Speaker 1: Episode three zero one, Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, rice and liver rich your life.
Speaker 1: Here are your host Jen and Jill M. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we are talking about frugal living
Speaker 1: Tips from the Great Depression. Because let's just jump right in.
Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Google searching. Did
Speaker 1: you know when you type in frugal into Google, hashtag
Speaker 1: rhymes Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression is one
Speaker 1: of the top searches that comes up. Try it see
Speaker 1: for yourself. Right and personally, I have always hated that
Speaker 1: we don't think you have to live like you're in
Speaker 1: the Great Depression to be frugal. Feel like that's a
Speaker 1: very extreme frugality and we're not super into extremes unless
Speaker 1: it's extreme fun. Oh here for that. If you believedship,
Speaker 1: I think of what we have extreme friendship, start a
Speaker 1: business together and be contractually obligated to one another. I
Speaker 1: love our contractually obligated friendship. But back to the subject,
Speaker 1: we don't think you have to live like you're in
Speaker 1: the Great Depression to be frugal, and if you don't
Speaker 1: believe us, we have three hundred episodes that try to
Speaker 1: convince you, but you don't have to listen to any
Speaker 1: of them if you don't want to. If you head
Speaker 1: to our YouTube channel and watch just season one of
Speaker 1: Debt Free Stories, we have ten interviews with listeners just
Speaker 1: like you who've taken the principles we talk about on
Speaker 1: the show and use them to pay off a combined
Speaker 1: total over eight hundred thousand dollars of debt. So you
Speaker 1: can listen to all three hundred episodes, that's fine, We're
Speaker 1: cool with that. Or you could just go to YouTube
Speaker 1: dot com slash Frugal Friends and watched ten debt Free
Speaker 1: Stories to be inspired to make the most of frugality
Speaker 1: without all the depression. Wow. Great frugality, no depression. Good
Speaker 1: tie in. Also, I think the thing I'm most impressed
Speaker 1: with about this sponsor is how you added up the
Speaker 1: total combined debt paid off of all of the people
Speaker 1: we interviewed first season one of our Debt Free Stories
Speaker 1: on YouTube. I love that thousand dollars. I took all
Speaker 1: ten numbers and I added them in my calculator, and
Speaker 1: then did you round up or round down? I had
Speaker 1: to have round down because I've said over eight hundred. Oh,
Speaker 1: there it is. Yeah, I would have said almost eight hundred,
Speaker 1: so which I round it up. Yeah. It's list of
Speaker 1: details you learn when you're personal finance writers. You have
Speaker 1: to learn how to round up and down the words
Speaker 1: to say yeah around them. Well, here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: also feel like this episode is timely because while we
Speaker 1: don't believe that frugality needs to look the same as
Speaker 1: it did for our grandparents who maybe lived through or
Speaker 1: were born into the time of the Great Depression, but
Speaker 1: we're also experiencing a time of high inflation. There's constant
Speaker 1: talks of a recession, and it could be advantageous to
Speaker 1: us to look at some of the principles that are
Speaker 1: worth keeping. The take the meat, spit out the bones
Speaker 1: kind of thing that the economy does EBB and flow.
Speaker 1: Sometimes there's a frugality that works for us when we're
Speaker 1: in a bull market, and sometimes there's a frugality that
Speaker 1: works for us in a bear market. And sometimes it
Speaker 1: is just what we need for our current life circumstances.
Speaker 1: But I think, especially now more than maybe what we've
Speaker 1: seen in the past decade. There is a turn to Okay,
Speaker 1: what can I gather from those who have gone before
Speaker 1: or me who have experienced financial strain? Maybe that was
Speaker 1: a bit unexpected, and what can I be learning and
Speaker 1: gleaning from that to be implementing, not to be super
Speaker 1: deprivation or overly unnecessarily stringent, But there are principles and
Speaker 1: wisdom to be gained from the generations before us on
Speaker 1: what can be helpful and useful for us now, whether
Speaker 1: we're in a recession or depression or not, but certainly
Speaker 1: when we are. Yeah, and if you're interested in learning
Speaker 1: a little bit more about recessions and kind of what
Speaker 1: our economy has been going through for the past year plus,
Speaker 1: especially past year plus, check out episode two twenty four
Speaker 1: Recession Proving your Finances with Megan Rebuse. She is family
Speaker 1: Finance Mom on Instagram and I highly recommend you go
Speaker 1: follow her. She teaches me so much about the econom
Speaker 1: to me in her posts. She greatly helps us understand
Speaker 1: what's going on with the FED with the recession. When
Speaker 1: we recorded that literally last summer, we were heading into
Speaker 1: a recession. All the indicators pointed to it and then
Speaker 1: they changed the indicators to keep us out, and so
Speaker 1: we've just kind of been on this line for like
Speaker 1: a year, and so if you want to kind of
Speaker 1: understand more about that, listen to episode two twenty four.
Speaker 1: Follow her on Instagram at Family Finance Mom, but first
Speaker 1: listen to this episode. Yes, yes, So we are first
Speaker 1: going to go through this article that comes from Everything
Speaker 1: Abode seven money lessons learned from the Great Depression. Jenn
Speaker 1: and I are each going to pick three that we like,
Speaker 1: so there's going to be one outlier. So if you
Speaker 1: read the article, yeah, you got to have to read
Speaker 1: it if you if you want to know the last one, yes,
Speaker 1: it was so good. And I will also say at
Speaker 1: this point I'm feeling especially warm to this topic because
Speaker 1: I think it does remind me of my grandmother, who
Speaker 1: I call her Gimba. That's no language other than my
Speaker 1: older sister who couldn't say grandma as a young child,
Speaker 1: and it came out gimba and we made it up.
Speaker 1: It's our own language. But my Gimba was born during
Speaker 1: the Great Depression and carries with her many of the
Speaker 1: things that we're a reality of that time frame, like
Speaker 1: embedded and instilled in her into her sixties, seventies, eighties.
Speaker 1: Now she's in her nineties. God bless her, God she's
Speaker 1: so great. She has Alzheimers, so she forgets most things,
Speaker 1: but she still remembers out of knit. So then that
Speaker 1: leads me to number she has some booties. Number three
Speaker 1: on here is the first one I've picked. Is one
Speaker 1: of the money lessons from the Great Depression? Is that
Speaker 1: d I why d y Ing things is a sound
Speaker 1: financial strategy for many of us who we have grandparents
Speaker 1: or maybe parents who grew up during the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: It was a generation that believed in working with their hands,
Speaker 1: creating things, making repairs. These are things that are available
Speaker 1: to us now we've just maybe let go of them forgotten,
Speaker 1: don't want to. But if we want to take any
Speaker 1: of the wisdom or implement some of these strategies, this
Speaker 1: could be a really great place to start. Is there
Speaker 1: anything that you use often that you could make yourself.
Speaker 1: Is there any hobby that you want to pick up
Speaker 1: that could actually be useful for the things that you need,
Speaker 1: like sewing or gardening or making your own repairs. Is
Speaker 1: there something that's broken in your house and you're tempted
Speaker 1: to just throw it away and buy new, learn from
Speaker 1: those who went before us and endured the Great Depression,
Speaker 1: and repairing it yourself. We do have something on our
Speaker 1: side called the Internet that our grandparents did not have
Speaker 1: a man and we can look it all up. Don't
Speaker 1: know how to toil it? YouTube it. Don't know how
Speaker 1: to stop your leaky faucet YouTube it. Don't know how
Speaker 1: to clean out your dishwasher or your your your lind
Speaker 1: Lynn filter, I thought of that commercially, lind Liquor m
Speaker 1: You do bit and you can why it yourself, and
Speaker 1: then you're going to benefit as a result of knowing more,
Speaker 1: feeling accomplished, not needing to buy new things. D I
Speaker 1: wy it. We talk about this in the Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: Club our membership, and I personally hate like di ying
Speaker 1: a lot of things, like I'm not a di wire,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to repairs and maintenance, yes we
Speaker 1: will DIY before we call professional justice see if, because
Speaker 1: we already have the thing and so we would rather
Speaker 1: keep it out of a dump and try to repair
Speaker 1: it than just automatically go by new. So that is
Speaker 1: where we dy. I will not just like buy things
Speaker 1: and DIY something unless it's floating shelves because oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I've spent one hundred and fifty dollars on floating shelves
Speaker 1: or can buy an eighteen dollar like piece of wood.
Speaker 1: That's another story though typically I hate dying, but we
Speaker 1: talk about this in our membership, and so many people
Speaker 1: have taken the like have run with that and saved
Speaker 1: so much money, like but just by simply like maintenance
Speaker 1: and repair dy using YouTube. It's insane. So highly recommend
Speaker 1: that even if you're not a dyre just starting kind
Speaker 1: of something like that. I am personally going to jump
Speaker 1: back to number one and say, it's more than just
Speaker 1: being frugal. That's the first money lesson, and I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we have tried to emphasize on
Speaker 1: our show, is that being frugal for the sake of
Speaker 1: being frugal or for the sake of hoarding money is
Speaker 1: a horrible financial strategy. It's I mean, maybe it's not
Speaker 1: a horrible financial strate, say horrible life strategy, but rejecting
Speaker 1: frugal just for the sake of not wanting to be
Speaker 1: the person that's seen as stingy or a moocher or
Speaker 1: who's cheap also not a sound life strategy, because that's
Speaker 1: not what frugal is. So during the Great Depression, a
Speaker 1: person who is frugal was viewed as smart and responsible.
Speaker 1: Now we know they're seen as cheap, stingy moochers or
Speaker 1: I love like when I say I host the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, I'll have people come up to me like
Speaker 1: or wherever I'm speaking, be like, oh, I got this
Speaker 1: like shirt from a thrift store, or like trying to
Speaker 1: like show me how frugal they are or how little
Speaker 1: they spend, and I'm like, cu cu cu cu, that's
Speaker 1: not the point, but I am glad that you you
Speaker 1: bought their store clothes because I love their store clothes.
Speaker 1: But usually gets people like bragging about their coupons or
Speaker 1: how they didn't spend anything for this value add and
Speaker 1: it's like, yes, you can't spend money, or how they
Speaker 1: lost all their friends to pay off their debt. Like
Speaker 1: it's there, it's so interesting. But it's about more than
Speaker 1: the financial practices. It's about what the financial practices get you.
Speaker 1: It's about being able to afford more of what money
Speaker 1: can't buy. That is the purpose of being frugal. And
Speaker 1: there are some like everything you want. You might like,
Speaker 1: We'll give you an assignment list off everything you want
Speaker 1: on a piece of paper and see how much of
Speaker 1: it costs money. Like in one mindset, everything everything you
Speaker 1: put on that list will cost money. When you become
Speaker 1: when you adopt a frugal lifestyle frugal mindset, the things
Speaker 1: on your list no longer cost money, but it takes
Speaker 1: money to be able to get them. If that's what
Speaker 1: it's like. It's not things or experiences or things that
Speaker 1: inherently cost money, but it's like these self fulfillment things,
Speaker 1: these family fulfillment things, career fulfillment. It's these self actualization
Speaker 1: pieces that don't necessarily cost money in and of themselves,
Speaker 1: but do take money to pursue. So that is the
Speaker 1: point of frugality, not just being frugal for frugal's sake, Yes,
Speaker 1: having a deeper reason. The other tip or lesson learn
Speaker 1: from the Great Depression that I love. Number five the
Speaker 1: value of budgeting set a different way, The value of
Speaker 1: a spending plan, the value of knowing how much money
Speaker 1: is coming in, how much money is going out, where
Speaker 1: is it going to. The more that we feel as
Speaker 1: though we have an understanding and are in control of that,
Speaker 1: the better off we're going to feel about our finances,
Speaker 1: the more intentional decisions we can make. And ultimately, the
Speaker 1: goal of really having a plan in place like that
Speaker 1: and knowledge and understanding is to spend less than we earns.
Speaker 1: So that doesn't mean that we can't ever spend, or
Speaker 1: that are spending needs to look the same as somebody else,
Speaker 1: just that are spending. Really we want to get it
Speaker 1: to less than what we earn, and that includes, you know,
Speaker 1: making room for saving and investing and paying down debt,
Speaker 1: whatever it is that your goals are, and lowering some
Speaker 1: of those bills and cost of living, but still being
Speaker 1: able to say yes to the things that are valuable
Speaker 1: and important to you. I still remember that my great grandfather,
Speaker 1: so my grandmother's father, had a ledger that he kept
Speaker 1: and they of course kept it, like I mean, they
Speaker 1: don't have Excel spreadsheets or all the apps or the
Speaker 1: different programs, And he had this ledger that he would
Speaker 1: keep daily record of transactions. And that seems absurd and
Speaker 1: over the top, but yet that kind of practice, at
Speaker 1: least for a short time, can really help us to
Speaker 1: get acquainted with our spending, our habits, our behaviors, and
Speaker 1: help us hone in on how do we actually want
Speaker 1: to be engaging with our money and what are the
Speaker 1: decisions we want to be making around it? And really
Speaker 1: probably because there wasn't a debit card a credit card
Speaker 1: that he was swiping where he could just pull up
Speaker 1: the transaction list like he had to manually do that.
Speaker 1: And what more value than there is to understanding how
Speaker 1: you're interacting with your money. But we've got it a
Speaker 1: little bit easier and a little bit harder in some ways.
Speaker 1: But getting in touch to deeper levels with your habits
Speaker 1: and behaviors around money, I think is a really important
Speaker 1: lesson and something we can be implementing that will benefit
Speaker 1: us in the long run. Yes. Absolutely. My next one
Speaker 1: is save for a rainy day. And who hasn't heard
Speaker 1: this phrase save for a rainy day? But we do
Speaker 1: take it for granted. I think even if we don't
Speaker 1: intend to, we still take it for granted because we're
Speaker 1: still shocked when emergencies come and we still don't save
Speaker 1: enough in our emergency funds. And that's really what this is.
Speaker 1: Take advantage of the good times and save for the
Speaker 1: lean ones. There will always be sometime like it may
Speaker 1: not be for years or decades, but eventually you will
Speaker 1: need your emergency fund, and hopefully it's not for like
Speaker 1: a bad reason. Hopefully it's you know, a neutral emergency,
Speaker 1: as neutral as emergencies can get. But you're gonna need it,
Speaker 1: and we just we don't value it enough. So and
Speaker 1: that includes, and I would say, not just rainy days,
Speaker 1: saving for retirement. I don't think that we often value
Speaker 1: that one enough for what it really is, because investing
Speaker 1: for retirement isn't just It is not saving for a
Speaker 1: hammock on the beach. It is saving to cover your
Speaker 1: bills and expenses. So even if you get Social Security
Speaker 1: in your later years, that is gonna probably cover your housing,
Speaker 1: maybe your food, But if you would like to I
Speaker 1: don't know, drive or like go out to eat, like
Speaker 1: in addition to groceries, it's probably not going to be
Speaker 1: enough to cover that stuff, or like if you would
Speaker 1: like to have utilities like lights or water, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Social Security is likely not going to cover all of
Speaker 1: your expenses. So we're not saving for a hammock on
Speaker 1: the beach. We're not even saving for a rainy day.
Speaker 1: We're saving just for a day. We're saving for our
Speaker 1: future days. So I would say your emergency fund is important,
Speaker 1: but also saving just for days in the future is
Speaker 1: of equal importance. So yeah, we have to do it
Speaker 1: now because you may not be able to work later,
Speaker 1: just you know, going for the easy ones, hunt John,
Speaker 1: I am reality. Hopefully we have days, hopefully breaking day.
Speaker 1: I want to assume that you'll have days, and I
Speaker 1: want you to have money to spend all your days.
Speaker 1: Thank you, John, I believe you. The last one on
Speaker 1: this list for me is number six. The value of
Speaker 1: diversification and multiple income streams. So this is referring to
Speaker 1: both investing and types of savings and investment accounts, making
Speaker 1: sure that we're putting money into a few different places.
Speaker 1: That's that's saying not having all of your eggs in
Speaker 1: one basket, but making sure that your investments are in
Speaker 1: a variety of places so that if one is risky
Speaker 1: or doesn't do as well, then you've got this other
Speaker 1: account that is also seeking to earn interest for you.
Speaker 1: But then I like how they paired this with the
Speaker 1: seeking multiple income streams. Now, I want to find the
Speaker 1: radical middle here because I also think that we've had
Speaker 1: such a focus on hustle culture and side hustles and
Speaker 1: you have to do more and just having one full
Speaker 1: time job isn't enough. There was a recent commercial. I
Speaker 1: don't really see commercials. I think Eric and I were
Speaker 1: at a hotel or something and had the TV on
Speaker 1: and this commercial just like caught me so off guard.
Speaker 1: It was talking about a credit card. That was the
Speaker 1: way that they were advertising. It was talking about how
Speaker 1: we all have side hustles and the credit card was
Speaker 1: going to be able to make it easier for you
Speaker 1: to have a side hustler. Because you have a side hustle,
Speaker 1: you can have this credit card. I don't totally don't
Speaker 1: know how they were tying it in. I just know
Speaker 1: that they were talking about side hustles. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: day and age are we in where it is apparently
Speaker 1: so commonplace that they're commercial to the masses for a
Speaker 1: big credit card. One of the biggest credit card companies
Speaker 1: is talking about side hustles. To me, that was highlighting
Speaker 1: an issue in society. Our full time jobs aren't paying
Speaker 1: us enough that we need a side hustle. Whether it's
Speaker 1: highlighting the greed that we have and we all just
Speaker 1: want more, or it's highlighting the fact that none of
Speaker 1: us are getting paid enough to cover our most basic expenses.
Speaker 1: I don't know either way. It's a problem. So I
Speaker 1: kind of want to like rain this in and not
Speaker 1: say you should you have to have. If you don't
Speaker 1: have an extra stream of revenue, you need to get
Speaker 1: one just for the sake of getting one. Right, it's
Speaker 1: not frugality for the sake of frugality. It's not earning
Speaker 1: more for the sake of earning more. But it isn't
Speaker 1: a reasonable thing to consider if your regular work is
Speaker 1: not enough to cover or isn't really kind of tipping
Speaker 1: the scales for some of those financial goals that you have,
Speaker 1: at least for a season. It doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: a long term lifestyle, but at least for a time,
Speaker 1: considering an additional stream of revenue and hopefully within the
Speaker 1: realm of things that you enjoy. So, are you already
Speaker 1: a biker like a bicyclist, and you can fix your
Speaker 1: own bikes and maybe you can pick up some extra
Speaker 1: cash fixing other people's bikes for them too, and that's
Speaker 1: something that you enjoy and you get to chat with
Speaker 1: the neighbors while you do it, Or do you already
Speaker 1: watch your own children and hey, what's two more and
Speaker 1: you can make a little bit of extra cash watching
Speaker 1: other people's kids for a time, a few hours a day,
Speaker 1: a weekend. I don't know your life or whatever else
Speaker 1: it is that you might enjoy that might be able
Speaker 1: to bring in additional income. Again, one of the things
Speaker 1: I'm going to highlight is make sure you enjoy it,
Speaker 1: but also don't put the pressure on yourself to do
Speaker 1: that if you don't actually need it. Absolutely And the
Speaker 1: last one from this article is to eat at home.
Speaker 1: That is a great lesson that we got from the
Speaker 1: Great Depression that we have for sure lost over the years.
Speaker 1: And they say when the stock market crashed and shuttered businesses,
Speaker 1: many families had to scrape by on what they could
Speaker 1: to survive, and that meant eating out was no longer
Speaker 1: an option. Families got creative, which is a tenant of frugality,
Speaker 1: and they cooked their own meals, scrabbling together what they
Speaker 1: could find at home. So they new dishes came into
Speaker 1: vogue out of sheer necessity. And it doesn't list any
Speaker 1: of them. I wish it did, but eating at home
Speaker 1: and we all want to do it, we all find
Speaker 1: it is the hardest thing to do and we have
Speaker 1: spent Like gosh, we probably have like fifty episodes on
Speaker 1: how to make eating at home easier? Like not just
Speaker 1: we all know that it's important, but how do we
Speaker 1: make it easier? How do we follow through? Well, I
Speaker 1: mean the Frugal Friends have made it easier in the
Speaker 1: membership by giving everyone in our membership meal plan each month.
Speaker 1: So there's another reason to check that out. We do
Speaker 1: do that, yes, But so eating at home, even if
Speaker 1: it is not the perfect budget friendly meal, even if
Speaker 1: it is not the perfect meal, definitely calculate and this
Speaker 1: is where tracking your transactions and your expenses comes in.
Speaker 1: Figure out your cost per meal of eating at home
Speaker 1: of everything versus eating out, and really consider how much
Speaker 1: you save by eating at home and talk with other
Speaker 1: people get ideas. That's the best way I think to
Speaker 1: give new invigoration to it. And yeah, again the internet
Speaker 1: is a great resource for us trying to implement on
Speaker 1: some of these things. So moving on to the next article,
Speaker 1: which comes from Money Crashers and it is eight money
Speaker 1: saving foru gality tips from the Depression era. Again, Jenn
Speaker 1: and I are just going to go through three of
Speaker 1: our faves. I'm just going to kick it off with
Speaker 1: number one because I love it so much and I'm
Speaker 1: putting it in all caps, even though the article doesn't
Speaker 1: use what you have, and I am kind of yelling
Speaker 1: at because that's what all caps demands, that we need
Speaker 1: to be using up what we already have on hand.
Speaker 1: This has to do with food, toiletries, cleaning products, just
Speaker 1: anything that we already have using it. This also means
Speaker 1: exploring substitutions in our cooking and recipes and meals and
Speaker 1: cleaning products that it doesn't always even mean that we
Speaker 1: have to replace what we've used up. Maybe we can
Speaker 1: use up our vinegar in cleaning as the best cleaning
Speaker 1: product honestly out there is vinegar and lemon and hot
Speaker 1: water and rag and some good old elbow grease. Can't
Speaker 1: buy that at the store, that's just find elbow grease. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at home, at work, put your body to work. And
Speaker 1: I love too. We talked about this a bit recently
Speaker 1: with Ingrid from declutter hub. This is this is just
Speaker 1: good across the board. It's good for our finances, it's
Speaker 1: good for reducing waste, it's good for creating contentment that
Speaker 1: we can just explore what's already in our pantries and
Speaker 1: our cabinets and under our sinks and use that we
Speaker 1: don't have to get whatever's new and hot on the
Speaker 1: market or throw it away just because it's half empty.
Speaker 1: What if it were half full? Am I right? So
Speaker 1: number two is to avoid food waste, and you know
Speaker 1: we love that. We love that tip. We hate food waste.
Speaker 1: And it is not only a way. It not only
Speaker 1: hits the frugality button, It hits the minimalist button because
Speaker 1: you are only buying what you need so you have
Speaker 1: minimal food on hand, And hits the sustainability button because
Speaker 1: less food is sitting in the dumps that we do
Speaker 1: pay for with our taxes. And so it just hits
Speaker 1: every button for me. Avoiding food waste literally again using
Speaker 1: what you have and just eating what you have and
Speaker 1: when you see that it's about to go bad and
Speaker 1: you can't eat it, freezing it if you have it
Speaker 1: and you don't really like it anymore, repurposing it, but
Speaker 1: just avoiding as much food waste as possible. Yes, I
Speaker 1: love that too, you know how important that is to me.
Speaker 1: And number three we're just going in order because this
Speaker 1: is a good article, This one I found so interesting
Speaker 1: to research Depression era recipes, which yes, is a Google
Speaker 1: search that you can do. The article does give a
Speaker 1: few examples of recipes to use. Now again, I'm going
Speaker 1: to challenge us to hold the radical middle here, because
Speaker 1: there are some things that we do out of necessity
Speaker 1: that aren't required long term, and some things that are
Speaker 1: just good long term. Like if we don't have to
Speaker 1: find recipes that don't use milk, eggs, whatever, then don't
Speaker 1: explore that. But if you are feeling the pinch of
Speaker 1: the price of eggs and animal products and meat, there
Speaker 1: is a plethora of resources for you. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of these Depression era recipes are meatless, animal product less,
Speaker 1: and usually are these kind of staples that are easy
Speaker 1: to find, less expensive still the case nearly a hundred
Speaker 1: years later, of they're just affordable food options. I think
Speaker 1: they gave like a carrotcake recipe that doesn't use any
Speaker 1: dairy in it, So that could be an option if
Speaker 1: even if you want a challenge to yourself or you
Speaker 1: want to find new recipes, this could kind of be
Speaker 1: a little gamifying way or out of necessity way of
Speaker 1: determining how to cut some of your food costs. Let's
Speaker 1: dig back into the past, what did our grandparents and
Speaker 1: great grandparents make when money was tight? And maybe you'd
Speaker 1: find yourself a good recipe in there. All right, For
Speaker 1: my next one, I'm going to jump to number seven
Speaker 1: and say use less electricity. So I'm not about going
Speaker 1: off the grid, like that's not me, but I do
Speaker 1: think that we could all stand to use a little
Speaker 1: less electricity, but also use a little more electricity. So
Speaker 1: hear me out, the move away from like towards like
Speaker 1: electric vehicles. I love that. So using a little more
Speaker 1: electricity in lieu of gasoline, you know, guzzling products cool.
Speaker 1: But then in the things that we are used to
Speaker 1: using electricity for. So maybe that means staying off your
Speaker 1: phone a little so that you don't have to charge
Speaker 1: it as many times throughout the day, or turning the
Speaker 1: lights off during the day. You can keep your lights
Speaker 1: on at night. I know, Travis. Every time I leave room,
Speaker 1: Travis turns off a light and I'm like, I was
Speaker 1: just gonna go right back into that room, and I
Speaker 1: would like it to be lit. So within like you know, necessity,
Speaker 1: like away, the lights can be on. But if if
Speaker 1: it's daytime, the boogeyman is not there, and you don't
Speaker 1: need the light, right, um so maybe on the shoulder season.
Speaker 1: So this is like my favorite one in the shoulder seasons,
Speaker 1: spring and fall, using the natural air conditioning that is
Speaker 1: all around you. Going outside more. Oh my gosh, spending
Speaker 1: more time outside is so underrated. Yeah. So, so just
Speaker 1: kind of not trying to like unplug things at the
Speaker 1: end of the night to save you know, a couple
Speaker 1: cents in electricity, but doing like big things that will
Speaker 1: um lower your energy consumption so that you can maybe
Speaker 1: compensate with something else that's using electricity, that is, you know,
Speaker 1: not using another more expensive utility to this is more
Speaker 1: expensive than electricity, right, yes, typically Yeah, so I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, save where you can so you can spend
Speaker 1: it elsewhere. To me, turning out the lights, especially if
Speaker 1: you have LED light bulbs, is like the Latte factor,
Speaker 1: Like you focused on the wrong thing, the wrong thing, thanks, Kanye,
Speaker 1: Like we want to we want to look at when
Speaker 1: it comes to electricity, what are the heavy hitters. And
Speaker 1: it's going to be your washing machine and dryer and
Speaker 1: your oven and your bigger appliances and so I and
Speaker 1: the HVAC system Like you're referencing gen and so is
Speaker 1: there an opportunity to air dryer things and not use
Speaker 1: the dryer. Can you make a cold dinner, you know,
Speaker 1: especially in the summers, your pasta, salads, your salads, you're
Speaker 1: just something that's a little bit more light and fresh,
Speaker 1: and you're not turning on the oven, which is dual purpose.
Speaker 1: You're not overheating yourself, and you're not spending a ton
Speaker 1: of electricity. Does your house need to be max heated
Speaker 1: and cooled all of the time or are there alternative
Speaker 1: ways that you can be looking at? Can you just
Speaker 1: open the windows? So those are the things I would
Speaker 1: encourage us to look at more than just like din
Speaker 1: you turn off the light in the bathroom, that's just
Speaker 1: not going to save you much. Penny all all my
Speaker 1: dad's out here listening to this are like, don't touch
Speaker 1: the therma stuff. They're like here for it. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's think about our heavy hitters and focus on those.
Speaker 1: I think doing more activities outside and those shoulder seasons
Speaker 1: or I guess for us it's the shoulder seasons, but
Speaker 1: for maybe northerners it's summer, and just try and try
Speaker 1: and do that instead of like kind of nickel and
Speaker 1: diming your savings with electricity. The last one I'm calling
Speaker 1: out on here is the number six make your own
Speaker 1: kind of connected to DIY, but thinking next level of
Speaker 1: what can I do myself? Make my own that works
Speaker 1: maybe just as good, if not better, saves me money.
Speaker 1: The thing about making your own is that typically it's
Speaker 1: not going to save you any time. It's mostly going
Speaker 1: to save you money and end is often has the
Speaker 1: added benefit of maybe being the healthier, more sustainable, better
Speaker 1: for you alternatives. It does have a few things going
Speaker 1: for it, but it definitely typically does not have the
Speaker 1: time saving element. But we're talking about making your own
Speaker 1: cleaning products, which is usually just vinegar and water that
Speaker 1: doesn't take a ton of time. I will encourage you
Speaker 1: to do that. Making your own beauty products, depending on
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, that could take some extra time.
Speaker 1: Kombucha they list. I've not tried this. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have gotten into this. Hats off
Speaker 1: to you. That feels like even next level. That's that's
Speaker 1: the elevated tear up. I don't know if I trust myself,
Speaker 1: but that's fun canned foods. That feels like something I
Speaker 1: might get into eventually. Of canning foods that I would
Speaker 1: canned foods before I'd make che don't like ka. I
Speaker 1: think it's making your own pie, crossed, your own pasta,
Speaker 1: doing your own beans. But whatever is going to be
Speaker 1: most important to you, feels like it's going to be
Speaker 1: the most cost saving. But an additional thing I'll add
Speaker 1: to this section is making your own could be an
Speaker 1: activity that you do with your kids or with a friend.
Speaker 1: If there's something here that sounds interesting, you could pair
Speaker 1: it with an opportunity to get together with other people
Speaker 1: try something new together. That it's reminding me actually as
Speaker 1: I'm talking about that interview we had recently as well,
Speaker 1: talking about going more plant based and getting together and
Speaker 1: trying new recipes with people, trying these things out, trying
Speaker 1: canning food together. So that appeals to me because I
Speaker 1: think it combines a couple of different values, certainly the
Speaker 1: value of spending time with other people, community and saving money.
Speaker 1: So just being creative, making your own figuring out how
Speaker 1: you can incorporate other people into that process. I love
Speaker 1: that one. Hey Man. Again, not a big di I wire,
Speaker 1: but I do appreciate it on occasion for the big things.
Speaker 1: For the big things. So if you're not a big
Speaker 1: di wire, then reserve it for just some of your
Speaker 1: heavy hitters, like we mentioned before, And my last one
Speaker 1: is my favorite one. It's always my favorite on any
Speaker 1: list I find, and I happen to find it on
Speaker 1: a lot of lists because I'm looking for it. It's
Speaker 1: to focus on one main task. And I didn't know
Speaker 1: that this was a tip from the Great Depression. Who
Speaker 1: knew money Crashers knew. And they say, if you've ever
Speaker 1: read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods,
Speaker 1: which I don't, I assume is a follow up to
Speaker 1: Little House on the Prairie, because prairies are probably smaller
Speaker 1: than big woods. You know that when Laura was growing up,
Speaker 1: her ma had a specific task for each day and
Speaker 1: they were set in stone wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean on Friday, bake
Speaker 1: on Saturday, rest on Sunday. Oh, I love that. Let's
Speaker 1: get back to the big Woods. The sounds like a simple, yeah,
Speaker 1: laborious life that yes, it might be nice, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to switch up churn on Thursdays to be something else.
Speaker 1: The advantage of using a schedule like this is that
Speaker 1: it provides a framework for getting bigger tasks done on
Speaker 1: top of all the other chores you've got to accomplish.
Speaker 1: So this is something that we talk about all the time,
Speaker 1: is when you prioritize one thing, you keep it really simple,
Speaker 1: you get it done. That is kind of like our
Speaker 1: life motto. We are pretty lazy, but we like so
Speaker 1: when we had Kendra Dacion, she's a lazy genius and
Speaker 1: she always says, be lazy or be a genius in
Speaker 1: the things that matter and lazy in the things that don't.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of like the approach that we take
Speaker 1: to frugality is to really focus on the things that matter.
Speaker 1: But first you have to name the things that matter.
Speaker 1: You've got to find out what those things are so
Speaker 1: that you can be intentional with those and then either
Speaker 1: say no to the things that don't matter or just
Speaker 1: be as efficient and like minimal effort necessary for the
Speaker 1: other things that don't you don't value, but you still
Speaker 1: have to do. That's been a helpful approach to with
Speaker 1: just meal planning, Like we can input that to really
Speaker 1: any aspect of life, especially the ones that feel overwhelming.
Speaker 1: We can't seem to get a handle on. I love
Speaker 1: the way you approach meal plans gen of like meatless Monday,
Speaker 1: something Tuesday. It changes up too, so it's not like
Speaker 1: that every month, but like like a meatless Monday, handheld Tuesday,
Speaker 1: so like a sandwich or kel zone and then like
Speaker 1: soup Wednesday, or like fridge clean out Friday. Just anything
Speaker 1: like a template. It doesn't mean that that looks the
Speaker 1: same all the time, but you have a template. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I love. Yeah, we just have a template. You know,
Speaker 1: we do this for feb Wary and then try something
Speaker 1: new in March sort of thing. You know what else
Speaker 1: has a template easily implemented. There's no question marks. It's
Speaker 1: the one thing. It's the main tasks. It's super simple,
Speaker 1: so it gets done the week. That's right, It's time
Speaker 1: for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
Speaker 1: baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you
Speaker 1: paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're
Speaker 1: happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Build
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bill, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi,
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. This is Kim from Rochester, Minnesota. Just
Speaker 1: wanted to say I appreciate everything you guys do on
Speaker 1: the podcast. It's been great for helping me create a budget.
Speaker 1: My bill the week is the six percent raise that
Speaker 1: I got at work. I will be using these extra
Speaker 1: bills towards putting my dog in obedience classes. I rescued
Speaker 1: him off the streets of Alabama, and I'm super excited
Speaker 1: for him to go into obedience school and nose work,
Speaker 1: which is a canine sports competition. These are things that
Speaker 1: we can do together, and I'm really excited about it
Speaker 1: because he's been great for my mental health. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: wonder who rescued who, and I look forward to doing
Speaker 1: these classes with the extra money that I get. Thanks guys,
Speaker 1: Oh Kim, this is amazing. This is so celebratory. First
Speaker 1: of all, congratulations on your six percent raise. That's exciting,
Speaker 1: well done, sounds well earned, well deserved. And then you're
Speaker 1: very intentional, values based approach to how you're choosing to
Speaker 1: allocate some of that increased revenue sending your doggie to
Speaker 1: obedience school so that you can find fun things to
Speaker 1: do together. This is one of those like one thing expenses, right, So,
Speaker 1: like we were just talking about like focusing on one
Speaker 1: main tasks, like getting your one main thing like putting
Speaker 1: using your race. To put your dog in obedience school
Speaker 1: will save you money in so many ways in the
Speaker 1: long run, even though you're just doing it to like
Speaker 1: make life easier and to have more things to do.
Speaker 1: Like a dog that's trained choose up like your stuff
Speaker 1: less and does not you know, attack people on the street.
Speaker 1: And these are all like actual stories that I hear
Speaker 1: all the time from dog owners. So that you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay for that person's medical bills. There are
Speaker 1: like so many reasons why this expense is going to
Speaker 1: compound your savings over time. And I think, as as
Speaker 1: somebody who does not own a dog, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of respect and appreciation for people who train their
Speaker 1: dogs really well, especially for like I don't know what
Speaker 1: was that nose test like that like competition thing like
Speaker 1: just go to go above and beyond to do fun
Speaker 1: things with them. I very much appreciate that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody that doesn't like to get attacked by dogs, it's
Speaker 1: kind to you, it's kind to your dog. Well, don Kim,
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing. If you all listening have a bill
Speaker 1: where you're sending someone to obedience school, we want to
Speaker 1: hear from you. That's just good clean fun us A
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill send us your
Speaker 1: bill because we're not stopping. We're focused on this one thing.
Speaker 1: And your dog's name's Bill, and now it's time for yo.
Speaker 1: How's that for mouth sounds? So sorry Christian. Christian like
Speaker 1: hates our mouth sounds. He doesn't hate our mouth sounds.
Speaker 1: He's just so polite in saying you have a lot
Speaker 1: of mouth sounds. Water. I just want you to be healthy. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So this one's from Goldie, our podcast manager, and she
Speaker 1: says it's because she fell down the rabbit hole that
Speaker 1: is Reddit, and I fell down the same rabbit hole
Speaker 1: because she left the link to it. She says, what
Speaker 1: depression era trick did your parents or grandparents teach you
Speaker 1: that you're still doing today? And this will link to
Speaker 1: this Reddit thread. I guess it is in the show
Speaker 1: notes because you might fall you might enjoy it as well.
Speaker 1: Reddit such a great placed kick us all. My grandmother,
Speaker 1: my gimba. She feels so intgirl to so many things
Speaker 1: that I do now, Like the list could go on
Speaker 1: and on and on, but to name a few, keeping
Speaker 1: and reusing tissue paper for gifts. It might be like
Speaker 1: borderline cheap but hey, why not why throw out very
Speaker 1: reasonably still good tissue paper just because it has a
Speaker 1: few wrinkles in it. I mean, I don't think I've
Speaker 1: ever had to buy new tissue paper. I got the
Speaker 1: tissue paper from a grandmother that went to my mom
Speaker 1: that's now mine. Even when I give gifts, if it
Speaker 1: looks like the person's going to throw it away, I'll
Speaker 1: take it back, not the gift, just like the stressue
Speaker 1: of paper, maybe even the bag, and I just reuse that.
Speaker 1: I never actually write on the tag on the bags
Speaker 1: and like that. You can't reuse. Oh, it's so rude
Speaker 1: when people do that. It's so rude. I think we
Speaker 1: talk a lot about my packet drawer, but we don't
Speaker 1: talk about my gift bag cabinet. I have a gift
Speaker 1: bag cabinet that has a ton of gift bags, a
Speaker 1: ton of tissue paper, blank cards, Yes, because you gotta.
Speaker 1: You only buy blank car because you can use them
Speaker 1: for every reason. Yes. Yeah, I have a little cabinet
Speaker 1: in my China hutch that doesn't doesn't have any China China.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, what, it's a hutch. Jin's trying
Speaker 1: to be someone she's not in our china cabinet, but
Speaker 1: does not have any china. You've seen the cabinet and
Speaker 1: we don't own china. Um. But yeah, it's like a
Speaker 1: little gift cabinet. And I never buy gift bags. I
Speaker 1: never buy tissue paper, except for one time I had
Speaker 1: a bag with no tissue paper and I had to
Speaker 1: buy tissue paper. I keep some of that stuff in
Speaker 1: my car. Do you do so that if I'm like
Speaker 1: last minute gift giving, I don't have to spend money
Speaker 1: on that extra fluff that. Well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it's like to give last minute gifts. Mine are always
Speaker 1: I also have gifts for kids, like if Kai receives something,
Speaker 1: and I could do this more when before he like
Speaker 1: really understood Christmas and birthdays. But I would take gifts
Speaker 1: that I knew he wouldn't play with, or were duplicates,
Speaker 1: or were much too old for him and keep them
Speaker 1: in the gift closet so that I could either gift
Speaker 1: them to another child or give them to Kai again
Speaker 1: at a later holiday. Yeah, so we have the gift
Speaker 1: like a little gift basket in the closet. The basket
Speaker 1: is full of ungiven gifts. Well, they were given to kai,
Speaker 1: but they were taken away. And then the cabinet with
Speaker 1: bags yep, sewing and mending for me to buying second hand.
Speaker 1: I mean I really only grasped the value of that
Speaker 1: first through my grandmother. So so many things. See, I
Speaker 1: had packet drawer down here. Nobody ever taught me. We
Speaker 1: did not do Depression era things when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: There was none of that, like none of the stereotypical
Speaker 1: I I was looking. I was in that rabbit hole
Speaker 1: in the Reddit thread looking for something that I did
Speaker 1: or that my grandmother or my mother did growing up.
Speaker 1: And my grandmother, she was bougie, she had tastes that
Speaker 1: were outside of her lifestyle. She actually had a china cabinet.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one hundred percent yes, and there was china
Speaker 1: in it. I couldn't think of anything. Now there is
Speaker 1: something to be said for that too where And I
Speaker 1: saw this in my grandmother as well, who I would
Speaker 1: define as very frugal, But that frugality also lent itself
Speaker 1: to buying quality things but then ensuring that it would last.
Speaker 1: So she would go to the higher end shoe store
Speaker 1: and buy very expensive shoes and meet with the consultant
Speaker 1: or get a very nice coat and actually pay the
Speaker 1: habit tailored, which seems like the bougie way to go,
Speaker 1: but in reality, then has these pair of shoes that
Speaker 1: last for years, and this coat that lasts for years,
Speaker 1: that when it got a rip in it or a
Speaker 1: stain on it, there was investment in let me mend
Speaker 1: this myself, let me figure out how to get this
Speaker 1: stain out of it. And I would say, to some degree,
Speaker 1: I carry that with me as well. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that'd be the same for you with your bougie grandmother.
Speaker 1: But this reality to buying really quality things in certain
Speaker 1: areas can also be the Depression area era, or at
Speaker 1: least the nineteen fifties takeaway of really quality things that
Speaker 1: can last and then taking care of them to ensure
Speaker 1: that they last. Yeah, I don't. I don't think I
Speaker 1: got that. She did. I know you did. My grandmother
Speaker 1: hoarded toilet paper. That was the one thing she hoarded,
Speaker 1: and she drank really cheap beer. Those were like her
Speaker 1: two things that grounded her. I don't drink beer and
Speaker 1: I don't hoard toilet paper. But I did get an
Speaker 1: inheritance of toilet paper from her after her death. That
Speaker 1: was like my inheritance from her was a lot of
Speaker 1: toilet paper. So you were fine. Uh. I mean she
Speaker 1: like twenty twelve, so a long time before you were
Speaker 1: wishing Grandma, we're stilly here? Had you covered? She was
Speaker 1: an interesting lady. Yeah, I don't, gosh, I wish I
Speaker 1: had an answer. All of the great depression things that
Speaker 1: I do, I do because I do them because so
Speaker 1: it's like piece my gift bag cabinet or my packet drawer,
Speaker 1: or I do them because of Travis. Yeah, Travis turns
Speaker 1: off every light in the house every second. Jill actually
Speaker 1: noticed this, and I didn't even say anything, but I
Speaker 1: was just like, oh my god, you see it too.
Speaker 1: It's not just me. I respect it. It's his home. Yes, sorry,
Speaker 1: Travis didn't mean to leave the line on, but I did.
Speaker 1: I did mean to leave the line on. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing. Wow. Everyone, thanks for going on this rabbit
Speaker 1: hole with us and for listening. We hope that this
Speaker 1: has at least sparked some memories of your growing up,
Speaker 1: your loved ones, and if not, if you're like Jen,
Speaker 1: your's I N D E p n D E n
Speaker 1: T over here and like you established your old patterns
Speaker 1: that's cool too. Wow. Any of you know We have
Speaker 1: a membership for our listeners who are paying off debt
Speaker 1: or trying to reach other kind of money goals. We
Speaker 1: do monthly money challenges, which is so fun. Who doesn't
Speaker 1: like some games and account of ability groups for that
Speaker 1: community that you all need. We want to congratulate one
Speaker 1: of our members for a big win. This comes from Alicia,
Speaker 1: who shared I was in bed and picked up my
Speaker 1: phone to mindlessly scroll. I love the honesty. I saw
Speaker 1: an ad for a face product that caught my attention.
Speaker 1: I got as far as the checkout process before I
Speaker 1: caught myself and deleted my cart. I decided then and
Speaker 1: there that I will no longer make any online purchases
Speaker 1: without being fully awake, out of bed and checking in
Speaker 1: with my spending plan first. This is a big step
Speaker 1: in cutting back on impulse purchases. You've done it, You're
Speaker 1: doing it. You set parameters and you're following them to
Speaker 1: beat the best version of yourself that you can. Who
Speaker 1: are at the end of the episode for fishtag rhyming
Speaker 1: and I'm like shrugging my shoulders like a dance depression
Speaker 1: era dance. Thanks for listening for tuning in to our
Speaker 1: song and Dance show. If you will want to check
Speaker 1: out our membership where there's more song and dance. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I can't promise. Maybe there is, and and
Speaker 1: we definitely do have courses, interviews, challenges, and so much more.
Speaker 1: Head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club check
Speaker 1: it out Did you see you next time? Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: is produced by Eric Syrian Chill Tell Me Tell Me
Speaker 1: about TJ Max. I negotiated a thirty percent discount on
Speaker 1: my sheet on my sheet sheet set. That's hard to say.
Speaker 1: It is difficult to discount on my sheet set. We
Speaker 1: don't have a home to core podcast sheet set. Bedding,
Speaker 1: let's call it bedding sheets for my bed, sheets for
Speaker 1: your bed. They were finally going to change those good
Speaker 1: are you? They were not on clearance, but they had
Speaker 1: clearly been previously purchased by someone and returned but still
Speaker 1: had like the same sticker price on them. They just
Speaker 1: looked in rough shape. However, they were very luxury brand.
Speaker 1: They were like buried in the back of where all
Speaker 1: the sheets were. And I'm a dig or, you know me,
Speaker 1: I dig with my dig not even with gloves on.
Speaker 1: I just dig and I found these sheets and I
Speaker 1: looked up the brand and they are expensive, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm boogie, but with a budget, how am I going
Speaker 1: to get these for myself? Because even at TJ Max,
Speaker 1: at TJ Max prices, this is still expensive. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'll see what I can get. So I take them
Speaker 1: up and I'm like, is this the best price you
Speaker 1: can do on this? And they're like oh. She looks
Speaker 1: at the packaging. I'm like, it looks like they've been
Speaker 1: previously purchased and returned, Like this is not the original packaging.
Speaker 1: The sheets are obviously very wrinkled. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if someone has like washed them or potentially used them before.
Speaker 1: She's like, you know, the best I can give you
Speaker 1: is ten percent And I just kind of turned up
Speaker 1: my nose at it. I didn't even need to say anything,
Speaker 1: and she just immediately was like, let me go talk
Speaker 1: to my manager. The manager comes over. I say the
Speaker 1: same thing to her. She's like, ah, maybe twenty percent,
Speaker 1: And I was still just kind of like hemming and
Speaker 1: hauling over what that price would be. And she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: just a second. She goes to another manager. They were
Speaker 1: all there they were all there dirty percent off jen Yep. Yes,
Speaker 1: now I got them luxury sheets, like like I have
Speaker 1: a China cabinet, but really, I'm drinking cheap beer Horden
Speaker 1: toilet paper. I know I'm not actually, but it's like
Speaker 1: it's that vibe. I love that. And you weren't rude
Speaker 1: about it. You were actually trying to get a discount
Speaker 1: on something that looked JANKI not just something that was there.
Speaker 1: I knew that it had value. Like the sheets are
Speaker 1: good sheets, but like, clearly someone has returned them. I
Speaker 1: don't know why they returned them. I could get into
Speaker 1: the sheets and there's some other additional problem to them.
Speaker 1: The packaging is just not good. They were like they
Speaker 1: were wrinkled, and then when I got home they were
Speaker 1: very clearly washed before because they have a they had
Speaker 1: a very clear, like detergent smell to them. I hate
Speaker 1: detergent smells. I'm a very nonscented kind of persons. So
Speaker 1: I am glad that I kept pushing because like I
Speaker 1: was not pleased with the way that they smelled. That's great.
Speaker 1: I am proud of you. Thank you. Yep. You can
Speaker 1: you can pretty much negotiate anything for additional tips too.
Speaker 1: You can negotiate. I've said this already, but at Lowe's
Speaker 1: and Home Depot, you don't negotiate with them at their register.
Speaker 1: Now TJ Max Marshall's were Asso, you negotiate the register,
Speaker 1: lows Home Depot, you negotiate per department with the department manager.
Speaker 1: Now there has to be like a reason you can't
Speaker 1: just be like, get me a better price on this,
Speaker 1: like if the thing's already on clearance, or maybe it
Speaker 1: should be on clearance because it's dent dinged, missing something.
Speaker 1: You know, the drill find the manager. Usually there they
Speaker 1: can authorize at least a thirty percent or up to
Speaker 1: a thirty percent discount. Absolutely, And you know where you
Speaker 1: shouldn't negotiate is the app because I worked at the
Speaker 1: GAP and I had a horrible experience with someone who
Speaker 1: was a disciple of a financial group who shall not
Speaker 1: be named, who told people that you can negotiate anything anywhere,
Speaker 1: And so he was so rude to me, a nineteen
Speaker 1: year old working at the Gap, about how he could
Speaker 1: get more money off for it wasn't even his purchase,
Speaker 1: it was his daughter's purchase for her kids, and just
Speaker 1: was adamant that he was going to get. There was
Speaker 1: a discount we offered if you got a credit card.
Speaker 1: They're always going to push for the credit that, yeah,
Speaker 1: And he was adamant he was going to get that
Speaker 1: discount without a credit card. And I was like, there's
Speaker 1: literally like the discount code won't go through unless you
Speaker 1: pay with a GAP credit card. Like, I'm all for
Speaker 1: you not getting the credit card, but I can't give
Speaker 1: you this discount and there's no other discount like it
Speaker 1: available right now. And so he was so rude. Talk
Speaker 1: to my manager she said the same thing. Just would
Speaker 1: not let up. And his daughter was so embarrassed, and
Speaker 1: I was embarrassed for her. It was an awful experience.
Speaker 1: So don't be that guy. Yeah, don't I mean, don't
Speaker 1: make the person on the other end feel awful. I
Speaker 1: would say, the best you could do at a store
Speaker 1: like that is just ask are there any promotions running
Speaker 1: or coupons I should be aware of or discounts being offered,
Speaker 1: and if you do find something janky, like if if
Speaker 1: there was something janky at the Gap, we could give
Speaker 1: you a discount on it. That is totally But this
Speaker 1: was like two hundred dollars worth of perfectly good items
Speaker 1: that didn't you know here is it's not going to happen,
Speaker 1: So you're being rude. No, I'm not going to do
Speaker 1: you right right? Would do you a favorite right? So
Speaker 1: I do believe you can negotiate anywhere if you do
Speaker 1: it in the right way on the right products. Wow,
Speaker 1: that was like a bonus episode. There you go.