Frugal Living Tips For Spring

Spring is in the yang everywhere. Lookover, yes, all, I can sing. So we are going to talk about a few frugal living tips that are unique to spring, but also a few tips for spring. Cleaning your finances. Oh yeah, I mean I did know this. You already hearing it? Yeah, hearing it back again? Sounds really exciting. I'm reinvigorating for it. But first, just around the riverbend, Pocahonnas herself wanted to throw a little sponsorship our way in the form of encouragement.

Spring is just around the riverbend, as we've been saying, and so is hope, flowers, butterflies, sunshine, and good feelings all the things that come with spring, but for whatever might be around your riverbend, it's always a good idea to be storing up some cash in a high savings account like the one at c T currently offering four point zero five percent apy do it for yourself, Do it to yourself, frul friends podcast dot com, slash c i T, store up some money, earned some of that

interest back on it, and be ready for whatever it's just around the rubbbend. Because April showers do bring mayflowers, so you'll want a rainy day fund. Yeah, for the days that it's raining and the days that it's flowering, and then you can use the money for whatever you want. Look at us, and that's all folds. Thanks for listening. No, no,

we are in the seas. We're trying to do a frugal living tips for every season because every season does have its own unique ways that you can save money, and it's it's own unique ways that it costs you more. So we want you to embrace the season you're in by taking advantage of the savings, but also not guilting yourself when you're spending more in a place where less

season you're maybe spending less. So This is our one for spring, and we don't have any other spring episodes, but we do have some other tip episodes like two tens Tips to Live zero waste Frugally, our episode one seventy eight simple Living but make it frugal. We just did another simple Living episode. So yeah, these are things

that are great to embrace in the springtime. But we are going to get into some articles, specifically faux spring in So this first one comes from the House and Homestead and it gives twelve frugal living tips for spring. They're all great, they're worth visiting this article find it in our show notes, but we're just going to pick three each. I'm gonna kick it off like almost halfway through the article with number five, which is fine free

plants and garden materials. Wherever you live. Spring is the time when we're thinking about what to do with our yards, how to make them look nice. I mean, even in Florida, there's a resurgence of more abundance of foliage and flowers and pollen pollen everywhere. Keep that in mind, folks, that's coming for us too. But I think a lot of times this is when we want to plant our gardens,

especially those who live in the north. You're in full swing right now thinking about what you want to plant and cultivate, and a lot of times that newness can bring a desire to purchase if you're anything like me, especially when it comes to the garden. It's oh yeah, flowers and you didn't even intend to, but the flowers look so nice outside of lows and home depot or Walmart or the grocery store or wherever the heck you are,

and I want my place to look pretty. But there is so many opportunities to get free plants and garden materials, not just your flowers and your veggie starters or seeds, but also your trimmers and your gloves, and your shovels and your rakes and everything that you need for the garden you can offer and find free if not used.

So this is your alert and reminder and encouragement to be checking out your local buy nothing groups, searching Facebook, Marketplace, talking with your friends in the area and look for the things you want and need for free first. And also consider contentment too, because it's also possible that you have on your property, like everything that you need, you

don't have to buy all of those flowersider contentment. That's the best tip, especially for those of us that have a black thumb and are not getting flowers, as if we did in three months, they would just be the weeds that we're pulling up to plant the flowers in the spring. Contentment. It's okay if you do want them, just to know that there's plenty of people. This is

also a great time. I know this article saying free stuff, so check that first, but this is also a time your local nurseries or universities that have like an agricultural department or like plant clubs are doing plant swaps or like low entry fees for like very inexpensive plants. So there are a lot of opportunities to find what you want far less expensive than like if you just were

to impulse purchase at the grocery store. Definitely look on Facebook for plant swaps because they will always have some free things. You may not have enough of a green thumb to provide anything to swap for free, but they usually will just have like a stuff they're getting rid of pile as well. And just my additional tip on here too, consider propagating your own stuff when you've got that urge to go buy new, look around your property

and see what could be clipped and propagated. So much of what we have already at our disposal, we can create more from just by clipping what's already there and letting it grow some roots. But don't consider what your neighbors have available to propagate unless you ask them. Ask them, Hey,

ask them. Though. There's been so many times when I've just been walking the neighborhood and happened to meet a neighbor outside and comment on some like a plant of theirs that I think is beautiful, and they're like, take a cutting, like it happened, Especially people who are really proud of their gardens or are gardeners themselves. I'm not saying necessarily the people who are like paying for every aspect of their landscaping, they're a little bit more like territorial.

But those who are gardeners love to share. There is an abundance mentality amongst gardeners. Love you all, I see you, Shout out to you, shout out to you. So I'm going to go back to the first one, and it's spring clean with d I Y cleaners. So one of the ways that we can save money in spring is by making sure all of our appliances, the things in our home, doing the annual checks to make sure they

are clean and running properly. Because there are so many times where things will break down that is due to maintenance. And so if we take the time in spring to make sure we're doing annual maintenance, annual cleaning of appliances of different places in our homes so that we don't have to pay to repair, replace whatever, then this can saves a lot of money. Yeah, and you don't have to be like a frantic cleaner of you know, you don't even have to do it yourself if you don't

want to. If you pay for like one cleaning a year, one deep cleaning a year, that is going to save you more money than having to replace all your appliances more frequently. It's amazing how far a couple of different types of rags and sponges, vinegar, baking soda, and lemon can go. Like you mostly do not need much more than that to be able to clean your house very well. I've got to say I was tempted in our renovation process to get a whole new glass cooked up. The

one that came with the house is good. It's a glass cooked up. It actually matches the other appliances that we have, but it was so dirty from the previous tenants. But I just googled, how can you clean this without purchasing additional products. I was open to that, right because that's gonna be far less expensive than purchasing a whole new glass cook top. And you know, you're like, I'm already getting news and you might as well just throw

in the new appliance. But I was amazed. Vinegar, baking soda, let it soak, and a razor that was safe for the cooked up, and it is brand new. Gen. I watched you, and I watched Yeah, you were for it. I save myself six hundred dollars by not needing to buy a brand new glass cook top. Maybe more, who knows they maybe they're like eight hundred dollars, but yes. And spring cleaning is a lot of times when we

are deep cleaning, so keep that in mind. It can also help us be really pleased with the things that we own when we give it a facelift, when we really do a deep clean on it, we can be reminded of how great our stuff is, and it can remove that desire to purchase. Yeah, so you can google like a spring cleaning deep cleaning checklist and just go

down the list over the three months of spring. This isn't a day, you know, one day thing, but just make it your goal over three months to get all these taken care of and then not worry about it. The other nine number six on here is to review your goals. And I love this tip just as part of it. I think this is a really good quarterly practice to be reviewing whatever goals is that you've set

for yourself. And this doesn't necessarily mean you have to be the traditional New Year's resolution person, but chances are you've got something you have your site set on, whether it's debt freedom or specific savings goal, or you want to take a really memorable vacation this year, whatever it is, taking the time to look at how am I doing towards this goal? What does it look like so far?

Are there any course adjustments that need to happen? Is there here we go, gen one thing that I can be doing that would help me further towards this goal? Or is this no longer a realistic goal? We many of us, we don't want to find ourselves at the end of the year having never re looked at this. But it's often not that we have to be looking at our goals on a daily basis, but at least quarterly revisiting, reassessing, course adjusting. I think this is a

great time to do that. Yes, absolutely, And I mean it's always your Everybody makes goals they don't mean. In January, every everyone says things they don't mean. It's funny, everything's kind of weird. You just spend a ton of money, You spend way more time with some of the people you would not spend time with throughout the rest of the year. And and it's cold, and you don't know what's happening next, right, So this is your permission to revisit.

You're a different personnel, different likes. Back to hopefully more more typical routine. Yes, okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna head back again to number two. Okay, which is purge. So I love a good purge, not like bodily but but environmentally. So I love having just a home that's decluttered. It feels fresh, don't have as much stuff to clean. You do practice this pretty regularly. I can always tell when I've come over to your house. I'm like Jen, just had a spurt of energy, which have been few

and far between the last six months. But yes, I'm always keeping like I'm always moving things to the purge pile. So this is just a really great season to go do a deep dive, do a deep again. Not a one day, but like over three months, just looking at Okay, today, I'm going to do this drawer, and then in a few days I'm going to do this drawer or this shelf on the bookshelf, and just kind of slowly make your way through the house in the season of spring.

I love that too. For the purpose of habit building and creating new patterns and ways of living, it can become much more established in our regular routines and rituals. If we take our time throughout spring to be doing this. We feel like we need to get all done in one day or one weekend, and then nothing really sticks versus. This is kind of my focus, and I'm going to work on this slowly. It can meet multiple purposes. All right, I am still pulling us ahead in this article. I'm

now jumping back whiplash number nine. Get outside. We all don't need too much of a reminder on this one. We all know it's a great time to be enjoying the great outdoors pretty much wherever you live. This is just the weather's great and you can see and find so much beauty. But one of the reasons I wanted to highlight this is I think you can find even new places within your area, or at least new to you.

Like exploring your own neighborhood and community can also serve that dual purpose of free activities, things that you can do that are new and exciting right in your backyard. I've been learning a whole lot more about our area

just on social media. I know there's like that back and forth, Like purging social media is great, but also utilizing social media as a tool and resource at times can be really wonderful too, So whether that's looking for the free events and activities in your area on Facebook, but I've also been finding that there's a lot of people posting about parks and recreational activities, things to explore

that are free within social media as well. So that could even be like an Instagram search of your area, and people are posting about the unique places that they're finding.

The different parks and lakes, and depending on where you're living, like trails and mountain ranges, Like I'm discovering more about this area just from other people posting where they're going, so there can be a more active search that happens there, even almost being like a tourist in your own area and googling like best walking trails, best parks, best playgrounds. Chances are you might find something or a place that you've never been just because it's out of your typical

routine or where your friends meet up. But give another place a try and it will feel like a new experience that you don't have to spend any money on. Absolutely, this is one that I am making a goal for this spring to get outside before the baby comes and then after he comes, to spend more time with Kai,

to still be somewhat active, get some of that sunshine. Yeah. Yeah, it's so beneficial because when after you have a baby, your hormones are just insane, and so to get a little like, get some endorphins, going, get some vitamin D. I really want to make it a priority, and you can hold me accountable. I'm here for that. I'll reach you outside perfect meeting me outside mabe outside. Okay, So my last one for this is number eight, use less electricity.

And I feel like every season has its own electricity problems and benefits or benefits and drawbacks. So I think winter, for sure, for most places, is the time we're using the most electricity. So you just got to give yourself grace. Here in Florida it's summer, but in spring and fall we really have the opportunity to really lower our electricity bills. So make it a priority to go days without using your heating or cooling, to turn the lights off, use

a candle or especially after daylight savings time. Air dryer clothes. Yeah, air dry the clothes when we're not in a rainy season. So do be intentional. You don't have to do everything. You shouldn't do everything. Be intentional and doing a few things that are going to really lower your electric bill. Yes, I love that one. Now we're going to switch gears to spring cleaning our finances. This article comes from Morgan Stanley and gives five ways to spring clean our finances.

We're just going to go through one through three on this one, but I love this concept of cleaning up every aspect. I know we've talked about digital decluttering and space and schedule, and of course we're a personal finance podcast, so but the concept of decluttering finances and cleaning them up and making them fresh and new and approachable and

not scary is helpful for all of us. And regardless of where we're at, even if we're not ones who or if we are people who budget regularly, there's still something to clean up. I would consider myself very organized, but still some things can get a little bit tangled and I need a little detangling. Always. Nobody is perfect, So this is a really good time to be intentional with spring cleaning. And I love that they used the spring cleaning like verbs. Yeah, so number one is to

clean up your accounts. So if you have a lot of different accounts, then it could be time to consolidate some of them. And I'm not talking about like debt consolidation. I'm just talking about, like, if you have a bunch of different bank accounts or a bunch of different cards, that we are closing some accounts, that we are making sure everything we have is manageable and doesn't feel overwhelming. That if you're able to get a you know, a small debt paid off and just get that out of

your life. That we're making that a priority. So just cleaning up your accounts, so if you have any four one ks that need to be rolled over, any of that stuff, getting access to any HSA's stuff like that, that we're just making sure we have a handle and a grasp on all of our financial accounts, so that way you're not going through the year like God I wanted. There's so many of them, I don't even know where to find them. I need to do this, I need to roll this over, I need to get this password

or something. Just take care of all of it in spring so you don't have to stress the rest of the year. It still could be something to look at quarterly. I think similar with goals, is a great practice to just look even you know, it's a great time to consider negotiating bills, taking a look at what can be minimized. But yeah, especially right now in the spring, I love this Idea. Number two is to declutter your debt. So if you are not yet debt free, taking a look

at your various debts and putting them. We recommend an order of interest rates, and that can be a really great way of decluttering debt. It will not happen all at once, but step by step, focusing on each of the smaller steps that will help get you to the bigger goals. But this will really help in simplifying our lives, taking away some of that stress and anxiety about money, feeling like we have a handle on things. I know this article talks about debt consolidation. We talked about that

in a previous episode. I don't know if you want to mention what you said there again, Jen, but that it could be a worthwhile thing to consider if the weight of seeing various debts in a lot of different places and you're having a hard time keeping track of all of them, it can be a helpful simplification tool. Not necessarily something to be approached as far as saving money, it most likely won't, but we would more so recommend

the snowball method when it comes to debt payoff. But either way, there is a simplification a decluttering, a spring cleaning aspect. If we can look at our debts, identify where they are, and have a plan for how they're going to get paid off will make us feel so much better. Just having that plan in place. Yeah, we love debt snowball, but we also love debt avalanche. It's really up to you whichever one you decide, but those are really good, two good methods for paying off debt

instead of just trying to do it willy nilly. My debt consolidation picture picture this in your mind is that you have two packet drawers and you dump one packet drawer into the other packet drawer packets of contackets of hot sauce from Taco bell jo oh right, obviously, yeah dah. And then you pour one packet drawer into the other and you throw one mild sauce away. That is debt consolidation. It looks like you've cleaned up, but you've really just

moved debt around. Sure, and you've maybe saved a little bit of a one packet, one mild sauce packet of money, but really you've just made more work for yourself because you had to take the drawer out of its hint or just scoop the packets out. You just really made just equal work for yourself instead of if you've just gone through the packets and thrown away all the mild sauces.

I like the mild sauce. I like the hot well, so then you could give me the mild sauce each your way through the hot and let someone else have the medium. Yeah, I think we're losing sight of fire the debt well, but that is really the picture of debt consolidation is just go through and use a debt snowball or a debt avalanche. We're focus on the habits to reduce your expenses and increase your income, versus pretending

you did something by consolidating it. Yeah. I mean, I think that there could be an emotional toll and mental toll at play there that it could be worth considering. But the reality is, I think consolidating is going to take way longer than it does to like dump one drawer into another drawer, because that sounds kind of nice to me. Yeah, if you have not if it's going to take up a ton of energy, I might as

well put that energy towards paying. If you have something neurologically where seeing all your debts very much has an effect on how you are functioning, then sure, use a nonprofit credit counselor to consolidate. But but most people should just put in the work. So that leads us to our next the next two are really putting in the work. Number three is toss out some paper. I like how it says some in parenthes. He's like, it knows, I just want to throw out all the paper your birth certificator.

So se have thrown away important things. I have not yet thrown away. I'm a marriage license, but I have thrown away so some very important things. So do the hard work of going through the papers, not just dumping them all in the trash, so that you can have access to important documents when you need them, and not put off registering your child for school till the last

minute because you don't know where your papers are for him. Yes, yes, oh, similar to how I've got a rule for myself that all my Christmas things need to fit into one plastic bin. All of the papers I keep need to fit into one filing cabinet drawer. So if that drawer is getting full, then that's just a time to go through it and declutter. And I got to say it really helps me. Granted I don't have children, so like, hats off to all of you guys who've gotten multiple plate spinning at one time.

But the lass paper I keep on hand, the more likely I am to address the important paperwork as it comes through, because it's not just like, oh, I've already got a pile, so just throw it on the pile. Now that I have decluttered, we're in maintenance mode. So something comes through the door than two to three days and we deal with it and we throw it out, and we can take pictures of the things that we think we might need someday, but we don't think it's

worth keeping the paper absolutely all right. Number four, Organize your income and expenses. This is just kind of a fancy way of saying budget, but we love it when we can, like Ninja our way around the B word. And this is just taking a look at what's incoming, what's outgoing, taking inventory of our income and expenses, considering if there's any wasteful spending that's happening. Is their course correction to making smarter financial decisions that we can be implementing.

Just getting a clear picture organizing, right, Like, we love organizing. Most of us love seeing organized off, whether it's on social media or we're watching Tidying Up or the Organization Women Friendship Duo on Netflix. Organized. I mean I don't hot take. I did not like the Home Edit. I think I've said that before. I hate that show. Well, there's something that it does for me, for sure, but I think at the same time it's also just like a way to keep all of your junk. Yeah. Yeah,

it's just getting a fancier drawer, sure, the packets. Sure, But either way, seeing seeing what you do think is valuable and is worth keeping around, organized and just like looking nice and meat. It can help us feel more confident, at ease, exhale, know what we're going to do next, not feel super overwhelmed or chaotic or uncertain, which when we feel that way, we're definitely not making our best

financial decisions. So if we can make it feel less chaotic, more organized, we feel like we've got a good hand on it, a very clear picture. The better off we're going to be, the wiser, more intentional decisions we are going to make. So organize and that's that's it. That's number four. Yeah, I mean, so that's really I mean

they do it's Morgan Stanley. So they're like planned for taxes, so your tax loss harvesting and your tax payerborable evexments and if you do that, cool, But most people don't need to do that. But most people do need to say their tax returns, So do that. Yes, definitely do that. Yeah, keep all your tax documents for seven years, and that's paperwork to keep. Yeah, but you know what else you'll want to keep. You won't want to throw it away,

and you really paperless. It's paperless, and you don't have to throw it away. You can. You can hoard these, collect them all. 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 William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill

of the week. Hey, for frugal friends. The cis Blanca in Seattle, and I'm calling with my bill of the week, which is my internet bill. We had been paying around one hundred dollars a month for one gig of broadband with a local company. They threatened to increase our rate, and I called and negotiated with them a few months ago when they gave us a promotional offer. Then that promotional offer expired and I had been receiving a flyer

in the mail from Google Fiber. Google Fiber is offering the same amount of gigs and they don't even charge for the equipment rental, unlike my local provider. The only catch is that it costs seven hundred and fifty dollars up front, which comes out to about sixty three dollars a month, which is a huge savings for us. And fortunately, spending seven hundred and fifty dollars in one go is not a problem because my husband and I have a

fully funded emergency fund. So we have a technician coming today to switch our cable and pardon me, our internet, and yeah, we're super excited, so thanks so much. Bite m blanca. Yes, girl, throw it in their faces, just let that money fly in their faces and be like, hey, I don't have to pay you a monthly bill because I got the money to pay up front and safe. Jen's feeling salty right now, she's about to give birth to minutes, just all all all over the place. But yes, also, Blanca,

I am here for you, here for this bill. There's there's stacks on stacks of bills right here about negotiating your bills and receiving that promotional or like that, yeah, that that promotion, then when it expired, paying it tension to what comes through the mailbox. Sometimes there are some really great promotions that you can be taking advantage of then being able to pay all upfront because of your fully funded emergency Fundly, there's just so much in here

that you're doing fantastically. That also, so much of this is autopilot. Once you make that one phone call, that one email, and then you've set that one bill that now you're set up for a good long while of having less expensive internet. This is just so exciting, and I am celebrating with you, yes virtually on internet if you are listening and you have something to celebrate with us.

And it is even remotely related to some version of a bill, you know, the drill through a friends podcast dot com slash Bill, leave us your bill or just be Bill and talk about anything. But you want literally be you. And now it's time for undoo cool true. All right, so today's lightning around. How are you going to spring clean your finances this season? You go first this time, Jill Um, So I have to go through my papers. They are turning into that pile on top

of the file cabinet. Yeah, and so that is first on my list. When I stop working, I am going to get to those papers. Right. That's all breast reading, Jill. There's not much you can do with a newborn, that's I know. But that's like the mental capacity though, Like I feel as though you don't have to put the pressure on yourself. I don't think it's a lot of mental stuff to say, like keep throw, keep throw, all right. I already know, yeah, what needs to stay and what

needs to go. I just need to put it away. Time to do it, and right now trying to get all these episodes recorded that I cannot record an episode with a newport, I can throw stuff away with one. Okay, that is my goal, how about you? I really like the quarterly reviewing of goals. So this is something I mean, Granted, I'm in my finances bi weekly, but I am looking at my financial picture from a broader perspective than just my bi weekly budget this spring, looking at what bills

I can negotiate. So it's on my radar to shop around, specifically for car insurance. I think I'm paying way too much for car insurance. I know it is more expensive here in Florida than what we were used to from where we move from. But I still like just in that we pay every six months, but this newest six month quote is one hundred dollars more than the previous six months that we had paid for So like every six months, they're just like astronomically increasing the amount and

I'm just not here for it. Yea, yeah, so that's going to happen, and really just looking at it. If there's any other bills that I can negotiate, is a part of that kind of quarterly overview of my finances. Nice, that'd be great, Well, it'll be great, would be so great. I hope you all. I hope this has inspired you all to spring clean aspect of your finances again, not

all at once, not all in one day. Just figure out what your biggest priority is and make that a goal for the next three months and do something that will save you money that is unique to spring maintaining appliances, getting that all out of the way, and then not having to worry about it the rest of the year. So whatever you choose, thank you for listening, and if you want more, helps in support in slaying your expenses

and growing your income. Paying off debt. Then we do have a membership where we do monthly money challenges, we offer accountability groups, we got monthly meal plans, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This is from Corey. She says, I am feeling great about my progress. I'm continuing to track my purchases, which has made me think twice about any impulse purchases because they don't want to track it, so it's not made. One of my other goals was not going out to

eat without someone else community value. I asked a friend last minute to go out to eat with me and they were not able to go, and poor planning led to me eating Alan and spending money. But I'm no longer beating myself up about it because I know what caused it and I can work on it in the future important of planning ahead. I'm very happy with my results and continued learning experiences. Corey. I love the implementation here of aligning values with spending being able to name it.

I think that identification and putting words to it and then putting it into practice is so so valuable that I just I love what you've shared here because I think it provides a great learning opportunity for the rest of us listening, in watching, and reading in whatever it is that we're doing. So congrat scory. Yeah, so thank

you for listening. If you want to check out our membership where we have all kinds of courses at free interviews, challenges, and more, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to check it out. See you next Time. Friends is produced by Eric sirianni Oh, Jen, I bet you'll be glad to kind of like spring clean your your own womb, like your physical space giving birth spring. I am so excited declutter my womb. You have no idea. It is so cluttered in here. I am seeing you

friends who are listening. We are in person, and Jen like anytime I'm talking just like cleans back from the microphone and is like pushing the baby around and I'm probably pushing back like there's a full on fight happening with like the newborn in her belly. I love the infant, the baby, the child in her belly not newborn yet. I'm just like it was it was quite to like say sorry, no, I love I loved it. At the same time, I'm like, what is happening, so much movement

and motion, pushing on the stomach. But then but then she'd get back on the mic as if nothing is happening over in her chair, like you'd have no idea, who knows, though the microphone's may be really good. And if you hear like a lot of activity, that's what's happening. There's just like some negotiation of space happening with her child. Oh wow, Yeah, there's a lot, Like there's a lot of movement happening, um, which you know, I'll take the

movement over no movement. But it's just it's a lot and yeah, we are kind of fighting against each other, yeah, for space in my body. And so begins the mother son relationship. No you won't, yes I will. No, you you better not. No, Okay, Still I give up. And that's that's parenting. It's okay. So we are contractually obligated to keep this thing going till forty five minutes, So we have five minutes to talk about this really important topic.

This is actually really slicious and on point that Marie Condo has quote unquote kind of given up on tidying after having three kids. And I think this is a perfect time to talk about this being spring talking about decluttering and really we should we I mean should have been part of the main episode. I do love this.

That what a great fine gen. The Washington posted an article on how Marie Condo's life is messier now and she's fine with it, and yes it's a little bit salicious and click baity, although it sounds like Marie Condo

herself did give quotes for this article. And I think it just is so on point with any time we make something the end all be all, like this will be the one key secret to everything, and we see this happen so many times for these thought leaders, these authors, these people who have really poured a lot into a concept that is helpful, but also then the recognition and growth and space for new experiences to say, yeah, it's not entirely false, like we're not saying throw the whole

thing out, but it's not the only thing, which I think even us we've made a pivot to, like not even a strong pivot, but recognizing we need space to grow and morph that like you and I were focused on debt freedom for so long, but then once that happens, there's more to life and new experiences to life, which is why you hear us so much more in the past few years talking about freedom, flexibility, creating what's going

to work for you. And we're hearing a lot of this in this article from Marie Condo, recognizing that like just tidying, just having an instagram worthy tidy space, is not the only thing that's going to lead to joy. Like, yes, there's going to be certain practices and rituals and routines that are helpful for her, but she's more interested in how she's spending her time and less focused on everything

being in its exact right place. It's not the only thing that's going to lead to joy, which I think is a really helpful thing to keep in mind when we talk about spring cleaning, when we talk about tidying. Yeah, when we try to focus on the rigid rules more than the act of why we're doing it, I think is when we can fall off. And I love Marie Condo's books. I love her philosophy of sparking joy. Did I look at all of my things and ask if they spark joy before I kept or got rid of them?

Absolutely not No, But I do love like her philosophy. Is it says is based partly on the Japanese belief of Shintoism, which tiding is only part of the practice. She says, the ultimate goal is to spark joy every day and lead a joyful life, and that's what she says she's focusing on more now is the joy in life, not the joy of things, which I think should have been the priority number one the whole time. But I'm

glad Marie's gotten there. Yeah, I'm really glad. We all morph and shift, and I think that there needs to be space for people like Marie Condo again, these thought leaders who have given us a really incredible gift and a platform and a foundation of which to launch from and find our own freedoms. And she's no different. She's also human who's fine her own freedoms and space to recognize what's going to make sense for her right now

in this season. And she's now on this path of encouraging others to create their own rhythm, their own routines based on what brings them joy, and even giving like templates for how to do that, like coming up with a joy routine she calls it sticking with it for ten days, seeing whether daily habit changes are increasing your well being, are helpful. So ultimately, I think what I'm

loving in this is it's not a complete departure. Like at first when you talked about this article, Jen, I was like, oh no, she's saying throughout her whole book like that would be devastaying. But to just give more space for it might not look this way for every single person and in every season, And that's okay. I'm on my own journey in that. Like I am very like, oh, I'm very type A in certain ways, certain ways I'm not. Sometimes I confuse myself, but I really like to have

a clean space. So like the spring cleaning episode is like I love it, but at the same time, it only lasts for so long. I was just having this conversation with a couple of friends, recognizing that even if the ceiling blades are clean and the baseboard's clean, and the air ducts are clean and the filters are changed and like every single thing is exactly how you want it to be, that will last for twenty four hours, if not less than that, Like, none of it's going

to stay that way. So if we are working at this harried pace to like keep it into perfection, like as if no one lives there, like will we'll never be happy like that will never lead to contentment because it will never be how we want it. So then what needs to adjust as ourselves, like our own expectations and rhythms, and just finding what can we peaceably live with and where do we need to give lenience and

flexibility to ourselves? Yes, we will leave you with this quote from the article that is Marie Condo's encouragement to everyone reading her latest book that comes out at a time. I assume she encourages everyone to create their own rhythm, their own routines based on what makes them happy, and she offers more than one hundred and twenty five serene

photographic examples to inspire you. But her assignment for you come up with a doable joy routine and stick with it for ten days and see whether the daily habit changes are making you feel better. So that's I think that's a nice like, come up with a joy routine and practice it for ten days, see how it makes you feel. There you go, just another thing to add your plate. Do we do it? We do the five minutes? Oh we did? Yes? All right, Sea