Kakeibo: The Japanese Art of Mindful Budgeting

Published Sep 2, 2022, 7:00 AM

There are so many things to learn from our past as it is a significant factor in who we are today. We are excited to introduce to you this elegant way of mindful budgeting called โ€œKakeiboโ€. In this episode, we unravel this rich and timeless Japanese budgeting system and strengthen our relationship with our spending. 

๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Get full show notes here!
https://bit.ly/3AUJCJM

๐Ÿ“‘ Get our FREE Modern Frugal Living eBook here!
https://www.frugalfriendspodcast.com/ebook

๐Ÿ“ฃ Submit your bill of the week and get a shoutout from us
https://www.frugalfriendspodcast.com/bill-of-the-week/

๐Ÿ’ธ Check out our monthly challenge community
http://www.frugalfriendspodcast.com/club

๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿผ Subscribe for more on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/frugalfriends

๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿผ Hang out with us on Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/frugalfriendspodcast/

Episode two seven Cokebo, the Japanese art of mindful budgeting. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liberal life. Here your host Jen and Jill m okay, yeah now you can sing. Jill so much so excited for this episode. I'm Jen, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. I'm Jill, and we are bringing you an episode today that proves there is literally nothing new under the sun. Like if anybody says they've come up with a revolutionary idea, they literally just haven't done enough research to figure out that somebody a hundred years ago came up with the same idea or either lying to you and trying to package it in a that you're going to buy it, or they're just ignorant and they don't know and it's been done before. And so we were ignorant and we didn't realize the Japanese had basically said everything that we're saying a hundred years ago. Specifically a Japanese journalist, the first female journalists in Japan, and we are very excited to dive into what she has named kibo, which is the Japanese art of mindful budgeting. Yes, I had not heard of it before, but it is getting a resurgence lately. It's like one of those more in vogue things. But mind you, it was in vogue a hundred years ago and worked for people then, and it's gonna work for us now. Absolutely. But first, this episode is brought to you by pen and paper, remember us, they say, No, not the notes app on your phone, or that knockoff iPad that's only used to replicate pen and paper but costs a thousand dollars for some reason with a monthly subscription plan. The actual pen and paper that you can get like for free at any event or in your mailbox. They want you to know to not be afraid of a relationship with them with your pen and paper. Yes, it's more intimate that tapping a screen, but that's what relationships are about, intimacy, vulnerability, longevity. This is a long term commitment, like when you write something down, lose it, and find it three months later, and you physically hold it in your hand m hm. Pen and paper for those who want something special. So it's a long term relationship because you write it down, you lose it, you forget where it is, and then you rEFInd it and and it's just they're always and always. You think you threw it away, and it's still there. It's still like in your junk drawer or you're like pile of papers, like it's always there. My favorite is when I find someone else's shopping list, like on the ground at the grocery store in the parking lot, and I feel I have uncovered some secret treasure, like I was never meant to read this. This is someone's actual handwriting. Oh what were they buying? Why were they getting those two things together? Yeah? I mean that takes long term relationship to a whole new level, right, someone's intimate writings on their pen and paper. Yeah, and pen and paper are integral to coke bo and you will find that out as we go through these articles. If you are on your budgeting journey and you're like, nothing is working, I don't understand. Help me. Uh. Then we have a few other episodes that you can queue up to listen to after this one. So the first is episode two two, Stop strict budgeting and start living in the Radical Middle uh. And then the other is episode one seventies seven. What is values based budgeting and how do you practice it. And that's really at the heart of coke Bo, I think is values based spending and values based budgeting, and I think this is just a very elegant way of getting to it. Yes, I'm really excited to talk about this kind of in an older way but still very relevant. And we know what that means. It's timeless and it works, and there's many principles and tenants and here that we can take and certainly make it work for us. But I love it when these older ways, these kind of ancient pathways resurface, because I think there's something really rich in the method for it to have that degree of longevity. Yeah, so let's dive into our first article, which really explains the philosophies and the questions behind kibo, because it is it's mindful budgeting. It's like what we say, I mean all the it's it's basically like everything we've said, just like repackaged in a different way. And and so I'll just let it speak for itself. Um. But it's from Shonda Land. It's called the Art of cookee Bo. This Japanese budgeting system could change your financial life. And so this is your first time hearing about cookee bo Jill. What are your thoughts on this article specifically. It's fantastic. I mean, certainly, I'm really excited about this method, but the article I think is really helpful. It's quite a long article, so we're not gonna obviously read off the whole thing to you all are picking out the highlights from it. But I do think that the introduction they give and the background is really insightful. So just a few things before we get into kind of the questions and the categories and that kind of a thing. As you mentioned, Jen, they highlight that this was a form of budgeting that was developed in nineteen oh for by a female journalist, I hope I don't get her name wrong, Honey motco you can check me on that. But and then they go on to talk about how budgets are can feel like diets for our wallet, and I think this is always the same conversation that we come back to when budgeting gets difficult or when we experience pushback on a budget. Is when it's this concept of it feels like a diet. They're not fun. They mean a lot of restriction and denial and and results are somewhere far off in the future, it's I can't get it now. And then I love what they say here where they say and budgets can make people super cranky. I don't know if that's you, if your your experience or the experience you have with a partner UM, but sometimes if if we approach a budget like a diet, that's why it can be really difficult. And so I think this system of budgeting presents a different mindset at different approach, which is what we talk about all the time. So I'm so thrilled to see this be supported with UM an older way of going about this. And so I also like how they describe cokebo being really elegant and straightforward and it impairs mindfulness practices to the process of spending and intern budgeting, but making a big focus on the spending and an awareness of the behaviors rather than the restrictions and the denial and the parts that make us cranky. Yeah. I was reading somewhere actually where this is more of a philosophy like shifting our perspective on how do I save more or how do I save? In a shift of this perspective to you, how do I spend, which is literally all we're trying to do is to shift your mind away from how do I save, which is obviously going to take you down a path of restriction and unsustainable methods, because there are a million things ways to save. There are over two hundred in our free e book called Modern Frugal Living. You can get it at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ebook for yeah, I think so. There are so many ways to save it can get overwhelming, and it's how we quote unquote fail or fall off the wagon or you know, etcetera, etcetera. But when you shift your mindset to how to spend, how how do I spend, then you can get intentional about every every dollar you spend and you can feel good about it, and then you naturally save more because you are deciding to not spend money on things you don't care about and you are spending confidently on the things you do. And it doesn't always work out the first month, because frankly, you don't always know what you care about the first month, you think you care about every thing um And as time goes on, you get better at learning who you are and what you want and what you care about. What you don't care about, so that it is a sustainable way to live life and results in more saving. And so that's what I really love about. What's at the heart of this quote unquote like budgeting method so uh cokibo it translates to household family ledger. So I love that terminology too. I feel like you could use ledger instead of budget and get the same result without as much of the mental muck that budget kind of like puts forward. But like again, it was created by um a female journalist in Japan Four Housewives, and she was really like a um an advocate for Japanese housewives to conscious that they're spending and start saving for their families and to be in charge of the family finances. And I'm just like yes, yes, yes, And she she founded a magazine for housewives UM and this was just like one of the things she put in there as like a simple way for women to manage their household finances. I love it. I love all of those words combine household family alleger. I mean, first of all, we all know what alleger is, but it's not a common word within our English language. And yeah, it does kind of come without all of the preconceived notions to it. It's just a thing. It's alleger versus all the all the preconceived ideas that comes with the word budgeting, and then pairing both household and family, that it's what's needed and necessary for the house, but that there's a collective unit engaged in this as well. It's so beautiful. I'm really vibe and on a lot of what's being talked about here. Yeah, we are feeling strong vibes. And one of the reasons that seeing a resurgence is is because of all the technology that has become available in the financial sector, which is awesome, like technical fintech um. Financial technology has made investing so much easier, It's made making money, earning a living like on the internet, so much easier. It's it's done all these amazing things. But it's also allowed marketers and businesses to market to you and have you spend money without all the friction of buying in store or partying with your cash or seeing what is like without balancing your checkbook like your grandma used to do. You know. So there. While technology has has blessed us in so many ways, it's also taken a lot of the relationship away from how we spend money. And goal of cookee Bo is to reconnect you to your relationship with spending. And so spending is a lot of what we're going to be talking about with the cookee Bo method. So yeah, let's let's get into how to execute it. So, since the process does predate smartphones and computers, it does rely on that good old fashioned pen and paper. The sponsor of today's episode the figure. And so one of the first steps with cookee Bo, much like any mindfulness work, is becoming aware, increasing our awareness and as it relates to our household, family ledger, or our finances, it's what's actually happening. We need to raise our awareness there as part of this first step. So that's going to mean keeping detailed track of your spending for a set period of time. And so there's some questions that can go along with this tracking spending and income that kind of gets at the heart of the cokebo practice, and it centers around these four questions, how much money do I have or earn, how much money do I want to save, how much am I spending? And where can I improve? And oh my goodness, that that just doesn't summarize all the questions that we need to ask and make it sound so approachable and attainable. And I particularly appreciate that last question of where can I improve? I think any time we are mindful or do some time of reflection and processing, that needs to be one of the questions. Certainly what am I doing well? We often don't ask that question either, but also where can I improve? Where is their growth that I want to see? And that's going to help inform the next steps. Yeah, so once you answer these four questions, and these are four questions that you're going to be journaling about at least once a month. I would say probably with every paycheck. So if you're paid weekly, maybe asking these questions weekly. If you're paid twice a month, answering them twice a month, but at least once a month answering these questions um and then track your spending for a month. So instead of making your ideal budget, the perfect budget that you'd love to stick to, the first step is is in coke bo is just like put the mindfulness into practice. Just become aware of the transactions. So track your transactions for a month on pen and paper. So I would just say, find one of those journals that's hiding in your bookcase or your closet that you thought you'd use and haven't used, um, and just use that and kind of make a make your own columns. So there are a ton of cookee bo journals, but you don't need to buy something new for this. You can just say, Okay, this is the date, this is what I bought, this is how much it was is and then you can start to categorize. So there are four categories in kakipo um. The first is general, the second is leisure, third is culture, and fourth is unexpected. So general this would be household expenditures like housing, food, transportation. It's the things that you sometimes neglect writing down as your transactions because you're like, oh, I'm not impulse spending on gas. You know, I'm not impulse spending on the internet. But it's still is required to write it down and put it in the transactions because you still want to be mindful about it. Because the more you write something down, like maybe you're not impulse spending on gas, but the more you write it down, the more you realize you're spending on it, and you're you start to give your spell yourself space to see. Okay, I'm I'm doing this out of necessity, but how can I get creative with this expense? Maybe there's something I can do to get a little creative here. So you still want to write these things down. Uh, So the next is leisure. Um, so all the things like Netflix, shopping, general, merchandise, gifts, all of these things, and sometimes so you'll see these four expenses or these four categories kind of different throughout from person to person. Some people say that general is um essential or necessary necessities, where leisure is like non essential. I personally like the general and the leisure, but I also like necess like essential and non essential, because then you can when as you start to get your values in order and find out what you really love, then you can say something that might be leisure can become like essential, can can kind of get bumped up, So it's up to you. Then we've got culture, which is thing is that enrich your life. So, um, a subscription to a newspaper, magazine, or a professional organization. Maybe it's a haircut. They're also they say, considered non essentials, but just a little bit more. I don't know. Culture, you get to decide what's culture for you. Uh, and then fourth is unexpected, So this is stuff that comes up unexpected that we all need to pay for it. Those things that you that happened and you're like, oh, I bust my budget. I suck at budgeting. No, they're just unexpected costs and I love that this method specifically accounts for them. So when you're starting out, you track your transactions, you say what it is, how much it was, and then what category it falls in? Yeah, and then from there, once you've done those the work of those steps, it's then setting your goals. Once you have increased your awareness, you've divided you're spending into different categories, then allowing to help inform what do you want to see for your money over the course of the next month, the next few months, the next year, a few years. What do you want to achieve with your money? What's your timeline for achieving those goals? What big and small goals do you have? So setting those things for each of the categories general, leisure, culture, unexpected, and so sure that then would become like a quote unquote budget or how you would approach your household family ledger with what you want to see your spending look like. So again it is that shift from what am I spending on versus what am I saving on? Although both will be happening, saving will be happening in certain categories as well as spending, and then continuing to track your spending and assess how you're doing, how does it align with your goals, with your values, with what you said you wanted to do? And then I like how the article moves into these questions that we can ask before we spend. So a lot of this can be helpful, particularly in avoiding impulse spending, but just in general, before we spend, asking do I actually need this? Will it be useful? And does it get me excited? Do I have space for this? Will it have a place to live in my home or in my life? Do I do I actually have room for it? Based on my current financial situation? Can I actually afford this? How do I feel about buying this? So that's a true mindfulness practice, getting in touch with your thoughts and emotions. What is it stirring in you, even this early inside your body? What are you noticing is happening for you when you think about purchasing this? A lot of times for me. I've talked about this in previous episodes. If I get kind of like sweaty or my heart's racing before purchasing something, that's usually an indicator for me that I'm probably not comfortable doing it right at that moment. Maybe I need to think about it more, or it is an impulse purchase, So just paying attention to what's happening inside you. And then finally, another question we can ask is what is my general emotional state today? So kind of even more broad, where am I at checking in with myself emotionally? Is this maybe a coping mechanism? Do I want to give myself more of a space or a pause before I engage in this purchase? So really great check in questions, and that circling back to pen and paper could even be something we carry around with us, although that could be typed into your phone as well. Kind of my my checklist of questions I asked myself before purchasing. So when you're out and about pulling out those questions and kind of running through the list or asking yourself whatever questions feel most relevant to help inform that decision, so you make sure that you are making a good a good choice for yourself. Yeah, I love these questions because something we've always said is is you can know your values and what you really want in life, and that helps you with baking bigger financial decision. But when it comes down to you and target, those big goals are not going to necessarily be enough to motivate you to not choose instant gratification. But pausing will and pausing and asking these questions just adds another layer to the boundaries, to the walls between you and an impulse purchase. So yeah, I read another version of the first one, which do I actually need this? Someone was like can I live without this? Which I also thought was a good reframe of it, um, And then just being like do I have space for it? Can I afford this? Thinking about not just the current financial situation, but like also the goals as well, like can I afford this and still be on track to my goals? Um? And then just taking like we we say this a lot is being aware of your emotional state and what you did beforehand, what happened beforehand, Like are you here? Are you shopping to celebrate something and that's why you're wanting to buy this? Are you here to avoid some kind of emotion that you should be dealing with. So these are amazing questions and I feel like there should be like a phone background with these questions on it, and I may make one. I don't want to make any promises, but I kind of want to make one because this is definitely worth it. Or like an audio gram where you just play it back to yourself. Do you have space for this? We're gonna put it. Do you need it? Do you want it? How you feeling? What happened in your life today? And you can pick do you Jill will do one and I will do one, and you can pick who's you want? Who do you want? Questioning your purchase decisions, Yeah, that's great. They also say waiting on purchasing something for twenty four hours is just like an additional recommendation. But I mean, we love that patience is a virtue always always. That's kind of like the general like way to do It's very simple, and that's something else that I love about it. It's just so simple. It's the four questions, categorize you're spending into four categories, and then in practice, which very few budgeting methods actually have, I would say no other budgeting method has actual implementation, so in addition to the structure of the ledger, then there's implementation guidelines for following the plan. And I feel very affirmed in this because I am class, I'm pen and paper. I still do write all my transactions down. I just I love it, and I think that some of it is for this reason. It While that could sound like a lot of work to some people, to me, it feels simple, just pen and paper, aware of what I'm doing, informing my decisions upcoming, aligning it with my goals. It feels so cathartic to me. I realized that's not going to be everybody's situation, and they may not write down every transaction every single month, But for me, this is essentially what I have been doing already. So I'm glad to have a term for it. I know, I feel the same way like I. We've been talking about this stuff for years and to actually have a name for it, and this just really simple, like beautiful. We have We've said the word elegant several times in this episode, but I really feel that's. Yeah. I love it. It's so simple, it's so elegant, and I'm already obsessed so, but let's move on to our next article. It's from Refinery twenty nine and it's learn about cokebo, the Japanese art of saving money. So a lot of the same things highlighted in this article as the previous one, but this takes a specific look at what are the things we need to know about COOKEEPO in order to engage with it. So, yes, it does sound simple, sitting down at the start of each month and making a plan for how we're going to spend and having categories and awareness of our goals. It's so beautiful and what else do we need to know? And so, first off the bat is this shifting of focus. Jen, and you and I have already mentioned this, but just to highlight it one more time, it really is looking a lot at the spending aspect of our finances rather than the saving. Again, both will happen, but clearly we're looking a lot more at our spending decisions, the things that we're acquiring, where our money is going, and oftentimes that can feel more approachable than when we're just talking about, say, eaving. If we're using the words saving and we can't and we can't have and we need to restrict then it can feel like a chore versus becoming more what we can do, what we can have, what we can afford, How are we going to do that? I like how this article frames this that it becomes a much more inviting prospect, and it does feel that way of we're all spending money, so here's a method to become more engaged in that and align it more with your values and goals. Yeah. I think in frugality sometimes we're tricked into thinking that spending is bad and it's how can I spend less? How can I buy less? Which is yes, we invite that, especially when you are spending on a lot of different things that maybe you don't love. But I think what we want to reframe frugality to be is the emphasism how do I spend better? Spending is great, spending is neutral, So how do I just improve my spending instead of shaming yourself for spending on a plethora of different things that actually are neutral. They're not bad to spend on, even if somebody's trying to tell you that you shouldn't be spending money on them. The things itself are not bad, and so let's lift the shame off of what we're spending on and focus on how do we spend better. I can't be nodding harder right now. We are not recording video on this one. But I'm giving myself whiplash for how hard I'm nodding and everything you're saying. And it's a nodding yes, not a no, thank you, not shaking my head. I'm nodding it. Um. So the next is and I think all these are like mindset shifts. So if you make these mindset shifts, you'll have a much better time implementing kokebo um. So the second shift is that writing things down will help. So keeping cokebo was all about recording your spending. But when we do it we just plug numbers in on a spreadsheet, or we sign up for Mint and they just automatically plug transactions in. It takes away the core reason to record your transactions. Putting pen to paper is a fundamental part of this practice, and it's one of the reasons when people are like, what's your favorite budgeting app? And I still don't have one, because it just depends on where you're at on the journey. When you are very early in the journey, and I would say, everyone can benefit from this at some point, whether you you're just starting out or you've been doing it for a while, Like recording your transactions manually is essential to fit two, to discover and learn about your relationship. When with money it's essential. And so typically I would just recommend an app where you could um do things manually, or a budget spreadsheet where you could input things newly. But I love this concept of actual like physical pen to paper, because it forces you, like to slow down, like we're all so busy and so to go to the grocery store and have to pause like before you put the groceries in the car and write down the transaction and the amount and the category like I. And it's so it's not inconvenient, but it's not the most convenient, like it's not going it's not going out of the way to like seven different grocery stores to get the lowest price on everything. But it's also not just swiping your card and being totally disconnected from the bill like it's that it's that radical middle. Yes, the next thing that is worth noting about this method is that we're going to need to be honest about our musts and our wants. I like how the article describes that the Keybold method is about decluttering your finance is and we've described the simplicity and the elegance of that. So this definitely goes hand in hand with yes, decluttering our finances. And if if you followed all the other steps, then you know how much money is coming in, how much money is going out, and so now it's time to figure out what are you gonna do with the rest, assuming that there is a little bit of margin left over from the the essentials, where do I want that money to go? What are what are my muss what are my wants? And particularly in the category of wants, how do I make sure that the money is going to the most important of my wants and not frivolously getting spent who knows where and being left at the end of the month kind of disappointed in what we see. And so of course then it's going to inform what shifts need to be made so that the spending really can align with my true wants. Yeah, and I think this is are those questions, the monthly or bi monthly questions really come into play, because that question on how can I improve it tells you more. It allows you to think more about, Okay, what are the things that I value that maybe non essentials for somebody else but are essential for me, And what are my actual non essentials? Because you can want anything, but you probably don't want everything. That's very unlikely. Marketing definitely tells us we should want everything. But if you look at it over the course of months and years, and even the things you wanted like a year or two or three ago can and should be different than what you want now. And so it also gives you the time to reflect on, Okay, are the things that were like essential to me then deal essential to me now? The fourth is going to kind of hurt some of our hearts. It's gonna be uncomfortable for some of us. But it's that cash is better than card. And psychologically cash is better than card. Yes, for travel reward points and cash back cards love. But and I say this to people again, if you're very new to the journey, if you are just starting out, cash is almost essential. Like to just do at least a month, two months, three months with cash will really make a big difference in the speed to which you kind of get in control of your relationship with money. It will really speed it up after the first few months. I would say, once you've built a habit of mindfulness with your money, you can go back to card. It is a very for me, inconvenient way to live. I know a lot of others agree, so I do prefer card, but it is so easy swipe your card and you have no clue how much you just spent on your card. So yeah, tying that pen and paper recording with the cash really like going off the deep and intense method to like be a catalyst to getting your relationship with money kind of solidified. See now. For me, I agree and disagree. I think, on the one hand, it is a good practice and like you're saying, Jen, especially when just starting out. For me, I feel as though cash is not traceable, So oftentimes when I spend cash on it, it feels like I'm hardly spending because it's not going to show up in a paper statement. I'm not going to see it later. Like I am very aware of what I spent on the card because there's a record, there's a paper trail more than just my receipt, And I'll often spend cash when I wanted to feel like, oh this doesn't even count. There's no record, it's not traceable. So that and maybe that's just like a poor mindset I've adopted, but that's how it feels for me, like I'm using cash when like I don't even have to think about that purchase. Yeah, it is the first time I've heard somebody say that, but I'm sure you can't be alone. And I'm not going to judge anybody for not going to cash because I couldn't. I wouldn't, And I think with the recording, like with the pen and paper recording, it does add that mindfulness. So I think maybe you wouldn't, like wouldn't need to stay in cash as long as somebody who was using an app to track their budget it. So I really think it does add that relationship to the spending that a like a fintech app would not. So I'm not going to anyone for not doing the cash envelopes. Thanks. I appreciate you with holding your judgment from me. But the final thing on here to be aware of Number five is that you should finish the month by reflecting on your progress. And I so appreciate how this is coming full circle and it is congruent with mindfulness practices with the simplicity of it, but also the connectivity of it that we're not just setting goals and tracking our spending, we're also looking back and reflecting because oftentimes that's where the true understanding learning shifts happen is when we give ourselves space to reflect. So once we've set the month and we've done the month, this is crucial to then pause and reflect how did that go? What went well? What do I want to see go differently? Before we set what the next month is going to be, we've got to give ourselves that space and time to look back and learn from what just happened. Yeah, you know what else we can use to learn what has happened, look back and reflect before we move forward. We really should create a compilation of the bill the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Build buffalo bills bill CLI. This is the bill of the week. Hien and jail. My name is m and I'm calling from Quebec. Canada, and I wanted to submit my deal of the week. So my bill is my new heating and air conditioning device that has been installed last week. I've been working from home for the last two years and it was getting really hot in the summer, so I was looking forward for this home improvement, also knowing that it will be increasing the value of my house. The total bill was seven thousand dollars, so it was quite high, but after getting some information, I knew that I was a little bit eligible for different grants, so I will be getting back a little bit more than three thousand dollars on grants from the government, and I will also be saving about twenty dollars per month on my heating bill during the winter, so the system will be paid by itself quite quickly, and the value that it hads to my house, if I ever decide to so, it will be way more than what I paid for. So I'm really happy with that. Thank you, and I'm a nice day. Bye bye, amazing m Thank you so much for calling in from Quebec and sharing this amazing bill. It's so practical and that is such a massive household upgrade that can often be one of those things like, Oh, it's so much money to spend on something that you don't totally notice. Although heating and cooling is really essential, but it's not something we typically want to drop that amount of money on. But it sounds like you are planned ful and and we're able to spend the money but then also put in the time, energy and effort to do the research and apply for these grants. Getting money back is saving you for on this massive home upgrade. And then like you're saying, what it's to save you monthly? What the value add that it is to your home? What an amazing bill. I'm so happy for you that this is installed and working in your house. You're getting to enjoy it, and you just feel really good about this purchase you've made. Well done, Yeah, good job. I think it teaches everyone always check for rebates and grants um from your city and state before you make big home improvements, because there's always something like in Penelis you can get a free toilet for your house, Like everyone gets a free toilet, Like there's a very minimum standard you need to meet to get a free toilet, so like there's it's always worth looking for those grants, making us sounds so weird. We're just getting out toilets down here, We're out toilet foreveryone. We all get united about it, right. So yeah, if you want to submit your bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ill to leave us a bill. Maybe you've got a free toilet. We'd love to hear about it. And now it's time for you're round. So we are talking about spending intentionally, um, shifting our focus to how can I spend better? So we want to know. Inquiring minds want to know how do you feel about your intentionality towards your spending in this season? Because it is seasonal. Once you achieve intentional spending, it's not like you're there forever. It's definitely seasonal. And so let's be honest and transparent and vulnerable about our seasons. Jill, I's gonna say, so, do you want to go first? If you want to be honest? All right, So I am feeling really great. Actually, you caught me in a good season, and you know, I'll be honest with you. There's times when I am not crushing it, but right now it feels really great. And and I'll tell you why I have been doing a ton of cooking at home and making meal plans, and it has been going so well. Now. Part of that is because we are on a four week stretch where we have no travel plans and no guests. That has not happened in the last two years at least, where we haven't had guests or travel plans for that amount of time. So part of it is my ability to really get into a rhythm and be at home and cook for us. And so that is one of the discretionary categories, discretionary spending categories that can get out of hand for us. So me being on top of it has Yeah, it's been intentional, and it has also really saved us a lot of money over these last few weeks, which has allowed us to then put some some additional money towards the renovations that pipe. The way, you might be able to hear in the background if you hear any power tools, it's happening. No, it's fine, renovations are happening. Have you been listening to this for a long time. You can celebrate with me. I'm not going to hinder that progress because I need I need that kitchen in some real ways. So I'm feeling like really really great about it. I continue to not only do I keep a pen and paper account of all of my transactions, I also back in June, I made a new spreadsheet that I am so stoked about. It's a more complicated spreadsheet, but it gets my finances to a more detailed measure that is really cool for me and has a few more categories of sinking funds. That has been helpful for me because I'm realizing I've got a couple of things that I want to be saving for that I just wasn't doing when I didn't have it allocated to different sinking funds. So I've done a couple of these, like minor shifts recently that have really brought my budget my finances together in in a nice way. And I appreciate what you're saying there. Gen of for this season, I don't think I'm going to need to have such a tight hold on the money in and out in you know, a year from now. But because we're going so hard at renovations and cash flowing them, I'm trying to be really mindful, really intentional in some of these different areas. And these are the things that have helped so right now, I feel great. I feel on top of the world with it. What about you, Well, I wanted you to go first because mine is a bit of the opposite. So and it's not so like it's I've been intentional. So it hasn't been like negative spending, but it has been increased spending. So it has been this like interesting dichotomy. I don't know if that's the right word. But we are recording this at the end of summer, and so I have allowed myself this summer kind of to be freer with my time. This is a slower season in the personal finance world. Nobody not as many people care about their money over the summer after summer vacation. Yeah. So, so it's been light and I've been allowing myself to rest, and allowing myself to rest has meant um going out with friends a little bit more. So I have been spending more. And also July was the first month that we paid a mortgage on the new house, so now we have two mortgages instead of one, and we still have not We've only rented out one of the two rental you know areas. So this month will involve a tightening just because a we need to focus on renovating the rental half of our house, and uh be because we have we have saved and so that money is not coming The money for that mortgage is not coming out of our month to month it's coming out of our savings. But it's still something that I want to be mindful of. And we're entering back into our quote unquote busier season, and so I will allow myself to say no more to going out and finding alternatives for things that, you know, activities that I would normally spend money on, and kind of suggesting alternative activities. But yeah, I did give my myself space to rest and spend over the summer, and now heading into fall being a lot more aware, and so I think I'm going to be trying this cokibo for the fall. I have not personally like tried it, and just learning about it for this episode has made me like think, Okay, I actually really need this, because even though I am frugal and I care about my money, some seasons just get you out of your groove. Maybe not even a bad way, but they just get you out of your groove and it's time to reset and rethink heading into the next season, like what is essential for me, what is not essential, etcetera, etcetera. Well, I think in all of it, what I am hearing you say is there there are degrees of intentionality. Maybe you're the rain. How tightly the rains are on your spending might have shifted, but you have given yourself that space intentionally to spend this summer. So it doesn't sound like it's lacking intentionality. It just might be lacking the amount of boundaries that you are going to be putting around it in the fall because of the different goals. So yeah, each season requires different boundaries and maybe a tighter grip or a looser grip on our finances. Yeah, I did. I went out to branch with friends two days in a row, and after the second one, I turned to my friend I was like, we can't do this every day. I love that story. I was like, great, You're like two days in a row. It was great and fun, but I was like, we gotta get this together. I gotta get it together. Oh I love it so much. Yeah, So well, yeah, there it is there. Just thanks so much for listening, guys. Yeah, so a lot of you already know. We have a private community where we do monthly money challenges. We have accountability groups where people are able to connect with others and chat even more about these kind of financial topics, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. Wendy. This really resonated with me. Wendy shared bought some chicken. Yeah you did, Wendy, She said, I was catching up on the latest episode about saving money on groceries and I was inspired to stop at Walmart and get a rotisserie chicken. Cost me seven dollars. They had shredded chicken packaged already, so I picked up that too, cost me a bit more, but got me quick chicken salad sandwich. Thanks Jen and Jill. Heck yeah, Wendy. I don't know if you meant for this to be like a win or a celebratory share, but I am counting it as a win, and I'm celebrating with you for the chicken and the way that you save money with that rotisserie chicken and the shredded chicken and then turning that into another meal of a chicken salad sandwich. Just crushing it, Wendy. Amen, congrats, Wendy, you are crushing it with your ways you're saving money. So I mean, amen on chicken, give me some roseistrie chicken. I actually bought pre made chicken salad, so I want to step further in being lazy and just didn't. I was like, I could have bought the shredded chicken. I was like, Mmm, I don't think I have time this week to even make chicken salad. I'm just gonna buy the chicken salad. But either way, it's going to keep me from eating out. Whenever I eat it, it's gonna be cheaper than that's still less expensive, still less expensive. Well, thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club. See what challenge we have coming up next, See what chicken we're eating, See what what we're celebrating, all the things. Yeah, get into the Chicken channel and just share your chicken with us. We'll see you next time. Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Yes, So what I have been doing lately is grocery shopping every other week. I have so hit a stride that I can go to the grocery store and make that last for two whole weeks. Good for you with your two person household from partting you, thank you. Hey, we all have different barriers. That one was a big one for me, so feeling like, oh man, and I know this isn't going to be forever and always, but for right now, it feels like an accomplishment. What do what do you? Runners? Call it a personal personal record for the best p b PR. Yeah, it's feeling that way for me becoming a masticated woman. Yeah. I ate food that I made it home last night and then eight leftovers for lunch today. I love that. What are you doing for dinner tonight? I don't know you're coming over so um, not for dinner but later. So it's got to be something that like can be quick. I mean you can come over for dinner, that's fine, you can, we can bring food. There's only two of you, so yeah, I don't I have a meal plan and I just don't remember what's on it. All right, Well, enjoy dinner, end up eating, goodbye bye,

Frugal Friends Podcast

Controlling your spending is hard to do. On every episode of Frugal Friends, we'll try to help you gโ€ฆ 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 498 clip(s)