She's On The Money - Travel Savings Hacks & How to Get Friends to Pay You Back (Without the Awkwardness!)

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Got big travel plans but a not-so-big budget? This week, we’re sharing travel savings hacks to help you cut costs without sacrificing the fun. Then, we dive into one of the most awkward money dilemmas: what do you do when a friend owes you money but won’t pay up? Do you call them out? Drop hints? Cut them off completely? We break down the best ways to handle it, without losing the friendship (or your patience). Plus we find out how one listener scored $600 cleaning out that random electrical draw we all have.  Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out out oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. 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 that makes personal finance fun, especially on Fridays. It is actually our favorite day of the week. Surprise, surprise there because we get our team together to celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Ms. Jessica Ricci, she's going to be sharing our favorite money wins. Ms. Bex Syed is here sharing her broke tips. We're going to be helping to answer our money dilemma, which this week is about saving money on travel and something that you slid into our DMs about. We're chatting this week about what to do when friends owe you money. Awkward. Yes, but before we get there, how were your weeks?

very good this week you know what it's a very good day for me because i don't know if i've told the potty this but i've definitely cried to you two about it my cat recently had what's called radio iodine therapy treatment whatever so he was radioactive like literally radio tell the class what you did i did buy a gaga counter which i didn't even know existed that's a little the level but not because i was concerned for my own health but because i was hoping that so he'd be radioactive less so I could cuddle him sooner because the whole issue for everyone at home is he had to spend a week at the vet which was very sad because I knew he'd be scared and then for two weeks at home we couldn't touch him couldn't cuddle him had to keep him locked out

of the room which made him would have been like hello it's just me I fully I'm so worried that he's thought that we don't love him anymore because he doesn't like you can't anyway I've cried about it many a time well I locked my cat in the pantry the other day by accident and then in the middle of the night here oh oh what is that steve steve what is that is that a possum turns out no it was my cat in the pantry so i'm a terrible cat mom you're a great cat mom at least there was lots of he wasn't gonna starve to death well that's a positive um but yeah it's been a very rough three weeks because that but today marks the end of the three-week period so i can officially cuddle him and i'm so excited you mentioned him make sure he's he's not radioactive

i was literally like i'm not even gonna look at it because if it's too high i don't care they said They said at the end of three weeks I could hug him, so now I'm going to hug him. I am obsessed with that. Also, she did bring that Geiger counter into the office and I tested everything. Yeah, it was very fun. Did you find anything quite radioactive?

No. The diet coke. The diet coke. The diet coke was quite high. Yeah, but I really, I've just decided that that must have been defective. It was like 15. And what was the danger range? Anything under 50 is like normal every day, like.

Yeah. And what was your count measuring the day you brought him home? Like 2,000. Oh, my God. Wow. He fully was radioactive because I said to Jess, do you reckon, like I don't know how these things are, but do you reckon they're just being really conservative?

Like how, I don't know, how that could be. Like really, really, yeah, really radioactive. Really, yeah. And maybe that's just showing that I am wildly uneducated, which is true until now. And Jess brought me a Geiger counter. Oh, cute. So it's a great day for me.

How about you? That's very nice, Jess. Me, you know, I'm just living, laughing, loving. I have such a nice week. I live in my new house with my friend. That's so sweet. It just feels like it's what I've always wanted. You've got some dining chairs now, I hear.

We do have. Now Jess has brought some dining chairs. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. So we can finally sit. But it's just like I've always wanted that kind of lifestyle where my friend's just kind of like it's like a revolving door and there's always just someone around and it's so nice.

I really am really happy right now. Oh, I love this so much. Great way to keep the front of your new house fully attached unlike the last house. Yes, shockingly, and we've never, I've never been, you know, I've never had a house that's not detached at every corner. Does it feel like a lack of luxury? It kind of does.

It is still, it's a very old house and it slants. It's personality and the lino is like fully coming up, but that's okay because the house is attached at every corner and that's all you can do. I can help you glue it down. Thank you. Yeah, I might just like chuck it. We just chucked a rug over it.

Oh, that's perfect then. Yeah. Absolutely. How's my week been? How has my week been? Good. I've been in the office. We've been just working our lives away. I feel like because we had Jacqueline, one of our mortgage brokers on the podcast, honestly, such a great episode,

but that did spike a little bit more interest. So we have been run off our feet, which we are very grateful for. We have a heap more like first home buyers in the wings, which I don't know. It's just, there's something special about helping people get into their first homes. Or like one thing that I thought a lot of people learned from that episode is that you don't need to have your deposit before you speak to a broker and I think a lot of us think oh I don't want to really waste someone's time or have a chat but we're speaking to some people who are like oh I would love to buy a house and it's just a good week yeah I've just been working guys that's it she's a working lady yeah do you want um because my week hasn't been arguably as exciting as it could be

but you know what is exciting five-star review yes are you ready ready this is cloda is their username five star review says i was first introduced to she's on the money three years ago when my sister handed me their first book ever since then i have listened to this podcast religiously my money story has completely changed for the better i feel so educated and empowered never in my wildest dreams did i think i would be investing and have a property oh here we are the episodes have something for everyone i won't lie i do sometimes have to replay things back so I can understand them. But the dynamics of the team really helped to make this podcast accessible to all. Even my boyfriend loves when I play this in the car. Thanks, ladies. We love a little bit

of girl power. Love that. That is so nice. And just the idea that you didn't think you were going to invest or you didn't think you would own property. Yeah, that's what should go. So sick. That's really cool. It's actually just so cool that people are like, oh, I did it myself. I just needed a little bit of a kick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do that for you. That's really cool. Isn't that fun? Congratulations. Oh, I'm so excited about that. But another exciting thing is the Facebook group. Jess, every single week we drop a thread where you can share your money, wins and confessions, and then you pick a handful of them to share on the show. What have you raked in this week? Alrighty. Firstly, I've got one this week from Catherine who said, today is the first time

ever in over a decade. I haven't had two kids in childcare. Oh my gosh, that must be very relieving. She'll be saving over $12,000 a year alone just in daycare expenses, which is pretty incredible. And there is a light at the end of the tunnel for all the parents who are pulling double duty currently. Next, I've got a money win from Eloise who said she recently discovered that her gym has those full body massage chairs and apparently they're amazing. Cool. She says she now does like two massages a week and she doesn't have to pay for them. She's saving money left, right, and center. Oh, my gosh.

I would go more than two times a week. Yeah, where is this place? And then Aisha said, apparently Planet Fitness is really good. It's $9 a week for a membership, and they give free weekly spray tans and massages. I think that's in America. Why? No, I got so excited. Why?

Because I live on TikTok, and I saw that, and I was like, what do you mean your gym does free spray tans? I would pay for the membership for the spray tan. Yes, seriously. Oh, cool. But it might be in Australia, so if someone could slide into our DMs and be like, hey, well, actually that was Australian. I'll do some research and I'll come back to you. Well, I'm sure there are American listeners,

so that's good for them to know. I think I saw the other day All Right Hey, so his name's Matt. He's on Instagram and TikTok and I really like his content. I'm pretty sure I saw him say that he used his gym spray tanner. Oh, I did see this video. Yes, I saw this video too. And, like, it was automated but it was so loud and he couldn't hear the instructions,

so we basically only spray tanned his front and said that his back was not his business. And I was like, slay. So maybe it's in Australia as well. Maybe. Okay, that's really, really cool. I'll do some research and report back to you guys next week. But I was like, that would be unreal.

Yeah, because it's like quite expensive, no? Oh, a spray tan? I think it's about $50 or $60. If you're saving. I'm not saying that that's everywhere. Yeah, it depends if you're going to bring it to a person. Yeah, like I think you could probably get, I don't know, I remember in high school spray tans were like $20.

But now they're – or I think that they're expensive. And, like, I mean, I live in inner city Melbourne, so they're probably more expensive than further out. But that's a lot of money. I'll only get a spray tan if there's a really good event coming up. Yeah, same. Otherwise, catch me fake tanning in my bathroom all the way. Oh, yeah.

That foamy stuff just is good. Yeah, it does it perfectly, honestly. And, again, the back of my body is not my business. I completely agree. I completely agree. Next, I've got a money win from Carrie, who said she got a free chook from Coles. She went to pick up her groceries on Saturday and someone had apparently bought them all. They bought 10 plus chickens, which is crazy.

What are you doing? I have questions. Yeah, me too. I've got some questions. She asked how far away the next ones were. It was over an hour. So she got the voucher that you get. Apparently, if there's no chickens available, I think we've mentioned this before, you get

like an IOU. So she did that. And now she said she's eating her free roast chook for lunch today. Good on you. Very, very good win. next I've got a money win from Christy who said she repurposed a dress that she used to love but she didn't like the straps on she used her sewing skills to change from tie-up straps to adjustable bra type straps boom new dress kind of I love that that's very Jessica Ricci coded sewing is

an underrated skill I feel like taking something you've loved but maybe don't love anymore because it doesn't fit the way it used to or you just want to refresh it total vibe and then lastly this week i've got a money win from emma who said oh my goodness i've been waiting to share this all week thanks emma like many others i have a technology drawer at home with old phones and gaming consoles and things like that in it she took them to trade in at cex electronic exchange and walked away with a little over 600 bucks cool she said the items were great quality and otherwise would have gone to e-waste so she got a little bit of side cash and now she's happy knowing someone else will get to use the parts or the items themselves instead of it going to landfill.

Great. That's actually so good. Good reminder, I definitely have a couple old iPhones lying around. Yeah. Even if I got like $20 for them each, I'm like. That's money you didn't have yesterday. Exactly right. Yeah, that is a great call.

So everyone go hunting around this weekend and see what you can find. Absolutely. I love this. Bec. Yes. What have you got when it comes to broke tips? Okay, so I'm very excited about these ones, one in particular. But anyway, I'll leave that at that later.

Are they all teasing? This first one comes from Jess, who is also my girlfriend, and she's usually will – she's very clever. So basically I wouldn't say shop at expensive places like this place. This place is called Sous Mies. I think I'm saying it right. S-U-S-M-I-E-S. It's quite an expensive shop, not more so than anywhere else.

I've never heard of it. It's a clothing shop, and they have beautiful clothes. You'd want to if you're expensive. Oh, yeah. I feel like that's the bare minimum. Absolutely. And also I want to say my girlfriend is such a fashionista. So she's recommending.

She's very fashionable. So if you shop here, there are a lot of their clothes are actually like four different outfits in one. So she bought like a skirt that is also a top that is also reversible, that is also a small skirt and a long skirt. And so you can just do whatever you want with these things. Cool. So I'm like, if you have the means. I'm intrigued. I know.

It's so good. And I'm like, that is so genius because usually you'll buy, like, I don't know, one shirt and it's just one shirt, which is fine, but that could be like 50 bucks. But if you go to Suesmys, and we're not sponsored by Suesmys, obviously, but I just think a place like that, it's like, yeah, just maybe try and have a look and see if there are any clothes that you can buy that are like reversible and also could be, yeah, it could be like a short, could be a long skirt, could be for any season. I think that's really, really, I just think it was really clever.

I feel like that's economical as well. Totally. So I think she got like three things and that's actually like 16 different outfits somehow. That's so cool. How cool is that? Somehow. Whoa. Yeah.

I'm going to ask her about this when I run into her later. Yes, please. I'm going to be like, show me your skirt. And she'll be like, what? I think she's wearing it today actually. Oh, well, I'm running. Yeah, you should. If you could maybe leave right now.

Chop, chop, chop. And then this next one comes from me. It's half a money win, half a broke tip. So Shopback, I don't know if you guys know, but they have like happy hour. Oh, I know. Oh, you know. Cross is like, yeah, because I'm in love with ShopBack. I'm obsessed.

Like that's not sponsored. No. I just check their app sometimes to see what's going on, if there are any good deals. I just need to know. I just need to be in the loop. Totally. I'm obsessed with ShopBack these days, especially since moving,

and I'm like if I want to buy a TV, I'm going to do that on ShopBack, and I haven't yet, but anyway. So I was on ShopBack just scrolling in the middle of the night as I do. I realised I had a happy hour, and then the place where I get my glasses, and there are many different glasses places on here. I think they have like 18% cash back or something. Oh, good deal. But also.

Oh, it's stacking. My health insurance pay up to $200 in optical. So I bought $200 glasses, got $40 from ShopBack, claimed it back on insurance. You got the cash back on something you claimed back. I just got $40 for no reason. No, there was a reason. Well, there's a reason.

But that is a good money win. Yes, isn't it? I love that. That is actually gaming the system in a really very legal way. Very legal. Very legal. I am proud of you. That is what we like.

No thought involved. No. So I want to recommend Shopback always have like upsized, you know, things like that. But yeah, check up. I think it's like before midnight and maybe after 9pm or something like that. I wouldn't have a clue about the times. I've just seen it like the advertising, you know, how like it pops up when you open the app.

Yeah. That's very cool. And it could be for anything that you can claim on health insurance. It's not a sponsored mention, but I mean, shop back if you want to sponsor us again. We're lining up. In fact, we're doing it for free already. But anyway. Turns out.

That was a good set of broke tips, Bec. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love it. And good roundup from the community, Jess. Gorgeous. Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, we're going to be helping to answer our money dilemma.

This week, we're talking about saving money on travel, which I think is really fun. And something you slid into our DMs about, what to do when a friend owes you money. So don't go anywhere, guys. 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 team i've been booking a trip to europe and i've noticed a very clear pink tax when i've been booking my accommodation in all female dorms as i'm traveling solo this is something i'm not

willing to compromise on which will cost me more than 400 in accommodation over the five weeks i'm away do you have any travel tips or tricks for saving money elsewhere that won't compromise my holiday. Thanks so much. That's crazy. Is that a real thing? Have you guys noticed that? I have seen it. Jess has stayed in a backpackers once and it was because I booked it. So she wasn't privy to like the pink tax on that. But it's actually very normal that female only dorms are priced higher than male only or like mixed dorms. And it's usually because there's less demand for them. So it's not necessarily a pink tax situation, but it's a supply and demand situation. So like Jess goes traveling, right? She's a single solo female traveler. I can almost

guarantee that is much more rare than a solo male traveler or people who are willing to share. So like obviously men are probably more likely to share and not have an issue. And then there are going to be females who are happy to sleep in the mixed storm. So the outlier here is going to be the female who wants basically her own room or only females in her room. And you're paying a premium for that because like, let's say you go into a six person dorm, the likelihood of you sharing with six other people is actually, or five other people, sorry, is actually relatively low in comparison to people who want to just go into the normal mixed dorm, which is also cheaper. So it's actually a supply and demand issue here, not necessarily a pink tax. They're not like

blue razor pink razor and the pink razor is just more expensive for no reason it's supply and demand because they would have to fill the beds and their way of mitigating the fact that they're sectioning off an entire room in their their backpackers and saying only girls in there is to charge jess a higher amount to travel so i get that it feels like pink tax though because obviously it only applies to you for being female yeah but it seems to be a global trend but yeah It's usually women only are less likely to travel and also they're more likely to be the smaller rooms. So you're going to pay a little bit more, which you get what you get.

But what are your best travel tips? Jess, I remember you saying that you came home once from traveling with like less than a dollar in your bank account. Not enough for a chocolate at the airport. No. But how did you save money traveling? Oh, I always have exactly the truth. just I've never traveled solo I've always traveled in groups which keeps costs down because you're

splitting accommodation you can split meal costs like that breaks things down a lot when we would travel like when I was in Greece for example and we traveled on ferries between islands we'd always take like the less ideal times because it's sometimes cheaper to travel at like six in the morning than it would be at 10 a.m or something like that so doing things like that not to give shop back another free plug but pre-booking accommodation where possible um back through me yeah through like any kind of cash back platform and then just like it's prioritizing what's important to you like I remember traveling with one of my really good friends and we like like she was someone who really wanted to just travel as cheaply as she could and so she just would

elect to not do some things because she you mean like if I would go to a museum and maybe she was like ah could give it a miss she just wouldn't go so also not giving into like the FOMO especially in a group setting and being like, oh, if everyone's going to this play or if everyone's doing this thing, I want to go too. Which I get. Oh, I am a queen of FOMO, so, like, I would be spending just to go. But, like, my friend was really good about just going, okay, like I'm going to spend money on food and somewhere to sleep

and that's basically it, not buying souvenirs, not buying, you know, getting sucked into the little things that add up when you travel. And so just looking at, I guess, what's important to you and maybe mapping that out ahead of time so that you are less likely. It's like when you go to the shops when you're hungry and all of a sudden half of the coal is in your trolley. Same sort of thing, right? Like pre-planning, pre-allocating. All of a sudden my diet that I'm trying to stick to out the window.

Yeah, exactly. So like pre-doing as much as you can to avoid that kind of stuff too is probably my top tips. That is so true. And then you don't have any like unexpected, you know, or you will have some but not as many unexpected costs. Totally. Oh, I thought I'd spend $2,000. I actually spent $10,000 or something. Yeah.

I guess I don't really like travel heaps, but my two that I have already mentioned on the show, one was like wear every single item of clothing and so that your bag is larger and you don't have to, you know, be stung with an unexpected charge if your bag weighs more than you thought it would. And then the other is I only book on, I know the pilot. It's like an app where it like will also just like kind of be scanning. If you just put in there where you want to go roughly, it will be scanning. I'm the kind of person that doesn't actually care, but I have the luxury of like, you know, just being solo. But if there's a flight that is extremely cheap, but it's like 20 stops and a million hours stopover,

I don't actually care. I'm going to do it because it's so cheap. And I'm like, this is kind of fun. You get to stop in little places and obviously you can't really. Absolutely not. Yeah, poor. And it's uncomfortable and also. You're really selling it, babe.

Torture. but it's something that if you in this case only it's about the destination and not the journey and if your journey is like one or two days don't worry yeah you're gonna get there eventually i like that i like that anything else to add beck i think maybe not no i yeah i just i somehow travel cheap and i think it's just because i don't i don't actually eat local i feel like that's when you'd be good for, like eating at like hole-in-the-wall places. We did that in Japan. We had half our meals were like $5, which was great.

Yes, so good. But it was like little local places rather than going to like a big, you know, even a McDonald's or something like that. Totally. Oh, it would be so cheap. There's often small places that you can get cheap, really great food. Yes, yes, at family marts. I feel like I still travel cheap.

Like don't get me wrong, I've stayed at some beautiful places, but my frugal travel habits will follow me everywhere. poor Jessica a couple of years ago we went to Europe together and she experienced this so the female dorm this is where it's come up right we're talking about female dorms we were traveling in a group and if you're traveling in a group I think you automatically go okay well maybe we'll get near B&B or something but you can book out a whole dorm room if you want and we did that at Backpackers and it was like a six-person dorm room so we did have a spare bed in there because we didn't need it but we got our own ensuite really clean really easy we stayed it worked so that's a

good one grocery shopping when you get there having a little trip to the grocery store I I don't know if everyone's like this but I think as a cultural experience I actually want to go to the supermarket in every location that I go to and I need it to be an activity we're not just zipping in for a snack we are going to look at all the aisles we're going to look at the grocery I actually look at the reviews of the grocery store and I'm like let's go to this monoprix it's got five stars um and we're buying snacks that we can pack in our bag for when we're out and about breakfasts if they're not included where you're staying and a few things that you can just have up your sleeve like i don't know if you guys you have that hour between when you come back from

your activities in the afternoon and going out for dinner the doom scroll yeah the doom scroll session jess and i love it no talky during that time quiet time only we're laying on our beds we're actually strapped to our beds because we need to charge our phones but we want to be on our phones review the photos from the day look at instagram because we've had no wi-fi all day also don't talk to me but you might want to buy some little snacks to tide you over so like some chippies maybe you're buying and i'm not saying this is super cheap but maybe you're buying a little wine to have during that period of time but when you go out for dinner you could just get an entree so we're still going out for dinner but you could have maybe some two minute noodles or something

still have the experience much cheaper yes um the grocery thing works for me on the like the food thing i have so many tips maybe we should do a whole travel hacks episode if you're staying at a resort that has buffet breakfast um or even if you're staying at a backpackers that has breakfast us jess made her do this i'm the only smart one that brought tupperware though so take a tupperware to breakfast they have a selection of breads jams cheeses deli meats make a sandwich take it for later the little pastries we're taking those for morning tea how many times did we smuggle croissants out of our accommodation probably one too many no no such thing not enough times um the other one i would say when i was traveling europe for the

very first time night trains yes you might go rv but they take longer yes but i'm asleep on the train. I'm not paying accommodation for that night. And I boom, bang, my accommodation and my transport are in one cost now. Double whammy. Double whammy. I'm sleeping for the night. Is it comfortable? Not that much, but let's not talk about it. It may work. You're also, this is going to be my last one, but never eating at tourist destinations. So like the main square. So we're not eating there. You know, we're going a little bit further out because everything will be overpriced. So if you're going to Paris and you see the Eiffel Tower, you are not eating anywhere near the Eiffel Tower because there will be the Eiffel Tower tax

and that happens everywhere. Yeah. I think that's it. But I think you just need to be smart about what you're doing and where you're going and also, while I'm here, sorry, factoring in your travel payments. So if you are going, oh, we're going to, you know, be budget and stay not in the CBD, but like let's pretend it's Melbourne

you're travelling to, well, in the CBD there's actually free trams all around the city. so how much are you then going to be spending on public transport or ubers or whatever to get back to your hotel each night if you're staying further out what like have a bit of a look you can actually in uber put your like average destinations in and get a little quote of what that might cost and see because like if you're telling me that you're then going to spend 50 or 60 dollars a day on ubers or something and i'm not saying that's reasonable but whatever would you not prefer to put that into your accommodation have a more elevated accommodation experience and walk

everywhere or catch the free public transport or what's available yeah so just like weighing it up and little things yeah cash back you know booking deals you know talking to a travel agent can help as well because they might be able to like put everything together like yeah there's just lots I just I love travel but I also am a frugal traveler yeah I sent the travel episode coming in our future oh so fun we'll work on that for you guys that's all for me though when it comes to travel tips and tricks. Great tips. Now, do you want to get into the juicy deets? Yes, please. So this week we got a DM. Are you ready? Yes. Good afternoon. My community question is more about friendships and asking for money as I find it really awkward. I work in the beauty industry

and obviously do bits and pieces for my friends a fair bit. They always pay, as a lot of them say, your friends are your biggest and best clientele. But I do have one or two that can take a long time to pay or just forget and don't pay at all but I find it really awkward to ask for money and like I'm being rude which is ridiculous because obviously I'm not being and I think what makes it harder is they always complain how broke they are and have no money to pay for this sort of stuff yet can afford to online shop for clothes. I know I just need to bite the bullet but it's making me so nervous. What would you do? It's so hard. Give me my money. Yeah it's hard because the one thing I would say is are they but they do pay so maybe not because I've said before

how like I have friends who like if one girl does eyebrows one girl does nails like you mean like we do a swapsies or if one girl has a staff discount yeah one girl you may mean like but it works for everyone it's very different if you're the only friend that has a skill set it's actually your business yeah correct yeah so that's a little bit different I mean maybe they just have not clocked that and they're not really comprehending it the way that I would go about it do simply avoid confrontation is I would be like always number oh no we're not blocking no I would confrontation can't see her in quotation marks set up an online invoicing system and so you just go I mean you might already have one for your business I'm assuming but if you don't having

one set up that just sends you know when you book a standard beauty appointment you get a confirmation so just run them like a normal customer basically rather than being like oh yeah just drop over Saturday afternoon. I'm not working that day. So I can fit you in whenever. Actually book them in if you have a system and have the system send the email. And then, oh, would you look at that? The system sends an automatic reminder. It's not coming from you. The system just does it. And if you don't have a system that can do that automatically, you know, if you just write an email that looks like an automatic system, they're not going to know the difference. Like, hi, Jess, thanks so much for booking your appointment. And you've got to put, you've got to put a space

between the word Jess and then the comma. Yeah, so they know that it's automated. Yeah. So if you don't have a system, you can just pretend that you have one. And in my opinion, that kind of just takes you out of it, the awkwardness out of it. I'm not going to lie. I would laugh so, like, obviously I'd be mortified if I owed you money

and you sent a reminder like that. But also, like, I would be like, did you make this up? But I think you can do it and you can't tell. I mean, there are other ways to go about it, which I'm sure you guys are getting into. I am laughing so much. Have you ever done this? I mean, I don't offer services.

So, no, it's a non-issue. We just switcheroo who does each other's nails occasionally. Literally, it's a little bit less formal. But, like, I can totally see if you're doing it for them all the time, your time is valuable as a professional and it's not fair of your friends to take advantage of them. And if you're not comfortable having that conversation, which you should be because they're your friends and they,

as your other friends said, they should champion you and want you to succeed. But if you feel a bit weird, that's what I would do. That's quite clever. A little schemey. That's so funny. What would you do? I guess like I think if you, like is it possible to like maybe from now

be like, oh, I might never see that money, I don't care, but from now on I'm actually way too busy to fit anyone else in, like no one that's going to be. I'll let you know when I have capacity. Yeah. Crickets. Yeah, something like that because then like if you don't want to have confrontation.

So you're cutting them off. You're silently cutting your friends off. From that kind of thing. Like I would still like, you know, go out with them and all that kind of stuff. But just like if you don't want to bring it up, then hopefully they just get the hint. But I also do think like it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be awkward. I was actually talking about this last night with some of my friends. We were talking about like the best way to tell someone that you got an issue to bring up or something like this that's awkward.

And the best way to do it, but it doesn't work for everyone. But for us, we agreed that just being like, you're giving me the shits, like just being so casual and kind of funny and silly about it is the best way to just break that up. That's how my team talked to me. Yeah. And then. Just as like, you're being really annoying. And I'm like, noted. I'm not stopping though.

Yeah. But hopefully like the, it really, it really does depend on the person receiving the information. because if you know that someone's quite like defensive and totally then it's like this is literally impossible there's nothing there's no way that you can communicate that is going to be good enough and a service if they're like that yeah yeah but if they're not then there really is a way maybe they're the type of person that respond really well to humor maybe they're the type of person that respond really well to like they're quite empathetic then maybe be a little bit like soft with them and gentle it just depends on the receiver in this situation i think and how

you can best I mean it's hard because if there's a few of them that you know you might need to tailor your your situation and the way you approach it so many different times but if they're defensive you can't really do anything and don't beat yourself up about it just you don't have capacity anymore basically is what I'm saying yeah you're too busy yeah until you've paid all the outstanding invoices yeah yeah so we've got the silent cut off we've got the fake invoicing system you had a level of like I'll use your empathy which I like I'm probably just going to call them out for. I'm just going to be like, hey, this is really awkward, but I've had to chase this a couple of times. What's going on? I don't think I would mention their spending

habits because like from my perspective, that's none of my business how they're spending their money. I feel like calling other people out on their money habits, you don't know them. Like, don't get me wrong. You could have been best friends with this person for 30 years, but you don't know them. That could be an issue. That could be something that stresses them out. Maybe they have a shopping addiction that you haven't discussed, or maybe that was their way of dealing with some level of grief or trauma. Like it's none of your business. To be honest, if let's pretend Jess saw me spending money when I owed her money, like I know on a deep level, that's a bad law. Like do people not know that that's not. Seems like these people don't though. Like they're

still doing it. Yeah. But I just, I think it then goes down to a lack of respect because if I haven't paid you back and I'm going and spending money in a different area, I'm basically sending the message, whether that is by choice or not, that my priorities are worth more than me paying you back, Jess. And like, that's not cool. They're not the type of people that I want to keep the company of. And I'm not saying that there's a good or a bad or even an in-between, but I would probably just politely say, hey, like, is this, and I always like to preface it with like, this is so awkward. Like, I'm so sorry. I don't want to be that guy. But can you X, Y, Z? And it just like kind of softens the blow. It's a bit like, you know, how you're saying, you know,

read the room how do you make confrontation a little bit less awkward with a friend like calling it out great but like in that situation I'd be like oh this is so awkward but you're really annoying me right now like I feel like calling it out oh my god honest communication imagine oh I hate how we always look back to that it's wild what did everyone else say we said if you were our community member what would you do three percent of you said I'm calling them out for their other spending. Three. Three. 45% said, I'm going to politely remind them. 43% said, I'm going to require prepayment in the future. Good one. That's clever. And 9%, this is so funny because like all of these options, which you guys clearly hadn't seen because I ran this,

cut them off. Okay. We then said, how do you usually deal with friends who owe you money? 44% said, I always chase up what I'm owed. 42% said, I ask a few times and then I just let it go. and 14% of you said, I wait for them to bring it up if it's awkward. They could be forgetful. Like I have definitely been that person once or twice. Oh, I have ADHD. I forget. Yeah, like someone's messaged in the group chat, hey, guys,

X, Y, Z for dinner and I've seen it at work and going, yep, need to do that later and then forgotten and then a week later I've like sat up in bed and been like, oh, the money. So like maybe, you know, benefit of the doubt. Yeah, definitely. And I think gentle reminders can be kind. like at the end of the day it's something they said that they were going to do like it's not you asking for money for a service they thought they were getting for free which is a completely

different ball game we then said to the community all right guys what are your two cents first person said if I have to remind them twice I'm sick the next time they book in and then all of a sudden they pay someone else said offer to teach them how to do it themselves that way you feel helpful but now you're not losing money i kind of like that oh sorry in my head when i read that i was like what teach them how to do a bank transfer and then it was like oh teach them the service okay please ignore me and the way my brain seems to work next person said short change now impacts the compounding interest for you tomorrow you need to speak up wow is that victoria i feel like i might be in their brain a little bit um someone else said stop making excuses for people you know

are lying to you oh i'm so savage tell it like it is someone else said rude but there's like four u's four d's four e's and five exclamation points i believe that's rude and then they said they should value your hard work the most and they saw what it took to get you there they need to pay that's so true someone else said we use the beam it app to settle all expenses it is much easier than asking that's pretty good you could have like split wise yeah even if like the cool thing about split wise is obviously if jess and i shared a pizza with beck we could split it three ways or jess is not paying and it's just beck and i but you can also split it one way you can say a hundred percent of the cost goes to jessica for that yeah and it just comes up as a reminder on their phone

yeah and it tracks it but with beam it you can actually when you swipe to pay it actually pays it with splitwise it's wiped to pay it doesn't really come out of your account you have to go and then oh i love that like your account is like linked to linked to beam it so when you do that and it says i can get behind that you've paid the other person have to accept it or no no you just like they add something into beam it and then you go ahead and say and you've linked it to your bank You've linked it and then it says swipe to pay. You literally just swipe and then it processes and then gives you the tick. There you go.

You don't have to do any of that. Go now, go to your bank. And anyway. I'm obsessed. It's great. I'm obsessed. Me too. Beam it.

Me too. How good. All right. Next person said, I'm self-employed and serving friends gives me the ick because they always expect a huge discount for no reason. Someone else said, friends should support each other's businesses, not take advantage. Real friends would pay from the get go. Amen.

And I'm going to leave it there. Gorgeous. I'm going to leave it there. I feel like I've yapped a lot this episode. Good way, good place to leave it. How good. All right, well, have a good weekend, guys. We will live, love, laugh on the flip side

and see you Monday morning, bright and early, for a money diary. Bye, guys. Bye. 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 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 MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thank you for watching!