The Top 10 Benefits of Frugal Living - podcast episode cover

The Top 10 Benefits of Frugal Living

Feb 18, 2025โ€ข46 minโ€ขEp. 486
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Episode description

Who better to talk about the benefits of frugal living than your Frugal Friends? If you are interested in frugal living and are interested to know if you are one, this episode is for you. In this episode, Jen and Jill share why they love this lifestyleโ€”and why you just might love it too!

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Episode four eighty six, the Top Benefits of Frugal Living.

Speaker 2

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your hosts, Jen and Jill.

Speaker 3

M.

Speaker 1

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and who better to talk about the benefits of frugal living than the Frugal Friends Podcast.

Speaker 4

You know, we got a list of all those Bennies. If you are.

Speaker 1

Interested in frugal living and are questioning whether you want to identify as frugal, then we're here to give you the bennies. Talk about why this is the lifestyle that we love and that we think you will love as well.

Speaker 3

But first, this episode is brought to you by none other than Bennies. We love benefits like PTO, amazing healthcare coverage, and extra money, but if you're not getting those kinds of Bennies, get the reward of helping us decide the future of Frugal Friends. Take our ten question mega survey and help us know the types of topics that you

want to hear more of. Give us a better understanding of who exactly we're talking to, because we've been doing this now for coming up on seven years, so it's good to get a new pulse on our audience and kind of know where you all are at so that we can make content that will be tailored to you. So get those bennies Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Mega survey, or subscribe to the friend letter where we're also sending out the Mega survey. You can get that at Frugal friendspodcast dot com.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Mega survey and if even if you think we've probably done an episode on it before, still at the end, the last question of the mega survey is episode ideas. Our average listener has a lifespan of two years with us before they move on to bigger and better things, and so we like to recycle topics every two years. So we want to know what you want to hear, So Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Mega Survey and let us know if you are really interested in transforming your

lifestyle into a frugal lifestyle. Here are a couple episodes to cube after this one Episode three thirty seven how to Adopt a Frugal mindset and episode three ten Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression. Two very good ones. You can search for those in your podcast player, how to Adopt a frugal mindset and Frugal Living Tips from the Great Depression. Just add frugal Friends at the end and the episode will pop up, even if the episode number does not.

Speaker 3

So we're going to go through just this one article that comes from this ever Green Home, and it's titled why frugality is actually more fun than just spending whatever you want? And there happen to be ten things, so we are just going to list off all ten of them, although I will say we'll have our own spin to add to some of these as we go through it.

Speaker 1

Yes, so let's start out. The first one is finding joy in creative problem solving. So this is something we talk a lot about on the show, is creativity. And it's because when we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, these are our human needs. These are the things that motivate us to do anything and to make a lot of purchases. These are the needs that motivate us to make purchases. And at the very top, the highest need, the one that gets forgotten about the most, is self actualization.

And that isn't just some transcendent like I'm finding purpose and I'm meditating all the time. Self actualization is the feeling of being an individual that you are living a uniquely authentic individual life. And part of that is creativity, spontaneity, and purpose. So creativity is a higher need, and so we don't give ourselves a lot of options or opportunities to be creative. And when we desire that, we think we have to buy like craft supplies to be creative

or innovative. And some of that can actually come from solving problems. So instead of just heading straight to Amazon to solve a problem, you can start by asking, how can I solve this problem with what I have? Can I solve this problem without spending at all? Like getting it for free? So buy nothing, groups, you know, free resources, all of that. How can I solve this problem without spending much? So secondhand, Facebook, Marketplace, Craigslist, what have you.

And then after you go through those filters, it will be a barrier. It's not the most convenient, but it's not inconvenient to just look at those options first to get creative with how you're going to solve the problem. If none of those works, the problem still exists, then we can go to the store to Amazon stuff like that. But when we have a frugal mindset and we are looking to steward our resource as well, then we get to solve problems creatively, and that's meeting a higher need.

And when we get creative, that results in the less impulse spending to meet that.

Speaker 3

The second reason listed here is that you get to experience the thrill of the hunt. And this is the one I'm going to kind of reframe for us a bit, because the thrill of the hunt is one of the top five reasons that we give for why we impulse spend. That we are searching for the best deal, the clearance item, the hidden treasure, and so we do acknowledge that that

is fun. But I want to call this second one more like exercising creativity part two, where if we are decreasing our overall level of consumption, our level of I'm just going to immediately buy to solve a problem, but instead we create some space or friction between us and a purchase, which is a lot of what can happen

in living a frugal lifestyle. Then we can exercise more degrees of patience and not just doing the thing, making the purchase, putting it on the credit card, But we are causing ourselves to need to wait, which will then spark some of that creative problem solving of what could I do instead? What is the need that I'm experiencing? And so I think there's a lot of just resilience and quality characteristics that are built up in ourselves when

we reduce our level of consumption. But also not to discount that it will require at times research degrees of hunting, and there is a thrill to waiting, searching for researching and feeling really confident in the in the purchasing decisions that we make. Yes, there is a high. I'm not going to deny that. I'm not going to encourage people to chase that high, to chase that hunt, but just know that it is a part of a frugal lifestyle

that can happen. But we don't want it to turn into like a hobby, a spending habit that we're just like always hunting at the thrift storeyard sale like I used to do before I lived in a motor home and couldn't bring a bunch of stuff back into my house. So more so looking at it from the perspective of what is waiting build in me? What resilience problem solving patients? Am I learning through this process? Yeah?

Speaker 1

I think hunting is another of those self actualization we are It creates self sufficiency and it also breeds self confidence and self esteem because you're like I am smart enough to find these deals and gather them. And that's another one of those higher needs is self confidence and self esteem. So I think it hits two of those, which is why we love it so much. So the next one is connect more deeply with your values, and it's essentially the topic of our book book, Buy What

You Love Without Going Broke? Is how do I identify what I value in the first place? And we use Maslow's hierarchy of needs as kind of a baseline and realize that our biggest higher values on that hierarchy that we are searching for our family, friends, faith, and fulfilling work, and they transcend a lot of those top higher needs. And when we can know those values, we can put those at the focus of why we're spending money versus chasing stuff that is marketed to us as fulfilling that needs.

So I love that they start this section off with in a culture that equates spending with success. Frugality helps you step back and ask what really matters to me, so that we can choose our higher needs over wants, and then it's easier to prioritize quality over quantity and stuff, and you will naturally find that your life aligns more

closely with these things. We're all going to say our highest priorities, but when we look at our transaction inventory, our inventory doesn't necessarily say that they are our highest priority.

Speaker 4

Number four.

Speaker 3

One of my favorites of the benefit of a frugal lifestyle is that it allows us space to rediscover simple pleasures that when we are less accustomed to just buying and consuming, we give ourselves space to recognize that some of the best things in life truly are free or at least super affordable. They give examples of a homemade dinner shared with loved ones, a quiet walk in nature, a night spent stargazing. For me, I've really enjoyed daily

simple luxuries, is what I've been calling them. Anything from just plating my food at lunch, making that my food on my plate look esthetically pleasing, to making myself a nice cup of tea or doing some really RESTful exercises or stretches, Like I'm realizing that the things that I need that kind of keep me going and maintaining are the little things that I can engage in in routine, small bursts, tiny practices throughout the day.

Speaker 4

That these are the things.

Speaker 3

I mean, Yes, it's fun to go to an awesome concert and a crazy vacation, but life is lived in the day to day and sometimes just the mundane. But if we can find simple pleasures in the day to day and mundane, then we're not so much looking for the extravagant, luxurious vacation. We can still take them, but it's not like our whole lives are wrapped around that. Our lives are wrapped around what's happening in my life in the present moments, day to day.

Speaker 4

Definitely.

Speaker 1

The next one is feel the freedom of financial security. And so often frugal living has been positioned as something you either do out of necessity because you don't make a lot, or something very well off people do so they can save so much of their money and retire early.

But we have always tried to argue that frugality doesn't necessarily pin you into either of those extremes, But it really is a feeling of freedom and liberation because every dollar that you don't spend, every dollar you don't give to Jeff Bezos, you get to do what you want to do with it, what you and again align it with your values. So whether that is you want to spend more time with your family and friends, so maybe that means you want to do your workload, you want

to go down working twenty hours a week instead of forty. Well, the more you invest, the more that money can grow for you and you can live off the dividends, and the fewer things you buy, the lower your budget needs to be, the lower your income needs to be every month. And so it just gives you so much flexibility to choose what you want to do or to react better in in a higher place of power when things happen to you that you can't control. And honestly, that's what's

going to be happening. More often than not, we know things we can't control are going to happen to us. So how can I put myself in a position of control to control as much as I can and retain as much power as possible.

Speaker 3

These are things that can kind of seem impossible, especially if we're in more of the middle income earning category, where how would I possibly experience financial security? It can be one of the reasons that people turn to a podcast like ours, But it has been amazing to hear all of the stories, I mean a lot of them, just through the bills of the bill of the week,

callers talking about small changes that they've made. I would say probably about fifty percent of our callers if I were just like, choose a number off the dome or something about I negotiated this bill, I changed this, I dropped this subscription, and it allowed me to put twenty fifty one hundred bucks more to xyz goal and now I have an emergency fund and because of that, I was able to pay for the car that just broke down.

Speaker 4

Or just the.

Speaker 3

Realities that yep, there's a lot outside of our control, but also small changes towards progress can can become cumulative.

Speaker 1

People will rag on frugality, being like, don't worry about the six dollars latte, worry about making ten thousand dollars extra a year, right, But that's easier said in a personal finance blog or book than it is done in reality. And when we pursue, pursue, pursue, and we don't get that extra ten thousand dollars, it is possible, and you should continue to pursue it till you get it. But the more you pursue it and do not get what you pursue, the less motivated you are to pursue it.

So in tandem, we also need to be doing small things that boost our self esteem, that boost our self confidence, that make us feel like we're doing something, and these are the small things. Frugal living encompasses the small thing.

Speaker 3

It's so true because while we also are saying, yeah, it doesn't necessarily need to be about cutting out the coffee, like let's make some wise housing, transportation and over arching food decisions. But some of that that mindset and theory can lead you to just not looking at your spending behaviors at all. You know what, instead of worrying about this habit that you have, just try and earn so much more money. And really we're not solving some of

the core issues. So yeah, as always we take both and approach The next one on here talks about one of the benefits being strengthening relationships through shared goals I would absolutely agree because Frugal Friends.

Speaker 1

Frugal Friends is in existence because of this.

Speaker 3

But even on aware micro scale, this has happened. So we're part of a book club, you and I Jen, and we of course the ladies in this book club know what we do, and it has led to us talking about our financial goals and just more money minded things, which then causes them to feel more comfortable to talk about these things. And we now pick books based off

of what's available at our local library. I mean, it's such a small example, but I think we feel, at least I feel really seen in this that it's a

small shared goal that all of us want. None of us, every single month want to be dropping ten to thirty dollars on the book that most likely we won't keep on our shelves, but instead make use of a local resource, and everybody's on board for it, and it just creates such a fun camaraderie, you know, not just because we're rallied around the library, although that might be your dream company, the library, but these small, these small things that really

make us feel like a sense of belonging when we're able to talk about the goals that we have and we're able to problem solve together and let one another know about the resources available to us. We just can go so much further together.

Speaker 1

Yes, Next is you learn to appreciate what you have, which is very is a very strong good skill to have. So when you're focused shifts from what you don't have to what you have, you just naturally buy less, right, but then you also have this you know, added benefit

of looking to appreciate it. So this appreciation fosters contentment, which is a whole chapter in our book by what you love without going broke, contentment without complacency, and so you are feeling more abundant when you gosh, there's just so much to be said mentally for when we are looking at our things and we put social media, you know, behind us, and we just really focus on looking at what we have and being appreciative of it, like writing it down, like I'm so thankful for this couch, I'm

so thankful for this instant pot, for this stove, and like really appreciate what you have and what it can do. Really looking to get creative with how can I make this last longer? How can I have this for longer? How can I use more of the features of what I have, so I can feel like I'm getting something new by using what I have, and then you learn to appreciate it more and it's just it's a snowball. And then you buy less and you just are happier.

Speaker 4

Yeah, it's a beautiful cycle.

Speaker 3

Gratitude leads to contentment, leads to more gratitude leads to the more contentment. Like sometimes we can find ourselves in non beneficial cycles and patterns, this one is a beneficial one, and we can just start with gratitude and it will build upon it and.

Speaker 1

It goes into every other area of your life. When you start with your stuff, then it goes to your family, and then it goes to the people around you, the people at work, and you become a nicer human being all around.

Speaker 3

I found some great definitions, or the definitions for these things are great. When it comes to gratitude, the definition is to be thankful for benefits received, which I think is so interesting. It's not talking about the things you hope for, the things you think will happen. There's a place for that, but gratitude is literally talking about present

moment and maybe even past experiences. What up to this point have you received that there is to be grateful for, which can then lead to, as we've said, contentment, And the definition of contentment is to be satisfied with your stuff, status, and situation, which we know money touches all of those things. So if we can leverage gratitude to lead to contentment, we will find less need to spend on stuff, our status, improving our situation. We will be more creative and identifying.

How can I be more satisfied with each of these three categories? The next one is that being frugal can help us discover our inner d Y Guru.

Speaker 4

There's a spectrum here.

Speaker 1

Oh, absolutely, some of us.

Speaker 3

More than others, for sure, But frugality and DIY projects can go hand in hand, and you have heard it from us over the years. With Jen's goal of learning how to repair clothing, I in the past have refinished furniture. Both of us have tried our hands at gardening to varying degrees, maybe even fixing, doing small repairs in your home.

That's another one we hear often from our listeners is I decided to try to fix my toilet, my fridge, my leaky faucet, fill in the blank, myself before calling someone, Not that we're opposed to hiring it out, but could

it be a simple fix. Could it be a YouTube fifteen minute video that I watch and I learned something new, and I'm able to do this myself and I don't have to hemorrhage two hundred and fifty dollars that just didn't need to be hemorrhaged unless your priority is to save yourself so time, and you're fine paying for that. So again, there is a charac but it is a beautiful thing to learn how to care for the things that we already have to learn more about maintenance too.

We've done a lot of episodes on maintaining our appliances and prolonging the life of the things that we own, which is also degrees of DIY.

Speaker 1

And then we've got enjoy the charm of minimalism. So this is less stuff means less stress, and so minimalism I would say, I'm back and forth on it. I think minimalism, as we traditionally know it can be a little bit extreme and it can create judgment, right if you're not the perfect minimalist, like I posted a real once on like my minimalist home, and I think it was pretty minimalist. But somebody was like, oh, she's got

all those chatchkeys in that china hutch. She's minimalist, even though that's the only place in my house that I have chatch keys. That was my chatch key hutch. So for me, that's minimalist. And to think that to be a minimalist you can't have any chatch keys is insane. You could have even if you're a collector of something, say you're collector of trolls, which I saw of recent

reel of and this woman has like thousands of troll dolls. WHOA, But I didn't see any other collections of any other things, any other chratch keys. Just a full basement of troll dolls, and you know, good desire and good yeah. And she also said in the real I am ageless, and I said, yes you are, but so yeah, minimalism. I'm more minimal ish. But I think we really put that in an extreme So, but it is charming, Like I will agree, I love

the word charming. So frugality does naturally encourage a bend towards minimalism by prompting you to buy less than you naturally own less. And I think this is a harsh truth of decluttering. So much of decluttering is a marketing like it's I don't know if it's marketing, but so much of it promotes organizing, which is just telling you to buy more stuff to organize with.

Speaker 3

Uh.

Speaker 1

So I would say, if you like, decluttering is pointless if you don't first get at the root of why you're consuming. Right, we can all agree on that. So minimalism is just a mindset that will help you consume less and maybe giving give you an extra reason to consume less. It plays on simplification, So there's just a lot of good stuff around it as long as you separate it from that extreme view of minimalism, or that minimalism has like a set guideline of anything that it should look like anything.

Speaker 4

That's the thing.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I haven't totally departed from that word. I just think that it can be so flexible in what it looks like for people, and that primarily we're advocating for

just less clutter and more simple spaces and schedules. The final benefit of frugality, which we've kind of alluded to already but also one of our faves, is that it can connect us to like minded community so we can find people who share our goals, and that can include joining a buy nothing group or swapping tips with friends, or following frugal living podcasts or blogs, or reading the books,

and these communities can be super supportive and inspiring. It's one of the reasons that we want a listener segment as part of this podcast from the very beginning that we recognize we don't have the corner on frugality. We want to hear from you all, learn from you all.

It's why we have our Frugal Friends community on Facebook, It's why we invite you to engage with us on Instagram, and yeah, a lot of these are digital ways of connecting, but we experience a lot of support and motivation through this, and it can also be the launching point to including people just in your community, to be able to listen to a podcast together and chat about it, or read a book together and discuss or do more frugal, low cost activities, just to be able to share with your

friends your low consumption journey and inspire one another. There's so much benefit to community, especially when we can learn to leverage it towards growth and the things that we want to be accomplishing. We can just learn so much more together. Yes, you know, speaking of learning, where I do think we get some learning and just some fun tidbits.

Speaker 1

And a true benefit of frugality is having one of these to call in every week.

Speaker 3

Oh, the bill of the week.

Speaker 2

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. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.

Speaker 5

Hi, this is Marie from Alberta, Canada. My favorite bill of the week was when my sons were nine.

Speaker 4

And ten years old.

Speaker 5

We had been teaching them how to budget since they were very little, and they would want and they wanted to buy something. We would put money away and we'd make a chart. This is how much money you have left, this is where you are, and then when they finally got to the mount that they needed, we'd go to the store and we'd buy it. Then they wanted to learn about a credit card, so we said, okay, let's go. We went to the store. We said, when you let's

pick out something. They picked it out, so I said, you don't have to pay now, but when the bill comes in, you have to pay it.

Speaker 4

Well, they were very happy.

Speaker 5

So we went home and then a month later the bill came and I said, okay, boys, it's time to pay the bill. And they looked at me and said, but Mom, we finished our video game. Why do we have to pay that bill? And I said, that's the lesson of a credit card. It doesn't matter whether you are still using the item or not. You put it on the card and you have to pay it. That was the best lesson they learned, because they have been great with credit cards ever since. Thank you for all you do.

Speaker 4

I love your podcast. Bye bye.

Speaker 1

Oh wow, Murrie, what a great lesson.

Speaker 4

I love this.

Speaker 3

I actually one have chills right now because we were just talking about how this community teaches us things and we learn and we're supported and encouraged and yeah, I'm learning.

Speaker 4

A good approach.

Speaker 1

What a good Yeah, so much better than just teaching kids credit cards are bad, because that's what my parents taught me. And guess what I did as soon as I turned eighteen. The second I turned eighteen, I went out and got a credit card and immediately maxed it out because I thought I was smarter than my parents.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah, And I'm hearing from her too that it's not just about don't ever have a credit card, but like, here's the realities of it, and for some of us, yeah, that does work. I recognize that. Okay, I didn't pay for it then, but now I'm going to pay for it now. You really drove home that lesson. Super Well

well done, Murrie, Thanks for sharing about your boys. If you have a bill that you want to submit, if it has to do with financial education and literacy, or bills that you did pay a little later, bills you paid right on time, bills you don't mind paying. You know what we want, frugal friendspodcast, dot com, slash bill, leave it for us and now it's time for hyping up.

Speaker 4

All right.

Speaker 1

What's the most rewarding part of living frugally for you? So getting for me, it's getting to do the work that we do. We do not make a ton of money because we don't sell coaching. We don't sell like

high ticket courses or memberships. Like most of the digital creators that are doing this full time, they live well, know all of them they live off of brand deals that sell you products and high priced digital things you know, like so, and none of these are bad, right, they're great, But we want to We wanted to bring you a book buy what you love without going broke, and so we wanted to really focus on getting that into the

world and promoting it. And advertisements do support this show, so we appreciate your grace in listening to them or at least, you know, skipping through them and not sending us angry emails. So, but we don't make a ton of money through it. But because we live frugally, we can do this show and make our measley salary. And my husband was able to quit his really demanding, exhausting, emotionally and physically exhausting job to take a twenty thousand dollars pay cut and work at a job he really

enjoys and has a very good schedule. And both of those were able to happen at the same time because we were living on you know, one salary to begin with.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, I'll say something different, but I would agree with what you're describing and same, and it should have been One of the top ten reasons is just the more flexible life.

Speaker 1

Well, if that financial freedom, that flexibility is the real it's yeah, that flexibility to save as much as you want or do the work you want, yea, you know, all.

Speaker 3

That learning to live off of less without it being deprivation, and utilizing the seasons when there is maybe a little bit more to stash away not just spend it all, can allow some of that flexibility to say, you know what, actually, I'm going to choose a pay cut and that's actually going to be really great for my well being and maybe it's not for forever, but and we've heard so many of our listeners say that too, Like, it's not

just always about earning more. Sometimes it's the permission to earn less if that's gonna be best for you at this time, and yet still living a full life and you know, not actually sacrificing too much in the process.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 3

So, while while I would say same, I'll choose something different.

Speaker 4

I think.

Speaker 3

Less consumption leads to less overwhelmed, certainly for me, but specifically as it relates to doing this podcast. I think I've said recently how I'll bemoan the fact that many times people who don't necessarily listen to the podcast, but know I have a podcast about frugal living, will assume what that means and how that can become laborious for me. Of No, it's not about couponing or getting shirts for the lowest possible price meanwhile exploiting other people's labor.

Speaker 4

It's not about that.

Speaker 3

The pop positive side of it is that, yeah, people know that I'm going to be kind of mindful of my resources, and those who know me well are super accepting and supportive of that. Where I do feel a true freedom and license to not partake in some of the typical things that people partake in, and thankfully because.

Speaker 4

Of the field that I'm in, people don't give me.

Speaker 3

Too crazy of looks for that, although I can deal with that. But that's the flip side of it that I feel absolute licensed to just say no, I'm actually not going to get a second car, and I'm not going to go out to a restaurant five days a week, and I'm not going to continue to just buy things on the internet and have a package at my door every day, and I'm not going to be easily influenced by Instagram ads, and I'm going to curate the things that I'm rolling through and I think over time it

has accumulated to just less overwhelm with that permission too, that I can live life differently. I don't have to say yes to all of the things that other people are saying yes to. I get to say yes to the things that I decide, and I just feel so much less chaos inside me.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Absolutely, so, thank you so much for listening. And I hope this is really if you're already feeling like a frugal person, I hope this has helped just to solidify you if you're trying to find the appeal in frugality. I hope this has inspired you to take on this identity to live this lifestyle, because it's not until you truly like internalize it will you start to see it on the outside, i e. In impulse, spending less and just having just like wanting not wanting less, but wanting different.

And so we hope that if you want to learn more, you'll check out our book By What you Love Without Going Broke. It will help you a lot in taking action in becoming more frugal and aligning your spending with your values. And we have loved reading your kind reviews of the book. Like this one from Patricia. It's five stars. She says, gentle and encouraging. I really can't say enough

good things about this book. It's such a gentle and encouraging take on the psychology of why we spend money and how our decisions surrounding money are either helpful or not helpful. In reference to her personal goals, this is the financial book I wish I had read at the beginning of my journey with debt payoff and financial education. It has still come to me at a time when I needed a refresh recourse on why being intentional with

my money matters. Both Jen and Jill from the Frugal Friends podcast knocked this one out of the park a fantastic read. I highly recommend, Oh Trisha, this is so kind. Thank you, such authentic words. I love reading the ways that it's landing with other people. If you all listening have purchased the book and you haven't left us a review.

Speaker 4

Yet, please do so. It really helps us.

Speaker 3

And if you've not gotten the book by what you loovebook dot com, it's gonna give you even more motivation and tips on how to live and embrace this frugal lifestyle.

Speaker 1

Yes see you next time.

Speaker 4

Bye.

Speaker 1

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. All Right, so this doesn't have to be the topic of our entire after show. But I have not been able to stop itching my nose. So if you've heard in the audio like a weird sound, probably me itching my nose. I just want to like reference that. I don't know why. It usually only happens when I drink wine. And I promise you I have not had wine right this morning. Okay it is, I believe you, twelve twenty in the afternoon and I have not had any wine today.

Speaker 3

It also happened to you when you drank hazelnut coffee that I had at my house.

Speaker 4

Oh do you remember that?

Speaker 1

Yeah, but I have not had any hazel nuts.

Speaker 3

Oh but you did get coffee out today. I see it take up takeout mug on your desk.

Speaker 1

Yeah, but I've had that coffee. Man, it's my favorite one from Carr.

Speaker 4

It's away from me.

Speaker 1

But I usually get a medium and I got a small today. Maybe that's the problem.

Speaker 3

Yes, you're allergic to I'm allergic to a smaller size.

Speaker 1

Oh gosh, I need to just get the big one.

Speaker 4

That's it. That's it.

Speaker 3

I don't know.

Speaker 1

Maybe it's that I took one of those cup bowl yeah things, and maybe that has like cat hair or something on it. Maybe it hasn't been washed and somebody with a cat held it. That could also be the culprit. I think that's the probably the most likely scenario.

Speaker 3

In case you're still here and you're confused, we have a new podcast studio. Yes, out of both of our homes, we rent an office space at a coworking facility facility that's on so intense coworking building, and they've got a shared kitchen with these like cozys, like sewed fabric things for a cozy, yeah, for a bowl, but for a bowl, which is awesome.

Speaker 1

You put a bolder and the sides are kind of stitched up so the potholder does not lie flat, but the corners are shaped.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so you can kind of hold something like a bowl, a warm bowl in your hands, and that's why it might have mystery cat hair because it's a shared sp Yeah.

Speaker 1

So I'm gonna wash my hands after this and hopefully that will solve the problem. But let's talk a little bit about our mega survey.

Speaker 4

So if you.

Speaker 1

Are new here, every February, we do a mega survey, and by mega we mean ten questions. They are Nine of them are multiple choice, one of them is short answer. Essentially, if you have an episode.

Speaker 3

Idea mega because we want a mega amount of you listeners to respond to it. Yes, it would really help us. Here's the thing. We get a lot of people, not even a lot, and maybe that's part of the problem.

We get a handful of people dming us on Instagram about podcast episode ideas, and while I'll pull from that and add it to our sheet of podcasting ideas, they're all one off and so I can't totally tell if is this something that is super niche that this one individual want or would this appeal to the masses, because the podcast is going out to the masses, right, not

the individual person. And so something like this survey helps us to know what are the majority of people want to hear more of, because we do have to tailor things to the crowd of people rather than just the individual. But collectively, we do believe there's probably a lot of similarities between you all. We just have to capture what that is. And because I also don't want to assume that my experience is everybody's experiences just for Jen and I to pull topics out of thin air thinking this

would help me. We're still just the individual. We've got to make sure that our ideas are also going to fit your needs and keep you coming back for more.

Speaker 1

And so if you're still with us, this is not something we're talking about in the front letter or at the top of the episode, but we are going to be doing more YouTube this year, so you'll be able to see our faces.

Speaker 4

Out of the bag. That's why you're itching.

Speaker 1

But we're not because I'm nervous. It's not just so you can see our faces, right, That's not why we're doing YouTube. But we want to create a YouTube series that will live in the RSS feed eventually, but it's going to be YouTube first. That is truly good for YouTube. It's good visually. And so one of those ideas.

Speaker 4

Is you're telling you're telling at all?

Speaker 1

Well, if you're still here.

Speaker 4

Yeah, away, yeah, it being reality yeah yeah.

Speaker 1

So we want to do something similar to Remeet and Caleb Hammer, where they are doing financial coaching with people, but our spin on it is spending just looking at the way people spend money and helping people really think about what is the root cause of my spending? Is this overspending? Am I not spending enough here? And really helping people get a hold of their spending, reframe what they think they need to be spending on, or reframe

what they don't think. There are just so much there's so much convolution when we think about our spending, and as experts in spending, psychology and social work, we want to help people navigate that. We want to take what the book starts, and we want to help people progress after that and take really like real world you know, examples in action, and so that is something we're hoping

to do. If there's something you really like when you see YouTube videos about finance, please let us know in the mega survey.

Speaker 4

For goolfriendspodcast dot com slash Mega survey.

Speaker 1

If there's something you don't like besides being mean, we're not going to be mean. I know that you guys don't like. We don't like people being mean to other people in these things, even for shock value, even for views, We're not going to be mean. So you don't have

to put that. But if there's something you don't like that these other creators do, let us know so that we can steer away from it because we want to differentiate ourselves and we want a tailor for you guys, and it be something you guys want to watch on YouTube, something you would stream and cast on your TV to watch. Yeah, so let us know in the mega survey, and we know the real ones. Only the real ones are still here, and so you are who we want to hear from the YouTube guidance.

Speaker 3

It's so true, how fitting to be talking about this post this episode, because I think it really is a expanded community engagement that we want to do in twenty twenty five of hearing more from listeners. And actually that is some feedback that we've gotten over the years is more I mean some of it has talked about debt free stories, but like more real listeners, more of the community.

And we really feel like this is going to be the way to capture that, to allow us a different set of people that we can see ourselves in and glean some things, have our own takeaways as we explore other people's stories.

Speaker 4

Oh, I couldn't be more thrilled and excited.

Speaker 1

We're very, very excited about the direction. And yeah, we're gonna do some videos that are just Jill and I too, and they're going to be chill like the show, you know. So we're going to try to bring you several different options, but we would love to hear what you're interested, what you like on YouTube, What are you already watching, Who are you already watching? Let us know all the details so that we can watch them too, we can get inspired, and we can just create really helpful guidance.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so what you should be hearing is that there's no better time to have your voice heard and bear influence on the trajectory of the show because we are moving and shaking up something. So let us know what you want, what you don't want. Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash mega survey.

Speaker 1

And follow us on YouTube if you haven't already Frugal Friends.

Speaker 2

Bye,

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