Speaker 1: Episode to forty nine Time management tips that save you money.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 1: save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life.
Speaker 1: Here your host Jen and Jill. Mm hmmmmm. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name
Speaker 1: is Jill, and today we are talking about time in
Speaker 1: relation to your money, and not in the sense of
Speaker 1: like time is money, though you will hear that phrase,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's it's in the articles. But time
Speaker 1: does dictate how you spend your money in times, seasons
Speaker 1: that are more stressful, where there are more things on
Speaker 1: your plate, or if it's not even a season, if
Speaker 1: it's just your regular life you have to do. What's
Speaker 1: going on that can cause you to spend money in
Speaker 1: different ways. So we're to kind of explore that, dive
Speaker 1: in and talk about some time management that is good tips,
Speaker 1: maybe some overrated tips will let you decide. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think too, when we get good at managing time,
Speaker 1: we get good at managing money. I think they go
Speaker 1: and vice versa, like they do go hand in hand,
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk about that in these articles. But
Speaker 1: did you read the first article did I did I
Speaker 1: actually prepare for this episode? Interesting? Well, we won't leave
Speaker 1: you hanging, but first, this episode is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Hurricane Ian Relief. It has just been a few
Speaker 1: weeks since Hurricane Ian came through our neighbors to the
Speaker 1: south Charlotte and Lee County, and we're so close to this.
Speaker 1: We have family, we have friends, we have family of
Speaker 1: friends who have just lost everything. It's not just people
Speaker 1: who live on the beach and you're like, oh, you
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Speaker 1: businesses on the water, like, people don't have jobs to
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Speaker 1: want to help in the best way that we can
Speaker 1: because it's still hard to physically get there. Uh, it's
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Speaker 1: your support. Yes, so let talk about time management there
Speaker 1: are we haven't done a lot of time management episodes.
Speaker 1: I think we have talked about it a lot, kind
Speaker 1: of like in the essentialism sort of way, like that's
Speaker 1: a really popular book. But I think part of the
Speaker 1: dream life you know, that we're trying to pursue that
Speaker 1: is not dictated by money, is having that dream schedule.
Speaker 1: And we always say, like frugality is essentially it's not
Speaker 1: just about money, but it's being a good stewart of
Speaker 1: all your resources. And time is your only, your one
Speaker 1: and only truly non renewable resource. You can truly not
Speaker 1: make more of it. There are some natural resources that
Speaker 1: you know are non renewable, but you can still find alternatives.
Speaker 1: There is no alternative to time. You cannot make more
Speaker 1: of it, and so that makes it important. And also
Speaker 1: how you spend your time dictates how your transactions look
Speaker 1: in your bank account. I'm sure that you've already realized
Speaker 1: at So let's dive into our first episode on managing
Speaker 1: your time and mastering your money. Jill, I think you
Speaker 1: read this one. What do you think I did? I've prepared. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great. It has five different tips and almost kind
Speaker 1: of perspectives ways to help us think about the interconnection
Speaker 1: of time and money. And the second article does talk
Speaker 1: about this, but I want to highlight it here as well.
Speaker 1: One of the paradigm shifts that has been helpful for
Speaker 1: me in just the vernacular around time management is the
Speaker 1: reality that we don't manage time. We manage ourselves in
Speaker 1: the midst of time. Of course, even with the counseling
Speaker 1: background that I have, this is a very common conversation
Speaker 1: that we will have with clients because it's something that
Speaker 1: we're all continuously working on. How do we engage with
Speaker 1: what we've been given, the resources that we've been given,
Speaker 1: specifically the non renewable resource of time, like you mentioned, Jen,
Speaker 1: So I think it can help if we shift our
Speaker 1: mindset a bit that we are not the managers of
Speaker 1: time or the managers of ourselves in the midst of time,
Speaker 1: and that perspective can help us focus a bit more
Speaker 1: inward versus what's happening all around us and externally, but
Speaker 1: what can I do with what I've been given? So
Speaker 1: coming from that framework, I think it is a helpful
Speaker 1: article to look at the intersection here and so first
Speaker 1: things first. Number one, they talk about when you manage
Speaker 1: both time and money, Well, there's more of it. And
Speaker 1: I'm putting that in air quotes because it's not as
Speaker 1: if we can actually make more of it, but we
Speaker 1: can have maybe more at our disposal than if we
Speaker 1: weren't actively engaged in looking at how can we utilize
Speaker 1: time and money well. And so they're talking a lot
Speaker 1: about efficiency in this part, which I would absolutely agree with.
Speaker 1: I think that there's strong correlations between when we're intentional
Speaker 1: about budgeting and allocating our money, then we can find
Speaker 1: more resource, more pennies and dollars and tens of dollars
Speaker 1: in the budget to allocate better and maybe more towards
Speaker 1: the things that we want and we value. And similarly,
Speaker 1: if we kind of quote unquote budget our time or
Speaker 1: manage ourselves well in the midst of time, we might
Speaker 1: find margin for ourselves in our schedules and in our
Speaker 1: routines and in our plans, and all of that can
Speaker 1: create more efficiency, which might create more opportunit unity to
Speaker 1: make more money if that is what we desire to
Speaker 1: do with that time, or just have more freedom and
Speaker 1: flexibility to do the things that we want and value.
Speaker 1: I like what they say here in the last paragraph,
Speaker 1: so I'll just read it. What they say about number one,
Speaker 1: budgeting your money and your time takes effort and time, ironically,
Speaker 1: but the payoff is increased efficiency, which leaves you with
Speaker 1: more money and more time. So I think that my
Speaker 1: takeaway and this first part is that efficiency component, thinking
Speaker 1: about how can we use our money more efficiently, how
Speaker 1: can we utilize the time we've been given more efficiently,
Speaker 1: And they think we are going to see benefit and
Speaker 1: payoff in both regards. Yeah, I just highlighted in the
Speaker 1: in our outline that that quote we don't manage time,
Speaker 1: We manage ourselves in the midst of time, which is
Speaker 1: such a powerful paradigm shift because it will change the
Speaker 1: way you accept asks, you accept things into your schedule
Speaker 1: because it is you are actually in charge of your schedule,
Speaker 1: even if you don't feel like you feel like your
Speaker 1: kids are in charge of it, your spouse is in
Speaker 1: charge of it, your family is in charge of it.
Speaker 1: You are in charge of your schedule. So you have
Speaker 1: to manage yourself in the time that you have and
Speaker 1: it doesn't always end up perfect, which is okay. Life
Speaker 1: isn't perfect everything, no season is perfect. You will never
Speaker 1: get to the perfect schedule. But if you're just looking
Speaker 1: for that one thing that you can change to feel
Speaker 1: less stressed, or to feel less overwhelmed, or to feel
Speaker 1: more in control, then you can start to move in
Speaker 1: the right direction so that maybe next season feels better. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think that's always the goal, is just to
Speaker 1: be focusing on what's the next right thing almost, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I I love that for sure, the next on the list,
Speaker 1: and there there are five things on the list. But
Speaker 1: this is also a it's easy to forget this. But
Speaker 1: number two is realizing there are limits to both. So
Speaker 1: there are limits to both time and money. And for
Speaker 1: my money manifestation, babes, hear me out. So there are
Speaker 1: only so many hours in the day. You know that
Speaker 1: you you cannot manifest more hours in the day. You
Speaker 1: cannot work more hours in the day. There is a
Speaker 1: limit to every hour of every day. You get twenty
Speaker 1: four except for when we hit daylight savings right one
Speaker 1: day year, one day year, you got the extra hour, Um,
Speaker 1: but it's taken from somewhere else, so exactly, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: taken from a second day. So really it's it's negated.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So putting that in a perspective, yes, I
Speaker 1: can maybe comprehend I only get twenty four hours in
Speaker 1: a day, but that means I only get three sixty
Speaker 1: five days in a year, and I only get ten
Speaker 1: years in a decade, and my decades are finite. I
Speaker 1: will not live forever. So in order to have decades
Speaker 1: that I feel good about, to have years that I
Speaker 1: feel good about, I have to pay attention to the hours.
Speaker 1: I have to pay attention to the individual days because
Speaker 1: those are what make up those bigger chunks. And so
Speaker 1: we are many times and I know this having having
Speaker 1: a small child, just trying to get through, just trying
Speaker 1: to get through the hours, make make it through the hours,
Speaker 1: and then I look back in the years and I
Speaker 1: wonder where they went. You know who? Everybody has done that,
Speaker 1: whether you have kids or not. So to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are fully cognizant there are limits to your
Speaker 1: hours um and the same goes for money. You can
Speaker 1: always replenish your money, you can always be looking to
Speaker 1: make more, but at the end of the day, what
Speaker 1: you make is what you have, alright, So knowing that yes,
Speaker 1: you can use a credit card, but you will have
Speaker 1: to pay that back with interest kind of like daylight
Speaker 1: savings worse, but it's worse. And so realizing that there
Speaker 1: are limits to your money, you are not limited by
Speaker 1: your money, and we hope to that that frugality and
Speaker 1: like what we teach through the show helps you feel
Speaker 1: that freedom, but also knowing like you have what you have,
Speaker 1: and if that have is not saving for retirement, if
Speaker 1: that has not paying off high interest at if what
Speaker 1: you have is not going towards these future things, then
Speaker 1: these future decades, these future years, etcetera, etcetera, you will
Speaker 1: not have more of them to make up for what
Speaker 1: you're not doing now with your money. And so there
Speaker 1: is no right time to start managing your money. Well,
Speaker 1: the time, the best time was yesterday. The second best
Speaker 1: time is today, to doing those small things, to paying attention.
Speaker 1: So yeah, realizing that and even cognitively realizing that we
Speaker 1: have limits. We put so much into our schedule because
Speaker 1: we think cognitively and energetically we have you know, we
Speaker 1: could do it all, but no, you have physical and
Speaker 1: mental limits too. So we are we are limited, but
Speaker 1: not living in fear of those limits. Uh, living trying
Speaker 1: to make the most of those limits. That's the goal.
Speaker 1: I love listening to you talk. I just get on
Speaker 1: these soapboxes. We never stop. You're so clean after watching
Speaker 1: you on that soapbox, clean and motivated. So that leads
Speaker 1: quite well into number three. We are not limitless. We
Speaker 1: do have. All of us have a version of capacity.
Speaker 1: Our capacities are different, but it's not limitless capacity. And
Speaker 1: because of that, we need to get really good at prioritizing,
Speaker 1: which is what number three is talking about. And this
Speaker 1: applies to both time and money. It's why we talk
Speaker 1: a lot in the personal finance space about identifying your why,
Speaker 1: thinking big, thinking goals, thinking long terms, so that that
Speaker 1: can help you stay on track with what is priority.
Speaker 1: That's what a why is. It's what your goal is
Speaker 1: as a priority. But same thing for time. And I
Speaker 1: think this is what can be the biggest barrier in
Speaker 1: whether or not we're managing ourselves or managing our money well,
Speaker 1: is a lack of not just identifying priorities, but keeping
Speaker 1: them front of mind. I think any leadership conference I've
Speaker 1: ever been to, there's always some talk about priorities because
Speaker 1: we have to constantly come back to them of Okay,
Speaker 1: what is priority. It's a problem for all of us,
Speaker 1: whether at home or in the workplace, and keeping that
Speaker 1: because it's oftentimes the thing that's right in front of
Speaker 1: us that steals attention, that steals money, and we just
Speaker 1: get so off track and we've got to come back
Speaker 1: to okay, but that did that actually help me towards
Speaker 1: my larger goal. And so I think for starters, we
Speaker 1: have to say what is the priority. We need to
Speaker 1: know what that is first, And it's okay. If we
Speaker 1: don't know, we're not We're not crazy for not knowing.
Speaker 1: We're not silly for not knowing. Was Sometimes we just
Speaker 1: haven't given ourselves the space. So we've got to sit
Speaker 1: down first and say what's priority for my time and
Speaker 1: what's priority for my money? Right where whole people. It's
Speaker 1: why this is so interconnected. As we get better with one,
Speaker 1: we're going to get better with the other one of
Speaker 1: the activities. So I'll pull in some of the work
Speaker 1: that I do in my day job that can be
Speaker 1: helpful with this, because I know so many of us
Speaker 1: are overwhelmed. We've got full schedules, we've got multiple demands
Speaker 1: on our cash, on our capacities, on our limitations. So
Speaker 1: helpful activity could be. You know me, I'm visual, and
Speaker 1: I think many of us can find these things useful. Actually,
Speaker 1: get out some pen and paper and consider this concept
Speaker 1: of what's on your plate? And you could literally draw
Speaker 1: a plate. If you want to get super creative, you
Speaker 1: can actually take a dish out of your kitchen and
Speaker 1: have different items in your kitchen represent what's going on
Speaker 1: in your life. But look at what's actually on my plate.
Speaker 1: What are the things demanding time, energy, attention, money, and
Speaker 1: allow allow that visual to kind of pull to the surface. Okay,
Speaker 1: but what's most important? What are the kind of what?
Speaker 1: What are what's the meat? What's the protein here that
Speaker 1: needs to stay? And what are the side pieces that
Speaker 1: maybe aren't as important. Let that determine your priorities and
Speaker 1: then from there, whether you want to keep that visual
Speaker 1: in front of you, if you want to hang it
Speaker 1: on your fridge then, or some way of reminding yourself
Speaker 1: of those things on a regular basis, again both for
Speaker 1: your time, for your calendar as well as for your money.
Speaker 1: I know many people who keep like a written calendar
Speaker 1: will often keep a written list of what's priority and
Speaker 1: that could that could go month to month, just like
Speaker 1: our budgets go month to month. What's priority this month?
Speaker 1: Keep that written list or visual on your written calendar
Speaker 1: so that when a demand comes, hey can you do this?
Speaker 1: Are you available this night? You can go back to
Speaker 1: this list. Does it attach back to what I said
Speaker 1: as priority? Yes? Or no, that can take my answer
Speaker 1: for whether or not I'm going to be involved in
Speaker 1: that thing again. As we get better at this and
Speaker 1: kind of holding the reins, recognizing our limitations, we will
Speaker 1: find margin in our calendars. We will find margin in
Speaker 1: our wallets. If we're able to continuously connect back to
Speaker 1: what's priority, what's priority even just for the month. You
Speaker 1: don't have to get too big with it. We don't
Speaker 1: have to think annually, think month to month. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: love the idea of prioritization. It's so funny. People will
Speaker 1: like like bring us on their show or something, or
Speaker 1: be like familiar with us, and they're like, I just
Speaker 1: love your balanced approach, like just having everything in balance,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I I hate the word balance.
Speaker 1: Hot take. I think the concept of balance is toxic
Speaker 1: because we envision it like having everything and being this
Speaker 1: like zen balanced person. But when you are at everything
Speaker 1: on the same level, then you are juggling so many
Speaker 1: priorities you don't know when to stop adding, and eventually
Speaker 1: everything comes crashing. Like balance is a myth. The concept
Speaker 1: of balance is toxic. Prioritization is when you lay everything down,
Speaker 1: all these things you've been juggling, You lay it all
Speaker 1: down and you choose what's most important, and then you
Speaker 1: prioritize everything in order, and the things that don't fit
Speaker 1: that are in the bottom, you say no to them,
Speaker 1: and they're no longer in the balance. They're out so
Speaker 1: many boxes of soap, at least for now. Maybe not forever,
Speaker 1: but maybe just for now. And so that is the
Speaker 1: concept of prioritizing. That's what we like. That's what we
Speaker 1: say in finances with financial goals. It's also what we
Speaker 1: say with responsibilities in regard to our time. And when
Speaker 1: we do that, then we have more mental and physical
Speaker 1: energy to make better decisions about not just our time,
Speaker 1: but about where we spend our money and how we
Speaker 1: earn our money. The reason a see saw is so
Speaker 1: fun is because balance is a myth. Absolutely, yes, think
Speaker 1: about it. Yes all right, just just come onto the
Speaker 1: soapbox with me. There's room. Let's get some water involved,
Speaker 1: and we got ourselves a true bath. Yes all right.
Speaker 1: So number four is used tools to help stay on track,
Speaker 1: and I love so technology is a blessing and a curse, right,
Speaker 1: So I love the fact that technology exists to help
Speaker 1: us stay on track with the goals we say we
Speaker 1: want to reach. Um. And so you can take advantage
Speaker 1: of tools, uh, like you know, project management software on
Speaker 1: your computer or apps on your phone. So whether it's
Speaker 1: a budgeting app or you're using Google Sheets on the
Speaker 1: Google Sheets app for your budgeting spreadsheep, or a task
Speaker 1: management method, there are so many. We'll talk about some
Speaker 1: of them in the next article, but there are or
Speaker 1: I and Jill also we love paper. We just I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not a technology tool, but it is a tool.
Speaker 1: So shared calendars, whatever, use tools to help you don't
Speaker 1: make like and and here's another thing that I may
Speaker 1: have a hot take on. It's like, god, what is
Speaker 1: it called the journaling? The scheduling and the journaling where
Speaker 1: they do the the doodling and the stickers and bullet
Speaker 1: journal bullet journaling. Yes, bullet journaling is also toxic because
Speaker 1: you're essentially glorifying your schedule. And it's how many things
Speaker 1: can I fit into my schedule to make my bullet
Speaker 1: journal look beautiful? And and that's not the goal. The
Speaker 1: goal is not the perfect schedule. The goal is just
Speaker 1: to have the schedule be something maintained. UM, So you
Speaker 1: can stay on track with whatever your intentions are. So
Speaker 1: use tools. But No, don't idolize tools. M hold the tension,
Speaker 1: not the balance. And lastly number five, keep adjusting. You
Speaker 1: know this, there's freedom. We are static, We're no, we're dynamic.
Speaker 1: We're not static, and there is space to continually review, adjust,
Speaker 1: make amendments to our time and our money. So similar
Speaker 1: to how we want to be looking at what the
Speaker 1: money coming in and the money going out monthly, keeping
Speaker 1: a pulse on what's coming up, what unexpected or maybe
Speaker 1: uncommon expenses are coming up. Similarly with our time, what
Speaker 1: was good for me last month might not be good
Speaker 1: for me this month. There might be more demands on
Speaker 1: my schedule this month. Fine, what's that going to mean
Speaker 1: for me next month? How can I then increase my
Speaker 1: margin and get some rest based on what has been
Speaker 1: demanded of me? Some of it maybe I didn't have
Speaker 1: control over. So we don't want to hold ourselves to
Speaker 1: a budget or a calendar, or schedule or a routine
Speaker 1: if it's not fitting our needs. We need to be
Speaker 1: keeping a pulse on this and giving ourselves freedom to
Speaker 1: adjust that in a way that's going to work for us,
Speaker 1: not just not someone else's goals or not even our
Speaker 1: own fantasy of ourselves, but what's actually working and what's
Speaker 1: helping us be the best version of ourselves? Yes, so
Speaker 1: that leads us into our next article, which is eleven
Speaker 1: time management tips that work, and we don't have to
Speaker 1: go through all of them. Some of them are a
Speaker 1: reiteration of what we just talked about, but we do
Speaker 1: want to give the Frugal Friends filter on some of these.
Speaker 1: Uh So, yeah, I will. I'll just dive into the
Speaker 1: first one because it's a quick one. We already talked
Speaker 1: about it. Time management is a myth, so going into these,
Speaker 1: realize there are a lot of tips. There's a Parretto principle,
Speaker 1: there's time blocking, there's ma adriata. Those are not what
Speaker 1: we're going through here. That's that is managing time, not
Speaker 1: managing yourself. These are tips to manage yourself. So just remember,
Speaker 1: no matter how organized you are, no matter how prettier
Speaker 1: bullet journal is, they're only twenty four hours in a day.
Speaker 1: Time doesn't change, and all we can do is manage
Speaker 1: ourselves and keep that in mind. Yeah, so I will
Speaker 1: highlight number two and the frugirl Friends filter here. Here's
Speaker 1: what number two says, find out where you're wasting time. Now,
Speaker 1: for girl friends. Filter for me is I don't love
Speaker 1: this concept of like wasting time. That would more so
Speaker 1: be a matter of maybe utilizing time in a way
Speaker 1: that you don't want to, or spending time on something
Speaker 1: that you don't want to. But it also does tell
Speaker 1: us something about ourselves. So they give us this example
Speaker 1: in number two about how a survey in salary dot
Speaker 1: com revealed that of respondence to that survey admitted wasting
Speaker 1: time every day at work, um about thirty percent said
Speaker 1: thirty minutes a day was wasted. Thirty percent said about
Speaker 1: one hour was wasted, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And I have to wonder about this, like what that
Speaker 1: actually means. I think that they're talking about scrolling social media,
Speaker 1: maybe taking a personal call. But to me, I think
Speaker 1: it reveals a bit about how we work and what's
Speaker 1: necessary for our work. I know that the way that
Speaker 1: our typical work environment is structured is you know, you're
Speaker 1: nine to five, you're you're nine to six, even with
Speaker 1: an hour lunch break. But is that what we have
Speaker 1: capacity to do? Is it realistic to think you've got
Speaker 1: eight hours of productive work in a day? And I
Speaker 1: just don't think. I think the answer to that is
Speaker 1: no I and research is coming out about that. I
Speaker 1: don't have an exact link for you at the moment,
Speaker 1: but I know there's been a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: how we may only have about four hours of focused,
Speaker 1: dedicated energy in a day to actually get like the
Speaker 1: quote unquote real work done. And we need some of
Speaker 1: those yeah, the deep work, the deep focus, and we
Speaker 1: need need some of those breaks. We need to stand
Speaker 1: up and stretch, we need to use the restroom, we
Speaker 1: need to have lighthearted conversation. So I think I would
Speaker 1: also challenge this idea of what does wasting time mean?
Speaker 1: And maybe if there's room to shift this too. Okay,
Speaker 1: these things are helpful for me, but maybe I want
Speaker 1: to put a limitation on that, so that that's kind
Speaker 1: of my approach, Like I'll go an hour and a
Speaker 1: half spurts throughout the day and then and then pause
Speaker 1: and I'll watch a funny video, or I'll get up
Speaker 1: and walk outside and look at the sun, Like there,
Speaker 1: we do need that, otherwise we're not machines. So I
Speaker 1: just want to push back on that idea of like
Speaker 1: wasting time and sure we might put more time to
Speaker 1: something than we want to, but maybe there's a way
Speaker 1: to incorporate that into our schedules that we can feel
Speaker 1: good about. And we don't term it wasting time. It's
Speaker 1: just we've understood ourselves more and know what we need
Speaker 1: to manage ourselves is in the midst of time. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and different people work differently, so some people need to
Speaker 1: space things out. There's one tip on here that says,
Speaker 1: don't waste time, just go back to back to back.
Speaker 1: Some people cannot do that, so some people like need
Speaker 1: the breaks. I personally, like, I have a d h D,
Speaker 1: so like I hyper focus for four to five hours
Speaker 1: at a time. I don't get up, I don't eat,
Speaker 1: I don't do anything, and I just work straight and
Speaker 1: then I'm done. Then my brain is done and I
Speaker 1: do not work anymore for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: And my husband will if he comes home early, and
Speaker 1: he'll just see me like watching TV or lying down
Speaker 1: on the couch. He's like, do you work, And I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: I do. It doesn't make a ton of money, but
Speaker 1: I promise I do. Just work here for the deep focus.
Speaker 1: So many soap boxes. So uh so yeah, that peeple.
Speaker 1: Different people work different ways, so yeah, I would put
Speaker 1: I would equally push back on the the quote unquote waste.
Speaker 1: So let's move into something I think is more beneficial.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to combine three and four, so it's
Speaker 1: create time management goals and create a plan essentially to
Speaker 1: implement those goals. So the that says to remember the
Speaker 1: focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not
Speaker 1: changing time. Again, I want to highlight it heart it.
Speaker 1: It's behaviors because you can't change time. So a good
Speaker 1: place to start it could be if you identify any
Speaker 1: personal time wasters to make it a goal to eliminate those.
Speaker 1: So for me, it is social media. I right now
Speaker 1: not on any social media apps because those were big
Speaker 1: i'm wasters for me and I would say, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm doing it for work. I've got to do it
Speaker 1: for work. When I actually took it out, like got
Speaker 1: off Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, took them all away, you will
Speaker 1: see we still our social media manager Paula runs our
Speaker 1: frigal friends Instagram, so so we're still posting on there,
Speaker 1: but I am not involved with it at all. And
Speaker 1: it has really changed my awareness of how I'm spending
Speaker 1: my time after work. And so yeah, at first it
Speaker 1: was just a goal. I wanted to do it for
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of weeks and now I know
Speaker 1: you remember when I started, and I'm still off, but
Speaker 1: I know I have to get back on eventually, like
Speaker 1: for work. But I'm just gonna let it ride until
Speaker 1: that day which is coming up because I have a
Speaker 1: deadline for a for a post. But yeah, to just
Speaker 1: do that and then so obviously I had to implement
Speaker 1: a plan for that. I did it in stages essentially.
Speaker 1: So the objective it says is to change your behaviors
Speaker 1: over time to achieve the general goals. So not doing
Speaker 1: a cold turkey change, um, but making little little changes.
Speaker 1: So if you feel like you have a packed schedule,
Speaker 1: obviously it's not going to be feasible for you to
Speaker 1: just drop everything. You may have made commitments you need
Speaker 1: to see through. Uh, So you don't want to just
Speaker 1: ghost people and let other people you know, leave them hanging.
Speaker 1: But again, when you prioritize, you can see what are
Speaker 1: the things that I'm going laying everything down, what are
Speaker 1: the things I'm gonna pick back up, and what are
Speaker 1: the things I'm gonna leave down here for now? Um,
Speaker 1: So you it says you need to not only set
Speaker 1: specific goals, but track them over time to see whether
Speaker 1: or not you are accomplishing them using your time management plan.
Speaker 1: So that's not really a framework. I'm sure you wanted
Speaker 1: like a smart goal framework for that, but it's really
Speaker 1: just what am I What are my personal time wasters
Speaker 1: or I would say, because I'm not liking the word
Speaker 1: waste anymore right now, things that are not moving me
Speaker 1: closer to my goals, things that are not life giving.
Speaker 1: What are the things that are, you know, sucking the
Speaker 1: life from me? And how can I make a plan
Speaker 1: to eliminate or replace them? Yeah? Well, the similarities between
Speaker 1: time and money can continue, and I think how we
Speaker 1: approach it is similar. So where we often tell people
Speaker 1: in the personal finance process when we're just getting started
Speaker 1: as know where your money is going first before you
Speaker 1: can implement a plan, it's the same thing with time.
Speaker 1: Nowhere your time is currently going before you can identify
Speaker 1: what's next. I do think it can be a little
Speaker 1: bit easier to track you're spending than it is to
Speaker 1: track your time. Absolutely, we can use some of the
Speaker 1: apps on our phone, like like the screen time tracker.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that thing doesn't lie. It's a sneaky, sneaky
Speaker 1: little truth teller. And similarly, I think we can think, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not spending that much on take out our restaurants,
Speaker 1: and then we look back at our transaction list and
Speaker 1: sure enough, we spend way more than we thought we did.
Speaker 1: So check out that screen time report and where is
Speaker 1: it going? Is it what you expected? Are you shocked
Speaker 1: by anything? Is that the amount of time you want
Speaker 1: to be giving to that? But then also start to
Speaker 1: keep track again. This might be a piece of paper
Speaker 1: that you keep on hand and write down where did
Speaker 1: your day go to? Are you pleased with that? Is
Speaker 1: it aligned with your values and priorities? Are you not?
Speaker 1: What do you want to shift? And then from there,
Speaker 1: similar to how we approach money, implement the plan, but
Speaker 1: also identify what tools are going to work for you.
Speaker 1: For me, when it comes to a budget, I created
Speaker 1: my own spreadsheet. It's what I love. Others like apps
Speaker 1: awesome when it comes to time management. Do you want
Speaker 1: to use a spreadsheet? Do you want to use an
Speaker 1: online calendar or a written calendar? Are there apps that
Speaker 1: could be helpful for you? Do you want to use timers? Like?
Speaker 1: Do you want to put timers on your phone and
Speaker 1: set some limits to how long you spend cleaning, because oh,
Speaker 1: that's what I can get caught up in is one
Speaker 1: thing needs to another. And now I've done this for
Speaker 1: two hours, and maybe I didn't want to. Yes, I
Speaker 1: like a clean home, but but it might have been
Speaker 1: more important for me to have spent that time writing
Speaker 1: something than it would have been to like mop my floor.
Speaker 1: And that really all I wanted to do was like
Speaker 1: wipe down the counter. So I think something like that
Speaker 1: can help us kind of put those limitations in place.
Speaker 1: So figure out the tools that are going to be
Speaker 1: useful for you. And that's number five. Here's here's an embarrassment. One.
Speaker 1: Track how many hours a week you do something to
Speaker 1: procrastinate doing something more important. That's where cleaning is for me.
Speaker 1: I'm I procrastic clean. I don't want to do something else.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, cleaning is a good use of my time.
Speaker 1: I should clean my house. Look at it. It's a disaster.
Speaker 1: It's this very moment that my fridge needs to be
Speaker 1: wiped down, all the condiments need to come out, and
Speaker 1: those drawers need to be vacuumed, Like what not? Right now? Yes?
Speaker 1: So track how many hours a week you procrastinate and
Speaker 1: what you are doing to procrastinate so that you can identify, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this, is it because I've like really need
Speaker 1: to do it right now it's on my list or
Speaker 1: my procrastinating doing something more important? And do I need
Speaker 1: to do the more important thing and come back to
Speaker 1: the procrastic cleaning? I love that procrastically. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: make it up. It's definitely something. So I think we
Speaker 1: did we skip six? Did you go through here? We're spitballing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the right use of that
Speaker 1: word term, but I'm going to go to number seven,
Speaker 1: learn to delegate and or outsource? Uh? And the author
Speaker 1: is not lying when they say delegation is one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things to learn how to do. And they're
Speaker 1: talking about business owners, but we are talking about every
Speaker 1: person in general. What is in your life that you
Speaker 1: may need to delegate and is it even if you
Speaker 1: don't want to delegate, is it worth doing? Almost So,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people start with cleaning, and
Speaker 1: that's a that's a totally fine one. But there are
Speaker 1: maybe I would argue things that we could give up
Speaker 1: that would allow us to clean before we have to
Speaker 1: delegate it out. And I am full, full on like
Speaker 1: in favor of the delegation. It is hard for me
Speaker 1: to delegate. So I'm probably not the best one to
Speaker 1: talk about this one. But I have in in seasons
Speaker 1: where things are busy, like when we were moving and
Speaker 1: I needed to clean one house to move it, like
Speaker 1: move stuff out. I hired somebody to clean because there
Speaker 1: were too many things that the list in that season
Speaker 1: was too much for me to do um And I
Speaker 1: would say these things, these delegation things come in seasons.
Speaker 1: So or maybe you just don't like something and you
Speaker 1: want to give it up and you want to make
Speaker 1: that room in your budget because you just hate dishes
Speaker 1: and you want to hire somebody to do your dishes.
Speaker 1: That's fine too, but definitely look at what you've got
Speaker 1: going on, what you enjoy. Could you give something up
Speaker 1: to fit more in so you don't have to delegate,
Speaker 1: or is it just a delegation season and recognize I
Speaker 1: think one of the biggest barriers to delegation is it
Speaker 1: not being done to your standards. And that is true.
Speaker 1: You do run that risk, and oftentimes that is what happens,
Speaker 1: and there can be some some training and adjustment that
Speaker 1: comes into place in that delegation, but also being willing
Speaker 1: to let go of some of those standards for what
Speaker 1: it frees up for the mental space, the capacity, the
Speaker 1: time that it then gives you back to do the
Speaker 1: things that are actually priority for you to do. And
Speaker 1: this this rings true for anybody, business owners, people at
Speaker 1: work or at home. I'm thinking of the example recently
Speaker 1: that I saw in my sister's household where she stumbled
Speaker 1: upon the reality that her five and seven year old
Speaker 1: know where the groceries go in the fridge and in
Speaker 1: the pantry, and that was one of the things that
Speaker 1: she really despised doing. Was Okay, I made the list,
Speaker 1: I went shopping, I brought it home, and now it's
Speaker 1: just the last thing that I want to do is
Speaker 1: put this away or there's other things that I could
Speaker 1: be doing. And found out that the five and seven
Speaker 1: year old no exactly where all the produce goes and
Speaker 1: where all the snacks go, and now that's their job.
Speaker 1: And so yes, maybe there's mistakes that happened along the way,
Speaker 1: but like, look look to who's in your household and
Speaker 1: recognize that even like your children might be more capable
Speaker 1: than you think that they are. And that's gonna be
Speaker 1: useful to them too, for them to be useful contributing
Speaker 1: members of the household. So yeah, they still around and delicate. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: my three year old can put his laundry away. Does
Speaker 1: he put it in there? Well? No, but it's in
Speaker 1: there that I can't see. I like it and I
Speaker 1: don't care what it looks like on the inside because
Speaker 1: the standards have gone downhill and we're okay with it.
Speaker 1: I have no standards anymore. That's okay with me. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: the rest that's on this list, And don't you tell me, Jen,
Speaker 1: But you know, talking about setting time limits for tasks,
Speaker 1: we've talked about that. I do love that. It's a
Speaker 1: great tip. Set a time limit. I think that can
Speaker 1: also help you get into that deep focus of Okay,
Speaker 1: now I'm not as pulled in different directions by all
Speaker 1: these different things. I'm giving myself an hour for this
Speaker 1: from giving myself ten minutes for this super super useful tool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the only other one on this list that
Speaker 1: I like is to establish routines and stick to them.
Speaker 1: Our brains love routine. It's how we develop habits. So
Speaker 1: when you create routines and you are adamant to sticking
Speaker 1: to them. Eventually your brain will create a habit where
Speaker 1: you're doing it without thinking. And that is always the goal.
Speaker 1: When we can move towards goals and healthy living without
Speaker 1: thinking about it, that is the epitome I think of
Speaker 1: all like life management. So just start with small routines.
Speaker 1: That says, for most people, creating and following a routine
Speaker 1: lets them get right down to the tasks of the
Speaker 1: day rather than frittering away time getting started. And again
Speaker 1: that's in that percrostic cleaning. You know, if you just
Speaker 1: create those small routines that get it done, you'll will
Speaker 1: create habits and you will be able to manage yourself
Speaker 1: in time better. You know, one way that we manage
Speaker 1: ourselves man manage this podcast. Well, in the midst of
Speaker 1: the fifty five minutes we've been given, and it has
Speaker 1: become a routine that has become a habit, I've already
Speaker 1: got it anymore. I know that's right. It's time for
Speaker 1: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 1: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 1: off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy
Speaker 1: to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills,
Speaker 1: buffalo bills, bill claim. This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 1: Hi there, this is also Jill from Iowa. UM. I
Speaker 1: was doing my spring a C check a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and I just thought it would be, you know,
Speaker 1: ninety dollars. They do a check, they would make sure
Speaker 1: everything was okay, and um, he ended up finding a
Speaker 1: leak and they needed to do a repair and there
Speaker 1: was like mold growing in the condenser, so they had
Speaker 1: to put a UV light system in and clean out
Speaker 1: all the air ducts, repair the a C league and
Speaker 1: then put in more of the coolant. And so what
Speaker 1: I thought was going to be ninety dollars ended up
Speaker 1: costing me between three and four thousand dollars. But because
Speaker 1: I had then through of the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: because I opened my own business, I had emergency savings
Speaker 1: saved up, and so even though the bill was huge
Speaker 1: and sucked, I was able to pay it and so
Speaker 1: that felt amazing. Thanks for everything you do. Love the
Speaker 1: podcast well, Jill, thanks for sharing that when I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry that it was such a high expense from what
Speaker 1: you thought would be ninety but that it was just
Speaker 1: an inconvenience that it wasn't an emergency, that it wasn't
Speaker 1: like it used your emergency then, but it wasn't like
Speaker 1: a crisis. It was just an inconvenience because you had
Speaker 1: the savings for it. This is so disappointing, and I
Speaker 1: can just empathize with you of even if you've got
Speaker 1: the money, this as a fun thing to throw towards it,
Speaker 1: but how much worse it would have been if you
Speaker 1: didn't have the money for it. But there's a couple
Speaker 1: of things that you did here that are really quite incredible.
Speaker 1: That proactive work of just checking the a C, getting
Speaker 1: it clean, doing the upkeep and catching this which who
Speaker 1: knows what would have happened if you hadn't been proactive,
Speaker 1: like what sorts of problems that could have turned into
Speaker 1: long term But then being prepared for an emergency something
Speaker 1: that you couldn't have foreseen that you would have had
Speaker 1: to put your money towards, and having that money for it,
Speaker 1: I mean, well done managing your money and your time
Speaker 1: in the midst of all of this. Absolutely one tip
Speaker 1: I will say for anybody else trying this that when
Speaker 1: you get somebody doing a check up and they quote
Speaker 1: you three to four thousand dollars on something like this.
Speaker 1: Definitely go to a few other places and get and
Speaker 1: pay the ninety for a check there too, just to
Speaker 1: make sure you're getting your second and third opinion before
Speaker 1: you throw down. And you can always pin the companies
Speaker 1: against each other and be like, Okay, well I got
Speaker 1: this quote on this from this person. If you can
Speaker 1: go you know lower, I'll get it done with you,
Speaker 1: and then you just say the same thing to the
Speaker 1: next person. You'll usually make back what you paid in
Speaker 1: those extra those extra checkup fees by negotiating down the price,
Speaker 1: or you save the money because it's a cheaper fixed
Speaker 1: somewhere else. Maybe, Thanks Jill, Thanks Jen. If you all
Speaker 1: listening have a bill that you want to share, whether
Speaker 1: it's about a surprise bill that you happen to have
Speaker 1: the money to pay for because of your frugal lifestyle,
Speaker 1: or you know a person named Bill, we love it all.
Speaker 1: Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. Leave us
Speaker 1: your bill, We're sitting here waiting for it. And now
Speaker 1: it's time for round round. Alright, So what has been
Speaker 1: your biggest waste or is kind of your biggest personal
Speaker 1: waste of time and or money, And Jill, I feel
Speaker 1: personally attacked by your answer. It's not just directed to you, Gen,
Speaker 1: although I see why I'll go first. What I feel
Speaker 1: is a drain on my time. Something I do not
Speaker 1: want to give my time to is any time I
Speaker 1: have to do something twice, like just just a total redo,
Speaker 1: like I already did it, it was done, and for
Speaker 1: some reason it needs to be done again. That can
Speaker 1: feel like a waste of time to me. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: recording an episode since I lost the audio. On my side,
Speaker 1: Jen feels attacked because we just had to do this yesterday,
Speaker 1: where it also made me furious. So yeah, no one,
Speaker 1: No one likes this. Like we remember in high school
Speaker 1: college days where we write a paper and that paper
Speaker 1: didn't save and you have to write it all over again,
Speaker 1: and it just feels like the first time you did it,
Speaker 1: like what what was that time for? Or you go
Speaker 1: to cut something like cut and paste and you accidentally
Speaker 1: delete and you only find out like several pages later
Speaker 1: that what you thought you pasted you actually deleted, and
Speaker 1: that's happened to me. The worst is when you feel
Speaker 1: like you wasted time and money. This happened to us
Speaker 1: in a time when we hired someone to do work
Speaker 1: on our house and this was a this was a
Speaker 1: delegation gone wrong. It really wasn't to our standards, and
Speaker 1: not only did that cost us money, it cost us
Speaker 1: time because then we had to redo it and that
Speaker 1: felt like, Okay, we had to do something over and
Speaker 1: we had hemorrhage money on it. That really stunk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is the So that is the fear with delegation,
Speaker 1: and that's why it's like, Okay, what can I give
Speaker 1: up so that maybe I don't have to delegate? So so,
Speaker 1: you know, unless you found somebody trustworthy, but yeah, that
Speaker 1: is a scary thing that has happened to us as well.
Speaker 1: We're currently looking to outsource some work on our house
Speaker 1: and it's like we could do it ourselves, but the
Speaker 1: draw is is that they can do the work while
Speaker 1: we are both working our jobs that and we're like,
Speaker 1: the quality will most likely be on par with what
Speaker 1: we could do ourselves as unprofessional d I wires, but
Speaker 1: it will get done while we are working and efficiency
Speaker 1: is great. Yeah. Yeah, so you kind of have to
Speaker 1: prioritize is what is important and what you are willing
Speaker 1: to cast my eyes on for the sake of having
Speaker 1: more time. So so I mentioned this earlier that social
Speaker 1: media for me was a big waste of time. And
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm not even a big social media person,
Speaker 1: like not a big poster or anything, but I would
Speaker 1: get very wrapped up into watching other people's content because
Speaker 1: I have so many friends that are just amazing content creators,
Speaker 1: and I love their stuff. I want to watch it,
Speaker 1: I want to like it and support them, and yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was just getting too much, and so I
Speaker 1: had to leave. And I've set my replaced that with
Speaker 1: like watching some extra YouTube and playing some extra Solitaire
Speaker 1: on my phone, but definitely not as much. Those can't
Speaker 1: suck me in as badly as the algorithm on Instagram could.
Speaker 1: So that was my biggest waste of time and energy,
Speaker 1: and that would sometimes distract me in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day. I would just go on Instagram to take
Speaker 1: a break. Thirty minutes later, I'd still be on and
Speaker 1: not doing what I need to do to make money.
Speaker 1: So I think that, in combination, I think was my
Speaker 1: biggest time waster. Yeah, yeah, and realizing it and then adjusting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if I if there's a series on Netflix or
Speaker 1: something that I'm watching and I have to binge it.
Speaker 1: That can be dangerous. I have to binge it. I
Speaker 1: have to binge it. It's unhealthy. Oh well, thanks everyone
Speaker 1: so much for listening. We hope you've got some sort
Speaker 1: of helpful tidbit for your time and your money. Many
Speaker 1: of you know that we have a private community where
Speaker 1: we do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups, and
Speaker 1: we want to congratulate one of our members for a
Speaker 1: big win. Debbie, Debbie, You've got so many good things
Speaker 1: to say. Here's what Debbie says. I really like your
Speaker 1: identification of how having Prime made everything feel urgent, mind blown.
Speaker 1: I am not ready to cut Prime yet, but I
Speaker 1: sure do have a grounding question. Is this urgent or
Speaker 1: does it just feel urgent? Because I can imagine having
Speaker 1: it delivered to my door in one or two days
Speaker 1: to ask myself before I order. Nice. I have not
Speaker 1: ordered at least five things in the last few days
Speaker 1: since I read this, because I recognized that the urgency
Speaker 1: was not reality. M Debbie. And this was actually in
Speaker 1: response to one of our other members wins and it's
Speaker 1: just so much winning going on. Yeah, so great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this like sense of urgency can compel us to do
Speaker 1: so much that isn't actually necessary, and so creating that
Speaker 1: pause to say is this actually priority? Is this actually urgent?
Speaker 1: Or is the sense of urgency that is fabricated and
Speaker 1: I can make a better, more informed decision for myself?
Speaker 1: Well done. It's that thinking, it's that using that brain
Speaker 1: and time to create pauses. Time said is the perfect word,
Speaker 1: because sense of urgency is a marketing tactic that companies
Speaker 1: use to make you make impulse not make you, but
Speaker 1: like encourage you to make impulse purchases. So the sense
Speaker 1: of urgency you're feeling is there, but it's fabricated, it's
Speaker 1: not real. So asking that question, is it urgent or
Speaker 1: is a fabricated is it a feeling of urgency? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So well Dot Debbie, thanks everyone for listening. If you
Speaker 1: want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club you can see
Speaker 1: they're what we have coming up next, See you next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Yeah, what is
Speaker 1: it that you're trying to hire out? Jen? What feels
Speaker 1: worth delegation on your home rhyno projects? So when we've
Speaker 1: finished the rental I want to hire out both of
Speaker 1: the bathrooms. I want them done as quickly as possible,
Speaker 1: both of the bathroom and the part that you live in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that is what I want done quickly, and I
Speaker 1: am willing to pay somebody to have the work done quickly.
Speaker 1: So I'll be looking here by the end of the
Speaker 1: year to hire somebody to do the work in the
Speaker 1: new year, or after Christmas or whenever. Like I know
Speaker 1: a lot of they get busy right before Christmas because
Speaker 1: people want their stuff done before the hall days. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's fine, do it right after the holidays.
Speaker 1: I'll wait. I'll wait till the new year. That new
Speaker 1: year special. Yes, but yeah, I want to I want
Speaker 1: my bathrooms. I get it. You've got a lot of
Speaker 1: boxes of soap, so you've got to have a nice
Speaker 1: bathroom to store at it. I know my soapbox is
Speaker 1: so big, and keeping it in the living room is
Speaker 1: just not it's not doing it for me. It's not
Speaker 1: the best place for it. No, it's not. It's messy.
Speaker 1: Well I'm excited for that delegation. Yes, thank you.