Make the Transition from Spender to Saver

we were blissfully in a blissful days. Yeah, we're re airing it a because it's popular and b because we want to remember the good old days, because are the good old days and we want you to experience what we were like back then. So hopefully you can find yourself in this episode as well and take some tangible tips away. Absolutely, but first our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by none other than February of The

Final Frontier, The Last Hurrah. Today's episode literally came out on February, and while many things published in that month have not aged well, this one has because I literally went back and I was like, oh, let's just make sure, everything's okay. Something else that has aged well our Modern Frugal Living e book. We published this e book with over two dred ways to save money in February of two and I think it's going to hold up as

well as this replay. So if you want to grab your free copy, head to Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash e book Again. That's Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash e book. Nice transition, Jen, thank you. Also brought to you by the Glow Up, the phenomenon that has swept the globe is sponsoring this very show. We all know those kids we went to school with that appeared very normal, blending in, just getting their homework done, and

then bam, they're in their twenties and unattainably attractive. It's the glow Up here to say, if it's happened to you, congrats, If not, try it on your finances. The glow Up going from good to grade since two thousand eight. M wow, are you talking about yourself in this one? Well? I wasn't until two thousand eight. Rhymed with great and I did graduate in two thousand eights, so you know, take take with that what you will, all right, although I

do think I peaked in high school. Absolutely not. No, you have not hit your peak yet, Jill. You are still climbing girl. I would rather I'd rather see the glow up in my finances, though, all sacrifice appearance for a financial glow up that happened. That happens when you get to your thirties. It's like my body and my health are deteriorating rapidly. So I just want more money, and we are here to help you get that. Because

we're not health podcast. We are a money podcast. And so if this is a topic that is specifically of interest to you, here are a few other episodes you should queue up to listen to after. So the first is episode one ninety and that's how to prepare for a no spend challenge, because we do talk about no spend challenges in this episode, episode five going from overspender to Millionaire with Wally Miller. That one was a really good interview. And then one how to identify and improve

spending habits. That's another really good one to play. After so many options, well, just keep be engaged for the rest of your afternoon or whatever time you're listening to this. Enjoy so our first article on how to transition to saber from spender is from J. D Roth over Get Rich Slowly dot org and he goes through the ways he went from spender to saber, and I thought this

was a cool to start with. Instead of like a list on how to do it um, his is a lot of his story on how he did it, which is always relatable when you hear what has actually worked for somebody else and then figuring out how to tweak it for yourself. Yeah, and a lot of it came from going ru getting out of debt. He paid off his debt, built his savings and is now living in this place where he could spend money if he wanted to.

But he spent all of this time like changing his money mindset that he is now a saver and and these are kind of the biggest things that have helped him. So the first is opening a high yield savings account, so he opened one UM online. A lot of online accounts are great for this. Uh they offer way more interest than brick and mortar banks so and and they are just as safe. The only thing they don't have

is like cash deposits. But uh, so, opening an account at a separate place from where you regularly bank and regularly transferring money over to it. So just like you can do that, there's also apps that do have auto safe features, like in power um where they will try for small amounts that you don't know, but that's not really going to that'll build your savings, but it's not

going to build a habit. So doing this that is, I mean, you're doing it automatically, but I would argue that maybe doing it in addition to doing it regularly automatically, you also do it manually. UM. I believe you should automate everything just because it forces you to save, but if you're really trying to build a habit, you really

want to do it for yourself, you can't rely on automation. Well, and you can always do automation and then build a habit of putting an extra Yes, you know, even if it's really on the amount, you're still practicing and growing that muscle. Yeah. So the next thing that this article lists is to set a medium term savings goal. They really like this one so different from obviously short term,

different from long term medium terms. So they're describing that time frame from about eighteen months to five years and setting goals like saving up for a big trip, vacation, saving up for a car, something that would take about that time frame eighteen months to five years to save four And what this does is it gets us excited about saving because sometimes long term goals can feel so far in the future and so unattainable that we don't

have the motivation to do it. And short term is short term that's not going to get you very far. But a medium term goal where you're working towards this thing but it's not taking you forever, and then you achieve that, it's just the excitement, a motivation continues to build upon itself. So I love this idea specifically for like we're talking about transitioning from spender to savor, this

is a really good place to start. Yeah, for me, I think the eighteen month is a really good sweet spot because the six month is more short term for me, and then five years does seem long term. Um, well, retirement, that's really what long term, but for me it still feels like a long ways away. But I think eighteen months is a sweet spot. If you can have eighteen month goals just in succession, you can really do a

lot of think like good things with your money. Yeah, or set your long term savings goals in medium term increments by the next by eighteen months from now, I want to have saved three to five tho dollars for retirement. And then when you get to the eighteen month mark, move it over. I mean you can. You can gamify this thing, Yeah, you can, It's really sweet. The next is when you receive a windfall, such as your upcoming tax refund, don't think about how to spend it, think

about how to save it. Uh. Windfalls we usually think of them as fun money. And if you're receiving a large windfall like an inheritance, some of that should be used as fun money. But something like a tax refund that's only a couple grand you can use maybe like fifty dollars to you know, take your family out on a nice fun day and spend it on an experience. But don't let that be the first thing you think about.

Think about how you want to save it to get like closer to your goal, and then once you fund that, then use the leftover two take a fun day with your family. Yeah. And the next one is to avoid situations that would cause you to spend this you know, hails back to our sponsor restrained. It starts by just not putting yourself in situations where you know you're going

to buy all of the tiny bowls or whatever it is. Right, Like, if you're trying to save money and you've got other things that you do want to be spending your money on, and you know that you're going to spend all your money on photography equipment or biking year or you name it, don't go to those places or don't visit those sites. That's another thing, right, we talked about not putting yourself

in these situations. Okay, it's relatively easy to just not stop in a store, but to not search certain things on your phone that are readily available, that's and that's a whole other animal. And that's where we can put up barriers for ourselves of you know, whether that's like it takes some extra steps to get to your browser or to get to certain apps on your phone, um or just saying no, just practicing or train and not

doing those things. And we'll we'll talk about in our upcoming episode on motivation, how your environment is so much more important to staying motivated to something than quote unquote motivation is um so, yeah, just form your environment to support saving. Yeah, it's a double edged sword because sometimes even being online can be tempting for to purchase things.

But by the same token, you can use online platforms to help you where being in person might be more tempting, like for those target people who just cannot get out of target for less than fifty dollars. Yeah, maybe you're better off going online for your groceries or your one item that you need than going in store, because then you can just specifically say I need diapers and I need milk, and that's it. I'm not doing the one dollar aisle, which ends up being five million dollars by

the time you get to the cash or chaster. How how does it get there? How did that happen? Where did all those zeros come from? How did my diapers cost two? I mean that's diapers can cost you hundred dollars, that's a real but how that's a real question to how did one box of diapers? Big diapers? Big diapers? His next one is he started considering alternatives to buy

new stuff, which we're so into this. So instead of going out assuming that you need to replace something, or assuming you need to buy something new to create more convenience in your life, take the time to look around your house see if you can fix what you broke or if you can use something else you already have to to make do. Um and then next is to buy you. So he goes to goodwill. Um, I love Facebook Marketplace or eBay. I really love eBay. Um, so go online or go to a thrift store. Um, see

if you can get it used. eBay has so many crazy niche items that you're gonna spend days at a thrift store looking for or weeks on Facebook Marketplace looking for and eBay's got them for like a quarter of the price they are new. Um, so just take it. Doesn't take that long if you're using the right methods to see, like if there's any alternative to buying new Yeah, and watch yourself right. Sometimes we get excited when something gets broken because it's like, oh, I get to go

out and buy a new thing. Well, first of all, do you really need it? Can you do without it? Second? Can you fix it? Maybe you do want a new one of those things, but can it be fixed? And can it last a little bit longer? Or can you replace it used rather than going to the store and buying news. So just putting these again, some of these routines in place of switching the mindset of something breaks, I go out and buy a new thing, thinking through

what are my alternatives here? Those are going to be the little things that move us from spending a lot to being able to save a lot. And and one thing I will say to finish up this thought is that we're not saying by lesser quality by buying used, you can often find something of better quality that will last longer. By buying used on on eBay or Facebook marketplace, then you would buying new because you want to you don't have the money saved, and you want to buy

it cheap. At the same price point, you can often get something better and more quality. It does require a bit more research and time investment in that miss worth payoff can Yeah, it is worth. It's worth the time. So the last thing on this article is don't spend your time looking for ways to spend your money. And this is a really important point that he's making because we often think that to save money means we're not

doing anything or we're not having fun. Like the alternative to spending is just sitting at home twiddling your thumbs like, oh, I'm saving, but I'm not doing anything, and that is complete falsehood. So rather than thinking, Okay, if I'm not spending money, then I'm board look for ways to save your money or to do things that are free. I mean he starts off by talking about out just investment ways to save and get the maximum amount out of that.

So of course, you know, Roth I ra s you could have absolutely get into stock market investing, investing all kinds of different things. But then beyond that is what can I be doing with my time that doesn't cost money? You can still have loads of fun and entertainment and time with friends and rest and relaxation without spending money. I mean literally reference any previous podcast that we've done.

We'll talk about that, but look in your area for what can I be doing rather than just sitting around and kind of get this idea out of our heads that to save money means that we're boring and we sit on our couch all day. Yeah. So uh, we love j d story and the things that he did, and so our next article is is more of like a detox, like how can you detox your habits two build up a fresh habit of saving. And I found this really great article. Who is it written by? I

wrote it. It's on my website, are very own Jen Smith. Yeah, I mean I write for a living, so one of these days I was going to put in my own. But it's on Modern Frugality dot com and it's how to use a no spend month to improve your finances. And I really love the idea of using no spend challenges, not just for the amount of money that you'll save in a month of not spending on non essentials, but

for what they do for you mentally. They are a reset for your habitual spending, your impulse spending, and all of the mindless spending that we do, and it hand and you can replace that with habits that are more geared towards saving. So that's why I love no spend challenges. It's why I wrote the book The No Spend Challenge Guide UM on Amazon, and it's it's why I love them. Yeah, I mean you you are an expert on this topic,

so yes, glad we're using your article. Yeah. So, so what is a no spend challenge other than what I just said. It's just a and write this down. Don't write it down if you're driving, but committed to memory. A no spend challenge is a commitment to not spend money on certain things for a predetermined length of time. That's all it is. It is not more complicated than that. You decide what you're not spending money on, and you

decide the length of time. Do not follow rules that are predetermined by somebody else, because that takes away your ownership and your authority from the challenge. And there are some things you can spend money on that you don't struggle with, while there are other things you spend money on that our real struggle for you. And so the idea is just to find out what those things are and and you do that by committing and deciding those

are step one, step two. So that's all it is. Yeah, So just to get into a bit more about how to do this, you you need to decide what you are going to spend on and what you are not going to spend on. And just like Jen said, it depends on you. You get to decide this, which I love this that there's so much freedom which listen to any of our episodes and you'll hear us talk about the freedom that there is. So obviously you need to pay your bills and necessary expenses to live and to eat.

But beyond that, are you gonna what are you going to be able to spend on? What are you going to cut? I like what you say here in your article, Jen, just saying talking about there's no need to cancel subscriptions or gym memberships if you use them and if you would plan to just start them back up again once the challenge is over. So feel free to keep those things, but take a look at it. If you've got a magazine subscription that just gets thrown in the trash day two, yeah,

cancel those. The point is to determine. Really, it helps us see where our values are, to pare down and and and learn. Am I actually spending money on things that don't really matter to me? I'm just doing it out of muscle memory. It really doesn't add value to

my life. So there's these peripheral perks of a no spend challenge that help us that to like detox are spending Like what you're saying, Um, So the true lessons and a no spend challenge come from the everyday spending sit situations, the saying no to the I want it now mentality. Uh, and the lie of it's such a good deal. I think that that's such a big one too. Between like being frugal and being cheap is like it was cheap or it was on sale, so I bought it. Well,

you still bought it, you still spend the money. So this is what a no spend challenge will do, is it will cut those things out at the base and and help you to really identify what do I need to be spending on and am I spending money on things that aren't actually important to me? Those will be the results of a no spend challenge. Yes, I love that. So how do you do a no spend challenge? Well,

first you have to prepare. So just like you don't want to start paying off debt without a starter emergency fund, you don't want to start a no spend challenge without the essentials that will ensure your success. So first you want to get your necessities. Um, so those essential items and products. Go through what you use every day and see if you're going to need to replace anything in the next month, and just uh get it replace it now. Uh. This is a big one. You're gonna want to tell

friends and family. So not just to say like, hey, I'm doing this no spend challenge because I'm so awesome but you are. That's not what you're telling them because you don't want them to invite you to uh bars or restaurants or invite you to spend money on something. And when they do, inevitably throughout the month, you can remind them, hey, I'm doing this challenge, but let's think

of something else that we can do. Or let's think of something else I can bring to the potluck, something I already have from my pantry, or you know, come over to my house and I'll open up my space to you and give you water. Yeah. So it's not about saying no to people. It's about saying but, like no,

but to do this offering up an alternative idea. Getting creative is really what a no spend challenge is going to teach you how to get creative because we're so used to solving all of our problems with money by buying something, and this offers you a month to pause and think, how can I solve my problem creatively? How can I think for myself? And so that is that's a big part. And then you can also take to

Instagram and find other people doing no spend challenges. There's even been a group coming from the Frugal Friends community on Facebook where they're doing a no and low spend So we have our own like off, we didn't create it, it's just an offset group from our group. So there are plenty of places like even if you know nobody's supportive in your real life, you can find virtual friends that you can commiserate with and make fun, make light of all of your situations. Man, when you're doing it

with other people, that just help. Yeah, it does. And then lastly, make a visual representation of your why. I have found that it is really hard for me, and I'll be honest, it is impossible for me to do a no spend challenge just for the challenge of it. I have to have a very important why if I am going to actually succeed with one, because I mean, the reason I started doing this is because I'm not good at them. I don't just do these for fun,

I don't. I rarely do them anymore, like never, so, but when I did, I definitely didn't do them for funzies. I had a really important and significant why. And and I would dare to say, like most people are not going to get through this unless they have a really significant why. So make a visual representation of it. Put it as the background of your phone, on the background of your desktop, anywhere you see things that you can make a purchase and put in your car, and just

be really intentional about it. Which is why this is so strongly linked to number two, which is determine a time frame. And that's I can't I can nearly almost not say this strong enough that this is not a lifestyle. You are not forever and always not spending. Certainly, it could be a lifestyle that you regularly do a no spend challenge, but we are not saying that there's longevity

in hardly ever spending any kind of money. This is a very specific thing for a very specific time, for a very specific reason, whether that's to identify your priorities in spending, to say, for a certain goal to pare down. I mean, you name it, just like Jen said, find out what your y is for doing it, but put a time frame on it. Now, there's freedom in this. You can do a day, a weekend, a week, a month,

a couple of months, a year. Whatever it is, though, put a time frame on it and determine how long and what are the boundaries and the rules within that. Certainly I love the idea of days or a weekend or a week specifically for starters. I mean, I think it's a fantastic place to start. Start small, figure out how this is working for you. You know, we just recently talked on a previous podcast about doing days scattered

throughout the month. Our episode with Kate from that Debt Free Life, she did fifteen days a month and at the end of the year she had essentially done a six month no spend challenge. But it's just sprinkled, which is amazing, and that can feel a whole lot more attainable. So, whatever it is, put a time frame on it so that you know when it's when it's done. Of course, don't use that time frame as an excuse to starve yourself and then just spend like crazy the next day,

because that will inevitably more than save it. So yeah, time frame is super important to this process. And I have um on my website a seven day no spend challenge where I will email you every day for seven days UM and go through every email will have something that might come up and how you can combat it, and you can find that modern frugality dot com, slash, no spend kit K I T and uh and yeah. So you can start with seven days and see how that works for you. And so next is decide what

you're going to spend on. Just like I said at first, it is important for you to figure out what you are going to spend on as much as what you're not going to spend on. So you can choose to not spend on particular items. So if there is something specifically tripping you up, like trips to Starbucks every day, or those Boston cream donuts at Duncan Donuts, um anything Chipotle at night after work, uh, you can just choose that or a few items. Otherwise, no spending on impulse.

So if it's not planned, if it's not written down, then it doesn't get spent on. So if you know you want to go to a coffee shop with a friend on a Saturday, and you know that's going to happen, you schedule it in and that's something you can spend on. So not spending on impulse. Then there's we get really really deep and so only spending on groceries and gas, no other purchases. You pay for your bills and then like like non perishables and gas and nothing else um

or zero spending. Maybe you prepay your bills and you put all your cash and cards away. UM. I would probably only do this on the days you don't have bills do or if you can change when your bills are do. That's probably not attainable for most people, but it can happen if you're super super oversolves about it.

And some people will do zero spend for a week when they know I've got enough in my fridge already, fridge and pantry for food, and we can do this thing for a whole week where we're not Some people have gone a little crazy with it and are able to do a full month, like they've got enough in

their pantry, freezer, fridge to have food. I don't think it's it's we have these pantries and we just buy we buy two of something because it's bogo, and we only use one, and so the leftover just keeps they keep piling up in the pantry, and then we have these full pantries that we don't know what to do with So it's really a great way to um to incorporate to to clear out your pantry and declaring your pantry when you're doing a no spend challenge, and it's

going to help you understand your spending. We mentioned that already. There's there's a whole lot of benefits to this of helping us in habit formation, reducing stress, decision fatigue, Holy

smokes already decided for you. You just take a month off of deciding should I buy this or not because the answers are already no, nope, take a break, nope, practice restraint, and then lastly, just figure out how you're going to fill your time right so we can't just pull something away that's meaningful to us or has been typically how we spend our time and replace it with nothing that's not going to be sustainable. Figure out what you're going to do instead of going out spending the money,

whether that's on food or shopping or whatever. And some ideas excellent ideas jin have friends over, invite people over, do a bit more hosting, and that's where you can have a pot luck, invite other people to bring food, utilize food that you already have on hand, have a pantry party. I love this idea where you it's like a gamified pot luck. It's telling everybody, what do you

have on hand? Bring that thing over, and who knows what we're going to have, but it'll be in eclectic combination of food, which I think is kind of fun. And then you just get yeah, just have a bunch of randos like foods, not people. I mean people don't know. Yeah, whatever you want to do, have a pantry party with randos, says Jen. She wrote the article so I'm not going to take that from um exercise, start forming these other healthy habits that aren't free. Yes, it can be free.

You don't have to have a crazy expensive gym membership, YouTube have a movie night. This is another thing that you can do with friends. You can do it by yourself. Whatever you want to do. Uh, figure out a way that a no spend challenge can work for you. But also, once you're done, reflect I think this is a big piece to doing this of what did you learn in the process, What did you notice about your spending habits?

What was the most difficult part of it? That's very telling about who we are and are there areas that you realize actually it's not that important for me to spend money in that area. I found out how a lot of fun doing X Y Z instead. So don't just do it and then move on. Do it and reflect and then implement changes as a result of what you've learned. And then you know what else is it reflected on as a result of what I've learned? Oh? Yes, is it the the that's right, It's time for the

best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's built buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the Bills of the week. Hi, Jenn and Jail. This is Leslie from Saskatchewan calling um. Your show is awesome. Not to tell you that first off, but I'm just calling in with my bill of the week. I made my very last debt payment on my favorite bill,

which was dept to treat my cat for cancer. So he got cancer from a vaccine and it's taken me two years to pay off his surgery bill and his radiation treatments, and he's faster pass to that expectation. He's two years almost Caunter free, so that is by far my favorite bill of the week. Thanks your show by Leslie End Leslie's Cat, Leslie's cat, both of you. Yeah, Oh that's amazing. It feels so good to pay off debt. Congratulations. I'm sure that wasn't easy, especially the reason for the

debt is not good. But you you just called us with all the good news. Though your cat's going well, you paid off the debt, so so glad to be on this side of that journey. Well done, Leslie. Yes, if you have a pet related bill, because we have a lot of pet related duds, yes, and we love them, every single one of them. We never get tired of him. Please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill uh to leave us a voicemail or a speak pipe message and we will play your bill on the air and

we will celebrate with you. That's what we're here to do. That's why we do this is to celebrate. Yes, that's it, um, And that's why we're doing video now so you can actually see us like fist pumping in the air. The reason we are doing this because we always are going like that, but nobody can see how excited we are. No, we just tell you and you have to believe us, which who does that, right? Nobody? Well, now it's time

for the Lightning Round. I whispered. It's that's one percent the reason we started doing YouTube so you can see Jill do the Lightning Round intro that I've noticed that I've gone more lighthearted with it since since we've been in the same room. Really well, because now you're happy because you're in Florida. Before you were in Pennsylvania and your magsion so people, Yeah, it's much happier. Now, what

are we going to do for our lightning round? Jen our We're gonna have to relive these Remember we already went through these once before. But our spending fails and Saving Winds twenty twenty edition, that's both. Yeah, all right, my last spending flub. And I feel like I've talked about this like ten million times, and it is this

purchase that will haunt me. I was in Target, of course, and I was in the stationary paper office supplies stile, you understand me, and I saw a planner and I love planners, and I looked at it and it was so cool, and I was like I have two planners. I don't need a third one. And so of course I did what anyone would do, and I put it in my cart anyway, and I bought it, and I

got me a hard time about my tiny bowls. And I got it home and I started writing in it, and I realized, I'm writing the same dang thing that I've written. It's like you had both of your planners out and you're like transcribing to anyone. I'm so dumb, what am I doing? And so now this planner, like I've already written in it, so I can't return it. This planner sits on my counter as a constant reminder that I am not perfect? Is that why you're keeping? No,

it's not why I'm keeping. It's because I can't return it, and everybody, I can't throw it out either. I can't throw it out because personal reasons beautiful, right. And then everybody I asked, I'm like, do you want to plan or do you want a planner? And they're like, no, I don't use paper planners. Yeah, I use a paper planner too. Do you want to us? No? I have one, alright, And that's what everyone, everybody keeps saying and so this

is this planner will haunt me for the rest. Well, at least that was like a ten dollar spending flub. You want to hear my spending fail, I'm going to call it a fail, not a flub. Holy smokes. You could see in my outline I literally wrote next to spending fail, uh, January dot dot dot because January was my spending fail. And and here it is, y'all because you're admitting you're not You're not perfect, and so I'm gonna be vulnerable to and tell you all that I'm

not perfect. So we killed it. We crushed it actually in December, as we normally do because we're like we're we think that unplanned gifts are ridiculous, like why just spend to spend, and you know, we tell people that we're gonna we're gonna do experiences, we're going to do time together. Eric and I did not get gifts for each other like we we did the holidays, man frugal.

But then January comes and it's like this problem with with the potential problem with a no spend challenges, like all right, we deprived ourselves, let a dog and and here's the thing. Eric's birthday is in January. It's January's actually exactly one month after Christmas. So then it's like, well, I didn't get him anything for Christmas, and now it's

his birthday, and let's do that. And also food, and let's have fun with that because it's the dead of winter in Pennsylvania, and what is their fun to do but go eat out. And then I wanted to have a party for him, but then I wanted nobody to have to bring anything, so I provided all of the food. And I'm so glad that I did, Like I'm thrilled for that. But anyhow, this is getting along. At the end of the day, I spent so much more money.

Oh and then we had issues with our car and we had to get all of the expenses, which that's why you have an emergency fund, like so that's not our fault. But at the end of the day, we definitely spent more in January than we brought in. Thankfully we had the money because we have an emergency fund. But I keep accountable next January. Like Jill, you probably crushed it in December, but January is coming. Practice restraint, Yeah, exactly. My gosh, I give your husband gifts for Christmas or worth,

skip it all, save it for your birthday. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I take it back the best. Sorry Eric. All right, well, okay, moving saving wins wins, let's talk about wins. Okay. So my latest win was opening a five for kai. Yeah. So I had a really good January money wise, like bringing an income so okay, but January is always the best month of the year for personal finance. So like, let's not get it twisted. In July, nobody cares about budgeting and I will make zero dollars. No,

we're going to make them care. Yeah, we try, but it's Christmas. Send July. Let's do finances in August. Okay, if that's how that works whenever I keep going. Anyways,

I had a really good month in January. So I started a five twenty nine for Kai uh, and we talked about nine plans in episode fifty six, and we had college Backer on and I actually started one with college Backer because I really loved their interface when we were doing the interview with Abby so and you can go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash college Backer and they actually matched. Um. They gave me twenty five

dollars um for funding. Yeah. Yeah, if you use that link you actually like, college Backer will give you money towards the account that you opened. So for girl Friends podcast dot com slash college Backer or we've got the link in our show notes. And so that was I was super excited because I could I put a thousand dollars in there, and I could, and I set up a recurring uh invest meant and I'm very looks like you might go to college maybe, but if he doesn't

go to college, that's fine. I'll just transfer it to another child or grandchild or someone or yourself. Get your second master's. Girl. Man, no, I almost sudden expletive, girl, don't make don't don't make me. Okay, here's my savings. When I actually invested in a Vanguard rof, I ra a. Yeah. I know that's for anyone who knows me. You know that's a big step. But I also did it. This is no lie, This is no lie. This is embarrassing. I did it because I got a twenty dollar Amazon

gift card for linking that account to personal capital. Like that's why I did it. I'm super glad that I did it, and it's like I should have motivation beyond a twenty dollar Amazon gift card to do it. But whatever, and this is still happening. This is a available to

you all. Go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash p cap, I mean, set up your account right, set up an investment account with over a thousand dollars in it, at least a thousand dollars, and then go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash pcap link your accounts and you'll get a twenty dollar Amazon gift cards. So if you're similar to me and like you're only going to make wise choices for yourself as someone's like dangling a

Karen in front of you, here you go. Yeah. But I love the personal Capital does that because it's motivates and incentivizes people getting started because now you have that rath eyre a. So you had very easily set up a recurring investment and now I'm putting money towards it. So so thank you Personal Capital. I loved you before, but I love you more now. Frugal Friends dot com slash pc a p get your own. And that is that.

That's the last episode. That's the last episode. That's what the universe didn't want you to hear, but you heard it, you did, and we're so glad. We're so glad to have been able to record it a second time, and thank you so much for listening the first time. We want to thank you for all of your listens and your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher. We love them, just like this one. It's from Bluebird and Thorn, just

what I needed to hear. It's five stars. I've been searching for a podcast, book, audio book, YouTube video along the lines of this podcast, and it's ticked every box that I was looking for. Excited to listen to more episodes. Finding Peace without breaking the budget is so down to earth and reminds you to take a step back and focus on the here and now. Loved the gratitude board

for the partner. I'll try something like this myself heart eyes emoji, which is referencing a recent podcast that we did where we talked about you writing down gratitude piece is about Travis. Yeah, something that I'm thankful for for my husband every day, which can totally shift relate. Not that you need to shift in your relationship, it can.

It can shift a struggling relationship, but it can also build upon better and better, and we actually did a whole episode on gratitude and contentment and you'll be hearing that in the next few weeks. Well, we hope you enjoyed this replay, but we also wanted to give you a little update because we realized this is a perfect opportunity in replace to follow up. Mm hmm. I mean, we all know what happened after February, so you can

fill in all of those blanks. But we were interested to follow up on just our lightning round of our fails and winds. And it's so funny because like January, my January sending fail is always this. I know what it was then, I know what it is now. Oh food,

it's always that's not just January. Yeah, but like coming off the holidays, I don't know food foods and you were so you you felt dramatic about it, and like looking at it in perspective between like then and now, it seems like such a So it seems like nothing. It is nothing from how much we door dashed in. I just embraced it. It's no longer a fail. It's how I helped to support my community. Yeah, so my

I have not bought a superfluous planner. Since then, I am glad to say I have only purchased the planner I use from July to June. That's it. That's awesome and probably too because it's really difficult to find a planner that can capture like a whole decade within one year, you know, like right, and that planner not the planner that I flubbed on. No, I didn't use it, just like I knew I wouldn't, and I did use the

planner I was already using, So that is great. Yeah, Well, the win I'm excited about because Okay, so I had opened Vanguard roth Ira. I had just opened it, and the motivation was the twenty dollar at the sign gift cards so you know, which you can still get now from Personal Capital for Girlfriends podcast dot com slash PCP. But for a while you didn't have anything invested in it. Yep, No,

that's true. I made the mistake that everyone said you make, and I knew I'm probably making that mistake, but I didn't know how to rectify it. So I came over to your house tail between my legs, and I have upped my contribution monthly to that account and it keeps going. It's on automatic withdrawal and we save in for retirement A men and yeah, so I yeah, I opened that five nine and I was putting I was doing monthly,

and then I was like, forget this. I'm just gonna put five grand in it and forget it because that time, instead of stretching out the five grand over several years, I just put it in there in one lump sum and that will get me a little edge versus doing monthly. And that's something I could do. So it worked for me. But anything is good even if you can't do a lump sum, but if you do get like a bonus or something, doing something like that with a bonus is

really really good. Or your retirement account if you don't have kids. But you can also still get uh matching bonus from it's called Backer now not college Backer anymore, but Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash backer open account there. If your state does not offer tax incentives for doing a five twenty nine in your own state, well that was fun. I'm glad to see us still consistent in our fails and our winds, but hopefully our winds will

win out long term. Yeah, thank you, so much for listening and leaving kind reviews on Apple podcasts like this one from Cake Bread three. Cake and Bread and the number three are all things that I like and it just happens to be five starts called Jen and Jill want you to succeed. Not only for Jen and Jill do Jen and Jill provide meaningful content in their podcasts. They have many free resources for their listeners to be

successful with personal finances. There's a Facebook community so that listeners help each other with frugal tips and finances, and it's delivered in a lighthearted manner. This podcast is entertaining an educational highly recommend Okay Bread, Thank you, Kate Bread. It's great. It sounds like you've got great taste in food and podcasts. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media, So when you share the latest episode on Instagram, we're adding you to

our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we're giving away fifty dollars for you to spend in the Frugal Friends Shop, Yes, Frugal Friends Dot shop on the Internet. So keep leaving us reviews wherever you listen to podcasts. And sending the screenshot to reviews at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. Don't forget to tag us on social See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni Jill. Yes, are you a person who wears green on St. Patrick's Day? No, but

I might start. I don't know, because I'm in my thirties now and traditions are more meaningful. I have to tell you. Every St. Patrick's Day that comes up, I realize I don't own anything green. Oh that's right, you don't buy green? I don't, And it's not like it's not on purpose. I would love to find something green to put in my wardrobe, but I just can't. And like I've even looked on threat up and filtered out

just for green. I've looked for just green in the thrift store, Like I make an effort because, like in preparation for St. Patty's one. Sure, but I also like the color green. I like it. Yeah, I think you'd look good and green. Hopefully it's not like a decision based on not thinking you'd look good in it. No, I'm trying, Jill, I'm really trying, all right. I'll be on the lookout too, because I feel like olive green or green or lime green. Yeah, any kind of would

look good on you. My house is lime green. My house is green like sharp trous it's like a like a I don't know what sharp truth means. It's what your house is. Okay, that like combo between yellow and green? Yes, trus Oh wow, I'll learn something new about green. I do. That's the glow up. You get more words in your vocab, thank you. Um. But yeah, no, I'm not somebody who wears green on St. Patrick Day because I just don't

own any green's mostly by that mostly black. We're going to change that, yeah,