She's On The Money - Finance or Fur-baby First?

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Join us for our FAVOURITE day of the week as we get to celebrate you, our gorgeous community! As ever, Jess shares your money wins and losses, Bec brings some top broke tips, and Victoria gives some red hot advice for managing finances as freelancer in this week’s Money Dilemma!  And this week’s D.M gets a little emotional as we talk about the cost of affording a pet. What would you do if you found yourself in a tough financial situation and felt you had to give up your fur-baby?   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 is Friday, which means it is time to get our little team together and celebrate you. How incredible she's on the money community. Today, we're going to be sharing our favorite money wins with Ms. Jess Griucci. Bex Syed is going to be sharing a few hot broke tips. We're going to be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about managing finances as a freelancer. And you slid into our DMs about something spicy. So we're going to be unpacking the topic of affording a pet later on. My friends, how have your weeks been? Very nice.

Nice week. Very nice week. Just chill. What have I been doing? Just working your life away. I'm working my life away, basically, yes. And also having a nice time doing it. Stealing lots of bread from the kitchen.

Stealing some bread, baby. You know it. Many toasties. Toasties, fake garlic bread, you know. Yeah, I like it. That kind of thing. I like it. What about you, Jess?

Good. Just cruising along. Nice. I have a trip to Japan coming up in the future-ish. So I've been planning that. Friends have been coming over, which is very exciting. That's so fancy. I know.

I'm very, very, very excited. What season are you going in? We're going in September, which I think is their autumn. Oh, cute. But it's still meant to be quite warm, although potentially rainy. That's okay. We'll see. Hoping for some good weather, trying to tick off.

I get to tick off another Disneyland this year because there's one in Japan. Oh, I'm so jealous that she's going without me. Oh, my God. That's so cool. We can go to California together. No, I don't want to go anymore. Okay. California.

Are you serious? Can I go to the California one? Yeah. Okay. Please. Can I come? You can come. Thanks.

It'll be fun. Group trip to Disneyland. I like it. I think it's a genius idea. Sold on that. I'm definitely using the work trip as a group trip to Disneyland. Everyone will be like, oh, my God, it's so nice to see you when on holiday together.

And I'll be like, mm-hmm, we definitely weren't here for a conference. Bye. We are serious business people. We are serious business ladies. We've got to, like, speak it. Jess and I are both speaking at FinCon this year, which is very, very cool. I'm doing two presentations, which should be cool. I've got my own and then I'm on a panel, as is Jess,

which I think is so fun. Wow, look at you guys. Tax-deductible Disney trip. I love it. Oh, that is so good. It's not actually true, but you know what? We can pretend. We're going to pretend.

Yeah. We're going to pretend. It makes us feel much better about it because it is technically a work trip. Yeah. How was your week? My week was good. My week was busy. I haven't done anything of note, I don't think.

I've done a few speaking events. I've done a few podcasts. I feel like life is good. I've been working in the background with Gabby on getting my investing masterclass out the door. Wow. Which I shouldn't be telling you about because we should do like one of those like marketing things where you like bait it, bait it, bait it. Sure. And then, oh, something exciting is coming, which the team are really good at.

So like if there is a marketing campaign on our Instagram and it's like something exciting is coming, just know I had nothing to do with it. She's bad at keeping secrets. Yeah. I'll just be like, it's an investing masterclass. Yeah, that's what we've got. And Jess is like, no, no, no, make them interested. And I'll be like, it's about investing. But I am really excited about that because I've been working on it for literal years, but it didn't feel right to be putting it out into the world, I suppose, until I was not an advisor anymore, because there are so many legalities when you are a personal financial advisor of what you can and can't talk about. And I was kind of feeling like I was shooting

myself in the foot. I was like, well, there's no point launching it if I can't talk about these things that I think are really, really important. So now I can talk about them. Great. Oh, I'm going ham. So it's been exciting for me. I know you guys probably could not care less, but that's okay. That's okay. I'm excited. Bec's like, I'm not listening. Maybe that'll be the thing that helps you get started investing. True. That's very true. I'll do our budget and cash flow first. Firstly, we need to do that. Yeah, we'll do that first. But, Jessica Ricci, I want to know what's been going on in our community.

What are your community money wins of the week? My first win this week comes from Maya, who said, future money win slash huge life win. After searching for almost a year, our offer for a beautiful house just got accepted and we just exchanged contracts last Tuesday. Between all the useful tips on She's on the Money and Property Playbook, help from our friends and family, it feels unreal that we can tick off such a huge milestone that's the best congratulations we're so happy for you maya next i have a win

from jessica fabulous name great name who said money win getting a merchant reversal in my favor for an online retailer thinking they can operate outside of consumer protection laws always check the window that your bank offers this service for i scraped in with two days to go before this avenue would have been closed oh i didn't even know that was a thing that's what i thought i'm Like noted for next time if you feel like you're getting scammed or someone's charging you the wrong thing or they send you something faulty maybe and they won't give you the money back.

Yeah, smart. Talk to your bank about it. Great, great idea. Love, love, love. What else have you got? I've got two Lululemon money wins. One from Julie who said... How is a Lululemon anything to do with a money win?

Let me tell you. I'm ready. Julie said, I got the most gorgeous Lululemon top at the op shop for five bucks. Oh, that is a money win. And then a little further down, Maddie said, I bought Lululemon tights in excellent condition from a rent-a-rack place for $18.

Oh, okay. I take my words back. Those are Lululemon money wins. I was very impressed. Eat those words, Victoria Devine. I don't want to, but I'm going to. Next, I've got a money win from Erin who said, I got an incredible stash of goodies from my local health food store, which I go to often, but today I got all of this for $39,

saving $105. There's a nice little photo of her hole in the thread. That is a lot of stuff. For 39, when I consider, I did a whip around to the grocery store on Saturday while my friend went in to came out to pick a book. If anyone's reading The Summer I Turned Pretty, we're all over it. But she went in to pick up a book and I was like, oh, I'll just run into the grocery store because I have 11 items on my grocery list and I reckon I can whip around and get that

done in the same time it takes you to get a book. Sorry, this is a very roundabout way of telling you. I like it. How long did it actually take though? Real question. Honestly, I got it done in like 10 minutes. Like I was powering it. If you saw some crazy woman with a trolley zooming through the aisles of calls, that was me.

You're averaging less than one minute per item. That's very expensive. That's pretty efficient, isn't it? That's very efficient. But 11 items, I was like, oh, it'll be a cheap shop. It'll be so, like, so fine. Oh, my God. It was $120.

No, surely not. And it wasn't like I was, like, that was. It was like pantry staples. It was like soy sauce. No, how? It wasn't as, I bought one 24-pack of Pepsi Max, obviously. Yeah, but that's not expensive. No, and it was on sale 40% off because that's the only time that I buy it.

I couldn't believe it. So well done with that health food win. I feel like that is an absolute bargain, Erin. And the last one that I have comes from Megan who said, money win, I signed up to Mad Paws as a pet sitter and I have my first doggy daycare client tomorrow. That's actually so cute. Extra cash to add to savings and a new friend to keep me company

while I'm working. And I know we've mentioned Mad Paws on the pod before. We've never worked with them, but you mentioned them. I've used them before. Yeah. I've used them before to find, like, pet sitters and stuff, and I've had a good experience. So there you go.

That's a goodie. Not bad. That's cute. I didn't know they did doggy daycare, though. That's real cute. Very fun. And it makes sense if you have a dog who has, like, anxiety issues or something.

Which I do, yeah. And you're someone who works at home and you have an empty house. It's a win-win situation. You could have a little friend all day. That's very sweet and cute. Oh, love. All right, let's segue straight into, Bec, what broke tips have you round up for us this week?

Okay, so I've got a couple of good ones. Oh, are you sure? you have no faith in me no i do i'm excited what are they oh thank you okay so the first one comes from sarah so sarah sent through a lot of really good broke tips and i'm gonna read out my favorites okay all right we're ready i'm gonna read them in not in sarah's voice but the way sarah wrote this so first one sign up to all takeaway places with your birthday which is something i mentioned starting week so you get free meals at birthday time the second one post on socials asking if anyone has free meal kit boxes. So, you know, HelloFresh, Marley Spoon. I sent you one last

week. You haven't redeemed it yet because I just checked. Can you see that? Yeah, I can check. Good to know that I cannot lie about that. Yeah. I shouldn't have told her. How's the Marley Spoon? It's delicious. No, but this is actually very, very, really great because I don't know what to do with mine. Like, I'm like, should I give them to friends? I never know if I buy a box, but there's so many that that are there to go around. So great idea. Ask for those.

And then you can eat like a queen, she says, which is great. For a week, for two weeks, for three weeks, however many you get. The next one is do groceries late at night. I used to do this with my mum. So you can get all the discounted stuff. Genius. Things like cream and caramel sponge cake at Woolies. All the bakery items get marked down at a certain time of day.

Roast chicken. Roast chicken. I love a whole rotisserie chicken. This one, I don't know if she's mentioning Mad Paws here, But she says, if you live in a share house or with parents, sign up for the pet sitting slash house sitting. You get a mini holiday, possibly somewhere nicer than where you live, snuggles with a fur baby, and you get paid for it as well. Is that the same as Mad Paws? You can do that on Mad Paws.

Amazing. I really liked it because when I had, I have two cats and a dog and Steve and I were going on a holiday. And usually they go and spend time with my parents, but my parents were going on the same holiday. And I was like, well, what's going to happen here? we found someone really nice on Mad Paws and she came with like a police check and a whole heap of really good references and she actually came and just lived in our house for a week looked after our pets and I was really stoked with it because I'm I'm quite pedantic when it comes to my pets and them being looked after and I didn't like the idea that someone would just like drop in and feed

them and run away. They need love. They're needy just like their mother. Fair enough. So that is what i have from the community this week i was just i'm just going to use the one person because she did give me many beautiful very great save some i'm going to say some yeah absolutely and these were all very very useful i think i love the idea of signing up if i had done that when i was younger oh i would have had a much better uni experience usually the house is quiet too because like you don't get a pet sitter if you have housemates yeah so like you get a whole house to yourself. You could like study, you could work from home, like, oh, what a dream. Whatever you want to do. Now, my personal broke tip for this week is... Is it garlic bread? It's not garlic

bread this week. And it doesn't include bread, but it does include food. That's quite disappointing. I know. I do often mention loads of bread. Our favorites involve food. Yeah. So what I'm saying is if you're a single person, it's probably more ideal if you're a single person and you're buying for yourself. Take advantage of those ready to eat meals, either in the frozen section, you can get like a $4 lasagna. This is what I did when I was really, really, like I had no money for the week. I would get like a really cheap, you can go to Aldi, you can go get- Aldi has good frozen meals too. They have really good frozen meals and very, very cheap. And if you want to create the exact same meal from scratch, it's going to cost you so much money. Yeah, that's

true. So don't feel bad if you have to do it. Lasagna is expensive to make. Totally. Just If you're buying mints, if you put mints in your lasagna, bam, $10 already. Totally. And I don't know about you guys, but those meals don't usually fill me to the brim. And I want to be filled to the brim. So if you need to have a second one, go for it. It's still going to be like $8 for two serves of lasagna. It's like $8 for two serves of lasagna.

But also frozen veggies, real cheap. Frozen veggies. You could bulk up your pre-made meal with some frozen veggies or like some sides or something to make it a little bit more cost effective, but also filling. Totally. So, yes, that is my broke tip for the week. Do not sneeze at ready-to-eat meals. Go to the frozen section if they're too expensive in the refrigerated section.

I feel like they are more expensive in the fridge section. They are. They're like $11 maybe. Yeah. But frozen section, super cheap. They're often on special as well. You know those like bowls, those super bowls? Oh, yeah.

I like those ones. They're like wholesome bowls or whatever they are. Yeah, superfood bowls or something like that. They're always on special. Those are also like $4 or $5. Yeah. So, do it. That's actually quite smart.

I haven't looked at that part of the supermarket in a long time. Love. You're going to check it out. I'm going to check it out. I love it. Thank you for that. All right, let's go to a quick break. And on the flip side, we're going to be talking about how to manage your finances if you're a freelancer. And we're going to be talking about something you slid into our DMs about, and that's affording a pet. So guys, do not 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 Victoria, I have a quick money question. I feel like you always speak about you know people that have jobs, full-time jobs, getting a job, leaving a job, asking for a pay rise but for myself and for pretty much all of my friends we're all freelancers in the creative industries and I feel like a lot of people right now maybe would go unmentioned but would really appreciate some help in managing their finances when freelance and how to set themselves up for success when your pay is coming in at different times even though you might be really busy

but yeah just backing yourself I guess we'd love some tips on how to live I feel like this is a good one actually I feel like maybe you haven't listened to enough of our podcasts though because we've done a few episodes on variable income and like if you have a side hustle and how to manage tax and income and all of that. So first things first, the 29th of January, we did an episode on side hustles and how to manage income for that. And then on the 12th of May, 2021, we did an episode, what was it called, Jess? Budgeting for variable income. There you go. So we've done a couple before, but I think it's really important to remember that even if your income is variable, your job is to make it as stable as possible, right? And I've spoken about this concept before

of, you know, if you're brand new to freelancing, it can feel really up and down because you've never done it before. But if that's your chosen, I guess, career path, have a look at the last three or six or even 12 months and work out what your average is. And if you feel like the average is relatively close to what you're earning, like some months it might be just under and some months it might be over, let's budget on that average amount. If that average amount you still feel is a little bit too much, have a look at what your lowest earning months are and take those months and let's budget based on your lowest earning months, because that means anything above and beyond is going to be cream on top. And that's going to make you feel a lot more

financially stable. So when it comes to freelancing, I think there's, you know, lots of different areas where you could freelance, right? Like obviously creatives do it a lot. You could be in literal medicine. You could be in so many different areas. But the important thing is to understand two different numbers. One, what is your average income? Two, what are your expenses? So a lot of people, they bury their heads in the sand about expenses. But what you need to understand is what are your personal expenses? So what is your rent? What is your food? What is all of that when it comes to your personal life? But what are your business expenses? Like do you have accounting software that you pay for every month? Do you have, you know, different freelance costs

that come into it because those two numbers should always be treated differently. Like your business costs should not be confused with your personal costs because you need to be making sure that your business is covering those and you're all good. But the important thing is to try and find as much, I guess, stability as possible. And that's why I always rely on budgeting with the lowest amount. And you might go, but V, some months, and like, let's just be really stereotypical about this and pick some numbers. V, some months I make $2,000, some months I make $10,000. Great. What you're going to do is take those months where you don't actually earn $2,000, where you're earning $10,000. What are you doing with that eight grand? Can we look at your money spending

habits? Because if you're anything like old me, you're blowing that eight grand that month. You're like, oh my gosh, it's been so long since I've had money. I'm going to treat myself to A, B, C, D, and E and then by the end of that month, you have nothing left over for it. What I would do is go, all right, that money needs to go into another account and that's where your average comes from. So Jess, say you've worked out your average is three and a half or $4,000 a month, but one month you get paid $2,000. What we're going to do to have some consistency is take $2,000 out of that fund that you've put away, the rainy day kind of everyday adjustment fund, and give it to yourself that month. So you're always living on the average. Because over time, if we're just living on the

average and we have higher months, we are going to start to actually put money aside and that fund will build up. That will become your emergency fund that makes you feel a lot more confident. But I think it's really important to realize that even if you are a freelancer, a lot of these budget tips and tricks do still apply to you. But what you need to do is look for the consistency on top of those tips and tricks. Does that make sense? Yeah, 100%. Very well said, V. I think it's important to also understand another freelancer rant. When was the last time you checked your pricing? When was the last time that you looked at how much you're charging clients? Yeah. Because I can almost guarantee that most freelancers haven't looked in it in more than

12 months and inflation, my friends, was 7%. So are you going to be increasing your rates? Yeah. Because I can almost guarantee that your business expenses have gone up in that period of time as well. So we need to actually be putting future us first by looking at pricing. And one of the most important things as a small business owner or as a freelancer is to have an understanding of your worth. And if you're not doing that, you're shooting yourself in the foot and you're always going to feel like you're chasing your tail. Like you do good work. Your clients see value in that. Please put a financial number on that. Yeah. So I think that's, that's where I'm

at. Do you guys have anything that you would like to add to the freelance combo? I think on the money thing, going off what you're saying, obviously she said that if you're self-employed, like you can't ask for a pay rise the way that someone who is an employee can, as well as putting up your rates, you can pitch for more work. I feel like a lot of people when they've been freelancing for a while, get a bit comfy and wait for work to come to us. But are you approaching people in your niche? Are you putting flyers in local businesses? Are you advertising on the internet? Do you have a social media that's acting as a funnel? There are lots of things that you can do to generate additional business as well. And that's another way to kind of pump up that income

and, you know, effectively raise the amount of money that you're able to pay yourself once you raise how much cashflow you've got coming in. Yeah, I agree. I think it's really just about just being across your numbers yeah and that's harder done than it is said unfortunately I think saying I'm across my numbers because you knew what came in last month what's your average yeah what's the mean what's the median I think it's really important to understand that though like what is going to be the most reasonable number for you to base your budget on because if you start making financial decisions because you had one ten thousand dollar month that's actually going to shoot you in the foot. You can't live a $10,000 a month lifestyle if that was just a

one-time or a two-time thing, or maybe you've gotten comfy with it because it happened three months in a row. But what you forgot was that it was actually coming up to Christmas time, and then you're going to have a lull come the rest of the year. So I think it's really important to look at your numbers deeply and understand, well, when is my peak season? Because everyone's going to have a peak season. Even you, Jess, you do freelance content. There is going to be peak seasons. And like, I already know for She's On The Money what those seasons look like because of the types of content that we create. We know that June is massive for us because we're a finance podcast and there are lots of financial things to talk about at end of financial year. Christmas

end of year is big for us, but that might not be true for every industry. So you need to look at yours and go, well, when am I going to be making the most or when am I going to be, you know, making the least and I need to actually have a little bit of buffer set aside to make sure that I can still pay my bills. Yeah, absolutely. Would you like to move on to our spicy DM of the week, guys? Yes. You can't wait. It's the highlight of my week every week. All right. So we've got a community dilemma to discuss this week, guys. And the DM, it sounded a lot like this. Hi, girls. Just sending this off the back of VD's article about reversing your financial commitments. A friend of mine got a dog in lockdown and now she can't afford to feed her.

She's always talking about putting it up for adoption because she's just so stressed financially. The doggo has built up quite a few vet bills recently as well and I know she's just really freaking out. I feel so bad for the dog. I also feel bad for my girlfriend because it breaks her but is this the right thing to do? I also feel like I should add my friend, a lot like us, was in a much better position financially a few years ago. This one hurts my heart. Such a hard position to be in. I feel like it's a good conversation to have, though.

Bec and I recently recorded our deep dive for our financial commitment episode and whether you can back out of financial commitments. And, Bec, what's the summary of that? I mean, you can, but we were definitely talking about things that were... Not pets. Not pets. Not living, feeling creatures. Yeah.

But you can back out of any financial commitment. I think it's important to put future you first. I'm the type of person that's going to really struggle with this question because there have been times that I have been incredibly financially stressed and I would feed my cat before I fed myself. So I feel like pets are different for everybody. So I probably need to preface my opinions probably coming from a place where I have grown up being obsessed with pets.

I have three of them that are my life. Like, I don't know what's going to happen when I have a human child. Like, how do you love a human child more than you love your cat, Jessica? I don't know. I actually don't know. Can't relate. I don't know. Like, it's going to be important.

Have you seen my dog? Yeah. Holy moly. A kid can't beat that. Yeah. Very cute dog. So I just, I find it really hard to be having that conversation in saying that, putting my pragmatic hat on.

If that is a financial constraint, I think, obviously, the best answer is to rehome that dog. Yeah. it's true hopefully there's someone that is close enough to you someone that you can see often that will be willing to take this dog on or is there anything you can shift around to maybe make some you know money appear it's hard to say because it's probably not possible but is this your last resort is your last resort getting giving the dog up you know what i mean yeah and if it is I don't know I have I don't really own pets but I do know that I just feel really terrible for

the animals who have formed an attachment but everyone's going to be okay everyone adapts every animal adapts everything's going to be okay so if it's the last resort of course give the dog up but maybe try someone that you know someone that you are friends with family with you can see the dog sometimes you know something like that something close if not I think we need to yeah and is this a season of life or is this what life's going to look like full-time moving forward like is there a way that you could get some support in the interim because like you're really struggling financially there are lots of resources totally like there are heaps of resources and I don't think it just comes down to the dog right and like we could find a way to feed the

dog very cheaply if we needed to for a short period of time but you know as well vet bills many pet insurance. Yeah. Like there's just a lot in that conversation, I think. But Jess, have you ever made a financial commitment that you struggled to, I guess, keep? You probably haven't because she's much smarter than us, Bec. I don't think so. Not in this way. And I think that's why this question, we're all finding it quite hard. I'm the same as you, Vee. I think about a pet and I view it as a child. Like it is dependent on you. And I think there's a broader a conversation to have. And it's a good chance for a reminder, I guess, that when you take on a pet, you're taking on a commitment, hopefully for over a decade, depending on the pet. Yeah,

that's a lifetime. That's their lifetime commitment. Like you don't take on a pet with the idea that, oh, well, I'll just get rid of it if it's too hard. Yeah. We're not getting bunnies for Easter because they're cute. We're not getting puppies and then getting rid of them because they get big. Like, you know, I think just a good reminder for people that pets require love. And sometimes things come up like with this girl's poor dog where they require surgery. And I know that those are things that you can't plan for but it's something that you I guess you have to factor in at the start and I know that if someone said to me hey like it's going to cost six thousand dollars your choices are pay that money or put your pet down I know that that is absolutely not

that is a decision that I would really really really struggle with right and so I can see how she got into this position where she's she's obviously paid for these surgeries and maybe that's put a significant amount of financial strain from her and that's come from a place of love. And that's come from a place of I'm trying and I'm doing my best. So I'm not in any way implying that she's being neglectful. No, of course not. And because we don't know the circumstances at all. It's just a really hard conversation to have. And I think it's our responsibility to drive home the fact that a pet is a responsibility. And I think that, yeah, it's interesting because I've, you've probably had it before too, Jess, where people reply to

your Instagram stories. They're like, oh my gosh, seeing your cat makes me want to get one. And I go, don't just get one because mine looks cute. Yeah. Like minor responsibility. They tear up couches, they pee on shit. Like there's the bad stuff too. Yeah. Like my cat Bailey, I have had what now 11 and a half years and he is my best friend and he is now what 12 and a half-ish. He's getting to be an old boy. He's such a sweetheart. But like there have been times where financially it's been really hard, but I kind of feel like I committed to that cat and making sure that he had his best life like it has constrained me in so many different ways from not being able to apply for certain rentals to not being able to travel if I couldn't find

a pet sitter for him to like lots of different things that I know other people have gotten rid of pets for those reasons and I just go if that's the case like if you want to get a pet and then all of a sudden you want to go on a holiday but you can't find you know pet sitter so you get rid of the dog you shouldn't have had that dog in the first place I think but I'm quite cut and dry when it comes to pet justice i see a lot of tiktoks i'm on pet tiktok at the moment or i'm on animal shelter tiktok because i think because i was looking i was trying to figure out how to volunteer anyway if anyone knows how you can volunteer with local shelters on like social media or something let me know because i really want to do that but anyway that's personal gain

i'm on that side of tiktok and there's this trend that shelters are doing they're putting up like videos of the animals and why they were donated so don't break my heart it's honestly gut-frenching because I watched one literally last night and, like, some of them make sense. You know, the owner passed away or the owner moved interstate. There was one, like, the owner went to jail. Oh, no. And you just go, that's really hard.

But there are some that it was, like, dog was too noisy, you know, or cat, you know, tore up couch and things like that. And you go, oh, these are the people that probably didn't think about what they were getting into. On the note of shelters, I will say as well, if it's just the food thing for our listener or the friend of our listener, a lot of local shelters will actually pass food along to people in need.

Because they don't want you to give up the pet. No. So I would say if it's just the food thing and, as you said, if you think it's just right now while times are tough and people are struggling to put food on the table for themselves, let alone for a pet, which I totally understand, it could be worth just reaching out to a couple of your local shelters because a lot of people donate foods to those shelters

and where they can, I know that they will pass that along to help out a pet and a family in need. so that's something that you could look into as well but yeah I think ultimately we don't want the pet sitting there having a diminished quality of life and consequently you also feeling really terrible and really stressed as well like if it is the absolute last resort I think as you said Bec like the right thing to do is to rehome it hopefully close to home but I think we all get how awful and how hard that decision is totally I agree we asked our community obviously what their thoughts were. Someone said, I'm a vet nurse and we're seeing this a lot post COVID

lately. You have to do what's best for both of you. I get that. Very nice. Someone said, I got in a lot of debt at a young age and I ended up in a part nine debt agreement, but I still have my cat. Well, it makes you think about true companionship. You see a lot of homeless people who will keep their pet and I know that there's a lot of mental health. There's a lot of discourse around whether it's good or bad, but yeah, I completely agree. Like you said, sometimes they'll feed the pet before they'll feed themselves. And it's that bond, right? That love and that connection. Totally. Someone said, I got a dog during COVID. She came with a lot of health issues. We just had to tighten our budget to be able to afford her. Someone said, I would

do absolutely anything I could to keep my animal. But if the choice has to be made, it has to be made. I think that's really compassionate at the end of the day. Like at the end of the day, I think it's the last ditched plan and I think that there shouldn't be shame in that but I also think that we need to advocate for animals so much more than we already do like they are such a massive responsibility and if you got a dog during COVID because you're like ah well we're home all the time we'll work it out later like no no no that was a 12-14 year commitment from you and they're sentient beings like they get attached they have emotions they have feelings like if you're on that side of TikTok or if you're not go on there like you don't even need to be on that

side of TikTok. I have my dog. I'm obsessed with my dog. And it's like right back at me. Like we're obsessed with each other. We're in love. She does love you. Yeah. They're the rules. I told her. If you want to eat all the good food, you gotta love me. Make us look good on the internet, Lucy. But I think it's just one of those things where obviously rehoming a pet can sometimes be the best thing. And at the end of the day, if that's what you're thinking, then maybe you're not giving the pet the love it deserves to begin with at home i don't know but i would really start with trying to find in a new home before deciding to take it down to the pound yeah i agree completely yeah absolutely i mean message us and we'll put it on the story since yeah we can do because like

i just i would hate to think that someone in our community had to give up a pet when there are so many beautiful community members that probably want a little furry friend totally that's how i got daisy i know i know we went nuts on the internet and tried to find jess a family member and you know what we were successful it worked the community came through i love it i love it that's a sad way but i think that's it i know please don't give up your pets i know i feel like a little sad now i know and thus you absolutely must and that's okay you were in a safe space yes yeah i know you totally are like i don't think that there's any judgment if it's The last ditched attempt, like I think it is what it is, isn't it?

All right. Well, with that, I hope that you guys have the most beautiful weekend and we will see you bright and early on Monday for a Money Diary. Bye, guys. Bye. 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

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