Episode four forty seven, How to have a Frugal Spooky Season.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking all things Spooky Season. It has become, really, I think, the holiday of choice for millennials, and the data we will read to you will reinforce that for many reasons. But today we are going to put some of our millennials spending maybe into perspective. We're going to talk a smidge it's just a smidgeon about inflation in the economy, but
not enough to bore you. And then we're also going to talk about if you choose to partake, how you can partake frugally.
You've really laid it out well, Jen.
I'm excited for this journey together that we will take through October.
I mean, I am a pumpkin spice girly, so I have been here, I am here and I will be here for Spooky Season. And I'm excited about this episode.
I think that's part of it.
And we did pull you all for those of you who get the Friend Letter, which is the email that we send out weekly if you're not getting it Frugal friendspodcast dot com. But we asked you all what are you most likely to spend on unnecessarily this fall? The options being decorations, anything involving pumpkins, trick or treating, slash, costumes, or other. You all said decorations mostly, but pretty neck and neck on the pumpkins, the trick or treating, and costumes.
But I think at least related to decorations. That's part of why I think spending is so high around this time, because it's that combo of Halloween and fall. And I think we talked about in a recent episode how much fall is this overinflated time of year. Everyone loves it.
We've had a.
Long conversation about pumpkins, spice lattes and just pumpkins.
And yeah, in our episode what to budget for this Fall, it's fall. Fall has been a heavily marketed season. It needed a rebrand. You know, Winter has its things, Summer has its things. Even spring, the shoulder season of seasons, had its thing, you know, coming out of the cold,
Fall didn't really have a thing. Fall was ugh, Summer's over, Winter's coming like fall back to Yeah, fall was really the worst season, and it has had a glow up and and now it's become another opportunity for us to spend money.
And uhlow up. Yeah, and yes, affecting our wallet.
But a couple of things I wanted to say about some of the things that you guys said about quote unquote unnecessary fall spending. I I love knowing when something is unnecessary and necessary, and just because it's unnecessary does not mean it's bad. And so a lot of you were saying, like all the all the false stuff, apple picking, pumpkin everything, just fall drinks at cafes, apple flavored drinks,
pumpkin hand wash and soap and men. So like, there's a difference between feeling guilty about buying these things and buying them without guilt but knowing that they're unnecessary, knowing that they're not needed, and being in total alignment with those things and knowing I love these things. They don't get me closer to my highest values, but I still love them and embrace them, and putting money aside for
them is totally great. We totally support that, but we also want to come at that combating some of the over consumption that has been marketed to us in this season. But first, speaking of the friend Letter, this episode is brought to you by the friend Letter, which is our thrice weekly newsletter where we send out polls like this so we can talk about the data we receive from you, and then also we send out freebies. There are a lot. Like we said, marketing is very heavy in the fall.
It's heavy in every season, but I would say especially fall and winter because there's not as much going on outside, so people know you're inside more on your computer or in stores, So there's a lot more marketing in the fall and winter. So we talk about free every Monday. They're all marketing ploys. But if you know that you can still get something for free, why wouldn't you write?
So we do that on Mondays, we do saving hacks and tips on Wednesdays, and then on Fridays we talk about the mindset to combat over consumption and to learn spending as a skill, so that one's a little bit more maybe inspirational, cerebral, but frugal. Friendspodcast dot com. Every single friend letter is unique and is valuable and We would love to have you with us on that journey.
Frugal friendspodcast dot com. M M all right, so let's talk about holiday impulse, spending, this spooky season consumption with Let's start it out with a little bit of data research.
We love it so sexy.
So before we started recording, I looked at the data set that we had been presented with and I was like, this is a and you will see this every season. You'll see this on the news, are on the radio where they'll talk about Americans are projected to spend X this holiday season or will increase by X, and it's all prediction. It's all planned and it's not going to be that far off, but you know it's it's not
one hundred percent accurate. The problem with Halloween is that normally you can find the actual data set after the holiday for what people really spent, and that's usually what we go off. The problem for this holidays we could not find the actual data. Even when we were looking at predictions for twenty twenty four, they all kept referencing these articles that were the planned and so you always got to look at the cited data as well as
the data. So we're going to assume that the you know, quote unquote planned spending that they reported in twenty twenty three, we're just going to go off of that. We're gonna look at spending, not at what is predicted for twenty twenty four, but we're gonna look at how much did people spend in twenty twenty three versus twenty twenty two.
That's when interests are that's when inflation's stabilized, right, So from twenty one to twenty two you have that eight nine percent interest From twenty two to twenty three, we saw it stabilize at four which is still over the two to three we like to see, but obviously much closer. And so did spending increase at a rate of four percent or did it increase at a higher rate, which means it wasn't just spending that was increasing. It means
that's consumption increasing. So what did we find? What did we find?
Jill?
Here we go.
So we've got a couple of data sets that we can go off of. One from National Retail Federation. The NRF stated that in twenty twenty two, individuals spent on average one hundred dollars just for Halloween. That was individuals they didn't say households. They truly said each individual on average spent one hundred dollars in twenty twenty two, and then in twenty twenty three that on average individuals spent
one hundred and eight dollars. Doesn't sound like that much, but that is an eight percent increase from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three, which, as you just stated, the inflation rate stabilized at four percent, So that's nearly double the inflation rate that people spent. So I think
a lot of times. One of the things that you said before we hopped on was they're always going to predict its higher, of course, and people will say, yes, of course, I'm going to spend more because inflation is causing me to spend more.
Things cost more money.
But this is pointing out to us that that's not the only thing we can point the finger at. Our desire for more. Our degree of consumption is outpacing inflation, and.
It's outpacing what we've seen historically for the holiday too. So NRF also looked at how many people are celebrating. So in twenty twenty three you had seventy three percent versus in twenty seventeen, you had seventy two percent, and that rate actually just kept going down until twenty twenty. So we had seventy two, we had seventy, we had sixty eight. In twenty twenty, we had only fifty eight
percent of people celebrating Halloween. And then we have our post pandemic reawakening into the world where things just go off to where in twenty twenty three it did surpass that pre pandemic levels of people said celebrating Halloween, and I part of it to do with that post pandemic kind of reawakening. Part of it also is social media and a lot of content creators will create content around
seasons because like, what else do you do? And so there have been every season you'll see this onslaught of inspired costuming, wearing decor, diy, all of this stuff, and it makes you think that more people are celebrating the holiday, when in reality, it's just content creators looking to schedule their content creation and looking trying to be relevant and trying to come up with new ideas for content. And don't worry, we're going to have an episode about influences coming up.
If I care about them.
It's because I just got off that out of that rabbit hole. Ji'll just literally pulled me up out of it. But it's this like perfect storm of like marketing, social media post pandemic that's created this over consumption on this holiday.
Which I am. I'm right here with you.
I'm loving to look at the realities of this and really inwardly too, at the ways that we're being sold to. I have appreciated the focus that we've had just for ourselves of how are marketers marketing to us, How are we choosing to spend money so that we can feel more resourced and more knowledgeable to be able to make some of these better spending decisions. So all of this I think just serves to help us and benefit us
in the decisions we make with our money. There's one final stat I want to note, and it probably has to do with what you're describing, jen of more people participating in the holiday, So not necessarily contradictory to the
other stats, but interesting nonetheless. So the NRF again also stated that spending went from ten point six billion dollars in twenty twenty two on Halloween in the United States to twelve point two billion dollars in twenty twenty three, and that is a twenty percent increase in spending, and that might have to do with not so much one individual to the next, you know, increasing about eight percent, but also the influx of how many more people are now engaged in the holiday as well, so that even
pushes the degree of consumption even higher than just individual to individual, like what we're choosing to engage in collectively this time of year.
Yeah, and so some of the things that they were saying, people are spending more on this This isn't necessarily overall costumes. That's like the first thing we think about, but like a lot of it is candy, and people are starting to buy earlier. I think it was I am I have lost a step. But Amazon searches for Halloween in August from twenty to twenty two to twenty twenty three increased two hundred percent, So like two hundred percent more
people are starting to plan for Halloween in August. And the earlier you start shopping for something, obviously, the more time you're going to be buying stuff for it, and so just little little things here and there. One of the stats is the most the highest or the leading destination to buy Halloween items is discount stores. It's it's the little things that are adding up. So we're going
to these discount stores. We're finding more affordable trinkets and trash, and we're starting to buy them earlier, so it makes less of a dent in our month to month budget, but overall it is in total.
And you know why we're buying it sooner because they're selling it to us sooner because it's working, because marketers are putting these things in the stores in August and we're scooping it up like.
Hungry little We love change, gremlins.
We love change, so we want buying something makes us feel like things are changing, especially you're when you're in that back to school rut like that, you're in the thick of it and you just want to control something and you can't get out of the season that you are in. But jack O lanterns are back and little cute little skeletons so you can make them put your their arms in different ways. And I saw this the cutest skeleton heads at Target that were covered in like
this dark green velvet and they're so cute. But like what I said, when I was shopping with Kai and we were looking.
At the stuff.
We can appreciate it without having to take it home. Yeah, and so yeah, they do it because it works. And I'll give one more stat on costumes.
Okay, make it quick, becaus we said we wouldn't bore them.
I know, I know. So Actually, the spending on costumes for children has remained relatively steady since twenty eighteen one point two bill one point two one point two one point two. We see a little dip in twenty twenty. We were at one point four in twenty twenty three. People are not spending more on their children. Where we see the big jump, and here's people are not spending more on their dogs to either one point or we're at point five point five. When we reach in place,
we get point seven. We stay pretty steady. People are buying more adult costumes and pricier adult costume, so more quantity and higher price. So it's not I'm spending more for my kids or my dog's I'm spending more for me. Yes, you know, And so we need to take a heart I.
Deserve this, did that already yeah yeah.
Wow, so so yeah, so that's another thing to be aware of. And those are all the stats that we'll go through.
Okay, so you all get the point. There's something to look at on our end of how we can just decrease consumption. And I love this about frugality and values based spending that when we get better at this, it helps us, it helps our community, it helps the environment. We're not just talking about saving our own money. We're also talking about decreasing our consumption in a way that's going to benefit us in the community. And so now that we can understand, we can take back some of
this decision making for ourselves. Let's look at what we can do ways to be able to still enjoy Halloween but level out just like let's let it planteau a little bit and make some really informed decisions. We're going to look at the top areas that we do spend, from costumes and candy to decor. Okay, So this next article comes from Money and Mentors and it is titled best ways to save money on Halloween this year, and
that is what we want to know. Yeah, and I like how they go into categories here of how to save on costumes, and so that's what we'll that's where we'll start with.
And then candy and decor.
But their first tip is pretty obvious, but it is worth restating because so many of us don't do this. But it is making your own costumes that you can find things around your house to create a costume with. It might take a little bit more creativity or problem solving or even sacrificing a little bit of exactly what it is that you want or your vision to create something with what you already have and not need to
purchase a whole costume. That or you create something with everything that you have on hand, and maybe you need to buy one small piece to really complete the ensemble, but that's going to be far less than needing to go and buy the entire thing in and of itself. And there is plenty of helpful things on the internet, from Pinterest to just straight up Google on what are
some just DIY costume ideas? How can I create something that can be fun, I feel good about, but I don't have to spend a ton of money on, not to mention, something that I most likely won't wear again. Like regular Halloween costumes, they are cheaply made, and I use that word accurately. Yeah they're going to fall apart. You're probably not going to want to wear it again next year, and you're most certainly not going to be
wearing it just out and about. It's like your classic bridesmaid's dressed, right like, you're never gonna wear this again.
There's never gonna be unless you wear the bridesmaid's dress for Halloween, in which there you go. That's the only other place you're gonna wear that bridesmaid's dress.
Yeah. I love personally.
I love the Halloween costumes that are just puns or something really outlandish, and it doesn't have to be just your classic Disney princess and you gotta get a Disney princess costume, just like if we're spending more money on ourselves and not our children, then we can get more creative and fun and funny with what we end up dressing, as it doesn't have to be just a classic character.
You could also go secondhand. There are especially if you're doing like this weekend, when you're hearing this episode, look on Facebook Marketplace. Look at the thrift store because they're still going to have some left goodwill. Their Halloween costumes are basically brand new and full price. I don't love it.
Facebook Marketplace is where it is at for costumes. That's where the really good costumes are going to be, the good quality where they don't want to just give it to goodwill, they want to sell it, get some money back for it. That's where you're going to find the good ones. If you love dressing up for Halloween, it is your thing, and if you're going to do it homemade, you're going to spend more money than if you just
bought it. I would say go to Facebook Marketplace. I seriously was looking in August at Halloween costumes kind of for myself, but also to prep for this episode. And there was a it was Beetlejuice, the couple and their demon, you know, weird form. Somebody had made this couple's costume had won a and I'm pretty sure I know which. Pretty sure it was the old Northeast Halloween competition. Oh cool, this house won. But this listing said that they won
a costume contest with this costume duo. So this was an award winning duo costume duo you could find for like half the price, no like work needed to assemble. It was already ready to go and you can and it was just on Facebook Marketplace.
Oh that's fun.
Yeah, so like you're going to get some good things. So if Halloween really is your holiday, you don't have to you don't have to like spend all your money doing it, at least not every year. Maybe every other year you really do go all out and you do the thing, right, but then every other year you're looking on Facebook marketplace to find those hidden gems.
Yeah, or you really hone in on what is the thing that is most valuable to you in the season. Doesn't think they have to go all out on the costume and the decor and the candy, Like, right, what's most important?
Yeah, if the costume is yours, then you're doing You're doing that, and maybe next year you invest in some decor and you don't do as much of the costume. Just pick and choose what's most important.
The final one in this category of saving on costumes is doing a costume swap. I would imagine this would be really good, especially for kids costumes, Like similar to uh yeah, if you've got a lot of mom friends, get together and swap your various costumes. That's also good for hand me downs. It's also something that you can find on Facebook, marketplace and at the thrift store. But swapping is free, and we love free, so maybe consider arranging a swap with the neighborhood or other kids from
school and their moms. And it's also a hangout and that's fun.
So yeah, it might be a little late to do that now, but you could organize a costume swap like with other moms and dads where everybody brings in old costumes and the kids get to go around and look for a costume that they might want, and if two of them want the same costume, then they can like throw down make Yeah. So this would be a really
great way to increase your relationships and community. This is a way we can get together and solve our problems and build relationships without spending money like double two for two.
Speaking of increasing relationships and community, we're moving on to candy.
Well, I did want to add something to this article. Okay, so this is not in here, but this is a gen addition for costumes love that don't wear one. Maybe that's an option for you too. You have the freedom to not wear a costume if you you don't want to. Absolutely, you can attend a party without a costume unless that party says you don't get in the door without a costume. In that case, home, d I Wyatt. No, who's gonna tell you you don't look like Freddie Mercury on a
Tuesday night, right right? Like who knew what he looked like on a Tuesday at home, right when no one was going.
Or you could just show up as you and be a curmudgeon.
I am a curmudgeon because I did not dress up for how we like everyone else.
Yeah, this, so this is also an option. You can also throw a party which is an anti costume party for people who don't like wearing costumes, which.
Is just a regular party.
Yeah, it's so true, so true for people who love pumpkin stuff, who don't really love Thanksgiving food but love spooky season. And there you go. You can wear skull shirts, you can wear your spooky stuff that you already have in your closet exactly. That's that's the thing. You don't have to wear a costume to take your kids trick or treating. You don't have to be this cute family curated theme, like, you don't have to do that.
Yep.
You let your kids be whatever they want and it can be all different, and you can just wear shorts.
Yep, I love that. Okay, back to my set.
Okay, I'm so sorry.
I kind of community.
Throw that because that's what I'm going to be doing because I actually hate costumes. I hate them so much. They're one where I hate them.
Hold on, now, I'm getting on a rabbit trail with you. Is it because you only wear them once? Or you just don't like dressing up because you could you could be something from your closet. Do you just not like themed requirements for what you wear?
I don't love themed requirements, but I truly hate the oneness of the costume. There is one setting I can wear this. I do have a wears Waldo glasses and Beanie set that I will occasionally bring out or like cat ears, and I will wear those every couple of years. But I really do detest the single useness of it.
And then I don't have to be single, right, But I have to.
Put the work in to find it used and then I wear it, and then I have to wear the already have.
Is it just the work to think about something you already have?
Yeah?
And I do.
If I have to wear a costume, which I will attend costume parties and dress up for trick or treating, and I will always wear things I already have, and it will always be very odd references Like when I was pregnant with Atlas, I wore what I would normally wear to run a half marathon, but I was like a pregnant runner, you know I should I well, I wouldn't have been running a half marathon in that state, but other people do. So it's like not even really great costumes. So I will do it if I have.
To, but I don't like to, and that's okay.
So I love all the other I love the skulls and the skeletons, and I love death. Honestly, I think if we're being if, if we're digging into it, as I'm saying it out loud, I land to lean into the Okay, wow, Okay, moving on to candy.
Candy, Okay, split costs with a neighbor now, hear me out. I do like this for the sense of if you do live in a neighborhood, potentially considering having a house or two houses or three, whatever you want to do, kind of go in and you all hang out on that person's porch, coming together, bringing candy, and then more is more when you're together and you're all hanging out and you're passing out candy, and then you didn't have
to buy as much candy. You could also do this because not everybody lives in a house where people are going to come trick or treating you. If you do have one of those houses, just inviting other friends over not just not necessarily a neighborhood thing, but have people just come to your house, bring candy, and you all sit out front together and that way, or you just tell everybody to provide the candy. You just provide some warm apple cider for everyone and you just sit out
and you give candy two people. So or if your friend has a spot, then you could be the one to join in. So I love that idea because it's another like doubleing up situation where you don't have to spend as much, you get more community and hanging out times.
Yes, I love that hanging out with your neighbors on the front porch. I am very into that. And we all know, like for you know which neighborhoods kids go trick or treating in. If you live in one of those neighborhoods, you're gonna buy candy and sometimes you're gonna buy a lot of it, Like old northeast snell a'le short acres like those are the neighborhoods kids trick or
treat in here and then everywhere else. It's just like if I buy a bag of candy, two kids are gonna come by and I'm gonna be eaten the whole bag of candy. Let's not do that to ourselves. Okay, let's let's not do.
That to our bodies exactly.
Let's be like strategic and maybe you don't have to buy candy. Maybe you don't have.
To, which is similar to the next two that you can take over. I think they're kind of a combination to.
Yeah, limit candy output and or set boundaries around the time. So I'm gonna say, I'm a grown adult and I love the houses that get full candy bars. We go to the neighborhoods that give out full candy bars, drinks,
light shows, dance parties. It's such a good time. And if you can't, I mean, if you don't have a neighborhood that where kids go to to trick or treat, I mean, you don't have to be that extravagant, right, But like don't kid yourself and don't buy candy, saying that you're going to give it out even though.
You know you're not.
Say so, limit limit the candy. I guess input honestly, it's the candy like incoming to your house versus output.
Right, yeah, how much? How much you buy?
Because I don't see how you could limit the output, like are you gonna just give?
What?
What are you gonna do?
Well, I think they're saying, like you limit the amount that you give, like it is possible to say just every every kid gets one piece of candy. But they're also saying you can set time limitations around it, that you don't have to offer trick or treating at your house the entire night long. You set your own limits of you're gonna be out there for an hour or two and once that time is up, then you're coming
in the house, or or just once the candy is gone. Right, It doesn't mean that you have to buy fifty dollars worth of candy. It could mean you buy one bag, you engage for an hour. When it's gone, it's gone. So I think that there's just permission for some of these limitations if you do want to participate, but you can't be the house with the light show in the full candy bars. Then this is an option.
Yeah maybe, yeah, maybe you do live in one of those neighborhoods where kids come trigger treat and the house next to you does full candy bars. You don't have to do that because they're already getting full candy bars next door. You don't have to up them. Just do your small candy bars. Don't be stingy. Yeah, don't do weird flavored tutsi rolls and gross bubble coum like, don't don't give away cable. Come, you know, but you're the
only person. Don't give away candy that's just that's gonna get thrown away the trash, just because you know you're trying to be cheap and save a dollar. Wow, I have opinion now that I have trigger treated with children for several years. Now, I have opinions on the candy. Before it was just opinions on skulls.
You're no longer one issue voter on this matter.
Right.
I'm so glad this is not dictated by our legislation.
Okay, so now we're moving on to decor.
We're going to keep it pretty simple here because it's very similar to what we've just talked about with costumes and candy.
But di, I why this thing all the way?
Recognize that you can be crafty and creative if Halloween decor is even important to you. There are plenty of things you can do to get yourself into the season without really buying anything or hardly buying anything. I love giving myself a nice challenge of how can I decorate and lean into the season with the things that I
already have on hand or minimal purchases. It can be really and the Internet, yet again, is really helpful with this kind of thing, from making you know, cutting out little ghosts or whatever, bat shapes, whatever you're into from the paper that you already have on hand or the bags that you have, or using spare pieces of fabric to flap around in the wind or cotton balls you already have on hand to be spider webs, which unpopular opinion just for me, I just feel like spider webs
are not decoration.
Oh, but I get it that people are in a contraire.
I would like to propose a frugal cobweb de core hack. So Disney World does this for its Haunted Mansion, and they have I can't remember what the spray is, but it's just like a sticky spray and they just right between like you got a candelabra and you spray between the candles and then it collects natural dust and skin flakes and stuff and starts to look like cobwebs. And so all the cobwebs at Disney Haunted Mansion is not
actually like cobwebs. It's like real dust and like skin flakes. Yeah, it's so gross, but it's like, you don't have to buy.
Cops or you could just use cotton cotton balls pulled apart.
Okay, you could do that too.
I don't have to decorate with skin flakes and dust.
I don't know. If you're like me, you can decorate that way. I actually don't use I don't use it though. Another tip is to reuse, reuse and like get it secondhand and all of that jazz. So again, Facebook Markplace is good, but I would say the thrift store is where I would go for decor. It's got everybody you know, brings in their holiday stuff and they wait until the holiday to put it out on the floor. And if you are going this weekend. I'm sure there's still some
good stuff. The closer you get, the last chance you have. But I think you might still find some stuff out there this weekend.
And of course you can think ahead and just be planning to buy Halloween decorations after Halloween for next year. The prices drop significantly even just the day after Halloween. So if you can hold off this year, do all of your DIY and plan to have maybe a few additional things added to your decor repertoire, then you can purchase it afterwards. But you can also try my trick, which is the final tip on here, skip.
It all together.
If Jen's going to skip the costumes, I'm gonna skip the decor I just it's not that it's not tempting to me. I do go to these stores. I see the cute things. Oh how great would that be? But then I realize, in order for my home to look so festive, I'm going to need so much more than this one thing that I purchase. So then it's just going to look awkward in my space that I've got this one thing. And then when the floors go over, where am I going to put it? I do not
care about storing decor for every single season. I'm just not doing it.
Yeah, it's yeah, So actually I don't do much, if at all, any decor either. Mine is much more in the food. We'll talk about that later. But yeah, that's that's the way. And we're not saying you skip everything all together. We're saying, pick one or two things that you can skip and then also see if you can reduce your consumption on the other things. Because it is not that everyone is celebrating Halloween to the extreme, and we can say that with any holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever.
It's not looking how it looks in the magazine, Instagram, not everyone.
It's not real life. So choose what's most important to you about this holiday and really embrace that. Do that, and then forget about the other stuff.
Absolutely.
Yeah, but you know what I don't forget about.
Oh it's it's not spooky or macabre, but I love it all the same.
The bill of the week, Right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill.
Anymore duck bills, buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This is the bill of the.
Week, Pagan and Jill, This is Beionny Hill. First and foremost love you guys. I've been listening for about three years now, and I just have to say before I forget, I love the sound effects from the.
Pew pew to the.
Well. Anyway, my bill of the week is actually a website that I wanted to share with y'all that has really brought down my grocery bill. It is called supercook
dot com. Is a little spoon with a superhero kp on it, and what you do is you check off all the items you currently have at home, anything from round beef to any seasonings or spices or anything at all in your pantry, and it gives you a list of all the recipes you can do with those items, and it starts tapering down to what recipes you can use with everything you have minus one item that you're missing or two items that you're missing, so your groceries
are absolutely minimal, So instead of trying to find an entire recipe, you just go buy one or two items that you're missing.
Uh.
And that is my bill of the week again. Thank you so much for everything you guys do for all of us and truly unsung heroes. Really bye y'all.
Oh wow, I was not expecting that, Beanni.
Oh wow, that's amazing. Thanks for all of your compliments. That's so kind of you. Happy for You're all. That's for you for Beanni.
And this is a great tip. I love stuff like this.
This thing looks great supercook dot com. It looks I mean, yeah, this looks awesome.
That'll definitely help save on your grocery bill. And as you were saying this, it made me think, how great would this be? And really I should I should trademark this before I tell the world about my genius idea that I just had based.
On Beanni's bill of the week.
Wow, how great would that be to have an app similar to that for Halloween costumes? You could type in what you already have on hand and they could tell you the types of Halloween costumes you can.
Make with it. Wow?
Right, You're like, I have a white T shirt and these pants and here's my accessories.
And what could I be?
Oh wow, I know I might need to have them cut this out so I can go off and become a million there with this idea.
Wow, oh my gosh, and your income could be affiliate income from stores saying like, oh, but you're missing this one piece here it is at Target.
Mm hmm.
It's our idea now, Jill, Oh.
Oh wow, I'm sure wants in on this too.
We can split the million dollars three ways.
Wow.
And if we've got any developers out there, then we'll split We'll split it four ways with you to actually help us supplement on this idea.
And we are broke again, and that's how we don't make money, Jill, because we share so many Wow.
Well, Vianni, thanks for this tip that is just launching us into million dollar ideas. If you all listening have a bill that you want to submit, if it's about how you save money in the kitchen, save money on Halloween, or your your bill, you our bill, you and body bill, Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill to leave us your bill.
We're ready for it. And now it's time for the light Roam show.
All right, So for today's lightning round, your Halloween plans for this year?
Jill, Well, I will just be getting back from Europe, so it won't be much, but I do have a hope this year to watch.
You did reference it already and I have not seen it.
Beetlejuice is on mine and Era you have no no, I know, I know.
That you want to slap me. I don't want to spap don't. It's not the best.
It's honestly not my favorite Halloween movie. What is I don't I don't know if it's an actual Halloween movie, but it feels Halloween for me. Edward scissor Hands, Okay, that's mine. Yeah, I really like it.
I like it.
I like a Tim Burton moment. Okay, I'm not gonna i'mna lie about it, but yeah, I'm a I'm an Edward Scissorhands girl.
Yeah, so that's on that's on my list. There's also a movie that my friend was in and now I need to look it up to make sure that I get the name of it right. It's like Vampire Diaries or something like that, and.
I haven't seen it yet.
No.
Yeah, so that's not what it's called is It's about vampires Alice.
And the vampire Queen. Oh wow.
Yeah, it's like a film that was put out last year and I've been wanting to watch it but I'm.
Like, I should watch it around Halloween. She says.
She's like, oh, it's low budget, it's not that good, but she plays the vampire in it, and I just want to support her and see what it's all about.
So that one's on my list too.
So I got two movies. Wow, that'll probably be how I observe Halloween. We don't get a ton of trigg or treaters on our road. We get a few, so I usually just put out. Honestly, dumb dumb lollipops are my go to. Sorry if that's not your favorite, Jen, but they are inexpensive and they last for a while, so if I end up having leftovers, then they can continue to be treats for the kids in the neighborhood throughout the year. I like a good dumb dumb lollipop okoy for you out, so I put that out by
the door. I may or may not be home. Well we'll be what that looks like?
How about you?
I am planning another event for the night. Last year, I had to take the kids out alone because Travis was sick, so I planned to you know, do him up with Elderberry for the week prior and so that he cannot abandon me again because this isn't his favorite. But I love those, Okay. So I love Old Northeast. It has a home decorating contest every year and it's three streets, maybe nine blocks of homes decorated like you
would think Christmas decorations, but think times ten. And for Halloween there are hobbit holes, beetlejuice, alien flying saucers like life size. Every single movie you can think of, toy story, just so many themes and they are so fun.
Who cool?
So I like to go earlier in the day when it's still light out, it's less crowded. I mean earlier in the day, I mean like five o'clock. So do that and then go down to Shore Acres where they give out the free you know, the full candy bars, and it's it's a joy.
Do you know what your kids will be yet?
So, as of now, we are recording this a month before it comes out, and also that's a month before Halloween, right. So Kai wants to be he wants to wear this is judge me as you will. I hate costumes. I had him two years ago. I bought he wanted to be Zuoma from paw patrol. So I bought him a Hey, they don't make Zooma costumes, but I bought him a Zooma sweatshirt. The costume the sweatshirt looked it had a big Zuma face on it. Cool, so it wasn't just a picture of Zuma.
It was zoom Uh.
So he wore that as his Halloween costume and then probably throughout the year too, and throughout the year we wore it. He wore that thing out. Last year he wore the home Depot apron that they give kids for free at the DIY events that they do, and he was a home Deepo employee. He had his little toolbox cute. So again spent nothing on that. And then this year he actually wants to wear his Spider Man's hoodie and like it goes up over your head and it goes
like over your eyes. Oh so you kind of like look like Spider Man. Atlas actually has Kai's Spider Man costume from when he was little. We got his secondhand, and I think he's still going to fit into it. So Kai wants him to be Spider Man two, so we might have two Spider Man's. Yeah, again, it's early and you can't always.
Protict right with the waves.
Right, So but we still have that home depot apron. We still we have a chef's hat and apron which he also wear. He wore that last year as well, so two different events. Yeah, he wanted to be two different things. We have a blippy like ensemble, so we're using things that other people bought for us just for play for Halloween. Yeah, that's great, and that's also an option.
So we'll see.
We'll see if maybe we see something that's available on marketplace or when I go to the thrift store next week. We'll see. But we're gonna go. We're gonna trick or treat and we're gonna buy pumpkin treats to have it home because I would much rather have those versus candy.
So yeah, that's well. Thanks everyone for listening.
We hope that you have a love fall season and shooky get easy, that this has inspired you to just consume less and allow your money to experience the benefits of that.
We also want to.
Thank you for leaving us really great reviews, like this one from Titanic Lover three. There's more, there's more than one of you.
Okay, it's me my friend Katie and you.
Yeah, fun and frugal at the same time. Five stars.
I found this podcast a couple of months ago and love listening to it while I'm in the car and doing chores around the house. They're fun to listen to and keep me motivated on trying to spend less money. Great podcast. Thanks Titanic Lover. That's a review.
I know, I also love The Titanic, but then I feel weird saying that because it's a shipwreck where like fifteen hundred lives were lost and rip moment of silence for those people. But I love the movie Titanic.
Too, so Leonardo Cabrio had his moment.
Yeah, you know, James Cameron just made that movie because he wanted to go down to the Titanic wreckage and he wanted somebody else to pay for it. Fun fact, boss, you know why he made Avatar.
So he could money.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to leave a rating and review. It helps potential listeners know how many bad jokes that Jen has and what we're all about here.
See you next time.
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric sirianni.
Okay, Jen I've been waiting all morning for the after show that you said, Okay, I have to wait for all right.
Well, so you had a great story for us this morning, but I I don't want to say I have a better one. But I found this this morning. I woke up a little early to have my coffee in silence and darkness, and I looked on our city's website to see when the trash pickup would be. Yesterday was Labor Day, and so I was like, did I miss trash Day?
And I did.
Yeah, the trash pickup was not affected. So that's another story. But I found the Gulfport Community Update page. Okay, on our city's website.
I'm locked in.
So I was like, oh, community updates, I should know about these, and they start off like yeah, and this is where I got my information. You know, sanitation schedule will not be affected. This is what I should have been reading all along hurricane season, fertilizer restrictions, free smoke detectors for the elderly and low income, upcoming special events.
And then we go down to police department. We have our own tiny little police department, and there is a list for the week of every dispatch call for service incidents, arrests, traffic stops, parking violations, ordnance violations, residents tracks, and then examples of arrests and significant incidents and calls of the week with real first and last names of people like Jamie X was arrested for domestic battery on August twenty second, and in detailed like just you know, and then I
got down to this my favorite one of the list. Robert was arrested for exposure of I'll let you guess on August twenty fifth, after he decided to go skinny dipping in above ground pool on a common area of a multi unit dwelling.
WHOA like he lives there?
I don't. It doesn't give any like peripheral information. All I know is that Robert was arrested.
For skinny dipping.
Yeah, for not just the dipping, but you know, the getting is seemingly getting in and out right, but I mean essentially in a common area of the multi unit dwelling that.
I mean that probably is like a condo with a pool. You know, you get comfortable, you think it's you think it's yours, and then you and then you go skinny dipping, and that's where you cross the line Robert.
Yeah, so that is what I was reading all morning. Wow, it's just the different things.
This is going to become your new music. And you know what I'm thinking.
I'm thinking it exists because like, our city is a lot of like retireired people, Like it is predominantly retirees. Okay, and wouldn't it be lovely if they this just was for like retirees, Like that's why this exists.
Yeah, it may have happened in a retirement community. Maybe Robert might be out here in his fifty five plus.
Above but above ground pool. It makes me think it was like a duplex and Robert just put in a pool so he could skinny dip, and then the other tenants were like, no, Robert, no, Robert, you can't.
So sorry Robert, but there are other people around.
Yeah, that's what I'm envisioning.
Yeah, do that on your own time, on your bathtub. Yeah mm hmm.
Well, so that's what I'm going to be check back next week for this edition.
Of Well, What's Happening in Florida?
What's Happening in Florida