How To Save Money On Clothing

an episode two, literally episode two of the show. That's right, we are expanding and I think in the past four years we've maybe gained a little more insight on the topic. So clothing, it is one of the most searched for terms after how to save money on clothes, Like that's one of the hop ones. It's like on groceries, and then on clothes and on utility. So we're gonna be revisiting a few of those like top searches. Um and closes the first one that we're visiting, but now this

time in episode two eleven. Yes right, not episode two, not episode two. But first, let's thank who This episode is actually literally brought to you by. This is quite a big announcement and you may have noticed something a little different about the show today and moving forward, this show is now brought to you by the I Heart

Podcast Network. Who Pop. We are over the moon excited to announce that we have joined the I Heart Podcast Network, and I mean that is a big deal for Jill and I. The biggest difference you will see as a listener is a few more ads for us. It takes a huge load off of us because it is not very profitable to run upcasts. It just isn't a business

model that I would recommend. But my heart is taking this huge load off of us to make money on the show so that we can continue to bring you more free and low cost resources, the resources we know that you love, mainly this podcast. We can focus on it more, we can do more of it because we don't have to worry about making money for our families as significantly as we did before. And so it is

a great joy for us. And we hope you are as excited as we are about this move and that you understand the impact that has for Jill and I and our families. We've done some soft announcements up until this point, and we've received really great feedback from all of you in our community. Just so excited, and we hope that you recognize that when you hear these ads. What it means is just more from us. We will you will continue to get more, as Jen said, free

and low cost things. And that's what's most exciting, I think, for our community. And we are just excited to keep going with this. We're at episode two eleven and we're not stopping now. We are officially under contract to produce at least two more years of this show. So get excited. And I wanted to also say the things that will not change, we will not change. Still having our unofficial sponsors. Some of you like to call them fake, they are real, Thank you very much. Those will not go away. The

bill of the week isn't leaving. We retain all final say on what our episodes are, how like we release them, how often we release them, and on the advertisements that go into the show. So you'll never hear rando ad that we wouldn't say ourselves. We won't say all of them, you know, we won't read all of them ourselves, but you won't hear one that we wouldn't. And so those are the things that will not change. You know us, you know your frugal friends who are coming at you

every week. We negotiate before we sign this seal. We negotiated to make sure we still bring you all the things that you love, so you can count on that. Yeah, and on that. We would like to definitely think a few people first and foremost Joel and Matt from How to Money. They have been friends of ours for years and are the people who kind of got us in

the door at my heart. And then also Chris Hutchins from All the Hacks who helped us greatly and teaching us kind of how to negotiate a deal like this, because this is unlike any thing that we have ever encountered ever before. And so yeah, big thank you to them. Definitely check out their podcasts How to Money and all the Hacks. We're very grateful to them. And I'll send a big thank you to Eric Sirianni, my husband, who said one day to the two of us, you two

should start a podcast together and we said, no way. Yeah, but if we did, this was jen But if I did, I'd call it the Frugal Friends podcast. And here we are today, folks. Yes, so big thank yous to the people who brought us here and you you listening. We would not have been able to negotiate a deal like we did without you, without having you to bring along, and you were the greatest I think the world of you. Yes, you listening to this right now, you so thank you

so much. So let's get into to talking about clothes. Uh, there are a few episodes that you can queue up to listen to after this if you love clothes. The first one is episode eight nine, letting Go of Material Possessions with our friend Desiree from the minimal Ish podcast,

another great show to listen to. And then episode two, how to spend Less on Clothing, So that one's a lot of I would say, I wish we could switch the names of those because this one's kind of how to spend Less on clothing, and I think episode two is how to Save Money on Clothing, So they may have flip flop titles, but both are still good and you if you love saving money, episode ninety like how to Save money on transportation. Gas prices are high, so that will help if you need to get to the

store and buy clothes. It's just another way, so that it's just another way to save. So those are a few two and uh, we'll talk a little bit about how to spend Less on clothing and then also like how to do a full clothing shopping ban, which we love a big fan of no spend challenges. So let's get into the first one. This is ten ways to save money on clothes and dot com. What do you think of this one? Jill? Really excellent. I think it probably is worth going through all ten of the ways.

Some are overlaps, so some of them will go through a little bit quicker, but just to start out with the begin with a great tip buying fewer but quality clothing. This is one that I will encourage for multiple reasons. Certainly, I think it's better for the environment and people humanity when we are not contributing to fast fashion. Now that's not to say that just because something is more expensive it is not a part of the fast fashion industry,

so we can do our research on that. But to focus more on spending money on quality clothing that we enjoy, that's timeless, that's gonna last us for a while. That compare with a lot of things, rather than spending less money on less quality clothing, but constantly purchasing, throwing out, getting rid of, or stockpiling our closet with clothing we're

not actually wearing. So if we're going to aim at anything, I think this first one is a great aim to really begin to pare down our closets and make sure that the things that we have, we really like, our quality will last us. And with that we can spend more money on it because it's going to save us more money in the long run. And if you're only wearing of your clothing, then you don't have to make sure hundred percent of it is great quality. You only

have to make sure is good quality. So the second is that when you buy second hand, you save money. And I feel like we talked about this all the time. Um. The author in this article said that she got a shirt for like fifty cents from the thrift store and wore it out. I personally go to a good will near me that I know has good stuff, UM, and the shirt there are like five dollars each, So it's

still less expensive than buying new. UM. Maybe a little pricier for other than other thrift stores, but I will pay a little bit more for the convenience because I don't love the hunt of thrift ng um, so so that works for me. I will also buy clothes on threat up, which is an online thrift store, and that's even a little pricier. But again, I can shop from the comfort of my home. Um, I usually have credits, so that works for me, and I think since they're

a little more expensive, I will naturally just buy less. Yeah, you might not buy as much stuff that way if you're doing it online. I just took my friend Ashlynd to a goodwill outlet store. I don't know if anyone has ever done that before, but it's where you do a lot of digging. It is so much more digging than your typical second hand experience. Everything's thrown into bins.

There's no rhyme or reason or organization to it, and you pay by the pound and sometimes they even have deals on how much the poundage costs on any given day of the week. And I was looking for something for the Frugal Friends party that we just had a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't find it there. But Ashlyn had never been to a good will outlet store or anything like it, and the look on her

face the whole time, She's like, oh my goodness. I had to adopt a strategy, like I had to keep my arms cross my hands, under my arm pits, just to make sure I didn't touch anything. We walked out, and now I will say I did hand sanitize once we walked out, because but I did do some digging. I didn't adopt her strategy, and I actually dug thinking I might find a treasure. I didn't, but she definitely

looked like she needed to be debriefed. After words, She's okay. Now, you know, it's a new experience that has led to immense personal growth. Speaking for her, you know, right, Yeah, I think she would agree. Yeah, so maybe don't start with the outlet if you're new to secondhand, you can start small. I like the author recommends like Facebook pages that are bi seles By, swapped and cell. Actually, she also recommends eBay, which I really like for find finding

specific things. If there's some a brand or like an item that I am specifically looking for, eBay is so good. I mean and and thrown up in Poshmark are two. But I find a lot of posh Mark and eBay are cross posted, and I usually find the cheaper price at eBay. So yeah, I like. I like that. A lot Number three on here is to save money when you buy clothes on sale now specifically talking about looking at the seasons. So yes, you can go to a

clearance section. Still make sure that you're making wise decisions for yourself. And again, we never want to encourage people to contribute to fast fashion, but even your higher end stores or your more quality clothing is going to have deals in the off seasons, right Like if it's not summertime, then you can probably buy summertime clothing at a discounted price.

I love the model that gets repeated through this article that is a bargain isn't a bargain unless you need it, So don't just buy something because it's on sale, because it's typically more money. And I love this tip embedded within number three, which is to keep a list, a running list of what you need. This is one of the things that I've adopted, not just for clothing, for

literally anything. If it's not an immediate need, like Okay, i'm out of soap, I have to get soap the next time we go to the store, but a hey, I really need or it would complete my wardrobe. If I got a white shirt that's going to pair with like five of the different bottoms that I have, that's not an immediate need, but it's something that could go on a list. I keep a Google Notes list on my phone of things that I want to look out for when I'm at a yard sale or a thrift store,

or I happen to find something on Facebook marketplace. So it's not something that I feel the need to get right then and there. But when I'm out, I can pull up that list and say, all right, what is it that I'm looking for? Do I still feel like I need that? And if I can find what I what I want within the price range that I'm looking for them, great, I can take it off the list. So I love that trick. I think it has saved

me a lot of money. It's helped me build patients for the things that I desire and just wait for the deal to come by. Yeah. I like the in bold letters, she says, a bargain isn't a bargain unless she need it. That is so true, And I think even more so with sales shoulder seasons, when they're at the end of summer, when they're trying to clear out summer stuff to bring in fall, that's the best time

to get summer deals versus if it's winter time. They assume if you're trying to buy a tank top in the winter, like you really need it for some reason, so there's not going to be a big discount on that. But when they're trying to clear out excess stock, that's when you're going to find the deals. So like shoulder seasons are the best. Fourth, this one I don't agree with is to grab a bargain by shopping the outlet store. So I worked in retail, and I know that outlet

clothing is made specifically for outlet store. So it's not like the good quality stuff that doesn't sell and then it gets shifted to an outlet. This is more like tester pieces. They're like testing if it sells, and if it sells in the outlet store, then they'll make the better quality for the regular store. So it's it's even faster than fast fashion, I think. So I don't uh necessarily love this one. I don't agree with number four because it's really even cheaper quality than the regular version

of the outlet store. Number five, then this one's a little bit of a man one as well. So number five is you can find great deals through store memberships. I do appreciate that they'd say, if this is a problem area, definitely don't sign up and get rid of

as many memberships as possible. But if there are brands or stores that you particularly like and there's something you are looking for, sometimes the stars can align where you get an update on a sale that's happening, or particular access to a sale by being a member to that store. So this is like I'm on the fence about it. I know that there have been times where you know, the place where I get my undergarments from happens to be having a massive sale and I'm able to get

the things that I need. But like they say, there can be the way out. The downside of that, if you are a person who gets the mailers, the emails, the text messages, and it causes you to impulse purchase, then this is not a worthwhile tip for you. You're not gonna save um clothes. You're gonna spend on clothes.

So maybe I would even encourage you that if you are out there's something that that you are identifying as a need, something you want to be purchasing on, to look up that store and see if there's any coupons or deals or upcoming sales that they may be running and maybe hold off on purchasing. I know I do this, this is not clothing, but I'll do this with like craft stores if there's something that I need to get.

This just happened for our party a couple of weeks ago, and needed to get fabric to be able to hang in our garage, make it try and not let it look as much like a garage. And so we just looked up a cupon and found a cupon online and I got like off of the fabric because I was just able to have access to that cupon online. So I would say try that out more so than getting all of the emails from all of these different stores.

Six is to shop around online because it's hard to shop online and not try on the clothes and then be scared that you can't return it. So here are her tips that I really like. Take your body measurements at greatly, have them written down so that you know exactly you can align it with the sizing chart, and like, no specifically what sizes you are in the brands that you like the most, and kind of like stick to

those brands. This is very helpful and threat up because I buy a lot of old navy stuff just because it fits well, so I know my measurements and on styles there also use the look and drape of a piece of clothing. We obviously recommend compostable, so a hundred percent cotton silk stuff like that. The more you can buy that's compostable, the better. Try to stay away from synthetics if you're buying new, like, try to stop buying like synthetic materials and then look for ways to save

on shipping. Like whenever we shop on Amazon, we don't have prime, so we make sure our cart is over twenty before we check out. You know, I don't always try to hit the minimum for shipping. Sometimes I will pay for shipping just so that I don't accumulate that like more clothing just to get free shipping sort of thing. So sometimes it's worth it to pay a little bit more, Like I'll pay six dollars shipping instead of a twelve

dollar shirt with free shipping. And I know that's kind of like anti frugal mentality, But if I don't love the shirt, if I'm just buying it to like get free shipping, then it's not worth it to me. And if it's a twelve dollar shirt. It's probably not that great of quality either. So yeah, those are some of the understand the return policy before purchasing. And then she says to sign up and get emails, but I say, no, that's key. Yes, absolutely, way too many people we lose

money by not paying attention to the return policy. Um, but I thought the sizing thing was the best. Definitely pay attention to like this the cuts. Understand what that means in genes um stuff like that number seven one that will move through quite quickly because it's an overlap. But again, buying quality and particularly highlighting timeless styles, things that you know will last. It's not on trend. I mean, it could be on trend, but maybe it's timeless something

that you believe could last. Awhile you'll wear it often. It can match with a lot of things in your closet. You know. This is the think quality T shirt, little black dress, great pair of jeans, like the timeless stuff. Mm hmm. Yeah, this is probably my gemin quality, my favorite one on here. Then eight nine we can kind of combine those. Eight is borrow clothes from a mate. I love that, uh, and nine is host a clothing

swap party. I love these I think they help us rewrite the narrative that I have to get an outfit for every event, or I have to go shopping when I need new clothes, like very common narratives. But instead we can rewrite those like invite a few friends over

that all have similar sizes styles. Three to four people is usually enough post a clothing swap party, and you can even like check out what each other has that they don't want to part with, so you can know, like what's available to all of you to borrow when there's an event, and make sure it's a mutual agreement. You're not just mooching off people. But that's why hosting a clothing swap party first helps, and we can start to rewrite those narratives that when I need something new,

I must consume. Maybe when I need something new or want something new, you don't always have to need it. When you want something new, you can borrow or swap. I think even for the people who don't buy a lot of clothing that it can be one of the biggest pitfalls is a particular event that happens and I've got to had a new dress for that thing, and now you don't because if the last time you went to a wedding was last summer, and the thing you wore to that wedding still fits you, go ahead and

do it again. Yeah, nobody knows what you wore, nobody cares what you wore. Even if they know, they don't care or borrow. I've done this the lenty of times. Just what do you got in your closet? Let me wear it? Thank you, And thankfully a lot of my friends know that I will absolutely take their sloppy seconds. So that's generally how I get new clothing is from my friends desiring to not wear their things anymore. So thanks guys. Also, I really like that they highlight this

tip for children. We're primarily looking at this topic from the lens of clothing for ourselves as adults, but many of us also are responsible for getting clothing for our smaller humans, So clothing swaps are great for that. Getting together with other moms in your area, within your network, swapping clothes, giving hand me downs, even if you have

another kid on the way. I have plenty of friends who kind of still pass clothing around when their kid then comes of age again that they need those clothing, those clothes back. They give it back, so just you keep it within the family. Kids do not wear clothing for that long, so definitely consider this rather than spending an arm and a leg on new clothes for your kids. That's just that's ridiculous. This is I think a little bit less less easy. For our male listeners are frugal

male friends, the clothing options just aren't as great. Yeah, and I noticed Eric had a lot of issues finding clothing, and clothing swaps aren't as common amongst his friends, although sometimes they'll join in on the hand me down game. But if you've got tips, particularly for for male clothing, let us know. One of the things that I've seen work decently well is like Facebook marketplace. Sometimes guys will

get rid of lots of clothing. I've done that for Eric, and I've actually made more money off of selling Eric's clothes than selling my own clothing because it is so hard to come by, and the clothing section for men is usually a lot smaller at thrift stores and other stores, so you know, it just it helps them along the way in their own minimalist wardrobe. That's that's my summary. Yeah, and for our gentleman that do have to buy new clothes,

natural fibers, cotton wool, stick to those things. M hmm. And finally, the last one on this list, which is also man, is ten save money by making your own clothes. Jill, I thought you would love this one. I love the idea mender of mending our own clothes, sewing on buttons, making it continue to work. I don't actually think that it's cost effective to make our own clothing. And I was just in a fabric store recently and there there

are no dummies over there. At the fabric store. Your clothing fabrics will cost you about twenty dollars a yard, if not more. Granted there's coupons, but by the time you spend the money on the different fabrics that you want and then you put time into making it yourself, that's a labor of love. I would say. Unless you are highly interested in fashion and it's the way that you make a statement with your clothing, great, but I don't think you're actually gonna save money by making your

own clothes. You will save money by mending the clothes you have or taking a thrift style and like ups exactly to be what you want exactly. So let's get into our next article, and this is from mid Notion

on how to stop buying clothes for a year. And I love this idea because we I can't remember the act the actual number, but like we waste like pounds and pounds of clothing every month on average in America, like a lot of clothing, like five pieces a month or something, and so I think we could all use a ache from buying clothes. I think we could all. That's a very easy thing to challenge yourself with, is

to go buying clothing. Uh, And so we love this article that kind of goes through that gives us tips on how we can do this. And so the first one we've already mentioned it, but unsubscribed from retailer emails. Definitely, if you're going to try and not buy clothing for a year, then you don't need to know about the deals that are going on at all of your favorite stores. You don't need to do that to yourself. So unsubscribe, don't resubscribe, get them out your inbox, and move on. Two.

I love this one. Unfollowed people who influence you to

buy stuff. So this is not just social media influencers who like show off all these cool things, like we We just had a um we're doing interviews for our annual Summit Spending Symposium, and we were talking to Caroline Bencil and about like comparison and jealousy spending, and we had this whole conversation about how rational frugal people are buying things, mainly us because we saw them on social media, not even from these these influencers quote unquote, but like

from our friends, and it's because they seem more attainable to like, quote unquote perfect lifestyle seems like it should be attainable because it's coming from people we know, and so it's it's easier to say, like, if you're looking at a beautiful magazine with all of these beautiful people and and homes and whatnot, it's like, oh, that's for a magazine. That's perfect. I can never be like. But when it's people we know, we're like, oh, well I could. I should be able to attain that, And we buy

these things and we are influenced by these people. And so you can very easily unfollow someone without un following them. Instagram has a thing where you can mute someone so you're still following them, they won't see that you're not following them, but you will not see any of their stories and or posts in your feed and Facebook has I mean, you can unfollow people on Facebook as well.

It's easy, highly highly recommend and it serves us well for things even unrelated to clothing, So keep that in mind. Number three is to really jump start this year of not buying clothing with a thirty day challenge. There's all kinds of challenges that we can do, but one of them is to shop your own closet. Of course, the writer of this article has a challenge like that. You don't have to get it. You could. You could come

up with whatever your own challenge would be. But essentially it's a bunch of different prompts to help you get reacquainted with what's in your closet, how to put together different outfits, maybe even discover that some of the less worn items in your closet are going to become new staples, So really getting acquainted with that rather than going out and buying new clothing. It can help us to really focus in on what do I already have? How can I utilize it in ways that I haven't yet utilized

what I already own? Yeah, I liked the tips for giving, like turning all the hangars backwards. That's a great tip. We've all heard that one before. But it does show you what you are wearing and what you're not wearing, and it can help you be more intentional about rotating what you're wearing. So this can be a great way to see what you should get rid of and to show yourself like what you need to be wearing more of. Fourth is to understand what clothes you need for your lifestyle.

This is one that I actually am. I'm going through. I'm going through this really hard because my lifestyle is different from what it was five years ago or even or like, oh, we were just talking about that on a girl's night. Yeah, it's different and it's a better different, but my closet still says like I'm a different Um, I'm a different body type. I do different things like and these are things that I am. I am proud to be different, but I haven't made the change in

my closet. So this is kind of one where you have to do some deep inside work. I know we all love the deep inside work to like write down, okay, what what did I do and this wardrobe? What are the things in the wardrobe that are built around that. What am I still doing now and what am I

no longer doing? Um, it's harder for me to get rid of like some party dresses or like cool you know, going out tops that I don't I mean, I go out very rarely and it's a special occasion for me and I love it, but I don't need this many going out tops. I'm coming to terms with that stuff. And then also getting the pants that I used to have because I do so many more squats now than I used to, and I thought that would make my butt smaller, but it's not. It's having a reverse effect.

So here we are getting rid of some pants. Yeah, do the deep work, Yeah, do the deep work on this. That's real talk. We're sitting at a red light at an intersection on our recent girls night and it was like end of the day and we saw this two

females walk by in front of us. They had just ended their work day quite obviously in like downtown St. Pete, and they were where they were looking so good and their business casual coming from probably the amazing high rise office that they work in, and or just like, oh we all work from home, we don't dress like that anymore. We don't none of us are going into an office

to even have clothing like that. It was just like a real time example of Yeah, I don't need to have a ton of business casual outfits if I work from home. That doesn't mean that we can't look nice. I mean I I would consider myself to have a relatively minimalist closet, So I still like to get dressed and look nice for the video calls that I have throughout the day, but I don't really have to be that concerned about what shoes I'm wearing, which is nice.

And I think by not purchasing clothing, challenging ourselves to not do that for a time does raise our awareness for what we need. This number four point on here of understanding what we need rather than oh there's a problem with this shirt. I don't like it, so let me just go out and by another one. We can become more acquainted with what are the types of fabrics, fits,

clothing that I gravitate towards. What about the clothing that I have can irritate me, annoy me, doesn't work for me, So that we can really understand when we do need to purchase again for whatever reason, we have a deeper understanding of making a good purchase and being sure that it's going to last a while. A simple example for me before I move on to number five is exercise clothing.

I had even bought second hand shorts. What I realized when I was exercising at one point was this thing was digging into my back as I was doing a lot of the like core exercises on the ground, and these exercise shorts had a zipper in the back, and there was no way to avoid that zipper digging into my lower back. And I realized in that moment done. I am never ever again going to purchase workout shorts or pants that have a zipper in the back, because all of them, like at some point my workout is

going to include that. I don't want to have to say, oh am, I doing floor exercises today. Let me make sure I wear the right shorts for that. They need to be versatile. So things like that, I think we can start to understand what's going to work best for me. I'm never gonna buy any more pants that don't have a pocket. I have to have a pocket. We're done with the yoga pants that don't have pockets. That's just me I'm getting I'm getting fired up about clothes. But

I wouldn't have realized. Yeah, I wouldn't have realized that if I hadn't have given myself the time rather than let me just go out and buy something that fixes this problem versus really understanding what are the issues with my wardrobe? Is there a way to work around it and be patient before I buy something new and make sure it ticks all the boxes? All right? Number five, take inventory of your wardrobe. We have to know what's

in our closets. I think that's one of the biggest reasons we can spend a lot of money is because our closets are so jam packed we can't see it all. Stuff gets hidden in the back. So actually look at every thing that you have. Try and clear out the clutter. Make sure everything is visible so that you give everything a fighting chance before we get rid of or before we buy new. Yeah. I love that. It's like having an inventory of your refrigerator. Like you don't use what

you don't know you have. Like how many people have like looked at the back of their or bottom of their drawer to find a shirt they forgot they had or found a shirt or something in their closet they forgot their they had. So I think this is a big reason why a capsule wardrobe or a minimalist wardrobe is really powerful, because then you always know what you have. But you don't have to have a capsule wardrobe to do this, so you can create your own inventory in

your own menu of outfits. Essentially, Next is number six, Get creative and rethink how you see your clothes. So the author says she would like look in her closet and see the same thing and say I have nothing to wear, and that's because she was looking at the things she always wear. Uh. So she challenges us to wear something you wouldn't normally wear, so like something from the other eight percent, and to mend clothing you may

not be wearing because you're procrastinating on fixing it. Uh. And she says that the feeling of like finally putting a button on a jacket that's been missing it um is so gratifying. And I think I would agree. I don't like mend clothing a lot, but when I do, or when I have it mended, I do really feel good. But now I can rewear that thing and it's not going to end up in a landfill or me spending

more money to replace it. And this one was already said before, but number seven is to borrow clothes from friends or family. So if you've got an event coming up that you need something special for, borrow clothes. If you're going on a vacation and you kind of want something new but you don't want to spend money on it, asked to borrow a bathing suit, cover up or whatever it is that's going to make it feel special and new to you and give it back to your friend

or family member when you get home. This one may be a little awkward, especially if you're an introvert um or if you're not the same size as your friends. You have to branch out and ask some people you're not as close with. So maybe you've got your close friends, and then you have your clothes friends. Because not every relationship has to be like a best friend relationship. There can be some that you just have an agreement on that, hey, we like each other, we also wear the same size.

Let's try to exchange clothing and that's like a win win for everyone, all right, And then we've got eight find healthy ways to distract yourself from shopping. And this is great because it gets into the psychology of a no spend challenge or a shopping band because if you just try to take away something, you have to refill it. Like if you take an event out of your schedule um or your lifestyle, you have to be intentional about what to put back into it or you will inevitably

go back to unhealthy habits. So if you realize, when I feel bored I go shopping in person or online, you have to decide, when I feel bored, I'm going to now do X or Y. So identify what you're feeling or doing before you go shopping, write it down, Write down what you will do instead, so that you don't have to think so hard in the moment because that's going to be your weakest point. And so that's why it's important to plan ahead. And it's important to

say it has to be of equal value. Like you can't say, instead of shopping, I'm going to do ten push ups. Nobody likes ten like nobody likes push ups, so that's not gonna work. It has to be of equal value. Number nine is kind of related to this idea. Something you could do with that desire to shop, which is make a shopping wish list. So it's an action item that you can do, but it helps you to put it on pause rather than immediately going and buying

that thing. So if there's something that you think you want, you think you need, you think should be your next purchase, get it on a list so at least it's out of your head and it's something you can come back to when you are at the store, not only to reevaluate do I still need this, but to keep an eye out for can I find this for a reasonable price something that's currently on my list that has been

there for I kid you, not an entire year. I had these really amazing oval gold earrings that I lost. They weren't real gold. Don't be worried, and I would like to replace them, but it's not urgent, So I just have it on my wish list. I can see it, I can remind myself when I'm out this is something I'm looking for if I happen to see it. Honestly, I don't want to spend hardly any money on this, and maybe it's just like going to become a birthday present from Eric then that's where it is that doesn't

have to take up brain space. I don't have to immediately purchase it. I'm just being patient for a replacement for my Oval gold earrings. Last one is ten. Understand your shopping trigger. So I kind of just touched on this, but understand why you shop. So our emotions and our environment can impact our behavior. I touched on emotions, but environment can be just as powerful. Is there one friend who you always go shopping with? Is are you always

going shopping with your with your mom? Is that what you guys do together? Figure out? Some times it is out of bardness, sadness, anchor or even like something good happens to you and you celebrate with shopping. Or is it after watching a particular television show or seeing a certain friend or family member who makes you want to drown your sorrows in retail therapy, It could be anything.

I think I've personally experienced all of the above. So yeah, identify the preceding event or emotion for you shop and identify it and then replace it with something that is healthy. Do you want to know what's not boring and is a healthy celebration? Oh my gosh, and it always brings me joy, but not joy that makes me want to shop 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've

paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To build buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi, Jen and Jill. My name is Chris Sanna and I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, and I wanted to share my favorite bill with you all this week. So I mentioned this on the Facebook group and it

is paying ourselves. So to give a little background, my husband and I have thought we've been doing this budgeting thing right because we make sure our bills are paid and I have a lovely spreadsheet and I take care of all of that, but we never really paid attention to all the other money that we spent. I just knew it was really hard for us to save money. I was able to pay off one of our car loans last month. I'm super excited about that, but saving

was always really hard. So we started using mint recently, and because he's now paying attention to it, my husband, who is really good at jazz swipe it, has a debt occurred, has spent less than two or two fifty dollars less this month in fast food than he had been, which means we can put that money towards our emergency fund and that puts us some better position to continue on our debt free journey. So I wanted to share my favorite bill ourselves. So thank you so much. Yes,

oh my gosh, that is amazing. I am so proud of you. Understand a well done, and I love the very tangible examples that you gave of how you are taking steps towards progress and improvement of paying off a car loan and cutting back on some really simple spending areas that is making significant dents in your budget and savings. So hell, don we are celebrating with you. What an

amazing bill when you get to actually pay yourself. Yes, well, if you are listening and you want to submit your own bill of the week, whether it includes paying yourself for cutting bills or bills you don't mind paying, or people named Bill who are awesome. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us a bill and now

it's time for let me around. So there are two questions today because I couldn't pick one I liked better, and so you can answer both or just one, Jill, what's your most favorite piece of clothing that you own and or what's the worst fashion choice that you've ever made? Um, I can start with worst fashion choice, because it's that's what I wanted you to start with. That's what I wanted to hear for. Well, this is a little bit. This is here you go, You're this is gonna get

quite vulnerable. You don't have to feel bad for me because I'm a grown woman. Okay. There was a point in time that I wore stockings like one might wear leggings. So they were quite thin. They were gray, so they weren't nude. They were gray, but very sheer. They were stockings. If anyone's familiar with stockings, if you were to hold them up to your face, you'd still be able to see through them. Wore those along with an oversized T shirt.

Oh huh, yeah, it was like a T shirt. I was dating my husband at the time, so it wasn't like that long ago, although we haven't married for ten years, so you know, maybe like eleven years ago. This was a fashion choice that I made, or see through stockings with just one of his oversized T shirts. I believe I was in college at the time. I totally went to class. I think I even went and hung out with some like elderly people that evening, who knows what

they thought of me. And then I was like, I stayed on campus at the college that I attended at that point, and it gets worse, and this is where you might feel bad for me, but it's okay. I'm I'm a grown woman and I have dealt with this that night, that very night when I had made that fashion choice. Um, my roommates thought that I was asleep. I was not asleep, and I was not wearing earplugs. They talked about that fashion choice that I had made

that day. They were like, can you believe that she had the audacity to where leggings see through leggings with just like a T shirt? It now now it did, it did cover my bottom, but like not like not enough. Like it probably made everyone quite nervous that this is how I was walking around. And I do feel bad because one of my roommates was like, she might not

be asleep. I'm not comfortable talking about her, like she's fine, she can wear what she wants, but blah blah, and the other girl like, I don't care if she hears me, she give me awake, and so like she is kind of like my my sole person. I kind of appreciate it. She didn't care, and I'm like, and I didn't. I didn't want to wake up this. I would now, but I was like, I don't want to make them feel

uncomfortable for talking about me. Well, anyhow, I don't think I ever made that decision again, but that did happen. It was probably the worst fashion choice I made, trying to probably just you know, be frugal and borrow clothing and use what I had. But that was that was a fail of borrowing and shopping my closet and not actually purchasing leggings. I think I didn't have leggings and that was my alternatives. Oops. Oops, that was everything I

wanted it to be. I will just say, like most of my fashion choices up until college, even I would say graduate school. Up until graduate school, most of my fashion choices were a fail. I just didn't have an eye for fashion, and I tried to do things other people were doing, but I didn't know how to do it, and I was like a little puffy, and so it just never worked like and it wasn't like it was before it was cool to be puffy. What does that mean you were puffy? I mean, wasn't like I wasn't

chubby like I wasn't. I wouldn't say that I was overweight, And just like I was, I had puff, you know, like turn your puff into tough. That shirt I've never seen that. No, Okay, anyways, I don't going to debate this powder puff the sport. Not when I think of one of the sport that powder puff is. Just any sport that women play is well, powder puff football, I would say, Is that why they call it that? Nope, that's not why they call it that. I don't even

think they call it powder puff anymore. Anyways. The point of the story is that all of my fashion choices were poor. But I will say that my most favorite piece of clothing now that I own, and I own probably three or four of them because I love them so much, black tank tops. And I wore one yesterday. I probably would have worn one today, but I just chose the shirt. But black tank tops are what I wear most of the time, Like, that's just it for me, and I get them all used our secondhand But I'm

just a black tank talk girl. I don't like having my shoulders covered usually, and I like the color black. Yeah, that's great. I like everything that's in my closet. That is one of the amazing things about learning what you like, what fits you well, buying quality and not buying a lot. Is I I really do wear everything that I have. You can probably attest to that. Jen. You see like this rotation of clothes over and over. But the things that I'm most drawn to are like my summer dresses.

I love it when the weather is warm enough for me to just rock a summer dress all day, every day. And that's that. Yeah, everyone for listening to our stories of fashion Fails time. Many of you know that we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges, kind of like the challenges we were talking about in

this episode to help you save money and clothing. Of course, there's plenty of other types of challenges that we do and offer accountability groups because we're only going to go so far if we're trying to just do this on our own and we want to elevate that community and congratulate one of our members for a big win. Stuff like this gets shared in our membership all of the time, but we want to let you in on this. And it's from Debbie and she titled it o MG mindset Wow.

I love this group mindset shift from idle to first gear. Love the car reference, Debby. I can't use my skill set from my previous career in a new career too. I can figure out how to use my skill set from my previous career in a new career boom. I can't manage all of the house slash home you name it tasks and bring in household income to hubby, and I can figure out a way for the house home you name it tasks to be taken care of and I can bring in household income to to Yes. I

love that mindset shift. It is so good to go from I can't to how can I? It's so simple, but it's so powerful, and it's so difficult and so Debbie, this was a huge win for you, and congratulations. Thanks so much everyone for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash Club to see what challenge we have coming up next to see you next week. Frugal Friends

is produced by Eric Syrian Jill. Yes, my birthday is on Monday, mm hmm, and that means we will no longer be the same age for like a month. You'll be older and wiser for like there's three months. I'm older, so much older than me, that's right, Yeah, I am should so, and next week I should probably impart my um elderly wisdom. That's true, you don't have it yet. Not I don't have it yet. You're actually the next age. Are you still on this idea of wanting to bike

thirty three miles for your thirty third birthday? I would love to, But now that we've like we're in the process of getting this house, which hopefully will have by the time this episode airs, I don't know. I'm not saying anything. Who knows, But it's going to take a lot of like renovations to get up and running quickly, so I will not be able to train for it. So no, but I do want to ride my bike more so I am committed to that. Yeah, well, then what do you want to do? I don't I don't know.

I haven't thought about it yet. It's still technically a month away because we were are these episodes very early, so um, I've got to think about it. Yeah, I gotta think about it. Well, I'll leave you and think about it. May