← Frugal Friends Podcast
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- [00:00]
Jen
Lately, living inside the rhythms of everyday life, the routines, the relationships, the small moments, has made me feel deeply grateful for how far we've come and the people we get to do life with.
- [00:11]
Jill
And that gratitude comes with responsibility. Protecting what matters most your people, your progress, your future can feel like a lot. Life insurance is one of those things you know is important, but figuring it out can feel overwhelming.
- [00:23]
Jen
That's where policygenius makes things easier. They're an online insurance marketplace that helps you compare policies side by side for free. Their licensed team answers your questions, handles the paperwork, and helps you find the most affordable policy that actually fits your life. We've heard great feedback from listeners who've loved how simple and clear the process felt.
- [00:42]
Jill
Plan the year knowing you've protected what you've built. With Policygenius, real users have gotten 20 year $2 million policies for just $53 a month. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com working across teams is tough, but Asana helps you handle it. Asana AI can spot roadblocks and assign work to keep everything on track. That's how work gets handled. Visit us@asana.com.
- [01:15]
Jen
Why everything is Worse Quality now it's not just you.
- [01:23]
Guest Expert
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity.
- [01:30]
Jill
And live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill. This woman just said corporations act like they are mad that they have to go through you to get your money. And that's like, that's what's reflected in the quality of every single thing getting worse. And I don't feel as if there has been a more accurate statement made about the state of capitalism.
- [02:00]
Jen
Welcome Frugal Friends. I'm Jen.
- [02:03]
Jill
I'm Jill.
- [02:04]
Jen
And one of our ethos here is quality over quantity. But even after, I mean, six, seven, eight months a year of really digging into research and trying to be an informed consumer, trying to buy quality, I have been let down time and time again by these products I have been buying, both new and used. And so I really wanted to dig into what are the root causes of why is everything getting such poor quality? Or. Or am I crazy? Is it just I'm now expecting too much?
- [02:45]
Jill
Whoever thought that we'd be. They don't make it like they used to. But truly, it's really starting to feel like that. It does kind of seem like every generation starts to say that. But truly, here we are. What's A frugal girly to do. And everything's, like, synthetic and plastic and itchy and gross and breaks.
- [03:07]
Jen
So today's a deep dive into why are we crazy? Like, is this a perception problem or is it true? Is why is everything poor quality and what can we do about it?
- [03:23]
Jill
So the first question truly is, like, is quality declining?
- [03:26]
Listener/Caller
I'm, like, getting to a point of not even wanting to shop anymore. And it's not because prices are so expensive. It's because prices are so expensive. But quality. Quality is absolutely garbage. I went to the store yesterday, and I found these two lamps that I really liked. I've been looking for lamps for, like, two or three years for my bedroom, okay? I cannot find lamps. I end up finding these two lamps that I absolutely love. So I take them home, and I'm like, perfect. Like, finally solved my lamp issue. I'm setting them up and putting them together, and I'm screwing the lampshade into the bottom base part, and I hear, like, crack.
- [03:55]
Jill
Whatever.
- [03:55]
Listener/Caller
It snapped. What do you mean it snapped? So I'm looking at the lamp. The piece that snapped was made of plastic. I'm like, this is so weird. This has never happened to me before. Like, I've put lamps together. I have other lamps in the house, in other places that I bought a while ago. The piece that snapped is made of plastic. In every other lamp that I had, the piece was made of metal. So not only did I walk into the store and pay $90 per lamp, but now the $90 lamp that used to be $30 is now made of plastic instead of metal. Again, you see this with literally everything. Like, I bought this set from Target, okay, a few weeks ago. I've worn it once, I've washed it once. It's already pilling. It's pillow filling everywhere because it's garbage quality, and it costs, like, almost $50. Like, I'm starting to get to the point where I just don't even want to shop anymore because you can't find things of quality unless you go into, like, these insane stores, like, where are you guys shopping? That things are not complete trash. Because I also don't want to spend 500 on lamps. People are like, oh, you got to spend money to get quality. Like, I used to be one of those people who really thought that, like, more expensive did equal higher quality. And it still does in some instances. But lately I don't feel like you're getting higher quality when you're spending more money. I really don't.
- [05:06]
Jill
Where's the why?
- [05:07]
Jen
I feel so similarly. And it's so unfortunate because you hear in frugality the idea that, like, if you buy a good quality pair of boots, you buy them once and they last a lifetime versus the cheap person buys the cheap boots and has to keep buying them over and over again. And they're essentially making it impossible for people to be frugal to buy something quality. Because even when, like, I was seeing comments on the videos that we're playing today, like people trying to buy something of quality, like 100% cotton, and then the thing comes in and it's a polyester blend. I've seen things when I'm looking for that, like on Amazon. Then in the comments, people have taken pictures of the tag of the product and being like it says, 100% cotton is not 100% cotton. It's a blend.
- [05:59]
Jill
Apparently 100% doesn't mean anything.
- [06:02]
Jen
It means nothing.
- [06:03]
Jill
It's just, it's an emoji now. It's not an actual mathematical equation of the percentages anymore.
- [06:13]
Jen
So we looked at about 20 articles from, from across the Internet. You know, if you've been with us since the early days, we started the show, we didn't have video, but we would just take two articles on a topic that we were interested in and really suss out, okay, what is fluff and what is like real advice or information. And so we looked at about 20 articles from like, really reputable sources, like studies, like papers from the Fed from. Not papers from the Fed, but like articles from the Fed from the Economist, even Le Monde in France. So like, we wanted to get people's like, experts perspectives and interviews on what's going on and across the board consistent agreement. We are not losing our minds. Quality is declining and the Fed calls it skimpflation. So we hear a lot about shrinkflation, which is companies charging the same price but just making the quantity lower. And so what this is is skimflation and this is reducing quality, like keeping the price the same and reducing quality to increase profits.
- [07:31]
Jill
This is wild. And I actually, I feel so seen. It's helpful to have that clarifying piece of. Yeah, it's actually happening and the Fed is putting words to it. But then it's also frustrating at the same time. Like when you want to buy qu quality but it's shrouded in. But where and how. Everyone's lying to me. Yeah, yeah, there's an example. Edgar Dworski is the founder of Consumer World, and they track and post the fine print of product changes on a website called Mouseprint.org and he found in 2023 that Wishbone Italian dressing, you know, the kind I can actually like. Not the dog, not the small dog.
- [08:18]
Jen
Wishbo, but the salad dressing.
- [08:20]
Jill
Wishbone Italian salad dressing showed over a 22% reduction in oil content, seemingly replaced with water and over a 30% increase in salt. These are not small numbers. Like could you imagine being told you're getting like a 22% decrease in wage or a 30% increase.
- [08:45]
Jen
A quarter of the entire product is what used to be salad dressing, which is arguably oil. A quarter reduction in it. And so it's not. So it's not just like products either. The Fed says they're seeing like on average, restaurant diners are experiencing longer wait times to sit down. And for food travelers no longer get the breakfast buffet at the hotel or only housekeeping services when you request it. And then the rise of self checkout at grocery stores. These are, are all examples of skin deflation.
- [09:25]
Jill
Yeah, and it's great when stores like Aldi, I'm pointing because Aldi is actually.
- [09:31]
Jen
That direction right there. We could reach out and touch.
- [09:35]
Jill
When they really do cut down all those things, you know, they don't have a cart person, which is why they do the quarter. And you know, they, they have minimal staff and they don't provide bags. And you actually see lower prices at the grocery store. But other places like Walmart or Target, I don't know, I'm just going to.
- [09:53]
Jen
Call them all out.
- [09:54]
Jill
Are doing relying upon self checkout. Prices aren't changing. If anything, they are going up. So like where's all that savings going? What are they doing with the money?
- [10:06]
Jen
Yeah. So our next question is why? I think we know the answer, but like let's dive into it.
- [10:14]
Guest Expert
Your stuff is actually worse now. Or at least that's what this article from Vox says. And as product designers, we unfortunately agree that a lot of the stuff we buy today is lower quality. Not all of it, but a lot of it. The declining quality has been happening for a long time. And this article does a really good job covering the events in history that have been catalysts. First, the Industrial Revolution. They talk about in mass manufacturing, when you settle on a design, it can be really expensive and time consuming to change it. Obviously this depends on the product and the material, but as a generalization, this is true and I'm happy to dive into why. I do want to note that the Industrial Revolution did increase quality and consistency in a ton of products. So obviously there's multiple sides to the story. The Second big historical event that they cite is the Great Depression. In order to generate demand for products and kickstart the economy, marketers came up with selling strategies to artificially create demand, thus inventing planned obsolescence, which is still very much a marketing strategy used today. 3 Current global supply chain strains. Chain strains, climate change, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, unstable markets. Materials are rising in costs, but consumers expectations of how much they pay have remained the same, though oftentimes manufacturers cut corners to make up for that Delta. Finally, number four is consumer expectations rise in fast fashion. And companies like Amazon are two really big players in shifts in consumer expectations. They've changed what we expect both for speed and newness of products, as well as speed of delivery, product development and manufacturing. Speed and quality are almost always at odds. They also touch on right to repair laws and how big tech companies have lobbied against those. And we've talked about that a bunch on this account, but I'm happy to dive back into it.
- [11:47]
Jen
Yeah, this is where I honestly, I geek out. This is my thing. Because to really know why we are paying more right now for our products, you do have to go all the way back to the Industrial Revolution. Because we can blame Amazon, we can blame ourselves, but we did it 20 years ago. Just decide to change. Right. This does go back to the Industrial Revolution and like really does have its core I think in the 20s and 30s. Right. So industrial revolution made mass production of goods more affordable and efficient. But the problem was that people were frugal. Like frugality was lauded as this very admirable quality. To use what you have, use it up, get creative, to not want more than you have, to be grateful for what you have, be a good steward of your resources. That was the general vibe in culture at the time and had to do.
- [12:54]
Jill
With what access you had to resources. You know, you'd get clothes high quality, tailor made to you. Those were the clothes in your closet. Fashion didn't exist. So this other type of culture of frugality did.
- [13:07]
Jen
Yeah, and so people were, you know, people were content with their things and they had just honestly had just come out of the Great Depression where they had literally nothing. They were eating bread for every meal. And so this part right after that did feel like, okay, we have what we need and we didn't have what we need needed before. And so we're super content. But we had all of these innovations to make product production cheaper and more efficient with nobody to buy them. And so that is where we get in to marketing, advertising and Propaganda. You think Mad Men was the golden age for advertising in the 60s? No, no my friend, the 20s and 30s started it all. You don't have Mad Men without these two people. And the first is a guy named Ernest Elmo Calkins.
- [14:05]
Jill
Doesn't sound threatening. He doesn't, wait a minute, he doesn't.
- [14:09]
Jen
Look threatening either if you saw a picture of him. So he created what is what he called consumer engineering or artificial obsolescence. And it was an answer to the economic woes right after of the Great Depression. So you had people that were out of the habit of buying, they were not in the habit of buying even though more money was coming in. It's like when we got stimulus checks in 2020. People, you know, they wanted people to put money into the economy so the economy wouldn't collapse and they wanted people to put money into the economy now so we could build it back up. But, but then beyond that he said that this could increase American standard of living. So even when we got back up to health this could, could be good for companies, you know, far, far beyond that. So you've got Elmo over here creating planned obsolescence or what would become planned obsolescence. And then you've got my boy. And if you've read our book, buy what you love without going broke. You know him, Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda. Or as he likes to be called or not anymore he did, he wanted to be called the, the father of public relations. But what is public relations if not the glossing over of poorly laid information? Anyways, Edward Bernays in the twenties he, he straight out like told people, he described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct, which we are. But like don't tell people that like you're better than us. Irrational and subject to herd instinct. And he outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desired ways. He wrote a book titled public relations in 1945 which outlines the science of managing information released to the public by an organization in a manner most advantageous to the organization. So he really was in the, in the 20s and 30s he was using propaganda to sell things like he is single handedly responsible for women picking up smoking. And then public relations. How to gloss over all of that bad information, how to, how to strategically release information so it's advantageous to companies. And so you combined that with this new phenomenon of planned obsolescence. Give it 100 years, literally 100 years to stew. And now what we have is we want to buy a lot of Stuff, we want to buy it frequently and we want to buy it so fast that companies cut corners to fulfill what we want. And we're okay with it because we want so much. And I don't think inherently that's our nature. And I don't think inherently that's our fault. I think it's 100 years of this being built into our culture. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. I do need a sip of water.
- [17:33]
Jill
It is so fascinating because it's helpful to know where we've come from, to know where we currently find ourselves, to know where do we want to be going and maybe make some predictions on where we're actually going. There are certain aspects like what you've already highlighted, where it's not something that we can make huge shifts in as a singular person. But it doesn't mean that we can't choose differently or that awareness can't bring an ability to go against the grain a little bit, which we will get to. You know, what do we do with all of this? But I think to know that yes, we play a role in it, but this has been happening before we were born, leading up to this point, and that there are reasons that it exists now. So again, having an explanation is, is really great. But I think, you know, it lends to the question of like, okay, is, is it all working now? This whole planned obsolescence create desire.
- [18:38]
Jen
You.
- [18:38]
Jill
Know, creating like economic. What is the word? Consumer desire.
- [18:45]
Jen
There was consumer engineering.
- [18:47]
Jill
Consumer engineering that is like that's, that's so PR'd actually.
- [18:52]
Jen
I know to call land obscene. These guys existed at the same time like they were in the same world, like working off of this. It is sick that there were no consumer protection laws or anybody thinking about consumer protection at that time.
- [19:14]
Jill
Yeah.
- [19:14]
Jen
Like, and if they were, it was all like Great Depression related. It was in the. So they were. But it was about investments. We got a lot of great investment investor protection laws in the 20s and in the 30s, but they weren't thinking about consumers as buyers. And so that's how we got here. And it sickens me to think about it. But if it didn't happen the twice it was going to happen in some decade. You know, like it was. People left to their own devices will bad eggs will rise to the top. That's not science. But like it is in my mind what happens.
- [19:55]
Jill
No, it's true.
- [19:56]
Jen
It is true. That's why that's a saying. I didn't actually know it was a saying.
- [20:01]
Jill
Yeah, well, because that's literally how you can test an egg is you put it in water and if it floats, the egg has gone bad.
- [20:11]
Jen
Okay, there you go. That's how you can test your eggs.
- [20:14]
Jill
If it kind of stays in the middle of the water, use it for baking. If it's at the if it stays sunken, you're golden. Go ahead and eat that thing. Cook it up and eat it. You're welcome. Chime is out here changing the way people bank it's fee free Smarter banking built for you. Not like some of these other banks out here charging overdraft and monthly fees. This is banking that actually feels like it's on your side.
- [20:37]
Jen
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- [20:46]
Jill
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- [20:54]
Jen
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- [21:25]
Jill
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- [21:42]
Jen
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- [21:56]
Jill
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- [22:11]
Jen
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- [22:29]
Jill
Okay, so here we are. This is where we find ourselves. And is it working?
- [22:33]
Jen
Is it, has it, has the last hundred years? Has it, has it worked out for you big companies? I've kind of had this realization recently in the last couple of years that like, the quality is just gone. Like when you want to purchase an item, they don't even last. And it really makes me mad when a company then asks me if I have purchased, like the insurance for it or like consumer protection or whatever, and I'm like, why do I need to pay an additional fee to protect my purchase? Why isn't the purchase itself just quality? Nothing is of quality. No company takes pride in their work anymore. I look at like furniture that my grandparents or my parents bought and it would last years, decades. I bought a couch, and within two years that thing was already breaking down. And I've kept it because I have to. And I don't have the money to buy a new one. But I'm like, how come everything we buy just breaks? Or you have to purchase a protection plan for it. I remember I had a piano, a keyboard piano, that was maybe two and a half years old. And when I called the company because some of the keys stopped working, I'm like, hey, is there a way to get this fixed? Like, could I pay your company to just fix it? And they're like, well, did you buy the coverage for it? I'm like, no. And they're like, well, that's it. Like there's nothing we can do. And I'm like, even if I had to pay to fix it, they have no way to fix it anymore. Like, they, they would rather me throw something out and buy a new one than pay a single. A service fee to fix it.
- [24:10]
Jill
Bingo. 100%.
- [24:13]
Jen
Exactly.
- [24:15]
Jill
Oh, this is so frustrating. Literally everything she's saying, yes, I can so commiserate.
- [24:22]
Jen
And so they're making more money off of people buying these warranties and these.
- [24:29]
Jill
Protection plans because insurance makes money. Like, that is where they're going to keep making the majority of their money. And even if you do get the protection plan, often it doesn't cover the thing that Ended up breaking on it. It's like, why did I even buy this? To read all of the fine print. It's insane.
- [24:49]
Jen
I want to hit something and I can't break it because you can't repair it because there's no right to repair. But it makes me think back to the video about the Vox article and we'll link to the actual Vox article is behind a paywall but Vox has a video. So we'll link to the video about the article. And it makes me think like when they were saying it's when something is created it's very expensive to redesign it. And so they just don't. And we have had all of these technological advances like on the Internet, but not really in consumer products because people, because these older companies are so much more beholden to shareholders so they can't afford to innovate because they have to. They are promising shareholders profit every quarter. And so that's how we get things that were once metal becoming plastic. Like that's the only innovation they can come up with to increase profits. Like that episode that we did with Hayden about cars. So we'll link to that too. We did an episode on, on used cars and new cars and is it worth it to buy new or used. And he was saying that in a lot of the new cars they're having all of the, he has a great channel where he's, he basically just like looks at people's car like new car problems and new cars are such crap because they're replacing these parts on automobiles. Not a lamp, an automobile that used to be metal and into plastic purely for the planned obsolescence like factor.
- [26:37]
Jill
Yeah.
- [26:37]
Jen
And part of it is that they have, they don't have an incentive to keep the cars lasting longer because people want to buy cars every four years.
- [26:46]
Jill
Yeah.
- [26:47]
Jen
These cars used to be able to last like 14 years and now they can last like 8 to 10. And it doesn't matter because people don't want to keep their cars for 14 years. They have no incentive to make the cars higher quality.
- [27:04]
Jill
Yeah, we, we have always said buy, buy used pre owned cars three to five years old. And that's just a frugal decision. And we're still going to say that, but now even more so just because they're going to be safer because you have to keep longer what they're putting out anymore.
- [27:20]
Jen
That's why you have to buy something that's a little used. Make sure all the kinks are out like and make sure it's not a lemon. Just so that you, you can keep it for eight to 10 years.
- [27:32]
Jill
Yeah.
- [27:33]
Jen
Like as a frugal person, we cannot afford to keep cars any shorter than that because the newer the car, the worse the quality.
- [27:40]
Jill
Yeah. Here's the thing. Yes, Skimflation is currently working for companies and they're going to continue doing it and we need to be extra vigilant, conscientious buyers. But long term really could end up being a different story. There was a marketing survey study done that found that 62% of consumers, 62% say that they'll stop buying from brands who change product size. That's shrinkflation or quality skin inflation to cut costs. And so that trust erosion that can start happening. And I can even think of some brands currently where, yeah, that's the case. You know, maybe a soap I used to buy from and now I'm noticing that's the same price for a smaller bottle. No thanks. See, like just down a spike.
- [28:36]
Jen
I'll look. I mean, I won't do it out of spite. Skinflation, Shrinkflation does not bother me as much as skinflation. If you can keep the quality, but you have to reduce the size in order to keep it the right price for like, I respect that, but you have to keep the quality. But I could see where shrinkflation could cause me to be like, okay, I'm paying more per ounce. Let me see if there's another thing that is exact same quality, but I can save a little bit of money per ounce and if I can't, that's fine, like I won't leave. But it is the skin inflation that is just. It feels easy, evil.
- [29:17]
Jill
Yeah.
- [29:18]
Jen
Like it feels unethical. And we have so many experience like in history of these class action lawsuits of products that have killed people or really hurt people. Right. Because of the decrease in quality. And this is a risk that companies are willing to take because paying out these lawsuits is less expensive than just spending the money to innovate and maintain or improve quality.
- [29:48]
Jill
I don't like that.
- [29:49]
Jen
That is horrible.
- [29:50]
Jill
Yeah, yeah. Okay. So this is all frustrating. This is a, this is big bummer, huge bummer. So, so let's, let's, let's talk about what do we do then? Like, what does this mean for us? What are our options?
- [30:06]
Guest Expert
So that's some of the reasons why stuff seems like lower quality. But to end on a positive note, what makes me feel optimistic is seeing trends of vintage becoming cool again, consumers trying to fix their own products and folks wanting to shop small. Some of our best Performing videos is folks watching us take apart and fix consumer electronics, which is really exciting. I hope we're at an inflection point for consumers demanding higher quality from manufacturers, but we'll see.
- [30:32]
Jen
I, in my cynicism, I don't think we are like, I don't think we're anything anywhere near right now.
- [30:38]
Jill
We're still so hopped up on being able to get that quick dopamine of whatever we want, whenever we want it, we get it within 24 hours.
- [30:48]
Jen
Ariana Grande. I think about that all the time. I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. Yeah, that is the problem. But it is such a bop. But. And I don't, I don't think that the sole responsibility is on us. Like, yes, that is us. That's our problem. We've got to fix that in ourselves. But we also have to recognize how we got here. We didn't put ourselves in this situation. Other people manipulated, truly manipulated our culture to get us where we are today. And we're not angry enough about it to change. We are not angry enough. I might be angry enough. I live in this anger. I have lived in this anger for years. You might, it might come across in the book. Read it.
- [31:37]
Jill
There's a lot to be angry about. I don't know if we should be led by that, but I mean, I get what you're saying.
- [31:43]
Jen
You should. It should be a little bit of your fuel. I think a little bit of your fuel should be anger. Yeah. And that's where. That's my stance in life.
- [31:53]
Jill
But I like the suggestions that are happening here of, of vintage. Right. If you don't know where to go, if it's not quality isn't being popped out currently, then, then let's thank our lucky stars that people have kept things around and that vintage stores are still popping off. And so our thrift store, I mean, yeah, again, thrift stores, people could just be giving all their junk. So we still have to be aware of what our high quality materials. But once it's in your hand, you can see that. You can see what they're made of. You can touch it, you can feel it, you can knock on it. But yeah, if they, if they don't make it like they used to, let's buy from the time period that they made it when they. How they used to.
- [32:38]
Jen
Yeah. And it's not going to fit you perfectly. Get a tailor. Yes, it's. I'm thinking these jeans are a little loose up at the top, but they fit like, I like how they fit everywhere else. And so I think I'm going to take them to the tailor just to get like a quick fix.
- [32:55]
Jill
I got a good tailor for you.
- [32:56]
Jen
Perfect. Thank you. Because you could. Yes, I could just get rid of them and get new jeans. Right. But they would, what would that do? Like it would be better for me and less expensive to just get them.
- [33:10]
Jill
Tailored now that you know you've got a good quality that's going to last. That the price point of paying for a tailor is going to be worth it.
- [33:18]
Jen
Yes.
- [33:19]
Jill
And that's, that's the repair piece. Right. I think tailoring kind of falls. It's a subcategory in a way of repair.
- [33:27]
Jen
There's nothing wrong with it but maybe it's not perfect for you. You still don't have to pass on it, you still don't have to settle. You can make it for you and then you've got repair.
- [33:37]
Jill
Yeah. So if it's clothing, I think you know the simple fixes of how to sew up a hole or add a button or you know, repair a zipper or hem, hem up the pant leg, whatever it is, those are really simple things that again YouTube is super helpful with. And then when it comes to our other stuff, our electronics, our small appliances, even the things in our, our home, the toilet, the whatever, like learning some of the smaller repairs or taking it to a repair shop. Now I will commiserate with us and Apple's notorious for this. Like they don't allow for repairs that there are, there are aspects of this phone that will not allow it to be taken apart. And if you do take it somewhere that's not an Apple store to do it like you, you've lost any version of warranty if it doesn't work.
- [34:29]
Jen
What warranty? Warranty on what?
- [34:33]
Jill
So true.
- [34:34]
Jen
I like back market if you can. I think it's, if you just search back market they do a lot of like refurbished electronics and they recently had a pop up in New York City where they were repairing on site different things. And so I like that stuff like that is coming back. Yeah. I think we still have this again after a hundred years. This aversion to going to the tailor. Oh, that's too expensive. I'll just you know, buy something new or why would I like repair something when I can just get something new? We have this aversion to it and that's what we need to get rid of. We need to get rid of that aversion and kind of like force ourselves to sit with the things that we have and get creative in how we have them instead of just tossing them. Because you take stuff to the thrift store, you are essentially throwing it in the trash. You're just driving it somewhere to throw.
- [35:39]
Jill
It in the trash. Like, I'm sorry, especially, do not you.
- [35:44]
Jen
Think you're doing something good by taking something to the thrift store? I guarantee you you are just throwing it in the trash with extra work. So if we can think like that, then I think that we can start to veer ourselves into the right direction.
- [36:03]
Jill
It should certainly not be approached as a reason to keep buying. Like, oh well, I can just take it to the thrift store. The last thing though too. Well, not the last thing, but another option is shopping center small. So I think a lot of our pushback on this whole skinflation is our big box companies. Right. We're talking the Amazons and the Walmarts of the world and all the, the ancillary type of places. But our, our local flea markets and our local business owners, our local artisans, like they care about what they're doing and the work that they're putting out. Yes, it's, it's more expensive. But like buying a mug from somebody who handcrafted the pottery is going to last far longer. I'm going to even like it far longer than buying whatever trash is on the shelf as you're in line at Marshalls.
- [37:05]
Jen
And you know, it doesn't come down to usability. We don't get rid of things because they're not useful anymore. We get rid of them because we don't like them.
- [37:13]
Jill
Yeah.
- [37:13]
Jen
And that's going to be aesthetic and beautiful forever. Like classic, timeless. Yeah.
- [37:19]
Jill
And I think these are the types of decisions we, we need to be looking at when it comes to some of our even like bigger purchases like the furniture, the appliances, the, the things that we are going to regularly be using.
- [37:34]
Jen
Yeah. And so last thing we'll leave with this. Educate yourself. So in order to be buying vintage second hand, knowing the things to buy that can be repaired, in order to do that, we, we have to know like what can be tailored? Almost anything can be tailored. You know, what are the best fabrics, what are the best, you know, furniture, mirror, all of that. So here are a few places you can bookmark online that will help you. The first is Consumer Reports and you can actually subscribe to Consumer Reports to their paid version for like 25 bucks a year. And it is an unbiased review site, nonprofit that really does a lot of extensive. We have subscribed to it in the past. We currently are subscribed to it that reviews all kinds of consumer goods and rates it on all kinds of different standards. So if there's. If you're looking to upgrade or really like get into what's there, you can get a lot of information from Consumer Reports without paying for it. But it's also not that much to invest in the work that they're doing and really get really comprehensive reviews like rankings of products. A Good Housekeeping Institute, they have a lot of. They do a lot of testing. IFixit I like iPod or whatever fix it has step by step repair guides. So for like tech stuff, if it's an easy fix, you can look for how to repair it there. And then wire cutter also does a lot of extensive testing and research on things. And so this is not going to be an end all be all. I think you're going to kind of have to look at all of these things to find, you know, kind of what you want. And then you can also follow influencers that look at the quality of clothing. Fond Los Angeles F O N D Los Angeles. She's very chaotic, but she does kind of do really good reviews on quality clothing. And she'll debunk how like luxury brand clothing is not always as good as is things like Quince. Like we love Quince. Quince is a sponsor of the show because we, I mean I have been time and time again and they're not paying me right now to say this. Yeah, when I buy something from Quince, I know it's gonna be good quality.
- [40:13]
Jill
Yeah. This is a quint shirt.
- [40:14]
Jen
Yeah. So like that is one of the places and if you have brands and things that places you buy from that you're like, this is good quality, consistently worth every penny. Please put it in the comments. Yeah. Because we need each other. We can't trust influencers because their favorite products are the ones they get paid the most to promote. Right. Like we, we have to be there for each other in this endeavor.
- [40:38]
Jill
I also like the app Good on youn. That one will also give you a review of like ethical practices and the ways that they're treating their employees as well as, you know, sustainability and quality of materials. So if you're curious about whether a clothing brand is to your standards, good on you is a good one. And you know what, where else we're just here for each other.
- [41:05]
Jen
And yeah, there is one place where I can find quality literally consistently every single time. And I don't have to worry.
- [41:13]
Jill
And I never overpay oh, it's never not going anywhere. The bill of the week. This is the bill of the week.
- [41:23]
Jen
This is 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.
- [41:36]
Jill
Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
- [41:38]
Jen
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. Hi there. My bill of the week is my credit card. I signed up for a promotional APR through a Wells Fargo credit card and that just ended in July. And my minimum payment went from $36 a month to $236 a month, which is terrible timing because my husband just lost his job a couple weeks ago. So I called the credit card company and requested for a lower minimum payment and lower APR, and they changed it from 23.74% to 1%, lowering my minimum payment to about $91 a month instead of the 236. I am super excited about this. Really a big win for us right now. And yeah, just wanted to share that with other, other people who hopefully it can help with. Thanks.
- [42:50]
Jill
Okay.
- [42:50]
Jen
Julie, I'm so sorry about your husband's job loss. I hope he's found something by now. But this is such a good tip for people especially who are paying off debt and looking to just make a call. Make the call. Yeah, if I wasn't so concerned about creating merch that was crap quality, I'd put it on a shirt.
- [43:18]
Jill
And you know what? After you make the call, make another call to us for your bill of the week. If you all are listening and have a bill that you want to submit, if it is in any way a version of a tip. If you just want to celebrate something bill related or your name is Bill.
- [43:34]
Jen
Or you have found a product of quality and you are, you were happy to pay the bill for it.
- [43:39]
Jill
We love those.
- [43:40]
Jen
We need that.
- [43:41]
Jill
Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill, make that call. Leave it for us. We can't wait to hear it.
- [43:47]
Jen
The start of the year always has me thinking about our goals, especially maxing out our Roth IRAs, building savings and planning for the long term stuff. But goals are just wishes if you don't have the right systems to support them. That's why I use Monarch. It's the budgeting app I use to actually implement those plans, not just track what already happened.
- [44:06]
Jill
Set yourself up for financial success this year with Monarch, the all in one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. It brings your entire financial life, budgeting accounts and investments, net worth and future planning together in one dashboard on your phone or laptop so you can feel aware and in control of your finances this year and get 50% off your monarch subscription with Code Frugal.
- [44:28]
Jen
What I love is that Monarch helps you move from tracking to actually achieving. I can see exactly where our money is going, project our savings and map out what it takes to hit those milestones. It's helped us feel way more confident and intentional with our money.
- [44:42]
Jill
Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all in one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code frugalonarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with code FRUGAL.
- [44:57]
Jen
You know what nobody tells you about weeknight dinner? It's the thing that never goes away. Every single day around 5pm, there it is again. For me it used to be panic, takeout, guilt and staring at the fridge wondering what I could throw together. Then along came HelloFresh, reducing my decision fatigue and giving me my nights back.
- [45:18]
Jill
The barrier to eating at home is so connected to the mental load of figuring it all out when you're already wiped. HelloFresh takes that off your plate literally. They provide pre portioned ingredients step by step, recipe cards and most meals are done in 30 minutes. One of my favorites is the Miso Glazed Salmon. It's like a restaurant meal, but I didn't spend an hour sweating over it.
- [45:39]
Jen
HelloFresh has over 100 recipes to choose from every week. Bigger portions so nobody's still hungry. Sustainably sourced seafood, antibiotic free chicken plus various options to suit your nutritional needs. It's high quality, easy and tasty.
- [45:54]
Jill
Go to hellofresh.com frugal10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free Zwilling knife on your third box. A $144.99 value offer. Valid while supplies last. New subscribers only. I use this and you should too. And now it's time for the lightning round.
- [46:16]
Jen
All right, what's your holy grail? High quality item. Let's start off the list right now. Jill, I know you got number one. Oh my babies.
- [46:28]
Jill
You know know this one. It's a Vitamix. You are not gonna get me off this Vitamix train unless I start to see some skinflation. But you know what? My current Vitamix is going strong.
- [46:44]
Jen
You've had it for like five years.
- [46:45]
Jill
I have had it for Five years. I have never sharpened the blades. Like, maybe, maybe that'll be something that, that ends up happening down the road. But I use it, I kid you not, every single day.
- [47:03]
Jen
She does no lie.
- [47:04]
Jill
I use a Vitamix that here's. I'm going to get on my soapbox. I use my Vitamix every single day. She's still going strong. And you know what? There's not a ton of extra attachments you can get that. There are different attachments that you could get if you're very specific in what you're going to do with it. But this Vitamix can make this smoothies, it can make soups, it can act as my food processor. I can make nut butters with one thing. I don't gotta junk up my cabinets with a ton of extra attachments that make me think like, I've got a product that does a lot of things. No, it's one product. It's a good product. It does all of the things that I ever wanted to do. I use it daily. It has not broken. If it does break. Vitamix has gotten some really excellent customer service. And. And I love it.
- [47:57]
Jen
Yeah. Bless. Bless Vitamix.
- [48:02]
Jill
Okay, your turn.
- [48:03]
Jen
Okay. All right. Mine is my Ninja coffee bar. So I spend a little bit of time. So I've had this for, I don't know, over five years. I would say maybe seven years.
- [48:15]
Jill
And again, we're not sponsored by any of these things.
- [48:17]
Jen
Oh no, we're not sponsored by Ninja or, or Vitamix or your friends.
- [48:21]
Jill
And we want you to know about the good stuff.
- [48:24]
Jen
So I had it, I used it daily. And then we moved and there was a year of time where I just, it sat collecting dust in the, like in the renovation. And I tried a couple other ways to make coffee, like pour over and cold brew and all this. And I ended up coming back to my Ninja coffee bar. I was able to clean it all up, descale it. And. And now I use her every day again, like for probably two years now. And she just takes, you know, she wants to be descaled with vinegar like every couple months. And I do that. I can make a full pot, a half pot. I just make a cup cup at a time. I could make like a travel size cup, a half travel size cup, a big cup, a little like so many options in one thing.
- [49:24]
Jill
We love it.
- [49:25]
Jen
Like, I don't need to have a Keurig and a regular coffee maker. Like, I don't need to have all these different. It's just, she's good. And so. And it's because of that I own, like, almost all my other, like, kitchen stuff is Ninja and it is quality.
- [49:43]
Jill
Yeah.
- [49:44]
Jen
I had. I have a Ninja foodie instead of an instant pot. And one day Ninja's like, hey, something's wrong with our lid and we gotta send you a new lid for your pressure cooker. I'm like, okay, so I got like a free replacement lid. There was nothing wrong with my original one, but apparently there could have been.
- [50:02]
Jill
Yeah.
- [50:02]
Jen
And so I just got a free replacement lid. So Ninja. Really pleased with who really please.
- [50:10]
Jill
Really pleases you.
- [50:11]
Jen
And it started with the coffee bar.
- [50:13]
Jill
Oh, yeah. So there are some products, so I'm feeling hopeful.
- [50:17]
Jen
Leave yours in the comment. And, and try to, like, maybe purchased in the last 10 years because there are some, like, I've heard, like, KitchenAid stand mixers. A woman had hers for 20 years and then her friend bought one a couple years ago and has already had to, like, rep, like, buy a new one because a plastic thing broke that couldn't be replaced or something. This is like, I don't know this, you know, this is just in comments I was reading. But like, yeah, so it's not my.
- [50:47]
Jill
Kitchen mixer I've had for like 15 years and it's fabulous.
- [50:51]
Jen
Mine I've had for over 10, but I don't use it, like every day. Right. I use it a couple of times a year, so I can't, you know, so, yeah, let's make sure that these are things that are good quality now and so that we're not letting brands rest on their laurels of I used to be quality, so now everyone thinks I'm still quality. No, we need you to be quality now. If I bought you today, I would be getting what I'm paying for. So thank you so much for listening. We would love for you to leave a comment.
- [51:29]
Jill
We would.
- [51:29]
Jen
Also, if you have read, buy what you love without going broke and you've heard my heated stories about Edward Bernays, we would love for you to leave a review of the book on Amazon. You don't have to have bought it on Amazon, but that's where most people go for their reviews. Like Elle did not, I'm assuming Elle from Stranger Things, but somebody else says Jen and Jill's book is excellent. Excellent book. And love Jen and Jill. They're so relatable and cool as well as calm. Love that they also have a really good podcast called Frugal Friends. Wow. Thank you. Cool, calm, not collected.
- [52:09]
Jill
Thanks, Elle. Thanks for being here. Thanks for subscribing See you next time. Bye.
- [52:15]
Jen
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
- [52:29]
Jill
I did start watching Stranger Things. They tell you that?
- [52:31]
Jen
You did tell me that. What?
- [52:33]
Jill
So now I understand your reference.
- [52:37]
Jen
You understand my. My, like, pop culture media reference?
- [52:42]
Jill
Exactly.
- [52:44]
Jen
Great. I won't ask you how it is. I'll just let you, like, be in it with, you know, and.
- [52:50]
Jill
Oh, I'm enjoying it.
- [52:51]
Jen
Good. Okay. Yeah. I really like it. Yeah.
- [52:54]
Jill
Oh, yeah, it's great. I mean, there's a reason that so many people love it.
- [52:58]
Jen
Yeah.
- [52:59]
Jill
So.
- [53:00]
Jen
Yeah. Here we go. Cool. Okay.
- [53:03]
Jill
Gotta go catch up on season two. Because I'm so far behind the trend. Working across teams is tough, but Asana helps you handle it. Asana AI can spot roadblocks and assign work to keep everything on track. That's how work gets handled. Visit us@asana.com. Some of the best lessons don't come from a classroom. They come from experience on the Power of Advice, a new podcast series from Capital Group. You'll hear from CEOs, investors and founders about how they built careers, took risks, and reinvented themselves. If you're starting your own journey, this is the kind of advice you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group Inc.