0:00

Welcome to the over 40 and child free

0:02

podcast. I'm Tracy and

0:04

I'm Nicole. We are best friends and

0:06

a hot mess express. Join us

0:08

while we chat about friendships, love and other random

0:11

topics about being over 40 and child

0:13

free. We are bored as. Fuck

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and looking to develop community of women

0:18

who love to laugh and are trying to survive

0:20

this world of being over 40 We

0:22

are going to cover all areas of life being

0:25

married Being single and

0:27

dating in your 40s looking for fun

0:29

things to do Testing out new products

0:31

and so much more. We'll

0:34

give you our opinions unfiltered

0:39

AvenuePodcast. net Hi

0:45

everybody. And welcome back to

0:47

episode 40 of over

0:50

40 and child free. There

0:53

was a lot of forties in that. There was.

0:55

And we finally made it to episode 40.

0:58

Maybe that's why you're struggling. We had a little bit of

1:00

a break. Yes. We had

1:02

a little holiday hiatus,

1:05

if you will. Wow.

1:07

I know. I know. So

1:10

part of it was we

1:13

had the intention of doing our 40th

1:15

episode with our celebrity

1:17

wines. However,

1:20

in December, I

1:23

was sick, off and on, and

1:25

as you can hear in my voice,

1:28

the congestion is back again. So,

1:31

with the holidays, with me not feeling well.

1:34

Drinking wine wasn't the best option,

1:36

so don't worry everybody,

1:39

it's coming soon., I'm glad

1:41

that you are, I would say feeling

1:43

better, but it doesn't sound like you're feeling better.

1:46

I know. It's just

1:48

a pain in the ass, but you know, it is

1:50

what it is and I'm going to deal with

1:52

it. Well, how were your holidays? My

1:55

holidays were nice and relaxing,

1:57

actually. Well, that's good because

1:59

I know your Thanksgiving holiday was not nice

2:01

and relaxing. No, it was definitely

2:04

not. It was on the go, on the go. Yes,

2:07

no, this was a lot of laying around.

2:10

Did not get as much work done as I had

2:12

anticipated, but you

2:14

know, it is what it is. That's

2:16

okay. You got, you got a nice little break. That's

2:18

what you needed. How was your

2:21

holiday? It

2:23

was very nice and relaxing also.

2:25

Except for on New Year's Eve, we

2:28

had these great plans, and I was really

2:30

super excited for them. We were gonna go to

2:32

this Well, we went to this it was called

2:34

Yuletide at Devon and it just sounded amazing.

2:36

There was going to be live music

2:39

and there was food trucks and

2:41

little vendors to shop with

2:44

and all of this stuff sounds really cute

2:46

and really exciting, right? And one of the singers

2:48

was going to be a country singer

2:50

that we knew. So we were like, yay, we'll

2:53

go. He was going to perform at like 10 o'clock

2:55

and then a DJ. And then it was going to be midnight. And

2:57

there was like all this cute stuff.

2:59

There was like a beer garden bar, a whiskey bar.

3:02

Ooh, right. So it sounded, it did

3:04

sound adorable. So when

3:06

we got there almost everything

3:08

was closed. So there was literally like maybe

3:10

two vendors to shop with that their stores

3:13

were still open. And we did, we

3:15

got there at like seven o'clock. So it wasn't

3:17

like it was, it was only start, it started at three.

3:20

And then it went to midnight or like maybe

3:22

one in the morning. I don't know. Yeah, so there

3:24

was, and all the food trucks were closed. So

3:26

there was very limited food. The

3:28

bars were still open, but

3:31

there was like nothing happening and there was like

3:33

no energy there. And so after

3:35

walking around and kind of taking a look

3:37

at. Everything, we went on one ride, so

3:39

there was a ride, there was a, there was rides?

3:42

There was three rides, I think, I don't

3:44

even know if the one was a fun house, so I don't know if that

3:46

was a ride. Then there was a Ferris wheel, which we didn't go on, but we

3:48

went on the Himalaya, you know, the one thing that's around

3:50

it, it's spinning, it's a circle, I don't

3:52

know, it's called lots of different names. They

3:55

called it the Himalaya. Is it like

3:57

where you stand? No,

3:59

you sit and it spins around forward

4:01

and then it spins around backwards and it kind of goes over

4:03

a hill. I don't know. Oh,

4:05

oh, like a roller coaster kind of

4:07

thing? Kind of thing. It just goes in a circle.

4:10

So they had that. So we went on, so we

4:12

went on that. We got some

4:14

food, but honestly, like we

4:17

were kind of bored and there was nothing else to really

4:19

do to waste time until 10 o'clock when the

4:21

guy was going to come on and sing. So we ended

4:23

up leaving and coming home and just celebrating

4:25

New Year's in our jammies, which that

4:27

was fine. That was just not our plan.

4:30

You would think that being

4:33

that it was New Year's Eve and they had these things

4:35

happening and they knew people were going to come, they

4:37

would have more things open. You

4:39

would think it would be mandatory, like, if you

4:41

are a vendor here, then, like, you need

4:43

to be here and have your store open, if you're

4:45

a food truck, if you're going to have food

4:47

here, like, or at least, because I

4:50

did all the research, like, I did, I googled,

4:52

I asked people, like, I did all this stuff to make sure, like,

4:54

things were going to be open, and so, when

4:56

we got there, nothing was open, I was super disappointed.

4:59

But that is just stupid. Yeah.

5:01

So I think they should have at least said what was definitely

5:03

going to be open and that way you could have made your decision

5:06

because, and I, and I am excited because

5:08

you gave me the Groupon, so I ended up only spending

5:11

20 per ticket, but, but

5:13

it was 30 to park. That's

5:16

crazy, especially with nothing open.

5:18

It was almost more money for the parking

5:20

than it was for the tickets and then nothing,

5:22

and then there wasn't anything open, so we ended up leaving. Anyway,

5:25

so that was my new year. So we walked, we ended

5:27

up celebrating at home, which again was fine, but

5:30

it was just disappointing because I was excited

5:32

to go out. Yeah,

5:34

that's a bummer. However, you did say

5:37

you had some. Amazing hot

5:39

chocolate. I did have some amazing hot

5:41

chocolate. That was the highlight. So the hot chocolate

5:43

was the highlight. And probably if there was a little

5:45

bit more like excitement, I

5:47

might've even enjoyed the whiskey bar. Cause

5:49

that would have been fun. But like, by

5:52

that point I was just kind of like, I was tired

5:54

of spending money and nothing was exciting what's happening.

5:56

So it was like. And you

5:58

didn't even get to see your country person.

6:01

No, that's okay. That's okay. So

6:04

that's how, yeah. So that, so that was fine.

6:06

I mean, that was fine. It was all good. I

6:08

mean, you missed out on my amazing

6:11

New Year's Eve. I'm so

6:14

sad that I did not. I should have, we

6:16

should have left there and come over and we could have finished

6:18

watching. Fish concert with you. Yes.

6:21

I've never watched the

6:23

New Year's Eve fish concert. They play at

6:25

Madison Square Garden for four nights

6:27

leading up to New Year's

6:29

Eve. I've never watched it. They

6:32

always do like something

6:34

crazy on New Year's Eve. And

6:39

I'm not even going to try to explain

6:41

what happened, but it was amazing.

6:43

And for non fish fans, it It

6:46

doesn't make sense for

6:48

non fish fans. They'd be like, this is stupid.

6:52

I mean, they'd be like, wow, this is weird. Sounds

6:56

about right. It was funny. Cause

6:58

at one point I looked at Marty and I was like,

7:01

I don't even know how to Explain

7:03

what is happening. And he was like, you can't,

7:05

you just can't It

7:09

was very exciting. Well, good. I'm glad

7:11

as fish fans that you guys were enjoying

7:14

it Because it sounds amazing

7:16

and I'm super sad that I missed out on that.

7:19

I know, I know. I mean. Maybe

7:21

next year. You could figure out the login and

7:23

you could re watch it. Oh, can I? Oh,

7:26

well, I had no idea that that was even an

7:28

option. You

7:31

could watch it over and over

7:33

and over again. I will say, so

7:35

they start on, what

7:37

was New Year's? Sunday? Thursday,

7:39

Friday, Saturday. Okay, so they started on Thursday

7:42

because they do four nights every year. Thursday

7:45

night, guess what they played? Bouncing

7:47

Around the Room. They did.

7:49

I didn't hear it though because you have to like

7:51

buy the shows to be able to watch or to

7:54

be able to listen to them and I'm cheap and

7:57

You didn't want to buy the show where you could

7:59

listen to Bouncing Around the Room? Come on, that's the best

8:01

song. Well, you

8:03

know, it's It's a good song. It's

8:06

good. It's okay. It's

8:08

my favorite fish song. Listen, you should

8:11

be proud that I have a favorite fish song. I

8:13

am. I am. And I feel like I

8:15

could introduce you to some other ones

8:17

that you might like. Okay. But

8:20

you just don't give them a chance. Maybe.

8:22

Maybe next year. I'm gonna find

8:25

you a chicken fried fish

8:28

song. Okay. Wow, you hate

8:30

chicken fried, so that means you'd be finding me a song

8:32

that I hate. Yeah, well,

8:34

I'm gonna make you listen to it. I'm gonna make Tony play

8:36

it over and over again. Okay. I can't

8:38

wait I would pretty much be any song

8:40

other than bouncing around the room. I feel like

8:43

no, there's some good ones There's some peppy

8:45

fun songs Okay, I

8:47

take your word for it So

8:50

that's what Tracy did on the years. She watched fish

8:52

if we have any fish fans out there. Did

8:54

anybody else watch?

8:57

fish On they do stop

8:59

and do the countdown for new years. It's funny

9:01

because I had no idea what time it was

9:04

and all of a sudden they were like, okay, and

9:06

they do 10,

9:09

And then they just go right back into it. Nice.

9:11

Well, at least they do it a little. A

9:13

little bit of the, whatever, the New Year's

9:16

Eve song. I don't know the name of it. Auld Lang

9:18

Syne. Do they drop

9:20

a fish? So Auld

9:23

Lang Syne is the name of the song.

9:25

And I can't believe they missed out on the opportunity

9:28

to drop a fish. No, they did not

9:30

drop a fish. There might have been a mockingbird

9:32

flying. Okay.

9:36

And that is why I'm not going to explain

9:38

what was going on. Okay. In

9:41

my town, they drop a duck. Yes,

9:44

and did you guys go to the duck? No, we

9:46

did not. Once I was home, I was home, I

9:48

was like over anything dropping.

9:51

So, but we drop a rubber ducky here

9:53

in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Is there

9:55

a meaning behind that?

9:58

I don't really know, but I did get to somebody did take

10:00

a video of it, so I did get to actually

10:02

watch it on the Parkesburg

10:04

town page. Oh, was it

10:06

exciting? Was it all you hoped it would

10:08

be? All that I hoped it would be. I mean, rubber

10:10

duckies are cute, so I'm not sure if there is

10:12

a reason or not, but it was cute. I

10:15

still have the rubber duckies in my

10:17

car from when we did geocaching.

10:20

I should have given you one, and you

10:22

could have, like, dropped it. I

10:24

could have. I could have. Like, we need to drop,

10:27

I'm out 2023. Maybe next

10:29

year, it's their third year. So I could always do it next

10:31

year, unless we decide when it's nice out to

10:33

do some geocaching and we leave the ducks.

10:36

Yes, we do have ducks and we have something

10:38

else. I feel like we need to do it again

10:40

when it gets nice out and see if it gets any easier.

10:43

Yeah, it was fun. We had fun doing

10:45

that. Yes. I found some

10:47

other things like the,

10:51

what was the thing we did in Philly? Oh, clued

10:54

up. Clued up. I, something

10:57

else popped up in my Facebook that was

10:59

similar. So maybe we could check out

11:01

all of the scavenger

11:04

hunt sites. Okay, but when it

11:06

gets nicer out. Oh god. Yeah. It's

11:08

too cold for me to leave the house. No, we

11:10

are hermiting now until

11:12

probably when we go to Vegas in April.

11:15

Okay, I'll call this my hermit era. It

11:18

is the what I do there. Taylor Swift

11:20

fans. Oh,

11:23

I see. I got you. I'm here

11:26

looking at you. So what else? Well, I don't even

11:28

know what's happening cause I haven't left my house all weekend

11:30

either. No, no, I did

11:32

leave. No, I did leave my house yesterday.

11:34

That's right. I had to go to the grocery store. Right.

11:37

I did that on Friday. I thought it was supposed to, I thought

11:39

it was supposed to snow more today.

11:42

So we went yesterday. We went at

11:44

a good time. It wasn't, I mean, it was probably

11:46

in the middle of it, so, but it wasn't terrible.

11:49

Right. But then I've been hurrying it up

11:51

since there under my warm blankie.

11:54

They apparently knew this was coming,

11:57

but I feel like nobody. prepared

12:00

for it. There were so many accidents

12:02

and people sliding all over the roads.

12:05

My development, I took Winnie out.

12:07

I thought I was going to take a header. So my

12:09

mom bought me these things last

12:11

year because remember when I first got

12:13

Winnie and I used to fall all the time because I got

12:15

her in January and I used to go out in the slippy ice

12:18

and fall. So I haven't

12:20

done that since I got her. It was that

12:22

weird time, but it

12:25

is very slippy out. So she got these things

12:28

for herself. And then once I told

12:30

her that it's very slippery, it's

12:32

these things you put on your boots and

12:35

there's like uh, little pokey

12:38

things that stick out the bottom. I don't know

12:40

what they're called. And it spikes,

12:43

I guess you could say. Oh yeah.

12:45

So I put those on yesterday. Cause it was like a sheet

12:47

of ice out there. Driving

12:50

wasn't really that bad. We were behind

12:52

the on the main roads. It wasn't really that bad. We were behind the

12:54

ice truck on the one, but even

12:56

on the little roads, it wasn't terrible

12:59

where we were anyway. That's good.

13:01

I think as the day went on, cause

13:03

the problem was it snowed,

13:06

laid down like a covering of snow and

13:08

then turned to sleet. Sleet, yeah. I

13:10

was just watching Facebook and there,

13:12

I follow this guy who like posts

13:15

all the accidents and stuff. And

13:17

it was just like one thing after the next, after the next,

13:19

after the next. Yeah. Those people

13:21

weren't smart. So I know we have people

13:24

all over listening. So is it, so we'd love to

13:26

hear what the weather is like in

13:28

the area. Are you guys getting snow?

13:30

I know. It was supposed to be

13:32

a big sniff storm all over the Midwest

13:35

and on the like, Northeast,

13:38

but then again, we probably have some listeners that are

13:40

in like, nice, sunny, warm places.

13:42

So you can let us know what the temperature there is and we can.

13:45

Live vicariously through that I

13:48

can start planning my move. Yes.

13:51

I plan my move all the time and

13:54

much warmer area. Much,

13:57

much warmer. So it's January.

13:59

I can't believe it's 2024.

14:02

I know it's, but

14:04

I'm excited because it's 2024

14:07

and that means Vegas is coming soon. And

14:09

I'm excited to go back. And

14:13

why are you excited? Oh, I'm

14:16

super excited. Maybe I will

14:18

get to see fish in Vegas if somebody

14:20

just gives me a ticket. Yeah,

14:22

you're not going to want to pay for a

14:24

ticket because they're a little pricey. And

14:27

also it's fish. I

14:29

know, but it's going to be at the sphere.

14:31

Ooh. I'm pretty

14:33

excited for that. That was really good

14:35

timing. It couldn't

14:37

have been any better timing. I mean, really. It

14:40

was meant to be that I see fish

14:42

in the sphere. For your birthday.

14:45

For my birthday. I mean, not

14:47

on my birthday, but. It

14:50

couldn't have been that perfect. We got a close enough. Come

14:52

on now. I'm

14:55

super excited to go back to Vegas. However,

14:57

I do have to start saving more money.

15:00

I did good. Last year,

15:03

and then the last couple months, it's been a little

15:06

tight, so I haven't been able, I, what I do is

15:08

I put money aside in a different

15:10

account, and that's just for

15:13

travel, so it's been my Vegas

15:15

fund. Oh, nice, nice.

15:18

Wow, over here in our house,

15:20

we have made some New Year's resolutions

15:23

that we're really going to try to stick to, and,

15:25

and all of them revolve around,

15:27

Money and budgeting and saving.

15:30

So yes, so we're trying

15:32

to do no spend January,

15:36

which is basically not

15:39

spending any money on anything that

15:41

you haven't budgeted for. So as long as you've

15:43

budgeted for it, like you've made

15:45

sure, like if something needed, but nothing outside

15:48

of that. So we're

15:50

trying to do that. I've been

15:52

really good. There's been so many things I've wanted

15:54

to buy that I haven't, so that's a plus. sO

15:57

what we, so in order to help with that, we

16:00

ended up getting, we,

16:02

I follow this chick on

16:06

TikTok. I don't know if I necessarily followed her before,

16:08

but she showed up a whole bunch of times in my

16:11

In my feed. So I started following her

16:13

and she's called that budget babe And

16:16

she will show you like different ways

16:18

how to pay off your credit cards like all these different things

16:20

And so she had a book, you know, like a budgeting

16:22

book and so Mike and I decided we were gonna get

16:25

that to help us Keep

16:27

track of our budget and then we were gonna like

16:29

have so like we had our first Budgeting

16:32

meeting on the day that we got paid to make sure

16:34

like that, you know So we sat down and filled in

16:36

the book then we had like a budget

16:38

meeting Did you budget for the

16:40

budget book? No, I didn't. I

16:42

was prior to having the budget. We

16:45

bought that in December. Oh, okay.

16:48

Yeah. So we, we took care of that. I said, anything

16:50

you want, you got to get it before January so

16:52

we did that. And so now we're budgeting

16:54

and we're going to try to save. So we

16:57

have in there Vegas. So Vegas is in

16:59

there. Okay. Cool. Start

17:01

saving for, so we should be good

17:03

with that. Yeah, so we're really

17:05

going to try because we really need

17:07

to save some money and pay down some debt

17:09

and that's, that's our goal. So, yeah,

17:12

I need to do it and I really try with

17:14

the budget, but I just can't

17:16

wrap my brain around doing

17:19

the budget. Like, because.

17:22

My energy bill fluctuates

17:26

so much. And then it's like,

17:29

okay, we'll budget for food. I could almost

17:31

do that, but like, I don't know

17:33

how to budget for things that I

17:35

need around the house. Like my trips to target,

17:38

obviously I could budget not to buy extra

17:40

things, but I never know when I'm

17:42

going to need paper towels, toilet paper.

17:45

You know, things like that. So then I get myself

17:47

confused on how to budget that.

17:50

And then I give up. Wow.

17:52

Okay. I don't know. That's why.

17:55

So we got the book and we follow the lady because

17:57

she tells you how to do those things. I mean, there's

17:59

like a special section for, like,

18:02

there's sections for things that are always

18:04

the same. So, like, any of your

18:06

I don't know. Things that are always going to be that and then

18:08

there's a section for what varies and you

18:10

basically just do it on what you spent the month before.

18:13

So you would kind of have to know a little bit

18:15

about what you spend. So you'd have to have a

18:17

little bit of an idea. So you might have to go back

18:19

into your bills and see what you spend on

18:22

that. And then. That's all you really need

18:24

to do is like figure

18:26

out kind of what and base it on there

18:28

and that might be something like, okay, this month I

18:31

saved not enough for this month. I saved too

18:33

much. And now here's where I can put this. So

18:35

you kind of have to have a little bit of an idea,

18:37

but that's why I liked having the book because

18:40

I can write it down and visually.

18:43

See it there, how

18:45

much money I'm saving for it. And

18:47

then we will go through and look and see like, okay,

18:49

this is how much we

18:51

spend. So, okay,

18:54

well, maybe you'll need to send me that information

18:56

and I will look up the budget, babe.

18:59

Yeah, I've always needed to just follow her. She does a lot

19:01

of, you don't even need her book to just whatever.

19:03

She just teaches you how to do all the things she like shows

19:05

you or whatever. So you could just do it

19:07

in like a, you could probably just do it in a notebook

19:09

if you wanted to. Well,

19:12

I did buy a little budget book from

19:14

me. Oh, well, maybe she could help

19:16

you use that. Yes. I mean,

19:18

it was like 5. I wasn't going to buy

19:20

something crazy because

19:22

I was like, well, if I'm spending all this money,

19:25

then I'm not budgeting. So I found something that

19:27

looked kind of easy. But then I got

19:29

it and I opened it and I was overwhelmed. So I closed

19:31

it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You should watch

19:33

the, you should watch that. I think it's that budget baby should

19:35

check her out on Tik TOK and maybe she can help you

19:37

or inspire you to get started because

19:40

it's really important

19:43

to budget. Yes. And

19:45

that is actually this month

19:49

is financial wellness month.

19:52

So I think it's great. It's

19:55

a great resolution to have. And

19:57

actually the number one thing

20:00

on how to celebrate financial wellness

20:02

is create a budget. Well, look

20:04

at that. That's what I am doing. Who knew? Cause

20:06

my financial wellness is not well, it's a little

20:08

ill right now. Number

20:11

two is pay off debt, which just

20:14

seems like an over daunting task right

20:17

now. So that's the other

20:19

thing. That's like our, that's what I want to do is

20:21

to pay off debt. So save

20:24

money, pay off debt. Save

20:27

money, pay off debt, save money, pay off debt. I

20:29

wonder if that's, do people in

20:31

January financial wellness

20:34

month, because that's how many people use that

20:36

as a resolution, or do you think that

20:38

people do

20:40

more weight loss as the number 1 resolution?

20:45

That's a great question. I don't know what

20:47

the top, let's look up the

20:49

top. Resolution

20:53

oh, it says improving

20:56

fitness. Okay. Okay.

20:59

So it says the 1st

21:01

resolution has to do with improving

21:03

fitness with around 48 percent

21:06

of people having the resolution. to

21:08

improve fitness. And then

21:11

other resolutions from the survey, 38

21:13

percent say they'd like to improve their finances

21:17

and 36 percent say they want

21:19

to improve their mental health. Oh,

21:22

well look at that. They

21:24

kind of plan these things because

21:26

everybody gets in the focus of making a resolution.

21:30

So it's a great time to kind

21:32

of. Not readjust

21:34

but maybe reassess where you're at start

21:37

off the new year strong

21:39

That's right. Okay, so no spend January's

21:42

good So I'm on my way to there cuz that's gonna be

21:44

saving some money What else I like

21:46

I've trying to think about what else I've done,

21:48

too you

21:50

know, look at my findings. Like I always look at them, like,

21:52

what are my non thing

21:54

or what are the things that I don't absolutely need

21:57

and like pare down and I think that Mike

21:59

and I have pared down our budget to,

22:01

we pretty much, we have very few,

22:03

like outside things that come through,

22:05

I don't know what, whatever you want to call them. So like, we

22:08

only have two streaming subscriptions.

22:10

Like, I mean? We've cleared

22:12

up as much as we can,

22:14

as far as like getting. Rid

22:17

of things so we don't pay for too many

22:19

extras. So that was the other thing that we did with our budget

22:22

was like go through and say like, okay, we need

22:24

this, we need this, we don't need

22:26

this. Right. So we've pared down Absolutely.

22:29

Like I think everywhere we can. Yeah,

22:31

so I don't know. I don't know what else to do.

22:33

That's what I need. I need all the tips. Yeah,

22:37

you know, what doesn't help me in

22:39

financial January is that my

22:41

car insurance is due. We

22:44

pay that every single month. So. Oh,

22:47

you do? Yeah. I

22:50

do six months at a time. Okay,

22:53

ours just automatically comes out once a month.

22:56

Maybe I should do that. So I can

22:58

more easily budget it. I think you

23:01

get a discount though when you pay in

23:03

six months. I think that's why I do it that way. Oh,

23:05

you might. We're just not good at

23:08

saving the money and we'd be like, Oh my God,

23:10

where's it at? And so that's why we

23:12

pay every single month. No one says

23:14

I actually have the money. That

23:16

goes right on a credit card. Okay.

23:20

So I definitely do not have

23:22

like 600 laying around. It

23:25

would be, it is a good tip though to see if you want

23:27

to save, if you are looking to save money and like

23:29

places to save money is if you can

23:31

pay it all at once to pay it that way. If it

23:33

is something that you get offered to

23:35

save money and you can tell you probably

23:37

not, if you can put it on your credit card, but, um,

23:41

Unless you pay off your car. Not helpful for when I'm trying to pay

23:43

that down. Right, right. Okay.

23:47

So, I will say January

23:50

10th is National Cut Your Energy

23:52

Cost Day. Now that

23:55

I need because my energy bill this month

23:57

was a little bit high.

24:00

Although I don't know if it's kind of similar to

24:02

other months, but I still think there's, I think

24:04

I can cut back on it. My bill

24:06

was 300. Okay.

24:11

Well, I will give you some tips to

24:15

cut down your energy costs. Are you ready?

24:18

I'm ready. I'm listening. Well,

24:21

some of these are not good

24:24

for your no spend January. One

24:27

is weatherproof

24:29

your home. Okay.

24:32

Replace old windows with new

24:34

energy efficient windows. Okay.

24:38

Okay. We'll get to the ones that are better. So turn

24:40

down thermostats, which might actually

24:42

be your problem is your thermostats down to like

24:45

two degrees. It could be,

24:48

it could be Heather. They're

24:50

on right now. No.

24:52

Yes. You

24:54

turn off lights when leaving a room. I

24:58

could do a better job of that. I just leave lights on sometimes

25:00

randomly. You should turn

25:02

them off. And use energy

25:05

efficient compact fluorescent light

25:07

bulbs. Woo! Wow.

25:10

Run dishwasher and washing

25:13

machine only when fully loaded.

25:16

Let me do that. Lower

25:19

water heater temperature. Which

25:22

is funny. I was actually talking to Mike

25:24

about this because I wanted to turn

25:26

mine up because my showers just

25:28

are not hot. I don't, and I have a

25:30

brand new water heater. I don't know what's happening.

25:33

But I was like, I looked it up on YouTube, how to

25:35

do it myself. So I didn't have to call the maintenance guys.

25:37

And it looked very overwhelming

25:40

and he's like, no, I do it all the time. And I'm like, well, it

25:42

says to like, shut off your. Something

25:45

to this. And he's like, Oh, I don't do that. So

25:50

I might make Mike come over and mess

25:52

with mine. Mike does

25:56

save on the dishwasher because he does do

25:58

a lot of the dishes. So he does wash.

26:00

He's like the human saver

26:02

of energy there. So he

26:05

washes dishes instead of running the dishwasher

26:07

all the time. Nice.

26:10

tAke shorter showers. Well,

26:13

I do that because I only shower like once

26:15

a week, but Mike, Mike takes

26:18

enough shower. He takes a shower

26:20

every single day and I, I swear he

26:22

loves to live in the shower. You're

26:24

allowed to take showers, just

26:27

don't stay in there for like 20 minutes.

26:30

I know, it's hard when that's an option. He

26:33

is a long shower, he's a long shower taker. He

26:35

takes them off for both of us. Tell him, tell

26:38

him to save money and

26:40

cut down energy costs. He needs to

26:43

take his shower time down a bit. He

26:45

has also taken a couple baths recently,

26:48

so. I don't know how that's

26:50

good. I mean,

26:52

baths are good because the water is not running it

26:54

hot the whole time. That's true.

26:56

I would imagine I'm making that up, but

26:59

I'm going to stick with it. Here's

27:03

1 that I always wonder about

27:05

unplug unused appliances.

27:07

I've actually started doing that.

27:10

Cause I used to have like my Vitamix just plugged

27:13

in all the time and I would go months

27:15

without using it. So I did finally unplug

27:17

it. I always wondered how much that actually

27:20

saves, but some people

27:22

do say it saves a lot of money. Like,

27:25

I don't know. I guess I'm not walking around plugging

27:27

every single thing in my house. Every

27:30

time I'm not using it, there's gonna be so much stuff. If

27:33

you don't use them regularly, I

27:35

think you'll have it plugged in, like

27:38

my Vitamix. Oh, that's true. I don't

27:40

have my Vitamix plugged in, so maybe that's a plus.

27:42

And my toaster, I unplug if we're not using

27:44

it. And my coffee pot. Yeah,

27:47

so like those kind of things. I

27:49

would like to know how much Oh,

27:51

you're fancy. I would like to know how much it saves

27:53

me. I know.

27:56

Maybe we'll have to look into that a little bit and see.

27:59

So basically, I feel like we do a lot of these things.

28:01

We're not replacing. We're not at a point to replace our windows

28:04

yet, but like, I feel like I

28:06

feel like it could definitely do with the heat and

28:08

how we keep it because now it's on now.

28:10

I'm cold all the time. And so now it's

28:12

on the heats on a little

28:14

higher so probably maybe if

28:16

I put it at a more normal temperature.

28:19

And you have your little heated blanket. I

28:21

know I got to plug that in, but

28:24

it's probably more

28:27

cost efficient to plug that in than

28:29

to have the heat running. Oh, that's

28:31

true. Especially cause my house is a little bigger.

28:33

We have two hot water heaters, one for the upstairs and one

28:35

for the downstairs. So holy mackerel

28:38

you live in a mansion. Yes.

28:40

That's what it must be. It's what living

28:42

a good life list looks like or some shit

28:45

like that. Yeah. I Don't

28:47

know. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to, I'll

28:49

look at that. I'll get my temperatures.

28:52

Okay. You and your temperatures, you're

28:54

either up really high

28:57

or up or down really low. You're never

28:59

like at a, just a nice, like everyone's

29:01

like, Oh, I keep my, you know, thermostat

29:04

at like 69 or 70. And

29:06

you're like, I keep it at 35 or

29:09

keep it at 90. Yeah. Pretty

29:11

much what it is. It's

29:14

either super cold in here and like turning

29:16

blue or it's really hot in here

29:18

and we're sweating. I just can't find that nice. I

29:21

can't find that nice medium. We'll

29:24

find it. We'll find it. All right.

29:26

So that's my goal this month. Maybe it's

29:29

a good month to have that goal. All

29:31

right. So our goal is to

29:33

budget and

29:36

maybe find some more tips on

29:39

how to help your finances.

29:42

And then we can recap next week

29:44

and see if we found anything or at the end of

29:46

the month and we'll see how you did with your

29:48

no spend January. Yes. We'll go

29:51

back in. All And we'll see if I

29:53

ever came up with a budget. Okay.

29:58

So I guess our question of the week

30:00

could be, do you

30:02

have a new year's resolution for

30:04

finances and what

30:07

are some tips that you might have? Perfect.

30:10

I love it. I

30:12

like it because everybody's

30:14

got some good tips for saving money

30:16

that somebody might not think of. And

30:19

I could use all of those tips. I

30:21

know I should get into couponing. Oh

30:25

my gosh. I always wanted

30:27

to do couponing, but then it got overwhelming because

30:29

I didn't really understand it. It seems complicated.

30:32

I know. And then, like, I used to

30:34

be good when they actually had, like, when

30:36

I used to get the paper and I would click coupons,

30:39

but all of the online coupon

30:41

stuff confuses the shit out of me. And I'm

30:43

like, no, I don't like it. I'm really good.

30:45

If we go shop, if we shop at the Acme,

30:47

which is the local grocery store and local grocery

30:50

stores, I use the app and I will click

30:52

coupons and I will save money that way.

30:54

So if we shop there, I can do pretty good,

30:56

but anything above and beyond whatever's on the

30:58

app, I'm not like, if there's

31:01

more weight, like to, in order for like the crazy

31:03

couponers who collect like all of the things

31:06

I'm not there, but I will, but I do use

31:08

the online for

31:10

coupons. You know what my

31:12

problem is with that is I will go through,

31:14

I do it a lot at target cause that's, I

31:16

go to target. Mostly I'll

31:19

go into like the target circle and the ads

31:21

and I'll save all the coupons. And then you just

31:23

bring up the little barcode at the end. I

31:25

get home and I'm like, son of a bitch. I forgot to bring

31:27

up the barcode every time

31:30

I have all these coupons in my

31:32

little. Wallet. Well,

31:34

you gotta remember to bring them up because that's

31:36

an important, that's a really great way to save groceries,

31:38

definitely a good place to save money at and

31:40

by couponing and.

31:43

I wish there was a little thing that said,

31:46

do you need to scan any coupons? Oh,

31:49

that's like that at the grocery stores,

31:51

they do that. Yeah, they don't do it at

31:53

Target. You need to try

31:55

to do your best to remember. I know,

31:57

but you know me. I don't remember shit. I'm

31:59

lucky I remember to, I don't

32:01

know. Wipe your ass when you

32:03

go to the bathroom? Yeah, I forget

32:05

that sometimes. I'm like,

32:07

what's that smell? Winnie,

32:11

my god! Wow,

32:15

we just took this to a whole other level.

32:17

All right, back to the show, back to it. So, question

32:20

of the week is, New year's resolutions.

32:22

And do you have any tips for

32:24

budgeting? Yes. All

32:27

right. So do all the podcasty

32:29

things. Make sure you save the podcast, share

32:31

the podcast, love the podcast, come

32:33

over and join the conversation in our Facebook group,

32:36

which is where you will find the question of the week

32:38

and more community over there. So do

32:41

all the podcasty things for us. Oh, wait.

32:43

Oh yes.

32:45

Okay. So if you don't hear anything,

32:49

we're trying out a new way of recording.

32:51

So if you don't hear anything right now, we apologize,

32:56

but go, Nicole. I'm

33:11

hoping you could hear that because that was my yodeling

33:14

pickle that I've been

33:16

waiting and waiting to use my yodeling

33:18

pickle, because if it shows up, I will

33:20

use it more often. Yes, and

33:23

it will let us know that we can incorporate

33:25

some other sounds so it didn't

33:27

work the last time we tried it. But like I said,

33:29

we're trying a new way of recording.

33:32

So if the yodeling pickle came up,

33:35

Nicole's life just got that

33:37

much better. I'm going to be super excited.

33:41

All right, everyone. Well, happy new year.

33:44

We're back. God

33:46

love you guys. We're

33:49

here again. We are back

33:51

and we will talk to you next week. All

33:53

right. Have a good one. Peace out.

33:58

Thank you for listening to over 40

34:00

and Child Free with Tracy and Nicole.

34:03

Connect with us at www.overfortyandchildfree.com.

34:09

That's www.overfourzeroandchildfree.com.

34:18

Let us know your thoughts on what we talked

34:20

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34:22

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34:39

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34:41

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