We're celebrating 3 years of the frugal friends podcast by taking a look at the factors that contribute to impulse buys and ways to avoid it!
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Episode one fifty six, how to avoid impulse spending. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity rights, and live with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and for the one hundred and fifty sixth time, we are introducing ourselves and most of you probably still don't know which one is which. I'm so excited because today Mark's a special day. That's why I sang even more than I normally do it during the intro. It is tell him Jen, our third anniversary of doing Frugal Friends. We've been doing this for three whole years. We can hardly believe it. I can't even believe we've been friends for that long. We've been friends for longer than that. That's true technically, because we didn't know each other. We clung out yesterday and realized it was literally the four year anniversary of the first time we met. So so many special things happening yes So we are excited to record this episode for the second time because the first time I had technical difficulties, so we still aren't perfect. Right after three years, and much like in personal finance, you will do it for a really long time and you will never be perfect at it. So that's the moral of our podcasting journey. And since we're doing this again, we don't have to waste time. We can get right into our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by the Frugal Friends Florida meet up. This year, we are doing a few in person meetups socially distanced, safe outside all the works the works, and so our first one is actually tomorrow, April seventeen, in St. Petersburg, Florida. So to get the information on that, you can go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash meet up. Um there will be food, there will be fun. There will be friends, free food and other free things at the meet up. So if you are in the area anywhere in Florida, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash meet up see where we'll be and we hope to see you there. We got something really weird sent to us in the mail from Hulu that we're going to share with you all, and it's to be a blast. So that would be a surprise, yes, but you're gonna love it also brought to you by accidental success, like microwaves, penicillin post it notes the X ray machine. This podcast accidental success. Don't be afraid of messing up. It may just turn into a massively good thing, ab so freaking lutely, which is fitting because three years ago we just thought we were having fun trying out a podcast, and now look at us are on the front page of Apple Podcasts. We just thought we were valley girls just shooting the breeze. Yeah. I always thought of myself as a valley girl, right, and now other people still think of us as that. Just with three more years of podcasts under our belt. Yeah, master's level from Philly Valley Girl. That makes absolutely so. Speaking of episodes, if you are interested in impulse spending and you want to queue up some of our episodes to play after this, definitely head back into the archives and que up episode one, which is our episode on emotional spending with Leslie Taine. That one was really really good, and then episode one thirty three how to avoid Holiday impulse buying. We mentioned the holidays, but really it can come around any holiday or birthday or significant event. You can find some really valuable things in that one, so definitely great episodes to cue up for after this one. Yes, let's get into it. Let's talk about impulse spending and how to avoid it. Yeah, I'm excited to hear your thoughts on our first quote unquote article. It's actually an infographic, and so if you visit our show notes, you will be able to see the infographic. But I thought that this had a lot of really great data and we wanted to share this with you. So Jill already shared some of your thoughts before we started recording. But let me know what you think of this. I don't want to bash it before we talk about some of the good stuff of it. Well, let's talk about the good stuff. It's called the Psychology of Consumer Spending, and it is it's a lot of statistics, but it's from Illinois Lending. Yes, so it gives us just a basic snapshot of some of the compulsive shopping statistics. What we typically purchase when we compulsively shop, how much we spend in credit cards versus cash spending, reasons for compulsive shopping, Like the infographic states the psychology behind it, some of the mental reasons behind it, which always comes first, our thoughts and feelings always come before an action, so we have to make those connections when we're looking at behaviors. So I think it helps to highlight those pieces. One of the things that struck me just because it is at the top of this infographic and it gets thrown around a lot, so I want to make sure that that we look at this it does talk about It states that shopping addiction affects about five pc of the population. I just want to state here we can throw our on the word addiction and not really know what we're talking about here. Shopping addiction is not actually a diagnosable behavioral concern. While compulsive shopping can certainly lead to some negative things and have some adverse consequences, it's not actually in the d s M. We can't actually diagnose a shopping addiction. So I don't know where they're getting that percentage. It's not a diagnosable thing. It's not actually an addiction. Certainly it can lead to some really maladaptive, difficult things in people's lives, but I just want to state that at the forefront. Yeah, but I mean, it does have some usable stats that can really put compulsive shopping into perspective because that is a thing. We do tend to overuse the word addiction on some things, but it doesn't negate the fact that shopping free quently, especially when unplanned, does have negative effects. So the first stat that it states on here's over people who shop today make occasional impulse purchases that they didn't tend to buy initially. So I would really, I would really argue that a hundred percent of people who shop makes some kind of occasional impulse by It doesn't matter who you are. It's easy to do, especially when you see something that yeah, oh this might fit a need. It wasn't necessarily on my list, but might as well get it, or something inexpensive. I mean, maybe not every trip, but even as an intentional shopper and a frugal person, sometimes throwing in a pack of gum I didn't plan on buying. Absolutely you love gum. Yeah, I would also argue with this stat we really said we weren't going to bash you before we highlighted the good things, but here we are. It says women may comprise may comprise. I love that ambiguity and statistics up to of compulsive shoppers, and I believe that statistically women do make more purchases, do make more home purchases than men. That's data backed. But I do argue the fact that of compulsive shoppers are women, because I know a lot of men just because they're buying different things, are still buying things that are unplanned. Well, the compulsive part isn't gender specific any right, be compulsive and impulsive. So alright, let's just move past that first section, Okay, where I will point out this is a stat I do believe among compulsive shoppers, fifty eight percent have large debts. But that's a lot of people, Like, even if you're not a compulsive shopper, you can still have a large amount of student loan debt or maybe medical debt or something. Yeah, the common purchase says So I liked this section as well as the reasons for impulse purchasing. But the most common purchases that we will make when we're shopping compulsively is clothing, household items, shoes, jewelry, and items on sale, the Big five, the Big five and all of these relative luxuries, right, jewelry, shoes, household items, clothing. We're not talking food. We're not compulsively shopping for food. Sometimes though, I'm like throwing ice cream in my cart that I don't need. But these are the items that and I think it's helpful to know, Okay, these are the big five, or even dig deeper to say which one is the one you typically go to. For me, it's definitely clothing. So if I'm out and about and I'm not actually planning on going for clothing, I won't even go up and down those aisles. Already talking about how to avoid compulsive impulsive shopping, but and items on sale definite. Really, you can always find me on the clearance sections. Such a fallacy that you're actually saving money when you're buying clearance items. You might be buying discounted items, but you're still spending money. So if you didn't need those items, it's not a good deal and it often leads to compulsive purchases because oh man, I've never seen this price on this type of item before. I better just buy it. But I don't actually have a use for it. So beware shoppers. Absolutely. I mean we talked about this and back in our Holiday Um and Pulse shopping episode, is that retailers will mark up things so that they can put them on sale because a sale is a marketing technique. It's not to help you. It is marketing because again items on sale is one of the Big five, and that's I mean definitely for me. I know that I liked this credit card versus cash spending section, and so I am a die hard credit card user. I don't use cash because it's inconvenient for me, and I have practice frugality long enough to where I can use a credit card with confidence. I love the cash envelope method when you're first starting out and you really need to see what you're spending and how you're spending it. I love that. But it does say that twenty two dollars is the average cash transaction while a hundred and twelve is the average non cash transaction, which was super The difference there is is wide, and I can see why, Like, if I'm purchasing something very expensive, I'm obviously not going to pay in you know, cash bills. Like I'm buying a car on Craig's List, I might use a check. I don't know if that's what they mean by like non cash, but it definitely is big. So that's like important to note if you're trying to reduce your impulse spending or reduce your spending. In general, a cash diet could be a really great way to kick start that. Yeah, you're not going to be likely to spend more than two dollars on a transaction. Yeah. It's shocking also how few people actually pay off their credit cards each month. This statistics states, so less than half of people will pay off their credit cards each month. I imagine within our frugal friends community that percentage would be much higher just because of our intentionality and looking at these things. But even for that reason, recognizing we may be less likely to pay off a credit card, so cash can really help us to tighten and rein this in and be more in tune with what we're purchasing, why we're purchasing. Yeah, do we want to be spending money on this thing. It's really common to have revolving credit card debt, even like if you're not struggling financially, Like I know so many people tell me it's like, yeah, I have a couple of granding credit card debt, And I'm like, you have a you have like a six figure job, you have like all you have these things, why can't you just pay off this credit card debt really quick in like a month or two and then and then keep it paid off. I guess it's one of those things. I guess I view them on the outside, it looks like they're doing well, but I don't know what's happening on the like inside. But it is one of those things where it's like credit card debt is notorious for being like the one thing that all financial professionals agree on, Like some people love debt and some people hate it, but everybody hates credit card debt, so one thing we can all agree on. So like it's the first kind of debt that should be going. Credit card debt, the yeah fire the unit it is really brings us all together. Well. This next section gets into some reasons for compulsive shopping, and I'm gonna tread lightly carefully and gently here because it is getting more into some deeper emotional roots and does require some some soul searching, some looking at what is the why behind some of the compulsive shopping tendencies that I may have, especially if this is a very common thing. And please be kind to yourself if you see that this is happening. We don't mention these things because just to leave ourselves there, but to assess, to highlight what's happening, and then to identify steps forward. We're not going to be able to change behaviors if we're also not looking at the thoughts and feelings that lead to those behaviors. So some of the things that this states and and all affirm that these can be present, they're not. Not all of them are true. Not all of them have to be present, And this is not an exhaustive list, but certainly feelings of loneliness or or depression or feeling out of control could lead somebody to go to the store and want to cope. It can be a coping mechanism. The first bullet point that they put on here is a pretty intensive one, and emotionally deprived childhood. They just kick it off with something pretty intense. Uh. And and that can be true. It's not true every time. But where we are lacking something, where we're feeling a void, we will seek to fill that void, sometimes with beneficial things, sometimes with non beneficial things. Compulsive shopping can be one of those. An inability to tolerate negative feelings or not wanting to look at some of the negative feelings is the way that you know, let me just go purchase something I like the high that I get from it. I want to feel good. This will make me feel good. Sometimes there can be comorbidity between compulsive shopping and using that as a coping mechanism and hoarding. So when we talk about frugality and minimalism going hand in hand, certainly compulsive shopping and hoarding can go hand in hand. Um. Again, all of those are rooted in some some emotional and mental health concerns as well. A desire to seek excitement, a need for approval, lack of impulse control, a desire to have control. Any of these things can lead to making purchases that I did not intend to make. Don't just take our word for it. Do your own research on this. Consider your own patterns and the ways that you cope, and not just removing this right, not just taking these tips and no longer compulsive shopping, but replacing it with something still caring for yourself. These are some deep rooted things, and so definitely looking for ways to care for yourself in that place that is beneficial for you. Yeah, they definitely put in some deep ones on here, but it is good too. When you are shopping to kind of take a look, get okay, what is my mental state right now? I was looking on Instagram to see like where I saw this, but there was a post that was like try to like it was an acronym, but try to figure out like am I angry? Am I hungry? Am I like sad? Or try to take a checklist of essentially a checklist of kind of your emotions in your mental state, like when you're shopping, and that can kind of help you point back to some of the reasons that might be for your compulsive shopping, because there's going to be yes, there's going to be a feeling, and then there's going to you're going to track that back to okay, like why am I feeling that? What is the this is the result of what in my life? And then if you keep doing that, eventually you'll notice a pattern and then you can get to the root cause. But we don't get there until we take a pause and try to figure it out. And so the step isn't being perfect in and not shopping or not impulse shopping. The first step is to figure out, okay, why, So let's not fight our psychology. Let's try and work with it so that we can solve this problem. M Speaking of solving the problem, let's get into some tips on how to do this absolutely. So this next article comes from develop good Habits dot com. What a place to be on the Internet. Yes, and they give us nine tips to curb this spending, to stop our impulse buying, interrupt that pattern, and the first one I love it talks about having a thirty day any day day like a thirty day wait list. So if there is something that you want, be patient with it, start a list, write it down, and if you still want it, thirty day is from now great, get it, budget for it. But this just helps to slow us down and not purchase immediately something that we may not actually want. It's just feeding another need that we have. Finder dot Com has an extension called ice box, and I know it works for Chrome and Firefox, it might work for Safari, but it essentially replaces the buy now button at major sites with the put it on ice button, And so you put it on ice and then you decide the cool off time, um, thirty days, two weeks, whatever, and after that cool off time, the button will turn back into a buy now button. So obviously you can turn it off, and there's ways around it, but it is just like a little barrier if you want to practice some patients. I think the only one that we really have trouble with is the grocery store, because obviously you have to eat. But I think with the rise of online grocery shopping that has really become easier, so we can stay out of the all de isisle of shame as nothing in that aisle is on my list, but I'll never right and it's here for a limited time. But just like, don't expect more, like, don't expect so much of yourself, like not because you're not capable, but just because your brain has a finite amount of will power and once you exhaust it, you can't expect like anything else from That's like how I find myself after my kid goes to bed, like I've done so good all day and then I'm like, Travis, please leave and go get me some ice cream or tear Mossieu from Publix was the latest one. But like just avoid it. I mean, just look at yourself like you're you know, it's like I can't do this, so I just I can't even touch it. I will say, ordering groceries online has helped with food impulse purchasing because I'm not passing all these other things up and down the aisle. I've got a very specific list. I just searched that list and put it in my cart. So yes, that is a great tip for that. One. Number three on the list is to find free ways to reward yourself. So sometimes the compulsive impulsive shopping is a result of I deserve this, I had a really hard day, or I need to celebrate and let me just go out and spend money. And it's not about the actual thing, it's about the experience of it. But then by the end of the day, you've spent money. So it's still important to reward ourselves to celebrate, but to find free ways of doing that. I know for me, just being outside is a reward, especially now that I live in Florida and the sun shines here constantly. Going to the beach as a reward, going near water as a reward. Anything, right, brainstorm yourself what is life giving to you, and do those things before you seek to spend money as a celebration. Six is always have a list and plan for your purchases. This saves me a lot. I'm kind of flighty in the sense that I tend to get distracted easily. I'll do one thing and then I'll remember have to do another, and then I'll go do that, and then I'll do some answers. I kind of have a hard time finishing things, even though like finishing is kind of like my fulfillment. So I have to have a list. If I have a list and I haven't things written down and a plan, then I feel like i've Then I can actually get things accomplished. And it's the same thing with impulsive spending. If you have a list, then you can stick to it and you can feel it. Once you've accomplished your list, you no longer need to put anything into your cart because you have accomplished the task at hand. You can feel proud of yourself. And I don't know if this works for everyone, but it definitely does for me. Um, once I've completed my list, I'm like, yes, let's get out of here. But planning and listing is so helpful when trying to control your spending, yeah, and having a use for it ultimately, so it also keeps you from bringing things into your home that you don't actually have a plan for don't need, won't use. I like number five on here too, which is to be mindful of your reaction to impulse spending, So keeping track of what has happened in the past when I've made an impulse purchase, what happened just before, what happened during, what happened after inside of me, my emotions, my thoughts, even some of my visceral reactions, and are those feelings worth the purchase. One of my good friends, shout out to, Sharon, has been keeping in amotional journal along with tracking her spending, and I think we talked about this in the interview with Leslie Tayne as well, kind of taking that tracking of spending to the next level where you mark down maybe even when you want to purchase something, what just happened in your circumstances, What are you feeling around that, what is it leading you to want to purchase? And even just slowing yourself down in that way can help interrupt the pattern, but it can also help us to identify where patterns exist, like, oh, when I'm feeling angry, that's when I typically go to shop for this thing online, Or when I'm feeling really down or sad or my day didn't go well, and just beginning to be more aware of ourselves, more mindful of what's happening in our experiences can help us to identify again more beneficial ways to respond to those emotions. So I know that that's next level, but it can be really helpful. I love that idea of pairing the finances and the emotional and mental health together because they do go hand in hand. We just often don't always want to look at those things. But track you're spending hand your emotions side by side. Try it out. Let us know how it goes. I fully believe that it's about working with your psychology and not working against it. So instead of off all purchases and just restricting yourself to living under a rock, let's look at Okay, what are what are my quote unquote issues Like what are my you know, the things that keep me from succeeding? How can I either overcome them or work with them until they're overcome? And then also what are the things that light me up? And how can I indulge those in a freeway Like There's just there's so much to be said for finding out like what's underneath the surface and working with that because that, in the end, is sustainable. If you're trying to work against it, this lifestyle of frugal lifestyle will not be sustainable. Do you know what lights me up every week? Every every week the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's build buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Okay, so my bill of the week is going to be Pets supplies and like all their food, all their groomy everything. And that's because I really love my pets dearly, so even though they can be pricing it is well worth it. Yes, I love that. I mean I don't have any pets, but I know people love their pets. It sounds like you take such good care of your pet. And we love these bills. Where people are values based spending. It's not about constantly cheaping out in every category of life, but saving where we can to be able to spend where we want to. So that's so sweet. Thanks for calling in your bill. About your pet supplies because you love your pets so much, so you can buy all those cool toys and make all those cute videos that we see on social media. I want to see them from you. So in light of doing two those of the week, here is our next one. Hi, Danny Ji is just throw me from Games to Florida. My bill of the week is that. Earlier this month, I posted on the Frugal Friends Facebook page about out my laundry room, drivewall in needles, expensive repairs and comparing estiment costs between hiring a contractor versus a handy now well repleas to the helpful replies to my post, I ended up hiring no one and doing the repairs myself. That alone take me about two thousand hundred dollars, and I learned more about home repair. And because I had two thousand dollar budget to start with, from I checked my homeowners Insurance had given me four repairs, I was able to hire help to cover additional things on my improvement list such as floor installation, water here installation, window repair, and my air conditioning annual maintenance UM. So all of that UM I was still able to come on their budget. Now my savings is about seven hundred and fifty dollars money that I'll pay back to my savings for unexpected expenses in the previous months. And that is my bill of the week. Thank you for all that you guys. To look forward to learning more from you guys every Friday. Guys. Oh my gosh, I love that. And that is from the Frugal Friends community. Oh my god, Broy, how amazing to not be fearful of all these daunting repairs, but to figure out how to do it yourself. That definitely takes grit and problem solving and just a frugal mentality. So well done on all of these renovations that you did yourself, and then saving money, and then the money that you save you put back into your savings. So many amazing things happening here. Thanks for sharing that bill. Yes, if you want to submit your Bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Leave us your bill. If it's about spending money on things that you love to spend money on, or saving money on things that you could just do yourself, let us know we love to hear them all. Today's Bill of the Week is brought to you by Policy Genius. April can mean some not so fun things, getting fooled, getting rained on, getting your taxes done. So if you need a positive experience to balance it all out, consider shopping for home and auto insurance with policy Genius. Head to policy genius dot com and answer a few quick questions about yourself and your property. Then policy Genius takes it from there. They compare rates from America's top insurers like Progressive and All State, and they find you the lowest quotes. The policy Genius team will get all the ways to maximize your saving, including bundling your home and auto policies, and if policy Genius can find a better rate than what you're paying now, they'll switch you over for free. That kind of service has earned policy Genius of five star rating across thousands of reviews on trustpiling Google. Policy Genius can promise that you won't leave their website feeling like a fool. This April, they've saved customers up to one thousand, five dollars per year to their current home and auto policies. Head over to policy genius dot com to get started right now Policy Genius. When it comes to insurance, it's nice to get it right. And now it's time for round. So we are going to talk about our latest impulse buys because I am convinced a hundred percent of people make impulse purchases because a hundred percent of people are not perfect. And we will be the first admitted because Jen loves to admit our failures. I love it. Our vulnerabilities, I love it. So that's why I'm gonna go. That's why I'm gonna go first. So at first, I was thinking I did impulse by a bag of veggie straws because they were on sale. That was my first thought. So that is a thing that I recently did. But it was like, I'm not gonna that's that's going to be like a slap in the face to Jaels. So because you know how bad mine's. Mine was a trip to St. Augustine. We planned it kind of last minute and it was just kind of like a getaway because I missed traveling and it wasn't in the budget. We could have put it in the budget, I guess, but I really were. We were just like everybody's free that weekend, we can go booked without I mean, we went with you on the Florida trip, and so I guess that kind of also makes it in both persons for me too, well, we did have money set aside for vacations. We just out that we did not, so that was our last impulse. Beend alright, Jen, here's mine. Oh, Eric and I just bought a house. Those of you have been listening for a while, you know this. It's we are first time home buyers. Were fixing things up. We've been focusing on the outdoors. Mostly. You've probably heard that Eric is on Facebook market Place constantly and he often finds really great deals, including that he wanted to at one point purchase an indoor water feature, which I immediately vetoed. It did lead to a little bit of tention. Talked about that in a previous episode, so sometimes I have control. However, when it came to this one, he found a spiral staircase like that you could have put outside and it all would spiral staircase outdoors beautiful on Facebook market Place used. I totally co signed for that one. Didn't plan on having a spiral staircase. Don't actually have a solid use for it except that it's stunning and I love spiral staircases. And we nearly have a flat roof, so we put it outside, put it up against our flat roof. We just go on the roof. People come over, they're like, where does that go? Or like the roof, like what's up there? But nothing. You could just get up on the roof the roof, what's up there? The roof. You can kind of see good sunsets from there. But it's really just about spiral staircases. I love it. I mean really, I'm pleased for it, no looking back, but at one hundred percent was an impulse by We do not need a spiral staircase. It does look stunning, but didn't plan for it at all. I bet you could see amazing sun rises from the roof and no one's up that early. Well one day, no one in the right mind. I'll test it one day. We would love to hear your impulse byes and in those buys that you're overcoming. Seriously, if you're in a store and you were about to buy a bag of veggie straws on sale and then you said you heard my voice in your head and you said, no, I'm not going to do it, Please hang out with us in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook, Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash group and tell us about it, and thank you so much for listening for three years. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or you are a new listener, we love you and we appreciate you, and you are the lifeblood of this show. You are the reason we do it. And yeah, I feel silly saying that I'm a podcaster, but I'll never quit as long as there are people listening to this show, and thousands of you do every week. So we are so blessed by you, and thank you so much for your kind Reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, like this one from Britty teven just happens to be five star ours. They say my favorite podcast. I love listening to the Frugal Friends podcast. Jen and Jill make it feel like you're chatting with a couple of your best friends. The podcast is giving me great tips along with helping me attempt my first no spend month a little over one week to go. Thank you ladies. Thank you Britty mm tho'se no spend challenges. Those will also help to rain in some impulse spending. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media, So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher. They help more than you could ever know. And send the screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com to enter that giveaway and or tag us on social Thanks everyone, see you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian Jen. What should we do to celebrate three years? I was thinking we could reminisce on some past what I mean, thoughts over the last three years, like best memories. Oh yes, one million downloads. One million downloads was so fun. I was so sad. So when we hit five hundred thousand, I was sad that the balloons were too expensive to get four balloons was out of my price range. So when we hit one million and I could just get two balloons, I was like, yes, so much more affordable. And then I re used the balloons for my guests who came in town to make them feel special. They still had helium in them. They did last for a long time. Those were worth their money. I guess if you want to have some sturdy, reusable blundes, what about you? What's the highlight? Um? All of the people that we've gotten to talk to, I think so some of my favorites have been Joshua Becker. That was a big one. I found girl hard on that interview, didn't we all we called us smart interviewers, though afterwards we didn't catch it. We didn't, we didn't have it recorded, but I know I know what he said to us. I love that. Yeah, I mean, and just so a bunch of like rock star women who I don't typically like. We don't we don't typically feature people from PETE like that PR firms send us like. We find our guests were very intentional with the guests we bring on, and so to feature women who have done amazing things in their personal finance is that don't typically get recognition elsewhere. Is probably one of my favorite things that we do highlight for me is the community we've built. I not neither one of us or anyone in our immediate surroundings. I think I anticipated that frugal friends would actually like be where it is today, But so much of that, as we've already said, is because of the community that we've built. But I think it's this surprising, this amazing treasure and surprise that has happened is people have connected with this concept, with this idea, with this thing that they're already doing and looking for friends like them, community like them. I love that we are three years in and I really feel like it's not about me, Jill, you Jen. It's about the frugal friends community, the tips that we all get to share together, the camarade read, the mutual understanding, the fun that has been really surprising to me an incredibly enjoyable. Such a gift that has come out of this. I don't know another podcast doing this, and I mean and having what we have with the community, little community we've built. You know, I'm sure they're out there, but like ours is so unique and welcoming and inclusive, and it is a treasure. It is surely a treasure, um and something I didn't anticipate when we made this Facebook group literally before episode one, and we had no one in there and it was just me posting memes. That's kind of what we were known for it first. Yeah, Oh my gosh, it was just me posting memes like every other day to see this thing lives on its own, like this is like this lives outside at its gen and hip. And we know that because people will join our Facebook group not even knowing about the podcast. We still about once a month get people asking like, what's the name of the Bad Guys. It's it's literally it was the podcast first, then the group. But that's a right. You're just looking for some frugal friends. We hear, We're yeah, we hear, we hear. It's and and now I like know some of you by name, like I'm sure you're listening, and I know your face and your name, and I'm like friends with with a lot of you outside of the group, and I'm getting like Easter photos home. We're part of your family. It is absolutely that is that's a blessing. Let's celebrate with a meet up tomorrow. Yes, okay, see in person. Bye.