A Step-by-Step, Automatic Budget System That Allows You To Be Bougie On A Budget: The Budget Besties® Method | 457

0:00We are so excited, guys. Guess what we're going to kick off today, a series where we talk in depth about each step in the budget best use method. Yes. So we have a lot of people who ask us like, okay, but what do I do first? Like what is, what's the order, especially when they buy our system because they set up their budget, but then they want to know what are the next steps. And we do have our bonus trainings at the bottom that show them how to do everything, but to put it in some type of order in a system and a method, we came up with our budget bestie method. So we're excited to share that with you over the next couple of weeks.

0:35Do you make good money, but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt-free, but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? Hey, it's okay if you don't already know how to budget, or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. Hey, it's okay if you want to seem like you have your finances all together, or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what?

1:03You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

1:35We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. So the way it's going to work is, you know, so we have podcasts. You know, you guys come and go. You come because you need help budgeting. You leave because you mastered it. whatever we love you but uh no hard feelings fine either way every once in a while we try to go through our steps the what we teach like overall um step by step in a row and so that's what we're gonna do for the next several mondays we're gonna we're gonna go we're gonna start today by going over all eight steps and then we're gonna go through each one individually over the next several mondays and then just in case you guys don't realize like mondays are kind of our beefy episodes uh wednesdays we're trying to tell you like little lessons little tweaks little things that we've learned.

2:29And then Fridays is when we have live calls with other people that come on and either share their story or have questions that you guys relate to. And so that's kind of how it's going to go over the next eight Mondays. We're going to be telling you our exact method. And I want to caveat for this just for a moment. So y 'all know that these are our main steps. Yes, we talk about investing. Yes, we talk about how to save for kids college and we do other topics. Those are wonderful conversations. But when we talk about our actual system, this is going to be the meat and potatoes of what you hear us say all the time.

3:04And if you ever have questions about other things, feel free to email, text us, ask us, and we're more than happy to do a podcast on that as well. Yeah. So the first step we have is to dream again. Okay. We understand that maybe that sounds right off the bat, you're like, I need something more tactile, but we promise you cannot skip this step. You need to start with a step. Yeah. It's not woo-woo at all. Like, do you remember when you were younger and you were excited about this vision, these goals that you had for your life? So what we want you to do is get excited about your financial future.

3:36So you actually want to budget. Right. If you're coming into this budgeting because you feel scared, anxious, worried, that's only going to get you so far. But if you have a big goal, if you have a big why, if you're excited about the things that are coming because of what you're doing, you're actually going to stick to and do what we say. So we just definitely want you to get clear on the why. Are you looking forward to being able to talk to your spouse again about money without it's turning into a fight? Are you excited to get out of debt so you can travel more? What do you want? Do you have things that you want to do with your kids?

4:06Like what is your why? What are you, what are you doing this budget thing for? What is the reason? Maybe you're building a house or maybe you want your kids to go on private school. That was a big goal for us. Like how, but how could we make that happen? And we had to put it on paper. We had to want to, but it made us want to budget to be able to see the results of that. Yep. Okay. So step two is to build your budget. Hey, right to the, right to the meat and potatoes. And here, this is where we want to get everything, everything on one page, which is unique to us. It's signature to us. It's your income, your debt, your bills, your spending, and your savings.

4:38That's our columns. Those are the things on one page that you're going to get and see where you're at. And here's the thing is this is not just another budget. Okay. This whole thing, this whole entire method that we're showing you It is an entire budget system. And putting everything on one page is the start of that. You have to be able to see all your numbers very clear, very easily organized. So then you can set up all the stuff that comes after that, like your automations and stuff, right? Yeah. And it's really important, Vanessa. We hear all the time that a lot of times couples are budgeting separately.

5:08So they haven't actually – maybe they don't have any idea how much they actually make. We had that – somebody said that the other. We didn't know how much we made. We had an idea. But we didn't know how much we actually made until we put it on one piece of paper. for their income, right? The same is going to go for your debt. You might be shocked and appalled when you actually see how much your minimums are, but that's okay. We want to get it all on one piece of paper. And the same goes with your bills. I love this one because people sometimes have duplicates or they have bills that they forgot that they were paying.

5:35Or it's coming out of four different credit cards. And that's not cute. So we definitely want to see it all on one piece of paper. This is the starting point. I think I just had a new client this morning. I had a call with her and I said, okay, okay, the idea of this budget, and we were able to lay it all on one page. And I said, with this income coming in, it's doing all of this. And that's really the vision that we're trying to create for you is to go, you know, some people say, well, what is that going to do for me? What is putting all my numbers on paper? It's going to show you where every single one of your dollars is going and to show you how you can afford everything.

6:05It's going to show you how you can afford your gas and groceries and all that. But you can't do that if it's all coming out of five different accounts and this credit card and that credit card. Well, and usually if you're writing something down, it's only your bills, right? So you're thinking, this is how much my bills are every month. We want you to get all on all of it. So like we said, we're going to have our income and your debt. But like Vanessa was alluding to, you're going to put all of the spending that you're planning to do on there. And that's really going to be eye-opening, right? And then your savings, we're not just thinking maybe if there's money in my account at the end of the month, we're going to save money.

6:35We're going to put it all. That's what the point of the whole piece of it all on one piece of paper is we can see all the math at once. we can see, okay, look, the real truth, the honest truth, now that I'm actually seeing it, is we have$2 ,000 left over after bills. So now how can I divide that into what we have to spend and the money that we want to save? And then you can see it all on one paper, how it all works together. And that's what's really magical about it. Yeah. No, it's going to be an eye opener if you've never done this before. Okay. So step three is going to be to set up a bills account.

7:03This is where you're going to create a separate account only used for paying bills and nothing else. We hear all the time that this is the biggest game changer. You know, people will say, um, it makes so much sense. Why wasn't I doing this before? And we agree. It does make sense. Um, but you're basically just have that one account where all of your bills are coming out of, you're putting your income in there and all your bills are coming out of, and then we're going to talk in the next steps, how everything else is separate so that your bills have a safe place, right? You're not going to worry about if there's money enough in there for, you're not going to have bills bouncing anymore.

7:33You're not going to have to do mental math. If I, if I, if I do this, am I still going to be able to pay my bills? So the bills are going to be their own account, their own checking account. It's going to be really great. And this is really where you get a paycheck ahead because all your money is coming into the account and what's going out is being accounted for. And so the money is going to pool in there to be able to allow you to pay your bills whenever, wherever. So that's, it's really is a game changer. And typically what we see clients do is they use their current checking account to, uh, the one checking account that they have to be the bills account.

8:02And then they do the next step, which is to separate your spending. So then you open separate checking accounts for your gas and groceries, your restaurants, and personal spending. And this is where we say, guess what? You're not 18 anymore. It's time. You can have more than one bank account. It's true. The idea here is to separate to simplify. So yes, opening up these other accounts. Some people are like, wait, what? I don't know if I can handle that. I promise you, you can. And once you do it, you're not going to know how you did it without it. Because having those extra accounts to say, this amount of money is being transferred into into your gas and groceries account.

8:37And this is what you got. Hey, also you have spending money. It's all yours. There's no judgment on how you spend it and what you spend it on. And also your bills are being paid over here in this account. So the idea of being able to have money for everything that you want in that month, and it's not like messing with each other, right? It's not touching each other. It's not fighting is really going to allow you the freedom to be able to spend freely. Yeah. And you don't have to do any mental math. Like Vanessa said, you can look clear, like clearly at your um your bank app right your app that you used to bank with and you're you don't really have to even go into your bills because you've already made sure that there was enough money in there but you can see clearly okay i have three hundred dollars till to for gas and groceries till next time i get paid and i have two hundred dollars to spend on whatever i want like you and you can clearly see that there's it's separated like vanessa said and it makes it so simple you don't have to like do math and like subtract and add minus and that nope no more that and you also don't have to track.

9:30Like that might be the biggest bonus of this part is you don't have to go back and track anything. You don't have to go back and adjust or make a account or sign or any of that. There's no accounting necessary. Well, and what we mean by that is when you transfer the money from the bills account into the gas and groceries account, nobody cares that you went to the grocery store seven times that week and spent$50 here, $30 here,$40 here. Like nobody cares. It's that you transfer the money, it's no longer in the bills account and just spend it freely as you want. So that's when we talk about there's no tracking required in any of your spending accounts.

10:04All right, Budget Besties, it's time for some Real Talk. You don't need another budget. You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going. And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. Yeah. It's straightforward, pretty, and packed with walkthrough videos that break down the exact methods we use with our clients to get out of debt, set up a bills account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck-to-paycheck feel.

10:40If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need right now. Yeah. So head on over to budgetbesties.com forward slash budget and grab yours. Now back to today's show. All right. So step five is to start your savings buckets. And before we get into that, notice this is step five. The most important thing for you to do is step one first. We're going to have a reason to do this. We need a reason to do this. Then we're going to build a budget. We have to see everything on one piece of paper before we can do any of this.

11:16Then we're going to get the bills account going. Then we're going to do spending accounts. Then once those things are done, then we can start looking at our savings buckets. Yeah. And so a savings bucket is when we're planning ahead for not monthly, like expenses that are non-monthly, but they're 100 % expected expenses. So we're talking about Christmas and birthdays and travel and sports and all the things that you know that are coming, we're going to save ahead. Yeah. So if you think about, you know, your monthly budget that we created here with your savings buckets, it's kind of like your annual budget.

11:48Like what are the things that I spend annually that like Vanessa said, I forget about. They kind of come up on quote unquote unexpectedly, but they definitely are going to happen. It's Christmas or my car registration or the vet bill that, oh no,$600. Yeah. Like all of these things are going to happen. And so we're going to start saving for them in advance so that you've stopped having this rollercoaster of a budget. So you can, you can anticipate all of these bigger things, but pay for them a little bit at a time each month and set that money aside. It's going to feel really good. Yeah. And you know, you also putting this in a high yield savings account, guys, you're going to be great interest on all this money every month.

12:23It allows you to be your own bank. Like imagine now you are funding your, your own life. This is actually the section, like the step where people go into debt because they can budget easily for bills, debt payments, gas, and groceries. But when you're talking about travel sports that pop up and all the different things that happen throughout the year and you haven't budgeted for it, where do you put that? You put it on a credit card because you can't pay for it in cash. So being able to plan ahead for all this stuff and save in your savings buckets for all this money is going to allow you to become your own bank.

12:52Yeah. And so when we say be your own bank, for example, I had a client today and we were talking about whether or not she was going to close her credit cards. And I said, worst case scenario, whatever your credit card limit is, we're going to make your emergency fund that much because you've got to get out of this mindset that you need a credit card to rely on, right? We're going to use your savings, use money that you set aside yourself, like Vanessa said, to be your own bank, which brings us to step six, which we are going to break up with debt, right? We want you to swap the credit card for the debit card.

13:23You guys, y 'all make too much money to be relying on debt. Okay. We want to break the cycle of using debt for your everyday expenses, or even for the big things that pop up. Again, we're building a life where we're funding our stuff ourselves with the amount of money that we have in the bank. Mm-hmm. And the thing about this is we're not super focused on you going balls to the wall to get out of debt. We understand that might not be your goal. What we want you to do is get rid of this love affair that you have with credit cards, credit card points, with your credit score. Instead, you're going to fund your life with the money you make, with your own cash.

13:59You're going to pay for things yourself. And we're going to stop relying on debt because like Vanessa said, you make too much money to do that. You don't need it. Usually, you've been using it as convenience. Usually we've been paying off credit cards and treating that like a budget. And instead you're going to take ownership. We're going to get ahead of this thing. We're going to set all these things up and then eventually probably pay off the debt. So you have more money in your budget. Right. But really we just want you to break up with it. Stop, stop the cycle, stop the madness. And what we usually see is people, they're charging throughout the month and then paying it off at the end of the month, usually.

14:27But sometimes they're also spending the money in their bank account that was supposed to go on their credit card. So their bank account is going down, but the credit uh limit right the credit balance is now going up so it's it's not working in your favor so we want to stop using the credit card we want to fund your life in cash pay everything moving forward in cash but we understand hey listen there are some people that start this and they're like i have been relying on credit cards so much so they actually can't stop this month and they have to wean themselves off because they're so used to living beyond their means so it's really good to just be able to um stop using them and fund your spending accounts fund your bills account, fund your savings buckets.

15:05So that way you don't have to use them. Yeah. And the other thing here that will, when we get into the step very specifically is we want you to know that you can do both. You can do these savings buckets. You can have spending money. You can pay your bills on time and you can pay off debt. All of it's possible. Right. And so that's what we're going to teach you when we get specifically to step six in this series. Well, I can, I have to talk about this. We are not about beans and rice mentality. Okay. What we've seen from our clients is that they feel like you can either pay off debt or you can either live.

15:35And we are here to tell you after six years of doing this with our clients, no, you can do both. Like Shana said, you can live and have a good time and have a good life with lots of money available to you. And then also pay off debt. Okay. Average, I think our clients in six months of working with us, they're paying off around$50 ,000 in debt. And Hey, by the way, they didn't stop that vacation, right? They didn't stop their kids travel sports they went out to eat they weren't working in a restaurant like no they were able to do both so we just want to really throw that out there yeah okay so then the once we've got all of this right we just said we have a we have the vision we have a budget we have bills we have spending we have savings we've broken up with debt we're not using that anymore the next step is to make your budget automatic oh i did that was a Freudian slip because i was going to say to make it automatic but i really wanted to say automatic because we had a client that said automagically.

16:26And so what this is going to do is where you're going to set up automatic payments for the bills and automatic transfers. So your debt, your bills, your spending and your savings are all running on autopilot. Yeah. Can you imagine doing anything else besides that? Like literally imagine living your life and not having to worry about making manual transfers, paying your bills, paying the mortgage. Like, no, we don't want you to have to do that. We want you. And we actually had a free call today and the lady was talking about, like, I have so much extra time. She said, everything is set up on auto pay.

16:58I have so much extra time. I'm not stressing about anything because it's all being paid. My spending accounts are being funded. I don't have to do anything. And that is the whole goal. The goal is to take back your time here and be able to spend it on going to the beach or going on date night or watching, being present with the kids instead of worrying about who's getting paid what and when and how, right? No, everything is being funded automatically. Yes. and your budget is running in the background on autopilot while, like Vanessa said, you do literally anything else. We don't care what else.

17:27Just don't do that. That's all we're asking. Okay. All right. So step eight is to be bougie on a budget. That's like the whole point of this podcast. Yeah. You've done all the things that we've said. Now you're just like, woo, you're riding off into the sunset and you get to be bougie on a budget, which is really exciting because it means you're able to spend money, have fun and enjoy your life. Your budget is like taken care of in the background and all the fun things that you want to do with your life that make you feel bougie are in the budget. That's the whole point. And that's where we're trying to get to this.

17:56You can live that awesome, bougie, fun life because you've already budgeted for it. So like we really want that to click in. And we have heard so many times, it's this or that, right? I have to, I can pay off debt or I can live or I can save for a vacation, but I can't do this. But no, what we're telling you is that when you make the right budget, when you plan accordingly, you can do both. Yeah. And what you're alluding to as well is everybody's version of bougie on a budget looks different, but that's what we don't want you to have the scarcity mindset. And I have to, it has to be one or the other.

18:25We want you to say, this is what I want my life to look like. This is what I find important. This is what I want to be in my budget. And it can all happen, you know, at the same time, everybody has a different version of that, but you can do it because it's in the budget. That's the main thing to think. One of the things that Shane and I really pride ourselves on is all of our clients' budget is that they're all very different. They really are. Not one of them is the same. Not one of them does the same thing. Some of them have five spending accounts. Some of them have three. Some of them have four.

18:51It really just depends on what you want. And again, that version of bougie is different. So what Shana thinks is bougie for her in her life is very different from mine, very different from our friends. Some of it's really the same. Yeah, volleyball life, sports life is the same. It's private schools. Big cars and gas tanks. I'm just going to keep going. Yeah, we do have a lot of things. But we just want you to understand that we don't want you to compare yourself to somebody else. We want you to have your own life, your own bougie life. We want you to love it and enjoy it because everything is budgeted.

19:18Everything has a purpose. You have a vision. You have goals for your life, and it's all being funded. Yeah, and here's the other thing. Like, this is we're at the bookend here. You came to us, right, because you make good money and you had nothing to show for it. We're on the other end of that where you're making good money and you have everything to show for it. You have all of your goals, all of your dreams, all of your bills, all of the have-tos and all of the wants. They're all being figured out. You are making money and you have something to show for you where your money is going and it's on purpose.

19:45Yeah. And you can save. You can spend with confidence. That is the whole point of this. We want you to know what's going on with your money. We want you to be confident in that. And having a system in place, being able to live bougie on a budget allows you to do that. Yeah. And so this all to put together, to wrap up here, we have walked you through our eight steps to the budget besties method. And so the first one you were going to dream again, and we hope you're really excited about that. You're also, then you build your budget. That's step two. You think it's step one, but it's step two. And then step three was to set up a bills account.

20:17And then after that, we're going to separate our spending. Yep. And then step five, you're going to start your savings buckets. Step six, you're going to break up with debt. Super important. And then step seven, you're going to make everything automatic. And step eight, you're going to be bougie on a budget. So we hope you've enjoyed this. This is just the precursor. We're going to do a little bit of a deeper dive on each one of those steps that we talked about today, every Monday for the next couple of months, because there's eight of them. So we hope that you'll tune in and you'll get get all the stories and all of the examples that we're going to give you so that you can really put this into practice.

20:49Yeah. If you guys have any questions about each of these steps as we go deeper into them for the next eight Mondays, feel free to email us at hello at budget besties dot com. We'd be happy to answer this for you. If you're tired of feeling like your finances are all over the place and you're ready for a simple set it and forget it way to budget, we have something special for you. Watch our Automate Your Budget Masterclass at budgetbesties.com forward slash automate. We'll show you step by step how to finally organize your money, how to set up your account and put your budget on autopilot. So your bills, saving and spending run like clockwork.

21:22Imagine less stress, more savings and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babysit your bank account. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.