Speaker 1: Episode five oh four, how to save money on online shopping.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and back cole up. Because we
Speaker 1: have a lot of information for you in this episode.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. We are including links to everything in the
Speaker 1: friend letter that comes out next week. We just want
Speaker 1: to give people a week to listen to the show
Speaker 1: before we put it in the April thirtieth friend Letter.
Speaker 1: But it's a lot of shopping links.
Speaker 3: Jen is on a roll right now. She just got
Speaker 3: back from a conference. She is hyped up and wanting
Speaker 3: to give frugal education like drinking out of a fire hose.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this episode is about online shopping, so we're
Speaker 1: giving online resources obviously not.
Speaker 3: Resource. It's so good. Yeah, just get ready. But first,
Speaker 3: this is brought to you by buying stuff. We all
Speaker 3: do it. Sometimes we feel good about it, sometimes we
Speaker 3: feel bad about it. But what if we made great,
Speaker 3: guilt free spending decisions every time we bought stuff? Sound impossible,
Speaker 3: it's not, and we wrote a whole book explaining how
Speaker 3: this can be our reality called buy what you Love
Speaker 3: without going broke, get it wherever books are sold, yes, or.
Speaker 1: Buy what you lovebook dot com because this is all
Speaker 1: about online shopping today. Oh now you're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to buy it used yet I hope.
Speaker 3: I think you might be able to.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to selfishly, but bookshop dot org
Speaker 1: is the best place to buy it. So that is
Speaker 1: at buy what you loovebook dot com. Thanks everyone, all right,
Speaker 1: So a really good one to queue up after this one.
Speaker 1: If your mindset is in the online shopping realm, is
Speaker 1: episode four to thirty. Four ways online stores get you
Speaker 1: to impulse buy. We want you to save money, but
Speaker 1: we don't want you to buy things impulsively that you
Speaker 1: don't need. We don't even think impulse buying is the
Speaker 1: enemy here. Some impulsive purchases are fantastic, but those are
Speaker 1: the exception, not the rule. So that is the first
Speaker 1: thing we want you to know is four ways to
Speaker 1: that online stores get you to impulse buy. And that's
Speaker 1: episode four thirty. I know the numbers aren't there, but
Speaker 1: that's the way I organize them in my head. So
Speaker 1: you can just count back it's episode five or click.
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. We'll link it all right.
Speaker 1: So let's get into how to save money on online shop. First,
Speaker 1: I want to give some context to the episode and
Speaker 1: the areas because online shopping is very broad. We're gonna
Speaker 1: give some context to the areas that we will focus
Speaker 1: on based on stats. So in twenty twenty four, US
Speaker 1: consumers primarily spent their online shopping dollars in specific categories.
Speaker 1: Forty three percent purchased online purchased clothing online. Thirty three
Speaker 1: percent purchase shoes online, so that's gonna be one category,
Speaker 1: clothing and shoes. Thirty percent of people bought some kind
Speaker 1: of consumer electronic like smartphone, laptop, smart home device, something
Speaker 1: like that online. Twenty eight percent of people bought like
Speaker 1: entertainment things online, so books, movies, music, games. We're going
Speaker 1: to focus mostly on like the books part games a
Speaker 1: little bit, but I think people are mostly streaming movies
Speaker 1: and music. Again, that could be considered online shopping, that's
Speaker 1: just not where we're going today. And then twenty five
Speaker 1: percent of shoppers bought personal care products online, so that skincare, makeup,
Speaker 1: hygiene items. So those are the categories that we will
Speaker 1: be focusing on today.
Speaker 3: Shoes and clothing, electronics, books, personal care items. Okay, so
Speaker 3: you know our new format. It's telling you how to
Speaker 3: get these items for free, low cost, a deal, or
Speaker 3: guilt free. So we're going to go through these categories
Speaker 3: and subcategories within that framework. So let's talk about how
Speaker 3: to get all this stuff for free online. So the
Speaker 3: first category is your shoes and clothing, and we're going
Speaker 3: to recommend Facebook buy nothing groups. So every area nearly
Speaker 3: at least in the US should have a buy nothing group,
Speaker 3: and if it doesn't, you can start one. Even if
Speaker 3: you live souper rurally, there's got to be a few
Speaker 3: other people around you willing to swap some stuff. So
Speaker 3: this is, I guess a little bit of a hybrid
Speaker 3: of being online. By nothing groups are local. You find
Speaker 3: them online, you talk about the things you have to
Speaker 3: offer and the things that you're in search of, and
Speaker 3: then there is some sort of meetup that needs to happen,
Speaker 3: whether it's a porch pickup or the person is actually
Speaker 3: meeting you at at a gas station or wherever it
Speaker 3: is that you decide to do the swap. Usually, though,
Speaker 3: if people are giving away their stuff for free. They
Speaker 3: want you to just come pick it up off their
Speaker 3: front porch. And then as far as clothing, well yeah,
Speaker 3: clothing and shoes go doing a swap with people. So
Speaker 3: this is also something that you can be the initiator
Speaker 3: of and organizing something amongst your friends, the people that
Speaker 3: you're hanging out with, the meetup groups that you're a
Speaker 3: part of, and letting people know that you want to
Speaker 3: do a swap, whether that's in your home or you
Speaker 3: want to go out somewhere. Granted, people are going to
Speaker 3: be bringing bags of clothes, so you need to find
Speaker 3: a place where that would be a reasonable thing to
Speaker 3: do if it's nice enough weather, certainly something you could
Speaker 3: go do at a pavilion at a local park or something.
Speaker 3: And so organizing your own clothing swap can be a
Speaker 3: really great way to get a handful of new to
Speaker 3: you clothing items and just kind of refresh your wardrobe.
Speaker 1: But this is something that can be done online as well.
Speaker 1: So creating a Facebook event where a couple friends are
Speaker 1: posting some of their clothes in this group and you
Speaker 1: are virtually exchanging things and you can either send them
Speaker 1: if they're low costs to ship, or then meet up
Speaker 1: or meet up at a central location or bring to
Speaker 1: other people's homes. So this is something that can be
Speaker 1: done in person, but it can be done virtually even
Speaker 1: with people who don't live in your city. So if
Speaker 1: there's people your size that you know around the country,
Speaker 1: then it can be done virtually. So again and we
Speaker 1: will say that this is the free These are the
Speaker 1: free options we're getting into more of. You know, we'll
Speaker 1: get into the really good stuff. But this is who
Speaker 1: doesn't love free? Yeah, I mean getting clothing and shoes.
Speaker 1: I love clothing swaps, like in person ones personally, that's
Speaker 1: my favorite way to get free clothes. I've gotten this
Speaker 1: shirt that I am currently wearing. I got it was
Speaker 1: a black tank top. I got it for free to
Speaker 1: clothing swap, and then I bleached it so now it
Speaker 1: is a brown tank top in my color palette. So crazy,
Speaker 1: and I felt good doing it and testing on it
Speaker 1: because I was like, it was free, so if I
Speaker 1: ruin it, no harm, no foul, But I didn't, I
Speaker 1: made it better. I love So Next for books, We've
Speaker 1: got library and I'm very excited. In our next episode
Speaker 1: where we're talking about how to save on entertainment, we
Speaker 1: will be waxing poetic about everything library, so I won't
Speaker 1: go too deep into it, but y'all, library isn't just
Speaker 1: for leasing or renting free books. Every library has a
Speaker 1: section that is literally giving away books as well, So
Speaker 1: then you have local free libraries as well. You've got
Speaker 1: Hooplah and Libby where it's still renting, but it's the
Speaker 1: digital formats, the audio books. Project Gutenberg, which is anything
Speaker 1: if you want to read anything published before nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 1: anything that's in the public domain, so you really want
Speaker 1: to get your classic literature on, Project Gutenberg can give
Speaker 1: you the all the digital versions so you can read
Speaker 1: it on your kindle, you don't have to read it
Speaker 1: on your laptop. And then this is what I am
Speaker 1: really loving. Free trials for all the audiobook websites. So
Speaker 1: if you've tried one, there's probably two others that you
Speaker 1: haven't tried and you are still eligible for some free books.
Speaker 1: So we've got promo links for all these audible libro
Speaker 1: dot fm and audiobooks dot Com, so Frugal Friends Podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Audiobooks that's audiobooks dot Com and it
Speaker 1: will get you three free audiobooks frgle friendspodcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash libro dot fm. That's obviously for libro dot fm
Speaker 1: and it is two free books. And this is our favorite,
Speaker 1: uh personally place to get audiobooks. And then virgle friendspodcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash Audible you get one free audiobook. If
Speaker 1: you are already an Amazon Prime member, then you will
Speaker 1: get two free audiobooks for your trial. So three two
Speaker 1: one get some free audiobooks with these trials. Just remember,
Speaker 1: if you don't want to continue with it, cancel it immediately.
Speaker 1: It's still going to allow you to go through your trial,
Speaker 1: but we don't want you to get charged for something
Speaker 1: you don't want. If you love audiobooks, by all means,
Speaker 1: keep keep going with it and you support the show
Speaker 1: at no extra cost to you.
Speaker 3: If you want to get some free electronics, you could
Speaker 3: consider product testing and review programs. So some places that
Speaker 3: offer this type of thing include Best Buy, Tech Insider Network.
Speaker 1: And this is where the links start in the front
Speaker 1: letter next week. So don't crush your car trying to
Speaker 1: write all these down.
Speaker 3: Crush your car.
Speaker 1: If you were listening to this in the car and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh.
Speaker 3: Oh, crash your car. Okay, crush your car, I thought
Speaker 3: you were using some new fangled lingo that I'm like,
Speaker 3: I can't keep up with you. You go to a conference,
Speaker 3: you come back and I can't keep up.
Speaker 4: Okay, in influenceder buzz agent, so bzz agent again, we'll
Speaker 4: have the links Smiley three sixty sample source.
Speaker 3: Now hear me out. We're talking free stuff, so you're
Speaker 3: not going to totally know what you're going to get sent,
Speaker 3: and you're not talking to laptop or Yeah, if you're
Speaker 3: on the lookout for something specific, this is probably isn't
Speaker 3: necessarily the way to go. But if you are super techy,
Speaker 3: you would love the opportunity to try out some new tech,
Speaker 3: possibly have some stuff to maybe be able to resell eventually.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: These are the things that you would probably I think
Speaker 1: impulse buy online tech wise, like I would rather go
Speaker 1: into Verizon to buy my phone my or Apple to
Speaker 1: buy my laptop. Granted I did buy my laptop online
Speaker 1: last time, but yeah, I'm going to smaller things. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be app to buy online. And so that's
Speaker 1: the type of thing that these things are obviously doing.
Speaker 1: And then for personal care, we've got samples again, so
Speaker 1: you could go on Facebook Marketplace and see if there's
Speaker 1: any free options Craigslist, free Cycle, buy nothing. I am
Speaker 1: actually more appt to get free stuff that way than
Speaker 1: paying on Facebook market because some of the free personal
Speaker 1: care stuff on Facebook marketplace or eBay is actually fraudulent.
Speaker 1: It's like not real. Yeah, so I'm a little iffy
Speaker 1: about that stuff. I am paying, like for a half
Speaker 1: used bottle of shampoo. I am more apt to do
Speaker 1: that than something that looks brand new. I want it
Speaker 1: to look used. But so that is also an option.
Speaker 1: But I really do like samples from sites like the
Speaker 1: ones just mentioned, but also pinch me and social nature
Speaker 1: are good ones specifically for personal care samples. So there's
Speaker 1: also our freebies on Reddit. You'll find a lot of
Speaker 1: samples in that subreddit too, also the buy nothing group.
Speaker 1: It would be good instead of just waiting lurking to
Speaker 1: see if anyone's going to get rid of this stuff,
Speaker 1: make a post asking if anyone's decluttering their bathroom soon,
Speaker 1: let me know I'm looking for X. You know, do
Speaker 1: a general broad category and maybe even if somebody isn't
Speaker 1: planning on decluttering their bathroom, they might think about it
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, actually have that and I'm not
Speaker 1: using it, let me give it to you. So make
Speaker 1: a post. If there's something specific, like I want to
Speaker 1: try a new shampoo, then you know, I post. If
Speaker 1: anybody's decluttering their bathroom soon, let me know I'm looking
Speaker 1: for I'm looking to try some new shampoos. So I
Speaker 1: would uh love and you know if you have an
Speaker 1: old shampoo you're not going to use anymore.
Speaker 3: I'd love to take it all right. Moving on to
Speaker 3: the low cost category, how can we get something for
Speaker 3: less expensive? And this is going to be certainly a
Speaker 3: lot of secondhand. So when it comes to clothes and shoes,
Speaker 3: two different categories I want to look at with in
Speaker 3: clothing and shoes. One is for your kind of like
Speaker 3: mainstream somewhat trendy type fashion. You've got part Poshmark, so
Speaker 3: that's going to be like, yeah, the mainstream trendy shoes, accessories,
Speaker 3: designer and casual. You've also got deep pop so this
Speaker 3: is some gen z vibes, y two K vintage street
Speaker 3: where that's the kind of stuff you're going to find there.
Speaker 1: Shopping for your children, yeah, or your nieces and nephews
Speaker 1: or yourself. You're just trying to relive those younger days
Speaker 1: thread Up. So thread Up has a huge inventory of
Speaker 1: women's and kids clothes, specifically some men's clothing too, although
Speaker 1: you all are out here knowing that there is just
Speaker 1: not a huge selection of men doing secondhand with their clothing.
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're doing with their clothing, but
Speaker 3: they are not. Travis is thrifting, I know, but there's
Speaker 3: not as big of a section at any thrift store,
Speaker 3: the guys versus the girls sections. And it's just so
Speaker 3: hard to find stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean tell that to Travis. He finds stuff
Speaker 1: all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it depends on It does depend on what your
Speaker 3: style is.
Speaker 1: Every time we go thrifting, he comes back with more
Speaker 1: than I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, then you've got Mercari. So this is kind
Speaker 3: of a general marketplace. It is great though for shoes,
Speaker 3: casual clothes. eBay is good for classic clothing, for both
Speaker 3: high end and affordable secondhand fashion, and then if you
Speaker 3: want to go more luxury however, with your clothing and shoes,
Speaker 3: The Real Real is a luxury authentication site. They sell
Speaker 3: designer clothing, bags and shoes secondhand. Vestier Collective that's international
Speaker 3: designer resale and luxury goods fashion file with a pH.
Speaker 3: This is designer bags, shoes and accessory, mostly women's. And
Speaker 3: then finally rebag specializes as you guessed in designer bags.
Speaker 3: They also have shoes and clothing, but that would be
Speaker 3: specifically for some designer bags.
Speaker 1: All right, So second hand books, we're looking at thrift books,
Speaker 1: better world books, but then we also have I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're on Amazon, you'll be able to see save
Speaker 1: with used, so you've got it there too. Basically anywhere.
Speaker 1: You could even look at your local bookstores. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of bookstores that do part new, part used books,
Speaker 1: so they may sell books online. We have the book
Speaker 1: Rescuers here in Largo and it is just like three
Speaker 1: miles of used books. I don't know if they sell
Speaker 1: any of their higher end books online, but for local
Speaker 1: bookstores that may have a used component, and see if
Speaker 1: there's an option for buying online or you don't really
Speaker 1: have to look local. If you're buying online, you just
Speaker 1: look for locally owned bookstores.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay. Electronics this is a category where you can
Speaker 3: utilize sites like back Market. They've got a massive selection
Speaker 3: of refurbished phones, laptops, tablets, so that's pre owned electronics
Speaker 3: but have been refurbished so they can work nearly like
Speaker 3: new again. Also a site like declutter with no E
Speaker 3: at the end, it's just declutter. Declutt r great for
Speaker 3: unlocked phones, tablets, MacBooks. Swapa is a site that takes
Speaker 3: you direct person to person marketplace and they but yet
Speaker 3: they are able to verify the listing, so that's an
Speaker 3: opportunity for you to kind of be able to exchange
Speaker 3: your items. Gazelle is a site that specifically focuses on
Speaker 3: smartphones and tablets, especially Apple. So if that's a product
Speaker 3: that you are all in on, checkout Gazelle. And then
Speaker 3: you've got open box or refurbished items from places like
Speaker 3: best Buy, Amazon, Warehouse, New Egg and stack. You can
Speaker 3: stack cash back with racketin and promo codes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you do the big box stores, yeah.
Speaker 3: Which is awesome.
Speaker 1: I will say a tip for buying secondhand or refurbished electronics.
Speaker 1: I have found that you are better off going all
Speaker 1: in with the bigger electronics than the smaller ones. And
Speaker 1: I've purchased many electronics from pawn shops and I have
Speaker 1: verified my life laptop, so I'll give specifically a laptop
Speaker 1: and some air pods the laptop used it for years
Speaker 1: completely like one hundred percent authentic, not refurbished, one hundred
Speaker 1: percent new, like authentic, not new, but good. And I
Speaker 1: was worried about it because I was like, that's a
Speaker 1: lot of money. I don't know if I want to
Speaker 1: like risk that money on like a pawn shop laptop.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad I did AirPods. I felt less apprehensive
Speaker 1: about buying for one hundred bucks from the pawn shop.
Speaker 1: Yet it turns out even with all the verifying I
Speaker 1: did in the store, they still ended.
Speaker 3: Up being knockoffs.
Speaker 1: They were so close to being authentic, like everything looked authentic.
Speaker 1: They looked authentic when they connected initially, but then there
Speaker 1: were just problems and and eventually it turned out that
Speaker 1: they were not real. So the lower cost items, lower
Speaker 1: cost electronics are going to be easier to knock off
Speaker 1: and you risk fraudulents.
Speaker 3: So having.
Speaker 1: A place to that verifies and stands by what they
Speaker 1: sell is worth it. For the lower priced items. It's
Speaker 1: much harder to replicate a full MacBook, so not as
Speaker 1: many people do it, and you can actually feel safer
Speaker 1: about maybe the online pawn shop purchase. I would be
Speaker 1: definitely going in store for something that big. But if
Speaker 1: I'm going to like back market, then I would feel
Speaker 1: better about buying a laptop there, all right. And then
Speaker 1: we've got personal care, which again is a dicey one
Speaker 1: to buy secondhand, but I'll read it or I like
Speaker 1: getting it through by nothing group like somebody who just
Speaker 1: I tried this for a while. It's not working for me, like,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna gift it or paying a low price,
Speaker 1: a very low price for something that somebody's saying the
Speaker 1: same thing, but they're just trying to get like five
Speaker 1: bucks for it. I use a very nice shampoo. I
Speaker 1: use an conditioner called Oliplex, and I look sometimes for
Speaker 1: that on Facebook marketplace. But I've also heard because apparently
Speaker 1: it went viral. I don't know. My curly haired hairdresser
Speaker 1: told me to do it, and I did it and
Speaker 1: I like it, so now that's what I used. But
Speaker 1: apparently it went viral, so that meant a lot of knockoffs.
Speaker 1: So I would say go with free or very half used.
Speaker 1: You know, if they're trying to sell you some kind
Speaker 1: of knockoff, you know, if you feel it, don't go
Speaker 1: with it. But you can find some stuff Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark,
Speaker 1: mercari eBay, Amazon Warehouse could be a really good option
Speaker 1: just for saving some money on a return. Returns are
Speaker 1: really good. So yeah, and I will I would like
Speaker 1: to mention a bonus.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, So in.
Speaker 1: My research I found some bulk resale options and this
Speaker 1: is mostly for resellers. So you know those people you
Speaker 1: know hot bins hot buys, those crazy hot by crazy
Speaker 1: hot buys. This is where they get their crazy hot
Speaker 1: buys is from stuff like liquidation dot com, bulk dot
Speaker 1: com with a Q eight eight eight lots. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Amazon has their own like liquidation site, but resellers online,
Speaker 1: resellers buy these big lots for a couple hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: resell them online and make a profit. That is a
Speaker 1: business model, but it is also something you could do
Speaker 1: if you have a large family, if you have friends
Speaker 1: who want to pull resources your different sizes and you
Speaker 1: want to go in on like a vintage T shirt
Speaker 1: a lot or Christmas gifts because the lots are themed
Speaker 1: like shoes, bags shirts. I found one on liquidation dot
Speaker 1: com was there was like a like a bunch of
Speaker 1: cold and flu medicine. Oh wow, yeah, so like pooling
Speaker 1: with families to like stock up on a year's worth
Speaker 1: of cold of blue medicine, you know, so like all
Speaker 1: kinds of things, and this is where being in community
Speaker 1: becomes really yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean just on bulk dot com. They also have
Speaker 3: appliances like you can get a kitchen aid set washer
Speaker 3: dryer for like two hundred bucks plus shipping and not
Speaker 3: look into how much shipping will cose it.
Speaker 1: Yeah you could if you're nearby, you can organize your
Speaker 1: own shipping for these places. And they ship from all
Speaker 1: kinds of different so it's not one central place. This
Speaker 1: is literally like CBS, it's trying to get rid of
Speaker 1: this cold medication and it's at their warehouse and they
Speaker 1: just use liquidation dot com as this like third party
Speaker 1: to connect their stuff to buyers.
Speaker 3: Okay, now we're moving on to deals deals, deals babe,
Speaker 3: and this is the category where we're kind of talking
Speaker 3: like what types of coupons or sales deals might you
Speaker 3: be able to find on these things and how do
Speaker 3: you find those sales? So across the board on all
Speaker 3: of these categories you can use racketin so this is
Speaker 3: a browser extension that finds any rebates and deals for
Speaker 3: you and automatically applies them to your purchase if you
Speaker 3: have the browser extension downloaded. Use our link because it
Speaker 3: gets you thirty dollars and gives us thirty dollars. They
Speaker 3: also usually run a bonus in may of a spend forty,
Speaker 3: get forty or no use. Well it's both.
Speaker 1: It's a spend forty and then you get a forty
Speaker 1: dollars bonus cash back, and then we also get forty
Speaker 1: dollars at no extra cost.
Speaker 3: To everyone's just winning one win. So what it means
Speaker 3: for you is that essentially your thirty or forty dollars
Speaker 3: purchase is covered, not to mention than all the rebates
Speaker 3: that you get back. So we will get a check
Speaker 3: quarterly just for the online shopping that we did. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it's a few dollars, sometimes it's more than that. Like
Speaker 3: I've had personally a racket in check for like twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five bucks back in the mail, which is very
Speaker 3: fun to receive just for the shopping that I'm already doing.
Speaker 3: So that's definitely something to download. Get our link because
Speaker 3: it'll get you that that extra money.
Speaker 1: We go friend the podcast dot com slash Racketin is
Speaker 1: our link.
Speaker 3: We'll have it in the show notes too, but there
Speaker 3: you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So deal aggregator websites, so you can use
Speaker 1: something like Brad's Deals. They are a partner of the show,
Speaker 1: and they will aggregate deals across mostly Amazon, but like
Speaker 1: a lot of different retailers, retail Me not Slick Deals.
Speaker 1: They also will aggregate deals. Blackfriday dot Com, which is
Speaker 1: originally for Black Friday ads, it actually aggregates store flyers
Speaker 1: year round, so if you want to see a store
Speaker 1: flyer for a complete store, not just like random deals.
Speaker 1: Blackfriday dot Com aggregates all those flyers online.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and of course there's always the trick of patients
Speaker 3: just waiting for a day, a deal or a sale
Speaker 3: to come up. So Black Friday sales actually start in October.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, prim add an extra day like it was
Speaker 1: just in July, but now it's also in October two.
Speaker 1: So like when Amazon does something, everybody else does it too.
Speaker 1: So now Black Fridays, if you look at discounts, like
Speaker 1: the number of stores doing discounts in a graph, Black
Speaker 1: Friday essentially starts in October at that week.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And also usually without fail, if you leave an
Speaker 3: item in your cart, whether it's for Amazon, or really
Speaker 3: anybody else who has a shopping cart you're shopping online.
Speaker 3: If you leave it there, usually you'll get it'll trigger
Speaker 3: an abandoned cart discount, so you'll get some sort of
Speaker 3: email or pop up screen saying, hey, did you forget
Speaker 3: about this? You want a fifteen to twenty percent off coupon.
Speaker 1: I've actually done that with I've been really wanting to
Speaker 1: try Beam Dream. It is an evening drink that you
Speaker 1: drink like thirty minutes before you want to go to sleep.
Speaker 1: And I don't act. So the reason I haven't pulled
Speaker 1: the trigger is that I don't have trouble falling asleep.
Speaker 1: I am exhausted all the time, but I do love
Speaker 1: to have an evening warm beverage, and I don't. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll have coffee in the evening. Oh no, still doesn't
Speaker 1: keep me up, yike, But I don't want to be
Speaker 1: putting extra caffeine in my body. And I've heard great
Speaker 1: things about the taste.
Speaker 3: Of beam Dream. Oh fun. And it's so expensive.
Speaker 1: So I put it in a cart and signed up
Speaker 1: for their text messages, and I keep getting text messages
Speaker 1: with discounts. The biggest discount i've seen is thirty five
Speaker 1: percent off. When they gave me that initially and then expired,
Speaker 1: and then they gave it to me again, you're just playing.
Speaker 3: The long game. I kept playing the long game.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is like, don't put it in
Speaker 1: the cart unless you know you really really want it,
Speaker 1: because it will tempt you. Oh, keep buy it every day.
Speaker 1: I it's not tempting me enough to buy it because
Speaker 1: it's so expensive. But if I was on the fringe,
Speaker 1: surely it would have pushed me over if it was
Speaker 1: a little less expensive initially. If you're listening, you have
Speaker 1: a hookup to beam Dream, then I will gladly beam
Speaker 1: me up, Beam me up, please, all right, gil Freeze.
Speaker 3: This is our category where we were talking about how
Speaker 3: to now just buy it full price, leaning towards local,
Speaker 3: sustainable values driven decisions. So before you buy it full
Speaker 3: price from a big box store, see if you can
Speaker 3: get it from a local retailer or if there's a
Speaker 3: more sustainable version. This is certainly where chat GPT can
Speaker 3: come in handy, and also just local Google searches of
Speaker 3: the stores that you know are are locally owned in
Speaker 3: your area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you can't get it for free, low cost,
Speaker 1: or get a deal on it, then ask if the
Speaker 1: purchase gets you more of the fore f's the more
Speaker 1: things you truly value. For us, family, friends, faith, and
Speaker 1: fulfilling work tend to be the things that we value most.
Speaker 1: Most people value the most in life. And so if
Speaker 1: it does get you more connection or time with your
Speaker 1: family of friends, if it does deepen faith in the
Speaker 1: way that you want it to, if it does get
Speaker 1: you closer to fulfilling work, then that is going to
Speaker 1: be a purchase that you can make at full price
Speaker 1: without guilt.
Speaker 3: And since buying online is typically where we do the
Speaker 3: most impulse spending, or where a lot of impulse spending
Speaker 3: can happen because it's so easy and the barriers are
Speaker 3: so low and there's not a ton of friction, our
Speaker 3: advice of creating a wish list is still going to stand.
Speaker 3: So not leaving things in your cart, that's like, that's
Speaker 3: only a specific strategy for getting a deal on something
Speaker 3: you know you're already going to purchase, but primarily creating
Speaker 3: a wish list that is step from the shopping cart,
Speaker 3: waiting thirty days before buying it to avoid that impulse purchase.
Speaker 3: And then if you still want it, being able to
Speaker 3: buy it guilt free because you know that, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: feel good about this. I've waited, I still want it.
Speaker 3: I feel good about it.
Speaker 1: And then finally think about price per use. So this is,
Speaker 1: if I buy this, how many times do I have
Speaker 1: to use it to get to a price per use
Speaker 1: than I am comfortable with? And if I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm going to use it that much? Then can I
Speaker 1: resell it at a price where I can get to
Speaker 1: this price per use? Remember we can always resell things too.
Speaker 1: Travis will buy tools to make the job of renovating
Speaker 1: our house easier with full intention of reselling that and
Speaker 1: really only paying half price for you know, essentially renting it.
Speaker 1: But so, yeah, we're launching a budget spreadsheet next week Monday, April,
Speaker 1: and we have added to it an opportunity cost calculator,
Speaker 1: and it is going to you're able to put a
Speaker 1: price and calculate the price per use, or put in
Speaker 1: a price per use and calculate how many times you
Speaker 1: would have to use it to get there. It is
Speaker 1: also going to calculate there's another calculator on it for
Speaker 1: lost opportunities, So you're gonna be able to put the
Speaker 1: price in and it's going to be able to calculate
Speaker 1: how much you would lose, how much you've lost if
Speaker 1: you had invested that money in right, So these are.
Speaker 3: All tricks, a little dangerous.
Speaker 1: It's not going to push you over the edge. But
Speaker 1: the budget spreadsheet is mobile optimized, so it's going to
Speaker 1: allow you to open the spreadsheet up and track transactions
Speaker 1: mobile and before you make a transaction, open it up,
Speaker 1: plug into these calculators and see, okay, is it worth that?
Speaker 1: Because people always tell you to do that, But like
Speaker 1: when you're in the store and you're about to make
Speaker 1: the purchase, how do you do it? Where do you
Speaker 1: do it? You do it in this budget spreadsheet that
Speaker 1: we're launching on the twenty eighth, So be sure you
Speaker 1: are on the front letter list that you are getting
Speaker 1: the front letter every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because next week
Speaker 1: we will be dropping a fifty percent off launch coupon
Speaker 1: for that spreadsheet.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm so excited for this because it's mobile optimized
Speaker 3: and it's beautiful. Yeah talk about online tools, Well, you
Speaker 3: know what else is beautiful and an online tool.
Speaker 1: And nobody who's ever called in for this is a
Speaker 1: tool Jill.
Speaker 3: Oh, good one the bill of the week.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 5: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 5: is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 5: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 5: that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, bill clon, this
Speaker 5: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi, this is Lisa from Boston. Wanted to tell you
Speaker 6: about my bill of the week. That kind of goes
Speaker 6: along with my mantra it never hurts to ask. So
Speaker 6: this month, I was in the middle of a free
Speaker 6: trial of a productivity tool for my freelance business. I
Speaker 6: noticed on the website it really wasn't geared towards freelancers.
Speaker 6: There was geared to bigger businesses. But I really liked
Speaker 6: what it did.
Speaker 7: And when I got an email during the free trial
Speaker 7: kind of showing me around and asking how I liked it,
Speaker 7: I said, I totally love it, but the cheapest plan
Speaker 7: is still a bit outside of my price range. I
Speaker 7: might not be her target demographic, but I do like it,
Speaker 7: and I wanted to know if maybe there's some freelance
Speaker 7: plan that maybe isn't on your pricing page, and they said, yes,
Speaker 7: actually there is. Use this promo code, which I did
Speaker 7: and I got fifty percent off that.
Speaker 6: Plan for the first year. So I'm really excited. And
Speaker 6: if it works well and I get more business, maybe
Speaker 6: next year wouldn't be so hard for me to pay
Speaker 6: full price. So anyway, it doesn't hurt to ask, and
Speaker 6: wanted to pass that along. Thank you.
Speaker 3: I love this, Lisa. I love the it doesn't hurt
Speaker 3: to ask mantra. Let's all adopt it to act. This
Speaker 3: would go so beautifully into our framework of that third question,
Speaker 3: how can I get it for a deal?
Speaker 4: Act?
Speaker 3: Just even if they don't have it on their sales page.
Speaker 3: People don't want to lose money. They might take a
Speaker 3: little less money.
Speaker 1: They love your money. They have of your money than
Speaker 1: none of your money, and if you really want to
Speaker 1: give them your money, ask.
Speaker 3: Just ask. This is a beautiful example, Lisa. I love it.
Speaker 3: Well done, and I hope your business grows by leaps
Speaker 3: and bounds and that you need the top tier of
Speaker 3: that productivity tool if that's what you want. I mean,
Speaker 3: I also want you to enjoy your life.
Speaker 1: Scale pay for the enterprise version of that software, because you.
Speaker 3: Need to the big, big business one version.
Speaker 1: I hope to need the enterprise version of softwares because
Speaker 1: that's because I am an enterprise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a kingdom, some might call it. Well, if you
Speaker 3: all listening, have a billity you want to submit, if
Speaker 3: it's about building an empire or a kingdom, or just
Speaker 3: asking about getting a deal, or your name is Bill
Speaker 3: for over on the podcast dot com slash Bill. We
Speaker 3: can't wait to hear it. And now it's time for
Speaker 3: the route.
Speaker 1: All right, what's one thing in your cart that you're
Speaker 1: waiting for the right time to buy? And it's not
Speaker 1: in my cart because I don't keep things in my car.
Speaker 1: We don't do that for Beam. So maybe that is
Speaker 1: what I should have said you already Beam dream is
Speaker 1: actually in my cart? But a bathing suit? Wow, I
Speaker 1: am trying, and maybe we can talk this out right now?
Speaker 1: Should I get a used bathing suit? Is right? That
Speaker 1: is a debate a hot topic. Right, it's not like underwear, right,
Speaker 1: we're not doing that. It's not sucks, we're not doing that.
Speaker 3: How is it not underwear? But is it okay? You
Speaker 3: know what? I am making a face? Actually I have
Speaker 3: a used bathing suit.
Speaker 1: I've the coffee she says it about the used bathing suit.
Speaker 3: Everything I have to have.
Speaker 1: Thing she judges, she does, she does not use or kise.
Speaker 3: Listen, listen to me. I need to be allowed to
Speaker 3: have an extreme reaction and then and then the permission
Speaker 3: to backtrack it. Okay, because listen, you say nevers all
Speaker 3: the time, and then it ends up being what we do.
Speaker 3: So let me have my initial visceral facial reaction and
Speaker 3: then and then my truth telling where I do say
Speaker 3: that the bathing suit I am using right now is
Speaker 3: but see the difference.
Speaker 1: Between my nevers is that they are not judgmental. There
Speaker 1: I will never do, not things you should never do.
Speaker 3: I thought about it. You're right, I'm going to try
Speaker 3: and grow. I can't be an enterprise yet. I have
Speaker 3: to work my way there. I gotta scale. Okay, have
Speaker 3: an initial reaction.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll just buy new bathing suits.
Speaker 3: I needed to have remembered that this is the life
Speaker 3: I live.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear your ideas about it, my
Speaker 1: friend listener, just in Spotify and the comments.
Speaker 3: In the comment cells.
Speaker 1: Please don't judge me as harshly as Jill. It is
Speaker 1: truly a question I am asking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, and I'm realizing that. My answer is, you
Speaker 3: know what. Yeah, however, there are some standards with this,
Speaker 3: and obviously we're all gonna have standards.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 8: It can't be faded, it can't be Lucy goosey, it
Speaker 8: can't be pilly. Nope, it can't have stains on it,
Speaker 8: No stains.
Speaker 1: I have standards.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: We're looking new, but maybe we were secretly not.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, is there a used bathing suit you have
Speaker 3: an eye on currently?
Speaker 1: I see, that's when I'm trying. It's not in my cart.
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: I want to buy a new bathing suit, but I
Speaker 1: don't know like I want to. I want to be
Speaker 1: sustainable and and buy a used one, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if I if it's going too far.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Don't think it is, because people don't wear bathing suits
Speaker 1: that often or for that long, right right.
Speaker 7: So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's possible. I cannot shop for clothing, much
Speaker 3: less a bathing suit online. It's just not for me.
Speaker 3: I have to be able to try it on because
Speaker 3: I hate the nuisance of returning things. I will if
Speaker 3: I change my mind or something doesn't work, but i'd
Speaker 3: rather avoid it, so I am an in person clothing shopper.
Speaker 3: We'll see.
Speaker 1: I still haven't decided yet. I'm waiting, okay, but it
Speaker 1: is on my mind.
Speaker 3: Well, and the thing about getting it used online is
Speaker 3: you probably aren't going to be able to return it.
Speaker 3: That's a big risk. You might waste more money.
Speaker 1: That's another risk. Yeah, we'll see TBD.
Speaker 3: Okay. Well, mine is something that did already happen. Can
Speaker 3: that count? Because usually I don't actually have anything divulge buying? Okay.
Speaker 3: I am not one of these people out here willy
Speaker 3: nilly with whatever kind of personal care, facial, skincare things
Speaker 3: that I want only willy nilly to judge, not you
Speaker 3: know what, trying it out? Okay, seeing of judgment works
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 1: I feel like it doesn't. I think it's always directed
Speaker 1: towards me.
Speaker 3: Two times, Jen, you're gonna be okay, and you know what,
Speaker 3: maybe you learn something wow. Okay. So I don't want
Speaker 3: to be trying out a bunch of different products just
Speaker 3: because I got them for free. I've really enjoyed finding
Speaker 3: what works for me, and I am willing to pay
Speaker 3: for that guilt free. So I have found this brand. Uh,
Speaker 3: it is called a dime They do not sponsor us,
Speaker 3: but really kind of clean ingredients. I've been really happy
Speaker 3: with it. But they are not inexpensive. They're not super expensive,
Speaker 3: but they're kind of that like middle of the road.
Speaker 3: But I figured out the products that I like that
Speaker 3: I want not kind of anything too much, but also
Speaker 3: not skimping out. And I've also learned that one order
Speaker 3: will last me for six months, so I will purchase
Speaker 3: usually in April and in October. So it's April now, right,
Speaker 3: It's about time for my dime order, and I know
Speaker 3: that there's gonna be a deal, right, They will put
Speaker 3: out deals, so this is about the time where I
Speaker 3: will re engage with like text updates or email updates
Speaker 3: to know like what are their deals. And I know
Speaker 3: that the best sale they ever run is thirty percent off,
Speaker 3: So I in the last month have just been waiting
Speaker 3: and looking for that, and sure enough, thirty percent off.
Speaker 3: Baby pull the trigger.
Speaker 1: I love that for you, Thank you. And it's something
Speaker 1: you've been using for a long time that you can
Speaker 1: say on the podcast and recommend.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, I've been using it for at least a
Speaker 3: year and a half now, probably.
Speaker 1: Nice and what products are you using?
Speaker 3: I will get their gentle jelly cleanser, A toner, hyerlonic As,
Speaker 3: Serum day cream, night cream, I cream.
Speaker 1: You really strayed from our Minimalist skincare episode.
Speaker 3: It feels pretty minimalist to me because every day it's
Speaker 3: just cleaning my face, serum moisturizer, every night, cleaning my face,
Speaker 3: oh toner in the morning. Okay, yeah, okay, dime. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Maybe we'll get them to sponsor us someday. That'd be
Speaker 3: real nice, get even more of a me.
Speaker 1: And I say it with the coffee, I wait till
Speaker 1: they have the big sale and buy enough to get
Speaker 1: the free shipping, and I too, only buy it six months.
Speaker 3: Every six months, I mean, I think that that's one
Speaker 3: of our goals too, with any affiliates or products that
Speaker 3: we ever do push, is that we are able to
Speaker 3: get you all a coupon code for it so that
Speaker 3: it's like something we actually do recommend, and we can
Speaker 3: help you get it for a deal.
Speaker 1: So that you don't have to wait twice a year.
Speaker 3: It works surt me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I hope you found it helpful. And the next time
Speaker 1: you go to buy something online that you will use
Speaker 1: one of these options before you just go impulse buy
Speaker 1: on a deal or buy full price impulsively. These are
Speaker 1: created to help you save money but also create barriers
Speaker 1: so that you consume less and so if you want
Speaker 1: more of this, like Jill said in at the top,
Speaker 1: we wrote a book called Buy what you Love without
Speaker 1: Going Broke, and it will help you create the habits,
Speaker 1: the mindset shifts to really be able to take these
Speaker 1: frameworks and save money without over accumulation. And if you
Speaker 1: have read it, we would love it if you would
Speaker 1: leave a review on Amazon, that's where most people go
Speaker 1: to deem a book.
Speaker 3: Worthy or not.
Speaker 1: And we really love this one from Kyle Tony, it
Speaker 1: Happened to be five Stars, says, Finally a finance book
Speaker 1: that celebrates you as a podcast listener. I already knew
Speaker 1: a lot of what to expect from this book, but
Speaker 1: loved seeing it Finally a finance book that celebrates you
Speaker 1: as a podcast listener. I already knew a lot of
Speaker 1: what to expect from this book, but love to see
Speaker 1: laid out so neatly. I love how Jen and Jill
Speaker 1: encourage you to find what is of value to you
Speaker 1: and spend accordingly. I think so much financial advice preaches
Speaker 1: what you should spend money on, whether you values those
Speaker 1: things or not. My husband and I have started assessing
Speaker 1: if we're spending our money on things we enjoy or
Speaker 1: on things we feel like we're supposed to. This book
Speaker 1: really explores that idea and takes it another step further.
Speaker 1: I do highly recommend it in audiobook form. I read
Speaker 1: the first half, but listen to the second half and
Speaker 1: almost spit out my drink when I heard the lightning
Speaker 1: round pewpeus. I only wish there was some kind of
Speaker 1: comparable doodle or emoji in the book to signify that
Speaker 1: this is a very official and professional book. This very
Speaker 1: official and professional book still maintained the fun of the
Speaker 1: podcast Lightning Round sound effects.
Speaker 3: That's so cute. I love that you loved the audiobook.
Speaker 3: We are hearing that a ton from people, which makes
Speaker 3: sense because we are podcasters who wrote a book, So.
Speaker 1: We loved the audiobook, we loved recording it, and we
Speaker 1: wanted to do something special for all.
Speaker 3: Of our audio files. Yeah. So thanks everyone for listening,
Speaker 3: thanks for reading our book. If you are enjoying this podcast,
Speaker 3: please do take a minute to leave us a rating
Speaker 3: and review. It helps other listeners find us, It helps us.
Speaker 3: If you've read the book, please leave a rating and
Speaker 3: review on Amazon. Even if you didn't buy it there,
Speaker 3: you can still leave a review for it on Amazon,
Speaker 3: So yeah, or get the book by what you lovebook
Speaker 3: dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, by what you lovebook dot Com. Bye Bye Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: Jen Jill. Eric just finished our audio book. Speaking speaking
Speaker 3: of we've been working on the exterior of our house
Speaker 3: a ton lately, really still recovering from the hurricane, doing
Speaker 3: things on our garage to get it ready for the roof.
Speaker 3: The roof is installed now, but we've got soffits to replace.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. Anyways, he's been listening to our audiobook
Speaker 3: while while we've been working. That's and amazing. I know,
Speaker 3: it is so amazing, And he said he loved it
Speaker 3: and it feels so true to who we are, which
Speaker 3: also feels great because you can't hide from your spouse
Speaker 3: right like they know you through and through, So for
Speaker 3: it to still feel authentic to him was really great
Speaker 3: to hear. It was also very interesting, so I have said,
Speaker 3: but not to him. He's never heard me say this.
Speaker 3: I think I've said it, you know, in interviews or
Speaker 3: at book events that he's not been at that my
Speaker 3: favorite chapter of the book is chapter nine, talking about
Speaker 3: contentment versus complacency. I think it just has to do
Speaker 3: with like the season of life I'm in. Writing that
Speaker 3: chapter felt therapeutic to me and it just, yeah, right
Speaker 3: now is my favorite chapter. And so anyways, when he
Speaker 3: finished the book, I was like, okay, like what stood
Speaker 3: out to you as they're like a favorite part, And
Speaker 3: he's like, oh, there's this one part that actually was
Speaker 3: my favorite, and so he had to like go back
Speaker 3: through it to look at like what it was, and
Speaker 3: it happened to be chapter nine, and like, no, way,
Speaker 3: that's my favorite too. We must be in a really
Speaker 3: similar stage of life that that chapter speaks to us.
Speaker 3: But I thought that was very fun. Oh that's great.
Speaker 3: It was cute.