In short
Financial Coaching for Women: Episode 508 Summary
Episode Overview Title: How to Create a Simple Budget That Fits Your Life in 2026 Without Tracking Every Dollar Hosts: Shana & Vanessa Podcast Description: This episode focuses on creating a budget that aligns with your lifestyle, allowing for a stress-free financial journey without the need to track every dollar.
Key Themes
- Simple Budgeting: The episode introduces a simple, flexible budget model that eliminates unnecessary complexity.
- Realistic Income and Spending: Emphasis is placed on the importance of using actual income and spending habits to form a functional budget.
- Common Budgeting Mistakes: The hosts discuss typical budgeting errors, such as overcomplicating budgets and failing to adapt them to real life.
Main Discussion Points
- Understanding a Simple Budget
- Definition: A simple budget is one that reflects your actual income and lifestyle, making it easier to stick to.
- Customization: The budget should cater to individual needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Common Mistakes in Budgeting
- Bad Budgets: The hosts examine examples of poorly structured budgets, highlighting issues such as:
- Lack of organization
- Overwhelming lists of expenses
- Failure to categorize expenses effectively
- The Five-Column Budgeting System
- Structure: The hosts propose a five-column budget system:
- Income: All sources of income, including side hustles and bonuses.
- Debt Payments: Minimum payments on all debts, ensuring clarity on obligations.
- Bills: List of all regular bills, including subscriptions and fixed expenses.
- Spending: Categorized spending based on historical data (e.g., groceries, entertainment).
- Savings: Planning for unexpected expenses through designated savings buckets for different needs.
- Automation and Flexibility
- Automatic Budgeting: The importance of automating your budget to reduce stress and make financial management seamless.
- Flexibility: The budget should be adaptable to changes in income or expenses without overwhelming the user.
- Practical Steps to Implement Budgeting
- Homework Assignment: List your spending for the past 90 days to identify patterns and set realistic budget amounts.
- Q&A Segment: The episode includes a Q&A where common budget-related queries are addressed.
Key Takeaways
- Start Simple: Focus on creating a budget that fits your life rather than adhering to complicated structures.
- Real Data is Key: Use actual spending and income data to create a realistic budget that you can stick with.
- Embrace Automation: Automating your budgeting process can alleviate stress and make financial management simpler.
- Identify and Adjust: Regularly review spending patterns and adjust your budget to reflect changes in your financial situation.
Conclusion The episode encourages listeners to begin their budgeting journey with a practical, straightforward approach. By understanding their financial habits and implementing a simple budget that works automatically, listeners can achieve financial stability and reduce stress around money management.
For further learning and resources, listeners are directed to check out their Money Makeover Bootcamp and Simplified Budget System available for purchase.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOOverview of Today’s Topics
1:19 to 2:26
An outline of the episode's agenda, including discussing bad budgets and interactive elements.
“And we're going to be here for about 30 minutes together today for, for everything that we got going on.”
Identifying Bad Budgets
2:27 to 4:50
Discussion on examples of poorly structured budgets and their flaws.
“You guys, we just want to show you some examples of bad budgets.”
The Importance of Budget Structure
4:51 to 7:17
Explanation of how to transition from bad budgets to a structured approach.
“The handwriting is not all over the place.”
Defining Income and Debt
7:18 to 11:43
Understanding the distinctions between income and debt in budget planning.
“So income, what is considered income, Shana?”
Creating a Simple Budget
11:44 to 13:50
Step-by-step guidance on how to create a straightforward budget with essential categories.
“Bills, like Vanessa said, is anything with the due date.”
Personalizing Your Budget
13:51 to 14:02
Encouragement to customize the budget to fit personal financial habits and needs.
“So you see, guys, we tried to make this as simple.”
Understanding the Spending Category
14:02 to 17:05
Learn how to identify and systematize monthly spending for effective budgeting.
“And this really, the rest of this made a lot of sense to you.”
The Importance of Savings in Budgeting
17:06 to 19:21
Discover how to plan for unexpected expenses and create savings categories.
“you're going to start saving for those on purpose.”
Creating a Visual and Manageable Budget
19:22 to 21:08
Understand how to set up a clear, one-page budget that’s easy to follow.
“Let's take the stress, the time, the tracking, all of the yucky stuff that you associated with the B word out of it, make it pretty.”
Debunking Budgeting Myths and Real-Life Applications
21:09 to 23:37
Explore common budgeting myths and the importance of realistic budgeting.
“Remember when we looked at them and there's, there was different stuff on there, including it fixed and variable expenses.”
Show all 24 chapters
Conducting a 90-Day Budget Audit
23:38 to 28:00
Learn how to analyze your spending patterns and set accurate budget goals.
“But okay, so let's head back over to, yep, here we go.”
Setting Realistic Budget Expectations
28:00 to 28:39
Learn the importance of choosing realistic budget numbers and understanding spending habits.
“If you're naturally spending$2 ,000 a month in groceries, you're going to think you fail.”
The No-Tracking Budgeting Approach
28:40 to 29:48
Discover a budgeting method that eliminates the need for tracking every expense.
“She says, does it track transactions throughout the month?”
Managing Income and Paychecks
29:49 to 31:06
Explore how to structure your budget for varying incomes and multiple paychecks.
“Tessie had a question about the budget and income.”
Building a Buffer for Bills
31:07 to 33:18
Learn strategies to create a financial buffer for bills and spending during tight months.
“And then we can, we love to add the overtime as it comes in.”
Organizing Debt and Spending
33:19 to 35:08
Understand how to organize debts and spending for better financial clarity.
“spent at the beginning of the month for the end of the month.”
Creating a Cushion in Your Budget
35:09 to 36:08
Discover the importance of having a cushion in your budget when starting out.
“We're really happy to be able to answer them because on the podcast, it's one way.”
Adjusting Business Income in Budget
36:09 to 37:09
Learn how to adjust your budget for variable business income effectively.
“I think you just up those numbers until you figure out what that number is that you want.”
Living Paycheck to Paycheck vs. Being Ahead
37:49 to 41:18
Understand how to transition from living paycheck to paycheck to being ahead financially.
“How do you navigate the transition to this budgeting?”
Simplifying Spending Audits
41:19 to 42:03
Learn how to simplify spending audits and categorize expenses effectively.
“So just know that's the end result for you guys.”
Simplifying Budgeting: Moving Past Complexity
42:03 to 42:55
Learn how to simplify your budgeting by generalizing your expenses.
“That's how you're trying to ask questions like that and answer questions.”
Choosing the Right Months for Budgeting
42:55 to 45:19
Understand why it's important to select appropriate months for budget assessments.
“But she did say doing her homework tonight or doing their homework, maybe they shouldn't use December.”
Annual Bills and Spending Audits
45:19 to 46:32
Discover how to account for annual bills and conduct spending audits in your budget.
“And listen, the income, the minimum debt payments, you know, the bills, you know, the savings, you may not even have that.”
Utilizing Technology for Budgeting
46:32 to 47:51
Learn how to effectively use Google Drive to manage your budget across devices.
“So basically I would say all the numbers that are going to go in your budget, you just have to put it on paper.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Do 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?
0:28you'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.
1:00We 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. All right. Welcome, guys. All right. So let's go ahead and dive in. And we're going to be here for about 30 minutes together today for, for everything that we got going on. Let's talk about what we're going to talk about. First, we're going to talk to you guys.
1:30We're going to show you some bad budgets. Yeah. We're going to show you what some not cute budgets look like from those who have sent them into us. I've even had clients. They'll show us their budget at the very beginning when they start coaching. And I'm like, Hey, do you mind if I use as an example, because I really love how this is all laid out for you. Yeah. I love that so much for you. Yeah. So then we're going to go over what, how do you take a bad budget and what that looks like and how do you change it into something that you want to do something that it's piecing to the piecing to the eye, right?
1:56Yeah. We're going to have a giveaway. We also have some homework for you. We'll put that in the chat. It's a little workbook that you can do. And we have a spending audit that we're going to tell you about to help you get started on this journey. And then we're going to answer your questions because you probably will have a lot. And we're that's, we love this part of it where we can be interactive with you guys. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point, Shana. So you guys write your questions down as we go through all the slides, as we go through through the budget section by section. And then at the end, when we have Q and a, we'll throw them all in the chat so that we can see them all at once and answer together.
2:24All right. So let's go ahead and click on to our first bad budget. You guys, we just want to show you some examples of bad budgets. Vanessa said, we get the opportunity to see so many and it's so fun. And we want to talk about why they're bad here. This is okay. First of all, let's see. Do you know what's happening in this budget? Does it, can anybody, I do see that they have$2 ,100 of total income. I'm excited for them about that. But we have fixed expenses. Don't forget about the variable expenses. Don't like, this is just an example of, I don't know what's happening. I think it's color coordinated.
2:55It's not terrible. She's trying, she's trying really hard. Yeah. So listen, I think the hard part here is that it's not as organized as in her brain. I think that it's still not organized. It's still all over the place. We have some things going vertical, some things going horizontal. So it's not, we're not really sure as to the flow of the whole budget. Yeah. Okay. Here's another example of a fun, bad budget. Okay. Look at this huge list. So you guys, a lot of times what you're doing as far as budgeting or what we see is just a list of bills. And as there's way more going on with your money than just bills, bills are just like ones not small sometimes maybe the least fun part of your budget, but that's not a budget.
3:34This is just a list of bills. A lot of times that's what we see. Yeah. And she has a color coordinated to where things that are being paid with what paycheck. And sometimes they're being paid with both paychecks. So again, she's still living that paycheck to paycheck cycle. Yep. Yep. Here's another example. And so you guys, this is what we started off with. You guys may know us, by the way, I'm Shana. Oh, I'm Vanessa. Welcome to our bootcamp. Burnett blonde. Yes. We're just doing a great job. And we started financial coaching. We were trained by Dave Ramsey. We started doing stuff with him under his program, using his budget.
4:06and this is where what sort of led us a lot we were using budgets like this and it was like i don't want to break my entertainment up in between movie theater concert plays books i don't know how much i'm going to spend on that every all year all month or whatever it's so convoluted it's so in the weeds there's a lot of stuff going on here but i don't i still don't actually feel like i have any idea what's going on with my money i also think where it says daily living like there are some things that i consider daily living for me that somebody may not it may be different so that's why with our, with the way that we systemize our budget, it's gives you the freedom to decide that on your own.
4:38So that way you'd, it's not fit into somebody's box. We love to say that our budget is not cookie cutter. It shouldn't be your budget is your budget and it's around your life. All right. Here's another bad budget example. Now, can we all be honest and say that you have pretty good handwriting? The handwriting is not all over the place. It's very neat and like in a line it's, it's even, I feel like that's, that should count for something. But still again, let's look at this. They're getting they got some income up in the top left. We've got some stuff down going down August budget. Bad what does that say you guys do we even know let lad groceries restaurants, all kinds of fun things.
5:15Nobody really knows. Again, a handwritten budget. It's not the worst thing in the world. But again, nobody really knows what's going on with our money. And this is why you guys don't you know why we all feel like sort of out of control. I have I make good money, but I don't know what's going on with it or where it's going. So here's another example. One more. Now, first of all, they're speaking my love language because this is in a planner. Was this your client? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And I love it. Who's a planner person? Tell me in the, oh, Susan. Hey, Fran. Hers is handwritten.
5:46Nothing wrong with handwritten, handwritten budgets, especially if you have good handwriting. Who's a planner person? So I'm for it that she's writing it in her planner. That's not bad. But again, what do we have here, guys? We have a list of heel place. We have a list of Mother's Day. Okay. So she's got some of the spending going on in here, but does anybody, can anybody tell me what's happening with this budget? Can you just guess? Do you know? Does anybody have some things are erased and checked? We like, how much money does she have for literally anything? Does anybody know? No. Is that her income at the top?
6:16Check. I think so. Okay. Cool. Fun, fun for her. All right. So really we're not tooting our own horn, but we really are. That's why you're here. We want to show you what a good budget is, what a good budget looks like and why it's better. So we go from this one, this list of massive things and due dates that are confusing and maybe not super organized friendly. Yeah. Organized to something. So we went through all these bad budgets. This is what we're working with as we're building our business. And we decided to build our own. And we're going to show you today exactly why it's a better budget, why it's going to help you figure out what's actually going on with your money and how it's going to help you actually budget.
6:54Yep. Okay. So let's, we're going to go through column by column because the way that we have our budget set up, it is five simple columns. So there's no variable or fixed or daily living or needs and wants. We don't have any of that. We have five columns and it matches exactly what you do with your hands. And this is how we think every budget should be set up after doing this for years. We really feel like this is our final like stamp on budgeting on what we feel like how it looks. So income, what is considered income, Shana? It is everything that you bring in. It doesn't matter whether you have a yard sale that, if you have that month, if you have side hustles, if you have a bonus check, if you have commissions, if you have your tax return, anything that's coming into your account that month is considered income.
7:43So we want to make sure we put it in the income section. Yeah. And guys, we are breaking it down here because this is what you do with your hands. And so many times a budget is, is just making, it's like busy work. That's what we've noticed. People are, you're, you feel good because you did something. You wrote something down, Susan, no, not pointing you out. You wrote something down. You've got a lot of colors. You've got a lot of due dates. You've got a whole list of bills, which actually is a really important first step, but you don't know what to do once you're done with all that data. There's just numbers and words on a piece of paper.
8:13So what we're going going to do here is we're going to put some income in here. And that's going to tell us very first, that's the first thing that's happening with our money. We're making it, which is important for the first part of our budget. Okay. So that's what we do. We have income. And so you saw in some of those other bad budgets, they have it listed by paychecks. We're still going to do the same thing. What paychecks you have during the month, like Vanessa said, anything else extra. And then we're going to move on to the, everybody's favorite part of the budget. Yeah. So we go from the worst, the best number of the budget, right?
8:41Which is your income. Cause it's the only positive number in your budget to the most, the least, most, least exciting, which is your minimum debt payments. Okay. We're going straight from the work from the best to the worst. So here you want to list all of your minimum debt payments only. So no, if you guys are paying$50 extra or a hundred dollars extra, we want to take that down, not forever, but just to visually see, so we can make sure we know what our money looks like. You want to know, can I afford to do everything that I want to do? And then the only way to answer that is to make sure that you can pay the minimums first.
9:16Yeah. And a lot of times people don't know how much extra they can pay on debt until, and they're just guessing. And that's why we're going to systematically tell you, we don't want any of this to be a guesswork. We want it to be actual math, actual hard numbers, and you know exactly what to do. Okay. So after you've listed your debts, which guys over here in our budget, I'll just show you really quickly. A lot of times we haven't looked and we don't blame you. Raise your hand if you want to look at all of your debt. Like, no, just keep your hand down. You don't need to do that because we know you don't.
9:44But it is an important step. It's the first step to getting out of debt. And so this might be the first time that you've ever actually looked at your debt all on one piece of paper, which is really important. First step to getting out of debt. Then the next thing we're going to do, see, and this is the other thing. If you can look at the budget here, it's doing the math for you, right? So we start off with this great number of$12 ,646. Yay. We realized, oh, this is super fun. I pay$1 ,700 in debt minimums every month. And then I'm going to put over here, put my bills. That's where I can list all these bills out.
10:14Again, that was a good step in some of those other budgets, but because we may never have known all the full total of how many bills we are paying each month. What's really interesting is once you get it all on one piece of paper, you might realize I have some duplicates. I have some stuff that I don't want to pay for. And so that's where this really comes in handy. And so this is going to be all of your bills, a bill, as Shanna said, anything with a due date that you have coming up that month. So your subscriptions, your auto insurance, everything, your gym membership, this is not a needs or a wants column, right?
10:45This isn't fixed or variable income or fixed or variable expenses. These are all of the bills. Anything that you are paying for monthly that is due, you're going to put here. And if you notice, we have a buffer of 200 bucks. That's because this is the first time this person is making a budget and they may have forgotten some stuff and they're not really sure. They want to make sure that they capture everything. So they're putting a little bit of a buffer here just to make sure that if something does come through that they forgot to write down, that it's going to cover it. Yeah. And so just to go back really quick to define what income is.
11:15Income is any money that you have coming in that you're getting that's a positive, right? An Amazon refund, a car, like Vanessa said, a garage sale, whatever. Debt is any money you owe anyone for any reason. That's in the past, right? I owe money to my mom because I took a loan. I owe money to my car payment. I owe money to my credit cards. We put your mortgage in the bills section because it's a lifelong kind of bill. Not necessarily, but in general, it's not usually one that you're trying to pay off. This debt column is for what you're trying to get rid of. You're trying to get rid of that column and wipe them all clean.
11:46And so that's what that's for. Bills, like Vanessa said, is anything with the due date. Anything that has a consistent due date that's coming to you invoiced monthly. That's what you know is a bill. again, it's not just the needs. It's also subscriptions that you see Disney plus all of that stuff on there. So just to get those definitions in there. And I wanted to go back to the debts too. I think that was a really good point. We have a lot of people that come to us that start coaching and they have a lot of debts listed in their bills column. Cause like what's a bill, it's a monthly bill I paid every month.
12:14I'm like, yeah, but your student loan is a debt. Your car payment is a debt. Like she said, that loan that you owe mom for helping that down payment on your house, that is also a debt. So there's no shame in listing out your debts. It's really just data. There's no drama attached to it. It's just the data. We want to see all the numbers written down. And that's how we want to separate it. Because Shana said the goal here is for you to completely remove the debt column, right? We want to get rid of everything over there. And so that's why the mortgage for most people stay over on the bills. Now, if all you have is your mortgage left and you're like, listen, that's the one that I'm focused on that I want to get rid of, move that baby over to the debt column.
12:49And then that's the one that you're tackling. Yeah. And I just want to say, I have a client tomorrow that had so many debts and her last one was the money she owed her mom. And we're going to get rid of that one tomorrow, once and for all. And you guys are all here. Great job being here. Nobody wants to talk about the B word. We know that, but getting it all like finally taking ownership, finally looking at it, it's going to make you feel way better. Taking control of this. You make good money. You have money to budget. That's awesome. Congratulations. You're going to feel really good once you get this done.
13:17And so just get through the hard part of getting it all out and on paper. Yeah, I think that's important as well, because listen, the hardest part is starting. Shane and I were talking about decision anxiety earlier. Sometimes there's so much that you think you have to do or that you have to get done. And so you don't do anything at all. When you can list a budget out like this, that's five simple, easy columns that you understand, income, debt, bill, spending, savings, that makes it so much easier. And it just makes you understand how money flows throughout the month. So the first thing we want you to do is just to start.
13:48And like Shana said, just start writing things down. Okay. So next up. So you see, guys, we tried to make this as simple. We showed you those bad budgets. Nobody really knows what's going on. I feel like my fifth grader could explain to you what's going on with this budget. Right? It's so simple. It's one, two, three, four, five. All done. A, B, C, D, E. So we are smarter than a fifth grader. Or at least add smart. Like the same level. I'm not sure which one. All right. So we're going into spending next. That's our next column. And this really, the rest of this made a lot of sense to you. Debt, what a debt is, or at least you do now, you know what a bill is.
14:21Spending is where we really are different, I think, than pretty much anybody I've seen do budgets. So tell Vanessa, tell them about spending and why we're different. So we have spending, we have a lot of lines here because we want people to do it however suits them and what makes the most sense for them. But the way that we have it listed is your budget should be as automatic and as systemized as possible, meaning your groceries and gas, family fun, each of y 'all's pocket money. It says Brittany and James. And then the kids, those are pretty much going to be the same every month, right? We want you to figure out and do the homework to decide how much do I normally spend in these categories every single month reoccurring?
14:57We understand Thanksgiving, Christmas, things like that, throw a wrench in shopping for groceries and stuff. But we're talking about on a regular everyday basis, how much do I spend in these categories? Once you figure that out, you're going to list it here. And you know, pretty much that 90 % of your spending every single month is systemized because you now know how much you spend and how much you want to spend in those categories. Yeah. A lot of people think they have a budget problem or an overspending problem, but truly it's because you don't know how much you have to spend. You're going through that.
15:27We're going to talk about this tomorrow, that one account that has everything going on in it. And you're like, I'm not sure what's happening. So either you use a credit card or you just spend all your money and you just hope for the best, or you make it a problem for a future. You raise your hand if you've been there. Okay. But what we're doing here is giving you permission to spend, freedom to spend money. You have money every month for all of the categories. You don't have to track it because it's already tracked within its own category. I have$400 for us to go out to you as a family, to go roller skating, to do all the things.
15:54And that's it. There's no more things that I need to do. Okay, so then spending. And we're going to talk about how to come up with these numbers because that can be confusing. Every family, every household is different. But yeah, so this is the spending category. It's really, like Vanessa said, where you're going to live in your budget. It's the best part of your budget, probably. It's the most fun, I think. Okay. Okay, so we talked about the top, how those are pretty much systemized. Eventually, you'll figure out how much you spend in those categories. We have it listed out at the bottom where it says this month.
16:23These are the things that are the one-off expenses that you know are happening, and it's month-specific. Okay, so this one is SAT testing fee, Xander's birthday, and Matt's birthday. That could be an uncle. That could be a child. That could be a brother or whatever. So they have it listed here so that way they know that it's outside of their normal spending. Yeah. And again, this will help you. The next one is going to really help you, but this is going to help you. Like Vanessa said, make your budget the same every month. But once you do this process, you don't need to keep repeating it. Like just do the bulk of the work and make it the same.
16:53And if there's the few little things like Vanessa said that maybe, and I think this is consistent for all of our clients, like two or$300 is really like the monthly stuff that pops up. Why? We'll tell you why. because instead of guessing and having Christmas surprise you and the property taxes surprise you, you're going to start saving for those on purpose. Again, I think this is a game changer. We're not necessarily the only people that talk about it, but the way that we're going to teach you to do it and have it be all encompassing, I think is unique. And so let's dial in to the savings minutes I hear.
17:23Okay. So we've listed out income, your minimum debt payments, all of your bills and all of your spending. So the next column that we have is your savings. So what is savings? savings is all those unexpected expenses that pop up throughout the year that you haven't or forgot to budget for so if you look at all of your debts i guarantee if you go line by line through all of your credit card statements it's not that you went on and bought some glamorous purse or you went on this massive vacation because you knew you were blowing money it was probably gas and groceries and this sat testing fee and your child's birthday and things that you travel sports right all these things that you were just trying to get through the month because your money somehow disappeared.
18:03So what we're doing here is if you look at savings, it's listed out very strategically. We have annual bills. We have things for kids, travel, Christmas, gifts, glam up, vehicle maintenance, home, pets, medical. We understand that you guys may not be able to start all those at once, but the goal eventually is to be able to take care of all of those unexpected expenses and be able to budget for them on a monthly basis. So that way they're no longer surprises. And so a savings bucket, like Vanessa said, is basically a on purpose savings category or savings for a specific category. Gone are the days of this random one savings account that is supposedly setting stuff, setting money aside that you don't know what it's for.
18:43Sometimes you steal it because you want to spend money. You have to track it in an Excel spreadsheet of how much goes where. And we're not doing that. So we're going to talk about separate separating stuff tomorrow, but essentially you are saving here for all the things that are going to pop up in, in your life. And like we've said, this is the stuff that derails your budget. This is what makes you think you're not good at budgeting because I forgot about the property taxes, like somebody said here, or I forgot about my HOA dues or all of these different things that pop up. We're going to start saving for them on purpose so that again, you guys, your budget is going to be the same every month.
19:13Most of the time your pay, we have some entrepreneurs in here, your pay is the same or pretty similar. Why can't your whole budget be the same? And then by the end of this week, we're going to tell you how it can all be automated. Let's take the stress, the time, the tracking, all of the yucky stuff that you associated with the B word out of it, make it pretty. So this is pretty. Raise your hand if you think this budget is pretty. Okay. Raise your hand. Also raise your hand. If you want your budget to be automatic. Yeah. Hello. Hello. We're waiting on Friday. We are going through that. Like how much, how many of you guys want that for you?
19:40Yeah. And it does all the math for you. That's where we're at. Okay. It's 20, 20, six, but your budget should be automatic. Your budget should be pretty. Your budget should be easy. Your budget should be something you want to do. It's not, and it shouldn't have to be something that you have to consternate over. What am I doing this month? How is everything going to be awful this month? Nope. It's going to be the same. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be systematic. So as you can see, we showed you the bad budget before Vanessa, and you didn't do the song bad budget, bad budget. I know. Yeah, it's okay.
20:08I did it for you a little bit. Okay. But what we do know is that you can see the after here and you can see the, one of our favorite things about it is how clear it is on one page. Yeah, absolutely. And it's easy. So we figure if it's on one page, It can't be scary. It can't be that scary. Not very long. We have the right amount of lines here, the right amount of columns that fits. And here's the thing is too, if you get ours, it all prints on one page, which is really important. So if you guys want to take a look at that budgetbesties.com forward slash budget, you can go look at that. But really the idea here is that you can print it all because we know at the very beginning, when you're first starting out on this, sometimes paper and pencil, like sometimes going through it's going through an old school, Shane, it's like the hems in church.
20:51Sometimes the hems, like there's something to that, right? So go old school sometimes and print it out and you have it and you can see it tangibly in your hands. So being able to see it all on one page makes it not as scary as you may think it is. Right. And, and it can't take that long to do if it's only one page. Right. And then also, again, what we said is it matches what you do with your hands. Remember when we looked at them and there's, there was different stuff on there, including it fixed and variable expenses. Like, I don't know needs and wants. No, I pay bills. Oh, that's fun. I pay bills.
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21:22I spend money and And I try to save money for that's what I do with my, that's what my money does. And that's why we set it up this way. And then the other thing that, that we wanted to get into is coming right up. I want to, okay, good. One more. We're going to go over what tab, one more tab. One more tab. Listen, we've done income, debts, bills, spending, savings. At the very end of all this, you notice it still has$888 remaining after they've entered everything in. And this, look, this is only, this is a$12 ,000 income. They're doing a lot with their money. but sometimes you don't realize that you can do this much with your money.
21:57If you don't write it down and see it visually for yourself. Right. So what we want to do is the last thing we add is the extra on debt. So this person's goal, even yes, they are saving all that, but they're, they also want to pay off some debt with. So with all of this, they're able to put$888 extra on debt for this month. Yeah. Okay. Babs, Babs in the chat said, y 'all talk fast. Southerners listen slow. So I'm going to try and it's going to, it's going to work for one minute. I'm going to try to talk slower and then it's going to go away. So what we will say too, is this is the recorded and you go negative.
22:27Can you do negative like 0.5? Yeah. Yeah. So when, when this comes into a podcast, go on the podcast and you can go 0.5. Okay. So what I want to show you, okay. When my, I don't know, there's different kinds of people. When my husband retired, he was, can you work on that? He was so like anxious that we had to look at the budget every day. Okay. And we had to make sure that the numbers were still numbering, right? The math was still math, math. So what we would might do is say, okay, if we only pay extra on debt, 500, which whatever, if we only do that, because we really want to have more, I want to have more money.
22:58Like I want to be realistic and we can play with the numbers.
23:06There we go. It's important to be realistic. It's important to be able to have the budget do the math for you, but make sure you are being realistic, especially let's say with like groceries, right? And then you can always adjust this number later. As you go, you're not going to get it perfect the first time. No problem. We have a buffer in here to help all the stragglers. And you can just feel good about the fact that you can play with it. It doesn't have to be, it's not anyone else's budget. It's your budget. It's your life. It's what you want. And it's what you need. And we'll go, when we go over the homework, we'll talk about that.
23:37So that way you guys can understand how you come up with these spending numbers, But okay, so let's head back over to, yep, here we go. So you can see. The technology worked. It did work. I didn't think it was. So listen, y 'all can see how we have the previous budget. And then what we just walked you through is on the right hand side and how much better, easier to understand and easier to read that is. You can see it. Okay. It's time to do a quick giveaway. So guys, every day we're just going to give away two gift cards and you'll be able to choose what you want. We do Amazon, Starbucks, gift, Target.
24:09Yep. Amazon, Target. Hey, they're in the same store. So, so we're going to go ahead and pick those out of the chat right now. Oh my gosh. We have so many questions. I'm so excited. Oh yes. Michelle. Okay. So you're going to pick two people while I go through some of these questions. Michelle, we're going to talk tomorrow. I think about that question about the savings buckets, but yes, every savings account is going to be every savings bucket is going to be its own account. Aussies listen slower to listen. Did I speed back up? I can't tell. All right. Vanessa's finding the winners. She's doing the things.
24:40Okay. I have Cheryl. Yay. There is no last name, just Cheryl with a C. If you, that is you, girl. Email us at budget best, hello at budgetbesties.com. I have, oh, she's clapping. Somebody's clapping. Yeah. Yay. Okay. So listen, email us. We will send you your gift card. Okay. And then, yeah. Got one more. One more. Let's see. We got Laura. Yay. I'm not going to say that last name, right? Do you have it? Oh. Majkut. I don't know. M-A-J-K-U-T. If that is you, girl, you won a gift card. So email us, hello at budgetbesties.com. Okay. All right. Now I happen to know somebody, we might know somebody that might be around with this story that's currently in here.
25:28What's happening? Did I write on the thing? What's happening, you guys? Okay. It's fine. Yeah, she is in here, but go ahead and read the testimonial. Okay. So Becky says that she, hold on. Y 'all, everything is going just fine. Don't worry. Okay. So Becky says that this budget system has been a game changer for me. She's I've paid off my car, organized my finances, and now I'm working towards my long-term goals, whether it's trips with her sister or saving for a new car. She said she knows that the budget system is working for her. We love Becky. She's been with us. I think from the beginning, she's been a superstar.
26:01We love her. Yeah. And I think that it's just real life what she's saying, like trips, trips was always the thing that she wanted to do with her sister, saving for a new car, paying off car, paying off debt. Like these are real things that we want to do with our money. And so that's what a good budget is going to help you do. Here's another fun family. Look at them with all their, they have as many, they have more furry, furry friends. But maybe that's to be updated. So she said she's loving the system. She said, I just started it. And I already see a difference with my spending. My favorite part is that it does the math for you.
26:31No guessing as your income comes in and as your bills go out, how much, how much you have, right? She said she's highly recommended. Yeah. How much more money you have once you have all of that figured out. And we are actually, you guys going to talk about, let me go real quick. Just real quick. It went away somewhere tomorrow. Oh, there it is. We're going to talk about getting clear on where your money is. And that's where your money is going. That's what we're going to talk about tomorrow. So she really hit the nail on the head. We're going to get to questions here in a minute. But right now I want you to know that you have a little homework because setting this up is, is going to take you just a minute, but you might be like, I'm not sure exactly how to figure out the spending, the spending numbers or how to figure out my savings numbers or what my bills are.
27:10So you're going to do this little homework. It shouldn't take too long, less than 30 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So what we're, what we're wanting to do is do, we call it like our 90 day audit. Okay. And it's really just going back and going, okay, how much did I spend in these different categories and how much do I want to spend? So what we, what you're going to first do is get highlighters and you're going to go get your credit card statements or your bank statements. And you're going to say, okay, this blue highlighter is for the restaurants. And this green highlighter is for all of my bills and yellow highlighter is for all of my fund spending.
27:43And you're just going to categories just to see visually, how much are you spending in those categories? Remember no shame. Do not shame yourself. This is not what this exercise is for. It's literally just data. We're trying to see what's going on. So then we know how we can put these numbers in your budget. Cause there's no sense in saying, I think I want to spend$1 ,200 a month in groceries. That's my budgeted amount. If you're naturally spending$2 ,000 a month in groceries, you're going to think you fail. You're going to think you can't budget. You're going to think budgets aren't for you. You think you're not going to be successful, so you'll stop.
28:13So the goal here is to pick realistic numbers. We want to know how are you spending money, okay? And then how do you want to continue spending money in the future? Yeah, yep. Okay, so now we are going to get to your questions. Again, I put the link, I put the whole workbook for homework in your chat. You'll get an email that has a link where you can download it if you don't want to download it right now, either, or you can just do, you can just follow along with what Vanessa said. She told you exactly what to do. I want to answer, we want to answer some questions here and, oh, Lisa, we're going to answer that one real quick.
28:46Okay. Right now, right away. She says, does it track transactions throughout the month? So I know how much is left for groceries or restaurants. She said our favorite word guys, track. This is definitely our favorite word. Okay, so listen, here's the wonderful thing about and how our budget is different than anything you've ever seen. We do not want you to track your spending. We do not want you to track your expenses. This is why they're different categories. Everything at gas and groceries or however you wanna divide it up, anything from, let's just say groceries, anything that's groceries, it goes in the grocery account and you don't have to track it.
29:21The balance in that account becomes what you're looking at. That becomes the amount of money that you don't go over. So when I pull up my bank app and I see Vanessa's spending, I see gas and groceries, I see kids, right? I have those debit cards. I am spending money out of those accounts and I don't have to track anything. All I see is the balance that's in that account. And that's the only thing I have to worry about. So again, we're not all about you having to track. Hope that made sense, Lisa. Okay. Tessie had a question about the budget and income. She said, what is the amount, the max amount of income lines that can fit on your one page budget?
29:56But listen, we're really excited for you, Tessie, because you probably you get paid every week. But I'm also taking it as what you're saying is that you make a lot of money. You just make a lot of money. And so you don't have enough room for all the money. That's exactly what she's probably saying, right? Yeah. But but yeah, there are enough in there for two, two people getting five paychecks a week a month or five paychecks a month. So you can do every paycheck. If you have more than that, we do have people that kind of combine them as the month goes on. So you start off with whatever. And then if you need to, you can combine two weeks into one.
30:26just in case. If you're a business, we, a lot of people will try to use ours as a business. We do, you can use our budget sheet, but if you listen to some of our podcasts, we track income differently in businesses. So you don't need to track if you're a business, every single income that comes in, that's not the way we do things. But for our personal, Shana, we've done this for six years. I mean, that's the, we have enough lines in there. Like it's never been a problem. I don't think. Yeah. I do love this question though. It said overtime, it varies each pay cycle, depending on how many hours worked.
30:57Do I add a line for overtime or just update the income line each pay cycle? Love that question. We are going to budget with your regular paychecks. We're going to put those in there. They're always going to be in there. And then we can, we love to add the overtime as it comes in. That way you can assign that money on purpose and your paychecks will roll forward. So all you'll ever really have to change is the overtime amount. Yeah. Or you can, so what we do is we put in the bare minimum, right? So if you're always going to make$5 ,000 a month at work. So that's the amount you put in. And then you can update that line.
31:28If your checks are more, that's another way to do it. Right. But there's no need to, I don't think to, I guess you put in separate lines for your clients. You put it over time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I do mine a little different with my clients. I don't, we just update the line that goes in, but we always start off with the bare minimum, right? Like we always put that in there because we always want to make sure over time or not that your budget is covered. Yeah. Somebody asked about how they tell debit cards. I know we're all over the place, guys. So today, let me just say real quick. Today, we're talking about how to create a simple budget that fits your life, a budget that you actually will stick to.
32:02Tomorrow, we're going to get clear on where your money is going. Okay, so that's going to answer a lot of questions. But I did want to show you Vanessa got my kids and I specific debit card stickers for our debit cards, because our bank, everybody gets the exact same debit card, the exact same one. So everybody in our house has the same debit card. Isn't it great? It's super easy. It's so fine. So we have labels, but we have labels. So if you guys are interested, just email us. Hello at budgetvesties.com. We just got those in last month and we're ready to send them out. All right, let me look.
32:32We have so many more questions. She's struggling with bills, timing versus paycheck versus automating all the money for the spending categories. It's like, there's not enough at sometimes and then plenty of others. I'll just start with. Okay. So this is where you need to build a buffer on the time of the month where you don't have all of your bills coming out. So we have a lot of people that say the front half of the month is bills heavy. And then I have all this extra money at the end of the month. So that's usually where I spend it all. We want to try to make sure we can build a buffer at the back end of the month, or I'm just throwing a number out there, right back into the month where you don't have as many bills coming out.
33:06And then once you build that buffer and your bit in your budget, then it's always going to be consistent, but you do have to sacrifice. There's going to be like a, a really not a hard time, but it'll just be a time where it's a little tight, right. For a couple of weeks while you're still spending the same amount that you would have spent at the beginning of the month for the end of the month. So that way you can build the buffer moving forward. I like the lean, the lean. Hopefully I'm saying that her question said, how do you navigate the transition to this budgeting when bills and debt use all the income and there's nothing left for spending.
33:36You're spending money one way or the other. So either you're, you do have a little bit leftover for spending or you're using credit cards. So what we want to do is get everything organized with debt and income and bills, exactly what we just laid out. And if you truly, once you put everything in those numbers on the one piece of paper and you truly have nothing left over, then we can talk about, or then you can use your credit card for spending until you figure it out, but you're going to have to figure it out, right? Because you're going to have to find wiggle room in and live within the amount of money that you're making.
34:08However, what we often see often is once you get it all on one piece of paper, you start to see, oh, I should have a little bit leftover. I should have this much leftover once I do all the math. And that's where we want to separate that on purpose so that you can start learning one that you have money to spend and also easily know how much you have to spend. And that will help you to get everything organized. And then eventually we find that people actually get better with their spending habits just by having it organized guys, just by not having it in one account, just by knowing, even if it's only a hundred bucks, even if it's only 200 bucks, knowing that I specifically definitely have that much money to spend on myself or spend in general helps everything else.
34:46It helps your nervous system. It helps all the things. I think the faster you can get it separate and organized it, the faster you're going to stop overspending, or you'll actually know what's going on and you'll spend less and you'll end up getting ahead faster. And we do believe like after years of doing this, that is just something that is the number one game changer is having separate accounts. Okay, we got a couple more questions here. We have so many, you guys, so we may not be able to get to all of them, but they're great questions. We're really happy to be able to answer them because on the podcast, it's one way.
35:13So maybe we can look at some of these and get some podcast episodes out of it. But she says, should, Caitlin says, should we have a cushion in each account? This is my first month using the system and my fiance and I are worried that we would not have it correct this month. Do we take the cushion out later or leave it in the account? Caitlin great question we if you're talking about your bills account then yeah we would recommend having a cushion in there eventually when you're a paycheck ahead you don't have to necessarily have a cushion but definitely when you're starting give yourself the grace like you might have forgotten the bill you might accidentally spin out of bills whatever happens it's fine you're just learning you're getting your feet wet on this so definitely give yourself a cushion and give some grace yeah as far as spending accounts that's you're right you're just guessing until you figure out what that sweet number, a sweet spot is.
35:58So that's what we recommend doing this spending audit, trying to figure out how much do I normally spend in a month? What do I want to be spending in a month? And you'll put those in there. And again, you're not going to get it right at the beginning. So if that's what you're asking about a buffer, I don't really think it's a buffer. I think you just up those numbers until you figure out what that number is that you want. Yeah. Yeah. It says if your business income is variable month to month, then do you go in at the end of the month to adjust? Yeah. Yeah. Again, like what Vanessa is saying with the overtime pay, what we're going going to build your budget on is your bare, your kind of your minimum.
36:27Like what I know I'm getting all the time, I'm going to build that budget on purpose. And then throughout, or when I get more money in there, I'm going to put it in the income line and then I'm going to assign it. Because if I built my budget with$12 ,000 and I ended up making 13 ,000, when I put that in there, it's going to say, Hey, Shayna, you have a thousand dollars left to do. So I'm either going to go put that in the savings bucket. I'm going to say, Hey, I think I'll spend all that. Maybe not. Or I might say, I'm going to put that on extra on debt, but I'm going to assign it in the budget on purpose every time.
36:55What we'll also say is that we coach a lot of people in their businesses and your business income, your business paycheck to yourself can also be consistent. And we work a lot with our clients with that just because it's just important. It's just as important to make your budget automatic and systemized as it is to make your business because one flows into the other. Right. And so it really is helpful to always know how much you're going to be able to pay yourself. Okay. All right. We have a lot of other questions, But one thing somebody asked is, can we offer a budget for our discount for the budget?
37:27We're actually just, it's discounted right now. It's going to go up for 2026. It was already supposed to go up, but remember we had to reschedule our budget. Our bootcamp guys, like we said, everybody's done being sick. We're done with it. They're done with it. Everybody doesn't get to be sick anymore, but the price is going up after the bootcamp. There's a, there's some different reasons for that. So right now it's at the lowest it's ever going to be. So grab it. Grab it now. Okay. How do you navigate the transition to this budgeting? Oh, we already answered that one. Maybe. Guys, did we answer all your questions?
37:56Will this not work if we put everything on credit cards for the miles and then pay them off every month? We would encourage you, Lisa, to still build your budget. Okay. Build your budget. Be specific because a credit card is not a budget. A credit card is not a budget. Getting miles is something that we can talk about over here. But build your budget. See if you're actually living according to what you want to live and according to your means according to your goals and then go from there. Those are actually two different questions. So building, getting your points on your miles card is different than building a budget.
38:27And so the answer to, if you're doing one, you still need to do the other and you can be successful. Okay. What do you do with the bills that vary? My power bill is different every month. The cool thing, Janet, is it cool? No, but it is a thing. Okay. The thing is your budget, your power bill doesn't vary that much month to month, right? So your budget, your power budget in July is totally different than December. Yes, that's true. But July and August are not that drastically different. You can just keep updating that amount each month. And that will be one of the bills that kind of changes. There's here or there, there's different ways that you can do it.
39:05But that is the easiest way to update it monthly, and it will go up or down 2040 bucks. And you'll just be able to update it when you have 90 % of your bills that stay consistent. And the only thing you have to update every month is your electric bill and your water bill. That's, it's not that hard. There are some other ways and some tips and tricks that we've talked about. We don't recommend doing the, what is the thing that they offer? Like their auto program, whatever they do, whatever their consistent billing thing is, do not do that. That has put so many of our clients in the hole. You can actually do it yourself.
39:34If that's something you want to do, which is basically take 12 months of your electricity bill divided by 12. And then that's how much you put in your monthly budget regardless, but you can only do that in the low months. You can't do that in the high months. Otherwise you're going to be in the hole, but just, that's just a little side, side tip. Oh, Andrea is helping us out here. She said that to remind us of the question, can you define getting a paycheck ahead? We have a podcast episode coming out of that because we know we talk about it all the time, but basically we want your last month, your last paycheck of the month.
40:00So let's say that was December. God bless it. That was so 2025. Oh, please. Okay. December 26th, December 19th. Those were, if you got paid on Friday, maybe you got paid that Thursday, whatever. Those are going to be in your January budget. They're going to be the first paycheck for January. That's how we define it. And we tell you in order how to do that. We will, we do walk you through that, how to do that, but that's how we define it. You're going to have to come to the bootcamp because I believe it's Thursday. I think it's Thursday. We talk about getting a paycheck. Day three, day three. So Wednesday, stop living paycheck to paycheck and get a paycheck ahead.
40:36And also we'll have a podcast episode coming out on it too, because we know it's confusing, but it is going to, when you are just on autopilot, your money is in there getting ready to pay you spending money to pay your bills. Like you don't have to think about what day it is. You forget what pay. Let's be honest. You always know when your spending account gets refilled, but you forget about payday because you're not stressed. You're not waiting for that paycheck to drop in order to be able to pay bills. That's what we want for all of you. The freedom. Can you imagine just your paychecks dropping and you're not even worried about it and your spending accounts getting funded and everything is happening and you're just going about your life.
41:07That is the goal that is eventually. And we have some people that are like, what do I do? Go have fun, go for a walk, go to the park with your kids, go do literally anything else besides stressing about your finances, because it's all taken care of. So just know that's the end result for you guys. Okay. I like Kristen's question and I'm going to give it to you because I know you're going to be like, you're going to help. Okay. How do you suggest we handle this when completing our spending audits? She struggles with breaking down the trips to target and Walmart. Okay. Don't go to target and Walmart helps.
41:34No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. That's not real life. I know. And going back to the totals, because it's confusing because it can, when she's at Walmart or Target, she can get something for the kids. She can get something for the dog, the groceries. It can be something for the house. And I didn't just spend groceries in this purchase. So how do I, what am I doing there? So Vanessa, go. Yeah. So this is where we want to back up and take like a kind of a bird's eye view. We are not about getting nitty gritty in the weeds of everything because that is how you get lost. That's how you get frustrated.
42:04That's how you're trying to ask questions like that and answer questions. And then you're tracking every expense and tracking all of your receipts to figure out how much you spent, where and why. If you're going to Target and Walmart, those are going to go in your gas and groceries. It's your household item section. Unless it's like you're buying a birthday present or you're specifically buying something for your kids that they want, you can use their debit card, that debit card account for that. But when you're going to these places, let's just be general. Let's just stop all the hard work that we're in and all this stress that we're adding onto ourselves and remove that and just say, okay, if I spend this much at these stores on a regular basis, that's what I'm putting into my budget.
42:43I hope that made sense. Yeah. I think it made great sense. And somebody did Andrea. Andrea is really, she's really helping me out. Thank you so much. So is Becky. Thank you. All of you. A lot of people are answering questions for us because they're amazing. So thank you guys all. But she did say doing her homework tonight or doing their homework, maybe they shouldn't use December. as an example. Oh yeah. Let's go back to that because let's not, don't use Thanksgiving. Don't use November. Don't use Christmas. Use a regular month, like maybe September, not August or July, because that's summer and back to school.
43:13You got to be specific, probably October, September. Those are probably good months to judge. Yeah. Somebody asked about extra on debt. It's not automated. So the extra on debt and the, this month, we don't put in your budget. Your budget comes blank. You guys like you, you get to decide how it's going to look, what it's going to be, But yes, so you're going to put that in separate. We put it under the debt column because it is debt. It's just not an automatic payment of debt. Yeah. So that you would put in there and we just, you can actually write whatever you want. Hold on. I'm going to figure this out.
43:38You guys are going to pray for me, pray for this. That's going to work. How do I, how I said I was going to figure it out, but I feel like I lied. I lied like a liar. I don't know how to get to it. I was going to show them the budget. Vanessa. Is it not? It's not showing. Okay. I was going to show you, but. Hey, we're still admitting people into the waiting room. Okay. Sorry, Megan. Hopefully, if you go back and watch this, you can see where we had it in there. We did it automatically. Yeah, it's not a subscription. We don't want it to be a subscription in your budget. We just want to be at one time.
44:04It's speaking of what I think it was Andrea or somebody said, it's one trip to Target. You're going to spend less here than going to Target unless you send your husband in. That's a hack. If you just send him in, he'll get the one thing. What? Maybe other husbands. My husband loves to try new things. He's like, babe. Oh, at the grocery store, you can't send them in the grocery store because they won't get the right things. It's this weird juxtaposition. There's this new craft beer that just came out. I obviously have to try it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay, guys. I'm just looking to see. I want to say really quick, you guys were asking about the budget.
44:38The walkthrough videos, the step-by-step, we have amazing bonuses coming. And that's why the price is going up because we have some awesome stuff coming in for you guys. But all of that is there. You get access to that. It shows you how to use it, how to be the most successful, how to walk through building a budget. it. It's not just you're buying a template off Etsy and it's like, good luck. And it's not a template. It is a entire system. And that's what makes it so different. Yeah. And we should probably say a lot what Megan said, which is the budget besties app is not, that's not us. We don't know what it is.
45:07We're not, we are budget besties. I think they're the budget bestie, which budget besties is copyrighted, trademarked, whatever you want to call it. But budget bestie is not. And we, so we can't do anything about that, but luckily you figured it out. So good job. How can we get a month ahead come day three we're gonna figure that out i actually think we almost there oh angie she said the budget's amazing angie best 197 i respect y 'all it's the cheapest it's ever gonna be right now angie has an episode coming out and she'll tell you why 197 was a steal for her because she did such an amazing job she's done so good okay do we answer all your questions i don't even know like you're gonna have more questions probably tomorrow you're gonna do your spending audit you might have some questions we hope that we were helpful yeah we love you we hope that showing you the one page budget.
45:48Just start there. You guys just start there. It doesn't have to be overcomplicated. It's all on one page. It's five columns. You can do it. You just list everything out. Just get a first draft going, right? Yeah. And listen, the income, the minimum debt payments, you know, the bills, you know, the savings, you may not even have that. Just scratch that section. If that's not something you're doing right now, don't feel like you have to fill it out. Okay. The only thing I will say is annual bills are non-negotiable. You have to pay for the annual prime. And if you pay auto insurance in full every six months, those big subscription things that you're paying for throughout the month, your HOA, those really need to be in your monthly budget.
46:22So they are just as important as a monthly bill. Okay. Annual bills. So that may be the only savings bucket that you start with. And then you're spending and your homework guys is to do a spending audit. So you know exactly how much you are spending so you can put it in that budget. So basically I would say all the numbers that are going to go in your budget, you just have to put it on paper. Okay. And can you have your budget linked on your phone and laptop? Yeah. And so we use Google drive for that reason. It's available everywhere. I pull my budget up all the time on my phone because my husband and I fight over who gets to do the budget.
46:53I don't know anybody else like that, but so we definitely, but yeah, it's super easy you guys to use on your phone or your laptop. See here, here's Christmas. Gosh, let's get past that. Gross. That was a lot. you guys. Hey, but it's a lot of checked things. Oh yeah. My husband loves checking everything off. Like it's his favorite. Everything is checked off except for our phone bill in January. For this month. And it's the fifth, you guys. So yeah, you can use it anywhere and you'll love getting, you get the dopamine from the checkbox, no matter if you do it on your laptop, you do it on your phone, wherever.
47:25So you're good there. Okay. I think that is, okay. Should I, yeah, do not download it. Just keep it in Google drive. It will work everywhere and it'll update and it'll do all the math and it'll be available. If you update it on your phone, it's on your computer. That's why we did it. We need it to be as functional for you as possible. I would not download it because then it becomes more of a PDF. And then if you have Excel, it'll try to pull up in there and it doesn't work. So just keep it on your Google drive. Yep. Yes. Okay. You guys, we're going to see you tomorrow. Same time, same place. Yes.
47:55Same crazy girls. If y 'all have any questions that we did not get to answer, we try to go through all of them. I'm sure we miss them. Feel free to email us at hello at budgetbesties.com or bring them tomorrow. And we'd love to answer them then. Okay. Thank you guys so much for coming. We really appreciate it. We'll see you tomorrow. 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 accounts and put your budget on autopilot.
48:32So your bills, saving, and spending run like clockwork. Imagine 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.
From the publisher
Curious? Watch Our Money Makeover Bootcamp!
Ready? Buy Our Simplified Budget System Now!
If you want a simple budget that fits your life in 2026, not a spreadsheet you’ll abandon by February, this episode is for you.
In this episode of Financial Coaching for Women, Shana and Vanessa walk through how to create a simple budget that works with your real income, real spending, and real lifestyle.
If you make good money but still feel like your budget never quite fits your life, the issue isn’t discipline or motivation. It’s that most budgeting methods weren’t designed for how people actually live.
This conversation breaks down how to build a simple, flexible budget using an automatic system that helps you manage money, pay off debt, and save consistently without feeling restricted or overwhelmed.
In this episode, we answer questions like:
• What does a “simple budget” actually mean in real life?
• How do you create a budget that fits your lifestyle instead of fighting it?
• Why do most budgets stop working after a few weeks?
• How can an automatic budget system make managing money easier?
• What should a modern budget look like in 2026?
If you’re tired of starting over every month and want a budgeting system that works in the background while you live your life, start with the Money Makeover Bootcamp or jump straight into the Simplified Budget System when you’re ready.
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