How to Save Money on Monthly Bills

But today we're talking about all bills. All bills you pay monthly or maybe you should just be saving four monthly. We're gonna do some practical tips for saving bills. Bills, bills them. What a fun episode talking about bills. You know we're going to have bills of the week, well just one probably, but yeah, we'll definitely have a lot of bills of the month guaranteed. But first, this episode is brought to you by the pods on Love is Blind, arguably the best part of the show, don't at me.

The pods are designed for complete isolation and introverts dream isolation not only makes for saucy reality drama, but it's good for your money too. Putting your savings in different pods keeps it isolated from your other dollars and from you, so it can't judge you for how you look or don't look on a certain day. Are your dollars co mingling well, As we've seen on Love is Blind, that

may not be the best solution for them. They may need to be isolated to find love, I e. The plans you have for it because you get to decide what they love, which is fun. Sometimes wish others would do that for us. Put your say things in their own pod and earned three point to a p y at our current favorite high yeld savings account. C I t Let Your Money find Love in its own pod at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Slash c I T also Lauren and Cameron Forever. I am here for that

entire thing. I just wanted to hear so much more about a love letter for odds and money and how you're going to tie it all into a high old savings account. Jen, that was everything. This is why they pay me the big books, right and I put in my high yield savings accounts so that they can find love. I'm seeing that now. Yes, such Love is Blind Lander. I know Season three is trash just because he getting trash. I'll just keep from the first ten minutes of the

past season. Yeah, and it took me like five episodes to finally be like, you were right j and you were right along. Yeah, thank you. It's I have a quick intuition about people, especially trash people anyway. We don't say that about anybody just the right the way the producers they are not. They are humans of value that are portrayed as trash people. It's characters, their characters anyways. So if you are ready to get rid of your trash bills, uh, then let's give you some more episodes

to queue up for after this. So we we don't love to talk about scrimping and scraping off the top on monthly bills, and you will see that by some of our last episodes on it. Well we talk about it kind of sporadically throughout other topics. But I've got episode forty five negotiating tips for lowering bills, prices, rates, et cetera. And then episode five, which is how to save money on bills, which this is kind of episode five's follow up. It took us two hundred sixty episodes

to get back around. We got there. I'm not certain how often we want to recommend things in our archive between episodes one to ten, like, I have no idea, that's when I feel like listen to behavior. Do you think that's probably when we were on our best behavior. Yeah,

we didn't know, we really knew each other. We just like you're turned to talk, okay, my my ouy where we didn't have such savage feelings about marcro waves and freezers and we so Yeah, Jill had to take a two hour nap after that episode, and I had to finish watching Love Is Blind. We really wore ourselves out. If you did not listen to the freezer meal episode, it's it's it's spicy seral episode. I don't know if it was a two hour nap, but I did taken that it was a two hour Did he really well?

Then he might know better than I do. Wow, I was exhausted. Okay, I really don't even I don't nap. I never nap. You're dumb to lower my bills this time around. This one won't take it out of me. There's no there's no hot takes here. Yeah, we agree wholeheartedly on much of this because it's really standard. We may not give you anything you don't already know. We may do that, we may challenge you to try some things that you knew but didn't think we're applicable for you,

and that's honestly always our goal. So let's get into this first article. It's from nerd Wallet. It's how to lower your bills thirty eight way is to say, and we're gonna go through all thirty eight yeah, buckle up. Yeah, no, we are absolutely not. You do not need to do

thirty eight things to save money on your bills. It's fine, but I do like knowing that there's this many options, and really I found this to be a really great article because it broke it down into all these different categories housing and utilities, and transportation and food, and then with eating each of those categories, they gave a drop

down menu which is just really fun and interactive. So whether you want to save in the housing section, you're interested in saving on your mortgage or rent, or your homeowners insurance, they've got tips on each of those categories, and similarly with all the other ones, dropped down venues for the different things you might want to be saving on. So if we don't cover in this first topic, things that you wanted to know more about check out the article. Definitely,

so what's your what's your first tip? So for me and with what we talk about a lot within this podcast, I am most interested in looking at the categories that where I can have the biggest bang for my buck or the biggest amount of savings or cutting or slicing and dicing because I love knives and scissors and so housing is is for most of us, our biggest expense. So rather than looking at some of the tiny little things we spend on, let's look at the bigger things.

Housing is typically a monthly cost. Uh, and I wanted to look at rent. I know both you and I John, we have mortgages, but I remember that rent life and I do feel like there can be a lot more wiggle room in what we pay for rent than maybe once we're already locked into a mortgage. And so a

couple of different options here. If you are renting, of course, if your rent is too high and you're feeling like I'm going to get the most opportunity to save and cut this bill if I just downsize, then this might be your sign to potentially start looking. Is your apartment, your condo, your house that you're renting, is it more than what you need? And could you really see an awesome shift in your finances if you were to go for a smaller place. Can you get by with a

one bedroom instead of a two bedroom? Can you get by with a smaller condo instead of a house? Like considering what is your current living space and could you move? I know that's a big transition, but worth considering, and then from there considering in what ways could you be bringing more money in? So that could include a roommate, bringing someone else into the home. This isn't an option for everybody, but for some people they might have chosen

to live alone. But you know what, if you were to bring on a roommate or two, it's going to cut your rent for a time. And then from there just considering negotiating. So if you don't want to roommate, you don't want to move, but you do want to continue exploring ways to reduce your rent costs. I have

personally experienced this. I have heard plenty of friends. I've seen it happen, being able to talk with your landlord about either maintaining a rate for a longer amount of time, so almost being kind to yourself in the future of well, maybe I just want to make sure that this is the rate that I pay for the next two years.

So landlords might consider lacking in a rate if you agree to a longer lease, because that just confirms for them, I will be making this money for X amount of more years rather than the turnover that's going to be

required if you move out. So negotiating for a longer lease, or asking if there's repairs or maintenance around the apartment or the house that you're renting that you could take on in exchange for less rent, whether that's mowing the lawn or shoveling your own snow, or handling the repairs as they come up, or doing little upgrades to the property. You name it. You could get as creative as you want. The worst that can happen as they say no, But I have seen this go in the favor of the

tenants so often. Yeah, definitely. So I will talk about mortgages for those of you who have a mortgage, and just because you have one doesn't mean you can't lower it. It is more inconvenient the deeper you are in to a house. But just because it's more inconvenient does not mean it is not an option. So I'll go I'll start with like the easiest one I'll give you. Just start you with an easiest one, and it's to drop private mortgage insurance. And so I am not against having

a mortgage. I'm not here trying to be mortgage free. That is for some people, it is not for me. But I have p m I. We have two houses, and I have p m I on one of them, and once we're done with renovations and getting the immediate stuff done, then one of our next schools is going to be to get to of the value and hopefully the value will have gone up by them so it will be even easier so that we can get that hundred nineteen dollars a month in p m I off of our loan. So I am not sure how p

m I s range. Um it's usually between um like a point five eight percent to one six percent of the original loans value. That's not coming off the top of my head. I'm reading that. So it it just depends if that is worth it to you to say for me it's worth it too. I'm not going to sacrifice my renovations. I'm not going to sacrifice my investing. But once those things are out of the way and I get to prioritize a new goal, that will be a top priority to get to that so that we

can reclaim that over a hundred bucks a month. So that is definitely a way if you don't plan to be mortgage free, but you do want to save some money on your mortgage, great way. That's a great way to save potentially thousand dollars a year. Alternatively, you could also try to refinance. If you are at a place where your current value of your home is about you know, you have between the current value and your loan about of equity, it might be a good idea to finance.

It's not the best time to refinance, but I mean that time is over, so you really have to look at what your rate is, what rate you got, what

rates are available. It may be worth just because I think you have to be at at this point for most lenders over to get the p M I if you're just taking it off and then sometimes they will charge you about five dollars to come out and do an inspection of the property if you want to do it before that, So figure out what your lender has if free financing is not for you, but getting that p M I office is probably the best if you don't want to leave your home downsize, do the more

inconvenient things. This is literally the least that you can do to save that. I'm going to jump to transportation now because that's another stake heavy hitter is the cost of transportation and for those of us who own cars or make payments on cars, that's a massive monthly bill. And so if you happen to have a car payment, a couple of things that could be worth considering again refinancing, that's going to have to be something that you look at,

what what rates are. It still might not be the best time, but it's very possible that you were given a very high interest rate. They they cars generally run much higher than the interest rates that are offered on homes, and especially for younger drivers or I don't know what they're doing in these dealerships, but sometimes you're walking out of that door after that sale with a very high interest rate that if you go to refinance it it still could even right now, you could possibly get a

lower interest rate. So that's that is worth looking into. You'd save a lot on your monthly payment in that regard, But then other things that I would say are worth considering, similar to the rent and housing. Do you need all the car that you have, whether you have multiple cars, do you need all of the multiple cars that you have? Or if you just have one car? Is it too much car? Is it too big of a car? Is it too luxurious of a car? Is it too much of a gas guzzler of a car? And is it

worth considering a pivot? If your monthly bills you're finding are just higher than you need them to be, So that could include sell considering selling your car and getting a different car that might be just more congruent to your lifestyle, may not cost as much in gas. That's going to be something that you have to price out. Is it worth it? Can I get from my car what I would need to get? What car could I replace it with? Is that going to be financially advantageous?

I think sometimes we can elevate the cost of mileage above what it actually really is, like are you really going to save by selling and repurchasing in the cost

of gas mileage? But for some people that answer is yes, or they happen to have made a decision about purchasing a luxury vehicle a few years ago, and like everything was bright, sunny and enjoyable, and then the last few years happened and we're like, you know what, maybe my priorities have shifted, so that's okay if we just want to go back to maybe a more budget car than than a luxury car. So a lot of different ways of slicing this. I know I've talked in the past

about having hoped to go down to one car. Eric and I used to have two cars, and now for the past two years we have been able to live off of one car, largely due to the fact that life shifted so much and we're primarily working from home. So maybe that's you. Maybe you had two cars in your family because that was what was needed. But has life so shifted are you primarily at home now? Do you still need two cars? So these are the things worth evaluating when it comes to these big, massive expenses

and bills. Maybe you can go down to one car, maybe no cars. Maybe you move to a city and you changed how much you pay in rent and now you don't need a car. Let's not get crazy. Maybe you just like to live in a vehicle. Oh who has done that? All right, I'm gonna bring it back around for those of us with two cars. Who cars? Yeah, so that isn't and that's that's a very high barrier

to entry. Tip. Yes, it's going to save you a crap ton of money if you listen to it, and you don't even have to do it like long term. You can say we're gonna be a one car family for six months or whatever while we're doing this one thing. No choice you make to lower your bills has to

be permanent. You just have to decide what goal you have and how long you are willing, what you're willing to sacrifice, and how long you're willing to sacrifice it two reach the goal because it's much easier to sacrifice things like bills then things you actually care about, like time with friends and time with family and doing fun stuff. So these are the things that we focus on. It's the boring things. So if you are not ready to give up your cars, then auto insurances where you need

to focus on. That is your next biggest expense with transportation is your auto insurance. And so there are several ways that you can lower it and it doesn't even have to be like unsafe. You can still choose the coverage that feels good to you, but look at increasing your deductible or reducing your coverage based on how old your car is. If you haven't negotiated or looked at your auto insurance in the past twelve months, it's time

to again. We look at it every twelve months. We are calling around for rates from different auto insurers because it's not like utility companies where you only get one or two choices. You have a lot of choices with auto insurance companies, so calling two or three, seeing what rates you can get, comparing them to what you have, calling the person you have and and saying this is what I can get elsewhere can you beat it? And then also looking at making sure whatever coverage you're comparing

is the right amount for you. So they say full coverage may not be necessary for an older car. We have found it to be a great blessing on even are I mean we have all of our cars are paid off, and we have full coverage on both of them, and that's just what makes us feel safe. If your car is uber old and you don't need to have full coverage, then and that makes you feel fine, do you you can you know, you can increase your deductibles

as well. So there are a lot of options. Those um things that a lot of insurers will put in your car now to you know, get discounts for safe driving. They work, they will take if you're safe driver, they work. They will lower your insurance. So if you've done your due diligence with your negotiating, with making sure you have the right plan, add on one of those things, and this is where you're going to see your savings. All right, I'm going to take another hard left turn here and

talk about streaming services. So we've moved from the heavy hitters and now we're just now we're just into the regular babies can had up though they can add up. So streaming services falls under the category of memberships. There's all sorts of memberships, gym memberships, magazines, newspapers. But I'm looking at this club. What I know we're all doing,

and that's our streaming services. So first of all, we're gonna want to look at how many streaming services are you paying for and utilizing, because oftentimes it's more than we think. We have signed up for that free plan to watch that one show and then we forgot about it and we are just paying for paramount hullo peek, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Like, oh my god, there's so many right, and I'm speaking from experience or you know, those I talked to, those

I talked to share theirs with me. So first of all, tally them all up, look at what are you paying for and limit it. You really don't need all of those one or two. Pare it down. Figure out what are you most watching. It's probably Love is Blind as much as you hate it, and and just just just paying for that one. I know. So for Eric and I it is I think currently we're down to just paying for Amazon Prime and Netflix, and that makes sense

for us for right now. There there have been times though, where we paired it all the way down to just Amazon Prime. It made sense for us in all the deliveries that we need to get because we've been perpetually in renovation mode. So Amazon Prime does that double duty of free delivery all these other perks plus the streaming service. So consider it, and I challenge you narrow it down to one or two streaming services, and beyond that look into family plans. I'm not advocating for going against the

policies and procedures of a streaming service. But I am advocating for when they are offering it as a family plan. Who's to say whose family. If they're saying this is how many accounts or TVs whatever you can watch this on, then pay for it with friends if they're offering a family plan, take advantage of that. This can go for

things like music streaming as well. We had a family plan for Spotify with friends for years and so that added up to us only needing to pay two to three dollars a month to be able to have Spotify. If some of these other streaming services offer it, great. I know that I'm dipping into another category here, but we do that with our cell phone plan as well. We're on a family cell phone plan with friends, and that reduces our cell phone bill monthly significantly. We are

also on a family cellphone playing with other people. You know what friends is, friends? Our family. You choose, So don't let anybody tell you who your family are. It's a family plan. Yeah, it's a family plan. And yes we do that with streaming services. And we will not go against terms of service, but we will ride those terms to the end of their services and get as much out of it as we want. So and honestly, you don't need more than two streaming services at a time.

And here's here's how you can do it. Every six months, just put one, so start one in December and one in July. That way you've got so you've got your Netflix and your Disney up until July, and then Disney cancels and you pick up Hulu, and you've got Hulu and Netflix till December, and then you drop one and you've got Hulu and Disney again. You know, so you are still you still have choices, but you don't need

all of them at the same time. You don't. It's okay if someone's like, oh my gosh, did you see the latest episode of Love Is Black? And and you're like, stop, no, I'm getting Netflix again in three months, and I will binge it then because I so. Disney Plus is the one streaming service we pay for. We have, we have one, and we are on a family plan with Netflix for that, but we'll pay for Disney Plus forever and we are on a family plan for that that we give to

the other person. So like that's how that's our trade. We don't have any like Amazon or Hula or anything because I'm just fine with Netflix and Disney. And it has been torture to watch and door every week because I'm like, I just want to binge this, I need the next episode. This is torture. Why am I doing this to myself? So you know what binging is better? Don't keep up with the hype. Don't. Yeah, binging is better and uh and you can do that when you're

not paying for all the service, says at the same time. Yes, that's my soapbox on binging. Thank you, j We needed that. Yeah. My last one is jim memberships. And I am going to repeat this over and over and over. You should do what's right for you in health and fitness, not what has helped somebody else lose a bunch of weight. Honestly. That is people keep gym memberships for this idea gym

memberships that they don't use. If you're using your gym membership, great, I pay over hundred dollars a month for my gym membership every month because I use it four I go four times a week every week. I use it and even at pregnant, even a twenty two weeks pregnant, still going four times a week. But if you're not using your gym membership, it's okay to cancel it. It does not make you a weird person, doesn't make you a different person. You are the person you are, whether you

have a gym member ship or not. It is better for you to find something that you enjoy than to pay for something that is a definition of you who you are, not find something for you. And so once you find that, no matter what the cost, whether it's ten dollars a month or a hundred dollars a month, then you can look at how do we get those costs down? What are creative ways that we can fulfill the value uh and maybe not pay as much for it.

So maybe that means volunteering at the gym for for something, whether it's watching members kids or cleaning or checking into people at de friendize something. How can we get the cost down? Or maybe it means you're just like Jim Hopping, you're taking like free trials when you can, or paying month to month instead of an annual because you're like, okay, this one. See in the summer's really light for me, I can go to the gym in the summer, but I really can't go the rest of the year. Fine,

pay for three months in the summer. Don't get any annual plan. Do what's right for you, not what you think should be right for you. When Eric and I canceled our gym membership years ago, we put that money that we were paying to the gym directly towards a nonprofit. So it made me feel better about canceling the gym membership. I'm like, well, I never go so, but I feel bad about canceling it. But if I cancel it and give this money to a non profit, then I've had

a decision I can feel really good about. There you go, Yeah, that's great, they'll use They'll use the money better than me paying some jim that I never go to. And then I found my girl Pam on YouTube and I've never looked back. So sometimes you can find a free option that you love. Her YouTube channel is not my girl Pam, That's what I call her. You do call her that. But in case anybody wants to also have a girl named Pam teaching them to work out, where

should they go? Oh, it's Pamela reef Um. She's beautiful and unattainable. But she doesn't. She doesn't give platitudes to you. She hardly talks to you. She just shows you the movements, gives you a thirty second countdowns, she wears you out in fifteen minutes, and she's just amazing that when people to her while she's working out, I thrive on it. Also thrive on talking to people encouraging people while they work out, which is why do you cross fit? It

feels sending to me. Honestly, I realized why I don't like it because it feels like, oh, we're doing the same exercise, but you have enough breath in your lungs to say, good job, keep up the good work. I don't. I don't need that from me you. It feels like now you're looking down on me, that you've got the energy, and I'm the one who needs the encouragement. Now, I

don't need that kind of plata condescending. In our defense, it's usually when it's like a partner workout and one person works in the other partner rests, and it's the partner who's resting encouraging the one that's working. I'll accept it. Yeah, So when I'm working out, I don't typically encourage people, but if I finished before them, I am going to mock them. All Right, let's get into this next one

from CNBC, you know the one. This one's telling us five simple steps how to lower your monthly bills, and they go so far as to claim twenty percent. And this is this is a pretty remarkable title. Here you go, how to lower your monthly bills twenty and build your wealth in minutes. This is promising a lot good bait, clickbait, and we clicked on it, and we're here for it. We're here for the steps though we're going to talk about essentially negotiating your monthly bills. We won't promise you

the clickbait result. But the five steps are valid and that's why we're here sharing them with you. But um results may vary, results may vary. We maybe that's why we don't have too many people clicking on us, because we're just like, here you go. It may or may not work, results, no promises, but we have lived with that and our people love it. So the people who stay with us, it's you you listening to this right now. I'm talking about you. Thanks for being too. I just

want to so here's the five steps. Here's what you're gonna do with all those other bills that maybe we haven't covered, or the bills we have covered that you can't get rid of. You can't go anywhere else, but you can lower it or yeah, potentially switch. What you're gonna want to do is step one. Do your research. So depending on what that is, let's say it's internet, shop around for prices and see what other competitors are offering in the area for the same type of service

that you're getting. So that could be internet searches, that could be actual phone calls, but actually know what are the various rates that are out there. Have done your research and know about that absolutely. Then step two and then step two, which seems redne okay, call between the hours of nine am and five pm. There you go,

in case you didn't know that those are normal working hours. Yes, people do work after hours and on the weekends, but A that's when everyone else is calling, and B you can get your highest step managers, uh and your most important managers from nine to five. So the that's really is on your lunch break is the smartest time to do stuff like this. Yeah, it seems like a silly tip, but I can affirm it. I think I have had

the best luck when not that. Oftentimes you can call at other hours, but you might not get through to the right person or the hold and wait times are significantly longer. So it's worth considering when are you able to do this in a nine to five Monday through Friday. This could be something that you add to your list on a random day off. So yeah, lunch break like you're saying, or just one lunch break a month. You schedule one lunch break a month to do this and

there you go. You just write it in first Wednesday of the month, I negotiate a bill. There you yeah, uh and here here's here's something Stept three. This is good. Jump right in. Say you're canceling your service. So even just telling the automated system that you are canceling will immediately take you to the retention or loyalty department, where

you're going to have the best opportunities to negotiate. Those people in that department their job is to retain you, so they are the ones who have all of the resources and ability to offer you the best possible deal. So even if you're not necessarily intending on canceling. If you find yourself getting to the end of that call and you're actually like, no, no, no no, I don't want to cancel, then fine, then you could just hang up.

But usually you are going to get some sort of deal, whether it's a month for free or a lower rate or something. That's what their job is. So start there pretending that you're canceling, and maybe you are actually canceling, it might not pretend. That's why you do your research first to see what else is out there, because nine times out of ten you're going to find a new customer deal that's better than what you're receiving where you

already are. So it is in your best interests to take a deal like that, and you can call to when you call to cancel to get that deal if you you know, best case scenario, your current company gives you the deal, the same deal and you don't have to cancel, otherwise you will be paying less as a result of that call regardless, So that is that's definitely a money tip and one of the things that they say, and this is where the research is going to come

in handy and knowing what you're asking for is really important. At this step because what the what the people on the other end are most likely going to try and do first is get you into a higher tier of service, either at the same rate that you're paying currently or for even a little bit extra money, Like they'll try and bait and switch you with, Oh, I'm so sorry that you are wanting to leave. Can I offer you

this higher level of intern net speed? And maybe that is what you wanted, and that's fine, But if what you are actually looking to do is lower your bill for the current service you're getting, make that clear to them. Thank you so much for offering that. But what I'm actually looking to do is maintain the service that I'm getting for a lesser rate. What can you do for me? Or can you match this amount of money? Is what you're gonna want to say, yeah, and just be fir

a minute, because you have the power. They run on your money, so you have the power in this Yes. And another money tip is to always be friendly. You definitely convert more people by being friendly than you do by being angry. Uh. People want to help you when you are nice to them because they're probably dealing especially in the loyalty and retention department, they are dealing with angry people who are canceling because they are angry. So when you are friendly, when you are nice, jovial, you

are going to catch more flies with honey. They're not flies, but you know what I mean. It's just nice to be nice, be nice to people, and they will like respond in kind. It took me a while to learn this one because I definitely default to anger and is surprised. Anger the highway, and it is true oftentimes that does me better. Although there's also the saying about the squeaky wheel getting the grease. There have many times when my

elevated frustration has actually been what the doctor ordered. If you are frustrated, you can be frustrated, like if there is something wrong with your service. You can be frustrated and still be kind. You can be firm and be kind. You can These things are not mutually exclusive. You don't have to be a pushover to be kind. You know that they are running a business. You know they don't care about you as a human being. They care about your money, and you can just operate from that mindset.

It sounds so callous, but Jillan I had a conversation yesterday about how these companies don't care about us. They care about what we as podcasters can offer them, and you can and that doesn't have to offend you. You can use that to your advantage if you understand that and still be kind, and everybody can get off the call with a win win solution. Yeah. Lastly, number five, the fifth step here is to be skeptical, not tough

like either. Yeah, and so they're they're saying, you know you might hear on the other end of this call, there's nothing more I can do for you. There's nothing more I can do for you. And so either ask well, can I speak to your supervisor or let them let you off the phone and call back again someone who are guaranteed to talk to somebody else, like there's no way you're talking to the same person, and see if you get a different answer on the thing that you're

looking for, what you're trying to negotiate. They also make the recommendation here to even once you do get what you were hoping to get on the call, to call back and make sure that that's actually what's in the system. Yes, a good tip. Rather than waiting the whole month and waiting for that bill to see did Cindy do what Cindy said she was going to do, but call back and make sure is this what's in your system? Is

this the rate that I'm at? So that does take a little bit extra time, but that will be peace of mind for you. One thing I'll add to the this list. A practice that I do is when I when I make these calls, do the negotiations and pushing back on a bill that is wrong. You name, it is to take notes the date the person that you

talked to write down their name. Not only is that helpful in the step four of being kind to people, being able to actually like use their name and even leave them a good review if they gave you good service, but also in the event that it doesn't go as planned or it turns out that they didn't put that thing into the system, you now have a record of well, on November two, I spoke with so and so. They

informed me of such and such. Me having a running list, and it doesn't have to be like cluttered papers everywhere. You could keep it in a digital file on your computer until you're sure that the thing has been resolved.

But it has come in handy for me so many times to have this kind of running bullet list of who I talked to, what they said, what the date was, and really helps to solidify if I ever need to kind of go back and argue, for lack of a better word, for the thing that I've negotiated for, or to prove out something that a mistake or an error that has happened. You can also try um. You can

record the conversation as long as you ask. You have to record yourself asking is it okay if I record this for reference later and if they say yes, which they've already asked you and you have agreed to have the call recorded, so it should be fine. But you can you can record it if you are not in

a place to like take paper notes or something. I'll have it record on my computer because I'll already be there with my account up and then just have the call on speaker and then I'll just pause it when it's on hold, so that way I don't get the However, many minutes of hold are on the recording as well, but but that's something and that's something you can always like send to people all um via email should you ever need to. Audio files are typically easier like to

send them videos, so that is is also something. But that is a great tip. Do double check to make sure everything you talked about is showing up before they run the bill, because it is very often that they're they have the best intentions, but they're not going to really follow through with what they've said. Uh, So you want to have proof that they said it and uh if you can't have them change it right in front of your eyes on the account, then having that that

conversation recorded is helpful. You know what else gets recorded every single time. It's always helpful, always helpful. 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 card died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bill bills, bill clean. This is the bill of the week. Hi, jan gentle,

my name is Caroline. I'm calling from London today and I have just, like literally just this moment, paid my bill of the week, which is also my bill of the year. It's my tuition fees for my second and final year of my master's which is retraining me to be a ridited dietitian, which is a career I'm very

very excited to be able to pursue. And yeah, I really wanted to share it with you because being able to take two years out of work and pay for UNI and do this without going into debt or anything like that was really only an option because I've been listening to your podcast for years and I've implemented lots of the great tips you've said about intentional spending, meal planning, investing inside hustling, and yeah, for everyone in the community, I wanted to I don't know, it's like a reminder

for everyone that all these little choices you make on a day to day basis, they mean that we have the opportunity to make these really big, life changing choices that otherwise wouldn't have been available. And yeah, and the other reason it's my bill of the week is because I can pay upfront in cash. I actually get a five percent discounts That saved me five and twenty five thousand pounds that I would have otherwise had to pay

on top of interest if I'd had alone. So thank you again for all the tips and for making a finance podcast my favorite podcast. I don't know how you did that, but you know you make me laugh. Okay, thank you for everything. Bye, I am not lying. I am holding back to yours right now, we'd probably start recording. Our reactions are silent reactions to these. Ja. Oh my god,

I am. I am floored. I am so a happy for you, be proud of you, see honored, like to just be like a small part of the story for you, like there. Oh my goodness, I can't that last bit that you said. I got goose bumps too. Of just the small day to day decisions, not that all of them are small in effort or impact, but the consistency of what you've implemented and then what that makes available

in life. I mean, it sounds like you've done so much that has now made cash flowing your Master's possible because you cash flowed it getting the extra benefit of a five percent discount. Caroline. I'm I'm just I'm beyond thrilled for you. My heart is so encouraged and strengthened by what you've shared. And man, if this just isn't the ultimate reason for continuing on and doing a podcast, I don't know why it is. This is so art

warning Oh yeah, I I am. And and you get to do something you love that you are so excited about too, like that's the ultimate. You've made these small decisions, which you're right, Jill like, are not. They are small in scope, but they are not small in effort, and you've chosen to make them so that you can have this bigger reward of being able to do something you love full time for however long you want to do it. And that is amazing. That is everything. So way to go, Caroline,

You've just you've made our day. Thank you, Caroline from London. Best wishes and blessings to you in this new endeavor and career and may continue to be just financial, really

advantageous and a really fulfilling life pursuit. How exciting. If you listening, If you all are listening, and you've had opportunity to dry your tears of heart warmth, and who are motivated now you're motivated to call in your bill if it has to do with cash flowing, your master's degree, being able to get a discount because of it, or just any other bill that is related to the dude

name monthly bills or not woman named bill. Yes, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill. Everyone seems to be topping the next one. Not that it's a competition, but we're not stopping because it is getting good over here and now it's time for learning real own pew pew. All right, so today you need to cut all your monthly subscriptions except one. What stays? Don't don't done? What is the scenario in which I am being told they all must go? It's a good question.

That's a good question. Um, I didn't and I didn't view like an apocalypse type scenario. This one. I thought practically, This one, I thought practically on bills are in a place where it's not my tear miss sue answer, it's my bread answer. Yeah, well then your answer confuses me. Okay,

well okay, so then I'll give my answer. First, minds the Internet because I figured if I want to watch something, I can watch, Well, it's not you know, the Internet, it's the FiOS, it's the Verizon, it's the Frontier FiOS. But you make your living off the internet, Like, that's not that's a necessary bill or you like you're quitting your job. If you've got to, you've got to get rid of all your subscriptions. I have to get rid

of all of my subscriptions. I can't afford. My thing was, yeah, I guess, And my thing was is that I could watch YouTube. I don't need a streaming service because I pretty much exclusively watches YouTube and I'm pretty big into Disney Floggers, so we could do without streaming services unless there's a new star Wars or Marvel series on Disney Plus, so that may be my next one. Okay, okay, So the Internet stays okay because you can do everything on

the Internet. But but if we're saying internet is a standard day, yeah, yeah, okay, because you could always go to Starbucks and use their internet, so maybe you don't need it at home, So I would say, I mean, I guess. I think in that case, I'd probably choose my gym membership because I do that a lot, and I could just have somebody like tell me what happened in the Mandalorian. You know, it wouldn't be as fun, but nobody can tell me about the workout, and I

burned calories, so Jim, okay, I'm I'm choosing Netflix. I think at the end of the day, I've tried all the other streaming services. I don't really have any other monthly subscriptions other than streaming services. So for me, it's which streaming service are you going to keep? And as much as they make me angry, sometimes I keep coming back. They usually have the things that I want to watch over all the rest of the services. I don't know

if that reveals my age. My preferences. Mine is Disney Plus, so that reveals that your mom. Uh No, Kai does not watch Disney Plus. I don't know what to tell you. Kai watches YouTube. It means you're missing your watch Disney Plus. No, we we watched they have Okay, we're nerds. I think it reveals that we're nerds. No, we eat Marvel. Yeah, anyway, point proven. Okay, thank you guys so much for listening. We said we weren't going to have hot takes, but I don't know, Jen and I might be the map

after this. But you also know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges, just more things to keep it lively and fun, and we also offer accountability groups over there in that membership. And we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This comes from Sadie. Marie says the radical middle. I love the thoughtful and balanced conversations on this podcast. Is rare to find people who can acknowledge that life is complicated.

There is no one size fits all approach to finances, and ultimately the right choice for most of us will be somewhere in the middle. The fact that these ladies are also funny and entertaining is the icing on the cake. Oh well, thanks, Sadie. This is really really kind of you, just mostly an encouragement and your own win. But I set you up for failure on this when this is actually a review from podcasts and not not a from

our member. But it's fine. Thank you, Sadie, and maybe you'll become a Maybe the Frugal Friends Club will be the one subscription that you don't want to give up because it's full of helpful things for people paying off debt. And I'm here to be the icing on the cake. I love that. Mm hmm. Thanks everyone for listening and leaving those reviews and being part of our membership and just just listening again. All of this helps us so so much. We appreciate you. Frugal Friends is produced by

Eric Syrian, what bill will you next negotiate? So Travis actually negotiates the bills. That's his job, and I don't know which one's up next. That's not my it's not my area, not your domain. What about you? Um, it's gonna be my car payment. So we were silly little munchkins when we bought our car. I don't know what do you think I'm gonna say? Did you get a variable rate loan? No? No? No? Oh god, Okay, we

just like, okay, tell me no, we paid. We opted to do the like extra warranty because at the time now we come from a background of having only ever bought used cars for cash paid in full. This was the very first time against all of the things that

felt true in our hearts and core values. But we all know what happened through the pandemic and in the car buying experience, and because we only have one car and needed to be super reliable YadA, YadA, YadA, bought a new car well certified pre owned, and needed to take a loan paymentounts that we could still keep cash on hand to keep going with our innovations. Okay, there you have it. Judging that in that process we got

talked into buying like an extra bit of warranty. And part of the reason that we did that in that moment of being the silly munchkins that we were, was

this is the nicest thing we've ever owned. And it felt very scary to us driving this like nearly brand new car off the lot and something going wrong with it and already having paid a lot for it and being liable for all of this money to pay, And now that we are two years into owning this car, it's like, okay, no, we feel better about like not having all those extra bills and whistles tacked onto that car payment, and we are going to It won't even

be a negotiation. It'll just be me calling and saying, take this off my bill, and I just need to do it. Yeah, I mean, it happens, happens to the best of us. Got my first car to dealership. I also did that. So you don't know, like I don't understand all of it either. You know, it's like, well, what's this and what's that? And they're not the best people to explain those things to you, and and it's two of us trying to make the decision. It's not just me. I usually just say no to everything. It's

my default. No and anger. But not that I'm blaming my husband. We both made the decision, but it just it was just a lot, Jen. And now I'm going to go and I'm going to tell them no, good good, and and now you will lower your transportation bill. Fantastic. Yeah,