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Getting Thrifty: Real Talk on the Cost of Parenting and Creative Ways to Save
780 Plays13 days ago
Is parenting getting more expensive—or is it just us? (Spoiler: it’s not just us.) In this episode, the moms get candid about the rising costs of groceries, childcare, and kids’ activities, and the creative (sometimes desperate!) ways we’re staying afloat.
We talk about meal planning, buying generic butter, saying no to date nights, and why thrifting, budgeting, and second-hand steals are our love language. Plus, we’re joined by budgeting expert and founder of Debt Free Millennials, Justine Nelson, who shares how she paid off $35K in student loans on a $37K salary—and how parents today can take control of their finances, even in this economy.
And of course, don’t miss our Mom Fails (including a tutu disaster and missed recorder concert) and Pits & Peaks of the Week.
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Transcript
Bear Sightings and Mall Chaos
00:00:00
Speaker
The bears are are here. The bears. Every week. Somebody said, or every day at the same time, usually between like two and four. In the morning, right? Or in the oh afternoon. That's wild.
00:00:13
Speaker
All around. Why did I think bears were like nocturnal? always thought they were like evening or dawn. right yeah not mid-afternoon come on guys too busy then how about the one at the west farms mall did we talk about that did you see those clips the one i saw the clips we thought maybe that was caitlin's but that's far away yeah yeah yeah that would be a long journey doing i didn't see them he was like in the parking lot like scaring shoppers they went flying into macy's oh my god he went to rainforest cafe i think that closed caitlin
00:00:48
Speaker
A long time ago. I don't think I ever went. I remember walking by it when malls were a big deal and just dreaming. Same with Planet Hollywood. I didn't do any of that Yeah. Rainforest Cafe was like the epitome of mall culture. That was like the peak.
00:01:02
Speaker
And then it was all just downhill when those left.
Mall Nostalgia and Evolution
00:01:05
Speaker
Well, and what is the new thing? I mean, listen, I'm not at a mall too often, but when I do, i sort of living my, what is the TV show? That's all the third. um What's that retro TV show?
00:01:16
Speaker
That's my brain today. No, no, no. The one, Stranger Things. Oh, yeah. My brain today has been on the fritz. But they have those, like, giant ride-on animals that just go bopping around, like stuffies that you can sit on with wheels. Oh, the thing at the Trumbull Mall.
00:01:34
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Listen. Yeah, they have those at the Stanford Mall, too. Yeah. mean, you're not going to get me to the mall, I'll tell you that much, but people seem to enjoy it I don't know.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah. My kids rode them in Ohio. Like two years ago. At the mall? With my mother-in-law and their aunt, like our great aunt, took them to the mall so they could ride the animals. I was like, oh, okay.
00:01:58
Speaker
I've never even seen these before. They're kind of weird. Yeah. yeah Although I kind of want to ride one around the mall. I just feel like they have fleas and they're not alive.
00:02:11
Speaker
Caitlin, they have fleas.
00:02:15
Speaker
But do you think it's because they know that grownups have the money and so kids are the reason they're not coming to the mall? So if they have all these like wheelie stuffies that the kids will be like, I'm in, let's go to the mall. And then like, what is the, or is it just some private like wheelie stuffy company that gets access to the mall?
00:02:35
Speaker
I think they're trying to make malls. I just know, cause I work with Stanford mall more of like an experience, you know, like when you go shopping, Like the Stanford mall, there's like an, it's a roller skating is opening now in that mall.
00:02:50
Speaker
Oh, that's fun. Yeah. So like, you know, they're trying to and you know, they had a Halloween haunted house. They had a holiday wish for Christmas. but So I feel like, I guess while you're shopping, you're going to take advantage of all those things.
00:03:04
Speaker
I think it's like a different way market. realize with online shopping that people don't have to go to the mall to buy things. That's right. to have to go to the mall. So now they're like trying to make things people like for. Like a field trip.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah.
Swimsuit Shopping Challenges
00:03:19
Speaker
I do miss shopping in a store, being able to try on clothes because yeah you'll go – they have nothing. I need to buy a bathing suit. Where am I going to go try on a bathing suit right now?
00:03:28
Speaker
no I don't want a Target bathing suit. I don't want an old bathing bathing suit. I want to like a proper bathing suit that's going to last me a couple years and there's nowhere. No. Yeah. You're going to have to order like from yes one site and get like, you know, like summer salt and order like 13 and it's probably free returns at least, but it's a pain, but yeah.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. And spoiler alert, none of them are going to cover your ass the way they want them to. So just go ahead and accept that right now. Yeah, I know. And that has nothing to do with your ass, which is quite petite. It has everything to do with the cut of these swimsuits. It's true.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. i should send you guys the video of me modeling a swimsuit. I was sent from a brand the other night. My sisters, I sent a picture and they're like Oh my gosh, it's so good. And i was like, no no, no, no, no. Let me give you an up close.
00:04:14
Speaker
They're like, why is it, why is it cutting into your butt cheek like that? yeah I said, I don't know if it's supposed to be a thong. It's a one piece and it wanted to just cover my crack.
00:04:25
Speaker
That's it. They're very cheeky now. Just rock the thong. It's fine. No one wants to see that ever. I shall not. I kind of want to, I kind of want to be with you when you rock that thong.
00:04:38
Speaker
Do you see how white I am? It'll be a full moon for all of America if my dad
Dress Codes and Cruise Dining
00:04:44
Speaker
is. You can't wait. We talked about that on here. Mooning's not a thing anymore.
00:04:50
Speaker
Was that on this podcast? I think so. or would he just bringing her do that We need to bring it back. My family moons all the time. somebody Somebody will arrest you. You can't do that anymore. yeah no Well, don't you remember the kids on the bus? Because somebody will be offended. yeah Kids on the bus used to do it all the time.
00:05:07
Speaker
um right That was the epitome of humor. yeah right we need to get started enough about the mooning welcome to just for moms i'm charlotte i'm caitlin i'm megan and i'm callie we are regular moms talking about regular stuff like aging parenthood work-life balance and figuring out what's for dinner again no judgment zone to talk laugh and maybe cry about all the things women think about on a daily basis things i'll plan
00:05:35
Speaker
All right, you guys. Time to rein it in from the butt talk. I could be speaking to my six-year-old and my four-year-old right now. Welcome back to Just for Moms.
00:05:46
Speaker
I'm Callie here with Caitlin, Megan, and Charlotte. And I want to ask if you guys have heard about the Carnival Cruise Line dress code. Conspiracy is not the word.
00:05:59
Speaker
um Like, debate. Debate. Does anyone know about this? Okay. So Carnival Cruise Line, everyone knows, is one of the more like relaxed, not as stuffy cruise lines, right?
00:06:10
Speaker
Based on their commercials, they seem- I've only been on two cruises my entire life. Based on the commercials, they seem like the more fun, relaxed one, while some are more like fancy and whatever. Caitlin would wear her thong on that cruise.
00:06:21
Speaker
You could wear your thong on the cruise. Yes, you can. So anyways, there's a whole in the cruise world, cruise ship world, there's this whole like debate because they do have a dress code when you're in the main dining room that you can't, there's certain things you can't wear. Like you can't wear a swimsuit in the main dining room. you can't wear flip flops in the main dining room, but apparently they don't always enforce it.
00:06:44
Speaker
And so then some people are wearing it and then they're not enforcing it. And there's this whole debate because some people are like, you should have to dress nice in the main dining room. And then other people are like, it's vacation. You should wear whatever you want.
00:06:56
Speaker
And if you are bothered by what somebody is wearing, you're stuffy and no fun and You should not go on vacation. i don't know. I didn't. This is what I got from the article. So I guess my question is, and we kind of actually were talking about this in the last episode, because Charlotte, you were talking about trying to convince your daughter to wear the proper shoes with a graduation dress.
00:07:17
Speaker
And it's sort of like this whole thing about dress code. And I feel like. in this day and age, like it's such a blurry line now. Like there's so many things that you don't have to dress up for that you used to.
00:07:28
Speaker
And I'm wondering how you guys feel about it. Cause there's a huge part of me. That's like, I think you should just wear whatever you want, like be comfortable, who cares? But there's also this part of me that's like, there's certain times you should be dressed up. And I think that that's appropriate.
00:07:40
Speaker
I don't know. What do you guys think? I'm a rule follower. So I think that if there's a rule that you should wear, you cannot wear X, Y, and Z in a dining room. And All of the people around you have paid the same amount of money as you to be on this trip.
00:07:54
Speaker
Why do you get to break the rules? And I will say carnival is the more laid back. I've been on a lot of cruises and a lot of different ones. And you will go in the dining room and you have people dressed.
00:08:05
Speaker
I mean, you're not supposed to wear jeans. You're not supposed to wear flip-flops. You're not supposed to be shirtless. And there'll be men who walk in in a straight up bathing suit tank top.
00:08:16
Speaker
Like you have not changed since you were out on the Island. and jorts and sandals and they don't turn them away. And so it is and not that that's like bothers me or affects how I, my, my experience or anything like that, but to say that these are the rules and then not enforce them is, I don't think that's right. And then how, what are your children supposed to think?
00:08:39
Speaker
So that's where i don't, I don't agree with that. Megan. I'm with Caitlin follow the rules. I think having a dress code. is a good thing. And i would follow the dress code being in the dining room. If there's other people not following it, I don't really care. i i mean, going to make my family follow it if that was me there. and I think it's good for our kids to have a dress code. You know, it's also, you know, the old school way that I was brought up when, you know, even now still when I'm around my parents and I'll get a text from my dad, hey, we're all going to dinner Saturday night. Remind the girls, like, please no short skirts and no tank tops and tell Nico he can't wear a hat. Same sort of thing. I think it's it's good. And it's not going to affect me if other people's daughters are wearing short skirts.
00:09:27
Speaker
I feel like it's tea. Whatever works best for your house and the dining room is a place that I guess is more elegant to wear and you wouldn't wear a bathing suit and a cutoff shirt from the pool. But if some guy wants to roll in and do that, I'll observe him and let him do a thing. But I'm not going to do it.
00:09:50
Speaker
Aren't these cruise ships like moving villages? I guess my... yeah My thought is... Okay, Charlotte said that. But, like, shouldn't there... Isn't it as simple as having one place to eat where you can wear whatever you want and then have the main area be, you know, a slightly more elevated expectation? Because I do... I don't know. Dress codes are tricky to me. Like, I can overthink it and get bogged down. But I think overall...
00:10:22
Speaker
when you're more presentable, your behavior sort of follows. you know Like it's hard to be reckless in a coat and tie. It happens. But I do think that there's a correlation between the way we behave and the way we look. And so I can appreciate that if you've spent money to be on a vacation, that at the end of the day, you would like to have sort of a quieter, more kind of Civilized isn't quite the right word, but just a different dining experience than just like a snack bar with a bunch of French fries. So I can see that you would want it. And I agree with you, Caitlin, like why people are paying the same amount of money with the same expectations. So there should be a way to enforce it. But it, I don't know. It seems to me that if like bro with a tank top wants to roll right off of the island, just go to whatever the pool deck.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Go to Lido deck. Right. Right. Yeah, well, I'm glad. I mean, I kind of feel the same way. I feel like yeah there's options for these people on the cruise ships if they don't want to have to dress in other things. And I just feel like i feel like there is, like you said, Charlotte, there's something about the way that you dress that may make you act a certain way. And I think that we can show, like, I think it shows a level of respect by dressing in certain ways in certain places.
00:11:37
Speaker
And I don't think that that makes me such an old school, old lady. No. And I've been on cruises growing up. I haven't been in years, but I feel like that was the fun of it was dressing up every night, you know, and like we had to, we had to get a few gowns or dresses, whatever. And they would email you like what the itinerary was. And it was like, that's what made the cruise fun. If you don't want to follow that, I don't know, just go to like Jamaica or something. And I don't think, I think you could wear your thong and You know, wife beater. No one will care, right? if you tell
00:12:10
Speaker
If you tell my 10-year-old that it's like, look nice or not even dress up, but just we're not going to wear sports clothes. Yeah. He has ah handful of legit Hawaiian shirts that he will pull out.
00:12:24
Speaker
on a dime. He loves, and he'll wear it with a pair of pants. He might even grab a blazer. That's his uniform when he has to look nice.
Parenting Struggles and Humor
00:12:32
Speaker
And on we go. We had to go went to dinner with friends at one of the local clubs and they have, you know, their dress code is like, don't wear bathing suits. And maybe the men have to wear collared shirts, but it's nothing super rigorous. And this is how he rolled in.
00:12:46
Speaker
love that. like seersucker pants hawaiian shirt and a blazer that's so fun yeah he's ready yeah that's cute it could be way worse so that's pretty good i like it i like hawaiian shirt with a blazer i think that's it always works style yeah he's got some style yeah all right who's got a mom fail for us this week megan do you have any mom fails Yeah, so I've just been having a hard time cooking meals, guys. i just I've been ordering and doing the drive-through Wendy's and McDonald's. I'm just failing at cooking dinner.
00:13:21
Speaker
I do good with breakfast and some you know lunch, but like the dinner is just – I'm not doing a good job you know yeah I feel like i just I should make the time, but I'm lazy, and i just no one likes what I make, and it's just like – So that's my mom fail. It's just I've been doing a crappy job at dinner.
00:13:41
Speaker
But you're feeding your children and that's important. Thank you. I mean, they're fine. You're doing a good job. They're fine. They probably love it. Figure it out. Figure it out. Fine. Caitlin? I had my first moment where I embarrassed my oldest.
00:13:58
Speaker
And she's always never really cared about like what I look like. or how I dress. And we went to a color run for the middle school that she's going to. And it was a big fundraiser.
00:14:09
Speaker
Now, mind you, I am the the volunteer table for their dance studio. So the mo we didn't get to go last year. And all of my mom friends were like, oh, well, you know, you wear a shirt that says the dance company on the front of it. And then you wear a tutu. I'm like, cool. Okay.
00:14:25
Speaker
What tutu do I order? i They send me the link to get the one on Amazon. And when I opened it, it was like, like looked like it belonged on Arbor and it just like sticks straight out. So I'm like, oh gosh, this is funny. And so I put it on and I come downstairs and Annabelle was like, what are you wearing?
00:14:42
Speaker
was like, what? She's like, you, you can't wear that. And I said, why can't I wear that? I'm representing the dance studio. I have a tutu on. It's fine. and said, that doesn't fit you. i said, well, what do you mean it doesn't fit me? I have leggings. It's not like I'm going pantsless. I have leggings on and the you can't see anything.
00:14:57
Speaker
She said, are the other moms wearing that? And I was like, yeah. And so She just, I just have never felt so, um, judged.
00:15:08
Speaker
and Yeah. I've never felt so judged in my life as a mother. I mean, not even, no never. And so once we got there and she saw all the other moms and tutus, we were fine, but it's it's only the beginning.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah. i feel like it's just going to get worse because I get it every day. Yeah.
00:15:29
Speaker
Megan's like, buckle up. yeah
00:15:34
Speaker
What's that eye shadow?
00:15:38
Speaker
Okay. I didn't ask you. Charlotte, do you have a mom fail for us? I mean, kind of. it's It's a mom fail from the perspective of my kid.
00:15:51
Speaker
When my kids turn 10, they get a little trip. We use miles or whatever, and we take them to Universal, just one of us. So it's a simple one-on-one. My husband just took my youngest.
00:16:02
Speaker
And it's that time of year when You know, the trip has been booked for a couple of months, but then 19 things have sprung up between the time we booked it. And they've since returned. So I think he's redeemed himself. But when he was leaving, he was missing a recorder concert at school. So they've been working up to this for weeks, if not months. There was like an end of the year scrimmage. Like there were just a couple of things that happened to land on the weekend. And so he left.
00:16:32
Speaker
like kind of in a shitty mood because was like, I just don't want to go. And we were like, trust me, buddy, I think it's going to be worth it. Spoiler, it was worth it. But I mean, I feel badly. They've been working for it and it's fine. And he'll perform for us in the living room. But I don't know. He was not happy about that.
00:16:51
Speaker
I mean, he's happy about the trip. So I guess both can be true. Yes. There's too many things on this calendar to remember. Yeah. but I'll do my mom fail really quick and then we'll jump into today's topic. So two-year-old has been potty trained, but he still was using like the little potty, you know, not like the step up onto the big potty.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yes. And he decided that when he had to go poop, he wanted privacy, which is fine. All my kids go through the phase where when they poop, they want privacy. But because he was still in the little potty, like I kept kind of, you know, every like minute I would like check on him because the little potty, you got to like carry it over to the real potty.
00:17:27
Speaker
He was very adamant. He wanted privacy. And so i was trying to check carefully, whatever. I finally check. It's too late. He has gotten up and God bless him was like time to dump the poop in the potty, but it didn't all make it in the potty. and then
Financial Challenges and Strategies
00:17:42
Speaker
you could tell he tried to fix. Oh God.
00:17:45
Speaker
And it was just poop. everywhere and i walk into it and i'm like i can't be upset you know like he did yeah i you know god bless you know i have other kids that just want me to do it all for him so like god bless him at barely two was like i'll dump my poop and i'll wipe myself and i'll just take care of it all but it was there was a lot of just thank god we have lace all bleach spray you know oh tate so cute though he tried boy good boy was so good i know one of those weird moments where i'm like i'm proud of you but also yeah
00:18:17
Speaker
Ew. Next time, call for mom. Yes. Well, we have since retired the little potty. He's just going figure it out on the on the big one. So it's fine. The little potty is gone. Okay. So today, what I wanted to talk about is being thrifty and getting thrifty in parenting. So start with some stats. We love to start with stats. So I found a study that was done by LendingTree, and it found that the annual costs associated with raising a child had jumped 35.7% since 2023.
00:18:46
Speaker
Earmuffs. Oh, wow. yes Damn. That is in two years, almost a 36% increase in two years.
00:18:57
Speaker
um And so the the three things that it pulled out as being the biggest increase was childcare, food, and health insurance. So in the study, they interviewed this guy, Matt Schultz. He was the lending tree sh- chief consumer finance analyst.
00:19:12
Speaker
And he said, when big costs like childcare shoot up by 40% plus, it can be a real crisis. The extra money has to come from somewhere. So forces families to make some difficult decisions. decisions.
00:19:23
Speaker
So obviously childcare is, and so in this study, actually the 35.7% was for people raising, they consider it like small children. So like under five years, and then they did one for school age and then one for like high school, which they all went up.
00:19:38
Speaker
That was obviously the biggest one because of the childcare costs. But I wanted to talk about, i feel like we probably all have a place somewhere in our budget than in the last like two or three years, we're like, why is this getting so much more expensive than it was?
00:19:51
Speaker
The cost, I feel like, of groceries just keeps going up and up. I just feel like everything around me, I mean, I know for us every year, the cost of childcare goes up. Wherever we have been, like every year we get that letter that's like, hey, it's going to be more next year.
00:20:05
Speaker
so that's always one that's constantly going up. I feel like most of us, if we own a house, maybe not an issue, We got our house reassessed. so our taxes are going up.
00:20:17
Speaker
My mom is trying to move. So she's looking at rental properties. And she literally sent me one today that was listed, i think, four years ago and had increased the rent had increased 50%.
00:20:29
Speaker
In three years. not So it's just like everywhere, right? I just feel like everywhere I turn, it's like we're like everything is getting so much more expensive. So my first question before we kind of dive into maybe some of the things that we're doing around it is if you had to pinpoint one of the things that you feel like has been getting away from you the most in budget.
00:20:48
Speaker
that you think has increased the most would you say like you feel like groceries are going crazy hasn't been child care costs for you like what's one of the ones or maybe it's maybe not even related to just costs in general maybe you just have more kids in sports and so that's one what's one of the line items right now that's in the parenting world sort of costing you the most charlotte you want to go first I think, I think it's two things. I think our salaries have, mine has gone down. I'm just not making nearly what I used to. And then my husband's has been flat.
00:21:25
Speaker
And then I think sports for us has been a ah big one. The more competitive your sports get, the more, I mean, these clubs teams are thousands of dollars and they're, A handful of our kids are at an age when there's not really an option to keep playing in the town rec leagues. I mean, sure we could, but I think that has been the biggest difference that I would say and my, yeah.
00:21:50
Speaker
Caitlin, what about you guys? Groceries for sure, because now we have a third who eats as much as everybody else. Extracurriculars, dance, but um medical bills,
00:22:02
Speaker
Like the dentist, I mean, and I have, my oldest has, was born with hypoplasia in her teeth. So she's had a lot of issues just forever. And i swear, I mean, we're always paying something at the dentist or the doctor's office is like, I mean, my children have had some health things come up, but nothing's ever fully covered.
00:22:25
Speaker
So like, you have to go get an x-ray. We still end up paying whatever. and it's like, I'm just always seeing a new medical bill come in and I'm like, how is this not covered? How did, why am I paying for an x-ray that they said that she had to have? And so, yeah, I would say that.
00:22:41
Speaker
Yeah. Megan. I would say definitely the kids activities. Actually, we make a spreadsheet for fall, spring, and summer just to see how much it costs, just so like we can budget that out. And obviously Joe, you know, pays most of that. Yeah, it's crazy. Both of my girls are in dance and they're part of the company and they're there right now because their recitals are coming up seven days a week. And then Nico's in a travel sport. Gianna's in a travel sport. And then when you get in the summertime, you have the camp version of everything.
00:23:16
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, you could buy like a car at the end of the year with how much money you spend on these kids' activities. And like if they enjoy it and if they're hardworking and they want to be part of it, I see the value in spending the money there for sure. If they don't want to do it, I don't like I'm, I don't push my kids to do anything they want to do. So, but um yeah, it just adds up quick. And every year, you know, it's more. And then like the soccer, Nico does travel soccer and then His number stays the same the past three years, but why do we have to order a new uniform and jersey every year? And like the the design changes.
00:23:51
Speaker
I'm like, and that's like buying two jerseys is like $250. And I'm like, he could have worn the same one the past three years. it's just It's just a moneymaker too. Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker
so But again, it's all part of it and you're invested. And another point to that too is like I say to my husband when he says how expensive like the girl's ballet bill is, I'm like, well, what do you want him not to do it?
00:24:13
Speaker
And he's like, no, but it's just so expensive. And I'm like, I know. Yeah. It is. Mm-hmm. It's so many of the things. I mean, same with, yeah, that they just hit you and it's like, yeah, i mean, what's the other option? you know on Yeah, what's the alternative? Sorry, guys, you can't dance. The registration fees always make me giggle too for like the performance. And then there's another one. And then the the costume for the dance, like there's an extra for this, but there's not for that. And it's like, okay, here's another $60, $50. I mean, what else do you want from me?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. For us, I feel like groceries is one just because we now have all four at eating age. So that's always, that's always one that's, that's growing and,
00:25:02
Speaker
like suddenly I have a six year old that can like, like he can't split a meal with his sister anymore. Like he can eat, like, you know, I can't make one box of mac and cheese, you know, gotta do the two, gotta order to the second, second pizza. yeah Uh, that's big one. And then, I mean, my kids got three kids and,
00:25:20
Speaker
childcare age, you know, that need either daycare or a nanny or, you know, they're not school aged. So that one is, I mean, it just every year just goes up. And Michael and I talk about it all the time. We're like, I mean, this is this year and next year are probably the most expensive years for us, especially childcare wise, just because we have three children in need of childcare, which is crazy.
00:25:42
Speaker
so One of the things that we have been doing with groceries is I've been getting like a lot thriftier with my groceries. And so that's kind of what I want to lead into are like, what are some of the things that you guys have done to help either mitigate the cost or,
00:26:00
Speaker
places that you have cut costs to make up for where you're spending extra. So I was joking with a friend the other day, but I was like, I buy generic butter now, which seems really silly. But like butter was one of those always like gold standard for me that like i always wanted the good butter, which is silly. We all have our things, right? But like, but I'm at the point where i'm like, like, just give me the cheapest butter.
00:26:20
Speaker
Give me the like generic eggs where like I used to be like the organic farm. I'm like, I can't. I can't do every kind of these, the special this and that. So I've definitely gotten a lot, I guess, if thrifty is the word or just more lax about it where I'm like, we're getting fed.
00:26:37
Speaker
And like I can't spend thousands and thousands of dollars in groceries to get organic cucumbers. I just can't do it. So that's a big one that we've been doing. Lately, I've been better about going to Costco because as you guys know, when I moved last year, now 10 minutes from a Costco. So I've been better about using Costco ah properly, not just buying a bunch of stuff.
00:26:58
Speaker
So I'm curious, what are some of the things you guys do in your house that help you cut costs or places that you cut the budget so that you can spend it somewhere else?
00:27:09
Speaker
Caitlin, do you want first? You know, I kind of similar, similar to what you said, No, you didn't say this. I shop around. Costco, yes. Costco, I used to kind of just go in there and be like, oh, this is fun and this is fun. But our basement fridge broke and I stored a lot of stuff in there. And I swear it was the pandemic that made me feel like I needed to stockpile, like there was going to be another pandemic tomorrow.
00:27:34
Speaker
So for a long time, I was just spending a lot of money on things to store in the basement. And then a lot of times they'd end up never... being used or they'd go bad or people would, I'd give it all the way to the canned food drive that the kids were doing at school.
00:27:51
Speaker
When the fridge broke, I realized, and then also some life changes. I was like, I can't spend money like this on groceries. Like I don't have the money to be spending like this period.
00:28:02
Speaker
So Costco is a very smart trip. Like there's certain things I only buy there. Walmart, delivery, I pay for that because if I enter Walmart, if I enter any store with my toddler, I'm going to walk out spending a hundred dollars more than I wanted to.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I only shop online there. If I ever need anything at the regular grocery store, tell myself, go in and buy that one thing and get out. And then because I cut costs at all these other places, then when we go to our local market, this produce store, I will spend a little more there.
00:28:34
Speaker
And and the the meat is better and the seafood is better But my kids will say, oh, I want mini muffins while we're at the produce store. And I'm like, noon no no, no, no. I buy those at Walmart. They're $4 cheaper. that's what I have to do.
00:28:49
Speaker
Yeah. I find, especially with groceries, I always, I order all my groceries, which at one point was just necessity with children. Like getting into the grocery store was really hard. But I have found that like I save so much money. so um I can look through the ad.
00:29:03
Speaker
I can add to it. i can go in and be like, oh, wait, why is the balance this high? And then like delete some stuff that maybe was just extras I didn't really need as such a money saver for me to do the online shopping.
00:29:17
Speaker
Absolutely. Which I feel bad because I want to go into the store. It feels like the right thing do. love it. when i When you actually do go in the grocery store after a long time, so exciting look at how many exciting things they have.
00:29:29
Speaker
You're on an app. You don't know about any of the new products. It's true. Charlotte, what about in your house? Similar. Having a meal plan has been helpful. i used to I've always, since COVID, I've ordered for pickup, to all your point about adding extras I also will not ever go into a store if I don't have to. It brings me no joy. So I do love just being able to sit at my kitchen counter and do it.
00:29:55
Speaker
But having a meal plan has cut out all the impulse purchases and... It's, you know, I would just get, before I would get a little meat and a little produce and they wouldn't necessarily go together. And so I just felt like we were throwing out more food than normal. So having a meal plan, it's like, oh, right, there's a purpose to all these things and they get used. it's a little harder now that they're older and more particular, but until recently,
00:30:20
Speaker
everything they wore was secondhand. I would just go to Once Upon a Child one or two times a year. And that, you know, that thats saved a lot. and And I was pretty forensic about recycling clothes. You know, I just had like a shelf just filled with Tupperware filled with clothes. The boys were a little harder on their clothes than the girls, so they just needed new stuff.
00:30:42
Speaker
But that, I mean... I don't know. I think I probably spent a couple hundred bucks a year on clothes for five kids. And that's, you know, that could be one target run if you let it. So that was helpful.
00:30:53
Speaker
And then, i mean, we do, it sounds silly and this is a suburban thing, but we do all of, we, do all of our yard work. We used to have a lawnmower that would come through and now that's on us. So we have,
00:31:08
Speaker
you know Either one of the kids will do it or I'll do it or we have a robot mower and then you know I'm spreading mulch. so that So it's a seasonal type of thing, but that's a few thousand bucks.
00:31:19
Speaker
And those little things, we're in the position as a family where we don't, I'm not counting pennies. So if I need a $10 thing on Amazon, I'm going get it. If I'm out with the kids and they want a cake pop at Starbucks, I'm going get it.
00:31:37
Speaker
But we're pretty lean. i wouldn't say that we we eat out maybe once a week and that is usually like Shake Shack or something. So overall, we're sort of in this spot of, you know, we don't do, we don't travel. We don't, you know, these kids are not on airplanes unless we have miles.
00:31:56
Speaker
So we're pretty ah we're pretty frugal with like the big stuff, but it means that we can be a little bit more lenient and relaxed with the smaller things. So I don't,
00:32:07
Speaker
I don't feel guilty getting them a pack of gum when we're checking out at the grocery store. I mean, maybe that's a stupid example, but I don't, I'm not counting pennies to that extent because we're trying to, we just aren't doing a lot of big ticket purchases.
00:32:22
Speaker
Yeah. I think the hand-me-down one is a good example. i didn't bother hand-me-downs at all when I had two. And by the time I had my third, i was like, this is getting ridiculous to like rebuy something i had already owned for another one. And so then I got really good about it. And it does save...
00:32:39
Speaker
so much money like at the beginning of the spring season being able to go down and realize like i had a bunch of stuff for finley that i was able to pull out because somebody had given it to me at one point and i'd stashed it away and that tate is because he's big he already fits into some of the stuff that i had saved from miles when he was three and so i was able to do just like one order from old navy i think we kept it like right at 200 and like everybody was done after that So that one.
00:33:08
Speaker
ah just and yeah like you said some it's opposite for me findley is much harder on her clothes than my boys are so poor opal needs mostly new new clothes but ah but yeah you know or like underwear i'm not like handmade down mean the underwear is not happening and and i do hand me downs also you know my first for me i'm going to go on poshmark before i'm going to go somewhere else i'm going to look on facebook marketplace or like fly through goodwill i mean i Not that this is a huge line item in our budget, but those are usually my first instincts is where is Facebook Marketplace Posh? Can I get this secondhand or use before I'm just ordering it?
00:33:45
Speaker
I even go on eBay sometimes, Charlotte, too, and find stuff. Yeah. Yeah. we What about, so what about you, Megan? Oh, go ahead, Caitlin. Yeah, go ahead, Caitlin. I was just going to piggyback off the hand-me-down thing. I said this in a couple episodes ago about, I'm just, a I have so much clothes in my basement because I don't want to give them away.
00:34:02
Speaker
But I also, for a long period of time, granted Annabelle and Eileen are two and a half years apart, almost three. They were born in completely different seasons. And Eileen was a bigger baby, just bigger overall. So she never fit in at anything of Annabelle's at the right time.
00:34:18
Speaker
And we finally hit that point where I don't even have to shop for Eileen probably for the next to two seasons because there's so much stuff. And we just keep finding more and more that might be labeled wrong in a basket that she can wear.
00:34:35
Speaker
Now, Arbor, though, I gave away a lot of stuff, not thinking I was ever having a third daughter or Eileen ruined it all. So I'm buying for my toddler and then I'm buying for my oldest.
00:34:47
Speaker
What I have found is even... When my oldest isn't making fun of what I'm wearing, she does kind of like my clothes. So she can borrow from me, which has been great. And before I give anything away that I don't think I'm ever going to wear again, I offer it up to her first.
00:35:01
Speaker
So she's got a lot of stuff saved for when she gets a little bit bigger for basically cold months. Yeah. I feel like it's one of those things like hammy downs is like, once you start doing it, you realize you can do it more and more. And like with so many things that you don't always, yeah. You hadn't always thought about, like, it's like a, it's sort of like a habit.
00:35:20
Speaker
don't know. It's fun. All right, Megan, what you guys do? Yeah. So in our house, we do the Costco for certain things and also the grocery store. I don't do organics. I just have cut it out over the years just because it's expensive.
00:35:35
Speaker
Um, Another thing that I love is like the apps that CVS and my Acme store have. I live on those. Like before I go into the store, and I know it's like time consuming, like my, you know, certain people like I don't have time for coupons, but like I save a lot of money. And I feel like sometimes I'll only go to a store if I get a coupon, like those CVS extra care You know, even like sometimes I'll go on like Groupon, like if the girls want to see a show in the city, like he there's still good deals on that Groupon and Living Social. And I'm always, you know, ah we went to go see the Nutcracker. I found a deal.
00:36:11
Speaker
i always like Google. And again, it is time consuming. But if you have the time and you want to save money. the money, you can do a little research and what else? Oh, like the girls like to go to Starbucks.
00:36:23
Speaker
So I tell them each, no, once a week. And that's, that's good because it adds up and it's, that's just, that's not a necessity. I know it's like cool to walk around town with a Starbucks, but like, like there needs to be a budget because it adds up and it's just silly. And like Nico likes to get these squeezy mates from the mobile mart in town.
00:36:44
Speaker
Same thing. He was asking for it like three, four times a week. And I'm like, buddy, we could go once every two weeks, but like, what do you, like when we get home, can you like help mommy fold the towels or put the, like I try to make them do so like chores. Like, cause that was how I was brought up. We weren't just given things. My parents would be, my mom would be like, okay, you want that from CVS? yeah When we get home, you need to fold the load of laundry on the bed, you know? yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
um And I do love hand-me-downs. My friends, family, neighbors, we I've done hand-me-downs. I think it's great. My girls like it. My girls, obviously, it trickles down.
00:37:20
Speaker
And now we all kind of share clothes, which is good and bad. But like a local consignment store opened up here last week and I went and I found all this good stuff. And at first, like my older was like, well, isn't it like rolled her nose and her eyes? I said,
00:37:35
Speaker
There is nothing wrong with that. You can wear that. Like mom wears you stuff too. And she's like, wow, this is really good stuff. Don't have that attitude. where' I love, like again, I love, you feel good when you buy and save money and it's a good deal.
00:37:52
Speaker
And then another point that I made in my notes is restaurants. I feel like going out to eat, we've obviously learned through the years is a huge expense. So we've definitely cut back.
00:38:03
Speaker
And when we do go out to eat now that my kids are all older and my girls eat what we like we were out to eat and Gianna ordered like the salmon special. And then it came to my turn. So I was like, oh, okay. I think I'm just going to get the pasta now rather than the steak. Because I was like, it's expensive. So, you know, you go out to even sushi too. They eat like all these like rolls and everything. And I'm like, okay, I'll have edamame and a mommy in the miso soup and whatever they don't eat.
00:38:32
Speaker
You know, it's a special occasion in the Smith house when the kids can order drinks. Oh, wow. Because that's where they screw you. I'm sorry, $4.95 for a thing of 7-Up? Like, uh-uh.
00:38:44
Speaker
So they never – it's always water for the kids. And we do the same thing, Megan, with jobs. Because for Starbucks, I have a couple of kids. ah Oliver now with DoorDash. He was like, this close. It's at the Trumbull Mall. And I was like – No, no, no, no, no. Like, yes, technically you can do it, but like, don't be an asshole getting some like cheesesteak from the Trump. That's 40 minutes. I don't know.
00:39:05
Speaker
I just was like, just cause you can, but I will pay them to do, i mean, to my yard work comment, I will go like go through the transaction of do some work that, and I'll come up with stuff for them to do. And then we will pay them so that it is their money.
00:39:21
Speaker
So there's like a zero point, which is just a point of, it's just a different order of like, come home and fold the laundry if I'm to give you the Starbucks, because then i feel like it just is showing my older kids. I don't do this with Arthur, but for my older kids, it shows them.
00:39:35
Speaker
Like it's your money. If you want to do $45 door dash, like that's but two hours. Yeah. That's two hours of mowing my lawn that is going to that cheesesteak. I hope you enjoy it. Yeah. I feel like it's fun for them. Like at the high school, they stopped it. Thank God they used to be able to door dash things to the door and all the delivery stuff.
00:39:55
Speaker
So Ava would like text me like, can I order crumble? And I'm like, No, no, this is getting out of hand because it's like cool to go and get it, you know? Yeah. And one last thing too, like we, Ava just had her birthday and she wants a new makeup vanity.
00:40:09
Speaker
And my thing is looking at these ones online, putting them together, I'm not a very, I'm not good at putting stuff together. And Joe's really busy with work. I mean, if we were to order it, it would eventually, yes, get done.
00:40:24
Speaker
But I'm looking like on Facebook Marketplace and, you know, these, I was showing her ones and I'm like, Eva, there's nothing a matter. And then it's all put together and I can see it. And I just, again, the time and the money to buy a new one, I just, right now, we haven't found one, but I'm like, we're going to keep looking. I'm telling you, I find great stuff on Facebook Marketplace, like amazing deals, you know, Serena and Lily stuff. And there's nothing a matter with it. And it's just, you know, and it's fun to you know, look to and know how much money you saved.
00:40:56
Speaker
I think a lot of it is like, it's so easy to just like go online and not only can you buy something really easily, but you could just search to find the perfect thing. So it, you know, it's just, it's become such an easy thing to just purchase it. But then, yeah, i mean, then it shows up. We did the same thing when i was pregnant with Opal.
00:41:15
Speaker
We had moved recently. And so i was like putting stuff in and out of boxes. And I was like, I refuse to buy one piece of furniture. for this nursery because I will not put any furniture together I refuse to just, we're not doing it.
00:41:26
Speaker
And you know what I regret doing too, Callie, with the kids and all the baby stuff. I wish I bought you stuff because they, with the baby stuff, oh my gosh, like so silly. Even the stuff you register for, some of it, they're in it for like one or two months and it's so expensive.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yep. Yes. That's why I refused. And I just like went to not Goodwills. What's the other one? The Restore store. And I just got a drugstore. Facebook Marketplace. I got all that stuff on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, it's all on there. I just joined our, are you guys part of the No buy like No Buy Facebook groups? I just joined ours and our town. I had never done one before. Wow. They put got everything.
00:42:02
Speaker
There was a person with like nice patio furniture. And then the next one is like, I have a six pack of Dr. Pepper. And you're like, it is. Yeah. yeah Everything goes. It was like tons of butter. They accidentally ordered all this butter and they're like, I don't, I'm not even asking for money. Just get it out of my house.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Ours is very strict. You can't ask for money. It is only no buy stuff. It's like yeah only for free or barter. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We should probably move into our guest because I do want to talk about,
00:42:31
Speaker
talking about money with children. and But I feel like that is a whole nother discussion. Like when I was thinking about yes budgeting and money, I was like, we can go so many different ways, but these are like whole other topics. So I wanted to focus on this one being just about kind of being thrifty in some of the ways that we find our budget gets away and then some of the ways that we we cut costs.
00:42:50
Speaker
Okay, it is time for us to jump into our guest segment for today's episode. And I talked with Justine Nelson. She is the founder of Debt Free Millennials. After paying off over $35,000 in student loans on a $37,000 salary, she began sharing her practical budgeting strategies online, empowering others to take control of their finances as as well.
00:43:11
Speaker
Now as a mom of two herself, she brings a sort of like relatable real world approach to managing money while raising a family. So I sat down to chat with her about money and motherhood.
00:43:22
Speaker
Hello.
00:43:26
Speaker
All right, Justine, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so excited to have you on. I've actually been thinking about having you for a guest for a while, and today's episode was perfect. Yay. Thanks for having me. Thanks for inviting me. This perfect timing, just fresh off maternity leave. So here we are. i know. I didn't want to invite you too early because you just had baby two.
00:43:43
Speaker
it six Is she six months old now? ah She's five months old. So yeah, had her in January and adjusting to a life of two. ah It feels like she's always been a part of our family, but also I'm just learning this baby. It's so weird.
00:43:59
Speaker
No, I totally get you mean. Sometimes it'll be like a month in to having a baby and um you can't remember what it was like without them, but at the same time, you're like, they've only been here for a few months. Exactly.
00:44:10
Speaker
Exactly. But she's such a sweetie. so Yeah. Well, in today's episode, me and the girls were talking about little bit about budgeting as moms, but mostly about some of the ways that we've had to learn to be thrifty in motherhood, especially just in the last few years as things just seem to be getting more and more expensive. So my first question for you is how has becoming a mom changed either your relationship with money or how you budget in your day to day or in your weekly life?
00:44:41
Speaker
So I thought about this question like in two parts because my relationship with money, if anything, motherhood has strengthened that in a very positive way.
00:44:53
Speaker
And I'm just grateful for the way that I was able to address financial issues early on. When I graduated from college, I had $35,000 in student loan debt and I was making income.
Inflation and Financial Discipline
00:45:05
Speaker
just thirty thousand dollars in income at that time and I thought, I don't want to be stuck living this life in payments. I had always envisioned me like living in a big city in a high rise and like upgrading my car. and I knew that debt payments were just going to hold me back. so I was really diligent in paying off my debt early.
00:45:29
Speaker
And because of that, it's given me the ability to you know really walk into my marriage debt-free, walk into motherhood with no payments so that I can set money aside for kid-related things, 529 plans, a really robust health savings account because as we all know,
00:45:49
Speaker
Kids come with medical expenses and and having the ability to afford to pay that has been everything. Activities, you know, all of the things. I feel like my relationship has ah definitely grown in a positive way in in aspects of finances.
00:46:04
Speaker
But the biggest budget change since becoming a mom has been making room for child care. whether that be a nanny, ah daycare, babysitters, it's by far the biggest expense that a parent of any young children will incur.
00:46:22
Speaker
Yes. We talked heavily on that one, especially just in those first five years of life before your child is into school, unless, of course, you decide to go the private school route, but just how...
00:46:34
Speaker
how big of an expense that is and how that one just continues to keep growing. I mean, what you were paying five years ago for daycare is not what you are paying and now. So I guess going off of that one, that leads really good into my next question of what, which is what do you, what have you noticed to be one of the biggest pain points in budgeting for people in like the last one to two years, maybe three years?
00:46:56
Speaker
What do you notice that most people are struggling with, whether it's in the parenthood category or not? Yeah, so I work specifically with millennials through my business and in talking to you know my community, inflation has been a big pain point for most. And as a result, a lot of people come to me and say like food expenses in general have been crazy.
00:47:22
Speaker
Whether you are grocery shopping or you're eating out, both aspects, food has just gone up and that's been a big pain point because you gotta eat. The second thing is housing affordability.
00:47:35
Speaker
The ability to be able to purchase your first home and I'm seeing a lot more people get into these buy now, pay later programs. Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, I'm sure you've seen them. Even big banks like Chase are wanting to have you be put on a payment plan for things that you buy.
00:47:55
Speaker
And so as a result, even though it sounds good, you're like, oh, I can take this $100 purchase and break it down into four months of $25. Great. Well, when you continue to do that with a purchase at Marshall's and a purchase at Target and a purchase at Walmart, it all adds up and you get into the cycle of spending more than what you make.
00:48:17
Speaker
That's been a huge issue within the last few years. And those with higher incomes, I feel like lifestyle creep can be a real issue because you are earning more money, but as a result, you're kind of adding in more expenses as you go.
00:48:35
Speaker
And so it can be very overwhelming to a point where now you're incurring some credit card debt because you just can't keep up with how much you're spending.
00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think the lifestyle creep, I love that. We didn't get into that in this episode, and I would love to talk about it more with some of the girls. But i i even personally have noticed...
00:48:57
Speaker
that when you when you add lifestyle creep with inflation, i feel like that's where, for me personally, that's where I always like end up having to like come to heads and be like, like I joked about it in the episode. I was like, i have to buy generic butter now, which is not the end of the world. Like that's not crazy. But for me, that was one of those things. Like I always bought the fancy organic butter and I was like, no, no, no. Like we're buying the generic butter.
00:49:17
Speaker
do you know what I mean? It's like, it was one of those things where they come to a head for me. And those two, I feel like, I don't know. I don't know what it is about the generic butter, but for me, that was one of those where it's time to buy the generic butter.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah When you shop brand name versus generic, it it can be a big difference. I mean, the Kraft American cheese slices versus the store brand, it's just there's no comparison.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah. I know. it is it it But it is worth it in the budget because the groceries are just getting out of hand, least for me. Yep. Okay, so for parents or any millennial who's listening, who's in a place where they are feeling a little overwhelmed by money right now, maybe they're in that place where those two things are butting heads or they've just added new expense of childcare or whatever it is, they're feeling like they're drowning expenses.
00:50:11
Speaker
What is like one small step? Like if you had one little... one little tidbit that you give to people to make them feel more in control of their finances, which I know is a really broad topic because with finances, like it depends on so many things. Like, do you have debt and what's your income and all of that? But if you have like one little thing that you would give to somebody, what would you offer? Yeah.
00:50:30
Speaker
So regardless if if you know you're a parent or not, creating a budget is the first step. And if you're like, oh my God, that the budget is the bad B word, start with writing down your income and expenses for the next two weeks. I'm not even talking a whole month, two weeks.
00:50:48
Speaker
Identify your fixed expenses, the things you know that you must pay, whether that be mortgage, rent, utilities, bills, and then identify your fund expenses. Hey, I know I'm going to be going out to eat.
00:51:01
Speaker
I shop. Identify those. And if if you're unclear or unsure of how much you spend on those expenses, go back into your transactions, your bank account statement, your credit card statement, and take a look at what has happened in the past two weeks to help inform the next two.
00:51:17
Speaker
So creating a budget is like the first step. For parents, especially, you know, you're juggling multiple children, you're juggling multiple expenses for said children, creating a shared checking account with your partner so you have more visibility of what's coming in and going out. I've worked with families who have kept their expenses and their finances separate.
00:51:40
Speaker
So there were two checking accounts and two savings accounts, but having One central location for your money of where you're paying for shared expenses, such as daycare activities, ah clothes for the kids, whatnot, being able to have visibility into one another's spending behavior is just going to create the awareness of like, oh, okay, this is absolutely something we need to pay for.
00:52:07
Speaker
Daycare, we absolutely need to pay for. it Did we need to buy the extra clothes at Old Navy this month? Maybe not. It gives you visibility into what your partner is doing so that moving forward, you can make those decisions together.
00:52:21
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. I feel like for me, it's always slightly humbling. But one of the best things that my husband and I do is once a month sit down and we look at everything that was purchased. Like we have one card that we use for fixed and then we have one card that's used for the extra stuff. So it's easy for us to see it.
00:52:37
Speaker
And it's always a little humbling, but it is ah helpful habit and like practice to look at all of those purchases. And like you said, sort of be like, did we need this? Was this necessary?
00:52:48
Speaker
um We were talking in the episode that we just did a no buy So there were so many things that came up. And then I was chatting with Charlotte, who's camera was in this episode or another episode. Now I'm like going back in my head. But we were going through the like the things that she had recently bought and she was like, was this necessary or was this not necessary? And sometimes it's hard. And it's nice having a partner to sort of bounce it off of and be like, is this a necessary thing or can this wait?
00:53:10
Speaker
But I find that for me and financially, that has been like one of the most helpful things is the reviewing, which a lot of us don't want to have to go back. Yeah, we don't want to go back. We don't want to have to do it.
00:53:21
Speaker
Sometimes we feel like shame about what we bought or whatever, but it's it's such a helpful practice I have found. And like, helping me with my budgeting going forward. Well, and you don't feel like you're doing it alone. So I feel like when you are in a partnership and you're talking about finances, there's always going to be that one person who is going to be putting together the expenses, like the reporting, which I'm totally type A. Like that's my jam. I will put together the budget and then it's up to my husband to sit down and review it and then offer any feedback of what's going on.
00:53:55
Speaker
The only way that I could get him to sit down and look at the budget was with a really good craft beer. and if I could incentivize and have him sit down and we could have a a nice beer while we budget. And that's how the YouTube series Beers and Budgeting was formed on my channel. So every single month, it's our accountability where we sit down, we talk about our finances, everything, like the income, the expenses, and then what changes we want to make for the next month and really identifying where are those spending challenges. And I'm so glad you did a no spend.
00:54:31
Speaker
Like that's hard. Yeah. It's hard. fun No, we had a good time though. It was hard, but we also, I mean, we had planned, we knew that it was coming. in And so we were, you know, we were ready for it. um It was hard, but in a really good way. It was really, really great. We loved it.
00:54:46
Speaker
But I love that idea of incentivizing the budget sit down because it can be like easy to what I mean, I love that as a tip to end on. I i promised you that we weren't going to I wasn't going to take too much of your time because I know getting back to work after a second baby. But i what a great little tip to like incentivize it, whether you go to like a coffee date or some of us don't have that ability. So maybe you just have make a coffee at home or you do it. you Pizza night. Yeah, I love that. Just add a fun treat into the budget, like budget review, add some fun music, just make it make it more fun because the more fun it is, then the more willing both parties are going to come to the table and sit down and take a look at things.
00:55:26
Speaker
Thank you, Justine, so much. We will have all of your information um in the show notes, as always, of where people can find you. Your YouTube channel is a wealth of knowledge. So thank you for all you do. Thank you for having me.
00:55:40
Speaker
Okay, and welcome back. It is time for pits and peaks. Who wants to go first? Do have to pick someone? No, go I'll go. I'll go. I have a pit and a peak. And they're both – one is a definite peak, one is a peak pit.
00:55:53
Speaker
A little bit of a pit is that Arthur is 10. Something about your youngest turning 10 feels like I don't have any – Yeah. babies anymore like ten seems like a legit doubled digit number so that's that's hitting that's a little bittersweet and then but my oldest is coming home from school today she should be in the car as we speak so that's it's nice to have everyone back.
00:56:15
Speaker
Probably doesn't help our budget, but it's nice to have everyone help.
00:56:20
Speaker
Who's next? Caitlin, you want to go? I was going to talk about the chipmunks in our yard, but I'm not going to. I'll go off of, so this is this is like, I guess a peak and it goes off of money.
00:56:32
Speaker
so every every summer we go away with family and usually it's like the grandparents trips. So it ends up literally being a break from us spending money all the time because it's, they rented a house, they buy the food.
00:56:50
Speaker
We just sit on a beach and we get a break. And it's kind of like a nice reset for us because right now during this time of year, there's just so much we've been spending money on. i feel like every time we turn around, you're spending money.
00:57:04
Speaker
And then at the, end of summer, you have to go to back to school and then I spend money again. So we're getting ah a break, ah two two different two week breaks where my, my bank account won't be active.
00:57:17
Speaker
That's a peak. and come Yes. If you would like, I will tell you where we'll be. um men Megan, do you have a pit or a peak for us this week? I have a pit and it's been bothering me just because things have been busy. My planters still aren't done on the front door and on the deck.
00:57:35
Speaker
Mine aren't either. It's just like, it's just pretty to walk in and then on the deck. And you know, the weather too has not really like made it been like, oh yeah, let's get them done. i mean, I should give it as a chore to one of the children, maybe see if they want to help. We bought
Weekly Highs and Lows
00:57:52
Speaker
some, oh, you know what I forgot to add, Kelly? I love the dollar store. I forgot to mention that in, oh, love the dollar store. I go there for all my cards. Yeah.
00:58:03
Speaker
Sorry. Like when you have to go to like a communion, yeah you know, rather than spend seven bucks at CVS, you get it for a dollar. It's a dollar 25 now. But anyways, Gianna, we bought gardening gloves at the dollar store recently and some seeds to plant in the yard. But yeah, those planters are still not done. So it's a pit, but I think it'll eventually turn into ah peak.
00:58:28
Speaker
Well, when you plant yours, who waters them? Because Brandon was, I told Brandon, I was like, I want to do mine. And he's like, they're just going to die. And they said, why? And he goes, because every year you plant them and they look nice for ah couple of weeks and then you forget to water them or we're away. And then.
00:58:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Or yeah. You know what? And I should start, if I do ask the kids, I might have to repeat it one to two to three times, but yeah. But yeah.
00:58:54
Speaker
but And I like going out there watering them. I have a good hack for you. So i yeah knew I didn't do the flowers on our front porch because usually you do them in May and we did no by May and that wasn't a necessity. So I didn't buy them.
00:59:06
Speaker
So then we got to the end of May going into June and Michael kept asking, oh we don't have any flowers. And i was like, we're not doing it because it's no by May. So then when May was over, he had gone to the grocery store and he came home with flowers and he thought that they were so great. and He's so proud of the ones that he picked out that he's watering them.
00:59:24
Speaker
because he doesn't you to die. Oh, Michael. Okay, I got to do that maybe. ah hu yeah Just wait until somebody says there's no flowers. Maybe they'll buy flowers and maybe they'll water them.
00:59:36
Speaker
I like that. Could work. We'll see. I'll try. ah They've been alive for... a week. So maybe not, not even, yeah but we'll see how long that lasts. What's your peak or pet? I have a peak. have a peak. We did a huge declutter this weekend, which is just always, there's something so satisfying.
00:59:54
Speaker
it was just very, like I was extremely ruthless because my kids are home for the whole summer And I just didn't want like shit everywhere. And so like huge declutter of all her stuff.
01:00:05
Speaker
Opal is now almost nine months. So she's out of a lot of the baby stuff. So like just getting rid of all of the baby stuff, like just random baby stuff I kept because I was always going to have another baby.
01:00:16
Speaker
like burp cloths and all this just stuff and it just everything feels i went through the kids why do the kids have the most random stuff in their bedroom and i feel like i just went in there my god still has his valentine's day box yeah i threw it out yeah yep yeah i threw it out he that was absolutely one of the things and i was like i feel like it's been long enough that he's not i just got rid of it i was like i feel like he's not gonna notice yeah yeah He was like, huh, that's still there? i was like, yeah, bro. You sit here every day. I've been here for 30 seconds. yeah here Yeah. Well, we have, Miles is a very attached to things. So like you have to be very like, I mean, broken.
01:00:55
Speaker
I was throwing out, ah well, I was getting rid of, I had like this old bag and it had some spare sheets in it for a bed that we don't have the size of that bed anymore. I was like, we don't need these anymore. And it was like in one of those bags, you know, the bag, big bag. The Ziploc ones? Yeah.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah. And he wanted to keep the bag. I'm like, we don't need this. all and that He just wants to keep everything. So I have to do it when he's not looking and or I get the big black garbage bags. It goes into there.
01:01:22
Speaker
And there's a big, our church does this huge white elephant sale. Like, it like it's humongous. Like people line the streets for days. And so luckily I've been able to, he's kind of okay for like giving it to somebody. So I've been able to be like, most of it's going there.
01:01:36
Speaker
So that's at least kind of good, but. It feels so great. I still have two rooms left to do, but my whole house feels better. Yeah, seriously. should see our playroom. It's like a bomb went off and everyone's like, it smells. I'm like, whoa what's well, what's it smell from?
01:01:49
Speaker
Did someone leave like pizza? Go find it. I know. yeah smells like a dead animal. I'm like, I don't know. i don't know what to tell you. Tell dad. Like, right? If you find it, then you can get a Starbucks this week.
01:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Whoever finds it. you go Yeah. All right, guys. This is the end where I'm supposed to tell you to leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on social media.
01:02:18
Speaker
And Megan's gearing up. We're going to do a new outro where we clap and um do a cheer. Megan, go. I'm Megan.
01:02:31
Speaker
I'm Charlotte.
01:02:36
Speaker
I'm Caitlin. I thought we were supposed to say something like, I'm Caitlin. I like cats. I thought that's how it went. My favorite color is red.
01:02:47
Speaker
I'm Callie, and this is the end.