July 26, 2022 • 57 mins
Creating a financial plan and making a habit to fulfill it is easier said than done. In this last episode of our Radical Middle series, it is all about sticking to your financial plan based on the dream life you envisioned! We unravel how psychology, our financial decisions, and willpower are all intertwined components to help us recognize ourselves such as our capabilities in saving smarter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Episode to Save Smarter, not Harder. Welcome to the Brugal
Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights,
and liberal your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m.
(00:25):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
my name is Jill, and we are bringing you part
three in our Radical Middle Method series. We are pleased
to be bringing this into conclusion, into fulfillment because no
(00:45):
one wants to be here for more than three things.
Absolutely not energy for done. I can't count higher than that.
Absolutely shouldn't have to, shouldn't have to. You shouldn't be
able to get it done in three steps. And and
we've done it, and it's radical, but it's also just
the middle. And that's why the last part is save Smarter,
(01:05):
not Harder, because when you choose efficiency over quantity or magnitude,
it creates a much more sustainable frugality. And that's what
we're all about. We're not about doing the most, we're
about doing the best. And this episode can certainly be
listened to on its own, but also feel free to
(01:28):
check out parts one and two that came before this
for a full picture of the Radical Middle Method and
be able to implement and find the freedom and flexibility
for what your own financial plan is going to look like. Absolutely,
but first, this episode is brought to you by the
Spending Symposium Audio Flash Sale. Prices are still rising and
(01:53):
it's becoming increasingly difficult to plan and stick to a budget.
So that's why we held the Spending Symposium last month
where we had twenty experts teaching you their tips for
spending lass and saving better. And while the full access
pass is no longer available, we do want to give
you one more opportunity to get the MP three versions
(02:14):
of all of our expert interviews from this year's summit,
and wait for it, we're also throwing in last year's
summit as well, so that's almost forty interviews thirty nine
to be exact, that you've never heard on the show.
It's been completely separate from the podcast, so if you
(02:34):
need more help controlling or spending, check it out. We're
only offering this audio bundle for a week, so go
to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash audio to listen
to every session. We'll see every session and then purchase
it and then listen to every session. Nice So if
(02:57):
you are as geeked out about efficiency as we are.
Here are a few episodes to queue up after this.
Episode one hundred how to maintain a hundred percent effort
on your financial journey I think is kind of a joke,
but it's a lot about motivation, and then episode one one,
how do identify and improve spending habits? Because this section
(03:23):
of the Radical Middle Method is all about being able
to stick to the financial plan that you just created
based off the dream life that you just envisioned. So
this is the natural progression. Because I don't know about you, Jill,
but I am a planner and we've talked about this
(03:43):
on the show before. I used to have a problem
with buying planners, like I just buy a lot of
planners and I wouldn't use all. I don't know why
I would buy so many. I only needed one. And
when I realized that I was writing the same thing
in multiple planners, that was when my problem was solved
for me. But I am a planner and I'm not
always the best executor. So this is why I'm so
(04:07):
passionate about this portion of the method, because we include
psychology and efficiency and productivity methods to help you stick
to the plan. That you've created. Yeah, and I think
it's a recognition that we are whole people. No part
(04:29):
of our personhood is disconnected from the other, and so
being able to recognize all of the things that go
into saving, spending, decision making, even relationships that play a
massive part in our saving and spending, whether it's going
out with people or managing finances with a partner or
(04:50):
within a family. There's so many layers and level So
I think we we do ourselves an injustice if we
act like our finances are this separate part of who
we are rather than a intertwined component of who we are.
So I think this whole radical middle method is recognizing
all of that. And certainly as we talk about this
(05:12):
final piece of saving and investing and how to stick
with it, it's certainly an ongoing recognition of what are
the components of ourselves that we need to recognize, particularly
how we make a plan and how we stick to it,
and how we make decisions, and how we make decisions
that are going to be beneficial to us. What what
(05:34):
needs to stay and what needs to go, and how
can we create longevity in it? Yeah, and all those
questions are really the reason why we created the Frugal
Friends Club, which is our membership where we have this
video series and we do monthly challenges in there to
create space to one create motivation that is fresh every month,
(05:58):
but also space to ask those questions to get a
third party to get outside uh, you know, advice or
input or experience from people on the same path as
you who are also working on improving their frugality and
their money, so that you have a safe space to
share and get input. So that's the whole reason behind
(06:22):
why we came up with this method and and why
we created the Frugal Friends Club. But so let's get
into how to save smarter not harder with our first article,
which is from the American Psychological Association UM and it's
called Willpower, Finances and Spending. What do you think of
(06:44):
this one, Jill Oh, I love it. Anytime we can
blend mental health with financial understanding is a beautiful blend
for me. Uh. And a p A brings back so
many great memories for me from my college days. A
p A has their own versions of way ways you
need to write research papers and cite articles. So you
(07:06):
know this is there's there's some good and bad throwback here,
but they are a great organization, and yeah, finding all
sorts of articles on a variety of topics from them
is fantastic. I love how they talk about will power specifically,
and I think it's similar to what we've discussed many
(07:27):
times on this podcast, is decision fatigue. I think decision
fatigue is connected to our will power, which is just
our capacity to take in and respond to the various
stimuli that are happening in our environment, whether emotional, mental, relational, spiritual, physical,
you name it. The ability to maintain our values, the
(07:51):
things that are important to us, what we say we
want to do. We do have capacity when it comes
to will power, and that's one the things that they
highlight most. And if we can understand this concept, it
can be really helpful for us in sticking to our
financial plan, in saving smarter, not harder, in setting up
some things that are going to be helpful for us
(08:14):
long term. And they describe willpower kind of like a
muscle that can certainly be exercised and stretched and built
and grown, but it can also become exhausted as well.
And sometimes as we overexert our willpower, we expect too
much of our decision making abilities, back to back to
(08:36):
back to back, we can get worn down. I think
a lot of people can commiserate with this and can understand, of,
all right, I reached my limit with whatever it is,
because I think our will power isn't just connected to
one aspect of who we are. We could exhaust will
power and parenting, and then it translate over to not
making the best financial decisions because we've already had to
(08:58):
make a ton of their decisions and our willpower is
worn down, So like willpower across the board, and then
how does that impact various other aspects? So I think
there's not like some magic thing that we can do
with this, but recognizing that it's there and setting ourselves
up for as much success in the areas that we
want to see success in is going to be great.
(09:20):
So that's that's a little bit of my summary and
personal take on how they're describing willpower. But how did
how did this strike you? Jen? Very much of the same.
I loved this one study that they cited in here,
and I'll just read it from the article. People who
are constantly faced with tough financial decisions, such as those
(09:41):
who are less financially stable, most readily deplete their willpower.
So one study suggested that shoppers with less money, who
often use more willpower than richer shoppers, because they face
more frequent and difficult spending decisions, are less likely likely
to resist consuming food and rink while shopping. Therefore, it
(10:01):
appears that having to devote willpower to difficult spending decisions
can deplete willpower in other areas. And so we see
this a lot with people who are struggling financially living
around the poverty line, and it's hard. Your every spending
decision you make is a tough decision, whereas if you
(10:25):
are more financially stable, the same decisions are are inconveniences
at worst, So you do end up spending more the
less you have. That's a phenomenon that you you often
don't understand why you're doing it. It's like, if I
have so little money, why do I always spend it? Well,
(10:45):
this is very likely the case is that your willpower
is being depleted earlier, uh and more rapidly than somebody
who is more financially secure. And that's not to say
that we need to remain stuck in that place. It's
important to acknowledge that there just might be more difficulties
(11:08):
and barriers for someone where there are more difficult decisions
to be made, it is more depleting. But recognizing that
then can help empower us to be able to respond
rather than to become victim to that unknowingly. Yeah, like
you're saying, generally, why is this happening to me? And
(11:29):
so there are things that can be done, and I
appreciate some of the lists that this article gave to
us that there are ways that we can respond and
recognize our capacity with with will power in the way
that we can care for ourselves. Well here in one
of those ways as it relates to finances, is the
(11:50):
space out financial decisions wherever possible. And I know, Jen,
you talk about this all the time, focusing on one thing.
This aretical supports that idea make one decision at a time,
but not only that, if you are able to space
them out, not back to back to back to back.
(12:11):
I'm making financial decision after tough financial decision after tough
financial decision. I think there's gonna be some creativity and
problem solving an individualization that needs to happen in light
of this tip. It's not going to look the same
for every person, But whatever you can do. Some of
that might be automation, some of that might be planning ahead.
(12:32):
I don't know what it will be for each one
of us, but whatever we can implement so that our
financial decisions can be spaced out and we can approach
them one at a time to avoid some of that
depletion of will power. Yeah, and this does take some
putting on the calendar because everybody has these unpredictably busy seasons,
(12:56):
but there are a lot of predictable um seasons where
we make a lot of decisions. So around the holidays,
like November December is not the time to be making
big financial decisions, even though everybody wants to do that
in December to prepare for January. And that's why most
(13:16):
New Year's resolutions only last three weeks. Uh so the
end of the school year, beginning of the school year
if you have children. So just looking at your calendar
and what areas you can predict will be busier, and
then schedule time in the not as busy seasons to
(13:37):
reevalue your reevaluate your finances, reevaluate your strategy, reevaluate that
one page financial plan, because that's when you're gonna make
the best decisions, because sometimes that comes with tough decisions,
tough conversations. There's usually whenever you reevaluate, there's some kind
of tough conversation that comes up, either with yourself or
(13:58):
with your partner, or with your family. Ly, so this
is the time to put that toughness on your plate,
not when you have a bunch of other things going on.
I so appreciate what you're highlighting here. Jen to not
make our big important financial decisions during really stressful times
(14:19):
of life. We're usually not going to make the best decision.
It's usually going to be rushed or have crazy levels
of anxiety or urgency to them that are not necessary.
And so even paying attention to what time of day
do you think best at for you? Is it the morning,
is that the early evening, Is it late at night?
(14:40):
For most people, it's going to be the morning. Usually
you're going to make your best, least stressed decisions in
the morning. For females, it's even worth considering time of
the month. This has been an incredible tool that I've
been able to extend to clients where we just don't
think about it. Many of us have been adults for ages,
(15:02):
but what is what what is the cycle like? And
recognizing when you're at your best for making large decisions.
So there's a lot of things that we want to
take into consideration, but certainly not doing this when we're
super stressed. Yeah, so that is for big decisions, but
(15:22):
what about tiny decisions, the day today decisions? So their
next recommendation is to track your spending and I would
say do this even before you start a budget. Don't.
Everybody says jump on the budget immediately. The budget is
a lifesaver, and yeah, budgets make a big difference in
how you reach your financial plan. But if that's a
(15:44):
big barrier, if you've budgeted before and it's been hard
and your prone district budgeting, stop, try something new. Track
your spending for thirty days, literally every transaction every day
in a notebook, in one of these tiny you know,
two by four or four by six inch notebooks that
(16:07):
you can carry with you wherever. Track your spending, every
every penny, every day, and that will tell you a
lot about your spending that your budget won't. Because your
budget tells you what you could be doing. Tracking your
spending tells you what you are doing, and it's not
meant to guilt you. It's just meant to wake you up.
And sometimes the wake up call can be more powerful
(16:30):
than the guilt that a budget can give you. The
next tip is to save automatically. You have heard us
talk about this over and over again, and we're just
not going to stop talking about it. When we can
eliminate some of these even smaller decisions, all the better
for our willpower. Put it on auto in the background.
(16:54):
Let it be running like the fridge all the time,
keeping our stuff called old. Set up a bank or
an investment account that withdraws money automatically from your paycheck.
There are plenty. Pretty much every investment account out there
will allow you to invest automatically. Pretty much every bank
account out there will allow you to save automatically. So
(17:16):
doing this is gonna be super helpful to not have
to add to that should I save this month, I
got to remember to do this. I have to go
into my computer and move money around. Just have it
happen automatically, even if it's a small amount. Then we
don't even have to think about it. And and we're
already making a good decision for ourselves that we only
(17:37):
had to make that decision one time. I think the
biggest thing is for renters is the rent payment. Not
every landlord does automatic rent payments, So if you are
one of those, check into see if your landlord wants
to switch to uh something called Stessa st e s
(18:00):
s A. It's a software where your landlord can accept
rent payments from you and you can set up automatic payments.
So that's one less thing you have to think of
every month. But it's a big thing. So that I
think is the big Everything can be automated. Now there's everything,
and that's really the biggest thing I think that I've
(18:22):
seen people not automate. But that's one option. The next
on this list is my absolute Favorite's my favorite one
on the list. It's avoid temptation. It's just stay away.
Put a physical barrier between you and the store, the
route if you are passing by the store on a route,
(18:43):
take a different route, take the apps off your phone.
Like we go onto podcasts and they're like, what's your
best tip for saving money and we're like, it's not sexy.
It's avoidance. It's staying away from the places that you
tend to spend impulsively or out of character or whatever. Yeah,
(19:06):
just don't go, but but replace it with something because
any time we take something away and we don't replace
it with something new, we are going to feel super deprived.
And that's not the goal of this. We want to
live full, enjoyable lives as much as possible. But if
this isn't serving you, if you're spending money it's not
(19:27):
actually beneficial for you or your wallet, then a change
needs to be made. But that doesn't mean just a removal,
only a subtraction. Sometimes it can mean the addition of
other things. Hanging out with people, doing free things, exploring
in ways that aren't going to cost money. There's there's
always something else that can be done that is going
(19:49):
to be more beneficial for you. So finding those things,
picking up and even a new activity that is low
cost or no cost can be a really fun part
of this process. And then last that they list on
here is ask for support and we also love this
one as well. If you haven't heard us already or
picked up on this reality, we love community and we
(20:13):
think that community is one of the most important components
to longevity on this journey of whatever your goals are
financially and just in life, like we need other people.
We need reciprocity in relationships to know and be known,
and where you can find people who are going to
value you, value your goals, be supportive of them, and
(20:37):
we know not everybody is. Sometimes you need to keep
them in your life. Sometimes you can create some separation there,
but definitely adding in some of those people who are
gonna be supportive to you, who are going to be
the ones that you can call up and are so
down to do something free instead of spending money or
something that's expensive. The people who are going to ask you, hey,
(20:59):
how's this going or how can I help? And that
can be found in person, hopefully and online. I know
it's something that we've created with with frugal friends and
with our membership, so that that's fantastic and we have
seen people grow leaps and bounds, myself included. I have
made so many massive strides and my finances that I
(21:22):
know for sure I would not have done without others
around me even pointing me towards things that I don't know.
I just don't know what I don't know, and that
comes from community and support, and of course the article
gives their plug for psychologists. You know, it's it's a
p A. It's the American Psychology Association, So they're going
to talk about their people and how you should see
(21:43):
a psychologist, which that's fine. I definitely support mental health
and pursuing growth in our mental health. If you think
that a counselor therapist would be helpful for you, absolutely,
particularly when it comes to decision making and some of
our behaviors, there's there's always root causes to it, and
(22:05):
a psychologist, a counselor therapist can help you dig into that.
So if you've tried all of these different things and
you're listening to the podcast and you're reading the books,
and you keep coming up against barriers, there could be
some mindset shifts that a counselor would be able to
help you with. Whether it's a task centered approach or
cognitive behavioral therapy or just general talk therapy, it can
(22:27):
be helpful. Um, not everybody needs it all the time,
and the hope with counseling is that we utilize that
as a resource as we need. But it is not
meant to be a lifetime experience where you are dependent
on a relationship with a counselor. So that's my little
plug or yes, use it if you need it, but
(22:48):
it don't Yeah, don't don't feel like this has to
be a part of your life long term either. Yeah,
thank you for that. Chill. This is I mean, the
willpower and the decision fatigue aspects of daily life are
really why we we invest so much time on the
show to everything we talked about kind of has this
(23:11):
um this theme in the background for us because it's
something that is not talked about as widely. The tips
are a lot of make extra money, invest, eat beans
and rice, but like not a lot on the will power.
And maybe the root causes for why we feel um
(23:32):
the way we do about our finances, which also inhibits
some of our will power and contributes to decision fatigue.
And I think the two things that we focus most
on to preserve will power are building habits and then
also simplifying because the more physical and mental clutter you have,
(23:53):
the worst your spending decisions are. So we in in
the Frugal Friends Club focus a lot on building healthy habits,
breaking limiting habits, and then also um internal and external
motivators and then all the things around how can we
make better decisions? But that's only half of the save smarter,
(24:19):
not harder way of life. I guess this could be
the not harder half, but it's essentially using the eight
twenty principle to save more with less effort. And so
our next article is from Money The Simple Way, Big Wins,
(24:39):
The Simple Way, the approach to saving money. Jill, how
familiar with with the principle? Are you very familiar? I
think a lot of various sects talk about the Peretto
principle is something that can be applied to the corporate
(25:00):
world to our personal finances. It's it's not specific to
any one category. It's just this idea that of our
efforts often produce eighty percent of the outcome that the production,
the product, whatever that product maybe, and so applying it
to personal finances just a new way of looking at
(25:23):
it and then again using it as a tool. I
think so much of what we're about to go over
in this article none of it's shocking, but it is
or even brand new, but it is a new way
to look at it, or a different way to look
at it. I think that's what we're doing with this
podcast in a lot of ways, is what are the
different facets, what's gonna work for the variety of people
(25:47):
who tune in for ourselves and as our situations grow
and change, like we are not static individuals, you and
I or our listeners, like, we're dynamic. We're changing, we're shifting.
So sometimes a mindset that used to work for us
isn't working anymore. We need to implement something new. So
we're just looking at all the different facets of this
(26:09):
really cool diamond and trying to figure out, hey, does
this work? Does this work? At the core of it,
it's all going to be the same being wise stewards
of our resources. But what's the best way for our
minds to engage in that? And and some tangible tips
along the way. But that's how this struck me, of Oh,
we can use the Parretto principle for thinking about saving better,
(26:32):
spending less. Yeah, I mean, of our episodes will provide
you eighty percent of your results, but we're not gonna
tell you which of them they are. You're just gonna
have to listen to. But it is, I mean, it's
crazy how accurate the rule of thumb is across all
(26:54):
industries and everywhere, and even like getting down to the
nitty gritty, like eighty so The way that um Peretto
came up with the rule is that of landowners owned
eighty percent of the land. And then he broke it
down again of those twenty percent, there was twenty percent
of those who owned eighty percent of that land, and
(27:18):
then broke it down again and saw that of those
owned eighty percent of that land. So it is something
that is normal, and it's good, it's okay. And the
further we get away from twenty and closer maybe to
nine ten is when we should get worried. But we're
not here to talk about that right now. Let's talk
(27:38):
about the twenty of our spending. So UM, the author
finds that there is the vital few of frugality. So
he went to a nineteen consumer expenditure survey to get
where most Americans have their household spending and found that
(28:00):
thirty two point eight percent of it's on housing, seventeen
percent is on transportation, cent is on food, even is
on personal insurance and pensions. And then we get lower
as we go down. Um, And he said that you'll
notice that the spending doesn't fit exactly into the rule.
Out of seventeen categories, the top three to four should
(28:23):
represent about and they represents the top three categories only
represents sixty of the total and the top four about seventy.
So he says it's not iron clad, Um, it's just general.
So but that just goes like to show focusing on that.
You can focus on these top four and get big
(28:46):
results and you don't even have to pay attention to
the other ones until you get the top four under control.
You can totally forget about your lattes while you're working
on or in your house, and you totally forget about, uh,
your your clothes budget while you're working on your food
(29:08):
budget or your transportation. There's that's how we choose the
one thing to focus on. We start with the biggest
and then we just go down. We don't have to
work on everything at the same time, permission. I love
this quote that they that he mentions in here. If
you want big winds, focus on the vital few instead
(29:29):
of the trivial many. And that's what you're talking about there.
We love to get caught up in the coffee budget,
but really, what if we got caught up in the housing, transportation,
food part of the budget. That's where we're going to
see the big wins. Is when we focus on the
vital few. And I also appreciate how the author recognized
(29:50):
that everyone's top three or four expenditures is not going
to be the same. For him, it wasn't. As a
family of five, he said his food budget was actually
higher monthly than his mortgage was, which is insane. But
it also sounds like they got a great deal on
their housing costs. So it is worth doing a what
(30:11):
they call Peretto analysis of your own budget, listing out
your annual spending. You're going to have the best results
if you're able to look at a full calendar year
of spending and list that all out into categories. Certainly,
if you already use a certain type of app that
(30:33):
could help you with this, then the job is a
little bit easier for you. And if you're a person
like Jen who just likes to write things out like
in her planner, then then maybe this will be a
fun exercise. But really dig into what are the top
three or four expenditures for you so that you know
where you're going to see the biggest impact on the
(30:55):
vital few instead of the trivial many. But for most
of us, it is going to be housing, transportation, and food,
and so the article goes into some more just few
tips on how could we experience some decreased costs some
savings in each of these big massive categories. Yes, so
(31:18):
we will not dive into these in this episode. These
are actually um all challenges that we have done or
are going to do in the Frugal Friends Club. The
most recent one was the house savings Hunters challenge, where
we looked for ways to like decrease our housing. You know,
(31:39):
everything in that category that was fun, That was fun. Yeah.
Uh so when they talk about like mortgage or rent,
definitely shopping around is the first, you know thing that
they say, we got our And it's not always like
this anymore. I would say that if you haven't you
(32:01):
just listened to our housing market episode, you'll get it.
It's harder to shop around, but that means it's more important. Honestly,
it just makes it even more important. I love the
example that they gave in the article. If you are
going to shop around for your computer and take time
to shop around for a new computer, how much more
(32:23):
so should you be shopping around and taking your time
with a purchase like a house or finding an apartment?
I know, not all of us have the luxury of
time on our side, but wherever possible, it will pay
off in the long run to feel really good about
the decision that we're making and for it to be
within our means. Yeah, when we interviewed Mindy Jensen and
(32:46):
Scott from Bigger Pockets, they said, don't rush home purchase.
And the author here says the process for him to
buy his house took nine months to find the right deal.
And it, I mean, I am pretty sure it's for
most people going to take around the same time right now,
(33:06):
So stick to your guns, waited out, be patient. And
as far as transportation goes, you know, considering can you
come go down to one vehicle? Has your employment situation shifted?
Are you working from home more? Are you able to
work from home more? Are you able to even look
for a job that provides you remote opportunities so that
(33:27):
you could go down to one one vehicle and be
driving less? Are there public transportation alternatives? Are They're just
ways to think outside the box related to your transportation costs.
And then of course with food, this is a big one,
and I would say go back into our archive and
look at all of the different on food but you
(33:49):
know what it's gonna be is eating out less. And
of course there's so many different tips around how we
can do that. One of the things I will highlight
because this felt a little bit new to me in
reading this our are called was encouraging us to master
five to ten recipes that we really enjoy and putting
(34:09):
those on rotation and or keeping them in the freezer
for some crazy busy weeks or nights. And I know
we've talked about freezer meals before, and we've talked about
meal planning, but I don't think we've ever talked about
it in the sense of what's the food you really enjoy,
so you're actually gonna look forward to doing that and
you know how to cook it, so not not getting
(34:31):
so overwhelmed like I have to come up with a
new recipe every week to keep variety. Just find five
to ten recipes you really enjoy, master how to cook
that hone in on your cooking skills, and put them
on rotation. With some other simple meals, maybe the five
to ten are a little bit more complicated, but you
know you're always going to have those ingredients on hand,
(34:54):
and you know you're going to enjoy it. I really
like that tip. I think there was a new way
to kind of look at food. Yeah, that's a great
tip is just give yourself a goal for the year
to master ten recipes or start with five five recipes
over the next year that you're going to just make
on repeat, you know, once a week, and then you're making,
(35:18):
you know, one recipe every five weeks. So it's not
getting too much that you get tired of it, but
enough that you're making it so that you remember it
and can learn it and can make it their staples
and you can make it. Like the author says, his
wife has a dish that she's made so much. She
said she can make it in her sleep. That's amazing
(35:40):
for me. It's chicken pocata. I love chicken poccata. Cannot
get over capers. Papers are so good. Yeah, I definitely
it's a it's a beans and rice with a packet
of the what's that it's the it's the Yeah, maybe
(36:01):
it comes in a packet. It's orange and I throw
some like frozen veggies in there, and I will recreate
poyo tropical essentially, and I'll create my own curry mustard.
That's a whole other thing too. If you're craving take out.
The internet has a palthora of recipes that can replicate
(36:22):
whatever it is that you are craving, so that might
even be something to consider. Mastering those recipes what you
normally gravitate towards when you go out to a restaurant,
master that thing. For Eric, it's French fries. He loves
French fries. And I have actually made some French Actually
you were here, Jen, I made French fries in my
(36:45):
air fryer that he loved that night when we had
steak together. Yeah gosh, we didn't get love, yeah, because
we had to go record, But you were good fries.
You know what else is good? And speaking of work,
it's the bill of the week. That's right, it's time
(37:20):
for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you
paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're
happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To bills,
Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
High Frugal Friends. My name is Jen and I discovered
(37:42):
you all last year and I love your podcast and
appreciate all of the fun and levity that you bring
to finance. I was really lacking that before I found you, guys.
My bill of the week comes from Christmas Eve. After
listening to your podcast with Mrs Frugal Woods, I joined
(38:03):
a couple of my local buy nothing groups on Facebook.
We don't have a TV, and I thought that it
would be so fun to get one for our kids
for Christmas, but I didn't want to spend extra money,
so I put it out there on the buy nothing
groups and on Christmas Eve, I got a message from
someone that they in fact had a perfectly working free
(38:26):
TV for me to pick up. So we went and
got it, wrapped it up and put a note on
it that it was from Santa, and our kids opened
it on Christmas morning and they loved it. So that
is my bill of the week. Thank you so much
for all that you do. Oh my gosh, Jen. First
of all, great name. Second of all, no TV. You
(38:51):
are a hero. You're a hero so many that that's amazing.
I love that lifestyle at But also I'm so thrilled
to hear that you found a local by nothing group
and that they were able to provide you with something special,
something that you wanted, but it wasn't valuable enough to
(39:12):
you to have to spend money on it. And it
sounds like your bill of the week is not spending
any bills on a gift for your kids. And what
a good idea of a way to utilize your buy
nothing group around Christmas time. I don't know if you
sent this in around Christmas time, So sorry, we are
so backed up, but we're still celebrating with you. Yeah,
(39:34):
going to two episodes a week is half for you
and half for us to get through this backlog of bills,
Like we need to double the episodes because we're so behind.
And that is why I keep sending in your bills,
because that's why maybe we'll depending on how many you
send it, maybe we'll go to more. Who knows. That's
(39:54):
amazing And for anyone listening, if you want to join
a buy nothing group, look it up. There's so many again,
reciprocity and community. It's a give and take. You offer
things up for free, you were able to receive things
for free. It's fantastic. And also, if you want to
(40:14):
submit your bill of the week, whether it has to
do with not spending bills or spending bills, or a
person named Bill, or multiple bills. If you know many
many bills, that'd be so amazing. You're in a bill
society for Bill Murray's Yes, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot
com slash Bill, leave us here Bill, and now it's
(40:38):
time for so Today's Lightning Round, which is the eight
percent of our show percent of work, but it's value. Yes. No,
(40:58):
the Bill of the Week is that people turned to
did for I have learned. We got a message the
other day. I don't know if it was like on
Instagram or in an email, but someone had listened to
some of the first few episodes and they were like, hey,
new listener, listening to some of the first episodes, just
want to know if you're still doing the Bill of
(41:20):
the week. And I was like, every single episode, but
I couldn't tell. There was no response to that. It
was definitely on Instagram. There was no response, and I
couldn't tell. Is she asking because she doesn't want to
hear this anymore and she's like if they say yes,
I'm done, or if she wanted to send in a bill,
(41:42):
And so I never got the answer. We may never know,
We may never know, but I'm gonna assume it's because
she loved it, right, that's safe to assume. Yeah, that's
so all right, John, you go first on this round
of vulnerability. What is your best eight twenty savings tip?
(42:07):
Absolutely so, we have always been so I'm going to
choose housing. And I have always been a big proponent
for house hacking, which is it's essentially buying. So traditionally
when it first started, it was instead of um buying
(42:29):
like your dream home for your first home, your first
home is a duplex or a triplex and you live
in one part and you rent out the other um side,
and it essentially covers most of your mortgage so that
you can just save up your money and then go
buy your dream home or another rental property to do
(42:49):
the house hack again, whatever you want. So we didn't
know about house hacking when we bought our first house,
and by the time we did, it was impossible to
get duplexes in St. Pete. There was is impossible. So
what we did was, when we found out about it,
we rented at our guest room on Airbnb and it
(43:11):
worked fabulously. Uh So people have definitely heard we talked
about this. We did it for several years. We were
booked out all the time, and it was just our
guest room and our guest bathroom, and we shared the
other spaces in the house except um, we didn't share
my office or our bedroom. Uh and and nobody really
(43:32):
took us up on the sharing the rest of the house.
Pretty much. People who rent a shared room on Airbnb
are just there for a place to sleep. They're not
there for a place to hang, which was convenient for us.
But we got to meet so many cool people. It
was the best house hack I think we could have
ever done. And it pretty much almost covered our mortgage
(43:55):
um every month that we did it. And now we're
kind of house hacking. We bought at a large house
and we're going to make part of it a mid
term rental like for snowbirds, and uh, we are renting
out the original house that we lived in and so
that once we get the renovation on this mid term
(44:18):
rental done, then between that and the other house, the
income should cover both mortgages. And so that is my best,
my favorite. Yeah, it's excellent. It is requiring a lot
of work up front. Depending on your situation, that could
be the case, but once you put in that initial
(44:40):
effort it can get to a point of twenty percent
effort for eighty percent return. Yeah, I mean the guest
room was very effortless, and we lived in a in
a area that it was good for like fifteen minutes
from the beach, fifteen minutes from a bunch of different universities.
Uh so we lived in a good area for it.
(45:02):
But um, it was very effortless for that. This one
a lot of efforts. Don't recommend it upfront, but the
guest room thing was so easy. Yeah for me. When
it as it relates to I think, this is what
I do with each category, So the biggest expenses. So
(45:23):
if we were to look at housing, transportation, and food,
I would agree that for me, I'm I'm I'm a
basic person where those are probably the biggest expenditures for me,
and applying the rule to each of those categories like
breaking it down smaller and smaller. So what is the
(45:43):
top amount of money that I'm spending within food, within transportation,
and how can I decrease that like the big winds
the vital few, rather than the small amounts. So I'm
not cutting out gum. But recently, well, Jen, this is
actually gonna be news to you too, and it may
(46:05):
break your heart a little bit, but it's a good thing.
We have what We've definitely significantly cut out eating out,
and I have found ways to really enjoy eating at home.
Sometimes it means doing a random meal kit delivery just
to keep me going in my eating at home efforts,
but I've really enjoyed that, which I never would have thought.
(46:26):
It's been a trained muscle. But we also have made
a drastic cut in our alcohol consumption. Like we got
to a point where we thought, every time we go out,
like it's fun to be able to get a drink
with our meal, and we are realizing that by not
doing that, it significantly decreases the amount of money we
(46:48):
spend even when we go out. And what's amazing about
it is we're not missing it, Like we can replace
it with other enjoyable things. I can have, like a
little piece of chocolate waiting for me when I get home,
and that's like just the treat that I need, because
it's not even about like getting a drink, It's about
having something that feels like a treat. But when I'm
(47:09):
getting a treat every single time, then it takes away
the enjoyment of it. I never growing up, I never
got soda or a lemonade or and I see I
always did water. Something like what happened to us that
suddenly we're getting a drink out every time we go out.
So really, scaling back in that regard has helped us
(47:31):
phenomenally with with the food. With transportation, we cut back
to one vehicle. We've been a one vehicle family now
for two years, which is amazing, and that works for
us because we work from home. Sometimes it stinks when
our car needs to go in for repairs, but that's
very minimal and we work around it. In the long run,
(47:51):
it's saving us a lot of money. And as far
as housing, you've heard all of the housing things that
we've done, But one thing I don't think I've ever
mentioned on this podcast before is when we were renting
before we did the tiny home, before we had a
home that we could make an airbnb in. When we
looked for apartments, we did not have a ton of money,
(48:11):
and so one of the ways that we got what
we wanted at an inexpensive price was looking at very
inexpensive rentals. I know that's really it's harder to come by,
but considering looking at places that you wouldn't normally consider,
Like if you're the type of person who would primarily
go like apartment complex, consider looking for some smaller apartment
(48:34):
situations that might not be as nice and working out
a deal of being able to fix it up, do
a few minor repairs or painting with the landlord to
be able to make it what you like. So that
was one of the things that we did on multiple occasions,
was renovating an apartment to be more what we wanted,
(48:55):
but maintaining the lower rent. Of course, I recognize that
may or may not be available to people or as
readily available now, but I don't think I've ever discussed
that on this podcast when we were in a rental
and not an owning situation. So anything really that's going
to be thinking outside the box and looking at these
heavy hit or categories is going to make the biggest
(49:17):
dent in our finances. Yeah, I think that's a great
if you are handy, even like partially because a landlord
isn't going to want you to do major renovations, but
if you can paint, if you can replace a few fixtures,
(49:37):
very simple things, then you look at the cost of
handymen look at like, do an analysis of what it
would cost them to fix up their property and what
they can charge extra for rent if they do fix
up their property and create a deal or propose a
(49:58):
deal where it's like, over the next year, i will
fix this up to this, you'll give me this discount
on rent. So they save or you know, maybe they
don't save as much then as hand doing handyman, but
they know the work is going to get done and
they don't have to disrupt any tenants or give any
(50:19):
you know, additional discounts or have the thing they get
for a month while they do the renovations. They know
you will do it, and then you're like, you will
give me this price for one year or two years,
and then I'll move out and you can jack up.
Some of the benefit is what they'll be able to
make off of it once you leave. Our landlord was
(50:40):
able to charge four hundred dollars a month extra after
we left because of the work that we did on
the place. So yeah, it's there. It can be a
win win, Yeah, make it if you tell them that
they are going to make money off of giving you
a discount, because you can tell them the things that
you can do, etcetera. And yeah, it's a great strategy. Uh.
(51:02):
So I hope that you've gleaned some wisdom from this
um and yeah, from this whole Radical Middle Method series. Honestly,
so thank you so much for listening. And uh, in
our private community, you know that we are sharing the
winds of our members and and they've all lived out
(51:23):
the Radical Middle Method. Watched the video series. They're doing
the challenges and they're getting results. Not even that I mean, yes,
the most active members, but even like newer members and
even members that are just there when they can be
and gone when they're not. So we wanted to shout
out one of our members, Wendy. Uh. She said, I
(51:46):
paid off my Target card the other day and it
feels so good. Um. And then she had another win
that I wanted to like couple up in here that
she posted like a several days later, she said, thanks
to last night's group and the challenge checklist, we do
not have to buy a new dishwasher yet. My husband
and I didn't know there was a filter to clean
(52:07):
L O L. That was during our house unders challenge
that I mentioned earlier. She says, now to fix the dryer. Ah,
it so amazing. Congratulations Wenday. That's a trimetime example of
we don't know what we don't know, and when we
find support and we find community and we're able to
learn from one another, we can save a ton of
(52:28):
money and we can learn ways to earn more as well.
So when we can combine that saving and increasing our earnings,
skies the limit and we're here for you. So congrats Wenday. Yeah,
so thanks for listening. If you want to check out
our monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot
com slash club to see what challenge we're doing next.
(52:51):
You'll get access to the full Radical Middle Method video
series and a group of really cool people. M see
you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian Jillian.
(53:18):
Why did you think that I would be upset with you?
Not as much alcoholic restaurants? I don't even go out, Jill.
I don't, well, I don't go out to restaurants because
also the reality is that I'm also drinking less at home.
It's just like across the board we decided we're doing
we're doing a hard left turn. I mean, we weren't
(53:40):
like we weren't drinking an insane amount where it was
like affecting our lives are like our lives. But we
also did get ourselves into a rhythm where it kind
of just became part of a routine where many nights
we were, you know, having a cocktail before dinner or
a glass of wine with dinner, not not normally both,
(54:01):
but like I would say, four or five days a week,
we're having a drink, and and we realized why are
we doing this because we would only have a drink,
so it did nothing for us other than to put
like some toxic substance in our body and make us
feel more lethargic the next day. I think it just
(54:23):
felt like coming going in. I think a lot of
it became a part of the pandemic lifestyle of we're home,
there's not much to do, we can't really go out.
We we don't work from home, we live at work,
and how do we create breaks in our day? And
that was one of the ways that we created a
(54:43):
break in our day or felt like we were able
to enjoy something together. I think we always associated like
a nice cocktail with a nice experience, and that's not
the only way to have a nice experience, but for whatever,
for whatever happened, we just kind of like got in
this rhythm and it just became a part of routine.
And I think we finally are at this point of
(55:05):
but life. It's not the same anymore, and we're enjoying
things and this isn't doing anything for us. And already
I think we're like two weeks into this decision and
we are feeling so good, like what we feel like
so much better and we're not missing it and we're
finding things to replace it with. And turns out all
(55:25):
of our friends are on board. And also had to
do with having people in town, hosting people so much.
Everyone's on vacation, so every time they come in, it's
like they they're they're on vacation. So yeah, I would
love to have a cocktail at night, and we're with
them and we want to partake with them. But being
able to tell people, oh yeah, like we're cutting back
a bit, they're like, oh great, awesome, we don't need
(55:48):
that either, or they can partake and we don't need to.
Like it doesn't it's not mutually exclusive. We don't all
have to do the same things altogether. Just taking time
to just ask shins and question what you're doing and
saying like, hey, this was great then in a season,
but is it great now? And it can still be
good without being great. And it doesn't have to mean
(56:11):
deprivation either. I think sometimes like that pendulum, it swings
in so many directions. It doesn't mean that now it's
all bad and I have to cut it all out,
just greater degrees of finding the radical middle. And I
actually think that it has created more freedom and permission
that I don't feel locked into this routine of oh well,
I'm just like used to pouring a glass of wine
(56:32):
with dinner. Now it can be no pay attention to
actually want that. And if it sounds good to me, great,
If it doesn't, I don't have to. Like, just because
it's available in my house doesn't mean I have to
drink it all up. Yeah, I'm proud of you. You
are my go to home bar. But I accept you,
(56:55):
and I see you, and I see you are welcome,
Like that's the thing to like have at the case
of wine. My mother in law them, I don't and
I don't. We don't have to. Yeah, whatever someone else
wants to do and sounds good to them, doesn't mean
that I have to do it too, and it also
means that whenever it does sound good to me, I
can also enjoy that great yeah freedom permission in every
(57:19):
category of life. Who
Episode to Save Smarter, not Harder. Welcome to the Brugal
Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights,
and liberal your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m.
(00:25):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
my name is Jill, and we are bringing you part
three in our Radical Middle Method series. We are pleased
to be bringing this into conclusion, into fulfillment because no
(00:45):
one wants to be here for more than three things.
Absolutely not energy for done. I can't count higher than that.
Absolutely shouldn't have to, shouldn't have to. You shouldn't be
able to get it done in three steps. And and
we've done it, and it's radical, but it's also just
the middle. And that's why the last part is save Smarter,
(01:05):
not Harder, because when you choose efficiency over quantity or magnitude,
it creates a much more sustainable frugality. And that's what
we're all about. We're not about doing the most, we're
about doing the best. And this episode can certainly be
listened to on its own, but also feel free to
(01:28):
check out parts one and two that came before this
for a full picture of the Radical Middle Method and
be able to implement and find the freedom and flexibility
for what your own financial plan is going to look like. Absolutely,
but first, this episode is brought to you by the
Spending Symposium Audio Flash Sale. Prices are still rising and
(01:53):
it's becoming increasingly difficult to plan and stick to a budget.
So that's why we held the Spending Symposium last month
where we had twenty experts teaching you their tips for
spending lass and saving better. And while the full access
pass is no longer available, we do want to give
you one more opportunity to get the MP three versions
(02:14):
of all of our expert interviews from this year's summit,
and wait for it, we're also throwing in last year's
summit as well, so that's almost forty interviews thirty nine
to be exact, that you've never heard on the show.
It's been completely separate from the podcast, so if you
(02:34):
need more help controlling or spending, check it out. We're
only offering this audio bundle for a week, so go
to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash audio to listen
to every session. We'll see every session and then purchase
it and then listen to every session. Nice So if
(02:57):
you are as geeked out about efficiency as we are.
Here are a few episodes to queue up after this.
Episode one hundred how to maintain a hundred percent effort
on your financial journey I think is kind of a joke,
but it's a lot about motivation, and then episode one one,
how do identify and improve spending habits? Because this section
(03:23):
of the Radical Middle Method is all about being able
to stick to the financial plan that you just created
based off the dream life that you just envisioned. So
this is the natural progression. Because I don't know about you, Jill,
but I am a planner and we've talked about this
(03:43):
on the show before. I used to have a problem
with buying planners, like I just buy a lot of
planners and I wouldn't use all. I don't know why
I would buy so many. I only needed one. And
when I realized that I was writing the same thing
in multiple planners, that was when my problem was solved
for me. But I am a planner and I'm not
always the best executor. So this is why I'm so
(04:07):
passionate about this portion of the method, because we include
psychology and efficiency and productivity methods to help you stick
to the plan. That you've created. Yeah, and I think
it's a recognition that we are whole people. No part
(04:29):
of our personhood is disconnected from the other, and so
being able to recognize all of the things that go
into saving, spending, decision making, even relationships that play a
massive part in our saving and spending, whether it's going
out with people or managing finances with a partner or
(04:50):
within a family. There's so many layers and level So
I think we we do ourselves an injustice if we
act like our finances are this separate part of who
we are rather than a intertwined component of who we are.
So I think this whole radical middle method is recognizing
all of that. And certainly as we talk about this
(05:12):
final piece of saving and investing and how to stick
with it, it's certainly an ongoing recognition of what are
the components of ourselves that we need to recognize, particularly
how we make a plan and how we stick to it,
and how we make decisions, and how we make decisions
that are going to be beneficial to us. What what
(05:34):
needs to stay and what needs to go, and how
can we create longevity in it? Yeah, and all those
questions are really the reason why we created the Frugal
Friends Club, which is our membership where we have this
video series and we do monthly challenges in there to
create space to one create motivation that is fresh every month,
(05:58):
but also space to ask those questions to get a
third party to get outside uh, you know, advice or
input or experience from people on the same path as
you who are also working on improving their frugality and
their money, so that you have a safe space to
share and get input. So that's the whole reason behind
(06:22):
why we came up with this method and and why
we created the Frugal Friends Club. But so let's get
into how to save smarter not harder with our first article,
which is from the American Psychological Association UM and it's
called Willpower, Finances and Spending. What do you think of
(06:44):
this one, Jill Oh, I love it. Anytime we can
blend mental health with financial understanding is a beautiful blend
for me. Uh. And a p A brings back so
many great memories for me from my college days. A
p A has their own versions of way ways you
need to write research papers and cite articles. So you
(07:06):
know this is there's there's some good and bad throwback here,
but they are a great organization, and yeah, finding all
sorts of articles on a variety of topics from them
is fantastic. I love how they talk about will power specifically,
and I think it's similar to what we've discussed many
(07:27):
times on this podcast, is decision fatigue. I think decision
fatigue is connected to our will power, which is just
our capacity to take in and respond to the various
stimuli that are happening in our environment, whether emotional, mental, relational, spiritual, physical,
you name it. The ability to maintain our values, the
(07:51):
things that are important to us, what we say we
want to do. We do have capacity when it comes
to will power, and that's one the things that they
highlight most. And if we can understand this concept, it
can be really helpful for us in sticking to our
financial plan, in saving smarter, not harder, in setting up
some things that are going to be helpful for us
(08:14):
long term. And they describe willpower kind of like a
muscle that can certainly be exercised and stretched and built
and grown, but it can also become exhausted as well.
And sometimes as we overexert our willpower, we expect too
much of our decision making abilities, back to back to
(08:36):
back to back, we can get worn down. I think
a lot of people can commiserate with this and can understand, of,
all right, I reached my limit with whatever it is,
because I think our will power isn't just connected to
one aspect of who we are. We could exhaust will
power and parenting, and then it translate over to not
making the best financial decisions because we've already had to
(08:58):
make a ton of their decisions and our willpower is
worn down, So like willpower across the board, and then
how does that impact various other aspects? So I think
there's not like some magic thing that we can do
with this, but recognizing that it's there and setting ourselves
up for as much success in the areas that we
want to see success in is going to be great.
(09:20):
So that's that's a little bit of my summary and
personal take on how they're describing willpower. But how did
how did this strike you? Jen? Very much of the same.
I loved this one study that they cited in here,
and I'll just read it from the article. People who
are constantly faced with tough financial decisions, such as those
(09:41):
who are less financially stable, most readily deplete their willpower.
So one study suggested that shoppers with less money, who
often use more willpower than richer shoppers, because they face
more frequent and difficult spending decisions, are less likely likely
to resist consuming food and rink while shopping. Therefore, it
(10:01):
appears that having to devote willpower to difficult spending decisions
can deplete willpower in other areas. And so we see
this a lot with people who are struggling financially living
around the poverty line, and it's hard. Your every spending
decision you make is a tough decision, whereas if you
(10:25):
are more financially stable, the same decisions are are inconveniences
at worst, So you do end up spending more the
less you have. That's a phenomenon that you you often
don't understand why you're doing it. It's like, if I
have so little money, why do I always spend it? Well,
(10:45):
this is very likely the case is that your willpower
is being depleted earlier, uh and more rapidly than somebody
who is more financially secure. And that's not to say
that we need to remain stuck in that place. It's
important to acknowledge that there just might be more difficulties
(11:08):
and barriers for someone where there are more difficult decisions
to be made, it is more depleting. But recognizing that
then can help empower us to be able to respond
rather than to become victim to that unknowingly. Yeah, like
you're saying, generally, why is this happening to me? And
(11:29):
so there are things that can be done, and I
appreciate some of the lists that this article gave to
us that there are ways that we can respond and
recognize our capacity with with will power in the way
that we can care for ourselves. Well here in one
of those ways as it relates to finances, is the
(11:50):
space out financial decisions wherever possible. And I know, Jen,
you talk about this all the time, focusing on one thing.
This aretical supports that idea make one decision at a time,
but not only that, if you are able to space
them out, not back to back to back to back.
(12:11):
I'm making financial decision after tough financial decision after tough
financial decision. I think there's gonna be some creativity and
problem solving an individualization that needs to happen in light
of this tip. It's not going to look the same
for every person, But whatever you can do. Some of
that might be automation, some of that might be planning ahead.
(12:32):
I don't know what it will be for each one
of us, but whatever we can implement so that our
financial decisions can be spaced out and we can approach
them one at a time to avoid some of that
depletion of will power. Yeah, and this does take some
putting on the calendar because everybody has these unpredictably busy seasons,
(12:56):
but there are a lot of predictable um seasons where
we make a lot of decisions. So around the holidays,
like November December is not the time to be making
big financial decisions, even though everybody wants to do that
in December to prepare for January. And that's why most
(13:16):
New Year's resolutions only last three weeks. Uh so the
end of the school year, beginning of the school year
if you have children. So just looking at your calendar
and what areas you can predict will be busier, and
then schedule time in the not as busy seasons to
(13:37):
reevalue your reevaluate your finances, reevaluate your strategy, reevaluate that
one page financial plan, because that's when you're gonna make
the best decisions, because sometimes that comes with tough decisions,
tough conversations. There's usually whenever you reevaluate, there's some kind
of tough conversation that comes up, either with yourself or
(13:58):
with your partner, or with your family. Ly, so this
is the time to put that toughness on your plate,
not when you have a bunch of other things going on.
I so appreciate what you're highlighting here. Jen to not
make our big important financial decisions during really stressful times
(14:19):
of life. We're usually not going to make the best decision.
It's usually going to be rushed or have crazy levels
of anxiety or urgency to them that are not necessary.
And so even paying attention to what time of day
do you think best at for you? Is it the morning,
is that the early evening, Is it late at night?
(14:40):
For most people, it's going to be the morning. Usually
you're going to make your best, least stressed decisions in
the morning. For females, it's even worth considering time of
the month. This has been an incredible tool that I've
been able to extend to clients where we just don't
think about it. Many of us have been adults for ages,
(15:02):
but what is what what is the cycle like? And
recognizing when you're at your best for making large decisions.
So there's a lot of things that we want to
take into consideration, but certainly not doing this when we're
super stressed. Yeah, so that is for big decisions, but
(15:22):
what about tiny decisions, the day today decisions? So their
next recommendation is to track your spending and I would
say do this even before you start a budget. Don't.
Everybody says jump on the budget immediately. The budget is
a lifesaver, and yeah, budgets make a big difference in
how you reach your financial plan. But if that's a
(15:44):
big barrier, if you've budgeted before and it's been hard
and your prone district budgeting, stop, try something new. Track
your spending for thirty days, literally every transaction every day
in a notebook, in one of these tiny you know,
two by four or four by six inch notebooks that
(16:07):
you can carry with you wherever. Track your spending, every
every penny, every day, and that will tell you a
lot about your spending that your budget won't. Because your
budget tells you what you could be doing. Tracking your
spending tells you what you are doing, and it's not
meant to guilt you. It's just meant to wake you up.
And sometimes the wake up call can be more powerful
(16:30):
than the guilt that a budget can give you. The
next tip is to save automatically. You have heard us
talk about this over and over again, and we're just
not going to stop talking about it. When we can
eliminate some of these even smaller decisions, all the better
for our willpower. Put it on auto in the background.
(16:54):
Let it be running like the fridge all the time,
keeping our stuff called old. Set up a bank or
an investment account that withdraws money automatically from your paycheck.
There are plenty. Pretty much every investment account out there
will allow you to invest automatically. Pretty much every bank
account out there will allow you to save automatically. So
(17:16):
doing this is gonna be super helpful to not have
to add to that should I save this month, I
got to remember to do this. I have to go
into my computer and move money around. Just have it
happen automatically, even if it's a small amount. Then we
don't even have to think about it. And and we're
already making a good decision for ourselves that we only
(17:37):
had to make that decision one time. I think the
biggest thing is for renters is the rent payment. Not
every landlord does automatic rent payments, So if you are
one of those, check into see if your landlord wants
to switch to uh something called Stessa st e s
(18:00):
s A. It's a software where your landlord can accept
rent payments from you and you can set up automatic payments.
So that's one less thing you have to think of
every month. But it's a big thing. So that I
think is the big Everything can be automated. Now there's everything,
and that's really the biggest thing I think that I've
(18:22):
seen people not automate. But that's one option. The next
on this list is my absolute Favorite's my favorite one
on the list. It's avoid temptation. It's just stay away.
Put a physical barrier between you and the store, the
route if you are passing by the store on a route,
(18:43):
take a different route, take the apps off your phone.
Like we go onto podcasts and they're like, what's your
best tip for saving money and we're like, it's not sexy.
It's avoidance. It's staying away from the places that you
tend to spend impulsively or out of character or whatever. Yeah,
(19:06):
just don't go, but but replace it with something because
any time we take something away and we don't replace
it with something new, we are going to feel super deprived.
And that's not the goal of this. We want to
live full, enjoyable lives as much as possible. But if
this isn't serving you, if you're spending money it's not
(19:27):
actually beneficial for you or your wallet, then a change
needs to be made. But that doesn't mean just a removal,
only a subtraction. Sometimes it can mean the addition of
other things. Hanging out with people, doing free things, exploring
in ways that aren't going to cost money. There's there's
always something else that can be done that is going
(19:49):
to be more beneficial for you. So finding those things,
picking up and even a new activity that is low
cost or no cost can be a really fun part
of this process. And then last that they list on
here is ask for support and we also love this
one as well. If you haven't heard us already or
picked up on this reality, we love community and we
(20:13):
think that community is one of the most important components
to longevity on this journey of whatever your goals are
financially and just in life, like we need other people.
We need reciprocity in relationships to know and be known,
and where you can find people who are going to
value you, value your goals, be supportive of them, and
(20:37):
we know not everybody is. Sometimes you need to keep
them in your life. Sometimes you can create some separation there,
but definitely adding in some of those people who are
gonna be supportive to you, who are going to be
the ones that you can call up and are so
down to do something free instead of spending money or
something that's expensive. The people who are going to ask you, hey,
(20:59):
how's this going or how can I help? And that
can be found in person, hopefully and online. I know
it's something that we've created with with frugal friends and
with our membership, so that that's fantastic and we have
seen people grow leaps and bounds, myself included. I have
made so many massive strides and my finances that I
(21:22):
know for sure I would not have done without others
around me even pointing me towards things that I don't know.
I just don't know what I don't know, and that
comes from community and support, and of course the article
gives their plug for psychologists. You know, it's it's a
p A. It's the American Psychology Association, So they're going
to talk about their people and how you should see
(21:43):
a psychologist, which that's fine. I definitely support mental health
and pursuing growth in our mental health. If you think
that a counselor therapist would be helpful for you, absolutely,
particularly when it comes to decision making and some of
our behaviors, there's there's always root causes to it, and
(22:05):
a psychologist, a counselor therapist can help you dig into that.
So if you've tried all of these different things and
you're listening to the podcast and you're reading the books,
and you keep coming up against barriers, there could be
some mindset shifts that a counselor would be able to
help you with. Whether it's a task centered approach or
cognitive behavioral therapy or just general talk therapy, it can
(22:27):
be helpful. Um, not everybody needs it all the time,
and the hope with counseling is that we utilize that
as a resource as we need. But it is not
meant to be a lifetime experience where you are dependent
on a relationship with a counselor. So that's my little
plug or yes, use it if you need it, but
(22:48):
it don't Yeah, don't don't feel like this has to
be a part of your life long term either. Yeah,
thank you for that. Chill. This is I mean, the
willpower and the decision fatigue aspects of daily life are
really why we we invest so much time on the
show to everything we talked about kind of has this
(23:11):
um this theme in the background for us because it's
something that is not talked about as widely. The tips
are a lot of make extra money, invest, eat beans
and rice, but like not a lot on the will power.
And maybe the root causes for why we feel um
(23:32):
the way we do about our finances, which also inhibits
some of our will power and contributes to decision fatigue.
And I think the two things that we focus most
on to preserve will power are building habits and then
also simplifying because the more physical and mental clutter you have,
(23:53):
the worst your spending decisions are. So we in in
the Frugal Friends Club focus a lot on building healthy habits,
breaking limiting habits, and then also um internal and external
motivators and then all the things around how can we
make better decisions? But that's only half of the save smarter,
(24:19):
not harder way of life. I guess this could be
the not harder half, but it's essentially using the eight
twenty principle to save more with less effort. And so
our next article is from Money The Simple Way, Big Wins,
(24:39):
The Simple Way, the approach to saving money. Jill, how
familiar with with the principle? Are you very familiar? I
think a lot of various sects talk about the Peretto
principle is something that can be applied to the corporate
(25:00):
world to our personal finances. It's it's not specific to
any one category. It's just this idea that of our
efforts often produce eighty percent of the outcome that the production,
the product, whatever that product maybe, and so applying it
to personal finances just a new way of looking at
(25:23):
it and then again using it as a tool. I
think so much of what we're about to go over
in this article none of it's shocking, but it is
or even brand new, but it is a new way
to look at it, or a different way to look
at it. I think that's what we're doing with this
podcast in a lot of ways, is what are the
different facets, what's gonna work for the variety of people
(25:47):
who tune in for ourselves and as our situations grow
and change, like we are not static individuals, you and
I or our listeners, like, we're dynamic. We're changing, we're shifting.
So sometimes a mindset that used to work for us
isn't working anymore. We need to implement something new. So
we're just looking at all the different facets of this
(26:09):
really cool diamond and trying to figure out, hey, does
this work? Does this work? At the core of it,
it's all going to be the same being wise stewards
of our resources. But what's the best way for our
minds to engage in that? And and some tangible tips
along the way. But that's how this struck me, of Oh,
we can use the Parretto principle for thinking about saving better,
(26:32):
spending less. Yeah, I mean, of our episodes will provide
you eighty percent of your results, but we're not gonna
tell you which of them they are. You're just gonna
have to listen to. But it is, I mean, it's
crazy how accurate the rule of thumb is across all
(26:54):
industries and everywhere, and even like getting down to the
nitty gritty, like eighty so The way that um Peretto
came up with the rule is that of landowners owned
eighty percent of the land. And then he broke it
down again of those twenty percent, there was twenty percent
of those who owned eighty percent of that land, and
(27:18):
then broke it down again and saw that of those
owned eighty percent of that land. So it is something
that is normal, and it's good, it's okay. And the
further we get away from twenty and closer maybe to
nine ten is when we should get worried. But we're
not here to talk about that right now. Let's talk
(27:38):
about the twenty of our spending. So UM, the author
finds that there is the vital few of frugality. So
he went to a nineteen consumer expenditure survey to get
where most Americans have their household spending and found that
(28:00):
thirty two point eight percent of it's on housing, seventeen
percent is on transportation, cent is on food, even is
on personal insurance and pensions. And then we get lower
as we go down. Um, And he said that you'll
notice that the spending doesn't fit exactly into the rule.
Out of seventeen categories, the top three to four should
(28:23):
represent about and they represents the top three categories only
represents sixty of the total and the top four about seventy.
So he says it's not iron clad, Um, it's just general.
So but that just goes like to show focusing on that.
You can focus on these top four and get big
(28:46):
results and you don't even have to pay attention to
the other ones until you get the top four under control.
You can totally forget about your lattes while you're working
on or in your house, and you totally forget about, uh,
your your clothes budget while you're working on your food
(29:08):
budget or your transportation. There's that's how we choose the
one thing to focus on. We start with the biggest
and then we just go down. We don't have to
work on everything at the same time, permission. I love
this quote that they that he mentions in here. If
you want big winds, focus on the vital few instead
(29:29):
of the trivial many. And that's what you're talking about there.
We love to get caught up in the coffee budget,
but really, what if we got caught up in the housing, transportation,
food part of the budget. That's where we're going to
see the big wins. Is when we focus on the
vital few. And I also appreciate how the author recognized
(29:50):
that everyone's top three or four expenditures is not going
to be the same. For him, it wasn't. As a
family of five, he said his food budget was actually
higher monthly than his mortgage was, which is insane. But
it also sounds like they got a great deal on
their housing costs. So it is worth doing a what
(30:11):
they call Peretto analysis of your own budget, listing out
your annual spending. You're going to have the best results
if you're able to look at a full calendar year
of spending and list that all out into categories. Certainly,
if you already use a certain type of app that
(30:33):
could help you with this, then the job is a
little bit easier for you. And if you're a person
like Jen who just likes to write things out like
in her planner, then then maybe this will be a
fun exercise. But really dig into what are the top
three or four expenditures for you so that you know
where you're going to see the biggest impact on the
(30:55):
vital few instead of the trivial many. But for most
of us, it is going to be housing, transportation, and food,
and so the article goes into some more just few
tips on how could we experience some decreased costs some
savings in each of these big massive categories. Yes, so
(31:18):
we will not dive into these in this episode. These
are actually um all challenges that we have done or
are going to do in the Frugal Friends Club. The
most recent one was the house savings Hunters challenge, where
we looked for ways to like decrease our housing. You know,
(31:39):
everything in that category that was fun, That was fun. Yeah.
Uh so when they talk about like mortgage or rent,
definitely shopping around is the first, you know thing that
they say, we got our And it's not always like
this anymore. I would say that if you haven't you
(32:01):
just listened to our housing market episode, you'll get it.
It's harder to shop around, but that means it's more important. Honestly,
it just makes it even more important. I love the
example that they gave in the article. If you are
going to shop around for your computer and take time
to shop around for a new computer, how much more
(32:23):
so should you be shopping around and taking your time
with a purchase like a house or finding an apartment?
I know, not all of us have the luxury of
time on our side, but wherever possible, it will pay
off in the long run to feel really good about
the decision that we're making and for it to be
within our means. Yeah, when we interviewed Mindy Jensen and
(32:46):
Scott from Bigger Pockets, they said, don't rush home purchase.
And the author here says the process for him to
buy his house took nine months to find the right deal.
And it, I mean, I am pretty sure it's for
most people going to take around the same time right now,
(33:06):
So stick to your guns, waited out, be patient. And
as far as transportation goes, you know, considering can you
come go down to one vehicle? Has your employment situation shifted?
Are you working from home more? Are you able to
work from home more? Are you able to even look
for a job that provides you remote opportunities so that
(33:27):
you could go down to one one vehicle and be
driving less? Are there public transportation alternatives? Are They're just
ways to think outside the box related to your transportation costs.
And then of course with food, this is a big one,
and I would say go back into our archive and
look at all of the different on food but you
(33:49):
know what it's gonna be is eating out less. And
of course there's so many different tips around how we
can do that. One of the things I will highlight
because this felt a little bit new to me in
reading this our are called was encouraging us to master
five to ten recipes that we really enjoy and putting
(34:09):
those on rotation and or keeping them in the freezer
for some crazy busy weeks or nights. And I know
we've talked about freezer meals before, and we've talked about
meal planning, but I don't think we've ever talked about
it in the sense of what's the food you really enjoy,
so you're actually gonna look forward to doing that and
you know how to cook it, so not not getting
(34:31):
so overwhelmed like I have to come up with a
new recipe every week to keep variety. Just find five
to ten recipes you really enjoy, master how to cook
that hone in on your cooking skills, and put them
on rotation. With some other simple meals, maybe the five
to ten are a little bit more complicated, but you
know you're always going to have those ingredients on hand,
(34:54):
and you know you're going to enjoy it. I really
like that tip. I think there was a new way
to kind of look at food. Yeah, that's a great
tip is just give yourself a goal for the year
to master ten recipes or start with five five recipes
over the next year that you're going to just make
on repeat, you know, once a week, and then you're making,
(35:18):
you know, one recipe every five weeks. So it's not
getting too much that you get tired of it, but
enough that you're making it so that you remember it
and can learn it and can make it their staples
and you can make it. Like the author says, his
wife has a dish that she's made so much. She
said she can make it in her sleep. That's amazing
(35:40):
for me. It's chicken pocata. I love chicken poccata. Cannot
get over capers. Papers are so good. Yeah, I definitely
it's a it's a beans and rice with a packet
of the what's that it's the it's the Yeah, maybe
(36:01):
it comes in a packet. It's orange and I throw
some like frozen veggies in there, and I will recreate
poyo tropical essentially, and I'll create my own curry mustard.
That's a whole other thing too. If you're craving take out.
The internet has a palthora of recipes that can replicate
(36:22):
whatever it is that you are craving, so that might
even be something to consider. Mastering those recipes what you
normally gravitate towards when you go out to a restaurant,
master that thing. For Eric, it's French fries. He loves
French fries. And I have actually made some French Actually
you were here, Jen, I made French fries in my
(36:45):
air fryer that he loved that night when we had
steak together. Yeah gosh, we didn't get love, yeah, because
we had to go record, But you were good fries.
You know what else is good? And speaking of work,
it's the bill of the week. That's right, it's time
(37:20):
for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you
paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're
happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To bills,
Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
High Frugal Friends. My name is Jen and I discovered
(37:42):
you all last year and I love your podcast and
appreciate all of the fun and levity that you bring
to finance. I was really lacking that before I found you, guys.
My bill of the week comes from Christmas Eve. After
listening to your podcast with Mrs Frugal Woods, I joined
(38:03):
a couple of my local buy nothing groups on Facebook.
We don't have a TV, and I thought that it
would be so fun to get one for our kids
for Christmas, but I didn't want to spend extra money,
so I put it out there on the buy nothing
groups and on Christmas Eve, I got a message from
someone that they in fact had a perfectly working free
(38:26):
TV for me to pick up. So we went and
got it, wrapped it up and put a note on
it that it was from Santa, and our kids opened
it on Christmas morning and they loved it. So that
is my bill of the week. Thank you so much
for all that you do. Oh my gosh, Jen. First
of all, great name. Second of all, no TV. You
(38:51):
are a hero. You're a hero so many that that's amazing.
I love that lifestyle at But also I'm so thrilled
to hear that you found a local by nothing group
and that they were able to provide you with something special,
something that you wanted, but it wasn't valuable enough to
(39:12):
you to have to spend money on it. And it
sounds like your bill of the week is not spending
any bills on a gift for your kids. And what
a good idea of a way to utilize your buy
nothing group around Christmas time. I don't know if you
sent this in around Christmas time, So sorry, we are
so backed up, but we're still celebrating with you. Yeah,
(39:34):
going to two episodes a week is half for you
and half for us to get through this backlog of bills,
Like we need to double the episodes because we're so behind.
And that is why I keep sending in your bills,
because that's why maybe we'll depending on how many you
send it, maybe we'll go to more. Who knows. That's
(39:54):
amazing And for anyone listening, if you want to join
a buy nothing group, look it up. There's so many again,
reciprocity and community. It's a give and take. You offer
things up for free, you were able to receive things
for free. It's fantastic. And also, if you want to
(40:14):
submit your bill of the week, whether it has to
do with not spending bills or spending bills, or a
person named Bill, or multiple bills. If you know many
many bills, that'd be so amazing. You're in a bill
society for Bill Murray's Yes, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot
com slash Bill, leave us here Bill, and now it's
(40:38):
time for so Today's Lightning Round, which is the eight
percent of our show percent of work, but it's value. Yes. No,
(40:58):
the Bill of the Week is that people turned to
did for I have learned. We got a message the
other day. I don't know if it was like on
Instagram or in an email, but someone had listened to
some of the first few episodes and they were like, hey,
new listener, listening to some of the first episodes, just
want to know if you're still doing the Bill of
(41:20):
the week. And I was like, every single episode, but
I couldn't tell. There was no response to that. It
was definitely on Instagram. There was no response, and I
couldn't tell. Is she asking because she doesn't want to
hear this anymore and she's like if they say yes,
I'm done, or if she wanted to send in a bill,
(41:42):
And so I never got the answer. We may never know,
We may never know, but I'm gonna assume it's because
she loved it, right, that's safe to assume. Yeah, that's
so all right, John, you go first on this round
of vulnerability. What is your best eight twenty savings tip?
(42:07):
Absolutely so, we have always been so I'm going to
choose housing. And I have always been a big proponent
for house hacking, which is it's essentially buying. So traditionally
when it first started, it was instead of um buying
(42:29):
like your dream home for your first home, your first
home is a duplex or a triplex and you live
in one part and you rent out the other um side,
and it essentially covers most of your mortgage so that
you can just save up your money and then go
buy your dream home or another rental property to do
(42:49):
the house hack again, whatever you want. So we didn't
know about house hacking when we bought our first house,
and by the time we did, it was impossible to
get duplexes in St. Pete. There was is impossible. So
what we did was, when we found out about it,
we rented at our guest room on Airbnb and it
(43:11):
worked fabulously. Uh So people have definitely heard we talked
about this. We did it for several years. We were
booked out all the time, and it was just our
guest room and our guest bathroom, and we shared the
other spaces in the house except um, we didn't share
my office or our bedroom. Uh and and nobody really
(43:32):
took us up on the sharing the rest of the house.
Pretty much. People who rent a shared room on Airbnb
are just there for a place to sleep. They're not
there for a place to hang, which was convenient for us.
But we got to meet so many cool people. It
was the best house hack I think we could have
ever done. And it pretty much almost covered our mortgage
(43:55):
um every month that we did it. And now we're
kind of house hacking. We bought at a large house
and we're going to make part of it a mid
term rental like for snowbirds, and uh, we are renting
out the original house that we lived in and so
that once we get the renovation on this mid term
(44:18):
rental done, then between that and the other house, the
income should cover both mortgages. And so that is my best,
my favorite. Yeah, it's excellent. It is requiring a lot
of work up front. Depending on your situation, that could
be the case, but once you put in that initial
(44:40):
effort it can get to a point of twenty percent
effort for eighty percent return. Yeah, I mean the guest
room was very effortless, and we lived in a in
a area that it was good for like fifteen minutes
from the beach, fifteen minutes from a bunch of different universities.
Uh so we lived in a good area for it.
(45:02):
But um, it was very effortless for that. This one
a lot of efforts. Don't recommend it upfront, but the
guest room thing was so easy. Yeah for me. When
it as it relates to I think, this is what
I do with each category, So the biggest expenses. So
(45:23):
if we were to look at housing, transportation, and food,
I would agree that for me, I'm I'm I'm a
basic person where those are probably the biggest expenditures for me,
and applying the rule to each of those categories like
breaking it down smaller and smaller. So what is the
(45:43):
top amount of money that I'm spending within food, within transportation,
and how can I decrease that like the big winds
the vital few, rather than the small amounts. So I'm
not cutting out gum. But recently, well, Jen, this is
actually gonna be news to you too, and it may
(46:05):
break your heart a little bit, but it's a good thing.
We have what We've definitely significantly cut out eating out,
and I have found ways to really enjoy eating at home.
Sometimes it means doing a random meal kit delivery just
to keep me going in my eating at home efforts,
but I've really enjoyed that, which I never would have thought.
(46:26):
It's been a trained muscle. But we also have made
a drastic cut in our alcohol consumption. Like we got
to a point where we thought, every time we go out,
like it's fun to be able to get a drink
with our meal, and we are realizing that by not
doing that, it significantly decreases the amount of money we
(46:48):
spend even when we go out. And what's amazing about
it is we're not missing it, Like we can replace
it with other enjoyable things. I can have, like a
little piece of chocolate waiting for me when I get home,
and that's like just the treat that I need, because
it's not even about like getting a drink, It's about
having something that feels like a treat. But when I'm
(47:09):
getting a treat every single time, then it takes away
the enjoyment of it. I never growing up, I never
got soda or a lemonade or and I see I
always did water. Something like what happened to us that
suddenly we're getting a drink out every time we go out.
So really, scaling back in that regard has helped us
(47:31):
phenomenally with with the food. With transportation, we cut back
to one vehicle. We've been a one vehicle family now
for two years, which is amazing, and that works for
us because we work from home. Sometimes it stinks when
our car needs to go in for repairs, but that's
very minimal and we work around it. In the long run,
(47:51):
it's saving us a lot of money. And as far
as housing, you've heard all of the housing things that
we've done, But one thing I don't think I've ever
mentioned on this podcast before is when we were renting
before we did the tiny home, before we had a
home that we could make an airbnb in. When we
looked for apartments, we did not have a ton of money,
(48:11):
and so one of the ways that we got what
we wanted at an inexpensive price was looking at very
inexpensive rentals. I know that's really it's harder to come by,
but considering looking at places that you wouldn't normally consider,
Like if you're the type of person who would primarily
go like apartment complex, consider looking for some smaller apartment
(48:34):
situations that might not be as nice and working out
a deal of being able to fix it up, do
a few minor repairs or painting with the landlord to
be able to make it what you like. So that
was one of the things that we did on multiple occasions,
was renovating an apartment to be more what we wanted,
(48:55):
but maintaining the lower rent. Of course, I recognize that
may or may not be available to people or as
readily available now, but I don't think I've ever discussed
that on this podcast when we were in a rental
and not an owning situation. So anything really that's going
to be thinking outside the box and looking at these
heavy hit or categories is going to make the biggest
(49:17):
dent in our finances. Yeah, I think that's a great
if you are handy, even like partially because a landlord
isn't going to want you to do major renovations, but
if you can paint, if you can replace a few fixtures,
(49:37):
very simple things, then you look at the cost of
handymen look at like, do an analysis of what it
would cost them to fix up their property and what
they can charge extra for rent if they do fix
up their property and create a deal or propose a
(49:58):
deal where it's like, over the next year, i will
fix this up to this, you'll give me this discount
on rent. So they save or you know, maybe they
don't save as much then as hand doing handyman, but
they know the work is going to get done and
they don't have to disrupt any tenants or give any
(50:19):
you know, additional discounts or have the thing they get
for a month while they do the renovations. They know
you will do it, and then you're like, you will
give me this price for one year or two years,
and then I'll move out and you can jack up.
Some of the benefit is what they'll be able to
make off of it once you leave. Our landlord was
(50:40):
able to charge four hundred dollars a month extra after
we left because of the work that we did on
the place. So yeah, it's there. It can be a
win win, Yeah, make it if you tell them that
they are going to make money off of giving you
a discount, because you can tell them the things that
you can do, etcetera. And yeah, it's a great strategy. Uh.
(51:02):
So I hope that you've gleaned some wisdom from this
um and yeah, from this whole Radical Middle Method series. Honestly,
so thank you so much for listening. And uh, in
our private community, you know that we are sharing the
winds of our members and and they've all lived out
(51:23):
the Radical Middle Method. Watched the video series. They're doing
the challenges and they're getting results. Not even that I mean, yes,
the most active members, but even like newer members and
even members that are just there when they can be
and gone when they're not. So we wanted to shout
out one of our members, Wendy. Uh. She said, I
(51:46):
paid off my Target card the other day and it
feels so good. Um. And then she had another win
that I wanted to like couple up in here that
she posted like a several days later, she said, thanks
to last night's group and the challenge checklist, we do
not have to buy a new dishwasher yet. My husband
and I didn't know there was a filter to clean
(52:07):
L O L. That was during our house unders challenge
that I mentioned earlier. She says, now to fix the dryer. Ah,
it so amazing. Congratulations Wenday. That's a trimetime example of
we don't know what we don't know, and when we
find support and we find community and we're able to
learn from one another, we can save a ton of
(52:28):
money and we can learn ways to earn more as well.
So when we can combine that saving and increasing our earnings,
skies the limit and we're here for you. So congrats Wenday. Yeah,
so thanks for listening. If you want to check out
our monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot
com slash club to see what challenge we're doing next.
(52:51):
You'll get access to the full Radical Middle Method video
series and a group of really cool people. M see
you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian Jillian.
(53:18):
Why did you think that I would be upset with you?
Not as much alcoholic restaurants? I don't even go out, Jill.
I don't, well, I don't go out to restaurants because
also the reality is that I'm also drinking less at home.
It's just like across the board we decided we're doing
we're doing a hard left turn. I mean, we weren't
(53:40):
like we weren't drinking an insane amount where it was
like affecting our lives are like our lives. But we
also did get ourselves into a rhythm where it kind
of just became part of a routine where many nights
we were, you know, having a cocktail before dinner or
a glass of wine with dinner, not not normally both,
(54:01):
but like I would say, four or five days a week,
we're having a drink, and and we realized why are
we doing this because we would only have a drink,
so it did nothing for us other than to put
like some toxic substance in our body and make us
feel more lethargic the next day. I think it just
(54:23):
felt like coming going in. I think a lot of
it became a part of the pandemic lifestyle of we're home,
there's not much to do, we can't really go out.
We we don't work from home, we live at work,
and how do we create breaks in our day? And
that was one of the ways that we created a
(54:43):
break in our day or felt like we were able
to enjoy something together. I think we always associated like
a nice cocktail with a nice experience, and that's not
the only way to have a nice experience, but for whatever,
for whatever happened, we just kind of like got in
this rhythm and it just became a part of routine.
And I think we finally are at this point of
(55:05):
but life. It's not the same anymore, and we're enjoying
things and this isn't doing anything for us. And already
I think we're like two weeks into this decision and
we are feeling so good, like what we feel like
so much better and we're not missing it and we're
finding things to replace it with. And turns out all
(55:25):
of our friends are on board. And also had to
do with having people in town, hosting people so much.
Everyone's on vacation, so every time they come in, it's
like they they're they're on vacation. So yeah, I would
love to have a cocktail at night, and we're with
them and we want to partake with them. But being
able to tell people, oh yeah, like we're cutting back
a bit, they're like, oh great, awesome, we don't need
(55:48):
that either, or they can partake and we don't need to.
Like it doesn't it's not mutually exclusive. We don't all
have to do the same things altogether. Just taking time
to just ask shins and question what you're doing and
saying like, hey, this was great then in a season,
but is it great now? And it can still be
good without being great. And it doesn't have to mean
(56:11):
deprivation either. I think sometimes like that pendulum, it swings
in so many directions. It doesn't mean that now it's
all bad and I have to cut it all out,
just greater degrees of finding the radical middle. And I
actually think that it has created more freedom and permission
that I don't feel locked into this routine of oh well,
I'm just like used to pouring a glass of wine
(56:32):
with dinner. Now it can be no pay attention to
actually want that. And if it sounds good to me, great,
If it doesn't, I don't have to. Like, just because
it's available in my house doesn't mean I have to
drink it all up. Yeah, I'm proud of you. You
are my go to home bar. But I accept you,
(56:55):
and I see you, and I see you are welcome,
Like that's the thing to like have at the case
of wine. My mother in law them, I don't and
I don't. We don't have to. Yeah, whatever someone else
wants to do and sounds good to them, doesn't mean
that I have to do it too, and it also
means that whenever it does sound good to me, I
can also enjoy that great yeah freedom permission in every
(57:19):
category of life. Who
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