Episode three oh six Frugal Friends Summer book Club four Personal Finance Reads.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your hosts, Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are bringing you four books to pack in your suitcase or into your kindle or into your library audiobook app.
Ooh, so many options for the summer Wow summer. So if you like to read, here's your books. You don't like to read, you're probably not listening to this episode.
But maybe you'll get an audiobook audiobooks for like the podcasts of the book industry and I love them.
Yeah, and they're so available. So many books are into audio books now, which is great.
And again we'll be using our patented technology for choosing book club.
Books, so you know the one.
Sit back, relax and let us fill your ears with some soothing book recommendations.
But first, this episode is brought to you by Frugal Girl. Summer this year, it's all about last year's swimsuit, attending potlucks and free events, and not worrying about the latest fads and diets, because who has time for that. It's a frugal Girl summer where we don't worry about being hot as long as we have ice cubes and the cooler we got from the thrift store in cold water and our reusable spray bottles to cool us down. Speaking
of being cool, life insurance is cool. And if you need some assurance that your family, friends and loved ones can keep enjoying their summers long after you're gone, then check out Ladder and their affordable life insurance plans at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ladder. They actually do have really affordable life insurance. They do.
I actually they don't pay us to say this, we do. You do support the show at no extra cost to you if you sign up through our link, but genuinely they.
Have plans starting at five dollars a month, which is supports that frugal frugal Girl summer.
All aim this year is all about last year's swimsuit. That's probably my favorite. I get you, yeah, that got me all right. So if you love books, if you are on Books to Graham, if you are on book Talk, then this is just another one in our Frugal Friends book Club series. So we've also got episode to sixty seven that was our New Year book club. Two thirty five was our Fall book club, and we do read some of these in our Frugal Friends Club, our private membership.
You can check that out at Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash club. I know that Brittany hosts once a month or every other month some book club meetings using these books. So if these, if we go through these and the sound interesting to you, then check out the club and read it with some other Frugal Friends listeners.
That always enriches the reading of something or the listening of something when you can chat with other people about it, gain their perspectives. It usually can solidify some of the takeaways for us when we've had opportunity to engage in it in a variety of ways.
Absolutely, So, without further ado, let's get into our four books for the summer.
Yes, m s and what is this tried and true tested scientific methods four books.
I forgot to mention our scientific method So our four books, this is the method that we used to choose them. Something old or than five years, something new or than one year something borrowed from our listeners, a recommendation we got from our listeners, and something with a blue cover, And that's that's how we choose them.
It's how we have done all of the rest of our Frugal Friends book club episodes. And it's also how people ensure they're going to have a long marriage, beginning on their wedding day with what they wear.
So clearly tried and true. Tried and true, yeah, we see no fault. So this first one is something old, older than five years, and it is The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist. The full title is The Soul of Money, Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life. And I have personally read half of this book and at the half I read was pretty good. I will be anescensing. I did not finish it, but I did like it.
So the synopsis of this one is that this, they say, this liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes towards money, earning it, spending it, giving it away offers surprising insight into our lives. So through personal stories and practical advice, Lin Twists asks us to discover our relationship with money, understand how we use it, and by assessing our core human values, align our relationship with it to our desired goals,
and doing so we can transform our lives. And that sounds suspiciously similar to what we're doing here.
Yeah, so we think that's a good idea. Yes, I like starting here too. Not that we're not recommending these books in any particular order, but I am glad that this is the first one we're recommending, this something older than five years, because so often we can't shift or change behaviors until we understand some of the deeper roots of what is what's our own personal blueprint for how we make money decisions? What have we learned from our
childhood years, what do we believe about money? Like we have a relationship with money that impacts our life, and so we're not actually going to be able to see real changes in the areas that we want to see them unless we've dug a little deeper, so I think, and I also love that there's so many books on finances, but from so many different perspectives, and they can come together as this chorus of really helpful, useful table tips.
So if this is not something you've ever explored before, and maybe because it's scarier maybe because you just don't know where to start. Then start here, start with a book about how to identify the relationship that you have with money, and then go from there on actually looking at changing some of your behavior patterns and actually implementing some of the other tips that might be talked about in other books.
Yeah, I love there's this top review on the book on Amazon, and it kind of breaks down the goal of the book. So it combines this analytical it's what we call like the math. It brings the math brain along with the like the feeling and emotional brain, and it brings those two together on this topic. And this is a really this person uses a lot of big words, but I think I think we'll stick to using like the the math brain and the emotional brain, and it
brings the two together. And where some people with more of the proclivity to focus on the math can find it almost beneath them to focus on the emotional, bringing that person to understanding and valuing the emotional and then on the other part, the emotional feeling based brain to come into line with the math. So if you have a spouse or a partner or someone in your life that may not understand where you're coming at with your relationship with money. This could be a good read to
kind of combine the two. I won't say their brains are personality types because we all have both, but at least relationships with money, because our relationship with money is typically dominant by one or the other.
Yeah. Again, I think it's worthwhile to go through books like this with others, like you've mentioned John, with a spouse or with a friend. I think when we're digging deeper, it can really especially help to be able to talk it through. So I love the idea of a book club specifically around a book like this that has some of those deeper soul searching exploitations.
And this does make me want to finish the book. I liked it enough in the first half. Gewards like one of those where it's like I'm not learning anything new, I agree with everything. I'm kind of bored. So if you've been doing this, if you've been hosting a frugality podcast for five years, maybe you won't finish it either.
But sometimes when thoughts or ideas are affirmed, it can help us feel solidified in our value system and belief system. It's still important to get outside of that and hear what others are saying. Not just be an echo chamber, but it can be helpful to remind ourselves of why we're choosing a certain direction, why we're living a certain way, and gain another person's perspective on it.
And Brene Brown even wrote a I noticed that an affirmation. What are these things called recommend She wrote an affirmation? Yeah, we did that too. Brene thinks it's a life changing read. With warmth, honesty and storytelling, Lynn turns everything we think we know about money upside down. It's the book we all need right now.
Amazing. All right, the next book something new er than one year. So this one came out real recently. It's called Catching Up to Crypto, Your Guide to Bitcoin and the New Digital Economy by Ben Armstrong and Vulnerability Round. We're not even there yet. I've not read this, neither of them. This is a This is an aspiral item on the book list, like we would want to explore this as well. I'll give the synopsis, then we can talk,
and then I'll tell you about why I add it. Okay, So the synopsis is in Catching Up to Crypto, Your Guide to Bitcoin and the New Digital economy. Celebrated crypto and bitcoin expert Ben Armstrong delivers an exciting and fresh new exploration of bitcoin and digital currencies. He explains what bitcoin is, how it works, and how and why we're
all transitioning to a digital economy as we speak. He discusses the deficiencies of traditional flat currency, how it's commonly manipulated, and how we can all benefit from the adoption of new digital assets. I also there it gave even below the synopsis, like when you choose to read more about the book. I like how they continue to describe it, that it is the hands on and comprehensive introduction into crypto that investors, enthusiasts, the crypto curious, and finance professionals
have been waiting for. I think I would qualify myself under the crypto curious. I'm not so sure that this is something that I feel confident in, or desirous of, or in any way moving towards wanting to invest in crypto. However, I will say that I think I used to write it off, thinking this is going to go away, like, oh, we don't really have to worry about that. It's not tried and tested and probably not the best use of my time, money, energy. I'm going to stick with the
tried and true, which is still true for me. But as there is more conversation about cryptocurrencies and it is not going away, I think I would want to intersect with this book from a learning perspective. Just I think anytime something is around for a while, I want to
know a little bit about it. I think it can be okay to push it to a the side for a bit, but then when it starts to become more mainstream conversation, I don't want to be living under a rock or completely ignorant what it all is, and to be able to speak somewhat confidently about it, to be able to make my own decisions on what do I want to do with my money? Does this seem like a wise decision for me? And I'm not going to be able to do that if I don't know anything
about it. So for me, that would be the reason for intersecting with this book. But Jen, why did you pick it? So?
I think that the technology behind cryptocurrency is something that people should start understanding because I think that is what's going to be important in finance moving forward. People often are recommending that you have the and this is just a general recommendation. This is this was far before cryptocurrency came into whatever, but whatever, the percentage of a currency is moving through like the marketplace is about the percentage that you should have of it in your portfolio. So
that's a more sophisticated portfolio strategy. And bitcoin cryptocurrency is making up about one percent of the currency moving through the marketplace. So if your partner has cryptocurrency, if it's just one percent of your you know, total net worth, that's totally fine. That's great. So it's not so much of a you know, we're going to start doing crypto episodes and be crypto fans. Neither of us personally like owns cryptocurrency that we know of.
I've not told you I've got a second life. Oh no, it's social work and crypto.
Yeah. I mean we're in all market like all equity funds and you know, in Vanguard, so they could have crypto in them. So I don't want to say we don't have any cryptocurrency. But I think more important than crypto bros. Is understanding like the blockchain technology and understanding like what that means for the regulation of money because I think we as consumers, we don't pay a lot of attention to the economy that doesn't apply to us
in the current season. But when we look back in hindsight, there are definitely times where you're like, I wish I had known about that earlier. It would have saved me some pain or heartache.
When the irs is interested in your bitcoin, then maybe it's time to learn more.
So I liked this one. I'm not fully like familiar with the author, but I did do some background research, and I wanted to find a crypto book that was not written by like somebody who is very adamant that crypto is everything, right, yeah, so, and I felt like this person did that, and I felt like a lot of the reviews on the book also said that it wasn't like a pushy crypto is everything, Crypto is the whole future kind of book, but that it was a brief,
like overview, like talk to me like I'm a kindergartener sort of explainer.
That was my impression too, as I read through the synopsis and even looked through some of the reviews. Is it's a really helpful resource for just learning. You don't have to pick up this book with the intention of now I'm getting into crypto. It could be I want to know more about this topic, and this could give a really high level overview of it. And yeah, if you feel more equipped with knowledge.
Or even you don't have to pick it up looking to agree with everything the author says, because he does have some of his own opinions, and you don't personally have to agree. I think being educated. If you're kind of looking for something, if you've read the Save Money, Earn Money, Side Hustle Seven Steps to Financial Freedom books and you're looking for a personal finance book that's a little different, That's why we added this one. It's a
little different. I think it'll give you some good introduction into cryptocurrency, decentralization, trustless commerce, and cryptographic consensus.
WHOA, that sounds right, I see.
Yes, so, uh yeah, it might be a fun read. Next, something borrowed from our listeners. And it didn't really have to be borrowed because I would have recommended this one myself ourselves, but we're glad to have borrowed it from you. It's Clever Girl Finance. The Side Hustle Guide. Build a successful side hustle and increase your income by Bola Sokunbie and we've had Bola on the show. She is fantastic. She has four books out, yeah she is.
She's just crying.
Many books, yes, three are in the Clever Girl Finance series, which is her website, and then one her most recent is just kind of like an almost biographical kind of about her prospering, like her come up, her glow up. So she is fantastic. But you guys are always asking us about side hustles for our I don't know if I told you this. Still for our fifth anniversary episode, we asked our listeners on Instagram for like personal questions about us or the podcast because we thought that would
be fun to like give behind the scenes. And some of the questions were too personal, were great, and we used like we used most of the great ones. Some of them were too personal, and then others were like, what's the best side hustle that's worth them, like worth the time? And I was like, that's not half of you don't care about us.
It's just fine.
Yeah, So if you want to know what side hustles are worth the time, we definitely have a ton of side hustle episodes. We have a whole Frugal Side Hustle series where we bring someone on every other month.
Interviewing people about their side hustle.
But this is a supplemental book that really will tell you the side hustles, how to grow a side hustle to be worth your time, how to choose a side hustle Bolas She is an expert on this and side hustles can be they're a debated topic nowadays. The fact that some people have to use side hustles just to make ends meet isn't always preferable. We would always like it to just be supplement for reaching a financial goal faster,
always a means to an end. But if you are in the period of life where you want to use a side hustle, this book will definitely tell you how to achieve finance prosperity by leveraging a side hustle to
increase your income and build wealth. And I think side hustles are also great for if you're in a job that you're not sure you want to be in long term, not that you hate your job and definitely don't want to be there, but if you think I might want to work for myself, like I think I might want to do my own thing much smarter to start a side hustle and find that out while you're still being paid by someone, then to quit your job, go into debt and realize I hate being my own boss because
it happens so frequently.
Yeah, side hustles have been a huge help for me, but like you're saying, hopefully not where we have to set up camp long term, but can also be a great way to determine maybe something that can become your main hustle. I think that's that for me was a big reason for starting all my various side hustles, was hoping that it would eclipse the other thing and become what I could do but not take up a ton of space for me while working maybe a full time job.
But Bula is an expert on this topic, and yeah, talks eloquently about it and writes about it. So if this is something you're considering or you're already in it, there's so many tips for you to get from her.
So yeah, and definitely go back and check our Frugal side Hustle series because we choose those side hustles based on are they low cost to start and is there potential for this to become a full time like, not that it has to be, but there's potential for it to be part time and or full time. So we're pretty picky in the side hustles that we showcase. So that'll be a great supplement if you read this book to give you some ideas on how to execute the information in it.
And last, but not least, something blue or should I say something with a blue cover?
And I'll put a caveat to this. The actual background cover is white, but everything on top of it is blue.
Yeah, it counts when I look at it, I would say, like, blue is what stands out to me? Yes, But what would we have done if it wasn't blue, because we're still going to recommend this.
We would have moved away somewhere else. It would go somewhere crypto.
So true crypto. And it is Money Made Easy, How to Budget, pay off debt, and save money by Alison Baggerly. And I'm just going to jump to the reason why we picked it, and that is because of Alison, but also because this is an incredible book. You know how big of fans of Alison Baggerly we are? And can
I here we go? Here's the synopsis. In Money Made Easy, How to Budget, pay off debt, and Save money, renowned blogger, podcaster, speaker, and founder of Inspired Budget, Alison Baggerly delivers a powerful and effective blueprint to saving, budgeting, and investing your way to a brighter financial future. You'll discover saving income, business and debt reduction tips as you identify your quote unquote
money pattern and break bad habits. And this just sounds completely right up our alley too, So if you just want a handbook, I love how she used the word blueprint to describe what this book is about as a supplement to this podcast, to your own kind of financial planning and personal finance. This kind of encompasses all of the things, and it says it in its subtitle right budgeting,
paying off debt, saving money. And something Alison is known for is blending her own teaching background with personal finance. She's phenomenal at both, and so she has created so many templates which are included with the book, so giving really tangible tips to take away with you and something that you can read and begin implementing right away, which I love, Like Yeah, I love the thinking deeper certainly and identifying my relationship with money and doing all the
emotional mental hard work. But oh my do I also just love someone who gives me a template and tells me what should I do next and how can I tailor that to my personal situation. And so Alison just kind of gives everything that we need all in one place. So highly recommend this one. Alison's great. Can I tell them? Can I tell them? Or is that a secret you can tell them?
Yeah?
I also think Allison's great because she's gonna be my stand in co host when Jen's out on maternity leave, which happened the last time Jen gave birth, So it's like old hat for us. But you'll hear more from Alison on the show in just a few weeks. She'll be a stand in co host, and I'm sure we'll be talking more about her book a bit. Yeah. I'm excited about that.
Yeah. I've been like on the other side of the screen for gosh over a year as Alison has written this book and has really put hours and hours of effort. Many people will not know this because I did not know this until last year, that eighty percent of books are ghost written. So eighty percent of the books that you read, especially by people with big names, are ghost written, meaning they are not written by the person whose name is on the cover and wrote her book. It is
in her voice, it is all her. So if you love her on Instagram, you will love this book. And we try to include just a basic personal finance book with every book Club. I think last time it was Ramit Setti's book, I Will Teach You to Be Rich. So this time around, this season, it is Money Made Easy.
And I am very excited for you all to read this book, especially if you're looking for something that's just general, basic, if maybe you're new to the show and you don't want to dive into crypto right now, if you're like not ready to dive into like turning a side hustle into a wealth building, wealth generating vehicle, if you're looking for something that's a little broader than that, then this is the book on the list for you.
And I love the final sentence, Money Made Easy takes the mystery and jargon out of personal finance and offers you the guidance you need to transform transform your money
once and for all. And that's just what I want to see in the personal finance space is taking the mystery and jargon out of it so that it can be approachable and we can feel confident in the decisions that we're making in Alison is a friendly face and voice in this space to be able to do that break it down in a really understandable, digestible way.
Yeah, and she has so much empathy for people from all income backgrounds. And she was her and her husband were both teachers when they paid off over one hundred thousand dollars of a debt, so they know what it's like to not be making six figures and try and pay off six figures of debt. So she has a lot of empathy and that makes the book really relatable. It's got checklists, templates, stuff for you know, balancing your
your credit card debt and getting through that. So yeah, and she's just she's not like a super extreme frugal person who is like, give up everything to pay off your debt. She likes to spend money when we are together, she is the one that wants to spend the money, but I I will follow. She knows how to have a good time, and I will follow and I will have that good time with her.
But she does give good advice.
Absolutely, She gives it out of experience, like she gives it out of knowing what it's like to be a teacher paying off debt, who also loves Target and Starbucks.
And I cannot get on board with no two things. So love Alison, but there.
Might be a little ten she'll cannot get on board with teachers, no Target and Starbucks.
For the rapper, I realize I have an unpopular opinion.
Yes, but spoiler alert, And you should ask Alison about this when she comes on. Is about her her current feelings about Target's clothing. Now, oh yeah.
I love a hot take.
Yeah, she'll have a hot take for you. All right, So let's just recap these books before we go on. We've got four of them for you. Let's count it down. One The Soul of Money by Linn Twist. If you are looking for kind of more in the psychology range, more in the mental emotional, that sort of thing relationship with money, this is going to be the book for you. This summer two. Catching Up to Crypto by Ben Armstrong.
If you are kind of tired of all the other personal finance books out there but you want to learn more, this is going to be the book for you. This Summer three Clever Girl Finance The Side Hustle Guide by Bulasa Kunbi. If you want to start a side hustle this summer, but you don't want to just do Instacart or Uber Eats or something like that. You want it to be worth your time and potentially allow you to
leave your current career, but not necessarily. This is a book for you this summer four Money Made Easy by Alison Baggerley. If you are looking for a broad overview of personal finance, something you can sink your teeth into and really hold onto as your money patterns your stuff like that and more and more stuff, this is the book for you. It's a Frugal Summer Girl Summer Girls. You keep all these books on Amazon on Amazon Library.
Some of them will be definitely the Linn Twist one. Right, So, Frugal Girl Summer.
You know what else is a part that I want to be a part of my frugal Girl summer That should be every week, but it's also a part of my winter, spring, summer and.
Fall, Winter, spring, summer and fall.
That's all you can sing the bill 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 Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That billalow bills bill claim. This is the bill of the week.
Hi, Jen and Jill. Thought I would hop in here for the bill of the week. Since I've started listening to you guys, I've made a ton of really great changes in my financial life and have really been building financial health, which is super exciting. So I think you, thank you, thank you. I wanted to share as well that I have been negotiating a little bit and working on adjusting bills that I thought I wasn't able to
adjust before. So one example of that is recently I had a subscription for service that I realized I didn't need any more, and I meant to cancel it before it renewed the following month because it was a monthly bill and I forgot so instead of kind of wallowing that and letting it be, I actually reached out to the company explained that I just meant to cancel it, I won't be using it for the month that I had just paid for, and asked if there was anything
they could do. But then like thirty seconds that you're refunded it to me, I never would have thought to do that before listening to you guys, never would have had that confidence or thought that anyone would help that way.
So thank you, thank you, Akasha. I'm so glad that you were able to have a the confidence and B you don't know what you don't know and so you know it now and you tried it.
Well. That's the thing how knowledge can give us confidence. Knowing and learning and hearing from others their stories of what worked and what didn't can help us feel more confident to do things like this. And I also just want to comment on your phrase building financial health. I just love that terminology, and I'm so glad that you were in this entire journey. And this is just one aspect and one example of how you're working towards financial
health and feeling more confident. And what a great tip because I think so often this can happen for people, is they forget about a subscription, or they accidentally pay for something, or they purchase something on a whim and then realize I don't actually want that anymore. But it just seems easier to let it go than to get that money back, that hard earned money back. And yes, this is often the case, Like we accidentally pay for a subscription, we don't plan on using it. We can call,
we can ask. The worst thing a company will typically do is give you like a pro rated amount back. I've never had it where they say no, we can't refund you anything. So it's worth calling, it's worth asking, And I'm so thrilled to hear the confidence that you experience inside yourself to do it. That's my biggest takeaway from your bill. Well, if you all listening, have a bill that you want to submit, if it has anything to do with building your confidence or bill ding your
financial wealth health. WHOA, I never put that together that like play on words.
Building financial health, mental wealth.
Just if you are bilding something or you are a bill, just Bill, be a bill, leave us the Bill. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We are so excited for it.
If you know Bill Curtis.
And now it's time for round.
I am so pregnant.
Yeah, this is like the last episode we're recording before Jen gives birth to a baby.
So here we are.
This is vulnerability and its finess. All right, Jen, I'm gonna ask you the question you answer first. Are there questions you ask yourself after finishing a book to reflect or better understand, slash absorb what you read.
I asked myself a lot of questions while I'm.
Reading The Boom Say more so.
The last nonfiction book I read was from our last book club, is The Lazy Genius. I can't so I think we put the Lazy Genius kitchen on it. But I just read The Lazy Genius way. I have not made it to kitchen yet, so I really She prompted a lot of questions throughout the book, and I think nonfiction books do that. So by the end of it, I've kind of I'm kind of like thinking, Okay, what's my what's my one takeaway? Because I don't want to
have ten takeaways from a book. I just want to have one so that I actually start acting on it. So that would be with nonfiction. With fiction, I will also ask myself questions throughout the book, but for different reasons, like why is this happening? What the author trying to do? Yeah, no, it's not about me. It's like what is going on?
What is the point of this because there's always like some kind of foreshadowing that's in there, and you don't realize it's foreshadowing or like forward casting or whatever the term is until something has already happened and you're like, oh my gosh, that's why that happened. So I'm always asking myself like is this important? I just tried, and I tried. I did not get through the first I got maybe through the first chapter of the Colleen Hoover book It Ends with Us, which is this like big
New York Times bestseller. I got through the first chapter and I'm like, what is the point of this book if this is the first chapter?
And so are you gonna get us cancelled with this question?
No, No, I don't think so. I just didn't get it, Like it didn't pull me in. And I'm not usually one to quit after one chapter. If I'm it's like a sitcom, like if the first episode, if the pilot isn't the best, I'll give this second episode a chance. Sure, I got into the second chapter of this book and I was like, it hasn't gotten better, and maybe I'm just a little outside my genre. There's been some death, but no murder, and that's the thing that but I
don't always need murder. So, yeah, I'm sorry. Tell me if I'm missing something. I won't be able to say right, no, not you, Jill, but you listening. Tell me if I if I've missed something, if I should go on when it gets good, or if maybe I should try it book.
Do you read a lot of fiction?
Yeah? I listen to audiobooks. I'm an audiobook girl.
Yeah we know this. Yes, I listen to a lot of fiction.
Yeah. So I'm always trying new things. I forget I think, well, I'm not like twenty books a year. I'm like maybe six books a year is where I'm at.
Yeah.
Yeah, so like one book every other month?
Good for you? So is that blended in? Okay, this is my question. The first question was Goldie's question, and she's great, and now here's mine. Do you blend fiction and nonfiction at the same time? Do you go every other every other complete a book, keep going? How do you work it? What's your strategy?
I know I don't do two books at a time. I can't. I do not love books that much to where I'm like, I've got three books going at a time. I'm more of a like complete one, move on to the next kind of girl, and I think I do. I don't do it on purpose where I go every other, but I will interchange them like every other, but maybe not, you know, religiously.
How do you decide I deserve fiction now? I don't know.
It's mostly just like I got a recommendation off of like books to gram.
Because to me, fiction does feel like a luxury, like I have to earn that, and I never have. I've never earned fiction. I can't tell you. I think the last time I read a fiction book I was in middle school. There's just so many other things to read and learn before I can let myself engage in something like that.
I don't know. So the reason I'm not like doing fiction books all the time is because I'm listening to podcast series too, so I interchanged them. I'm like, I'm always listening to something. It's just not always a book. Sometimes it's a podcast series. So when I gave up on the Colleen Hoover book, I started what is it from Tenderfoot? It is undetermined? So this is a murder mystery series.
I just do love those just started that, not just death murder too.
Yeah, yeah, I do so. And then before that I listened to one on a potential cult leader. I think we might have talked. We talked about this on our fifth anniversary special, the guy who I think Rommy or Roomy or something who was maybe a cult leader, but it's debatable, right. I love those, the ones that are ambiguously So. Yeah, it was my turn to do an audio book between podcasts, but I just couldn't. I couldn't get into it. Yeah wow, So yeah, Jill, So.
The original question, are there questions you ask yourself after finishing a book to reflect or better understand what you just read? And I would agree with what you've said, Jen, I will ask myself what is my one takeaway from this book? Because I don't want to walk away with many things, but I also don't want to walk away with nothing, So what is going to stay embedded with me? But I will also ask myself if someone were to ask me to give a synopsis of this book, what
would I say? I think that's another kind of go to internal question. I asked myself, like, how would how would I define the book? What would I say about it? Yeah?
That's how you know, that's a test of really knowing something is can you distill it down into like a one sentence synopsis. It's a really good test.
Usually it's like three sentences.
For me.
Wow, Yeah, I'm not great at tests. I'm better at papers. Good. That's why I went into social wordia.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for listening. We hope that you are inspired to add a book to your summer reading list, hopefully nonfiction, but maybe fiction as well. Maybe you want to give the Colleen Hoover book a try.
Who knows, but many of you know. We have a membership for our listeners who are paying off debt, where we do monthly money challenges, offer accountability groups, and we even go through these books inside the membership, not all of them, but our members will kind of vote on which ones they want to read, and then those are the ones they'll read together. So we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This comes from Jocelyn. She says, freaking pets, can't live with them,
can't live without them. I was paying thirty to thirty eight dollars a month for pet insurance the last five years and didn't need it until last year for massive dental cleaning and seven Teeth extracted, my premium jumped up to seventy two dollars monthly. I just called to renegotiate it a couple weeks ago and got it back down to a round forty but limited the coverage. Considered canceling it all together, but was pretty sure something crazy would happen once I canceled it.
Jocelyn, what done again with the negotiating? You don't know unless you ask, And sometimes these companies just make decisions hoping you're not paying attention, But not our frugal friends, listeners and club members. You all are paying attention. And good for you for keeping it because clearly it's needed. And anyone who I've talked to who has been able to secure pet insurance has really loved it because those circumstances arise and if you don't have it, you are
paying out of pocket. So so glad you got it back down to a reasonable monthly amount and that you were able to take advantage of it.
Yeah, great job, So thank you for listening. If you want to check out our membership where we have tons of members just calling in to quote unquote negotiate. Sometimes it's just asking questions and explaining it doesn't have to be this board room kind of back and forth thing that sometimes people think it is. So if you want to learn how to do that, then check out Frugal
Friends podcast dot com slash club. We've got courses, interviews, challenges, and more and we would love to see you in there.
See you next time.
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
I also did this recently too. Are you still recording? Yeah, I can talk about it. I pre paid, okay, I got a service done, and then they were offering this package deal where you could pre pay for future services.
So cryptic and.
Go on and then, but it was they were only offering the deal there if you were to purchase it right then and there. Of course, you couldn't get that same deal if you were to decide later on and think about it. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. And usually I'm very good at being like no, thank you, but with this particular service, I was like, that might be really helpful, and this sounds like a good deal. Your face, I'm not going to look at you while I tell this story,
so I wish I did. I will in the blank let your mind run wild, and then I discovered that I did not like the results of this service after having got I paid for it one time, then pre paid for the package that was to come that I could take advantage of. But then I realized that the one service I did get, I did not like the results of it. But oh no, I've already prepaid and I'm not gonna lie. There was a part of me that just thought, I don't feel like going back to
this person and asking for my money back. I might just let it sit, or maybe I will go back to them and get the services, even though I'm not super pleased with it, because I already paid all this money and it's a person who's running a small business, and I don't want to ask for my money back from this small business owner. But then I realized I have legitimate reason to ask for this back. I was
not pleased with the service that I got. I'm not asking for a ref on what I've already taken advantage of, but I don't want to utilize what I've already prepaid for. So I sent an email, ended up even talking with the person on the phone. Because they're a small business owner, they wanted to know if they could have improved anything or if there's any way to keep me And it
ended up being a super kind conversation. But they did refund my money, and now I feel so relieved and lessons continuously learned even after five years of this podcast. Even if it was something that, Okay, I will probably pay for this service again in the future, not from them. So it was a decent idea to get a prepaid
package at a discounted rate. But what I didn't consider in that moment was let me see how I like the service that I've received, Because there's you know, to give time, whether you're talking a haircut or nails or whatever, any other type of service that you might get, give it time to think it is okay. It is not worth the little bit of extra money you might save to put space in between a big decision like that prepaying for a package in the moment where there's the
sense of urgency. So note to self, even if it's something that I think I'm going to engage in, to give it time to see. But do I like what I've already received.
And then it's still going to be worth what you're paying for it, even if you pay a little more for it.
That's so true