Speaker 1: Episode to Frugal Friends book Club four books to read
Speaker 1: this fall. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll
Speaker 1: learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liberal with
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill. And if you are an O G
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends listeners, you will remember that we used to
Speaker 1: have the Frugal Friends book Club and everyone says bring
Speaker 1: it back, yep, And it was a new book we
Speaker 1: would read every month and we would usually have the
Speaker 1: author on and we are bringing it back. We're bringing
Speaker 1: it back in this way you mean with this episode. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're bringing it back. And so we're gonna let you
Speaker 1: know the books that are coming up on the you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to say all four today and some of
Speaker 1: them will be on the podcast. It's tb D all
Speaker 1: of them because there's four. So we we picked them
Speaker 1: based on what we wanted to read, not who could
Speaker 1: come on the show. But we're hoping, we're we are attempting.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll say this disclaimer. I do read,
Speaker 1: but mostly things related to the mental health field, so
Speaker 1: I'm not much of a fiction reader or anything that
Speaker 1: is not mental health and has helped me to gain
Speaker 1: and maintain my licensure. I just don't have too much
Speaker 1: time for additional reading, so I'm here for it. But
Speaker 1: there's been episodes in the past that were primarily for me,
Speaker 1: and there's episodes that are primarily for Jen. This one
Speaker 1: falls under the latter category. Jen is much more of
Speaker 1: an expert on the new and up and coming books
Speaker 1: and what's out there and what's the best thing to
Speaker 1: read for personal finance and other self. It's so funny
Speaker 1: because I do like reading, but I looked through my
Speaker 1: bookshelf in preparation for this episode, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: none of this is going to be relevant to percent
Speaker 1: of people out there. So I'm gonna let Jen do
Speaker 1: the picking and most of the talking, and I'm here
Speaker 1: for it. And you know, I'll read one of these.
Speaker 1: We'll get into it. Yeah, don't feel pressured to read
Speaker 1: all four. But these are just yeah, just the ones
Speaker 1: we're throwing out. So but first, this episode is brought
Speaker 1: to you by the Library. Library is here. You might
Speaker 1: have forgotten about Library with all the audible ads you're
Speaker 1: hearing on podcast hashtag not sorry. Thank you Amazon for
Speaker 1: paying my bills. UM library wants you to know she
Speaker 1: is here for you and your book needs. She's got paperback,
Speaker 1: hard back, audio books, even kindle books. Thank you again Amazon.
Speaker 1: So before you go to a big box retailer or
Speaker 1: online store, look for your books on the library website
Speaker 1: and or app. And if you go in person, ask
Speaker 1: your library or give him a call. Ask your librarian
Speaker 1: what perks you get outside of free books? Library? Consider
Speaker 1: those late fees and investment in your book borrowing future.
Speaker 1: Thanks library, Well, we do remember you forgotten. I went
Speaker 1: in person to the library to get my library card
Speaker 1: and they were so excited to see a real human
Speaker 1: being walking into the library. Library they have here more
Speaker 1: often and libraries, I know, we talked about this all
Speaker 1: the time. But they also often offer free tickets to
Speaker 1: local museums. So there's so much to be ad at
Speaker 1: your local library. Check out your library. You consider those
Speaker 1: late fees and investment in your future. M h. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for an episode to cue up after this,
Speaker 1: you can pretty much cue up any episode from the
Speaker 1: first two years of the podcast and see what books
Speaker 1: we were reading. UM. But there's also episode fifty four,
Speaker 1: which is frugal hobbies. What to do with your free time.
Speaker 1: Reading is definitely one of those, but there are ton
Speaker 1: tons of others. But I would like to get into
Speaker 1: the way that I picked the four books we are
Speaker 1: reading this because how else do you pick four things
Speaker 1: when you have the when the world is your oyster,
Speaker 1: how do you pick four of anything? And so I
Speaker 1: went back and I said, well, obviously it's got to
Speaker 1: be something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.
Speaker 1: It's how you get dressed for your wedding day, and
Speaker 1: it's how you pick your books. Yes, so we have
Speaker 1: we have something older than five years old. We have
Speaker 1: a book that's newer than one year old, so less
Speaker 1: than one year old. We have something borrowed from either
Speaker 1: one of our friends or from our listeners suggestions. And
Speaker 1: then we have something with a blue cover. And that
Speaker 1: is the only requirement for the last book is that
Speaker 1: it must have a blue cover and be relevant to money.
Speaker 1: Like these are all in the realm of what you'll
Speaker 1: hear on the show, so there's no like random random books.
Speaker 1: They are all going to be relevant for our listeners.
Speaker 1: So again, this is a this is what's coming up
Speaker 1: for book club some of these. Jen has read some
Speaker 1: of them, she hasn't. None of them I've read. So
Speaker 1: I'm just being transparent about that. And but here's why
Speaker 1: we picked them and some of why we want to
Speaker 1: read these books. So the first one starting us something
Speaker 1: old or older than five years, not that old. It's
Speaker 1: the Behavior Gap, Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things
Speaker 1: with Money by Carl Richards and just a quote from
Speaker 1: the book about the Behavior Gap. How they present this,
Speaker 1: this literary piece of work is it's not that we're dumb.
Speaker 1: We're wired to avoid pain and pursue pleasure and security.
Speaker 1: It feels right to sell when everyone around us is scared,
Speaker 1: and by when everyone feels great. It may feel right,
Speaker 1: but it's not rational. And so kind of talking through
Speaker 1: some of the mindsets and behaviors around why we do
Speaker 1: the things that we do, like why we want to
Speaker 1: read this book, why we picked this book is that
Speaker 1: you know, we've all had those moments of asking ourselves,
Speaker 1: why do I keep doing this thing even though it's
Speaker 1: not good for me? Or I keep saying I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this thing, yet I keep finding myself
Speaker 1: doing that thing, engaging in the behaviors that I say,
Speaker 1: aren't life giving to me? Why am I doing that?
Speaker 1: And again, as the as the book said, it's not
Speaker 1: that we're dumb. It has to do with some of
Speaker 1: those deeper wirings and experiences, and so the book will
Speaker 1: break that down more and particularly as it relates to
Speaker 1: spending and mindset and behavior. We love it when when
Speaker 1: we're able to identify where those crossovers are and just
Speaker 1: understand ourselves better so that we can live in a
Speaker 1: more beneficial way in all aspects of life. So that's
Speaker 1: the behavior gap. We're going to get into that one. Again,
Speaker 1: it's by Carl Richards. Anything else you want to say
Speaker 1: about that, John, Yeah, I'll just say read some of
Speaker 1: like the other topics that are in the book, because
Speaker 1: that's what kind of made me pick it. So not
Speaker 1: just so we won't just talk about you know, investing,
Speaker 1: like the tendency to buy high and sell low, which
Speaker 1: which is important. I know a lot of people new
Speaker 1: to invest saying do have the question like when we
Speaker 1: hit the bear markets, like should I stop investing? Should
Speaker 1: I sell something? And this is going to help you
Speaker 1: figure out like the wiring behind why you were there.
Speaker 1: But to avoid the pitfalls of generic financial advice to
Speaker 1: invest all of your assets, uh so including time and energy.
Speaker 1: So we say a lot of the time, like for frugality,
Speaker 1: it's not just being a good sort of your financial resources,
Speaker 1: but also your time, your energy, your physical space. So
Speaker 1: this goes into that as well, So investing all of
Speaker 1: your assets as he calls it, as well as savings,
Speaker 1: investing all of your assets more wisely, to quit spending
Speaker 1: money and time on things that don't matter. I think
Speaker 1: that's the time portion. Is another thing we don't look
Speaker 1: at a lot is we will overly focus on the
Speaker 1: spending money portion, but look not paying as much attention
Speaker 1: is how can we quit spending time on things that
Speaker 1: don't matter? Um, you'll identify your real financial goals, start
Speaker 1: meaningful conversations about money, which I also I'm very interested
Speaker 1: in simplify your financial life and then stop losing money.
Speaker 1: So I really really like this. So this is what
Speaker 1: Carl Richards writes a blog for The New York Times
Speaker 1: where he's famous for his very simple drawings that illustrate
Speaker 1: um financial concepts. And so this is definitely one that
Speaker 1: I would try to get the paperback or hardback version
Speaker 1: of so that you can see those drawings versus the
Speaker 1: audio book version, or or get both and listen to
Speaker 1: the audio book, but but have the actual book like
Speaker 1: in front of you or with you. So that is
Speaker 1: my recommendation for that one. Then next we've got something new,
Speaker 1: newer than one year. So this one came out this year,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of you are fans of
Speaker 1: this podcast, but it's the Lazy Genius Kitchen. Have what
Speaker 1: you need, use what you have, and enjoy it like
Speaker 1: never before, by Kendra Dachi of the Lazy Genius Podcast. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm just getting into her. I'm just getting into
Speaker 1: her podcast, I guess, but I also into her. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I am very impressed by her philosophy on life
Speaker 1: and it's very much how we view frugality to It's
Speaker 1: like being genius in the things that matter and being
Speaker 1: really lazy in the things that don't, but like still
Speaker 1: need to get done. And so like that's her whole philosophy.
Speaker 1: And that's what we love too, is being really efficient
Speaker 1: and really smart in the big things that matter and
Speaker 1: just getting through the things that don't. So that's I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the principle, like kind of rebranded um and this
Speaker 1: is just focused on that concept in the kitchen. So
Speaker 1: this is everybody's asking how to save money on food?
Speaker 1: And I really think it just comes down to which
Speaker 1: strategies you use. Is finding a strategy that works for you.
Speaker 1: And so I think this and I haven't read it yet.
Speaker 1: I haven't read any of these books yet. These are
Speaker 1: books I want to read, but having the like just
Speaker 1: introducing one more strategy for this, So I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to get into this one. It's super practical to this.
Speaker 1: This is an exciting book. If I were to pick
Speaker 1: one from the list, it might be this one or
Speaker 1: the next one that we're about to read off. But
Speaker 1: like you're saying, Jen, everybody's wondering, how can I streamline
Speaker 1: in my kitchen? And what can I be doing better?
Speaker 1: What am I missing here? How can this be more
Speaker 1: enjoyable it or ease less food waste, yummy stuff like
Speaker 1: and this just seems like it has hits all of
Speaker 1: those categories. So I love it when there's just a
Speaker 1: practical book like this that really does solve a problem.
Speaker 1: And we know food, we love food, we eat food
Speaker 1: every day, and it still poses so many issues and
Speaker 1: barriers for us, especially as it relates to our wallets,
Speaker 1: and I love that this isn't a recipe book. This
Speaker 1: isn't a book. This is an actual like book about
Speaker 1: how to make it easier to eat the food you
Speaker 1: have at home. Like that's all we're looking for, right,
Speaker 1: So some of what the book will teach you is
Speaker 1: to name what matters to you in the kitchen. So
Speaker 1: whether that's flavor, convenience, or something else entirely, I think
Speaker 1: that's super important. Everyone's going to value something else in
Speaker 1: like something different in the kitchen, and so so for me,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I'd love to be this like very
Speaker 1: good cook and like enjoy making these very cool things,
Speaker 1: but it's not me, like I just convenience. It's convenience
Speaker 1: for me. So to be honest with myself about what
Speaker 1: matters to me and what I value and not try
Speaker 1: and be someone else or like someone what Instagram or
Speaker 1: social like any social media is telling me is better
Speaker 1: is super important. So I really resonate with this. Some
Speaker 1: other things the book will teach is to feed your
Speaker 1: people with efficiency and ease UM apply a simple, actionable,
Speaker 1: five step process to multiple areas of your kitchen, empowering
Speaker 1: you to enjoy your kitchen the way you've always wanted,
Speaker 1: and she she lays out the five step process prioritize, essentialized, organized, personalize,
Speaker 1: and systematize, And she says, you don't need magical recipes,
Speaker 1: fancy gadgets, or daunting lists to follow to the letter.
Speaker 1: You just need a framework that works, whether you're cooking
Speaker 1: for one or for twenty. And so this sounds very
Speaker 1: cool to One of the things I appreciate about the
Speaker 1: standards of new books coming out. I think this has
Speaker 1: always been a relative standard is what gaps exist oftentimes
Speaker 1: when when books are published and written, it's because there's
Speaker 1: a gap in the information. Similar with research that is done,
Speaker 1: there's a gap we don't we don't know what we
Speaker 1: don't know, and someone needs to write on it, someone
Speaker 1: needs to research on it. And this is a very
Speaker 1: clear gap. We've got plenty of books out there filled
Speaker 1: with recipes. Yeah, we don't need another cookbook, but how
Speaker 1: do we work in the kitchen. Many of us just
Speaker 1: jumped to the cookbook, but we don't know how to
Speaker 1: move about and make the most of that space and
Speaker 1: our appliances. And so yeah, for so many reasons, I'm
Speaker 1: really excited about that perspective. Okay, the next category something borrowed.
Speaker 1: This is borrowed from our list inners recommended, but you
Speaker 1: know we're going with the theme. So the Conscious Closet,
Speaker 1: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good by
Speaker 1: Elizabeth L. Klein, and the reason we picked this one.
Speaker 1: It came out in two thousand nineteen, but under unlike
Speaker 1: other things that came out pre pandemic, it is still
Speaker 1: relevant and we're coming to learn more and more about
Speaker 1: how cheap clothing does cost us a lot. It's not
Speaker 1: just about the price tag on the clothing, but how
Speaker 1: it was made and how long it's gonna last us.
Speaker 1: So whether we're impulse buying clothing on sale or buying
Speaker 1: clothes that don't last, changing the way we buy clothes
Speaker 1: will not only save us money in the long run,
Speaker 1: but it will better the lives of even the people
Speaker 1: who are making the clothing. So as we become more
Speaker 1: astute to the practices of the clothing industry and fashion industry,
Speaker 1: I think it does bear way on the choices that
Speaker 1: we make. We are then responsible for. Okay, how do
Speaker 1: we pair our understanding and some of the changes and
Speaker 1: shifts we want to make with a frugal mindset? As well,
Speaker 1: and the two can go hand in hand. Of course,
Speaker 1: there's offshoots of ways that we can spend tons of
Speaker 1: money on our closets and by doing good, but I
Speaker 1: think there's this really nice pairing where we can be
Speaker 1: conscious consumers and live frugally and values based. So I'm
Speaker 1: really excited about this book as well. Again, I think
Speaker 1: it speaks to that practical level of how do we
Speaker 1: shop sustainably and in an eco friendly way, in a
Speaker 1: way that cares for the people who have actually set
Speaker 1: their hands to making our clothing. Um, So I think
Speaker 1: this is another needed one that solves another problem that
Speaker 1: we have and and not just learning more about the
Speaker 1: fashion industry, but okay, what can we do brings it
Speaker 1: down to that micro level and how do I engage
Speaker 1: with this very necessary item? I need clothing? But how
Speaker 1: can I do this in a sustainable way? Yeah? I so,
Speaker 1: I am physically borrowing this book from our friend Lisa,
Speaker 1: Lisa Rowan, who you will remember from the Money Hacks episode,
Speaker 1: And so that's why this is this is the first
Speaker 1: borrowed book of this round of the Frugal Friends book Club.
Speaker 1: But I did ask you guys for recommendations, and you
Speaker 1: guys had a lot of good ones, and so they
Speaker 1: will be making them on future book Club episodes. But
Speaker 1: I really am excited to read this one, mostly because
Speaker 1: of the review. So I didn't want it to be
Speaker 1: like somebody just telling me by ethical brands that are
Speaker 1: like hundred dollars a shirt and then just buy fewer
Speaker 1: of them. But I wanted like other alternatives. So the
Speaker 1: very first review was like, absolutely amazing read. Because of
Speaker 1: this book, I now wash my clothes differently, I buy differently,
Speaker 1: I store differently, and I repay air more. The book
Speaker 1: teaches you how to do simple repairs and what techniques
Speaker 1: to use while testing clothes in the store before buying.
Speaker 1: And then someone else said, quote unquote, closet contentment is
Speaker 1: what I'm seeking after a big project in the coming
Speaker 1: weeks to weed out my unworn, unattractive clothing. So I
Speaker 1: would love to reach some closet contentment as well. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty content with my clothes, but just to have
Speaker 1: like a a better perspective and more affirmation of why
Speaker 1: you know, buying used is so important and why I
Speaker 1: don't buy as many clothes as I think gonna be
Speaker 1: really motivating for me. Yeah, I think coming out of
Speaker 1: my twenties where I felt like for me, my twenties
Speaker 1: was very much a lot of how can I get
Speaker 1: the things that I want inexpensively sometimes that meant cheaply
Speaker 1: and not not really aware. And some of that might
Speaker 1: have been personal, some of that might have been just
Speaker 1: the information available to us a decade ago of just yeah,
Speaker 1: buying the two dollar shirt at the mall and just
Speaker 1: being so excited that I got a deal, but not
Speaker 1: thinking about the other aspects and the ripple effects. And
Speaker 1: I think, you know now that I'm kind of at
Speaker 1: a sustainable body type and that's probably not going to
Speaker 1: change that much. I don't anticipate another growth spurt, and
Speaker 1: just greater awareness of where are my things coming from
Speaker 1: and wanting them to last for a while, and seeing
Speaker 1: the difference between quality and something cheaply made. And I think,
Speaker 1: just for a lot of reasons, this aligns with personally
Speaker 1: where I'm at and already starting to take in more
Speaker 1: information about this. But all right, how does this inform
Speaker 1: my spending? So? Yeah, excited about that book? Mm hmmm, alright,
Speaker 1: so our last book on the book club something with
Speaker 1: a blue cover, and y'all would be very interested to
Speaker 1: know there are a lot of books with blue covers,
Speaker 1: like it is a very common UM cover color. So
Speaker 1: I was skeptical when I was like, oh no, but
Speaker 1: how am I going to do this something blue like
Speaker 1: that I only can choose from blue covers, But I
Speaker 1: had no trouble choosing. I actually had like three blue covers.
Speaker 1: And even like this isn't the only blue cover on
Speaker 1: the list, the Behavior Gap is also a blue cover.
Speaker 1: Uh so multiple no shortage of blue covers. But for
Speaker 1: this first iteration of bringing back the book Club, UM,
Speaker 1: we are going with the good Money Revolution, how to
Speaker 1: make more money to do more good by Derek Kinney,
Speaker 1: who you will remember we had on the show recently,
Speaker 1: um talking about your generosity purpose And I mean we
Speaker 1: picked I picked this one just because, like, aside from
Speaker 1: the cover being blue, we loved our interview with Derrick Kinney,
Speaker 1: like it was really good. Yeah, his perspective on generosity,
Speaker 1: and I think we talked about that during the interview.
Speaker 1: How much more we need to have those conversations about
Speaker 1: being generous, even for those of us frugally minded and
Speaker 1: maybe even a little bit wanting to hoard our cash.
Speaker 1: But this is a real aspect of the financial decisions
Speaker 1: that we make and what can bring about that purpose
Speaker 1: and fulfillment as we make money. And and it's not
Speaker 1: to deprivation, it's make more, enjoy life and give more.
Speaker 1: So just such a cool perspective and conversation about generosity
Speaker 1: that I'm sure will be even more expounded upon within
Speaker 1: this book. Yeah, so this is one that focus is
Speaker 1: kind of more on, like definitely maybe white collar or
Speaker 1: business owners or I don't know, it's uh, it's definitely
Speaker 1: gonna I think he was saying when we were talking
Speaker 1: with him, like a lot of his clients were making
Speaker 1: good money, but they just weren't motivated to like do
Speaker 1: it more like they wanted to retire because they were
Speaker 1: just bored in their jobs. And then something that really
Speaker 1: worked for getting these people re energized and like loving
Speaker 1: their work again was introducing this concept of generosity and
Speaker 1: and figuring, Okay, what's your passion, what do you really
Speaker 1: care about? And how can you invest more in that
Speaker 1: by making more money in your business. And I think
Speaker 1: that the same thing can be translated to, you know,
Speaker 1: just increasing your salary or increasing like the amount of
Speaker 1: money you you bring in overall by decreasing expenses. I think,
Speaker 1: as people who are physically and mentally capable of increasing
Speaker 1: our incomes, that we kind of have a responsibility to
Speaker 1: make more money so that we can show better care
Speaker 1: to those people who physically or mentally cannot increase their incomes,
Speaker 1: you know, based on circumstance or season or whatever. And
Speaker 1: so I think this, I mean it very much challenged
Speaker 1: me to think outside of, oh, I want to increase
Speaker 1: my income, so I can you know, buy more stuff
Speaker 1: that gets old, that is unfulfilling. And while it's nice
Speaker 1: like his clients surely you know, make enough to cover
Speaker 1: all of their bills, while a lot of our listeners
Speaker 1: are trying to make more to you know, pay off debts,
Speaker 1: say for health stuff like that I still live by.
Speaker 1: I think we both Jill and I live by the
Speaker 1: adage like what you do with little is indicative of
Speaker 1: what you will do with a lot um. And so
Speaker 1: while we're not going to be you know, funding you know,
Speaker 1: entire habitat for humanity houses or or anything like that, like,
Speaker 1: still showing care to those around us can help us
Speaker 1: desire to make more money into and know that making
Speaker 1: more money isn't evil it's not bad. You know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't turn you into a bad person, doesn't have to
Speaker 1: turn you into a bad person. And so I think
Speaker 1: this book is really made for that mindset. Yeah, well said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we have proven, we've been able to
Speaker 1: do a lot with a little You don't need a lot,
Speaker 1: or to be responsible with the little thing like this,
Speaker 1: the bill of the week. That's it's time for the
Speaker 1: best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was
Speaker 1: born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off
Speaker 1: your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy to
Speaker 1: not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill Buffalo bills,
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. I
Speaker 1: didn't know where you were going with that. I wanted
Speaker 1: you to get there, but I didn't know where you
Speaker 1: were going. You know. It was a bit of a stretch,
Speaker 1: but you did stretch. I was unprepared for it. You
Speaker 1: were just actiously waiting. I wanted you to finish. I
Speaker 1: wanted you to have a win. I don't think I
Speaker 1: got that. It's okay, it's okay. You can't. You can't
Speaker 1: add two five episodes. You can't win all two five No,
Speaker 1: I guess not. But let's see who did win. Hi,
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. My name is Victoria and I'm from Clearwater, Florida.
Speaker 1: My billow of the week is that I just received
Speaker 1: word yesterday that my application for overnight summer camp for
Speaker 1: my daughter was approved. I have been making payments over
Speaker 1: the last three months, but this scholarship covered the last
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars. In addition, I also found out about
Speaker 1: and applied for a local overnight summer camp that is
Speaker 1: completely free. I am talking about free. This is going
Speaker 1: to be the most epic summer for both my daughter
Speaker 1: and me. Bye, ladies. Oh that's great, Victoria that your
Speaker 1: daughter will experience the freedom of overnight summer camp. You
Speaker 1: will experience the freedom of her overnight summer camp for
Speaker 1: a discounted price. That is amazing. It does sound like
Speaker 1: an epic summer that you're probably already in the midst
Speaker 1: of or have just wrapped up by the time we're
Speaker 1: getting to this. So we thank you so much for
Speaker 1: calling in. You're so local to us, and yeah, we
Speaker 1: we love to hear from local people and folks from
Speaker 1: Afar and so so thrilled. It sounds like it was
Speaker 1: a lot of work for you to be applying for
Speaker 1: these scholarships and looking into what's available to you. But
Speaker 1: well done, your work has paid off and you have
Speaker 1: just done the work of a fantastic mom to get
Speaker 1: an amazing summer plan for your daughter and hopefully to
Speaker 1: always worth the work to find out about these scholarships
Speaker 1: and apply for them, because you never know, like how
Speaker 1: many people are applying, what the income bracket of the
Speaker 1: people are applying, you know, unless there's income restrictions, but
Speaker 1: like you just never know. And so if you're eligible,
Speaker 1: apply and you could be giving yourself and your child
Speaker 1: a much needed break. If you want to submit your
Speaker 1: bill of the week, whether it's about an epoch summer
Speaker 1: or a low key summer or no summer it's winter,
Speaker 1: now visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave
Speaker 1: us a bill, and now it's time for um. This
Speaker 1: will be a kind of two part lightning round. Oh right, well,
Speaker 1: because well one part is going to be vulnerable, but
Speaker 1: the other part we're just gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about how to start a book club. If you
Speaker 1: want to start, if you want to do the book
Speaker 1: club with your friends, the Frugal Friends book club in
Speaker 1: your community with your friends. But first, let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about fiction. We are going to share. Well,
Speaker 1: one of us is going to share our fiction book recommendations,
Speaker 1: and and one of us is choosing our own path.
Speaker 1: So you gotta do what works for you. Go ahead, John,
Speaker 1: stick with the script. What's your two fiction book recommendation? Um, well,
Speaker 1: I don't actually know if it came out in two
Speaker 1: I don't think it did, but it is. I did
Speaker 1: read it this year, and it is The Four Winds
Speaker 1: by Kristin Hannah. I really like Kristin Hannah. I like
Speaker 1: all of her books. I still think The Nightingale is
Speaker 1: my favorite. But I and I really did enjoy The
Speaker 1: Great Loan and I really enjoyed The Four Winds, so
Speaker 1: this was just another home run book I did read. Also,
Speaker 1: I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: that one. It was riveting, but it had intimate scenes
Speaker 1: that were quite graphic for me, and I don't usually
Speaker 1: get that way, but like it's in books for some reason,
Speaker 1: it's like worse for me, So I like hate, I
Speaker 1: hate those reading about that stuff. But if it doesn't
Speaker 1: bother you, definitely, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was
Speaker 1: a good read. I cried at the end of both
Speaker 1: of these books. For Winds, Yeah, it's to audio. Always listen,
Speaker 1: especially nonfiction books. I only listen to them because they're
Speaker 1: read so like like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Speaker 1: had three audio narrators for like the actual person that
Speaker 1: was like, so there's it's into the book is in
Speaker 1: two perspectives. But then it also had like these newspaper article,
Speaker 1: you know, snippets throughout, and so there was a separate
Speaker 1: person reading the newspaper or magazines. So for for nonfiction,
Speaker 1: I always do audio because it's just a great experience.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's also why you couldn't quite handle the salacious.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe just in your car driving your kid to daycare.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, maybe that was it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's those are myne I'll give you two because
Speaker 1: because I'm going to give you nothing, Well, here you go.
Speaker 1: I am not up with the times, my goodness, I
Speaker 1: do not know what books are coming out in so
Speaker 1: sorry if that's going to bring us both some bad reviews.
Speaker 1: I'm not super up with the times either, but I
Speaker 1: do I have to be honest, but I will go
Speaker 1: along with what you love jen of vulnerability in the
Speaker 1: Lightning Round. Something lesser known about me is I really
Speaker 1: like children's books. I don't know take that how you
Speaker 1: will assume what you want of me. Maybe it's because
Speaker 1: it's what's at my reading level, but I find children's
Speaker 1: books to be super heartwarming, fun. I one of the things,
Speaker 1: maybe this is getting too deep, I think when we
Speaker 1: try to explain concepts to children and simplify it, we
Speaker 1: have to have a really rich understanding of that thing
Speaker 1: in order to simplify it. It's something I've noticed with
Speaker 1: my nieces and nephews. When I have to describe something
Speaker 1: that feels complicated or nuanced and I try to break
Speaker 1: it down into kids terms, I have to have a
Speaker 1: really good understanding of that thing in order to do that.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a little part of why I
Speaker 1: like children's books so much, as they're often breaking down
Speaker 1: concepts into more simplistic terms that I find really beautiful
Speaker 1: and rich. Obviously, the reading children's books doesn't take up
Speaker 1: a whole evening. It's like ten minutes, but that's that's
Speaker 1: what I enjoy and when I read it to a child.
Speaker 1: So there's a couple that I would recommend if you're
Speaker 1: on board with me, you've taken this in a weird direction. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are parents who would love to hear this.
Speaker 1: ID love to hear it because I read Powt Patrol
Speaker 1: books and there's I don't I don't think there are
Speaker 1: any hidden meanings. So one of my favorites. I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of favorites when it comes to kids books,
Speaker 1: so I know we've only got a little bit of time.
Speaker 1: But one of my favorites that I actually own is
Speaker 1: called If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian, and
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorite ones to read to
Speaker 1: a child because not only is it just a really
Speaker 1: beautiful book, but it often then lends itself to a
Speaker 1: fun activity. I also love rocks. There's like a funny
Speaker 1: story that maybe I'll share in the lightning air, like
Speaker 1: in the after after show about my don't talk about enjoyment.
Speaker 1: We don't talk about the aftershow. Okay, what after show?
Speaker 1: What if you stay past the music? There's more so
Speaker 1: it's just all about the different types of rocks that
Speaker 1: are out there. Honestly, I don't I don't know that
Speaker 1: there's that much metaphor to it. I just I love
Speaker 1: it and like what you can do with these different rocks,
Speaker 1: and then you can then have an activity where you
Speaker 1: go and find different rocks and pebbles and have an
Speaker 1: adventure with the child that you read that book too.
Speaker 1: I also really love the book Come over to my house,
Speaker 1: Come over and play by Dr Seus's classic. I think
Speaker 1: that too, probably when I was younger, sparked an interest
Speaker 1: in other people, other cultures, other places, travel and and
Speaker 1: just like mutual understanding and respect for others. I think
Speaker 1: that's a really beautiful book as well that come over
Speaker 1: to my house, come over and play that concept that
Speaker 1: like there's a seat at the table for you, and
Speaker 1: let me show you my way of living, and let
Speaker 1: me see your way of living, and like a really
Speaker 1: simplistic way. I could go on and on about children's books.
Speaker 1: You really have unleashed something for me, but I'll stop there.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the book club. Okay, Well, if you
Speaker 1: want to start a book club with children or adults, Um,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna give you some tips from book riot
Speaker 1: dot com on how to start a book club that
Speaker 1: doesn't suck. Uh, and so you can read obviously with us.
Speaker 1: UM will have the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, or
Speaker 1: you can get people in your real life to read
Speaker 1: these books with you, which is even better. So the
Speaker 1: first step, the first tip, is figure out who you're
Speaker 1: inviting to your book club. And this will be the
Speaker 1: most important choice you make because it will affect everything
Speaker 1: else about your book club, from where and when you
Speaker 1: meet to which books you read. Obviously we already have
Speaker 1: a suggestion, but you could just have a two person
Speaker 1: book club, or you can invite as many people as
Speaker 1: you want, but think about some people you'd like to
Speaker 1: read a book with and invite them to read it
Speaker 1: with you. And then of course you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: define the purpose of your book club, Like people want
Speaker 1: to know what are we showing up here for? What
Speaker 1: are we get? Like? What purpose are we gathered around?
Speaker 1: Is it to learn something new? Is it primarily to
Speaker 1: bond with co workers or friends catching up? Is it
Speaker 1: meeting new people? Is it a mixture? I think stating
Speaker 1: those things like this article says, is going to be
Speaker 1: helpful so that you all can kind of have a
Speaker 1: clear picture of why you're gathering together and then decide
Speaker 1: if you're meeting online or in person. And I will
Speaker 1: add uh this caveat um not caveat, but I will
Speaker 1: add A sub step is also um, decide if you're
Speaker 1: going to name your book club. Uh, so we are
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends book club. But you can always be
Speaker 1: you know, the Daring Denver chapter or the crazy Cleveland
Speaker 1: chapter or whatever you want to be. The guy's the
Speaker 1: limit this guyati. Yeah. So so if you want to
Speaker 1: meet in person and you going to name it something
Speaker 1: locally themed, or maybe you want to meet online, and
Speaker 1: it's just like a you know, we are teachers who
Speaker 1: can only meet Mondays at five chapter, So obviously you
Speaker 1: will come up with better names than I than I
Speaker 1: have teachers who can only meet at five. I came
Speaker 1: up with the name Frugal Friends, and I and everything
Speaker 1: creative out of me ended. After that, I was like, great,
Speaker 1: did my job. Nothing. Can't do any Taco Bell chapter
Speaker 1: we only read over tacos. I would join that book,
Speaker 1: invite me to that chapter. Next is figure out when
Speaker 1: your book club will take place. Obviously, if you're the
Speaker 1: teachers that only meet Mondays at five, you've got that
Speaker 1: figured out. But certainly is it are you doing this monthly?
Speaker 1: Are you doing it every other month, is it bi weekly?
Speaker 1: You know what? What what kind of timing are you
Speaker 1: trying to give? How much of the book are you
Speaker 1: intending to read each time? I know some people who
Speaker 1: do book clubs. It's like a book a month and
Speaker 1: they meet once a month and they have one time
Speaker 1: that they meet to talk about that book. But of
Speaker 1: course you could space it out more if you want
Speaker 1: to kind of do a few chapters at a time
Speaker 1: and you're meeting more regularly. That's really going to have
Speaker 1: to be the conversation as well, what's availability? When can
Speaker 1: we meet how often? Yeah, then we'll we'll skip five,
Speaker 1: which is create a process to nominate books, because we've
Speaker 1: nominated them for you, so we will go to number six,
Speaker 1: which is give your book club discussion some structure. So, well,
Speaker 1: we did tell you what to read, we're not telling
Speaker 1: you what to talk about. You can think of some
Speaker 1: ideas kind of based on like you can listen back
Speaker 1: to our interview with Derrick Kinney before after you read
Speaker 1: his book and kind of think of some things to
Speaker 1: talk about or when we hopefully have other authors on
Speaker 1: we'll see. But yeah, so the priority is to just
Speaker 1: give everyone in the book club a voice, make sure
Speaker 1: everybody can say what they think or ask questions, that
Speaker 1: we make this as inclusive as possible. Some of the
Speaker 1: people in your book club are going to be more
Speaker 1: introverted than others, and while we don't want to force
Speaker 1: people to speak when they're uncomfortable, if you're going to
Speaker 1: attend a book club, you should be willing to say something.
Speaker 1: So let's go into this with the expectation that we're
Speaker 1: all here to participate. Some obviously will participate more than others.
Speaker 1: But take a chance, be bold and go and say
Speaker 1: what you learned, what you loved, what you didn't well,
Speaker 1: and there is probably going to need to be somebody
Speaker 1: facilitating the conversation. So whether that's the same person in
Speaker 1: every meeting that you have, or it's the person who
Speaker 1: it changes every time, or if you get to a
Speaker 1: point where you're in a book club where you are
Speaker 1: nominating the book Boks, maybe it's the person who nominated
Speaker 1: that book. A lot of books will have guides for
Speaker 1: a book club discussion, things that you can ask about
Speaker 1: the book. But also within this article is a link
Speaker 1: to some questions that could be asked of any book
Speaker 1: club within a book club discussion. So if you're not
Speaker 1: sure where to start. There's plenty on the internet of
Speaker 1: here's just some generalized questions that often could get the
Speaker 1: conversation going about any given book. M Uh. The number
Speaker 1: seven's more so along the lines of like picking books,
Speaker 1: like to find a trusted site for book club reviews.
Speaker 1: That would be helpful if you're picking books. Again, we
Speaker 1: gave you the book, we tell you what to read. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So then eight. We've kind of talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit thinking about how you will conduct your book club,
Speaker 1: and that's down to the facilitated discussion. When, where, how, why,
Speaker 1: who's hosting it, how are you getting together all those things.
Speaker 1: So definitely recommend starting a chapter of the Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: book club in your community. And even if your friends
Speaker 1: don't know about Frugal Friends, maybe they want to get
Speaker 1: their financial life together and we're like, hey, join this
Speaker 1: book club with me, and also listen to this very
Speaker 1: cool podcast, which is where I got these books ideas from.
Speaker 1: And then you've brought and then you've brought a listener
Speaker 1: into the fold, and that's very cool. Yes, it'll be fun. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you everyone so much for listening. Many of you
Speaker 1: know that we have a private community where we do
Speaker 1: monthly money challenges and we offer accountability groups. And we
Speaker 1: want to take this time to congratulate one of our
Speaker 1: members for a big win. This one comes from Tenaya.
Speaker 1: She shared a lot, so we're just gonna pick a
Speaker 1: few of them because she's really crushing it. But here's
Speaker 1: what she said. I found Jen and Jill just over
Speaker 1: one month ago. The Spending Symposium weekend was my introduct
Speaker 1: shin to this new way of living and thinking about money.
Speaker 1: I've made some significant changes just in the past month,
Speaker 1: and for the first time I have actually analyzed what
Speaker 1: I did and here's what I found. So again, there's
Speaker 1: so much more to this list, but here you go.
Speaker 1: Here's some of what she did. Increased my savings balanced
Speaker 1: by twenty seven percent this month. Decrease my spending by
Speaker 1: eight seven percent this month. Initiated a long term investment
Speaker 1: portfolio with a professional financial advisor. Opened my employer matching
Speaker 1: for a one K account this month. Increase my income
Speaker 1: by this month. Made my first five percent gold toward
Speaker 1: debt payoff this month. Eliminated eleven subscription slash memberships totally
Speaker 1: two nine dollars a month savings that it equals that
Speaker 1: amount of savings, including Amazon Prime, which will save me
Speaker 1: untold millions of course of my life. I just kind
Speaker 1: of and again of it goes on and on an
Speaker 1: insane amount of progress for one month. I'm not under
Speaker 1: any assumptions that that could be everyone's story. But you
Speaker 1: really crushed it. Yeah, we just yeah, well done today.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely crushing it. And as a long haul tracker,
Speaker 1: so that so you're not in a normal like nine
Speaker 1: to five situation. You're you have like a stressful job
Speaker 1: and you're still making all this progress and you are
Speaker 1: really an inspiration to everyone that like anyone can do this.
Speaker 1: So very very proud of you, and thank all of
Speaker 1: you to those who are still listening to us. If
Speaker 1: you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head
Speaker 1: to fruital Friends podcast dot com slash club to see
Speaker 1: what challenge we have coming up next to read the
Speaker 1: rest of today's list of what all she's accomplished and
Speaker 1: all of the other big winds and inspiration that's happening
Speaker 1: over there. Yeah, we'll see you next time. Rugal Friends
Speaker 1: is produced by Eric Syrian so Rocks. So Rocks, I
Speaker 1: have this sensory thing that I discovered at a young age,
Speaker 1: and it continues on to this day that I really
Speaker 1: enjoy the sound of pebbles crunching like beneath my feet
Speaker 1: or beneath tires, Like if you've ever driven really slowly
Speaker 1: in a campground or a park, you know, where it's
Speaker 1: like five fifteen miles an hour and it's all kind
Speaker 1: of like a pebbly road, and the and the pebbles
Speaker 1: are like crunching underneath the tires. I love that sound.
Speaker 1: So at one point, I was probably five or six
Speaker 1: years old, and I decided did that I wanted to
Speaker 1: recreate that sound. I was in my backyard and at
Speaker 1: the time, the house that we lived in had sidewalk
Speaker 1: in the backyard, and I had a bike. I knew
Speaker 1: how to ride a bike, and I had collected pebbles,
Speaker 1: and I made a whole bike trail for myself along
Speaker 1: the sidewalk in our backyard so that I could ride
Speaker 1: my bike over the pebbles, so that I could hear
Speaker 1: the sound of rocks and pebbles crunching underneath my bike.
Speaker 1: And who knows how long that took me to like
Speaker 1: and it was just like a trail, you know, So
Speaker 1: my bike tires had to stay along this maybe like
Speaker 1: three inch span of pebbles that I laid out on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk, and I just kind of like drove over
Speaker 1: it just so I could hear the sound. Well, this
Speaker 1: was at the time when cam quarters existed, the big
Speaker 1: honkin video recorders that my my parents had that, and
Speaker 1: my mom knew that she was about to get some
Speaker 1: good content and pulled out this like twenty pound video
Speaker 1: recorder up on her shoulder and started videotaping me, six
Speaker 1: year old me with a little speech impediment. And clearly
Speaker 1: I had been playing dress up earlier in the day.
Speaker 1: I had like red lipstick smeared all over my face
Speaker 1: and a headband, and I was still like wearing this
Speaker 1: poofy dress. And and now I was onto the next
Speaker 1: thing of creating a sensory experience for myself. And now
Speaker 1: here's the thing. My parents knew that they could get
Speaker 1: a rise out of me with certain things. And I
Speaker 1: would often do like what they would call like pitch
Speaker 1: a fit, like throw a tantrum. Now provoked this sometimes
Speaker 1: they'd provoke it, and in this certain circumstance they did.
Speaker 1: So this is part of the only reason that like
Speaker 1: I had, like I remember what happened is because of
Speaker 1: this video. So Mom's like, Jillian, uh, what did you do?
Speaker 1: And I explained it and she's like, did you think
Speaker 1: that that was a good idea? And a little six
Speaker 1: year old means like not to you, maybe, Like this
Speaker 1: wasn't a good idea to you maybe, but it was
Speaker 1: to me. And she's like, okay, but you are going
Speaker 1: to have to pick up every rock, like you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to clean this up. And I'm like I know,
Speaker 1: and she's like no, like you're gonna have to clean
Speaker 1: up all of the rocks. You have to make sure
Speaker 1: that there's no more rocks on the sidewalk. And it
Speaker 1: like starts to click for me that this is a
Speaker 1: lot of rocks that I laid out and I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm only six. This feels impossible. How am I going
Speaker 1: to get every single single rock off the sidewalk? So
Speaker 1: I start crying, like every single single walk. I kept
Speaker 1: saying that over and over every single single walk because
Speaker 1: I couldn't I had a speech impediment, couldn't say my rs,
Speaker 1: So it was walk and every single single one and
Speaker 1: this is going to be impossible for me, and it's
Speaker 1: all on video. Oh my gosh, if you're really nice
Speaker 1: to me, maybe that'll be something I charge you to see.
Speaker 1: It's really your mom listened like a stressful situation out
Speaker 1: of you know, I know, it really does. Like it
Speaker 1: reveals a lot. It reveals a lot about me, It
Speaker 1: reveals a lot about my mom. It reveals a lot
Speaker 1: about my upbringing. But you know what I can say,
Speaker 1: rock now like relatively normally, so we have grown. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have. You say all your words very well, thank you,
Speaker 1: And I do still like the sound of pebbles crunching
Speaker 1: under my tires and my feet. Did you clean up
Speaker 1: the rocks? Yes? I did, probably not every single single one,
Speaker 1: though it's impossible. It really made an obstacle course. Wow,
Speaker 1: you're still making obstacle courses in your adult life and
Speaker 1: still not picking up every single no, not every single
Speaker 1: single walk, just the important ones, okay. By