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Welcome, Frugal Friends. I'm Jen. I'm Jill. And one of our ethos here is quality over quantity. But even after, I mean, six, seven, eight months a year, of really digging into research and trying to be an informed consumer, trying to buy quality, I have been let down time and time again by these products I have been buying, both new and used. And so I really wanted to dig into what are the root causes of why is everything getting such poor quality or am I crazy? Is it just I'm now expecting too much? Whoever thought that we'd be, they don't make it like they used to, but truly it's really starting to feel like that. It does kind of seem like every generation starts to say that, but truly here we are. What's a frugal girlie to do when everything's like synthetic and plastic and itchy and gross and breaks? So today's a deep dive into why are we crazy? Like, is this a perception problem or is it true? Is why is everything poor quality and what can we do about it? So the first question usually is like, is quality declining? I'm like getting to a point of not even wanting to shop anymore and it's not because prices are so expensive. It's because prices are so expensive, but quality is absolutely garbage. I went to the store yesterday and I found these two lamps that I really liked. I've been looking for lamps for like two or three years for my bedroom. OK, I cannot find lamps. I end up finding these two lamps that I absolutely love. So I take them home and I'm like, perfect, like finally solves my lamp issue. I'm setting them up and putting them together and obscuring the lamp shade into the bottom base part and I hear crack, like crack, whatever. It snapped. What do you mean it snapped? So I'm looking at the lamp, the piece that snapped was made of plastic. I'm like, this is so weird. This has never happened to me before. Like I've put lamps together. I have other lamps in the house and other places that I bought a while ago. The piece that snapped is made of plastic. In every other lamp that I had, the piece was made of metal. So not only did I walk into the store and pay $90 per lamp, but now the $90 lamp that used to be $30 is now made of plastic instead of metal. Again, you see this with literally everything. Like I bought this set from Target. OK, a few weeks ago, I've worn it once. I've washed it once. It's already pilling. It's pilling everywhere because it's garbage quality. And it costs like almost $50. Like I'm starting to get to the point where I just don't even want to shop anymore because you can't find things of quality unless you go into like these insane stores. Like where are you guys shopping that things are not complete trash? Because I also don't want to spend $500 on lamps. People are like, oh, you got to spend money to get quality. Like I used to be one of those people who really thought that like more expensive did equal higher quality and it still does in some instances. But lately I don't feel like you're getting higher quality when you're spending more money. I really don't. Where's the why? I feel so similarly. And it's so unfortunate because you hear in frugality the idea that like if you buy a good quality pair of boots, you buy them once and they last a lifetime versus the cheap person buys the cheap boots and has to keep buying over and over again. And they're essentially making it impossible for people to be frugal. To buy something quality because even when like I was seeing comments on the videos that we're playing today, like people trying to buy something of quality, like a hundred percent cotton and then the thing comes in and it's a polyester blend. I've seen things when I'm looking for that like on Amazon. And then in the comments, people have taken pictures of the tag of the product and being like, if it says a hundred percent cotton is not a hundred percent cotton. It's a blend. Apparently a hundred percent doesn't mean anything. It means nothing. It's just it's an emoji now. It's not an actual mathematical equation of the percentages anymore. So we looked at about 20 articles from across the internet. You know, if you've been with us since the early days, we started the show. We didn't have video, but we would just take two articles on a topic that we were interested in and really suss out, OK, what is fluff and what is like real advice or information? And so we looked at about 20 articles from like really reputable sources, like studies, like papers from the Fed, from not papers from the Fed, but like articles from the Fed, from the Economist, even Le Monde in France. So like we wanted to get people's like experts' perspectives and interviews on what's going on. And across the board, consistent agreement. We are not losing our minds. Quality is declining. And the Fed calls it skimpflation. So we hear a lot about shrinkflation, which is companies charging the same price, but just making the quantity lower. And so what this is is skimpflation and this is reducing like keeping the price the same and reducing quality to increase profits. This is wild. And I actually I feel so seen that it's helpful to have that clarifying piece of, yeah, it's actually happening and the Fed is putting words to it. But then it's also frustrating at the same time. Like when you want to buy quality, but it's shrouded in. But where and how it feels like everyone's lying to me. Yeah. Yeah. There's an example. Edgar Dorsky is the founder of Consumer World, and they track and post the fine print of product changes on a website called mouseprint.org. And he found in twenty twenty three that wishbone Italian dressing, you know, the kind I can actually like. Not the dog. The dog. Not the small dog. Wishbone, but the salad dressing. Wishbone Italian salad dressing showed over a twenty two percent reduction in oil content, seemingly replaced with water and over a 30 percent increase in salt. These are not small numbers. Like could you imagine being told you're getting like a twenty two percent decrease in wage or a 30 percent increase in a quarter of the entire product is what used to be salad dressing, which is arguably oil. A quarter reduction in it. Yeah. And so it's not so it's not just like products either. The Fed says they're seeing like on average restaurant diners are experiencing longer wait times to sit down and for food. Travelers no longer get the breakfast buffet at the hotel or only housekeeping services when you request it. And then the rise of self checkout at grocery stores. These are all examples of skimplation. Yeah. And it's great when stores like Aldi, I'm pointing to Aldi, is actually that direction right there. We could reach out and touch it when they really do cut down all those things. You know, they don't have a cart person, which is why they do the quarter. And, you know, they have minimal staff and they don't provide bags. And you actually see lower prices at the grocery store. But other places like Walmart or Target, I don't know, I'm just going to call them all out, are doing relying upon self checkout. Prices aren't changing. No. Anything they are going up. So like where's all that savings going? What are they doing with the money? Yeah. So our next question is why? I think we know the answer, but like let's dive into it. Your stuff is actually worse now, or at least that's what this article from Vox says. And as product designers, we unfortunately agree that a lot of the stuff we buy today is lower quality, not all of it, but a lot of it. The declining quality has been happening for a long time. And this article does a really good job covering the events in history that have been catalysts. First, the Industrial Revolution. They talk about mass manufacturing. When you settle on a design, it can be really expensive and time consuming to change it. Obviously, this depends on the product and the material, but as a generalization, this is true and I'm happy to dive into why. I do want to note that the Industrial Revolution did increase quality and consistency in a ton of products. So obviously there's multiple sides to the story. The second big historical event that they cite is the Great Depression. In order to generate demand for products and kickstart the economy, marketers came up with selling strategies to artificially create demand, thus inventing planned obsolescence, which is still very much a marketing strategy used today for three current global supply chain strains, chain strains, climate change, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, unstable markets. Materials are rising in costs, but consumers' expectations of how much they pay have remained the same. So oftentimes manufacturers cut corners to make up for that delta. Finally, number four is consumer expectations. Rise in fast fashion and companies like Amazon are two really big players in shifts in consumer expectations. They've changed what we expect both for speed and newness of products, as well as speed of delivery. Product development and manufacturing speed and quality are almost always at all. They also touch on right to repair laws and how big tech companies have lobbied against those. And we've talked about that a bunch on this account, but I'm happy to dive back into it. Yeah, this is where I honestly geek out. This is where Jen goes off. This is my thing. I, because to really know why we are paying more right now for our products, you do have to go all the way back to the Industrial Revolution, because we can blame Amazon. We can blame ourselves, but we did it 20 years ago, just decide to change. Right. This does go back to the Industrial Revolution and like really does have its core, I think, in the 20s and 30s. Right. So Industrial Revolution made mass production of goods more affordable and efficient. But the problem was that people were frugal. Like frugality was lauded as this very admirable quality to use what you have, use it up, get creative to not want more than you have to be grateful for what you have, be a good steward of your resources. That was the general vibe in culture at the time. And had to deal with what access you had to resources. You'd get clothes, high quality, tailor made to you. Those were the clothes in your closet. They were what just fashion didn't exist. So this other type of culture of frugality did. Yeah. And so people were, you know, people were content with their things. And they had just honestly had just come out of the Great Depression where they had literally nothing. They were eating bread for every meal. And so this part right after that did feel like, OK, we have what we need. And we didn't have what we need needed before. And so we're super content. But we had all of these innovations to make product production cheaper and more efficient with nobody to buy them. And so that is where we get in to marketing, advertising and propaganda. You think Mad Men was the golden age for advertising in the 60s. No, no, my friend. The 20s and 30s started it all. You don't have Mad Men without these two people. And the first is a guy named Ernest Elmo Calkins. So doesn't sound threatening. He doesn't. Wait a minute. He didn't look threatening either. If you saw a picture of him. So he created what is what he called consumer engineering or artificial obsolescence. And it was an answer to the economic woes right after the Great Depression. So you had people that were out of the habit of buying. They were not in the habit of buying, even though more money was coming in. It's like when we got stimulus checks in 2020, people, you know, they wanted people to put money into the economy so the economy wouldn't collapse. And they wanted people to put money into the economy now so we could build it back up. But then beyond that, he said that this could increase American standard of living. So even when we got back up to health, this could be good for companies, you know, far, far beyond that. So you've got Elmo over here creating planned obsolescence or what would become planned obsolescence. And then you've got my boy. And if you've read our book, Buy What You Love Without Going Brogue, you know him. Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda, or he likes to be called, not anymore, he did. He wanted to be called the father of public relations. But what is public relations if not the glossing over of poorly laid information? Anyways, Edward Bernays in the 20s, he straight out like told people, he described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct, which we are. But like, don't tell people that, like you're better than us. Irrational and subject to herd instinct. And he outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desired ways. He wrote a book titled Public Relations in 1945, which outlines the science of managing information released to the public by an organization in a manner most advantageous to the organization. So he really was in the in the 20s and 30s, he was using propaganda to sell things like he is singlehandedly responsible for women picking up smoking. And then public relations, how to gloss over all of that bad information, how to how to strategically release information. So it's advantageous to companies. And so you combined that with this new phenomenon of planned obsolescence, give it 100 years, literally 100 years to stew. And now what we have is we want to buy a lot of stuff. We want to buy it frequently. And we want to buy it so fast that companies cut corners to fulfill what we want. And we're OK with it because we want so much. And I don't think inherently that's our nature. And I don't think inherently that's our fault. I think it's 100 years of this being built into our culture. Thank you for coming to my head. I do need to sip water. It is so fascinating because it's helpful to know where we've come from, to know where we currently find ourselves, to know where do we want to be going and maybe make some predictions on where we're actually going. There are certain aspects like what you've already highlighted where it's not something that we can make huge shifts in as a singular person. But it doesn't mean that we can't choose differently or that awareness can't bring an ability to go against the grain a little bit, which we will get to. You know, what do we do with all of this? But I think to know that, yes, we play a role in it, but this has been happening before we were born leading up to this point and that there are reasons that it exists now. So again, having an explanation is really great. But I think it lends to the question of, OK, is it all working now? This whole planned obsolescence create desire, creating economic. What is the word? Consumer desire? Consumer engineering? Consumer engineering. That is so p-yard, absolutely. I know. To call it planned obsolescence. These guys existed at the same time. Like they were in the same world, like working off of this. It is sick that there were no consumer protection laws or anybody thinking about consumer protection at that time. Yeah. Like, and if they were, it was all like great depression related. It was in the, so they were, but it was about investments. We got a lot of great investment investor protection laws in the 20s and in the 30s, but they weren't thinking about consumers as buyers. And so that's how we got here. And it sickens me to think about it. But if it didn't happen the choice, it was going to happen in some decade. You know, like it was people left to their own devices will, bad eggs will rise to the top. That's just not science, but like it is in my mind what happens. No, it's true. It is a try. That's why that's a saying. I didn't actually know it was a saying. Yeah. Well, because that's literally how you can test an egg is you put it in water and if it floats, the egg has gone bad. OK, go. That's how you can test your eggs. If it kind of stays in the middle of the water, use it for baking. If it's at the if it stays sunken, you're golden. Go ahead and eat that thing. Cook it up. Eat it. You're welcome. 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. Quints works directly with safe ethical factories and cuts out the middleman. So you're not paying for brand markups, just quality clothing. They're 100% European linen is breathable. The cotton poplin is crisp and holds its shape and everything is built to hold up season after season. That quints washable silk midi dress has become my go to. It's perfect for dressing up, dressing down or layering. It feels luxe and didn't cost what I thought quality silk would. Stop waiting to build the wardrobe you actually want. You don't need more clothes, just better ones. Right now, go to quints.com.frugl for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.com.frugl for free shipping and 365 days return. Quints.com. OK, so here we are. This is where we find ourselves. And is it working? Has the last 100 years, has it worked out for you, big companies? I've kind of had this realization recently in the last couple of years that like the quality is just gone. Like when you want to purchase an item, they don't even last. And it really makes me mad when a company then asks me if I have purchased like the insurance for it or like consumer protection or whatever. And I'm like, why do I need to pay an additional fee to protect my purchase? Why isn't the purchase itself just quality? Nothing is of quality. No company takes pride in their work anymore. I look at like furniture that my grandparents or my parents bought and it would last years, decades. I bought a couch and within two years that thing was already breaking down. And I've kept it because I have to and I don't have the money to buy a new one. But I'm like, how come everything we buy just breaks or you have to purchase a protection plan for it? I remember I had a piano, a keyboard piano that was maybe two and a half years old. And when I called the company because some of the keys stopped working, I'm like, hey, is there a way to get this fixed? Like, could I pay your company to just fix it? And they're like, well, did you buy the coverage for it? I'm like, no. And they're like, well, that's it. Like there's nothing we can do. And I'm like, even if I had to pay to fix it, they have nowhere to fix it anymore. Like they would rather me throw something out and buy a new one than pay a service fee to fix it. Bingo. 100 percent exactly. Oh, this is so frustrating. Literally everything she's saying. Yes. Yeah. I can so commiserate with. And so they're making more money off of people buying these warranties and these protection plans. Because insurance makes money. Like that is where they're going to keep making the majority of their money. And even if you do get the protection plan off, and it doesn't cover the thing that ended up breaking on it. It's like, why did I even buy this? Oh my gosh. We've got to read all of the fine print. It's insane. I want to hit something. And I can't break it because you can't repair it because they're serious. No, right. To repair. But it makes me think back to the video about the Vox article. And we'll link to the actual Vox article is behind a paywall, but Vox has a video. So we'll link to the video about the article. And it makes me think like when they were saying it's when something is created, it's very expensive to redesign it. And so they just don't. And we have had all of these technological advances like on the internet. But not really in consumer products because people, because these older companies are so much more beholden to shareholders. So they can't afford to innovate because they have to, they are promising shareholders profit every quarter. And so that's how we get things that were once metal becoming plastic. Like that's the only innovation they can come up with to increase profits. Like that episode that we did with Hayden about cars. So we'll link to that too. We did an episode on used cars and new cars and is it worth it to buy new or used. And he was saying that in a lot of the new cars, they're having all of, he has a great channel where he's, he basically just like looks at people's car, like new car problems and new cars are such crap because they're replacing these parts on automobiles, not a lamp, an automobile that used to be metal into plastic purely for the planned obsolescence like factor. And part of it is that they have, they don't have an incentive to keep the cars lasting longer because people want to buy cars every four years. These cars used to be able to last like 14 years. And now they can last like eight to 10. And it doesn't matter because people don't want to keep their cars for 14 years. They have no incentive to make the cars higher quality. Yeah, we have always said buy used pre-owned cars three to five years old. And that's just a frugal decision. And we're still going to say that. But now even more so just because they're going to be safer. Because you have to keep them longer. What they're putting out anymore. That's why you have to buy something that's a little used, make sure all the kinks are out and make sure it's not a lemon just so that you can keep it for eight to 10 years. Like as a frugal person, we cannot afford to keep cars any shorter than that because the newer the car, the worse the quality. Here's the thing. Yes, skimplation is currently working for companies and they're going to continue doing it. And we need to be extra vigilant, conscientious buyers. But long term really could end up being a different story. There was a marketing survey study done that found that 62% of consumers, 62% say that they'll stop buying from brands who change product size. That's shrinkflation or quality skimflation to cut costs. And so that trust erosion that can start happening. And I can even think of some brands currently where, yeah, that's the case. You know, maybe a soap I used to buy from and now I'm noticing that's the same price for a smaller bottle. No thanks. Because you're just down a spike. I'll look. I mean, I won't do it out of spite. Skimflation, shrinkflation does not bother me as much as skimflation. If you can keep the quality, but you have to reduce the size in order to keep it the right price. For me, like I respect that, but you have to keep the quality. But I could see where shrinkflation could cause me to be like, okay, I'm paying more per ounce. Let me see if there's another thing that is exact same quality, but I can save a little bit of money per ounce. And if I can't, that's fine. Like I won't leave. But it is the skimflation that is just, it feels evil. Like it feels unethical. And we have so many experience like in history of these class action lawsuits of products that have killed people or really hurt people because of the decrease in quality. And this is a risk that companies are willing to take because paying out these lawsuits is less expensive than just spending the money to innovate and maintain or improve quality. They don't like that. That is horrible. Yeah. Okay. So this is all, this is all frustrating. This isn't this big bummer, huge bummer. So let's talk about what do we do then? Like what does this mean for us? What are our options? So that's some of the reasons why stuff seems like lower quality, but to end on a positive note, what makes me feel optimistic is seeing trends of vintage becoming cool again, consumers trying to fix their own products, and folks wanting to shop small. Some of our best performing videos is folks watching us take apart and fix consumer electronics, which is really exciting. I hope we're at an inflection point for consumers demanding higher quality from manufacturers, but we'll see. I, in my cynicism, I don't think we are. Like I don't think we're anything anywhere near it. Right now we're still so hopped up on being able to get that quick dopamine of whatever we want, whenever we want it, we get it within 24 hours. The Ariana Grande song. I think about that all the time. I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. That is the problem. It's a bop, but it is such a bop. But, and I don't, I don't think that the sole responsibility is on us. Like yes, that is us, that's our problem. We've got to fix that in ourselves, but we also have to recognize how we got here. We didn't put ourselves in this situation. Other people manipulated, truly manipulated our culture to get us where we are today, and we're not angry enough about it to change. Yeah. We are not angry enough. I might be angry enough. I live in this anger. I have lived in this anger for years. You might, it might come across in the book. There's a lot to be angry about. I don't know if we should be led by that, but I mean, I get what you're saying. You should, it should be a little bit of your fuel. I think a little bit of your fuel should be anger. Yeah. And that's where, now that's my stance in life. But I like the suggestions that are happening here of vintage, right? Vintage. We don't know where to go. If it's not, quality isn't being popped out currently, then let's thank our lucky stars that people have kept things around and that vintage stores are still popping off. And so our thrift stores, I mean, yeah, again, thrift stores, people could just be giving all their junk. So we still have to be aware of what are high quality materials. But once it's in your hand, you can see that. You can see what they're made of. You can touch it. You can feel it. You can knock on it. But yeah, if they don't make it like they used to, let's buy from the time period that they made it when they, how they used to. And it's not going to fit you perfectly. Get a tailor. Yes. It's, I'm thinking, these jeans are a little loose up at the top, but they fit, like I like how they fit everywhere else. And so I think I'm going to take them to the tailor just to get like a quick fix. I got a good tailor for you. Perfect. Thank you. Because you could, yes, I could just get rid of them and get new jeans, right? But they would, what would that do? Like it would be better for me and less expensive to just get them tailored. Now that you know you've got a good quality that they're going to last, that the price point of paying for a tailor is going to be worth it. Yes. So that's the repair piece, right? I think tailoring kind of falls, it's a subcategory in a way of repairing things. There's nothing wrong with it, but maybe it's not perfect for you. You still don't have to pass on it. You still don't have to settle. You can make it for you. And then you've got repair. Yeah. So if it's clothing, I think, you know, the simple fixes of how to sew up a hole or add a button or repair a zipper or hem up the pant leg, whatever it is, those are really simple things that, again, YouTube is super helpful with. And then when it comes to our other stuff, our electronics, our small appliances, even the things in our home, the toilet, the whatever, like learning some of the smaller repairs or taking it to a repair shop. Now I will commiserate with us an Apple's notorious for this. They don't allow for repairs, that there are aspects of this phone that will not allow it to be taken apart. And if you do take it somewhere that's not an Apple store to do it, you've lost any version of warranty if it doesn't work. But what warranty? Warranty on what? So true. I like back market. I think if you just search back market, they do a lot of refurbish electronics and they recently had a pop up in New York City where they were repairing on site, different things. And so I like that stuff like that is coming back. I think we still have this, again, after 100 years, this aversion to going to the tailor, oh, that's too expensive. I'll just buy something new. Or why would I repair something when I can just get something new? We have this aversion to it. And that's what we need to get rid of. We need to get rid of that aversion and kind of force ourselves to sit with the things that we have and get creative in how we have them. Instead of just tossing them, because you take stuff to the thrift store, you're essentially throwing it in the trash. You're just driving it somewhere to throw it in the trash. Especially if it's clothing. Don't, yeah, do not think you're doing something good by taking something to the thrift store. I guarantee you, you are just throwing it in the trash with extra work. So if we can think like that, then I think that we can start to veer ourselves into the right direction. It should certainly not be approached as a reason to keep buying. Like, oh, I can just take it to the thrift store. I know. The last thing though, well, not the last thing, but another option is shopping small. So I think a lot of our pushback on this whole skimflation is our big box companies. We're talking the Amazons and the Walnarts of the world and all the ancillary type of places. But our local flea markets and our local business owners, our local artisans, they care about what they're doing and the work that they're putting out. Yes, it's more expensive, but buying a mug from somebody who handcrafted the pottery is going to last far longer. I'm going to even like it far longer. Then buying whatever trash is on the shelf as you're in line at Marshall's. And you know it doesn't come down to usability. We don't get rid of things because they're not useful anymore. We get rid of them because we don't like them. And that's going to be aesthetic and beautiful forever, like classic, timeless. Yeah, and I think these are the types of decisions we need to be looking at when it comes to some of even bigger purchases like the furniture, the appliances, the things that we are going to regularly be using. Yeah, and so last thing we'll leave with this, educate yourself. In order to be buying vintage secondhand, knowing the things to buy that can be repaired, in order to do that, we have to know what can be tailored, almost anything can be tailored. What are the best fabrics? What are the best furniture, mirror, all of that. So here are a few places you can bookmark online that will help you. The first is Consumer Reports. And you can actually subscribe to Consumer Reports to their paid version for like 25 bucks a year. And it is an unbiased review site, non-profit, that really does a lot of extensive. We have subscribed to it in the past. We currently are subscribed to it that reviews all kinds of consumer goods and rates it on all kinds of different standards. So if you're looking to upgrade or really get into what's... You can get a lot of information from Consumer Reports without paying for it, but it's also not that much to invest in the work that they're doing and really get really comprehensive reviews, like rankings of products. A good housekeeping institute, they have a lot of... They do a lot of testing. I fix it. I pot or whatever, fix it. Has step-by-step repair guides. So for like tech stuff, if it's an easy fix, you can look for how to repair it there. And then Wire Cutter also does a lot of extensive testing and research on things. And so this is not going to be an end-all be-all. I think you're going to kind of have to look at all of these things to find kind of what you want. And then you can also follow influencers that look at the quality of clothing. Fond, Los Angeles, F-O-N-D, Los Angeles. She's very chaotic, but she does kind of do really good reviews on quality clothing. And she will debunk how luxury brand clothing is not always as good as things like Quince. Like we love Quince. Quince is a sponsor of the show because we... I mean, I have been time and time again, and they're not paying me right now to say this. When I buy something from Quince, I know it's going to be good quality. This is a Quince shirt, actually. So that is one of the places. And if you have brands and things, places you buy from that you're like, this is good quality, consistently worth every penny, please put it in the comments. Because we need each other. We can't trust influencers because their favorite products are the ones they get paid the most to promote. We have to be there for each other in this endeavor. I also like the app Good on You. That one will also give you a review of ethical practices and the ways that they're treating their employees, as well as sustainability and quality of materials. So if you're curious about whether a clothing brand is out to your standards, Good on You is a good one. And do you know what? Where else? We're just here for each other. Yeah, there is one place where I can find quality literally consistently every single time and I don't have to worry. And I never overpay. Oh, it's never not going anywhere. 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 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 there. My Bill of the Week is my credit card. I signed up for a promotional APR through a Wells Fargo credit card and that just ended in July. And my minimum payment went from $36 a month to $236 a month, which is terrible timing because my husband just lost his job a couple weeks ago. So I called the credit card company and requested for a lower minimum payment and lower APR and they changed it from 23.74% to 1% lowering my minimum payment to about $91 a month instead of the 236. I'm super excited about this. Really a big win for us right now. And yeah, just wanted to share that with other people who hopefully it can help with. Thanks. Okay, Julie. I'm so sorry about your husband's job loss. I hope he's found something right now. But this is such a good tip for people, especially who are paying off debt and looking to just make a call. Make the call. If I wasn't so concerned about creating merch that was craft quality, I'd put it on a shirt. And you know what? After you make the call, make another call to us for your bill of the week. If you all are listening and have a bill that you want to submit, if it is in any way a version of a tip, if you just want to celebrate something bill related or your name is Bill or you have found a product of quality and you were happy to pay the bill for it. We love those. We need that. Frukelfriendspodcast.com slash bill. Make that call. Leave it for us. We can't wait to hear it. And now it's time for the lightning round. All right. What's your holy corral high quality item? Let's start off the list right now. Jill, I know you got number one. Oh, my babies, you know this one. It's a Vitamix. You are not going to get me off this Vitamix train unless I start to see some skimflation. But you know what? My current Vitamix is going strong. For like five years. I have had it for five years. I have never sharpened the blades. Like maybe that'll be something that ends up happening down the road. But I use it. I kid you, not every single day. She does no lie. I use a Vitamix. I'm going to get on my soapbox. I use my Vitamix every single day. She's still going strong. And you know what? There's not a ton of extra attachments. You can get that. There are different attachments that you could get if you're very specific in what you're going to do with it. But this Vitamix can make smoothies. It can make soups. It can act as my food processor. I can make nut butters with one thing. I don't got to junk up my cabinets with a ton of extra attachments that make me think like I've got a product that does a lot of things. No, it's one product. It's a good product. It does all of the things that I ever wanted to do. I use it daily. It has not broken. If it does break, Vitamix has got some really excellent customer service. And I love it. Yeah, bless. Bless Vitamix. Okay, your turn. Okay. All right. Mine is my Ninja Coffee Bar. So I spend a little bit of time. So I've had this for, I don't know, over five years. I would say maybe seven years. Again, we're not sponsored by any of these things. Oh, no. We're not sponsored by Ninja or Vitamix. We're your friends and we want you to know about the good stuff. So I had it. I used it daily. And then we moved. And there was a year of time where I just, it sat collecting dust in the renovation. And I tried a couple other ways to make coffee like pour over and cold brew and all this. And I ended up coming back to my Ninja Coffee Bar. I was able to clean it all up, de-scale it. And now I use her every day again, like for probably two years now. And she just takes, you know, she wants to be de-scaled with vinegar like every couple months. And I do that. I can make a full pot, a half pot. I just make a cup at a time. I could make like a travel size cup, a half travel size cup, a big cup, a little like so many options in one thing. We love it. Like I don't need to have a Keurig and a regular coffee maker. Like I don't need to have all these different. It's just, she's good. And so, and it's because of that, I own like almost all my other like kitchen stuff is Ninja. And it is quality. I had, I have a Ninja Foodie instead of an Instant Pot. And one day Ninja's like, hey, something's wrong with our lid and we got to send you a new lid for your instant, for your pressure cooker. And I was like, okay, so I got like a free replacement lid. There was nothing wrong with my original one, but apparently there could have been. And so I just got a free replacement lid. So Ninja really pleased with. Really pleases you. And it started with the coffee bar. Oh, yeah. So there are some products. Because I'm feeling hopeful. Please leave yours in the comment and try to like maybe purchased in the last 10 years. Because there are some like I've heard like KitchenAid stand mixers. A woman had hers for 20 years. And then her friend bought one a couple years ago and has already had to like, like buy a new one because a plastic thing broke that couldn't be replaced or something. This is like, I don't know this, you know, this is just in comments I was reading, but like, yeah, so it's not gonna be. My KitchenAid mixer I've had for like 15 years and it's fabulous. Mine I've had for over 10, but I don't use it like every day, right? I use it a couple of times a year. So I can't, you know, so yeah, let's make sure that these are things that are good quality now. And so that we're not letting brands rest on their laurels of I used to be quality. So now everyone thinks I'm still quality. No, we need you to be quality now. If I bought you today, I would be getting what I'm paying for. So thank you so much for listening. We would love for you to leave a comment. We would also, if you have read Buy What You Love Without Going Broke and you've heard my heated stories about Edward Bernays, we would love for you to leave a review of the book on Amazon. You don't have to have bought it on Amazon, but that's where most people go for their reviews like Elle did. Not, I'm assuming, Elle from Stranger Things, but somebody else says Jen and Jill's book is excellent. Excellent book and love Jen and Jill. They're so relatable and cool as well as calm. Love that. They also have a really good podcast called Frugal Friends. Well, thank you. Cool, calm, not collected. Thanks, Elle. Thanks for being here. Thanks for subscribing. See you next time. Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani. I did start watching Stranger Things. They tell you that already? You did tell me that. What? So now I understand your reference. You understand my pop culture media reference. Exactly. Great. I won't ask you how it is. I'll just let you be in it with, you know, and enjoying it. Good. Okay. Yeah. I really like it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's great. I mean, there's a reason that so many people love it. Yeah. So, yeah, here we go. Cool. Gotta go catch up on season two because I'm so far behind the trend.
