Speaker 1: Episode three point fifty seven Frugality It's giving big impact energy.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to your special Black Friday edition of the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill,
Speaker 1: and today we are talking about nothing related to Black Friday,
Speaker 1: nothing related to sales, nothing that you should be taking
Speaker 1: advantage of. We are doing just Jill and I an
Speaker 1: episode about the impact of frugality beyond saving money, beyond
Speaker 1: controlling your spending, beyond all of that. And we would
Speaker 1: love for you to listen to this as you make
Speaker 1: your way out to the stores. There will be no
Speaker 1: shaming happening if you are shopping today. We just want
Speaker 1: you to listen to this before you make your purchases
Speaker 1: so you can take this frugal energy with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So in that way, it is Black Friday adjacent.
Speaker 3: We can be empowered to make the best decisions.
Speaker 1: Yes, and have the best mindset when you're making your decisions,
Speaker 1: because that's what we want to do when we are
Speaker 1: learning to values based spend, is to be confident in
Speaker 1: our spending decisions, and this feels like an integral piece
Speaker 1: to that that we don't cover a lot, and I
Speaker 1: am so fired up to do it. I might listen
Speaker 1: to this episode on my way to shop. Who knows,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't typically listen to myself speak,
Speaker 1: but this could be the day. Anyways. The episode is
Speaker 1: brought to you by another one of my favorite things things,
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey's hit single All I Want for Christmas Is You.
Speaker 1: There are three types of people in the world. This
Speaker 1: is an over generalization, but bear with me. Those who
Speaker 1: start listening to Mariah Carey's hit single All I Want
Speaker 1: for Christmas is You on November first, those who start
Speaker 1: today the day after Thanksgiving, and those who don't listen
Speaker 1: to it because Christmas makes them anxious. And I'm sorry
Speaker 1: for you. I love to ask who hurt you? And
Speaker 1: we can talk about it, and we can talk this through,
Speaker 1: we can unpack it. These people cannot relate with each other,
Speaker 1: but we have something that will bring everyone together. One
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and we want to give one lucky frugal
Speaker 1: friend one thousand dollars to make the holidays a little easier.
Speaker 1: So head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash pamper
Speaker 1: just like the diaper or like pampering yourself, So you
Speaker 1: can enter the giveaway, and I hope it makes you
Speaker 1: a little less anxious about Christmas so that we can
Speaker 1: all listen to Mariah carey hit single All I Want
Speaker 1: for Christmas is You Together.
Speaker 3: You're bringing big impact energy to all of this. You're
Speaker 3: you're embodying this episode title right now.
Speaker 1: This is me embodying big energy. So if you, if
Speaker 1: you maybe are looking for an episode that is adjacent
Speaker 1: to this one, but where my energy isn't so big
Speaker 1: and I'm not doing so many hand motions in the
Speaker 1: background that you cannot see. Episode two ninety eight, No
Speaker 1: Cost Ways to Be More eco Friendly Episode two sixty
Speaker 1: six Sustainable Minimalism with Stephanie Seferian from the Sustainable Minimalist podcast.
Speaker 1: And this episode is not explicitly actually about like being
Speaker 1: eco friendly or anything. This goes far, far, far beyond that.
Speaker 1: But we do so few episodes that are the why
Speaker 1: behind frugality. Those are kind of the most appropriate ones
Speaker 1: to mention at the top. This is our show is
Speaker 1: very much the how of frugality, and this episode is
Speaker 1: very much the why of it.
Speaker 3: And if you've been listening to us for at least
Speaker 3: a couple of months, you know that we've been doing
Speaker 3: a few of these kind of special episodes where we're
Speaker 3: not looking at articles on the internet and giving you
Speaker 3: our curated hot take. Instead, this episode is our thoughts
Speaker 3: on frugality and the big impact energy that we can
Speaker 3: bring to it, what big impact energy it can bring
Speaker 3: to us, just that mutuality that's present. But and as
Speaker 3: we get started, let's talk about what even is big
Speaker 3: impact energy? Like what are we talking about here? And yes,
Speaker 3: it is a little bit of a spin on Ariana
Speaker 3: Grande's coined term that I won't talk about here, but
Speaker 3: if you know, you know. And so for us when
Speaker 3: it comes to frugality and understanding big impact energy, it's
Speaker 3: recognizing what's at stake if you don't take control of
Speaker 3: your spending. And I think what we're talking about here, Jen,
Speaker 3: you did mention the why of frugality, or the why
Speaker 3: of saving, the why of spending, the why of debt freedom,
Speaker 3: and all of those perspectives are super helpful. Asking us
Speaker 3: asking ourselves that question is really important and while we
Speaker 3: can't always keep it in mind, constantly. We can't always
Speaker 3: have the why right in front of us. Sometimes big
Speaker 3: picture doesn't entirely help us in our day to day.
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean that we can throw it all out
Speaker 3: and never look at it. I think sometimes recognizing this
Speaker 3: macro level big picture, what are we talking about here?
Speaker 3: Why is this so important? Beyond just my tiny spending
Speaker 3: decisions day to day, but bigger than that, my entire life,
Speaker 3: my adulthood. What am I aimed at here? How can
Speaker 3: I be a part of the collective in a beneficial
Speaker 3: way in my local community? And larger than that? So
Speaker 3: it's really giving ourselves an opportunity I would venture to
Speaker 3: say at least once a year of looking at what's
Speaker 3: at stake here? Meaning if I don't do this thing,
Speaker 3: if I don't take control of my spending saving personal finances,
Speaker 3: what could that mean for me? And I think this
Speaker 3: intersects really well with the Big Four are pillars of
Speaker 3: frugality of our time, mental and emotional capacities, physical space,
Speaker 3: natural resources. What's at stake? If I don't choose to
Speaker 3: steward this well.
Speaker 1: And really with big impact energy, it's rejecting. It's this
Speaker 1: mindset that is rejecting frugality as a means to an end,
Speaker 1: and viewing frugality not just as a means to get
Speaker 1: what you want in life, because we view it as
Speaker 1: when you are practicing values based spending and you are
Speaker 1: being a good steward of all of your resources, it
Speaker 1: allows you to afford what money can't buy. Right, So
Speaker 1: we need money to get all of these things. We
Speaker 1: want time with our loved ones, a physical space that
Speaker 1: is conducive to having people, hosting people, feeling secure, safe,
Speaker 1: at ease our mental and emotional like not being stressed.
Speaker 1: You need money, obviously to have all of these, but
Speaker 1: money cannot buy these things explicitly. So frugality helps us
Speaker 1: put into perspective what we are really trying to achieve
Speaker 1: so that we can afford more of that. But it's
Speaker 1: more than that. Frugality is a solution to so many
Speaker 1: problems we face on a micro and macro level that
Speaker 1: it goes beyond just what frugality can do for me,
Speaker 1: and it's what frugality can do for the world. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna cover three things that we think frugality can
Speaker 1: can give you on a macro and micro level. We're
Speaker 1: gonna we're not gonna go in order. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: go I think maybe in order of descending us sending importance.
Speaker 1: I don't know, we're going to go up to what
Speaker 1: we think is most important. But uh, we'll start with
Speaker 1: just our physical space, physical beings. And that's that frugality
Speaker 1: fights over consumption, and overconsumption has a direct effect on
Speaker 1: physical spaces and human beings outside of our immediate community.
Speaker 3: And recognizing this particular piece of overconsumption intersects with the environment,
Speaker 3: and looking at the effect that our consumerism, specifically over
Speaker 3: consumption of consumable goods has on the environment, workers, people
Speaker 3: in our community locally and abroad, this statistic is a
Speaker 3: little bit staggering, specifically looking at that around the time
Speaker 3: of the holidays, so Americans, those of us in the
Speaker 3: United States throw away twenty five percent more trash than usual,
Speaker 3: which we should also be looking up what the usual is.
Speaker 3: That's pretty high compared to the rest of the world.
Speaker 3: Between Thanksgiving and New Years, about a million extra tons
Speaker 3: of garbage each week, according to the National Environmental Education Foundation.
Speaker 1: This is wild to me.
Speaker 3: Twenty five percent extra just in the span of a
Speaker 3: month is being thrown away, which is showing that consumption
Speaker 3: is up or bringing in more, purchasing more, throwing away more,
Speaker 3: getting rid of more, making room for more, and then
Speaker 3: rinsing and repeating and doing it all over again. And
Speaker 3: so recognizing the impact that this level of consumption that
Speaker 3: is already high, sometimes throughout the year increases to an
Speaker 3: even higher degree, affects the world around us, the air quality,
Speaker 3: the people working these jobs, the environment locally and abroad.
Speaker 3: There's impact here on the environ meant that some of
Speaker 3: this we have control and influence over on a micro level,
Speaker 3: which absolutely is going to impact the macro level as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you might not immediately think of all of
Speaker 1: the trash you are creating by purchasing. It doesn't it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessary. It doesn't directly translate, right if I'm buying
Speaker 1: all these new things I'm hosting parties, it doesn't directly
Speaker 1: translate to trash.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: But come spring when you are decluttering, think about all
Speaker 1: the things you're getting rid of because you acquired new
Speaker 1: things over Black Friday. So you may not see that
Speaker 1: twenty five percent in your own life, or this or
Speaker 1: this study may just be focusing on like the food
Speaker 1: and the direct waste. So this number may be even higher.
Speaker 1: I didn't actually look into that fact, but it does
Speaker 1: trickle out over the next three to four months as
Speaker 1: you take in new things. Your space is finite, your
Speaker 1: physical space is finite, and you will get rid of
Speaker 1: more things in order to compensate. And you pay for that.
Speaker 1: You pay to get rid of that. So you pay
Speaker 1: your city or county or whatever. You pay for their landfills,
Speaker 1: whether they're in your county or not. You pay for that.
Speaker 1: You pay for your garbage pickup. You pay for these
Speaker 1: things indirectly, and we don't always see them as a
Speaker 1: cost because they're so minor. But as a collective, if
Speaker 1: we collectively everybody listening to this podcast started to take
Speaker 1: into consideration these things and we just cut our consumable
Speaker 1: goods purchases by twenty twenty five percent, What could that
Speaker 1: do collectively? How much money could it save you? If
Speaker 1: you or if your county or city did not need
Speaker 1: to increase the land it rents for landfills, it didn't
Speaker 1: need to increase, but it could stabilize. Like at this point,
Speaker 1: we're not idealists that think we can reduce. We're just
Speaker 1: looking at how we can stabilize. Because with inflation, We're
Speaker 1: seeing all these studies that people are cutting back on
Speaker 1: the things that they're buying. Yet all I'm seeing all
Speaker 1: of these studies pop up for the holidays that people
Speaker 1: say they're going to spend more than they ever have
Speaker 1: in history, even before the pandemic, on individual holidays. And yes,
Speaker 1: some inflation is you know, to deal with that. But
Speaker 1: what if we just kept our spending the same and
Speaker 1: we bought less to compensate for inflation. So I know
Speaker 1: a lot of you listening are are going to be
Speaker 1: in that camp. But collectively, if we if if we
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about this later, but collectively, if we
Speaker 1: set the quote unquote example, but if we normalize, if
Speaker 1: we normalize this kind of practice, this kind of lifestyle,
Speaker 1: and make it, you know, make it look like we're
Speaker 1: not depriving ourselves, you know, we're not sitting on our
Speaker 1: high horses like judging people. Right then, how many others
Speaker 1: could see could see that as permission to do that
Speaker 1: and follow follow suit? And something Jill mentioned in all
Speaker 1: of this environment that it's we're not just looking at
Speaker 1: like land, right, We're not just looking at environmental factors,
Speaker 1: but we're also looking at the cost of people. A
Speaker 1: study in twenty twenty two from UNICEF found that the
Speaker 1: majority of wealthy countries are creating unhealthy, dangerous and noxious
Speaker 1: conditions for children across the world, not just in our
Speaker 1: in our wealthy countries, but across the world. The study
Speaker 1: also found that if everyone were to consume resources at
Speaker 1: the rate which people in Canada, Luxembourg and the United
Speaker 1: States do, at least five earths would be needed. That
Speaker 1: is how much we are consuming and one of the
Speaker 1: director of unisf's Office of Research, Canila Olsen, said, not
Speaker 1: only are the majority of rich countries failing to provide
Speaker 1: healthy environments for children within their borders, they are also
Speaker 1: contributing to the destruction of children's environments in other parts
Speaker 1: of the world. This means we are shipping out waste,
Speaker 1: We are creating these noxious gases with our You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not an environmental engineer. I'm not sure how it
Speaker 1: all works. I will just be honest with that. But
Speaker 1: everybody's seen a picture of goodwill shipping off like all
Speaker 1: their unwanted, unsellable stuff that we have dropped there, shipping
Speaker 1: it all off to other countries. Right, We've all heard
Speaker 1: and seen that, So it is not unthinkable to think
Speaker 1: that there are things happening we cannot see that the
Speaker 1: media is not covering, and that's us. We are doing
Speaker 1: that the country. I mean, these these corporations are just
Speaker 1: responding to our consumerism. And so when we go into
Speaker 1: the into these seasons like the holiday season, and we
Speaker 1: just have this mindset of wanting to be frugal, to
Speaker 1: decrease the overall over consumption in our country, if we
Speaker 1: collectively do that, we can make a bigger impact.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly does help when we can take it
Speaker 3: outside of ourselves that there's a reason to aim at
Speaker 3: frugality and good stewardship just for ourselves, but then to
Speaker 3: also see that when we do that, there is a
Speaker 3: positive correlation between that and all these other aspects of
Speaker 3: how we're treating the environment, how we're treating people and
Speaker 3: workers around the world. And interesting that they chose in
Speaker 3: that last study you just referenced jen children that this
Speaker 3: is what is becoming of the air quality and environment
Speaker 3: for children around the world, which definitely does cause a
Speaker 3: little bit of a higher level of response than if
Speaker 3: you were to just say people.
Speaker 1: Like, right's childreable, right, but all about kids, So people
Speaker 1: what it is highlighting suore of course, but then with
Speaker 1: that it's showing us that we are talking about the
Speaker 1: next generation.
Speaker 3: And so even in that, we're identifying yes for us
Speaker 3: now and for us later. And so that's the kind
Speaker 3: of big impact energy we're talking here of what we
Speaker 3: can come to understand and the behaviors we're able to
Speaker 3: shift and model and aim at sustainability at least. Then
Speaker 3: what does that produce for us, not just now, but
Speaker 3: then in the future as other generations pick up on,
Speaker 3: they will good or bad habits, and we can be
Speaker 3: a part of what are the good habits I'm cultivating
Speaker 3: with the knowledge that I now have what am I
Speaker 3: modeling to the children of the next generation, so that
Speaker 3: this kind of energy goes forward into the future.
Speaker 1: So the next topic we want to cover is it
Speaker 1: bring it back to number one. When you practice frugality
Speaker 1: as more than just a way to save money or
Speaker 1: control your spending, you open yourself up to actually live
Speaker 1: your best life. And this is not just like a
Speaker 1: Quippi you know saying, but you do you allow yourself
Speaker 1: to actually a discover what your best life is personally,
Speaker 1: to allow your family around you to discover what their
Speaker 1: best life is and and have grace for them if
Speaker 1: it is not the same as yours, and learn to incorporate,
Speaker 1: learn to cooperate, and that that in of itself makes
Speaker 1: your best life better. Right, So when you view frugality
Speaker 1: as more than money, then you give yourself the space
Speaker 1: to really discover it. What is those things that money
Speaker 1: can't buy?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: What those are for.
Speaker 3: You more than money? Love that there's another bumper sticker. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think when I previously would hear that term live
Speaker 3: your best life or live live in my life? Actually
Speaker 3: that is in our sound that sounds a life. There's
Speaker 3: this certain image that comes to mind previously for me
Speaker 3: of luxury, yacht living, jet setting, caveat.
Speaker 1: White Ferraris.
Speaker 3: And I think what we're saying is not just this
Speaker 3: quippy your best life and it's one thing, but the
Speaker 3: reality of it's more than money, and it's many, many,
Speaker 3: many multitudes of things that we can decide each individual,
Speaker 3: not letting other people dictate our life. There's this study
Speaker 3: from Global Web Index super Interesting found that fifty four
Speaker 3: percent of social media users use social media to research
Speaker 3: products and seventy one percent are more likely to purchase
Speaker 3: products and services based on social media referrals, which is
Speaker 3: great if you're a person who's trying to sell a product,
Speaker 3: social media is where you want to be. But as
Speaker 3: somebody who might just be going to social media for entertainment,
Speaker 3: for just some doom scrolling at night, this is quite
Speaker 3: can be quite a trap of consuming in a way
Speaker 3: that maybe you wouldn't otherwise, and almost worse, if I
Speaker 3: can say it this way, being sold a lifestyle that
Speaker 3: you may not even want. So even beyond purchasing products,
Speaker 3: I think what this can also lead to is designing
Speaker 3: a lifestyle based on what somebody else is telling you
Speaker 3: should be and not ever really realizing whether or not
Speaker 3: it's your version of a best life. Just that looks
Speaker 3: good for them, So I'm going to do that, And
Speaker 3: it's never even really a full thought.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean it just comes. Maybe not everyone
Speaker 1: can relate to this, but like, who has dated someone
Speaker 1: because everybody around them was dating someone and they felt
Speaker 1: lonely being single, and they went up with the first
Speaker 1: guy who asked them? Who hasn't done that? Is that
Speaker 1: just me? But like nobody was influencing me to go
Speaker 1: out with this guy that I didn't That was really
Speaker 1: not worth my time, right, But it was this indirect influence, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't ask myself what is it I really want
Speaker 1: in a person? Like why is it that I'm single?
Speaker 1: Why is it that I'm waiting? Right? Like I just
Speaker 1: wanted to be coupled. And so we make so many
Speaker 1: of so many of our decisions from indirect influencing. I
Speaker 1: would think even more than direct influencing on social media.
Speaker 1: We make so many important life decisions, important financial disc
Speaker 1: decisions based on indirect influence. Just like hashtag the American dream.
Speaker 1: We have half half of the people listening to this
Speaker 1: show who do not have a house, who do not own,
Speaker 1: are saving for a home, right, and of that, how
Speaker 1: many people who own? And how many are who are saving?
Speaker 1: Like ask themselves important questions about like why why do
Speaker 1: I want to own a home? Why am I interested
Speaker 1: in the things that come along with owning a home?
Speaker 1: We are just influenced by I got to own a
Speaker 1: home because it's I've been told it's a good financial decision,
Speaker 1: and YadA YadA, Like we did that with real estate investing,
Speaker 1: if I'm going to be honest, Like we bought a
Speaker 1: second home to renovate because we were you know it
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is just the next step. Like,
Speaker 1: once you get your retirement start, you start investing in
Speaker 1: real estate so you can diversify your investment PORTFOLI And
Speaker 1: here we are in the dumpster fire of a house
Speaker 1: that we live in. So we all do it right, Like,
Speaker 1: maybe not to the extreme of buying a second house.
Speaker 1: You know, you're welcome. I will be your example of
Speaker 1: what not to do. But yeah, we are all so
Speaker 1: indirectly influenced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think when we don't take the time
Speaker 3: to this is the what's at stake When we don't
Speaker 3: take the time to investigate, be curious about our own
Speaker 3: spending habits, our saving habits, just our behaviors, the way
Speaker 3: that we interact with all of the resources available to
Speaker 3: us outside of us and internally right our physical capacities,
Speaker 3: mental capacities, emotional capacities. When we don't take inventory of
Speaker 3: those things and are curious about them and aligning them
Speaker 3: with our values, we lose out on living our best life.
Speaker 3: That's what's at stake in this category. If we let
Speaker 3: somebody else dictate that for us, If we allow ourselves
Speaker 3: to be mindlessly influenced and purchasing things just because it's
Speaker 3: what everybody else is purchasing. We can lose out on,
Speaker 3: miss out on what was it that maybe I would
Speaker 3: have truly wanted, what would have given me the most joy,
Speaker 3: what it would have led to the least amount of depletion.
Speaker 3: Where was the convergence of my values with what's available
Speaker 3: in front of me and my skill set and my
Speaker 3: desires and the things that I enjoy. If we don't
Speaker 3: look at those things, if we're not stewarding all of this, well,
Speaker 3: we're missing out on elements that can hardly even be described.
Speaker 3: But probably in some ways wouldn't even know what we're
Speaker 3: missing out on, but it would definitely be better than
Speaker 3: what's currently being sold to us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'll say one last thing on the like,
Speaker 1: you missing out on living your best life. I don't
Speaker 1: want to forget to mention that you need money to
Speaker 1: live your best life. Like, let's also just bring it
Speaker 1: back around and say, like this is we're first and
Speaker 1: foremost like understand that again, in order to have more
Speaker 1: of the things money can't buy, you need money. And
Speaker 1: I want to point out a study that was done
Speaker 1: so a lot of you will know, the study that
Speaker 1: says you only need like that the joy levels out
Speaker 1: when your income hit seventy five thousand dollars. Right, this year,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, that study was revisited by the researcher
Speaker 1: Hroote who did it, and another researcher who said, actually
Speaker 1: more money equals more happiness. So the two yeah, we
Speaker 1: have a retract No, I mean, so the two researchers
Speaker 1: came together to kind of just revamp the original study, right,
Speaker 1: and they found that you can experience well being you're
Speaker 1: up to well beyond two hundred thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: of income. So we if you ever hear that seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars stat again, just stop listening to ever
Speaker 1: saying it is the first thing, but the second is
Speaker 1: that we want to work on increasing our incomes throughout
Speaker 1: this throughout this best life, because the more money we have,
Speaker 1: the more money we have to share with those around us.
Speaker 1: And I think that when we increase our income not
Speaker 1: just for the sake of having more stuff, when we
Speaker 1: get out of this over consumption and mindset and we
Speaker 1: are content with what we have but not complacent, we're
Speaker 1: still working to refine our skills and increase our income
Speaker 1: and influence then we can use the income that we
Speaker 1: build more responsibly than other people who might just use
Speaker 1: it to buy stuff. Right, So, like we have almost
Speaker 1: a social responsibility to earn more because we are more
Speaker 1: responsible with it because we don't quote unquote need it.
Speaker 1: So I just want to add that to like, living
Speaker 1: your best life doesn't just mean like defining your enough
Speaker 1: with your consumables, but also working to increase your income
Speaker 1: and what you bring in so that you can do
Speaker 1: better things with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to the level that's going to be sustainable for
Speaker 3: you too. It is possible to reach a up plateau
Speaker 3: that we are content with that is our enough and
Speaker 3: is well within our means and provides margin. But yeah,
Speaker 3: as you're saying, it's not just about cutting spending, it's
Speaker 3: also about what else could this mean for me? And
Speaker 3: that's where it does go beyond the money, because once
Speaker 3: we've got this mindset in place and we recognize what's
Speaker 3: at stake, then what more money means is that it
Speaker 3: gets filtered through this big impact energy, not just more
Speaker 3: for the sake of more and consumption for the sake
Speaker 3: of consumption and following what everybody else is telling me
Speaker 3: to do. But now that I've got a good grasp
Speaker 3: on what I want, what my best life looks like
Speaker 3: in a way that aims at contentment and sustainability. Then
Speaker 3: more money means possibilities of generosity and longevity for yourself
Speaker 3: and finding opportunities to engage in the things that you
Speaker 3: really enjoy, so so many other things that you can
Speaker 3: do with it that is beyond money. And the third
Speaker 3: category here that we see big impact energy really making
Speaker 3: just such a difference is in permission. And of course
Speaker 3: this is for ourselves first that as we are on
Speaker 3: this journey of frugality, we are similarly in a journey
Speaker 3: of finding permission for ourselves to dictate our own life,
Speaker 3: to control and bear influence on the things that we
Speaker 3: have the ability to do so with and not just
Speaker 3: going with the flow, consuming mindlessly, but finding permission to
Speaker 3: say no to this and maybe yes to that, even
Speaker 3: if it's different from what somebody else is doing. And
Speaker 3: then when we do that and we get a real
Speaker 3: good handle on it, we're giving permission to others to
Speaker 3: also choose different That's that ripple effect that we're describing.
Speaker 3: And also research is showing that this is research from
Speaker 3: MIT that social influence exhibits a ripple effect.
Speaker 1: We do see this, we say it all the time,
Speaker 1: but it does.
Speaker 3: Decay across social distances from the source of whatever the
Speaker 3: influence is, but it still persists up to six degrees
Speaker 3: of separation. So this isn't just the you are who
Speaker 3: you surround yourself by. This you, sir, you are who
Speaker 3: you surround yourself by, who they surround themselves by, who
Speaker 3: they surround themselves by to the sixth degree, And so
Speaker 3: it really matters certainly the communities that we're in, not
Speaker 3: just the way is others are influencing us, because we
Speaker 3: can have control over who we're surrounding ourselves by, but
Speaker 3: who we are being in the midst of that community.
Speaker 3: Who are we to the around us? What types of influence, permissions, grace, flexibility,
Speaker 3: freedom are we modeling and encouraging others towards in this
Speaker 3: journey of frugality, of again being good stewards, of pushing
Speaker 3: back the status quo, of creating an environment for ourselves
Speaker 3: and for our community and abroad that is aimed at
Speaker 3: beneficial impact and well being.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have talked about how the people around you
Speaker 1: affect you so often because we're I mean we're speaking
Speaker 1: to you, listening, and we want to help you improve
Speaker 1: your life. Right, and so now when we talk about
Speaker 1: our big impact energy, we want you to not just
Speaker 1: focus on you, but focus on how you are giving
Speaker 1: other people permission. And it doesn't even have to be explicit,
Speaker 1: Like all the indirect influence that's being given to you,
Speaker 1: you are giving to other people. So I mean, don't
Speaker 1: feel pressured by that, don't feel like you have to
Speaker 1: walk on eggshells like everyone's watching what you're doing. But
Speaker 1: know that when you do something good, let's be open
Speaker 1: about it, let's talk about it. Let's normalize it so
Speaker 1: that we can give permission to other people to live
Speaker 1: lives like we are when we are being financial response
Speaker 1: financially responsible, when we are happy with our expenses, we
Speaker 1: are spending enough to where we have enough leftover to
Speaker 1: save and invest, and we are still having fun, We
Speaker 1: are still full of life. We are not judgmental, We
Speaker 1: are accepting, We are gracious. When people see that, they're
Speaker 1: going to be attracted to it, and you're going to
Speaker 1: have this ripple effect to them and they're going to
Speaker 1: start living this life and then that life is going
Speaker 1: to be like personified to other people you've never met
Speaker 1: and will never meet, and permission will then be given
Speaker 1: to them. So it's you have a huge impact energy
Speaker 1: that you don't realize, and we don't always pay attention
Speaker 1: to how we're wielding it. Usually it's just happenstance, you know,
Speaker 1: like we're just living our lives, scrolling and working and
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and the impact, the ripple effect that
Speaker 1: we give off is not one of intention. But when
Speaker 1: you realize the stuff and you, you know, throw an authentic,
Speaker 1: intentional face to the world, then you could have a
Speaker 1: crazy ripple effect. And I think I think explicitly of
Speaker 1: the debt free community on Instagram of people who are
Speaker 1: taken to social media to share their debt payoff journeys
Speaker 1: honestly authentically, and people they will never meet are influenced
Speaker 1: by that to keep going and to keep improving their lives.
Speaker 1: So you don't have to start a social media account documenting,
Speaker 1: you know, your changes. I think the impact you make
Speaker 1: on the people in your real life is much more
Speaker 1: powerful than on social media, but it can and does happen.
Speaker 1: And I was reading a study at a Notre Dame
Speaker 1: and this was about teams in the workplace but I
Speaker 1: kind of thought about teams in real life, and it
Speaker 1: says the greater motivation to benefit others, the higher the
Speaker 1: levels of cooperation and viability, and the higher the subsequent
Speaker 1: team performance. So broken down essentially, that saying when the team,
Speaker 1: when the team is focused on benefiting each other, like
Speaker 1: not just themselves but working for the benefit of someone else,
Speaker 1: there are higher levels of cooperation and the team stays together,
Speaker 1: so there's lower turnover rate in the workplace, and so
Speaker 1: in your real life that can be viewed as when
Speaker 1: we are viewing our actions, our frugality to benefit other people,
Speaker 1: like those abroad, those you know in our communities, and
Speaker 1: especially those in front of us, we stick with it longer.
Speaker 1: That's that intrinsic motivation. When we're talking about external and
Speaker 1: internal motivation, you can give yourself as many dinners as
Speaker 1: you want for meeting a debt payoff goal, but eventually
Speaker 1: the novelty will wear off. You need internal motivation to
Speaker 1: stick with stuff like this and this. When you believe
Speaker 1: this stuff, that's internal motivation to keep going. When you
Speaker 1: believe the choices you make positively affect other people, that's
Speaker 1: a game changer that brings frugality out of a means
Speaker 1: to an end and makes it an integral part of
Speaker 1: your life and what you believe everyone in society's lives
Speaker 1: should be aiming for.
Speaker 3: There's your episode on all the questions about impulse purchasing.
Speaker 3: We haven't really talked about how to take it bigger,
Speaker 3: but I think that that's going to be a real
Speaker 3: key and game changer, certainly for me, and I got
Speaker 3: to imagine for other people that if we can't find
Speaker 3: a reason enough inside of ourselves to not spend mindlessly, Yeah,
Speaker 3: bringing it out to but how does this benefit others,
Speaker 3: benefit my child who's watching me, benefit.
Speaker 1: The world around the environment?
Speaker 3: How does this contribute to my best life? And truly
Speaker 3: what's at stake? And I love flipping it on its
Speaker 3: head in that way regarding the environment, our best life
Speaker 3: permissions to be found influence on ourselves and others. That
Speaker 3: what's at stake here is not finding permission for ourselves,
Speaker 3: being trapped to a life somebody else dictates for me,
Speaker 3: and not being able to positively influence and benefit and
Speaker 3: care for others because I'm not able to do it
Speaker 3: for myself. What's at stake is that I don't get
Speaker 3: to live my life. I'm living somebody else's life, and
Speaker 3: who knows if that's the best option for me. What's
Speaker 3: at stake here is that I may be taking advantage
Speaker 3: of my resources, the environment around me, the people around me,
Speaker 3: without putting thought to this. I could be taking advantage
Speaker 3: of people and what's been entrusted to me, and I
Speaker 3: could consume to a point that is really harmful to
Speaker 3: me and harmful to the community around me. So if
Speaker 3: we do nothing, that's what's at stake, not even to
Speaker 3: mention finances, like what's at stake with just our money
Speaker 3: and financial literacy, but there's this whole other world of
Speaker 3: what's at stake and my goodness, if that's not just
Speaker 3: the fire that I need to keep going, do one
Speaker 3: one thing of improvement in the way that I approach
Speaker 3: money and the mindset that I'm taking on and the
Speaker 3: people that I'm choosing to surround myself by and the
Speaker 3: person I'm choosing to be in those communities.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, yes, that is yes. And to focus on the
Speaker 1: negative and the positive, right, So not just how your
Speaker 1: actions affect things negatively, but focusing also equally, if not more,
Speaker 1: on how your actions affect things positively. That's the real
Speaker 1: internal motivator. Negative stuff is like salt. We need it,
Speaker 1: we need to know what's at stake. But what's really
Speaker 1: going to internally motivate you is knowing that you you
Speaker 1: are making a greater difference. And you know who else
Speaker 1: knows they're making a greater difference. Who's focusing on the positive?
Speaker 1: Everyone who is submitting the bill of a week?
Speaker 4: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 4: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 4: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
Speaker 4: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 4: that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this
Speaker 4: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 5: Hey Janjel, This is Ashley from Los Angeles. My bill
Speaker 5: is the week involves my three year old daughters who
Speaker 5: at the end of last year, was sleeping with my
Speaker 5: husband and I and rolled out of our bed and
Speaker 5: split open her chin on her hard floor. And by
Speaker 5: the time we realized that she had slid open her chin,
Speaker 5: she was fine and the cut had dried up, and
Speaker 5: so we sent her to school and the school nurse
Speaker 5: was like, you idiots, this need stiff is, and I
Speaker 5: was like, okay. So I called the pediatrician and the
Speaker 5: pediatrician sent us to the er and I was like,
Speaker 5: not urgent care and they're like, no, br Is by
Speaker 5: your face. You want to go to the R Okay.
Speaker 5: So four hours later, four stitches later, and several months later,
Speaker 5: I end up with a bill eight hundred dollars and
Speaker 5: I am luckily. I remembered your episode about medical debt,
Speaker 5: and I googled the hospital and see if it was
Speaker 5: a hospital, and it is. And I asked for a
Speaker 5: bill with peppeicos, which they gave me, and I applied
Speaker 5: to the financial assistance and then sent them more documents
Speaker 5: that they said I didn't send them initially, which I did.
Speaker 5: But anyway, now I have a new piddle for eighty dollars,
Speaker 5: which is a ninety percent discount. So I just wanted
Speaker 5: to say thank you and let you know bye.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Ashley, that's oh that sounds identical to
Speaker 1: something I would do, like my four year old that
Speaker 1: you were saying that story, and I'm like, uh huh,
Speaker 1: I get it. I get it. If that if that
Speaker 1: three year old falls out of the bed at three
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning and isn't crying. I'm not waking.
Speaker 6: Up, and I will send them on to school if
Speaker 6: they are not crying and not even realize they need
Speaker 6: such That is one hundred percent yep, that would be
Speaker 6: me and I would and the school nurse would look.
Speaker 1: At me weird. But man, ninety.
Speaker 3: Percent, yeah, this is this is some big impact energy
Speaker 3: on that medical bill. Ashley, I am celebrating with you.
Speaker 3: I cannot highlight enough how glad I am that you
Speaker 3: remember the medical Debt episode. It is something I reference
Speaker 3: a ton just personally to my friends who are talking
Speaker 3: about medical things that they have, So I'm referencing it
Speaker 3: now here in case any other listener hasn't heard that episode.
Speaker 1: Super super helpful.
Speaker 3: Something to earmark and come back to, because we're all
Speaker 3: going to be in this position, whether it's the school
Speaker 3: nurse telling us that we did something wrong or just ourselves.
Speaker 3: We rolled out of bed and now we see a
Speaker 3: ton of money.
Speaker 1: Episode two thirty negotiating medical Debt with doctor Vergie bright Ellington.
Speaker 1: That is the episode. It's actually negotiating medical bills, but
Speaker 1: is a little bit of debt. But yes, Episode two
Speaker 1: thirty definitely a foundational episode. Of our archives.
Speaker 3: Well, Don Ashley putting in the work of saving money
Speaker 3: and ultimately caring for your child. If you want to
Speaker 3: submit your bill of the week, if it has to
Speaker 3: do with ninety percent savings, a previous Frugal Friends episode
Speaker 3: that was just super helpful to you, or just the
Speaker 3: way you are bringing big impact energy to the world
Speaker 3: around you. And again, if none of those things are true,
Speaker 3: but what is true about you? As your name is Bill,
Speaker 3: visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Bill to leave us
Speaker 3: your bill.
Speaker 1: And now it's time for the yeld yikes today's lightning round.
Speaker 1: Uh why since we're on the topic of why is today?
Speaker 1: Why are you so passionate about frugality?
Speaker 3: Why do jen you go first?
Speaker 1: Why do you are you sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I'm positive looking at this outline.
Speaker 1: Uh So, people never ask me why I'm passionate about frugality.
Speaker 1: They always ask me as the co host of a
Speaker 1: podcast about frugality. Why they asked me? How do you
Speaker 1: come up with so many episode ideas? That's what they
Speaker 1: ask They don't ask me like, why do you love
Speaker 1: frugality so much that you would host a podcast about
Speaker 1: it for six years? Never nobody's ever. But this is
Speaker 1: why this to answer the question nobody asked, but also
Speaker 1: to answer the question everyone asks, how can you just
Speaker 1: come up with so like three hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 1: episode ideas? Because I am so passionate about this topic.
Speaker 1: So let me let me just read you a little quote.
Speaker 1: This is from a nineteen twenty eight book called Propaganda
Speaker 1: from Edward Burnet's, one of the pioneers of the public
Speaker 1: relations industry, and he says mass production is profitable only
Speaker 1: if its rhythm can be maintained. That is, if it
Speaker 1: can continue to sell its product in steady or increasing quantity. Today,
Speaker 1: supply must actively seek to create its corresponding demand and
Speaker 1: cannot afford to wait until the public asks for its product.
Speaker 1: It must maintain constant touch through advertising and propaganda to
Speaker 1: assure itself the continuous demand, which alone will make its
Speaker 1: costly plant profitable. That quote, right there is why I
Speaker 1: am so passionate about frugality. For the last one hundred years,
Speaker 1: advertising has been molding us into consumer For me, frugality
Speaker 1: is not just about saving money. It replaces the American
Speaker 1: Western society deity of money and consumerism, and we are
Speaker 1: to them consumers first, people second, and I am passionate
Speaker 1: about shifting the narrative back to the right order to
Speaker 1: be people first and consumer second. And that is why
Speaker 1: I can come up with so many topics about frugality
Speaker 1: and talk about it two hours a week every week
Speaker 1: for six more years probably, and then then then we'll
Speaker 1: sell the brand. It'll probably expire by then. But there
Speaker 1: is an amazing and we will link to this. There
Speaker 1: is an amazing article from MIT Press called A Brief
Speaker 1: History of Consumer Culture, and it goes through the last
Speaker 1: one hundred years, starting from nineteen twenty eight or even
Speaker 1: a little bit before from this quote, through the last
Speaker 1: hundred years of marketers in alignment with this idea that
Speaker 1: they must create the demand, and how we have been
Speaker 1: led via propaganda to be consumers first. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: from MIT Press. It's called a Brief History of Consumer Culture,
Speaker 1: and will linked to it in the show notes.
Speaker 3: Shifting the narrative, helping people to be able to look
Speaker 3: at what do they actually want, recognize what's been created
Speaker 3: and molded into us, socialized into us, and getting back
Speaker 3: to the roots of who we actually are as individuals,
Speaker 3: what we actually want. Woof Wow and I'm just over
Speaker 3: here riding the wave of Jen's big impact energy for
Speaker 3: six years.
Speaker 1: You're not writing, You're the moon cycle that heats it.
Speaker 3: I got a strong gravitational pull you do.
Speaker 1: For me. It's not.
Speaker 3: I don't have as many quotes as you, if any.
Speaker 3: I think I truly genuinely feel as though I've embraced
Speaker 3: I'm fully embedded into this concept of frugality that I
Speaker 3: think talking about frugality is talking about life because it
Speaker 3: intersects every part of life, like stewarding well knowing ourselves,
Speaker 3: being the best possible friend and member of society is
Speaker 3: just what I want for life. And it intersects frugality
Speaker 3: that there's never even a conversation just with friends around
Speaker 3: coffee that we're not talking about one of these top
Speaker 3: X food, clothing, transportation, housing, vacations, values, belief systems. It
Speaker 3: all intersects, and I think people aren't necessarily asking me
Speaker 3: the same questions that they're asking Jen, But what they're
Speaker 3: commenting on is you guys are just actually friends. It
Speaker 3: just feels like I'm listening to friends talk. And I
Speaker 3: think I am so passionate about frugality because it's it
Speaker 3: just is creating space to have some of these important
Speaker 3: conversations and to learn from one another and become even
Speaker 3: more resourceful and gain tips and tricks and be encouraged
Speaker 3: and find the right mindset and aim at contentment. I
Speaker 3: think this is life, this is living life, this is
Speaker 3: doing life. And frugality I believe pairs beautifully in great
Speaker 3: synchronosity with self understanding, creativity, problem solving, resourcefulness, gratitude, generosity,
Speaker 3: identifying and living within enough and as we've already talked about,
Speaker 3: that has just so many great benefits to ourselves and
Speaker 3: the world around us that you're not going to get
Speaker 3: me to stop talking about it, even after six years.
Speaker 3: Boom jen sell the brand.
Speaker 1: But try and shut me up. Not going to happen,
Speaker 1: not going to happen. Wouldn't even think to try, wouldn't
Speaker 1: thank you, You wouldn't even attempt it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, muzzles don't work on me. They don't they don't
Speaker 3: really fit.
Speaker 1: Don't ask us how we know.
Speaker 3: Thanks everyone for listening. We hope you feel encouraged and
Speaker 3: just set on the right pathway for now and the future.
Speaker 3: Many of you know, but some of you don't know.
Speaker 3: So here we are to tell you that we have
Speaker 3: a newsletter and it's called the friend Letter because that's cute,
Speaker 3: and it goes out three times a week, which we
Speaker 3: think is just right. We send out freebies, savings, tips,
Speaker 3: life hacks, all of it around how to help you
Speaker 3: save money spend better. We want to give a shout
Speaker 3: out to this one friend who replied back to our
Speaker 3: email the friend Letter.
Speaker 1: One second, we just realized we have a poll in
Speaker 1: every friend letter right where we pull you guys to
Speaker 1: see you know, ask you questions what direction we should
Speaker 1: take an episode, what kind of episodes and content you
Speaker 1: want more of. So if you want to have an
Speaker 1: influence in what you hear on the show, you have
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the friend Letter Frugal Friends podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: But we just realized you guys can respond to these
Speaker 1: polls like you can comment on them. And we just
Speaker 1: realized that today and so as I was looking through them,
Speaker 1: I found this respect from Monica and now, Jill, I'll
Speaker 1: let you read it.
Speaker 3: This is so fun, Okay, Monica says, I so so
Speaker 3: so enjoy listening to you guys. You give me a
Speaker 3: good dose of happiness. That's that influence piece. Also, could
Speaker 3: you please share? And this isn't all caps. Who the
Speaker 3: guy is who does the intro and also the bill
Speaker 3: of the week. He also in all caps, crack me up?
Speaker 3: Also who's doing the drums on Bill of the week.
Speaker 2: It's the in.
Speaker 3: All caps best exclamation mark, exclamation work, exclamation mark. And
Speaker 3: isn't this so fun for me to say to you, Monica,
Speaker 3: I hope you're listening all of it. The answer to
Speaker 3: all of it is my husband, Eric Sirianni. He is
Speaker 3: the best. He cracked me up. He the guy, He
Speaker 3: the guy. He cracked me up. The guy, he the best.
Speaker 3: He playing the drums, he do in the voice. He
Speaker 3: wrote our entire sound design, recorded it, did all the music,
Speaker 3: did all the voices, all of it.
Speaker 1: For three hundred and fifty seven episodes. All the sound
Speaker 1: design has been the same, Like for day one, Paul,
Speaker 1: it was perfect and it has never changed. You go
Speaker 1: back to episode one, it is the same song, the
Speaker 1: same Bill of the week, the same everything.
Speaker 3: We thought that we would change it at some point,
Speaker 3: but I really just think he crushed it and it's
Speaker 3: who we are, and you either love it or you
Speaker 3: hate it. There's some people who think it's corny, and
Speaker 3: we're like, that's the point. And he crushed corny and
Speaker 3: Monica gets it and crack us though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so thank you for sharing that, Monica, and we
Speaker 1: will be sharing more of your responses to our polls
Speaker 1: hopefully an upcoming up episodes. And yeah, thank you to
Speaker 1: Eric Siriani who is the guy.
Speaker 3: Hmm, Jill's husband. That's me. I'm Jill. I may or
Speaker 3: may not crack you up, but either way, head to
Speaker 3: frugirlfriendspodcast dot com slash friend letter get the goodies and
Speaker 3: the polls and the freebies and all of it to
Speaker 3: your inbox three times a week for free.
Speaker 1: Bye ye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani. I
Speaker 1: nobody knows, but in real time I was switching out
Speaker 1: the review to be this review because literally just before
Speaker 1: we started the episode, I realized that these existed. And
Speaker 1: so when I saw Jill was reading the outro, I
Speaker 1: was like, hold up, and I I had to put
Speaker 1: it in real quick before she saw what was happening
Speaker 1: so that she could read it.
Speaker 3: I enjoy it. Eric's going to enjoy that.
Speaker 1: He is the guy, and who will love hearing that
Speaker 1: he is the guy? Like and he will take that far.
Speaker 1: He will take that.
Speaker 3: The unsung hero of the Frugal Friends podcast is he.
Speaker 1: Has always been a team He has always been the
Speaker 1: third Frugal Friend, and we have just added on Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends like team members. Usually when we have a team meeting,
Speaker 1: he's there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exists because of Eric.
Speaker 1: This is so true. Yes, it would not exist if
Speaker 1: Eric hadn't semi pressured us into this.
Speaker 3: He was the podcasting matchmaker.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was the matchmaker, sound designer editor for the
Speaker 1: first gosh year or so, and then he found the editor.
Speaker 1: Like he still takes care of the editing, just indirectly. So,
Speaker 1: I mean he is an integral part of Frugal Friends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you saw that, Monica.
Speaker 3: He's going to be especially thrilled to hear that you
Speaker 3: noticed his drums. Yeah, drumming, Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is. I mean a professional drummer has been
Speaker 1: paid for drumming, not by us.
Speaker 3: But.
Speaker 1: Although we don't pay him for anything. What do you
Speaker 1: think his most famous drumming song is. Does he get
Speaker 1: any residuals?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Unfortunately he primarily played music loud loud. No, I
Speaker 3: mean that's true, live.
Speaker 1: Too loud to get paid.
Speaker 3: He doesn't really have much like recording credits on albums.
Speaker 1: He also played the music live. We could say that
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends song is his most famous.
Speaker 3: That's so true, most listen to. Absolutely, He's just he'll
Speaker 3: never he'll never see money from it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well he will never see monetary payment from it.
Speaker 3: Residuals over here, Nope.
Speaker 1: But a lot of gratitude, yeah, a lot of exposure.
Speaker 3: Yes, we love exposed.
Speaker 1: A lot of exposure, yeah,