DFS: Kait Paid Off $62K Without Increasing Her Income, Here's How She Did it

Published Aug 2, 2024, 7:00 AM

They often tell us that the way to pay off debt is to increase our income but what if we tell you there's a way to achieve it without all that hustle? In this episode, Jen and Jill are joined by Kait to uncover her inspiring journey and how she navigated her financial decisions, and used her income and time wisely!

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Episode four twenty nine, how Caitlyn paid off sixty two thousand dollars without increasing her income.

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 sharing Kate's story. She and her husband paid off sixty two thousand dollars of debt in ten months, which included student loans, a vehicle loan, a credit card debt. And she has some insight on how to use how they use their savings to help with their debt payoff, and a follow up story with an inheritance. So this episode is really going to look at how do we use money that we like lump sums or windfalls or savings, how do we decide whether we're going to use that to pay off debt? And we're hearing from somebody who did navigate those choices.

Because it's a debt free summer. Babe.

Oh, I'm so sorry, hold on three two one debt free summer.

Sorry, and all these stories and this one, as you already said, Jen, yes, we get to talk about some of these nuances to debt freedom, but also just hear some of the specifics because there still was a portion of their debt that they paid off not using some of these lump sums as well. So you can kind of find yourself anywhere within the mix. But once we hear from Kate and her story, that'll be our little conversation afterwards, So stay tuned after her explanation of how her and her husband became debt free.

But first, this episode is brought to you by August. Again, it's late in the summer. That's not when we're in this. It's not even late in the summer. But I'm still tired. And if you have children, you probably feel the same way. Or if you have dogs, you probably feel the same way. Like their coats are so thick and they need to go outside like all the like every day.

Right, I don't have a dog.

I don't have children, but I'm trying to relate to people that might not have children. Jill, like you, but you don't have I don't have these dogs either, so you should be fine.

Kate has a dog, yeah, and so that it's probably what made you think of this.

Anyways, this episode is brought to you by August. It's back to school season. You are almost in the clear sending those kids back to school. But in addition to algebra and literature that your children would be learning, why don't you add something else on their plate? No, not sports, something additional teaching them about money, and a great way to start that is not going to feel overwhelming is teaching them how to spend money. And an important aspect of spending money is not spending every single penny. So opening up a high old savings account for your child at CIT, opening out like your name and putting money in there can help them start to witness what small amounts of interests can look like. With savings. It can help them have a place out of sight, out of mind to keep their money so they don't spend one hundred percent of it.

Having a high.

Old savings account for your kids is just a really good start for teaching them about saving and spending. So you can head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash CIT and I'm not one hundred percent on the age restrictions, but personally I would just open up one in my name and manage it for my child, So that's what I would do, But it's.

Up to you.

Frugal friends, Pat do com slash cit teach your kid about money and maybe odd.

To be ever in your favor. I love my high old savings account. I think it's so great, such a great way to put money aside.

Yes, So if you loved debt Free Summer, We've got so many for you. We've been playing them every Friday this past summer. All of them have a different uniqueness to them, so we want you to be able to see yourself in at least one of our debt free stories this summer. So we encourage you to listen to all of them, and we hope you find you we really connect to at least one. But Kate's in particular, her husband working full time in school, they've got their fur babies, and so they were just talking about paying off part of their debt with their savings part through hard work, and then also talking about paying off their mortgage with an inheritance. So navigating all these decisions on how do we use our money, how do we use our time wisely with earning more money to pay off debt, and navigating those questions is a major part of her story.

Okay, let's get into it. And we're so excited to have a very special Frual Friends listener and guest and story coming from Kate. Kate.

Welcome, Yes, welcome.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

So, Kate, tell us a little bit about you, your family, where you're located.

Who are you?

Okay, So my family is myself and my husband, Randy, and we've been married for five years. We live in Ontario, Canada, and you can't see it there, but there is snow. And we have two dogs and we live in kind of a mid size city located between two major cities between Ontario, between Ottawa and Toronto.

Nice. And what are the dogs' names?

The dogs names are Buddy and Pippin and Pippanus skulking in the hallway outside this room. So hopefully she's good. Oh that's awesome.

So tell us a little bit about the debt. How much did you have?

What was it?

Okay, So we paid off sixty two thousand dollars in debt, forty two thousand of that with student loans. My husband is a PhD student and a full time working data scientist. So student loans from his undergraduate, masters and doctoral studies, as well as a thirteen thousand dollars vehicle loan on our jeep and a seven thousand dollars credit card debt for a total of sixty two thousand.

Got it. So how long did that take you to pay off?

We paid it off in ten months?

Nice?

And so did you use any lumpsum, savings or inheritance or sell anything to help you pay off that sixty two thousand?

We did have savings that we used to pay towards it. We had about thirty thousand dollars in savings, so we had a thirty two thousand dollars remaining debt after that initial bulk payoff. And there is kind of a chapter two to our story that involves an inheritance that I can tell you about.

After Oh okay, we like a part two.

So can we talk about the catalyst point for you or the kind of aha moment pivot point when you realized, oh, this is the amount of debt that we have and.

We're going to start paying it off starting now. What was that moment like for you?

You know, it wasn't a specific like crisis or emergency or event that kickstarted it. It was actually another podcast that I listened to and talked about how the two hosts of that podcast had done the Dave Ramsey Plan and I had never heard of it, so I said, well, I kind of had just a nagging, ongoing ceiling of debt and financial disorganization. I said, well, if it worked for them, I guess I could google it. And that kind of got me into personal finance. I had no interest. I probably hadn't version to personal finance before getting into the personal finance podcast world and finding you guys.

Oh nice, Can you shout out that podcast that you're referencing?

Yeah, homemaker Chic, shout out to Shane.

And homemaker sheek. Nice. Thanks for shouting that out.

Okay, So did you get the feeling that you were that you were pursuing when you started on your debt payoff? Is what you feel now? What you thought that you would get when you started this journey.

I don't think I had an idea of what it would feel like. Initially. I went in just completely with a lack of knowledge, and I just thought, well, maybe we live in a crazy stressful world. Everyone does. Maybe and not having debt in our life will alleviate some of the general stress, and it absolutely has it lived up to that expectation, and it's it's kind of given me a new hobby and a new thing to think about, which is it's interesting, and now I enjoy thinking about it, and instead of a point of stress, it's a point of almost gamification and interest and strategy, which I enjoy.

That's awesome, really cool to hear the way that you pivoted and kind of had a mindset shift of the way that you're looking at this and approaching it.

Yeah.

Super empowering, definitely, and thank you for saying it's empowering. I agree that learning about this is empowering and finding the right vehicles for learning is great.

Cool. Okay, so you have any other debt besides the debt you paid off?

Well, when we finished paying off the total the sixty two thousand, we did have a remaining mortgage, and about two weeks after this is the chapter two. About two weeks after we finished paying off our debt, my grandmother passed away and I learned that we would inherit some money as a result, and we use that money to finish paying off our mortgage. So now we're completely debt free.

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. It sounds like you were able to honor her by using some of that money to experience more freedom.

Yeah.

Which was that mortgage that you paid off?

It was about one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars Canadian Okay.

Do you think you would have made the decision to use that inheritance to pay off your mortgage if you hadn't gone through this original debt free journey?

No, I don't think so. I think I would have taken probably whatever my parents' advice would have been about what to do with the money, or parked it in a high yield savings account and done. I don't think I would have done anything destructive with it, but I don't think I would have done anything as meaningful with it either.

Yeah.

Definitely seeing a bigger benefit and paying off your mortgage than just keeping it savings.

Yeah.

Now that your debt free, how does it feel? Yeah?

One hundred percent debt free, just performer debt one hundred percent that free, mostly surreal.

We've only had one first of the month where the mortgage payment didn't leave our account, and it was it was nice, but I think with a few more of them will really feel the impact of that money that would be going out is now going into our our retirement savings account, which is very exciting.

So can we talk about income?

What was the total household income when you started paying off your debt.

Versus when you finished? What did that look like?

Okay, this, I did the exchange trade on So it's one hundred and forty four thousand Canadian dollars between two income earners. My husband's a data scientist and I am a registered nurse, and that works out two one hundred and seven thousand US dollars at the current time of exchange in late November twenty twenty two.

Wow. Okay, you did math.

Thank you? I did Yeah, impressive paper.

Okay, So now that you've got all debt out of the way, including.

Your mortgage, this is so amazing to hear. What is your next financial goal? Where you go from here?

And our next financial goal is really building towards retirement. We're hoping to retire earlier than average, but not like a not a scorched earth fire, retire at age thirty seven in all Tuesday's style and enjoying some home improvements. And eventually enjoying some travel. I'm not I'm not a traveler. My husband's travel much more extensively, so he's hoping to show me some of the.

World scorged earth.

Yeah, yay, I'm so excited for you. All right. So somebody wants to be where you are right now. They want to have these dreams of traveling and just living with peace. What would you say to somebody who wants this, who's where you were a year ago before you started this debt payoff journey.

I would say to them, it is okay not to be knowledgeable. It is okay not to feel like I don't know anything about personal finance. It scares me, it makes me feel vaguely nauseated. It's okay to feel that way, because there are a lot of ways to learn about personal finance. And it's not all it's not all textbooks. There's a lot of really you know, dynamic people on the Internet and in the world, like you and Jill and Save Ramsey, who you can learn from. And you can find someone who will resonate with you personally and who will give you a teaching style that doesn't doesn't make you feel more stressed it'll that will be empowering. Can I can I read my list?

Yes?

Absolutely, Yes, excellent, I think if you are married. For us, doing complete completely joint banking was extremely helpful. We made that change right at the beginning of our debt payoff experience, and for me, I felt like having more extrinsic accountability to my spouse in terms of our money would be a lot easier, And in terms of logistics and organization and budgeting and transactions, it is so much simpler. If you're running a household together, to run a bank account together is so much easier. And what else, small amounts of fun money budgets are great, especially if you're a spender. Even having like one hundred dollars a month just to spend the way you want to spend it without guilt was really important for me, even during debt payoff. By modest house, it's okay not to have a twenty four hundred square foot four bedroom, beige painted McMansion. It's okay to live in a little house.

Yes, I couldn't agree more tiny house living or enjoyment.

Of life average moderate like not like mcmahonsoney lifestyle.

Yes, just the permission that you're giving. Totally agree.

Yes, may I.

Add the last one from my husband?

Like, yes, absolutely?

I asked him, I said, Randy, I'm doing this podcast interview. What can I say? And he said, if you like to drink craft beer, drink your beer at home.

Yes, Randy, and thanks for sharing your tip, Kate from your husband. That's a great tip. You don't have to be out to enjoy beer. You can enjoy beer at home and still drink it. Like, yeah, still have that play money, still do the things that you enjoy, do it in a more frugal way.

Yeah, you don't have to give up the good stuff. You just get creative and how you get it, how you can see it. I love that.

Definitely because it's it is expensive. It is expensive to drink beer in this country.

Enjoy your craft beer at home. It's expensive here too, so expensive.

Yeah, it's like eight or nine dollars a pint at a restaurant to go out for a beer in Canada.

Pizza, wings, beer, it's all become I no luxury item.

You can't have the beer without the pizza and the wings. You can't. You literally are not allowed to.

Order it, but you should do it at home. With friends. Yeah, that's us, all right.

So we have come to the point in the episode where we want to invite you, Kate, to celebrate this huge accomplish, the mint that you have made paying off sixty two thousand dollars of debt, we've got student loan, car loan credit card in nine months, and then being able to use the inheritance that your grandmother gifted you for something really wise and something that would take a mental energy burden off of you and really stewart it well. So we want you to celebrate that huge accomplishment in whatever way you want. So it is your time. How would you like to celebrate with us today?

I think I just want to celebrate by like passing on the good word that anyone else can do this, and you don't have to be a dual income full time both working full time family, and just it's okay to be a pet owner, and it's okay to have hobbies, and it's okay not to know a ton. I just want to be encouraging and to pass along the encouragement that I don't think I had from peers. And it's okay to talk about your money with your friends too. You can make friends who are interested in money. It's all right, it doesn't need to be pushed under the rug.

Yes, yeah, I love that your celebration is to encourage others and pass it forward and say the things to others that you didn't hear yourself, and such permission giving and freedom giving.

What a beautiful way to sell. Yes, thank you so much for that. Thank you for sharing your story. Your words of wisdom I know will be inspiring to people. Uh and yeah, whether you know they're in school, or you're a nurse or whatever, you have dogs.

You live in Canada or beer super expensed.

Yeah, I know that people will find your story inspiring, and so I'm just so glad we were able to share it and celebrate you.

Thank you so much.

I mostly impressed that this interview was all debt free and totally pet free as well, because I thought the dogs would.

Have made.

Becoming pet free during an interview is maybe just as hard as becoming debt free.

I don't think that Kate became pet free during the interview.

I already did.

She didn't become pet free, just cutting the intergrate dogs that she loved, and they are.

Still here and worth it. She's debt free, not bad free.

And you don't have free to be debt free, you can you can still have a dog.

Oh, Kate, that was so great.

I'm so glad to have talked with you and and.

Share this story. Just the way that she encouraged. She was so beautiful.

I really enjoyed talking to Kate, and I like that. Sometimes we feel like people who have used like lump sums to pay off debt they kind of get a bad rap because they're like, you're not fixing any of the habits that created it. But they used habits obviously to save that thirty thousand first, right, So it wasn't a habit problem. It was more of a question how do we navigate how much of our savings to use, and then how do we navigate the debt pay from there?

That was such a tricky thing to figure out when I remember, even for my own personal debt payoff journey, was what money should I still be keeping in the bank and what amount is okay to be throwing at this? And then anytime, you know, we would come across a little bit of a chunk of change, what do we do with that? And I don't know that people talk about this a ton. We did do that windfall episode, but that was what five years plus in like, we hadn't ever talked about that before.

Yeah yeah uh.

And and this isn't even necessarily a windfall, but specifically that that savings piece of well, we had already worked to stash this amount of money away and then they chose to throw that towards debt debt payoff. Personally, where I have come to with this is still making sure that I'm maintaining an emergency fund and then an anything above and beyond that can get thrown towards different things. So of course I did not have the emergency fund during my debt payoff that I currently do now, but it was important to me that I had my medical deductible and my at least one month of expenses set aside. And then I felt like anything kind of above and beyond that could be thrown to debt payoff. It felt a little silly, and I do feel or it felt uncomfortable, I should say it that way, and I think that there are some voices out there who are like, no, your money is not your money if you have debt, and so you shouldn't be going on vacations, and you shouldn't be having stacks of money that money belongs to like whoever. You're in debt too, and that's where it should be going. And I would take a much more radical middle approach on that of still do some vacations, maybe not luxurious ones, but still take breaks along the way, and still keep some money in savings and put And I don't think we asked her that specifically, like did they still have anything set aside? Obviously they did what felt comfortable for them and they became debt free in the process. But I would still advise that, yeah, you can use your savings for this, but make sure that you're considering all the risks with that.

Yeah, I think so, it's a matter of your comfort level. I would definitely say do not do less than one thousand dollars, like that's kind of bare minimum, keeping that buffer there. Uh, but I think two thousand dollars is even better. And if you do, if you wanted to go up to your healthcare, you know your deductible that is, you know, that's also reasonable. So those are kind of the numbers. It also depends on the interest rate of your debt, Like if the debt you're trying to pay off. If that interest rate is really low, then you can afford to have more in savings, more cushion in savings. If you're trying to pay off debt that is really high, like credit card, personal loan, that stuff, then it behooves you to have a little less than maybe you're comfortable with staying closer to that, you know, fifteen hundred, two thousand, you know, mark or even just even the thousand.

Do you remember what your threshold was during debt payoff, like what you wanted to keep in the bank and then what you were comfortable then throwing towards debt.

We always, I think it was about maybe two thousand is where we sat. We were always more than a thousand. But we were also always using a credit card as well to get points, so we kept we just kept track of it, and we always made sure we had like a good buffer, and then the credit card payment would come out and we'd kind of go back down to maybe one or two thousand, but we'd quickly go up, so that was kind of like our safety net. We've always been responsible with credit cards, so that's why we've used them. Not everybody can do that, but that's what felt safe for us. It's because we were paying We were putting so much towards debt every month that that like if something really really bad had happened, like we were about to get we were going to get kicked out of our apartment, So not because we did anything, but because the landlord wanted to turn it into an airbnb, and so we had only a couple of weeks to find someplace else to live, and we ended up choosing to buy. So we needed a down payment really quick. So then we were able to just do a minimum payment on that credit card for one month and then have that money in the bank for a down payment. So unique situations like that, we don't plan for them, but that's what made us feel safe, and while we were paying off debt, and that is definitely not the case now we have a very good sized emergency fund.

Yeah, which I do think ties into a bit of what Kate was talking about here in not getting any additional side hustles, not increasing income, paying off debt, but kind of mostly just making different spending decisions, which is a lot of what we're talking about just in the podcast in general, that you don't necessarily have to earn more if you don't want to, or you don't have to take a pay decrease if you don't want to. But there can be flexibility and just the decisions we make how we spend that can afford us some of these other pieces. So her describing a little bit more modest of a lifestyle, at least through the debt payoff journey, utilizing some of what they already had, adjusting spending habits, but really not adjusting many other big things in their life in order to pay down all of that debt in a matter of ten months, which I think is also really amazing. I mean, that's why we love all the stories, right, like we've had in our debt free summer, people talking about all the crazy side hustles they're doing, or you know, how they leveraged resources and that kind of a thing. But there's also a journey where you just make some different spending decisions and that doesn't mean that maybe it might take a little bit longer as a result, but it is still possible. So I also love that part of their story.

Yeah, I really like having the decision to navigate how much of our savings do we use because this is actually a question that comes up a lot, like I have the money to pay off my debt, should I just pay it all off? Or should I keep saving? And so that's really that's going to be a unique answer for you. And I also liked talking about her the windfall, the inheritance she received, and then you navigate how am I going to use this to benefit me most financially because an inheritance is a little different from savings because you also want to use some of that inheritance just to do good, like to do to bring yourself joy. And I think in Kate's experience specifically, like she the person who left that to her wanted her to use that not just to benefit her financially, but also like to benefit the life right now, you know, to So how do we save and spend wisely money that we receive, either as inheritance, insurance, payout, tax refund navigating how to do that? And some people will say, like use ten percent of it for fun and then to kind of like decide the rest whether you'll pay off debt or save it or invest it. I think using your income to invest if you have like the putting some into an Ira Cait lives in Canada, so a little different. But and then freeing up enough of your like using that as spending money so you can put more of your income towards your four one K or your four or three B or whatever at least for one year is a really great idea, and we talk all about this in the windfall episode. I'll have to look up when we publish that. But and then also thinking about sinking funds, thinking about future savings, which can also be fun stuff, So like, what do we want to take a family vacation, a dream family vacation. Maybe we're not using all of this money to get there, but maybe we are using it for half so that we can double what we are originally going to spend on a family vacation and take an even better one. So things like that, and then also saving four repairs like to car and how so thinking about all of that. It's a lot of decisions that come in with a inheritance or windfall, and it dwindles it down so quickly. It's kind of depressing, but they're important decisions to make, and you also have to include some fun in there.

Yeah, So that was episode three point thirty one, what to do with a windfall or unexpected money. And I think this all also ties into everything we've been talking about on this podcast for six plus years, is really having a good grasp of what do we value, what are our goals, where are we heading, what makes sense for us, so that when something like this happens, we kind of have an idea. It's okay if you don't know that right now, but it would be good to know that even if you're not expecting any sort of windfall or you're expecting a large sum of money, it's still good to know where you're heading so that when so that you can just be heading there with the resources you already have. But if or when these things happen, you then immediately know what to do with them, and you're not scrambling or maybe just frivolously or mindlessly spending that money in a way that doesn't actually benefit you long term, but it is helpful. I think in that windfall episode, like you said, we talked about some of these parameters that are good of here's some percentages you can consider, but there's still a whole lot of decisions you have to make that are very individualized. To you. For Kate, it made sense for her to pay off their mortgage. That's what felt good to her. Other people might choose that maybe they'll throw a chunk of money towards the mortgage, but otherwise they'd rather invest it for retirement, or they'd rather maybe it's it's also going to depend on how much it is right like it might if it's a tax refund, that's maybe enough for a sinking fund, or to throw a chunk of it towards a debt payoff and make a dent in it. But you're really going to have to take a lot of factors into consideration. But I think doing the work now and continuing of self reflection, identifying what matters to you, your values, already working towards some of these goals is ultimately what's going to be most helpful and knowing what's going to be the best, most wise decision for you.

If this does happen, yeah, something else that will be helpful long term and always comes as a gift, and I truly believe the givers want us to use it enjoyably.

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, frugal friends, This is Cindy, and I wanted to share my bill of the week, which is my student loan payment that I make every month and it has a low, low interest rate of two percent. And I wanted to share because when I was figuring out how to finance a master's program at a private university two and a half years ago, I wanted to be resourceful, and someone referred me to a nonprofit organization called Peo International that grants based on academic achievement and financial need, as well as extracurricular leadership loans specifically for girls who are interested in pursuing a college degree or a graduate degree. And I was able to secure one two and a half years ago, and now that I've graduated, that has really made a difference in how I pay off my education. So I'm always very happy to pay that bill, and I wanted to share.

Oh my gosh, that is amazing and seriously there is always a way to pursue grants and scholarships and.

Help with education.

I just hope that more and more people feel empowered to do that. It felt really helpless when I was, like back in the day before college got so expensive. Man, But there is hope.

There is hope. I wish that I would have known more about these types of programs when I was going. And I hope that information is becoming more more accessible to young people or even people considering, you know, pursuing master's education or beyond that there is opportunity beforehand we can be proactive rather than just reactive with how much we are spending on our higher education. And I'm so glad that you did that, Cindy, and that this is a bill that you don't mind paying, because it's really shifting the trajectory, as you're saying, of what life looks like, how debt payoff looks for you. And well done, and congratulations. It sounds like a great program and the fact that you are eligible for it speaks a lot to who you are as a person. So celebrating with you. If you all listening have a bill that you want to submit, if it is about the way that you are going about debt, payoff scholarships you received, tips and tricks you have, or just something super silatious related to bills fruofrindspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave one for us, and now it's time for bad.

Around all right. So for this lightning round, how did you handle the temptation to spend money on non essentials while paying off debt?

Ah? Not well?

So that was how I found no spend challenges. That is how I used the temptation, and I think when I was paying off debt, I used the spending on non essentials is bad, hard stop, you know, like that was my mindset. And so when I did end up spending on things that mattered to me that didn't make me feel good like it like it should, it made me feel bad. It made me feel guilty, and so I was at odds with myself, which is why we've written an entire book on how to feel good about spending on things you value and how to say no to the things that you don't which is available for pre orders, Which is available for pre order and more announcements of a pre order party coming soon. But yeah, so that's why we wrote a whole book on it is because of my negative experience doing that, and so I came up with the No Spend Challenge as a way to challenge myself to be better at not spending. And what it did for me was it really taught me about the things that I valued and taught me that I don't value everything equally. There are some things that I value more than others, and even within those categories, the root reason of why I buy them is different from day today, or time of day to time of day. So and I full still fully love no spend challenges. They are in our book. You know, it's not the whole it's not the No Spend Challenge Guide that I wrote in twenty seventeen, that's the full book, but there is a chapter diving into them and how to use them to figure out what you value spending on. And I still love them.

Yeah. Yeah, Essentially, this question does lead us to where we've come to with values based spending. That yes, there was a time when I felt bad and guilty about whatever was deemed non essential, which can absolutely butt into impulse spending. But I do think through the podcast, through these conversations and research that we've done over the years and now this book that we've written, I view it differently. That's it is, okay, It's not totally a matter of how do I just deprive myself and keep myself from doing certain things with my money? More so, how do I make space for the things that really matter to me? Where can I give myself permission to spend and where can I get what I need without spending that money. But all that said, if I were to put myself, you know, back into the place of I was in my debt payoff and still learning some of these things, I did, though, even then give myself permission to spend on certain things. And that's where like a spending plan comes into play. Because not all of our money can go towards step payoff. It asked to go toward bills and a roof over her head and food. So we are still spending money. It's just figuring out exactly how to allocate that. For me, there was always room in the budget for gum. That's not a high expense item, but it is non essential. It is high value item for to have gum. But it was one of those things where I'm like, this is not something I'm going to choose to cut out for the sake of putting a few more dollars towards debt. So I think certain makeup items, gum an occasional trip, and I've talked about how Eric and I set aside money for trips on other debt Free Summer episodes, So go back, and if you want more on that, I'm not going to say it again, But there were certain things that just still were allowed. Knowing that, okay, this might mean that fifty dollars can't get that could have gone towards debt is not going to go towards debt. It's going to go towards living. And that's just how it went. And then otherwise just not going to certain places that I knew might cause me to spend more money like I do like going to the store. I like browsing. I like allowing my whims to decide what's gonna happen with my with my money from the browsers. Sometimes I'm safari, I'm just down here looking.

I'm what I am.

But sometimes if I didn't actually need something, it's all right, I'm not gonna go to the store because I know I'm a I'm a browser I'm gonna mind.

What is happening.

It's done, Okay, Thanks everyone for listening, thanks for being here, thanks for leaving us. Reviews like this one from Kai Browse says not just about frugality five stars. I love podcasts, minimalism, the Journey to being completely debt free, and a good sense of humor. These two are rocking my favorite things. Yes, podcasts, minimalism, Journey to being dead free.

All three of them.

Humor check check check, and humor at four yeah, quadruple threat.

I'll I only have three of them, so I'll let you pick which three.

Thank you so much for I You know, I love a lengthy review that's super specific, and I also love a short review like this one that is also still specific but succinct to the point. So kind minimalism.

This is a minimalist review, yep, and I'm here for it.

And what you also did in this review is you let other people know what they can expect out of our podcast, which does help people find us, which does help our podcast, which will help us sell books, which we are trying to do.

You will literally in the next episode you will be hearing more about the pre sale of our books and then you will get so tired of hearing about it.

Oh stick around, yes, please stick around. Please do leave us a rating and review it helps us.

Yes, absolutely, and we will see you next time, see ya. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

Okay, Jill, I do have a bone to pick with you, oh.

With me in particular, specifically.

Yeap, all right. Every time we go to have a special treat a little bethy, you don't cheers me. You immediately grab that drink and start solar bin. And I'm over here just looking at you the little puppy dog eyes, with my drink in hand, waiting to commemorate the moment, to have a ritual, to connect, to experience connection, and you're you're here for the drink.

I'm thirsty.

Your value is the drink, the special tree, special tree, And it doesn't matter whether or not I also have the special tree in my hand, like consistently.

Oh wow, I didn't know this was a thing. Well, you've never brought it up to me.

I brought it up when we were in Cancun. I was like, okay, cheers cheers me, cheers me. You never cheers me, And then the message never said you'd be like, oh oh, you'd like almost spit spit it back into the drink. So like, I'm so sorry.

What is that? I think that says something about me as a person, and hopefully not that I'm an alcoholic. But I don't know.

I uh, I think you're an only child.

Yeah I.

Am.

I think food got put in front of you and it never meant that anything else needed to happen other than like you engaging with it, and that makes sense. I'm just gonna try and train you to treat me differently.

I now that I know how important the cheers is to you, I will do better. I will do and I just didn't know the impact that it had. You know what, I'm so used to drinking alone.

Now that's gonna raise around back.

There's just nobody to cheers. And when I say alone, I mean Travis doesn't drink.

So so he's there. You're not by yourself.

I'm not by myself. My children aren't gonna cheers me. Uh so what am I?

You know?

What am I doing?

I'm I'm just I gave I cheers with coffee. I cheer. I'm that's a little fun. I cheer your children because it's so fun. It's such a to me, that's a simple luxury.

Okay, in the day, here's the thing. When this comes out, this will have already happened. But when we have the opening ceremonies party for the Olympics, Okay, it's not a drinking game, it's a cheers in game, and it would literally I don't care if you drink or what you're drinking, but when the thing comes on on the list, then you.

Cheer and there's you whether or not you take a drink, yeah, it's up to you.

But the I just thought it was it would make the party last longer if we do the cheers game to learn from your mistakes. So they're like when the US.

You'll be like making up for all, like all the previous years by doing cheers multiple times in a night.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. And then there we have specific cheers like when USA like team floats down the Seine. Then we're chanting you as a US A.

You know.

And I have some other ones written.

There's other ideas, but I can't think of them.

I was thinking about having one when Kelly Clarkson says or does something awkward, but that might happen too free much, so I'm thinking about taking that one out.

You've got a lot of builds up to this party. I'm very excited for it.

I know, I hope more than four people come.

So that's how I can't guarantee that. I can only guarantee too. Eric and I will be there.

And you know what, then you'll get all my cheers. You'll get one hundred percent of them. Yay if it's just you guys.

Thank you. Yeah wow, thanks for taking this constructive feedback. I'll do better. Thank you.

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