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Frugal Friends Podcast
How to Save $10K FAST (When You Earn Less Than $100K) | Save Money Fast
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- [00:00]
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- [01:01]
Jen
Save $10,000 fast when you earn less than 100k.
- [01:10]
Jill
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.
- [01:26]
Jen
Welcome Frugal Friends. I'm Jen. I'm Jill and today we are talking about saving a lot of money fast. $10,000 is an arbitrary amount, but it feels big and so that's why we put it. But as people who have paid off $78,000 of debt and $60,000 of debt, we personally know about saving money quickly. And a lot of people on the Internet do too.
- [01:53]
Guest Speaker
The results when you search how to save money Fast are kind of all over the place. Like start a budget coupon, join apps, download apps.
- [02:04]
Jen
They are. They do frustrate me being a freelance writer. I was a freelance writer for a lot of years and it was essentially the same. Everybody wants to have the same article on their website how to save Money Fast. And everybody wants to have the same tips but just slightly longer paragraphs underneath each each. And there is really very few like deviation. Which is why I've loved looking at social media because it is real authentic. Granted, there's a lot of stuff on social media that is the opposite of that. But honestly, when it comes to saving money, it has really been refreshing that it's not just quote unquote experts telling you how to do something that they have personally never done, but it's people, regular people saying this is how I have done something.
- [02:58]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, and we've got a five step strategy to share with you that isn't just coupons and downloading apps on your phone. Like, there really does need to be some intentionality to it, but it can be done.
- [03:09]
Jen
Yeah, it's. It's so much less about like the tips and tricks that you're usually going to read or hear about from financial experts. Saving a lot of money fast or paying off a lot of debt fast comes down to this strategy. And we've tried to simplify it as much as possible with five steps. We tried to make it three, but it's five. Forgive us.
- [03:35]
Guest Speaker
And the sixth step is to subscribe and like our channel.
- [03:38]
Jen
That's the first. That's actually the first step of that's A1, not the steak sauce, but maybe one A is subscribe to let us know you like stuff like this and and that you want more. And then one B is to recognize that this episode is brought to you by rebate apps, coupons and cashback programs.
- [04:00]
Guest Speaker
What?
- [04:01]
Jen
Yes, all three. For just the low investment of 10 hours a week of your time, you can save hundreds of dollars a year. But should that not be enough for you, you can always try not buying as much. And so several, if not all of the articles you'll see online will have a budget be the first step. And we have a budget spreadsheet for you. We call it the Spending Planner because that is really truly what a budget is. Plans. It helps you keep track of your spending plan. So whether you're just starting out on your budgeting journey or you are ready to level up with a spreadsheet, maybe apps are not for you. Then this all in one spending planner really will help you. It's mobile optimized, has over 20 tabs, including an annual dashboard, a monthly budget tab for every month, a bill calendar, savings goal tracker, and my favorite, the opportunity cost calculator where you can put in the price of something in real time to see how much money money you could have made in the stock market with that.
- [05:13]
Guest Speaker
I do love that.
- [05:14]
Jen
So that is a really great feature. Again, all mobile optimized. So check the description below for a code for 30% off of that and check it out. Frugalfriendspodcast.com budget do it.
- [05:29]
Guest Speaker
And then let's talk about how to save $10,000 fast. I mean, fast is kind of relative, right? Like your fast is different from my fast. You paid off 10,000. You know, you paid off your debt in two years. I paid off mine in seven years. Three years was fast, seven was not. But when it comes to saving $10,000, I think, you know, some might be able to do that in three months. For others, it'll take a year or longer. But I think it can take less time with intentionality and strategy than if we were just hoping someday we come upon $10,000.
- [06:03]
Jen
We all want to do it fast, right? We don't want to make the actual consistent changes that are required for sustainable and healthy habits of saving. We just want to save it fast and get over. Get it over with and get back to our old unhealthy habits. And unfortunately, that doesn't work here, especially when you're trying to do something fast like this, because again, yeah, fast is relative. And I think for most of us, we overestimate what we can do in a couple months or a year, and we underestimate what we can do in 10 years. I think that's a Steve Jobs quote, or he might have been quoting someone else. But it is so, so true. And so I think looking at it with that mindset, thinking whatever we do has to be sustainable, it can be big. There can be things you can do to make big steps, steps really quickly, but most of it is going to be small and sustainable. So we'll start with that mindset when we go into our first step, which is to set your timeline and savings target. So you're going to need a clear deadline. And I'll tell you from experience, you will think after you look at your budget, whether you're using our spending planner, an app, or something else, you're going to look at it and you're going to think you need a lot more time. It's going to be really discouraging. But once you start putting into practice these sustainable habits that I just mentioned, you will find that that timeline can decrease. But we don't start with that short timeline and set ourselves up for failure. We set a realistic deadline and it's clear and it has an end date because we're not going to be saving like this forever.
- [07:59]
Guest Speaker
The second step is to audit and slash your big expenses. So this, of course, is food, housing and transportation. This is where we are going to get the biggest bang for our efforts, so to speak, that when we can make shifts in these areas, we can really see a big difference in the amount of money that we're able to save. So when it comes to food, some of the things that we can do there is to meal plan, cook at home. This can save us between 200 to $500 a month. And this isn't just what research on the Internet tells Us. This is also our own experiences. Like when I focus on meal planning, sticking to that meal plan, cooking at home, it is pretty significant how much money can be saved. This would then also be paired with cutting delivery or dining out. That's not to say we're not doing it at all, but maybe seeing if we could do it one to two times a month instead of whatever it is we're currently doing, that's a way we can really cut when it comes to food.
- [09:08]
Jen
Yeah. And then a big one is transportation. And so using. So we're gonna have an episode coming up here about transportation costs, car payments and all this, and I'm very excited. So definitely subscribe if you want to catch that. But being mindful of not getting a car payment, especially in the season, if you're trying to save money fast, maybe you're trying to save money for a car, in which case that video is really going to be beneficial. But using public transit or carpooling when possible to save money on gas, refinancing your car loan, if it's a super high interest rate. Shopping around for insurance, insurance, especially for new cars, is so expensive. And then ultimately keeping your car.
- [10:03]
Guest Speaker
Stay with it. Do not trade it in. I know you're getting all those mailers telling you how much your car's worth for the trade in. Don't do it. Keep your car. Here's another person convincing us to keep our car.
- [10:16]
Reality TV Star
I'm 33 years old and I still drive my college car from 2012. I got on Big Brother in this car. I got on the Challenge with this car. I did the Dating show. I've done five, five TV shows owning this car, and it's been such a reliable car. I've had her since 2012 when I was in college. I'm now 33, about to turn 34. You might ask, why did you never get a nicer car or upgrade? This car has ran so smoothly for so many years. I never thought to get one. I don't have car payments. I put all the money in my savings. I live in a penthouse apartment by myself. I pay for everything on my own. I'm able to buy myself nice things and take myself on vacations because I don't have a 500 to $1,000 or more car payment a month. My insurance is very low on this car because it because it's such a safe car as well. So if you're ever feeling bad or sad that you don't have a nice car because other people on social media have nice cars, don't ever care.
- [11:11]
Guest Speaker
I love that rapper. Just don't care.
- [11:14]
Jen
I love this because she's like that. She's a reality TV star and still driving and also likes nice things. That's one of the big reasons people get these expensive cars or are getting cars every two to three years because they like nice things. When in reality you have to define what are the nice things that you like. Do you want the nice apartment or do you want the nice car? Do you want the nice clothes, do you want the nice trips or do you want the nice car? Like, there's nothing wrong with driving a nice car if that's truly what you want and you don't feel like you're missing out by not taking trips or not being able to buy a home or have a down payment for a home. It's a choice.
- [12:03]
Guest Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Recognize the opportunity cost of it though. And I mean, because we don't want to be missing out on investing for retirement. There are certain things we don't want to sacrifice because we're saying, oh, it's worth it for me for this nice car. We can trade off in other areas. But also making sure that we are doing some of the bare minimum for our finances is really important here.
- [12:24]
Jen
And if you find that you are in one of these high car payment cars is figuring out how to get out of it. And maybe we're using the first part of the money we save to get out of the car to put ourselves in a better financial position moving forward. Sometimes you do have to sink and we have this sunk cost fallacy that we are. You already put so much money into the car that we have to keep it and you save the $10,000. All the while you're living with, you know, seven to $1,000 car loan because you're underwater when it could be worth it. Save up some money really fast, get out of the expensive car loan, get out of being underwater, get something that's more affordable, and then restart this $10,000 savings goal. And you can do it so much faster this time because you got yourself out of the really toxic financial situation.
- [13:26]
Guest Speaker
And then of course, housing is the final of the big three. And if this is flexible, if you do have some flexibility with this, considering renting out a room in your own home. So if you, if you are an owner, then considering what space do I have that I could rent out, whether as a short or midterm rental or even just space for storage, or if you wanted to consider something like a peer space or an airbnb that can be really helpful. Or if you have the flexibility to bop around. If you're just renting, consider moving in with a family or having a roommate for a short amount of time and hacking wherever possible. So not just how can I decrease this expense? And. But are there ways that I can make money off of this expense?
- [14:10]
Jen
Whatever your situation is, yeah, we've both done this. Jill does Peerspace. I do Airbnb, and I've done Airbnb since, like, before we had kids, we rented out a room in our house. Trust me, the people who rent rooms on Airbnb in other people's houses don't plan to be there or are European and are very cool to hang out with.
- [14:32]
Guest Speaker
Those are all Europeans are cool. You want it here?
- [14:34]
Jen
Those are the only two options that we found. So, like, we did that, and then once we started having kids, we stopped doing that, and that's when we saved for the rental property. And now we own a home that the only home that we could get was five bedrooms. And so we portioned off a part in the back to be exclusively short and midterm rentals, mostly booked through Airbnb. And so that pays for a significant portion of our mortgage and allows our mortgage to be affordable for us.
- [15:14]
Guest Speaker
It's a next level commitment.
- [15:15]
Jen
But there are possibilities, and for us, so it's not. So this is a habit and a lifestyle that we've cultivated not necessarily to save money fast, because we already did that. Now, this lifestyle that we've already, like, built up and just worked into our lives now it gives us time, freedom, and flexibility. So, like, I work probably 20 hours a week, if that. So. Because, you know, I'm not hungry for. I'm not desperate for money because I have this financial flexibility.
- [15:54]
Guest Speaker
I'm going to remember you said that. I'm not desperate for money. I'm remembering that. Do you all have it? You heard it.
- [16:00]
Jen
I might be thirsty, though. I am thirsty.
- [16:04]
Guest Speaker
Okay, so the third step in this Strategy to save $10,000 that Fast is to find the leaks in your spending. And you might think I make less than $100,000. There are no leaks. I've cut everything. There's leaks. There's leaks, baby. I probably got to be leaks. I mean, unless you're like, one of the extreme people finding our videos. But. But. And not every leak is going to be worth plugging. Sometimes it's okay to have, you know, a little bit of water seeping, and.
- [16:33]
Jen
Maybe it's just worth plugging for a little while, and then you Realize you don't need to. You don't need it at all.
- [16:39]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. But here's, here's another little clip from the Internet we have to share about this concept.
- [16:45]
Shopaholic
I'm a recovering shopaholic, and I used to think that I could only afford to buy fast fashion, particularly when I was in my 20s and I wasn't earning that much money. But when I actually crunched the numbers, I realized I was spending as much on fast fashion as I spent this year on just six items of clothing. And I have nothing left to show for how much money I spent over the years. So if we crunch the numbers, let's say that I used to buy one to two items of clothing a month. Even at my lowest income, I was always buying at least one item of clothing a month, if not two. Probably was buying more than two items of clothing a month. But let's, let's keep it easy and save 20 items a year. I would buy like a $50 top from Zara or like $1 pair of pants from Cotton On. Let's just say like 20 items of clothing that were on average $50, that's $1,000 a year. This year I spent nearly $1,100 on six items of clothing. Stuff that was really good quality from sustainable suppliers. I was able to just spend more than I normally would have spent on something that I wanted to keep for years and years to come. I used to spend the same amount, probably more every single year on cheap clothing. And then every single year I would have to go out and replace it again.
- [17:49]
Jen
Yeah, it's crazy. We think, and when we make less money, we think we have less money, so we buy less expensive things, but we buy more of them. And it comes down to marketers prey on our insecurities and being at a financially like sub median place makes us insecure. And so we kind of, we run around looking for these dopamine hits to make us feel better because we're insecure and we feel guilty. And this is the kind of stuff it ends up being. It's these small leaks that just add up over time.
- [18:36]
Guest Speaker
For me too. I mean, especially when I was in debt payoff and wasn't making a lot of money. Like when, when my debt was more than I made in a year, I still part of it was, this is something that is somewhat attainable and affordable, even in my very pinched kind of state. So even then, when it felt like I was trying to put as much towards debt as possible, I was still going to yard sales and thrift stores and collecting more than I needed. And that's not to say we deprive ourselves entirely. We do still encourage people to take a vacation, spend, celebrate, do different things. Even in the midst of debt payoff.
- [19:15]
Jen
Has to be sustainable.
- [19:17]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. Otherwise it's going to absolutely wipe you out. But I know that, I know there were still things that were not necessary. It was more so. Yeah. That that dopamine hit or trying to feel an insecurity than it was actually meeting a value or a need for me. I just didn't have the tools at the time to know how to actually spend all of my different resources. I also think what I see a lot here is people assuming that subscriptions are like fixed expenses, like it's their bills and that we've really got to take a look at. And that can happen when we do a 90 day transaction inventory. So that's one of the steps that we can do to identify where are the leaks in our spending. We talk about how to do a 90 day transaction inventory in our book. Buy what you love without going broke. Buy what you love book.com linked in the YouTube video description. Thank you. Thanks so much. And so we give a whole rundown and then there's a free resources page connected with the book to walk you through doing a 90 day transaction inventory. And that's where we will find what are the subscriptions that I'm paying for that I may not even realize? And then we can question those. Do I have to be getting waxed every single month? Do I have to be getting the pedicure? Do I have to be getting my lashes done? Do I have to get this type of hair done? Do I need it to be dyed? Do I gotta be doing the eyebrows like we talked about the hot girl hamster wheel with Katie Gotti Tassen in a previous video. Definitely check that one out. It was very fun that these are also where some of these expenses happen. That what if I didn't do that and I took on some, what confidence in just how I am without doing all the other stuff to myself and then was able to put that money aside. What could that buy my future self?
- [21:08]
Jen
Yeah, for me it wasn't so much the like physical or personal like things. It was stuff in the grocery store. So when I first started doing this, I was going to the grocery store that I'd always gone to growing up because it's the only thing I knew. And Aldi had just come into town and I just assumed it was of poor quality because it was less Expensive and I wouldn't even go to try it. And Travis had to convince me to just try it because there was another less expensive grocery store in town and it truly was lesser quality. So I just assumed they all were. And then furthermore realizing when I started shopping online like on the Walmart app, that I minimized my impulse spending by not being in the grocery store. And so it just like it wasn't all in one go. Right. So like I initially identified a leak and then I fixed it and then new technology came along or something that wasn't affordable became affordable and I was able to find plug additional leaks. So even if you feel like you've done this before, like maybe you've done a 90 day transaction inventory, you've decluttered some of the excess spending, it's good to go through one of these every year at least to see if there's anything that maybe has come up new or that new technology or something new or has split, you know, come or changed that you can now plug a leak that wasn't pluggable before.
- [22:52]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. And step four, increase your income.
- [22:56]
Jen
My so when I was paying off debt, my favorite thing to say was the best way to save money is to spend time making it. That was my little phrase because I did so many side hustles. It truly was the way we were able to pay off our debt so fast. And we didn't have kids, we didn't have pets, we barely had friends. I'm just kidding. We had friends. But it truly was the integral key part of doing it fast. And you can. It's not like you need to go out and get a part time job or build a business to make money. There are so many ways to really get in there and start making money pretty instantly. They're not going to be high pay per hour. But again, saving $10,000 fast, it has an end point, right? You set your end point. So you only have to be doing this for a certain amount of time or to win a higher price or payment per hour. Opportunity comes along, but we don't wait for that opportunity. We get in what we can, when we can so that we speed this process up.
- [24:14]
Guest Speaker
I'm pretty thirsty, borderline hungry for money. So side hustles have kind of been my whole personality.
- [24:22]
Jen
I should have not said that.
- [24:24]
Guest Speaker
No, I love it.
- [24:26]
Jen
I'm not desperate, but I am parched.
- [24:30]
Guest Speaker
So a couple of ideas for earning some extra income. And none of this is something that we have to do for forever. This goal of saving $10,000 will eventually be reached and we can move on to other goals and adjust our behaviors and habits and the things that we're doing. So when we talk about side hustles, we don't think you always have to have one, although I always have had one. But they've become more sustainable over time, as I've learned. Like what. What do I really enjoy doing? But here's some ones that can really pack a punch. Delivering food or groceries. Love this one. Especially for women, because no one's getting in your car except for food, so you're just dropping stuff off. And you could make 300 to $600 a month just part time. I mean, especially if you live in more of a city, this is a great opportunity.
- [25:22]
Jen
Especially if you live in a city where there's not a lot of high rises and you're not going up, waiting at elevators or going up flights of stairs.
- [25:30]
Guest Speaker
That's true.
- [25:31]
Jen
There's a sweet spot to this.
- [25:32]
Guest Speaker
True freelancing. So from writing to being a virtual assistant, to tutoring, whatever's in your wheelhouse, what are you expert at? What can you do on the side to make your own little bit of money? That could be anywhere from 500 to $2,000 a month, depending on your expertise.
- [25:50]
Jen
This is freelancing is such a sweet gig.
- [25:53]
Guest Speaker
Untapped. I mean, it is tapped. There's plenty of room for you.
- [25:56]
Jen
Yeah.
- [25:57]
Guest Speaker
Selling your unused stuff. So utilizing Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark offerup, going through. I mean, practically every six months I've got new things to be selling and that's just everything that can be on in the background. List it all have to take a ton of time.
- [26:14]
Jen
You don't need it, your kids don't need it. List it. If it doesn't sell, they still get to play with it and you still get to use it.
- [26:22]
Guest Speaker
The best to way way to be saving money is to spend your time making it.
- [26:25]
Jen
Your time making it.
- [26:26]
Reality TV Star
Yeah.
- [26:27]
Guest Speaker
Also make your tax refunds or your work bonuses work for you rather than viewing it as extra money to blow. Taking those opportunities to put towards these predetermined goals that you've been setting.
- [26:40]
Jen
I have quite a few things that I've been meaning to post to Facebook Marketplace. And because there are things I want to buy on Facebook Marketplace and I'm like, I actually don't want to take out the cash to buy them. I would like to sell some things and acquire cash and space and then buy the things.
- [26:59]
Guest Speaker
What do you think is your biggest ticket item that you have to sell?
- [27:02]
Jen
Probably the crib. Yeah. The Crib that was used for less than two years. Yeah. But it's even. That's not like super high ticket. But it's still. That's a lot of space.
- [27:16]
Guest Speaker
Yeah.
- [27:17]
Jen
That we need. But then I want to spend that exact amount of money probably on a climbing gym, an indoor climbing gym. I know.
- [27:25]
Guest Speaker
You gave me so much trash when we bought our little punch ticket for the climbing gym. Oh man, I'm.
- [27:32]
Jen
Oh yeah. I give you trash because you're not a 2 year old with a climbing problem.
- [27:37]
Guest Speaker
Oh yeah.
- [27:38]
Jen
Here are some of our favorite channels that review side Hustles. Side Hustle Nation. Nick Loper is a good friend and he has been reviewing side Hustles for longer than we have been doing the show, like easily 10 years. Yeah, he's seen it all. Tim Richard on YouTube. Frozen Pennies on YouTube. She's a really good one. If you're a woman who's like 50 plus and wants some insight into side hustles from that like generation, that's a wrong way to say it. But from that perspective, that's who she targets. So those are some good ones we will link to. And then step five, you need to automate and isolate your savings. So we're doing all this work to set our deadline, get our big fish, get our leaks, increase our income. We do not want to spend, spend or quote, unquote, lose all the money that we are saving from all this hard work. And that comes from automation and isolation. So the isolation part is opening a separate high yield savings account just for this one goal. If it is separate from your emergency fund, then even a separate high yield savings account from your emergency fund, which link to our favorite in the description. But right now it's CIT and getting that automated like automatically put in there if you have a like a weekly goal. So if you want to save $10,000 in 12 months, then that's 834 per month. So if you want to set up an automatic $834 a month to that account, you can do something like that. If you want to do it in six months, that's $1,667 per month. So setting up something automatic or as soon as like you can link your side hustle to directly deposit automatically deposit to that account. Right. So it. So your side hustle money never even touches your regular spending and checking or saving and checking.
- [29:57]
Guest Speaker
There is going to be math involved here. You've got to figure out what is a reasonable amount. You could say, yeah, I want to do this goal in 12 months. But if you don't actually have an excess of this amount, you've not created the margin for this and then that's not going to work. So that's where all those other steps come in. Figure out what's going to be reasonable, but might stretch you a little bit, might cause you to kind of make some of the sacrifices that are necessary and get creative. But it is so important to then actually do the thing and almost tie your hands on it. So it's not, not a decision you're making all of the time, but it's just automated in the background.
- [30:34]
Jen
And this might be the hardest one. Like we, we tend to think like plugging the leaks or like downgrading your car or your apartment or whatever is difficult. Those things are not actually the most difficult. It's once you get a bit of money, but you're not all the way there and it's very hard and you don't want to go all the way there and something comes up that is just the amount of money you've already saved. What do you do? You gonna buy it or are you going to stick to your deadline and your goal, your why, your purpose, your value, your goal for why you are saving this quote, unquote, $10,000? Again, it's an arbitrary amount, but this big amount of money you want to save, there has to be something very meaningful tied to it that is more important than the vacation with your friends that just happens to pop up in the middle of saving for this.
- [31:34]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. There's a helpful encouragement on this very topic from Anna Brading that we want to share with you.
- [31:41]
Anna Brading
These are three tips for somebody who wants to save a lot of money this year fast, even if you've got zero savings right now. For context, I'm Anna. I'm a certified financial education instructor. But I'm also somebody who used to be stuck in paycheck to paycheck with little savings at all. And I turned that around very quickly when I learned this stuff myself. Implemented in our family finances, we grew an emergency fund, a big one, in just over a year. So I had different streams of income. Now I help thousands of people every single week. And I want to help you get started too. So here are three things you need to know. First, one is, when it comes to saving money, don't be vague about what you're aiming for or how much you're going to be saving each month. Money isn't just numbers and maths. It's actually your mindset and your emotions. As well. So if you can put those two things together when it comes to saving money, you're onto a winner. So when you keep it vague and you don't really know how much you're saving when it comes to saving, you're then going, oh, maybe I won't actually, is it going to make much of a difference if I put that 50 quid, 100 quid somewhere else? On the other hand, if you know exactly what you're saving for, you know why you're saving for and how much you need to be saving each month, your emotions have less of a chance to decrease, derail you and actually more of a chance to engage in the why and get you going and keep you on track. Second one, and this was a massive game changer for me, is getting super creative about how you can create income. A lot of people I grew up thinking, well, you know, you have one way of making income, you just go get a job. When you learn to think more entrepreneurially about creating income, that's where things really start to open up. Because savings then aren't just about how much you can scrimp and save and put aside, it's about how much more you can earn and put that money aside so you don't actually feel it so much. Last but definitely not least, and this might actually sound counterintuitive, but I would say don't push yourself too hard. If you're trying to save a lot of money, it's going to be a long game. You're not going to get there in two months. The mistake that I've made in the past and the mistake that I see a lot of people making is they have this kind of wake up moment. They're like, right, I need to save. And then what they do is just save as much as they possibly can. But the problem is it's just not sustainable. So after six weeks of beans on toast, you get to the point where you're like, I just can't be bothered with this, I'm going to give up. So you can ask yourself the question, how can I still enjoy my life, keep this sustainable, but save as much as I can?
- [33:21]
Guest Speaker
I don't know what beans on toast.
- [33:23]
Jen
Is, but it's a British thing. Sure.
- [33:26]
Guest Speaker
Is it like, don't they call peas beans?
- [33:29]
Jen
No. Nope. If you're British, let us know. But I think the point is that what Anna's saying about, obviously not being vague, but truly knowing your why, I loved what she said about that. But also her last point, not to push Yourself too hard. I see this and I'm embedded in a lot of, like, health and wellness videos in my social media algorithm. And I see so much it parallels with people trying to lose weight and people try to do it very fast and then they mess up for a day and it derails the whole thing. Like, I can't be perfect, so I can't do it, obviously. And that's kind of gonna be the same experience for this saving money. Like, you're going to go through these steps and then you're gonna have an off day where you impulse buy something or you just don't want to do the side hustle or, you know, you have an unexpected bill come up and you can't make the full transfer to the savings, you don't meet your goal, those things will come up and they do not negate the progress that you've already made, and they do not indicate that you will not be able to make your goal. Overall, we are so obsessed with being perfect. And that's because marketing insinuates that we can be perfect or more perfect if we purchase their product or if we, you know, by their service or whatever, when it is in reality all a lie. We will never be perfect. We just have to be. We have to do stuff as simple as possible because we are simple living organisms. We seem complex, but we are actually. We thrive on simplicity.
- [35:34]
Guest Speaker
Do you know what else is super simple? And I do thrive on it.
- [35:40]
Reality TV Star
The bill of the week.
- [35:52]
Jill
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 pay that bill anymore. Duck Bills, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the Week.
- [36:12]
Dana
Hi, Jen and Jill. My name is Dana and my bill of the week was a €1200 compensation from an airline company thanks to a canceled flight back in January. This law is called EU261, and basically it protects consumers. If you have a flight within to or from Europe and it is significantly delayed or cancelled, you as the consumer have the right to claim EU261 and receive additional compensation. And the compensation amount depends on the distance of the flight as well as how long it was delayed or if it was canceled. My husband and I were flying from the US to Europe, so we each received €600 in compensation, making €1,200 total, which was more than the price of the flight itself. Because we paid with points, we were able to take this windfall and put it towards our upcoming summer vacation, which was super exciting. I recommend to any listener who has had a significantly delayed or canceled flight to, from or within Europe within the last couple of years to definitely look into EU261 and put in your claim to receive your rightful compensation.
- [37:30]
Jen
Thanks.
- [37:31]
Dana
Love your show.
- [37:31]
Jen
Bye, Dana, I hope that you made some money for our listeners.
- [37:37]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. That's so exciting. That is a European Union policy. So this would probably be for flights taken in Europe, but we do have. Yeah.
- [37:51]
Jen
Within or to Europe.
- [37:54]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. But we do have a similar law. I don't know what it's called. I didn't have an opportunity to look that up real quick because we listen to these bills all week on the fly. But same thing in the United States that you are entitled to compensation if.
- [38:07]
Jen
The flight is canceled and if you have a credit card that a lot of them have canceled or delayed flight insurance. So if you, if your card does have that, making sure you book all of your flights on that particular card will keep you doubly safe.
- [38:25]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. Well done, Dana. I hope you still made it to where you were hoping to go. That's a great amount of compensation. But I, I hope, I hope it all worked out. I mean, you were calling us, so clearly you weren't too, too stressed.
- [38:39]
Jen
Clearly you made it wherever you needed to go.
- [38:42]
Guest Speaker
You at least had cell service. If you all listening, have a bill that you want to share. If it has to do with some so of policy that another nation or our nation might have, or if your name is Bill, if you are a lawmaker and you just want to tell us about, tell us about your bill, what it's like. We'd love to hear it. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill or hit the link in the description if you're watching this on YouTube. And now it's time for the lightning round.
- [39:13]
Jen
All right, what's one convenience you would say skip, if you needed to save $10,000 really fast?
- [39:20]
Guest Speaker
100% eating out. I spend so much money on food, and eating out just costs a lot. It's the difference between, you know, for two people. An inexpensive dinner is 50 bucks for two people. Whereas I know I can feed two people for five to $10 at home for every meal. That would just, we would, we'd be slicing a dicing in the kitchen because we're not eating out.
- [39:49]
Jen
Yeah, we don't eat out much, but we did eat out over the weekend when we stayed at a hotel.
- [39:55]
Guest Speaker
You sure did.
- [39:56]
Jen
And can I Tell you, I bought chocolate cake both nights.
- [40:02]
Guest Speaker
What? That's unexpected behavior.
- [40:06]
Jen
But I did bring all of my own food for breakfast and lunch and even my day cocktails and so at night it was kind of like a free for all in my mind and boy did I go free. So. But I also brought dinner for the kids too. I'm like really leaving out a lot of details. Like I had a free for all this weekend. Really it was just a couple meals and then ice cream for.
- [40:34]
Guest Speaker
I would still buy convenience. I would still like, like this isn't a life I'm currently living. I am trying to be prudent with my money. I am still frugal. But that is becoming really important to me is if I'm going to be eating at home more, making sure that it's workable and it's sustainable. And so that still means buying some of the pre prepared stuff, a lot of frozen stuff that's easily reheatable. So that that is still going to remain a line item in the grocery budget. What about for you?
- [41:10]
Jen
If I needed to save $10,000 very fast and I was in a big pinch, I would cut out daycare.
- [41:20]
Guest Speaker
But what would you do with your child?
- [41:23]
Jen
I would have to watch him. But that's again the thing about like I have that flexibility and it would be very difficult. But in a pinch now he's at the age where I only have one year left of daycare. So I can say that and be like, okay, I could. It would be very hard. And dropping him off at daycare is the best part of my day. Picking him up is the second best part.
- [41:52]
Guest Speaker
But few.
- [41:53]
Jen
Yeah, right. So. But yeah, that would, I would be able to save 10,000 very, very fast if I got rid of that.
- [42:03]
Guest Speaker
Speaking of things that cost a lot of money, medical bills are another one and that could be a huge way to save. Yeah, we have a video on that. How to save money on medical bills. It's like a must watch.
- [42:13]
Jen
Or if you need to save money fast because of a medical bill, do not miss that video. It is one of the best that I think we've ever done. It's. They are so expensive and it can. The information in that episode can truly change your life step by step. Not exaggerating. So thank you so much for being with us today. We love reading your comments, your reviews, whether they are on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on Amazon for our book or buy what you love without going broke. This one in particular is about the book from Bailey Marie. Five stars. The Good advice continues. I've been listening to the podcast for two years and I was looking forward to the book. I have enjoyed reading it and like the explanations, like what the radical middle is. Though I don't understand all the references since I am much older, I still think this book has much value for each generation. Bailey, I'm so glad you said much older and not much younger and that.
- [43:15]
Guest Speaker
I mean, it is good for all ages to me. Yeah, we do have some very millennial references.
- [43:22]
Jen
Millennial and Gen X will truly enjoy references.
- [43:28]
Guest Speaker
Yeah. Well, thank you all so much for listening and watching. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Like comment, Read our book, leave us a review. We'll read it if it's good. If we like it, we'll send it.
- [43:41]
Jen
We'll read the review if it's bad. But it's not a very good review. We might still read it, you never know.
- [43:47]
Guest Speaker
See you next time.
- [43:50]
Jen
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
- [44:03]
Guest Speaker
Oh, I was looking at peas. What do you. What. What are peas to British people? I know it's something different. I've got green peas. What am I thinking are peas?
- [44:21]
Jen
Yeah. I'm not British, but I'm pretty sure.
- [44:23]
Guest Speaker
In London they said, like, it comes with peas. And then it came out and we were like, that's not peas in the way that I understand peas.
- [44:34]
Jen
Beans on toast is a popular and iconic dish in the uk and it's just like, literally. Pine beans. Yeah. Baked beans on toast.
- [44:46]
Guest Speaker
No way. Is that like British people's hot dog.
- [44:51]
Jen
Ooh, I do not know.
- [44:53]
Guest Speaker
Like, you know how it is often.
- [44:54]
Jen
Enjoyed as a simple, affordable and comforting meal, quick and easy to prepare, requiring just two main ingredients, baked beans and toast.
- [45:05]
Guest Speaker
I gotta try this.
- [45:06]
Jen
Don't.
- [45:06]
Guest Speaker
Here I go.
- [45:07]
Jen
I hope you don't.
- [45:08]
Guest Speaker
I'm about to try it.