She's On The Money - Budgeting When Life Is Complicated

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Join V, Jess, and Bec as they spill the tea on your money wins, reveal your real-life confessions, and share some savvy broke tips! This week's Money Dilemma tackles the chaos of budgeting for a complicated lifestyle. Plus, we dive into your D.M. that asks the hot question... do you deserve a cut of the credit card perks when the points are from shared spending? Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Today, my friends, is Bec's birthday. It's also Friday, but that means it is time to get our little team together and celebrate you, Bec, and our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Ms. Grich is going to be sharing some of our favorite money wins. Ms. Birthday Bec Syed is going to be sharing her best broke tips. And we're going to be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about budgeting around a complicated lifestyle and we're going to unpack something that you slid into our dms about this week we're talking about sharing points with friends which beck offline seemed very excited to talk about

is that right like why are you so excited about that seems so like like wow what do you do in like how does that work yeah how does this all work i love it i'm excited like i won't go into it too much okay okay we'll get there but first things first uh happy birthday and how's your day and week then. Thank you so much. I feel so, I love, love, love my birthday. I try and extend it for as long as possible. I've noticed, yeah. So house party on Saturday was beautiful. All my friends were around and I just felt so loved. All my buckets were full. Today's the day. Today's the big day. It's the big day. But it won't end there because I'm going to milk it with my... This episode comes out on Friday. Yes. So like people are

going to be wishing you a happy birthday literally at the end of the week. Exactly. How good. Exactly. I've got plans all until end of August. I love it. I'm just having the best time. It's been the best week. I love this. Someone who also loves a birthday week, Miss JustGreetShe.

Always. How's your week been? Good. I haven't done anything very exciting. I've just been sitting at home working on my crafts. I've been working on my crafts. It's been like very, except for today, it's been quite rainy and cold. So I feel like it's perfect weather to sit inside and do something cozy.

What's so cute? What crafts have you been doing? Oh, let me run you through. all right I'm ready I've like done the thing where I've started I got really excited about many things and now I have many half done things so I bought a bunch of vintage stamps just like randomly at a store I saw that and I was confused yeah I'm turning them into a phone case which is very fun oh okay I'm collecting vintage stamps from countries that I've been so I bought just like this big bulk a lot of stamps because they were really pretty and they were so cheap how

many stamps did you get I think I got like 200 or something like four dollars and I just thought that's a good deal you can't use them though you know that right yeah but I just thought they were very pretty and there was something about them that appealed so I'm I'm toying with the idea of either doing like all blue because I sorted them all by color by hand that's very Jess that's very Jess so I like I could do oh like all blue stamps or like I was digging through seeing like what countries because they're from all over the world and I found a lot from countries I've been to so I was like maybe it could be like suitcase stickers but make a phone case with like stamps from vintage stamps from countries so that doing that that's very cool and then you could make a

kindle case because you have so many of them so cute well funny you mentioned the kindle i bought a bunch of new kindle stickers oh my gosh of course you did refreshing the kindle case and then what else we're doing oh sewing obviously i'm working on my new favorite hobby i'm sewing a quilted tote okay i love this i've quilted it so far it's not shaped like anything it is really cute and i love this did the fabric so if i cook it it's not too bad it's because fabric's expensive so it was like four dollars or something okay but that's not the point it's cute it's chic it's fun so we'll see how that goes and then lastly I realized I was doing the little screen medium screen big screen at night like I was watching tv and I had my laptop open and I was on my phone

and I was like she's a triple screener that is absurd so I bought a little crochet kit and I'm trying to crochet a bag at like while I so I watch tv and crochet so my hands are busy that's really really cute that's actually so wholesome that is so jess many a craft jess i have a question when you were a kid and someone gave you like a box of smarties did you sort them by color and then eat colors in isolation absolutely because certain colors taste better than others they taste all the same but that is the brown m&ms taste the best it's double chocolate that's what no you are they don't have a flavor i will not be argued with The red tasted better and also doubles as a lipstick.

What's that red still to this day? It also doubles as a lipstick. Does food die? That's really bad. Is that your broke tip? Oh, red. That's an incredible broke tip. Yeah, just you smarties.

It's like made out of beetles. Yeah, I don't want to think about it. Anyway, how's yours? Gotcha, Neil. Yeah, no, one out of ten. I am well. I think I told you last week that Steve decided to injure himself at soccer. So that wasn't really that fun.

I think I mentioned it, but two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken scapula, and a whole heap of other stuff, like separated AC joint, like significant stuff. I've been his carer this week, which has been really fun because it turns out having a four-month-old and a husband who can't pick up your four-month-old is actually not that fun. In theory, maybe you thought it would be. Now you're double caretaker. You've got two children. Sponge bath for everyone. fun. So that's been really, I won't say fun. It's just kept me really busy. And like in between that and work and like, obviously we've spoken about this, Steve was the primary parent and I was back

at work. So that's definitely put a spanner in the works. Just, I don't have time for crafts right now. Although I did fall victim to the algorithm again, and I'm surprised I didn't send this to you, but there is this company in the US that does crochet kits of mini characters and they send you everything you need to learn to crochet and I have ordered a baby dinosaur so that I can learn to crochet. I need to send it to you because I just I saw it and I was like this is so Jess and then I think I got wrapped up in purchasing it that I forgot to send it to you. I want to crochet you know the sad mouse that's my um slack picture no the sad hamster. Yeah the sad hamster with their little the meme where it would be like I'm just a girl and I was like the violin music and

was this hamster like and people were making them look like themselves so my slack picture because you choose to work from home which you know everyone in our team has the option we actually do have an office and all the zella girls they have those as key rings yeah you'd be so jealous I walked in and was like is Jess here and they were like no why would Jess be here and I was like it just looks like Jess has been here I saw people crocheting the sad hamster so that will be a project at some point. I love this. No, I do not put that on me. If you want to help learning how to use your sewing machine, I'm your girl. Crocheting, I still am pretty certain I'm going to throw that out the window real quick. But let's get into the crux of the show. Miss

Jessica Ritchie, this week you've been saying that there have been some pretty good money wins. What have people brought to the table? Firstly, I've got a money win from Meg who said she made a few purchases on Depop. She got some great quality items at a bargain price. We love a second-hand clothing purchase. I bought a dress online. Did you? Scanlon Theodore, our Depop. But I messaged her a couple of weeks ago and said,

would you take X for it because it was a bit expensive? And she said no. And then. It didn't sell? It didn't sell. So I was like, hey, I'm still open. And she said, yeah, let's do it. And I was like, yes, so we win.

That's the best feeling when you just wait and wait and the universe says, okay, happy for you. Mom was like, originally I was like, I'm not paying that for that. Like, I do like the dress, but, like, I don't need the dress. And then she made me need the dress. So that was nice. Love that for you. Well done to both of you.

Next, I've got a money win from Kalani. I hope that I'm saying that correctly. She said that she switched her Netflix plan from premium, which is $26 a month, to standard with ads, which is only $8, because she figured she's not really watching Netflix that much except for on the weekends. The standard plan with ads is apparently not too bad. It's barely one or two ads per episode. and she's now saving herself almost $20. That's something you should do because you're not even focusing on the Netflix.

Literally, I'm just sitting here crocheting away. Like an ad. You need ads. I saw this and I was like, I actually should do that. That's really smart. Also, be for real, did you just say that a Netflix subscription is now $26 a month? In my head, Netflix is $10.

Same. Okay, so about the same. Yeah. What do you mean? $26. With ads. See, we don't pay for it. We scam off our friends.

No, they don't let you anymore, but you still have my Disney login. I was going to say, I definitely do not do any illegal password sharing. No, we would never. Moving on. Yeah, absolutely. Quick, quick, quick. Next, I've got a money win from Raina who said she loves click and collect from Wall-E's. One time she ordered one tomato and one bunch of broccoli because that's all she needed.

She unpacked it. She had five tomatoes and two bunches of broccoli. Someone was like, you deserve this. Literally, she ordered bacon and ham for lunches last week, and she says she doesn't know what happened, but they doubled it. She's only paid for one. They've given her twice as much as what she ordered. She said, money wins. Click and collect is the way to go. Why are they doing this to her? Yes. Can I also add in a little bit of my own money win? Because it is riding on the coattails of hers. Now, you would think that ordering groceries on Uber Eats, that's

ridiculous, right? Why would you do that? But I got a notification the other day, and it said, get $20 off groceries on Uber Eats and I was like okay I'll have a look I'll click like I love saving money and it was $20 off when you spend more than $45 and so it cost me way less to buy all of Harvey's formula I bought two tins of formula got $20 off and it got delivered and it was basically like free delivery as well oh that's so good is that not a money win yeah formula is so expensive too and I feel like it probably doesn't go on sale that often right Not that I've noticed. I mean, I've only been here for a short period of time. And in that time I've realized it's obnoxious. Right. Love that. Well done. Next, I've got a

money win from Jules who said she received her monthly power bill for $190, which seemed higher than her bills normally are. She scrolled through the document and she noticed that it was an estimated figure. So she checked her own meter and turns out once she submitted the correct reading to her company, it was actually only $150. Okay. That is something we all should be doing. Yeah, you can check your meter, you can take a photo of it, you can send it in and they will honour it. So what, you've got to check your own meter? They don't send someone out.

They do it usually once a quarter and so that's when they benchmark it. Yeah, I see. Okay. Why don't they digitise that now? I don't know why they don't like... Because I don't know how you digitise the meters, honestly. They have those little ticking numbers and I've always been like, what if I maxed out the ticking number and then I start again?

That's how much you've never thought about it. It's like the automator on your car. Like once you've reached a million kilometres, I guess your car's brand new. Life hack. Brute tip. Last I've got a money win this week from Erin who said her textbook from uni was going to cost her almost $200 plus delivery. Obnoxious. I don't miss those days.

That is daylight robbery. I'm so sorry. She found a copy though on Facebook Marketplace. It was brand new and she got it for $30. Oh, do you know what? I wish Facebook Marketplace and Depop existed when I had to buy my university textbooks. Getting them secondhand was incredibly hard. You'd have to like go to the library or like the secondhand shop at the uni and like everybody

else had already done that. So there was nothing there. Yeah. Oh. Well, Summer also commented right under Erin and said a lot of unis now have a textbook exchange or their like student portals will often have like boards or Facebook groups where people are looking, you know, to on-sell their last year. Isn't it good to live in 2025?

I love being here. It's so good. But on the flip side, maybe we're only here because the cost of living is so damn high. Literally. Okay, well, nice way to bring down the mood. And since you've brought this up, Jess, I'm assuming you're done. Would you like to take centre stage?

What have you got to bring to the table? I'm so negative today. I don't know why. It's literally my birthday. And I'm just so bitter. I think maybe this is what happens when you hit 32. You're like, Cozzy lives. I'm done.

and I was bitter about something else before. I can't remember what it was. But anyway, I do have some pro tips. Do you know what? That's the best way to be bitter, about things that you can't even remember. Exactly, exactly. I really am turning into a boomer. So apart from using Smarties as free lipstick, what have you got, Bec?

That is not a bad idea, though, I've got to say. Do try it. Do you reckon it's like a lip stain? Dolly Parton used to do it with berries, apparently. I just watched the DCC documentary and they had Dolly Parton was the guest the Super Bowl. She ends with the GCC last year. Dolly Parton, my queen. I love. Oh my god. I'm obsessed with her too. As much as Dolly Parton. Her lack of belly button is unnerving though. Like do the maths and work out why. Incredible. I just have a flashback of my mum in the bathroom

trying to dye her hair with beetroot juice, like canned beetroot juice. And it does work. It's just organic. It's organic. Bec, I have questions. I have so many questions. It was very funny. In my mind, it's very funny. I know you can't see it. Okay, but my questions arise from the fact that you have naturally black hair. What colour is your mum's hair? I know, shockingly, she's blonde.

Is she actually? Yeah, my mum's black with blonde hair. Oh, okay. I know. See, my mum's really blonde too, and everyone meets her and they're like, that is not what we expected. Totally. Isn't it shocking how that happens?

Don't judge me. Exactly. Don't judge a book by its mother, they say. Yeah, they do say that. All right, what is your first broke tip? Okay, so this first one comes from Andrea. This is actually really, really cool. I didn't know this was a thing.

So Andrea says, I have kids, so do multiple loads of washing a week. I've started using the delay start setting on my washing machine so that it will run wash cycle overnight during off-peak electricity rates. Smart woman. Very smart. What the heck is an off-peak electricity rate? Oh, my gosh, Bec. Oh, I can tell you all about it because my gas and electricity bill

was nearly $800 the last two months. $800. That's pretty close, honestly. Like, she's asking for this bit. No, we've dropped our temperature. Oh, okay. But Jess's house, like, if you walked into it, you'd be like, wow, this is a sauna.

Like, I'm pretty sure last time we were talking about this, you were like, yeah, we just have it set at 27 year round. And I was like. 24, 24. Okay, okay, Richie Rich. So what have you had to drop it to? We keep it at, like, 19, 20 now. And we only run it, I know, freezing, Antarctica, basically.

Jessica. Yeah. We're actually going to talk to our landlord because we reckon there's something wrong because our usage has gone up significantly since last year, but we're not using it anymore. I'm worried that... Anyway, not the point. No, we want to hear this because that's a fight I'm willing to listen in on. But they charge you more for electricity during certain hours of the day. So on your bill, if you look at it, if you say we're dissecting it to figure out why on earth your bill was $800, it'll show you they charge you a higher rate during peak usage times, which is usually middle of the day. When everybody else is using it.

Yeah, like through, I think ours is like maybe 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, something like that, I can't remember. So it's actually a lot cheaper to run if you're doing laundry, if you have to run the dryer or something like that. It's often cheaper to do it in the evening or in the very early morning. Okay. And does it change daily? No, peak usage times should be the same every day. Oh, my goodness. That's sick.

I didn't know you could delay start. Well, I don't know. Now they do because you're putting it on the podcast. Well, I hope everyone does. I'm going to tell my housemates about that. It was just so, like my mind was blown. Anyway, that's really clever. And obviously, as you would have shared last week when I wasn't here, that if you use cold water, it significantly reduces the amount you pay for it.

We did share that. Incredible. So thank you so much, Andrea. And thank you so much, V, for reading that one out last week. Jess said that she always washes her stuff in warm water. Unless it's delicate. But then I was like, oh, are you also the girl that shrunk two really expensive jumpers in the recent past? No, I would prefer not to confirm or deny.

all right beck what is your second from the community broke tip okay so this second one i i don't know how you guys are going to feel about this but personally i love this for so many different reasons um this one comes from michelle she says that she's basically it's quite a long one you can see i'm not going to read it you're going to tell us i'm going to summarize it and And I'm so sorry, Michelle, if in advance I kind of mucked something up. Butcher it. Yeah, okay. But obviously, Jess, you were talking about pottery before, off air.

And we were kind of just talking about how like – Jess is in a crafting era. Yeah, Jess is in a crafting era. I painted pottery too. I saw it on Instagram. I was like, oh, what is that? And then I was like, that is a potter's wheel. Washing the Jessica Ricci's.

So basically, personally, I love playing in dirt. And adults should be playing in dirt. I feel like not should. No one should be playing in dirt. I'm going to give you my kid and you can do the exposure stuff with him. Absolutely. I love it. I love it.

I love it. It just makes you feel so silly and fun and close to nature. Anyway, it's so much fun. What Michelle did was she made clay. All she did was have a bucket of water and a stick and got some soil from her yard. That was rich in clay. I should say that it needs to be rich in clay. It's giving little rascals.

She literally made clay to do like pottery, which I think is so cool. I love that. She's gone, I guess, foraging for natural clay. Is that what you're saying? I think she has like soil in her yard that's rich in clay, but you can also like, I don't know if people listening to this are in Victoria or where you are in the world, but in Victoria we do have like Red Hill on the peninsula, full of like red, beautiful clay. Like you can make clay from just clay, playing in the dirt.

You can make clay from clay, that's what you're saying. Yeah, and I never thought about that before. Like you can make clay from clay. It's kind of cute, isn't it? And then you can like make beautiful bowls for gifts or even for yourself or whatever. I love that. Jess, did you forage for your own clay when you were playing Potter recently? I foraged within the craft room that was provided at the place that I paid to go to.

What a work you are, so resourceful. I really try. Bec, what do you bring to the table today? It's one I actually happened upon this week. You happened upon or your girlfriend happened upon? No, genuinely me this time. Yes. So I've been having to use Ubers, my car's in a really bad way.

and there's a section in uber that is called promotions and it's it's like basically hidden but you can find it if you just go to your account and then it will say you have multiple promos and then you go into promotions and you'll see that you have like say for example 30 off three trips up to 30 three trips left 20 off three trips up to 30 three trips left and these are like they'll give you the date that you're allowed to use them between and all this kind of stuff but like this thing, they don't just like, they don't come out and tell you about this. You've got to like literally find it. You've got to go find it for yourself. You have to find it. I think they might automatically apply it if your trip does, you know, tick all the boxes for that particular thing,

then it'll automatically apply it. Unless you know exactly what your promos are, you'll never get the opportunity to use them. I love that. Everyone right now, go into your Uber account and check out what your promos are and use them because we're not getting our money's worth here, you know. So that's my broke tip for this week. That's a good one. That is a good one. I love it. All right, guys, let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, we're going

to be talking about budgeting around a complicated lifestyle. And Bec is really excited to be talking about this week's DM, which this week we're talking about sharing points with friends. So guys, don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. Hi there. Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The She's On The Money team is here to help.

Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma. Hi, She's On The Money team. I'm 25 years old and currently a yoga teacher. I have a really complicated lifestyle at the moment which I'm very grateful for but it does make it hard when it comes to budgeting and saving money I go overseas regularly on a work exchange to teach yoga which I don't earn an income and when I come back home to Australia I either go

work up in the mines at a cafe or work as a yoga teacher my income is always so different and I find it really hard to budget and save money because of this when I do go overseas I feel as though I'm spending way too much money because I'm not sticking to a budget even though I'm doing things I like like going out for food and sometimes partying and doing things I enjoy I just come home every time from an overseas adventure and think to myself wow I spent way too much money and then I do come home and I work for it back up and then go overseas again but it's such a non-consistent income sometimes it's a really good income from the mind sometimes it's a really low income from working at a cafe or yoga teaching my question is how can i budget

to make this a little more savvy how can i work on saving some more money and making this more consistent so i can put some money towards my investments as well any advice would be appreciated thank you this feels very beck coded it does feel very beck coded but i do remember victoria actually like last year someone messaged us with a it was kind of similar they were a freelancer and they were kind of like some months I make x amount some months I make some days I may be good some days I may be shit exactly well and I remember you saying and this could be different now but you said average it out over 12 months and I'm gonna see myself out I am not needed on this podcast anymore. Is that right? Yeah, keep going. It's great. Average it out over 12 months. Average

your expenses. Average your expenses over 12 months and then average your income over 12 months? Yeah. No. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. And then if you make $10,000 one month, for example, but your average is $2,000 a month, you're only spending $2,000 a month. Yeah. Something like that. No, no, no. That is absolutely on the money, which is punny for multiple reasons here. Bex on the money. That's crazy. Bex on the money. Can we change the intro to Bex on the money? Yeah, that's fine. That's your birthday, so you get whatever you want. Yes, that is absolutely true. So what I would say is understand your budget. And I think that you, you sounded like you're having the best life.

I don't know. But did you notice Jess being like, oh, I'm like, are you pondering a career change, babe? Like, you want to go be a yoga teacher? Like, I wouldn't be surprised at this point. She's become a Pilates girlie. It's a slippery slope. But I feel like this is a really good example of you're living your best life. You're clearly enjoying it, but money is getting in the way. And so what we want to do is understand what Bec was saying. We want to understand our expenses. So how much are you on average spending every single month? But we want to budget on an annual, but we want to budget on an annual basis, right? Because there are going to be like once a year costs like insurances or rego that we need to pay for. So over the year, have a look at how

much money you actually need to bare minimum survive, right? So let's pretend it's $2,000 a month. Let's start there. Then we're going to look at how much we earn. So over the last year, you would have done some work in the mines. You would have done some yoga teaching. You would have worked in the cafe a little bit. You're going to take that income, add it all together and divide it by 12. How much on average was that per month? So you're going to look at that and go, let's pretend, you know, this is just for argument's sake, your expenses are $2,000 a month and then you are earning $4,000 a month, right? So that means that on average, you've got $2,000 in additional income. That's $24,000 a year. So what we want to do is make sure that every month

we are allocating $2,000 and putting that to the side. And then any additional, when we're not traveling, when we're not doing the big expenses, we're putting it to the side. The month after, let's pretend it's one of those big travel months. We aren't trying to overspend. Like if you had a $10,000 month, because like, I don't know, maybe you're out in the mines and you're earning the big dollars. And instead of it being a $4,000 income month, like usual, maybe you have an $8,000 a month because you've had a big month, you've done some overtime. That doesn't mean we blow out. That means we take now $6,000 and put that into the savings account so that next month, maybe you're traveling and don't have an income, we can still pay our $2,000 in base amount of

expenses. And then we can use the surplus and what's left over for the travel and the eating out and all of that. So what we want to do then is have an at-home budget. So we've got our everyday budget, the expenses that are not going to change. For some people that could be like rent, maybe you're paying rent while you're overseas still, but then I want to know what your budget for your holidays are. So if you're going overseas to teach yoga, does that change depending on the country you're in? Maybe if you're teaching in Thailand, it's much cheaper than if you were going to France. So we need to make sure that we understand, well, what is a daily budget? How many days am I going for? What does this look like? So that you can start to allocate the funds towards

It's that when you get home, you're not shot in the foot and you don't have the money that you need for the expenses that are ultimately always going to be there. Does that make sense? Jess, do you have any tips and tricks? Nothing to add other than you did a full episode a few years ago called Budgeting for Variable Income, which goes into that and a few other systems and processes people could consider in a whole episode. So if you want a bit more info, I would go listen to that because it's a really good

ep. I did it, so I agree. 10 out of 10. Would you guys like to move on to this week's Money Dilemma? Absolutely. So this week we got a DM. Sounded exactly like this because, guys, I am reading it verbatim. Hi, I need a vibe check on this.

Every weekend my friend and I go out for dinners, drinks, and the occasional shopping spree. Must be nice. They always put everything on their fancy new credit card to rack up points and I transfer them my share after. Now we're planning for an overseas trip and they just announced that they're using those points to upgrade to business class. They didn't even offer to share the perks, despite the points being partly from our shared expenses. I'm feeling pretty miffed.

It's like I helped build these points and now they're flying in luxury while I'm stuck back in economy. I get that they technically paid, but it stings that they didn't ask if I wanted to split the upgrade or enjoy some extra comfort too. It feels like they've been using our outings to boost their rewards at my expense? How do I bring this up without causing drama but still make it clear I'm feeling a bit used or am I just overreacting? And discuss.

This is really tricky because, like, I get it. I get it. I guess if I had a card that I intended on, like, collecting or accumulating points on but all my friends are like, no, no, let me get this one. And, like, if I sense that there was a bit of, like, sneakiness behind it, they're like, no, I want to pay for this. but you still pay me your share, but I just want to get the points,

then I'd be like, oh, I'm kind of a bit dirty about that. But if you just didn't have a card that you were trying to accumulate points on and then later on realised that you could have been accumulating points. I know, you're salty that your friend was making the most of it. Yeah, I feel like that's, like, maybe if you inquired early and everyone was like, don't worry about it, like, this is, you know, you don't need to worry, like, you just keep doing what you're doing,

then, I don't know, if there's any sneakiness involved, which doesn't really sound like it is, sounds like your friends are just like making the most of what they were trying to do, I guess. And they didn't know that a trip was coming up. You just started planning this trip recently, it sounds like. I think there's no ill intent, really. So I don't know. I don't know.

I feel like they did know, it sounds like a listener, because they said like they knew they were putting the credit card on, everything on the credit card to rack up points. So they knew that that was happening. Yes. I feel like if you wanted the points, get your own card. Like to me, it's a very black and white situation. like our friends do it like one of our like before I had a credit card one of our friends had a

credit card if we went out they'd say can we pay we'd go yeah like what difference does it make to us because you're transferring them cash from your debit account like I'm paying what I would pay regardless you might as well get the points now that I have my own credit card I just go oh like I'll pay because I want my points yeah 100% to me it is such a non-issue also the amount of points that you get from like paying for dinner even if it's every week versus the amount of points it takes to upgrade to something like it's a huge I would be yeah like to upgrade to business which I have done recently so I did that flying to Europe um it's hundreds of thousands of points like you're not not to be not to be dramatic but when she said I go out for dinners drinks and the

occasional shopping spree that's not going to get you a business class upgrade like that's not yeah like I don't mean to be offensive I get that you're probably contributing to the points but like it doesn't add up that way. Two, why are you letting your friend always pay instead of splitting it if you wanted points as well? Like why don't you have your own? Three, your friend might be upgrading to business class, but are you aware of whether she's paying off her credit card or not? You're transferring her cash. You are in your own little finance bubble and I'm assuming you're okay because you don't have a credit card. You're not racking up personal debt. Is your friend even paying this off or paying the minimum? Like she might have points to upgrade, but she

might be in personal debt and you just don't know it yeah to me I think like it's such it is kind of a silly thing I think it's a little bit unreasonable to expect her to split the upgrade I think there's a larger question you can't split an upgrade no you can't but I think there's a larger question maybe around you know is it okay if you're flying with someone and you agree that you're flying together to upgrade without inviting them to upgrade or without you're in like maybe the front door you were going to sit in economy together like hey Jess I have enough points I can upgrade me but like yeah you'd be sitting on your own I would never do that to anybody no you know I wouldn't do that literally we have sat in economy together many a time so

do you know like I think that there's a conversation to be had around that but I think if you separate that out the points thing to me is like such an issue if you want points you're very entitled to earn your own points get your own cut like you can't do you know I mean like you can't really expect her to be yeah I just think to me it feels a little bit unreasonable I agree and I guess like if you flip it if the person writing in was in fact the person who was being really savvy and linked all of their things and was trying to get points for whatever first of all exactly as you say v like that amount of points wouldn't have gotten them very far anyway i'm assuming it's like years worth unless you're spending thousands of dollars a month yeah like

you're not going to get there like steve and i have recently oh maybe in the last 12 months he got a credit card and we have been putting all of our expenses onto the credit card and just paying it off every month because we knew that we wanted to do a Europe trip and we got like I think it was like a hundred thousand bonus points when Steve signed up for this card and then every single expense has been going on there we still had like a small out-of-pocket to pay for our business class upgrade which fine no worries it was a couple of hundred dollars but to us it was worth it but that's with us putting every single like out-of-pocket expense on our credit card and paying it off each month so like when you say oh every weekend I'm like oh like we were putting

everything we could on that card to rack up points yeah and yeah exactly so with that in mind if it was flipped and yeah the person writing in was in fact the the one being savvy I'm sure they would be like quite protective of those points that they'd accumulated over the years and was were really intentional about and like oh I'm putting everything on this card so I can eventually have a good upgrade they're thinking about their future self and i think that if it was flipped around the person writing in would not be like wanting their friend to expect to have some of those points transferred to them because you you put in the work babe you deserve that yeah but i get it with that now the person writing into us our listener do get a card if you feel like you're missing out

and but also be careful because it could be a slippery slope like as i said before whether or not it's the right do you know if your friend's paying off her credit card like the business class upgrade I'm promising you is not worth it if you're not going to be responsible with your finances there's not it's not only credit cards right like you can get yeah it is oh I was thinking flybys for some reason yeah like flyby Jess is the queen of flybys like if I go shopping with Jess I don't have flybys right I'm that friend I'm taking her flybys yeah I have flybys I just never bring the card so if I'm with Jess I literally turn to her and go I don't have my card and she's like, oh, let me grab mine.

And she like whips it out and gets her a point. Like this woman worked so hard to build up her flybys points that she bought a whole ass KitchenAid mixer. Yeah, that's insane. And a Dyson vacuum and airpods. Oh, it's okay. It's been a while since we've had a little bit of an upgrade or update, sorry. Can I just break this down a little bit further?

Yeah. So let's pretend Jess and I are going on holiday together. We've been planning this holiday. Where do we want to go, Jess? We want to go Bali or something? Yeah. We're so excited. If Jess then turned around to me and said,

I've upgraded myself to business and we're not flying together. You'd be miffed. It's not about that you're in business. It's not about the additional luxury. It's not about that. What do you mean? Aren't we going on holiday together? Why aren't we sitting together?

Yeah, like aren't we going to hang out? Aren't we like keeping each other company on the long flight? Like aren't we going on a holiday together somewhere? Yeah, that's what I feel like is the bigger problem. Why are you avoiding me? like I find that so strange like I don't know like when we go on a flight like Jess and I we make sure we're picking our chairs so they're close to each other because I won't be bored yeah like what is that about I don't know is that no I get that I get that that makes sense so it's

probably like that's more the issue than the actual yeah to me that's more of an issue that your friend just went and upgraded herself like without like to me that's the red flag the fact that she's been putting all of your expenses on points like i kind of don't care i'm like okay savvy girl is using her credit card and you clearly don't have one but why don't you want to sit together yeah aren't we friends why don't you sit with me well why don't we be friends what did the um community have all right so we had a chat with the community and we said what's your two cents some of you had a lot of opinions that were very like ours and some of you did point out that the red flag was actually more about them upgrading without consultation not because of

the upgrade but because they're moving to a different part of the plane and some people had some cool opinions so one person said it sounds like a potential value incompatibility you need better friends someone else said if they weren't up front about spending for points then it's just a shitty friend someone else said that's not the best way to start an international trip imo someone else said i'd be miffed but someone else said miffed yeah someone else said But good on them for being smart, I guess. Someone else said, this is a bit of a live and learn situation. Plus the points may be worth it now, but the annual fee isn't. Someone else said, I'd probably make the point by not letting her pay for everything on the card moving forward.

I feel like that's probably a good summary of everybody's opinions. I don't think I have heaps to add to that. Like, yes, it might be annoying in hindsight, but hindsight is 20-20, right? Totally. And also do remember that the holiday is not the travel there. I know it would suck to not sit together, but the holiday is actually the destination, isn't it? Exactly. It's not the journey. In that situation, in that particular situation, it's not about the journey. It's about the destination.

I love that. All right. Well, that's a really good place to leave it. Have the best week, guys. I'll see you tomorrow for a sneaky solo episode. And then on Monday, Bright and Early for a Money Diary. Have a good weekend, guys. Bye, guys.

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