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- [00:00]
Subaru Representative
The holiday season is back, which means it's a time for giving. Subaru and its retailers believe in giving back to those who need it most. For the past 17 years, Subaru has made the act of buying a Subaru during the holiday season an act of love. When you purchase or lease a new Subaru during the Subaru Share the Love event, Subaru and its retailers donate a minimum of $300 to charity. By the end of this year's event, Subaru and its retailers will have donated nearly $320 million to national and hometown charities. To learn More, go to subaru.com/subaru More than a Car Company.
- [00:39]
Jen
Sometimes life can seem hard and tough to navigate. But what may seem like the smallest task, such as getting out of bed or even brushing your teeth, should be celebrated as a win. And State Farm is here to help you celebrate all your wins. The State Farm Personal Price Plan helps you create an affordable price just for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.
- [01:14]
T-Mobile Representative
It's better over here at&T customers Switching to T Mobile has never been easier.
- [01:20]
Jill
We'll pay off your existing phone and.
- [01:22]
State Farm Representative
Give you a new one free.
- [01:24]
Eric
All on America's largest 5G network.
- [01:26]
T-Mobile Representative
Visit t mobile.com carrierfreedom to switch today.
- [01:30]
State Farm Representative
Pay off up to $650 via virtual.
- [01:33]
T-Mobile Representative
Prepaid MasterCard in 15 days.
- [01:34]
State Farm Representative
Free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax. Qualifying port in trade and service on.
- [01:38]
Jill
Go 5G next and credit required.
- [01:39]
State Farm Representative
Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance and required finance agreement is due.
- [01:45]
Dr. Laurie Santos
Are lingering depression symptoms affecting you? If you're on an antidepressant and still struggling with lingering depression symptoms, ask your doctor about a lift in relief with Vraylar Cariprazine. Vralar is a prescription medicine approved for use with antidepressant medicines to treat major depressive disorder in adults. Adding Vlarar to an antidepressant is clinically proven to help relieve overall depression symptoms better than an antidepressant alone. Results may vary. Vralar is not approved in elderly patients with dementia related psychosis or for people under 18. Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke report unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. Antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults report fever, stiff muscles or confusion as these may be life threatening or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent High blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death Weight gain and high cholesterol may occur Difficulty moving tremors, slow or uncontrolled body movements, restlessness, feeling like you need to move around, nausea, constipation, insomnia, dizziness, increased appetite and fatigue are common side effects. Side effects may not appear for several weeks. For a lift in relief, ask about adding Bralar V R A Y L A R. Visit bralar.com or call 1-877-6-Bralar to learn more.
- [03:02]
Subaru Representative
This is Dr. Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab. Many people have questions about how to improve levels of happiness. Living a healthy lifestyle is one sure way of increasing happiness, and a good place to start is with your oral health. Just a few small changes to your oral care routine, such as changing your toothpaste to Colgate Total, can lead to beneficial changes in your oral health. Colgate Total helps stop oral health problems like gingivitis and cavities before they start because preventing oral health problems is a lot easier than treating them. Be dentist ready and get colgate total@shop.colgate.com.
- [03:37]
Jill
Total Episode 471 Budgeting tips for 2025.
- [03:47]
Jen
Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.
- [04:04]
Jill
Welcome to Frugal Friends Podcast. My name is Jen. My name is Jill and today we are doing our much anticipated budgeting tips for the New Year episode. It was our most downloaded episode of last year and we're here to do it again.
- [04:21]
Eric
You all just want to hear really the same things in, in a new way. And you know what? Me too. I'm here for it too. It's not much is gonna change, but we're gonna, we're gonna put a new spin on it.
- [04:34]
Jill
We're gonna expect you. It'll be fresh, fresh language for old ideas. Because that's the beauty of language. When a word becomes stale or overused or overgeneralized, we can give it new meaning by using synonyms. And we're gonna try and do that today. I promise. It won't be a regurgitation of stuff you've already heard.
- [04:59]
Eric
But, but it might be, but it.
- [05:01]
Jill
It will not be anything revolutionary and hopefully motivational for, for you to start the new year.
- [05:07]
Eric
That's really what we need. We need the motivation for the new year.
- [05:11]
Jill
Yes. So, but first, this episode is Brought to you by 525,600 minutes. For many, that's how we measure, measure a year. And for so many of us, at least 20,000 of those are spent thinking about what we're going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's a lot of minutes. That's not even an hour a day. But if you think about all of your foods, including snacks, it's pretty, pretty average.
- [05:42]
Eric
But just thinking about it, not even eating these things.
- [05:44]
Jill
Correct. Not even eating, but thinking about it. And so we would love to help you cut down on those minutes by giving you a free live meal planning class for 2025. Now, this class is free only and exclusively for people who pre order Buy what yout Love without Going Broke, which is coming out January 7th. So soon. And it's 25. Actually it might be on sale right now, I don't know because I am, I am recording this probably two weeks prior to when this comes out. So it might even be less than that. But when you pre order Buy what you love without going broke from your favorite book retailer, whether that's bookshop.org or Barnes and Noble or Amazon, we will send you a link so you can join in on this meal planning class. We're gonna help you make a 365 day meal plan, but not word for word, step for step. It's going to be a framework class, but it's not going to just be dinner. It's going to be breakfast, lunch, snacks, the whole shebang. So head to buywhatyoulovebook.com we've got links to several retailers for you to buy the book. And on that same page, buywhatyoulovebook.com is where you enter your order confirmation so that you immediately get that link for the live class. That's on December 29th. So just two days if you're listening to this live. And we'll get the recording too, if.
- [07:29]
Eric
You can't join live.
- [07:30]
Jill
Right. If you are listening to this after the 29th, you will get the recording, but we would love to see you there live.
- [07:38]
Eric
Can't wait for that.
- [07:39]
Jill
Yes. All right, so let's dive into these budgeting tips as a framework. We're going to use this article from truist.com which is 11 financial resolutions for 2025. But we are going to use it as a very light framework.
- [07:57]
Eric
Super loose. We're flying fast and loose.
- [07:59]
Jill
We are flying, flying fast and loose on this because we feel like our approach to budgeting is quite different from what else is on the Internet. And you will see that in this article. So we're not even going to go through 11, we're just going to go through like six or seven. And some of them aren't even on the list.
- [08:20]
Eric
And we're going to. And we're making up our own order too.
- [08:22]
Jill
Correct. Because I don't think budgeting has to be that complicated. We love to overcomplicated, complicate things because of our complexity bias. We have, our brains have a bias to think that something when it is more complex is more advanced and therefore is more accurate. But that is so not true when it comes to budgeting, the simpler the better. And that's kind of what we are going to lead into in this episode. So first I'm going to start with one that isn't on the list because I don't think you should start with budgeting. I think the biggest budgeting tip that we can give you for 2025 is to not stop, start with your budget.
- [09:08]
Eric
Woo. Hot take.
- [09:10]
Jill
It's to start with your spending. Start looking at what you are already spending on first and then you can plan for future spending. And so what we like to recommend, if you're a listener of the show, you know, you could recite it word for word if you're new. Welcome. It's the 90 day transaction inventory. That is where you should start looking at your spending for the past 90 days. Yes, I know we just went through the holidays. All of your spending was abnormal. But here's the thing. This gives you your most recent 90 days, gives you a clear picture of what your spending habits are now. Not what they were in the fall, not what they were over the summer, but what they are now because. Because that's what we're working to get out of is these spending habits that we've kind of let ourselves get into over the holidays. That's what we're trying to move forward to from. So that's what we look to when we are before we even start a budget. And so what that means is you're going through. If you have a budgeting app, you can very easily hook all of your cards up to that and look at all of your expenses. We love Monarch. If that's something that you want to pay for, it's something I pay for. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Monarch I think we'll link up a discount code in the show notes, but if it's still going on, we do get discount codes for them. But frugalfriendspodcast.com monarch and that's really makes it very simple. You do not have to do that though. You can also go back into your statements on each of your cards and just copy and paste into a Google sheet and then you can sort from there either by date, by category, by like the store, whatever. So you can do it either way. You can use your budgeting app or you can use a Google sheet. And what you're looking for from there is not how depressed should I be about my spending? That's not it. What you're looking for are patterns. So if you're familiar with atomic habits or if that's on your 2025 reading list, we use habit cues or triggers to kind of give us an idea of what triggers our spending. So we're looking for who was I with when I made these transactions? Where was I coming from, where was I going to, what mood was I in? So we're looking for patterns and then when we identify a pattern, we're looking for what the cues are and then we can pick a couple to start working on and changing. And that is how you are going to change your spending to be able to stick to a budget. You can make this perfect budget, this perfect plan, but if you don't have the skills and direction to execute it, you will never get there. And you will just feel guilt after guilt of spending and shame after shame every month for overspending a budget. And we do not want that for you. And that's why we say start with the transaction inventory and identify what needs work first.
- [12:41]
Eric
Yeah, because you need to understand yourself in order to make a plan that works for you. You need to understand what is it that leads to some of the spending that maybe you don't care for or didn't meet your needs entirely. You've got to look into that first before you're going to change any patterns. And if you need a little bit more of hand holding with that 90 day transaction inventory, we do have that as part of a resource with the book. So when you pre order buy what you love without going broke or even.
- [13:12]
Jill
If you just order it, this is not a pre order incentive. Anybody who buys the book, love.
- [13:15]
Eric
Yeah, when you buy the book, right? Yeah, yeah. Not just, but I mean right now you're pre ordering as you're, as you're buying it. But with the book comes this resources page and we include a 90 day transaction walkthrough with that along with many other resources. So just a quick little helper for you there. The next thing that you're gonna do. Once you've done that 90 day transaction inventory, you've been able to journal a little bit about this in the columns next to each transaction and you've got a little bit of an understanding of some of your impulse spending decisions, what leads to that? What are some of the cues happening for you? What do you not want to keep spending on? What do you want to keep spending on? This is where we're going to create a plan and this one is in this article. So it talks about creating a budget based on your priorities. And this is literally what our whole book is about as well. We call them values, although we also talk about goals and priorities within our book as well. But this is where we are going to start to define the parameters for our spending for our money, the resources that we bring in each month. We what do we want to do with that? How do we want to allocate that money? And this is going to be based on they say priorities, we'll say values, and a combination of the two. So you are going to have to take a look at what are some of your more overarching financial goals. Whether it's debt payoff or maybe increasing investing or just kind of maintaining, you identify what that is and kind of the amounts of money that you want to be able to put towards these things based on also how much money you're bringing in every month. And then be able to identify where can some of that discretionary spending go from there. But we recommend beginning with your values. And that you've heard us talk about before, usually is going to be within the four family, faith, friends, and fulfilling work. So being able to identify how can I get more out of these categories, more of the things that I want, that I need, my higher level needs, and in what ways has my previous spending from my 90 day transaction inventory pointed me towards the fact that I might be spending unnecessarily to get after these needs. What could I be doing instead? And so literally putting down your goals, your values for faith, family, friends, fulfilling work, how you can engage in those things for just a more meaningful lifestyle and then fill in the blanks with, all right, where will the money go then as a result of that, it could mean that as a result you find free ways of getting at your higher value so you've got more money to put towards your investment goals, your debt payoff goals, your current educational goals, you name it. But it also allows for some of that free freedom and flexibility and spontaneity to be able to spend on the dinner out with friends and the special activity with family, because you really know that these are going to help enhance your time and energy with your highest values rather than just throwing money at something unintentionally, not really thinking through where our money is going when we're scrolling the Internet or we're walking the aisles of store.
- [16:53]
Jill
I love thinking about a budget as not just for your money, but kind of for your whole life. So you're also budgeting your time, which is your literal, only non renewable resource. You're also budgeting your physical spaces, your mental energy, your schedule, which is I guess your time. But I love thinking about the budget, not just being about money, but also being about these other things because then it can inspire you to get creative. And we think, how can I meet these needs first with my time and not money? How can I fill my space with more of the things that bring connection or bring self esteem, bring spontaneity, all these higher needs that we have that are connected to our values and then we trickle down into the money part. So if I am not in a season in my life where I can have friends over in my house because it is under construction, which was an actual thing both of us experienced for several years, then we allocate more money to that value, but then we get creative with other values like how can I make extra money to compensate sort of things. So when you're thinking about your budget, don't just be thinking about it as budgeting of financial resources, think of it as meeting these values with all of your resources.
- [18:32]
Eric
Yeah, and again, this is going to take time. This does require certain focus decisions and learning about ourselves and continuing to build upon them. Where I found myself now took the past decade to get here and the decisions that I've made to get here and sharpening my understanding of values based spending. But to give some examples where I found myself now because of my kind of curated environment and what I do for work, it allows us to only have one vehicle, which I don't even think about that very often, how much that saves, saves us. But what that does allow for us then is we're able to, on a whim, decide, yep, we want to go out to eat. That would be a really fun way of getting out of the house, breaking up our typical routine, paying for just convenience. And I'm open to that. And I can do that because not out of deprivation, but just out of a lifestyle that I've built. I don't really care about all these other peripheral things like what I'm doing on the weekend is finding free activities and getting together with friends and trying out new recipes. And so the money that I'm spending is, yeah, on a couple of ingredients here and for some gas to go to that free activity and maybe, yeah, electricity and water to have friends over to my house. Like this is where the money's going so that I then am able to make some of these more spontaneous decisions or go on like a really beautiful trip once a year, that kind of a thing. Just to kind of make it a little bit more granular for us. That's some examples.
- [20:13]
T-Mobile Representative
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- [21:21]
Eric
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- [22:12]
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- [22:58]
State Farm Representative
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- [23:57]
Dr. Josie
Hey guys, it's Dr. Josie from InTheVet's office. Loving a pet often means wondering if you're providing the care they need. Is there a health issue lurking around the corner? Does the pet need something or feel something but can't say it? Petivity Health kits and smart products use data and best in class technology to learn your pet's behaviors and alert you to keep key changes that you can act on. Petivity is reimagining pet care with a family of products designed to help give your pet a voice and empower you to provide the best care possible. Visit P-E-T-I-V-I-T-Y.com to learn more.
- [24:28]
Jill
Yes. All right, so now for some financial aspects of the budget. So next is to prioritize debt and the actual article says what? What does it say? It says pay down debt and raise your credit score. I am going to rephrase that to be prioritize debt, specifically high interest debt on credit cards or personal loans, but also to the extent where you feel like you need to prioritize it. If it is a burden weighing on you, then you're going to prioritize it more highly. If you are fine having debt yet you are sitting with revolving credit card debt, you need to prioritize that more Highly. I would encourage you to prioritize it most highly. And the way that I think about paying off debt is I will use this phrase from the One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Pompezon. And the whole book can be summarized into one phrase. What is one thing that which by doing I can make everything else easier or unnecessary in the future? And how we think about that for our money is what's one financial goal that I can focus on and prioritize that makes the most things, as many things as possible, easier or unnecessary in the future? And we truly believe debt is one of those things. There's three that we'll talk about for the rest of the episode. Debt is one of those highest priority things. It is the first thing specifically high interest debt. So that's where we would say. And we still plug it into our values, right? Because when we get rid of debt that has a 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% interest rate, when we're no longer paying interest on that debt, that is 10 to 30% more money that we have every month based on that value. So that could be tens of dollars, that could be hundreds of dollars. But the more interest we pay to the bank, the less money we have for all of our values. And so that is definitely the first thing to prioritize when we are thinking about financial goals.
- [27:07]
Eric
And when it comes to optimizing your credit score, I think that that is an important part of engaging with debt. Well, and being able to increase your credit score, by the way, that you are choosing to take on loans, pay off loans, and engage with some of that credit, which can help you in the future if you do plan to ever purchase another vehicle or a home purchase, or even you just really want to get a good travel credit card with the best rewards, these are important things for that. And if that's something that's on your radar for this year, we do recommend Smart Credit. You can go to smartcredit.com frugalfriends and they specifically are a program that you can engage in for a portion of time and they will kind of give you the pointers on things that you can be doing to be able to optimize your score. So the next thing that we're going to recommend prioritizing is retirement. But this is one of those things that can be on autopilot. While we like to focus on one thing at a time and not be dividing our attentions everywhere and feel really chaotic with our finances and thereby not really accomplish much with it, this is one of those Things that you can be investing for retirement and it not have to totally always be on your radar. So this is when you're looking at what's the amount of money that you're bringing in, what are your monetary obligations, how much money can you be putting towards your Roth IRA? Can you be signing up for your employer's 401 and getting the match? This is just sound financial. These are things that we can and should be doing. Even if it only means a small amount of money, even if it means you can't totally max out your Roth ira. That doesn't mean don't do it. Progress is better than perfection. So whatever you can be doing, even alongside debt payoff, and there might be different opinions on that, so definitely do what you feel is best for you. If you think that you can pay off debt in a very short amount of time, you'd rather do that before focusing on retirement. Okay. But if you're someone like me who took seven years to pay off debt, time in the market for folks like us is going to be better than, as Jen loves to say, timing the market. And so being able to even put a little bit amount of money towards that, while you're also maybe more so focused on these other goals is going to be really helpful.
- [29:45]
Jill
And then the third priority as far as financial goals go is to the article says look for ways to increase your income. And I'm going to rephrase it as to look for ways to change your income. So there's going to be a lot of people on a lot of ends of the spectrum. Some are going to be just barely making it. Some people have a good income, but for some reason are still living paycheck to paycheck. And some people are working way too hard and are miserable at their job and it's affecting all the other areas of their life. So that's why we say look for ways to change your income no matter where you are. You should every year be taking inventory of what have I done at work or in my business in the last year? What have I really liked, what have I not liked? What do I want to do differently this year? And how do I want to change my income? Do I want to increase my income by going for a promotion for a different job, changing industries? Do I want to essentially lower my income by increasing because I want to increase my education, or do I want to lower my income and take on less of a workload? Do I want to increase my hourly rate and decrease the number of hours work? These are there are endless possibilities. Right. But we need to be taking into consideration our work every single year. Usually at the beginning of the year, but it can be done anytime. You're listening to this. Because if we float along and just do life and only focus on our expenses, then we're going to end up in a place doing stuff we don't want to do for 40 hours a week or maybe more and feeling like we've lost it, We've lost it somewhere. And so being intentional about your work and your income is a high priority just for your life, but also because it dictates what you can do with your budget. It is the core foundation of your budget. So you need to be thinking about it every year. Ideally, you're increasing your income every year, but sometimes for some seasons, you must take a dip in order to create a greater growth in the future. And we need to be thinking about that not constantly, but annually.
- [32:31]
Eric
And it is One of those four Fs is fulfilling work. Now, work doesn't have to mean what we make money doing. If we are in a job that we do need to be there for a time, but it's not necessarily feeling super fulfilling to us. We can set our hands to other things in our spare time and in volunteer efforts to be able to fulfill that higher need. But where it's possible, where we can make some of these moves, to experience fulfilling work from the place that pays our salaries or even be able to take on, you know, build our own business, how beautiful that could be. So, yeah, having room to be able to evaluate that and have some flexibility there can be incredibly fulfilling.
- [33:18]
Jill
Yeah. And I, and I wanted to note too, fulfilling work does not mean like you work at a nonprofit or for some kind of philanthropic thing. That is not what we mean by fulfilling.
- [33:30]
Eric
It could be that for you, it could be that.
- [33:33]
Jill
But what we truly mean is that you feel like you are valuable, that you are. So we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs to find these four Fs core values. But at the top of the hierarchy is self actualization. And that's where we feel a lot of our fulfilling work comes in. And what that is, it's not like transcendent, you know, stuff. It's the ability to be creative, to innovate, to be spontaneous, to feel like you are contributing to something that you're living in the actualization of your skills and gifts. So that's. It can be in any industry doing anything. But that's why we want you to take an inventory of this. Like am I doing the things that I'm good at and that I still want to be doing, or is there a shift that I need to make this year to prepare for future change?
- [34:34]
Eric
Another tangible area that's really important to evaluate and somewhat in conjunction with this evaluation of income and the work that we're setting our hands to and ways to increase that, we can also be looking at ways to optimize our biggest expenses, which is going to be housing and transportation. Food is also included. But that's. There's tons of other episodes on that one.
- [34:59]
Jill
You don't have to listen to another episode.
- [35:01]
Eric
The beginning of the year. This kind of marker of reevaluation is a good time to just ask ourselves questions about our housing and transportation situations. It doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to make changes, but it would be really good to feel confident and secure in what we currently have going on. Do we want this to continue for the next year? Do we have goals or shifts that we want to make around this? So the general rule of thumb still exists that we want to be spending about 30% of our take home pay on our housing. When I was preparing for this episode, I I looked at that. I'm like, okay, take home pay. I heard people talk about gross pay in the past, so maybe that shifted. This article says 30% of your take home pay on housing and they're including all housing expenses. So utilities and bill, how bills related to your house are included. I'm actually spending 34% of our take home pay on housing. I don't think that I'm going to make any changes in my housing situation, but it is informative to me that, okay, then maybe the key for me here to get that into a more comfortable percentage is earning more money. So my reevaluation of this is helping to inform what is my budgeting going to look like, what are my next steps in that? And of course, looking at our transportation. Are there shifts that we're going to be wanting to make with our vehicles? With the way that we get around, Is a job change potentially going to change our need for what transportation looks like? Like, you know, Eric and I used to go to jobs, we had two vehicles. When we switched to more remote work, our vehicle situation didn't change immediately. We had two cars. It took us a while to actually say, wait a second, do we need all of this? And it was no. There might be some times of inconvenience, but we can work around that to save ourselves thousands of dollars annually. And that takes an inventory opportunity, a reevaluation of. With these biggest expenses that I have, the things that take up the majority of my spending month to month, what shifts could be made here? Maybe not even immediately, but what could I be moving towards that could really help my finances?
- [37:24]
Jill
Yeah. For that reason, I don't love the 50, 20, 30 budget. But it can be helpful if you're figuring out, okay, Maybe I'm spending 35, 40% on housing, but I love where I live, and because I live here, then I spend so much less on transportation. So whatever is recommended for transportation, I just feed it over to housing and that's fine for me. So if you're going to use it as kind of like a guideline for doing something like that, but don't feel like, ugh, I'm spending 40% on housing, I should only spend 30. I need to lower my housing. But looking at evaluating housing and transportation expenses every year is really good. I think for a lot of us, it's going to be figuring out how we can get a smaller car payment or maybe paying that off, depending on your lower ends rate. Yeah, that's going to be like most people are gonna do something with that every year.
- [38:25]
Eric
But you know what? I do something with every episode.
- [38:29]
Jill
This we need to do twice a week. It's not an annual episode.
- [38:32]
Eric
We don't even need to reevaluate the.
- [38:34]
Jill
Bill of the week.
- [38:46]
Eric
That's the.
- [38:47]
Jen
That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills. Buffalo bills. Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.
- [39:06]
Bill
This is the bill of the week. This is the bill of the week. This is the bill of the week. That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills. Bill Clinton. My grandpa Bill, My uncle Bill, My cousin Bill who doesn't exist. Beak bills. Play bills. A billy goat that I named William when I was 16 found bills paid bills. Unpaid bills because we didn't have to pay them. Not because we missed them. Or better than that, surprise bills. Reduced bills. Surprise reduced bills.
- [39:44]
Jill
Ooh, those are fun.
- [39:45]
Bill
Reviewed and fixed bills. Medical bills. My friend who just had a baby named Lily, but she mistyped it in A text. So now her baby is Billy. Insurance bills, utility bills, negotiated bills using printed monopoly money instead of real cash in your envelope system so you don't have to have cash on you, but you can still like see the money going away. Refunded bills, baby bills, grocery bills, dollar bills, Bill Murray. Father bills, son bills, husband bills, co worker bills, dog bills, cat bills, vet bills, pet bills, fix the bill.
- [40:14]
Eric
Ice cream bills. I don't know what that is either.
- [40:16]
Bill
Who's this? This the bill of the week, baby. Jen, you might want to make sure that Jill isn't having a heart attack.
- [40:25]
Jill
Jill is not the one having the heart attack.
- [40:29]
Eric
We are both dead. Dedd.
- [40:32]
Jill
Dedicated.
- [40:33]
Eric
You're hired.
- [40:34]
Jill
I'm dead.
- [40:34]
Eric
You're hired.
- [40:35]
Jill
I am. I have no words, Eric.
- [40:40]
Eric
You're out. You're out of here.
- [40:42]
Jill
Done.
- [40:42]
Eric
We've got a new bill of the week.
- [40:45]
Jill
I am. I have never been without words.
- [40:51]
Eric
You have elevated this segment in an absurd way that never would have been thought about you. Okay. You have self actualized. I don't know if you feel that you have self actualized, but the spontaneity, the creativity, the ingenuity, the fun.
- [41:14]
Jill
Oh my goodness.
- [41:15]
Eric
This is my highest value.
- [41:19]
Jill
I am. Well that's it. Drop the mic, man.
- [41:23]
Eric
I want to listen to it again. Like I want this to be what plays because so many examples were given that I was too busy laughing at the previous 100%.
- [41:34]
Jill
We're gonna make it.
- [41:35]
Eric
Pay attention to the next.
- [41:36]
Jill
We're gonna take this audio. We're gonna make it a real on Instagram. It's gonna come out. Whatever day this episode comes out, we're doing it today.
- [41:45]
Eric
Frugal Friends podcast is who to follow.
- [41:48]
Jill
Frugal Friends podcast.
- [41:49]
Eric
Uh huh. And. And this.
- [41:51]
Jill
I wanna remember this forever.
- [41:53]
Eric
I. We will. This has become a core memory because anytime someone reaches the tippy top triangle of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you don't forget it.
- [42:02]
Jill
You don't. She has transcended. There's. There's an additional layer that we actually don't talk about, but is was added by Maslow later in his life and it is transcendency. It's a little woo woo for me. But. But Mary, you've done it. You've transcended. I didn't think it was possible actually until this moment.
- [42:26]
Eric
We're. It's taking us some time to kind of like come down from this excitement. Whoa. Wow. You. You. You get us.
- [42:36]
Jill
Bring us home.
- [42:37]
Eric
We've got some real deals here. And you are the one. And I'M smiling. How do I even say this if you all are listening? Okay, we're all amazed together. We don't even know what just happened to us, but we know it was great and you want to continue the greatness. Now hear me out. It doesn't have to be transcendence. It doesn't have to be nirvana.
- [43:02]
Jill
We haven't even reached there yet.
- [43:04]
Eric
The lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs as they relate to your bill of the week. We just want to have fun. You don't have to take us on a journey like the one we were just on. Anything will do, even if your name is Bill. Especially if your name is Bill. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill we truly can't wait to hear of the goodness and gold you all come up with.
- [43:26]
Pets Best Representative
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- [44:13]
State Farm Representative
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- [45:12]
Dr. Josie
Hey guys, it's Dr. Josie from InTheVet's office. Loving a pet often means wondering if you're providing the care they need. Is there a health issue lurking around the corner? Does the pet need something or feel something but can't say it. Petivity Health kits and smart products use data and best in class technology to learn your pet's behaviors and alert you to key changes that you can act on. Petivity is reimagining pet care with a family of products designed to help give your pet a voice and empower you to provide the best care possible. Visit P E T I v I t y.com to learn more.
- [45:42]
Jill
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids instantly, set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money. With guardrails in place, Place Sign up for greenlight today@greenlight.com iheart we have one more act for you this evening.
- [46:16]
T-Mobile Representative
I don't even need to say his name.
- [46:18]
State Farm Representative
Mr. Bob Dylan, a complete unknown, is now a Golden Globe in critics choice nominee for best picture.
- [46:24]
Jill
Bobby, what do you want to be?
- [46:26]
Eric
Whatever it is they don't want me to be.
- [46:27]
State Farm Representative
Timothy Chalamet astonishes as Bob Dylan in one of the best performances of the year. Do the bums of die and critics rave. Edward Norton is absolutely fantastic.
- [46:37]
Eric
70,000 people are here and Bobby is the reason for it.
- [46:42]
Jill
They just want me singing blowing in the wind for the rest of my life.
- [46:47]
State Farm Representative
Don't miss the movie. Critics are healing. Five stars. It's pure cinematic magic.
- [46:54]
Eric
Turn it down.
- [46:57]
State Farm Representative
And name to AFR and the National Board of Reviews. Top 10 films of the year.
- [47:02]
Jill
Make some noise BD track some mud on the carpet.
- [47:07]
State Farm Representative
A complete unknown now playing only in theaters. Rated R under 1790 middle without parrot.
- [47:14]
Eric
And now it's time for the lightning round.
- [47:21]
Jill
Okay, what are your 2025 money goals and have they changed since hearing that bill of the week?
- [47:32]
Eric
Yeah, I need no other thing in life.
- [47:36]
Jill
That's it. Okay, so my money goals which we recently talked about this as a business and then actually just yesterday Travis and I talked about this as a family and we want to make more money. That is a minor goal I think so something that we are interested in is doing more investing in the community versus the stock market. So if you were listening to a recent episode, I don't remember what it was but I told the story of how beloved coffee shop of mine was forced out of their location and given no reason and then four months later a Starbucks showed up in that same location. It was, it was in a hospital in Orlando. And I, I felt, I just felt some type of way about that. And so that has made me create a goal for 2025 of wanting to invest in the local community and local business, but not just purchasing and consuming, but actually investing and, and seeing what that looks like at a smaller scale. Because I'm not like an angel investor, venture capitalist or anything like that. But that currently is starting that process is my 2025 goal.
- [49:07]
Eric
I love that. It's beautiful. And we were talking about that a little bit before we started recording and recognizing that is values based spending. And we're doing it on a micro level, we're doing it individually. But also how could we do this as a business? How is Frugal Friends as a company also spending on our business values? And in what ways can we kind of take it to the next step and elevate even as individuals as well into that more meso level? Yeah, buying local, buying and putting our money kind of where our values are. But also how can we further support these efforts? I don't know that we would have been able to stop Starbucks from taking over that local coffee shop. But it is important to think about how can I really dig in on the people and the community that's important to me, that's right around me. So there's so much alignment there. And I love to kind of keep having these conversations with you. For me it is make more money. You already heard me talk about that. And our people who have been listening for a while, you all know in full transparency for Jen and I to write this book and to really see what we could do with Frugal Friends as a business that I stepped out of my full time job and went into Frugal Friends more full time. I still dabble in the world of social work. I do still have my side hustle because you know, I can't let go of my side. But it did mean a decrease in pay to kind of pursue some of what I've been feeling has been, I mean a lot of what I do has felt like fulfilling work but also wanting a little bit more of a singular focus to be less chaotic in kind of what the demands on my time and energy. And that meant choosing a lesser salary, knowing that that wasn't going to be for forever and I think feeling the reality of having lived off of less for a whole year, it's been okay. We are fine. Things have actually gone like maybe even a little bit better than I expected. But also recognizing, okay, something does need to shift. We kind of need to move ourselves back up to what we were accustomed to so that we can feel a little bit more solid and stable about the percentages of our income that are going to the various things that are just necessary. I don't want to have a knee jerk reaction here and say I'm spending more the recommended amount on my housing. Let me go move back into a vehicle again. Even though I did love living in an rv, it's just not going to be the wisest decision for us at this stage of life. That's okay. But we can also look for ways to increase income where there's not any more opportunities to kind of decrease some of our expenses.
- [52:03]
Jill
Yeah, those are our money goals and I hope we have inspired you with your money goals and your budgeting for 2025. If we did, we would love to hear about it in a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or a rating and comment on Spotify. Kind of like this one from debrahava90 besties for the resties happens to be 5 stars. I love listening to Jen and Jill. Been listening to them since 2018ish timeframe when I was going through the financial shifts in my life with my family. Jen and Jill have really helped in giving me ideas that I can change and what I can change and improve with my financial life goals that are now lifelong habits. Thank you ladies.
- [52:55]
Eric
Woo. You have really grown with us since the beginning. 2018 is when we started, so you've been on the journey. I'm sure you've seen the shifts we've made. It sounds like you've made some shifts as well. So so cool. I'm really glad that you're still around and thanks for taking the time to leave us a review. If you've been around since the beginning, or even a couple of years or a couple of months doesn't really matter. We'd love to hear from you through a rating and review. If you could take a moment. If you've not done this yet, it really helps us. It also gives us content for our episodes so we can read them, hear what you have to say, make tweaks if needed, and help others find the show. So thanks for doing that and we'll.
- [53:39]
Jill
See you next time.
- [53:40]
Eric
Bye.
- [53:43]
Jill
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So Jill, we have a book signing event coming up very soon. If you are in Florida, in the Tampa Bay area, we are doing a book signing and Q and A at Tombolo Books in downtown St. Petersburg on January 14th at 7:00pm yeah, it's a really cute spot.
- [54:21]
Eric
We went there for a book signing for a friend of ours as well. And it was such a nice, fun, kind of intimate event. And we're hoping that it can be the same for us. Fun and intimate?
- [54:35]
Jill
Yes. We hope that people show up on.
- [54:38]
Eric
A Tuesday pre order that book. Bring it with you.
- [54:42]
Jill
We still. There's two things we still don't know. A, what we are going to sign in books.
- [54:48]
Eric
What we're going to say.
- [54:49]
Jill
Yeah. What we're going to say besides our name. And B, who is going to ask us the questions in the Q and A part of the book signing?
- [54:59]
Eric
We're probably gonna choose a friend to do that. I think that'd be fun.
- [55:02]
Jill
Okay, well, we haven't talked about it yet.
- [55:04]
Eric
Oh, well, this is me talking about it. We haven't talked about it, but I've thought about it.
- [55:09]
Jill
But you have thought about it. Okay. At least one of us has because I led the Q and A at a book signing once.
- [55:16]
Eric
Did you?
- [55:17]
Jill
I did do that once. Whoa.
- [55:19]
Eric
Did they give you the questions or did you come up with your own questions?
- [55:22]
Jill
I'm pretty sure he gave me the questions. I can't remember. It was at a bar. It was Joe from Stacking when his book Stacked came out. But I had a great time and so I looked forward to choosing the person to lead our Q and A. And I just haven't nailed one down. There's so many good people in the area that could do it. There's just so many choices.
- [55:55]
Eric
I love the idea of doing a. Yep. Talk about the concepts of the book, but also do a little bit of the behind the scenes about the process of writing the book.
- [56:05]
Jill
Oh, yeah. I think that's what should be most of it because that would be most fun. I would love to talk about the fist fights and the brawls. The brawls.
- [56:19]
Eric
Knock down, drag out, blood on the.
- [56:23]
Jill
Laptop that we had writing this book.
- [56:29]
Eric
Oh, speaking of the process of writing the book, here's I guess a little bit of the behind the scenes already. Little sneak peek. So we recently got our Spotify wrapped. Right. That's like something relevant for people a little bit. And. And so personally for me, kind of as it went, month to month, like really all over the map. But it was so interesting. It was like kind of rock pop beginning of the year. And then March was heavy instrumental jazz coffee shop. And then April, May started ramping back up again with like even some hardcore music, some again, rock, pop. And I'm like, oh my gosh. You can tell what was happening. March was the heaviest writing month and I was just sitting here writing, listening, tuning out the world, tuning out. Jen never all the edits she wanted me to make. Yeah. Got my AirPods on noise cancellation mode, listening to my instrumental jazz music, typing out this book. And then when I was done, we just. We. We partied.
- [57:49]
Jill
Yeah, Mine was similar, but instead of like pop rock, it was Sad man with guitar. Like it went Sad man with guitar. And then chill hop is pretty much exclusively what I listened to for three months with the Little on YouTube. It's got a little animated raccoon that like walks across the screen, which I love. But I was listening to it on Spotify mostly and then went back into sad man with guitar mode. That's it. I actually listened to so much Noah Khan that he made a re and he made a reel. He was like, if you're one of my top listeners, I'm putting Prozac in your stocking. And I'm like, what does that mean about. I'm generally a happy person, but I just listen to real songs. Sad music.
- [58:37]
Eric
Interesting.
- [58:38]
Jill
Yeah.
- [58:38]
Eric
You've got the feels that you need to let out.
- [58:41]
Jill
I think so. I think so. But yeah.
- [58:45]
Eric
Well, yeah. So if you're in the area January 14th.
- [58:48]
Jill
Check out our Instagram for more details. Frugal Friends podcast. See you there.
- [58:53]
Eric
Bye.
- [58:54]
Subaru Representative
The holiday season is back, which means it's a time for giving. Subaru and its retailers believe in giving back to those who need it most. For the past 17 years, Subaru has made the act of buying a Subaru during the holiday season an act of love. When you purchase or lease a new Subaru during the Subaru Share the Love event, Subaru and its retailers donate a minimum of $300 to charity. By the end of this year's event, Subaru and its retailers will have donated nearly $320 million to national and hometown charities. To learn More, go to subaru.com/subaru More.
- [59:30]
Jill
Than a car company with Kroger brand products, you can get all of your favorite things this holiday season. Because our proven quality products come at exceptionally low prices and with a money back quality guarantee, every dish is sure to be a favorite. From sweet sugar cookies and holiday ham to that perfect slice of pie. Whether you shop, delivery, pick up or in store, Kroger brand has all your favorite things. Kroger Fresh for everyone.
- [60:01]
State Farm Representative
Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere. Rejoiced oh yeah, because now they could listen to one audiobook title a month from an enormous library of popular audiobook titles, including Romantasy, Autobiographies, True Crime and more. Suddenly, listeners didn't mind sitting in traffic or even missing their flight. Amazon Music Unlimited now includes Audible Download the Amazon Music app now to start listening. Terms apply Whether you're ordering wings for.
- [60:34]
Eric
The game, whipping up a seven layer dip or ordering pizza, there's something about.
- [60:39]
State Farm Representative
Football that makes you want to eat. And this football season, UberEats has the best deals on game day food no matter what you're craving, from two for one Pizza. To buy one, get one Wings. Uber Eats will be dropping new deals.
- [60:51]
Eric
Each week all season long.
- [60:53]
State Farm Representative
Uber Eats official On demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. Terms and conditions apply. See app for details.
- [61:01]
Eric
The holidays are here, and so is the Ikea Winter Sale. Now's your chance to make the holidays a little more magical and less expensive. Save up to 50% off on select items in store and online. Online now through January 7th. Plus IKEA loyalty members get an extra 10% off on sale items offer valid in the US through 17 mall supplies. Last selection may vary by store and online. See store@ikea-usa.com wintersale for complete terms. Restrictions apply.