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- [00:00]
Jen
Episode 504, how to Save money on online shopping.
- [00:08]
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.
- [00:22]
Jen
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen.
- [00:24]
Jill
My name is Jill.
- [00:26]
Jen
And buckle up because we have a lot of information for you in this episode. Don't worry, we are including links to everything in the friend letter that comes out next week. We just want to give people a week to listen to the show before we put it in the April 30 friend letter. But it's a lot of shopping links.
- [00:50]
Jill
Jen is on a roll right now. She just got back from a conference. She is hyped up and wanting to give frugal education. Like you're drinking out of a fire hose.
- [01:02]
Jen
Yeah. And this episode is about online shopp. So we're giving online resources, obviously not in person resources.
- [01:09]
Jill
It's so good. Yeah, just get ready. But first, this is brought to you by buying stuff. We all do it. Sometimes we feel good about it, sometimes we feel bad about it. But what if we made great guilt free spending decisions every time we bought stuff? Sound impossible? It's not. And we wrote a whole book explaining how this can be our reality called buy what you love without going broke. Get it wherever books are sold.
- [01:43]
Jen
Yes. Or buywhatyoulovebook.com because this is all about online shopping today.
- [01:48]
Jill
Ooh, buy now.
- [01:49]
Jen
You're not gonna be able to buy it used yet, I hope.
- [01:53]
Jill
I think you might be able to. You might be able to.
- [01:56]
Jen
I don't want you to selfishly, but bookshop.org is the best place to buy it. So that is at buy what you love book dot com.
- [02:05]
Jill
Thanks, everyone.
- [02:06]
Jen
All right, so a really good one to queue up after this one if your mindset is in the online shopping Realm is episode 430, four ways online stores get you to impulse buy. We want you to save money, but we don't want you to buy things impulsively that you don't need. We don't even think impulse buying is the enemy here. Some impulsive purchases are fantastic, but those are the exception, not the rule. So that is the first thing we want you to know is four ways that online stores get you to impulse buy. And that's episode 430. I. I know the numbers aren't there, but that's the way I organize them in my head. So you can just count back.
- [02:50]
Jill
It's episode five or click in the show notes.
- [02:53]
Jen
I'm so sorry.
- [02:54]
Jill
We'll link it.
- [02:55]
Jen
All right, so let's get into how to save money on online shopping. First, I want to give some context to the episode and the areas. Because online shopping is very broad, we're going to give some context to the areas that we will focus on based on stats. So in 2024, US consumers primarily spent their online shopping dollars in specific categories. 43% purchased online, purchased clothing online. 33% purchase shoes online. So that's gonna be one category, clothing and shoes. 30% of people bought some kind of consumer electronic like smartphone, laptop, smart home device, something like that online. 28% of people bought like entertainment things online. So books, movies, music, games. We're gonna focus mostly on like the books part games a little bit, but I think people are mostly streaming movies and music. Again, that could be considered online shopping. It's just not where we're going today. And then 25% of shoppers bought personal care products online. So that's skin care, makeup, hygiene items. So those are the categories that we will be focusing on today.
- [04:15]
Jill
Shoes and clothing, electronics, books, personal care items. Okay, so you know our new format, it's telling you how to get these items for free, low cost, a deal, or guilt free. So we're going to go through these categories and subcategories within that framework. So let's talk about how to get all this stuff for free online. So the first category is your shoes and clothing. And we're going to recommend Facebook Buy nothing groups. So every area, nearly, at least in the US should have a buy nothing group. And if it doesn't, you can start one. Even if you live super rurally, there's gotta be a few other people around you willing to swap some stuff. So this is, I guess, a little bit of a hybrid of being online. Buy nothing groups are local. You find them online, you talk about the things you have to offer and the things that you're in search of. And then there is some sort of movement meetup that needs to happen. Whether it's a porch pickup or the person is actually meeting you at a gas station or wherever it is that you decide to do the swap. Usually though, if people are giving away their stuff for free, they want you to just come pick it up off their front porch. And then as far as clothing, well, yeah, clothing and shoes go, doing a swap with people. So this is also something that you can be the initiator of and organizing something amongst your friends, the people that you're hanging out with, the meetup groups that you're a part of and letting people know that you want to do a swap, whether that's in your home or you want to go out somewhere. Granted, people are going to be bringing bags of clothing, so you need to find a place where that would be a reasonable thing to do if it's nice enough weather, certainly something you could go do at a pavilion at a local park or something. And so organizing your own clothing swap can be a really great way to get a handful of new to you clothing items and just kind of refresh your wardrobe.
- [06:22]
Jen
But this is something that can be done online as well. So creating a Facebook event where a couple friends are posting some of their clothes in this group and you are virtually exchanging things and you can either send them if they're low cost to ship or then meet up or bring, you know, meet up at a central location or bring to other people's homes. So this is something that can be done in person, but it can be done virtually even. Even with people who don't live in your city. So if there's people your size that you know around the country, then it can be done virtually. So again, and we'll say that this is the free. These are the free options we're getting into more of. You know, we'll get into the really good stuff. But this is.
- [07:07]
Jill
Who doesn't love free?
- [07:09]
Jen
Yeah, I mean, getting clothing and shoes. I love clothing swaps, like in person ones. Personally, that's my favorite way to get free clothes. I've gotten this shirt that I am currently wearing. I got. It was a black tank top. I got it for free at a clothing swap and then I bleached it. So now it is a brown tank top in my color palette.
- [07:29]
Jill
So crazy.
- [07:30]
Jen
And I felt good doing it and testing on it because I was like, it was free, so if I ruin it, no harm, no foul. But I didn't. I made it better.
- [07:38]
Jill
Oh, I love that.
- [07:39]
Jen
So next for books, we've got library. And I'm very excited in our next episode where we're talking about how to save on entertainment, we will be waxing poetic about everything library. So I won't go too deep into it. But y'all, library isn't just for leasing or renting free books. Every library has a section that is literally giving away books as well. So then you have local free libraries as well. You've got Hoopla and Libby where it's still renting, but it's the digital formats, the audiobooks, Project Gutenberg, which is anything if you want to read anything published before 1929, anything that's in the public domain. So you really want to get your like classic literature on Project Gutenberg can give you the all the digital versions so you can read it on your Kindle. You don't have to read it on your laptop. And then this is what I am really loving, free trials for all the audiobook websites. So if you've tried one, there's probably two others that you haven't tried and you are still eligible for some free books. So we've got promo links for all these. Audible, Libro FM and audiobooks.com so frugalfriendspodcast.com audiobooks. That's audiobooks.com and it will get you three free audiobooks. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Libro FM, that's obviously for Libro FM and it is two free books. And this is our favorite personally place to get audiobooks. And then frugalfriendspodcast.com audible, you get one free audiobook. If you are already an Amazon prime member, then you will get two free audiobooks for your trial. So three, two, one, get some free audiobooks with these trials. Just remember, if you don't want to continue with it, cancel it immediately. It's still going to allow you to go through your trial, but we don't want you to get charged for something you don't want. If you love audiobooks, by all means keep, keep going with it and you support the show at no extra cost to you.
- [09:59]
Jill
Hmm. If you want to get some free electronics, you could consider product testing and review programs. So some places that offer this type of thing include Best Buy, Tech Insider Network.
- [10:14]
Jen
And this is where the links start in the friend letter next week. So don't crush your car trying to write all these down.
- [10:21]
Jill
Crush your car.
- [10:22]
Jen
If you are listening to this in the car and you're like, oh, I.
- [10:25]
Jill
Need to crash your car. Okay, Crush your car. I thought you were using some new fangled lingo that I'm like, I can't keep up with you. You go to a conference, you come back and I can't keep up. Okay. Influenster. Buzz agent. So bzz agent again, we'll have the links. Smiley360 sample source. Now hear me out. We're talking free stuff, so you're not gonna totally know what you're gonna get.
- [10:55]
Jen
Sent and you're not talking a. Yeah.
- [10:57]
Jill
If you're on the lookout for something specific, this probably isn't necessarily the way to go. But if you are super Techie, you would love the opportunity to try out some new tech, possibly have some stuff to maybe be able to resell eventually. There you go.
- [11:11]
Jen
These are the things that you would probably, I think, impulse buy online tech wise. Like I would rather go into Verizon to buy my phone or my, or Apple to buy my laptop. Granted I did buy my laptop online last time. But yeah, I'm going to smaller things I'm going to be apt to buy online. And so that's the type of thing that these things are obviously doing. And then for personal care we've got samples again. So you could go on Facebook Marketplace and see if there's any free options. Craigslist, free cycle buy, nothing. I am actually more apt to get free stuff that way than paying on Facebook Marketplace because some of the free personal care stuff on Facebook Marketplace or ebay is actually fraudulent. It's like not real. Yeah. So I'm a little iffy about that stuff. I am paying like for a half used bottle of shampoo. I am more apt to do that than something that looks brand new. I want it to look used, but so that is also an option. But I really do like samples from sites like the ones just mentioned. But also Pinch Me and Social Nature are good ones specifically for personal care samples. So there's also our freebies on Reddit. You'll find a lot of samples in, in that subreddit too. Also the buy Nothing group. It would be good. Instead of just waiting and lurking to see if anyone's going to get rid of this stuff, make a post asking if anyone's decluttering their bathroom soon. Let me know. I'm looking for X. You know, do a general, broad category and maybe even if somebody isn't planning on decluttering their bathroom, they might think about it and be like, oh, I actually have that and I'm not using it. Let me give it to you. So make a post. If there's something specific like I want to try a new shampoo, then you know, I post. If anybody's decluttering their bathroom soon, let me know. I'm looking for, I'm looking to try some new shampoos. So I would love, you know, if you have an old shampoo you're not going to use anymore, I'd love to take it.
- [13:46]
Jill
All right, moving on to the low cost category. How can we get something for less expensive? And this is going to be certainly a lot of secondhand. So when it comes to clothing and shoes, two different categories I want to look at within Clothing and shoes. One is for your kind of like mainstream, somewhat trendy type fashion. You've got Poshmark. So that's going to be like. Yeah, the mainstream trendy shoes, accessories, designer and casual. You've also got Depop. So this is some gen Z Vibes, Y2K vintage street wear. That's the kind of stuff you're going to find there shopping for your children.
- [14:33]
Jen
Or your nieces and nephews or yourself.
- [14:35]
Jill
Because you're just trying to relive those younger days. Thredup. So Thredup has a huge inventory of women's and kids clothes, specifically some men's clothing too. Although you all are out here knowing that there is just not a huge selection of men doing secondhand with their clothing. I don't know what they're doing with their clothing, but they are not.
- [15:01]
Jen
Travis is thrifting.
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Jill
I know, but there's not as big of a section at any thrift store, the guys versus the girls sections. And it's just so hard to find stuff.
- [15:15]
Jen
Yeah, I mean, tell that to Travis. He finds stuff all the time.
- [15:17]
Jill
Yeah, it depends. It does depend on what your style is.
- [15:21]
Jen
Every time we go thrifting, he comes back with more than I do.
- [15:24]
Jill
Yeah. Okay. Then you've got Mercari. So this is kind of a general marketplace. It is great though for shoes, casual clothes. Ebay is good for classic clothing, for both high end and affordable secondhand fashion. And then if you want to go more luxury, however, with your clothing and shoes, the RealReal is a luxury authentication site. They sell designer clothing, bags and shoes. Secondhand Vestiere Collective. That's international designer, resale and luxury goods. Fashionphile with a P H I L E. This is designer bag, shoes and accessory, mostly women's. And then finally Rebag specializes, as you guessed, in designer bags. They also have shoes and clothing, but that would be specifically for some designer bags.
- [16:16]
Jen
All right, so secondhand books, we're looking at thrift books, Better World Books. But then we also have, I mean if you're on Amazon, you'll be able to see save with used. So you've got it there too basically anywhere. You could even look at your local bookstores. There are a lot of bookstores that do part new part used books. So they may sell books online. We have the book rescuers here in Largo and it is just like three miles of used books. I don't know if they sell any of their higher end books online. But look for local bookstores that may have a used component and see if there's an option for buying online or you, you don't really have to look local if you're buying online. You just look for locally owned bookstores.
- [17:16]
Jill
Yeah. Okay. Electronics. This is a category where you can utilize sites like Back Market. They've got a massive selection of refurbished phones, laptops, tablets. So that's pre owned electronics but have been refurbished so they can work nearly like new again. Also a site like Decluttr with no e at the end. It's just declutter Declutter great for unlocked phones, tablets, MacBooks. Swappa is a site that takes you direct person to person marketplace but yet they are able to verify the listing. So that's an opportunity for you to kind of be able to exchange your items. Gazelle is a site that specifically focuses on smartphones and tablets, especially Apple. So if that's a product that you are all in on, check out Gazelle and then you've got open box or refurbished items from places like Best Buy, Amazon Warehouse, Newegg and Stack. You can stack cash back with Rakuten and promo codes.
- [18:32]
Jen
Yeah.
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Jill
On the big box stores.
- [18:34]
Jen
Yeah.
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Jill
Which is awesome.
- [18:36]
Jen
I, I will say a tip for buying secondhand or refurbished electronics. I have found that you are better off going all in with the bigger electronics than the smaller ones. And I, I've purchased many electronics from pawn shops and I have verified my laptop. So I'll give specifically a laptop and some AirPods. The laptop used it for years. Completely like 100% authentic, not refurbished, 100% new. Like authentic not new but good. And I was worried about it because I was like that's a lot of money. I don't know if I want to like risk that money on like a pawn shop laptop, but I'm glad I did. AirPods. I felt less apprehensive about buying for a hundred bucks from the pawn shop. Yet it turns out even with all the verifying I did in the store, they still ended up being knockoffs. They were so close to being authentic. Like everything looked authentic. They looked authentic when they connected initially but then there were just problems and eventually it turned out that they were not real. So the lower cost items, lower cost electronics are going to be easier to knock off and you risk fraudulence. So having a a place to that verifies and stands by what they sell is worth it. For the lower priced items it's much harder to replicate a full MacBook so not as many people do it and you can actually feel safer about maybe the online pawn shop purchase. I would be definitely going in store for something that big. But if I'm going to like back market then I would feel better about buying a laptop there. All right. And then we've got personal care which again is a dicey one to buy secondhand. But I'll reiterate, I like getting it through a buy nothing group. Like somebody who just. I tried this for a while, it's not working for me. Like so I'm going to gift it or paying a low price, a very low price for something that somebody saying the same thing but they're just trying to get like five bucks for it. I use a very nice shampoo I use and conditioner called Olaplex and I look sometimes for that on Facebook Marketplace. But I've also heard because apparently it went viral. I don't know, my curly haired hairdresser told me to do it and I did it and I like it. So now that's what I use. But apparently it went viral so that meant a lot of knockoffs. So I would say go with free or very half used. You know, if they're trying to sell you some kind of knockoff, you know, if you feel it, don't go with it. But you can find some stuff. Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, Mercari, ebay, Amazon Warehouse could be a really good option just for saving some money on a return. Returns are really good. So yeah. And I will, I would like to mention a bonus.
- [22:19]
Jill
Oh, okay. Go for it.
- [22:20]
Jen
So in my research I found some bulk resale options and this is mostly for resellers. So you know those people, you know, hot bins, hot buys, those guys, Crazy hot buys. Crazy hot buys. This is where they get their crazy hot buys is from stuff like liquidation.com, bulk.com with a Q888 lots. I'm sure Amazon has their own like liquidation site. But resellers online resellers buy these big lots for a couple hundred bucks, resell them online and make a profit. That is a business model but it is also something you could do if you have a large family, if you have friends who want to pull resources your different sizes and you want to go in on like a vintage T shirt lot or Christmas gifts because the lots are themed like shoes, bags, shirts. I found1onliquidation.com There was like a bunch of cold and flu medicine.
- [23:27]
Jill
Oh wow.
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Jen
Yeah, so like pooling with families to like stock up on a year's worth of cold and flu medicine, you know, so like all kinds of things. And this is where being in community becomes really clutch.
- [23:39]
Jill
Yeah, I mean, just on bulk.com, they also have appliances. Like, you can get a KitchenAid set, washer, dryer for like, 200 bucks plus shipping and not look into how much.
- [23:50]
Jen
The shipping will cost. Yeah, you could. If you're nearby, you can organize your own shipping for these places. But. And. And they ship from all kinds of different warehouses. So it's not one central place. This is literally like CVS is trying to get rid of this cold medication, and it's at their warehouse. And they just use liquidation.com as this, like, third party to connect their stuff to buyers.
- [24:18]
Jill
Okay, now we're moving on to deals. Deals. Deals, baby. And this is the category where we're kind of talking like, what types of coupons or sales deals might you be able to find on these things and how do you find those sales? So across the board on all of these categories, you can use Rakuten. So this is a browser extension that finds any rebates and deals for you and automatically applies them to your purchase. If you have the browser extension downloaded, use our link because it gets you $30 and gives us $30. They also usually run a bonus in may of a spend 40, get 40 or no use.
- [25:07]
Jen
Well, it's both. It's both. Spend 40, and then you get a $40 bonus cash back, and then we also get $40 at no extra cost to you.
- [25:16]
Jill
Everyone's just winning.
- [25:17]
Jen
Everyone wins.
- [25:18]
Jill
So what it means for you is that essentially your $30 or $40 purchase is covered, not to mention then all the rebates that you get back. So we will get a check quarterly just for the online shopping that we did. Sometimes it's a few dollars, sometimes it's more than that. Like, I've had personally a Rakuten check for like 20, 25 bucks, which is very fun to receive just for the shopping that I'm already doing. So that's definitely something to download. Get our link because it'll get you that. That extra money.
- [25:54]
Jen
Frugalfriendspodcast.com Rakuten is our link.
- [25:58]
Jill
We'll have it in the show notes, too, but there you go.
- [26:01]
Jen
Yeah. Okay. So deal aggregator websites. So you can use something like Brad's Deals. They're our partner of the show, and they will aggregate deal deals across mostly Amazon, but like a lot of different retailers, retail me not slick deals. They also will aggregate deals. Black Friday.com, which is originally for Black Friday ads, it actually aggregates store flyers year round. So if you want to see a store flyer for a Complete store, not just like random deals. Black Friday.com aggregates all those flyers online.
- [26:43]
Jill
Yeah. And of course there's always the trick of patience. Just waiting for a day, a deal or a sale to come up. So Black Friday sales actually start in October now?
- [26:57]
Jen
Yeah. Prime added an extra day like it was just in July, but now it's also in October too. So like when Amazon does something, everybody else does it too. So now Black Fridays, if you look at discounts, like the number of stores doing discounts in a graph, Black Friday essentially starts in October at that week.
- [27:19]
Jill
Yeah. And also usually without fail, if you leave an item in your cart, whether it's for Amazon or really anybody else who has a shopping cart, you're shopping online. If you leave it there, usually you'll get it'll trigger an abandoned cart discount. So you'll get some sort of of email or pop up screen saying, hey, did you forget about this? You want a 15, 20% off coupon.
- [27:43]
Jen
I've actually done that with. I've been really wanting to try Beam Dream. It is an evening drink that you drink like 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep. And I don't act. So the reason I haven't pulled the trigger is that I don't have trouble falling asleep. I am exhausted all the time. But I do love to have an evening warm beverage and I don't. Sometimes I'll have coffee in the evening. Still doesn't keep me up.
- [28:12]
Jill
Yikes.
- [28:13]
Jen
But I don't want to be putting extra caffeine in my body. And I've heard great things about the taste of Beam Dream.
- [28:19]
Jill
Oh, fun.
- [28:20]
Jen
And it's so expensive.
- [28:21]
Jill
Oh, is that okay?
- [28:22]
Jen
So I put it in a cart and signed up for their text messages. And I keep getting text messages with discounts. The biggest discount I've seen is 35 off. When they gave me that initially and then expired and then they gave it to me again.
- [28:39]
Jill
You're just playing the long game with them.
- [28:41]
Jen
I'm playing the long game, but what I'm saying is like don't put it in the cart unless you know you really, really want it because it will.
- [28:47]
Jill
Tempt you to buy it every day.
- [28:49]
Jen
I. It's not tempting me enough to buy it because it's so expensive. But if I was on the fringe, surely it would have pushed me over if it was a little less expensive initially. And if you're listening, you have a hookup to Beam Dream, then I will.
- [29:07]
Jill
Gladly beam me up.
- [29:09]
Jen
Beam me up, please.
- [29:12]
Jill
All right. Guilt free. So this is Our category where we were talking about how to now just buy it full price, leaning towards local, sustainable, values driven decisions. So before you buy it full price from a big box store, see if you can get it from a local retailer or if there's a more sustainable version. This is certainly where ChatGPT can come in handy. And also just local Google searches of the stores that you know are locally owned in your area.
- [29:50]
Jen
Yeah. So if you can't get it for free, low cost, or get a deal on it, then ask. If the purchase gets you more of the four Fs, the more things you truly value. For us, family, friends, faith and fulfilling work tend to be the things that we value most, most people value the most in life. And so if it does get you more connection or time with your family or friends, if it does deepen faith in the way that you want it to, if it does get you closer to fulfilling work, then that is going to be a purchase that you can make at full price without guilt.
- [30:28]
Jill
And since buying online is typically where we do the most impulse spending or where a lot of impulse spending can happen because it's so easy and the barriers are so low and there's not a ton of friction, our advice of creating a wish list is still going to stand. So not leaving things in your cart, that's like, that's only a specific strategy for getting a deal on something you know you're already going to purchase. But primarily creating a wish list that is separate from the shopping cart, waiting 30 days before buying it to avoid that impulse purchase. And then if you still want it, being able to buy it guilt free because you know that, yeah, I feel good about this, I've waited, I still want it, I feel good about it.
- [31:18]
Jen
And then finally think about price per use. So this is. If I buy this, how many times do I have to use it to get to a price per use that I am comfortable with? And if I don't think I'm going to use it that much, then can I resell it to at a price where I can get to this price per use? Remember, we can always resell things too. Travis will buy tools to make the job of renovating our house easier with full intention of reselling that and really only paying half price for, you know, essentially renting it. But so yeah, our we're launching a budget spreadsheet next week, Monday, April, and we have added to it an opportunity cost calculator. And it is going to. You're able to input a price and calculate the price per Use or put in a price per use and calculate how many times you would have to use it to get there. It is also going to calculate there's another calculator on it for lost opportunity. So you're going to be able to put the price in and it's going to be able to calculate how much you would lose, how much you've lost if you had invested that money instead.
- [32:37]
Jill
Oh, no.
- [32:38]
Jen
Right.
- [32:38]
Jill
So these are all tricks, dangerous.
- [32:41]
Jen
It's, it's not going to push you over the edge. But the budget spreadsheet is mobile optimized. So it's going to allow you to open the spreadsheet up and track transactions. Mobly. And before you make a transaction, open it up, plug into these calculators and see. Okay, is it worth that? Because people always tell you to do that. But like, when you're in the store and you're about to make the purchase, how do you do it? Where do you do it? You do it in this budget spreadsheet that we're launching on the 28th. So be sure you are on the friend letter list that you are getting the friend letter every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because next week we will be dropping a 50% off launch coupon for that spreadsheet.
- [33:29]
Jill
Yes. I'm so excited for this because it's mobile optimized and it's beautiful. Yeah. Talk about online tools.
- [33:37]
Jen
Well, you know what else is beautiful?
- [33:40]
Jill
And an online tool and mobile apps.
- [33:44]
Jen
Nobody who's ever called in for this is a tool. Jill.
- [33:49]
Jill
Oh, good one. The bill of the week.
- [34:03]
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.
- [34:23]
Lisa
Hi, this is Lisa from Boston. Wanted to tell you about my bill of the week. That kind of goes along with my mantra. It never hurts to ask. So this month I was in the middle of a free trial of a productivity tool for my freelance business. I noticed on the website it really wasn't geared towards freelancers. It was geared to bigger businesses. But I really liked what it did. And when I got an email during the free trial, kind of showing me around and asking how I liked it, I said, I totally love it, but the cheapest plan is still a bit outside of my price range. I might not be your target demographic, but I do like it. And I wanted to know if maybe there's some freelance plan that maybe isn't on your pricing page. And they said, yes, actually, there is use this promo code, which I did, and I got 50% off that plan for the first year. So I'm really excited. And if it works well and I get more business, maybe next year wouldn't be so hard for me to pay full price. So anyway, doesn't hurt to ask and wanted to pass that along. Thank you.
- [35:33]
Jill
I love this, Lisa. I love the it doesn't hurt to ask mantra. Let's all adopt it.
- [35:40]
Jen
It doesn't hurt to ask.
- [35:42]
Jill
This would go so beautifully into our framework of that third question. How can I get it for a deal? Ask. Just even if they don't have it on their sales page, people don't want to lose money. They might take a little less money.
- [35:58]
Jen
They love your money. They'd rather have some of your money than none of your money. And if you really want to give them your money, ask.
- [36:08]
Jill
Just ask. This is a beautiful example, Lisa.
- [36:11]
Jen
I love it.
- [36:12]
Jill
Well done. And I hope your business grows by leaps and bounds and that you need the top tier of that productivity tool, if that's what you want. I mean, I also want you to enjoy your life scale.
- [36:25]
Jen
Pay for the enterprise version of that software because you need to.
- [36:30]
Jill
The big, big business version.
- [36:34]
Jen
I hope to need the enterprise version of softwares because that's because I am an enterprise.
- [36:40]
Jill
Yeah. A kingdom, some might call it. Well, if you all listening, have a bill that you want to submit. If it's about building an empire or a kingdom or just asking about getting a deal or your name is Bill frugalfronthepodcast.com Bill. We can't wait to hear it. And now it's time for the lightning round. Shoo, shoo.
- [37:04]
Jen
Pew, pew, pew, pew. All right. What's one thing in your cart that you're waiting for the right time to buy? And it's not in my cart because I don't keep things in my cart. We don't do that for Beam. So maybe that is what I should have said.
- [37:17]
Jill
You already said that, though.
- [37:19]
Jen
Beam Dream is actually in my cart. But a bathing suit.
- [37:25]
Jill
Wow.
- [37:25]
Jen
I am trying. And maybe we can talk this out right now. Should I get a used bathing suit? Is right. That is a debate. A hot topic. Right. It's not like underwear, right? We're not doing that. It's not socks. We're not doing that.
- [37:42]
Jill
How is it not underwear?
- [37:43]
Jen
You're. But is it.
- [37:47]
Jill
Okay, you know what? I am making a face, actually. I have A used bathing suit.
- [37:53]
Jen
I know about the coffee. She says it about the used bathing suit.
- [37:57]
Jill
Everything in my life have to have.
- [38:00]
Jen
Everything she judges, she does. She does not use orchid.
- [38:04]
Jill
Listen, listen, listen to me. I need to be allowed to have an extreme reaction and then. And then the permission to backtrack it. Okay? Because listen, you say nevers all the time and then it ends up being what we do. So let me have my initial visceral facial reaction and then, and then my truth telling where I do say that the bathing suit I am using right now is.
- [38:32]
Jen
But see, the difference between my nevers is that they are not judgmental. They are things I will never do. Not things you should never do. Okay.
- [38:41]
Jill
I should have thought about it.
- [38:42]
Jen
Right?
- [38:42]
Jill
I'm gonna try and grow.
- [38:43]
Jen
Thank you.
- [38:44]
Jill
I can't be an enterprise yet. I have to work my way there. I gotta scale. Okay. I did have an initial reaction.
- [38:51]
Jen
Maybe I'll just buy new bathing suits.
- [38:53]
Jill
I needed to have remembered that this is the life I live.
- [38:56]
Jen
I would love to hear your ideas about it, my friend. Listener just in Spotify. On the comments.
- [39:05]
Jill
In the comments. Tell us about.
- [39:06]
Jen
Please don't judge me as harshly as Jill. It is truly a question I am asking.
- [39:10]
Jill
Yeah, no. And I'm realizing that my answer is, you know what? Yeah. However, there are some standards with this. And obviously we're all going to have standards. Hash it out. It can't be faded. It can't be loosey goosey. It can't be pilly. It can't have stains on it. No stains.
- [39:32]
Jen
I have standards.
- [39:33]
Jill
Yeah, yeah.
- [39:34]
Jen
Of course we're looking new, but maybe we were secretly not.
- [39:39]
Jill
Okay, okay. Is there a used bathing suit you have an eye on currently?
- [39:45]
Jen
See, that's what I'm trying. It's not in my cart. I want to buy a new bathing suit, but I don't know, like, I want to be sustainable and buy a used one, but I'm not sure if it's going too far.
- [40:05]
Jill
Okay.
- [40:05]
Jen
Yeah, I don't think it is because people don't wear bathing suits that often or for that long. Right, Right. So, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [40:17]
Jill
It's possible. I cannot shop for clothing, much less a bathing suit online. It's just not for me. I have to be able to try it on because I hate the nuisance of returning things. I will if I change my mind or something. Doesn't work, but I'd rather avoid it. So I am an in person clothing shopper.
- [40:37]
Jen
We'll see. I still haven't decided yet. I'm Waiting.
- [40:40]
Jill
Okay.
- [40:41]
Jen
But it is on my mind.
- [40:42]
Jill
Well, and the thing about getting it used online is you probably aren't going to be able to return it. That's a big risk. You might waste more money.
- [40:51]
Jen
That's another risk. Yeah, we'll see. Tbd.
- [40:54]
Jill
Okay. Well, mine is something that did already happen. Can that count? Because usually I don't actually have anything.
- [41:03]
Jen
Tbd.
- [41:04]
Jill
Divulge buying. Okay. I am not one of these people out here willy nilly with whatever kind of personal care, facial, skin care, things.
- [41:18]
Jen
That I want only willy nilly to.
- [41:19]
Jill
Judge, but not really, you know what? Trying it out. Okay. Seeing if judgment works for me.
- [41:28]
Jen
I feel like it doesn't, I think because it's always directed towards me.
- [41:33]
Jill
Two times. Jen, you're going to be okay. And you know what? Maybe you'll learn something.
- [41:39]
Jen
Wow.
- [41:41]
Jill
Okay. So I don't want to be trying out a bunch of different products just because I got them for free. I really enjoyed finding what works for me and I am willing to pay for that guilt free. So I have found this brand. It is called Dime. They do not sponsor us, but really kind of clean ingredients. I've been really happy with it, but they are not inexpensive. They're not super expensive, but they're kind of that like middle of the road. But I figured out the products that I like that I want. Not kind of anything too much, but also not skimping out. And I've also learned that one order will last me for six months. So I will purchase usually in April and in October. So it's April now, right? It's about time for my dime order. And I know that there's going to be a deal, right? They will put out deals. So this is about the time where I will reengage with text updates or email updates to know what are their deals. And I know that the best, best sale they ever run is 30% off. So I in the last month have just been waiting and looking for that and sure enough, 30% off, baby pulled the trigger.
- [43:07]
Jen
I love that for you.
- [43:08]
Jill
Thank you.
- [43:09]
Jen
And it's something you've been using for a long time that you can say on the podcast and recommend, right?
- [43:16]
Jill
Yeah, I've been using it for at least a year and a half now, probably.
- [43:20]
Jen
Nice. What products are you using up to?
- [43:23]
Jill
I will get their gentle jelly cleanser, a toner, hyaluronic acid serum, day cream, night cream, eye cream.
- [43:34]
Jen
You really strayed from our minimalist skincare episode.
- [43:37]
Jill
It feels pretty minimalist to me because every day it's just Cleaning my face. Serum moisturizer every night. Cleaning my face. Oh, toner in the morning.
- [43:51]
Jen
Okay.
- [43:51]
Jill
Yeah.
- [43:53]
Jen
Okay. Dime.
- [43:55]
Jill
Yeah, Maybe we'll get them to sponsor us someday. That'd be real nice.
- [43:59]
Jen
Yeah.
- [43:59]
Jill
Get even more of a discount.
- [44:00]
Jen
I mean, I say it with the coffee. I wait till they have the big sale and buy enough to get the free shipping. And I too only buy it six months. Every six months.
- [44:08]
Jill
I mean, I think that that's one of our goals too with like any affiliates or products that we ever do push is that we are able to get you all a coupon code for it so that it's like something we actually do recommend and we can help you get it for a deal so.
- [44:21]
Jen
That you don't have to wait twice.
- [44:23]
Jill
A year like we are doing it works for me.
- [44:27]
Jen
Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for listening. I hope you found it helpful. And the next time you go to buy something online that you will use one of these options before you just go impulse buy on a deal or buy full price impulsively. These are created to help you save money, but also create barriers so that you consume less. And so if you want more of this, like Jill said at the top, we wrote a book called Buy what yout Love Without Going Broke and it will help you create the habits, the mindset shifts to really be able to take these frameworks and save money without over accumulation. And if you have read it, we would love it if you would leave a review on Amazon. That's where most people go to deem a book worthy or not. And we really love this one from Kyle Toney. It Happens to be five stars says finally, a finance book that celebrates you as a podcast listener. I already knew a lot of what to expect from this book, but loved seeing it. Finally, a finance book that celebrates you as a podcast listener. I already knew a lot of what to expect from this book, but loved seeing it laid out so neatly. I love how Jen and Jill encourage you to find what is of value to you and spend accordingly. I think so much financial advice preaches what you should spend money on, whether you value those things or not. My husband and I have started assessing if we're spending our money on things we enjoy or on things we feel like we're supposed to. This book really explores that idea and takes it another step further. I do highly recommend it in audiobook book form. I read the first half but listened to the second half and almost spit out my drink when I heard the lightning. Round pew pews. I only wish There was some kind of comparable doodle or emoji in the book to signify that this is a very official and professional book. That this very official and professional book still maintained the fun of the podcast. Lightning Round sound effects.
- [46:31]
Jill
That's so cute. I love that you loved the audiobook. We are hearing that a ton from people, which makes sense because we are podcasters who wrote a book.
- [46:39]
Jen
So we loved the. We loved recording it and we wanted to do something special for all of our audio files.
- [46:48]
Jill
Yeah. So thanks everyone for listening. Thanks for reading our book. If you are enjoying this podcast, please do take a minute to leave us a rating and review. It helps other listeners find us. It helps us. If you've read the book, please leave a rating and review on Amazon. Even if you didn't buy it there, you can still leave a review for it on Amazon. So. Yeah. Or get the book. Buywhat you love. Book.com.
- [47:13]
Jen
Yeah, buy what you love. Book.com. bye.
- [47:15]
Jill
Bye.
- [47:18]
Jen
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
- [47:32]
Jill
Jen, Joe, Eric just finished our audiobook. Speaking of, we've been working on the exterior of our house a ton lately. Really? Still recovering from the hurricane, doing things on our garage to get it ready for the roof. The roof is installed now, but we've got soffits to replace. Blah, blah, blah. Anyways, he's been listening to our audiobook while we've been working.
- [48:00]
Jen
That's amazing.
- [48:02]
Jill
I know. It is so amazing. And he said he loved it. And it feels so true to who we are. Which also feels great because you can't hide from your spouse. Right? Like, they know you through and through. So for it to still feel authentic to him was really great to hear. It was also very interesting. So I have said. But not to him. He's never heard me say this. I think I've said it in interviews or at book events that he's not been at that. My favorite chapter of the book is chapter nine, Talking about contentment versus complacency. I think it just has to do with the season of life I'm in. Writing that chapter felt therapeutic to me. And it just. Yeah, it right now is my favorite chapter. And so anyways, when he finished the book, I was like, okay, like, what stood out to you? Is there like, a favorite part? And he's like, oh, there's this one part that actually was my favorite. And so he had to, like, go back through it to look at, like, what it was. And it happened to be chapter nine. I'm like, no way. That's my favorite too. We must be in a really similar stage of life that that chapter is speaks to us. But I thought that was very fun.
- [49:25]
Jen
Great.
- [49:25]
Jill
It was cute.