Make Your August Budget With Us: Our 7 Step Process To Create A Zero-Based Budget and Plan for Your Money in August 2026 | 597

0:00For so long, they have been so strapped because they live paycheck to paycheck. And how do we know that you're not getting anywhere with that? Because you're listening to us. You're here because something's not working. You're here because you want to do something different. If you can get a paycheck ahead, then it's just pre-funding everything. That is a game changer. It's really going to completely change how you see your finances and how you pay bills. 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?

0:29Do 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. If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. 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.

1:07In 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. 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.

1:34This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. Have you made your August budget yet? You guys, cool. It's coming all the school, whether you're in college, it's starting soon, whether your kids are in regular school, like grade school. We have a lot going on coming up in this month. All right, so we are going to get you up. You are going to be a paycheck ahead. And a lot of you might be getting paid on the 19th or whatever, or the 25th, someday that's very much before August 1st. And the cool thing, you might be like, I don't need to get that far ahead, girls. Like y 'all are a little crazy.

2:07Okay. Are we? Well, yes. But also, you should still listen to us. Because the deal is, if you do what we're saying, getting a paycheck ahead is not going to hurt you at all. Because you're always going to get the same amount of spending money. You're always going to be saving for stuff. So getting a paycheck ahead is not keeping you from getting money. So we just want you to know that the way that we teach you to set everything up, you're always going to have money every paycheck, no matter which time of year, day, week, month it is, you're going to get money in your groceries, you're going to get money in your personal spending.

2:37So you don't have to worry about getting ahead and then being left out because I'm so far ahead. Yeah. You know, I was talking to my hairdresser yesterday and basically the entire time I was in the chair, I was coaching and helping her kind of get her finances in order. And she said, well, every paycheck that comes in goes to a certain bill. And I was trying to get her to understand kind of our system and how we teach. Well, if you can get a paycheck ahead, then it's just pre-funding everything. And it was really hard for her to see that because for so long, they have been so strapped because they live paycheck to paycheck, right?

3:07So what Shana is saying is by you being a paycheck ahead, having an entire paycheck in the bank before those bills are come due, like your spending money is already coming out of that. But before those bills are coming out, that is a game changer. It's really going to completely change how you see your finances and how you pay bills. Yeah. It's just so nice knowing everything's taken care of. And I don't actually even really care when I paycheck jobs because the bills are being paid. I have money when I need it all done and I don't have to stress and we're all done with that. Okay. So all of that being said, what is the first thing that we always do when it comes to your budget?

3:42Yeah. So the first thing you have to do is close out the current month. So it may be a little early for you right now today to do that, right? Because this is towards the end of July. So you can go ahead and make your August budget. But then once July is finished, so on the 31st, go back and really ratify and make sure that July is completely closed out. Did everything go down to zero? Did maybe a bill was cheaper than you thought? That would be amazing. Maybe you didn't spend as much as you thought on groceries or gas. Just really kind of look everything. Go through your signature budget template because we know you have it and check all the boxes and make sure that it is zeroed out on purpose.

4:16You mean, Vanessa, you said groceries or gas. And I want to talk about that because I just set up a brand new budget with somebody and we always say it. We'd rather you be over than under. So it's easier if we plan for your groceries and gas, if it's a little more than maybe what you're expecting, it's better to plan that way than to get to the point where you don't have enough. However, the flip side of that is evaluate. Evaluate once you've gotten through a couple months or a month, is this the right amount for us? Are we actually always needing more? Or are we always way over? Is there a different way that we want to do this?

4:49And so this is a good time at that point to look and see how much should we spend, which by the way, you look in your bank account, you don't have to like, do a search or anything. Well, and why is that so easy? Because it's separate from your building, right? So easy to pull it up and see what's going on. And I like what you said, because we have a lot of people that think, you know, I'm just gonna throw this amount out there, and then it's gonna be good. Well, no, and then they think I'm terrible at this. I can't do it. I got the amount totally wrong. No, this is the first time that you're sitting inside a grocery budget.

5:17The first time you're sitting inside spending money account or whatever. So you may have got it wrong. It's probably most likely that you did. So spend the next couple of months kind of figuring out what that right amount is for you and your family. You don't know what you don't know. And you have not budgeted for groceries, perhaps, right? Now you're going to really find out and you really do get to figure out if this is the right amount. you get really intimately familiar with how much your family is eating because I you know I just remember in the summer and it's like why are there never any leftovers you get more intentional you really understand your numbers but you want to be doing it on purpose and so you don't want to have set an arbitrary number like Vanessa said and then you never go back because that's still going to feel messy to you you're either going to feel like why do I why don't I have more money to go on vacation well because you're spending it all on groceries or you're going to feel like I never I I feel like we're only eating rice and beans.

6:07Why is that? Well, because you didn't give yourself enough money. You have three teenagers or whatever, and they cost a lot of money to feed. So you have to evaluate it. Anyway, so the point being, go back and update everything. Make sure it was right because this July budget is going to really inform your August budget. So, you know, if you spent more on the kids and maybe you need to be setting aside more for the kids or if, you know, if you didn't need as much for clothing or whatever. So you just want to look at it, make sure it's all kind of good, and then use that to start with your August budget.

6:36Yeah. So I want to pick you back off really quick on the grocery thing. Just one more time. Just one more time. Because this isn't like, oh, we went over on our grocery budget, so I'm going to increase it 100. And then next month, oh, we went over, so I'm going to increase it 100. And the next month, the same thing, same thing until your grocery budget is like$2 ,000 a month. Okay. Well, you need to find the right amount of money to spend either weekly, biweekly, monthly on your food that is the right amount. And it may like bring you to the end to where you're fishing out of the freezer, right?

7:05To look for some things and be creative to make. There's a cap here. So you're not just going to continue to increase the budget to no end. You have to find, like my kids know, we have a certain amount. My husband gets paid weekly. We do all of our transfers weekly. So on Wednesday, if there's no orange juice, I'm sorry, we're not going to the store to get more orange juice. You can wait until Thursday. My son is the orange juice fanatic here, but it's fine. But he knows he's very clear. Don't ask me to go to the grocery store on Wednesday. And likewise, my daughter asked for orange juice when we were at the grocery store the other day.

7:36And I said, no, we don't buy orange juice. Because our family, what they want is other things, right? We're not adding because somebody asked for it in a moment, like, oh, I wish I could add that. No, that's part of our grocery budget. Thank you very much. It's not on my list. It's not on the list. And that's really what Vanessa is saying is know your family, know what you actually need, and we'll consume in a month. And that's how you set the budget. Not, I forgot to plan. I don't really know what's in the store or at home. So I just ran to the store and got this stuff. Like eventually you've got to get better than that so that you can be very intentional, not only with your money, but with what you're feeding your family.

8:08And by the way, that does not mean you have to be cheap. Okay. Listen, I feel like I should get a commission because I've been telling everybody about those meat sticks. I feel like we should get a commission off of Ally because how many people have we sent there? but the meat sticks and the made good bars yes so i've been buying those those are more expensive than they are your average you know snack aisle item that's okay i'm okay with that but it's part of my budget i know that if that's what we're having then we're not gonna have orange juice right so like just be intentional with your budget i think vanessa i think we hit it i think we've i think everyone's stopped everyone has hit fast forward i don't want to hear about this anymore Okay.

8:46All right, budget besties. It's time for some real talk. You don't need another budget. You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going. And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. 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.

9:21If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need. Now back to today's show. Okay, moving on. Guess what? Your budget is so simple. Are you excited how simple your budget's about to be? It's only five simple categories. It's because you have our signature budget template. And if you don't have that, then you've already downloaded the free one page budget template. That's going to like baby step you to get the full on system, right? Yeah. So what are the five parts of a budget?

9:54Okay. All you have to worry about thinking about with your brain in your budget, five parts, income, debts, bills, spending, and savings. Ta-da. That's it. Yeah. So the first thing you want to do, it's the best number we say all the time in your budget is you want to list out all of the income that you have coming in during the month. Now, if you're off of commission or your check is wonky, we want you to use the lower number. Like Shana said before, with expenses, you want you to overshoot it. With income, we want you to undershoot it. So that way, when it actually comes in, it's in your favor to where the income is more and the expenses are less, right?

10:28And this is one that, you know, especially this month, it might be wonky. I have a couple of teachers and their pay. I don't understand why everybody just doesn't automatically give them 12 checks. Like just help a teacher out, but they don't. Not only that, but one of my clients is so complicated. He doesn't even know what he's going to get paid. It's so random. I'm like, you're a teacher. It's not like you're on commission or something where I don't understand, but they don't even know. Seems like it should be regular. I will say we've already set up the plan so they don't have to go through what they went through this summer.

10:57But the point being, update your income. Maybe it's different. I have another, we have several clients that their slower month is July because it might be like a hairdresser or something like that. So even I have a home renovation guy, guy, I don't know what he does, but he says like his, his kind of ebbs and flows in the summer as well. So just make sure you update the income. Maybe you're getting another bonus. Maybe your business is like so good. I have a travel agent client. She might get some extra money because she's, people are traveling, you know? So who knows, but make sure you update the income.

11:27Yeah. And if you're in Florida, you're definitely not doing this, but if you may be in a state that you can have a garage sale. so just put in all of the income that you expect to have come in this month so you can use all of that money for the next four categories here's an example i'm getting gift cards back for whatever t-mobile supposedly does i'm getting finally from december the money that that i was supposed to get back i think it's like six or seven hundred dollars so that's going into huge yeah oh where are you what are you doing that are you saying use it as groceries and put your grocery money somewhere else yes but the point being if there's any random things like that you're going to be Like, I'll just use it for this other thing.

12:01No, let's put it in the budget. We want to remember that it happens. We want to see all your money as a whole. Yeah, and we want to see what's possible if you do it all. Because, you know, if you don't put it in, you might be tempted to be like, well, we're just going to use it for here. But then if you put it in there, you might see, oh my gosh, all together, we have$2 ,000 this month. What could we do with$2 ,000 if we put it all together, right? So just put it in the budget, point being. Yeah, that's huge. Okay, so the next category is your debt column. So we want you to list just the minimum payments.

12:29we'll tell you what we're going to do later. But that's when you listen to this category. And not only list it, but go ahead and update them. Every time we get on with a brand new client, they're like, well, I just pay 50 over or I just I'm like, no, stop that. Don't do that. Here's the deal. You're not getting anywhere. Think of a cartoon where you're trying to bail the water out of the boat, but it's filling in as fast as you're trying to bail it out. That's what you're doing. So what we're going to do is all of that tiny little extra that you're paying, we're going to take that back into the budget and see what we're going to do with it on purpose as a lump some because that's the only way you're actually going to get somewhere.

12:58And how do we know that you're not getting anywhere with that? Because you're listening to us. And I'm serious. I don't mean that in a bad way, but I had a client. I mean, they're our best friends. They can handle some tough love, right? Yes. Yeah. We do love you. And that's what we're trying. We're trying to just speak the truth here. So I have a new client and I love her. She's so sweet. And she was crying on the call and she was telling me, you know, how she was doing her stuff. And she was kind of very set in her ways. And I finally stopped and I said, you're here because something's not working.

13:24You're here because you want to do something different. And so what I'm trying to show is a different way. And so I'm like, just trust me, trust in the process, give it a couple months, I will promise you it's going to work. And that's what we're asking here. Just do the minimum payments on paper for now. And also change those automatic payments, because sometimes you can set them for higher than minimum, just go ahead and set them to minimum. And then we'll go over what we're going to do with the extra money at the end of your budget. And something that's happening a lot with my clients, the student loans on this debt side.

13:53So just if you have any weird stuff happening with student loans, please make sure you update it in your budget. And don't forget about it. Yeah, that's a big one. Don't forget. It's important. The third category that we have are your bills. So we want to list all of your bills out every single one that you have. If you have our system, we have 30 lines for you. No more. Don't have any more bills than that. Subscriptions are not spending everything that you get paid on or get paid. Everything that you get charged for on a reoccurring basis that you get invoiced for Isabel. And hey, I have some bad news.

14:25Some of them might go up. So you might have to look and check and make sure they're not going to go up. For example, Vanessa, my clients, I love them. They have little babies. And so they're just kind of new to the private school situation. And we were setting up their August budget. And we had to put the tuition back in because they go back in August. And she it was just going to autofill with the same number. And I was like, hmm, I don't think that's right. She's like, oh, I'm sure it'll be the same. I'm like, hmm, I don't think so. And I just explained to her how ours is never the same. Anyway, so then they finally went.

14:59They went on their website. They were able to figure out how much it was and with the discounts and stuff. And it went up at$300 for two of them. It matters in your budget. You've got to make sure that you got the right amounts. Don't just assume with some of these things that it's not going to go up. And hopefully, you know, you'll get the bills in there and you can update it correctly. And this is what we want you to do is take your head out of the sand. when you go through your account, look at everything that you're getting charged for and put it on paper so you can see it as a whole. Okay.

15:25Here's the fun category spending. I think that's a fun category. It's the best place to be in your business coach. That's definitely her favorite, right? Yes. So that's her favorite category is spending money. She's going to talk about spending money. So over here is where you're having your gas, your groceries, your kids envelope. If you have one of those, maybe you have restaurants, you have babysitter money. This is where you live in your budget. This is where you are actively spending money. You're swiping your debit card. You're paying for things in cash. You're going in person and making those purchases, right?

15:53This is where all that happens. And I just want to say, for those of you that don't watch this on YouTube, first of all, we're on YouTube, but I did a dance. We're very animated. It was a very important dance so that you know that when she says you're living, you have to dance. If you want to be living, you have to dance. It's important. But this is the bread and butter. This is where you're really, this is the part of the budget that you need to get the most right. Okay. This is where also you can make the biggest mistakes. Right. So go ahead and update that. And so we have pocket money, right?

16:22Pocket money needs to be corrected. We recently, I had a client, we had to change their pocket money because their debts went up because they found that mysterious student loan. That was fun. Mysterious? Yep. And so the pocket money needs to go down. Okay. I have another client. I said, you know, you guys talk about this when you're away from me. What if you got to increase your pocket money by like 20 bucks or something every time you pay off a debt? Because they are really frugal and they're really, you know, trying so hard to be focused on paying off debt. And I thought that might be a fun reward for you to reward yourself as you're making this effort.

17:00So anyway, your pocket money may go up or down. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah. And remember, it is a non-negotiable category. So you, we want you to have it, but also the amounts can change, right? So again, haircuts, groceries, gas, everything that you're going to be spending money on. And for the most part, it's pretty consistent. Like you have the same stuff, but then you have the things that may be month specific, right? So maybe this month you have sports physicals and you know, you're going to pay cash for that. Maybe this month you have an outing that you're going to go to that, you know, you have to pay cash for, or you're going to your church activity, whatever.

17:33So those at the bottom, you're going to specifically put in for this is going on this month. And then pretty much at the top are your consistent ones, your groceries, gas, pocket money, kids account. Now, like Shana said before, if you have a kid's account or a kid's envelope, if you have kids, it is non-negotiable to have a kid's envelope or a kid's account. Just like your pocket money is non-negotiable, neither is theirs. But this is where you can really get in trouble because either they may be spending too much money, you may be spending too much money on them, or you just don't even know where the money is going to come from to pay for all of these things.

18:03So let's set it up on purpose and maybe set a limit just like you do for yourself. That's okay. It's okay to set a limit for them too. The last category is saving money. Isn't that exciting? Getting to save money. We told our coach, she should listen to our podcast. I'm going to tell her that she made a special appearance. We said, we have clients that get more excited about saving money than spending money. And she said, wow, is that possible? It is possible. And the reason why it is is because the way that we set our system up is so freeing. It's so eye-opening. It's just so awesome. And it's fun to be able to know.

18:36If we do say so, are those. Hair flip. If my hair flipped over my shoulders and it wasn't short, I would totally do that. But really, it's when you can look at your budget and you know you have your income, which is covering your debts, which is covering your bills, and then you have your spending. And oh, also, you're able to save money. And you can see it all on one page. It's really nice to know. we have a lot of clients that are saving thousands of dollars a month in all of their savings buckets. And they tell us we have never in our life seen this or ever been able to do this. And it's just really nice to know that they have the money there for future expenses.

19:09Yeah. And our system just allows you to separate it. And so now I absolutely know everything that's going on with my money. I can appreciate that I have this much to spend and I'm saving this much. What happens is I'm just spending everything and I'm not saving anything because I see money. And then it's just, it's nothing, nothing actually happens. But when you put it on place on purpose, then you get to save money. And the beautiful thing about saving money is not only for the things that are going to come that maybe aren't as fun to do, like an oil change or whatever, but the fun things like you, when you see your savings account for your vacation or for your glam up appointment or whatever.

19:43So that's where your savings are. If this is your first month budgeting. Are you going to set up 10 savings buckets? No, you're not. Maybe you're going to set up one. Like your emergency fund. Your emergency fund would be first. And then maybe you do your annual bills. Once you get really good at budgeting, you can start to decide what it is because you don't want to overwhelm yourself. You do want to get to the point where you're saving and you're more excited about saving money than spending, but you want to give yourself time and grace to get good at budgeting, get good at doing the spending the way that we're talking about, and then see what you can put over in those savings buckets.

20:14And it's also about creating the wiggle room in your budget. So like Shana said, if this is the first time you're doing this, maybe you don't have the wiggle room to even open up any savings at first. Maybe right now your main goal is to pay off debt. You already have a little bit of cushion in your account for savings. So you really need to put everything towards debt and that's okay. You don't have to put anything there right now. We're just saying it is a category for future use, right? All right. So how about what's going on specifically in August? We've kind of touched on some things. I'm going to let you know we're buying a car in august oh you are oh it has to happen i have less than two months until i have a 16 year old and so him and dad are trying to pick out exactly what car they're getting and all that and so it's in the budget for august i hope that we are able to stick to the budget in which we've set you guys cars are not cheap no they're not so that's fun but that's one of ours i also have a uniform fitting appointment because i have three kids and i don't even know what's happening.

21:09They're all always growing or whatever. Somebody always needs something different size. And it's really not my favorite, but it's in the budget. Well, and so for me, I have sports physicals in there. Both my kids are playing fall sports. So we have to make sure that we get those done. And my son is turning 16 in December. So we are starting to save up. I know it's going to fly by. My husband's like, we have time. Like we do not have time. Once school starts and soccer starts, volleyball starts, I am not going to have time to even think about that. So that is definitely on our radar to start in August.