Entertaining and Get-Togethers on a Budget

Nothing I like more than get togethers and affordable Yeah, it's a great way to avoid spending money by just having people over to your house. So let's do it for as little money as possible. Let's show the people how. Jill. Well, first, I'm Jen, you I'm Jill, and we have sponsors for you today. Also brought to you by low key hangouts, the kind that you did in your college dorm rooms or in high school after class, hanging out wherever, no purpose,

no expectations. You know what I'm talking about, lokey hangouts, getting back to our roots and making it cool to save money or just be broke. Yeah, but mostly intentional. Now that we're adults, thank you. When we were young, it was because we're broke. Now it's because we're intentional. Yeah, some of us might be broke. That's okay. You don't have to stay there, but you can. You can get someplace else with your finances with some low key hangouts.

Broke something Dave Ramsey says, like pours a state of mind, and broke is just like a stop along the way or something. So you're just to stop along the way, like Black Friday is today, it's black fry Day, Black Friday, Happy Black Friday. So last year in episode thirty we talked about whether Black Friday is worth it, and you'll just have to listen to the episode to figure it out.

We're not doing another one, and last year we also did some frugal holiday fun tips in episode thirty three and frugal gift ideas in episode thirty four, So we thought we are going to do one single holiday episode to wrap them all up, but also it can be used throughout the year that is entertaining on a budget. Everybody has been asking for this one, so I am so excited to get into it because it's one of

my favorite topics to talk about. Yes, it's how we met and we hung out so much, and you had so many people over even in the midst of your debt payoffs. So you are especially speaking from a place of expertise in this area. You practice what you preach or may not be experts in many things, but in have fun we are, and so is Liz Names from Frugal Woods dot com, who we have had on the show,

and she is our first article today. I read a bunch of different articles to get the right one for this episode, and the ones that you google the first couple are very bad. But I love everything Liz has to say in this one. What do you think, Jill, Yeah, great stuff. I like that she begins by saying to counter invitations or offers to go out to eat with offers to come over to your home, and making a

point that usually when that's done, it's reciprocated. Now that's not a reason to do it, but to know that this can be get itself. An invitation can be get an invitation can be getting invitation and possibly start a revolution of people hosting in their homes. And she notes that particularly for people with kids, this is fantastic anyhow, because hopefully you can bring your kids along too, you are less likely to have to have a babysitter and

it can be more relaxed. There's not as many expectations, you're not spending as much money. There's so many reasons to just have people over. And of course the big barrier is but how how do I entertain? How do I do this on a budget? And that's what we want to talk about. Yeah, so we're going to go through all of her tips. Um, there's not a lot, but the first one is to fix fine food and that can be done on a budget. We're going to

talk about that a little later. But to feed your feed your friends, that is what is going to bring the people over, and you don't have to spend a lot to do it. So she suggests a few things. Um, for coca bread, any bread really honestly is super easy to make, especially if you have a kitchen aid mixer. If you've got one of those collecting da and you're not making bread, you are missing out. It's so cheap,

so easy, homemade hummus. And then like big batch foods like chili chatta masala, or you can grill out if the weather is nice, so just get a bunch of chicken or have your friends pitch in and grill it all out. Yeah, and their recipe for hummus on here looks really good and as always we will link these articles in our show notes so you can check that out.

Then she goes on to say number two, if you don't want to do dinner, if that still sounds like too much work, don't feel like when you have people over that you have to feed them a big meal. You could You could have people over for dessert. You can have people over for drinks. You could get together earlier in the day and just have tea or coffee.

You can and coffee cake. You know, it doesn't have to be that I'm serving you this five course meal and I've got to get so stressed out, and I've got a plan and prep all these things ahead of time. But to center it more around the relationship and just being together rather than around what kinds of food you're serving,

to take that pressure off. Loki hang. Yes. I love how that she specifically points out King Arthur Flower recipes the hit that spot in between complicated and she says banal, but like just super simple, I guess, I don't know, like pound cake, scones, brownie sugar cookies, like super cheap, easy things to make that will feed people, um, but don't cost a lot and can be made without a culinary degree. This next one is my favorite one to host, and if you come to my house we will probably

do this. Uh it's hosted cheap wine tasting and I can't. I can get wine from al d where I live, Jill, I know it's harder for you. When I go to Ohio, I stock up. Yes, I love Aldi wine. I love Trader Joe's wine, and sometimes I will spring for like the five six dollar bottles. I don't know when I'm feeling really luxurious, but getting a bunch of different cheap wines or even liqueurs, those are not as reliable. But doing something that is perceived as expensive, but doing it

with cheap ingredients can be really fun. And honestly I prefer it because I can get so much more wine from from It's so good. You could even make it fun. I mean, I'm just brainstorming here, I'm just spitballing over here, but you can't. You could make that fun where everybody brings their own cheap bottle of wine and make up all kinds of games. So the things that are coming to the top of my head would be how much

did you think it cost? Like put set them all out and and make estimates based on the label or whatever, like what did you think that the person paid for it. Another thing that you could do is have each person present their bottle of wine with a story either made up or reel of like where the wine came from, the tasting nose, how you came across the bottle, why you chose it, all these things made up or true. Read the back of the label in a really funny accent.

That would be perfect. This happened. I brought a bottle of wine and another friend did uh to like soup and bread the other night at somebody's house, and we were both trying to like sell our bottle of wine, like which one should we open first? And so we each kind of like gave our spiel for why they should open our bottle of wine. And it was so fun.

So I'm like, oh, my word, if you had like a bunch of people come with a bottle of wine and try and convince everybody like open your spy or why you should if you want to go home with your bottle of line that night, and that's why you're the brains of the operation Ship. That's why, that's why you're the winner. I just find that making things just a little bit fun, just putting a little twist on things can make it seem like you've really done something

with a gathering anyhow. Number four on this list is bring back board games. So having a night of playing games or board games with friends, with family, whoever, these can be a really fun way to bond. So if you've got board games sitting in your closet, pull them out. One that I love that actually doesn't require you to have a board game is balder Dash. Do you know

what that is? So you can buy the game, but you can also do it without owning the game, just by going on Google and looking up weird titles or like I'm sorry, weird words, obscure words that most people would not know the definition for, and then everybody has to write out what they think the proper definition is, and then you vote on like who'se you think is right, and you assign points and that kind of thing super fun,

especially at the holidays. You could, Yeah, it's a super fun game because people come up with all kinds of creative crazy and oftentimes the actual definition like nobody thinks is the real thing to some of these obscure English words. So we have a game that we play a lot. It's like three rounds and everybody calls it something different. It's one of those games. But the first round is you are, I think playing charades fish pop Yeah, yeah, yeah,

I've heard that one. And then the second round you are I guess maybe the second round you're playing I don't remember, But the last one you you work up to it to where the last round you're only saying one word and your team has to guess the entire phrase based on one word. Yeah. So yeah, so yeah, you can look out fish bowl, you can look up balder Dash. Both those games are really fun with groups

of people. Yeah. But also I was looking up some cheap Christmas gifts and I found a lot of highly rated like card games uh that are under ten dollars, so like similar to Cards against Humanity, but just like different versions from different makers, and they're super cheap and you can have a lot of fun with just you and your roommates or you and your spouse doing this stuff on a date night. Yeah that's great. So the

fifth one is have a theme. So I love Christmas parties because I love pajama themed parties and I feel like Christmas pajamas. It's acceptable to do a pajama party at Christmas because everyone's at Christmas pajamas. Like, nobody wants to come to your pajama party in May. But I love pajamas. I've never been to a pajama party, have you not? No, you should party when you find up north, I guess, and I just want to be in sweatpants all the time. So a pajama party to me sounds

like the best ever. It is fun. I will say too, if you are going to host a themed night, make it so that people don't have to go out and buy something specific for it. That you could dress up for this thing with what you have in your closet. Hosting things where people have to go out and buy clothing just for that event is not that's that's not my suggestion. Yeah, make it something super easy or just

theme the food. So she has a TACKI Midwestern food night, and she says only people that have lived in the Midwest will understand this, which is true because I don't get it. But it sounds like Mexican food, like crispy shell beef tacos, cheese dip, corn chips, brownies. Okay, I guess that's not Mexican, but I don't know. Think about it sounds like normal food. I eat that on every Tuesday.

It sounds sounds like dinner. Yeah, so yeah, I think of creative things that will make your friends laugh and they're more likely to come. That's great. And last, but not least, number six, play a pot luck. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, why wouldn't you. Your hosting people are coming to your house and they're using your toilet paper, so absolutely have them bring a side or a dessert or drink. So true, they are using your toilet paper, they're flushing your toilet,

they're drinking your water. The only average in the house your electric to help them see while they're in your home, I mean, they owe you, so the least they can do is bring something. Yeah, we do. We have a potluck multiple times a month at our friends place, and it's always really great. And I can look in my fridge and I don't have to assemble a full dinner.

I can just say, like, what's one random thing that I'm trying to get rid of that I really need to use, and then make that with a few ingredients. Like I had butter Scotch chips in my cupboard for like, what are those ever? Right there? Like butter butter Scotch chocolate chips but without chocolate. Needless to say, I haven't been able to find a use for them until uh, this month, I was like, holy cow, I could make like butter Scotch oatmeal cookies and bring those to the potluck.

So you can really easily clear out your pantry by attending a polock. And sometimes I call them pantry parties where I tell everyone like, hey, don't buy anything, just brings something that you already have. Get creative. We've even done pot looks of like favorite childhood dishes or food that we had from childhood. I mean it was all kinds of random stuff. Somebody brought box mac and cheese, somebody else brought hot dogs, somebody else brought yaw. I mean,

you're not gonna go healthy that night. But yeah, you can certainly get creative. You can theme it, it can

be frugal, and you can have fun with people. And on that topic, our next article is from fun Cheaper Free dot com and it is how to feed a crowd on the cheap for your party, because usually it is the food that is the most expensive part, whether you are hosting or whether you are going to a party, um, because everybody wants to do something free, but then the person's like, hey, bring a dish, and you're like, I'm doing no spend month. What am I going to do?

These are the things you need to plan for and ways to save money. So the first thing that she has on this list, um is to plan your menu. And obviously this is if you're hosting, but you need to figure out like how many people are attending and what time is it. Don't host during dinner time. If

you don't want to serve dinner. You can end up with a lot of disappointed people like I got here at five thirty and this thing goes till nine, Like of course I'm expecting dinner, right, Yeah, people don't think about that. And I love how she puts down these times of what to serve and so the time and she goes all this girl can party all day apparently, but if you're hosting parties from seven am to nine thirty, you have to serve a full breakfast. If you're serving

from ten to eleven, thirty just light snacks. From noon to one thirty, you must serve a full lunch. From two to four thirty, just lights snacks. If you're hosting any any time between five and seven thirty, you must prepare to serve a full dinner or to have your guests eat enough of your snacks that it will become their full dinner. And Jill and I know this from a recent party we attended together where dinner was not

provided but snacks were. Oh, and you best believe we've build them on those snacks and was provided, yes, and then eight pm or later desserts or snacks. There is your rule of thumb on what you want to serve. If you're trying to go with some etiquette, that's a helpful, helpful rule of thumb. I also love what they say about variety being more equals less, so essentially saying that if you have a lot of different things, you don't have to have as much of each thing, but it

can spread. So this is the idea with pot lux. But if you're not having people bring a bunch of stuff, you could do some of your more appetizer type snacky things. You know, you're a little bit of cheese and some crackers and a little bit of veggies and a little bit of susa and chips, and a little like a little bit of a little bit goes a long way. And this woman that writes this blog has six children

and she is pregnant with twins. I just want to so she's about to have eight children, so she knows about feeding crowds. I just want to put that. I want you to filter all of your thoughts through that lens. Yes, and of course considering what what's the occasion, what's the time of year, and planning your menu around those type of things. And of course here we are the cheap party food ideas. Yes, I did love some of the things she listed, So as far as dinner goes, she

lists potato bar barbecue, buy o meat barbecue. So love these anything that just requires a little bit, I think, I love I love charcouterie. I love cheeseboards for this reason. But this is such a fantastic idea because it is

filling and it is frugal. So to purchase just a bunch of potatoes, bake them up, and this is where you could have everyone just bring aside or get your own it's not not a ton, right, We're talking sour cream and some cheese and maybe some chives and salt and pepper and potato bar done so easy, and if you are paleo sweet potato bar. Yeah, and then a b y o meat barbecue. We've done this a lot

with friends. I think we talked about it in our summer episode where you know, I've got the grill, so bring whatever you want to throw on the grill, and we've got sides so that can save on the expensive portion if if you're providing or you want meat to not have to provide meat for everybody, but just hey, we've got some chips and some salad, bring your own meat. We've got the grill going. We'll throw it on when you get here. Kind of a thing. And that's a

fantastic way to to do it as well. Yeah, I love the idea of a pasta bar. So there's nothing cheaper than pasta. But sometimes it can feel tacky. But she has a display on the post where it's three different types of pastas. She's got a tomato sauce, a pesto, and a few different toppings and then just a pitcher of water like that's it. Oh and then she has

a basil plant. That's a basil. Yeah, and so it's so cute, but it doesn't it maybe costs like less than ten dollars for this whole spread, and it's going to feed You're gonna have leftovers. Yeah, whoa. So she didn't even have people bring anything, She just provided all that. That's that's a picture worth looking at. Yeah, everyone says potluck, potluck, pot luck, but you can do other amazing things with

just providing the food yourself. And if you provide the food, then you can say, hey, you bring the wine or the liquor or the beer, and then you can get the really expensive stuff covered by your friends that are still spending money. Yes, that's how you keep those friendships. So taco bar, salad bar, just think of all the bars. Also chili, and then some rice and some bread. Oh what a fantastic stretching meal that is. To those boxes

of corn bread are like ten cents each. And I just throw in some halapenos and some Mexican shredded cheese and I could eat that cornbread all day. It's so good. And it costs like less than a dollar to make a huge batch. It's real great. Oh man, these brunch ideas make me want to have a party over brunch. I know, I never think about having a brunch party unless it's feel like a baby shower or something, but I it makes me want to have this spread that

is this picture right now? My word? Yeah, well they talk about making your own parfaits, which is so fun. Yeah, yogurt, fruit, granola, and then that's just fun. This other picture, though, wof what is that that? This does not look frugal. There's bacon, there's salmon, there's bowls of peanut, butter, nutella, jams, jellies, avocado. Yeah, it's not frugal. Poutiful, Yeah, it is beautiful, That's what I'm looking at. But I like this waffle crepe or

pancake bar. So pancake batter is so cheap to make. And you can have this, you know, get a twenty dollar griddle from Walmart and everyone can do their own pancakes because you want to do them one at a time anyway, So why don't have everybody do their own with their own toppings, And that is so fun. You don't even have to do that at brunch. Yeah, I'll

eat pancakes anytime. That could be even a dinner thing or or a dessert like that's so fun, interactive, or even French toast super cheap breakfast, which is good stuff all right. And if you're not serving a dinner or a brunch, we have some snack party food ideas too. I love a dip party. I love a good dip. Everybody bring a dip and have a dip off. Who's

got the best. I'll be a judge. Yep, oh my gosh, all of the dips and then like different things like carrots and chips and peta and all the different things to put in it. Like those are just vessels for a good dip. Yeah, Like nobody cares about what you bring on the side, a vessel for the dip and finger foods. I think it'd be a fun idea to even have a bunch of people bring their frozen appetizers that you throw in the oven. Mm hmm. Can judge which is the best. None of this to have a

double oven. None of it's healthy. You could do some veggies with your dip. We've been doing a lot of carrots and hummus to try and eat fewer carbs and sweet potatoes, snack boards. Again, like I said, that's charcoutery. We do charcouteri for dinner all the time. But you're talking crackers, cheese, some nuts, honey, allee what it's literally empty or fridge and put it on a board and it looks beautiful. Slice up an apple done, yes, and you can get it for so cheap at all. It's

very it is. You can do the fantastic cheeseboard from all the great cheese is. Trader Joe's has fantastic cheeses as well. They're charcuterie is a little more pricey, but so good, so good. And then also throw in some some cashews, some almonds, like some of the healthy things. But you don't have to just eat them plain. You can really like roast them in the oven for a few minutes and it brings out this new side of the nut that you thought, oh, I don't like almonds.

And then you have them roasted with just a little sea salt or maybe a little cinnamon or something, and you're like, I love almonds. Roast some garbonzo beans with some your favorite spices. That's so young to parties are a great way to try foods you otherwise wouldn't because if you don't like it, then there are other people there to eat it. You're not stuck with the whole thing, and it can help you eat healthier if because normally these things, these new things you're trying are healthy and

you don't want to be on your own eating. That's like stuck eating all the healthy food. All this kale chips I try. Yeah, I mean if you you can eat kale chips for a night at a party, or you can make kale chips during the week and eat them all week and then hate kale more than you did when you started. Yes, so think about that when you're thinking about party food. Is try try to incorporate some healthy things that you've been wanting to try. But

have it enough about healthy things. She's got some great ideas to dessert. So again, all the bars, ice cream, sandwich bar, brownie bar, builds your own Sunday bar, popcorn bar, some More's cookies. Girl, really means where I'm getting all

the carbs now? You name it. If there's things that you can do with just a bunch of different types of toppings that can make it really fun and seem as though it's more elegant than maybe what the what the budget would show always fun, Yeah, because you can get the cheap ice creams and maybe transfer them to a new dish, print out a cute ice cream sandwich bar sign, and then just get some of the cheap cookies from the grocery store because you want harder cookies

for well, you want like not the softest homemade nice cookies for a cookie ice cream cookie bar. You want you want them, you want them to have like a little substance, and yeah, and just throw them on a on a cute plate with labels and those are all super inexpensive and really cute. Yeah. And again at the end of the day, when you're planning these things, use what you have, plan your menu around sales. Don't go out and be so rigid that it had that you

have to get. Provide a certain type of meal if that thing is super expensive. This is the opportunity we're buying in bulk can be really helpful. Maybe it's not helpful year round, just for you if you if you're in a small family, but if you're feeding a lot of people, then that's when you might want to check out, Hey, do you have any friends who have some memberships to these stores where you can buy a ton of buns for those hamburgers, or the big tubs of ice cream

whatever it. Maybe buns for them hot dogs and hamburgers. Yes, and don't go crazy. At the end of the day. People go home hungry. They probably have food at home. I mean, let's be honest. They yeah, they're They're here to hang out with you, and eating is a great perk. But you're there to spend time together and hopefully you're going to be doing something besides eating, like playing a

game or watching a movie, um or chatting. So just make sure the rest of the party is entertaining and your friends won't spend the whole time in the kitchen just silently eating all your food. Yes, take it from experience. And you know what else is entertaining? Something something I would talk about all day at every party. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is 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 Clinton, This is the bill of the Week. Hi Jen and Jill. This is Jill from Dayton, Ohio. First, I have to say, Jill, I love your name and it works all great because Jen is also the name of my sister who is also my best friend. So hey, you guys have great names.

I love it. So I wanted to give you my bill of the week, and it's actually reducing the cost on some of your bills that you may have to pay on a regular basis. So if you get your hair cut, get your oil changed in your car, or um have to get your dog groomed, go and visit your local vocational school. There are students there who are learning all of these trades who would love to practice on your hair, on changing the oil of your car,

and grooming your dog. And it's usually it highly reduced rates. So go up and check out your local vocational school and um get great service. Help these students learn a trade and save a lot of money at the same time. So I love your guys podcast, Keep up the great work and have a great week. By Jill, I am so glad you called on so many levels. I love your name too. Wonder if your full name is Jillian mine is I also love my full name. Uh and that your best friend and sister is Jen. What what

a match? Holy smokes. I love your tip is amazing. We were literally just talking about this before we started recording that Eric complimented Travis on his hair and I was like, it was three dollars. He got it done at the hair school. Well before you said that, I was like, three dollars. What kind of weird arrangement was? That's like, there's no way that you went to an

actual salon and only paid them three dollars. But there's also no way that you have a friend who cuts hair that you only pay three dollars, Like it'd be better to just do it for free. And then you said vocational school. It's like, there it is. There's the thing I'm missing. He went and did it at a local vocational school. But what a good thought. Even on cars,

I did not think about that. I usually think about hair or massage, but yeah, pet grooming, and I've done massages at the massage school over here, and it's it's so good. I it's so inexpensive and you really just need somebody to dig down into your muscles. I mean, it's such a steal. So you just need someone to do what your spouse isn't actually willing to do. They don't need to be that true parent. Yeah, yes, just need to be willing to do it for longer than

thirty seconds. Yes, way to read, Yes, way to read my mind. Oh, Jill, thank you so much. If you have a frugal tip to save on our bills, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill and leave us a message on our Google voicemail or a speak pipe. We love hearing your tips and we sometimes learn things from them. It's great sometimes sometimes well not every time, Jill. Well, we either learn something or we think it's heartwarming, or we think that we are always one of those categories.

We're all three and next, Oh, that's so scary. It's Black Friday. So it's a dark episode, and I'm gonna let you I'm gonna let us say. You're gonna let me have it out right now, I'm gonna let you keep, I'm gonna let you finish. I'm gonna let you finish. Thanks. But but the other Lightning rounds are just equally scary.

It's fine. So in today's episode of the Lightning Round, we are going to share our favorite reasons to throw a party or get together, and we we want you to be prepared with any opportunity you can two avoid going to the bar or restaurant and save your money. So what you got, Jen, So, my favorite reason to

throw a party is the weather doesn't suck. In Florida, we have summer for nine months out of the year, and so when the weather doesn't suck, you want to have people over to be outside to enjoy the patio. And then you've got that one month a year where it's too it's sixty degrees as it's too cold to be there. But those like other two months, we are outside every weekend at a party without fail. Perfect. One

of my favorite reasons is it's Tuesday. Mm hmm. So if it's a Tuesday, I want to have a party. What do you do on Tuesdays? It's just the day after Monday, in the day before Wednesday. So why not? Oh yes, because Monday's are the worst and Wednesdays are hump days. So but you know what, I'd love to have a party on Monday too. That's a good reason

to have a party because Monday comes after Sunday. Yes, one of our favorite get togethers is actually hosted by the running store near our house, and they do Monday group runs, and to me, that's a party because sometimes they'll do like they'll give you free gels or beer or you know, popsicles after your run, and it's a fun way to work out with other people. And so, yes, that is my kind of Monday party. Yes, Tuesday or Monday or Monday or any other day of the week,

that's a good reason. Another one of my favorite reasons to throw a party is that when my friend has a board game or a card game I haven't played yet, that is. Yes, we love playing games, and so we'll talk about these games to other people and they'll be like, oh, we should come over and play that, and we'll be like, we don't own it. Like we go to other people's houses and play these games. You can buy it, though,

and I'll come to your house and play it. Yeah. Yeah, It's not that I'm cheap, but I just make it a point to say, hey, that game looks so cool, let's play it, and then we play it. So it's just it's not being cheap. I don't want it to sound like I'm mooching off of other games. I do have some games, but everybody always I mean Game ofvers just have cool games and I can't buy them all. So yeah, I make it a point to ask. There you go. Ah, here's another good reason to have a party.

Your place is finally decorated. M that's fun. Have people over. We just got a new space for our office and Eric's music studio, and it's a great reason to have people over to come check it out, you know, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Yes, yes, have party to warm the office and food. Food is always a good reason to have a party. Just if you want to eat dinner

that night, you could have a party around it. In the end, you don't have to plan frugal get togethers. I know, planning is a big tip if you're going to have a big party. But the point is to fellowship with people, be in community, maintain friendships, and you can easily do that by just inviting people to your home and having conversations with them. It's a beautiful thing. Your home is not big enough to have people over like ours, especially before we got this new space. Offer

to go to them and bring food to them. They're so likely to say yes. Who wouldn't be right? Oh my gosh, so true. So we hope that we have inspired you given you some ideas to you have more get togethers. Don't be embarrassed or nervous about the way your house looks your friends, your real friends won't care. They just want to spend time with you, So figure out some fun ways to them a party and get a group text going, get a Facebook event, invite, um

emails some invites. Those are really cute. But do what you have to do. Get people over to your house, and don't isolate yourself just to be frugal. Yeah. Um, but if you do choose to stay alone, you can read our book club book like Transitions. Thank you. If you want to be a recluse, you can read uh. This month we are reading I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Setti for our book club. It is such a good one. I read it over the summer and I'm still thinking about it. M hmm. That's

so great. We saw him at or he spoke at Fincon too, which was a treat. If you want a free copy of this book, leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, screenshot the review and send it over to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com. We pick one winner for every five reviews that are sent to us, and then we'll select the winner at the end of the month and send you your free book. And if you want to know an example of a helpful review, here's our

review of the week. It is five stars from Liz pat eight and it is titled Relatable Reasonable a Riot. Oh you know I love a Literations. You know I love it. I look forward to my weekly date with these ladies. Their advice is practical and inspiring no matter what your financial circumstances. I appreciate that they're honest about the things they value and willingly spend money on. It's great to hear a balance take on budgets in real life. Thank you, Jenn and Jill. You are welcome, Liz Patty.

As long as there's people in the world like you writing fantastic reviews like that, will keep coming at you. See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. So we had a little uh a kerfuffle um yeah in our in our Facebook group and our reviews, and I just wanted to clear the air. Okay, So it's been a little it's been a little cloudy

on whether we are advocating frugality or cheapness. Uh. Yeah, And we had a review um saying that we were falling on the cheap side, because early on we say every week like, be frugal, not cheap, and people got the message. Goodness gracious. But so here's my definition of frugal versus cheap and let me know if you're with me on this, Jill. So, cheap is anything that inconveniences you or is bad for the environment or community. Um,

that includes illegal stuff. And then frugality is anything that serves you financially, that makes your life easier or the e value. So that leaves a lot of room open for interpretation, like what is cheap for me could be frugal for you, because what is inconvenient for me could not phase you in the slightest weight. Cheap being what's inconvenient.

Help me understand that. So so something like, um, we use and I'll admit this openly, we use the Netflix account of my best friend and that is cheap to some people, but for yeah, it doesn't phase either of us in the slightest. We have offered to let her use our Hulu account, but she gets it from somewhere else, um, so she doesn't need it. So it's a synergistic relationship. And to us that is frugal, but other people are morally opposed to it, and that is totally fine. We

don't know. That's why we don't. That's that would never be a suggestion I would make on the show, like use other people's accounts, So sure, yeah, yeah. I where I draw the line with cheap is if it takes advantage of people. Yeah, I mean that's kind of my

my most baseline definition of cheap. So where you could do something yourself or pay something, or you are saving a buck, but it's causing somebody else to have to spend money again where they're not willing to do it or or unbeknownst to them, or like this sounds like an agreement between you and friends with the Netflix things. You could fall in your own camp of whether just like ethically, you think you should be doing that. Granted Netflix knows about it, there's not like there's like that

that's not hidden. That is public knowledge that you are allowed multiple users on a on an account and it gets shared. So but I get it that people are going to fall where you're going to fall. But like if I were to in order for me to save money on something, I asked somebody, let's say I need my wall painted, and I asked my friend who is a professional painter, to come and paint my wall on Monday afternoon so that I could save money. But yet he's got to take off work to come do it.

Like that's cheap, that's taking advantage of somebody. Granted they have choice in whether or not they're going to do that, but but the fact that you think to ask that and think it would be okay to ask that is a cheap mindset. And yeah, I had a friend who's um part of a referral program for a financial um guru and said he he's a real estate agent. He's like, I left this referral program because all the clients this person sent me want the world and want to pay

nothing for it. And and that's cheap. And we are frugal so that we can pay people a living wage and help others. We are frugal so that we have the money to help others. And and that is a big reason that I love frugality, but yeah, I'm sure that some of what I would call my frugal practices would borderline what somebody else would think is cheap, like reusing a zip block bag to me, like that's cheap, Like just just get something else, or get something that's

actually reusable than this thing. Uh, but you know me cutting over open toothpaste to get the last little bit out. So I think it is just frugal and resourceful, But somebody else might be like, that's cheap. You're gonna get one more toothbrushing session out of that, just throw the thing away, So it is it is very relative. Yeah, so I guess we can claim frugal not cheap, but absolutely that's going to be different for everybody for sure.

And I we are We're in our face but group the Frugal Friends community every day and we monitor it. We make sure that spammy things you never see them, to the best of our ability, but we leave most things up because even if it's something that we don't do a we love learning from you guys, and we want other people to be able to search the group and learn from your experiences too. So if you're not

part of our Frugal Friends community. We would love you to join um, but know that there are going to be a wealth of opinions and strategies and methods to doing frugality. We all have to be chilling the chat. That's the rule. There are differences, which is fantastic because we express our frugality and all kinds of different ways. Yes, so if you want to chill with us in the Frugal Friends community, head over to Frugal Friends podcast, dot com, slash group and and hang out with us and learn

from each other and be open minded with us. That's a rap, that's a rab.