Speaker 1: Episode four ninety five Insights on credit card debt what
Speaker 1: you should consider Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where
Speaker 1: you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life.
Speaker 1: Here your hosts Jen and Jill. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill,
Speaker 1: and today we are talking specifically about credit card debt.
Speaker 1: When we gave you, guys the mega survey that you
Speaker 1: filled out last month, the number one goal most of
Speaker 1: you had was paying off debt. So we definitely do
Speaker 1: want to touch on different types of debt, and we
Speaker 1: think that credit card debt is some of the most
Speaker 1: dangerous and widely harmful, and that's what we're starting with.
Speaker 2: So we know that most of us who have debt, yeah,
Speaker 2: we want it gone. You've already told us that. But
Speaker 2: there's even more things that we can explore and understand
Speaker 2: about credit cards and credit card debt that we think
Speaker 2: will even help to provide more incentive to get this
Speaker 2: paid off and to not find ourselves specifically in credit
Speaker 2: card debt again in the future.
Speaker 1: Yes, but first, this episode is brought to you by
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Speaker 1: So all these things touch finance, and so yeah, that's
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Speaker 3: I'm excited for it. Hopefully enough of you want it
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Speaker 1: We would be excited to make this record the videos,
Speaker 1: record the walkthroughs, create the templates, the checklists, all of that.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's get into credit card debt. We're
Speaker 1: going to break this up into three parts. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about data, a little bit
Speaker 1: about things that you may not know, insights you may
Speaker 1: not know about credit card debt, and then some of
Speaker 1: the things banks are doing with the money that you
Speaker 1: pay an interest and what you might be funding that
Speaker 1: you are unaware of.
Speaker 2: So it's really interesting to go into some of these statistics.
Speaker 2: And we'll just kind of rattle off a couple that
Speaker 2: we found for like twenty twenty five credit card debt
Speaker 2: stats and so well, but it needs to look back
Speaker 2: because it's still the early time. I don't have those debt.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So this one, though, the first one starts in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, where they found that at the end of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, revolving credit was measured at over one
Speaker 2: point three trillion dollars. So that's the amount of credit
Speaker 2: card debt that we are carrying over. That's what that
Speaker 2: kind of.
Speaker 1: Revolved that interest is being charged on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that fifty two percent of female card holders
Speaker 2: carry a credit card balance month to month, so meaning
Speaker 2: we're not paying it off every month. Over half of
Speaker 2: us are carrying that over, meaning you're paying that interest
Speaker 2: on that debt that you're carrying over. It may only
Speaker 2: be five hundred one thousand dollars, but at eighteen to
Speaker 2: twenty four percent, that's a signal amount more money you're
Speaker 2: paying for whatever it was that you had bought and
Speaker 2: now you can't pay off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and more of a more than a quarter twenty
Speaker 1: eight percent. It's just day to day expenses. It's groceries, childcare, utilities,
Speaker 1: just normal stuff. It is not shopping spreeze. And fifteen
Speaker 1: percent said it was like emergency and unexpected medical bills.
Speaker 1: So these are things that are not lavish, right. We
Speaker 1: sometimes think of credit card debt and we are conditioned
Speaker 1: to picture the woman holding eight bags coming from the
Speaker 1: shopping mall, having spent all her money.
Speaker 2: And it's all on shoes because she just can't stop
Speaker 2: herself buying shoes.
Speaker 1: It's that narrative is false, right, It is on regular
Speaker 1: day to day things. But here's the thing. Most households
Speaker 1: that carry credit card debt month to month are higher income.
Speaker 1: So fifty seven percent of households earning eighty thousand or
Speaker 1: more per year have had their revolving credit card debt
Speaker 1: for over a year. Twenty two percent have had it
Speaker 1: for five years or more. So we're not necessarily speaking
Speaker 1: about very low income households.
Speaker 3: These are.
Speaker 1: Middle class, upper middle class households that are putting day
Speaker 1: to day expenses on a credit card. And there's some
Speaker 1: kind of disconnect there. And obviously, if it's a spending
Speaker 1: issue that we, you know, maybe we're over spending here
Speaker 1: and having to put you know, important things on a
Speaker 1: credit card, that's a different conversation. But it is a
Speaker 1: conversation about this should technically be something you can pay off.
Speaker 1: We're talking to households that technically have the income to
Speaker 1: be able to afford groceries and save an emergency fund
Speaker 1: for unexpected expenses and just need guidance on how to
Speaker 1: get there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and buying everyday expenses on a credit card isn't
Speaker 2: the issue.
Speaker 3: It's the not paying it.
Speaker 2: Off at the end of every month and then eventually
Speaker 2: paying the interest on that and that can just be
Speaker 2: so overwhelming over many, many years of this revolving credit
Speaker 2: card debt and just the mounting interest, and it can
Speaker 2: feel like you're just buried underneath all of it. And
Speaker 2: so yeah, for that reason, I think it's important to
Speaker 2: kind of look at spending and understand kind of how
Speaker 2: credit cards work and operate so that we can make
Speaker 2: some of these changes, important beneficial changes to the ways
Speaker 2: in which we engage with credit. So we want to
Speaker 2: look at There's this really helpful article from Janes dot
Speaker 2: com and it's about six things credit card companies don't
Speaker 2: want you to know. And the first is that your
Speaker 2: fixed rate isn't set in stone. This is super deceptive
Speaker 2: because fixed seems to indicate it is not moving, unchanging right,
Speaker 2: But really, what that means is that the APR or
Speaker 2: interest rate on the credit card won't change due to
Speaker 2: inflation or the prime index. However, that doesn't mean that
Speaker 2: the interest rate won't change based on other factors, like
Speaker 2: if you have a history of missing payments or your
Speaker 2: credit score took a hit for whatever reason. They do
Speaker 2: have the ability to change the APR the interest rate
Speaker 2: that you are paying on that credit card debt if
Speaker 2: you are carrying over a balance month to month.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and most people are not delinquent. It's only about
Speaker 1: three percent are more than thirty days delinquent on their
Speaker 1: credit card payments. So most of the time you're going
Speaker 1: to be fixed into this rate. But like you said,
Speaker 1: if your credit score goes down, or you know, something happens,
Speaker 1: an emergency comes and you have maxed out your credit
Speaker 1: card and you can't take out another credit card, then
Speaker 1: you could be like hit. You know, the cherry on
Speaker 1: top would be a hit with a higher fixed rate.
Speaker 1: But still, credit card rates are super high. They are
Speaker 1: most of the time at least twenty percent. I have
Speaker 1: not seen anything under twenty percent unless it's like a
Speaker 1: zero percent introductory in a very long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's insane. I don't know what mine is. I
Speaker 2: thought it was eighteen percent, but yeah, maybe it's changed.
Speaker 2: But still you're talking high high high, right, and.
Speaker 1: So that is mostly fixed, that's not going down. So
Speaker 1: that is the least amount of interest you will pay.
Speaker 1: The second thing is that the forty five day notice
Speaker 1: is misleading. If your APR does go up, the credit
Speaker 1: card company is required to send you a forty five
Speaker 1: day notice. However, that doesn't mean that you have forty
Speaker 1: five days until the new APR kicks in. It only
Speaker 1: means you have forty five days to pay the extra
Speaker 1: interest accrued at the higher interest rate, So and actuality
Speaker 1: on the fifteenth day after they tell you, then the
Speaker 1: account starts accruing interest at the new higher interest rate.
Speaker 2: And of course this one's obvious, but it's still worth stating.
Speaker 2: The third thing they profit from your loss. Obviously, if
Speaker 2: you do not pay off that credit card and you
Speaker 2: have a balance rolling over to the next month, they
Speaker 2: are making from you that eighteen to twenty seven percent
Speaker 2: interest off of you over time, continuing to rack up
Speaker 2: this amount of money.
Speaker 3: And so they.
Speaker 2: Reference that credit card companies made one hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: billion dollars off of consumers in twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 2: one hundred and five billion of that came from interest alone.
Speaker 2: So the other amounts of money I'm assuming is from
Speaker 2: you know, the charges that they give to the vendors
Speaker 2: to be able to you know, utilize the credit card.
Speaker 2: But the majority of it, one hundred five billion dollars
Speaker 2: is just from the interest that we are paying them.
Speaker 1: So next is they're sometimes willing to negotiate. So this
Speaker 1: is a this is a positive thing, more in your favor,
Speaker 1: and you can ask for a lower APR. I would
Speaker 1: love to hear if somebody's asked for that and actually
Speaker 1: gotten it. More so, I hear if you have like
Speaker 1: any late fees or just a fees. Usually it's a
Speaker 1: late payment for your if a debit, if you had
Speaker 1: a debit card, to be like an insufficient fun fee
Speaker 1: or fees like that, they'll often take them off. If
Speaker 1: you have an annual fee on your credit card, if
Speaker 1: you call to cancel it, it's become I've canceled so
Speaker 1: many cards over the years because I don't like to
Speaker 1: pay the annual fees. It is becoming less and less
Speaker 1: likely that they will comp that card. They'll just cancel
Speaker 1: it for you. The last time I canceled a card,
Speaker 1: they did say that they would give me a credit,
Speaker 1: so I still have to pay the annual fee, but
Speaker 1: I'd get like a thirty dollars credit, which brought the
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars annual fee down to like seventy. But
Speaker 1: it's yeah, they still would make me pay one hundred.
Speaker 3: Because you were canceling after the annual fee.
Speaker 1: Would no, no, no, no, I just called the cancel and one
Speaker 1: of their incentives to try to get me to not
Speaker 1: cancel was giving me the credit. So they can give
Speaker 1: you a discount. That is a risk. And honestly, even
Speaker 1: if you want to keep the card, I would still
Speaker 1: call and try to cancel it. And if they're not
Speaker 1: going to give you a discount or and you can
Speaker 1: just say it's because of the annual fee, and they
Speaker 1: might say like, okay, we can waive that for you,
Speaker 1: and say like it's because of the annual fee. If
Speaker 1: you were able to wave it for me this year,
Speaker 1: I would keep the card, YadA, YadA. So then they
Speaker 1: may give that to you, and if they don't, they
Speaker 1: might give you a discount, and then you can decide
Speaker 1: whether it's worth it or not, or you can just
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, I change my mind. If
Speaker 1: they're just going to let you cancel, they'll double check
Speaker 1: with you a couple times before you actually cancel, and
Speaker 1: then you can just say like, no, never mind, Actually
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep it. I'll pay the annual fees.
Speaker 1: So it's always worth making that call to see if
Speaker 1: you can get a discount because those are the places
Speaker 1: those fees are where we see the most opportunity for negotiation,
Speaker 1: I think more so than the APR. But I actually
Speaker 1: have never tried to negotiate an APR because I pay
Speaker 1: off in full every month, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there'd be no reason to do that if
Speaker 2: you're paying it in full, all right. Number five is
Speaker 2: credit card companies like to sneak in fees, and if
Speaker 2: we're not really paying attention, we may not even realize
Speaker 2: all the fees that we can incur. So the first
Speaker 2: is annual fees. You mentioned that one already. Jen for
Speaker 2: a lot of credit cards, particularly your travel rewards credit cards,
Speaker 2: you're going to have an annual fee, and it's kind
Speaker 2: of one.
Speaker 3: Of the ways of.
Speaker 2: Paying for the perks that you eventually get back. In
Speaker 2: other ways, for some people it's worth it for other
Speaker 2: people it's not, but really being aware of what is
Speaker 2: the annual fee on the credit card, when does that
Speaker 2: annual fee get charged, making sure that you are canceling
Speaker 2: the card before that annual fee gets charged. If you
Speaker 2: don't want the credit card anymore, you want to switch
Speaker 2: to a different one, So that's a big one to
Speaker 2: be aware of. The next is balance transfer fees. So
Speaker 2: this can happen when you choose to transfer the balance
Speaker 2: of one credit card to another, oftentimes to get a
Speaker 2: lower interest rate. So that is a strategy that you
Speaker 2: could consider, but you will pay a balance transfer fee.
Speaker 2: Not totally sure exactly how much this would be, but
Speaker 2: any amount of money to do this is not something that.
Speaker 3: I want to be spending.
Speaker 2: Of course, you've got late payment fees. When you don't
Speaker 2: pay your credit card bill buy the due date, even
Speaker 2: at least the minimum payment, you're usually going to be
Speaker 2: hit with a fee. They mentioned back in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two how the average fee for late payments was about
Speaker 2: thirty two dollars, and US consumers paid in that year
Speaker 2: a total of fourteen point five billion dollars in late
Speaker 2: payment fees. So even just not paying the minimum can
Speaker 2: get you really hit with some awful unexpected charges. And finally,
Speaker 2: is or in transaction fees, So if you are traveling
Speaker 2: in another country and you're paying in a different currency
Speaker 2: with that credit card, the fee is meant to kind
Speaker 2: of cover the costs associated with converting the currency and
Speaker 2: processing the payment. So certainly, if you are a person
Speaker 2: who loves to travel, a travel rewards credit card might
Speaker 2: be better for you where you don't have those foreign
Speaker 2: transaction fees, but something to look into before you do travel.
Speaker 2: But again, we are always going to recommend that if
Speaker 2: you're using a credit card, you are able to pay
Speaker 2: it off in full. We are not going to recommend
Speaker 2: that you're putting luxuries and travel on a credit card
Speaker 2: and using that as a loan.
Speaker 1: And again, the fees are the easiest thing to negotiate,
Speaker 1: so if you are hit with one of these one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the time you should call and try
Speaker 1: to get it taken off. And then last is not
Speaker 1: necessarily directly hitting consumers, but it kind of peripherally does
Speaker 1: is merchant processing fees. So in addition to user fees,
Speaker 1: credit card companies collect money from businesses merchants who accept
Speaker 1: credit cards. These are usually like a flat fee per
Speaker 1: transaction plus two point nine percent. Want, I want to
Speaker 1: say it's twenty five cents, but that feels very high,
Speaker 1: so don't quote me on that. But it is the
Speaker 1: flat fee plus two point nine percent. And while this
Speaker 1: doesn't hit you directly, but sometimes there will be a
Speaker 1: higher price or a minimum if you pay with a
Speaker 1: credit card, especially at local places. These retailers build that
Speaker 1: price into their the prices that they sell you things,
Speaker 1: So sometimes prices increase not at just the rate of inflation,
Speaker 1: but because of also these credit card processing fees if
Speaker 1: they're getting too much, especially for small businesses. When we
Speaker 1: are looking at small businesses and we're wondering why is
Speaker 1: why are these, you know, things, the same things more
Speaker 1: expensive at a small business, part of it is merchant
Speaker 1: processing fees. They have to account for those because and
Speaker 1: they want to because it kind of it's a netwash
Speaker 1: for them because when you pay with a credit card,
Speaker 1: you buy more. So it's not necessarily good for anyone.
Speaker 1: So if you are shopping local and you can carry cash,
Speaker 1: for local businesses do it. It's just it helps them
Speaker 1: just a smidge more.
Speaker 2: So those are all of the ways that credit cards
Speaker 2: and their systems around how they charge you, how they
Speaker 2: work impact you individually.
Speaker 3: But there's also some.
Speaker 2: More nefarious things to look at in the ways that
Speaker 2: credit cards impact us on a more global kind of
Speaker 2: macro level scale that it's important to realize and be
Speaker 2: aware of and possibly even help us to make some
Speaker 2: of these more beneficial decisions not just for ourselves but
Speaker 2: for our community and world at large.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I was thinking about credit card debt and
Speaker 1: like what this episode should be, we wanted it to
Speaker 1: have a piece that motivated you to get out of
Speaker 1: credit card debt quicker. And for me, knowing the fees
Speaker 1: and the APR can change and all that, it's good
Speaker 1: to know, but it doesn't necessarily motivate me more because
Speaker 1: it only affects me like it's not affecting other people.
Speaker 1: What really really motivates me more is when my decisions
Speaker 1: impact other people, and being in credit card debt actually
Speaker 1: does impact other people negatively because your money is going
Speaker 1: to the bank that holds your credit card a lot
Speaker 1: of the times, that's Chase, Bank of America City. These
Speaker 1: are some of the top credit card companies, and those
Speaker 1: companies aren't just funding like mortgages and car loans and
Speaker 1: small business loans, right, those are actually for the most
Speaker 1: part a small like not a huge Well, I guess
Speaker 1: it's dependent on percentages. But that's not all that they
Speaker 1: are doing with your money. They are also funding some
Speaker 1: things that you may not morally agree with. Again, in
Speaker 1: our mega survey last month, a ton of you said
Speaker 1: you wanted to know more about how to be frugal
Speaker 1: without sacrificing sustainability. And just like the cultural just being
Speaker 1: a good citizen of the world and getting out of
Speaker 1: credit card debt is one way that you can do it.
Speaker 1: So we looked at where, like where your where the
Speaker 1: biggest banks, biggest credit card companies are investing your money.
Speaker 1: This is the money you are paying them in interest.
Speaker 1: And so think about this, like if you had five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in credit card debt and it had like
Speaker 1: eighteen percent interest, because maybe you've had it for a while,
Speaker 1: it's an older credit card, and you're looking to pay
Speaker 1: it off. You're gonna pay it off in maybe two
Speaker 1: and a half years, you'renna pay two hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Then that's over thirteen hundred dollars in interest. So essentially,
Speaker 1: instead of maybe investing thirteen hundred dollars in your own
Speaker 1: retirement and your own personal growth. You have invested thirteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in whatever Chase or Bank of America or
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo wants to invest it, and here are some
Speaker 1: of the places where they are investing in. So the
Speaker 1: world's sixty biggest banks committed six point nine trillion over
Speaker 1: the last eight years to the fossil fuel industry. If
Speaker 1: you're not, if you're not one hundred percent familiar with
Speaker 1: fosil fuels, I don't blame you. I actually had to
Speaker 1: google it as well. Fossil fuels power the machinery and
Speaker 1: that produced plastics for fast fashion and inevitably all those
Speaker 1: microplastics everywhere, and a bunch of other like big stuff
Speaker 1: that maybe like I don't care about as much, But
Speaker 1: you could watch documentaries on fossil fuels, right, we're not
Speaker 1: going to go into that. So the three banks that
Speaker 1: invest the most into the fossil fuel industry are Chase,
Speaker 1: City Group which is City CI, and Bank of America.
Speaker 1: Wells Fargo I think was number four or five. Also
Speaker 1: for Canadian listeners, the Royal Bank of Canada actually was
Speaker 1: number one in twenty twenty four, I think, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't figure out how much they invested in fossil fuels.
Speaker 1: But in twenty twenty two they invested forty two point
Speaker 1: one billion dollars, four point eight of that was for
Speaker 1: tarsans and seven point four billion into fracking. So it's
Speaker 1: not just American banks, it's also banks in Canada, banks
Speaker 1: in Japan, all over the world.
Speaker 2: We've also founded that last year. So in twenty twenty four, banks,
Speaker 2: some of these bigger banks lobbied against regulations that would
Speaker 2: cut funding for legal programs that help people like veterans,
Speaker 2: domestic violence victims and families facing eviction, that would limit
Speaker 2: payday loans, and laws that would give or require more
Speaker 2: oversight for banks. And so these are the types of
Speaker 2: things that big banks are lobbying against, you know, where
Speaker 2: we are kind of using them to our benefit as
Speaker 2: an individual, but then they are working against us on
Speaker 2: a larger scale. And so to be aware that when
Speaker 2: we're paying interest, that one hundred five billion dollars of
Speaker 2: the total one hundred and thirty billion dollars that they
Speaker 2: earn in revenue annually is going to some of these
Speaker 2: efforts that we would probably not choose to be putting
Speaker 2: our money towards, so all the more reason to find
Speaker 2: ourselves in a position where we are not paying interest
Speaker 2: on our credit card debt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then last one back in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: so banks used to be big funders of gun manufacturing companies,
Speaker 1: so like military assault firearm stuff and private prison groups.
Speaker 1: And in about twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, there was so
Speaker 1: much advocacy against both of those industries that literally all
Speaker 1: of the major banks pulled out, and so that felt
Speaker 1: like a major win. You knew if you were putting
Speaker 1: your money in Chase, putting your money in Bank of America,
Speaker 1: you knew they wouldn't be investing in companies that manufactured
Speaker 1: assault weapons and were you know, there was so much
Speaker 1: news about how private prisons were just creating so many
Speaker 1: human rights violations in their private prisons, So you knew
Speaker 1: your money wasn't going there. Actually, last year, Bank of
Speaker 1: America backed off its blanket ban on lending to companies
Speaker 1: that manufacture what it has labeled as military style firearms,
Speaker 1: and so knowing so now you can't you know, put
Speaker 1: your money with Bank of America and know that it's
Speaker 1: not going there. And if Bank of America can do it,
Speaker 1: then other smaller banks feel safe for doing it, And
Speaker 1: if they can do it at firearms, then who's to
Speaker 1: say they're not also going to back off with private prisons.
Speaker 1: So once stuff is out of the news and once
Speaker 1: there's less pressure, like banks will take you know, we'll
Speaker 1: do these things for optics and once they're out of
Speaker 1: the media, they can back off on them. And so
Speaker 1: there's just so much to think of when you are
Speaker 1: a putting your money in these places. We definitely recommend
Speaker 1: credit unions for that reason. You can go to a
Speaker 1: website called mightydeposits dot com and you can actually see
Speaker 1: your bank. You can put your bank in and see
Speaker 1: how much money of your money stays in the community,
Speaker 1: what it's doing, what it's investing in, and see what
Speaker 1: grade your bank gets. And so we you know, fully
Speaker 1: support local banks and credit unions for that reason, but
Speaker 1: we often don't talk a lot about your credit card
Speaker 1: interest and the money, the thousands of dollars potentially over
Speaker 1: your lifetime that you will pay to these banks, what
Speaker 1: they're going to do, and what you could have done
Speaker 1: alternatively with those thousands of dollars where would you have
Speaker 1: put it.
Speaker 2: In a time when it feels like what do I
Speaker 2: even have within my power, within my control to make
Speaker 2: any type of change, and where I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people just go to just vote, right, Okay, that's
Speaker 2: like one day every four years on the bigger voting stuff.
Speaker 2: But this, what we do with our money on a
Speaker 2: daily basis does matter. It matters mostly when we can
Speaker 2: kind of be a part of a community and in
Speaker 2: aggregate make these decisions and choices. But what you choose
Speaker 2: individually still does matter. Where we choose to shop and
Speaker 2: purchase from, how we choose to use our singular dollars,
Speaker 2: and whether or not we are carrying credit card debt
Speaker 2: and paying interest to some of these larger banks and
Speaker 2: financial institutions that matters. And so when we can make
Speaker 2: the decisions to spend better reduce our debt on high
Speaker 2: interest types of loans, then we are able to make
Speaker 2: a pretty significant difference and hopefully feel even better and
Speaker 2: confident about the spending decisions that you are making. I
Speaker 2: think it helps us feel less guilt and shame around
Speaker 2: our money decisions when we can feel really confident about
Speaker 2: where we're spending, even if we are spending a little
Speaker 2: more then maybe we might have spent on Amazon to
Speaker 2: buy the thing. So yeah, this is hopefully inspiration for
Speaker 2: you to keep doing the good work that you are doing,
Speaker 2: to refine your spending, align it with your values, and
Speaker 2: get rid of this high interest debt because it matters
Speaker 2: for more than just your individual wallets.
Speaker 1: And you know, when you pay off your credit card debt,
Speaker 1: we want to hear about it. And you know where
Speaker 1: you can tell us the bill of the week.
Speaker 4: That's right, it's time for the best minute of yours
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Speaker 4: Hi, my name is Stephanie and I love your podcast.
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm listening to real friends talk about
Speaker 4: money in a non scary way, and I want to
Speaker 4: call in my bill of the week, which is by
Speaker 4: what you Love without Going broke. Your new book. I'm
Speaker 4: so excited to read it and I've pre ordered it
Speaker 4: and I am so excited for January to get by copy.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Stephanie, Well, this is out in March,
Speaker 1: and so you see, I love it whenever we have
Speaker 1: a Bill of the week, that shows how behind we
Speaker 1: are in Bill of the Week, but also that we
Speaker 1: play every single one. So thank you so much, Stephanie.
Speaker 1: I hope you have gotten started on the book and
Speaker 1: that you have been enjoying it.
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: I have been enjoying it. By what you love. Without
Speaker 1: Going Broke has been an amazing experience, way better than
Speaker 1: I even anticipated. I knew it would be good to
Speaker 1: write this book and publish it, but it's been ten
Speaker 1: times better.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought that it'd be like a little anticlimactic for
Speaker 2: it to go out into the world because we'd already
Speaker 2: held the book tangibly and we've been working on it
Speaker 2: for two years. But it was the most climactic thing ever.
Speaker 2: And especially when we hear from listeners like you staff
Speaker 2: saying I just bought it or I'm reading it or
Speaker 2: here's my thoughts on it, and you all have been
Speaker 2: so encouraging, and it's been definitely wind beneath our wings
Speaker 2: to feel like we are actually helping people. This book
Speaker 2: is actually really helping people and solidifying some of the ideas.
Speaker 3: You know, the fact that we.
Speaker 2: Can put what we've learned in the past seven years
Speaker 2: into one tangible product that you can have and read
Speaker 2: and implement upon feels really cool in a different way
Speaker 2: than podcasting, where we're just taking deep dives on snippets
Speaker 2: of concepts in a forty five minute episode, but being
Speaker 2: able to give you a resource and a guide that
Speaker 2: is kind of comprehensive all in one. So thank you
Speaker 2: so much for pre ordering that stuff and now having
Speaker 2: it in your hands.
Speaker 3: We're so excited. Thanks for your supporting.
Speaker 1: If you want to get one in your hands, head
Speaker 1: to buy what you loovebook dot com. There are several
Speaker 1: ways that you can order it, and we even have
Speaker 1: instructions on how you can request it at your library.
Speaker 2: And if you have a bill of the week that
Speaker 2: you want to submit, if it has to do with
Speaker 2: buying our book Guilt Free, if it has to do
Speaker 2: with paying off your credit card debt, or you are
Speaker 2: Bill and you've got literally any thing to share with
Speaker 2: us about your life, we would be so thrilled to
Speaker 2: hear about it. Frugal Friends Podcast dot com, slash Bill,
Speaker 2: leave us your bill, and now it's time for.
Speaker 3: The lighting round.
Speaker 1: Okay, what do you use your credit card for? And
Speaker 1: when will you pay cash? I will also add, okay,
Speaker 1: so we use our credit card for all spending unless
Speaker 1: you cannot so like utilities, term life insurance like stuff
Speaker 1: like that that gets taken out of it. But literally
Speaker 1: everything else is credit card.
Speaker 3: We will use.
Speaker 1: Cash for Facebook marketplace purchases, but sometimes more often we're
Speaker 1: using like Venmo or something. I don't pay interest, but
Speaker 1: I will occasionally pay an annual fee. The Hyatt credit
Speaker 1: card is the one that I pay an annual fee on.
Speaker 1: I did pay an annual fee for two Ink business
Speaker 1: I can. There's so there's so many types of Chase
Speaker 1: Ink business like cards, but this is the one where
Speaker 1: you could transfer out to partners, not just like purchase
Speaker 1: travel through the portal. And I like to transfer out
Speaker 1: and book on book flights and hotels and all that
Speaker 1: directly on those sites. So and it actually ends up
Speaker 1: being a better redemption value too, So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a wash. But I canceled one of those cards, and
Speaker 1: the other one I will cancel before the annual fee
Speaker 1: comes up.
Speaker 2: So so yeah, you churn credit cards.
Speaker 3: A lot more than I do.
Speaker 1: I churn them I get the welcome bonus, I keep
Speaker 1: them for a year, and then I cut them off
Speaker 1: and I wait until i'm eligible for the bonus again,
Speaker 1: and then I'll get it. And I'll pay an annual
Speaker 1: fee to get that welcome bonus. But I won't necessarily
Speaker 1: pay an annual fee again if I don't have the
Speaker 1: incentive of a bonus.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love my travel credit cards too much.
Speaker 2: There's not enough good ones to be able to churn
Speaker 2: them too quickly.
Speaker 3: But yeah, for me, really similar.
Speaker 2: I will use my credit card for all spending, pay
Speaker 2: it off in full every month. I actually make pay
Speaker 2: it like, I pay it off multiple times a month,
Speaker 2: just so I don't see the bill get too high.
Speaker 2: Except I won't use a credit card if I can
Speaker 2: get a discount by paying cash. So there are plenty
Speaker 2: of vendors who might either say it's less money or
Speaker 2: they're going to tack on a fee if you're using
Speaker 2: a credit card, So in those situations I won't. There
Speaker 2: was a time where I calculated it to see, okay,
Speaker 2: would it be worth it though, even though they're going
Speaker 2: to charge me an extra two percent to use my
Speaker 2: credit card or the bonus points that I would get
Speaker 2: on this transaction, and it did come out to be
Speaker 2: like a wash that the amount that the points were
Speaker 2: worth and what they could get me was like the
Speaker 2: same amount as the extra money that I was spending.
Speaker 2: So I say that just to say, don't assume that.
Speaker 2: Oh you know what, though, it doesn't matter. Let me
Speaker 2: just use my credit card because I'll get, you know,
Speaker 2: the rewards for it or whatever. Usually it's a wash
Speaker 2: or is not good in your favor. So still better
Speaker 2: to pay cash than to be getting those those rewards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. Some of our listeners have like issues,
Speaker 1: and I know you've talked about this, Jill, Like when
Speaker 1: you carry cash, you kind of just spend it because
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like real money anymore. But I think
Speaker 1: I hope maybe we can get into a little bit
Speaker 1: more cash, at least maybe at local places, like if
Speaker 1: you're going to a farmer's market and you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna spend money there, maybe doing cash. But some of
Speaker 1: these smaller vendors are no longer taking cash, some of
Speaker 1: them are only doing cards. So it is an interesting
Speaker 1: world that we live in right now. So do what
Speaker 1: feels right to you. But if you're the kind of
Speaker 1: person who's like, I need to get cash too often.
Speaker 1: I can't use a credit or I can't use a
Speaker 1: credit union. I would say I take out cash every
Speaker 1: month for different things, and I use a credit union.
Speaker 1: And you can always even if you can't use a
Speaker 1: credit union if it's just really not feasible for you,
Speaker 1: like I can get money out at publixes, so like
Speaker 1: the credit union has a partnership with public so I
Speaker 1: don't have to go to a bank or a credit
Speaker 1: union like atm from a cash I can just go
Speaker 1: to any publics. But if it's really that inconvenient for you,
Speaker 1: do go to Mighty Deposits dot com and see what
Speaker 1: banks in your area would be more more convenient for
Speaker 1: you and not as detrimental to the things that you
Speaker 1: care about.
Speaker 2: Thank you all so so much for listening. It's been
Speaker 2: lovely hanging out with you. We hope that this has
Speaker 2: been helpful, inspiring, informative. We also are so grateful for
Speaker 2: the kinder reviews that you're leaving for us about our book,
Speaker 2: like this one from Dora, who talked about buy what
Speaker 2: you love without going broke, giving it five stars, saying
Speaker 2: inspiring and about money. I've heard great things about Jen
Speaker 2: Smith's and Jill Siriani's podcast Frugal Friends. However, I tend
Speaker 2: to prefer reading books over listening to podcasts. Fortunately, they
Speaker 2: recently published a book titled By What You Love Without
Speaker 2: Going Broke. This allows me to review their ideas, highlight
Speaker 2: what resonates with me, and revisit their most important points.
Speaker 2: I highly recommend this book. The central theme focuses on
Speaker 2: values based spending, which means spending based on what truly
Speaker 2: matters to you. Illustrate this concept with personal stories, making
Speaker 2: it relatable and providing a perspective that really hits home.
Speaker 2: As I continued to read and reflect on their ideas,
Speaker 2: I found myself changing my spending and saving habits. These
Speaker 2: changes have left me feeling positive in our attestament to
Speaker 2: the power of values based spending, which aligns with my
Speaker 2: values and priorities rather than those of society or advertisers.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to read their newsletter and subscribe to their
Speaker 2: YouTube channel What to keep this inspiration going.
Speaker 1: We are WU Girls. We try to say that we're not,
Speaker 1: but we are WU Girls. Thank you so much, Dora.
Speaker 1: We love reading your reviews. If you haven't reviewed the
Speaker 1: show yet, please on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Please leave
Speaker 1: a rating review comment if you like this episode on Spotify,
Speaker 1: and if you have read the book, then please give
Speaker 1: it a review on Amazon, Goodreads wherever you purchased it.
Speaker 1: We would love to see those, and it also helps
Speaker 1: the book expand its reach further and wider. Expand it's
Speaker 1: you know, the message further and wider, and you can
Speaker 1: find it at byelovebook dot com.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much everyone.
Speaker 1: Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 2: It's so many things that I wanted to say to you,
Speaker 2: and we're all out the dome.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I had nothing from start to finish.
Speaker 2: Okay, here's something. Oh yeah, I was doing our transaction inventory.
Speaker 2: It's just like basically what I do every's that's how
Speaker 2: I do my spending plan.
Speaker 1: Some people are jills and some people are gens.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was looking back at kind of all of
Speaker 2: the spending that I've done and kind of where where
Speaker 2: do my transactions go. I have like a really good
Speaker 2: pulse on it. But for January and February, it was
Speaker 2: quite interesting to recognize that Eric and I spend on food,
Speaker 2: activities and travel are not buying things just like things products,
Speaker 2: tangible stuff other than the food is not coming through.
Speaker 3: Our door step. But nobody are.
Speaker 2: We spending on activities? Travel? Food?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What would you do if you didn't spend on activities
Speaker 1: and travel?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I do think that. Okay, you said activities and travel
Speaker 2: or one just pick what if I want to say
Speaker 2: about food, I feel like I don't even I'm not
Speaker 2: even gonna I'm not changing travel and activities.
Speaker 3: It's not happen.
Speaker 2: Okay, But food, I do feel like we ebb and
Speaker 2: flow in just spending too much. What I feel is
Speaker 2: But sometimes I'm like, what is enough?
Speaker 3: Who knows? Seasons change? Guests come in town, there's birthdays.
Speaker 1: I think it's easier to spend less on activities and
Speaker 1: travel than it is to spend less on food.
Speaker 2: Maybe, but I for me, I feel like that is
Speaker 2: a thing that I can go in and out of
Speaker 2: within my rhythms.
Speaker 1: There's so many options for free activities and like lower
Speaker 1: cost travel.
Speaker 2: And maybe I'm making it sound like this is insane,
Speaker 2: but I will say about once a quarter we are
Speaker 2: buying tickets to like a concert or a comedy show.
Speaker 2: Otherwise we are doing all of the free activities, but
Speaker 2: like as something comes up that just seems like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that'd be so fun. Like, for instance, in April, we're
Speaker 2: gonna go see Fred Armison live in at like the
Speaker 2: Tampa Theater.
Speaker 3: I bought that back.
Speaker 2: In January, like knowing come April this would be something
Speaker 2: really fun to do that weekend. We also recently bought
Speaker 2: tickets for a concert that's like a couple months away,
Speaker 2: So there's it's that kind of a thing. And then
Speaker 2: when it comes to travel, I have family in Ohio
Speaker 2: and both of us have family in Pennsylvania, and so
Speaker 2: we try to get to both places. Pennsylvania at least
Speaker 2: two to three times a year, Ohio once a quarter.
Speaker 1: So it's not like recreation. It's not like in I
Speaker 1: would say recreational travel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like tourists y yeah whatever.
Speaker 2: Now those trips do happen, I'd say, you know, we
Speaker 2: take like one big vacation a year and probably like
Speaker 2: two smaller long weekend trips a year. But I budget
Speaker 2: for like, I plan for that. I feel like I
Speaker 2: know myself so well.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like you're spending a lot on either.
Speaker 1: How are those the things that you are spending most of.
Speaker 2: It's just I mean, it's it is the most amount
Speaker 2: of money. Because I just bought tickets to go to
Speaker 2: Ohio in a couple of weeks and for both Eric
Speaker 2: and I to go. I want to say it was
Speaker 2: like two hundred and forty dollars, So not insane, but
Speaker 2: it's just like when you look at my spending, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I made three transactions, but they all tally up to
Speaker 2: like seven or eight hundred dollars. But it's to do
Speaker 2: these things that But that's the thing, Like it looks
Speaker 2: like you're spending a lot of money on this, but
Speaker 2: I also know that I know that these are the
Speaker 2: things that are important to me what they get me,
Speaker 2: and I just I don't want to like budge on them,
Speaker 2: like I've really come to understand like what I want right.
Speaker 1: Now, I feel like you're in a good spot, Like
Speaker 1: you don't need to over efficient seies. I don't know
Speaker 1: that's not a word, right, you don't need to like
Speaker 1: overdo it if you are in a good spot and
Speaker 1: you're like, these are the amounts that feel good to you.
Speaker 1: And I told you this before we started recording, but
Speaker 1: I'll say it on the show. We're reading new books
Speaker 1: with Kai, and one of them is about spending the
Speaker 1: money Bunny series and one of the shows, she's like
Speaker 1: trying to decide what she wants to spend her money on,
Speaker 1: and she's like, Oh, there's a toy or a pogo stick,
Speaker 1: and it's the carrots. Carrots are money in bunny Land.
Speaker 1: That's in the first page book, So like a toy
Speaker 1: for two carrots or pogostick for three carrots. And Mom's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you loved that bouncy castle and she's like, I love it,
Speaker 1: and she's Mom's like, the bouncy castle is a hundred carrots.
Speaker 1: She's like, that's ridiculous. And Mom's like, it's not ridiculous
Speaker 1: if you have one hundred carrots and nothing else to
Speaker 1: spend them on. And the Bunny's like, still ridiculous, forget
Speaker 1: the bouncy castle.
Speaker 3: So like, I feel like, I love your voices. You read.
Speaker 1: You gotta do the voices, So like, I feel like, it's, yeah,
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars, but it's not ridiculous if you have
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars and nothing else you want to spend
Speaker 1: it on, or value spending it on.
Speaker 2: I think that's my biggest thing is like optimizing and
Speaker 2: investing for retirement, Like and that's where I think food
Speaker 2: would be the big the easiest, low hanging fruit to
Speaker 2: like rein in at different points that if my spending
Speaker 2: on food is what's keeping me from being able to
Speaker 2: max out my wrath IRA, then.
Speaker 3: That's the go Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, I would. I would say that's probably your
Speaker 1: biggest area for improvement. But you're doing very good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is nuts.
Speaker 2: I know this is becoming whole other episode and we're
Speaker 2: going to have to do our own spending interventions. But
Speaker 2: I we eat at home most days of the week,
Speaker 2: but then the weekend comes and we're just doing a
Speaker 2: whole lot more activities and I'm not cooking like these
Speaker 2: big meals. Or we have friends come in town, and
Speaker 2: it's easier to just go out than have pre prepared
Speaker 2: all of the food that we're going to feed them
Speaker 2: for you know, the four days that they're in town.
Speaker 2: So it's it's a tough one to solve for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still think that people who stay with you
Speaker 1: need to like buy you food. That's always going to
Speaker 1: be because you have so many people and they come
Speaker 1: back so many times. Like the people that stay with you.
Speaker 1: They come back several times every year. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: a stammuch.
Speaker 3: You heard it here first, folks,