From Over-spender to Millionaire w/ Walli Miller

with her. That's so so great. She's got so much inspiration and just tangible tips, so we're really excited to share this with you. But first, our sponsors also brought to you by Pumpkin Spice. Pumpkins Spice wants to remind you that she is not pumpkin flavored, nor is she reserved for just fall cooking. She is a spice mixture that you can put in pumpkin goods, but can also be used throughout the rest of the holiday season and beyond.

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lot of followers. Yeah, okay, so if you are you've got your pumpkin spice, beverage or snack in hand. Let's hear from Wally Miller. She is a first millionaire, first generation millionaire, and her family. She is just this powerful Latina woman who is so nice and so fun and

you're gonna love. We didn't really touch on her story about how she she bought a home in northern California, no less, and she got roommates and instead of you know, investing or or you know, doing quote unquote wise things with the money, she just she just blew through all the rent money. And this kind of was like a

catalyst for some of her journey. But I think you're just going to relate so much to her and definitely wait till the end of the interview for some really actionable takeaways for being more intentional with your spending so you can overcome that overspending tendency and get on the track to becoming a millionaire. Let's do it. Wally, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. Hi, I am super excited to be here. It's so nice to speak with you

guys this morning. Wally. You've got such a neat perspective and story, and I think our listeners are really going to resonate with what you've got to share here and just the inspiration I think that you bring to the table. So let's get into it. Can you tell us a little bit about your story. I know that overspending is a part of that, but let's just start from well, a bit of the beginning. Tell us a bit about yourself. Start from your birth. Yes, so I was born no

um so um. Actually I was born and raised in New York City. I am a daughter of an immigrant. My dad immigrated here when he was like nineteen years old, and I we basically lived I would say we had it. We were part of the low income community, right. My mom, for the most part, was a stay at home mom, and my dad was the sole income turner. Now, I come from a big family. I am one of five

and I am the oldest. But I will say it wasn't until probably I was in junior high school that I kind of realized that we were I would even say even older than that, that I realized that we were in the low income category. And the reason for that was that in the Bronx, it's the poorest borough in New York City, so everybody was like us. But even with that, there were a lot of things that I where we were different. So, for example, having two parents in the household was a huge privilege. It was

very different from a lot of my friends. And even something as having as like two cars, right, like my mom drove the minivan, you know, like an old minivan, and my dad had like an older car. But like the fact that we lived in New York City, lived in the Bronx, I had two p and both of them had cars. That was like a very different thing. But yeah, it wasn't until I would say, maybe I was in high school that I realized realized how different

I was. What brought that awareness for you, So when I was a junior in high school, we actually moved down to Florida and it was yeah, home a hit, right exactly. We talked a little bit about this, but the struggles of having curly hair and living in Florida, right. Um, So we moved to Florida and it was like central Florida, about an hour south of Orlando. And it was at

that point that I realized how different the world was, right. So, going to school in the Bronx, living in the Bronx, you know, we had a lot of it was super diversified, right. So there were a lot of Latinos, there were a lot of black people, there were a lot of you know, like everybody was like us versus. When I went to floor Porida and I was like the only you know, the only Hispanic, the only Latina in many of my classes,

it was like very different. And also I realized, like, you know, there were some of my classmates who had cars and these were like masa miatas, you know, and they're like, you know, sixteen seventeen years old. So it was at that point where I had a huge culture shock. I lived in apartment my entire life, so realizing that people had homes with like picket fences and things like that, that was kind of where I realized, like, wow, the world is so much bigger than like than what I

really thought of. Yeah, what would you say was your approach to money through those years like growing up how you've described and kind of thinking, well, everybody else lives this way and then realizing, oh, we might be a little bit different from other parts of the US or the world world. How did that influence your money perspective? We didn't really talk about like sit down half family

conversations about money. But I don't think that that's that unique, right, I don't know if you really had conversations with their parents about money or like budget anything. But you know, right after the sex talk exactly, Joe has some weird compost with her parents, you know, as you know, so

like conversations around money really didn't happen. So it was more rather than direct conversations, It was like this indirect thing, right, So like when the cable would get caught off, or even sometimes the light would get cut off for the morning, and you know Mom was on the phone trying to figure that out, or if um I knew not to ask for certain things. So like we got a brand

new pair speakers at the start of the year. I'm from New York, so we say speakers of you might say tennis shoes, so we would get you know, so it was like, yeah, we would get some new clothes. Was at the start of the year, and that was kind of it, right, And I never really asked for much. Um. I remember, like one year I wanted a dictionary, you know, for Christmas. Like that was like my prize possession for many,

many years. So it wasn't that we really had conversations about money, but I knew that there wasn't a lot of it, and so I just knew not to ask, and of course I did here when I did ask for certain things like we don't have money for that, or maybe next time, and next time really never came. So when I, you know, obviously left my parents home and um started branching out, it was really nice to

begin earning money. Now. I remember, like some of my first jobs, I didn't even know what to do with money. I literally would walk around with like a paycheck in my wallet and like I didn't really have a concept of like how to spend it. But that didn't take very long for that shift to happen before I like realized, oh, I can buy things with money, and that was kind of where the problem started. Yeah, it can be like whiplash or the swinging of the pendulum to grow up

have a certain relationship with money. Just not having it sometimes that that can make you okay with money just because you don't you don't have it to spend. But then when you do have it and you've not had conversations about money, Yeah, that can land somebody at the total opposite end of the spectrum. What was that like

for you? How did that then lead to overspending? Oh? Yeah, So I was very fortunate that when I was in my early twenties, I got into a profession in a career that I basically doubled my salary overnight, right so I was living, I moved back to New York City and I ended up getting a job offer across the country um to California, and I doubled my salary overnight, and so I knew, pay my bills right, pay the rent and light bills and all of this stuff, and

I still had all of this extra money left over. Now, in my mind, I was good with money because I was sending some money aside. But even when I set some money aside. I still had money left over, and I didn't know what to do with it. So I was like, well, if you have money left over, and you've been responsible by saving some putting money aside, then you can spend the rest. And that was what happened.

I just spent and spent and spent. I was living alone, it was just me and my dog, and I started to accumulate so many things like shoes and clothes that I had a two bedroom apartment. I was like storing clothes, shoes, handbags in that spare bedroom, and it was I have this realization. I don't know if what kicks it off. I don't know if it's a certain amount of money

or an age or the work history. But I remember receiving a Social Security Administration like earnings record, and it lists like from me that very first job that I had, you know, working the summers and burger king all the way to my current job, and it listed all of the money I made, you know, so from like six hundred dollars to seven hundred dollars, so like thousands of dollars. And when I added up the entire amount of money that I had made in my lifetime, and by this

point I was in my maybe late twenties. I realized, you know, I added up all the money and I was like, what in the world happened? Like where is all of this money? And that was the realization that I have like I am not doing something right, Like something is wrong here because it doesn't feel like I've made that much money. What a what a document to

receive in the mail from the Social Security Office. It is crazy And and for those who don't know, like to get yourself sal Security, they take they track how much you make every year based on your taxes, and they give you an average of your highest thirty or last thirty or something, and so occasionally you will get these documents just to keep track and it is like you never realize how much you're spending until you see, this is how much I've earned in the last five years.

And what have I saved in the last five years? What if I like, what kind of wealth have I built? Right? What also is this whole thing? Like what have I Where did this money go? Because when I looked around, you know, I was driving like you know of five or six year old Kia, right, you know, so it wasn't like I was buying this these elaborate things. Even with my clothing and shoes options. It wasn't that I was spending you know, thousands of dollars on a pair

of gene or a handbag. I was like shopping at Ross and Marshals and you know, North Shomac and Berlin stay Co Factory. So in my mind I was frugal, right, I was not spending a lot of I wasn't spending a lot of money on one item. But I was buying a bunch of cheap items and buying a lot of it. And so it was. And you know, to your point, Gen, you can actually, um, I don't even know if they mail these out anymore because I haven't

received one in the mail in a while. But you can just go to the Social Security Administration website and sign up for a free account. And I recommend everybody do that. So if you've never done that, just go to s s A dot g o V and you can um get a free copy of your earnings reporter earnings record and just kind of do that exercise to

see if there's any surprises there for you. It does cost a lot of money to live I know, I get so disappointed at the end of the year to realize, man, why does it just cost so much to just not want to survive and world? But you say something really amazing, Wally on your website and you're about you section, and I think even what you're describing now the difference realizing the difference between being quote unquote good with money versus knowing how to build wealth. And I think there's so

many people who can resonate with that. It can't just be a measurement of well, I'm not going into debt or I'm buying things on sale. Sometimes even that makes us not actually that great with money. I hear this constantly from people, like I'm good with money, but they're not saving, they're not investing, they're not thinking about retirement, they're just not going into debt. That's what they mean

by that. This is exactly right. So in my mind even some of the because I was always kind of like a personal finance nerd, you know, So I was one that I would like turn on PBS and listen to see Susie Orman's like retirements special shows. Now I didn't understand everything that was going on, but I didn't always resonate because there were a lot of people who were struggling with the debt and credit card debt and things like that. So in my mind, I didn't have

credit card debt. I paid off my credit card at the end of the month. I was good, right, But I was missing that piece. I was missing the piece of building wealth and that term even like it was

not part of my vocabulary. Wealth building wasn't a conversation or part of um you know, our family talks at all, ever, and so it wasn't until later and we can talk about like how I if you want, we can talk about like how I began to understand what building wealth was and how that was sort of the missing piece.

But you know, to your point, like I was always frugal, right, you know, it's funny to me now, like there's this whole movement over the last decade where minimalism is a great thing, where people like reuse you know, the butter jars or the butter containers and the mannagedar like you know, to any Puerto Rican household they knew opened up a

butter container, there's not butter in there. There's like leftovers from yesterday, right, like right, exactly like we were, you know, sneaking in food to any of the theme parks, or we would go, you know, if we went to a theme park with the family, like we had a whole trunk full of food, and we would like leave the park, go to the parking lot, eat lunch, and then come back. So it was like we did a lot of these frugal things. And so in my mind, I was frugal.

I wasn't spending you know, two D on a pair of jeans. I didn't have credit card debt, So yeah, I was totally good with money without realizing that I was missing that wealth building piece. So what was that turning point that took you? Because I think that that is going to resonate with like a lot of our listeners because I know that it sounds like you're telling my story. Like I thought that I was frugal. I

was buying generic brands. I was turning down like experiences that were too expensive, and I was you know, I was just buying my latches and they you know, all of this little stuff added up. But I didn't consider myself, I like never considered myself to be spending because I wasn't buying luxury things, So like, what was it for you that was the turning point that you're like, Okay, I'm I want to build wealth. I don't want to

just be like not in debt. The first thing was sort of receiving a history of like my earnings and realizing how much money I had made in my lifetime and I didn't have a whole lot to show for it, And I wish that that would have been the moment that I decided to do something about it. That was definitely something that stuck with me. The second part was that I had a career that I loved, and I had a job that I loved until I didn't write.

I had fantastic bosses, a great supervisor, and when management change because my boss left and I realized that I can't quit my job. I am essentially living paycheck to paycheck. Maybe I would be okay if one paycheck wasn't didn't come into, you know, in my direct deposit, but if I I was basically two paychecks away from like losing

everything that I had worked so hard for. And it was at that moment that I realized that I had those handcuffs right, that I was really stuck that me being good with money was sort of it was a falsity, right, it didn't really exist. And at that point I went to the great Google you know gods, and started like, you know, researching and trying to figure out and it

just so happens. You know, I feel like you just think about something and all of a sudden, the material that you're thinking about become you know, you see it everywhere. And I saw this article about this couple who had quit their jobs in order to travel the world, and that was something that I always enjoyed. I love to travel, and so I began to read this article about how they were able to do it, and that sort of opened up the flood gates and I went down like

this rabbit hole of like, what are people doing? How is that possible? How could you you know, quit your jobs before the age of forty in order to, you know, in order to travel the world. And that was kind of where I, um my mind open to the piece that I was missing, which was that wealth building piece, that wealth building component, and how people were doing it was to do investing. It's so interesting to me that

your wake up call was not tons of debt. That's and that's so that's a very common story as well, and it's great whatever the wake up call is that shifts behavior and mindset and perspective. But I think it's a really helpful thing to hear that sometimes our wake up call is just that there could be other more beneficial ways of living and handling finances. That it doesn't necessarily need to be that we're in tons of debt

and we need to make a massive shift. Sometimes it's just I'm not aimed at the right thing right now, and I could be get having better for myself. I could be making different choices at the same time. Wally, I so appreciate you sharing your background and story with us. I can't even try. I can't even say that I know fully what that experience was like for you, growing up in poverty in the Bronx, and yeah, all of the background that you have there, and so thank you

for entrusting us with that. But I think that's so much a part of this too, for all of us to be recognizing the context and environment in which we grew up in and how that has shaped in form perspective.

It sounds as though for you there were quite a few things that you needed to push through, even just for the people that you grew up around, right, Like, it can be more very years to building wealth or even just not getting into debt when no one else around you was doing that, or is there there's a certain type of perspective about money. So yeah, my goodness, what you have done for yourself is really incredible and I think really inspiring for a lot of people. And

with all of that said, I'm curious for you. What have been some of the things that you've been able to do to become a more conscious consumer to go from Yeah, I'm spending frugally, but it's not on the things I actually want to be spending on. Yeah, that you know, it was a true gut check when I realized that I was like a paycheck away or two

paychecks away from like losing everything. I didn't have the options, and I just wanted to go back because the shopping came with feeling like I deserved what I didn't get as a kid. Right, So now I could have the options of wearing different colored you know, owning different colored jeans and shirts and dresses, and having options that I didn't really have as a kid, And so I wanted

to like get that. And I think back to the movie Cluelest, right, remember when share like he has the rotating closet, and I was like, yes, I want to be able to go and like, you know, stand in my closet and like debate what outfit I'm going to wear and see make sure that I don't wear like the same outfit, like at least for two weeks out, you know what I mean. And it was and it sounds I think about it now because I don't. I don't think that at that point I was thinking about

all of that. When I sort of think about it retrospectively and I think about why did I accumulate so much stuff? It was really to be able to have the things that I didn't have growing up, and it made me feel good. It made me feel like it was proof that I had made it, that I had succeeded. And it was again a false vel, like it was not It was not a true reflection of like what success means, like the amounts of stuff that you own is in a real reflection of success. But I think

in this society sometimes that's what we're led to believe. Yeah, I'm convinced that most people's cars are that for them, Like people will drive brand new cars and as like a like anti minivan, anti like used car. Because it was easier for our parents to get used cars, like cars were cheaper, so we always had old cars. And I guess all my friends did too, And now all

those friends, they all have very nice cars. And so there's like there's a rental property that we live next door to, like these two efficiencies and there are no

joke to Mercedes Benz parked outside. Yeah, yeah, if it's like little one not efficiencies, but like one one like garage apartment, and so yeah, I really do see, like and I felt this like and I I was like I was an only child, so like I don't feel like I was under privilege, but there were things that just like selfishly, I'm like, well I couldn't have this growing up, so now I get to treat myself to it now. So I think it's just inherent and so much more when you actually like I didn't get to

or didn't have available those things growing up. Yeah, absolutely, I mean it is one of the you know, I also think back on you know, wanting to make up for the things that I didn't have also as a proof, you know, proof that I had succeeded. But it was also a lot of like shopping mindlessly. I wasn't very intentional. I remember I would, you know, be on my way to the supermarket and all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, let me just hop into Ross, let me hop into

you know, some store. Let me go to the mall just to see if I could find something. And it was not intentional. I wasn't trying to buy a specific outfit for a specific thing. And again, because I was shopping at some of these stores, like these discount stores, I thought it was being good. I wasn't buying the most expensive things. So I was being very mindless about my spending. And and it's not about not spending, it's

about being intentional. And I think that that was the huge shift that I made when I began to really understand how people were able to build wealth. When I saw like people were, you know, investing in saving a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred dollars a month and then now you know, thousands of dollars a month, I'm like,

how in the world are they doing that? Well, I was spending hundreds of dollars at you know, Burling Did and Ros and Marshals and all these different stores, right, and um, I will say, like, cutting expenses was very hard for me. I failed at no spend challenges, and I know you all do these quite often, but to this day, I had never completed a no spend challenge.

Now I will say today I don't need to do a no spend challenge because I only spend with intention and I have no regrets about if I'm going to spend money on something, I'm like, you know, I've thought about it. I have a forty eight hour rule. I have things in my Amazon card that I've had for months, if not years, but I'm like, okay, maybe one day, but not today. You know, Oh that's so good, just

being patient with it and thinking more intentionally about it. Absolutely, So much of what you're describing here is the whole person, the emotions and relationships and finances all converging. This reconciling that you had to go through of why am I spending this way? To realize because of clueless like that

that image. I mean, I'm sure there's a whole lot more there for ye, but yeah, to realize I don't think that we can make massive shifts without understanding where have we come from and where do we want to go. It can't just be out where do I want to go? Because our background is going to keep impacting us unless we look at it. And yeah, it sounds like that's a massive part of how you're finding yourself where you're

at today. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I really had to sort of think about because I always kept kind of a budget. And while basically my budget was a list of my bills, right, and then when I began to look at how much money I was supposed to have left over, I never had that leftover, right, because I would find ways to spend it. And so it was, you know, this is why I failed that those no

spend challenges. And I remember, like the first time that I was trying to do it for a week, I would, you know, all of a sudden, you know, go to the vending machine at work, you know, end up going to you know, buying lunch even though I had packed my or you know, it was just like things like that and realize, like, wow, there's a lot of like a lot of spending that I'm doing that has no purpose, no reason and I'm not even thinking about it, And

it wasn't until I kind of thought about it. It's kind of like if you're ever trying to get on a on a on a physical health journey, right, and they asked you to, you know, like keep a journal of you know, what you're consuming. It was the same thing it was on my fiscal journey, keeping sort of track on what I was consuming. And I realized it was a lot harder than than I had thought. And

so for me it was number one. I had to really become intentional with what I was spending, how I was spending it, and really think about, you know, um, my trip to Target to buy you know, some like cleaning supplies. Why do I have like six items from you know, a different part. And I would justify it and saying, oh, well these were from the dollar bin, right, And it was still like, well, this is not you know,

this is money that you could be putting elsewhere. Yeah, you waste a hundred percent of the money you buy on things you don't need. So I love that intentionality, Like peace, I think that that's the overall arching and I think, yeah, like journaling or so a lot of people say just tracking your transactions manually every day, Like that's a way that you can be intentional. I like

the idea of journaling your transactions. I've just been getting into this idea to not just say Okay, I spent this all day, but thinking about okay, uh, where was I what was I doing before? So kind of like looking at the key the habit cues, like trying to figure out what triggered the spend and so you can look back later on it and figure out if you see a pattern, what the source, like, what the reason of the spending is. So I'm really getting into like

transaction journaling. Is there anything else you used to be more intentional about your purchases? Yeah, I mean knowing your emotional triggers. Right. For me, it was boredom sometimes sometimes it was just like out of boredom, I would like serve the you know Internet. Um. There were things like you know, unsubscribing or even just like I started a whole new email address because trying to unsubscribe from all of the stores and newsletters and promopheeds that I had.

It was like all of a sudden, I would be trigger to now need something or want something that I didn't even need, so being more intentional about every thing that I spent and also understanding the power of compound interest, because it wasn't enough for me, I don't think, and maybe for some people it is. But saving money just for the sake of money is saving money. It wasn't that motivating, right. I think we all need know that we need to put some money aside for the future.

But it was understanding like, if I spent this twenty dollars today, if I, for example, invested it, if I invested these twenty dollars, what would that look like in a year or ten years from now? And I feel

like that was where I really started shifting. So my you know, I mentioned that I would look at my budget and I'm supposed to have, you know, a few hundred dollars left over, you know, I would have like my my budget would say that I was supposed to have like two hundred fifty dollars left over every month, and I didn't have that. And when I became intentional about where I was spending money, and I was like, Okay, can I put maybe not two hundred fifty dollars, but

can I reclaim a hundred dollars? And what would putting a hundred dollars away in a savings account and or and or investing what would that look like? And again I did those that you know, those calculations um of like, okay, if I invested this in you know, just by putting money away more money aside, even in my like four one k, right, so that I didn't even have to think about it. What would it look like a year or ten or twenty years from now? That was what

made the difference. And I would do this and I still do this to this day every time I go to purchase an item, because I don't think it's there's nothing wrong with wanting something, even if you don't like necessarily need it, right like you might want a new jacket. But I think understanding the true cost of it that is where the key thing came from. It If you understand like what you might be giving up and that might be worth it to you and so buy it

without guilt. But the problem is that if you purchase something without really understanding what it's really costing you, that's where it's important. And also equating the amount of hours I would have to work in order to purchase that thing also was really helpful for me. That great. Now the fun part, how did you end up becoming the

first millionaire in your family? Yeah? So, um, I always get like weirded out by this question, but it's usually yeah, we'll we'll keep calling you a millionaire so that you can accept it, so that you can take that identity and confidence. Yeah. But but this also talks to like that whole like mindset work, right, because our relationship with money. When we talk about money mindset, it's only like your behaviors, your reaction, your feelings towards money, and even that is

still something that I have to work towards. Um. You know, I mentioned that at a you know, in my twenties, I was making a really good salary and I started making six figures around my late twenties, and so I did have money, um that I could really begin to throw at my savings account and also investing. And so I know that that comes from a very privileged place too,

because not a lot of people have that. But I think, I hope that I've been able to relate that it doesn't matter if you're making forty thousand dollars a year or you know, a hundred thousand dollars a year, because it was pretty clear that I was making a hundred thousand dollars and spending a hundred thousand dollars right. I wasn't going into debt, but I was spending every penny that I own and being able to put money aside.

And so it was sort of a journey of about a year or so where I really it took me about a year to really get a handle of my shopping right because I was a complete impulsive shopper um, so it took me about a year to really hone that in um or rain that in. Once I was able to do that, I realized that now I had several hundred dollars and then a couple about a thousand dollars left over that I could really throw into some

of my wealth building. And I started number one by doing something that isn't even all that sexy but it works, which is really maxing out my four oh one K through my employer. And I worked for a government agency, so I didn't have a four one K, but I had something similar called a TSP or a thrift savings plan. And so again I didn't do it all at once. I couldn't do it all at once, because I had

to rein in the spending. But what I did is several times in the year, I would just increase that until it kind of hurt a little bit, and until I was able to meet that that maximum contribution. Then I opened something called the roth Ira. And the limit to the roth Ira is six thousand dollars. So these were very slow steps that I took. Now I ended up getting married, and so now we had two incomes. Now I am the main breadwinner of my family, so

he's not a six figure earner. But because we had reined in what are spending was, we really were able to maximize that extra inflow of cash to be able to reach our financial goals. And the same thing, we couldn't max out his four one K right away until you know, we we just kept making decisions and obviously there's raises and promotions and bonuses anything like that, until we were able to start maxing out all of the

retirement plans that we could. So all of our four o one case, both of our four one kids, both of our rath I raise and it took me from twenty sixteen to twenty one to reach that million dollar point. And that sounds like it happened really fast, and it did, and a lot of that really has to do with the health of the market that we're in, but also being really consistent. We weren't day trading, we didn't have like all these like mean stocks. We were doing the

very lazy thing. And so I just want to really encourage people. I don't know what's going to happen in the next five or ten years, but if you are just slow, steady and dedicated to making those small choices, if you can increase your income and if you can reduce your expenses, and the difference between both of those things really is the key to wealth building. And this is all while living in some of the most expensive

cities in the country. So it's not like you're making all this living in Florida, like you were making closer to an average income for where you were living. Yeah. I hear this all of the time, where people are like, oh, where I live in the high cost of living area.

Like we lived in California, in northern California, so it was expensive to live there, and then we moved to New York and we made some really conscious decisions about where we lived right um, it was important to us not to you know, like have ramen, noodles and rice and beans, and we don't. We live are a very full life. But we have decided what that full life means.

That full life doesn't mean having a BMW and Mercedes Benz right, that full life doesn't mean you know, never cooking and and you know, only eating takeout or going now to eat like this is what is most important to us. And and here's a really good example. My husband, it's really important to him, like food experiences are really important to him. I don't really care about those as much,

but it was really important to him. And what we realized was, Okay, rather than spending a little bit of money on takeout and going out, we have a food budget and we can decide how we want to spend We have a dining out budget and we can decide how we want to spend it. We can go to Olive Garden and cheesecake Factory or something like that. Or we can choose a really nice restaurant once, right, or twice in a month instead of going to Alive Garden

three times a month. Right. So, and sometimes we do choose that that's fine too, But it's about that and nothing wrong with the h you're saying. Alive garden isn't really nice and you're there your family. Okay, it doesn't have to be nice. Hey, you wear your That's why you can wear your sweat. I I love the unlimited salad and food. Fill up talad and bread sticks, take

that meal home, make it last all week. But yes, absolutely, But it was also like again being very intentional, like if we wanted to do that, right, no problem, we

could do that. But because it was really important to my husband to like try new restaurants and try new things, and like dining out here in this in the city, it's really expensive, it was like, okay, instead of going to like or even like Uber Eats or Seamless, instead of like doing those type of using our money for that type of dining out, like, let's focus, let's pick an experience that we can go to and it might

just be once or twice. But guess what, we ended up valuing it a bunch more because we could only do it once or twice a month, and now we could we could add more if we wanted to. But it's just fine, you know, like for us, it just makes us content and we appreciate it. Sure, what you're describing is both good for the now and the future. Right.

Sometimes I think we can have sights on that millionaire thing, but it's like to what end or just focusing on retirement or just focusing on living a good life now. But I think what your your approach is beautiful in that it both is aligning with values and a full life now and taking care of yourself for the future, because who knows what capacities and abilities are going to

look like fifteen, twenty, thirty years down the road. It's a fun thing to say millionaire, I've become a millionaire, but it also sounds like there's so much rich wisdom that has come to you through this and just a really enjoyable full life now again and in the future. Yeah. Absolutely,

I mean it makes you know. I'm sure some of your your listeners might be familiar with like the fire move men, financial independence, retire early, right, And there's some people who want to like scrimp and save every single penny and just like you know, live bare minimum for the rest of their journey until they can be financially independent. And that was never a journey that I wanted to do like I wanted to be. It's a very few people,

is that right? For if anybody? Yeah? Exactly? And for me, I wanted my husband valued, you know, tiny experiences, and I really valued traveling, and so I wanted to be able to continue to travel um while also building wealth. And I think that when you again align you're spending with the things that you value most, you can have those rich lives. You can have a really rich life.

So being able to understand what is it that you value most, be intentional about spending in those areas, then everything else is okay, right, but just be honest and realistic about what is it that you're really spending on. Speaking of a rich intentionality, man intentional about booty life. Giving the filla 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've

paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hey, now, whoa wally? Every week we invite a guest or listener to share with us their bill of the week and so we would love to hear what yours is. Okay, So just this week I received a UM two renewal notices for home insurance. Now, if you are a homeowner, you understand that you need homeowners insurance, but you should

only have one policy. And what happened was that last year, after doing a little bit of comparison shopping, I canceled one of my homeowners insurance and got a new company and established homeowners insurance with that company. But realized that when I got the two renewal notices that that original homeowners insurance policy had never canceled. Not only that, but they never uh they charged me for it. So I paid or through my escraw right, so through my mortgage company,

I paid for two homeowners insurance. So I had to uh give both of them a call to figure out like what was happening? Like what happened and called my mortgage company to understand what happen been And with a simple call I called the old homeowners insurance was able to UM cancel that policy and they were able to post date the cancelation and I will now be receiving

a refund. So I feel like the moral of the story, it's just to kind of keep track and again make sure that you know where that money is going, because I paid to homeowners insurance policies without realizing it, and so that was sort of the bill that I had. And and I guess the second lesson is to yes, even if you are happy and content with your homeowners insurance policy, it's okay to comparison shop. Even with the

renewal notice. I looked at what both um not only what the amount was, but also what was the coverage, and it seems still to this day, it seems like the one, the new policy that I had was offering me the same amount of coverage for the same price that the old one was for less bridge. So yeah, that is my bill for this week. Amazing so recent too.

Oh yeah, it takes again speaking of intentionality, just paying attention, opening your mail and doing the hard thing of making the phone calls and making these things right and saving money along the way. And then shopping. Yeah, there's so much wrapped up in their shopping for those insurances because those are the those are like the you know, hundred dollar decisions versus the you know, five ten dollar decisions that we make to save money on a daily basis.

When you're being intentional about your higher expenses, you can save more more easily. So that's great. Thank you so much. Wally. Yeah, absolutely, And Jill, to your point, it wasn't that had I opened my mail and understood when I was reading, Like when even when I think about when I was doing my taxes, you know you have to like list the

amount of any that you spent on insurance. They sent me the information of how much money I spent on insurance, but I didn't pay attention to like, hey, that looks like double than what it should be. So yeah, I'm super thankful and grateful that I was able to get a refund, get it taken care of, but like not only opening the mail, but like really understanding what you're looking at reading the mail, opening reading asking questions exactly.

Oh well, if you all listening, want to submit your bill of the week, whether it's a recent bill, if it just happened, you saved money, you negotiated, you realized that somebody else did something wrong. Visit Frugiral Friends podcast dot com, slash bill leave us here a bill, we want to hear it. And now it's time for nightening. So today's lightning round is going to be pewing off our most recent impulse purchases. That's what I was thinking.

That sounded horrible when I said it out loud. I know this now in hindsight, I think that a word. Making it a word is gross. Okay, Anyways, we are going to be sharing. I was just trying to mix it up. Yeah. Yeah, we're in the work all right, we're almost a twosodes, still trying things out. So sharing our most recent impulse purchases because the intentionality, the journey to intentionality with your purchases never ends, there's no Okay. Now I am a conscious consumer and I never have

to think about this again. Jen loves getting vulnerable. I do transparent in the lightning ground, showing people that we're not perfect, especially but we still fail. So um yeah, that's it. And Wally as our guest, Um, we'd like to put you in the direction of the lightning first, Yeah, show us you're imperfect first. Oh yeah, seriously. Okay, So

I recently got a puppy. Um he is nineteen weeks old, and so all of my impulse purchases surround things for him because I know so I'm always uh, you know, now go down the pet aisle or you know, shopping the pets section or any que items that um, I think he would love. And you know, at the end of the day, he just wants to like chew on a plastic bottle rather than the toys that I have. It's like Jenson, they have toys, but he just ends up playing with a stick. He also just ends up

chewing on plastic bottles. So it's the same, really same. Why do we bother? Oh, that's a good one. That is that is a big one. All of our pet owners in the group will constantly say that do you have pet insurance on your puppy? Yes, So it's a big one that I've heard is a really great worth of the money expense. So I would say that you definitely need to. I don't think that it's it's fantastic

for everyone. Now, I had a lab mix. He was a lab he was a mutt, and so when I m add up all the expenses that I had to pay for like vet bills, vaccinines, and then like his end of life care, him not being insured ended up working out because he rarely needed to go to the doctor.

Until really his end of life. U the dog that I have now, um, he's a French bulldog and they tend to have more you know, sort of health issues, and so I can't you know, I was thinking about, like, I don't know what's going to happen, and ensuring him now as a puppy versus you know, waiting until the issue happens, and then now he's not insurable what if

it is issue? So but health health insurance is insanely expensive. Um, we were looking at prices that were, you know, a hundred and fifty dollars or more a month to get him insured. Yeah, it was really really pricey and we ended up. Um, right now is open enrollment season for so many people who are at their W two jobs, and my through my employer, they have a health insurance

kind of discount pet insurance policy. And so I did some comparison shopping about trying to get pet insurance on my own versus getting it through my job and what that would look like. And I think it was just on Saturday or Sunday we finalized the paperwork to get him insured and yeah, we're saving so much money by that, I mean, I think the least expensive insurance policy that we found was like eight hundred and fifty dollars on

our own and through my job it's like six. That is the this, this right now is the first time I have heard about being able to get pet insurance through the same same I don't have a pet, so that's probably partially why I had no idea that was the thing employers were doing. And what great timing. So if you have a pet that you want to get insured, check try that out. Check it out such great. Yeah, yeah,

and I had to. So I emailed my human resource department and they were like, I don't know, call the the insurance for water. Yeah, So but I did. I emailed and I said, hey, um, and this is actually not just towards pet insurance, but what discounts are available to the employees of ex company. And they gave me a whole list of like, you know, you can't get discounts for theme parks, museums, home insurance, pet insurance, um,

what was a short term disability insurance? So these were a bunch of perks that we have as employers of the company. So definitely look into that. Yeah, we're getting our money's work here. Holly on this lightning round, right, talking about failures turned into talking about success. So that's why that's why we start with vulnerability and we end with pet insurance. Jill, good job, Jen, you really planned

that one. Well you are welcome, Jill your next Okay, Well this may not make you too happy, Jen, because yeah, well you want ulnerability. You want to know. I'm not perfect, and I'm not perfect. And when it comes to spend, I am I hardly do it. Like when I do spend, it is very planned. But here you go. I did go to the grocery store last night with a list, which I'm getting better at. I made a meal plan. I have all of my meals planned out for the next seven eight days, have a list to go with it.

And really was like, if it's not on the list before we go to the grocery store, we're not buying it. This is what I verbally said to my husband Eric when he comes, Oh yeah, no, I don't take Travis to a grocery store. Extra stuff gets put in. Actually, and this was a problem too. We went separate directions. He had a shopping cart and I had a shopping cart, and we have a shared list, so we can. It's like a Google list and we can check it off and then like real time, it like takes things off

the list. We actually love it. It's like a fun thing for us. But two cards you are you are too small, so then he's showing up with all this stuff in his cart. Anyhow, my impulse what was not on the list was Olives. I really like olives. Didn't put it on the list, but I did put it in the cart and bought it impulsively. Oh my gosh,

that's awesome an my impulse. It's funny because I looked back at I literally right out my transactions every two weeks, so the regular thing that I do so is actually able to go back and look like what did I impulsively by? And I do it in different categories food, miscellaneous, gas in parking, other than like my bills. Those are like more of the discretionary spending. And I'm like, I have not spent any money on anything other than food

in the last month. So yeah, if it is impulsive, it's going to be on food, yes, And I'll I love that it's olives. It makes me. It always reminds me that episode we did last year where we're like if you had, you know, a bunch of if you were a millionaire and you could spend money on anything, like, what would you buy? And my answer was the Aldi Wine Advent Calendar. And I was shamed for that answer. And for me, it was like an outdoor water feature.

It was like, collectively, our guest was like three hundred dollars and he wanted like this expensive Harley day. That's what you do if you were a millionaire. Really yeah, so yeah, it makes sense. Hot seat vulnerability, hot seat um mine tends to be on food as well. I would say I went to Aldi and I got I don't know if you can see it, a candle. The blue one has always been there, but I got this, uh pumpkin candle. I lined it up really good two days.

If you're listening to this podcast, check this episode out on YouTube. Because while the space just now was perfect, like we're talking about impulse purchases and we've got olives and a candle. But he goodness, that's how you pit a little way. I was like, forgive me for my expressive face. I needed to make that. I forgot we were recording here so good, it's so good. I didn't even see it because I was looking at that, I was making sure my finger was pointing to the candy. Um.

But you know what, that is an impulsive purchase. You didn't need another candle. You never planned to buy candles. And I used to imput candle. I look, it's right next to another candle. Look there with each other, and look, there's a candle here, like I didn't buy that one. But I'm going to get you a candle for Christmas. So many kids you you have gotten me a candle before, Jill. And it's in my room. Yeah, And so that was

my five dollar impulse bend. And it is fall scented, so I feel a responsibility to just light the whole thing on fire by the time winter like not winter. Winter is subjective here, but like before, it's unacceptable to smell pumpkin. But yeah, so I went to light it before we started recording. M I forgot it does smell good. I came into your house the other day and I thought you had made something with syrup. Just smells like syrup to me. Yeah, it's delous, like oh breakfast. You're like,

no candle. Well, thank you for humoring us, Wally. We so enjoyed having you on the show. Please tell our listeners where they can get more from you. Yeah, thank you Jen and Jill for inviting me. This has been fantastic. Um. Yeah, I can be found at financially Thriving dot com. You can find all my social media handles. I'm most active on clubhouse and Instagram. But yeah, I'm at financially Thriving awesome. Yes you are. I love your Instagram so definitely go

follow Wally financially Thriving on Instagram. So thank you and uh we will talk to again later. By another good one for the bucks, Jen. I have so many personal takeaways from this one. And yeah, we know what we say all the time. We essentially do this podcast just

for us, but I do. I love the idea of looking at the compound interest on things, like thinking, Okay, I could buy this thing and have this thing, or I could have the compound interest that investing this money will give me and then I can buy more things. The reminder of intentionality and values based spending thing. I think that that message is never going to get old. It's cool to hear how others are going about that.

Because one approach is not all approaches. So it's really neat to hear her story and how she's going about that. So yeah, definitely check out more from Wally on her website and follow her on Instagram. Good stuff there. Thanks so much everyone for listening. We want to thank you for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, like this one. It comes from ah He a low Wall head. It happens to be five stars new listen are and loving it. I very recently started listening, and so far, the best

thing I've learned about was the Frugal Friends Summit. I'm so glad I signed up because not only do I get to discover new people to be inspired by, but watching Jen and Jill and interacting online has increased my enjoyment of listening to their podcast. Highly recommend this podcast. Oh really cool. Yes, the summit was amazing. We plan to do this now again. We're hoping it's an annual thing. But I love that this review mentioned watching us and how that might help to engage with it even more.

And just as a reminder, we also put out our interviews on YouTube, so if you are a visual person and that helps you feel free to check out these interviews on YouTube like this one with Wally and other interviews that we've done and then look forward to the summit. You know, stay tuned for that. Stay tuned. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media, So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Instagram, we are going to add you

to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get every month, we're giving away one of our challenge binders or planners, and this month it is the values based Budget Binder. So that is exciting. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher and send the screenshot of that review to Focal Friends podcast at gmail

dot com. That's our email. That's how you enter to win that drawing for the values based Budget Binder, and don't forget to tag us on social See you guys next week by Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Impulse spends Jen. How do you feel about those olives? How are you feeling about They're really good? We got home from our shared shopping experience and it was like nine thirty and I definitely dove right into those holives as you should. Not. All INPUS purchases are bad. Their

impulse purchases are not inherently bad. Yeah. I love a little spontaneity, but a little not the spontaneity where it gets overwhelming and you're like, I don't know what I'm doing with my life because nothing is planned and nothing has direction. Well, there's wiggle room too, And I think it helped because I did go with a list. I find that I am much more overwhelmed when I just find myself at the store. I don't know what I'm going to be doing that week with food. I don't

actually remember what's in my fridge and pantry. I'm just willy nilly trying to do stuff. Willy nilly, I don't that's such a weird phrase, But there you go, and throwing stuff in my cart. It's better than pewing. Well, there you go. Well willy nilly is actually something people say. Pewing. It's not I know, it's what happens at church. I peel to me and I said, I said in the peel, and I don't know. Man, we tried. Kay bye,