Frugal Friends Book Club: 4 Books to Read This Fall

name is Jill. And if you are an O G Frugal Friends listeners, you will remember that we used to have the Frugal Friends book Club and everyone says bring it back, yep, And it was a new book we would read every month and we would usually have the author on and we are bringing it back. We're bringing it back in this way you mean with this episode. Yes, we're bringing it back. And so we're gonna let you know the books that are coming up on the you know, we're going to say all four today and some of

them will be on the podcast. It's tb D all of them because there's four. So we we picked them based on what we wanted to read, not who could come on the show. But we're hoping, we're we are attempting. And you know, I'll say this disclaimer. I do read, but mostly things related to the mental health field, so I'm not much of a fiction reader or anything that is not mental health and has helped me to gain and maintain my licensure. I just don't have too much

time for additional reading, so I'm here for it. But there's been episodes in the past that were primarily for me, and there's episodes that are primarily for Jen. This one falls under the latter category. Jen is much more of an expert on the new and up and coming books and what's out there and what's the best thing to

read for personal finance and other self. It's so funny because I do like reading, but I looked through my bookshelf in preparation for this episode, and I'm like, yeah, none of this is going to be relevant to percent of people out there. So I'm gonna let Jen do the picking and most of the talking, and I'm here for it. And you know, I'll read one of these. We'll get into it. Yeah, don't feel pressured to read all four. But these are just yeah, just the ones

we're throwing out. So but first, this episode is brought to you by the Library. Library is here. You might have forgotten about Library with all the audible ads you're hearing on podcast hashtag not sorry. Thank you Amazon for paying my bills. UM library wants you to know she is here for you and your book needs. She's got paperback, hard back, audio books, even kindle books. Thank you again Amazon.

So before you go to a big box retailer or online store, look for your books on the library website and or app. And if you go in person, ask your library or give him a call. Ask your librarian what perks you get outside of free books? Library? Consider those late fees and investment in your book borrowing future. Thanks library, Well, we do remember you forgotten. I went in person to the library to get my library card and they were so excited to see a real human

being walking into the library. Library they have here more often and libraries, I know, we talked about this all the time. But they also often offer free tickets to local museums. So there's so much to be ad at your local library. Check out your library. You consider those late fees and investment in your future. M h. Well, if you're looking for an episode to cue up after this, you can pretty much cue up any episode from the first two years of the podcast and see what books

we were reading. UM. But there's also episode fifty four, which is frugal hobbies. What to do with your free time. Reading is definitely one of those, but there are ton tons of others. But I would like to get into the way that I picked the four books we are reading this because how else do you pick four things when you have the when the world is your oyster,

how do you pick four of anything? And so I went back and I said, well, obviously it's got to be something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. It's how you get dressed for your wedding day, and it's how you pick your books. Yes, so we have we have something older than five years old. We have a book that's newer than one year old, so less than one year old. We have something borrowed from either one of our friends or from our listeners suggestions. And

then we have something with a blue cover. And that is the only requirement for the last book is that it must have a blue cover and be relevant to money. Like these are all in the realm of what you'll hear on the show, so there's no like random random books. They are all going to be relevant for our listeners. So again, this is a this is what's coming up for book club some of these. Jen has read some of them, she hasn't. None of them I've read. So

I'm just being transparent about that. And but here's why we picked them and some of why we want to read these books. So the first one starting us something old or older than five years, not that old. It's the Behavior Gap, Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money by Carl Richards and just a quote from the book about the Behavior Gap. How they present this, this literary piece of work is it's not that we're dumb. We're wired to avoid pain and pursue pleasure and security.

It feels right to sell when everyone around us is scared, and by when everyone feels great. It may feel right, but it's not rational. And so kind of talking through some of the mindsets and behaviors around why we do the things that we do, like why we want to read this book, why we picked this book is that you know, we've all had those moments of asking ourselves, why do I keep doing this thing even though it's

not good for me? Or I keep saying I don't want to do this thing, yet I keep finding myself doing that thing, engaging in the behaviors that I say, aren't life giving to me? Why am I doing that? And again, as the as the book said, it's not that we're dumb. It has to do with some of those deeper wirings and experiences, and so the book will break that down more and particularly as it relates to

spending and mindset and behavior. We love it when when we're able to identify where those crossovers are and just understand ourselves better so that we can live in a more beneficial way in all aspects of life. So that's the behavior gap. We're going to get into that one. Again, it's by Carl Richards. Anything else you want to say about that, John, Yeah, I'll just say read some of like the other topics that are in the book, because

that's what kind of made me pick it. So not just so we won't just talk about you know, investing, like the tendency to buy high and sell low, which which is important. I know a lot of people new to invest saying do have the question like when we hit the bear markets, like should I stop investing? Should I sell something? And this is going to help you figure out like the wiring behind why you were there.

But to avoid the pitfalls of generic financial advice to invest all of your assets, uh so including time and energy. So we say a lot of the time, like for frugality, it's not just being a good sort of your financial resources, but also your time, your energy, your physical space. So this goes into that as well, So investing all of your assets as he calls it, as well as savings, investing all of your assets more wisely, to quit spending money and time on things that don't matter. I think

that's the time portion. Is another thing we don't look at a lot is we will overly focus on the spending money portion, but look not paying as much attention is how can we quit spending time on things that don't matter? Um, you'll identify your real financial goals, start meaningful conversations about money, which I also I'm very interested in simplify your financial life and then stop losing money.

So I really really like this. So this is what Carl Richards writes a blog for The New York Times where he's famous for his very simple drawings that illustrate um financial concepts. And so this is definitely one that I would try to get the paperback or hardback version of so that you can see those drawings versus the audio book version, or or get both and listen to the audio book, but but have the actual book like in front of you or with you. So that is

my recommendation for that one. Then next we've got something new, newer than one year. So this one came out this year, and I know a lot of you are fans of this podcast, but it's the Lazy Genius Kitchen. Have what you need, use what you have, and enjoy it like never before, by Kendra Dachi of the Lazy Genius Podcast. Uh, and I'm just getting into her. I'm just getting into

her podcast, I guess, but I also into her. But yeah, like I am very impressed by her philosophy on life and it's very much how we view frugality to It's like being genius in the things that matter and being really lazy in the things that don't, but like still need to get done. And so like that's her whole philosophy. And that's what we love too, is being really efficient and really smart in the big things that matter and

just getting through the things that don't. So that's I mean, that's the principle, like kind of rebranded um and this is just focused on that concept in the kitchen. So this is everybody's asking how to save money on food? And I really think it just comes down to which strategies you use. Is finding a strategy that works for you. And so I think this and I haven't read it yet.

I haven't read any of these books yet. These are books I want to read, but having the like just introducing one more strategy for this, So I'm really excited to get into this one. It's super practical to this. This is an exciting book. If I were to pick one from the list, it might be this one or the next one that we're about to read off. But like you're saying, Jen, everybody's wondering, how can I streamline in my kitchen? And what can I be doing better?

What am I missing here? How can this be more enjoyable it or ease less food waste, yummy stuff like and this just seems like it has hits all of those categories. So I love it when there's just a practical book like this that really does solve a problem. And we know food, we love food, we eat food every day, and it still poses so many issues and barriers for us, especially as it relates to our wallets, and I love that this isn't a recipe book. This

isn't a book. This is an actual like book about how to make it easier to eat the food you have at home. Like that's all we're looking for, right, So some of what the book will teach you is to name what matters to you in the kitchen. So whether that's flavor, convenience, or something else entirely, I think

that's super important. Everyone's going to value something else in like something different in the kitchen, and so so for me, for instance, like I'd love to be this like very good cook and like enjoy making these very cool things, but it's not me, like I just convenience. It's convenience for me. So to be honest with myself about what matters to me and what I value and not try and be someone else or like someone what Instagram or social like any social media is telling me is better

is super important. So I really resonate with this. Some other things the book will teach is to feed your people with efficiency and ease UM apply a simple, actionable, five step process to multiple areas of your kitchen, empowering you to enjoy your kitchen the way you've always wanted, and she she lays out the five step process prioritize, essentialized, organized, personalize, and systematize, And she says, you don't need magical recipes,

fancy gadgets, or daunting lists to follow to the letter. You just need a framework that works, whether you're cooking for one or for twenty. And so this sounds very cool to One of the things I appreciate about the standards of new books coming out. I think this has always been a relative standard is what gaps exist oftentimes when when books are published and written, it's because there's

a gap in the information. Similar with research that is done, there's a gap we don't we don't know what we don't know, and someone needs to write on it, someone needs to research on it. And this is a very clear gap. We've got plenty of books out there filled with recipes. Yeah, we don't need another cookbook, but how do we work in the kitchen. Many of us just jumped to the cookbook, but we don't know how to move about and make the most of that space and

our appliances. And so yeah, for so many reasons, I'm really excited about that perspective. Okay, the next category something borrowed. This is borrowed from our list inners recommended, but you know we're going with the theme. So the Conscious Closet, The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good by Elizabeth L. Klein, and the reason we picked this one.

It came out in two thousand nineteen, but under unlike other things that came out pre pandemic, it is still relevant and we're coming to learn more and more about how cheap clothing does cost us a lot. It's not just about the price tag on the clothing, but how it was made and how long it's gonna last us.

So whether we're impulse buying clothing on sale or buying clothes that don't last, changing the way we buy clothes will not only save us money in the long run, but it will better the lives of even the people who are making the clothing. So as we become more astute to the practices of the clothing industry and fashion industry, I think it does bear way on the choices that we make. We are then responsible for. Okay, how do we pair our understanding and some of the changes and

shifts we want to make with a frugal mindset? As well, and the two can go hand in hand. Of course, there's offshoots of ways that we can spend tons of money on our closets and by doing good, but I think there's this really nice pairing where we can be conscious consumers and live frugally and values based. So I'm

really excited about this book as well. Again, I think it speaks to that practical level of how do we shop sustainably and in an eco friendly way, in a way that cares for the people who have actually set their hands to making our clothing. Um, So I think this is another needed one that solves another problem that we have and and not just learning more about the fashion industry, but okay, what can we do brings it down to that micro level and how do I engage

with this very necessary item? I need clothing? But how can I do this in a sustainable way? Yeah? I so, I am physically borrowing this book from our friend Lisa, Lisa Rowan, who you will remember from the Money Hacks episode, And so that's why this is this is the first borrowed book of this round of the Frugal Friends book Club. But I did ask you guys for recommendations, and you guys had a lot of good ones, and so they

will be making them on future book Club episodes. But I really am excited to read this one, mostly because of the review. So I didn't want it to be like somebody just telling me by ethical brands that are like hundred dollars a shirt and then just buy fewer of them. But I wanted like other alternatives. So the very first review was like, absolutely amazing read. Because of this book, I now wash my clothes differently, I buy differently,

I store differently, and I repay air more. The book teaches you how to do simple repairs and what techniques to use while testing clothes in the store before buying. And then someone else said, quote unquote, closet contentment is what I'm seeking after a big project in the coming weeks to weed out my unworn, unattractive clothing. So I

would love to reach some closet contentment as well. I'm like, I'm pretty content with my clothes, but just to have like a a better perspective and more affirmation of why you know, buying used is so important and why I don't buy as many clothes as I think gonna be really motivating for me. Yeah, I think coming out of my twenties where I felt like for me, my twenties was very much a lot of how can I get the things that I want inexpensively sometimes that meant cheaply

and not not really aware. And some of that might have been personal, some of that might have been just the information available to us a decade ago of just yeah, buying the two dollar shirt at the mall and just being so excited that I got a deal, but not thinking about the other aspects and the ripple effects. And I think, you know now that I'm kind of at a sustainable body type and that's probably not going to

change that much. I don't anticipate another growth spurt, and just greater awareness of where are my things coming from and wanting them to last for a while, and seeing the difference between quality and something cheaply made. And I think, just for a lot of reasons, this aligns with personally where I'm at and already starting to take in more information about this. But all right, how does this inform

my spending? So? Yeah, excited about that book? Mm hmmm, alright, so our last book on the book club something with a blue cover, and y'all would be very interested to know there are a lot of books with blue covers, like it is a very common UM cover color. So I was skeptical when I was like, oh no, but how am I going to do this something blue like that I only can choose from blue covers, But I had no trouble choosing. I actually had like three blue covers.

And even like this isn't the only blue cover on the list, the Behavior Gap is also a blue cover.

Uh so multiple no shortage of blue covers. But for this first iteration of bringing back the book Club, UM, we are going with the good Money Revolution, how to make more money to do more good by Derek Kinney, who you will remember we had on the show recently, um talking about your generosity purpose And I mean we picked I picked this one just because, like, aside from the cover being blue, we loved our interview with Derrick Kinney,

like it was really good. Yeah, his perspective on generosity, and I think we talked about that during the interview. How much more we need to have those conversations about being generous, even for those of us frugally minded and maybe even a little bit wanting to hoard our cash. But this is a real aspect of the financial decisions that we make and what can bring about that purpose and fulfillment as we make money. And and it's not to deprivation, it's make more, enjoy life and give more.

So just such a cool perspective and conversation about generosity that I'm sure will be even more expounded upon within this book. Yeah, so this is one that focus is kind of more on, like definitely maybe white collar or business owners or I don't know, it's uh, it's definitely gonna I think he was saying when we were talking with him, like a lot of his clients were making good money, but they just weren't motivated to like do it more like they wanted to retire because they were

just bored in their jobs. And then something that really worked for getting these people re energized and like loving their work again was introducing this concept of generosity and and figuring, Okay, what's your passion, what do you really care about? And how can you invest more in that by making more money in your business. And I think that the same thing can be translated to, you know, just increasing your salary or increasing like the amount of

money you you bring in overall by decreasing expenses. I think, as people who are physically and mentally capable of increasing our incomes, that we kind of have a responsibility to make more money so that we can show better care to those people who physically or mentally cannot increase their incomes,

you know, based on circumstance or season or whatever. And so I think this, I mean it very much challenged me to think outside of, oh, I want to increase my income, so I can you know, buy more stuff that gets old, that is unfulfilling. And while it's nice like his clients surely you know, make enough to cover all of their bills, while a lot of our listeners are trying to make more to you know, pay off debts, say for health stuff like that I still live by.

I think we both Jill and I live by the adage like what you do with little is indicative of what you will do with a lot um. And so while we're not going to be you know, funding you know, entire habitat for humanity houses or or anything like that, like, still showing care to those around us can help us desire to make more money into and know that making more money isn't evil it's not bad. You know, it doesn't turn you into a bad person, doesn't have to turn you into a bad person. And so I think

this book is really made for that mindset. Yeah, well said, you know what, we have proven, we've been able to do a lot with a little You don't need a lot, or to be responsible with the little thing like this, the bill of the week. That's 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. That bill Buffalo bills,

Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. I didn't know where you were going with that. I wanted you to get there, but I didn't know where you were going. You know. It was a bit of a stretch, but you did stretch. I was unprepared for it. You were just actiously waiting. I wanted you to finish. I wanted you to have a win. I don't think I got that. It's okay, it's okay. You can't. You can't add two five episodes. You can't win all two five No, I guess not. But let's see who did win. Hi,

Jen and Jill. My name is Victoria and I'm from Clearwater, Florida. My billow of the week is that I just received word yesterday that my application for overnight summer camp for my daughter was approved. I have been making payments over the last three months, but this scholarship covered the last four hundred dollars. In addition, I also found out about and applied for a local overnight summer camp that is

completely free. I am talking about free. This is going to be the most epic summer for both my daughter and me. Bye, ladies. Oh that's great, Victoria that your daughter will experience the freedom of overnight summer camp. You will experience the freedom of her overnight summer camp for a discounted price. That is amazing. It does sound like an epic summer that you're probably already in the midst of or have just wrapped up by the time we're getting to this. So we thank you so much for

calling in. You're so local to us, and yeah, we we love to hear from local people and folks from Afar and so so thrilled. It sounds like it was a lot of work for you to be applying for

these scholarships and looking into what's available to you. But well done, your work has paid off and you have just done the work of a fantastic mom to get an amazing summer plan for your daughter and hopefully to always worth the work to find out about these scholarships and apply for them, because you never know, like how many people are applying, what the income bracket of the people are applying, you know, unless there's income restrictions, but

like you just never know. And so if you're eligible, apply and you could be giving yourself and your child a much needed break. If you want to submit your bill of the week, whether it's about an epoch summer or a low key summer or no summer it's winter, now visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us a bill, and now it's time for um. This

will be a kind of two part lightning round. Oh right, well, because well one part is going to be vulnerable, but the other part we're just gonna talk a little bit more about how to start a book club. If you want to start, if you want to do the book club with your friends, the Frugal Friends book club in your community with your friends. But first, let's talk a

little bit about fiction. We are going to share. Well, one of us is going to share our fiction book recommendations, and and one of us is choosing our own path. So you gotta do what works for you. Go ahead, John, stick with the script. What's your two fiction book recommendation? Um, well, I don't actually know if it came out in two I don't think it did, but it is. I did read it this year, and it is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I really like Kristin Hannah. I like

all of her books. I still think The Nightingale is my favorite. But I and I really did enjoy The Great Loan and I really enjoyed The Four Winds, so this was just another home run book I did read. Also, I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I enjoyed that one. It was riveting, but it had intimate scenes that were quite graphic for me, and I don't usually get that way, but like it's in books for some reason, it's like worse for me, So I like hate, I

hate those reading about that stuff. But if it doesn't bother you, definitely, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a good read. I cried at the end of both of these books. For Winds, Yeah, it's to audio. Always listen, especially nonfiction books. I only listen to them because they're read so like like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo had three audio narrators for like the actual person that was like, so there's it's into the book is in

two perspectives. But then it also had like these newspaper article, you know, snippets throughout, and so there was a separate person reading the newspaper or magazines. So for for nonfiction, I always do audio because it's just a great experience. Maybe that's also why you couldn't quite handle the salacious. Maybe maybe just in your car driving your kid to daycare.

I don't know, Yeah, maybe that was it. So yeah, so that's those are myne I'll give you two because because I'm going to give you nothing, Well, here you go. I am not up with the times, my goodness, I do not know what books are coming out in so sorry if that's going to bring us both some bad reviews. I'm not super up with the times either, but I do I have to be honest, but I will go along with what you love jen of vulnerability in the Lightning Round. Something lesser known about me is I really

like children's books. I don't know take that how you will assume what you want of me. Maybe it's because it's what's at my reading level, but I find children's books to be super heartwarming, fun. I one of the things, maybe this is getting too deep, I think when we try to explain concepts to children and simplify it, we have to have a really rich understanding of that thing in order to simplify it. It's something I've noticed with

my nieces and nephews. When I have to describe something that feels complicated or nuanced and I try to break it down into kids terms, I have to have a really good understanding of that thing in order to do that. So I think that's a little part of why I like children's books so much, as they're often breaking down concepts into more simplistic terms that I find really beautiful and rich. Obviously, the reading children's books doesn't take up

a whole evening. It's like ten minutes, but that's that's what I enjoy and when I read it to a child. So there's a couple that I would recommend if you're on board with me, you've taken this in a weird direction. No, I'm sure there are parents who would love to hear this. ID love to hear it because I read Powt Patrol books and there's I don't I don't think there are

any hidden meanings. So one of my favorites. I've got a lot of favorites when it comes to kids books, so I know we've only got a little bit of time. But one of my favorites that I actually own is called If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian, and this is one of my favorite ones to read to a child because not only is it just a really beautiful book, but it often then lends itself to a

fun activity. I also love rocks. There's like a funny story that maybe I'll share in the lightning air, like in the after after show about my don't talk about enjoyment. We don't talk about the aftershow. Okay, what after show? What if you stay past the music? There's more so it's just all about the different types of rocks that are out there. Honestly, I don't I don't know that

there's that much metaphor to it. I just I love it and like what you can do with these different rocks, and then you can then have an activity where you go and find different rocks and pebbles and have an adventure with the child that you read that book too. I also really love the book Come over to my house, Come over and play by Dr Seus's classic. I think that too, probably when I was younger, sparked an interest in other people, other cultures, other places, travel and and

just like mutual understanding and respect for others. I think that's a really beautiful book as well that come over to my house, come over and play that concept that like there's a seat at the table for you, and let me show you my way of living, and let me see your way of living, and like a really simplistic way. I could go on and on about children's books. You really have unleashed something for me, but I'll stop there.

Let's talk about the book club. Okay, Well, if you want to start a book club with children or adults, Um, we're just gonna give you some tips from book riot dot com on how to start a book club that doesn't suck. Uh, and so you can read obviously with us. UM will have the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, or you can get people in your real life to read these books with you, which is even better. So the first step, the first tip, is figure out who you're

inviting to your book club. And this will be the most important choice you make because it will affect everything else about your book club, from where and when you meet to which books you read. Obviously we already have a suggestion, but you could just have a two person book club, or you can invite as many people as you want, but think about some people you'd like to read a book with and invite them to read it

with you. And then of course you're gonna want to define the purpose of your book club, Like people want to know what are we showing up here for? What are we get? Like? What purpose are we gathered around? Is it to learn something new? Is it primarily to bond with co workers or friends catching up? Is it

meeting new people? Is it a mixture? I think stating those things like this article says, is going to be helpful so that you all can kind of have a clear picture of why you're gathering together and then decide if you're meeting online or in person. And I will add uh this caveat um not caveat, but I will add A sub step is also um, decide if you're going to name your book club. Uh, so we are

the Frugal Friends book club. But you can always be you know, the Daring Denver chapter or the crazy Cleveland chapter or whatever you want to be. The guy's the limit this guyati. Yeah. So so if you want to meet in person and you going to name it something locally themed, or maybe you want to meet online, and it's just like a you know, we are teachers who can only meet Mondays at five chapter, So obviously you will come up with better names than I than I

have teachers who can only meet at five. I came up with the name Frugal Friends, and I and everything creative out of me ended. After that, I was like, great, did my job. Nothing. Can't do any Taco Bell chapter we only read over tacos. I would join that book, invite me to that chapter. Next is figure out when your book club will take place. Obviously, if you're the teachers that only meet Mondays at five, you've got that figured out. But certainly is it are you doing this monthly?

Are you doing it every other month, is it bi weekly? You know what? What what kind of timing are you trying to give? How much of the book are you intending to read each time? I know some people who do book clubs. It's like a book a month and they meet once a month and they have one time that they meet to talk about that book. But of course you could space it out more if you want to kind of do a few chapters at a time and you're meeting more regularly. That's really going to have

to be the conversation as well, what's availability? When can we meet how often? Yeah, then we'll we'll skip five, which is create a process to nominate books, because we've nominated them for you, so we will go to number six, which is give your book club discussion some structure. So, well, we did tell you what to read, we're not telling

you what to talk about. You can think of some ideas kind of based on like you can listen back to our interview with Derrick Kinney before after you read his book and kind of think of some things to talk about or when we hopefully have other authors on we'll see. But yeah, so the priority is to just give everyone in the book club a voice, make sure everybody can say what they think or ask questions, that

we make this as inclusive as possible. Some of the people in your book club are going to be more introverted than others, and while we don't want to force people to speak when they're uncomfortable, if you're going to attend a book club, you should be willing to say something. So let's go into this with the expectation that we're all here to participate. Some obviously will participate more than others.

But take a chance, be bold and go and say what you learned, what you loved, what you didn't well, and there is probably going to need to be somebody facilitating the conversation. So whether that's the same person in every meeting that you have, or it's the person who it changes every time, or if you get to a point where you're in a book club where you are nominating the book Boks, maybe it's the person who nominated

that book. A lot of books will have guides for a book club discussion, things that you can ask about the book. But also within this article is a link to some questions that could be asked of any book club within a book club discussion. So if you're not sure where to start. There's plenty on the internet of here's just some generalized questions that often could get the

conversation going about any given book. M Uh. The number seven's more so along the lines of like picking books, like to find a trusted site for book club reviews. That would be helpful if you're picking books. Again, we gave you the book, we tell you what to read. Yeah, So then eight. We've kind of talked about this a little bit thinking about how you will conduct your book club,

and that's down to the facilitated discussion. When, where, how, why, who's hosting it, how are you getting together all those things. So definitely recommend starting a chapter of the Frugal Friends book club in your community. And even if your friends don't know about Frugal Friends, maybe they want to get their financial life together and we're like, hey, join this book club with me, and also listen to this very cool podcast, which is where I got these books ideas from.

And then you've brought and then you've brought a listener into the fold, and that's very cool. Yes, it'll be fun. Well, thank you everyone so much for listening. Many of you know that we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and we offer accountability groups. And we want to take this time to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This one comes from Tenaya. She shared a lot, so we're just gonna pick a few of them because she's really crushing it. But here's

what she said. I found Jen and Jill just over one month ago. The Spending Symposium weekend was my introduct shin to this new way of living and thinking about money. I've made some significant changes just in the past month, and for the first time I have actually analyzed what I did and here's what I found. So again, there's so much more to this list, but here you go. Here's some of what she did. Increased my savings balanced by twenty seven percent this month. Decrease my spending by

eight seven percent this month. Initiated a long term investment portfolio with a professional financial advisor. Opened my employer matching for a one K account this month. Increase my income by this month. Made my first five percent gold toward debt payoff this month. Eliminated eleven subscription slash memberships totally two nine dollars a month savings that it equals that amount of savings, including Amazon Prime, which will save me

untold millions of course of my life. I just kind of and again of it goes on and on an insane amount of progress for one month. I'm not under any assumptions that that could be everyone's story. But you really crushed it. Yeah, we just yeah, well done today. You are absolutely crushing it. And as a long haul tracker, so that so you're not in a normal like nine

to five situation. You're you have like a stressful job and you're still making all this progress and you are really an inspiration to everyone that like anyone can do this. So very very proud of you, and thank all of

you to those who are still listening to us. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to fruital Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge we have coming up next to read the rest of today's list of what all she's accomplished and all of the other big winds and inspiration that's happening over there. Yeah, we'll see you next time. Rugal Friends

is produced by Eric Syrian so Rocks. So Rocks, I have this sensory thing that I discovered at a young age, and it continues on to this day that I really enjoy the sound of pebbles crunching like beneath my feet or beneath tires, Like if you've ever driven really slowly in a campground or a park, you know, where it's like five fifteen miles an hour and it's all kind of like a pebbly road, and the and the pebbles are like crunching underneath the tires. I love that sound.

So at one point, I was probably five or six years old, and I decided did that I wanted to recreate that sound. I was in my backyard and at the time, the house that we lived in had sidewalk in the backyard, and I had a bike. I knew how to ride a bike, and I had collected pebbles, and I made a whole bike trail for myself along the sidewalk in our backyard so that I could ride my bike over the pebbles, so that I could hear the sound of rocks and pebbles crunching underneath my bike.

And who knows how long that took me to like and it was just like a trail, you know, So my bike tires had to stay along this maybe like three inch span of pebbles that I laid out on the sidewalk, and I just kind of like drove over

it just so I could hear the sound. Well, this was at the time when cam quarters existed, the big honkin video recorders that my my parents had that, and my mom knew that she was about to get some good content and pulled out this like twenty pound video recorder up on her shoulder and started videotaping me, six year old me with a little speech impediment. And clearly I had been playing dress up earlier in the day.

I had like red lipstick smeared all over my face and a headband, and I was still like wearing this poofy dress. And and now I was onto the next thing of creating a sensory experience for myself. And now here's the thing. My parents knew that they could get a rise out of me with certain things. And I would often do like what they would call like pitch a fit, like throw a tantrum. Now provoked this sometimes they'd provoke it, and in this certain circumstance they did.

So this is part of the only reason that like I had, like I remember what happened is because of this video. So Mom's like, Jillian, uh, what did you do? And I explained it and she's like, did you think that that was a good idea? And a little six year old means like not to you, maybe, Like this wasn't a good idea to you maybe, but it was to me. And she's like, okay, but you are going to have to pick up every rock, like you're gonna

have to clean this up. And I'm like I know, and she's like no, like you're gonna have to clean up all of the rocks. You have to make sure that there's no more rocks on the sidewalk. And it like starts to click for me that this is a lot of rocks that I laid out and I'm just I'm only six. This feels impossible. How am I going to get every single single rock off the sidewalk? So

I start crying, like every single single walk. I kept saying that over and over every single single walk because I couldn't I had a speech impediment, couldn't say my rs, So it was walk and every single single one and this is going to be impossible for me, and it's all on video. Oh my gosh, if you're really nice to me, maybe that'll be something I charge you to see. It's really your mom listened like a stressful situation out of you know, I know, it really does. Like it

reveals a lot. It reveals a lot about me, It reveals a lot about my mom. It reveals a lot about my upbringing. But you know what I can say, rock now like relatively normally, so we have grown. Yeah, you have. You say all your words very well, thank you, And I do still like the sound of pebbles crunching under my tires and my feet. Did you clean up the rocks? Yes? I did, probably not every single single one,

though it's impossible. It really made an obstacle course. Wow, you're still making obstacle courses in your adult life and still not picking up every single no, not every single single walk, just the important ones, okay. By