2026 Frugality Reset: Fix Your Spending in 30 Days

Some of the best lessons don't come from a classroom. They come from experience. On The Power of Advice, a new podcast series from Capital Group, you'll hear from CEOs, investors, and founders about how they built careers, took risks, and reinvented themselves. If you're starting your own journey, this is the kind of advice you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group Inc. Frugality Reset fix your spending in 30 days. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a rich life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill. Welcome Frugal Friends. I'm Jen. I'm Jill. And if you've been trying to reach your goals, but spending has been just put in a block, you make these really good goals. You make this really good budget. You've got debt payoff and investing all on there. And then you get down to spending money and it's just not working. This is for you. This is the reset you need. We're not talking about a no buy year. We're not talking about deprivation. A realistic frugality reset can start today and that's what we're going to be walking you through. You don't need a higher income. You don't need extreme budgeting. You don't need to give up everything you love. We're going to kind of walk you through our five step process that you can do and truly experience a total reset of your money. And don't get us wrong. We love a good no spend challenge, no spend month. We have a great episode on that that we'll link to, but you don't always need that. That's not always what you need. Sometimes you need something a little bit different and we think this is that different. So we've got a five step frugality reset that's really going to focus in on your spending. It's something you can do while you do a no spend challenge, but it's also something you can do if you don't feel like you're ready for one or you just don't see a 30 day window coming up where this might be appropriate. A no spend challenge might be appropriate for you. If you're mainly just here for motivation, you just know you need to get back on the wagon. Step four is for you and most people do skip it. Yeah. So let us get started with our first step, which is an awareness reset. And so for this, we want you to do a little mini transaction inventory, a 30 day transaction inventory. We're doing a mini because we're hoping that you're doing a full transaction inventory once or twice a year. And so this is for a reset. And when we say like if you feel like you need a reset, I think a lot of people are going to need a lot of resets. This is not a one and done thing. Motivation is fleeting. I think our idea of our own capabilities and our own success can be skewed. We might be making some progress, but feel like life, we're taking like two steps forward, two steps back, one step back. That can really skew our perception. And so this is really a perception reset for us. Something that you can do anytime you feel like you're falling off the wagon or you have fallen off. So a 30 day spending on it, just a little mini, a little mini 90 day transaction. Meaning you're looking back at the last 30 days of spending. You're not inventorying for 30 days, just making that clarification. So as you look back at everything that you spent money on in the last 30 days, we want to be looking for the leaks. Where is money just kind of seeping out without us totally being aware of it? And some common leaks could include convenience. Where am I spending just because I'm tired and this is convenient. Identity spending. Am I able to see that any of these transactions might have more to do with me and wanting to feel a sense of belonging or wanting this purchase to define me a little more versus the thing itself and emotional spending. There could be other leaks for you. These are just some really common ones that, oh, when I'm really happy or I'm really sad. Yeah, I do this. When I'm looking for an esteem boost, I do this when I just want convenience. So you identify what your leak is, but that is one of the main things we're looking for as we're looking back at that 30 days. And I think the main thing that we always tell people to think about when you're doing a 90 day transaction Tory or a 30 day mini is this is a data fact finding mission. We're not doing this to feel guilty or feel shame. We're not going into it like scared because you don't know what's, you know, what's going to be there. Right. There can be a little bit of that, but we want you to do it scared and we don't want you to judge yourself or shame yourself while you're doing it. We are simply fact finders on a mission to find data. And that data happens to be our own spending habits. But we put that aside because we just really need to know the numbers. We really need to know where have we been spending to try to buy an identity that is not ours? Where have we been spending for convenience where we can get creative? Those are the things we need to find. We're never going to figure those things out if we're too scared to look back at our own spending. So that is super important. We hate the term, I'm so bad with money. That's a cop out. We don't believe that that's true. We believe that we're on autopilot and we need to figure out where and fix that. And even if you do feel bad with money, it's a skill. We can build that skill. Yeah, I was bad at riding a bike before I learned how to ride a bike, but I was able to learn that skill. So same thing here. Let's get that out of our language and start to find ways to build the muscle of being really good with money. I do love that where it's not I'm bad with money or I was bad last month. It's I was on autopilot. I am on autopilot with my money. I think if we can change our mindset on that, it makes this awareness reset a lot more approachable. And honestly, anything we do with our money can become more approachable just by tweaking. When I say to myself, I'm so bad with money or I'm so bad at this. I don't like it. I'm on autopilot and I need to like regroup and get back into awareness. Okay, step two is an environment reset. Now, we believe that we don't need more willpower. We need more boundaries. And that's something that we can implement for ourselves. We love simplicity. We think that it is the way forward in most things of life, especially with money. We don't think that to be good with money, it takes a just grin and bear it, knuckle down, deprive yourself. No, it means set up some good and reasonable boundaries for you to play with in. That's our view of things. So we're not just talking about physical environment. We're also talking about digital environment. Probably more. 100%. Because we're buying things digitally. That is where we are in full spending for many of us. So this is going to include unsubscribing from marketing emails. So going through your entire inbox and looking at how many brands are you subscribed to, click that unsubscribe button. Pretty quick, pretty simple. Something else, if you don't want to fully unsubscribe, which, because I know I'm trying to find, there are some things that I like to buy throughout the year and want to make sure I'm buying when it's on sale. I will do unroll.me. And I've talked about, for the entirety of the podcast, eight years, unroll.me. It's free and it'll roll up all of your subscription emails into one email. And you choose whether you open that email or not. So that is another solution. But also, it's good to just unsubscribe from something. And then when you think you're going to need to buy it, resubscribe. Usually you can get an extra bonus discount or something when you're resubscribing. Of course, if you're getting text messages, you just reply, stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Don't text me no more. Forget this number. You a toxic ass. Stop. Remove saved cards. So if you've got platforms that you are shopping at regularly, Amazon, remove that card. You are going to have so much more friction to some of those impulse purchases if every time you've got to pull your card out. This isn't going to help the people who have their card memorized. You are on another level and think about... We're spanked, I mean. I don't know. Also, that may involve getting a different phone case. If your cards are all right in your phone and you take out your saved cards, but the cards are just right there, you might need a different phone case. So something to think about. Move money to a harder to access place. We love a high yield savings account. You heard us talk about it. Our favorite is the one at CIT. They historically have the highest APY, frugalfriendspodcast.com, slash CIT. That is where I keep my money and when we are putting money away to savings, that is earning a decent degree of interest, at least to keep up with inflation. Not only is that good for us, good for our emergency fund, but we are less likely then to dip into the money or see, oh, I've got a ton of money in my checking account. Yeah, sure, I can buy this thing. No, it's popped over to a savings account and so it's harder to... I've got to go in, I've got to move the money. Again, wherever we can kind of create some of this friction, that's going to help with some of this reset for the impulse spending, the emotional spending, the convenience spending that's happening. Also, if you don't have a... If you have more than $5,000, so maybe it's your emergency fund or a sinking fund, CIT is doing an APY boost on their Platinum Savings Account. So that's frugalfriendspodcast.com, slash platinum. It's going to be 4.1% APY and it should be some... As of this recording. As of this recording, it's for six months and I believe it goes through the offer ends April 13th from what I have in my email. So check that out if you have more than $5,000. Another physical environment that you can rearrange, reset is in your kitchen. So making sure that your pantry items, the items in your fridge and freezer are visible and accessible. I think so often our grocery spending can creep up because we just don't know what we have on hand. We forget about things or we're not implementing some creativity and figuring out how do we use up what we already have on hand. So part of this reset, if that's a big one for you, if one of your biggest leaks is food spending, then during this reset, you might want to consider doing a pantry challenge, whether you want to do it for a week or a full month. It depends on how much you have on hand, but really that means eating meals that are already on hand. So very minimal purchasing from the grocery store, if at all. For many of us, we can make full meals out of just what we already have on hand. If we've got the pantry staples already, we've got some rice and beans and pastas and sauces. And then in the freezer, we've got some meat in the fridge or even veggies. Figure out what you can make with it before you go to the grocery store. Yeah, that is what I'm doing right now as we are recording this in February. Actually, I just put a note, like a couple things in my notes app. You guys know I have a note just for lists of breakfast, snacks, chicken dishes, and other meat dishes. And I just added a few things to that list just based on what was in my fridge and mostly my freezer. Because I have these chicken meatballs. So I'm like, okay, I'm just going to get, and I have marinara. So I'm just going to get some hot dog buns to do chicken meatball subs. I have like pre-made chicken tikka masala that I had gotten in bulk from Costco that I still have left. So I make some rice to go with that. I have some brats, I have some chicken nuggets. So like I have these things in my freezer that have been there for a little while. And I'm starting to write them down so that I can use them. And usually my goal is literally to have 90% of everything already on hand and only have to buy one thing from the grocery store. So for the meatball subs, I'll only buy hot dog buns. Shrimp tacos, I will only buy cabbage, like a cabbage slaw. So stuff like that. Keep the notes in your phone on hand. I've also noticed too sometimes, like if your thing is decor, or you just like to buy things for that emotional boost, that dopamine hit. Before doing that, do a little rearrange of your space. Like rearrange your living room or your bedroom or use what you already have on hand to decorate a certain spot in your home. That could give you the release that you're looking for without needing to spend any money. So a lot of this is just implementing the creativity, but before we pull out the credit card and spend the money. Yeah. And just remember another mindset like thing to keep in mind. Boundaries are better than more willpower. You don't need to do another 75 hard or these social media challenges to like build your willpower or like just like buck up. Yes, you in the end, you have the power to decide whether you are going to do something that gets you closer to your goal, keeps you where you are or sets you back. Most of the time you have that choice. But if you can set up your environment to support the more logical choice, the better choice, then it's then that's what we should be doing. Make the better choice easier. Why do we like to make it so complex and hard for ourselves? We think we're better because we make the right decision amidst chaos. No, that just makes us tired or more exhausted. Set ourselves up to make the better decision easier and that's what an environment is. Because we are going to go with the path of least resistance. Always. It's just a cognitive bias that we are drawn to. So make it simpler for yourself. Play into your biases instead of against them. For most of us, tax season is the time of year that forces us to actually look at our full financial picture. 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Honestly, one of the best things we can do for our wallets and our health is cook more at home. There's just nothing like it. That's easier said than done, which is why we love Hello Fresh. It makes it simple to eat at home even on a busy weeknight. Plus, they offer over 100 recipe options every week with portions big enough to actually satisfy everyone. And here's what actually happens. You get options that fit your goals. There are more than 35 high protein recipes each week, plus Mediterranean-inspired dishes. The ingredients are wholesome too, like sustainably sourced seafood and 100% antibiotic and hormone-free chicken. The quality is so noticeable. There's now three times the seafood with no upcharge, and you can get grass-fed steak rib-eyes. Plus, seasonal produce like pears, apples, and asparagus. We've used Hello Fresh and think everyone should give it a try, especially those who struggle to eat at home more. Go to HelloFresh.com.frugl10fm to get 10 free meals plus a freeze-willing knife. $144.99 value on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. All right. Next step. And you can do these weekly, but you can also do them like day to day, so it can be a full 30 days. But it could also probably just like be a week. It's up to you. But next is a big expense reset. I think so often we get stuck looking at the $1 to $5 range of savings, or $1 to $50, right? Like we're stuck on these really small things. Like how can I stop myself from buying the $6 latte? In the end, that's $6. Like $6 ain't nothing, but I think we're a big source of our like what sets us back and keeps us feeling like we're not saving is our big expenses. And we call them the big three. So it is housing, transportation, and food. So we cannot always change these things, but it is good to look on them and inspect them periodically. So we make sure that they are aligned with their values. If, see if there's any way we can get creative with them, etc, etc. There's also a sneaky fourth big expense, which is medical and insurance. Insurance in general. Yeah, but I would medical for sure. Yeah, absolutely insurance in general. And we do believe that it is worth paying for it. Both you and I have life insurance. Thankfully, because of our age and our health, we're able to get that really inexpensively. And there's more and more companies that allow you to do that inexpensively. But when it comes to medical care and medical insurance, this can be the biggest, not just leak, just absolute drain for so many of us. And this isn't going to be the option for everybody, but it could be worth considering a medical sharing plan rather than pay. If you are a person who's kind of paying out of pocket for your health insurance premiums, this could be a good alternative. If you are, if you're not managing kind of a chronic health situation, if you don't anticipate having a lot of medical needs in the upcoming year, this could be a great option for you. It's something you and I both use. And, and it does allow us to save a significant amount on medical insurance costs. And there are different options. Like what we use is not insurance. So again, it's not going to be right for everyone, but we have used it on hospital stays and doctors visits, and it does work. So I personally use Liberty Health Share. I used it for a full pregnancy and emergency medical care in an ER in a hospital. And it paid what it said it would pay both times. And it was so easy to use. You have one that's a little different. Yeah, I have one through Zion and you pay per medical event a certain deductible amount alongside a very low cost monthly payment. And that's been a great option for me. We also know of an option that is both a medical sharing plan, but also qualifies as a high deductible plan, allowing you to save in an HSA. So I'll link to that in the show notes if that's of interest to you, if you're like, oh, but I don't want to lose out on having an HSA. Those options like are starting to exist. And so the ones that we use have like, like religious, you know, not mine actually. But there's also Crowd Health, which is a supporter of the show. And that is a totally neutral like crowd health sharing platform. So bunch of options. You got a bunch of options. Yeah, that was a little bit of a side tangent. But when you're resetting these big expenses, that's worth looking at. That's going to be the easiest. What are the alternatives? If you're like, I am spending $600 a month and I'm never using it. That might be something to look into. Along with other things, we're not saying sell everything and just, you know, live off the grid. Like that's not what we're saying, but it is worth reassessing. Is it worth me spending this much for my car payment? Is this amount of house still working for me? Is this the rent that I am happy spending or am I able to find something a little bit less expensive? Are all of these kind of bigger expenses aligned with my goals? Am I more so paying for convenience or is it aligning with my values? Is my car payment blocking my ability to invest in retirement? That's one we should all be asking. Honestly, car payments are getting so ridiculous. And we're not like anti-car loan either. But like we personally will only have one, we have two cars. We've decided that's what we need as a family of four, but we're only going to have one car payment. So Travis is out there talking about different cars and I was like, well, you got to wait until the van is paid off before you can get another car. And then we switched. So we're taking those good car buying actions when we are buying a car, doing three to four years use, looking for at carcomplaints.com. So we get a reliable make and model. We're doing all the right things. And then we're also trying to be smart about how we take out car loans too. Asking these sorts of questions, I would say has been the biggest catalyst, the biggest driver. The thing that I can point to and say that was it to anything successful that has happened for us financially is questioning these larger expenses. It is what led us to be a one car family because that works for us right now. We don't have kids and we both work from home, so we're able to make one car work. It's what led us to live in a motor home for a time. That was not meant to be long term and it wasn't long term. But for the amount of time that we were able to do it, I was able to cash flow my master's degree. I was able to save up a down payment to be able to purchase a house. It just catapulted us being able to save money on these biggest expenses. And it's ultimately what led us to sell the house that we had bought from the proceeds of selling the motor home before that. And at each step, just kind of, we are not high income earners. We are not independently wealthy. We do not have inheritances. And so for those of you who are like that, this is what you've got to do. You've got to question these things. Making one decision that can lower your housing cost, your car cost, your insurance costs can take a weight off of your shoulders. If you feel like you are carrying a heavy, heavy weight, this could be something that really makes an impact in that frugality reset. And I hear you. I hear you on the other side of this camera, on the other side of the microphone being like, well, I live 30 minutes away from everything and the houses are too expensive now. And I have chronic health care. I hear all of your excuses. It doesn't absolve you from doing this check every, at least once a year. Okay. And just thinking, saying, I could get creative here. It wouldn't be easy. I wouldn't like it. I wouldn't want to. But I could get creative here. How long could I do it? And just playing around with the idea. It doesn't mean that you'd have to make those decisions. Right. Like there are some very valid reasons and barriers to being able to do some of those things and respect that. But it's worth just seeing. What if I just toyed around with this idea? And again, we're not here for deprivation either. Like living in a motor home was fun for us. So that wasn't, that wasn't, oh no, you have to live in a vehicle now. Yeah. I just feel like you're the queen of this. Like you have made your life work on like very low income at times. Very low income. Very low, but very rich because you have questioned some of these norms. Yeah. So, yeah. So try it out. See what sticks. Okay. Number four is you were all waiting for it. A motivation reset. Again, that might be why a lot of you are here. It's just, I just need someone to light a little bit of a fire. It doesn't even need to be a whole fire. It's just like a little tea candle. Yeah. I need a little tea candle. I fell off the wagon and I need somebody to lend a hand out. Yeah. Pull me along on that wagon along the Oregon trail before I die of whatever people die of in the Oregon trail. Dysentery. Dysentery. Before I die of dysentery. I was going to say dystopia. Say. Eventually. That's what we're dying of now. This is Oregon Trail 2.0. So here's the thing and we get you. I also need a tea candle, but we need it every single day. Motivation, like willpower can be so fleeting. And that's why I have this struggle with chasing after motivation. It does serve a purpose. I'm not throwing it out the window. I just think it can be tough if we're solely relying on motivation, which is partly why we want to make things as simple as possible, as routine as possible, as low barrier to entry as possible. And some of the action that can more so build momentum is more what we need over motivation. Yeah. I think one of the biggest lies that we are told, not just in social media, but in books, traditional media everywhere, is that motivation requires more action. And so much of it is actually distraction from reaching your actual goal, which is motivation. So we are just living our lives every day. Sustainability is so, so important. So it's really important to know the difference between motivation that works and motivation that will go viral on social media. So motivation should not make you feel guilty for not acting. So a little, a little guilt is healthy. It lets us know that we're maybe not on the path we want to be on, but it's not motivation. A guilt and motivation, not the same. It should not make you feel shame. So this tough love is not what we are after. It's short term and it is more detrimental in the long run. So people who like, who are like, like to be yelled at and be called stupid for doing the wrong thing, they're like, oh, it works. It's not healthy. It is not healthy in the long run. And it's not actually motivation. It's shame. It's, it's shame based distraction. Which isn't sustainable. Then you're requiring something external to be shaming you to keep coming. Right. And then also it should not keep you in the same place that you started. So what I mean by that is I got, so I got off social media for a couple months last year and I had a, I had a really good, healthy time in my life. And then I got back on for like the last three months of the year. And I'm, I'm back off now because I saw myself like getting too into it. And now with perspective on how the summer went versus the fall winter, I realized that I was consuming all this like really positive content on social media. But I made way more action over the summer than I did in the fall. Whoa. The thing was, is I was taking action in the summer and I was watching action, watching motivated, like motivational content in the fall. Whoa. So motivation does not come through following all these motivational accounts and all these inspirational accounts on social media. It comes through acting. So get off social media and start going. Yeah. Motivation though should on the flip side connect you back to the reason that you are pursuing this goal, whatever it is, the reason why you started paying off debt or saving for retirement or building up your emergency fund, whatever it is that you want to be seeing with this reset, that, that's what should be motivating us kind of that, that deeper reason for why we're doing it. It should also connect you with the future that you're building. Again, it's not just about debt pay off. What will debt pay off get you? What will investing for retirement get you? What are you envisioning for yourself and not somebody else's vision? Your own. What can I actually see happening for me and my family? And what, what about that vision really propels me into this momentum? And it's going to result in action. So, so finding the things that keep you engaged help to make it sustainable. I'm curious for you, Jen, like when was a time that you feel like you've, you've, because again, it's such a tricky thing to identify motivation. What is it? How do we get it? So when was a time when you kind of like fell off track and then got back on? I think other, I think other than getting off social media, like noticing that I was staying stagnant and being like, what has changed since the time where I felt like I was doing really good and then just getting off social media. I think also listening to podcasts when I was trying to pay off debt, listening to financial podcasts daily is what kept me motivated. And when we had our mega survey, when we asked you guys why you listened to Frugal Friends, that was the main takeaway from all of you. And for, yes, some of like the tips and stuff, but mostly just to stay motivated. Like, you know the stuff and you need to be told in different ways for different scenarios just to keep you going. So that I think is, is powerful. Yeah. I know for me what can often happen where I can lose gusto is in the kitchen with cooking and something that typically helps. Typically helps me to build that momentum back up again and gain some of that motivation is reinvigorating it with something a little fun. So maybe I get a meal delivery kit. I know we talk about Hello Fresh a lot. It is something we utilize occasionally, not all the time, but in one of those slumps. Yeah, I'm going to get a meal kit delivery or I'm going to go to a grocery store. I don't often shop at. For me, Trader Joe's is that like it's more expensive. So I am going to put boundaries around how much I spend, but it's going to allow me to kind of do mix it up a little bit. And that I feel like is the ultimate difference between shame based motivation and like future thinking and your why behind what you're doing kind of motivation. Because shame based motivation would say you shouldn't have gotten that meal kit delivery. You should just get back in the kitchen and just start chopping onions. The guy that commented on one of our YouTube videos, he was like, there's something called a grocery store and there's something in your house called an oven. Learn to use them. And you know what I said? There's something called tact. Learn to use it. That did happen. Reeling it back in. For some of us, it's just it's been years and years and years and years and we just need to reinvigorate ourselves. And so my version of motivation is, yeah, this isn't the least expensive that I can get it. But my ultimate goal is to keep going on the train of cooking at home. This is going to reinvigorate that. So done. So those are the kinds of things that we can consider for ourselves. We're not always looking for what's at the very bottom and the lowest cheapest thing ever. We're looking for sustainability. We're looking for not shame based action. Yes. All right. Step five, last step, real short one. Glow up, not down. And we love this one. I do love this one. Because we hate that frugality is associated with deprivation. Frugality used to be associated with wisdom and creativity and you were lauded for how frugal you could be because you were getting this full life without spending a lot of money. That's what frugality used to be. And we are reclaiming that frugality is a glow up, not a glow down. So this is how we're doing it. Instead of taking something away, which is what frugality and even you watching or listening to this may be associating frugality with instead of taking something away. We want you to add something. So we're adding one income lever, maybe a side hustle or some, you know, overtime, whatever, something, one automation. So a auto save to your high yield savings account or auto save to your 401k, 457, whatever, one automation to set up your environment to succeed. And one friction, maybe we're adding one of those frictions like taking your cards out of your of your computer. This is called a computer or phone to reduce impulse spending. Or maybe you're adding one little luxury that's free, like having a cup of coffee in a cute little mug in the afternoon and and just sitting there and ignoring your children as they are like running around. You and not worrying about how like stupid the house is going to look when they're done. If you're going to call something stupid, don't call yourself stupid. Call the toys on the floor. I was so scared. I know where you're going to. I know where you thought I was going and it's not there. It's more of just, you know, the stupid house dirty. This house is and I just cleaned it this morning. Go there. I'm going to encourage you to take it as a little challenge, not you, Jen, although you could. You all my other friends who aren't shaming their children. I don't. 100% do not do that ever. Not even when I want to. Finding as many free little luxuries as possible. That's just fun. That's just a fun reset. I do. And you know what? I want you all to love it too. And if you've got one, let's make this YouTube comment section like its own Reddit thread of the most enjoyable little free luxuries because we all need ideas and we need to collect them all and we need so many of them throughout the day. Here's the thing. We have our own subreddit and honestly, we don't want one. We want it to be right here. This is our little, this is our YouTube little subreddit. Leave us your comments and also give me ideas on how to clap back at root. Also take a guess at when Jen is the one commenting on YouTube videos and when I'm the one commenting on YouTube videos. That's very fun. Sometimes we trade off. No, no, no, no. Yeah. No, for sure. If there's a mean one, it was me who commented. I mean, really, we don't get many mean commenters. We don't. So that's great. You just leave them all for me. You guys are all awesome. You know what else is awesome and we love these types of comments. And you leave them all for me and I share them with you. The Bill of the Week! It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the Bill of the Week. Hi Jen. Hi, Jill. My name is Meg. I live in the suburbs of Chicago and I am calling about a bill that I was happy to pay and that I am also happy to no longer pay. So in December of last year, we welcomed our third and grand finale baby, Michael. We are very glad that he was here, but as we all know, babies are expensive. So we opted to pay some of our medical bills up front in lump sums, but we then opted to pay the remaining using the healthcare system's interest free payment plans. So spacing out the payments over the course of December until October now. We have finally paid off the last bill and we are happy to no longer pay that. What we're going to try to do though, now that we're accustomed to that money already going out the door, is just roll that extra money into making additional car payments for the minivan that we purchased to accommodate three children. So we're glad to not have to pay the medical bills. Glad that Michael is here and it'll be fun to hopefully pay down the car sooner rather than later. Thanks so much. Bye. Wooo! Meg, woo! Bless. Bless. Bless. Bless. Another good thing you could do with that money, if your car payment is like under 5% if it's over, you know, don't listen to me, but putting that money into an IRA or a 529 is great because 529s now, if your child doesn't use them for school, they can be rolled over into a Roth IRA because the, unless you deduct, which I don't think you can deduct from a 529, I'm going to have to revisit the college planning section of our course, but if there are after tax contributions to the 529, which it usually is, then you can roll it into a Roth IRA for the child with like just no tax implications. But if you're not already maxing out your Roth or traditional IRA, then that would be a really good way to save too. Because then your kids won't have to worry about taking care of you and paying for all of your stuff when you're old, which will be a gift to them in their, in the busiest time of their life. Yeah. Well done, Meg. So thrilled for you that you've got a third healthy child that that medical bill is all done with and that you've got some really good intentional ideas about what to do with that money going forward. We are just cheering you on and if you all are listening and you just want to be cheered on, you just need someone in your corner to shout out your name and tell you you're doing a good job. Meg, you're doing a good job. Tie it in with a bill somehow, some way. We're going to listen to it. We're going to respond to it. We're going to love it. We can't wait for it. For both friends, podgas.com slash bill. These days, I'm all about quality over quantity, especially in my closet. If it's not well made and versatile, it's not worth it. That's why I love quints. They make high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk and organic cotton poplin. 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Facebook has been a little painful because that's taken marketplace off my phone. I don't need to be shopping on my phone like that. I can do it on my laptop if I really need it. So the apps are gone. They're gone on my iPad as well. I am logged into the frugal friends Instagram on my phone. So if I do need to see like a business or something only has Instagram, I can still see it. But all of our Instagram like it's all kind of like business related. So I'm not going to get sucked into anything if it pops me back to the home page. Yeah, our frugal friends algo is like. Yeah. And we also don't handle the Instagram for frugal friends. That's Misty. Shout out Misty who does all of that. And really I'm actually bad at getting videos to her so that she can do her job. And that's my problem. But yeah, so I'm just totally off and I don't want to be scrolling people because I was watching these like YouTubers. And I was like, oh, I wonder what they're like in real life. And like I'm going to Instagram to like check out their real life. And I'm like, oh my gosh, why am I doing this? What impact does it have on me? What these strangers who I'll never meet are like in real life. And I'm just like, I don't need to be doing this. I don't need to be doing things. Take up space with that. That take up space. And now I have more time to do the things that I didn't have time for before. Yeah. So that has really been how I'm resetting 2026. And it's been necessary for me. I love that. It's been necessary. Yeah. So helpful on so many levels. For me, I'm trimming subscriptions and getting back into a routine of meal planning, not back in just a greater focus. Like sometimes a reset isn't a total 180. It's just kind of a real lining. And that's what it feels like for me. So right now it's every Sunday is me meal planning and grocery shopping when it works out for me on that week. But yeah, it has been going pretty decent the last couple of weeks. Yeah. We would love to know how you are resetting if you got anything out of this episode. Please let us know in the comments on the YouTube video. And thank you for listening. We love reading your comments. If they're nice. We also love reading them if they're not nice. Jen actually loves to respond to the mean ones. Honestly, I think it gives her a little bit of joy. I don't troll in my real life. And this is the way I control online. I don't troll unprovoked. Also, if you've read our book by what you love about going broke, thank you for reading that and leaving these really kind reviews on Amazon like this one from Maeve. Happens to be five stars. I love their podcast. So I had to read their book. Great information. And I love that they both read the audio book too. I love you. You know what? Short and sweet, simple. We love that. Pathology resistance. You want to leave us a review and you don't want it to take up hardly any of your time. Make it simple. We love that. Leave us a comment. Subscribe. These are very quick things that really help us. It'll keep us around longer. So thank you. It will. And help the message spread further and wider to more people who may leave negative comments and may feel my wrath one day. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani. We've talked in the past about reading off our like negative reviews. Oh, our one star review. Yeah. Who, girl? Now we've got a whole other platform for people leaving negative comments. We should someday. Yeah. Maybe for our 700th episode. Yeah. Maybe for our 700th episode we will. Spoiler our 600th episodes next week. So do the math. Woo! Another opportunity for me to. Woo! Woo! Yeah. I don't like to be mean to people. I like people to know that what they have said and the way they have said it is unexplored. You like to clap back. That is what I truly. If that is the definition of clapping back. It sure is. Then I'll be back clapping. Yeah, back clapping. Ew, I didn't like that. I don't like how that sounds or makes me feel we're ending now. Shhh. Enjoy your roomy seat as we get you to your destination in pure peace and quiet. Plan your relaxed ride in the quiet car at Amtrak.com. Amtrak. Retrain, travel.