Financial gurus all over social media would tell you to not spend on your next takeout coffee or the food you’ve been craving for weeks, but we’re not here to tell you any of that. Being frugal is budgeting that does not have to be restrictive and deprive you of things that make you happy. This episode is going to be a great start and refresher for your values-based budgeting journey.
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Episode three p forty nine is episode one eighty six, how to Budget without Deprivation.
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 the Frugal Friends podcast.
My name is Jen, my name is Jill.
And today we are playing a rerun of one of our most popular episodes. I think this is the first one where we really truly introduced values based like budgeting and that sort of approach it. We were just testing the waters with it, and you guys loved it because it was one of our most popular episodes of twenty twenty one.
You've all been here for the evolution of understanding and redefining frugality and finding freedom and permission to make it ours. And essentially, budgeting without Deprivation is values based spending. So we can do a little throwbag. You can see how we got to where we are today. It's great.
Yes, this is truly an evolution. So if you're just starting with values based budgeting and you're not sure if you understand all the craziness that we've been saying about it, this is a good one to start with, and it's also just a good one to kind of refresh about budgeting, spending plans, all of that.
It's just a just like.
A good little refresher. But first, this episode is brought to you by bags, Bags, Baggy, bag Bags. If you have a child and you've read Mo Williams, then you get that reference Elephant piggy, but not bags to go for a drive. Bags that you can get if you refer your friends to the friend Letter. If you are unfamiliar, we send out our friend Letter three times a week. It helps you save money, spend better, become a better values based spender. And at the bottom of every friend letter, you're going to see your unique link to refer people friends, hopefully to the friend letter. So copy that link, paste it into the nearest Slack channel, the nearest teams channel, I don't know what if you call them channels. Send it in your stories, drop it as a link in your Instagram stories, wherever you find yourself. Drop that link because when you refer five people, you will get a free grocery bag from us. No no, no, no no. The plastic time that you're trying to get rid of and you can't recycle at your house. You have to actually drive to the grocery store to recycle it. A reusable shopping bag that says frugal, not cheap, and it is beautiful. It is large so it will hold many items but not too large. But you can't roll it up and put it under your seat and pull it out when you get to the store. So lovely, really good quality thick canvas. It's so nice. And all you have to do is drop that link and ask five of your friends to sign up for the friend letter. Just tell your friends that you want to help them save money, find free things, and do better with their money. And that's being a friend.
These tots are so good.
So Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash front Letter, Get on the front Letter, get to sharing. You actually have to only have to refer one person to get a free Frugal Friends sticker pack. But shoot for the moon girl, go for five, Go for that tote.
And beyond the tote, there's even more if you just are deciding to go wild with your referral link. There's mugs, t shirts, sweatshirts for our top tier winners.
Beautiful coral sweatshirt says live in my life. Yeah, it's beautiful, So all right, well let's get into this one. A few other good ones to qu up after this would be episode three ten, which is the episode Jill did with our friend Alison from Inspired Budget and talking about what she's learned from going through over seventy five real people budgets. Those are great on her Instagram. Love those. Episode two thirty seven Kakebo, which I will never pronounce that right, kokebo every time somebody tells me I'm wrong, but it's the Japanese art of mindful budgeting, and that is one of my favorite favorite episodes to date. I love that one. And then there's also episode two twenty two, which is another rerun Stop Strict Budgeting and Start Living in the Radical Middle, which is another kind of one of these throwbacks when we were starting to think about values based spending in the Radical Man. So it's just like fun to see where we were and how it's evolved. It's a nice nostalgia episode.
But stay here now and date, let's kick it back with some budgeting without deprivation.
You should have a budget that makes you feel deprived, because it is not a sustainable way to budget We've said it over and over and over, and mainly that's because we so often, especially when we're getting started with budgeting, try to make a budget that aligns with somebody else's vision for what our life should be like, or somebody that has done this before and has made it work, and we try to do what they did and recreate it. But you are nobody's second best. You are the only you, and you deserve a budget that helps you reach your financial goals and live your best life. And so we believe that's possible.
Yeah, budgets do not have to be restrictive. They do not have to feel like deprivation. I think a lot of times where people feel restricted or deprived has more to do with actual spending and earning than it does with the tool of a budget. Maybe the budget is just highlighting a pain point, which even still it's a useful tool because then it can help us identify what areas we can work on so that ultimately we don't feel deprived.
Absolutely, So let's get into this first article from life skillsthmatter dot com, and it is how to create a budget without depriving yourself. Very straightforward. I think we could have written this article. I think if I was going to write it, I couldn't have written it better.
Can I tell you? I actually looked as I was reading through it, I'm like, wait, did Jen write this? Like I look to see who the author was and if it was like a publication that you've contributed to.
Oh, hey, this our article today. Look it's me. I wrote it.
It's happened.
I do that sometimes, yes, but I did not do it on this one. And it is such a great article.
So so tell us what you thought of it, Jen, this article that you could have written. Right.
So he goes through the two. There are two different methods of budgeting, and so the first one and he starts it off. Budgets are like diets. People go on them with the best of intentions, but rarely stick to them. Yes, we are so often yo yo diet with money. But people view budgets as temporary financial punishments. Like that's such an important phrase and it's so true we do. We view them as temporary, like I won't have to be on a budget forever if I just do it to get out of my funk. Financial we only look at the numbers and how they relate to our income. And outflow. We don't don't think about as a budget as a way to incorporate more life giving things and then punishments like we are living on a budget because we made financial mistakes in the past and now we're trying to get out of them. And so that's I mean. Budgets are not temporary, they are long term. They are not just financial. They make sure that you can live a whole life because we are whole people. And they're not punishments. They avoid the real punishments, which can be bankruptcy, can be like shame of living in debt. Like they're the things that the tools that we use to avoid those real punishments.
It's like the most misunderstood thing within the finance world. But we all know about them, but yet we've got such the skewed perspective on it. And he even mentions in this beginning portion about just nickel and diming yourself to save money. And I think we're going to get in that when he talks about the different methods of what is the cheap method. But we can often think we have to nickel and dime and scrimp in every single category. And that's what a budget means. And that's just simply not true.
Yeah, the cheap method, and then he goes over the frugal method. And so if you've been listening to us for any amount of time, you know what we think is cheap. It's the nickel and diming. It's the time wasted clipping fifty cent cubons, chasing sales at stores, YadA YadA. So that is kind of the cheap method is going with those those things, cutting out things that are really low ticket and not thinking so much about larger ticket items. So like a lot of people think they're you know, my mortgage is just my mortgage, and it's a fixed expense. But what if you have like an eight thousand square foot home, because you know that's what you that's extreme. But what if you have like a big home and you realize, like several years after buying it, like I actually want to live tiny, or I don't use all my home. I could live in twelve hundred square feet. Like you can get rid of a mortgage, you are not tied to that forever. So it's examining these fixed expenses too and seeing what we can get rid of it. And that is the frugal method. It prioritizes your spending according to your needs and wants. So instead of across the board minimal cuts like nickel and diming, your spending reductions are based on your passions, interests, basic needs, and overall life priorities.
And I guess you can all imagine that we would prefer the frugal method. And the writer of this article also gives that disclaimer that they utilize the frugal method base and it's one of their core values is frugality, so they're just speaking our language across the but they do give us some pointers in how we all can go about this frugal method of budgeting, and I really like it. There's certainly so many ways that we can approach budgeting. Ultimately, I love the emphasis on mindset here, but I think this is a really attainable, simple process that we could go through, so I think it's worth describing this. So first, they say, make a list of all your recurring fixed monthly expenses. These are expenses that are the same or approximately the same every month throughout the year. So this would include your rent or your mortgage, a car payment, whether you have student loans, cable bills, phone bills, subscriptions, memberships, utilities, insurances, you name it, all of your fixed monthly expenses. To write them all down. It is really important to get this on paper, to have a clear snapshot of what are the expense says that I pay monthly that are relatively fixed. Now that's not to say that they can't be changed, but they don't fluctuate a ton every month. It's about x amount of money per month to engage in.
This thing, absolutely, And so number two is to identify which ones you can cut immediately from that list. So, unless you're already a fairly frugal person, there are always one or two monthly expenses you can cut right away. And so these are expenses that are doing absolutely nothing to help you achieve your goals and are easy to live without. So this is where it comes in, like having your three three to four core values and having your financial goals and making sure that everything on the list of expenses that you have aligns with them. And yes, insurances and utilities can align with your core values because I mean, like for us, community is a big core value and I love having people over to my house frugal way to hang out with people versus going to restaurant, but I need utilities in order to do that, and the utilities are cheaper than living at a restaurant. So yes, you can every single expense tie back to your core values or your financial goals hopefully both yes.
And number three is negotiate a reduction for each one of the remaining expenses. So we're still just looking at those fixed expenses, the ones that are the same every single month. Negotiate. First of all, I love this word. I think we don't use it enough. You've heard me talk about this before. But also I think this article highlights some really important things. So they say, first, negotiate with yourself. Ask yourself to come up with at least three different ways that you could reduce each expense, no matter how dramatic they may seem. That doesn't mean that you have to implement on all all three things, or even any of the things that you list out, but it is a good exercise to engage in that thinking, creativity, creatively, problem solving, considering with yourself, where could I reduce some of these quote unquote fixed things, these things that I thought I have to pay every month. I need to be engaging in this expense we'd be surprised when we allow ourselves to think outside the box but also engage with ourselves and what could I do here just to save some money. Again, the purpose for that is to free up money to be able to spend on the things that we value, not just for the purpose of cutting expenses, but to put our money towards the things that are most valuable to us. And sometimes our fixed expenses aren't that. So once you've negotiated with yourself, right, this could include I'm just thinking an example of subscriptions. If it's a fixed monthly expense, but you realize, actually that subscription doesn't give me that much. Here's an alternative that is less money or no money. Do that. Consider that and secondly, negotiate with companies to ask for lower cost alternatives or threaten to switch to a competitor. I know, Jen, You've got a ton of resources out there on negotiation and it's something that I think we've even had a podcast episode about. This is a surprising technique that I think a lot of us. It takes some courage. We don't often practice of negotiating for a lower internet rate or phone rate, you name it. There's plenty of room for negotiation on some of these things that we think this is the amount that I have to pay. So love number three negotiation with yourself and with these companies, and that could make an incredible difference with just those fixed expenses, so that when we get to some of those more variable expenses, we've got more wiggle room.
Absolutely. Yeah, we're actually doing a negotiation challenge in Club BFF in twenty twenty two. So we love negotiating. I actually wanted to touch on the first one, negotiating with yourself, no matter how dramatic, ways to reduce your expense, no matter how dramatic. And so I was listening to Hello Habits by Fumio Sasaki and he gave a story about how Panasonic once tried to lower its i think energy consumption by ten percent and they were just having a horrible time figuring out what to do, and so the CEO was like, Okay, we're actually going to cut it fifty percent. And it was taking it like to the extreme. That had everybody coming up with creative ideas and what was just like, okay, how can we skim off the top like implemented changes that were structural and really like deep into the company changed a lot of practices, and so sometimes you need to get extreme to land somewhere in the middle. So if you're if you're spending is somewhere where you don't want it, or spending in one categories where you don't want it, then it's already more on the extreme side on the side you don't want it. So coming up with solutions that are extreme to the other end can land you somewhere in the middle. It's why we love no spend challenges because they allow you kind of to do that.
Oh chat, what a good example that really landed and is resonating well with me. Amazing? All right, don I got my takeaway? Cool, Okay, Well, let's let's cut out fifteen minute episode.
All right. So number four is to make a list of all your irregularly monthly expenses, so discretionary irregularly.
I think it was a typo.
Yeah, discretionary expenses. So if you have other regular monthly expenses then aren't fixed like groceries, eating out, video games.
Which is a thing people spend money on video games and watching people play video games.
Yeah, and here's the thing. If you love video games like I don't, I've never played a video game in my life besides Tetris and Solitaire, and so I don't get the appeal. But there are some people who love it. And so just because some financial guru doesn't play video games and tells you to cut them out, it doesn't mean they're right. Like, maybe you don't buy basic b lattes and you play video games like.
You, Yeah, it is okay, I just don't I don't understand it.
Yeah, there comes a point where you have to stop listening to the gurus and start being intuitive with what works for you. Yeah, video games, electronics, clothes, gas for your car, all that stuff. So calculate your average spending over six months for each expense that's the recommendation, and put those average monthly expenses into a list from are just to smallest, and then again negotiate with yourself and look for expenses that can be reduced or eliminated.
And again aligning with your values. This list that they're having you create. I think it's an awesome practice, but it will also be quite telling of where probably your highest values and priorities are. It doesn't mean that it has to be continuously the thing that you spend the most on. We can still honor our values and priorities without spending all of our money there. But it is worth looking at all. Right, it looks like there is a ton of money being spent on takeout or eating out. What does that tell me about myself? Is this anario that I want to cut? Or do I really like doing this? Does it really serve my values one hundred percent? And maybe I'm going to focus a bit more on negotiating with myself in the other categories. So there is this ebb and flow process. It's not just this hard and fast we have to cut every category for the sake of cutting every category. It is to free up money to put towards some of the things that are most enjoyable, most valuable for you. Okay, last, but not least number five, which goes into what I'm talking about here. Choose three guilt free expenses and then look for ways to reduce the rest. So identify some of the some of the things they're saying three, that's a great number. However, many one to three, four is fine that you really want to be able to spend. It aligns with things that are life giving to you, that are valuable for you. You want to be able to spend on them and not have a cringe factor to it of oh I should have done that right, guilt free, shamefree. It's budgeted for, it's planned for. You've cut in other ways so that you can put money here. That's the idea. Yeah, So it doesn't just have to be I only spend money on food. It can be that you know the groceries. It can be that you find things that are really enjoyable for you and put that into your budget. So spend on your priorities, reduce spending on everything else.
Yeah, And I like he says, I'm not recommending having a unlimited budget for each of these expenses, but don't feel guilty about spending on money on them either. That's so important to understand and really take to heart. Like there, you're going to have a different budget depending on what your income is. And I like to say, and maybe this isn't true anymore, but like I always like to say, like your income is the lowest it's ever going to be. If you're working and intentional about like increasing your income, then you will make more money and you will be able to have more money for the things that you value. And so maybe your coffee budget is twenty dollars a month you wish it was thirty, then go out there and start a side hustle, or negotiate for a raise, or find a better paying job. So these things can give you the motivation you need to take those intentional actions. But if we don't have a budget that we are intentionally creating to align with our life, we're never gonna We're not gonna have a reason to do the actions to make more money, like because we all say we want more money, but having more money typically isn't enough of a motivation to do the hard work that it entails.
The final thing I want to highlight with this article is the statement about any cuts that you make to your spending need to be rooted in your purpose and goals so that you have a clear motivation for making those cuts. So again, as we talk about having budgets that don't feel like deprivation, like soul crushing punishment, this is how we're gonna do it. Making sure that whatever decrease in spending we do, whatever negotiation we do with ourselves or with others, is rooted in an ultimate purpose and goal of what we want to see with our money, having that motivation for those cuts, that why behind those cuts. Having spending connected with our values, That's what's going to create so much freedom within you utilizing a budget and will help shift that mindset into this is actually a tool that's useful, not something that's restricting me.
Good word. I wish I could copy and paste this article and put it everywhere.
Is like, I love it so much. Have it be a car wrap on your vehicle.
Yeah, just everybody has to walk around and read it. And after reading my car, you will make a budget.
Frugal Friend's Manifesto.
Yes, you will make a budget. All right. So let's go into our next article from Whole Family Living, and it is five ways to stick to your budget without feeling deprived. So in the first one, we're talking about how to create a budget or cut things out to make a budget that supports not being deprived, and so here we're talking about how to stick to that budget without feeling deprived. What do you think of this one, Jill?
It's good. I don't think that there's a ton of really new earth shattering information, but I think it is going to help us again to just realign our mindset in a place that's useful in being able to engage in a budget, because that's so much. We talk about mindset so much. That is where it starts. Behaviors are not going to shift until mindset shifts. I do, however, like some of the reasoning that they give for why we should be considering a budget. I think it a lot of times when we're kind of lacking that understanding or willpower. It's good to see here's an argument for it, here's all the pros for it, and they list out it can help us focus on our families or our individual goals and priorities. A budget helps us to be able to plan for the future. We're not gonna be able to plan. We're not gonna think about the future if we don't know what our finances and spending is looking like. It helps us to track our income and expenses. Knowing where everything goes, Budgets avoid being sideswiped by unexpected emergencies. We can be more prepared and proactive. They help us to avoid accumulating debt or adding to it. That's a thing. They help us to enjoy experiences together without paying for them after the fact. It's not like, oh, swipe the credit card and we'll see what it looks like next week when I look at the checking account. Budgets also can help us get discounts or better rates by being able to pay in full when we're on top of our finances and we can actually cash flow things that can lead to better rates. That's so true. I experience that when Eric and I only once in our marriage so far have we purchased a couch brand new. Otherwise it's been.
Like Facebook, Marketplace and stuff.
But I was so surprised when we found a couch that we liked and I told the guy. I was like, hey, I got cash, what can you do for me? And they actually gave us like a ten percent discount for having cash, and I was shocked that it worked. But yes, it's true. It was amazing.
Works great at pawnshops. Always get the cash discount at pawn shop. I love how the author says that budgeting is a mindset, and you have to have the right mindset to stick with your budget because it's not something that is inherently meant to deprive you or meant to make you miss out on things. But if you have that perspective, that's not sustainable. You're not going to be able to stick to a budget. But she says, actually, your budget will be a tool that allows, or as I prefer to say, empowers you to have more and do more, which is hard to hear, like if you're in a situation where you're living on a really tight budget. But you can't just think of the hear it now, because even if it's hard today, even if it's hard right now, you will reap the benefits ten twenty years in the future, and you will be so glad you budgeted in the hard days when the good days are easier. And so maybe these these do more and have more aren't always month to month or having more values driven purchases aren't always happening in the immediate, but they do happen eventually.
Yeah, all of these things don't just come to us when we have more. We start to develop the habits and the understanding of these things. Yeah, even in the hard times, like you're saying, Jen, so good. Okay, So they list out five ways to stick to your budget, so we'll just go through them. The first one is to develop a smart budget, and many of you are familiar with this. Smart acronym. What I like about what they're highlighting here is that budgets should add clarity to your financial situation, not make it confusing or chaotic. So if you're confused, the budgeting situation that you're choosing probably isn't the best one. If you're confused and you don't have a budget, then hopefully a budget will help you with that. And so they're saying that it could be useful to look at this technique of having a budget that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time limited, and being able to apply this way of approaching goals to a budget can be really useful and help to empower us, help us with our mindset around budget. So making sure that each category is specific, we put a real number amount, that our progress within our budget is measurable. Is there a way to track it, which, yes, there is income and expenses there you go. Is it attainable? This is very important when it comes to budget. Sometimes we can sit down and have all sorts of lofty goals, but then that is where it can feel restrictive. It's not sustainable or attainable long term, So being realistic. Well, so that's three and four attainable and realistic about these numbers that you put in place. I know, for me, I consistently in my fantasy budget spend far less money on food than I actually do. But I had to come to this place of being realistic with that budget and say, okay, well what can I cut but not absolutely slice this thing. I want to make steady progress towards decreasing this because one thousand dollars is way too much to be spending on food every month. But acting like I can spend just three hundred dollars in a month is not realistic going from a thousand so and then time limited, which budgets naturally do that, whether you want to budget every two weeks if that's how often you get paid, or monthly, and then revisit it. This isn't a static document that never shifts and changes that we never revisit. I would recommend, especially when just beginning to be pretty short in the time that you budget. Like again, if you get paid bi weekly, make your budget bi weekly and go from there until you really get a handle on what is my spending look like and what do I need to be accounting for.
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that makes budgeting complicated or complex is budgeting based on income you have not yet received. That can be really really confusing and make you really anxious if there's a bill coming up that's really close to when you get paid, so it can cause undue stress. So I think budgeting based on what you made last paycheck or what you made last month can relieve a lot of stress and make this smart budget technique a lot easier. And so, yeah, definitely when you're starting out, make those shorter budgets, week long budgets, two week long budgets, et cetera. But yeah, there's like you can definitely save up the amount of money that you got paid in the last pay period or the last month, and then use that buffer and budget off of that. If it's November, now use what you made in October and budget off of that for November, because you're not making any more money in October if it is November, so you know exactly what you have to work with. The money's already there, it doesn't matter when a bill is due, all of that stuff. So I think that can take a lot of confusion out of budgeting.
It does take a little bit of front end work to build up money in your account to do that. But once you've got it, you're golden exactly.
So number two, go on a spending freeze. We just talked about going extreme to land in the middle, and that is what we're talking about here. So every little thing we spend money does add up. And while we are not promoting a lifestyle of nickeling and diming, when you do a no spend challenge or spending freeze for a period of time, you start to realize all the little things you're spending money on. It's much more powerful than just tracking your expenses because you're putting a stop. You're putting like a barrier between you and your spending habits. So you're disrupting that queue so that the habit loop can no longer function mindlessly. You have to be intentional about purchases and then sometimes you may still choose to make that purchase and then you have to, you know, focus on other things. But when you do something extreme, oftentimes at the end, if you're paying attention to what you're learning and you're intentional about that, then at the end, you can land yourself in the middle for the long term. And so I think that's a great strategy when you're getting started or when you just need to shake things up. If you're feeling stagnant, trying a no spend challenge is a great way to kind of regain some momentum and excitement.
And it gamifies this process too. It can be fun to call it a challenge and to see, yeah, your fortitude in this area and then learn more about yourself. So we love those you.
Know, we love a challenge, and you can even get our free seven day no spend challenge Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash free.
Oh yeah, you know, you know our sponsor. So the third thing that they list on here of helping budgets not feel so restrictive is to find an accountability partner. Oh, things are so much more enjoyable with friends and buddies who have our best interests in mind. So when we're working on a budget or other goals, it truly does help to have a partner, someone who is on the same page as you, or who is just willing to help you stick to what you say you want to stick to and how they'll do that right. It's helpful if we can give the specifics of here's where I need support and encouragement and assistance. Here's the ways you can provide that to me and really come up with a plan together of how that person can help and if there's any reciprocity present there of are they also interested in you supporting them and encouraging them in a certain direction. I know, frugal friends is that for me? Jen you are that for me in so many ways. But also having even this larger community is so important on this journey, but specifically when we run against challenges that feel insurmountable to us, if we're really struggling with a budget, if they really feel super restricted to us, invite another trusted That's an important key component when we talk about accountability and vulnerability and being known by another person, letting someone else into our struggles that they're trusted, and again that there's some boundaries in the ways in which support and that accountability is going to look. But this will make the journey so much more enjoyable, so much more actually attainable and realistic. When you bring someone else else along for the journey, I would say that this could certainly be a spouse or partner, but it can also be a friend, depending on what the changes or goal that you have. It doesn't have to be someone that you're living with. It could certainly be someone outside of your household, A good trusted friend absolutely.
I mean Club BFF is kind of our solution to that problem. If you don't have anybody near you, you can join our online community and find that doors are not open right now, but we are going to open them at the end of December, so definitely start thinking about that. If start looking for people local, that's always the best, obviously, but if you don't have that, then check out Club BFF when doors reopen. And the fourth one is maybe my favorite. I don't know, make it fun. I do love a no Spen challenge, but I love fun more.
I guess it's not forgal friends if it's not fun.
Right, So the author I may be an odd ball, but I actually enjoy budgeting. Some people do. I'm not one of those people. So she uses a spreadsheet. I know, Jill and I both use Google sheets. That's our budgeting method. Hashtag free, hashtag free. But she says, try to do something fun while you're budgeting, instead of sitting at the kitchen table with your pen and paper, staring at the refrigerator, go outside to a nice scenic spot, work on your budget, play music. I would say, maybe like have a drink, eat a nice meal, whatever, things like that, dessert. Yeah, make budgeting fun for me, that's I guess not enough. Actually do just enjoy sitting in front of my computer and vegging out with a spreadsheet. It's just the budgeting that is kind of like a I'm neutral about the feeling I have about budgeting.
Right, because it's not just about setting aside the time and drinking tea and sitting in the park making a spreadsheet. It's about the implementation. We can make a budget and not stick to it. So much of what we're talking about is what comes next or are the actions that flow out of that. But the budget can inform the actions. And if all around we've we've made it fun, we've made it enjoyable, attainable, approachable, we've connected it to our values and priorities, the implementation will come a lot more easily and naturally.
Yeah, just make your budget fun. How about we do that?
Yeah, the whole process.
Instead of the right, Instead of the making the budget a fun event, make the actual budget a fun.
Budget implementation thing. Yeah, like, what what do you get to spend money on this month? And how have you made room for that? Oh? That's so fun? All right. Number five on here is use an accordion file. Okay, spoiler alert, they're just talking about cash envelope system. How cash envelope system can help us stick to our budget.
I do love a good accordion file. I love organization. Who does love a good accordian file?
They are fun. Whenever I see them, I always think that I need to purchase one, but I never really have like a reason to buy it.
They just they're back in style. Like at Target, you can buy like fancy, trendy accordion files. So y'all out there here, And oh she's weird with the accordion file thing. Target's already on it. So I was not the first one to love the accordion file.
All these basic bees are out here with accordian file.
All of them are. I actually don't have an accordion file because I have a full like file cabinet. I have too many files for that. But if I was a single lady with maybe just ten forms of paperwork or something, I'd have an accordion file.
Well, this is what they're saying, I don't know if I can fully get on board with this making it super fun or less restrictive. It's essentially I.
Mean, I kind of got off the rails here.
Yeah, it might be a method that could help you if just budgeting is not going that well for you, to help see where you spending money, to stop spending money when the money runs out. It's a cash envelope system, right, So the idea is you've got one slot for groceries, another slot for transportation. When the money runs out of those categories, you're done. You can't go anywhere, you can't eat anymore. In essence, there's plenty out there on cash envelope systems. We're not going to get super into it. It's not for everybody. It's not for me. I can't carry around that much cash. And actually for me, I feel more freedom to spend when I do have cash because I'm like, there's no trail, Like I spend this cash and it's not going to show up in my bank account, so like I'm.
Able to just like it doesn't exist.
Yeah, go on, So it doesn't. It doesn't work for me. If it works for you, that's amazing. If it gives your reason to buy an accordion file and that's fun for you. Great, really have a solution for not losing all of your cash. If you're a person who like often loses your keys, don't do this.
Okay, here's a better solution, and thank you technology for giving us solutions to all of our problems. So Cube Money, who is a partner of the show. They do a digital envelope system or a digital accordion file system, whichever you prefer, but you can have it's actually you put your money in a bank. Cube is a banking app and you can distribute it into different cubes which are different areas of your accordion file, and then you can spend out of that. So it is the envelope system without having to carry around cash. So if you are paying off debt, ten times out of ten, I recommend and using Cube so you can get more frugal friends, podcast dot com, slash qube and find out more about them. But ten times out of ten, it is a long time coming that this solution has, you know, we've been waiting for. But yeah, so this is highly recommend if you need parameters like that to stick to your budget.
Great, solution for the Accordion file that's coming back, and there's a lot of things that are coming back, like the mullet, and I'm wondering now about the fanny pack and if maybe we should come up with like a fanny pack budgeting system.
I feel like you could put an Accordion fuss small Accordian.
File into the fanny pack.
It's almost a perfect fit, and then your fanny it's just too perfect. And so this might be the only reason I wouldn't recommend Cube is that if you really want to have a fanny pack Accordion file budget, which they're on the same level, the Cube money and the Accordian file fanny pack.
And then if you want to have extra security, you just put your shirt over the fanny pack, so no one knows that you've got a fanny pack full of money to stick to your budget. You're just out here having fun keeping your money safe under your shirt, inside your fanny pack, inside the Accordian file wow.
Oh my gosh. Or you can just wear it across your chest like all of the gen z TikTokers, and then nobody's going to think you have money in there anyway, because they think you're a child. So there are so many ways. I mean, really, these solutions are limitless. They have limits, and that's why they're great. Maybe, And then.
That's why we use digital solutions when the trending styles don't really give us what we want.
But if you're interested in being trend I mean, don't sleep on this accordion file fanning pack.
Yeah, that's just fun, and that that'll help and not feel like deprivation for sure. You know what else is not limitless? What is limitless but.
Has a limit. And maybe that's why 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've 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.
So we're gonna do two bills this week, because why not, We're just gonna We're just gonna hang out with them. So here is our first bill.
Of the week.
Is my lowest credit card.
I just finished pain off my balance in at ow zero dollars.
I feel great.
That's awesome say no to lows credit cards? Yeah, yeh that hated.
Are well done? What a good feeling. We are celebrating with you for that bill that you no longer have anymore.
All right, and here is our second.
Bill, my free cool friend. It's Kate Tear from the UK. My bill of the week is my moving bill. So we have bought a house this year, and what with all of the cost of moving, like solicitor's fees and you know, listing the house on the market and you know, the estate agent fees and everything, it all tops up to about six thousand pounds. And the start of the year I started using wine app and it's completely revolutionized my budgeting. I sat down and actually tried to understand their fall rules and really kind of invested some time into it and actually follow their full rules. And the embrace your true expenses rule has completely revolutionized my budget. So using these four rules, we have been able to cash flow our moving expenses.
So that's really exciting and I'm really proud of myself. I'm really proud of my husband. Great work on the podcast. It's amazing and you're hilarious, so keep it up.
Oh my gosh, Case that is awesome.
Yeah, OK, from the UK, we're an amazing We don't listen to these bills ahead of time, so self fitting with what we're chatting about today, and really thrilled with you that wineab has worked for you. It has really helped you not be surprised by these moving expenses which can really be shocking. I mean six thousand pounds above and beyond the purchase of the home and everything that you need to be able to move and yet to be able to cash flow that as a result of looking at your budget and preparing for it. Well well done. Hope you're enjoying your new place and beginning to settle in a bit. And thanks for your words of encouragement. Glad you find us funny. We laugh at ourselves, so it's good to know other people are laughing too, whether it's with us or at us. We're here for it all.
Yes, thank you so much, Kate. That was so great. So if you have a great bill, like you paid off a credit card, or you cash flowed your moving costs or anything, then please visit our website www. Dot frugal friends dot com slash bill to leave us your bill of the week.
And now it's time for.
The lightning Lightning round.
Give it to us, Jen, what are we doing for this lightning room?
We're talking about cool things that we budget for.
That was it.
Jill really thought it was going to be more in depth than this.
I'm always a little bit more complicated in the way that I get my thoughts out.
But today we're just going to be talking about our version of non deprived budgets and what they included, I guess maybe now, and what they included while we were paying off debt. Let's talk about that.
Ooh, curveball. All right, you want me to go if you have something? Yeah, yeah, sure, Okay. When I was paying off debt, real talk friends, my frugal friends, I was living on a very low income with Eric. Both of us are living on a very low income living life for sure, but did not have a lot of discretionary income once our very minimal expenses were paid. But yet gum was important to me. You've heard me talk about this before. There was always a few quarters, pennies, nickels and dimes lying around for me to get that pack of gum. Was that was always in the budget and currently still food related. Still things I'm putting in my mouth at this point that is cool and fun for me to spend money on. Which is food, well, I mean gum is obviously, and then food. So you've heard me talk about this already, even in this episode, where Okay, one thousand dollars a month is pretty steep to spend on, so we've gotten it down to like you all might cringe at this, but hey, there's freedom for me, and it's guilt free, shamefree. We're at about eight hundred dollars a month that I budget for food now, to be fair, that is groceries, takeout, restaurants, everything, food eight hundred dollars a month. Because it's just for Eric and I, we realized one of the most important aspects of discretionary spending. We value eating good food, We value going out with other people. We value having fun at home nights of feasting. So that's I really will cut in so many other areas so that we can have food that we enjoy and go out guilt free.
We feel similarly. I think that's probably around our budget. We're a little lower than that. We can't go out as often because we have a toddler, so our food budgets all less than that, but it might be higher if we were not young parents. So yeah, I love that. I'm full on board for me. So when I was paying off debt, I think you all might be surprised to know that I made it a point to include coffee in my budget. Please don't judge me. I mean, judge me if you will. It's just something that was like a huge sticking point for me. And part of it is Travis doesn't drink coffee, so this is still something that we talk about as being something he doesn't really understand why I spend money there because he didn't get it. So it's just like always top of mind. But it's small things like that, and it has dressed. There are seasons where I enjoy it, and there's seasons where I don't get takeout coffee at all, Like it just depends. I like working at a coffee shops. I wrote my entire first book at a coffee shop. I anticipate writing the second edition next week, adding to it probably every day at a coffee shop is probably what I will do. So that was something that was important to me while we were paying off debt and something that I really prioritized.
I love how you push against that because so many people are going to say, cut coffee. Look at how much you spend a year in this category. But you're saying, there's room to be able to purchase the thing that you enjoy if you look at all these other line items in your budget.
Well, I'm all about the cappuccino. Cappuccino fact, capuccino factor. I'm all about the cappuccino factor.
Remind us what that is jen for those who haven't listened to previous episodes.
So the cappuccino factor is just going to the coffee shop, but instead of getting the five dollars latte, you get the four dollars cappuccino, and then you could go essentially over five times. You get a free cappuccino, right, because you save a dollar every time, so you can go and get more coffee.
It's essentially the same thing, just different ratios of espresso to steamed milk.
So yeah, and you save the calories on the steamed milk.
Right.
So there's so many benefits. And this works especially well in the cold season because I prefer an iced latte, and that's a jip. You know, you don't get an iced cappuccino. But yeah, so try the cappuccino factor and get all the coffee you want boo. So that was me paying off debt, and then we found ways to get around eating out. Is that we would do mystery shopping. I think mystery Yeah, that's like so underrated, so we really wouldn't spend money there. But now I would say take out take out. We don't do sit down restaurants very often, maybe every other month, once a quarter maybe, but we do take out several times a week, and I schedule it in a budgeted in and I love my takeout. It's always a pretty affordable takeout too.
Yeah, you're usually getting from taco places, and takeout is more affordable than going to a restaurant because you're just paying for the food, you're not necessarily paying for weight service. But both have its value and its place. I see why people liked it so much. Yes, yeah, because I love talking about not depriving myself.
Absolutely. I think the biggest thing that maybe I've changed on is like my view of smart goals. So yeah, I think goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time sensitive. But the people focus so much on that without really focusing on the actions. And you think of a goal, it can be arbitrary, like I want to use lose fifty pounds, and you can for sure make that smart, but it's still arbitrary. If you're making a goal of I want to eat one hundred and fifty grams of protein daily, that's a better smart goal. So both of them can be smart goals, but some are better than others. So I think that is the biggest thing that I have learned since this episode. But I still love the choosing three guilt free expenses. Like when you start and you're feeling guilty about spending money you've budgeted, if you just choose three, that's a really good gateway.
I have not changed one bit, one single tiny bit. I know you have. I am still budgeting for gum and food like special food, like going out. It's still there.
Yeah, I'm actually on a buying coffee fast right now. For being honest, I started to see myself developing a habit of it, and I was like, nope, I will still buy it if I am working at a coffee shop because I know I value that, or if somebody, if a friend would invite me to coffee, which happens very rarely nowadays, but drive through line. I won't buy it through the drive through line right now.
I like that limitation.
Yeah, it's you always got to revisit these things every once in a while because it's a journey. You don't master this and then never have to work on yourself again. It's always it's about revisiting what an expense means to you and in what context it fulfills that value.
It isn't deprivation, but it might be sacrifice, yes, and that's good, pretty good for us, preach. Thanks so much for listening everyone again, please do cue up those other episodes. You don't have to leave us just because we're leaving you right now. And if you don't already know, we have a modern frugal living ebook that is free because we just we love giving you free staff, free podcasts, free ebook, free friend letter in you're inbox, free merch because you're telling other people about the friend Letter and it's specifically the ebook is available for you to grab all year round. And we wanted to give a shout out to this one friend who gave the ebook a sweet, sweet review. This came from Natalie, and it said helpful tips. Your podcast and workbook have been helpful for getting my spending under control. I love the week long No Spend challenge. It has been an eye opener for me. Thanks so much.
That's great, Natalie. Because the week long No Spend Challenge is also free, you can go to Frugalfriends dot shop and I think the links should be right on the home page to get that. So and that's just like a kind of a week long intensive of giving up all discretionary spending so you can more easily identify your values so that you can better budget without deprivation. So thank you so much for listening. If you want more, then please please please Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash friend letter to get so all these goodies and more in your inbox three times a week. Make your inbox a safe space, get rid of the marketing emails. Put good life giving stuff in your inbox.
See you next time.
Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani.
Jen Jill. I have a recent example of frugality for you, tell me about it or savings.
Is this from you or that you witnessed?
No from me? My experience witness sing my own experience. Yeah, being an active participant and an observer, is that possible?
Yeah?
So doctor prescribed me this round of medicine that I had to go to the pharmacy for. And I expected because I have had this prescription in the past, and I expected it to be somewhere in the range of six to twenty dollars because it should not be very expensive what it was that I was getting. And I show up to the desk of the pharmacy and they're like, that'll be sixty seven dollars what for this? What? And because we are practiced in the ways of questioning and curiosity and being willing to take a pause, I was like, Okay, hold on, give me a minute. Feel free to help the person behind me. I step out of line. I recall back to tips that we've discovered and have been given into us along the way of good RX. Download the app, sign up for the free trial. I am going to have to remember to cancel because I don't get enough prescriptions for it to be worth You can get it for free, but then the top tier is ten dollars a month, and I'm like, might as well get the free trial because I don't know what additional discounts I might be able to get on this particular medication. So do it. All that takes me a few minutes. I go back up to the counter, right, I'm like, does this mean anything to you? I mean I didn't say it quite like that.
Mean, does this mean anything to you?
I show her the little number that she's supposed to type in. She's like, yeah, I can dry. That brings it down to twenty four dollars.
Amen.
Who yeah, of forty dollar savings. Because I wasn't afraid to take a pause step aside, download an app and do it. However, that was paired with a little bit of anger, honestly because number one, obviously this pharmacist knows about GoodRx and what it could save you. So it's kind of a bummer that she didn't say, Hey, do you happen to have this app? Additionally, what is going on with the medical world around us that you have to be in the know.
Oh God, we can't start Yeah, we can't start with that. That's you. We can't even this after shows too show.
I know we don't have time, I mean don't. I'm glad I don't have the energy or my forty dollars savings. But I am going to be honest that it was paired with other emotions.
I don't have the energy teach.
But there you go. Now you can be in the know. You too can be one of those people because you have to be part of a club to know about how to save money.
Yes, and this is something we will write about in a future friend letter that you can forward to your friends and help them be in the know.
Too, and you can get a tote because of it.
We all need to help each other. The individual is no longer capable of solving all of their problems. We need to help each other. And I just don't have the energy to yell right now. Jill, you don't have to help care system. I don't. Oh okay, bye bye