- Hey guys, it's Dana, and
it's time to talk about money. In this video, I wanted
to talk about 17 things that frugal people don't do. (cash register dinging) I was watching YouTube and
YouTube helpfully provided a video that they
recommended to me, right, recommended video. I clicked on it and it
was another frugal couple, frugal channel doing a video
talking about an article that they've read and the
17 things that frugal people don't do and they were
discussing which of those things they did or didn't do. And I thought that was a really good idea. It's an article by www.theladders.com and I will link it down
below in the description box. In this article, there are 17 things that frugal people don't do. I'm gonna go through the list
and I'm going to tell you what we do or what we don't
do that's on this list. Let's get to it. (lively music) Number one is frugal
people, most frugal people, don't finance cars. This is true for us. We do not finance cars. The last car we purchased was with cash and it was the best thing
ever, the best feeling ever to save up money and to just
pay for the car with cash. It might mean you're not
getting a $30,000 car, you're getting a $5,000 car
until you can save up more money to purchase a $10,000
car, then a $20,000 car. But we do do this. We do not finance cars and we will never finance cars ever again. Doesn't matter if that
means we're driving a piece of junk, which we, some people
would probably say we are, but it's just, for me, it's
just a car just to get to work, get from point A to point B. I just need transportation
and I really don't care what kind of car I'm driving, really. I just want a car that
relatively reliable, a car that I feel that
I can sit in without, I want heat and air conditioning. At this point, that would be fantastic, but other than that, whatever. So we don't finance cars. Number two is overdraft
their bank account. We used to overdraft
our bank account a lot. I'm not gonna lie. And that was before, though,
the before days when we were deep in debt and things were horrible and we lived paycheck to paycheck. However, now we are much
more frugal, out of debt, and we do not ever overdraft our account. I am meticulous. And one of the reasons why
I found I would overdraft more when I didn't pay attention. I just didn't look at our
account and we weren't budgeting and that's when mistakes happen. You might have money, but
if you're not careful, if you don't pay attention to
it and look at it every day, then it happens. But nope, we do not overdraft
our bank account ever. They refuse to compromise their dietary health to save money. I have been eating a
fully plant-based diet for three years now, woo hoo. And yeah, so I guess I
would say this is true. We do not, we try to buy
organic foods where we can and I would say that our food
budget is probably higher than most, although my
husband is very frugal. Even within those healthy food choices, he is really into coupons
and shopping sales and he'll go to multiple
stores if he needs to. He gets the rain checks
when something's on sale and they're out of it so he
can go back later and get it. He does all of our grocery
shopping and we do our best, we're very frugal with it. But we do not compromise on certain things that we wanna purchase
that we consider healthy. Number four is carry credit card balances. No, we are very much against credit cards, do not use credit cards,
hate credit cards. We don't carry credit card balances. That's true for us. Number five is keep up with the Joneses. Keeping up with the Joneses
means that you want to do similar things that
your neighbor's doing. So if your neighbor is
landscaping or a neighbor just came home with a brand new car or your neighbor's
telling you how they just went on this fabulous vacation, it'll make you feel like you
wanna go do the same thing, just 'cause all your
neighbors are doing it, all your friends are doing it, all of your co-workers are doing it. And this, it's hard. It's really hard. We do not keep up with the Joneses at all. I've actually now flipped
the complete opposite way and if the neighbors are doing it, then I don't want to do it. I just feel like, nope, that's not for us. I kind of try to go the opposite direction of what everyone else is doing. And sometimes that's hard, but I kind of made it a game at this point and I take pride in it. It's not a problem for us anymore, but it's definitely
difficult in the beginning when you start going a different direction because a lot of people don't understand. Number six is hang out with losers. Yeah, so there's so many quotes out there. Obviously, you've
probably heard the sayings from somebody, maybe
your mother told you that you become who you hang out with. If you hang out with people
who are deep in debt, who are broke, who are
spending money they don't have, most likely, you're gonna end
up living that same style of, same lifestyle because you
hang out with those people. I always tell the kids, be very careful. Make sure you realize you
are selecting your friends, you're choosing your friends. You want to choose people that
have, you know, good morals, good character, because then, you're gonna end up acting just like them, whoever it is you spend time with. No, I would say, I don't
like the losers, okay, right. We're all losers to some extent, I guess. I've been a total loser at
certain points in my life. We all have opportunity to overcome that and change and hopefully learn and grow and not be a loser later on in life. We don't really spend time
with a lot of people outside of church and work and family. Obviously family members can
be troubling sometimes, too, if they're not on the same, yeah. But we just mostly, yes, we try to hang out people who
have a good character base and I would say that to be true about us. Number seven is take fancy vacations. We have not taken a fancy
vacation in 11 years. I think the last time we went on a fancy, was it 11 years? We went to Disney world 11 years ago, on credit, on credit card
debt which was a mistake. No, we do not take a
lot of fancy vacations. Actually, I traveled a lot
throughout college years and I don't really feel
the need to travel. Like a lot of people
really feel like they need to take vacations and I really don't feel like I need to take fancy
vacations or see the world. A lot of people are really into that and I'm just not. I don't feel that, I don't
get too much out of it. Anyway, so no, we don't. We don't take fancy vacations. We go camping or we drive
two hours to the shore, which I guess some people
would consider that fancy. We don't get on planes. Actually, none of our kids
have ever been on an airplane. They haven't been on a plane, yet. Number eight is forget to price compare. We never forget to price compare. I'm kind of crazy with it,
search all different websites if we're gonna order
something, and my husband does a lot of comparison like with ads and stuff, different stores. We definitely really price compare. I kind of over research
things and really get into it, but I'm very analytical
so I guess that's why. I enjoy it. Number nine is automatically opt for employer health insurance, employer offered health insurance. This is saying that
frugal people research, again, research all
options and I would say we don't do this actually. I did automatically opt into
our employer health insurance because it's really good. I work for a health care company, but also I did compare my husband's, his employer offerings compared to mine, so I did compare the two places and we just, we chose mine. It was the better, the better choice, but outside of that, no, I did not. I didn't. I probably should have looked elsewhere, but I just went with what
my company was offering. Failed to contribute to 401k
or other retirement options. One of the main ways
millionaires build wealth is usually through boring
things such as their 401k and so I strongly believe
in retirement options. If you are trying to
get out of debt, though, I also agree with Dave Ramsey
and we followed his Baby Steps and he says to pause your retirement while you're trying to get
a debt so you can throw as much money as possible
towards your debt and he says to not contribute
during those years. Some people go against that
and they do still contribute even though they're trying to get a debt. So yeah, so we followed
Dave's plan and paused our retirement while trying to get a debt. But outside of that, yes,
fully believe in contributing to 401k and other retirement options. Number 11 is frugal people
never stop learning. I 100% never stop learning. I really am into podcasts,
obsessed with podcasts. I watch, I listen to so
many podcasts and just, all the time. When I'm running, walking, cleaning. I'm constantly trying to
listen to stuff to learn. Audiobooks, I listen
to a lot of audiobooks. I'm really into listening to audio stuff because then I can do multiple things, like while I'm listening to a book. It's fantastic. I also do like to read, but I completely, I think that if you're not
learning, you're dying. You have to keep learning. You have to keep moving forward. So yes, I think learning is a big deal, just for overall happiness
as well, I think. Mental clarity, too. As you age, it's important. Number 12 is they don't
even consider the idea of not having sufficient
life insurance in place. Yes, we have life insurance. As soon as you start having
children or you have someone who relies on your income,
I think it is so important. We have life insurance
through our employer and then both my husband
and I have policies outside of work because if we get laid off or my husband or I get really sick and we can't work anymore, we still want to be able to
have life insurance policies in place until we get to the
point that we can self-insure. If you have millions of dollars net worth, then you probably don't necessarily need a life insurance policy. It's also based off where you are, but I really believe in life insurance, term life insurance policies. I, yes, get one today if you don't have a term life insurance policy in place and you have children or you're married or you have someone who
relies on you, financially. 13, waste food. Frugal people are known to
eat leftovers (laughing) until they're sick and tired of them. I eat all of our leftovers,
anything we have leftover. Well except for meat. It has to fit within my dietary limits. But if we have anything
left over that I can eat, then I eat it, I do. And I actually like leftovers. I think they taste good but my husband does not eat leftovers at all. He always brings stuff home or he'll say, "I'm gonna eat that later." Never eats it. It sits in the refrigerator forever until I just throw it out. I mean, he just...just doesn't eat it. He'll say that he will, but
he will not eat the leftovers. I, on the other hand, will. I don't like, I can't stand wasting food. I will say that when we buy groceries, we only buy enough groceries
that we need for the week and we eat, we finish
everything, like everything. By the end of the week, the
refrigerator is literally bare. There's nothing in the refrigerator
by the end of the week, pantry is pretty much empty. We make sure we use
everything that we have and I don't, we don't, my
husband like that either, stuff sitting around 'till it
expires never happens for us because we just will
donate it to our church, the food bank if we're not eating it or we will, you know, we'll
find someplace to donate. My husband takes a lot of
food to work and everybody at work, he's like, "I'll
just take it to work, "they'll eat anything." (laughing) Which is true for most offices, I think. You can take it into your
office and pretty much, it'll be gone in like 30 seconds. Fail to keep a stock pile, hmm. Frugal conscious people keep an inventory of what they have and they
stock up when it's on sale. So let me think about that. Do we stock up? I used to be really
into prepping because we had a power outage in the
house like six years ago and lost power for three
days, and it was so scary, like it was awful. Again, it sounds horrible but I was like, "Oh my," it was really a terrible, in the middle of winter, I had a baby, a little baby and it was
just so, it was it was hard. So I used to stock, I was,
started to like pile stuff up in the basement, you know, which I think is important
to have emergency provisions, like water and stuff, but other than that, we really don't stockpile stuff. I guess if it's on sale, my husband, there's certain juices that
the kids like, V8 juice. Our one child doesn't eat very well. He's a really picky eater. So, we buy V8 juice for him. He loves V8 juice, so we
buy that for him to drink, you know, with dinner or whatever. And so, my husband will
buy, when that's on sale, he'll buy like twelve
bottles of this juice because he's like, "V8 juice is on sale," and he just, he will buy
everything on the shelf, so that's true. I guess that is true. And we stockpile it
because we know that my son will drink it and if it's on sale, 'cause it's kind of expensive, he'll just buy all of it, every single bottle on the shelf. So we do that. Pay full price. Frugal people love negotiating a deal and they refuse to pay full price. Hmm, yeah, I guess that's true. I don't really, I don't know. I used to say I did not like negotiating. I don't like it at all. I'm not a negotiator. I'm just too nice, too
nice, but I'm learning. I'm trying to, that's part of the podcast I've been listening to and a book I was recently listening to on negotiating. Gosh, what was that called? It was about that FBI, top FBI negotiator. I can't remember the
title of it, but anyway. I read that, but that was
all about you know how to negotiate and so I'm
starting to do better with it, especially, I learned, if you just say, if someone gives you a price on something and you say, "Well, can you
do any better than that?" Just that one sentence. Just say, "Oh, thank you so much, okay, "but, can you do any better than that?" Just say it kindly and
even just that one sentence sometimes, they'll say,
"Sure, I can give you this "or lower it down to..." Just at least ask
because if you don't ask, then the answer is always no, right? So you might as well ask. I'm starting to do a lot better with that and I did negotiate a
lower price for my car when I bought it, which was very exciting. That's why I say now, I feel
like maybe I'm starting to, once you start to have
some success if you try it and you have some success, then you do it. I guess that's true,
we never pay full price or we try not to. It has to be on sale or we try
to get the price down lower or we, you know, so yeah, yeah. 16, forget to shop car
and homeowner's insurance at least annually. We do not do this and
we abs...we do do this. I forget, I mean, I do forget to shop car and homeowner's insurance
at least annually because it is really
a good idea and I know this intellectually and I
just, I haven't done it, which I should, I need to stick that on my New Year's
resolutions list, I think, for this next year
because I really should. Because you can save so
much money or at least call. I think I was listening
to somebody say recently that you should call
once a year and just say that you're planning to switch
and is there anything better they can do or say like I've got an offer from some other place. Anything that you like,
like your cable or internet and all that jazz, you should, and trash. You should call and say, "I'm planning and looking to switch. "Can you do anything for
me as a longtime customer?" And they probably will. If you just make that
phone call once a year, you're gonna probably
really lower your bills, your expenses and it's
a smart thing to do. I need to do that, to write that down. And then lastly, spend emotionally. Yeah, so when you're going through stuff with you're having issues with your spouse or if you're, you lost your job or you're, something happens and
you're emotional, right, it's so easy to go out and do
retail therapy, go shopping. We, I have done that a lot in my past. It's part of the, part of my family, past family tree that has
been important for me to break and that is the emotional shopping. We don't shop ever anymore
really and I can say that I really don't do this anymore. So no, we are not, we
don't spend emotionally, but you have to be aware
of it like in your brain, You have to be aware
that that's a thing even that you were doing it or
that you are susceptible to shopping emotionally
and then you can stop. But if you're not even
aware that you're doing it, then it's, that's when it's a problem, because a lot of people don't even, they're not even aware
that that's what they do when they're upset. Kind of like when you're
eating emotionally. It's hard, it's an addiction. It's hard to stop. But we we don't and
especially if I am upset, I try to be, I don't really, we don't go to stores anymore though. There's so much online shopping. Who really even walks into stores? But even online shopping. If you have Amazon Prime, it's very easy to click,
click, click, and order. I try not to be on my phone if I'm upset, but I don't think I would be
tempted to do that any way. But if you do get tempted, try to be aware and put away your phone if you're prone to shopping
when you're feeling upset. So that, that is the 17 things. 17 things frugal people usually don't do and I do do a few of
those as we've discovered. If you want to do this, too, I think it's really fun or just, it's a list of things, but it's kind of a, if you're a YouTuber or you want to go through the list yourself
and just answer it, it's kind of interesting. So that's it. If it's your first time here,
guys, be sure to subscribe. I'm here every single Tuesday
talking all about money and we're a family of six
living in the Philadelphia area. I work full-time outside
the home in finance, but I enjoy doing this YouTube channel as kind of my hobby on the side. Thank you guys so much for
being here and that's it. Talk to you soon, bye.
