Speaker 1: Episode four sixty five, What to Budget for this Winter.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life. Here your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill. And it's cold outside, baby, it
Speaker 1: is but not here, and it's it's hot.
Speaker 3: I'm going to the beach later. But for most of.
Speaker 1: The people in our listening audience, there will be a
Speaker 1: change in how you spend and what you spend on
Speaker 1: in this season, and so we're going to remind you
Speaker 1: of some of those things and also share with you
Speaker 1: some data that might make you feel better about where
Speaker 1: you're spending is headed.
Speaker 3: Yeah like that, nothing super new here. We're just kind
Speaker 3: of utilizing this episode to be your little PSA reminder
Speaker 3: women and encouragement on Yeah. Remember these bills are coming up.
Speaker 3: Are you ready? You've got time to prepare now? Yes,
Speaker 3: So here we go.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by Spring,
Speaker 1: the next season on the calendar, And if you want
Speaker 1: to be ready for our what to Budget for this
Speaker 1: Spring episode, you're gonna want to start saving and you
Speaker 1: should start saving in a high yield savings account, preferably
Speaker 1: at CIT. They've got a really great apy and you
Speaker 1: can open an account their Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash ci T be ready for whatever Spring springs on you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and couding you can make for your break. You
Speaker 3: can make your money grow in a high old savings account.
Speaker 3: By spring. You could have an extra few hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: If you keep your emergency fund in a high healed
Speaker 1: savings account, it can pay for your manicure and or
Speaker 1: pedicure every month. You could get a pedicure every month
Speaker 1: with the money you make just from keeping your emergency
Speaker 1: fund in a high held savings account.
Speaker 3: Extra h yeah, extra cash, we got.
Speaker 1: I love it so much, all right, So winter, we
Speaker 1: try to do a winter episode every year, sometimes more.
Speaker 1: Last year we did Frugal Living Tips for Winter. That
Speaker 1: was episode two sixty four. You know, we do our
Speaker 1: frugal holiday episodes. We got episode four fifty six, how
Speaker 1: to have a Frugal Holiday that was very recent and
Speaker 1: so this one we're talking specifically about your budget. We
Speaker 1: also have our our budget toolkits.
Speaker 3: Every month.
Speaker 1: The last Friday of every month, we send all of
Speaker 1: our friend letter subscribers a budget toolkit for the next month.
Speaker 1: So you will have just seen some of this stuff
Speaker 1: in the budget toolkit we sent out on Black Friday,
Speaker 1: but we're here to expand on some of it. If
Speaker 1: you don't get the front letter, you didn't see it.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends Podcast dot com a pop up. Whenever you
Speaker 1: move your cursor away from the screen or stay there
Speaker 1: long enough on your phone, a pop up will come
Speaker 1: up and it will ask you to join. It's free.
Speaker 1: But so today we are going to start with a
Speaker 1: little a fascinating study, as Jill puts it.
Speaker 3: So this one comes from Spectrum News. It's titled Expect
Speaker 3: to Spend More when It's cold outside, and this is
Speaker 3: based on a study that was conducted by marketing professors
Speaker 3: at the University of ox Oxford and the City University
Speaker 3: of New York looking at cold temperatures as being a
Speaker 3: contributing factor to our spending. Wild setup. I don't even
Speaker 3: know how they came up with this setup, but here's
Speaker 3: what they did. They ran an experiment with one hundred
Speaker 3: and twelve students and they were asked to hold a
Speaker 3: cup in their non dominant hand that contained water at
Speaker 3: either an uncomfortably warm or an uncomfortably cold temperature, and
Speaker 3: while in that hot or cold condition, they were presented
Speaker 3: with a hypothetical situation where they were asked whether or
Speaker 3: not they wanted to purchase insurance for an antique clock.
Speaker 3: So bizarre now, they still separated these to these groups
Speaker 3: even more, half of the students were read a strongly
Speaker 3: sentimental description for the clock, and the others were read
Speaker 3: something really objective without sentiment about the clock and asked
Speaker 3: would you want to purchase insurance for this clock. Here's
Speaker 3: what they found. The students were willing to pay significantly
Speaker 3: more for the clock's insurance after reading the highly sentimental
Speaker 3: description of the clock, but only when they were in
Speaker 3: the cold condition. When in the warm condition, holding something
Speaker 3: uncomfortably warm in their non dominant hand, the description of
Speaker 3: the clock made no significant difference on how much they
Speaker 3: said they would pay. So that's why I called this
Speaker 3: a fascinating study, because I think even the minds of
Speaker 3: the people who came up with this study is fascinating,
Speaker 3: like how did you even think about this specific scenario?
Speaker 3: But ultimately finding that we will make possibly spending decisions
Speaker 3: when we are feeling cold that are different from how
Speaker 3: we might choose if we are not cold, and so
Speaker 3: just I don't know that that is live in Florida.
Speaker 3: Why we live in Florida, honest to goodness. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I'm sure we could just probably conjecture around the rest
Speaker 3: of it why that might be, whether it's discomfort or
Speaker 3: we know that buying releases dopamine. We know that cold,
Speaker 3: dark settings can often make a lot of us feel
Speaker 3: a little bit more down than what we typically feel
Speaker 3: throughout the year, and shopping and buying and doing something
Speaker 3: that's going to release that dopamine could increase this time
Speaker 3: of year. Ultimately, I think it's just something important to
Speaker 3: keep in mind that my spending decisions might shift depending
Speaker 3: on the season. Apart from the pressures of spending that
Speaker 3: can happen, just how I respond to the various contexts
Speaker 3: that I'm in, the temperature, the darkness that's happening outside.
Speaker 3: I think, knowing ourselves and how we experience those these
Speaker 3: different environments throughout the year, how it affects our spending.
Speaker 3: So that could include looking back on your spending last year,
Speaker 3: doing a transaction inventory for last winter. Is there any
Speaker 3: surprising purchase says that you see that possibly we're just
Speaker 3: because of the season, and how can that inform you
Speaker 3: this year?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it Hopefully it gives you a little
Speaker 1: empathy for yourself, because we go through these seasons where
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, I'm doing really well, and then we
Speaker 1: enter a new literally weather season and we fall off,
Speaker 1: you know, of this progress and we feel like it's us,
Speaker 1: when in reality, there are a lot of factors that
Speaker 1: contribute to our performance, and so the only thing we
Speaker 1: can really do is focus on our actions. And in
Speaker 1: seasons we may take more actions that get us further faster,
Speaker 1: and in some seasons we will not be able to
Speaker 1: take as many of those actions. But your actions are
Speaker 1: really the only thing that you can control, and you
Speaker 1: have to give yourself grace in Yeah, the psychologic the
Speaker 1: psychology of cold and darkness obviously not an excuse.
Speaker 3: But reasoning informative.
Speaker 1: So let's look at some of these things that we
Speaker 1: are going to have to do to prepare our finances
Speaker 1: for cold weather. And this is from Harvard Federal Credit Union.
Speaker 1: You know, we love a credit union.
Speaker 3: So of course, expect heating bills, especially if you live
Speaker 3: in the north. You all know your heating bills are
Speaker 3: going to increase. This isn't new knowledge, but I do
Speaker 3: think these types of expenses can creep up on us
Speaker 3: every year, especially because we're still recovering from the holidays
Speaker 3: as we move through January, February, March, and so having
Speaker 3: our sits on this kind of early December can really
Speaker 3: help us to be aware and maybe even inform some
Speaker 3: of how we spend throughout the holidays, knowing of the
Speaker 3: winter is still ahead.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Alternatively, if you're in the South, your heating bills might
Speaker 1: be less, this might be an optimal time for you
Speaker 1: and your energy costs. So I would I would compare
Speaker 1: your twelve month energy costs and if you're not going
Speaker 1: to do budget billing, which I don't necessarily like but
Speaker 1: can't decide if it's going to be most helpful for you,
Speaker 1: maybe that's something you switch to at this time right now.
Speaker 1: Or use the money that you have been that you
Speaker 1: are saving, especially January February after the holidays, and use
Speaker 1: that surplus to pay down some extra debt, pay off
Speaker 1: a credit card, or to put extra in your savings
Speaker 1: a for Goo friendthpodcast dot com, slash the ID.
Speaker 3: Yes, if this is historically a more expensive time for
Speaker 3: you if you do know energy costs are going to increase,
Speaker 3: even just because we're at home more often and so
Speaker 3: we're utilizing all of our utilities. Definitely check with your
Speaker 3: energy provider, your electric provider, to see if they're offering
Speaker 3: any incentives or doing any energy audits. We had that
Speaker 3: done by our electric company, and they actually sent us
Speaker 3: some really helpful stuff in the mail for free to
Speaker 3: help us on all sorts of energy costs, like help
Speaker 3: with sealing up windows, help with not using as much water,
Speaker 3: some things to kind of disperse the water a little
Speaker 3: bit more that you can put onto your faucet. So
Speaker 3: they'll do these things. I had no idea and like,
Speaker 3: I'll give it a try. It'll probably be gimmicky. Who knows,
Speaker 3: but they actually sent us some really helpful things for
Speaker 3: free that we then didn't have to buy, and beyond that,
Speaker 3: really sealing up as many air leaks as possible. I
Speaker 3: think this goes for both people in the North as
Speaker 3: well as the South. Just when heat or cold can
Speaker 3: exit your home, it's going to raise prices on your
Speaker 3: electric bill or your heating bill. However you are, you know,
Speaker 3: heating and cooling your home, and this is something I've
Speaker 3: learned from Eric over the years. I mean he's worked
Speaker 3: in construction for a long time, really highlighting how important
Speaker 3: it is to have sealed windows and doors, and I
Speaker 3: just kind of like, how much is one little crack
Speaker 3: and it really does impact the temperature of a room.
Speaker 3: I mean, we got to experience that firsthand living in
Speaker 3: the RV, how much it can shift just having these minor,
Speaker 3: you know, cracks open, So how much more so in
Speaker 3: an entire home. So taking the efforts to do some calking,
Speaker 3: to maybe do some of the plastic over your windows,
Speaker 3: to do some weather stripping around your doors, these efforts
Speaker 3: could cost you know, less than one hundred dollars or
Speaker 3: be given to you for free by your energy company
Speaker 3: and potentially lead to some savings. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You just put like a screen, like a plastic over
Speaker 1: your windows in our recording room as in an effort
Speaker 1: to lower the temperature.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it helps to filter the sunlight. So it's
Speaker 3: still like I can still see the sun and still
Speaker 3: see through the window. It just darkened it a bit,
Speaker 3: and it has helped so much and being able to
Speaker 3: keep this place cool while not needing to have big
Speaker 3: thick curtains over the.
Speaker 1: Windows, right, Yeah, and it makes it so you can't
Speaker 1: see inside the windows.
Speaker 3: So it's also a safety thing, which stinks for you
Speaker 3: since you just admitted recently that you like to peep
Speaker 3: on people's Christmas lights.
Speaker 1: Right, but those are people who put their Christmas tree
Speaker 1: in front of the window. They want me to peep,
Speaker 1: So yeah, you don't want me to peep. Next is
Speaker 1: winter preparation, everything from clothing, household prep, vehicle prep and
Speaker 1: so and possible increase medical bills. So I would say
Speaker 1: first is that we're looking when we are looking at clothing,
Speaker 1: we are looking at second hand. Winter clothing is the
Speaker 1: best type of clothing to buy secondhand because coats are
Speaker 1: not worn that often in a lot of places. That's
Speaker 1: why they end up on these second hand sites. Sure
Speaker 1: there are places where coats are run into the ground,
Speaker 1: you're obviously not going to see those on Poshmark, thread up.
Speaker 1: And so this is where I would say, buy your
Speaker 1: very quality coats and everyday jackets from a place like
Speaker 1: Poshmark or eBay. I see a lot of the same
Speaker 1: item literally from the same cellar is posted to both
Speaker 1: Poshmark and eBay, and you can often it's cheaper on eBay,
Speaker 1: So look at these things. We use Benny b e
Speaker 1: ni as it's a chromeixt and it can help you
Speaker 1: if you're looking at what's a very good coat brand Patagonia,
Speaker 1: So you're on the Patagonia website, you want the puffer jacket,
Speaker 1: it can pop up and show you that same exact
Speaker 1: puffer jacket on a variety of secondhand sites. Honestly, most
Speaker 1: of the time it's Poshmark because that one's just the biggest.
Speaker 1: But so prepare now for to get these things, because
Speaker 1: it may take you a few weeks to find the
Speaker 1: type of coat or any clothing ski stuff like if
Speaker 1: you it's great if you want to take a ski
Speaker 1: vacation or something awesome. Don't wait to the last minute
Speaker 1: where you're buying all of your kids new ski clothes
Speaker 1: new because they've all grown out of last year's. Look
Speaker 1: at the consignment stores, the resale stores and places like Poshmark.
Speaker 1: And then you've got your vehicle prep if you need it.
Speaker 1: And then and again possibly increased medical bills because people
Speaker 1: kids are sick. Get investing maybe in a nebulizer. Then
Speaker 1: you can I if you buy one of those yourself,
Speaker 1: it's much cheaper than getting it from the doctor I
Speaker 1: have learned and shopping around. If your child needs something
Speaker 1: like tubes in their ears, it's a very like in
Speaker 1: and out procedure. Don't wait until they need it because
Speaker 1: of all the ear infections and sicknesses. Do your research
Speaker 1: on what the cheapest option is before they need it,
Speaker 1: because I made that huge mistake this year and it
Speaker 1: costs me a lot of money just because I was
Speaker 1: panicky and I wasn't prepared.
Speaker 3: Along the vehicle lines, I will say again this especially
Speaker 3: for our northern friends, recommend you know, checking your tire pressure,
Speaker 3: your battery, your brakes, if those things need to be
Speaker 3: updated now. That can really help with just safety and
Speaker 3: eliminating the potential costs of what having low pressure, a
Speaker 3: flat tire, a battery that doesn't work for you when
Speaker 3: you're needing to get home from work, there's extra costs
Speaker 3: that could be incurred. So check those things now. And
Speaker 3: there's also things that you can do to winterize your vehicle,
Speaker 3: from wipers to possibly getting winter tires or maybe even
Speaker 3: rotating your tires. There are things that you can do
Speaker 3: that are lower costs to be able to prep your
Speaker 3: vehicle that could potentially save you more in the long run.
Speaker 3: The next thing on this list that I will point
Speaker 3: out is grocery budgeting. This was really interesting. They cited
Speaker 3: this the research and stats on spending on groceries on
Speaker 3: an at home food through the winter that food expenditures
Speaker 3: tend to rise in the winter months, specifically on eating
Speaker 3: at home, which is interesting. I mean, good on us.
Speaker 3: You know, I think nobody wants because it's cold and darty,
Speaker 3: and so we don't want to go out, so we
Speaker 3: are eating at home. But that does mean that we're
Speaker 3: then spending more money on groceries. And I think if
Speaker 3: we're not aware of that shift that happens, we could
Speaker 3: find ourselves still spending the same amount that we that
Speaker 3: we typically do on ordering out or going out and
Speaker 3: increasing our grocery budget and possibly food waste. So I think,
Speaker 3: even planning for how do I want to be eating
Speaker 3: in this season, are there seasonal shifts that I want
Speaker 3: to make to the ways that I'm purchasing food and
Speaker 3: whether or not I'm eating out, how often I'm eating out.
Speaker 3: Even if we do have a typical routine of when
Speaker 3: we allow ourselves to go get food out, that could shift.
Speaker 3: We could just you know what, no, I think this winter,
Speaker 3: I'd rather do more pot lucks with friends or big
Speaker 3: bowls of soup or chili with the family. I don't
Speaker 3: need to have my typical weekend out. I'm finding ways
Speaker 3: that i want to be at home more and just
Speaker 3: kind of adjust in that way. But recognize that food
Speaker 3: spending goes up. Maybe some of that is just for comfort,
Speaker 3: whatever it is. Be planning for whatever your food budget's
Speaker 3: going to look like, because we know it's one of
Speaker 3: the big three food transportation, housing, and so if you're
Speaker 3: not making a housing or transportation decision this winter, definitely
Speaker 3: be looking at what the food's going to look like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something I had not thought about until we were
Speaker 1: looking at this outline is that January is such a
Speaker 1: big month for people to start eating healthy, right, so
Speaker 1: like Whole thirty and all these healthy eating plans, and
Speaker 1: it is the hardest month, it's hardest season to find
Speaker 1: fresh food. Fresh food is like a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: The salads and stuff are summer foods and the winter
Speaker 1: is comfort foods. So be careful if January is a
Speaker 1: time where you want to maybe like refine your eating habits,
Speaker 1: know that refine it in a way that's more in
Speaker 1: line with the season, so you can, you know, get
Speaker 1: healthy soups and stews obviously, but stay away from things
Speaker 1: that are just going to be set you up to fail,
Speaker 1: you know, with the salads and like fresh fruit stuff.
Speaker 1: They're also going to be more expensive in this season,
Speaker 1: So just don't set yourself up to fail. If you do,
Speaker 1: plan to change some things about your eating and really
Speaker 1: make it a goal to minimize food waste, that's going
Speaker 1: to be the biggest way that you make it through.
Speaker 1: And prioritize easy meals because it can be very if
Speaker 1: we're not going out to restaurants, then door dash, uber
Speaker 1: eats can be the next alternative. And so so delete
Speaker 1: the apps from your phone, increase the barrier to entry,
Speaker 1: and then just have these staples that you will turn
Speaker 1: to in these cases where you don't want to cook,
Speaker 1: so like the spaghettis or the jarred soups or something.
Speaker 1: Figure out what is a safe easy meal for you,
Speaker 1: freezer meals, whatever, so that you choose to eat at
Speaker 1: home versus re downloading the takeout app.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because this can also be a really good time
Speaker 3: that we can enter into new rhythms and habits. We
Speaker 3: can habit stack, we can find replacement activities. This would
Speaker 3: be also a great time to jump start some of
Speaker 3: that meal planning meal prep that can happen this time
Speaker 3: of year too, which will help our budgets. There's not
Speaker 3: really a ton of other things that I think come
Speaker 3: up in the winter. I think this is really just
Speaker 3: a call to know what your winter typically looks like again,
Speaker 3: look back at what last year was, to kind of
Speaker 3: know what to be preparing for, and just know that
Speaker 3: thinking and planning ahead is one of the best things
Speaker 3: that we can do for our finances, getting into that
Speaker 3: rhythm and setting aside the money when we can. I
Speaker 3: think it's easy to look back and say I wish
Speaker 3: that I had put money aside for XYZ, And while
Speaker 3: maybe you hadn't done that up until this point, but
Speaker 3: you can start now for the next season. We love
Speaker 3: to talk about what's one thing I can do now
Speaker 3: that will make other future things easier or unnecessary, and
Speaker 3: saving putting money aside is one of those things. And
Speaker 3: so even if you want to go above and beyond,
Speaker 3: start thinking about the summer and your travel plans. I
Speaker 3: think we talked about this in a recent friend letter
Speaker 3: that part of our winter or planning can be what
Speaker 3: vacations do I want to take in the summer. This
Speaker 3: is an excellent way to be kind to our future
Speaker 3: selves is to start thinking what will I want to
Speaker 3: be doing, and how can I start planning out my
Speaker 3: budget and my spending on my savings, so to speak,
Speaker 3: to be ready to be able to take the vacation
Speaker 3: that we want to take, or do the travel that
Speaker 3: we want to do, or the activities that we enjoy doing,
Speaker 3: and not feel so stressed and strained in the summer.
Speaker 3: Kind of, I think part of our what to spend
Speaker 3: in any given season should always include thinking about the
Speaker 3: next season. I know you joked about that with cit,
Speaker 3: but it is true. Like part of winter spending should
Speaker 3: be spending on putting money towards savings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might, and it might not. Like for spring break,
Speaker 1: you might need to be saving for a spring break camp,
Speaker 1: or like maybe that's when you're going to take your
Speaker 1: vacation versus summer. Or maybe you do want to put
Speaker 1: your in a summer camp. That's a big expense, So
Speaker 1: maybe you start saving now for that and you're just
Speaker 1: staying home for spring break.
Speaker 3: You figure out.
Speaker 1: What the next six months looks like, don't necessarily plan
Speaker 1: beyond that, because I think things change. Sometimes we plan
Speaker 1: too far and ahead and then we get disappointed because
Speaker 1: things always change. But look at the next six months
Speaker 1: and figure out what you need to start saving based
Speaker 1: on what you spent last year, and just kind of
Speaker 1: look at the things you had to buy last minute,
Speaker 1: look at the things you bought that were last minute,
Speaker 1: and say, how can I avoid that or at least
Speaker 1: refine to feel better about it next year.
Speaker 3: And truly, a hig yield savings account can really I'm
Speaker 3: truly not trying to like sound like a commercial here.
Speaker 3: It truly is a tip. It can catapult our savings
Speaker 3: efforts in that way. Like whatever money you already have
Speaker 3: set aside for emergency fund, if that's sitting in a
Speaker 3: high old savings account, you're earning money on that, I
Speaker 3: mean something around four percent ap y, which is excellent.
Speaker 3: So again, overendspocast dot com, slash CID if you don't
Speaker 3: already have one, is a great option to help. Like
Speaker 3: I said, catapult that savings. Do you know what else?
Speaker 3: Catapults us just.
Speaker 1: Through the holidays, through the winter, through warms my heart.
Speaker 3: The bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right. It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week.
Speaker 3: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 2: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died,
Speaker 2: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 3: Duck bills, bffalo bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 2: This it's the bill up the week.
Speaker 4: Hi Jen and Jill and hey Goldie. My name is
Speaker 4: Liz and my bill of the week is a medical
Speaker 4: bill that I did not pay. I had to have
Speaker 4: emergency surgery a couple of months ago, and when the
Speaker 4: bill started coming in, the anesthesiology bill was really high.
Speaker 4: I had just listened to your episode on medical overbilling,
Speaker 4: so I googled the codes. They were the wrong codes,
Speaker 4: and the going rate for anesthesiology. What should have been
Speaker 4: less than one thousand dollars total, was billed to my
Speaker 4: insurance company at almost seven thousand dollars, and the remainder
Speaker 4: bill to me was nine hundred and ninety seven dollars.
Speaker 4: I called the anesthesiology company and asked that, and they
Speaker 4: asked what I thought it should have been, which seemed
Speaker 4: like a really strange question. I told them what I
Speaker 4: found in my research. I put the bill on hold
Speaker 4: until it was reviewed. I just logged in to check
Speaker 4: the balance on my account zero. So thank you to
Speaker 4: you beautiful frugal friends for saving me almost one thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: If you're ever in the DC area, I'll buy you
Speaker 4: both some margs and chippies. Okay, thanks bye?
Speaker 3: Oh we mark out just marks and chippies. Alas, There's
Speaker 3: so many things I want to say about this. First
Speaker 3: of all, thanks for the shout out to us and
Speaker 3: Goldie how special, and thank you for sharing about this
Speaker 3: medical bill. I hope that you are okay. That's a
Speaker 3: very scary thing to have to go through an emergency surgery.
Speaker 3: You know, oftentimes when we know a surgery is coming,
Speaker 3: we can do some of this research on the front end,
Speaker 3: be able to pay for some things ahead of time
Speaker 3: and it not cost as much. But you don't have
Speaker 3: that luxury when it's an emergency surgery and then you're
Speaker 3: just finding out what all you've been built. But good
Speaker 3: on you that you had the energy to go through
Speaker 3: and look at each of these get the CPT codes.
Speaker 3: That's something that we talked about in our interview with
Speaker 3: doctor Vergie Ellington. I forget what episode number that is,
Speaker 3: but we can link it in the show notes. She
Speaker 3: was so so helpful. It is actually an earmarked episode
Speaker 3: for me to go back to whenever I have some
Speaker 3: questions on medical bills. But that was one of her
Speaker 3: biggest tips was to go back through and if it's
Speaker 3: not given to you, to ask the billing department for
Speaker 3: an itemized list of charges with the CPT codes connected
Speaker 3: to them, and then be able to research what does
Speaker 3: that hospital charge for those CPT codes. Transparent billing is
Speaker 3: required by hospitals, so they do need to have their
Speaker 3: pricing listed for common procedures, so you should be able
Speaker 3: to find that on the hospital's web site. And again,
Speaker 3: well done. Seven thousand dollars bill should have been less
Speaker 3: than one thousand. You did your research, you pushed back
Speaker 3: and it came to zero, and well done, And we'd
Speaker 3: love to come celebrate.
Speaker 1: And do you have such a you know what, I
Speaker 1: think we're going to replay. We replace our most popular
Speaker 1: episodes from like two years prior, and the Doctor Virgie
Speaker 1: was two years ago, and so I think on our
Speaker 1: next rerun we will replay her. That'd be great, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it is one that just it never gets old.
Speaker 1: It is still important and I think everyone should hear it.
Speaker 3: So that was episode two thirty. So you can search
Speaker 3: for that episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, search for it in our archives on our website,
Speaker 1: or you can just start search Frugal Friends, Doctor Virgie
Speaker 1: Bright Ellington.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, come up, well, don Liz, thanks for calling in.
Speaker 3: If you all listening, have a build that you want
Speaker 3: to share, if it's about a bill that you didn't
Speaker 3: have to pay, if it's about putting your brilliant mind
Speaker 3: to work doing the research and lowering a bill, if
Speaker 3: it's about chippies and marks. If your name is Bill
Speaker 3: Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Bill, leave it for us,
Speaker 3: and now it's time for the lightning round, all right.
Speaker 1: What's a winter expense that somehow always seems to surprise you?
Speaker 3: Jill? Okay? For me, it's registration of our vehicles. I
Speaker 3: think that this happens at different times a year for everybody.
Speaker 3: It happens for us because that's Eric's birth. Connected to
Speaker 3: Eric's birth that, yeah, he was born on January twenty fifth,
Speaker 3: so every January, you know, I'm recovering from whatever the
Speaker 3: end of the year beginning of the year did to
Speaker 3: our finance historically. And I do know this January we
Speaker 3: spend the most money on food, usually even more than December.
Speaker 3: I don't know what happens to us well, I don't know.
Speaker 3: If we're tired. It's darker, it's darker, we're tired. There's
Speaker 3: not as many parties happening where you can just bring
Speaker 3: all your pot luck stuff. It's also around Eric's birthday,
Speaker 3: so we're celebrating a little bit more. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but that's happening, right. We're just going ham with the food.
Speaker 3: It probably some of it is, including hare, I'm honest. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then we get hit with these registrations for our
Speaker 3: vehicles and it just catches me by surprise every year.
Speaker 3: Of course, now that I'm saying it out loud, hopefully
Speaker 3: it won't catch me by surprise. I can remind myself
Speaker 3: ahead of time put money aside for this. And the
Speaker 3: weird thing is some of you who know me well
Speaker 3: might be like, Jill, NBD, you have one vehicle.
Speaker 1: And I was just like, tell him all the most
Speaker 1: transmas you have, Jill.
Speaker 3: You let the people know you, be honest with you. You
Speaker 3: know the cat's gonna get come out of the bag
Speaker 3: right now. Okay. I am very proud that we only
Speaker 3: have one car. Uh huh, however, how can you get around? Oh,
Speaker 3: this is really tickling me. We also have two scooters,
Speaker 3: and I have talked about that on the podcast before.
Speaker 3: This is not a huge but here we go. So
Speaker 3: we have two scooters. That's very fun and actually very helpful.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of times where I'm out in the car.
Speaker 3: Eric needs to go somewhere and he can just take
Speaker 3: a scooter anywhere within Saint Pete we can get to
Speaker 3: on the scooter. Were dragging it out, just can't cross
Speaker 3: the hat bridge, okay, dragging it out. We also have
Speaker 3: a boat. Now, before you get any ideas about what
Speaker 3: this boat looks like, it is a four seater center
Speaker 3: car console fishing boat that costs very little money used.
Speaker 3: And we live right on the water. Not right on
Speaker 3: the water. Again, don't get any ideas we live close
Speaker 3: to water. I'm still your frugal friend. You can live
Speaker 3: on the water and be a frugal friend. Oh.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you're justifying all of these things, but none of
Speaker 5: them are bad.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah. So that's just a very fun recreational vehicle
Speaker 3: that we have that we have to pay registration for
Speaker 3: and get this you have to pay registration for the
Speaker 3: boat and boat trailer. So even though they are one
Speaker 3: entity parked on our property, the boat trailer is considered
Speaker 3: something separate because we're not paying to dock our boat.
Speaker 3: It's not constantly in the water. We drop it in,
Speaker 3: we pull it out, so registration for that. And but wait,
Speaker 3: there's more, y'all did know? Y'all did not know? We
Speaker 3: also have an enclosed trailer, not in r V, just
Speaker 3: like a utility trailer that. Oh man, We've had this
Speaker 3: thing for ten years, maybe eight years. It has helped
Speaker 3: us through every single renovation we've ever had. It's how
Speaker 3: we moved down to Florida. Helped us move. We fit
Speaker 3: everything we owned into this and closed trailer and moved
Speaker 3: down to Florida and then kept it through our renovations. Right,
Speaker 3: you got to pick up drywall and lumber and just furniture,
Speaker 3: all sorts of tools. So I think we bought it
Speaker 3: used for one thousand dollars eight years ago and it
Speaker 3: has been worth ten twenty times its weight in gold.
Speaker 3: And then also have to pay to register it every year,
Speaker 3: and then we have to pay to register it every year.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we have one car, but we get one, two, three, four,
Speaker 3: or five six pieces of registration in the nail, and
Speaker 3: it just feels a little bit hard. She feels a
Speaker 3: little much. Yeah, so I gotta remember that this year
Speaker 3: when my mailbox just gets stuffed. How about you, Jenny.
Speaker 5: I forgot everything I was gonna say, because I was
Speaker 5: so enthralled with all of your registration because I knew
Speaker 5: all of them, thinking like, oh, people don't realize she
Speaker 5: only has one.
Speaker 3: Car, but she's got a lot of things. She got.
Speaker 3: This property is full, we are filled up. Okay.
Speaker 1: Winter expense, somehow always seems to surprise me. Ooh, I really,
Speaker 1: I don't get surprised because I just don't pay attention
Speaker 1: to my expenses. Just kidding, I don't. So maybe it's
Speaker 1: the here. It is the increase in taxes and insurance
Speaker 1: every February, and it's not something I can control, right
Speaker 1: like I can't. I don't have any other options for
Speaker 1: homeowner's insurance. And this property no longer has a homestead exemption.
Speaker 1: It is our rental property, and so like it's the
Speaker 1: taxes are just astronomical, and every February, our mortgage goes up,
Speaker 1: you know, our total mortgage, not the fixed payment, but
Speaker 1: so I'm never prepared for that.
Speaker 3: Well, because you also never quite know how much it's.
Speaker 1: Gone and you can't, like I can't control it, so
Speaker 1: you can vote. But yeah, which I did vote for
Speaker 1: the thing that increases the tax exemption with the increase
Speaker 1: in value of the property. So I did make my
Speaker 1: voice heard in November.
Speaker 3: Nice, So.
Speaker 1: How much the city overall suffers from that vote because
Speaker 1: it passed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a tough one. And that's one of the
Speaker 3: ones that I wish I would have known in home buying.
Speaker 3: I don't think it would have made much of a
Speaker 3: difference in my decision, but maybe just my expectations. You know,
Speaker 3: I think we're sold this idea that you buy and
Speaker 3: then like you know what your quote unquote like housing
Speaker 3: expenses are going to be, and if you rent, you're
Speaker 3: paying more every year you're over year, you're at the
Speaker 3: whim of your landlord. It's like it's no different for homeowners.
Speaker 3: We are at the whim of our local government and
Speaker 3: insurance companies like that goes up and it in essence
Speaker 3: raises your annual amount that you pay for your housing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so you know we bought our home for well,
Speaker 3: you know what would have been recommended solely based off
Speaker 3: of my salary. And now just four years later we
Speaker 3: are at about that like twenty five percent of our
Speaker 3: combined take home income is going towards, you know, our
Speaker 3: housing expenses. It's just like, yep, what can be done
Speaker 3: about that?
Speaker 1: So Ramat has a good saying, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if he said originally, but I heard it from him.
Speaker 1: He says, when you rent, your rent is the maximum
Speaker 1: you will pay. When you own, your mortgage is the
Speaker 1: minimum that you will pay. And it is a very
Speaker 1: good wake up call as housing is our number one
Speaker 1: monthly expense and if we are not responsible, it can
Speaker 1: go up very very quickly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and all the more reason to really buy a
Speaker 3: home extra within your means, not at the tippy top
Speaker 3: of your budget, because it will increase year over year.
Speaker 1: And you hope that your income also increases over thirty years.
Speaker 1: But you don't want and always, and you also want.
Speaker 3: The flexibility to be able to choose to make less
Speaker 3: money like you. Even at the rate that we bought
Speaker 3: our house at, I was able to do that, take
Speaker 3: a pay cut to pursue the thing that I love doing,
Speaker 3: which is this talking to all you beautiful people. So yeah,
Speaker 3: hope that jogs your memory on what winter holds for
Speaker 3: you all, and begin preparing, set your expectations, maybe find
Speaker 3: ways to trim a little if you are anticipating. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: that things come and do. So I can't spend as
Speaker 3: much on XYZ because I want to be ready. I
Speaker 3: want to be kind to my future self and your
Speaker 3: current self. Yeah that needle. Thanks so much for listening everyone.
Speaker 3: We really love we love being with you, and we
Speaker 3: love reading your reviews, like this one from Kate, which
Speaker 3: says real budget talk that won't bore you to death
Speaker 3: five stars. Listening to these fantastic ladies is entertaining, motivating,
Speaker 3: and educational. It seems like many budget podcasts and blogs
Speaker 3: are geared towards stay at home moms or just moms
Speaker 3: in general, and while that's not totally abandoned on this show,
Speaker 3: it's great to get some perspective from folks in a
Speaker 3: similar time of life, maybe married a couple of years,
Speaker 3: married a couple of years, no kids yet, killing that debt.
Speaker 3: I feel like they've really cornered budgeting for millennials. They'd
Speaker 3: really be beneficial for anybody, even my husband. Likes them ayay.
Speaker 3: Usually he's only tolerating the podcast I play, but not
Speaker 3: with Frugal Friends. Thanks ladies for inspiring self deprecating humor
Speaker 3: and realness. Kate, what a lovely with you? They taking
Speaker 3: the time, Dad, Yeah, for putting all those words to
Speaker 3: paper and saying such specific things. We really appreciate the
Speaker 3: time that you took to do that. It does help
Speaker 3: us and it encourages us, which is fun.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We still like to have like our diverse opinions and
Speaker 1: different takes. Even though slowly we are becoming the same person,
Speaker 1: some of our opinions are still different. So tune in
Speaker 1: because one day we're literally going to be saying the
Speaker 1: same thing at the same time. So get in now.
Speaker 3: Well, the water's warm, and if.
Speaker 1: You enjoyed the show, please take a minute to leave
Speaker 1: a rating and review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It
Speaker 1: helps new listeners know that their husband's going to like
Speaker 1: it and not tolerate it, or that it's not all
Speaker 1: about sitting in the car line in your minivan, even
Speaker 1: though some.
Speaker 4: Of it.
Speaker 3: See you next time. Grgal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: We got five minutes, all right, what should we talk?
Speaker 3: About Oh man, I want it to be something juicy.
Speaker 3: You know me, I do know you.
Speaker 1: We didn't really dive into recording our audiobook, did we?
Speaker 3: No, we didn't.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, we spent two and a half days in
Speaker 1: a legit studio recording our audio book.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was very fun. I got out of the house,
Speaker 3: I drove for potentially the first time and potentially two months.
Speaker 1: I'm always telling Jill she needs to drive more, because
Speaker 1: it's a skill. If you don't use it, you lose it,
Speaker 1: and in an emergency, you will really need it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, look at me. Listen. I just hardly drive anymore,
Speaker 3: and it's becoming scarier and scarier. I know you're scared
Speaker 3: of it. That's the problem. I'm too young to be
Speaker 3: scared of driving. But I'm really I'm really leaning into
Speaker 3: my retirement era. But it was.
Speaker 1: It was my very first time recording anything like that
Speaker 1: in a legitimate studio, sitting on an uncomfortable bar stool.
Speaker 3: It was not the most comfortable comfortable at all. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that would be my notes.
Speaker 1: I think most of the recording they probably do is
Speaker 1: for TV and movies, and so it's people.
Speaker 3: Standing my My butt hurt more than my voice did same,
Speaker 3: and I had to tell you know, we're podcasters and
Speaker 3: not glute enthusiasts, glue enthusiasts, I don't know, just like
Speaker 3: exercise gurus.
Speaker 1: I had to use my hands a lot, same during
Speaker 1: the reading, which I I do read ads with my hands,
Speaker 1: but I don't when we're talking podcasting wise, and I'm.
Speaker 3: About to say, you don't use your hands now because
Speaker 3: I'm talking about using my hands when we're talking. I
Speaker 3: don't use my hands.
Speaker 1: So when we're recording the show, I'm very still. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's only when I am recording an AD or reading
Speaker 1: an entire book out last.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, and that's because you're reading literal word for
Speaker 3: word and wanting it to sound as natural as possible.
Speaker 3: So we don't need to use our hands when it's
Speaker 3: just you and I talking because we are naturally we're
Speaker 3: not reading a script to have conversation with each other.
Speaker 3: But when you're reading something word for word, it really
Speaker 3: does feel like I need my hands for this to
Speaker 3: help me feel the realness of the authenticity of what
Speaker 3: was written here, so it doesn't just sound red. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you'll be able to tell still because there are no
Speaker 3: mistakes in our talking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had somebody in We had two people in
Speaker 1: our ears listening.
Speaker 3: For if you count, you do I count? I was
Speaker 3: able to talk to you throughout it too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were in different rooms, but there was a
Speaker 1: window so we could see each other. At first, Jill
Speaker 1: wasn't going to face the window and I said, please
Speaker 1: look at me.
Speaker 3: It's not the way that the chair was facing. And
Speaker 3: I just didn't think to move furniture.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, there were three people in each of our ears.
Speaker 1: And if we said something dialect like incorrectly, like regionally
Speaker 1: regional dialect incorrect aesthetic.
Speaker 3: It was a hard one. And I think it's aesthetic.
Speaker 1: Aesthetic, Yeah, aesthetic. You have to really say the aesthetic.
Speaker 3: We could not get that one. That one took her.
Speaker 3: That took a while, And I really wish we hadn't
Speaker 3: used that word so many times in the book. It
Speaker 3: doesn't it made three or four times in the book.
Speaker 1: It made me regret some of the big words that
Speaker 1: I used in Uh. I think it was chapter four
Speaker 1: or it was the one where I used the like
Speaker 1: more of the psychology terms and I was reading that
Speaker 1: one and I was like, dang it, this is bad.
Speaker 3: Including the names of all these different people were like,
Speaker 3: we don't know how to say oh, And that was
Speaker 3: for me. So the people that were in our ear
Speaker 3: was the engineer who was in the studio, and then
Speaker 3: our producer who was actually in New York City given
Speaker 3: to us by like a to us by the publisher.
Speaker 3: So the producer was more than one kind of checking
Speaker 3: our words and pronunciations, and the engineer was there kind
Speaker 3: of marking when we made mistakes so that they could
Speaker 3: go back and post and like kind of do the
Speaker 3: different editing. Where was I going with this words aesthetic? Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was just funny something that like the
Speaker 1: she she kept giving like regional uh huh pronunciation like
Speaker 1: reasons that.
Speaker 3: The name got the name. That's what it was. So
Speaker 3: the engineer at the we had to read the we
Speaker 3: had to read the credits of the book, and so
Speaker 3: it was a sign to me that I would read
Speaker 3: engineered by and his name. So he's in the studio
Speaker 3: in our ears and has the wildest last say, you
Speaker 3: got every single hard name in the credits and I
Speaker 3: got all of the easy name. Yes, his was the hardest.
Speaker 3: My mouth just couldn't do it. They'd say it i'd
Speaker 3: hear it, I'd be like, yep, got it, you were reading.
Speaker 3: I'd read it, and I'd be like, so it was,
Speaker 3: I'll just say it. It was mocking it. I'm not
Speaker 3: I'm still mocking sturm. My my voice wanted to keep
Speaker 3: saying strum, mocking strum. I couldn't get it through my
Speaker 3: thick little brain. It's mocking storm. And I felt so
Speaker 3: bad because he's there. He's the only one to me
Speaker 3: mess up his name royally probably six to eight times.
Speaker 1: And at the end, you said it, and the producer
Speaker 1: was fine with it, and he was like, can you
Speaker 1: try one more time?
Speaker 3: Just like you gotta do that one again, sweetheart. I
Speaker 3: was just like, I am so sorry, Dan, can you
Speaker 3: leave the room for this because it's not happening And
Speaker 3: I don't mean to be offensive, but and we did fine.
Speaker 3: We did bond.
Speaker 1: We both started crying during our acknowledgments. Yeah, which they say,
Speaker 1: don't they. The publisher literally was like, you can read
Speaker 1: this if you want, but it's recommended you don't read
Speaker 1: this in the audio book.
Speaker 3: We didn't know why they didn't want us to read it,
Speaker 3: but they did say author discretion. And I'm like, I
Speaker 3: want to read the acknowledgments like I wanted to come
Speaker 3: from our voices. I get paid per published hour of audio, right,
Speaker 3: so we get an extra five bucks. So Jen went
Speaker 3: first and you started. You started crying on like your
Speaker 3: first acknowledgement. I was like, oh, first line, this is
Speaker 3: going to be rough, and I'm like, this isn't going
Speaker 3: to happen to me. I'm going to plow through through
Speaker 3: talking about my dad dying. And I powered was crying,
Speaker 3: but I had to be quiet because I was still
Speaker 3: in the studio on the mic, so I couldn't make
Speaker 3: noises while you were talking. And I'm like, meanwhile, tears
Speaker 3: streaming down my face, trying not to sniffle because it's
Speaker 3: just such a heart wrenching. Chapter ten is so heart wrenching,
Speaker 3: and you were so vulnerable.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you don't read anything else, just read
Speaker 1: chapter ten. Like, and I'm not saying that just because
Speaker 1: I wrote it, but it is so powerful.
Speaker 3: Do I think for it to be as powerful as
Speaker 3: it is, you do have to read the rest of
Speaker 3: the book. I think there is a journey that you take, yea, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: but yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so no, I powered through that and then
Speaker 1: I got to the first line of my acknowledgments.
Speaker 3: This was on the same day, and I lost it.
Speaker 3: And then I'm like, that's not going to happen to me.
Speaker 3: And then I get like three acknowledgments down and I
Speaker 3: started crying.
Speaker 5: I started tearing up too when you were, and I
Speaker 5: was like, I'm done though, So I'm like, fine.
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, well we have hearts. You know. It proves
Speaker 3: that we are people who people.
Speaker 1: Were wondering after the holiday anti hall episode if we
Speaker 1: had hearts. But I hope that now people realize that
Speaker 1: we do. And the book is a lot of action
Speaker 1: steps but also a lot of heart. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of both.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a lot of both of us. Forgle friendspodcast
Speaker 3: dot com, slash book. No, that's not it.
Speaker 1: It's by what you loovebook dot com.
Speaker 3: That was in the that's the resources page for the book,
Speaker 3: and we've read that in the book. Don't go to
Speaker 3: our page yet. Yeah, don't go to it yet. I
Speaker 3: haven't established I haven't made it yet. You love it.
Speaker 1: By the time this comes out, I might actually.
Speaker 3: Maybe you should make that one for now, be like
Speaker 3: a sales page, and then we'll change. Are it might
Speaker 3: actually I might have actually done that. By what you
Speaker 3: Love book dot com. That definitely goes to the pre
Speaker 3: order's page. Oh my