Frugality Without Deprivation | Jen Smith from Modern Frugality | The Financial Independence Show Podcast
In today's episode, you'll hear from Jen who co-hosts the Frugal Friends podcast and writes at Modern Frugality.
Jen really didn't want to become frugal in her 20's because she was afraid of losing out.
Over time she realized the amount of work it was taking to reach her goals was too much.
She decided to stop only focusing on more work and begin focusing on frugality.
Listen and learn all about side hustles and let us know what you think.
Episode Summary
The first thing her husband wanted to do after getting married was paying off student debt
Jen was not originally on board with this
She didn't want to live under a rock under her 20's
Her husband explained the opportunities that they'd have if they got out of debt
They were $78k in debt total
The two of them also didn't have a ton of income
Jen came around to getting out of debt but still didn't want to lower her income
She tried to add on three side hustles on top of her job
There was so much stress that she ended up with shingles
In totality between all their work and side hustles, they were bringing in up to $88k
Originally the goal was to be debt-free in 5 years
In the end, it turned out to only take 23 months
Jen's Tools for Turning Around Her Finance
One of the most powerful tools she used was a method called habit stacking
This is where you take one habit you're good at and sticking another on top
Hers was brushing teeth with budgeting tied in on it
Jen also really recommends manually tracking vs automated systems at first
Another tool Jen used was a no-spend challenge
This is where you don't spend money on any non-critical item for a set period of time
Many times people shoot for a month
Saving money is good for you and the environment she also calls out
Buying cheap things that get tossed lead to waste
Cheap vs Frugal
Impacting someone else negatively is cheap
Impacting yourself negatively is cheap
If it's illegal it's cheap
If something takes you so much time to save money that you're not there for someone else it's cheap
Key Takeaways
Less is more: Jen actually became happier in life after stripping off unnecessary spending instead of it being a burden
Saving is self cafe: She talked about how so many of the things we spend money on take us away from things we really care about
Cheap is harmful: We discuss how being cheap is destructive to relationships and the environment
Call to Action
Assign a value on a scale of your choosing to the expenses in a certain category. Start reducing the ones you value least.
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Learn more about Jen
Via her podcast
One of her books -> Saving with Spunk, The No Spend Challenge, Meal Plan on a Budget
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