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Two members of the Mom Hour team, Katie Parrish and Katie Goldner, discuss their budgeting strategies and ways to save money. They talk about their families and the extra expenses that come up during the beginning of the year. Katie G. mentions her no-spend challenge and how she saved $1,200 in February by being mindful of her spending. They plan to continue implementing these strategies in the future. They also discuss ways to cut expenses, such as reducing trips to the store and being more conscious of incidental purchases. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Mom Hour, Episode 459. I'm Katie Goldner, and today I'm here with Katie Parrish, and we're members of the Mom Hour team working behind the scenes with Megan and Sarah for the past few years, helping to bring you all the content you know and love. We're excited to be here today and next Tuesday to give Megan and Sarah a little bit of a spring break. They'll be back in two weeks with all new episodes. Today, we'll be talking about the many ways you can make small tweaks to your lifestyle to save some big money. But before we get into that, we should probably introduce ourselves and our families a bit. Katie, how about you go first? Yes, okay. So I am Katie Parrish. I am the Brand Partnerships Manager for the Mom Hour, and I have been in this role for about two and a half years. So I do a lot of the advertising and sponsorship work behind the scenes, but my background is in publishing, and so every once in a while I contribute to an episode or write a blog post or do something on social media, which has been a lot of fun. And I live in a suburb of Chicago with my husband, Chris, and our three boys. We have Henry, who is nine. Sam just turned seven. And then we have Charlie, who is three and a half. You are busy over there with those boys, Katie. It's fun. It's a lot of fun, yes. And I'm Katie G., as Sarah and Megan sometimes reference me. I have been with the Mom Hour for about two years this month. Man, does time fly, Katie. I live in central Pennsylvania, born and raised still here. I work in marketing and communications in the insurance industry, so it's really fun to get to work with the Mom Hour and bring this type of content to all of you regularly. My family, there's four of us. It's me, my husband, Jason, and we have two kids, Chloe, who is nine, and she's in fourth grade, and then our son, Dawson, who is five, and he'll be going into kindergarten in the fall. And then I should probably mention we have a needy dog around the house from Winston that hopefully you won't hear from today. I love that. We have a dog, too. We have Gus, and he's almost 13, and he is like the opposite of a needy dog. He just, like, sleeps all the time. So you will not hear from him. I'm a bit jealous of that, Katie. Well, I don't know about you, Katie, but the beginning of the year for me and my family is always kind of crazy with some extra bills and extra spending that seems to creep up after the holidays, just the leftover from Christmas, and we have a birthday in there, New Year's, our life insurance hits in January every month. We get, you know, really excited to plan some vacations. Some of that gets started. So what's the beginning of the year look like for you budget-wise? Well, you know, so we have a New Year's Eve birthday in our family, and I know you guys have a New Year's birthday. So that, I feel like having any kind of birthdays over the holidays or even in the winter in general, it kind of just, like, extends all of that spending with, like, celebrations and presents and parties and stuff like that, even if you try to do it on, like, a smaller scale. And so, yeah, Henry's birthday is New Year's Eve and Sam's is March 1st, and so there's always some extra expenses there. We have had some really expensive winters in the past. Like, last winter we had our hot water heater go out, and we needed to replace our furnace, both, like, unexpectedly, and those were huge hits to our budget. But this year the biggest thing is that we have been house hunting for our next home for about the last year and a half, and so we have just been really taking a closer look at our spending and trying to save every dollar that we can to, you know, set ourselves up into a good position for whenever we find that next house. So that's what we have going on. That's pretty exciting. It's exciting, but it is anybody who is trying to buy right now knows that it's a tricky time because house prices are at an all-time high and rates are really high right now as well. So your dollar just doesn't quite go as far as it did a few years ago. So we are always looking to save. How about you guys, Katie? What do you have going on right now? Yeah, it's a great time to talk about how to save then, huh, I guess, with that top of mind for you. So we have some trips coming up in April. We're going to Disney again this year. So as anyone who's ever been to Disney, you know that that is an arm and a leg to get there and back. And our dog needs a procedure. He has an autoimmune disease, so he's turning out to be quite expensive. So I just kind of looked at all of those big-ticket items and the spring sports are starting up, all the extras that you need to buy for that. Kids outgrow their shoes every season, right? So I just kind of thought, where am I spending all of my money and how can I be more mindful about it? So I've never done a no-spend challenge before, Katie, but I listened to a podcast recently. It was the Frugal Friends about a no-spend challenge. And I thought, can I really do this? It sounds kind of exciting and a great way to kind of launch saving some extra dollars for extra things going on. But have you done one of those before? So I haven't done anything super formalized quite like that, although I'm excited to hear more about the details because I'm sure there are just tons of tips. I have a couple of Novembers in a row. I have kind of tried to do like a loose no-spend November, but really mostly just to like cut down on shopping because I feel like there's so much that happens in the fall with like back to school and like Halloween and Thanksgiving. It's just even like preparing for Christmas. I feel like there's a lot of spending that happens in the fall and then obviously like closer you get to the holidays even more. And so November I just try to not spend as much. And then I think also a couple years I have given up shopping for Lent, but I haven't done anything. Oh, wow. Yes, yes. Like shopping meaning like clothes. Like Target. Yes, like clothes, candles, little things for the boys, like anything nonessential. I mean obviously still shopping for like food and, you know, stuff that we need to have, but just kind of that like nonessential shopping trying to cut down on. But I want to hear all about your mindful spending months. Were you doing that when, February? Yes, so I decided to kind of put down in a spreadsheet where I spent my money in January and kind of put it in different buckets just naturally. Target was a bucket in itself. And I'm going to be honest, that was probably my bucket that made me open my eyes the most and think, wow, I have opportunity to do something with this here. So I kind of just looked at where I was spending my money, and I don't track it that specifically regularly. So I went in and did some of that, and then I thought, okay, I could definitely spend less money on incidentals that you pick up when you need something else, right? So try to limit the amount of trips that I take to a store. Or I spent that much on groceries, I shouldn't have also spent that much on going out to eat. So I really just tried to look at all of those things and where I could cut some of the money. And I didn't really put a number to a budget, but I just knew that I wanted to get in under where it was the month before. So that's really the feeling where I started from. And I have to admit that I saved about $1,200 in the month of February. And it was hard. So it sounds awesome, which it was, but it was harder than I thought it would be. So I definitely have a few tips and tricks that we can share with everyone today. But, yeah, it's just incredible when you actually sit down and look at where your money is going. And it's not that I have a ton of income to play around with, having, you know, two kids and such. But, yeah. Sorry, this will probably be a spot where we'll need to elect. We're talking over each other. So, Katie, I just have to ask, that $1,200 that you saved, do you think a lot of that is, like, one-time savings, like something that you cut out one time and that will be, like, the one time that you saved it? Or are these things that, like, you could potentially save over $1,000 every month if you keep doing this? That's a really great question, Katie. I would say that I can most likely save to some extent that amount every month. Yeah, that's awesome. It was exciting to kind of try to find ways that I could alter it. And there are some things that I'll talk about that are more one-off. But at the end of the day, I would say that my husband and I are planning to try to carry some of these things into each month, just because we know that we can. We feel like we're wasting money by not attempting it at least every month now. So, yeah, we're excited about that. Great. Okay, I'm going to stop there for the break. So I totally got thrown off because around 3.20, you cut out for, like, a half a minute. Oh, shoot. So I don't know if it recorded you or not. Like, I couldn't hear you and I couldn't see you. You were still talking because then it, like, came back and you were just still going. So I was like, did it record it? And I just couldn't hear it, so we might have to go back. Do you want me to, like, stop this and then we can check that? I think maybe we should just keep going and then we can see. Maybe it was just like a – because if I was still recording, maybe it was just like a lag in it being uploaded, but maybe we can just keep going. And then when we listen through, if I cut out, maybe we can just, like, cut out that whole sentence or whatever I was saying there. Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. Okay, Katie, so should we get into some of the ways that we were able to save and just be a little bit more mindful with our budgeting? Yes. Yes, let's do it. I'm excited. Well, I don't know about you, but one of the first things I did when I tracked my spending was where can I cut some of the dollars with some of the bills that are coming in? So I looked at – we have a million streaming services, and I'm not going to even pretend that we're going to cut those because, honestly, they get us through the day with little kids. But I looked at my UGI bill, my PPL bill for my energy and water and all of that, and I just thought, okay, what if everyone's just a little more mindful this month and we make sure all of the lights are off? Those are things we should be doing anyway. Or don't run an extra load of laundry if we don't have to. What can we kind of put together as we're doing that? And I was actually able to save about $150 just in my bills for the month. So I was pretty proud of that, but I don't know if you've ever done anything like that. That is so smart. I mean, we haven't ever really been that mindful about that. One thing that we do do is when we are traveling, like we make sure that depending on what time it is, what time of year it is, we'll either, like, turn off the air conditioning or bump the heat way down just so that we don't have that expense of, like, heating and cooling and, like, obviously we're not turning on the lights or using the TV and stuff like that when we're gone. And it is amazing how you do notice a difference, like, when you see your bill, when it's like, oh, my gosh, wow, we're this much less. Why? Oh, it's because we were, you know, gone for a week. So that is something I would like to do a better job at. My kids are terrible about leaving lights on in rooms or, like, entire levels of our house that we are not in. So that's definitely something I will try to do. I'm pretty much a stickler about, like, not wasting water. Like, I really, like, keep an eye on, like, the bathtub when the kids are in the bathtub, like how I don't like that getting super high. They're pretty good about taking short showers. Like, we turn off the faucet, like, when we're brushing our teeth. And I'm kind of, for some reason, like, wasting water is a little bit of a trigger for me, but we could definitely be doing a better job when it comes to, like, lights and electricity and laundry. I have never even really considered that. So that's a really good tip. Yeah, great. I was kind of surprised that I would be able to save that much just by being mindful of that for the month. So hopefully that will work for some others as well. What are some ways that you cut costs around the house? Well, the biggest thing for us, and I know this will be no surprise, is definitely when it comes to our groceries. And so a few ways that we save a lot of money is I always try to do a quick fridge and freezer inventory before I'm meal planning for the week. And, you know, it's just great to see, like, what we need to use up. But even more than that, it's like I notice it really cuts down on accidentally buying things that we already have. Especially those ingredients we don't use very often. Like if I look in the fridge and I see, like, oh, my gosh, we have two or three, you know, jars of capers that are, like, barely used, I don't need to spend, you know, another two or three dollars on capers if we're making, I don't know, chicken piccata or something like that. And so it's like a lot of those, like, not as often used things that is just like a reminder, okay, we already have this or we're good on this particular staple. Like we don't need to buy more rice or we're good in this area. So that is helpful. And then also just to see, like, wow, we have a ton of spinach that is about to go bad. That always happens. It's impossible to stay up on, like, the lettuce and the spinach in the fridge. Yeah, just taking, like, a quick peek really makes a difference. I also feel like I save a lot of money by doing mobile ordering for my groceries. So I do usually have my groceries delivered or I will pick them up. And the thing that's great about that is when you're putting together your order, you really get to see what your total is. I feel like it's a lot harder to stay on budget when you're just making a list and then going to the store because prices seem to change all the time. And I just have a really hard time of getting a sense of that. But, like, when you can see your total and you're like, okay, I'm trying to stay under, I don't know, let's just say I'm trying to stay under $150 this week. If you're at $160, like, it's really easy to see, okay, maybe we don't need, you know, that many different types of chips or maybe I need to choose a cheaper cereal or a different cut of meat or this pasta recipe, could we just do it without meat? So I like being able to see my grocery total by using, like, an app or even just on the computer. I don't price compare everything just because I feel like that would be too hard. It would take forever. It would take forever. But I have, like, figured out a few items that are consistently the best prices at certain stores. So for me, it's just three things, and these are things that we buy a lot and we go through it really quickly. And so those things are milk, bread, and yogurt. And the best prices on those three things are three different stores. So I know that my local grocery store, like our smaller chain, it's called Jewel here in, I don't know if it's just an Illinois thing or a Midwest thing, but it's just, like, our smaller local grocery store. They almost always have two gallons of milk. It's always, like, a sale where it's, like, buy two for $5. And so it cuts down the price to, like, $2.50 a gallon, which everywhere else around me it's, like, $2.60 or more, even at, like, Aldi, which I also love to shop at Aldi. Ooh, me too. I'm a regular there. Right? And so I know, like, anytime I'm going to Jewel, I always get two gallons of milk, like, no matter what. And I put the spare in our extra fridge. Or I've never actually done this, but I heard that you can freeze gallons of milk and then, like, they will just thaw, like, totally normal. Like, you can just, like, set the frozen gallon of milk in your sink or in your fridge and it will thaw and it's totally fine. So milk. And then bread. The best price on the bread that I like is at Aldi. And it's the same exact bread that if I bought it at Jewel, it's, like, twice the price. And so that's something that I always buy no matter how much bread I think I have at home or whatever is going, like, whatever our menu is, whatever my grocery list is, if I'm at Aldi, I always get two loaves of bread. And that's another one that I can, like, stick one in the freezer. And then the particular yogurt that I like, the best price on that is always at Walmart. And so whenever I'm at Walmart, even if it's, like, if I'm there to pick up laundry detergent or something else, I just know that's something that I always stock up on there. So even – so I'm sure there are other places. That's so smart. I'm sure there are other areas where, like, consistently they have the best prices at different stores. But I've just kind of identified those three areas and just really tried to only buy those things at those three places. And then the last thing I'll say on groceries is that the biggest budget killer for me is if I have to make a grocery run in the middle of the week. And so I'm really good about planning my menus and doing my grocery order. But if I realize I'm out of something or we need to pick something up in the middle of the week, that is the time where I go in. I think I'm just going to get, like, three things. And then the next thing I know, it's, like, $80. And it happens so quickly. It happens so fast. And so if I can just not do that, like, really just go once a week or, like, just try to do without the thing that I need or, I don't know, just try to, like, make a sacrifice there, like, it is amazing how much money I can save just by not doing that middle of the week. And then the last thing I'll say is, like, if you're going to do a grocery run, make sure you have, like, extra second or third spur of the moment grocery trip because you know once you're there, once you're there in the store, you're going to remember, like, oh, my gosh, like, yeah, we actually really do need some new markers. Or we are low on this. Or it's just the kids will see something and it's easy to say yes to it. Or you'll notice, oh, this fruit is on sale and we could use more. Even if it's, like, a good deal, you cannot leave without spending, like, an extra $80. It's terrible. Well, I will add on to the grocery saving plan and say don't ever take your kids if you can help it. That is so true. There's always some sort of lunchable gusher snack that they just have to have that's a million dollars no matter what store you're purchasing things from. So I will say that that is intentional that I try to always grocery shop when I don't have my kids around. And you said you had mentioned about kind of taking an inventory from your freezer and your pantry. And I really relied on that during my mindful spending month in February. And I was able to get my grocery bills down to around $100 for the week, which is incredible for a family of four. So you just have to be a little creative with what you have. But, unfortunately, sometimes we do end up throwing things away, even from the freezer, because they're in there down under a bunch of other stuff that you use regularly and you just forget about it. So it was a great way to kind of reset those things, not use everything to its entirety, but kind of rely on what we have instead of buying all new. And I still have stuff in my freezer after that month. So I didn't completely deplete it, which is great. I will add about grocery shopping that if there is an Aldi or a Trader Joe's or a little something like that in a town around our listeners, that that's a great place to shop for certain things where they're so much cheaper than some of the name brand stores. And then I also cross-reference the cost of snacks and such from Costco. So I will go and get yogurts from Costco, where my kids just go through them in a day, and they're so expensive at the regular grocery store. So just relying on some of those bulk items that truly make sense. You have to be careful, because sometimes there's a trick, right? And you really aren't saving by buying certain things at those stores. But if you really pay attention to how much they cost per unit, it really helps cut back on grocery costs. And there are several categories where I just thought, well, let's see how the generic compares. Like, I feel like we can be so brand loyal on certain things. And I have just a few times been like, let's just experiment and see if we even notice a difference. And we could just try it one time. And if we hate it, we don't have to go back to the—we don't have to do the Clancy's version. We can go back to the regular Ruffles chips. But there have been so many where I'm like, you know what? We are fine. Like, there might be a small difference or maybe no difference at all. But, like, we're fine with generic peanut butter. We're fine with generic dryer sheets. We're fine with—you know, I'm sure different people will have different things that they feel like they can really notice a difference. But there have been several categories where I thought I wouldn't really notice a difference. And you just get in the habit of always buying what you always have. But if you give generic a shot and you might be surprised or sometimes you might even like it better. So that's another thing that's just worth trying. Yeah, absolutely. My kids cannot tell the difference between the generic brand of Lucky Charms and the regular brand. But it saves me a lot of money at the end of the year if you were to add all of that up. Yep. So moving on to another area where I noticed some savings was with reimbursements. So I don't know if your husband has eligibility to do that with anything. But in our household, my employer offers a gym reimbursement. And so I was thinking traditional gyms. I'm a busy mom, full-time working, have all of this stuff going on. I don't have time to realistically get out to a gym, right? But we bought a Peloton back when the pandemic was kind of raging and everyone was at home. And that's not cheap, that Peloton membership each month. And I just went to my employer and I said, hey, is there any way that I could be reimbursed toward my Peloton membership every month? I know it's not a gym, so I can't get a printout. And she said, oh, yeah, of course. You can just screenshot the days that you're active in your Peloton calendar. And so now it's kind of like I'm benefiting from it in two different ways where I'm reimbursed a dollar a day that I work out at home. And it's also encouraging me to work out because then I'm getting reimbursed for that money that I'm already spending. So sometimes you just kind of have to open your eyes to things and kind of investigate a little bit and get creative and think, how can I bring in some extra money without really doing anything differently? So that was one way that I was really excited about. And also, my husband and I both work from home, and his work will reimburse you for the portion of your cable and Internet bill for Internet. So we weren't taking advantage of that before. So it's just the little things that can get lost when you're busy. But, I mean, that makes a huge difference. We can save up to $100 a month just in those reimbursements. So I just wanted to put that thought out there. Yeah, that's great. I feel like this is a major blind spot for us. Like I'm sure that there are categories where we could be doing this more. And I will be honest. I'm really bad at, like, taking advantage of reimbursements. Like even when we go to, like, the eye doctor and I get, I don't know, like I get, like, some sort of, like, a rebate on my contact lenses. But it's, like, it's such a pain in the butt because then you have to, like, send in a copy of the receipt and go to this website. And it's, like, three extra steps that would probably save, like, a couple hundred dollars. And I just need to, like, do that kind of stuff. And then I also need to see what some of those benefits are through Chris's work and see if we can, see if anybody wants to pay me to work out. I like that dollar per day to exercise. I'm like, well, I better get on that bike, Katie, because I need to get my dollars. Totally. Okay. So the next one for me that we save money, and this is kind of, this is related to food as well. But I'll just say this is, like, a quick thing is that I limit the number of times my kids can get school lunch to once per week. So I know that some kids might get free lunch, which is amazing. During COVID, our school district was providing free lunch for all kids. But I have just noticed for our family, buying lunch supplies and bringing lunch from home just saves so much money. And so I do let them, like, once a week. They can each, you know, get a hot lunch from school, but otherwise they are bringing a lunch every day. And if there is, like, a favorite hot lunch option or something that they wish that they could get at school, I try to make that at home on a random day off. So, like, for example, if they have a random Friday off, which it feels like nowadays it's rare that we are in school five days a week. It seems like every week we have, like, a random day off or an early dismissal or something. There's always something. It's just that time of year. But anyways, if my kids are off of school, then I'll try to make, like, an extra special lunch that day. So, for example, like, mini corn dogs. They love mini corn dogs. They love, like, a chicken patty sandwich. So I try to, like, save those so that if they're home during the day and it's a Friday, instead of just making, you know, normally we would just have sandwiches or leftovers or whatever, I'll try to make that a little bit extra special and do kind of, like, a school lunch but at home. So they kind of still feel like they're getting that fun lunch. But, like, if it's a normal week, they are pretty much packing a lunch every day. And I know that we save a lot of money by doing that. And I know some people, it might not work out that way. But with the stuff that we are packing, it works out in our favor. I love that so much. And I can tell you that if you live down the street from me, my daughter would be at your house eating those chicken patties and corn dogs because those are definitely some of her favorites when she is purchasing lunch. Yes. Well, in the realm of purchasing food, we ate at home a lot more in February. So I had in my head, we can't possibly spend that much. And then I added it up. And I will not share what that number was from January. But I will say that I kind of made a promise that we will not eat out unless we're eating out with someone else. So our family of four was not going to run through the drive-thru just for us. Or we weren't going to order takeout and have it delivered via Grubhub. Or go to a restaurant, just the four of us that month. So we said, okay, if another family wants to go out with us, if we're going to the high school musical with a group of people, then we can eat out. And to be honest, once we started doing it, it wasn't as difficult anymore. We saved a ton of money in that area just by being more mindful and intentional about where we wanted to eat. Because sometimes when you're so busy, I don't know about you, but we can just get in the habit of grabbing something quick. And then when we do make plans to go out, well, where do you want to go? Well, I don't know. Where do you want to go? And nothing really sounds that amazing. And it's because we were just relying on it so much. It became just a force of habit more than a treat. So we're really trying to kind of stick with that of it should be a treat and it should be an event to go out to eat and not just for the sake of time to grab something quickly. I love that because then you know you're not just doing it because it's convenient. You're doing it because you're actually getting more out of it. You're getting the social connection. It feels like, like you said, more of a treat, like something you can be more intentional about instead of just like, oh, we didn't plan or we're tired or just, yeah, I totally have been there before. And I also like you're not like totally depriving yourself of eating out. You're just being smarter about it. Another place that we save money is, and we just did this recently, is by canceling unused subscriptions. I know this is not like groundbreaking. I feel like any article you would read about how to save money, this is probably at the top of the list. But for me, like there's a big gap between like who I want to be and who I actually am. And so sometimes these things that like they're good in theory, but if you're not actually using it, like just cancel it for now. And maybe you're just canceling it for a season, and maybe you'll pick it back up again. But like canceling an unused gym membership, we had like a car wash subscription that needed to be canceled because if you looked at the amount that we were spending on that and then how often we actually got our car washed, it was like, well, if we just paid for the car washes. Like it would be it would make more sense. I had like a couple of random subscriptions to things that I used to use for work. So I had like a Dropbox membership and another like premium membership for something related to my computer that I just don't need anymore. And so that and then also looking to see any apps that like renew annually. It's good just to see what those are. So like we had a subscription to the Calm app, which is like an amazing app for like guided meditations and sleep stories and stuff like that. And just keeping an eye on like, okay, when is that going to renew? Have we used it? Like, if we're not using it, like, let's just cancel it. We can always, you know, pick it back up again if we need to. So definitely do that and you'll be surprised at what you can save. Yeah, I will. I have to admit that something that was on automatic was my Us Weekly subscription. And I can't tell you the last time I had time to sit down and read Us Weekly. Wait, Katie, were you submitting like the physical magazines? I was. Okay. Like through January of this year. I know. Of course. I love it. But that was one of those things where I didn't know how to easily cancel it. Right. So when it would hit, I would just go, oh, I guess I'm still getting that magazine. And it wasn't cheap, Katie. So I researched it and I figured out how to break up with Us Weekly. But I still will get my fill on that via Instagram and things like that. But yeah, that was one of those subscriptions that I thought, this is just not necessary. Right. Or anything where you sign up for like a free trial, then you need to go back. Then you need to like go in and like cancel that immediately. Because otherwise, it's just, it's that surprise. And then on the other, kind of the flip side of that is that I do try to, I know this is one area that we do save money, which is we maximize the memberships and the subscriptions that we actually do use. And so instead of like spending a lot of money on a bunch of different experiences, I love kind of finding the things that are a great fit for our family and then just like kind of doing it all the time. So like we have a membership to our local Arboretum. And it's actually a gift from my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. They gave it to me for my birthday one year. And then every year they just renew it. And it's like literally one of the best gifts like I have ever gotten. And we use it all the time. And so instead of having a membership to the Arboretum and the zoo and the aquarium and the Children's Museum, it's like we just have this one. That doesn't mean that we don't do other things. But like we really just spend a lot of time in this place that we love so much. And then also thinking ahead to the summer, with the ages that my kids are right now, this wouldn't have really worked in the past. But like I'm already thinking we are going to get a pool membership this year just because I know then that we will use it a lot. And probably instead of, you know, planning a million different activities for us to do every week of different things to go see or go do or go experience, like we can just spend a lot of our summer in just swimming and just doing the one thing. And it's fun because then it like takes also less mental energy to try to plan that. And then like everybody just kind of knows what to expect. And they love it, right? They love it. They don't need all the different change of sceneries because the pool is different every time. You never know who else will show up. Right. What game you'll play or how long you'll stay, what the weather is like. So that is a great use of a membership. And that reminds me of we have season passes to Hershey Park, which is a large amusement park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. And my in-laws gift us those every Christmas, which really is just the best gift. And then we found that adding meal plans onto two of our passes really helps because then on a summer night when we worked a long day and the kids were home and getting stir crazy, we had to Hershey Park. We don't even have to spend any money and we can have dinner. So finding ways like that to kind of bring ideas for the kids to do where you don't have to think too much about it and they're just going to love it and get their energy out and not have to spend extra money is so ideal. Yeah, I love that. Well, for the last thing I have, Katie, is more on the no in the moment spending. So I'm one of those people where sometimes I will go through a book in a day and other times it'll take me three months to get through one book. So I guess it just depends on my season of life. But right now I've really found myself leaning into books more and more and the amount I was spending on them was crazy. And I thought, there's a local library. I really need to lean into those resources in my community like you had mentioned. So we have been going to the library a little bit more. My daughter goes through books just as fast as me. So we've really been kind of leaning into that where we've saved some money. And also washing our car at home. Oh, that's fun. That adds up if you go to the car wash all the time. It really does. And with the crazy weather we've had, it's hot and cold and snow and sun. And so when it's sunny and warm out like today, it's 70 degrees. And when we're recording this in March and I'm like, okay, my car could use a good wash tonight, guys. So I might send my husband out there later to do that. Well, along those lines, definitely like looking for free or low-cost versions of the things that we're already doing or things that we want to do is a great way to save money. So definitely like around holidays and things like that, I can fall into the trap of wanting to like you see all of the fun things that other families are doing and like you want to do those things too. So it's like you want to do the Polar Express train ride or you want to do the, I don't know, the fancy tree lighting or the fun ice skating. Just like so many fun things you could be doing. And I have just found that finding the smaller, more local version of that thing is way less expensive, usually way less stressful, and just as fun for the kids, at least at this age that my kids are at. So like our library has an amazing calendar of free events that we love to take advantage of, even like local theater. So like we have a college nearby that does great theater shows and performances. We went to see the Nutcracker there this holiday season and it was a fraction of the price of if we would have gone to the ballet in Chicago. Even sporting events, like I have three boys, they love going to football games and baseball games and basketball games. But it is just as fun for them to go to like our local high school homecoming game or like a nearby college basketball game. I mean, I'm sure they would love to go to professional sporting events and they have been to some, but like just it's not something you can do all the time. And so it's fun just to do it on a smaller scale. Even church events, like our village holiday celebrations are smaller, but still like just as fun and usually free or way less expensive. So looking to see what types of things your park district is doing and just taking advantage of those events that are happening more locally is a great way to save money. And then I'll just really quickly add on to that, that we save a lot of money just by some of the things that we opt out of. So like right now we are opting out of travel sports and club sports. It's something that we might do in the future. But for right now, like I just look at the just the commitment that is involved in that. And it's like, you know what, like you add it all together with like the travel and the equipment and just everything and all the extra fees. And it's like, you know what, we're going to stick with what we're doing for now. And then also like we don't really upgrade or replace things that aren't broken. So like my phone is and Chris's too, like we have super old phones. We have a lot of things that are just really dated, but they're still working. And so it's fine not to say that like we will keep them forever. But like it's just kind of part of our family culture that we are not constantly like upgrading things just to have the newest version of whatever that thing is. Like we have one of our vehicles is like 15 years old and Chris drives it and it's fine. But we also have like a nicer, newer minivan too. So it's kind of like that balance between like using what we have as long as we can and then also like spending our money where it makes the most sense. I love that. And that's a great reminder because that's definitely something some advice that I can take into what I'm currently doing. So thanks for sharing that, Katie. Sure. I think Sarah usually doesn't say anything during these two minutes, but I think sometimes Brian adds it in too, adds in like a minute of like a minute or two pause. Then maybe I'll just start and we can just tell them to add it in when I wrote down the time stamp. Okay, Katie. So we talked a lot about what we were doing to kind of curve our spending and ways to save. But let's be honest, there are some things that we do splurge on and things that we can't live without. So how about we share some of those? Yes, let's do it. We're not perfect. We are not perfect. No, we are still spending a lot of money on a lot of things that we probably don't need to be. Yes, and one of those things for me is vacations. I don't know how you are with vacation planning, but having kids under 10 and one of them most of their life being during COVID and being stuck at home and not going places for a while, we really just got the itch starting last year, I would say, to plan a lot of experiences traveling with our family. And that can look like a lot of different things. It can be going to the beach, going to Disney, or just going to visit friends that live four hours away and spending a long weekend there and doing things in their town. So vacations for me is definitely one of those non-negotiables where I just build into my budget that we're going to be spending money on those experiences while we have two kids at home that still get along, that enjoy one another, travel well. They don't have part-time jobs yet or all the crazy of high school sports where that will probably rule our lives someday. So I'm just kind of leaning into that and just saying it is what it is, and it's worth it for us to kind of allocate a little bit more money toward vacations. Yep, I love that. We are constantly trying to figure out exactly what our travel strategy is. So I feel like we kind of alternate between doing, like, a bigger family trip, like someplace new we've never been, and then, like, going back to, like, familiar places that we, like, know and love or maybe places we can just drive to or shorter trips. One thing for us that is kind of a splurge or something that, like, I just can't really live without is all of the streaming services. Ah, the streaming services. Yeah. I mean, my husband works in television. He works in news. And so we have to have, like, all of the live versions of anything. And so that combined with, like, we just love to watch good shows together. It's, like, one of our shared hobbies. And so we have – and, of course, all the best shows are on all different, like, streaming platforms. And so we have – That's how they get you. Right, right. And so we have Netflix and Prime and Apple TV and HBO Max and Hulu. Like, we have them all. And I'm just waiting for somebody to, like, bundle them all together and, like, reinvent cable because I feel like that's – when we originally cut the cord, we're, like, we're done with cable. It's too expensive. And now, I mean – oh, and add Disney Plus to it I didn't even mention. Now it's, like, you add it all together. It's, like, we're not saving money, but I just don't think we're going to stop. So I don't know. It's kind of – it's a little bit of a guilty pleasure, but you know what? It could be worse. Every time we get close to saying we're done with cable and we're just going to go all in on streaming, then we think, but what about Hallmark Christmas movies for me? And what about SpongeBob SquarePants for Chloe? Like, there's always something that keeps you hooked in each individual streaming service or cable. And so I hear you on that one. Another one for me is that I love a good cup of coffee and creamer. So I might save on some of my groceries or things that I'm buying in bulk and stuff throughout the month. But one thing that has been a non-negotiable for me is buying, like, a good quality coffee and, like, an oat milk creamer that makes me feel like I'm drinking something from Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts or something at home. So while it's not a huge amount of money out of my pocket to keep up that habit, it's definitely something that I just draw a line in the sand and I say, that is not something I'm willing to sacrifice. Are you a big coffee drinker? I'm a big coffee drinker. We are really into coffee beans, so we grind our own beans. Chris does it every night before we go to bed. And so definitely buying coffee beans over pre-ground coffee is more expensive, but it is something that we both can, like, notice a difference. So, you know, back when I was saying, like, oh, we don't notice the difference in, you know, generic mustard and fancy mustard, the coffee beans is something where we can really, like, notice a difference. And so, yeah, I'm with you on that. I don't go to Starbucks all the time, but if I'm having my coffee at home, I want it to be, like, super yummy. For me, another thing that I can't really live without or I don't want to really live without is having a beautiful home and a beautiful yard. Oh, I love this. I mean, we are not, we do not live a fancy life, like, at all. Our house is on the smaller side. We live in, like, a 50-year-old split-level house. It's three bedrooms. Like, my kids have to share a bedroom. Like, it is not a fancy house, but it is really important to me to have a home that is comfortable and serves our family and is beautiful. And so this is, like, a high priority for me. I am definitely more likely to buy something for our home than, like, buy a new outfit for myself. So, like, a piece of artwork or a new lamp or some new bedding, something like that is definitely something that I am willing to spend money on. And then also, like, we spend a lot of time outside when the weather is nice. And so just having a yard with pretty flowers in it and pots and window boxes with flowers and plants, it is just something that is a priority for me. And flowers are expensive, by the way. So expensive. We are coming up on that season, too. But I like trying to find, you know, investing in things, investing in perennials that will come up every year and trying to be smart in how I am spending my flower dollars around the house. I try to shop marketplace for deals. Like, again, I am not buying everything new. But at the end of the day, like, this is where we spend a lot of our time, most of our time. And I love for it to be a beautiful space for our family. So that is something that I definitely spend some extra dollars on. And I can picture how cozy your home most likely is just knowing you and everything that you just shared. So maybe we will give a peek into some of that in our Insta stories here to go along with this episode. Or a future episode. Who knows? Okay, what else for you? What else can you not live without or you do not want to live without? Kid stuff. I do not know why, but I can pass up on something for myself anymore. Kid stuff is something that I just cannot pass up on. I do not know. It started for me when my kids were little and I saw the cute, adorable three-piece outfits and just decorations for their room or new bedding for their room. And I just have not been able to kind of break that habit. So not that I am trying to spoil my children whatsoever. But it is almost like I will wear the same old sweatshirt that I bought from Costco that I absolutely love. That was $12. And find myself, you know, picking out cute Under Armour sweatshirts for my kids. Or new bedding for my daughter's room as she is getting a little bit older and outgrowing kind of the look and feel of her current room today. So that is definitely something that I have always kind of just done and not thought too much about. So kind of like you with the house stuff. And there are extracurriculars I am going to throw into there. So between softball and soccer and Girl Scouts, there is just always something that they need, I feel like. And that is just one place where if they need it, I kind of just do it and I do not think twice. And I will find somewhere else to kind of cut back on. So I could definitely cut back a little bit there. Well, I hear you on the kids' activities especially. Like if there is something that my kids want to try, like a sport or an extracurricular, that is just an area that is hard for me to say no. Like I really do not want to say no on that. And so those registration fees or camps, like if they want to do a camp or something like that, those can really add up. But I agree that it is hard to say no to that. They are only a kid's want. Not really something I want to say no to. Like I want as much as possible, I want them to be able to try out a lot of different things. So I hear you on that. I think the last one for me, area that I cannot really live without, and also you are kind of like inspiring me a little bit here, which is it is related to going out to eat. So like Chris and I love to go out to eat as like a date night. And also we like to take our kids out to eat occasionally. Like this is not something we are doing all the time. But I really want to prioritize the experience of actually going out to eat in a restaurant versus getting takeout. So there is something so convenient about just picking up food or ordering food and having it delivered. But like the other night, just a few nights ago, we ordered Chinese food just for our family of five. And this includes like Charlie who pretty much is mostly wants to eat white rice from a Chinese restaurant. He might have little bites of like other stuff. But I do not even feel like we went crazy. But it was $80 of Chinese food. And that was not even delivered. Like Chris had to go, went there to go pick it up. I mean I think it included a chip. But I was like, oh my gosh, $80 on orange chicken and Mongolian beef, like egg drop soup, holy cow. I mean it was delicious. But I definitely had that moment of sticker shock where I'm like, okay, for a little bit more than this, we could all be sitting in a restaurant. Because then also when you do order takeout or get fast food and you bring it back to your house, don't you notice you still have to clean up? Yes, and isn't that part of the fun of eating out is not having to do the cleaning part? Exactly. And so even if I'm not making the food, like we still have like utensils and placemats and wiping off the table and sweeping under the floor. And it's just like it really doesn't feel worth it to me anymore. And so I really, I love to go out to eat, but like I need that to be just, we need to focus that more on actually doing it at restaurants instead of just bringing it back to our house. Because I can't handle, I can't handle that anymore. That was like a moment of awakening to me. Well, great. I hope that everyone has enjoyed some of our tips for saving money throughout the month on various things that we shared with you earlier. And also some of the things that are some non-negotiables for us. And I would love to hear what some of the listeners feel are non-negotiables for them or how they're saving money too. It might inspire me to help as well. We will be back next week. We will be back next week, Katie, to talk about some of our hacks for slaying the busy season, right? So I'm excited to kind of dive into that next week with you. Yeah. Yeah, me too. It's going to be a good episode. This was so fun. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. And we will see you next week. Bye.
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