32 : 23 Unhinged Ways We Save Money (without feeling cheap)

 Living frugally doesn't mean giving things up, it means being intentional about where your money goes so it can show up for what actually matters. In this episode, I'm walking through the everyday habits that let us take trips like Cabo, drive paid-off cars, and still feel like we have room to breathe in our budget. 

LINK to this episodes blogpost 

LINK to my app workouts

LINK to the podcast where Erik and I discuss how we saved for his Tacoma in cash

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is episode 32 of the podcast, and still to this day, the number one most downloaded episode was episode six titled How We Paid Off $65,000 in debt in two and a half years on a $76,000 income. That was the episode that I did with my husband where we talk about our debt payoff journey and then what the future looks like for us. That was the most downloaded episode, still to this day, almost 2,000 downloads on that one episode. So today I'm actually just going to be walking through what I consider some unhinged ways that we save money. Now, I say unhinged, some of them really are. You're going to hear them and you're going to say, you've got to be kidding me, y'all actually do that. And then others are just normal things that we do to save money, but the title unhinged applies to some of these. And so there are 23 things that I'm going to walk through in today's episode for ways that we save money as a family. And this list is 23 items, which sounds like a lot, but some of them are very straightforward to the point. Some of them I go a little more in depth on. And honestly, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. These are just the first things that came to mind. I might have a follow-up episode to this if I think of more things that I forgot to mention. But without further ado, let's dive into the 23 ways that we save money as a family. Wait, one more thing. If you can think of anything that is not on this list, but you consider it unhinged and you do it as a way to save money for your family, please message me on Instagram. I'm constantly looking for new items to add to this list. I'm your host, Carly Peikendahl, and this is the Daily Penny, the podcast about building sickening consistency through everyday habits. Being occasionally great does not get you very far, but being consistently good is what moves the needle forward. Every time you follow through for a workout, a meal in motherhood, in your finances, in your business or in your life, you're putting another penny in the jar of the person you want to become. One penny doesn't feel like much, but those daily deposits compound over time. This show is about fitness, nutrition, motherhood, money, business, and the systems that actually hold your life together in seasons when motivation is gone. Whether you're building habits, rebuilding confidence, or just simply trying not to quit, you're in the right place. Let's add another penny in the jar. Number one, every single Cabo trip that you've seen Eric and I take in the past four years has been booked through Cheap Caribbean vacations. Yes, this is a legitimate site. And we have never had any issues booking through Cheap Caribbean, and we have truly enjoyed every single trip that we've gone on. So you can filter to like all inclusive places, you can choose where you want to travel to, and then you can book the whole stay and the flight all in one spot. You can also book your shuttle to and from the airport. We have had nothing but amazing experiences, and they are discounted rates. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. I don't know that I want to know why they are discounted, but we have loved every resort that we've stayed at. We've never had a single issue, and it is a legitimate site with discounted Caribbean vacations. So it's called Cheap Caribbean. So that is number one. The number one way that we save money is by booking through a discounted vacation site. Number two, I have a Steve Jobs approach to my daily attire. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, Steve Jobs wore a black turtleneck jeans and sneakers every single day. And this is a direct quote as to his reasoning why. He said, The reason I dress the same all the time is because I have too many other important decisions to make. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm wearing. Rightfully so. Like he literally invented the iPhone, and I'm not that important, but I have come to find that this is honestly just a preference for me. Like I just I love what I wear, but it also just saves me a bunch of money. So like I have this pair of biker shorts that were $14 on Amazon and I'm still obsessed with them. And I bought four pairs of the exact same biker shorts. I wear them multiple times per week. I found like this heavier boxy oversized tee. I'm literally wearing it right now as I record this episode. It comes in a three-pack on Amazon. I think it's like three for $33 or something like that. I own nine of this exact same shirt in four different colors. It's the one that I'm constantly wearing. It has like a kind of a wash look to it. So I have it in black, gray, cream, and then like an army green color. And then I wear these same high ankle white Hanes brand socks in either my chunky New Balance sneakers or my Nike sneakers. The amount of times I wear that exact same outfit day after day after day, even in the winter, I'll like throw, you know, Princess Diana vibes out there with like a big sweatshirt with still in my back or shorts, my chunky socks, my chunky sneakers. I just love the look. I love the outfit. And it's just something I don't have to think about. And I feel like it somewhat looks put together if I like brush my hair, throw on some earrings, throw on some makeup, and sometimes a hat. So number two is I have a Steve Jobs approach to my daily attire. That's another way that we save money. Number three, we have never had a single car payment. So when I turned 16, my parents got me a 2007 Ford Focus. I drove that car until 2019 when Eric and I bought an old Lexus sports car from one of our friends. We bought it for $5,000 cash. And I drove that Lexus until I then got my Kia Telluride in 2021, which we also purchased in cash. And Eric, whenever we met, he drove a paid-off old Forerunner. So he drove that until it literally died. And then we got a used Honda Pilot SUV from I think Eric's dad or something. And then Eric rotated driving that Honda Pilot and my old Lexus until this past December. Literally until December 2025, we finally got Eric a Toyota Tacoma, which we also paid for in cash. And yeah, like we drove not the nicest of cars. All of our friends, you know, when everyone kind of starts their career right out of college, one of the first things a lot of people buy before they, you know, got get a house is they get a new car. Neither Eric, Eric and I, neither of us did that. We were okay driving old used cars that we did not have payments on so that we could save up and buy cars in cash. At the time, we weren't necessarily following a Dave Ramsey plan, but I was just terrified of debt to begin with. Like my parents just raised me to be scared of debt, and I'm glad that they did that. But then when Eric and I got married and we started following Dave Ramsey's plan, we're like, okay, we definitely are not gonna have car payments at this point because like I don't think people realize how much money you save by not paying interest on a car payment. So I did a little bit of research, and the average US household pays $770 a month if you buy like a new car. And if it's a used car, the average car payment is $530 per month. And so you're taking out a loan. And if you do the math on this just for recent data, the average American is borrowing $44,000 for a new car purchase. So that's like what the loan is that they're taking out. And the average person pays off that $44,000 loan in about five years and nine months. That means for that $44,000 car after interest, they are paying $53,000 for that car. So they're paying an additional $9,000 more than what the car was originally worth. Also, not to mention, the first year of a car's life, like after you drive the car off the lot, if you start a time clock and you flash forward a year, your car is going to go down in value, meaning it's going to depreciate anywhere from 20 to 30%. This means that within that first year, that $44,000 loan, that car, let's just say that you put zero down and all of that is going towards car, $44,000. It is now only going to be worth $33,000. That's insane. So, all in all, if you think about like the lifespan of a car and how most people go through about like five different cars in their lifetime, by the time Eric and I die, by us never having a car payment, we will have saved a few hundred thousand dollars in car payments that we did not pay when you think about the fact that the average person goes through about five cars in their lifetime. So that's another way that we save money, is we have never had a car payment. Number four, this is so small. I don't know why I put it immediately after talking about car payments. This is something so small and minuscule, but it is something that I save money on. So number four is I do not buy Nespresso pods regularly. I ask for them on things like birthdays and Christmas, and then I will occasionally buy them on my own, but it's kind of like a treat. It's not just something that I always keep in stock. So the Nespresso pods that I love are the Malozio, M-E-L-O-Z-I-O. They are so good. Like, don't even get me started. So this is my coffee that I absolutely love to have every morning if I could. And I can, but it's just something that it's just a way that I intentionally choose to cut back, right? Because those puppies, those things are pricey. Like those things have gone up over the years, which what hasn't gone up, right? But it ends up being a dollar 40 cents per pod, which is insane. But man, they are good. Um, but that's pricey, right? Like our K cup pods that we get from Sam's Club end up being 47 cents per cup. And so the Nespresso is over three times the price of the Sam's Club K cup. And this is why I still buy them, but I don't necessarily keep them regularly stocked. So that was number four. Number five is very simple, straight to the point, not really a lot of elaboration needed, but we shop at Aldi and we shop at Sam's Club for groceries. So that's another way that we save money. I'm not going to Publix, I'm not going to Whole Foods. I'm not even going to Target unless I'm in a pinch and I'm already at Target and I need to get like a few things. We shop at Aldi and we shop at Sam's Club for groceries, and that's another way that we save money. Number six, this is another thing that is so simple. I don't even know why I thought about it. But it's just like something that came to mind that I'm like, oh, the average people buy this all the time, and we just don't. So number six is I don't buy cases of bottled water unless we're like hosting something at our house. So we just use like refillable water bottles. There's no sense in us having bottled water at a house. And I know this sounds so petty, and I'm very aware that this sounds so petty, but I was just trying to think like, what are some things that come to mind that we don't buy regularly? The average person average person does. And I think like a large case of water is less than $5, right? But it all adds up. And so it's just an easy place to cut back when you have refillable water bottles. So that was number six. Number seven, I really don't shop much at all. I just I just don't regularly get new clothes. Like I'm not doing all of these clothes hauls, like all these new every single season getting several hundreds of maybe even thousands of dollars of items in new clothing. I just don't do it. Like when I have a fun event, like, you know, man, mine and Eric's cabo trip that I was talked about, or maybe I'm getting the kids a few seasonal items and so I then get myself a thing or two. It's just not a regular basis thing where I'm doing these massive hauls from Amazon or from HM or from who knows, more expensive brands that I can't even think of off the top of my head because I just don't do it, right? Um, like if I do buy clothes, I go to HM or I go to Target or I go to Amazon or sometimes I'll go to a boutique, right? Like I just I I think I might have even had this as a whole separate item. So I don't want to get too more in depth there because it might be coming later. But I just don't spend a lot of money on clothes. I don't shop much at all. That was number seven. Number eight, I go through our fridge, freezer, and pantry so that we're not making unnecessary grocery purchases. So before I go to the store, I will open our fridge, open our pantry, see what we already have on hand that we can make meals with, so that I'm only having to buy like one or two three things to make a meal based on what we already have on hand. So that's another thing that I do. That's number eight. I buy off-brand for the large bulk of food items that we purchase. Now, obviously at Aldi, they're gonna have the Aldi brand. So that's already cheap. So I buy mostly the Aldi brand when I'm there. There are some random things where I will get the true name brand, like something that comes to mind is goldfish, right? Like I'm just gonna get goldfish brand goldfish. I'm not gonna buy the off brand just because I'm not gonna do that. And my kids, they would sniff it out in like a heartbeat. I swear they would. So there's just random things that I will get the actual name brand items for, some things you just cannot replicate. Uh, but most items we're just gonna buy the store brand. Same for Sam's Club. We're gonna buy the members mark brand for pretty much everything that we get. There are a few items at Sam's Club where I will buy the true name brand. So just bear nuggets, um, the cottage cheese we brought, we buy the Breakstone brand, and then yogurt, we buy Oikos at Sam's Club. Those are just a few things that we do buy the actual name brand, but for the most part, we're gonna buy off-brand and it tastes really good. Number 10, I bought these cheap little Amazon storage cubes for our boys' room. So they have no furniture in their room other than a bed. And we actually bought a small bookshelf as well, which I don't know if you classify that as furniture, but they don't have like a dresser or they don't have any type of drawers situation. Like I bought these little simple put-together cubes off Amazon and I bought little baskets that fit perfectly in those cubes, and those are sitting inside their closet. And right now, that is their dresser situation. You know what? Works perfectly fine. They don't need this nice furniture. They are literally four and one year old and they share a room, okay? They don't need this nice furniture. Obviously, as they get older, they will continue sharing a room because we plan to have a third child. So they will pretty much always share a room until Rafe is old enough to stay downstairs by himself, which Lord help, when am I gonna be able to trust them to stay downstairs by himself? I don't know. But for now, they just don't need furniture. And so these storage cubes that I got on Amazon with these little baskets are perfectly fine and they're working for us. That was number 10. Number 11, when Rafe was about to be born, we bought our crib off Facebook Marketplace, and this is a hilarious story. So I didn't realize how far away this house was that I was sending Eric to to pick up this crib. I was like, oh yeah, it's just right down the road. Okay, he drove 30 minutes to the middle of nowhere, Alabama, to this trailer park, and he said, he almost turned around. He's like, This ain't worth it. This is this this crib is not worth my life. And so he said he walked up to the door, knocked on the door, and the people were nice as ever. They gave him the crib, and honestly, it looks really nice. It was 50 bucks on Facebook Marketplace, but it did end up being a much longer drive than we expected. But I think like with your first kid, you feel like you need it all, right? You feel like you feel like you need all the name brand stuff. We did buy a new changing table, or we got gifted a changing table, but the crib was used. I think we were gifted a glider, but those were the three things that we had. We used some old furniture, hand-me-down. And so we did not have all of these super nice things for the baby's room. We just got bare essentials, and guess what? We are still using that. That is still the crib that Vance sleeps in to this day. 50 bucks on Facebook Marketplace. Number 12. I buy our kids' clothes at Walmart and then about three to four seasonal things at the HM outlet near our house. Once again, no huge haul each season for the kids. Walmart has for real some cute stuff. Like, I'm not even kidding. Their shirts are like $4, their shorts are $5. They have some really cute stuff. I'm not even kidding. And then HM for like some nicer seasonal things, I will get a few items that you could can then mix and match with the Walmart stuff, and it looks really cute. Like, I feel like I dress my kids semi-decent, and a lot of what they wear is from Walmart. Now, listen, if y'all see my kid in a character t-shirt or some Spider-Man shoes, y'all know good and well I didn't buy him that. Y'all know good and well that my son is gonna be in some cute little gray new balance shoes. He's gonna be in some little white socks like I wear. He's gonna be in some neutral shorts, he's gonna be in a neutral shirt that has literally nothing on it. If y'all see him in anything outside of that, I did not buy it. That's all I'm gonna say. But guess what? He loves. He loves the lightning McQueen. He loves the Spider-Man, he loves the Toy Story. So I will be dressing him in that because of the joy that it brings him. But you know good and well, I did not buy him those clothes. I will leave it at that. So that's number 12. I save money by buying my kids clothes at Walmart and a few seasonal items at HM. Number 13, we pay our car insurance yearly versus quarterly. Saves you a little bit of money, but you do have to have the cash on hand to make the bigger payment whenever the year rolls around. But the thing is, is that it's not a surprise. It's at the same time every single year. So you can just kind of put that money aside monthly if or quarterly, depending on how you like to budget. And then it's not a surprise once the yearly insurance car payment comes up. Same thing. This is number 14. I don't know why I didn't lump these together, but number 14 is we also pay our life insurance yearly. So Eric and I both have term life insurance policies on our individual selves. So like if I die, Eric and the kids would be left with, you know, a lot of money. If Eric dies, me and the kids will be left with a lot of money. So we both have term life insurance policies and we pay the yearly premium for those versus paying, I don't know what the cadence that they offer is, but I think that they offer like a monthly or quarterly for life insurance as well. But we choose to pay yearly because it saves you a little bit of money. Number 15. I do not use fancy skincare at all. I am embarrassed. Actually, I'm not embarrassed because I feel like I've mentioned this before. Just like recently, I'm not even joking. Like in the past two years, I was literally washing my face with a bar of soap. Now, some of y'all about hit the floor when I said that. I maybe have even mentioned that on a podcast. I don't know. But I don't buy fancy skincare, but I have slightly upgraded to at least a good drugstore brand. Okay. So I use, I don't even know if I'm saying this right, CeraVe or Cera V. I don't know. I asked Chat GPT what the highest recommended drugstore face wash was. And so I use CeraVe cleanser, and I have recently added a few things into the rotation. So I created this podcast outline a long time ago, and I've just continued adding to it. So when I put that I don't have fancy skincare, it was actually before I added in the next two things that I'm gonna mention, which are not even super expensive, but they do elevate my skincare routine a little bit. So I also bought a CeraVe or CeraVee, somebody let me know how to say that. Um, I bought a daily SPF moisturizer that I use on my face every morning. I was not using SPF before, but now that I'm turning 35 this year, apparently that's something we care about now. So I use a daily SPF moisturizer on my face. And then recently, once again, this has happened since I started this podcast outline. Recently, I have actually started getting the barefaced toning pads, which are pricey. But it's like, what is it? It's a little over 50 bucks. I think it by the time you pay for shipping, it's like 60 bucks for 60 toning pads. When I tell you, these have absolutely changed the texture of my skin. I don't have a link for y'all, I don't have a referral code, I make no commission whatsoever. I'm just straight up telling y'all, these are worth it. It's expensive. It's $60 for like a little 60 pad little capsule thing. I don't even know. They are worth it. I promise you, my skin is so smooth, it's so shiny. It I feel like I look different since I've been using the bare faced toning pads. Um, I will link to them in the show notes. But that was number 15. I don't use fancy skincare outside of the one thing that I just mentioned, and that's a way that I save money. Number 16 is kind of it goes in line with number 15, but most of my makeup is drugstore brands. I do buy just a few nicer things, but for the most part, the eyeshadow that I use is e.l.f. brand. The foundation that I use is I think L'Oreal True Match. I don't know. Do people even use that anymore? Is that what we used in high school and nobody's using it and nobody's told me? Don't tell me because I'm saving money and I like it. Okay. L'Oreal foundation is what I use. I'm trying to go in the order of the way I do my makeup. Okay, the one a few things that I do spend a little bit of money on. So I use this contour stick, and the brand is Fenty, which is Rihanna's brand of what do they call it? Cosmetics. Y'all, I sound like a redneck farmer talking about makeup. Oh my word. So the Fenty contour stick is something that I spend a little bit of money on. And then I also don't know how to say this. I think it's Anastasia, but I've also heard people call it Anastasia. And I'm like, first of all, stop acting like you're fancy. I think it's Anastasia. Anyway, I buy the brow gel from that brand. And to me, that's absolutely worth it. I've tried buying a cheaper brow gel before and it turned my eyebrows white. And this goes on clear and it keeps them in place. You know, I love a little bit of a fluffy brow. Okay, so the Anastasia Brow Gel is something that I spend a little bit more money on. And then I buy Charlotte Tilbury lipstick and lip liner. The color that I buy is Pillow Talk by Charlotte Tilbury. 100%. I've been using that for a few years now, and I get a lot of compliments on it. And apparently everyone loves it because everybody I talk to is like, oh my gosh, that's what I use too. And then I love the MAC brand. The tint or the color is, I think it's called Velvet Teddy, which I feel weird saying. So that was number 16. Well, let me go into a little more in-depth on what else I don't spend money on. I like the blush I use is Milani, which is like drugstore. Um, what else do I use? Mascara. I use drugstore mascara, and that's pretty much it. So yeah, I don't spend a lot of money on uh fancy makeup, and that is number 16 on ways that I save money. Number 17, I pay my gym membership yearly versus monthly. So because I pay yearly all up front, they give you three extra months free. So it essentially ends up being a 15-month gym membership, and it costs less than $20 a month. And I know I'm gonna continue going to that gym, like it, love the people that go there. I'm gonna continue going there. We have no intention on moving, so that it just makes sense for me to pay a yearly gym membership versus monthly. So that is number 17. Number 18, I very rarely buy Starbucks drinks unless I have a gift card. So, you know, I did like this whole iced coffee um testing for like a whole year, and that was because I had a ton of gift cards from Christmas that I was using. So if you see me getting iced coffee on any form of regular basis, it's probably because I have gift cards. Like it's very rare that I will just drive through the Starbucks drive-through and pay $6 for a coffee. Very rare. So that's another way to save money. I just drink coffee at home. That is number, oh, and I do get a latte at church sometimes, but it's only $3. And our church lattes, I swear they're better than Starbucks. I'm not even kidding. So that's number 18. I very rarely buy coffee out. Number 19, we have no regular family rhythm for takeout or eating out. So this is just uh on an as needed basis. Like very rarely are there just because meals that we eat out, which we have little kids. So maybe as the kids get older, that will become a weekly rhythm, maybe once a week if we choose to do so. I mean, honestly, we don't have any problem just eating at home. Like we we I don't want to say we prefer, like I love to go out to a meal, don't get me wrong. But it's just an easy way to save money and it's just what our current rhythm is. So we don't have just because meals out on any type of regular basis. Um, and then just this does not mean home cooked meals every night. Like, do you hear me? Like, we love some just beer chicken nuggets. Okay. So that was number 19. We have no regular family rhythm for takeout or eating out. Number 20. Like I said, I created this list a long time ago and some things have evolved, but for the most part, the bones are still here. So number 20 is we set a grocery budget monthly. Hear me out. I'm human. Ask me if I've stuck to this budget lately. I'll just tell you, I haven't. For several months, I was able to spend only $600 per month on our family of four, and we were perfectly content following that budget. But the thing is, is that when I stopped sharing it publicly, like my grocery hauls and like, oh my gosh, like we came in under budget. It is so easy. Like, just like this is a shameless plug, just like a coach holds you accountable to show up and do what you said you were gonna do on a weekly basis, those grocery hauls that I was posting on Instagram held me accountable. It forced me to be like, Carly, if you're gonna publicize this, like you got to come in under budget or at least really close. But once I stopped doing that, because it's a lot of work, like all those short clippy videos, it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. And I was like, what is my end, like, what is my end goal with showing these? I don't really know other than just to provide entertainment and to show you that I'm a relatable person. But at the end of the day, like I have to also spend time on things that are income generating for my family. And I didn't really see a way that that was necessarily income generating. But I would like to still share it. And I think I've actually mentioned this on another podcast. I would like to get back to a cadence of sharing it somehow, some way, because it did hold me accountable. But I have not been sticking with it lately. Like I've for sure been spending over $600 a month. Like I haven't been going crazy. Like I feel like I'm probably somewhere between $650 to $800 a month, but I'm definitely not hitting $600 on a regular basis. But when I started creating this outline, I was. So we do have like a monthly family budget. And because Eric and I under, how do I say this? We plan my income as if it's going to be significantly lower than it has been, just because we always want to have a ton of margin for my taxes because I just get kicked in the teeth with taxes. Every single quarter, I'm paying a lot of money in taxes. And so we always want to have more than enough room to pay those. So what that ends up doing is like our bank accounts going up. So we're living under budget, even with paying our taxes. So we're not going like over budget every month. I'm just not necessarily hitting my grocery budget like I was. And I would love to get back to that cadence. Anyway, that was number 20, setting a grocery budget. Number 21, I don't buy pre-packaged kids' snacks, except for a very few exceptions. So we just buy the bulk items and then we place them in little ziplop bags or little snack cups as needed. Things that I'm including when I say that we buy bulk items, like goldfish. That's an example of something we just buy the huge bag, we put it in little baggies. We don't need to buy those little individual goldfish packs because they're more expensive. A few things that I do buy the pre-packaged snack version of is pirates booty. Rafe begged for me to buy pirates booty because kids in his class had pirates booty and now he don't want to touch it. Funny how that works. Also, applesauce packs, just because they're easy to pack with Rafe to take to school and I don't have to worry about him trying to open a cup. He can just like twist the top on the applesauce pack and he's good to go. Another thing that I buy are those little cheese sticks. Those are just some things that I could think of off the top of my head that are examples of things that I do buy the pre-packaged version of. But for the most part, we're just gonna buy the bulk item and we're gonna put them in little zip bags, little snack cups as we need them because it just saves a lot of money. Number 22, we eat leftovers until they are pretty much all gone. And I call Eric our garbage disposal because the man is willing to eat the most random assortment of food to finish any leftovers that we have. And I love him for that. And he genuinely enjoys it. He will he will eat spaghetti, um, a taco, a some green beans, and some chicken nuggets. Like he will put together that assortment and be like, man, this was so good. I'm like, I love you so much because you are just so easy to please. And then last but not least, this is number 23. Some of y'all are going to spit your water out when I tell you this. Because, and I but as I wrap this up, so this is I'm going into our very last one. I want y'all to to know, and I really mean this, I'm about to get choked up talking about this. Hold on, give me a second. Okay, I want y'all to know that my husband Eric is genuinely, y'all. I'm for real. Oh my gosh. I'm for real about to cry. Okay, so my husband Eric is genuinely genuinely one of the best people that I know. And this last one, y'all are gonna like why I'm why am I getting emotional about this? I don't know. Um, but he would he just does anything for our family. And if he knew I was telling y'all that he does this, he would be so embarrassed. He would be so embarrassed. Um, but he does anything to put our family first, to put our family in. To put our family in the best financial position possible. And I still haven't even gotten to the last item, and I promise I'm gonna get to that. But I just want to honor him. I have no idea why I'm crying right now. I'm being for real. Um because he does everything that he can for our family. Like he drove his POS cars until this past December, and now he gets to drive around a truck that he's so proud of. And he was made fun of so much for the cars that he drove by his friends, by the kids that he coaches at football. Like every single kid, he said every kid that drives up to that high school drives a nicer car than me, and he would joke about it, and he didn't care. Like he literally didn't care. The man never buys himself anything, he's just salt of the earth, and he's the best person I know. Okay, okay, number 23 is gonna make y'all laugh out loud that I got so emotional and now I'm about to tell you what he does. Okay, so number 23, final item on how we save money, is that Eric helps out on lunchroom duty at his high school so that he can get free lunch. I'm not even kidding you. There have been times where he has been behind the counter with gloves on, dipping out food for the kids because the lunch staff was shorthanded. And he takes out their trash for them every day at the lunchroom and he gets free lunch by taking out their trash for them, and he gets to get as much as he wants. And he loves it. He loves that little rectangle pizza and that chocolate milk. I don't even know if they have that anymore, but I'm assuming mac and cheese and a little side salad. He likes brags about his little side salad he gets. I'm like, honey, that has no nutritional value. Them leaves do not have nutritional value like you think that they do. But anyway, so that's just a funny thing that Eric does, and I just love him so much. And I I'm not even gonna edit that out, but I got for real emotional on number 23 because of what Eric does for our family and how much he loves us. Um, and that's just a very small, funny way that he expresses his love for us. And those are the 23 unhinged, funny, hilarious, weird, also some of them very normal ways that we save money as a family. That's all for today's episode. Thank you all for bearing with me. I do not want to know why I broke down today. Um, there are a few things that I mentioned in today's episode that I will link to in the show notes. But if there's anything else that I talked about but I didn't link because I honestly just can't remember, y'all just message me on Instagram and I will shoot you a link to that. But thank y'all so much for listening. Sometimes these episodes will kind of branch out away from necessarily like health and fitness and into more of things like budgeting and productivity, just because I like talking about this stuff. And y'all clearly like listening to it because that was our number one most downloaded episode was our debt payoff journey. So if you haven't yet, go back and listen to episode six of the podcast. And until next time, keep adding another penny in the jar.