Have you ever missed out on a huge discount sale at your favorite grocery store? This time, we’re not letting you miss out on any sales! No more FOMOs this year, as in this episode, Jen and Jill explore the seasonal sale cycles of groceries and the best times to buy and stock up your pantry!
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Episode three ninety one Best Seasonal Grocery Sales.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about seasonal grocery sale cycles and anytime you can buy in season or take advantage of a seasonal or holiday themed sale is great. Obviously, we don't want to be prone to these sales and just shop because they are sales, because remember, sales are marketing. They are for the store, not you. If they saved you too much money, the store would not do them. But if there are things you need, like food, you might as well shop within the sale cycle so that you can save money on things you would buy anyway.
We get the most questions about saving on food and groceries because it usually is one of our biggest expenses that can shift week to week, month to month. And there's a lot of ways and tips we can give to you, and this is one of them about what's on sale, what's seasonal that I think for a lot of us we're not completely aware of. Oh, there's actually sales cycles that grocery stores go through pretty much every groceries or including all the so kind of becoming aware of and planning around that can also be helpful for our monthly grocery budget.
Yeah, and a lot of you. When we did Know Spend January, we asked you what the hardest thing was, and you said missing out on sales, the FOMO of after holiday sales, And so I think this is also going to be a good one for you. While we're sticking primary to groceries. It's going to help you put into perspective that groceries and products pretty much the same. If you see a sale in January, I guarantee it's coming around again in several weeks or months. So it can put into perspective and help you limit some of that sale insighted impulse by.
Always something on sale.
But when you said that, that also made me think, but if you're doing an O Spend Challenge month, you're probably still buying food, So then just shift your get what's on sale to the food that you buy sale.
Yes, some people just love the thrill of the hunt for sales, and so you could.
Just transfer it to this.
But first, this episode is brought to you by grocery totes. You know, the things that you have in your car that you always forget to bring into the grocery store with you. No, just me anyways, grocery totes. They will help you limit the number of plastic bags you have to bring back to the store to recycle because you cannot recycle them in your regular plastic recycling. And we have a really good one. It says frugal, not cheap, and it's pink and yellow. The graphic is the actual toe is white with a black strap. It holds a good amount of groceries. It's not too big and too small. It's not too small, and you cannot buy it. We have it, but you cannot buy it.
How do I get it?
You have to refer friends to the friend letter.
That's that is easy.
That is the only way you can get it. So, if you are already getting the friend letter, go to the bottom of the email that you may be skipping. Go all the way down and you're going to see a unique referral link. Drop it in your Slack, drop it on your Facebook, text it to a friend. Because once you refer five friends to also get the friend letter. Then we're going to send you a frugal not cheap grocery tote.
I love these tangible gifts we get to send people in the mail.
Who doesn't love mail?
I'm going to send you something in the mail. It me, I'm the problem.
It me. If this episode is intriguing to you, you want more on this type of category, you should definitely check out episode three eighty eight where we talked about how to make the most of a farmer's market.
I had a lot of light bulb moments in that.
That one was a good one, so.
Hopefully you will too. You can also check check out episode two ninety six Grocery Saving Strategies that will cut your bill in Half with Gina Zachariah. And that's obviously an interview that we do so we get even more perspective on this topic. But let's get into this episode about what we can know and understand about seasonal grocery sale cycles. And we're going to start it off with this first one from All Recipes, All Recipes.
Brand, yeah, all blog posts too.
Yeah.
So the title of this article is why do items go on sale at the grocery store and should you buy them? A spoiler alert, the should you buy them? It's the same answer for every single one of them. Don't buy it unless you need it and you're going to use it.
So yeah, that's what that is. But we will go through all five.
So the first one is things will go on sale at the grocery store if a holiday is approaching.
I don't know that I really realize this.
I think I always thought, oh, people are trying to make the most money now because a holiday is upcoming, and so things are going.
To be more expensive.
They because they know you're going to buy them. But trends show that these manufacturers want to get their product out in front of you and want you to buy the thing that you want to buy, and so they will discount them. So keeping this in mind not just a holiday, but also kind of like seasonal type thing. So definitely think holidays, but for those in the US football season pretty much the rest of the world soccer or the true true football throughout summer when everybody wants to be outdoors grilling, they want the fresh stuff. These are the types of things that will kind of mean things that are going on sale and you can kind of keep that in mind with your shopping and planning.
Yeah, a caveat to this is sometimes and we see this on Black Friday. Retailers will artificially inflate a price before Black Friday so that they can put it on sale for the holiday and it is the same price as it was before. So it would if it is something you need and you should only buy it if you need it, then I would put this is products. I know this is a grocery store, but put it on a watch. If it's on Amazon, you could do I think Honey or c net shopping and do a price history search like you can do on c net or Camel Camel Camel, but look at the price history because again, you can get a good deal on a holiday, but you want to make sure that you're getting a deal, not an artificial sale. This happens less often with food. But if you can wait, shopping the day after a holiday will get you those even better prices. So if you're a teacher looking for treats for your classroom and you're shopping day after Valentine's Day, fantastic fifty percent off deals on valentine treats. So stuff like that, it has to be stuff that you already use regularly. Don't impulse by just because candy is fifty percent off. The second is because an item isn't selling. So when a store isn't selling much of an item, they will put it on clearance. This will also happen if a brand changes its packaging. So when you're seeing these ads for things like Misfits Market and every every other thing like it, a lot of times that's when like brand names are changing their packaging or something about their product, and they'll sell the old packaging, all that extra stock to Misfits Market, and then just the grocery store will get the new packaging. So that also may be a way to save. Again, that's if you are already if that is a brand name, you are already purchasing and committed to purchasing, not because you're not. You are going to spend more than just buying the generic version. But there are some things where we just we buy the brand name because we like them, and that's fine, So you can check those websites to see if you can find that at a lower price. But otherwise, if it's not a packaging thing, then it could just be in the clearance section of your grocery or your grocerer does have a clearance section, Yes it does. It might be just a little pop out in the in a corner an.
Endpap or it could be back by the bathrooms.
And it's a good thing. Like if something is there and you think you can use that as like a dinner or a side or something, and it's less expensive than this thing you would buy as a generic, it's already on your list, like I need to buy a side to go with this dinner, then that could be a good place to check.
Yeah, I was able to take advantage of this one an item not selling recently, so the I do a lot of my shopping at Walmart. Honestly it's helpful for me. But in the coffee aisle, I am a coffee snob. I like I will spend money on good quality coffee because I'm making it all and entirely at home. And there was this brand called stump Town, which I love, typically very expensive, like eighteen to twenty five dollars a bag, and it was on sale because it wasn't selling because the Walmart I go to isn't necessarily in like an affluent neighborhood.
Who would value this level.
Of twenty dollars coffee to buy.
Coffee at this price, so they just happened to have it, but it was on sale for like fourteen fifteen dollars, still more expensive than your regular coffee, but is a coffee brand that we drink and we're not so bougie with it that I that I won't like freeze my coffee bags. I will do that. So I bought a bunch and just put them in the freezer and it's not going to go to waste. So yeah, sometime sometimes you get lucky and you get a good sale on an item not selling if you know you're going to use it, and if it's on these pantry staples that are going to be long lasting, then that's incredible. Number three on here is that an item will often go on sale just before it's expired. Now, of course you have to be ready and willing to make that item almost immediately. We really don't want to be stocking up on these things that are almost going to waste and then being responsible for its waste. So this is many many grocery stores with bakeries are going to have your like day old whatever, and that's great. If you do eat a lot of bake goods, or you're about to go to a party and you can kind of take a tray of doughnuts or cookies or whatever.
It may be frozen.
Yeah, or it's bread.
I will definitely take advantage of the day old breads because I will freeze my breads. That's no problem for me. I'll take it back out and it's as good as new. But at anything else, whether it's canned goods or even your dairy, your meats, whatever, as it's about and if you even catch that it's almost going to expire, you can ask up at the register like, hey, this is today is the sell by date? Or this is about to expire? What can you do for me? It is advantageous to the store to get their money for that thing, otherwise they're gonna waste it and lose out entirely. So I think that's something you can try asking about. But then again be ready to make that food or freeze it if that's possible.
Yeah, And I see this with meat, especially at Sam's Club. I'll go in and I will let Sam's Club tell me what meat to get by getting the one that's about to expire, and I'll buy those up and I'll throw them right into the freezer. So that's usually then I can afford to get the nicer chicken, more pampered, a more kind chicken. Yes, the next one is a holiday's over. We already talked about that one, so I'll do the last one on the list. An item is in season, so we all know this, and this is where we're going to spend most of our time in the next article. But again, produce goes on sale due to seasonality when you have and so I was talking to someone who was saying they might go pick at my in laws farm near the end of the season.
That was me, that was you, yeah, oh yeah, and it's better to go at peak season, right, I know, I didn't know that you can.
Get I mean, they're just giving it away because it is advantageous to them to get rid of all of the fresh strawberries because those growing strawberries need more nutrients in order to grow, and they don't get as much if the you know, the Biggins are taking it. So there is so much leeway with what you can get when you are shopping at peak peak season. So finding out what's in season in your area and that is when you were going to get the best deals. Normally, for products, it's shoulder season, but for produce its peak season.
And another thing I wouldn't have totally thought about, but it makes sense because it's what's in abundance and it's easily accessible. So yeah, strawberries for us, and I mean we get two strawberry seasons here in Florida, So strawberries in February are very affordable just because all the farms around here are producing them and it's accessible. So that's something to keep in mind. So this next article is now going to go through the best times to buy all of these things. If you're wondering, okay, but how do I know what's in season, We're going to kind of give you a rundown, but also be aware that your grocery store circulars are going to tell you. If you are not living in nineteen eighty two and you don't get a grocery store circular, you can definitely search the website of the grocery store that you regularly purchase at. Maybe they've even got an app. I don't know, but you can ask them what's on sale, what's in season? You can google it, but here a little bit of our rundown Jen and I will go back and forth.
Yeah quarterly. Yes, So first I want to say that we will go through this article, but you can go to seasonalfoodguide dot org. This is a fantastic website where you can input your state, the month and whether you want to look at specific you know, fruits and vegetables like artichokes or just any produce, and it will tell you what's in season near you. So that's gonna be your best bet for get finding your peak season sales on produce. Again, this I always air on the side of buying frozen like that's you know, that's just where I air. But it is nice to have some fresh produce every once in a while. And if you're somebody who just prefers to eat things raw, then this is gonna be even better for you. But seasonal food Guide dot org fantastic resource. But I'll go through this one. So in January, this one actually it gives you products on sale and food. We're just gonna go through food, So grocery sales in January, oatmeal products because January is National Oatmeal Month, so oatmeal products like granola bars, instant oatmeal, oat cereal. This is also a good time to use your apps like Fetch and Ibota. They're not our favorite ways to save money, but you know, Quaker is going to be running promos during National Oatmeal Month. So if that is something that you can get on the sale and maybe a rebate or a coupon, you know, double dip when you can party foods. So towards the end of January, you've got Super Bowl, you know, foods getting better, getting more on sale, and then in season produce, you got stuff like like apples, grapefruits, Kiwis, Lemons, Clemon. Time's all your winter produce. In February, obviously, we have chocolate heavily discounted after Valentine's Day. Don't buy it before Valentine's Day, because chocolate keeps, you know, for at least a month.
And going in the fridge, it keeps.
For oh in the fridge, it keeps for forever. If you are some you know, a psychopath like Jill who can actually keep it in your fridge.
I do, I just take a little bite.
She's crazy.
Whenever I want, I apologize for her.
February National Canned Food Month, So you're gonna see retailers, you know, like cambells and canned food people. If there is a specialty something that you like in a can that you can't get generic, this might be the time to stock up. And then you've got your seasonal again, more winter produce, sparagus, broccoli, carrots, stuff like that. And then in March we have got for foods. Natural Frozen Food Month is in March, so you're going to see a lot of frozen food deals. And this is actually something you can take advantage of, right because frozen foods keep. So if something you like is on sale in March for Frozen Food Month, you can stock up. Breakfast cereals now, March seventh is National Cereal Day, so you might see a coupon or a rebate for cereal. And then you you're starting to get into some spring produce, but still on the tail end of winter. So this is when we start to see the strawberries come in and yeah take it away, Jill.
So getting into the second quarter, the second quarter of the fiscal calendar. In April, ham just ham if you want to have ham, if that's the meat you like, it's Easter, Yeah, so ham, mom, I know ham mom, especially after Easter, you're gonna see your deals on ham. So if your particular regularly drawn to some ham, and it can be an expensive meat, and there's a lot of stuff that you can do.
With a big old Ham hawk also so takes the ak, put it into like a split piece soup or a lentil soup like that's you know, if you're looking looking for a hawk for your.
Soup, always out here going over a hawk.
Okay, baking items, so you can actually usually find some really good deals on some baking items which is really relatively shelf stable as well. So if you are one who's making a lot of breads or pastries or cookies or baked items, this is something that you could relatively stock up on. Not don't go overboard, but I know for me, I'm blowing through flour now that I'm in my sour dough era, So this is good news for me that I can really just get all the flour that I need. Of course, you've got your Easter candy after the holiday if you are a big candy person, and then your in season produce in April is going to be your artichokes, beat zucchini, peas peas for your split piece soup, the hamhok mushrooms on yon avocado mangoes. Again, see what's in season near you as well.
Because mangoes are not in season in April in Florida, that's July.
And then in May.
May brings US Cinco de Mayo, so lots of celebrations we can be looking out for. Maybe some of those sales deals on salsa, tortillas, other Mexican foods, which is a regular part of my plant meal plan. Honestly, we love ourselves a lot of rice and beans and tortillas and quesadillas and fijidos and tequilos, and I could keep going. Brilling is beginning in many parts of the US too, may bring some warm weather.
So you're also going to find some good.
Deals on your hot dogs, your condiments.
Just all love hot dogs. I can love that hot dogs.
And then very similar things to what's in season in April, adding in some carrots, canalope, radishes. I love using some radishes in some creative.
Ways, underrated for sure, and watermelon.
And then June, this is an interesting one. June is National dairy Month, so it's gonna bring some deals on all things dairy, milk, yogurt, eggs, ice cream, cheese. This would be a cool one to even look into your local spots, like if you have a local creamery or a cheese shop, see if they're doing any deals or fun events even around this National Dairy Month.
Yeah, because if you're gonna buy something, brand name, dairy is usually where it's at, where it's better than generic your ice cream, because we went through that generic versus name brand. We did an episode on it, and the chefs were pretty much using generic for most things. The number one thing that they did brand name was ice cream.
Yeah, and this is when your good fruits stone fruits are coming in. You got your apricots, peaches, strawberries, watermelon, corn, cucumbers. I mean, no one's complaining about cooking in June, honestly, there's so much good stuff.
Oh, we're back to me word of the third quarter already. Okay, all right, we're coming up into July. So July is actually National ice Cream Month, so this might be a place where you can get some more great deals on ice cream, which is every chef's favorite thing to buy brand name, and then Jill's favorite holiday, National hot dog month. So again, these are gonna be things. I don't know if you're going to get better deals doing these brand name things, but I think on things like hot hot dogs and ice cream, those are a couple things that people tend to prefer brand name. So definitely be checking your rebate apps, be checking coupons in your circulars. When do we ever tell you to check for coupons, Not often, but.
Well, when you can stack it on top of encason stuff, that can really mean a decent amount of savings.
And we're not.
Talking coupons in the way of you've got a lot of paper in front of you're going to pull out your scissors. There's ways to get coupons, just digitally, simply and effectively.
Yeah, check your favorite brand social media because they might also be like in tune to some offers or have some specials. This goes for like restaurants too, So in may Sinco de Mayo, be looking at your local Mexican restaurants and see what their offers are. August so we're in the height of summer breakfast foods. The first school will be starting soon, so seasonal sales cycles typically include deals on easy foods for parents, and kids. Breakfast inns are just one of those items. We'll see, cereal juice, frozen waffles. You'll see obviously you're back to school supplies to your cold lunch foods, so you know, bread, cold cutch lunchables, crackers, peanut butters, a lot of stuff that you can actually stock up on for a few months. And then we've got more watermelon, We've got some raspberries, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, still in your summer produce era. And then last last for me in my second quarter, third quarter is September. So September can't soup for some reason, I guess because fall is just around the corner, so markdowns on fall comfort foods such as canned soups. And then not a lot on sale, not a lot of foods on sale in September. You'll just have your late summer produce so apples, green beans, cantalopes, beets, cauliflower, onion, tomatoes, pears.
I guess that's good to be aware of, to kind of prepare through the summer, maybe even stash up your freezer through the summer for fall, knowing that there may be a dip in some of these sales and what you can find available.
That sounds very like traditional, like old fashion.
You know, why not stock up in the summer.
We're getting back to our roots. Are stocking up during the harvest time?
Oh yeah, yeah they are. You've got a little bit more discretionary time.
Yeah, and not in Florida, and Florida everything dies in the summer.
All right, I'm rounding us out.
I'm rounding out the year in the fourth quarter, bringing it at home with some winners. So in October seafood. National Seafood Month is in October, and grocers will often offer sales on seafood through the month to celebrate. So if you are a lover of things the sea, this is something to keep in mind, Like the Little Mermaid, especially good seafood is usually pretty expensive. Like, I enjoy seafood, but it's hard to.
Get fine not something we get often because it's just more expensive. And I like other things just as much, so I'll spend less. But this can be a good time. If you're a seafood lover who doesn't get seafood.
Much because of the cost, October is your month sober that's when you should do it, and then you can freeze it and then you've got another round of baking sales happening in preparation for the holidays.
So this is when you can be planning.
To get of course, your canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, evaporated milk, some of your more peripheral types of baking items, as well as your flour and show hook. And then we're getting into some really nice fall like in season produce again. You've got your apples, potatoes, cranberries, grapes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, brocoli, cabbage. It's all the things that are traditional, at least in the States, that Thanksgiving meals incorporate, so kind of think those things. Of course, obviously do your research too, but begin incorporating that into your food that you're making that month.
Yeah, I'll try for my baking stuff, I'll try to use up all my baking stuff by September October from the year prior so that I can restock on the sales in October because I don't do a lot of baking, so I'll.
Usually Yeah, just try one could carry you to the next. You kind of know what do I buy.
The most of and when is this in season? Yeah, November is again canned foods, so a lot of pantry staples, especially those that might be used in a Thanksgiving meal. This is your cranberry sauces, your pumpkin again, sweet and condensed milk, canned veggies, so again these are pantry staples. You don't just have to think what am I cooking for the holiday meal? But what do I make throughout the year? And are there things that I want to stock up on? This would be the time, And that.
Way you're not falling prey to the other sales throughout the year that are probably good, but they're probably.
Not as good good.
So when you can stock up once a year instead of not being intentional and just kind of picking up one is just because you see it's on sale and you forget you have two more at home. Then you know, just be intentional with your sale shopping.
Yeah, and of course you've got your Halloween candy. So when you're in November, we're past Halloween. So if you're jones in for some candy, scoop up the stuff that has Halloween themed pictures on them. Who cares, it's not that all they'll be yummy.
Still give it for Christmas. All of our holiday all of our Christmas candies Halloween themed.
I would not be too good to like unwrap the candy and then put it into a little Christmas themed bag as almost a little candy checks mix that no one will know.
No one's gonna how are they gonna know.
They're not gonna know. They're never gonna find out.
In black and skeleton, you know, but like, who's gonna know?
No, But I'm thinking like the Snickers or the milky way that the wrapper has, you know, a pictures on it, but the actual candy itself is the same.
They're not gonna know it's from Halloween, especially like EM and.
M's yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's a good guy.
And you know what you could you could eat all the blue and the orange and just leave the red and the green and that way you get a little something.
Hey, this is why you tune in.
And then the produce, you know, if you're not eating up all the candy you were Back to our beats, broccoli, pears, Brussels sprouts, carrots, Kiwi's oranges, back to the oranges and tips though on that one, and my chocolate, back to that chocolate that was on sale. Oranges and chocolate and chocolate is such a good. I mean, I'll just slice up an orange and then just have my like chocolate bar. My favorite is the lint milk chocolate and I'll just like eat a bite of chocolate, have a sliver of an orange.
You're a welcome.
I was watching a YouTube video the other day and the guy was like, dip me in chocolate and call me a strawberry. And I was like, I want to use that for the rest of my life.
Like not anything else, the strawberry.
He was just exclaiming how good something was that he was eating. And he's like, tip me in chocolate and call me a strawberry.
Anything dipped in chocolate is good. You just dipped in chocolate is good. Doesn't even matter what you are. Okay, December, December, we're here. We are baked baked baking goods again, but now another genre of it. So still flour and sugar, but now we're all talking high cruss whipped cream. So just be aware that kind of as you need these things, they will come up on sale. So if you know you're in December and you're going to be making these things and you don't quite see a sale yet, hold tight.
It's coming.
Also your party food, so even some of your convenience items like your pre prepared veggie trays, crackers, and dips, these will also start becoming on sale as well. So if you also love convenience, give yourself a gift. This is when you can take advantage of that. And then again, you're in season produce. You've heard us talk about all of these already, but they did then add spinach to the list beyond the cauliflower, grapefruit, orange with celeryous spinach.
And you may be like, but Jen and Jill, these things are on sale other times of year.
Two.
Again, they might be on sale other times a year, but these are the months they're going to be on the best sale. And when you know what is on the best sale each month, you can also avoid the other items that are on sale because their best sale month is not today, It's in a few months or six months, and you can wait.
Yeah, I think one of my biggest takeaways just with having this knowledge that grocery stores have sales cycles. In season produce is going to be the least expensive when it's in season. It is helping me to be able to then plan what I'm going to make I know, I hear, and I even see a lot of friends online just like I'm in a dinner slump?
What should I do?
I think this can help narrow down. Sometimes those boundaries that happen for us can be really helpful guides that these boundary lines are helping me define what I'm going to do, make eat, and then can narrow down the types of searches that we're doing. So even being able to look up what you know in season dinner recipes December and see what looks good, because not only are you going to get to try new things and have a meal plan, but you're also going to be helping your wallets in buying the things that are in season, and then of course all the other things of knowing you're gonna make it, knowing you're gonna actually eat it. So this to me helps in my preparing just knowing that these things go on sale and they can help me, and knowing what I'm gonna eat week to week.
You can help variety.
Yeah, you can also compare the sales between stores without actually getting all the circulars and going to all the stores. Tell us how so you can go to flip dot com f l i pp dot com and enter in your zip code, and it's going to show you. It's going to show you weekly ads for like all the stores near you, but you can filter it out just for groceries and you can look at all the weekly ads from all the grocery stores near you, the ones that are upcoming and current and past. So it's gonna first show you all the ones that are current, but I would encourage you to look at if you can look at past ads. It might take a little bit of extra research, but see what the sales were earlier, see if there are any different some of these sales, you know, like the baking stuff might have a similar sale elsewhere. But for stuff like the baking stuff, you are going to see good sales on the generic versions of these things. And that's another reason we go with these national like months like canned food, frozen all that, because you're gonna actually see sales on the generic versions for most of these two So that that's what we really We want to get as many sales on the generic versions and then capitalize on those brand names that we like. But yeah, flip dot com to compare sales between local grocery stores.
Love that can help me know where I'm gonna go to week tweek. You know what also helps me week to week that I love? Yeah, so convenient.
No need to compare.
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 Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Dust bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This is the bill of the week.
Hi, Jen and Jill. My name is Claire and I'm someone who originally lived in America and now I live in Australia. Part of the benefits of living in Australia is being able to choose your health care and your cover of healthcare no matter which job you choose to work in. So my bill of the week is something I'm really excited about, which is part of my health care that I chose. Rewards you for being active and healthy and fit. And one of the rewards that I got for sleeping well and tracking my steps and tracking my exercise was a gift card to Adidas. So I chose to take my gift card that I got fully for free just for literally existing and working out, and I gave that to my sister who was able to use it because she has a chronic illness. So very very happy that I'm able to share this bill and really happy that I'm able to live in a country that can allow me to do this kind of stuff.
Oh, Claire, that's so sweet of you to gift that to your sister. Yeah, I love that, And kudos to you for for going somewhere where your health, healthy lifestyle.
Is rewarded by your health insurance. We love that.
You know some some insurance companies will do this.
Workplaces will do this. I know.
Medical sharing plans will sometimes do that. So there are opportunities in the units.
You just need to look yourself because they're not always going to tell you.
Yeah, I know that is the thing. That's the piece.
You have to do your own research. It's not ideal, but.
Yeah, we've got more.
So I think the apps that can reward you for tracking your steps and that kind of thing, you can earn money that way. But anyhow, Claire, we are so thrilled for you. Yes, but this is one of the benefits. And then how you chose to utilize that benefit is so generous is find thank you for calling in and sharing your bill. If you all listening have a bill that you want to share with us. If it has to do with the rewards of living in other countries, if it has to do with just being Bill, living anywhere, doesn't really matter where you live. Your name is Bill and you're living your life. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We are ready for it, leave us you Bill, and now it's time.
For the lightning round you.
All right, this week's Vulnerability Round one. Thing you won't buy or stopped buying at the grocery store, even on sale.
Oh I missed that second part of the question, even on sale. I think my answer still remains the same.
Okay, So I.
Just refuse to buy pre prepared pasta dishes, whether they're frozen or they are in kind of like the deli section of the grocery store. I just feel like pasta is so inexpensive and so easy to make myself.
I just refuse.
It's one of the only things that I don't feel troubled make it. Yeah, exactly, so many other things yeah trouble me.
You can always boil a pot of pasta, and I'm just not going to give you all my money to have done that for me. Other things I won't buy. This is just for me in this life season. It could change. I'm holding it loosely, but I don't buy pre chopped stuff. And again, even if it's on sale, I think I would rather just do those things myself and not have to pay for the convenience. And part of if it's going on sale to me, that says it's on its last leg. And so I don't know how long the pre chopped has been sitting out, And I feel like once you kind of open up a vegetable to the elements.
It is now like rotting quicker. I don't know.
This is not based in science, but if your pre chop stuff is then on sale, I'll trust it personally.
Oh goodness, what would I not buy on sale?
I don't know.
It's not a lot of things that I wouldn't buy.
I could answer the question for you. I feel like you don't. You don't really do salad dressings? Did you make your own?
Okay?
Yeah, I have recently bought some salad dressing. Okay, So it's not that I wouldn't buy them, but I do prefer to make my own.
I would.
I, I really, I don't eat usually buy the ready to cook meals. Those are just I'm not saying I would never buy them, but even if they were on sale, I probably wouldn't buy them because again, if I'm desperate, I'm gonna boil a pot of pasta like and you know, throw some meat balls in the oven. I just there's not enough reason for me to buy are ready to cook meal.
Yeah, I'm not opposed to it.
Like I think we talked in a recent episode about our friend Lydia Sen, who does this on vacations.
Okay, yes, example, Okay, on vacation. Absolutely I would do it. It's no chopping, Like I would. I buy pre chopped veggies, fruits, you know, whatever, occasionally especially frozen, but sometimes fresh. If they don't have the frozen. If it is for a specific thing that I'm making that week, yeah I will do that. But if it's something like I'm out of town, I don't have my knives, I don't have my cutting board, I don't have anything. It's something I can just throw into the airfire. Absolutely I would buy the pre prepared meals. Yes, yeah, cheaper than go into a restaurant exactly.
Sometimes it's great.
Less expensive, more affordable.
I also think, you know, processed foods is not something that I am prone to buying, and certainly if it's on sale, I'm not going to if it's not something I typically would buy that.
But that differs from produce.
So if there's a produce item I don't typically cook with but it's on sale, I would definitely consider it and then challenge myself to try a new meal. But if there's like packaged cookies or I don't know, some other type of like little Debbie who knows things that like just processed foods that I don't typically eat, I'm not going to be tempted to buy it. And if it's on sale, if it's but potato chip like things that I would typically buy and they're on sale, heck yeah, chips, sign me up.
I have no problem wavy lace.
With some chips, chip, potato chips, salt vinegar chips.
Penno kettle cooked Yeah that those are the best chip.
Uh, bite size tortilla chips.
I found a hobbanaro tortilla chip and it is good. Whoa Yeah, found those on sale. Needed to buy some tortilla chips for a party and it was by two get one free, and so I got the Hobbanero tortilla chips for free and traps and I blew through those without salsa.
Wow.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to try those there, habnaros.
That's that's another level spicy. It's not Hobbornaro level spicy, but it is. But you have to like spicy things, yeah, for sure.
And I like kalapeno chips, so.
Right, we love halopenno chips. If you love halopenno chips like we do.
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Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Oh, Jill, got to tell you about an impulse purchase I made that. I am so grateful, thankful for love.
Uh oh, this is not the message that our people.
Okay, well this is gonna be. It's got a good wrap up oka, yes, okay, okay. So we I bought a and I already told you this. I bought a jogging stroller, a double jogging stroller. So we have never had a regular stroller, always only had a single jogging stroller. That's been our main stroller all the time. It is fantastic. I don't I couldn't use an umbrella stroller at this point because I'm so spoiled. Yeah, it's just it's the baby trend. We're not using the tool duol or whatever or the bob not needed. We got the baby trend expedition. So when we were looking for a double stroller, I bought one on Facebook Marketplace when Atlas was born because we needed one that the baby car seat could fit on. Again, another baby trend, but not a jogging stroller horrible, so difficult to push. But now Atlas is out of his infant carrier and one night I was just like, you know what, it would be nice to take the kids out together and just have them in the stroller, you know, just have them go and uh so I went on Amazon. Well, I first went to Facebook Marketplace to look for a jogging stroller, because that's what we do. We first look to buy used and couldn't find one the double jogging. There was double, and there was jogging, but no double jogging strollers. That was very hard to find. So because I couldn't find one, then I immediately went first to runners World to see what are the best jogging strollers. Of course, the eight hundred dollars Bob and I think it's the dual. I don't know, those are the two best ones. They're eight hundred dollars each. But then they had this baby trend expedition, the same one that I've been happy with as a single. Yeah, one hundred and fifty bucks or something one hundred and sixtyk okay, And so I was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, because I can sell this one I already have for one hundred yeah.
And can you really yeah, when the doubles one fifty retail, you think you could sell your single used for no?
No, no, no, that one would be We'd be used that for five years. I would give that away. I probably have to pay somebody to take it. I'm talking about the other double stroller. We've barely used it. The person we bought it from barely used it. So it looks new and for somebody you know, who wants that sort of thing, who has an infant, you know, it's it's still useful. And I bought it. And so we went to running club last night. Was shirked off our responsibilities, just threw off responsibilities in general, and went for a run in the cold with our kids and it worked great. Ah, Kai loved it, Atlas didn't hate it. Wow, and I am so pleased. But here's the Here's the wrap up is running is something that Travis and I have always done. We are runners, and not having a double jogging stroller was kind of holding us back from doing this thing we used to do together all the time. And so I'll go with Atlas in the single jogging stroller and go for you know, a three mile run on the weekends. That is something I've done regularly, but as a family, I you know, we just haven't. We used to go out with Kai, the three of us, but since Atlas has come along, it's something we haven't really done and I wanted to do. So it was an impulse purchase, but it was something that I had already identified we do regularly and would do more of with this item. So it wasn't just the thing that I think I want to get into running. Let me get a double jogging store and see if running with my kids is something I'd be into already run with a kid, run before kids. This is just a natural progression that I love. Yeah, I entered into impulsively.
I love this example because I think it's helping me to realize that there's a spectrum of impulse purchasing. I think, okay, yes, it maybe we could qualify under an impulsive because you thought about it in the same day that you ended up pulling the trigger on buying it, But that doesn't totally mean that it was off the wall. A spending decision you regret, a spending decision that's outside of your means, a spending decision that's not going to make sense for your lifestyle, Like, there still are all of these other components that can come into play in your spending decision in that moment that like, just because you thought of it that day doesn't mean that there's not intentionality in your spending or thought that went into it. That Okay, this one stroller will replace two other strollers that you've been using. It helps you get back into a lifestyle that you've been or move forward with a lifestyle that hails to the past, that is something that you've really valued and enjoyed. It's affordable quality for what you know you love, like it still ticks all these boxes that I don't know that I think it's just worth identifying that there's a spectrum to impulsive spending. And sometimes we can make a decision in the same day we decide that we want something and it's still be a really good decision.
Yep, that is totally true. So getting control of your spending and spending intentionally doesn't have to mean we never impulse spend again. Then as we impulse spend better.
Yeah, and then okay, I'm still glad that I impulse impulsively spent on this. And part of that too, I think we associate like guilt and shame with impulsive spending, which isn't present for you, So that doesn't totally indicate a need for a shift in it. But also, wherever we do, wherever we do fall on that spectrum of an impulse spend, if we can't return it, then we can get creative. And then what else can I do to maybe make up the difference if I feel the need to do that, which for you is sell one.
Of the other ones? Yeap, beautiful, beautiful story. That's a good story. I gotta see the stroller. It sounds amazing, It's so good.