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

Summary

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

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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

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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."

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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.

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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.

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Transcript

[A]

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

[B]

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]

Welcome, Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.

[C]

I'm Jill.

[A]

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]

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]

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]

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

[A]

I would like to appeal to you today on that.

[D]

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.

[C]

Thanks.

[A]

So, like I said, we are trying to raise $3,000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities. So head to frugalfriendspodcast.com/run to support this amazing organization. And if you want to see us run Disney World, because literally without you, I won't be running my marathon and I won't get to ride Expedition everest at mile 17, which is truly the only reason I'm doing this.

[C]

That is, that is kind of a fun thing about these races.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Not. Not always. Do you get to stop in the middle and ride a ride?

[A]

Not always. Like, what? If you know of another marath that I could run where I could ride a roller coaster in the middle, let me know because I will never do this one again.

[C]

The level of adrenaline pumping through you, like what you require of your body in that singular day, I is insane.

[A]

Am. We'll see how I am unwell, how I am Speaking of, why. Why am I doing the things that I'm doing? Why did we do this? Why did we track ourselves spending for 30 days? So this is inspired by our 90 day transaction inventory. So if you've watched the show or if you've read our book, buy what you love without going broke. We advocate for before you go forward, before you start budgeting and tracking your spending, to first look back, we learn from our mistakes and we learn about ourselves by observing ourselves in the most recent past. And so what a 90 day transaction inventory is, is you're looking at all of your transactions. This is, I think maybe we don't give it the weight that it really deserves, but I do think that it, it deserves a level of weight. When we say 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. And that is, that's a lot over 90 days. So, and, and we're talking fixed expenses and discretionary. And then you're going through every transaction and you are inspecting it. You are looking at your fixed expenses and saying, when's the last time I've questioned this? When's the last time I've negotiated this? You're looking at your discretionary expenses and you're saying, why did I make this purchase? How did I feel after I purchased it? How do I feel now about it? Did it get me what I wanted? If there was a goal to it? And Honestly, there's a goal and a reason to every single purchase, no matter how big or small. And so that is what we are doing. The 90 day transaction inventory is something that can take you several days to get through, if not a full week. And so it is not something that we just copy and paste, browse and move on. So this is something that's very weighty. So this was inspired by that. What do we do after the 90 day transaction inventory? Well, of course we want to make a budget for, but then also we want to track our expenses for 30 days moving forward in a, in a more intense way than we would if we were just sustainably budgeting.

[C]

Yeah, this is ultimately not about restriction, but a level of awareness of where is our money going? And the 30 days can be one of those maintenance pieces for us. But of course, it's not enough to just track it.

[A]

Right.

[C]

We could do that and just walk away and forget all about it. It is supposed to inform, tell us more about ourselves, how we've been behaving with finances, and then we can make informed, intentional decisions for what we want to do going forward. But it's got to start with that awareness piece. And we want to bring a curiosity lens to this where we are not bringing judgments, we're not asking ourselves these why questions that can put us on the defense. We are taking like the scientific approach that we practiced in fifth grade of let me just collect data, let me see what this data reveals about this spender. Almost detach it from yourself. What am I going to learn about who this person is by looking through these things? And then we'll kind of begin making meaning.

[E]

But first we're looking at it.

[C]

So we want to do this for ourselves.

[A]

That's a super important distinction. The data piece, like taking yourself out and looking like, it's not about me, it's about this, this person. So we take the emotion out of it.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. But ultimately we're not going to be able to change things that we've not taken a look at. We could think we know what needs to shift in our spending, but if we don't actually look at what our spending is doing and saying, we could be really off on it, either for our benefit or not. We could think, oh, I really got to rein in my takeout. No, turns out that's actually really fine. What I do got to reign is my impulse purchases. We just don't know until we look. So here's how we did it. I mean, our methods differ. We know this. So I, I Love a pen and paper. It really helps me to just write things down. So I will just go through my credit card statement, my bank transactions, and I write it down. This is actually how I do my budget every other week. So I. I am very aware of what my transactions are. Although I dug in a little more for this one. I'll share more about that. But I will look at all my transactions and literally write them down on a piece of paper in the different categories. My categories are so simple. I've got food, miscellaneous, gas, and parking, which are separate from my, you know, fixed expenses.

[A]

Yeah. So I use Monarch Money. It's an app. And you can get, if you want to try it, you can use code Frugal, and you can get 50% off your first year. But it is something I personally pay for. I don't get it for free. And it really helps because I am. I have not enough time, energy, or will to do spreadsheet or paper. So this brings in everything from every card. Nothing gets missed, and it puts it in one place. And so I have a running, like, tally of transactions, and I have a widget on my phone where it just shows me I can see my last three transactions at all time. And it's not just my transactions. It's also Travis's transactions. But I was only looking at mine for, for this particular challenge. But yeah, I can see in real time, as soon as it updates what my last transactions, it usually takes about 12 hours. But that for me was more than enough time to, like, wait to process. But I did go in and look at the transactions, and this is how we will budget is we'll just go in and look for at the whole month of transactions and see how they aligned with our budget. And then from there, we'll kind of make moves. But this one, I was going in more frequently to check those transactions.

[C]

Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So again, we're tracking everything big and small, even the fixed expenses. Everything got looked, looked at, and without judgment. Just what did we do?

[A]

Only two rules. Those are the only two rules for this challenge. Track everything big and small, and no judgment.

[C]

Okay, so what did you find?

[A]

All right, so for me, I was able to find percentages really easy because Monarch has really good, like, data visualization tools. So if you're a visual person and like that stuff, they're really good for that. But so I found nothing really surprising. I spent 28% of my income on housing, 10% on food, and 0.18% on shopping.

[C]

Wait, 18?

[A]

Yes. Okay, 0.18%. So that's like my clothing and my Amazon and I actually for this month had zero Amazon and non grocery Walmart purchases.

[C]

Nice.

[A]

So since doing this challenge have made two Amazon orders. We don't have prime. So we wait until we have enough for free shipping. And I've done that twice.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

So I will be transparent about that. Usually I have one Amazon transaction per month, but I think I just moved it. Not because I had to, not because it was a no spend month, but I just. That's how it landed. Yes. Yes.

[C]

What. So what. Where is the other spending? Because that doesn't all equal a hundred percent.

[A]

Oh, you. You wanted me to go 100%. You don't have to.

[C]

I'm just, I am impressed by that. Less than 1% spending on shopping.

[A]

That's crazy. That's just how it happen. Happened.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I will go to reports and show you.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Well last month that we had. Well, I'll show you. This is what it looks like. I'm not going to show the camera

[C]

for the people who are either listening or watching. And either of you can see it. It's a lot of colors and then kind of like waves. The colors kind of come down visually.

[A]

If I can find an example from Monarch, I'll put it up on the screen. But yeah, so I mean we had a little bit more towards retirement this month because we don't max out our Roth IRAs right now. We max out daycare. So as we transition away from daycare, we will transition back into our Roth IRAs. But we did put extra that we had not spent over the last few months and we banked some extra into retirement. So That's, I mean 2% on insurance. We had 15.8% towards retirement. But that's not actually normal for us.

[C]

2% insure all insurances.

[A]

No, because some insurance is. Our health insurance is taken out pre distribution. So that's my healthcare sharing. Groceries was 8 and a half percent. Restaurants 2.24%. We spent less than $300 on eating out in March.

[C]

Nice.

[A]

So that we did good in March too on food.

[C]

I, I don't know what it was. March should be my no spend month.

[A]

Yeah, it might. January, February and then here, I mean we spent $445 on gas. How does that like. Yeah, more on gas than we spent on restaurants.

[C]

I mean prices went up.

[A]

I know.

[C]

And then you felt it.

[A]

March was a bad month for gas.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And then we had 126 bucks on auto maintenance, our thousand dollars on child care.

[C]

What percentage is that?

[A]

Would you say it's 8%. Ish.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. So. And then everything else is very small. I had a heightened fitness, but I went to an. I, I went to a new gym and decided I didn't need the $30 a month program. I just need the $10 a month. But then they make you pay the enrollment fee up front where the other ones don't have an enrollment fee. But I did the math long term and it still saves me 15 bucks a month even by having to pay that because everyone pays the annual fee. Same for everyone. So I did have that. How about you?

[C]

Okay, so this was new for me to break it out into percentages because I don't use an app and it doesn't quickly do that. That's not typical for me. So this part, this exercise was more illuminating for me. And I lumped all housing and bills together. So we're talking electric, water, trash, Internet, sewer, like all of the bills. And I called it housing because it's what it costs for housing. And that's 45% of what I spent, not, not of my income, but 45. These are all percentages of my spending, not necessarily my income. But yeah, 45% of my spending went to housing and bills, which feels like a lot. It feels like a lot to live here.

[A]

Well, it's what you're spending, but not what you're bringing in.

[C]

Right.

[A]

The typical recommendation is 28 to 30 of your take home income for housing and bills. So you could be more.

[C]

So just housing. I don't think they're typically, they're not factoring in. Also electric and water, Internet and trash sometimes.

[A]

That's why it's like a range 20 to 30. Yeah, some people do, some people don't.

[C]

Yeah. Food spending was 11%, miscellaneous spending, 11%. And that's just kind. That's like everything, honestly. That included plane tickets. That was my pillow fiasco, trying to find a new pillow. That's a dress I bought. Also 11% was giving 8% savings. So I got to figure out Those, those percentages. 8% insurances, so that's medical, auto, renters, all of that. And then 3% on gas and parking and 3% on entertainment and subscriptions.

[A]

So this is 100% of what you spent. So like where is the. There's more money that you didn't spend that you didn't put into savings.

[C]

Oh, well, that's true. No, that would have been the savings portion.

[A]

You're right.

[C]

By the time I figured out all my spending, then I figured out. All right, well, then how much went to savings?

[A]

Okay, so this is.

[C]

That's true.

[A]

Total.

[C]

That's true. Yeah, that's true.

[A]

Okay. All right, so what did we learn? What did. What did you learn?

[C]

I. That I spend a lot on housing and bills. But that's a lot.

[A]

But I don't think that there's. And we've said this before, I think that 30% is arbitrary. It is what you need to get a mortgage. So there is some, like, validity to it. But if you want to live in a higher cost of living area and you want your other expenses to be lower, to be able to do that. Yeah, that's your right. You only live once. And you should love where you live. It's. If you want to live in a high cost of living area and have higher expenses everywhere else, that's where we get into the issue.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So I am still able to, you know, meet all these other expenses and still put a, you know, an amount of money away towards saving. So I feel good about that. This past month was good as it relates to food. So it is interesting even looking at your number of. What were you at? 8, 10% on food? So we were right around the same range. But I do think typically for me, it might be more like 13% on food. So I think it just kind of illuminated. All right. What it looked like in March is kind of what I would want the typical month to look like when it comes to food. So I'm kind of just tracking in my mind what did I do this past month that allowed me to kind of stay within the range that is ideal for me?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Any learnings for you?

[A]

For me, it was the, like, it's just $10 kind of thing. I noticed myself in real time since I was thinking about this transaction tracking challenge. It made me more aware of my purchases in real time as I was making them. So, like, we went to Monster Jam, and Monster Jam is something, you know, I gladly spent too much money on. Cause my kids are obsessed with monster trucks. And we bought, you know, the knockoff shirts on the way in. Like, we parked in somebody's backyard to save 40 bucks on parking. And then we bought the knockoff shirt on the way in to save money on the shirt. But for some reason, we got two of them. We didn't need two of them. It was just one. Was already holding one, and I had one in my hand, and I handed him 20, and I was like, whatever, whatever. It's just $10. Each shirt was $10 right. You know, so like. But I didn't need a second shirt.

[C]

Right. That is a big takeaway that it's just $10.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And.

[A]

But it adds up. So like in Chick Fil A we got our meals, like we had free sandwiches, like coupons. And then somebody was hungry, like more hungry. So I just like went into the app and ordered an extra thing of chicken nuggets. And they brought. I did not have to leave the table.

[C]

Right.

[A]

I ordered chicken nuggets and they brought them to me. And that was four bucks. And then we went. I went to Crazy Hot Buys.

[C]

Yeah. Take it in.

[A]

Which Jill has been to so many times.

[C]

Not so many. And I was accountable amount of times.

[A]

I'm sorry. I was talking to Jessica and she's like, I think I've been there with Jill once. I was like, who's Jill go with every. Anybody. Anybody we know who goes to Crazy Hot Pies? Jill's just there, like, what?

[C]

Oh my gosh. Yeah, he's right.

[A]

So I went for the first time ever, which is like the Amazon return store, but apparently this one was a Target return store. So it was all just like Target stuff. And I ended up spending 2470 on things that I don't think I really need because each of the Items were just $4. Yeah. So, like, I think that was my. It was that justification spending.

[C]

Those types of stores are really dangerous because you really can't go in there with a list of what you think you're looking for. You are just going as an activity to just. Just see what kind of deals exist. And I'm not saying we can never do that. Obviously I've done it.

[A]

She has done it.

[C]

But just beware that you. You have no idea what they're gonna have and you might get sucked in.

[A]

It stressed me out. My friend Dave took a video of my reaction to seeing it for the first time and I actually did not see the video. If I can get it from him, I will put it up.

[C]

Put it any. Jen just doesn't think it's worth a full episode.

[A]

And that's fine.

[C]

I respect it.

[A]

It's not that I don't think it's worth it. And even if you're in the comments and you're like, oh, I want to hear it, it's still a no. Because I'm not gonna create a full 45 minute outline about my, like talking about my luteal phase for 10 minutes and how that impacts how I spend money. Like, if it's just a personal thing that I don't want to talk about.

[C]

And I respect that. It's awesome.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, same. I. I spent. I was not. Eric was looking for clothing, so I went along with him. As one does blame it on Eric. I'm not blaming him.

[A]

No.

[C]

I'm just saying I was with him to go look for clothing for him.

[A]

I accompanied him to the hot bit.

[C]

It happened to me. Okay. I got dragged there. Of course, I could have stayed with him and browsed for him, but I didn't do that. I went to my section and browsed. And usually I'm very, very good when I'm not looking for something, but I did find a dress for $9, and it was so cute. It was only $9.

[A]

I found a shirt, like a cute summer shirt that I haven't worn for you yet, but it was $4 for me. For you. I haven't. I haven't put it on for you yet. $4. And that I will wear out, like, so good. And actually, I wore it to church, and a friend was like, oh, my gosh, I just got that shirt from Target. And I was like, I just got it from crazy Hot Box. And she's like, I'm kind of mad at you because that's in Target right now.

[C]

Oh, for like $25.

[A]

Yeah. And I was like, oh, we should wear it on the same day.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Also.

[C]

Also the. The it's just $10 problem. I don't know if I even say this about it, but 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. Yeah. So there's that.

[F]

Does anyone else get the urge to reset everything when seasons change? Like, I start cleaning out closets, reorganizing my space, and then I'm like, oh, my finances could use this same energy. That's where Monarch has been so helpful for me lately.

[E]

I say let Monarch do your financial spring cleaning for you. One dashboard that gets your entire financial life organized. No more clutter, no more mess, no more scattered logins. Just accounts, investments, property, and more all in one place. Get your first year of Monarch for half off. Just $50 with promo code. Frugal.

[F]

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[E]

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[C]

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[E]

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[C]

That's kind of what it feels like.

[E]

Shopping on whatnot. It's a live shopping app where you can snag amazing deals in real time.

[F]

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[A]

And I got it.

[E]

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[A]

Okay. Another thing that I noticed was this convenience tax that we have that has been super normalized, that we have just kind of like transitioned into paying without thinking. So for me, I tried to avoid this. We went. We stayed at a Hyatt RIP Hyatt. Because this month they, when this comes out, have drastically changed their points valuation. So I don't know if we'll be staying in another one. You hear that?

[C]

Hyatt?

[A]

Yeah, you hear that? So I tried to do a Walmart delivery to the hotel and did succeed with saving some money there, but my kids got too hungry. And so we ate all the food and then had to eat at the restaurant and paid instead of going out because I was just like, you know what? It's too. It's too hard. So we paid like $85 out of that $385 was the Hyatt restaurant for dinner. And I. It was. I didn't even, like, question it. I just was like, you know what? I'm too tired. It's too much. And then another one is I spent $80 on fingerprinting to become a Level 2 volunteer at the school because now they're requiring everyone to get fingerprinted. I get it. I agree with it. But I could have found it cheaper if I was willing to go somewhere, but somebody came on site to a PTA meeting, and so I was like, oh, yeah, like 80 bucks to not have to drive somewhere and get fingerprinted. So it was just these, like, mindless. There's a balance, I think, between convenience spending and, like, being inconvenienced a little bit. I think we could all do with a little bit more inconvenience, which is why I'm not renewing Walmart plus at full price. I'm gonna go back to picking up my groceries and save that fifty dollars or a hundred dollars, rather, because it's just a little inconvenience. I can still do all the shopping on the app. I can still pick my time. I can still, you know, avoid the impulse shopping of going into the grocery store and the time it takes to go into the grocery store. So, like, it's just a minor inconvenience to go down the street and have it delivered to my car.

[C]

It's such a tension though, because not everything has to be optimized. It also is okay that right then and there, in order to become this volunteer as quickly as possible, you paid probably just just five bucks more than if. I mean, I don't know. I'm just guessing. But there are times where it is okay to pay for convenience, but it is important to keep our sights on how often is that happening. I have a similar experience to you with the food. When I was looking back, there was one day. So I actually went to the Ren Fair this past month. I have not been to the Renaissance fair since middle school, but friends of ours wanted to go.

[A]

I've actually never been.

[C]

Huh? Yeah. Oh, with it's time, it is heard. Yeah. And so we spent a good part of the day there. And throughout the day, between Eric and I, we spent $73 on food and beverages. And when I look back and compare that, that is 10% of my entire food spending for the whole month. Just one day of going out. And so, yeah, it really highlighted for me how much is saved by eating at home. And thankfully that I'm not doing that all the time. So I was able to afford that within my overall food budget because typically I'm not spending that much. But that does hurt a little bit to realize one day took up 10% of my. All my spending.

[A]

Yeah, I do love the conveniences that we have available to us. But it is finding that balance between taking advantage of it and being a little inconvenienced to save an appropriate amount of money. Like it's gotta be an appropriate amount of money to withstand an inconvenience. Yeah. And so yeah, I, I with the gym, I was gonna work out at home, but that was actually too much of an inconvenience. And by that I mean I never worked out because I was always getting distracted. The dog would come up and like stiff me. I didn't have heavy enough dumbbells because I literally have two sets of dumbbells. I got 15 and I got 25. So if the fives that I use for shoulder raises and the 40s I'm using for squats are non existent in my house. So like for that it was not like the inconvenience was too great to save the money, but for the groceries, I mean, for years I picked up my own groceries. It's just been for one year that I've had them delivered. And so it's not just a hundred dollar sa so the tip every single week. So for me, I'm gonna try that one out. That's my next inconvenience that I'm gonna try out and we'll see how it goes.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

The last thing that we both kind of learned together is some of the things we thought were worth it or would be worth it were not. Tell me about yours, Jill.

[C]

Okay, so Eric and I only have one vehicle and but two scooters. So he was out, he took the car the one night and I was meeting up with a friend and I wasn't going over to her house until 8 o' clock after the kids were in bed. And so I just felt a little uncomfortable riding the scooter at night by myself, which is fair. So I ended up taking, I got a lift just over to her house. She only lives like two miles away. And that I had a lift credit so it did cover some of it. But the whole thing, including tip, ended up being $10, which in the grand scheme of things is it is kind of worth it given the fact that we don't have two cars. And all of the costs of an additional car allows me to be able to do like an Uber or Lyft occasionally. But then the next night he also went somewhere else with the car and I took the scooter downtown to meet friends for trivia. And it went fine, like same time of day, whatever. So I looked back and I'm like, I should have Just done that the night before. But I don't know. I'm on the fence because part of me is like intuition. I just wasn't comfy. Take a lift.

[A]

But I feel like your intuition was on going into a neighborhood at night is much different than going downtown. Like, it's packed every night downtown. So, like, you're not going to run into much tomfoolery there.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So I feel like you were on. So I'm going to negate that one.

[C]

I'm going to come up with a different answer.

[A]

You don't have to come up with a different answer.

[C]

But I am.

[A]

I don't want.

[C]

But it is one of those things I think about, you know, and when things. But I don't want to be so limited when it comes to feelings of safety and security that, oh, I can't spend. So it is. It is that line. But I think I would have been fine. So. Yeah, we'll see.

[A]

Yeah. So I can't find the cross out part. And you'll never see it, but imagine me crossing this.

[C]

Okay. What did you think was worth it?

[A]

Oh, okay. So when we went away for that little, like, weekend staycation, I went. I wanted to take the kids to a farmer's market and a music festival. It was free and it was. I don't think it was worth it, but that was free. So that's like, not like you have as a mom, you have these idealized, like, scenarios and you're like, oh, I want to take. You know, this is going to be so picturesque and idyllic. And really it's the kids just like sitting and being like, I want to go home. I'm hungry. Yes, that's what it was. And I was like, you guys suck.

[C]

I do everything for this family.

[A]

I personally, though, got to hear a cover band doing like all indie rock from the early 2010s. Worth it for me was, okay, so that was worth it. And that was free. What I spent money on at this farmer's market was a five dollar iced coffee. That was gross.

[C]

No.

[A]

And like, there's always something wonderful about walking around a farmer's market with an iced coffee. Right you, right now, I'm looking at you at home or in your car. I wanted it to be great, but I've become actually really picky about my iced coffee now since I've mastered my own recipe. I actually tried a different cold brew that was Bogo at Publix, and it was disgusting again.

[C]

Back to Stoke.

[A]

Back to Stoke. It's Stoke or nothing. For me. Stoke, if you're listening, please.

[C]

Which stoke is at Aldi? Right? Yeah.

[A]

And it's at Costco. It's at Aldi. It's everywhere.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, you have no reason not to not to. So that was. I thought it was going to be worth it, and it was. Absolutely not. And again, I will stick to my local coffee shops that I am familiar with and know, like, for me, it's worth trying out local coffee shops to see which ones have the good, like, coffees and syrups and which ones don't. Because once I find it, I can go back to it and, like, become a regular patron, but, like, out and about, maybe just, like, not worth it.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Thankfully, it didn't cost you too much.

[A]

No, it was just five bucks. Okay, so let's wrap it all up

[F]

with the big moral of the story.

[C]

Tie a knot onto it. I mean, we do this because I think it's. Think it's good for us to remind ourselves, remind everybody else that even though we've been doing this podcast for eight years, can you believe it? We're still together. You're still here. We're all still here. We still have spending traps. We still make impulse purchases. We can still look back and say, ah, wasn't worth it. We still have to continuously audit ourselves. So if you're experiencing that, know that this is typical. It's normal. It happens to all of us, even the ones who have been podcasting and talking and researching and focusing on this for a career for the last eight years. So we're. We're human. We're dynamic. Things shift and change our goals, our values, our life circumstances, and we've got to remain kind of nimble and flexible with it.

[A]

Yeah. Something I saw is that, like, 80% of our decisions are good. A lot of them are on autopilot. And I think 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. Now, that's not a good strategy. If you're trying to reach a financial goal quickly, we need to use something, but if something different. But if you're just trying to live, just maximize your life enjoyment, that 8020 principle really does has come in clutch. Now we want to make sure that that 20 isn't full of bad decisions. It's just kind of like, net neutral stuff. But, yeah, I think you can really live a good life in maintenance with this 8020 principle.

[C]

Do you know what allows me to live A good life. And I want it to be a 100% principle.

[A]

It is 100. This is the thing. We can keep 100% of the time to really help with that ratio. The bill of.

[B]

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. This is the Bill of the Week.

[G]

Hi, Jen and Jill. This is Charlene in Virginia. I wanted to call in my bill of the week, which I have two things I'm super proud of. One is that instead of running out to the grocery store to make something I wanted to make today, I made substitutes with what I already had. And it was delicious and really good. So I made protein balls, and I just used the granola I already had because I was out of oats and chia seeds and the chocolate protein powder instead of the vanilla because I only had chocolate. And the chocolate chips I had, which were not the kind they called for in the recipe, and they turned out great. So I learned a good lesson there. I don't have to run out to the grocery store. Second, and a much bigger one. My treadmill is very squeaky and kind of getting stuck when I'm running on it. And I almost replaced it this week, which with a walking pad that was $180, but instead I decided to try. I haven't received it yet, but I'm hoping this will work. A $10 grease oil thing for the treadmill. And I bet that will probably solve my problem. And instead of paying for a subpar replacement for my treadmill or paying the full amount for my treadmill, I will now have hopefully the same treadmill, but it will work much better. I am a professor at a university, and I also wanted to add that I have my students or I send them to your podcast for financial advice. Love your podcast. Love your show. Hi to you all. I feel like you're my friends next door. Love listening to your podcast. Thanks.

[A]

Thanks. Oh, my gosh, Charlene. Okay. I knew you were gonna say grease, because no, your treadmill does need to be greased every once in a while. That is a thing that needs to happen. And yes, $10 versus. Yeah, those walking pads for $180 are crap.

[D]

They're so short.

[A]

You have to take, like, tiny little steps. I'm looking. I have a walking pad that I use that it is. It's Good quality. I got it on Facebook Marketplace and eventually I'm looking at upgrading to a treadmill for yes, that you'll get it. That was the goal. So, yes, in my research, that has been something that comes up a lot. So I am so glad. I hope it works for you, Charlene.

[C]

You are a true frugal friend.

[A]

You are.

[C]

You are our poster child. If we could have your face and put it on this wall behind us, us. You are the representation of everything we, we want out of our frugal friends.

[A]

If I, if I liked creating AI images, I would create you, Charlene, as an AI image right here. But I am 100% not going to do that. Nothing will pop up right there

[C]

unless Rand decides to put something there. Unless Rand's like, here you go, he's on one. This is Charlene, our master child.

[A]

We have given him creative liberties in this and so we'll see what happens. And thank you for suggesting us to your students.

[C]

I could not be more. Absolutely.

[A]

You were not the first professor to say this. We've had another one. And so if your teacher or professor sent you to the podcast and you're listening right now, please comment on this YouTube video.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Because we want to know if you're actually listening to your teachers.

[C]

Oh, everything about this, the substitutes. Oh, if that could be something that I just scream, this might be my one voter issue. I don't think you can vote on it, but just that you don't have to follow a recipe exactly. And I know that that sounds next level. Maybe to some of us who are just learning to cook. It's fine. You don't have to be there right now. But just know that if you don't have one ingredient, there are at least usually 10 substitutes for it that you probably do have on hand.

[A]

Google it. Try it out. Google it.

[C]

Google, Google it.

[A]

You got it. Or if you have our meal planner. Frugalfriendspodcast.com meal planner. We have a whole list of substitutes

[C]

too, so no kidding. Okay, well, thanks, Charlene. Love you. You're great. If anybody else is listening and you have a bill that you want to share if. If it's about sending your students our way, if it's about using substitutes, if it's about saving money, not using something that's becoming broken as an excuse to buy something new, we'd love to hear it. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill. Thanks.

[E]

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I live in their linen pants and dresses.

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[E]

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[E]

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[C]

And now it's time for lightning round.

[A]

Favorite transaction from the last 30 days. Go.

[C]

Entertainment's bending.

[A]

I'll put all my you need a single transaction. What was your favorite one entertainment transaction.

[C]

Well it's Only it's movies, soccer game, and Ren Fair. What did I like most? I guess I'll go with Ren Faire. I don't regret it. Okay.

[A]

I don't regret it. Wow.

[C]

What a little bar. I think I'm gonna spend $25 again to go to the Ren Fair in a very long time. But, like, it was good. It was fun.

[A]

What was your favorite part?

[C]

Oh, I was just gonna say this one dude was yielding, throwing fire. And then he had this big old contraption where it had this heavy ball on one end, and then like a. Like a mouse, a rat, you know, circle thing in the middle. And then he would run on that, and then it would cause it to swing all the way up and then fall back down while he's got fire tricks happening. It was insane. None of us were con. Like, we all sat there and watched because we thought we were gonna see an accident happen. Like, nobody was watching, thinking, we trust this guy wholeheartedly and we're only going to be entertained. No, it wasn't.

[A]

It.

[C]

It wasn't just that. It was. We are going to watch him lose a limb. That's what's about to happen.

[A]

It didn't, though. I just tried to picture in my head, and I literally cannot. I literally can't.

[C]

We need so many visuals here. Yeah, well, you tell me yours, and I'll see if I can find a p. Okay.

[A]

Mine was $94.32 on four tickets to Monster Jam.

[C]

Oh.

[A]

I had never been to Monster Jam. Usually we would just send Travis and Kai, so we would only have to get two tickets, and we got the $10 off because Chick Fil A always has, like, a deal or somewhere. Somewhere always has a deal on Monster Jam tickets. But we. They were still very expensive, so go. We. We did it. Okay.

[C]

This.

[A]

Oh, God. Nope.

[C]

That's.

[A]

Yeah, that was never coming into my brain.

[C]

Okay, we'll show. We'll. We'll also show you guys what I'm talking about. I'm probably going to describe it. Well, it's got this, like, weight at one end and, like, this ball at the other.

[A]

They'll see it circle. They'll see it. It's done. Let's wrap it up. Let's get the good folks out of here. This is what happens. I don't always track the time of an episod episode, but when I do, this is what happens.

[C]

We just are in our own world. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being here, and thank you for reading our book, too, and then leaving us reviews. Some of you are doing the most like Carolina leaving us five stars. Saying realistic and relatable financial perspective. I have been listening to the Frugal Friends podcast for a few years. All throughout my debt payoff journey, my savings journey and my investing journey.

[B]

Woo.

[C]

This book is the best of all those worlds with real financial perspective for real people. Highly recommend for those wanting a holistic approach to their financial success.

[A]

Thank you so much. That means so much because most people don't think of us when they think about investing. And we want them to when we become financial planners.

[C]

We sure do.

[A]

Because we do know a lot about investing. Yeah, it just doesn't get a lot of clicks. So we don't talk about it a lot.

[C]

Right.

[A]

I wonder, I wonder why we don't get a lot of clicks on our investing content. Let us know in the comments. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the show, Please subscribe on YouTube. If you've read the book, please leave a review on Amazon. These are free ways that you can support the show and spread this message further and wider.

[C]

See you next time.

[A]

Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Searing. Annie.

[C]

Okay, something I didn't share. Speaking of tips. And this was, this was a demerit for the Ren fair. When we purchased drinks from this one stand, they were all the servers ringing a bell for your level of tipping. So they would stare and watch it. Watch you at the point, you know, is a just like a square sale,

[A]

like, like tip shaming. Uh huh.

[C]

And they would watch what you would choose. If you did 20%, they'd just be like, oh yeah, decent tipper. It wasn't unless you did 25% or more. Did they walk over and ring a bell.

[B]

Woo.

[C]

Generous tipper. Generous tipper. And if you did 15% on a beer, they were like, oh, this guy sucks. Stuff like that.

[A]

That would make me buy less alcohol.

[C]

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, yeah, yeah.

[A]

You, you.

[C]

They literally poured a beer and expected 25% or more.

[A]

It is almost the same skill level to dispense Coca Cola as it is to dispense a beer. I.

[C]

What's your point?

[A]

Do I tip 25% to the, to the person who like gives me a soda?

[C]

That's what they would want.

[A]

That is what they would want.

[C]

And I mean who wouldn't? I'd love to receive 25% on every.

[A]

I would just like them all to receive wages that, that are good, that I don't have to subsidize.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. It was just a crazy experience, but everything else was also wild.

[A]

All right, maybe that's for another episode.

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[A]

I wish I had a premier group chat. I asked them where we should have

[C]

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[A]

I know you saw it. It says it.

[B]

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