89: Letting Go of Material Possessions to Save Money w/ Desirae Endres

great perspective. Look at you. You should be in a cookie, a little fortune teller you. I wish I was in a cookie. I wish I was eating a cookie for sure. I am really excited to kick off this year with another minimalism episode because there's nothing I like more than after the rampant consumerism of the holiday season, to get rid of everything that I have accumulated over the past year.

And uh and we're just the last month. Let's be honest, yes, yes, um, And so we've got one of our favorite UM podcast friends, Desiree, here to talk about that with us. Um And if you are interested in more minimalism, episodes. We've got episode twenty where we introduce how important minimalism is too sustainable frugality and why we talk about it so much. Episode thirty two we talked with Joshua Becker about his journey to minimalism, and then episode fifty nine we talked with

Courtney Carver about minimalist word drobe or capsule wardrobe. So those are are some of our minimalism episodes, and so today we are talking about combating the desire for those material possessions, and then we'll get into that interview with her, but first a word from our sponsors. Today's episodes also

brought to you by Internet advertisements. Ever talk about something next to a computer or phone and shortly after see an ad for it on Facebook is creepy, and it also causes you to buy things you otherwise would not have. The solution is to stop talking about things, make an aluminum hat, and stay off the computer forever. Internet advertisements, avoid them, and listen to podcast advertisements instead. Oh my goodness, Yes,

this is the creepiest. This is too real because I can kind of understand if I'm searching something in Google, Yeah, they're constantly tracking me, but just my conversation, and so I've started to say weird stuff, you know, just to try it out, like how do I buy um whale milk online? Just to see So far nothing, but I'm going to keep trying. I'll let you know if after this podcast there's like an online link to buying milk

from whales. Oh god, I hope that. And if you are struggling with the internet advertisement thing like we are, um not necessarily your struggled to avoid whale milk. Um, this is a great episode if you are struggling with that, if you are embarking on a no spend challenge for this month, or if you're enrolling in my five Weeks to five course that closes today, and we will talk about that more at the end of the episode. But right now we've got Desiree here. She is the host

of the minimal Ish podcast. She writes over at Desiree Andrewes dot com, and she is the author of the new journal Simple Morning Lists. You're definitely gonna want to buy it after you hear this episode, so let's get into it. Hello, Desert, I welcome. Hi. I'm so happy to be here, Desert. I so glad to have you talk about all things minimalism. Your website, by the way, I have to get this out there, is beautiful. It's

so inviting and and attainable. It felt really like, Okay, I know that we're talking about minimalism, but almost anybody could go on and connect with you in some way. That's my opinion. But I loved it, loved exploring it. Yeah, thank you so much. I was literally about to change my entire website this morning. So I'm glad you said that sometimes everything everything is good. I think it's Yeah. Accessible is the perfect word. So and your podcast minimal ish,

I would say the same thing about. Um. So I'm so so excited that we finally have you on our show, because all we're about is making things that don't feel so accessible a little more accessible to people. Yeah, and I think you guys do a great job. And Jen, you were on my show just you know, a few weeks. I don't when this goes out, it will be a

few months ago. But um, in November of two thousand nineteen, you were on my show and I literally went and got your No Spend Challenge book and we're doing a new No Spend Challenge. Gosh and it seriously helped us finally get a little bit more um, i'd say get our feet in a more stable place in our debt

free journey um that we went on. So yeah, Well, the point for no spend challenges is to figure out, like to make more room, to figure out what you truly value, and to like get rid of all the clutter in your spending, which is so much of what you talk about with getting rid of the clutter in your schedule and in your home. And it just to make more margin two for the things that really matter. And so it's kind of the same concept like only with your finances. So I'm so excited, which is why

we're looking forward to talking with you there. We've seen so many parallels and crossovers between minimalism and frugality. Certainly they can go off on their own tangents and then of themselves, but we're curious to hear your perspective on this topic of minimalism and how you discovered it, how it's impacted your life. What are your thoughts on that. Yeah, for me, it was around or a little less than

two years ago. Um, my husband and I actually just stumbled upon the minimalism documentary, which I think is still on Netflix and it's worth the watch, and it convinced us right away. He actually texted me the other day and said, I think we should watch that again just because it's so good and it really brings out the principles of minimalism and it gives different perspectives which I

really appreciate. And I think that what it comes down to for me and why it's been such a huge thing in our life, is because I lived with clutter all of my life and I just thought that was fine because it's just what I was doing for so long, and I'm a messy person. I'm not a superorganized person. I always say minimalism just because you dive into minimalism, it's not going to necessarily make you organized, but it can help you if you're not organized, because you don't

sure left floating around. So we we somewhat upon that documentary and it just kind of change. It was one of those things where you can see there's really before and after of that day, that normal random week day when we both ended up watching that together and we really declared in our whole home in probably ten days. I mean, it wasn't perfect, All all ends tied up, but it was very quick and we had time off of work. We were both teachers, so we had time

off of work. So it worked out. But um, we did that, and then at that point we really were able to reevaluate our life basically. And that sounds so drastic, but it's true that minimalism helped us really reevaluate our values in our life because for years we were at the time living about four hours from our family. We had basically every summer as teachers said, we are going to try to get jobs back home. We're going to try to get jobs back home. We're just in Virginia

to get teaching experience. And we basically just said, which is probably looking back, maybe it's not the best financial decision that we made, but we said, we're going this is important to us, this is a priority in our life. We had a baby at the time. We want to be back in your family, and we're just going to do it because when it comes down to it, something's going to come through, something's going to work out. We'll

make it work, we'll get jobs. It might not be perfect, it ended up all working out, and we continue to declutter as we moved, and it's just kind of like a long road. I wouldn't say I defined myself as a minimalist because for me, it's not necessarily a definition. It's not necessarily a way to measure myself against something. It's more of a tool to just make space in my everyday life, so um for for the things that matter most to me. And that's really what it's been about.

I didn't come to that right away. At first. That was about like how many spoons should I have? But it eventually became Okay, it's more meaningful than this, It's deeper than this. Isn't that so interesting? It's a phenomenon that you're talking about that oh many also describe as they get on a certain journey like minimalism or frugality,

that it does stir up other questions. And really, I think that's because we're pressing the pause button in some way, shape or form to say, do I really need this? Why do I even have this? Is it benefiting me in any way? What's it's? What's the purpose or function that it's serving, which can then stir up other things of what else should I be asking these questions about? If I'm asking it about you know, how many spoons

I have in my drawers? Should I be asking it about where I'm living or how I'm also spending my time in my resources and all these things that it's not unusual for it to lead down this this bigger journey of discovery and living a more purposeful life. So to hear that level of impact is amazing. Yeah, it really was. It's been a huge thing, and I mean now it's kind of given me my current job, so

it's good. Which is I talk about minimalism? So yeah, so you started from this place of this is just the nolts, nuts and bolts of minimalism, like how many spoons should I have? How many chairs? So how was that journey going from that black and white minimalism mindset to where you are now with having a more flexible definition, And how can other people try and follow that journey?

I think I don't want to paint it wrong to have that black and white view of minimalism, because I think for some people that's just how their mind works, and for me it's basically the opposite. That's just not how I work. And it didn't it wasn't working for me, So I was at this point where I had already started a podcast on minimalism. It was a little bit different, but you can listen all those old episodes still exist.

And I started to have that imposter syndrome feeling of oh, I might not have the perfectly uncluttered home, like there are still probably a couple of things around here I don't need, but they just live here. And also a child lives here, and there are messes. And I started to feel like I'm talking about this thing, but am I Am I doing it good enough basically, and that really freaked me out and stressed me out and made

me feel like I wasn't doing it good enough. So I was at this point where I was like, this is actually this doesn't matter. I basically convinced myself it doesn't matter. And yes, the decluttering was good, it was helpful, but this isn't something I want to talk about forever because it just seems surface level. And I know that's not really true about decluttering. There are obviously really deep things that it brings out, but at that point I was like, I'm not doing this good enough, so this

just all seems surface level. I quit, and then I realized that there was something more to it, like there were other changes that I had gone undergone through letting go of stuff. There was just kind of like a deeper spiritual thing going on, and also mindset shifts that I didn't even really have to work at at first. It just was happening. As I was letting go of things. I had to question, what is the purpose of having

this stuff? And how do I stop purchasing things I don't need and bring them into my home, and what is it that's going to help me shift my habits? So it kind of happened naturally, and then I realized, oh, yeah, I went under all these mindset shifts, and it isn't really about if my house is perfectly tidy all the time. That's not realistic, but it is about the fact that my life has changed because of this. I've realized that I have control over things I didn't think I have

control over. I am more grateful than I used to be, I am more content than I used to be. So I realized all of that just kind of by reflecting, and that was kind of that was just the start, and then I started really digging into that. And the way that I process things is through writing and now, I guess talking it out too with a microphone. So I did that and that's where I developed all of these heart of minimalism mindset shifts that I've started to

talk about on my podcasts. And that's really where the name minimali Ish came into play too, because I realized it isn't on social media, and I think that's I

should have said that. I think that's where it stemmed from is I was on social media and I had people following me because of my podcasts that were other minimalist accounts, and I was like, whoa, they have a prettier house than me, or they have less stuff than me, or they are talking about how many you know, they're perfect capsule wardrobe, and so it was comparison, and I

just I didn't want it to be about that. And now that this, you know, minimalism isn't a new thing, but now that it's gained so much attraction and there's so many people that are finding it helpful, I think this message is needed that it's not something to measure up to. It's not another way to chase perfectionism. It's just a tool to help you clear out destructions and

make room for what matters in your life. And I think we could replace the word minimalism with frugality, like in our space, because oftentimes it's also a race to the bottom, like how little can I spend? How much money can I put towards debt or towards retirement, And you can feel like if you're not at a seventy percent savings rate, or if you're not like getting all of your stuff from the thrift store, that you're just

not you don't qualify as frugal. And so I love your story and your view on minimalism in that sense is it's minimal ish and we feel like we're frugal. I love that title so much, Yeah, because it encapsulates so much of what you're saying that I'm a little bit this, but there's wiggle room and there's freedom with it, and it's okay to have different working definitions of it

depending on your lifestyle. I love what you said Jen, the race to the bottom, because there's always gonna be somebody doing it quote unquote better than you, depending on whatever you have idolized in your head of Okay, you may have a one bedroom home, but there's somebody living in a backpack and you may be living in a backpack, but there's someone living out of reusable plastic bag and you don't have that. But then there's somebody who like has figured out how to stuff all their trash for

a year into like a little baby food jar. Like there's always gonna be somebody doing it better. But it's like, but what works for you? Because fitting all of your trash into a baby food jar, it might not work for you if you've got five kids, right, and think it's so important that there are people doing that, But then there are people that are pursuing it in a totally different way that's important to them, because when it comes down to it, the world needs that message in

different ways from different people. And I think we get caught up because we can see what everyone else is doing via lovely Instagram and social media, which has its upsides and downsides. We put this pressure on ourselves like I need to be doing it exactly that way, and then you see someone else, No, I need to be doing it exactly that way, and I need you put all of these images and you think that it's one person and you're like, Okay, there's this perfect person that's

doing all of these things. Meanwhile, that was just like a collection from a bunch of different people, and you've made it into one perfect person that doesn't actually exist. So you're measuring yourself against something that is never going to be attainable for anyone, not just you, but for anyone. Extreme stories sell and they're really sexy, but we need more stories of normal people doing normal things, making small, sustainable changes, and those aren't super sexy, so you don't

hear them a lot. Uh, So you don't have any like examples of that to like live up to. But here we are right here. But that's such a good word and a good reminder that we are the ones who create this idealized person that really doesn't exist, and it's pretty unattainable. If you're going to try and be that person who's the combination of all these perfect things

that you're perceiving, it's not gonna work. It really is figuring out what helps you to experience life and joy and be able to get at the goals that you have, not what somebody else has. And these are tools in that journey. Living frugally, living minimally. They are tools that you can fine tune for your own purposes, which speaking of for you desert as you were in this process, and so to to speak of it at like a tool, right, And we know that there's so many other things that

came along with this in your journey. But if we were to look at this as Okay, here's some steps you can take, and what did this look like for you as you re evaluated your relationship with material things? How how did you do that and what kind of financial impact did you see with it? Yeah? I think for me, when I talk about it, it has to start with letting go of stuff. I mean, it doesn't have to, but that's just how it worked for me.

So that's usually how I suggest starting, because oftentimes we just have so much stuff around us that we don't even know what we have, like we've cluttered up so much. And then when we look at that stuff and we start to shift our mindset and we say, Okay, this item that I've kept around even though I don't use it, you have to start to question why did I do that, or why did I buy this? Think of a clothing item.

I feel like I often suggest not necessarily starting The very first thing you declutter is your closet, but to put that up there in the process, pretty high on the started starter list, just because I feel like a lot of us have emotions attached to our closet, whether it's because and that's not true for everyone, but I know for me, a lot of it was came down to kind of like a body image thing. And so

I'm on so many clothes all of my life. Like when I was younger and I babysat, I would spend all of my money and I made I made a lot of money babysitting. I did it every day after school. I would take I would get it in chunks and I would take it, and I would spend all of my money on clothes. And I just had piles, literally piles of clothes, and they were in piles because I didn't know how to put them away, which I still don't necessarily know how to do that all the time,

so my pile is much smaller. But um, basically it takes looking at these items and starting to question and really evaluating why is this hard for me to let go of and why did I bring this into my home in the first place, and starting to dig a little bit deeper, because once you have those answers, then you can take that and you can kind of use it as a tool to shift the way that you spend and shift the way that you consume and bring more in if you go about decluttering your whole house,

that helps too, because it's so much work, and I think a lot of times we end up getting so frustrated with ourselves in the process, which I would say, obviously, like feel those feelings and then channel it elsewhere, because we don't want to end up giving up because we're so angry at ourselves for piling so much stuff over

the years. Um depending, I mean that might not be everyone's case, but at that point we realize how ridiculous it is that that we've just believed these lies, that we that more stuff will make us happier, or that more stuff is what we need to have to have a welcoming home, or more stuff is going to make

us look shinier to our friends. So I feel like, whenever you get to that point where you're looking around, like I have to declutter this room and it's going to take literally days because they're just there's boxes of stuff I've never dug into for years, that's when you can take that feeling and kind of say, Okay, now I'm going to practice not letting this happen again, and

tangibly I think, you know, after the decluttering. So decluttering is the first step or amidst it, because for us it took ten days, but for a lot of people, for most normal situations where nobody has a whole week off of work with their husband and is tackling it together, it can take months. So in that process, while you're continually letting go, that's when the mindset shifts can happen. When you go to the store and go shopping, and when you decide to like you have to go to

Target and buy your household things. And at that point you have to just I don't know, you have to do what works for you. But in my case, I have to bring a list. That definitely helps me to stick to a list. Um and I think just little things like planning. Really it comes down to planning it first and then digging into those mindset shifts taking a list. And for us, a huge thing has been figuring out

how to budget, and that stemmed from minimalism. We probably I don't know, I wouldn't say we would have never dug into a debt free journey if we hadn't discovered minimalism first. But it's stemmed from it. And I know that's probably old news seal listeners, of that's just kind

of a tangible step that we had to take. Is actually, and I want to say that, like that was hard for us, and it's still hard for us, but to find something that is going to give us a visual of where's our money going and also at the same time be doing these intentional mindset shifts of I don't want to clear my house up with stuff anymore. Absolutely, and you're not alone in that. We all have to come back to the budget, and I mean, it's we could probably do an episode every single week just about

the budget. It is one of the foundational pieces that we're never getting perfect because it shifts all the time, whether income shifts or spending shifts or value shift, whatever it is. We're it's an evolving thing. So you answered part of what I was gonna ask you midway through that.

But so for the girl who's in Target and trying to not bring in more stuff into her home, and when I say that, I mean me, um, what what is your mindset now, So like you your your strategy as you go in with a list, you go in with a plan, but like, what's your mindset when you're like looking at the stuff? How do you stick to

that plan and list? I think the biggest thing that helps me is I tell myself, if I don't have a plan for this item, then I'm not allowed to buy it right now, if that makes sense, especially when it comes to home to core. I think of that because for some reason, that seems to get me the most at Target, or it used to get me the most at Target with that dollar spot and there's a three dollar in hants out and it's just so cute.

But if I don't have a plan for I wanted to add that to my home or like I'm going if I am going to Target and I happen to remember, oh yeah, we kind of all our hand towels are stained because I'm not the best at laundry, and I could add an extra one, then fine, But most of the time when I go that's not the case. Like I'll start to justify it in my head, but it's not a real plan. So that helps. If I don't have a plan for it, it it can't come at my home.

That definitely helps when it comes to home to core, because I just a lot of times I used to buy things that I didn't have space for and I was just like, this is so cute, and then I come home and it's on this weird shelf and it looks really terrible because I never had a plan for it. And then another mindset shift is to just I mean, as cheesy as it is. Two if you are starting your day, so this is like before the trip to target with gratitude and like a literal gratitude practice and

us reflecting on what actually matters to you. I think that is what helps me the most because when it comes down to I also take a toddler to target with me, so I can't be there long. So that doesn't matter either. It will make you so stressed out you'll put everything in your cart and you'll be like this was a reposition, or or you'll just leave. And I mean I will also sometimes I put things in my cart and by the end of the trip it's

out of my cart. It's just get this, Like I can just skate by it all and say, oh, that's super cute, but I'm not going to touch it because I'm this perfect minimalist and have everything together, I might put it into my cart, but by the end I look at my cart and I think, how much is this actually going to add up to? Because target, you know, and then it ends up being cut over fifty dollars

if you have three years. Yeah. Uh, It's like, how in the world all these little two dollar charges being three hundred thousand dollars so amazing math I think it's a lot of Target. I think if you that simple practice of looking at the cart when you are about to check out. I just did this the other day because I have a toddler and I was trying to

get her a new cup. Not a good idea to take her to do that because she had some opinions, and as we were going through the store I had picked up there was another cup in a different area because it was frozen and it was on display. So I just had to re evaluate. Instead of being like, I'm just gonna get this all because you know we'll use three cups, it's fine. No, I'm going to reevaluate because one, it's going to add up to a thousand

dollars for three cups and two. We don't need all of that, so just that ending that last minute check at the end. Also, and they're simple thing is I have to stay out of sections that are gonna get me, like the clothes. I just can't. I bypass them. Yeah, I have to bypass that. So bypassing sections and those are just little things that help. But I think most of all the plan um, the list and then telling yourself if I don't have a plan for this, it's

not allowed to come into my house. If you want to lead and come back to it later and say, go to go back to your house, think about it, even if it's not home to core, if it's even a kid's toy item or a clothing item, reevaluate once you get home and you know you have permission to go back and get it if you're still thinking about it, and if it seems like a good idea at that point.

An online shopping has made that easy too. Is that Okay, if I really want this and need this and can find a plan for it, I can just buy it online. I don't have to buy it immediately right now. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, or try to do that as much as possible so that you're not walking through and having those imp line grocery pickup has changed my life for a lot of reasons. But for a lot of reasons. But my pantry is

now more organized, it's more minimal. I am using what I have and I'm not seeing this cool spice packet in the aisle and then just like impulse buying it, which I mean, yeah, I still find myself doing. Even after talking about meal planning and reducing waste for years, I still find myself, you know, buying the cool artisanal rice bag. Speaking of life changing. Oh and something we've been talking about for years, well like one year, one year. It's the week, that's right, it's toime for the best

minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That built Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the build of the week. Every week, des are a, we have a listener or our guest of the week share with us their favorite bill. And I've prepped you for this and are you ready do you have one for us? I am ready tell us share.

I feel like this might be really boring, but my gas bill is really low because it was the weather was temperate, and that made me happy. The weather was pretty good the past last month, and my gas bill was so low, so that was beautiful. And we're on budget payments and anyways, because I don't know if in Florida, you probably don't even have a gas bill, do you like or it's like tender? We do? We do, yes,

we do. Remember in Virginia it was nothing every month, but here our furnace runs on gas, and so for a while it was like, oh, one month that would be almost three hundred dollars and then in the summer it would be you know, tend dollar and that's extreme differences. But so we went on the budget spending. But still it was nice to see that my balance, even though I actually paid more for it, because of the budget spending on the gas bill, my balance was lower than

what I actually paid. Like this is going towards that three bill in the middle of winter. I'm so glad for your warm weather out in Pittsburgh lowering your bill. It has not been the case for us. It's been like unusual frigid temps. We had to get away we had to book it out of town. We're like, get to go to tropical Ohio. You later, No, we went to Europe. I know about it. It's funny because I mean saying it now. Right now, it's sixty degrees, so

that's great. Tomorrow it will be thirty. So that's ye. Pennsylvania. Necessarily that it was the last couple of weeks. It was more like October wasn't bad and maybe we didn't crank that air. He did as much as usual. So put on more clothes kids. This low gas bill, Yeah, if your gas bill was low, or you want to share how high your gas bill was because you turn on the heat when it gets cold, unlike my husband.

You can submit your bill of the week at Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill and leave us a Google voicemail or a speak pipe message. We love to hear it. And now it's time for blightning. It's weirder. I actually like I cupped my mouth around the microphone. I've never done that before. We'll see what that does to the audio. Eric's gonna love it. Eric's gonna love it. My husband Eric edits the podcast so he gets to listen to this voice all the time. So lucky. Oh,

he loves it so much. So today's lightning round we are talking about mornings, because mornings are something you talk a lot about, Desiree, and they have been transformational in your life, um and even with your journey too in minimalism, and I think it can be really transformational with anybody's journey who's trying to be more intentional about their spending too. Yes, So speaking of that, you talk about morning, simple morning

lists and waking up earlier than your family. Why did you start doing this waking up earlier than everybody else? I think I wanted to be a morning person for a really long time, and I at some point I accepted that I wasn't and and I just decided to say, Okay, it's not gonna work for me. But then once I had a child, I realized that if I don't wake up before her, then my only other option to have a lone time in my day is to stay up

really late. And that wasn't working for me either. So I just wasn't getting anything actually productive done at that time. So if I was staying up late, So I started it mostly because I was super cranky. My daughter was ten months old, and she was waking up really early, and I was way king up with her. So before that I had been working full time or working part time, and I would I had a little bit of a schedule to where I was waking up at least twenty

minutes before her getting ready for my day. Wasn't like I was actually having a peaceful moment or anything, but I was getting ready for my day. And then she would wake up and I was ready to address her in a happy way. But it was summer and we had moved. Everything was crazy. She was waking up super early. I was not ready to wake up with her happy. So I had to make some kind of change because I didn't want to start my days like that. That's just not a good outlook for the rest of the day.

And I stumbled on the Miracle Morning by how El Rod I think is yes, yes, yes, And that was for some reason He's he was really convincing, and I just like, hey, I think I can do this, And it gave me a plan to start with, and I think I needed that. It ended up being a little bit too much of a plan for me, so I didn't stick with his version, but it helped me wake up earlier. And what that did do for me is one of his suggestions is affirmations, and I don't know.

I think gratitude is something he suggests, and if not, that was just something I picked up somewhere else. And I started the day with waking up a little bit of peaceful time to myself with coffee and gratitude and affirmations,

and that was really changing everything for me. And I started waking up earlier and earlier and earlier, and I just was able to really do a lot with that time, and it changed the way I felt about the rest of the day, basically because once my daughter woke up, I was ready for that and I was ready to at that point when I started this, it was the summer before, I guess, my first official stay at home mom you er, and I was about to be on all day with her, so I needed that. I needed

that time to myself. A side note in this lightning round, did that change your bedtime? It did? And there are right now it because I of the nature of what I do right now, and my work is completely within the times when she's sleeping. My awake time and sleep time fluctuate, but Basically, I just try to give myself a seven to eight hours sleep buffer. And because I was staying up later before the time when I you know, when I was waking up with her, I just I

slowly moved it back. And I've never really had trouble going to sleep, So I can't really give too much too many tips for that, but I do think getting to sleep earlier is key in being able to wake up earlier and actually enjoy your day. Yeah, you still need a certain amount of sleep every night, right, So what have you been able to accomplish in your early mornings. I at first I took a job that literally was done in the morning. So I was working for Have

you heard of v I p Kid. Yeah, it's big in the kind of stept free and frugality, and that was really great. So I was able to work and work for two to three hours in the morning, and it was very early and I would have to go to bed much earlier. But that was one huge accomplishment. But I started to because I still kept a little bit of time for myself to be creative and to journal and make the lists that I needed to make

to really start my day. Well, I started to also extend my time, and some days I would work for v I P Kid and other days I had these creative ideas and I would work on those, and I would say, I really built my podcast and and the work I do now in that morning time and nap time. But it was in mornings or when I feel more creative, and I was able to really fully build that up and create a job for myself in that time. So yeah, that I think that's the biggest accomplishment. And sometimes I

will also work out in the mornings. It is part of my routine a few days a week. Right now, I was doing it every day. I feel like as the morning's got colder, I just wanted to choose to do that at another time of day, just because I like the coziness of sitting with a blanket and my journal but and my computer to work. But yeah, I've accomplished it a lot in that time, and I I always think of it as you're basically carving out space.

You can you can do whatever you want in that morning time, but but you're basically carving out time and space for things that you've wanted to do that you just might not see in your day any time for right now, especially when I talk about when I talk to moms about this, that's a huge thing. I even if it's you want to have space to read, you're carving out space that you can sit and read, or if you want to have space too, I don't know, get dressed and get ready for your day before your

kids are asking you for breakfast. Whatever it is that you want to create time and space for, It's a really good way to do that. For sure. Have you seen an impact the way that you relate to your daughter when in the morning, Oh my goodness, it's so different because when she I feel like I would just feel so angry, which sounds horrible, like I'm some angry mother, But I would just feel so angry that she wasn't sleeping right and that she was waking up earlier than usual,

and I didn't have a good mindset about it. And as I started the morning, I just felt like not that, you know, once I picked her up, everything change and yeah, I love her and she's she's a sweet little baby. Then but I would just feel like I was stumbling into my morning basically trying to figure out what to cook for breakfast. It just that's how I used to

live my days in general. So I feel like it is similar to just what my life looked like before minimalism anyways, but just kind of no real plan and no real routine to the way that I related to her in the mornings in general. And now I feel like it's just I'm just able to be slower, and um, you know, it's not like I start my morning super productive with her. After this morning time, I start slow intentionally, and I sit with her and I cuddle with her

for a while. Then we do breakfast together, and I'm just happier. Not to say that on mornings she decides to wake up an hour earlier for some reason, I still don't feel like, you know, I wish that she would keep sleeping or what is wrong with going on here? I still feel that way, but I almost always at least have forty minutes before she wakes up, and at that time I'm able to get myself ready and remind myself that part of my purpose for this day is to show her love and take care of her and

raised her. Because myself of that, when I go and get her out of better, when I hear her crying for me, I'm ready. I'm ready to do that once again. That greater intentionality can make room for better interactions, better life choices, more purposeful living. My goodness, well done. You start your morning like intentionally instead of reactionary, and I think that makes a huge difference for how you interact with the rest of your day. Yeah, that's exactly it.

That is a great way to put it. M Desiree. So many good points. I know you've even got more with them in you. Where can people learn more about you? Get your book dive into this topic a bit more? Yeah, So I am at desert injuries dot com and that's where you can kind of find my podcasts and everything. But my podcast is minimalist. You can search that anywhere. It's just minimal dash ish. And I'm on Instagram at Desiree dot injuries. And my book is it's more like

a journal, but it has qualities of a book. I guess there's a lot of writing that went into it, So sometimes I call it a book, but it is a morning companion journal and it takes you through this five step list making process, which sounds more elaborate than

it is. It's just basically gives you space to do what I think um is a really great way to start intentionally, and it starts with kind of letting go of things and then it goes into that gratitude and purpose statements and affirmations like I was talking about earlier. So that it's on Amazon, and yeah, you can find all of it basically in the same place if you just go to my website or Instagram. Yes, I love your journal. It's called Simple Morning Lists and it does.

It has space for just these these lists of gratitude and intentionality and they will help you start your day on an intentional note, no matter what your goal for the day is. So thanks so much for coming on. Desiree. Was so cool to chat with you. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was so fun. That was fun. Yes, Desrae is such a fantastic woman and she's she's great. She's chill and you get that from her on her podcast, on her website through it probably because she wakes up

early in the morning. She's such a pleasant person. Meanwhile, I'm over here yelling in your ears, and my mornings are chaos. My kid wakes up it all hours of the morning and I'm never ready for him. So that is probably I start my day reactionary, and that is why I can have those words, because they are not how I want to start my day. They are often

how my day starts. So I heard that. Well, you know, there's more things that we can constantly be learning and growing in, and one of those ways is by book club. So this month we're reading The tight Wad Gazette by Amy. I'm not even gonna try, do you know Amy Dassan? I would say Dassison. Type in the type Wade gasette.

And there's ways to get a free one if you If you don't even know how to like type this in, here's a way, go ahead, Jen, What if you don't know how to find the book, you might be able to get a free book. Oh my god, I didn't know if you were talking. I don't and I didn't know if you're recording, if you were talking to yourself. I really thought you were talking to yourself, and I was like, what's she doing? Yeah, what's she doing? Okay, Hi, don't wake up early? So sometimes that don't make sense.

If you want a free copy of The tight Wad Gazette, all you have to do is leave us a review on iTunes. Or Stitcher. Screenshot the review and send it to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and we will select one review for every five we receive to win a copy of this book. Here's a helpful example of a review. This one happens to be five stars. It's titled Love This Podcast by Ski Girls sixteen j MC.

This podcast is realistic, helpful, and entertaining. I just started listening a few days ago and have binged on their past episodes. I've gotten lots of inspiration. I've literally laughed out loud many times. Thanks for what y'all are doing. Thank you, Thank your girl, hope you perfect time a year to be a ski girlfully your skiing out there. So beyond sixteen j m C. And so I promised to tell you a little bit about five weeks to

five hundred. We are spending the first five weeks of getting our savings up to five hundred extra dollars per week to put towards debt in and so, if you can save an extra five dollars a week, that's over twenty thousand dollars this year you can put towards your debt. So if that is your goal, then go to five weeks to five hundred dot com and get enrolled in this course. You are going to get all of the things that I learned to save money and pay off

debt without getting an extra job. So head over five weeks to five dot com and we'll see you there. Let's see you next week. Bye. Herugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by r Experience. That sounds amazing. I'm excited about it. Uh does someone just give me money? Is that how that works? You know? I contemplated that because I thought it would get more people to sign up than I thought. Oh, if that's not sustainable. You

can't just be giving people five dollars every week. Yeah, yeah, right, but you thought about it. So it's the thought that counts, that's what they say. But it will shock people how often they have an extra five dollars per week that they are spending. And it's not just in like trips to target it, but it's in small things and big things that they don't realize they're spending money on. And

it's definitely doable. I've had friends go from one year spending putting six thousand dollars towards their debt to UH fifty thousand the next year, just from being more intentional about their spending and and getting some side jobs. And we're not talking about side jobs here, but we are talking about all the ways that you can capitalize on unused space and time to save more money, to to bring in more income. Five weeks to five it's like, yeah,

we're gonna work up to it. It's normal people doing normal things to create sustainable change. I'm out. It's right. It's not sexy. I'm not normal, so okay, mate,