Speaker 1: Episode four nineteen, How Tina overcame setbacks to pay off
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars of debt.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver life. Here your hosts
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm Jen, this is Jill, and this is debt Free
Speaker 3: Sorry Summer. Yes, welcome If you have been along with
Speaker 3: us this month, we have been sharing debt free stories
Speaker 3: every week from listeners just like you who want to
Speaker 3: celebrate their debt freedom and share their story to encourage
Speaker 3: other people paying off any type of debt on any timeline,
Speaker 3: with any lifestyle.
Speaker 4: Of ranging in ages, Yes, and family, makeup. Yes, So
Speaker 4: all the things.
Speaker 1: Today, specifically Tina. If you feel like maybe you're behind
Speaker 1: in starting your debt payoff or your age, you feel
Speaker 1: like you're maybe a little too old to get on
Speaker 1: this train, or you know you're beating yourself up for
Speaker 1: not doing this when you're younger, stop it. You're gonna
Speaker 1: love Tina's story and it's going to be so inspiring
Speaker 1: to you. And even if you're not in that place,
Speaker 1: I really think that Tina's story of paying off debt
Speaker 1: over fifteen years is much more realistic than a lot
Speaker 1: of the stories you're going to hear and read in
Speaker 1: some of these more sensational publications.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is my favorite. It's my favorite kind of summer.
Speaker 4: I love people's real life stories, the tips that we
Speaker 4: can learn from one another. Beyond what you are going
Speaker 4: to hear from experts who might have done it and
Speaker 4: built an entire platform on it. These are people who
Speaker 4: just did it. They didn't necessarily then become social media
Speaker 4: influencers out of it, And there's so many nuggets to
Speaker 4: learn from it and inspirational stories.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Capitalized did not pay for this ad. We do
Speaker 1: get a you know, commission if you do use Capitalize,
Speaker 1: But we really just believe in having control over your
Speaker 1: money and that's why we talk about them so much.
Speaker 1: And we also talk about debt freedom so much because
Speaker 1: while not a deal breaker with your financial security and
Speaker 1: your financial success, despite what some people will say, debt
Speaker 1: freedom does create not just a financial freedom, but a
Speaker 1: freedom in mental and emotional.
Speaker 5: Weight.
Speaker 1: So we we love debt freedom in whatever capacity is
Speaker 1: right for you and if you if that is something
Speaker 1: you're pursuing. That's why we did this debt Free Stories
Speaker 1: series on YouTube a year and a half ago. So
Speaker 1: if you want to see the video, I'm super pregnant
Speaker 1: for some of those videos. We have this these pink
Speaker 1: streamers behind us, which are were They were such a choice.
Speaker 4: Obnoxious and beautiful and.
Speaker 1: Uh so we quickly took them down, but their remnants
Speaker 1: are still there. But yeah, so we're replaying. We'll have
Speaker 1: an update from Tina at the end of the episode,
Speaker 1: but let's get into it.
Speaker 4: And we have a really great inspirational story, but real
Speaker 4: life experience for you, talking about another debt free journey.
Speaker 4: This one comes from Tina, and let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Yes, Tina, thank you so much for joining us and
Speaker 1: giving us the opportunity to share your story.
Speaker 5: Thanks Jen, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 4: So tell us a little bit about you, Tina. Who
Speaker 4: are you? What should we know?
Speaker 5: So? I am a high school guidance counselor. I have
Speaker 5: been doing that for twenty eight years and I'm also
Speaker 5: a part time financial coach that I have been doing
Speaker 5: for about eight years, a single and I have a
Speaker 5: fur baby, a cat. So yeah, I'm really passionate. I'm
Speaker 5: very lucky that I have two jobs that I really
Speaker 5: really love helping two different sets of people. Awesome.
Speaker 1: So what kind of inspired the financial coaching part of
Speaker 1: your life?
Speaker 5: My story? I guess of trying to get out of
Speaker 5: debt and you know, just being so done with that
Speaker 5: rollercoaster of I call it the credit card roulette, and
Speaker 5: you know, just kind of having credit cards and using
Speaker 5: credit cards to pay off other credit cards, and just
Speaker 5: feeling completely overwhelmed with it and stressed out and not
Speaker 5: really having anybody to talk to about it, and feeling
Speaker 5: embarrassed and ashamed. And I just didn't want to be
Speaker 5: in debt anymore, you know, back in the two thousand
Speaker 5: and seven eight crisis that we went through, and so
Speaker 5: many people lost their homes and they lost so much,
Speaker 5: and I just wanted to be able to be a
Speaker 5: safe haven. And I knew I couldn't do that if
Speaker 5: I had my own debt, So I buckled down and
Speaker 5: just decided to make it my mission to become debt
Speaker 5: free and when I finally did it, I was like,
Speaker 5: oh my gosh, this is amazing. It's so freeing to
Speaker 5: not be a slave to that debt. And so then
Speaker 5: I decided I'm going to try to help other people,
Speaker 5: you know, are that are feeling that shame and embarrassment
Speaker 5: and the loneness that I used to feel, and help
Speaker 5: them know. If I can do it as a recovering chapaholic,
Speaker 5: then anybody can do it. It's not easy, and I
Speaker 5: tell people it's not easy, but it can be done.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So can you describe a little bit more about
Speaker 4: your debt? How much was it, what was it comprised of?
Speaker 4: How long did it did it take you to pay
Speaker 4: it off?
Speaker 5: So, you know, like most people, my debt revolved. So
Speaker 5: you know, I'd get I'd pay off some debt, and
Speaker 5: then I'd add more, and then I'd pay it off
Speaker 5: and then I'd add more. So it evolved. I think
Speaker 5: at the highest point it was probably over one hundred
Speaker 5: and seventy five thousand when I first started, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of paying off my debt and kind of debts
Speaker 5: snowballing it so to speak. I was probably making around
Speaker 5: forty thousand in my position. This was back probably about
Speaker 5: ten years ago when I finally got really serious about
Speaker 5: it and I still had fun, you know, I really
Speaker 5: it still took me a few years before I really
Speaker 5: really got serious about it and started doing some different
Speaker 5: strategies to make it go faster, because I just started
Speaker 5: getting at the point where I was like, this isn't
Speaker 5: going fast enough. I want to be out of debt now,
Speaker 5: you know, And then it would get frustrating because it
Speaker 5: just wasn't happening fast enough. So I started doing some
Speaker 5: different kinds of things that would help me make it
Speaker 5: go faster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I know you included your mortgage in that number.
Speaker 1: So what was your just consumer debt that you paid off?
Speaker 5: So mortgage debt was initially just over one hundred thousand,
Speaker 5: and then student loan debt was about thirty thousand. Like
Speaker 5: I said, I had around twenty to twenty five thousand
Speaker 5: dollars in credit card debt, and then my auto loans
Speaker 5: were usually around forty thousand because I always liked to
Speaker 5: buy brand new.
Speaker 4: Is that something that you've kept or you've changed related
Speaker 4: to needing a new car.
Speaker 5: Well, honestly, my vehicle i've had, it's a two thousand
Speaker 5: and nine. So I have had it for thirteen years. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so I haven't had to make that decision yet, and
Speaker 5: I have been saving to hopefully be able to pay
Speaker 5: cash for my next one in the next year or two. Awesome.
Speaker 1: So how long did it take you to pay off
Speaker 1: your non mortgage debt and then how long did it
Speaker 1: take you to pay off everything in total?
Speaker 5: It took me about ten years to pay off the
Speaker 5: non mortgage debt and then another five years to pay
Speaker 5: off my mortgage.
Speaker 4: Oh that's such a refreshing and realistic time frame to
Speaker 4: hear about. What was the propelling factor for you that
Speaker 4: led you to pay off all of your debt. I
Speaker 4: know a lot of people will pay off consumer debt
Speaker 4: and kind of stop there and just keep making their
Speaker 4: mortgage payment. What was it that led you to decide
Speaker 4: to pay it all off?
Speaker 5: I just didn't want to be I just didn't want
Speaker 5: to be in debt. I just wanted that, you know,
Speaker 5: to be debt free. You know, you know how some
Speaker 5: people just are like, I want to be a millionaire,
Speaker 5: or I want to do this. I wanted to be
Speaker 5: debt free, and I think part of it is I
Speaker 5: just wanted to be able to invest and save and give,
Speaker 5: and I didn't feel like I could do that when
Speaker 5: I had that debt hanging over my head because my
Speaker 5: money was going to it was going to creditors, and
Speaker 5: instead of going it to creditors, I wanted it to
Speaker 5: be able to go to charitable organizations that I was
Speaker 5: interested in. Oh that's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And you didn't go super hard. A lot of times
Speaker 1: when people want to be debt free, they will go
Speaker 1: super hard, but you really couldn't do that because you
Speaker 1: were paying this off for upwards of ten years, ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen years. So what what was your mindset? How
Speaker 1: did you go about having this debt free desire and
Speaker 1: pursuing that for ten fifteen years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would say the last five years I was
Speaker 5: super super motivated, but the ten years prior to that,
Speaker 5: I still wanted to kind of spend. I must spend
Speaker 5: a holic. I tell people I'm a recovering shopaholic. I
Speaker 5: love spending money. So to see it just like sitting
Speaker 5: in a savings account, was always really hard for me.
Speaker 5: I mean, what good is money sitting in a savings account.
Speaker 5: It's made to be spent, and that's where a lot
Speaker 5: of my underlying problem came from. But I came to
Speaker 5: realize that there was a bigger picture with you know,
Speaker 5: being able to give and save and invest. So as
Speaker 5: I was slowly walking through my debt, my debt freedom
Speaker 5: you know, and spending money and you know, kind of
Speaker 5: like I said, you know, during that time, I bought
Speaker 5: a brand new, forty thousand dollars car, which had I
Speaker 5: been you know, really serious, I would have bought a
Speaker 5: used car. But I didn't, you know. But the last
Speaker 5: five years of that journey is when I was really focused.
Speaker 5: I only had my mortgage and that was the last thing.
Speaker 5: And I figured, you out, what it took me ten
Speaker 5: years to pay off everything else. I'm done. I'm gonna
Speaker 5: get the stinking mortgage paid off. And I know some
Speaker 5: people are like paying off a mortgage that hurts, you know,
Speaker 5: you don't get your when you file your taxes, you
Speaker 5: don't get your detections and stuff like that. But I
Speaker 5: didn't care. I just wanted to be done with it.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's so relatable for so many just that
Speaker 4: emotional weight of the mortgage. But what I'm hearing you
Speaker 4: say is that you can accomplish this without doing everything perfectly.
Speaker 4: Is that accurate?
Speaker 5: Yes, you just have to be okay with it taking
Speaker 5: a little bit longer. And I was okay with that
Speaker 5: for a while.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about your income. I
Speaker 1: know you said you started at forty thousand, hopefully over
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years that increased. What were you making by
Speaker 1: the time you finished paying off your debt?
Speaker 5: I was making around seventy five by the time I
Speaker 5: finally got debt free.
Speaker 4: That's great. And how did you go about increasing your
Speaker 4: income over that span of time?
Speaker 5: So at my at school system that I work at, well,
Speaker 5: one of the things that helped was I got my
Speaker 5: master's degree, and so in the school system, if you
Speaker 5: get your master's degree, you get an automatic bump and
Speaker 5: pay and then you get increment annual adjustments also primarily
Speaker 5: and then my coaching income also when I finally started
Speaker 5: doing that, but that was toward the end of the
Speaker 5: whole debt payment thing.
Speaker 1: Nice and any inheritances, tax refunds, lump sums that helped
Speaker 1: you chip away at it faster.
Speaker 5: Nice.
Speaker 1: So good old fashioned hard work.
Speaker 5: Wow. And it was it was honestly making intentional choices
Speaker 5: and choosing Okay, I am not going to spend my
Speaker 5: money on this vacation this year, or I don't need
Speaker 5: any more dink and clothes. I have enough clothes in
Speaker 5: my closet, you know. So it was just making some
Speaker 5: intentional choices and having a plan and saying, Okay, I
Speaker 5: want to have this amount paid off by the end
Speaker 5: of this year, and just you know what they call
Speaker 5: debt snowballing it and just putting any excess money I
Speaker 5: had toward that debt. And that was really hard sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yes, So let's talk about the benefits that you've experienced
Speaker 4: from taking so long. I know a lot of people
Speaker 4: can pay debt off really quickly. You've got a really
Speaker 4: reasonable timeline fifteen years with the mortgage included, and we
Speaker 4: have to imagine that there's a lot of impact of
Speaker 4: what you developed in those fifteen years that you're now
Speaker 4: bringing into debt freedom. What would you say about that.
Speaker 4: What are some of the lessons that you learned in
Speaker 4: that journey that you're now carrying with you at this stage.
Speaker 5: You know, I realized that I'm a strong woman. You know.
Speaker 5: It took a lot of strength to make that happen.
Speaker 5: And even in the times when I didn't think that
Speaker 5: I you know, I questioned myself. Other people around me questioned,
Speaker 5: you know, why I was wanting to be debt free
Speaker 5: and why that was so important to me. I stayed
Speaker 5: true to my goals and I still try to do
Speaker 5: that now. Is is create those goals and try to
Speaker 5: stay true to them.
Speaker 4: Gosh?
Speaker 5: What else? Consistency I think is another one. And patience,
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, just staying patient and knowing that you know,
Speaker 5: you can have balance and just do things in your
Speaker 5: timing and it's okay, you're not doing anything to satisfy
Speaker 5: somebody else's timeline. You get to do it on your
Speaker 5: own terms.
Speaker 1: Well, that kind of leads into my next question. What
Speaker 1: would you say to someone who is where you were
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years ago, who considers themselves a chopoholic or
Speaker 1: just thinks spending money is fun and I don't think
Speaker 1: I can pursue this lifestyle because it's going to take
Speaker 1: me ten fifteen years and I don't want to stop
Speaker 1: having fun for that long.
Speaker 5: What would you tell them? I would challenge them to
Speaker 5: figure out why spending is important to them. What is
Speaker 5: it that they get out of spending? Obviously most of us,
Speaker 5: of course, if we love spending. We get that endorphin excitement,
Speaker 5: you know, of spending money. But I know, for me,
Speaker 5: when I really sat down and took a hard look
Speaker 5: at why am I spending so much money? Why is
Speaker 5: that important to me? I was spending out of boredom.
Speaker 5: I was spending because I didn't have anything better to do.
Speaker 5: And I was spending because I wanted I wanted compliments
Speaker 5: from people. You know. I bought a brand new car
Speaker 5: because I wanted to people go, ooh ah, You've got
Speaker 5: such a great car. You know. I bought new outfits
Speaker 5: because I wanted people to compliment me on my outfits.
Speaker 5: I was bored on Saturday mornings, so I would just shop.
Speaker 5: Even if I didn't need anything, I would go and
Speaker 5: buy because it made me feel good. So I had
Speaker 5: to go and find other things that made me feel
Speaker 5: good that didn't involve spending money, like walking and reading.
Speaker 5: And finally, you know what, it was so interesting because
Speaker 5: once I started saving money, that became my excitement versus
Speaker 5: spending it. But that's so hard when you're in that
Speaker 5: spending mentality to think differently, and it's just a matter of,
Speaker 5: you know, kind of flipping that mindset switch. And really
Speaker 5: taking a look at why you spend and trying to
Speaker 5: figure out, you know, what is it that you really want?
Speaker 5: What are your goals and are you spending? Is your
Speaker 5: spending keeping you from attaining the true goals that you
Speaker 5: really want?
Speaker 4: Oh, that is so helpful. If we give ourselves the
Speaker 4: space to establish some of these new patterns, we can
Speaker 4: relate differently, we can shift our mindset. For you, how
Speaker 4: long do you think it took to actually really embrace
Speaker 4: that mindset shift?
Speaker 5: Honestly, it happened in about five minutes, because I walked
Speaker 5: into my closet one day and I went, I don't
Speaker 5: need any more clothes, I don't need anything else, And
Speaker 5: it was like that. That was the time that I went,
Speaker 5: I'm done and I started saving money for suspending it.
Speaker 1: And how long how far along were you in your
Speaker 1: journey when you had that five minute realization?
Speaker 5: Probably about halfway through.
Speaker 1: I think that's people are going to find that so encouraging, Tina,
Speaker 1: because there's so much you know, people writing stories on
Speaker 1: the Internet and people sharing the stories on Instagram that
Speaker 1: are all like very big and flashy and sexy. But
Speaker 1: I think it'll be encouraging to people to know, like
Speaker 1: I did it in ten years, in fifteen years, you
Speaker 1: can do it at your own pace. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be something that.
Speaker 5: People are going to write books about, Like you.
Speaker 1: Can just do it. You can just do it.
Speaker 4: And following that beautiful piece of encouragement, we are turning
Speaker 4: back to you, Tina, and we have come to the
Speaker 4: time of the show where you get to celebrate this
Speaker 4: amazing accomplishment. One hundred and seventy five thousand dollars of
Speaker 4: debt including your mortgage paid off in fifteen years starting
Speaker 4: at about forty thousand dollars a year to seventy five
Speaker 4: thousand dollars a year that you were earning. And here
Speaker 4: you are with this beautiful wisdom to share with people
Speaker 4: as a result of that journey. And so however you
Speaker 4: want to mark this time and celebrate, you go for it.
Speaker 5: So I just want to say thank you for this opportunity, John,
Speaker 5: because I've been debt free for quite a long time now,
Speaker 5: but I never publicly expressed it and never got a
Speaker 5: chance to publicly do that. So you know, I'm so
Speaker 5: excited You're giving me the opportunity to do it, and
Speaker 5: I just want to say I'm dead break.
Speaker 4: Your debt for.
Speaker 5: I got free for several years, and it's so freeing
Speaker 5: and liberating, and I want all your listeners to experience
Speaker 5: the joy of being debt free.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad we got to hear from Tina again
Speaker 1: because I think there are too many stories of people
Speaker 1: who've paid off so much debt seventy eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of debt in two years. It's just like unrealistic. It's
Speaker 1: I'm sick of hearing those stories.
Speaker 4: I'm sick of it, sick. It's like I'm sired of
Speaker 4: it people. I mean, I'm glad for that, but it
Speaker 4: feels a lot more motivational and approachable and attainable when
Speaker 4: you hear the people who did it in very real
Speaker 4: life ways that yes, this is typically how long it
Speaker 4: would take somebody to pay off that amount of debt,
Speaker 4: and yet it's possible to stick with it. We can
Speaker 4: have these long journeys that take what seems like forever
Speaker 4: but worthwhile in the end.
Speaker 1: And when she was talking about struggling with being a
Speaker 1: quote unquote shopaholic, and like, I think sometimes the words
Speaker 1: chopaholic or shopping addiction get thrown around, but I think
Speaker 1: that puts a lot of the onus on the person,
Speaker 1: when so much of overspending is not just from the person,
Speaker 1: but like this manufactured desire that marketing and advertising place
Speaker 1: on us.
Speaker 5: They say, if.
Speaker 1: You don't like who you are, you are you're right,
Speaker 1: but you can buy the solution, and I'm selling it.
Speaker 1: And so coming from kind of that place of just
Speaker 1: shopping to fill time or fill voids, and then realizing
Speaker 1: that the saving and becoming financially you know, responsible was
Speaker 1: so much more than anything that she could buy.
Speaker 4: It seems like a natural outcome of debt payoff, and
Speaker 4: that journey that people go on is self discovery. Like
Speaker 4: if gratitude is one of the things that can lead
Speaker 4: to contentment, I think journeying through debt payoff can lead
Speaker 4: to understanding yourself better. Yeah, and and a greater understanding
Speaker 4: and ability to grasp this values based spending. Like Tina
Speaker 4: describes how she loved to shop, but through this process
Speaker 4: discovered that she actually also really loved to save, and
Speaker 4: the one thing eclipsed the other. I think we can
Speaker 4: sometimes surprise ourselves these things that feel so set in
Speaker 4: stone about who we are and how we live. If
Speaker 4: given an opportunity to try something new we might discover.
Speaker 4: Actually there's something deeper and more fulfilling than I never
Speaker 4: would have thought that I would have been capable of,
Speaker 4: But I gave myself an opportunity to try it. So
Speaker 4: even just pursuing debt freedom as a self discovery process
Speaker 4: could be worthwhile.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I really do think that. In addition, in no
Speaker 1: spend challenges, just the longer process of paying off debt
Speaker 1: does give you the space to re equaint yourself with yourself.
Speaker 1: Because when you love yourself and you love who you are,
Speaker 1: you naturally buy less because you're not buy buying things
Speaker 1: to improve things that don't need to be improved. You're
Speaker 1: not buying things to have a life that looks more
Speaker 1: like somebody else is whose life you think is better.
Speaker 1: Like when you love yourself, you love your life, and
Speaker 1: you are content with those things, you buy less. There's
Speaker 1: no sale that can save you as much money as
Speaker 1: loving yourself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then it can give you opportunities to find
Speaker 4: new streams of income. If that's a part for some people.
Speaker 4: That is, for some people it isn't a part of
Speaker 4: their debt payoff journey. But where it is again, that's
Speaker 4: another piece of self discovery. You could build skill sets
Speaker 4: to find new career paths, kind of open up a
Speaker 4: world where you might have previously thought, ah, I'm just
Speaker 4: in this field. There's no real upper trajectory for me.
Speaker 4: This is what it's going to look like for the
Speaker 4: rest of my life. But to find new types of
Speaker 4: work that are enjoyable and maybe even remain in tact
Speaker 4: beyond debt freedom that then opens the doors to who
Speaker 4: else knows other financial goals, retirement beyond what you maybe
Speaker 4: would have thought possible. Yeah, I found so much.
Speaker 1: A way for me to slow down. And at first,
Speaker 1: when you're transitioning from a lifestyle of maybe automatic consumption,
Speaker 1: I won't say like over consumption, but just like automatic
Speaker 1: consumption versus intentional consumption, doing side hustles and finding ways
Speaker 1: to make money was a really good way to transition
Speaker 1: from shopping to making money. So like, eventually there has
Speaker 1: to be you have to be able to sit with
Speaker 1: yourself and not do something, but in the inner rim
Speaker 1: before you can do that, then making money is a
Speaker 1: very good way to replace that impulse.
Speaker 4: The best way to not spend money is to spend
Speaker 4: your time making money, and that's a long bumper sticker.
Speaker 1: I've said that so many times. I no longer think
Speaker 1: it's the best way, but it is a really good way.
Speaker 4: It may not be the most beneficial way, but it
Speaker 4: could it could be. It could be could.
Speaker 1: Be a best the best way. If you're in a
Speaker 1: season of new transition, like we all, there's there's things
Speaker 1: that are going to be right for everyone in different seasons.
Speaker 1: The length of your season of side hustling will be.
Speaker 5: Up to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for me, it was only well, gosh, I want
Speaker 1: to say, it was only while we were paying off debt.
Speaker 1: But man, this renovation has felt like a side hustle,
Speaker 1: and it truly is, like I've had to look at
Speaker 1: it like it was a two year side hustle for us.
Speaker 1: That will not That is just not paying off immediately,
Speaker 1: but I know what the return on investment will be eventually.
Speaker 4: But I gotta imagine that having gone through your debt
Speaker 4: payoff journey helped to equip you and build some of
Speaker 4: those resilience muscles for the next challenges that come in life.
Speaker 4: Because once you reach debt freedom, it's not nirvana. It's
Speaker 4: not you've done it and just sit back and relax.
Speaker 4: In some ways. It can then become more complicated to
Speaker 4: decide what do I now do with my money, But
Speaker 4: it's still worthwhile because it's going to build some of
Speaker 4: that stamina that's needed. And this is true also for Tina,
Speaker 4: who shared an update with us since this debt Free
Speaker 4: story initially aired on YouTube. She shares, I will be
Speaker 4: retiring early, age fifty five from my day job in
Speaker 4: June twenty twenty five as a high school counselor sidebar
Speaker 4: from Jen and Jill Woo. That's exciting. I have the
Speaker 4: option to do this because of becoming debt free and
Speaker 4: finally making good money decisions and managing it wisely. One
Speaker 4: of the things I'm hoping to do then is continue
Speaker 4: building my financial coaching business and help others create options
Speaker 4: for their future. Oh and I'm also working on another book.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, love that Sidebardina. So you're not you're not
Speaker 4: truly retiring, but you've got retirement. I mean it's yeah,
Speaker 4: from your day job. You've got that optionality because of
Speaker 4: becoming debt free. And while it might have felt to
Speaker 4: her like she was pursuing this a little bit later
Speaker 4: in life, it still is allowing her to retire early,
Speaker 4: which is wild to me. I love that flip of
Speaker 4: the coin absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know what other flip of the coin that I like?
Speaker 1: We just go we're going straight through and then we
Speaker 1: we just give them a flip the bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your more, maybe your
Speaker 2: card died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 2: that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Duck bills, but flow bills. Bill Clinton, this is the
Speaker 1: bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi Jen, Hi Jill, this is Emily. I've been on
Speaker 6: previously with the bill of the week saying that I'm
Speaker 6: not paying for trash service. Got my new home. Well,
Speaker 6: my bill of the week this week is the compost
Speaker 6: bin that I bought off a waycare that will allow
Speaker 6: me to continue not paying for trash compost my kitchen
Speaker 6: waist and I used a gift card someone gave me
Speaker 6: as a housewarm of gift, so I bought a tumbling
Speaker 6: composter and it cost me zero out of pocket to
Speaker 6: help me continue not paying for trash services. It's a
Speaker 6: compounding bill of the week. I hope you have a
Speaker 6: great day. Goodbye.
Speaker 1: Yes, Emily, I talk about your Bill of the week
Speaker 1: occasionally when I talk about like ways we can get
Speaker 1: creative and ways we can connect with our neighbors and
Speaker 1: community to do things that are mutually beneficial and save money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we do remember that one. Yes, and I love
Speaker 4: this update. I love an update bill, and I love
Speaker 4: a stacks on stacks bill. And you composting, getting that
Speaker 4: compost bin for free, continuing to live this low waste
Speaker 4: life is amazing.
Speaker 1: Composting is for everyone, even if you're not a gardener.
Speaker 1: It is difficult for compostable trash to compost in a landfill, right,
Speaker 1: So even if you do not garden or have anything
Speaker 1: to do with the compost, you can help reduced waste
Speaker 1: by composting what is compostable in your and.
Speaker 4: Some cities will even give you free compost bins too,
Speaker 4: so it may not even need to cost you anything
Speaker 4: into it. Thank you, Emily for your update. We're so
Speaker 4: excited for you. If anyone listening has a bill that
Speaker 4: you want to share, if it's an update bill, if
Speaker 4: it's about getting things without spending any money, if it's
Speaker 4: about reducing waste, if it's about what life is like,
Speaker 4: as a bill visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash bill.
Speaker 4: We're ready for it and now it's time for nay round.
Speaker 1: Shoo phooew All right, what became your alternative source of
Speaker 1: happiness or small pleasures while paying off your debt? I
Speaker 1: love I love this one.
Speaker 4: Goldie asks us our questions for our lightning round.
Speaker 1: Yes, and they are surprises for us. So my source
Speaker 1: of happiness is very much like in line. So when
Speaker 1: we talk about Massow's hierarchy of needs, and yes, our
Speaker 1: physical needs are food, water, shelter, right, But then society
Speaker 1: thinks that's all we need, that if those needs are
Speaker 1: being met, then you should not want anything else. But
Speaker 1: truly we do have internal needs for relationships and safety
Speaker 1: and self fulfillment, self esteem, self worth. Those are also
Speaker 1: internal needs that while without them we could still physically survive,
Speaker 1: but we will not thrive. And so I truly took
Speaker 1: that to heart and just prioritized a lot of time
Speaker 1: with friends. It was a season of my life before
Speaker 1: I had children, and so I could really invest in people,
Speaker 1: and it was such a great time in my life,
Speaker 1: and I almost I grieve it sometimes because now life
Speaker 1: is much busier much more tiresome even than we were.
Speaker 1: And I was so tired and miserable from like paying
Speaker 1: off debts so fast, I did not know true exhaustion
Speaker 1: and I but I did spend so much time with
Speaker 1: friends and that was truly that got me through. And
Speaker 1: then also starting my first blog and helping people learn
Speaker 1: what I had been learning over the past one to
Speaker 1: two years. That was also that gave me a sense
Speaker 1: of purpose, is that this wasn't all for nothing, This
Speaker 1: wasn't all for me, but I was using my experience
Speaker 1: to help somebody else that maybe in my situation. That
Speaker 1: gave me a sense of purpose. And it really helped
Speaker 1: me through the last year of debt payoff because a
Speaker 1: year in I was pretty miserable. I knew I had
Speaker 1: done it for a year and knew I had another
Speaker 1: year to go. I did not I did not want
Speaker 1: to do it, and and writing about it and post
Speaker 1: that online gave me a sense of purpose and it's
Speaker 1: probably probably why I do this podcast, wrote a book.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sense of purpose.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm super blessed to be able to find
Speaker 1: so much purpose in the job that pays and that
Speaker 1: pays my.
Speaker 4: Bills, those creative things that we might think this is
Speaker 4: just for now, this is just to help me get
Speaker 4: through this time, have become the things that you still
Speaker 4: enjoy most even being debt free. And that's kind of
Speaker 4: what Tina was describing too, Like finding these new things
Speaker 4: then became the thing where you might have thought, I'm
Speaker 4: just blogging so I can feel accountable to get this
Speaker 4: done and out of the way, and it like became
Speaker 4: something because yeah, you were able to find purpose in it.
Speaker 4: So it's an interesting question because you know, alternative sources
Speaker 4: of happiness, these small happiness is, these little morsels to
Speaker 4: help you get through. But often that's what we're all
Speaker 4: looking for in life, whether or not we're paying off
Speaker 4: debt is where are the little pleasures? And how can
Speaker 4: we find contentment? And where is the purposeful things? And
Speaker 4: whatever we find in debt freedom most or in our
Speaker 4: debt payoff will most likely still be the things in
Speaker 4: debt freedom, yep, and we can just continue to build
Speaker 4: upon them. So Yeah, Similarly, time with friends for me,
Speaker 4: just discovering that we can hang out and it doesn't
Speaker 4: have to cost a lot of money, a lot of
Speaker 4: pot lucks or hanging with friends post dinner. I mean,
Speaker 4: we were the friends who everybody else had kids and
Speaker 4: they're at home because all parents are at home post
Speaker 4: seven pm, and we would just go to their houses.
Speaker 4: Kids are in bed, no one has to feed anybody,
Speaker 4: and we all get to hang out and spend no
Speaker 4: money together because kids are sleeping. I would also say
Speaker 4: that the side businesses that we started were it enjoyable
Speaker 4: for me because it was an outlet of some of
Speaker 4: the things that I enjoyed doing and then provided me
Speaker 4: a little bit of cash here and there. Nothing remarkable,
Speaker 4: but I redid some furniture, and I sold plants, and
Speaker 4: I sewed some things that I sold, and Eric and
Speaker 4: I started businesses together, so it was time together. It
Speaker 4: was the things I already enjoyed doing with my hands
Speaker 4: that I was then able to make some money off of.
Speaker 4: That provided me a lot through that time. It was
Speaker 4: both hobby and a little bit of extra cash I
Speaker 4: could throw towards debt, and then just finding fun ways
Speaker 4: to adventure. One of the randomest things that we did
Speaker 4: was helping on two separate occasions, two different elderly women
Speaker 4: moved to Florida. Like we helped load up the truck
Speaker 4: and drove the truck down and unload them, and in return,
Speaker 4: they put us up in a hotel for a couple
Speaker 4: of days in Florida to offer gratitude for helping them
Speaker 4: move down, because they couldn't have done it all on
Speaker 4: their own. We did that twice, and so in our
Speaker 4: payment payment journey, a vacation to Florida for free was
Speaker 4: very welcomed and very foreshadowing of our future lives here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who helped you move down?
Speaker 4: You didn't, Leanna?
Speaker 1: Yana did?
Speaker 5: She did?
Speaker 4: Uh huh. We have a very good friend who we
Speaker 4: had our We had one vehicle that towed a eight
Speaker 4: x twelve trailer behind it, and we fit all of
Speaker 4: our belongings into that rig, including Leanna. Thankfully she's only
Speaker 4: like five two and good. She wasn't in the crowd,
Speaker 4: she wasn't in the trailer. She was in the vehicle
Speaker 4: and she was able to just take up one small
Speaker 4: seat with our pillows and clothing crushing in on her
Speaker 4: during the two day drive down here, and then stayed
Speaker 4: for like a full week helping us paint and clean.
Speaker 1: This girl painted.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes she did. She painted. That was all she did.
Speaker 4: And we did not feed her, and that's my mistake.
Speaker 4: We just were constantly forgetting to eat. We bring you
Speaker 4: down here, we star with you. She's had plenty of times.
Speaker 4: Were you coming back for a visit and we did
Speaker 4: feed her?
Speaker 6: Then?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you guys were here. I think the
Speaker 4: first night we crashed at your place before closing. It
Speaker 4: was a whole sweaty mess of in August that I
Speaker 4: do try to forget sometimes. But and then we actually
Speaker 4: did a sorry, this is getting long time lapse video
Speaker 4: of Travis and Eric unloading the trailer. Oh, I gotta
Speaker 4: find that. That is a very fun time lapse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll have to try and post that on social media.
Speaker 1: That was such a fun season twenty twenty, right am
Speaker 1: I right here?
Speaker 4: What the sweaty weird year. Thank you everybody for listening,
Speaker 4: and thank you so much for leaving your reviews. You
Speaker 4: all are continuing to leave us reviews, which we appreciate,
Speaker 4: and we're still aiming at that one thousand review mark
Speaker 4: on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1: So we are so close.
Speaker 4: We're so I think we need like sixty more reviews,
Speaker 4: maybe eighty. We're close even.
Speaker 1: I think I feel like we need eight more reviews
Speaker 1: in please be the one.
Speaker 4: Like Stella, she was one of the ones Stella dot VZ,
Speaker 4: who said, a breath of fresh air when you're drowning
Speaker 4: in consumer culture. Five stars. This podcast is great for
Speaker 4: deprogramming yourself from consumer culture and the clickmaity extreme minimalism shick.
Speaker 4: It has also helped me to work through a lot
Speaker 4: of my shame, guilt fear around spending and finances that
Speaker 4: have kept me paralyzed. They sort of take the gentle
Speaker 4: parenting approach to personal finance and I'm here for it.
Speaker 4: They are unpretentious, practical fundelis in to and keep me
Speaker 4: motivated to stick to my values and longer term goals.
Speaker 4: I have been a listener for too long. But the variation, oh,
Speaker 4: I haven't been a listener for too long with my
Speaker 4: values and longer term goals, I haven't been. It doesn't
Speaker 4: repeat no okay variation on topics so far feels just right.
Speaker 4: With a mix of pure financial advice, lifestyle and personal
Speaker 4: growth material tips and tricks, as well as the occasional
Speaker 4: true crime content. Oh i'mg the romance scams. Thank you
Speaker 4: so much, Jen and Chill.
Speaker 1: Wow, Stella, you have encapsulated everything I want to hear
Speaker 1: about our show in one review, and I am elated.
Speaker 4: Your review does not have to be long. It can
Speaker 4: be short. It can take you less than a minute.
Speaker 4: But boy, stella, are we over the moon about what
Speaker 4: you've said and feel like you get it?
Speaker 1: You're the true one, were mysterious. This is exactly what
Speaker 1: we're going for, and this is going to help people
Speaker 1: determine if Frugal Friends is the right show for them
Speaker 1: because we're a very niche show. We don't talk about
Speaker 1: a swath of topics. We're not financial news. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of podcasts that do that really well, and
Speaker 1: we are not one of them.
Speaker 4: We tell debt free stories from real people. So and
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: Content. Frugal Friends is my dream podcast. We have created my.
Speaker 4: Dream, made our own dreams come true.
Speaker 1: Thank you for acknowledging that.
Speaker 4: And if you want to make our next dream come
Speaker 4: true of getting two one thousand reviews, please please leave
Speaker 4: us a review wherever you're listening.
Speaker 1: Reading a review Apple.
Speaker 4: Sign up for the friend letter. While I'm already saying
Speaker 4: things that will help support us. Get the friend letter.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So we're about
Speaker 1: to have a marketing meeting for the book.
Speaker 4: So I want to keep talking. Yeah, I want to
Speaker 4: stay here in this moment.
Speaker 1: As soon as we stop recording, we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about all the podcasts that we should be on,
Speaker 1: all the newsletters that we should you know, do newsletter exchange,
Speaker 1: promotion with influencers that we should get to promote the book,
Speaker 1: all of these things. So if you're listening to this
Speaker 1: right now and you have a suggestion of hey, this
Speaker 1: person would be you know, you know perfect, you got
Speaker 1: your messages aligned perfectly, then now is the time too.
Speaker 1: If you're if you follow them on social you can
Speaker 1: leave a comment and tag like, oh my gosh, you
Speaker 1: should have Frugal Friends podcasts on your show. Or if
Speaker 1: you're on the newsletter, you can respond to their latest
Speaker 1: newsletter and like, hey, these girls have a book coming
Speaker 1: out and and your audience will love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: You should connect with them. That's a great I connect
Speaker 1: with your influencers, connect with your favorite podcast. If you
Speaker 1: connect with them first, that's incentive for them to promote us.
Speaker 4: Because here's the thing. This book is our book. It's
Speaker 4: not your and my book, Jen, I mean it is,
Speaker 4: we wrote it, but it is our but it is
Speaker 4: the Frugal Friends Communities book, and we really want to
Speaker 4: sell this thing because we want to tell more publishers
Speaker 4: that this is the type of content that we want.
Speaker 4: We want what we is the embodiment of Stellar Viz's
Speaker 4: review to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This the book will be available for presell very very soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it will tell publishers if they should accepit more
Speaker 1: books like it. If it sells well, then we could
Speaker 1: have more values based, you know, conscious consumption type literature
Speaker 1: out in the world. If it does not sell well,
Speaker 1: then they're going to be publishing more finance bro investing
Speaker 1: real estate type stuff.
Speaker 4: It tells them that this is what people.
Speaker 1: Wanright, So we have we feel a responsibility to be
Speaker 1: on as many shows as possible, as many Instagram and
Speaker 1: TikTok accounts as possible, to be as many places as possible,
Speaker 1: so as many people as possible can get this message.
Speaker 4: And be de influenced and.
Speaker 1: B de influenced and tell publishers that the voices that
Speaker 1: come after us that have more to say on this
Speaker 1: topic are heard.
Speaker 4: So we're all trailblazing here. So if you can help us,
Speaker 4: that'd be great.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and we will definitely tell you how to
Speaker 1: help us for sure.