Minimalist Budgeting

I can't even remember that. We had joy in our hearts and hope in our eyes. We have no idea what was what life was like back then, BC, But we've made it. I got you. Yes, we made it, and we are celebrating today this first day of the new year that just happens to be a Frugal Friday, Frugal Friends Friday, with a rerun of one of our most popular episodes on minimalist budgeting. Yeah. I mean we all need it. COVID, no, COVID, you name it. We need to know how to budget, and my goodness, if

we can make it as simple as possible, that's even better. Yes, so the year of doing less but achieving more so doing more things that are efficient and effective. So this just seems like the best time to start out with the basics. Let's talk about some budgeting. But first our sponsors. We've got for yeah, the Frugal Friends Workbook. If you want to do better with your finances this year, but you already know you're not gonna turn your life all the way upside down and do it, then check out

the Frugal Friends Workbook. It's a digital workbook with six week long challenges that turn improving your finances into a game. In addition to the challenges, you'll get sixty pages of teaching and implementation guidance. And while it can be completed on your own, it is created to be gone through in pairs or small groups. That's why every purchase comes with two downloads. You heard that right, that's two for

the price of one. Folks. Head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Workbook to learn more and use the code taco bell all one word taco bell and you get ten dollars off the regular price. Yeah, some things have not changed in the new year. Something shouldn't change, right, And this aisodes also brought to you by no spend challenges. So I have a best selling book on Amazon titled The No Spend Challenge Guide, and before Frugal Friends, that

was the thing I was known for. So to say I am a fan of what a no spend challenge can do for your saving and spending is a massive understatement. I am absist so a no spend challenge. It's a block of time that forces you to step back from your money routines and habits and all the things your brain has been falling back on, and gives you the opportunity to make changes. You will hate it, it will be the worst, but you will learn so much about

yourself and your spending and over at Modern Frugality. I am hosting a free, live, seven day no spend challenge where you will get trainings, insights and accountability for seven days straight on a no spend challenge. And it starts today, January first, and you can join any time over the next seven days and you'll get access to everything in the group. But let's start today if you haven't already spent money. If you have, that's fine, you can still

join us. But let's start off with a spending detox. And I'm gonna be there every day for the next seven days to help you along. Um So, to get access to everything, head to Modern Frugality dot com slash challenge and I will see you in there later today. So let's get into learning how to budget and then go hang out with Jen and learn how to not spend money. Yes, I love that. Today we're talking about something that's so crucial to all of the things that

we talk about. And it's like this underlying thing that you've got to have playing in the background. It's like background music, it's and if it's not there, it's like words silence all the time, or like a house with no foundation. Yes, that's a better way to put it, Jill. It's condemned. You can't live in it. Yes, And that's budgeting. And we're going to talk about why even if you're frugal, you still need a budget and how you can find the right one for you and how you can stick

to it because really that's the problem. Yeah. So we're going to start with our sponsors that we'll hope you're budgeting in for, and then we'll move on to our articles. First up, you know, it's cook Smarts. Cook Smarts is an affordable and flexible meal planning service that provides recipes, instructions, weekend prep options, and shopping lists for four meals per week. And we've partnered with this awesome service to offer listeners first their first three weeks of meal plans for free

and then off any additional services. So to get these deals, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash c s c s like cook smarts and use promo code frugal Off. But those three free weeks are going to be right at that landing page. You'll have to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash c s Enjoy yourself. Some meal prep already taken care of. Okay. Also, speaking of meals, this is brought to you by leftovers. It's every child's least favorite word, but it's the budget friendly way to eat.

So didn't finish your meal at the restaurant, Get a doggie bag eat it tomorrow. Did you make way too much food on Christmas? Eat up those leftovers today. It hasn't gone bad yet. Don't worry about the fact that you ate this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just think about all the money you're saving leftovers. It's turning your brain off and fill in your belly with whatever's in the fridge leftovers. I did not read this on the show, notes and I you just watched me eat leftovers Jill, Yes,

from the Thai restaurant. Which those are the best kinds of leftovers. When you've got something from a restaurant, you're actually looking forward to it. The worst kind of leftovers is like fish from yesterday that you didn't even like the first time around. Yeah. I just make sure that when I cook fish, then I know it's going to be eaten like leftover. It's gonna be okay, cold like I could do like a cold fish salad. Yeah, that's the secret to fish leftover fish. Thank you for that secret. Yes,

And and that's it. That's all we have for today. That's that's your necond. Just those sponsors have fun, Okay, I guess we'll talk about budgets. Let's do it. Okay. So our first article is going to put down that foundation for the foundation. It's like smoothing out the dirt before you build a house. Is that what they do? Yes? Yes, you know so much about building homes. Well, because there's one down the street that they're they've smoothed out the dirt.

Moving out the dirt, that's all. You've got to make sure that you're doing right. So what we're doing, it's smoothing out the dirt for your financial house by telling you how budgets equal freedom not restriction. And this is an article from Savvy Savers Academy and I loved this one because it took me so long to figure this out. Jill, is this something that you just knew or to take you a while to? Um? No, Jen, I was not

born knowing everything. I know. That's a bit confusing sometimes I always have to because where did she learn things? But yeah, I had to learn them so yeah, for me to the word budget used to mean restrictive and meant you can't spend money. I don't really know how that frame of reference or perspective comes about. I don't know who started it really, like why we think budgets are restrictive or they mean that you are boring and you're always saving. But that's yeah, I had to learn

that that it was actually freedom for me. Yeah, and I love planning, so it was never the idea of making a budget was never up like boring or dreadful to me. But whenever I would mess up and you know, fail the budget, that is when I felt that it was really restrictive and I would get all these negative feelings about it. That's true, Yeah, because you don't always do it perfectly the first time. Surprise. I don't do

it perfectly anytime. Let's be honest. I've been budgeting for I might be like award winning, like World's World's Worst budget, or I might win that award award. Yeah, and I have been doing it for I guess three years now. We've been Yeah, Travis and I've been married over three years, and we started budgeting together as soon as we got married. And I mess things up every single month. The only times that I get close two like doing a perfect

budget are when I do a no spend month. Yeah, even then, I don't always do perfect no spend months, right, So I'm still messing up. So if you're listening, you're in good company that we are not perfect and we mess up, but we keep going. That's the important thing. Yes, that's the only thing, honestly, is to just keep going.

Because as long as you're aware of that fact, like a budget can equal freedom, And she doesn't really she has some really good points on on doing that, and so her first point is that a budget is nothing more than a plan for your money, and so, like, I've always gotten that, but for a while I felt

like I had to make somebody else's plan. Like I would look at my budget and I would feel guilty about how much I was spending on coffee, and so I would say, oh, normal people only spend four dollars a month on the days, and that's not my budget, that's somebody else's budget. It doesn't like coffee and accidentally buys a latte once a month, like, that's not me. Um. I think it's a good point. I get caught up

on that a lot, especially pertaining to food. You'll see this is a theme throughout all of our episodes, just food, and my food budget always seem to be pretty high. And I think a lot of people can get caught up on this because it is a pretty variable thing, but it always needs to be in the budget every month. And I do see people constantly, whether they're in our Facebook group or just on Facebook, people posting what's everybody's

food budget. I think that's one that we compare to each other a lot, and it ranges Holy smokes, because it also depends on whether or not you include going out to restaurants wrapped up in your food budget or not, which I think is one of the ways that we can think our food budget is a lot higher or a lot lower than somebody else's is based on whether or not they include restaurants. But that's another topic. But then it's families, or it's single people, or it's working

or are you at home? So I think anyhow, what you're saying here is creating a budget that is for you, that makes sense for you, that it that is realistic, because yeah, my food budget is five dred a month. Some family of five could look at that and be like, that's astronomical. I only spend two hundred. Okay, Well, where do you live? Do you cook every day? Do you never go out to restaurants? Like? Yeah, just give yourself

freedom with that and and be aware of the comparison game. Yes, and your budget doesn't have to be perfect from the first time you make it. So maybe your goal is to only spend four dollars a month on coffee, and you're a saint and you spend fifty dollars right now, So maybe next month, your your budget for coffee is forty and then it goes down to thirty. And it's a process. Um Like, your budget is your your money plan,

and it's got to be workable for you. And also if you have a spouse who may not be as on board as you, or maybe has different priorities that you don't understand, than the budget is both of your plans, and you've got to have grace for each other. It can't just be your budget, it's both your budgets. Both

your budgets, both your budgets. Yeah, speaking of giving freedom, So just to continue to keep laying this foundation and brainwash everybody into our way of thinking for sure, so and thinking of budgets as money for things needed and a plan for things wanted, and having the freedom to spend when you want to spend, save when you want to save. So like, imagine this that you have budgeted

all year round for vacation. What that might mean is that you've put away two hundred bucks a month and now you've got all this money sitting an account for this very purpose of going on vacation. It's what you've been setting it aside for um one, you will have

no problem spending that money on vacation. That's freedom. That's like I know that I have that money that's sitting there, and I am able to spend it versus how a lot of times we can do things of Okay, this month, I want to go on vacation because it's the summertime. And how am I going to do that? Go into debt? Yeah, I put it on a credit card. That's not freedom, that's called debt. Yes. So that's that's the freedom that the budget gives you. It's the freedom to spend on

what you really want to spend on. And that's what we always think of frugality as is spending money on the places you want to spend it and not accidentally spending it just wherever your feelings that day take you. So the budget helps is a tangible way to help you do that. You're still in control. You decide what you do with your money, how that's spent, where that's spent. So it's only as restrictive as you make it or

as your paycheck makes it L O L correct. Yeah, And we'll talk about some budgeting like methods later on. And they're another thing that can trip people up with budgets is if they are making a low income, not all of the budget. You know, things that are touted on the internet work for every size income. So no, not, it's not one size fits all or a variable income, which is me all of the time in that. Yeah, we work for ourselves, so we don't always know what's

coming in and there are solutions for us. So don't make that an excuse that you can't budget. Yeah, and so one of the things that I had to come to terms with when I was budgeting or or really laying the foundation of my budget is learning that budgets are flexible and they can be flexible. And that's one of the things that takes the rigidity and the restrictiveness

out of it. Because there are sometimes where I would budget, uh, you know, twenty dollars for coffee, and then I would get invited last minute by a friend to get coffee and I was already at my limit, and I would add, you know, five dollars to the coffee budget and take five dollars away from another budget. And that is the beauty of the budget, because you made it, it's your budget. You can do that. And if you fail and you don't take from another section and you just go five

dollars over. Then adjust that for next month, like it's not this is the budget for the rest of my life, it's this is the budget for this month. Then make another budget and just keep working at it. Yeah, maybe you don't progress as quickly as you wanted to in making you know your ideal budget. And that's okay, because you're still doing better. And some some months you will not do better. They won't be better than the month before. But that just happens, and it's you. You go through it.

You walk through it, and uh. And then the next month starts and you start over and it's a good, fresh, clean slate and you rest easy. And the fact that all your dirt has been smoothed out, yes, because you have the mindset of a budget or you got that smooth dirt mindset. That sounds weird. I'm not going to say that anymore. I like it, so yeah. And and

then she challenges us. She has like a little challenge in here and says, if you haven't been keeping track of your money, go back through your bank statements and credit card statements and see where your money has been going. You might be in for a complete shock and how

much you spend and where. And I tell everybody this that I do budget coaching with and they're supposed to go through at least three months of their statements to see what they're actually spending on these things before they decide what they would like to spend on these things. So that is a really great challenge and exercise if you have maybe fallen off the wagon and you want to get back to budgeting, and you might be surprised that you are not spe ending as crazily as you

thought you were. Um that that happens a lot. Tracking spending is a great place to start, regardless. So just to know, well, what is realistic to spend and are there areas that I could cut back or areas that I want to add to. So that that's a good way of knowing, well, what what I what number do I even put here? How much should I say I'm going to spend on food? That can help with some

of some of the avoidance of failure. Yeah, let your past tell you how you should start preparing for your future. Oh man, so wise, I'm going to put that on a T shirt. I believe you excellent. Yeah, so make sure before we go on and talk about budgeting methods, that you are in the right mindset to budget and you don't think about this a lot because it's it's just like something you have to do to get with

your finances. But you will do it so much better if you are in the right mindset, and then the budget can be a source of freedom instead of restriction and assistance in accomplishing goals. Feeling like you've got a purpose to set your hands to, possibly something to unify you and your spouse or your family. Yeah, pack some excitement and fun into it and recognize that it can give you some things that are enjoyable in the midst

of it. You can have a coffee budget. You don't have to feel guilty about going and buying coffee if you know I have this money set aside, I know I can spend this money. So coming at it from that perspective will help with some longevity in doing this and setting yourself up for success. Right, Because when I don't have a budget or i'm not you know, I'm not living in my true budget, I have anxiety about spending on anything even if I need it, and it's

it's kind of crippling. To an extent because I'll put off purchases I need to make just because I'm I'm so anxious about spending anything. Um So, yeah, that's just that's me. And so the budget has helped me in that issue. Excellent, Yeah, ready to move on. I'm there, I'm with you. Let's do it. Good. Great, Well, our next one is from student Loan Hero and it's five simple budgeting methods to help you live your best life.

And there's five. I'm sure you can find a list of a hundred budgeting methods, but I didn't even go there. They'd all pretty don't want to be some version of the same thing, right, I don't If there are more budgets out there, I don't want to know them. So that's what I can offer you. I can offer you five. This is enough, and they're all still pretty similar. So and let's be honest. This is a list of five and it only has four methods and you'll find out why. Okay.

So the first one is the zero based budget, and that is definitely the most popular way to budget, especially for probably people that are listening to this podcast and other podcasts that promote paying off debt and saving a high portion of your income. And it's because there are no hard and fast um like ratios or percentages. You can save as much as you want, as high as

it is on your list of priorities. Yeah, and it tended to be the one that most of the people in our Facebook community group, the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, we're also using. Yeah, what most people, it's talked about a lot. I think it's the one that people would be most familiar with, m HM and just taking your yeah, basically naming every dollar, putting every dollar somewhere, and that that could be as much to savings in debt payoff as possible. So yeah, it's very detailed on how much

you're spending and where exactly it's going. Yeah, And another thing I like about the zero base budget, it's actually an exercise in priorities because you list your income first

and then your expenses. You list them in order of priority, and so there are a lot of things on your spending that maybe we just take for granted and we don't know we might be spending more on something that's the very bottom of the list and something that's in the middle, and so it can be very eye opening to how that you're spending on what you prioritize, so it's it's not just a way to you know, save your money, but also a monthly reflection on is my

money going proportionately to what I prioritize. The next one is the pay yourself first budget. We had one person in our Facebook group us this, and it's actually what I'm using right now. So I'm a very lazy budget. And we definitely did the zero based when we were paying off debt because we were going, you know, really hard and fast on that. But now we pretty much

just pay ourselves first. So we'll put um everything to our retirement accounts and all of our bills and a little extra to our mortgage, and we'll spend whatever's left over without any plan, just however you want to spend it. But this is also I mean, if you are already frugal and used to budgeting and you just like kind

of are are taking it easy. I mean, granted, we are still saving like of our income, um, so we're not like taking it slow by any means, but it's a far cry from the fift we were putting towards debts. So it's it just depends on where you're at. Yeah, so this one is not as restrictive. It's not as focused on exactly how much you're spending in each category, but it is still placing money in the areas that are priorities for you, and it's not excluding saving at all.

It's maybe more so focused on that. Yeah. Yeah, so definitely these first two are my favorites. Okay, then you've got the envelope system, which a lot of people are from fmiliar with and I would say is a great way for people to introduce themselves. Well, it's an introduction in some ways, but it's relatively intensive. I would say it helps you build those muscles of budgeting and seeing what it's all about and helping you stay on track

with a budget. Um. So, I know that a lot of people will sometimes start here and then start to loosen the reins a bit as they kind of understand this whole process and how to do it. It's similar to a zero based budget, but in this system, you're doing most of it with cash, so you're actually feeling the cash will leave your body rather than just swiping or inserting a chip. And then when you know, let's say your grocery envelope is filled with your four fifty dollars.

When that's gone, that's gone. And so it kind of helps you to to stay focused and stay on track with Okay, I'm only going to spend this amount, and to realize like what that amount actually looks like what it will get you. So I know, I know a lot of people love this. I did it for a time. It ended up being that I didn't enjoy carrying all that cash around with me, and it was tough for

both Eric and myself. I think I did a bit better with it than he did, but we ended up doing variation on the envelope system in that I then I just made up a card of what's what would I have put into an envelope, and then each time I spend out of that category, I subtract it so that looks like, you know, at the end of every day, or if I had time, right after a transaction happened,

I would subtract it. So then I'd have like a running total on this little index card in my wallet that would let me know how much I have left, but it wasn't actual physical cash that and that that worked for us for quite a while too. If you're uncomfortable carrying around all that cash, But you still like the concept that was a bit of an alternative. Yeah, definitely. And so I know the envelope system works really great for some people, Um like Allison of Inspired Budget, who

we had on episode eighteen. She actually has some envelopes that she makes that have like cute little quotes on them and you can download them on her website, um, inspired budget dot com. But yeah, I also don't love the envelope system. Mainly we didn't use it while we were paying off the debt just because it was it was a little cumbersome. And Travis does not carry a wallet. He just carries his cards on the back of his phone. And um, yeah, he couldn't. He very frequently couldn't remember

his wallet. That's why he switched to this method. So it was out of necessity. Yeah, And and I just wasn't really good at keeping track of cash, and I hate receipts and um all that. Oh, definitely using That's why using credit cards is a good like what we decided was a good way for us because we'd be using the debit cards anyway. UM, so we just use those for those cash reward bonuses. Um and and pay

them off. I will say it was a good introduction, though I have moved away from that system, but it was very helpful to really get a rain on this and to understand it a bit more. So I would recommend it to start out with. But yeah, it's certainly not for everybody. Yeah, it's because it's difficult. So if you're trying to like get into it hard, hard and fast, this is I mean, everyone should try the envelope system. I think everyone has and you just have to decide

for yourself if it's for you or not. Because it it dove tails well into the zero based budget um AND, which will go over next. And it's so it's not an exclusive budget, kind of an assist and so yeah, the next one then we'll go into is the fifty.

So this is for people that love percentages. They just like like to know what is going to what, and they don't want to have to prioritize like the zero based budget UM you know, maybe they can't max out retirement accounts, they only want to put to their debt and savings. This is a good one, and this is where you can also find the variations that just the variations that are in other like accounts. You can you know six that Yeah, it's yeah, they're all just different percentages,

So don't get caught up on the proportions. If you're not perfectly at fifty, it's fine, um. But essentially the breakdown is goes to necessary expenses, goes to discretionary expenses, and then goes to savings and debt payments. Yep. So again kind of similar to the second one we talked about, the pay yourself first budget. It's not a tight rain on exactly this is how much I spend. It's a little bit more fluid and like we said, you can

change up those percentages for what works for you. But it is about prioritizing, um and putting you know, making sure you're getting money where you want it to go. Mm hmm. But a little bit more fluid and flexible. Yes, And if you're not ready to prioritize all your expenses or maybe you don't have time for that right now, um, this is also a good just quick and easy way to divvy up your income and then you know, go

from there. But it definitely recommend at least try dyeing the zero based method, which is our favorite, but is widely used and is literally better than no budget. Uh. And speaking of the no budget, that is the fifth method listed here. Uh, the no budget like they say, it's the no budget, the no budget. Men. Remember how I said there was only four budgets on this list. This is why. Okay, but I will say that I

have used this method. I didn't know that it had a term to it because I also felt like it wasn't a real method. But I've been here. So as the name suggests, it's basically not spending money you don't have, which we should all the concept. We should all be grasping that actually by now. But if I could do that on my own, I wouldn't need a budget. So don't spend money you don't have, don't do it. You don't have money, don't spend it. You don't have cash

in your hand, don't spend it. But basically this is starting from the place of paying your bills and if you have money left over, deciding where you want that to go. So honestly, this is where I've been sometimes given my different entrepreneurial pursuits or uh, not having a

consistent paycheck. So and and there's there's other terms for this too, and maybe it doesn't exactly fall under this like no budget title, but for those who don't have a consistent paycheck, are not sure what's going to come in next month, and you don't know how much you can plan to put into savings or towards debt payoff. It's whittling down your your expenses like as low as you can get them, and knowing what needs to be paid every month, basically saying no to every and then

saying no to everything else. This is where budgets can feel restrictive. But mind you, it's not because of a budget. It's because you're not bringing in a lot of money. So that's not the budget's fault. That's the paychecks fault. And so if you're in that boat, then start looking

for some well being in your employment. Okay, so this would be your food, your gas, your medical expenses, like the things that you have, your your phone bill, you're housing, the things you have to pay off, and when you bring money in, you pay those things first and then but then it's looking over and saying, okay, we actually brought in more than what we were anticipating this month. We brought in more than our expenses. Now where are you going to put that? Then you can spend it,

but don't spend it before you have it. And then yeah, can you put some of it towards extra debt payoff? Can you put some of it towards saving? Do you want to treat treat yourself to a coffee, whatever, but make sure you're paying your bills off first, so that this would kind of be the approach for those, like I said, who don't have that consistent paycheck that you can plan, like on the first of the month, I

get X amount of money. Yeah, it's an interesting method, and like the writer says, you can't do this one if you don't have discipline, and you wouldn't want to do it with a credit card because the point is to you know, it's tied directly to your checking account and so you can make sure you're on track with your spending, because if you're not tracking, you're spending. At least your checking account is. Because don't worry, your bank

knows how much money you have left. Even if you don't, they're not going to tell you you have more than what you actually have. Never never, they're not. I'm not going to tell you you have less either, So they're just gonna be there sitting with it and it's up to you to tell it where to go in one

of these methods. Try. I'm all see what works for you, because budgeting is a lifelong journey, and just like you might not want to marry the first boyfriend you ever date, you might not want to stick with the most with the first budget you ever try, and have the freedom to tweak it to make it your own. Maybe you start with the envelope system and like me, you find out you don't want to carry your own wads of cash,

then tweak it. Yes, I don't feel like you have to get stuck into like is this the right way of doing it? Who cares? Yeah? Who cares? It's your budget, it's your money. There's no no budget shaming here. There's never any any version of shaming here. Nope. So we hope that you will create the budget method that works for you and then tell us about it, and tell us about it in our Facebook group because we had such a great conversation about budgeting the other day, so

much good input in our group. So if you have questions about budgeting or problems with it and you need more advice than what we're offering today. Definitely check out our Facebook group at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash group and there are just so many smart people in there that are willing to help and laugh with you and share gifts. Yeah, that's all I have for these That's all we need. Yeah. I know that you were thinking about if we needed more. I'm glad you decided

we didn't. This isn't enough. Yeah, because I'm really ready to move on. Let's move on to the best time of the week. It's that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill, Buffalo Bill, Bill Clint, this is the bill of the week. Hey, Jen and Jail. This is Jocelyn, longtime listener, second time caller.

I previously called with the Bill of the Week with John Stamus's son, Baby Billy. This time I want to give a shout out to my favorite Christmas movie Love. Actually that has two or three bills, depending on how you count them. The first one is Billy Bob Dorton, who plays the sketchy President of the United States who

tries to hit on the Prime Minister's secret girlfriend. The second and third bills are the aging rock star Billy Mac played by Bill Nigh, who sings that fun Christmas on I Feel It in my fingers, I feel it in my toes, and got absolutely three bills in one Christmas movie. Amazing. Anyway, I hope everybody has a great Christmas, and thanks for a great podcast. So good, such a

good bill. Yes, yes, yes, yes, thank you. Uh yeah, I mean we're still waiting for something to compare to the duck bill um that somebody loved off for Jill. I will never forget that, yes um. But like all the bills, just they're good every week. So if you've got something bill related to share, please please please head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and let us know your bill. Make us laugh. We're over here.

We never listen to these bills until we actually play them for the first time recording the podcast, so you will get our genuine reactions. Who doesn't want genuine, authentic reactions because that's all we have. We don't we don't prepare for these Yeah, that's what people want to hear. We're not prepared. We're never prepared. We prepared for the episodes, we do not prepare for the bill of the week.

Totally organic, totally alright. So we talked about the mindset, We talked about the ways to do it, the method, the mindset, the method. Come up with another m and here is the ways to be to stick to your budgeans. Oh yeah, that's a good mindset method and means very good, spot, very good. So this is the means with which to

stick to your budget monthly budget. And I mentioned that we had a really great conversation in the Facebook group, and so we took all of these suggestions from our community on ways that they will stick to their budget in order to help listeners take their advice and and we'll put a little bit of our own into there. But you've heard enough of our thoughts, so I know

you're bored with us. Well, we'll move on anyways. So first tip um is from Sage and she gets paid on the first of the month, and we'll pay all of her bills in debt right away and then spend whatever's left. Even sometimes that's three UM, and so the key to her success in that is leaving her credit cards at home. That way she's only spending what's left and not more. Mia all So does the same method. They both do, zero based budget. Mia gets paid twice a month, so she'll set her bills to come out

on each of her pay days. Nice. Yeah, so, and then she also keeps the last credit card she hasn't cut up at home. So those are really great tips and which can work with zero based or pay yourself first, which if your bills come out automatically online, you often can set the dates that they come out, So that's that's really smart. So Christine in our Facebook group, she uses two different checking accounts, so all of her monthly bills come out of one and then she uses the

other for spending. So this would be good if you don't have the option of paying everything on like particular days, then you can kind of know which account is going where. So I thought that was a good tip, Oh for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Juvie uses is the mint app to track her budget UM and she likes the notifications when she's nearing her limit on a budget. UM apps are such a great way to bring your budget with you, and there are

so many apps. I went through a bunch on the app store for an article that I wrote because I really wanted to find the best budgeting app UM that didn't cost an arm and a leg, because uh, every Dollar is really good, um Whitney and our Facebook group pieces every dollar Wine app is really good and Ashley uses that, but they cost money, and so I really wanted to find something similar to Mint that allowed me to customize my budget and to make a zero based budget.

UM and I have started using honey Fi. It's a budgeting app for couples, but I've sure you can just use it, you know, if you're single to otherwise Mint what is an awesome alternative? And I like honey Fi because it alerts. You can share as much of your spending with your partner as you want, but we're totally transparent, so when one person spends, the other person gets an alert on their phone and you can put your budget right into there and see what each person spending. And

it is it's a really great app. It's very similar to Mint, where automatically tracks your transactions, which is great. When we were paying off debt, I used every Dollar because of the manual transaction feature, like, it was better for me to manually input everything I was spending so that I can be more aware of it. Um, and now that I am spending more just on different things, UM, I like it to be automatic. Yeah. So yes, and

those are great apps. We'll have links to all of these apps in the show, so check that out if you're driving and you can't write all these things down.

So Sue from our Facebook group also reminds us. Good reminder, Sue to prioritize sinking funds into your budget so that you're not surprised by those often forgettable or unpredictable annual or bi annual expenses or just things that come up, um, going out to dinner for someone's birthday, or forgetting that you need to I don't know, pay for your kids

field trip that month, or whatever the case. Maybe there's always something that comes up and and maybe it's not emergency fund worthy, but it's you know, pulling out of that fund. But I always forget about auto insurance because we only pay twice a year, because you save money if you pay it only twice a year, But then you also forget and then do you don't have auto insure or registration, same thing. Yeah, so licensed renewal that happens every four years. So there's all there's just always

something popping up. Yeah, so it's always good to have like a general sinking fund for unforget unforgettable, unpredictable, forgettable deal things deals. I'm done, I'm I'm all talked out. I just talked too much. I get you, I'm tracking. Yeah, and people always forget about the sinking funds. They always think they don't need them, and then their car breaks down or their laptop gets stolen or all these things that have happened to me. And yeah, so it's you

don't take them for granted. You need an emergency fund, you need sinking funds, and and that's just the basis. That's the baseline. Good tips, everybody, Thank you, Yes, thank you. And if you have any more tips on how you stick to a budget it Another one I used was like doing no spend challenges, and I think Leah and

our group did that too. I forgot to put that in here, but that is also a way I learned to be frugal and spend less and like stick to my budget if I had a really bad month one month, then the next month I would do a no spend challenge so that I could kind of like compensate. Um. So if you've got any tips to help other people stick to their budget, please feel free to come out in the group. M That was refreshing. It was a

good throwback. Yes, I love these throwbacks. When we were only in the double digits with our podcast number over a hundred episodes ago, we've recorded over a hundred episodes. Yeah. For those who have been along for the ride, thank you. For those just joining us, thank you. Also, thank you. Yes, welcome if you're joining us as a new g Anuary listeners so many do in January. Welcome, Yeah, this is

what you get. Well, we want to just keep this gratitude thing going because we think it's a good thing, especially at the start of the new year. We want to thank our people who review us, especially those who leave us some kind and helpful reviews like this one from Hannah Mangum. It happens to be five stars and the title is in all caps dynamic duo, which I think like firecracker symbols on each side. Yeah, that's why I chose it for two. It's pretty legit firecracker symbols.

Hannah says Jen and Jill are the best. Both my husband and I love listening to them and their fun twist to frugality. They make saving money fun. This year, we've started our journey to become debt free. On days when I just want to go to Target and buy decorative pillows or cozy socks, I queue up this pod to keep me motivated and focused on the goal. Thanks Jen and Jill for changing the frugal game. Yes, so

glad to be with you. Glad that you have us to queue up to keep you from buying decorative pillows that just like up on the ground. Anyways, Let's be real. If I can save a decorative pillow from coming to your home, I've done my job. I feel so good about it. I love Target, but I love to see their revenue drop because of our frugal friends not buying pillows. That's where I'm at. I also want to thank our

friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, We're going to add you to our monthly drawing. So for every five tags and reviews we get every month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends Workbook that Jill mentioned at the top of the episode. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes or stitcher, sending the screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com. Don't

forget to tag us on social send us reviews. All these ways, enter you into the drawing for the Frugal Friends work book, and maybe send us sandwiches that'll enter you into I've just decided it's a new year and I can decide on new things. You want a sandwich, That's what you would do. It's the afternoon when we're recording this, so that's where I'm at. I'll take money anyways, Okay, see you next week, See you next week. Frugal Friends

is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. Can I make executive decisions on the fly like that, I don't know, sandwich and I'll enter you into a drawing for the Frugal Friends works Book. I'm all, and I know that I'm always gonna want a sandwich. I mean, we could have been a little bit more wise about it and

asked for like a hot dog or something. I just can't kept that talk with Chris Hogan out of my head where he's like, cumulatively, what you guys want equals less than five hundred dollars, And I was, I have been evaluating my life ever since, Jill, I have really been evaluating my life. That's so true. Yeah, we're easy to please. Under promise, under deliver, frugal Franks. Under promise, under deliver. It's the frugal way. Nobody nobody is No

one's disappointed or surprised. Oh yeah, that's my new Year's resolution. Under promise and under deliver. Well, that seems about setting expectations accurate. Do you have a new Year's resolution? Jen? Do you have time? It's a great question, it's a fair question. Usually this is a normal question. Unfortunately, all the things that I want my life to entail is

completely out of my control, which I learned. I could say I want to travel this year, but ultimately I can't control whether or not that's going to be possible for me. So just stability. That's my resolution and goal is that I maintain mental, emotional and relational stability. I'm going to keep two hands on my desk and just stay physically stable. And that's the goal. How about you have you been an overachiever and identified some goals for yourself.

I have the same New Year's resolution that I have every year. It's always to lose ten pounds. That's always every year. Yeah, so it's just like a tradition. Now, you know what we should do is maybe we should do this in the next episode. Listen back to what we said our New Year's resolutions were for and like, do do the gauntlet round of how did it turn out? I mean, it is archived at this point we have said things we've been doing this podcast for this is

we're heading into our third year, three complete years. I don't want to be reminded of the juvenile I was in January and February when life was somebody might remind us they might do that for us. Please do if you're listening to this, yeah, please remind us what we said. And I was probably not bold enough to say that I need to lose ten pounds on the air at that time. I don't think you said that. I think

we both said we wanted to read. I'm remembering that we both had reading goals, and certainly we had ample time to accomplish that after Now, I'm a realist before a year ago, I was hopeful, but now I'm a realist. Like I can't read books. I just need to get those that baby way it off. Okay, that's it. We'll check back in two. Check back in. Bye Benny.