Budget Shortcuts for Busy Moms: How to Put Your Money on Autopilot | 561

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0:32No shame, no finance bro nonsense, just your next right step. Grab your spot at budgetbesties.com forward slash debt workshop. Moms, we know you're juggling so many different things, so much going on in your work, life, kids, all the things. Your budget does not need to be another thing that you're juggling, another headache. So we got some things for you today. Yeah, absolutely. And if you're tired of feeling like your money just disappears every month, that's what we hear. And we've got some simple shortcuts for you. to help you really budget practically and automatically. We're really excited about that because we want you to know where your money is going.

1:06We don't want it to stress you out. Yeah, no stress. What we think is, if you think about our schedule this weekend, which I got back Monday from the tournament that you went to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then I also had a tournament this weekend. And I was thinking about our schedule this weekend, Vanessa. How we had zero time to do anything. Just look at what happened just real quick. They can relate. They know. They're here. Yeah, so the kids, they left school early on Thursday. eight we jumped in the car and drove six hours or took seven after all the stops and everything to orlando went to bed woke up at 5 30 in the morning got dressed did volleyball here that's really important of those if you do club volleyball and then we played i think we left there at three and then we had to go to dave and buster's because that was a team bonding event had to do that we finally i think we finally went to bed that night at 11 o 'clock turned right around to do the same thing the next day and we were at the volleyball court for 12 hours that next that day Yeah.

1:57And then you went back for a little bit. For more on Sunday. And then drove home. Six-hour drive home. Yeah. Yeah. And mine wasn't quite as bad this weekend, but it was similar. And we had an hour drive for volleyball, back and forth. And this all begs the question, when do you have time to budget? Because we know our schedule is not any different than yours. If they're not doing that, they're in dance or they maybe they're in with music or whatever. They have a job. Like you're just, you know, you're Uber mom really a lot. And then also - Oh, I have that hat. Sometimes they have to eat. What?

2:26I know. It's just to feed them. You don't have time to budget. So today we really are. We're going to give you some shortcuts to hopefully make that easier and more simple like this. And then hopefully you can just focus on your family and all the Ubermommy you get to do. Do 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? When 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.

2:57Hey, 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? You'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.

3:33We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We 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 markets. 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 yeah, so to sum it up, you don't have a lot of time. And what we've realized, and the reason why we put our system together is that you don't need a lot of time.

4:05And that's like the secret here is that if you do it a certain way, you don't need. Yes. Our amazing way is that you don't need a lot of time and that's okay. And we're here to share that with you. Yeah. And that's what the shortcuts are going to be. So by the end of this, you're going to have several shortcuts to make your budget hopefully run on autopilot without the surprises and without the stress. Yeah. Okay. So first things first is one of the, I think the most eye opening, mind boggling, yes. Shortcuts that we want to tell you about is to separate your money, which is going to help you avoid overspending.

4:36Yeah. So minimum moms, we want you to have two two separate accounts. One is going to be for bills and one is going to be for spending. That's the minimum. You can get more into it if you listen to our podcast. But let's imagine you have an account for bills, right? That's what we want. It's a checking account that you set up all your bills. We'll talk about that here in a minute. And then you have a separate account where all your spending is happening. If you can separate this, it's going to make your finances so much more clear. You're going to stop wasting time, like trying to figure out, track transactions, do the mental math in public.

5:06Like, no, don't want any of that for you. So separating is really going to help you. Yeah. You're not going to have to be in the moment trying to figure out like, do I have enough money for this or that? Because this bill is coming out and is it pending or has it withdrawn yet? And all of that there's you, it literally eliminates all of those thoughts. So you're going to have a specific account just for spending money that you can deposit a certain amount of money in there and freely spend. Like that is the idea here is to have the freedom to spend in a separate account and knowing this whole time that your bills are being paid.

5:34And speaking of that, we're going to have to set up that bill system. So just having a separate account is the first step. But then we want to automate your income going into that account that we've designated as a bills account, and then automating all of your bills account bills to come out of it. So sometimes you're going to get on the system and you're not going to have any like sometimes people have anxiety about putting stuff on auto pay, because you're going to have your income going in there automatically. And you're going to have your that way you're going to feel better about your bill pay bill payments coming out because there's always gonna be money in there.

6:02And you don't have time to pay bills manually, you don't even need to waste your time doing that. It's like wasted brain calories. No, we don't have that. So you're going to automate both of those. Yeah. And so the next thing you're going to do is for funsies, you're going to rename the accounts. So your bills account, like a lot of people like to name it, don't touch this or bills ninja or whatever. So you want to rename your bills account. So you know, that's all it's doing is paying bills and nothing else. And you're not spending money out of it. And then you can have fun spending your, or renaming your spending account, like your gas and groceries or personal spending or kids or whatever.

6:31Here's the other shortcut. And you may or may not like this one. I think it sounds great. You're going to plan your spending on purpose. So a lot of the like budget consternation is do I have money? Don't I have money? Are my bills paid? When am I going to have money? Yeah. When are my kids going to take all my money? How long is it going to last? What we want to do is plan each month to have spending money on purpose. That means spending for groceries. That means spending for gas. That means spending for personal fun times, pedicures, whatever it is you need to do. And all of that, there's more categories, but we want to plan it on purpose, not just either swipe a credit card or just use what's in the account until it goes to zero.

7:11That's not a plan. That's a survival mode. Instead, you're going to have that separate account. It's going to be named something cute, and there's going to be money in it that you're going to spend on purpose. Yeah, especially if you're just getting started, definitely have a buffer because a lot of people forget. They think, oh, all I spend is food, gas, groceries, out to eat, and a little bit on Starbucks. And they forget about all these quote unquote unexpected expenses that pop up. But, and so what we want to do is just go ahead and plan ahead of time for all the things that you know that are coming.

7:37We want to get as consistent with this as possible. The idea here is that your budget of what comes in, what you pay monthly on your bills, and what you spend money on in a month usually is pretty consistent. Here's another shortcut for moms is having a kid's category in your budget. Your kid comes to you. Did you remember about my field trip tomorrow and I have to pay the dues? Or whatever. Susie's birthday's on Saturday, mom. everyone's going and we're buying everyone's getting she loves legos or whatever and we have to buy a gift and also we're all dressing as princesses and whatever they're gonna come to you you might as well have a plan for it so we have there's a couple different ways you can do this but either way we want you to set aside money in your budget for the kids each month you might think a certain amount per kid you might just say look all i have left is 200 bucks and that's what and they need to stick to it like whatever but let's plan for it on purpose because it's going to happen.

8:29Yeah. A lot of times we have parents who tell their kids, listen, I'm budgeting 50 bucks a month for you. You get to decide how it's spent. So whether you want to take all that money and blow it on Chick-fil-A, have a blast. If you know you have a friend's birthday coming up, then you have to decide how much money you're going to spend on that versus how much is going to last you throughout the month. It's really good to get them involved and it gives them some type of buy-in on the budget and gets them in on the conversation. So it is okay, even if your kid's nine or 10 or whatever, it is okay to get them involved and go, hey, this is what we have put aside, we are making the decision to have this amount of money for you this month.

9:01How do you want to spend it? Yeah. And it's also a shortcut for you to end the mom guilt. Like we don't have no time. It removes you from the conversation. Yeah. No, they, you're so cool. You're the best mom ever. You're giving them 50 bucks a month to do whatever they need to do or want to do. Now you don't have to say no. You say, here's 50. You figure it out or whatever your number is. We're not putting that on you, but just understand you can feel free that you don't have to feel guilty at all. That's a lot of money. They're welcome. You did great. And you're not, you're not making a decision.

9:28They are making a decision and prioritizing what they want to spend money on. Right. Absolutely. All 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.

10:08If 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. Another shortcut is to systemize your shopping and your food. So when you think of buying toilet paper or paper towels or napkins and laundry soap and whatever else you're, I'm sure your kids eat probably the same snacks for lunch every day for school. We want to get that as automatic and as systemized as possible.

10:45So we want to, if you think you run out of it every five weeks, hey, why don't you just go ahead and put it in the budget for every four weeks? Because you know they're going to be hungry on the weekends or you have a sports event or something that they're going to take snacks to. So go ahead and just plan for those things. Go ahead and plan in your budget that you're going to spend the money and have the money available. Yes. And we did recently a episode on travel sports and this is coinciding, but my deal is I don't have time to go to the grocery store anymore. Like I just, I can't add that to the list.

11:11So I wanted to tell you all the hacks. First of all, I've got Amazon subscribe and save, but everybody does it now. I think you can pretty much use any carrier and they have a subscribe version of it. But that, my Amazon subscribe and save saves me a lot of money. And it's everything that I don't need to buy fresh, whether it's laundry detergent pods or toilet paper or whatever, everything that I know we're going to need a certain amount every month. It's just coming every month and I'm saved. It's very steady on my budget because I know exactly what to expect. I'm saving money and I don't have to go anywhere or do anything other than have that Prime membership.

11:42Now, the next level is also my grocery order every month, every week. That, just like Vanessa said, at this point, we don't have time to be creative. Okay. We're not like, oh, we're going to, we're going to just have this really fancy different meal. Nope. I'm making creme brulee. No, that's not happening at the Porton household. And let's also understand nobody's home for dinner. Let's be honest. So we have, and even if you are, you can still set up a weekly grocery order that has all the same fruits, vegetables, like the lunch meats, like all the regular stuff that everybody's going to, the eggs the bacon whatever your regular stuff that you're wait who's buying eggs no I'm just kidding I eggs have been a staple to be mega rich right now I know I'm like listen I told them I literally told I gave between the three of them I gave them two eggs today everyone's on rash what is that the great depression yeah we're going a week per person I we could barely afford that but anyway point being I have a weekly grocery order I order it and next level now my son can pick it up yeah and my kids can put it away so that's extra yes yes so what we want you to do is like Vanessa said just over plan if you have more chomps meat sticks in your pantry than what you thought you were like that's a win they're gonna get eaten they're they're never gonna like last forever so you'll be fine but just have that and so I wanted to add in there like volleyball has now this we've added the snackle box but it's really important so our It's like a tackle box, but for snacks.

13:09And it's really, you might think of an extended, large, extra big lunch bowl with all the different things in it. But I got this for my daughter. So if you think about my daughter's 10 and she has gymnastics four days a week. And half the time she doesn't come home between school and gymnastics. And if you think about recess at school, is it important to eat? Nope. Nope. We're playing. There's grass in your hair. like you're having a great time but there's no time to eat so we have this little snackle box okay and it's this box is for her to eat all day like a rabbit like little bits for from the time she leaves my house to the time she gets home at 8 30 from gymnastics and it's just got everything in there and it's planned and all of the stuff that i put in there that she loves is on that grocery order that it just functions so well because everything is you can put fresh food in there it stays nice and organized because it's its own little like tupperware shana said they can just snack here and there and grab and there's no like other containers that you need or you don't need seven different containers in the lunchbox it's just one yeah anyways we love it we can go on and on about it we send each other pictures already we send each other pictures of our own little snack boxes up there yeah what's in it but hold on i do want to say the little hack that you have which is anything like your fruits or vegetables put the put them in a paper towel Well, I do the half so that it will absorb the moisture and it doesn't get to the other food because then heaven forbid.

14:33Yeah, you don't want cantaloupe juice on your sweet tarts or whatever else or your granola bar or whatever is in there. Yeah. And then another hack, Vanessa, is to have a restaurant budget. Like you – if you're a busy mom, how often are you guys going out to eat? The kids are – you're stopping to get stuff. Put it in the budget on purpose. Have it in a separate – we'd like you to have a separate account, if you will, and have a restaurant budget. Have it there. Stick to it. Know where the money is coming from. I think that's a big thing is it's not necessarily that I don't have the money. It's like, I don't know where it's coming from.

15:02And I want to eliminate that. And we're not saying no restaurants or we're not saying, oh, you should not be going out to eat very much. We're saying planned for it. So if you know that you're going out to eat, like after all the games, the kids go out to dinner or in between school and sports, you have to run because you don't have a chance to go home or whatever. That's fine. Just put it in the budget so you can feel good knowing that you can fund it. That's what all we're saying here. And we're saying planned for it. When we're talking about having these separate spending accounts, we're saying have one specifically for restaurants so you can say, hey, I have money for food and gas.

15:33I also have money for myself. I have money for kids' sports stuff. And I also have money for restaurants. It's all organized. Yeah, it is. So the other hack or shortcut to do is to budget for everything you need. Go back and listen to a different episode about savings buckets because that really is a lot of times a budget killer. And we just, like I said, we did one on travel sports recently. Like all of these surprises that come to your budget, you can probably be saving for them in advance and just have the money set aside and not feel bad about it. And then the next level is to set up automatic transfers because you don't have time to do anything manually.

16:06Not only do you not have time, Vanessa, we know the more that they're in it, the more they mess it up. Love you. So what we want to do is get that budget, figure out what we're doing, what we're transferring, like Vanessa said, to spending, to groceries, to restaurants, to the kids. What are we doing? and have that go out automatically from the bills account where all the income is coming, remember, and have those automatic transfers going out so you don't have to lift a finger. Yeah, so the idea here is every payday you have a certain amount of money going into these separate spending accounts and savings accounts.

16:32And like you said, we're saving on purpose. We're spending on purpose. We have a certain amount of money that's always getting replenished every single time you get paid. Hey, plus, bonus, all of your bills are getting paid because you have all that money in that specific account. So it's just very, I said it before, organized, systemized, automatic. Like all of this allows you to do the least amount as possible. And that's a good thing. We love you. But Shana said, the more you're in it, the more manual things have to be, the more we mess it up. So we want you to take a little bit of time upfront, get all this stuff done, and then basically sit back and watch.

17:05And you just have to maintain. Yeah. And the thing is, like, you don't have time to budget. You don't want to do it because you think it's going to take a lot of time. So you're not doing it. Like, these are all the problem. And we get it. We understand you're busy and you have a million things pulling at your attention and your brain calories. That's why we wanted to give you these simple shortcuts that you can set up some of these things and budgeting will be automatic without you having to be involved as much. Yeah. So think about do you, which one of these do you already do? Do you already have some of these set in place?

17:33And which ones do you want to add this week? Yeah. Add it to your, to your systems. That's what it's all about with being a busy mom is getting the systems done. So tell us, let us know in the comments. Yeah. If you're watching us. Yeah. Or email us or come in our Facebook group that's free. We'd love to hear from you. And hey, by the way, if you need help, these shortcuts happen to be a very important part of our simplified budget system. Yeah. So if you would love to grab that, it's at budgetbesties.com forward slash budget. It walks you through exactly how to set everything up on autopilot.

18:05It gives you the budget sheets. You have lifetime access to all of this to help you be successful, not just today, but also long term. if you make good money but have nothing to show for it this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be you'll get a personalized result and a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed go to budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz and take the free quiz today that's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with you