Time Management Tips That Save You Money

you know, because it's it's in the articles. But time does dictate how you spend your money in times, seasons that are more stressful, where there are more things on your plate, or if it's not even a season, if it's just your regular life you have to do. What's going on that can cause you to spend money in different ways. So we're to kind of explore that, dive in and talk about some time management that is good tips,

maybe some overrated tips will let you decide. Yeah, and I think too, when we get good at managing time, we get good at managing money. I think they go and vice versa, like they do go hand in hand, and then we'll talk about that in these articles. But did you read the first article did I did I actually prepare for this episode? Interesting? Well, we won't leave you hanging, but first, this episode is brought to you

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will be matching donations for another week. Thanks everyone for your support. Yes, so let talk about time management there are we haven't done a lot of time management episodes. I think we have talked about it a lot, kind of like in the essentialism sort of way, like that's a really popular book. But I think part of the dream life you know, that we're trying to pursue that is not dictated by money, is having that dream schedule.

And we always say, like frugality is essentially it's not just about money, but it's being a good stewart of all your resources. And time is your only, your one and only truly non renewable resource. You can truly not make more of it. There are some natural resources that you know are non renewable, but you can still find alternatives. There is no alternative to time. You cannot make more of it, and so that makes it important. And also how you spend your time dictates how your transactions look

in your bank account. I'm sure that you've already realized at So let's dive into our first episode on managing your time and mastering your money. Jill, I think you read this one. What do you think I did? I've prepared. Yeah, it's great. It has five different tips and almost kind of perspectives ways to help us think about the interconnection of time and money. And the second article does talk about this, but I want to highlight it here as well.

One of the paradigm shifts that has been helpful for me in just the vernacular around time management is the reality that we don't manage time. We manage ourselves in the midst of time. Of course, even with the counseling background that I have, this is a very common conversation that we will have with clients because it's something that

we're all continuously working on. How do we engage with what we've been given, the resources that we've been given, specifically the non renewable resource of time, like you mentioned, Jen, So I think it can help if we shift our mindset a bit that we are not the managers of time or the managers of ourselves in the midst of time, and that perspective can help us focus a bit more inward versus what's happening all around us and externally, but

what can I do with what I've been given? So coming from that framework, I think it is a helpful article to look at the intersection here and so first things first. Number one, they talk about when you manage both time and money, Well, there's more of it. And I'm putting that in air quotes because it's not as if we can actually make more of it, but we can have maybe more at our disposal than if we weren't actively engaged in looking at how can we utilize

time and money well. And so they're talking a lot about efficiency in this part, which I would absolutely agree with. I think that there's strong correlations between when we're intentional about budgeting and allocating our money, then we can find more resource, more pennies and dollars and tens of dollars in the budget to allocate better and maybe more towards

the things that we want and we value. And similarly, if we kind of quote unquote budget our time or manage ourselves well in the midst of time, we might find margin for ourselves in our schedules and in our routines and in our plans, and all of that can create more efficiency, which might create more opportunit unity to make more money if that is what we desire to do with that time, or just have more freedom and flexibility to do the things that we want and value.

I like what they say here in the last paragraph, so I'll just read it. What they say about number one, budgeting your money and your time takes effort and time, ironically, but the payoff is increased efficiency, which leaves you with

more money and more time. So I think that my takeaway and this first part is that efficiency component, thinking about how can we use our money more efficiently, how can we utilize the time we've been given more efficiently, And they think we are going to see benefit and

payoff in both regards. Yeah, I just highlighted in the in our outline that that quote we don't manage time, We manage ourselves in the midst of time, which is such a powerful paradigm shift because it will change the way you accept asks, you accept things into your schedule because it is you are actually in charge of your schedule, even if you don't feel like you feel like your kids are in charge of it, your spouse is in charge of it, your family is in charge of it.

You are in charge of your schedule. So you have to manage yourself in the time that you have and it doesn't always end up perfect, which is okay. Life isn't perfect everything, no season is perfect. You will never get to the perfect schedule. But if you're just looking for that one thing that you can change to feel less stressed, or to feel less overwhelmed, or to feel more in control, then you can start to move in

the right direction so that maybe next season feels better. Um, And I think that's always the goal, is just to be focusing on what's the next right thing almost, so yeah, I I love that for sure, the next on the list, and there there are five things on the list. But this is also a it's easy to forget this. But number two is realizing there are limits to both. So there are limits to both time and money. And for my money manifestation, babes, hear me out. So there are

only so many hours in the day. You know that you you cannot manifest more hours in the day. You cannot work more hours in the day. There is a limit to every hour of every day. You get twenty four except for when we hit daylight savings right one day year, one day year, you got the extra hour, Um, but it's taken from somewhere else, so exactly, yeah, it's taken from a second day. So really it's it's negated.

So yeah, So putting that in a perspective, yes, I can maybe comprehend I only get twenty four hours in a day, but that means I only get three sixty five days in a year, and I only get ten years in a decade, and my decades are finite. I will not live forever. So in order to have decades that I feel good about, to have years that I feel good about, I have to pay attention to the hours. I have to pay attention to the individual days because

those are what make up those bigger chunks. And so we are many times and I know this having having a small child, just trying to get through, just trying to get through the hours, make make it through the hours, and then I look back in the years and I wonder where they went. You know who? Everybody has done that, whether you have kids or not. So to make sure that you are fully cognizant there are limits to your

hours um and the same goes for money. You can always replenish your money, you can always be looking to make more, but at the end of the day, what you make is what you have, alright, So knowing that yes, you can use a credit card, but you will have to pay that back with interest kind of like daylight

savings worse, but it's worse. And so realizing that there are limits to your money, you are not limited by your money, and we hope to that that frugality and like what we teach through the show helps you feel that freedom, but also knowing like you have what you have, and if that have is not saving for retirement, if that has not paying off high interest at if what you have is not going towards these future things, then these future decades, these future years, etcetera, etcetera, you will

not have more of them to make up for what you're not doing now with your money. And so there is no right time to start managing your money. Well, the time, the best time was yesterday. The second best time is today, to doing those small things, to paying attention. So yeah, realizing that and even cognitively realizing that we have limits. We put so much into our schedule because we think cognitively and energetically we have you know, we could do it all, but no, you have physical and

mental limits too. So we are we are limited, but not living in fear of those limits. Uh, living trying to make the most of those limits. That's the goal. I love listening to you talk. I just get on these soapboxes. We never stop. You're so clean after watching you on that soapbox, clean and motivated. So that leads quite well into number three. We are not limitless. We do have. All of us have a version of capacity.

Our capacities are different, but it's not limitless capacity. And because of that, we need to get really good at prioritizing, which is what number three is talking about. And this applies to both time and money. It's why we talk a lot in the personal finance space about identifying your why, thinking big, thinking goals, thinking long terms, so that that can help you stay on track with what is priority. That's what a why is. It's what your goal is

as a priority. But same thing for time. And I think this is what can be the biggest barrier in whether or not we're managing ourselves or managing our money well, is a lack of not just identifying priorities, but keeping them front of mind. I think any leadership conference I've ever been to, there's always some talk about priorities because we have to constantly come back to them of Okay,

what is priority. It's a problem for all of us, whether at home or in the workplace, and keeping that because it's oftentimes the thing that's right in front of us that steals attention, that steals money, and we just get so off track and we've got to come back to okay, but that did that actually help me towards my larger goal. And so I think for starters, we have to say what is the priority. We need to

know what that is first, And it's okay. If we don't know, we're not We're not crazy for not knowing. We're not silly for not knowing. Was Sometimes we just haven't given ourselves the space. So we've got to sit down first and say what's priority for my time and what's priority for my money? Right where whole people. It's why this is so interconnected. As we get better with one, we're going to get better with the other one of

the activities. So I'll pull in some of the work that I do in my day job that can be helpful with this, because I know so many of us are overwhelmed. We've got full schedules, we've got multiple demands on our cash, on our capacities, on our limitations. So helpful activity could be. You know me, I'm visual, and I think many of us can find these things useful. Actually, get out some pen and paper and consider this concept of what's on your plate? And you could literally draw

a plate. If you want to get super creative, you can actually take a dish out of your kitchen and have different items in your kitchen represent what's going on in your life. But look at what's actually on my plate. What are the things demanding time, energy, attention, money, and allow allow that visual to kind of pull to the surface. Okay, but what's most important? What are the kind of what? What are what's the meat? What's the protein here that needs to stay? And what are the side pieces that

maybe aren't as important. Let that determine your priorities and then from there, whether you want to keep that visual in front of you, if you want to hang it on your fridge then, or some way of reminding yourself of those things on a regular basis, again both for your time, for your calendar as well as for your money. I know many people who keep like a written calendar will often keep a written list of what's priority and that could that could go month to month, just like

our budgets go month to month. What's priority this month? Keep that written list or visual on your written calendar so that when a demand comes, hey can you do this? Are you available this night? You can go back to this list. Does it attach back to what I said as priority? Yes? Or no, that can take my answer for whether or not I'm going to be involved in that thing again. As we get better at this and kind of holding the reins, recognizing our limitations, we will

find margin in our calendars. We will find margin in our wallets. If we're able to continuously connect back to what's priority, what's priority even just for the month. You don't have to get too big with it. We don't have to think annually, think month to month. Yeah. I

love the idea of prioritization. It's so funny. People will like like bring us on their show or something, or be like familiar with us, and they're like, I just love your balanced approach, like just having everything in balance, And I was like, I I hate the word balance. Hot take. I think the concept of balance is toxic because we envision it like having everything and being this

like zen balanced person. But when you are at everything on the same level, then you are juggling so many priorities you don't know when to stop adding, and eventually everything comes crashing. Like balance is a myth. The concept

of balance is toxic. Prioritization is when you lay everything down, all these things you've been juggling, You lay it all down and you choose what's most important, and then you prioritize everything in order, and the things that don't fit that are in the bottom, you say no to them, and they're no longer in the balance. They're out so many boxes of soap, at least for now. Maybe not forever, but maybe just for now. And so that is the concept of prioritizing. That's what we like. That's what we

say in finances with financial goals. It's also what we say with responsibilities in regard to our time. And when we do that, then we have more mental and physical energy to make better decisions about not just our time, but about where we spend our money and how we earn our money. The reason a see saw is so fun is because balance is a myth. Absolutely, yes, think about it. Yes all right, just just come onto the soapbox with me. There's room. Let's get some water involved,

and we got ourselves a true bath. Yes all right. So number four is used tools to help stay on track, and I love so technology is a blessing and a curse, right, So I love the fact that technology exists to help us stay on track with the goals we say we want to reach. Um. And so you can take advantage of tools, uh, like you know, project management software on

your computer or apps on your phone. So whether it's a budgeting app or you're using Google Sheets on the Google Sheets app for your budgeting spreadsheep, or a task management method, there are so many. We'll talk about some of them in the next article, but there are or I and Jill also we love paper. We just I mean, it's not a technology tool, but it is a tool. So shared calendars, whatever, use tools to help you don't make like and and here's another thing that I may

have a hot take on. It's like, god, what is it called the journaling? The scheduling and the journaling where they do the the doodling and the stickers and bullet journal bullet journaling. Yes, bullet journaling is also toxic because you're essentially glorifying your schedule. And it's how many things can I fit into my schedule to make my bullet journal look beautiful? And and that's not the goal. The goal is not the perfect schedule. The goal is just

to have the schedule be something maintained. UM, So you can stay on track with whatever your intentions are. So use tools. But No, don't idolize tools. M hold the tension, not the balance. And lastly number five, keep adjusting. You know this, there's freedom. We are static, We're no, we're dynamic. We're not static, and there is space to continually review, adjust,

make amendments to our time and our money. So similar to how we want to be looking at what the money coming in and the money going out monthly, keeping a pulse on what's coming up, what unexpected or maybe uncommon expenses are coming up. Similarly with our time, what was good for me last month might not be good for me this month. There might be more demands on my schedule this month. Fine, what's that going to mean

for me next month? How can I then increase my margin and get some rest based on what has been demanded of me? Some of it maybe I didn't have control over. So we don't want to hold ourselves to a budget or a calendar, or schedule or a routine

if it's not fitting our needs. We need to be keeping a pulse on this and giving ourselves freedom to adjust that in a way that's going to work for us, not just not someone else's goals or not even our own fantasy of ourselves, but what's actually working and what's helping us be the best version of ourselves? Yes, so that leads us into our next article, which is eleven time management tips that work, and we don't have to

go through all of them. Some of them are a reiteration of what we just talked about, but we do want to give the Frugal Friends filter on some of these. Uh So, yeah, I will. I'll just dive into the first one because it's a quick one. We already talked about it. Time management is a myth, so going into these, realize there are a lot of tips. There's a Parretto principle, there's time blocking, there's ma adriata. Those are not what we're going through here. That's that is managing time, not

managing yourself. These are tips to manage yourself. So just remember, no matter how organized you are, no matter how prettier bullet journal is, they're only twenty four hours in a day. Time doesn't change, and all we can do is manage ourselves and keep that in mind. Yeah, so I will highlight number two and the frugirl Friends filter here. Here's what number two says, find out where you're wasting time. Now, for girl friends. Filter for me is I don't love

this concept of like wasting time. That would more so be a matter of maybe utilizing time in a way that you don't want to, or spending time on something that you don't want to. But it also does tell us something about ourselves. So they give us this example in number two about how a survey in salary dot com revealed that of respondence to that survey admitted wasting time every day at work, um about thirty percent said

thirty minutes a day was wasted. Thirty percent said about one hour was wasted, and so on and so forth. And I have to wonder about this, like what that actually means. I think that they're talking about scrolling social media, maybe taking a personal call. But to me, I think it reveals a bit about how we work and what's necessary for our work. I know that the way that our typical work environment is structured is you know, you're nine to five, you're you're nine to six, even with

an hour lunch break. But is that what we have capacity to do? Is it realistic to think you've got eight hours of productive work in a day? And I just don't think. I think the answer to that is no I and research is coming out about that. I don't have an exact link for you at the moment, but I know there's been a lot of talk about how we may only have about four hours of focused, dedicated energy in a day to actually get like the

quote unquote real work done. And we need some of those yeah, the deep work, the deep focus, and we need need some of those breaks. We need to stand up and stretch, we need to use the restroom, we need to have lighthearted conversation. So I think I would also challenge this idea of what does wasting time mean?

And maybe if there's room to shift this too. Okay, these things are helpful for me, but maybe I want to put a limitation on that, so that that's kind of my approach, Like I'll go an hour and a half spurts throughout the day and then and then pause and I'll watch a funny video, or I'll get up and walk outside and look at the sun, Like there,

we do need that, otherwise we're not machines. So I just want to push back on that idea of like wasting time and sure we might put more time to something than we want to, but maybe there's a way to incorporate that into our schedules that we can feel good about. And we don't term it wasting time. It's just we've understood ourselves more and know what we need to manage ourselves is in the midst of time. Well, yeah, and different people work differently, so some people need to

space things out. There's one tip on here that says, don't waste time, just go back to back to back. Some people cannot do that, so some people like need the breaks. I personally, like, I have a d h D, so like I hyper focus for four to five hours at a time. I don't get up, I don't eat, I don't do anything, and I just work straight and then I'm done. Then my brain is done and I do not work anymore for the rest of the day.

And my husband will if he comes home early, and he'll just see me like watching TV or lying down on the couch. He's like, do you work, And I'm like, yes, I do. It doesn't make a ton of money, but I promise I do. Just work here for the deep focus. So many soap boxes. So uh so yeah, that peeple. Different people work different ways, so yeah, I would put I would equally push back on the the quote unquote waste. So let's move into something I think is more beneficial.

So I'm going to combine three and four, so it's create time management goals and create a plan essentially to implement those goals. So the that says to remember the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. Again, I want to highlight it heart it. It's behaviors because you can't change time. So a good place to start it could be if you identify any personal time wasters to make it a goal to eliminate those.

So for me, it is social media. I right now not on any social media apps because those were big i'm wasters for me and I would say, oh, I'm I'm doing it for work. I've got to do it for work. When I actually took it out, like got off Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, took them all away, you will see we still our social media manager Paula runs our frigal friends Instagram, so so we're still posting on there,

but I am not involved with it at all. And it has really changed my awareness of how I'm spending my time after work. And so yeah, at first it was just a goal. I wanted to do it for you know, a couple of weeks and now I know you remember when I started, and I'm still off, but I know I have to get back on eventually, like for work. But I'm just gonna let it ride until that day which is coming up because I have a

deadline for a for a post. But yeah, to just do that and then so obviously I had to implement a plan for that. I did it in stages essentially. So the objective it says is to change your behaviors over time to achieve the general goals. So not doing a cold turkey change, um, but making little little changes. So if you feel like you have a packed schedule, obviously it's not going to be feasible for you to just drop everything. You may have made commitments you need

to see through. Uh, So you don't want to just ghost people and let other people you know, leave them hanging. But again, when you prioritize, you can see what are the things that I'm going laying everything down, what are the things I'm gonna pick back up, and what are the things I'm gonna leave down here for now? Um, So you it says you need to not only set specific goals, but track them over time to see whether or not you are accomplishing them using your time management plan.

So that's not really a framework. I'm sure you wanted like a smart goal framework for that, but it's really just what am I What are my personal time wasters or I would say, because I'm not liking the word waste anymore right now, things that are not moving me closer to my goals, things that are not life giving. What are the things that are, you know, sucking the life from me? And how can I make a plan

to eliminate or replace them? Yeah? Well, the similarities between time and money can continue, and I think how we approach it is similar. So where we often tell people in the personal finance process when we're just getting started as know where your money is going first before you can implement a plan, it's the same thing with time. Nowhere your time is currently going before you can identify what's next. I do think it can be a little bit easier to track you're spending than it is to

track your time. Absolutely, we can use some of the apps on our phone, like like the screen time tracker. Oh man, that thing doesn't lie. It's a sneaky, sneaky little truth teller. And similarly, I think we can think, oh, I'm not spending that much on take out our restaurants, and then we look back at our transaction list and sure enough, we spend way more than we thought we did. So check out that screen time report and where is it going? Is it what you expected? Are you shocked

by anything? Is that the amount of time you want to be giving to that? But then also start to keep track again. This might be a piece of paper that you keep on hand and write down where did your day go to? Are you pleased with that? Is it aligned with your values and priorities? Are you not? What do you want to shift? And then from there, similar to how we approach money, implement the plan, but also identify what tools are going to work for you. For me, when it comes to a budget, I created

my own spreadsheet. It's what I love. Others like apps awesome when it comes to time management. Do you want to use a spreadsheet? Do you want to use an online calendar or a written calendar? Are there apps that could be helpful for you? Do you want to use timers? Like? Do you want to put timers on your phone and set some limits to how long you spend cleaning, because oh, that's what I can get caught up in is one thing needs to another. And now I've done this for

two hours, and maybe I didn't want to. Yes, I like a clean home, but but it might have been more important for me to have spent that time writing something than it would have been to like mop my floor. And that really all I wanted to do was like wipe down the counter. So I think something like that can help us kind of put those limitations in place. So figure out the tools that are going to be useful for you. And that's number five. Here's here's an embarrassment. One.

Track how many hours a week you do something to procrastinate doing something more important. That's where cleaning is for me. I'm I procrastic clean. I don't want to do something else. I'm like, well, cleaning is a good use of my time. I should clean my house. Look at it. It's a disaster. It's this very moment that my fridge needs to be wiped down, all the condiments need to come out, and those drawers need to be vacuumed, Like what not? Right now? Yes?

So track how many hours a week you procrastinate and what you are doing to procrastinate so that you can identify, like, Okay, I'm doing this, is it because I've like really need to do it right now it's on my list or my procrastinating doing something more important? And do I need to do the more important thing and come back to the procrastic cleaning? I love that procrastically. Yeah, I didn't make it up. It's definitely something. So I think we

did we skip six? Did you go through here? We're spitballing. I don't know if that's the right use of that word term, but I'm going to go to number seven, learn to delegate and or outsource? Uh? And the author is not lying when they say delegation is one of the hardest things to learn how to do. And they're talking about business owners, but we are talking about every person in general. What is in your life that you may need to delegate and is it even if you

don't want to delegate, is it worth doing? Almost So, I think a lot of people start with cleaning, and that's a that's a totally fine one. But there are maybe I would argue things that we could give up that would allow us to clean before we have to delegate it out. And I am full, full on like in favor of the delegation. It is hard for me to delegate. So I'm probably not the best one to

talk about this one. But I have in in seasons where things are busy, like when we were moving and I needed to clean one house to move it, like move stuff out. I hired somebody to clean because there were too many things that the list in that season was too much for me to do um And I would say these things, these delegation things come in seasons.

So or maybe you just don't like something and you want to give it up and you want to make that room in your budget because you just hate dishes and you want to hire somebody to do your dishes. That's fine too, but definitely look at what you've got going on, what you enjoy. Could you give something up to fit more in so you don't have to delegate, or is it just a delegation season and recognize I think one of the biggest barriers to delegation is it

not being done to your standards. And that is true. You do run that risk, and oftentimes that is what happens, and there can be some some training and adjustment that comes into place in that delegation, but also being willing to let go of some of those standards for what it frees up for the mental space, the capacity, the time that it then gives you back to do the things that are actually priority for you to do. And this this rings true for anybody, business owners, people at

work or at home. I'm thinking of the example recently that I saw in my sister's household where she stumbled upon the reality that her five and seven year old know where the groceries go in the fridge and in the pantry, and that was one of the things that she really despised doing. Was Okay, I made the list, I went shopping, I brought it home, and now it's just the last thing that I want to do is put this away or there's other things that I could

be doing. And found out that the five and seven year old no exactly where all the produce goes and where all the snacks go, and now that's their job. And so yes, maybe there's mistakes that happened along the way, but like, look look to who's in your household and recognize that even like your children might be more capable than you think that they are. And that's gonna be useful to them too, for them to be useful contributing

members of the household. So yeah, they still around and delicate. Yes, yes, my three year old can put his laundry away. Does he put it in there? Well? No, but it's in there that I can't see. I like it and I don't care what it looks like on the inside because the standards have gone downhill and we're okay with it. I have no standards anymore. That's okay with me. Yes, well, the rest that's on this list, And don't you tell me, Jen, But you know, talking about setting time limits for tasks,

we've talked about that. I do love that. It's a great tip. Set a time limit. I think that can also help you get into that deep focus of Okay, now I'm not as pulled in different directions by all these different things. I'm giving myself an hour for this from giving myself ten minutes for this super super useful tool. Yeah. I think the only other one on this list that I like is to establish routines and stick to them.

Our brains love routine. It's how we develop habits. So when you create routines and you are adamant to sticking to them. Eventually your brain will create a habit where you're doing it without thinking. And that is always the goal. When we can move towards goals and healthy living without thinking about it, that is the epitome I think of all like life management. So just start with small routines.

That says, for most people, creating and following a routine lets them get right down to the tasks of the day rather than frittering away time getting started. And again that's in that percrostic cleaning. You know, if you just create those small routines that get it done, you'll will create habits and you will be able to manage yourself in time better. You know, one way that we manage

ourselves man manage this podcast. Well, in the midst of the fifty five minutes we've been given, and it has become a routine that has become a habit, I've already got it anymore. I know 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's bills, buffalo bills, bill claim. This is the bill of the week.

Hi there, this is also Jill from Iowa. UM. I was doing my spring a C check a couple of weeks ago, and I just thought it would be, you know, ninety dollars. They do a check, they would make sure everything was okay, and um, he ended up finding a leak and they needed to do a repair and there was like mold growing in the condenser, so they had to put a UV light system in and clean out all the air ducts, repair the a C league and

then put in more of the coolant. And so what I thought was going to be ninety dollars ended up costing me between three and four thousand dollars. But because I had then through of the last couple of years, because I opened my own business, I had emergency savings saved up, and so even though the bill was huge and sucked, I was able to pay it and so

that felt amazing. Thanks for everything you do. Love the podcast well, Jill, thanks for sharing that when I'm so sorry that it was such a high expense from what you thought would be ninety but that it was just an inconvenience that it wasn't an emergency, that it wasn't like it used your emergency then, but it wasn't like a crisis. It was just an inconvenience because you had

the savings for it. This is so disappointing, and I can just empathize with you of even if you've got the money, this as a fun thing to throw towards it, but how much worse it would have been if you didn't have the money for it. But there's a couple of things that you did here that are really quite incredible.

That proactive work of just checking the a C, getting it clean, doing the upkeep and catching this which who knows what would have happened if you hadn't been proactive, like what sorts of problems that could have turned into long term But then being prepared for an emergency something that you couldn't have foreseen that you would have had to put your money towards, and having that money for it, I mean, well done managing your money and your time

in the midst of all of this. Absolutely one tip I will say for anybody else trying this that when you get somebody doing a check up and they quote you three to four thousand dollars on something like this. Definitely go to a few other places and get and pay the ninety for a check there too, just to make sure you're getting your second and third opinion before you throw down. And you can always pin the companies against each other and be like, Okay, well I got

this quote on this from this person. If you can go you know lower, I'll get it done with you, and then you just say the same thing to the next person. You'll usually make back what you paid in those extra those extra checkup fees by negotiating down the price, or you save the money because it's a cheaper fixed

somewhere else. Maybe, Thanks Jill, Thanks Jen. If you all listening have a bill that you want to share, whether it's about a surprise bill that you happen to have the money to pay for because of your frugal lifestyle, or you know a person named Bill, we love it all. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. Leave us your bill, We're sitting here waiting for it. And now

it's time for round round. Alright, So what has been your biggest waste or is kind of your biggest personal waste of time and or money, And Jill, I feel personally attacked by your answer. It's not just directed to you, Gen, although I see why I'll go first. What I feel is a drain on my time. Something I do not want to give my time to is any time I have to do something twice, like just just a total redo, like I already did it, it was done, and for some reason it needs to be done again. That can

feel like a waste of time to me. Yeah, like recording an episode since I lost the audio. On my side, Jen feels attacked because we just had to do this yesterday, where it also made me furious. So yeah, no one, No one likes this. Like we remember in high school college days where we write a paper and that paper didn't save and you have to write it all over again, and it just feels like the first time you did it,

like what what was that time for? Or you go to cut something like cut and paste and you accidentally delete and you only find out like several pages later that what you thought you pasted you actually deleted, and that's happened to me. The worst is when you feel like you wasted time and money. This happened to us in a time when we hired someone to do work on our house and this was a this was a

delegation gone wrong. It really wasn't to our standards, and not only did that cost us money, it cost us time because then we had to redo it and that felt like, Okay, we had to do something over and we had hemorrhage money on it. That really stunk. Yeah, that is the So that is the fear with delegation, and that's why it's like, Okay, what can I give

up so that maybe I don't have to delegate? So so, you know, unless you found somebody trustworthy, but yeah, that is a scary thing that has happened to us as well.

We're currently looking to outsource some work on our house and it's like we could do it ourselves, but the draw is is that they can do the work while we are both working our jobs that and we're like, the quality will most likely be on par with what we could do ourselves as unprofessional d I wires, but it will get done while we are working and efficiency

is great. Yeah. Yeah, so you kind of have to prioritize is what is important and what you are willing to cast my eyes on for the sake of having more time. So so I mentioned this earlier that social media for me was a big waste of time. And it's like, I'm not even a big social media person, like not a big poster or anything, but I would get very wrapped up into watching other people's content because I have so many friends that are just amazing content creators,

and I love their stuff. I want to watch it, I want to like it and support them, and yeah, but it was just getting too much, and so I had to leave. And I've set my replaced that with like watching some extra YouTube and playing some extra Solitaire on my phone, but definitely not as much. Those can't suck me in as badly as the algorithm on Instagram could. So that was my biggest waste of time and energy, and that would sometimes distract me in the middle of

the day. I would just go on Instagram to take a break. Thirty minutes later, I'd still be on and not doing what I need to do to make money. So I think that, in combination, I think was my biggest time waster. Yeah, yeah, and realizing it and then adjusting. Yeah, and if I if there's a series on Netflix or something that I'm watching and I have to binge it. That can be dangerous. I have to binge it. I have to binge it. It's unhealthy. Oh well, thanks everyone

so much for listening. We hope you've got some sort of helpful tidbit for your time and your money. Many of you know that we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. Debbie, Debbie, You've got so many good things to say. Here's what Debbie says. I really like your identification of how having Prime made everything feel urgent, mind blown. I am not ready to cut Prime yet, but I

sure do have a grounding question. Is this urgent or does it just feel urgent? Because I can imagine having it delivered to my door in one or two days to ask myself before I order. Nice. I have not ordered at least five things in the last few days since I read this, because I recognized that the urgency was not reality. M Debbie. And this was actually in response to one of our other members wins and it's

just so much winning going on. Yeah, so great. Yeah, this like sense of urgency can compel us to do so much that isn't actually necessary, and so creating that pause to say is this actually priority? Is this actually urgent? Or is the sense of urgency that is fabricated and I can make a better, more informed decision for myself? Well done. It's that thinking, it's that using that brain

and time to create pauses. Time said is the perfect word, because sense of urgency is a marketing tactic that companies use to make you make impulse not make you, but like encourage you to make impulse purchases. So the sense of urgency you're feeling is there, but it's fabricated, it's not real. So asking that question, is it urgent or is a fabricated is it a feeling of urgency? Yeah?

So well Dot Debbie, thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club you can see they're what we have coming up next, See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. Yeah, what is it that you're trying to hire out? Jen? What feels worth delegation on your home rhyno projects? So when we've finished the rental I want to hire out both of the bathrooms. I want them done as quickly as possible,

both of the bathroom and the part that you live in. Yeah, so that is what I want done quickly, and I am willing to pay somebody to have the work done quickly. So I'll be looking here by the end of the year to hire somebody to do the work in the new year, or after Christmas or whenever. Like I know a lot of they get busy right before Christmas because people want their stuff done before the hall days. And I'm like, it's fine, do it right after the holidays.

I'll wait. I'll wait till the new year. That new year special. Yes, but yeah, I want to I want my bathrooms. I get it. You've got a lot of boxes of soap, so you've got to have a nice bathroom to store at it. I know my soapbox is so big, and keeping it in the living room is just not it's not doing it for me. It's not the best place for it. No, it's not. It's messy. Well I'm excited for that delegation. Yes, thank you.