Speaker 1: Episode seventy four, How to be Frugal on a single
Speaker 1: income with Budget Girl Sarah Wilson. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights,
Speaker 1: and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. My name is Jen, this is Jill.
Speaker 1: We're certain a musical. This is the musical episode of
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast. Not really, but I'm feeling good
Speaker 1: because today we have an interview with Sarah Wilson, known
Speaker 1: as budget Girl on YouTube, and it's on a topic
Speaker 1: that we get so many questions about being frugal and
Speaker 1: paying off debt when you're single. And Jill and I
Speaker 1: don't have any experience, so we brought someone who has
Speaker 1: all the experience. We're not experts, we don't claim to
Speaker 1: be experts on everything, so we bring in the experts.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. We're only experts on singing podcasts. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And for the money, let's get into our sponsors that
Speaker 1: pay for our song and dance here. This stuff doesn't
Speaker 1: come vote free. Don't also brought to you by Saving
Speaker 1: your rappers. We're mostly talking about gum here, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure you can get creative with other types of rappers.
Speaker 1: For an avid gum chewer myself, I am a big
Speaker 1: fan of saving my tiny paper or foil wrappers. There's
Speaker 1: nothing worse than chewing the last bit of flavor out
Speaker 1: of that stick of gum and not having any place
Speaker 1: to spit it out. If you're my grandfather, you would
Speaker 1: just put the chewed gum behind your ear for later use.
Speaker 1: But choose the more hygenic option and save your rapper.
Speaker 1: Saving rappers, saving sidewalks, the underside of desks, and the
Speaker 1: back of your ears. Since about nineteen, I don't know
Speaker 1: I made that's fine. I mean other rappers. It sounds
Speaker 1: about the writings that deserve saving, might be Emnem, Kanye West,
Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj, what are you saving? Kanye Nikki? And right Prosecurity.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, that's just what it made me
Speaker 1: think of that, and uh, you know, whatever your life
Speaker 1: go for saving it. I can't late, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: introduce our guests today. It is Sarah Wilson from budget
Speaker 1: Girl on YouTube. She has thousand YouTube subscribers. She paid
Speaker 1: off over thirty tho dollars of debt, making less than
Speaker 1: twenty six thousand dollars at points, and so she is
Speaker 1: a expert in paying off debt without a second income,
Speaker 1: without a high income, and she's just got some great
Speaker 1: things to say about being frugal when you there's a
Speaker 1: limit to how many costs you can cut. So without
Speaker 1: further ado, let's get into it. Welcome Sarah from Budget Girl.
Speaker 1: We are so excited to have you on today. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I'm excited to be here. Okay, Sarah,
Speaker 1: glad to have you. Yeah, when we were starting the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast, I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker 1: but I emailed you and I was like, we have
Speaker 1: to get you on. You would be a perfect guest.
Speaker 1: And then we just started getting all these other guests,
Speaker 1: and now over a year and a half later, now
Speaker 1: we finally have you on. I'm very glad. I'm very glad.
Speaker 1: I lived around the crowd that kind of came in
Speaker 1: when we had our site set on one girl off
Speaker 1: in the distance, and then everyone else came and we
Speaker 1: just kind of had to weed through it to get
Speaker 1: you know, I am always happy to be waiting the
Speaker 1: wings to like com party anytime anywhere, any place. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was perfect because we actually had a lot of
Speaker 1: interest in our Facebook group, the Frugal Friends community about
Speaker 1: paying off debt when you're single. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of single people, and um, we got to comment on
Speaker 1: there that she just found that a lot of personal
Speaker 1: finance advice wasn't applicable to her because she was single,
Speaker 1: and at least that's what she thought. And so I
Speaker 1: instantly thought, of you no better person to talk on
Speaker 1: this subject as you who paid off so much debt,
Speaker 1: So first, can you tell us about your debt payoff
Speaker 1: journey and just get everybody up to speed who doesn't
Speaker 1: already know about you. Absolutely. So in I lost my job.
Speaker 1: I was a UM section editor for a newspaper and
Speaker 1: they found someone who could do it cheaper. So I
Speaker 1: was out of work for like five months, and I
Speaker 1: was terrified because to that point I hadn't been paying
Speaker 1: on my student loans. I was deferring them because I
Speaker 1: was only making about like grand a year. I was
Speaker 1: also not budgeting, so I can't tell you exactly what
Speaker 1: I was making, um, but I swore being in that
Speaker 1: place of on unemployment thinking that I had all this
Speaker 1: debt above me thirty three grand to be exact, and
Speaker 1: it was just growing every day and thinking that I
Speaker 1: was going to have to go work like food service
Speaker 1: to survive, and that like the entire college experience was
Speaker 1: going to be for nothing, and that I was just
Speaker 1: I was just done. I was I was worried about
Speaker 1: being done. I was worried about being able to eat.
Speaker 1: And I swore that when I got a new job
Speaker 1: that I would do whatever it took to get out
Speaker 1: of debt. So after about five months on unemployment, I
Speaker 1: took a job in another state and moved from Mississippi
Speaker 1: to a small town in Louisiana as a beat reporter
Speaker 1: for a small newspaper for twenty six thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1: I moved into the cheapest department that I could find.
Speaker 1: It was it was in a good night okay, And
Speaker 1: I started budgeting, and I budgeted every single sin that
Speaker 1: was coming in. And I made it my job in
Speaker 1: my hobby to make more money to try to pay
Speaker 1: off debt. So I delivered. I'd worked. I worked a
Speaker 1: full shift with the newspaper, try to get as many
Speaker 1: overtime hours as I could. I did as many side
Speaker 1: hustles as I could. I trained dogs hustle. It was
Speaker 1: a side hustle and it's not trained dogs that it's
Speaker 1: well trained. That's awesome. Yes, um, I did secret shopping.
Speaker 1: So um. One of my secret shoppings was going to
Speaker 1: Walmart gas stations and attempting to buy cigarettes because at
Speaker 1: this point I was like I was in my early
Speaker 1: twenties and like twenties and seeing if they carded or not.
Speaker 1: I don't ask me to do that for my age, um,
Speaker 1: and usually they did not, and so they would get
Speaker 1: in trouble and I would have just a lot of
Speaker 1: cigarettes that I would make for more money, which was
Speaker 1: recently pointed out to me is probably illegal. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd get paid like eight bucks to go purchase cigarettes
Speaker 1: at a gas station, and I'd get remburse for the
Speaker 1: cigarettes as well, and then i'd resell the cigarettes for
Speaker 1: like four bucks to a coworker of mine. So that
Speaker 1: turned like doing that once a week at some of
Speaker 1: the local gas stations turned into a little bit of
Speaker 1: a good side hustle. I. Um, when that wasn't enough,
Speaker 1: I started like flipping things that I found at yard
Speaker 1: sales and on the side of the road, and then
Speaker 1: I started delivering pizzas from ten pm to three am
Speaker 1: after my shift at the newspaper, I gamified getting out
Speaker 1: of debt. So after two years paying off ten grand
Speaker 1: each year, making twenty six thousand dollars a year living
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, I took a better position in Arkansas, and
Speaker 1: they're I was making thirty grand a year, and I
Speaker 1: did the exact same thing. I put all of my
Speaker 1: race to debt, and I kept gamifying it. Um. I
Speaker 1: had purchased things a yard sales and flipped them to
Speaker 1: the local thrift store or consignment store. I would you know,
Speaker 1: I started the YouTube channel, which at that point was
Speaker 1: actually making me a little bit of money, and I
Speaker 1: threw all of that a debt, and after three years
Speaker 1: and three months, I had it all paid off. WHOA
Speaker 1: on such a small salary too, That's amazing. How did
Speaker 1: you have the energy to do that like that kind
Speaker 1: of hustle non stop? I mean, we all have capacity.
Speaker 1: How did you keep that rhythm up for three years? Well,
Speaker 1: A lot of people looked at the videos that I
Speaker 1: was doing towards the end and they're like, I can't
Speaker 1: achieve that level, and therefore I shouldn't even try. But
Speaker 1: what I always tell people is that frugality is a muscle,
Speaker 1: you have to build it up. So I started with
Speaker 1: trimming my grocery bill and doing some meal planning and
Speaker 1: shopping the sales, and that cut down my grocery budget
Speaker 1: a little bit. And then I started doing this just
Speaker 1: one little side hustle, and I figured out how to
Speaker 1: do another one that made me a little more money.
Speaker 1: And I did only do the pizza delivery for about
Speaker 1: five months because I just couldn't handle not sleeping. So
Speaker 1: there are places where there's a breaking point good and
Speaker 1: I found them. I found them definitely. You gotta find
Speaker 1: your breaking point. Yeah. I also replaced all of my
Speaker 1: hobbies with things that would make me money. So I
Speaker 1: actually a roller derby, which is a very fun thing.
Speaker 1: Roller made you money, No, I replaced hobbies with things
Speaker 1: that made me money, so derby. You became a professional
Speaker 1: roller derby as that's amazing. Roller derby pizza insane. It
Speaker 1: sounds like an insane but you could probably charge for
Speaker 1: ads on your shirt and make some money doing roller derby,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, test it out. So specifically from the
Speaker 1: perspective of someone paying down debt without another person to
Speaker 1: aid in the bill, So as a single person when
Speaker 1: this was happening. What did you find were some of
Speaker 1: the challenges of paying off debt as a single person
Speaker 1: and advantages like both sides to this, But curious to
Speaker 1: pick your brain on that piece. So there's the obvious
Speaker 1: downfall of what I can bring in as much as
Speaker 1: there's going to be. I cannot pay outside of my
Speaker 1: capacity to earn, so a hundred percent of the responsibility
Speaker 1: is on me. However, there's a lot of freedom in
Speaker 1: not having anyone stopping you. I see a lot of
Speaker 1: posts online about like how to get your spouse onboard,
Speaker 1: or when two people are kind of at different levels
Speaker 1: of effort in trying that, or meet money equals. Because
Speaker 1: I was just me, I could focus in one on
Speaker 1: what I was doing and then achieve it without having
Speaker 1: to essentially form a committee to make any distinbues with
Speaker 1: my money. I wanted to eat Raman for week, nobody
Speaker 1: to stop me. Yeah, I probably should have stopped me,
Speaker 1: but but you know, I could pick things that I
Speaker 1: would want to eat. For instance, I'm in a relationship
Speaker 1: now figuring out something to eat. It's like half of
Speaker 1: the energy, isn't it though? Half a relationship? What do
Speaker 1: you want? How about this place? I'm down for anything,
Speaker 1: but not that or that for that, yeah, you want
Speaker 1: to eat there, So I didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker 1: I only had to focus in on what was between
Speaker 1: me and my bowls. So if I wanted to eat
Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for two weeks straight for lunch,
Speaker 1: that's on me, and I'm not going to eat I'm
Speaker 1: not doing anything like that. Everything was my decision and
Speaker 1: therefore I had a lot of freedom towards how fast
Speaker 1: I wanted my pace to be. That's such a good
Speaker 1: point because the other day my husband and I were
Speaker 1: on our way to a concert and I was fine
Speaker 1: with apples and chickpeas salad and he was not, So
Speaker 1: I ain't that in the car and we had to
Speaker 1: go through the drive group Chick fil A for him
Speaker 1: to get something he wanted. Luckily, though, get this, Chick
Speaker 1: fil A. This is such a side tangent. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Chick fil A has drive thru Day and they gave
Speaker 1: us like a gift card for a free sandwich on
Speaker 1: our next visit because it was drive thru Day. So
Speaker 1: there was a little bit of like a I still
Speaker 1: kind of one, but usually it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: That's funny. I mean good for Eric to not just
Speaker 1: be to stand on chickpeas, salad and apples, Like is
Speaker 1: that good for Eric? Who sire you on here? I mean,
Speaker 1: you got your just I've just balanced because he hears
Speaker 1: all this. I mean I can, I can honestly see
Speaker 1: it both ways, because like there were some days where
Speaker 1: I was like, I've got you know inner ready, it's planned.
Speaker 1: I don't want it. I'm gonna use like some of
Speaker 1: my personal money and go do something else. And there
Speaker 1: was no one that I was disappointing by doing that,
Speaker 1: And there was no one to stop me or encourage
Speaker 1: me or anything. It was all my decision. Did you
Speaker 1: have any accountability like partners or or anybody that you
Speaker 1: were talking to about it? I had YouTube, So I
Speaker 1: started a YouTube channel. And at the time, I was
Speaker 1: the only single person or low income person out there
Speaker 1: with like a debt payoff channel that I knew of.
Speaker 1: There were a few people in the space. There's like
Speaker 1: Lydia Sin, there was debt is dumb Um. There was
Speaker 1: his and her money, but like all of those guys
Speaker 1: are married. All those guys were making more than when
Speaker 1: I was. There was no one really talking about single
Speaker 1: person money or low income money or define journey. That's
Speaker 1: the key is that not only did you pay off
Speaker 1: debt as a single person, but such a low income.
Speaker 1: That's what gets me because I think from my husband
Speaker 1: and I would still have a bit more debt to
Speaker 1: pay off, hopefully within a year will be done. But
Speaker 1: the thing with us is that we've had such low
Speaker 1: income and so you know, I thought that there was
Speaker 1: gonna be some some trick to it. When I kind
Speaker 1: of got into this world of how do people do it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, they make a lot of money. Like,
Speaker 1: there's no way you can pay off a hundred ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in two years unless you're making six figures. Like,
Speaker 1: there's no real magic to it. You just have to
Speaker 1: make a crap ton of money to pay off a
Speaker 1: crap ton of debt. And so yeah, that's why I
Speaker 1: love what you're doing and kind of showing that this
Speaker 1: is accessible for anybody. Now, if I had had a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars in debt and was making twenty six
Speaker 1: thousand a year, it would have been been a different
Speaker 1: story and I would be slogging through it. But the yeah,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that the ratio of my income to
Speaker 1: my debt was not ideal. It's not possible to do
Speaker 1: it on a low income. You just might have to
Speaker 1: work a little harder. It's not going to be just
Speaker 1: cutting out coffee or restaurants. It's gonna be you have
Speaker 1: to increase and I my income and through all of
Speaker 1: that at debt. Yeah, but you still have more debt
Speaker 1: than you had income. And I think that mental barrier
Speaker 1: stops a lot of people because somebody that makes seventy
Speaker 1: dollars of debt has the same block, even though they
Speaker 1: are just as capable as you were to pay off
Speaker 1: that amount of debt in as little time as you did.
Speaker 1: So there's a big mental barrier to get through, especially
Speaker 1: because there is a kind of minimum cost of living
Speaker 1: my area. But everyone's gonna have to pay rent, everyone's
Speaker 1: going to have to buy food. It's gonna cost a
Speaker 1: certain amount for you and your family to live. And
Speaker 1: I was very privileged to be operating above that, and
Speaker 1: for much of my debt free journey, I was operating
Speaker 1: out of the low the poverty line. So I understand
Speaker 1: how tight that was, and that's why I put so
Speaker 1: much effort into earning additional and come on the side
Speaker 1: while I waited for opportunities to earn more regular income. Nice.
Speaker 1: And it was kind of a blessing to be single
Speaker 1: during that time, because if I had had a kid,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been able to spend my nights delivering
Speaker 1: pizzas or all these side hustles, um, especially if I
Speaker 1: hadn't had a husband. But because I was alone, it
Speaker 1: gave me the freedom of whatever time I could dedicate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: excellent job, man, that takes determination. Yeah, I and I
Speaker 1: love following your journey on YouTube. Budget Girl on YouTube,
Speaker 1: so definitely if you haven't subscribed, definitely head over there
Speaker 1: and check out her archives from her debt free journey.
Speaker 1: And also, you have a ton of great videos now
Speaker 1: on just different frugal things, so you're still and the
Speaker 1: quality of the videos just keeps getting better and better,
Speaker 1: so they're all great. Back when I was getting out
Speaker 1: of debt, I wasn't investing any money the YouTube. I
Speaker 1: was that phone four. Yeah, you probably shouldn't have if
Speaker 1: you did not live in a good neighborhood like that
Speaker 1: was a good decision. Yeah, our studios were literally my
Speaker 1: phone balance on a bunch of books. Because I didn't
Speaker 1: have a tripod, because you were a budget girl. From
Speaker 1: the very beginnings, Yeah, it was. It would have been
Speaker 1: weird if you had high like it would have been
Speaker 1: disingenuine is what it would have been. I would have
Speaker 1: gotten called out so hard so fast. I know, people
Speaker 1: would call me out for like McDonald's and they'd be like,
Speaker 1: you could have put towards that, towards it, and oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, man, oh my gosh, I'm also sum thank you. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's remember that. Now that you have a boyfriend, how
Speaker 1: do you guys handle money together? So I have always
Speaker 1: always been a fan of equality in a relationship, and
Speaker 1: that extends to finances. Not everyone has to agree with me,
Speaker 1: but that's just the way my little brain works. So, like,
Speaker 1: from the beginning, we were splitting dates, not necessarily going Dutch,
Speaker 1: but he'd buy dinner one night, I'd buy dinner the
Speaker 1: next night, that kind of thing. He did pay on
Speaker 1: our first date, but it was it never seemed right
Speaker 1: to me to expect him to bear the financial burden.
Speaker 1: There was also the issue of he was still a
Speaker 1: student when we started dating, so I was and I
Speaker 1: was defree, so I was in a much better position financially.
Speaker 1: So now that we've been together for two years and
Speaker 1: we lived together, we split the household, built so rent electricity,
Speaker 1: internet equally. Just down the center. He has a full time,
Speaker 1: very good job now he makes more his day job
Speaker 1: than I do in mine, but we split those equally,
Speaker 1: and then we both check out of our individual budgets
Speaker 1: for like groceries, so he'll buy one week, I'll buy
Speaker 1: the next week. That kind of thing. And we still
Speaker 1: kind of go on and off the dates. So is
Speaker 1: he the one who then on his week for groceries,
Speaker 1: does he pick out and meal plan? Does it go
Speaker 1: that deep or is it? Is it just solely finances
Speaker 1: weekend to meal plan together we do for it's anemonium. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's more of a foodie than I am. See my
Speaker 1: first about what I was eating when I was getting
Speaker 1: out of debt, Like I could, I could totally eat
Speaker 1: cereal every night. Um, So I have increased the food
Speaker 1: budget point just to make sure it's eating. Because he
Speaker 1: likes eat little boogier that's awesome. Yeah, at least his
Speaker 1: tastes go that way. My husband is like white bread
Speaker 1: and ego waffles all the way yesterday. Yep, that's Sam,
Speaker 1: and I'm the bougie one and I just like like
Speaker 1: to make my own waffles. So what would be your
Speaker 1: biggest piece of advice, Like, as you look back on
Speaker 1: this journey when you were a single person, what advice
Speaker 1: would you give to somebody else in a similar situation
Speaker 1: being single and trying to pay down debt and and
Speaker 1: live more frugal way. What are some tips you have? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you won't be surprised by this seeing as
Speaker 1: my online Monikers budget girl, but I believe ten million
Speaker 1: percent in the power of the budget because by accounting
Speaker 1: for every single dollar that you make that you make
Speaker 1: and writing down where it's going to go, you make
Speaker 1: sure that it's doing what you wanted to do. So
Speaker 1: before I was a budget or I was always just
Speaker 1: kind of spending based on whether it had any money
Speaker 1: in my account, and that does not leave a lot
Speaker 1: of room for goal planning and doing like swipings with
Speaker 1: my money. When you don't have a budget, it just
Speaker 1: kind of disappears. Your money just goes away and you
Speaker 1: don't know where it was. So there's something very freeing.
Speaker 1: It's not restrictive. It can be very freeing to have
Speaker 1: a budget in place, and you know that as long
Speaker 1: as you follow that budget that you've made aid, you're
Speaker 1: gonna meet your money pulls. So I ret really now
Speaker 1: have way more money than I even want to spend
Speaker 1: available for me to just kind of spend on like
Speaker 1: fun stuff or personal stuff. It gives me permission to
Speaker 1: spend within that and have a good time and do
Speaker 1: and get the things that I want need without jeopardizing
Speaker 1: my retirement or my savings for like a house and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So in back when I was
Speaker 1: making so much less, every penny was imperative. Every single
Speaker 1: penny that I could put towards debt was important to
Speaker 1: getting me out of it. So by accounting for every
Speaker 1: single penny in there, I could pay all my bills
Speaker 1: and pay on debt and get out of debt as
Speaker 1: fast as I could. I love what you said about
Speaker 1: gamifying it and just using that term. Can you describe
Speaker 1: that a little bit, because I feel like there's some
Speaker 1: really good principles in that for anybody trying to get
Speaker 1: out of debt, like single or married. So I've also
Speaker 1: I also talked about how frugality is a muscle, so
Speaker 1: ammifying me being able to save money, it was me
Speaker 1: cutting down my budget by ten dollars for that week
Speaker 1: or forty dollars for that month, and then having to
Speaker 1: make a game out of it of Okay, what am
Speaker 1: I going to do differently that's gonna save me that
Speaker 1: money so that I can put that forty dollars towards debt,
Speaker 1: so that I can get out of debt one month
Speaker 1: sooner or one day singer um. And that would sometimes
Speaker 1: involve like going to multiple different grocery stores, or like
Speaker 1: making a crazy meal plan, or volunteering at a place
Speaker 1: where they were like serving food volunteers and then volunteering
Speaker 1: to take the leftovers home. Like, I never did anything
Speaker 1: unethical other than selling cigarettes, which I didn't realize until
Speaker 1: I'm sure the person who bought the cigarettes was super
Speaker 1: grateful and normally there's seven dollars a pack and they
Speaker 1: can get them four from you, so no one is
Speaker 1: upset there. Pointed out to me very recently, my Marissa,
Speaker 1: the budgeting wife, that that is probably very illegal with
Speaker 1: stale cigarettes with that a license. We won't tell anyone.
Speaker 1: He was, he was up age. He was my coworker,
Speaker 1: and yeah, your friend was giving you a donation for
Speaker 1: something you had already purchased, so and once I had
Speaker 1: kind of like my personal spending under control, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, meal prepping, and that's saved. So I brought
Speaker 1: food to lunch every single day, and I never ate
Speaker 1: out because that's a huge money drain. And I used
Speaker 1: that more as a treat um for like if I
Speaker 1: if I did need out for two weeks straight, I'd
Speaker 1: go eat out and that would be a treat And
Speaker 1: I kind of reimagined how that worked in my head.
Speaker 1: And same thing with my tustling. I'd go to yard
Speaker 1: sales that I used to go just to buy stuff
Speaker 1: I didn't be Instead i'd go with the intent to
Speaker 1: purchase things for resale, and I'd set myself a challenge
Speaker 1: of like, I want to make fifty dollars reselling and
Speaker 1: I only want to spend five. And so I put
Speaker 1: that work in, and when you get the payoff of
Speaker 1: you sell something that you got five dollars for like
Speaker 1: fifty dollars, it's it's like you want to game and
Speaker 1: it starts to become addicting it if you if you
Speaker 1: set it up in that way for yourself, these a
Speaker 1: little challenge. When I wrote the No Spend challenge guide.
Speaker 1: That's what I marketed it as as it's gamifying frugality,
Speaker 1: like it's not sustainable. Doing a no spend challenge isn't
Speaker 1: a no spend lifestyle. It's just a way to gamify
Speaker 1: figuring out what you value and to become more frugal
Speaker 1: and to develop like values based spending. Uh So I
Speaker 1: love that concept too. Yeah, And so every month that
Speaker 1: seemed like I had a bigger amount of money that
Speaker 1: I could put towards debt. And that also felt like
Speaker 1: winning because I could see that debt number drove down.
Speaker 1: And I even put it when I was in debt
Speaker 1: on each video, like the day that I published the video,
Speaker 1: I would put in the title how much that I
Speaker 1: had that day. So it also became accountable for me
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to disappoine anyone. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be able to see my number going down and going
Speaker 1: down fast. It's amazing what community can do for us also,
Speaker 1: and we've seen that just in the one year that
Speaker 1: we've been doing this podcast, just the support that can
Speaker 1: come from it, the understanding, the different tips and ideas,
Speaker 1: and just wanting to stay on track because you feel
Speaker 1: like you're a part of something. So in addition to gamifying,
Speaker 1: there's something else that we really love. This is the
Speaker 1: most fun part of the show. It's 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 anymore.
Speaker 1: That build Buffalo Bill, Bill Clinton. This is the build
Speaker 1: of the week. Every week we invite someone to share
Speaker 1: with us their favorite bill, and as a guest on
Speaker 1: our show, we would like you to do the honor
Speaker 1: of sharing your bill of the week. So do you
Speaker 1: have one for us? Well, I don't. I don't have
Speaker 1: many bills left anymore because I'm at a debt um.
Speaker 1: So my my bill of the week, the one I've
Speaker 1: been working for and towards, is kind of a dream
Speaker 1: of a bill. I I dream of a mortgage, you guys,
Speaker 1: I I have. My current big money goal is to
Speaker 1: purchase a multi family property and house hacking house hack it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to rent out some one or two units and then
Speaker 1: live in like a third or fourth or you know, duplex.
Speaker 1: Divide that math as you will, and so my my
Speaker 1: dream is to have that bill one day and for
Speaker 1: my tenants to pay it for me. Actually, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're that's the best bill someone to build someone else.
Speaker 1: If you're unfamiliar with house hawking, we talk about it
Speaker 1: in our Buy or Rent episode a few few episodes back.
Speaker 1: But yes, I love that concept. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: we're doing. We have just a single family, but we
Speaker 1: rent out the front room and bathroom on Airbnb. And
Speaker 1: it is fantastic to have your bill paid by somebody
Speaker 1: else mortgage bill. To that end, I'm currently trying to
Speaker 1: say about the big old flunkin down payment, and I
Speaker 1: just closed out my July budget today yesterday today is
Speaker 1: the first and I put eight hundred and seventeen dollars
Speaker 1: towards that future bill. That feels good. Yes, yes, And
Speaker 1: you're in Texas where housing is like as cheap as
Speaker 1: water from a river, So that's fantastic. Some places here
Speaker 1: here it can be a little there's a triplex or
Speaker 1: duplexes near the college will go for a quarter of
Speaker 1: a million dollars just because of their locations. They don't,
Speaker 1: but there is. It is more affordable than like California
Speaker 1: or or something. Obviously, so I can be reasonable here,
Speaker 1: but obviously I wish you were. I just think of
Speaker 1: all the h G TV shows that have come since
Speaker 1: Fixer Upper and how they're turning all these affordable diamonds
Speaker 1: in the ugh into like really nice neighborhoods, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: can you stop? Okay. I was at the gym this
Speaker 1: morning and I saw a Fixer Upper episode on one
Speaker 1: of the TVs where one of the houses was fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I was like, no, you can for fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars around it? God? Now, Yeah, nothing like that
Speaker 1: in Florida anymore. Yeah, it's unfortunate, at least in St. Petersburg.
Speaker 1: How far off are you, Sarah from this this bill
Speaker 1: you hope to have? Pretty far off, unfortunately, because I'm
Speaker 1: looking for, like, really a triplex um. I was looking
Speaker 1: at one the other day that was not very close
Speaker 1: to the college and was therefore a little more affordable
Speaker 1: because it would attract like families instead of college shoes.
Speaker 1: And it was to forty for a triplex and no
Speaker 1: down payment on that would be like fifty brand and
Speaker 1: right now I have like brand. Yeah, And that was
Speaker 1: more than we put down on our house. We didn't
Speaker 1: do the recommended obviously, So I would really like to
Speaker 1: avoid the p m I. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm such a cautious person and I'm such
Speaker 1: like a slow person when it comes to money stuff
Speaker 1: like it forever to figure out where I was going
Speaker 1: to like invest in which in endicks funds and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I'm just I'm slow as molasses. So I'm
Speaker 1: a little I'm a little scared that, like the house
Speaker 1: fever is gonna get to me and I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: me put down, you know. I mean, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, if you've got money coming in from
Speaker 1: the property you've bought, then you've made a much wiser
Speaker 1: to decision than most. So yeah, if it's a good property,
Speaker 1: that's a good deal that doesn't require a ton of work,
Speaker 1: I'd pay for the p m I to avoid stress
Speaker 1: of a major fixed up gladly. Well, this has been
Speaker 1: a long Bill of the week. We love it. You
Speaker 1: your bill of the week visit Frugal Friends podcast dot
Speaker 1: com slash bill to leave us a bill that you
Speaker 1: just paid off, that you want to start paying, that
Speaker 1: you want someone else to pay for you, or just
Speaker 1: some random person named Bill, whatever it is, maybe not
Speaker 1: even random, maybe like somebody really love whose name is Bill,
Speaker 1: I don't know, just random. Yeah, well, this leads us
Speaker 1: right into my next favorite time of a week, the
Speaker 1: lightning Round Peer pe Peo ple to too. That's is
Speaker 1: a jeals thing. Sometimes it's Jen's thing too, don't matter,
Speaker 1: secretly love who doesn't secretly love as I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. They'll probably about it in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see it in a review for sure. Please don't
Speaker 1: let us know how you feel about the Lightning Round
Speaker 1: in the region unless you love it, unless that's the
Speaker 1: reason for your five stars have at it. Yeah, all right, So,
Speaker 1: in honor of having Budget Girl on the show, Sarah,
Speaker 1: we want to know some of your budgeting tips. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure you are very used to giving these, so
Speaker 1: just give us a few of your budgeting tips for
Speaker 1: budgeting beginners and people that maybe want to hone their
Speaker 1: budgeting skills. Okay, First off, double check your numbers. Just
Speaker 1: double check your formulas or your numbers or your math
Speaker 1: or however you're doing it on pin and paper. Always
Speaker 1: go through twice because sometimes a cell will not like crossover,
Speaker 1: or you'll forget to carry a number and things will
Speaker 1: go crazy and that's going to take you a while
Speaker 1: to fix. So even I do that sometimes check your
Speaker 1: math so you're still on the spreadsheet. Yes, I'm okay,
Speaker 1: spreadsheet girl. I do recognize that some of the apps
Speaker 1: are probably a little more foolproof than my spreadsheet, but
Speaker 1: I like making there you go. I helped to feel
Speaker 1: in control because if I can make a mistake, it
Speaker 1: feels like so couldn't app Yeah, you know, I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just as good as an app. And apps get
Speaker 1: bought out and they change, and stuff like Google sheets
Speaker 1: ain't going nowhere. Right. I could pull up my my
Speaker 1: budget from January right now and tell you exactly how
Speaker 1: much I made and how much I spend at the
Speaker 1: grocery store, and for some reason that brings me a
Speaker 1: lot of joy and I and that's weird. I mean,
Speaker 1: they don't call you budget girl for nothing. Next up,
Speaker 1: give yourself a category where you have just a little
Speaker 1: bit of kind of miscellaneous wiggle room. So that is
Speaker 1: for when you need shampoo, or a shoelace breaks, or
Speaker 1: something just weird happens that doesn't work into anywhere else
Speaker 1: in your budget. For me, I always had kind of
Speaker 1: a dollar a month cushion in what I called my
Speaker 1: personal line, and that accounted for a lot of things
Speaker 1: that I couldn't put into, like groceries or you know,
Speaker 1: gas rent, et cetera. And just having a place for
Speaker 1: the weird expenses to go is mentally helpful. Just like
Speaker 1: a drunk chore. You need that for your budget. For
Speaker 1: your budget, can I steal that I'm gonna Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: a category copyright frugal Friends, another T shirt, another bumper sticker,
Speaker 1: and three. Have a goal that you're working towards. So
Speaker 1: whether you are trying to get out of debt, or
Speaker 1: whether you are trying to like save for a house
Speaker 1: or a vacation or a car, have something so that
Speaker 1: at the bottom of your budget, if you have any
Speaker 1: leftover money, you can put it towards a mission and
Speaker 1: not just spend because it is so tempting to just
Speaker 1: spend it. But if you have something that you are
Speaker 1: working towards, it can go there, you can feel accomplished,
Speaker 1: It will reinforce this habit of budgeting and help you
Speaker 1: get there just that much closer. Nice. Besides your house
Speaker 1: your future house, what are some of the other things
Speaker 1: that you've like saved up for since paying off debt,
Speaker 1: because that's the question we get, like how do we
Speaker 1: keep up our momentum, and like state committed after we
Speaker 1: pay off debt. So when I got out of debt,
Speaker 1: I started putting a hundred dollars a month into a
Speaker 1: travel fund, and I have gone on a cruise since then,
Speaker 1: which was so much fun. I can find debt free
Speaker 1: vacation paid for entirely in cash that I had saved
Speaker 1: up my travel fund. I have got some new furniture
Speaker 1: that oh my gosh, yes, I've seen your couch on
Speaker 1: social media. It is my dream of couch. You have.
Speaker 1: My spent a lot of time on that shase and
Speaker 1: it's one of my favorite things on the planet. Like
Speaker 1: that is where all of my video editing gets done.
Speaker 1: That is where I'm at my desk right now in
Speaker 1: my office, which is never used. It's only used as
Speaker 1: a backdrop, but because I didn't want to hold the microphone.
Speaker 1: But that's a new furniture. I haven't done a lot
Speaker 1: of upgrades. I haven't gotten a new car, though I
Speaker 1: saved for when I do need a new car. I
Speaker 1: guess the big thing I've been saving for his retirement
Speaker 1: because I didn't put anything away while I was in debt,
Speaker 1: So now I'm really maxing out my um roth eye
Speaker 1: write for that and just making sure that I have
Speaker 1: a ton of money for when I retire so I
Speaker 1: can live affect, live it good. Yeah, I think retirement
Speaker 1: is a great place to stash your extra money. So
Speaker 1: where can people find more about you? And what do
Speaker 1: you have going on? Over at budget Girl absolutely so.
Speaker 1: I make videos every week on YouTube and my channel
Speaker 1: over there is budget Girls so YouTube dot com slash budget.
Speaker 1: I also have a brand new website, Go budget Girl
Speaker 1: dot com where I do lots of free printables and
Speaker 1: articles and just fun ways to help you save money
Speaker 1: and live a more frugal, fabulous life. And I am
Speaker 1: on every social media. It's up Snapchat because I think
Speaker 1: Snapchat is stupid and come at me at go budget Girl. Good,
Speaker 1: all right, I love that. Yes, I've never had a
Speaker 1: Snapchat either, so I admired you for that. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what snapchat is. I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1: This is why I'm the eighty two year old who
Speaker 1: feels like a millennial sometimes because when I do things
Speaker 1: that millennials do, it feels awkward to me, but I'm
Speaker 1: proud of myself. Yeah, all right, Sarah, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on the show, and we will catch
Speaker 1: you next time. Absolutely, thank you for having me. That
Speaker 1: was awesome. Yeah, yes, such good perspective. I mean for anybody,
Speaker 1: but I feel like she is the epitome of anyone
Speaker 1: can do this. Yes, not that it wasn't a ton
Speaker 1: of work for her, but you know, you've got so
Speaker 1: many people are like, I don't make enough money, or
Speaker 1: I'm single, I can't do it like all you married
Speaker 1: people or whatever the cases. She just kind of cuts
Speaker 1: through it and says, look what I did. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: she didn't have a roommate for any of the time
Speaker 1: she was paying off that. She went through two moves,
Speaker 1: she had a pet, still has a pet, so like
Speaker 1: it's not like she lived under a rock for three
Speaker 1: years like the girl did good. And so she's an
Speaker 1: inspiration I think, I mean, not just the single people
Speaker 1: paying off debt, for anybody. She's she's just an amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing woman. So kudos Sarah. If you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: we we love you. I'm gonna say it. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be vulnerable. Wow, you were that was out on
Speaker 1: the limb. You don't even tell me you love me.
Speaker 1: I don't think you've ever told me you love me.
Speaker 1: I love you? Did you just say You just said
Speaker 1: it for the first time and I was mocking you.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's why you don't love me. That's why
Speaker 1: I love you. Love you too, Jen. I also love
Speaker 1: the Girl Friends book Club, and apparently love just gets
Speaker 1: thrown around here. There's only two things. There's only two
Speaker 1: things I love, and it's Jill and the book Club.
Speaker 1: We all know that's not true. You are playcating me,
Speaker 1: and I'm okay with that. Take it um and our
Speaker 1: book this month is The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker.
Speaker 1: We are back with Becker. We read we read his
Speaker 1: book The More of Less and The Their Molest Home,
Speaker 1: turning out to be just as good. I can't take
Speaker 1: you right now. There's something, there's something happening, and I
Speaker 1: think it's just that it's past my bedtime. Anyhow. If
Speaker 1: you want a free book, you could you you could
Speaker 1: do that, you could get that. And here's how it's
Speaker 1: still light outside chill. I just want everybody to know that.
Speaker 1: Can't see that, okay, but listen if it was winter
Speaker 1: time would be dark, so it's all relative. Uh we yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna don't. Haven't even get through this. If
Speaker 1: you want a free copy of the book of the
Speaker 1: book by Joshua Becker, because like Jen said, we're back
Speaker 1: with Becker apparently, So leave us a review on iTunes
Speaker 1: or Stitcher. Screenshot that review and send it to us.
Speaker 1: Email us at Fruqual Friends podcast at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: and we'll select the winners. One for every five reviews
Speaker 1: that gets submitted to us will get a book. So
Speaker 1: chances are real good. And if you want to know
Speaker 1: an example of a helpful review, here is Review of
Speaker 1: the Week. It is from the Fields. They say my
Speaker 1: new favorite. I listened to a lot of podcasts and
Speaker 1: this one has become one of my favorites. I love
Speaker 1: the humor, the friendship, and the openness of seeing that
Speaker 1: there are different ways of accomplishing goals. Keep up the
Speaker 1: great work, and then three exclamation marks, thank you for
Speaker 1: that functuation. Thank you. Well, we're gonna wrap this thing up.
Speaker 1: Twee bye. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by
Speaker 1: Eric Syria. H m hm m hmm, what's happening? I
Speaker 1: haven't recorded Oh I love you too that time. I
Speaker 1: was open to receiving it. When was the last time
Speaker 1: we recorded this late? I think it's been a while,
Speaker 1: not since before you were pregnant or we usually recorded
Speaker 1: early in the day. Yeah, this one's late. It's not
Speaker 1: that late. I will I will disclose. It is eight
Speaker 1: fifteen right now PM. But but this is the third
Speaker 1: episode we have recorded today, on top of the work
Speaker 1: that I've done today and all the cooking I actually
Speaker 1: cooked tonight. I made plantains and like that, like a
Speaker 1: really nice rice with like peppers and onions in it,
Speaker 1: and jerk chicken. Oh my gosh, I made plantains last night.
Speaker 1: I aren't I love you. This is why people give
Speaker 1: us one star. But this is not the real part
Speaker 1: of the podcast. It's just much anticipated part for our
Speaker 1: avid listeners that sometimes we don't include because we don't
Speaker 1: always have something to talk about. But we always talk
Speaker 1: even if we don't have something to say, and see,
Speaker 1: oh man, that's good.