How the Frugal Friends Met | Live From #FinCon19 BONUS

that beat? Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver rit your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. We can edit this like so, yeah, hey frugal friends. I'm Jen and I'm Jill and we are coming to you live from Fincon nineteen in the video booth. And we don't usually do video, but we wanted you to see our faces. This is a new thing for us, so we don't

We don't know how we look. We know that our mom's like our faces, but but I couldn't even commit to that much. Yeah, this is like a fireside chat out to fire right. It's with two mics between two mikes. Um similar to between two firsts in front of two mins, in front of two mics. So welcome to in front of two mics with Jen and Jill. How do you think this is going? I don't I don't know if

it's going well, but well, but here we are. Here, we are, and we are hoping to be able to give you, guys, I mean, yeah, a little bit more of our faces since usually it's just our voices, but also to be able to talk about how you and I met, some of our backstory, what what got us into the Frugal's Friends podcast, also what you can expect from the Frugal Friends podcast. Why we like it so much? Yeah, that's about it. Yeah, so let's started. Jill, how did

we meet? Oh? I love this story. I've gotten to tell it so many times, every single time. I love it. So my you met Eric, my husband like ten years ago, who knows, going on twelve years ago now, because you worked for a similar organization or the same organization. It was one of those things where you were at the same event and then became friends on Facebook but never talked again. Exactly one of those. So that's the backstory.

Then my husband and Eric and I lived in an RV and during that time we chose to do that to paid on debt but also try out the minimalist lifestyle tiny living. And during that time we went on a road trip and when we were in the St. Pete area, Eric put online, Hey, anybody in the St. Pete area want to hang out? Get together? Because he's an extrovert to the extreme, wants to hang out and

expecting certain people to actually get back to him. But turns out you responded it showed up on your new speed Yeah, and nobody else responded and go figure because that's not your speed. Normally strangers come to the beach, but you happen to be hanging out at a bar that was serving free drinks at sunset, the frugal way, as we all know, free activities, free drinks, free stuff. Met up and I really I remember bonding over our debt payoff stories. You were very close to the end

of your debt payoff. I was not as close, still still not quite there, but almost. Um So I think that's what really kind of started the ball around rolling. Do you remember anything else, I mean, other details? That was it? I remember when we got together, I felt like you and Eric and Travis and I were like kindred couples, like we were. We found our like a couple of soul mates. Yeah, that's how I remember it, right, And so we were friends before we even decided to

start this podcast. We came down to see you a couple of times in Florida. You guys have since been up to see us. You were Eric's surprise thirty. You were a surprise for Eric's thirtieth Yes, which was amazing. Yeah, You've been blogging in the finance world, and I just like frugality. It's just in my veins. So I think that's what I like about what we bring to the table is the different perspectives on frugality, on the same topic, on debt, payoff, on minimal living, but yet coming at

it from different angles. Yes, how would you describe your frugality? I would describe it as, uh, cutting back on things that I don't value um, but spending without guilt or shame in the things that I do. So I don't keep on. I don't pinch pennies like if I am at a gas station and guess is like a penny la us down the road, I'm still going to get gas at the gas station I'm at, usually because I'm already like I'm a mile away from fully running out of gas. So that's probably not like a frugal like

a not frugal thing. It's just like I don't necessity just another part of your personality. Yeah, the check engine lit really doesn't mean much. But I am not about cutting corners or being cheap. I'm just about having as much value as possible um and saving on that value, so like getting designer clothes or getting really well made furniture but getting used so stuff like that. Yeah, I definitely from from my perspective, frugality is definitely not cheap.

And I don't mean to define frugality based on what it's not, but I do think it can get very confused with oh those are the stingy people. Yeah. My version of frugality, very similarly to what you've described, is to be able to cut costs on the things that I don't care that much about but maybe need, but then be able to spend on the areas that I want to spend on. To me, frugality is on uh, efficiency, effectiveness,

long term planning. So that could mean that I buy an expensive mattress because it's going to last me for twenty five years versus the cheapest thing that's going to break. That's not gonna say that I haven't made my mistakes and yet or I think I'm being frugal and sometimes it's borderline cheap, but and for me, it includes a lot of d I Y, So I'm definitely not opposed to the coupon. Although I've never been an extreme cupe honor,

I will look for deals. I love thrift stores, I love the clearance racks, and I also like to make things with my hands. So that's kind of the uh, the angle that my frugality has come at has been really fun to engage with what it looks like for you, how you define it, and swap stories because I do not make things with my hands. You made a baby, not with my hand, with your hands. Let's keep this p well. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of In Front of To Mike, I'm jen

I'm chill until next time. By that's always the face that we make right by Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria