Speaker 1: Episode to fifteen, Creativity over Consumerism with Miranda Anderson. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Brugal Friends Podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rights, and live with your life. Here your
Speaker 1: host Jen and Jill. M m m m m m
Speaker 1: m m m m m m m mmmm. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends Podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we are bringing you an interview
Speaker 1: that is so close to my heart. I loved every
Speaker 1: single second of it with Miranda Anderson from Live Free Miranda,
Speaker 1: Live Free Creative. Yeah, it's just so beautiful. Definitely a
Speaker 1: different perspective than I think we've ever highlighted on this
Speaker 1: show before, and I think that's reflective of who Miranda
Speaker 1: is and the unique perspective that she does. But really
Speaker 1: really looking forward to sharing this with you all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: creativity is something we talk about a lot, but we've
Speaker 1: never dove into it like we did in this episode.
Speaker 1: And it's not just like we kind of dived into
Speaker 1: dove into both sides of creativity, So like creativity from
Speaker 1: as a creative person and then also creativity even if
Speaker 1: you don't consider yourself very creative, but how to stretch
Speaker 1: that muscle that we all have and we kind of
Speaker 1: all desire through frugality. So it's I think everybody should
Speaker 1: listen to this episode. But before we dive in, this
Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by our two Frugal Living Summit.
Speaker 1: Uh So, if you were not with us last year, um,
Speaker 1: we did a virtual summit last year and we were
Speaker 1: doing another one this year. The theme for this year
Speaker 1: is the Spending Symposium. It is a free, virtual four
Speaker 1: day event June will be sharing twenty yes to zero
Speaker 1: never before heard interviews with experts, diving deep into why
Speaker 1: we spend impulsively, how to stop, how to spend our
Speaker 1: money better. So if you want help controlling your impulsive spending,
Speaker 1: feeling less guilt about spending in your budget or spending
Speaker 1: wisely on investments, then registration for the Spending Symposium is
Speaker 1: now open. And did I mentioned completely free? So and
Speaker 1: today through Sunday we're actually offering an early bird pricing
Speaker 1: on the Spending Mastery Bundle, which you will be able
Speaker 1: to see after you register and includes all summit recordings
Speaker 1: and over sixteen workbooks, e books, courses, etcetera from our
Speaker 1: expert speakers. So head to Frugal Living summit dot com
Speaker 1: to get your free ticket and do not miss out
Speaker 1: on this amazing early bird deal on the Spending Mastery bundle.
Speaker 1: So excited for this. It's turning into our annual summer
Speaker 1: virtual party where we kind of make it a little
Speaker 1: bit productive too, and it's it is It is virtual
Speaker 1: Summer Camp for free vitual. Yeah, that'll be next year
Speaker 1: summer camp Summer camp theme. Yes, I know. If you
Speaker 1: want a few other episodes to cue after this one
Speaker 1: that are kind of in the same vein, then definitely
Speaker 1: que up Episode one eighteen, which is tips for creating
Speaker 1: a capsule wardrobe. Miranda talks a little bit about that
Speaker 1: in the episode, and then also episode one how to
Speaker 1: avoid Impulse Spending, because I think you're going to want
Speaker 1: to listen to both of those after you hear this episode.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it, Miranda, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: be here. Oh, we are thrilled to have you because
Speaker 1: we love interviews. It's our favorite and we're just gonna
Speaker 1: jump right in. You've got so much to share with
Speaker 1: us in perspective, and so let's get to it. Miranda
Speaker 1: can you tell us just a little bit about yourself,
Speaker 1: your family, and how you then decided to do a
Speaker 1: twelvemonth no shopping challenge? Sure? So, I am Miranda Anderson.
Speaker 1: I'm a mom of three. My kids are now almost thirteen,
Speaker 1: almost eleven, and eight. I have one lovely husband, two dogs,
Speaker 1: to cats, six chickens. I now live in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 1: But when we did the shopping challenge back in two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen, we were living in Austin, Texas. And I
Speaker 1: feel like, maybe, like a lot of your listeners who get,
Speaker 1: you know, find their way to this podcast, maybe recognize
Speaker 1: at some point that they're running on a treadmill that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to ever shut off. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: a young mom. I had a great job, My husband
Speaker 1: had a good job. We had just gotten out of
Speaker 1: school and bought a big house with a big yard,
Speaker 1: and felt like we were finally like doing it, checking
Speaker 1: all those boxes for like adulthood and success and and
Speaker 1: I got a minivan, and I now had like rooms
Speaker 1: that I didn't have enough furniture for, and I was
Speaker 1: doing all the things that I was supposed to do
Speaker 1: in order to feel fulfilled, content, successful, happy, joyful. And
Speaker 1: while I felt those things sometimes and you know a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, they didn't stem from what from
Speaker 1: my circumstances, didn't stem from my house, from my shoes,
Speaker 1: from my closet. They stemmed from experiences and from my
Speaker 1: family and from these small moments. And yet most of
Speaker 1: my time and energy and money was spent on things
Speaker 1: meant to make my life better. And I had kind
Speaker 1: of this aha moment. I have been a I've been
Speaker 1: online for a long time. I was an o G blogger.
Speaker 1: I started a blog in two thousand and seven. It
Speaker 1: was a hobby for many years, and around a couple
Speaker 1: of years before are No Shopping Challenge, I had converted
Speaker 1: my blog into my job and quit my other full
Speaker 1: time job, and so I was blogging full time and
Speaker 1: the way that I was making money was through sponsorships. Ironically,
Speaker 1: one of the third party sponsors that I had was
Speaker 1: for an organization store, and my brief was too I
Speaker 1: was going to do a whole blog post about how
Speaker 1: to organize my kitchen cabinets, and so I had a
Speaker 1: budget of five dollars to go to this store and
Speaker 1: buy baskets and bins and caddies and everything you can imagine.
Speaker 1: And now there's this really popular Netflix show right where
Speaker 1: they come out with all the stuff. So that was
Speaker 1: me ten years ago, right, come out with all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And I got into my kitchen and I started pulling
Speaker 1: things out of my kitchen cabinets and realized I had
Speaker 1: just spent all of this money and brought these bags
Speaker 1: of the into my home in order to organize the
Speaker 1: stuff that I didn't even remember that I had that
Speaker 1: was buried in these kitchen cabinets, just clutter, random junk,
Speaker 1: male stuff that I like, party supplies that I had
Speaker 1: bought for a party that I hadn't yet hosted, and
Speaker 1: so they were yet unused, even though it had been
Speaker 1: over a year. Just I had all this stuff and
Speaker 1: yet I was just adding to it, and I it
Speaker 1: was like the light switch turned on and I recognized
Speaker 1: that the habits were not aligned with my values and
Speaker 1: that I was that I was just that there wasn't
Speaker 1: really a purpose to the kind of keeping up with
Speaker 1: the Jones is, keeping up with the Pinterest board. And
Speaker 1: so that was kind of my moment of I don't
Speaker 1: think that I want to keep doing this. This isn't working.
Speaker 1: What else could we do? And um, I had just
Speaker 1: watched a documentary about minimalism, and one of the things
Speaker 1: that I while I found the whole thing highly unrelatable,
Speaker 1: one of the pieces that I really liked was to
Speaker 1: use what you had, just use the things that you
Speaker 1: already have. And so I discussed with my husband this
Speaker 1: idea using the things that we already had and not
Speaker 1: adding to it for the next year. It was January,
Speaker 1: so it was convenient timing to think, like, oh, New
Speaker 1: Year's resolution, and he was on board. So we embarked
Speaker 1: on our challenge. What an amazing timeline and journey. I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, Wow to your family, Rundown, and I
Speaker 1: love that you specified just one husband in that whole mind. Yes,
Speaker 1: that was a very important thing for me to hear.
Speaker 1: Sobering image that I feel I can relate to of
Speaker 1: going out and getting all of the things, bringing them
Speaker 1: back into your home, Like I feel like I can
Speaker 1: picture you with the excitement, and I think I hear
Speaker 1: so many people say, oh, wouldn't it just be so
Speaker 1: great to have tons of money to just go and
Speaker 1: get all the pre any containers, And you actually had it,
Speaker 1: You did it. You had five hundred dollars to spend,
Speaker 1: which would be a lot of people's dream to go
Speaker 1: do that, and then you come back with bags and
Speaker 1: bags and bags. Just the image feels seared into my
Speaker 1: mind right now. And then that realization, like I'm with
Speaker 1: you in that aha moment of I just brought stuff
Speaker 1: to manage stuff, to keep cleaning my stuff and doing
Speaker 1: stuff with my stuff. Holy things. But then, what I
Speaker 1: think is really interesting about your story, Miranda, is how
Speaker 1: that realization led you to a twelvemonth no shopping challenge.
Speaker 1: I feel like some people could realize that and be like,
Speaker 1: isn't that funny? I bought stuff to manage my stuff,
Speaker 1: and then they move on. But you you didn't even
Speaker 1: go to a one month challenge. You did the whole
Speaker 1: twelvemonth thing. So how did how did that come about?
Speaker 1: How did you get like your dog, six cats, one husband,
Speaker 1: four children on board with this. Yeah, so at the
Speaker 1: time it was just one dog along with the children,
Speaker 1: um and the husband. Uh so then the chickens have alway,
Speaker 1: The chickens are on board for anything any time. They're savages,
Speaker 1: but they're chilled. So you know, it's so funny because
Speaker 1: I don't know that I ever even considered that like
Speaker 1: doing something shorter than a year, and it was probably
Speaker 1: the hype of being close to the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1: If I'm being totally honest, like I I've never really
Speaker 1: thought like, why didn't we do one months or three months?
Speaker 1: Like I think I was kind of looking for as
Speaker 1: I always am. I'm always fairly goal oriented, and I
Speaker 1: like the idea of progress, and like I like a project.
Speaker 1: I like thinking like what am I going to be
Speaker 1: tackling this year? What am I looking forward to? So
Speaker 1: I think because of timing, that's what lent to this
Speaker 1: idea of a one year challenge, because it just made sense.
Speaker 1: It was January, let's do this for a year, I think. Um.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that that's a model that I've
Speaker 1: seen in a lot of books and you know, like
Speaker 1: Love and the Happiness Project by Gretching Rubin. That's, you know,
Speaker 1: this one year challenge. I had seen other people, do
Speaker 1: you know, challenges of different sorts for a year, leaving
Speaker 1: that you know, turning off their phones for a year
Speaker 1: or not using the internet for a year, or living
Speaker 1: in an RV for a year. You know, So it
Speaker 1: just kind of made sense. I guess I was lucky
Speaker 1: that my husband was. I mean, at the time, he
Speaker 1: was home a lot less. He was working a ton
Speaker 1: at his job, and so I did most of the
Speaker 1: shopping anyway, So he was like, great, you don't want
Speaker 1: to shop for a year? Sounds good to me, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think to him, it was just like, yeah, like,
Speaker 1: how could I say no to this? My kids were
Speaker 1: young enough as well that they didn't have Like we
Speaker 1: sat him down and had a family conversation about it.
Speaker 1: I remember saying, when you like, for for a while,
Speaker 1: you know, until next January, until after Christmas next year,
Speaker 1: we're not going to buy any new toys when we
Speaker 1: go to the store, and we're just going to use
Speaker 1: the ones that we already have. So if you want
Speaker 1: a toy and we aren't going to buy a new one,
Speaker 1: can you think of anything that you could do? And
Speaker 1: my you know, at the time five year old, was like, well,
Speaker 1: we could make a toy. I'm like, yeah, we totally
Speaker 1: could make a toy. These are my kids that we
Speaker 1: take them on hikes and they're like playing with rocks
Speaker 1: and sticks anyway, you know, So I'm like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: could totally make a toy. And also I'm a crafter
Speaker 1: I had been a d I y blogger, and so
Speaker 1: I have a craft room full of stuff, and we
Speaker 1: you know, on odd days we'd go in and just
Speaker 1: pull out scraps and make stuff anyway, so making things
Speaker 1: was not an unusual idea. So it didn't feel like
Speaker 1: we were on an island. It was like, well, we
Speaker 1: have a house full of stuff. I think the other thing, too,
Speaker 1: was that I was I had just organized these cabinets
Speaker 1: and made them very beautiful with my worth of containers,
Speaker 1: and I was super conscious of how many things I
Speaker 1: had in the walls of my house that I hadn't
Speaker 1: even been thinking about. We had lived in that house
Speaker 1: at that point for about three years and um three
Speaker 1: and a half years maybe, and I had kitchen cabinets
Speaker 1: full of things. I had a ntry full of things.
Speaker 1: I had a home office full of stuff. My kids
Speaker 1: closets were full of stuff, my own closet was full
Speaker 1: of stuff. I had a craft room full of stuff.
Speaker 1: We had a garage that we didn't park our car in,
Speaker 1: as many people can relate to. So I think I
Speaker 1: did a quick walk through and was like what am
Speaker 1: I buying? Anyway? Like, what are the things that I'm
Speaker 1: continually adding to our lives on like a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: a target run here, or a quick online click of
Speaker 1: the mouse. They're like, what what is this? Where is
Speaker 1: it all going? And why do I need it? And
Speaker 1: so I think it was different than if we really
Speaker 1: like had nothing or the bare minimum and was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're not going to buy anymore, but we actually don't
Speaker 1: have any clothes to wear like we we had plenty,
Speaker 1: as I assume most people. I don't know, most people
Speaker 1: probably do right, like have enough, and it's just about
Speaker 1: deciding that what you have is enough rather than deciding
Speaker 1: that it isn't. Yeah, I And the whole time you're
Speaker 1: like talking, I'm thinking of the show that you mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier where they're just organizing all the stuff, and how
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna love that show, and it
Speaker 1: only gave me anxiety, Like why are you holding onto it?
Speaker 1: Why do you need to organize it and just shuffle
Speaker 1: it around. It's like when you consolidate debts and it's
Speaker 1: like you think you're doing something, but you're you're you
Speaker 1: still have the same amount of debt. You haven't done
Speaker 1: anything to it except put it in one payment, which
Speaker 1: for some people makes sense. But like, no, it just
Speaker 1: that show gave me so much anxiety. It's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really don't like make things pretty for a while, because
Speaker 1: right like, once you start using things then they probably
Speaker 1: aren't pretty anymore. It's kind of like the beginning of
Speaker 1: a of a dinner buffet, like and all you can
Speaker 1: eat restaurant, Like it looks really good until one person
Speaker 1: passes through that line and after that it's over, right.
Speaker 1: But the difference between that and actually digging in and
Speaker 1: deciding what your values are, what matters most to you,
Speaker 1: how want to spend your time, money, and energy, and
Speaker 1: then aligning the choices that you make with those things.
Speaker 1: And for us, it started with a pause with this
Speaker 1: we believe that we have enough, We're going to just
Speaker 1: make that decision straight off. And it was an experiment.
Speaker 1: I never went into it thinking like for sure, no
Speaker 1: matter what, we're not going to buy anything. I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna try this. We're gonna try to not acquire
Speaker 1: any new things for the year and see what happens,
Speaker 1: and maybe we'll go six months and realize that it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. You know that we do absolutely need more
Speaker 1: clothes or whatever, but we're gonna try and see, and
Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed by how simple it became once I
Speaker 1: got through the initial discomfort of walking into a store
Speaker 1: and then walking out with just groceres, like just like
Speaker 1: food and like, you know, go buy groceries at Target.
Speaker 1: You always come home with a couple of things from
Speaker 1: the dollar spot and like that cute mug that was
Speaker 1: on the end cap and you know, just coming home
Speaker 1: with just like milk and eggs and grapes. I was like,
Speaker 1: this feels a little weird, and it didn't even brows
Speaker 1: to see what else I might want, and then it
Speaker 1: pretty soon became my norm, and it was so much
Speaker 1: easier than I expected that it would be. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: does take that like decision making process out of the equation,
Speaker 1: because you can make your meal plan, you can make
Speaker 1: your list, but when you go in there and you're
Speaker 1: just browsing in quotations, like it always could be that
Speaker 1: you end up bringing something home impulsively. But when you're
Speaker 1: doing some kind of challenge, which is why we love challenges,
Speaker 1: and you make the decision to say no to everything
Speaker 1: or to the things you've already decided on saying no to,
Speaker 1: it takes that question out so that you don't even
Speaker 1: are not even tempted to go brows. It's not even
Speaker 1: an option to look at what you could buy, which
Speaker 1: really cuts down on like the decision fatigue, because we
Speaker 1: that's when we're tired from making all the decisions is
Speaker 1: when we make the bad ones. So that's what I
Speaker 1: love about the challenges. Yeah, So for your challenge specifically,
Speaker 1: what did it entail? Like I heard you said you
Speaker 1: bought groceries. What were kind of some of the specific
Speaker 1: rules for you. Yeah, So, our our guidelines were that
Speaker 1: we weren't going to acquire non consumable goods and so on.
Speaker 1: Our kind of outline list that looked like clothes, shoes, furniture, technology, books, toys,
Speaker 1: recreational equipment, decorations, and anything that wouldn't be used up
Speaker 1: to completion. We also put like a little caveat in
Speaker 1: there for like body lotions and perfume and makeup and
Speaker 1: things like that that are technically consumable items. But if
Speaker 1: I had them already that I that weren't used up,
Speaker 1: then I had to use them up before I bought
Speaker 1: new ones, just to not like for me, it was
Speaker 1: an exercise in if I feel like shopping, am I
Speaker 1: that like go you know, kind of create a loophole
Speaker 1: into the non consumables. And so I just said, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna blanket if I have enough shampoo. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to buy new shampoo until I'm like
Speaker 1: a couple of days out from until I'm putting water
Speaker 1: in the bottle type of thing, you know. But we
Speaker 1: could buy food, of course. Um, we bought like printer
Speaker 1: paper when the printer ran out of paper and ink,
Speaker 1: which it did, of course, because printers always run out
Speaker 1: of ink right when you need them. Replacing light bulbs,
Speaker 1: replacing like you know, filters for um, for the for
Speaker 1: the car and for the house, basic maintenance stuff, and
Speaker 1: then when something broke, like if something broke, we could
Speaker 1: replace it. And also because we lived in Texas, we
Speaker 1: had kind of a unique situation where it's a fairly
Speaker 1: seasonless wardrobe, as I imagine it is where you all
Speaker 1: live in Florida, where you you know, you toss a
Speaker 1: light sweater over something in the winter, but other than that,
Speaker 1: like it's you can kind of wear similar things year round.
Speaker 1: And so that was true for us and for my kids.
Speaker 1: I knew, you know, when you have young and I'm
Speaker 1: always buying things like a little big anyway, So I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, they're going to make it through the end
Speaker 1: of the year with this stuff except for shoes. And
Speaker 1: so we made also the kind of caveat that when
Speaker 1: they grew out of a pair of shoes, that we
Speaker 1: could replace them for a similar pair. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: like within a month or two of beginning the challenge,
Speaker 1: my middle sent threw out of his cowboy boots. We
Speaker 1: lived in Texas. You cannot be without a pair of cowboys,
Speaker 1: and he had walked through them like a hole in
Speaker 1: the bottom of them. They were his like daily shoes
Speaker 1: were made for walking daily shoe. Yes, okay, oh man,
Speaker 1: if you respected that, five year olds walking around in
Speaker 1: their boots. I mean, it's the cutest thing ever. So
Speaker 1: he re upped them. We got him a pair of
Speaker 1: bigger cowboy boots so he can continue on. Yes, man, man,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And of course everyone has to decide what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do, what's gonna work for them. I mean,
Speaker 1: this all sounds very realistic and probably what it produced
Speaker 1: in all of you, just that creativity and problem solving
Speaker 1: and all of that. But speaking of you are definitely
Speaker 1: obviously quite creative. You've already mentioned a craft room that
Speaker 1: you had, and your kids talking about making their own toys,
Speaker 1: and and then and passionate about creating. How do you
Speaker 1: balance or blend or find the intersection between what could
Speaker 1: be perceived as like opposing energies of creating and consuming, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you in this no spend, you know, no
Speaker 1: shop challenge, how did you reconcile the two creating and
Speaker 1: consuming with like not bringing more in? How can I
Speaker 1: stop being a craft holders? Yeah? Well, I actually I
Speaker 1: feel like creation and consumption are really opposing energies and
Speaker 1: that we spend we get so much well being from creation.
Speaker 1: We are creative beings. Humans are creative and it's something
Speaker 1: that's innate. Even if you're not a crafter. People like
Speaker 1: to make things. We like to bring things to life,
Speaker 1: even ideas or you know, books, songs, poetry, dinners, like
Speaker 1: whatever it is people are. Most people have something that
Speaker 1: kind of lights them up that is a creative endeavor.
Speaker 1: And consumption, because of just the ease and the way
Speaker 1: that we value instantaneous, you know, problem solving and quick conveniences,
Speaker 1: consumption is kind of overridden. A lot of what used
Speaker 1: to be are opportunities for creation. Most homes used to
Speaker 1: make food and have a garden, and most people men
Speaker 1: and women knew at least some basic mending and sewing
Speaker 1: and things like that for their for their households. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we go back a hundred years, people are chopping wood,
Speaker 1: people are painting and doing glasswork and doing pottery, functional
Speaker 1: pottery that they are gonna then use in their homes.
Speaker 1: And there's so many like really beautiful artisan crafts that
Speaker 1: used to be just part of normal life that are
Speaker 1: now kind of on the fringes. And while I'm not
Speaker 1: like a self reclaimed homestead or by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imaginations, although i do have chickens, they're laying their
Speaker 1: own eggs being creative back there, um, and we do
Speaker 1: have a garden. I I feel like necessity is that
Speaker 1: I mean, this is such a common phrase, but necessity
Speaker 1: is the mother of invention, right, And when you need
Speaker 1: something and you don't have an automatic, easy, convenient way
Speaker 1: to acquire it, your mind goes to work in new ways.
Speaker 1: So rather than a quick trip to target, let's take
Speaker 1: the example of my five year old. Two weeks after
Speaker 1: we start our challenge, he says, he remembers this conversation
Speaker 1: we had and he's like, hey, mom, I want a
Speaker 1: new toy. And he's got a toy root with plenty
Speaker 1: of toys. But I think he was just excited because
Speaker 1: we had talked about making a toy and he's like, okay, Mom,
Speaker 1: I wanted toy today. Let's make a toy. After school
Speaker 1: he came home from preschool. We went into the craft
Speaker 1: room and said, what do you want to make? And
Speaker 1: he said, I want to make a car. So we
Speaker 1: found some clay. It was like air dr clay, but
Speaker 1: you could have achieved the same result with Plato or something.
Speaker 1: It just wouldn't have lasted as long. And we looked
Speaker 1: up pictures of cars, and he, you know, his cute
Speaker 1: little five year old hands, molded his little car and
Speaker 1: we used toothpicks to drill like the hole where you
Speaker 1: put the wheels on. And we spent an hour creating
Speaker 1: together in a really like low stakes environment because he
Speaker 1: was five and he wanted something for himself to play with.
Speaker 1: This wasn't going on display. I wasn't trying to sell
Speaker 1: it on Etsy. It was just a fun interaction with
Speaker 1: my son. And I recognized that two weeks before if
Speaker 1: we hadn't made this challenge that if my son had
Speaker 1: asked for a car, probably would have said, oh, let's
Speaker 1: you know, the next time we're target, let's grab hot wheels.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like two dollars. It's not like the
Speaker 1: expense is the problem. The problem is the lack of
Speaker 1: opportunity to be creative together. The lack of opportunity, like
Speaker 1: we're starving ourselves of these possibilities of exercising our creativity
Speaker 1: in really interesting ways. And it was really fun throughout
Speaker 1: the whole challenge. And you know, this has become a
Speaker 1: really fundamental part of our family culture that we exercise
Speaker 1: our creativity. So we like to make decorations for the holidays.
Speaker 1: I really don't like to have like one little basket
Speaker 1: of multi use decorations like a fabric pennant dan or
Speaker 1: that we put up for Easter, and put it up
Speaker 1: for Christmas, and we put it up for Birthdays, and
Speaker 1: we put it up for an anniversary, like it's this,
Speaker 1: you know, it's multicolor. We use it whatever. But for
Speaker 1: individual holidays, rather than going and accumulating a bunch of
Speaker 1: new decorations, we use that as an opportunity to make them.
Speaker 1: And so you know, for Easter coming up, well paint
Speaker 1: eggs and you know a lot of people do that,
Speaker 1: will make cookies, will my daughter, I'm sure she loves drawing,
Speaker 1: so she'll drop pictures and we'll put those up on
Speaker 1: the windows. And then after the holiday we just take
Speaker 1: it all down. We can recycle it, and then we
Speaker 1: move on and the next time we have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to do it again. There's just um an interesting like
Speaker 1: if you if you take away kind of like what
Speaker 1: you're talking about Jen with the decision fatigue, if you
Speaker 1: take away the opportunity to quickly solve the problem of
Speaker 1: needing something new, what you do is open up this
Speaker 1: entire possibility of if I don't have the quick fix,
Speaker 1: then how am I going to get there? How do
Speaker 1: I achieve the same end? And it will always be
Speaker 1: a creative solution because it's not the easy solution. It's
Speaker 1: always going to be stretching, using what you have on hand,
Speaker 1: using things in new and different ways. I love the
Speaker 1: excitement that you're infusing under the banner of using what
Speaker 1: we already have. This statement that could feel quite STI
Speaker 1: fueling a problematic a barrier we won't get what we want,
Speaker 1: it's going to be frustrating and annoying, and how are
Speaker 1: we going to do it too? Just pure excitement, enjoy
Speaker 1: and giving opportunity and space and margin for our creativity
Speaker 1: to really come alive and blossom. And what that can
Speaker 1: produce relationally with those in your home and and probably
Speaker 1: for yourself. What it What it draws to life, what
Speaker 1: it brings out, what it allows to come to the
Speaker 1: surface when we don't have the quick fixes immediately available.
Speaker 1: I just I love it. The excitement is contagious. My
Speaker 1: I know, I was so excited listening to you because
Speaker 1: I feel so strongly, like with frugality, that it is
Speaker 1: not an inconvenient it's just not the most convenient. It
Speaker 1: gives you space to think creatively about how to solve
Speaker 1: your problem without spending money on it immediately. Like sometimes
Speaker 1: we do spend money to solve our problems, and we
Speaker 1: do take those quick fixes because it's worth it for
Speaker 1: our time, but it's not the first immediate response. Like
Speaker 1: that's all you have to change up is that it's
Speaker 1: just not the immediate response. And a way you can
Speaker 1: do that is, of course, through a no spend challenge
Speaker 1: or no shopping challenge where you kind of train your brain,
Speaker 1: but like that's not the ultimate goal. Like obviously you
Speaker 1: went back to shopping and like we are we all
Speaker 1: buy things. That's great, but like just hearing you your
Speaker 1: experience with your son, like we so often miss those
Speaker 1: opportunities because we are doing something like unproductive that we
Speaker 1: think is like more efficient, and so yeah, it was
Speaker 1: just like beautiful, my heart was singing. Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: so interesting. Kids just so naturally do this. They don't
Speaker 1: have the option, you know, up to a certain age,
Speaker 1: they don't really have the option to go to this
Speaker 1: or and buy things. They don't have access to money,
Speaker 1: they don't have access to transportation, they don't it's not
Speaker 1: really part of their worldview, right, So oftentimes you notice
Speaker 1: kids using things in ways that you've never thought of
Speaker 1: using them because all they had it is pure creativity,
Speaker 1: it's pure ingenuity. A few weeks ago, we we had
Speaker 1: an eight d degree day here in Richmond, which was
Speaker 1: unusual for March, and so I took my eight year
Speaker 1: old out of school for the day and we went
Speaker 1: and spent the day at the beach and it was
Speaker 1: so fun. And we got halfway there and I realized, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't bring any beach toys. Like the beach toys
Speaker 1: are in a bin, but because it was March, I
Speaker 1: hadn't pulled them out yet, they weren't like easily accessible,
Speaker 1: so I did. I was like, oh, man, I didn't
Speaker 1: bring the beach toys. That's gonna like cut down on
Speaker 1: how much fun she'll have at the beach. Boy, was
Speaker 1: I wrong? Like she doesn't care about having like the
Speaker 1: plastic beach toy that we collect, you know, that we
Speaker 1: have in the bin. She used the cans from we
Speaker 1: had packed a lunch. She used the cans and the
Speaker 1: extra like Oreo cookie container. Once the Oreos were gone,
Speaker 1: that became like a mold for her sand castle. She
Speaker 1: was collecting seashells and cigarette butts to decorate her sand castle,
Speaker 1: which we had to quickly let's leave those ones there.
Speaker 1: But just how like yes, even for kids, like providing
Speaker 1: them with you know, really cute plastic sand toys is easy.
Speaker 1: That's easy. They see a rake and they're like, oh, rake,
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that they can't use the fork
Speaker 1: or like the seaweed. You know, those are's like sea
Speaker 1: branches that work like a rake. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: fascinating to open our adult selves up to that childlike
Speaker 1: creativity and that imagination of like, if I didn't have
Speaker 1: any other option, what would I do here? I wouldn't
Speaker 1: just be frustrated and cry. I would look around and
Speaker 1: see what I could use in a new way. And
Speaker 1: I mean, that's when really exciting things start to happen.
Speaker 1: That's when fun That's when you make memories because you're
Speaker 1: not doing it the same way that it's always been done.
Speaker 1: You're doing it in a memorable way, in a different way.
Speaker 1: And those are things that our families remember. There are
Speaker 1: things that we remember. Yes, So how do you see
Speaker 1: society thwarting our creativity so that we can start to identify,
Speaker 1: like what those triggers are. Well, I am. I teach
Speaker 1: craft classes on occasion, and one thing that I think
Speaker 1: is kind of funny. At the beginning of my classes,
Speaker 1: I'll often ask how many people have made something recently
Speaker 1: and not just thought that they made it because they
Speaker 1: looked at it on Pinterest. And people always kind of laugh,
Speaker 1: because what Instagram and Pinterest and the Internet has done
Speaker 1: has given us a false sense of like satiating that
Speaker 1: creative endeavor that creative drive by having us see things.
Speaker 1: We see d I y projects, we see remodel, we
Speaker 1: see uh, something that we could do, and we consume
Speaker 1: the story of it. But we haven't actually done anything
Speaker 1: with our hands. We haven't actually made anything. And so
Speaker 1: I think separating out how much are we actually consuming?
Speaker 1: And maybe even you know, if you, if you're curious,
Speaker 1: taking an actual inventory for a week, writing down your
Speaker 1: consumption versus your creation. How much time are you spending
Speaker 1: scrolling on social media, searching on Pinterest, looking at what's
Speaker 1: happening in other people's world versus building something tangible in
Speaker 1: your own space. How much time do you spend reading
Speaker 1: versus writing or journaling. How much time do you spend
Speaker 1: searching through cookbooks or again, like on Pinterest for your
Speaker 1: meal plan versus actually cooking and enjoying the process of
Speaker 1: creating those meals. I find a lot of joy, and
Speaker 1: I think most people do in the moment of like
Speaker 1: through the process of creation. And if you can be
Speaker 1: mindful in those moments, put your phone aside, you know,
Speaker 1: turn on some music, light a candle, and like, actually
Speaker 1: allow yourself to be in your body during these creative processes.
Speaker 1: It changes us so I think um just acknowledging like
Speaker 1: how much are you consuming versus creating and think of
Speaker 1: that as a balance where you for your well being,
Speaker 1: you want your creation, the way that you're bringing things
Speaker 1: to life in the world, to be greater on a
Speaker 1: daily basis than your consumption. Speaking of creating together, something
Speaker 1: that we get to do every single week, I will
Speaker 1: consume this till the end of time and create more
Speaker 1: of it. The bill of the week, that's right, it's
Speaker 1: time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe
Speaker 1: a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe
Speaker 1: you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and
Speaker 1: you're happy to not have to pay that bill. I
Speaker 1: mean bills, Buffalo bills, Bill, Clint, this is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week, Miranda. Every week we asked one of
Speaker 1: our listeners or our guest to share with us their
Speaker 1: bill for the week, and we gave you twenty seconds
Speaker 1: before we started recording to think of yours. So please
Speaker 1: share with us what you have come up with. So
Speaker 1: the very first thing that came to mind is going
Speaker 1: to sound kind of ironic after we've been talking about
Speaker 1: my no spend challenge and my no shopping challenge, but
Speaker 1: I will. I will start by saying that the way
Speaker 1: that we buy clothes now after our challenge is in
Speaker 1: what I call capsule shopping. So I shop for close
Speaker 1: twice a year in the spring and in the fall,
Speaker 1: and during about a week and a half period, I
Speaker 1: audit all of my kids clothes and my own clothes.
Speaker 1: We decide what they have that still fits, what they
Speaker 1: need for the upcoming season. I do this my husband
Speaker 1: man in just his own life, but I do it
Speaker 1: for myself and for the kids, and then we decide
Speaker 1: what we need to set a budget for it, and
Speaker 1: we go do all of the shopping for the whole
Speaker 1: season for six months in about two weeks. What this does,
Speaker 1: I mean you can imagine all the benefits for it.
Speaker 1: I have a really clear budget. I'm able to be
Speaker 1: really thoughtful because I'm just clothes shopping like I can
Speaker 1: shop second hand. I know that what we're getting anyway
Speaker 1: the lots of benefits. So we just wrapped that up
Speaker 1: a week ago. So now all of my kids and
Speaker 1: myself we've got all of our spring summer clothes. I
Speaker 1: don't need to think about talk about look at clothes
Speaker 1: again until September and the one of the last stores
Speaker 1: that we were shopping at, I had my son and
Speaker 1: my daughter with me. Normally I do it one on
Speaker 1: one with the kids because they really like the personal
Speaker 1: focus and we get to you know, it's a great
Speaker 1: math exercise for them too, because they each get a
Speaker 1: budget and then as they choose things, we deducted and
Speaker 1: it becomes kind of like a math thing. And so
Speaker 1: at one of these that one of the I think
Speaker 1: it probably was the a very last store that we
Speaker 1: were finishing up a couple of things. My daughter and
Speaker 1: I each got a spring dress and my son got
Speaker 1: a pair of swim trunks that he needed, and we
Speaker 1: were just kind of finishing. We had five items and
Speaker 1: they were all off according to the sign on the
Speaker 1: front of the store, and so I had kind of
Speaker 1: a rough estimate in my head of like, this is
Speaker 1: probably gonna be around two hundred dollars based on what
Speaker 1: they were, and so the girl rings them all up
Speaker 1: and then she charges me five hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: and I paid the bill. I I mean, I like
Speaker 1: paid it. And then I I said, I had this
Speaker 1: there's always this awkward I don't I'm not really awkward
Speaker 1: around money. I actually am fine talking about money. I
Speaker 1: like talking about money. I think it's great and we
Speaker 1: all should be more open about it, as you all
Speaker 1: know and talk about every single week. And there's something
Speaker 1: kind of like weird about this moment when you're like,
Speaker 1: did you make a mistake? Because even though I could
Speaker 1: pay five fifty dollars for these five items, I don't
Speaker 1: think that I am supposed to, you know. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: she's already bagging it and like ready to send me
Speaker 1: out the door. And I said, hey, how could you
Speaker 1: tell me how we got to that total? And she
Speaker 1: was like, oh sure, let me look, and like she
Speaker 1: was on like this little handheld device. She was having
Speaker 1: a hard time, so she called the manager ver and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh no, now it's turned into like a thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm the embarrassing lady at the front of the
Speaker 1: store that like has a problem with my bill. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out she had rung me up twice for
Speaker 1: every single item, and so she was charging me double
Speaker 1: for every single thing on the list. It wasn't one air,
Speaker 1: it was the whole thing. And the lady this was
Speaker 1: so funny because they talked about it kind of quietly
Speaker 1: behind the counter. They never like acknowledged that to me.
Speaker 1: She just said, we're going to refund three fifteen dollars
Speaker 1: back onto your credit card. And I was like, oh great,
Speaker 1: that sounds more the reason why I'm doing the bath.
Speaker 1: In my head, I'm like, yeah, that's ends up around
Speaker 1: what I expected it to be. And that was very
Speaker 1: funny that they just if I had not said anything,
Speaker 1: she just would have set me out the store having
Speaker 1: paid double for every single item in the bag. Was
Speaker 1: was it user error or was it like computer error?
Speaker 1: It was like probably a combination of both. I don't know.
Speaker 1: She had like a handheld scanner and so I think
Speaker 1: it just scanned double. And then she didn't She didn't
Speaker 1: seem funny to her. I mean didn't. She was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: that'll be like a million dollars. This seems very odd,
Speaker 1: you know. So my bill was a high bill that
Speaker 1: then was very happily brought down to a reasonable bill
Speaker 1: and expected bill because I opened my mouth, and I'm
Speaker 1: really glad that I did. Uh. Those handheld point of
Speaker 1: sales systems, I've got my own story. I won't get
Speaker 1: into that. I think I said it in a different episode.
Speaker 1: But something something where button gets pushed and starts charging
Speaker 1: a double Yeah, don't. We don't need that, especially not
Speaker 1: us who we've got budgets and we know how much
Speaker 1: we're spending on stuff. I was like, how did I
Speaker 1: so vastly underestimate what's happening here? Like these swim trunks
Speaker 1: are lighted and well done. We got taken up for
Speaker 1: yourself and not paying more than you needed to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is hard. I always internalized. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I must have made a mistake with how
Speaker 1: they were priced. Yeah. Yeah, I'm thinking the stickers or
Speaker 1: like maybe the they didn't take the signage down out
Speaker 1: front or something. You know, you have that moment, Yeah,
Speaker 1: examine the receipt in the privacy of my own home
Speaker 1: because I'm too exposed right now. It was on the spot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: got it taken care of and finished up, done and dusted.
Speaker 1: Now I don't think about flush shopping again. For another thing,
Speaker 1: I love that embedded tip. That is perfect. I don't
Speaker 1: have to take up mental space about the year. It
Speaker 1: is the best. Well, if you all who are listening,
Speaker 1: you've got a bill, whether it's uh Ler size bill
Speaker 1: or a double size bill, or a bill that you're
Speaker 1: it's too much, Bill. You need it to be less Bill.
Speaker 1: This approval Friends podcast dot Com slash Bill. Leave us
Speaker 1: your Bill. We're here for it. And now it's time
Speaker 1: for Lightning Round. Lightning Round the second half of the
Speaker 1: show that's light to shorter than the first half of
Speaker 1: the show. This is what I'm now going to call
Speaker 1: the lightning Round. It's not a very lightning way, Nope,
Speaker 1: it's the opposite. So today's Lightning Round. We're all going
Speaker 1: to get a smidge vulnerable, but in like a fun way. So, Miranda,
Speaker 1: you are so creative, and so this episode has been
Speaker 1: a great mixture of like natural like traditional creativity, but
Speaker 1: then also just like getting creative and how we live.
Speaker 1: So we wanted to like know from all of us, like,
Speaker 1: what's something that you are creating right now you're excited about.
Speaker 1: So Miranda, as our guest, you can go first. Let
Speaker 1: me think, Well, I have I have a few things. Um,
Speaker 1: we recently moved, and so something that I've just been
Speaker 1: kind of re outlining for myself is our garden plan.
Speaker 1: We we renovated a house for four years and touched
Speaker 1: every inch of it. It was like so lovely beautiful garden,
Speaker 1: great everything, and then we had one of those like
Speaker 1: flash of lightning appropriate for the lightning round moments of
Speaker 1: we there's a house down the block that fits our
Speaker 1: family a little bit better. So all of that happened
Speaker 1: in the last couple of months, and I now have
Speaker 1: no garden and it's it's April, and I'm starting again.
Speaker 1: So I am in the process of creating a new
Speaker 1: backyard garden. And I loved the raised bed plans that
Speaker 1: I did before. I created this a plan where using
Speaker 1: cedar fence posts, I can build raised garden beds for
Speaker 1: under a hundred dollars each, which is like, you know,
Speaker 1: a third of what they cost if you are using
Speaker 1: big cedar planks or having someone else build them for you.
Speaker 1: So that's that's on my docket this month, getting my
Speaker 1: cedar beds put in, figuring out exactly what I want
Speaker 1: to plant to yield the biggest bumper crop out of
Speaker 1: my twelve square feet of backyard garden. And uh there,
Speaker 1: I just find so much magic in gardening that I
Speaker 1: didn't even I didn't even know. So I'm excited about
Speaker 1: creating a new garden. M Miranda speaking, you speaking to
Speaker 1: my soul right now? Yeah, you speak to Jill soul.
Speaker 1: I'm here soul search. I've got so I'll just go
Speaker 1: next because I'm already talking. Oh and that's beautiful, Miranda.
Speaker 1: I've got so many projects going on constantly, like I
Speaker 1: think I'm breaking my body. I am expecting so much
Speaker 1: of my body these days. Similarly, I do have a garden,
Speaker 1: so I love that, and I love visiting it and
Speaker 1: continuing to chat with all my babies out there. Hoping
Speaker 1: that you were going to say talk to it, because
Speaker 1: if you were going to say it, I was going
Speaker 1: to say need encouragement, dude. There's real studies about that.
Speaker 1: It's a really oh yeah, and you know, I'm upset
Speaker 1: with one of my plants and I'm I'm telling it
Speaker 1: so and it might not survive because the things I've said. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: that's not the thing I'm currently creating. Similar to you
Speaker 1: as well, Miranda, we're under renovations. We have been for
Speaker 1: two years. We probably got like another ten years ahead
Speaker 1: of us, but we do all of our own renovations,
Speaker 1: so it does feel like a really creative endeavor. And
Speaker 1: the current project right now is a lot of things,
Speaker 1: but I'll say Airbnb, we're still working on that, but
Speaker 1: we're getting close to the even more creative stages. Of course,
Speaker 1: figuring out the layout was a big problem solving process
Speaker 1: for us, but I'm getting to the point where I
Speaker 1: can start to pick out how do I want the
Speaker 1: tile to look and the coloring and what do we
Speaker 1: want to make the space for our guests, And that's
Speaker 1: been funen Jen. Yes, so hopefully we are undergoing renovations
Speaker 1: by this time this episode airs. But that's not the
Speaker 1: one that I'm actually most excited about. We have been
Speaker 1: working on our Virtual Summit, our second annual summit, and
Speaker 1: it's such a joy to create because we get to
Speaker 1: talk to so many cool people, like doing all the
Speaker 1: interviews for it. I know a lot of summits are
Speaker 1: just like people talking over a slide show, but we
Speaker 1: love getting to know people and kind of curating like
Speaker 1: we've been trying to curate four days and twenty talks
Speaker 1: where it's like you can take a course on controlling
Speaker 1: your spending and improving your spending over like a full
Speaker 1: course over four days for free. And so to me,
Speaker 1: it's been so excited to try and innovate in this
Speaker 1: like online summit space and still like and bring people
Speaker 1: together in it. So it's yeah, we're like deep into
Speaker 1: it and we're very excited for I'm very excited for
Speaker 1: it to be to head into the world at the
Speaker 1: end of this month. Jen, you're very digitally creative. I'm
Speaker 1: more tactile creativity. Yeah. I create all the time on
Speaker 1: the Internet. That's like where I find my creativity. So
Speaker 1: I feel like I cannot do. I don't have arts
Speaker 1: and crafts hoarde. That's not my thing, but I do
Speaker 1: know people that do. Like But if you could hoard
Speaker 1: digital like crafts like I would have at oh my Gosh, yes, websites,
Speaker 1: articles like every oh my Gosh, I would be a
Speaker 1: hoarder for sure. Tabs if you could. I if tabs
Speaker 1: didn't go away, I have a lot of tabs. I've
Speaker 1: never I've never figured out the tabs. People. I feel
Speaker 1: like you have like maybe three at a time, And
Speaker 1: I close the browser at the end of every browsing
Speaker 1: session like it's it's gone out. And then I have
Speaker 1: friends that like, I don't know how you keep track
Speaker 1: though we don't don't it's the anxiety that keeps you
Speaker 1: moving history though, can't you use your history? I sometimes
Speaker 1: like I do. Sometimes you close the tab too early,
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, I needed that twenty others open.
Speaker 1: I'm curious. So this is totally off subdict. But if
Speaker 1: your tabs correlate to your notifications like on text or
Speaker 1: on email or anything else, like, do you clear the
Speaker 1: inbox and clear the text out and stuff like that
Speaker 1: or do you have that little Do you have badges
Speaker 1: that tell you how many unread are happening at any
Speaker 1: given point. So I have muted all of my notifications
Speaker 1: and all my badges, and I just ignore the fact
Speaker 1: that I have over two thousand unread emails. Um, you
Speaker 1: can have art belt on my personal in box. I
Speaker 1: have for my business inbox. I for sure have an
Speaker 1: assistant who like keeps us in inbox zero, But yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to. My personal email inbox is quite overwhelming.
Speaker 1: And I still have unrolled me, which is like a
Speaker 1: thing that you can, yeah, roll up a bunch of
Speaker 1: promotional emails. I have that and it still keeps coming. Yeah. Yeah, Well, Miranda,
Speaker 1: if someone wants you to be one of their tabs
Speaker 1: in their life, on their computer, on their phone, where
Speaker 1: can they get more from you? Yeah? Well, I have
Speaker 1: a weekly podcast all about intentional living it's called Live
Speaker 1: Free Creative. It comes out Thursday mornings at six am
Speaker 1: Eastern and the show helps people live more aligned with
Speaker 1: their values, live on Purpose, so touches a little bit
Speaker 1: on frugality, but mostly on you know, to all different
Speaker 1: aspects of living aligned with the things that matter most
Speaker 1: to you. And I'm online on Instagram at Live Free Miranda. Occasionally,
Speaker 1: I've found a positive correlation with the amount of time
Speaker 1: I spend off of Instagram and my my life satisfaction,
Speaker 1: So I check in a couple of times a week.
Speaker 1: And then my I have a book. I wrote a
Speaker 1: book about our yearlong challenge and published a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. It's called More Than Enough, and that's available
Speaker 1: on my website Live Free Creative dot co and on Amazon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so those are the places I'm mostly. My favorite thing
Speaker 1: is you all could attest to I'm or my favorite
Speaker 1: thing is the podcast and being able to have a
Speaker 1: weekly chat with people and show up there talk about
Speaker 1: things that are interesting. So that's my favorite place too
Speaker 1: to create is my Live re Creative podcast. Awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks again Miranda for coming on the show and we
Speaker 1: can't wait to talk to you again one day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me, Jill, what did
Speaker 1: you think of that one? I'm gonna actively try not
Speaker 1: to do what I apparently do after every interview. That
Speaker 1: was so good, although I guess I just did that.
Speaker 1: I you. You know, these are so fun for me
Speaker 1: when we get to bring other people onto the show.
Speaker 1: And again, I think Miranda brings such a unique perspective creativity.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy what she has to say about making
Speaker 1: sure that we are give thing space and margin for
Speaker 1: our own creative endeavors, like hands on things or mind
Speaker 1: on things, more than we consume. And this idea of
Speaker 1: consuming also being scrolling the internet is something I've not
Speaker 1: completely pieced together before. I think of consumption with throwaway things,
Speaker 1: and that's something you know, we focused on in this
Speaker 1: podcast before too, like going more zero waste. But I
Speaker 1: love the idea of even less consumption of even digital
Speaker 1: things because it's good in measure. But if it's outweighing
Speaker 1: phenomenally my own endeavors and my own creative outlets, then
Speaker 1: it's not going to be beneficial for me. So that's
Speaker 1: that's my takeaway. Yeah, and I don't consider myself a
Speaker 1: traditionally creative person. I mean I again do not have
Speaker 1: like craft stuff. I did a few like crafty things
Speaker 1: growing up, but I was never really good at it.
Speaker 1: So when I hear creativity, it's it's usually I think,
Speaker 1: reserved for artists and creative types like Miranda. But when
Speaker 1: she was talking about how we all have this desire
Speaker 1: to create and no matter what it is, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be art, but we all have a desire
Speaker 1: to create and consuming consumption, all of that, like solving
Speaker 1: your problems with money, robs us of that we are
Speaker 1: so used to being so efficient. And yeah, some seasons
Speaker 1: do call for efficiency over creativity, but when you take
Speaker 1: away the option of going straight to spending money to
Speaker 1: solve your problems, and you just first put in this
Speaker 1: one barrier of how can I get creative to solve
Speaker 1: this problem without money, and think about it, think about
Speaker 1: if it's feasible for you, if you right now, if
Speaker 1: you want to try it, and if it isn't, don't.
Speaker 1: But if it is, then you've given yourself this opportunity
Speaker 1: to be creative, to create and potentially create these memories
Speaker 1: alongside of it that you wouldn't have had you just
Speaker 1: jumped right to spending money. Well, clearly we like talking
Speaker 1: about this, but thank you all for listening, and in
Speaker 1: celebration of this free summit that's coming up June, we
Speaker 1: want to share some of the comments you all made
Speaker 1: about our one that was last year. For those of
Speaker 1: us who are losing track of time these days. One
Speaker 1: event last year like this one from Christie M. She
Speaker 1: said about the summit, Wow, just wow, you guys are
Speaker 1: so wonderful. Please keep going. I missed a lot in
Speaker 1: the chaotic week I had, but I still gained so
Speaker 1: much just being able to tune in from the email links.
Speaker 1: I have listened to every episode of your Girlfriends podcast.
Speaker 1: Yet there's still more you have to offer. Yeah, we do, Chris,
Speaker 1: and we're doing it again. We got more to offer
Speaker 1: with our twenty speakers at this free event, and it's
Speaker 1: totally separate from the podcast. It's not gonna be anything
Speaker 1: you hear on the podcast. Come join us for Goal
Speaker 1: Frugal Summer Camp. Yeah, thank you so much, Christie. And
Speaker 1: we do pack a lot into four days, but the
Speaker 1: event is designed to be helpful even if you just
Speaker 1: turn on one session on in the background on your
Speaker 1: phone or laptop while you're doing dishes, or maybe you
Speaker 1: just turn into tune into like one happy hour. We
Speaker 1: do happy hours, live happy hours with you guys every
Speaker 1: night of the summit, and we talked about the day's topics.
Speaker 1: So maybe you don't even get time to listen to
Speaker 1: a session, but you want to join us on a
Speaker 1: happy hour or even just for all the gift cards
Speaker 1: we're going to be giving away, like yeah, theyre going
Speaker 1: to be fun, yes, so fun. We just we want
Speaker 1: to see you there because our listeners got so much
Speaker 1: out of it last year and so did we, and
Speaker 1: so we're so excited to do again. So thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and if you want your free ticket to this year summit,
Speaker 1: June had to Frugal Living Summit dot com and don't
Speaker 1: miss out on the early bird deal we've got going
Speaker 1: for that spending Mastery fundle See you guys next week.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. I'm getting so
Speaker 1: jazzed for this, Jen jazz jazzed viewing it like a
Speaker 1: summer camp. Last year when we did it, it was
Speaker 1: during the Summer Olympics and that was fun. Fee it
Speaker 1: that way. YEA. Our closing ceremonies was like the opening
Speaker 1: ceremonies of the Summer Olympics. So we think I rewatched
Speaker 1: our closing ceremonies from last year, and if you didn't attend,
Speaker 1: you don't know. But if you did attend, you got
Speaker 1: to see my son in all of his two year
Speaker 1: old glory. And and we had this candle that we
Speaker 1: lit as like our flame, and it turned out to
Speaker 1: be the same size as the Olympic torch in the
Speaker 1: Winter limp same size and so very unremarkable size. And
Speaker 1: so for the closing ceremonies, we just put the candle
Speaker 1: on a table and we played the music, and Kai
Speaker 1: ran up and blew out the candle and he was
Speaker 1: so proud of himself. We were all proud of him.
Speaker 1: Everyone was stoked. And then Eric like taught him this
Speaker 1: dance with his fingers and and then he just was dancing.
Speaker 1: At the end, I was like, this is the best
Speaker 1: thing that that might need to be. Even though there's
Speaker 1: no Summer Olympics happening this year, we still needed to
Speaker 1: resurrect that adorable video or come up with something else
Speaker 1: that kind of can do. Oh yeah, that we will
Speaker 1: definitely do. Hold for that. See you guys there, it's free.
Speaker 1: We love that word. Frugal Living summit dot com