How to Simplify Your Life to Save More Money

Published May 24, 2024, 7:00 AM

Ever feel like your possessions have possessed your life? If it's badly affecting your finances, it might be time to say 'enough.' In this episode, Jen and Jill define what and when is enough for our finances through simplification, which will greatly encourage our mindset and overall finances. 

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Episode four oh nine, how to Simplify your life to save more money.

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

Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about simplicity and how you can do it and the ways it will save you money. We've simplified by calling ourselves Jen and Jill just collect. We changed our names before we started the podcast, just so it could be so simple. Two j's, one syllable each, and so we're going to teach you today.

How to do that time.

I actually I did rebrand myself in college. I went by Jennifer my whole life, and then when I went to college, I was like, I'm going to rebrand myself to Jen. Oh just Jen, Yeah, just Jen.

Wow.

But that's not why you're here today. You're here to hear about simplifying, and first before we talk about that, this episode is brought to you by Frugal friendspodcast dot com. Have you ever been to our website? It is beautiful, it is fantastic, and it's where you can sign up for the friend Letter. It's simple. Just enter your email and you will get saving tips three times a week. We are sending you freebies, we're sending you savings hacks, we're sending you exclusive excerpts from our new book that comes out in January. And you're going to get it all simply by heading to frugalfriendspodcast dot com and getting on the friend Letter.

Yeah, that is a simple way, no no backslash add on things.

Yeah.

And speaking of the friend Letter, we pulled you all another little simple way. We promise we won't overdo it to be able to hear from you and learn about what are the things you want us to be talking about. So we asked you about an area of life that you struggle most to simplify. In those who get the friend Letter, we're able to respond and really all over, we asked physical space, schedule, digital life, or daily demands and decisions, And the one that was least responded to was schedule, but pretty much neck and neck daily demands and decisions, Digital life and physical space were top three for the things that are hard, which.

Is funny because for me, I think that the daily demands are part of your schedule. So I think we're separating the things we do outside the home from the things we do inside. But I think they're very much intertwined. And so when you can change your mindset around one, you can by proxy simplify the other. So I'm excited to talk about that today. But a lot of you blamed your children and I and I'm with you and tiny humans frazzling my brain, hot mess. I see all of your I see all of your responses, and I get it. I saw a Instagram post the other day that says, get in loser, We're going insane, and I felt that. I felt it so so deeply. But yeah, so we're gonna We're gonna talk about all these aspects because they were so evenly divided, and in your responses you said you could have you wanted to pick more than one. So, but do you want to pay special attention to these daily when we say daily demands and decisions? I know we're all talking about feeding our tiny humans, so paying special close attention to there. But even if you don't have tiny humans, you will get a lot out of this one.

If this topic is of interest to you, you want to cue up some others. We also have episode through fifty two which is how to Simplify Your Money Management, so specifically looking at simplification with our finances. Today's how simplifying helps our finances. We've also got episode two forty eight which is Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob and Linda Lodick Loaditch, one of the two. I forget how to pronounce their last names, but that was a really fun interview with that duo, So but stick here. Yeah, so let's talk about first, why even simplifying, because we need to be sure that we've got some buy in before we even start doing it. And I do want to make the caveat that we're not talking about minimalism. They are connected. Simplification sometimes can look like minimalism, but it doesn't have to. We're not simplifying so that you just have hardly anything. You can have a lot of things and still live a simple life. You can do a lot of things and still have degrees of simplicity. So it really is aiming at a simplification that works for you, but not just so you can feel like you attain some sort of picture of nothingness.

Yeah, and I think minimalism really takes it down to its two physical spaces. And that was something that we can talk about in another episode. I think so much we and we just wrote about this in our book, talking about like our brains are attracted to complexity, we desire to add things to our life. Like I was looking for an example for the book, and I was thinking the time when I wanted to buy a bigger water bottle so that I would drink more water. My solution was not take away like distractions and insert more opportunities to drink water. My solution that my brain jumped to was let me buy a bigger water bottle. Let me add instead of what can I subtract to give myself more space to be more intentional about drinking water? And so we do so, and so much of that ends up with us buying stuff. And so when we can change our mindset to be one from what can I add to solve this problem? What can I buy? Or what service can I subscribe to or buy to solve this problem and first take a simplification approach.

Yeah, I think simplifying can solve a lot of the common difficulties and struggles that we face, not solve altogether, but really help us with some of these things like overwhelm or feeling like we don't have enough time, feeling stressed about finances, having so much stuff around us, whether it's houses full of toys or closets full of clothes, and then none of it ends up getting played with or worn, and we're just kind of constantly thinking, we just need to be better at cleaning, we need to be better at organizing. When a lot of times simplification and when it comes to our spaces, I do think there's something to be said for having less can be great, but there's a whole spectrum for that. But I think simplifying in the sense of how can I reduce the number of decisions that need to be made, How can I create rhythms and automation and habits and routines around these things so that it's not this constant mental drain that's happening, which can free up time and space and cause us to not feel as overwhelmed. When we can feel so drawn to complexity, in what ways can we kind of shift our focus to the opposite of complexity and wherever possible to simplicity. I like to connect this idea with what you've talked a lot about Jen recently, and we talked about in the book the eighty twenty rule of the vital few and the useful many, Like, how can we really leverage the vital.

Few to.

Kind of automate the useful many? Or is there a way that I can focus the majority of my time and energy on these prioritized things that then make these other decisions unnecessary or easier.

Yeah, to be really intentional about some the heavy hitters in your life that are going to clear up. What are some things I can clear out of my life or that I can systematize or do something about that's going to clear up eighty percent of the chaos, and then that other twenty percent we can incorporate it. But they're the lowest barrier to entry things, and that's why we focus so much on them, when really it just feels like we're spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. So if you feel like you're spinning your wheels and getting nowhere, then it might be time to stop focusing on the useful many, because again, I'm still useful, but to vote more of resources to focusing on the vital view. And we'll kind of give examples of that as we go through this article.

Yeah, so obviously this is going to touch all aspects of our lives and especially our finances. So this article comes from girl Boss and it is titled seven ways to save money by simplifying your life life And the first one we feel so deeply and we also talk about this in our book. The first step is going to be redefining your enough, or possibly defining your enough for the very first time. I know, even in writing the book, I had to rethink what would I say is enough?

I do think it shifts throughout life.

I think that especially as big life changes happen, your enough is going to look different. Like for you, Jen, you what enough was for you and Travis is different from what enough is now with you Travis and two boys. But really being able to identify that and live into that, which is definitely connected to contentment. I think simplification is connected to contentment. But really thinking about what of life, what of finances is enough? Where not that we have to to stop doing anything, no longer have any kind of goals, but can we recognize if our hustling or setting these kind of unrealistic goals is kind of going way past just blowing beyond whatever would actually be contentment for me and peace inside myself. So I love starting here.

Yes absolutely. And I think defining your enough is important, not what you think should be enough, not what is enough for somebody else. And I think about this like I get a special treat latte every week. I will sometimes bring it into Jill's house in the morning, even though she is perfectly good coffee. It is my treat and I do it once a week. And then I also have sometimes when I go to a CrossFit on Saturday mornings, then I will get a coffee out with some of the girls afterwards. That's not every week, but I do have my treat every week. So I would say I get a coffee out one point five times a week. That's my enough. Your enough could look different. Your enough could look like twice a month or twice a week, or something totally different. Like I'm in the season of my life where I want to stay home more. I want to be at home and a hermit. When I was single, I wanted to go out more. I wanted to be in relationship with people that weren't necessarily in the same place as me with my finances. As I am now, and so I could suggest that we do something for free, but I had to determine if the relationship was more important than the money, so like if they didn't want to do the free thing, that they did want to get the coffee, like making that decision, and so that could result in you valuing your enough being higher than mine in that category, whereas my category of snacks, it's probably higher than a lot of a lot of other people. So yeah, your enough has to be for you and don't try to conform it. And this is where the ninety day transaction inventory is really useful. You can see what you've already been doing and then figure out from there what is my enough? Does this feel good? Does this feel like too much? And then you can go back down and say, oh no, I just thought that was too much. I just assumed it was too much and I don't know why, but really I want to take it back up, so test it out, you will experiment, and that's there's a beauty in that.

Because I think redefining it is going to need to happen along the way too. I think we've come to this point in our renovations with the house as well, like when is enough because you can kind of just keep going once you kind of get this idea of refining but constantly real looking at it.

Can this be enough?

And that goes for all of our spaces, our schedule, our relationships.

What is enough? And leaning into that?

Yeah, I know the concept of enough is really big. But if you want to break it down and just start with maybe five things on your ninety day transaction inventory that you really want to hone in on what your enough is that you know has been wildly unpredictable, you know that you really haven't honed in on. Start with those five things, figure out what your enough is there, and you will build the skills to do it with other more abstract things in your life. So the next thing on this list, which it feels like a call out, I don't want to say you gave this one to me on purpose, but it's unplug and reclaim your time. So and I am going to speak on this, and it's gonna like guilt me to say this to you, but know that I'm saying it to me, So yes. So, like unplugging can be scrolling on your phone last, which obviously you will encounter fewer ads if you do that but also cutting the cord on some of your streaming services. So this is one thing that I can say with confidence about us, is that we got rid of Netflix last May, and we decided we're going to go a year without Netflix. But we have two other streaming services, and so we're gonna we're gonna alternate through two streaming services at a time, right, and so you know, when May comes or whenever the next one expires, we won't renew it and we'll you know, pick up Netflix again. So we are doing We also dropped Disney Plus that's the other one we dropped, so we're cycling through. And that means that sometimes we have come to the end of the things that we want to watch on TV, the shows and the movies left. There's nothing left. It's not that we've consumed it all. It's just that we're not interested in the anymore. And so that is helping us reclaim some of our time and it saves us money. Instead of having all the streaming services, we choose two at a time and we cycle through them and they're like six months apart, I think. So then we have to be careful that when we have reclaimed that time, that we don't refill it with scrolling on our phones again, which is something that I have actually found that I am becoming guilty of. So I think taking technology down a notch. I love digital minimalism. Think by Greg McCown. I think that's who wrote it. I always come back to that. We read that one for our Frugal Friends book club a really long time ago. But coming back to we are not anti technology, but we do want to put safeguards around our consumption of it. So sometimes that looks like those silly physical barriers that we you know, put our phone in a box. You don't need to buy the two hundred dollars box that is being advertised on Instagram. Have you seen that?

Have you seen?

No, they're advertising all kinds of Well, now you will get it because I'm talking about there are all kinds of like new things that you can buy to keep you from using your phone. Oh wow, yeah, and I don't know. I guess they charge it.

While that's a great example of complexity bias.

I have a problem, buy something to solve the problem.

Yes, oh my gosh, yes, so, but sometimes we do need to create some barriers. We don't need to pay for those barriers, but putting the phone away and it just it keeps you from consuming less and it can make you more grateful. Like I think that is one thing that has helped me kind of be more intentionable at being on my phone less. As I've started this five year journal, and every day I will write it's literally three lines for the day, something that happened with me or Travis or the kids. And there's five sections on each page. So once you finish a year, you go back to page one and you can see what happened a year ago, and you add another three lines, and so like you can do the same as a gratitude journal to replace some of that scrolling in that comparison as being the thief of joy, you can instead choose to be grateful instead choose in contentment.

Which I don't think we have to totally reemphasize how that helps your finances, but I'm going to it's going to keep you from spending scrolling and spending which we know inevitably ends up happening, especially if you're feeling bored and you want that little rush of something and gratitude, like you're saying, Jen is it does lead to contentment, which is going to lead to less spending looking to buy something to solve a problem or meet a need. We can become more creative when we kind of free up our space and our minds for that. The next thing on the list is to simplify lifestyle practices. So this is really related to routines and habits. What can we be doing and implementing that helps to make things almost second nature automated. I know we're going to talk about automation a little bit more later on, but looking at ways that we can make something into a rhythm, something that regularly happens that we hardly have to think about. So for those of us who are really struggling with simplifying the daily decisions and routines, this is awesome. We already all have habits. This is just an opportunity to look at the habits and are they benefiting us or is their room to shift them? Can we recreate some habits or replace some habits, interrupt some of those Q craving reward cycles with the things that we actually want to be implementing, Like if meal planning is something you really want to be trying to do, putting that into your routine, allowing it to almost become this habit that's happening for you. For me, this is something I do every other Sunday and it's just become a part of my regularly scheduled activities throughout the month that now I've come to just not even think about. It doesn't feel like a burden. It doesn't feel like I've got a how do I carve out time for this. I already know it's kind of merely set in stone that this is what I'm going to do and this is how I'm going to do it. That it takes time, but I think identifying where you already want to shift things like if you're going to be choosing to spend less time scrolling or watching TV, then a great thing to replace it with is this planning what you're going to eat, looking at recipes that feel inspiring. That's a very fun productive thing to be scrolling through. Is food love that we love that option.

Yeah.

They also mention getting back to some of the basics of lifestyle, so maybe making your own types of products. They're talking about kind of the cost of convenience. Some we do pay more for convenience, and sometimes it's worth it. I know gen you by pre chopped veggies frozen, and that's necessary and actually can be not super expensive. But when we are buying convenience items just because it's our habit, it's what we do, but then it's not only costing us more, but we're producing so much more waste and it's not good for us, not good for the environment. Are there ways that we can look at to really just simplify the lifestyle. Are we willing to make some of our own cleaning products? Do we have to have ten things under the sink? Or would two products work just fine? Do we need all of the new cleaning gadgets and kitchen appliances or do what we have work and it's then less to clean and maintain.

Yes, this is where the daily decisions and all of that can feel overwhelming because we've gone through life not knowing one hundred percent of what to do in every situation. So we accumulate solutions thinking that the next thing I consume will definitely solve my problem and be the answer that I've been looking for, And that is how we end up with ten different eyeshadows, ten different lipsticks, ten different skin care products, ten different cleaning products under the sink, and then the actual practice of these things becomes overwhelming. It's like, I don't want to have to choose between these ten cleaning products to figure out how to clean this one thing. I'm just not going to do it, and then it builds up and becomes a real problem. So when we can simplify our our lifestyle practice and our view of lifestyle practice again, keeping that mindset that another thing will probably not solve the problem, what can I take away to solve the.

Problem, especially if the problem isn't a problem for you. I mean, I'm thinking air fryer and instant pots.

And rice cookers.

If you don't already have an issue with cooking your rice, then you don't need a rice cooker just because everybody says that they love it. If you don't currently have a problem heating up your chicken nuggies in the toaster of it you have, then you don't need to have an air fryer just because everyone's raving about it.

I think that's a thing too, Like.

People have talked me into products because it solved a problem for them, But I don't have the problem.

So I don't need the solution.

Ninja creamy I've been seeing everywhere. If you don't currently have a problem making your own ice cream, you don't need to buy a ninja creamy. It's like, I'm making my own ice cream all the time, and it's so arduous. This ninja creamy could really be a solution for you. But if that is not a problem you already have, Yeah, then don't create a solution for somebody else's problem.

Don't purchase that.

Just so much space it's gonna take up for something you might do once a month.

Yeah.

Yeah, the same like these glass containers for meal prep, Like, you don't need to buy the circular ones if you already have rectangular ones, and vice versa. It's yeah, we're buying solutions that other to other people's problems so frequently, and it's just it makes our lifestyle so complex.

Yeah.

The next one on here is downsize to upsize your sense of freedom. Uh so this one might be a little controversial, I don't know. So do your possessions possess you? Large homes and lawns need constant upkeep from cleaning to maintenance. Expensive cars need recurring repairs that are often more expensive. So what are the things around you that you could downsize to increase your sense of freedom. And so this is mostly like I don't think a lot of us are driving luxury cars that are in that category, but I think that can include home buying the homes that we live in. And so this does not mean that you need to downsize your home, but it can mean that you are intentional about how you upgrade it, the way you style it, the lawn care that you choose, like the plants that you choose to put in your lawn care, all of these things, and maybe it does mean that you get rid of it. I was listening to Jeanette McCurdy's memoir and it was so good. And she bought a home because that's what you're supposed to do when you have money, you invest in a home. And she got a really good deal on the on the house. This I watched her in an extra interview with Graham Steven. But for the three years that she owned it, it was constantly something was breaking, Like she just she got a lemon of a house, Like she bought something that was completely turn key, completely furnaced. She even bought the furnishings with it because she wanted to do nothing, and the bathroom ended up flooding in the first month or a couple of weeks, flooding the furniture she just bought. So she had to get rid of the furnishings and replumb the whole house. And just for three years she had a contractor like at her house, like doing something or other to it. And finally she was like, you know what's going to solve my problem. You know it's gonna make me love this house. An interior decorator decorating the house. Once the house is decorated, then I will love it. And her therapist was like, why don't you just sell the house, and she's like, nope, the house is a good investment. I don't know why, but I want to love it and so I'm going to decorate it. And she has a meeting with this interior decorator who loves animal print and if like by the time you get to this part in the book, it's like, I'm sorry if you haven't read it, but it's not a big spoiler. She's not an animal print girly. And the first animal print sofa shows up at her house and she calls the interior decorator and she's like, I think I'm going to sell the house, And so it's just again another like how and now she lives in an apartment. Now she rents an apartment, you know, And so it's like, what are those things on a smaller scale in our lives that we're trying to add to to solve that we really need to.

Down I think everything can be looked at. I think how complicated our meal plans can be. Just paring it down. What are a couple of meals you can put on rotate every other week that use ingredients? What can you be doing with your kitchen gadgets, like we've already talked about, can we just cook simply so we don't need to even be using five different types of appliances to make one meal?

Or maybe complicated Mabe it is with your car, maybe you don't need the suv. Maybe you could do with the sedan, you know.

Yeah, Eric and I this does not work for all people, but we downsize to just one vehicle, and we've been able to make that work for five years.

Now almost something like that. So I think all of it can be looked at.

It can all be looked at, It can't all be done.

Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, But I'm just saying, on any level, from the way you eat to how you drive to where you live, I think you identify what feels the most complicated and see what if you get creative. The next one on here is stop buying into fashion trends. This one we don't need to say much about. It's pretty obvious how it will eventually help our wallets as well as helping our stress levels, because we know that decision fatigue, feeling overwhelmed are big, big things that steal from our ability to make the important decisions that we need to make. So if you're feeling overwhelmed just getting dressed in the morning or doing all of your laundry, and that's what's keeping you from meal planning, and actually meal planning is more important than clean out the closet. But also beware of how buying cheap clothing can cause you to feel like fill up your closet because it's so much less expensive. We just talked about this in one of our previous episodes, just a story of someone who stopped buying clothing, and one of the realizations that I loved out of this one was that by buying so much inexpensive clothing, whether on the clearance rack or even at a thrift store. She wasn't getting the things that actually fit her, so she never felt good about what she was wearing, which never felt good about herself, and then felt like she wasn't valuing herself and had a closet full of things she never wore. And I think there's so much to be said for the money we can be saving. If we are willing to invest in a couple pieces staple pieces for our wardrobe that we feel really good in that's good quality, made ethically and will last us for years, will save us far more in not just the decisions on what to wear we need to make daily, but how much we're buying regularly.

Yeah, And I mean the same can go for furniture, which is also on this list Furniture trends. I'm thinking like those egg chairs that look really cute in pictures, but everybody I've ever heard who's bought one, they're the most uncomfortable things to sit in reality, and they only use them for pictures. Like buying multipurpose like multi use furniture too, that's gonna last, And that is not just on trend.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then the last one for me is to automate as much as possible. And this kind of goes without saying automating our bills, automating our anything in our schedule that can be automated. So for me, that looks like adding things to a calendar, blocking things out if it doesn't If it's not in the calendar, it does not exist. It's a rule. It's a rule. The less mental energy I have to expend to remember things and to keep telling my spouse these things we share a calendar. If it's not in the calendar, does not exist. And like keeping appointments that are recurring, keeping those like automating those showing up in the calendar outside of your bills, automating as much as possible.

And again that does tie into habits. How can you almost put yourself on automation with some of these things.

Yeah, so not every routine can become a habit. But when we're intentional about creating routines, like a meal planning routine, the meal planning itself will not become a habit because that is a thing that requires intentional thought. But sitting down and taking out the special meal planning paper or whiteboard that can become a habit and that's all you need. You just need to automate that first action of a routine to make that a habit, and then you can do the routine.

Yeah, and again, all of this simplification is going to help create space for us to breathe, which will help us make better decisions. Over Arching with our finance is it will help lead to contentment for us as we learn to practice gratitude within the midst of our simplification, are not responding to every want and desire as it comes up or impulse that we have to spend. Is going to keep us from spending on the unnecessary things and helping us know when we do want to spend on something because it actually is aligning with our values.

Yeah, you know what else is really simple and is truly a habit. The initial yes on set is a habit, but it's super intentional.

Beyond that, 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 suck bill, butflow bills bill clean.

This is the bill up the week.

Aden and Jill.

I am back with an update on the Pro Sports Fan get away. I do not recommend. The game was not fun, but the vacation was, so that was good. But I'm calling with another bill because recently there was a windstorm in our area and my neighbor's tree, fifty foot tree, crashed into our yard and demolished my kids play set and smashed the fence and our entire patio furniture sets. It did miss our house by about ten feet, which is great because had it not, it would have landed right on my daughter's bedroom. So that was definitely good.

But yeah, so we were pretty stressed out about all these bills that we have come in our way, and we actually just found out out from our insurance company that we're going to be getting about twenty thousand dollars, which is amazing, and we're.

Actually gonna be able to pay off this Pro sports fan get away.

So you know, it all works out, but I'm really hoping this is the last bill that I send you. You know, other people are getting free coffees and discounts. On stuff, and we've got kids swallow and screws and husbands winning vacations I don't want, and trees crashing into our yard. But yeah, it is what it is. I hope you guys have a great day. Hopefully I will not talk to you soon. Okay, bye.

Oh my gosh, we've been on this journey with you for so long, and this pro sports getaway, I am so sappy. Was everything you expected.

I mean, we all could have told each other.

That, yeah, we're sad to hear that we were all right. But oh man, yeah, as somebody who has had a fifty foot tree fall on their house, I'm so glad that it missed you. Uh and uh that yeah, that you're that you're getting some help for that.

I mean that is nice that insurance can cover some of these expenses. But it still is such a headache to deal with these things. But glad it's happening. Glad it missed your daughter's bedroom. And I can commiserate with the feeling of other people are getting all this good stuff and I'm just over here trying to survive.

I'm just trying to survive.

Man. Some days we're not thriving, we're just surviving.

We're with you.

Ry Yesterday I did get ten cents off of my treat latte.

Whoa yeah, and I'm I'm definitely a person who if I see ten cents on the ground, pick up that dime.

Yeah, we love a dime.

Dime pieces for dime pieces.

If you all want to submit your bill about getting deals or the free coffees, or if you're over here on the struggle bus with a lot of us and just trying to get by and pay your bills, visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill.

We're ready for it, and now it's time for light, all right?

What aspect of your daily routine seems unnecessarily complicated, Jill?

I have worked, in some ways tirelessly to make my life as efficient as possible, however.

Exhausting, and I'm so tired.

I value a clean house, but yet I find myself then just cleaning incessantly, constantly, just responding to something I see in front of me that needs to be clean. And it wasn't until this past month that Eric and I decided we're going to get a handle on this thing. So it doesn't feel like I've got a clean every evening and weekend sidebar. I did tell Eric when we were in the thick of our renovations, which did last every bit of three years, he did a lot of the very hard work everything plumbing, electrical building structures, roofing, studding out walls, flooring, jackhammering pipes into the ground, everything, And I told him that my thank you to him was that he, when this is done, doesn't ever have to worry about a single thing with the house again, like no maintenance stuff, like I will clean, I will handle cooking, Like just thank you that what you are providing to us in value is amazing. And that promise to him has lasted one year. We are one year into that.

And I did well.

But now I am at the point where it's like, all right, like I'm ready for us to share this responsibility, and he's ready to he's not. It's not as if he's not doing anything. And I have a little bit more time than he does to be able to clean in the early evening. So but he's like, let's do this. Let's figure out how we can make this just more simplified and automated and routined and efficient. So this is our solution to figure out how often do we really think that laundry needs to be done and the floors need to be washed and bathrooms need to be cleaned? Because I couldn't have told you before, Like I was just kind of here, I am cleaning the toilet again, all right. Now I'm scrubbing the floors, and I don't know how often I did it, but now I know, Okay, I only want to clean the shower once a month. I want to mop the floors twice a month. And now I see a dirty floor and it really is working.

I'm like, yeah, the.

Floor is dirt dirty, and I'm going to get to it this weekend because it only needs to be cleaned every other week.

That's fine, That's good.

Wow.

Yeah, I feel freedom honestly in it. It does feel like it's taking up less mental space because I know it's scheduled. Yeah, it's going to happen the day that we said that we will do it, and yet not no day. It feels too overwhelming.

That is such a good example of simplifying routines and daily decisions is to write down when you're going to get to them, yeah is and then once it's defined once you've defined enough, like how many times the floor needs to be mopped?

Oh, I define my enough.

And then you know if you don't define it, nothing is ever enough and it becomes overwhelming.

I would get stressed about needing to wash my sheets because that's something I often forget to do, and I'm like, when was even the last time I washed my sheets? And now I know I have it on a rhythm. I know that I washed my sheets two weeks ago. We're good, yeah, or it's.

Time to wash me.

I washed them six weeks ago.

I just feel so much more informed. I can make informed decisions.

That's awesome. What about you?

It ain't clean and I don't clean my house?

Does your house can't be cleaned yet?

It doesn't mean that it is cleaned. It it's not cleaned for me. It's feeding my family. Gosh, why okay? And like half of it is I don't know what my child is gonna want to eat or will eat, Like I just don't know on one day. Okay, here's a great example. Oh this is so out. Okay, So since we don't have a countertop, we're still like we just got all our cabinets in. I have been buying uncrustables for Kai's lunches, like as a treat, but also just to save me time yep, efficiency for now. Yeah. So I was buying them at Walmart, the grape ones, and then I just decided. I was like, Okay, we're almost done. I'm just gonna get this big box at Sam's Club and then that'll be it. I'll go back to doing regular lunches after this box, after this economy box is done. And I'm gonna get him strawberry because they don't have strawberry at Walmart and he loves strawberries. I don't even know if he likes grapes, he loves strawberries. It'll be a great treat. And so, and he is obsessed with strawberries, like he loves them. Yeah, And I give him one and he's like, I don't like this. And I was like, you can't not like it.

I at eighteen.

There's eighteen of them. You can't not like it. And he tried it twice. He did, He did try it again. Oh, and he just legitimately has decided he doesn't like them. Oh, and now he's also decided. He's had granola bars for lunch for too long, and now we're going we're back to goldfish, which I also bought an economy box of and have just been holding on to because midway through the box he decided he was done with goldfish and he wanted granola bars. So now we're back there and life is a disaster. Yeah, but here's here's I like those a crust moods. So yeah, the silver line is that I like them and I will eat them. But I do have to make him a peanut butter and jelly in the mornings again, which is not a big deal, but I thought I was getting out of it for a couple more weeks. So that that's just like one example of how feeding my family is so complex.

I can what can I do?

I feel for you in that, I think, I.

Feel what can I do? Yes, I have so many feelings.

Yeah, because you are trying to keep up with a small human who is ever growing and changing.

So that's a tough one.

I think the solution for you and someone like you is uncomplicating everything else. I think figuring out how to feed your family is the priority, and how to find space for mental energy when this no longer is meeting his need and I need to have the mental energy to figure out what will feed his dietary and taste bud needs. Like that is the priority. What's taking it up is the renovation.

Renovation in the book. Yeah, like the crystables were the solution, they were the simplification and then but now they're my simplification, very good snack, and I can't just impulse eat them because they're frozen, so I have to let it thaw for an hour, so I have to really want the patients.

It's helping build patients.

It is, so it's unnecessarily complicated.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think when you come across those things that are kind of ever present and constant it is looking at, are there other things I can simplify so this doesn't feel so overwhelming? Thanks everyone for listening. We love your reviews too, like this one from McKean two. It says informative and makes me giggle. Great podcast which has made me think differently about my spending habits and more thoughtful in my spending. The girls are great, fun to listen to and I've definitely saved money saved money from their tips, tricks and wisdom.

Thanks Jen and Jills. The girls are great fun.

We are great fun.

It sounds like a stamp of approval that would go on in a serial box or something.

The marshmallows are great fun.

I'll over have great fun with us. I'll bring the uncrustables.

Oh yes, and leave us a review. Yes please.

They make us feel better about our unnecessarily complicated lives.

See you next time.

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. I'm going to buy my countertop today though, yes, I am going to buy it to say, I'm to put the half of the money down.

And hopefully it'll be installed in the next three weeks.

Before my birthday. I'm hoping we'll see it'll be a great birthday, a great thirty fifth birthday gift. Countertop. Yeah, it'll be more expensive than my engagement ring, which was what Travis got me for my twenty sixth birthday.

Oh yeah, so much has happened on your birthdays.

We got a book deal for my birthday last last year.

I know birthdays are so big for me, they really are. Wow. Thirty five, big three five, Big three five.

You are not far behind.

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