Speaker 1: Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing how to take advantage of free stuff. Joel, Man,
Speaker 1: it is almost Christmas. Your plans for the holidays, Yeah, buddy,
Speaker 1: Christmas time Blue, I'm stoked. Christmas is always so much fun,
Speaker 1: and our plans are really to hang out around the
Speaker 1: house and we'll see some families, see some friends. There's
Speaker 1: already been a lot of that. I think what I
Speaker 1: love about Christmas time the most is there's so many
Speaker 1: parties to go to. Oh my gosh, yeah, which is
Speaker 1: partly why you and I both sound a little horse.
Speaker 1: We might have been making a little too merry maybe, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: and those actually we were at the same three parties
Speaker 1: last week, which sounds kind of ridiculous because I mean,
Speaker 1: we do have lives outside of our own relationship. Should
Speaker 1: we find some other friends or something like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it sounds ridiculous. Uh, you've got something you're
Speaker 1: excited to to get for Christmas, like a gift, So
Speaker 1: I don't really have like a long list of gifts
Speaker 1: Christmas list, like like when you're tin I sent it
Speaker 1: to Santa. It was super thick, we'll see what I get. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, really my philosophy for asking for presidents for Christmas?
Speaker 1: I mean, well, first off, there's not much I need.
Speaker 1: There's not much I asked for, but my mom like
Speaker 1: texts me eight times like seriously, what do you want
Speaker 1: for Christmas? And so I feel like I have to
Speaker 1: provide her something and that sounds familiar. So I just
Speaker 1: always asked for something that I wouldn't buy myself, but
Speaker 1: that I would like to have, And usually that's like
Speaker 1: a soccer jersey or some sort of he Laney United paraphernalia.
Speaker 1: So right, hoping to get hoping to get a jersey
Speaker 1: this this Christmas? Yeah, for me, I'm actually thinking of
Speaker 1: do you have an e reader, like something that you
Speaker 1: read digitally with or do you just stick with paper books?
Speaker 1: Now paper books or articles on my phone or whatever
Speaker 1: it is? Guys. Yeah, I actually mentioned something to Kate
Speaker 1: kind of offhand, and I hope she heard me shared
Speaker 1: it with maybe a family member, because I don't think
Speaker 1: she was planning to get it for me, But an
Speaker 1: e reader or like a Kindle? Do you have an
Speaker 1: e reader? I don't know. I don't I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not really into that I read stuff on my phone
Speaker 1: sometimes just articles, but other than that, I'm reading paper books,
Speaker 1: saying I just never got into reading something on a screen.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm in front of the screen too
Speaker 1: much anyway. Right, Well, that's the thing, that's why it's different,
Speaker 1: is because they use the e ink and I've seen
Speaker 1: it in person, and every time I see it kind
Speaker 1: of blows me away because it's not an actual, you know,
Speaker 1: led screen, It's an e ink screen. It's kind of magic.
Speaker 1: Reminds me of Harry Potter with the map. I don't
Speaker 1: know how much Harry Potter lore, you know, but there's
Speaker 1: a special map and the ink moves on the paper.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've seen the movie. Yeah, but I just
Speaker 1: haven't read those books, although i'd love At the point,
Speaker 1: I can't wait till my daughter grows up and she's
Speaker 1: got to read them and you have to, you're forced
Speaker 1: to read them to her, exactly. Yeah, I have hopes
Speaker 1: that that will be the same for me. But yeah,
Speaker 1: just reading more stuff digitally, and I've been reading more
Speaker 1: PDF lately, and I would love just to have a
Speaker 1: just a little e reader, like something basic, but just
Speaker 1: to be able to either read a study or just
Speaker 1: a book. Again, like you said, it's something that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally get for myself, but if I think through it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this would make my life awesome. Well not really,
Speaker 1: but but I would really love it. Right. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: make sure to send a link to this episode to
Speaker 1: your mom, just as she notes, wink wink. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: on that note, you said you're not a huge Christmas
Speaker 1: list kind of guy, how do you how do you
Speaker 1: guys do guests for for other folks? Like, do you
Speaker 1: have folks make the Amazon wish list or do you
Speaker 1: kind of leave it open and you're just like, all right,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to get get me, you know you
Speaker 1: can get it for me. Whatever. Yeah, So, honestly, we
Speaker 1: don't really give many gifts to each other in our family.
Speaker 1: We've kind of button that down over the years and
Speaker 1: and so so really, you know, my parents will get
Speaker 1: me usually one thing, and siblings will give a little
Speaker 1: couple of gift, which is usually just a gift card
Speaker 1: to a local restaurant or something like that, or or
Speaker 1: a little experience in town that we know that they love.
Speaker 1: But other than that, there's not a whole lot of
Speaker 1: gift giving on our side and too, I honestly don't
Speaker 1: really like to get lists from other people to to
Speaker 1: buy off of. I really like your a little more
Speaker 1: loosey goosey kind of guys. I want to be I
Speaker 1: want to be inspired, and I want to get somebody
Speaker 1: something that I know, the love that they didn't even
Speaker 1: ask for. That's kind of my goal in Christmas skift giving.
Speaker 1: I don't always succeed, but it's totally it's totally my goal.
Speaker 1: And so this Christmas, Emily and I actually decided not
Speaker 1: to get each other anything. And what we're doing is
Speaker 1: we've actually we got a hotel room just yeah you
Speaker 1: did in Athens, Georgia, which is about an hour and
Speaker 1: a half away from us, and they've got like just
Speaker 1: a lot of cool stuff going on in Athens, so
Speaker 1: you know when that's a great town. That's my alma mater. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. I was actually joking about that because I
Speaker 1: saw you post that on Twitter or something about I
Speaker 1: think it was with price Line. You're upset that they
Speaker 1: kind of did a bait and switch. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, why the heck is he booking
Speaker 1: a stay in Athens, Georgia? Home of Creature Comforts, beer
Speaker 1: without me your co host. I was. I was a
Speaker 1: little angry. Sorry, buddy, well, good beer, good disc golf
Speaker 1: and Athens. But I'm only taking my wife, not you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited about that. That That should be fun. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I decided to tell people. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there was this I'm not gonna like bash price line here.
Speaker 1: There's no reason, but there was kind of a little
Speaker 1: bait and switch. And I feel like, if every other
Speaker 1: website could get it right price line, who is the
Speaker 1: big dog and has all the technology the world to
Speaker 1: make sure they have the most accurate price reflected, currently,
Speaker 1: they just didn't. Um and I didn't really like that.
Speaker 1: How you click through the website and then it says,
Speaker 1: oh wait, actually the price is forty dollars more when
Speaker 1: every other website seemed to have the accurate price represented.
Speaker 1: Were they the cheapest ones when they had their own comparisons? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It seemed a little dirty exactly. And so I ended
Speaker 1: up calling the hotel myself and I said, hey, these
Speaker 1: online retailers have a better price for hotel room stay
Speaker 1: than you guys have on your site, and I'd rather
Speaker 1: the money go into your pockets and not a percentage
Speaker 1: to one of these third party hotel sites. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: what's the best rate you can offer me? And they
Speaker 1: still had a Cyber Monday discount going on like a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, fifty percent off rooms. So I
Speaker 1: got the sickest deal at this hotel that was way
Speaker 1: cheaper than even like a crummy Airbnb. And it's a
Speaker 1: really cool looking hotel. So I'm excited about that. Nice man,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So sometimes you know, it's worth calling the hotel,
Speaker 1: calling the place, you know, before you end up booking one,
Speaker 1: just to see if they can match or exceed or
Speaker 1: maybe they've got, you know, promotion that's not published somewhere
Speaker 1: on their site that you're not even seen. Because I
Speaker 1: was like looking on their site and looking at the
Speaker 1: dates and didn't see it anywhere. So it was really
Speaker 1: nice just to call up and ask. And like we
Speaker 1: had that one episode about asking for a discount, Man,
Speaker 1: it never hurts. It's got to ask. Just to ask.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you get consumer tip. And by the way, as
Speaker 1: we right before we get into this beer, Matt, we
Speaker 1: have to relish our victory our Atlanta United winning the
Speaker 1: MLS Cup our beloved MLS soccer team. It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: We were both there, super pumped to be there and
Speaker 1: uh to nothing victory over the Portland Timbers. It was
Speaker 1: so much fun. They were over seventy three thousand people.
Speaker 1: Our town came to life and just so exciting for Atlanta,
Speaker 1: who hasn't won a championship in since second exactly. But
Speaker 1: the Atlanta brais Man. When we were we taught seriously, yeah,
Speaker 1: we were super young. Do you you remember? I assume
Speaker 1: of course I remember that. Yeah, yeah, not to spend
Speaker 1: too much time talking about soccer. But for our club
Speaker 1: to only be two years old and then to and
Speaker 1: just to walk away with it like like we did,
Speaker 1: makes me makes me so happy. But there's also a
Speaker 1: beer reason. I had to mention that our friend Dale
Speaker 1: is a Portland Timbers fan, came down to Atlanta for
Speaker 1: the match from Portland and cool dude brought us beer
Speaker 1: for the podcast. So what's really cool is that it
Speaker 1: was after the match the next day that he came
Speaker 1: by and dropped the beer off to you, so extra
Speaker 1: pops to him for losing and then actually following through
Speaker 1: and bringing the beer. It wasn't a bet or anything,
Speaker 1: but he just was being kind. Yeah, of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I gave him some some local beers to just to,
Speaker 1: you know, to say thank you, and man, just I
Speaker 1: love beer trading and I love, love love getting to
Speaker 1: see other people try some of the stuff that I
Speaker 1: love so much. So so Dale brought us Block fifteen
Speaker 1: Brewing Company, Sticky hands. I p a. So that's what
Speaker 1: Matt and I are going to be drinking on the
Speaker 1: show today. Yeah. Man, so he just poured this and cheers.
Speaker 1: Cheer's buddy. We're gonna try this again, Matt, because last
Speaker 1: week we both gave one word just an initial response
Speaker 1: to the beer. I'm gonna let you try it again
Speaker 1: because last week you picked a really weird word. What's
Speaker 1: your one word descriptor for this beer? You don't let
Speaker 1: my words from last week? Jacket? It was just odd.
Speaker 1: So if people want to know why Matt referred to
Speaker 1: the beer is one is one descriptive word that he
Speaker 1: could use was jacket. Go back and listen to the
Speaker 1: last week's episode. So can my one word be tears?
Speaker 1: I guess it can, because I can't help but drink
Speaker 1: this Portland beer and not think of Dale's tears. Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: Buddy Dale, salty tears dropping in there. That's that's not
Speaker 1: a good descriptor. You do yours and then I'll do mine. Alright.
Speaker 1: So the one descriptive word I would use for this
Speaker 1: beer floral? Oh really? Yep? Nice? All right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with resinie. Okay, I like it. So if you
Speaker 1: guys want to hear the full beer review, stick around
Speaker 1: towards the end of the show, Matt and I will
Speaker 1: kind of give you our final thoughts on this beer. Alright, Matt,
Speaker 1: So onto the topic at hand, how to take advantage
Speaker 1: of free stuff? Yeah, And the reason that we're tackling
Speaker 1: this topic today is because there are so many free
Speaker 1: resources available to people. But we're so used to consumption
Speaker 1: and just easy consumption, especially on a subscription basis, we
Speaker 1: don't even think to take advantage of these free resources
Speaker 1: that are available to us. Yeah. Man, you know, our
Speaker 1: culture and honestly, our technology, even it kind of steers
Speaker 1: us in the direction to spend money. And so chances are,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not taking advantage and we are overspending
Speaker 1: because sometimes we just haven't given enough thought. And hopefully
Speaker 1: these resources will allow you to be smarter it'll help
Speaker 1: you to save money, and you know, honestly, it might
Speaker 1: even make you money overall, it'll just make your life better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of free resources, some
Speaker 1: of which are just gonna be kind of like duh,
Speaker 1: I know that. But then I think we're gonna dive
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper into those resources too, because everyone
Speaker 1: knows about the library, right, But then it turns out
Speaker 1: the library has just a lot more resources than you
Speaker 1: thought they did. Libraries have even gotten with the twenty
Speaker 1: one century, and there are a lot of resources that
Speaker 1: the library offers that you probably don't know about, or
Speaker 1: if you do, maybe you forgot about them. You're not
Speaker 1: taking advantage of them. I mean. And the thing is
Speaker 1: still I want to mention is that with it being
Speaker 1: the holiday or the Christmas season, we're not saying that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't spend money, especially on others, right. Obviously, make
Speaker 1: sure hopefully you've budgeted to spend on others, but we're
Speaker 1: hoping this is something that you'll be able to take
Speaker 1: into your own life personally, kind of once the new
Speaker 1: year rolls around and you're back to your typical usual
Speaker 1: spending and you kind of fall back into your regular habits.
Speaker 1: It's always tough to start new diets, new disciplines around
Speaker 1: the Christmas season. But again, this is something that we're
Speaker 1: kind of mentioning as you're looking forward into the new year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and creating a goal to use more of the free
Speaker 1: resources at your disposal as opposed to consuming and spending
Speaker 1: money on entertainment. I feel like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff in here, Matt that we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: that kind of will help you accomplish that goal, like
Speaker 1: really make it easy for you to think about things
Speaker 1: a little bit differently and start implementing the use of
Speaker 1: these resources into your life. That's right, man, We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to those examples right after this break al Right, Matt.
Speaker 1: We already mentioned libraries kind of at the top of
Speaker 1: the show, and libraries are the first example we want
Speaker 1: to give here. Obviously, there are books and libraries, right,
Speaker 1: That's the main reason people go to libraries. I was
Speaker 1: just there on Saturday with my girls. It was super
Speaker 1: fun because we could kill an hour hanging out with
Speaker 1: the library looking for books. Were you were there on Saturday? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they had a book sale at our Yeah, those friends
Speaker 1: of the Library day. Yeah, so it was like, I
Speaker 1: com didn't know you were there. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: didn't see you. Well, I wasn't there personally, I was.
Speaker 1: I was taking it out. I didn't see your family either. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the in laws are in town and they took the
Speaker 1: big girls out for a little get out of the
Speaker 1: house while it was raining. Kind of kind of deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and libraries like the perfect rainy day activity first off, right, So, yeah,
Speaker 1: so there was the library sale. All books were a
Speaker 1: dollar or two dollars, which was cool. We didn't buy anything,
Speaker 1: but we perused and then also we looked around for
Speaker 1: books to bring home you can check up. I asked
Speaker 1: Emily this because I didn't know fifty books at a
Speaker 1: time you can have out at the library, And honestly,
Speaker 1: we don't come close to that. But we I swear
Speaker 1: we've got like fifteen books at a time because we
Speaker 1: we circled through them kids books mostly, right, We're circling
Speaker 1: through these books all the time at night, and then
Speaker 1: we just like sat in the corner and read books
Speaker 1: for a while too. It's just it's super fun to
Speaker 1: read in a different space with the girls, and just
Speaker 1: like all these books that they can go and choose
Speaker 1: from and pull off the shelf. So everybody knows that
Speaker 1: your local library has books, but maybe you forgot or
Speaker 1: maybe you've just gotten used to hitting the click button
Speaker 1: and buying books off of Amazon's right, But it turns
Speaker 1: out that a fifteen dollar book or a twenty dollar book, Man,
Speaker 1: that that gets expensive over time, So get on the
Speaker 1: waiting list. Emily does this all the time. She reads
Speaker 1: a lot more than I do, and so she'll be
Speaker 1: on the waiting list for a books. She'll be sixty
Speaker 1: but you know what, it comes within like three weeks
Speaker 1: she's she's first on the list. And so I would, yeah,
Speaker 1: encourage you to sign up for books that you want
Speaker 1: at your local library, to go check it out and
Speaker 1: hunt for books that you're that that might interest you.
Speaker 1: Just use your library for what it's there for. It's
Speaker 1: like the o G Original Purpose books exactly. But it
Speaker 1: turns out there's a lot more resources that the library
Speaker 1: offers too. Right. Well, one of the things I was
Speaker 1: most excited about, and I've only learned this this past year, man,
Speaker 1: is that the library has e books. You can show
Speaker 1: out e books, you can check out audio books, which
Speaker 1: is I knew that before because I used to be
Speaker 1: huge in audio books. We used to travel a good
Speaker 1: bit and spend a lot of time in the car,
Speaker 1: and especially before kids, man putting on a nice audio book.
Speaker 1: Kate and I used to love doing that. And this
Speaker 1: is maybe before we were getting into podcast pretty heavy,
Speaker 1: but we would throw on an audio book and you
Speaker 1: listen to it for a while, and then you stop
Speaker 1: for gas and you talk about it for a little bit,
Speaker 1: talk about whatever you want, but then kind of fired
Speaker 1: back up. You love audio books, but now e books,
Speaker 1: now that I learned that, I think that might be
Speaker 1: fueling my desire to want to get a kindle. Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: And so speaking of audio books and e books, there
Speaker 1: are easy apps that you can just log in with
Speaker 1: your library card info and just sign up and you
Speaker 1: can start borrowing e books for free and borrowing audio
Speaker 1: books for free from your library, so like instead of
Speaker 1: getting an audible subscription. There are just so many free
Speaker 1: e books and audio books that you can get lent
Speaker 1: to you via apps like Overdrive and Hoopla, and then
Speaker 1: this the Libby app, which is another great one. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll link to all those app you know in our
Speaker 1: show notes, but those are great apps that you can
Speaker 1: use in order to get those free e book and
Speaker 1: audiobook resources. Libby in particular, I think has the best
Speaker 1: selection of just those, and Overdrive and Hoopla actually kind
Speaker 1: of give you more media than just that libraries are
Speaker 1: lending now, like TV shows and movies at the same time,
Speaker 1: all the media basically, Like it's not just about libraries,
Speaker 1: because I guess they've realized that people aren't reading as
Speaker 1: much as they used to do, which is too bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I guess their mindset is, may as well get
Speaker 1: in on it because we're gonna have what people are
Speaker 1: going to consume. Yeah, And but the good thing is,
Speaker 1: at least on some of the streaming television shows and
Speaker 1: movies that you can download, there's a lot of educational
Speaker 1: stuff for kids. It's actually kind of interesting, that's really
Speaker 1: good that would cost you money elsewhere, So so I
Speaker 1: would definitely recommend it to folks. So if you want
Speaker 1: to cut one streaming service out of your life, well
Speaker 1: maybe Overdrive and Hoopla can kind of fit that bill
Speaker 1: and give you the additional streaming stuff that you might
Speaker 1: want for yourself or your kids. Yea. I am actually
Speaker 1: super excited to utilize those apps because I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: able to magically have the new book appear on my
Speaker 1: e reader, and that's assuming I get one. But if
Speaker 1: I don't, it's okay, folks, don't worry about it. Do
Speaker 1: this e readers like your red Rider bb gun. I'm
Speaker 1: having all my hope set on this thing. Let's do
Speaker 1: one more plug for libraries. In addition to media, they've
Speaker 1: got other things going on to like fitness classes or specifically,
Speaker 1: I know our library has yoga classes and they've got
Speaker 1: meditation classes, which are awesome, and I think that's just
Speaker 1: an awesome way to get folks into the library. And
Speaker 1: I think that's all it really takes for a lot
Speaker 1: of folks just to kind of be surrounded by the
Speaker 1: books and they think, man, it's been forever since I've
Speaker 1: been in the library. Let me just walk the aisles
Speaker 1: and see what I can pick up. And before you
Speaker 1: know it, they're they're reading at home and watching less TV.
Speaker 1: And everybody wins, Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. Often times, you know,
Speaker 1: the library has like a litany of events to like
Speaker 1: kids story times going on, so you can show up
Speaker 1: and there's someone that's reading a special book to the kids.
Speaker 1: They're also instructional resources like lectures and book clubs. Some
Speaker 1: of these libraries offer stuff like computer classes and job training,
Speaker 1: resume build out resources, stuff like that. So if you're
Speaker 1: in need of training in any of those areas, library
Speaker 1: can be an awesome place to turn for for some
Speaker 1: of those instructional resources. And you and I are both
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be within a just right out a
Speaker 1: mile of our local library. So for us, there's just
Speaker 1: really no excuse when we can throw the girls on
Speaker 1: the bike pedal up to the library like a bunch
Speaker 1: of hippies and check out some books, fill our premier
Speaker 1: bags up, you know exactly. But again, that's the life
Speaker 1: we want to live, and this is gonna help you
Speaker 1: to save money and spend less, So why not take
Speaker 1: advantage of the resources around you. Yeah, and one of
Speaker 1: the thing when it comes to digital media and television
Speaker 1: and movie shows and stuff like that, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: your local library probably offers a pretty decent selection of
Speaker 1: DVDs and blue rays and stuff like that as well.
Speaker 1: I know our library does. And maybe the streaming library
Speaker 1: isn't amazing from overdriving hoopla, maybe you're not not going
Speaker 1: to find quite enough awesome stuff to watch entertainment wise,
Speaker 1: you know, on those apps. But I think you will
Speaker 1: find that, you know, some of the DVDs actually are
Speaker 1: quite current, and so you might find something that was
Speaker 1: released six months ago that's really solid movie at the
Speaker 1: library that you won't be able to find on Netflix
Speaker 1: or Hulu, and that's free at your library. Hopefully your
Speaker 1: library is not rolling with bajusses anymore, because that'd be
Speaker 1: two old school. The hipsters are all about the cassette
Speaker 1: and VHS rentals. That's enough, how to you hipsters? All right,
Speaker 1: that's enough about the libraryman, Let's move on to other
Speaker 1: free resources like nature. You mean. There was an article
Speaker 1: just a week or two ago in the New York
Speaker 1: Times and it talked about how the healthiest cities in
Speaker 1: America are the ones where almost all of its residents
Speaker 1: have a public park within a ten minute walk of
Speaker 1: where they live. And so it turns out, did you
Speaker 1: did you read the article, by the way, Yeah, it did. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it turns out that the healthiest city in America is, oh,
Speaker 1: you're quisin me, Minneapolis. So interestingly enough, ninety of the
Speaker 1: residents of Minneapolis live within ten minutes walking distance of
Speaker 1: a park. And that is the best indicator essentially of
Speaker 1: whether citizens are going to be active outside and healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and what was key about that Article two is not
Speaker 1: it's not just within ten minutes or or that it's
Speaker 1: just really close, but that specifically it's within a ten
Speaker 1: minute walk. And so the accessibility of that outdoor in
Speaker 1: natural space was incredibly key for making that just a
Speaker 1: regular part of your life. Because if if you can
Speaker 1: walk to it in ten minutes, you're gonna go. But
Speaker 1: if you have to get in a car and load
Speaker 1: up and go, even if it's a ten minute driveaway,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna go to corf it's just really close
Speaker 1: by and there's just a massive freeway in between you
Speaker 1: and said park. You're not gonna sprout wings. Is this
Speaker 1: where there's saying you're not just gonna magically hop over
Speaker 1: there because we just drink some red bull hop over
Speaker 1: to the park. You know, Yeah, it's got to be accessible.
Speaker 1: But on that note, to man, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things are like state parks and national parks even as well,
Speaker 1: but just being able to take advantage of the beauty
Speaker 1: that's around you. There's just so much that we have
Speaker 1: in our country, and we just don't think about it
Speaker 1: enough when it comes to vacationing. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of times you think, oh, we're gonna go to Europe,
Speaker 1: and at least I know for us personally, that is
Speaker 1: just not something we're doing as much, especially with our family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got young girls, we've got young kids, and taking
Speaker 1: advantage of national parks that we can drive to is
Speaker 1: going to be a huge money saver for us over
Speaker 1: the in the coming years because plane tickets are expensive,
Speaker 1: and you can get a national park pass for a
Speaker 1: year for pretty cheap. Yeah, for pretty cheap. Or if
Speaker 1: you know that, okay, there's m we want to hit
Speaker 1: up Yosemite later this summer. Okay, well it's not gonna
Speaker 1: cost that much, you know. I can't imagine if you
Speaker 1: did a comparison of like you like a national park,
Speaker 1: try to compare that to Disney World for the same
Speaker 1: amount of time. There'd be no comparison, right. I bet
Speaker 1: you could literally add a zero onto the total cost
Speaker 1: and it would probably be pretty accurate. What do you
Speaker 1: think five bucks to go out west and go camping
Speaker 1: and hiking versus five thousand maybe if you go to
Speaker 1: Disney World. Probably seriously, dude, it's gotta be like a
Speaker 1: factor of tin like that Disney costs over a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars today per person. Now that ends up real quick
Speaker 1: if you want to take your family for a week.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about free stuff on this episode, right,
Speaker 1: and national parks typically costs money. So we gotta put
Speaker 1: our money in our mouth. Is we got to fulfill
Speaker 1: our obligation to the listener tell them about how to
Speaker 1: get in for free. And it turns out that national
Speaker 1: parks there are over four hundred of them, they do
Speaker 1: offer fee free days on occasion, and so they have
Speaker 1: a list on their website. And the five days coming
Speaker 1: up in twenty nineteen which you'll be able to access
Speaker 1: your national National park site for free is January twenty one,
Speaker 1: m okay April for the first day of National Park Week,
Speaker 1: August September, in November eleven for Veterans Day, So check
Speaker 1: that out nice. We'll we'll put a link to the
Speaker 1: National Park Service website too, so you can see a
Speaker 1: list of those dates. But it's great playing around that.
Speaker 1: It never ceases to amaze me the very topography, the
Speaker 1: amazing country that we live in, and then the national
Speaker 1: parks are truly a treasure to get to go see
Speaker 1: you know, one or two or three great national parks
Speaker 1: in your life is still an amazing thing to do
Speaker 1: because we have so many of them, but I swear
Speaker 1: each one I've been to just blows my mind with
Speaker 1: with how different it is from the last one and
Speaker 1: how amazingly diverse our climate is here in the United States,
Speaker 1: that's right, man. And even on top of that, aside
Speaker 1: from state parks, which in Georgia, a lot of them
Speaker 1: do cost money, but just I mean compared to the
Speaker 1: relative cost of entertainment, right, they're still substantially cheaper. But
Speaker 1: even in addition to state parks and national parks, there's
Speaker 1: just a lot of trails locally. There's nature preserves and
Speaker 1: there's community gardens that you can just take part of
Speaker 1: and go hiking. And that's man. We just love doing
Speaker 1: that with our girls. Yeah, And I think especially like
Speaker 1: nature preserves. Really there are, at least where we live,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of them, and so I'm not
Speaker 1: sure about where you live if that's the case, but
Speaker 1: try to find a local nature preserve because those are
Speaker 1: often free places to go with an awesome playground and
Speaker 1: a cool nature walk and you'll get to see some
Speaker 1: stuff that you don't normally get to see. Uh. We
Speaker 1: have enjoyed taking the girls on like a Saturday morning
Speaker 1: to a nature preserve. We can't walk to those, right,
Speaker 1: it takes a drive, but it's worth it because it's
Speaker 1: this awesome free day where we get to get outside
Speaker 1: and go for a little hike together and just kind
Speaker 1: of explore nature. And the girls always find something interesting
Speaker 1: under a rock or honestly just find rocks interesting. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's just always that's always fun, all right, man,
Speaker 1: So that's nature being outside. Next to stop about museums.
Speaker 1: A lot of museums and we've talked about this actually
Speaker 1: recently too. I just remembered, but a lot of museums
Speaker 1: have free days. Uh. The second Sunday every month for
Speaker 1: us here in Atlanta is the free day for the High.
Speaker 1: And dude, we love hitting up the High. It's a
Speaker 1: great museum. Yeah. And even aside from that, were just
Speaker 1: like being on the grounds around the High it's just
Speaker 1: so nice. I mean, the grounds themselves are almost a
Speaker 1: park like Unto Unto itself. It honestly makes me think
Speaker 1: of going to Europe. You go to different cities in Europe,
Speaker 1: and they've got chairs kind of scattered all over the
Speaker 1: cities in public spaces, and they're always full because folks
Speaker 1: are sitting around enjoying the weather, enjoying the landscape, the scenery,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And I kind of feel that way
Speaker 1: when I'm at the High because it's fancy and they've
Speaker 1: got like really nice European looking chairs. Maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: but every time we're hanging out up there, I think
Speaker 1: to myself, man, this is so nice, Like we don't
Speaker 1: even need to go inside the museum, but just kind
Speaker 1: of being up here seeing the architecture of the of
Speaker 1: the building itself and then just letting the girls hang
Speaker 1: out in the in the lawn and having a picnic
Speaker 1: for us. That is I mean that in and of
Speaker 1: itself is an activity for the day. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the cool thing bringing them back to libraries. Oftentimes
Speaker 1: libraries will have access or free vouchers for you to
Speaker 1: go visit your local museum and so not a museum,
Speaker 1: but recently our wives took advantage. They went together, they
Speaker 1: took all the girls free day at the zoo. And
Speaker 1: so there's this DVD at the library. Field rent it
Speaker 1: and watch the DVD with your kids and bring it back.
Speaker 1: You get a voucher to take two adults and like
Speaker 1: five kids to the zoo. And so they did, and
Speaker 1: they had a blast. It was a free entrance to
Speaker 1: the zoos. So maybe your library has something like that.
Speaker 1: Lots of libraries, lots and lots of libraries offer free
Speaker 1: access to local museums if you will watch a DVD
Speaker 1: or check out a book or something like that, and
Speaker 1: so that's kind of cool too. Or donate plasma. That's
Speaker 1: a separate thing. I don't think libraries will take your plasma, Matt.
Speaker 1: That's a different kind of library. And now that's a
Speaker 1: bank lib bank. Our wives are so smart, by the way,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to mention that, like they're always taking
Speaker 1: taking advantage of the little deals like that, you know,
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, it's all those little things, right
Speaker 1: that they truly do add up, and especially rely when
Speaker 1: those resources are so awesome and can provide so much
Speaker 1: fun and value for your family, Like, take advantage of them, right, um,
Speaker 1: take advantage of that freezoo day, take advantage of all
Speaker 1: those free books, and take advantage of those museum right
Speaker 1: the free days of the museum whatever it is. Especially
Speaker 1: you know what I love doing, man, I love going
Speaker 1: to Washington, d C. That's one of my favorite cities.
Speaker 1: And the reason is because all those amazing museums are
Speaker 1: freaking free. It's incredible, Like I could spend four days
Speaker 1: at the National Art Gallery in d C. There's just
Speaker 1: a never ending supply of incredible art just to stare at.
Speaker 1: And all of those Smithsonian museums are are free. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for even like a cheap vacation to
Speaker 1: take with a family or your partner or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: d C is an awesome place to do it because
Speaker 1: once you get there, after you paid for the travel
Speaker 1: in the hotel room, Man, so much of your entertainments
Speaker 1: just free. And even one of our favorite restaurants here
Speaker 1: real close by, Homegrown. They have this local, small kind
Speaker 1: of folk art gallery in the back, and it fits
Speaker 1: perfectly with a restaurant. Why do you think it's my
Speaker 1: favorite breakfast place, Matt, It's awesome, dude. I love you
Speaker 1: both purchased art from there, right, Yeah. I love that
Speaker 1: place because, yeah, it's got the little folk art gallery.
Speaker 1: It's also got like a five and dime kind of
Speaker 1: thrift store in the back. So not only do I
Speaker 1: get the best dang breakfast in town, but I also
Speaker 1: get to peruce some awesome art and just like check
Speaker 1: out the random thrift store kind of knickknacks they got
Speaker 1: in the back, and sometimes there's a guy there on
Speaker 1: the on the big xylophone playing I don't know this guy,
Speaker 1: you've never been there with the know how I missed him?
Speaker 1: I don't know. You need to go in them the
Speaker 1: days that I go, I guess. So, all right, there's
Speaker 1: so much culture to your local freakness place. Sometimes well
Speaker 1: in another thing, another way to go see local art,
Speaker 1: if especially if you live near an urban center, there's
Speaker 1: so much good, amazing street art so many places, and
Speaker 1: there's web resources for you to look up where that
Speaker 1: street art is, and so that's that's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things is go hit up those places where there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of free street art, and Emily and I
Speaker 1: will just go for a stroll on date night and
Speaker 1: just look at all the awesome stuff. Because there are
Speaker 1: these amazing murals that are up I think you mentioned
Speaker 1: that a couple of months ago. Yeah, they're just free
Speaker 1: and you and they're beautiful, and so yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I would recomm that's anyone too. That's a great thing
Speaker 1: to do. You know, we'll just get a beer or
Speaker 1: get a quick dinner and then go for a stroll
Speaker 1: and look at the free art. All right, Matt, The
Speaker 1: next free thing you have to take advantage of is
Speaker 1: the Internet and free information because there's so much out there,
Speaker 1: and I feel like this is like a duf thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what's gonna say. But let's leave people just a
Speaker 1: little bit further into that. Because the Internet has a
Speaker 1: lot of free resources for you to take advantage of,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot you can get hung up on
Speaker 1: that's not actually helpful and not really I wouldn't consider
Speaker 1: it a resource. But there's a lot of cat videos
Speaker 1: and something you just get you get stuck, you know,
Speaker 1: playing and auto playing videos and the endless loop of
Speaker 1: cavideos that's free but not helpful. So yeah, let's talk
Speaker 1: about free resources on the Internet that are actually helpful. Well, first,
Speaker 1: I did want to say that it's something that we
Speaker 1: totally take advantage of. It's something that we honestly take
Speaker 1: for granted, right because for in our life it's pretty
Speaker 1: much always been around. Actually, have you did you have
Speaker 1: an encyclopedia on your computer at home, like the Encarta
Speaker 1: Microsoft totally. Yeah, yeah, I remember the first we had
Speaker 1: an Apple back in the day. I think it was
Speaker 1: called the Rollier Encyclopedia. But it's such a big deal
Speaker 1: because before that you had to pay to get a
Speaker 1: full encyclopedia set, and that was sort of a dawn
Speaker 1: of having information free. Yeah, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: things that, like thirty years ago, you would have had
Speaker 1: to go find a class if you wanted to learn
Speaker 1: some sort of information, you would have had to pay
Speaker 1: and take the time out of your day to go
Speaker 1: to a specific class with a teacher that had the
Speaker 1: knowledge you were looking for. But now, with the advent
Speaker 1: of podcasts and professional YouTubers and there are PhD level
Speaker 1: folks putting out free information via podcast and YouTube and
Speaker 1: writing blogs that you can access through Google, it's kind
Speaker 1: of made that paying for classes for certain things way
Speaker 1: less important, and I kind of love the democratization of information.
Speaker 1: I've learned so much about different topics that I honestly
Speaker 1: never would have had access to. I never would have
Speaker 1: thought about just some of the topics that I enjoy
Speaker 1: thinking about if it weren't for access to your free podcasts,
Speaker 1: freelong form lectures on YouTube, just hearing professors and interesting people,
Speaker 1: modern thinkers, people that are just major influencers in the world.
Speaker 1: Been way information for free, Whereas, like I said, thirty
Speaker 1: years ago, it would have been someone teaching at a
Speaker 1: major academic institution and you're paying tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars a year to go to that school to learn
Speaker 1: from this professor. But now that's just not the case.
Speaker 1: And they can reach so many people at one time
Speaker 1: with podcast, YouTube and Google. I mean, even aside from that, man,
Speaker 1: how much money have we saved just searching on YouTube
Speaker 1: for how to fix something? Like we? I mean, I
Speaker 1: We've fixed our air conditioning units, We've fixed our water heaters.
Speaker 1: I've made a repair on my dishwasher before I fixed
Speaker 1: a leaking refrigerator. Yeah, dude, there there's just so many
Speaker 1: things that again, these are ways that it is able
Speaker 1: to save us, save us money, keeps us from having
Speaker 1: to hire someone that's a little more specialized. Obviously, if
Speaker 1: it's something that's a bigger deal or a bigger project,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hire a pro. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: finding these little fixes to to kind of hold us
Speaker 1: over and even not even hold us over, but to
Speaker 1: make a legitimate repair man. YouTube specifically is an incredible resource,
Speaker 1: and on that note, to just more organized and more
Speaker 1: professional classes. So aside from actual free content on YouTube,
Speaker 1: but you can take online courses as well. There's just
Speaker 1: free courses at places like course era and ed x
Speaker 1: and you to me as well. These are classes that
Speaker 1: you would take in on a more academic level, whether
Speaker 1: it be like at a community college. But some of
Speaker 1: the instruction and some of the courses that you can
Speaker 1: get on these websites are offered by legit universities, and
Speaker 1: not just University of Phoenix, but like bigger actual universities
Speaker 1: that that that have a single campus where they were
Speaker 1: founded like two hundred years ago, um. And and to
Speaker 1: have that at your fingertips, to have that as an
Speaker 1: option to try something up for free is just an
Speaker 1: incredible resource. And yes, a lot of them are set
Speaker 1: up in a sort of model where if you want
Speaker 1: to take higher level courses and or even get a
Speaker 1: full degree, you're able to do that, and there might
Speaker 1: be fees associated with that, you might pay a little
Speaker 1: bit more, but still to be able to get your
Speaker 1: foot in the door and to learn without having to
Speaker 1: commit and without having to you know, pay tuition or
Speaker 1: enroll and show up at whatever time you know, eight
Speaker 1: am classes. I know those were the worst. They were
Speaker 1: totally the worst for me, I as so many of
Speaker 1: my A M. Classes. But to have again, have these
Speaker 1: courses online you get a little curious and you kind
Speaker 1: of are interested in at a certain topic, to be
Speaker 1: able to explore that without enrolling formally and sort of
Speaker 1: disrupting your your life, that's just so amazing that we
Speaker 1: have that available to us today. Yeah, and in some
Speaker 1: of these classes, Matt, you can take purely for your
Speaker 1: own edification. I want to learn the skill, or I'm
Speaker 1: just curious, right, whatever it is that kind of makes
Speaker 1: you interested or want to enroll in that free online class,
Speaker 1: like do it? Why not? It's free, check it out.
Speaker 1: That's just amazing to think that things have changed that much,
Speaker 1: you know, since we were born, that we almost take
Speaker 1: for granted now. Um And so yeah, I would recommend
Speaker 1: anybody who's looking for just to do it for purely
Speaker 1: their own benefit, or to learn a new skill that
Speaker 1: they think will be beneficial in their job, potentially help
Speaker 1: them achieve a promotion or kind of help benefit them
Speaker 1: in their career. Like these resources, these free resources can
Speaker 1: be a benefit to you for lots of reasons, man.
Speaker 1: And then so lastly, when it comes to just the
Speaker 1: Internet and free information, our phone apps. We've all got
Speaker 1: these tiny little computers in our pockets called cell phones.
Speaker 1: And there are now just so many apps that are
Speaker 1: out there dedicated towards education, whether it be du a lingo.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's tons of coding apps like for all ages.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was specifically looking into it for kids.
Speaker 1: But then other things like con Academy. You know, we've
Speaker 1: talked recently about limiting the amount of screen time that
Speaker 1: our kids have and not necessarily introducing that to them.
Speaker 1: But in researching this episode, man, I was kind of curious,
Speaker 1: and you know, I wanted to see what was out there.
Speaker 1: And there are is just so much out there that
Speaker 1: you could use if you're active in your child's education,
Speaker 1: to compliment and to sort of act as just another
Speaker 1: outlet for your kid to learn. And yeah, I was
Speaker 1: honestly shocked at the number of apps that were out there,
Speaker 1: and not just the quantity of them, but the quality.
Speaker 1: They were just so freaking good. Yeah, and think about
Speaker 1: due Lingo write something like that where you can learn
Speaker 1: another language for free be an app on your phone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: super cool, it's a great that's crazy man, at your
Speaker 1: own pace, however you like to learn. And I love
Speaker 1: that because I took a lot of Spanish growing up,
Speaker 1: in middle school, high school, in college, and right now
Speaker 1: my Spanish is trash, dude, Like, I need to get
Speaker 1: better at it, I miss I want to get better.
Speaker 1: I want to go, you know, be immersed in it,
Speaker 1: and I want to I want to be down in
Speaker 1: South America more and like using my Spanish skills, but
Speaker 1: they're almost non existent at this point. So I need
Speaker 1: to download some due Lingo and just kind of start
Speaker 1: learning Spanish all over again and get better at it
Speaker 1: because it's free and why not. And I just love that.
Speaker 1: If you're getting ready to take a trip somewhere and
Speaker 1: you just want to learn the basics or you want
Speaker 1: to dive deep and try to learn a full language,
Speaker 1: there's a free way to do that, and it's at
Speaker 1: your fingertips. I wonder if they have sort of a
Speaker 1: competition based version of due Lingo, like could we both
Speaker 1: started at the same time and then sort of kind
Speaker 1: of try to outperform each other. Well, that'd be amazing
Speaker 1: if so, let's do it. Yeah, I totally like I'm
Speaker 1: kind of into learning Spanish too, so all right, let's
Speaker 1: fire it up. I'll take you down espaniol ce senor.
Speaker 1: It's like zero Spanish, so you'll probably totally kick my butt.
Speaker 1: All right. At the last category example we wanted to
Speaker 1: go over was general community resources and so whether it
Speaker 1: be entertained mint or culture based or educational based, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of free resources that you have access
Speaker 1: to in all likelihood in your community, and so specifically
Speaker 1: in the entertainment category, and there's like free concert series
Speaker 1: in lots of towns. Maybe there's like jazz bands that
Speaker 1: play on Friday nights at your local amphitheater or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. In Atlanta, throughout the years, we've had
Speaker 1: a free concert series in the summer that would take
Speaker 1: place once a week for like six or eight weeks
Speaker 1: something like that. And there's also like free fireworks on
Speaker 1: the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve stuff like that.
Speaker 1: We had a tree lighting just recently in in the
Speaker 1: downtown of our neighborhood, so just really cool stuff that
Speaker 1: if you know what's out there and you check your
Speaker 1: local paper, you check website of your local community board,
Speaker 1: You'll you'll know what's going on, you'll know what the
Speaker 1: free stuff is it's coming up, and and you'll be
Speaker 1: ready to take your family to that stuff. That also
Speaker 1: makes me think of just festival season in the spring
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Once it's once we hit Memorial Day, there's
Speaker 1: basically a festival every single stinking weekend and it goes
Speaker 1: all the way into the fall, and there's just so
Speaker 1: much stuff you can do for free that you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay for that's just kind of provided by
Speaker 1: the community, that's provided by the city, and yeah, take
Speaker 1: take advantage of those things. Yeah, my favorite part of
Speaker 1: those festivals is just the people watching. Honestly, like just
Speaker 1: walking around and seeing everybody looking at the steth of
Speaker 1: vendors have like it. It's not all about buying a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff, but just hanging out at the festival
Speaker 1: for a few hours. We just we just have a
Speaker 1: blast walking around those things with as a family. Nice man.
Speaker 1: Something else that you can find kind of generally speaking
Speaker 1: in your community are tool banks. Uh. I know we've
Speaker 1: got one here in Atlanta. I've never personally used it,
Speaker 1: but I have used just online communities like Facebook are
Speaker 1: awesome for reaching out into your sort of local neighborhood
Speaker 1: and your community. And I've personally borrowed lots of tools
Speaker 1: that way, and I've also had folks borrow stuff from
Speaker 1: me that way. And so aside from having an actual
Speaker 1: organized tool bank where they keep the tools clean and
Speaker 1: you can go in there and check it out and stuff,
Speaker 1: kind of reaching out to your community that way is
Speaker 1: a way to save money and utilize that resource. Yes,
Speaker 1: so we'll opposed to link. There's like a National Tool
Speaker 1: Library organization and they kind of have a map of
Speaker 1: all the ToolBanks and you United States, so you can
Speaker 1: see if there's one in your area. I too, have
Speaker 1: not used the local tool bank, and probably to my
Speaker 1: great chain, it's because I don't do enough work with tools.
Speaker 1: I should work on that. But yeah, I've definitely borrowed
Speaker 1: some from friends and neighbors and that's just kind of
Speaker 1: nice to have. And I think that's another just another
Speaker 1: great point, just that we often don't use those resources,
Speaker 1: like posting in our Facebook community group to say, hey,
Speaker 1: does anyone have an air raider that I can borrow
Speaker 1: because I'm about to fertilize my law on as opposed
Speaker 1: to going out and buying something A quick post could
Speaker 1: save you, you know, big money on just borrowing a
Speaker 1: tool for a day. I too, have lent out my
Speaker 1: own tools and and happy to do so for friends
Speaker 1: that want to borrow it for a weekend. I love
Speaker 1: the fact that I'm saving them, hopefully from having to
Speaker 1: go buy something, and and hopefully other friends, you know,
Speaker 1: will save me from having to go buy something that
Speaker 1: I'm only gonna use, you know, once or once in
Speaker 1: a long while. Alright, Joel. So that was a few
Speaker 1: examples that we gave of resources that are free that
Speaker 1: you could be taking advantage of. And so after the
Speaker 1: break we're gonna come back and we're gonna cover some
Speaker 1: specific and these are things that you can do right now,
Speaker 1: right away in order to take advantage of these free resources.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt. I think one of the most important
Speaker 1: reasons to stress and why we want people to take
Speaker 1: advantage of these free resources is it oftentimes you're kind
Speaker 1: of already in some way former fashion paying for them.
Speaker 1: Right The National park System, State park system, the library
Speaker 1: that's in your neighborhood, the local parks, those are funded
Speaker 1: by your tax dollars, right, So you are in in
Speaker 1: one way, you're paying for these resources to exist, and
Speaker 1: I think by not taking advantage of them, by not
Speaker 1: using them to their fullest extent, we're doing ourselves a disservice.
Speaker 1: We're leaving something amazing on the table that we've already
Speaker 1: paid for and we're putting it in the back of
Speaker 1: the closet, so to speak. These are things that we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss and they're not crazy complicated or super sophisticated, right,
Speaker 1: but we're hoping that by us going over these things
Speaker 1: that and you're hearing them, that you will actually take
Speaker 1: the steps necessary in order to to actually take advantage
Speaker 1: of these things. So specifically your local library. Go up
Speaker 1: there and get a library card. You need to check
Speaker 1: it out. See what they have, see what classes, what resources,
Speaker 1: what different events that they have going on. These are
Speaker 1: all things that will make your life richer. It will
Speaker 1: allow you to feel more connected to your community. And plus, man,
Speaker 1: it's just fun, Like it's just a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And then this is something that we've like our family
Speaker 1: has felt challenged a little bit, you know, by you guys.
Speaker 1: But to see you guys taking advantage of it. It's
Speaker 1: it's awesome we see that, not I think, man, yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to do that more often too. Why are
Speaker 1: we not doing that? And it's because you just don't
Speaker 1: think of it. It's it's not something that rises to
Speaker 1: the top. And in our sort of society, you don't
Speaker 1: hear people saying, yeah, we're gonna go to the library.
Speaker 1: You wanna come with us. It's not like this thing
Speaker 1: that we do as as family is it's not something
Speaker 1: I even really did as a single person. And so
Speaker 1: for us to kind of bring light to it and
Speaker 1: kind of shine a light on it, hopefully it's yeah,
Speaker 1: jogs people's memories of like, oh, yeah, there is a library,
Speaker 1: like right there, I pass it every single day. Why
Speaker 1: am I not going there? And oftentimes as you walk
Speaker 1: into your local library map there's like a bulletin board
Speaker 1: or a white board or something like that with event
Speaker 1: information on it. And so next time you go into
Speaker 1: your library, check and see what events are happening at
Speaker 1: your library. There's also probably a posting of events on
Speaker 1: your local libraries website, so check that out. It might
Speaker 1: not be happening at the library right next to where
Speaker 1: you are. Lots of times there these libraries are in
Speaker 1: a system, right, which means that you have access to
Speaker 1: books that aren't just at the library next to you,
Speaker 1: which is great, but also it might mean that you'd
Speaker 1: have to travel to an awesome event at a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger library a little bit further away from here,
Speaker 1: because like the library by us, it's awesome, but it's
Speaker 1: also pretty small, so we don't have all the resources
Speaker 1: at a bigger library might have. How do I go
Speaker 1: to the library with the swimming pool, Oh, that would
Speaker 1: be nice and the beer tasting all right? Also, Matt,
Speaker 1: we want to encourage people to get outside. Check out
Speaker 1: your state tourism website to see what sort of events
Speaker 1: are going on or what park days are free to
Speaker 1: get into your state parks. We already mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: the national parks in the free days that are happening,
Speaker 1: and also the city hall for community events like the
Speaker 1: local tree lighting or a community festival. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to touch on that real quick too. When it
Speaker 1: comes to taking advantage of the state and national parks,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times people think I'm not
Speaker 1: I can get out there and go hiking for you know,
Speaker 1: however many miles or hey, I've got kids, How's that
Speaker 1: gonna work out for me? We'll start small, right and
Speaker 1: so for us, we saw some families when Kate and
Speaker 1: I went up to a Kadia National Park and they
Speaker 1: had the little kids hiking up the same freaking mountain
Speaker 1: that we were hiking up and we were wind ye were?
Speaker 1: I mean? Kate and I looked at each other and
Speaker 1: I thought, how the heck do we get our kids
Speaker 1: to do what those kids are doing? And what we
Speaker 1: realized after talking about it was that we just gotta
Speaker 1: start small and so and that means starting at your
Speaker 1: local park and just walking around the park and then
Speaker 1: stepping it up to like a little small mountain that
Speaker 1: you can go visit for free, and then before you
Speaker 1: know it, then you can hit up the biggest state
Speaker 1: parks and then you can hit up the big national parks.
Speaker 1: We're actively pursuing that because we have a bigger goal
Speaker 1: in mind, because our bigger goal is that we want
Speaker 1: to be able to take our entire family and go
Speaker 1: on these multi day hikes, or at least some solid hikes.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be multi day. If we want to
Speaker 1: go back and spend the night in a hotel, that's fine,
Speaker 1: But to be able to get out there and have
Speaker 1: them enjoy it, not only to be in shape, but
Speaker 1: just for them to know that this is fun and
Speaker 1: to see why it's fun, and to understand the time
Speaker 1: that they're able to spend out nature and with their family.
Speaker 1: To us, we found that that's so important because Kate
Speaker 1: and I we feel rejuvenated and we love that time
Speaker 1: that we get to spend together, and so we're trying
Speaker 1: to start young and brainwash our girls so that they
Speaker 1: know that that's what is also fun. Right. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's great, dude. I love that idea of starting small
Speaker 1: and working towards that bigger mountain to climb, and that's
Speaker 1: very good. Yeah, that's super cool. So it just it
Speaker 1: makes me want to go do the same with my girls,
Speaker 1: take them out and do a couple of smaller hikes
Speaker 1: and just kind of get them used to get kind
Speaker 1: of break their legs in as it were, but hopefully
Speaker 1: no actual broken legs. Yeah. And Jel, you already mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, to check out resources in your area, and
Speaker 1: that's the the downside, right is that some of these
Speaker 1: more local things, it's gonna come down to what's specific
Speaker 1: in your town or your neighborhood or your county. You know,
Speaker 1: we all share the national parks, but whatever is happening
Speaker 1: on more on a local level, it's gonna come down
Speaker 1: to just what's going on around you, So be sure
Speaker 1: to look around and see whoever it is that publishes
Speaker 1: a list of those free activities local happenings. Often times
Speaker 1: it's gonna be, like you said, dull, like a local
Speaker 1: bulletin board, maybe at the library. But if not that,
Speaker 1: you know, you've always got the paper. And a lot
Speaker 1: of times there's different entertainment periodicals and papers that exist
Speaker 1: as well who focus on those different kind of events,
Speaker 1: So be sure to pick one of those up if
Speaker 1: you haven't already. Yeah, man, Another easy way to kind
Speaker 1: of find out about local happenings is to ask your friends.
Speaker 1: I feel like I learned about so many things that
Speaker 1: are happening in our neighborhood that I didn't even know
Speaker 1: about before until my friends tell me, or I ask, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you up to this weekend? Oh, we're going
Speaker 1: to this or this for that. That's so much of
Speaker 1: the way I stay in for him is by just
Speaker 1: hear what people are up to, and so I would yeah,
Speaker 1: and just just by being human, right, talking to folks.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, ask your friends, ask your neighbors, Hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Hey, what's the last cool free
Speaker 1: thing you did in town? What are your favorite free
Speaker 1: resources you know nearby where we live, and you know,
Speaker 1: starting to as those questions and can make you aware
Speaker 1: of some cool free resources that you had no idea
Speaker 1: that they even existed. And you know, honestly, what I
Speaker 1: love about the different free resources is that they tend
Speaker 1: to push you out into the world, like out in
Speaker 1: the public, which is something that I love because I
Speaker 1: feel that so much of our consumeristic culture focuses on
Speaker 1: you as an individual, and so when you're making these
Speaker 1: purchases on your own, by yourself, without consulting others, you're
Speaker 1: just by yourself because you have everything that you need,
Speaker 1: and it leads to isolation and you're by yourself, and
Speaker 1: that's not really healthy as well. Certainly, there's introversial extroverts.
Speaker 1: People have different levels of time that they want to
Speaker 1: spend around other people, But generally speaking, there is something
Speaker 1: incredibly healthy about being sort of pushed out into the world,
Speaker 1: being surrounded by your neighbors and like minded folks and
Speaker 1: folks who aren't like minded, right, Like, this is all
Speaker 1: part of a full rich community. Anybody can take part
Speaker 1: in a resource that's free, and so you're gonna cross
Speaker 1: paths with somebody that you wouldn't normally cross paths with. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think one other thing. We want to encourage people
Speaker 1: to challenge yourself and desire to grow, especially when you're
Speaker 1: using technology, right like the apps that we talked about,
Speaker 1: or YouTube or podcast there's a tendency to even use
Speaker 1: those things as a way to veg out or just
Speaker 1: mindlessly consume and considering like the vast amount of amazing
Speaker 1: resources that you have access to, the amazing people that
Speaker 1: you have so much information to give and they're giving
Speaker 1: it away for free. I would challenge you, when you're
Speaker 1: looking at the next podcast you want to listen to,
Speaker 1: or the next YouTube channel you think you want to
Speaker 1: subscribe to, whatever it is, try to find something that
Speaker 1: isn't just going to gratify your immediate desires to be entertained,
Speaker 1: but instead trying to find something that is going to
Speaker 1: help you uh to learn a new skill, or achieve
Speaker 1: something that you've never achieved before, or learn something that
Speaker 1: you've always wanted to know about but you've never dove
Speaker 1: into it before, but now you have access for free
Speaker 1: because of those Internet resources. So challenge yourself to do
Speaker 1: that with those free resources, because it's just really easy
Speaker 1: to abuse them. Dude. I love that just because there's
Speaker 1: lots of stuff out there that is free doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you should be consuming it, right, Well, I mean essentially
Speaker 1: that's what you're saying. But just because there's this unlimited
Speaker 1: buffet of entertainment like cat we're joking about cat videos earlier,
Speaker 1: but but seriously, just because there probably more cat videos
Speaker 1: on YouTube than I can even watch in an entire lifetime, Yeah, dudeful.
Speaker 1: For me, it's it's less about the cat videos. And
Speaker 1: there's more of these sort of like crash videos that
Speaker 1: are popping up, like either dash cam where like a
Speaker 1: semi truck almost like tips over onto this unsuspecting Kia,
Speaker 1: like driving next to it on the interstate, and like
Speaker 1: for me, that's yeah, it's less about the cats. It's
Speaker 1: more about the near misses that kind of suck me in.
Speaker 1: If I was gonna start a band, I call it
Speaker 1: unsuspecting Kia. Can I play bass? You got it, buddy,
Speaker 1: our Matt. So let's get back to the beer. We're
Speaker 1: drinking Block fifteen brewing company Sticky Hands. Sticky Hands, Sticky Hands,
Speaker 1: brought down to us by our friend Dale from Portland.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Matt. At the beginning of the episode, we
Speaker 1: each gave one word to describe this beer. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: mine was resume or resin and what was yours? Mine
Speaker 1: was floral? Floral you wanna kick it off? So floral. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just felt like this beer had a bouquet of
Speaker 1: smells coming coming off of it, which is awesome. You
Speaker 1: just get a ton of hops, you know, a rollm
Speaker 1: up coming up through the nose. You know. I thought
Speaker 1: based on the smell that it was going to be
Speaker 1: even more dank than it was. But I feel like
Speaker 1: the hot taste actually, to me, tasted a little more florally.
Speaker 1: I've definitely had the pine, the pine backbone, but it
Speaker 1: also had like some nice floral florales. Yeah, light and
Speaker 1: and yeah it's super tasty. Yeah, I'm with you a
Speaker 1: lot of times when you like the danker sort of,
Speaker 1: I p a is have a sort of a wet
Speaker 1: basement kind of a heavier feel to it, and this
Speaker 1: kind of sits light up there. But for me, yeah,
Speaker 1: it did have sort of a resume. It got that
Speaker 1: classic kind of West Coast I p A where there's resins, piney.
Speaker 1: But I totally get what you're saying about the about
Speaker 1: the florals though. It's a delicious I p A. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of nice having something like this too in
Speaker 1: the middle of the winter when we've been drinking some
Speaker 1: bigger stouts, some bigger beers that might seem a little
Speaker 1: more appropriate for the winter, But dude, I'll drink an
Speaker 1: I p A any day of the year, any day
Speaker 1: for sure. All Right, Matt, we're both on untapped, which
Speaker 1: is an app that is free for super beer nerds
Speaker 1: like this. I like to keep track of the beers
Speaker 1: they're drinking and see what their friends are drinking. What
Speaker 1: would you rate Sticky Hands on Untapped? Yeah, man, I
Speaker 1: think I would give this four point. Oh It's it's
Speaker 1: not a style that I always gravitate towards, like more
Speaker 1: of the West Coast I PA. But you know, it
Speaker 1: tasted great, nice florals, like you said, And maybe because
Speaker 1: the name Sticky, you know, it kind of made me
Speaker 1: feel like there's just enough sweetness in there that kind
Speaker 1: of kind of pulled me in. And maybe want to
Speaker 1: drink another one. So yeah, I'll give it a four
Speaker 1: point Oh yeah, I agree, I mean I thought it
Speaker 1: was you. I'll give it a three point seven five.
Speaker 1: It's super solid. I agree you had a lot going on.
Speaker 1: It's really kind of fun to drink an ipa that's
Speaker 1: completely different than what we normally get and I really
Speaker 1: dug it, and so yeah, solid three point seven five
Speaker 1: from me. Yeah, great beer, all right, Joe, So real quick,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and give our final thoughts. The whole
Speaker 1: reason that we're talking about this is because oftentimes there
Speaker 1: are free resources out there and we do not think
Speaker 1: to use them. Once we do, we really as that
Speaker 1: it is just a much smarter and a more efficient
Speaker 1: way to use the resources around us. As mentioned, it
Speaker 1: will save you a good bit of money, So be
Speaker 1: sure to take advantage of those free things all around you. Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: these free resources are just gonna make your life better, really,
Speaker 1: So get outside, find a list of free activities of
Speaker 1: the local happenings. You'll find that resource and tap into it,
Speaker 1: and also make sure to ask your friends. Ask around
Speaker 1: of people in your community that you know are doing
Speaker 1: cool stuff, of your neighbors who you know are taking
Speaker 1: advantage of some of these free resources. Hey, how are
Speaker 1: you doing it? Where you finding out about these things?
Speaker 1: And and what are some of your favorites? And those
Speaker 1: are great ways to kind of get started down the
Speaker 1: rabbit hole of finding out what free resources are available
Speaker 1: and then tapping into them, because you don't want to
Speaker 1: leave these things on the table, right, They're free, and
Speaker 1: they're awesome and they can benefit you in so many ways. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: and real quick, this actually makes me think of the
Speaker 1: episode we just did about talking to your friends and
Speaker 1: family about money. What a great ice breaker to actually
Speaker 1: start talking about money with your friends then just to
Speaker 1: talk about like what cool festivals are you going to
Speaker 1: go to next week? Like when you have something like
Speaker 1: this in your real life that you're able to point
Speaker 1: to and ask about and share with your friends, then
Speaker 1: you can start those discussions about money. And it's really
Speaker 1: easy to do, no doubt. Man. So thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 1: Our home on the web is how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: We'll have links up for all the things that we
Speaker 1: mentioned on this episode. Yeah, that's right. And if you
Speaker 1: like this episode and have found it helpful, please consider
Speaker 1: leaving us a review. We would love to to hear
Speaker 1: how this podcast might be helping you and your financial journey,
Speaker 1: so consider leaving a review, and while you're there, hit
Speaker 1: subscribe our buddy. Until next time, best Friends Out, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out,