Two Broke Chicks Podcast Episode #113: 21 things we learnt in 2021
Sal and Al reflect on the last 12 months and dish the life lessons they picked up during the dumpster fire that was 2021.
Between going into lockdown (again), La Niña and Kim K's MET Gala look, 2021 was chaotic energy to say the least. The silver lining of the lows are that we've learnt a helluva lot this year.
To toast the end of year, and season one of the pod, Sal and Al share the 21 lessons they learned in 2021.
From solid money saving tips and relationship advice, to sage wisdom like "gate crash a party" and "flirt with your friends", this episode is chockas with laughs and life lessons.
Sit back, relax and let's say sayonara to 2021, chickies.
Wanna send us a question for Class Is In Session for season two? Slide into our DMs on Instagram @twobrokechicks and follow us on TikTok @twobrokechicks_.
LISTEN TO EP #13
CREDITS
- Hosts: Sally McMullen and Alex Hourigan
- Executive Producer: Pariya Taherzadeh
- Editor: Bamby Media
This podcast is powered by Finder and part of the Nova Podcast Network. Thanks for listening. We'll be back in 2022!
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Alex Hourigan
Hey, chicky! I'm Al.Sally McMullen
And I'm Sal.Alex Hourigan
And this is Two Broke Chicks. The show that dishes life lessons for the girls from the girls. Your 20s can be bloody hard. But we're hoping that our show will help make it just a little bit easier.Sally McMullen
Damn straight.Alex Hourigan
Usually, we would kick off the show with the life lesson that we learned this week. But to toast the end of 2021 (thank God) and the first season of Two Broke Chicks, we're gonna have a little bit of a longer episode, a little bit of an extended edition, and share the 21 life lessons we learned in 2021.Sally McMullen
The last 12 months has had its highs and quite a few lows. And with that comes a lot of growth, memories and some pretty funny stories that we're probably going to be embarrassing ourselves with in this episode, but hopefully they're useful for y'all as well.Alex Hourigan
So we're just gonna jump right in, we've got some quick fire lessons that we're going to start off with, and then we'll go into some of the bigger life lessons towards the end. First and foremost is free trials, we all love a free trial. But as soon as you sign up for a free trial, especially on apps, like on your phone, cancel it right away, because you still get the free trial. And then you just don't get charged when you inevitably forget and have like $150 taken out of your account. It will show you in the App Store, for example, expires on the second of January, and you still get to use it up until that point. So as soon as you sign up to free trials, cancel it straightaway.Sally McMullen
I love that. Don't even bother with the calendar reminder, just cancel it straightaway. This is another tip or life lesson for saving money. Always price match before you buy. So I never used to do this until probably the last year. But chances are when you're shopping online, you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere and get it at a better price. But say if you're shopping on THE ICONIC or somewhere that has free shipping, and free returns, and it's just really good, that you love, you can still get all of those perks, but get it cheaper. If you reach out to the customer service team and say, I found this at a cheaper price. Usually they'll dock it down a couple of bucks for you. That's an easy one.Alex Hourigan
Legit! Especially that Google Shopping tab up the top is your best friend. Put in the full product name and it'll show everywhere that stocks it and the price that they have it for. And it's literally a price comparison tool right at your fingertips. It's so easy. Number three is flirt with your friends. Sally's like "Oh my god". Whenever we go for a drink, I am always just flirting with Sally and I'm like "We should kiss". I'm always like, you look so hot today. Like just it's a good time. It's fun. And everyone walks away a winner. One, it's fun to flirt and two, your friends have a great time.Sally McMullen
Yeah, get a little ego boost. I think if you're ever thinking a compliment about somebody in your head, tell them. As long as it's not gonna cross the line and be creepy. But if your friend looks nice or colleague is you know, wearing a cool pair of shoes, let them know.Alex Hourigan
Don't flirt with your colleagues. Yeah, that one we've already touched on that one another episode. Don't do that.Sally McMullen
This one is kind of tied to your life lesson now. But whenever you say we'll just go for one drink. It's never just one. So don't even bother saying it. Just set yourself up for failure and just know that you'll probably go for 2,3,4,5,6 drinks and walk away with matching tattoos.Alex Hourigan
I think when we were supposed to present in New York, once we were a bit nervous right before we're like, we'll just go for one drink. Blow off some steam. Anyway, Sally vomited the next morning. I was like shake it off.We got a coffee and a New York bagel and that made it all better.
Next up is one that I definitely found helped with my spending. So as we discovered in our episode with Molly, which you should definitely go back and listen to from the Ladies Finance Club. Setting up a spending account will really help you stick to a budget. So I actually set up a spending account with a completely different bank. And then each week I transfer what I'm allowed to spend into that bank account. And then the rest of my money that's like my savings, rent and all that stuff stays in that other account that I get paid into. And it's very kind of like out of sight out of mind. And so I just see the money that I am allowed to spend. And I'm more conscious rather, I feel like sometimes if I can see both the accounts and I'm like I've got heaps of money left over, let's just chuck a little bit more in there. I need that pair of shoes or that Spicy Marg. It just really helps me like no, that's my budget and if I've got $25 in there, I gotta make it work for the next three days.
Plus, if it's in a savings account that has a high interest rate, then your money is also growing as you're not touching it. So it's a win, win. Following on the finance train, this year, I learned that your super fund is very likely funding a bunch of stuff that is super gross, you probably wouldn't like. So for example, gambling or weapon production, non renewable energy sources, like just a bunch of stuff that you would never usually put your money towards, or support. If you don't know, you can have a look online and see what your super fund is putting your money towards. And you can compare ethical superfunds if you're a bit concerned, and just see what options are out there and make the switch. I did that. And it took me maybe 10 minutes to make the switch once I'd done some research, so it's definitely worth it. And I felt so much once I did, I was feeling so guilty. And then just knowing my money was going to a better place. I was like I can breathe again.
Another life lesson I had from this year is to get your like main character seratonin villain entry hype song, it is the biggest vibe. I can't even tell you. Sally and mine is High Hopes by Panic At The Disco. It just hits different. Have that song that you've got, if you're going for a job interview, if you're I don't know about to break up with a boyfriend, if you like need something that's gonna give you that lift. Are you really excited, like you're about to go out and you really want to be like, "Oh!", get a song that is like the song you'd play if you like the hot villain in a movie that like is your entry moment with like the double doors opening.
It's so good. Get that song, find out what that song is. It has to be something that you could never get sick of because you're going to play it literally every time you need it.
Sally McMullen
Get it on your playlist stat. Okay, this next life lesson this year, basically, somebody said that Alex and I are OTT. If you can believe it?! They said that we were over the top because of you know, and the way that we dress and we like to do a little bit of glam every now and then. And probably because we're just a bit loud and lairy, I don't know why but at first, we were both so salty about it. And I think after a little while, we realised that it's actually a compliment. So the life lesson is if somebody calls you OTT or makes a comment about your appearance, or your personality, just take it in your stride. And just think, you know, they're probably a bit jealous or feeling a bit insecure about themselves and it's makes you unique, baby. You know, as RuPaul always says, if they ain't paying your bills, pay them bitches, no mind, you know?Alex Hourigan
Legit. I remember wearing a leather suit to work and about four people like, what are you wearing? And I was like, I look great.Sally McMullen
Meanwhile I was there doing a standing ovation as you walked int othe office.Alex Hourigan
Following on from that, if you want to wear it, wear it. Growing up, I was always like, "I love these bright pink snake boots, but I could never pull them off". Yes, you can. Because the only person convincing you that you can't pull it off, is you?Sally McMullen
Oh, absolutely. And I think we've also grown up reading those shitty articles that are like "how to dress for your body". Screw that. Wear it and then send us pic.Alex Hourigan
Yeah, send us the outfit piccies.Sally McMullen
We want the outfit hauls police. Alright, next one comes from lockdown. So Alex and I both live in Sydney, and we were in lockdown for maybe four months of this year. So it was a bit of a tough one. But I learned that alone time is really good for the soul. I think prior to 2020 and 2021. If I was home alone on a Friday night with no plans, I would feel like the biggest failure and I feel like I'd have to spend my night doing something really productive. But I think that there is so much beauty in spending time with yourself and just doing stuff that you like, alone and just chilling with yourself.Alex Hourigan
And you know what alone time isn't you've sent three of your friends a text saying "hey, what are you doing tonight? You want to do something and they're not free?" And then you're like, "Okay, well, I've got no plan. I've just got to spend time alone". That's not alone time. Alone time is "It's Friday night. My social battery's dead. I want to watch my favourite TV show. I'm not going to make plans. If people make plans with me, I'm going to say I just need to kind of chill on my own. I'm prioritising that making a date with yourself". It's not you're the last straw because that's when you feel lonely. Yeah. And I think realising that for me it was like "oh my god, I love my alone time". Because I was so similar to you in terms of like, I need to always be busy. I need to always be out with my friends and social and popular and like, not just sit in bed and watch The Vampire Diaries, order some pasta and have a good time take yourself on like little movie date.Sally McMullen
Lock it in make a conscious effort every week to have alone time just for you doing something just unapologetically you.Alex Hourigan
One of our life lessons was experiment sexually, whether it's a toy, with a partner, someone of the same gender, whatever you fancy, just go for it. Like, what's the worst that could happen? If you're kind of there being like, "oh, you know what, I wouldn't want to try that." Or like do you know what? I'm kind of attracted to this, what's the worst thing that could happen, you don't like it, and then you've learned something about yourself. And then the best thing is you liked it. And you had a great time. The conversation around sexuality and being comfortable talking about it, and what you like, what you don't like it's becoming such a comfortable conversation now, which is amazing and we love to see that. And you should be expanding on that. If you're interested in it. If you're not, and you're cool doing what you're doing do as you are queen, king, non binary liege.Sally McMullen
I love that. I think that is such a good one. And if you're running low on inspiration, you should go back and listen to our episode with Chantelle Otten, where we talk about her book, The Sex Ed You Never Had. It's so good. And there are so many tips in there on how to explore your sexuality and try something new in a way that is comfortable for you. Our next life lesson of 2021 is leave some people in 2021 where they belong. But all jokes aside, I just think that some relationships and friendships aren't worth fighting for. And I know that sounds a bit savage, but you usually know that deep down and I've had this experience this year, but also just over the last few years, you know, growing up and getting older. And a good way to do this is if you stop reaching out to that one friend, and they don't reach out to you, that's kind of when you know that it's done and fate has just done it's thing. Then you don't have to end up with you know, some dramatic argument or being like we're not friends anymore, you can kind of just let it fizzle out. But I just think stop putting energy into those relationships where it's one sided, or where you're not getting anything positive from it.Alex Hourigan
I think as well. It's another thing that people talking a lot more about is those toxic relationships and friendships and it being okay to just take a step back from it, like prioritise yourself and your own mental health. If you know, they come out and say what the hell like "why are you not talking to me anymore?" Just say "I'm prioritising myself, and I just don't know if this relationship has necessarily been the most healthy thing for me. And I just want to take some time to myself." Oh, my God, I love this one. I love this one. No one cares as much as you think they do. If you're wanting to do something, and you're worried about what people think, don't. I literally have a friend who started an OnlyFans and she was like, "I wanted to do it for so long. But I was just so scared about the shit people would talk about me". And she was really like, "I've only ever had compliments or like people saying like, Oh my god, amazing. I want to do it too. But I'm too scared". No one cares as much as you think because everyone's obsessed with themselves, which is fabulous. Like, I love that for them. Everyone needs to think that they're the main character of their own story. And like an example of this is that I always wanted to try Pilates. I was like, this looks so fun and I hate exercising. Shock. I know. And I was like, this looks like it could kind of be the thing that I would get into because it's not like burpees or anything like that. But I was so scared. I was like "I'm gonna fall off the machine. It's just not gonna be me". And then I went and did it. And I thought everyone's gonna be laughing at me. No one gave a hoot. No one cares. Like if you're wanting to do something, just do it.Sally McMullen
Okay, our last one, I don't know why we decided to end here, but I stand by it.Alex Hourigan
I love this one.Sally McMullen
Nothing slaps more than a clean room. Yes, it's just the best feeling if you are feeling stressed or anxious or your life's a bit out of control, or you want an excuse to do something that's like, just for you, you time. Clean your bloody room. And you will feel like an absolute angelic queen elf of the stars. So yeah, grab that feather duster. Get cleaning, girl.Alex Hourigan
A life lesson we learned this year, purely because we kind of missed it a lot. But I think it was actually at the start of this year, Sal and I snuck into a party.Sally McMullen
We gate crashed.Alex Hourigan
We were in this dive rock bar and we get this message from this random influencer guy that like we're not gonna say who it is. He's like, "Hey, my mate's got like a white party going on". And he's like, "You guys should come" And I was like, "why not? What's the worst that could happen?" You know, like, whenever you ask yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?" Nothing bad's gonna happen. You know, like, just go. And so anyway, we know no one at this party. This party's been going on for hours, everyone's already sloshed. So Sal and I, we rock up. She's wearing tiger print, I'm wearing snake print, we've got like cowboy boots on and all this and we walk in and it's a frickin White Party. And we walk in and the security guard is like, "No."Sally McMullen
He's like "you do not belong and it's not just the animal print."Alex Hourigan
Literally, he looked us up and down. He was like, "this isn't gonna happen for you two" and we were like actually we've been invited. And then he was like, "No, you haven't", And so then we like had to go back to the drawing board. And like we actually were invited. And once we got into this party, everyone looked at us, like we were a bad smell like it was so funny.Sally McMullen
It the perfect example of one of those nights that you don't plan and then you end up with all of these wild stories. Like we saw the guy from Entourage there.Alex Hourigan
The guy from The Devil Wears Prada, we ended up making friends with this other chick and she's like," Oh, meet my friend". And I think it took us a moment to clock who it was.Sally McMullen
We gave each other side eye.Alex Hourigan
It's the guy who's on Clickbait on Netflix now. Anyway, so go to the party, but sneak in. Gatecrashe the party that you weren't invited to, and you don't belong. And you got a great time.Sally McMullen
My next one is go travelling and get your stories cheeky babes.Alex Hourigan
Get them tales.Sally McMullen
This one isn't a lesson from the last year technically, because we haven't been able to travel and it's sucks. So in 2019, Alex and I were lucky enough to go to Americana for work. And we went to LA, Seattle and New York for four weeks. And it was like the best four weeks of our lives. Like I think all of our favourite stories are from that trip, we went to Disneyland and you know, tried to crack on to Aladdin, that was fun. We saw Jack Nicholson at the Saddle Ranch in LA. We went to New York and made friends with some fabulous drag queens and ended up working behind the bar there almost got a new career that was fun.Alex Hourigan
Sally, and I have never worked in a bar before. Neither of us know how to work in a bar.Sally McMullen
I can barely pour my own drink.Alex Hourigan
We ended up going to a drag show. But we sat at the bar and made really good friends with the drag queen that was working behind the bar. And then she's like, "do you guys want to pour some drinks?". So pretty much the rule of thumb there is if you've never worked in the bar, and you're working one night in a drag bar, just put as much alcohol in the glass as you can and get the red syrup thing and then put that in there.Sally McMullen
But yeah, pretty much just go travelling with your best friends, I just think that you will have the absolute best time. It will be such a beautiful bonding experience. And just after the last, 18 months that we've had, where we haven't been able to go travelling, I just appreciate those four weeks, so much more, and I can't wait to do it again.Alex Hourigan
Okay, so another very big lesson from this year is to respect your own mood. Understand what mood you're in. Understand what you're feeling like in that moment. And don't force yourself to do anything that that mood isn't kind of wanting to do. I'm talking about it like it's another person, but it's true. You've got multiple like facets of your personality. And that is your mood. So if you're feeling like a baby, and it's only like a Wednesday night, but you feel like it, message your friends go out, get sloshed queen. But if your social battery's drained, you can also respect that, you know, if you don't really want to hang out in a group setting, but you want to hang out with one friend do that, you know, you've got to respect the mood that you're in, even in work, for example, talking about this morning, actually, we had a creative brainstorm, put in for this afternoon, but we will act you know what, we're probably going to be too tired after the podcast because we're always like batabing bataboom. And we're like, we're not going to be in a creative mindset. Let's move it to tomorrow. And just being able to recognise what you're in the mood to do work on, or be around is really important and to respect it and play into it.Sally McMullen
So many more people are having that conversation right now as well. Whereas I think maybe like 5-10 years ago, if you said that if you said "my social battery is drained" people would be like, "What are you talking about?". Whereas now I think so many people are more aware of their emotions and feel more comfortable to bring it up. My next life lesson from this year is to get your sitcom friend group. And by that, I mean, you know, the Sex in the City awesome force, the six pals from Friends who you can always lean on. You don't have to have 5,000 friends, but having a core friend group that are there for you. And also, you know, you can be there for them, you can be your true self, like, I just realised as I've gotten older as well like that is the more meaningful friendships that I want. Whereas, you know, perhaps when you're younger, you put more value on having heaps and heaps of friends who you know, and all different friend groups and you have your friends that you go out with, your friends that you brunch with, then, you know, you spread yourself a little bit thin. But I think definitely quality over quantity when it comes to friendships. And I probably have, you know, like a group of maybe 10 really close friends who I can go to all the time. So don't feel that pressure on yourself, if you've lost touch with the bigger friend groups, or, you know, you have like a group of besties that are just like two or three, because I think that's the way to go.Alex Hourigan
Education is sexy. There are multiple ways to continue your learning, whether it's following social accounts, like 'Shit You Should Care About', or 'The Daily Aus', or even personalities like Flex Mami, Clementine Ford, there's so much learning to do every day, the world is changing all the time. Even just education around, you know, like pronouns and things like that. And the correct way to use certain terms. There's so much education every day. Growth has no limit, you know? And I think just reading books on things that you normally wouldn't read books about. If you're not a reader, watch documentaries, listen to audiobooks or podcasts, like you should be learning new things every day. Hopefully, you're learning things from this podcast. But you know, education is what? Sexy baby. We love a smart, educated queen. We're not saying you need to be able to do eight plus six, because I still can't do that. But just educating yourself on what's going on in the world being like on the front foot. So that as well, you can back up what you believe in. You know, when we spoke to Crystal on the podcast, and she wrote that book on How to Win Every Argument. You don't have to be in arguments, but you have to know what you believe in and why you believe in that. And I think that's why it's so important to educate yourself.Sally McMullen
You'll learn more about yourself in the process. Okay, next life lesson. If you have to force it, it's probably a bit shit, trust your gut and follow your instincts, whether it's in a relationship, or you know, friendships, or maybe like a career move. Pretty much anything like the first instinct that you have is almost always right. Alex and I have had like a few new relationships, I think, come into our lives over the last year or so and I would say that almost every single time, our gut instincts on the person have been correct. And I think that we would have saved ourselves a whole lot of pain, if we just trusted those from the get go. So believe in yourself, trust your gut, and don't force it. If it ain't working. It's not working.Alex Hourigan
I remember how many times have I like said to you, I don't want to go to this dinner. Like I've got a really bad feeling. Yeah. And then that happens, something bad's happened. Our last fabulous lesson. I feel a bit like emotional about this one, like in a good way, but takes the leap. Like whether it's a career move relationship or something else. The longer you put something off, the more excuses you make, and the harder it is to do. I think this podcast was a leap for us. We were really nervous about doing it. We didn't know if people were gonna like us. We're just so happy that we did it. It's been amazing to work on and been amazing for our friendship as well, because it's just the dream.Sally McMullen
There's always a million reasons not to do something. And as we've covered in this podcast many times as an indecisive Pisces, I'm always weighing out the pros and cons and usually end up really focusing on the cons and what could go wrong. But what I've learned in this year is that even when you do take the leap, you can always take the leap back or forward into another direction. Like when you take the leap, you're not stuck there, which is what I've always thought, you know, like, what if I take the leap and it's the wrong move, and then I regret that's fine because you'll learn something along the way if it isn't the right decision, and then you can just take a leap somewhere else. So take the leap babies like if we've learned anything from 2020 and 2021. It's like life is short. And follow your heart.Alex Hourigan
Leave your imposter syndrome at the door and lean into your god complex. That's the 2022 motto God Complex or nothing. To finish off the episode and season one, we are doing final classes in session for season uno. So we had a chick send us a DM on the Gram. That's @twobrokechick, if you ever want any advice, feel free to hit us up. "Hi, ladies, I always love what you have to say I have a question on the topic of your episode about work, wives and career. I've been at my job for the last eight months. I started as an undergrad, but graduated four-ish months ago. About two months ago, my boss called me in for a review, I mentioned that we would be talking about my remuneration, and then got a call into emergency meeting. So we never got to talk about it. Now, it's two months later, and it has never been brought up again. How would you start the conversation back up again? Also, on the topic of leaning on co-workers, do you think that it is still taboo to discuss your salary with your co workers, I am really intrigued to what the other graduates and juniors are earning as I'm the only female in my office at my current level. Although money has always been such a taboo topic in my family. What are your thoughts?Sally McMullen
This is a doozy. Lots to unpack here.Alex Hourigan
First of all, that's really annoying. It's really annoying waiting two months longer for review. Because not only do you want to discuss your salary, but you want to get feedback, feedbacks. Great. And this has actually happened to both Sal and I before and it is really frustrating. You've got to always kind of understand that things are really busy in a company, but you know, you want to have your review. And we would suggest bringing it up within a verbal conversation with them saying, you know, "it's been super busy, and you understand why it had to move, but you'd love to continue your conversation about your review remuneration." And then once you've had that verbal conversation, if your boss doesn't put a time in within a week, put that time in with them in their calendar. And then at the same time, send a message saying, "Hey, I know we discussed it the other week, I've just put a time in for us to do my review. Hope that time works. Let me know if there's a better time."Sally McMullen
And once you've locked in that time, make sure you go in with your own salary research. So have a look around, listen back to that episode again, about Work Wives. We brought up a lot of tips in that on what to do to see what other people are getting paid in your industry. And make a list of your goals you know the responsibilities that maybe you want to transition into. And basically just a solid list of why your stunning, amazing and exceptional and beautiful at your job, and brave and deserve that money, honey, I think on the topic of chatting about your pay with your colleagues, that is a tricky one because some workplaces actually have like HR rules about discussing salary. So definitely is still a taboo topic and can cause some issues either on HR front or just like awkwardness with your colleagues, unfortunately. So I would suggest chatting with your HR rep directly or your manager and just pitch it as I just want to make sure that I'm getting equal pay, because there isn't much transparency about what everybody else is being paid. And I just want to make sure that I'm on the same level, I think that's totally fine. You know, you know, totally in your remit to be asking that question. So don't feel bad about that. And just remember, again, that there are multiple factors that can affect different salary packages. So for example, experience or the title or how many years the person's been with the company, or maybe particular projects they've worked on, or, you know, money they're bringing in, I guess it depends on what industry you're working in. So keep that in mind. But I think just back yourself. And if you go in with that research on what other people in your industry being paid, who had the same experience and responsibilities as you, they can't really turn you down. And if they do, and they're not giving you steps on how you could get to a pay raise or a promotion. Maybe time to move on.Alex Hourigan
But we hope that helps, lovely. Feel free to send any more questions you guys may have to us and we'll do our best to answer them and give you advice that we would follow if it was us. That's season one. I hope you guys have the best holiday season and summer and get lots of presents and give lots of presents. And yeah, just have if you have any time off or are going away, have a great trip, really enjoy it. Because you know what? This year has been rough. So I really enjoy this time off if you're going to take time off. But thank you again for joining us on this wild ride also known as Two Broke Chicks season one. We've literally had the best time making this and we hope you've learned lots and laughed even more. If you've enjoyed season one then please go leave a review on Apple Podcasts and we'll Give you a big smooch. We literally read all of them and like happy ugly cry because you're all really nice and sweet. And for everything you need to know about this episode such as links, goss, transcripts had to finder.com.au/two-broke-chicks. A big thank you to Finder for powering this podcast and season one and Nova for being our partnership angels. If you haven't already followed us on Apple podcast and Spotify, follow us there and on Instagram @twobrokechicks. Thank you to our angelic producer Pariya Taherzadeh and our beautiful friends at Bamby Media for editing this episode and this season. We couldn't have done it without you.And of course, you chicks for having us in your earholes. We've loved being here. We'll see you in season two.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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