Paying off Debt in Your Forties w/ Bobbi Olson

And we've got a very very requested episode for you today because some of y'all are sick of hearing us interview twenty year olds about how they paid off their debt. What Why wouldn't you want to hear wisdom from twenty year old? Why not? I don't under Everyone was requesting, maybe we get some people who are a little further along in age than you. So Bobby Olson, our friend from the Sensible Chat podcast, is here and she started when she was forty, which is not old. Which is

not old, but it's not. One of these is a bigger number than the other, and that is we're giving you a variety. Yeah, what we got for you, Let's do it. We're not going to delay, but first ours an stors. This episode is also brought to you by the number thirty one. It's not just a multi level marketing company or the name of a carnival themed horror movie. It's the age I'm turning tomorrow and the age Jill will be turning in a few months. Hey, don't give

that kind of sorry. Thirty one years, we've experienced Britney spears and justin Timberlake wearing matching Dunham outfits, highlight of my life, the door in the Titanic movie that was definitely big enough for two people, outrage of my life, and a global pandemic, which is just another Tuesday thirty one. Too old for TikTok, not old enough to watch the Hallmark Movie Channel. I don't know. I don't even know what to say. There's so many things I want to

say and like nothing all at the same time. How did you pick those things? They're so obscure, but they're so amazing, because what else would you pick? Too old for TikTok, not old enough for Hallmark Movie Channel. Gosh, what is there for us even right? If we have If you're in your mid thirties, like tell me what there even is to look forward to, because I feel like my best days are behind me. They're definitely not. If you're equating best days to TikTok, you're on the

wrong track. I don't know how like TikTok looks. I mean, all the kids love it. I know people in their thirties who love it. And well, we've got the Hallmark Movie Channel to look forward. That's where we're added. I'm actually looking forward to this interview and it makes me believe that my best days are ahead of me because Bobby Olsen is such a powerhouse. She's such a fun girl. I mean girls, she's a woman. Oh gosh, I'm still a girl. And I'm super excited to share this episode

with you. Guys, even if you're not in your forties, you're gonna be super inspired by the step Path journey because it's so real and you're going to take home some real good tips. Let's do it. Let's do it, Bobby, Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast. Thanks so much for

stepping by. Oh thanks for having me you guys. I'm excited. Yeah, we're looking forward to having this conversation with you and hearing another story No, this is a listener favorite to hear about debt payoff stories and get motivated and inspired and hear about how you paid off your debt in the life stage that you're in. So we're excited to get into it. Yeah, so let's dive right in, Bobby. We want to talk about your debt payoff story, and here a little bit about what motivated you to start

on that journey. Uh. Well, I was in a job that I was miserable in. I dreaded going every day, did not want to be there at all, and I was working so hard to try to change jobs, but I couldn't find anything that was comparable to what I was being paid. And we're in a one income family, so I gotta make that income. And since we were so far in debt, I couldn't afford to take a pay cut. Like I was sitting there going I would take a pay cut in a heartbeat, but because of

all the debt, I couldn't do it. So, you know, I had come from a place where kind of all my life I had felt like this is just the way it is. You're always going to be poor. You can't do anything to change it, so just accept it. But at this point, I was like, I'm done. I can't take it anymore because I want out of this job so bad I'll do anything. So I that's what motivated me to want to find a change. But I

didn't really know that it was possible. And um, I found a personal finance book and I started reading it actually just so that I could say I tried, but I'm a cynic and I didn't think it was gonna work, and I got lucky it worked and who changed my life? That's amazing, Just so I can check off this. So it sounds like you wanted to leave your job, but the debt was the barrier to leaving the job. Oh man, feeling stuck is the worst. Yeah. I felt like financial prison.

You know. It was just miserable and I couldn't take it anymore. Yeah, yeah, working that job just because of the debt that you have. So it's our understanding that you started your debt payoff journey a little bit later in life. Can you tell us about that. Yeah, I was forty when I started, and we had had my husband, and I had had a business that failed, and so you know, I felt like I'm forty years old. I've had this failed business. I'm in this job, but my

career is not going anywhere. I hate where I'm at. I'm in debt, I don't have much put away for retirement. Where am I going? Like, I'm forty years old and I have nothing. I've been working since I was fourteen, and I have nothing but debt to show for it. This is ridiculous. You're not alone in that feeling. There's plenty of people who Yeah, it's it's a paycheck to paycheck kind of thing, or it's a US credit cards to kind of pay for the things that we want.

Was that discouraging at all for you to be forty and feel as though, as you say, I've got nothing to show for this? Like, how how did that play into motivation for you? Well? It was discouraging to look at my life and see where I was and that I wasn't anywhere near where I wanted to be. But it was also motivating because I thought, Okay, I'm forty and I'm not anywhere near where I want to be. So if I want to do something, I better start now.

I need to light a fire and do something because I don't want to waste the rest of my life, So it was actually a huge motivator for me to get started and keep going. Yeah, you can look back and think, oh, man, this is only how far I've come since fourteen, But you could also look forward and say, and this is not where I want to be when

I'm seventy five. Yeah, that that that same thing can can work both sides of being discouraging but also super motivating to say, well, and I still have decades what

I want to do with that. Yeah. You know it's interesting because I actually, now that you mentioned it, I hadn't really thought about this before, but I had been watching my mom and she you know, worked her whole life but doesn't have anything to show for it, and she's got a really rough retirement because she didn't save and she didn't do those things, and so that was

part of it. Also, I'm looking at her and thinking I don't want to be there, Like, she has no options now and I still have time, but it's running out. So if I don't do something now, I'm going to end up without those options, and I don't want to. I'm afraid for her, and I don't want to be afraid for myself. On top of it, for sure, Yeah, what was the how much debt did you pay off? And what was it made up of? It was about sixty thou dollars and um it was made up of

mostly credit card debt that had come from the business. UM. I was never a person to like go out in my clothes or fancy vacations I couldn't afford. But when it came to the business, I could justify any expense under the sun, you know, and we may and the typical mistake that you make in business you buy too many,

too much equipment and all those kind of things. So we had a lot of debt from the business, and then we also had medical debt because my husband has some disabilities and so we had gone through some major surgeries as well. So between those two, that's that's what it was made up of. Yeah, the business debt, I think you're highlighting something so important. I think it's it is a big pitfall, and especially you've got this whole financial advice strain of it's a right off. It's a

right off. It's actually better in your favor to do this. Yeah, it's like that doesn't make it free, right off free, but we still it's it's a bit more acceptable debt. But as you're describing, the weight of it on you and the financial prison that that can put us in is the same. Whether it's credit card or medical, or college or business loans, you name it, the weight of

it and and the impact on us is the same. Bobby, when you were paying off this debt, did you experience any like difficulties that were kind of unique to where you were in life. Well, the difficulties that I experienced just just being older. Basically. The first one is is that when I was in my twenties, I worked four jobs at once and it was no big deal. I actually you know, I had like an unspoken bet going with one of my coworkers for who could hold down

the most jobs. And I'm not sure who wants but I had four at once, So how do you win that? Nobody wins in that because some days I didn't even know what freeway I was going on or where I was. You know, I got speech too much. But but you know, when you're in your twenties, you have the energy to do that, and unfortunately I did that, but I didn't save any of the money. So now fast forward to when I'm in my forties, I just don't have the

energy to work four jobs anymore. And you know, if I had had that energy, then I could use that extra money to pay off debt um And so that was part of it that I wasn't as willing to take on more jobs that could create more income to do it faster. And also, you know, when you're older, you have more responsibilities. When you're in your twenties, maybe you're not married, you know, you don't have the thankfully

I don't have kids. I mean not thankfully, but I don't have kids, so I don't have you know, those obligations, but you still have obligations when you're married. You have to take someone else into consideration with how you're spending your money. So from that standpoint, you know, it was it was a bit unique because there you don't have as much control solely over you know, how you're going

to do it. You have to work with somebody else, and you were still single income like during this, right, Yeah, that's its own difficulties. Yeah, yeah, that was that was really hard, especially living in southern California. You know, things are Yeah, that makes things really really tight. But so we had to be really committed. But That's the flip side, is that being with somebody else, you you know, had

somebody to keep you strong in those moments of weakness. Yeah, I think you're You're highlighting a really specific thing that I think older generations will experience in a debt payoff journey as far as just energy levels go, and capacity and even desire. You know, there's probably other things you want to do with your time. Then get twenty side hustles. And so with that said, what are some of the things that you did to pay down your debt? How

did you approach it at that point? Well, I, Um, the first thing I did because, like I said, I I read Ellie Kay's book The Sixty Minute Money Workout, and she was talking about the debt snowball method, which was something I had never heard of, and I just latched onto that and ran from there. And the idea of that excited me so much that I just started reading about all these different things, all these different ways.

So between the debt snowball and creating a budget and sticking to it the those were really the main things, um that got me out of debt. But that plan, you know, was made up of what do I spend on each thing, just being really intentional about how we were going to spend our money and um cutting out as many frivolities as we could without completely cutting our throats, because we found out real quick that that didn't completely work.

You know, it's like a crash diet. You fall off the wagon and just go wait too far to the other side. It's similar to maintaining four jobs at once, so exactly, yeah, you can't maintain that forever. So yeah, So that was basically the two biggest things that I did was was budgeting and using the debt snowball method. Isn't that amazing? Budgeting just seems like ever I have been saying I think since like for for the past ten episodes straight, just like if you haven't budgeted yet,

you need to budget. You need to budget every episode. You need to budget. And it's so amazing to realize that is so much of it. We think, No, I'm doing fine, I don't spend a lot er that that's not the answer, that's not what it is. But yet you're saying that that's what it was. That was the big pivot point, is just what am I spending on? Yeah? Because before I did that, I had no clue. I thought I knew, you know, most of us think we know, but it's such a different picture when you actually sit

down to look at it. I've never heard from anybody, Yeah this is what I thought. You know, it's always a surprise, and a lot of times it's a good surprise. So people spend all this time not wanting to do it because they're stressed about it or whatever. But for me, it was so exciting to see, oh my gosh, this really is possible. Like right when I had that moment of hope, then it was like I was off to the races. That's really all I ever needed, you know,

I just didn't know it. Yeah, that's an amazing point. Sometimes we think we're gonna look at our budget and we're gonna be so depressed. But a lot of times there's there's money that we might be able to find. You know, that's not everybody's circumstances, but it could go either direction where oh, actually I'm spending more in this area and I can absolutely cut her. There is more than I thought that there was, but it ends up just getting spent if I'm not paying attention to it. Yeah, exactly.

The biggest thing. Um, this isn't on this isn't a question on our outline, but I really want to know, is there a moment like from your debt free journey that really sticks out to you as being like either like super positive or just like super sad. I have the I have a few of those on my debt free journey, So I was just wondering if you, like

have a really memorable moment from yours. Well, the really memorable moment was, um, when we paid off the car and when we paid off our last credit card, because then it was like, oh we're free. Whoa. And I remember because I was going to do it from work. I was just gonna, you know, log onto my thing and pay it off, but I thought, no, I'm going to call Scott and see if he wants me to wait to be because it was such a huge moment

for me. Was like I don't want to take that away from him, you know, And he was like, just pay it, I don't care. But for me, I would have been so angry if he done it without me because I wanted that moment. It was so special to me. And then there was a time that made me cry. It wasn't sad. I was happy, but I just started crying because we had a five thousand dollars in the middle of this, you know, trying to pay off all

this debt. Then we had this five thousand dollar medical bill and it was like, come on already, you know, do I have to deal with anything else? And we had gone for financial aid, and we were waiting and waiting, and the communications kept getting crossed, and we were afraid we were going to end up in collections because they told us not to pay it until everything was clear.

But it was such a mess. And finally we got word that the financial aid had come through and it was all covered and it was over, and I just fell to my knees and started crying, and I was just so thankful. That was a really amazing moment in our journey because I knew that that was at least part that was settled now and I didn't have to worry about it. Do you think you would have thought as hard for that financial aid if you hadn't been so aware of your finances and so committed to getting

out of debt. No, not at all. I wouldn't have even known that that was possible. I mean, that was the whole thing. Like I was never taught any of these resources existed, you know. It was just like, there's nothing you can do about it, just deal with it. That that was what was nonverbally put in my head, you know, through as a kid, and that's what I believed through my adult life. And so that was the freedom. Was beyond budgeting and beyond being being able to control

my own finances. There were just there were so many options no matter what came up. It was like, now I'm confident that I can take on any financial glitch that comes my way. I may not have the money in front of me, but I have the tools and resources and the way to think strategically about it. Yes,

Oh I like that. What even this journey has built inside of you, even as even even if you can live with your debt, even as an exercise in understanding finances more and and creating habits that will last you for life, it's a good thing. Yeah, it's just so free. Yeah, what are you doing now, Bobby that maybe would not have been possible while you were living in debt. Well, the first thing is living intentionally instead of reactively. Because it used to always be like put out the fire,

put out the fire, put out the fire. And you're always thinking, Okay, where's the next fire. But you're not going, all right, brace yourself for the next fire. Here's what we're gonna do. It's more like, where's the next fire? Oh my god? You know. And so now I'm like, bring it on, because I can plan for it. The money that I used to spend towards debt goes to, you know, just being able to save for the future, but also being able to save for a car repair,

you know. I mean even a five dollar car repair used to just put me into complete turmoil. And now it's like, yeah, I don't like to spend the money on my car like that, but at least I have it. It's not stressful anymore. So those kind of things I never could have done while being in debt. And the the other thing is just having the options. You know, there is the option to have more fun or think about more fun things than just how am I going to pay the bills? How am I going to pay

the bills? You know. So yeah, just that living intentionally instead of reactively has been the biggest one for me, definitely. Mm hm. Another question that's not on our list. But I'm curious about were you and your husband both on the same page when when you kind of read your book, Like, to me, that's standing out as the pivotal moment of I'm gonna read this book. I don't expect anything, but I'm gonna check it off and say I tried. But then it switched mindset. Where was he at in that process?

He was? It was funny because yeah, like you said, I was the one who read the book. I was the one who was really dressed out about it. I mean, he felt sorry for me, but you know, it wasn't the same feeling for him. And so yeah, when I read the book, I kind of I just ran down the hall and I was so excited with this book. I ran down the hall. I spent like half the day on the computer crunching numbers, just trying to prove her wrong, like the sense that this was but because

I was excited. But I'm like cynic, you know, so I don't want to believe in it. But yeah, and then I couldn't prove it wrong, and I was like, oh, this is so exciting, And so I brought it to him and his whole thing throughout the way has just kind of been you're a weirdo. I don't know why this excites you so much, but I'm totally behind you.

So whatever you want clearly and your computer crunching exactly. Yeah, and he, I mean, he's so you know, he's been like this is great and you've done such a great job and everything. So he was totally on board, like supportive of it. And you know, I trust you with the money, so you just tell me what we need to do and that's fine. But yeah, it's it's just

it always cracks him up, how how much. I mean, I'm the last person that would have been obsessive or loving personal finance and budgeting like ten years ago, but now it's like I just love it and he just laughs at me. So I think that crazy that sometimes people will feel guilty for not starting earlier, but then alternatively, like sometimes it takes you to getting to this right season at the right time to actually fall in love

with this sort of thing, not just get through it. Yeah, it's so like important the places we are in our life that we're starting right when we're supposed to whatever we're doing. And I think I hope that that like lifts maybe some guilt from somebody that might be hearing this. Uh yeah, and just like encourages a lot of people. Yeah, I mean, the the guilt is, you know, the hardest part about that, and I encourage everybody to just you know,

try to set that aside. I know it's hard, but you know, I mean you can either feel guilty about from whence you've come and focus on that and do nothing, or let it go and just start here. I mean, the time's gonna pass anyway, so you know, make better use of it, and you're gonna love yourself more for it later on. I mean, I actually was started in

financial radio. Radio is my background, and I've been um I started in radio in twenty five years ago, and my first job was at a financial radio station, and so through all the years, I've gone back into that and most of my time has been spent there. And yet I hated all of this stuff and like ten years ago or eight years ago or whatever it's bed, I don't even know. And so I mean I was

listening to it. It's not like it wasn't there, but I just turned it out because I thought it was only for the rich, you know, And so you know, even if you've heard this stuff but never glogged onto it. Like you said, there just comes a moment where it's

the right time. And maybe all that stuff in the past was just meant to be there so that I could have it in my arsenal when I was ready to actually use it right exactly when you when you were able to implement the tools and it actually meant something and you're ready to not be cynical or critical about it. Not that forties old, My goodness, I could think not be old, like I have to say that, Like those words cannot come out of my mouth because

I'm gonna I'm gonna pickle pretty soon. I'm officially closer to forty years old than I am to twenty years old, So that's the perfect age to start. I feel that it's great. Yeah, But I think it is true that that there are different life stages that we're all in, and I think our point is at any life stage younger than forty, older than forty, it's never too late

to start. Certainly later in life that we do start, there's the possibility that we've built up and accumulated quite a few bad habits, maybe some good habits too, So you know the journey is absolutely going to look different, but age should not be an excuse to doing what we need to do to get our budgets in order our lives on track to be able to get at the life that we want for ourselves. For you, it was getting out of a job that you hated, and this is what it took, so fantastic well done. Also,

we didn't even mention how many years did it take? You? Uh, it took me about five years total. Um. We started out, you know, doing certain things, learning along the way, other things coming into play. And excuse me when we when we finally got really gazelle intense, it was probably two and a half years and really paid off a big bulk of it in that, but the whole process took about five years. Thank you, Bobby, My goodness. That is

real life. Like, that's an absolute real story. Sixty dollars five years on a single income in your forties, southern California, having in southern California. Thank you. And again, everybody's story is different, right. There are people who are like six figures in eighteen months. That's awesome for them, But like, let's also talk real, real life stories too, because there are a lot of people starting in their forties, fifties, sixties,

there's a lot of people on single income. There's a lot of people in less than six figure debt, and it still takes years. So yes, thank you, thank you. I hope people that are like in their fifties and late fifties are listening to this and hearing five years, which sounds like forever. But if you like, you understand if you could be debt free in five years, you will be debt free before you hit retirement age. And

then you don't have to worry about that. You don't have to worry worry about how you're going to pay debt bills after you retire, and you can retire earlier. Like it's it's crazy, and it's just five years of your life and maybe even quicker if you get on it fast enough. We thought we were it was going to take us five years to pay off our debt, and you know, but we were in our late twenties. So I did get four jobs and shingles and singles.

Let's let's remember, I also gave myself shingles stress. So I don't recommend that anymore. And uh, I think budgeting and cutting expenses is a far more sustainable route. And it's so it is doable even if you can't get extra jobs, even if you can't work four jobs, it's doable. Yeah, totally. I mean there's always a way, you just have to want it. And I mean for me it was always Yeah, five years you seemed like a long time, but at the same time, you know, you're better in your life

every single day. And for me, a lot of times, just getting through the day meant looking at my plan and having that light at the end of the tunnel, because I knew the date that I was gonna be debt free, and so that was huge to just be able to look at that when I didn't want to go to this stupid job again, and I didn't want to I wanted to go out and do this, or

I wanted to go out and do that. But what's really more important, like how much you know, am I willing to put out of my pocket in order to have to stay at this job even longer? So it was that was really super motivating. Wow. Yeah, wow, thank you. Speaking of motivating things. Something that motivates me, Yeah, it's the the that's right, it's toime for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and

his name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, Bobby. Every week we invite our listeners or our guests on to share their favorite bill with us. And I would just like to know, do you have a bill for us today? I do. My favorite bill is actually one I don't have to pay who at least not for another year.

It's my auto insurance bill. And it used to be so tough for me. I was paying it monthly, you know, because I couldn't afford to pay it all at once. And it's a lot of money up front. And now I'm able to put that money. When the bill comes, I just pay off the whole thing, so I don't get the bill for an entire year. And it's so free because that, you see, such a heart bill for me to pay. So and do you get a disc out for paying it on? Yeh three weeks a discount. Yeah,

So it's a win win. Yeah, it's three percent, but I'll take it. You have ten dollars, I'm gonna take it. Yeah, I'm gonna take it from you. Yeah, I'm gonna do with ten dollars, probably buy a burrito, have a sandwich, bo soever. Yeah, I don't care. Well you can do with ten bucks these days. It's not even gonna be a really great hamburger. It's just gonna be like a combo meal from Wendy's. Right. But I probably could buy a shirt, but I'll choose the food. Yeah, definitely, Thanks

so much, Bobby. If you have a bill that you want to send to us, then hit up Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash bill. We are always looking to discover new bills, whether they are tangible, intangible, living, or on paper. Well said, And now it's time for Lightening Round. One day. We are going to get lightning backgrounds because we're recording in zoom right now, which is how we are doing this now that Jillian has left me, which

is how all the world is communicating right now. Yes, but we I'm gonna find lightning for our Lightning Round segments so that we can have you're giving it away. I want people to know what they can expect, like giving it away, big thing, big things. If you haven't seen the Bill of the Week song, the YouTube version, you haven't lived, Yeah, go on YouTube. I hadn't described button. While you're at it, all right, I had not lived.

We digress. Yes, In this lightning round, we are going to talk about our favorite budgeting apps and or budgeting methods, because budgeting is so important, especially when you can't get a million side hustles. You have to be super major on top of your budget, major on top of it. And if you haven't heard us talk about it enough already, here's some more motivation for you. Here's some apps, here's some methods, here's some ideas, and then go budget all right, Bobby,

you're our guest of honor, you can go first. I love Wine App. Hands down. Wine app is my favorite budgeting app of all time. Oh my gosh. Yes, yeah, It's what gave me the passion for budgeting. It's what taught me a whole different mindset. I love everything about wine now that I totally recommend it. What do you like about it? It's you need a budget for people who don't know it's that's the acronym that like wine

ab fan girls call it right budget for sure. And the thing that I love about it is, first of all, it's zero based, so I really, I mean, that's what I teach as a zero based budgeting system. But I love it because it came along at a time in my life where I had been using Dave Ramsey's cash envelope method, which worked well except for the fact that I kept forgetting to take my envelopes with me, you know, to the store or whatever, and so then what do

you do? So I wanted a digital cash envelope system, so I started going online and I found wine app and it was perfect for that. So it just gives you such an easy way to categorize all the money that's in your account today. And it's a whole different method of budgeting or mindset about budgeting, because it's not you know, the money that's coming up, that's your spending plan, that's how you plan to spend it, But what's actually in your bank account today is what you're budgeting in

reality exactly. And that's what's so powerful about it. So do you go on that on that app daily? We what I used to, Yeah, I used to go like it feels like it was hourly. At one point I'm on there probably a couple of times a week, and yeah, I love playing with it and everything, but I'm on there at least once a week. And actually, yeah, I

would say it's daily because we use it. I use the app when I'm out, Like if I go to the grocery store, once I get in the car, I just you know, enter my transaction right there, so I never have a pile of receipts that I have to spend an hour entering into you know, into wine app. That's smart to do. Track your transactions as soon as you make them. Just take the five seconds that it takes to do that, exactly, because that's one of the

biggest things. People don't want to sit there and enter all their stuff and it takes an hour to you know, um, reconcile your bank account basically. But yeah, if you do it every time you go shopping, and it takes, like you said, less than a minute, and then you're done and it's always up to date, and then you always know exactly how much money you have every time you go to spend. Yeah. Nice, We've talked about that before.

Like the obsession that can start setting with you on this journey it's like I gotta I gotta check it, I gotta look at it, like restrained myself from how many times I want to look at the account. So yeah, I'm not even like a financial nerd. It turns the

into one, though, so bewhares I know. And that's why I started actually being um a budget coaches because I actually went on Facebook and said, I am obsessed with wine Ab and I can't stop using it, but there's nothing else for me to do and it Please let me play with your numbers. It's amazing. That's how it started. I get that feeling. I'm like, there's nothing else to do, but I want to keep doing. I want to keep like inputting stuff. And I know people that love budgets

so much they do that. I personally have a love hate relationship with budgets. It's like closer on the side of hate. And so people will ask me, hey, can you like do some budget coaching with me? And I'm like, I don't do that. I'm barely doing for myself. I can barely coach myself. That's funny. Oh well, I love how much you love Wineab. You need a budget A lot of people do, so yeah, it has a cult following, when when we say it has a cult following, like

that is not a joke. It's not a joke. And you know, it's bitter sweet for me because I have applied to work with them four times and I keep getting denied. And I know part of it it's because there's so many people that want to work for what so true. Well here you're spreading their message. Well, good job, Jill, what about you. I'm not nearly as high tech guys. Um, it's Google Spreadsheets all the way for me. Like I was going to look up like what's a good budgeting app?

And I'll just like tell the podcast about it. But I'm being authentic with you all. I use Google Spreadsheets. It's where I'm at. I'm old school. I love it. I like, like I said, I enjoy the press of like in putting my budget and being so connected with the numbers. And I do my budget on on my pay weeks. So every two weeks is when I take a look. I budget my bills to my pay periods, I input it into the spreadsheet, do some different calculations with um and I will say I crunched the numbers.

Grunge grunge I make a sound when I knew it. I started that way because both my husband and I are independent contractors, so we don't and even still we are. Thankfully we get paid every two weeks, which that's new for us. Usually it was just like whatever somebody felt like paying us for building them a house. Anyhow, that's another story. Right now we do. We get paid every two weeks, but it's not the same every two weeks.

So for me, I've had to be extra involved with my budget, with our finances to kind of know exactly where we're at. So that's been the best method for me with just how we get paid, the amount of money that we make every two weeks every month, just to be super on top of it. So I am. I do use a computer, but it's spread cheat not no, yes, real life. Yeah, I mean I do my accounting in a Google sheet. I have an accounting software, and I still choose to do it on a spreadsheet because it's

easier to see everything. Yeah. Yeah, it's my system, I know, because I do it best and everybody needs to do my system, right, That's that's really important though, whatever works best for you, you know, mm hmm, Yeah, what about you, Jen. I like the every Dollar app, so I do enjoy zero based budgets. I think that they are great, so that Every Dollar app I've found is the easiest free app to bake a zero based budget. And I am

all for manual tracking of transactions. I wish that I could do automatic tracking because I hate tracking it manually. But it's the manual transaction that keeps me accountable for my spending, and so that I mean it's in this one of the lists. One of the items on the list of why I like, love, slash hate budgeting, I don't enjoy it, but I do it, and I'm not I actually I'm horrible at sticking to a budget, and so it's I use every dollar, uh, and I don't

always stay current on it. But we've built this like a lifestyle of frugality so that we don't spend a lot of money. We don't do a lot of things, and what we do is free, and so we don't generally break our budget. But unless it's going out to eat,

sometimes we will end that. But when like I make my budget, I'll make it in every dollar and then I'll spend those few hours reconciling it like you're not supposed to do and uh yeah, but I don't have any major financial goals I'm trying to reach right now, so that doesn't motivate me to budget as strictly, So that's kind of and we have more money than we need coming in right now, so that's kind of like where I'm at. So but every dollar, I love every dollar.

It's such a great user interface, so lovely nice Bobby. Thank you so much for coming on and chatting with us and sharing with us your real debt payoff story. I know it's going to inspire so many people and normalize and validate where so many people are at. So thank you for for doing that. If people want more from you, where can they find you? They can go

to sensible chat dot com. And everybody spells it wrong because for some reason, my husband came up with the name, and he always comes up with creative names that are like hard to find because they're just spelled weird. I don't know what it is about, you see it makes sense. Yeah, he's since like dollars and cents since able, so think of it that way since able, So it's sensible chat dot com. That's a great name. Honestly, it's good. Kudos to your husband, thank you. Yeah, I kind of like it.

I think I'll keep him around for a while. Ah. So good. I didn't take us so long. I don't know. Mm hmm. That's a good when we were ready. Yeah, we did it when we were ready. That's so true. Yeah, you should never feel guilt over what you haven't done before. Yeah, now don't do and what you can control now. Yeah that confused better? Now that's what you said was better. Yeah. So thanks for listening. So glad to have these debt

payoff stories. We'll bring more at you, um. But in the meantime, we also want to thank you for listening. We want to thank you for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher. Those of you who are kind, thank you. This one we want to give an example of of kindness because sometimes we get confused. To get me so confusing, like what's kind and what's here? You go? Two thousand twenty has shown us that in spades. Yes. So this one comes from Sydney Jam three. It's titled Adult Thing.

It happens to be five stars. That's one way to be kind. It says this podcast helped me tackle my transition into getting my first place with my fiance and on track for buying our first home at twenty two. Oh my goodness. I appreciate their humor and how they give advice that is so doable. They make me feel like I have a super cool older sisters. And every time my fiance calls from deployment, I tell him about all the cool tricks I learned so we can save

more money. He can't wait to listen when he gets home. Oh yeah, my heart is literally warm right now, even though it's forty degrees outside. Thank you. I particularly love it when people describe us as their older sisters. It's one of my favorites. Yeah, it's your favorite. It also reminds me that I'm getting older. Hallmark Channel, you're not even thirty one yet, neither are you? I mean not yet. Tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be good. I'll have my private birthday

party and having a private birthday party. Guys, it's just at home, like nobody's invited, but if you wanted to come, you couldn't. It's private. It makes it sound like really hot, like high and in bougie, but really it is. It's just what you have a baby so I mean also, I anticipate will still be in like semi quarantine. That's true, Yeah, but like that's not it. Even if we weren't in

semi quarantine, still just private. It's just private. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media, because where else are you going to share it? Right now? You can't go anywhere, So go ahead and share this episode on Instagram or Facebook, tag us at Frugal Friends podcast, and in June, we'll do a drawing

for ten dollar Amazon gift cards. We're going to give one away for every five tags and reviews we get, so definitely keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher because that is another way to enter into this drawing. Send us a screenshot of your review to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com. Also tag us on social All these ways are ways to enter into our ten

dollar Amazon gift card drawing. Yes, so until next week when I will be a little older and a little wiser, a little wiser, not a lot, just a little, a little, a little more funny, little maybe. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Serria. Um I'm expecting you to be funnier. That's a lot of pressure. Okay, Well, what are your hopes for thirty one? I would like to be a more involved mother. Well, I feel like that's what somebody says, who has like five kids and

they're all involved in sports. You've got You've got a one year old? What does that mean? Well, I feel like the first year was just keeping him alive and how he's like an actual small child that I can do stuff with and he knows who I am and like, so now it's worth being involved. Is that bad? No? Yeah, no, it's no. That's a great aspiration. What how are you going to be involved? What are you gonna do? I'm gonna take him places, Okay, so that he can learn

stuff and have fun experiences. Like in his first year he didn't care about anything, but now he cares about stuff like making him Mouse. Were into the Making Mouse Clubhouse. But granted, that's the only show we can watch with him and like not blow our brains out, So it's the only one we know him. But he has good taste because he likes it too good. Yeah, it's the only one that keeps his attention and I appreciate that. Nice. I'm realizing I did not hit the record button. Your audio for me too,