Managing Money the Lazy Genius Way with Kendra Adachi

a bang. Super excited for this one. This one claps or slaps. I don't know what's the expect us to know the sling. We won't try and use it either. I did just try. But we are chatting with Kendra Dachi. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way and The Lazy Genius Kitchen and has

a fantastic podcast called The Lazy Genius Podcast. And her philosophy of systems and simplicity and seasons so many s is obviously alliteration aligns with our philosophies, but her systems also a line and so you're gonna see a lot of overlap. So knowing that there are different words and phrases and ways to say the same thing I think is really important. And she just offers some really good insight as well. Yes, I cannot wait to dive into this,

and we're gonna do that very shortly. But first we're talking about a values based spending plan and this is gonna be so timely, especially after you listen to this episode. You'll see why once you hear more from Kendra. But you may know that we just started our free free I need to highlight that one week spending makeover and if you haven't been able to join yet, we want to invite you to what we're calling the main event

of the whole challenge. On Wednesday, January four, which is tomorrow night if you're listening the day this comes out, will be hosting a live values based Spending Plan workshop. I love that word workshop. We'll be walking you through how to make a budget that prioritizes what you value and the financial goals you want to reach this year. So if this sounds like something you need, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover to join us. Everyone who attends live will get a copy of our

values based spending Google sheet. That one's a stunner as well. So again that's Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash makeover and you can just pause it right now and go do that, go to type that in or even as you're listening, but especially after you listen to this podcast. Is it's so in line with what we're talking about. Yeah, and we love a good looking Google sheet, and we're

given one free to everyone. So, like I said, Kendra is the creator of the Lazy Genius collective and she's a systems expert and professional permission giver and you will hear a lot of that in this episode. So without further ado, let's learn how to lazy Genius our money. Kendra, thank you for joining us on the Frugal Friends Podcast. We are delighted and excited to chat with you today. I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

We are big, big fans. We were talking a little bit before we pressed her Cord about just some alignment of what we talk about often, what you've been talking about and a variety of platforms. So I think our listeners are really gonna just eat up everything you have to say. All so I hope it's so tasty. Yes, absolutely so. For our listeners that are unfamiliar, Can you describe or explain the core concept of the lazy genius way and like how we can use it to manage money?

Sure can so. A lazy genius is someone who is a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And the important thing about that sentence is you are the only person who can decide what matters to you. I'm not going to tell you, y'all are going to tell the people listening, Like each individual person gets to decide what matters to them and

all kinds of areas. And I feel like money is one of the most tangible expressions of what matters to a person, and you spend money on things that matter to you, and it's really easy to get caught up in how other people are spending their money and therefore what matters to them, and to make that decision of well, just because they're doing it this way, just because they're spending their money this way, doesn't mean that I have

to because we have different priorities. But I just think that like money is so like adult you know what I'm saying, it's so I mean, I feel like I'm I turned forty one in like just a few days, and I feel like I'm still like I've kind of been like a forty three year old in my heart for like a couple of decades. But I'm also like

still sixteen, being like where's my twenty dollars? Like how am I going to spend this twenty dollars at Barnes and Noble after school, you know, like and wanting to see what my friends are going to spend their money on, and like what kind of clothes that they're going to buy, And well, I can't I need to spend that much money on a Geen jacket if they are, and like all those different things like that comparison is still there.

But then you also add in all of these like rules and money and banks and investing in all these adult things that I like, I don't know that we're really taught very well growing up. And so I think that being a lazy genius is such a beautiful place to being a lazy genius. It's so great to apply it to money and to budgeting and to spending, because it's such a great way that you can practice naming what matters to you and then following through on that

by how you spend your money. Yeah. Absolutely, And there are so many things in personal finance that can get

so complex. And when you I love how you say, like you you very much emphasized like naming what matters, and I think it's kind of an alignment when we're saying, like, find your values and decide like how you're going to prioritize what you spend money on, because when you can do a few simple things, then all the really complex stuff can become peripheral because you're taking care of like what's most important to you and you and feel confident in that. So I love how lazy genius sing and

managing money can just like flow so well together. There's

such good pals. There's such good pals because I think what it does is it like it it being a lazy genius and sort of adopting this framework is such a permission slip to to do what matters to you and to not feel guilty that you're going to spend the money on the Taylor Swift tickets because you love Taylor Swift and you prefer that, right, You're you prefer that and you would rather spend your money on that experience because you value experiences more than you value like

having two books on your shelf like Kindred does. So like that's how I spend my money is on books. I don't go to concerts, I don't go do things like I like to be at home with my books. So you know, it's it just gives you that permission to go. This is what matters to me, And it's okay for me to spend my money on the US. And I'm going to say no to these other things, just like this other person is going to say yes

to something I'm saying no to. It doesn't make either choice better or worse than the other, Like they're all neutral personal choices, and so we can just let each other choose those things and not feel guilty about our own. You might value breaking the internet too, so you value experiences and being a swift ee and just breaking the internet for a day. What a story. We all value that. We have quite a few members members in our Frugal Friends Club that value the Taylor Swift tickets and they

are going to be there. Well, Jill and I are over here, but I don't know what we'll be valuing the Internet. We're valuing Jill's wine subscription. I do invest in that subscription occasionally, I'm I'm off and on until until it runs out. I really also love what you're saying here in highlighting, because I've heard it said not and in the personal finance space that you can very easily figure out what you value by looking at what you spend money on, and there is a lot of

truth to that. I think it can really bring us face to face with our real self, not our fantasy self, where I could say I value generosity, but if I'm not seeing any of my money go towards the betterment of my community, then isn't really a value. But yet you're highlighting something really important that I feel is kind of not necessarily the flip side, but just another facet in here of that's true. And sometimes we spend money on things that just we don't value but we've not

given much thought to. And I think the way that you're describing that permission slip of identify what that is, allow yourself that pause to say, Okay, this is what my money is showing me. I value, but do I feel like that's congruent with what I'm actually saying and

giving space to kind of reprioritize. I totally agree with that, and I think that we forget that we are impacted by outside sources, like how we were raised, you know, like who whichever grown ups you grew up with, like how they spend money is going to be part of your own financial paradigm, whether you like it or not, you know. And so like you said, if you're not intentional about it, if you're not thinking about it, it's just going to keep going. It's just going to keep

rolling as the default. And you don't you haven't necessarily named yet. Oh wait, I don't actually value this. I'm just doing this because it's what my mom did or my dad did or whoever. And so I think that's

You're right. It's like there is a there is this facet of we can look at how we spend our money to demonstrate what matters to us, but it is not a complete picture because there are things that we absolutely are spending money on that we think we should or like you said, that we we just are because we haven't really thought about it yet. And I do think that there is I mean, it's great that shows like yours exists because I think it's really important for

people to be given small steps. There are there are thirteen Lazy Genius principles and the first book I wrote, the Lazy Genius Way, and one of those principles is

to start small. And I don't know if there's a better principle to apply to money than start small, because it does feel so overwhelming, like all of these things like what matters to me and my whole budget and you're thinking about investing, and you're thinking about your future, and you're thinking about your debt, and like it just feels really overwhelming, and so maybe that could be a place that you could start small. It's just too maybe

not even like over your monthly budget. But if you're like really in the early stages of this of naming what matters to you in your life and therefore in your spending, to just look at the next week and go what really matters to me about my life right now, my people's lives right now, and how do I want my money to reflect that just right out, you know, like you don't have to look at it for like your twenty year plan, your fifty year plan, in your

retirement plan, or whatever. Just look at it right now and start small with starting to name that. Because the more I have found this to be so true, the more we get practice in naming what matters and all kinds of areas, the better we get at it. It's a skill to develop, it really is. So to just start small with naming what matters about something small right

now can really pay dividends long term. I'm curious to hear more from you, Kendra, regarding what you've seen here in relation to focusing on or prioritizing our own personal satisfaction or our own values, or how you've termed identifying what matters. How that then relates to our money mindset? What have you seen? Can you say more about the

correlation between those two. So I do think that we can get stuck a little bit on the expectation that we have to be happy with every single financial decision we ever make, and I just think that's unrealistic and that puts a lot of pressure on all of our choices. And you know, I think about people you know there are I'm sure there's a book called mastering your Money. I'm sure there is somewhere, because you know that phrase

is used you know, like master your money. And I think that even that word like what makes someone a master?

And you might think it's that they know everything and that they've gotten everything right and whatever, and I would say, no, no, no no, I think what makes someone a master is that they have remained curious and they have seen that every single step, even once that other people could deem as failure, as something to learn from, and then they just continue and they continue and they continue, and so we can do that. We can adopt that same mindset

about our own choices. And if we're like if we're looking at if we're looking at our happiness, and maybe a word that I tend to use a little bit more for my own life, just because I can get moody. And so if I put happiness is like the key,

well that's not gonna happen sometimes. So uh is fulfilling that there's a deep, like grounded fulfillment in my day and I can have that whether I'm happy or not right, and that there're a thing It leaves room for, It leaves room for grief and difficult circumstances that come come along.

And this thing that you've been saving for this experience that you've been saving for you know, someone gets sick and you can't take it, you can't reschedule, and it's a whole you know, Like they're all these different there are all these different examples of that. But ultimately I think that if we see our happiness, our fulfillment kind of how well we live our lives, not as some sort of end goal or end game or linear path,

but instead we see it with curiosity and openness. And it's like, just because you if you name something matters to you right now, and you adjust your budget accordingly, and then in three months, six months, a year, or five years, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't mean that you did it wrong before. It doesn't mean that you chose wrong, or you saved wrong, or you spent wrong. It just means you change. You're allowed to change your

mind about things. And as our seasons of life go on, like different things are gonna make us happy and feel fulfilled and all of that. So I am my default is to be very linear and like, what is the correlation between happiness and spending? And I'm like, I will give it to you in five bullet points. That is my default, And so I have to actively every day. I was going to say work hard, but it's actually

not hard work. It's more just awareness. Every single day at want to be really aware of the fact that our life is so fluid. We can change our minds. We can pay attention to to our hormones just as much as we pay attention to the stock market, Like there are lots of things that are in fluctuation, and so being really kind and generous with ourselves in that process. I think it's just it removes the pressure of each individual choice, each individual spending and saving choice, to be like,

did the all end all? You know, It's just we're just living. We're just doing our best, one decision at a time. Thanks everyone for tuning in. This has been the Friends podcast with Genius. If you didn't get something out of that, it's probably not the show for you. I'm being over here to that we should be playing as much attention to our hormones as the stock market. What permission? That's the subtitle of the book that somebody needs to write. Oh my gosh, maybe that's maybe that's

the book subtitle of our book. I don't know. I mean inside just it just sounds like so in alignment with with everything that we love, like write down to like saying your core values right now may not be your core values in the future. Uh. And it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong or that you miss like you know, misnamed what mattered in the moment. It's people

change and evolve. And then we as far as like the fulfilling side of things, Like I feel like in personal finance, we get this like misnomer that, um, you either make a lot of money or you do something you love and you don't make anything. And so we we really advocate for fulfilling work. But fulfilling work doesn't have to be like your greatest passion either. It can be something that allows you to practice your greatest passions or allows you to get other things that money can't buy.

So like, there's there's just so much to look at and filter through when you're looking at your personal finances. And I just, yeah, my mind was just racing the whole time you're talking. I'm so glad. I'm so glad.

So I know that you have like with a magic question, and I would love to see, like what is that magic question that we can ask ourselves to start uncomplicating our finances so ask the magic question is another one of the thirteen Lazy Genius principles, and the magic question broadly is what can I do now to make something easier later? And that's something could be anything. So you could say, what can I do now to make my personal finances easier later? I will also say that feels

like a real big question. So one thing that I tend to encourage people, and it's kind of like, uh, in tandem that principle of start small and ask the magic questions? How can you make that question smaller? How can you keep making that question smaller? So if you're like, what can I do now to make paying my bills

easier later? Maybe just the actual act of being a responsible grown up and paying your bills is so depressing to you, and you like put it off, and then therefore, like sometimes you put it off so much that you get like a lafy with your credit card payment. Even though you're paying your credit card and full, it's like, well,

there's another twenty dollars that's so sad. Or maybe you're in a financial situation that you don't want to be in, you know, like you do wish that you had more margin in your finances and so paying your bills as a reminder of a place that you don't want to be. So I think that it's really important when you're saying, Okay, what can I do now to make something easier later? It begins with what is the thing that's difficult? You know, what is it that you're trying to make easier? And

try and make that smaller. You know, if it's like a finances or so overwhelming? Okay, well, what specifically about it is overwhelming? Is it the investing? Is that the budgeting, is that the bill paying? Is it getting on the same page as your partner? Is it that you don't make as much money as you need to to make ends meet or whatever? Narrow that down and then say, well,

what's the hardest part about that? What's the take this challenge about that, and then get to a place where you can say, so, what can I do now to make paying my bills on time easier later? Or what can I do now to make contributing to my four oh one k easier later? It could be it's talked to a financial planner or open a four oh one K.

It might be you don't have one yet. It might be I need to google what a four oh one k is because I still don't understand, you know, like to really back up and think about what you're going to need later and just do the tiniest something right now to benefit that. It's like a version of cheat yourself from Parks and you know, and they have like

their cheat Yourself Day. It's kind of like taking care of your future self, but asking yourself that question in the smallest way that you can, you know, so like I would even ask you guys, like, because you know, you know the people listening, like if you could what is something that your listeners like really do super dupe struggle with, like a small challenge maybe that they struggle with, And then like how might you answer? Because listen, I'm

not a financial expert. I hire financial experts like that is not that is how I magic question my finances is that hire people to do it for me. So um so I don't know that I have like super strong answers for this, but I would be curious for you guys, like how could you what would be a small question you could ask and answer for your listener. It ranges the gam and this is a great question.

I would say, investing and lowering grocery bills and to eat today, yes, yeah, my entire future and what I'm having for dinner? How much just rice costs today? Oh my gosh. So so I can. I can't speak to investing very much because again I hire people to do that for me. But the grocery stuff, like that's a little bit I can talk about that. Um, But I do think, like thinking about how you can even make that question, like what can I do now to make

my buying groceries easier later? Saving on groceries easier later, you know, whatever it might be. I think that one thing that we used to do we don't as much anymore. But one thing that we used to do, we would have like a two week rotation of meals that were arranged around a very limited number of ingredients. Now we kind of eat that way like all the time now because I have three children who won't eat anything green

and it's deeply frustrating. But we would sort of plan on we would have like a couple of weeks worth of meals that involved a limited number of ingredients and so in a protein, like one protein, and so if that protein was on sale, like when we were really pinching pennies when my husband and I were both in school. We're both in college, and we were like not making

any money. We were like we had to depend on whatever protein was on sale, and it was really really on sale, and then we would just eat that, you know, and like people think, well, you can't eat chicken two days in a row, you can. You can. You can eat it twenty days in a row if you have to, Like, it's fine. So you know, that is one thing that

you can just make. That's the way that we used to make saving money easier is we would make a decision ahead of time and do a little bit of planning around it so that when the time came, we weren't reinventing the wheel every time it was time to go grocery shopping. You know, guess so much of your lazy genius method also seems to be interchangeable with the way that we use the word hack life hacks nowadays.

There's a lot more thought, there's a lot more genius that goes into it, certainly, but not not over complicating. I don't know why we're so drawn to that flame of complicated and chaotic, But where can we be kind to ourselves and make it simpler. Although I appreciate how you're describing, that doesn't always mean simpler right now. It is this kind of how can I be kind to myself in a day from now or twenty years from now. It's something I have the energy to do that's going

to set me up even better. Yeah, exactly, exactly, And I love how it's like a simplified version of like The One Thing is one of my favorite books. And then so I'm always thinking, like, what's the one thing I can do to make something easier or unnecessary? But that is quite a complicated sentence to like you have to say like a hundred times to really understand it. And what's something I can do to make something easier later is a very comprehendible sentence, So thank you. It's definitely. Yes,

It's like I say to myself all the time. I'm like, what can I do now? What can I do now to make this easier later? I mean a lot of times it really does involve dinner, because dinner is so constant, like food is, doesn't change, it doesn't go away. That's why I wrote a whole book about the kitchen, because I was like, I don't need another cookbook. I love cookbooks. I love recipes. I love them so much. But also no one taught me like when to think about how

to grocery shop and where supposed to put cups? But like, is there supposed to is there one place to pook cups? Or can I decide where I want to put my ownt cups? The answer is you can decide where you want to put your own coups. But it is It's like the kitchen is so it never stops. And because it doesn't stop, and we spend a lot of money in the kitchen on food, on appliances, we think that like, this is the magic skillet that is going to make everyone in our family eat dinner. Now, you guys, it

will not. It will not. So it's we spend a lot of money in that room, and we that room does not give us a lot of space to breathe for long enough to make intentional decisions about it because that room does not take days off. The kitchen does not take days off. So I think that that's a really lovely example, you know, like how can we spend less on groceries? I just want everybody listening if that's like, what is stressing you out? If that's what's overwhelming anything

related to the kitchen. To remember, you are not the one person who is struggling with that question or overwhelmed by your kitchen. Every but struggles with that in some way. Everybody does because dinner in kitchen is like the one thing that never stops. So that is another opportunity for you to be kind to yourself, which is another way

to genious principle. Be like you were saying, be kind to yourself because we are not usually, especially about things that we feel like we're supposed to be better at. And I think we think we're supposed to be better at dinner. And it's okay that you're not. Really is it's really okay that you're not well, And I it's such a fluid thing. We are dynamic people, were not static.

It's not we can be really great at dinner or mule planning one week and just not have the energy the next, or really stellar for an entire year, but then a transition happens and now we've got to totally redefine our routine. And I think similar to their being freedom and flexibility for the values and the things that matter and the things that bring fulfillment. There can be freedom and flexibility and the degree of like motivation or enthusiasm we have for being in our kitchen that demands

so much from us, and that's where everyone lives. Like you don't need a lot of square footage in your house, you just need like a kitchen somehow. That's where everybody ends up, no matter how many people are over or even like even when you're not eating, it's like everybody just it is. It's one of those ever ever people ask us, are you ever going to run out of content? It's like, as long as we all keep eating, no, because the question keeps coming of how can I save

on gargeries? How can I reduce food waste? How can I? How can I? How can I? And really what we're looking for is that for them, is there a way to improve this? And yes in some small ways, and then really it's what you're describing our own view of self is where a lot of the improvement is going to come. Is how much space and permission am I giving for their to be flexibility in this aspect of life?

And even thinking about you can't like what we were talking about before, so many things can matter in the kitchen, so many things, and in the same way that you cannot make everything matter in your financial goals, or you will not have financial goals, like you cannot make everything matter the same as true in your kitchen. So you think like I want. I call it the house hunters syndrome.

You know, they go into their like I would like, we want to relive b backyard and we want a big open floor plan for entertaining, because everybody entertains, and we need five bedrooms and three bathroom in Dada. And it has to be the list all that I wanted for I want it for a hundred dollars. It happen to be a butterfly catcher. I want lots of land in the middle of the city in a good school district, but not a lot of noise from other kids. Like

it's like all these things. You're like, guys, this is not real. Like this is not real. But we we do that. Though we do that with our own lives. We do that with our money, with how we and how we spend it. And because how we spend our money again, is that tangible expression of what matters to us?

And if you try and make everything matter. You're gonna be hamstrong with how you spend your money, so you have like with food, you cannot be equally concerned with saving money, like healthy meals, quick meals, food waste variety, like exposing the people in your family to new things. You cannot hold all of those with equal weight. You cannot do it. This is why you're all frustrated. This is why everyone listening is like, this is so hard

because you're trying to make everything matter. So in the season that you're in, if you can choose one thing that leads the charge, this is the thing that matters, whether it's for one week, you know, like you're saying, like this is the thing this week, this is the thing these next three months, over this next season, whatever it is, this is what matters most about our meals. And we're gonna let this be the decision maker until it doesn't work anymore, and then we're gonna make a

different decision. I love how you break it down so small, like the season can be a week long, Like we can make this decision for a week. The decision we make today is not indefinite, it's not forever, and seasons are not forever. They can be in conjunction with actual weather seasons, or they can be like a few weeks

or something. But yeah, like taking that time to identify where you are at and to name what matters for the duration of that time and just focusing on that will get you far better results, far better progress than trying to plan twenty years down the road and trying to make big overarching decisions, like just focusing on the

next best thing. It's almost and we almost don't like to say that because we don't want to like get into a you know, a scarcity mindset that's just you know, thinking about the next paycheck or thinking about the next you know, so and so we want to think in a bigger picture to an extent, but when we're thinking about our actions, then really thinking small gets us those bigger desires and goals. It's kind of counterintuitive, but I

love how you break it down. That's why I say that starting small is the most annoying advice I ever give. It's so annoying. Yeah, it's so annoying because it's like, why I want a big thing. I want a big system, I want a big solution, I want a big machine. That's going to run the whole thing. And like we have all said multiple times, multiple ways, like we're dynamic people.

Life changes their seasons. We're not robots. Like you cannot have the expectation that what you choose right now is going to be the way things that are going to be forever, like they're just not. And so to release that pressure. It changes more than I think people realize it does. What you're describing is such a breath of fresh air. Kendry. I just feel so much weight lifted even just hearing this come from your mouth. And he's just not gonna be possible to focus on all the things,

So why bother. It doesn't mean some things can't be important, but exactly just really identify where you want your time, energy, attention resources to go. Which, speaking of, I wonder if we can get a little more personal on your particular lazy genius way of budgeting and managing money. What does that look like at this point? I love that you said at this point because we're on like iteration number eight probably of pretty big you know, like ways that

we approach money. So for a long time, like when my husband and I got married, we, like I said, we were both students at first, and had way more bills than we had money, and so that was like real tight. There were a lot of tears shed by knee when I would do our budget and when I have to pay our taxes and I'm like, I don't know how to pay property text, I don't know how

we can't afford it. I forgot about that. Like the first time we got a property tax bill that I did not budget and our to the penny budget, I wept because I was like, we don't have this money. What are we gonna do? So we've gone through, you know when you add we have three kids, and um, my oldest is now in middle school and he eats so much food. He eats so much food. So um, we've kind of gone through like all of these seasons where we had one working adult, now we have two

working adults, like all these different things. So the way it is right now, I mentioned this earlier. I find you know, how are like, Okay, my brain doesn't speak money, it doesn't speak financial I don't want to say jargon in a derogatory way, but like I just you could explain what a four oh and K is to me seventeen different ways and I still would not be able to speak it back to you. The same is true of gardening. I can't I can't grow a thing. I

just can't do it. You could, the most amazing gardener could sit next to me and try to teach it to me. But there's something in my brain that's like, we don't, we don't do this, Like it just doesn't work right now. That might, that might change, but for the most part, it's just not something that I fully understand.

So because of that, um and because you know, I have a business, and so when you your finances when you own your own business are definitely a lot trickier, right There are a lot more things to a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of things to be careful about. And so the way it looks right now just kind of like big picture long term is I have a c p A who does my taxes

and advises us on things like a reporter. And then we we've had a financial planner when cousin I barely had any money at all, because we thought, well, we likely are going to live a life without a whole lot of income because my husband is a middle school counselor so that's not a super lucrative job, but he needed Thank you, it's so needed, it's so needed it and he and he really loves it and finds a

lot of fulfillment in that. But you know, for a while, we were like, if this is our only income for a long time, we have to have someone who is incredibly knowledgeable to help us invest the little that we are able to say, the little that we do have, so that it can become something else down the road. So we have had the same financial planner for ten years hold on moly, I think ten years. And and

I have an accountant. And then outside of that, the two bigger things is we have like a separate account for um I don't know if I can say like business names and bank names and such, but we have you know, their capital one does like just an account that you can just open pretty much. It's like there's not a lot of hoops to jump through. And we almost see it as like a like a bucket. This is where we're saving. It's like our project saving bucket. So we have a project one and we have a

like a fun one. So if we're going to take a family vacation or whatever, so we kind of have those like buckets that we that we pour into for for things. And then for the most part, I tried to for a while, I tried to um different ways of budgeting. Some of them worked in the season, some of them didn't. And I found that because of how diverse our spending is, and by hour I do mean my family, but I also think just like in general, you know, like you could one trip to Costco in

a month, it changes your monthly grocery bill. You know, it's just like a whole thing. And so I started to operate under this idea of like outside of bills, like anything that is being spent that is not just sort of regular and expected, like food and clothes and the books that I have for myself, all of those things are sort of part of one bigger bucket, and we just keep it above a certain amount, like or below a certain amount, however you want to look at it.

You know, like we're like this is we're not going to spend more than this. This is just what exists in our in our checking account, and we pay for most things with credit cards. We pay it off every single time, and then we see, like we see what that bucket looks like and if we're towards the end of the month and that bucket is lower, it's like, let's wait till next month to get to get the coat, or I won't I won't go to the bookstore this

time and I won't get those books or whatever. Like that really helped me because I was finding and this

is it's different for everybody. This is so important. Looking at the particulars of our budget brought me a lot of anxiety because I felt like I was trying to fit everything into all of these small categories, and our lives were such that certain categories would just be um in different balances month to month, and I felt like I couldn't get it right, that I kept missing the mark somehow, and it's like, well, I picked the wrong

number for this bucket and all of that. So looking at it is just one general living expense bucket has been really, really helpful for us. I don't know how long that system will last for us, but it works really well right now. So that's kind of how we do our finances at this point. And there's a few things that stand out to me. First of all is the iterations. Again, if you haven't heard it already here.

It is again that flexibility and freedom to morph and shift as life does, as we do, to have different ways that we go about it. The way that I budget now similar to what you're describing, is not the same way that I budgeted ten years ago. But also this idea that sometimes the lazy genius way of doing things, the thinking about what we can do now to make life easier in the future includes hiring out some tasks, jobs, responsibilities.

Whether you do not have to be the genius at everything, you do not have to be the let other people be the geniuses. Some some geniuses need to not be lazy, They need to really work hard for you. Yeah, and that may not only be in finances, that could be in other parts. You know, maybe we're hitting a season where cooking is just really overwhelming it. Again, by season,

I might mean a week to a month. And does that mean you just want to pay a friend to make you some meals or you decide that your your takeout budget is going to increase your that's hiring out your food, if we want to term it that way. And then the sinking funds that you've identified of how you will put money away for certain goals, and then the guidelines that are just kind of these metrics, these parameters that you live within. It's not super stringent, it's

not really restrictive. It's just this kind of guideline of here's what we have to spend on a variety of different things. And yes, that does ate so much more room to breathe for most of us. Most of us don't love to go down to the penny and make sure we're being super rigid with ourselves. Yeah, for sure, for sure, I love that you even um spoke that back to me, that you're right it is. I love

a guideline. I love a guideline. And I find that my default, my like go bigger, go home, be all lazier, all genius, like I don't exist in the middle by default. Very well, that's something I have to be really aware of and intentional about. And that's such a good word that hadn't really put around my own financial choices. But I do love a guideline, but I don't want it. I don't want a straight jacket that makes me sad. Absolutely I feel the same way because that's similar to

how we budget as well. And yes, I want a guideline not a straight jacket. Do you want to know what else is a very loose guideline? Just a few one such real parameter to live within, and that' said otherwise, there's no rigidity here, and it is the week. That's right, It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.

That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, Kendra. Every week we invite our listeners or our guests to share with us their bill for the week. And it is truly the definition of a guideline. There is no rigid rule to this ill and we would love to hear yours. I first of all, I just this That segue was masterful. That was masterful, by the way, seventy some episodes, they're always funny, but they're not always professional. They're laughing with us or at us.

But hopefully you're laughing. Yes, absolutely, Oh that's amazing. I'm with right now. I'm laughing with My bill of the week is the five dollar bill I had to put under my son's pillow because the tooth Faory forgot his tooth multiple days in a row, and he got really mad and he was like, Mom, if the tooth Theory does not bring me at least five dollars, I'm going to get so mad at her and I'm gonna stay up all night and wait for her. And I was like, oh no, so I had to find that's my bills.

The five does. Sometimes the tooth Fairy is just lazy, not always genius, really really busy. You know, she got things to do. You know, the kids got a lot of teeth. They'd be losing them just left and right, sometimes before they should come out. It is one of

the weirdest things that I often forget about. I don't have children, and I like probably blocked out that time in my life, but the fact that we lose our teeth out of our heads is insane to me, Like that that's just a normal thing for like first second third graders, Like, oh yeah, I'm like learning about the world and I'm losing all of my teeth. That's terrifying and it's what makes up most of our nightmares. I

don't know yer about losing teeth. This is awful it is, and then you're like, let's take it though and sleep on it and see if a stranger with wings brings this money instead. It's just the most absurd. It's the most absurd thing. Yeah, it doesn't, but kids don't seem to be fazed by it, like, oh, yeah, I got lose. My nephew was here recently and he lost a tooth like right in front of me. Was like, look and chill and it's like, oh, I like felt so squeamish in all of my body and he's like, can you

pull it out for me? I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm pulling that out for you, Like how I was not that brave when it came to losing a lot of things for you and pulling your tooth out. And he just stared me dead in the eyes and ripped out this tooth. Didn't even flinch. I'm like, what is happening? It was amazing, truly, But I don't mean to hijack your bill. This is this is something the tooth Fairy

thanks for. I'm glad to bring that that fear up for everyone, that weird fear that we all have for everyone. And I'm glad it was only five dollars, because I hear sometimes the tooth Fairy's got to pay out a premium, and I'm just like, this kid, too many teeth. This kid of mine doesn't actually believe in the tooth Fairy. He doesn't believe in the tooth fairy because when his little sister lost her first tooth a few months ago,

guess what he did without my knowledge. He took a twenty dollar bill from his own personal wallet and put it under his sister's pillow, and she came to me the next morning, Mom, Mom, look, the tooth fairy brought me twenty dollars. And I was like, what two fairy is that must have thrown you for a loop? Like what? And so then that kid, my son, looked at me and winked, and I was like, oh, you're so sweet and adorable. Also, no, because this sets a terrible precedent

that your mother cannot fulfill a long term. He was tricking you, He was tricking me. But then he also so he doesn't even believe. But he's like, hey, Mom, the tooth fairy keeps forgetting Mike tooth. I love the story even more now, it's just it's for me like, oh, your son sounds so cool. He is. He's pretty great. He's like he's like a crotchety seventy three year old

man in his heart. It's adorable. He's like a seventy three year old poet, like he gets he's just a who who demands two three justice as well, if you all listening have a son that the tooth fairy needs to pay a five dollar bill for the teeth that's coming out of his face. Or you know a person named Bill you paid off a bill, you know, the usual kind of set off five dollar bill for your lost two if you'd like to report that for real friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill.

We are here for it. And now it's time for Pew pew. So today's vulnerability segment is not super vulnerable. Yeah, today is a fun one. What are you lazy genius saying today? What's what's on the schedule? I don't know if that's okay or not. It's your brain what Oh, oh, it's totally we verb it all the time, like what do you need a lazy genius? Absolutely, it's totally so.

The thing at the moment of recording, I am five days away from having to uh sing many songs in a in a public setting, and I woke up with the beginnings of a cold and scratchy throat. And so I have never been more dedicated to my zinc ta salt water gargling situation. I am like a lazy genius is someone who is a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. What matters to me right now is it I can sing in

five days, so I have. I don't know that I've ever put this much commitment into because I have today and will be for the next couple of days. But I am just I made one of those uh my own Starbucks medicine ball drinks, even though I didn't have half of the ingredients that the recipe called for. I'm just like lemon, honey, salt, and oregane down my throat, Like you know, it's just a whole thing. So that is what I'm lazy genius thing today is keeping my

voice for as long as possible. Oh, you do have some time, so that's good. It's not tomorrow. Five days tomorrow. We're with you, Thank you, thank you, although we are kind of working against you because wet for an hour today. What you did? You didn't ask me this morning, So it's really not your it has been. It has been on account of for a while. I do not hold it against you at all. But that is the thing, Like, that's the genuine answer is I have to be a

genius about my voice today. So after we stopped recording, I probably will try to not talk for two hours before the children have all the questions. Glad we're getting you at your best and you sound fantastic. I'm so glad. I'm not glad, Jen, what about you? What are you lazy? Genius?

Thing today? So this is maybe a long term thing, but I every morning, not every morning, like three or four times a week, I work out in order so that my pregnancy body will not work against me, because by the end of the day, like my organs are like pushing up against my ribs. So working out now is making my future pregnancy not as miserable because we're coming into the third trimester and that's when things get real uncomfortable. So I've been working for these first two

trimesters to stay away from that. That's what I'm doing today. Let's try to keep the liver sort of in place, right, It's just like, yeah, not impaling me in the ribs so much that I can actually sit and they don't have to lie down for three months. Yeah, oh wow, look at you guys, just caring for your bodies. I guess mine is a version of caring for my body. It's related to food, you know me, I love food or bread or smoothie related close, it's like all of

the above. So at the moment of recording, we are about six days away from traveling and we're going to be gone for like seven or eight days, so I don't want to leave any food in the house. It is a big value to me for low to no food waste, and also it's the holidays, and I also want low amount of money spent on food, knowing that when we're gone, we're going to be spending money on food.

So I have gone through my entire pantry and freezer and fridge and came up with a meal plan for the next few days until we leave on vacation to utilize everything that we have. And I only needed to get a handful of items from the grocery store, so all of that is in my possession and I am just now following my meal plan. It's so nice. Yeah, and those ingredients better be pigs in a blanket ingredients. No party, someone else promised that for me. I'm not

making that. Jen and I are going to a similar holiday party, and my husband apparently promised that I'm going to be a similar It is the same. It's not just similar. It is like houses next door to each other. Like, tell me more about will be there, but like we'll pretend like we don't see each other. Yeah. Basically, apparently my husband, without me knowing, like promise that I'd make a version of pigs in a blanket that are sausages

wrapped in pancakes. I don't know. I've never made anything like that, and I don't have that stuff in the house. What I do have in the house is stuff to make buffalo chicken dip. So that's what I'm bringing to the holiday party. Real big letdown, Sorry, pant our interview with you, Kendra has not been a letdown. Thank you so much for joining us. And if people want more from you, where can they get more goodness from you? In the segways? So solid um, I am everything is

the lazy genius something. So I am on Instagram at the Lazy Genius I have a podcast called the Lazy Genius Podcast. I have two books, The Lazy Genius Way in the Lazy Genius Kitchen, and then everything is sort of like contained at the Lazy Genius Collective dot com. Just it's a one stop just Lazy Genius, and you're all over the internet. I'm not even kidding if you Just like people will ask me and d M like

do you have an episode on organizing paper? And I will literally google Lazy Genius paper to see because I don't want to know the answer, So like, literally lazy Genius this, google Lazy Genius and the thing, and you will likely find at least four hits like almost certainly. Yeah, so good, so good. Almost broke me just like t Swift, just like Swips. You're close. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us, Kendra, thanks for having me. This was great.

I loved that as much as I thought I would, and I love Kendra as much as I thought I And that's a lot. That time for me really flew by. I'm not gonna lie. I jumped on the call today just feeling tired and I feel so energized, just hearing Kendra chat about the things that she's clearly expert in and the permissions she gave, and as you said at the beginning of the episode, kind of saying very similar things but in a little bit different of a way,

identifying things using different vernacular. It's just really helpful. It encourages us to continue on this path of permission freedom, identifying what's important to you, letting go of the rest, and ultimately that leads to kindness of ourselves and greater self awareness, curiosity with self. It just and and then some really amazing tips coinciding it as well, Like it's my biggest takeaway on this one is you're not going to be able to do all of it super well.

I can fall victim to that as much as I can know it logically without really thinking about it or being super mindful all the time. I try to do everything to a degree of excellence that just isn't possible to maintain, and so really honing down titrating down to okay, but what's actually most important? Who cares if my base boards are clean? Are the crumbs on the floor at least picked up so that ants don't come into my house? Like I can I can really narrow it down and

I feel like I have to do everything. Yeah, And I think there is nowhere we see that more than in January, where we are making New Year's resolutions, or if you're not a resolutions person, you're probably still starting something new, whether that's a new project at work, a new season in school for children, Like you're starting something new, A lot of new things are starting in January, and so to know that you don't have to be perfect or even excellent at all of it, that you can

give yourself grace where things are busy or where things are unknown, and that you can just start with one thing that's going to make something else in the future easier. Is that when you don't know what to do, do one thing that makes something easier for your future self. And I that was my biggest takeaway, is that simplified version of that phrase that is much easier to understand and put into action. So thank you so much for listening. We hope you got as much from the episode as

we did. Many of you know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and calls kind of like the one we're doing tomorrow. If you're listening to this on the day it releases. So Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover if you want um. But we have a private community full of people trying to pay off debt and reach financial goals where we focus a lot on small changes. UH, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This

one's from Vanessa. She says today we stayed out of debt. She said, my husband and I bought a new to him car yesterday. It was bitter sweet because we were planning to buy a minivan, but they're at least thirty more than when we started shopping for them. It would have been easy to finance a new car with low payments, but we worked so hard lately to cut expenses in our budget that I didn't want to add additional payments, and knowing myself, I would have tried to pay back

the loan as fast as possible. I don't want to trade my lifestyle for a new car, so I'm proud of us. We actually bought a small sedan within our budget and decided we would start saving again for a minivan to replace the car I'm currently drying. Well done, yea Vanasa This is so exciting. I am so thrilled that you were able to attain this goal. I know, with the way the car market is currently looking, it's not as easy to buy within our budgets as it

used to be. But you did it, you really and part of this is because you were so aware of what your actual values are that you were able to really draw a line in the sand and find something that works for you all. And I just could not be more thrilled. Well done, Yes, well done, Vanessa. So thanks for listening. If you want to check out our private community where people are paying off debt and staying

out of debt. I had to Forgirl Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge and of course we have popping up next inside see you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Okay, Jen, I cannot get out of my mind like Kendrew was saying about following our hormones as much as we follow the stock market, which doesn't mean like necessarily being led by them.

Well and really we would probably shouldn't be paying that much attention to the stock market unless we're like super investors. But anyhow, it reminded me that. Recently, I was with two friends and we talked about a variety of topics, but one of the things was laughing a bit about the lack of education around biology and our bodies there is for us, and I would assume kind of still rings true for kids today and how little particularly it

seems like men know about women's bodies. And one of my friends made the point, and she's like, I mean, that may be true, but like we as women don't know a ton about our bodies, Like we don't know much about the menstruation phase except for like that that one week of a month, Like there's so many other phases which I don't I still haven't taken like a deep dive into this, although it's very intriguing to me.

But there are four phases that we go through within like a twenty eight to how how much can I go up to like thirty four days of various phases like menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation in the luteal phase, And there's different things that are happening to our bodies horrimonally in each phase that drastically impact kind of the way in which we're experiencing ourselves and the world around us, And I found this infographic at one point that kind

of lined up that typically these might be good things to consider doing in each phase, kind of like harnessing what's the what's the power that I have within each phase, what might come more naturally to me, and what might be a little bit more difficult or have like greater barriers to them. We can't like not all of life, like life just goes on and usually like we've got

day to day task. But it was so interesting to kind of think that way about it, like considering what like the whole picture, what's happening in my body and in my hormones and in my life right now that I could be considering in the things that I'm doing. It was quite um an interesting thing to ponder. I am so glad that you have found so much in this topic. I'm currently in unface. That's interesting. Wonder long

forty week face. But I bet there's so many cycles and hormonal changes you go through throughout the trimesters that I wonder what people would say because there were specific things I forget, what goes along with big hormone cluster, cuss, dumpster fire just altogether. Now this one infographic was like it was particularly geared towards like within the workplace, what

you might want to consider. It's like the luteal phase is great for like getting all the tasks done, like invoicing out and drafting your emails and like doing this and this, and then the ovulation phase is great for I think, like public speaking and trainings and like doing the more kind of like extroverted type things. It's I'm not saying like build a whole life around this. It was just really fascinating. It's an aspect of my personhood

I haven't totally considered, but I'm kind of leaning into it. Good. Well, maybe our next life workshop will be how to Manage your money in Your Moon Your Mean Faces, led by Moonmother Jillian Syrians with the Moon, I'm not gonna lie. And that has a lot to do with the menstruation cycle. It does follow very similar to what women's bodies experiences. Great. Can't wait to attend