Frugal Dating Tips For Any Relationship Status - podcast episode cover

Frugal Dating Tips For Any Relationship Status

Aug 28, 202052 minEp. 123
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Episode description

Whether you're married, in a serious relationship, or 'surveying the landscape' we could all use some refreshers on ways to enjoy time with our romantic interests in a frugal and affordable way! On this episode we're exploring some of the costs we don't always consider, as well as some fresh ideas for inexpensive dates.

Sponsors: 

  • Whether you’re new to budgeting or trying to reach a big financial goal and need something to motivate you, you’ll enjoy The Frugal Friends Workbook. It’s a digital workbook with 6 week-long challenges that will help you save money, simplify your life, improve money conversations, and more. It’s over 60 pages and can be completed on your own but it’s created to be gone through in pairs or small groups that’s why every purchase comes with two downloads so you can share or split the cost. Head to Frugalfriendspodcast.com/workbook to learn more and use the code TACOBELL all one word to get $10 off the regular price.The Frugal Friends Workbook!
  • Wondering what to do for a low key date night at home? Start a TV Series. You’ll avoid the “what are we doing tonight?” question for at least a month! Avoid the cost of restaurants and the uncertainty of events by getting sucked into a TV series with 7+ seasons. You’ll have even more fun by choosing a series that has a spinoff! TV Series, because eventually you’re going to have to stop scrolling the Netflix homepage and just watch something.TV Series:

Notable Notes:

What the Internet has to say:

This article from Chime outlines for us some of the hidden costs of dating we often don't plan for, but should!

What Jen + Jill have to say:

  • Beautifying yourself - link to make-up ep
  • Transportation - link transport ep
  • Time is money - and we give this up as we date our significant other!
  • Intimate wear
  • Dating apps
  • Birth control

:More from the Internet

This article from And Then We Saved gives a comprehensive list of 98 frugal and fun date ideas!

More from Jen + Jill:

  • Ummmm we all know movies at home are an option...so let's get to the good stuff..
  • Build something together
  • Find the best happy hour - make apps your meal
  • Play ping pong (or tennis lol)
  • Teach each other something….but be warned!
  • Book club/read to each other
  • Work out together
  • Outdoor activities- check Groupon
  • Breakfast date
  • Talk about your future- Plan your financial goals
  • Wash your cars

Thank you Sherri from novia scotia for sharing your amazing yatze computerized opponent named ‘Bill’!BILL OF THE WEEK -

frugalfriendspodcast.com/bill If you want to submit your bill of the week visit to leave us a bill

  • ALSO sponsored by Grammerly! A free Chrome extension that helps keep your writing grammatically correct and error free! We love using Grammarly Premium for its plagiarism detector and have found its other features to be very useful! Because Grammarly is a sponsor of the show you can get 20% off Grammarly Premium, which will 100% make you a better writer whether it’s for work or personal. Just go to Grammarly.com/frugal to get 20%.

Lightning Round

Our best and worst dates

  • Jill - BEST = french town, yard sales, wineries
  • Jen- BEST = our first date was the best
  • Jill - WORST = learning to drive manual
  • Jen- WORST = vacation in Bali

Wr

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Episode one to three Frugal dating Tips. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill M. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and we have another request from our Frugal Friends community on Facebook for frugal dating tips for every relationship status. Yes, it's good to date, whether whether you're married or not married or but if

you're it's good to date. If you are single and you're happy with that, you can date yourself. You can do these things. You can do these things by yourself. Absolutely. You just gotta get a little creative yes or friend Yeah, date your friends who don't that? Scratch that, just have fun with your friends. So you're gonna find this episode to be very delightful no matter what your relationship status is. What we are saying m. But first sponsors, we've got

none other than the Frugal Friends work Book. Favorite sponsor yet. Whether you're new to budgeting or trying to reach a big financial goal and need something to motivate you, you will enjoy the Frugal Friends Workbook it's created by us. In case you haven't um put that together. It's a digital workbook with six week long challenges that will help you save money, simplify your life, improve money conversations, and more.

It is over sixty pages and can be completed on your own, but we create it to be gone through in pairs or small groups. So that's why every purchase comes with two downloads so you can share or split the cost. Because we frugal, So head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash workbook to learn more and use the code. Ready for it taco bell all one word and get ten dollars off the regular price. Yes, don't just promo code frugal stuff in that ad goodness uh.

Today's episodes also brought to you by TV series. Wondering what to do for a low key date night at home? Start a TV series. You'll avoid the what are we doing tonight question for at least a month, avoid the cost of restaurants and the uncertainty of events by getting sucked into a TV series with seven plus seasons. You'll have even more fun by choosing a series that has a spin off TV series, because eventually you're going to have to stop scrolling the Netflix homepage and just watch

something oh so good. And I love the caveat that it has to have seven plus seasons. I've gotten roped into this three season thing and you get sorely disappointed after like three nights. Right, you might as well watch a Marvel movie. You know it's too short. What TV series has a spinoff series? There are several. There are. Um, grown ish is a spinoff series of Oh my gosh, it's called grown something. It's a spin there. It isn't Frazier a spinoff of Cheers? Yes, so I did, and

I did it. I named one old and new. Yes, so um there are plenty of spinoffs still happening. So there you go, sponsor, and you know it sparked conversation. Yes, alright, so we are, of course we're going to talk about some frugal dating like date ideas, yes, but that's not going to be what this whole episode is about. So our first episode were episode this first part we want to get into an article that actually covers some of the hidden costs of dating and share ways to lower

those costs. And so, because dating isn't just it's not just finding a partner, uh, that you hopefully one day want to marry. But there are some additional costs that we forget about besides just dates. So this first one is from Chime and it's called the Hidden Costs of Dating. Yes, so the first one on this article just to kind of explore so that we can be aware of where we're spending money and how we can cut down on those us. The first one that they list is beautifying yourself.

So I think, male or female, this is true. If you care about how you look to the person that you're dating, you might spend a little bit of extra time, energy, effort, resource money on making yourself look nice, whether that's getting haircuts more often, or spending time and money styling your hair or makeup clothing. Just I was waxing while I was dating for some reason. Yeah, because I thought that I needed to do that. I'm dating now, so I need to wax my eyebrows and my arm. Yeah that's

that's yeah, yeah exactly. And I think when there's somebody else that we want to specifically impress, we can spend more money on those areas. And I'm not saying like let it all go, you like, don't worry about that unit out anymore. But I think that there's a degree where we can cross over and we don't need to spend that much, like purchasing things from from the first store,

finding that one hair product that you like. Um I we even did an episode on makeup and beauty products the way, probably in our archives at this point, but yeah, some great tips there. So, Yeah, an interesting point that that's a spot that we can spend extra money then maybe what we realize or intend to. Yeah, and if it's something that you do want to do, maybe for like an anniversary or some kind of special occasion, awesome. Make sure you save them for special occasions and then

try to find some deals for them. Um. So, don't go to a eyebrow threader or waxer or hairdresser so often that you guys are like best these, so try out a few by using um like new clients specials. You can go to like local restaurants and like local places, and sometimes they'll have boards advertising other local services and sometimes those business cards or brochures might have like a twenty dollar off for new clients special things, So just

go around and like collect those. You can even check group on or living social to see if they have any go around collecting them. So when the time comes in you do actually want to, you know, gussie up, then you will have you know a few deals to choose from. I love that you just said gussie up. They use it in the article. Yeah, Max. On the

list is transportation. Yeah, that's a that's a one. It's it's transportation is a major expense whether or not we're dating, but especially if we're dating and we want to go out and we wanna, um, yeah, go out on the town. I don't know if you want to leave your house.

It's been so long since any of us have done that, Jill, that we don't get if we don't really remember what it costs exactly, or even if you're trying to utilize a taxi service or um lift or uber or one of those that can it can cost a significant amount of money. Um. So that's and and if you are dating somebody who you don't live with, then traveling back and forth and back and forth to one another's homes, it can cost money. So not not a ton that we can say on that. Some of that just comes

with the territory. But we can be wise about how how we're going about that. How off then we're driving out how often we're using some of these rides share apps, where there's ways to cut costs in that way, Um, ways that maybe we can meet up or I mean really we run into some difficulty if we're back and forth, back and forth, back and forth every day or multiple

times a day. So just being um, yeah, a little bit more vigilant about what is this costing me in transportation and are there ways that we can be mindful about that and save a little bit Get a speater, Yes, if you're close enough, try um, biking somewhere in the middle to meet up, and then maybe doing like a picnic or an activity midway, so you're getting some exercise, you're getting a little alone time where you can just be still and kind of meditate on your bike, and

then you're meeting up with your partner and doing something fun and hopefully free, and then you eliminate that transportation cost um. And then also for long distance relationships that can be super difficult. Um. But we'll link to our transportation episode in the show notes. But um again finding deals on orbits um and different you know those deals, so you can also check our episode we just did with Danielle Desire and check all of her stuff. She's

got some great UM flight saving info. Yeah. Um, but there was just one thing I was going to say and then I forgot it. Huh well never mind, okay, but yeah, so UM check for check for Oh yes, travel hacking sorry UM. Using a credit card for reward points and maybe choosing an airline that you historically have gotten the best deals with and being loyal to that air line so that you can rack up rewards points.

Chase has UM there Sapphire cards have really great welcome bonuses that transfer to a lot of different airlines, So definitely, um cha Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card to start out with travel hacking. UM and the Southwest cards the United Airlines cards are are great to build up airline miles, so if you are in a long distance relationship, either short term or long term, that can help with some of the travel costs. Yeah alright. The next one

on the list is dating app subscriptions. So there are obviously the ones that you see ads for on TV, but they are they're not even the best apps available. Honestly, I have found owned from not personal experience, but from people I've talked to that have used dating apps that the newest apps on the market are usually your best The ones that people don't know about can help you find like the best dates, and those ones are often

also free. UM. So when Hinge was first starting out five over five years ago, I went on a Hinge date and it was really great, And I have found similar stories from other people. So if you were using

dating apps, don't stay stuck to one. I would say, always be looking for the new ones out on the market that are free, um, and you're going to have, um some better luck than if you're just stuck on the big ones, like plenty of fish that are historically known for like not great dates recently, but I know some people that got married, like for me because just like attract certain like how would the dates not be good?

Because I think because the more people that are on that, the more people you have to wade through, Like people that are not there for the right reasons are usually on the ones with the biggest user base. UM. So that's kind of the theory. And we would love to hear about your experiences with free dating apps in the Frugal Friends community, because we haven't used them in a very long time, if ever, So I know, I know, thankfully, I just missed like the cusp of dating apps becoming

a thing. I mean, they're they're grey, and it sounds like it's kind of the only way to find people lately. But that's true, good old fashion. Met my husband at my best friend's weddings, so escaped those apps. I I did do one date from Hinge, but I missed all the others. I looked at them, but I never went on any dates. And then actually, like three or four weeks after that day is when I met Travis, and he also had gone on Tinder dates, which I missed. Tinder.

I don't miss Tinder. I missed I didn't do Tinder. Tinder thinks. I'm so glad you clarified, because you know Travis is gonna listen to that. What did she just say? Yeah, he like did before Tinder was like known for being Tinder. He like actually went on a legitimate date with somebody he met on there. So yeah, that's kind of the theory. Um, and those things are free, so there we go. So also on this list, and unforeseen cost is time because time is money. You've heard this before. And I'm not

no means am I advocating against this. I think the point that this article is making, and I think it's a good point, is to factor in these unforeseen costs because it helps us with budgeting. If we're looking at this realistically, and if we are spending a lot of time with our significant other and we're dating um at

any stage in this process. It takes time and it takes investment, and that's what relationships are, and it is a very worthwhile but it does take away from time, energy and resource to be putting into literally anything else

which which might make you money. So there is a trade off, and there is some opportunity cost and there's some there's the potential of some lost revenue because you're maybe you're not picking up those overtime hours, or you're not doing that side hustle as much, or you're not as uh focused on getting that that second art time job, whatever whatever it is, you're spending time with somebody else.

It's necessary, but it also needs to be factored in on all, right, what does that mean for my budget? And what does that mean for when I am putting time and energy towards work? What does that work need to look like so that I can afford to be able to really invest in this relationship. Yeah, we never had that issue because Travis is a hoarder, like money hoarder, and I'm an overachiever, and so we both love working making money, So how can we work together. Yeah, that's

why we got married so quickly. We're like, it's just going to be more efficient. If we're married and we're living together, then we don't have to go on dates. We'll just see each other and we can just work all the time. And warn Yeah, oh, Eric and I have had so many side hustles together. It's like what we do for fun on the weekends is like renovate other people those houses and DJ and you name it. And lord if I haven't seen couples on like doing

insta cart together, like grocery shopping for people. And yes, so that's like another I mean we're not on date ideas yet, but that is a way to kind of minimize that, you know, quote unquote lost revenue. UM is by doing a side hustle, like starting a little mini side biz through with your partner. Through our move, we've been doing um a lot of Uber eats, just being real because it's a big transition, and I have seen

a lot of couples together in the car. I probably just one of them is doing the Uber eats and the other ones just along for the ride. But why not, right, because you can only get so many like assignments in an app at one time. So if you've got the app running, two apps running at the same time, you can get more with fewer cars and save money on transportation.

So good, try it out, y'all. Try it out. I'm going to try it out the last one on this list besides, so the real last one is matchmaking services. But our advice there is just like, don't use a matchmaking services. I'm not I don't even know that existed. It does they made a TV series out of it. I'm sure it hates more than seven seasons if you're into it. But that's like the only context that I

know it in is just like millionaire matchmaker. It's like, all right, your common person is not using a matchmaking service. But I will say one thing is that you don't have to go full blown matchmaking service. There are services online that will actually look over your online dating profile and help you refine it, help you um, make it

more kind of quote unquote attractive to other people. So sometimes if you don't have a third party to look over what you're putting out there, UM, that could be helpful. I think you can get that for like forty bucks. UM. Otherwise, have a friend look over it and be receptive to constructive criticism. Get some get a friend that will actually give you constructive criticism. So that's what I will say about matchmaking. Now that we have gone through those hidden

costs of dating, let's talk about date ideas. Yes, my favorite part I know we are looking at We're not going to go through We're going uh, super fun cheap date ideas from and then we saved dot com. Um. And this is actually the author of this website. Um. Anna is the author of the uh Spender's Guide to Debt Free Living because she did a year long no spend challenge UM and I actually talked about her book in my book, The No Spend Challenge Guide. So I've

been following her for a long time. She has a great website and highly recommend so Anna Newell Jones. Yeah, it's funny whenever I go through lists like this. Well, there's a couple of things that happened for me. Number One, it reminds me when I was little and I would tell my mom that I was bored, which is such an interesting experience. I don't think I've experienced boredom in my adulthood, but I do remember feeling bored as a child and going to my mom asking what can I do?

I'm so bored, and she would list off. She would just list off all this stuff, and most of it was something I was not interested in doing whatsoever. But every once in a while I'd get like one or two nuggets of gold and they'd be like, Yeah, that great idea, Mom, see you later. And this list kind of reminds me of that. Of like, like ninety of them, I'm like, maybe not going to do today, but seven of them I'm like, yeah, what a great idea any given like to have any given day, something might stand

out to me certainly. Um. And also they these lists always have so many movies on them, Like I think we all know sitting at home and watching a movie as an option, So we're going to gloss past because watching it for a movie person, If you haven't noticed that, yes, exactly, like watch a movie with ice cream, watch a movie with popcorn, watch a movie that you picked out together. It's like, okay, yes, I think so what you an idea?

And this could be great for couples or for families, like if you've got kids, going through with them and making like a I'm board book that has just a list of things you guys have come up with together, and so you go, you know, if you're bored, you go to that book first before you come to mom, and you know, do one of those things because you figured them out together. You could do the same thing

as a couple. Um, you could make a date night checklist or date night book and if you don't know what to do, then you just go to the book and go down the list until you know, until you've done them all and you figure them out together. So that's a that's a great idea to make sure that you're always doing something that's low cost or affordable first, um, instead of just resorting to the typical. God normally I'd say dinner in a movie. But it's so like, I

don't know what's normal. It's a normal date night. I don't know, every every day is like a pajama date. Yeah. Anyway, let's let's get into it. What's your what's your top one on the list. I really liked the tip to build something together. Of course, this may not always be super inexpensive. You can certainly make it something inexpensive. Find things around your home or property or from thrift stores

or yard sales and be able to build something. I mean usually we've got some sort of project we want to do, whether that's in our home or our apartment or our vehicles. It could be really cool to get creative on building something that kind of solves a problem, makes your space more efficient, more functional, um yeah, whatever that is, whether that's just putting up shelves um in a space in your space, or um yeah, building containers

for storage or for organizing whatever it is. Just what do you need, what's a problem that you have, and can you build something together to solve that problem using inexpensive materials. Yes, I loved work out together when Travis and I were dating. We uh and even you know now not in but like up until the pandemic, um go to different running stores and or running clubs and they'll have like a weekly five k and we'll do

the five k together. Um. So we we love doing that and he does not do cross it and he does not enjoy it. Um, but we do run together by together. He runs like, wait faster than me? Together together? Yes, exactly, we go together and we leave together. That's great. I also this is one of mine and Eric's personal favorites. Find the best happy hour in your area. I'm a sucker for a happy hour because it's basically everything on

the menu for half price or less. So if you can gether some I mean some happy hours are from four to seven, that's a mate. Like yeah, so find those and make make the appetizers your meal or sometimes um places will do specials and it's just a lot of food. Like this article mentions that there's a spot that had like burgers, fries, and a drink for five bucks and then they split it, which that's next level.

But you could challenge yourself get get whatever you can for five dollars, split it and then go home and eat ramen, ramen and an apple. But it's just it's a fun night out, really inexpensive. It feels like a treat to go out if you can go out, if you've got outdoor seating, somewhere that has an happy happy hour, still yes. Uh, speaking ab outdoor, I she had a ton of outdoor activities, So I'm just gonna sum them up by saying that, uh so any outdoor activity, and

I love outdoor activities on group on. That's probably like the third or fourth time I've mentioned group on today,

and uh they are not. But if they're listening to this, they can, um so, Yeah, finding like outdoor kayaking or sandal paddle boarding or like inner tubing something like that, and getting inspired by those deals and doing those yeah, or wine winery tours through great you know, through the vineyards that all these outdoor things, Yeah, which is great for the time we're in, the age we're in right now. M I liked this one play ping Pong. I don't know it just it made me smile, which seems like

that's probably a good idea. And mostly I want to highlight the word play. I think it's so important for our relationships, whether in a dating relationship or otherwise friendship, parent, kid relationships, all of these it's so important that we play together. It releases such good hormones in us, It bonds us to one another, creates really amazing memories. It helps our own bodies but it's really good to play together.

And so ping pong. I liked this idea because you don't have to have a ping pong table to play ping pong. You can just get the paddles and the balls off of Amazon for really inexpensive and just play it on your kitchen table um or or on the floor or whatever. It just have fun with it. But I think that is a fun way to play, even on a rainy day, even indoors. You can do that. Certainly.

You can also get some tennis rackets and go to your local free court and play tennis if you just want to up the anti I hate any like sports with balls. I am so bad, so that's not fun for me. I'm not good at It's still not fun. But ping pong. You don't have to be good at ping pong fun and thank you. Okay, you don't have to play. Probably find what is play for you. The next one is taking a breakfast date. That's how that's how I play, Iana, how I play. I go to breakfast.

Uh So it's definitely cheaper than dinner and sometimes even lunch, So taking a breakfast date can be a great alternative if you do want to go out to like get some food and not have to do the dishes afterwards. Um, and then take home the leftovers and eat them for breakfast the next day. It's yeah, fantastic, there's your Saturday and Sunday breakfasts right there. Hopefully there's leftovers. Hopefully get

something big enough to have leftovers. Don't go into any of these like bougie restaurants that give you one egg on on a waffle, like get some substance. Yes. Um. The next on this list is teach each other. Not the next on this list. The next thing that stood out to me was teach each other something. And I do I do say this hesitantly because I do think it's a good idea, um, to be able to see

the areas that your significant other is an expert. And I think it can help to build our respect and admiration for one another and and to learn some things from one another. But also be warned because sometimes it can be tough to learn things from our significant other, Like this is a double edged sword. So like, maybe pick something that might be a little bit low hanging fruit. Uh not not, maybe your your hardest thing, because this could be an area where we don't have a lot

of patients for each other as well. So, UM, assess the type of relationship that you have, the thing that you want to learn from the other person, give it a try, have fun with it. If it goes well, fantastic, you've learned something new. And if it doesn't go well, don't ever do it again. Perfect maybe maybe learn something together. I think that's much better. That is a much better recommendation,

Thank you. Ye. So the next one on my list, and we're not going to go through too many Moore, but UM, I liked the one said talk about your future because one of the dates that Travis and I have annually is we'll go out to dinner and UH plan do our financial goal planning, and we'll walk through the like our ten five in one year and then break up our one year into um monthly action steps and so we'll do that together to make sure we're

on the same page. And those those five and ten year goals always shift a little bit, so it's important to not just make them and forget about them for five and ten years, but to revisit them every year to make sure you're either on track or you're moving the track. To be more appropriate, I so admire that, and I need your template. Yes, okay, so you can go.

You can get it actually Modern frugality dot com slash goal framework, and I have the kind of the steps we walk through, and then I also have the Financial Freedom Planner that is um the actual worksheets that we use. So and if you download the framework, you can get a special deal on the planner that's Modern Frugality dot com slash Goal Framework. Nice. The last one on this list for me was, uh, doing a book club together or you know, just your own little pickup bok together,

read it and discuss it. Something that Eric and I have just started doing is reading to each other. And by reading to each other, I mean I read to him because he's definitely not an avid reader. Yeah, but it's I mean, especially on road trips. We've had a lot of road trips recently. Most notable was moving from Pennsylvania to Florida. But we found a book that we both were interested in reading, and we knew that it was something that we wanted to discuss together. So I

almost became his own audio book. I read it to him, we would pause talk about it. Of course, you could also just do an audio book together. But yes, I love that idea of kind of some shared learning, shared knowledge discussing it. And the last one that I will say, which I feel like it's totally underrated day date, is washing your cars because manually, like washing it yourself is way better than taking it through a car wash and you get to have some fun in the sun and clean.

It's great. I highly recommend. Actually haven't done that in a while because Travis cleans our cars while I'm working, so but still really fun. M. Eric and I washed our car in your backyard when we are living in your backyard. Yeah, it's a good place to wash. Yes, you know what else is a good place? M. It's a place I like to be every Friday and other days in the week. The we that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you

paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi, jenn and Jill. It's Sherry and Nova Scotia, Canada with a Bill of the week. So grocery shopping is super stressful these days, and I have a little routine that I've been doing after I get home and unpack,

which brings me a little bit of calm. I have a cup of tea and eat some nibs, and I play YACHTSI on my phone for a few minutes just to decompress. The site that I play YATSI on has a computerized opponent, and guess what his name is. Of course it's Bill, And of course I thought of you take care. Hope you guys are doing well. That's so good, Yes, Bill, the yachts opponent, Sherry. That's amazing. It's like your little version of self care with Hill. I don't know that

there could be a better combination. That Bill is helping you with your frugal self care. Yes. Uh. And it does take some time to decompress after the grocery store. That's such a true thing. And you should be able to do that after you go. So maybe find your own game of yachtsy and play with Bill and see how you do. It's been so long since I've played YACHTSI. I used to play that a lot when I was a kid. Add it to your boredom list so true.

I'm board books. Mom, I'm bored. I'm bored because I remember saying that as a kid a lot, because I was an only child. I'm so sorry. It's okay, it's fine. And if you have a bill of the week for us, like a bill that maybe plays you know, hearts or spades or a card game or whatever. Uh, not to say, is not a card game, but that's just the first thing I thought of, Please go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Leave us a bill. We are a few months behind in playing them, so if you've

left one you haven't heard it. It will get on here. I promise we'll get it. Yeah, we'll get there. And now it's time for m Okay, we're going to talk about our best and worst dates. What are we starting with best dates or worst dates? Best? Okay, let's start with our best because our worst is probably any funnier. All right, you go first. Okay, So I have not been on many dates. I will disclose this. Before I started dating Travis, I had had one two serious boyfriends,

and they weren't even very serious us. Uh, they lasted a couple of months each. Granted, I only dated Travis for eleven months before we got married. So that's that's my relationship history in a nutshell. But I will say that our first date was probably the best just because of the feet, Like how excited I was. UM we went to a UM so we kind of had two first dates. Our first first first date was we went to a bar and got a beer, and this is where I found out Travis was a lightweight. He got

tipsy after one beer because he doesn't drink. But then we were by my office, so we actually went to my office and like he just sat it off until he's sobered up a little. Yeah, and uh, we walked around town and ended up at Denny's. Wow, that's when you knew he was a winner. He's not going to cost you a lot in alcohol or food. Yeah. Well

it made me like questioned a little bit. But at the end, Yeah, the first part was like I don't know if this is if I'm gonna have to let I picked him up from his house because he didn't have a car. He only had a motorcycle and then he get tipsy after one beer, and I was like I don't know if I but so, was this your best date? Well, so our next day, which was actually like he's like, let me take you on a proper date.

I still drove and we went to a very nice restaurant and then we went to a bonfire at my friend's house and that was pretty great. Mm hmm, that's awesome. I wasn't even thinking about other relationships. I'm only looking at this through the lens of my husband. Best and worst states. It's probably for the best. We'll keep it there. Both of these are from from Travis, right, Yeah, but I was thinking about other dates too, and I'm like, I can't. I can't remember them because they were like

so long ago and so brief. Yeah, yeah, we'll just I'll stick with We'll stick with our current. They're current people, so are forever people are people. Okay, so our best date, Holy smokes. I still like wish I could relive this day. And that's the thing. Sometimes these are hard to relive. But we found ourselves with like a Saturday afternoon and there there's a really actually believe it or not, in Pennsylvania.

There's a beautiful road kind of along a river, and really nice homes and farmland along that road, wineries that kind a thing, and so we intermittently did yard sales and garage sales along with wineries and wine tours and free tastings. Ended up in this cute little town, had lunch there, got root beers, walked around. It was just like this progressive date. That was the best date. Both of us still look back to like that day in French Town and going yard sales and garage sales and

the wineries and walking around this cute town. It was just amazing. And we've we've tried to recreate it. It's not been as good. I think part of that was because it was a spur of the moment kind of thing. We didn't know where the day was going to take us. We just kind of started driving down this really pretty road and found some really cool stuff. That's awesome. Yeah, we did a lot of yard sales and garage sailing and thrift ng together. We did that with you in Pennsylvania.

Did think that was one of our best double dates? Yes, so let's talk about worst. Yeah, go for it. So, um, I have one written down here, but so I think our our worst date, I won't go through that. But it was actually a vacation. Um. We went to Bali and we what should have been like the super romantic

like series of dates. What the whole time was pretty miserable because each of us were sick at different points, so he would be sick and up all night, and then I would get sick, and then we would be sick together, and then it would have flipped flap like. We ended up in the doctor's office and Travis got this huge thing of like earwax taken out of his ear, and he was like all flemy because he wouldn't wear a mask while he was riding the scooter and all

of the exhaust like made him just like so miserable. Um, I got food poisoning. We both got food poisoning at the same time when we were doing a cooking class like a day long cooking glass and getting food poisoning. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and then I had it home mm hmm. I got it again on the flight home. Um. And it was the worst vacation I've ever tad. He

lost his wallet, Like we drove. We started one place in Bali and we drove um, oh my gosh, to three hours north and realized when we got there that he left his phone and wallet in the other place. Like attached to the charger. So there was just a series of like unfortunate in events the whole time we were there. But it was it was pretty It was just like the absolute worst. And I had originally wrote down that a kayaking date that we were supposed to

take that totally botched. We got my mom to watch kai and we went up there. We drove up there, and then there wasn't any more spots, like we couldn't put our kayak in the river. Yeah, and we were going with this other group and they had like taken forever to get ready, so we would. We drove an hour up there. We waited an hour with these people. We drove up to the river every and then kept waiting and then eventually waited so long there was no time or no more spots. Yeah. But I think being

sick multiple times in Bali, oh gosh, really wins. That stinks, especially on vacation and when you're international, it's tough to Yeah, I feel comfortable and you just want to enjoy it. That stinks, Um my worst date. There's probably others, but these two words. And I feel like I've heard about this. I feel like as we were going through the list. I remembered this one. Uh so when we had two cars, which we are down to one vehicle now, and I

couldn't be more pleased. But we've always pretty much had a stick shift vehicle and an automatic vehicle, and I drive the automatic. Eric drives the stick, and I just have not learned. Like his work truck was a stick, so I had no reason to drive his work truck around. And then he got this other vehicle and the clutch was super difficult. Even people who drive manual vehicles are like, this clutch is awful. This is not a good one

to be learning on. I had learned when I was younger, but yeah, I never had a vehicle that was stick, so it never stuck. Anyhow, one day I was like, enough of this. I need to be a capable, competent woman, and I need to know how to drive this other vehicle. I would sometimes even have dreams where our stick shift vehicle was the only vehicle available to me, and like Eric was in some sort of medical emergency, and I like I couldn't get him to the hospital because I

didn't know how to drive sticks. Anyhow, I was like, we're learning, you're teaching me. I'm learning. Uh, And I was like, this will be fun. Like it'll be it'll be like cute, you'll teach me how to drive and like everything, I'll be great, and then I'll know it was awful. I'm like, not even kidding. Um. Eric's like, yeah, I'm never trying this with you again, and I was like, yep,

you are never trying this with me again. I mean, like I said, the clutch was awful, so it's not a great car to learn on, but also like my patients level with him and the way that he was trying to teach me, it just did not It did not work. It was kind of like The Notebook, only not the cute parts of that movie, just like where he's trying to teach her and she's freaking out. It was kind of like that. So maybe teaching your partner

something right, a great exact date idea. It's like, it's like I think that it is, which is why I picked it out of that that list. And then it dragged my memory on one of my worst experiences with my spouse and we never did it again. We tried it, Uh, maybe it bonded us in some way, and now we're never doing that again. Yeah, it taught you something which is important, but you don't need to learn that lesson. Again, I did. I did learn something, just not how to

drive stick. Yes, So I hope, we hope that you have found this episode helpful. Um, whether you're single, dating, married and you're looking for waste the same, or you're just bored. I don't know, maybe you just want to, you know, some ideas on stuff to do. I hope that you have gotten some ideas from the last fifty four minutes. And uh yeah, so thanks so much for listening you guys. We were so grateful for all of your listens and all of your reviews. Your kind reviews

on iTunes and Stitcher like this one. It comes from DVF. It's titled Podcasts for Real People. It is five stars. They say entertaining, informative, and keeps me motivated. Often, budgeting or financial podcasts are dry and boring, and the advice they give is unrealistic for the average person. I have received so much practical advice and love that is hosted

by women hashtag girl power. Yeah, we are women hosted by women for women and not robots for real people, but men can listen to because women don't only need to talk to women, they can also talk two men. Yes, so true. And we also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media. We try and reshare them on our Instagram. So keep doing that, because for every five tags and reviews we get every month, we are giving away a free copy of the Frugal

Friends workbook What What? So keep leaving us those reviews on iTunes, are Stitcher and send us a screenshot of that review to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com. We need a way to verify that you've reviewed us um and then that also enters you into that drawing for the workbook, and also tag the most recent episode on social We'll see you next week. Happy Dating. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. Well, what's the date you're going to go on soon with Travis?

I would really like to go to the new Pier in St. Petersburg. We've visited it and I run there all the time. But it's got a really pretty restaurant and a really cool tiki bar on the top. So you know me, I want to go to the tiki bar. Yeah, and since I live in St. Pete now, too. I also want to check out the new here. Honestly, I think the tiki bar is a better double date idea. It reminds me me of Jimmy Bees, but instead of the beach, it's the bay. Let's do that, let's date.

I know our most of our best dates are double dates because we spend so much time together that we love like spending time with other people. And whenever we go somewhere like all inclusive or cruise like, we're always like connecting with other people and hanging out with them.

So that's kind of like our thing. Dates are with other people, and I think, um, it shows a different aspect to to our significant others, and I think sometimes you can engage in deeper conversation than what you might do just the two of you when you add another couple in the mix. There's definitely a lot of benefits to it. Yeah, anything that gets us away from Kai for a little bit is like a great date right now in my life. How about you, what do you

want to do now that you're in St. Pete? I mean, the Peers definitely on the list. I know it's new, there's a lot of really cool features to it, so I'm stoked about that. I just want to get downtown, Like it's a spot that I want to explore. So I'm excited to check out some of the new restaurants and happy hours. Eric just got kayaks for us, used kayaks. He did such a good job finding awesome ones at

a cheap inexpensive price. Um So going kayaking on our little by you which is right in our backyard, is something I want to do often. And honestly, though a lot of our time will go to renovations in the very near future, but for us, that's kind of fun.

We enjoy doing that together. Like we just worked on our backyard yesterday together, Like I was digging up stuff from the yard and replanting at other places, and he was mowing the lawn and just passing each other and like giving high fives, or like stopping for a water break or jumping in our um blow up hot tub for a hot minute. Is Yeah, it was just it's a good like we enjoy that kind of stuff, working alongside and yeah, getting projects done. I can't wait to

see the progress. I haven't seen it in almost a week. Yeah, it doesn't feel like much to me, but yeah, you would probably see a difference for sure. I mean, the kitchen is still a dumpster fire, even with like nothing in it and cleaned up. The kitchen is atrocious, which I'm almost grateful for because it gives me like every possible excuse to rip it out and redo it. I can't wait until we just set it on fire, if

it even lights on fire. That's the stuff is so horrid that I don't even know if it's going to allow us to get rid of it that easily. Well, we can always try. Let's try

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