transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] 15 money-saving tips I wish I'd learn sooner.
Speaker 2:
[00:08] Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1:
[00:24] Welcome, Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.
Speaker 3:
[00:26] I'm Jill.
Speaker 1:
[00:28] And we haven't always been money-saving experts. We've always been more on the frugal side. I mean, we've been doing this for eight years now. But we haven't and still don't always feel like we're experts because we're always learning. So we wanted to do an episode today. Maybe you're young, maybe you're just new to frugality, but some money-saving tips that we wish we'd learned sooner, or at least knew and wish we had valued sooner.
Speaker 3:
[01:01] Yeah, these are the tips that maybe we misinterpreted or looked down upon, or maybe just didn't know. And so we want to share them with you to pick what works. Again, we're not saying you've got to do all of these, but maybe it sparks an interest in, oh, I've never tried that one before. Let me see if it works.
Speaker 1:
[01:20] Yeah. But first, my birthday is coming up. And I would like you to get me something for my birthday. And it's a subscription to our YouTube channel. Yep, that's it. That's all. And I want us to get to 10,000 subscribers by my birthday on May 9th. And I won't know if we're there because we record these so far in advance. So I'm hoping that we're close. Yeah, but I would really love 10,000 subscribers. So if you're already subscribed to the channel, thank you. Grab somebody you love's phone and subscribe from there because you know they need to hear this. It's just like a little subtle like, here you go, here you go girl. And if you're not subscribed, what are you waiting for? Come, come to the club. Come to the frugal side.
Speaker 3:
[02:14] And if for some reason we've blown up by then and we have far surpassed 10,000 subscribers, still subscribe, show the love because you know, my birthday is going to happen in August and I'm going to have a goal.
Speaker 1:
[02:27] Yeah. You're going to be able to get that for her birthday too.
Speaker 3:
[02:30] Exactly.
Speaker 1:
[02:31] But my birthday is first. I am three and a half months older.
Speaker 3:
[02:35] Older and wiser. All right. Here we go. 15 things.
Speaker 1:
[02:39] All right. So the first is something that hit me very, very hard, very personally. And I think that you might be able to relate you listening to this. Buy quality things you use every day. So there has been this struggle for me. Like when I was young, I would buy the cheapest thing because I had no money, right? So I had to buy the cheapest thing. And that went with me even when I did get some more money. And that helped us invest faster and more. And that was great. There are definitely some things that I wish I had chosen quality over quantity for. So then I had this swing in the other direction where it's like, okay, I'm just going to get quality everything. I'm not buying a lot. I already have the number of purchases under control. So I'm just going to buy quality. And then I was really disappointed how the quote unquote quality just did not seem worth it. We did an episode on this like, why everything sucks now. I was kind of an inspiration for a whole episode, right?
Speaker 3:
[03:47] Episode.
Speaker 1:
[03:48] So I have found this pendulum shift in the radical middle of buying quality things that you're going to, in the categories you use every day. So the things that I wish I'd bought in quality when I was younger, are these things I'm using every day. So one of them I lucked out on was our house, our first home. We had a budget, and it was really low, and ended up exceeding it by about $30,000, which was still reasonable. And I'm super glad that we did that. That's something we do our living in every day. That is not permission for you to go out and buy a big home that you can't afford because you're trying to keep up with your chances. Okay? That's not what I'm talking about here, but I think I would have been really miserable in the type of home because we wanted a very small to one, needed to renovate all of that. But instead, we were able to get a three, two that was fully renovated, and that was really great. I'm glad that we did that. And the things that I regret getting quality are things that I don't really use every day. They're things that I don't, I can use, like a shirt. Old Navy shirts are really fine for me. I buy them thrifted, and they last a long time for me. Because I'm not buying a lot of these shirts, I'm not wearing them every single day. These tank tops are from Quince, I wear them every single day. I want them to be quality. So does that make sense?
Speaker 3:
[05:21] It does. I think it's a big mindset shift for a lot of us. There might be certain tools or maybe jewelry, watches, these things that we think, that's what I need to spend a lot of money on. I remember for us in particular, we wanted to get a pressure washer when we had our house. And I think we spent a decent amount on the pressure washer and now looking back, like we used it maybe five times total in the five years that we lived there. We probably didn't have to spend as much on that. But really where we should be spending the money on, and thankfully we did on a good blender that I do use every single day. A good knife set. I use it every single day. That's one of the things that's going to keep us cooking in the kitchen. So rather than spending on the things that seem like, okay, I am only going to buy this one time, but I'm not going to use it all the time. Shift that over to, let me actually spend some money here, make sure it's quality too because expensive doesn't always mean quality.
Speaker 1:
[06:21] Right.
Speaker 3:
[06:21] Do your research.
Speaker 1:
[06:22] Tools and pressure washer, that's a great example because there are some people who use their tools a lot. And tools are some you do want to be good quality if you're using them frequently. But if you're not using tools frequently, if you're so like everybody needs like maybe a good power drill. Right. Because that you do use pretty frequently. But like all the other tools, borrow them.
Speaker 3:
[06:45] The camping gear, I feel like camping gear would be a big one. People think, I need to be so good. How many times you go on camping? Are you on camping every day?
Speaker 1:
[06:54] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[06:54] Spend that money on the things you're going to use every single day. But that doesn't mean that we still have to spend a ton of money, because used still exist, deals still exist. So yeah, shoes, good quality shoes, absolutely. Go to a local running store, support local or check out relay goods. It's possible that somebody else bought a pair of shoes and they wore them once, but they are really good quality and they're just they don't work for them. And so now they've got them on relay goods. Mattresses, this is a big one. Test mattresses can be resold. It's actually one of our affiliates. Yeah, one of our affiliates is ShareTown. If you're looking for a side hustle, a lot of these mattress delivery companies will allow you to return them, right? Free 90-day returns. Well, what actually happens to them is somebody like a representative from ShareTown comes and picks up the mattress, and then they themselves resell it on Facebook Marketplace or any other used marketplace, and they've never been used. When you're scrolling Facebook Marketplace and you see these mattresses and you're like, I don't know if I trust it, if they're from somebody who picked them up from a, somebody just tested it out for a week and didn't like it, I'm not as concerned about that. I will totally buy that mattress. So consider that. If there's a brand that you're looking at, but it's so expensive, chances are there's a representative from a place like ShareCount. And if that's a side hustle you're interested in, we'll put the link in the show notes. But things like that, consider secondhand. All right. Number two, learn to cook five to 10 really easy go-to meals. We're not saying you need to learn how to become a chef. Just figure out what you like to eat, what you know how to cook, what uses minimal ingredients and takes minimal time. Guaranteed, you can find five to 10 of those recipes. I just made dinner last night, a Korean beef and rice bowl. You've heard me talk about this one on my regular rotation. It all took me 15 minutes. Ten minutes for the rice, 12 minutes for the meat. Obviously, I'm doing that simultaneously. Fifteen minutes total. That if I had done takeout, it wouldn't have been to me for 30 minutes. It was faster than takeout. It was easy. Find those meals for you. That's going to save you a ton of money. And the decision fatigue of, what are we eating? Is on rotation, baby? Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[09:28] I really thought that I had to be the homemaker. And I think with the Rise of TradWife content, it's gotten more stressful to cook because every dish you see on social media is beautiful. And I think getting out of the mindset of like, okay, everything's got to be picture perfect, it's got to be Instagrammable. And being like, maybe one per week, one every other week can be this like really beautiful and like life-giving feast.
Speaker 3:
[09:58] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[09:58] But most of them are just like the go-to meals.
Speaker 3:
[10:01] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[10:01] Like I think that is the mindset like I had to get into. Next, shop your house first and other houses. So this kind of ties back into number one, because we're not buying good quality on everything. Like if it's a tool, I still want to use good quality. But if I'm not going to use a lot, doesn't need to be, doesn't, that doesn't translate to then I will buy a cheap one. No, it translates to how can I get this for free? Can I borrow it from a tool library? Can I borrow it from a friend's house? And then also like, is the problem really something that needs to be solved by spending money at all? I waste a lot of money because I would buy the solution to my problems without actually asking myself, is it a problem? So first ask, is this truly a problem? An occasional inconvenience is not a problem. You may just need to occasionally be inconvenienced. So I bought red curry paste for the first time, and it's because I cook Thai food like occasionally, but I never bought the curry paste because I always had curry powder. And it came to a point where it was like, you know what? I cook this enough to where it does like warrant me getting like the special extra fancy thing. And so I finally like invest in it. But I was like, if this is going to be an occasional inconvenience where I have to do a substitute, I'm going to be occasionally inconvenienced. And once it became something in my regular rotation, then I invested in the ingredients. So allowing these occasional inconveniences to like sit in your life allows us to get creative with new uses for items you already have or can cause you to ask a friend if you can borrow something of theirs that you need. So there's just like a lot of different solutions. You can also like in the getting creative sphere, you can like just shop your home for things. So garage, pantry, storage bins, search your city, library of things, buy nothing groups. So there's a lot of options before you just buy something.
Speaker 3:
[12:17] That should not be our first go-to.
Speaker 1:
[12:18] No.
Speaker 3:
[12:19] Number four is to stop paying for convenience. Just because we can doesn't mean that we should. And convenience fees are everywhere. It's one of the ways that businesses profit the most is by sneaking in all of these additional fees, but also by having us pay for things that are just going to make our lives feel easier. That can include delivery apps. So the, I need this thing to come straight to my door, rather than me going out and purchasing it. I get it. Sometimes there are occasional times you're super sick, you just had a baby. Those are the two times that you can have something delivered to your door.
Speaker 1:
[13:05] I've said traveling. Like if you're in a hotel, you don't have a car.
Speaker 3:
[13:10] Right.
Speaker 1:
[13:11] That could also be because it can be the same, or sometimes cheaper than buying food or things at the hotel.
Speaker 3:
[13:17] Okay. Those are the three times that we can get things delivered to us rather than going and getting them. Grocery delivery. We can do a grocery pickup. We can have someone else shop for us and we pick it up, but we don't have to pay that fee of them bringing it to our door. Again, unless you're traveling, you just had a baby or you're the most sick you've ever been in your whole life.
Speaker 1:
[13:43] Oh, because it's not just the delivery fee. You also have to tip on top of it. So it's extra.
Speaker 3:
[13:48] Yeah. Also, and this is a big one, Amazon. Paying to have Amazon Prime just to get that free shipping. It's not free shipping. You're paying $140 a year.
Speaker 1:
[14:00] Why are you paying $140 for free shipping? Why? Why are you paying Jeff Bezos to make it easier for you to impulse shop?
Speaker 3:
[14:10] And here's the thing. It's not even two-day delivery anymore. That used to be what Amazon stood upon, but now it's, oh, sorry, this got delayed. It'll arrive when it arrives and there's no make good for that. So you're just paying to have the subscription. Who knows what it means?
Speaker 1:
[14:28] I want to call you out by name, Susan. I don't know if it's a Susan. I just, that's the first name that comes to my mind. Yeah. Susan, stop paying $140 for free shipping. You know you get it if you just let your cart build up to where it gets free shipping. No, you don't need all the other things Amazon Prime offers. It's just like, they're just throwing that stuff in there. It's meaningless. They are laughing at us. Stop it. And if your name is actually Susan, and you felt slightly offended, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3:
[15:04] Tell her in the comments, subscribe, and then tell her in the comment that you felt offended.
Speaker 1:
[15:10] My Susan, I don't have Amazon Prime. You're so rude.
Speaker 3:
[15:14] Don't lump me in with all the other Susans. Isn't that your mother-in-law's name? Is her full name Susan?
Speaker 1:
[15:22] Yes. I don't think she has Amazon Prime. I'm going to be honest. I don't see Sue.
Speaker 3:
[15:29] Right. Not all Susans have Amazon Prime and we know that.
Speaker 1:
[15:32] She's a Sue. So I'm not talking to Sue out there. If you're a Sue, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to you, Susan. Moving on. So sorry. Okay. Plan ahead instead of the convenience fees. Yes. Okay. Number five. You don't have to know everything. This is shocking. But companies profit from our desire to know more about ourselves. And the global wearable technology market is expected to exceed $150 billion by 2028. And so these are aura rings, genetic testing, sleep trackers, biometric gadgets, all the stuff so that we can know every little thing about ourselves. And like I have an Apple Watch and I track my steps, but I don't need to know anything beyond that. I actually get mad at it when it tells me things that I don't want to know. Like this one doesn't tell me it's too loud, but Travis's Apple Watch does. And I'm like, get out of here. You don't know me, you don't know my life, you don't know how loud it is for me. You don't know me.
Speaker 3:
[16:46] There is a measurable level of frequency.
Speaker 1:
[16:49] It doesn't know me.
Speaker 3:
[16:51] Okay.
Speaker 1:
[16:51] Okay.
Speaker 3:
[16:52] Right.
Speaker 1:
[16:53] So there are just some things you don't need to know. You don't need to know everything about yourself. You don't need to make it more complicated. Honestly, movement, sleep, and de-stressing, like making your life less stressful or doing things that alleviate stress, it's gonna be okay to live in ignorant bliss if you're doing like the 80% right. The 20%, which these things track, does not matter.
Speaker 3:
[17:21] Oh, this one was a good one for me to hear because it's one of those biases when you see everybody out there having this thing, particularly the aura rings, and you start to think, is that the thing I need to? And to realize, but what difference is it actually going to make in my behavior? Or is it just telling me a bunch of information that isn't going to move the needle any which way? That doesn't, you can make that decision if you want to make it, if you've got reasonings for, it's fine. But also realize there might just be a bandwagon effect happening here of do you really need to know it? Is it really going to improve your life that much? I mean, I'm even thinking with security cameras, our level of needing to know, needing to have a pulse on, and how much does that then relate to increased levels of anxiety?
Speaker 1:
[18:18] Yes, that's right there.
Speaker 3:
[18:20] No, so much more. We have access to so much more. We have reason to be concerned about so much more. Is it really helping us to sleep if we're just so anxious about what our ring is going to tell us the next morning? What was our temperature? And yes, everything is wrong with me. And it just is like, we might know too much for our own good.
Speaker 1:
[18:41] A hundred percent do agree.
Speaker 3:
[18:43] Okay.
Speaker 1:
[18:44] Wow.
Speaker 3:
[18:44] Here we go. Number six. Here we go. You might not have expected to catch us saying this. Insurance is worth the cost. So this is one of those wish I had known sooner kind of a thing that catastrophe really can ruin everything that we've worked for. So health insurance, renters and homeowners insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, full coverage auto insurance. And for my Floridians, this is especially important. We need that collision because there are also so many uninsured motorists. And if you get into the worst possible situation and you're not covered for collision, that can be financially ruining. Also, disability is something that so many of us could potentially face. One in four workers will experience a disability before retirement, according to the Social Security Administration. And so not that we want to be always fearful of the worst possible thing, but to have some peace of mind to know that we would be covered in the event that we are out of work for six to 12 months, maybe longer. I think something like the average disability is like 13 to 14 months long. And so that is not how long most of us have an emergency fund for. We always say three to six months. So that's not covering you for a disability. And that insurance doesn't have to be a lot of money. I also know people who rent, and if you're not in a big complex and they don't require you to have renter's insurance, thinking that the homeowner's insurance will cover them. So I actually knew somebody, I counseled somebody who had a fire in their building, and they did not have renter's insurance. And so they were not covered on anything that they lost. And it happened. And sometimes you can't control that if you're sharing a space with other people, you just don't know what's going to happen. It could have cost them $200 a year, and instead, they're out thousands of dollars, and now needing to replace everything that they had owned.
Speaker 1:
[21:05] Yeah, you don't need every single insurance, but the ones that you do need, they are worth every penny. Seven is to avoid monthly payments whenever possible. You know, we just did an episode on the subscription crisis. It is truly a crisis how everything has gone from ownership, which was the foundation of the American dream. I want to remind everyone to now everything is rented. It's all subscription. If you stop paying a subscription, you lose access to things. And so streaming services, apps, car loans, payment plans, software, not every subscription is bad. But the way that we are just taking this lying down is insane, and it will only get worse, and companies will only be more and more frustrated by us not wanting them to take their money. Like actually putting up barriers between us and them, they just want to make it as easy as possible for them to take our money, and we have to stop letting them just take it every single month. So using things like the library, doing just anything that you can to borrow or to share. Or so something like maybe it is a subscription that you do like paying. So for me, I like to go to a gym and work out. I tried a couple months of working out at home, and it just did not work for me. I realized I needed the gym membership, but I realized I don't use the tanning booth, or the water massager, or do any of the classes. So I don't need the highest tier, or even the mid-tier. I can do the $10 a month tier. And so yes, I had to pay an enrollment fee where all the other ones were for no enrollment fee. But overall, I'm paying less. If I look at the total cost, I am paying less doing the $10 a month one. And so that's what I switched to. Because I just don't want to take for granted like how easy these companies are just like grabbing our money without us realizing.
Speaker 3:
[23:15] Yeah. Of course, look at the total cost and your total usage. We don't want to be paying for an annual plan if we're not going to end up actually using it for the full year. So test the model. It could be better to just pay monthly and then cancel rather than have paid for a full year and not use it for more than half the year. So also consider that.
Speaker 1:
[23:39] Tax season is honestly one of the only times most of us stop and actually look at our full financial picture and then wonder where it all went. I wanted something that kept me that aware all year, not just in April, which is why I use Monarch. Having my budget, accounts, net worth, and savings goals all in one place means I'm actually making progress, not just looking back.
Speaker 3:
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Speaker 1:
[24:20] Monarch genuinely changed how I think about our money and helps me stay proactive rather than reactive.
Speaker 3:
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Speaker 1:
[24:44] I've been doing a serious spring closet reset lately, like actually looking at what I own and asking, does this work? Is this quality? Do I actually reach for this item? And it has me thinking so differently about what I buy going forward.
Speaker 3:
[24:59] That's why we both love quints. They make beautiful everyday pieces using fabrics like 100% European linen, organic cotton, super soft denim, creating styles that feel elevated without the high price tags. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for the quality, not the brand markup, which is just smart spending.
Speaker 1:
[25:21] I have been living in their 100% organic cotton tanks lately. The fabric feels substantial, but still so easy and comfy to wear. And when I saw the price, I genuinely had to double check. They also have leather bags made from 100% hand-woven Italian leather that look way more expensive than they are.
Speaker 3:
[25:41] Refresh your spring wardrobe with Quince. Go to quince.com/frugal for free shipping and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to quince.com/frugal for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com/frugal. Number eight is to track your big expenses, not necessarily every latte or coffee that you're getting. We love to talk about the big three expenses of housing, transportation, food, although there is a fourth in there of insurance, medical costs.
Speaker 1:
[26:21] We've had to add a fourth in the recent past.
Speaker 3:
[26:25] If you read our book, we talk about the big three. Now, we're starting to talk about the big four. These are the areas that we spend the most money on every single month. And yet, we often are nickel and diming ourselves and feeling so guilty for these three to eight dollar purchases every month. And not to say that we shouldn't look at those, but we shouldn't start there. We need to be looking at what's taking the most of our monthly spending. It's probably these four. Are there adjustments that we can be making to these? Of course, it's going to be a lot of effort to make a housing adjustment, but maybe that's necessary. It's not going to be as common for us to make a transportation adjustment, but we are making those decisions every three to seven years. And food decisions we are making every single day, so that's definitely a big one. Insurance costs. So look at these first, see if there's tweaks that can be made, and then be concerned about your three to $10 purchases.
Speaker 1:
[27:29] Yeah. For us, a fifth category would be childcare. And so something that we had to do was we potty trained Atlas as early as possible so that we could get him into a VPK 3 program, so that we're saving $100 a week on childcare costs. So that's something that we had to be very cognizant enough to save money in that situation. Nine is take care of things that you own. I don't know where we got. We're in this throwaway culture, obviously, and the reason we got there is through marketing and normalization of throwing away things by marketing from companies. I know how we got here. But that caused me to not be really good at taking care of my things, because I didn't value them, because I knew I could easily just throw them away and have immediate access to something new and shiny, and arguably maybe better quality. But we got to stop doing that. We got to get out of the throw away culture. We need to start taking care of our cars, our clothes, our appliances. I wanted to ignore the problem and just replace because it was easier and like I'm just a girl. But we can't, whether you're a renter, a homeowner or anything, we got to take care of things, not just for ourselves, but for the environment.
Speaker 3:
[28:52] I think there's this kind of insidious thing that we assume that people don't have to maintain their stuff in order for them to always be working. And it's just not true. Those of us without housemaids, we do have to do the things like an espresso doesn't just continue to work for years and years. You've got to clean it out. You've got to descale it. You've got to look up the manual, watch YouTube videos to keep it working. You've got to do the resets on the phone and the computer. You've got to update things. You've got to delete stuff. There is a maintenance required for these things that if we want them to last us a long time, this is what we need to do. Okay, number 10. Thrift stores are not the only place to buy used. You don't actually have to go in person to a thrift store and leave with an allergy attack. You can. It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1:
[30:01] Oh, that's so real. That is so... I have to take a Claritin 30 minutes before I walk into a thrift store, or it's game over.
Speaker 3:
[30:09] I always have tissues on deck, but worth it. Here's other places you can go. Pawn shops. That's where this one got this. And this computer or your last computer?
Speaker 1:
[30:21] My last computer. And it was not bad luck, because we've been married 10 years. So take that. Pawn shop.
Speaker 3:
[30:29] Consignment stores. Oh, I'm not wearing it. That's where my ring is from. Just kidding. It's not there, but it is... I didn't lose it. I was cooking raw chicken and anyhow.
Speaker 1:
[30:44] It's my life.
Speaker 3:
[30:45] Consignment stores is a great place to find clothing, jewelry, tech. There's all sorts of things that somebody might put at a consignment store. And usually, it's going to be pretty good quality, because the seller themselves is also still looking for a kickback.
Speaker 1:
[31:03] The consignment stuff is so nice.
Speaker 3:
[31:05] Yeah. Estate sales. Oh, my friend. There are so many sites for finding estate sales. They are better than garage sales and yard sales. I still like them. But estate sales means we're selling the whole kit and caboodle. You get to walk through the house. That's also fun. And furniture and all of the different kitchen appliances and decor and rugs. I have found clothing, yeah, towels, not china, but nicer plates and dishes and cookware. It's amazing. And that one actually can double as a little bit of a fun Saturday activity. Auctions exist. So whether you do go live in person or there are online auctions, actually whatnot, who we've talked about now, they are a place to be able to buy used, and they essentially do these live auctions on name brand things. So that's a cool way to be able to participate in an auction, but just from the comfort of your own home.
Speaker 1:
[32:14] Don't get worked up in the dopamine of it, but you can get better deals on whatnot than Poshmark if you're patient and you're not like impulse buying.
Speaker 3:
[32:26] I would recommend knowing what you're going to get. So I am going to go to Whatnot this week to look for an exercise set. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[32:37] And I'm not sold on the brand, but I know my sizes, I know this person is only doing exercise stuff, and so I'm going to watch their auction show. And the people on there are very nice sellers. They're just like, sometimes I just like to watch them and just have them with me. Is that weird?
Speaker 3:
[32:57] Maybe, but I got it. eBay still exists. That's another online auction, not live, but you can bid on things or just buy them outright. And online specialty stores, like we already mentioned, Relay Goods for running equipment, Back Market. You can just Google the thing you're looking for and second hand, and it will pop up with all the different sites where you could find that thing. So don't just assume because it's not clothing, you can't find it used. You probably can.
Speaker 1:
[33:31] Okay, we gotta speed this last bit up. All right, 11, almost anything can be repaired. I used to be, this is in the same vein as maintenance, but I used to be afraid to repair broken things or buy used things that were broken. And now, thank you to Travis. I mean, it's no problem. We'll buy it, we'll get the deal, and then he'll just fix it. And you have to be sparing on this, though, because you have to actually fix it.
Speaker 3:
[33:58] Yeah, this could be a slippery slope into hoarding. So don't just get it, because it could be worth something if it got finished.
Speaker 1:
[34:05] Get it because you need it.
Speaker 3:
[34:07] Okay, number 12, avoid upgrades that don't significantly improve your life. So we are talking the phone upgrade, the vehicle upgrade, a bigger house than what you actually need, just because you're due for an upgrade or just because the thing just got paid off, does not mean it's time to replace the thing. Keep it. See how long it can last. Maintain it. Repair it. Drive that thing into the ground and save that money.
Speaker 1:
[34:38] Into the ground with yourself at the end of your life. You and your car are buried together in the ground. I try to think back to my childhood and how content I was as a child. I didn't know that I needed to spend money or upgrade. I was just content as a child.
Speaker 3:
[34:58] Except for the commercials telling you all the things that you didn't know were out there to have.
Speaker 1:
[35:03] Yeah, but that was toys. Now I'm an adult and I wasn't looking at houses.
Speaker 3:
[35:07] Right.
Speaker 1:
[35:08] Try and think about that. You were content before you knew there was all this opportunity to buy stuff. 12, or sorry, 13, shopping is not an activity. We write about this in our book, Buy What You Love Without Going Bro. But there, I mean, there's very many, there's many reasons why shopping is positioned as an activity. And it started back in the 1920s and 30s, where women had social groups and malls were like, actually, we want women to come shopping. So we will position the mall as the social group. And so then social, like women's clubs and stuff deteriorated, as women started being social at the mall and buying stuff to be social. That was intentionally engineered and we need to get away from it. Shopping is not an activity. It's not a fun thing that we just do when we're bored. It's what we do when we need something.
Speaker 3:
[36:07] Even though I did kind of call estate sales a fun activity. That's just because you get to walk through a house, only go to them if there's something specific that you are looking for. You can replace it with hobbies, things that you already own. You don't need to buy more things to do a hobby.
Speaker 1:
[36:23] Hobby graveyard.
Speaker 3:
[36:25] Go on walks. Just do fun things with friends that are free in your area. Number 14, you don't have to pay off all your debt, but you probably should.
Speaker 1:
[36:38] Okay, thank you for giving that caveat. We were about to get obliterated.
Speaker 3:
[36:43] I think we're about to get buried with our car.
Speaker 1:
[36:45] Yeah. For the past couple episodes, we've made kind of references to like, you don't actually have to pay off all your debt. In our budget makeover, we were like, you can't afford to pay off your debt right now. Something needs to change. But ultimately, we do think you probably should.
Speaker 3:
[37:02] Yeah, exactly. Jen had $78,000 of student loans that you did pay off in two years, or you did sacrifice a lot to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:
[37:13] I had a lot of debt payoff PTSD afterwards.
Speaker 3:
[37:16] But it's important to look at the percentage of interest that you have on these different loans, because there's a difference between what the math says and maybe what your emotions and peace of mind might say. So if you've got loans that are 3 to 5% interest, it might be okay to just keep chipping away at it and using any extra money to be able to invest. Because starting early to invest for retirement is the best we can possibly do for ourselves if we're not high income earners. That's how we're going to grow enough to be able to retire. That doesn't take away from the weight and the stress of that debt. And so there could be an opportunity to choose, you know what though, I do just want it gone. And if I do it fast, then that will allow me to have that out of the way, and then I'll kick it into high gear for investing for retirement. As long as you have a plan and you know the decision that you're making and why you're making it, but also recognize that if you look at the math, what the math will say, if the market on average is going to return you 7 percent, and your loan interest rates are only 3 percent, mathematically, you don't have to go super hard at paying off the debt. But you can, it's not a bad decision.
Speaker 1:
[38:36] And last, set priorities and live by them. So when my priorities when I was younger were other people, I spent money to impress other people. I wouldn't have said that I was spending money to impress other people. But if you looked at the root at why I was spending, it was to impress. When my priority became myself and my family, I stopped spending that way. And so you need to stop carrying what people think, and you need to start carrying about what you think more. Not what people on social media are telling you to think, not what people around you are caring about, but you really need, you are your own worst critic too. So you need to stop listening to the negative voices in your head as well, and start trying to think of what do I truly value, what are my priorities, and how can I get closer to those?
Speaker 3:
[39:38] Do you know what my priority is, and I get close to it in every single episode?
Speaker 1:
[39:42] I have lived near it for the past eight years, and it is freeing.
Speaker 2:
[40:00] That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 4:
[40:20] Good morning, Jen and Jill. Meg from Charlotte, North Carolina here. I don't imagine you'll be playing this until early spring, but for me, it's December 10th. We have had HVAC issues the entire time we've played it in our house about four years or almost four years. And we finally got someone out this winter because we were rigging up our oven as high as they can go with a fan strategically blow into the house. We had a single space heater. It was a mess. We knew it was probably going to be expensive. We just kept putting off having someone come out to check it out. And finally, with the cold weather fully in spring for about two months now, we got tired of the oven situation. So we got someone out here, told us we could replace the entire system or we could replace the part for $900. My blue collar, amazing husband that he is, was able to find the part that we needed for $117 and replace it himself. So I ate almost $800 in savings for a little grit and a little know-how and a lot of YouTube. Thanks for all that you do. And for anyone that doesn't watch on YouTube, go watch on YouTube. You're really missing out with the bill of the week. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 1:
[41:48] Meg, you appreciate my intro video and I appreciate you. There is a video now that can accompany the song. The song has a music video and it is peak creativity. I could be a graphic designer.
Speaker 3:
[42:06] You're an animator. I think you could put it on your resume that you do high-end professional animations.
Speaker 1:
[42:13] If I didn't love this podcast so much, I would just leave and go do that full-time.
Speaker 3:
[42:18] Right.
Speaker 1:
[42:20] It's truly a gift to the world that needs to be seen.
Speaker 3:
[42:24] I love Meg's shout-out. And you know what? If you find yourself over on YouTube because of Meg, please subscribe and let us know in the comments. And just say thank you, Meg. Yeah, thank you, Meg. And also, Meg, this is amazing. I love a good, we just did it ourselves moment. There is no better way to just stick it to the man of over consumption and save ourselves some money than to say, could I do that? Let me see. Yep, sure can. Here's the other thing I find appalling and laughable, and I've heard this multiple times from people who own homes when they have technicians come out, and offering to just replace the part that's broken or replace the entire system. That's insane. No. If we just need to fix one aspect of it, we don't need to replace the whole thing. What level of throwaway culture have we gotten ourselves to, that there might be a person who says, you know what? Yeah. Scrap the entire HVAC system because of $117 part. We just refuse.
Speaker 1:
[43:35] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[43:35] That's insanity. So glad that you did not buy in to that level of insanity.
Speaker 1:
[43:40] And it made me think of what we always say, marry rich or marry capable.
Speaker 3:
[43:45] Yes. Good job, Meg. I think you married the better version of the two options.
Speaker 1:
[43:51] If we're being biased. Because you know which way we did it.
Speaker 3:
[43:59] And what we do is best. Meg, you're amongst friends. Thanks for sharing. If you're listening and you have a bill that you want to share, if it has to do with marrying capable, if it has to do with not scrapping an entire system in your home and instead finding the inexpensive part or your name is Bill, whether you're rich or capable, we'll hear from you. frugalfriendspodcast.com/bill. Can't wait for it.
Speaker 1:
[44:25] We talk a lot about having a meal rotation, those six to ten dinners you can make without thinking. But getting there is the part nobody talks about. You're tired midweek, you don't know what to cook, and somehow you're also supposed to plan everything out, go shopping, and not let half of it go bad in the back of the fridge.
Speaker 3:
[44:40] HelloFresh takes all of that off your plate. No planning, no shopping, and because everything comes pre-portioned, you're not throwing away ingredients you barely used. Plus, with over 80 global recipes every month, you're actually discovering meals worth adding to that rotation.
Speaker 1:
[44:55] I'll be honest, the no-waste thing alone sold me. Pre-portioned means you use what you need and nothing more. If that sounds like your kind of solution, nothing hits like home cooking, and HelloFresh makes sure of it.
Speaker 3:
[45:07] Go to hellofresh.com/frugal10fm for 10 free meals plus a free NutriBullet UltraPlus 2-in-1 Compact Kitchen System worth $189.99 on your third box. New subscribers only, free meals applied as a discount on your first box. Third box must be ordered by May 31st, 2026. And now it's time for the live background.
Speaker 1:
[45:34] I want to caveat and say that I'm sure some women are out there thinking like, I'll just be capable.
Speaker 3:
[45:39] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[45:40] And I'm like, you could do that, but then you should marry Rich because you don't need to be all capable. You got to have some money too. And it doesn't need to fall all on you. You don't need to be rich and capable. That's exhausting.
Speaker 3:
[45:53] But you can be.
Speaker 1:
[45:53] You can be, but you'll be tired.
Speaker 3:
[45:55] If anyone's going to do it, like I only give a binary for the men, right? They're either rich or they're capable. There's no binary for women though. We can be both. We can be neither. We can be either or. Just find yourself on the spectrum. But if anyone can be both, it's the women.
Speaker 1:
[46:10] Yeah, for sure. But don't be tired.
Speaker 3:
[46:14] Don't be tired. Don't be hungry.
Speaker 1:
[46:15] You can do it all, but it doesn't mean you should, baby girl. Susan. All right.
Speaker 3:
[46:21] Cancel your Amazon Prime membership, Susan.
Speaker 1:
[46:24] Okay. Most recent money-saving tip you learned or practiced.
Speaker 3:
[46:29] Go for it.
Speaker 1:
[46:30] Oh, okay. So deals are marketing. Point blank. I will die on that hill. Deals are marketing.
Speaker 3:
[46:39] You've known this for a long time though.
Speaker 1:
[46:41] So here it is. I got Peacock for a month because I love the Olympics, and that's the only thing I watch on Peacock. Yeah, you do love the Olympics. So I got it for a month. And then at the end, I was canceling it before my month was up. And they were like, girl, I know we were going to charge you 150 bucks for a full year. But just for you, we're going to charge you $40 for a whole year. And I was like, well, that is tempting. And I was like, no, no Olympics, bye bye. So I saved $40 by not signing up for an annual peacock plan.
Speaker 3:
[47:19] It would have been so easy. It would have been so expensive. It was a deal, but you didn't need it.
Speaker 1:
[47:22] Oh, it was such a big deal. It was like 150 versus 40.
Speaker 3:
[47:25] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[47:26] Huge deal. And I was like, oh, that's a great deal. Yeah. But that's $40 I didn't plan to spend, and I don't need to spend.
Speaker 3:
[47:35] You know, a phrase in the clinical therapeutic world is that we train people how to treat us. And this works for businesses and companies too. We are training them how to treat us. I don't want it. We're done. Yeah. That's well done. You trained them.
Speaker 1:
[47:53] Thank you.
Speaker 3:
[47:55] I don't know if it's going to go that far, but I like to think it had a big impact.
Speaker 1:
[47:59] I'll see you in like a year and a half or two years, whenever the Summer Olympics are.
Speaker 3:
[48:04] Yeah. Okay. For me, it's that fun doesn't have to be expensive. And I have known this one for a long time too, but I just looked back at the things that I've done just in the last week that were free or low cost. I volunteered. I did a volunteer beach cleanup that was so fun. By the way, picking up trash feels like it's around Easter time right now. So it felt like my own version of an egg hunt. And I love the little grabbers. Okay, I digress. That was very fun. Met people. I hosted friends at my place for dinner, just made a little bit extra food. I attended a potluck. I went on a walk with a friend. We went to a new park that I had not explored before. I went to a trivia night. We ended up winning first place. We won first place this week.
Speaker 1:
[49:02] Jill does so many things.
Speaker 3:
[49:03] This was just in the last week.
Speaker 1:
[49:06] She has done more in the last week than I have done this year.
Speaker 3:
[49:11] I also did a little hobby, a cute hobby night with a friend after her kids were in bed. She already had all these paints and watercolor things. I just went over and we did watercolor and listened to music once her kids were asleep.
Speaker 1:
[49:24] When my kids go to bed, I am dead and I am asleep. Me and my car are in the dirt.
Speaker 3:
[49:30] We turned the lights down low. We played instrumental music and we did painting. It wasn't great for the painting to not be able to see, but it was the most relaxing. Like you could do that tired.
Speaker 1:
[49:42] No, no, no, I would fall asleep. That sounds like the worst thing for me to do tired, because I would be like, and there would just be a long streak across.
Speaker 3:
[49:53] Do you go to bed at eight o'clock? Or your kids don't go to bed till later.
Speaker 1:
[49:58] My kids go to bed at nine, and then by like nine thirty, yes, I am in bed.
Speaker 3:
[50:03] Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So put your kids to bed sooner.
Speaker 1:
[50:08] This is something we have thought about. So I don't know, maybe. We'll see. Anyways, thank you so much for listening. We would love to hear money-saving tips you wish you had learned sooner in the comments of this video on YouTube. If you're listening on audio, no need to change your lifestyle. We love for you to stay on Spotify or Apple, but just come over here and just, you know, give us a little subscribe, you know. If you are one of our listeners who has read our book Buy What You Love Without Going Broke, thank you for your kind reviews. Like this one from Trevor happens to be five stars. It says, genuine book with genuine advice. I loved this book. I got to know the authors through listening to their podcasts. This book is a great compacted version of some of their best tips and more. It has been a great vibe and share stories of the authors and fellow readers, which makes me feel like I'm not alone in my money struggles. I also feel like the advice here is both practical and achievable. And the best part, if you don't like the options given, there's other advice available within the book. They provide so many unique perspectives and show how it actually works.
Speaker 3:
[51:17] Oh, this is the sweetest, most thoughtful review. Appreciate it, Trevor. If you are listening and you've read the book and you've not reviewed it yet, it would still be so helpful to us. Leave a review on Amazon, even if that's not where you bought it. It's where people go to look at reviews for books, so that'd be great. If you are on YouTube, please subscribe again. Jen's birthday is May 9th. We'd love to reach 10,000 subscribers by then. Leave a comment on this video letting us know your tips. If you want to thank Meg for sending you over there, all the things.
Speaker 1:
[51:51] If you want to defend Susan, please feel free to do that as well. Find Susan in the comments and just defend her. She's going to be here. I know she is. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3:
[52:17] Okay.
Speaker 1:
[52:18] Jill, I would like to let loose something I've held my tongue on for 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:
[52:25] Oh no.
Speaker 1:
[52:26] You refer to it as running equipment, which I'm sure people do. I'm sure there is running equipment. But I'm thinking in my head, what equipment do I run with? Shoes. And that's it.
Speaker 3:
[52:47] It feels to me, though, from the outside, that runners have more than shoes.
Speaker 1:
[52:54] Okay, yes. But you don't need it all that.
Speaker 3:
[52:56] It's the socks, it's the electrolytes, it's the watch, it's, keep filling in the blanks for me, because there's equipment.
Speaker 1:
[53:05] Okay, you, I think the person that you're taking this from, she runs marathons.
Speaker 3:
[53:11] Yeah, yeah, she is Boston qualified.
Speaker 1:
[53:14] So you only need that stuff if you're doing like six plus miles. If you're somebody who is running six or fewer miles, you don't need anything except good shoes. Like that's it. And once you get past that, then yes, you need fuel. I didn't get a water vest, like a vest that has like a thing.
Speaker 3:
[53:37] Oh my God, look at you proving my point right now.
Speaker 1:
[53:40] Until I was doing 10 miles regularly.
Speaker 3:
[53:44] A water vest? Try and convince me that's not equipment.
Speaker 1:
[53:47] That's not, it's a vest. It's clothing, if anything.
Speaker 3:
[53:51] With special purposes.
Speaker 1:
[53:54] I didn't get that until I was running 10 plus miles regularly.
Speaker 3:
[53:59] So, headbands, clothing, towels, socks, shoes.
Speaker 1:
[54:03] Those are things you should have as a person.
Speaker 3:
[54:07] The running app, Strava, what is it?
Speaker 1:
[54:09] Strava.
Speaker 3:
[54:10] Electrolytes, water bottle. There's equipment, girl. Toe nail clippers.
Speaker 1:
[54:15] Oh, these things are normal life things.
Speaker 3:
[54:21] Diapers are the inevitable. I peed myself.
Speaker 1:
[54:23] It worries me that you're listing out towels and water bottles. All these things that you should have in a normal human being as like... Because runners have.
Speaker 3:
[54:34] Because they're going to be special versions of it. Like the towel is probably going to have like some sort of things sewn into it that you could put ice cubes in and it like raps around your neck. And maybe then it has a snap on it. Like because it's not just going to be a regular towel you find in your house. It's like specific for people with Strava.
Speaker 1:
[54:55] You can only get it through Strava.
Speaker 3:
[54:57] I've observed you all like an anthropologist.
Speaker 1:
[55:00] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[55:02] These are my findings.
Speaker 1:
[55:03] And I just think the example that you're taking most of your information from is unreliable because she's on the extreme and most of us do not subscribe to that.
Speaker 3:
[55:19] Have you or have you not wished you had a diaper at some point in your running career?
Speaker 1:
[55:25] Negative, false, never. How uncomfortable would that be to run in?
Speaker 3:
[55:31] Okay. Well, I change nothing.
Speaker 1:
[55:34] Okay.