How to Save Money on Lululemon (& More Fashion Brands!)

Summary

Frugal Friends Podcast: How to Save Money on Lululemon (& More Fashion Brands!)

Hosts: Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Platform: iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction to the Episode

In this engaging episode of the Frugal Friends Podcast, hosts Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni delve into practical strategies for purchasing high-quality fashion items, particularly focusing on Lululemon and other premium brands, without breaking the bank. Responding to listener feedback from their 2025 mega survey, Jen and Jill aim to provide a comprehensive guide for frugal individuals seeking to enhance their wardrobes sustainably and economically.

The Four-Step Process for Buying High-Quality Clothes Secondhand

Jen introduces a four-step process designed to help listeners acquire high-quality clothing items secondhand:

1. Research What the Best Quality Actually Is
2. Research the Best Items for You
3. Determine Your Sizes
4. Find Them Secondhand

1. Research What the Best Quality Actually Is

Jen shares her initial challenge of identifying truly high-quality athletic wear. She initially considered Lululemon but was uncertain about its current quality status. To address this, she leveraged ChatGPT with a tailored prompt:

• Jen (08:57): "What are the best quality athletic or workout clothing for someone who runs and strength trains weekly?"

After refining her search to focus on a curvy female body type, ChatGPT recommended brands like Lululemon, Aloe Vore, and Born Primitive. Jen chose to focus on Lululemon and Born Primitive based on further research, including customer reviews and Reddit discussions.

2. Research the Best Items for You

Jill emphasizes the importance of understanding personal preferences and specific needs when selecting items:

• Jill (27:02): "You can find more vintage styles you're not going to find everywhere. Like one of a kind type of pieces."

Jen elaborates on her exploration of Lululemon's extensive range, noting the overwhelm that can come from numerous options:

• Jen (11:47): "There are a lot of different options at every store, and they're all four different things."

To mitigate this, Jen sought in-person assistance, appreciating the knowledgeable staff at Lululemon's Hyde Park Village location.

3. Determine Your Sizes

Understanding and accurately determining your sizes is crucial when shopping secondhand, especially online. Jen highlights her experience of finding discrepancies between sizes in different clothing items:

• Jen (16:42): "There were some things where I needed a 12, there were some things I needed a 10. I really thought I was gonna be an 8 up top because I'm so small. But really I was a 10."

Jill concurs on the frustration of online sizing:

• Jill (22:37): "The most annoying part of shopping to me is figuring out sizing and especially online shopping."

They discuss practical solutions, such as bringing a tape measure to stores and taking detailed photos of size tags and descriptors to ensure accurate online purchases.

4. Find Them Secondhand

Jen outlines various platforms and tools she utilized to locate secondhand items at affordable prices:

• Jen (27:02): "Instead of going straight to Poshmark or eBay, I went to Google and I put in what I wanted and then I went to Google Shopping."

She explains the use of the Benny Chrome extension, which scans up to 40 secondhand sites to find desired items:

• Jill (28:18): "You can download it for your browser and it will pop up if anything that you are searching is available on any of these secondhand sites."

Despite some technical hiccups with Benny, Jen successfully navigated platforms like Poshmark, eBay, and Mercari, establishing her own price gauge based on clearance prices to ensure she was getting a fair deal.

Tips and Tools for Successful Secondhand Shopping

Spending Planner & Opportunity Cost Calculator:

Jen and Jill discuss the importance of using tools to manage finances effectively:

• Jen (03:52): "It allows you to track your spending, see your finances at a glance, chart your debt payoff, and it even has a super cool, really nifty, always helpful opportunity cost calculator."

Strategies for Negotiation:

Jen shares her strategy for negotiating prices on secondhand platforms:

• Jen (32:03): "When you go to these sites, do not add to cart. Always heart it or like it because sellers will typically have an auto offer turned on."

By leveraging auto offers and making counteroffers, Jen successfully reduced prices on desired items.

Price Anchoring:

Both hosts touch on the psychological aspect of pricing:

• Jill (24:05): "Anchoring bias... The first price we see is usually what we anchor our thinking about what something should cost."

They advise setting a personal price range based on retail and clearance prices to avoid overpaying.

Listener Interaction: Bill of the Week

The episode features a heartwarming "Bill of the Week" from Kayla:

• Kayla (38:26): "My bill of the week is that on September 18, 2024, I pre-ordered something that finally got delivered to me today. Just a little book called 'Buy What You Love Without Going Broke'."

Jen and Jill express their gratitude for listener support and encourage others to leave their own "Bills of the Week."

Lightning Round: Favorite Fashion Items to Thrift

In the fun and rapid-fire Lightning Round segment, Jen and Jill share their favorite items to thrift:

• Jen: "Jeans because they're so dang expensive."
• Jill: "Quality jewelry... unique, secondhand pieces."

Conclusion and Final Tips

Jen wraps up the episode by encouraging listeners to invest time in researching and planning their secondhand purchases:

• Jen (49:07): "I hope this has inspired you to do the little bit of legwork that you need to do up front in order to acquire really good quality things online secondhand."

Jill adds:

• Jill (50:24): "For your higher ticket items, do this."

They emphasize that while the process may require effort, the long-term benefits of saving money and acquiring quality items are well worth it.

Final Thoughts

The episode provides a thorough and actionable guide for listeners aiming to shop smartly for high-quality fashion items secondhand. Through personal anecdotes, expert tips, and strategic use of technology, Jen and Jill empower their audience to make informed, frugal choices without compromising on quality or style.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jen (03:51): "It's simple but robust and it allows you to do so many things like track your spending, see your finances at a glance..."
• Jill (24:02): "With the budget planner, the spending planner."
• Jen (35:07): "So I am looking forward to getting them and reporting back at a later date."
• Jill (36:27): "Because we're being patient waiting for that deal to come up, and we want to know when we can pounce."

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Resources Mentioned:

• Benny Chrome Extension: Helps find secondhand listings across multiple platforms.
• Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, Thredup: Platforms for purchasing secondhand clothing.
• Spending Planner & Opportunity Cost Calculator: Tools for managing and evaluating financial decisions.

Connect with Frugal Friends Podcast:

• Website: frugalfriendspodcast.com
• Social Media: Available on major platforms to join the frugal community and stay updated on future episodes.

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By following the comprehensive strategies outlined in this episode, listeners can confidently navigate the secondhand market, securing high-quality fashion items while maintaining a frugal and sustainable lifestyle.

Transcript

[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

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Education and future today with a risk free [e-mail] iheart greenlight.com iheart how to save money on Lululemon and other high quality fashion brands welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace Simplicity and live a richer life.

[Jill]

Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.

[Jen]

Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen.

[Jill]

My name is Jill.

[Jen]

And today is a case study on how to buy very high quality items for as little as possible. That was something in our 2025 mega survey that you said that you wanted to know more about to talk more about. So today is a deep dive into my experience trying to do just that.

[Jill]

Jen went on a field trip yesterday. I stayed at the office and kept working. And now I'm gonna ask her about her field trip and we're all gonna learn together. But first, this episode is brought to you by being on your phone. Usually we know it's to scroll social media or probably make some impulse purchases, but what if you could be on your phone to doing something productive and what if that thing was actually helpful for your finances? Sound could sound too good to be true. It's not.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Cause we've got a mobile optimized spending planner spreadsheet. It's simple but robust and it allows you to do so many things like track your spending, see your finances at a glance, chart your debt payoff, and it even has super cool, really nifty, always helpful opportunity cost calculator so you can see what that money could have done if you put it someplace else or how much, how many times you'll have to use an item to get your money's worth. So now when you're on your phone, you can feel really good about it because you're just scrolling through this beautiful mobile optimized spending planner. Get [e-mail] planner. We're really proud of it.

[Jen]

Yeah, that opportunity cost calculator. Everybody tells you to calculate the opportunity cost or the cost per use. And how do you do that? Now you just log into your spending planner, head to that sheet and in real time, whether you're on your phone or in a store, you can determine whether something is worth it to buy based on actual math.

[Jill]

I love it so much.

[Jen]

I am obsessed.

[Jill]

It'll make us better spenders.

[Jen]

Yes. All right, so I wanted to purchase more high quality workout clothes and I thought it would be good to take you guys along with me, I guess post cause I didn't take any video of it. But to walk you through the process of what it is truly like to be buying high quality clothes secondhand because that's a huge barrier to entry to buying secondhand online because you don't know what's going to fit you don't Know how it's going to feel. You might be skeptical of where you're buying it. So that's what we're doing today.

[Jill]

Yeah. A lot of times when people think about buying secondhand clothing, it's going to the thrift store. Just digging through and finding something that fits you. We don't often think about how could I actually get the brands, styles, fits, sizes that eye colors that I really like. Well, okay, it works to go to the thrift store for some things, but for other things, I'm going to have to go straight to the source and pay full price. But today we're shaking up that idea.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

And so what were the two brands for you that you wanted to check out?

[Jen]

Yeah, so it started with workout clothes because my. I wear Athleisure pretty exclusively unless we're recording a video. And my workout pants are kind of like disintegrating because I wear them so often and I work out in them. It's not just like daily wear. It's also running and strength training. So I wanted to buy higher quality athletic wear. And that's where this started. And then it kind of evolved from there because I wanted to create another example to show you guys. So it evolved into jeans as well. Jeans are very difficult for me. They're very expensive. I am like a curvy girl. I got a, you know, fat, I don't know, fat hips, small waist. You know what they sing about in those rap songs?

[Jill]

It's all for you, baby girl.

[Jen]

Yeah, I am who they're singing about. So it's difficult for me. So I found myself searching for specific items and that's how we came. I came up with this four step process to buying high quality, at least clothes. But we'll talk about at the end, it can transition to other high quality items. High quality clothes at an affordable price.

[Jill]

Okay, so let's talk about step one.

[Jen]

So step one was researching what the best quality actually is. I had an idea that for workout clothes it would be Lululemon, but I didn't know if that was brand or quality because there are brands that are synonymous with quality, but whose quality has declined over the years. So that was what I really wanted to figure out first. So I wanted the longest lasting for running and strength training. So for me, that's the leggings. They're bras too. But I can wear a bra much longer than I can wear a pair of leggings. Shirts are whatever. I don't need like really cute workout shirts. They're a nice to have and So I used ChatGPT, and at first it gave me suggestions for men. And so then I had to, like, reiterate that it's for a curvy woman. I wanted to reiterate my body type, too, because that makes a difference. I can't wear. I can't run in shorts because I got thick thighs and they chafe and I would have to put, you know, chafing stuff on. I'm not gonna do that.

[Jill]

What was the prompt that you gave ChatGPT?

[Jen]

Then finally, what are the best quality athletic or workout clothing for someone who runs and strength trains weekly? And that's when it started giving me back some brands and across male and female. I said specifically for a curvy woman. And that's when it came back that it gave a few of the standard that I had seen before. The Lululemon, Aloe Vore, and Born Primitive were kind of the standard ones. And so after reading through the response, I decided for me, Lululemon and Born Primitive were probably the ones that would be best for me. And since Born Primitive doesn't have any stores and I wanted to go try things on at a store because I wanted to be super sure of what I was getting. If I'm getting it secondhand, they don't have a return policy, right? So if I'm buying it, I need to be sure I'm gonna like it. That's a big barrier to entry for a lot of people. So that is what I did. I choose. I chose Lululemon for this experiment because of that and for my jeans. I hadn't yet decided to go look at jeans, but while I was at the Lululemon store, I just popped into madewell because I already had jeans that I like. So this will be an explanation of the experience from two different starting points. One based on a lot of research, like Reddit threads, not just ChatGPT, but I. I also asked ChatGPT how it got to its conclusion. That was another thing I recently learned. And what it did, it had filtered Reddit forums, articles from magazines that rate the different workout gear and customer ratings from the website. So it took into account all of those things. I asked it to also weigh Reddit responses heavier than the other responses. And so that's how I got to Lululemon in Born Primitive. So that was really important. You can always ask the model how it got to its conclusion. And then madewell, I started with no research.

[Jill]

Okay, so you went to these places because you could go in person and. And be able to try on their things. And then step two, you say, is to research what the best items are for you. How did that go?

[Jen]

So, yeah, there are a lot of different options at every store, and they're all four different things. So with Lululemon, I'd heard a lot about the Align legging. That is their most famous legging, and so I assumed that maybe that would be right for me. Then I get to the website and I see they have like six. Six different types of leggings, and they all come in different lengths and different features, which is a. Which is a sign of a really quality, like, retailer. I think that they have these customizations. I won't say always, but I don't find that level of customization at Old Navy, so. So it was important. First I looked at kind of Reddit threads to see what the differences were there, and I just kind of got overwhelmed. That was another reason I wanted to go to the store, because there is just. There's no substitute for talking to a person who knows what they're talking about and can also see your body and ask you questions about your goals.

[Jill]

That's the thing I would be super overwhelmed to try and figure out, okay, what is gonna be best for. So I think that's another good reason for going in person and being able to talk to somebody. Like, what does all this mean and what does it mean for me?

[Jen]

Yeah. So I had to decide what I wanted and how I wanted it. And Kim. Shout out to Kim at Lululemon in Hyde Park Village was fantastic. So there. There was. There's two Lululemons in Tampa. There's one at the International Mall, and there's one at Hyde Park. Hyde park is like, I was trying to think of this yesterday when I was there. It's like the Upper east side of Manhattan, of Tampa. Hyde park borders Davis Islands, and that's where all of the professional athletes and very wealthy people in Tampa live.

[Jill]

Yeah. A bougie or store.

[Jen]

So I went there because I thought I would get better customer service. I just thought that's what they expect there. And I. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I did get excellent attention at that Lululemon store.

[Jill]

So I talked, despite not spending any money there. Spoiler alert.

[Jen]

Well, they. And they were totally fine. Like, they weren't trying to push me for a sale. They were absolutely fine with me not spending money because I am sure they get enough women going in there who are spending lots of money. They're not desperate. So she. So Kim took me around I said what I wanted, and she told me how the store is laid out, how things are ordered in a certain way, from like moisture wicking to kind of more athleisure yoga, less moisture wicking the bras, from like lightest coverage to fullest coverage. And she's like, you might be somewhere here if you're strength training and running. You might be here if you're running. We have leggings that don't have a seam on the inside. There's gonna be less friction. These are the ones. There is no pilling. Like, if you're. If you've got dumbbells that are like running against your pants, they're not gonna pill or snag the pants. So she was a wealth of knowledge to help me choose the, you know, the things that I wanted to try on.

[Jill]

Yeah. Versus for. For what you're doing. Where you might have been drawn to a type of pant that might be best for yoga. She was able. This is actually gonna be best for the type of exercising that you do, which is really cool.

[Jen]

Yeah. So we went through and I tried on some things that I really liked for madewell. I went in there only knowing that the ones, the pants that I liked were curvy, but I wanted to try some non curvy styles as well. Just to compare. The ones that I bought online were too big, and I love them, but they're too big. So I went in there and I just tried the things and was able to find like, the one pair of pants that they didn't have my size. The lady in there, I forget her name, she was able to find it for me. It was not on the floor. So that was another thing. I thought I was one size and I was like, you know what? Maybe just on the off chance, let me try this other size. And I couldn't find it. And she found it. And I'm so glad I did it because I was like, no, this is actually my size. This is the best fit for me. And I was a different size in pants than shorts.

[Jill]

Which is the reason for step three of get your sizes is getting. So there it is.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

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[Jen]

So after that, after I figured out the type of items and the type of items that were not best for me, like, I found this jacket, this half zip at Lulu. I think I can call it Lulu now because I've been there. I've been inside the store. It just felt so good. Like, I felt it fabric. Oh, I felt much longer than I should have. And another associate walked by. She's like, you find everything okay? I was like, huh? But I'm not gonna. I don't need that. That's not what I need in of highest quality. Right. It's the pants, so. And the sports bras. So once I figured out what I needed, then I got to try on the sizes. And that was also something I really needed because there were some things where I needed a 12, there were some things I needed a 10. I really thought I was gonna be an 8 up top. Cause I'm so small. But really I was a 10. So that is there. There was just like no substitution for trying. And I think that's the biggest thing when you are shopping secondhand online is like, already knowing your sizes for sure. And then another thing is, once I found the size I like, I took a picture of the tag. And what that does is so I remember the name of the item and the size. But also they'll have description, like descriptors. So, like, high rise. Loosen the thigh, tighten the thigh. So these mean different things across brands, but they mean the same thing within the brand. So if maybe I can't find the identical item on the web, like on Poshmark or ebay, but I see an identical descriptor, then I know it's just a different version of that same thing, and I can feel more confident buying it. So having a picture of those descriptors on the things that I like was just as important as having the name and the size.

[Jill]

The most annoying part of shopping to me is figuring out sizing and especially online shopping. It's why I don't do it very often. However, many of these especially nicer brands, which will even have measurements. And so being able to. If you are solely shopping for these things online, you're just cutting to your ability to find these things secondhand through the Internet. Then having measurement, you know, the fabric kind of measuring tape would be super helpful here too.

[Jen]

That is something else I could have done. I could have brought my tape measure with me and also taken pictures of the. The top and the inseam so that I can compare that. Because Poshmark and ebay, most of the time they will have those pictures. So if I had them on the ones that I liked and I could compare them, that would be another way to confirm that what I'm buying is going to be similar to what I've tried on and liked. And so before I left, I also looked at the clearance rack. And Kim at Lulu even told me she's like, go online and look at what was it we made too much. So that's their clearance. So I wanted to see what I knew what the full price was. It was like 1:28 for these leggings. So then I wanted to see what are they selling on clearance, like brand new. And it's usually I was thinking between like 69 and 89 is what I was seeing because that's, that's the price I wanna gauge at for when I'm figuring out what a good deal is for online. Cause that's another thing, like, how do you know it's worth it? How do you know the price is. How do you know anything is worth anything?

[Jill]

So I just wanted to, by considering price per wear. That's how you know price per wear.

[Jen]

Yes.

[Jill]

With the budget planner, the spending planner.

[Jen]

Absolutely, yes. And anchoring. So we have an anchoring bias in our brains, right. The first price we see is usually what we anchor our. What we think something should cost. So I was just. I didn't want to leave my anchoring bias at 1:18,128, like that full price. I also wanted to look, okay, what's clearance? So I wanted that to kind of be my anchoring bias. And I think the rule of thumb when you're looking secondhand is looking to get like 50% off what you could get new. So that was kind of. That's. That's what I did. And then for madewell, I didn't. I looked at their sale rack as well. But I, when I was there, I found the best short of my life. I found the best pair of shorts I have ever put on my body.

[Jill]

That feels so good when you find that.

[Jen]

And so this was something. When I was at Lululemon, I liked these pants, but I was very much like, okay, I can absolutely put these back and wait for them. Like, I can wait for these secondhand. I put these shorts on and I was like, I can't wear any other shorts, but these, like, I cannot. These are it. And I was like, should I walk out with these $88 shorts? Should I? What did you do, buy these?

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What?

[Jen]

I left them.

[Jill]

Oh, whoa. That Takes some willpower or something, some knowledge of an ability to find a deal.

[Jen]

Yeah, I knew that I could go. I go to Tampa like once every six months, and I cannot tell you the last time I've been to Hyde park. But I was like, these. I can always buy them online. That. That was really the. The thing. I was like, if I cannot find them used, then I will buy them online and I will sign up for their club thing where I could get a discount. And Potentially they had $25 off in your birthday month. And my birthday month happens to be next month. So I did. I signed up for that. I was like, I. There is no way that buying anything today is going to be a good idea. This is all for buying secondhand. And if I can't get it secondhand, I'll get a deal on it, but I'm not gonna pay full price on these things. I know I could get secondhand or on sale.

[Jill]

So let's talk about some of these specific ways to get secondhand, particularly online, because you've already done the steps of figuring out the brands that are gonna work best for you, the quality brands, you, your sizing your style. And then we're onto the fourth step, which is finding them secondhand. But now once we know the exact product size that we want, like, what can we do?

[Jen]

Okay, so this is really why I wanted to document the process. I wanted to not just say, use these things, go to these websites, try these methods. I wanted to do them myself and report back. So first I went to the Lululemon website to the exact running, the fast and free leggings, the running leggings that I really liked the most. And I wanted to see if the Benny Chrome extension could find me the exact ones somewhere else. It's been pushing a lot of Poshmark, so I assumed it would push me there, which.

[Jill]

Pause. For any listeners who aren't aware of what. What this is. You did just say it's. It's a Chrome extension, but you. You can download it for your browser and it will pop up if anything that you are searching is available on any of these secondhand sites, up to 40 sites they scour so you can be on Lululemon's website. And if the thing you are looking at is available on eBay, poshmark, thredup plus some Benny will give you an alert at like the top right of your screen and say, actually this. This thing or something super similar is available over here. So you can pop over there and get it. So that's A strategy. Keep going.

[Jen]

And so I actually, I typically have really good results with the Benny extension and I didn't have as great of results with it this time. So. And, and I'll tell you, it usually pushes out Poshmark occasionally.

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Thredup.

[Jen]

Those are the main ones you're, you're going to get anyway. But I was getting a lot of Lululemon. I don't know if it was malfunctioning, but it was getting full price Lululemon results. So I just went, I just went and tried all the websites. It rec. It says Benny is going to push out to you. So I did that. I went to ebay, Poshmark, Mercari, I went to the real real. I went to all these places. I went everywhere and I, I, I went to. Instead of going straight to the website. This is a hack. If, if you're not paying attention, listen to this one at least. Instead of going straight to Poshmark or ebay, I went to Google and I put in what I wanted and then I went to Google Shopping and I would add in Poshmark and I would go to Google Shopping and it would show me the Poshmark results. Those, for some reason Poshmark search isn't great, but Google searches for Poshmark is great. So I was finding better results that way. Then I do the same thing for ebay, same thing for Mercari, all that. And that's how I was searching through everything. I was also comparing prices across platforms. So these leggings are 128 full price clearance was giving 70 to 100. So my gauge for success was anywhere from 20 to 40. 40. And I think anything under 20 was probably going to be too used for me. But I have in the past bought old Navy activewear and that's traditionally $40. You can find 50% off coupons for that to get it for 20. So that was my gauge. It's going to last longer, so I'm going to pay more, but I'm not going to pay too much. And shipping is usually 8 to $10. You gotta get out of the Amazon prime mindset. You will pay for shipping. Uh, so I was looking to pay around 30 so that no more than 40. That's how I kind of gauged if the thing is 80 at clearance price. I kind of want to stay to half of that. And I had great success with this finding the exact same or almost identical leggings in black and other great colors. So not just like the off brand weird patterns. Exactly. In my price Range for Lululemon. I had more luck on Poshmark than ebay, but I do find that on ebay I find more specialty items, specialty patterns, stuff like that. And the prices are typically lower than ebay. And what I found is across platforms I would find the same same listing listed everywhere. And Merari had the lowest price. For some reason they were listing it $5 cheaper on Merari than any other. Same seller, same seller, identical description, same pictures. So that, that kind of like changed perspective for me because I've been doing a lot of Poshmark buying knowing that ebay is less expensive. But those were kind of my go to too. But now I think I'm going to add Mercari in there.

[Jill]

Did you purchase then from any of these sites with what you found? Not yet.

[Jen]

Okay, not yet. Another tip is that when you go to these sites, do not add to cart. Always heart it or like it because sellers will typically have an auto offer turned on. So anytime somebody likes their product, it will automatically offer a discount, 10% or a discount on shipping or something. And I will often counter offer if I know I really like the thing. So I'll like it just to find out what the offer is. If I really know I want to buy it, I'll counter the offer just slightly. So I bought something recently, not for this project, but the offer was, I think it was 40. They offered 32. I countered it 30 and it got accepted. But when you counter offer, you are agreeing to buy it if they accept it, yeah. So Poshmark's offers last for 24 hours. EBay's offers last for three days. So never add anything on these platforms. Straight to cart.

[Jill]

So tell me about these shorts you fell in love with. You left them at the store. But tell me the story's not over.

[Jen]

So this was an interesting story. So, Lululemon, I had great success. I know the things are like on my list, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet for this. Even though that's what I went in here for. This whole project started with that. Instead. I am looking up and down for these curvy brin shorts from Madewell and they are nowhere. At least not in my size. They're nowhere. And I know from trying on the other type of curvy short that I don't really like it as much. But those are everywhere. So I know I'm not gonna buy those because I already know that I didn't love them. But I did find a curvy mom short with the same inseam and same descriptors as the Brin made by madewell. Yeah. So it's discontinued. They don't sell. I couldn't try it on because it wasn't in the store, but it had the same descriptors, and I even asked ChatGPT to compare the two. Didn't do a good job. Okay, so it didn't help. I'm gonna say that.

[Jill]

But you tried.

[Jen]

But the descriptors were so similar that I did pull the trigger on those shorts, and those were on ebay. And again, I liked it. And then I got an offer. And let's see, the offer was. It was originally, I think, 24, and then the offer was 18. And so with tax and shipping, the total was 28.

[Jill]

Whoa.

[Helium Mobile]

For these shorts.

[Jen]

For these Madewell Curvy Mom Jean shorts.

[Jill]

So you're gonna have to follow up with us when they arrive on if they are what you hoped May 2.

[Jen]

They'Ve already been shipped, which I also chose a seller that was, like, highly rated, so that's another thing that you should look out for. But, yeah. So I am looking forward to getting them and reporting back at a later date.

[Jill]

This is. This is fun. Thanks for taking us along on your shopping spree, but I also. Jen, Go shopping.

[Jen]

Yeah. I also saved these searches in ebay and Poshmark and even Facebook Marketplace.

[Jill]

So it'll alert you.

[Jen]

So it'll alert me when these particular shorts or the particular Lululemon leggings I like come up in my size.

[Jill]

A lot of times we don't want to be alerted to opportunities to spend money, but when we've done this amount of work and research into the thing we want and we're willing to spend money to buy the quality over the quantity, then that's when we do want those alerts. That's when those tools and resources available to us are worth it. Because we're being patient waiting for that deal to come up, and we want to know when we can pounce.

[Jen]

Yeah. And I'll say one more thing about secondhand Lululemon and Mercari and madewell. Don't assume that ebay or Poshmark or Mercari will give you your lowest prices or Thredup, because I found that Lululemon's own, like, new, like their secondhand part of their site was giving less expensive prices than other websites.

[Jill]

Interesting. Yeah.

[Jen]

And then I also found the same thing for madewell. They didn't have the curvy style like pants or shorts, but they were selling their secondhand shorts on their site. They partner with Thredup to do that. 25, 30 bucks. Same price that I paid for ebay. Wow. But you couldn't be exactly sure of what style it was going to be. You just saw a picture of the short and you know, the. So you could tell the wash and. And the size. But. So I didn't want to chance it since I need the curvy. I literally tried on a pair of the regular and it was like the back. Like pool was. You could go swimming in the back of my pants. It was so big, wide.

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Yeah. So I couldn't take that chance. But check, you know the. If the site and that's a way you can find out if it's a good quality. Retailers, if they have their own resale, they believe in their product enough to sell it secondhand on their own site. Yeah, that's true. That's going to be good quality. And the prices are not always bad. From. From the comparisons that I took.

[Jill]

Do you know what's also good quality? But we don't always know exactly what we're getting with it.

[Jen]

Oh. But I have a good idea and I'm willing to take a chance.

[Jill]

The bill of the week.

[Jen]

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.

[Jill]

Maybe your car died and you're happy.

[Jen]

To not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills. Buffalo Bills. Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.

[Kayla]

Hi, Jen and Jill. This is Kayla from Kansas. And my bill of the week is that on September 18, 2024. I pre ordered something that finally got delivered to me today. Just a little book called buy what you love without going broke. Happy release day to you both. I am so excited to finally have my hands on this book and to get a chance to read it and to share it with friends and family. I hope you're both feeling so proud of yourselves. I'm sure you're feeling relieved, but just know that the whole frugal friends community is super thankful for your continued just investment in our lives with your wisdom and just your help. And so we're thankful and I hope you guys get a great chance to celebrate together today and are looking forward to 2025 without having to finish the task of writing a book. Cheers.

[Jen]

I know that voice. That is my good friend Kayla. Yay.

[Jill]

Oh, that's so sweet.

[Jen]

I'm so thankful for you, Kayla. Kayla's. Been a listener of the show like since the beginning and will text me every once in a while. Just like commenting on an episode or just popping in to say how she's used the things she's learned from Frugal Friends. And it is life giving to me.

[Jill]

I love it so much. Thank you Kayla. It's such a kind, kind bill of the week that you left for us and I'm so glad you now have the tangible copy of the book. And something I also love is when our friends and listeners who are also our friends like describe themselves as the frugal friends community. I just, it's so heartwarming to me.

[Jen]

Because they are frugal friends.

[Jill]

It is the reality. It's how I view things. But it's cool to hear it confirmed by others. So thank you for sharing your gratitude and thank you for showing your support. If you all listening are like, what's this book about? How do I become part of the community? Buy what you love book.com we are still so proud of what we worked on over these last two years. So feel free to pre order it for yourself. And if you do that, definitely leave us a bill of the week. But also if you've got any other kind of bills to leave for us, please do.

[Jen]

It's not a pre order anymore. We're very used to saying that it's an order order. Just order it.

[Jill]

Just get it to your door. You don't even have to wait. And if you have a bill that you want to submit, if it's buying the book or literally anything else bill related frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill cannot wait to hear it. Looking to save even more money on your phone bill? How does free sound? Helium Mobile is offering the first free phone plan. That's right. Free phone service. Seriously. No bill, no contract, just free.

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[Jill]

When we first heard about Helium Mobile, we couldn't wait to share it with all our frugal listeners who are looking to budget smarter when it comes to everyday necessities without sacrificing quality.

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[Jill]

And now it's time for the lightning round.

[Jen]

All right, what's your favorite fashion item to thrift? So mine is jeans because they're so dang expensive.

[Jill]

They are expensive. I rarely buy jeans and then when the times come when I'm like, okay, I gotta do that thinking, all right, I'm willing to spend 50 bucks.

[Jen]

It's like, yeah, right, right. You wish.

[Jill]

What age are you living in?

[Jen]

What is 2009? Were you in high school? No way.

[Jill]

In my mind.

[Jen]

No way.

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Captain of jeans.

[Jill]

Jeans. Jeans are similar. Feel similar to me as bathing suits. They feel like these have to fit me so perfectly. I have to feel great in them. And they gotta last me because I don't want to do this.

[Jen]

I don't want to do this again, again, ever.

[Jill]

Ever. And that's our new segment.

[Jen]

I don't want to do again, ever.

[Jill]

Yeah. So I just avoid it.

[Jen]

That's what the audiobook would have been like. If they got us to say things in unison like they wanted us to and we refused, we could have been like that the whole time.

[Jill]

That's true. Oh yeah, that was funny.

[Jen]

How about you?

[Jill]

I don't, I don't do this often, but quality jewelry, because I do pretty much thrift practically everything. But like my favorite thing, I do.

[Jen]

Think it'd be jewelry because you do wear jewelry. I do not wear much jewelry. I wear my wedding rings, which was actually from a pawn shop.

[Jill]

Yeah, I, I wear and it's always quality. Cause I am sensitive.

[Jen]

She has sensitive skin.

[Jill]

Yeah. Honestly, I get rashes and it's not good if it's not like real, real metals, mostly gold. For me, it's just like my preference. But to remember that you can get these things secondhand. So consignment stores, sometimes estate sales. For me, a lot of my jewelry does come from like my grandmother and my mom, which is really fun too. But being able to look for some of these pieces at these secondhand places, not only are they less expensive, but still quality, but also really unique. Oftentimes you can find more vintage styles you're not going to find everywhere. Like one of a kind type of pieces. So I love looking at the jewelry section at these secondhand sites.

[Jen]

I love a jewelry pawn shop. They are such a treat.

[Jill]

Unclaimed baggage, which we've talked about.

[Jen]

Oh my God.

[Jill]

On another episode. This is very fun. It is literally unclaimed luggage from airports. People who just for whatever reason don't pick up their bags at Carousel 10.

[Jen]

And you're like, this cannot be a sustainable business model. Been in business for like 30 plus years, I think.

[Jill]

Yeah. So they do have an in person store. What is it, Arkansas or Kansas, something somewhere.

[Jen]

And it looks very cool.

[Jill]

But you can also shop all of their Stuff online. And they've got a massive jewelry section. I spent way too long scrolling through the jewelry when we were prepping for that last episode. But, yeah, so if you're looking for something specific or wanting to celebrate a birthday or something and you want to give yourself a little something something, but for less expensive, find it unique, find it secondhand. There you go. There's claim baggage.com.

[Jen]

Well, thank you so much for listening to my TED talk. I hope it was longer than a TED talk. I hope that this has inspired you to do the little bit of legwork that you need to do up front in order to be able to acquire really good quality things online secondhand. And this can translate to other things, not just fashion. Some things might be better purchased on Facebook, Marketplace versus eBay. But you can take the same journey I went on with like, a KitchenAid mixer or a Vitamix or whatever you want and get these really good quality items that are really going to last.

[Jill]

This is a lot of work, right? Like, I think what we just described, those were more than one step and required research. So we're not talking about doing this with every single thing we purchase, but we are talking about it with the things we want to last that we would have been willing to spend money on, but to recognize we can spend less on it, still get that thing, buy it secondhand. Like, a lot of sustainable practices can be at play. So, yeah, for your higher ticket items, do this.

[Jen]

Yeah. For things you never want to buy again, ever, ever. All right. And if you did take action on this episode, we'd love if you could leave a rating and review on Spotify. That would be so helpful to us. Or if you've read the book like Kayla, if you could leave a rating review for the book on Amazon, buy what you love without going broke like Jeff did. It's a five stars. Amazing book. Loved this book. We read it at a book club in our office, and it was a hit. Definitely helped me reevaluate some things and is already having a positive impact on my life, which I expect to compound over time.

[Jill]

Jeff, thank you. We're gonna have to go thank him in person. This is our office that we are a part of now. We've got a whole studio in an office space. And they. When they found out that we had a book, they're like, let's do a whole.

[Jen]

We didn't film.

[Jill]

No. Jeff was like, I'm gonna organize a whole building wide book club. And so they bought our book. We got to join in, eat pizza with some of our kind of co workers now.

[Jen]

Yeah, it was so fun.

[Jill]

Jeff even left us a review which is so, so kind, man.

[Jen]

Kayla for the bill of the week, Jeff for the review.

[Jill]

We've got some friends.

[Jen]

What a good episode.

[Jill]

Yes. Thank you all all so, so much for listening and for being a part of this Frugal Friends community. If you want to show some love to this community and be of help, leaving these reviews are the best way to do that. It helps other people find this community. It helps us to keep putting out more content. So review the book, review the podcast, do one or the other. Do both. We love it. Thanks for being here. See you next time.

[Jen]

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

[Jill]

I'm excited to see these shorts. This is quite the hype.

[Jen]

Yeah, they'll be here in two days, so I'll have to talk about them in a few future episode after show.

[Jill]

This is really helpful for me because I actually, speaking of friends, have a friend who's getting into style theory and helping others figure out their personal style. What your body type, your personality, what you feel best in, what you look best in. Kind of like the second step after getting your colors done. How do we build a wardrobe that fits you, your uniquenesses that you feel really good about? And so she's gonna do that for me soon. And then I feel like I'm gonna be fully equipped to buy a couple of pieces secondhand, of course, but that I can really know and feel confident about. Okay. These things are gonna kind of complete the type of wardrobe that I'm wanting. I think my shopping strategy in the past has just been just go spend an afternoon at the thr dig and get whatever speaks to you then. But it doesn't typically take into account what do I already have, what looks good on me, how much do I want to be collecting? And I'm just getting really excited about curating my wardrobe even more and feeling really confident about how I'm putting together pieces of clothing.

[Jen]

Yeah, I'm excited to have more athleisure, more workout clothes, more things that stretch.

[Jill]

Things I feel comfortable in.

[Jen]

I love it.

[Jill]

I'm here for that, for you and with you.

[Jen]

Things that won't disintegrate.

[Jill]

Yeah, the disintegration piece is not good. I've heard of things ripping and tearing, but disintegrating is next level.

[Jen]

I guess it's a bunch of little rips in the place where that might be most prone to them. So it kind of looks like disintegration. But it's surely not like the fabric is still there, right?

[Jill]

It's just lots of wear and tear.

[Jen]

Right? Because I do wear it a lot and I think I've been wearing it for about two years at this point.

[Jill]

Okay.

[Jen]

And Lululemon people say their pants, you know, are going five years strong with no pilling. So. So and I've seen some the align leggings, they said those pill, you know those, you just can't help it. Those yoga pants, they pill. But the Wonder Train and the fast and Freeze, you are a wealth of.

[Jill]

Knowledge right now on all things Lulu.

[Jen]

I think I can call it Lulu. I think I am at the point where I can call it Lulu.

[Jill]

Okay, well on that note, looking to save even more money on your phone bill, how does free sound? Helium Mobile is offering the first free phone plan. That's right. Free phone service. Seriously. No bill, no contract, just free.

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[Jill]

When we first heard about Helium Mobile, we couldn't wait to share it with all our frugal listeners who are looking to budget smarter when it comes to everyday necessities without sacrificing quality.

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

Personalized guidance, we can help your business forge ahead confidently. Learn [e-mail] business chase for business make more of what's Yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2025 JP Morgan Chase & Co. Welcome to the W where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball. From buzzer beating shots, jaw dropping defense and life logo threes, the WNBA delivers non stop action and world class talent every game. These athletes don't just play the game they elevated. The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Valkyries are the newest team to join the league. Since 2008 watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ION, and Prime starting May 16th. This message comes from Greenlight. Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely, and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk [e-mail] iheart you're listening.

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