Money Hacks with the Happy Hour Ladies
Money Hacks with the Happy Hour Ladies
Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics.
Once a year, I like to take some vacation time from the podcast and replay past episodes while I regroup. This year, because I have Emily on my team keeping me on track, I’m ahead of schedule with podcast recordings, but I am giving the Happy Hour Ladies and myself a month off. So today we’re re-airing an episode we recorded about Money Hacks. I’ve been friends with these women for over six years now and I never get tired of the tips and tricks they have to share where personal finance is concerned. So I hope you’ll enjoy this replay of the money hacks episode from January 2020.
What are we drinking?
Melanie from Dear Debt, Lola Retreat, and MentalHealthandWealth.com — Negroni
Tonya from Tonya-Stumphauzer.com — Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey straight up
Liz, Mrs. Frugalwoods, from Frugalwoods.com — Bota Box Malbec
Shannon — Vodka and Black Cherry Schweppes
Podcast Notes
(originally aired January 2020)
Melanie feels pretty good about the new year. She is doing a big pivot with her new website, mentalhealthandwealth.com.
Tonya doesn’t feel like the new year is much different. Her theme for the years is the years is the Taoist word wu wei, which means means flow like water. She is trying to go with the flow and not be anxious.
Liz feels good about the new year.
There are some big things going on with The Gym. The next jump has to be really big. What if it fails? Shannon hasn’t felt like this in a while, but she feels like she is on a precipice. They are about to open the D.C. Gym and they are actively working on opening a Gym in L.A. Shannon is excited about the expansion.
It was a weird realization that halfway through this decade, Shannon will be an empty nester. Her son will graduate high school in four and a half years. It is equal parts exciting and equal parts scary.
It’s a new year and a new decade, and Shannon wants to talk about everyone’s best money hacks for improving financial health and how to make it fun.
Melanie likes to spend an hour on Sunday every week just checking into her finances. She logs into all of her accounts, reconciles her books, and makes sure there are no errors. She gets into the nitty gritty of the numbers to understand where she is at.
Melanie doesn’t want to do this, because of her anxiety, but she knows she needs to. It will hurt if she doesn’t know where she is at. She tries to focus on the fact that checking the numbers or not checking is not fun. It doesn’t change the reality. As painful as it is, it is better to know what you are dealing with so you can plan accordingly.
It might not be that bad. If it is, you need to do something about it. It is better to do this weekly, so you can course correct quickly. It is easier to get back on the wagon if you spent too much money the week before.
Melanie reviews all of her bank accounts and her credit card line by line and she uses the app Charlie. By doing this, she has caught instances of fraud.
Don’t track with judgement. Commit to tracking for a month without opinion. Just look at the numbers and reflect back each week. Could you have done better? Start tracking first and reserve judgement for later. Your numbers are not good or bad, they are what they are. Figure out your baseline.
Liz checks her numbers once a month. It helps her to look at what she spent, her income, and her savings rate. Every month is different and her income is variable, so she likes to see how much they save over 12 months. She tries to focus on the long term.
She wants to be aware of what they are spending and put themselves in a position where they don’t overspend.
If there was a Starbucks near Liz’s daughter’s school, she would go there every day. She is glad the food options are limited where she lives.
We all work really hard for the money we earn and we need to make it hard to spend. Go out of your way, change your route to work, if there is a trigger. If it is consistent and detracting from your goals, delete the app, delete the saved payment option, and make it difficult to spend.
When Liz lived in the city, she and her husband would take the dog for a walk and they would leave their credit card at home. It is like diet and exercise — put it on autopilot. Bring snacks with you when you go out, so you don’t need to buy anything.
If you aren’t achieving your goals and you are stuck, these money hacks will be work. There is no pill or easy thing, you will need to change things up and it will be uncomfortable. Do it for your financial health and your future self. Find the thing that works for you.
Tonya biggest money hack is bartering. If you have a service to offer, you can find a way to get things for free or discounted.
Liz and Tonya have worked at yoga studios to get free classes. Tonya has done this with gyms and she is doing it right now for volleyball classes.
Some clients of The Gym barter for pet sitting. There is something you can do to help someone else and get something in return. Where are you spending your money, and can you find a way to not spend?
No spend days work well for Shannon. She thinks of it as an exercise. Identify and schedule financial hacks.
Shannon does her meal planning every Sunday, so she knows what days are going to be no spend days. If she does go out on the weekend, she knows she controlled five days of her week.
It is hard for Shannon to expense track daily, but if she meal plans three to five days a week, she has more flexibility on the weekend.
Shannon also uses cash, because it helps her to be more mindful. Breaking a $20 is harder than swiping a credit card.
Shannon thinks about value spending. She rarely goes to Amazon or buys things. It just clutters the house and doesn’t bring her joy. Most of her money goes to dining out or saving for vacations.
Tonya doesn’t really meal plan, but she doesn’t eat out often. She makes simple things with very basic ingredients. She has a couple of standby items, like frozen mushroom risotto patties, that she will make.
Melanie makes a lot of salads and her go to meal is frozen pizza or penne arrabiata from Trader Joe’s. Even if it is a little more expensive, if you have it on back up, it is cheaper than going out.
Tonya’s indulgence is Chipotle. She likes the barbacoa tacos for $9.00.
After housing, the number one expense is food.
Shannon bought a $15.00 crockpot recently, and it is so easy to use. At the end of the day they have a hot, ready-to-eat dinner.
Liz likes using frozen vegetables. You can put them into stews and they are just as healthy as fresh vegetables.
Liz’s kids like pumpkin stew: a can of pumpkin purée, microwaved, with cinnamon. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Her kids don’t know.
Tonya always has cans of black beans sitting around. She uses them for black bean burritos.
Shannon always has tortilla shells for breakfast wraps or quesadillas. She makes it a challenge. What can you make with what you have?
Think about dining out for the experience or for the things you can’t make at home. Shannon goes out for sushi, because she has no interest in making it.
Go out for happy hour or go out for lunch, because it is cheaper.
Shannon goes out at 2:30 pm on Saturdays or Sundays, because it is cheaper and then she is full.
Know yourself and know your weaknesses. Acknowledge and accept what is going to helpful to you.
Set up an automatic transfer, if there is something you want to spend money on. Deal with the reality.
If you are on a diet or a strict budget and you are being regimented, if you release the pressure valve just a little bit it prevents you from going off course.
Be mindful of where your money is going. Write down every time you spend. You will become more mindful of where your money is going when you pay attention to it.
Think about your long-term values. What is important to you? What do you want to do? You are not saying no to everything, but you need to know what the yes is. Make the long-term end game really clear to yourself.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is that you can change your financial health by changing minor habits and moving on to bigger ones over time. Start this new year out with some small changes and keep adding to them as the months go on.
If you want to make some small or big changes in your financial life in 2020, I hope you’ll reach out to my team at the Financial Gym. Ninety percent of our clients achieve their goals within a year of working with us. Don’t you want to check things off your list by the end of 2020? My financial trainers have literally seen it all and we don’t care how you got where you are, we just care about getting you where you want to go.
The great news is Martinis and Your Money Listeners get 15% off Financial Gym services. My financial trainers have seen it all, so no matter where you’re starting, we have the tools and resources to get you where you want to go. So head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com.
If you have any topics you would like for us to talk about during happy hour, please feel free to email me at shannon@fingyms.com or tweet to me at blonde_finance or join the private martinis and your money Facebook group and let us know. Until next time, take care!!