Speaker 1: Episode one one, what to Do with your Purge. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your
Speaker 1: host Jen and Jill Oh. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and we're
Speaker 1: doing another listener request on how to best donate, gift,
Speaker 1: sell whatever, purge all the things that you have gotten
Speaker 1: rid of over quarantine because that's been a great activity
Speaker 1: to do while you can't go out. Yeah, the Mrie
Speaker 1: Condo Tidying Up documentary or series, we did a purge
Speaker 1: and holy smokes, did coronavirus cause us to purge? Also
Speaker 1: visit Yeah, and we've recently done some episodes on capsule
Speaker 1: wardrobe and minimalism and all these things. But then it's like,
Speaker 1: but now, what do we do because we can't just
Speaker 1: throw all of our stuff out that's not wise. So
Speaker 1: what do we do with our stuff? We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about that, but first our sponsors, the Frugal Friends Workbook.
Speaker 1: You've heard us talking about this. We're so excited, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep talking about it. The work The Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Workbook is officially available you all. It has been
Speaker 1: for like a week now. The Frugal Friends Workbook is
Speaker 1: a digital download with six week long challenges that will
Speaker 1: help you improve your spending, declutter your life, become a
Speaker 1: better negotiator, have more money conversations with the people in
Speaker 1: your life, and so much more. The workbook can be
Speaker 1: completed on your own, but it is created to be
Speaker 1: gone through in pairs or small groups because we're the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends and everything is done better in pairs and groups. However,
Speaker 1: if you don't have a partner or a small group,
Speaker 1: not to worry. If you purchase the workbook during launch week,
Speaker 1: you will get access to a six week Facebook group
Speaker 1: where you can find others who have purchased the workbook
Speaker 1: and form your own groups. Jill, uh Jen and I
Speaker 1: will also be available to answer the questions and any
Speaker 1: questions that you have, guide you through it, and if
Speaker 1: you're listening in real time, August is the last day
Speaker 1: to get that bonus, so that is to day, there's
Speaker 1: still time. Uh so, so let's do this, let's get
Speaker 1: it done. The workbook is also usually thirty four dollars,
Speaker 1: but it's the last day and so we are still
Speaker 1: offering it at twenty four dollars. So head to Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash workbook and join the fun.
Speaker 1: Join us. It's been a good week where I mean,
Speaker 1: we're recording this before we launched, so we assume it's
Speaker 1: been a good week in the group and we look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you there. So today's at episode is
Speaker 1: also brought to you by a book of c d s.
Speaker 1: Looking through your nostalgia and your closet and uh, find
Speaker 1: a book of c d s maybe Backstreet Boys and
Speaker 1: Sank System of a Down. Go through that book of
Speaker 1: c ds and just and remember all of the memories.
Speaker 1: Where you in your car when you were listening to it,
Speaker 1: were you with your friends, were you with that first
Speaker 1: boyfriend or girlfriend? Oh, just go through and just remember
Speaker 1: all of the memories, all the fields, and then put
Speaker 1: that book of c ds in a bag or a
Speaker 1: box and get rid of it. Book of c ds.
Speaker 1: It's good for the memories. But like physically, memories are
Speaker 1: in your head, not in a book, and you can
Speaker 1: go and sink from the internet. You can't Spotify. Alternatively,
Speaker 1: this episode would have been brought to you by Spotify,
Speaker 1: but that's oh, you know, they don't have to unfortunately,
Speaker 1: so we get the second tier that's book of CDs. Amazing. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that took up a lot of space. It's amazing how
Speaker 1: the Internet has helped us to declutter a lot of things.
Speaker 1: There is no no reason you shouldn't declutter unless to maintain.
Speaker 1: We don't have to keep up our CD players and
Speaker 1: our boom boxes that are broken and have pieces missing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's what you, I hope have been doing while
Speaker 1: you've been stuck at home. But like, no judgment. If
Speaker 1: you've just been watching Netflix also there's absolutely no judgment.
Speaker 1: But if you have been decluttering, then we want to
Speaker 1: go through because we remember when the Marie Condo docuseries
Speaker 1: came out, thrift stores were super overrun with stuff and
Speaker 1: it didn't all make it into stores like it didn't
Speaker 1: it wasn't always used to the best of its ability.
Speaker 1: And so there are alternatives and we're gonna walk through
Speaker 1: those today. Uh So, this first article we have is
Speaker 1: from the Verge. Again. We take the first first page Google,
Speaker 1: usually in the top five results. We look at what
Speaker 1: is in there and then we dissect it because we
Speaker 1: want to know. We want to help you with your googling.
Speaker 1: So this one's from the Verge and it's how to
Speaker 1: responsibly get rid of the stuff you've decluttered. Yes, so
Speaker 1: we're going to go through all of it um and Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are some really helpful things in here. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna start out with tech. So if you've got tech
Speaker 1: to get rid of, this includes old phones, computers, laptops, TVs,
Speaker 1: all of that. Uh, it is important to not just
Speaker 1: throw them in to the trash. They've got all sorts
Speaker 1: of components in them that it is better to figure
Speaker 1: out how we could reuse or recycle or give away
Speaker 1: um to anyone who might have used for it, and
Speaker 1: not just throw it into the landfill. So some really
Speaker 1: helpful tips on here. You can check for possible manufacturing
Speaker 1: trade in deals, so like Apple, Android has deals that
Speaker 1: you can look up by going onto their websites and
Speaker 1: looking at what kind of trade in deals you might
Speaker 1: be able to get for that device. Also, you can
Speaker 1: sell stuff so eBay, Facebook, Marketplace, these are some excellent
Speaker 1: places to go to even just get a little bit
Speaker 1: of money for something. You may think, oh, this is,
Speaker 1: you know, a very old generation of this phone. Still
Speaker 1: there might be people out there who are interested in
Speaker 1: that even for yes, exactly for their children. Um, you
Speaker 1: know young teens who are getting their first phone. At
Speaker 1: least in my world that's the case. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: probably even younger than that, but young teens is my
Speaker 1: recommendation for when kids should have their first phones. UM.
Speaker 1: But yes, it doesn't it doesn't need to be the
Speaker 1: highest end thing, so there could be people who are interested. Also,
Speaker 1: there's other people who out there who just like to
Speaker 1: refurbish things and can can sell them themselves. So yeah,
Speaker 1: selling things is an option. Uh. And they list this
Speaker 1: article list a couple of places where you could consider
Speaker 1: selling your tech, and we'll have them all linked in
Speaker 1: our show notes. But they list off a site called
Speaker 1: the Clutter, which gives you quotes on your tech um
Speaker 1: and you could decide whether or not you want to
Speaker 1: sell through them. They also take books, CDs, DVDs, legos,
Speaker 1: holy smokes, everybody's called c ds hanging books of CDs. UM.
Speaker 1: There's another site called Swappa, which charges the buyer, not
Speaker 1: the seller, although I think the the seller does have
Speaker 1: to pay, like the PayPal transaction fee um, But primarily
Speaker 1: it's it's the buyer who's paying the shipping and all that.
Speaker 1: And then Amazon also has a trade in program, so
Speaker 1: check out Amazon, although they pay out in the form
Speaker 1: of a gift card. But who couldn't use an Amazon
Speaker 1: gift card? But that's an option to Beyond that, you
Speaker 1: can also look into just charity giving, giving away, donating
Speaker 1: if you're not concerned about making money off of it.
Speaker 1: There's all sorts of places that will take your used
Speaker 1: tech items. So a couple that this article lists off
Speaker 1: is UM an organization called Computers with a Cause. There's
Speaker 1: also an organization called World Computer Exchange Globe Tops. All
Speaker 1: of these will take tech items. They might refurbish them
Speaker 1: and then give them to schools or people in need
Speaker 1: or other nonprofit organizations that might want to use UM
Speaker 1: older laptops and have a use for them. Mhmm. Finally,
Speaker 1: if you've got some tech items that are so old
Speaker 1: that nobody wants it, well, because you just might yourself
Speaker 1: be UM older and wiser and have had tech items
Speaker 1: in your home for a long time. Uh, some options
Speaker 1: I might be to recycle those things, so check with
Speaker 1: your town or your city for a recycling center as
Speaker 1: it relates to tech items. If all else fails, if
Speaker 1: you can't figure that out. Check out. There's a website
Speaker 1: called earth um and they list out nearest recycling centers
Speaker 1: for different types of items that might be harder to
Speaker 1: get rid of. And then this one made me laugh.
Speaker 1: I had no idea, And this is mostly I think
Speaker 1: just for chuckles. It is possible that you have such
Speaker 1: an ancient device that you could give it to a museum.
Speaker 1: They say that if you've got an old, old BlackBerry
Speaker 1: cell phone, you name it, it's possible that there's a
Speaker 1: museum that will take it. So if you have any
Speaker 1: luck with that, let us know. They mentioned like I had,
Speaker 1: like a museum for tech items. I mean, that's pretty
Speaker 1: low on the totem pole of possibilities, but you never
Speaker 1: know if you've got something. Oh gosh, so your grandma
Speaker 1: or granddad's, ho'll see what they have. Anyhow, it's tech.
Speaker 1: Travis actually, his um our friends gave him a broken
Speaker 1: Apple watch. It was just shattered like it was. It
Speaker 1: very much looked like beyond repair, and he went to
Speaker 1: sell it, and he actually didn't think he could sell it,
Speaker 1: so he bundled it with a phone he was trying
Speaker 1: to sell, and somebody just wanted the broken Apple watch
Speaker 1: and they paid him fifty bucks for it, So don't
Speaker 1: underestimate how, how and what people will buy. Some people
Speaker 1: can fix these things up, and some people will use
Speaker 1: them for their kids or charity. Just don't like we
Speaker 1: tend to think nobody wants my old tech, but you
Speaker 1: don't know that just because you can't fix it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that nobody else can or doesn't have a value
Speaker 1: for it. So see what you can do with that
Speaker 1: for sure. UM. The next one is a big one clothing,
Speaker 1: So there. I mean, always we're just giving people giving
Speaker 1: the thrift store our clothes. But this article kind of
Speaker 1: makes an argument for UM dyeing better quality and more
Speaker 1: expensive clothing, which is something we've we've talked about in
Speaker 1: our Buying Happiness episode and our Capsule Wardrobe episode that
Speaker 1: there is merit to actually spending more on your clothing,
Speaker 1: and that even comes down to when you're ready to
Speaker 1: get rid of it, because the better quality of your clothing,
Speaker 1: the more likely you're actually able to resell it. So
Speaker 1: at the very very high end UM you can use
Speaker 1: websites like the Real Reel or Rebag. Those are like
Speaker 1: very designer UM. But alternatively, you could use posh mark
Speaker 1: um if if you're not using those like really high
Speaker 1: end brands, but you have to actually purchase premium brands
Speaker 1: that are you know, resellable UM. So, so that's kind
Speaker 1: of like an argument for buying better quality clothes and
Speaker 1: and more sustainable products. So spending a little more upfront
Speaker 1: to purchase from a company UM that's a b corp
Speaker 1: um or or just like more sustainable um that automatically
Speaker 1: brings up the value so that when you're ready to
Speaker 1: get rid of it, you also don't have this sunk
Speaker 1: cost mentality to where, oh I spent money on it,
Speaker 1: I have to keep it because I don't want to
Speaker 1: just give it to a thrift store. No. Like, at
Speaker 1: that point, you just spend a little more and your
Speaker 1: sunk cost becomes always spent so much money on this,
Speaker 1: I can actually resell it for a little bit more,
Speaker 1: and essentially you are you're breaking even versus whether you
Speaker 1: bought a T shirt from Target or a T shirt
Speaker 1: from like made Well or something like that. So consider
Speaker 1: those things when you're shopping. Can you know that you're
Speaker 1: not going to hold onto an item um for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life, like your best pieces, you'll hold
Speaker 1: on to what for macts of ten years. Like that's
Speaker 1: a really long time for clothing. Uh, so be thinking
Speaker 1: about where your clothes are gonna go once they leave you. Um,
Speaker 1: So I'll thank you for coming to my ted talk. No,
Speaker 1: I like that. I think about that sometimes when I
Speaker 1: drop things off of the thrift store, Like I want
Speaker 1: to give quality things. I don't want to drop drop
Speaker 1: off my junk. And I think that that's part of it.
Speaker 1: It starts before you're at the thrift store with just
Speaker 1: buying quality things but not a lot of it. That's
Speaker 1: where minimalism comes in, Like it has to be paired.
Speaker 1: It can't just be spending tons of money constantly. It's
Speaker 1: spending money wisely, intentionally on things that matter, on simple
Speaker 1: minimal like as minimal as possible. But then when it
Speaker 1: inevitably doesn't suit your needs anymore and you need to
Speaker 1: give it away, You're not dropping off junk some price,
Speaker 1: um and having it be someone else's problem to deal with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about like when you do buy me,
Speaker 1: like most of my clothes are second hand. Uh And
Speaker 1: that's like how I spend money. And then when I
Speaker 1: purchased something that's nicer and made sustainably, like I don't
Speaker 1: feel bad about dropping fifty bucks on a shirt, which
Speaker 1: I because I rarely do that. UM. I don't feel
Speaker 1: bad about it though, And I'm always so grateful to
Speaker 1: the people who have bought really nice clothing and then
Speaker 1: just gave them to the thrift's store. Because now I've
Speaker 1: got some really nice clothes from the thrift's door because
Speaker 1: somebody else made some investment and then paid it forward. Yes,
Speaker 1: but don't you do that. You sell, you sell your
Speaker 1: nice clothes because you're listening to this podcast. UM. But
Speaker 1: if you're not going to sell it UM for work
Speaker 1: clothes UM, there are some charities that you can give
Speaker 1: your clothes to. UM. So if you're in the New
Speaker 1: York City area, there's Bottomless Closet for women UM and
Speaker 1: Career Goal for men UM. And the best way to
Speaker 1: find an organization in your area that takes business clothes
Speaker 1: to pass on to people is would be Charity Navigator
Speaker 1: or guide guide star UM. There are also sites like
Speaker 1: threat up UM. I don't think it. Threat up is
Speaker 1: not my favorite for selling clothes. I would It's not
Speaker 1: something I would recommend. I love actually using threat up
Speaker 1: to buy clothes UM. I buy a lot of my
Speaker 1: workout clothes from up. Actually they got really yeah, um,
Speaker 1: so I love it for buying. Um and actually we
Speaker 1: have a um a referral link that will post in
Speaker 1: the show notes um or I mean Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash thread up without the a um and
Speaker 1: you can get like ten dollars on your first purchase. Um.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I love threat up for for buying,
Speaker 1: not for getting rid of your clothes uh and to
Speaker 1: Yeah so then other other than that, another place to
Speaker 1: give like non business clothes would um maybe be Vietnam
Speaker 1: Veterans of America. That's probably mostly for like men's clothes. Um.
Speaker 1: And then also the site called give back Box. Um.
Speaker 1: It encourages you to use the box your new clothes
Speaker 1: were shipped in to send your old stuff like, um,
Speaker 1: at least five items hopefully can fit in the box,
Speaker 1: it says, um to a charity. So the site provides
Speaker 1: prepaid shipping. Um and yeah threat up will send you
Speaker 1: a bag for for unsellable clothing if you choose that.
Speaker 1: But um but yeah, so give back Box is like
Speaker 1: a cool way that if you do buy some new
Speaker 1: clothing that comes in a in a box, consider getting
Speaker 1: rid of some old clothing, and that's just a good
Speaker 1: practice when you bring a few new items in like
Speaker 1: getting rid of a few items. This makes that really simple, agreed. Hand.
Speaker 1: Next category is books. So we always have tons of books,
Speaker 1: all signs, cookbooks, fiction books, nonfiction books, text books that
Speaker 1: seems to be books. Almost sponsored this. It was between
Speaker 1: books and box and whatever, book of CDs which kind
Speaker 1: of still was a book. Yeah. So here's some options
Speaker 1: with books. You can consider selling books. Uh, certainly we
Speaker 1: would suggest not wasting your time on books that people
Speaker 1: don't want and you can't get much money. I mean,
Speaker 1: they list Amazon as an option, but it is really
Speaker 1: hard to sell on Amazon if you are not I mean,
Speaker 1: you do have to register as a seller, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to compete with like the bigger businesses that are
Speaker 1: selling books. It is an option if you want to
Speaker 1: look into it. That actually did I Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: had textbooks from school and these were like really niche books.
Speaker 1: These were acupuncture books, um that I listed on You
Speaker 1: just get an Amazon seller Central account and then I
Speaker 1: posted them and it was pretty simple, like all of
Speaker 1: my books sold. Um. So I would say that books though,
Speaker 1: that's not more specialized books yeah, yep um. But also
Speaker 1: other places to sell would be a AB Books or
Speaker 1: Powells And again I'll have all this linked in our
Speaker 1: show notes. But with both of those sites, you fill
Speaker 1: out like a short form with the books, I s
Speaker 1: me a number, the condition, and then they kind of
Speaker 1: give you a quote on what they might be able
Speaker 1: to sell it for. Then you send it to them,
Speaker 1: and then once it's sold, they give you the money,
Speaker 1: so you get a bit of a payout that way. Uh.
Speaker 1: For textbooks, other options include check or book bite that
Speaker 1: you could sell textbooks. It is definitely something that you
Speaker 1: want to do within very recently after using it, So
Speaker 1: if you're in school right now, we would recommend that
Speaker 1: you do this shortly after your semester ends so that
Speaker 1: people are buying, you know, the latest editions. If your
Speaker 1: books are, you know, fifteen editions late in the game,
Speaker 1: might just let me try it. Definitely try it, but
Speaker 1: probably a little bit better for for more recent editions.
Speaker 1: And of course, if you're not interested in making money
Speaker 1: off of it, there's always the option to give. Obviously,
Speaker 1: drift stores will take them, but you could also consider
Speaker 1: places that specifically are designated for receiving books. So there's
Speaker 1: an organization called Better World Books and they have a
Speaker 1: list of drop sites that you can take your books too.
Speaker 1: They're all over Yeah. Yeah, I can picture the drop box,
Speaker 1: you know, sign in my head and too. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's specifically for books. And then you've got books for soldiers.
Speaker 1: So this they actually will send books to soldier soldiers
Speaker 1: overseas to be able to have some entertainment. Um. Certainly
Speaker 1: libraries will even take some gently used books and something
Speaker 1: else that's cool that I've seen, at least around my town. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure for you Jen as well. People have
Speaker 1: started these like little pop up take a book, leave
Speaker 1: a book, or just take a book or just leave books,
Speaker 1: kind of like these little library boxes that you could
Speaker 1: take your books too, and that would almost be giving
Speaker 1: back to your local community community. Or you could start
Speaker 1: one yourself if you live in a neighborhood, setting something
Speaker 1: outside of your house even, um, where you can put
Speaker 1: all of your books and anybody walking by could take
Speaker 1: a book if they want. Others could drop books off. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a lot of even creative ideas of
Speaker 1: what you could do with books if you don't want
Speaker 1: to just take them to the thrift store. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: friend Christine, Actually she's partnered with our local newspaper and
Speaker 1: so they are are going more digital and so these
Speaker 1: old um newspaper stands, they're taking them out and they
Speaker 1: don't have anything to do with them. So she's actually partnered.
Speaker 1: They're donating um, the newspaper dispensers um to her, and
Speaker 1: she is creating these little free libraries for people and
Speaker 1: they can um. People in our city are saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: can you paint mine blue or purple? And she's painting
Speaker 1: them and then dropping them off at houses. And so
Speaker 1: we're seeing all these new little free libraries and fun
Speaker 1: colors pop up. So if that's something you wanted to start,
Speaker 1: definitely reach out to your local library and see if
Speaker 1: they have any of those uh those little newspaper uh
Speaker 1: dispenser things that they're looking to get rid of. Nice
Speaker 1: awesome mm hmm. That's all I got on books, yes,
Speaker 1: and so last is everything else. So uh for the
Speaker 1: next hour, we'll go through I'm just kidding. Um. So,
Speaker 1: if you really want to sell your stuff, a great
Speaker 1: place to do it is eBay. For a minute, I
Speaker 1: didn't think anybody still used eBay. Travis has told me
Speaker 1: that is completely false. Tons of people use eBay. You
Speaker 1: just have to deal with shipping. Yeah, I mean, but
Speaker 1: it's like you know, if you don't have Amazon Prime,
Speaker 1: you have to deal with shipping everywhere else too. So
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal, like, well, okay for the seller.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking from a buyer, Um, as a seller, yeah,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is worry about shipping. But
Speaker 1: a lot of things fit in those um those pre
Speaker 1: priced boxes at the post office. Um, you can put
Speaker 1: bricks in there as long as they says yeah. So uh.
Speaker 1: The so people who sell on eBay ray from like
Speaker 1: one time only folks to like professional retailers, and you
Speaker 1: get up to fifty free listings a month um, and
Speaker 1: then after that it's just thirty five cents a listing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I would I would say save this for
Speaker 1: things that you actually think are works worth something, and
Speaker 1: then also be prepared to sit on it for a while,
Speaker 1: like have a place store like in your garage or something, um,
Speaker 1: and just wait because you can your listings can run
Speaker 1: out and then you can realist. Um. So if you
Speaker 1: think it's worth money, and then then just you have
Speaker 1: to be patient. But the way you can check to
Speaker 1: see if what you have is worth money is that
Speaker 1: you can go on eBay and you can filter out
Speaker 1: recently sold and then for for whatever, search for what
Speaker 1: you're selling and then filter out recently sold and it
Speaker 1: will only show you the things that have and recently sold,
Speaker 1: and you can see what the final price was um.
Speaker 1: And I believe also what they paid for shipping and
Speaker 1: then just price around there in your golden So that
Speaker 1: is that's a secret to selling on eBay UM. And
Speaker 1: then also you can just give things away for free.
Speaker 1: So um. Something we didn't mention in a we did
Speaker 1: a recent episode about like buy nothing groups and stuff,
Speaker 1: but we didn't mention free cycle um, which was a
Speaker 1: glaring omission. No, I think that was me. It was
Speaker 1: my YouTube video. I did a YouTube video on modern
Speaker 1: frugality about like how I get so much stuff for free,
Speaker 1: and like free cycle was the one thing I left out,
Speaker 1: but that it's a service that introduces local people who
Speaker 1: have stuff, um to other people local people who want
Speaker 1: that stuff. Um. So that's really cool. It's kind of like, uh,
Speaker 1: the neighborhood app does the same thing. Like you can
Speaker 1: say people in your neighborhood, like I've got this, who
Speaker 1: wants it and people people can take it and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. It's awesome. Yeah, how that is this article?
Speaker 1: Our next as our next article, um and the options.
Speaker 1: So this one went through like things specific and right,
Speaker 1: and now we're going to go through like a place specific.
Speaker 1: So this is from NBC news dot com and it's
Speaker 1: post Marie Condo purge. Here's what to do with that
Speaker 1: unwanted stuff or post COVID per right, you can see
Speaker 1: why it was the first one to pop up with
Speaker 1: my with what I put in you can only only
Speaker 1: guess what I searched. So they have six tips listed
Speaker 1: in here. I think all of them are worth it,
Speaker 1: but we'll do a quick run through of them. The
Speaker 1: first is to offer your stuff that you don't want
Speaker 1: anymore to people in your community. So similar to what
Speaker 1: we just talked about in the last article. This could
Speaker 1: be for free or for sale, but we're talking about
Speaker 1: thinking local who around you might want your things and really, uh,
Speaker 1: going back to what you just said, Jen free cycle
Speaker 1: or buy nothing groups on Facebook, UM or neighbors or
Speaker 1: friends UM, just considering people in your area that might
Speaker 1: want them in the midst of COVID, I think it's
Speaker 1: worth considering porch pickups, porch drop offs. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: transaction of payment that can happen digitally, whether that's through
Speaker 1: PayPal or Venmo or cash app. I know that we've
Speaker 1: been selling a lot of stuff through our move and
Speaker 1: it's been super simple to just put in the listing
Speaker 1: porch pickup, only pay us through Venmo and you really
Speaker 1: don't have to interact with that. Sounds awful. That sounds awful. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, depending on people's comfort level with that, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: just to kind of be mindful of the various regulations
Speaker 1: that it can still be done, um in a manner
Speaker 1: that is respectful of local regulations for something like this.
Speaker 1: Instead of using Facebook marketplace, I like to use local
Speaker 1: Facebook groups. So like, if it's kids stuff, I have
Speaker 1: a local UM foster parents group that I'm part of
Speaker 1: and I will get like I will offer it up
Speaker 1: in their first UM or just a local moms group
Speaker 1: in general. So if there's like something that you're passionate about,
Speaker 1: there is probably a local group about it, and you know,
Speaker 1: on Facebook, and so just look for those. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend local foster parent groups for giving all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff gosh, even meals and just offering your services.
Speaker 1: Just do that, um, and that brings us to our
Speaker 1: second point is to give them to friends or swap
Speaker 1: so you benefit from the deal to Travis went on
Speaker 1: the neighborhood app and it's a it's a great app
Speaker 1: if you don't have it, it's it just connects you
Speaker 1: to your neighbors in your immediate vicinity. And so we
Speaker 1: have a huge mango tree in our front yard and
Speaker 1: Travis loves avocados. He also loves mangoes, but like, we
Speaker 1: have way more mangoes than we can eat. And he said,
Speaker 1: I've got these delicious mangoes and I will trade someone
Speaker 1: for avocados. And now that is right. Now he has
Speaker 1: more avocados and mangoes than he can eat. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god, he is he's selling mangoes because some
Speaker 1: people in the group we're actually like I don't have
Speaker 1: avocados but or any other fruit, but like, I'll buy
Speaker 1: your mangoes. And in my head, I'm like, why don't
Speaker 1: you just go to all Day and buy some mangoes.
Speaker 1: And Travis, it's not local, it's not Travis reminded me
Speaker 1: some people prefer local, organic produce too regular al deep produce,
Speaker 1: and I was like, good for them, Okay, but that
Speaker 1: that is the thing that people do. Um, and I
Speaker 1: think it's important to like note also, you don't have
Speaker 1: to do every single thing that we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: I know this is like starting to sound like a
Speaker 1: lot um, but you can just pick just your best priced,
Speaker 1: best quality items. Um. This is kind of just to
Speaker 1: break up your purge into like can go to the
Speaker 1: thrift store, but here's what you do with the other
Speaker 1: fifty percent. It's not like you need to spend weeks
Speaker 1: trying to make sure every single thing you're getting rid
Speaker 1: of goes to the right place or get sold. Uh.
Speaker 1: We're talking about balance here, so like set a limit
Speaker 1: and just say like okay or whatever percent is going
Speaker 1: to the thrift store. But this half I'm going to
Speaker 1: actually try and re home sustainably. If I can find
Speaker 1: a better contentional spot for these things where they will
Speaker 1: be useful to somebody else, that is kind. It's a
Speaker 1: kind thing to do. Yeah. So yeah, and then posting
Speaker 1: on posting on your Facebook profile is a great way
Speaker 1: to give your things to friends. So and it's not
Speaker 1: that hard given to friends and swap them. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love those swap parties. Third on the list is
Speaker 1: to repurpose or d I Y. So before you go
Speaker 1: to trash something or donate something, consider if it could
Speaker 1: be reused for something else, or if a friend or
Speaker 1: neighbor or local community member would be interested in using
Speaker 1: it for something else. The article gives an example of
Speaker 1: maybe a candle that is all used up, but the
Speaker 1: candle holder was really cool and could be used as
Speaker 1: a planter or a catch all for pens or something
Speaker 1: like that I know I've done. Or a vase. I've
Speaker 1: done that. There are some really nice candle now, who's
Speaker 1: out there? I've definitely done that before. Um. She even
Speaker 1: gave an example of repurposing an old office trash can
Speaker 1: into a planter. Um. So yeah, just some some creative
Speaker 1: ideas that before we kind of think I'm not using
Speaker 1: this anymore, to think, well, what what else do I
Speaker 1: have on my list of things that I've been on
Speaker 1: the lookout for, and do I have anything that might
Speaker 1: fit that need or do I want to see if
Speaker 1: somebody else could use it first? It does require, to
Speaker 1: your point, jen a bit more work, but I think
Speaker 1: it can also be helpful to others to consider, Hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a friend who actually really likes vintage table cloths,
Speaker 1: or another friend who loves this color, and maybe I
Speaker 1: should just send them a quick text with a picture
Speaker 1: of that thing and see maybe they'd want this before
Speaker 1: I get rid of it. And really that cultivates community
Speaker 1: and friendship and kindness and intentionality. That like those ten
Speaker 1: drils of frugality and purging, those are seeds that are
Speaker 1: sown that we can't even put a price tag on.
Speaker 1: So just taking that extra minute to pause and think,
Speaker 1: is there a way that I could bless another person
Speaker 1: or be thoughtful or be mindful of others? I think
Speaker 1: that's just great. It's a great practice that coincides with frugality.
Speaker 1: And yeah, we're frugal friends, and that's what frugal friends do. Friends. Uh.
Speaker 1: This next one is actually one that doesn't get talked
Speaker 1: a lot about when talking about decluttering, but it's actually
Speaker 1: very important. So um, this is pertaining to chemicals, UM
Speaker 1: and toxic materials. If you have a chemical that you
Speaker 1: maybe thought you would use UM but didn't or didn't
Speaker 1: use all of and you're not going to need it again,
Speaker 1: there is a proper way to dispose of harmful chemicals.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't just throw them in your trash can. And
Speaker 1: so most cities will actually have a chemical disposal plant. UM,
Speaker 1: I know we have one. So we have one. It's
Speaker 1: uh h cubed A C C c UM. I don't
Speaker 1: know what all the letters stand for. UM. I know
Speaker 1: that Miami has one, and they have a resell not
Speaker 1: a resell, but they have a UM. A lot of
Speaker 1: them will have a store connected to it where they
Speaker 1: will take the good ones and citizens can take them
Speaker 1: for free. Uh. And Miami's is called chem Again. That's
Speaker 1: I like that one is called the swap shop. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, so donating your stuff there and we've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of paint, spray paint and regular paint, a
Speaker 1: lot of bathroom cleaners, kitchen cleaners, dishwasher liquid. So all
Speaker 1: of these things are things that you should not just
Speaker 1: be throwing away in your trash can. You should be
Speaker 1: taking them to a disposal. So you can search your
Speaker 1: local uh webs local cities website um for chemical disposal
Speaker 1: something like that. Um, it's probably at the local dump
Speaker 1: and see if also they have like a swap shop
Speaker 1: or a chem again program. And you can also while
Speaker 1: you're dropping some stuff off, and it's also actually usually
Speaker 1: the same place where you'd drop off electronics to like
Speaker 1: old electronics, they're the same place. And then you can
Speaker 1: stop at the shop and see if they have any
Speaker 1: you know, cleaners that you need. Win win, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that you could reuse them
Speaker 1: and or other people can make use of it. It's
Speaker 1: so great. Number five on this list is to sell
Speaker 1: or consign. We've talked a lot already about selling, so
Speaker 1: I won't rehash all of that, but I do want
Speaker 1: to highlight this consignment idea that and of course websites
Speaker 1: like threat up and posh mark are that idea. However,
Speaker 1: if you don't want to go digital, it's worth considering
Speaker 1: local consignment shops. So if dealing with shipping as a
Speaker 1: seller is something that you just don't even want to
Speaker 1: get into, it could be worth going to your local
Speaker 1: consignment stores and seeing if they would consign something for you.
Speaker 1: Of course, you will not get the full profit of
Speaker 1: what they sell that thing for, but usually you can
Speaker 1: set the price and say here's what I want to get,
Speaker 1: and they listed at a higher price, um, and there's
Speaker 1: you know more exposure of that item and so more
Speaker 1: likelihood of it getting sold. So this of course will
Speaker 1: be for your items that are possibly worth more. I mean,
Speaker 1: you could try to consign anything, but some examples would
Speaker 1: be considering consigning your wedding dress or prom dresses or
Speaker 1: I know, Eric my husband just is currently consigning a
Speaker 1: drum kit. So there's even a local near us music
Speaker 1: consignment shop. So all different types of niches within the
Speaker 1: consignment world that you could you could consider some of
Speaker 1: your items that you know are worth a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't even want to deal with the internet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: certain your city and consignment and you'll get some results
Speaker 1: of different types of consignments. Um in there. I know
Speaker 1: there's a lot for jewelry, um I believe there's some
Speaker 1: for like tools and stuff. So just act to see
Speaker 1: what's available in your area. And that brings us to
Speaker 1: our last one, coming full circle from the first soapbox
Speaker 1: I got on, is to swap your items in exchange
Speaker 1: for discounted merchandise. And UH stores like H and M
Speaker 1: and made Well will incentivize your donations by offering you
Speaker 1: something in exchange for them, mostly discounts to their stores.
Speaker 1: So if you buy nicer items which I don't consider
Speaker 1: h and M nicer but made well. Um, you can
Speaker 1: bring your old jeans to Madewell and earned twenty dollars
Speaker 1: towards a new pair, so stuff like that. Look for
Speaker 1: programs before you buy something, to see if those exists
Speaker 1: in stories you like. Mm hmm. I often forget about this,
Speaker 1: and maybe I'll go to a store because I'm looking
Speaker 1: for something specific, and it's like, oh, man, if I
Speaker 1: would have brought in a grocery bag of the clothing
Speaker 1: I'm already getting rid of, I could have gotten off
Speaker 1: my purchase. It's yeah, something really to consider before you
Speaker 1: getting the car to go shopping. Who's offering some of
Speaker 1: those exchanges? And I mean, you know it doesn't get
Speaker 1: you a discount, but you should be thinking about every
Speaker 1: week should be I'm so horrible for your listenership. You
Speaker 1: now get this exchange the bill of the week. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 1: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: That's build buffalo bills. Bill Clinton. This is the build
Speaker 1: of the week. Hi, there sits gephony. I live in
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay area in Florida, and I love y'alls podcast.
Speaker 1: I listened to it all the time, and I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to share my though of the week. UM. I've
Speaker 1: been out of work for a while now. I had
Speaker 1: a baby a few months ago, and I was ready
Speaker 1: to get back into the workforce, but obviously now is
Speaker 1: not the best time to look for a job. UM.
Speaker 1: And I was just doing some side hospitals and it
Speaker 1: came upon me to start a business. And I speak
Speaker 1: a few different languages, so I'm offering translation services and
Speaker 1: tuning uh for people who want to learn languages. And
Speaker 1: this week I was able to send my first bill
Speaker 1: to my first client and I got paid. So it's
Speaker 1: been an amazing feeling. And although it's a really weird
Speaker 1: time in the world and difficult in many ways for
Speaker 1: many people, UH, it's been exciting to be able to
Speaker 1: send my first bill and see that income come in.
Speaker 1: So thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my
Speaker 1: expitement with you guys, and I hope you guys have
Speaker 1: an awesome day day. Thank you. Oh that's so wonderful.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I don't think we've gotten many bills that
Speaker 1: where I got to build somebody else. It's usually a
Speaker 1: bill that we've paid, which is great too. But holy smokes,
Speaker 1: what an amazing bill that you were billing somebody else
Speaker 1: They pay to you, and now you've got money, especially
Speaker 1: in crazy times. It is such a courageous move to
Speaker 1: start a new company, new business and after just giving birth.
Speaker 1: Holy smokes, you are rocking it. And we're really really
Speaker 1: really proud of you for this and celebrating with you
Speaker 1: for that first bill that actually got paid to you.
Speaker 1: I know, congratulations, and I hope many more bills to
Speaker 1: come to your clients. Yes, if you are sending bills
Speaker 1: to clients, please let us know about it. Please visit
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us
Speaker 1: your bill and we want to celebrate with you. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all we do. Time for the Lightning round, um,
Speaker 1: that is also what I do. Now for the Lightning Round. Uh. Today,
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about how often we purge
Speaker 1: and what we do with it, so you can kind
Speaker 1: of get some real life examples of how how we
Speaker 1: process this, because I'm definitely not optimizing of my purchase.
Speaker 1: So I gladly use my thrift store. But there are
Speaker 1: some things I do, So yeah, we purge pretty much
Speaker 1: every time we help other people move or when we
Speaker 1: ourselves move, which ends up being quite often. But I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, we we help a lot of people move,
Speaker 1: which feels like so constant. And and this is nothing
Speaker 1: against people we've helped move. It's just a reality that, uh,
Speaker 1: we collect things just as humans. It's amazing how we
Speaker 1: kind of just like grow to fill the space that
Speaker 1: we're in and and we kind of get this front
Speaker 1: row seat when we move people of oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is just a lot of stuff, and it's overwhelming
Speaker 1: and it stresses me out. And the only thing I
Speaker 1: control is I can control is myself. I can't control
Speaker 1: other people. So what I do with that energy, that
Speaker 1: frustration of how much we as humans collect, as I
Speaker 1: go home and say, well, I'm going to take control
Speaker 1: of my life at least and get rid of stuff
Speaker 1: of because I don't want to end up with a
Speaker 1: closet full of stuff that I got to move. And
Speaker 1: I move enough that that's a reality. So also every
Speaker 1: time I move, I make it a point to not
Speaker 1: just throw stuff in boxes. But if I'm going to
Speaker 1: put it away, if I'm gonna pack it, I've got
Speaker 1: to know I'm I'm going to be using this on
Speaker 1: the other end of the move, just to decrease stress, um,
Speaker 1: and what I do with those items. So as you said,
Speaker 1: like it's not it's percentages of things. Like as I'm
Speaker 1: getting rid of stuff, I will kind of curate what
Speaker 1: do I think people would pay for, like what do
Speaker 1: I think and it's I'm not always accurate on my assessment,
Speaker 1: but i will pull out what I think is you know,
Speaker 1: maybe worth a little bit of money to somebody else,
Speaker 1: is worth my time in selling it, and I'll post
Speaker 1: that on Facebook marketplace that's kind of my favorite spot
Speaker 1: to sell stuff. I will primarily do porch pick up.
Speaker 1: Most of my stuff that I think is worth selling
Speaker 1: is only within like a seven to fifteen dollar range,
Speaker 1: so I'm fine doing a porch pick up on that. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: I will also give to friends as I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: like I'll take pictures of things and um send send
Speaker 1: people text see if they're interested in it, or I'll
Speaker 1: kind of have a box in the back of my
Speaker 1: car and as I see people like, hey, you want
Speaker 1: to take a look if you want to take a
Speaker 1: look at once in my car, in the back of
Speaker 1: my look at my look at my things. Seriously. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And sometimes people are interested in stuff. I love that, Like,
Speaker 1: I love that I can just give people stuff that
Speaker 1: has value or a purpose for them, and all of
Speaker 1: the rest of it I will donate nice yep, what
Speaker 1: about you For me, I'm actually continuously decluttering. So I
Speaker 1: have a bag in my closet. I have a place
Speaker 1: in the closet in my office and a place in
Speaker 1: the living room. And so every time there's something that
Speaker 1: I want to get of, it goes in one of
Speaker 1: those bags. And then when the bag gets full, then
Speaker 1: I try and do maybe a little more intentional go
Speaker 1: through of things. Um, and then I will get get
Speaker 1: rid of uh. The things that are sellable don't go
Speaker 1: in the bags. Those actually get Travis just is always
Speaker 1: selling things on Marketplace, so those things are continuously he's
Speaker 1: just selling there or eBay. Um. So we had a
Speaker 1: big declutter when the Marie Condo docuseries came out, and
Speaker 1: that was kind of like our last big de clutter. Um.
Speaker 1: Twice a year there's a kid's consignment sale. It's called
Speaker 1: Real Lana's and that's for like nicer quality kids items.
Speaker 1: So that's another thing. Things when when Kai grows out
Speaker 1: of things, the good things are constantly going in in
Speaker 1: the consignment bag and then the not good quality things
Speaker 1: going the donate bag. So twice a year I am,
Speaker 1: I'm putting stuff in that sale too, and and I
Speaker 1: kind of I break even. It's kind of it's only
Speaker 1: worth it. A few have nice stuff, um, and then
Speaker 1: I'll go there and I'll buy things that are kind
Speaker 1: of harder to find it a thrift store. UM. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of how we do it. We are can
Speaker 1: I am continually on the lookout for how I can
Speaker 1: have less stuff because I just look around and if
Speaker 1: there's too much stuff somewhere, I'm just kind of like
Speaker 1: picking things off and putting them in the bag. And
Speaker 1: if I take if I put something a piece of
Speaker 1: clothing on and I'm I don't like it, it goes
Speaker 1: in the bag. So yeah, that's that's how we do it.
Speaker 1: And so I have I did a I have haven't
Speaker 1: had like a lot of books, but I would take
Speaker 1: books to the Better World Books UM, donation centers UM.
Speaker 1: And then most most of our stuff we try and
Speaker 1: sell it or we donate it. Um. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: kind of like most of But I am interested to
Speaker 1: try some of the things that we talked about today
Speaker 1: because I actually learned some things. Um, you do get
Speaker 1: the most money selling something than more money than you
Speaker 1: do like just from a thing from a place that
Speaker 1: buys tech or clothes. Um. There there are a few
Speaker 1: places here that buy clothes, like Revolver. Plato's Closet is
Speaker 1: a big one that's around the country, so so I
Speaker 1: have sold clothes there. I've had better luck with men's
Speaker 1: clothing at Plato's closet than with my own, so I
Speaker 1: found I don't even bother with my and anymore, but
Speaker 1: I will take Eric's clothing to play those closet, and
Speaker 1: usually they take almost everything. They're always more in search
Speaker 1: of men's clothing, for sure. So if you have a
Speaker 1: boyfriend or husband, definitely try and sell their clothing or
Speaker 1: son or father, or don't go de your dad's house
Speaker 1: and tell your dad's clothing. It's time, and it's time
Speaker 1: for you to get rid of this and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna profit off of it. Okay, it's time for
Speaker 1: us to end this episode. Okay, thanks for listening. We
Speaker 1: want to thank you for your kind reviews so so much.
Speaker 1: We want to give you an example. This one um
Speaker 1: is from Emily phil and it says the motivational friends
Speaker 1: you need happens to be five Stars. Says as a
Speaker 1: woman entering her late twenties, this podcast is everything I
Speaker 1: didn't know I needed throughout my adult life. I've been
Speaker 1: not totally irresponsible with money, but tended to avoid confronting
Speaker 1: my financial issues head on. Jenn and Jill are super
Speaker 1: easy to listen to and make me feel like I'm
Speaker 1: part of the conversation with friends, rather than like I'm
Speaker 1: a child being scolded and shamed like many other personal
Speaker 1: finance podcasts and videos with their tidbits of advice. I'm
Speaker 1: actually shocker enjoying managing my finances and finding ways to
Speaker 1: be frugal. Thank you John and Jill for helping me
Speaker 1: find some control in my life when everything else has
Speaker 1: gone haywire in the age of COVID nineteen. We feel
Speaker 1: you so glad to be making this accessible. That is
Speaker 1: our goal, That is that so many listeners can find
Speaker 1: themselves in this podcast, that you are listening, that there's
Speaker 1: something for you. Yeah, and we also want to thank
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Speaker 1: weeks and all the fun we're going to be having.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: Workbook by Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by
Speaker 1: Eric Serrian. Well, well what else you got? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've been eating a lot of bananas and peanut butter,
Speaker 1: so I have for dinner last night. Good for you,
Speaker 1: it is filling. Yeah, I had a banana an almond
Speaker 1: butter the other day you fancy, Well, it was at
Speaker 1: my sister's house. She's the fancy one. Nice. This was
Speaker 1: actually peanut butter Travis found on the side of the road,
Speaker 1: that peanut butter jar that you've been talking about for
Speaker 1: like a year now, a year. I don't know, it
Speaker 1: feels that way. We talked about it in our husband's episode,
Speaker 1: which was like five months ago, and I feel like
Speaker 1: when you told that story, it was a story that
Speaker 1: had happened at least three months prior to that. Still
Speaker 1: not a year ago. Oh my god, I'm not far off. Okay.
Speaker 1: So there were two and I think this is a
Speaker 1: second one. Okay, So they were unopened, unopened side the
Speaker 1: road peanut butter, and I've been eating a lot of
Speaker 1: it and I haven't gotten sick. So all right, is
Speaker 1: it natural? It looks like a No, it looks natural.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. No. This is a generic brand peanut butter.
Speaker 1: It is vegan, lactose and gluten free. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you just living living out the frugal life that
Speaker 1: you talk about. Thank you. M m oh got Ti