← Frugal Friends Podcast
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- [00:02]
Jen
You hear that? That's not just a Toyota truck. That's the sound of no crowds, no alerts, no distractions, and no telling what you'll find next. You know, like a detour. So why would you ever take a tour? And you could take a detour. Toyota trucks.
- [00:31]
Jill
As a business owner, Jennifer Garner knows it takes hard work and patience to keep growing. So finding a serious business card that goes the extra mile was important for.
- [00:40]
Jen
The success of Once Upon a Farm.
- [00:42]
Jill
That's why they chose the Capital One Venture X Business Card. With unlimited double miles on every purchase, they have big purchasing power so they.
- [00:51]
Jen
Can spend more and earn more. The Capital One Venture X Business Card.
- [00:55]
Jill
What'S in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com for details.
- [01:00]
Jen
What actually works to save money in 2026?
- [01:08]
Jill
Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill. If you're tired of the same old start making coffee at home money saving advice, then this episode is the one you've been waiting for. We're going to be giving you 13 new money saving tips that have really only been around for the last five years.
- [01:35]
Jen
Yes, while we love the tried and true old fashioned frugal living tips, we wanted to give you a list of things you haven't tried before, you probably have never heard of before. And let's be honest, who couldn't use more money saving tools in their frugal toolbox? People always ask me why I drink.
- [01:52]
Jill
So much iced coffee and I actually have a genetic condition where my body doesn't produce its own iced coffee. So I have to go and get one every single day. I hope this explains things for you.
- [02:01]
Jen
Welcome Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.
- [02:03]
Jill
I'm Jill.
- [02:04]
Jen
And if you too have a genetic disorder that prevents your body from creating iced coffee, me too girl. And we're here for you because we are going to cover some of the newest ways to to save money. So if the old ways aren't working for you, then don't throw em off. We still love em, but we might have some new ones that can help you because we've done. This is our 574th episode of Frugal Friends. So we have talked about a lot of ways to save money. Some have always been hard hitters, some are nice but not necessary, and some have never deserved the time of day. They have seen a lot on the Internet. So in this episode we are focusing on those new ways to save Money we've got 13 for you today. But not just new for new's sake. We wanted them to actually be helpful for the new year.
- [03:02]
Jill
A lot of these tips are thanks to the COVID era. There were some things that kind of became available to us. Some things that we're gonna talk about have been available, but now they're more broadly available. There's a few that are now thanks to a. But not all of them.
- [03:20]
Jen
Yeah. And then there's some where that Covid era kind of diminished the effectiveness of these technologies that were helpful in saving money to kind of give birth to new ways, for better or for worse. So we wanted to cover all those. But first, have you signed up for 90 day debt free fast Track yet? Have you heard us talking about it? It is our 90 day program that we are starting in 2026. Well, starting and ending it is the only time we will do it. But we have noticed that the first 90 days of achieving a goal is the hardest. And so many of you in our community have a goal of paying off debt. And so we wanted to create something where we could come around you, support you, give you some skill building habit challenges, some books, a couple one on one, not one on one, but group two on group with us so that you can stick through that 90 days. All the education, online education gurus like don't do anything past six weeks. People won't stick with it. And that's exactly why we're doing 12 weeks. That's exactly why we wanted to do a 90 day program and make it a fraction of the cost of every other program that we have researched over the years that takes place in January. And so we want to see you and our community, we want to see everyone pay off a cumulative $100,000 of debt in the first quarter of 2026. And we want 1,000 of those dollars be your debt. So please, if you're watching on YouTube, check the description below for the link. If you're listening, it's frugalfriendspodcast.com debt free. We want to see you succeed and we want to be by your side. If you're having some troubles, if you tried it before and it hasn't worked, let us be with you and see if that's what you need to really make 2026 the year your debt payoff goal takes off.
- [05:23]
Jill
If you're here because you want to be paying off debt, if that's why you need some of these tips, it's going to be great for you. But also let's Talk about these tips. Number one, auto track price drops. This is something that has been available to us through Amazon like a lot of people are familiar with. I believe it's honey camel, camel camel, price.com. yeah, price.com is one. But now there are sites that can help you price track, not just Amazon, kind of every site that you might be purchasing from. So for instance you, you could utilize a Google Chrome web browser has a feature built in where you can track price drops automatically. So the shopping bag icon in the upper right of the address bar shows you the price history over the last 90 days. And the reason why this is important is because a lot of retailers will honor price drops usually between days like 7 to 14 after you've purchased something. So you could be checking a price for something that you've already bought and see has it dropped. You might be able to get reimbursed. But also you can determine is this price a good price to be paying. A lot of places, especially around the holidays and into the new year and really just all year round will say this is the best deal of the year. You're never gonna see better. And in reality it's always their price or it might even be a little higher. Like they jacked it up the month before so that now it seems like it's lower. And so it can help you to be a wiser shopper, more informed, decision making buyer to know is this something that I want to pay for this? Might the price drop again?
- [07:10]
Jen
Yeah, and I use the Google Chrome browser, so I use this, it's not an extension if you use the Chrome browser, it just comes up on any shopping website. So like when I tested it on quints it was right up there and I could see in the pop up. Ultimately though, automatically tracking is what the technology like the new technology that has been brought into this because you can now get emails sent directly. You still again this has been around with Amazon but like Amazon what are you going to get? Like you know, save $2 or something. This could be with like big things like vacations. So you can do things like Google Flights and SkyScanners are from what I've researched the best for flights, hotels, cars. You never want to like book through a site. Well you can, some of us I've done it. Yeah, I feel safer booking like straight through like directly and I'll pay a little extra for that. But so Google Flights skyscanner for flights you can get emails sent when the flights like the exact flights you're taking drop in price. So you can either buy or. Or get that price drop. Because who's going to be looking like once I book a flight, I'm not going back every day to see if the prices drop. So I can get that reimbursement right. So I want to be able to get an email when the prices drop so I can get that reimbursement. Or if you're doing something a little more niche, so something like a cruise, you can either look out or purchase the cruise, whatever. And then you can sign up for, for like a niche website. They all have them. Vacations to go, vacation resorts to go, cruise line.com specifically for cruises or their shipmate app. You set up the cruise price alerts specifically on the exact like room dates, cruise everything like very specific to what you want or have booked. And then you will get price drop emails when that price has decreased. So you can either buy it or what I like is because the closer you get, the higher it goes you can get that price drop. Like reimbursement cruises I think specifically have like a long. You want to check your cruise but a long reimbursement period. Like up to. If you're an early saver on some up to like three days before the cruise sets sail.
- [09:38]
Jill
Oh, I love it.
- [09:40]
Jen
So it's different for everyone, but so I would say this is especially good for like bigger, you know, your flights, your vacation packages, all that stuff. You can really be on the lookout. There's also a chrome extension that will really just check literally a change on any page for any reason. So you can go to Distill IO. It's a free browser extension and it puts the page up on the screen and you select a part of the page with your cursor, ideally for our instances, the price and it will send you an alert when that box that you have selected changes in any way. So you'll get an alert if it goes up or goes down, really just changes in any way. Now I imagine I haven't used this, but I imagine if the site redesigns itself, you'll also get a notification. But in that case you can kind of turn it off and redo it. But so the technology has made this price drop auto tracking really more automated and really more robust. Literally like anything even for a car. You could check if the price drops using some of these built in features.
- [11:02]
Jill
The second one is my favorite. Never pay your full medical bill ever again.
- [11:09]
Jen
This one has been so life changing for our listeners and even for us.
- [11:17]
Jill
The amount of text messages that I'm getting even from Just my family and friends being like, what's that organization that might be able to help me lower my medical bill? It's called Dollar For. We have featured the, the founder of $4 on our podcast as well. So if you want kind of a deeper dive into how to save money on your medical bills, definite check that episode out. But essentially they are a nonprofit that helps people check if your hospital bill is eligible for financial assistance. It's wild. A lot of hospitals do offer discounts or even full forgiveness based on your income levels, but a lot of people don't apply because they don't believe that they qualify or don't know how. Most, most hospitals are non profits and are required to have some sort of structured way of being able to discount your bill based on need. But they bury it. They make it very hard to go through that process. And so $4 is one of those nonprofits that can help walk you through that process, help you to be able to negotiate your bill and really trim it down. And so yeah, if you've got bills coming up, if you've already got bills in the mail, this is definitely one to check into. Whether you utilize a dollar for or you dig into the hospital where you got the bill from and look for to be able to lower that bill, you can negotiate.
- [12:46]
Jen
Yeah. In 2025, households under 204% of the federal poverty level will qualify for free care. And families under 322% will qualify for discounted care. So what that means is A family of four with a household income of $103,000 in 2025 can qualify for at least discounted medical bills. And so it is so important that we, we be on the lookout to discount it. And Jared is. His confidence that you can negotiate your hospital bill down 80% was so inspiring to me inside. I'm like, I could never. But like, Jared does this all day, every day. And he's like, yes, I just will not give up until it is 20% of the original bill. And I was like, that is inspiring, fantastic for you and your organization. And so $4 isn't necessarily the technology piece. It is just an organization that we love to support and talk about and tell people about because it is so powerful. But not everybody qualifies for free assistance from $4. And so in that case, this is where the technology does come in because you can use services to negotiate down medical bills for you. And they are typically like, they, they use AI and technology to filter through your hospital bills to find errors and to find leverage for negotiation. And it is typically risk free for you. So one that $4 has has worked for, they send, if you don't qualify through their questionnaire to work with them, then they'll send you to Good Bill. Last I checked. And what it says on their website is if we win your negotiation, we will charge 20% of the money we save you. For example, if we save you $1,000, you'll pay us 200 and keep the remaining 800. We'll never charge more than $1,000 no matter how much we save you. And if we don't find you savings, you pay nothing. And so what you do is you authorize Good Bill to get your billing records, insurance, medical records, and they will analyze using a combination of AI and human experts to find coding errors which every person in the medical field that we have talked to about coding errors has said yes, like 99% of the time there is some kind of coding error on a hospital bill. If you work in the medical industry and if you found this to be true, pop up in our comments because this is just wild to me. So they're so prevalent and so that's what Good Bill does. They look for coding errors and pricing discovery discrepancies and then negotiate to save you money based on that. So these services are out there now. Good Bill is just one of them. And they you it behooves you to take advantage of them. Obviously we would love to negotiate ourselves. Not everyone is an expert in medical negotiations. You can even wait. And this is what I've done in the past and I can't necessarily recommend this, but wait till it gets to collections and then negotiate there because it takes a year of being in collections for medical medical debt to show up on your credit history. So there's like a big leeway.
- [16:05]
Jill
Not everybody loves that tip.
- [16:07]
Jen
Not everybody should do that. It is just a thing that I have done before. But so everyone should do it. Not everyone feels comfortable doing it. And so these services are out there. If it just worries you to no end, you can pay somebody to do it. You're not going to pay if they don't save you money. But options are out there for you. Don't pay your full medical bill if you don't have to.
- [16:34]
Jill
Number three, switch to usage based car insurance. This is often called UBI for short and it is getting more popular. Insurance companies like Progressive Snapshot is the original of this type of insurance option. But you could save significantly if you drive infrequently, if you are put low mileage on your car. I think a lot of people are remote workers, again kind of post Covid era retirees, part time drivers typically, you know, driving during the day, not driving as aggressively like these are the types of people who might be able to qualify for this type of discount. And so different insurance companies offer it. For instance, Nationwide has a service Smart Ride or Smart Miles program that offers discounts for safe driving and a pay per mile option. That's their smart miles. So that lets low mileage drivers save more. So obviously you're only going to want to do that if you're not driving a ton. But price compare, State Farm has a Drive safe and save. Geico has a program called Drive Easy. Again, progressive snapshot is an option. So if you, if you commute long distances daily, if you're driving late at night or taking a lot of road trips, it's not going to really pay off for you. But again, price compare and see if this UBI option could save you money.
- [18:03]
Jen
Yeah, I personally have progressive snapshot and I will tell you it's not my favorite thing.
- [18:09]
Jill
It beeps at you. I had it.
- [18:11]
Jen
Yeah, it beeps at you. You do have to be okay sharing some data, but it will save you money if again you're mostly driving during the day, you're not driving a ton and you are a safe driver. And honestly it beeps. It will beep like one beep for like a kind of hard stop and it's beeped all the way up to four beeps for me. Have you ever had a four beeper?
- [18:36]
Jill
I don't think so, no. That's just going off. What did you do?
- [18:40]
Jen
And I'm still a four star, four out of five star driver. Wow. Yeah.
- [18:46]
Jill
That's how you lost a star though.
- [18:48]
Jen
It is. It was that four beep stop. So I will see in February what my savings will or will not be. So that's the risk you can go up. Right. But now that you have so many options, now that it's not just progressive, you've got Nationwide, State Farm, Geico. Now you can go and you can price compare. If progressive goes up for us, then I can go to Nationwide, State Farm, Geico and like see what their rate will be for me and choose their regular version instead of the ubi. So having options, think like thanks to this technology, it has given us options and having those options will save you money.
- [19:33]
Jill
We love options. All right, speaking of options, number four, buy refurbished tech from certified marketplaces.
- [19:41]
Jen
This one's my favorite.
- [19:42]
Jill
Yeah, go off.
- [19:43]
Jen
People are not Talking about this one and I think it's because used electronics or refurbish have gotten a bad rep. There was a time when I wasn't working fully on the Internet and I just needed a laptop. I would not buy new. I would only buy my laptops from Facebook Marketplace. And I never had a bad experience. I bought a laptop from a pawn shop. I had a worse experience buying a small, less expensive electronic from a pawn shop than I ever had buying like bigger, more expensive products, if that tells you anything. So these certified refurbished marketplaces, so back market is probably my favorite. No affiliation, but I've just been following them for a while and they do all kinds of like all the companies, but then Apple has its own, Google has its own, Amazon has one. But it's iffy. You would have to go Amazon. I think it's refurbished premium, not just regular because that can be like third party sellers that aren't verified. But if you pay a little bit more for that verified premium like certified marketplace, you're still going to be spending 30 to 50% less. You're still going to get some kind of warranty and you're getting newly like new. Near new. That was hard for me. Near new like laptops, phones, tablets, watches, accessories, all of these. And again I think it's the watches and the accessories and the smaller things that are easier to get like manipulated on. Those deals are easier to go bad.
- [21:21]
Jill
That's the main pushback we've gotten in the comments when we've talked about refurbished tech is but the warranties. And so what we're saying with these certified marketplaces is that a lot of times they will have some, some sort of warranty attached to them. But even if they don't, it's not as if every single tech item we own needs to have a warranty. Think kids tablets or a backup something or other, whatever it is.
- [21:46]
Jen
The Apple watch I use every single day of my life is from Facebook Marketplace. And I've bought three Apple watches from Facebook Marketplace over like the last 10 years.
- [21:55]
Jill
If you're not spending 800 or more on it, everyone's gonna have their own threshold. But if it's just a few hundred dollars, like how much of a warranty do you really need? How long do you need it to last you for? I think is a question worth asking. So if you can save 30 to 50% on some of these things, then that could be worth it. It also keeps some of these devices that maybe somebody was just going to throw away out of the landfills. Reduces the demand for new manufacturing. So that's just really good for the art earth for our wallets. Just good practices.
- [22:31]
Jen
I love that. Back Market also has a storefront in New York City and they will do like repairs.
- [22:38]
Jill
Oh cool.
- [22:39]
Jen
On things that normally you can't get repaired. That's one of this planned obsolescence in technology is so frustrating. Like they make it so you can't get things repaired and Back Market will repair things and resell them or repair your tech. It's just, it's really cool. I would really love to go see their storefront and check it out. But yeah, I just, it's. So we talk about buying used like clothes, like really low barrier to entry things, but this is the stuff where it's really going to save you money. And honestly, if you're buying anything for your kids, don't buy it new. They don't deserve it. They haven't worn it, worked for it. But also refurbished.
- [23:25]
Jill
Sell your tech too. Right. Like if you just got an influx of new things, this is also the time to be able to pass on something that yeah, might be a little older. You might think it doesn't have much value to you because it didn't serve your purposes, but it could be perfect for somebody else. So keep it out of the landfill. Number five, switch to banking as a service. B A A s for short bars. Banks.
- [23:54]
Jen
You've heard of SaaS? Yeah, no.
- [23:56]
Jill
These are banks that are offering 4 to 5% APY. And so since 2022, high yield fintech banking partners have mainstreamed higher deposit rates that you can take advantage of as an everyday user. So we go into a lot of detail in our episode about High Yield Savings Accounts for was it 2026? Cliff Notes is High Yield Savings Accounts and High Yield Checking accounts do exist and they're not just a great place to be saving your money, but to be growing your money. Yeah, you know, for your emergency fund.
- [24:33]
Jen
High Yield Checking is new, like brand new. It's been not, you know, very, not very widely available and the, the availability has kind of been iffy. So we're all about that base banking as a service. And so definitely check out that episode we did. Honestly, we're probably going to be doing an episode like that quarterly because even one of the things we said has changed on it. So definitely be looking for updated. If you're looking for a High Yield Checking or a High Yield Savings, don't watch any YouTube videos or listen to anything that's hasn't been updated in the last three months because you're not going to get accurate information because you can't just go in and like change something in a YouTube video or a podcast episode.
- [25:27]
Jill
So number six, use debit cards with cash back and merchant funded boost. What does that mean, you ask? Well, debit card cash back we know used to be terrible. It was like one of the things that was so hard to depart from when it comes to credit cards is just how great the cash back and the points are. But debit cards are starting to step it up. Brands like Discover, Upgrade and STEP are offering 1 to 2% cash back and rotating some of those merchant funded boosts. So credit cards are still better when it comes to these types of rewards. But know that if you prefer debit, shopping around for the good debit cards that are going to help you make the most of your spending, giving you some of that cash back and rewards can be real great.
- [26:23]
Jen
You hear that? That's not just a Toyota truck. That's the sound of no crowds, no alerts, no distractions, and no telling what you'll find next. You know, like a detour. So why would you ever take a tour when you could take a detour? Toyota trucks.
- [26:51]
Jill
You know what's not going to steal my joy this holiday season? An overpriced phone bill. Because right now all of Mint Mobile's unlimited plans are 50% off, which means I can get three, six or 12 months of unlimited premium wireless for just $15 a month.
- [27:06]
Jen
It's their best deal of the year, which makes it easy to ditch my previous carrier. Plus, the service is actually impressive. When I switched over from my old provider, I got high speed data and unlimited talk and text, all on the nation's largest 5G network. I even kept my same phone and number at Mint.
- [27:22]
Jill
There's no contracts, no nonsense, and the savings add up fast. For this price, it's a no brainer. Premium Wireless without premium prices Turn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint Shop. Mint unlimited plans@mintmobile.com frugal that's mintmobile.com frugal.
- [27:41]
Jen
Limited time offer upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 months. Plan required $15 a month. Equivalent taxes and fees are extra. Initial plan term only. Over 35 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.
- [28:03]
Jill
And number 7 use grocery list tools to find the cheapest store or the least expensive store because we Think that the C word is not great each week. So things like the flip app.
- [28:16]
Jen
We hate the C word.
- [28:17]
Jill
I don't like that C word.
- [28:18]
Jen
I try not to use it in front of my children. Sometimes I slip, but I try.
- [28:24]
Jill
So the flip app with two P's. Flip flipping allows you to prime.
- [28:31]
Jen
And you didn't have to spell it.
- [28:33]
Jill
I got toilet brain today.
- [28:35]
Jen
But these people need to know two Ps. The people get it. Where are the peas, Jill? In flip, where are they? What do you mean, two peas? No affiliation.
- [28:49]
Jill
Here we go. Okay, so that app lets you browse weekly digital flyers from retailers near you. And so they could list out over 2,000 stores. I don't think you really have that many stores within driving distance of you.
- [29:07]
Jen
To show you the ones that are near you. It's not going to show you all 2000. The big complaint I've heard is that sometimes it will show you ads for a store that's not near you. Maybe because it's a. Like it's sponsored by the company. Yeah. But you know what stores are near you and what's not. So you just don't look at the ads that you don't recognize. Yeah.
- [29:24]
Jill
So you can search for items that you need and be able to compare prices. I'm going to be honest. I'm not really the one who's going. Going from store to store because this one has the better price on flour. This one has the better price on butter. I think we spend way too much time and gas money doing all that. But if we know, okay, this is going to be a heavy meat trip, who's got the best prices on meat? And I'm just going to eat the costs on the other things that I'm purchasing. You know, if this store's got all the baking supplies that I need at the lowest cost. Right. Like, we can do it. Smart apps like these are still useful. But I'm just gonna warn against, like, extreme frugality that has you going to 2,000 different stores.
- [30:11]
Jen
My way that I would use it is I like to go to Publix sometimes, but not frequently. I especially like to go. And they have the Stoke cold brew on sale. Love that cold brew. Because I do love that cold brew stoke, if you're listening. Come on. Like, come on. My body has a genetic disorder where it does make its own iced coffee, and so I must consume one every day. It's just a. It's a problem I've always had. And I. So I will go to Publix when Stoke is buy one, get one, because that's even cheaper than buying them in bulk at Costco. But I'm not going if it's not Bogo. And then I'll. I'll buy all of my other, like, treat items that I get at Publix. Same with like, Trader Joe's or Aldi. Again, I don't go to Aldi that much, but I do love the treats there. And if my treats are on sale, I love Aldi. I'm right across the street from Aldi. So that is kind of how I would use it. Making this episode was troublesome because I tried to use AI to help me generate this list of new ways to save money thanks to technology. Right. And it gave me like 80% false information. I'll talk about that later. But it told me that there was an app that would scan prices at different grocery stores to tell you the cheapest thing, the cheapest place to get everything on your list so that you could kind of compile and say, okay, Publix has the most lowest price items, so I'll go there this week. You know, that app has like all one star reviews because it's just like, not. The technology isn't there yet, so it has existed. Or maybe it's one of those things. It's been out for a while because that's how it has so many one star reviews. But it only kind of works with Target for some reason, I don't know. And it maybe was there. But stores change their policies, credit cards change their policies. So, like, it can't access things that would help it do the thing that it wants to do. So I digress. But the Flip app right now is kind of our best. You can add your cards to it, your coupons, your grocery list, and it is that, like, best tech forward.
- [32:39]
Jill
Love it option. Flipp. We are not sponsored by them. Number eight, switch to community solar or virtual solar subscriptions. I had never heard of this. This because it is relatively new. Widely available though, since 2021. So what happens is you rent a panel's output and this is possible even if you live in an apartment or get a house discount on your electrical bill. They say up to 10 to 20% off, which is pretty significant when you're talking about something that's for most of us, over $100, sometimes a couple hundred dollars.
- [33:16]
Jen
Yeah. So this is gonna definitely benefit people with maybe lower energy usage because there is a cap. It's like per unit of energy up to a cap. So if you're a renter Apartment, condo, moderate electricity use. So I wouldn't say very low or very high, but like moderate that is. So this is low risk. You don't have to pay to get solar installed, which I think negates most of the savings for homeowners. Like I've heard the prices are astronomical. It makes it very hard to sell if you haven't paid it off. All kinds of downsides. You can come out if you're super pro solar, if you sell solar. You can come at me in the comments for that. I'm fine with that. But yeah, so this is a low barrier to entry. Probably wouldn't do it if you're like have wild AC usage. So like might not be the best for us to use an AC in Florida for like nine months out of the year.
- [34:17]
Jill
But we have so much sun.
- [34:18]
Jen
Right. I know. That's why it's so hard. So if you do EV charging, if you got a pool, probably not for you, but like, it could save a lot of. It could save like 10 to 20% for a lot of people. This next one, I love this one. So if you've like zoned out, come back to me because this is a very exciting. This is new technology and this is technology that like, like doesn't start till February. So like, come back to me. So there are credit cards that will optimize rewards categories, some will auto optimize and some like blowing my mind with optimization. So the first, so you've got cards like the Citi Custom Cash card, which automatically will give you 5% cash back on your single highest spending eligible category each filling cycle. So groceries, dining, gas, travel, no activation needed. This is very good. If you don't travel a lot, you don't plan to travel a lot, but you want more than 2 or 3% back on groceries. Right. That's what you're primarily spending money on, right? Besides your mortgage. If you're watching, you see me wink right now. So you want something a little elevated on groceries. And so this is kind of like what you get. But really, maybe you like spend a lot on your pets every month or your horses. I don't know. Something. My mind first went to horses and then I was like, that's too much pets. And then I was like, that's too little. But maybe not. But maybe I can put both in. So I don't know, maybe groceries isn't your highest, but maybe like you don't want a travel card. Something like this is fantastic. There are other cards that have rotated 5% cash back on different categories, but this is the first I've heard that automatically gives you 5% cash back on your personal highest spending category.
- [36:09]
Jill
That is fun. And 5%, that's no joke.
- [36:12]
Jen
It's no joke. 5% is the deal. Right. And so then we've got. This isn't with the Citi Custom Cash card, but you've heard of the Bilt card card. We've talked about the Bilt card where you can pay for your rent.
- [36:27]
Jill
B I L T. Because I like to spell today.
- [36:30]
Jen
She does. So it was just announced that The Bilt Card 2.0 is coming out in February. The original Bilt MasterCard sunset it in November. And so with the Bilt 2.0, you'll be able to put your mortgage payment on the credit card and get cash rewards.
- [36:56]
Jill
I'm finding this out for the first time.
- [36:59]
Jen
Girl, I left it.
- [37:00]
Jill
Yo left it off. You left it off the outline just so you could shock and surprise me. And I kind of love you for it.
- [37:07]
Jen
I love, I love doing this. But so yes.
- [37:09]
Jill
Oh my gosh.
- [37:10]
Jen
You are going to be able to get points for paying your mortgage. So you can, you can't sign up for this until February. As of November 5th, you can no longer get the original built card. But for the time being, we're recording this in December. But you will be. They'll have three build cards. One will have a zero annual fee, you'll have 95 and then one will have a 495 annual fee. And we'll know more February 7th. So if you're listening, after February 7th you'll be able to know all of it. But I assume the one that will let you get points on your mortgage payment, that's probably going to be the high annual fee 1. So keep an eye out for that if you are a home. My mind is blown.
- [38:01]
Jill
I just sold my house, Jen.
- [38:04]
Jen
Well, girl, I own two houses so I am very excited about it. You can have your community solar and. Okay, okay. I am going to look into the Bilt.
- [38:16]
Jill
I mean it does allow me to put my rent on. How BILT currently exists is. Is like that. Yeah.
- [38:23]
Jen
So check back in February. We might even let us know in the comments if you want us to do like a whole deep dive episode on it because this is really, really exciting.
- [38:34]
Jill
No kidding. All right, number 10 because we're moving on. Use virtual used car inspections before buying from places like Facebook Marketplace. So your used your used car that isn't a certified pre owned. Honestly, could you still do it with a certified pre owner? You probably could.
- [38:53]
Jen
You probably could. They have two options.
- [38:56]
Jill
Yeah. So I mean, we know that buying used cars is the best way to save money on cars and vehicles. Transportation is one of our highest expenses. So when we can save in this category, we're doing real well. So when you can use those points on your mortgage and then you can get your car used. But that's always the concern is, is it in good shape? Right. And we did a really deep dive into saving money on your car purchase with. With an episode that we're also linking as well. So if you. If you're in that season of life, definitely dig into that one. But here's our kind of TLDR on that one. That if you are buying a used car from a private seller, you could pay to get on a call with a real material. A video call.
- [39:46]
Jen
A video call. Yeah.
- [39:47]
Jill
Yeah. That. That part's important. Right. Trusts us to just be describing.
- [39:52]
Jen
Is this normal? Like it's black.
- [39:55]
Jill
There's normal. It plastic, I think. Wait, let me knock on it. You hear that?
- [40:01]
Jen
No, you can show them.
- [40:04]
Jill
So video call for about 20 to 30 dollars. And this video call with a mechanic can help you get instant online help where you don't need to take it to a shop. No one's coming to you. You can ask the mechanic about what they're seeing in the car, what they'd want to check out on this particular make and model, what. Yeah. What types of things to be checking on the car. They'd be able to do that and get their eyes on it and give you feedback and even hear the different noises. You know, turn it on, turn it back off, turn it off, turn it back on again. All the things.
- [40:41]
Jen
Yeah, obviously it's not. It's going to be one of those, like, I think this is good. I want to go through with this deal. Let me just get a quick second opinion from another set of eyes that knows what they're looking at. It's not going to tell you like any unseen, you know, things you want to do your. You want to go to carcomplaints.com make sure you're buying a make and model in a year that has good reviews already. You're looking at it. It's good. And this is your last set of eyes. You can also get people to do a mobile. Like you can get mobile mechanics to do an inspection which can sometimes be a little less expensive. It. It depends. So you're gonna pay anywhere between like 1 to 300 to go into a mechanic to get, you know, Something. But a person selling a private seller is not always gonna let you take their car to a mechanic. Right? Because they're unsure if that mechanic's gonna do something. Like they don't know where it's going. So you may not be able to do it. Instead you can call a mobile mechanic who will go out. We found you need to do a search for ones near you. We found one near us. That's ineedappi.com yeah, take a second, Jill. And so they.
- [41:59]
Jill
Why am I like a five year old boy right now?
- [42:03]
Jen
Why is this? Why am I so good at dealing with five year old boys? That's so true. You will schedule, you will buy a mobile mechanic session with them. And so then they will take care of scheduling the soonest possible time with the salesperson or private seller. They will go on site to inspect the vehicle and then send you a detailed report via email one to two hours after the inspection is complete. On site. And you can even add a carfax. It's usually if you just buy one, it's like 45 I think, but you can add one on for like 20 bucks. So it makes that barrier to entry to buying a used car lower. And that's what we want. We don't want to buy lemons, we don't want to buy crappy cars. We want to buy good cars. And this is how we do it.
- [42:49]
Jill
Tbh. Eric and I have in the past, I mean before our most recent car, every single car we bought was private sale from like Craigslist back in the day.
- [42:59]
Jen
So many private sales.
- [43:01]
Jill
But we often will test drive the car to our mechanic and the person selling has even come with us at certain points. Like some have trusted us, some have been like, yeah, I'll come with you, that kind of a thing. And so yeah, we've made an appointment with our mechanic ahead of time, told them what we're doing and that's been fine as well. And so, so depending on the relationship that you have with your mechanic and if they're close enough to where you're buying the car, I mean they may charge you less than one of these mobile mechanics as well. So that's an option.
- [43:29]
Jen
Okay.
- [43:29]
Jill
Number 11, leverage your rent negotiation tools because you can negotiate rent, my friends. And one of these tools is very, very cool. Rentcast IO. We're gonna link that in the description. It is free. It's, it's technically a tool for real estate investors to be able to price rentals, but you as a renter can use it to leverage Your negotiations, because rent prices change and they don't always just go up. Sometimes they go down if there's a dip, if there's greater levels of inventory. Right. We all understand supply and demand that the rent prices might go down. If it's not a common time of year for people to be moving, like summertime, rent prices might go up. A lot of people are moving before the school year, but then at other points throughout the year, they might dip again. And so a tool like this would be able to tell you what is rent currently going for. If you're at. If you're coming up on a lease renewal, check this out, see what other people are renting in the area for. This is a great way to kind of get your comps and then be able to take this to the table, the negotiation table, so to speak, and be like, here's what other places in the area are going for. Can I get this for you? Name the price. Ask. Ask the landlord whether that's before you sign the lease or at a lease renewal.
- [44:56]
Jen
Yes. Next is to participate in the local library of things networks. So you've probably heard of buy nothing groups. We love buy nothing groups. But what if you don't want to keep it? What if you just want to borrow it? And so since 2020, this library of things has really exploded nationwide. So you've got tool libraries, baby gear, libraries, sewing machines, gardening equipment. Some are neighbor to neighbor, peer to peer, and are free sharing economy style. Some will cost a little bit of money. You've got websites like Huglo, which I assume is like hooga h Y-G-G g l o.com where you can pay to. If you want to borrow a nicer camera or a drone for a video project or kind of nicer things, you can pay by the. That is an option for renting and borrowing.
- [45:51]
Jill
I also just learned about this new app called Mooch App. They are relatively new, they are free. They are a place where you can kind of create your own library of things amongst your friends and family. So people that you already know and you can kind of put everything in there that would be available for everyone.
- [46:12]
Jen
It's like a private library of things. You were really excited about this app when you found out about it.
- [46:17]
Jill
I really, I mean, I, I still am because I think that that's a big barrier for people, especially to lend your things out. Is, is it going to come back to me? What kind of condition is it going to be in? I don't know if I trust other people, but when you when you've got it all inputted and you're sharing it with your friends who might also need it, then they don't have to wonder like, oh, do they have da da da. That friend is able to go and be like, oh yeah, I see Eric's got a jigsaw I could borrow and be able to kind of arrange it all through the app. So that's another good resource.
- [46:51]
Jen
And the very last is use card linked local dining and shopping offers. So we've had a lot of online for, you know, years, but now we're getting card linked. We're going kind of back in time to card linked offers in stores. People are trying to get out of their houses, which good, great. I love that for you. I love that for us. I love that for all of us. Leave your house. So card laying on. You can use Rakuten in store, which has primarily just been online, but they now have an in store program. Amex Offers, Chase offers, Dosh Dosh has been around for a while, so these are now far more widespread and stackable. You can save 20 to 50amonth with zero effort, which I love. It's what I hated about apps. You would have to like upload your receipt and clip rebates. You had to do so much legwork to save money. And I hate legwork. And this is very automatic. Another thing that we just recently used is the In Kind app. That was fun and that gave us we got to go to a really nice restaurant for Travis and I's anniversary. And of course Jill and Eric became.
- [48:05]
Jill
Of course we were there for your anniversary and.
- [48:08]
Jen
And we all like got money off from this really nice dinner using the In Kind app. And we got to go to a new place too.
- [48:17]
Jill
Yeah, that was very fun. Do you know what else is super fun and provides us an opportunity to try new things?
- [48:24]
Jen
It's not new, but it's one of those tried and trues.
- [48:28]
Jill
The bill of the week. That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week.
- [48:45]
Jen
Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
- [48:48]
Jill
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.
- [48:57]
Jen
This is the bill of the week. Hey, Jen and Jill, this is Lisa. I just wanted to tell you about.
- [49:04]
Jill
A bill that I am actually excited to pay. I have had horrible vision my entire.
- [49:10]
Jen
Life to the point where I'm not.
- [49:13]
Jill
Even a candidate for Lasik surgery.
- [49:15]
Jen
Well, I went to a new eye doctor recently. And he told me about a surgery called clear lens exchange that they typically.
- [49:24]
Jill
Do on people with cataract.
- [49:26]
Jen
But it's something that I was actually a candidate for, too. And so last week, I went and did it. And I can already tell a week later that my vision is 10 times better than it ever was. And although I'm not fully recovered yet from it, I am just so happy to have gone through this, and I don't even mind paying that bill. Thanks for all you do. Pray, Lisa. Girl, I got Lasik. When we got our first book advance. That was what I spent my part of the advance on. And I am so thankful every day for better vision, like, the gift of vision. You actually drove me home.
- [50:14]
Jill
I did. I drove you there. I couldn't believe how fast it was. You're like, can you come with me, take me there and then drive me? Like, sure. I, like, blocked off my whole day. And, like, you literally went in, they said hello to you, and then you were, like, walking out like this. I'm like, okay. I didn't even have time to, like, eat all the snacks that are in the waiting room. But fine, let's go.
- [50:36]
Jen
They do have. They did have so many snacks for the people waiting. Like, they did it. Congratulations, Lisa. So happy for you.
- [50:45]
Jill
We love the bills that we don't mind paying. And you know why we're able to get after some of these bills and be willing to pay full price for them is is when we do all of these other things to save money, where it counts on the things that really maybe don't matter to us that much or like, we have to pay for. But how can we get them for as little money as possible so that then we can do the clear lens exchange surgery? Well done. So glad you're seeing 10 times better. Hope that recovery continues to go well. If you have a bill that you want to submit, if it's about paying bills that you just really don't mind paying, if it's about saving money on bills, you know what to do. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill we can't wait for it.
- [51:29]
Jen
Life insurance was one of those things I kept putting off. It felt overwhelming and honestly, a little uncomfortable to think about. But once we had kids, it stopped feeling optional. I started thinking about things like the mortgage, childcare, and everyday expenses and realized this is something I needed to handle for my family's sake.
- [51:47]
Jill
And that's why Fabric by Gerber Life stood out to us. Fabric by Gerber Life is term life insurance. You can get done today made for busy parents like you all online on your schedule. Right from your couch, you could be covered in under 10 minutes with no health exam required.
- [52:01]
Jen
If you've got life insurance through work, it might not be enough and it doesn't follow you if you change jobs. Fabric offers flexible coverage that fits your family and budget and they partner with Gerber Life, trusted by families for over 50 years. It finally felt like a responsible box.
- [52:18]
Jill
Checked Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes@meatfabric.com frugal that's meatfabric.com frugal M E-E-T fabric.com frugal policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. December is the month where I classically lose track of my finances between travel, gifts, hosting. It all adds up so fast and it's easy to blow through my holiday budget without one place to track it all in real time.
- [52:51]
Jen
If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch, rated Wall Street Journal's Best Budgeting App of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. And right now, just for our listeners, Monarch is offering 50% off your now.
- [53:14]
Jill
Seeing all my holiday spending in one place is keeping me on track to not overspend this month, which January Jill will be very pleased about. We all know it's a crazy season and thankfully Monarch is built for people with busy lives.
- [53:26]
Jen
Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code frugalonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code FRUGAL.
- [53:39]
Jill
And now it's time for the lightning round.
- [53:45]
Jen
All right, what's one way AI has helped you and one way it's let you down recently?
- [53:50]
Jill
Oh my gosh, I should have.
- [53:53]
Jen
You should have thought read this before because I think when we think of technology we always skip right to AI. But it's and we have so many listeners that angry comment at us and angry email at us about like using AI. And I mean people hated the Internet, you know, like it's a thing that exists now, literally. Economists. There's so much money invested in AI tech by large companies. The US economy literally cannot afford for it not to succeed. And that is straight from the people.
- [54:31]
Jill
Who I did hear this yeah, that is sad.
- [54:36]
Jen
So we're all sorry whether you. Yeah. Whether we like it or not, it has, has to be around, but it is not all there yet, regardless of how many, like, photorealistic videos you've seen from Sora. So it has helped me in understanding the CFP material with simpler explanations. So if you don't know, Jill and I are studying to become certified financial planners. Next year we plan to add financial planning to the list of services we sell.
- [55:08]
Jill
Maybe next year, maybe 2027, we don't know TBD.
- [55:11]
Jen
It'll be the, the only thing on the list of services we sell. And we really want to help. Frugal Friends has helped, has, you know, allowed us to help a wide span of people, maybe an inch deep. And so we really would love to help people. I mean, Jill's a licensed clinical social worker. So like, we really, we both really love the idea of helping fewer people on a deeper level. So this will allow us to shift energy to that. The show isn't going anywhere, but it is something we kind of are interested in doing. But some of it is very complex information and ChatGPT has helped to explain it to me like I'm in middle school.
- [55:59]
Jill
Oh, that's funny. I tell ChatGPT to explain it to me like I'm in 5th grade.
- [56:05]
Jen
I just ask it to explain this to me in like, simply in simple terms because I don't like the fifth grade explanation. I'm not like thinking about toys and bicycles and things that fifth graders are getting.
- [56:19]
Jill
True.
- [56:19]
Jen
Yeah. So what it has done wrong for me is like it gave me 90% wrong information for this episode. And I know because I check when I use AI, I check what I'm doing. And so I've also been looking at money saving apps and software for, I guess almost 10 years at this point. So I also know I am familiar with what has existed, what does exist and what does not exist. And so it was just giving me ideas. I asked it to tell me what exists, but what did not exist or was not widely available more than five years ago. And it gave me all these great ideas, but like 90% of them do not exist. Well, today, like those one star apps no longer exist, but did exist, like Paribus. I used to talk about Paribus all the time and it no longer exists because credit card companies and stores have changed their, you know, reimbursement rules, so it made it obsolete. So it just gave me a bunch of stuff like that. So if you're ever wondering, like, do.
- [57:36]
Jill
We Just can't totally be trusted.
- [57:38]
Jen
It can't totally be trusted. And that's. But it can be great. It did give me the inspiration that I needed for this episode that I asked. Asked for. And I asked it to give me a list of 20, knowing I'd probably only use half of them or only half of them would be worth it. And I was right. Yeah.
- [57:56]
Jill
It's also been helpful for me with the cfp. It is my tutor, essentially. If I can trust it, it did let me down. Would we consider this AI? So when we were writing the book, we had to use Microsoft to like, yeah, Microsoft Word, which I'm used to. Google Sheets. That's.
- [58:19]
Jen
That's where I commiserate in the comments about how Microsoft Office is the literal worst.
- [58:27]
Jill
Yeah.
- [58:27]
Jen
And in publishing, you can't use Google Docs.
- [58:29]
Jill
You have to use Microsoft live in the 1800s. Still so true. And they are very archaic. Well, anyways, as I was writing this, they're like Microsoft little helper. It used to be a cute paperclip. I don't even know it is now. Light bulb maybe, I don't know. But this thing kept popping up and I didn't know how to get rid of it. But at one point I was writing about how I used to live in a trailer, right? 170 square feet. And now, now I do have a house, right. I didn't always live in a vehicle. And now I, I now I live in like close to 1500 square feet. And this little thing pops up. Like, to me, I was making the point of, of I live in a much larger home now than what I used to live in and yet still kind of achieving minimalism. Like, there was a whole point to that story, but this little guy didn't totally know that and was like, oh, you can help your reader gain understanding of the space by saying that your house now is about half the size of a tennis court.
- [59:36]
Jen
Court.
- [59:38]
Jill
And I'm like, what?
- [59:40]
Jen
Because everybody knows how big tennis courts are, so that will help you gain insight.
- [59:46]
Jill
No. If anything, it makes it sound like, so I move from a vehicle to a shoebox, like half the size of a tennis court. So then.
- [59:55]
Jen
Which is now. Isn't that like a pickleball court?
- [59:58]
Jill
Right.
- [59:59]
Jen
Probably.
- [60:00]
Jill
So then I'm googling and I'm like, how big is a tennis court? And like, sure enough, they're like, like 3,000 square ft. Which is insane to me. But I'm like, this is giving context to nobody. If I'm out here thinking, like half.
- [60:15]
Jen
A tennis court like, girl, you are of touch.
- [60:19]
Jill
Still living Microsoft Office. So tiny. Yeah. And anyone that I ask, I'm like, do you think my house was half the size of a tennis court? Like, no.
- [60:27]
Jen
I think doesn't feel that for a while you were asking people like, what's bigger, a tennis court or my house? And everyone's like, your house? And you were like, no, it's a tennis court.
- [60:38]
Jill
Tricked. Yeah.
- [60:40]
Jen
Which was fantastic.
- [60:41]
Jill
We've all been tricked by Microsoft AI.
- [60:43]
Jen
Now, but I hope we haven't tricked you and I hope that you have enjoyed this episode. And if you didn't know, like Jill said, we have a book. It's called Buy what yout Love Without Going Broke. And we have loved the fantastic response that you guys have given us. Like this one from Ann Kitty 13 five stars. Approachable, refreshing, and the millennial humor sprinkled throughout made me laugh. This isn't an overly complicated finance book and the ideas and action steps are very tangible. It felt like two girlies chatting over coffee about their passion for personal finance and frugality and I love that vibe. Appreciate that they touched on spirituality, community and the environmental impacts of over consuming. I'll definitely be listening to their podcast now.
- [61:26]
Jill
Oh, you weren't a podcast listener before? I love that switch. Great twist. Thank you all for listening. Thanks for liking this episode, commenting on this episode, subscribing to our YouTube channel, reading the book, giving us a review. We love all the things. Thank you.
- [61:42]
Jen
We are on the road to 10,000 subscribers on YouTube. So if you haven't subscribed yet, please do. Please help us get there. We are so close.
- [61:52]
Jill
Thank you. See you next time.
- [61:56]
Jen
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
- [62:09]
Jill
Did I already tell you about how Goodwill was more expensive than Walmart? And I'm really freaking ticked about it.
- [62:16]
Jen
You told me yesterday, but you haven't told me.
- [62:18]
Jill
Old Frugal Friends. Me out here trying to do the right thing, buying secondhand because I'm making a cake for a six year old and I needed some supplies. I found the supplies I did and then I had to go to Walmart, I don't know, for some eggs or something and I passed by the baking aisle only to discover that the things I just purchased from Goodwill secondhand to do my baking that are very dirty and have lots of of stickers all over them that are unlikely to come off anytime soon were more expensive than what I could have gotten them brand new at Walmart for.
- [62:58]
Jen
Yep. Yeah, we collectively as a group have written off Goodwill. We've yeah, I love seeing they sell like shein clothing. More expensive than what she ansells it for secondhand. I don't know where where they get off.
- [63:19]
Jill
Where they get off I don't know.
- [63:21]
Jen
They got but they got off a long time ago.
- [63:22]
Jill
Oh man. I might have a retraction. I've been saying that Goodwill is a for profit company but they are saying it's a non profit. Tell the people that Goodwill is a 501C3. My bad. They just need to get better at pricing their stuff because they're getting it for free. Okay, well, see you later.
- [63:49]
Jen
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