Make Your November 2025 Budget with Us: A Step-by-Step Monthly Money Plan | 479

0:00Shayna:Guess what time it is. You guys, it's November. The cooler weather, I was about to say warm. The cooler weather is here. Yes. But that also means it's time to make November a sweatshirt. Yes, you guys. The other day I was driving to work out and my heated seats and my heated steering wheel came on automatically. And by the way, at 60 degrees, I thought, is my truck super Floridian or what? Like this is, I don't know if that's actually cold enough to warrant that, but I liked it. I appreciated it. It's definitely one of my favorite features in my car. And so the point being is it is almost November.

0:34That's how we know because it's getting colder. And it's time for you to make your November budget. But you don't have to do it alone. We're here. We're going to do it with you. We're going to walk you through step by step.

0:43Shayna: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 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 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 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.

1:30In 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.

1:37Shayna: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. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. All right, so Shana, what's the first thing that we do before we make a budget for the upcoming month? We go spend all our money.

2:07No? No. Is that it? I thought that could be, let's just change it up this month. Go spend all your money so you have no money to budget. Rebels.

2:15Shayna:Yeah, so the first thing we want to do, guys, is wrap up the current month. Okay, so we've got October's budget here. if you have our system, which is fabulous, by the way, if you don't have it, you're totally missing out. You're ruining it. You are. But it is, it has some checkboxes that are, that just allow you to check off your bills. Remember, we're not tracking expenses, okay? That's gross. Which means all you're spending is in the accounts. Doesn't matter what you're spending it on. You have a budget there in your bank account for that. All we're really looking at is just checking off to make sure that the bills match because love me some phone bills, okay?

2:49Shayna:But sometimes they send you an email and they're like, Hey, it's going up$10. It's going up$5. So what do you mean sometimes? I know. Oh no, I just got one. You're right. What they do is they just up it and don't tell you that's usually what happens. That's also what happens. So you just want to make sure that things are going through the way that you expected them to like for your bill payments. Yeah. And so you, and also in case something else happens. So this is what we're saying when we log on with the, with our client, we have two sessions a month, you guys, and when we log on to the second session, And one of the first things that we're going to do is make sure the math matches, right?

3:21Your budget should match your bank account theoretically, right? And so maybe you had a couple of things that we didn't put in the budget. So we're just going to update that real quick. We're going to get it all squared away. We're going to make sure that you're good to go. The other thing, you know, you might have been waiting to see how the debt settled to pay off extra debt. So then now you'll be able to check in with your numbers, make sure for sure, for sure, for sure, and then pay extra on your debt.

3:40Shayna:And maybe you had an annual bill that you completely forgot about. That does happen. And so that came through. So then you have to move your money over from your annual bill savings bucket into your bills account to make sure that it's covered. So it's just, again, we want to look at our numbers. We want to be aware. We want to know what's going on. And doing this once a month really allows you to get a handle on it. Yeah, and once a month. And so what you really can do is you'll pull up your bank app, you'll pull up your bills account, and you'll make sure what happened in there actually matched what you had on your budget.

4:06That's really what it is. So that's what Vanessa is saying about the annual bills. Or if you had something else, we don't want you to use your bills account as the conduit.

4:14Shayna:But if you did, you need to reimburse it from savings buckets and get it all cleared out. All right. Just have it all clear. Yep. So once you figure out Octobers and you close it out and you're like, okay, everything matches. I'm good to go. My next paycheck has already come in or it's coming in. Like we need to make November's budget. So which brings me to something else. Listen, if you're on a pay cycle to where you got paid last Friday, then you need to make sure that you did your budget before your paycheck came. Okay. So we put these podcast episodes out to make your monthly budget on a timeframe that we think most people get paid.

4:49Shayna:However, some people get paid beforehand. So just know that you need to make your monthly budget before that last paycheck comes in of the upcoming month. So that way you can use that paycheck for November. So specifically what Vanessa is talking about is if the 24th is your last paycheck in October, then you're going to put that in the November budget as your first paycheck, right? Because we're starting there. and consequently if you're if the 31st is your last one then that is good and we actually did have um you know there are some months where you where that will work out where you can actually have a couple you have a quote-unquote extra paycheck and um and so that did work out october was a long month five weeks and so there was a lot of there was some wonky stuff and we'll talk about that in a minute um but for now what you want to do is go ahead and like minna said start your november budget with your last paycheck of october and you're going to fill out all the income.

5:37Okay. November is not quite, some people get bonuses in November, but we're really like excited mostly about December and January, right? For bonuses for most people, but maybe you have a bonus you need to add in there. Maybe you're like my client. I said, you will have a yard sale. You will have a yard sale. You need to have a yard sale, right? Maybe you're going to have some money coming in from that or maybe anything else. Maybe you're going to sell some stuff, whatever it is you want to put all of the income into the income section of your budget.

6:01Shayna:This is actually a great time of year, you guys, to purge. Okay. So the weather is beautiful outside. I'm pretty sure no matter where you live right now, I think. It seems fair. Okay. So it'd be easy for you to go in the garage or the shed or storage unit, wherever you have all the things, get rid of it, get the kids involved, bring the family in and get rid of some stuff because you know, it's coming, it's Christmas and you know, everyone's going to get more things. So it's a great time. So hold, hold on, pause for that mic drop point that you made, Vanessa. Let's say it again for the people in the back that didn't hear.

6:31Let's go. Yeah.

6:32Shayna:So you have Christmas coming up, which means everyone's going to get more things. So get rid of the stuff that you don't want, you don't use right now to make room for all of the new stuff. I love that. I love that for me. I'm about to go do it right now. But yeah, so really you just want to have every income in there. And this is a great number in your budget. It's the first number that we look at. We look at everything you're making. A lot of people don't know how much they actually make in a month. So this is a great opportunity to really see it in mass. Unfortunately, the next number gets a little, it's a little spicy.

7:05Shayna:Yeah. So we move on from the income, right? To your minimum debt payments. And we make sure that you guys put only your required minimum debt payments, not the$50 extra that you pay here and there or the$20 extra. We want to know what is your budget need to look like with only what you are required to pay first. Yeah. A lot of people don't actually know what their minimum debt payments are because they've just set it up. Like they have this grand plan that if I pay 25 extra dollars a month, it's obviously going to get paid off early. No, it's not really. And that's not a plan. Okay. What we're going to do is on purpose later, we're going to pay extra on purpose based on the numbers, based on what we figure out.

7:42But for now it's income. And then the next one is only the minimums for all of your debt. Again, this might be the first time that you've really looked at how many debt payments you have, how much they all equal. That's okay. Don't panic. Get a paper bag, breathing, like it's going to be okay. But we want you to see it. We want you to see that. We want you to be able to front and center see, okay, well, I actually, no wonder it feels tight because I spend$2 ,000 on debt payments before I get to anything else in my budget. Of course, that's not good. So keeping it front and center, having it early in your budget and looking at it allows you to get

8:13Shayna:the motivation that we want you to have to not use debt, to not rely on it, and then eventually paid off. And we have enough lines in our simplified budget system, guys, for all of your debt. I promise. Okay. So list it all out there. And again, like Shana said, there's no shame in it. Just look at your numbers. You're just really trying to take ownership of it, understand what's going on. So that way you can make a plan to move forward. All right. So after you list all of your minimum debt payments, you're going to move on to your bills. So a bill is considered anything with a due date. So if you have your gym membership, your subscriptions, your utilities, your mortgage, all of that.

8:47Shayna:We're going to list all of that in your bill section. Yeah. And we like to differentiate this because, you know, sometimes people get confused with like needs versus wants or whatever. No, it's a bill. Like let's just put all the bills. We all know what a bill is, like Vanessa said, with the due date. So that's really helpful. And you know, this is actually an interesting part of the budget, Vanessa. I'd be curious to see what you find. I find that this actually tends to be the, like one of the lower parts of people's budgets. Like their bills, usually their bills are not what's like breaking the budget or making the budget a problem, right?

9:19Their bills are usually frugal. It's everything else that we have to deal with. But when you said we have enough line items or enough columns in the budget, I have had two clients that we did not have enough. And that is why this is so good. You are going to see every bill that you have on one paper because what you've been doing is casually adding Amazon Music and Audible and this other stuff. All of these random things. And once you actually see it all in one column on one piece of paper, you might be like, oh, I think I'm going to cut back just a couple of these. I don't need all of this bill clutter in my life.

9:54Shayna:Well, and I have one client, and I love her, and she knows who she is, and she's going to laugh when she hears this. But she was – I told her, I said, well, I think we might be living outside our means, right, just a little bit. It's possible. Which is a conversation that we have. And, again, we don't tell you what to cut. That's not on us. We want to ask you, what do you love? What brings you joy? What is meeting your needs and what's, you know, fulfilling you, your version of living fusion and a budget? But then outside of that, you have some decisions to make if you are living outside your means.

10:23Shayna:Anyways, Shana, you know what she decided to try to do in between sessions? She tried to hide all of these bills, these subscriptions into other accounts. Like she was like, oh, well, my husband is going to pay for that one from his account. and our groceries and gas account is going to pay for this because it's laundry detergent, so it's going to come out of that. And then I was like, no, no, no, no, no. If it is a bill and it's reoccurring, it's coming out of the bills account. We can adjust those other spending accounts if we need to reduce them because now things are coming out of the bills account and not coming out of gas and groceries.

10:57Shayna:But your husband is not paying for six subscriptions just because you don't want to see them on the bill line. Right. And she was like, oh. And I said, yes. The thing here is like the math isn't different. You're just not looking at all of it. So you need to be able – and that's why we wanted to see it all in the one column is so you can see it. And then you make decisions. Don't hide it and not have to see it. And then also, as I know Vanessa was probably going to say, now husband's going to get slowly maybe a little resentful because he never has any money because they're all paying for subscriptions.

11:26And that's not the point of the personal pocket money. The personal pocket money is so you have money to spend so we don't steal it from other places. So we can't put things that are going to steal it right away. That's not going to work. It's going to defeat the purpose. What we're trying to get you to do is own it.

11:38Shayna:Like don't have five subscriptions on this credit card and this subscription coming out of the bills account and these subscriptions coming here. No, we need to have all of it together. You need to see and you need to own what you're spending your money on. There's no shame in it, but just take ownership of it. Yeah. And if it's all like Vanessa said, if it's all stuff you love, it's fine. But we just need to be able to see it. And we want it to be in one column. And you know what? It's going to be right next to the next column, which is spending. Okay, this is interesting. I think a lot of times, Vanessa, other budgets like break stuff up into needs and wants or fix and variable expenses.

12:10We don't even know what all of that is about. We know you spend money, right? You have bills. That's not spending money. Those just come out. They're invoiced, whatever. You go to the store. You go to the gas station. You go to the restaurant and you spend money. That's why we have a column called spending. You're going to put all of your spending in the spending column. It's amazing.

12:28Shayna:Yeah, it really is. And this is where you live in your budget. Like Shanna said, this is everything you're clicking add to cart and buy now for. These are all the things you're tapping for, you're swiping for, you're inserting your little chip for, right? This is where all of the spending happens. So whether it's gas and groceries, it's you at Target, it's for your kids' field trip money or for their birthday present, for their friend or whatever it is, ice cream, date nights, all that. This is where all that comes from. Yeah, and so you're going to have all your different line items that we tell you.

12:54You're going to have gas and groceries. You're going to have restaurants. You're going to have personal pocket money for you and your spouse, like we were talking about. Maybe you'll have a kid's budget or a family fund. It kind of depends. So family fund, restaurants, entertainment, that's all kind of one category. It just depends on what you want to call it, what makes sense in your life. And then we'll also have a kid's one on there. And again, that kind of changes with different ages, Vanessa. But like you might have, you know, just one because you kind of manage them all because they're all little toddlers and everything.

13:19Or you might have separate kids that you put money into their accounts and they have their own debit card because they're a little older. like whatever it is. But we, the point is we want you to plan it on purpose instead of being like, oh, it's the middle of the month and my kids stole all my money and I don't know if I have any more and I don't know where it all went. Instead, they're going to have a specific amount and then that's what they have to live on. And it's great to teach them that.

13:40Shayna:And again, you've heard us say it before, bring them in on the conversation, allow them to budget themselves, say, hey, you get 20 bucks a month or a week or 40, whatever the amount is, how do you want to spend it? And then plan out with them. What do you have coming up this month? Is Sally's birthday this month or is it next month? When is your field trip? When are you going to go to the haunted house or whatever? Like just allow them to be in on it so that way they can have some responsibility and it takes the weight off of your shoulders. Yeah. And I love that you brought that up and I said, this is giving you something to actually talk about.

14:10So many times the conversation about money is no.

14:13Shayna:Yeah. Or it's like, I just say yes and I'll try to figure it out later. This gives you a conversation to teach them and actually dialogue about money that will teach them and make them be able to do better in the future. So definitely don't sidestep that one. But then the next thing, okay, so what you've done here is my kids, my one of my kids is in algebra, our other kids are in very more complicated math, but one of my kids is in algebra. And I kind of see this as an algebra equation. It's like, you know, income minus debt, plus bills, plus spending, plus savings, which is where we're going, equals zero.

14:49That's where we're going. That's where we're trying to get to. So what you've done is you've subtracted debt, bills, and spending from your income. And if you have money left over, hopefully you do, then we're going to be able to set that aside for savings buckets.

14:59Shayna:Yeah. So the last column in our budget that we want you to budget for is your savings. So these are budgeting for all of the unexpected expenses that you have coming up throughout the year. This could be anything from water filters to Christmas decorations to Christmas presents to birthday presents to pet visits, annual visits. It's like there are so many different things that come up. And this is the section of your budget we want you to start planning for those. Yeah. So these are all the unexpected expenses. These are all the things that typically derail your budget. Because like Vanessa has said before, you can plan that you have to pay the mortgage.

15:31And you know you have to do groceries. It's all of these things that come up that you weren't thinking of because they don't happen monthly. These are the things that happen annually, twice a year. Like it feels random, but you actually can kind of plan for it a little bit. So that's what we're going to do is we're going to set up the savings buckets. And you're going to set the amounts. And again, all the math, if you get our budget system, budgetbesties.com forward slash budget, it'll do all the math for you. So you'll see, okay, after all of the debt, bills, and spending, I have$2 ,000, or I have $1 ,000, or I have$500, whatever it is left that I can allocate to the savings buckets.

16:01That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to plan those out, and I'm going to start setting aside on purpose four savings, not one savings account that's general. No, no, that's not what we're doing. We're specifically saving for specific things that are the things that typically derail your budget, because that's not going to happen to you anymore.

16:13Shayna:Well, and these are the things that people usually go into debt for. Okay, so if you go back and look at what you put on debt, if you do use credit cards, it's usually all the unexpected expenses that we forgot to budget for. So here is the actual mic drop, like love, hate, hard truth that we want to say. If you go to make your budget, okay, let's say you make your budget without any debt. This is like a mock future budget that you want to make. And you put in all of your unexpected expenses, meaning how much you spend on Christmas every year, like other holidays, birthday presents, travel. this isn't like what I want to spend.

16:47Shayna:This is what you truly spend throughout the year. And you can't budget monthly for all that to be able to afford your life. That means you're living outside your means. That means that the math isn't mapping. So this is where usually people put money on debt. And the reason why they can't fund these savings accounts is because they're paying on debt because they've already, they're paying for their past instead of funding for their future. So a lot of people, when they come into coaching, the first thing they say is, I want to budget. I want you to help me budget and get on a plan to save for all these things, all these savings buckets that you guys talked about.