How to Get Affordable Quality vs. Cheap Quantity

Published Feb 9, 2024, 7:00 AM

Why settle for cheap quality when you can have the best for less? No posh brand names and high price tags, but this episode is all about learning materials, durability, and all ways to acquire REAL reviews, not paid ones. Join Jen and Jill as they share ways to refine our ability in choosing affordable quality than cheap quantity. 

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Episode three seventy nine, How to get Affordable quality Versus Cheap Quantity.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a real life man. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are recording video on this small camera and you will probably never see it because it is our first time using this camera. But I do not know where to look.

We are test test testing this and we'll see what happens.

But this is such an important episode. This is really affordable quality over cheap quantity is my mantra this year in twenty twenty four. I want to pursue quality. I want to buy less and I want to buy much better.

Yes, when you said this at the beginning of twenty twenty four, I got goosebumps. And this is really your episode. But I am fully bought in and I love the affordable quality versus cheap quantity because there is a difference, I think, between just quality versus quantity, but there can be affordable ways of getting that too, So this, I feel like, is just almost the foundation of it, but episodes from here on out will help to not every episode, but as we talk about products and the way that we buy and spend, how to keep refining our ability to not just get quality but affordable quality, and what are the different ways that we can do that, but certainly introducing it here, So I'm excited.

Yeah, we're looking less at brand names and brands and high price tags and more at learning about materials, about durability, and learning about all the ways to get the real reviews, not the paid reviews, and all of that. And this episode really does start us down on that journey. So if this is something that interests you, then let us know. Because this episode is brought to you.

By the Mega Survey.

So if you subscribe to our friend Letter, then this survey is in your inbox. Today is the last day that you can fill it out. Please. We want to know some things about you that our advertisers are always asking so that we can work with the right advertisers. This is how we are able to bring the show and the friend Letter to you for free is through partnerships. But we want to partner with the brands and the financial apps and all of these things. We want to we want to partner with the people you want us to be partnering with, so and that's why we have the megaser. So we want your ideas for episodes. We want to know what you're struggling with with your spending and all of this. So please, it is a ten question survey. It is in your inbox, has been in your inbox all week, so do not forget to fill that out. Today is the last day.

Who doesn't love answering questions about themselves so you can get better curated content for what you want.

Yes, and we want you to give the answers that are like first, top of head, first answer, write it down, multiple choice, go, So we don't want it to take you a lot of time. And if you don't want to hear about this stuff, then we want to know that too. But we really really think because when we do the polls in the friend letter, one of the things that you guys said is you want us to partner with more sustainability and eco friendly brands, and those tend to have a higher price tex So like, what are the brands that are sustainable but are considered affordable so we're not just buying luxury for luxury's sake, but we're buying for durability sake and for kindness to the earth, and so that's something that we learn. And so this is kind of what led me down this path. And so we're going to cover two articles today. The first is going to be a reminder slash reinspiration as to why this is such an important mantra for twenty twenty four and moving forward. And then the next article are some really practical tips for ways that you can find these reviews, these different ways to make sure that you're buying for durability and quality versus brand or versus just cheap price.

So if you are interested in other episodes that might be a similar topic to this, we've got episode three seventy two, which is when to buy off brand and when to buy name brand. We definitely talked a little bit about the quality versus quantity, the brand versus product. That was a really fun episode, really tangible, helpful categories of when it's worth buying name brand and all the other categories where it's not going to matter if you get off brand. So that's a helpful one to queue up. Next. We've also got episode two ninety six, which is grocery saving strategies that will cut your bill in half with Gina Zachariah. So that's a really awesome interview. Episode two fifty nine Modern Cuponning for beginners. We're not big on q ponning, and so this one's definitely how do you hack it without needing to spend your whole saturday with scissors and paper. I don't even know if that's a way to cupon anymore? But what does cuponning look like in the current day and age? But just stay with us because this is this is an episode unlike an episode we've done before, So don't go anywhere.

Yes, and so this first article is not from like a financial website or anything. It's from develop Goodhabits dot com and it's ten reasons to choose quality over quantity in life. And we're going to relate it back to our finance. We're not going to go over all ten, but it had some really good things to remember when you're having this internal debate, like do I spend more for the quality item? And those internal like scripts that say I can't afford to spend more? To really combat those and inspire you to really choose the right path.

Yeah, I loved this article. They give ten ten reasons why it's better to go quality over quantity, but they spend a good amount of time queueing it up and explaining what they even mean by that and how that can correlate to every aspect of our lives and lifestyles. That is really helpful in building an understanding of what are we even aiming at. And I love that they quote their mother in this article in some of that laying the foundation where they heard their own mom's voice in their head saying buying cheap is expensive. And I think that's a really helpful one liner that kind of summarizes what we're saying here that just because you're getting a deal, just because something is a low, low price, oftentimes what you're getting is truly actually expensive. If it's cheap, if it's not well made, if it's not something you actually need, if it's not durable, if it doesn't have warranties attached to it, that it's it's going to be expensive because it's going to cost you to maintain the thing in whatever way you've got to hack it, to maintain it while it's falling apart, and to replace it. That usually when we're buying cheap, not well made, not sustainable, we are needing to replace that item more regularly, which in the long run is going to cost us more money. So that's a really helpful foundational concept that buying cheap is expensive and if we can remind ourselves of this, I think will do well.

Yes, And so he starts out by saying, like, what is quality over quantity? After he you know, shares the wisdom of his mother. So quality over quantity, and the way we're defining it is it's used to explain that you should invest and choose quality things, people, experiences and more that are of a high standard and well made I think, not necessarily well made for people, right, but yes, you get it, well made friendships, yes, So choose things that will last, that are valuable, and things that matter. Don't choose quantity, which is focusing on the number, size, or amount of things, people or experiences you can acquire. And this is so hard for us because we have been conditioned our entire lives, and our parents have been conditioned their entire lives, and even some people's grandparents. We have definitely been conditioned to want more. We are of more value the more we have, we are smarter. The more we want, we're smarter, the more we can acquire. So with all of these scripts in our head, running our entire lives and our parents' entire lives, it's very hard to rewrite that script to say less can be more.

Yeah, I think that they say it another way, that we want to aim at value over volume. I'm here for a literation, so I love that too. And again, in your community, the people that you're investing in in food products and experiences, where we can find value over volume. It's not about how any followers you have, It's about how rich your small community is in the relationships that you're having and the products and experiences.

So I am going to start out with number one, and of course that is it saves you money. It's expensive to buy cheap, and my whole life, my parents would always buy the cheapest thing, and we didn't have a lot of money, so it made sense like we were not the people that lived outside of our means and got into debt. Our family definitely lived within their means, the very limited means, and so that means we did not do a lot of things. But for some reason we had a lot of stuff because we always bought the cheapest of everything, and it was always poor quality. It always wore out after two or three years. And this is just the way things weren't my entire life, and so in adulthood I got really sick of it, but I could not. I still sometimes battle this idea that because I'm not a millionaire, because I don't have a multi six figure income like a lot of people are saying they do online, I can't afford the highest quality. And I'm really good at research. I'm really good at finding, you know, the durability and the reviews on things. But I've always been like a middle of the road type person. Even when I'm buying second hand, I won't even like buy the better quality secondhand. I've always been a very like middle of the road person because of my upbringing. And so that is one of the reasons, like I'm sticking to this mantra this year of affordable quality, because even being middle of the road has cost me money. Like I will get all of these fast fashion things secondhand, and they still last about as long as if I'd got them first hand, you know, So like just making these like little shifts and knowing that when I buy quality, I'm not just being a good steward of my money resources, I'm being a good steward of environmental resources and time resources, which we will talk about later about not having to buy as often, not having to rethink my wardrobe as often acquiring new pieces all the time because that's not something I really value. So yeah, saving money in the long run is a big reason that I want to buy quality. And the thing is is when I buy these things and they do not work properly or do not you know, are not as durable as they should be, I don't use them either because it's just more of a hassle, so I don't even get the full use out of it. So like if I get something, I want to be able to run that thing into the ground and it's still work.

Yeah, yep. And that one ties into reason number three, which is buying quality over quantity can be a time and energy saver. Now with the caveat that it is going to take some investment of time and energy to research items and find what is actually quality, not just quantity, what is long term durable and not just short term cheap. It'll help me solve a problem now, but not in the long run. That's going to take some time. But once you settle on whatever it is, the product, the experience, whatever it is that you're spending money on, you will save time and energy in the long run. So it's kind of some of that implementation of future thinking and investing in yourself for the long term because you won't be needing to replace them those items as often. And what this can also lead to is fewer items that when you are being this intentional with what you're buying and how you're solving problems and the products that you're using to solve those problems, very often, it means you have less things because now you don't need to buy the five other cheap products that actually help make that one thing work. And so then you've got just fewer items to think about to clean, to dust, to maintain, because you've got one really quality thing that works. I'm thinking about my knives. I'm always thinking about my knives with that one that I invested in a few very good knives that lasted me for years and years, and I didn't have as many that I had to think about. I didn't have them clanging around in the drawer. None of them are really working, and I'm frustrated every time I'm cooking I had less they worked, and it then took up zero mental space in my mind of none of this works every time I go to use it, which is something I'm using pretty regularly.

So those types of items knives are definitely something I want to do a deep dive on in the run letter, just like as like just like pans, and I do want to do pots as well.

Perfect.

Yeah, that's the kind of friend letter content we're going to be doing this year is like how do I what are how do I get over the like Instagram famous brands that will that won't last two years but were just like, you know, really heavy into marketing, and how do we pick the materials that are going to last even if it's not like all clad. But what you were saying is the less is the reason I went with my next one number five, less stress and more simplicity, because I have a habit of not thinking I deserve. Then if I want something like say I want a really nice automatic espresso maker. That was like one thing that I really wanted and was like, no, I should really figure out a way to get something cheaper, finagle something, And so I bought several things in order to be to make myself happy to make coffee at home, and eventually did like settle on my my ninja coffee maker, but ultimately wish that I had just gotten the more expensive, fancy thing because this is something that I really care about. And so that's another reason, like if we don't believe we deserve or don't believe we should pay more for something that we really really want because we're quote unquote frugal, that's not frugality, that's deprivation. And we don't do deprivation, do we out here? We'd make conscious and intentional spending decisions, and we say for the things we truly want, we say no to the things that we only have want or don't want.

I will say there's something there's something to be said for testing out before you go all in on potentially something that is a pretty high ticket item. You can't totally find it quality with degrees of affordability, however, we're defining that that there could still be space too, Like with your coffee maker, try the different things out that are going to be less expensive and see if they're still meeting the need to really test out the theory of would I use it if I spent hundreds of dollars more than I just spent. I just did that with Eric. He wanted a foot massage, and all these foot massagers are like one hundred and fifty dollars, and I'm thinking that's one of those things that people get for Christmas, they use for a month, they throw them away. I'm not spending one hundred and fifty dollars on this, but I know he's probably going to want to refine it. I know whatever he gets first, it's not exactly gonna be the thing, and it'll help him lead him to the thing he actually wants. So I just got him one off of Facebook Marketplace. Here's your entryway, a good one I did research, but thirty bucks on Facebook Marketplace. You use it, allow this entry point to refine what it is that you do like about it, that you don't like about it, then splurg for the next thing. So I don't think affordable quality over cheap quantity always means we got to immediately jump to the thing that's the high tier, even maybe not the highest, but within the top three. I think we can ladder approach it sometimes depending on how expensive it could become.

Yeah, that is so true. And I did try a bunch of different things, and then I felt guilty for like trying different things, but knowing like I was experimenting. And now I can tell others to experiment, but go in knowing you're experimenting, not thinking like, oh, I have to do this because it's less expensive than the thing that I really want to do, and knowing if you're not using it, it's time to within thirty days, got to return it longer than thirty days. Got to sell it and use the money to get what you really to.

Ladder up, Yeah, ladder up. Look at us. We're coming on uppless stuff.

And when you come at it from that point, you create less stress because the things you own you actually use. It's not just clutter and the feeling of deprivation. And there's more simplicity because you own fewer things.

And you've refined it in your shore of it. I think this is one of the things we see often, especially in the New Year, is people buy things to support the person that they envision they want to become, Like I'm going to get all the exercise equipment and the really name brand exercise gear and it makes me feel like I'm a person who exercises. But just try it out with the stuff you already have, get some things off of Facebook marketplace, and then determine if you're actually going to use the affordable quality long term. Yeah.

Well, we were on a show the other day and we were talking about how people will go and buy all this Macrima stuff to learn Macrima to macrimay one plant holder, but they won't invest in a cooking class to learn how to cook and they eat every day. And oh it's right, So we have this like the cooking class is too expensive, right, but the Macrimea plant holder is too expensive. I can make it myself for cheaper. It's too real, right, It's too real. And the girl like we said that, and the girl who was interviewing us, she's like calligraphy. When I was getting married, bought all the calligraphy stuff in order to do my own calligraphy.

Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, could it do it?

Yeah, practiced it.

So like that's just spending a ton of money on quality is not always the best way.

When it's laddering, you have to start small right when you're trying to get to knowing if I'll actually use this affordable quality product. Yeah, you have to. You have to ladder it. You can't just jump straight in, like do you know, get one pen and one sheet of paper and see if a calligraphy is something ever in your.

Realm, because we don't want to be wasteful in this process either. And that leads to number six that when we do purchase affordable quality, we're supporting sustainable efforts. That when you are seeking to buy things that are going to last long term, then you are contributing to a more eco friendly way of spending and living and behaving. When you're spending fewer, when you are buying fewer replacements for things, it's less of an environmental burden compared to some of the low quality items that we're throwing away. We're purchasing new. So the impact of us thinking through all of our purchases and making sure that we're getting the quality and sustainability and not buying as often, but also making sure that it is something that we want and that's going to link into this values based spending idea that we're not just well, now, I gotta buy quality so here you go. I'm spending all the money on all this stuff. Well, that might not be sustainable either. We have to pair all of these principles together when we're making these decisions.

Yeah, I think so, like so often we think that we're being sustainable by buying secondhand, but so much of it and we know if you like participate in our nose ben January, like, resisting the urge to thrift or resisting the urge to yard sale is so difficult. And I know for me, I go straight to the Goodwill or the Sunshine, and everything in there is fast fashion rejects. And so I really am am going to make this the year that when I shop secondhand, I'm going straight to those sustainable and durable brands. So I'm not going to them first hand, I'm going to them secondhand. Yeah. So, and then the last one for me is number eight. It improves your relationships and interactions, And so this one I really I really like. So he says quality versus quantity also improves your relationships and interactions. When you don't have one thousand and one friends, you can develop more meaningful and deeper connections. I don't know who has the problem of having one thousand and one friends. But this is encouraging if you only have two or three authentic friends, knowing that there's nothing wrong with you, but also kind of committing you to continue to invest in those relationships because those are really important relationships and fostering quality, valuable, lasting relationships a that's what we really want, right, That's why we are pursuing financial freedom and financial security so that we have more time control to have time to foster these relationships.

Right.

This is one of the things that money can't buy, but requires money to have and maintain. So I think focusing this mindset focused on money and consumption bleeds into all these other areas. It's with health and fitness too, choosing instead of I got friends doing hard seventy five seventy five hard? Have you heard of that too? No?

No, but that sounds sounds not great.

It's the worst, working out twice a day on some kind of diet, reading twenty pages of a book.

Everything like the most for some then it's going to be a hard stop or crash at day seventy six.

So like when you are fostering quality over quantity in your health and fitness, it's more sustainable.

Yes, ma'am, Yeah, yes, it is.

So, They're just this idea is going while we focus on one thing at a time, right, that's our like big thing. Don't focus, don't try to change everything in your life all at once. Focus on one thing at a time, and this one thing, if you do it right and do it consistently, will naturally bleed into other things.

Yeah. The last one for me is that it reminds us to be grateful and it can support our own fostering of gratitude. That when we are focused on buying quality and usually then leading to less less we have to purchase less, we have to research less, we're spending time on buying things and more on the things that are actually valuable to us. It's going to support our efforts in contentment and gratitude in an overall sense of well being when we're not distracted by the need to accumulate and replace and research the next thing we're going to purchase. It just is this much more peaceable rhythm and lifestyle.

So our next article is from get Rich Slowly dot org and it's how to find the best of both worlds quality products without spending a lot of money and So I love this one because it is not from like a it's not from a bank rate or a nerd wallet. This is from j d Roth, who I know and really good guy. But this is his experience. So this is part This is part of a three part discussion on choosing quality over price. So there's you know that he has linked to the other parts. But the thing that we have that they have identified is that the followers of his blog really do want to are willing to spend more to get quality, even though they're you know, quote unquote frugal people. And so he has shared what he does, and then he also at the end of the blog post has shared what a lot of other people in his community say. So we're going to go through a couple of them our favorites.

So my favorite on here is your clearance and closeouts. When you're looking for how do I get the quality but not need to pay the high ticket brand new price. Quality things can be found more affordably in clearance sections at close out sales for stores, or sections like lines of products and items. So when you're looking for a specific item, whether it's an electronic or even some of these typically higher ticket items like appliances. There are clearance places that you can go to to find the product that you're looking for at a more affordable price. Eric and I did this with our appliances. There's a scratch in dent spot for all types of appliances. Most places have within a thirty minute radius of scratch indent appliance stores, so definitely check your area. But we were able to get very quality fridge oven that Gen thought was a double oven is actually a microwave and an oven. So now she comes and works with me in person. Yay. So they've got some minor imperfections to them, but it doesn't compromise the integrity of the appliance itself. And so if you're able to put up with some of these minor dens and scratches, you can get the very good, long lasting, oftentimes with the warranty still appliance for a very affordable price. So that's just an example, but things like that. When you're looking for the electronic, a lot of places have refurbished options. I know Best Buy has that option in their store, and just all over you can find these things at a lesser price, and it doesn't even have to mean that it was used before. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with used. We actually got some of our appliances off a Facebook marketplace. But checking out clearance, close out sales for some of these things that are on your list of what you're looking for.

Yes, my favorite is is two websites that he mentions one and then one of his readers mentions the other. But the first is Consumer Reports, and so this is like the pre eminent website to go to four reviews for unbiased, non advertised you will not find the results sorted by who, by which appliance is paying the largest affiliate link or affiliate commission. Right, that's a lot of what you're gonna find on free websites. So Consumer Reports, because they are unbiased and not supported by advertising, you have to pay for their results. And so this is something that we're going to pay for to it's eleven bucks a month, okay, or forty bucks a year.

Rugal Friends is paying and Travis are gonna be Frugal Friends.

It's a business write off, so the government pays for it. Right, So it's like free. We will because we want to do this research and have this unbiased, but it's probably not the best. I mean, you can pay forty dollars a year, but it may not be your best use of your money. So where I also go is to Wirecutter. So Wirecutter is owned by The New York Times, so they are ads supported, affiliate link supported. They still do very good unbiased reporting and testing, and they've been doing it for a really long time. The thing that I avoid is going to websites when I'm searching for the best of something. I avoid listening to the websites who are clearly just reading the reviews and then reporting on the reviews. I want people who know what they're talking about, who have studied the product, the mechanisms, all of that. I know what they're looking for, and I want those people to test because most of the reviews they're either going to be super negative because they got a defective something, or they're going to be super positive because they just got it in shiny new and they love it but they haven't used to used it yet. I want, I mean, I want there. You can sometimes find a really golden review and being like I've used this for a year, here is my unbiased review after one year.

Got a dig for that kind does all.

That for so, yeah, Wirecutter is the best if you're not going to pay a subscription. Consumer Reports is the choice for like completely unbiased. So if you're looking to make a big, big purchase like home appliances, home renovation, stuff like that, then maybe worth paying eleven dollars for one month to get all of the information on all of the things that you need. They got like over nine thousand product reviews, and then it's a lot of the month after you've got made all your decisions. But that that's.

I love that my favorite. Next on here. A lot of this came from then the readers, the community that the authors writing about writing to giving their own tips on how they're finding their quality items at an affordable price. And that is of course used previously owned to gently use eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, Marketplace, and on all of these sites you can set up alerts on them that will give you a notification when what you're looking for becomes available on the site. Now, this is going to be strongly tethered to something we also talk about regularly usually when we're talking about impulse spending. Is a practice that we can be implementing that will help us long term in more intentional spending is keeping a running list of the things that we want to purchase. It helps us to know, when we're finally ready to buy, what are the things on my list. It helps to keep it from oh, it's on my mind now, so let me buy it. It allows you to do something with that thought by writing it down, and then it gives you time and space to be able to research that item, look for it at your best affordable price, and know that, yes, this thing I have been wanting for a while. That is often my issue is I'll be getting dressed in my closet, I'll think about the thing that, oh, I need X clothing to kind of finish out and round out my wardrobe. But then I get to the store and I don't know what that thing is, So then I just end up buying something and it's not actually the thing that I needed because I couldn't remember it. So it has helped me a ton to be able to write down, when I'm actually in the moment, this is what I'm looking for, and then take my time and be patient to find that thing. So I am only going to recommend actually setting up alerts for what you're looking for when you've made that list of those items, not just willy nilly allowing Facebook, Marketplace, craigslisten eBay to just often tell you what you could be purchasing from them, but something that you know you've been wanting for a while. Right now, for Eric and I, we are looking for an automan for our living room. We've been looking for an automan for months and months, so it is on the list. We are able to purchase it when we come across the right thing. But that's an example of something that we're going to put an alert on the phone, tell me when a leather round automan with storage pops up available in a twenty mile radius of us, and then that's just going to be helpful to be able to pounce on the deal as it comes up. It's how we've gotten so many furnishings in our place. Eric will do that a lot, you know, a platform bed, a certain type of oven, you name it. It has been really helpful because with these sites, first come, first serve is the name of the game. So being able to jump on a deal as it comes up, as long as the deal is something that you need, then that function can be really helpful.

Yeah, and the last one for me is not on this list, but I'd like to contribute my own contribution suggestion, and that is using Benny. So we love Benny and we are hope, we are hoping we're not sponsored by them, but we are hoping the work partnership with Benny because we love it. It is a Google Chrome extension and you put like you click on like Everlaine is a brand, an affordable sustainable clothing brand that I'm looking into. So I go to the Everlaine website and I am looking at a T shirt and the Benny Chrome extension pomps up and I click on it and it opens up the same exact shirt from Everlane and where I can get it from thread Up, Poshmark, mercari eBay and really like similar other Everlaine shirts or as close as possible. So it is a way to find what you're looking for firsthand, secondhand on a bunch of different sites. You don't have to hunt. So like I'm not a hunter, Jill loves the hunt. I hate the hunt. So Benny for me has been like a godsend.

So I mean, but if Benny's gonna help me with the hunt, then I am here for it. They are a dream chrome extension. Yeah, and I mean go ahead and try it for's podcast dot com slash Benny. Maybe they've maybe maybe they've come come through for us.

Yeah, try try that before you just download it.

B E n I. Yeah, and you know what always comes through for us though.

And will work with us till the end of time.

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. Duck bills, buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is.

The bill of the week.

Hey, Jan and Jail, this is Victoria from North Carolina. My bill of the week this week is an actual duck bill, a rubber duck bill. This year, for Christmas, my mom and I are taking our kids on their very first cruise. And apparently it is a popular trend to hide and find ducks around a cruise ship, especially rubber ducks. So we have loaded up our ducks and we cannot wait to surprise the kids and do something so over the top that I never thought I would financially be able to do. I've been listening to you guys for the past two years and it has completely transformed not only my finances, but the way I look at my finances from core financial values to buy nothing pages to just all the tips and tricks and motivation that you guys provide. It has allotted me the opportunity to be able to do something big for my kids, like take them on a cruise. So I just wanted to thank you guys for all the content, the inspiration, the motivation.

Keep it up.

I love listening to you guys.

Excuse us while we dry our eyes.

I love cruises. And yes, the duck thing, the rubber duck thing is a thing. People will hide these small rubber duckies around the cruise and usually there's a little tag like with a little like I don't know, limerick or something on it like find a duck, leave a duck sort of business. Usually they're wearing a costume, not like a fabric costume, but you can buy them pre costumed like plastic and it is a fun thing for kids to do. So that's really cool. That is really fun.

Victoria, My goodness, what a great bill. Love that you were able to do this with your kids and have fun with it, and you had the money to spend on this, but also how the community has been helpful and the podcast has been helpful. It really does. It's so encouraging for us to hear and that all of the work you've done and mindsets you've implemented is what has allowed you to afford such a valuable experience with the money that you've saved, and how you are able to spend it and enjoy time with your family. We hope it was a blast. That's so very fun. And thanks for your bill. If you all listening, want to leave us your bill, if it has anything to do with encouragement, If you want to make us cry again, go for it. If your name is Bill, we love you. We love all bills. Now we think you're great. A bill you found on the ground, duck bills, you name it, keep it vague, keep it interesting, frugal friendspodcast, dot com, slash bill, Leave us your bill, and now it's time for going around. Poh poh.

All right, So best example of where paying more has saved you more? Jill, No one is surprise.

No one's surprise. I don't got any new answers for you all. I'm so sorry. It's my vitam X. You all know it off for a glum mom VitaminX smoothie this morning. Yes I did. I have used my vitamins except for being on vacation every pretty much every single day since November twenty twenty one, and I haven't done a single thing to it.

I thought it was like November twenty twenty. You've had that thing for a while.

I think it was November twenty twenty.

I think was shortly after you moved in here.

Oh yeah, let's get let's tack another year on it since November twenty twenty and listen, h Have I done a single thing to it other than clean it?

Nope?

Have I needed to replace blades nope? Has anything broken on it? Nope?

Could you put a brick in there and the vitamix would turn it into a brick smoothie?

Nope? How dare you suggest?

But it is really good blend. You can throw literally anything in there.

It works as good as the day I bought it. And speaking of simplicity, because I have the VitaminX, I now don't need to also have a food processor, an immersion blender, a regular blender, a nut butter blender, like a soup blender, whatever, whatever kinds of blenders that are out there, and you know they exist. The Vitamix does it all. And that's the thing that always annoyed me about these other blenders is they try and get you with the more is more, like, buy this one thing and it comes with seven attachments, and I never wanted that. I'm like, I don't have a big kitchen at the time, so yeah, it must have been twenty twenty. I'm working out of my laundry room. I don't want seven attachments. I want one thing that works for all the things I wanted to work for, and that is Vitamix folks. And I am not sponsored by them, but if they want to, I mean, go for don't do that. That's not it's never gonna work. Actually, mix come at us.

So uh for me, it's a jogging stroller. So we got not even again middle of the road, but instead of getting two strollers, we got for Kai, we got a jogging stroller. It goes over every terrain, it's very durable and we've used it also with Atlass. Now we got a double stroller off Facebook marketplace. That thing is the worst. I wish I had just gotten and we have borrowed.

That from you.

I agree that things the worst, and so I should have gotten another jogging stroller, but a double, so I might still do that.

Did you get the jogging stroller off a Facebook marketplace too?

Nope, because with an infant car seat that we used that goes into it. So while that was middle of the road of quality, the investment of getting the jogging stroller versus just a regular stroller. Yeah, and a jogging stroller was the right move for yes.

Yeah, Oh that's awesome. We didn't say this explicitly in the other part of the episodes. I'll say it now. One of the things that can be important to look out for is if lifetime warranties are offered on your products. That can be a helpful metric of whether or not I'm going to spend the extra dollars on this item. How long does their warranty last for? And of course you've got certain brands that have great warranties like LLBean and I think Arii has some really good warranties. Specifically, to circle back to the vitamins. They offer a ten year warranty on their product, and they do say your vitamins should last you about ten years. I think depending on your care of the item, it could last longer. You could then get replacement items. But ten years on a block ender, I think is really great.

Spent items even being offered. That's a good sign.

Right exactly. Yeah, So those are some helpful ways to even know which one should I go with if you're kind of between two, which one offers the better warranty, and then actually take advantage of the warranty, do the extra work of signing, registering your product, signing up for the warranty, keeping keeping track of those things in a spreadsheet, or however you want to do it, because inevitably something will break or need replacement, or you're just going to want to refresh on it, and you can take advantage of that and not have to throw it away and buy new. So yep, there's more of my two cents. Well, everyone, thanks for being with us and listening. Many of you know that we do have a newsletter called the friend Letter. We've been talking about this. It goes out three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we give freebies tips on how to spend better, save more. We are going to be talking more about how to buy affordable quality over cheap quantity. So if this is something you're really into, and yeah, you want to know about the good knives, the good pots and pans, the good appliances, definitely register for that at frigir friendspodcast dot com. But here's a sweet reply email that we got recently from m listener. That's fun. I love this newsletter. And I was just talking to a coworker who's going through kind of a hard time. Her and I both had our car stolen recently. L Ol, what are the odds? Oh, my goodness, what an outlook. Oh I'm glad you can laugh about it. But we're both trying to get back on our feet. And I told her, you have to let people know that you have to think about your financial security moving forward, and that you can't buy for all your friends, family members, coworkers, anyone that really cares about you is going to understand that you need to get yourself in a better financial situation for your future and to take care of yourself before getting anyone any kind of gift. They would be selfish or not understand. So thank you so much for you guys bringing these topics up about boundaries and reality and following your goals and thinking realistically. This was around the holidays, so they said happy holidays. Thank you so much. I am so sorry to hear about your car getting stolen, especially in those seasons of life when things are just not going your way. You've got to be able to implement putting on your own oxygen mask when it comes to your finances first.

Absolutely, yeah, thank you, so.

Thanks for listening. If you want to get this email that is inspiring others and helping to spend better, save better, find the affordable quality, get yours for free. Frugal Friends podcast dot com.

We look forward to being in your inbox every week and we'll see you next time.

Babe.

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So, I think the Super bowls this weekend that after we're releasing this, this is Super Bowl weekend.

Okay, what do you want to say about sports? Jen careful, I want to say.

I want to say yesterday, I want to be vulnerable. Yesterday somebody we were talking to somebody and they said, I'm from Chicago and I said, oh, yeah, the Detroit Lions just played.

You were like, oh, you guys just had a win, and she like blank stared, she's like the Detroit Lions.

And I started out loud. I said, Detroit Lions. Detroit and Chicago are two different places.

Are in two different states.

But the reason I said it is because my friend who's a Detroit Lions fan, like Travis and I were talking to the other day on the phone, he lives in Chicago and he's a Detroit lionsman. And so immediately you made the association that people in Chicago cheer for the Detroit Lions.

And this is what happens when we try and talk about sports and we forget geography.

But I mean there could be people like we have the Tampa Bay Bucks, but we live in Saint Petersburg and Tampa Bay and Company compasses Saint Petersburg, but it is in Tampa. So like there are people in cities root for other people.

But when you just meet someone from Chicago, you can't say they had a win yesterday when the Detroit Lions won.

Okay, I and that's why this is this is vulnerability round point two. But I yeah, Chicago does have a football team, right, I want.

To say the Bears. Oh is that basketball? The Bear Bears? Bears. Yeah.

So I just feel sorry. I'm so sorry, Chicago.

You didn't have to tell Chicago. It's like, but I want to apologize to you for talking badly about you behind your back. Well, I otherwise wouldn't have known you were doing that.

So if by some chance the Detroit Lions end up in the Super Bowl, go Chicago. Chicago,

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