How to Stop Using Credit Cards and Get One Month Ahead on Your Budget | 501

0:00Hey, Budget Besties, big news. We're hosting our live money makeover bootcamp. Yes. Picture this, a fun interactive hangout where we're breaking down budgeting, tackling your money goals, and setting you up to start 2026 on the right financial flip. Yeah. All in real time with us. We know you're juggling a lot right now. So we've scheduled this bootcamp for after the holiday hustle. So do your future self a favor right now and sign up at budgetbesties.com forward slash bootcamp. And then you can get back to the holiday hustle. Let's dive into a new year together with Fresh Plan for Your Money.

0:35We were just on another podcast and we're telling the story about a client that we had. Her husband got diagnosed with cancer and she had been doing this system for a while already and she didn't ever have to go do anything. Like she didn't have to do anything with her finances because they were all automated, right? It was our, her groceries were always being funded. Her savings accounts that she had set up were already being funded. Her bills were already being paid. She had money in the account when she needed it so she could focus on that. And that's the idea here is yes, it might take a minute to set this up and wrap your brain around it, but it's going to run for the rest of your life.

1:06You might have to update it here and there, but you're saving your future self time and energy and stress by doing it. 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. 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.

1:38We 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. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

2:13We 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. Leo, we're so excited to have you on Financial Coaching for Women. How are you? How can we help you? What's going on today? I bought this system, your budgeting system in May. I heard you guys on disruptive nutrition with Carrie. So I've worked with her for years.

2:48And as soon as I heard you guys talking, I was like, this is what I need. And I just have a couple of questions. It all makes sense to me using different accounts makes sense to me. I actually had a lot of accounts already because I already did things that way for certain things for like my taxes. I'm self-employed. So I had a couple of extra accounts for different expenses already, but I am struggling with figuring out how to get from a paycheck behind to a head and how to use the savings buckets like automatically if my income varies. Okay. Okay. Why does your income vary? Just so I'm just trying to get a picture.

3:23So I'm a mental health counselor. So it's really dependent on, I own my own practice. I have one other person who works with me. So it's dependent on the number of clients we're seeing, like what's coming in. So it doesn't vary much from year to year, but it varies month to month. Yeah. Okay. All right. So you need a, you have your own business. So you need a business, but do you have that yet? No. Okay. So in order to do this correctly, and again, it's, it takes time. It's not something you're going to get set up immediately, but the whole full picture, if you wanted to see it in bird's eye view is you need to make your personal budget, figure out how much you have, you cost.

4:03All right. And if that's, if you have debt, we need to figure out how much extra you want to put on debt in that process. You need to figure out everything all together. And then you take that number to your business budget and you go, okay, this is now a line item, like my pay owner's pay or whatever W2, however you do that needs to be a line item in my business budget. And then that tells you how much your business needs to make to be able to fund not only your personal life, but your business. Okay. All right. And then now that you have a consistent number to know how much you need to make every month, the idea is whenever you're above that amount, you're saving that extra into a holding account, like an income holding account for your business.

4:42So that way when you can build up enough money to fund your business consistently all the time, because we are trying to make your business and your personal life budgets as consistent as possible. And in order to do that, because you're a business owner, it's just one extra step. You need to have a holding account where extra funds. So it's kind of like your emergency fund, right? For your business where, so you can consistently fund your business in those low months as if you were still getting that exact amount of income. So I do that a little bit, but not the same amount. So like I have, I put extra money away each time to pay myself when I go on vacation still.

5:18And so I'm not just not having a paycheck. So I should work to build it enough so that I could just pay myself like a consistent paycheck. Yep. Yeah. So that amount that you're paying yourself when you go on bit like vacation from your business, that's actually a business savings bucket of, okay, I go on six vacations a year. I need this much money to fund myself. So that's its own business savings bucket there. Now your income holding account, that's totally different. That's funding your business in the low months of regular business, not you not being there or having time off. Yeah. So you need, the business budget is not completely dissimilar than the personal budget.

5:55You need to have different savings accounts for your business. And one of them is what she's saying. One of them is your annual subscriptions or certifications or anything that you would pay for. Those would be savings accounts. And what you're going to do is pay yourself consistently in your business, which will allow you to come over here and pay yourself personally consistently. What you asked was one, how to get paycheck ahead. And two, the other thing was about, it was about savings buckets. So that's where you look at your personal year at a glance, your year. What do we pay? That's, that is still happening.

6:27It's still happening, but it's not maybe monthly. So it's your annual bills, it's your pet care, it's Christmas, it's vacations, it's kids stuff, whatever, all of those. And we have savings buckets, savings accounts for that, which I think you already know, because you're asking, how do I do that consistently? And so whatever you're going to pay yourself with what Vanessa said, whatever you come up with your income, your paycheck that you're paying yourself, you're going to base your savings buckets based on that. So let's say consistently, I can put$100 in each savings buckets just for just to have a number, right?

6:57If you get, like once you get, we'll talk about your paycheck. Once you get your income holding to the spot where you feel good, you can always extra fund your savings buckets for anything that's not fully funded with a regular minimum monthly budget. So, and that's sometimes what we have businesses do. They are able to do some of their savings buckets consistently, regularly with their paychecks. but then there might be once a quarter they get they take a draw or they get a bonus kind of and then they are able to fund the bigger savings buckets that take a lot more money at that point so what you want to do is like vanessa said you're gonna or like you're already doing have those paycheck that paycheck savings account that you have for vacation for the vacation days and then in your income holding you're really gonna you're gonna get that amount up to where you can be ahead and you're going to set a number that makes a lot of sense to where you know you're going to be good for any lower months.

7:53And then once you hit that cap, then we have a profit account. That's where we put our money that is not going to be used for income. And that is the account that eventually we can use to get bonuses and all that kind of stuff to fund the bigger things in life that maybe aren't consistently able to do every month. Does that make sense? Yes. I feel like there's not enough money to make that happen. So I did not spend money for a while. Yeah. When we're talking about funding your savings buckets, the, the awesome picture that we all want is to fund every bucket to the exact amount that our heart desires.

8:30But the reality is sometimes you can't start there. When Shannon, before Shannon and I came together and found out what we have is actually a system, she was doing it her way. I was doing it my way. It was like the same thing, but I had these accounts set up. I wasn't able to fund them the way that I wanted to for a while until I got my money under control and I figured out that I needed separate spending accounts and all that. But once you get it all figured out and you're using it for a little bit of time, you want to start with funding the ones that you absolutely have to fund first, like annual bills.

9:02It's non-negotiable. It's a bill just like your monthly ones. Okay. If you Start with any savings bucket first. Start with that one because it has to happen, okay? Then you want to add things that are coming up immediately, like a wedding that you know you have coming up or a vacation that you already booked that you know you have to save for. Or maybe it's a tax bill that you know you have to have. There are certain things that you know you have to fund, so you want to go ahead and put those in the budget as non-negotiable. Everything else you're going to have to fund in the moment when it comes up until you can have enough money to be able to fund your savings bucket.

9:36Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. So for the budget, for the business, so you use the same sheets, like just make a new one and do it for the business. Yes. You'll need a whole separate document. You can download it. Girl, we're going to come out. We're coming out with a business version. We're really working on it. Hang on there. Hang in there. But yeah, you can use it. Just get a new fresh copy because obviously your budget's different for your business. And I just don't get discouraged. What you're doing is by getting ahead on this paycheck, you are already there. The only change that we're going to do is also make sure that you have the money to in income holding to fund lower months, right?

10:16So that's why it's really important for you, like Vanessa said, for you to see what does my business cost in a month? And what do I cost personally in a month? Because that's your new baseline. And I need to be a paycheck ahead or whatever, however you want to do that amount. And then I'm going to feel really good. And so the other thing, when you said about paycheck ahead, are you, is your budget based only on your income? No, my husband works and his is more steady than mine. Like he has a consistent base pay and then like he works overtime at certain seasons of the year. Yeah. And so that overtime might be another time when you're able to fund some savings buckets.

10:49That's, we have a lot of clients that do that. They might be able to minimally put, like Vanessa was saying, 50 bucks in there a month, but then when we get those overtime paychecks, I know I'm only budgeting for this much. So anything over this much I'm able to put towards debt or I'm able to put towards a savings bucket. So that might be something that you're able to do. But then also to get to a paycheck ahead, the way that would work is we're going to build a budget based on his last paycheck of the month. That's the first paycheck for the next month. Does that make sense? So for instance, when is his paycheck?

11:19When did his paycheck or is it coming in September? I have to look at the calendar. We're on opposite weeks because I set it up that way. So I get paid this week. He gets paid next week. Okay. So if he got paid, if he's going to get paid on the third, his actual first paycheck for October needed to have been September 19th. Cause otherwise September 3rd, he's three days late for mortgage and things like that. So you want to try to get to the point in that. Oh, like Shana was saying, overtime is a great time to take that extra, keep it. And then when it's a full paycheck amount, then you can allow that to fund the month that you needed to fund, like his paycheck was going to fund, right?

12:05Because you put that money towards September, which is understandable. But that's when that overtime money, you can say, okay, now this is actually for September, but that September 19th paycheck, that is going to fund October. And then now magically you've become a paycheck ahead. so is it worth just letting some things like some of our stuff is still on credit cards and i haven't been able to figure out how to like when our kids were little i just set up everything on auto pay because i kept forgetting to pay things and so i wanted to move it off of that but i feel like yeah i just keep getting stuck in that so is it worth just letting it sit pay the interest on it for a month or two and then like to set those things up like i feel like that's what i have to do in order to make it.

12:48Yeah. And I think that makes me cringe. Yeah. Yeah. And we've had clients that do that before they, they weren't necessarily, it wasn't maybe that it was that they literally couldn't afford it because they had a different, they were living above their means, but also they couldn't afford to pay their bills and pay off the credit balance. So for sure, get the system set up, get yourself where you are a paycheck ahead, get your, get it all organized, feel good about it. And then you can go back and tackle paying it off after that. But yeah, Having a system where you know exactly what's going on with your money, you're a paycheck ahead.

13:18Like Vanessa said, if you have the 19th paycheck of his and the 26th of yours, those are the first paychecks. They're just sitting there ready to pay your bills in October. And then you're getting your automatic transfers to your spending and savings accounts. Like it's going to feel so nice and so good. And that's how you always ahead. Versus when you're using the credit cards, you're literally always behind. And nobody likes that. That's not a good thing. Yeah, you're a month behind because you're racking up and you're paying off. You're racking up and you're paying off. So you're a month behind.

13:43but if you the amount of money you're going to pay an interest i get it it's gonna be frustrating and some people are like i don't want to pay interest i have never paid interest i always paid off every month yes but you're a whole month behind so this month you have to pay the one month of interest to be able to get like shana said everything set up for the upcoming month to never be a paycheck behind again it is totally worth it that small sacrifice okay i think i just needed to hear that yeah that like the permission yeah yeah i get it yeah like we usually pay it all off and we did Dave's Ramsey early in marriage.

14:16So like we tried to, we did envelopes when we were young and that just has tapered over the years. And yeah, the business life. And so the, what our system and you've got it and everything, it's like the cash envelopes, but it's a digital version. Yeah. And the other thing that you said about set it on auto pay, we're going to do the same thing because nobody has time to be going in and manually paying bills. That's for the birds. But the difference is it's going to be with your own money in your bills account. So you're going to eventually, let's say that October, you're just getting the account started.

14:46You're getting everything set up. You're getting yourself ahead. And then November is when you move everything from credit cards, hopefully over or however that works. And every bill is coming out of the one account, the one bills account. There's no random. This one's coming from PayPal. This one's coming from credit cards. This one's like, it's all just out of this one account. It's very easy. And the cool thing about that, as you probably already know, if you've been using the system is you only have like maybe 20 transactions happening in the bills account ever, because that's how many bills you really have.

15:12And then that's very easy to keep up with, maintain, understand, see that your money is, your bills are being paid. And then you have the spending accounts over here. And all I have to do is stay within this$500 grocery budget limit. I don't have to track every time I go. I don't have to think about it. I just have to, I, every two weeks I get my$500 for groceries and I just live with that. And that's the point. It's all going to be happening automatically. It's going to be easier. It's going to be simple for you. So usually when it's all one account, nobody really knows what's happening. We're just hoping for the best.

15:40You said that you set everything up on automatic pay because you forgot to pay bills. We're doing that now with the adult version of using an actual checking account versus keeping on a credit card for scarcity mindset. So you're going to be able to fund that account with the money. Like Shannon said, if it was October starting the 19th and 26th, the money is just sitting there waiting for those October bills to come in because it's already funded. and you don't have to worry about if, when, how, you know, it's there. And then that money is the only other thing that it's doing is funding your spending accounts and funding your savings accounts when you get there.

16:15It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah. Imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do. No guesswork, no confusion, and absolutely no judgment. It's a done-for-you system that actually works. You don't know what you don't know, and that's not your fault. And that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps, and after-hour support, you can text and email. So you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together, we're going to build your budget, set up your system, and tackle any challenges that come up along the way, which, by the way, they always do.

16:54If what you're doing isn't working and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, Sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up, and we will help you go further faster. Six months from now, you'll wish you started today. So for things that you pay for out of savings buckets, like you're not going to pay them out of your bill account, right? You're going to pay them. Only if it's an annual bill. How do you pay them? Functionally, right? So like my daughter does gymnastics. We have meat fees that are due in the fall. Me too. How do I get it?

17:26That's so fun. Don't you love that? Yeah. So great. Okay. Give me an example of what you would be saving for in your savings bucket. Just, and I'm doing this as like kids sports, right? I have two kids. One does travel baseball and one does competitive gymnastics. Like it's ridiculous. So if you have, if you have a monthly fee, then it goes in your, that I have in my bills. Perfect. So her tuition for gymnastics is in my bills, but like his, My son's stuff is like random and her meat fees and extra stuff is random. So if I save for that, then where do I pay it from? I need an account just for that, for those things.

18:03So when it comes in, if it's a bill, if you know that every fall you have a$100 registration fee that comes in, sometimes we already have our bills account attached to that online portal, whatever, when you pay. Yeah, that will come out of the bills account. But if it's you're going to the store and you're paying for stuff, like you're buying new equipment, you're paying different things, then that gets transferred to your spending account and that's where you spend out of. Okay. So think of it this way. If it's a bill, it has a due date and you owe it to someone for something, then that is a bill.

18:36If it is something you are discretionary spending and you're swiping your card or clicking add to cart by now, that is spending. So those are separate. Yeah, so different examples would be like, let's say you have a vehicle savings bucket and you go to get your oil change. You're standing there. They say it's going to be$60 ,000 million. I'm just kidding, like$70. I don't even know how much it costs. Then you just say, okay, hold, please. And you transfer it from your vehicle account to your personal spending account and pay for it. Right then and there, it's all done. So you don't have to have a debit card or checking for every savings bucket.

19:06We're just holding it there like an envelope, like the cash envelopes that you guys used to have. That's what those are. They're just envelopes, digital savings accounts, holding the money. And then we're going to actually spend it if we're spending out of our spending account or Vanessa said the bills. So for example, with gymnastics, when you know, if you've been saving all year for all the meat fees and all the things like, and you know that this, they've told you this one's coming out, you would just transfer the$150 meat fee to your bills account. They're already probably billing out of your bills account versus the other ones.

19:34Like she said, if you're going to get, I would say leotards, but I know that's not going to happen. If it's for your son, maybe pleats or something, right? If you're going to do that, would be a spending thing. so remember you don't keep the bills debit card on you it stays at home in the underdour safe whatever it's not you don't have it to spend money out of the only time it's you even have it online is when it's attached to a subscription or a reoccurring bill or some type of medical platform to pay for office fees or whatever like that is paying bills do what you keep in your wallet are your spending debit cards we know you got this it's gonna be great when you get the whole system set up.

20:09I saw me tell people like, look, it's not, this isn't a quick fix. This is a whole lifestyle change as it should be because you're dealing with your money and nothing with money is quick or an easy fix. Like it takes time to make these habit changes and mindset changes, but it's going to be so worth it in the long run. Yeah. We also say it's something you're going to set all this up now and it's going to save you time and energy tomorrow. For a year. Like it's already, we were just on another podcast and we're telling the story about a client that we had, her husband got diagnosed with cancer and she had been doing this system for a while already.

20:39And she didn't ever have to go do anything. Like she didn't have to do anything with her finances because they were all automated, right? It was our, her groceries were always being funded. Her savings accounts that she had set up were already being funded. Her bills were already being paid. She had money in the accounts that when she needed it, she could focus on that. And that's the idea here is yes, it might take a minute to set this up and wrap your brain about it, but it's going to run for the rest of your life. You might have to update it here and there, but you're saving your future self time and energy and stress by doing it.

21:07And you've already, you're already like halfway there. It sounds so we're excited to see, to see you be able to get it all put up. It just allows you to be present in the moment because everything else is taken care of. And that's the vision we want for you. Great. Thank you. Yeah. So you can just be at the meets and it's already paid for you not to worry about it. Cause we have our first meet coming up in October. So I'm right here. All right, girl. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for sharing your story. We know that it helps somebody else and feel free like in six months, if you're like, Hey, I have a new problem.

21:39I need y 'all. I need to come back on. So you're welcome to book another call and come back on and we can help you then. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Bye. 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. So 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.

22:16Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.