Cleaning your home should not always require you to drive to the nearest store and purchase the most expensive and branded supplies. Sometimes, a few tools and products you might already have in the kitchen can work magic for you. In this perfectly timed episode, Jen & Jill share useful, frugal and worth-it home cleaning tips to save you tons of money and time.
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Episode to Frugal home cleaning Tips. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liberate your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Mm hm m m m m m m mmmm. Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast, Live from Hurricane Ian. Yeah, yeah, we come from you live. We've got we've got hurricane force wins. It's gonna be a cat for Ian's after us. Okay, So first, I'm Jen, I'm Jill. And this has been, for a lack of better term, a perfect storm of circumstances that have led us to recording this episode in a hurricane. So we are. I am hunkered down in my home. I am ancor down in Orlando, which is turning out to be not the best place to be. But here we are stuck. Yes, Jill, wasn't an evacuation zone. I was not. But no better time to talk about home cleaning tips. And when we are so intimately aware of all the things in our houses, that's such a great point and priorities. You know, of course, in a hurricane you're going to talk about cleaning tips and how to d I y your products exactly because afterwards, we're all going to be cleaning some things. Yes, this is relevant, and even if you're not experiencing the impact of Hurricane Ian this year, hopefully you still want to clean your home. Yeah, in all seriousness, our hearts go out to um our brothers and sisters in uh Sarasota County, Manatee who are going to be experiencing a really rough few weeks and we are the lucky ones. So please, if you are local and you can help, please do. If you're not local and you can help, please do, because we're definitely going to need it, and but we will get through this. We are built for this, so don't worry about us. Yeah, and right now we don't we don't quite know the impact. It hasn't touched down florid Us at the time that we're recording this, so also keep that in mind with whatever we say that may or may not be accurate. We have yet tb D. Yeah, but as somebody who's lived here in my entire life, it will be significant. So UM, just send your thoughts, prayers, hearts out to everyone in this Bay area. All Right, we're going to get into some cleaning tips. But before we do that, This episode is brought to you by mandatory evacuations. You can tell where my mind is at. Hopefully they never happened to you, but it is what is currently happening to me. Mandatory evacuate sations want you to know that they just desire safety for you, you and your physical body and the other physical bodies in your home, but it could mean the loss of many prized possessions if you are not currently being evacuated due to an impending hurricane. Now is a great time to get our free e book. It has over two hundred plus ways to save money and spend less. Check it out at Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash e book and not sure if you all knew this, but that also gets you access to our weekly newsletter where we send out exclusive free goodies all over the time. So if you also want that again Frugal Friends Podcast dot com, slash e book. It just gets you more access to us, more free stuff like these cleaning tips, more love from us. I will hopefully be back to my home soon when the mandatory evacuation lifts. Thank you mandatory evacuations. They are for your safety alright, So if you are interested in saving money on home cleaning. If this is something you do want to d I y um, then we have a few other episodes are last one on d I y cleaning products, dues and dotes was all the way back episode forty two, and that's where we actually talked about like more of the solutions, what can be mixed, what not to mix, how different, like what different solutions function to do to clean your home. So that's kind of that was more like a two oh one. So now two d episodes later, we're going back to a one oh one. So forty two is definitely a good one to queue up after that, and then also doesn't seem like a cleaning episode, but episode one seventy two decorating your home on a budget, because the more intentional and minimalist you're decorating is the less you have to clean. We're all about efficiency here, SOO and forty two good ones to queue up after this. But let's get into this one. Our first episode comes from living on the Cheap, and if you've been around long enough, you know that that C word is a no go for us. But Jill, this this article is a good one. It talks about nine house cleaning tips that actually work and are inexpensive. I'm replacing the word cheap with inexpensive because we don't use that sword. And so we'll go through all nine because I think that they are worth it. And the first one is to clean often. I agree with this one so much. I think it saves so much time in the long run to do it often, to have it just be part of the routine. They use the example of consider if you get a spill on the stove and you why it up immediately while it's still a little wet, it's easy versus waiting for it to dry and harden and get crusty, and then you've got to break out the heavy duty cleaner. And when does anybody have time for that? I also think about microwaves with this one. If you notice that there's a lot of splatter, you just wipe it down real quick. Otherwise it ends up being quite horrifying in a place you never want to put your food into. So just thinking about that with any part of our houses where we're in the room and you've got supplies nearby, and you just do a quick sweep wipe over of whatever it is. I know a lot of people might have a more routine way of doing this, like Monday, it's this, Tuesday it's that, And it's usually just very quick, five to ten minute things that just kind of creates that peace of mind and not needing to constantly do a heavy duty deep clean if we're doing it often. And that's an inexpensive way too, because then you don't need to invest in like the deep cleaners when you're just doing it often with the lower level type of cleaners. Yeah, I will. When I'm like washing towels, I'll just do a quick spray on the um, like my hand towel in the bathroom, I'll just do a quick spray on the mirror and the sink and wipe all that up with the hand towel that I'm going to be cleaning, and then I just throw it into the because it was already gonna be dirty, so just put some chemicals on it and just do it quick clean. And that's the only time that I clean my bathroom. And I think I think we often find that while there's that barrier, like but I don't want to be cleaning right now, I don't have time to clean, it actually doesn't take that long, Like you get a quick spill of crumbs on the carpet, you whip out the vacuum real quick. It's like it took two minutes versus the way that that type of mess can build and build and build and then it just becomes overwhelming. Yeah, and this also gives you money if you are hiring a house cleaner. If you're doing these small things and maintaining, then they can maintain the deeper things, and then that takes them less time. They spend fewer hours in your house and you save money there. So this is good whether you're doing it all d I Y, you're doing a hybrid. So the second is to purchase purchase good quality cleaning supplies. We really really do stand by this because there is you know, nothing cheaper than a cheap like sponge or glove or plastic bottle. These things can be found for pennies, it seems, but they don't last and you will replace them. They will sit in landfills. But if you can what the author says, they buy a lot of their house cleaning tools at hardware or janitorial supply eye stores because those things are meant to be commercially used for like ten years. Yeah. So if you can buy these things to last, um you keep products out of landfills and you can, and honestly, it's much easier to scrub with something that's like very heavy duty. It makes the job easier and so you can get more done more quickly. I really like the list that they give here. I feel like this is almost like a minimalist list of a flat mop, broom, dust pan, windows, squeegee tub, sponge, scrubber, cleaning bucket, spray bottles, Lamb's wool dust, and several cleaning cloths will do well for most homes. And I do feel like that's it, and then the cleaning products that you would put into those spray bottles. But yeah, you really don't need a lot when we can keep it minimal. I feel like that's what allows us to clean more often. When we feel as though the thing is readily available, we know what we're grabbing for versus I don't know, I've got like twenty bottles under the sink, and where did the broom? Where's the best broom for this? But when you just have the more minimal amount of supplies, it can be even easier to grab for that know how to tackle a spill a stain, or just regular cleaning and wiping and dustin. I've definitely wanted to clean and then gone to the closet found the thing I wanted to use, and it was like all mangled and like you know, destroyed, And I'm like, well, I guess I'm not cleaning today, and I'll do that multiple times until I get a new one. But if it's a good quality, you're not going to have that problem. You're going to be able to clean more quickly, which then in turn leads to more frequently. Yep. The next one, Oh, I love this one. To dispose of the disposables. I cannot affirm or stand by this more strongly that there's so many reasons for our pockets, for the environment, for actually what is good for us to be even breathing in while we're cleaning the swiffers, the lisol wipes, the things that are once and done are expensive and not not great for the environment to be throwing away every single use or okay, maybe you'll use it two or three times, but still it's not made to last. And so finding products that can be washed, reused, last for years and years is going to be the better way to go, and they give it tip to if you happen to have a swiffer and you're in love with that, but you don't want to be buying the reusable pads constantly. They are the disposable pads. Constantly they're saying that you could buy one of those like stretchy, super fluffy like Chanel socks that they sell at at like bed Bath and Beyond or I don't know, probably the Dollar Store, and you could slide that onto the swiffer and use that with a vinegar solution and then just keep rewashing it. Of course, if you don't have that product already, there's plenty of products on the market that sell reusable pads that you can wash. That's what I have to clean my tile floors. Is it came with like three washable pads and it's gonna last me for years and and it's fantastic. You can buy the different types of pads to go on it, but you're not throwing it away. And how much better is that for our world and our wallets? Yeah, and it's really I mean it should be said like on I think cleaning products, especially the brand name in the generic there is a stark difference between the two. A lot of things you can get away with buying generic and seeing no difference, but I think with cleaning products you do see a stark difference between the generic and the name brand. And so if there are a few name brand things that you want to keep on hand, that's fine, find your balance, find your radical middle. But if you're like constantly buying all these generic disposable things, like that's really no better quality than just using what you may like see as lesser quality for something you might reuse, and you're going to be saving a lot of money. So unless you're really committed to the quality of some kind of name brand thing, then then try the disposable, because I think you won't notice a big difference between the disposable and the reusable if you're somebody like me who like usually just buys the generic of a brand name. So that is something I will disclose that I do see a difference between the brand imageneric. But when I switched to non disposable, I it was fine between the generic and the non disposable. Yeah, fourth by a lightweight vacuum cleaner that you can afford. So this we this definitely changed our lives. So I was a big swiffer person until I bought a Dyson, and now I barely use my swiffer because my Dison works so well. So that's another thing. When you buy something quality that lasts that you use, then you you use those you have less need for those disposable things anyways. But yeah, so we have a dice in. We got it as a referb refurbished on eBay, so that's how we did it. But it's a great ti. Yeah, but buying brand new is also eight if you cannot find the one you want refurbished on eBay. I don't even know if actually far as it was refurbished. We did get it on eBay, but I don't remember if it was just um like a resell from new or refurbished. So I love that they're highlighting that it should be lightweight. And I've noticed this barrier for myself too, that if your vacuum is heavy and cumbersome, you're not as likely to pull it out, Versus if it's grabb able, lightweight, you feel like you can lift it, it's it's easy to utilize, then you're more likely to quick spot, clean and vacuum the crumbs, So that's a really important factor when you're looking at a vacuum. Yeah, and for these vacuums, I will say the two most important things is cleaning the filter because when mine stops working, it's because I vacuumed over something that has clogged it and I thought it was broken, but Travis just you know, undid it clean the filter or is great? Um? And when the battery starts to go, you can get replacement batteries for like bucks on Amazon that work great. They're even more powerful than the actual battery that comes with it. So when you buy a quality one that can be cleaned and can have the battery replaced, you will have it for a long time. Yes, all right. Next on this list is edit your cleaning supplies, so looking through what you have and what you actually need and paring down as much as possible. Usually most of us are going to need and all purpose cleaner, a window cleaner, making sure that they are constantly refilled, but we usually don't need much and again that hails back to this concept of not having a ton, having it grabb able, more likely to clean often saving time, saving money. So keeping that those supplies edited and easily accessible, usually stored in a similar place is going to be most helpful. So you want to think about a disinfectant and a sanitizer. Usually that's going to be in your all purpose cleaner, and and then maybe like a window cleaner or something. And in the second article we'll get into different types of cleaners too for more specific purposes and how we can d i Y make those, But in general we're not going to need much. Yeah. I like that it emphasizes limit your cleaning product collection to a few key items. Again, list like pay attention to that at six swap store bot for d i Y Homemade. We're going to talk about that more in the next one. But it just, you know, kind of reiterates like white vinegar cleans a lot um. I know it's not like all natural, but like a little bit of down dish soap in some like in two cups of water makes a great all purpose cleaner. I love it does everything. It's way better than the actual I got that Grove Collaborative thing that the free thing that they send you with the I really got it for the glass containers because I thought they were very cute. Um, but then they send you some they're concentrated cleaner that smells really good and I use it and I was like, this is okay, but it's not as good as my dawn, nice teaspoon of dawn in two cups of water. But yeah, so using ammonia vineker. All those things will cover in the next article next on here. We all know this, but it's worth reiteratings to shop smart for the store barot cleaners. So if there are specific types of cleaners that you know and love and they work for you, awesome, But let's pare down to what we know we're gonna want to get versus what we can d I Y. And so some of this might be trial and error trying out some of the d I Y glass cleaners and all purpose cleaners and really narrowing down what do you feel as though is worth you buying store bought, and then you know, trying to find the best deal for that. But I would argue that we don't need name brand for every single type of cleaner that's out there. We just need to identify what works best for us. So for me, for example, I've got some more d I Y cleaners for all purpose and glass cleaner. Those are generally what work for me. Otherwise, I use vinegar and water and sometimes baking soda gets thrown into the mix. And the one thing that I will buy, and I'm okay with generic as well, although I think what's currently in my cabinet is is the name brand, but a stainless steel cleaner. So I don't know, there's probably a way to d I y that, but I will purchase the stainless steel cleaner and I use that, I don't know once a month, so it's lasting me a really long time. But that's my one thing that i'll buy store bought and possibly even name brand, and that's just what works for me. That's what I've noticed I feel best with makes things look the most shiny, and and so you can figure out what's going to be best for you. Yeah, my one thing is usually a tub cleaner because I don't wash my tub a lot. It's kind of it's my least favorite thing too, and I'll use the same on the toilet and my least favorite things to clean, so I will use my heavy duty Oh that's true. Barkeepers, that's true. I love Barkeepers. Is my go to for the tub, and then I'll also use it on my pots and pants. I love barkeepers, so yes, that's a that's name brand that is under my sink. Yeah, definitely those two things, and then some some Lisault wipes, just because I do like to have those easily. We've been all so sick lately. Um that those are easy too when you're using a lot to just have them. Oh, Jean, I'm going to challenge you like you challenged me with who I bank with. Okay, challenge me. It is just as possible to have an all purpose disinfectant with a rag that is dedicated for the surfaces that you're wiping down. I keep a rag wrapped around my all purpose cleaner, and if I feel as though it's getting too dirty, then I throw it into the washing machine and grab the next one. But keep the rag around the bottle. Just cute little tie around the bottle. Whip that out, wipe it down. Then you're not throwing it out. Well, for all purpose, I will do that, But when we are like specifically when we are sick, when we're ill and I need a disinfectant, that's when I use the list, not to just for general cleaning. Yeah, but you can have an all purpose that's also a disinfectant. And if you're sick, then you just have a dedicated rag. Just just throw it out there, all right, I'll well, we can follow up down with the paper towels and the disposable and the disposable wipes down. The great eight is to store cleaning products together in cool, dark places. This is very easy. You can hopefully somewhere where your kids and pets can't get them. That's easy enough because that preserves them. And last number nine, we all know this. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but a minimalist lifestyle will lead to minimal cleaning. So the less stuff that you have, the less dusting, the less picking up, the less rearranging, the less surface area to clean, just the less. And then the more exactly, the more money, the more time, the more fun, the more Frugal Friends onto the next article. Yes, if you if it takes you more than an hour to clean your home, I mean you're moving on to a second episode of Frugal Friends, And I mean we love you, but like I mean what, we want you to live your life too in real life. So let it make you. Let it take you an hour to clean your home and spend an hour with us, and then another hour with the people in your life, and then be done what we really want for you put us away. So the next article we are moving into d I Y cleaners, so homemade cleaners, and this is from Good Housekeeping. I like all the tests that they do, so I hopefully this is an accurate, good, well tested article. It says it is. Obviously I can't verify um, but it's eight homemade cleaners that actually work according to our cleaning expert. So I guess, Laurence Smith mcdonna, you don't steer me wrong here. So let's get into the The first one is scented all purpose cleaner, So this is not my all purpose cleaner that I use, which is not natural. It's a teaspoon of dawn with two cups of water in a spray bottle. That's my go to. This one is one part white vinegar, one part water, and then they put in a lemon run in some rosemary sprigs because they fancy, and that is there all purpose cleaner. But they do caution, don't use acidic cleaners on granite. Um lemon rind will start to etch the stone and to proceed cautiously on stainless steel. Uh So some people, some manufacturers recommend against using vinegar on their appliance surfaces. So that's if you're doing granite stainless steel you may want to stick with. With my dawn cleaner, I didn't come up with it. It was a some cleaning YouTube channel something maker. But yeah, the next one is just a kitchen cleaner and deodorizer, which baking soda is fantastic for. I mean, I'm sure many of you already have just an open container of baking soda in your fridge to soak up any of those odors, so this is that idea. But it can also be a helpful cleaner when mixed with a little bit of warm water. So really, if they're talking ratios, they're saying four tablespoons baking soda to one quart of warm water. But some times you're just gonna want to put the baking soda on the spot that you want to clean and deodorize and then wipe it up with the warm water. So that would be good for shining stainless steel or appliances. You can also utilize some of the baking soda solution straight from the box on the garbage disposal or just to remove odor. So we did this one time with our We got a couch on Facebook marketplace. And because I don't know if anyone remembers, but back during the intensive COVID days, everything was on back order, including furniture, and we had just moved and we weren't going to get a brand new couch for like three or four months, and thankfully we were able to find one used, but it was from a previous pet owner and you could tell the exact spot that the dog enjoyed sitting. It was a clean couch, but some of the smell of the dog was still in this on section and so we just put baking soda on it, let it sit overnight, and vacuumed it up and the smell was gone. You can do this in your car too, if you get a used car and there's some some odors that are unidentifiable, put baking soda everywhere and then vacuum it up. It should take the stank with it. Yeah, we do this um on our mattress. If I um pulling it off and I see any like stains or anything, some baking soda, I can't remember how I put anything else on there with it. Um but yeah, baking soda probably maybe maybe a little hydrogen peroxide possibly, but yeah, I don't know if I do those together, I can't remember. But yeah, it works great. You just leave it in there while you're washing the sheets, before you put the mattress pad and the sheets back on. You just um clean that up, vacuum it up, and any rings stains are gone. It's it's great. We have a Emory foam mattress, so we use that on that. Three is a d i Y glass cleaner. Uh. So you'll need two cups of water, half cup of white or cider vinegar, a quarter cup of rubbing alcohol concentration, and then optional one to two drops of orange essential oil because they fancy. I don't put essential oils in my cleaning products because I'm not fancy. This is a good one. Yeah, this is a good one. I don't so I don't clean my windows or glass with with newspaper. Have you ever done that, Jill, No, I feel like the ink would come off. People love it, so I also feel that way, and I've seen it happen. It doesn't. But that's another suggestion. If you have any old newspaper on hand. Maybe you're looking for a way to reuse it. This could be an option for that and would definitely come off on my hands though at least yeah, you'd have to use gloves again. I use my hand towel um because I don't use bleach, so I don't worry about the hand towel like color staining, So I just use hand towel. Shout out to my mother in law when the Sirianni cleans my windows like exterior and interior, every visit she comes down, So that means my windows get cleaned once a year and it's perfect, and she she loves you or she judges you. Well, I don't really care the motives because I benefit and then and that right might be both, you know, But it's just not a priority to me to clean the exterior of my windows. But every time she does it, I'm like, oh wow, I didn't realize how little I could see. I thought I had great sight out spying on my neighbors, but I can see him even better after she visits. I know, Linda, bless her. She does everything out of love. I do clean my mirrors. That does happen on the interior of my home pretty regularly. But yeah, a good squeegee and some vinegar that that works wonders too. Yeah. I mean, it's more important to see yourself than to see your neighbors, but both are important. I would argue. I would argue that my neighbors are up to some cool stuff. So cool quote unquote, UM four is one that because I have so much brass, it's homemade brass cleaner. And if you have so much brass, because with your essential as, if that's where you keep your essential oils next to and your lemon rinds and your rosemary, then just get some white vinegar or lemon juice, some kind of acid, and some table salt and you can start rubbing it all over your brass. Just brighten it, shine it right up, um, as long as it's non lacquered, tarnished brass. There's a video that's happening here too that I'm seeing them put actually catchup. They're putting ketchup and salt. So maybe that's like the the acidic as vinegar and ketchup. It just looks so funny to be putting catch up onto a cleaning rag. But there you got too much ketchup. You need to get rid of your catchup, and you've got too much brass, you go. You don't need to buy fancy products to clean your fancy brass. But also, thankfully, tarnished brass is in style. So just let that brass get tarnished and call it your style and move on with your life. Is my style, Dirt is my style. Trash it's my styles. Target is not a personal style, but trash definitely is a lifestyle choice. All right. Number five, we got some natural heavy duty scrub. What you need is half of a lemon and half a cup of some borax powder. Also, borax keeps cockroaches away, I've learned, and it's like non toxic, which is excellent. So you could just like pour that behind your washing machine and I don't know, near your windows. Borax seems like such a toxic thing, but it's it is. Um It's not safe for marble and granite, but it's safe for almost everything else. So get yourself some borax if you don't already have some from your child's slime phase um or if you're looking for what to do with it now that your child no longer makes slime. This is what you do with that extra borax. So so you you slice a lemon in half, you dip that into the borax powder, and then you can use this on rust stains, on porcelain or enamel, sinks and tubs. They're no match for this heavy duty homemade cleaner, yes borax. And then I mean you can't eat the lemon after that, like don't don't, don't eat it, just clean with it. But you could use the other half of the lemon make yourself a well something with tonic. Yeah. See that's why I don't put food in my cleaning products. Um, because you don't eat cleaning products. But most of these, like baking, soda, vinegar, lemon, it cleans your insides probably too. Don't eat cleaning packs or drink them. Just a fun fact of the fun visory of the day. And mandatorially evacuate if you're called to your two wisdom words for the day, and I'm gonna mandatory evacuate your lis alt wipes. Thank you, coming for you when I'm allowed to return to my home, I'm coming for you, Okay, thank you. Uh six is a d I Y grease cleaner. So if you your stovetop, if you do any cooking at home, which you should. It's great. You'll need a half cup of Sudsi ammonia, which I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is either. There's a link to click on. I'll click on it. You keep talking, Okay, you click and this is oh, good housekeeping, scant one gallon of water. Also, don't know what a scant. I think that means like a little less, like a little less than one gallon of water. Oh, and it says right here sudsy ammonia contains detergent. Yeah. So the link goes to Amazon for a Parsons Ammonia All purpose cleaner lemon so I don't I don't know. I guess it's it's ammonia mixed with stuff. If you don't have said zy ammonia, get yourself a teaspooned down. That's what it's saying. Saying Don is the next best thing to nature is really pretty amazing. That's another name brand. Yeah, I might be grabbing for Don Don over generic forever. They don't pay us to say that. I think we've said that before, like this before. They clean your greasy ducks, and they also clean everything else. Yeah, greasy ducks, greasy stovetops, just like give it up for don Also, really you can mix it with water and it's like a relatively non toxic pest aside for your garden. I mean, look it up. Don't take my word for it. My father in law taught me that, uh it is a relatively non toxic pesticide. So and he he owns a farm. He's a farm he's a real life farmer. I trust him. Seven last resort clothing stain remover. I don't like how they say last resort, but let's don't love that either. It's might ruin your clothing. So either not a stream because it includes bleach. A one gallon of hot water. So this is a solid gallon, not a not a scant gallon, but not solid in the fact that it is not liquid, a liquid gallon of hot water. And this is only for white clothing. I do need to highlight that, Like that's what they're saying. This is only for your whing that has stained that's not responding to other treatments. So this is a really specific scenario you found yourself in. Yeah, uh so into your one gallon of hot water, you put one cup of powdered dishwasher detergent and one cup of regular liquid chlorine bleach, not ultra or concentrate. So this doesn't I mean, this is very d I y, but this is not natural. Uh. And you soak your white garments or whatever color you desire, just know you're soaking them in bleach for fifteen to twenty minutes in a stainless steel, plastic or nameable not aluminum. Don't make that mistake. This is too much. This is too much dirts my personal style. I will wear that dirty white shirt and call it creams cream. So this is your a lot of stuff. That's a lot of specifics, a lot of stainless steel, it's a lot of soaking. That's that's too much, okay, number Yeah. It's going to save your clothes, then save you money on buying clothes. Try it. Yeah. For those of you who are like, Okay, I can't use any of these products on my marble or granite countertops, thanks so much. What do I do? Here's what you do. Two drops of mild dishwashing liquid. Guess what that links to? Our girl Dawn like dawn dish soap. Mild dishwashing liquid. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it links. It goes straight to Dawn. We all know our girl, Dawn, she's got our backs. You would do two drops of that with two cups warm water and purpose how you clean your marble your granite because you don't want to use acid for multiple reasons, did not and do not have anything marble. But and I used a teaspoon of dawn so that still works. But but yeah, that's exactly what I use. And it says you can buff with a soft cloth. Do not let them marble, air dry um net re use acid on your marble. Wow. Yeah, okay, so maybe next time, just you know, buy courts or something that is Yeah, that's and you know what else I mean, you know what else stands up to acid? It stands up to really anything. Oh, it's our it's our guy, it's our guy. 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. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hey, j and Jill absolutely loved everything that you do so exciting. I wanted to call in to share my bill of the week frequent. Frequent bill is my grocery bill, and it's quite big. So it's actually a bill that I have decided not to budget and not to restrict and not to worry too much about. I'm registered dietitians, so food is really important to me. I'm a big foodie. Whenever I get together with friends, we often have a pollack, bring a lot of food together. And so I've decided to let go of the guilt that you used to come with spending a lot of money on food, and now I've decided to look at that bill from a grateful lens, being grateful that I have the resources to be able to pay for this, looking at it more from like a value space spending perspective, and being happy that food is in my life in that way, and not worrying too much about it. So I thought i'd share that in case anybody else feel something similar and wanted a different perspective. Thanks guys, not in but hearts love that and smiles and almost tears over here for you. This is amazing. I feel like when I hear a message like this, I just I feel so seen and celebratory, like, Yes, this is the thing, this is what we're advocating for. Yeah, and it's so this is a thing that I feel like a lot of people should do with their grocery budget, because there is so much uh shame around having a large grocery budget when you're trying to save money. But if you're saying no to so many other things, that affords you the opportunity to say yes to this, Especially people who are in fitness or like Acacias the dietitian like, or care about certain being organic and stuff like that. If that's what you care about, you say yes to the grocery built and you say know to other things. That's what values based spending is. It's not just saying yes to everything and increasing your budget. It's knowing what to say no two and feeling no guilt when you are spending on the things that are truly in your values. So well done, girl, this is exactly what we love to hear. I love that letting go of the guilt and embracing gratitude. That's my takeaway from your bill, And it's beautiful. If you all listening. Want to submit your bill if it has to do with not embracing values based spending and finding the bills that you're willing to pay, or letting go of bills that you don't want to pay anymore, don't need to pay anymore. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill. Leave us your bill, whether it's funny or inspiring or off the wall. We're here for it and now it's time for which is quite I mean quite something given the circumstances we're in. Although I don't think lightning comes with hurricanes, right right, Jenn, There is lightning. Yeah, there is lightning. So there's gonna be a two part. We'll talk about the we'll talk about the second part after the show. But I really want to know, um, what your hurricane snack of choices, which is a big thing in hurricanes. I know you haven't been in Florida for too long. Hurricane snacks, specifically eating them before the hurricane comes. It's a big thing. So we'll talk about that later. We'll have like a hurricane education. I know I've already kind of educated you on the important things, which I'm glad now that I'm in it. You're going to educate me on the unimportant things that are. But first, very important, let's let's talk about um. This is a really fun one that Goldie came up with. So you have a guest coming over in thirty minutes and you only have thirty minutes to clean your home? What order do you go in? What do you prioritize? I do love this question. Oh my gosh, okay, uh, toilet first. I don't know who you are the life that you live. If toilet isn't first, like, gotta check that, macgon to make sure. I don't know who you are looking at my answer right now, you know who I am. I don't know why the toilets not first, but for me, I am belining. I mean so in my mind with this scenario, I'm assuming I just got home from something and I've got thirty Usually what happens is I've got five minutes. So maybe that's the pressure that I feel like i'm under. Thirty minutes does sound like quite a lot to me, but it's still gonna be a toilet first. I'm belining it, and I'm making sure that that bathroom is in ship shape order for someone to use it and me not to lose friendship. So we're doing a quick swipe of that. We are wiping down on the counters in the bathroom, and we're making sure that the hand towel is not drenched, because that's gross, like going into someone else's bathroom and what like drying your hands on a very damp towel makes you wonder what happened before I got here and what has been wiped on this towel. This is just me, so like you know, do onto others as you would have done to you. There's that concept, so so making sure that that hand towels and I'm just like all about the bathroom, maybe maybe judge me. And then from there, okay, the living area that we're going to be in, So that's rearranging the pillows and possibly doing a quick vacuum. I've got a little handheld vacuum that's grabb able of the couch and wiping down the coffee table, and then gosh, if I've got more time than that, you don't have any more time. Chill, You're done. He went first in my thirty minutes. It's basically just damage control. It is. It is damage control, and Jill doesn't get to come over to my house anymore. Now after this, you're you're fine. I'm not. Nothing I said was like attacking you. And my experience at your house like my experience, there's great love coming over. This new house is definitely different than our old house because you could get away with a lot more because everything is newer. Everything at this old house is still older and just looks even when it's clean, it looks dirty. So if I have somebody coming over in thirty minutes, first I'm picking up all the toys off the floor and all the random things that are on the floor that aren't toys but the three year old has put on the floor. So everything's coming off the floor and it's getting put away somewhere in its area. And then I'm wiping counters because I was probably cutting strawberries right on the counter because it's I don't care about that counter yet, UM, So counters are getting wiped. So if after the damage control I have time, as a bonus, I will vacuum um because there for sure crumbs on the floor from the pap patrol cookies. Um. And then it was a bonus, I'll switch out the hand towel in the guest bathroom and use that the old one to to clean the guess vanity, the mirror and around the toilet and in the toilet and then put a fresh hand towel out. And that is what I will do if I have thirty minutes, but I may not get to the toilet. Your toilet is first. I'm may not get to the toilet. I respect that you have a child, so the damage control is a little different than it looks like for me. I mean, you have to think about not tripping people with toys, So I I agree with that. I support you. Yeah, and uh it's a yeah. It gets on Sunday evenings, So it gets like crazy on the weekends. And then it's Sunday evenings, we make him clean everything. We just put him to work and we make him clean every child kai. Yeah, and for the week and then it kind of builds up again to the same intensity on Friday where we will clean again in prep for the weekend. Wow, he's going to hate the weekends. He should he should be to go back to daycare. He should be blessed. Uh so what I want him to feel? Um, thanks guys so much for listen sing to our live hurricane episode that is actually also we typically record a month out, but because we were both sick and out of town different times all September. This, I mean, this one's gonna come out. This is our next episode almost our next episode to come out. Uh so really really in real time feels as live as it's gonna get. But uh yeah, so thank you. And then also are members in our private communities, um the Frugal Friends Club which is for people paying off debt, and then the our Frugal Friends Patreon, which is just for fans of the show. We want to give a shout out to you, guys. We want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This is from Christie and I'm gonna paraphrase this a bit, but she says, I'm a teacher and received my first paycheck of the school year today. I had spent a lot of time in August re figuring my saving schools and automating my savings transfers bi weekly. All I had to do today to finalize all that was put in the exact amount of my paycheck into my Google sheet check register before I had estimated it. And then no decision for fatigue for me when moving any money around this school year. So congrats Christie, taken away that decision fatigue and just paying yourself first. Christie. It can feel so good when we just know exactly what's going to be put away for savings. It's done. Yeah, you don't got to think much about it when you've done that pre work. Congratulations. Yeah, so thank you for listening. If you are paying off debt and you want to check out our membership for that, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge we have coming up for people specifically paying off debt. And if you just love the show and you want some cool bonuses like an ex a bonus member episode every month, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Patreon and you get some fun extras in that in that little group. See you next time by Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Alright, Jill Hurricane Snacks. I know you're not a big like. I don't think this is going to be as interesting as I wanted to be for you. I'm so sorry. I dis Yeah, especially on the snack front. I mean, you make great snacks. I enjoy your snacks, but you don't indulge in snacks the way I want you to, so, so tell me about your hurricane snack game. You are going to hate this. Here's how I pray upt knowing that we might lose power. I made a whole jug of smoothie vegetable and fruit and coconut water smoothie, and I've got a whole jug of it so I don't have to go without. I am not surprised, um and beyond and on the behalf of everyone in Florida, even people that aren't from here. And I don't group us all together very often. Um, people, what are you gonna say? Say it? Speak on behalf of everyone else. Um, I'm sorry, because because hurricanes are the place where you snag and you feel no shame. You snack without shame during your hurricane. Okay, Okay, I've got a lot to learn. So your first trip in a hurricane prep is always to you. You hit home, depot and public X, depending on where you live, in what order. They are the same priority. Because you're gonna need some kind of plywood for your windows, and you're gonna need water to drink. Your third stop, once the boards, once the boards are on your window and the waters in your fridge. You go back out to Total Wine or ABC, depending on where you live, wherever's closer to you. Uh, that's where you head next. Um and hopefully at Publix. You stocked up on your snacks. Um, well, you will be proud of me for this. We did get a wine shipment recently. There were running a great deal. So I have a whole tub, an actual like tote of wine effect. We do have that good for you, good for you? Um, but tell me about antiotics. What's your okay? So we relied on my mother to provide the snacks. So we've got extra pot patrol cookies. We already had the paw patrol cookies. We have extras. She brought in Swiss cake rolls, brought in a little because she brought in specialty ship man she did. Um gosh what else we she got dried fruit. I made a five layer dip like a Mexican five layered dip. We got stocked up on all the water. She brought the sweet tea. Um, nobody in the house drinks right now, so there's no alcohol. But yeah, we got all that we've been I got some leftover ice cream, some popsicles. Gotta hit those before the power grows out. Yeah. Um. And then once things start to defrong, defrosting in the freezer, then you just start, um, you start throwing things on a grill mostly and veggies. So um, that's snacks. That's the hurricane meal plan. It's not buried like a normal meal plan. It's all together like this is the meal plan. It's one big meal. It's the order that you have to go in. You have to go more than the order of freezer stuff on the grill when the flowers out, snacks for when the powers out. But then you said you eat all the snacks before the hurricane, and that is a that's kind of like a like a staple of being a Floridian is that you buy all the snacks in prep and most of them are eaten before the hurricane starts because you're part of you your board eating and your stress eating. Similar to snowstorms in the North. This all sounds quite similar, and to be fair, we got hurricanes to the prep is a little bit different, but we did get hurricanes in the North. You still don't know how to do a hr apparently not I know and yet I still need to learn so much. It's a good thing we have this podcast together. Yeah, uh and yeah, I mean that's really all I can teach you. I've already taught you about evacuation zones and that those are important. I thought I wasn't going to have to leave. I thought that this wasn't going to be real. Yeah, you had to teach me that. No, if they tell you to evacuate, you will evacuate. And that did Sundays. Yeah, and we left. And now we're in a location that apparently is going to get more pummeled than our home. But you know, you win some, you'll lose some. It's fine. You can't really escape a hurricane once it's coming. All you can do is eat snacks. And I wish that you had taught me this lesson before I was in Orlando unable to leave. But here we are. There. There is one coffee shop open right now this morning. Um. I'm not going to name names, because why not. People will be divided on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Um. I think they're fighting the good fight, for the real people, for the real soldiers, all the people that are still out there right now, um, are you know I mean shout out also to our first responders who are already responded. But I will end this by saying, you'll also be proud of me. I brought my vitamins with me. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make a smoothie, but I did realize this thing has value to me, and I'm going to be very sad if it either gets ripped away by the waters or looted either one. I'm like, I'm I am bringing my vitemics like you have one thing to bring with you and laptop vitamins. Husband made it in the car, so i think I'm prepared for her. And I'm glad that's that was it. I'm glad that was it for you. Um, and again not shocked that you made the gallon of smoothie, brought the vitam mix and we're done here. I think we're done here.