June 17, 2025 • 57 mins
Propaganda we’re not falling for: That it’s impossible to do a no-spending challenge. Just because the world revolves around capitalism? Nuh-uh. If you know how to do it right you will do it right. There may be pros and cons along the way but the lessons and habits you pick up will benefit you no matter what. And that’s exactly what Jen and Jill are diving into in this episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Should you try a no spend challenge.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here
your hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to Frugal Friends. My name is Jen, my name
is Jill, and today we are re airing episode two
eighty six. This is back from February and twenty twenty three,
So if you were not with us, then you did
not get to this episode. That was a fan favorite
and we want to make sure that you hear all
the best of us.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
But first, this episode is brought to you by Possibilities.
What if you could identify ways to save more, spend better,
and even keep track of all of your debt payoff goals,
all from your phone. Guess what you can? That possibility
(01:03):
is there for you, and you can do it the
Frugal Friends way with our new mobile Optimized Spending Planner.
It's beautiful, it's simple, it does math, it's easy to
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spend money, get good at money. It's all possible for you.
(01:25):
Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash planner and you can use
code summer fifty that's summer five zero, and that will
get you fifty percent off this mobile Optimized Spending Planner
spreadsheet through July. So that's a pretty long time that
you have to get fifty percent off of this thing.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
The fact that this planner does math. The spreadsheet is
important because I heard it at the dog park this morning.
Five out of four people are bad at math. Let
that sink in. She is processing it for their eyes.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That there was dog park, there was five out of four.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, we got there. You got there, But you don't
need to do the math because the spreadsheet does it
for you. Okay, Summer fifty do it. That is fifty
percent off and that's straightforward. Yeah. So today we are
talking about what you can use, the information you can
(02:34):
use to vet whether a no spend challenge would be
right for you in this season of your life, whether
it will help you or not. For most people, we
think it's going to be really beneficial for a lot
of seasons in life. Sometimes it's not. Though for me
right now, I'm in a really hard season and I
should not add something on top of it. This morning
(02:56):
on the radio, people were talking about seventy five hard.
Do you know that chill? Yeah, and I was like,
oh gosh, maybe Travis and I should do that. It
would bring us closer to it, right you look at you.
That's exactly as soon as I said that, in my head,
I too was like, oh, Chen, stop it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh you are living three hundred and sixty five hard
right now?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I am, And I right. So like, sometimes we think
we are living in something hard, that something else hard
will be the solution to our problems, and sometimes it's not. Okay.
So like, if you're thinking about doing a no spend challenge,
this is a good episode for you. For most people,
I really do believe thirty days of no discretionary spending
(03:40):
is going to be really healthy and really good. But
for some people it's not. And this is a really
good It was a favorite episode from two years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, because it can be fun. That's the thing too,
And we'll talk about ways to make it.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
A challenge forces you to get creative in ways you
wouldn't have and creativity produces beautiful things in your life.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So absolutely all right, Like you did it though. So
our first article comes from I love this or Rinky
do finance, And that's how I'm going to choose to
say it. Rink and do finance.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Tells me the logo is a is an elephant.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It's so cute. It's a very cute logo, and it's
all about the benefits and dangers of the no spend challenge.
I think they take a great, measured, tempered approach where
they're looking at just the pros and cons. So we're
just gonna highlight all of the different pros and cons
(04:49):
of a no spend challenge. Of course, we're assuming that
you understand what a no spend challenge is that for
a period of pre selected, predetermined time, you are deciding
to not spend, typically on specific categories. Of course, you
still need to spend on food, water, shelter, transportation, healthcare utilities,
(05:10):
but generally you're deciding other categories and maybe all other
categories that you're not going to spend on. But it
can be relatively loosey goosey. But that's a quick little
overview of what even a no spend challenge is. We're
not going through how to do one, We're going through
whether or not you should do on pros and cons.
So let's first talk about the benefits of a no
(05:32):
spend challenge. Jen back to you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, so the first benefit of a no spend challenge
is that it will help you achieve your goal faster.
If you're just looking at numbers, Yes, it does that.
So this example is a little extreme for me. It says,
let's say you plan on taking a vacation in five months.
If the no spend challenge saves you one hundred dollars
(05:57):
every weekend, you'll be two thousand dollars closer to your goal.
I don't think anyone should stop spending money on the
weekends for five months. That has never been my aim.
But yes, mathematically, if you were to not spend money
one hundred dollars every weekend, then yes, you would save
two thousand dollars for whatever goal you have.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, that's a reasonable thing to see. How can I
propel my savings goal for? But what I do like
that they've highlighted here is that there's a specific goal
in mind. It's not always in forever, and it's not arbitrary.
It's I have a certain amount in mind. I know
that if I save this amount and can cut in
(06:41):
other areas, then I will have X amount of money
for this specified goal, which I do think is aimed
at a good reason to do a no spend challenge.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
The next benefit is that it does help us to
exercise self control. And so when it comes to spending
in ways that we don't want to spend, a lot
of times it's tied to impulsivity, making financial decisions purchases
that we're not necessarily planned for, and so doing a
(07:16):
challenge like this can help us to rein in and
exercise that muscle, to learn a bit more of what
it feels like to say no to ourselves, which isn't
always the most comfortable, but when practiced, when we exercise
that muscle, it can become easier and easier, especially when
we realize the benefits, because it's not just about deprivation,
(07:40):
it's about saying no, experiencing self control for a specific.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Reason, And that kind of lends to the next one
that gets into really the core reasons why I love
no spend challenges is that it can help you identify
hidden impulsivity issues or like I like to say, spending triggers.
So when you stop spending money altogether, and this is
(08:06):
a this comes down to decision fatigue. Right, So when
we make a lot of decisions in a day, our
decisions get progressively worse and worse throughout the day, and
that's called decision fatigue. When you take the decision off
the table and the decision is always no, then you
become a lot Your head becomes a lot clearer and
(08:28):
able to identify spending triggers. So things that you wouldn't
have even thought of crossed your mind when you're making
all kinds of decisions and you're just trying to get
through the day become glaringly obvious when you give yourself
pause and the space to identify them. So that is
(08:50):
really what I love about no spend challenges, and I
think you can accomplish that in a short amount of time.
I don't think it takes a long time to start
to identify those issues. If it does, no spend challenge
probably isn't for you. It's you're probably already spending in
alignment with your values, and you are in tune and
(09:12):
mindful to all your expenses, and that's fantastic. This isn't
for you. But if you are spending money and busting
your budget and you're like I don't know my budget
says I should be able to do this, yet I'm
never able to. This is a great way to pause
without actually pausing your life and identify some of those
(09:35):
things that you can work on to improve the way
you stick to your budget.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I agree. I do think this is one of the core,
most core reasons and pros to do a no spend
challenge to really get to the foundation of what's going
on for me, because it absolutely will highlight when we've
already said I'm going to say no to this to
most of these things. What surfaces it kind of is
(10:01):
that that crucible that like shaking ground, the sifting ground,
to show Okay, here's where the true thing is that
I need to tackle, because ultimately it's not just the
spending behavior, it's what it's tied to.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, because you can save a lot of money doing
a no spend month, but that saving ends at the
end of the month, and when you're focusing on identifying
those spending triggers, those are savings that carry on for months,
years beyond, and those savings compound more than the four
(10:38):
hundred dollars you might save on one month of a
no spend challenge.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
This last benefit that they list is one of my
faves in that it can help discover ways to have
fun without spending money, and that I think also helps
us to exercise this kind of creative muscle for us,
this problem solving muscle of it. Again, it's not just
(11:04):
about deprivation. It's about creativity and filling in the gaps
in other ways, identifying alternatives so that maybe it's not
just about this ultimate savings goal, but reorienting some behaviors
and habits all together that we can take with us
beyond the no spend challenge. And this is one of them.
(11:24):
When we're talking about exercising muscles of self control, I
think that's what this one is too. How can I
be creative with the way that I spend my time
my resources? What happens when something is taken away? Really interesting?
This is reminding me. I was just chatting with my
husband Eric and another friend, both of whom are musicians,
(11:48):
and they I was more so listening in to this conversation,
but they were commenting on how better their creativity and
their creation of music is when they've got limitations. This
friend was also describing this in a video production project
that they were doing as well, Like they put these
(12:09):
certain limitations on themselves that you would think, oh, you're
not going to be able to do as well or
you're not going to be able to have the best
product if you don't have all of the things. But
they were commenting on the phenomenon that when they took
away all of the expensive equipment or had a time
limitation or different just whatever kind of limitation you want
(12:32):
to input here, it helped them be more creative to see, well,
what can I do within the confines of this where
they almost like those are some of their favorite projects,
where ah, I didn't have the best of the best equipment,
or I didn't have all of the mics I would
have preferred, or I didn't have the camera that I wanted,
(12:52):
or all the time in the world, and those constraints
made me more creative in the process. And I think
there's some correlation to what we're talking about here that
when we put constraints on ourselves sometimes that can create
space for the play, the creativity, the discovering new things
(13:15):
or skill sets. I think it's worth implementing for everyone
at some point in life, whether it's a no spend
challenge or other types of constraints to discover more about ourselves.
It's a worthwhile exercise.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yes, that is my favorite. That is my second favorite
thing about no spend challenge is that forced creativity because
when we are so used to solving all our problems
by spending money, not only do we wonder where all
of our money has gone, but we lose the satisfaction
and the like, yeah, self satisfaction that comes with being
(13:53):
creative and thinking critically and figuring things out, which is
not even like great for our self worth, but it's
actually great for our brain health function as well.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I think it also helps us to get started on
something that we want to get started on. Oftentimes our
barrier to entry is I don't have all of the
tools and resources in order. But this can give freedom
of you don't have to just begin. Like one of
the things I want to do soon is get back
into painting and drawing. But I'm like, oh, I don't
have all the paints. But like hearing this conversation of
(14:25):
Eric and this friend, it's like, oh no, I actually
love the challenge of start with what you have and
see what comes of it. So yeah, it's just getting
me excited. You can see where I land on this.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You know, Bob Ross only painted with I think like
eleven colors, eight colors.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, are you like googling this right now?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yes? I knew this. I was like, it's got to
be like nine or eleven eight colors because somebody got us.
Somebody got kai this like Bob Ross color book and
when he was an infant. So I know all the
color colors now because they're in the book. But think
of Bob Ross and the empire of painting that he did.
(15:11):
He used eight colors, eight and.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
They had a try weird even if you don't have
all of the resources. Yeah, back to our sponsor, right, Let's.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Talk about the dangers of the No Spend Challenge, which
we haven't covered a ton of. But whenever I see
somebody talk negatively about a no Spend challenge, I just
want to clap back, like because I because I have
something to say. And and then I was like, oh
my god, I'm a podcast. I know exactly where I
(15:47):
can say it. So here are the dangers of the
No Spend Challenge, and uh, the first is that they
focused too intently on small picture. So it says during
the No Spend Challenge, people tend to focus on eliminating
relatively small short term expenses like coffee, dining out, snacks, streaming,
(16:13):
and so, to paraphrase Ramitt Seti's famous ad at a
dast on adage adage, thank you, these are three dollar problems.
And we one hundred percent agree we would much rather
focus on three thousand dollar problems and thirty thousand dollar problems,
(16:33):
which is why we love the long term focus of
a no spend challenge and focusing it more on how
can I spend better long term because that's gonna save
you three thousand dollars in a year, whereas focusing just
in the month or week that you're doing it, that
(16:55):
that gets you thinking in solving three dollar problems. So
that is an actual danger of the nosepench challenge, but
I think it's a danger in frugality in general that
if you are trying to become frugal and you're trying
to listen to the Frugal Friends podcast to find out
how I can save money on coffee, dining out and snacks,
(17:18):
We're gonna give it to you. We actually have, we
have a full episode on how to save money on coffee.
It's not that we're not gonna not like we're not
going to give it to you. But that is one
episode in two hundred and eighty six, because that's a
three dollars problem.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Girl, You are want to lapping back.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
While we have probably got fifty episodes on how to
save money on food in general, and we've got ten,
maybe twenty episodes how to save money on housing and transportation,
we've got a lot more episodes on how to how
(18:00):
to mindfully spend. Those are the big decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I think it's worth identifying the potential pitfalls because I
think it can help us lay a good foundation for
entering into a no spend challenge. Well like this, They're
not wrong about identifying this as a pitfall. And it
comes back to motivation. What are you doing this for?
What is the end goal. If it's just to not
(18:26):
buy a Lotte, then we might be missing the mark.
If it's to identify some of our behaviors and root
causes and reorient some of our cycles and patterns, then great,
we're on the right track. And those small things, those
three dollar things, will absolutely bear weight on the thirty
(18:47):
thousand dollar things, because if we're not doing well with
the smaller things, We're definitely not going to do well
with the bigger things.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The next potential danger is, as they identify, establishing a
false sense of security. I have mixed opinions on this.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I don't know, tell me all your opinions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I just don't know how much of a potential pitfall
this actually is. So what they're saying here is that
if you're putting in a ton of effort towards not
spending on something, that can lead people to believe, oh,
because I'm putting in a lot of effort, then numbers
will work themselves out and it doesn't work that way.
(19:31):
And I would agree, but I'm not sure how many
people are actually thinking that way, like, oh, just because
I'm working at not spending this is and maybe maybe.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, I think it's a very it's almost an elitist
view of the problem. It's saying like, if you're not
doing it honestly. It's saying like, if you have an
income problem and you're just doing a no spend challenge
to focus on your expenses, then you're doing it wrong
because what else is there? Like yeah, I mean, I
(20:05):
would also say doing something is better than nothing, and
the lowest barrier to entry. Thing that you can do
to get good with money is to decrease your outgo. Like, yes,
you might have an income problem, and I don't even
like to say that it's an income problem. You may
(20:27):
more opportunities will open up to you with more income.
You can't deny that. So we always want to be
working towards that if it's in alignment with our values.
But that takes time. It takes no time to decide,
like I'm going to do a no spend challenge next
month and try to get better control of my expenses. Like,
(20:47):
so it's easier.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I guess this is just like an easy enough pitfall
to be aware of and keep a pulse on because
they give the example, you know what if you cut
a ton of your discretionary spending for a month, you
say five hundred dollars, but what you actually needed was
an additional one thousand dollars that month, And so yeah,
they're saying you'd be better off focusing on your income.
(21:10):
My pushback to this one would be, if we're doing
a no spend challenge, chances are you're the person who's
looking at the money. You kind of know what you
need to be bringing in like no spend challenge isn't
typically where people start, like this is kind of step two, three,
(21:31):
four five in the financial journey. So I don't know
how much of a pitfall this is for the common person,
but it is worth being aware that even though a
lot of effort may be put into a no spend challenge,
it doesn't mean that it's going to solve our financial issues.
And I would agree with that. I just don't think
(21:53):
that this is the most important pitfall to highlight. I
don't think that this is what most people are going
to run into.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, No, I would actually I would absolutely agree rephrasing
it like that, and I would, I mean, and I
would say, the no spend challenge gives you space to
be able to think more clearly and creatively about Okay,
so maybe I do need an extra thousand dollars a month,
maybe I do need to earn more. Well, now I'm
(22:25):
not you know, automatically going out to happy hour or
going out shopping when I'm bored. I can start to
think of ways to increase my income. I can start
to think of ways at work that I have saved
the company money or brought more in that may warrant
a promotion or a race for me, So it also
gives you that space to think about this.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think this is more a pitfall of a scarcity mindset,
just like our constant mindset of like I just don't
ever do anything with my money. It's not even connected
to a no spend child. Why am I not doing
better with my finances? Like, I think that's more of
a mindset thing that requires some of these tools and
(23:08):
resources to dig into. Why is that the case? Why
do I feel like I'm putting in so much effort
and not seeing any results? And what are the big
things that need to shift? Yeah, if anything, and no
Spend Challenge could highlight this reality.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yes, absolutely when you think, oh, yeah I can, I
can definitely do a no spend year, which I hear
a lot of you know, around January, everyone's starting their
no spend year and they realize very quickly, probably by
the time that they're listening to this episode, that it's
not possible. So there's a good amount of time to
(23:43):
think about how to compensate. But yeah, I mean it's yeah,
probably not one I would think of, but sure it
gave us the chance to talk about it. The next
one is actually a pitfall. It is a justifiable should
be on this list is binge spending. And it's exactly
(24:05):
like when we've been like when we diet, it's you're
trying to go too hard, too fast, too restrictive, so
you fail and then you binge eat and you feel
guilty and shame, and next month you start the cycle
all over again. That is a real reality that can
(24:25):
happen with no spend challenges, is that you try to
go too hard, too fast, not prepared, fall off the wagon,
and then just compensate by binge spending and then start
the whole thing all over again next month.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I could see binge spending happening even on both sides
of a no spend challenge, like being aware that a
no spend challenge is coming up and wanting to give
yourself that ability and freedom. So okay, I'm not going
to be able to do this for a while, So
what do I need and want and what might hold
me over? And then afterwards, oh, I did so well,
I got to reward myself and that's just not going
(25:03):
to give any benefit to a no spend challenge. So
here you go. If you know that this might be
in your realm of behaviors. If you think that you
might fall victim to binge spending, this would probably, in
my estimation, be one of the number one reasons that
(25:24):
no spend challenge might not be for you. If you
think that binge spending is going to be too much
of a temptation or too much of a reality for you,
it's too much of the pendulum swing, this would probably
be the number one reason that a no spend challenge
is not going to actually serve you.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, yeah, And if you've found this to be true
for you, but you still really want to try one,
I would say, don't go all discretionary spending. Don't do
all your spending, but just pick one expense that you
are making a lot that you want to make less,
or one location of spending. Think about your spending triggers,
(26:06):
and just choose one thing. So maybe it's coffee, maybe
it's target, maybe it's I'm you know, I'm not going
to get food at Chipotle on the way home from
the grocery store. Pick one thing and do go with
that instead of all of it, because I think you'll
(26:27):
still find that you have space to contemplate. But you
are not feeling the pressure and the burden to be perfect,
because especially like with like I mean, they mentioned like
eating disorders, and I don't think it's that extreme. Every
(26:47):
all of us can be subject to binge spending, but
especially if you have something, If you have ADHD and
you know that you are not capable of doing some things,
then don't don't try to do those things when you
are under stress or know that you're not in a
season to do that, or stay within the boundaries you
(27:09):
know you already know work for you. Okay, don't try
and go against things if you've already kind of figured
out something that works for you. Just play within those rules.
You can adapt. It's your no spend challenge if you
want to do it, but again it also for that reason,
may not be for you.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
The next one that's really connected to this is that
a no spend challenge could simply just defer discretionary expenses.
I think this is one and the same as almost
binge spending. That it's not as if you're not spending
and saving money, you're just not spending it right now,
you're spending it later on. So yep, that could be
(27:49):
another pitfall of a no spend challenge is that you're
still going to spend the money, just maybe not today.
That's not going to do you any good either.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
But I also don't think it's it's horrible like to
create a list of wants and to actually force yourself
to have time before you impulse by them, which.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Is connected to the next one.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
There you go, Jen, Yeah, shaming yourself for reasonable wants,
Like I feel like you could. It's not bad to
like make that, like add those things to your Amazon
cart and just keep them there till the end of
your challenge, because hopefully half of them you're not gonna
want anymore. But the other half may have been reasonable wants,
(28:30):
they may be in alignment with your values. So it's
not We're not here to shame you, not even for
reasonable wants, just your wants, your unique wants, Like they
don't have to make sense to other people. They can
just be things you want and love and you don't
(28:52):
have to justify them to anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
And on the flip side of that, delay and gratification
is a helpful thing. I mean, we don't have to
do it always in forever, all the time with everything,
But deferring isn't a bad thing in and of itself.
At least there are days where you're not spending. You're
not going to get those days back, and like always
backtrack on each of those days and spend the money
(29:15):
you thought you were going to spend. And it can
help to build those habits of putting something in the
cart and letting it sit there. Just It might be
simply deferring it to another day and the money gets spent,
but it could also be that you've given yourself time
to think and sit on it, and that's helped to
bring more clarity on whether or not you actually want
(29:37):
that thing. So I think there's two sides to that
deferment coin, and it's not all a danger or a pitfall. Yeah,
well that leads us, since we're already down this rabbit
trail of potential pitfalls, let's just dive right in now
to the deep end. We are ready with an article
(29:58):
that's just going to point out.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I have my hands ready to clap back why and
no spend challenge just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
They're not even talking about the pros of it. They
are only talking about the cons. They want to convince
you not to do one. And we're going to talk
about it, and apparently Jen's gonna clap back.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, I'm ready. H And so I think it's really
healthy to look at the reasons why a lot of
people do no spend challenges, and they are val it's
valid reasons why they won't work if these are your
motives or if you say, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going
to look at my spending triggers and think long term.
But really, because if you've ever been on a diet,
(30:42):
you've probably experiend them. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get healthy.
This is gonna be good for me long term, but really,
I just want to be skinny for bikini season. See,
it always comes to backfire for you. And it is
the same with no spend challenges. We got to do
them for the right reasons, and here are some of
the wrong reasons in this article. So that's what we're
(31:05):
here for.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So they really only have two arguments against no spend challenges,
but these are common arguments, so it is worth looking
at so that we know all of the different sides
and angles of this thing.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes, So the first one is that it's not sustainable,
and that's true. Honestly, that is so true. I see
people doing year long, two year long no spend challenges,
and that makes a great story. If you're trying to
(31:42):
write a book or an article or get some media attention,
you will definitely be able to do that by not
spending money for two years. That is something that you
can do. But there is a law of diminishing returns
with no spend challenges where it transitions from helpful to
(32:06):
almost like holds you back to an extent. So, and
this isn't the case, Like you learn what you can
about yourself and you're spending and then you have to
implement it. Then you have to go out and go
back to spending and possibly mess up, possibly make a mistake,
(32:29):
And mistakes will happen, and we have to be strong
enough and resilient enough to take those into consideration, learn
from them, and implement what we've learned. Yeah, and so
if you're doing a no spend challenge that's lasting a
whole year, you can very much put that off and
just live in the comfort of saying no. That's more
(32:51):
hurtful than helpful.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I feel like we're practicing for debate club, Like we're
on a debate team and we're like, what does the
other side say about this and what we.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Love debating people that aren't available to.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Take exactly what's favor to give a closing argument, but
they do have their article and we are responding to
their article. One of the things too, that I would
add to this about no spend challenges they're referencing as
far as the not being sustainable piece fasting and how
(33:25):
not sustainable fasting is, and that it would be better
to have a lifestyle change and rather than kind of
deprive yourself and then binge. My pushback on this is,
certainly none of these things that are extreme in nature
are meant to be for the long term, but that
(33:47):
doesn't mean that there's never a time and place for it.
People have to fast before surgery. Yeah, it's not sustainable.
You're not going to do that all of the time,
but it's necessary to then get the help that your
body needs in the following day. People fast for religious reasons.
(34:10):
It's not sustainable, but it can be a really amazing
spiritual practice that benefits some people. So they're like, and
I am not a fan of extremism either. It's why
we've you know, termed our financial approach the radical middle
because we often go to the different extremes. But that
(34:30):
doesn't mean that the extremes don't have something to teach us,
or that we should never ever visit the extremes. Sometimes
experiencing something in full force helps us to find the
radical middle. I think we often don't know the radical
middle until we have an understanding of what's this side
(34:50):
of the pendulum, what's this side of the the other
side of it, what's the spectrum of it, and where
is my radical middle? I would say the point of
a nose bench challenge is to identify what is sustainable
for you. It's that same concept of fasting for a surgery. Right,
It's not going to happen all the time. But if
(35:11):
we're identifying, oh, there's a problem with my spending, but
I don't totally know what it is, sometimes we need
to really rein it in and pull it back. Or
if we want to talk about you know, when we're
sick and we just stay at home. That is not
the goal for the rest of life, to only ever
stay at home, but it's necessary because there's an issue
in our body. Okay, so if there's an issue in
(35:33):
our finances, what might be a necessary approach that I'm
not going to implement forever and always, but really reins
it in, pulls it back, and gives space for greater understanding, clarity, diagnosis,
and next steps.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
That kind of snaps for you. Thank you, I'm snapping
for you.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
The final argument that they make for why a no
spend challenge doesn't work is that it doesn't bring about
meaningful change. I think we've said enough on this topic
in the reality that it depends on what your approach
is going to be. Yeah, certainly, if you're just doing
it for a week or a month and then you
(36:15):
go right back to your behaviors and you enter it
into it mindlessly and you didn't have a real goal
in mind, it's not going to produce meaningful change. But
if you approach an O spend challenge with a goal
of maybe just identifying what prompts me to spend, what
barriers am I going to run into if I try
and tell myself, no, what happens when I try and
(36:36):
practice creativity or find free activities? Then great, Like, it
really depends on what your motivation is going into it.
And again, if you're just identifying that this isn't for me,
I can identify my patterns and make shifts in my
lifestyle without this, then that's great, go for it, but
we're definitely going to have some pushback on saying this
(36:59):
is never gonna bring any benefit. It absolutely can bring benefit,
and the goal is not to remain in this place
always and forever. It serves a specific purpose for a specific.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Time, Yes, I mean that's it.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know what else serves a specific purpose for a
specific time.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
It's I mean it's specific. But like almost every time,
the bill of the.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of
your entire week.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died
and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
of the week.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Hi Jen, Hi Chill. This is Katie. I am a
fellow money nerd who loves learning more and more about money,
and I got into your podcast last year when I
adopted a senior dog and wanted to make good use
of my time out and about. So it's only fitting
(38:18):
that my bill of the week is for bet treatment
for my little old lady dog. It's related to her
being attacked by the neighbor's dog six weeks ago. First off,
she wasn't too badly hurt and is totally fine now. Second,
the visit to the doggy er and two follow ups
came to thirteen hundred and twenty bucks and my pet
(38:41):
insurance carrier did not hesitate to pay out the eighty
percent she has covered for. And Third, about ten days
before getting notice of the payout, the attacking dog's owner
gave me two hundred dollars toward the bill, knowing it
was going to be at least that night. Much he
knew a head insurance. It's so rare that things go
(39:04):
the way they should when it comes to a bill
you're not really responsible for. And I just wanted to
share my appreciation for both the good neighbor and the
good pet insurance for doing the right thing. Thanks guys, Katie.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh my gosh, another one for pet insurance. I would
have to say of the bills of the week, we've
received more pet insurance thankfulness than any other bill.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I also appreciate how you are choosing to highlight a
financial situation going well. I think you're so right. Oftentimes
bills we are not technically responsible for, we still sometimes
find ourselves responsible for. But you may become a really
great proactive decisions, namely the pet insurance to not be
(39:57):
in a really tough, difficult financials position right now with
your pup. And I'm so grateful with you, and yeah,
gratitude for the neighbor for taking ownership of his pets choices.
Glad to hear your your dog is better and fully
recovered and that this bill did not become an overwhelming
(40:20):
insurmountable bill. So much to celebrate with you, Katie. If
you all listening, happen to have some great pet insurance
that follows through and pays your bills, or neighbors who
pay some bills, or if you are a person named Bill,
visit through the Friends podcast on slash Bill. Leave us
(40:44):
your bill. We're ready for it, and now it's time for.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Wow. Okay, dope anyway, Today's lightning Round question from our
suite manager Goldie.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Well, Goldie, you're the best.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I love her, love you. She does listen to every
episode because it's your job. What do your no spend
week slash month generally look like? And I just I'm
so glad that she asks this question because I get
to say I haven't done a no spend week or
(41:29):
month since the last month we were paying off debt,
so that is I think July of twenty seventeen. So
they don't look like anything. And that's because we slow
down on like we don't have like, well, we raised
(41:50):
our income enough to where we could say we can
afford our short term financial goals without having to do
a no spa bend challenge. And because we're just like
in tuned with our values and wants and communicate. Yeah,
(42:10):
so like a no spend challenge for me, co host
of The Frugal Friends, author of the No Spend Challenge Guide,
No spend challenges aren't for me right now?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
WHOA, This is the hottest take, Tony I have ever
been a part of.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
I'm just so glad to share that.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Like well, I think it still is a support of
the no spend challenges because it highlights the fact that
it's a tool, a tool that can be picked up
and put down given the level of skill or job
that is currently being required. The tool does work and
can point to some solutions when necessary, but there are
(42:57):
times that we don't need that tool anymore. Golly, I
can't wait till my renovation's over and I don't need
some of those tools anymore.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
The goal is always to not need the tool anymore.
That's the goal with any tool, is to use it
so that you no longer need it. And when you
know what you do. Yeah, So when you no longer
need it, you don't hold on to it, You find
a different tool because you have a new project.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Or you share your tool with your neighbors. Oh, I
love this illustration in metaphor. That's happening for me. I
can't say that I've ever needed to fully engage in
a no spend challenge. That doesn't mean that I don't
do it in my own way, which we are also
advocating for. Figure out what works for you. I am
(43:46):
not much of a spender, so really reining that in
and identifying my reasons for spending has never been much
of a specific issue for me. That said, I will
use the tool of a no spend concept to help
me towards a certain goal in specific areas. So I
typically pick up the tool of a no spend challenge
(44:08):
to focus in on food honestly, and that will have
to do with identifying a specific amount of money that
I want to spend so that I can put it
towards right now renovations. So recently, it's been a lot
of challenging myself to cook at home for like a
week to two weeks at a time, giving space for
(44:30):
eating out, but challenging myself to a specific budget and
meal plan. It has gotten me so good at cooking
at home, repurposing food, reducing food waste. I'm so grateful
for the way that I've set up the challenge to
hone in a skill set for me. It has challenged
(44:50):
me in helpful ways. It has helped me free up
some cash to put towards the renovation. But it's not
a deprivation of everything for me, and it does include
factoring in money for going out and enjoying a nice meal,
not binging, not you know, completely deferring just to spend
(45:11):
all of the money all over again. It's a part
of the plan, and I think that's that's another thing
we need to recognize with the No Spend challenge is
what is your plan to celebrate the accomplishment of it.
Factor that money in when you're planning for the no
spend challenge.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Absolutely so a quote that Goldie picked out when she
re listened to this episode is when we're so used
to solving all our problems by spending money, not only
do we wonder where all our money has gone, but
we also lose the self satisfaction that comes with being creative,
(45:49):
critical thinkers and figuring things out.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Wow, we're smart, we are so wise.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
But it's so true. And I hope this episode helped
you you figure out really what a no spend challenge
is if it's going to help you. I think our
spending has become so convoluted by so much marketing, so
much advertising, that it can be hard to figure out
(46:16):
what you truly love to spend money on. And I mean,
we wrote a whole book that you can read while
you're doing your no spend challenge, Buy what you Love
without going broke. It will be a big help. You
can get it at buy what you lovebook dot com.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
You're not going beend doing that before your no spend
challenge and then have it as a resource.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
And if you're on your no spend challenge, you can
get it from the library on that page on that website.
We even have instruction on how to request it at
your library. If your library doesn't carry it.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
There's freeways to get the audiobook version too.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah, if you love us and would love to support us,
you can buy the book, but you don't have to.
We rather you get the information inside of.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
It at all. We're so selfless.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Wow. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. We've loved
reading your reviews about the book. Honestly, like that has
been a great payment. We prefer money, but we've also
loved reading your reviews. This one's from Jennifer Garner.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Thanks Jennifer. I guess there could be more than one
Jennifer Garner out there, but I only know one right Personally, I.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Don't want to get it twisted. It's probably not the
Jennifer Garner that you know, but she does give it
five stars and says has a huge As a huge
frugal friends fan and longtime listener, I bought the book
to support the podcast. I promise I didn't read this before.
I said said all that. I read the book as
(47:47):
obligation to my purchase. I enjoyed the book from the
bottom of my heart. So much knowledge was gained, so
much entertainment was received. Thanks ladies for the whole book,
and that one line that said I can be wealthy,
I will use it every day.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
I remember saying that, oh oh, I hadn't be wealthy,
and then there's no end quote that we did say
that I can be wealthy, but if I am.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Wealthy, I will use that wealth every day. I just
don't think I've said that.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
And that's why punctuation was so important. We were probably
the ones who did not copy and paste the punctuation.
Jenifer Garner, beautiful Garnery, you can be wealthy. I mean
you already are.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
Probably you might already be, And that's why she's saying
it every day.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
We are on one right now.
Speaker 3 (48:42):
Well, thank you all so much for being here. If
you're liking this podcast, please leave our show a rating
and review. If you've read the book, please leave us
a review of the book. You can do that on
Amazon or from wherever you purchase the book. And if
you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, don't sleep on that. Yeah,
(49:02):
we've got some good stuff different from what we're putting
out on the podcast that we think will be really helpful,
especially for those of you who do decide you're going
to do a no spend challenge. We've got some great
helpful tips, especially I'm gonna recommend our spending intervention series.
Just go go, go to YouTube, subscribe to Frugal Friends,
and then just like tool around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Yeah, even if you're not a YouTube watcher, subscribing helps
us a lot, because every time somebody from our audience
subscribes to our show on YouTube, YouTube will push it
out to two people who don't have never heard of
the show. So it is truly helpful, and maybe we
(49:44):
can get more Jennifer Garner's listening to the show and being.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Wealthy telling us how wealthy they are.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, let us know in the comments on any YouTube
video if you're Jennifer Garner and how wealthy you are,
and if you use it every day or maybe you
don't me use it once a week.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Let us know. See you later.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Grugle Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
I already told you this story, but I feel like
our friends need to know. This past weekend, we had
a sick raccoon in our yard.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, everybody does need to hear the story.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
And Eric was out mowing the lawn and then was
so close to this raccoon and then realize, oh, that's
a raccoon, and then all the neighbors start coming round
paying attention to what's going on because it's broad daylight.
This raccoon's just on the ground next to our oak tree,
(50:51):
awake but lethargic, not aggressive, and they're like, we should
probably do something with this, like like trap it and
take it somewhere. It was a Sunday, so there wasn't
anybody who could come out to our home. But thankfully
our one neighbor had a crate, an empty crate that
(51:13):
we could use. So I put on my big rubber
boots and got a bunch of rubb like big plastic
lids that you would put on plastic bins, and we
just kind of like corralled the raccoon from the tree
into the crate. And thankfully it wasn't it was still maintained,
(51:34):
its non aggression. None of us got bit put it
into a crate, and then I'm like, okay, well now
what They're like, yeah, you can't release it back into
the wild. They thought that it had distemper. I'd never
heard of that before.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I had a temper. I have a bad temper.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Got it from a raccoon.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So you do not want to release Temper the wild.
Multiple sources recommended, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
Could make other people sick too, So I called probably
like fifteen different places trying to figure out where the
heck to take this thing. One of the voicemails led
me to, hey, you know, they're like, we're all filled
up with raccoons. We can't take any more.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Fuck out too many raccoons.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
But they were like, go to and actually I probably
shouldn't say it out loud because they're so particular about
their website, but maybe I should. I'm going to here
we are, we're at the after show. So they're like,
go to Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and this is
a national resource hotline for on Facebook. So they're like,
(52:44):
look up the group on Facebook, Raccoon Rescue nine one one.
Give them your information. They'll be able to help you.
So I'm like, all right, I'm at my wits end.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
You join this raccoon rescue.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
I joined Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and I had
to fill out like what was going on with me
and my raccoon, and I was accepted to the group instantaneously,
even though it had to be approved by admin and immediately,
one of the admin tagged me in a post. They
(53:16):
were like, Jolly and Sirihani, contact this woman for Penelas County.
Contact this one for Hernando County. Keep us surprised. What's
going on? I'm like, I literally surprised. Applied to this
less than three minutes ago and they're already rallying. The
(53:37):
subculture of raccoon Rescue is insane in a good way,
in the best way, in the most helpful way, but
it is a subculture. And then I was scrolling a
little bit further down and I saw one of the
admin was like, we generally try and be nice and
kind in here, but I'm going to break that rule
for this one. Anyone else who just invites their friends
(54:01):
to this group is getting kicked out of here, because
this is for real raccoon emergencies and raccoon babies, and
we can't be having just friends joining wanting to see
cute pics of raccoon babies. This is real work we're
doing in here, and we only want people who have
(54:22):
emergencies like this is not I hope I meet the qualifications. Anyways,
I end up texting the person that Raccoon Rescue nine one.
One tells me to text and they respond again immediately
within two minutes, I get a text back because I
had listed out everything and what's a dead end, And
(54:43):
so I was saying that this one veterinary group said
that they wouldn't take them, and her first response to
me was, they're lying. They must just be tired because
it's Sunday and they don't want to work. But I
take distemper raccoons to them all the time. And then
she's like, I'm at my donor's graduation. I can't help
(55:04):
right now.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Wow, and yet you are texting me back within minutes
of my initial message. Again, I stand by Raccoon Rescue.
Soap culture is popping off. These people are a tribe
and they are ready to rumble.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Anyways, ended up.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Long.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
It's just it's all such a long story. But we
finally did find a place to take it to. She
was right that one place was lying and we were
able to take it there, and we did so. Eric
and I non pet owners, driving this sick raccoon in
a crate in the back of our car. Never would
have thought that this is where I would just be
spending my Sunday evening. But twist, one of the best
(55:52):
twists ever. We get there, we have to wait for
them to take the raccoon out of the crate because
we need to get the crate back to our neighbor.
And meanwhile they have snack cart. They wheel over snack
cart to us with all the good snacks, high protein snacks,
nut snacks, goldfish snacks, pirate booty snacks, also chapstick or.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Np bot expected when you told me that lights slip
them on the snack cart Sanded raccoons rescue.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
Well, no, no, this was a veterinary like an emergency
twenty four to seven, but clinic.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
So they were lying that they couldn't take the raccoon.
But then they were like snacks.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
Snacks, and I was like, okay, yeah, bottles of water,
cot tea. It was wow. It was a luxurious experience
that I'm like, am I am I raccoon rescue? Now?
Is this what I do on Sundays? Because snacks, I'll
keep going getting some distemper raccoons. Clearly I can handle
(56:56):
it because you and I have had a podcast for
over seven years. Yeah, distempered home scare me away. I
got rubber made lids. Yeah, I can corral you into something.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
You have corralled me many times and I've given you
snacks for it. Well, well, got it all worked out,
same
Should you try a no spend challenge.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and liver a your life. Here
your hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to Frugal Friends. My name is Jen, my name
is Jill, and today we are re airing episode two
eighty six. This is back from February and twenty twenty three,
So if you were not with us, then you did
not get to this episode. That was a fan favorite
and we want to make sure that you hear all
the best of us.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
But first, this episode is brought to you by Possibilities.
What if you could identify ways to save more, spend better,
and even keep track of all of your debt payoff goals,
all from your phone. Guess what you can? That possibility
(01:03):
is there for you, and you can do it the
Frugal Friends way with our new mobile Optimized Spending Planner.
It's beautiful, it's simple, it does math, it's easy to
navigate from your phone, and it's inexpensive, which is one
of our favorite things about it. Save money, track money,
spend money, get good at money. It's all possible for you.
(01:25):
Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash planner and you can use
code summer fifty that's summer five zero, and that will
get you fifty percent off this mobile Optimized Spending Planner
spreadsheet through July. So that's a pretty long time that
you have to get fifty percent off of this thing.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
The fact that this planner does math. The spreadsheet is
important because I heard it at the dog park this morning.
Five out of four people are bad at math. Let
that sink in. She is processing it for their eyes.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
That there was dog park, there was five out of four.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, we got there. You got there, But you don't
need to do the math because the spreadsheet does it
for you. Okay, Summer fifty do it. That is fifty
percent off and that's straightforward. Yeah. So today we are
talking about what you can use, the information you can
(02:34):
use to vet whether a no spend challenge would be
right for you in this season of your life, whether
it will help you or not. For most people, we
think it's going to be really beneficial for a lot
of seasons in life. Sometimes it's not. Though for me
right now, I'm in a really hard season and I
should not add something on top of it. This morning
(02:56):
on the radio, people were talking about seventy five hard.
Do you know that chill? Yeah, and I was like,
oh gosh, maybe Travis and I should do that. It
would bring us closer to it, right you look at you.
That's exactly as soon as I said that, in my head,
I too was like, oh, Chen, stop it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh you are living three hundred and sixty five hard
right now?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I am, And I right. So like, sometimes we think
we are living in something hard, that something else hard
will be the solution to our problems, and sometimes it's not. Okay.
So like, if you're thinking about doing a no spend challenge,
this is a good episode for you. For most people,
I really do believe thirty days of no discretionary spending
(03:40):
is going to be really healthy and really good. But
for some people it's not. And this is a really
good It was a favorite episode from two years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, because it can be fun. That's the thing too,
And we'll talk about ways to make it.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
A challenge forces you to get creative in ways you
wouldn't have and creativity produces beautiful things in your life.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So absolutely all right, Like you did it though. So
our first article comes from I love this or Rinky
do finance, And that's how I'm going to choose to
say it. Rink and do finance.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Tells me the logo is a is an elephant.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
It's so cute. It's a very cute logo, and it's
all about the benefits and dangers of the no spend challenge.
I think they take a great, measured, tempered approach where
they're looking at just the pros and cons. So we're
just gonna highlight all of the different pros and cons
(04:49):
of a no spend challenge. Of course, we're assuming that
you understand what a no spend challenge is that for
a period of pre selected, predetermined time, you are deciding
to not spend, typically on specific categories. Of course, you
still need to spend on food, water, shelter, transportation, healthcare utilities,
(05:10):
but generally you're deciding other categories and maybe all other
categories that you're not going to spend on. But it
can be relatively loosey goosey. But that's a quick little
overview of what even a no spend challenge is. We're
not going through how to do one, We're going through
whether or not you should do on pros and cons.
So let's first talk about the benefits of a no
(05:32):
spend challenge. Jen back to you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, so the first benefit of a no spend challenge
is that it will help you achieve your goal faster.
If you're just looking at numbers, Yes, it does that.
So this example is a little extreme for me. It says,
let's say you plan on taking a vacation in five months.
If the no spend challenge saves you one hundred dollars
(05:57):
every weekend, you'll be two thousand dollars closer to your goal.
I don't think anyone should stop spending money on the
weekends for five months. That has never been my aim.
But yes, mathematically, if you were to not spend money
one hundred dollars every weekend, then yes, you would save
two thousand dollars for whatever goal you have.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, that's a reasonable thing to see. How can I
propel my savings goal for? But what I do like
that they've highlighted here is that there's a specific goal
in mind. It's not always in forever, and it's not arbitrary.
It's I have a certain amount in mind. I know
that if I save this amount and can cut in
(06:41):
other areas, then I will have X amount of money
for this specified goal, which I do think is aimed
at a good reason to do a no spend challenge.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
The next benefit is that it does help us to
exercise self control. And so when it comes to spending
in ways that we don't want to spend, a lot
of times it's tied to impulsivity, making financial decisions purchases
that we're not necessarily planned for, and so doing a
(07:16):
challenge like this can help us to rein in and
exercise that muscle, to learn a bit more of what
it feels like to say no to ourselves, which isn't
always the most comfortable, but when practiced, when we exercise
that muscle, it can become easier and easier, especially when
we realize the benefits, because it's not just about deprivation,
(07:40):
it's about saying no, experiencing self control for a specific.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Reason, And that kind of lends to the next one
that gets into really the core reasons why I love
no spend challenges is that it can help you identify
hidden impulsivity issues or like I like to say, spending triggers.
So when you stop spending money altogether, and this is
(08:06):
a this comes down to decision fatigue. Right, So when
we make a lot of decisions in a day, our
decisions get progressively worse and worse throughout the day, and
that's called decision fatigue. When you take the decision off
the table and the decision is always no, then you
become a lot Your head becomes a lot clearer and
(08:28):
able to identify spending triggers. So things that you wouldn't
have even thought of crossed your mind when you're making
all kinds of decisions and you're just trying to get
through the day become glaringly obvious when you give yourself
pause and the space to identify them. So that is
(08:50):
really what I love about no spend challenges, and I
think you can accomplish that in a short amount of time.
I don't think it takes a long time to start
to identify those issues. If it does, no spend challenge
probably isn't for you. It's you're probably already spending in
alignment with your values, and you are in tune and
(09:12):
mindful to all your expenses, and that's fantastic. This isn't
for you. But if you are spending money and busting
your budget and you're like I don't know my budget
says I should be able to do this, yet I'm
never able to. This is a great way to pause
without actually pausing your life and identify some of those
(09:35):
things that you can work on to improve the way
you stick to your budget.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I agree. I do think this is one of the core,
most core reasons and pros to do a no spend
challenge to really get to the foundation of what's going
on for me, because it absolutely will highlight when we've
already said I'm going to say no to this to
most of these things. What surfaces it kind of is
(10:01):
that that crucible that like shaking ground, the sifting ground,
to show Okay, here's where the true thing is that
I need to tackle, because ultimately it's not just the
spending behavior, it's what it's tied to.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, because you can save a lot of money doing
a no spend month, but that saving ends at the
end of the month, and when you're focusing on identifying
those spending triggers, those are savings that carry on for months,
years beyond, and those savings compound more than the four
(10:38):
hundred dollars you might save on one month of a
no spend challenge.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
This last benefit that they list is one of my
faves in that it can help discover ways to have
fun without spending money, and that I think also helps
us to exercise this kind of creative muscle for us,
this problem solving muscle of it. Again, it's not just
(11:04):
about deprivation. It's about creativity and filling in the gaps
in other ways, identifying alternatives so that maybe it's not
just about this ultimate savings goal, but reorienting some behaviors
and habits all together that we can take with us
beyond the no spend challenge. And this is one of them.
(11:24):
When we're talking about exercising muscles of self control, I
think that's what this one is too. How can I
be creative with the way that I spend my time
my resources? What happens when something is taken away? Really interesting?
This is reminding me. I was just chatting with my
husband Eric and another friend, both of whom are musicians,
(11:48):
and they I was more so listening in to this conversation,
but they were commenting on how better their creativity and
their creation of music is when they've got limitations. This
friend was also describing this in a video production project
that they were doing as well, Like they put these
(12:09):
certain limitations on themselves that you would think, oh, you're
not going to be able to do as well or
you're not going to be able to have the best
product if you don't have all of the things. But
they were commenting on the phenomenon that when they took
away all of the expensive equipment or had a time
limitation or different just whatever kind of limitation you want
(12:32):
to input here, it helped them be more creative to see, well,
what can I do within the confines of this where
they almost like those are some of their favorite projects,
where ah, I didn't have the best of the best equipment,
or I didn't have all of the mics I would
have preferred, or I didn't have the camera that I wanted,
(12:52):
or all the time in the world, and those constraints
made me more creative in the process. And I think
there's some correlation to what we're talking about here that
when we put constraints on ourselves sometimes that can create
space for the play, the creativity, the discovering new things
(13:15):
or skill sets. I think it's worth implementing for everyone
at some point in life, whether it's a no spend
challenge or other types of constraints to discover more about ourselves.
It's a worthwhile exercise.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yes, that is my favorite. That is my second favorite
thing about no spend challenge is that forced creativity because
when we are so used to solving all our problems
by spending money, not only do we wonder where all
of our money has gone, but we lose the satisfaction
and the like, yeah, self satisfaction that comes with being
(13:53):
creative and thinking critically and figuring things out, which is
not even like great for our self worth, but it's
actually great for our brain health function as well.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I think it also helps us to get started on
something that we want to get started on. Oftentimes our
barrier to entry is I don't have all of the
tools and resources in order. But this can give freedom
of you don't have to just begin. Like one of
the things I want to do soon is get back
into painting and drawing. But I'm like, oh, I don't
have all the paints. But like hearing this conversation of
(14:25):
Eric and this friend, it's like, oh no, I actually
love the challenge of start with what you have and
see what comes of it. So yeah, it's just getting
me excited. You can see where I land on this.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You know, Bob Ross only painted with I think like
eleven colors, eight colors.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, are you like googling this right now?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yes? I knew this. I was like, it's got to
be like nine or eleven eight colors because somebody got us.
Somebody got kai this like Bob Ross color book and
when he was an infant. So I know all the
color colors now because they're in the book. But think
of Bob Ross and the empire of painting that he did.
(15:11):
He used eight colors, eight and.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
They had a try weird even if you don't have
all of the resources. Yeah, back to our sponsor, right, Let's.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Talk about the dangers of the No Spend Challenge, which
we haven't covered a ton of. But whenever I see
somebody talk negatively about a no Spend challenge, I just
want to clap back, like because I because I have
something to say. And and then I was like, oh
my god, I'm a podcast. I know exactly where I
(15:47):
can say it. So here are the dangers of the
No Spend Challenge, and uh, the first is that they
focused too intently on small picture. So it says during
the No Spend Challenge, people tend to focus on eliminating
relatively small short term expenses like coffee, dining out, snacks, streaming,
(16:13):
and so, to paraphrase Ramitt Seti's famous ad at a
dast on adage adage, thank you, these are three dollar problems.
And we one hundred percent agree we would much rather
focus on three thousand dollar problems and thirty thousand dollar problems,
(16:33):
which is why we love the long term focus of
a no spend challenge and focusing it more on how
can I spend better long term because that's gonna save
you three thousand dollars in a year, whereas focusing just
in the month or week that you're doing it, that
(16:55):
that gets you thinking in solving three dollar problems. So
that is an actual danger of the nosepench challenge, but
I think it's a danger in frugality in general that
if you are trying to become frugal and you're trying
to listen to the Frugal Friends podcast to find out
how I can save money on coffee, dining out and snacks,
(17:18):
We're gonna give it to you. We actually have, we
have a full episode on how to save money on coffee.
It's not that we're not gonna not like we're not
going to give it to you. But that is one
episode in two hundred and eighty six, because that's a
three dollars problem.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Girl, You are want to lapping back.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
While we have probably got fifty episodes on how to
save money on food in general, and we've got ten,
maybe twenty episodes how to save money on housing and transportation,
we've got a lot more episodes on how to how
(18:00):
to mindfully spend. Those are the big decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I think it's worth identifying the potential pitfalls because I
think it can help us lay a good foundation for
entering into a no spend challenge. Well like this, They're
not wrong about identifying this as a pitfall. And it
comes back to motivation. What are you doing this for?
What is the end goal. If it's just to not
(18:26):
buy a Lotte, then we might be missing the mark.
If it's to identify some of our behaviors and root
causes and reorient some of our cycles and patterns, then great,
we're on the right track. And those small things, those
three dollar things, will absolutely bear weight on the thirty
(18:47):
thousand dollar things, because if we're not doing well with
the smaller things, We're definitely not going to do well
with the bigger things.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The next potential danger is, as they identify, establishing a
false sense of security. I have mixed opinions on this.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I don't know, tell me all your opinions.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I just don't know how much of a potential pitfall
this actually is. So what they're saying here is that
if you're putting in a ton of effort towards not
spending on something, that can lead people to believe, oh,
because I'm putting in a lot of effort, then numbers
will work themselves out and it doesn't work that way.
(19:31):
And I would agree, but I'm not sure how many
people are actually thinking that way, like, oh, just because
I'm working at not spending this is and maybe maybe.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, I think it's a very it's almost an elitist
view of the problem. It's saying like, if you're not
doing it honestly. It's saying like, if you have an
income problem and you're just doing a no spend challenge
to focus on your expenses, then you're doing it wrong
because what else is there? Like yeah, I mean, I
(20:05):
would also say doing something is better than nothing, and
the lowest barrier to entry. Thing that you can do
to get good with money is to decrease your outgo. Like, yes,
you might have an income problem, and I don't even
like to say that it's an income problem. You may
(20:27):
more opportunities will open up to you with more income.
You can't deny that. So we always want to be
working towards that if it's in alignment with our values.
But that takes time. It takes no time to decide,
like I'm going to do a no spend challenge next
month and try to get better control of my expenses. Like,
(20:47):
so it's easier.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I guess this is just like an easy enough pitfall
to be aware of and keep a pulse on because
they give the example, you know what if you cut
a ton of your discretionary spending for a month, you
say five hundred dollars, but what you actually needed was
an additional one thousand dollars that month, And so yeah,
they're saying you'd be better off focusing on your income.
(21:10):
My pushback to this one would be, if we're doing
a no spend challenge, chances are you're the person who's
looking at the money. You kind of know what you
need to be bringing in like no spend challenge isn't
typically where people start, like this is kind of step two, three,
(21:31):
four five in the financial journey. So I don't know
how much of a pitfall this is for the common person,
but it is worth being aware that even though a
lot of effort may be put into a no spend challenge,
it doesn't mean that it's going to solve our financial issues.
And I would agree with that. I just don't think
(21:53):
that this is the most important pitfall to highlight. I
don't think that this is what most people are going
to run into.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, No, I would actually I would absolutely agree rephrasing
it like that, and I would, I mean, and I
would say, the no spend challenge gives you space to
be able to think more clearly and creatively about Okay,
so maybe I do need an extra thousand dollars a month,
maybe I do need to earn more. Well, now I'm
(22:25):
not you know, automatically going out to happy hour or
going out shopping when I'm bored. I can start to
think of ways to increase my income. I can start
to think of ways at work that I have saved
the company money or brought more in that may warrant
a promotion or a race for me, So it also
gives you that space to think about this.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I think this is more a pitfall of a scarcity mindset,
just like our constant mindset of like I just don't
ever do anything with my money. It's not even connected
to a no spend child. Why am I not doing
better with my finances? Like, I think that's more of
a mindset thing that requires some of these tools and
(23:08):
resources to dig into. Why is that the case? Why
do I feel like I'm putting in so much effort
and not seeing any results? And what are the big
things that need to shift? Yeah, if anything, and no
Spend Challenge could highlight this reality.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yes, absolutely when you think, oh, yeah I can, I
can definitely do a no spend year, which I hear
a lot of you know, around January, everyone's starting their
no spend year and they realize very quickly, probably by
the time that they're listening to this episode, that it's
not possible. So there's a good amount of time to
(23:43):
think about how to compensate. But yeah, I mean it's yeah,
probably not one I would think of, but sure it
gave us the chance to talk about it. The next
one is actually a pitfall. It is a justifiable should
be on this list is binge spending. And it's exactly
(24:05):
like when we've been like when we diet, it's you're
trying to go too hard, too fast, too restrictive, so
you fail and then you binge eat and you feel
guilty and shame, and next month you start the cycle
all over again. That is a real reality that can
(24:25):
happen with no spend challenges, is that you try to
go too hard, too fast, not prepared, fall off the wagon,
and then just compensate by binge spending and then start
the whole thing all over again next month.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I could see binge spending happening even on both sides
of a no spend challenge, like being aware that a
no spend challenge is coming up and wanting to give
yourself that ability and freedom. So okay, I'm not going
to be able to do this for a while, So
what do I need and want and what might hold
me over? And then afterwards, oh, I did so well,
I got to reward myself and that's just not going
(25:03):
to give any benefit to a no spend challenge. So
here you go. If you know that this might be
in your realm of behaviors. If you think that you
might fall victim to binge spending, this would probably, in
my estimation, be one of the number one reasons that
(25:24):
no spend challenge might not be for you. If you
think that binge spending is going to be too much
of a temptation or too much of a reality for you,
it's too much of the pendulum swing, this would probably
be the number one reason that a no spend challenge
is not going to actually serve you.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, yeah, And if you've found this to be true
for you, but you still really want to try one,
I would say, don't go all discretionary spending. Don't do
all your spending, but just pick one expense that you
are making a lot that you want to make less,
or one location of spending. Think about your spending triggers,
(26:06):
and just choose one thing. So maybe it's coffee, maybe
it's target, maybe it's I'm you know, I'm not going
to get food at Chipotle on the way home from
the grocery store. Pick one thing and do go with
that instead of all of it, because I think you'll
(26:27):
still find that you have space to contemplate. But you
are not feeling the pressure and the burden to be perfect,
because especially like with like I mean, they mentioned like
eating disorders, and I don't think it's that extreme. Every
(26:47):
all of us can be subject to binge spending, but
especially if you have something, If you have ADHD and
you know that you are not capable of doing some things,
then don't don't try to do those things when you
are under stress or know that you're not in a
season to do that, or stay within the boundaries you
(27:09):
know you already know work for you. Okay, don't try
and go against things if you've already kind of figured
out something that works for you. Just play within those rules.
You can adapt. It's your no spend challenge if you
want to do it, but again it also for that reason,
may not be for you.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
The next one that's really connected to this is that
a no spend challenge could simply just defer discretionary expenses.
I think this is one and the same as almost
binge spending. That it's not as if you're not spending
and saving money, you're just not spending it right now,
you're spending it later on. So yep, that could be
(27:49):
another pitfall of a no spend challenge is that you're
still going to spend the money, just maybe not today.
That's not going to do you any good either.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
But I also don't think it's it's horrible like to
create a list of wants and to actually force yourself
to have time before you impulse by them, which.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Is connected to the next one.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
There you go, Jen, Yeah, shaming yourself for reasonable wants,
Like I feel like you could. It's not bad to
like make that, like add those things to your Amazon
cart and just keep them there till the end of
your challenge, because hopefully half of them you're not gonna
want anymore. But the other half may have been reasonable wants,
(28:30):
they may be in alignment with your values. So it's
not We're not here to shame you, not even for
reasonable wants, just your wants, your unique wants, Like they
don't have to make sense to other people. They can
just be things you want and love and you don't
(28:52):
have to justify them to anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
And on the flip side of that, delay and gratification
is a helpful thing. I mean, we don't have to
do it always in forever, all the time with everything,
But deferring isn't a bad thing in and of itself.
At least there are days where you're not spending. You're
not going to get those days back, and like always
backtrack on each of those days and spend the money
(29:15):
you thought you were going to spend. And it can
help to build those habits of putting something in the
cart and letting it sit there. Just It might be
simply deferring it to another day and the money gets spent,
but it could also be that you've given yourself time
to think and sit on it, and that's helped to
bring more clarity on whether or not you actually want
(29:37):
that thing. So I think there's two sides to that
deferment coin, and it's not all a danger or a pitfall. Yeah,
well that leads us, since we're already down this rabbit
trail of potential pitfalls, let's just dive right in now
to the deep end. We are ready with an article
(29:58):
that's just going to point out.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I have my hands ready to clap back why and
no spend challenge just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
They're not even talking about the pros of it. They
are only talking about the cons. They want to convince
you not to do one. And we're going to talk
about it, and apparently Jen's gonna clap back.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, I'm ready. H And so I think it's really
healthy to look at the reasons why a lot of
people do no spend challenges, and they are val it's
valid reasons why they won't work if these are your
motives or if you say, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going
to look at my spending triggers and think long term.
But really, because if you've ever been on a diet,
(30:42):
you've probably experiend them. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get healthy.
This is gonna be good for me long term, but really,
I just want to be skinny for bikini season. See,
it always comes to backfire for you. And it is
the same with no spend challenges. We got to do
them for the right reasons, and here are some of
the wrong reasons in this article. So that's what we're
(31:05):
here for.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So they really only have two arguments against no spend challenges,
but these are common arguments, so it is worth looking
at so that we know all of the different sides
and angles of this thing.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes, So the first one is that it's not sustainable,
and that's true. Honestly, that is so true. I see
people doing year long, two year long no spend challenges,
and that makes a great story. If you're trying to
(31:42):
write a book or an article or get some media attention,
you will definitely be able to do that by not
spending money for two years. That is something that you
can do. But there is a law of diminishing returns
with no spend challenges where it transitions from helpful to
(32:06):
almost like holds you back to an extent. So, and
this isn't the case, Like you learn what you can
about yourself and you're spending and then you have to
implement it. Then you have to go out and go
back to spending and possibly mess up, possibly make a mistake,
(32:29):
And mistakes will happen, and we have to be strong
enough and resilient enough to take those into consideration, learn
from them, and implement what we've learned. Yeah, and so
if you're doing a no spend challenge that's lasting a
whole year, you can very much put that off and
just live in the comfort of saying no. That's more
(32:51):
hurtful than helpful.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I feel like we're practicing for debate club, Like we're
on a debate team and we're like, what does the
other side say about this and what we.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Love debating people that aren't available to.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Take exactly what's favor to give a closing argument, but
they do have their article and we are responding to
their article. One of the things too, that I would
add to this about no spend challenges they're referencing as
far as the not being sustainable piece fasting and how
(33:25):
not sustainable fasting is, and that it would be better
to have a lifestyle change and rather than kind of
deprive yourself and then binge. My pushback on this is,
certainly none of these things that are extreme in nature
are meant to be for the long term, but that
(33:47):
doesn't mean that there's never a time and place for it.
People have to fast before surgery. Yeah, it's not sustainable.
You're not going to do that all of the time,
but it's necessary to then get the help that your
body needs in the following day. People fast for religious reasons.
(34:10):
It's not sustainable, but it can be a really amazing
spiritual practice that benefits some people. So they're like, and
I am not a fan of extremism either. It's why
we've you know, termed our financial approach the radical middle
because we often go to the different extremes. But that
(34:30):
doesn't mean that the extremes don't have something to teach us,
or that we should never ever visit the extremes. Sometimes
experiencing something in full force helps us to find the
radical middle. I think we often don't know the radical
middle until we have an understanding of what's this side
(34:50):
of the pendulum, what's this side of the the other
side of it, what's the spectrum of it, and where
is my radical middle? I would say the point of
a nose bench challenge is to identify what is sustainable
for you. It's that same concept of fasting for a surgery. Right,
It's not going to happen all the time. But if
(35:11):
we're identifying, oh, there's a problem with my spending, but
I don't totally know what it is, sometimes we need
to really rein it in and pull it back. Or
if we want to talk about you know, when we're
sick and we just stay at home. That is not
the goal for the rest of life, to only ever
stay at home, but it's necessary because there's an issue
in our body. Okay, so if there's an issue in
(35:33):
our finances, what might be a necessary approach that I'm
not going to implement forever and always, but really reins
it in, pulls it back, and gives space for greater understanding, clarity, diagnosis,
and next steps.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
That kind of snaps for you. Thank you, I'm snapping
for you.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
The final argument that they make for why a no
spend challenge doesn't work is that it doesn't bring about
meaningful change. I think we've said enough on this topic
in the reality that it depends on what your approach
is going to be. Yeah, certainly, if you're just doing
it for a week or a month and then you
(36:15):
go right back to your behaviors and you enter it
into it mindlessly and you didn't have a real goal
in mind, it's not going to produce meaningful change. But
if you approach an O spend challenge with a goal
of maybe just identifying what prompts me to spend, what
barriers am I going to run into if I try
and tell myself, no, what happens when I try and
(36:36):
practice creativity or find free activities? Then great, Like, it
really depends on what your motivation is going into it.
And again, if you're just identifying that this isn't for me,
I can identify my patterns and make shifts in my
lifestyle without this, then that's great, go for it, but
we're definitely going to have some pushback on saying this
(36:59):
is never gonna bring any benefit. It absolutely can bring benefit,
and the goal is not to remain in this place
always and forever. It serves a specific purpose for a specific.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Time, Yes, I mean that's it.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know what else serves a specific purpose for a
specific time.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
It's I mean it's specific. But like almost every time,
the bill of the.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of
your entire week.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died
and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
of the week.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Hi Jen, Hi Chill. This is Katie. I am a
fellow money nerd who loves learning more and more about money,
and I got into your podcast last year when I
adopted a senior dog and wanted to make good use
of my time out and about. So it's only fitting
(38:18):
that my bill of the week is for bet treatment
for my little old lady dog. It's related to her
being attacked by the neighbor's dog six weeks ago. First off,
she wasn't too badly hurt and is totally fine now. Second,
the visit to the doggy er and two follow ups
came to thirteen hundred and twenty bucks and my pet
(38:41):
insurance carrier did not hesitate to pay out the eighty
percent she has covered for. And Third, about ten days
before getting notice of the payout, the attacking dog's owner
gave me two hundred dollars toward the bill, knowing it
was going to be at least that night. Much he
knew a head insurance. It's so rare that things go
(39:04):
the way they should when it comes to a bill
you're not really responsible for. And I just wanted to
share my appreciation for both the good neighbor and the
good pet insurance for doing the right thing. Thanks guys, Katie.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh my gosh, another one for pet insurance. I would
have to say of the bills of the week, we've
received more pet insurance thankfulness than any other bill.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I also appreciate how you are choosing to highlight a
financial situation going well. I think you're so right. Oftentimes
bills we are not technically responsible for, we still sometimes
find ourselves responsible for. But you may become a really
great proactive decisions, namely the pet insurance to not be
(39:57):
in a really tough, difficult financials position right now with
your pup. And I'm so grateful with you, and yeah,
gratitude for the neighbor for taking ownership of his pets choices.
Glad to hear your your dog is better and fully
recovered and that this bill did not become an overwhelming
(40:20):
insurmountable bill. So much to celebrate with you, Katie. If
you all listening, happen to have some great pet insurance
that follows through and pays your bills, or neighbors who
pay some bills, or if you are a person named Bill,
visit through the Friends podcast on slash Bill. Leave us
(40:44):
your bill. We're ready for it, and now it's time for.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Wow. Okay, dope anyway, Today's lightning Round question from our
suite manager Goldie.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Well, Goldie, you're the best.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I love her, love you. She does listen to every
episode because it's your job. What do your no spend
week slash month generally look like? And I just I'm
so glad that she asks this question because I get
to say I haven't done a no spend week or
(41:29):
month since the last month we were paying off debt,
so that is I think July of twenty seventeen. So
they don't look like anything. And that's because we slow
down on like we don't have like, well, we raised
(41:50):
our income enough to where we could say we can
afford our short term financial goals without having to do
a no spa bend challenge. And because we're just like
in tuned with our values and wants and communicate. Yeah,
(42:10):
so like a no spend challenge for me, co host
of The Frugal Friends, author of the No Spend Challenge Guide,
No spend challenges aren't for me right now?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
WHOA, This is the hottest take, Tony I have ever
been a part of.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
I'm just so glad to share that.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Like well, I think it still is a support of
the no spend challenges because it highlights the fact that
it's a tool, a tool that can be picked up
and put down given the level of skill or job
that is currently being required. The tool does work and
can point to some solutions when necessary, but there are
(42:57):
times that we don't need that tool anymore. Golly, I
can't wait till my renovation's over and I don't need
some of those tools anymore.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
The goal is always to not need the tool anymore.
That's the goal with any tool, is to use it
so that you no longer need it. And when you
know what you do. Yeah, So when you no longer
need it, you don't hold on to it, You find
a different tool because you have a new project.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Or you share your tool with your neighbors. Oh, I
love this illustration in metaphor. That's happening for me. I
can't say that I've ever needed to fully engage in
a no spend challenge. That doesn't mean that I don't
do it in my own way, which we are also
advocating for. Figure out what works for you. I am
(43:46):
not much of a spender, so really reining that in
and identifying my reasons for spending has never been much
of a specific issue for me. That said, I will
use the tool of a no spend concept to help
me towards a certain goal in specific areas. So I
typically pick up the tool of a no spend challenge
(44:08):
to focus in on food honestly, and that will have
to do with identifying a specific amount of money that
I want to spend so that I can put it
towards right now renovations. So recently, it's been a lot
of challenging myself to cook at home for like a
week to two weeks at a time, giving space for
(44:30):
eating out, but challenging myself to a specific budget and
meal plan. It has gotten me so good at cooking
at home, repurposing food, reducing food waste. I'm so grateful
for the way that I've set up the challenge to
hone in a skill set for me. It has challenged
(44:50):
me in helpful ways. It has helped me free up
some cash to put towards the renovation. But it's not
a deprivation of everything for me, and it does include
factoring in money for going out and enjoying a nice meal,
not binging, not you know, completely deferring just to spend
(45:11):
all of the money all over again. It's a part
of the plan, and I think that's that's another thing
we need to recognize with the No Spend challenge is
what is your plan to celebrate the accomplishment of it.
Factor that money in when you're planning for the no
spend challenge.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Absolutely so a quote that Goldie picked out when she
re listened to this episode is when we're so used
to solving all our problems by spending money, not only
do we wonder where all our money has gone, but
we also lose the self satisfaction that comes with being creative,
(45:49):
critical thinkers and figuring things out.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Wow, we're smart, we are so wise.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
But it's so true. And I hope this episode helped
you you figure out really what a no spend challenge
is if it's going to help you. I think our
spending has become so convoluted by so much marketing, so
much advertising, that it can be hard to figure out
(46:16):
what you truly love to spend money on. And I mean,
we wrote a whole book that you can read while
you're doing your no spend challenge, Buy what you Love
without going broke. It will be a big help. You
can get it at buy what you lovebook dot com.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
You're not going beend doing that before your no spend
challenge and then have it as a resource.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
And if you're on your no spend challenge, you can
get it from the library on that page on that website.
We even have instruction on how to request it at
your library. If your library doesn't carry it.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
There's freeways to get the audiobook version too.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah, if you love us and would love to support us,
you can buy the book, but you don't have to.
We rather you get the information inside of.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
It at all. We're so selfless.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Wow. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. We've loved
reading your reviews about the book. Honestly, like that has
been a great payment. We prefer money, but we've also
loved reading your reviews. This one's from Jennifer Garner.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Thanks Jennifer. I guess there could be more than one
Jennifer Garner out there, but I only know one right Personally, I.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Don't want to get it twisted. It's probably not the
Jennifer Garner that you know, but she does give it
five stars and says has a huge As a huge
frugal friends fan and longtime listener, I bought the book
to support the podcast. I promise I didn't read this before.
I said said all that. I read the book as
(47:47):
obligation to my purchase. I enjoyed the book from the
bottom of my heart. So much knowledge was gained, so
much entertainment was received. Thanks ladies for the whole book,
and that one line that said I can be wealthy,
I will use it every day.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
I remember saying that, oh oh, I hadn't be wealthy,
and then there's no end quote that we did say
that I can be wealthy, but if I am.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Wealthy, I will use that wealth every day. I just
don't think I've said that.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
And that's why punctuation was so important. We were probably
the ones who did not copy and paste the punctuation.
Jenifer Garner, beautiful Garnery, you can be wealthy. I mean
you already are.
Speaker 6 (48:32):
Probably you might already be, And that's why she's saying
it every day.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
We are on one right now.
Speaker 3 (48:42):
Well, thank you all so much for being here. If
you're liking this podcast, please leave our show a rating
and review. If you've read the book, please leave us
a review of the book. You can do that on
Amazon or from wherever you purchase the book. And if
you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, don't sleep on that. Yeah,
(49:02):
we've got some good stuff different from what we're putting
out on the podcast that we think will be really helpful,
especially for those of you who do decide you're going
to do a no spend challenge. We've got some great
helpful tips, especially I'm gonna recommend our spending intervention series.
Just go go, go to YouTube, subscribe to Frugal Friends,
and then just like tool around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Yeah, even if you're not a YouTube watcher, subscribing helps
us a lot, because every time somebody from our audience
subscribes to our show on YouTube, YouTube will push it
out to two people who don't have never heard of
the show. So it is truly helpful, and maybe we
(49:44):
can get more Jennifer Garner's listening to the show and being.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Wealthy telling us how wealthy they are.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, let us know in the comments on any YouTube
video if you're Jennifer Garner and how wealthy you are,
and if you use it every day or maybe you
don't me use it once a week.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Let us know. See you later.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Grugle Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
I already told you this story, but I feel like
our friends need to know. This past weekend, we had
a sick raccoon in our yard.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, everybody does need to hear the story.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
And Eric was out mowing the lawn and then was
so close to this raccoon and then realize, oh, that's
a raccoon, and then all the neighbors start coming round
paying attention to what's going on because it's broad daylight.
This raccoon's just on the ground next to our oak tree,
(50:51):
awake but lethargic, not aggressive, and they're like, we should
probably do something with this, like like trap it and
take it somewhere. It was a Sunday, so there wasn't
anybody who could come out to our home. But thankfully
our one neighbor had a crate, an empty crate that
(51:13):
we could use. So I put on my big rubber
boots and got a bunch of rubb like big plastic
lids that you would put on plastic bins, and we
just kind of like corralled the raccoon from the tree
into the crate. And thankfully it wasn't it was still maintained,
(51:34):
its non aggression. None of us got bit put it
into a crate, and then I'm like, okay, well now
what They're like, yeah, you can't release it back into
the wild. They thought that it had distemper. I'd never
heard of that before.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I had a temper. I have a bad temper.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Got it from a raccoon.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So you do not want to release Temper the wild.
Multiple sources recommended, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
Could make other people sick too, So I called probably
like fifteen different places trying to figure out where the
heck to take this thing. One of the voicemails led
me to, hey, you know, they're like, we're all filled
up with raccoons. We can't take any more.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Fuck out too many raccoons.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
But they were like, go to and actually I probably
shouldn't say it out loud because they're so particular about
their website, but maybe I should. I'm going to here
we are, we're at the after show. So they're like,
go to Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and this is
a national resource hotline for on Facebook. So they're like,
(52:44):
look up the group on Facebook, Raccoon Rescue nine one one.
Give them your information. They'll be able to help you.
So I'm like, all right, I'm at my wits end.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
You join this raccoon rescue.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
I joined Raccoon Rescue nine one one, and I had
to fill out like what was going on with me
and my raccoon, and I was accepted to the group instantaneously,
even though it had to be approved by admin and immediately,
one of the admin tagged me in a post. They
(53:16):
were like, Jolly and Sirihani, contact this woman for Penelas County.
Contact this one for Hernando County. Keep us surprised. What's
going on? I'm like, I literally surprised. Applied to this
less than three minutes ago and they're already rallying. The
(53:37):
subculture of raccoon Rescue is insane in a good way,
in the best way, in the most helpful way, but
it is a subculture. And then I was scrolling a
little bit further down and I saw one of the
admin was like, we generally try and be nice and
kind in here, but I'm going to break that rule
for this one. Anyone else who just invites their friends
(54:01):
to this group is getting kicked out of here, because
this is for real raccoon emergencies and raccoon babies, and
we can't be having just friends joining wanting to see
cute pics of raccoon babies. This is real work we're
doing in here, and we only want people who have
(54:22):
emergencies like this is not I hope I meet the qualifications. Anyways,
I end up texting the person that Raccoon Rescue nine one.
One tells me to text and they respond again immediately
within two minutes, I get a text back because I
had listed out everything and what's a dead end, And
(54:43):
so I was saying that this one veterinary group said
that they wouldn't take them, and her first response to
me was, they're lying. They must just be tired because
it's Sunday and they don't want to work. But I
take distemper raccoons to them all the time. And then
she's like, I'm at my donor's graduation. I can't help
(55:04):
right now.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Wow, and yet you are texting me back within minutes
of my initial message. Again, I stand by Raccoon Rescue.
Soap culture is popping off. These people are a tribe
and they are ready to rumble.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Anyways, ended up.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Long.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
It's just it's all such a long story. But we
finally did find a place to take it to. She
was right that one place was lying and we were
able to take it there, and we did so. Eric
and I non pet owners, driving this sick raccoon in
a crate in the back of our car. Never would
have thought that this is where I would just be
spending my Sunday evening. But twist, one of the best
(55:52):
twists ever. We get there, we have to wait for
them to take the raccoon out of the crate because
we need to get the crate back to our neighbor.
And meanwhile they have snack cart. They wheel over snack
cart to us with all the good snacks, high protein snacks,
nut snacks, goldfish snacks, pirate booty snacks, also chapstick or.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Np bot expected when you told me that lights slip
them on the snack cart Sanded raccoons rescue.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
Well, no, no, this was a veterinary like an emergency
twenty four to seven, but clinic.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
So they were lying that they couldn't take the raccoon.
But then they were like snacks.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
Snacks, and I was like, okay, yeah, bottles of water,
cot tea. It was wow. It was a luxurious experience
that I'm like, am I am I raccoon rescue? Now?
Is this what I do on Sundays? Because snacks, I'll
keep going getting some distemper raccoons. Clearly I can handle
(56:56):
it because you and I have had a podcast for
over seven years. Yeah, distempered home scare me away. I
got rubber made lids. Yeah, I can corral you into something.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
You have corralled me many times and I've given you
snacks for it. Well, well, got it all worked out,
same
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