Hello.
My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the
Order KERNI Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Beckside and with me is Victoria Device.
Hello and welcome to twenty twenty three Deep Dives. Are you excited?
I am so excited, A little nervous.
You look craly nervous?
Do I look? I'm really you're a little bit scary, being intimidating, all like five for one of me, just like towering over you.
Yes, you're a little I hate saying this pocket rocket.
No worse, we're going to go, we'll keep it on.
I'm very excited to do this deep dive with you today. Do you want to jump straight in?
Yeah, let's jump straight in. Great.
I think today's topic is actually all too relatable. I'll start by asking you, have you ever splurged a little bit when you really shouldn't have, Like, not anything huge, just misca our nail polish. I don't know, lipstick maybe if you have. Not only is it okay, but it's apparently so common that it's gotten its own name, the lipstick index. Have you heard of this?
I have.
I'm very excited to talk about this. I've mentioned it too a few of my friends and they're like, what are you talking about? So now we're doing a whole episode on it.
I mean, you've got it. I actually had never heard of this before, but it makes sense. I think this is a term we're going to hear more often than do you know why it might be more common.
Look, at the end of the day, the lipstick index exists as kind of like a really it's a bit fluffy, but it's a legit, which I find hilarious. But it's actually an indicator of an either an impending recession, or that we're already in a recession, and given we are likely to be headed into a recession this year, I don't want to put too many eggs all in that
one basket. But we've been talking about it in twenty twenty two, and I think it is only fair to really embrace it this year and talk about it now. But a lot of economists are predicting that we will fall into a recession this year, which is essentially where we have a pretty significant economic downturn. So it's a period of time where less people have jobs and there's less economic activity, so less trading.
People are a little bit worried.
And I would assume that if that's the case in the economy, that's the case in our community.
So we want to talk about it.
But during times of economic downturn more crisis, you can't actually afford big ticket items like I'm not going to go out and buy a brand new washing machine when I'm financially stressed. But you know what I can afford. I can afford a like a little premium luxury. I can go back and like lipstick that makes me feel good, because I might not be able to justify a whole, brand new outfit to make myself feel good.
But do you know what can make me feel good.
Like refresh it, treating yourself? Yeah, exactly, a lipstick. So that's why it's called the lipstick index, because it basically makes you feel good, but is a small amount of money.
Okay, that makes sense. I feel like I do that a little bit too often when I'm feeling already good.
Feel like I feel good. I need more I feel good.
I need to maintain this good feeling. I know that we're talking about the lipstick index, but if you don't mind, I might just quickly ask you what.
What it actually is and give it a more info.
What where? How does this happen?
Like?
How do we expect or predict a recession? What is a recession? Should I just be blissfully ignorant? Or should I know about this? Should prepared?
I think it's fair to know about it.
I think that you would have already heard, assuming that you don't live under a roll Clarke Patrick the Cistar, you would have heard of a recession, and you would assume that it's not a good thing. In twenty twenty two, we did a whole podcast on it, but you weren't here in twenty twenty two, so this is a very fair question. And I'm assuming we also have a number of brand new listeners, So we have heaps of resources
that you can go back to. Just type into your search bar on whatever podcasting app you do use She's on the Money, and then recession and our episodes that
reference that will come up. But essentially, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity that can last for months or even years, and experts basically declare, quote, we're in a recession when a nation's economy experiences negative gross domestic product, which is called GDP, essentially exports and rising levels of unemployment, as well as falling retail sales and contracting measures of income and manufacturing for extended periods of time.
So it's kind of like everything grinds to a massive holt, and I mean not absolutely everything, but like when things are going down, people get worried and you're like, oh, maybe I won't build that house, maybe I won't buy so many clothes, Maybe I'll just put that thing I've been planning on purchasing off for a little bit longer. Because you know, my husband now doesn't have a job or I'm seeing around me other people not have job stability, and that can be really stressful. So a recession is
something that is really stressful. And the last one we went through was the GFC, so the global financial crisis that happened in two thousand and eight and really impacted people in two thousand and nine, and that you know, we covered that on the podcast as well, So if you want to look that up, search she's on the Money GFC and it will come up because they deep
dived into that. But essentially, it's important to not only understand what a recession is, but also financially prepare for it, which we're going to do a lot of content on
these year. But the lipstick index is a term that's just kind of interesting, and I think that she's on the Money community will find it really interesting because it's one of those things that you don't realize how important little things are to a community until you know something bad happens and we start really appreciating the small pleasures. And I think it's also a really nice reminder that we can still have nice things when we don't have massive budgets.
That makes me feel a little bit better about my spending habits actually, but it does a bit weird that it's because like, I don't relate to that, I don't buy lipstick.
Why is that the term?
Why you come across as the type of gowl who decides that lipstick is ho splurge item. Yeah, Like, are we assuming that it's just for people who buy like small cosmetic items?
No?
No, no no.
So it was actually coined in the aftermath of September eleven, during the two thousand and one US recession by a guy called Leonard Lauder, who might be familiar because he's the chairman of stay Lauder Cosmetics. And this guy he found that lipstick sales Esta Lauder rose in the autumn of that year, which indicates that women facing an uncertain economic environment actually turned to beauty products as an affordable little treaty treat beck and it's continued to play out.
So in the financial crisis of two thousand and eight slash two thousand and nine that I mentioned before, sales of Foundation went through the roof, and Lurel's sales in general, like across the board, grew by five point eight percent, which is why, given we were in a recession and everything else was just going down and Loreal's like, Oh, we're over here making bank Heven a really good time.
Yeah, so it must be nice exactly.
So the lipstick index just comes from a guy who decided to call it that. It's not because lipstick is the only thing we're spending on. It just came from a guy who happens to be a chairman.
Of Esday lauder Town guy. Just a small town guy living in a big city. That's actually very interesting. Do they know why that is? Can you tell me how that actually works?
So the lipstick effect is a consumer expression of something the economists like to call the income effect. So with normal goods, as a consumer's income rises, so does demand. And we've talked about this before and I call it on the podcast lifestyle Creep, which you would have heard
me talk about a million times before. But essentially an example of lifestyle creeper is when I was at Uni, I used to buy like makeup and stuff from the supermarket and from price line, and now I have a full time job, I'm like dabbling with Mecca and my expenses have increased because obviously, like a Mecca foundation much more expensive. Though on the one on sale of coals, but it kind of just slowly creeps up on you. So with that in mind, for some goods known as
inferior goods, the rising consumer income actually weakens demand. So cheap domestic beer is a really good example of that. Nobody wants to drink the cheap, crappy stuff, And I think that that's a really good example of quote inferior goods. The opposite actually happens in the case of the lipstick effect.
So as consumers income's full or become less stable, they'll actually four go big ticket luxury items or big ticket luxury purchases that they can no longer afford, and instead spend their now reduced income on a smaller luxury item. Right now, when I say luxury item, I'm not talking like, oh, like people are stopping buying your bags, Beck, Like, oh, they're not headed off to Chanelle.
I know.
I pause my der bag subscription.
General, you have your bag subscription. You must have a dog, big dog.
Beck.
Yeah, it's pretty nice.
When we talk about that.
I feel like the word luxury, especially in twenty twenty two slash twenty twenty three, has a different take. Like, to me, luxury are those things that are not necessary in your budget. So we're not talking about like designer goods. When someone says, oh, luxury, I'm like, I immediately think of designer items. I don't know about you, I immediately think, oh,
they must be talking about like really expensive things. But luxury in this term of reference is actually just things that are not necessary, so like not housing, not food, not bills, like things that you know, going out for a drink with your mates, that's a luxury that's not a necessity. So things that are not necessary for your budget or your life, if that makes sense.
So we're not just talking about lipstick.
But I feel like it's a good example, right because not everyone buys it. But like, for example, I'm gonna pick on you for a hot second. You dyed your hair recently. I mean it was it was fun to watch on Instagram and thankfully it looks really good.
Like I'm shocked how good your hair looks.
Doesn't look good?
Yeah, it looks cute, You're real cute. But that would be a luxury purchase, as opposed to you're thinking maybe it was a deal.
Yeah, yeap, that makes sense. Okay. When I think of luxury, I honestly don't even think that far ahead. But it is whiled that going out for a drink with a mate is a luxury.
Well, it totally is a luxury.
Like it's something that not absolutely everybody has the privilege of experiencing because not everybody has the room in their budget to go. Oh, I can pop out for a beer with a mate, or in my be takeaway or Uber Eats, or it might be you know, you buying the pre prepared chicken at the supermarket as opposed to just marinating it yourself.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, when we say luxury, we're saying a luxury from my perspective, especially as somebody who knows money is something that is not necessary but makes you feel good.
So I guess you could probably understand that that's why I had to. Well I didn't have to, but I chose to bleach my hair at home as opposed to going to the salon.
Yeah, but it's still a luxury.
Rat like you was still able to afford to buy some bleach to do your hair. It's kind of like a more affordable luxury. An affordable luxury is something that I want to talk a little bit more about this year because I feel like people have blown it out of proportion, Like I'm on TikTok all the time. Now, I don't want to talk about my usage, but like I love TikTok, I'm obsessed with it. If anybody has noticed, I have been posting literally twice a day on about
the yeah big dog energy. Let's see if I can keep it up for the entirety of twenty twenty three. But something that I'm finding coming up on my FU page all the time is just like lots of luxury goods and people being like, oh, here's my hall from when I went shopping in Paris, or here's my outfit of the day, and like all of those things I really like consuming because like I love shiny things. I'm basically like a magpie. Like I see shiny and I'm like, ooh,
I need it. But it's interesting because I look at it and go wow, Like your outfit of the day is more than one thousand dollars, Like even a full outfit that's more than three hundred dollars to me is not reasonable. Like and I mean, don't get me wrong, I definitely have items in my wardrobe that are more than three hundred dollars. So it's not about being a hypocrite here. I'm just looking at it going wow, like
is this the new normal? Are we meant to look at it and be like, oh, you're meant to be wearing Chanel shoes because like, oh, there's such a good staple and I get good cost per way, Like why are people just anyway? We can talk about affordable luxuries on another episode, but I think it's really important to kind of check our imprivilege, right because regardless of what our income is, as you said before, it's a really
good example. You were like, I, you know, didn't go to the salon because to go as blonde as you went would be like minimum six hundred bucks. Right, Oh my god, Yeah, it's so expensive. But the audacity you had to take that into your own hands. Like and she also, guys, she put it all over her Instagram and I was just like living for it.
Anyway, It's free to get advice from strangers on the internet, and I really I probably could have gone to the salon.
See, I feel like the thing you should have done in this circumstance, okay, is probably just head down to chemists warehouse or like what is that hairhouse warehouse.
Everyone did, Oh they did?
Everyone did?
What surely they? How did you do it?
Tell me?
Sorry, we're going on a Did you just like go to like came out and buy a packet to die and call it a day.
I had some bleach left over my cupb and I don't know how if it was expired.
I was hair bleach, it was.
It was sink bleach.
I'm just kidding. It was about to go down here and I was like, wow.
But it was several years old bleach.
But I thought, you sure, it's just yeah, sure, surely it doesn't expire.
No, I don't think so. I didn't actually check. But it got there. In the end. A bleached it five times. It turned jelly a little bit, oh just a little bit, just a little bit of it went to jelly.
That's all right? Is it all gone now?
It's look it's it's actually hanging on by literally a thread, a jelly thread, a jelly thread. I can't get it wet right now, I will fall out. But I got there in the end. I just chucked a twelve dollars silver toner through it used my old bleach.
I'm surprised at how good it looks given that experience, But for those of you who are playing along at home, I'd probably head to hairhouse, wearhouse and just ask someone there say, look, I'm going to be dyeing my hair at home on my own.
What would you.
Recommend I do to make sure I don't pull a jelly beck? Speaking of hanging on my threadback, let's go to a quick break, and then when we get back we'll re establish and actually talk about the lipstick index.
Okay, perfect sounds good. All right, the we are back, we're talking about the lipstick index today. I guess I'm wondering what else does well because I know it can't just be lipstick? Is it all cosmetics? What are the other little things that do well in a time?
Obviously it's not lipstick, because as you said before, you're not ellipstick kind of gal, and you're not going to go buy ellipstick. But I guarantee there's like small luxuries that you would be putting your money into. So it could be anything. It could be skin care, it could be perfume, it could be premium hair care because and when I say premium hancaan, we're not talking about a dice in air rap not everybody has. I think they're close to one thousand dollars now, which blows my mind.
Absolutely worth it from my perspective, but definitely not an affordable luxury, but like a bottle of Oliplex, like what you were talking about before. It can be like fifty bucks for a bottle of oliplex. But I would assume that those sales increase during that period of time, and we know those sales increase during that period of time because they are seen to be more of an affordable luxury.
Like back to your example, You're not going to go to the seal on and spend six hundred dollars getting bleached hair, but you might go and go, all right, I'm going to bleach my hair at home, and then I'm going to buy the fifty dollars oliplex to make sure that everything is a okay and of course be good to go. Things like clothing and shoes and going to the movies and types of entertainment are also likely
to do really well during a recession. A lot of people make decisions like oh, maybe I'll just like sign up for Stan instead of you know, going out as much, so they justify smaller expenses because from their perspective, like, oh, and please don't quote me on this fourteen bucks a month, maybe I cannot remember for the life of me what my Stan subscription is.
It's been nice, thank you, thank you.
So rude, but I cannot, for the life I don't even think I've got stand at the moment. Just to back you back into your corner fair enough, I definitely have Netflix.
I can't remember what that is.
Mostly nice. You can have my login if you want to. Yeah, you're welcome, You're welcome. But these are in a good position as well. And then lower to me toe restaurants and more premium priced.
Alcohol that you buy the bottle.
Oh, so we're not talking about people go to the mid range restaurant and order a bottle of like really expensive champagne. But if you went to Dan Murphy's, people are more likely to, you know, treat themselves with like a thirty or forty dollar bottle of wine instead of the like fifteen dollar bottle of wine that they usually got because they feel like they're missing out in other
areas of their life. Because people basically want to treat themselves to something that lets them forget about their financial stresses and they'll go to a movie, but they probably won't go overseas because that puts way too much financial strain on Before the breakback, I was talking to you about TikTok and how that seems like it's just it's frustrating me. Like there's so many times that I really want to, like you can duet on TikTok. I feel so old when I explain this, but I really want
to jeet it. But then I don't want to come across as like condescending or rude or mean, and I'm not being that.
I just want to be like, hey, like.
This is a really good video and I really like it, but like that's not reasonable to expect that a normal salary and wayjourning human being would actually have a thousand dollar pair of shoes and like cost per ware. Yeah, like let's talk about cost per ware. That makes sense, but like on a thousand dollars pair of shoes, that's still not reasonable from my perspective.
You're a vigilante. I think you should do it.
Oh yeah, but I don't want to be rude because it's kind of like their intent is really beautiful, but it's also like can we reframe this because normal people cannot afford that, Like that's not normal, Like that content isn't normal. Anyway, My point there is that social media really does play a big part in determining what category benefits from the lipstick effect based on trends and what you're seeing on social media and consuming it.
Sounds like literally all I spend my money on during good times and bad times.
So I wonder like, oh, I'm just spending money.
That's why have you on the show.
Because I feel like we've got work to do.
Yeah, okay, I've got a lot to learn. I've got a lot to learn. But I guess my question is what are we actually cutting back on then?
So obviously big ticket stuff, so all of the opposites of everything that I just said, so like expensive restaurants and going on holidays. But we also see it in the statistics around like home sales, So people aren't buying big luxury homes, they're not even buying their average standard home. Because during a time of recession, often our interest rates increase to kind of juxtapose what's going on and make
things go back to normal. So during a period of time where we're in a recession, it's much less likely that people are buying their first family homes. It's less likely that people are going out and buying brand new cars, even if they need them. They're more likely to kind of push that purchase off because we're a bit anxious about it. So anything from you know, electronics and you know, white goods and stuff like that, all the way through
to big home renovations. Like, people aren't going to agree to, you know, chucking one hundred thousand dollars into their home if they're seeing their friends and family go through rough financial periods of time. And it's not because they don't want their friends and family seeing that, they kind of get an idea in their head that they're like, oh, I could be next. So this period of time, we're
cutting back on this. But I think it's really important to then be thinking about, all right, well, where are our emergency funds? How much do I have saved? Do I maybe want to have a little bit more saved if I'm anxious? And how does that work? So if you haven't got an emergency fund and you haven't really thought about it until twenty twenty three, and twenty twenty three is your year to get your financial stuff sorted.
That would be the place that I start, because Beck, I'm such a big believer in financial freedom being accessible at any income, and I know that that seems to be a little bit backwards because to a lot of people, financial freedom means that.
You never have to go to work and you've got like this big.
Investment that pays you enough each and every single month or year to exist without work. Right, But from my perspective, financial freedom isn't just that, like, yes, that's the big outcome, Like that's big dog energy, that's the energy. Yeah, exactly, that's so exciting. But we can't have that in the
here and now. But what can give us financial freedom is an emergency fund so that if something pops up, or an unexpected bill or an emergency happens, we have the financial freedom to pay for that and not go into debt or to go, Oh it doesn't matter, that's okay. I'm going to pay for flights to go, you know, see a sick parent or relative into state because I have the money for those flights and I don't have
to second guess it. And to me, that is a really really big part of financial freedom is setting yourself up so that you don't have to say no because you can't afford it. And I mean, when it comes to an emergency fund, we're not saying.
Go to Europe with your girlfriends like that, to me, is not what your emergency fund is for.
It's more for those things that pop up so that you can either get into a situation you need to be in or get out of a situation that you don't want to be in. Like Beck, what if one day you went home and all your housemates were They've gone rancid. They have absolutely gone feral, and you can't live right. Yeah, they've ruined the house, they've decided to grow drugs in the laundry or something, and you're like,
I can't live here anymore. But if you didn't have the finances to get yourself out of that circumstance, you might just be stuck there. But financial freedom is having enough finances behind you to get out of any circumstance or situation you don't want to be in because you
shouldn't have to be in that. And that doesn't matter whether that's a housemates situation or a relationship, or even just you're on a holiday and you want to fly home because you're no longer come forgive it with the friends that you're with, right, Like, I think financial freedom
to me means so much more. And if we're talking about what people are cutting back on, I think that we also need to really juxtapose that with well, where should we be putting our money during this period of time, because I think a lot of people just get anxious and then stop doing anything, and then they see all of these smaller things and you might not be spending you know, you might go, oh, financial times are tough. Let's not spend seven hundred and fifty dollars on a new washing machine.
We'll put that off. That makes sense.
But if then you're not thinking about your money and you're going to Priceline every couple of weeks and spending thirty dollars here in there, like that's going to add up to that seven hundred and fifty dollars and you've lost that money. And if I put a pile of my cup on the bench, and also the washing machine, is that beck? Which one do you want? You'd be like, well,
I needed the washing machine. But because you had your head in the sand, that money fell to the wayside and you didn't actually make the most of your financial circumstances. So from my perspective, yes, we're cutting back on things, but it should be really purposeful and we should be really thinking about it.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Financial freedom actually sounds like heaven. It's so sick, it's kind of sexy. I feel like that could be the life for us. I mean, I mean for you, it's already maybe you've already they had it.
Well, I do have an emergency fund, and that's something that makes me feel really good about the circumstances that I have. Like, you know, what if I didn't want to be with Steve anymore?
Well, I don't. I love him. I don't want to make that decision.
I love him so much to decide right now.
Yeah, but like what if something happened like that? Is the one thing that keeps people in relationships they don't want to be in is finances. Like I don't think anyone in our community should be in that circle ccumstance. And when I say relationships, we're not just talking about your partner. We could be talking about your family circumstances. We could be talking about your work, your relationship with
your boss. That's a relationship too. And what if it's such a toxic environment that you need to leave but you can't because you don't have the funds behind you.
What if I said, oh, Beck, well you've actually.
Got three months worth of savings, like you could quit now and look for another job, and actually everything would be okay, and your mental health is absolutely the biggest priority right now. You'd be like, Oh, that takes the pressure off, taking their pressure off ourselves.
Yeah.
So anyway that we've talked about emergency funds before, I keep talking about them literally forever, but they're really.
So important now, just coming back to the lipstick index, Yes, is that what this episode is about? Yeah, I actually forgot.
I just have so much stuff that I want to give you guys this year that I'm like, let's pack it into this episode.
We really appreciate it. You were mentioning before V that it's easier to make little, cheap, superficial changes than costly ones when we're financially under pressure. Do you think there's like a deeper psychological behind what makes lipstick cosmetics other beauty products so popular at a time like.
This, Yeah, one hundred percent.
So there was actually a study that was done in twenty twelve, so a while ago. Do you know, twenty twelve was actually ages ago, It was more than ten years ago. It doesn't feel that way though. It's twenty twenty three. Wild anyway, But this study done in twenty twelve found that the lipstick effect is deeply rooted in mating psychology.
No, yeah, sexy, right, so that's sorry. Sarah Hill, who.
Was the person behind the study, found that during quote, periods of scarcity, women see a decrease in the availability of quality mates. So Hill has said that because unemployment and low returns on investments occur at a higher rate during recessions, a recession makes signal to women that financially secure men are becoming relatively scarce. Okay, And while this might seem really superficial, and from my perspective, I think that financial security in a partner, any partner, is very sexy.
Hill has conducted four separate experiments, not just one, not just one, and all have said yes, that effect does exist, and that times of economic stress see an increase in women's desire to buy products like lipstick or designer genes or high heeled boots and perfume, and they're just not interested in men as much or not interested in having a partner as much because they're like, man, they're not that financially secure.
Get in the bin. I'm gonna go make myself.
Look chic and ten out of ten and I find it's super super interesting and obviously beg that super heteronormative.
And not relate.
No, No, That's why I was like, probably not related to you, but on a base mating level, Like if women are looking at men in general, something that women from a psychology perspective look for when they are looking for a male partner is a level of security. So it kind of makes sense that this makes sense. I'd be interested to see if that experiment in twenty twenty three could be pushed out, because you know, during this
period of time it's a recession. We could do the research again, and I would like to see it as a if people in general are looking for a partner, what would that look like during a recession, because I think that would actually be extra juicy.
I mean, it's twenty twenty three. I feel like the results will be a little bit different.
I just think in general people will be like, oh, I don't want to partner. I don't want to have to pay for going on dates.
You know, Like, I don't think this has got anything.
To do with gender.
You're like, I don't want to go on a date because I don't want to have to pay for it, And like, what if I have to pay for the whole date?
Hell no, let's just not do it.
I'm a buy myself a lipstick exactly. It's expensive dating and that's why I'm still very much single.
Ah's that's a suggestion to those in the community that might find back a feeling.
Yes moving on anything. So V can I ask what's an affordable luxury to you?
Ah? This is such a good question because I feel like so many this is a trend on TikTok at the moment, too, all I'm doing is talking about TikTok because we've just come back from holidays and like, I spent a lot of time on the internet. But for me, having thought about this over the brain, I feel like
an affordable luxury obviously, like fluffily, enough is time. But if I've got some time, I want fresh sheets, beck, like real crispy fresh sheets and a cup of tea in bed with a book and literally nowhere to be
like like a Sunday morning. Like to me, that's a really good affordable luxury where it's kind of like I'm enjoying my time, like I'm snuggy, I'm having a good day, Whereas to somebody else they'd be like, I hate spending time in bed, Victoria like from wake, I'm up and out, like my business partner Kate, like I cannot imagine her lying in bed and enjoying it.
But what about you? What's an affordable luxury?
Well, yours sounds actually very wholesome, and mine won't sound very wholesome.
It's okay, we are who we are, beck, Are you gonna say hair bleach?
I think so.
I knew you would, But I think that's good.
An affordable luxury to me would be going to the pub with mates, to sitting around in the ber garden, and I usually get a soda water believe it or not, so it's still actually I do.
I'm smart, all man, thank you. Sometimes they're free too. Sometimes they're free.
They're either free or max two dollars.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's an affordable luxury and affordable luxury. But I also think it really depends on who you are and what that looks like. Because we're talking about this before the show, and I was like, oh, like, another thing that I really like is a good coffee, Like and I think that's an affordable luxury that fits into my budget, and to me, that's one thing that
I won't remove from my budget. So like Steve and I go for a walk every morning with our dog Lucy, and we go to the cafe and we get a coffee. And you could say, oh, eye, but you'd save so much money if you made the coffee at home.
And I'm like, oh, but that's like.
A luxury to me, Like that's something yeah, like we love the experience. I love a good coffee, and I think it's to me that makes sense. But then there are other people that would be like, oh, I cut coffee out of my budget and I save twelve hundred dollars a year, and like that makes sense because that might not be worth it to you. So I think this concept of affordable luxuries is really personal and I
think that's really good. But the thing that then overlays on that is to me, and this might sound really fluffy, but it's she's on the money so bear with me is a level of gratitude as well. So to think about affordable luxuries, you actually have to put your gratitude hat on and go, oh, like what am I grateful for? That's maybe not you know, a flat screen TV or
going to Europe or like something really big? Like what are the little things in life that are affordable to me that make my life better or make my life good?
And I've got a million of them.
I'm gonna make TikTok serious on like my favorite afford trees because I have heaps of them. Do you know what another or one of my favorite affordable trees is. Oh my gosh, it's so lame. Are you ready please? Okay, so try so when I travel, Like, one thing that I really like is the face washers, so like you know, like a fresh clean face washer.
God.
So I went to Kmart and I bought like ten of them because they're like a dollar at Kmart, and I roll them up and I have a little tray in my bathroom. Yeah, and every time I get in the show, I have a brand new face washer. And I know that, like maybe that's normal to some people.
And I know some people because growing up I had a face washer, and I just like left it hanging in the bathroom and I just used the same one, but I then like hang it over the side of the shower and chuck it in the washing basket and like it just goes through with the normal load. Sure, but that those ten face washers cost me ten bucks and I feel so lux when I use them. I'm like grab my rolled up thing and I'm like ready and I use my nice face wash and I do
that anyway. It's really lame, but to me that makes me feel good. So affordable luxuries could literally be anything. Like it's the way I'm washing my face back now, I think is a little bit luxul But how can you incorporate more things into your life that make you feel good about the processes that you're going through? And if me spending ten bucks on ten little face washers from Kmart made me feel good one hundred percent great affordable luxury and the last lifetime, well.
I don't know, I don't know.
Do you get them from paymart and pro brand and pro brand We don't know how long they're gonna last month, but they definitely will be worth the ten bucks I've paid for that oh.
For sure, one hundred.
Actually, you've really talked me into it. How about let's leave it here then I'm going to head off and go by myself. A ten one dollar face washers. Yeah, and we'll be back here soon.
I love it all right, guys, I am done for today, but as always, we would love it if you joined our Facebook group where our community shares money tips and tricks every single day free of judgment. So She's on the Money on Facebook and join us if Facebook's don't you think We're on Instagram where She's on the money aus we are on TikTok and I'm posting literally twice a day at She's on the Money. And as always, new year, New mean new review. Don't forget to rate,
review or subscribe. But also, Beck, congratulations on the end of your first ever deep dive.
Thank you so much, f that was a lot of fun.
I'm so excited about that.
I am so excited. I'm so excited for twenty twenty three.
Let's let's do it.
Match it out the part all right, See you on Friday, guys, See you Friday.
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