How Lydia Senn Paid Off $36K of Debt On One Income

and it's refined now it's the refined intro outro. Yeah, you're not getting any of this amateur stuff. You are getting real professional podcasting, and we are excited to share with you a legitimate professional Lydia Sen she how as a wildly successful YouTube channel podcast and you guys are big fans of her. I know this because when I asked who do you want to hear in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, it was unanimous that you wanted to hear Lydia's story, and so we reached out and

for some reason she agreed to come on. She said, yes, it's one of the best yes is we've gotten, so you already know her. You're just gonna know her more with with the Frugal Friends. So before we get into our interview with her, let's give a shout out to our sponsors. So this first one is near and dear to me. It's Financial Freedom fast Track. So this is

my new signature course. If you want to stop yo yo dieting with your money and pay off more debt consistently in then today is your last day to join Financial Freedom fast Track. I designed this course specifically four people on multi year debt payoff journeys with strategies I don't hear anyone else talking about. We hear a lot about build your emergency fund, payoff debt, move on, but like there's a lot during the payoff debt time that

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I love talking about it, and Travis is sick of it, and so to someone I do. Yeah, this is for me. Also brought to you by leftovers. They're calling to us from the fridge, begging us not to crowd them with another food item that renders them even more obsolete, unseen and forgotten in the back. They also want to remind us that they can be repurposed into a soup, salad or casserole. We know, we know, casse roles are the worst, but for our sponsor today, it's better than nothing leftovers.

Using them up is the kind and frugal way. I don't know, but I love me a cast role. Maybe it's a maybe the young like growing up in church girl, but I love I love me a casse role. You know. I think I ultimately do like casse roles, just there's some association with the word that I can't get on board. I was trying to look up a recipe the other day, and ultimately I was trying to look for a casserole recipe, but I could not bring myself to type in the

word casserole into the search engine. So I was like one pot meal sheet, panned dinner, a recipe, everything in one container meal recipe, just like I cannot type the dinner. Yeah, that's that's called a microwave meal. I've heard them called bakes, bakes, veggie bake, chicken, bake, egg bake, Yes, anything, casserole, it's the same thing. Let's not be fooled. But three sticks of butter in a nine I'm one years old. I'm too young to make a What does that say about me?

I am literally six months older than you. They're too young to make a casserole. You can make a bake, Definitely, make bakes, make one pot meals, make bakes. All right, Well, let's get into this interview with Lydia Son. She is the creator of Frugal Debt Free, and she makes a lot of great recipes on her blog and YouTube channel. Maybe she can tell us more about the bake debate cast role debate, and I'm sure she's got even more valid content for us, so I'm excited to hear from her. Lydia,

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. How are you? I'm good, Thank you for having me. We're very thrilled to have you on the show. Thanks for agreeing. I know Jen posted in her email to you the picture of the poll and our Frugal Friends Facebook group that everybody unanimously wants you on the show. So I'm glad it worked and I'm glad we can deliver to our listeners. So thank you, thank you. I am excited. Yeah, okay, So for the two people that don't know who you are,

tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm Lydiason. I talk about frugal and simple living. We have four kids, we live on a little egg far and for the past few years I have been making YouTube videos about how not only we got out of debt, but how we still maintain simplicity within our life and in our budget. Awesome. So, like you have chickens, We have chickens, so many chickens. Oh my gosh, how many because my in laws have a farm too, and they have lots of chickens. Too

many hens in the henhouse. Too many hens. My in laws have about a hundred. Oh yeah, no, that's more legit, multiple henhouses. No, we just had the one, just the one henhouse. I picked up a chicken the other day when I was there, and then I and then it freaked out and I dropped it and it ran away. And so I'm like, I left my child like in the farm and ran after this chicken. I was like, what what's in me that I've decided the chicken is more important than my child? You chase food, That's what

it is. There, you go. I went on a chicken run, and I did catch the chicken and got her back into the henhouse. So that is my recent chicken story. So we're taking a hard left from financial talk today to talk about chickens. Sorry about that. Anytime I can interject chickens into the conversation, I will, fun fact absolutely as you should. It's interesting and probably of a frugal there's there's got to be frugality in there too. Yes, all those eggs, I mean, if you buy them from

the farm, they're uber expensive. But if you raise them then and you get chickens and eggs exactly, all right. So you paid off thirty six dollars of debt and you had it was just it was you and you only had one child at the time. Right by the time we had finished paying it off, my second son was born. So I was either pregnant or had a newborn the entire time. Oh my gosh, and one income. That's crazy. So like, what was your debt from and what what was that aha moment that led you to

say enough is enough. Sorry, I was tending to a child just snuck in here. I'm so sorry about that. So we had student loan debt, some credit cards, and then I was in a wreck during my pregnancy, and so we had some medical debt as a result of that. And that rock was kind of our aha moment because before that we were in such a bad financial place. We ended up going through a short sale. We it was just a mess. So by the time the dust settled from that, it was pretty six thousand dollars total.

And that aha moment was I had been in this horrible wreck. I was twenty four weeks pregnant and I couldn't take time off of work to heal. And I was having to go to work walking with a cane like, trying to manage my pain the best I could. And I was like, this sucks. I mean, I can't even afford to take time off of work to heal from

something that has been both physically and emotionally traumatizing. I have put myself in this corner where I have like zero options and I don't ever I don't ever want to feel that way, and I don't ever want anyone else to feel that way. And so that was just like, we've got to dig in the dirt and get ourselves out of this mess. Wow, it sounds like such a feeling of being trapped, which I don't think any one

of us likes that feeling. But to recognize there's not really a way out for me right now because of this debt, and I have to to do these things, even if it's not best for me. I have to go to work. It's interesting that people as AHA moments are always a little bit different, but but some version of the weightiness of it hits and then it propels towards well, what do I do differently so I never

find myself in this position again exactly. I've always said that being in debt feels like a backpack full of bricks, but you can't take it off. I would agree with that. That's what it felt like for me, And it was it was heavy, it was it felt like a physical weight, even though it was only mental, and it was there's so much anxiety I like to ask this question to people who pay off debt, but like, did you feel like you were in a good financial place to start

paying off debt when you started? Oh no, No, it was really like, Okay, how are we going to do this? Because I felt there's this secret first step that no one talks about, and that is getting current on your bills, because so often not only are we in debt, but we're living paycheck to paycheck and we're behind. And so that's like that secret first step no one talks about, is just getting to the point where you can't like

pop up and take a breath before you can keep swimming. Yeah, just look at what's right in front of you to do and start there. That's great. Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard anybody describe that. Just where do I go from here? What's the first thing to do? What else would you say, Lydia in this journey and as you reflect on where you were, how you decided to start your debt free journey, and then through that process, what would you say? We're the high impact things that

you did to pay down that debt. One thing we did and I want to acknowledge that this is not feasible for most people, but we moved to a place where the cost of living was lower. So, while I was pregnant, my husband's are in looking for jobs and he got one. It was a better opportunity for him, but it was also in ironically the place where I grew up, which I did not want to ever come back to. But like God has a sense of humor, right,

so he ended up getting a job down here. We left Atlanta, but it was the cost of living down here was so much less expensive. But then we also moved into the cheapest place we could find, which I don't always recommend doing, but for us it was the best option because we were we were desperate to just get this over with, and so I recognized that those

aren't necessarily things that everyone can do. But if you do find yourself in a situation where you do have the ability to move, I think someone called it geo hacking to a less expensive area, highly recommend you take that opportunity. Yeah, I mean, if you're a renter without kids, especially like you have, you have a world of opportunities. And I emphasize this study all the time, But like if you were staying in a job for more than three to five years, then you're not going to get

the raises. You're gonna get less income over time than somebody that job hops to better job opportunities. So really, yeah, it was an interview, not an interview of study published in Forbes. So there's just not enough raises to go

around in inter company raises. So most of the time to get that five to ten percent jump that you want to have every three to five years, it means looking for a different job, moving jobs, moving locations even And I love that you said this Lydia, because I think while it's not maybe attainable for everybody, it's still worth stating. It's something that that I've talked about as well.

It's one of the reasons Eric and I move from very expensive area in Pennsylvania to St. Pete, Florida, because the cost of living is so much less and we our dollar can go further. We can get actually for us a very beautiful home for a fraction of what we would have bought a town house for up north. So I think that this is an incredible hack that

is worth considering. And I think oftentimes we're looking for the smaller things like well, what if I cut out coffee and what if I didn't, you know, go out to eat so much, And those things are good. But if you're really looking to make a big dent, this is the kind of stuff and the kind of creativity and problem solving that might be worth considering. I think it's worth talking about. I don't hear many people saying,

have you considered moving someplace else? Not even long term, maybe even for a year or two to save money. So that's that's amazing well done. And I know that it's not something. You know, moving is expensive in and of itself, and so it's not some thing that everyone can do just pack up and leave. But yes, if you have the opportunity present itself, by all means, please take it too. Yeah, it's funny that you said you didn't want to move back home, because I actually remember

I told my mom. I was like, I will never move back to St. Pete, Like I just flat out told her. And then several years later found myself back in St. Pete and now we own a home here. We had a six week old baby. We came down here for the job interview. We stayed with my parents and I was just casually having a conversation with my mom and she started cackling and I said what and she said, just not only are you moving back to Alabama, but you're moving here, and I just can't get over it. Yeah. Yeah,

this is fun for you, isn't it? So so g O hacking And I love that word. I'm going to steal that now. Anything else that you found in your journey really helped in debt payoff for you and your family. When I say that we lived a life of extreme frugality, I don't think people quite understand. We did not do anything. We did not go anywhere, and I don't This is not a method that I recommend because you will burn out. But I knew, like, if we do this and we

stay the course, it's going to be over soon. And so we didn't. We didn't go out to eat, we didn't get coffee, we didn't we didn't do anything. We went meatless a couple of days a week. I tried to clock diaper. It was horrible. Again, don't recommend we were those people Like is that show Extreme Cheap Skates still on? Yes? Well I don't know if it is, but I'm familiar. Yeah, I think we could have been good contenders to be on that show. But again, like,

do not recommend living the way we lived. But I knew, like, okay, if we stick it out, and I joke we didn't leave our house so much. We ended up with a second baby. That's expensive exactly, but like when you have a one year old, you're not leaving your house much anyways, so it's not like you were doing anything like super out of the ordinary. And we live in the middle of nowhere. There's nowhere to go the consequences of staying home. Yeah,

we'll see what happens through COVID too. Another baby boomer generation. My Facebook is on like explosion with baby announcements right now, and I was like, well, I know what you were doing during quarantine, so my gosh, that's funny some of them have already been born. Was your husband on board with extreme frugality? Okay, So this whole like let's get

out of debt thing was his idea. I brought the breaking point, But months before that had happened, he kept saying like, oh, you should read this book, or you should listen to this radio show, or we should combine our king accounts. And I was like, do you want to stay married because none of that sounds like fun and so, but I'm one of those like if a

little is good, a lot must be better. And so when it came to like getting on a budget and living frugally, I was all in to the point where he kind of wanted to loosen the reins a little bit step back, like nope, yes, yes, flip the switch. There's no stopping her now. You signed me up for this. I love it. It's all or nothing, That's that's me.

I'm I'm all on or all off. I mean, he was the one that got me started in the process, and then I just took it and ran with it, which is kind of a analogy for our marriage, and now he lives with the consequences later. Yes, So what was the hardest thing like or change or experience during those two years. I feel like there was so much adjustment. There was so much happening, both insider debt payoff and outside that it's kind of hard to pinpoint what the

hardest part was. So I don't really know, although I am and again, this is not something that you can do when you have kids. But I was one of those people who on the weekends I like to go places and see things and do things, and so there was none of that, So that was hard, but also just the transition from living in a city to the middle of nowhere, having a baby, then getting out of budget, like it was all a lot to rapp our heads around.

At the same time, you're describing so much transition, and when we walk through any sort of transition, there's a lot of stress associated with that, so not to mention then when you tack on the financial stressors that you all had, it sounds like the whole season was pretty difficult. How how did you and maybe you didn't because I'm hearing you say this isn't necessarily recommended, but how did you care for yourself or find enjoyment in the midst

of those two years? Well, that's when I started making videos, And so the videos I made were about how to cook cheap but somewhat help females for your family. And so at the time I called it five for five. That doesn't exist anymore, but the whole concept was like I could feed a family for you know, five dollars for this. How did I place that, like five dollars for a family of four and five dollars of person. I don't remember anywhere. It was a long time ago.

That's when I got into the creative. I was bored and I needed something to do with my time. And my baby was cute, but he, you know, couldn't talk, so there was no conversation happening on that right, And so I set up a camera and I started making videos and I grew that into me doing it for other company is and so for me, that outlet of I need to find some way to fill my time that doesn't cost me anything became a business. M H. I always say, my favorite way to save money is

to spend time making it. It is such a big money saver. That's how I started my blog is that we were a year into our debt payoff. I couldn't do anything. I was feeling like super hopeless and like, how am I going to do this for another year? And so then I just started writing and like, helping people was super encouraging and motivating for me, and it

gave me something to do. So I didn't even like remember that my friends were going out on Saturday night because I was at home writing and you know, doing this hobby that yeah has become my full time business. It's occurring to me as both of you are are describing this, that there's almost a principle in here where we feel overwhelmed or trapped, or circumstances feel really difficult or isolating, and kind of looking outside of yourself for

how can I feel purposeful? What can I be setting my hands to what can fill my time and helping others but also making money doing it. Kind of pulling up outside of your immediate circumstances to what else is around you. How can you share what you're learning with

other people? And how important that is I think in this journey too, and amazing that it propelled you Lydia in that direction, and obviously how important it is for other people to see, oh it can be done, and and even opportunities for people to spend time engaging in your content when other people might just be finding themselves at home or taking care of babies or wondering how

they're going to pay the next bill. I think it's great to create opportunities for larger connection outside of our circumstances. I think that community play is a big part in getting out of debt. When you find people who are in it with you and you feel less alone, and being able to connect with people is plays its own very super important role because there's so much shame around money and debt and we don't talk about these things.

And I feel like when we open up that conversation, we know that we're not alone, but we're also reminding someone else that they're not alone. Yes, Amen, somebody should start a podcast bringing frugal people together. I don't know why that doesn't exist, Lydia. As you look back on these two years of debt payoff, is there anything that you would have done differently, like realizing what it has

a what it's afforded you, and the accomplishment. But even in the midst of that, would there be anything that you would have changed about the way you went about the debt payoff process. I think that I maybe would have given myself a little bit more time and not felt like it has to be done now and if it's not done within this time frame, then I'm a failure.

Then I failed at it. I just I really, I'm a rules person and I like structure and I don't like it when rules are broken, and so therefore I placed very stringent rules on myself, and I think that if I could go back, I would have been like, calm, now, you're fine, it's gonna be okay, take a deep breath.

Oh my god, Yes it is. It is often a race to the bottom, like to see how little you can spend, how much you can throw it debt, and then by the end you feel like you have a hangover because you've been going so fast for so long you don't your head is spinning. And then you keep going and try to reach financial independence. So it is. Yeah, there is so much to be said for having having a breath, taking a breath right, And I don't feel we did that because we got out of debt and

I was like, boom, what's the next step. Okay, let's start college funds? Okay, now what Okay, it's a down payment, let's buy a house. And there wasn't like for years, there wasn't any break, and then you do reach that point where you've reached your goals, and then I don't know, for me, I had trouble finding motivation after that point. The burnout was real. How do you think you could

have done that? Because I don't think that you're alone in this feeling of wanting to do something excellent and putting this pressure on yourself to get it done now. And if you don't your your failure, how do you think you could have created some margin for yourself knowing who you are. I think now looking back, I listened to the wrong voices. A lot of the messaging was

shame filled. I feel like the words that we use to describe our debt and the words that we're listening to where where we're seeking motivation, we need to be very careful. And I'm trying to be very careful in what I say right now because I don't want to like point fingers in anybody. But there's just a fine line between motivation and shame, I think when it comes to who we listen to and who we follow. That's

so insightful Lydia, thank you for saying that. I think that is a very tangible piece that I think a lot of people can grasp onto and pay attention to. It might be a little bit motivating, it might put fire under us, but is it the right kind and is it actually propelling us towards our goals or things that others are telling us we should be doing. How is it impacting us emotionally and relationally. Yeah, that there

is permission. I love. I still remember and this is way back in the archives our interview with Alison Baggerley describing it like a road trip where sometimes as you pull off to the side of the road and you fill up your gas tank or you explore the terrain or I think that that illustration really does help and to find permission inside of ourselves and listen to voices that also affirm permission. That this doesn't have to happen now immediately a sap. Yeah, and you can still put

a focus on it. It can still be your primary focus, but you don't have to kill yourself or your psyche in the process of trying to accomplish it. I think the power of having just one thing. I mean, I love the book The One Thing by Gary Keller, So I always say, like, focus on one thing at a time.

But I think it's more sustainable too, because then you can take your foot off the gas sometimes and because you know where you're going back, because you know which goal you're going back to and which step is next on the goal, it doesn't take as much time I'm to regain momentum and it's a more sustainable form of motivation for sure. Exactly do you know else is sustainable and motivating? Oh my gosh, I do. It's my favorite road trip stop the that's right, it's time for the

best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's built buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week LYDIA. Every week we invite our listeners or our guests to share with us their favorite recent bill. And I know you have a juicy one for us. Yes, mine does not make me look like the most responsible or on

top of it person. Are Our garbage bill is paid quarterly, and I can never seem to remember whether or not we've paid it, like every single time. I have to go in and look at our bank account. And they also will just send out past do notices, like they send you a bill and then a week later you get a past do notice, And so they're all the time having clerical issues and you have to call and

get it corrected. Well, we had a storm blow through and we needed some debris picked up by the garbage collection, and you have to call and make an appointment if they're going to pick up bulky trash. I called and they called me back and they said, Miss, then we would love to get you on the books, but you have not paid your bill in two quarters, had not paid aid my garbage bill in six months. They were picking up my garbage every week. I do not know

what happens. I do not know what happened. And I, oh, my gosh, I was so embarrassed, and she's like, don't worry, miss, and we know you're a good customer. You've always paid your bill. It's fine, you're not the only person who did this, but we're kind of needed to take care of it right away. There is like a fifty dollar fee for both both bills that you missed, but it's okay. And so like two hundred dollars later, I finally get

my garbage bill paid. And so now I have like a Google alert that alerts me the day before the bill actually comes to pay my garbage bill because they won't let you pay it all. Yeah, it's it's yes, it's horrible and out of principle, like I will not pay it through their system that charted you a whole three extra dollars, which now I'm like, you couldn't paid the three dollars and saved yourself so much in fees,

A big dumb girl. So that's my story. But I know, well, I don't think that you're dumb, so I appreciate the transparency. I might not be it online for a three dollar fee, if we're being honest, but it's twelve dollars a year total, like I could for the fee, I could have saved myself a hundred dollars, and like, please, like I just still looking back on it, can't believe I did that. The biggest thing is I can't believe there are still places that will not allow you to auto pay like

I have to. We just refinanced our mortgage and I have to request to be able to automatically transfer at the same bank from the checking to the mortgage. Like I can't just set that up online. I gotta send an email, And then I got to check back in internal emails and see if they responded, And I was like, why is this hard? Why won't you just take my money? I know well and see where we live, my excuse is like, oh, it's such a small area and it's

very horrible and they probably don't have the infrastructure. But yeah, if I can pay my other bills just by like texting in a code, you should be able to. You know, come on, I appreciate that vulnerable bill, the bill that didn't get paid. That's a that's a new one for us. Yeah. Oh man, if you're listening and you've got a bill that you forgot about, a bill that costs you more bills or any other kind of bill, bills on bills, stacks on stacks, leave us your bill at Frual Friends

podcast dot com slash bill. Will listen to it, will comment on it, will share it all the things we'll share in your your sadness, or support whatever you need. I wish that I had a more inspiring, uplifting story. That's the reason I chose that was to tell people like you can still be with it and on a budget and saving money and living your best debt free

life and still make mistakes and it's okay. Yes, but I do still feel like an idiot sometimes when I think about, like I laughed, like I kept that past due notice that I swore I had already paid. I kept it on the refrigerator. It's still there, just as a little reminder. Don't get cocky. Oh my gosh, it happens to the best of us. I think I shared

this on the podcast a while ago. But when I was laid off from my job, I had to transfer my four oh en k to an IRA and I was a month It was a month before I gave birth, and so I set up the rollover to my IRA. I got all that taken care of, and then I gave birth and I forgot about it. And then I checked back a year later, and I forgot to invest the rollover into in next funds and it just sat

there in the brokerage account for a year. And I tell people to do that, and multiple articles I've written as a finance writer, I have told people to do that and to check and there I there. I sat in front of my Vanguard account looking at my nineteen thousand dollars just sitting there. We're growing at one percent. You know I did that. When I opened my wrath IRA, I thought you just opened it and your only I

didn't know. I didn't know initially that you had to invest the money I thought that was it was all one thing, and I think it was. I was on TikTok and someone was doing a little TikTok video about why your IRA wasn't growing, and I'm like, oh, that's me again. You need to do that. Yeah. I made a video about it on YouTube and somebody in the comments like, oh no, I did that, and I was like, I saved you, girl. That was that was my mission

to help one more person. Why isn't Vanguard and other places helping people with that, Like, why aren't they called swing them up and saying hey, they send like eight thousand email alerts about everything else. They could send you a little onlind dirt to invest your money. Here's a Christmas list. This is like what I don't I don't need you Christmas shopping for me? Did you telling me what to do with my money? Yes? Anyhow that brings us to we just like to yell, Dia, Yeah, it's okay.

I'm used to it. I have four children. I'm sorry. This is not a peaceful experience for you. Oh, this is wonderful. First of all, this is wonderful. Second, there are no more peaceful experience. Every one's house it's cool, it's fine, We're good. You are. You're just like foreshadowing like everything that's about like going to be my life, hopefully not with four children, but like eventually with more children. And I just I see myself in a few years

and I'm like, well, cool, it looks good. I mean, it looks good. It looks good on you, Lydia. Yeah, I mean thank you. Your skin still looks great. But thank you. It's the forty two dollars I've spent on rock rent and all thank you money well spent. Girl. I mean to go. We're not using the video, but I see you, I see you. Thank you. Anyways, lightning round,

we're going to go through. We're each going to share one thing financial freedom has afforded us that may not have been possible or may not have been a blessing had we still been in debt. So real life examples and Lydia as our guest. Please you can go first. Okay, Well,

one thing. I'm married to a giver and I have been able to I shouldn't say I have, but we have been able to allow him free reign when it comes to seeing us a suation that he wants to give to and being able to give without worrying how we're going to cover our expenses. And that's just a blessing to watch someone else light up when they get the opportunity to give. It's so cool to watch your like the person you love most like be happy or

like be fulfilled, Like that's cool. Yeah, we just did an episode recently on intentional generosity and that this is something that financial freedom affords. Is then to be able to look outward beyond ourselves and our circumstances. Because we've created freedom in our own lives. Doesn't mean that we're all super wealthy, just that we're not weighed down and bogged down by some of these responsibilities to these financial burdens.

That feels like a ton of bricks on us. And yeah, what that allows us to do and give to others, that's amazing Lydia, good for you and your husband and that's awesome. Well, thank you. He's the better person. Yeah I feel that way too. I I like, will even say it to my husband. You're just better than me. I don't know what does that say about me, because Jill, you are a much better person than I am. So

where do we rank? So Okay, Well, anyways, mine also has to do with my husband, Travis, so in he's an aircraft mechanic, so obviously in the airlines were hit really hard. Fortunately for us, he works at Allegiance, which is domestic, so he I mean, they didn't lose any international revenue because that's not what their business is built on.

So nobody lost their jobs. But everyone was given the option to take voluntary time off at half pay, and so Travis was able to take three months at half pay and we didn't even have to think about it because all of our expenses are covered by my income, i mean my self employed like variable income, So that was just that was a huge blessing. Like it was

voluntary obviously, and so not everybody had that luxury. But I mean, we have a toddler and Travis lli spending time with him, and so he got to spend extra time with him in this really special time and it was a big blessing, one that we would not have been able to afford if we still had debt payments. Yeah, what that pivots for you guys that most people would see that as just an awful thing that happened in but for you all because of the financial freedom. It's

a blessing. It afforded more family time. It's so amazing. Nobody really took the voluntary time off. I mean it was some guys that are kind of close to retirement and have high salaries, they took the time off, but he was the only one, like at his level that did it. I remember him describing how people were just looking at him funny, like, what what is your situation that you're choosing to do this? What is happening? Yeah, it's unusual, right to be able to realize that doesn't

have to be the reality for me. Recent example of what financial well, financial freedom. I'm not incredibly right, I'm not retired, but being debt free has afforded me as one certainly buying our house. What do we buy it? August bought a house. But so many people have been wanting to come visit us in Florida, and it has allowed us to host a lot of people. Even in the last month, we've had someone here every single day.

We just came off of a week of hosting four people in our home, and that would have really been very overwhelming to me if I was still paying off debt. Just financially, and I like to provide for people, you know, but I'm thinking what is the electric and water bill

going to be? And you know, all this food and we've got a propane fire pit and just all these things that we want to give to people that I don't need to be stressed about because we are not in debt anymore and we're able to set that money aside to host people. So that has been so enjoyable to give to people in that way. A little resort experience in St. Pete. Yeah, I mean your place is like a resort. I love going over there. I love having you come on down to Lydia. Okay, sure, I'm

not that that far away from you, so that's true. Yeah, quick little road trip. Yeah, drive down. We're here. She has a guest room, I have an office. Jill is more generous one of us, and she's talking about housing people and hosting them, and I'm just like shrinking back. We we hosted people when they gave us money. We did airbnb for several years, but now we have a child and can't keep the house clean anymore. But if you if you give me money, I'll host you. I'll

be a great host. Money if you pay me money talks. Lydia, thanks so much for coming on and hanging out with us. I feel like you are a kindred, frugal friend, a kindred spirit. And where can people find more of you if they are feeling the same. Well, thank you for having me. This has been fun. Y'all are amazing. I am on YouTube, I'm Lydia sin over there, and then have a blog Brugal Debt Free Life dot com, and then I'm on Instagram Lydia Sin so any of those places.

If you want real, honest to goodness life like debt Free Life, that's Lydia. Thank you. Yeah, You're You're real, You're authentic, and I love it. I love that. Yeah, people connect with real, transparent stories. I'm not secure enough to be on video that much, so I love watching your stories. Oh, thank you. First of all, you're gorgeous, but I don't care anymore. That is my dream goals. I mean, but you do have flawless skins, so like

you're covered. I don't know what has happened to me, but I have lost all sense of shame and really probably dignity. It's gone that far. I think if you change enough diapers. I think you lose dignity. I have changed so many diapers in public and people look at me weird, and I'm like, like, get behind me, Satan, like I'm doing what I'm doing me And so I think it's slowly after where you're at. I'm probably sure that has something to do with it, because I'm starting

I'm starting to lose it. My mom today had to have a talk to me about She was like, Lydia, I think it's great how honest you are, But a filter isn't always a bad thing, particularly in something as public as YouTube. Oh yeah, you're probably right. That's amazing. That's the Southern for you. Right, Well, it's not always appropriate to tell people everything you're thinking. I remember I got that lesson from the pastor's wife. I hope that you guys loved that interview as much as we did.

I really feel like Lydia could be our third frugal friend. I really think so too. Do you think do you think she would do that? Can we invite her? She could come on every week for free and hang out with us, so we could pay her and laughs? Yes, I think they say laughter is medicine, So I think we'd essentially be providing her with like some health insurance. We could charge her actual we're giving her medicine. Okay,

don't listen to that, don't don't flag it. And I'm sure she, uh, she would not give up what she's doing now for that kind of payment. M M. I guess not maybe an exposure. What we're really saying is we enjoyed it. I'm so glad you all did too. Yes, and we hope that you enjoyed it too, and thank you for listening. We hope that you keep listening long

after January. I know that you are on fire this month with your financial goals, and I hope that we can help you maintain that momentum long after January is done. And so if you learn something, if you enjoyed it, if it's helped you on your journey, we would love for you to leave a kind review. We love your reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, kind of like this one, which maybe is my second favorite review ever, behind the one that said we are the Taco Bell of podcasts.

But this one's called men Listen to. It's from Transman oh one, and it just happens to be five stars. He says started listening to this podcast about a month ago. Great informational topics with some fun keep up the awesome podcast. You too amazing. It's a good reminder that men listen to Yeah, one one percent of our listening audience. It's not just females over here. You represent the one person I love to hear from you. Oh, but I mean I think we're great. So it's nice to hear that

other people to do. It's nice to hear that he's the third man that listens to the podcast, behind Eric and Travis. It's also Transman, Eric, Travis, and Transman. Yes, we've got We've got a few others. We've got maybe like five male listeners. If you are a dude and you listen to the show, I want you to raise your hand in the reviews. Hey yeah, come out of the woodworks. Don't be shy. Yes. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media.

So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we're adding you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away one copy of the Frugal Friends workbooks. So many resources for you all in the New year.

Frugal Friends Workbook is one of them, and you can win it by tagging us and leaving review Yeah, so keep leaving us those reviews on iTunes or Stitcher and sending the screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tag us on social at Frugal Friends Podcast, See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. What were you going to ask mid January? You started to say, did you have a mid January question for everybody? You know what?

I read that by January twelve, most people have given up on their New Year's resolutions. Um, and so this goes live January and I just want to know where people are at. I don't know, I've given it up on New Year's and you know what, I don't even make it to the twelve. I'll tell you what. I don't even make it to the dwell. I mean, what's one? And I'm just glad to have stepped into that. That's been it so accomplished blessings and pants today and I'm

just like, yeah, that's as good as it's coming. Good. Yeah, I got I got a good fun today, Like, normally this is not round, um, but I put some bobby pins in it to make it presentable. Oh that's next level to pull out the bobby pins. I put on some lipstick today. It's worn off by now because of the coffee that happened earlier. You know what to we're crushing it, clearly are crushing in January. I feel like

the bar needs to be a little bit lowered. Let's stick because like, lose your quarantine fifteen in the New Year, New Year, knew you lose your quarantine fift I'm gonna actually explode, Like my body will explode. Maybe you need to insert your other uh suggestion of like who what voices you're listening to? The you go So I'm not worried about me. I'm secure in my extra stretchy stretch pants, but I'm worried like the voices for other people, like you don't need to do need that, you don't need

to listen to that. Yeah, whatever you want, but that you don't need that pressure. Yeah, that's why they make stretchy pants, like and there are so much more comfortable than genes. Like, let's be honest, I've been telling so yeah, I mean, I'm a counselor in my day job, and I cannot tell you how many times they keep repeating this phrase. Safety and stability is a fine aim and and for some I've even needed to say this is the excellent aim because it doesn't sound like good enough,

like no, just stability, just aim there. You don't have to be thriving right now. This does not have to be your best life now. Just what can you do to ease the bumps and the turmoil? That's good? Yes, maybe your year starts in June or August, I don't know, just like sleep until they just get by. Just what's what's that meme about? I'm going to need a trial period before I subscribe to That's how I feel like we gonna started. We're gonna start in February, middle of

februwhere see how it goes. I don't know. We might need a ninety day trial because started out good for the first sixty so we need an extended trial period before we do anything else like that idea Okay, extended trial period done