When Buying a House is the Frugal Move | Should You Buy or Rent a Home?

the podcast just to hear your voice. Did I tell you that I think I might have texted you that? Oh I almost texted you that it was It was really adorable, if I can say so myself, Yes, and that I have to admit the first time I called you after being away from you for so long, I had to admit that I understand now what cute aggression is. And if you listen to the ends of the podcasts, you'll will know that Jill and I did not We

had differing views on like how much we loved babies. Yeah. No, one, it's either you really understand it or you really think it's weird and scary. There is no middle ground with cute aggression. But I am glad that there's a term for it so I don't feel as crazy. But it's basically where you want to bite off the chubby legs of babies. Yeah, and so I get it now. And even I found a key in peel sketch Um the like. Instead of babies, it was with puppies. So it's a thing,

and I get it, and I'm here for it. Yeah, we can link the key and Peel because it's worth it. We should definitely do that. Anyhow, Jen's back and we're not doing anything light today. I've decided we're getting back into it. You guys gave us a ton a ton of episode ideas in our Facebook group, the Frugal Friends community, and uh, we're diving right in with the renting verse buying discussion, and uh, I think you're all going to

really like it. Got some down payment info, some paying off mortgage versus investing, all that stuff upcoming, But first we wanted to talk about our sponsors and then we got a little surprise for you before we get into it. Today's episode is also brought to you by co Parenting have you recently had a baby and you're desperate to talk to tall humans again. Want to contribute something to society that doesn't poop on you. Try co parenting. Here's

how it works. Hand your child to your spouse, leave the house and say good luck. Co parenting. It's not just for dirty diapers or separated parents, but is literally what today's episode is brought to you by. Travis is in the other room holding our baby, and I'm so thankful for him. Yeah, I know, people really, I've seen parents do rock paper scissors, shoot for the dirty diapers or for bathtime, so it is really handy in those situations.

But and I have talked to men who have never changed a dirty diaper, or who like can't stand the sound of their child screaming. You can't handle it. And I'm like, you got a man up, You got to you gotta do this thing, you know, with your with your person. So shout on Travis. If you want to meet my co parent, if you want to beat me, if you want to meet Jill, we have a really special meet up planned and I'm so excited to announce this.

We will be in Washington, d C. September seven and we're doing a meet up at five thirty p m um at Calorama Park, Hope, I'm saying that right. It's by the Washington Hilton. So we'll post about this in our Frugal Friends Facebook community group. Hopefully we'll be able to announce it through finn Con. We will be at fin Con, so this is the meetup that we're doing during that time. But if you are also just in the area, you're welcome to join us because it's a

public park. No one's going to stop you from coming and hanging out with us. But you can't do anything strutchy because we will be in a public park. So don't think that you're going to be able to come and attack us because you care. Yeah, please don't. And if you have friends in the d C area, message them and tell them to come out because we're just gonna have a frugal time of fun. Bring your own snacks,

we're gonna hang out. There's a big playground for kids, and just hang out areas that we can be frugal and hang out. So that again, that is Calorama Park, September seven, at five thirty pm. We're super excited, Yeah, looking forward to meeting people in person. Let's get into it. Let's not waste any more time. We're talking about renting verse buying for houses, and so our first article is from life Hacker, and it's why the rent verse by

debate is pointless. So I really liked this article and the perspective that this author brings because at the end of the day, and so spoiler alert, it's not just about this conversation of renting versus buying. What life season are you in, what makes most sense for you as an individual, So that's the point of this question, not whether or not one side is always right or always wrong.

So I really appreciated that, and then I think it gave some excellent things to be thinking through with whatever season of life you're in on on what might be the best choice for you. And I think it's always true the pendulum swings right. Like years ago, it was you're an idiot if you don't buy. Buying is the best thing that you can ever do. And now there's articles coming out saying renting is the best thing. Don't

ever buy, that's the worst investment ever. And the reality is somewhere in the radical middle where no one often goes, but where we often should all live not in either extreme. So we're hoping to be able to walk that radical middle line with you all and help decide what's the best thing for you. So the article goes into the

arguments for both sides. What are the arguments for buying, what are the arguments for renting, and some of the common ones and both excellent points on each side for buying. When you pay off your home, it's yours. So they say that you eliminate the expense of housing once you've paid it off. Yeah, great point. It is an investment

in some ways. They also say that if the home appreciates more than what you've paid a mortgage, interests, taxes, maintenance over time, then you've earned a return or you've at least broken even, and then you've had a place to live. And a lot of times there's tax credits to help offset the cost of home ownership. Now we'll get into some of the devil's advocate pieces of even these arguments, but yeah, for the most part, those things

are true. And as far as renting, some of the arguments include that, uh, if you own your house, you're gonna pay quite a bit in interest and taxes, and that renting isn't just throwing money away like most people would say, you know that you're just flushing it down the toilet. Well, you get a place to live that does have value. So valid point and that there is an opportunity cost to buying. So what you pay in down payment, taxes, insurance, interests, etcetera, you could be investing

while you're renting. So it's worth thinking through if I want to rent long term, what could I be putting that money towards instead of towards a house. And so again, neither one is all right or all wrong. It just depends on your situation. But I think it's worth knowing

what are the arguments on both sides? For sure? Yeah, and I think people when they rent, you save up for that down payment, and so that's money that you could be investing, but you're saving for a down payment that over time will appreciate maybe four or five percent, so just over inflation. And then you're also when you're renting, your buying patients, you're buying flexibility. So it's these arguments that people have for not renting, I think are are

really overrated that coming from a homeowner. So there are a lot of strong arguments for either, and then there's some individual factors that make it impossible to simplify when you own a home. So these are some things that you should be aware of if you're looking to buy. So you want to know how long you'll live in the home. So this will vary and you you won't be able to pinpoint it exactly, but know that, just a rule of thumb, the longer you're in the home,

the better. You also want to know the cost of housing in your specific area, so that's different. In most cases, people rent because houses are too expensive in the area. But it all depends on the market you're in. And then again the opportunity costs of your taxes and insurance.

So what kind of long term return could you get if you had invested the money in the stock market instead of buying your house, Because most people will just look at a mortgage calculator and calculate their mortgage and p M I and stuff and forget about taxes and insurance.

Or they'll buy a home and look at what the past taxes have been and not realizing that once you buy that home, the cost of it goes up and that's um submitted to your city, so the taxes will be more than what it was previously because it's appraising for more, so you have to be aware that the taxes will most likely be higher than the taxes that

are on history. And then also the opportunity costs of the down payment, Like what I just said, if you're saving ten percent of your income for a down payment, that's ten percent you could have been investing for retirement. So you just have to weigh that it doesn't mean it's a bad thing, and that you should just be investing instead of saving for a higher down payment, because the bigger the down payment, the better. But you just

have to like, what are your priorities? Do you want to retire earlier or do you want to have a house for like you and your five kids? What's more important? And I think all these things are worth considering. I think for some folks there isn't much thought that goes into it, much like I'm going to college right after high school, there's not some for some people, there's not a consideration of what the other options are or why

they're doing it. So I think even the point of us even talking about this is just to bring some awareness to each of those things like we mentioned some of the unforeseen costs. What do you want your life to look like, what's the long term plan? What would be most beneficial for you and your family? And I appreciate how the article says in here that the answer and whether to rent or buy engines on the specifics of rent prices in your area versus prices on homes,

interest rates, and so on. So it doesn't mean that it is a good or bad decision. Like it buying a home could be a bad financial move, but for some it isn't. So there's so many things to consider. But I think that's the that's the key takeaway, is that let's think this through and not just say, oh, I've heard that it's flushing money down the drain to rent, or I've heard it's great to buy, and just do it, but to think through all of these other pieces that

go along with it. Yeah, I think we can alleviate like a lot of worry about this decision by stating that a home is a purchase, not an investment. So there are real estate investments, buying holds, flips, landlording. That's when a home house is an investment, but a home that you live in is a purchase. It's not something like your retirement fund that should be you know, growing it around eight percent, like a home won't grow enough

to make it a viable investment. So while it could be a good financial purchase, it is a purchase, and don't view it as an investment. So that's how that can take a lot of stress off, right, even the pressure or expectation that I'm going to be the next real estate guru through purchasing the place that I'm going to live and that's not reality. But yes, you do need a place to live that suits your needs, so

make a wise purchase. That's fantastic. I think I've heard you describe that in your own home buying journey, Jen, that you recognize what it was at the time you did purchase before you were out of debt, and just saying that, yeah, but the suited our needs and yeah exactly, And we were we were getting kicked out of our rental, not for anything we had done, but he wanted to

make it an airbnb. So we were getting pushed out and we decided we had the opportunity to rent or buy at that time, and the rentals we were looking at um didn't serve the quality of life that we wanted for the price, and like, granted, we're not looking for a high quality of life here. We were trying to pay off debt and you know, we took like catchup packets from the gas station instead of buying ketchup. You know, we're not looking for for lavish living quarters.

So it was just it didn't serve us in the way we wanted it. So we decided to buy and we put three percent down, which I like don't recommend, but it's what we did because we didn't have much time. Thankfully we were on We just used our money that we would have put towards debt the down payment, and we were on such a high momentum we were able

to get really quickly and we love our house. It was not a fixer upper like we had planned to do to you know, get the quote unquote investment out of It was a flipped home and so we we paid a premium for having it done for us, and I don't regret it for a millisecond. It was the fast decision because we got time back instead of putting it into our home um, which is an investment we would not see for a decade until we sold it.

We were able to put our time into our jobs and our side hustles that got us out of debt. And so that was that, you know, we paid a premium on one thing to be able to do something else. But yet it was a wise purchase for you and that you have been able to generate some come through

having it be an airbnb. So that's another consideration too that yeah, we don't want to always look at this as an investment but a purchase, but to consider how might off of this purchase, I'd be able to make some money or make this more cost effective for me in whether that you can utilize it for Airbnb, or have a personal business on the property or what have a garden, whatever the case is. Um, those are some

things to consider in buying. Also, yes, not a lot of people think about quote unquote house hacking when they're thinking about buying home. But it's such an amazing way to kind of go in the middle. So live like you're renting, but have that home that you can be building equity in. And it's basically the concept of buying a duplex or a triplex quad or a house with an in law suite, or if you're flexible, like Travis n I renting out your front room and bathroom on Airbnb.

But like, if you get the duplex, you can live in one side and rent out the other long term or on airbnb, whatever you feel comfortable with. My dream is to have a house with a in law suite one day that we can just generate continual income from the in law suite. So that is not something people automatically gravitate towards, but it is a highly underrated method.

And then once you're done and you want like an actual house, you can keep your duplex and continue renting it out for residual for past income um and then get your house. You know, and while you were living in the duplex, the side you were renting is paying for your mortgage, for your full mortgage. So it's just a great a great method. Again, I think patients and

thinking long term is so key here. I see so many people in our age group right thirties who are wanting to purchase their forever home, and it's like, well, does that have to be the goal or the expectation? Can we boot strap our way to that purchase within our means and generate some income off of our property and work our way up to that point and be a little bit more wise and for rugal if I can say it that way, by implementing some patients and

some long suffering in this process. Yeah, when we went into our home buying, we were adamant that we were not buying our dream home or our forever home. We were buying our starter home. And that allowed us to search like a lot smaller, something that we could be in for more than a few years. We'll talk about numbers later, but something we could be in a reasonable amount of time to get our money back, but not

something at we would be in for twenty years. So because we didn't need that space, we'll need that space in ten fifteen years, but we don't need it right now, and so we can afford to start with a smaller home. So that could even be one of the benefits of home buying sooners that you can start smaller, versus if you already have a big family, then you have to start larger. So it's just look at what makes sense

in your area. With those things considered, our next article is from bank Rate, and so this gets into some of the numbers and nuts and bolts when considering renting versus buying. So first you want to be in the right mindset knowing that it's there's no pressure you have to do what's right for you. But when you've decided what's right for you, you you can look more closely at the numbers. So some things to consider as you're debating

this topic for yourself is what can you afford? And so we'll tell you here's how you figure that out. Your total monthly costs if you were to buy, should be no more than of your take home pay. So total monthly costs that means your your mortgage, interest, insurance taxes, all of those things combined. You should not be spending more than of your income. Yeah. And you should also be able to put money away for appliance replacement, roof replacement, um,

and then things that come up. And and also like home improvement because you want to improve the house and make changes over time, so you should just be budgeting for that anyway, and all of that should be no more honestly, like, no more than in my opinion, but experts,

so we're going with you got five percent wiggle room. Yeah, And so the second question to ask is how do you plan to stay in the home, So in order to recoup closing costs, have the home appreciate enough to get money out and break even essentially when you sell it. Experts say that you should stay in at a minimum

of five years. So while we're saying don't buy your twenty year dream home, don't buy a tiny if you plan on like having a kid or something in the next six months, don't buy a tiny one bedroom duplex with one bedroom on each side. You know, don't buy something you won't be able to stay in for five years. Plan ahead and get something that you can stay in

for you know, a reasonable amount of time. Another question to consider is whether you want stability or flexibility, And so I think we can all assume what which one is which, but buying would equal some level of stability, ran ting could equate to some flexibility. So this is again where you have to consider your life stage and

potentially location. Also, even if you've been in an area for a while, is this where you want to settle down or would you want to consider a different area, or if you're moving into a new area, it may take you some time to figure out where you want to settle in. And so even if you have the money to buy, consider renting first to suss out the

area and decide. There are so many of my friends and even acquaintances who have moved to other cities and purchased immediately because they had the money and they toward the place on on a video call and just bought it. But then they got there and a few years later say, you know what, I actually want to be in this area. It's more family friendly, or there's more activities, the nightlife

is better, and I'm moving. And usually that happens before those five years that Jen just mentioned end of max or minimum amount of time to be able to recoup your costs. So just employing some wisdom in this for what's going to make most sense for you, even if you do have the money. Right and at that point it can be hard to justify renting, but know that

you're buying patients and time for that year. And I mean you could also negotiate with your landlord to say, you know, I'll be here seven months and then I'd like to go month to month, so you can you can have some negotiating power, especially if you have money upfront, maybe paying for seven months up front and saying like, don't raise the rent. I'm going to pay upfront, so give me a discount so you can have some negotiating power there. You also want to ask if you can

afford to be responsible for home repairs and maintenance. So that's that five percent that it's between five So it just depends on how many improvements you might want to make to the house, if you want to move in ready or if you want to do fix her upper. If you're doing moving ready, you're going to take out a bigger mortgage, but you're not going to have as much to save every month for repairs and maintenance and

vice versa. So this is where we say Mary rich or Mary Capable for that quote in a previous podcast episode. It was amazing to see the feedback on that one. Shirts Yeah, so Mary rich or Mary Capable, if you want to have a house that needs a lot of repairs, know that you can afford to be responsible for those. If you're a single person buying a home and you know that you're not capable of making all of those repairs right now, you're you don't know how to do them.

Budget for having somebody else do them and just be on the lookout for affordable handy men, trustworthy handymen um and make sure you have the money to pay them. But even if you're d I y NG supplies still cost money. So no matter which route, whether you are rich or you are capable, or you're both, it is

still going to cost money. Plumbing just by itself, just plumbing fixtures are so expensive, electrical tools, whatever, all of it, it does cost money even if you're doing it yourself, So consider that as well in in your home buying endeavors. Another thing to consider here is what are your financial career family goals and how will your living situation either help or hinder you in those goals. Do you want to retire early? Do you want a big family? Do

you already have a big family? Do you want to travel a lot? All these things would help you in considering what's going to be my best move for myself. For Eric and I right now, we don't have kids, we work remotely, and we travel a bunch. It is not in our best interests to be buying a home and cleaning that thing and mowing the lawn. That's that is the last way that I want to be spending

my time. So I think they're yeah, where you're at in life stage, what your life looks like, plays a big part in what you're going to choose to do here, right. We have a lot of people in the group that their plans they want to retire early, not like in their thirties and forties, but just earlier than maybe sixty five, and so putting more money, investing more money up front helps with that. We're actually going to talk about that next week. But doing that more upfront gets you rolling

to retire earlier. Whereas for saving for a down payment, for instance, experts say is the ideal down payment. We all know that, and not a lot of people put down on their first home, which is absolutely fine, But no, your mortgage payment and everything along with that is going to be more expensive if you don't, like we put three percent down. Flexible people say ten percent. But when you're doing that instead of putting ten percent into the stock market, you are going to have to work longer.

So I think I think ten percent is a fine down payment, especially if you're doing a lower cost home um. And then once you buy a home and you're moving to your second home, no less than so That's another reason you want to be able to stay in a place for more than five years, because you, without a doubt, want to put minimum down on your next home. So that's another thing you should keep in mind. Yeah. I

love in this article too. At the very end they go into advantages and disadvantages of both buying and renting. I think it's an excellent breakdown and could be really helpful in guiding us in the individual decisions that we each make on this. Just to name a few. For buying, the advantages being that you maybe you can build equity and credit. You don't have a landlord to answer to.

There is more stability, especially with schools. Uh. Some of the disadvantages mean that it requires more money, paperwork, all these things up front. You could lose money, right, That is a there is a big if on your home appreciative. Yes, um, there are extra expenses beyond mortgage payments, and you are responsible for all the repairs and just where the housing market is going to go and we don't always know that and it depends on the area you live in.

Regarding renting. There the advantages include that there's there's not a whole lot of costs involved, as far as upfront upfront costs, there's freedom to be a bit more mobile. You're not responsible for maintenance and repairs, you can build your credit, you don't have to worry about the housing

market rising or falling. No pretty tax. But then the disadvantages of a landlord could raise rent, they could sell um, you might have to move multiple times, and you're not building equity in that way as far as a house goes. So a really nice snapshot of some of the advantages and disadvantages of both that can help us to figure out what's going to be best for us. Where where we feel our most advantageous route is. Yeah, I'll put

another advantage on for renting. It keeps you more minimalist because moving every few years makes you go through all of your things and discard things you're no longer using, whereas in a house you don't. You're not forced to do that. And so definitely you can hoard a lot easier in a house, and I've seen that. And not that you don't care for your rental property. You don't or you don't take care of it, but there is

an awareness even subconsciously that it is not yours. So even the level of investment that you put into decorating oftentimes is more minimal, which is very nice on the

bank account also, So that's another thing to consider. If you know that once you get into a home, you're gonna want it to look exactly how you want it to look right away, and you don't have the patients to employ to wait to get a couch and to wait to get nice furniture, then then that could be a consideration in the amount of time that you take to buy. Yeah, that's an upfront cost that you have

to factor in to it. So we went from a one bedroom in a duplex to a three bed, two bath, and for the first six months while we were finishing paying off our debt, the extra two rooms were just empty. They were empty, and we didn't buy a bed or start doing Airbnb until we finished paying off stuff and we could furnish everything and get things pretty. But yeah, we had to be patient and wait in order to

put the money towards that stuff. Good for you, guys, You know what else is good jen, good for my soul, good for everyone. It's the bill of the week, that's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's built buffalo bills. Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi. I'm a listener of the Frugal

Friends podcast. My name is Tony, and I'm calling because I just heard the Homesteading episode where I was announced about the layoff at thirty one weeks pregnant. I just felt compelled to call. I am thirty one weeks pregnant, and I also have been living off one income, just

my husband's income. And to hear how doing that and the work it takes to do that paid off so that you can have peace of mind and not worry so much about finding the gig right away, it was really reassuring to me that we're on the right track. UM I had a bill of the week, so my bill of the week is maternity related. UM I got a bill for a genetic testing that we had done based on a Midwest recommendation, and I thought it would be covered, and it came to our apartment and was,

which was not in our budget at all. And UM I had been inspired by y'all's episode about calling about bills but doing it in a really nice way. I have the same issue where I can use my patients on the phone with customer service and usually send my husband to deal with people. But I decided, no, I'm going to do it. I'm gonna be extra nice, and I called my insurance company. They had denied the claim, but I have asked them to look it up, look up the exact claim working of what they covered, and

they could not even find it. So it was kind of ambiguous about what they covered or not in regards to the test. And then I also called the company and they said they would reopen the claim with the insurance company based on my conversation with them. So it's been about a month and we got our summary from the health insurance and they covered two thousand dollars of it. The claim got reopened and they processed it, and so

now I'm waiting for the black d dollar bill. But I'm definitely feel empowered to call the testing company and see if I can get any discounts on that too. So thank you all for your advice on Matt. I really appreciate it, and I really enjoyed the show. Thanks. Oh my gosh, I'm literally there pumping my fists in the air. There are two thousand things I love about this Bill of the week. Um. The first is that I'm so glad you were empowered by my story of

being laid off at thirty one weeks pregnant. Yeah, exactly what you said. When you're frugal and you live on less than one income, when you have two incomes and you don't have to worry about an unexpected job loss, and I'm I'm really excited for you to have that baby and know that feeling and not have to worry about that. And also, gosh, maternity related bills suck. I

am knee deep in them still. And I have also been on the phone with insurance providers and medical facilities and yes, they do offer like painful discounts, and insurance companies make mistakes all the time. I'm waiting. I've been charged three four thousand dollars for something that I shouldn't have been charged for and I'm waiting for them to take it off. So yeah, I'm so glad you did that, Tony. I agree with everything Jen said, and I just want to add that I'm so glad to hear that you're

being nice on the phone paid off. I know that that wasn't an easy thing to do. We're all growing in maturity over here, So so glad that you did that, and also celebrating with you for dropping two thousand dollars off of bill. My goodness, could you imagine if you had just tried to pay that without even knocking down some of these doors and spending some time on the phone. Just excellent job, Tony. Thanks for sharing. We hope it inspires others to do the same thing. Don't just let

these massive bills happen to you. There's something you can do about it, and you can do it in a kind way and still win. So thanks for sharing that bill with us, Tony. If you want to submit your bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill to leave us a bill. It can be heart felt, it can be funny. It can be full of wisdom and insight. It could be hardly related. It will take it all. It could just be that you are named Bill and you say whatever you want to

say on our podcast. Oh my gosh, so true. Yeah, I get your friends named Bill to call in that maybe a dangerous ask, but equally as dangerous. Sorry I didn't wait for you on that one. You shouldn't because this is this is your round. We do this for you, and this one specifically is for you because if there is one person that has not bothered with the by versus rent question, it's Jill. She has lived so many unique ways, not renting, not buying. Like, you don't have

to ask yourself this question. Just talk to Jill and she'll show you all the alternatives, the middle and the outliers. Yes, okay, Jill, here we go. Okay, I'm not sure what this is considered. I think we are benting, is that we're somewhere in the middle. So we live in an r V. I'm sure you all have heard this before. We have lived in an RV before. We're doing it again, and it is us owning within our means, but yet it is mobile, so we do have to find a place to park it.

So I would encourage anyone who does want a little bit of ownership but is not in a position to want to rent or buy. So there's a bit of both here where you own your home, but then you rent the space where you park it, or if you're lucky, you can find a free place to park it. But even still, the probably best to pay somebody at least a little bit of cash for for using their property

in that way. But it's a fantastic way for us to be able to have something that we are building a small amount of equity in certainly, but we have something that we can sell and hopefully it will be our down payment when we do find a place that we want to buy. Yeah, because you did fix up your RV, so you will be able to sell it for more than you pay. That we anticipate making um more than a couple grand off of selling this, which will mean then essentially we've lived for free and then

we have a down payment when we're done. So yes, that's that's my favorite hack. Yes. Another hack that Jill has used is to live with family. So this is not obviously something for large families or um older people might be sick of their family, but if you're young and you don't have many kids or don't have any kids, you can and should be open to the possibility of living with families. So either parents or grandparents maybe helping

them around the house in exchange for rent money. But yeah, it's a great way to postpone spending the money to rent or buy. Another thing that I have done and would recommend is long term house sitting. So again, an alternative to renting and to buying is if somebody is not living in their home for a season because of work or other life circumstances, and they want somebody to take care of their house or possibly pets or animals while they're a way, this is something that you could

also consider. I think we mentioned this in one of our previous episodes, but I can even post a link to some websites that helped to link up people looking for house sitters as well as people who want to house sit. Certainly there are short term options, but there are also people who are looking for a year or more for people to just house it and make sure that the pipes are being used and the properties being

cared for, and just keeping the house lived in. Yeah, because it is not uncommon that people have to go away for a year for a certificate for education or work or uh something that is actually super common. So and our last alternative to renting and buying is to build your own home out of earth bags. Yes, Jen, you went there. We I found an insulated earth bag house tutorial. If you're interested in building your own home out of bags filled with earth and stacking them on

top of each other. To be clear, this is not something that I have done them this one. I have not built a home out of earth bags. So maybe with this instruction article that I found, maybe this is what's next for you. It's inspiring me. I believe it. I believe it. If you have built your own earth bag house, please let us know in our Facebook group

Frugal Friends Community, and I will be impressed. Fantastic. Well, we hope this helps you on your journey of figuring out what's going to be best for you and whether you want to rent or buy. Just know that we we don't judge either way. Whatever is good for you, but I will encourage by within your means. Don't stretch so far that it causes overwhelming stress for you. Yeah, you should still be able to reach your other financial goals.

Consider think if you are buying, consider how you can make money off of your purchase, even if it's just a garage on the property that you can rent out as storage space or whatever the case. Is just get creative with it. That's the frugal way. Yes. And last but not least, we're doing the book club thing. So it is August, it's my birth month. What what I get to celebrate more in my being born, which I

really had little to do with. So thanks mom. And we're reading The Simple Path to Wealth by J. L. Collins this month for book clubs, so jump in on that. Yes, and this is a self published book, so a lot of libraries have it, but some don't. But it is essential reading for anybody that wants to learn about investing and retirement in a simple way. So if you want

a free copy, you can enter to win one. Just leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, screenshot the review and send it to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com and we will select one winner for every five reviews at the end of the month. You know, Jen, I was scrolling through our podcasts on iTunes and just found a really helpful review that I thought that I would share with people. Just some fantastic writing, great insight,

just really helpful. It happened to be five stars and it was written by Jasill Black Vizick, and they said just a lot of letters. It's just a lot of letters, but I think they're from Russia. They love the frugal friends and they say, I am so happy to have found this awesome podcast period space based space space. It brings me motivation and laughter. Thank you to write that, Jill, Is that what you're doing this? I did not write that. Can I can I write a review on my own podcast?

I haven't tried. I think so Travis wrote one, and you can you can clearly tell? Oh, you can clearly which I think I'm going to reading it on the pod. I think we will. I think I'm going to reference it in our next podcast. Anyhow, that's a helpful one that that's a potential potential book, book earning review and talk.

You don't have to even type in your name. You can literally take thirty seconds to type in some letters and a few sentences, and it does help more people find the podcast and get more information like whether they should buy or rent a house. So we really do value them and if you have some time, we would love for you to submit a review. So thank you so much for listening. We will see you next week with a really good guest interview. See you next week.

Welcome back, Jen, What What Frugal Friends is produced edited and mixed by Eric Syria. Oh. I do feel a little rusty, but it's it feels good to be back. What part of you it feels rusty? My mind feels good rusty. I don't know what happens to the body after giving birth, so I'm just making sure my body is okay. I did go back to CrossFit, Um, I know. Yeah, I started back and I've done two days so far, and my body is in extreme pain. Like I made a I was gonna how you're doing. Were you cleared

to go back? Yes, I've been cleared for a few weeks and I've just been waiting to really dive back into those You know, Jen, we're older now. The bodies don't just bounce back like they used to. I know, I'm thirty, I'm not in my two I know. It is interesting to see my friends who give birth in their early twenties versus those who give birth in their early thirties, and what they're able to jump back into

after childbirth is different. Yeah. Yeah, So I'm taking a break for the next few days to give my body a rest because it is similar the pain I feel is similar to the pain after I had a C section, is how I'm I'm having flashbacks like sitting on the toilet and like getting out of bed, like I was like, oh god, that's how That's how I felt what it was. But instead of just one area of my ad a minutes, all my muscles and all my body well. And it's not like you decided, oh good, I've been cleared, I'm

going to go take walks now. You jumped into cross fit, which did the most intense version of exercise and my estimation, so you might just need to be kind to yourself and not day that. Okay, I'm gonna go back in a few days. Okay, it's expensive. I gotta get my money's worth. That's the only reason I work always because it's expensive and I have to get my money's worth. And that's what motivates me, is money. Work out motivated by money. All right, see you later.