Speaker 1: Episode four oh nine, how to Simplify your life to
Speaker 1: save more money.
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
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, and today we are talking about simplicity
Speaker 1: and how you can do it and the ways it
Speaker 1: will save you money. We've simplified by calling ourselves Jen
Speaker 1: and Jill just collect. We changed our names before we
Speaker 1: started the podcast, just so it could be so simple.
Speaker 1: Two j's, one syllable each, and so we're going to
Speaker 1: teach you today.
Speaker 3: How to do that time.
Speaker 1: I actually I did rebrand myself in college. I went
Speaker 1: by Jennifer my whole life, and then when I went
Speaker 1: to college, I was like, I'm going to rebrand myself
Speaker 1: to Jen. Oh just Jen, Yeah, just Jen.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: But that's not why you're here today. You're here to
Speaker 1: hear about simplifying, and first before we talk about that,
Speaker 1: this episode is brought to you by Frugal friendspodcast dot com.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to our website? It is beautiful,
Speaker 1: it is fantastic, and it's where you can sign up
Speaker 1: for the friend Letter. It's simple. Just enter your email
Speaker 1: and you will get saving tips three times a week.
Speaker 1: We are sending you freebies, we're sending you savings hacks,
Speaker 1: we're sending you exclusive excerpts from our new book that
Speaker 1: comes out in January. And you're going to get it
Speaker 1: all simply by heading to frugalfriendspodcast dot com and getting
Speaker 1: on the friend Letter.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is a simple way, no no backslash add
Speaker 5: on things.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And speaking of the friend Letter, we pulled you all
Speaker 5: another little simple way. We promise we won't overdo it
Speaker 5: to be able to hear from you and learn about
Speaker 5: what are the things you want us to be talking about.
Speaker 5: So we asked you about an area of life that
Speaker 5: you struggle most to simplify. In those who get the
Speaker 5: friend Letter, we're able to respond and really all over,
Speaker 5: we asked physical space, schedule, digital life, or daily demands
Speaker 5: and decisions, And the one that was least responded to
Speaker 5: was schedule, but pretty much neck and neck daily demands
Speaker 5: and decisions, Digital life and physical space were top three
Speaker 5: for the things that are hard, which.
Speaker 1: Is funny because for me, I think that the daily
Speaker 1: demands are part of your schedule. So I think we're
Speaker 1: separating the things we do outside the home from the
Speaker 1: things we do inside. But I think they're very much intertwined.
Speaker 1: And so when you can change your mindset around one,
Speaker 1: you can by proxy simplify the other. So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to talk about that today. But a lot of you
Speaker 1: blamed your children and I and I'm with you and
Speaker 1: tiny humans frazzling my brain, hot mess. I see all
Speaker 1: of your I see all of your responses, and I
Speaker 1: get it. I saw a Instagram post the other day
Speaker 1: that says, get in loser, We're going insane, and I
Speaker 1: felt that. I felt it so so deeply. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna We're gonna talk about all these aspects
Speaker 1: because they were so evenly divided, and in your responses
Speaker 1: you said you could have you wanted to pick more
Speaker 1: than one. So, but do you want to pay special
Speaker 1: attention to these daily when we say daily demands and decisions?
Speaker 1: I know we're all talking about feeding our tiny humans,
Speaker 1: so paying special close attention to there. But even if
Speaker 1: you don't have tiny humans, you will get a lot
Speaker 1: out of this one.
Speaker 5: If this topic is of interest to you, you want
Speaker 5: to cue up some others. We also have episode through
Speaker 5: fifty two which is how to Simplify Your Money Management,
Speaker 5: so specifically looking at simplification with our finances. Today's how
Speaker 5: simplifying helps our finances. We've also got episode two forty
Speaker 5: eight which is Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob and
Speaker 5: Linda Lodick Loaditch, one of the two. I forget how
Speaker 5: to pronounce their last names, but that was a really
Speaker 5: fun interview with that duo, So but stick here. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so let's talk about first, why even simplifying, because we
Speaker 5: need to be sure that we've got some buy in
Speaker 5: before we even start doing it. And I do want
Speaker 5: to make the caveat that we're not talking about minimalism.
Speaker 5: They are connected. Simplification sometimes can look like minimalism, but
Speaker 5: it doesn't have to. We're not simplifying so that you
Speaker 5: just have hardly anything. You can have a lot of
Speaker 5: things and still live a simple life. You can do
Speaker 5: a lot of things and still have degrees of simplicity.
Speaker 5: So it really is aiming at a simplification that works
Speaker 5: for you, but not just so you can feel like
Speaker 5: you attain some sort of picture of nothingness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think minimalism really takes it down to
Speaker 1: its two physical spaces. And that was something that we
Speaker 1: can talk about in another episode. I think so much
Speaker 1: we and we just wrote about this in our book,
Speaker 1: talking about like our brains are attracted to complexity, we
Speaker 1: desire to add things to our life. Like I was
Speaker 1: looking for an example for the book, and I was
Speaker 1: thinking the time when I wanted to buy a bigger
Speaker 1: water bottle so that I would drink more water. My
Speaker 1: solution was not take away like distractions and insert more
Speaker 1: opportunities to drink water. My solution that my brain jumped
Speaker 1: to was let me buy a bigger water bottle. Let
Speaker 1: me add instead of what can I subtract to give
Speaker 1: myself more space to be more intentional about drinking water?
Speaker 1: And so we do so, and so much of that
Speaker 1: ends up with us buying stuff. And so when we
Speaker 1: can change our mindset to be one from what can
Speaker 1: I add to solve this problem? What can I buy?
Speaker 1: Or what service can I subscribe to or buy to
Speaker 1: solve this problem and first take a simplification approach.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think simplifying can solve a lot of the
Speaker 5: common difficulties and struggles that we face, not solve altogether,
Speaker 5: but really help us with some of these things like
Speaker 5: overwhelm or feeling like we don't have enough time, feeling
Speaker 5: stressed about finances, having so much stuff around us, whether
Speaker 5: it's houses full of toys or closets full of clothes,
Speaker 5: and then none of it ends up getting played with
Speaker 5: or worn, and we're just kind of constantly thinking, we
Speaker 5: just need to be better at cleaning, we need to
Speaker 5: be better at organizing. When a lot of times simplification
Speaker 5: and when it comes to our spaces, I do think
Speaker 5: there's something to be said for having less can be great,
Speaker 5: but there's a whole spectrum for that. But I think
Speaker 5: simplifying in the sense of how can I reduce the
Speaker 5: number of decisions that need to be made, How can
Speaker 5: I create rhythms and automation and habits and routines around
Speaker 5: these things so that it's not this constant mental drain
Speaker 5: that's happening, which can free up time and space and
Speaker 5: cause us to not feel as overwhelmed. When we can
Speaker 5: feel so drawn to complexity, in what ways can we
Speaker 5: kind of shift our focus to the opposite of complexity
Speaker 5: and wherever possible to simplicity. I like to connect this
Speaker 5: idea with what you've talked a lot about Jen recently,
Speaker 5: and we talked about in the book the eighty twenty
Speaker 5: rule of the vital few and the useful many, Like,
Speaker 5: how can we really leverage the vital.
Speaker 3: Few to.
Speaker 5: Kind of automate the useful many? Or is there a
Speaker 5: way that I can focus the majority of my time
Speaker 5: and energy on these prioritized things that then make these
Speaker 5: other decisions unnecessary or easier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to be really intentional about some the heavy hitters
Speaker 1: in your life that are going to clear up. What
Speaker 1: are some things I can clear out of my life
Speaker 1: or that I can systematize or do something about that's
Speaker 1: going to clear up eighty percent of the chaos, and
Speaker 1: then that other twenty percent we can incorporate it. But
Speaker 1: they're the lowest barrier to entry things, and that's why
Speaker 1: we focus so much on them, when really it just
Speaker 1: feels like we're spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. So
Speaker 1: if you feel like you're spinning your wheels and getting nowhere,
Speaker 1: then it might be time to stop focusing on the
Speaker 1: useful many, because again, I'm still useful, but to vote
Speaker 1: more of resources to focusing on the vital view. And
Speaker 1: we'll kind of give examples of that as we go
Speaker 1: through this article.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so obviously this is going to touch all aspects
Speaker 5: of our lives and especially our finances. So this article
Speaker 5: comes from girl Boss and it is titled seven ways
Speaker 5: to save money by simplifying your life life And the
Speaker 5: first one we feel so deeply and we also talk
Speaker 5: about this in our book. The first step is going
Speaker 5: to be redefining your enough, or possibly defining your enough
Speaker 5: for the very first time. I know, even in writing
Speaker 5: the book, I had to rethink what would I say
Speaker 5: is enough?
Speaker 3: I do think it shifts throughout life.
Speaker 5: I think that especially as big life changes happen, your
Speaker 5: enough is going to look different. Like for you, Jen,
Speaker 5: you what enough was for you and Travis is different
Speaker 5: from what enough is now with you Travis and two boys.
Speaker 5: But really being able to identify that and live into that,
Speaker 5: which is definitely connected to contentment. I think simplification is
Speaker 5: connected to contentment. But really thinking about what of life,
Speaker 5: what of finances is enough? Where not that we have
Speaker 5: to to stop doing anything, no longer have any kind
Speaker 5: of goals, but can we recognize if our hustling or
Speaker 5: setting these kind of unrealistic goals is kind of going
Speaker 5: way past just blowing beyond whatever would actually be contentment
Speaker 5: for me and peace inside myself. So I love starting here.
Speaker 1: Yes absolutely. And I think defining your enough is important,
Speaker 1: not what you think should be enough, not what is
Speaker 1: enough for somebody else. And I think about this like
Speaker 1: I get a special treat latte every week. I will
Speaker 1: sometimes bring it into Jill's house in the morning, even
Speaker 1: though she is perfectly good coffee. It is my treat
Speaker 1: and I do it once a week. And then I
Speaker 1: also have sometimes when I go to a CrossFit on
Speaker 1: Saturday mornings, then I will get a coffee out with
Speaker 1: some of the girls afterwards. That's not every week, but
Speaker 1: I do have my treat every week. So I would
Speaker 1: say I get a coffee out one point five times
Speaker 1: a week. That's my enough. Your enough could look different.
Speaker 1: Your enough could look like twice a month or twice
Speaker 1: a week, or something totally different. Like I'm in the
Speaker 1: season of my life where I want to stay home more.
Speaker 1: I want to be at home and a hermit. When
Speaker 1: I was single, I wanted to go out more. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be in relationship with people that weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: in the same place as me with my finances. As
Speaker 1: I am now, and so I could suggest that we
Speaker 1: do something for free, but I had to determine if
Speaker 1: the relationship was more important than the money, so like
Speaker 1: if they didn't want to do the free thing, that
Speaker 1: they did want to get the coffee, like making that decision,
Speaker 1: and so that could result in you valuing your enough
Speaker 1: being higher than mine in that category, whereas my category
Speaker 1: of snacks, it's probably higher than a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of other people. So yeah, your enough has to
Speaker 1: be for you and don't try to conform it. And
Speaker 1: this is where the ninety day transaction inventory is really useful.
Speaker 1: You can see what you've already been doing and then
Speaker 1: figure out from there what is my enough? Does this
Speaker 1: feel good? Does this feel like too much? And then
Speaker 1: you can go back down and say, oh no, I
Speaker 1: just thought that was too much. I just assumed it
Speaker 1: was too much and I don't know why, but really
Speaker 1: I want to take it back up, so test it out,
Speaker 1: you will experiment, and that's there's a beauty in that.
Speaker 5: Because I think redefining it is going to need to
Speaker 5: happen along the way too. I think we've come to
Speaker 5: this point in our renovations with the house as well,
Speaker 5: like when is enough because you can kind of just
Speaker 5: keep going once you kind of get this idea of
Speaker 5: refining but constantly real looking at it.
Speaker 3: Can this be enough?
Speaker 5: And that goes for all of our spaces, our schedule,
Speaker 5: our relationships.
Speaker 3: What is enough? And leaning into that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know the concept of enough is really big.
Speaker 1: But if you want to break it down and just
Speaker 1: start with maybe five things on your ninety day transaction
Speaker 1: inventory that you really want to hone in on what
Speaker 1: your enough is that you know has been wildly unpredictable,
Speaker 1: you know that you really haven't honed in on. Start
Speaker 1: with those five things, figure out what your enough is there,
Speaker 1: and you will build the skills to do it with
Speaker 1: other more abstract things in your life. So the next
Speaker 1: thing on this list, which it feels like a call out,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say you gave this one to
Speaker 1: me on purpose, but it's unplug and reclaim your time.
Speaker 1: So and I am going to speak on this, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna like guilt me to say this to you,
Speaker 1: but know that I'm saying it to me, So yes. So,
Speaker 1: like unplugging can be scrolling on your phone last, which
Speaker 1: obviously you will encounter fewer ads if you do that
Speaker 1: but also cutting the cord on some of your streaming services.
Speaker 1: So this is one thing that I can say with
Speaker 1: confidence about us, is that we got rid of Netflix
Speaker 1: last May, and we decided we're going to go a
Speaker 1: year without Netflix. But we have two other streaming services,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna we're gonna alternate through two streaming
Speaker 1: services at a time, right, and so you know, when
Speaker 1: May comes or whenever the next one expires, we won't
Speaker 1: renew it and we'll you know, pick up Netflix again.
Speaker 1: So we are doing We also dropped Disney Plus that's
Speaker 1: the other one we dropped, so we're cycling through. And
Speaker 1: that means that sometimes we have come to the end
Speaker 1: of the things that we want to watch on TV,
Speaker 1: the shows and the movies left. There's nothing left. It's
Speaker 1: not that we've consumed it all. It's just that we're
Speaker 1: not interested in the anymore. And so that is helping
Speaker 1: us reclaim some of our time and it saves us money.
Speaker 1: Instead of having all the streaming services, we choose two
Speaker 1: at a time and we cycle through them and they're
Speaker 1: like six months apart, I think. So then we have
Speaker 1: to be careful that when we have reclaimed that time,
Speaker 1: that we don't refill it with scrolling on our phones again,
Speaker 1: which is something that I have actually found that I
Speaker 1: am becoming guilty of. So I think taking technology down
Speaker 1: a notch. I love digital minimalism. Think by Greg McCown.
Speaker 1: I think that's who wrote it. I always come back
Speaker 1: to that. We read that one for our Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: book club a really long time ago. But coming back
Speaker 1: to we are not anti technology, but we do want
Speaker 1: to put safeguards around our consumption of it. So sometimes
Speaker 1: that looks like those silly physical barriers that we you know,
Speaker 1: put our phone in a box. You don't need to
Speaker 1: buy the two hundred dollars box that is being advertised
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Have you seen that?
Speaker 3: Have you seen?
Speaker 1: No, they're advertising all kinds of Well, now you will
Speaker 1: get it because I'm talking about there are all kinds
Speaker 1: of like new things that you can buy to keep
Speaker 1: you from using your phone. Oh wow, yeah, and I
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess they charge it.
Speaker 5: While that's a great example of complexity bias.
Speaker 3: I have a problem, buy something to solve the problem.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my gosh, yes, so, but sometimes we do
Speaker 1: need to create some barriers. We don't need to pay
Speaker 1: for those barriers, but putting the phone away and it
Speaker 1: just it keeps you from consuming less and it can
Speaker 1: make you more grateful. Like I think that is one
Speaker 1: thing that has helped me kind of be more intentionable
Speaker 1: at being on my phone less. As I've started this
Speaker 1: five year journal, and every day I will write it's
Speaker 1: literally three lines for the day, something that happened with
Speaker 1: me or Travis or the kids. And there's five sections
Speaker 1: on each page. So once you finish a year, you
Speaker 1: go back to page one and you can see what
Speaker 1: happened a year ago, and you add another three lines,
Speaker 1: and so like you can do the same as a
Speaker 1: gratitude journal to replace some of that scrolling in that
Speaker 1: comparison as being the thief of joy, you can instead
Speaker 1: choose to be grateful instead choose in contentment.
Speaker 5: Which I don't think we have to totally reemphasize how
Speaker 5: that helps your finances, but I'm going to it's going
Speaker 5: to keep you from spending scrolling and spending which we
Speaker 5: know inevitably ends up happening, especially if you're feeling bored
Speaker 5: and you want that little rush of something and gratitude,
Speaker 5: like you're saying, Jen is it does lead to contentment,
Speaker 5: which is going to lead to less spending looking to
Speaker 5: buy something to solve a problem or meet a need.
Speaker 5: We can become more creative when we kind of free
Speaker 5: up our space and our minds for that. The next
Speaker 5: thing on the list is to simplify lifestyle practices. So
Speaker 5: this is really related to routines and habits. What can
Speaker 5: we be doing and implementing that helps to make things
Speaker 5: almost second nature automated. I know we're going to talk
Speaker 5: about automation a little bit more later on, but looking
Speaker 5: at ways that we can make something into a rhythm,
Speaker 5: something that regularly happens that we hardly have to think about.
Speaker 5: So for those of us who are really struggling with
Speaker 5: simplifying the daily decisions and routines, this is awesome. We
Speaker 5: already all have habits. This is just an opportunity to
Speaker 5: look at the habits and are they benefiting us or
Speaker 5: is their room to shift them? Can we recreate some
Speaker 5: habits or replace some habits, interrupt some of those Q
Speaker 5: craving reward cycles with the things that we actually want
Speaker 5: to be implementing, Like if meal planning is something you
Speaker 5: really want to be trying to do, putting that into
Speaker 5: your routine, allowing it to almost become this habit that's
Speaker 5: happening for you. For me, this is something I do
Speaker 5: every other Sunday and it's just become a part of
Speaker 5: my regularly scheduled activities throughout the month that now I've
Speaker 5: come to just not even think about. It doesn't feel
Speaker 5: like a burden. It doesn't feel like I've got a
Speaker 5: how do I carve out time for this. I already
Speaker 5: know it's kind of merely set in stone that this
Speaker 5: is what I'm going to do and this is how
Speaker 5: I'm going to do it. That it takes time, but
Speaker 5: I think identifying where you already want to shift things
Speaker 5: like if you're going to be choosing to spend less
Speaker 5: time scrolling or watching TV, then a great thing to
Speaker 5: replace it with is this planning what you're going to eat,
Speaker 5: looking at recipes that feel inspiring. That's a very fun
Speaker 5: productive thing to be scrolling through. Is food love that
Speaker 5: we love that option.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: They also mention getting back to some of the basics
Speaker 5: of lifestyle, so maybe making your own types of products.
Speaker 5: They're talking about kind of the cost of convenience. Some
Speaker 5: we do pay more for convenience, and sometimes it's worth it.
Speaker 5: I know gen you by pre chopped veggies frozen, and
Speaker 5: that's necessary and actually can be not super expensive. But
Speaker 5: when we are buying convenience items just because it's our habit,
Speaker 5: it's what we do, but then it's not only costing
Speaker 5: us more, but we're producing so much more waste and
Speaker 5: it's not good for us, not good for the environment.
Speaker 5: Are there ways that we can look at to really
Speaker 5: just simplify the lifestyle. Are we willing to make some
Speaker 5: of our own cleaning products? Do we have to have
Speaker 5: ten things under the sink? Or would two products work
Speaker 5: just fine? Do we need all of the new cleaning
Speaker 5: gadgets and kitchen appliances or do what we have work
Speaker 5: and it's then less to clean and maintain.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is where the daily decisions and all of
Speaker 1: that can feel overwhelming because we've gone through life not
Speaker 1: knowing one hundred percent of what to do in every situation.
Speaker 1: So we accumulate solutions thinking that the next thing I
Speaker 1: consume will definitely solve my problem and be the answer
Speaker 1: that I've been looking for, And that is how we
Speaker 1: end up with ten different eyeshadows, ten different lipsticks, ten
Speaker 1: different skin care products, ten different cleaning products under the sink,
Speaker 1: and then the actual practice of these things becomes overwhelming.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't want to have to choose between
Speaker 1: these ten cleaning products to figure out how to clean
Speaker 1: this one thing. I'm just not going to do it,
Speaker 1: and then it builds up and becomes a real problem.
Speaker 1: So when we can simplify our our lifestyle practice and
Speaker 1: our view of lifestyle practice again, keeping that mindset that
Speaker 1: another thing will probably not solve the problem, what can
Speaker 1: I take away to solve the.
Speaker 5: Problem, especially if the problem isn't a problem for you.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm thinking air fryer and instant pots.
Speaker 3: And rice cookers.
Speaker 5: If you don't already have an issue with cooking your rice,
Speaker 5: then you don't need a rice cooker just because everybody
Speaker 5: says that they love it. If you don't currently have
Speaker 5: a problem heating up your chicken nuggies in the toaster
Speaker 5: of it you have, then you don't need to have
Speaker 5: an air fryer just because everyone's raving about it.
Speaker 3: I think that's a thing too, Like.
Speaker 5: People have talked me into products because it solved a
Speaker 5: problem for them, But I don't have the problem.
Speaker 3: So I don't need the solution.
Speaker 1: Ninja creamy I've been seeing everywhere. If you don't currently
Speaker 1: have a problem making your own ice cream, you don't
Speaker 1: need to buy a ninja creamy. It's like, I'm making
Speaker 1: my own ice cream all the time, and it's so arduous.
Speaker 1: This ninja creamy could really be a solution for you.
Speaker 1: But if that is not a problem you already have, Yeah,
Speaker 1: then don't create a solution for somebody else's problem.
Speaker 3: Don't purchase that.
Speaker 5: Just so much space it's gonna take up for something
Speaker 5: you might do once a month.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the same like these glass containers for meal prep, Like,
Speaker 1: you don't need to buy the circular ones if you
Speaker 1: already have rectangular ones, and vice versa. It's yeah, we're
Speaker 1: buying solutions that other to other people's problems so frequently,
Speaker 1: and it's just it makes our lifestyle so complex.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The next one on here is downsize to upsize your
Speaker 1: sense of freedom. Uh so this one might be a
Speaker 1: little controversial, I don't know. So do your possessions possess you?
Speaker 1: Large homes and lawns need constant upkeep from cleaning to maintenance.
Speaker 1: Expensive cars need recurring repairs that are often more expensive.
Speaker 1: So what are the things around you that you could
Speaker 1: downsize to increase your sense of freedom. And so this
Speaker 1: is mostly like I don't think a lot of us
Speaker 1: are driving luxury cars that are in that category, but
Speaker 1: I think that can include home buying the homes that
Speaker 1: we live in. And so this does not mean that
Speaker 1: you need to downsize your home, but it can mean
Speaker 1: that you are intentional about how you upgrade it, the
Speaker 1: way you style it, the lawn care that you choose,
Speaker 1: like the plants that you choose to put in your
Speaker 1: lawn care, all of these things, and maybe it does
Speaker 1: mean that you get rid of it. I was listening
Speaker 1: to Jeanette McCurdy's memoir and it was so good. And
Speaker 1: she bought a home because that's what you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do when you have money, you invest in a home.
Speaker 1: And she got a really good deal on the on
Speaker 1: the house. This I watched her in an extra interview
Speaker 1: with Graham Steven. But for the three years that she
Speaker 1: owned it, it was constantly something was breaking, Like she
Speaker 1: just she got a lemon of a house, Like she
Speaker 1: bought something that was completely turn key, completely furnaced. She
Speaker 1: even bought the furnishings with it because she wanted to
Speaker 1: do nothing, and the bathroom ended up flooding in the
Speaker 1: first month or a couple of weeks, flooding the furniture
Speaker 1: she just bought. So she had to get rid of
Speaker 1: the furnishings and replumb the whole house. And just for
Speaker 1: three years she had a contractor like at her house,
Speaker 1: like doing something or other to it. And finally she
Speaker 1: was like, you know what's going to solve my problem.
Speaker 1: You know it's gonna make me love this house. An
Speaker 1: interior decorator decorating the house. Once the house is decorated,
Speaker 1: then I will love it. And her therapist was like,
Speaker 1: why don't you just sell the house, and she's like, nope,
Speaker 1: the house is a good investment. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I want to love it and so I'm going
Speaker 1: to decorate it. And she has a meeting with this
Speaker 1: interior decorator who loves animal print and if like by
Speaker 1: the time you get to this part in the book,
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm sorry if you haven't read it, but
Speaker 1: it's not a big spoiler. She's not an animal print girly.
Speaker 1: And the first animal print sofa shows up at her
Speaker 1: house and she calls the interior decorator and she's like,
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to sell the house, And so
Speaker 1: it's just again another like how and now she lives
Speaker 1: in an apartment. Now she rents an apartment, you know,
Speaker 1: And so it's like, what are those things on a
Speaker 1: smaller scale in our lives that we're trying to add
Speaker 1: to to solve that we really need to.
Speaker 5: Down I think everything can be looked at. I think
Speaker 5: how complicated our meal plans can be. Just paring it down.
Speaker 5: What are a couple of meals you can put on
Speaker 5: rotate every other week that use ingredients? What can you
Speaker 5: be doing with your kitchen gadgets, like we've already talked about,
Speaker 5: can we just cook simply so we don't need to
Speaker 5: even be using five different types of appliances to make
Speaker 5: one meal?
Speaker 1: Or maybe complicated Mabe it is with your car, maybe
Speaker 1: you don't need the suv. Maybe you could do with
Speaker 1: the sedan, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Eric and I this does not work for all people,
Speaker 5: but we downsize to just one vehicle, and we've been
Speaker 5: able to make that work for five years.
Speaker 3: Now almost something like that. So I think all of
Speaker 3: it can be looked at.
Speaker 1: It can all be looked at, It can't all be done.
Speaker 5: Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, But I'm just saying, on any level,
Speaker 5: from the way you eat to how you drive to
Speaker 5: where you live, I think you identify what feels the
Speaker 5: most complicated and see what if you get creative. The
Speaker 5: next one on here is stop buying into fashion trends.
Speaker 5: This one we don't need to say much about. It's
Speaker 5: pretty obvious how it will eventually help our wallets as
Speaker 5: well as helping our stress levels, because we know that
Speaker 5: decision fatigue, feeling overwhelmed are big, big things that steal
Speaker 5: from our ability to make the important decisions that we
Speaker 5: need to make. So if you're feeling overwhelmed just getting
Speaker 5: dressed in the morning or doing all of your laundry,
Speaker 5: and that's what's keeping you from meal planning, and actually
Speaker 5: meal planning is more important than clean out the closet.
Speaker 5: But also beware of how buying cheap clothing can cause
Speaker 5: you to feel like fill up your closet because it's
Speaker 5: so much less expensive. We just talked about this in
Speaker 5: one of our previous episodes, just a story of someone
Speaker 5: who stopped buying clothing, and one of the realizations that
Speaker 5: I loved out of this one was that by buying
Speaker 5: so much inexpensive clothing, whether on the clearance rack or
Speaker 5: even at a thrift store. She wasn't getting the things
Speaker 5: that actually fit her, so she never felt good about
Speaker 5: what she was wearing, which never felt good about herself,
Speaker 5: and then felt like she wasn't valuing herself and had
Speaker 5: a closet full of things she never wore. And I
Speaker 5: think there's so much to be said for the money
Speaker 5: we can be saving. If we are willing to invest
Speaker 5: in a couple pieces staple pieces for our wardrobe that
Speaker 5: we feel really good in that's good quality, made ethically
Speaker 5: and will last us for years, will save us far
Speaker 5: more in not just the decisions on what to wear
Speaker 5: we need to make daily, but how much we're buying regularly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean the same can go for furniture,
Speaker 1: which is also on this list Furniture trends. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: like those egg chairs that look really cute in pictures,
Speaker 1: but everybody I've ever heard who's bought one, they're the
Speaker 1: most uncomfortable things to sit in reality, and they only
Speaker 1: use them for pictures. Like buying multipurpose like multi use
Speaker 1: furniture too, that's gonna last, And that is not just
Speaker 1: on trend.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then the last one for me is to
Speaker 1: automate as much as possible. And this kind of goes
Speaker 1: without saying automating our bills, automating our anything in our
Speaker 1: schedule that can be automated. So for me, that looks
Speaker 1: like adding things to a calendar, blocking things out if
Speaker 1: it doesn't If it's not in the calendar, it does
Speaker 1: not exist. It's a rule. It's a rule. The less
Speaker 1: mental energy I have to expend to remember things and
Speaker 1: to keep telling my spouse these things we share a calendar.
Speaker 1: If it's not in the calendar, does not exist. And
Speaker 1: like keeping appointments that are recurring, keeping those like automating
Speaker 1: those showing up in the calendar outside of your bills,
Speaker 1: automating as much as possible.
Speaker 5: And again that does tie into habits. How can you
Speaker 5: almost put yourself on automation with some of these things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so not every routine can become a habit. But
Speaker 1: when we're intentional about creating routines, like a meal planning routine,
Speaker 1: the meal planning itself will not become a habit because
Speaker 1: that is a thing that requires intentional thought. But sitting
Speaker 1: down and taking out the special meal planning paper or
Speaker 1: whiteboard that can become a habit and that's all you need.
Speaker 1: You just need to automate that first action of a
Speaker 1: routine to make that a habit, and then you can
Speaker 1: do the routine.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and again, all of this simplification is going to
Speaker 5: help create space for us to breathe, which will help
Speaker 5: us make better decisions. Over Arching with our finance is
Speaker 5: it will help lead to contentment for us as we
Speaker 5: learn to practice gratitude within the midst of our simplification,
Speaker 5: are not responding to every want and desire as it
Speaker 5: comes up or impulse that we have to spend. Is
Speaker 5: going to keep us from spending on the unnecessary things
Speaker 5: and helping us know when we do want to spend
Speaker 5: on something because it actually is aligning with our values.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what else is really simple and is
Speaker 1: truly a habit. The initial yes on set is a habit,
Speaker 1: but it's super intentional.
Speaker 3: Beyond that, the bill of the.
Speaker 6: Week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of
Speaker 6: your entire week. Maybe a baby was.
Speaker 3: Born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 6: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died
Speaker 6: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill
Speaker 6: anymore suck bill, butflow bills bill clean.
Speaker 2: This is the bill up the week.
Speaker 3: Aden and Jill.
Speaker 7: I am back with an update on the Pro Sports
Speaker 7: Fan get away. I do not recommend. The game was
Speaker 7: not fun, but the vacation was, so that was good.
Speaker 7: But I'm calling with another bill because recently there was
Speaker 7: a windstorm in our area and my neighbor's tree, fifty
Speaker 7: foot tree, crashed into our yard and demolished my kids
Speaker 7: play set and smashed the fence and our entire patio
Speaker 7: furniture sets. It did miss our house by about ten feet,
Speaker 7: which is great because had it not, it would have
Speaker 7: landed right on my daughter's bedroom. So that was definitely good.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so we were pretty stressed out about all
Speaker 4: these bills that we have come in our way, and
Speaker 4: we actually just found out out from our insurance company
Speaker 4: that we're going to be getting about twenty thousand dollars,
Speaker 4: which is amazing, and we're.
Speaker 7: Actually gonna be able to pay off this Pro sports
Speaker 7: fan get away.
Speaker 4: So you know, it all works out, but I'm really
Speaker 4: hoping this is the last bill that I send you.
Speaker 4: You know, other people are getting free coffees and discounts.
Speaker 4: On stuff, and we've got kids swallow and screws and
Speaker 4: husbands winning vacations I don't want, and trees crashing into
Speaker 4: our yard. But yeah, it is what it is. I
Speaker 4: hope you guys have a great day. Hopefully I will
Speaker 4: not talk to you soon. Okay, bye.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, we've been on this journey with you
Speaker 1: for so long, and this pro sports getaway, I am
Speaker 1: so sappy. Was everything you expected.
Speaker 3: I mean, we all could have told each other.
Speaker 1: That, yeah, we're sad to hear that we were all right.
Speaker 1: But oh man, yeah, as somebody who has had a
Speaker 1: fifty foot tree fall on their house, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that it missed you. Uh and uh that yeah, that
Speaker 1: you're that you're getting some help for that.
Speaker 5: I mean that is nice that insurance can cover some
Speaker 5: of these expenses. But it still is such a headache
Speaker 5: to deal with these things. But glad it's happening. Glad
Speaker 5: it missed your daughter's bedroom. And I can commiserate with
Speaker 5: the feeling of other people are getting all this good
Speaker 5: stuff and I'm just over here trying to survive.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to survive.
Speaker 5: Man. Some days we're not thriving, we're just surviving.
Speaker 3: We're with you.
Speaker 1: Ry Yesterday I did get ten cents off of my
Speaker 1: treat latte.
Speaker 5: Whoa yeah, and I'm I'm definitely a person who if
Speaker 5: I see ten cents on the ground, pick up that dime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we love a dime.
Speaker 3: Dime pieces for dime pieces.
Speaker 5: If you all want to submit your bill about getting
Speaker 5: deals or the free coffees, or if you're over here
Speaker 5: on the struggle bus with a lot of us and
Speaker 5: just trying to get by and pay your bills, visit
Speaker 5: Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill.
Speaker 3: We're ready for it, and now it's time for light,
Speaker 3: all right?
Speaker 1: What aspect of your daily routine seems unnecessarily complicated, Jill?
Speaker 5: I have worked, in some ways tirelessly to make my
Speaker 5: life as efficient as possible, however.
Speaker 3: Exhausting, and I'm so tired.
Speaker 5: I value a clean house, but yet I find myself
Speaker 5: then just cleaning incessantly, constantly, just responding to something I
Speaker 5: see in front of me that needs to be clean.
Speaker 5: And it wasn't until this past month that Eric and
Speaker 5: I decided we're going to get a handle on this thing.
Speaker 5: So it doesn't feel like I've got a clean every
Speaker 5: evening and weekend sidebar. I did tell Eric when we
Speaker 5: were in the thick of our renovations, which did last
Speaker 5: every bit of three years, he did a lot of
Speaker 5: the very hard work everything plumbing, electrical building structures, roofing,
Speaker 5: studding out walls, flooring, jackhammering pipes into the ground, everything,
Speaker 5: And I told him that my thank you to him
Speaker 5: was that he, when this is done, doesn't ever have
Speaker 5: to worry about a single thing with the house again,
Speaker 5: like no maintenance stuff, like I will clean, I will
Speaker 5: handle cooking, Like just thank you that what you are
Speaker 5: providing to us in value is amazing. And that promise
Speaker 5: to him has lasted one year. We are one year
Speaker 5: into that.
Speaker 3: And I did well.
Speaker 5: But now I am at the point where it's like,
Speaker 5: all right, like I'm ready for us to share this responsibility,
Speaker 5: and he's ready to he's not. It's not as if
Speaker 5: he's not doing anything. And I have a little bit
Speaker 5: more time than he does to be able to clean
Speaker 5: in the early evening. So but he's like, let's do this.
Speaker 5: Let's figure out how we can make this just more
Speaker 5: simplified and automated and routined and efficient. So this is
Speaker 5: our solution to figure out how often do we really
Speaker 5: think that laundry needs to be done and the floors
Speaker 5: need to be washed and bathrooms need to be cleaned?
Speaker 5: Because I couldn't have told you before, Like I was
Speaker 5: just kind of here, I am cleaning the toilet again,
Speaker 5: all right. Now I'm scrubbing the floors, and I don't
Speaker 5: know how often I did it, but now I know, Okay,
Speaker 5: I only want to clean the shower once a month.
Speaker 5: I want to mop the floors twice a month. And
Speaker 5: now I see a dirty floor and it really is working.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, the.
Speaker 5: Floor is dirt dirty, and I'm going to get to
Speaker 5: it this weekend because it only needs to be cleaned
Speaker 5: every other week.
Speaker 3: That's fine, That's good.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I feel freedom honestly in it. It does feel
Speaker 5: like it's taking up less mental space because I know
Speaker 5: it's scheduled. Yeah, it's going to happen the day that
Speaker 5: we said that we will do it, and yet not
Speaker 5: no day. It feels too overwhelming.
Speaker 1: That is such a good example of simplifying routines and
Speaker 1: daily decisions is to write down when you're going to
Speaker 1: get to them, yeah is and then once it's defined
Speaker 1: once you've defined enough, like how many times the floor
Speaker 1: needs to be mopped?
Speaker 3: Oh, I define my enough.
Speaker 1: And then you know if you don't define it, nothing
Speaker 1: is ever enough and it becomes overwhelming.
Speaker 5: I would get stressed about needing to wash my sheets
Speaker 5: because that's something I often forget to do, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: when was even the last time I washed my sheets?
Speaker 5: And now I know I have it on a rhythm.
Speaker 5: I know that I washed my sheets two weeks ago.
Speaker 5: We're good, yeah, or it's.
Speaker 3: Time to wash me.
Speaker 1: I washed them six weeks ago.
Speaker 5: I just feel so much more informed. I can make
Speaker 5: informed decisions.
Speaker 3: That's awesome. What about you?
Speaker 1: It ain't clean and I don't clean my house?
Speaker 3: Does your house can't be cleaned yet?
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that it is cleaned. It it's not
Speaker 1: cleaned for me. It's feeding my family. Gosh, why okay?
Speaker 1: And like half of it is I don't know what
Speaker 1: my child is gonna want to eat or will eat,
Speaker 1: Like I just don't know on one day. Okay, here's
Speaker 1: a great example. Oh this is so out. Okay, So
Speaker 1: since we don't have a countertop, we're still like we
Speaker 1: just got all our cabinets in. I have been buying
Speaker 1: uncrustables for Kai's lunches, like as a treat, but also
Speaker 1: just to save me time yep, efficiency for now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was buying them at Walmart, the grape ones,
Speaker 1: and then I just decided. I was like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: almost done. I'm just gonna get this big box at
Speaker 1: Sam's Club and then that'll be it. I'll go back
Speaker 1: to doing regular lunches after this box, after this economy
Speaker 1: box is done. And I'm gonna get him strawberry because
Speaker 1: they don't have strawberry at Walmart and he loves strawberries.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he likes grapes, he loves strawberries.
Speaker 1: It'll be a great treat. And so, and he is
Speaker 1: obsessed with strawberries, like he loves them. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: give him one and he's like, I don't like this.
Speaker 1: And I was like, you can't not like it.
Speaker 3: I at eighteen.
Speaker 1: There's eighteen of them. You can't not like it. And
Speaker 1: he tried it twice. He did, He did try it again. Oh,
Speaker 1: and he just legitimately has decided he doesn't like them. Oh,
Speaker 1: and now he's also decided. He's had granola bars for
Speaker 1: lunch for too long, and now we're going we're back
Speaker 1: to goldfish, which I also bought an economy box of
Speaker 1: and have just been holding on to because midway through
Speaker 1: the box he decided he was done with goldfish and
Speaker 1: he wanted granola bars. So now we're back there and
Speaker 1: life is a disaster. Yeah, but here's here's I like
Speaker 1: those a crust moods. So yeah, the silver line is
Speaker 1: that I like them and I will eat them. But
Speaker 1: I do have to make him a peanut butter and
Speaker 1: jelly in the mornings again, which is not a big deal,
Speaker 1: but I thought I was getting out of it for
Speaker 1: a couple more weeks. So that that's just like one
Speaker 1: example of how feeding my family is so complex.
Speaker 3: I can what can I do?
Speaker 5: I feel for you in that, I think, I.
Speaker 3: Feel what can I do? Yes, I have so many feelings.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because you are trying to keep up with a
Speaker 5: small human who is ever growing and changing.
Speaker 3: So that's a tough one.
Speaker 5: I think the solution for you and someone like you
Speaker 5: is uncomplicating everything else. I think figuring out how to
Speaker 5: feed your family is the priority, and how to find
Speaker 5: space for mental energy when this no longer is meeting
Speaker 5: his need and I need to have the mental energy
Speaker 5: to figure out what will feed his dietary and taste
Speaker 5: bud needs. Like that is the priority. What's taking it
Speaker 5: up is the renovation.
Speaker 1: Renovation in the book. Yeah, like the crystables were the solution,
Speaker 1: they were the simplification and then but now they're my simplification,
Speaker 1: very good snack, and I can't just impulse eat them
Speaker 1: because they're frozen, so I have to let it thaw
Speaker 1: for an hour, so I have to really want the patients.
Speaker 3: It's helping build patients.
Speaker 1: It is, so it's unnecessarily complicated.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think when you come across those things that
Speaker 5: are kind of ever present and constant it is looking at,
Speaker 5: are there other things I can simplify so this doesn't
Speaker 5: feel so overwhelming? Thanks everyone for listening. We love your
Speaker 5: reviews too, like this one from McKean two. It says
Speaker 5: informative and makes me giggle. Great podcast which has made
Speaker 5: me think differently about my spending habits and more thoughtful
Speaker 5: in my spending. The girls are great, fun to listen
Speaker 5: to and I've definitely saved money saved money from their tips,
Speaker 5: tricks and wisdom.
Speaker 3: Thanks Jen and Jills. The girls are great fun.
Speaker 1: We are great fun.
Speaker 5: It sounds like a stamp of approval that would go
Speaker 5: on in a serial box or something.
Speaker 3: The marshmallows are great fun.
Speaker 1: I'll over have great fun with us. I'll bring the uncrustables.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, and leave us a review. Yes please.
Speaker 1: They make us feel better about our unnecessarily complicated lives.
Speaker 3: See you next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. I'm going to
Speaker 1: buy my countertop today though, yes, I am going to
Speaker 1: buy it to say, I'm to put the half of
Speaker 1: the money down.
Speaker 5: And hopefully it'll be installed in the next three weeks.
Speaker 1: Before my birthday. I'm hoping we'll see it'll be a
Speaker 1: great birthday, a great thirty fifth birthday gift. Countertop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be more expensive than my engagement ring, which was
Speaker 1: what Travis got me for my twenty sixth birthday.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so much has happened on your birthdays.
Speaker 1: We got a book deal for my birthday last last year.
Speaker 3: I know birthdays are so big for me, they really are. Wow.
Speaker 3: Thirty five, big three five, Big three five.
Speaker 1: You are not far behind.