Budgeting as a Contractor, Tipped, or Self-Employed Income Earner

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and as former bartenders, servers, freelance writers, all around, self employed, out employed individuals, small business owners trying to start up small businesses, doing all the side hustles, we know how difficult it is to budget when your income is super a regular and so that's what we

are are talking about in this episode. We're gonna talk about some of the nuts and bolts on how to and reasons too and kind of use our experiences to filter what the Internet is saying. But first, just a little message from our sponsor today, Breaking the mold. Yeah, Saby girl, It's what God did when he made you, and it's what you bosses are out there doing with your ten ninety nine statuses and variable incomes. We see

you and this one's for you. And you know what's also for you our Debt Free Story series on YouTube. Speaking of breaking the mold. We got some fellow Frugal Friends podcast listeners slaying their debt and calling in to talk about it. This is content you don't want to miss. YouTube dot com slash Frugal Friends. We got ten, yeah, or we will have ten, not nine, but there are ten stories for you, and most of them are already out.

We have a few more to debut, so be sure to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so that you can get those when they release, when they drop, when they drop. So budgeting is a big thing that we're talking about in this episode. We could we could have focused on a lot of things, but I think one of the hardest things, like you can to an extent can and cannot control what you make. The more you work, the more you make. It's you know, for a lot of this, but we only have so much

capacity to do. So let's let's really hone in on budgeting for this one. If you are interested in budgeting, if that really resonates with you, then check out episode two twenty two. Stop strict budgeting and start living in the radical middle. This is actually one that when we asked our Debt Free stories UM interviewees what their favorite episode was because we loved, you know, hearing, We love

hearing people like what we do. Also we want to know what to do more of So when we asked them, several of them said this specific episode, Um, so we think it's a pretty good one episode to twenty two. And then also right back from the archives, episode eighty eight budgeting on an irregular income. So this one is for any irregular incomes, not just um like tipped employees and freelancers, So that one is also a good one

to supplement this one. But but if you're if you're tipped, if you're if you're ten ninety nine, then this one is for I know, if you're tipped, you still get a W two. But I mean we'll just we're gonna we're gonna lump it in because it feels the same. Yeah, it feels the variable. Yeah, nature of it. Gosh, I wish I was tipped. No, you don't know, I don't, but like, on top on top of on top of what's happening, you know, it's kind of like I wish

someone would tip me. Okay, Well, if you want to send Jill a tip, just email her Jill at Frugal Friends Podcast dot com. So we'll get into this first article from wallet. Oh, I love this the way it's spelled. I get it doesn't makes sense until you say it out loud. Wolet it's w O L L I T wallet dot com and it's budget. You're a regular income. Ten reasons to get started now. So this is essentially

an article convincing us to budget. We're not going to spend too much time here because we all kind of know what those reasons are. But I do appreciate how they point out that this is especially used full for those of us who are on irregular incomes, irregular paydays.

Like they call out the fact that like it can be really difficult to budget or feel as though budgeting isn't for you or you can't do it because there's no set payday pattern, you don't actually know exactly what you're going to bring in when you're going to bring it in. But really, what this can lead to for a lot of us is stress and anxiety and overwhelm. And what budgets do for all of us, whether on

a regular irregular income, is reduced that stress. It is laying out a plan and a pathway forward for our purchases there's also a fun little gift of a woman who is saying a budget as a statement of our priorities. She looks like your mom. I mean kind of actually maybe, but like your mom, everybody, if your mom got on a zoom call, this is what it would look like. Bad lighting. Not something I'd make into a gift. No, we digress reflection on the glasses. So yeah, there's a

few different tips. I think the I'll just start out with to simplify. The first is it simplifies you're spending. That's the first reason. And so I did not budget when I was like a tipped employee, and it was so easy to go through all the money. It was just so easy. And I know some people I don't know if it was a cash thing for me, but

so many people like have reached out to us. When Jill said that it was hard for her to keep cash, like cash was easier to spend because she just wanted to get rid of it, so many of you reached out and we're like, yes, I'm the same as Jill, and so I really think there's something to this. But with a budget, you can simplify your spending. And I have like a whole process on how to like for really wildly irregular incomes, how to budget we'll talk about

in the next article. But when you budget, then you can afford to put that money away in your bank account and not worry about spending it kind of out of sight, out of mind, and you can practice this values based spending plan that we talk about because you have some kind of guideline. So taking the time to do this, even though it's harder than somebody who has a steady paycheck every month, it will look different. It has to look different. When you earn different, you spend different,

you budget different, and that's okay. But it does simplify it, and we are big proponents of simplifying. I'll also call this next to an out number two. They're advocating that budgeting can improve your focus, that budgeting brings structure to our spending habits. We can know when things are a little tight, we can know when we are bringing in a little bit more. It helps us to know if we need to cut back on spending, if we need to adjust our spending, or if we have more to spend.

So just having something like a budget can help just to bring clarity and attention to something. I think without it, we can feel really almost like tossing about in the wind in the water without an anchor of any sort. And when you're already on a variable income, not having regular pay days, it can probably already feel that way. So almost looking at a budget like an anchoring point to bring about some level of stability within what can

feel maybe a little bit destabilizing at times. Yeah, I mean, and that goes into your ability to earn as well, Like as a shift worker or a freelancer, you can most of the times, like if you are budgeting and you're like, Okay, I don't have as many shifts this month, I need to make more, you can choose to pick up a shift, or if you are earning more than what you need, you can, you know, choose if somebody wants you to work a shift, you can choose to say no if you really need the time to not work,

or if you're a freelancer, you can choose to pick up a gig or to turn one down. So so true, you wouldn't know that if you didn't have a budget. You would Yeah, you wouldn't know it. If you didn't have a plan, plan for your spending. Because another thing that can happen when you control your own schedule is that hustle culture can really come in and just you can work and work and sit like pick up another shift, pick up another double, take another assignment. It can become exhausting.

But when you have a plan and you're focused either on your goal and you pick up that work knowing that it's for a short time or knowing it for it's a specific thing, or if your goal is more flexible, you can turn down work knowing that your mental health and your self care are your priority right now. Yes, so it can. These are all like a lot of things that we touch on all the time. So it helps you avoid debt. Build an emergency fund waste less, which I think also goes into the time bit. But

I'll also say something about the emergency fund. You should have at least two thousand dollars in an emergency fund. I know a lot of times will say a thousand, but we really think it should be two thousand. And so when you are able to put away cash and not spend it, then you're able to build that emergency

fund quicker and put it in a separate account. So again, out of sight, out of mind, so that you're not spending it on Taylor Swift ticket, which is what which is an actual Sorry Chris, if you're listening, my friend who's a bartender, just he did that. I don't even think he really likes Taylor Swift. He was just invited.

There wasn't a values base, no so and he had the money, so we spent it, which, depending on the field that you're in, an emergency fund could be far more necessary or at least a b for your emergency fund again depending on the field. Yeah, but that's definitely something we all need to be keeping a pulse on. I think right now especially is something like if you don't have two thousand dollars in your emergency funds, it's

time to get there. It's definitely time to get there because the economy it's just an it just at a place right now. You know, it's having a moment and you need to be as somebody with Again, if you've got an irregular income, your job isn't like promised to you. Work isn't promised to you. I mean, it's not promised to you if you have a W two either. But it's most volatile for our contractors and our tips, you know, listeners, So you especially need to have that emergency fund. Now.

Number five on here is that a budget or a plan for your money can reduce stress, especially if you're on an irregular income. I've already said it, but just highlighting this again that stress can cause all kinds of issues, like lack of sleep or interruptions to sleep. Sometimes it can lead to depression, anxiety, maybe even reduced performance levels.

There's so many ways that stress impacts us and our bodies, and this is one small tool that can help us to exert control and influence over at least the pieces we do have control and influence over, like a plan for our money, and especially again when when we're kind of uncertain about it, some sort of pathway forward is going to help to alleviate some of that stress. M Yeah, that's all I have to say about this one. And we're going to spend a bulk of our time in

the next article. Yes, let's do it. So our next article is how to budget when you have an irregular income? And so this is when really everybody wants to know. So like we had to budget, teach me? Why is that not us media I'm feeling a real Yeah. Okay, so we are going to talk about this capital one article and it's how to budget when you having a regular income. We're going to infuse some of our own tips into it. What do you think about the fusion? Well,

this one was my favorite one Goldie. You've all heard about Goldie, she's our favorite. She helps us with our outlines and selected like three different articles. So if you if you're interested in knowing more about this. No that there is a lot of info on the internet. There were plenty of options, but this one I felt was one of the most straightforward and helpful articles about how to actually do this that I liked it. This one

is my favorite. We'll spoiler alert few not all financial articles on the internet are created equally, and we go through them and talk about them on this podcast so that you don't have to wade through the entire first page and second and third page of Google. Yeah. So they just give a step by step, So we're just

going to go through all the steps. Yes, yes, So the first step is to establish a baseline monthly in so this is my I will I'll actually put like a so if this is step one, I'll do like a Step zero is to save, in addition to your emergency fund, save one month of that baseline monthly income. So if you are a y nab user, which is you need a budget. You know they talk about aging your money, and essentially, when you make a budget, you are budgeting for what you have already earned, not for

what you expect to earn. And this is no more important than when you have and a regular income. Is to be budgeting based on money you already have, not on money you don't have yet, especially when it comes to bills, like if your shift heavy on or gig heavy or invoice heavy on the back half of the month, and your bills are in the front half, you're going to be stressed. But if you are paying your first half the month bills based on what you made or got paid on the back half of the last month,

then it's no stress. You have the money. So I would say yes, Step one, establish a baseline monthly income. So that's looking at your last year of work essentially and taking an average of that. So we know that Q four is typically a high income quarter for a lot of servers and bartenders and even sometimes freelancers. If companies are trying to spend money before the end of the year for tax purposes, so those months are obviously

going to be higher than maybe your Q one. So what you're going to do is you're going to still take the average and then in Q four you're just going to live on the average, and everything you make over that you put in savings and save for Q one when you're not making as much. So that's kind of a way to get like a baseline, a monthly income, so you're spending and budgeting doesn't go all over the place like every single month. If you're more regular, then

sure you can just do it month to month. If you're varying maybe like a couple hundred bucks on either side, then certainly just live off the last month's income. But if you're varying widely, take that average, save the difference in the months you make more to supplement on the months you save less. And that's definitely going to be an account you want to put out of sight and out of mind because that's the easiest money to spend. Yeah, I cannot stress this last bit of the step enough.

Of what you calculate for your kind of I can count on earning this much in a month, you're kind of baseline monthly income. That should be your net monthly earnings, whatever that number is, after you've set aside what you'll owe an estimated taxes. This has been overlooked by so many people, not just young people, not just those new to the workforce. Like I know plenty of people every year every year who forget and think that they can just live off of whatever they've earned in the year.

But if you are, especially at ten ninety nine, employee that means you or a worker, that means you don't have an employee paying half of your income taxes. My recommendation is to set aside somewhere between seventeen to twenty percent of what you bring in just for taxes. Obviously, the twenty percent is going to be very nice and cushy, and so then at the end of the year you

have some money back into your pocket. But this is an absolute must, because you could end up at the end of the year or come tax season and owe thousands of dollars and be completely blindsided by it and find yourself a good accountant. They will pay for themselves. This is not something to go frugal and dy unless you are a tax expert. Yeah, this will save you money. Getting an accountant who knows your industry, who has done like talk to other people in your industry to see

who's doing their taxes and get some help. Yes, you must set that money aside and then determine your baseline income. So there might be two step zeros zero zero and then zero zero A and zero b. Yeah, and then step one and now we're on to step two, which is to make now a list of required monthly expenses. So we're talking about your most critical must pay monthly bills. This would include mortgage or rent, utilities. Food, We know that fluctuates a ton, but figure out a baseline number

for food. What do you know you can live off of? Yeah, like, sure, I'd love to set aside a thousand dollars a month for restaurants and groceries. But if rubber meets the road and I can't afford that, what do I know I can live off of and still eat at what amount? Certainly insurance, medical insurance, car insurance minimum or required debt payments just kind of baseline monthly expenses. Now, your baseline monthly income may or may not cover all of these

baseline monthly expenses that you've identified, and that's okay. The article will kind of take us through that. But this is some of the hard work of looking at what am I bringing in, what's kind of the minimum amount that I'm going to bring in, what's the minimum amount

that's going to go out? Yeah, and if you have done our spending makeover, then you know the first thing you do in the spending make overs take a ninety day transaction inventory, and that can be really helpful in this step to figuring out what your required monthly expenses are, because if you're not budgeting, you will forget something. And over the past ninety days you're pretty sure it's one quarter, you're pretty sure to get almost everything besides some annual expenses.

So this is where where we do the ninety day transaction inventory and then start to think like our is this monthly expense really required? Ken, is this amount of a monthly expense really required? And you can start trying

to get creative with some of these bigger expenses. I was thinking the other day when we went in and bought Grant countertops for rental, and that's a very thousand thousand dollars and I negotiated a cash paid discount when when the girl was like, oh, this is already really low. I don't think we can do anymore. But I was like, check with your manager, yeah, and she did check with her management. I got forty dollars off, which in the grand scheme of things is not a ton, but forty dollars.

That's a light fixture now neither rental. Yeah, that's more than I could have saved by skipping a latte. A latte is six dollars, and forty dollars is more than that, or more than I could have saved with a rebate from Ibota or fetch. You know. So when it's doesn't seem like when we're making these big purchases, we neglect the big money that can be saved because it seems

so insignificant. But when you're really looking at it compared to all these small saving decisions you're making, that's really where the biggest bang for your book is is these required monthly expenses, and so looking at your history and listening them out, I think is where you're you're going to get the most bang for your buck on savings. And then number three to pinpoint other monthly expenses, So

the inventory works here as well. You're looking at all of these smaller, hopefully smaller discretionary expenses and then really trying to pinpoint what are the ones that I love, what are the ones I feel really good about that I want to keep moving forward, And what are the ones that just did not bring me the enjoyment that I thought they would or that they should have for what they cost. And what can I say no to

in the future. So, yeah, this is a big benefit of budgeting, and I think, yeah, just a just a good habit all around. So then number four, once you've got it, it's kind of like part one in part two. Part one is figuring it all out, looking at it all on paper, and now the rest of these steps are putting it into action, and so number four is now implementing your baseline income. They reference the importance of having different bank accounts, one for your business, one for personal.

This especially important for your ten ninety nine people or your small business owners. If you just have variable income, this is not as important for you, but if you do have a business, or you're a tennin nine subcontractor, having two separate accounts will really help you it will help when tax time comes mandatory, actually mandatory. It's not just nice to have good to have it, Actually you

need too. Yeah, So what you're going to do then, is, because you do have a separate business account from a personal account, is move that money from your business account to your personal account just the baseline income that's your payment to yourself. Then you're going to use that money in order of importance to pay for your baseline monthly expenses.

So definitely prioritize the roof over your head, and food in your stomach, and your insurance and your debt payments, and kind of keep going down the list from their prioritizing along the way, they definitely reference you know what if you don't have enough to cover in your baseline income,

what your expenses are that month. Of course, that's where it might highlight, oh, I need to pick up an extra gig, or I need to pull from these other accounts that I have stacked up money in for a time like this, Which is why it's so important that like step zero zero of having some level of an emergency fund that you can pull from, but then also having our sights on, Okay, if my income is not covering my expenses, and I can't cut my expenses down any further, then we need to look at what are

some ways to bring in more to cover at least the baseline needs. Yeah, and that leads us into five is to then include additional earnings into that. And so this is the place where if you are in a higher earning month, then you save the difference for the later But I would also say too, this is a good time to point out how when you are tipped or freelancer gig, you are not only going to want to track your transactions, you also are going to want

to track your income. So every shift you should be tracking your income, so you should know what you are making per shift. And this is just good like to analyze like these are the best shifts to work. This is where I'm going to get the best bang for my time buck. This client is going to be the

best moving forward. It's a little less money than another client, but I do a you know, ten times less work, So you are unique and that you are you are going to want to manually track your income as intentionally as you track your expenses. So that is how you can really get a grasp on your income. And hopefully increase it while not increasing the time or effort you

put into working. That's always the goal is always to be able to charge more for the same amount of work, or to work less and make the same or to maybe upgrade to a better position or better shifts at work, a better restaurant, whatever. So and tracking your income will help you get to at point and so then you will have more additional earnings to where you can eventually increase your baseline income. And lastly number six, which we

have kind of reference to, probably be more so number zero. Yeah, this is where they're talking about creating that buffer account for your low months when you're experiencing a little bit more lean income, you've got an account that you can pull from. We would recommend this being a priority in setting up almost before doing the other steps. As far as the action steps go, you really don't want to find yourself with more month than income at the end

of each month. So having something that provides a bit of that cushion kind of smooths out some of those dips will be really helpful and will make this process of making a plan for your finances more pleasant. It's going to be really difficult if we wait for this to be the final step of Okay, now, let me make a plan for my low months. Well, if you're already experiencing a low month, then there's no way to

even get through the month or stack away. More So, begin focusing on how can you put a little bit extra aside and then move through the rest of the action steps. That's that's my little take on this article. Yeah, so getting your emergency fund first, then getting your buffer to where so you are budgeting based on what you have made, not based on what you are going to make, and then creating this buffer account for your lower earning months.

That's kind of the but that's before you If you want to pay off your debt, cool, that's great, But these are the things that you should be working on before you start any of those other goals like the debt, the investing, the saving for the house, whatever. These are really priority. Do you know what our buffer account is that we try to keep full up for lean months, but we're never lean with this one. The bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute

of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill of the week. Hi. My name is Savannah and I live in Salita, Colorado. I just moved from Tully Ride because I bought a house, and my bill of the week is baby sitting. I am an early childhood teacher and babysitting has been the most

amazing side gig for me. It is a way to make extra money, help out families, spend a lot of great time with kids, and so if you're good with kids, or if you're if you don't mind being with kids, it's such an easy way to make money. You can just like hang out with them, go to the park, watch movies, do crafts, and lots of times you're getting paid for when the kid goes to bed, and you're able to get paid to like read a book, journal, do whatever. And it's just such an amazing, such an

amazing side gig. So that's my bill of the week. It's enabled me to help move and buy a house, and I'm so grateful for it, and I definitely recommend it for anybody out there looking for a side gig. Thanks so much, oh Savannah. Good for you. There needs to be people in the world like you, because there's people in the world like me who have kids soon to be kids that hate all of the things that

you just mentioned, the things. I am also a little bit blown away because not only is being a teacher part of your full time job, but then in your extra spare time, your side hustle is also babysitting. So like, you must really be a gem of a human being who truly loves being around all kinds of children, and like you found this great side gig. For me, my side gigs need to be totally different from my day job.

But for you, you really found your niche and that's that's just a great bill with some extra earning, and people moms like me will pay you good Monday to do that with their kids because you can't hide like you must be really great with kids and enjoy them if you're choosing to do it in whatever additional time crafts. Okay, I will pay a premium. If you're out here listening and you think you two are an angel from heaven who is able to do your full time job as

your side hustle. And you're great with kids and you just want to talk about you just do crafts or your name is Bill specifically Bill Curtis, but any Bill or you or you also know the drill other types of bills you get creative friends visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash Bill, leave us your bill. We're just here with open arms, ready to celebrate you. And now it's time for oh man. Okay, So what is the hardest part about budgeting with an income that flucks you weights?

What do you think? John? Okay? So this is specifically non w two is it is the taxes. For me, I hated that part about it, and it's why I hired an accountant. Have you seen those reels or TikTok's where it's like when they ask you what you do, say I'm an accountant. A song for people with like I guess, dicey um professions And when they're like, just tell them you're an accountant. Nobody asks what you do when you're an account there will be no more follow

up question um. So I mean another I guess if you have a dicey tipped uh, you know, career. There you go. There's another extra tip for you, there's but Hi. So like when I started off of the W two path, because when I was a bartender still got a W two. I think I still had to claim I technically hadn't claimed my cash. Yeah, definitely taxes on it. It's not technically you. You definitely needed to huh and uh. When I got away from that, then it was no W two and oh gosh, I mess. I would mess at

my taxes so bad. I did that for two years and finally I was just like an accountant literally instantly paid for himself. Yes, I and I still hate taxes. Five years of frugal friends in personal like writing personal finance. When I was freelancing, I would tell them the only things I don't write about are taxes and insurance. And I actually had a client one time my first assignment after I told him that was an article about estate tax which also has an insurance like compotponent. Yeah, And

I was like, never say never. That's then that's your bad. I didn't say never. I said I don't write about insurance and taxes because I'm not an expert, and I shouldn't. You shouldn't be writing on the internet unless you're an expert and what you're writing. Yeah, which is why we cover these articles because we know that's untrue. Yeah, not

everyone's an expert who's putting the articles out there. And it's also why we're giving Yeah, it's why we're giving you our hot takes something, not that we're an expert on all of it. But oh, but taxes for sure, Yeah, that is a tough one. But if you are a non W two worker, then I think there is more

reason permission to pay someone to do your taxes. But still it's a headache because you have to have so much more of a pulse on what's coming in, what's going out, keeping track of your business expenses like it's it's a lot of work. That is a you can be kind to yourself throughout the year and make it easier on yourself come tax prep season. But yeah, I

I can't disagree with you, Jo. It is enough to want to work towards a W two and that's why you budget so that you can figure out how many shifts that you don't have to take, so you can use that time to learn or achieve or do whatever you need to do to get a W two job. If that's what you want if that's how much taxes are a burden for you. Yeah. For me, I think the hardest part it was is, I would say more so was I feel as though I've got a really nice baseline with the various types of jobs that I

have that this doesn't feel as acute anymore. But the uncertainty and ambiguity and the feeling isolated are kind of different or other in the way that I earned money, and so it felt like none of the personal finance info out there was tailored to or even relevant for me. And even still I can catch glimpses of that now when people are like, take the four oh one K match from your employer, do this, do that, and it's like you're you, you have to be doing these things.

It's like, oh, but I can't. Like some of the info or advice out there is like assuming that everyone earns in the same way and everyone can budget in the same way. Like especially all these budgeting people on social media are like and you just take this two week pay period and you put this this in this and it's so clean and pretty. But I'm just like, Okay, so I guess this space just isn't for me because my life and earning does not look anything like this,

and so they're that feeling of isolation being different. But then like the uncertainty that then is attached to that of what do I do? Then if like this clean little box that apparently the rest of the world gets to live in doesn't apply to me. All that to say, we see you and we hope this episode was helpful. Yeah, thank you so much for listening. I hope that you, if you are tipped or gig or freelance, that you found some encouragement in this, maybe picked up a few

new tips. Ultimately, there's nothing new under the sun, but there is there can be that feeling of isolation that Jill just described, and so we're hoping that you feel a little more seen and a little more confident that you can do this. And if you want a little more confidence and a little more seeing, we have a community for that. I've called the Frugal Friends Club, and it's for mainly people paying off debt, but also starting their savings funds and starting saving for houses and whatnot.

So we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. And this is a member who has a lot of big win, Yes, Debbie, So she said she had a win from the radical Middle. She said, our son and daughter in law came to celebrate Christmas with us. The gift we ordered for them is still in transit, so we had two smaller gifts. But ugh says every mom. She said focusing on progress. Part of me was like, we just need to be frugal and

explained and not get them anything else. But the other part of me, the mom part, was like, let's just get them one hundred dollars gift card. So radical middle. We ended up at Low's and spent twenty three on a discount and air plant with some clamp tooty thing. She said. I was so excited. It took some discussion to keep Hubby from impulse buying. He's new to frugal I've been really working on him for a year, and I'm so excited to see how twenty twenty three unfolds financially.

I could not have gotten my husband on board without the information and I've learned in here. It gives me great conversation, starting points and concrete data to support. So well done, Debbie. Oh, I feel yeah, there's something that happens during the holidays, where like all of our previous understanding and spending just kind of can go out the window when it comes to wanting to give freely and generously to others. It can cause us to compromise in

ways that we might not throughout the year. But the fact that you were still able to kind of hold true and keep a pulse on and be aware of what was going to be a good idea and what was just going to end up in like regret and why did I do that? Is so amazing. And also the fact that this club has helped you in your conversations with your husband is really amazing. I'm celebrating with you just for that little side piece of what you shared.

It really is the bandwagon effect in reality, like the holidays, when everybody else around you is doing something thing, you just hop on the bandwagon without even thinking, Oh, I think this happens with like birthdays and weddings and it's not negative, and yeah, sometimes you don't even realize you're

doing it. But when you have a community, when you have a different bandwagon who's talking about different things, it's easier to identify and say no when you want to say no. So that's the one thing I love about Frugal Friends Club. If you are interested in checking it out, we've got courses, interviews, challenges, community. Head to Frugal Friends of podcast dot com slash club to check it out. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

I was just talking with a friend about some of the new or maybe adjusted standards for tipping. Ooh, and it can feel I think. I think we've had requests from people like can you talk about tipping? I don't even want to get into the weeds, though, I'm like, here's how you save in tipping? Because you don't. It's like the opposite of what gratuity means. But right, how can I be less gratuitous? Yeah? It brought yeah, right, it brought the concept up for me because I'm like,

surely my understanding of tipping is antiquated. Surely whatever my previous understanding was kind of through this pandemic and what we've seen, and I think we've seen a lot of really awesome generosity for some of these arenas and fields

to do decent not not through the whole thing. I'm not like, yeah, everyone has their own experience, but sure enough, standards of tipping have gone up, like just baseline like where I previously thought getting your hair done or your nails done, like the standard was somewhere between ten to fifteen percent. And I don't think I'm wrong. I think

that that was the case. But now it is like twenty percents the baseline almost across the board, like going out to eat, getting some version of a service done, Like twenty percent is where you start and it goes up from there. And I was just like floored and like, Okay, what do I need to do to adjust myself in here? And that's where the thought came of, Man, I do feel like I'm tipping everybody, Like I'm tipping someone who delivers things to my door, who brings my you know.

I mean, we're doing a lot of renovations, We're getting a lot of deliveries. We're tipping. Those people were tipping. The people who install were tipping, the contract workers. I have friends who clean homes and they get tipped and tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping, and then realizing, like, man, as many professions as there are that get tipped, I'm not than any of them. And that's why you want to tip yeah. I'm like,

I'm tipping so much, and I'm I'm glad too. I'm glad to give my grat If you don't want to tip, don't buy the service, right, you know. But then I'm like, how do I get myself in an arena where like someone can thank me with their money. That's so true. Um, I Heart thanks us with their money. No, no, no no, I Heart has a contract agreement with us and a revenue. Yeah. Um, I don't know we make them. I'm very bad bartender.

You didn't make many tips? Oh, I mean I did enough to where I only had to work like two days a week. Yeah, but very good. Yeah. I was a horrible server. Yeah I was an adequate bartender. Yeah. See, Like my background is in the field of social work, where it's actually unethical to receive anything from your clients. Yeah. I when I was an acupuncture same, we were not able to receive tips. Done. Mean I didn't tips or gifts or anything. Yeah. The one thing I could say

is like, you can send me. You can give me a card writing out how you felt this time went and for you, because that hards it. No gift cards, so I patients give me alcohol. Wow. Yeah, and you're just like, I can't receive that but leave it under the chair. Ituncture is different, Yeah, definitely is. Yeah. Yeah, well I mean that, you know, there's pros and cons to every type of job, and I think there are a lot more. I feel a lot better about the

way I make money now. Yes, it is difficult when a lot of your income is dependent on other people's versions and realities of fortunity. Yes, absolutely, good days and bad days. I'm sure all up in there, and I'm glad to not be subjected to that, yes anymore. And but we see you and if you the work that you're doing and that's how you're earning, then yeah again that that episode is Yeah, I will, I will serve me. You should tip me, You should tip me, You should tip me. I'm a tip you