Let Me De-Influence You

We haven’t ever had as much STUFF as we have now, but emotional needs are being neglected more than ever. Unfortunately, the solution isn’t to buy new clothes. Bummer, I know. Let me de-influence you from all the things you think you need and to offer a new perspective! Hope you enjoy <3

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Transcript

Hi, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Unrelatable podcast. On this podcast, I like to talk about things, stories, situations, details where you might feel a little bit unrelatable in life, whether it has to do with social media or your family. Maybe it has to do with the way you were raised, the religion you're in, or just life in general and the experiences you've had.

And my goal with this podcast is to just help people feel more seen, less alone on weekly Friday recaps are the episodes that are a little bit lighter and fun and have some pop culture talk. We talk about things going on in our lives at the moment and just fun things. And so, yeah, if that's what you think you would be interested in listening to. What am I saying? Yeah.

Welcome back, basically. That's that's what we're about over here, and I took a few weeks off, or I missed some few sporadic episode drops the past 2 months because life has been insane. And if you would like a life update, just listen to my past few episodes because I think I talked a little bit a little bit about it in the hurricane healing episode, but I am due for another life update. A lot of you were surprised to hear that I moved to Salt Lake on my most recent Instagram stories. And, yes, I am back in Utah.

I am back in Utah. I am excited about it. And now enough about that. I can update you with that on Friday. But today, I wanted to have a really nice conversation about what we don't need in life, what we can start saving money on, things we can do ourselves.

Let me deinfluence you today. Beauty habits that cost you $0, fitness, health changes that you can do. I did do a few months back. I did a rants and raves episode. I think it was back in August about my favorite items, things in health, beauty, food.

You guys also submitted your favorite thing. So I was thinking, it's only fair to end the year de influencing you from products or things also in those categories because, listen, life can be overwhelming and feeling overwhelmed, feeling stressed, feeling overstimulated can and will lead us to make purchases or spurge on food or make decisions that we normally wouldn't make, especially when we're being influenced by other people that we wanna be like. I mean, just around stimulation, the amount of stimulus that we experience in one day is historically the amount that somebody would experience in their entire lifetime, 200 years ago. Think about that. That is insane.

Not to include light pollution, noise pollution, the extreme work schedules that we have, the exhaustion surrounding finances. We crave a slower lifestyle, but are only fill filled with solutions, you know, quote, unquote solutions that end up costing us not only money, but space in our homes, space in our minds, and sometimes even debt, which I did talk a lot about in my last episode. And so if you haven't listened to that one yet, this is kind of a follow-up to that one. And it's no wonder why we are all mentally ill. It's no wonder why grocery shopping is so overstimulated.

And, unfortunately, for the younger generations, it's happening more and more and more the younger you are because children nowadays are being constantly filmed, recorded, phones being shoved in their faces, iPads being given to them instead of normal toys or distractions or learning how to be bored while their life is then being shared online. It's just really overstimulating. I mean, even for adults who walk by billboards, we drive around in traffic. There's flashing lights. There's the radio, podcasts, music.

I mean, the overstimulation is forced upon us and isn't really a choice anymore. But what is the choice is stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff. We have never had as much stuff as we have now. But ironically, our emotional needs are being neglected more than ever.

I think it's no secret materialistic things and money doesn't create happiness, and I didn't really touch on that in my last episode. And so that's kinda be kinda be that's kinda going to be a little bit as to where this is pointing at during this episode. It's less about emotional needs and fixing those. I mean, I think that it ends up it actually does end up helping us with that, and it ends up helping us feel confident with what we do have and confident without needing to spend and make a splurge purchase and keep catching up to everybody else. So, yeah, this is gonna be an episode dedicated more towards the influencing.

And if you are interested in that, then I hope you enjoy today's episode. And with that, welcome back to another episode of the Unrelatable podcast. De influencing has kind of started to become a trend on social media, which I think is wonderful because for all of us existing on TikTok or Instagram, maybe purchasing some some things sometimes that influencers recommend or review, and then trying to kind of live the same lifestyle as an influencer, this is where things are not good. This is where we can get really too caught up in trying to have the same style as them, the same home decor, the same cars, maybe the same refrigerator storage items. And the issue is is that we are not them.

We are not making the same coin. We are not. So why does our bank account and spending look like theirs does? And I'm not saying yours does, but I'm just saying, like, theoretically, why are we spending money on these things that these influencers are showing when most of the time they are being gifted these items or they're making money back? They're getting paid for these things.

And while I wanna say that probably 80% of the time it's gifted, it's probably safer to say 50%. But even if it's not gifted, they're spending money to make money. So I know we think, okay, it doesn't matter. I'm not making any money from this, but where is the money? We're not making money from influencing friends or neighbors or running people in the streets.

When will I see that deposit? I won't. And I'm not saying that it's actually our goal to influence others or to lead in fashion, but the cost isn't adding up, and it isn't making sense because what we buy, we're most likely not making money off of it. And so that's why I like to say and, you know, to remember that influence influencer culture is a facade. No.

Not all influencers are the same. Not all creators are the same, but it is a main goal of them to make money. If they weren't making money, they wouldn't be wouldn't be able to make those big purchases and to show those big clothing hauls and to have a completely dedicated account for Amazon clothing. Oh my gosh. That one girl with long dark hair, she got me every time.

Last year when I was when I was looking for some clothes to go to travel with on vacation, which we will talk about that later on. I was so enmeshed in her reviews on Amazon, and I was so excited because I thought, oh my gosh. Looks this looks incredible on her. But guess what? We have completely different bodies, and for some reason, I just forget that.

I literally do forget that every single time I see someone review clothing on Instagram, on TikTok. And so I've just had to come to terms with Hannah. No matter how good it looks on them, it might not look the same on you. And this is not shaming myself or anything. It's just recognizing the obvious fact that we have different bodies and clothing is going to fit us differently.

And so unless I'm there in person, I need to not purchase it. And that is just a boundary that I've had to draw for myself. And so, yeah, I mean, we all know that more things don't make us happier. And I feel that that's not influencers intent, but it's typically the result, especially if people don't have good practices in line to protect yourself with your mental health because it is detrimental to your mental health if the goal is to constantly keep up and to constantly avoid the fear of missing out. And that's not to say that you can enjoy yourself, but overconsumption is so over the top, and overconsumption is obviously the viewpoint I'm coming from for this episode.

So if things don't resonate with you, you can just pick and choose what does. But, yeah, let's continue with influencers and creators. Buying their clothes is not gonna make us like them. Dyeing our hair, their hair color isn't gonna make us look the same. It's not gonna make us feel even that we have the same sort of lifestyle and always feeling that sense of lack is only going to make our already sensitive mental health worse.

Because it's comparison. I mean, listen, I love a little haul here and there. I do. I love extreme spending content where where people like Avery Woods or Victoria is her name Victoria? I forget her last name.

Where they go to luxury stores and drop, you know, 10 to $30,000, or they go on these luxurious vacations where they're only flying first class. It's fascinating. It's the study of anthropology. It's anthropology, the study of human behavior. It's like watching reality TV right now, but we just live different lives.

And so I think something that this is so corny, but something that I've been thinking is that we need to start. I don't even wanna say it. But being your own influencer in your life, becoming somebody that you would want to look up to instead of constantly looking outward. And it's like what I said in my last episode, keeping up with the Joneses only leaves you more sad, more envious, and potentially in debt. And we want to avoid that with every fiber of our being, not not avoid being sad, but more so envious.

Because at the end of the day, if we have a home to live in, a bed to sleep in, and a shower to bathe in, then we're gonna be okay. We're gonna be okay. I mean, that's at least what I've been telling myself after the hurricane and stuff. I'll get into more of that later, but let's talk about influencing. Let me influence you.

The first one is what I've already mentioned, and that is Amazon clothing. It's a 50 50 chance that they work out. It is a 50 50 chance. Not to mention, the material is typically never cotton, and wearing polyester and viscose, basically synthetic fibers are not good for our bodies. This is actually something I've been learning recently, and it's not something I want you to get super concerned about and OCD about right now because it is one of those things where it's kind of a long term switch, but we're not meant to have leggings all up in our space with literal synthetic materials.

It's actually really unhealthy for our bodies. And what are the products made off of Amazon? From Sheehan. From H&M, Forever 21. It all comes from the same place.

It's all fast fashion. It's all very low quality, and half the time doesn't maintain the shape anyways. And so instead of making, you know, sporadic splurges or maybe you're buying just one thing every other week or a few times a week, it's better to, in my opinion, either thrift or save your money and get 1, 2, or 3 really high quality items. I actually recently went to Gap, and, oh my goodness, I got 4 shirts. I did pay a pretty penny for them.

I mean, not even necessarily a pretty penny. I mean okay. I think they were $26 each after the discount because it was all 40% off, I think. And so they're a 100% cotton. They feel so high quality.

They're going to hold their shape. They're gonna hold themselves in the washer, and it's something I'm really excited about because I'm getting away from that polyester type feel. And that is generally something that's going to make you feel better and more confident anyways because it's gonna maintain its shape. And I'm not here to influence you to go to GAP, but GAP, Old Navy, places like that really are underrated in my opinion for Staples. Because if you're going to Amazon for a t shirt, it's gonna be ruined in a few washes.

And then not only are you wasting that product by throwing it away or donating, which I'm pretty sure 70% of everything we donate ends up in the landfill anyways, but you're just spending more money every year instead of buying something that will last you a long time. And I can't even lie. I wasn't even gonna talk about this, but thrifting, I have found so many high quality sweaters. Dude, older people donate their clothes all the time. I'm talking older women who have spent tons of money on wool sweaters, on high quality fabrics, whether it's I don't know.

It's Ann Taylor. I think I found an Ann Taylor sweater. It's just black, and it's not a turtleneck, but the neck goes higher up and it's zipped in the back along my neck or not along my neck, but down. I don't know how to describe it. But anyways, it looks really high quality.

And it is really high quality. And I got it for well, now thrift shops. I feel like they rip us off. It's probably like $8 instead of the usual, you know, 3 or $4 like it used to be. But try turning to thrifting instead of Amazon.

If you really want it, have a little bit of self discipline and head to the thrift store. And if you can't find it, then maybe wait a little bit. See if you actually want it, and then find it in a place where you're going to be receiving better quality for your clothes. Okay. So the next one that I'm going to de influence you from, which you probably were not going to buy anyways, especially if you are a man listening to the podcast today.

Hi. Hello. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here. It is kitten heels.

You know what kitten heels are? Like, the teeny little heel and then the pointed toe. Why did I think that I am a girl that would wear kitten heels with jeans to the grocery store? It is beyond me, but that is what TikTok convinced me. TikTok literally convinced me that I wanna be that girl that goes to the grocery store in little kitten heels, some jeans, and a cute tank top, or a nice tee and a cardigan.

Who who do I think I'm playing? Who do you think you're playing? I'm wearing I'm wearing either sneakers or Docs or Birkenstocks. It's so wild to me that I actually bought them. They were so uncomfortable, so I returned them immediately.

But, let me just deinfluence deinfluence you from that. You don't need them. Matching hands is the next one. If there's anyone that loves the idea of everything being aesthetic, oh, I am there. I am sat.

I want it. But paying 200 to $500 for matching pants that don't even work well, anyways, is out of the budget. Ma'am, it is out of the budget. Okay? Target will suffice.

I just got a new pan from Target. The bottom's, like, already weirdly stained, but, hey, it works. If anyone knows how to like, if your pan has been charred basically on the bottom, let me know. How can I how can I fix that? Because your girl needs help.

Okay. Next one. Have you ever been on social media and the shadow work journals come up? Come on. That stuff is free.

It's all over the Internet. You don't need someone telling you how to do shadow work. You can literally watch a YouTube video and go through the process. You can listen to a meditation. Like, this is one thing that is something I almost purchased as well because I thought, oh my gosh, I have so much shadow work to be done.

I have so much to work on, especially this year of my life. And so I almost bought one, and then I was thinking, Hannah, even if it's only $15 and then, you know, $4 for shipping, why would I spend my money on that? What is the use? What is the point? Put that towards something else.

Okay? The next one is buying new clothes every time you go on vacation. Let me de influence you from doing this. This was actually a really hard one for me to realize. It really was.

I I mean, what is the difference of 80 degrees in Utah versus in Mexico? I'm gonna bet a $100 you've been to a pool, a lake, or hot pot in Utah, if you're in Utah. I'm gonna bet that you don't need a new bikini or cover up. What is the difference? Okay.

What is the difference between freezing weather in Europe in Paris versus the US? Fashion, yes. You've got me there. But if you're not going to be wearing it back in Utah, in your local neighborhood, to your local pool, lake, or to go see the Christmas lights with your family, do you really need a new, more fashionable version of a coat or bikini? No.

No. We don't. Alright. Next one. Let me deinfluence you with weddings.

We do not need a new wedding dress every single time. This blew my mind when I learned that people get a wedding dress for every single wedding. I mean, it's different, obviously, if you're a bridesmaid or whatever. That goes without saying or if you're supposed to follow a color palette. But having a different wedding dress every single time someone gets married, I mean, that's upwards of 52 $200.

And I don't know. Maybe this was just my own opinion, but a little unnecessary. People are not going to recognize if you've worn your outfits more than once. People are not paying that close of attention. And if they are, they are a fan.

And they have bigger issues than what you are wearing. Alright? So we're gonna be fine. We're going to be a okay. The next one I have is new seasonal decor every single year.

Tell me why it's so hard to walk into Target and see all the cutie little trees that end up being a different pattern or different style every single year. But for some reason, they still fit my aesthetic, and I want all of them. I want all of them. And the other day I walked around the holiday section, and I thought, you know what? Maybe for Christmas, I should just ask for it to be, like, prorated.

Give me just some monies, and I just want Christmas decor. And then I thought, Hannah, what is the largest item in your storage at this moment? It's a Christmas bin. I think this Christmas bin is 5 feet long and 2 feet wide or something. It's like an extra long storage bin, and that has all of my holiday decor in it, all the wreaths, whatever, ornaments, even Halloween stuff.

I think I have a little bit of Halloween decor and then some Christmas decor. Why do we need 3 different styles of trees or ornaments or this or that? Because you're not only buying that product, you're buying the storage it has to go in, the space you have to store it, and then the space that it takes up in our minds. I mean, listen, I love being on trend. That's no surprise.

I do. But I kind of let go of that, I would say a few years ago. And it's because the 1st few years that we were married, I made everything from scratch. The dollar store has so many cute decorations. I made a ornament bulb, ornament bulb, an ornament wreath.

And this is a tutorial that I actually literally posted on YouTube. It took me hours to make this thing, but Hey, it costs me, I don't know, maybe $15 So there's definitely a less expensive route to go with if you do want new things every every year by hand making it. And I feel like that's such a fun thing to do with your girlfriends too. Oh my gosh. Have you seen the painting candles?

I mean, it's not a new thing, but you just paint candles with fire safe paint, and you can paint little, like, candy canes on them or Santa Claus hats and Christmas trees. It's the cutest thing in the world. That's what I'm talking about. Because then you use it, and then you can make a new one the next year, and you're not wasting anything. You know what I'm saying?

Okay. This is the last one. And or I guess the last one that I'm going to deflu deinfluence you before we get to our categories of health, beauty, and food. And this is no more window shopping. It always turns into just an item here, an item there.

When I lived in Chicago, when we were doing summer sales in Chicago, it was my 1st summer with a car. My first summer with a car. I mean, it was only the 2nd summer we were going out there. So the 1st summer, I did not have a car. Terrible experience.

So the 2nd time around, we were like, okay. We're bringing out 2 cars. So I we drove out my little blue Prius. I forget what car Kaden was driving at this point. I completely forget.

I don't know what it was. Maybe it was our other Prius. We we we had 2 Priuses for a very long time. We had Prii. Is that what you the plural form of Prius.

So yeah. Anyways, we were in Chicago, and I was really bored. I was really bored. And so I would go window shopping several times a week. And I would go window shopping, you know, inexpense inexpensive places like TJ Maxx or DSW.

And I would always just be hanging out in the clearance and sales section, and then I would usually end up bringing something home that was less than $10. But if you're breaking something home that's $8 once a week or twice a week or even 3 times a month or 4 times a month. I mean, that was putting us over our monthly budget. And so I had to, I had to learn that. I had to have a nice sit down and recognize, oh, this is this is actually something that does add up.

Weird. Really weird. I think it's just also something where you kind of subconsciously identify products that you want or you crave, and you put it in the back of your mind. And then usually you do end up doing it later. It still leads to those feelings of want and the feelings of not having enough.

This is something where I have a love hate relationship with Pinterest because I only go on it when I want to feel inspired or when I'm trying to put together an outfit that I already have the clothing for. Or if I do want one new item or something and I'm going to the thrift store or whatever, I will look on there for inspiration. But just going on there and scrolling and seeing these huge, beautiful homes with massive windows and all of these secret storage places in the kitchen and large, large laundry rooms. My laundry room right now is so small. Oh my goodness.

It has been driving me crazy. So, yeah, of course, I'm gonna wanna look at those storage things. And then, oh, look at that. They have spice containers for the spices that are aesthetic. I did actually I do have those.

I do have those. The glass ones with, like, the little wooden tops, and they're labeled all cutesy. But I asked for that for Christmas, so that was something that my grandma gave me for Christmas. We're we're new spice stars. And I think that that's a nice thing about the holidays and birthdays is if you make a list on your phone of things that you want, which is what I've started doing, if I end up wanting something.

And then if someone asks me, well, what do you want for your birthday or Christmas? And, you know, you do the whole, I don't need anything. And they're like, well, I'm gonna buy you something if you don't tell me. And you're like, no. Really?

You don't have to. And they're like, well, you're gonna end up in the lame present. I'm gonna still gonna end up spending money. And then you just say, oh, okay. Well, yes, I actually have a list of very specific things that I want.

And, anyways, that's how I ended up with cute little spice jars. And so, yeah, I think it's okay in balance. Right? But it's not okay to do it every single time we want it. That also trains our brain to not have any discipline and comes from the place of lack rather than the place of gratitude and of fulfillment.

And so, yeah, like I mentioned earlier, I did a rants and raves episode back in August about all of our favorite items in health, beauty, and food. So we are going to continue this episode. The next half is going to be about influencing you from products or things in those very specific categories. The first one is health. You don't need the fanciest gym membership.

You don't even need 3 different memberships. Some people have a gym membership, a yoga membership, a cycling membership, multiple modalities. If you enjoy different modalities of moving your body, consider the ClassPass app. I wish this was an ad, but, no, that would be really ironic if I was telling you to go buy something. But in all reality, if you do enjoy doing different classes and you don't like just weight lifting and you want something like that, the ClassPass app is something I got this summer, I think it was.

And there's different payment plans you can select, but, essentially, you can apply your credits towards different workout classes all over the place. So if you want to do cycling once a week and then the next workout you wanna do is yoga, Then maybe you're gonna get in your lift at home or whatever. You can just go and get a day pass or an hour pass for a class on ClassPass, and it's so much more affordable than the drop in costs and the monthly memberships. And so then you're not wasting a single dollar or feeling bad if you're not going to the gym as much as you wanted to. So that's something that I would definitely consider because I'm kind of being a little bit of a hypocrite here.

At this moment, I'm not doing any ceramics or anything. I really want to get back into that as soon as I can because I don't wanna lose everything that I've been working towards this past year. This year for me has been the year of finding a new hobby, and it's been throwing and and whatnot. And so because I'm not doing anything like that, I do have a gym membership that is more of a private gym, and that's because I that's my excuse is that that's just, like, my hobby, and that's what I'm budgeting for. And the thing that I love about it is there's only ever 1 or 2 people there when I'm there 50% of the time.

50% of the time, I'm not kidding you. I'm there all by myself. And that's kind of what I need right now, and it's been really nice, especially moving gyms again. Oh my goodness. I need to listen back to my past fitness episodes be because I think I counted how many times and how many different gyms I've been to because of how many times I've moved.

And it's a lot. Like, it's over 10 over 10 different times where I've had to switch gyms, and that's kind of exhausting. And I'm sick of trying to get to know people in the gym, and I'm just gonna let it happen naturally, whatever. But it's also kinda nice to not even think about it, you know, to not think about, like, oh, let me be cordial and this and that, and, oh, I have to wait for this machine and whatnot. So that's kind of what I'm putting my money towards right now, but I am actually kind of considering the ClassPass app because I do want to get into more cycling.

I mean, I used to be a spinning instructor for literally 0 days. I got certified in it and then was never able to actually do it because then 2020 happened. Super cool. Not 2020. Actually, yeah, 2020 did happen, but COVID COVID happened.

So I would never actually instructed, but I was a certified spinning instructor. So anyways, long story short, I wanna be able to do a cycling class and yoga once a week. So I don't know. Might be considering degrading, jeez, degrading my gym membership, downgrading my gym membership in order to do something like that. But I guess we will see.

Stay tuned. The next one I'm gonna de influence you in the health category are Stanley mugs or really any cup that's supposed to be reusable. Like, come on. Grown women fighting over limited edition cups that were originally made to be a way to reduce waste, and now suddenly a 4. I understand collecting things.

I mean, we all have some sort of collection of of some sort. Right? For me, it's patches. I collect a patch every place that I travel because then I don't get a sense of anxiety of, oh my gosh. I didn't buy anything from this country.

I'm not gonna remember it. Whatever. I have a tiny little patch, and it fits in a very small space in my bag. And yeah. So it's really small.

Right? And I'm not saying you have to have the same thing as me. Maybe you collect mugs or hats or shoes. That's fine. But something where it's like you're just drinking from it.

I guess I just don't understand it, and maybe that's on me. But something that was made to reduce waste and now is extremely overconsumed is just super ironic to me. So let me de influence you from that. And, also, Stanley mugs, Stanley cups, they leak. They leak from the top if they, like, tip over and whatnot.

What you really need is a not me sitting here telling you what to buy. I've already mentioned this in another episode. I'm pretty sure I did it in my rants and raves, but I like roommate because the lid locks. And that way, if you are moving room to room or you're in the car, you can always lock the lid, and it doesn't matter where you place it. It's not it's not spilling all over everything.

Okay. Next, because now I've just told you something to buy. No. Don't buy it. Don't buy it if you have any other hydro Flask or anything.

The reason why I got it is because mister Caden has taken and lost in the airport 2 of my 2 of my reusable water bottles. I used to have a cute white hydro Flask, I think it was. And it had a whole bunch of stickers from all over the world, and he borrowed it one time in the airport and it had water in it. Of course, they took it away, and that's okay. He felt really bad.

He bought me a new one, but then, unfortunately, also lost that one at the airport. So yeah. Now that you know, that's why I have this roommate. I literally don't have any others. Okay?

I just have to clarify that. Okay. So the next one is beauty. Normalize finishing products before buying a new one. If you want a new color of mascara, cool.

Buy it. Literally buy it literally after you finish your last tube. I'm serious. Save yourself money. I know we think $10 is nothing, but at the rate that groceries cost these days, $10 is everything.

Okay? We've got to reframe our mindset around that. And not even to mention, especially if you do this with skin products where you're getting a new skin product or moisturizer or serum every month. I mean, your skin loves consistency. It craves it.

And so getting a new serum or lotion is just going to keep it not knowing what's going on and ends up with a lot of waste. The next one is shampoo bottles under the sink. Is this just me where I've had a shampoo and conditioner or body wash that I don't like? So I've had it under the sink, and I'm thinking, okay, this is for guests. And then I buy a different shampoo.

Well, we're not doing that anymore. It is time to use those. So instead of buying a clarifying shampoo and using that as your first shampoo because, girlies, if you didn't know and, guys, we double shampoo now. Each time you shower, you clarify your hair first with shampoo, and then you shampoo it. Again, you can use your old shampoo bottles under the sink to sorry.

I feel like I'm, like, stuttering over my words. My thoughts are going at, like, 0.5 speed, but the world is currently still at one speed. So, it's just not coming up fast enough. Okay. Anyways, the shampoo bottles under your sink, use that as your clarifying shampoo, as your first shampoo.

I mean, it doesn't matter anyways. Right? And then use your normal one as your second. You can also use shampoo bottles for bubble baths, for body wash, and for cleaning your makeup brushes. There's different ways to use those because letting them just sit under the sink is also taking up space.

Right? Not only physically, but in your mind. Every time you open it, every time you have to, like, move them around to add different things under there, it just takes up space. Next one is conditioner. If you have a conditioner you don't like, which I feel like conditioner is one thing where it's like, oh my gosh, I'm using this no matter what, because it runs out so fast.

You can use it to shave your legs, and you can also add it to a spray bottle and spray your hair with it when you're going swimming. This is gonna protect your hair from any chlorine. Obviously, you don't wanna do this in, like, hot tubs and stuff, because I think that can damage hot tubs. But that is one thing that I do is put put, like a conditioner or deep conditioner, a bond protection thing in my hair whenever I do go swimming when there is gonna be chemicals or or salt. And if you do that with salt, you do have to get something that is ocean friendly.

But okay. Next thing, body wash. Use it as hand soap. You know? Use it as hand soap if it's if you don't need, like, an antibacterial one.

And if you hate a facial moisturizer oh my goodness. One time I got the IT Cosmetics facial moisturizer. It smelled like actual chemicals. I was thinking, this is not I don't enjoy smelling this. But you can use it on the rest of your body, putting it on your, you know, your chest and your neck.

Those are two places, your decolletage. Is that how you say it? Where if you're putting moisturizer on your face every day, you should be putting it on your neck and your chest as well. And, yeah, it just helps keep everything hydrated, and you're not wasting it. Alright?

The next one are serums. If you have a serum you're not gonna use, dump it into a tube of body lotion. I'm serious. Dumping into some hand lotion, into some hand cream, some body lotion. That is going to just make it even better for your body.

And, I mean, obviously, unless it's, like, something crazy, like, going to I don't know. I don't know what something crazy would be. Because you could put hyaluronic acid in lotion. You could put even a can you put retinol in the rest of your body? All I know is that your face is, like, a 100 times more sensitive.

The rest of your body is gonna be fine. Your legs are gonna be fine. I mean, think about how often you bruise your arms and your legs over your face. I mean, so many more times, and they're so resilient. So a little bit of serum is not gonna hurt it.

Okay. The next one is perfumes that you no longer use because we all have those. You can use them as a car spray or as a room spray. Because if you're not gonna use it anyways, you might as well keep everything else refreshed. Right?

Okay. The next one or, I guess, next idea for beauty is to have a swap party with your friends. Can we make this a thing? Can we have a 2025 swap party with beauty products or clothes or something? Probably keeping it really specific.

We could do a beauty product one where we each bring things that we didn't end up liking or using or maybe received it as a gift, and we can do a little gift exchange. Oh my gosh. That would be so fun. Okay. DM me if you wanna do that.

Okay. So women's shelters will actually often take very lightly used products as well. So if you're thinking, Hannah, I hate the scent. I can't do it. It makes me wanna throw up.

Then consider donating it to a women's shelter. And, also, I just wanna say, don't be afraid to throw things away. This is something I struggled with for a very long time. I used to keep every single thing ever that I ever possessed or came across in my life because I was raised in a household of 0 waste. We couldn't afford to throw anything away that we didn't like.

You used everything. You ate all the food on your plate. You you know what I mean? You just you didn't you weren't wasteful. But this can sometimes transform into hoarding or feeling bad for getting rid of a gift that you might not like or decor that you don't appreciate anymore.

And it is okay. It's okay to thank it for its service and to get rid of it. What is that? What is that called? I forget what that's called.

You know, the organizational lady? She ended up writing a book and whatnot. I forget her name. You're probably telling me what it is. What is it?

I'm not gonna remember. Oh, well. But, yeah, thank it for its service and get rid of it if you can or gift it to someone. Oh my gosh. When I the last several years that I was growing up, I guess, you know, I would give my clothes to my siblings, to my sisters.

I mean, I have 4 sisters, and that is the best thing ever. That's the best way to to get rid of things is to give it away or even sell it in the clover. I know we've mentioned that a 1000 times as well. But yeah. Okay.

The last one in health. I guess this is not really health, but more so just general is buying stuff to organize your stuff. Listen, I really want an aesthetic pantry. I do. I want an aesthetic pantry more than anything.

I want aesthetic closet. But buying stuff to organize stuff when the stuff is still sitting in the same spot it was before is a bit much. So I'm trying to save that money. Save money and buy a vacation later. No, I'm just kidding.

No, I'm actually not. Okay. Food. This one's a hard one for me, weirdly enough. You're gonna learn something new about me today, but making higher protein foods instead of buying them.

Yeah. Instead of buying protein bars all the time, not even protein bars. I think protein bars are okay because sometimes you're just not gonna get any nutrients or your protein if you don't have at least one thing a day. But I've been buying okay. You are going to be astonished.

Don't be astonished. Don't judge me. Okay? Ghost protein cereal. I cannot even lie to you when I tell you I have bought 4 boxes, 1 each week over the last 4 weeks.

Don't even guess how much it is for a box of cereal. Yep. $10. Yep. You're right.

Mhmm. Yeah. I know. I'm deceased. $10 for this protein cereal.

It is so good, especially the peanut butter one. Oh, I why did they make that? Why did they make it? It's like 18 grams of protein, 6 grams of fat, and 15 grams of carbs. It's actually insane.

That and the quest nacho chips have me in a choke hold and all the way up until this week, actually, because my budget is back in into plan this week, and I'm also back into cooking for myself. I've just been life has just been so insane. I've been trying to get in protein any way that I can because I haven't been hungry. I haven't wanted to cook, and I haven't had the energy. So I have bought more higher protein foods instead of making them.

But I'm working on not doing that because that is so that's so much money. And cereal, Hannah, I used to I used to never eat cereal. This is the first time I've been eating cereal. The past 4 weeks is the first time I've eaten cereal since the year Caden and I got married because he would always buy cereal, and we would go and have a little midnight snacky. And I gained, like, £15 our 1st year of marriage because of all these, like, different food habits that I was suddenly around.

And we eventually decided, okay, we can't do this anymore. We cannot do this. But, you know, plus, it is so unhealthy for you. It is probably the most processed food group ever, cereal. I'm pretty sure I heard that Kellogg's is made with, like, poison or arsenic or something.

Okay. Move moving on. It is not normal, This is another food related thing. To get a drink every single day, whether that's coffee, going and buying coffee each morning, a daily soda shop run. I have to say this.

It's applicable because I'm in Utah. Or a beer or wine with your dinner every night, which I don't know anyone who's listening to this who does that, but maybe you do do that. But it's worth mentioning, because all of those are lumped into the same thing where that's anywhere from 5 to $10 every single day. And I understand. I know.

I don't wanna be that person that's like, if you don't get your the reason why you don't have a house and you can't afford a house is because you buy coffee every week or every day. If you didn't buy coffee every day, you'd be able to afford a house, mate. No. I'm not saying that. But I am saying it's making a difference, and you could still have a high quality of life by applying that to some some worlds.

And by making your coffee in your house, I don't even make the coffee in your house. You can go in between, which is what I do. I buy cold brew. I buy the Stokes cold brew. One jug lasts me a week, and I think it's $5.50.

And then I just add some almond milk to it and some Truvia or Stevia or whatever, and that's so much cheaper. It's, like, 90% cheaper. You know, buy buy soda at your place. I know it's a ritual thing also. I know it's a ritual thing.

So if you end up you know, you can still make it a ritual at your house, though. You can make a cutie little ritual, you know, make it, go sit out on your porch, or even just go on a drive. I'm serious. You think I'm joking? Make yourself a cute little soda drink and go in your car and go on a drive and listen to some music because it you can recreate the same type of feeling that way.

You can recreate that same level of excitement that way. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So these are the last few things that I think we should normalize. Some things we should normalize to make us feel a little bit better about not being a celebrity or an influencer or people that are getting paid to spend money because these are just normal things to have.

Mismatched towels. Mismatched towels in your in your bathroom. Yep. Simple Christmas decor that might be a little aged. But guess what?

I think it's cute. I think that what is that called? Vintage Christmas decor. Is it adorable? And maybe it wasn't maybe it's not vintage.

Maybe you bought it 5 years ago or 10 years ago. Call it vintage. Call it vintage. It is vintage. We're vintage, baby.

We're in our mid twenties. No. I'm just kidding. So, yeah, simple Christmas decor. Another thing to normalize is basic organization in your home.

Again, storage containers, organization stuff, that stuff costs so much money. There's a reason why there's a career made out of it. You know what I mean? Out of organizing. And, honestly, best career ever.

I feel like that would be so fulfilling because you get to see visibly with your eye, spaces change, and I think that that's so cool. If I could afford it, I would. The next one is basic kitchen supplies. If you see someone and they're cooking on TikTok or Instagram, they have the cutest aesthetic, the cutest bowls, all that kind of stuff. Well, first of all, again, they're getting paid.

We already know this. 2nd of all, make it. Make it yourself. You can make dishes. You can go to the DI, get some cute glass, get some paint safe, food safe paint.

Is that what I said? Paint food safe paint. Yeah. And and paint the underneath of the bowls and plates, and there's so many ways to make things unique and aesthetic and yours without dropping a lot of coin. The last thing to normalize is an unorganized fridge.

Yep. Not having containers for everything that's in your fridge, it's going to be in the same spot anyways. Let's organize that. I mean, let's normalize that. Let's organize that.

I I just wanna end on the thought that a lot of people would love to have a house to decorate with old decorations. They would love a fridge to fill with food, a family to sit at dinner with, and even a warm shower to bathe in. And so when you get in your tub and you get in your shower and you're just thinking, oh, I wish that I had the new hair gloss that I've been seeing, or, oh, I wish I had that cute little stand where you can take a bath, and you can, like, put your laptop laptop on it and a drink and your book. And, you know, after experiencing hurricane Helene and seeing what even we just had to deal with, which was just the tip of the iceberg, No power, service, gas, food, no showers, which you still can't shower safely, by the way. Dogs are literally getting staph infections because the mud has dried up, and it's being, you know, picked up by cars and by shoes, and it's coming into, you know, apartment complexes and parking lots and dog parks.

And so dogs are literally getting staph infections from that. And not even that. That's not even well, I mean, that is a pretty terrible thing. But some people have completely lost their homes, and that's been a huge reality check for me. While I'm sitting there looking at my fridge thinking, oh my gosh.

This is hideous. I wish I had a container for the strawberries and a container for the carrots and a container for the containers for the, you know, for the, LaCroix that I keep in full stock for my siblings when they come over. But I'm not here to guilt anyone. I just feel like the world and social media has evolved so much quicker than our brains ever could adapted. And it's made us feel like we need to keep up with the 1% that we're seeing on social media because that's what it is.

It's the or maybe it's 2% now. I don't know. To, you know, have lives that are theirs, to have our lives reflect theirs, and to search for that quick dopamine by hitting purchase, that quick dopamine hit that we're just seeking because of the stresses that we feel in our life. I mean, yeah, it's good to be delusional in your goals, and it's good to have the mindset that money will always come back around, but not to the point of irresponsible spending. Not to the point of having irresponsible expectations of yourself because of influencer culture.

So just give yourself moments of reality checks, moments of lowering the stimulation that you have and the need for the distractions and the small dopamine hits. This can happen in silence or when you can relax a little bit. You know, whether it's 10 minutes that you're sitting in the car before the gym or after work or, even a 5 minute meditation while you're taking out your dog. I've been listening to meditations when I walk crew in the mornings, and that's, you know, a good 20 to 30 minutes where I'm doing a meditation. And normalize also meditating doesn't have to be just like sitting in your home with your eyes closed because we know that most of us don't have time for that right now.

And if we did, it would be spent like taking a nap. And does this mean that I'm not in the future probably gonna tell you about something that I bought or something that I love or a guilty pleasure? No. You can count your bottom dollar though that I budgeted for it because let me tell you a story. I guess maybe it's not a story.

I guess it's just what happened in my childhood. When I was a kid, we didn't have a lot of money. Yeah, Hannah, we all know. But what my parents taught us was if I ever wanted more than the most basic necessities, I had to earn extra for that. So when 5th grade comes around and Tamagotchi's come out oh, I that's one thing I can tell you when I was a kid.

Even when I was a kid, as soon as I saw a new toy in the magazine or one single person having it, I immediately wanted to, like, be one of the first people that had it. I don't know. I must be a toxic treat of mine, but I knew that I had to make extra money to do that. And it wasn't by doing my normal chores that I was getting paid because I didn't. But it was by doing extra chores and selling chicken eggs door to door and mowing lawns and taking care of people's pets when I would, you know, be able to go buy that Tamagotchi.

And those were, like, $40. And I did that in the 5th grade. Maybe that's not very, maybe that's not very, what's it called, impressive. But it was for me because that the tiny littlest pet shop game things, I'm serious. I would work, work, work.

I was hustling from the age of 5. And then when I got married, I really was forced into adulthood. Right? And it was like, oh, shoot. We have real expenses now.

And I'm saying married because I got married so young at 19. Now suddenly, I can't spend my entire Aeropostale check on the newest Bethany Bota drop or new Nikes every 3 weeks or new workout clothes. That was a big one for me when we were getting married was I would usually buy new workout clothes at least at least once a month, if not, you know, 2 times a month and Gymshark and all that jazz. But now for extras, and I guess, really since then, just like in my childhood, I purchase my items with money made outside of my normal income, and that's how I balance it. If I wanna trip, cool.

Time to budget for it. Time to go get a little side hustle, which for me, my whole my whole life, honestly, it's been to clean houses for side money, to jump back on TikTok, to go get, you know, a second job for a little bit. That's how I buy anything extracurricular that I want. And it's worked out for me. It's worked out really well.

And so, you know, you might be at the end of this episode and thinking, well, Hannah, isn't this just what normal people do? Isn't this normal spending, everything that we've talked about today? Yeah. It is. It's literally just being responsible with our money.

Because as a society, we've gone so far past it, but it's never too late. It's never too late to make small changes, and that's why I hope you enjoy today's episode of me de influencing you because you can, you know, you can have different habits that don't cost you any money. You know what I'm saying? You can make decisions that help you save in the long run, and I don't know why these last two episodes have to do with money. I guess it's just because it's honestly the time of year, right, where we're all beginning to buy Christmas gifts and budget for the New Year.

And we're also getting a 1,000,000 ads slammed in our faces because of TikTok and Instagram. And, honestly, it makes sense. I mean, that's literally what people are being paid for. It's not their fault, but it is our responsibility to be smart with it, especially with Black Friday coming up and just being, I think, aware being aware and not being irresponsible. Because at the end of the day, if you enjoy something that maybe someone else thinks is frivolous, who cares?

Enjoy it. You know? But do it out of being responsible. And yeah. That is everything that I have to say today.

I hope that you enjoyed today's episode, and I hope that you have the most wonderful rest of the day. And I will talk to you later. Bye.