Why Your Money Feels Disorganized (And How to Finally Fix Your Budget) | 552

0:00We asked our Facebook group, what makes your money feel disorganized? We know that disorganization is a big pain point that you guys have. We hear it from you all the time. So we wanted to ask specifically what people thought was there, what was making them feel disorganized. Yeah. And we got a bunch of great responses. And so we just figured the best way to answer these is to come on the podcast and answer a bunch of them and just help you guys out. Because we know that if people in our Facebook group, small audience in there are asking these questions, then sure enough, you guys that are listening have the same questions.

0:33Do 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?

1:01you'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.

1:33We 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 workers. 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. So the first person that responded said, I still find my savings to be unorganized. I just have one savings account and I haven't set up the automatic payments to savings yet. Okay. Hold on. Wait. Nobody knows this. Okay. There's family guy scene, upside down face boy, like you guys.

2:09But what I'm doing is I'm turning my face to the side very slowly, looking you in the eye person who posted this. Anyway, because what sounds like is you know the answer. Yes. You already know, but you just haven't done it. Well, and I wonder how long they've been listening to us yet or how long they've been in our community because I'm sure all of our listeners are like, girl, I know what's going on. So the reason it feels messy is because you still have one account for all of your savings. And so we really just have to separate that out and make, and listen, I know some of you may be listening and go, I don't want separate accounts.

2:40That's too many accounts. It's not. It's the cash envelope system turned digital. It's so much easier to track what you have going on when you, when your account say kids savings, right? If it says vehicle, maintenance, home repair, travel, pets, gifts, Christmas, you can look at your bank account and have in 30 seconds, have a glimpse of knowing exactly where your money is and why. Yeah. It just feels messy because you have one account and you're trying to guess, like Vanessa said, instead of them all being separate and like you just know, and that is disorganized, unorganized. But then I also think about, we had our client, Amanda, she came on here and did testimonial and she was talking about how she resisted doing it too.

3:17And here's the secret. The longer you resist, the more you're going to suffer. Gosh, that's a lifelong lesson. Delayed obedience, delayed results. But we're not, we don't need you to obey us. But what I'm saying is, the longer people don't do it, the more they're like, oh, I'm so frustrated. As soon as they do it, they're like, oh, I see the light now. Okay, so that's what happened with her. She resisted doing it because she really, it was because she was trying to decide which bank she wanted to go with. And we had a few sessions where she was researching that. But once she did it, she's, oh, because she did not want to pull money out of her generic savings account because it was generic.

3:47I don't know what it's for. I think it's for this. I think it's for like an emergency fund. But once she had that separate, an emergency fund, then she also had accounts for all the things that Vanessa just listed. Then she knew exactly what it's for and she felt fine being able to pull from it. The alternative is, I hear you people, I'm going to go ahead and say this. Y 'all are like, yeah, but it's fine. I just have an Excel spreadsheet that I have the one account and I have all the sub things in it and I know exactly where my money is going. And then when I need to go use it. I deduct it. Okay.

4:14So now you've become a bookkeeper. Like you've, you're graduating to an accountant. Congratulations. We don't have time for that. That's the whole reason why budgeting wasn't working for you in the, in the first place. This is why tracking doesn't work. So we're trying to remove that. Just literally the simple step of creating a separate bank or savings accounts for all this now requires you to not have to track any of that. Yeah. And the thing that she also said was the automatic payment transfers to her savings. And actually she said payment to savings, which I love that because you guys may have heard of that like wisdom, pay yourself first or whatever.

4:43This is what you're doing here. When you're saying I'm going to save money, you're paying your savings buckets first, which is fantastic, or at the same time as everything else. And you can set that up automatically. And to Vanessa's point, we don't want you to have to do anything manually. We don't want any extra steps. We want it to be as easy for you to do, like it's happening while you're sleeping so that it actually happens. And it's automated. Like my husband today, he said, hey, I have to go buy a couple of things at Ace. How much is in the home account? I was like, oh, like$3 ,000. I was like, but remember, we have to replace our back door.

5:12So no, no, that is like, it's, that's gonna, let's just go ahead and say that's$2 ,000. And just in case, and he was like, okay. But okay. Hey, listen, it's happening. It's happening. I'm very excited about it. How long has, how long, how long? We moved in in 05. We moved in in 05. Yeah. Yeah. 11 years. Okay. Yeah. That's how long. Don't, don't know. Don't worry about like where she lives. Her back door is very secure. that she has a beautiful home. It's completely decorated and then some fun upgrades that they've done. All kinds of big projects. No door. The problem is the door was messed up when we moved in and I was like resentful because that's how they left it.

5:47And I was like mad. So I fixed everything else. But not the door. I just didn't fix the door. Not the entire door. Okay, it's fine. So guys, email hello at buzzerbesties.com and say, Vanessa, have you fixed your door yet? That's supposedly a money saved for, but you're never. Gonna need the motivation. Yeah, you're gonna need to keep her, hold her accountable. Okay, next one. Somebody said not having goals, not being intentional. And she was referring to Angie's podcast, which came out in March. It said, Angie's episode was so good. Intentional is my new power word. But without goals and intention, my money was just flying out the door.

6:20Interesting. I see what happened. Out the door, though. Out the door. Oh, yeah. Okay. Now, she said, it feels organized, planned, and feels like it's doing its job. Yeah. I love that. I love how she's transitioning into knowing that it was because she didn't have goals, knowing that it was because she wasn't intentional. And now she's saying it feels organized because she's doing those things. And again, we want to make sure that your money is working for you, not against you. And it's working towards your goals. You want to know throughout the month when you're at the checkout or at your child's game, you can say, listen, my budget, my money aligns with what makes me excited, with what I set in place for myself.

6:54And that this is my version of bougie. I love that you said that because I, we spend all our money on child sports, but I really do enjoy it. And it's a little addictive. It is. It is a little addictive. I was watching my daughter who costs the most money. That's the one thing. The youngest, tiniest little one. What was she doing yesterday? Oh, cartwheels on the beam over and over and over and over and over and over again. And then aerials and stuff. And I was like, this is so fun. I love watching you. Anyway, that's my goal. That does not have to be your goal. But what I was going to say is what it feels like when you don't have goals, not only is your money disorganized, but your life is disorganized.

7:28What are you moving toward? What is my purpose? Why am I waking up and going to work every day if I don't know what the goal is, right? And so you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off and you're just like being busy and being and doing instead of moving toward what you know you want in the future. And it makes me think about your clients, Tuna and Leek. Okay, it's going to be a good day, guys. Tina and Luke, they came on our podcast right in the beginning when we started. And Tina, Vanessa asked them on one of their sessions, what are your goals? Their first session. and she started crying because nobody had ever asked her that.

8:02She'd never thought about that. They were in the busy minutiae of daily life and motherhood and marriage and church and work and all of that. And she hadn't even paused to think, what am I doing all this for? What are my actual goals? Yeah. It was really hard for her, but watching them for the next six months flourish and know what their goals are and start to align their money with their goals was really fun. And again, listen, this is what's going to make you want a budget. It's going to make it fun for you and feel exciting. So just know that go about before. And that's why it's literally step one.

8:34If you buy our system, budgetbesties.com forward slash budget, it's literally tab one that it's so important. Nothing else matters unless it aligns with your intention and what your goals are. Yeah, that's a great point, Vanessa. All that you're going to do with the budgeting is going to be so you can reach your goals. And it's going to get you motivated. And it's going to be fun and exciting, like you said. So I love that. 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.

9:04It'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. 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. If 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.

9:38This is the upgrade 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. Okay, here's another comment. Saving for events, then redoing the budget when they are finished. So I think we took this two different ways. So we're going to, I think, answer it both ways. Because we weren't really sure there weren't enough words. So the way that I took it was they have a budget. There's an event that happens. They have it saved for it. So therefore, it has now become an unexpected expense. And then they feel like they have to redo the budget to catch up and fix it, basically after all this happened because it quote unquote messed everything up.

10:16So again, savings buckets, guys, like we want to make sure we put these events that happen randomly throughout the year. And they're pretty consistent when you look at it overall in a year's basis, not by month and go, what do we have going on? What do we normally do this time of year? Put it in a savings bucket, save for it for the next, even if you haven't been able to save for it for 12 months, fine. If you know it's coming up in one month or two months or three months, start saving for it now. So that way, when that event does come, you can take that lump of money that you've saved for, put it in your spending account and spend freely.

10:44Now I will say something that there is an in between between when you start savings buckets and when they're fully operational, because when they're fully operational, for the most part, it really shouldn't change. So yes, the event of Christmas passes, but that doesn't change how much you're putting in the Christmas savings bucket because that's an all year round process, right? The only thing, and so most of yours are going to be like that. You're going to need so many oil changes a year. You're going to have so much, a general amount for medical co-pays that you're keeping in there. So it's always consistent what you're putting in your savings bucket all year.

11:18However, there are the messy middle, which is I'm not fully able to fund them yet. And so in that point, you're just going to become really best friends with your savings bucket planner. And you're going to, like, for example, I had a client and we just bolded as they met each threshold. We bolded it so that they knew that they got through that one. And then they were paying off debt. So eventually they would be able to fully fund them all year round, but they weren't there yet. And you can just track them as they go in the savings bucket thing. On the other hand, if it's something, for example, I was thinking about prom or senior.

11:49You have a senior. And that is a one-time event, right? It's not going to go back, hopefully, unless you're Vanessa. It's going to be two years in a row. Back to back, baby. Senior years. But it won't be in your budget two years in a row for the most of you. That, then, you will be able to take off. and maybe you'll lower your amount that goes in the kid's budget once that's done. But that's like really a one-off kind of deal. Like it's mostly going to be consistent. Yeah. And I love how you said, listen, if you're not there yet, like if you're funding it, but it's not fully funded, like then you feel like, what do I do?

12:19If you've put a couple hundred bucks in there for the thing that you said you wanted, but it needs a couple extra hundred dollars, then that has to come out of your monthly budget until you get to the point. So funding things in the moment is okay until you get, like Shana said, up to where you're funding your savings buckets fully for everything. And I love how you said you're like bolded the threshold. Shana is saying there is, let's say you have five different bills in your annual bills bucket. And you're, so every time you're able to fund one fully, she's bolding it and then bolding the next one.

12:46So that way eventually her client knows, hey, now they're all funded. So you know, you can now pull from this account to pay for them instead of having to fund them in the moment, like in your monthly budget. And that also comes into play if you're the kind of people that have to fund them with bonuses or something so that you can know when you're hitting and you have to pick and choose. Maybe until you get to the second quarter, you can fund them all or something with your bonuses. So that's just when you're going to become a best friend with your savings bucket planner. And then eventually, hopefully you'll be able to get on a smooth ride the whole way through.

13:15Okay. So another comment was talking and trying to share the load with my partner and not making enough. So they're really feeling the stress of they're not being enough money and then also trying to get on the same page with their spouse or partner. Yeah, which is not, that's not easy. And I, we've had plenty of clients that have this. And I think you can't want it for the other person, but you can try to make it as simple as possible. If you show him the budget, like the actual on paper printed out budget, hand it over there and say, what do you think? Or stop talking. And then stop talking.

13:47And then just stop talking. I think that is a really good step. Don't try to explain it to him. Don't try to convince him. Don't try to tell him what the problems are. and I think another thing that we've said with spouses is don't always be thinking and talking about it because that is not going to work for everybody not everybody's a nerd passing not everybody's always messages like we had whoever who was it that came on and said oh I think it was Angie maybe she was the one that said I'm always thinking about it I'm always have ideas I'm always over analyzing but I realized he that stresses him out and so she only is on a need to know basically like once a month let's have a conversation and then she can obsess over it because she loves it, but he doesn't need to.

14:25Yeah, and I think, again, it's just, it forms that wonderful communication between the two of you in a healthy way versus you thinking you always need to talk about it. They don't want anything to do with it. They're just like, because sometimes it is like, hey, just tell me what to do. But we don't want it to become a parent-child relationship. So you both need to come together and say, hey, this is our plan together. And again, if they're not the ones that really want to be in it, you still have to give them the autonomy to make decisions. So that's why we said make the budget for them. Just show them, hey, I just want you to see where all our money is going throughout the month.

14:53Show them, because sometimes they don't know how many bills you have. Sometimes they don't know how much your minimum monthly debt payments are. Sometimes they don't realize how much groceries cost. Let's just be real. They don't see that. But if you show them on paper, they may throw a fit, okay? They may get upset. They may yell. They may scream. Whatever. That's fine. Give them that time to do that, that time and space to do that. You've already freaked out about it. You've already had the time to get upset and be stressed about it. They haven't if this is the first time they're seeing it. So allow that and then come together and say, like Shana said, what do you suggest?

15:21What do you think we should do? And then you stop talking and let them decide to be part of it. But one of the things that we really see works with them is giving the husband their own account or their own fun, like spending money account that lets them do whatever they want. When they know they have the freedom to do that and everything else is working, usually that's like, it's like an in for you. Definitely a good place to go with that. But I also think the other half of this, I mean, it's similar to what Vanessa is saying is that they haven't seen it and you have, but a lot of times they haven't shared the responsibility for trying to figure it out.

15:53And that's what you're showing them for. It's not shaming them, but it's, this is, we're negative 500. What's your idea? In a nice way. Yeah. What do you think we could do? Like Vanessa said, but they aren't shouldering it because you're doing it all. You're allowing that. You're, you're only giving tidbits of information or stressing out and biting their head off because, but they don't actually know. And they haven't been given the proper responsibility. We're not even going to say chance, but it's also their responsibility to figure it out with you. When I hear you say not making enough, you've got to show them the budget that says it's not enough.

16:23And then you guys have to decide together, what does that mean? Do I get a, somebody get a second job? Does somebody, do we stop spending on this subscription? What does that mean together as a couple? Yeah. I think it's really important for you guys to decide, like Shayna said together. And here's the other thing is if you feel alone in this and you feel like you're not on the same page with your spouse, come to office hours with Michelle. It's weekly, Wednesdays, noon central. So that way you have somebody in your corner. Like I said, it's totally free and y 'all can hopefully come up with a plan to be able to make this work and share your success be like hey this week we talked about this and then next week maybe you do it in baby steps because you don't want to overwhelm him but whatever that is we don't want you to feel like you're in this by yourself we want somebody there so our facebook community and coach michelle is an awesome resource yeah so you can go to budgetbesties.com forward slash office hours and you can get the link to join there all right so another question we had was remember the question was what makes your money feel disorganized and this person said multiple banks transitioning and automated, but not there yet.

17:20Having one savings account for all my savings buckets, there it is again, and I just had to add and redo every time I use a savings bucket. Okay, multiple banks has got to go. That's like, number one, it is disorganized. It's like you having to go through three different file cabinets to find out how much money you have, or if you can buy groceries or something. And it's not, like, you just need to be able to see it all in one place. That's our best case scenario for you, is one bank that will rule them all, or make to do everything. If not, like sometimes we do have people who have most of their spending and all of that in their one bank, and then they might have a high yield savings account for some of the savings buckets so that they can get more money for that.

17:56But best case is one bank. Not that great, but also not that terrible as two banks. But anything above that is absolutely a hard pass. Especially if you have two banks, like Shana said, that you're using consistently. If you have one bank that's just for savings buckets and you're not using it as often, but to have to transfer between the two, One, the minimum amount of time you're going to get money between the two is 24 hours. And so then you're working backwards. It's not working for you. It's against you. It's a lot. Listen, there is a messy middle to all this. A lot of people come and they hear our whole system and they get so excited.

18:26And they're like, I want the one page budget. I want the separate accounts. I want the automation. I want all of it. But it's not an overnight fix. It's not a quick fix. So we want you to know that there is a messy middle part to find the right bank, to open up the separate accounts, to get the debit card and our debit card stickers and all that. But it is worth it. We promise in the end it will be worth it to get it all simplified. And we challenge you, if you have multiple banks, okay, we challenge you to say, listen, I'm going to condense, I'm going to find the right bank, the one bank that I'm going to use, and I'm going to condense it all.

18:54We want to show you how much more simple your life can be with just having to deal with one bank. Right. And so then once you get the one bank, then you're going to have several savings buckets. We've already talked about the savings accounts for that. And then have your different spending accounts. And then, yes, set up the automations. It's harder to not automate. You're thinking in your brain, like, I'm gun shy or whatever. If you automate it, it will happen automatically. And you have way less chance of messing it up. You're definitely going to mess it up if you're waiting on yourself to figure it out.

19:24So it's just whether, how fast do you want to do this? And then if you feel weird about it, start it. Or if you feel something, just start small. If you can start, if you can open your, get the one bank, open the savings bucket, start putting$10 on each of them, a paycheck-ish. Yeah. Give or take, right? 10 bucks and just start small. It builds the muscle of knowing I am the kind of person that saves money. I can trust this automation. I see how it's working. All of that. Just start small. If you guys do it, nothing else. Start that. Even if it's$5, don't care what it is. Just start it. Yeah, absolutely.

19:55All right. Next question. When I get overwhelmed behind and unable to pay bills and buy groceries usually causes the overwhelm, I tend to shut down and avoid the problem and then it becomes a bigger problem. So we took this as because of all this, we're racking up debt and later on it's becoming a bigger problem. That's I think what we're assuming here. And the one question we want to ask you is, have you been able to make a budget to see all of your numbers in one place to be able to see if you can afford the life that you're currently living? Yeah, because when you say I'm unable to pay bills and buy groceries, those are all like bare minimum.

20:27Those are big expenses, important ones. It's not like I'm not able to do my hair every month or something. That's not the question here. It's whether I can pay bills and get groceries. So you need to put all of your bills on a one page budget and see can I afford it? Because probably what's happening is you can afford it. But there's miscellaneous stuff happening in your one account because you have one account. And it's not winding, you're getting behind because you're not organized. And so the numbers on all on one page, like Vanessa said, see if you can afford it. And then if there's adjustments, we always say, maybe you're going to cut down a few subscriptions, maybe I'm going to actually stop eating out every night, because now that I see how much that costs, I understand what the problem is.

21:03Whatever it is, you can't diagnose that until you get it all on one page. Yeah, and then again, that next step once you do all that is separating your account. So you have to separate to simplify your money. Knowing that you have money set aside for gas and groceries is a game changer. It's really going to just make you at peace throughout the month. So if you can get that gas and groceries account open separate from your bills, again, to know as a mom, as a wife, as a whatever, to know that you can feed your family is going to really help. Yeah, and the overwhelm will stop when you have that bills account.