The Best Money Saving Tips For 2023

think we're going to call this a special edition. Normally we will go through articles, but today we actually looked at the best money saving tips articles from around the web, and uh, we thought a lot of them were trash just dumpster fires. Dumpster fires on the internet. You've never heard of that before, right, So no, I don't want to say dumpster fires. They were the same regurgitated money saving tips that you have heard time and time again.

And if you want to read them, there's great. There's like fifty of them on every article. They're all the same Google best money saving tips. We have a we haven't free ebook with two hundred of them that you can download at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book. So we're not going to bore you on this episode with all of those regurgitated tips. What I can promise you is in this episode, you will hear things that

you have not heard before. You will hear things that are not talked about in these articles or on other podcast episodes, probably our podcast episodes. If you've been a long time listener, you will have heard them. If you are new, welcome, We're going to try and share things with you you haven't heard before. That's our goal. Big promises, and you know us, we love to overpromise and under deliver, right And if you've actually listened to us for any

amount of time, you know that that's a lie. We like to under promise and moderately deliver, and that's what we're gonna do today, hopefully over deliver, because this is what we're I mean, this is what we're passionate about, this is what fires us up, and so much so that in addition to this episode, we are also going to be running a free one week spending makeover challenge, So we are hosting January two through six, a free challenge.

We're going to be offering daily live lessons in a pop up Facebook group so you can have some community during the week and to your inbox. So if you don't have Facebook, no problem, or if you're listening to this after January six, no problem, you can still get it to your inbox. You get the replace. Uh. So the goal for this challenge is to help you save money in but not through methods that are going to

save you three dollars here, ten dollars there. We are going to give you in a week or less, well, you're gonna give yourself in one week or less, a clear picture of your past spending, a foundation to turn your spending from either mindless impulsive, however you would describe it two values based spending that you can feel really

good about that also doesn't bankrupt you. And then you're going to create a plan to move forward with values based spending in a way that works for you, not in a way that someone says should work for you. And so that is a lot and that's what we're going to give you the framework for in this free challenge. So if you want to, we're gonna give you a

little introduction today with these money saving tips. If you want more, then head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ake over uh and if you're listening to this when it airs, we're doing the Makeover Live January two through six. If you're listening to it after don't worry still go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover, get the replay of the entire challenge to work on and really just make three a year that you take action. It's a great way to start the year off looking

at finances, and it's free. This whole thing is free, which yeah, I love that word. It's my second favorite. Absolutely. Yes. I have a lot of favorite efforts and that's one of them. So if you are looking for other episodes to queue up after this, there are a lot. I think my favorite one would be episode one, our Best Money Hacks with Lisa Rowan. That's actually a replay of

the original interview that we did with her. It's one of our most popular episodes because she does give some really great money saving ha acts and money making hacks. The hidden money one is I think we get more emails about that one than any other thing that we talked and we've talked about with the guest. Uh so one is a really great one to queue up for

after this. And this is the time where we normally go into our article headlines, but we don't have we don't have articles this week, last week, we even had articles we were going rogue with articles. This week we've got nothing, and I looked, I wrote on this outline, no articles going rogue can't stop me. I'm pregnant. And this is where we are because we're making up our own best money saving tips. These are straight from the Frugal Friends, uh, and they were not in any other

article that we looked up. I love, so we're just gonna give give them to yourself. Your pregnant brain is a wonderland and I'm here for it. So here's our best tips, kind of a survey of the best the Frugal Friends has to give to you. And the first one is follow the principle. For those of you who aren't familiar, that's the Peretto principle where we talk about how oftentimes of your efforts represent eight of your results. So why not focus on the rather than kind of

peddling away. In the way that this principle applies to our finances is instead of focusing not that these are bad things, these are fine things to be considering, but rather than focusing all of our precious time and energy on the one hundred hacks that save us three dollars. Here and ten dollars there. Why not focus on the decisions that have the biggest impact, the heavy hitters, the ones that can save us a hundred dollars here, ten

thousand dollars there. These are the areas that we're going to see the biggest impact to our finances. It's great to find coupons for free coffee, we do love that. But if we're talking about how do I save big money, and we're looking at kind of the full year, right it's the beginning of the year, so we're looking at this and kind of a bigger broader scope, it's gonna be those larger decisions, those more heavy hitters that we're going to want to focus on. And so those are

the big five? What are the big five? Housing, transportation, groceries, taxes, and healthcare. These expenses, these five expenses make up approximately for most of us seventy two of our monthly spending. And often these are the areas that are untouched, overlooked when it comes to people's quest to save money. But

why not? Why are we not looking at the bulk of what makes up our monthly and annual spending, and so when we can find ways to cut expenses or save money on our housing, on our transportation, on our groceries, taxes, and healthcare. That's when we're going to see the actual massive impact that we want to see. It's not gonna be in the coupon clipping and the saving a few

dollars here and there. It's gonna be when we actually take a good hard look at what's making up the majority of my spending and what are some creative ways that I could decrease those expenses. Yeah, after almost five years of hosting Frugal Friends, we definitely do get the questions about groceries the most. And that's why you'll find the most episodes of these five on groceries, because it's

the one that people ask for the most. But if you're looking at how much you spend monthly on groceries, it's gonna be right up there, if not maybe a little less than what you're paying monthly for housing or what you're paying monthly for transportation or taxes. Nobody really thinks about the ability if you are on a standard deduction. A lot of people don't think about paying their taxes because they're like, oh, I can't write this stuff off.

I just take a standard deduction, but there are things you can be doing to legally and ethically reduce your tax liability and healthcare. Health insurance is for many families one of our largest expenses and something that should be talked about, you know, once a year, usually in November. We had a we interviewed Eileen Doherty about how we can make sure that we're paying the right amount for health insurance, that we're not paying too much, that we're

not paying too little. So stuff like that is looking at these big expenses first, and we're not just looking at them, but we're trying to look at them first because so many of them are taken for granted. And these are the ones when you're looking to like shave expenses, which most of us are. You can only cut so much, and we know that, like we're the frugal friends, were not advocating for you not spending money at all. It's

not a race to the bottom. That's why we take these things that may not fall directly into our values, you know, like the mortgage bill and the car loan, and we look at how we can shave off of those instead of trying to shave off the things that we do care about and that's definitely something we can do, but we believe it's secondary. It's easier to make that

secondary to these Big five. And so you will find in our backlog episodes on how to save money on housing, how to save money on transportation, especially our interview with the Car Check on say money on your car purchase. We haven't done a lot on taxes because we're not specifically tax experts, but it is something that we want to do more of. But if you listen to any investing episode we do, we always always emphasize the tax advantaged accounts and you can find you can definitely find

that stuff in our membership Frugal Friends Club. We have courses on that um but it is something we want to cover more on the show in the future. And then on healthcare, that episode with Eileen on health insurance. It's not open enrollment right now, but if you are switching jobs or have an event where you need to

change health insurances, that's definitely one to listen to. So yes, start start with the big five, start with the and when you keep the twenty principle in mind, whenever you're looking to save money, it can make your decisions a lot easier. To make when you have the decision to do I spend time clipping coupons, which I don't see anybody clipping cupons anymore, but scrolling rebate apps and clipping rebates.

Do I spend my time there? Or do I spend my time looking for a bill to negotiate or looking it away? Maybe I can get rid of some of the stuff in my house so I can downsize to less square footage and save money. That's kind of that's the decisions we're trying to head into the direction of. So yeah, that's the first one principle. The next one is something we talk about constantly, and if you are a listener of frugal friends, this will not surprise you.

The next tip, for biggest tip for saving money is to figure out what you value, because when you know what you value, you can spend without guilt on those things and say no to things that you don't value or that you may not be able to afford to value in this decision, just like with the role, making it easier to make these decisions. Knowing what you value, knowing your core values the expenses you value, makes making

decisions a lot easier. Yeah, I love how this what we're going through here feels like a survey of what we've learned in the last five years of doing frugal friends patting almost five years coming up on it, and this right here, to me personally, is and has been the biggest pivot point in my own understanding of frugality. I've got a very close friend, one of my longest, long,

longest running friend. Can you say it that way? Jenna Ball shout out to you who who's been listening to the podcast from its inception, and she noticed it too. She's like, there's been a bit of a pivot in the way that you all are talking about frugality. I don't totally see it, because it's I'm in it and

the changes are happening for me as well. But the shift from just how do I decrease as many expenses as possible or just make money and hoard it, this kind of concept that typically is associated with frugality, versus how do I create freedom for myself to spend in the areas that I want to spend, to afford the things in the lifestyle that is meaningful and valuable to me and ruthlessly say no to the rest has given so much more freedom and permission and just a redefinition

of frugality that I love. It has so resonated with me, with us, with I think our listeners as well, and it's not that kind of one size fits all and and it also eliminates judgment on ourselves and on other people when we're able to give room for Yeah, you can spend as much as you want on going out

to eat. I'm not going to judge you. It may not be my value, like aligned with my values, may not be what I spend money on, but there's there's not this kind of competition or judgment or shaming when when it's not cookie cutter, when it's freedom and flexibility to define your values and make a spending plan around that. It's this has been a mind a pivotal mindset shift for me that I love. Yeah, Because when we started it was frugality really seemed like a race to the bottom.

How can I get my spending too as little as possible so I can reach this arbitrary financial goal as quickly as possible. And that was really where we started the podcast, and and it has shifted to be this to really, like, all, what other instance do you define like mastering something by not doing it at all. Like other than spending, people think spending well means either you spend everything you have plus maybe more, or you spend nothing at all, and that is being good at spending.

And I feel like I mean and this is why we we talk about the radical middle so much. It's

not either or it's somewhere in the middle. Spending money well means that you feel good about what you see on your bank statement and that it aligns with your current income, and that you are your content with it without becoming complacent, that you are working on always aligning your spending to what you value, always either you know, trying to increase or decrease your income to what's enough for the things that you value, and really asking yourself,

can I look at my bank statement, Can I look at my checking account statement and say that I'm really I'm really happy with it. It's it's really what I want. And if you can't say that, then frugality is for you, Like it's frugality is a skill that you should consider mastering. Uh, Spending is a skill that everyone should consider mastering. And some people think as spenders that you know that they

are spenders and that means they have mastered spending. But but really everybody spends money and everybody should be saving money. So like we're not defined by what we do with money or what we have done with money. We are whole people like Jill, you say a lot, We are

whole people. We spend, we save. The difference is um It's it's positive when you're doing it in alignment with your values, and it becomes limiting when you're not paying attention to your values and you're just spending in alignment with what social media is selling, or what your friends are doing, or what your family may be pressuring you

to do. So when we let those outside factors influence where we spend money and not what we value, what our family, you know, what our immediate family values, that's where it becomes limiting. And so these are these are things we talk about in our spending Makeover Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash makeover is how to establish this values based spending because it it is it sounds like a great idea, but like it's easier theoretically than it

is to implement practically. Yeah, yeah, how do I identify my values? How can I even make my money align with that? How does that help me long term? All these questions are great questions and and working through it will help us immensely. I think one of the biggest barriers for people oftentimes with finances is that, oh, it feels constricting if I were to budget or have to look at my money like, I would just prefer to

do the things that I love. I don't want to have to say no to myself constantly, or I don't feel good at understanding finances. It feels over my head. Like those two things combined, I think keep us from looking at it, and then we get this rush at the new year of But I do still spend money, and I gotta make money decisions, So how can I do better? And I think this whole thing that we're talking about is what are some anchors, some principles that we can hold onto and then find the freedom to

play and be flexible within that. There isn't We are not moving towards rigidity. We are moving towards freedom and saying yes to those things. I think that's what's so amazing about the values based spending is it's not about cutting extensively and depriving yourself of all of these things. It's about figuring out intentionally with the knowledge and understanding of what's coming in and what's going out, and how can we say yes to the things that that we love.

Which the flip side of that is this third thing. This another really fantastic tip, This anchor, this pillar is then drawing the line in the stand on what you don't value. So first of all, it is that the second thing that you mentioned gen finding out what you value, aligning or spending around that. But then next is what don't I value and how can I ruthlessly cut and quote unquote deprive myself of those things? But it's not

actually deprivation because you don't care about those things. But what we see happening often is we will spend money mindlessly on things that we don't actually value. It's that dollar section at Target, it's the going out for expensive meals with friends, it's the I don't know what that is. I'm not giving a list like this is everyone's list. We all have to figure that out for ourselves individually.

But oftentimes we're doing things because it's been sold to us, or it's that kind of cookie cutter approach of this works for most people, so it will probably work for you. Or it's the social media telling you the next thing that you need and this is going to make your life better and happier and more efficient. But that might not be true for you because you're your own individual.

You're your own person who has different values, different needs, different ways that you want to set up life, And what works for Sally, Joe, Sue who down the road is not going to be the same thing that works for you. Like, for instance, I don't value vehicles. I like to get from point A to point B, but it's not a value of mind to have a luxury car, so I'm not going to have a car payment on

a luxury vehicle. I don't value brand name clothing, so it's not going to be something that I'm going out with a friend for an activity to go shopping on clothing. What I do value is going out to eat. For me, I love that, So I have figured out the ways to not buy on all these other things so that I can spend on going out to eat with friends. Going out to eat with my husband, that's totally different. I know you've talked about this. Jen of you like eating,

but it's not a big deal to go out. So rather than that, let's do take out, let's do pot looks. Let's still get together with friends, but it doesn't have to be in this one specific way. And so that's what we're talking about when we're saying, identify what you value and then allow that to also inform what you don't value, so that that's the area you cut. We don't cut the areas that are the most important to us.

That's like when we downsize or minimize, we think we got to go to the most special memorabilia first, rather than our junk drawer. Like what, no, go to the junk drawer first, go to the stuff that you're not using and get rid of that first before you try and hack away at the things that are most valuable for you. And just that is an amazing pivot, like don't cut the thing you love, cut the thing you

don't love, and experience the results of that. Uh. And so that that of course requires, I think a step that we often don't take. We love to talk about what makes me happy, what makes me fulfilled, what makes me this, what makes me that? Yeah, do that, and then say what doesn't make me happy? What promised fulfillment but came up short. What tool or resource or hack was I sold on is going to really shift the way I live my life? And turns out it doesn't.

Then get rid of that. There's been plenty of things that I've subscribed to because a lot of my friends are doing it, only to realize I don't actually like it. It was like field hockey for me. All my friends were doing field hockey in middle school, and I was like, I just want to be with my friends. I valued my friends, but I hated field hockey. I only lasted

three days. I like this, I'm out. So it's like that your friends might be doing it, but you might hate it because you can't actually hit the ball that far if the grass isn't mode yeah, or it might just be like a halfway, like not a hundred percent fulfillment of your values. So I like, this is gonna sound so horrible. I like alcohol, like I love a good cocktail, the occasional glass of wine, but I have found I don't like beer. I just I'm not a

beer drinker. I like the atmosphere, I like the idea of people who drink craft beer, and I would like to be one and have found that I don't like beer enough to be that person. So that was one of the lines in the sand for me. I'll take a good craft cocktail, I'll do the occasional glass of wine, but only at home, like I don't like it enough to order it out. But I will not buy beer. I will not if my friends are going to a brewery, I'll skip it, especially if I know that they're going

to brunch, you know, like next month. I love brunch, so I will I'll skip a brewery if I do end up there. I just won't buy anything. That has been a line in the sand for me. So that's like a small thing that like, yes, I love you know, a good happy hour, but the beer is just not a pcent fulfillment. It's like a it's like a deceptive fulfillment of my values. And so and you'll get there.

It's much easier, uh to start, like like we said with principle, with these bigger things that you know are not directly connected to your values, or you can see like directly how things are not connected to your values, much easier to start there. And then the more you get acquainted with yourself because this is like a journey to self exploration as much as it is to getting control of your spending and improving your your income and investing.

And it's so freeing to be able to say no to to know yourself well enough of I actually don't like that, So I don't feel any pressure to spend on that because I'm not going to enjoy it. It is the most freeing thing to say when we feel so confident in that no. Yeah. It is quite empowering, and it is quite difficult because in this age, everything looks important, everything is the next best thing. If it's working for someone else, it has to work for me.

Like that is what everybody and everything is telling us, and it's just untrue. Like we need to be saying no as often as we say yes, not for deprivation, but to empower ourselves to know more about ourselves. Because if you're saying yes to everything, these the most special things lose their specialness. They just become the same as

everything else. In order for the things in your life that you spend money on to be very valuable, to be very special to you, you have to be saying no to as many, if not more things by choice, not by obligation. M mmm mmm m m m m m mmmm. Talk about power, influence and control, yes, yes, the good kind, the healthy control it. Yes. So we've talked about the principle for you know, saving on big things and then values can help you get more focused on that rule two, so knowing what you do value

and using that to determine what you don't value. So the last big tip that I think will help you save money in and beyond is to simplify, simplify to streamline. And so if you think about it, the more complex a project is, the more time it takes to accomplish. And when that project is your life finances can often feel like you're just constantly spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. And I know this from experience that it is something I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I'm sure you

have felt. If not now, then there are seasons in your life where you have felt like you want to get in control of your money and you want to be better financially, but there's so much else going on that is stopping you from doing that. And some of that may be mental, some of that maybe our own mental blocks, but a lot of it is actually physical things that we need to simplify, or non physical things

that we need to simplify. Yeah, I love this concept of really it's very similar to that values piece of how can we really hone in on and identify what's most important that's really going to bring a lot of clarity to where our time, energy and attention can be going, and then give the permission to cut out the other things that might just be fluff or distraction or obligation or placed on us by someone else, but we don't

actually want it. This is not a quick process. This is a self discovery, a curiosity with ourselves that we can learn and grow in that. I love what you're describing here that when we are able to simplify all aspects of our life, that doesn't mean we have to focus on them all at once. We can pick and choose which one we want at which times. But it

can then have positive impacts on our financial situation. Like you're describing, simplifying of our physical space can help us to identify what do we actually need, what's actually important to us, and then we're not then spending much money going forward on continuing to add things into our physical space or needing to spend a lot of time, energy

and attention on cleaning our physical space. If it's simplified, or if our processes are streamlined, it frees up our time to then go do something else that might save us money or make us money. Like, there are so many benefits to this simplification process. That's not a one size fits all either. Doesn't mean that your house needs to be bare of anything to call it simple, but

it is a matter of what are the basics. How can I get back to the basics of what's most important to me and then fill in the cracks around that rather than just chaos all around me, swirling in my head, swirling in my space, swirling in my schedule, but really hone in on how do I want to live life, and then experiencing the benefits financially, emotionally, mentally as a result of that. Yeah, simplification isn't necessarily elimination.

Certainly it will involve that for a lot of people, just because we are so overly stimulated and so overly packed in our physical space, in our schedules, our time, our digital spaces, our mental spaces. We are so packed by everything. It's very hard and I think I mean, if you have ever tried to meditate. I'm not a big meditator, but I'm sure if you've ever tried it, you realize that even even taking five minutes to simplify

your thinking is almost impossible. If that is so hard, then sure as heck everything else is overpacked as well. And so when we are focusing on uh, taking a year to simplify our you know, our physical spaces, to save money on all the physical products, to simplify your schedule, to save on takeout and the cleaning services and all of that stuff, to simplify our digital lives, so we make fewer online purchases. We're paying we're not paying to

store digital files. We never look at UM or subscriptions. We forget that we have that we just keep paying for because we don't realize we have UM and our mental space, so that we're limiting the decision fatigue that causes us to make impulsive spending decisions or emotional shopping. When when you are focusing, when you're ticking those things off one at a time over the year, you are going to find that that saves you more money, not just in the next year, but throughout the rest of

your life. And that's what really what we're going for here is we want to create opportunities where we can change habits and we can change thought processes that yeah, might save us some money now, hopefully we'll save us money now, but will be those savings routes that over ten years will save ten thousand dollars And maybe they only save a hundred bucks in the first year, but

they will compound on each other. And they're the same principles that you can take into your work life when you are trying to get raises and promotions and increase your income. It's the same philosophies that you can take into investing for retirement that create that that consistency and that kind of innate wisdom in how you invest. And so it starts we talk about spending because we feel

like that's the lowest barrier to entry. Learning how to save money very quick, very easy, you know, much easier than opening a roth ira or negotiating for a raise. Like you it's gosh, it should be easier to open a roth ira, but very it's quite confusing, and you probably can't go to your boss tomorrow to negotiate a raise successfully. But today, you can google how to save money and you can implement a tip, or you can take what you've learned from this episode and you can

make one small change that can have a ripple effect. Yeah, because we're not just talking about saving because we don't make a lot of money that maybe some people's experiences and and frugality can help in that, But it's also a lifestyle that can follow us regardless of our income, because we are talking about freedom within our finances and we're talking about setting up our lifestyle spending included in a way that aligns with our values and that follows

us throughout. So this isn't just a concept for people trying to live on minimum wages. This is for literally anybody at any place in career, life stage, because it goes deeper than that. I think the concepts of frugality

touch on more than just our finances. It's that whole personhood piece because we're talking about simplification and of of mental, emotional, physical space, which yes, has great benefits on our finances, but there's this this whole person approach that I think we're talking about here in these overarching, bigger, kind of macro level tips that are going to benefit us, not just in one purchase like a coupon could, but this entire kind of mindset shift that really aims at well

being in a lot of ways, which is why we are able to talk about this for five years on a podcast, and with no end in sight, we're going to keep talking about it. Our lives have shifted, some of our mindsets have shifted, some of our views and perspectives on things have shifted, and frugality follows us. So I just love that. Yeah, And if you want to be frugal, if you want to spend money, those things

are not mutually exclusive. I think that's my biggest pet peeve when talking to people as they're like, oh, I love to spend my me I'm not frugal, and I'm like, I'm sorry, I love to spend money too. There are just some things I know I don't love to spend money on, and I choose to spend money on the things that I love. And so if you can't say

that with confidence, then shifts can happen. Spending is a skill that you can get better at, and not in the way that means you spend more unless you need to, unless you're on this race to the bottom to invest your income and you need to learn how to spend a little more it can go. It's it's for everyone. It is for those with little money, it is for those with lots of money, and it's for those in

the middle, which are most of us. Uh, your hosts included our best tips came with a solid pitch just for frugality and and you know what else is a solid pitch that you all usually swing at and we're going to keep doing it all the week. That's right, It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.

That build Buffalo Bill, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi, Jenn and Jill, This is Lindsay here, and I've been listening to your podcast for the last couple of months and really enjoying it. It's going to have a community of frugal friends to rely on. UM. I wanted to tell you about a bill of the week that has been really important to me over the

last three months. I figured out as I started listening to your podcast that I was spending about twelve hundred dollars a month on groceries, whether that was subscription meal services or whether that was just shopping at Whole Foods for all of my groceries. Um, things really added up. I really revamped what I was doing, just started going to a regular old grocery store locally and really watching my spending and trying to buy in bulk. And I've gotten it down from month to four and sixty five

a month on average for the last three months. So that's been really exciting for our family and I wanted to share it with you. Thanks. Keep up the good work. Wow, Lindsay, that is a big cut, and that's one of the

big five. It's it's amazing that we can. And I've heard this time and time again, especially with groceries and food, is that you think you've cut everywhere, you think you've do you think you've done it, and then you sit down and you tally everything up and you realize you're spending money that you didn't realize and it's not even and changing it. Getting creative doesn't mean forgetting what you value.

It just means getting creative with how you achieve it like organic groceries can be purchased at al D and you don't have to go to Whole Foods for all of them. Maybe you spend a little more to go to you know, your public so you can get everything in one place, but you have choices to switch back in fourth week to week, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah, this is a massive cut, lends a month to four sixty five, and it sounds like it wasn't even too much of

a hit to your ability to eat more. So you just implementing that creativity of oh I could buy this in bulk, I could still get the things that I want and enjoy it. Just don't value spending that much money my groceries and to look at one of those heavy hitter categories of discretionary spending. But that's necessary. This is incredible. But I also want to add the caveat here that this doesn't necessarily need to be the case for every person. It's not what Lindsay said, but I can.

I don't want people walking away thinking like we're just all about slicing and dicing everything. For me personally, my food budget, well for me and Eric, it's just two of us. It is about a thousand dollars a month, but that's what I have chosen to spend. It gives me room to be able to go out to eat

and go to the grocery store. But when we realize that what we're spending in those categories is more than we meant to spend, or we don't value actually spending in those areas, then it's fantastic to look to cut and you did some amazing It sounds like you've got family, like more than just two people in your house, and to be able to cut it that much is a

huge feat. Well, don lindsay yes absolutely if you all listening, happened to slice and dice some bill, whether it's your grocery bill, or your housing costs, or your utility bill or you know a person named Bill, and we love those. We love bills. I don't even think we've had an actual bill call in yet. Would love for that to happen. You know the drill, it's vague, it's fun. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill.

We are dying to listen to it. And now it's time for learning round you all right, So in this week's Lightning round. We're getting vulnerable. We're going deep jen Love's vulnerability. I love it. I love protection. We I I'm not gonna say anything about protection. We are sharing our three financial goals, and if we ever do replay this episode, I can't wait for us to revisit these and and talk about the season that we were in when we were talking about these goals, because we've been

dalking about that first. I know anytime we do a recap on goals or things we hope to accomplish, were usually a little bit disappointed. So I really hope that doesn't happen with this one. The end is in sight, though, um here we go. You all know it. If you've listened to this podcast for a long time, you could fill in the blanks on my answer. But just one day for those of you, one episode. Those of you are just tuning in, this is your very first Rugal

Friends exposure. Welcome. Eric and I bought a house in Florida two years ago. It needed a lot of work. We have over the last almost two and a half years now been renovating it. The very first thing we said that this house needed was a kitchen. The kitchen was literally falling apart two and a half years in a dumpster fire. Jen loves to call it a dumpster fire. I don't disagree with her. Two and a half years in, I still do not have a kitchen. And that's not

for lack of trying. We have blood, sweat and tears did over here as tears to verb. I'm making it one and I know, and then they've had to paint over the tear stains and the blood stains, and we've done a lot of work. It all has made sense. I'm gonna spare you all the details, but we've been cash flowing all of these renovations. That's part of it. We've been doing the renovations ourselves, literally with our blood,

sweat and tears. Airbnb and kitchen is what we are working on in our home, and I anticipate it is my hope that we will pay for and complete both of those major renovation sans adding an Airbnb to our home and completing the kitchen. And by the way, that is one of those big five that kind of a D twenty principle with our house. When we look at housing costs, one of the things is how can we cut costs on our housing. But another thing is how

can we make money on our housing? And so we've got a spot in our house with a separate entrance that's essentially like a hotel room, full bath bedroom that we will airbnb out. We live very close to the water, we've got kayaks. We really hope people give us their money to stay here, and so that's the hope. The financial goal is to cash flow that, get it finished, get short term renters and make money and at least recoup the cost of that part of the renovation. Is

what I hope happens in What about You? Jen? Yes? Uh similar? So yes, we took another on the approach housing. So our last year goal was to get an income property. And after a lot of sweat and tears and potentially blood because there were times where I was going to punch somebody, we did get a home, but it was not an investment property per se. So we left our home that we lived in and got another home that we now live in that as a fixer upper but is large enough to split to make the back half

an airbnb. But we're going to go for the mid term rental. It's a two one, so we're targeting like traveling nurses, snowbirds, students, that sort of thing, because we're very close to us um A University. So we have been working on that since we purchased this house in May. Uh. It makes me sad sometimes because we left a fully innovated, beautiful home that I loved and moved into this place.

Lots of wallpaper, wallpaper that I found out very quickly I personally cannot remove because I am pregnant and there's lead base paint underneath. So yeah, I there are so few things I can do, and they whittle down and down and down. Uh. So I am hoping that we will have this rental area done and rented out very soon because we are renting out our old home that is a rental property and we are making income on that and with the income from the back half rental,

that should cover both mortgages. So we will be mortgage payment free when that happens. So it's really it was really a case of getting creative with Okay, I how do I mean, I'm okay with the amount of square footage I have A three two is great for me, so I don't want to reduce there. So now what can I do to reduce my mortgage payment. Well, this is something I can do. Uh So, so that it's just a constant. There will never be a time where you master saving money. There will always be ways of

getting creative to do it. And not everything is right for every person, but you don't know that until you try. Like I am not a real estate investor, I have found I have learned that that is not something that I'm going to be doing to optimize my income further. Once we are done with with this, I think I'm done, but I'm certainly glad I did it because it's going to Yeah, I'm not going to make money from real estate, but it's going to cover my mortgage and that's good

enough for me. That's good. I'll make money in different ways and I'll save money in different ways after this. Uh So, that's the biggest goal for this year, and having a baby in March. Hopefully having a baby in March, and to not go bankrupt. I know I can't really control that the what it costs um but and you know, so it's not really a goal. It's just a hope that everything goes well. But we are planning for that. Man.

I hope this was inspiring to anyone who's listened and stuck with us this long to make your own goals. What are your financial goals for? If you need help with that, Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover. That's a free week long opportunity to really get focused and get some clarity on what you want your to look like. We know it's not going to look like ours, so identify it for yourself. Yes, thank you all for listening. Many of you know we also have a private community

where we do monthly money challenges. We offer accountability groups. It's a whole thing where we like gamify finances and get to chat with other frugal friends. It's awesome. We want to shout out to one of our members for a big win. Recently, Vanessa she shared one thing I love about being more conscious of marketing tactics. You can give credit to the marketing team, but resist the urge of making impulse purchases. A greenhouse nearby organized a scavenger

hunt for kids. They were getting free herbs as a prize. That's fun, but parents had to walk every single aisle with their kids to find the hidden objects. I thought to myself, well done. Nice marketing tactic. I do want to buy all the plants and decorations around me, but I didn't because I get most of my plans for free on my buy nothing group and I have enough

Christmas decorations. Vanessa, talk about knowing yourself, being wise to them, marketting tactics, spending on what you want, saying no to the rest. This is the epitome of what we've described in Vanessa has been a long time Frugal Friends listener and she is a member, and she knows all this stuff and she is becoming expert. Well done, Vanessa. Yes, I love that that marketing is not the enemy, but it is a tool that can be used against you

if you don't know how it works. And just knowing how it works can have you taken advantage of free herbs for your kids without spending money you don't need. So congrats, Vanessa, thank you all for listening. If you want to check out this monthly challenge, if it sounds interesting to you, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club. You can see what challenge we have coming up next. If it's going to be helpful for you,

check it out. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrianni h Gen. Big Hopes, bigg Big, big hopes for my children. They're going to be a family of four. Yes, we are going. I'm going from one son to two sons. You think we'll find out in March. I think we could be more than one. It could be female. Nope, I mean could be koala mm hmm koala. Not how science works, Jill, It's not how science works. Just saying we never known, so we can see it with our eyes and then sometimes you

can't see it with your eyes. And now, Yeah, I can't wait to meet that little nugget. Either way, it's going to be a nugget. I know. I can't wait till he has a name that'll come that'll come on when you see him. Yeah, maybe I hope that before that. If all else, I mean, we always have Bill. He would be the Bill of the century. We'd we'd probably get away with like we do away with the segment and just shout out your son every week. We would never know never Alright, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.