Speaker 1: Episode four eighty one, Tips for a great No Spend Month.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here
Speaker 2: your hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill. And today, if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: on the day it releases is January thirty first woo
Speaker 1: and for many of you, you may be starting or
Speaker 1: restarting a no spend challenge. We're actually doing this in
Speaker 1: the friend letter, so if you subscribe to that, and
Speaker 1: if don't, if you're not, you should Frugal friendspodcast dot com.
Speaker 1: We are walking through the entire month of February a
Speaker 1: no spend challenge and kind of helping you along the way,
Speaker 1: giving some pointers, giving some resources so that you can
Speaker 1: have a really great no spend month. And February is
Speaker 1: the shortest month of the year, so we know dummies.
Speaker 1: We are not dummies. Everybody out here trying to do
Speaker 1: no spend January and we the intelligent people in the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends community. This year we do in no spend February.
Speaker 1: We have done no spend January. We love No Spend January,
Speaker 1: but we're going to be true to our hearts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're going to do a twenty eight day so.
Speaker 3: We know that if you're listening to this on the day,
Speaker 3: you've only got today to prepare for tomorrow. But also, no,
Speaker 3: you can do a thirty day no Spend challenge. It
Speaker 3: doesn't have to follow along with the month exactly. You
Speaker 3: get to choose. We'll get into that, yeah, Yeah, just
Speaker 3: so you know, there's more resources to come. If you
Speaker 3: like what we're talking about here, you can join us
Speaker 3: in the challenge.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by twenty nine.
Speaker 1: The number twenty nine.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Last year February had twenty nine days, it did, and
Speaker 1: we didn't no Spend January last year because why why
Speaker 1: would we cheat ourselves of a day if we could
Speaker 1: just get like around even thirty. But this year we're
Speaker 1: back to twenty eight. And actually I hope last year
Speaker 1: was a leapier because I might be getting all my
Speaker 1: years now. I think you're right, yea, who twenty nine
Speaker 1: and yeah, bringing it back, I'm bringing it back. You
Speaker 1: know what's also not twenty nine this year? Our book? Oh,
Speaker 1: it's twenty five.
Speaker 4: Yes, because it twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: No, it's twenty five dollars, jill out, our book is
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars.
Speaker 4: I'm just trying to track, which, if.
Speaker 1: You compare prices to all the other personal finance books
Speaker 1: out there, is a dollar or so cheaper I think
Speaker 1: around two dollars cheaper than most other personal finance books
Speaker 1: out there. We did that intentionally because we know your
Speaker 1: frugal and our book by What you Love Without Going
Speaker 1: Broke is available now. So if you are looking for
Speaker 1: a personal finance book that you're going to want to own,
Speaker 1: you're going to want to highlight it, you're going to
Speaker 1: want to take notes, and your budget is twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1: Head to buy what youlovebook dot com. Get yours right now,
Speaker 1: support your local bookstore bookshop.
Speaker 3: Dot org, and quick do it before the No Spend
Speaker 3: Challenge starts tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Quick, quick, quick, quick, You got this?
Speaker 3: Okay, So we are going to talk about how to
Speaker 3: set yourself up for a great no spend month, and
Speaker 3: we're primarily going to be looking through this article that
Speaker 3: we found from Simple Purposeful Living. It's titled Mom's Guide
Speaker 3: for how to do a No Spend Month.
Speaker 4: Challenge.
Speaker 3: You don't have to be a mom in order for
Speaker 3: this information to stick with you and be helpful, but
Speaker 3: if you are mom, you know.
Speaker 1: It'll be extra helpful, a little bit catered.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we want to start first, start talking about
Speaker 3: why to even do one, what's the point in the
Speaker 3: first place. Then we'll go through some how to's and
Speaker 3: some what ifs, because we know you all have questions
Speaker 3: and you're thinking about all the reasons that this isn't
Speaker 3: going to work for you, and we're going to address those.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you know, I love no spend challenges. I
Speaker 1: wrote a book on them called the No Spend Challenge Guide.
Speaker 1: They have a whole dedicated section in our book by
Speaker 1: what you Love without going Broke. But let me just
Speaker 1: reiterate why it's so important to do one and how
Speaker 1: helpful it is. And I'm so glad that simple purpose Living,
Speaker 1: purposeful Living agrees. She says the goal of the no
Speaker 1: spend month is to reset our spending habits, and she's
Speaker 1: specifically talking about no spend January. She said it's especially
Speaker 1: helpful after the holiday season, and I mean February is
Speaker 1: the same, Like, I think it teaches you even more
Speaker 1: because you are learning how how I don't want this
Speaker 1: to sound negative, but how incapable we are of just
Speaker 1: kind of trying to white knuckle our way through changing
Speaker 1: our habits. We say, I have been doing this for
Speaker 1: the last one to two months, this by now, by now,
Speaker 1: by now, and then I think that I'm just going
Speaker 1: to do a total one eighty in January and be
Speaker 1: even better than I was in September and October in
Speaker 1: the months leading up to this trigger happy November and December,
Speaker 1: and we are quickly reminded of how that's not the
Speaker 1: way our brains work, and it can be a bummer.
Speaker 1: But we actually had a book signing last night and
Speaker 1: one of the questions in our Q and A is like,
Speaker 1: what do you do when you make a mistake? And
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that right here. When we make mistakes,
Speaker 1: and we are doing these no spend challenges, we fail.
Speaker 1: We almost you want to celebrate it. And because it
Speaker 1: is an opportunity to learn, you're giving yourself with a
Speaker 1: no spend challenge, self imposed barrier, self imposed friction between
Speaker 1: you and the buy now button, you and the cash register,
Speaker 1: and this friction will inadvertently lead to mistakes quote unquote
Speaker 1: and you get to learn from those mistakes, you get
Speaker 1: to observe and implement new ways of doing things and
Speaker 1: move on and be better.
Speaker 3: Of course, there's the benefit of being able to possibly
Speaker 3: save more set more money aside for particular goals. But
Speaker 3: I really love the primary why being self understanding and
Speaker 3: creating better habits for the long term. I think that's
Speaker 3: a really excellent reason. But you can also define your
Speaker 3: own reasons for this, and we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 3: more about the whys and how you can kind of
Speaker 3: define that. But let's first talk about how to set
Speaker 3: up some of these ground rules, because it's going to
Speaker 3: be really important to define some of these limitations and
Speaker 3: the boundary lines that you are going to be willing
Speaker 3: to operate within ahead of time. And so the first
Speaker 3: one is certainly just deciding the timeline. How long do
Speaker 3: you plan on doing this no spend challenge. We are
Speaker 3: talking about doing it for a month or thirty days,
Speaker 3: So if you want to do it for the entire
Speaker 3: month of February or you want to say thirty days.
Speaker 3: Of course, there are no spend challenges out there that
Speaker 3: talk about kind of no spend days throughout the month,
Speaker 3: doing a certain amount of no spend days throughout the year.
Speaker 3: There's doing a no spend two weeks and no spend
Speaker 3: one week. All of these are possible, but we are
Speaker 3: primarily focusing on the thirty days. We do recommend this.
Speaker 3: We think that this is a great place to begin
Speaker 3: and even a great place for kind of ongoing, something
Speaker 3: that you could do every year. And it's because of
Speaker 3: the ways in which our brain works and how habits
Speaker 3: are formed and reformed. So we've recognized that it takes.
Speaker 3: And this comes from research from Diane Lemky's and Lemkey's
Speaker 3: book I Don't Know aways want to call her Diane
Speaker 3: and Lemky's book Dopamine Nation, where she describes kind of
Speaker 3: how long it takes for us to come down off
Speaker 3: of some of the dopamine hits that we are accustomed
Speaker 3: to experiencing on a regular basis with any type of addiction.
Speaker 3: That it takes about twenty eight to thirty days for
Speaker 3: us to be able to retrain some of those neural
Speaker 3: pathways in our brains to not rely so heavily upon
Speaker 3: these kind of quick dopamine hits. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: we don't need or want dopamine anymore, but where that
Speaker 3: dopamine is coming from, and being able to reintroduce other
Speaker 3: dopamine hits that might be more beneficial for us, for
Speaker 3: our wallets, for our lifestyles. So we can really experience
Speaker 3: an opportunity to shift our spending behaviors and habits if
Speaker 3: we give ourselves this full thirty days. So that would
Speaker 3: be a really good parameter, a really good timeframe to set.
Speaker 1: But if you're doing it in February, twenty eight will
Speaker 1: get you as much benefit as thirty. I assure you
Speaker 1: doctor Lemke's dopamine fast. We're all twenty eight days. So
Speaker 1: next is decide what counts. You have to define what
Speaker 1: is discretionary or quote unquote non essential. And so the
Speaker 1: reason that we do that is because I always get
Speaker 1: emails about no spend challenges, being like I tried to
Speaker 1: start one, but then I needed gas in my car
Speaker 1: and it was over, and I was like, are you
Speaker 1: impulse buying gas? Is that a struggle for you in
Speaker 1: your spending habits? No, well, then it doesn't count in
Speaker 1: the challenge. You want to decide the most challenging things
Speaker 1: that you see an issue with your spending. Those are
Speaker 1: the things that you're giving up The mindless, the habitual,
Speaker 1: the things that you believe are hindering yourself from reaching
Speaker 1: your financial goals faster, because it's going to help you
Speaker 1: change them. And then maybe occasionally it's going to alert
Speaker 1: you to the things that you thought were problems were
Speaker 1: not actually problems. It was other things that you weren't
Speaker 1: even thinking about. So that's why we have to decide
Speaker 1: what counts. And an easy way to do this is
Speaker 1: just saying, like anything discretionary just across the board anything discretionary.
Speaker 1: Things that are not discretionary are bills, the gas to
Speaker 1: put in our car to get us to work. Like
Speaker 1: all of those things that you need that you are
Speaker 1: not impulse buying, that you don't want to buy, that
Speaker 1: you could easily give up if you wanted, those are
Speaker 1: the you still need to be buying. It's the things
Speaker 1: that you know. The first thing that pops in your
Speaker 1: head is like, I don't want to give up Taco Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Well that's probably something you should give up for a
Speaker 1: month and figure out how do I get the same
Speaker 1: dopamine hit as Taco Tuesday, but for less expensive or
Speaker 1: for free.
Speaker 3: The next thing that we want to do ahead of
Speaker 3: time before we are engaging in this challenge is identifying
Speaker 3: your why, what you hope to gain from this experience,
Speaker 3: and I would say write it down so that we
Speaker 3: do have something to look back on, because reflection is
Speaker 3: going to be a really key part of doing the
Speaker 3: snow spend challenge. So whether that is taking a breaking
Speaker 3: a habit, or you really do want to be able
Speaker 3: to set some money aside for a bigger investment, if
Speaker 3: it's aligning your behavior with your values, writing these things
Speaker 3: down to really identify this is the reason and the
Speaker 3: purpose behind this, not just because Jen and Jil said
Speaker 3: that it would be a good idea. One thing I
Speaker 3: will ad that's not in this article, but it is
Speaker 3: in our book that we think is really important to
Speaker 3: do before doing a no spend challenge is that ninety
Speaker 3: day transaction inventory. We talk about doing this before we
Speaker 3: set a budget. It's also going to be really important
Speaker 3: to do this before we engage in this challenge because
Speaker 3: it can help us to define what will our goals
Speaker 3: be for this no spend challenge. So as we go
Speaker 3: through this ninety day transaction inventory, which is just looking
Speaker 3: at all of our spending for the last ninety days
Speaker 3: by compiling our credit card statements, our bank statements, and
Speaker 3: being able to look through line by line where are
Speaker 3: we spending money? What are some of the cues the
Speaker 3: triggers that are coming before some of these transactions. This
Speaker 3: can highlight to us what are our spending behaviors right now?
Speaker 3: What are some of our habits and identifying Okay, does
Speaker 3: it happen at a certain time of day, is it
Speaker 3: a certain location, is there a certain emotion that might
Speaker 3: be triggering some of the spending. That can help you
Speaker 3: to define what is it that I'm hoping to shift
Speaker 3: in this and it can also help you to be
Speaker 3: able to create this list of what could be some
Speaker 3: alternatives for me rather than just depriving myself, what else
Speaker 3: could I be doing? So if you've got the time
Speaker 3: to do the ninety day transaction beforehand, that would be
Speaker 3: really great.
Speaker 1: So let's get into some of the what ifs. These
Speaker 1: are the really tactical tips for doing the no Spend challenge,
Speaker 1: And the first one we'll bring up is the grocery store.
Speaker 1: We have to eat every single day. We are not
Speaker 1: going to be able to get food for free every
Speaker 1: single day, but it is something that causes a lot
Speaker 1: of impulse spending. So we've kind of got that double
Speaker 1: edged sword. We need it. It is a necessity, but
Speaker 1: can also be the source of a lot of our overspending.
Speaker 1: So how do we navigate that. The first thing is
Speaker 1: meal planning, So we want a meal plan for the
Speaker 1: whole month. And this is exactly what the author says.
Speaker 1: The biggest help for her was meal planning. She said
Speaker 1: it's her best friend. Every Friday, she would create a
Speaker 1: shopping list and she would do her grocery shopping. She
Speaker 1: would stick to the list to avoid any impulse buys. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are having to shop in store, it is
Speaker 1: going to be a lot harder to navigate the impulse
Speaker 1: shopping than if you are shopping online. So I would
Speaker 1: say if you haven't, then it may be time to
Speaker 1: try out online grocery shopping. If you have a Walmart nearby,
Speaker 1: you can do that for free. They do not raise
Speaker 1: the prices of the groceries when you are shopping online,
Speaker 1: and then you can pick it up for free. If
Speaker 1: you have a thirty day free trial of Walmart Plus available,
Speaker 1: then this could be the month that you take advantage
Speaker 1: of that free trial so that you don't even have
Speaker 1: to go pick up your groceries. At that point you
Speaker 1: can have them delivered, so it takes away it creates
Speaker 1: that barrier so that it's much easier to stick to
Speaker 1: your list and you don't have to go into the
Speaker 1: store and be tempted.
Speaker 3: I love the grocery shopping online for specifically a no
Speaker 3: spend challenge. It does help me to not spend a
Speaker 3: ton of money. It keeps me to my list. She
Speaker 3: also talks about not like avoiding certain sections of the
Speaker 3: store where you know you're just not going to need
Speaker 3: anything from them, or you might be tempted to purchase
Speaker 3: something that you don't need. So plenty of little tips
Speaker 3: and tricks and hacks around the grocery store. But I
Speaker 3: think some people will also pair this with a pantry challenge,
Speaker 3: so being sure that we are using up the things
Speaker 3: that are in our fridge, freezer, pantry before we're even
Speaker 3: making that grocery list, so that we're not even going
Speaker 3: to the grocery store maybe as often as we might
Speaker 3: typically be going month to month. So that can also
Speaker 3: just eliminate some of those temptations.
Speaker 1: And maybe you're not doing it the full month, maybe
Speaker 1: you just say the first week you want to do
Speaker 1: a pantry challenge, and that's that's good too.
Speaker 3: The other what if that can come up is what
Speaker 3: if I don't want to be boring?
Speaker 4: What if I want to have fun?
Speaker 3: What if I'm a person who enjoys life, don't and
Speaker 3: I want to dive in the presence stop it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, next, well, here's the thing. You can still have fun.
Speaker 3: And this is why that this prep time is really
Speaker 3: important to be able to define some of the alternatives,
Speaker 3: the things that you are going to do instead. When
Speaker 3: you feel the desire to buy something, and maybe just
Speaker 3: because you want that dopamine hit, because you want the
Speaker 3: rush and the thrill of spending, or because it's the
Speaker 3: path of least resistance and we're comfortable and accustomed to
Speaker 3: buying our solutions, it's really important to have a list
Speaker 3: of alternatives. So maybe that means that you're actually writing
Speaker 3: down I'm going to work on that hobby that I've
Speaker 3: been wanting to do. I'm going to use up the
Speaker 3: craft supplies that I already have. I'm going to go
Speaker 3: for a walk. I'm gonna check out this park. I'm
Speaker 3: going to go to the library. I'm going to look
Speaker 3: at free events on Facebook, Marketplace, I'm gonna have friends over.
Speaker 3: You come up with the list, You decide the things
Speaker 3: that are going to sound really fun to you, but
Speaker 3: know that you can go to this list when you're
Speaker 3: experiencing the pinch of oh man, why did I.
Speaker 4: Do this to myself?
Speaker 3: I've got this whole long list of things that I
Speaker 3: can try out. Let me see if any of this
Speaker 3: will fit. The other thing that we recommend is tell
Speaker 3: your friends, because I think one of the hardest things,
Speaker 3: at least for me, is when invites come up, Hey,
Speaker 3: you want to go out this happy hour, you want
Speaker 3: to go see this movie, you want to go to
Speaker 3: this event. If my friends know ahead of time that
Speaker 3: I'm doing this, first of all, it might just help
Speaker 3: to eliminate like the invite where I'm going to experience fomo,
Speaker 3: But it can also allow your friends to think through
Speaker 3: two what could we do together? Or keep you accountable
Speaker 3: to Hey, I was going to say let's do this,
Speaker 3: but I know you're doing a no spend challenge, so like,
Speaker 3: what do you want to do? Or maybe even challenge
Speaker 3: you to be the initiator of plans. If this isn't
Speaker 3: typically in your wheelhouse, it's an opportunity to try something
Speaker 3: new and invite people over. Hey, you want to come
Speaker 3: over Saturday morning for a coffee, You want to meet
Speaker 3: up for a packed lunch, you want to go for
Speaker 3: a walk with me? Do you want to check out
Speaker 3: this free event? So it doesn't mean that we have
Speaker 3: to crawl into a hole for the month. It just
Speaker 3: means that we have to be a little bit more creative.
Speaker 3: But we are going to learn so much more about ourselves.
Speaker 3: We're still going to experience awesome connection with people when
Speaker 3: we're able to exercise this creativity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you are not paying attention, check back in
Speaker 1: and replay what Jill just said, because it is going
Speaker 1: to It is this secret to sticking with the no
Speaker 1: spend challenge with a no spend month, and it comes
Speaker 1: down to identifying. Okay, I'm just going to as soon
Speaker 1: you already re listened to it. It comes down to
Speaker 1: identifying what we are really after when we are making purchases.
Speaker 1: We need to be aware of our higher needs, our
Speaker 1: need for connection, belonging, love, our connection for our needs
Speaker 1: for self esteem and self confidence, creativity, spontaneity. Those are
Speaker 1: the things we are truly after and those when you
Speaker 1: make your list, you need to make sure all of
Speaker 1: those things are on the list, because that is what
Speaker 1: we are buying when we are buying clothes, makeup, skincare,
Speaker 1: when we're just impulse buying, when we're going out to eat,
Speaker 1: we are buying our higher needs. And so when you
Speaker 1: can make a list of fun things to do that
Speaker 1: are specifically based off of your higher needs, then you
Speaker 1: will find you are naturally in pulse buying much less.
Speaker 1: Next is I got on my soapbox and now, okay,
Speaker 1: what if I want to buy something? What if I
Speaker 1: just see something that I want to impulse buy? Is
Speaker 1: that mine or yours?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, take it?
Speaker 1: Okay, so this happens. I don't think impulse buying is
Speaker 1: the enemy, is the thing. And I know this makes
Speaker 1: us an outlier in the frugal community that we don't
Speaker 1: think impulse spending is bad. We think impulse spending comes
Speaker 1: from that need we have for spontaneity and so and
Speaker 1: sometimes it can be a very cool thing that you
Speaker 1: really could be missing out on if you pass it up.
Speaker 1: But that's the exception, not the rule. So we don't
Speaker 1: want to villainize all of it. But again, it's the exception,
Speaker 1: not the rule. So if you see something that you
Speaker 1: really want to buy, save it on a list right down,
Speaker 1: take a picture of it, and wait, because you need
Speaker 1: to give yourself that time so your brain can differentiate.
Speaker 1: Is this something I really want and really solves a
Speaker 1: problem that I actually have, or is it something that
Speaker 1: has created a pattern interrupt in my daily routine that
Speaker 1: has made me not think straight and created a problem
Speaker 1: that I didn't have before that I need to solve
Speaker 1: with this product or service, or made me think it's
Speaker 1: going to make me feel better about myself or get
Speaker 1: more community or whatever.
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 1: You just need to create and a no spend challenge
Speaker 1: gives you that space. It gives you an excuse to
Speaker 1: have that space. And so when those things do come up,
Speaker 1: save the thing and then forget about it for a
Speaker 1: little bit, forget about it for however many days you
Speaker 1: have left in your challenge. I guarantee you if it's
Speaker 1: on sale, it'll go back on sale again. And if
Speaker 1: it's not, then you can wait for a sale. That's great,
Speaker 1: that's even better, But it will still be available in
Speaker 1: twenty eight.
Speaker 4: Days, sure will, and you may not want it anymore.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of times that's one of the
Speaker 3: reflection pieces when you go back and look at, well,
Speaker 3: what is the list that I created and be able
Speaker 3: to sometimes laugh at Oh wow, look.
Speaker 4: I wanted that. I'm so glad I didn't buy that.
Speaker 3: Or I do still want that. That's going to solve
Speaker 3: a problem for me, And okay, great, You've allowed yourself
Speaker 3: plenty of space to sit and think on it and
Speaker 3: really know that you're going to feel good about that
Speaker 3: spending decision. And I think you know, allowing yourself to
Speaker 3: ask some of those questions if one of the goals
Speaker 3: is learning more about who we are how we spend.
Speaker 3: When you have that urge to buy something, it's an
Speaker 3: excellent opportunity for some of this understanding of what am
Speaker 3: I experiencing right now in my body? What is my
Speaker 3: brain telling me to do? What am I getting after?
Speaker 3: What's the loss I feel like I'm going to experience
Speaker 3: if I don't get this thing, And what does that
Speaker 3: tell me about my relationship with money, my desire to
Speaker 3: buy things, and what can I do instead, again not
Speaker 3: just depriving myself but replacing some of these things. Another
Speaker 3: what if that can come up is what if I
Speaker 3: messed up I didn't write it down Jen and Jill
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 4: Just bought the thing.
Speaker 1: Quit, start over, Quit and try again.
Speaker 3: Now, No, that's not right. Jen's playing Devil's advocate here
Speaker 3: and it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: I'm just playing devil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, don't quit. That is the point. You will not
Speaker 3: do this perfectly, spoiler. You will never create a perfect
Speaker 3: spending plan. You will never create a perfect meal plan.
Speaker 3: You will never create a perfect no spend challenge month.
Speaker 3: All of these are learning opportunities. It is not failure.
Speaker 3: It is you did something outside of the parameters that
Speaker 3: you set for yourself.
Speaker 4: But it's going to be informative.
Speaker 1: Some people don't want to do a no spend month
Speaker 1: because they don't think that they can do it. They
Speaker 1: don't think they can spend for no month and no boiler,
Speaker 1: none of us. That's why you do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so keep going.
Speaker 3: Don't let that be an opportunity for you to say, Ah,
Speaker 3: I didn't do it fully. I'm just going to quit
Speaker 3: all together. Now I'm going to buy whatever I want
Speaker 3: and maybe i'll try again next month.
Speaker 4: No, just keep going and allow this.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even call it a mess up, but allow
Speaker 3: this spending that you didn't intend to do to inform
Speaker 3: you about what was behind that spending and how could
Speaker 3: you make a different choice in the future, and what
Speaker 3: led you to make this purchasing decision, because again, when
Speaker 3: this challenge is over, you're going to go back to
Speaker 3: spending money. So allow this to be the opportunity to
Speaker 3: learn more about how you spend and the lessons that
Speaker 3: you then want to take with you into the rest
Speaker 3: of the year.
Speaker 1: And honestly, we need to learn how to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: We have been conditioned to believe that mistakes are failure.
Speaker 1: In reality, mistakes are life, and the only failure is
Speaker 1: not acknowledging him and learning from them. We need to
Speaker 1: learn how to make mistakes, to be okay with it,
Speaker 1: and the skill to observe the mistake and really non
Speaker 1: judgmentally look at it and see, okay, what was the
Speaker 1: source of it, where did it come from, and how
Speaker 1: can I make a different decision next time.
Speaker 3: The nature of this challenge means that there's going to
Speaker 3: be a bit of slowing down. It just we're slowing
Speaker 3: down our thinking processes. We're creating more friction, which leads
Speaker 3: to some more slowness. We're asking ourselves questions, we're noticing
Speaker 3: things and so because of that, it's also a really
Speaker 3: great time to kind of re look at take inventory
Speaker 3: of all the things that we're spending money on. So
Speaker 3: this could be a great time to address some of
Speaker 3: your bills while you're still paying your bills. It's an
Speaker 3: awesome time to renegotiate bills, make sure that the subscriptions
Speaker 3: you're subscribed to are still working for you, they still
Speaker 3: make sense within your spending plan, that the big things
Speaker 3: that you're spending money on still fit in this season,
Speaker 3: and if they don't, then realigning and that's where we
Speaker 3: can even experience even bigger savings. Beyond just not spending money,
Speaker 3: we can possibly identify ways to cut costs or identify
Speaker 3: the things that you know what, I actually want to
Speaker 3: increase this in my spending plan when we go forward
Speaker 3: from here. So that's just not only something to do
Speaker 3: to fill some of your time, but also an added benefit.
Speaker 3: And the one final thing we want to talk about
Speaker 3: too is the reflection afterwards. Being sure that when we
Speaker 3: are writing some of these things down, it makes it
Speaker 3: easier to be able to come back and reflect on, Okay,
Speaker 3: now what have I learned about myself. We don't just
Speaker 3: want to have done this no spend challenge and then
Speaker 3: just move on be like, oh great, I saved fifty
Speaker 3: bucks and here we go. We're just plowing into the future,
Speaker 3: but giving ourselves that space to say, all right, what
Speaker 3: challenges and barriers did I run into? What does that
Speaker 3: inform me about what my future is going to look like?
Speaker 3: What sorts of friction do I want to maintain? What
Speaker 3: are the things I felt really good about doing when
Speaker 3: I wasn't spending money? Are there even habits now that
Speaker 3: I can incorporate that I'm realizing, Oh, I actually don't
Speaker 3: want to keep spending on that one thing. Here's what
Speaker 3: I want to do instead. So it doesn't have to
Speaker 3: be long, but sit down for an hour at the
Speaker 3: end of it and just review what did I experience,
Speaker 3: What did I learn about myself?
Speaker 4: And what do I want to take with me?
Speaker 1: And you know what I want to take with me
Speaker 1: into the no spend month and beyond. And I think
Speaker 1: it truly will help you. Every single every single challenge.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 5: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 5: is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 5: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 5: that bill anymore. Dust bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this
Speaker 5: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi, this is Emily. I've been listening to you guys
Speaker 6: for almost two years now, and I just really enjoy
Speaker 6: all of the lovely tiptents is always my favorite sayment
Speaker 6: because I get lots of the great eddyas. So today
Speaker 6: I called my internet company because we were thinking about
Speaker 6: switching to Starling, and I talked to my husband and
Speaker 6: we decided that if our provider would get it down
Speaker 6: to the one hundred and twenty dollars through the Starling price,
Speaker 6: that we would stay with our provider. And after some negotiation,
Speaker 6: we got it down to one hundred and twenty dollars,
Speaker 6: so doing a forty dollars a month, I let my
Speaker 6: husband know. He ended up going through our Dolls phone
Speaker 6: plan and lesson to our self full plan because we
Speaker 6: weren't using it. We weren't using all the data and
Speaker 6: all the jazz that comes with it. So we ended
Speaker 6: up setting forty dollars on our cell phone build now
Speaker 6: one months for a total of eighty dollars. And the
Speaker 6: last thing was today actually as well. I called a
Speaker 6: company I had just ordered something through for goot to
Speaker 6: use a coupon and they had shipped it and asked
Speaker 6: if they could go back and give me that discount,
Speaker 6: and they said they'd give it to more on a
Speaker 6: store credit. So I got forty dollars back to at
Speaker 6: a later date, which we already have.
Speaker 1: And so worked out perfect. Thanks bye, WHOA, that is good.
Speaker 1: That is eighty bucks a month, and then just like
Speaker 1: a forty like they that's a significant discount.
Speaker 3: That forty dollars store credit now back in your hands.
Speaker 1: So that that is something that I wouldn't do if
Speaker 1: I forgot to use a coupon, I would be too
Speaker 1: embarrassed to go to the company and say like, hey,
Speaker 1: can you give me the you know, price match price
Speaker 1: match this with the with the coupon, because I wouldn't
Speaker 1: even think about asking for store credit.
Speaker 3: Many places will if you are with if you've made
Speaker 3: your purchase. I don't know exactly every store's policy, but
Speaker 3: many stores will be like within a week of the
Speaker 3: sale price, you can go back and ask them for
Speaker 3: that sale price.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I have not bothered with it on smaller things, but
Speaker 3: on larger things that that has happened.
Speaker 4: So that's a great tip.
Speaker 3: And this is significant amount of monthly say things eighty
Speaker 3: To get eighty bucks a month back in your pocket
Speaker 3: is huge, and it's one of the things, like we
Speaker 3: were just talking about negotiating some of these bills. If
Speaker 3: you could use some of your time during a no
Speaker 3: spend challenge to save yourself eighty dollars because you just
Speaker 3: call your internet and your cell phone providers, that's huge.
Speaker 3: Imagine what you could do with an extra eighty bucks
Speaker 3: a month. Oh, Jen's doing it, trying to do.
Speaker 1: I want to do the math, like to see after Okay,
Speaker 1: if we're starting with zero dollars after ten years with
Speaker 1: a seven percent return rate, that's very conservative, and we're
Speaker 1: compounding I'm going to say quarterly, then we're going to
Speaker 1: get up to an end balance of thirteen thousand, eight hundred.
Speaker 4: Dollars over the course of ten years.
Speaker 1: So you have made well, yeah, you have made over
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars on that contribute.
Speaker 4: If you were to just invest that extra eighty bucks
Speaker 4: a month.
Speaker 1: That's with nothing else you would make, you could make
Speaker 1: in ten years over four thousand dollars. If you handed
Speaker 1: me four thousand dollars and ten years from now, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would be like, okay, yeah, thank you, thanks for that.
Speaker 3: With hardly any work, like a day of making phone calls.
Speaker 1: Right, and in thirty four, if we're thinking about like
Speaker 1: retirement here, that is an extra over thirty years, that
Speaker 1: is an additional one hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, that alone,
Speaker 1: eighty dollars a month over thirty years is an extra
Speaker 1: one hundred grand in your retirement account. Think about that.
Speaker 4: I am thinking about that.
Speaker 1: When you're thinking I don't have enough to invest, you
Speaker 1: have eighty dollars a month. Say it, you get that's
Speaker 1: an extra one hundred grand you have to spend in retirement.
Speaker 3: Well, Emily, you are really bringing us the bill of
Speaker 3: the week that we're just getting on another high horse.
Speaker 3: About Something else I love is that it's evident to
Speaker 3: me that you were driving in your car while you
Speaker 3: call it in the Bill of the week. And I
Speaker 3: just find that incredibly adorable and endearing. I love imagining
Speaker 3: our frugal friends listeners just in the car or puttsing
Speaker 3: around doing chores, just like living daily life with us,
Speaker 3: and it just feels like such a unique friendship and
Speaker 3: community we're.
Speaker 4: Just chatting in the car with you.
Speaker 1: We know we're with you in your car. We know it.
Speaker 4: We know that you're turning left right now. We know
Speaker 4: it's the algorithm.
Speaker 3: If you have a bill that you want to submit,
Speaker 3: if it is about money savings, negotiating bills and getting
Speaker 3: money back in your pocket, or getting that discount because
Speaker 3: you forgot your coupon, you're getting money backstore credit. Who
Speaker 3: or your name is Bill Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Bill.
Speaker 3: We can't wait to listen to it now it's time
Speaker 3: for the lightning round.
Speaker 1: Okay, what are your usual exceptions during a no spend month?
Speaker 1: So groceries is always my exception. I don't keep a
Speaker 1: lot of extra food on hand, so I don't need to, Like,
Speaker 1: a pantry challenge is a non issue for me. I
Speaker 1: don't keep enough food on hand to have an issue,
Speaker 1: So I'm always yeah, buying groceries.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my thing. Yeah, the same you know my
Speaker 4: bills groceries.
Speaker 3: I will try and pair it with a bit of
Speaker 3: a pantry challenge, but I never have enough food for
Speaker 3: that to be able to be the entire month.
Speaker 1: That's for a work through.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like what I already have on hand.
Speaker 3: I will say that for me, I will spend on
Speaker 3: things that would come out of my sinking fund. So,
Speaker 3: for instance, like in February, I will probably need to
Speaker 3: buy plane tickets for trips that are going to happen
Speaker 3: in April and May, and so I already have money
Speaker 3: set aside for that, So I will spend on that.
Speaker 1: Yes, money come, Yeah, anything that was already planned to
Speaker 1: come out of the sinking fund. I think that's a
Speaker 1: good use. That's a good exception.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So that's how long goes. Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 3: We really do hope that you are able to join
Speaker 3: us in this no spend challenge.
Speaker 6: Again.
Speaker 3: We're talking about it in the friend letter so Frugal
Speaker 3: friendspodcast dot com if you don't receive that friend letter already,
Speaker 3: and we'll also be posting a bit on Instagram. I
Speaker 3: don't think we're gonna go as crazy as Jen did
Speaker 3: last year, although she did post every day of January
Speaker 3: last year. So if you want to go all the
Speaker 3: way back in our Instagram account for some of that motive,
Speaker 3: feel free, but still following us now will be helpful
Speaker 3: because we'll be posting little tidbits about it. So following
Speaker 3: us on Free Will Friends Podcasts on Instagram. We love
Speaker 3: to connect with you all there outside of this show,
Speaker 3: and we're just so grateful for all of you that
Speaker 3: are here listening to this podcast, and we love reading
Speaker 3: your kind reviews.
Speaker 4: Is this one about?
Speaker 3: This? Is?
Speaker 1: So we are Yes, we are today making a change.
Speaker 1: Instead of reading podcast in our reviews, we are going
Speaker 1: to read your kind reviews from our book. And so
Speaker 1: there's over one hundred and twenty of them on Amazon alone.
Speaker 3: As of right now. By the time this episode comes out, Yeah,
Speaker 3: hopefully there's more.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we will have no shortage, we hope. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to just read those.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, if you've got the book and you haven't reviewed
Speaker 3: us yet, please do. This one is an example. It
Speaker 3: comes from Amber C five stars. I am a big
Speaker 3: consumer of financial podcasts, but have yet to read into
Speaker 3: the subject matter. This book, however, got my attention from
Speaker 3: the beginning. I've listened to lots of podcasts, and Fruqual
Speaker 3: Friends is my favorite because of their simple and applicable advice.
Speaker 3: There's no fancy math equations involved or strict and soul
Speaker 3: draining practices. It's very simple and rooted in values based spending.
Speaker 3: I appreciate this book, especially as a newly single mom.
Speaker 3: The fact that everything revolves around values based spending is
Speaker 3: a simple and powerful tool for me to spend my
Speaker 3: money in a meaningful way. I love this book and
Speaker 3: plan on reading it over and over again. Thanks Jen
Speaker 3: and Jill amber C.
Speaker 1: How beautiful. Thank you amber.
Speaker 3: You know that's something that I've been hearing from people
Speaker 3: recently who now do have their hands on the book,
Speaker 3: is they're saying, this is something where I'm going to
Speaker 3: come back to specific chapters, like I'm earmarking this because
Speaker 3: I know I'm going to revisit this when I get
Speaker 3: to this season of life.
Speaker 4: And I didn't totally think that through when writing it.
Speaker 3: I did kind of think you can read it from
Speaker 3: front to back in a week, in a month and
Speaker 3: kind of capture some of the big concepts and begin
Speaker 3: applying them. But I think through the lens of other people,
Speaker 3: it's been interesting to have that kind of reflected back
Speaker 3: that they're identifying there are aspects here that are kind
Speaker 3: of like stand alone pieces and advice that I'm going
Speaker 3: to want to revisit.
Speaker 4: This and come back to it. And that's really cool.
Speaker 3: I've had a handful of books like that throughout my
Speaker 3: life where I'm like, this is a guide that it's
Speaker 3: not just like I appreciated the concepts and now I'm
Speaker 3: moving on, but that there are pieces here that it's
Speaker 3: going to be good to revisit and.
Speaker 4: That's so fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, So thank you so much for listening and
Speaker 1: for reading the book. If you want to check out
Speaker 1: the book, head to buy What you loovebook dot com
Speaker 1: and you can get it from your favorite retailer we
Speaker 1: obviously prefer bookshop, and then leave a review on Amazon
Speaker 1: or Goodreads and you could hear it on the show.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much, everyone, see you next time.
Speaker 1: Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 4: So this upcoming weekend is our party.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm so excited. I did my nails for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we again, we record a month in advance,
Speaker 3: so the party is happening mid January at my house.
Speaker 1: Two weeks in advance. For this one, we're a little late.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, right, that's okay, all right, that's fine. But
Speaker 3: the party isn't happening during the no Spun challenge, just
Speaker 3: in case.
Speaker 4: You were wondering. But yeah, well, we're gonna we gonna
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 3: We're gonna go to Costco to get some snacks.
Speaker 1: We're gonna eat snacks at Costco.
Speaker 4: You're from publics.
Speaker 1: You're gonna make a balloon art garland arch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe not a full arch, but mm hmm. I
Speaker 3: did get some balloons that are the color of the book. Yay,
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna blow them up with whatever pump we
Speaker 3: hopefully have in the garage. Yeah, so we're gonna have
Speaker 3: like a photo wall. Eric had a good idea to
Speaker 3: have everybody like not just take pictures, but also be
Speaker 3: able to have people record themselves. We did do this
Speaker 3: at one of our parties years ago, and actually we
Speaker 3: never watched them. That would be really fun to look
Speaker 3: back on. Yeah, we had people talk about like their
Speaker 3: frugal winds and frugal fails.
Speaker 4: I think for.
Speaker 3: This party we should have people say what they love
Speaker 3: to buy, things that they love to.
Speaker 4: Spend money on.
Speaker 3: Oh, and then we can have that they won't spend
Speaker 3: a compilation that we can post to Instagram.
Speaker 1: Would be fun. Yeah, we have to pick out our
Speaker 1: cake flavor because now we're just gonna go.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And in bigger news, we got to figure out what
Speaker 4: kind of cake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great, that's great. But the cake. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to take the book to publics and say, like,
Speaker 1: this is the inspiration.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, can you do?
Speaker 3: We talked about getting a printed picture of the book
Speaker 3: on the top of the cake, but we realize that
Speaker 3: not many bakeries do that in house. You have to
Speaker 3: order that online, and we were too late.
Speaker 1: We had the idea too late.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's okay, though, I will save us money.
Speaker 3: It's almost better to have that parameter, Yeah, I guess,
Speaker 3: and not spend thirty dollars on that.
Speaker 1: It's fine. It's sad, but it's fine. Maybe we'll figure
Speaker 1: out another reason to do it one day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll be fine. Nobody's just said.
Speaker 1: Nobody's so sad.
Speaker 4: It'll be fun. I'm gonna take pictures, gonna eat good food,
Speaker 4: so okay, and then and then we're gonna post it
Speaker 4: on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Yay.
Speaker 4: Thanks everyone for celebrating with us.
Speaker 3: If you haven't got the book yet, wherever you get
Speaker 3: books by We Love Without Coming Broke Babe,