Sustainable Minimalism & Frugality with Stephanie Seferian

It's our, it's our, it's our podcast trinity. Almost. I don't know if that's like sacrilegious, that's blasphemous. I yeah, it's okay. I will, I will suffer the consequences. But I really do feel like these three things are just like it. And so we talk about frugality mostly and Stephanie talks about sustainability and minimalism, and the conversation is dynamic. Well, frugality can intersect with so many it does intersect with so many things. It's partly why we're able to do

on a podcast on it for over four years. Everyone always asks us, you're gonna run out of content. Nope, nope, because there's plenty to talk about, including sustainability and minimalism, and this is These are two things that I think the convergence is really beautiful. Sometimes, you know, they cross paths for gality, crosses paths with something else. But there's just a really good like you're saying, merriment and partnership, clasping of hands together. I'm not gonna go so far

as call it the trinity. I'm so sorry. Send hate mail. Send it to Jen at Jennet for their Friends podcast. I'll read it too, though, where I mean, I'll be here for it. I'll have it forward into you. Yeah. So we're excited to get into the content with Stephanie,

but before that, this episode is sponsored by Managing. Sounds cool when it's part of your job title, but a little desperate when it's a response to, hey, how's it going wherever you find yourself, whether being a boss and managing all the things or just managing to get by. We're glad you're here. And if managing is something you're into, you can manage your money well by putting some of that cash into a high yeld savings account like the

one at C I T Bank. They are currently offering three point to five a p y. Honestly, it keeps climbing. We keep needing to update our outline because it keeps increasing, which is great news for us. So head on over to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash c I t open that high yield savings account and and manage, start managing, start managing. I'm definitely managing. I'm not sure if it's the business or my life. Probably both. Glad you're here,

thank you. So if you are as interested in sustainability and minimalism as we are, we have a ton of episodes for you to listen to. Um. Probably the two most recent ones are episode one, How Minimalism can Change your life and finances, and then we've got episode one oh nine how to Maintain a Minimalist lifestyle. And then like every April, we try to do something on sustainability, So check back to our April archives, whatever numbers those are. Yeah, and we have such a love We did a zero

waste challenge in the Frugal Friends club back in April. Oh, that one was so good. And uh, we've done several kind of like minimalism, decluttering, simplifying challenges in there and they're just always a huge hit because these things are so essential to managing money, Like their money can feel so overwhelming, especially when you're spending on like a lot

of little transactions. So being able to simplify a lot of other places can allow you to hone in on this one seemingly big, overwhelming, scary place so that it is all aligned well. And it's fun too when it can align with a lifestyle that's really appealing. I think that's what this is is We're not just talking about how to manage money, it's what kind of lifestyle could we aim at we aspire towards. That is a really great combination of all of these things that sounds pleasant

to a lot of us. I think that's why there's such an interest in these types of topics, as it just sounds really pleasant and peaceful and a great lifestyle to find how it works in our own d visualized way. But there's so many beautiful parts to what we're about to talk about with Stephanie, absolutely so. Stephanie is a former teacher turned full time podcast host Teachers Make the Best Podcast host Um, and her podcast is called The

Sustainable Minimalists Podcast. She's the author of sustainable minimalism and loves running fiction, has bees. She's just like the icon. So without further ado, let's share Stephanie with you. Stephanie, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. This is just a This is amazing, beautiful synergy between our shows, and I'm so happy. It feels it feels like welcoming just an old friend to the show. Well, thank you so much for having me. I am absolutely so thrilled to be here.

I've been thinking about it for days. I can't wait to chat with you both. We were just chatting before we hit record that our audience loves to talk about the intersection of frugality and sustainability and minimalism, and I think there's there's no exact one right formula, so getting a variety of perspectives on that is so important. So I'm also glad to have you here and learn from you today. Thank you, Thank you again for having me.

Absolutely all right, So let's dive in. So what led you to choose both to prioritize both like a minimalist and sustainable lifestyle, Because it's so it feels really rare. People kind of find their camp and they sit in it. Um, so what led you to choose both? Yes, this is always the first question I tend to get. It's very confusing for some people, but for me, it was really just an aha moment. I didn't care about sustainability. I wasn't a minimalist. And then I became a mom and

everything changed really darn quick. My husband and I and our three pets and our infant. We're living in a d and fifty square foot apartment and we were being squeezed out by all my babies new things. She was gifted, you know, toys up the wazoo. I would guess maybe dozens, if not a hundred, freely beautiful infant dresses, have loving family and friends, but the stuff was just crowding us out. So I decided, you know, what's this minimalist thing, Let's

let's try that. Let's try decluttering. And I decluttered her stuff, of course, because it's way easier to decluttering baby stuff than your own stuff. But there was just a moment in which I was quite literally looming over a pile of items that were great, they were perfectly fine, but we didn't need them, we didn't use them, we didn't love them. Somebody in my life spent their hard earned money on these items, and I just had a moment of, Oh,

my goodness, where is this stuff going to go? I could give it away, I could donate it, I could try and sell stuff, but ultimately all this excess is going to a landfill at the end of its life. And that was just a moment for me that opened the door to, well, what is the true cost of over consumption? I mean, the true cost, in my view, is more than the price tag. It's also you know what resources we're taking from the planet to create the item.

It's in the afterlife concerns as to what happens to these things when they do go to their final resting place, which is almost always the landfill. And so for me, sustainability and minimalism and frugality all complement each other. There their sisters almost because they're all rooted in reduction, reducing the amount you bring home so that you can live

better with less. It sounds like there was such a convergence for you in that in that one kind of aha moment that you're describing, where it wasn't just one

thing which I think we can all resonate with. It's not just this one thing that leads us to say, let's change something, but multiple layers of it between how can we live well within the space that we have with this new human being in our home, with the lifestyle that we want in a way that feels good to us, and what's going to happen down the road to all of these things, Like, there's so many pieces coming together that are pointing to, hey, there could be

a better way. That isn't mean just buying more storage bins so I can look more organized. Yeah, we always tend to think that the solution lies in a thing, something that a corporation, you know, markets and sells to us. And if we just had this organizational bin or oh, if we only had this new outfit, all our lives would be better, our problems would be solved. But I mean, I'm sure you and your listeners know, and I learned

as well. Through the process of decluttering and really sitting with what is a want versus what is a need? I've learned that there's nothing a corporation can sell me that I can buy that's um going to be the magic pill. Right. It starts, it starts within, it doesn't start externally. Yeah, that is mass. That headshift is massive. There is nothing anyone can sell you that you can buy. There's no thing that's going to solve the bigger problem.

And that is literally that's all we're being sold every day on social media, on TV, on YouTube, like it's always you've tried this and you've bought this and it hasn't worked. So this other thing you can and buy will be the solution, and it's it never is, it never is. And on the flip side of that, I think sometimes we can look at these concepts of minimalism and sustainability and the way they've been marketed to us and kind of sold to us and think, well, that's

an expensive lifestyle. Sometimes the the individual product costs of those things can seem like more money, like this is gonna be more expensive to live this way to buy the products that are touting sustainability, being eco friendly, all of those things. And I do love how you're describing the true cost of consumerism, But what would you say, Stephanie to this idea of just on a more micro

level within my home. Okay, yeah, I don't want as much stuff, and I want to push back on consumerism, But some of the individual product costs seem really high. Minimalism and sist inability seem to be expensive to me. How have you seen in your own lifestyle this save you money? So awesome question, and I will say that absolutely eco friendly living does have an elitist reputation, and that is largely due in part to the fact that the quote unquote eco friendly options on the market are

more expensive. Eco friendly as a marketing term these days, because corporations know that there is a subset of consumers that will spend more for the eco friendly product. I think about cars, right, maybe you need a new car and you're looking at the hybrid option or the electric vehicle over the conventional gas guzzler. Well, you know, a hybrid car is about forty hundred dollars on average more

expensive than the conventional car. And so while yes, in the long run you will likely save an awful lot of money depending on gas price fluctuations, that on the outset prices a lot of people out And it's the same way. I mean, you can do this with anything food.

If you go buy all your groceries at the health food store, you're going to be spending an awful lot more money than if you go to the cheaper place down the street, right, And so I hear all that, but I do believe that if you dig a little bit deeper, if we all dig a little bit deeper, it's apparent that sustainable minimalism, frugality, these lifestyles are rooted in not buying the new eco friendly it item, but instead in buying less, borrowing more, relying on your own

skill set to make what you need. I mean, these are not glamorous by any means. The glamour lies in buying the new item. But these lifestyles are really rooted in going back to basics, not buying, not buying of your money. End of almost all the time the end of episode, you didn't save money. If you spend money. You might have gotten a coupon, but you still spend money. Yeah, and I love that the borrowing concept woven into there as well. Buying less, borrowing, back to basics, these b

words that they're really crushing it today. Yeah. Our friend, our friend Joseph has a pressure washer that he has been looking too. I mean, he bought it with the hopes that other people would borrow it from him too, and so all the time, whenever there's this conversation about borrowing. He always brings up his pressure washer, and somebody asked to borrow a pressure washer. It finally happened. Finally happened. Actually,

I think he might be out. He was out of town when they asked, so it's just a perfect timing. He might be back in town when they need it. But it was. It was perfect. But yeah, So having that flexibility too, of of when you can use these things. And and I think it comes down to like building relationships with your community so that you can borrow items and and you can pass around stuff like I'm pregnant right now and all of my friends that just had a baby, or like can I pawn off my maternity

clothes and infant things on you? And so it's like it's building that community where you can share. And I think that's that's one of the beautiful things about sustainability is that, yeah, you can't buy your way to green. It does evolve a little like relational capital instead of financial. Yeah, and just thinking about that, they're going beyond borrowing, talking about giving away. I live in a community with we don't call it a buy nothing group, we call a

curb alert. But there's something so powerful about giving away your perfectly good items that no longer serve a purpose for you and giving them to somebody else who could use the item extend the life of the item. That is just so anti consumerist, isn't it. I mean, the corporations do not get a cut when when we help each other out, when we're community minded in that regard, I love it. I love not helping a corporation out

because the only language they speak is money. And there was a study not a study, but there's a lot of fast fashion companies that are doing more of the bringing your old dNaM or bringing your old stuff and we'll like resell it. But but they are still producing more newer garments. Like it's not it's it's a marketing point. It hasn't brought down the number of garments they're pumping out. It's only to get you into their store. And so

it's so manipulate. Have on some fronts um, I think we're headed in the right direction, but like right now, we're at this time where it can be like super manipulative. And the more you play into it, the more you're telling them that that manipulation is okay and the more the less you you buy from them, the they'll hear like, oh okay, they're not falling for it. Let's uh, let's

actually be more sustainable. So for aspiring sustainable minimalists, a lot of them, and I know I've I've seen this a lot like they find themselves in this endless hamster wheel of like buying, decluttering, filling in the gaps, purging again, and and trying to like live sustainable all throughout, not just you know, be like the home edit where you just like find cute places to put all your stuff and buy new stuff to do it. Um, So, like, what are the first realistic steps that you chose to

live more minimalist and sustainably. So if you follow any minimalist influencers, you know the big ones. I don't even have to name them, But the end goal seems to always be the tidy home, right the mayor counters, the white walls, the pristine living space. And I do believe that decluttering is super important towards sustainable minimalism, but not for the same reason. The end goal is not a

tidy home. The end goal of decluttering is too for you to have that aha moment where you're looking at all your stuff that you spent money on, shouldn't have bought, didn't need, wasted money on, wasted planetary resources on, and sit with that quite uncomfortable feeling to be honest of Oh my goodness, this is what a want is and this is what a need is. And for many of us, we do have to declutter our homes to realize that. Uh, I know I did, and so I do believe that

decluttering has a purpose. But the purpose is to really understand, get that understanding on a bone deep level, that the stuff we brought into our homes never holds up to the promises that we are told they will. They it's and you know, there's a there's wants, there's needs, and the reality is that today's item is tomorrow's clutter. So

it starts always with buying less. It's not about decluttering your home and then going to create and barrel or protttery barn or wherever you like to get your decor and filling it up with new vases and candles. That's not sustainable minimalism. So if you want to talk about you know, where to declutter or where to start being sustainable, I'm happy to give you some tips, but that's my always. My first thing is, yes, decluttering is important, but it's not so you have a tidy home. A tidy home

is a secondary benefit. I love what you're describing here and probably pun intended when we get down to that root, cause that's what creates sustainability and longevity in this lifestyle of sustainability and minimalism and kind of aiming in that direction because otherwise we're just kind of engaging with it on a surface level to achieve whatever Instagram is selling us about minimalism just so it can look really cool,

versus having that more internal intrinsic motivation. And I feel like what you're describing, Stephanie, is getting more at the emotions and the thoughts and kind of the deeper roots behind the lifestyle that we're living and the values that we have and how we want to get after it. Because if I've been able to connect on a deeper level with Man, this is this is not how I

want to do life. I feel cludar in my mind, I feel cluttered in my body, I feel cluttered in my space, and that is doing no good for the planet, for my community, for my home, for my health, then we can make shifts that actually sustain themselves. And when it's connected deeper than oh, it just looks really cool. I like how this looks. Yes, going back to I think I touched on it earlier. But internal motivation versus external motivation, I think that comes into place so well

with what you're saying there. You know, marketing is external stimuli, right, and we tend to glock. We all tend to it's human nature to glob onto the wonderfulness of the thing, right. But when you declutter, and when you really get and you and when you use decluttering as a means to really get in touch with your inner voice, the inner you know, morals that you have within you, it makes those external cues, those external sounds, voices, coaxing, so much

easier to say no, thank you. Definitely, I think that the mind set shift, because that's something for me that that's the main thing I carry with me, like whenever I'm decluttering, or maybe something doesn't look like I think it should, like like the minimalist home, like knowing that I'm not doing it for the sake of having a home that's instagram able. I'm not even on Instagram I'm doing it so that I'm like reducing my footprint and that i am like reducing the impact on my wallet,

like I'm doing it for those things. Is there I'm curious is there anything you find, Like, what's a big mistake people start make when they start decluttering that they think might be sustainable but actually isn't. Well, that's a great question. I'm gonna answer it one second. But just going back to what you said with regard to you know,

you're doing it for you. If you were doing it to have the instagram worthy home, if you were doing it for that external validation, you'd never be satisfied, right because we're constantly bombarded with photos of more minimalist homes, uh clutter free home, So you're never gonna be able to compete. But when you do it for yourself, that's where the serenity comes from. But with regard to your question on what's some mistake people make, the number one

biggest mistake people make is they declutter their homes. They put everything that no longer serves them in a trash bag and they stick it on the curb. And I say, that's a big, fat mistake because I'm willing to bet there's plenty of stuff in the bag or in the bags that can help other people out. I mean, yes, it all is going to to the landfill some day. But if you pass your I don't know, you're perfectly working microwave. Let's say, I don't know, microwave just came

to my head. But if you give that microwave to somebody who needs a microwave, you're at least in theory, preventing that person from purchasing a new microwave and um using those resources, those planetary resources in addition to their own, you know, financial resources to purchase it. And so I think decluttering is synonymous with tidy ing, and people don't realize often that when you declutter your home, the decluttering is hard, but what's also hard is finding worthy recipients

for your stuff. That is takes just as long in fact, And so I always recommend, like, if you're planning to declutter your I don't know addict on Saturday and Sunday, you take the following Saturday and Sunday, so you double the time, uh, and to to risk honsibly declutter, to responsibly pass on your stuff because it's time consuming, you gotta schlup stuff places, you gotta call places, and so the work's not done when you decide what you're getting

rid of. The work's done when the stuff is responsibly passed on. M hm. I appreciate this so much, and you are identifying it does take extra time, and I think that's one of the biggest barriers for people. It's just easier to put it out in the trash and I never have to see it again. But I would also say, I think one of the things that is a barrier for people and even getting rid of things that they don't need, is the reality that they remember spending money on that thing, and so there still is

a value to it, sometimes an emotional attachment. So I would even encourage people to tap into that part of themselves in that kind of second process of now I've decided to get rid of it, and you can honor the money and time that you spent acquiring that thing, holding onto that thing by finding a good home for

that thing that isn't the landfill. So if firm what you're saying, Stephanie, it feels good to find a good home for things, and whether we're selling it giving it away, that buy nothing group the curb alert like there's a place for that item to go. It might just take time. Speaking of how we engage with our things, how we engage with others, how we keep this up in a

sustainable way in our homes. You mentioned one of the first things that even got you into this lifestyle was people giving you things for your daughter and then realizing I don't have space because and that's kind of like

the first the first move into your aha moment. How have you maintained that now what a boundaries look like in your life as it relates to others, in order to kind of keep the home that you want, that's good for you, that's good for the environment, when you probably do have people in your life wanting to just give you things without asking. So, yes, I get this question all the time, and my first caveat is to say I am not perfect. My daughters are now eight

and five, and they love the little plastic trinkets. I swear they're just like little plastic trinket like magnets, and so it's a constant juggling act. But I will say that I believe that I am the gatekeeper of my home. I am the gatekeeper because I'm the one who's cleaning and tidying and maintaining it, I ultimately get to decide what comes in and what stays out generally, I mean with I'm not completely authoritarian on it, but for the most part, with gifts and gifting, this is always a

big one. Um, you know, the grandparents especially. I'm lucky because I have a podcast about this, and so my in laws and my parents are pretty darn good about listening to my wishes. But we're not buying all the things for my kids. My kids are so fortunate to have plenty of toys. They do not need toys for existing. They don't need gifts just because if they genuinely have

a need, you know, we can talk about that. But I do not have a family where the grandparents come over and and bring stuff just because around the holidays. I am so on top of the holidays. I've already made their like needed lists for the holidays. I passed those on very early before you know, my mom starts shopping and like, I don't know, August, so we passed that on really early. And you know, we had fuse

some fun in it as well. But the minimalist gifting strategy that I tend to follow and I suggest I nicely, I hope us that my family follows is the want, need, read, share experience. So you get one like wanted item, but then you also get something they need, an experience you can do together. Usually my mom does like a cooking lesson with them, which they absolutely love. Um an experience gift which could be you know, passes to the movies, passes to an aquarium, so it's not a thing and

it's an experience. And then the share gift is usually something they can share. My kids are huge Lego fans, so it's usually like a Lego item and that's it. We don't have to go overboard just because our society revers over consumption. We can say that's an ex turtal value. It's not in line with who we are, and it's not in line with who I want my children to become. Fives plenty m hm oh. I love what's coming out of this. So many nuggets are apparent to me. First

of all, you know we talked about boundaries. We could even interchange that word with parameters. You've described some really incredible boundaries and parameters that you utilize that you give to others to utilize that give space to play within. Like if we were to think about boundaries like fences, they're really great. I think sometimes we can shy away from that word, like, oh, it's it's stringent, it's restrictive. But really, fences and boundary lines show us the area

that we can play within. And so you're giving that gift to somebody in a way of saying, here's the parameters, here's the fences, here's the boundary lines that we can live and operate within that are going to be really workable for us, and we're gonna be grateful to you for living and playing with with us within those boundary lines. And so the parameters of something something shared and experience,

something you want, something you need that's beautiful. That doesn't have to be a prescriptive list for everybody, but it can give that the creative juices for what can this look like. And then this piece of being proactive rather than reactionary, that you've done the work early on in the year and it's not this last minute kind of

day before the holiday or day before the birthday. You better not bring anything over because no one likes to be surprised by that and thinking, I'm trying to be kind to you, and now all of a sudden you're slapping something that feels really restrictive on me versus having gotten ahead of it and saying, here's the best way that you can care for and be kind to us in our family, and and what can I do for

you in return? Like, there's so many things that you're saying here that I think are really tangible takeaway tips for us to be able to define in our own lives. Well, I'm really glad to help. And back with regard to your point about being proactive instead of reactionary, I found through eight years of doing this that that is probably the number one most important thing, and not just with other people, right, but for myself. Like a great example would be my five year old she decided she wanted

to do t ball. And I know my daughter pretty well, I didn't know, if you know, t ball was going to be something that she's stuck with. And so I thought to myself, Okay, well, I have a ton of friends, Like, I'm sure I can borrow somebody's glove, right, I don't need to buy a glove. But so that was me planning to be proactive, but life happens. Life got in the way, and wouldn't you know, It's like three days before the first tea ball game and my daughter has no glove, and so I had to be reactive. I

had to be reactionary. I had to go on Amazon, which I tried never to do, and purchase a glove with the two day shipping so that she wasn't you know, woefully under unprepared for t ball. But so I do think it is about being proactive, looking ahead, staying two steps ahead as best you can. I mean, in its life, life throws curveballs all the time. Look at that reference,

they're curve ball. But yeah, I mean just keeping that in the back of your mind, like proactive, overreactive whenever possible, and you don't have to be perfect, Like you can host a podcast for five years or eight years and still there are sometimes we're gonna have to buy something new, and I've I felt like on a deep level, your your gifts from from family, like I, yeah, I wanted with my first child. I made so many mistakes trying to be like I wanted not a lot of gifts,

and I wanted like secondhand gifts. But like I couldn't put that on people who didn't understand like why I wanted or didn't like, weren't responsible for the extra time it would take to be proactive instead of reactionary. And so I had to get creative with how I like requested gifts like for my like my baby shower for Christmas is and be like, Okay, these are the things that I probably wouldn't buy used, so here's like these are the gifts that we want or that we need.

And so yeah, now that I'm pregnant again, I'm like, should I And I'm thinking about like doing a sprinkle,

but like maybe it'll just be like diapers. Maybe just you get some like diapers for daycare because you can't do reusable there, and that will be great and and it will be easy for people because they won't for some people for some reason, telling somebody to get you something second hand can be very difficult, and so making it not as a imposition on the people around you that don't necessarily hold the same beliefs as you, but

still having those boundaries. It's a definitely place and not like reject think gifts because some people's love language is gift giving. My mom's love language is giving gifts. Um, And that was a mistake I made for a while, um, not letting her show love in that way. So it's like this, it is this dance for sure. Yeah, I'm

just thinking about your sprinkle. What if you know, instead of everybody buying the I'm not sure if you're having a girl or boy, or if you're even you even know, But I found in my own experience I had two girls. Everybody purchased a fully dress for her, which was very nice but extremely impractical. Everybody loves baby clothes, I'm start it's the same for boys. Like a cute little sailor

out there. But instead of like giving the guests carte blanche to buy whatever they want, which is likely going to be an outfit, maybe you suggest they bring like some diapers or a freezer meal, which is something super helpful for you. I'm sure once you give birth and you just take one of these items out of the freezer put it in, and that is like such a like a heart first gift. Right. It's not going to a store. It's not like having a corporation solve the problem.

It's them infusing love into a dish for you. And your family, so just about Also, I'm doing all the work in this, so I should get a gift of I like that for it to absolutely here, for taking the mom's whatever they need, Babe is doing very little. Speaking of being proactive and not reactive, we prep our listeners and our guests every single week for this gem that is sticking around. It's sustainable, it's taking hand a molest a second hand. It's the bill of the week.

That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week, Stephanie. Every week, without fail, we invite a listener or our guests to share with us their bill for the week. And it's vague for a reason because it's open ended and we'd love to

hear yours. So I'm really excited for this because this is one of my biggest wins as a sustainable minimalist. In my town, we have to pay for garbage pick up, so you solicit quotes from the different garbage companies you go with. It's private, it's we're not we don't pay for it, end access. And so on garbage day, which is Friday, you have like fourteen different trucks going by your house. But that's a whole another story. And so I have my bill here. It's nine hundred and sixty

dollars a year for trash pickup. And so my husband and I a couple of years back, said, well, I mean, what if we just cut back on our trash production. If we cut back on how much trash we have, then we can maybe cut back on, you know, how many times a week a month this garbage person comes, and maybe we can reduce our bill. So sure enough, we decided instead of them coming every week, they were just going to come every other week. So we cut the bill in half to four and eighty dollars a year.

And that was, like with very little effort, very little, I'll be honest, Like we started composting. That took our trash from one hundred to fifty very quickly. We just were more mindful about what we were throwing out, what we were bringing home. And so then after maybe about a year or so of that we I said to my husband, what do you think do you think we

could go to once a month? And so we're we just went to once a month about I don't know, maybe four or five months ago, and it's definitely harder. But our bill, which started at nine hundred and sixty dollars a year, is now two d forty dollars a year, which with the savings of seven hundred and twenty dollars a year. This is one of my favorite bills I've ever heard, because I love the concept of paying for your own trash pickup, because what else is going to

motivate people to make less trash? And I love that this has happened in real life. It's always just been been a concept in my head. And I love that you just said it in real life. And this is where minimalism and sustainability pairs with frugality and it's good for you and it's good for the planet. And it's a good bill. Yeah, yeah, because of a year. You don't think about it. Annual bill. You pay for those

dumps like you pay in your taxes. You pay for landfills, and if you if we could make fewer landfills, we would save money on that, but you don't realize it unless it's parsed out and you have to pay for it yourself. Yes, can I just say something on that. It's like a couple of things. Number one is when I sat down with the reality that we were paying nine d and sixty dollars a year to cart away our junk like that just felt wrong. Nearly a thousand dollars a year to cart away trash that that's a

hard number to hit. But most of us don't think about that because it's just in our taxes. Right. You put your stuff on the curb, out of site, out of mind. You don't know where your stuff is going, but you also perhaps don't really care. So just a reminder to everybody it's going somewhere and you are paying for it, whether you know it or not. M h. Well done, Stephanie. This is so exciting and it could be a whole other episode about how you reduced your waste.

In that regard, we did a zero waste challenge in our private membership community and it was one of my favorites, just to get really tangible and connected to our consumption and our waste and finding creative ways to reduce that, which often meant that we're reducing various bills, from grocery bills to trash bills to utility bill, you name it. Oh, it's so excited when you're doing so well. I am at once a week and I can't imagine doing less than that and once a month. Wow, kudos to you.

If you all listening, have a similar bill, if it has to do with the intersection of minimalism and frugality and lowering bill bills, or you know, any other kind of bill, because we like it vague and we like to just bebop all over the map on this bill, this bill of the week, bill of the month, Bill the year, Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill. We are so excited to chomp

our teeth into that one. And now it's time for all right, So we never prepare anybody for the mid show sound effects, so it's always good to see how people react. Um, So it's laughter, sometimes it's fear. Sometimes sometimes it's laughter because of fear, nervous laughter. Okay, So this week's lightning round question, what's something you've done in pursuit of minimalism or sustainability or both, or just one that went horribly wrong and you will never do it again.

Okay that this is me your first Okay, very obviously the safety razor. If you don't know what a safety should I explain it? Yeah? Okay, So as safety razor is a reusable razor. You replace the razor blade every four ish days with a new razor blade. Uh, no plastic to see, it's for shaving your legs, whatever you shave. Um, I really wanted this to work for me in terms of sustainability. No plastic, no real trash. You send the dull blades back. You know, nothing's going to the landfill.

No plastic and site it sounded great. Oh my legs, you guys, they are cut up, cut up. So we went back to the plastic razor in this house. Oh man, Stephanie, I feel like I can relate. And why is it these things that have to do with beauty, hygiene care, health care that we're willing to use ourselves as guinea pigs in this process. As I was considering this question,

my answers were very much the same. They're a little bit more intimate than your example, and I'm like, I share which loves to use the lightning round as like vulnerability round, and here you go. I have I have been on the journey of Yeah, it's it's this category of feminine care and hygiene. So if that's if that's going to turn your stomach, then turn off this episode of the podcast right now. But it has to do with well, here's the list. I tried to men stroke

up that ended very poorly for me. Thankfully it did end. Thankfully, it came to an end. There was a moment there where I wasn't sure if it ever was gonna end. It did, But never ever again, I'm stuck in my ways, apparently, and that's it's not for me. I tried and at home treatment of a yeast infection that involved garlic that did not go so well. I didn't really totally know that the garlic is not going to break down on its own, positioned where it was positioned, and that led

to some terrifying bathroom experiences. I'm sorry, you guys. This is the vulnerability and finally, far beyond where I thought it was going. Yeah, well read the outline, Jen, I did read at home, d I y bikini wax. I made my own wax was so proud of myself. Actually, the consistency was really decent. And the strips that I used to try and put the wax on was an old T shirt of my husband's that I cut up right sustainable, frugal, eco friendly. I thought I was on

the right path. But his old T shirt is quite stretchy, is not. It's more pliable than what you want with a waxing strip. You want it to be, you know, really solid and sturdy and not stretchy. So that that didn't go well. But you know, obviously I've got so many examples, Like It's not kept me from stopping to like trying these things on my own body. I'm my own guinea pig um. But none of the none of

those things went well for me. Those are all like like there's one thing to try on yourself, but then there's like trying very intimate things on yourself, which that's a whole another lagger. Yeah, you're right, all of all of those examples are like in a very specific area of one's body, and I'm just like, I'm just going forward for it. Yeah, but think of all the success she has had on the regular parts of her body. Very successful, So yeah, I just think that mine is

so mundane. It's not even an actual like fail because I can't. I don't do a lot of feminine hygiene extras or there's a will, there's a way. You want this lifestyle, but I don't want to pay for it. You do. Yeah, in the midst of it, I've just given up. But also I think I'm like, I'm blessed in that I don't have a lot of body hair, so I actually don't have to shave a lot. So that's just a that's a unique gifting um to where

I have not had to try this stuff. But so we moved into a new house that does not recycle glass for some reason. Glass is just anything else they recycled. So we're like your neighborhood, my neighborhood, Yeah, my old neighborhood did. So we were like, Okay, we're just gonna save the glass and we still own that house in the other neighborhood, and we'll just like save up the glass when we need and then you know, whenever, when it gets full, take it to the new house or

the old house. And we did that, and I tried to move the bucket to take it over and it was like there was ants. We cleaned out these bottles and still ants covered and I was like, I couldn't put the thing in my car and I was like, how am I going to get this glass? And so I couldn't take it. Travis had to take it in his truck so it could be outside, and he just took it to his work. So with the infrequency with which we were cycle glass, this method did not work

for us. Yikes, you just need to rinse out your glass better. But they were they were rinsed, they were, you know, like prepped and ready to go. We did that recycling episode and I was like, Okay, I know how to prep my glass for recycling. But for some reason it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough and came or maybe it was just like one glass wasn't enough, and maybe they were all not. I don't know. I wasn't there like it was they weren't consulting with you know,

they weren't consulting with me because it was there. It took like a few months to like fill it up. So yeah, I mean, yeah, that was that was our fail. Much more benign. Wow, I hope you find a better solution. Jen Now Travis just takes it to his work. We don't even let it fill up. He just takes it one at a time. M hm. I put my story

if anybody wants to hear it. Yes, when my one of my daughters was in preschool, I was no plastic in the lunch box mom, and so I packed her I don't know, let's say, pretzels in a repurposed glass jar like a jam jar. Put the pretzels in, stuck it in the lunch box. She was eating them in the parking lot of the school. Dropped the jar, got glass everywhere, cut her leg open, A car went over

it like it was a hot mess. I got multiple scolding emails from the principle saying, no more glass at the school or on the premises so ever, no more smoking, no more drugs, no more glass anywhere near this school, anywhere near this elementary school. We live and we learn. You do all just living and learning, having veils along the way and laughing about them. Right. I'm getting better and sticking with it through it. Really. Thank you so

much Stephanie for hanging out with us today. Um where can people find your podcast and find even more from you? My podcast is the Sustainable Minimalists. It's a top ten Home and Garden along there with you guys. So so happy to be up there with you on the charts, on the iTunes charts. Yeah. So Sustainable Minimalists is the podcast. I'm on Instagram at Sustainable Minimalists, And there's also a book by the same name, Sustainable Minimalism where we go

into more depths about what we talked about today. So thank you so much for having me. This was a ton of fun. Yes, thanks for joining us. Yes, this was a blast. Mm hmm, thank you, Stephanie. It was everything we wanted and more and and we hope that's true for our listeners. It was just a fun, a fun topic to kind of geek out about and know that there you can prioritize, you don't. There's like balance does not exist, Like you can't prioritize all three of

these things at the same level. One may have to give and so, but knowing that they are not competing against each other. While you can prioritize one over the other, they don't compete. And that was great to hear from Stephanie. Yeah, just affirmation of again that that individualizing the way this can look for you. It doesn't have to look one way, even though influencers would love to make us think that we can find our own version of this in a

way that fits with our lifestyle. Yes, absolutely so, thank you so much for listening. We talked about our Frugal Friends Club in the intro and if you want to check that out, we would love to have you. We actually want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This one's from Vanessa. She says, I actively look for inexpensive or free events on Facebook and basically keep my account just for by nothing groups and Facebook events. That is me. SAME's uh. So today I went to

an event or organized by local real estate agents. Everything was free, but you had to bring a toy or food donation, and we gave two toys I had planned to give to my daughters but changed my mind. They're not going to miss them and they were happy to help other kids in need. They both received slide candies, hot chocolate, hamburgers, even a pumpkin for free. And there's face painting artists who did an amazing job too. Then we were able to go to a you pick farm

uh to avoid food waste. They had the public come pick up leftover veggies and you can keep as many veggies as you wanted as long as you were picking the same amount to take to a senior home. And because I had gun grocery shopping, it was perfect timing. Came home with a huge bag of carrots, turnips and kale. So shout out to Facebook Events. I am here. I

same story, Vanessa. I love Facebook events. We went to seven trunk or treats for Halloween, all free, all from Facebook Events, and right, but yes, I love the free events. And that was one of my biggest things when paying off debt, is that I didn't want to just stay home all the time and not go out. I wanted to live life. And that's how I discovered Facebook Events. You live life. You you were very good at keeping a pulse on what's happening in the community and curating it.

I mean, there's always some stuff happening, but it's a matter of is that going to be worth by while you find the good stuff? And my goodness, Vanessa, this sounds like this is a really cool community. But that's the thing. If we don't get out there and see what's happening, we miss like things like this, while very amazing, isn't necessarily just unique to where Vanessa lives. Like there are amazing people all over the place doing really great

things in their community. So thanks for reminding us of that. So glad it worked for you, Vanessa. Hope others listening can find similar and join our club to learn more from our people membership, and we have big wins like this and remember sharing tips all the time, So if you want to check them all out and see what monthly challenge we've got coming up next, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what's going on. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syriana.

I must be in a different place now because I do remember saying to myself at one point, I will never share the story of my d I y yeast infection remedy, much less thousands of people on this podcast mainly thinking of the podcast. But here I am so I must you must have worn me down vulnerability from me, and I have exploited my own vulnerity. It was more vulnerability than I required. Is that called above and beyond? No, you always tell me vulnerability without protection is exploitation. And

I think that's where we're at. And I have witnessed it. No, I didn't not I didn't ask for this and no one can. But nobody stopped you, and maybe that was where we fell short. Nobody stopped you, and that's maybe how you were exploited. Today, here we are. You know you all know everything now. Yeah, I don't think that there's anything I've withheld, And I think you guys know everything about Jill that that Eric and I know, so you know, join our patreon. We did not talk about

this from the padre, so join it for that. Although, yeah, what am I saying? You're not going to get anything more? I gave you every if you ask in the bonus episode. I guess we'll have to. Yeah, that's true. I guess we'll have to. Well, you did it, you wore it down. Here we are, Episode two sixty six tw