Hey, frugal Friends, this is Eric Sirianni, producer of this podcast, and I'm here to let you know that we have four bonus episodes that will be releasing over the next four Tuesday's starting today. But wait, there's more. These podcasts are actually videos that we recorded at thing Con two thousand nineteen in d C, and they're also available on YouTube by searching Frugal Friends thin Con two thousand nineteen or by clicking the link in the show notes Where's
that beat? Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Welcome to another episode of Behind two Mikes with your Frugal Friends. I'm Jen, I'm Joe, and our Frugality one on one episode is our most popular episode. Yes, it is our first episod, which is sad that so many of you got us at our worst. But now that we're much more articulate, we thought let's make a video about it.
Yes it is. I'm glad that so many people are interested in frugality one on one, but it is interesting to hear from people. Your first episode YouTube podcasting whatever is always your worst. So thanks for sticking around everybody. If you did, and if you didn't, I'm sorry, then you're probably not watching this so worries. But let's do a recap, yes, of what frugality is and an introduction to frugality while people can see our faces, all of the faces we make when it comes to frugality. So
first we identify that frugality is not being cheap. So essentially, if something makes your life more inconvenient or ends up costume more in the long run, that's not being frue all. That's being cheap. So if you have to go out of your way twenty minutes to save two dollars on the metro where you could just take an uber, that's taking the metro would be cheap. And yeah, so it's spending money, even if it's a little bit more, uh, to just have a normal quality of life and then
saving money in other places. Yeah. I would also say that being cheap is taking advantage of people. I think that's a really good way of judging am I being frugal or am I being cheap? Because frugality will never take advantage of people. Within frugality, there is room to pay people for services. Yeah, to do it yourself too, but never to have somebody do something for you just because you want to save a penny and yet it hurts the other person. So that for me is a
really pivotal thing within the world of frugality. Yes, and our key pillar of frugality for us would definitely be a minimalist lifestyle. So you don't save money by buying something on sale on Black Friday. You save money by just not buying it and only having things in your life that you love, that our quality that will last longer, even if you may pay a little bit more for it. But leading a minimalist life that doesn't consume, consume, consume frugality,
you will not hoard. I think that there are some pieces where it could cross over into that, and I think that's where you and I really talk about not doing that. I think it's where part of the reason why we don't coupon is because that can lead too hoarding, which ultimately for me is not being frugal, not being an animalist. But I think the intersection in between minimalism and frugality they never contradict each other. There are some
pieces where frugality can intersect with certain concepts. Sometimes they contradict, sometimes they don't. But I've realized that frugality and minimalism really never do. So that's been a really fantastic thing for us to talk about on the show is and going go into even more depth about what that looks like. Yeah. Uh. We also believe that frugality is environmentally friendly, so we love buying second hand, reusing things, buying quality so that
you buy something less often so you can use it longer. Um. And all these things you think about being frugal, but they're also really really good for the environment and they're sustainable. Yeah, recycling, planting a garden, reusing things, d I y ng things, these are always that. Again, frugality intersects with environmentally friendly eco friendly, taking care of really being good stewards of everything that we own, making sure that we are using
it to its fullest potential, and buying things that will last. Yeah. And in environmentally friendly spending intersects with minimalism. Like the first reduced reuse recycle. The first word is reduced, so reduce the amount of things you're consuming, um, reuse things that you already have. And then as a last resort recycle things that you can no longer. And then, lastly,
we believe that frugality is essentially values based spending. So it's not buying nothing, though that can be really helpful at times to find out what you value, but it's spending on things that you love and cherish and that you value. Um. Yeah, I think that's the biggest down the biggest trap that we can have within frugality is thinking I need to spend as little as possible on everything. And so we hear this this idea of don't just stop buying coffees every morning at your local coffee shop.
And maybe that's the case for you, but if that's something that's really important, it's something that's valuable to you, something that brings you joy, maybe cut spending on cable, cut cable altogether so that you can go get that specialty coffee that you enjoy. It doesn't mean that it needs to look like how it looks for everybody else, that you need to save in the same way that
everybody else saves. There's so much freedom in frugality. If I can add a fifth tenant to what this is, it really creates a lot of freedom yeah, And a lot of people feel guilt and shame for the things that they're spending on, and there's no room for guilt or shame in frugality. It really does give you freedom from those negative feelings. When you know what you value and you're spending wisely, then you can spend freely on
the things that you love. And so that's why we love frugality and we're we're just sharing it with as many people as possible. Boom, Mike drop behind two, Mike's dropping them. Probably not, I don't know how much these things cost. Probably you're not mine. But check us out on our Frugal Friends community Facebook group. Tell us what your favorite tenant about frugality is, which one you feel
you connect with most, Why you like frugality. We'd love to hang out with you there, Yes, and subscribe to the Frugal Friends podcast. We have new episodes every Friday about different ways to save money, spend less, live a more minimalist and environmentally friendly life. And uh will see there see the Frugal Friends Friday alliteration. Yes, that is behind two mins. All right, we did it. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Surian