How to Recover From Summer Spending and Reset Your Budget | 442

0:00Listen, we know summer can totally wreck your budget and your schedule and literally everything. So today we're excited to help you. Yeah. So we want to get you back on track and figure out how to reset after your crazy, super fun summer. 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? 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.

0:32Hey, 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.

1:08We 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 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. So let's start off by understanding this, like the summer slide, right? Like we understand summer was crazy.

1:39The kids were home. You have the routines and schedules that you used to operate on were literally gone out the window. You were just commenting about how my daughter slept till 10. Exactly. Exactly. They ate more. Yes. They eat more. There's more summer camps. There's more travel. There's pool days, beach days. It's just a lot going on. And then maybe even your paychecks are different because of your work schedule or you're not working as much or whatever. We get it. There's a lot of things trying to sabotage your budget when it comes to summer. So that's why we're going to help you. Yeah. And you're not alone.

2:07This isn't just your budget. It isn't just your situation. This is happening everywhere. We've seen it with our clients. So we just want to address it and really help you, like we said, get back on track so you can have a reset. Yeah. I want to tell you, I think, what is some really good news. Okay. You don't have to go backwards and fix anything. Okay. We're going to start right now from wherever you are today, the day of today. We're not going to go back and be like, look, I spent this much that month. So then now I'm going to do this month. And then if I do this and that, no, we're going to look at today, August.

2:37We're going to say, we're starting right now. We're going to reset. I'm not going to worry about fixing anything. We're just going to start with this next budget, this next paycheck. At my client session, she was like, close July out. She was like, I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at it. I don't want to hear you. I said, girl, let's do it. So I just, we clicked on our budget system. There's a way to hide the budget. And so I just hid that baby and we moved on. So see no evil like the monkeys. You know, if you don't look at it, it didn't happen. It's fine. Yeah. All right. So how do we start really fixing it?

3:04How do we move forward from this? And like Shana said, let's not go backwards. We want to do is just start with what is happening. Let's log into our bank account and see what's going on. Yeah. So if you, if we were coaching you, we would have you open August budget. Okay. Okay. Open the budget for August. We would see what's in your bills account. What's in all the accounts and we would assign, we would say, okay, what bills are happening? We would make sure, I'm going to give you a tip here, but we would say, what do we want to do in August? What's going on in August? Let's put all that. Let's get all the budget in there.

3:31And I think also it's, okay, what was happening before summer? So a lot of people sometimes - What's normal. Yeah. What's our normal again? And you have to like think about that because some people get new subscriptions for summer. They have different things maybe added on. Maybe you have a summer pool subscription to like the YMCA or something. So let's think about what is, how are we going back into the school year? How do I want to start this? So what you're going to do is you're going to put your budget in there. You're going to put it in there. And then we're going to go in the bank account and see.

3:58So this is what we would do. We would say, okay, your paycheck for the last paycheck in July or whatever, that we're going to update those, make them right. Let's look at that versus your account balance. Did anything happen that wasn't supposed to? So we'll check off the bills that we're supposed to. And then we're going to look in that bills account. If there's anything else extra, we're going to put it in there and account for it, right? Because we want to account. We want to see the full math. That's all you have to do is whatever weirdness may have already happened. It's your four days in the month, your 11 days in the month, whatever it is, put it in the budget and then start fresh from then on with the rest of your budget.

4:30Yeah. Don't go backwards. Don't try to say, oh, now we're not doing that. If you had a plan to pay off like a thousand dollars on debt this month, and then you start putting the numbers in and you realize, oh, I can only do 200. It's okay. The progress is that you're still paying cash. You're not going backwards. And we really, we don't want to live in the past. Okay, that's accounting. That's tracking. We're not doing that. We're not going back to the summer. Right now for August budget, we are going to live in the what is. And we're going to make progress here with what we got. Yeah. And so we're going to set this budget up.

4:59And your budget, obviously, is going to have spending for you. It's going to have your grocery budget. It's going to have restaurants. It's going to have stuff for the kids, whatever. And then maybe anything special for August. Your job, all your job is now is to live in those accounts. You're going to leave the bills to do what they do. Vanessa said, you might have a couple changes. You make sure you update those. But now we're back. We're back on just like you're going to have to start getting up at a regular. Your teenager is going to have to get up at a regular hour and get dressed for school.

5:23You're going to start sticking to your budget again. That's all you have to do. Yeah. So you're going to live in those spending accounts. Whatever that spending is, that's all you get. And it's fine. It's great. It's wonderful. And you may have to, since it was so long ago, you may have to go back to April or May and look at what was I doing normally to put it back in your budget for August. So that way you can feel this normalcy again. And so then you're going to set up your transfers like you would, like you did in April, like Vanessa said, before things went crazy. And you're going to be able to just set it up automatically because you're going to be busy now.

5:54Okay. You're busy with all the new schedules, with all the new people, all the things that they have to do, all the things you have to do. You're getting back in the gym, maybe like all sports, all the things. So you don't have time to, to be messing with this. That's the whole point. We're going to reset. We're going to set that budget up and then we're going to set the transfers to go to each account automatically and it's going to be wonderful. And it's going to be easier to stick to this because Shana said you're setting it up automatically to happen. So there's really nothing that you have to do after that.

6:19Other than just spend the money on the account. Swipe your card. Yeah. And the only extra bonus that we might add is a new summer expense savings bucket. 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 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.

7:04If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the up 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. So really quickly, we told you, don't worry. We're not worried about it. We're just brainstorming here. We're just having some money. If you're a planner. Yeah. Everybody needs to be a planner right now. So what you're going to do is just think back what just happened. What just happened over the summer that I paid for, that I expected, didn't expect, what snuck up on me?

7:38What was I needing to spend money on and prepare for? And I can start to plan for that on purpose next summer so that things don't go awry. Yeah, because we have a savings bucket tracker in our Simplify Budget System. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash budget and check it out. It is really awesome. It allows you to plan ahead for all this stuff. So while it's fresh in your mind, while all this stuff just happened to you, think about was it travel? Let's put it in the travel section. Was it the kids stuff? Was it like kids camps? Let's put it in there. Or if you just want to make a summer savings bucket, that's totally fine.

8:12Everyone does it however way they want. Let's just plan like what happened in the month of June and July. Let's throw it in there. And then that way you can take that amount of money that the summer just cost you. You can divide it by 12 and now save for the next 12 months for it. So when June comes next year, guess what? You have the money and it's not going to derail your budget. Yeah. And you can, everything can just stick. And then when you have the camps or the travel, you're just pulling from your savings bucket. You're not pulling from your monthly budget. Now, the last thing that we want to think about is don't go into overcorrection mode.

8:43Don't go into, okay, we just had the best time of our lives. So now we get no money. We're not going to do anything. And we're going to have a$0 budget. No, that's not going to solve anything. That's not actually going to help. What we're going to do is we're going to have our regular budget. Like Vanessa said, we're going to go back. Maybe it's a little tweaked, but it's going to be whatever we generally spend on groceries, whatever we generally spend on gas and our spending budgets for the kids, like we're still going to have that. We're not going to try to fix the overspending of the summer by fake underspending in the fall.

9:10That's not the plan. Okay. We're going to do it all on purpose according to the budget. And what we've seen is if you do try to go into like rice and beans mode, you're not going to love it. You're going to hate it. And you're going to end up going backwards. Like you're probably going to go back into using debt. You're probably going to go back into hating budgeting, thinking that it doesn't work, thinking that it's not for me. And that's not the truth. The truth is, again, this isn't about perfection. It's about progress. So we're just asking for you to see what happened. Let's change the future.

9:36Let's change August. Let's change next summer. So that way we can feel proud about what's going on with our money. And I think that's really important to do the mini audit that you were talking about because really what typically is the problem is you're underestimating how much things cost. We all are. Always. When it comes to the travel sports, when it comes to the vacation, when it comes to this or that and the other, we're thinking it won't be that much or it's going to, I'm just going to, I'm only going to spend a thousand dollars and then you spent 1500. So if you can go back when it's fresh and it's real and it's raw and it's not, you hope your hopeful amounts, it's the real amounts.

10:13If you can look at that, you might make a decision. We really don't want to do this every summer, but you might also just be like, look, the reality is we spent$10 ,000 a summer between all of these things. I've got to figure out how we're going to save for that for next summer so that we can do it on purpose. that I really truly know how much it is, I can save for it. And I think saving for that over 12 months versus saving for it in two months because you didn't plan for it, you had to pay for it in the moment, that feels different. So it's going to feel really good knowing that you're prepared for next summer.

10:40Yeah. And I think that the other part of this, so you're resetting your budget, but let's, we talked a little bit about resetting your habits. You also, if you're going to the ATM, let's figure out when do we put it in our schedule? We're going to the ATM. The kids, if they're getting cash or they're having their debit card, we're going to have a conversation Like this is actually how much you get. If they're doing school lunches, we're not going to go over this amount, whatever. Let's just have a conversation. Let's get everybody set up. Understanding we're back on a budget. Doesn't mean it's restrictive.

11:05Doesn't mean we can't have anything. We're just being intentional. We're doing this on purpose. And this is the plan. And we're going to execute it now that we're serious again. All right. So we hope that you loved this little episode on how to reset from summer. 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.

11:37So 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.