More Money Podcast - 375 Unlocking the Power of the Sharing Economy - Eleanor Tucker, Author of Thanks for Sharing, Speaker and Sharing Economy Consultant

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

We hear the word “sustainability” a lot more now than we used to, but what can people like you and me actually do to make an impact? What role can we play to ensure we’re putting less waste in landfills and are being more thoughtful consumers? To answer these questions and more, I have Eleanor Tucker, author of , on the show. In this episode, she not only shares her personal journey of becoming more sustainable and trying out new apps and programs within the sharing economy with her family, but she also provides actionable tips for people in the US, UK and Canada so we can all start right doing something right after listening to this episode! I’ve gotta say, after talking with Eleanor, I found myself having a lot more hope for our future and our planet. Although bigger change needs to happen at the top (e.g. corporate and government levels), that doesn’t mean we can’t do what we can to save this planet we love as well as reconnect with one another in our neighbourhoods, cities, and global communities. For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/375 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and welcome back to the morning podcast this is episode 375 of the show i'm your host jessica morehouse welcome back i hope you enjoyed last week's episode with gabe dunn it was honestly a great you know season opener but i've got some amazing guests throughout this whole season including my next guest eleanor tucker all the way from scotland my homeland on my dad's side i still haven't been there. And I fantasize about it all the time. But that's largely because I've just watched too much. What's that show? Oh, man, now I'm already gonna forget the show. You know, you know, the one I'm talking about. What's it called? Outlander. That's the one. I know Scotland's not like that anymore. And that's probably for the

best. There's a lot of war and death. But that is how I see it. Everyone just in plaid and just a fantasy. But that's not at all what this episode is about. And Eleanor is actually British, but she lives in Scotland now with her family. And she's a former newspaper and magazine features writer and advertising creative. And she's worked in award-winning marketing agencies before becoming a writer for world-renowned media groups such as The Guardian and the BBC, commentating on health, society, sustainability, tech, and lifestyle. And she went on to co-found the first communications agency to focus on the sharing economy, which is the topic of the day. Also, a trailblazing marketing agency specializing in two-sided P2P marketplaces. Now, she's really passionate about the potential of online platforms

to democratize, empower communities, and help us live more sustainably, which, my gosh, we really need to ramp up, guys, because climate change is real. It is. And it's happening really fast. If you're from BC, you know those wildfires. they were not like that 10 or 20 years ago, let me tell you anyways. But the reason I discovered Eleanor was well, honestly, sometimes I just go on Amazon and see what's going on in there. What's what kind of personal finance books should I check out and read and I found her book. Thanks for sharing. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a book I'm obsessed with. And I was I absolutely loved her book. But I'm like, I hope that she's open to being on the podcast, because I think this is a really important topic

that we need to talk about. And we need to we need to really talk about it practically to what can we do as individuals, because I know, you know, obviously, governments need to do more, we know that. But in the meantime, what can we as individuals do right now? And there's a lot we can do. She has lots of great suggestions. Suggestions not for people just in the UK, but in the US and Canada, she's got some great resources in her books. And so we, she's got some great resources in her book. So I'm so excited to have her on the show. You're going to absolutely love this episode. And without further ado, let's get to that interview. But before I get to that interview, I want to share a little bit more information about my online course that you may not even

know about, but it's been around for almost three years called Wealth Building Blueprint for Canadians. It's a course I built specifically with you Canadian listers in mind who want to learn how to do passive investing like I've been talking about for years on the show. If you want to get rich slowly, invest for the long term, you don't want to day trade or dabble in something speculative like cryptocurrency or some hot stocks that you find online. You just want to make sure you can retire one day or save enough for buying a home. And this course can help you. It is specifically about all the fundamentals you need to know about investing as a Canadian. But then I also show you how to build a strategic investment plan,

and then how to invest in your own portfolio by way of either using a robo advisor or doing it on your own from scratch. There's lots of worksheets and calculators and spreadsheets that you will not find anywhere else on the internet, hence why I had to build them myself, but also get lifetime access as well as access to the private Facebook group, my monthly Q&A sessions for students, a private email you can contact me with, and you also get a private one-on-one session with me when you finish the course as well. There are so many benefits to the course, so I highly recommend going to jessicamorehouse.com slash course to find more information and to apply. Again, that's jessicamorehouse.com slash course to find more information and to apply. Again, that's

jessicamorehouse.com slash course to learn more and to apply. Welcome, Eleanor, to the More Money Podcast. I'm excited to have you on the show, especially I don't get too, too many guests from across the pond. So this is very exciting for me. Thank you for having me, Jessica. It's such a pleasure to be on. Yeah, well, I loved your book. So thank you so much for agreeing to be on. But when I read your book, the thanks for sharing, I really was excited to talk to you because I think the information you have in the book, I read it honestly, in like a day, I thought it was such a great way to lay out this really important information about the sharing economy. And you have information about, you know, how to do this in the UK but also in North America which I think is really vital but it's not really a topic that

we spend too much time on you know especially in the personal finance space but it really should be more integrated like I was read your book and I was thinking I was so much more I think creative when I was broke in my 20s like I would have you I was trying a lot of these things just out of necessity. And I feel like a lot of us, as we maybe get older, our incomes increase, or we just get influenced by social media and what everyone else is doing, we kind of let these go to the wayside. So I'm so excited to have you on the show to talk about some of these exciting things. But before we kind of really dive in, because we have got a lot to talk about, you want to tell me a little bit more about, you know, what inspired you to write your book, Thanks for Sharing. But also, what do you do now? Because I know this is part of your full time work.

It is. Yeah, it's quite unusual, I suppose, to sort of specialize in this area because it is still kind of quite an up and coming space, the sharing economy. And, you know, most people have heard of certain types of platform, maybe home sharing or, you know, the kind of Airbnb model a lot of people are familiar with. But what most people don't realise is there's lots of stuff going on in this space. And it's all quite exciting, but a lot of the companies are startups. So, you know, for background, really, I mean, I began my career as a writer. I worked in advertising and then I worked as a journalist and wrote for newspapers and magazines. And way back, I wrote an article about home sharing and home swapping. And this is before Airbnb was even a name. And I thought it was kind of fascinating idea that these platforms, websites could connect people in a virtual space.

But then, you know, that and swap and, you know, sell and rent between each other rather than just using a company. So to me, you know, I'd already thought that, you know, this seems a great idea, but it wasn't that, you know, that was immediately then I was completely immersed in the sharing economy. There were sort of gradual steps towards it, but I now consult for these sharing economy businesses and I work with the CBI, which is a big membership organization in the UK for companies and, you know, help businesses within the UK, but also globally to find out about what else is going on in the sharing economy space and also help them with their, you know, their brand and their marketing and things like that. And I work also with Marketplace Risk, which is a US organization,

which helps the marketplace businesses like, you know, I mean, Airbnb is a classic example with their trust and safety and risk management as well. So do a lot of really interesting work globally. And then I suppose I reached the point where I thought, you know, I would love to tell people about this, but do I tell the people I work with who kind of know about it already? Or maybe there's a space here to write something, to write a book that's for consumers, that's for regular people and say, look, okay, there are these ways out there where you don't have to buy stuff necessarily, where you can share it or swap it, or if you own it already, you can rent it out.

And I kind of wanted to just really spread the word about that and actually write something that was easy to read and just for regular people so that they could understand about this and see that it was something that I think is only going to go from strength to strength, hopefully. Yeah. And I feel like this, especially with, you know, younger people, Gen Z, millennials, well, not that millennials are, I feel like every time I talk about that, I'm like, no, we're not as young as we used to be getting older as millennials. But I was just talking to my husband the other day and he was, he was talking to his stepdad. He was in his seventies

and he's like, Oh, I don't know why people aren't, you know, they don't want to buy cars. They don't want to buy houses anymore. And it's like, it's a different world. A part of it is just affordability. But he was just like, he didn't understand why people would, you know, rent cars or do like, you know, car sharing programs or why people would you know rent cars or do like uh you know car sharing programs or why people refuse to buy homes they prefer to rent and i'm like it's a different uh world now and i think not only is it more affordable sometimes just to to rent or even i know you talk about this in the book but this is something that me and my husband have done is uh you don't need to buy all the things that you need for example yeah i know

there's some stat that i thought was so interesting. Everyone owns a drill and the amount of time that we use that drill in a lifetime is like a couple hours. It's like, why wouldn't we just share our tools or rent? There's lots of tool libraries. I know for us, we did some work a couple months ago to shave basically the bottoms of our doors because they weren't closing because we got new carpet that was a bit higher. And I'm like, I don't want to buy this saw and all these things. And we were able to rent them for the thing that we needed. I'm so glad we didn't spend hundreds of dollars buying these things. you know, from past generations where it's all about ownership and having all the things that you need is a really great thing that, you know, a lot of us are adopting just out of either necessity or because we don't want to, you know, have just a house full of stuff that we don't use

because I think we're seeing that with a lot of our parents or grandparents. Why do we have all this stuff that's just laying there? It takes up space as well. That's the other thing. Oh my gosh. Well, I, you know, this past summer I was, you know, visiting my parents who live in Vancouver and I was in their basement. I'm like, this, there's too much stuff here. So I actually helped them clear out. And it was kind of radical, this stuff that they were holding onto. I'm like, why do you, why do you still have this? Someone could use this. Someone might like this. You can donate it. You can sell this on a marketplace. You know, it's just a different way of thinking. And it's actually kind of exciting.

And I think it's a generational shift as well. I find it really interesting. And, you know, I explore it to a degree in my book. But I think that coming out of, you know, maybe the sort of war era of last century, you know, people didn't have very much. And when, you know, the economies started to recover and, you know, mass production and, you know, all these things, I think there was a real sort of need and a desire, I think, within people to have a lot of things, you know, and things were cheaper. And this kind of, you know, became the norm throughout these generations. But I think now, and I see this, I've got a stepdaughter who is a sort of classic Gen X,

and she's not interested in ownership at all. And to her, I think, you know, it's that sort of Netflix generation, isn't it? It's like you stream it, you watch it, you move on. You don't, you know, there's no sense of desire to, you know, when I used to move house when I was younger, it was like, you know, bag fulls of videos and, you know, DVDs and CDs and all this. It was like, I own these. And now it's like, people want to tap into something, they want the experience, and then they're happy to move on. And I think it's one of the reasons that we're seeing the sharing economy gain popularity because quite often these things are led by younger generation who are much more interested in trends. And I mean, fashion is a great example of that where,

you know, people are, you know, actually, you know, really proud of the fact they're renting an outfit, or they are proud of the fact that something is thrifted, and that they've resold something. And whereas there might previously have been a stigma attached to that, now we're seeing this generation who are kind of like, yeah, it's rented. I'm having this brief affair with this this outfit this look this bag whatever it is and then I'm going to move on and I don't need that sense of ownership and that sort of

garage full of stuff that we're talking about that we're only going to use occasionally or if ever literally sometimes people have got stuff that they they have never and will never use and and you think about the carbon cost of producing some of these things. I mean, I can't imagine, you mentioned a power drill there. I can't imagine what the carbon cost of production of something as complex as that, something as electronic like that is. And yet for it to never be used or for it to only be used sort of minutes in its lifetime, it feels excessive, doesn't it? It feels quite sad. It does. I mean, I actually really liked that part of your book talking about the renting of things, especially like clothes, or you had an experience with

kind of a carpet cleaner, like you can, there's things that we can rent, especially from like individuals, because I think sometimes when we think about renting, we think of renting it from a company, there's things that we can rent that we have no idea. And yeah, sometimes it's like, oh, I have a stain on a carpet. I don't want to go and buy a whole expensive carpet cleaner. I just need to rent one for a day so I can get the stain out. We really need to kind of think outside the box and see what other people have. And I think that's such a great idea. But do you want to kind of share? Because I know that's, you know, a part that I'm like, I need to start doing that and look at some of these apps of renting like clothes. It's something that I think people only

associate with really high end clothing. That's not the case. You can get some like, you know, just regular clothes for like an event. And, you know, that's the other thing that I always hated is like going to an event. Oh, I have to buy an outfit that then I won't really want to wear too many times, especially if I'm photographed in it or something like that. Exactly. And I think this sort of this idea that, you know, it's kind of been, I suppose, you know, perpetuated by celebrities, this idea that, oh, my, the horror of being seen in the same outfit twice has led kind of mere mortals like us to think that, you know, we don't want to be wearing the same occasion outfit and then, you know, as you say, be photographed in it. So, you know, what's the solution there? And clothing rental is brilliant. And obviously, there's a couple of different types of rental. The peer-to-peer rental that I try out in the book

means genuinely borrowing from other people's wardrobes. We've got some really exciting apps emerging in the UK. One of them actually has reached the US. I would need to double check that it was available in Canada. I'm not sure it is as yet. It's called By Rotation, but I know that it's certainly reached the US. And this is this pure peer to peer where you are renting from other people. I mean, the downside of that is obviously is, you know, you need to be renting to, as you say, sort of, you know, really special occasion stuff is becoming more mainstream as well. I think the classic one in North America is Rent the Runway. And we've certainly got some big players in that space.

And that's where the actual inventory, the clothing items are owned by the company and rented out, which I still think is certainly a value. It's easier on your pocket for certain. It costs a lot less to rent something than it is to buy it. And then it's not going to sit in the wardrobe. So you are getting like multiple uses by different people out of the same item. So I think from that perspective, it's certainly, you know, better when it comes to carbon as well. And I mean, I'm not entirely sure which brands maybe are in Canada. Maybe I've listed some in my book, I would need to actually double check. But certainly this idea that clothing rental is certainly not just for special occasions and certainly not anything to, you know, feel ashamed of. It's almost like, you know, if you're doing that, then, you know,

you're ahead of the curve rather than doing something that's, you know, kind of embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I was just thinking of stuff in my wardrobe, like I bought a dress a year ago and it's a beautiful dress, but I wore it to a wedding and it's very wedding-esque, kind of looks like a bridesmaid dress. I'm I'm never gonna wear this again and what do I do and so even thinking about even if you don't want to rent someone else's wardrobe maybe someone else will want to rent yours and what a great way to expand and maybe you know depending on the app make a little bit of money well exactly and I mean in my book I do very much explore this from the perspective of somebody that's renting other people's clothes, partly because I couldn't really find that many nice clothes of my own, as you will remember from readingshaw style wardrobes. And you just think, you know, this is an incredible

way of monetizing the assets that you already own, getting more use out of them. And as soon as we start to get more use out of things, then, you know, the production of these things is limited because, you know, these things, it's circular, isn't it? But, you know, what a great earner for somebody to, you know, you could sort of earn back the cost of the outfit itself. We talk about the dress that you mentioned there. I mean, you could rent it out and literally sort of reverse fund them. So it's the opposite of sort of credit on, you know, paying for something on credit and paying it back. It's literally buying it and then making it earn its, you know, its value back by renting it out. It's brilliant. It's brilliant.

Especially too, like I remember my sister also, she went to a wedding this summer and she was having the hardest time trying to find like a special occasion purse. She's like, I just need it for this wedding. I'm never going to use it again. And yeah, sadly, I did not think that, hey, maybe there's an app that you can rent something. She did end up borrowing it from somebody she knew. But if you have like a really nice selection of purses that are just in your closet, you're not using, someone might need that purse for like a special occasion and you can make some money off it really.

Yeah, like you said, kind of reverse engineering things, which is such a good idea. And purses or handbags as we call them are perfect for rental because of course there isn't the sizing issue. Yeah, exactly. And also they're often very high value. So, you know, they make a great rental item. And I've certainly done that for

special occasions because it really does add something to an outfit as well to have that lovely bag, doesn't it? Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Absolutely. And I know, so, you know, kind of shifting more to really sharing, because there's ways that you can share. There's no money passing hands. And the one thing I really liked, especially because, you know, it was the beginning of the book, was the idea of food sharing and for me I got the idea because you know there's some apps like you uh you know tried out where it's like you were giving away food that was

close to expiry still fine and good but you're you know you're not going to use it and so it's going to be a waste if you keep it you can exchange it with somebody and then you can maybe use the app and get something that you need to make for your meal that evening which I think is amazing but um I don't know if this is something you encountered. But I know there's like some was a hotel that you'd always get these like magic bags for which I'm like, I need to find out if there's any hotels that do that. There's so many places that are yeah, giving away food. They're like, hey, we have too much or we don't need this anymore. Come grab it for either you know, a very small amount of money or for free. I'm like, one thing I've always wanted to do was really get into baking, but I

hate the volume. Like, what am I going to do with all these baked goods? Sometimes friends don't want to eat all of it. Is this a way that I can like, enjoy myself and then give it away and make someone's day or something like that? That would be amazing. I wish you'd be nearer me if you start doing that, because I love home baking. And actually, I used to do the same. And I think particularly in the lockdowns, I used to bake with my children and then it's like what are we going to do with all these so I would just just take them around to neighbors and things but certainly on these apps um that's a great use for them that you can um you can list items that you've you've made um I know that people do like to see maybe a pre-packaged item so that you know, for things like allergies and sort of health and safety.

So I know that Olio do sort of encourage people to show stuff that is packaged and maybe sort of show what the used by date is on that so that people know what they're dealing with. But I do know that people have listed their own home baking as well. And so much food I mean it goes to waste and it's just uh um it's an awful thing to see and I just feel terrible throwing out food um it really is the one thing that just makes me feel awful if something has gone past its sell by date and it just ends up having to go into the bin I think you know this could be a meal for somebody this chicken or something. It's really horrendous.

And these food sharing apps certainly do allow you to sort of see what you've got in your cupboard, see a use by date coming up. And you think to yourself, look, I'm not going to use this. Let me list it. And then it's, you know, it ends up where it's meant to be

in people's stomachs rather than in landfill, which is awful. And the ones where you can collect the food from, you mentioned hotels, cafes, restaurants, any sort of food related business. And they are subscribed to this app. The one we have here in Edinburgh is called Too Good To Go. And it allows people to collect these sort of surprise or magic bags at the end of usually at the end of a sort of day. And you don't know what's going to be in it, but it's there is a small payment. It's usually sort of two or three pounds and you get all the sort of goodies in a bag. And it just means that they're not throwing

them into a bin and they've gone to a good home, which is great. So yeah, my kids really enjoy that one. My teenage son particularly, because if anyone listening has a teenage son, they'll know there's a sort of bottomless pit when it comes to such things. Yeah, but it's one of those things, Priscilla, where you don't think about it. And even just you giving the idea of look through your pantry, your cupboards to see, is there stuff that's been there for a while and it's getting close to the date where it's no longer going to be of use and you know you're not going to use it? Try to find a better way, whether that's, for example, doing a food sharing app or even one thing that I've

did some research on because I actually did this after doing a girl's trip where we bought a bunch of food and we always feel terrible because we don't eat all of it. We're like, what are we going to do? What a waste. We found that there is, at least in Canada, there's lots of kind of community fridges. And so there's like either you can put dried goods or there's a fridge and freezer. You could put fresh goods and then whoever walks by and needs something, you know, can do it. And I found there's one literally walking distance from my house which is great because i was looking through my cupboards after reading your book i'm like there's a bunch of stuff that i'm not going to use here i don't want it to go to waste what

can i do so there's you know again thinking outside the box what can we do to eliminate food waste because like you said it is a big big problem and is that like the community fridges like anyone can donate and anyone can yeah it's kind of like one of those like community libraries where there's just like, you know, a little, you know, thing on someone's house where it's like, you know, take a book or put a book in there. And it's just about sharing. It's the exact same concept. So it's kind of I think, in general, for people who are maybe low income, or just, you know, you know, kind of food insecure, and it kind of takes away some of the stigma of like going to a food bank or something. This, it is private. There's, you know, no one is seeing

you do it. You know, you can just go whenever you want, grab whatever is in there and bring it, you know, to your home so you can make a meal, which I think is really cool. That's fantastic. Yeah. So I'm sure those exist, you know, everywhere. They're popping up a lot more That's fantastic. apps like it was like Turo or something like that that's in North America that's about again it is kind of like Airbnb of cars which I don't love because I have some feelings about Airbnb these days it's definitely shifted to what it used to be um into like people just using it to you know become a landlord um but I thought it was a really cool idea to rent someone's car for when you know what if you need a van for a day like I I know so many people are like, I'm doing some moving

or I need to pick up this piece of furniture I bought and I don't necessarily want to go to a rental place. This is kind of an idea to rent someone's car. But what was your experience like? Because I know it wasn't perfect. Well, yeah. And I think, I mean, throughout the book, I really tried to sort of tell the stories

of what it was like for me to, you know, to try these things and show that, you know, it's not always going to go right for you. And I think that in a way, I wanted to give the perspective of just, you know, a kind of normal, busy mom who was trying out stuff and show the benefits, but show stuff that could go wrong as well. So you're absolutely right. I did borrow a car in my neighborhood and um it all went quite smoothly until I had to take it back and it got dark by then and I couldn't actually remember where I was meant to be taking it to so I think that says more about me than than anyone else but um no I love the idea I love this idea of of car sharing and in the community peer-to-peer car

sharing because obviously car rental is something we're all super familiar with and and actually this is often the case with the sharing economy there are rental models in existence quite often as you mentioned before the uh for closed rental you know people are familiar with this this sort of rental of a ball gown or something um you know but with with cars you you know we all know about the sort of airport hire car things. But what the amazing thing about community, peer-to-peer car sharing in a community is that people who have cars that sit, you know, in a driveway or on the pavement in a, you know, in a parking bay, you you know unused for a lot of the week you know what that means is that people who are only occasional car unit users could decide not to have a car at all and simply use one of these apps to to access a neighbor neighbor's car whenever they need it

and then for that person for that car owner the person who has chosen to continue to own a car, but to rent it out, it just means obviously that they're able to get an income from something, which, you know, it's increasingly expensive. I don't know if it's the same in Canada, but obviously, you know, the world over, we've been affected by oil prices and the effect on petrol prices and, you know, rising things like car tax and insurance, cost of living, all these things. It's like making people question whether it makes sense to own a car at all. And of course, we're talking about carbon again. The carbon cost of producing a car is huge. And in fact, I think there's a stat in my book, and I'm not going to actually exactly remember the percentage, but I think it's around

half of the carbon footprint of a car is in its production, not once it's on the road. So if we can start to, you know, enable there to be fewer cars produced and actually share the cars that we've got amongst us, this is way different from, you know, the kind of car rental that we might be familiar with for when we go on holiday or something like that. Your sort of Hertz car hire. This is about having these assets in the community and just really making use of them together. And this is that term collaborative consumption that I mentioned in the book. It's about collaborating to consume, not just consuming our own things and being that sort of territorial mindset that we've had for so many years. No, absolutely. And, you know, sometimes you just need a car for a specific purpose. And that's why, yeah, me and my husband

were just talking literally the other day about what are we going to do when our car, like it's an older car and it's, you know, it's been around and it's doing well. But, you know, what are we going to do when the time is to make a decision about getting a replacement? And he's like, you know what, I think we should try to live without a car and try out some of these things that may be renting someone else's car or, you know, taking an Uber. Sometimes that makes the most sense if you just need to go to point A to point B. But there's so many options now. And I know one thing that I've been seeing a lot on, you know, social media and online is the cost of cars is so much more expensive now than it

was to purchase. Lots of younger people, especially who think that they need a car. And again, it depends on where you live. I live in the city of Toronto. It's very easy to get around in terms of like, there's, you know, lots of cars, you know, if I want to rent a neighbor's car, that's, you know, there's a lot of neighbors with cars just sitting on the street or there's, you know, lots of cars, you know, if I want to rent a neighbor's car, that's, you know, there's a lot of neighbors with cars just sitting on the street or there's, you know, transit. So if you live in something, you know, a small town or a suburb may or may not be, you know, possible. But, you know, people are spending like a thousand dollars a month on car payments. And, you know, with our, you know, rising cost of living like that is a good chunk of change that can mean that you're no longer paying your debts or you have nothing left to save. And so is there an alternative that, you know, is not only better for the

environment, but also for, you know, your wallet? Yeah. And if you, and yeah, and the other, the flip side of it is keep the car and rent it out to people. And I've heard of people, you know, using the likes of Turoro and um i'm not sure the other ones available in canada we've got a few sort of emerging uh car sharing platforms here and i know that in certain european countries it's you know really quite normalized but people can make that sort of you know thousand dollars back um just from from renting it out um and cover costs that way again so I always think it's important to remember that in the sharing economy, somebody has to own. And, you know, I've had this discussion

before where people have sort of said, you know, so you mean nobody owns? It's like, well, somebody has to. So it's a case of whether you're the sharer or the sharee, I suppose. And, you talked about with people's wardrobe or something, some people have got a better car or a bigger wardrobe and they can be the ones that kind of monetize these assets. They're making money, but for the actual person that's doing the borrowing, they are tapping into something for a lot less as well. So, you know, the economical benefits are on both sides of the equation, and the environmental benefits are on both sides too. So that's one of the things that's really exciting about the sharing economy. Absolutely. And I know there's, you know, one part of your book, you also talk about, you know, space sharing, and like we kind of touched on at the beginning of this episode, Airbnb was, you know, one of the kind of the first ones about, you know space sharing and like we kind of touched on at the beginning of this episode Airbnb was you know one of the kind of the first ones about you know sharing and it's

funny I think a lot of people forget where it started it was really about you know renting having an air mattress in your home and renting that out to someone because there was a conference that there was no hotels that you can rent and now it's kind of just become something very different than what it originally was and it reminded me too back in the day there used to be an app and I had some friends that did a lot of traveling and it was called couch surfing and it was global and you could literally it was free. So it was very much about that sharing of, you know, my space to give you, you know, help as you're, you know, backpacking around Europe or what have you. And, you know, it's there's still a lot of things like that out there. I know you tried out,

you know, renting or you stayed at someone's house when, you know, you there there's still a lot of things like that out there I know you tried out um you know renting or you stayed at someone's house when you know you're the family member you had in London wasn't um able to to give you some space and also there's the time the office I'm curious I wanted to ask you about when you you did some work there was like a hotel and you can rent like a desk or whatever was it actually like were you not supposed to be there or was it? Yeah, that was another, yeah, there's a theme, things go wrong. Yeah, I sort of got swept along and ended up in a meeting I shouldn't have done. But yeah, I didn't want to put people off using the app, but it happened and it was kind of funny. So I thought I would share it in the book, but I do use this app.

It's actually a kind of new emerging app that's really only in a couple of UK cities, but I'm hoping this will catch on. And it's called Swerve, and the idea is that you can rent a space to work during the day when a hotel or cafe or restaurant has that that space has that downtime so of course you know the sharing economy isn't just about sort of person to person it can be about sort of business to consumer as well and and what happens here is that these maybe businesses with quieter times during the day can allow people to come and work there and and what that does is obviously it makes them look busier it sort of helps people find out about them, you know, a bit of sort of brand awareness that, you know, they might get some extra sales from coffees and things like that.

And just generally it sort of keeps that hospitality industry moving along and helps people to sort of get out of the house as well, which I think after lockdowns, I think a lot of us are fed up with working from home. So that's a great example of that kind of space sharing, using something, you know, an underutilised space. And there are some other examples. I mean, I'm not sure which ones are available in Canada, but when I started looking into different kinds of space sharing, storage

is one certainly where you can, I think there's one called, I'm just trying to think if it's called Spacer, but I'd need to check what was available in the Americas. But there is certainly a couple in the UK where you can, you know, if you've got things that you want to store, like power drills. No, I'm joking. But, you know, if you have equipment of some sort and you maybe live in the centre of a city and you don't have that huge amount of storage that maybe somebody nearby has a bigger basement or a loft or a cellar or something, an area that they can rent out. And again, it's that sort of empowerment, really. You've got a space that you want to rent out and you become a sort of almost like a micro entrepreneur then making money from that. And then for the person who needs the

storage space, it means that maybe they don't need to travel out of town to some big sort of lock up or, you know, they can store stuff locally. So there's that. There's also, when I looked into it, you can rent creative spaces, you know, for, you know, for work or maybe, I don't know, anything from music practice to, you know, maybe you're not getting enough inspiration at home if you're painting or you want to rent a space to do that. And so literally renting spaces in people's homes that maybe are more creative for you, but also gardens. I didn't realise that you can rent, you know, so if you wanted to have a garden party or an event or something, or even actually use their garden

to grow vegetables, if you don't have that space yourself, there's a startup called Allotme, where you can actually rent out part of your garden as a sort of vegetable patch for people to come and use. So honestly, it's such an inventive space. And there are so many brilliant ideas coming through. And, you know, none of these are mainstream at the moment, but I think they often tap into a need. And I think with urban living, particularly, I think space is an important one. And we don't often have a lot of it and and I think that it has to be shared around so it makes it perfect for the sharing economy yeah no I love the idea of the the sharing of the garden because even in my backyard I am just not I do not have a green thumb but

I have this one space it's an old sandbox that I know can be converted into like a little vegetable garden but I do not have the time or the inclination to figure out how to do that. I'm like, I would love to be able to give someone who maybe lives in an apartment and but really wants to garden this space so I can enjoy it looking beautiful when it's grown and they can have that space to have a garden. But I think the other thing that we haven't really touched on, but this is I think part of the reason why I really like the sharing economy, especially as we've gotten out of lockdowns and COVID and we really disconnected. Like we felt more online, but we were disconnected on an actual human level. This is a great way to meet new people, to get to know people in your own community, because I feel like we've gotten really far away from that.

And, you know, part of that is meeting people doing these apps, whether it's like sharing food or space or what have you. But also, I know, you tried a bunch of apps that were all about skill sharing, which I think is really cool. And I've heard a bunch of about these before. But, you know, some of them, again, are like, you know, pay a fee, and then I'll teach you a skill. I love the idea more that no, there's no, again, payment involved. You just get credits for if, you know, you have to help people and then you can, you know, enjoy someone else's service. Do you want to kind of share a little bit more about your experience with that? I loved that idea.

It's amazing. And actually, so many people have asked me about this element of the book. And I did actually, you know, I wasn't 100% sure I was even going to include it because it's not a physical thing. And sometimes it's hard to kind of categorize it. But I loved it so much, I did include it. And the idea, and I talk about in the book how it's not a particularly new concept. The idea is that it's a skills exchange. But what happens is that an hour of your time doing the thing that you're good at is automatically the same value as an hour of somebody else's and with their skills. So you on a platform and there's a couple of them coming through in the UK. I'd love to know if there was anything similar coming through in Canada. But the beauty of the technology is that it allows you to swap your skills, but you don't always have to swap directly with the other person. So for example, as you know, because I've written a book that I'm a writer, so I can help

people as I do in the book with writing. So maybe their website or something. So I list my skill as copywriting or writing and an hour of my time is worth an hour of somebody else's. So when I want to trade that, it could be that somebody wants to use an hour of me and then I get an hour's credit, but I can then use that for a different skill, which makes it brilliant because you don't always just have to engage with that one person. And I cash an hour in then for something else and in the book I do a couple of things but one of them was I got somebody to help me out with my house plants because I keep killing them and I'm getting slightly better but she was brilliant and

that hour was so valuable you just think well you know if I was to sort of I don't know hire a professional gardener and how would you even do that but just to be able to get that advice and that you know just that know-how from somebody but it could be something much more practical than that like bookkeeping or something to do with I don't know social media or even sort of like you know it's fixing something in your house so all these types of things you can just swap and it's always an hour. So it's completely cashless. And the potential for that, I mean, in communities is huge and you do see it happening in an informal way and certainly around sort of community centres. I know that people have done that, but I think technology could really power this and make it much more mainstream for everyone

to use. And it's brilliant. And I think for older people as well, who've got a bunch of skills that maybe younger people don't have anymore. I mean, things like crafting and, you know, mending and all these sorts of things that a lot of us want to get back into. It's like how brilliant to be able to sort of tap into the older generation, but also you touched on this idea of sort of, you know, loneliness and exclusion. And I think that, you know, ideas like this, where we've come together and actually, you know, it's a meeting of minds. And I think it's so good for everyone involved. And I would love to see these sorts of platform really thrive in the future. Have you heard of anything in Canada like that? I haven't, but I'll, you know, I haven't done that much research. So I'm sure I'm hopeful

something exists because I'm already thinking of like, I mean, obviously, like, I have got some skills, but there's so many things that I like to learn just hobbies. And I know you met up with like a wine expert. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I would love that. I love wine. And I know nothing about it. I would love someone an hour of someone's time who's really into wine you can tell me what to choose and what to know yeah because imagine how much it would cost to sort of like hire a kind of wine yeah there is a worldwide organization called time banking which i do talk about in the book i mean it's it's not sort of sharing economy in sense that, you know, there's no app for it, I don't think. And I'm actually not sure how it works on a kind of, you know, on an actual functional level. I don't know. But I know it's an organization. I know it's based around this idea of cashless skills exchange based around an hour of time, hence the name. So anyone listening and wants to sort of find out more about skill sharing, I know time banking would probably be certainly a place to start. I just

think it could be a fantastic, you know, it could be a revolution if everyone got into this. And that's the thing about the sharing economy. It's like, you know, I just want more and more people to get involved because the more people get involved, the more stuff there is out there. And there's, you know, there's more dresses to hire. There's more food for, you know, going around that's not ending up in landfill. There's more, you know, gardens to plant vegetables in and things like that. And I just think it would kind of make the world a better place. I agree. I mean, I think that's what I found so inspiring about your book is just seeing what the world or the future of the world could be

if we all, you know, came from a place more of less of what can I buy, because I see everyone buying all these stuff. And what can I share? Or what can I rent? Or, you know, what's a different way of doing things that will benefit me and others and, you know, the environment and the world at large? I think it's just a really important thing to integrate into our lives, especially as honestly, like we really do need to make some big changes because as you know, and I live in Canada and there's so many wildfires and climate change and things are happening rapidly. And so we need to do what we can. Obviously, I think things on a higher level need to change, but what are some things that are within our control that we can do to make

a really good positive impact? And there's so many things out there. And, you know, really appreciate, again, that you share lots of your personal experiences trying out things. And again, you have some great lists in your book. But even if this inspires someone to be like, is there like a food sharing, you know, situation in my community? That could be a great thing, especially if you're like a busy mom or something like that

and trying to figure out, oh, gosh, I need this X, Y, Z. And there might be someone literally just down the street from you that has exactly what you need. And, you know, again, to the community aspect, I think we really need to figure out ways to reconnect with one another because it's a you know it's the best part of life is getting to know other people and and learning from them it makes you feel like oh you know there's a point to all of this you know yeah and save some money into the you know into the equation and i think that you know the sharing economy feels like it's sort of timely for several

reasons because as you say we've all got concerns about the planet, but it's hard to make changes when you are worrying about money at the same time. And I think the good thing about the sharing economy is that, you know, you get that connection to people, you get the, actually, you're doing something that's maybe helping the planet, but also a big incentive to get involved is saving or making money from it as well. So it just feels like, gosh, you know, how could you not get involved with it in the current climate? Yeah. What's the downside? I mean, I'd say the only downside or, you know, thing to keep in mind is what you're doing is you're effectively probably trading some of your time. But, you know, when people complain, oh, I just don't have the time. I don't have the time. Believe me,

I complain about that all the time. And if you actually looked at the amount of hours you spend on something that's not really a good use of your time there's there's time if you you want it to be if you want some time there's always some time somewhere yeah exactly I would think if I could trade the time I I'd spend I don't know looking at Instagram or something you know um yeah it could always be better spent couldn't it yeah no absolutely well it was such a pleasure having you on the show i encourage everyone to grab a copy of your book thanks for sharing um where can people you know find more information about you or the book where where can we direct people oh um well i am on instagram which is a good place to find me.

And the book itself is, yeah, it's available worldwide. I do have a website, which is eleanortucker, all one word,.co.uk, which if anybody wants to find out about some of the work that I do. And yeah, I hope people enjoy the book. And it's got a very British setting, but I've had some really great feedback from people in America and Canada about it. So I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as you did.

So thank you so much, Jessica. You're welcome. And that was episode 375 with my guest, Eleanor Tucker. You can find more information about her at eleanortucker.co.uk. And if you want to grab a copy of her book, one really easy link that gives you a lot of different options is jenny.us. That's g-e-n-i.us slash thanks for sharing. But again, I found it on Amazon, but I'm sure it's at all of our different bookstores. So make sure to check it out. And I will be including links in the show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com

slash 375. And yes, I am also giving away a copy of her book. Thanks for sharing. If you want to find more information about that, I will share it after I share a special message with you. So do not go away. Do you want to figure out where your money is going? Do you want to organize your finances once and for all? Do you want to figure out where your money is going? Do you want to organize your finances once and for all? Do you want to feel less anxious about your money? Well, I have a great tool for you, my collection of budget spreadsheets, which you can find at jessicamorehouse.com slash shop. These new and improved budget spreadsheets have helped thousands of people over the years. And these are honestly the budget spreadsheets that me and my husband still use

today. They come in Google Sheets and Excel. They also come with a comprehensive video tutorial to show you exactly how it works and they're very easy to use. Not only that, I've got versions for pretty much any scenario. So if you're an employee, I've got a budget spreadsheet for that. If you are self-employed, I've got a budget spreadsheet for that. If you're in a couple and one of you is an employee and one of you is self-employed, I've got a budget spreadsheet for that. I've got seven different budget spreadsheets for any kind of situation. So no matter what's going on in your life and your income, I've got a budget spreadsheet for you. So if you want to take action and see some progress with your finances, this is one really easy step that you can take right after listening to this episode. Just go

to jessicamorehouse.com slash shop, find the right budget spreadsheet for you and then start making some moves that future you will be really, really thankful for. So if you want to enter to win a copy of Eleanor's book, thanks for sharing or even enter to win a copy of Gabe Dunn's book, who I had on last week, Bad with Money, which is a great book as well. Make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest. Both of them will be on there. And I update it every single week whenever I have a guest on the show who is an author. And honestly, I feel like almost everyone I have on the podcast is an author. Oh my gosh, everyone has a book. No, no, one person doesn't. Okay. I just like authors, you know, and I like supporting authors because also I'm an author coming. I'm coming up. You know, I'll talk about that in a second.

But anyways, yeah, so I will be updating it as new authors come on the coming. I'm coming up. I'll talk about that in a second. But anyways, yeah, so I will be updating it as new authors come on the show. I will add their book. I'm always going to give away books. I've been doing this for years. And I like to support these authors by actually buying their books. I don't just ask them for free. Sometimes I do get free books, but I usually just keep those. And then I buy a copy of their book and then give it away to you. So JessicaMoorhouse.com slash contest is where you can find more information about that. Now, since it is October officially, this means guys, that I'm officially 70% done my book, I only have three more chapters, which is a very exciting. I'm getting you know, the hump, I'm over the hump. Is that the saying?

I'm over the hump. And so but also it's like, oh, shoot. You know, not only is time just flying by, but that also means like the holidays around the corner. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm not ready for it. I'm not. Summer, it was just summer. And now it's, you know, the time just goes by too quickly. I just don't like, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. But yeah, so that's the book update. We're finished the October chapter, which is exciting. And then three more chapters to go. And then, you know, it'll be eventually done. You will be happy to know that me and my husband have booked a vacation for the first week of January, because I'm giving myself January as like buffer month. So I'm going

to have the book fully done by end of December. We'll see. Because of course, I forgot about Christmas and I go away to Vancouver for two weeks as if I'm going to be writing there. I don't know. I don't know. But anyways, I gave myself January as a buffer because it's good to not just work myself right to the deadline and freak out and have a, you know, some regrets about wish I had more time. But me and my husband have booked a Mexico vacation, first week of January. And I'm very excited because we, you know, we go on some like little, you know, trips here and there. But definitely this year, or yeah, this year, I'm like, what year is it? It's 2023. This year is, no, we haven't gone on vacation, because, you know, the world is expensive as hell and you know we bought

an expensive house with an expensive mortgage and so this is where we vacation in our basement because that is the choice that we made and we have to live with it because we're adults but no in any case we we did book a vacation i'm very excited i'm very excited. We deserve it. We deserve it. That's what we're telling ourselves. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So I feel like that's the only update I have for you at the minute. But thank you so much for listening. A little teaser for who I have on the show next week. I have Peter Atwater, who is the author of the book, The Confidence Map. He is a behavioral finance expert. So if you're into behavioral finance, which who isn't these days? I mean, I absolutely am obsessed with it. And yes, there's gonna be a chapter in my book all about it. Yeah, you're gonna want to tune in next week with Peter Adwater. It's gonna be

great. But yeah, that's it for me. Thank you so much for listening and supporting the podcast. Also, I should remind you, I've got a YouTube channel under my name, Jessica Morehouse. And also please, please, please follow me on Instagram. If you're not already, I am at Jessica I Morehouse. I'm also on threads, you know, find me there. I'm trying, I honestly have it on my little to do list every day to thread at least once a day and also put out an Instagram reel to keep myself accountable. Because, you know, I'm not, I'm not natural with these kinds of things. I don't love it. I force myself to do it. And what's the other things I've got? I've got Instagram.

Oh, yeah. There's also an Instagram for the podcast. If you just want to have like a weekly notification, basically. It's like, hey, there's a new episode. That's a great way to do that. At More Money Podcast. And, you know, Twitter is dead to me. I'm not into X.

I'm not into what's going on over there and what's happening. I don't like it. It is a dumpster fire and I don't want to participate. So, but I am on Twitter if you want to find me. But you know, I think after Elon got rid of my blue check mark, which I earned and I had for like seven years and he asked me to pay for it. I'm like, absolutely not. I'm not going to pay for something like that. And I do not pay for my Instagram. What's it called? Verification. Yeah, I'm just like not into it. So that's what's going on there. Nothing. A whole lot of nothing. But yeah, anyways, that is it for me. Thank you so much to my wonderful podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And yeah, I will see you back here next Wednesday with a fresh new episode of the More Money Podcast. See you then.

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