How to Identify & Improve Spending Habits

for why you spend. So that is what we are specifically focusing on today. We've got to understand what's behind our behaviors if we want to shift our behaviors. So yeah, habits is a great place to start. Absolutely. But first, today's sponsors, our first live training sponsor in this show, Three secrets to pay off debt faster, even over the holidays. Yes,

it can be done. We will be covering the three lessons it took us years and dens of thousands of dollars of debt paid off to learn, all in hopes of saving you sometime and heartache on your debt free journey. And if you're not paying off debt, maybe you're saving for something like your emergency fund or a home these tips will still be relevant for you. So we're doing that live Sunday, October seventeen at six pm Eastern Standard Time, and everyone who wants to join us live will get

a free copy of our Debt Free Christmas Planner. Seats are limited, so head to Frugal Friends pod cast dot com slash training, grab your spot, by the way, it's free, free to join the live training, free to get the debt Free Christmas Planner. Just so much goodies. We just want to give to you all because that's what we like doing. And even if you can't join us live, we will send out a replay. So still head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash training and grab a

seat so that you can get that replay. But please show up live and we'll give you that debt Free Christmas Planner as a thank you. Today's episode is also brought to you by your brain. Have you ever heard that you only use ten of your brain? That's crazy, because that's a total myth. Your prayounds crazy, it's crazy. Your brain wants you to know that, according to science, that is more recent than nineteen oh seven, when that

myth was created. Um that you actually use nearly a hundred percent of your brain by the end of the day. So your brain wants you to give it a break once in a while, okay, and and let habits take over your brain. It is working for you. It is nuts. Even when you were talking about this sponsor, we both were like, how much of our brains do we use?

Or like, like, I think even less. It's changed that sponsor changed in the last thirty seconds because I was reading multiple articles that said the ten percent thing is a myth, and I was like, oh my goodness, people need to know about this. There's so much less shame than attached to it. Because before it's like you only use so do better, work harder, try and use more of your brain. And it's like you are, You're using

all of your brain. You're never gonna be neo. So like forget the blue and red pill, like you're already there, You're fine, give yourself some grace. Anyways, speaking of grace, habits am I right, hard to build, hard to break, hard to build, doctor break. So that's what we're talking about today, specifically on spending habits, because we like to talk about all things that can be used to improve your life, but we put a financial spin on it because that's our zone of genius. And we are talking.

We have a few different websites and this is the next challenge that we're doing in Club BFF is forty five day Habit Challenge And by the end you're going to see why we chose this challenge to do after the Core Values Challenge and why specifically it is a forty five day challenge versus twenty one or sixty six or whatever. So I am super excited to dive into this, and you have Jill like, I feel like this is

your zone of genius as well. I love it when we can blend mental health, behavioral health with financial health because they all do go together. They're never separate. We just don't always connect the dots. So, yes, this is definitely up my alley to be able to talk about some of the reasons behind why we behave in the way we behave, how we interact with the world around us, and then how we can utilize our understanding of these

topics to help us towards our financial goals. Yes, so our first article is from Money Habitudes and it's basically understanding your money habits. What do you think of this one hill It's a good one. It's short and sweet. I will say there's a couple of things in here that I'm going to push back on a little bit, which is always fun for me, spicing it up. Overall,

it's got some great content. There's just a couple of things I'm going to highlight about what they say and share just a bit of a differing opinion on that, but in general, some great stuff here, just about patterns and habits, how they relate to spending a little bit about how we can shift that, although that's going to come more in the second article. So the first way, the first thing on this article, we're just going to

kind of go through. It's not it's not a list, there's not tips, but they do talk about what is what are spending habits? What are some examples? How do these habits form? So we're just going to kind of go through those aspects. And so the way that they describe spending habits is an acquired behavior pattern that can seem almost involuntary, where these things that we do somewhat without even thinking about it. I wouldn't push back on that.

I think that's a decent definition of a habit, although I think that there's this underlying tone of the article that seems to indicate that habits are bad, and I just want to say, habits are neutral. Habits are We can have unhealthy, unbeneficial habits and we can have awesome, excellent habits. The goal is to use our propensity towards habituating something in a beneficial way for us. We want to use it to our advantage. But there's no reality where we're just going to get rid of habits. That's

how we interact with the world around us. So I think a lot of what they seem to say seems to indicate, like all of your spending habits are bad, and I just want to say, no, no, they're not. Some we want to identify which ones are not helpful for us and shift them. But yeah, yeah, I liked this like definition. It's I think we have we have impulse spending, and then we have habitual impulse spending, which veers off from impulse spending and just becomes that habitual

mindless spending. And I think one of the examples I've used for frequently in my life is that when I would leave my I think it was either weekend job or some I would leave somewhere and I would go past to Chipotle, and I would always find myself in line in Chipotle and not even realize how I got there. It was just like it was a habit because of that preceding event. So that's when these things become mindless.

That's when we need to step back. And sometimes it's helpful to do like a seven day no spend challenge, so you can kind of step back and see what are my habits, what are the things that I'm doing. I'm not even aware of, what are the things I think I need but I actually don't, and become aware of these habits so that you can improve them. Yeah, again,

habits are neutral. You could love and appreciate your Chipotle habit and it works in your life because you know, you make a million dollars a year, So then Chipotle is like whatever, suppose Chapole? Is you saving money? Right? So I but I didn't and I do not, and so it was something I wanted to improve. So again, yes, let's reiterate habits are neutral, but some get us to our goal is faster than others. So there's no guilt

or shame in any spending habit. So they give fur their definition and highlight that a habit is usual usually occurs when you have a given set of similar conditions or circumstances and you act similarly each time. So again it's it's this pattern cycle, habitual nature. And where I will push back again on this article is with the examples that they give. Some of these writers are not great with examples, but that's all right, you know they

are here hustling. Yeah, they use extreme examples because it's easier to like not argue with them, like they don't want to get bashed in the comments section. Well, here I am about to push back saying that you know, it's a habit if you always give to charity at the end of the year, or you have a habit of spending on a souvenir T shirt on a vacation, and I would say that's not a habit, that's not

a regular pattern, that's a ritual or a tradition. If you're only doing something one time a year, sorry money habitudes, this is not a habit. That's that's a ritual or a tradition that you have. Habits are these regularly occurring. Given a certain set of circumstance, you act in a similar way, almost without thinking. It's like muscle memory. So that's what we're talking about, not your charity giving one time a year. They also said you always wait until

the last minute to buy a plane ticket. That's a personality defense. So none other examples are good. Hate to say it, but how they're describing this, I would agree with. I think you can. And so this comes from James Clear, who's actually the author of the next article spoiler alert. But there are several specific things that proceed a habit, and so this can be a time of day, This can be a location preceding event like mine was with

the Chipotle was leaving a place of work. It can be an emotional state and that can be emotional positive or negative, or can be a person So like whenever I go see a family member, I don't like I have to you know, psych myself up with the Starbucks on the way or something. So if I show if I see you showing up to my house and Starbucks, I know she really had to ramp herself up for this.

That as an example that is not real for me, but you know, so so these are the things that you are doing constantly, um have kind of like one of these cues. That's how you can tell that it's a habit, right, And so we also then would look at well how do these habits form? And you've touched on that a bit, Jhen, the different types of circumstances that would lead to the formation of a habit, something that's ingrained in us, why we continue to operate in

these patterns. And there's a concept within the field of social work that I feel like is helpful in what this article is also touching on classic foundational social work. One oh one is person in environment. It's also pie for short. So that's fun because we like food. But this idea that we are directly connected and linked to the context in which we are living and where we're from. So person in environment, what is around us, who's around us,

what's the cont text in which we're living. This is going to play a strong role in in the people that we are, but absolutely into the behaviors that we've established, the habits and patterns that we operate within. And so if we want to look at how did these habits form, we absolutely have to look at well what's my environment? Where am I, what's the context in which I'm living? Who are the people around me? What is the actual

location in which I'm living. What does my certain cultural location geographical context teach me about what I need, what's necessary, what I should be engaging in. How does that play into my own wants and desires? Are they actually my wants and desires? Right there? There's a whole digging process here.

But essentially we can't separate ourselves from our environment. So the people around us, culture and society, even our religion or spiritual beliefs, our own unique personalities because yeah, that's the nature versus nurture topic, as well the media and again friend groups. So these are the influences that bear upon habit formation. Absolutely, I think community has a huge

role to play and how we spend habitually. It's the people you spend the most time around that you pick up on their mannerisms and habits, so that can be at work, um or out of work. I think that's a I think that was a big reason how I developed a lot of my spending habits. But yeah, and uh, I loved when we so in club eff Right now

we're going through the Core Values Challenge. We're finishing it up and in the book that we're reading for the book club with it kind of learning how some core values can be developed out of lack, like if you had if you didn't have something, or you lacked something growing up, that can cause that in adulthood to be a core value for you. And I think the same

it can be said for habits as well. I think if you lacked something growing up, or you know, even feel like you lack something in your adult life that others have, I feel like that can create a compensation habit as well. I've seen that in my life too. Yeah, we build upon our experiences. As much as I don't want to harp too much on childhood, that is part of this that we probably carry with us some habits

and behavior patterns that we established in childhood. And that's why this article talks about, you know, why is it

so hard to break spending habits? And they use this illustration of water like weaving a river through rock, and it would be it would take a catastrophic event to shift the trajectory of that water, like they're going to take the path water takes the path of least resistance, and it carves its way in that manner, and similar to water carving its way through rock and desert, are our patterns that sometimes these can become so deeply ingrained and entrenched in us and have been our habits and

patterns over years, if not decades, and so is very difficult. Similarly to that, since it's relatively involuntary built in, we're not always thinking about it, it's going to take a lot of effort and intentionality and understanding of ourselves to be able to shift the trajectory of that water because we do we want to take the path of least resistance. Yeah,

I mean it makes sense. Like we by the end of the day have used almost a hundred percent of our brain capacity, so we are dealing with decision fatigue and just overall physical exhaustion. And so that's why most of our day is made up of our bits. There are habits writers who say you are your habits, which I don't think I would go that far, but you

spend a significant amount of your time. If you take a week and you record everything you do every day for a week, you're going to see a lot of patterns and you're going to have to record every hour or so, because you're not going to remember the things that you did in an hour, like an hour from now.

So it's hard to remember everything you did in today because so much of it is on autopilot, and there are definitely oh my gosh, I can't tell you how many times like I will be in one place and just go on autopilot and end up in a different How did I find myself here? Yeah, and then it's

kind of scary, especially if that place involves driving. But yeah, so much of our life is habits, and so again, habits are neutral, so you can just focus on your habits change those and even ones that don't specifically cost money can have a financial component too, So figuring out how to change habits and improve habits, that's kind of like the Verbi edge. We want to focus on, Yes, you utilizing this information to our benefit, so that anything

else on this one, nothing else. I really think we're ready to talk about how do we use this knowledge to our advantage and how can we shift habits that we want to shift and maintain habits that are benefiting us absolutely, So now we get into my favorite habit writer of all of I've read a lot about habits. I've read a lot of books about habit formation, habit psychology, all of that, and James Clear in the book Atomic Habit really has been my favorite. There's a reason why

it has sold over five million copies. And I only know that because I'm literally reading it on the website right now. But so we're actually gonna be reading that during our book club for the day Habit Challenge. And this one is I think a great kind of intro to all the things he talks about. There's just so many, so many aspects that really do relate so much to like direct correlation to like financial components. James Clear has

been a frequent flyer for us in these articles. We also referenced an article of his in our goal Setting episode that was back in It's back in the archives at this point. It's an episode within the nineties. I want to say, I think it was at the beginning of Sorry about that we had fast intention ye gosh. Anyways, this one is how to start new habits that actually stick? What do you think of this? James Clear? And this

is actually an excerpt from the book. Yes, so much content jam packed and you'll see it in our show notes how much we just wanted to highlight for you all so many goodies. And I would absolutely direct any listener just to go and read the article because we're not going to be able to dissect every single part of this. But I think he does a really excellent job with graphs, explanations, examples of the process of building

a habit and the process of reestablishing habits. I think it's a really excellent step by step And yeah, I'm excited to talk about this. Yeah. The first part um up in the topic says of three hours of habit change, but this actually doesn't cover that, but it does introduce the four stages of a habit and so I specifically like this one versus the original. It's called the habit loop. The original habit loop only had three parts, and so Clear added a fourth. Well he had he added a

second part. He added one between the first and second. So now there's four and it makes a lot more sense when you're dealing with habit change versus just understanding habit theory. So the first one is Q, so that all four of them are Q craving response reward. The original one is just Q response reward. But the que is like what I was I was saying in the first article. It's it can be that time, location, preceding event, person, whatnot,

So that that's the que of that. And then the craving is kind of it's like what you what you want? What does that? What craving does that que trigger? And so for me, I see a lot of correlation between the craving and our core values. So that's one of the reasons I really love this variation of the habit loop is because our cravings tend to be correlated to our core values or our highest values, and so I feel like when you first understand those, it's quicker to

understand your habits too. Yeah. I like how he describes that what you crave is not the habit itself, but the change in state it delivers so meaning, and he gives these examples. You're not motivated by brushing your teeth, but rather the feeling of a clean mouth. That's the end goal. That's that's what the craving is for. It's not just the act. You you don't want to turn on the television just for the sake of turning on the television. You do it to be entertained so similar

thing with any other habit we might identify. But I think that that's an important distinction that it's not the act itself, it's what it's going to deliver to you. Yeah, And I mean it's similar to the reward. Like the craving is about wanting the reward, and so I think you can say, like I think you can kind of sparse it out where you can figure out what's the reward I want and then connect that back to your

values and insert that into craving. I think that will be really helpful for understanding like why you want that reward. Maybe not on something as simple as brushing your teeth, but like when we're talking about spending habits that can be really useful. Absolutely. Yeah. So then the next thing is response, so Q craving. Then we've got the response, which is the actual habit you perform. It's the response

to the queue and the craving, and it depends. It does depend on are a bit city, the energy and effort it takes, and our degree of motivation. So again, thinking back to that path of least resistance, sometimes these habits that we have that don't feel super beneficial to us might have to do with the level of energy

ability that it takes. So, and he uses an example later on in the article, like you could want to have a habit of every time you play basketball, you like you dunk, but if you can't, if you can't jump and reach the basketball hoop, like you're out of luck. So when we talk about shifting some of these habits that we also have to be realistic about ability, energy that it takes. How attainable is this? But that's what

the response is, the actual action. Yes, and then we have reward, which we just said is the satisfaction of the craving. So that's a habit. And then the reason it's a loop is because if we get the reward and the reward is satisfying, then the next time the que comes up, we repeat it. And so that's again why these are mindless and frequent, not like once a year or once a month things that you have to

schedule in. These are automatic and you don't have to think about it because your brain is tired because you've used a dent of it. Yeah, and then he utilizes this term that this becomes the Q craving response reward becomes a neurological feedback loop once once this happens enough and we correlate the reward really back to whatever that que was that creates that feedback loop in our brains, and so that's that, that's that river flowing through the mountains.

We are then more and more likely to keep doing that thing because our brain then starts to make that connection and we want to keep closing that loop. We want to keep engaging in that loop, closing that loop, and it's really training our brains to engage in this pattern of behavior. Yeah. So then he gives to frameworks, which is essentially one framework, but it's called the four Laws of behavior change. And so these are the rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones. He says bad.

But but i've we tend to see it as just like, how do we replace a limiting habit with a I don't know, more efficient habit or just not even better habit, but a habit that gets us to our unique goals faster. And so he he says, focus on the good habit. First, figure out what the bad habit is, figure out what a better habit is to replace it with, then make a plan for incorporating that habit and so the for laws for the good habit, I don't want to use the words good and bad, but they're just the ones

that automatically using beneficial un beneficial. Yeah yeah, yeah, um. So it has to be correlates with each part of the habit loot, so make it obvious. Make the Q obvious. So you have to be able. That Q has to be obvious. The craving has to be attractive, which is why I think it's perfect to associate it with core values, because those are internal motivators that are far more powerful than external motivators. Make it easy, So the habit has to be easy. We have to start with easy habits,

and then the reward has to be satisfying. So if it correlates to a core value, it is more naturally satisfying. If you can none of this is a hundred percent. This is just like frameworks that are helpful, and sometimes I think with new habits we want to incorporate, we don't always receive the satisfaction immediately, and I think that's part of why we need to be implementing this on a regular basis, and of the satisfaction of it comes in time as we continue to engage in this and

make it a new habit. Right, so exercise comes to mind. He may not experience the satisfaction of the first day of exercise. It might just be pain and turmoil, but by day thirty you might be seeing some of the satisfaction and reward, which can also then help you to keep engaging in that exercise habit. Yeah, I mean that's such a good point. Like, so, my most recent habit that I wanted to implement was to work out more.

I was already working out two to three days a week, but I really over the summer, over eight weeks, I wanted to go like five or six days a week. I just wanted to set up a time where I was going more like not sustainably, like I can't sustain five six days a week, but I wanted to try it just for a set amount of time because and this is another myth, it doesn't take twenty one days to form a habit. I think that is more general knowledge now than the ten percent one. But I think

I was telling you now it's UM. The reason the twenty one day thing was they came up with it is because of a academic article that was sent from UM doctors who like readd people's faces. It took their patients and average of twenty one days to get used to the reconstruction of their face. And so that's it was misconstrued over all of these years to be to

be this habit rule. But recent studies have shown that it actually takes an average of sixties six days, so I mean, and one was as short as eighteen days to build a habit. So and science has also shown her studies have also shown that it's more so repetition that in gre it is a habit than it is our desire to get the habit. So this is totally different from our values. It's just it's repetition. That's how we can get to these things that we have a

habit of doing but don't particularly want to do. Don't serve our habits. And so if you can do something over sixty six days and maybe do it, I don't know, forty five times, either forty five days in a row or forty five days over you know, two months or whatever, that's a better indicator that you will stick with it long term. And so for me, I for eight weeks, I went to the gym mostly five days a week, some days were four, but mostly five days a week.

And now that my little challenge for myself is over. Now I want to go to the gym like five days a week. I want to do that. My body is like, please give me rest. But I now desire that it became a habit where I drop Kai off, I go to the gym, I come home, shower, and start work, and I love that routine. Well, I think that's something that I like about these laws of behavior change is that we do get to decide what they are.

So we do have an incredible amount of power and influence over the establishment of new habits and the elimination of non beneficial habits. But what James Clear is saying is we can decide what the queue is going to be. We can make the craving be attractive, we can make it easy, we can make it satisfying. And so some of this might just then intertwine with our own perspective that the reward attached to. If we're just going to keep using exercises as an example, it doesn't have to

be that I see immediate changes in my body. The reward could be I have made a healthy decision for myself. I accomplished a goal today. There's the self satisfaction in that. Right. We can decide what the reward is as long as we know that it is a motivating reward for us. Whatever. We need to find something though that we can attach to it that is going to help us continue to do this thing. But yes, some of it is just repetition,

just continuing to do it. But at least allow the fact that I engaged in that new habit, this thing that I'm trying to make a habit, I did it, I engaged in it. Allow that to be a self satisfactory thing to say to your to you, I did it, and I'm gonna do it again tomorrow. Yes, but I also like how he says that we can utilize this in the invert this right, So where we're trying to make new habits, this is also where we can eliminate

bad habits. So with the queue, it is eliminating like not not making it so obvious, it is making it, making it attractive, not making it easy, not making it satisfying. Right, Like, what is the opposite of this thing? That's what we would do with each of those que craving responsive rewards. You can't always make the que invisible obviously, Like I

can't stop leaving work, but you can. You can work on the other things, Like you can explore your core values or explore who you are and what you want to be and develop those internal motivators that change what your cravings are. The more you learn about yourself, the more you know what you really want, what you really don't want, so some of those cravings will go away. Um,

the more intentionally you are about doing that. I mean you can also take a different route home from work, or leave at a different time of day, or you know, a number of things. So there are ways to shake up been these quote unquote laws of habit change, But I love how it's it's first you, you know, you figure out what your habits are, and second, like you figure out once you've decided on a habit you want to change, first figure out what's the closest thing to

that that you can replace it with. Because I don't did was it with you that I was talking about leaving the hole in the Oh? Yes, I think it was in our YouTube video where it's like if you dig a hole out and you just you know, to leave the whole, it's going to fill back up with something with rain or other dirt or something, you know. But say you dig a hole and you put a bowl in there, then that hole is going to you know,

be there. It might, you know, the bowl might you know, have filled up with some sand or something, but the hole in the dirt will still be there because you've replaced their, you know, the gap with something. And so it's kind of the same with habit improving is that you have to take If you want to take something out, you have to first figure out what you're going to replace it with so that you can have that on deck. And so we first we figure out what that equal

but different habit is going to be. We figure out how we make that attractive and satisfying, and then we think about, okay, so now how do I make the old habit unattractive and less visible and stuff. So I love that there's some creativity to take and problem solving and understanding of self, because how I might make something obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying might be different from how you do it.

Jen even if the goal habit is similar, what is going to seem rewarding and satisfying to each of us might be different. So, yeah, there's definitely a personalization, individualization to this creativity problem solving, and we love that. And of course we can we can learn from one another in this community of how do you implement new habits? How did you eliminate other habits? Sometimes it does take community to really understand how can I implement on this

tool I've been given. Yeah, I mean it doesn't have to just be for spending habits. Um like we said at the top of the episode, this is obviously, you know, for everything, like most recently I was using it for the exercise, but I mean this can be for doing a side hustle or for probably maybe less like like actions that can cost money, like perusing a store whenever

you like an online store, whenever you get bored. So think of the like actions that can cost you money or make you money, and this can be relevant for changing those habits as well. Yeah. Yeah, as we talk about spending habits and areas where we can cut I know we've talked about this before, but just you know, simple tip. I I find that I used to just shop the whole grocery store, like I just go up and down aisles, and then I realized, like I don't need to go up and down every aisle if I

shop the perimeter, that's that making the queue invisible. I don't need the stuff in the middle of the grocery store, So how about I just not go there and then I'm not buying the things that are there? Ye? Absolutely, But you know what, I never want to make invisible. This is a habit that is good and life giving. I love the queue that precedes this and the reward of the bill of 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 paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bill Buffalo bills, bill clean This is the bill of the week. So this is my bill of the week. It's been stressing me out all week. Is that I recently moved out of a home that's two bed, two bath square feet, and I hired a cleaner because the

owner of the house would be moving back in. I had only live there for eight months the house, mind you, the house had also been cleaned professionally in September and December, when I got the invoice from this lady. She claimed to have cleaned for seventeen and a half hours and I owed her over five dollars. She said she didn't take a lunch break and I quote and not a

single potty break. So I'm not quite sure what to do about it because the previous cleaner took four hours to do the same job, and this lady also claimed to have taken out every single light bulb and cleaned each lightbulb. So if you all have any suggestions about how I can handle this, that would be awesome. Thank you. This is the first advice bill. We bet it is, but both of Jed and I just like jaw dropped, especially at the lightbulb part well and the potty part.

I can't get past that. That's on her. She chose not to take a lunch breaker potty break, and I think if you have something to compare it to like, you should make your intentions known up front and be like it. I had this professionally cleaned in September and she built me for this many hours, so this is kind of this is what I expect for this one. And you know, she was able to clean the entire house doing these and surely you agree on what they're

going to do before they do it. So like, if you didn't need every single light bulb cleaned then and that wasn't in the description of what you'd be getting, then you can argue that you don't have to pay for that. I think it's easier because you have something to compare it to. If you don't, then you can kind of argue like, hey, this was your list of services, this is what I paid for. This seems outside of

the scope of what I agreed to that would be mine. Yeah, I would encourage you to go back to whatever communication you did have it recognize a lot of time with cleaning jobs, we don't have signed contracts, but if there is a text message or email exchange, just to go back and reread what was asked of her. What did she communicate she was going to do. I mean, seventeen hours of cleaning is in my estimation, really above and beyond what one time being in a home would be.

So how do you even and there, like the day of being there, there is something unusual happening there. So just I would encourage you utilize the communication that you already have and see where there's room for negotiation with this woman. Certainly, don't have her come back again if she's charging you things you're not you're not comfortable paying, but hopefully you can find a reasonable agreement between the two of you. I'm so sorry that this bill has

been stressing you out. I'm so sorry, but yeah, I mean, and if anybody else kind of deals with this. With service providers, it can be hard to figure out the time that they actually did work. You can't kind of micro manage them. But you can ask around and see okay for this, and you can get different quotes from different companies and be like, Okay, I have this that I need done. How many hours do you anticipate that

taking and get it from their mouths? If you know, if somebody comes to you and says, okay for this job in this square footage, I anticipate four to five hours, and then they come back at you with a bill for seventeen like you you know, that's insane. But yeah, we don't just get to go into people's homes do what we want and then expect to be paid for it if that wasn't what was agreed upon. So it just yeah, it's a matter of what was communicated from

the start. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, if you have a bill question or you want to share a bill with us, then please share it and and we will you know, we'll ask abbey it, I guess, ask Jen and Jill and you can submit that at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Now it's time for So we are, like we said, doing a forty five day Habit challenge in Club BFF starting November one, and so we will

be opening that up. If you want to join and do that with us, you're going to get our our forty five Day Habit Challenge workbook, and more more than that, you're going to get the availability of like a small group accountability matching. So that is a really big incentive for joining Club BFF. But so we wanted to share the habits we are going to be working on during the forty day Habit Challenge. Jill, I read what yours is. I don't know if that's first or second, because I'm

um flow sing. I'm not gonna lie. It's a habit that I really want to build and implement. I have begun. I think that the forty five day Habit Challenge is really going to help me stick to it. But I just recently went to get my teeth clean, which had not happened in five years. You guys, authenticity. Jen loves vulnerability and authenticity for the lightning round, So I'm giving it to you right like, and kind of vulnerability I

had not been in five years. And I went to a dental hygiene school, so where these young bucks are learning the trade of dental hygiene. And I went and allowed them. So it ended up being that they you get a three hour appointment. I'm totally going off script here, but here you go. They give you a three hour appointment and you get your X rays and cleaning, and dentists are coming in and checking their work and all this. So yes, you do like sacrifice time for the very

very low rate of a dentist appointment. But she told me that my death were so dirty that I needed to come back again for another three hour pointment. So within one week I sat in this girl's chair for six hours while she worked inside my mouth. Yeah, she almost replaced me as the frugal friend because Virgil got so close. Almost almost. Oh But anyhow, I think this then highlighted for me that flossing is going to be important. I mean, mind you all, there were no cavities, So

I am a little bit proud of myself there. And that's probably just like d n A. I got it from my mama, but she gave me some really helpful tips well, or reasons to floss. She's like, you know, you've flost the front the back of your teeth. It's not always about just getting food out. It's also about disrupting the bacteria. And for whatever reason, that's stuck with me and I have been trying to make my apprentice dental hygiene woman proud of me. So I am trying

to floss on the rag. My cue is putting the floss right next to my two brush. My craving is to make this woman who was in my mouth for six hours proud. My response is flossing, and my reward is that good clean feeling and making this woman proud of me and disrupting the bacteria. Honest to goodness. Every time like that replays in my head, like I disrupted the bacteria. I disrupted the bacteria. That's so fun fun.

So all my other friends who out there floss in the good kind of floss in that leaves your teeth clean, give me up. Let's talk about it. Let's keep motivating each other in this habit. How about you, Jen, how about your altruistic like incredible goal? Stop it um? So I so my goal is to actually read the Bible more. And I mean, Jill, you are inspiring to me doing

this more regularly. But I, yeah, have gotten out of that habit and I feel like it, um for a lot of beneficial reasons that if you are somebody who reads the Bible or enjoys the Bible would understand. And so I've just been kind of feeling spiritually drained over and I mean a lot of and I think I've been trying to like muscle through my life myself. And I've always been, you know, very encouraging to other people to let go of things and give you know, give

that up. And what happens happens happens for a reason. Yet I am, um not great at taking my own advice. And so in order to get back to the core of like why I do what I do and who I do it for, Like that is the habit that I will be working on for forty five days and I've already started. That's what happens when you were like writing the workbook, is that you start implementing it early, Santa. Yeah, you have to do it yourself if you're going to tell other people to do it. And so I am

currently on a three day streak. My queue is I set my alarm at six in and I will actually I snooze it for five minutes as classic. And but in the five minutes, like I figure, if I'm gonna I'm gonna pray first, I might as well be in bed with my eyes closed, you know. In yeah, that's what I do for five minutes, and then the snooze goes off, and then I get up and um, you know, make myself some coffee and do that and un till seven and then I'll you know, get myself ready and

kaye ready. The craving is obviously two is a stronger spiritual connection. And then the reward is you know, just having that. You know, I think that's part of our our being is to you know, want spiritual connection, and that is what I want. It's beautiful, gen. I support you and encourage you in this endeavor. I think even the practice of having an hour of stillness before, especially as a mother, before you get your child out of bed.

My goodness, the mental, emotional, relational, spiritual benefits of this practice are incredible. But yeah, so often it's so hard to get sleep, just as such a powerful desire. But yeah, cool, I'm excited to follow this journey for you. Me too. Yeah, we'll see three days strong. Well, everyone, thank you so much for listening. We love hanging out with you, while we hope that this was a helpful episode for you.

If you've got habits that you're trying to build or trying to eliminate, definitely hang out with us in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, hit us up on Instagram. We we love to hear more, learn more, problem solved together, so do that. But we also want to thank you for your kind of views on iTunes and stitch. You're like this one. It comes from Heim's Hymns happens to be five stars hem Niece. Yeah fantastic. I love this

podcast so much. Jen and Jill have given me great ideas and tidbits to apply to my own life and situation in every episode. I look forward to new episodes every week. Him this is my favorite part of that was the word tidbits given tidbits. Thank you. It could be like like air mez like that that, um m nez, I like that. I'm going to go with that hymnz.

Thank you. We also want to thank um all of you who share these episodes on social media, were so appreciative for you spreading the words so that we can spread the message of conscious consumerism and improving habits with more people. Uh. And so when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we're gonna add you to our monthly drawing where for every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook, which is no

longer available for purchase. So yeah, that's just a little incentive exclusive reward. So keep leaving us our views on iTunes or Stitcher and send the screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com. Don't forget to also tag us on social Feel free to make that one a habit. Every week after you listen, just share it on social media. It'll enter you for this reward. You'll also have the reward of our gratitude. And yeah, just giving back absolutely

with that, we will see you next week. They Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. So is podcasting a habit for us? Like we do it weekly? It's a habit we do. We do it more than weekly. We put out an episode weekly. I don't know it starts to get so into the weeds, like because then then then what work is a habit? I work every day for Actually, I don't believe podcasting is a habit for us. It's a gift. We have to. We schedule it and we follow through with our schedule most of the time,

unless we're sick. It's an endeavor. Yeah, you did not want to hear me or this episode a week and a half ago not been pleasant to your ears? Oh you were sick. How are you feeling now? Great? I feel great, back to normal, taking my immune boosters and so that I don't get sick between now and Tuesday when I fly out. Yes, I got to get there. I gotta get what those finn con p stretch. Yes, my money nerd. Yeah, this that will have already happened by the time this comes out. And um, so how

was it? I so if you want to, I mean, I just got my fin con Um sweatshirt in the mail and it doesn't come from finn Coon, but it it says um, party now, work never, and I got it to wear it finn Con. So if you would like to see it, d M s And I will show you. Probably I'll find a picture of me wearing it at Fincon and I'll send it to you and I'll got to be like candid where somebody's looking at me weird um and I'm partying. You got it in the mail today. Are so proud of it. The thing

that makes me laugh most about it. I mean, it's a funny sweatshirt, but it's also so incongruent with who you are. You do like to party, but I do love to party. But you party responsible in a planned manner and you work always, work, work always, so it's actually in short scheduled bursts once a year, party later. Work always is actually a little bit more while life

is like for you. But one of the girls at my Jim she saw me after not having seen me since we went out, and she um, She playfully mocked me by dancing, and I was like, yes, this is how I want to be. No, like, this is how when you see me. I want you to think of that because of the time you and I went dancing. Yes, yes, that's how That's how they know me, and that's all. That's all they know that one one night, Jenn and I just let the frugal friends let loose, let our

frugal freak flags friends fly. You're just trying to find all the alliteration there that was not on video, and it will net verbe, it'll never be