We Tracked EVERYTHING We Spent for 30 Days (Here's What Happened) - Frugal Friends Podcast

Frugal Friends Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title:

We Tracked EVERYTHING We Spent for 30 Days (Here's What Happened)

Hosts:

Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni

Original Release:

May 8, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Jen and Jill take listeners through their experiment of meticulously tracking every single expense—big and small, fixed and discretionary—for 30 days. As seasoned advocates of financial awareness and intentional living, the hosts explore what they learned through this process, which behaviors surprised them, and discuss the value of tracking for anyone seeking to improve their relationship with money. True to the Frugal Friends spirit, the episode balances concrete financial insight with candid stories, humor, and relatable moments of frugal living challenges.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Why Track Spending? (04:09–07:08)

Motivation for Tracking: Inspired by their 90-day transaction inventory method: before creating new budgets, scrutinize every transaction from the recent past (04:09).
- Jen: "You are looking at every single transaction, every cash you've put on the table, every time you've slipped, swiped, tapped or inserted your card, every single transaction, you are putting it into a Google spreadsheet or an Excel spreadsheet, whatever you have available. And you are looking at every single one." (05:06)
Short-Term, High-Intensity Tracking: After reviewing past spending, they recommend 30 days of highly attentive expense tracking before resuming a more sustainable cadence (06:15).
Judgment-Free Data Gathering: Emphasis on curiosity and learning, not guilt or restriction—"take the emotion out" and see what the numbers reveal (07:08).

Methods Used (08:20–11:12)

Jill: Manual tracking with pen and paper, categorizing all transactions simply (food, miscellaneous, gas, parking).
Jen: Digital tracking via the Monarch Money app, aggregating automated reports and visuals.
- Quote (Jen): "I have not enough time, energy, or will to do spreadsheet or paper. This brings in everything from every card. Nothing gets missed, and it puts it in one place." (09:28)
Universal Rule: Track every expense, big and small, with zero judgment (11:12).

What They Found (11:21–18:39)

Jen’s Spending for the Month

Housing: 28%
Food: 10%
Shopping: 0.18% – “That’s my clothing and my Amazon and I actually for this month had zero Amazon and non grocery Walmart purchases.” (11:57)
Other Spending: 2% insurance, 15.8% retirement (this month higher than usual), 8.5% groceries, 2.24% restaurants, $445 on gas, $126 auto maintenance, 8% child care.

Jill’s Spending

Housing & Bills: 45% of total spending (not just income)
Food: 11%
Miscellaneous: 11% (includes plane tickets, a new pillow, a dress)
Giving: 11%
Savings: 8%
Insurances: 8% (medical, auto, renters)
Gas & Parking: 3%
Entertainment & Subscriptions: 3%

Food Budgets & Realizations

Both spent around 8–11% on food for this month, but Jill notes it’s often more like 13% for her in typical months.

Lessons Learned – Behavioral Takeaways (18:41–25:40)

“It’s Just $10” Syndrome

Jen’s Discovery: Noticed how small purchases, often rationalized as “it’s just $10,” really accumulate—budgets can drain from many little, seemingly insignificant spending decisions.
- Quote (Jen): "We bought, you know, the knockoff shirts on the way in... we got two of them. We didn't need two... It's just $10. Each shirt was $10 right." (21:10)
Jill: Shared her own “just $9” dress purchase. Both hosts highlight “justification spending” at places like discount stores and thrift shops (22:37–24:32).

The Tipping Dilemma

Tips add up quickly—Jill estimates $30 in tips over the month, highlighting how normalized this has become.

The Convenience Tax

Jen: Paid $80 for onsite fingerprinting (could have found cheaper), $85 for a restaurant meal at a hotel simply for convenience, and is reconsidering her paid grocery delivery. "There’s a balance, I think, between convenience spending and being inconvenienced a little bit." (28:50)
- Decision: Discontinue paid delivery memberships, revert to picking up groceries to save on fees and tips.
Jill: Observed how a single day out (Renaissance Fair) consumed 10% of her entire food budget, underlining how exceptions (like events) can have a disproportionate impact (31:06–31:55).

Value of Tracking & Normalization (38:03–39:47)

Both hosts stress that “audit mode” is never complete—even with 8 years of frugal living podcasting, temptations, slip-ups, and lessons always arise.
- Quote (Jill): “We still have spending traps. We still make impulse purchases. We can still look back and say, ah, wasn’t worth it… If you’re experiencing that, know that this is typical. It’s normal. It happens to all of us.” (38:05)
80/20 Rule (Jen): “If you can make the good decisions 80% of the time and the, you know, mediocre decisions 20% of the time, you’re going to end up on top… the 80/20 principle really does… has come in clutch.” (39:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the emotional challenge of expense reviews:
“Take the emotion out of it. It’s not about me, it’s about this person. So we take the emotion out of it.” — Jen (08:05)
On awareness vs. restriction:
“This is ultimately not about restriction, but a level of awareness of where is our money going?” — Jill (06:53)
On justifying impulse purchases:
“It was that justification spending. Those types of stores are really dangerous.” — Jill (22:37)
On small expenses:
“All of the tips add up. I have been bemoaning tips a lot with people lately. I still pay them. Don’t come at me. But that's a decision when we go out to eat. I probably spent at least $30 last month just in tips.” — Jill (25:11)
On sticking to your favorites:
“I’ve become actually really picky about my iced coffee now since I’ve mastered my own recipe... it’s Stoke or nothing for me.” — Jen (37:09)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Introduction, Motivation & Method Overview – 00:00–11:12
Spending Results & Category Breakdowns – 11:21–18:39
Major Lessons & Habits Noticed – 18:41–25:40
Convenience vs. Frugality Dilemma – 27:50–33:14
What Wasn't Worth It – 33:15–37:58
The 80/20 Approach to Spending – 39:00
Listener Bill of the Week (Charlene’s Call-In) – 40:32–44:59
Lightning Round: Favorite Transactions – 47:40–50:34
Denouement: The Tipping Saga – 52:07–54:04

Listener Call-in: Bill of the Week (40:32–44:59)

Charlene from Virginia shares how she saved money by using pantry substitutions and fixing her treadmill with $10 of grease instead of buying a new $180 walking pad.
- "I almost replaced it this week... but instead I decided to try... a $10 grease oil thing for the treadmill." (41:55)
- Jen and Jill cheer her on as a “true frugal friend.”
- Jill celebrates “substitutes” in recipes and in life (44:09): "If you don't have one ingredient, there are at least usually 10 substitutes for it that you probably do have on hand."

Lightning Round: Favorite Transaction (47:40–50:34)

Jill: Renaissance Fair entry — pricey and not likely to repeat, but the live entertainment (a dangerous fire-juggling act) was memorable.
Jen: Monster Jam tickets. “We did it.” (49:38) – never been before, and it was a big family event.

Closing Thoughts

Accountability never ends: Even financial educators mess up, so don’t expect perfection—just honest awareness and continual adjustment.
Audit, don’t judge: Data collection is a learning tool, not a guilt trip.
Convenience has a cost: Sometimes it’s worth paying for, sometimes not—but it’s always worth noticing and deciding consciously.
Tiny purchases count: $10 here and $9 there can quickly turn a frugal month upside-down.
The 80/20 principle holds up: Strive for mostly-good, not always-perfect, decisions.
Most of all: Tracking, reflecting, and sharing the journey—as messy as it is—matters.

Transcript

A (0:00)

We tracked everything we spent for 30 days and here's what happened.

B (0:08)

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.

A (0:25)

Welcome, Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.

C (0:27)

I'm Jill.

A (0:28)

And we tracked every dollar we spent for 30 days. But it wasn't super hard. It is something you can replicate and it exposed some things. Even though we've been doing this for a while, it always exposes some things that maybe we were unaware of or aware of, but like, put it into perspective.

C (0:52)

Yeah. So we're going to share with you what we noticed. If there's any changes that we made as a result, if it's what worth it to track your spending for 30 days. Going to give you all the deets.

A (1:02)

But first, I, for some reason, am running a marathon. I decided that it would be worth my time to train and run 26.2 miles this January at Walt Disney World. If you know me, that's my, you know that's my favorite place to run. But I'm not giving all my money to Disney. Take a look at this video.

D (1:27)

Hey, Frugal Friends, I know you are conscious consumers and values driven spenders and

A (1:33)

I would like to appeal to you today on that.

D (1:37)

I have the opportunity with a few friends to run the Disney World Marathon in January. And we are doing it to raise money for Ronald McDonald House charity. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Ronald McDonald House, it's an organization that does something incredibly similar to simple and incredibly powerful. When parents are faced with the unimaginable, a child sick in the hospital, far from home, Ronald McDonald House steps in and gives them a safe, warm place to sleep, eat and breathe, do laundry, shower, store their stuff. And it's just steps from the hospital. And we want to raise $3,400, which is the cost for a family to stay there for for three weeks. And how you can help is by heading to frugalfriendspodcast.com run and donating to help us not just run the Disney World Marathon, but helping these families stay together. And for every donation of over $25, we are gonna send you one of these frugal, not cheap, bags because that's what you're doing when you are donating to Ronald McDonald House Charities. So again, Frugal Friends Pod. And I look forward to seeing how much the Frugal Friends community can raise for this amazing organization and showing you fun behind the scenes as I train for the Disney World Marathon. In January.