How to Graduate College Without Debt

It was a request from our Frugal Friends community on Facebook and we talk a lot about paying off debt, and most of that time that debt includes student loans. But you know what about just not getting into student loan debt? Is it possible? And uh, inc in two twenty over the last few months we've just been through. We think now more than ever it definitely is well And not to mention, I think this is relevant even for grad school. Uh, and that is part of our

target audience. And for let's be honest, kids going to school. Grandparents and parents and siblings bear great influence on those decisions and how they choose to go about their college education. So if you are a person of influence in a young person's life, I think that this content can be helpful to even know that it's possible to significantly reduce college fees. And it's a lot of people I think

are going to start going back to school. I mean, maybe you took a few months off and realized I actually hate my job, so I'd like to do something else. So this is a way that you can um graduate college and do it without debt. So before we get into that, our sponsors also brought to you by seniors. We want to thank all the recently graduated seniors for sponsoring this show. You pulled together your dimes and nickels and really came through for us. But today we want

to celebrate you. Congratulations on your hard work and effort and completing an important chapter of your lives. Whether you just finished high school or college, you had a lot more obstacles than most in this final stretch of your race. We see you. Thanks for the sponsorship. Yes, you saw us and throw money at us, and we see you all right. So the way we look at education right

now is changing. So you no longer need to live on campus, get a meal plan, sit in freezing cold arenas while a professor tries to explain organic compounds any right, so small that you can't even see what they are? Is it hydrogen or carbon? Like? I still don't know. Uh, you just don't have to do that anymore. Um. And that opens up a lot of opportunities for saving money

on on college. So our first article today is from good call dot com and it's actually by Jocelyn Panita, who is the author of the Scholarship System to book and a website really really great resources for scholarships. Um. She's been doing this a long time. So, and this is a guest post on the site. It's called say No to Student Loans. Four ways to pay for college without going into student loan debt. Yeah. I thought every one of these are great. So we're going to go

through all four. Yes. So the first one is find money, free money, just pick up all those pennies on the ground, combine it to pay for college. Yeah. If you just throw money at me, take you back. That's that's the first. Um. So the ways she's talking about our grants, um. So you have to fill out the FAFSA UM to apply for most of these grants. Um. But there are there was two point nine billion dollars um of grant money unclaimed in two thousand fourteen. How crazy is that that's

not unclaimed, not even what's available. Yeah, people just think, oh, it's so much work. I just finished, you know, I just graduated, and I've already done all these applications and I don't even feel like searching for this. But with some effort, it is real. Got grants. Yeah, you're either going to spend effort after college trying to pay off your student loans, or you're going to spend it up

front to find these grants. So put in the effort today. Um. And that goes the same for scholarships and cash awards, so you can get them for all kinds of things like if you like horses or video games or volunteering, there are scholarships for all of those. Um. And then she says cash awards are more common for upper classmen

in college through associations and organizations. Um. But they don't have to be paid back, So it's it's great, Like I had a I had a full ride to my undergraduate program, and it's it made me able to go to college like I probably wouldn't have I mean, I would have gotten student loans surely, but uh, yeah, that was Yeah, I had a few years left in high school and I didn't have to worry about college because I had a scholarship, and so yeah, it's just it's

worth putting in the work up front to find those things. Yeah. Yeah. They also mentioned crowdfunding, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, yeah, why not give it a try? Um using different platforms like go fund me or indiego go. And then they also mentioned employee employer tuition reimbursement. So if you already work somewhere and you're thinking about maybe going back to school or in between, UM, look into this. Certainly we can look into this if we already have our degrees.

Sometimes employers will help pay pay down our loans UM. But even better if you can jump on this from the start, they mentioned that Starbucks and Fia and Jet Blue are a couple of companies that offer UM tuition reimbursement to their employees. So maybe even if you're looking for a job, these are places you would want to

consider so that they could help you out with college expenses. Yeah, it's a six It's estimated six of employers offer something like this, so it won't be hard to find if you're between jobs, right, now then definitely considering what their tuition reimbursement um is and before you choose a job. The second one on this list is to make money. So once you found all your money, now go and

try and make some more you uh. And certainly this can be a dreaded and difficult conversation for college students who are already working their butts off full time trying to get their degree. To say just get a job sometimes can feel a bit insensitive or lacking, you know, especially if you're doing a sport in college. Two there's there can be a lot of demands that really limit

the time. And so for that reason, this article is suggesting look for work that's flexible, where you know you don't necessarily have to have set days or set hours, or you can take off a week here and there, maybe on especially heavy academic work weeks. Uh. Find a job that doesn't require late night hours so you can actually still sleep, one that offers a decent wage, has

a positive work atmosphere. I know we're asking for a lot here, but they list out a couple of options that that I do like, and I think it's worth talking about. So certainly, depending on the type of degree that you're aiming at, looking for a paid internship in

your field. So finding work that is going to help you in as you obtain your education, not just this other thing that you have to do on the side in another box to check just to make money, trying to pair it with the very thing that you're interested in doing, which can help in your education process, but I would say can also help you in your resolve and motivation to do that job if you kind of enjoy it and you feel like it's adding value to

your life. They also mentioned driving for uber or lift, which is very flexible. You can do it as you're able, if you get yourself set up and you end up having some free days on the weekend and you live near your city. Perfect. Uh. They also mentioned selling your notes, So this depends on the school that you go to and what you allow, and it has to be all your own work. But there are opportunities at various universities where you can note take in your classes and sell that.

You can tutor in a subject that you excel in, you can freelance in a field that you're interested in. Babysit, pet, sit, house, sit, Holy moly, that's a real thing. I had a lot of friends in college who would house sit um for some some of the wealthy families in the area, and that's a perfect way of that doesn't inhibit any other

things that you're trying to do. And depending on when you're babysitting, if you can get a gig when you're babysitting at night, and you can get your school work done while you're on the job, if you can do maybe even a work study program or work the front desk at your school or something even where you could combine opportunities to study while you're getting paid. I know

that has been really helpful. I had a lot of friends who like work the front desk at different certain dormitories, and for the most part, it was pretty low key and they had a lot of time to catch up on schoolwork while also working. So it doesn't have to be the traditional way that we imagine it, where you have to go in for a set number of shifts and you're not going to have time for anything else. Um. There's a lot of flexibility out there, so consider finding

a job. Yeah, and remember you don't have to be so stressed about finding full time work or finding really lucrative work if you take that first step of finding grants and scholarships, mostly grants, because I feel like people do a lot of searching for the scholarships but not as much for the grants, and so you only have

to worry about finding work to compensate for what that is. So, uh, figure out how many hours a week you can work UM, and then try and work backwards and try and fill the gap with as many grants as you can find.

So the third one is too lower tuition costs UM, and that is by attending an in state college UM, finding where the tuition is lowest based on your major, because that actually does play into the cost per credit hour UM, or pursuing a degree that offers extra scholarships or grants, which so it's a lot of the STEM degrees so Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics UM, a lot of those will offer extra scholarships and grants. So, and there are other ways you can reduce your tuition costs UM.

High school students can take like a p classes or dual enrollment. I actually started a dual enrollment course in high school and I got bored and I left after like one class. It ain't go back and I was like, I am looking back when I was in college. I was like, I have so stupid. Should have done that. Yeah, but UM, if you're in college, you can try to take UM college level examination programs so clip exams UM,

and that gives you credit without having to take the class. Uh. You can maximize the amount of classes included intuitions so UM. In most cases, colleges will charge a flat tuition amount for up to five or six classes, so if you take less than that, you'll pay the same amount. And if that's the case for your school, then just try and stay at the maximum number of classes possible so you're getting the most value for what you're paying. Yeah,

I supplemented. Actually I'm remembering this. UM. A lot of local community colleges will offer winter break courses and so on my winter break, rather than taking the courses at a high high rate at the college I was actually attending. When I was back home on winter break, I took like a three week intensive I think it was biology and just transferred those credits. There were credits that I needed, but I got them at my community college even though

I was technically going to another college. So yeah, you can get creative with that too. Um, and certainly consider community college for the first couple of years to get your um jen ed's out of the way. Yeah, with so many things going online, I think it's really smart to think about community colleges and lower cost colleges. I actually remember when I was getting my volunteer hours in the hospital UM to get a scholarship I had. They wouldn't put me in the actual hospital like with patients.

They put me in the daycare center for the employees kids. So uh. But one of the doctors was dropping off their kid and saying like telling me, like, you really need to go to community college for the first like two years, like we are drowning in debt, and I was like, yeah, whatever. I didn't listen to her, but that conversation replays in my mind quite often. So many wise voices tried to tell me that, and I really

wish I would have listened. Yeah, all we can do is tell the next generation to go to community college, but they really just want to leave the house. So but you can. Now you can leave the house and still do community college and um, you know, classes online and stuff, so there are options to be flexible with it. Yeah, The fourth and final tip on here is to reduce expenses, and this is where all of our frugality comes into play.

Once you've looked at finding money, making money, lowering tuition costs, now we look at reducing all of our other living expenses. And the basic ones that they list out here are car, rent, food, and books. And we want to look at how to slicense dice all of these as much as possible, particularly if all the other three categories have not brought you down to zero debt. Then we want to look at this. Um,

do we need a car? Nor do we can we If we have a car, can we leave it at home and pay less on insurance because we're not driving it? Um what whatever the case is, isn't necessary. Can you utilize public transportation That could be a depreciating it expense that you just don't need for this time. Also, look at rent. Are you living on campus? Would it be more cost effective to live off campus? Can you share rent with other people? There's there a way to reduce

the expenses within the place that you're living. Of course, food, we we would be remiss to say, let's look at how much we're eating out doing take out? How much are we spending even on a mail plan at school?

Do you take advantage of it as often? I know that schools offer various types of meal plans, and sometimes we just get all of it, imagining we're going to be so hungry all the time, and we go like once a day or a couple of times a week, and my goodness, to be paying to get take out and going out to restaurants and paying for a meal plan. That is a highly unnecessary expense. So take a look at your food costs. And finally, books, We know that this is such an added expense and sometimes one that

we don't anticipate for well. So part of this has to do with saving up for books. But also, and I've talked about this on other podcasts, we do not have to spend the amount that the colleges suggests that we'd be spending on the brand new editions. I have gone through undergrad and grad school and I have never

ever needed to use the exact newest edition ever ever. Ever, I always got away with it, even if it was one of the ones that came with the special c D that you need to do the special work with the special program. Emailed professors found a work about. There's always a work about. So just yeah, get creative, be an advocate, do your research, use all the rent books. You can absolutely get that down to like a couple

hundred dollars a year. Yes, and you can buy. Don't go straight to the bookstore to buy and sell your books. Try and find somebody who is a year ahead of you, and you can buy your books directly from them and then resell them to someone that's a year behind you, and you can pretty much almost net caught your cost um.

So don't utilize uh, Facebook marketplace, um or eBay or probably not eBay, but at least Facebook marketplace to try and do something like that, or or groups for your major uh so yeah, and uh yeah, I loved um one thing she said on here, Now I can't find it. Oh, prepping meals so for reducing food expenses, we always talk about this to meal plan, uh and you know, eat

leftovers and stuff. But when you are super bisy s like you have a job, maybe you have kids, and you're going back to school, like, you don't have time to cook and so meal prep is such an important part of your life in seasons where you're really busy it's not something that I mean, maybe you want to sustain.

Some people love it, some people don't. But if you can just say, okay, for this six weeks where I'm really busy, where I've got a lot of exams, I got a lot of things at home, I am going to set every Sunday aside to meal prep for six sundays in a row so that we are not going out and getting take out every night. This doesn't have to be things that you do indefinitely. Honestly, you're more likely to fall off after two to three weeks if

you view it like that. So when you're looking at ways to save money, uh, set a start and stop period, commit to doing it for that long, and then re evaluate after if it's something you want to continue to do, or if you want to find a different way to save money on that expense or a different expense. It does require forethought. All of these pieces require forethought intentionality. And I will say, a lifestyle that looks completely and

drastically different from all of your college friends. Try goodness, will you be kissing yourself after graduation and you see the loads of debt on your friends, Not that you're going to laugh at them or poke fun at them. They didn't know, they didn't listen to this podcast. But you should feel really proud of yourself. You should be feeling yourself when you graduate with no debt because you

will have earned it. Our second article is from learned dot org and it's called ten reasons why online college courses save you money. So we really feel like this is the direction that college is going college you. University expenses have sky rocketed like hundreds of percent, multiple hundreds of percent over the last twenty years, at to a point where it is not sustainable, and so it was going to take a worldwide pandemic to change things unfortunately, UM.

But I think that we're going to start seeing change already. These institutions that refused to host certain UM majors or classes online have started to once being forced to get creative on how they are doing it. And I don't think that they're going to throw those discoveries away. I think it's more cost effective for colleges to offer online courses, so I think they are going to find a way, UM to do hybrids and to offer more online. I got to mention there's already programs doing this plen to

your programs offering online. Yeah, I was, I was reading. I don't think it's in this article, but Georgia Tech UM has a really prestigious computer science degree and they started offering it for I think was a third of the price of what the in UM in class rate was. And not only did they make a ton more money for the school by offering this, they're in school. Uh class rate did not drop, so they just got a lot of people that maybe were considering a second degree

or whatnot. It gave them access to get it um. And so I think I hope that colleges will combine with this, and you know, cases like that will make these programs more available. So, and that's that's a good point. I think that that is part of the barrier for people is well, how good is the school or how good is the program, and certainly do your research and feel comfortable and confident about the program that you are choosing.

But it's becoming more and more common for even top tier schools to be providing at least a hybrid of online and in person options. Yeah, so I liked, Oh yeah, go ahead, Sorry, I was just gonna mention I really liked the no wake up fees on this list. Um, it's the you know, quote unquote wake up fees is like the coffee and energy drinks and like drive through breakfast in the morning, Like nobody thinks about that. But when you're taking courses online and you're not driving out

of your home, you skip all that. And so those are small expenses that you like, do miss out on, not just like the big ones. Yeah, yeah, they're they're listening out all these reasons of why going to school online can save you money and why that could be a good move for yourself in getting your degree. And I also like the no commute and that saves a lot of money. You're not money and time and time

is money. So this is a win win because you're not paying uh for gas uh and the mileage that it costs to get there and back depending on how far away that school is. I mean, chances are you don't live right next to a university that you want to be attending. So um, yeah, even if you are

living off campus and commuting, that's that's a cost. So going to school online cuts that out, and it cuts out the time that you would spend in the car and as you just mentioned gen it cuts out the money that you'd spend on your way during your commute. Of course, you do miss out on podcasts when you don't have a commute, true, but maybe you can like maybe get a job and listen on your way to

your too work. I don't know, there you go. But uh so I also like the um potentially lower tuition costs um because sometimes they do lower the cost for online classes. UM. That they say because some schools specialized in online learning don't incur the same overhead as traditional brick and mortar colleges. UM. So if you can find one that's strictly online, UM, you might have lower costs

per class. It's absolutely true, because I can tell you for a fact, my professors for my online classes, we're teaching me from home. So yeah, that is that is no overhead for those universities. I mean, they're paying the professors, but otherwise it's it's not paper, it's not office supplies, it's not a brick and mortar building that they've got

to be in to teach us. Yeah. Yeah, but they article also does say that it's some brick and mortar schools online classes might be have a higher tuition, So don't just assume that it's going to be lower. Actually check to see, check get across different schools for that major. Paying for the convenience probably yeah. I also like what they have to say about no lost wages as in and what I took this to mean was you're able to maximize your time. And so I experienced this personally.

I got my grad degree entirely online. I didn't have to go in at all. And what I realized that I liked about that is any time that I would have spent commuting or I would have spent in the classroom, everything got to all my time got to be put towards my graded assignments. And in that way, what what is supposed to be a full time program felt to

me to be less than that. Um maybe what would typically be a forty hour a week program most potentially five to thirty hours, because I wasn't communing, because I wasn't spending time in the classroom, I was reading and writing the things that directly went towards me obtaining my degree. And so for all the other maybe cons of going to school online, of not having the camaraderie and not being in the classroom and feeding off the energy of

other people and the questions. I found it to be highly efficient and created space for me to work, Whereas typically if I would have gone in for the exact same content, I would not have been able to hold down the work that I did hold down for that time.

So I think for that reason it far outweighs the cons. Yeah, and for people who feel like they're going to miss the camaraderie and the experience, I feel like in college, my experience is really stemmed out of things that did not happen in the classroom, like at least for my undergrad I know it's maybe different for graduate programs, but if you are you don't have a lot of time to make friends while you're in class for most of

your classes. And so if you can at least get um those classes out of the way online and just save as much money as possible and then you do want to take the rest of the experience in the classroom, then you've still saved more money than if you've done all of it there. Uh So, don't think it's one or the other. See how you can make it balance. Make a balance that's right for you. Speaking of a balance. That's right for me. M this is brings balance to

my week every week. 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 built buffalo bills, bill clean. This is the bill of the week. Hi Jen, Hi Jill, Mrs Kelly, and my bill of the week is about a certain time of the month. That's right. I am no longer putting money

towards menstruation, no more tennies towards my period. And I think I'm pretty clear clo. I did invest in one of those soft silicone cups and some of like really cute cloth um maxi pads that are out there, and there's a lot of variety its and it's not for everybody, but it's worth a shot, and I encourage um any ladies to check it out. I will no longer be flushing my money down the toilet or throwing it in the trash wink. Thanks ladies, Thanks for your frugal friends,

loving the podcast. Bye, oh Kelly. I am celebrating with you. Why a good feeling. It was the wink that was really good. I don't know if you could hear it, but like I as she was saying it and I found out what she was saying, I actually like toppled over my water bottle, like not for that reason, but I think it was just very ill timed. But I think that's a great idea. I think that it's more sustainable and it's saves money, and so I mean, I

think that's awesome. Oh yes, because needing to go out for those last minute purchases are the worst and you've got it figured out for the rest of your fertile years. Right, you're going to say life, but for the rest of her life, right, yeah, but she won't need it for whatever. We don't need to get into female biology right now. It's fine. You just you only took three weeks of allergy, so like we are not way to bring that full circle. I only know three weeks worth of an online winter

break experience. So this is not the podcast for biology, uh, just the podcast for bills. So if you have one you want to share with us, If it's shocking enough to make me spill more water bottles, ill timely. Just submit it to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill uh and leave us a voicemailer speak pipe and we're going to play it without listening to it. Fort We play all of them regardless of what they're about. Next is the Lightning Room. Poo poo um spoiler alert. We're

gonna have Rachel Cruise on the show next month. And we did this with her earlier this week, and and I don't know how she felt about it, so she was pretty quiet. So dude at that part. Um, But today's lightning around. Jill and I are sharing our biggest waste of money in college and a place where we're glad we saved. So kick it off. I'll kick it off biggest, my biggest waste of money. I said earlier that I had a full ride for my undergrad and I did not use the full scholarship. I how did

that come about? So I had, Um, I went to the University of Central Florida, go nights and you didn't. He probably didn't even know I went there because I didn't graduate from there. Um, but I did two years there and then realized I wanted to go to acupuncture school. And they offered a dual bachelor's Masters, so I didn't need to finish my bachelor's at uc to go to the program. Um because I would have had to retaken a lot retake like a lot of classes anyways. Um

so I cut off. I wasted two years of that scholarship, didn't utilize them, and instead paid for the rest of my bachelor's degree and my master's debt free. Now, yes, um, but I still I still regret not graduating from UCF because my all my best friends today are still friends that I met at UCF. Um So I still feel connected to the school. There's a case for this is

such a hard one. But zeroing in a bit on what you want to do and not putting pressure on yourself to go straight away to school just because everybody else is. I mean, there's no problem, Like you're making these decisions as you are, like still exiting childhood. So that's that's a lot of power. But yeah, you can, you can change your mind, that happens. But to also give yourself permission to take some time to to experience some things and zero in on what do I actually

want to do? Where do my where does my skill set lie in? My interests, which bleeds into my piece of My biggest waste of money was going out of state to college UM and living on campus. So being out of state usually costs a whole lot more UM than than going to any school in state, whether that's a state school or a private school. And then the living on campus. It's just it's so expensive to pay for a dorm room, even though it shared with like five people in your bathrooms are down the hall. I

don't understand how it's so expensive. I should have been paying like a hundred dollars a month for what I got. Ah, and the food is terrible. I don't know, it's that was silly. Also what was silly was the fact that I felt the pressure to like go to an expensive school out of state before I had any idea what I wanted to do. What I should have done was go to community college, get what I knew were just going to be general requirement classes as I'm figuring out,

or taking a year off, and just traveled. I ended up doing that halfway through undergrad. I took a year off after my sophomore year and traveled, gained clarity on what I wanted to do, and came back full, full throat and finished my degree. But my goodness, two years of two different colleges, just so I don't know what I was doing, paying way too much for a dorm room. Yeah,

I took a year off, actually too, I did. I did two years ECF and then one year at acupuncture school, and then I took a year off, and then I came back and I finished acupuncture school and I met Eric. That's what I did Eric on my year off. Oh my god, I married him though I locked a down. Yeah you did, girl. Uh yeah, I was in San Diego working for UM, the nonprofit formerly known as Invisible Children. That's what I did. Gosh, so much clarity you gained then.

I'm so glad you did that. We would not know each other if it weren't for that. Oh my gosh, that's so true. Our gap years brought us together. Oh my gosh. We won't take ended that too much, but to take that for what it's worth. Back on topic, um, So, my biggest place where I'm glad I saved is the opposite of Jills. I lived off campus when I went to UCF. I mean, I never lived on campus. My master's program obviously didn't have a campus to live on.

So well, it had a camp I'm sorry, it had a campus, you couldn't live on it, um And so I lived off campus, right across the street from the university and had a free shuttle, so I had free parking for my car. I didn't have to pay for parking on campus at the school, and it was a fraction of the price. I got my own bathroom, a full size bed, a kitchen in the apartment. I had to share it with three strangers, but only one was

a drug addict, and I had great neighbors. I went to There was even in this so this was campus affiliated off campus housing, and there was even a fraternity in the apartment complex. And so I went to my first frat party there. So that that for you, that goes on the pros side that there was a frat. Okay, oh no, no, no no, that's just a side. Um. I'm just I'm glad I lived off so much. It was

a fraternity living there too. I'm saying I got the experience of living on campus and saved money living off the sordid experience. Yeah, where I am glad that I saved money is a couple of places. Going to school online for my grad degree. What what saved so much money? Also, and not all programs do this, but I had an opportunity within my course of study to get my master's degree in one year, which does reduce the costs significantly. So if you can find a program that is accelerated,

that helps a ton. Also on a smaller scale, I crushed it when it came to saving on books, like that is where my frugality sword and shined. Um. I paid little to nothing on my books and every semester I was so proud of my soul. If you want some tips, be al free to hit me up and the Frugal Friends Facebook community group, because that's that. That's my little like my my my secret skill. Like you know when someone tells you like raising man, like what's

your secret skill? And somebody's like, I can pop my shoulder out of place, I'm like, I can say money on books. Oh my gosh, that is great though you and now you're debt free. Now I'm debt free, and you cash flowed your master's degree. Yeah, And part of that was because I went to school online and I didn't accelgrated program and then I lived tiny and made all sorts of other very frugal extreme decisions and it worked.

So Jill is living proof that you can go back to school at cash flow another degree and live to tell the tale. And then afterwards then finished paying off your undergrad degree as I got my master's. Okay, said that before my undergrad was out of the way. Yeah, it's fine. We do what we have to do. You do what you gotta do. UM. One last thing I wanted to say about UM online colleges before we wrap up is that it's important to choose an accredited online college.

That impacts. So there are four profits schools that are online, and you will know the difference because you will see a lot more TV advertisements for them. Accredited ones are starting to have their moment too, But that really impacts if you do have to take out student loans and you want to refinance them later. Not all student loans can be refinanced, so be sure when you are choosing an online school that you choose an accredited UH school

and that will help you later. UM. Should you want to refinance student loans or whatnot, or even go back for another degree elsewhere, good word, yes, So thank you for listening to my ted talk, um, and thank you for reviewing the program on iTunes and stitcher. Um like this great one. It's from Salmon Pony. Uh. That's get that visual out of your head, it says, obsessively refreshing

every Thursday night. Um, I've really enjoyed this podcast for some time and can finally match the right voice with the right name. So I figure I am now qualified to review caviat like. You don't have to be able to do that. Deliver you Um. The dry humor appeals to me. The first episode I listened to, Pennies You Find on the Ground was the sponsor, and I really

did laugh out loud. Occasionally the selected topic doesn't sound interesting to me specifically, but it usually ends up being entertaining and I really have learned new ways to be fruital. Very helpful. Yes, thank you Sam and Pony. Thanks Salmon Pony. Um. We don't really start episodes on Thursday night, but apparently this is when Sam and Pony listens to us, which

is great whenever she wants. Absolutely, I just want our listeners to know, and also I do appreciate that they waited until they knew the podcast a bit more to review that. That's always appealing to me that you've given it some time to know what this is about what we're claiming to be, and giving reviews that will help others determine if this is what they want to be

listening to and spending their time on. Yeah, we have two reviews that really waited until they knew the show coming up on the next few shows and so share ready for those those areas. It's great because oh, I'm excited to read those. Yeah. Sometimes we get reviews for people who have listened for like the first two minutes of one show and well, you know how that Usually that's like stepping into a restaurant and taking a quick whiff and walking out and reviewing. It's like, did you

want to find out how amazing it is? We are like Taco Bell. We are us. We are the Taco Bell of podcasts. I don't know, I don't know. I can get on board with that. We also want to thank you friends who are sharing these episodes on social media. When you share our latest episode by tagging us on Facebook, our Instagram, we add you to our monthly drawing. So we give away a ten dollar Amazon gift card uh

four every five tags or reviews. So whether you tag our latest episode or you review us and send us a screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com, you enter our drawing for a ten dollar Amazon gift card m M. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and stitcher um send those screenshots to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tag us on social at Frugal Friends podcast so that we see that you shared it. See you next week. Frugal Friends

is produced, editive and mixed by Eric Seria. I want somebody to review the show, and I want him to say that as the title the Taco Bello Bell Podcasts, it was to have to be a five star review if that's going to please I thought we just assumed that that was what I wanted. So then you know, like, if you hate Taco bell then you might hate us, Yeah, you might. If you want eating sushi off of another

person's plate, you might hate us. We shoulders the most classy, but we do deliver, yeah, and we are fun and we accept tips. It's just and sometimes we combine with a long jong Silver's or like an n W I ate it long John Silver's once when I was a kid and I was sick. Yeah, we are, we are not the lj s of podcasts. Hopefully did you quickly abbreviate them? In my head? I said, what are the first three letters? What are the words letters? Good job,

thank you. Actually I was listening to an audio book and they gave a math problem, and that just just kind of telling of the audio books I listened to. And uh, it was a big number and the answer ended up being four eight and I was able to do the multiplication problem. In my head, I'm looking for something. I don't know what the multiplication problem was, like it could have been four D eight times one, like I don't know, but also I don't know, like if what what?

There's so many things that we don't have time. But you're listening to math problems on books. Okay. So the book is Thinking Fast and Slow. Um, it's a book by a behavioral economist and he was demonstrating like when you make a an impulsive decision, or you evalue if you evaluate somebody based on what their face looks like, I mean not like judge them, but they have like an angry face and you're like, oh, that person is angry.

That's your fast thinking. But if someone says, like, what's fourteen times twenty four, then you have to like sit back and be like, okay, what is fourteen times care the one four hundred and eight? That wasn't the problem. It's like you see Taco Bell this podcast like Taco Bell and immediately decides, yes, it's for me. It was seventeen times twenty four that was the problem. Seventeen times twenty four equals and we all learned something new today. Bye.