We Tried a No Spend Challenge. Here's How it Went

Summary

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Frugal Friends Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title:

We Tried a No Spend Challenge. Here's How it Went
Hosts: Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni
Release Date: March 6, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jen and Jill dive deep into their experiences with a "No Spend Challenge" during January. They candidly discuss the highs and lows, unexpected challenges, and the personal insights gained from attempting to limit discretionary spending for a month. The hosts emphasize learning from the process over achieving perfection, sharing both their wins and slip-ups with humor and honesty for listeners striving for better financial habits.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• The personal and practical impact of a no spend (or low spend) month-long challenge
• How financial extremes can help reset habits and reveal spending triggers
• Transparency about failures and embracing imperfections
• Encouragement to customize your no spend challenge to fit your life

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Try a No Spend Challenge?

(Timestamps: 02:45–04:44)

• January as reset month: Post-holiday overspending makes January ideal for re-evaluating habits.
• More than money: It's an exercise in self-awareness, uncovering how you react emotionally to spending triggers—boredom, stress, celebration.
• Not about extremes: The hosts advocate for short-term extremes to help find a "radical middle," not long-term deprivation.

Notable Quote:

“It’s really quite a tethering that is not meant to be more than 30 days, but can reveal a lot and help us financially.” —Jill (04:23)

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2. Customizing the Challenge

(Timestamps: 04:44–06:02)

• Define your own rules. You can do a no spend challenge on a category (e.g. Amazon, groceries, eating out) or everything except essentials.
• Sustainability is key. Change is more powerful when focused—don’t try to do everything at once.

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3. Jill’s No Spend January: Wins & Challenges

(Timestamps: 06:02–17:33)

Jill’s Personal Rules

• Only one grocery trip each week; focus on eating at home.
• Essentials only—reduce as much as possible without expecting perfection.

Week-by-Week Breakdown

• Week 1: Success mostly due to being sick (less temptation)

• Week 2: Wedding maid-of-honor expenses required spending; got creative by handling own hair & makeup, but unexpected costs like a dress-appropriate bra cropped up.

• Week 3: Birthday and family events increased gift spending, but scored a big win with a $630 travel reimbursement (credit card travel insurance).

  “Nothing’s going to keep you from spending quite like just needing to sleep all day and go through piles and piles of tissues.” —Jill (06:45)

Spending Recap

• Travel: Reduced anticipated $600+ to just $63 thanks to points and reimbursement (11:48).
• Gifts: $760 in January due to a mix of joyful and sad life events, paid guilt-free thanks to a sinking fund (12:31).
• Wedding: Total cost of $519.75 as maid of honor, less than expected due to returning unused items and creatively sourcing a survival kit from home (14:30).

Lessons & Creative Wins

• Maximized resources on-hand for event prep; returned unopened purchases that weren’t needed.
• Diligently tracked spending and found ways to minimize extra travel costs—e.g., hiring driver instead of airport parking (16:13–17:23).

Notable Quote:

“Life still happens in the midst of a no spend challenge...the fact that I had prepared ahead of time by having a sinking fund allowed me to do some of these things guilt free.” —Jill (12:32)

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4. Jen’s No Spend January: Goals & Outcomes

(Timestamps: 19:59–36:43)

Jen’s Personal Rules

• One coffee shop trip per week allowed (her big vice)
• One grocery run per week, one Costco run per month—focus on meal planning and prep

Highlights & Struggles

• Started strong with meal prepping and resisting takeout temptation

• Like Jill, was sick for much of the month—"the ultimate no spend hack"

• Family of four kept restaurant spending to $138 for the month (24:51)

• Grocery spending stayed steady at $1,000, similar to prior months, though Jen wishes it were lower (23:44)

• Coffee shop spending: Intended to limit, but ironically spent $40 (higher than usual), possibly due to making coffee a mental focus.

  “Sometimes the awareness and the constant thinking about ‘I’m not going to do this’ can lead you to doing it—backfire.” —Jill (25:40)

Amazon Temptations & Rationalizations

• Slipped by buying gifts (justified), and a shirt and hat for family events (less justified but approached creatively by only buying one shirt instead of matching sets).

  “I have no excuse on that, honestly. I didn’t need it. But it was cute.” —Jen (28:00)

Unexpected Costs

• Trampoline park required purchase of branded socks; resisted unnecessary spending and got a free pair from the manager (28:46–29:25).

What Went Well

• Restaurant and eating out spending stayed impressively low
• Meal prepping kept food costs and temptation in check

What Needs Work

• Wants to challenge grocery spending further, potentially via a "pantry challenge" in February.

  “I know I eat at home a lot, so that makes my grocery budget bigger, and I’m not mad about that. But I do want to see if I can get it to $800.” —Jen (31:45)

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5. Lessons Learned & Plans for Next Month

(Timestamps: 33:29–39:54)

• Jen: Wants to push grocery spending down to $800 in February through more creative use of pantry items; hopes for $100 restaurants cap; zero coffee shop trips.

• Jill: Committed to only one grocery trip per week, and limiting eating out to 1–2 times per week or setting a monthly dollar cap.

  “We cannot change ten habits at a time... bringing out that one to two habit change going into the next month... is the most impactful way to do it.” —Jen (41:16)

• Both reinforce: the value isn’t in perfection, but in self-awareness and carrying lessons into further months.

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6. The Real Success Metric

(Timestamps: 39:54–41:59)

• Not about zero spending: It's about learning about your triggers, habits, and values; then acting on those lessons for lasting change.

• Embrace imperfection: Life happens (illness, family events, celebrations, losses)—give yourself grace and flexibility.

  “The success of a no spend challenge is how many things you learn about your spending that you can take with you into subsequent months.” —Jen (40:07)

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7. Listener Bill of the Week

(Timestamps: 43:04–48:09)

• Listener shares a cautionary tale about paying much more than expected for tax prep after buying a rental property, but got a partial credit by asking for an explanation. Hosts stress the importance of shopping around for tax pros and knowing when to seek planning vs. preparation.

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8. Rationalizations & Reflections

(Timestamps: 50:31–51:38)

• Both hosts discuss personal rationalizations for spending (“I planned for this,” “I don’t spend a lot so I deserve this”). Reinforce that intentionality is key, and your budget is a tool—adjust as needed.

  “It’s your plan—you’re not beholden to the plan. The plan is beholden to you.” —Jen (51:24)

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9. Credit Card Travel Insurance Hack

(Timestamps: 53:06–55:54)

• Jill shares a major win using credit card travel insurance, covering unexpected costs from a canceled flight (over $600 reimbursed). Reminds listeners to list and review card perks so as not to miss out on included benefits.

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Memorable Quotes

• “It’s really quite a tethering that is not meant to be more than 30 days, but can reveal a lot and help us financially.” —Jill (04:23)
• “Life still happens in the midst of a no spend challenge...the fact that I had prepared ahead of time by having a sinking fund allowed me to do some of these things guilt free.” —Jill (12:32)
• “Sometimes the awareness and the constant thinking about ‘I’m not going to do this’ can lead you to doing it—backfire.” —Jill (25:40)
• “The success of a no spend challenge is how many things you learn about your spending that you can take with you into subsequent months.” —Jen (40:07)
• “We cannot change ten habits at a time... bringing out that one to two habit change going into the next month... is the most impactful way to do it.” —Jen (41:16)
• “It’s your plan—you’re not beholden to the plan. The plan is beholden to you.” —Jen (51:24)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|-------------| | Why do a No Spend Challenge? | 02:45–04:44 | | Customizing challenge rules | 04:44–06:02 | | Jill’s week-by-week recap | 06:02–17:33 | | Jen’s approach & outcomes | 19:59–36:43 | | Discussion: grocery budgets & plans | 33:29–39:54 | | Takeaways & true measure of success | 39:54–41:59 | | Listener “Bill of the Week” | 43:04–48:09 | | Rationalizations for spending | 50:31–51:38 | | Credit card perk hack | 53:06–55:54 |

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Final Takeaway

A no spend challenge is less about absolute restriction and more about building self-awareness, identifying your personal triggers and values, and cultivating long-lasting, intentional habits—one lesson and one category at a time.

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To participate in a Frugal Friends merch giveaway, visit frugalfriendspodcast.com/mug (see 01:06 for details).

Transcript

[A]

We tried a no spend challenge. Here's how it went. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity,

[B]

and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.

[A]

Welcome, Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.

[B]

I'm Jill.

[A]

And we decided to stop spending money for one whole month. Except, like, on our bills and stuff. Like, we had to pay to live. No extras, just no spend January. And we are going to talk about it today.

[B]

We talk about intentional spending for a living. It is what we do here on the Frugal Friends podcast. But doing a no spend challenge, this strictly did bring up a lot of stuff that we didn't totally expect. And today we're going to break down where we nailed it, where we failed it, and what we are taking away from this challenge in hopes that it helps you.

[A]

Yes. But first, I have Frugal Friends merch that I am decluttering from my office, including this mug that says frugal af, Frugal and fun. Frugal as I feel.

[B]

Frugal, Frugal and family.

[A]

Frugal and fu. Whatever you want to say it is, I'm giving them away for free because they are cluttering my house and I'm going to give them away 5 per month through May. So all you have to do to win one is go to frugalfriendspodcast.com mug that's M U G and you have to be subscribed to the YouTube channel. So you're going to give us your YouTube username. If you don't know what that is, leave a comment on this video and your username is what comes up under your comment or above your comment. And that's how we will check to make sure you are subscribed. And we will pick five winners in March, five in April and five in May. And if you register now, our first drawing is March 13th, but if you don't win March 13th, you're going to stay in for the April and May drawings as well. So the earlier you register, the better your chances to win a Frugal mug. So it is unfortunately for us subscribers only. I'm so sorry to all of our international listeners. So, yeah, we can't wait to get those things out of my house. All right, so why did we do a no spend challenge, Jill?

[B]

I don't know, Jen. Why do we do what we do? Okay, here's the thing about it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Okay. It's not the most fun. You can make it fun.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But truly, we do no spend challenges to for multiple reasons, including getting ourselves back on track. It's one of the reasons we love a January no spend is it's after the holidays and most of us have built habits of buying, of spending more money than we are accustomed to. And that doesn't just go away because we flip the calendar over. We've got to kind of retrain ourselves to get back into a new normal. And also, there are so many other benefits to doing a no spend challenge beyond just the financial. A lot of times it is a good reset for finances and understanding how you're spending. But we learn so much about ourselves through the process of what are the decisions that we make? How do we respond to stress, how do we respond to celebration, how do we respond to boredom? How creative are we in coming up with fun things to do with without spending any money? And so however we kind of come to it, there's a reason to do it. It certainly is an extreme. If you've listened to us for a long time, you know, we don't like to live in extremes of one direction of just yolo, spend all your money or the other direction of hoard everything, never spend money. Neither one is great. However, visiting an extreme for say a month can help us to find our own radical middle and maybe where we might have been too far the other direction. So it, it's really quite a tethering that is not meant to be more than 30 days, but can reveal a lot and help us financially.

[A]

Yeah, we love the extremes, we love the no spend year, the low buy year, all of that. But we really think that if you're going to do a no spend, 30 days is ideal because it's supposed to teach you about your spending habits and then you put those lessons into practice in the next month. And so we found, we talked to some of our listeners last night who are doing a debt free challenge with us and finding that some people found no buy to be overwhelming. So knowing that you can do a no spend challenge as you define it. So if you're having an issue with just Amazon or just grocery impulse buys or like just buying coffee or eating out, you can do a no spend challenge in a certain category and ignore everything else. You can work on one thing at a time. So no spend can have different rules. So what we're going to do is we're going to go over the rules that we put in place individually because they were different and then how it went and what our actual numbers came out to. So Jill, what were your rules for

[B]

your no Spend January, I primarily wanted to focus on eating at home and only spending. Like only going out once a week for. For a grocery trip. Once a week, grocery trip. And then really essentials only. I did kind of want to see. I knew I wasn't going to spend nothing but wanted to reduce as much as possible, try and engage as many of my frugal tips and tools that I knew about. But it was. It was a hard month to do this.

[A]

Okay, well, let's see how it went for you.

[B]

See how it did. Well, week one of the no Spend challenge went pretty great, actually. And that is mostly because I was sick the whole time. Yeah, Joy, lucky me. 2026. Here we go. Got the sniffles. Nothing's going to keep you from spending quite like just needing to sleep all day and go through piles and piles of tissues. Week two, no Spend Challenge. Win and fail. We'll start with the failure. So I'm in a wedding too this month. I'm the maid of honor. Got a dress. There she is. Feel real great about it. That one's fun. But all the extra expenses, the dress and shoes are purchased. And then I realized that I don't have a bra that fits underneath this dress and isn't visible, so had to buy that. But the win is I'm going to do my own hair and makeup. That's right. We're not hiring professionals. I'm going to do it myself. So we'll save money there. Week three of no Spend challenge, and it's honestly starting to feel a little bit like playing the game of life. And I just spun it's your husband's birthday. Spend $80 on a birthday gift for him. Major win for this month. We just got reimbursed about $630 on travel costs because of a canceled trip back in December. And this month I took the time because I had it to submit travel costs incurred because of the flight cancellation. This is because of the credit card that we have. We have travel insurance. A lot of travel credit cards will come with this. So I've never used it before, but tried it submitted the hotel, all the food, the gas, the rental car that we ended up needing to get because of the canceled flight and they reimbursed everything and we got money back for the flight. So huge win for us. And this feels like time well spent submitting that claim. So in hindsight, I. I don't know that January was my best month to try and be doing a no Spend challenge.

[A]

Honest to goodness, I think we found I think we learned a lot about January after both of us doing a no spend January.

[B]

I think someone needs to tell me next time, probably you. It's probably going to have to be you or maybe a listener. If I try and do a January no spend challenge next year. No, Jill, you're not doing it. Forget about it.

[A]

I think February is much better.

[B]

It's the shortest month of the year.

[A]

Shortest month. I think it is the best month for a no spend challenge. I have said, said that before, but everybody wants to do a no spend January and it just feels right. Right.

[B]

I get it. But for me specifically, Eric's birthday always does just bring stuff up. Usually people are visiting in town or maybe we're, we. We're going to see family or something. But yeah, I mean to have a new nephew born my husband's birthday and I'm the maid of honor in a wedding, that was, it was real hard.

[A]

But it was a lot of challenges that you could get creative with. So tell us a little bit more about each week. Like what was a, like what was a win and a loss you had maybe from each week.

[B]

So I will say my food spending was less than it had been in November and December. Not by a ton, but still less. So I think having an awareness of what I'm spending on was really helpful. And I did only go to the grocery store once a week, so that's a big win. We also ended up like, like I said, we ended up going north for travel or to see my nephew. So we did travel and I did buy tickets. However, because of that travel reimbursement, staying with friends and family while we were there, putting the rental car on points really brought all of our Travel down to $63.16. So that was great. It wasn't nothing, but it should have been closer to like $600 that we spent. But because of all of those things coming together, that really decreased and pretty much allowed us to go there. We went to both Pennsylvania to see my new nephew and then drove over to Ohio. We were gone for 10 days. So to have only spent $63 on travel to be gone for 10 days, that win.

[A]

Yeah, that is true.

[B]

Yeah. Some, some, some failures, although I can't even say I would have done anything too much differently is gifts. So between Eric's birthday, the birth of my new nephew and my friend who's in this wedding, we also had a very tragic death in the family. And so wanting to, to be there to provide meals, gift cards was really important. So this was our Biggest spending category in January, we spent about $760 on gifts.

[A]

That's wild.

[B]

To be fair, I do have a sinking fund for this. So, yeah, I mean, life still happens in the midst of a no spend challenge. And so I think the fact that I had prepared ahead of time by having a sinking fund allowed me to be able to do some of these things guilt free. The majority of that did go to the family who, who had just lost a child. So that's the reason for it being as high as it is. But that's where that money came from. And then the wedding, I did tally this up, which was. It was very illuminating. I was, I was partially curious. There's a part of me that just like didn't want to know what I ended up spending and being a part of this wedding. It was less than I thought it was going to be though. So I spent $519 75 to be a maid of honor. So that includes. No, it's not to be in a wedding. And I, I mean, you know me, I'm very aware and I'm reducing costs as much as possible. But between accessories, building out a wedding day survival kit, and then I did. And I know I did not have to do this, but it's the season of life that I'm in where I felt comfortable to do this. I bought all the food for three of the events that the bridesmaids did over the weekend. Like the day that we got ready, I ordered food. When we were arranging flowers, I had ordered food. And so, yeah, I kind of covered the costs of a lot of that for the bridesmaids. So given that reality, yeah, it's $519 to feed many people is a lot.

[A]

Did you do anything different or more creatively because you were on the no spend challenge that you still ended up spending, but you maybe spent less because you were inspired by the challenge definitely

[B]

when it came to creating that survival kit. So for the, for the wedding day, I wanted to have a whole thing of what might we need as the day progresses and just to have it all on hand. And so that was things like a sewing kit and bobby pins and hairspray and mints and snacks and all these things. And so I was really challenging myself to curate it all from what I already have. And I did that 90% of the way. Then I did buy a couple of things that I'm like, we really might need this, like a tide pen and fashion tape, that kind of stuff. However, I didn't open those things. We ended up not using them, and I returned them.

[A]

Great.

[B]

So that did feel like a win. I feel like if I. If it wouldn't have been top of mind, I might have opened all the stuff and put them in the kit so that it just, like, looked prettier. But I'm like, I'm not that worried about it. This Tide Pen's $5, and if we don't use it, I don't use stuff like that in my normal life. Like, I want to be able to return it. So I think that. And I. And again, I think the food being top of mind that when I am grocery shopping, I only want to do one trip. I think I was just bummed about how active the month was in that I. There was eating out. I couldn't not eat. I just couldn't eat every meal at home.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. No, that's. That's. Do you feel like you, like, have. Was something harder than expected or easier than expected throughout the month that you remember?

[B]

I think reducing travel costs was far easier than expected. I was really like, okay, we're just pulling from our travel sinking fund. And then to realize, whoa, if I can fill out this travel insurance reimbursement, if I can just take the time. And it took time. I had to pull all the receipts. They wanted 10 different pieces of documentation. So I had to put in a lot of time and energy. But in some ways, that was easier than I thought. I thought that it was going to be a fight back and forth with them and just to reduce costs that way, like I said, by staying with friends. Oh. We also ended up. Because we were gone for so long, we ended up looking at the difference between paying a driver to take us to the airport versus parking at the airport. And we saved about $30 by paying a driver versus parking at the airport. Honestly, maybe even more than that. Yeah. So that typically wouldn't be the case if we were only going for like two or three nights, but because it was 10, it was.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So I think just having my mind on some of those pieces of how do I make it as low buy as possible helped me to kind of lock in there.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

So I really wanted to do a like I just wanted to see how January went because we have a lot of things had a lot of things planned for January. So really my only rule was that I get to have one coffee out per week. Like that was, that was my thing. I'm already only doing like one grocery trip per week and one Costco run per month. So I wanted to stick with that and yeah. And do just like my meal planning, meal prepping, all of that. But January did throw me some curveballs that I wasn't expecting, unfortunately. So yeah, I, it was probably the worst no spend challenge I've ever done.

[B]

Oh, and you wrote the book on it.

[A]

I did. I literally wrote a book called the no Spend challenge Guide. And I kind of like, I, I, I drew on all of that and did take some stuff away for like February. So yeah, that's, those are my plans.

[B]

Yeah. Well, let's see how you did no

[A]

Spend challenge week one. I prepped some like spaghetti bowls, a bunch of like protein packed muffins, like for a savory option for breakfast and then some like yogurt parfaits for a sweet option. And I am excited to get started. I'm excited for what the month will hold. All right, no Spin challenge. We are going to the park and I am very hungry because I have been out for most of the day and I would like to stop at McDonald's and get Kai a cheeseburger and get myself a hamburger. But there are going to be snacks at the park and so I'm not going to stop and get food. I'm going to eat park snacks. Stay tuned. Don't mind me. I'm just going through the car wash because I got a free car wash. So definitely look at all the car washes in your area and see if any of them offer any a free car wash for your first time. A lot of them do and I hope the audio is coming out of this. Okay.

[B]

You too, you too were sick.

[A]

I was the first week.

[B]

That's the hack right there.

[A]

Yeah, it's so sick. Get sick. Especially if you have a stomach flu and then you don't want to eat for a week. So great, great life hack, horrible execution. But yeah, man, I was, I was out of it. So. So yeah, the first week went well and then on the 4th I got a stomach bug and I, some of my spending was better and some of it was not. We were out of town the last week of December, so I. My decision. December, I thought so my December grocery spending was actually a little lower. I'm doing like $1,000 a month between Walmart and Costco. And in January I was kind of like stocking up again and I did $1,000.25. So like, very average. I did 967 in December, so a little lower than normal. And but in November I had Done a little more. So it kind of still averages out. And I was honestly kind of shocked. I thought and my groceries had been closer to 800. So I. I don't know if part of it is like, just like inflation. Surely I can't blame all of it on inflation. But yeah, groceries. Groceries stayed the same. But I wasn't trying to lower my groceries, so I wasn't really paying attention to groceries. Restaurant eating was lower. We ate out. We did $273 at restaurants. So that's quick service. And sit down in December and only 138 in January. So literally for a family of four, we spent $138 the entire month on eating out.

[B]

That's insane. Which is great.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like I'm for many people that a family of four, that'd be how much to go out once.

[A]

Right. So I was proud of that. That was. But in what in November, I only spent 130. So I would say around 200 is what we're happy with. And eating out was not something I was necessarily trying to cut down on either. Coffee shops was. So I gave myself permission to do one coffee per week. And I don't know what happened, but I spent $40 at coffee shops. And in December I spent 26. And November I spent 18. So I don't know how I spent so much more in January getting coffee.

[B]

Sometimes the awareness and the constant thinking about I'm not going to do this can lead you to doing it backfire.

[A]

But no, I should not be 26 is like the goal number. Like if I'm doing a seven, I give myself some phrase, like $7 a week. That's $28 a month. So yeah, I don't know what happened there.

[B]

Did you go out more than that or did. Did a certain coffee just cost you more?

[A]

I think that I. I think I just went out more. Sometimes it be like that.

[B]

I love how this episode on doing a no spend challenge is us having done a low spend challenge and not crushing it. So you can know we're not perfect.

[A]

Yeah. So that was the one and that was the one thing I gave myself permission on. So my plan in February. We'll talk about our plans moving forward in a second. But that's in my plans for February and I'm doing much better so far. And then my other struggle was Amazon and I bought two gifts and the gifts were not like, the gifts are good. I value like buying those. But I did buy a shirt for Travis for Super Nintendo World. We went the third week of January, and I bought a hat for my race at the end of January, and I did not need to buy those two things. I've been wanting a third hat because sometimes I'll do three runs in a week, but my running season's over, so I didn't need the third hat. I wanted the third hat. And I treated myself because it was for Disneyland. So I have no excuse on that. Honestly, I didn't need it. And the shirt for Travis, I also. He did not need it, but it was cute. Like, I wanted him and him and Kai to have shirts. Kai already had a shirt. Atlas did not, and neither did I. And I was thinking about getting us shirts as well, and I said no.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

That was my compromise.

[B]

Only Travis gets a shirt.

[A]

Only Travis got the shirt. So that was. Yeah, that was my. Because he's super into Mario as well. Yeah. And. And Atlas, and I could care less. So that was my way that I got creative where I still spent money, but I spent less than I would have. And I'm not like, a buy matching pajamas for Christmas girl or get go all out with family costumes for Halloween. But, like, that was something, like, because Mario is so important to Kai, that was something that I was, like, thinking about doing and ended up saying, like, okay, I'm gonna compromise on this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, yeah, I was. I was proud of that. And then we went to a trampoline park, and we spent $38 because they made us all buy their branded socks. I bought socks. I brought socks for everyone to this trampoline park, and they're like, no, they have to be our brand. And I was like, that's money grab.

[B]

Yeah, that's a money grab.

[A]

So what I did was I was like, well, I'm not going to go. Then I'm going to let my family jump, and I'm going to save the $4 by me not jumping. And the manager actually came over and just, like, handed me some socks, and he's like, go jump with your family. And so I did get to participate. Yeah.

[B]

Sitting out $4. The principal.

[A]

It was the principal. This is surely was the princ. Because this was going to be such an affordable outing because I had the socks already. And when they. When I got there and realized, like, it was the cash grab, I was so pissed.

[B]

Could you. Were the socks then yours? Can you hold on to them if you ever do go back?

[A]

So now I can go back, and it will be an affordable outing, and they've got me. But out of principle, I almost don't Want to, but I will go back because I already have the socks, and it's cheaper than any other trampoline park in the area. So those were the. Those were the two ways that I kind of tried to get creative.

[B]

Yeah. What were you. Where were you proud of yourself in this challenge?

[A]

I was definitely proud of my eating at home. And the meal prepping had a lot to do with that. I just did a lot of meal prepping, and then I ate it all, and it caused me, like, when I did go out, it was like, we did tacos one night, and it was actually really great. The new Mercado West. Yeah. Near our house. Okay. Fantastic.

[B]

Fun.

[A]

So we had a very fun night out with the boys. I had a spicy margarita, and it was. It felt worth it. And then the rest was kind of just like, some, like, McDonald's purchases, because the kids like McDonald's and sometimes will, like, bribe Kai to go to Taekwondo by saying, oh, you can go to the McDonald's play place afterwards. So that was the rest of it.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[A]

So, yeah, like, I am proud of where kind of how. How that went. Groceries. I'm. I'm not as proud of. I think I really need to reevaluate. I know I eat at home a lot, so that makes my grocery budget bigger, and I'm not, like, mad about that. But I do want to see if I can get it to 800.

[B]

Do you think that's realistic?

[A]

I don't know, but I want to try. That's what this month has kind of inspired me to do. If I could save $200 somewhere, I'd like to see if I could do it in groceries, because I think that's the one place right now, looking at my budget that I could optimize.

[B]

Yeah, I had done, because somebody reached out to us on Instagram, DM'd us about trying to lower their grocery budget as a family of four, and they're just like, I can't seem to get it below a thousand. And in looking it up, that is what the Internet says is the more, like, frugal amount. Yeah, it would be a thousand dollars

[A]

for a family of four, so a thousand feels reasonable. But Atlas is. Is a 2 year old, and so he's still not eating, like, enough for a full person. So I feel like now is the time where I could get it to 800.

[B]

Do you know what you would do? Like, what are the specific shifts you would make being a person who meal plans, preps, and does a pickup grocery order?

[A]

I think it wouldn't be a long term shift. I think it would. I need to eat through more of my pantry.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I think if I could. I think I could do that for at least one month. Have it at 800 if I did a pantry challenge.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So that's kind of what I'm thinking. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. All right, I'll stay tuned for that.

[A]

Because in December, we were at 9:67 and yes, we were gone for a week. Yeah. But yeah.

[B]

Okay, so that's part of your plan for February. What else are you going to do? You want to see if you can get groceries to 800?

[A]

Yeah, I'd like to see if we could do a month of a hundred dollars on restaurants.

[B]

Would that be this month? Would that be February?

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I actually haven't looked at my. We're 10 days into February and I haven't. I haven't looked at our restaurant spending yet. We have gone out like we. We went out after I got back from. From California. And I did not include our Epic Universe or my Disneyland spending in this because those were two things where it's like, I'm going to spend. I'm never going to Epic Universe again. And I'm probably never going back to Disneyland. So I am going to spend. But spoiler. I was sick at Disneyland, so I actually didn't spend as much money as I wanted to.

[B]

I was going to let loose.

[A]

I wanted to spend a lot more money than I did in California and I was sick, so I didn't spend as much. But we did. We did spend money at Epic Universe and. But we didn't buy. We didn't buy. Well, we bought one of those $45, like wristbands that I'm gonna try to resell on Facebook Marketplace.

[B]

What. What is a $45 wristband? What do you mean?

[A]

There's a $45 wristband from Super Nintendo World where you can let hit things and get points. And it was a fun little. Like we had to do three different challenges and once you did the three challenges and you got to go through like Bowser's Castle and play a different game. So it was great. And it's something we knew we wanted to do with Kai. I tried to find one on Facebook Marketplace, but I couldn't find one in time. So what I am going to do is sell the one that we have.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Nice to recoup some of the cost. So, yeah, that is. And then no clothes. I didn't buy any clothes in January besides the hat. And I'm not going to buy any more into February. So that's something we'll, we'll keep doing. Yeah. But I really think, I'm not mad. Yeah. Good at how it went. Even though I did spend more on coffee shops than I anticipated.

[B]

Do you have a financial goal that is propelling some of these hopes? Like to reduce your grocery spending by 200 from what it typically is to not buy clothing to reduce restaurant spending. Like what's that attached to?

[A]

We are truly, honestly in a season of treading water. Honestly, we don't have a goal right now. I would like to pay off my car, but it's not something I'm trying to do quickly. Like if we do have extra money, I, I am putting it towards investing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So we, I'm, we're, we're putting a lot of our eggs in the, in the basket of getting our CFP right. Like so in full transparency. We're kind of just floating along in this season until we can get our CFPs and kind of add that to our repertoire. So yeah, no goal right now. But my next goal when we are out of this season, which things change a lot in July, like daycare ends and we're going to public school pre K. We take our CFP exam and hopefully we both pass. Prayers, who knows. Prayers up. And so that changes things. And yeah. And then I have to pay for summer camp for Kai too. But that ends the end of summer. So a lot of things change in July. But in the season through now to July is very much like we're just, we're treading, we're just going. So anything we can save, we are actually just saving up versus putting it into retirement just in case we have any like home repairs that need to happen in December. It was one of the reasons our eating out was up in December was we had to fully renovate the bathroom in our rental property because our tenants were displeased with something which just led to an entire renovation and thirteen hundred dollars of spending on that house that I wasn't planning. So like we're, we're kind of just hoarding money right now for stuff like that that comes up.

[B]

And replenishing too.

[A]

And. Right. We are in a state of replenishing as well.

[B]

Yeah. For me in February I really want to keep. And this, this is a long term like something I want to stick with that I think is sustainable. But the, the one grocery trip a week, like I don't want to be going constantly. I would love to also reduce our eating out to like one to two times a week. We do great through the week and weekend is just bonkers. We're hardly home and so we're just eating out a ton. So I really want to hone that in. Although it might be better for me now that I'm saying this out loud. Here we go. We're workshopping this together to more. So put a monetary amount to it than a number of times because we could go out three times in a weekend for probably, you know, less than $100. It's just I'm sometimes spending more than that. That's probably what I'm gonna say is a monetary amount.

[A]

Oh, I also don't wanna do any coffee shops in February.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How are you gonna do that?

[A]

Just make all my coffee at home, which we're 10 days in and I have not been to a coffee shop. So I am succeeding on that. I'm probably doing better on no spend coffee February than January. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So beautiful. Yeah. So I think the takeaway from maybe our journeys in no spend January is that again. And we will say it till we are blue in the face. And nobody will listen. But you will listen. You right now will listen. Is that the success of a no spend challenge is not in how little you spend or how few transactions you can make in the month. The success of a no spend challenge is how many things you learn about your spending that you can take with you into subsequent months. How many things you will actually act on in the months following. Because that is what will create long term change and much more savings than just the one no spend month alone. Because we just focus on the month. We can do like a pendulum swing where it's, you know, no spending to all of this, like makeup spending. And that's not what we want. When you focus just on the spending, you get that yo yo diet. But when you focus on the lessons, that's when you get long term habit change. And that is what we are truly going for. And I do feel like I am going to improve some of my habits in February. Like the coffee runs, like the intentionality on the groceries. I think those are my two biggest like habit changes that I'm taking forward. And it should only be one or two because we can't change 10 habits at a time. Right. That's why I said in going in, you could just do a no spend in one category and you focus on that category and that that's what you're really looking to change. So bringing out that one to two habit change going into the next month from whatever your no spend month is, I think is the most impactful way to do it.

[B]

Yeah, just the awareness, the exercising creativity, the looking for alternatives to see if they exist. They may not. But if you can find an alternative and it works, then you're just learning new things. Things and being able to implement better habits. So.

[A]

And this would have been a much shorter episode if we just gotten on here and be like, oh, yeah, I didn't spend on anything, but it didn't send money. And there's gonna be somebody in the comments being like, these people don't know how to do it. No spend challenge. I spent so much money.

[B]

The baby was born, somebody passed away, marriage happened, wedding occurred. Like, yeah.

[A]

And that's gonna happen to you too.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Like. Like it's. None of us live in a vacuum. So that's what I hope you take away from this review of our quote unquote, failed no spend challenges.

[B]

Still worth doing, though, because it's 100% worth it. So much. And it is renewing me to. Okay, now I know the two things I want to focus on for February.

[A]

Same.

[B]

Do you know what I also want to focus on in every single episode every week?

[A]

And honestly, such a success every single week. The bill of the week. That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills. Buffalo Bills. Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week. Hey, Jen and Jill. So I have deemed 2025 my year of expensive lessons because I've spent a lot of money and learned a lot from it and from your show. So thank you for that. My bill of the week is that I really messed up my 2024 tax return and needed to get it refiled this year. I started having a rental property in 2024 and really did not know what I was doing. So I asked a friend for her recommendation and just decided to go with a guy that she told me about. I didn't shop around and I really should have. And I thought that their fee would be around $450, which was a lot, but I wanted it done by professionals, so I went ahead and said yes. And then when they actually charged me, it was more like $750, which is a lot more than I was expecting. Very politely asked why it was so much more expensive and if they could do anything about it and they did give me a $300 credit to use for future expenses. Unfortunately, it was not refundable. So I probably won't be going back to their firm now that I know how expensive it is. But I am still proud of myself for having asked and yeah, definitely learned from that lesson and experience as well. So thanks for your show. I really enjoy it. And that's my bill of the week. Man, rental properties are the worst.

[B]

I don't know that's what made it the worst. But it is interesting to realize that different decisions, beyond just being a W2 employee, bring on more tax complications that, if you're not aware of, can be really overwhelming, can cause you to spend a lot more money than you were planning to and even needing to then hire somebody because now you're in a more complicated tax situation. So just something to think about when you not saying don't do it, but, but as part of the process of considering starting your own business, having rental income, selling your house, making major life decisions. And that's a time when you seek a CFP.

[A]

That is CFPs, Certified Financial Planners help you with tax planning and accountants help you do your taxes from the last tax year. But like, it's already done, you can't do anything about it. But you can seek advice from a cfp. You don't necessarily have to if you're not in a income or net worth level where you need to get a full holistic financial plan. But it is worth, if you have tax tax questions in the current tax year to what you can be doing or should be doing to seek out an advice only CFP where you can ask them one question about, you know, taxes. And that should be around like 250 to $300. Yeah.

[B]

I think the takeaway here too is to shop around. I think there are times like we pay an accountant to do our taxes, right? Yes, we are starting to be CFPs, but that does not make us accountants.

[A]

Absolutely not.

[B]

Makes us better at tax planning, but not tax prepping. And so yeah, and because we own a business and because it's a partnership like it, there's a. There's more complications to it. So it's worth us worth it to us to pay somebody. But you have found a very affordable accountant for us that we've now used for the past few years. And so I think asking around to your friends, how much do you pay for tax preparation? Who do you use? What kind of reviews do they receive? Because there is a wide range of what people charge to do that service. Yes, $750 is a lot of money,

[A]

but it is not the most. Yeah, not the most I've heard but

[B]

400 sounded more accurate and so what a shame that that you didn't have all that information up front. But yes, so like celebrating with you with the learnings that you're taking from these mistakes. Thank you so much for your willingness to share that with us because we all learn together. If you have a bill that you want to share, if it has to do with lear your mistakes or not caring about the mistakes that you've made or your name is Bill, we want

[A]

to hear about it.

[B]

Frugalfriendspodcast.com bill leave it for us. We cannot stand bank fees, overdraft fees, monthly fees, minimum balance fees. It's like getting punished for using your own money. That's why Chime is such a game changer. It's fee free. Smarter Banking built for you. The new Chime card lets you build credit with your own money and earn rewards while doing it. No strings attached. With qualifying direct deposits, you get one and a half percent cash back on eligible purchases. This is the card my younger self would have needed and loved. It's Banking Upgraded Chime is not just Smarter Banking.

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[B]

Honestly, one of the best things we can do for our wallets and our health is cook more at home.

[A]

Home?

[B]

There's just nothing like it. But that's easier said than done. Which is why we love HelloFresh. It makes it simple to eat at home, even on a busy weeknight. Plus, they offer over 100 recipe options every week with portions big enough to actually satisfy everyone.

[A]

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[B]

The quality is so noticeable there's now three times the seafood with no upcharge and you can get grass fed steak ribeyes plus seasonal produce like pears, apples and asparagus. We've used Hellofresh and think everyone should give it a try, especially those who struggle to eat at home more.

[A]

Go to hellofresh.com frugal10fm to get 10 free meals plus a freeze willing knife $144.99 value on your third box offer valid while supplies last free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by planning can

[B]

and now it's time for.

[A]

All right, what's your go to rationalization for spending?

[B]

What do you think? For you?

[A]

For me? Yeah. I don't spend a lot so I can afford this or I can do this. That's what I say. I was like, I don't go out much so I'll do that. I actually did spend a lot of money on a brunch on Sunday and my rational because friends invited me out and I was like, it was so expensive. Like eye gougingly expensive.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I was like this is why I don't have a lot of friends.

[B]

So my rationalization is this is what money's for spending. I planned for this. I mean truly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like even when I do spend a lot, I'm like, like that's in my plan. I don't go over it. Rarely go over it.

[A]

And I don't like to.

[B]

And if I do, I just adjust the book.

[A]

That's so true. It's your plan. You are not beholden to the plan. The plan is beholden to you. But you're both beholden to the money that you have in your account. So remember that I budgeted for this.

[B]

That's what we say. Thanks so much all of you for saying things about our book. Book like this Review Left by Kat 5 stars. Good intro to personal finance book. I thought this book was a great intro to personal finance and a motivating way to start off the new year. Unlike other personal finance books I've read in the past, the tips in this book felt very approachable, very doable. Some of the tips were pretty standard, like having a budget. But I liked how the book also covered the psychology of spending money so I could dig deeper into some of the money habits that I have. Overall, I'd Recommend if you are new to personal finance and aren't sure how to start managing your money.

[A]

Well, thank you so much, Kat. And thank you for listening. If you haven't subscribed, please subscribe on our YouTube channel. Every single person helps get this message out to more people and we will see you next time. If you've haven't gotten our book, buywhat you love book.com and leave a review on Amazon if you can. And we're so appreciative of all of you. Bye. Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

[B]

Okay, I have talked about this before, I think on the podcast, or at least to you, but this deserves another moment.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

The travel rewards credit card that I use, that comes with travel insurance. Again, this was my first time using it.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Canceled flight. Couldn't get on a flight for another three days. So we just decided to drive home. We're like, that's ludicrous. We need to get home. We gotta work. And who's to say that the flight in three days is going to happen? So we rented a car and had to get a hotel overnight and all this stuff. And I'm thinking they're probably not going to cover it because we did get reimbursed for the flight. Like, the airline did pay us back for the flight and our travel was different. I'm like, is that going to matter that we didn't take a flight? We ended up driving? What are they going to do about that?

[A]

But whatever.

[B]

I took the time to submit all of these receipts and everything and I got like $600.

[A]

Yeah, you said that. I was so pleased for you.

[B]

It's so insane. Just because of the credit card that we have. Like, it is worth looking up the perks that come with a credit card.

[A]

Well, that's why we have in our annual finance planner, frugalfriends podcast.com planner. I think. Yeah, a travel rewards credit card cards tab so that you can put in all of your cards and the rewards that come with them so that you don't forget about them. Because some come with like an Instacart plus membership or a doordash annual membership or all of these different things.

[B]

You know what I say? I never use the insurance. And that's not true because. Sidebar too, you save money. Because I'm not purchasing insurance when I rent a car. I'm not purchasing travel insurance when, you know, I'm booking travel. So I'm not spending that money. But I'm still getting that benefit through the credit card. And in the past they've always come through for me too, mainly with rental cars. There was a time that I got a wrench through the tire of a rental car just driving down the road, needed to get the tire replaced. The Chase travel rewards paid for that. Another time and I told this in an after show, I got all the tires popped on traffic teeth at a side of the road parked in Washington state. They paid for that. There was another issue that I've had with a rental car too. I can't even remember but well, I

[A]

look forward to renting a car this weekend.

[B]

And you know what? You could know that if you book it with a travel rewards credit card that offers car in car rental insurance, you can say no at the counter.

[A]

Well, I'll make sure that I do that that well.

[B]

Okay, can't wait for you.

[A]

Bye.

[B]

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