Technology
17 Things That Are a TOTAL Waste of Money for Women
In this episode of the Frugal Friends Podcast, hosts Jen and Jill discuss 17 things that are a total waste of money for women, highlighting common purchases that drain wallets without providing value....
17 Things That Are a TOTAL Waste of Money for Women
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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17 things that are a total waste of money for women.
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Welcome to the Fugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money,
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embrace simplicity and liver a child.
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Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.
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Welcome Fugal Friends. I'm Jen. I'm Jill.
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And we're in a new setting today if you're watching on YouTube because we had quite the right
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at our office. And now where it Jill's apartment got kicked out and the emergency signal went off
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and we left but we brought some of our recording equipment with us. And we are out of the office
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the rest of the week. And so this had to be recorded today. And so we're going to record it.
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We're going to talk about the total waste of money things that as women we are marketed to.
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And told we need to spend money on but they're actually draining our wallets with zero return.
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So as two millennial women ourselves we've totally made our fair share of why did I just buy that
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purchases. And so we know that the pressure to keep up can be really real but we also know how
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freeing it is to say no to some of these things. And so stick with us because we're not just talking
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about overpriced beauty trends or other viral things that you see on social media. We are talking
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about legitimate money wasteers that combined together add up to $14,000 per year per person.
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And especially I think by the end you will be convinced that these are waste of money.
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I don't think you'll need to get to the end. I think by like number six you will have a fresh
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perspective on what's actually worth your money. You'll be bought in by then. But first the
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slash budget. Yes do it. All right so you've probably seen these waste of money videos around
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other podcasts, other YouTube videos and sometimes it infuriates me what other people define as waste
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because if you value something it's not a waste just because it's a waste for one person doesn't
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mean it's a waste for you. And so in this episode what we are going to define as waste is something
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that you don't use. It's not utilized or it's under utilized. That to us is a waste because even if
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you value it and you purchase it and you don't use it it's still a waste. And so that is what we
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have laid the foundation for all of these things. So I think some of them you are going to be
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a little shocked by and maybe possibly we're going to start strong with the first one.
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Yeah if all you do is stay away from these particular money traps you can save yourself $14,000
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a year you know approximately we'll tell you how we got to that math. And the first one is
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groceries. That's right. Stop.
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Stop.
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Well, the waste of money groceries. Yeah so based on some average stats here the amount of money spent
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per person is about $2,421 per year. Then if you look at the amount that is wasted we're talking
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$728 per person per year in uneaten household food. So that's that unused category and $728
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a year. So even if we were to... Per person.
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Yes. If we were to get better at eating the food we have at home that's an amount of money
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that we could save ourselves annually. And a big way that we say to do that and there's a
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bunch of small different ways. There's a bunch of small different tips. The biggest way to cut
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down on food waste is to make a meal plan and then follow through with that meal plan. And I think
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the easiest way to follow through with a meal plan is meal prep. So whether that is prepping
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as many meals as you can in one day and eating leftovers or prepping ingredients so that you take
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out a barrier to entry throughout the week when you are cooking. Whatever works for you that is
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what is going to cut down on the most food waste. I just recently had like a I wanted to do a like
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a marathon meal prep. So I made like five meals in one day to eat like throughout the week because
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I was like I don't want to cook it all this week. And what I did was like I just looked at what I had
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because I'll buy like meats and stuff both at Costco. And then I looked at sauces and spices
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that I thought were underutilized or that I hadn't used in a while. And that is how I planned
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the the meal like marathon. I did not go in with a strong plan like I didn't go into recipes
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on the internet. I literally just looked at everything I had, all the frozen veggies and I just
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put things together. And that was I I used so many underutilized things in my pantry and freezer
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during that marathon. It was so clutch. Food booked so good. It was so good. And we ate it all. Didn't
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didn't waste anything. And I did not cook for like a week and a half. I know, right? That's the
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I know. So yes. So number one definitely grocery. And that's the the largest proven unused
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category. So the rest of these are taken from data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or
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other places that you know compile usage. And then looking at statistics on what is statistically
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wasted and then doing the math from there. But it's not like hard data like food waste is.
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But the second biggest waste for women is credit card interest and fees. And we think that all
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credit card interest is a waste of money because if you can't pay your credit card off in full
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every month, then it's not a good thing to be using credit cards can get you great like travel
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rewards points, but it is not worth paying interest every single month. And even for fees,
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these are not a total waste. But I know a lot of people will get will travel hack like to the max
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and maybe not just like hoard points and not be utilizing them. In that case, if you're paying fees
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on multiple credit cards and you're not fully utilizing all of the benefits and all of the points,
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those fees are a waste as well. And so data shows that per person per card holder,
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card holders pay $1,155 per person per year on just interest and fees. On just credit card interest
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and fees. And so I would say probably like maybe $150 of that is like for a new credit card every year.
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So then that is totally normal. But around $1,000 a year is wasted from credit card interest
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and annual fees and and late payment fees, all those fees. So if you've got credit card debt,
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getting rid of that can be huge for your money savings long term. Yeah. And if you ever see a
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late payment fee, then going right in and calling at this point, you don't even have to talk to a
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person to get the late payment fee taken off. I know I will get two to four new cards per year.
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And so that always comes with setting up auto payment again. And so recently, I forgot to do that
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and I got charged to fee. But I hadn't done that in a very long time. So I just called up and I
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literally didn't even have to talk to a person. I think it kind of it already automatically knew
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that I had a fee and it asked if I was calling about it. And as soon as I like clicked yes,
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it's like we've forgiven this fee. Oh my gosh, I was like this is easiest thing like I've ever done.
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Yeah. I don't have to talk to anyone. Oh, that's such a good tip. Yeah. So don't pay your first
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late payment fee either. Okay. Number three, personal care. You knew we were going to talk about it.
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It's not what the whole episode is, but products and services. So the spend per person per year is
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about $361. And while it's hard to kind of come up with a what is wasted, there's no kind of solid
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unused total that we could find. And here's some of how we can come to this number. So single
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females spend roughly $690 to $1,441 depending on their income substantially higher than many other
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groups. And so the unused amount can definitely skew female. You know, we are spending more. Yeah.
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Let's be honest with ourselves. Yeah. So when it comes to personal care products, we're talking
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about makeup, hair, skin products. And so that's about $186 per year. Again, we can't really
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understand a total unused amount here, but surveys too frequently show that many products expire
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or are never used. And so we can understand that if women are spending higher, then we are
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probably unusing it. We are wasting a very gentle way. Yeah. And so that comes to a total of $547
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spent per person. And so a widely cited industry estimate from a Vogue business report based on
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interviews with brand leaders puts product waste at about 20 to 40 percent, which can equal anywhere
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from $110 to $220 wasted per year. You know what? Let's be kind. Let's say $150 a year.
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That's still a decent amount of money. And sometimes we think like, oh, that's not me. Surely
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that's not me. I don't spend that much on beauty services or beauty products. How do you waste a
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service? You know, probably on a service you don't need because you're just getting because
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somebody else told you to or you're insecure or etc. etc. That is how you waste a service.
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But we don't realize we're using because we usually don't throw it away in the year we buy it.
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So like we're accumulating all this stuff slowly without thought. And then we'll do kind of like a
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declutter every couple years because we see a decluttering video on YouTube. And that's when
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everything goes out. So this is one of those insidious ones that you don't really think about.
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But it is costing us about $150. Oh, I mean, just in sunscreen. Just think about sunscreen.
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You buy it one year and then it sits in your closet and then it feels weird and goopy the next
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season and you throw it away. Like just that. I don't do that, but I buy the cheap stuff.
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So some people might. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to the next one, which is
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impulse buying. So this is online in apps, in retail, CNBC reports that an average of
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$3,768 per person annually or $314 per month get spent on impulse buys. Now if you have done a
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90 day transaction inventory, which we highly recommend in our book by what you love without going
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broke, which theoretically would be right here if we were in our office. But maybe it will be in a
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graphic on the screen. I don't imagine it. Even if it's not graphic. Imagine it. But we talk about
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doing a 90 day transaction inventory so you can get an idea of a realistically what you are
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impulse buying. Not all impulse buys are waste of money. And I you put me on record saying that
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because there are some impulse buys that I've made. But I'm like, yes, this is everything I needed
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to be it fulfilled its purpose. So glad. Unfortunately, that is not the majority. About 60% of impulse
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shoppers say they regretted at least one impulse purchase with bank rates 2023 survey showing 57
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to 68% depending on the time frame. So some of these are getting wasted. And so we're going to
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we're going to estimate that at around $2,260. So if we're doing one, if we're making a couple
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impulse spends a year, it sounds like a lot. But if you are to think about the entire year,
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that can really add up. If you are making multiple impulse purchases monthly, which most people
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are, then this is the number you're going to arrive. Yeah. More often than not, the impulse buy will
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be regretted not every time. Yeah. But let us know in the comments if we're like, how what's the last
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impulse purchase you made that you regretted? And the last one you made that you really love. And
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tell me you can't think of one that you really love. Yeah. Sometimes I mean, there are few
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and far between. Yeah. Thankfully, you can return a lot of things, but a lot of times we don't. We
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miss the window or it just says too much work. Okay. Number five, apparel and services. So we're
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talking clothes, tailoring, dry cleaning, the average person is spending $810 per year. So in
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some numbers from UK's rap, WRAP, I don't know what that stands for, but they found that 30% of
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clothing is unwarrn for an entire year. So if similar behavior holds for those of us in the US,
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that would imply $240 a person of unused apparel. And so in the US, a survey shows that 21% of women
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versus 15% of men often buy clothes that end up unused that comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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And when it comes to jewelry, the average person spends about $58 per year. And a lot of pieces just
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sit on new yarn. I think that's the like, how do I know if it's wasted? I mean, are you wearing it?
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Are you wearing it at all in the entire year? Yeah. And what is kind of the cost per wear? That's
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actually a calculator that we have in our budget spreadsheet, again, for your friends, podcast.com slash
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budget, where you can see how many times would I have to wear it to make the cost per use worth it?
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You got to decide what that is. Do you want it to be, you know, a dollar per wear? Do you not mind
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if it's a $10 per wear? You decide. But that can kind of help us before we make some of these
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purchases so that they're not wasted in the end. So we're going to say about $240 per person
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of unused per year. Our next one, this is number six. So if you've tuned out, come back to me.
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This is the kicker. This is going to ruffle some feathers. And I want to know what you think about
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it. So please, please be here. Number six is too much housing, too much house. And so many people,
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I feel like our house poor because either, hey, it's just right now it's hard to get into the housing
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market at all. But I think from maybe if you bought five or so years ago, I don't know. But
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the studies show that the median size of a new single family home sold in 2024 was 2146 square feet.
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Per wiki pdia, the average US home offers 700 or the recommended is 700 square foot per person
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or average is seven. We'll read through this, which is 50 to 100% more than other high income
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countries. That's not that's other high income countries. So we're buying 50 to 100% more house
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than other high income countries. Meanwhile, 2022 analysis showed that by 2020, households average
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926 square feet per person up from 477 square feet per person in 1970. So we took these averages
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and they're different across the board. But we gave it like a let's do a 700 square foot per
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person. That seems like a reasonable per person size for house. It's also what some averages will show.
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So looking at that. And so you also may be familiar with this like quote from a study that says,
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you only use 40% of your house, which is not completely accurate. It's actually from a UCLA study
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about they wanted to heat map the most utilized places in the house. So researchers videoed
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like where people were in the house, I think over 30 days. And the studies show that one family
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in particular, it only show the first floor, didn't show upstairs or outside stuff. They
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one family used 40% of their home. So 528 square feet of their 1300 square foot home. And that
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was the entire family only used 528 square feet of that home. So given all of that, we'll say 700.
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So after doing the math of the price, the median price per square foot of a home,
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what people are paying, what could be a reasonable, the wasted value per person of a home,
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over a 30 year mortgage is $33,300. And that is $1,110 per person per year.
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Depending on how many people. No, I mean, that's just per it's given
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a two and a half household family because that's the median, it's two and a half. But it would be,
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I mean, in general, I think I don't think it gave like a house size. But yeah, that's,
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it's just paying so much more per square foot. That's a waste of 215 square feet.
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Yeah. That right there. So that and that's $155 per square foot. I know you can not get that here.
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You can not get a house for $155 per square foot here. Right. So that's just median.
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So think about that. I know it's hard when you're thinking about home buying because it is so
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expensive to live anywhere. But maybe you're just thinking about renting. Maybe you're thinking,
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maybe instead of the $2,500 place, we go with the $2,000 place.
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So thinking about how much space you actually need because it's not just how much you're going to
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pay in square footage, it's how much you're going to pay to heat and cool the space, how much water
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you're going to be using if you have so many extra bathrooms, how much it's going to cost when
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other things inevitably need to be replaced, the larger home means a larger roof, a larger home
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often means a larger yard, a larger home means more of your time taken to clean it.
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More to pay and some change. More to pay and some change. You're paying them to spend more time
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cleaning. So every single cost goes up when you're thinking, oh, but I need this many bedrooms or
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I need it to have this many living rooms really weigh it out. What what could my time and energy
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and other money actually buy my family? If maybe we had three bedrooms instead of four.
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If we had 2,000 square feet instead of 25th. Yeah. If you have the option, this is the biggest
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impact change you can make to your personal finances. There is nothing else you can do that will
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have a bigger change than where you live. And so if it is an option that you are moving or buying,
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then it should be considered. It's not an option for everyone, but if it is for you,
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All right, number seven is cable and satellite TV.
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And streaming video. I know. We'll include like rental stream download.
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All that's to all that stuff. Okay, so the average spend per person on this subset of entertainment
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is $223 per year. And so the amount that is wasted and again, wasted meaning unused.
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So just forgetting that you have subscriptions to some of these different things.
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42% of consumers forgot about a subscription. They just kept paying for it. So that happened to me.
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Yeah. Yeah. Well, apparently it happened to us, the frugal friends.
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It happened. Yes, I just canceled for they call them zombie subscriptions.
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Uh-huh. I just canceled four of them last week.
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Which is insane. Right? Yeah. So yeah, when it comes to streaming video,
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this the average spend per year is $58, which that does not seem right. I mean, most people
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are spending that amount per month. Yeah. I mean, we tried to keep it conservative. Yeah.
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So okay, but per per person. Right. You got to like break down.
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A two foot for yeah, they're saying a 2.4 person home. Yeah, is the average. Okay.
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So a CNAT 2025 survey finds that the average American waste $205 a year on subscriptions,
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they rarely or never use. And a self-financial to the 2024 survey found that subscribers are
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wasting $32 a month on unused paid subscriptions. So all of this comes to $395 per year.
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And so let's put the difference and say it's a waste of about $300 a year. So that's another cell
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for the 90 day transaction inventory. Go do it. See what you are paying for every month.
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You could be and this was something we've talked about all the time. You and your partner could be
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paying for the same thing every every month accidentally and you see it and you're like,
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oh, I'm using that not realizing that you're both paying for that happens all the time. So check it
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and cancel those zombie subscriptions. Next is another doozy and it is another one I need
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you to come back to me for buying new cars. And we did in our car episode, we highlighted a creator
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who talked about car trauma. And I think women especially are maybe drawn, like typically we are
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more financially savvy, I would say, than our male counterparts. Nothing against men. I just think
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that we save money better. We're a little bit more risk averse. We are a little bit more risk averse.
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And so typically use cars would be something that we might be attracted to. They save a lot of money.
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But car trauma is real. Being in old use cars that break down and you're alone on the side of the
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road at night as a woman that's scary, having to go to the mechanic shop and feeling like you're
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getting take an advantage of or ripped off. Like because you're a woman, like all of this is real.
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All of it happens and it leads to us buying new cars so that we don't have to worry about that
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as much. Unfortunately, new cars are now having as many issues as used cars. And we talk all about
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that in our car episode. And the only thing that I will say is that there is a radical middle,
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right? We don't have to buy like the super used junky cars. We don't have to buy the cheapest car
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available. We also don't have to buy a brand new car to get a very safe and reliable one. Three to
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five years old is this sweet spot. I like three three years old to me feels like a very sweet spot
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because the depreciation Kelly Blue book's latest breakdown shows that a car depreciates about
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16% in year one and then 12% in year two. So for a $35,000 mass market car, a 16% loss is
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$5,600 in value lost in one year. So that is significant. And if housing is the number one choice
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you can make for your personal finances, your car is number two. And we make car decisions a lot
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more often than housing. And cars are depreciating assets. So yeah, any car that you buy,
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it's going to be worth less than the day that you bought it, whether it's new or used, but all the more
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reason to make a really prudent decision with our car buying choices that yes, it's used, but it's
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not a junker that we've done our research on the types of issues that it might have and not waste
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carcomplaints.com has been a really reliable source for me when I'm looking at
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complaints about different makes and models because not every car from a specific brand is created
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equal and even in really reliable cars maybe one year is less reliable than another.
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So carcomplaints.com has been a reliable source that I use for testing.
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Moving right along number nine video games. I'm not sure how many of you out here are
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buying video games although this Jen says she has a lot. This one's here for me because I
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don't buy the video games, Travis buys the video games, and then our child, our six year old
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sits on the video games and doesn't go outside and it's very difficult. And so I think video
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games are a waste of money. So moms are buying video games for their kids. The average person spends
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$27 a year on video games. I don't think that's true if you're gaming. I think it's more skewed
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to people who do buy video games. And it's like including video game hardware, accessories,
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online gaming, gaming apps. So this is across the board. So if you're waiting, if you're
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on, if you're not using 25 to 30% of what they say is typical for what's not being used,
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then that's $9 a year. This is $9 a year. This is pennies. I wouldn't worry too much about
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this. Unless you're a game. We're worried about it. Do worry.
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Okay. Moving on. Television. The average US TV home, like a home that has a TV, has about
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two and a half sets of TVs. So that's like your per person. I have a person has a TV. I have
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two TV sets. I have one. And there we go. So okay, between two of us, we have two and a half.
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Well, which sounds small, but it equates to roughly 25 million TVs that's sitting on you. So
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the average TV price is $433. There's too much math going on. Well, the value of the devices that
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are discarded. So the TVs that end up in the dump annually, that's about $14 or $15.4 million
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every year. Essentially. So I think with Black Friday and all these sales that are really big
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that gets you to buy TVs. And I'm looking specifically at Black Friday because that is coming up.
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People get, you know, you know, oh, it's such a good deal. I haven't gotten a new TV in a while.
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Like, and just go out and get a deal on a TV. Yeah. When really the TV is fine, it can be used for
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another year or two. You know, and TV prices have gone down a ton. Yes. Over the years. So even
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keep that in mind. It may be a little longer in that TV that you're googling right now. We'll
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be even more affordable in two years. For sure. Like it is something that now you used to have to
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save up for a nice TV. And now you can really easily impulse buy a TV. Yeah. And so that equates
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with that amount of discarded television waste equals about to $51 per year of waste. Because,
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again, we're not doing it all in the same year. And I think the solution to that is just to keep
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your TV a little longer, especially if you are a two TV household. If one of them breaks,
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just watch the other one until a really good sale comes along. And you can get a new second one.
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So true. Yeah. So next, we're going to pick up the pace tickets. So to place theaters, concerts,
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movies, park, museums, sporting events. So these are the bulk passes that you don't use or you
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underuse the season tickets, the multi game packs, the multi museum packs that you like buy for
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your kids. So the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that households spend about $951 on
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entertainment fees and admissions and stuff. And around 10 to 20% go unused. So that's about $27 per
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person per year. All right. Number 12. Recreational lessons, gym classes. This is talking, fitness,
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dance, the estimated amount wasted is $58 per year per person. So this is your missed classes,
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your unused services, whether that's the gym. I mean, usually, yeah, most of the gym is mostly the gym.
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Yeah. The gym specifically has widely under you. The gym specifically is widely underutilized.
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And so industry reports show large shares of memberships go unused for months.
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And so we just need to catch it before and cancel these subscribes. Yeah. And we do eventually,
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but not before wasting money. The next one is pet stuff. So reports show that pet owners spend
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about $378 per year per pet or per person. I wasn't, I'm not sure, which one, because a lot of
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households have multiple pets. But wasted, obviously, not food, they need toys, they need, you know,
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their leashes and stuff, stuff they don't use or need, right? I don't think pet costumes are wasted.
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If I'm being honest, put your pet in that costume. But all of the fancy treats, unless they're
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like for training purposes, the extra add-ons at the groomer for like just a little bandana,
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all of these extra things that pets can have and people love to spend on their pets, a lot of it is
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wasted. And so I would say that out of that, so a realistic midpoint on waste from what's
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reported to be spent on pet stuff is about $8.6 billion per year or about $90 per pet owning
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household. So per pet, per household. Number 14 is coffee. That's right. Come in at you. Come in for
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yeah. This is a tough one because most of us are not actually wasting the coffee, like the coffee is
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getting drank. However, it still could be a little bit of a not great way of spending our money if
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we're constantly buying it out. This could, this could be where we're breaking our own rule and saying
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it's a little bit of a waste of money to be spending $6 on a coffee potentially five times a
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week, maybe more than that. That could be $30 a week, whereas a gen you love to give this specific
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example that is stoke cold brew. This is Jen's favorite apparently. It's a big thing that you get
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from the grocery store with a syrup or creamer can be about $30 per month. So this is more so
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talking about a savings of $1200 per year. So not a wasting amount, but a savings amount you
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don't do. Yes, you're wasting $1200 a year in my opinion. Don't do it. You have to examine at some
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point why. Why do I need to get a Starbucks every day? Why do I need to get a coffee every time I
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walk into a particular place? Why? There's no like caffeinated reason that most of the time we need
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this. We just like it. And that's fine. But how do I get what I like for less money? And I think
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that's an exercise we should run on all the habits that we have. Next is reading. And I'm going to come
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for book. Oh, no, again, because they do did not like it when we came for them the first time
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about the overconsumption of books in our hobby episode, how social media is ruining hobbies.
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Truly people with like stacks of 40 books and then bragging about how their TBR to be read is
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like 40 books high in these, but another book that's not a flex. Books truly are fundamental. They're
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great. They're fantastic. I saw there were people in our comments being like, but I like to annotate.
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You're annotating what? Twilight? You're annotating Akatar? Like what are you doing?
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Why? Maybe they are reading the more academic books. Okay, if you're reading a textbook and you
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like to annotate, that's different. But like, you know, your fairy smut does not need to be
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highlighted and noted. So this could be a waste of $10 per year. Still small, small amounts of money,
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but we've all got to focus in on where, where am I unusing? This is truly a median because people
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who fall into book talk are truly can be wasting more. They're on a different level. At $25
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a book, it's hundreds of dollars a year, but at a conservative level. 10. Okay, 16. Tech upgrades,
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equipment, services, the average amount of money spent per person per year is $425. And so this can
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be wasted on new tech or services that we just don't use. I mean, someone just commented on one of our,
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like things things I wish I didn't buy talking about AirPods, how they don't fit.
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And so yeah, then that's that's like wasted money on tech because it doesn't work for me the
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way that I thought it would, the way that other people told me that it would. And so this can then
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amount to about $200 wasted per person. I give this example in our book about like buying the
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newest iPhone, how if you would just wait an extra year and keep your iPhone for an extra year
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over, you know, your entire lifetime, you're buying probably five fewer iPhones. That's hundreds
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and hundreds and hundreds of dollars saved. And like sure, you can pay over time. You might be
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getting a quote unquote free phone, but then it limits you from the phone provider you're able
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to use to. So you wouldn't be able to use a service like Mint, or you can get like $15 a month
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service if you wanted to. So there are other costs associated with upgrading tech too often.
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And not that you never can upgrade it, but we tend to upgrade it too often. Yeah. And our very
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last one is take out honestly, this time. Yeah, not all take out is a waste. And obviously you
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eat it. So it's not quote unquote wasted. But honestly, like food you get delivered because you
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didn't make a meal plan or follow through with your meal plan and the fees, the delivery fees and
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the tips associated with all of that. And even potentially like restaurant food that you take home
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and don't eat. So like that's a little bit that will throw in there. So you didn't like. Yeah. Yeah.
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Oh my gosh. I didn't like a coffee. I tried a new fall coffee and I didn't like it. Girl, I kept
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that thing and went back the next day and handed to them. They're like, I'm sorry. I did not
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communicate well. What I did not like. It is my fault. Can I get the ice coffee I usually get?
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And they're like, sure. And it's not like I was complaining or being mad or the next day. Yeah.
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You held onto the coffee. You're like, I don't like this. The next day you put that you put that
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curdled milk back on their counter. It's a nice coffee. Give me a new thing. I didn't demand.
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Wow. I asked because I wanted to prove that I didn't drink it and then I'm just trying to get a free
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bee. Is that weird? Then please defend comments or trash me in the comments. Let me know. I don't know.
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But I was holding. It's at least bold. But on the topic of like foods you don't like, I'm getting
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a little off. But so I would I would venture to say so data shows about 11 to 1200 per person on
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takeout per year, about $200 per person per year in fees. So I would venture to say around $1000
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per year we spend on takeout that we didn't really need to get plus the fees and tips associated
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with all of that is probably a conservative. Do you know what's not what you said? It's not,
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it's outside of the $14,000 that we just covered in the episode. The bill of the week.
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That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his
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name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
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to pay that bill anymore. Buckfield, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.
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Hi, Jen and Jill. My name is Jennifer. I've been listening to the podcast for about a year.
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I have read your book. I love it. I'm excited for your course in May and I wanted to submit my bill
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of the week. So I have been paying for lawn service for about as long as I can remember.
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And this year I decided I was done with it. I bought myself a brand new electric mower.
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The lawn mower guys started circling the neighborhood about three weeks before I would have
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even entertained the idea of mowing. But I was able to do that. This will also give me an
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opportunity to be outside a little bit more and get some fresh air while feeling accomplished
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of doing something. So I'm really excited to have that opportunity. I know that I will probably
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regret this in about July. But I hope that I won't regret the extra $1500 this year that will go
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back into my budget. So yeah, that's my bill of the week. Keep doing what you do and thank you so
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much. Oh my gosh, Jennifer. Well, it's October when this comes out. So I hope you didn't regret it
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too much. But early mornings mowing the lawn. I don't really want to be early morning. But I would
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hire a lawn service before I would do it because we live on a double lot. And it is a lot of
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grouse. Now that we've sold our house, I don't have to mow the lawn. No one has to mow the lawn
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our family anymore. But I feel you on this one. This is one of those toss-ups, right? Of what's
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worth it for me to do myself? You were the lawn mower. Save in your family. Yeah. Save the money
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versus what's worth hiring out. And so for you, it sounds like I'd rather put that $1500 back in my
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pocket. I'll do it. But that's the thing for us to identify what's utilized and worth it and
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valuable. What's unused, underutilized, I'm just going to cancel this thing and find alternatives.
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And then it sounds like you found what works for you. Yeah. And if you all listening have a bill
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that you want to share, if it's about canceling a bill or paying a bill that you just love paying
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or taking one of these tips and just really making it work for you or being bill.
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And now it's time for the Friday round. What's something you've wasted money on recently?
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I'll be very transparent. I forgot to cancel a credit card that I meant to cancel. And
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I paid the $150 fee for it. I could not get it reversed. So, you know,
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that maybe has only happened to me like once or twice in my life. So I'll take it. It was a dumb, dumb
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move. Yeah, it happens. Yeah. For me, it's replacing keys. I lost my keys. Now we live in an
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apartment. Here's something I have to keep track of. Key fobs. And I thought that I had the perfect
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solution, but that solution fell off of my purse when we were out and about in public. Couldn't
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find it. So had to buy new keys. I don't know if it goes under the category of unused,
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but it feels like a waste. Yeah, we didn't have a category for forgetting. But maybe we should have
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maybe stuff we forget should have been a category. So thank you so much for listening to all
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these waste. Let us know in the comments if there are wastes that we forgot or if you disagree
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with any of our wastes. And maybe how much you've wasted on things and overcome. And now how much
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you're saving. And if you have gotten anything out of any of our episodes or our book, please let
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us know in the comments in a review on Spotify or for the book on Amazon. Kind of like this book
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review from Evan Black, which happens to be five stars says I've gone through phases in my life
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where I'm more frugal, thrifty than others. I hit the thrift shops hard and high school, for example,
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and recently discovered the thrill. I also had a day, Bramsey phase. And lately, I've gone down the
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by nothing rabbit hole. Jenna, Jill, speak to all these different parts of me so clearly and use
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all the best lessons learned from each phase to create a holistic new lifestyle that I'm excited
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about values based spending. It's a great read. It's conversational educational all at once and
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requires just the right amount of self reflection and definitely embracing my season and saying no more
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thanks to these gals. Thanks Evan. Yeah. Cool. Kind review. And we all have different seasons and
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phases of life. So we're happy to be here for all of them for as long as you'll have us. If you
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also have read the book and you haven't reviewed it, please do so. Amazon's a great place. Go
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read the great place to review us. Cost you nothing. And again, feel free to, you know, hit that
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button and stick around and keep enjoying this episode. Thank you everybody. Cue up the next episode.
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You just heard unhinged ways to waste money. We've got an episode un-unhinged ways people
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save money that you might like. Yeah. Fruble Friends is produced by Eric Cureani.
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So if you're listening to this, you won't see it, but we are in Jill's house. So pop on over to
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YouTube if you want to get a peek into Jill's house. I knew it's actually an apartment. Yeah.
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The apartment. But we had to come here because literally we sat down and we're about to press record
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because we are out of town at FinCon for the rest of the week. We had this is our only day to record.
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And as soon as we sat down, the lights start flickering. I think our neon sign is broken. Like I
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think it whatever happened blew the neon. Yeah. And then things start beeping and then the
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fire alarm goes off. The internet goes out and we're like, bye. Yeah. Well, yeah, the alarm went off
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and that was that was the indicator. Also the voice that comes on when the alarm is going on.
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There is an emergency happening. Evacuate immediately. Meanwhile, you and I are just like
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taking our good off. Well, because we're literally flying out tomorrow and we have to like
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get things to bring. And I'm like, this is not how I imagined packing for Portland. Like,
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I thought I was going to be able to. But it had more time. Yeah. Right. Like think about things.
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We'll see. We'll see what we were about. We remembered some books. And that's it. That's
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we remembered the microphone. Hopefully it worked out. Yeah.
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Yeah. So yeah. So you know what? I'm liking this comfort couch situation though. This
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actually might become our new studio. If you do pop over to us on YouTube, let us know if this
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should be our new studio. Yeah. Let us know if my feet without shoes on offend you.
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Because yeah, I'm liking this casualness. Yeah. It's fun. All right. And we're
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we got one more episode to record like this. So we'll see you in the next one too.