the black and white map
Speaker 1: in this and you've supported local and do you really
Speaker 1: need colorful pictures inside your book? You already have this
Speaker 1: really cool keepsake, did you have your imagination? Yeah, that
Speaker 1: you didn't need but you wanted. And that's great. We
Speaker 1: don't need to just buy things we need. We want
Speaker 1: to be empowered to also buy things we want. And
Speaker 1: you did that and you supported the local store like
Speaker 1: you and you don't need to spend an extra thirty
Speaker 1: dollars to have two of the same book that she
Speaker 1: listened to you, Yes, she did listen.
Speaker 3: Well done, Well done. Influencing you will influence.
Speaker 1: That's why buying what you love, knowing what you love
Speaker 1: is so important, and then creating just simple barriers to
Speaker 1: make sure that first we're looking to get it locally,
Speaker 1: to get it secondhand, to get it in the most
Speaker 1: cost and ethical effective ways. And if we can't, then
Speaker 1: we can go to Amazon, we can go to Walmart.
Speaker 1: You know, these things exist and we can take advantage
Speaker 1: of them. We don't have to like feel guilty when
Speaker 1: we use them.
Speaker 3: But we can live in the radical middle. It doesn't
Speaker 3: mean yes need to be our solution for everything that
Speaker 3: we purchase, speaking of a good solution that we think
Speaker 3: is in the radical middle, holding the tension between professionalism
Speaker 3: and unhingedness.
Speaker 4: Absolutely the bill of the way, that's right.
Speaker 5: It's time for the best minute of your entire Maybe
Speaker 5: a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe
Speaker 5: you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and
Speaker 5: you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 3: That's bills.
Speaker 4: Buffalo bills bill claim this is the bill of the week. Hi,
Speaker 4: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 6: I love your podcast. It's my go to workout podcast.
Speaker 6: My name is Raf and I'm from Forest Hill, Maryland.
Speaker 6: My bill of the week is a non bill. We
Speaker 6: were looking for an extracurricular activity for our seven year
Speaker 6: old son to do. We got two sons, one three
Speaker 6: year old and one seven year old, and he had
Speaker 6: an interest in martial arts. So we tried different places
Speaker 6: and they all charged around two hundred bucks a month,
Speaker 6: sometimes two hundred and fifty. So since I used to
Speaker 6: teach martial arts, I put up a syllabus and he
Speaker 6: and I go over it together almost every day for
Speaker 6: you know, ten fifteen minutes. He gets stripes on his
Speaker 6: belt when he reaches a milestone and a homemade certificate.
Speaker 6: He loves it. He's doing great too, and we're saving
Speaker 6: about two four hundred books a year, so it's a
Speaker 6: win win for everyone. Thanks for taking my call and
Speaker 6: have a great week. Rat.
Speaker 1: That's so cute, Jill. Does that not remind you of
Speaker 1: the We Can Help episode where there's a mom who
Speaker 1: wants to put her kid in martial arts and then
Speaker 1: gets like guilted into paying for a six month subscription
Speaker 1: to it, because the dojo master is like kind of
Speaker 1: mean and.
Speaker 3: Like demanding that they sign up and stay committed and
Speaker 3: loyal in order to receive the next level belt.
Speaker 1: Right, They're not even going to receive any like belts
Speaker 1: or certificates until they get like at least six months
Speaker 1: of payment, And so it was like not even like
Speaker 1: encouraging for the child. And and this sounds so encouraging
Speaker 1: little homemade certificates and the stripes and getting to spend
Speaker 1: more time, like more loving time as a family.
Speaker 3: How fun That podcast is called We're Here to Help
Speaker 3: and it's Jake and Gareth. Jake is I forget his
Speaker 3: last name, but he's the guy from New Girl. It's
Speaker 3: a fun podcast. Anyways, this is amazing And I love
Speaker 3: this intentional parenting that you're describing that you know what,
Speaker 3: I have a skill set that I can teach my child,
Speaker 3: and we're able to create structure and routine and incentives
Speaker 3: around this that is no less legit than going into
Speaker 3: an actual establishment. But yet you're able to do it
Speaker 3: at home and create memories together and build a skill
Speaker 3: set and bond and I just I love.
Speaker 4: Love all of them.
Speaker 3: Obsess and congratulations for saving twenty four hundred dollars a
Speaker 3: year while bonding with your son. That's so awesome. If
Speaker 3: you all listening have a bill that you want to submit,
Speaker 3: if it has to do with teaching your children a
Speaker 3: skill set at home and creating homemade certificates saving money,
Speaker 3: or if it has to do with investing in your
Speaker 3: local economy bills you don't mind paying, how you're buying
Speaker 3: quality over quantity, or your name is Bill for Girlfriends
Speaker 3: podcast dot com slash Bill can't wait to hear it,
Speaker 3: And now it's time for the lightning round.
Speaker 1: All right, Jill, what's your favorite thing to buy local.
Speaker 3: Food at local restaurants? I will say, as much as
Speaker 3: I think Saint Pete, our area could do even better
Speaker 3: at keeping things local downtown Saint Petersburg, I cannot think
Speaker 3: of chains that you know what.
Speaker 1: Saint Pete is still one of the best cities for
Speaker 1: local culture. Honestly, it's just like having lived here my
Speaker 1: entire life. I know it used to be better, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that now we stink at
Speaker 1: it because while there's fifty thousand new people, there are
Speaker 1: still hundreds of thousands of people who have lived here
Speaker 1: and a lot of them are invested in staying local,
Speaker 1: keeping Saint Pete local.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so in downtown Saint Pete and even from my
Speaker 3: house to downtown Saint Pete, like, I don't think I
Speaker 3: pass a single Starbucks, Like there are many small own,
Speaker 3: locally owned coffee shops, restaurants, grocers. We just went to
Speaker 3: one of the Italian grocers yesterday and like got a sandwich,
Speaker 3: and then we'll often just buy some groceries for the
Speaker 3: week from there. And yeah, if we're going out to eat,
Speaker 3: it's going to be at a local restaurant and that
Speaker 3: that's a win win win because Eric and I love
Speaker 3: going out to eat. And then when we can say
Speaker 3: that we're supporting local them even better.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Mine is services. So we often think of things
Speaker 1: and food when we think of buying local, but honestly,
Speaker 1: services are where it's at. So I just had a
Speaker 1: woman who lives three minutes away from me come over
Speaker 1: to give me a free consultation to have her company
Speaker 1: clean my house, women owned, hyper local owned, and I
Speaker 1: got a deal where I get buy three cleanings, get
Speaker 1: the fourth one free.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're you going to do that monthly?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 1: So because we have in our airbnb, we have a
Speaker 1: fewer like short term stays. Normally they're you know, one
Speaker 1: to three months, but so we're going to get help
Speaker 1: with that. And I am so excited to keep that
Speaker 1: stress off my plate because I know if I also
Speaker 1: had to clean our airbnb, then that would lead to
Speaker 1: me being stressed and out of time, eating out, eating
Speaker 1: not so great food. So instead I'm spending probably the
Speaker 1: same amount of money I would, but I'm giving it
Speaker 1: to a local woman, and I'm taking the real stressor
Speaker 1: off my plate, not the symptom of the stress. And
Speaker 1: so I'm so excited to do that. But also when
Speaker 1: we did our renovation hiring, you know, a local guy
Speaker 1: who is not part of like a big franchise or
Speaker 1: company there, because there's sometimes companies who may be local
Speaker 1: but aren't ethical. So that's also something you have to
Speaker 1: be aware of. And you can find that out through
Speaker 1: reviews and googling. Right, you're going to find that out.
Speaker 1: You don't have to compromise like with a local business.
Speaker 1: It will be maybe a little less convenient, a little
Speaker 1: less flashy, but you don't have to compromise quality. So
Speaker 1: we got that and local window guys and I prefer
Speaker 1: honestly shopping at publics to Walmart, which is not hyper local,
Speaker 1: but it's Florida in our small in our region. So
Speaker 1: I consider state wide to also be local because when
Speaker 1: we're thinking of these big, high end publicly traded companies
Speaker 1: owned by private equity, stuff like that, that's the stuff
Speaker 1: we want to avoid. It doesn't have to be like
Speaker 1: one location hyper local, but it can be you know,
Speaker 1: statewide or you know area wide, maybe several states, but
Speaker 1: still in your areas. So just consider consider where you
Speaker 1: want to keep your money.
Speaker 3: In quality of life for their employees. Like publics I
Speaker 3: think offers you know, stock.
Speaker 1: Options such great Benefitloye.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's cool. Yeah, wow, everyone, thanks so much for
Speaker 3: being here and just all of your support in addition
Speaker 3: to supporting local as we know that you are thinking
Speaker 3: about what's small, one small pivot or step you can
Speaker 3: make to buy more local. Yeah, we are so grateful
Speaker 3: for you being here, and we've also really enjoyed your
Speaker 3: kind reviews of the book. Many of you have gotten
Speaker 3: by what you love without going broke. You can purchase
Speaker 3: that at a local bookstore. If they don't have it,
Speaker 3: you can call and ask them or go to book
Speaker 3: carry uh huh, and so this person has read the
Speaker 3: book and reviewed it. This is from Teresa Rate five stars.
Speaker 3: Spending is a skill that Jensmith and Jill Siriani from
Speaker 3: the Frugal Friends podcast know well. Throughout their journeys to frugality,
Speaker 3: they've learned how to be better spenders, investing in items
Speaker 3: and experiences that match their current seasons and values. It's
Speaker 3: values based spending that the book is all about, with
Speaker 3: chapters full of timeless advice, helpful exercises, and ways to
Speaker 3: get real about what matters most to you. Rather than
Speaker 3: scold you for not being a better savor, the authors
Speaker 3: teach you how to buy the things you love without
Speaker 3: going broke. Thank you so much for this kind review. Thanks,
Speaker 3: And it feels very in line with what we've done
Speaker 3: just talked about too, like how can we even create
Speaker 3: the habits and patterns and behaviors to be able to
Speaker 3: even buy local? I think this book will help teach
Speaker 3: you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, if you're interested, you can head to buy
Speaker 1: what you lovebook dot com and the bookshop link is
Speaker 1: in there, or you can request it at your favorite
Speaker 1: local bookshop.
Speaker 4: Both.
Speaker 1: If you were in Tampa, head to Oxford Exchange. There's
Speaker 1: about twenty signed copies there, so we're gonna look at
Speaker 1: a way to get those up online so you can
Speaker 1: purchase those online as well. So they may already be
Speaker 1: available at Oxford Exchange's website if they are. If they
Speaker 1: do become available online, you'll find the signed copies at
Speaker 1: buy what youlovebook dot com.
Speaker 3: Yeah, see you next time.
Speaker 1: Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni Jill we buried
Speaker 1: the lead a little bit. This goes out on February seventh,
Speaker 1: and on February twelfth, we will be somewhere special.
Speaker 4: Yes we will.
Speaker 3: We're going to be in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, which is my
Speaker 3: old stomping grounds where I am originally from, to be
Speaker 3: doing a book Q and A and signing.
Speaker 4: At a very local book store, local.
Speaker 3: Bookshop in sellers Wilt It's called Next Chapter book Shop
Speaker 3: bookstore in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. So that'll be February twelfth at
Speaker 3: seven pm. If you want to come out and meet us,
Speaker 3: buy from a local Sellersville bookshop, get us to sign
Speaker 3: your copy, write your name in it, come on out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we look forward to seeing all you Pennsylvanians at
Speaker 1: next chapter