Eco Friendly Frugality | Frugal Environmentalism

several years. And to other people you're like, how I can't afford reusable plastic silicone bags. I can't afford to be an environmentalist. What are we doing these wax sran rap? Yeah, so we're here to like totally open up the intersection between these two why they belong together and why they are attainable together, and how to do it. So that's what we're talking about today. Yeah, there's space for all of us wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, So

happy or here. But first, our sponsors the Emergency Fund, whether it's five hundred dollars, one thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars, I feel like I'm on a game show I put either thank you you need money set aside in case you're laid off, you're unable to work, or for any other emergency expense we know they happen, and keeping it in a high yield savings accounts separate from your regular checking and savings lessons the likelihood of us actually spending

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x O s get that emergency fund. Today's episode is also brought to you by reusing it sits between reduced and recycle on the cycle of stuff kind of how Jill notice I reused my sponsor from a hundred and ten episodes ago for this episode and made me change it. I also reused an article I made her find another one because I had to write a new sponsor, and I can't do everything. You know, reusing good for stuff bad for content. I guess this feels like so much

more than about the sponsor. It's like simultaneously a dig at me while also yeah, just a good sponsor promoting reusing for sure and the congruent though, Jen, you're sustainable in your content. Really it's the same message you wanted to say a year ago. Well, if you're wondering if we've changed our ideas about environmentalism and frugality from in the last two years, we haven't. Obviously are still true.

Episode forty eight is why frugality is environmentally friendly. So I reuse without realizing it my sponsor and the first article for this and so I'm glad, thank you Jill for noticing that so that we can give people some unique perspective for this episode. But if you are interested in what those are, because obviously they're good, like if I'm reusing them and didn't even know the woods, oh gosh,

well yes spoiler alert it was from Frugal Woods. So episode forty eight for that, And then you can also check out episode one oh three is our episode on a frugal zero waste lifestyle, So this one will be a little different from those, but if you're interested, definitely add those two to your plane. Next, well, let's get into this article that is new and fresh to us, but Jill found it's not recycled content. This is new

but still sustainable. It comes from Brightly. They actually also have a podcast, so this is very meta in that these are show notes for another podcast episode, so feel free to check them out too. But talking about making sustainability affordable, what did you think about this article? Jen? Since I had to find it since you can't do

it all, I loved it. I love it when we go through other podcasts show notes actually because people listening to this already like podcast and so if we can find another one that maybe we'll just expound on some of the concepts we bring here. I love that. So this one has a lot of tips. But then I also loved the first section called is sustainability just for

the wealthy? Because that is a big argument when it comes to um really frugality in big picture, because a lot of people believe that frugality and sustainability and eco friendly living is actually reserved for people of privileged people that actually have money to save money to buy more expensive products, and so that is something that we are trying to It's a myth we're trying to debunk and show that any eco like economic standing can practice frugality,

can practice sustainability. Everyone's just going to be doing it to a different extent. I will say at this point, it's not unfounded, right this this concept must come from somewhere of that costs money. It's not as if we're pulling that idea out of thin air. It is true that you could buy products that advertise themselves as eco friendly, sustainable, reusable, that are very expensive or that just look really pretty,

and then they're also sustainable and environmentally friendly. And we're saying, yes, that is a way of going about being environmentally friendly. It's not the only way, and in some cases it is not the way at all, even though it's advertising to be. So there are just advertisers and marketers out there who know that we value these things, and we'll try to make their product look that way even though it's not helping the environment or it's not even that sustainable.

So that's where some of these concepts come from. But we want to position this topic in the framework of frugal lifestyle, that they can partner together, they're not mutually exclusive. And I like some of the arguments that she makes at the beginning of this article or her show notes for her podcasts talking about environmentally friendly, being environment mentally friendly, and sustainable. It doesn't have to be beautiful. I think a lot of times our concepts of it come from

the Graham Instagram. For those of you who are not a savvy's Jill, I don't even know how to work Instagram. It's like not even for the elder millennials. I don't even understand it anyhow. It doesn't have to look like how we've imagined it. It's similar to I think minimalism that or simple living. We often have this like idea, this picture in our heads of what that looks like, and so we kind of want to debunk some of

that that it doesn't have to be beautiful. It can be beautiful if we wanted to be, but doesn't have to be grammable. I also really like the argument that this makes. I hadn't thought about it in this way before, but being environmentally friendly it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to purchase the products. It's not like a race for what products are most friendly, but where is the

least impact. That was a total mindset shift just reading this article for me, Like, it's not about collecting all of the products that say they're friendly for the ecosystem, but where do we have the least amount of impact? And I think that's where we see the most frugality and less spending. Absolutely, I loved the quote from the Frugal Woes article we covered last time is that you cannot buy your way to green. That is not the

way to be environmentally friendly. It is when you maybe have to buy something and you intentionally want it to be less impactful. Um, there are definitely other ways to know about it than buying new products. We'll get into that, but you cannot buy your way to green. It's really a lifestyle that comes on what you more so what

you don't do versus what you do. It is so interesting to me how sustainability has become this thing that we think is connected with privilege and wealth, because the resourcefulness that it actually requires is something that I think we've learned out of the Great Depression, or when we look at countries or cultures that are developing or not wealthy, like that's where we find the true tools for sustainability.

So it's quite mind boggling to me even that it's become something so different than that, which I guess we can thank advertisers and marketers for that one absolutely, because I see when I think of minimal um or simple living or environmentalism, I think of the white wall with the white table and the Swedish chair and all of these. Yes, and all of these things are quite expensive because they are trendy um, but that's actually not what real life

minimalism and environmentalism looks like. It is not actually beautiful. I mean, I love my cushy brown couch from Goodwill, like I think it looks great, but it does not look as good as my old couch that I bought new um, but was extremely uncomfortable. So yeah, it's not you're not putting my living room in a magazine. But it's very minimal and I think nine out of ten items were bought used, So that's yeah. And so where frugality meats environmental friendly is um? I made up that word?

Is this work with what you got mentality? It's not a how do I go out and purchase something that's going to be friendly. It's how do I make the least amount of impact and work with what I already have and what can I not buy? What are things that I can do without so that I can just

avoid it all together. So let's look at some of the tips that they give for here um And this first one is a personal favorite of mine and I just had a conversation with somebody in my Instagram d m s about this, uh this past weekend actually, and it's buying clothing second hand and also selling on thrift aaps. So when you have clothes that you want to get rid of, instead of just hauling them off to Goodwill, uh,

they already get way too many clothes. If you can the better stuff, selling it on thrift apps like posh Mark is a great one. You can also send things to threat up there. It's not as great, you don't get as much money back, but it's a lot easier if you don't have the time. So I love buying clothing secondhand. It's something that I almost strictly buy clothing secondhand.

But I was talking to somebody on d m s about store credit cards and I think store credit cards are the worst credit cards and you know, I love credit cards rewards, and I think store credit cards are the worst because not only do they have the highest interest rate and some of the worst rewards, but they actually cause people to impulse buy more from these stores because they have this kind of like sunk cost feeling

because they have these discounts. So and they're like, well, I have these discounts and I'll lose them if I don't use them, YadA YadA. Or I have a discount, I'll buy more to make my discount worth more, which I think is horrible. Um, and I don't. I mean, we overspend so much on new clothes. And the girl I was talking to you like disagreed with me. But it is you have to pick and choose the things. I guess the hills you're going to die on for

for what you want to do, what works in your life. Um. But for me, buying clothing secondhand is just like a no brainer. I have not even bought clothing. I can't remember the last time I bought clothing, which feels so good. I used to be so addicted to buying clothes. Living in a motor home ruined me that way. I had to Um, I'm in the process of buying a new bathing suit because I haven't bought one and maybe like five years, and I do want to buy that new.

That's kind of a place where I will draw the line and uh, but it is really hard. There's so many choices when you're at a thrift store, Like most of the things you hate, I hate, so there's just like a few choices for me. But when you have when there's my size and everything, there's just too much to choose from, and it's all like triple the price that I'd normally pay. So it's difficult there as well. So your mindset kind of changes when you switch over

to rictly second hand. When you start to buy like new things, you definitely overthink. It makes it harder to buy on impulse. So that's nice. Well yeah, I mean, if you're anything like me, if I'm going to buy new, then it better be a quality product that's going to last me for a very long time. So yeah, it

is a bigger commitment than sobsolutely. I like this other tip that she gives on here, and this is not one that I've seen on many articles or here talked about often related to this topic, But to use up what you already have before replacing it with something that is eco friendly. So let's say you are realizing, oh, I want to be aware of the impact on my

environment and within my household. That can sometimes lead us to throwing away all of our products that seem non friendly, when in reality that is going to also not be great for the environment to throw out all of these chemicals and plastics so that we can go out and buy new stuff that is advertising itself as eco friendly.

So they're arguing, Okay, maybe make sure that your next purchase or even just make your own what I'm thinking cleaning products, really before doing that, use up what you already have that's going to be better for the environment anyhow. And then I also like what they talk about with swapping.

So if you find a product that it doesn't really work for you, rather than throwing it out, seeing if anybody else in your community or your friend group could use it or swap it, there are apps platforms where people, even if you don't have someone within your immediate circle, you could swap products with. There's one in particular, I think it's related to like beauty products, where you can

swap makeup. Ali is a community of women where they review products and swap products that they might be displeased with. So that's one example, and feel free to look for more. But I think that's an excellent way to not just throw stuff out even if it's not working for you

or it's not what you want. This is a place where frugality and minimalism and environmentalism environmentalism kind of like come to a head where they don't just align perfectly, because in minimalism and simple living, you just want to get rid of all of it. But if you want to be kind to the environment, it's better to use up some of that instead of getting rid of all

of it. So maybe if you're finding yourself in this weird place, think about what you're actually going to use, what you could use, and then maybe keeping enough for the next six months, nine months, a year or whatever, and then getting rid of the rest. But make sure it's stuff you know you will use, not just things like I hope I can use this or I could

use this. It's far better to offer that up and you're buy nothing group to somebody who will actually use it than it is to have the hope and dreams of of using it. Because even if it's sitting in your closet. Yeah, I mean it might not be in a landfill, but it's still doing the same thing, so so be aware of that and related to that concept.

Another tip on here if not seen before, is trying samples of things before splurging on clean products, whether it's a beauty product or a cleaning product, any type of product. See if you can try a sample first to be aware of whether or not you like it or it works for use that it's not another thing that gets thrown out. Yeah. This is so you could maybe ask at a salon or a place that sells beauty products for a sample, but you can also ask friends be like, hey,

does anybody use this? I'd like to try it and see if anyone will offer you up just a little sample. It doesn't seem weird to me. And Facebook or Instagram could be a really good place to find a friend that can offer you a sample. Yeah, you're buying nothing groups, Yeah,

absolutely nice. Anything else on this article for you, Jen, I really liked the get d I y around the house, so definitely not like taking on things that are out of your realm, but kind of getting creative with what you could so she recommends, like this girl on d

I Y, she gets crafty around the house. She recommends d i Y networks tips to renovate your home sustainably, but she recommends like washing clothes and cooler temperatures, which I'm not sure why that's on here, Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but like turning off the lights when you leave a room, unplugging electronic items, which is all great. I don't understand how it's like d I Y, but

they're all good recommendations. So for me, when I think about getting d I Y, it's like, so our windows were letting out heats or energy bill was like through the roof. So we actually considered replacing some windows ourselves. And we would have done that, we had too many windows that needed replacing, but it is something we looked into. It's like, how can I lower my electric bill, lower my impact on the energy grid, and save some money. So that ended up not being a thing that we

could do. But if it was just one, like one or two windows, we would have d i yed it. But so that's kind of the first thing that comes to mind, like thinking of what are things that I could d I Y to get a to become more eco friendly, but also like get a good return on investment, be and save money on well related to energy usage.

I think it's worth checking if you live in a city or borrow some Some locations will even offer credits or benefits for upgrading to some of these more energy efficient, whether it's windows or appliances or I even know St. Pete, the City of the Sunshine City of St. Pete, Florida, will give you like seventy five dollars back for replacing your toilet with an energy efficient toilet, so I know

that that's not just the St. Pete thing. Check with your city to see what the different credits or rebates might be for being more aware of your energy usage and finding alternatives. Yes, we have gotten to toilet rebates for replacing our toilets, and we got a rebate for the windows as well, so that was nice. We ended up not having to pay our energy bill. The rebate was so high we didn't have to pay energy bill for a month and a half, so amly that was great.

So that's the last one on this article. Our next article is when I found that was unique to this It's from green foresters dot com and it's called sustainable living on a budget. And she says green living is not a luxury, and she gets right into it with saying, like, some people think living green is a luxury, and it's not always the case. Like years ago, people used to live very sustainably in order to be frugal. It wasn't

the other way around. So, like we said, again, Jill, with these like people in developing countries, they live super sustainably, like and it's not, you know, to be frugal, um so, and I love it. It is. It's too you know, save on your resources and use what you have and make it extend and last longer. Yeah, it's resourceful. Yeah, And that's what we believe frugality is is being a

good steward of your resources. And that's why we think being eco friendly is frugal, because we don't want to just be good stewards of our money, because what is it worth if you all you care about is money, Like, we also want to be good stewards of our time, um, of our material possessions, of our schedule, and our environmental resources. So that's why this is so important to us. I really enjoyed how this article paired both sustainability and frugality

in very overt ways. So it gives a tip and then it explains why that tip is sustainable, and then another paragraph on why that tip is also frugal. It's so good it really breaks it down in some great ways for you know, making it simple for someone like me. Uh and yeah, just driving home this point again that green doesn't have to be considered a luxury. It may not look the way that we think that it looks,

but it's definitely not just for the wealthy. The first tip that stood out for me on this was the making your own products. I know we've talked about this in the past, even on our cleaning episode. Really considering making our own, not purchasing, and in that way we're reducing the amount of plastics and packaging that we're buying

and eventually throwing out. It can have a better impact on the environment because often when we make our own well, we obviously choose the ingredients that we put into it, but it's more attainable to choose ingredients that are more natural and more friendly to the environment, and of course that is less expensive if we're utilizing some of these more natural products that we might already have around the house. I know for me, I typically just clean with vinegar

and water. Sometimes you can clean with lemon juice. Like we think that cleaning products are so complicated, but they really don't happen to me. Again thanks to the advertisers and marketers making us think that it's like little magic dust that's put into cleaning products, and no, it's chemicals that you actually don't need to get a good scrub. It's a little bit of elbow grease. I love this. I love YouTubers and TikTok like cleaning YouTubers and cleaning tiktoker's.

I'm very obsessed. Like, give me a good time lapse of somebody cleaning their house and I will sit through it and their professionals and they use super simple homemade products like all of them. Like my favorite TikTok or she's like you, she uses Don power wash for everything, like everything like from bathrooms to kitchen. She's like, unless

you're eating off of it, Don is perfectly good. And so now I've started, I will clean everything with just this two cups of water and a teaspoon a dawn and that is kind of my my go to everyday cleaning spray, and I love that's not necessarily like a make your own fully from scratch, but in some ways, yes,

you are stretching that out. Honestly, like Dawn. This we're not sponsored by Dawn, but I have learned, like you can't use most things on granite countertops, like Dawn is pretty much the only thing that you should be cleaning granite countertops with. So yes, just to your point, there's a lot of different ways that specifically Dawn can be used. Otherwise vinegar, yeah, don if you're listening, please the only downside to them. I learned this from my mother in law.

They can make sponges smell like when you use it for cleaning dishes. Long term, they really like make my dish sponges stink. Maybe you should switch to rags instead of sponges, which is another recommendation on this list. I think it's on this list where we go all the way down. Maybe Nope, it's but it is a recommendation on a list that I found is switching to those rags and just being able to wash them, you know, and then getting rid of sponges, which is kind of

We try to do that as much as possible. We do have sponges and we do get rid of them. But some people can put a sponge in the microwave. I mean you can wash them for me. It hasn't taken the smell out to wash them. But people say put them in the microwave. But I don't have a microwave, so you can use my microwave if you want. No, I'm not going that far. I'll just do rags. The professional cleaning TikToker also uses the scrub daddy. That's the only sponge she uses. You don't know. I didn't like

that one. They fell apart within two months. It had completely like disintegrated. Interesting. I was going to try a scrub daddy because then you can use the eyes and the mouth like small things just go right through them. I had no idea what face was for, and that's what it's for. I hate to break it to you. It just disintegrated. It fell apart. Okay, good to know. Rags. Just stick with cutting up old t shirts and sweaters, beach towels and rags. Rags for the wind, rags for

the wind. Okay. The next one that on my tho is actually on the list. My favorite eat less meat and dairy, and this is a big reason why I was a vegetarian for ten years. And actually Travis and I have started talking about going back to a mostly plant based diet just because it's cheaper, because meat is always the most expensive part of our grocery budget, um, besides our boxes of r X bars. But I'm also not sponsored by them, but it's always the most expensive part.

And I don't even really love meat. It's just something I'm trying to like get more pro teaen but I love protein powder, like protein shakes. So it's become this crisis in me. So it says, and I don't. The statistic is not cited, so I cannot confirm it, but it says in the article that animal products create eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all transportation emissions combined. And I have heard that individual transportation emissions do not add up to a lot in

the grand scheme of things. So if you're worrying about your commute and thinking we're going to tell you to bike, you don't have to do that unless you want, yeahs to exercise. But yes, but it is more so like industries that are contributing to these greenhouse gases. So if we buy fewer of the things, because money talks, we vote with our money. If we buy the things, companies are going to keep produce sing them and they're going

to keep producing greenhouse gas emissions. But if we stop or severely limit what we buy, then we are telling them that this is no longer acceptable and we will choose to buy things with you know, net zero carbon emissions and stuff like that, or just that this stuff is an important to us anymore and we won't buy it in general. So that is super important and can be more powerful than maybe buying a prius. Interesting. I also like simple tip on here is b u i

oh cups and bags. They're very simple, but we do use them on a very regular basis, and so strongly consider replacing those water bottles, those plastic purchasing water with just a water bottle, reusable water bottle. Certainly, bags when we're talking about going grocery shopping or any other type of situation and where you might need a bag, Certainly there's a lot of stores that will charge you for bags. So that's definitely a reason to bring your own. Shout

out al da. But also to not have so many bags that you just throw away that all that plastic, So bringing your own can be super useful. I know I have found even the reusable cups being super helpful as I host people, Like if you've got a lot of people in your house, you've got a lot of kids, you just like to collect them, or a lot of people visiting, rather than giving them water out of plastic bottles that are constantly being thrown away or hopefully recycled

at least. Yeah, consider a reusable water bottles. It is still shocking to me how many people use plastic bottles regularly, And I get it. Sometimes tap water just tastes gross. But if that's you, and you know that your tap water consistently taste gross, then think of a long term solution. And it may cost you a little bit more up runt then just buying a gallon of water or some bottles of water, but in the long run it will probably save you money and it will definitely help the environment.

Consider water filters. I know we did a burkey when we were in the motor home so that we didn't have to keep buying water. We didn't even have space to store plastic water bottles even if we wanted that. But in that process I also learned that people will d I y their own Burkey water filters. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then well you can

google it. But it filters water through charcoal and makes it tastes incredible, like we drove all over the place, and very consistent in water flavor, which I am picky about. But you can make your own out of like pots, big like cooking pots, and just buying the filter rather than the entire Burkey set up. So that's just a side tip for those of you who are particular about water but also care about not growing about out a

ton of plastic. Yeah, So anything else on this list, Jill something that I've never seen before on an article like this that I think is just worth mentioning. I think it's interesting they talk about going for a more native landscape in your yard rather than paying a bunch of money for grass seed or plants that maybe might not be native. To do some research and work on developing a more natural to your environment and context type of landscape and lawn, which could lead to just greater

levels of sustainability. It can yield better like crops of whatever plants you have in your yard is better for the pollinating insects and birds and animals and all of that if they're interacting with the vegetation that is native to your area. So yeah, I thought that that was an interesting approach and I think can certainly lead to frugality as well if you're just utilizing your own property.

I know, for me in landscaping my new house, new to me, utilizing just things that are already on the property has been amazing, propagating some of the plants that are already here rather than going out and purchasing. So yeah, just a new tip, new to me tip, thought i'd share. Yeah, and looking for plants swaps in your area. I know we went to one of those recently and that was

really fun. And you can find all kinds of native plants because those are going to be the ones that people are swapping because they have too many of them, So yeah, those are really easy to find. And then as you get deeper and deeper into the planters cove, I don't know what that is, but it's like their secret club, and as you learn more about plants, you can then give them as gifts. Talk about frugal sustainability. Absolutely, and people love plants. Most people do. You always tell

me you're going to kill it. Um Sometimes of the time I do. But I have been successful with my plants, and I'm proud of that because it was likelihood that I was going to kill him and I have been able to. Granted, one of those is a cactus, so it loves not being watered and ignored. You know what kind of plant we haven't killed and has lived on for nearly three years? Three years? Three years. That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week.

Maybe a baby was born in his Aims Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill of the week. Hi, Jen and Jill, this is Sarah calling in for my bill of the week. Um. So, I recently started teaching with V I. P. Kid and all of my students in China pick American names that they go by, and today on my schedule, I have you guessed it A William So I will actually be

teaching a bill this week. I hope you all are having a great day, and I love listening to the podcast. Yes, Jen and I are doing happy dances as we're listening to Sarah. Both of our hands fists even this up in the air, just pounding the sky. Yes, yes for that child and his wise names action. Did I hear that this was a side hustle? Yeah, I'm just a new job. Whatever it is, you're being resourceful in finding employment.

I hope that it's going well. Anyone who have heard has taught with VI I p kid it has gone well. So and even especially if it's a side hustle, that's amazing and what a treat, fir side hustle. That What a bill of the week, Sarah. Let's see if our

second bill of the week can top it. Hi, Jinn and Jill, this is Andrea UM and I'm calling about a bill that I received this year from the chiropractor and physical therapy office that I was going to while I was training for the two thousand nineteen Chicago Marathon. The bill came out to be five hundred seventy eight dollars and I was shocked because I thought that my

appointments were fully covered by my insurance. UM I reached out to the patient advocates and they actually end up rerunning the bill and applying my maximum benefits, and the bill then came out to about fourteen dollars, but because the appointment dates were so old, they wrote that off as well, and so I had a zero dollar ballance, which was a huge relief and a huge win. And I just wanted to call in and let you guys know about it. Um. This just seemed like the perfect

forum to express my joy. So thank you. And I love the podcast. Yes, that one was as good. I love hearing people who have negotiated medical bills. It is light in my life. How amazing just that you picked up the phone and called and went from five hundred something to zero dollars. How many of us have overpaid just because we didn't want the new sense of calling, or don't think we're going to get anywhere. Andrea, this is the platform to share and celebrate. Thanks for sharing

your bill of the week if you want. And I hope that marathon went well. I mean, let's not glosser for that, like you ran the Chicago marathon. It's more about the bill. I acknowledge you, I see you. If you want to submit your bill of the week, whether it's about running a marathon or teaching a William visit forr girl Friends podcast dot com slash Bill, leave us here Bill. Today's bill is brought to you by another podcast. If you like podcasts, you'll definitely want to subscribe to

Frugal Living. It's sponsored by Brad Steals, one of the longest running deal sites on the Internet, and it's chock full of savings hacks, financial tips, and stories on how to live better for less. They just started their second season and they're covering a variety of topics you can easily apply to your own lifestyle, like the best times to buy TVs or flowers, love flowers, and how to safely shop online to avoid scams because scams still happen.

You'll even meet a food waste warrior who talks about dumpster diving Travis would like that, yes, and you'll hear from consumers just like you, as well as industry experts breaking down unique in different ways to shop smarter, which you know we absolutely love. Frual Living is hosted by Jim Marcus, an editor of Brad's Deals, and is available anywhere you listen to podcasts, So subscribe to join the

conversation and learn something new about frugal living. Now it's time for round call a little bit subdued today, it's a little cloudy, it is so to day for the lightning round. Um, we're going to check in with the small changes that we said we were going to make in our zero waste episode, and also anything new that we may have implemented. It's fun to have these like check in episodes. We've been around long enough to have check in episodes. You can see if we do what

we say we're gonna do. It's a little scary, yeah, because we actually forgot last week was our third anniversary. That was our third anniversary of the show. But we can celebrate it today. Goodness, we're so bad. Yeah, but we're happy to have been with you for three years. We're not gonna happy your anniversary region happy through your anniversary jail. Okay, so what are any changes you've may new or existing? So I still love my water bottle that has not gone away. I mentioned that in so

many episodes past and it's still ringing true. You bring it everywhere, Yes they do. I'm still utilizing my selling skills I'm going back to that that episode where we talk about that and one of the new things that I've implemented. I have talked about this on the food episode. But as far as sustainability and less waste, I put any not any leftover fruits, any leftover produce, veggies, fruit, juices,

you name it into my blender and make smoothies. That has been my most favorite newest sustainable hack as far as my groceries go. And getting nutrients into my body. And of course I washed my clothes on cold. That's like a no brainer for me always and occasionally I compost. I'm like in and out of composting these days. That

sounds a lot like me. It sounds a lot like what I'm about to say, so reusable napkins and about that, hows have not bought any paper towels since the last time I mentioned it, So that's something we do have the need for some disposable napkins. And what we will do is that if we get take out, we just take the napkins from there and we save them. And we really haven't had to get paper towels because we just use the takeout napkins and it's not like we

take extra we're only using what they've given us. We just we don't throw them away. Like when we're done with the takeout, if it's good napkin, we'll put it underneath our reusable napkins to use for later. So yeah, that has been going well. Still using a biodegradable toothbrush. So I haven't remember you talking about this. I switched to from plastic to bamboo toothbrushes. Yeah, so the actual handle of the toothbrush is compostable because plastic toothbrushes stay forever.

Nothing about them is compostable, and so they every toothbrush that has ever been used is still in the world. Yeah, but I wanted to do that one thing to kind of lower my impact. And so for a full year I've been using compostable toothbrushes, and actually my last two I haven't even gotten rid of. So now I have, like after three months of use, I put one in the spare bathroom, so just in case I need to brush my teeth in the spare bathroom, I have a

toothbrudge there. And then the other one that I just stopped using actually is by the sink because I used it to clean some of Kai's shoes, and so now it's actually by the sinking case. There's like growdy stuff that I need a toothbrush to get into. How do you make sure you don't brush your teeth with the

same toothbrush used to clean Kai's shoes. I don't brush my teeth in the kitchen, Okay, yeah, so the one I brush my kitchen brushing right, So the one I mainly uses in my bathroom, in my room, so that has been a great experience. I've been getting those on Amazon and very cheap. I buy four at a time and it's seven bucks. So that and mostly buying coffee at home, always using reusable mugs and water bottles. Kai keeps breaking my water bottles, so I have to keep

using different ones. Um and this one I'm using right now is metal, so fingers crossed, he'd doesn't shatter that one, but yeah, that's um oh, and so here's here's one other thing. This is new. But so I've been doing a lot of TikTok and the main kind of video that I do is me writing on a notebook. But I feel bad every time I record the video because I have to use a clean sheet of notebook paper,

and I literally only use it for the video. So I have started writing on a white board and it's not as I can't be kind of like as intricate as I was with the lined notebook paper, but um, it has made me feel better about wasting less paper. You could use like elean electrical tape across it and put lines on it. I could. I think it's more the like dexterity with a pen versus a marker with my writing. So it's just gonna take some getting used to,

but it is a chain that I just recently made. Love. Yeah, well done, Jen, Yeah that's it. Well that's all we got for you. Guys. Certainly hang out with us in our community on Facebook Frugal Friends Community group, and let us know what you're doing, whether it's checking in, being accountable on some of the changes you might have made over a year ago, or things that you want to be trying, or anything that we missed about how frugality pairs with sustainability. Love to see you over there. You

love hanging out over there. Always have the best ideas in that group, I learned a lot, so I am interested to hear what you guys are going to say and thanks so much everyone for listening. We want to thank you also for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher like this one. It's called personal Finance that is fun and easy to digest. It's from a Grand Treats just guessing it happens to be five stars. This show is great. The hosts are super relatable and make learning

about finance really interesting. I love the guests they bring on. So far too in a short amount of time, I already feel like I've learned so much and been introduced to other people too. If you're looking for a personal finance that is easy to understand, this is it. If you're making it easy to digest with Baby Bird, you personal finance that is, and you are the Mama Bird Jill chewing it up, regurgitating it, just making it super

easy to digest. So you can leave the meusing and at some point absolutely and go build your own nest. And if you like the people we have on, we have a surprise for you this summer, so stay with us. If you were like I don't know, if yeah, if I don't know if I'm want to stick with those podcast, but I like the people they bring on definitely definitely stick with us through this summer. You're going to be

in for a treat. But we want to also thank all of our friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we're gonna add you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags in reviews weekend, every month we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook, So keep leaving us those reviews on iTunes or Stitcher. Send us a screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com. That's how you'll get added into that drawing.

Don't forget to tag us on social all the things. Yes, and we will see you, same time, same place, next week. Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Okay, John, I know you have to leave, but you need to hear this. So my friend Sharon shoutout share and she was just here and she's going to be back again. Anyhow, her son was in his room playing She typically puts on a story podcast for him on her phone. He was

playing Legos. That's how she left him. Then she walks by his room and here's my voice, and it's like what is he listening to? Turns out he had changed from listening to his story podcast mind you, he's like five years old to listen to the Frugal Friends podcast, and she was like, what are you listening to? He's like, oh, mommy, I like to listen to Jill and that crazy girl

talks sometimes. I don't know, but I am basking in the glory of not being the crazy one, like like and even Eric was like, that's so amazing that he would consider Jen not the crazy one or the crazy one and not Jill. That's never happened to me in my life. I need to confront this person like the small person. No, you need to congratulate him because he's a five year old listening to the Frugal Friends podcast.

Oh and then he knew his favorite episode was like, oh mom, wait, listen to this and goes like, picks this one episode, fast forwards it to this part where I go, I like to move and move it. I like to move it, move it. Apparently there's an episode where I do that. There's two episodes here. I do that, so we can listen to that. Oh my gosh, Sarony like, not your son, why I'm the crazy one. I just maybe we're both crazy. He just knows my name, like I like to listen to Jill talk, and maybe he

said that other crazy girl. We might both be crazy. Maybe he thought I was Jill like so many people do, and he really thinks. You know, I don't know, but how when's the last time he saw? Just embrace this? Okay, he listened to Jill and the other crazy girl talk. At least he was listening. And he's going to be a financial guru. Just embrace it. I'm not exciting after shows. You were not crazy. Bye.