LIVE SHOW REPLAY Are You Truly Living Below Your Means or Just Barely Getting By?
Ever feel like you’re doing all the “right” financial things but still falling short? In this special live episode of Ask Ralph , Ralph and Craig unpack six powerful, everyday habits that faithful stewards can use to find more peace, freedom, and consistency in their finances. From packing lunch and canceling unused subscriptions to the 24-hour impulse rule and shopping your house first, they revisit key moments from a week of shows and listener questions. Whether you’re a seasoned budgeter or just beginning your journey, this conversation is packed with honest insight and encouragement for those who are tired of barely getting by.
Check out the full podcast episode here
You’ll hear practical tips, relatable stories, and biblical wisdom on how to shift from surviving to stewarding. Ralph and Craig don’t just talk about money—they talk about mindset, motivation, and how small changes can lead to real transformation. If you’ve been feeling scattered, stuck, or spiritually disconnected from your financial habits, this episode is your reminder that progress is possible, one intentional step at a time.
Chapters:
- 00:13 - Transitioning to Financially Confident Christian and Sneak Peek at The New Show!
- 04:48 - Exploring Financial Freedom Through Practical Steps
- 15:18 - Understanding Subscription Creep and Its Impact on Financial Awareness
- 40:20 - Shopping Your House First: The Power of Decluttering and Resourcefulness
- 59:26 - Mindful Consumption and Resourcefulness
Takeaways:
- We tackled some super helpful daily steps to save cash, build savings, and grow your business, all while keeping the faith front and center.
- Packed lunches can save you loads of cash, but how do we keep it exciting? Think mason jar salads and delicious wraps, no boring sandwiches allowed!
- Beware of subscription creep! Those sneaky little charges can drain your wallet faster than you think. Time to cancel what you're not using!
- Utility bills can be lowered intentionally! Focus on one utility at a time and implement simple habits, like adjusting the thermostat or turning off lights.
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00:00 - Untitled
00:13 - Transitioning to a New Identity
04:48 - Exploring Financial Freedom Through Practical Steps
15:18 - Understanding Subscription Creep and Its Impact on Financial Awareness
40:20 - Shopping Your House First: The Power of Decluttering and Resourcefulness
59:26 - Mindful Consumption and Resourcefulness
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Hey everyone.
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Just wanted to share some exciting news about what's coming soon.
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In the next few weeks, you're gonna see our show currently called Ask
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Ralph, getting a fresh new look and a name that I believe really
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speaks to what we're all about.
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We're gonna be transitioning to financially confident Christian.
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And don't worry, it's still me, Raffin.
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We'll still be bringing you that same practical, faith-based financial
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guidance every day to help you tackle debt, to help you build savings
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and grow your business and truly break free from the financial shit.
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With confidence and alongside the new name, you'll also
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see some brand new artwork.
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So keep an eye out for that.
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I'm really excited about this next step and how financially confident Christian
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better reflects our mission together.
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I'll have more details coming soon.
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This past week on Ask Ralph, we explored six small but powerful daily steps that
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can shift your finances, stretch your resources, and strengthen your faith.
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Today we're hitting pause on the daily grind.
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To zoom out a little bit, we're unpacking the biblical foundation
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behind each of those steps.
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We answering some amazing listener questions and sharing even more
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real world strategies to help you break that cycle of financial
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stress and do it with confidence.
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So whether you're packing your lunch for the week or sitting in traffic,
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this episode is for your invitation to dig deeper, laugh a little bit,
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and grow in confidence as a faithful steward of all God has given you.
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Let's get to it.
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But first, here's a sneak preview of Min New Show Grit and Growth business.
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Ralph setbacks.
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Keep knocking it down.
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How do I get back up?
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Well, let me tell you something right now, it's okay to feel knocked down.
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I've been kicked in the teeth, I've been punched in the throat.
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It's, it's all part of life.
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It's all part of being in business.
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Allow yourself that moment.
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Then ask yourself this very difficult question.
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What's the lesson here?
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What's the lesson here for me?
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Because listen to me, every setback has feedback hidden inside of it.
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People miss this.
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You gotta analyze it.
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You gotta learn from it.
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Then get back up and get back up smarter and get back up stronger
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than you ever were before building something real, something yours.
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This is hard work.
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Success isn't guaranteed.
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It's just not.
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It's earned through that relentless grit.
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But I see you.
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I see that resilience.
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I see that refusal to quit.
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Well, hello and welcome to this special edition of As Graph.
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I'm your host, Ralph, and I'm so glad you've carn out some
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extra time to join me today.
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And as usual, my good friend Craig is joining me again today.
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Welcome, Craig.
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Good to see you.
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Good to see you as
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well, my friend.
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I, I mentioned to Craig as we are getting ready, we're getting some rain
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here in Delaware today, so I've got the, the rain clouds here behind me.
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But for the past week, this past week, we, we really have been digging deep
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into our joy of living below your means.
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And we dove into what I, what I consider six very practical daily
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action steps, all designed to help you gain control, to save money, and
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really to practice good stewardship.
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And ultimately, in the end, the goal was to find more freedom
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and faith in our financial lives.
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And we asked some really great questions last week.
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We talked, we started off the week with is buying lunch, draining your wallet?
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Then we moved into our unused subscriptions, draining your budget,
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A lot of draining going on there.
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Then we said, wanna stop impulse buys.
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Try this rule.
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We moved into need weekend fund that doesn't break the bank.
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We talked about how you could save money by shopping your house first,
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and then we rounded out the week.
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With, can you intentionally lower one utility bill this month?
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So today we're gonna step back from that daily rhythm and take a
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little longer look, a little bit higher view of these six topics.
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We're gonna talk about some of the core ideas we talked about this week.
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We're gonna explore the biblical principles behind them more deeply,
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and I'm gonna share some extra tips and Craig's gonna throw in some as well.
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And more importantly, we're gonna address some fantastic questions from
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listeners that send in about these real world struggles and the successes of
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putting these practices into action.
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So find a comfortable spot, maybe reflect on how your own
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week went with these actions.
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And let's dig a little deeper together.
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Again, our main goal today is to reinforce these habits, troubleshoot
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some common challenges, and anchor our practical steps firmly in our faith.
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So let's get started.
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And we started off, like I said with this question, is buying
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lunch draining your wallet?
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And the core idea here was recognizing the massive cumulative
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cost of habitually buying lunch out.
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Thousands of dollars a year when you really look at it.
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And the primary challenge we identified wasn't just the cost that was part of
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it, but the hurdles of convenience, the lack of time or energy, and
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maybe even workplace culture.
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And our solution was pretty straightforward.
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And I was very bold about this.
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I said, commit to packing lunch from home.
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We talked about keeping it simple.
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Leftovers from the, from the fridge and batch prepping components on the
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weekend, simple sandwiches and soups.
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And when we looked at it, the benefits were undeniable.
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There were significant savings.
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We saw healthier meals, more control, and even saving time
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during the actual lunch break.
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And the faith connection here was really strong.
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It was all about stewardship of our money, yes, but also
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stewardship of health and time.
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And we came away with it needing to be a discipline planning, mirroring
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biblical principles like the ant preparing in Proverbs six, or
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Jesus ensuring that the leftovers.
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Weren't wasted.
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And that's in John six.
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And it's all about that intentional living versus costly convenience.
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And this resonated with Brenda who actually sent us in our first question
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this week, Craig, and I'll go ahead and now Brenda's coming us to us from Georgia.
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excuse me, Martha, what am I saying?
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Martha?
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Martha said, hi, Ralph.
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I started packing my lunch this week inspired by this show, and I did save
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money, but I got bored really fast eating the same sandwich or leftovers.
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How do you keep packed lunches?
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Interesting.
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So you don't give up and go back to buying now, Martha, again.
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Martha, I got it right that time.
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This is an excellent follow-up question because boredom is
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definitely a major reason why people abandon that packed lunch habit.
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Again, consistency is a key, but variety keeps it sustainable and enjoyable.
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Now, Craig, what are your thoughts on that?
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I know last week you mentioned that you're a yogurt and blueberry
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fan, if I remember correctly.
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Granola, I
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think it was.
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That's correct.
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That's right.
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Granola, yogurt and blueberries.
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And that's what I had for lunch today.
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Uh, you know, I don't get bored eating the same thing over and over again.
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I don't know whether it's kind of the way we grew up or what it
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was, but it doesn't bother me.
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I, I, I wonder if maybe it wouldn't be worthwhile for Martha to think about.
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This is gonna sound weird, but why is she eating?
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You've heard the term eat to live, don't live to eat.
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And so, you know, maybe just find a couple of things that you really do like and
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that are good enough and cycle through.
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Um, but that being said, I think we can take all of this too far and
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maybe once a week go out to lunch or.
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You know, make something a little fancy, whatever it might be.
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So, Ralph, what do you think about that?
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I think you, I think you're absolutely right.
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I think you gotta move beyond the sandwiches.
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I mean, it can get really boring if every day you're just making a, a sandwich.
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You know, two, two pieces of bread was some kind of meat slap between them.
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One of the things that I came up with, which I thought was a really a great idea
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when I did some research for this show, was what they called mason jar salads.
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And I thought this was really kind of cool because you start off, you
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put the dressing on the bottom, then you put the hardy stuff and then the
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green's on top so they stay fresh.
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I thought that was really a kind of a cool idea.
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It's something you can, you can make up real easy, kind of grab out the door.
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It's pretty portable.
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We also talked about something called grain bowls.
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So you start with a base like, uh, Quin, I think is the right term, or brown
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rice, and then you add a protein like chicken or beans or, now look, I'm not
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into tofu, but it recommended tofu here.
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I'm not into that whole tofu thing, but then you can put some roasted
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vegetables, greens, and simple dressing.
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We also talk about wraps.
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I remember too, Craig, I mentioned this in this show the other day, and
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I remember when I was a kid, like we had thermos, you know, we would have
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that thermos and we'd put soup in it or chili or, or even some pasta dishes.
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Did you ever do that, Craig?
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I I, it seems like I don't really see those anymore.
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Those old thermos.
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I can still remember the horror of dropping my thermos and then hearing
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the rattle when the glass that was the insulator back then broke.
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Yeah.
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You know, we do soup or you know, that kind of thing in Thermos.
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Um, I think a lot of people that work kind of out on job sites still do this.
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Um, you know, they have a big giant thermos, so
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that was a flashback I'd forgotten about those.
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Uh, glass lined thermos.
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Man, that's a, yeah.
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Yeah, that's a real flashback.
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I remember my grandfather having one and it was like, I
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know what you're talking about.
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That sound of, that was not a good sound.
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Like No, no, that's not a good sound at all.
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Um, you know, you do have to balance convenience and, um.
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The cost and the health and that sort of thing.
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You know, Ralph, this is a great use for ai.
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Matter of fact, when I, well, that's a
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really good point.
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I hadn't thought about that.
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Craig.
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When
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I, when I teach, uh, AI to my undergrads grads, one of the first things that I
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have them do is come up with a meal plan.
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Uh, and it's a great thing, you know, you give it your preferences.
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You, you know, it might give you 20 ideas and 15 of them stink, but then you've got
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five good ideas, and, you know, the whole thing will take just a couple of minutes.
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And any AI should be able to do that, uh, pretty effectively.
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That's,
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that's a really great idea.
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Hadn't even thought about that.
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Yeah,
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because I, I guess at some point with ai, you could even feed into it.
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Like if you had food allergies or things that you just don't like, you could say,
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listen, gimme some really great ideas.
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Like for me, I don't like olives, you know, so no olives, what?
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What is wrong?
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My, you know, that's my wife is like that.
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You both seem so normal, otherwise, so I'll throw one at you.
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You love this one, Craig.
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I don't like raw tomatoes, but I'll eat salsa and ketchup.
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My wife is like, there's something wrong with you for sure.
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Like I just don't like raw tomatoes.
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I know it's silly, but as we're talking about food.
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Even homegrown.
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Yeah.
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You know, it's funny because my grandfather used to grow these
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things called supersonic tomatoes.
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And I'm gonna tell you, they looked like pumpkins.
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These things were massive.
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And he was one of these old southern fellas, and he'd go out in the
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garden, he always had the big garden plants, and he'd pull what they
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called the suckers off of 'em, and it would make these huge tomatoes.
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Well, he'd go out there and he had this little mason jar about three inches long
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and three inches tall with full of salt.
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And he'd go out there and he'd take one of those tomatoes off, kind of rub
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it on his shirt, and he'd be pouring there, uh, pouring that right on there.
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And, and he just loved it.
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And it was funny because I remember he got a little bit sick when he got a little
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bit older and he was in the hospital and they, they took a salt away from him.
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That didn't last long because he had us bring in his mason jar of salt and
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he just kept it hidden underneath.
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But anyway, getting back to the topic, you know, one of the things, other, other
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things you can do, I mentioned in the show is rotate your, rotate your proteins.
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You know, not just Turkey sandwiches.
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You can do chicken salad, tuna salad, a Greek yogurt maybe
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with a healthy, healthy twist.
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Boiled, boiled, hard, boiled eggs, hummus.
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Another one that I don't like, but I put it on the list.
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Veggies.
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Uh, I'm making everybody upset and I see Craig's just shaking his head
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going, what is wrong with this man?
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Um, leftover, shredded pork or beef.
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And you can, you can eat vegetables and fruits and, but, but the thing is, I
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think the hold, the big takeaway for me is this, understand why you're doing it.
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You know, is it because you want to focus on saving money?
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Because you know, what this interesting things is?
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I and I deal with a lot of small business clients and it always
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kind of cracks me up, Craig.
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They'll come in and, you know, let's say they're doing a job for
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me or something, and like every day they're going out and grabbing lunch.
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And then they come in for some financial counseling at the end of the month
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and they're like, Rob, I just can't understand how I'm not making any money.
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And I'll say to them, well, you're spending $200 a week on eating out
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from lunch, and how many hours away from your job site are you taking?
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So it's interesting, like we have some, and this is gonna sound
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really kind of harsh, but like I have some clients that are Amish
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at some clients that are Mennonite.
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And these guys, man, dad's very cool when they come to work because they
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bring like the picnic with them.
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And I'm, I'm telling you, and the food looks outstanding.
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And now sometimes they say, Hey Ralph, uh, you know, come over here and try this.
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And as long as it's not tomatoes, I'm good.
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But man, they make, they make an event of it.
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For the, for the record, our friend Mark agrees with me that there is
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something wrong with you to make.
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Well, I'm, I'm sure I'm happy.
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Happy.
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I'm just, just making you aware, making sure you keeping an eye on the chat.
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No, I, I'm, I'm sure he's not the only one.
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But, but like you said too, I think you gotta allow yourself that treat.
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Maybe it's once a week or once every two weeks, and, but, but the whole
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point is you don't wanna build this restriction, but you also have to look
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at it from a way of, you know, really focusing in on planning your meals.
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You know, and you can plan this with creativity.
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And I, I, I wanna throw one other thing out there real quickly.
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So, a lot of times in a workday lunch is not just lunch, it's a break.
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And it may be a little bit of a social time, but, but you can disconnect the
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food that you're eating from that.
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You know, if maybe you're eating at your desk, well, maybe you don't work,
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you read a book or do something else.
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So I, I think sometimes we feel like we've gotta go out.
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To lunch and pay for lunch to get away from the office and get that break.
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But you know, you can go sit outside.
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A lot of workplaces have a break room.
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You know, there are a lot of things you can do that don't involve
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going out and paying and out.
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I mean, lunch prices, restaurant prices are just insane right now.
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Um, and you know why their food tastes so good.
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They often are loaded up on the fats and the salt and Well, that's,
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that's the good point, Craig.
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And that's the other side of this.
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It's not just the money saving side of this, it's the health saving side of this.
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And I don't know about you, but if I eat a huge lunch.
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Man, I'm just dragging the rest of the afternoon.
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And by three o'clock, like I'm like taking a nap in on the floor.
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You know, my client, my employees are coming like, what's Ralph doing?
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He's sleeping in here.
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You know?
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But, but it's true though.
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It kind of weighs you down.
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So I love your idea.
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Go read a book.
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Go take a walk.
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I remember I used to work for a law firm, and some of the
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accountants had worked for me.
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That's what we did every day at lunch, we'd have like a quick sandwich, and
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then we'd go out and walk along in, in Wilmington it's called the Brandywine
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River, and we just take a walk down what they called, I, I think it was
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called the Old Mill Trace, where they would have the mill, the, the line.
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And it was just something to do to get outside, get a little vitamin
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DI guess it is, from the sunlight.
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But I, I, I think it's just a place to use your creativity for sure.
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Right, right.
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Well then the next thing we talked about were thi was this question, are unused
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subscriptions draining your budget?
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We talked about something I and I call subscription creep, that accumulation
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of small automatic monthly charges that drain our accounts, and they do
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a kind of passively, the struggle here is often inertia and lack of awareness.
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We sign up for something, we forget about it, but we just keep paying.
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And I, and my, my big solution for that was comb through all your
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statements, list all those recurring charges, evaluate their actual
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use and value, and then decisively cancel at least one unused service.
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And I think we're all guilty of this.
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And this is all about reclaiming control over automatic spending.
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And again, the faith angle here was all about awareness and intentionality.
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We talk about this on the show all the time, Craig, is that that, that,
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that intentionality, you know, are we mindfully allocating resources?
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Are we just letting them, you know, leak away?
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It also touches on what I call pruning.
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Are these subscriptions adding value?
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You know, are they bringing forth fruit?
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Are they proportionate to their cost or are they just digital
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clutter we're paying for?
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And it might involve questioning if certain media subscriptions align with our
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values or consume too much of our time.
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And we got a question here.
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This one comes to us from Calvin.
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So let me switch over here to Calvin's question.
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Calvin's from not far from here in Pennsylvania.
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He sent in this question, he said, Ralph, I did the subscription review.
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And besides the obvious ones, I found I'm paying for several software or
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app subscriptions related to my small business, or what he calls side hustle
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that I thought I needed, but barely use.
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Is it okay to cut business related subscriptions to, or
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should I keep them just in case?
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Well, Calvin, that is a fantastic point and very relevant to my
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small business clients, owners, and entrepreneurs listening.
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You gotta distinguish between essential business tools and,
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and what I call nice to haves.
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Maybe what, what, you know, some people call them aspirational subscriptions,
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uh, you know, because it's all about that stewardship, but it's also
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stewardship of your business finances too.
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Craig, looks like you've got a thought here.
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Yeah, I I think you need to be a little bit careful here.
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Um, as one of our mutual friends likes to say, you either pay in time or money.
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So this is one of those where absolutely necessary may not be the right bar.
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It it, we really ought to have more of a return on investment bar.
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So if there's something that costs you $50 a month, but it saves you two hours
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a month, even if you only use it every other month, you're still probably
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at a positive return on investment.
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Uh, and sometimes that's not easy to figure out.
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But I also have a secret, oh, here we go.
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That they don't want you to, you can resubscribe.
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So if you, if you drop a subscription.
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And find, you know, I really did need that thing.
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They will take your money once again, you know, there may be some
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rare exceptions where it's a special deal, but 90 plus percent of the time
Speaker:
you put your credit card number in, they'll be very happy to have you.
Speaker:
They may even give you a discount for coming back.
Speaker:
Absolutely.
Speaker:
And you know, it's funny, I've done that with Sirius XM radio.
Speaker:
At times I'll, you'll say, I just don't use the thing, you know,
Speaker:
and, and you gotta ask yourself a real simple question, are you
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actively using that tool right now?
Speaker:
Because, like you said, it might be something that gave you value in the
Speaker:
past and it might give you value in the future, but if you're not using it right
Speaker:
now, you don't just do a, what, what we call, just in case, or, or maybe someday.
Speaker:
I think the big things you wanna do here is just track your usage.
Speaker:
You know, are you actually using it?
Speaker:
You know, consciously write down, do you use this software or do you, are you
Speaker:
gonna use this app in the next month?
Speaker:
And then I think that's sort of your, your takeaway.
Speaker:
It's not, it's not the things that, like you said, Craig, I think it's, it's vital
Speaker:
what you said, if it's saving you time.
Speaker:
Hey, that's not a subscription you want to cut, but you, you can also
Speaker:
look for cheaper or free alternatives.
Speaker:
There's a lot of times there's a free version or what they
Speaker:
call the low tier plan that give you a less expensive option.
Speaker:
And, and maybe that could accomplish 80% of what you actually need from it.
Speaker:
Or, you know, sometimes we pay for premium features that we never even use.
Speaker:
Well, you know, we gotta buy that premium.
Speaker:
A lot of times, and I think this is kind of sinister, but I get it, we're
Speaker:
in a capitalist society, they'll sell you the premium thing, right?
Speaker:
With the idea that after 30 days, if you don't contact them,
Speaker:
you just lock into that thing.
Speaker:
And I know myself, like, I've had a couple of 'em have really kind of annoys me,
Speaker:
actually, is I'll get an alert, say, oh, we just renewed you for another year.
Speaker:
I'm like, I didn't use that last year.
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What is wrong with me?
Speaker:
Why didn't I go do it?
Speaker:
You know?
Speaker:
And, and then ask yourself, you know, can you do this manually?
Speaker:
Like you said, you gotta do that.
Speaker:
That judging of is it saving you time, is it saving you money?
Speaker:
But really take a look and are you using it or not?
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I,
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I've
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got
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a
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little tip for that annual I. Because, you know, they, they're very clever
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the way they price these things.
Speaker:
You know, if they were a hundred bucks a month for, we would pay
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a lot more attention, but they're 10 bucks a month or 15 bucks a
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month, or 20 a month or whatever.
Speaker:
Um, if you get hit with one of those where it automatically
Speaker:
renewed for the next year, right?
Speaker:
Then as soon as you get that email, go into your calendar and back off
Speaker:
a week from today's date next year and put a big thing that says cancel.
Speaker:
So I, I kept getting caught up with Adobe.
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Oh yeah.
Speaker:
You know, really good deal for a while.
Speaker:
And I was using it more, uh, wasn't using it enough and it, and it's not cheap,
Speaker:
so, you know, a big thing, cancel Adobe.
Speaker:
Um, and that, that will really help because you get irritated and then you
Speaker:
go onto something else and you forget.
Speaker:
And you know, next year you'll have your second anniversary of irritation.
Speaker:
Use that calendar.
Speaker:
Uh, it's really, really important.
Speaker:
That's a great idea.
Speaker:
And I notice a lot of them now, 'cause I've actually been more intentional about
Speaker:
this, is you can actually go out there and cancel the subscription from auto
Speaker:
renewing and then you still have the benefit of the service through the year.
Speaker:
But, but that's a very good point.
Speaker:
One of the things I mentioned in the show is be aware of what I called aspirational
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subscriptions, because sometimes we subscribe to tools hoping that they're,
Speaker:
we're going to use them to make ourselves more productive, but we never use them.
Speaker:
I probably have some that I've paid for, especially some annual ones.
Speaker:
So you gotta really understand that, that, and consider that tool.
Speaker:
I mentioned annual versus monthly.
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You know, if you do use a tool consistently, sometimes you can save
Speaker:
money by paying for it annually.
Speaker:
That's not a terrible thing to do.
Speaker:
Just take a look and say, am I really gonna use this?
Speaker:
The problem is a lot of times you might kick the tires on this for 30,
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60, 90 days and then you're like.
Speaker:
Yeah, it works, but it doesn't really do what I want it to do.
Speaker:
And then if you've paid for that annual, you're kind of stuck.
Speaker:
But you know, I, I think you gotta like play it out for the
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first 30 days in my opinion.
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You know?
Speaker:
And, and, and another thing like, like was like, like, uh, Calvin
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asked in the question, I think this all ties into your business budget.
Speaker:
You know, look at your business budget and do you have a line item that
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talks about, you know, these recurring subscriptions and software subscriptions?
Speaker:
I know Craig, I'm guilty about this on the AI front.
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I think I've got, I've got the PO now, I've got Gemini, I've
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got chat GPT that I'm paying, like for their premium service.
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I love the services, don't get me wrong, but it's like, you know what, it, it's,
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it's really kind of annoying when I look at how many I'm paying for and
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could I do the same thing, you know?
Speaker:
Like for example, like I was listening to your AI goes to the college show
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this morning while I was getting ready.
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And I know you and your, your partner there that do that with you.
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You guys are talking about that.
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Well, I've got use this one, I've got this one.
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And.
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And the interesting thing is, you know, each of 'em do
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something a little bit different.
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Yeah.
Speaker:
But, but I think we have to step back as a business.
Speaker:
And I'm saying not, not from the standpoint of does this AI tool
Speaker:
work, but step back as a business, say, well, is this good enough?
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Is this right?
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Right.
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Is this good enough for what I do?
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A Absolutely.
Speaker:
And the way the AI tools have, um, evolved,
Speaker:
you can probably get by with one of the big tools and not have to have multiple,
Speaker:
you know, this one will be a little bit better at this thing than that one is.
Speaker:
But they're all kind of like, as you said, good enough.
Speaker:
I have one, one more little tip, uh, before we move on.
Speaker:
If you cancel a subscription, make sure that you do something to export
Speaker:
your data, because the big risk here is that you lose access to your data.
Speaker:
So there are universal formats like, uh, comma separated values or, um,
Speaker:
you know, might be PDF, it might be markdown, whatever, text, whatever it is.
Speaker:
But if, but if it's something that you've been building up data
Speaker:
in, make sure that you export it.
Speaker:
No, absolutely.
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You don't that a lot,
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a lot of people don't think about that for sure.
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No, that's a really valid point.
Speaker:
And then there's also the question, and, and I don't know if this is your
Speaker:
area expertise or not, Craig, but you know, the question is, you know, do you,
Speaker:
do you wanna scrub your data from it?
Speaker:
You know, is there data out there?
Speaker:
And, and I don't really know the answer to the question.
Speaker:
I know on your show this morning you were talking to a guy that
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does like, sort of IT security.
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Um, yeah.
Speaker:
You know, that might be something to cover on your show.
Speaker:
I I, if it doesn't really fit into what you do, but, you know, if you've got
Speaker:
all these tools and they're collecting data, is there a way to scrub that data?
Speaker:
You know, I use sometimes there's,
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sometimes there isn't.
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Yeah.
Speaker:
But if, if there is once you're sure you're not gonna go back to that tool.
Speaker:
You really ought to scrub it.
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Or at least make
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a, make a call and ask them, can, is there a way to delete my data?
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Right.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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If you think about it, at some point in our lives, right, we're
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gonna all recognize that there are these servers out there with little
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smidgens of data on each of us.
Speaker:
And it's gonna be like somebody is gonna get the bright idea one of these days.
Speaker:
Like, I can go and do a lot of identity theft fraud by going, grabbing all the,
Speaker:
anyway, let's not, let's not go No, that,
Speaker:
that's a whole, that's a whole thing.
Speaker:
In fact, my doctoral seminar on Thursday, were talking about digital surveillance.
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Yeah, that's no joke is exactly that.
Speaker:
No, it's not a joke.
Speaker:
It really is
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serious.
Speaker:
Well, let's move on to our Wednesday show.
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Wednesday we, we talked about if you wanna stop impulse buys, try this rule.
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And we focused on a common frustration, a buyer's remorse after making unplanned
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off and emotional driven purchases.
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Or once.
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And this is something we kind of talk about all the time, Craig.
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So I talked about a powerful solution, that 24 hour rule, or for some people
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it's the 48 hour rule, and that's where you really institute a mandatory waiting
Speaker:
period for those non-essential purchases.
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Not clothing, not water, not things that you have to have.
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And you set a personal threshold for that, and it creates a, a space
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between that desire and the action.
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We discussed how this pause allows emotions to cool, you know,
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rational thought to happen again.
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You could pray about it and then you can look at your budget
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and say, does this make sense?
Speaker:
And it builds that spiritual muscle of patience, self-control, and
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resisting that immediate gratification.
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And it helps us discern true needs and, and valuable ones
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from just fleeting desires.
Speaker:
We all have those aligning our spending more closely with
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wisdom and our financial plan.
Speaker:
And we got this question from Angela.
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Angela from Michigan reached out with this question and she said, hi Ralph.
Speaker:
The 24 hour rule makes sense for bigger want purchases, but what about all the
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little impulse buys, like adding a candy bar, a checkout, grabbing a magazine or
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small five to $10 things online, they don't hit my threshold, but they add up.
Speaker:
Does the rule apply here?
Speaker:
I thought this was a great question, Craig, because she's absolutely right.
Speaker:
Those small, seemingly insignificant impulse bias can absolutely torpedo
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your budget just because of volume.
Speaker:
You know, it's kind of like that, what they say, death by a thousand
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paper cuts and that 24 hour, you know, formal rule is typically for items
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over a, a set threshold to avoid that decision fatigue on every little tiny
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purchase, but the principle behind it definitely applies to smaller items too.
Speaker:
Craig, what are your thoughts on this one?
Speaker:
Well, so a couple of things.
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First, the, um, the threshold is up to Angela.
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So Tracy and I have tried to get in the habit of leaving even little
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small things in the shopping cart for 24 to 48 hours because, I
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mean, you're right, they add up.
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They, we also don't need so much crap.
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I mean, we have a big house.
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And it's just, I'm gonna quote you on that.
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No, hold on a second.
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We don't need so much crap.
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I like that dude.
Speaker:
That is, yes, that's it.
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My wife would support that a hundred percent.
Speaker:
She would say, Ralph, why do you need all this crap?
Speaker:
So Craig, that is the, that is the theme of the show today.
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We don't need all this crap.
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You don't need, but you do need homegrown tomatoes.
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So I'm not putting homegrown tomatoes in that.
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See, there we go.
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There.
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Crap category.
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Quite the opposite.
Speaker:
But, uh, you know, just extend your threshold downward.
Speaker:
The other thing is, I, I think we can modify that 24 hour rule.
Speaker:
I mean, one, we've talked about this on the show too.
Speaker:
It's candy bars at the checkout aisle.
Speaker:
You know, just take your phone out, wait for a minute, and if you still
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want it, all right, maybe you need it.
Speaker:
But I think sometimes if you just wait, give yourself that little bit of space
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to make a, a, a non, uh, what we would call in the academic world a habitual.
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Decision, you actually stop and make a rational decision.
Speaker:
A lot of times you'll just leave it there.
Speaker:
The another little trick I I I, I haven't tried yet, but I'm going to, I'm gonna
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try to practice not buying things, which sounds a little weird, but I wanna see
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if I don't buy something, am I gonna remember not buying it the next day?
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Intentionally not buying.
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Right?
Speaker:
I think that's
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brilliant.
Speaker:
I think
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that's brilliant.
Speaker:
I'm gonna
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not buy this thing.
Speaker:
I'm gonna, I'm gonna challenge you to go even deeper, think about this,
Speaker:
keep track of how much the non bought items were, and then at the end of
Speaker:
the week or months say, Ooh, I saved this much because of the non bots.
Speaker:
But, but I think the, I I wanna go back to the crap thing, just 'cause I,
Speaker:
there's a reason I, I brought that up.
Speaker:
The, even if you can afford all these little things, you still
Speaker:
really do junk up your house.
Speaker:
With a bunch of unnecessary things.
Speaker:
You know, it's not great for the environment.
Speaker:
I mean, there are a lot of things about all this stuff that we buy.
Speaker:
Um, and I think we can kind of back off of the consumerism a little bit.
Speaker:
I, I'm not trying to, um, criticize capitalism or anything like that,
Speaker:
but you know, all that stuff that you buy on the impulse, it's put there by
Speaker:
merchandisers to try to manipulate you.
Speaker:
And I don't know about y'all, but I do not like being manipulated.
Speaker:
And so I think we can fight back a little bit by trying to not buy things.
Speaker:
So I think you're great.
Speaker:
As soon as I said oh, well, I was spoke to soon, as soon as I said crap.
Speaker:
Our number of viewers went up, but it just dropped back down.
Speaker:
So I, I ragged on capitalism and there goes so,
Speaker:
no, but, but I think what you're alluding to is awareness, dude, that's
Speaker:
what we're really talking about.
Speaker:
Yeah, because it's awareness.
Speaker:
It's, it's noticing how these small impulse wise.
Speaker:
Now listen, I got around the candy bar thing since I started wearing
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one of these glucose meters.
Speaker:
I got one of these things you inject in your body like every 10 days.
Speaker:
And I look down on my watch and I'm like, oh, my sugar's good.
Speaker:
But I know if I, if I eat that Snickers bar, that number is going up.
Speaker:
So it's just a way, like you said, it's a way, it's a look away,
Speaker:
it's an intentional decision.
Speaker:
But I think just keeping track of that, having awareness is the key.
Speaker:
Because, you know, and the other thing, and, and you mentioned this last week,
Speaker:
I think Craig, and there's maybe you need to have a blow money budget.
Speaker:
And like, this is my blow money.
Speaker:
I'm gonna send it away, set $10, $20, whatever.
Speaker:
Pick a number.
Speaker:
Maybe you, you take your, your lunch out out of that money you take your,
Speaker:
I'm gonna go buy this little fun thing I want, but set that into your budget.
Speaker:
'cause you know, that way you can be intentional about, yeah, this
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is my fun money, this is my, I'm gonna spend it however I want money.
Speaker:
And
Speaker:
that's
Speaker:
a lot of nutritionalists say, if you're trying to lose weight,
Speaker:
you should have a cheat day.
Speaker:
Because being, being constantly rigorously disciplined can be wearing over time.
Speaker:
And so, you know, having a little bit of blow money, by the way, we don't
Speaker:
mean we don't mean cocaine there.
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
We're being very careful
Speaker:
here.
Speaker:
We're not talking about Turing.
Speaker:
When I was Money Craig, I'm picturing like the old Miami vice scene, you
Speaker:
know, like, I don't know when I was a kid, now I'll say I'm really dating
Speaker:
myself, but Friday nights Miami Vice was on, you know, and anyway,
Speaker:
but um, oh yeah, but you know what?
Speaker:
The cheat day is great because I actually do that on my diet now.
Speaker:
So when we go out to eat on like Sunday nights, I'll get the onion rings.
Speaker:
And I'll get something that's like, you know what?
Speaker:
I really don't eat that on a daily basis, but you have to do that, you know?
Speaker:
But, but at the same time, you know, one of the things that Angela mentioned
Speaker:
here is at the grocery store, well, you know, one of the things I talked
Speaker:
about a couple weeks ago was on that list only rule, you know, follow
Speaker:
that grocery list only make sure that you're only doing what's on there.
Speaker:
Another thing I think you gotta look at here is your triggers.
Speaker:
'cause I think Craig, a lot of times these little impulse buys are really a function
Speaker:
of triggers that stress, that boredom, that, that hunger while you're shopping.
Speaker:
Like, one of the things that I heard of somebody say now too, you know, it's
Speaker:
probably been a while ago now, but they would say, don't ever grocery shop hungry.
Speaker:
And I've tried that a few times and that is true.
Speaker:
That is not a good thing to do.
Speaker:
So you know that that's a problem.
Speaker:
Or, and maybe there's certain stores you're like, I just don't
Speaker:
go into that store because it triggers this or it triggers that.
Speaker:
But you gotta address those triggers.
Speaker:
You know, another thing that I recommended and that showed that day
Speaker:
was keep a healthy snack in your bag.
Speaker:
You know?
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
Um, I think that's a really good way to do it.
Speaker:
Um, pause.
Speaker:
Well, mark, I'm sorry.
Speaker:
Mark.
Speaker:
Mark would agree with you, mark Lolly, uh, practical prepper info.
Speaker:
He and Krista are really big on having emergency snacks in your vehicle.
Speaker:
So it's just an extension of that.
Speaker:
No, I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker:
And then ask yourself the next logical question, do I really need this?
Speaker:
Or is this a want?
Speaker:
And just take that into, I like, I like what you said, like almost
Speaker:
have a thing on your phone.
Speaker:
Like, I'm gonna do a one minute countdown before I, before I put this onto the
Speaker:
conveyor belt before I start doing.
Speaker:
And, and like you talk about, you know, calculate that cumulative cost and
Speaker:
look at those $5 here and $5 there.
Speaker:
We talked, we were beating up on Starbucks a couple weeks ago.
Speaker:
Seven, $10 a day.
Speaker:
Well, in a week.
Speaker:
That's a lot of money, you know, and ask yourself, does that, does that
Speaker:
money align with your bigger goals?
Speaker:
So Angela, getting back to your question, while you might not apply that strict
Speaker:
24 hour wait for a candy bar rule, I think you should apply the principles.
Speaker:
You know, like we talked about that, not cocaine, blow money, um,
Speaker:
planning the grocery list and a quick mental pause before grabbing
Speaker:
those small frequent impulse buys.
Speaker:
They definitely add up.
Speaker:
So Angela, again, thank you so much for sharing that question.
Speaker:
I thought that was really good.
Speaker:
Now Ralph, I've got a quick, quick pro tip.
Speaker:
Sure, absolutely.
Speaker:
If you find yourself where you need to shop when you're feeling hungry, a
Speaker:
big old cup or even a, if you have to buy it, a bottle of water will give
Speaker:
you that full feeling for just long enough to get through the grocery store.
Speaker:
It's absolutely true.
Speaker:
I talked to a nutritionist one time, Craig, and they said most of the time
Speaker:
the issue is not that we're hungry.
Speaker:
It's that we are habitually, um, uh, what's the word?
Speaker:
Dehydrated.
Speaker:
And they said a lot of times it's not that you're hungry, you
Speaker:
just need something in your body.
Speaker:
And you're right.
Speaker:
And I've even noticed myself is when I feel like I've got that hunger, I'll
Speaker:
go drink an eight ounce glass of water.
Speaker:
And then usually, now it may not always break the habit, but at least it's a stop.
Speaker:
Like, okay, this might solve the problem.
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
But that, okay now Thursday, we moved into the weekend, we
Speaker:
talked about need weekend fun.
Speaker:
That doesn't break the bank.
Speaker:
You know, one of the things that a lot of people ask me about, they're like,
Speaker:
yo, I like to do stuff on the weekend.
Speaker:
But it causes, causes so much money and we address the difficulty, many
Speaker:
faces assuming that fun, relaxation, and connection requires spending money.
Speaker:
Which leads to budget strain or feeling deprived.
Speaker:
And I came up what I called the joyful solution, Craig, and that's intentionally
Speaker:
planned free or nearly free entertainment.
Speaker:
We leveraged brainstormed ideas about nature and like you talked about, going
Speaker:
for a walk and using libraries, community events, simple home-based activities
Speaker:
like game nights or potluck dinners with friends, and focusing on relational
Speaker:
time over those purchased experiences.
Speaker:
Now again, the faith connection here was pretty strong, and that was finding
Speaker:
joy in God's creation and those simple blessings, valuing fellowship, valuing
Speaker:
those relationships over consumerism and being good stewards of leisure time.
Speaker:
It's about realizing that the best things in life truly can be free.
Speaker:
And we heard from Robert on this one.
Speaker:
Let's see what Robert says to us.
Speaker:
And Robert comes to us from Washington state.
Speaker:
Robert said, Ralph, I love the free ideas like hiking in parks, but I live in an
Speaker:
area where the weather is often rainy or cold, especially for long stretches.
Speaker:
It feels harder to find consistently free non outdoor
Speaker:
activities, especially with kids.
Speaker:
Any suggestions?
Speaker:
And I said Robert, that's, that's, I mean, that's just the truth, right?
Speaker:
Craig?
Speaker:
There might be certain places where that just, you can't do it.
Speaker:
And, and that's why I don't think you can rely solely on outdoor activities.
Speaker:
So because it's not just feasible and, and we need to have some
Speaker:
free indoor options as well.
Speaker:
Um, Craig, you might, you might relate to that, where you live
Speaker:
in the heat of the summer.
Speaker:
I wonder, you kind of feel the same way about outdoor stuff.
Speaker:
Absolutely.
Speaker:
And, and if you're looking for outdoor activities and you're anywhere near
Speaker:
Erris, Louisiana, I will for free, let you ride around On my zero turn
Speaker:
mower, I won't charge you a nickel.
Speaker:
Um,
Speaker:
li library libraries, I mean, you mentioned this, but libraries are awesome.
Speaker:
They're heated, they're air conditioned.
Speaker:
They love having kids in.
Speaker:
I know the old, you know, the old days of the stern librarian
Speaker:
always telling you to shush.
Speaker:
You know, that's kind of not, that's not the vibe anymore.
Speaker:
Um, you, you know, this is gonna sound so random, but when I was
Speaker:
reading his question, I thought, well make some blanket forts.
Speaker:
Remember how much fun
Speaker:
blanket forts were?
Speaker:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker:
Actually, when you were a kid.
Speaker:
Actually, I, I have that in my notes here to talk about.
Speaker:
I remember as a kid, dude, uh, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna share
Speaker:
something really funny now.
Speaker:
Right.
Speaker:
So when my two boys were young, we used to have a tent in the rec room right now.
Speaker:
My wife thought I was playing with the kids, but to be honest with
Speaker:
you, I was slumbering in that tent.
Speaker:
But the kids thought it was great.
Speaker:
Like, dad is over here in a tent with us.
Speaker:
Little bit, you know.
Speaker:
Then every once in my wife would walk by and he's snoring in there.
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But we had loved it.
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It was fun, you know, and, and like you said, we used to make, uh, what
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they call those, uh, uh, forts, you know, we would take chairs and, and
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prop 'em up with the blanket over top.
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It was so much fun.
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Yeah.
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And, and I think that sort of thing, uh, going back to, we're gonna
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sound old here, but going back to the days when you didn't have so
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many pre-planned, highly structured activities, could be another thing.
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Just, just having fun, you know, running around being kids.
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My neighbors are brilliant at the, at entertaining their kids.
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They've got a, a son and a daughter.
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The wife can find more things to make arts and crafts out of, you know,
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crayons and Amazon boxes or, you know, old printer paper or whatever.
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And, and they love it.
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The kids love it.
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They have a lot of fun, you know, it's family time.
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They'll work on something separately.
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They'll work on something together.
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So that, that kind of thing even it is really pretty good.
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So you don't have to overthink reading, reading a book together.
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I agree with you.
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And, and just go visit friends and family.
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You know, like, I feel like these kids growing up today, and boy, I
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sounded old when I just said that, but I feel like these kids growing
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up today, they're on their phones and their screens all the time.
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Go visit your grandmother.
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She'd probably love to see if she's still around or go visit that aunt
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or uncle you haven't seen in forever.
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You know, we just don't value that as a society anymore.
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I feel like, you know, everybody's so disconnected.
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We're, it's funny, Craig.
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We're, we're, we're connected in more ways than we've ever been technologically,
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but in my humble view, we are more disconnected than we've ever been.
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Yeah.
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In a lot of ways That's true.
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I, I'm gonna be even moral old man.
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You know, your, your kids and you can, can stand a little bit of
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cold weather and rainy weather.
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Um, you know, I, if you dress right and you're not out there too terribly long.
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I mean, it'll be fine.
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It'll be fine.
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Run around.
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I know, I'm sure you, where you uh, grew up, you played in the snow, you know,
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snow fort snowball fights and all that kind of thing and seemed to have survived.
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Craig, I remember when I was a kid, I had this flashback the other day.
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We used to have the outdoor like winter boots, right?
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And I remember we always saved the Wonder Bread wrappers.
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And this is a flashback I had the other day, and when you brought that,
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it just brought me up and my mom would wrap our feet in Wonder Bread bags.
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And then, I don't remember, did we use rubber bands or something?
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Probably the doctors or freak out when I say this.
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But what you just bundled up?
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I don't know.
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Have we gotten weak?
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Like have we gotten soft?
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Seriously?
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Have we gotten soft?
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Because it's okay to get a little frostbite here and
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that it's not gonna hurt you.
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No, I mean, you know, you can go overboard with anything, but I think maybe we've
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gone overboard and, uh, trying to avoid some of those sorts of things.
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Um, I. You know what, I, I don't have kids, so what do I know?
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But, but like you said, I mean, you can learn something together for free.
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You can go learn a new, new habit.
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I mean, Robert, bad weather doesn't have to mean spending money or being bored.
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Just get creative.
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And I, like Craig said, go to the library.
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I haven't been to a library forever, Craig, but there's home-based finders
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connecting with others indoors and, and Rob, thank you so much for your question.
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Well, let's move on to our next one.
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And we talked about, Craig, you're gonna love this one.
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And that was, could you save money by shopping your house?
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First we looked at our tendency to default to just buy when a
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need arises, often forgetting the resources we already possess.
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This leads to extra spending and extra waste and clutter.
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We talked about the things in your pantry that you show, that you
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throw away, and I came up with a simple solution, but profound.
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And that is pause and intentionally shop your house first.
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Check your closets for clothes.
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Check your pantry for food.
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Check your storage for items, and ask yourself, you know, can
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you use what you have already?
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Can you be creative and substitutions or just repair it instead of replace it?
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And this is deeply spiritual talks all about that valuing and utilizing
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all that God has already provided.
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You're not just seeking the new stuff.
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And it really cultivates contentment, resource, resourcefulness, creativity.
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And I like the word gratitude, pushing back against consumerism.
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And we got this question from Felicity, from Arizona, and Felicity said this.
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If I can get it to work.
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Here we go.
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She says, hi Ralph.
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I tried shopping my closet like you suggested, and I realized I have a lot.
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And she's put that in all caps.
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A lot of clothes I don't wear, but I struggle to actually get rid of them.
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I feel guilty or think maybe someday.
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How does decluttering fit in with shopping your house?
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First and Felicity, I'm gonna say there, you hit the necessary flip side of
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shop in your house first, and that's dealing with, I'm gonna use Craig's
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term, the crap that you already have.
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Um, and they go hand in hand.
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And if your house is too cluttered, you can't even find or effectively
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use what you have on your own.
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So yes, decluttering Felicity is definitely part of good stewardship.
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Craig, do you have some ideas of how to deal with the, that clutter?
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Uh,
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do I have some ideas?
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Yes.
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Do I ever execute those ideas?
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No.
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Well, the best I come, the best plans
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are, it's the best laid plans, right?
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That's what we always say, right?
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I do,
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I do have to say I come by clutter naturally.
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My mother was like that.
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Um, no, I, I, I think I, I fall right into this category.
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So I constantly have to refine clothes and not, not refine, refined.
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I have to go find clothes that I know I have.
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And so I, I've made myself go through the effort of trying to find those
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clothes before I buy a replacement.
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And, and I actually go beyond yelling, Hey, Tracy, have you seen X?
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Um, but I, I think you do just have to, the spring cleaning is a worthwhile thing.
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Just once or twice a year go through, like, I, I, I lost a bunch of weight.
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Um, first I put on a bunch of weight when we moved to Louisiana,
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and then I lost a bunch.
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Well, I have suits.
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I used to wear a suit every day for 10 years.
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I wore a suit pretty much every day.
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I don't wear suits anymore.
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So a lot of those suits that were too big, I. They go, somebody
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else can start wearing them now.
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Um, and so I think you just have to be a little bit ruthless and
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that, you know, keep a few things for when you lose a little, you
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know, the five pounds or whatever.
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Um, but don't keep a lot.
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You just have to, to get, you have to declutter and have to get rid of stuff.
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But it's hard.
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It really, especially if you're cheap, I mean, I, I, I'm, my
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heritage has cheap, deep in its soul.
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And so I just really struggle with this personally.
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So I, that's not a great answer, but, but I, I, I feel everybody out there
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who has the same, the struggle is real.
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The struggle.
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Well, I think
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a lot of it can be that, you know, aspirational clothing too.
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You know, you think about, oh, you know what, I, I'm gonna get
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thin enough to wear that again.
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I don't ever think I'm gonna get fat enough to wear that again.
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But I, you know, I always have that thought where I'm gonna think
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it's funny, my wife will say to me, 'cause we have a, our, our
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first floor is our master bedroom.
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Then on the second floor we got a couple guest bedrooms and I had
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moved some clothes up there and I was buying stuff online or something.
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My wife says, you ever shop your closet upstairs?
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I said, what are you talking about?
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She goes, Ralph, you got a whole closet of clothes upstairs?
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I said, I don't wear that stuff.
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And she goes, exactly.
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So of course she got me, Craig.
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I went up there, I got a big old hefty bag and I said, you
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know what, today's the day.
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And I went, I was, what's the word you used?
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Ruthless.
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I ruthlessly went through that closet, man.
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And somebody at the Goodwill made out well that day.
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But, but that very active, you know, trying on making outfits and doing
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all those things, it really helps you get into that, that excess and
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you can see where those things are.
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And then you gotta set clear rules for yourself.
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Be honest, you know, ask yourself tough questions.
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You know, have I worn this in the last year?
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Does it fit?
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Is it ever gonna fit?
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You know, is it damaged beyond reasonable repair?
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You know, do I actually feel good wearing it?
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And if the answer is no, it's likely time to let it go.
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You can, you can also step down.
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So clothes that you used to wear to work maybe aren't quite good enough
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to wear to work anymore, so you wear 'em when you go to the store.
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Or maybe they're not good enough to wear when you're going to the store, so
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now you wear 'em when you do yard work.
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So you really can kind of recycle down until you just don't need it anymore.
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That's what I, when I was back in my running days, that's what
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I would do with running shoes.
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You know, they was, I'm a big guy and they would break down, well once they didn't
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have enough support anymore, you know, they were yard shoes or something else.
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And so I, I think you can, you know, get decluttering and getting rid
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of stuff is, is a good thing to do.
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But you can also think about kind of.
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Internally recycling some of these things.
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And Craig, I'm picturing you now, you're gonna laugh when I tell you this.
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I'm picturing you on the zero turn right with one of those suits on
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because the mosquitoes are bad.
Speaker:
And I'm thinking he's just, he's wearing it down at this point.
Speaker:
You know, he is got a pair of wing tips and a uh, and a suit out there
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on the zero turn and the Green Acres theme playing the background.
Speaker:
So there you go.
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But let's talk about the guilt, because I think the guilt is
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something else she mentions here.
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And I think we need to address that.
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You know, and I, I get that sometimes people do feel guilty about getting
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rid of something they spent money on.
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I think that's a common thing.
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But I think you have to reframe it.
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The money's already spent.
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Yeah.
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And keeping an unused item doesn't bring the money back.
Speaker:
It just adds clutter and maybe ongoing guilt.
Speaker:
'cause then you're looking at it, I don't ever wear these things.
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It just con continues to go.
Speaker:
Now the way you can shed that guilt is maybe if you donate it to somebody.
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There are organizations out there for people who are going, you know,
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back into the workforce who need that suit or need that, that dress
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shirt that you can't fit in anymore.
Speaker:
I think that can be the opposite side of that guilt.
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And you also, you know, use that as a, a learning curve
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to your, your past decisions.
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You know, it doesn't have to be your, your, your current failure.
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Don't always look at that and that maybe someday trap.
Speaker:
I think that's dangerous because if it hasn't happened in one or two years, guess
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what, it's probably not gonna happen.
Speaker:
Like, it cracks me up, Craig, how many people pay for these storage units?
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And I'm not, listen, I, I'm not bad mouthing the storage people that
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make these, but they're building them everywhere and I'm thinking people
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are paying money month after month.
Speaker:
And I sometimes say, you know what I'd love to do, I get storage
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wars kind of like this, right?
Speaker:
I love to go into one of those storage units and just take an inventory of
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the actual value of the stuff that's stored in there and say, okay, well
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you're paying a hundred dollars a month for this storage unit.
Speaker:
I. The stuff you got stored in there is not worth $300.
Speaker:
So in three months you'd have been better off to give this stuff away.
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Yep, yep.
Speaker:
I, I just, just, that's just my opinion.
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And,
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and you raised a great point about the dress clothes.
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So a lot of our students, and, and it's not just us, they really
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struggle to buy dress clothes.
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I mean, they're expensive.
Speaker:
And so if they can go to the thrift store and buy a nice dress shirt or,
Speaker:
you know, pair of slacks or whatever, you know, you're helping somebody
Speaker:
out and, and you're absolutely right.
Speaker:
When the money's gone, it's gone.
Speaker:
Hey, can, can I lay a little stoicism on you?
Speaker:
Let's hear it, man.
Speaker:
You always, you always give us your share of stoicism every week.
Speaker:
Just a little bit.
Speaker:
Think the listeners a little look forward to this.
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So
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good.
Speaker:
Well, hopefully they do.
Speaker:
'cause they're gonna get it anyway.
Speaker:
Um, they, they have a practice called negative visualization where
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you try to picture if something bad happens and, and basically
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you're preparing for the bad event.
Speaker:
And then if it doesn't come, you're still prepared.
Speaker:
But if it does come, you know you're better prepared.
Speaker:
I think we can do a little twist on that in the pre clutter stage.
Speaker:
If you're getting ready to buy something that's maybe aspirational,
Speaker:
ask yourself how you're gonna feel if you can't fit into that shirt or
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that suit or that pair of slacks.
Speaker:
And maybe that'll be enough to make you say, you know what?
Speaker:
Uh, there'll be a deal when I do lose that weight and I'll go online or go to
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the store or whatever and buy it then.
Speaker:
But I'm gonna feel doubly guilty if I don't lose that weight and get into this
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pair of slacks or suit or whatever it is.
Speaker:
I'm gonna feel bad that I wasted the money and I'm gonna feel bad
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that I didn't lose the weight.
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Uh, avoid that.
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Just don't buy it.
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Think, think that through a little bit, don't buy it.
Speaker:
And then you'll also have that much less clutter.
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I don't know.
Speaker:
Do does that make
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sense?
Speaker:
No, I think that's a great idea.
Speaker:
It's interesting, I think I, we studied something like that when I took the Dale
Speaker:
Carnegie course and it, not quite the same as stoicism, but kind of prepare
Speaker:
for the worst possible scenario and in work like hell to improve upon that.
Speaker:
And I think it's kind of the same idea, but I think that's a brilliant way to look
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at it, because, and, and the truth is with clothes fashions change, it just does.
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Yep.
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You know, I mean, of course my dad would always say, well, yeah, but what's old
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is new again, and it'll come back around.
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And I remember when I was in high school, I, I'd always
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gone to public school, Craig.
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And then I went to Catholic high school and I had to wear
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a suit and tie every day.
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And I'll never forget my dad gave me these fat ties.
Speaker:
I mean, these ties were like, I guess they're like the seventies ties, man.
Speaker:
And like I was so it was like, oh cool, my dad gave me ties.
Speaker:
Well here I go walking into school and I got this tie that's
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like six inches wide on maybe.
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Right.
Speaker:
And I was the laughing stock at a place because everybody's like, at that
Speaker:
point the little thin ties were in.
Speaker:
Right.
Speaker:
So it's like, you know what dad?
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
Great.
Speaker:
Thanks for doing that.
Speaker:
But you know what, that dad, I don't think that's coming back, dude.
Speaker:
Well,
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did, did he make you wear it with one of his old leisure suits?
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No,
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I never had one of those, but he did gimme a briefcase and I learned what
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it I, I didn't know what the word nerd meant till he said somebody kid.
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You're a nerd.
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Right.
Speaker:
Anyway, well let's move on to our final topic before we run outta time or, or we
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get banned for talking about crazy stuff.
Speaker:
'cause we already talked about cocaine now and blow and all that stuff.
Speaker:
But anyway, so our last topic of the week was, can you intentionally
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lower one utility bill this month?
Speaker:
We discussed overcoming the feeling of helplessness about utility costs
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by taking focused intentional action.
Speaker:
And what I recommended here was in instead of feeling overwhelmed by trying to
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save everywhere, my solution was target one, just pick one utility bill and
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implement two or three specific simple free conservation habits for a month.
Speaker:
I talked about turning off lights, shorter showers, adjusting a thermostat,
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unplugging those phantom chargers.
Speaker:
That was the thing I didn't even know about Craig, but that's actually a thing.
Speaker:
There's actually phantom charging and the faith connection here
Speaker:
was really strong as well.
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Stewardship of God's creation, energy, water, and practicing discipline in
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our daily routines to avoid waste.
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It's about recognizing we can often make a difference through
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consistent small actions.
Speaker:
And Kevin sent us this, and I knew this was coming.
Speaker:
Kevin said this, he said, Ralph Menton, adjusting the thermostat is a way
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to save on electricity and heating.
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It's a constant battle in our house.
Speaker:
My spouse likes it much cooler or warmer than I do.
Speaker:
How do we save money here without freezing or sweating each other out?
Speaker:
If I hadn't been down this road myself, I wouldn't have the answer.
Speaker:
It's, it's what I call the thermostat wars.
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Alright, Craig, I'm not even gonna comment on this.
Speaker:
I'm gonna let you go first.
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Well,
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so fans are your friend and extra clothing is also your friend.
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So we, we um, we use a lot of fans.
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We bought these little rechargeable battery fans that you can
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just kind of put wherever.
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You are, you know, if I, if I come in and I've been out mowing or, or doing
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something in the barn, you know, just really overheated, uh, you know, if
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I turn the thermostat down to 67, not only is my wife gonna get frozen out,
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but we're wasting a lot of money.
Speaker:
I can do a lot more good by just putting a fan on me.
Speaker:
And you would be shocked by how much drinking a cold or warm
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liquid will do to help you out.
Speaker:
Um, you know, it's, um, there's a reason that we drink a lot of really, really, I
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cold ice tea in the south in the summer.
Speaker:
You have cold tea up there where you put a couple of ice cubes in it.
Speaker:
Down here it's, you pack as much ice as you can and then put the tea on top.
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I've seen that like the whole jug.
Speaker:
Well, don't you make it out in the sun first, so it's already boiling.
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You can Right.
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Sun tea, right?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's a thing.
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Um,
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but
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I think you can do some things like that.
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The, the other thing you can do that may help a lot with this.
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Are there rooms in your house where you can close the vents?
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And we have a guest room upstairs.
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We just close the vents.
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The only only living thing that's up there most of the time is a cat.
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And the cat doesn't mind.
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This is our cat we thought was a, uh, female that turned out to be a male.
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So he, he is named Loretta,
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but
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that's interesting.
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Yeah, we didn't, we didn't quite nail that one down, but, um, but you might
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be able to do some things like that.
Speaker:
Uh, but, but fans are absolutely, your friend putting on a sweater is huge.
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I mean, it really, it sounds silly, but that can make a big difference.
Speaker:
No, it's so true.
Speaker:
And, and I think a lot of ways you can actually look at the actual
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temperature difference because there's also a perceived difference.
Speaker:
You know, for me, 68 sounds a lot cooler than 70.
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But it's only two degrees, you know?
Speaker:
And you can, and the other problem is a lot of people, and we have this right
Speaker:
now in our bedroom, it's kind of crazy, Craig, I don't know what's going on,
Speaker:
but like, our bedroom is like a morgue.
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It's like 62.
Speaker:
We got the house set at 70, but our bedroom is like 62.
Speaker:
I've gotta get a contractor out there to, to try to figure out, we need
Speaker:
to do some balancing or something.
Speaker:
But, um, you know, but if you're gonna be in a battle, uh, you know,
Speaker:
Kevin, I'm gonna say this, you know, try to meet your spouse somewhere
Speaker:
in the middle dude, because the couch gets really uncomfortable.
Speaker:
And, um, you know, if you can adjust it by one or two degrees and you
Speaker:
know, maybe you put on a sweater or vice versa, you know, those small
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adjustments can save a lot of energy.
Speaker:
You know, I've seen some studies that even a two degree adjustment
Speaker:
can save you quite a bit of money.
Speaker:
Um, and like, I, I think you're great about the, the, um, the fans.
Speaker:
I think that's a great, we had somebody was at softball last summer.
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They had one of these fans that runs on batteries.
Speaker:
You just, you plug it in and it charges, like, that's pretty cool.
Speaker:
Keeps the bugs away.
Speaker:
And, and at the same time, you know, I, I put in my notes here.
Speaker:
If someone's always cold, you know, buy him a sweater, you know?
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
My, uh, my daughter-in-law, you're gonna laugh at this one, Craig.
Speaker:
I might have told this one on the show before, but I'll tell it again.
Speaker:
But anyway, but my son lives in Texas, he's in the Coast Guard.
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And um, my son is very frugal.
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We'll say it that way.
Speaker:
And, uh, he didn't wanna turn on the air con or he didn't wanna turn on the heat.
Speaker:
Excuse me.
Speaker:
So we were down for Christmas, I think it was last Christmas or the
Speaker:
Christmas before I can remember which.
Speaker:
And she was sitting there shivering all the time.
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And I said, you know what, I'm gonna fix him.
Speaker:
So I got on Amazon, I went out and bought her electric blanket.
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So I said it to her, I say, here we go.
Speaker:
You know, you got a blanket, but, but you can use a space heater, like you said,
Speaker:
only in the room that you're currently cold in or, or use some draft stoppers.
Speaker:
I mean, there's all kinds of ways.
Speaker:
Uh, this might cost you a little bit of money, but have a home energy audit done.
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You know, see, hey, I was gonna
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mention that.
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Yeah.
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Because you can have a home energy audit done because you're just paying money
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for the stuff to go right underneath of your doors or through your old windows.
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Uh, like you mentioned, you ceiling fans, portable fans,
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because moving, uh, air cooler.
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And another thing that I found in my research is a lot of times
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it's not the temperature, it's actually the humidity in the house.
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Well, that's right.
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And, and what the fans, what the fans do is they actually evaporate
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the moisture on your skin.
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By the way, this is a constant battle in my household.
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Having a fan on when nobody's around to feel the air is a waste of time.
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It doesn't do anything.
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I. You are not, sometimes you need to just circulate the air because the air stale.
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But it's okay to turn the fan off when you're not in there.
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Um, I I, I'm, I'm having thoughts of like, if a tree falls in the
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forest, does anybody really hear it?
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Yes, I was there.
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I heard, no, I didn't hear it.
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But you know what, I, I love that idea because you know, one of the things
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that my, my cousin's an electrician and he did when we did some renovation
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to our house, you know, the bathroom fans, he put timers on all of them.
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And I thought that was brilliant because I don't know how many times I've been over
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to somebody's house and you go in their bathroom and the, and the fan's on, which
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is that's, appreciate that, thank you.
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But like it'll run for a half a day.
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So he said, you know what Ralph?
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He says, what I'm gonna do on every room that you've got a fan,
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I'm gonna put a timer on there.
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And I think that's what you're talking about, uh, Craig.
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And I think that's really a great idea, but I think you
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gotta communicate and compromise.
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I think those are all good things that you can do.
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By the way, sorry, I'm texting my neighbor because they just
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offered to take the trash cans out.
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So, um, well that's important.
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Yes, it is.
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Because we have a medical appointment this afternoon and
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I'm not gonna get to it till late.
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Um, yeah, I, I think you, you can compromise, uh, the, the point
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about humidity is really right.
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You, you should get the home energy audit because a lot of utility
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companies will provide that for free or for a very low cost.
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Um, so it's worth doing.
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Um, you know, there may be some ways that you can save a lot of money, but I,
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I wanna throw one out that people don't think about enough, and that's water.
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You know, water is not the most expensive thing in the world unless
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you have a leaky pool like we did.
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But it, it can add up and it's really bad from an environmental
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standpoint to wastewater it, it, it's arguably our most precious resource.
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And so if you can do some things, turn.
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Turn the faucet off when you're brushing your teeth.
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Try, I'm not gonna really ask anybody to do this, but just picture, if you
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let the water run for two minutes with a pitcher underneath there, you better have
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a big picture where it's gonna overflow.
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And a couple people doing that every day, at least every day, 365 days a year,
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that's a lot of water that's being wasted.
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And so you, you just save a few bucks.
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But you know, it, it's not bad to be resource, uh, resource wise, not just
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for the money, but for the environment.
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I feel like we needed to come back from the blow comment, so
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I'm trying to be a little more
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No, I, you know what, I commend you on that, but it's so true because,
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and I mentioned that in that show is like I thought about myself, I sit
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there and brush my teeth 'cause I got one of those toothbrushes that tells
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you to brush for two minutes and I'm thinking I'm gonna turn the water off.
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That's a really good point.
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Yeah.
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Well, we, we, we lived in Arizona.
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You know where you are, where I am now.
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We don't worry that much about water, but they, they literally, on the,
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the Hop and Navajo reservation, they have big signs that say water
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is life and it, and that's true.
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That's a
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really good point.
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Well, let me just try to wrap things up here.
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You know, this past week was all about focusing on mindful consumption and
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resourcefulness, whether it was packing, lunch, canceling those unused services,
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pausing before buying, finding free fun, or using what we already own.
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And then finally, like Craig said, conserving utilities.
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It all comes back to being intentional stewards of everything
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God has entrusted to us, our money, our time, our possessions, our
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health, and even natural resources.
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These actions fight against the cultural occurrence of convenience
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at any cost, passive consumption, and constant accumulation.
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They call us to be more disciplined, aware, creative, and
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ultimately more content in the way we, that we live our lives.
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It's not about deprivation, it's for our own sake.
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It's about aligning our daily practices with deeper values and goals,
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finding freedom from the stress of overspending and waste, and freeing
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up resources, financial and mental, to serve God and others more effectively.
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So as you hadn't.
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To next week, perhaps consider which of these six areas presents the
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biggest opportunity or maybe the biggest challenge for you right now?
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I'm gonna turn that water off when I'm brushing my teeth.
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Greg, you, you made a good point.
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You don't have to master them all at once.
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And Ralph, we're still friends.
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Despite your strange, strange view on tomatoes.
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I appreciate that.
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So, so pick one of these now, pick one of these to focus on.
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Maybe it's packing lunch three times a week.
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Maybe it's canceling one subscription today.
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Maybe it's planning one free family activity for next weekend.
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But small consistent steps rooted in prayer and desire to honor
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God, lead to lasting change.
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So thanks again for joining me on this extended recap.
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Craig, again, thank you so much for your, your insight, for your stoicism.
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That really does help us along.
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And I truly hope that revisiting these topics and hearing listen to perspective
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has been encouraging and helpful.
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And remember, this journey is about progress, not perfection,
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extended grace to yourself and keep taking those faithful next steps.
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And we'll be back next week for our weekly show.
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And I'll be back tomorrow on the Daily Show.
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So if you need something, you should borrow or buy, go
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and look at our next show.
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It's all about finding ways to do things better.
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And if you've got questions, send them to us.
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We'd be happy to answer them.
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Craig, again, thank you so much for joining us today and everybody, I
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encourage you to have a great day today.
Craig Van Slyke
Professor
Craig Van Slyke is the Mike McCallister Eminent Scholar Chair in Information Systems at Louisiana Tech University. Prior to joining Tech, he was professor and dean of the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University, and before that, professor, associate dean and department chair at Saint Louis University. He has also held faculty positions at the University of Central Florida, and Ohio University. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of South Florida. His current research focuses on behavioral aspects of information technology, cyber security, and privacy. Dr. Van Slyke has published over fifty articles in respected academic journals including Communications of the AIS, Decision Sciences, Communications of the ACM, European Journal of Information Systems, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. The fifth edition of his fourth co-authored textbook, Information Systems in Business: An Experiential Approach, will be published in 2024.
