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- [00:00]
Jen
This message is brought to you by Apple Card.
- [00:02]
Jill
Did you know Apple Card has no fees?
- [00:04]
Jen
No fees?
- [00:05]
Jill
None. No annual, late or foreign transaction fees.
- [00:09]
Jen
I guess when they say no fees, they mean it.
- [00:11]
Jill
That's right. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app and start using it right away with Apple Pay.
- [00:15]
Jen
Subject to credit approval. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 18.24% to 28.49% based on creditworthiness rates as of January 1, 2025. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch and more at applecard.com 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.
- [00:47]
Jill
It's not just some limited time deal. You get nationwide 5G coverage with 3 gigabytes of data, 300 texts and 100 minutes of calls. If you need more data, you can upgrade to their other plans. Plus, you're supporting a community built network that's growing every day to keep you seamlessly connected wherever you go.
- [01:04]
Jen
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.
- [01:14]
Jill
So if you're in the market to cut that monthly phone bill, like really cut it, Helium Mobile is where it's at. Download the Helium Mobile app today and use the code Froogle to get your free plan today.
- [01:25]
Target Ad
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- [01:55]
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- [02:24]
Jill
Walt Disney World Resort Episode 498 Transform youm Budget in 30 Days Challenge.
- [02:34]
Frugal Friends Podcast Intro
Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.
- [02:50]
Jill
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen. My name is Jill and this is not a joke. We are challenging you to transform the way you budget for the month of April or for the next 30 days. Whenever you're listening to this.
- [03:07]
Jen
We love doing challenges. We think that they're some of the best ways to kind of gamify our finances, get us really focusing on one thing at a time and can surface a lot about ourselves versus just not doing a challenge. It's one of the things that we do for our monthly membership. It's a ton of challenges, all to get you spending better, saving money, understanding your own spending habits more. But this one we think is going to be particularly helpful for you all. So it's why we wanted to create a podcast around it to look at specifically your budget, how you approach it, and help us all just to get get better at it. But before we get into that, this episode is brought to you by before and After Photos. Who doesn't love a good transformation, especially the kind you don't have to be a part of. Like the years long renovation someone else on the Internet did that you didn't even know about till right now when they're showing you the before and after where you get to skip all the headaches, tears, injuries, unforeseen problems in the late nights. Just beautiful immediate results. Kind of like a high yield savings account. You can do your own before and after experience with your bank account. Taking the money that you have right now and growing it with interest. And just like looking at someone else's reno, it's free from the overwhelm, distress and fatigue that typically comes from making money like through your job. So transform your money with CIT, our current favorite high yield savings account@frugalfriendspodcast.com CIT. Get that before and after feeling, baby.
- [04:55]
Jill
Yes. That was great. Thank you for that.
- [04:59]
Jen
Yep.
- [04:59]
Jill
All right. You know, we love talking about budgeting. Not in the specific term budgeting. We prefer to use spending plan, but we'll talk about that later. But we wanted to propose this challenge because it's always good once a year to take some time and figure out if what I have been doing is still working. So we have a couple other episodes you can queue up for after this. That will also be helpful if you decide to take on this challenge. There'll be very good ones to queue up throughout the 30 days. So we've got episode 471, which is budgeting tips for 2025 and episode 208, budgeting basics. I think we also have one coming up. I'm not sure if it's in the challenge, but we're going to talk about, I think the 50, 30, 20 budget at some point. But we also just recently did a zero based budgeting guide episode. So scroll back. You won't have to scroll back too far for that one. So lots of budgeting episodes because the term budget is the one we're all familiar with. So. All right, let's get into the challenge. So this episode will be unique and you will start to see this more. We'll talk about it. So it's episode 498. In episode 500, we are going to talk about some of the changes that we're making to Frugal Friends that will be better. Sorry, I'm not taking away the episode numbers because those are for me personally. I like them. I know they don't help you find the episodes. I know that's frustrating. So that's one change that you've asked for that won't be coming. But there have been a lot of changes over the last seven years. And with anything good that hopes to continue, we have to change as well. And one of those changes is that we will be using fewer, if ever, any articles as reference points for our episodes. So instead of. And only because it's been harder and harder to source legitimate articles from Google. When we started the. We'll go into more depth of this in a week. But when we started the podcast, it was to help you figure out if what you were Googling was real or fluff. Now you can really just assume everything you Google on the first page is gonna be fluff. It's really hard to find that real stuff. A lot harder than it was seven years ago. So instead, we are drawing on our almost decade of experience studying personal finance. And we are going to use our knowledge and Googling skills, as well as AI to help us craft episodes for you. And so today is one of those episodes where we're not using an article. We've crafted our own challenge and we're gonna walk you through it. The importance of each step and how to execute each.
- [08:19]
Jen
Just flying fast and loose over here.
- [08:21]
Jill
Yeah.
- [08:22]
Jen
And that's what you can expect from us.
- [08:25]
Jill
That's a change you didn't ask for. That is coming.
- [08:29]
Jen
I think we've always been flying fast and loose, but now we're just like.
- [08:32]
Jill
All right, now we're Gonna be honest.
- [08:34]
Jen
With you, out with the Internet, with our minds. Here's what we think. Okay, so here's the challenge, and we're going to go through day by day, these steps that you can take. So assuming you are doing this for 30 days on day one, step one, throw away your old budget.
- [08:51]
Jill
Throw it away.
- [08:52]
Jen
That's right. Crumple it up, get it out of here, right into the trash can, the filing cabinet we call the trash. Or if you have your budget on a computer, you know, the metaphorical trash, or just hide it, or if you're using an app, just abandon it for a little bit of time.
- [09:10]
Jill
We're not saying the way you've been budgeting is not working. I'm sure it's working fine. But we want to visit these extremes and try new things to make sure there's not a better way to do something for us. There's a bunch of different ways to budget. There's a bunch of different ways to make spending plans. And you won't know if there's a better way for you to do something if you don't abandon what you've been doing for at least a short amount of time, 30 days, and try something new.
- [09:43]
Jen
So we're not saying that you may never come back to it. So don't get rid of the app. If you found an app you like, don't actually like, delete all of your spreadsheets on your computer. But really we want to come to this challenge with the framework of we're going to try something entirely new so that we might be able to experience a transformation here. So day one is kind of reorienting the mindset that we're starting fresh blank slate.
- [10:09]
Jill
All right, so days two through three, so this is a two day process, is to do a 90 day transaction inventory. If you haven't done one recently, this is the time to do it. Because you cannot make a plan for the future if you do not know the basis and the path you have already been going on. You need to know where you have been, how you have ended up right here in order to make a feasible path forward. And so if you do not know what a 90 day transaction inventory, it essentially is taking all of your transactions, that's discretionary bills, everything, debt, payments, investing, all of it. And you're going to literally copy and paste it from either your bank account, credit cards, it's usually, usually going to be a combination of several. And this is a really good time to figure out how many cards you actually have transactions going from too. Because sometimes we can track our transactions but we don't realize like, oh, I have five credit cards all going, maybe reevaluate if it's time to cancel one of those or not. So we're taking all of our transactions from all of our accounts and putting them in one place so that we can put them in a spreadsheet and look at them by date. We're going to sort them by date, we're going to sort them by category. We're going to sort them by the actual transaction so the place. And so we're going to look at them in different sortings so we can see patterns. Like on Mondays I am, you know, really good about my budget. But on Fridays I am always getting takeout or I am always going, you know, to Chipotle two or three times a week. I didn't realize that. Or maybe it's not a specific restaurant, maybe it's just takeout. I and I am getting like the category of takeout like way more than I thought I was or less. Sometimes we anticipate it to be really bad and we look at it and it's not as bad. So maybe it's. You don't have to, you know, focus on that. Maybe it's something else you want to focus on.
- [12:24]
Jen
You did a great walkthrough of how to do a 90 day transaction inventory. So if you've purchased our book Buy what yout Love without going Broke, wherever books are found, there's a free resources page attached to that that you can go to and get that walkthrough video. But you.
- [12:41]
Jill
And a template, you can get a template template for doing the inventory. And I walk you through how to.
- [12:46]
Jen
Do it with a template in your walkthrough video. It was interesting. You had an observation that you were going out or getting takeout pretty regularly within the last like 90 days. But you also realized that it wasn't as expensive as you thought and that there were times where when you were in a really busy season, it actually wasn't the worst idea to do that. So there's all sorts of things that we can realize when we do a 90 day transaction inventory. So that's what you're doing days two to three, then you're moving into days four to six where you are tracking every transaction as you make it. So notice we're not making you do this for the whole 30 days. We get it that that would be a lot. But we really want to be attached to the times that we are spending and really have you Have a full awareness of this for at least those three days, days four, five and six, that you're either having a mobile spreadsheet on your phone or you've got a little journal pad of paper that you're carrying around with you and marking down every single time that you are making a purchase. And so this would be, you know, date, location, how much, what was it? And of course, if there's any other additional journal points that you want to be able to track, like the emotions that you're having about that purchase or kind of what prompted the purchase, your reasoning for buying it. This is going to get us a lot more aware, even beyond the 90 day transaction inventory of the reasons we buy, what we buy, how we feel about our spending, kind of the money narrative that we're telling ourselves. There's even more observations that can surface through that, which can ultimately help to inform the way that we create a spending plan down the road. But this, we're not really making any shifts. We are more or less just continuing our observations as they happen. The important part here is that you are doing it as the transaction's happening. So we're not saying, oh, by the end of day six, you're going to go back and track it all. No, we're saying in the moment, we're writing it down, we're putting extra action to those purchases.
- [15:00]
Jill
Yeah. And these days are chosen intentionally. So this releases on April 1, which is a Tuesday. So these days 4, 5 and 6 are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So.
- [15:13]
Jen
Got them?
- [15:14]
Jill
Yeah. If you're doing this challenge on a different month, try to align it so that your challenge starts on a Tuesday. So these days can be on the weekend. And so then days seven through 12, we're starting Monday, we're doing a no spend week. So after you've done your 90 day transaction inventory and you've gotten kind of, you know, savvy to your habits, triggers where you're spending what you maybe have been anxious about but isn't as bad as you thought it would be. You've tracked every transaction as you made it for a couple of days. Now we are going to abstain from all discretionary spending for an entire week. Obviously, if your car needs gas to get to work, we're putting gas in the car. That doesn't count. If we have a bill due this week, we are paying the bill. That doesn't count. I'm talking about discretionary expenses that are not necessary. So the extra trip to the grocery store, the takeout, the coffee out, stuff like that. And you'll know what it is because you just spent a week looking at those things. And so this is where we pull back altogether and see what are the most difficult things to abstain from. Because right when you're doing a fast, all you think about is food, right? When you can eat, I could go all day, I can forget to eat all day. But when I'm fasting, it's all I think about.
- [16:46]
Jen
It's like all of a sudden, I eat breakfast.
- [16:48]
Jill
And so that's kind concept. We're thinking, what are these mind things that come up with the no spend week? And so we're trying to get that just like we threw away the budget on day one so that we could find something else that may work or know that it doesn't. We're kind of doing the same with a no spend challenge. So for one week, you're pulling all the way back. You're visiting the extreme of extreme frugality so that afterwards we can find our radical middle more easily.
- [17:21]
Jen
Next is days 13 to 18. This is make a meal plan and stick to it. So this is since meal, since food really is one of our highest expenses every month, you know, next to housing and transportation, it's one of the areas that we have the most control over when it comes to decreasing expenses and really being able to kind of rein in our spending. And so there's so much alignment between revamping and transforming our budget and revamping and transforming the ways in which we feed ourselves. So taking this nearly one week, a little less than that to primarily look at food, creating a meal plan, trying to stick with it for these about five days, can also really help us know what's possible in the future. And this one, again, if you're doing it In May, the 13th is a Sunday. So that allows you that day to create the meal plan on that Sunday, maybe do any shopping if needed. Of course, the meal plan should include items that you already have in your pantry, in your freezer, in your fridge, and create the meal plan based off of that. Honestly, AI is so helpful with this. You can just go to chatgpt and be like, make me a meal plan with these ingredients for five weeks. Include this many lunches, this many dinners, all of that. So, so make that decide what you want to eat, make it yummy, like actually something that you're going to want to eat and not feel super bummed about that you're doing this challenge. And try your darndest to stick to that plan for the 13th to 18th.
- [19:11]
Jill
And then we get into the 19th and 20th which are a Saturday and Sunday and we want to do a free activity, maybe two, maybe you do a free activity each day. But we want to start to exercise our free activity muscles so that we interrupt our usual weekend patterns of going shopping, going to the farmer's market, going to a movie, going out to eat with friends, things that cost money. We want to reprogram into seeking free activities first. So that might start with getting your city's weekly email or monthly My city is technically a municipality and they still send out a weekly email with all the things going on like over the next several weeks in the municipality. So I'm sure your city sends something with free activities. You can also check Facebook and Eventbrite. These also have free activities that are maybe from smaller retailers and places. Check your favorite places to go that might sometimes spend money or cost money and see if they're having any free days. You know, like museums or like indoor playgrounds, stuff like that.
- [20:34]
Jen
Also, a lot of times local venues will give free tickets to maybe concerts or comedy shows if they haven't sold out all of their tickets.
- [20:44]
Jill
And these aren't going to be big names obviously they're going to be local ads.
- [20:47]
Jen
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's something to look into. What are your local venues and join their mailing list or check out their website and just see if you'd be able to score some last minute free tickets. This message is brought to you by.
- [21:01]
Jill
Apple Card did you know Apple Card has no fees?
- [21:04]
Jen
No fees?
- [21:05]
Jill
None. No annual late or foreign transaction fees.
- [21:08]
Jen
I guess when they say no fees they mean it.
- [21:11]
Jill
That's right. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app and start using it right away.
- [21:14]
Jen
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- [21:57]
Jill
Required intro rate first 3 months only.
- [21:59]
Jen
Then full price Plan options available Taxes and fees Extra fee full terms@mintmobile.com Trust.
- [22:04]
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- [23:11]
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Bring spring to your door with Target Circle 360 get all you need for Easter hosting spring get togethers and with unlimited same day delivery Through Target Circle 360. From Easter basket goodies to fresh florals, getting everything the same day is easy. Open the Target app and bring the magic of the season to your door with unlimited same day Delivery through Target Circle360. Visit target.com circle or the Target app for more details. Subscription Required Same day delivery is subject to terms applies to orders over $35.
- [23:42]
Jen
Okay, so days 21 through 23, this is gonna be all about assessing our subscriptions, looking at our fixed expenses, and identifying what can be dropped, what can be shifted. What do we want to keep the same? So now that we've entered kind of the tail end of this challenge, we're starting to look at the ways in which we want to rebuild our spending plan going forward. So this is going to include dropping the things that we no longer need. So really considering now at this point in the 30 days, do I really need to have three different entertainment subscriptions? Do I even really read that newspaper or that magazine? Do I need that clothing subscription still? Or do I now have a good understanding of the types of clothing that I want to wear? And maybe now I'm going to go more secondhand with my shopping? There's a lot of new ways that we can look at how we want to live life, the type of lifestyle that we're taking on, that it doesn't have to look the same as it did in the previous 30 days or the last year of our lives. This could be where we even bring in new challenges for ourselves of what if I just went down to one entertainment subscription? Or what if next month we decided no entertainment, we're entering into some really beautiful springtime weather and we would rather just spend our evenings outdoors or cooking together or learning a new skill And I really want to try less screen time for myself. There's all sorts of things that you could decide here, but going back through, you know that 90 day transaction inventory can help you to highlight what subscriptions do I just want to get rid of, try out life without them and what fixed expenses might I possibly be able to drop or shift or change? You're going to talk about the next thing that you can do with your fixed expenses, but just know that everything is up for debate. Even where we live now. We're not saying that at the end of 30 days most people are going to say I'm going to go move somewhere. But I think we often don't question our fixed expenses. We don't look at, well, is there a way to get my utility bill lower? Or what if I did live in a lower cost of living area? I didn't even realize how much my home is actually costing me month to month. So just allow yourself to explore what we would typically consider fixed, see if there's any creative alternatives.
- [26:19]
Jill
Yeah, and then the next two days, 24th and 25th is negotiate something. So after you've looked at your subscriptions, your expenses, now it's time to choose one, call up the provider, negotiate your rate. So this works a lot better when you are closer to your renewal. So auto insurance, phone, Internet, stuff like that, if you are not near that, if you're not in a good time to negotiate, look on Facebook Marketplace, think of something that you are going to buy new and try to find it on Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, ebay, whatever and see if you can negotiate it down and then get an even lower price than the secondhand price. Negotiation is a muscle and we need to be exercising it really every month we need to be negotiating something just to remind ourselves that we can. I often get into this thing where like I don't think I deserve discounts or to pay less and so I don't ask for it and I don't know what that says about me, but I need to practice negotiation and just assume that everything can be negotiated so that I remember that that is available. I need to intentionally go in and do things like that. So on other times when I clam up and I don't think I deserve it, I am reminded, hold on, I am doing this all the time in this area. It is worth it for me to try to see if it applies in this area. And so often it does.
- [28:16]
Jen
Yeah, that is one of the things. I am not the greatest at carving out time to do this, but most people are successful in one way or another when it comes to negotiating.
- [28:25]
Jill
And this is small, this isn't spending, but it has greater impact when we are negotiating business deals, sales, promotions, salaries. This is where this skill is going to make a big difference. But we need to practice with the small things if we're going to have a chance at succeeding with the big things.
- [28:48]
Jen
Yes. Okay, so days 26 to 27, once you've done all of the other things we've listed out, now we're gonna declutter.
- [28:58]
Jill
In 26 and 27. That's another weekend. So it's right last weekend of the challenge.
- [29:04]
Jen
Only two days. So we are not saying this is an overhaul of our entire living spaces. It's two days. So let's be realistic.
- [29:11]
Jill
And not even all day on two days.
- [29:13]
Jen
Right?
- [29:13]
Jill
Right.
- [29:14]
Jen
Be realistic about what you wanna declutter and decide that ahead of time. Is it just a drawer in your kitchen? Is it just your closet? Is it just. Even the car, let's not forget that the car could use some decluttering as well. So you choose what it's going to be. But this is going to do a couple of things for us. It's going to first of all kind of cross off the list, probably something that has been hanging over us for a long time. We finally found the weekend that we're going to do it. It's going to free up physical space, which can also free up mental space for most of us. When we live in kind of a cluttered, overwhelming, chaotic feeling space, it stresses. Stresses us out more. And when we have higher stress levels, we are not able to make as good of decisions as we would have made if we were feeling a little bit less stressed. So that can also help us monetarily, maybe even help to build this skillset and habit of decluttering more often. And we're not talking about minimalism and we're also not talking about just straight up organization. We're talking about the things that you no longer need in your space. Anymore. Having the opportunity to sell them secondhand, throw it away if it truly is just trash, Find it a new home in whatever way that that makes sense. But also finding a home within your own home for some of these things that just might be out of place. So decluttering can kind of just also give us a new, fresh, new beginning on our physical spaces, as we're also kind of transforming our budget.
- [31:01]
Jill
So then next we have days 28 through 29. We're getting to the end. List a few items to sell so of the things that you have decluttered, take a few things that you think might sell and post them on Facebook Marketplace. Honestly, I would say even if you don't think it will sell, because honestly, the things I buy on Facebook Marketplace are bizarre. I wouldn't automatically list them. Like I bought yarn or floss for my embroidery. I am looking for a lunchbox and I found one. I just haven't reached out to the person selling it yet. But so stuff like that, honestly, if it's newer, I think the quality matters more than what the actual thing is. So if it's pretty new, looks good, and you're like, who is gonna want this? You don't know? Post it and see. We once took a bunch of clothes to Plato's Closet, which is a consignment like franchise, and there was, there were long pant overalls that had Pooh Bear on the front. And I was like, Travis, why is this even in here? This should be in the thrift store pile. Like, nobody's going to buy this. And I when I tell you they bought one thing and it was those Pooh Bear overalls.
- [32:26]
Jen
Amazing.
- [32:27]
Jill
I am, I was shook. And so don't assume you know what's going to sell unless you are doing this consistently. Just post it and see. Post a few things and see, the.
- [32:38]
Jen
Nice thing too is you can do porch pickup. I usually do porch pickup for things that are like $35 or less. It's to me okay if you choose to steal it off my front porch. Well, first of all, I've got your information and I have security cameras. But also, this thing was probably going to end up at the thrift store anyways. So fine, no big deal and just a lot less headache going back and forth. I can just send them my Venmo or Zelle or Cash app or whatever and you can just have it be contactless. That has reduced my barrier to entry and selling things online. And because so often that's the collection of things that I have is things that are 5, 7, 10, $12. And it's like, am I really gonna go through this whole rigmarole for five bucks? But if you've got 20 things for $5, yeah, that's kind of worth it.
- [33:35]
Jill
And you know what, they're gonna be sitting in the trunk of your car for a couple months before you bring em to the thrift store anyway. Yeah, just have them in the trunk of your car and try to sell them at the same time.
- [33:45]
Jen
Yeah, okay. We've done a lot, but we're not done yet. This is the last step, the last day of the 30 day challenge. Day 30 is set up an automatic transfer of Money to your 401k or Roth IRA. And don't skip this step. It is not the next month yet. The 30 days aren't over.
- [34:08]
Jill
We didn't say an amount.
- [34:09]
Jen
No.
- [34:10]
Jill
Just set it up, some kind of transfer.
- [34:12]
Jen
And hopefully you've been able to discover by this point kind of where some of your money is going that you wanted to make shifts on that you don't need to be spending on that subscription or that much money on eating out like you've now discovered. You're now ready to create what this new spending plan looks like. And it needs to include automatic transfers into your retirement investing accounts. Again, doesn't matter how much, but make it automatic. Make it recurring that this is going to be happening regularly with or without you. That you don't need to be making these monthly decisions in order to set your yourself up well for the future. Make it a part of your spending plan, but also make it super, super simple so it's not a decision you have to make every month.
- [35:03]
Jill
Even if you're paying off debt. This is the time to open up that brokerage or get that 401k set up and start putting little bits of money in there. You can now start with as little as $10 at Fidelity. It's so accessible. It's just time to start and start building the habit. Bake it into your budget, make it automatic.
- [35:28]
Jen
And if you already have this, if you've already got automatic transfers, consider if you can invest even more. If you're not maxing it out, what's one small step you can make to get yourself closer to maxing out your contributions?
- [35:42]
Jill
Yeah. So you've done 30 days. I just want to recap how this is gonna transform your budget. Cause some of these things seem peripheral to it, but they all have an impact in transforming your budget going forward. So we are trying new things, seeing if new ways Work. Maybe you're trying a new budgeting app. We are looking at our spending to make sure that we are on top of our spending habits so that we can accurately prepare a budget for next month. We are tracking our transactions, being aware of our spending in the moment again, so that we can make better decisions. Once we make the budget, we can better execute it because we're more aware of our actions in the moment. We're trying to know, spend weeks so that we can see what are the things that I've been budgeting for that maybe I don't need to budget for anymore or what are the things I feel guilty budgeting for that maybe I need to budget for guilt free in the future. We're doing a meal plan so that we can, you know, get back on track with meal planning. If maybe we've fallen off. We have a couple, like we have a week to just really dedicate to that. Looking at free activities so we can incorporate more of those, maybe lower our experiences. Budget, we're lowering our subscriptions, our fixed expenses. We're lowering our spending on buying new things because we are thinking about how to negotiate things that we want. Maybe thinking secondhand first, we're decluttering and selling a few items. So maybe we get into that habit. So that's a little bit more income in our budget every month. If we're selling something for, I don't know, 20, even if it's 20 bucks a month, that's something to add to your guilt free spending. And then we are also automating retirement contributions so that we can just have those in the budget moving forward and not worry about them. So these all have an impact on how you budget moving forward. And if you do all 30 days, I promise you, you will see changes and you will transform your budget for.
- [38:01]
Jen
The year because you're transforming kind of the way that you think about money and your behavior. Not talking a 30 day budget transformation challenge because we got really good at understanding spreadsheets and apps because that's not actually what a failed budget is attached to. It has to do with our own spending habits and understanding our relationship with money. That's what these 30 days are going to do. Then you plug in the numbers, make it simple with your income, your fixed expenses, your discretionary spending, you're investing, you're giving and just move on from there.
- [38:41]
Jill
And if you want a checklist with all of these things, head to frugalfriendspodcast.com, sign up for the friend letter. We are going to be Sending out a checklist with all of these things in the Friend letter tomorrow, February 2nd. And if you are not on the friend letter and you're listening to this after February 2nd, sign up anyway and let us know. Email and we'll send it to you whenever that is.
- [39:10]
Jen
Yeah, you can still sign up for the friend letter and then you can email us back through that friend letter.
- [39:15]
Jill
Yeah.
- [39:17]
Jen
And you know what else we can do right now? That is a challenge that we've been doing for the entirety of this podcast.
- [39:27]
Jill
It has transformed my life.
- [39:29]
Jen
The Bill of the Week.
- [39:41]
Frugal Friends Podcast Intro
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 happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck Bills, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the Week.
- [40:01]
Jill
Hi, Jen and Jill. This is Ellen from California and I love you guys and you've motivated me so much. My bill of the week is that I just paid off all of my consumer debt, just under $14,000 and it feels so, so good and so freeing. Thanks so much for everything you do. Bye, Ellen, your consumer debt friend.
- [40:28]
Jen
Ellen from California. We love you too and we love hearing from you and thank you so, so much for choosing to celebrate with us. Just under $14,000 is nothing to sneeze at. And I imagine that that that took some time and some dedication, probably a few sacrifices along the way and we are cheering you on. What a great, great feeling. What an excellent Bill of the week. Congrats, Ellen. If you all are listening, you have a bill that you want to submit. If it has to do with paying off debt or a bill that you don't mind paying, or your name is Bill and you also live in California or literally anywhere else in the world, visit frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill, leave us your bill. We 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.
- [41:32]
Jill
It's not just some limited time deal. You get nationwide 5G coverage with 3 gigabytes of data, 300 texts and 100 minutes of calls. If you need more data, you can upgrade to their other plans. Plus, you're supporting a community built network that's growing every day to keep you seamlessly connected wherever you go.
- [41:49]
Jen
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.
- [41:59]
Jill
So if you're in the market to cut that monthly phone bill, like really cut it, Helium Mobile is where it's at. Download the Helium Mobile app today and use the code Froogle to get your free plan today.
- [42:10]
LifeLock Ad
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- [43:11]
Target Ad
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- [43:41]
Disney Ad
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- [44:12]
Jen
And now it's time for the Lightning crowd.
- [44:18]
Jill
All right, so for today's Lightning round, what's one habit that makes the biggest impact on your budget spending plan? All right, so for me, I don't know if this is a good answer. My kids have the biggest impact. I guess it's not a Habit have the biggest impact on my budget.
- [44:51]
Jen
Oh, you're going the opposite direction. Like biggest negative impact on yourself.
- [44:55]
Jill
Well, actually no, I was going positive. They keep us from doing a lot of expensive things because I'm like, why am I gonna spend all this money to do something with these ungrateful like rockets that are just gonna be shooting around and it's not gonna be fun for me. It's not gonna be fun for anyone. So why do I. I'm not gonna do expensive things.
- [45:18]
Jen
Okay, to clarify, Kai is not an ungrateful child. He is like girl, is he not okay? Maybe I just see a different side of him.
- [45:28]
Jill
Yeah. And actually are not perfect. So. Yeah. I mean it keeps me from doing very expensive things. Like there's no way we take them to a sit down restaurant, it gonna be horror. So yeah, I think that has the biggest positive impact. And they're not, honestly, they're not that expensive. They don't eat a lot, which is actually troublesome because they won't eat anything that I make. But they. That's not expensive. They're not. You know, they're over overwhelmingly healthy. Thankfully. We had to go to the doctor for an ear infection yesterday, but that is rare. So. Yeah, I know that's a weird answer.
- [46:21]
Jen
But no, I mean, it's the reality of this life stage.
- [46:25]
Jill
Yeah.
- [46:26]
Jen
I feel like I don't hear many parents say that having kids is inexpensive.
- [46:30]
Jill
It's not inexpensive. I will say that, but it's not. I guess we're in a phase right now where it's not super expensive. We get a lot of their stuff secondhand.
- [46:45]
Jen
You're like not paying for a ton of kids activities.
- [46:47]
Jill
We don't pay well. Kai's not very athletic, so we're not signing him up for any sports because again, why would we do that to ourselves? I did try to sign him up for a run club and it actually got canceled because not enough people signed up for it. And then he comes home and he complains to me. He's like, I don't like PE because I am the slowest and everyone beats me. And I was like, well, I'm glad that run club got canceled so.
- [47:14]
Jen
Or he would have gotten better at running.
- [47:16]
Jill
So that's what I was hoping.
- [47:17]
Jen
You could look at it both ways.
- [47:18]
Jill
He's not great at team sports. So I was thinking maybe an individual sport.
- [47:21]
Jen
Golf.
- [47:22]
Jill
I already.
- [47:23]
Jen
Could you imagine I already a little six year old playing golf.
- [47:27]
Jill
And Travis was like, absolutely. No way. And I was like, I'm.
- [47:33]
Jen
We are actually too Frugal for that.
- [47:35]
Jill
Yeah. So it's not like we're just in a season where we're. We're doing a lot of parks. We're walk. We're walking. We're doing a lot of free stuff. Libraries. So great.
- [47:48]
Jen
Yeah.
- [47:49]
Jill
Secondhand clothes. Not a lot of, like, virtually no paid activities. Just daycare, really, for Atlas, which I guess you could argue is. I mean, it is honestly one of the largest expenses we have every month.
- [48:05]
Jen
But that won't be for free.
- [48:07]
Jill
That's an investment. So I don't have to quit working.
- [48:11]
Jen
It's an investment.
- [48:12]
Jill
I see it as an investment. How about you?
- [48:15]
Jen
For me, I don't scroll online shopping websites. And here's the thing about that. It's not because I'm better than anyone who does do this.
- [48:29]
Jill
It's not because I'm better than you.
- [48:30]
Jen
It is truly because I don't understand Internet. Like, I half the time really don't even know what to do on my phone. Like, I scroll Instagram occasionally throughout the day. I honestly couldn't tell you what ads people are trying to give me. So I'm not buying things that influencers are trying to sell. And then I'm just not scrolling shopping websites, which I've learned recently is something people will do. Like that. That is a thing. So I just happen to not do it. So I'm going to call that a habit and I might as well not ever start.
- [49:13]
Jill
Love that for you.
- [49:14]
Jen
Because I don't need that temptation. That's not something I need to do on my phone. Yeah, just text people. Do that instead. Send people memes.
- [49:23]
Jill
Send memes. I'm gonna talk about this and preach it for, I guess, several more weeks. Send memes to your friends. It's just a good way to connect and not spend money. So thank you so much for listening. We love having you here and we're excited to share all the changes coming up in just two episodes. So not next week. In one week. So please tune in for episode 500. It's gonna be a good one. But we also love reading your kind reviews. Reading your reviews on episodes is not going anywhere. Like this one from Anon. I wonder if that's short for Anonymous or just Anon. This book, it's about our book Buy what yout Love Without Going Broken. And they say this book ties a beautiful bow around the concept of only spending money on things that you value. It helps to define your why and ultimately what makes you happy. I've read countless finance books, but have never really changed my attitude and mindset about money. However, after reading this book and listening to the podcast, I understand that I've been spending on things that will mean nothing to me by the time they arrive at my doorstep. This book has helped me understand myself and the psychology aspect of money while giving useful money tips. Reading this book is like reading a letter from a long lost friend. My millennial heart has been filled with reminiscent moments. The book and this podcast have changed my view and life on money and on life and money for the better. Thank you Frugal Friends. You are the friends I've never had and I have finally found a community of people who understand me.
- [51:06]
Jen
Anan wish you weren't anonymous, unless that is your name and thank you Anon. This is such a beautifully written review of the book and it's so heartwarming to know that it is really helping people, especially in some areas where there are gaps in what is written. In other personal finance books. We think that there's so many different ways that we can get our financial knowledge and that we can take a collection of podcasts and books and resources. We know we're not the only voices, but it is really beautiful when we can be an additional voice to help put that next layer that's needed on top of just spending better, saving more. So, so grateful and thank you all for listening. So if you've read the book, please do leave us a review. It's super helpful and also just encouraging for us. And if you like the show, we would also love it if you'd take a minute. It doesn't even need to a full minute. You don't have to leave a long review, just something like, like this show. Enjoy that things Jen and Jill, anything. You know, I'm not going to tell you what to write, but it just doesn't need to take long. We'd super appreciate it if you'd do that.
- [52:22]
Jill
Thank you so much and we will see you next time.
- [52:25]
Jen
Bye.
- [52:27]
Jill
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianna.
- [52:41]
Jen
All right, Jen, give it to him straight, baby.
- [52:45]
Jill
All right, so this is one of the changes. And this is a preview of another one of the not changes, but new, new things. It is new things. So starting this Monday, so this comes out on a Tuesday, starting Monday, April 7, we are launching a new project called Weekly Money Move.
- [53:12]
Jen
Oh yeah.
- [53:13]
Jill
Every Monday we will be sharing with you a move, probably five minutes, maybe an hour. You know, nothing big but what the.
- [53:25]
Jen
Move will take you five minutes to an hour.
- [53:26]
Jill
Right. And whether you are new to personal finance or you are a fire nerd, whatever, like personal finance nerd. You will be able to do this money move each week to get ahead with your finances. Stay on top, organize, refine, make sure you're being as efficient as possible. This is a move for everyone on any level to make sure that you are succeeding with your finances. It is accessible to every level. And we are going to be posting it first in the friend letter. So frugalfriendspodcast.com, make sure you're getting the friend letter because every Monday morning, this money move is coming to your inbox. We're going to tell you what it is, how to do it and what its impact is. And we have started a new Instagram account that you can follow and see the video version of it. Eeklymoneymove. And the reason we started a new account is so that we're only gonna be posting these once a week. And we want it to be accessible so you can see all of them. You know, there's gonna be 52 in a year. We want you to be able to see all of them easily. So maybe you missed one and you need to catch up. We don't want you to scroll through all of the things we post on Frugal Friends podcast Instagram to find the weekly money move. So that's why we have started Eekly Money Move. Go to Instagram, follow it. So you will not only get it in your inbox every Monday, but it'll also pop up on your feed on Instagram every Monday.
- [55:08]
Jen
Yeah.
- [55:09]
Jill
And we are so excited about this. It's going. It's a very well rounded. It's 52 money moves. Right. So it's not just frugality, but it's all about good stewardship of our money and the things that touch our money, that our money touches. So you can be very organized on top of and ahead of the game with your finances.
- [55:32]
Jen
Super excited about it. I love the cohesion kind of across the board that, you know, we've got this on Instagram. It will be. We will share it to Frugal Friends as well.
- [55:41]
Jill
Yeah, we'll collab. You'll see it.
- [55:42]
Jen
Yeah. And then to be able to talk about it more in the friend letter, there's just so much marrying of all the different places that you can find us and get more from us. But we just. I was. The other day I said this aloud genuinely. I was working on a reel for our Frugal Friends podcast Instagram account and was just overcome with this emotion. Of how much I love creating helpful content. I think in as much as I do scroll on Instagram, not a lot of it is that or people are just trying to hawk products at me. And it just feels so good to be in these spaces and actually giving content that I truly believe is useful to people. Like if they scroll upon this and they hear us just describing something like not clouded in some paywall, like we're gonna tell you about this, but you gotta do xyz. Like we're literally just giving steps that we think will help people financially. And yeah, I'm not. It may sound like I'm bragging, but I truly am just so excited about it. It does light me up to be useful to people. Just give it for free.
- [57:01]
Jill
Yeah.
- [57:02]
Jen
But we are also giving some stuff for paid cause we do have to.
- [57:07]
Jill
We do have to live.
- [57:07]
Jen
We have to support the thing that we love to do.
- [57:10]
Jill
But it's not gonna be just things like useless things. Like we, after seven years with you guys, really think we have found what you have asked for that is different than what the rest of the market is. Because that's another thing. We can always point to something that's already been made. But I think we've found a few things that our listeners want that are unique and not done before. And I am very excited to share those things.
- [57:44]
Jen
Same. All right, see you next time.
- [57:46]
Jill
Bye.
- [57:47]
Jen
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.
- [58:00]
Jill
It's not just some limited time deal. You get nationwide 5G coverage with 3 gigabytes of data, 300 texts and 100 minutes of calls. If you need more data, you can upgrade to their other plans. Plus, you're supporting a community built network that's growing every day to keep you seamlessly connected wherever you go.
- [58:17]
Jen
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.
- [58:27]
Jill
So if you're in the market to cut that monthly phone bill, like really cut it, Helium Mobile is where it's at. Download the Helium Mobile app today and use the code Frugal to get your free plan.
- [58:37]
Unshakeables Podcast Ad
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- [59:16]
Dietz & Watson Ad
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- [59:45]
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