When you think about budgets, what comes to mind? Better yet, how does the thought of Budgeting make you feel? I’ve spoken with so many women who are just flat out frustrated with budgeting. Some don’t do it, others don’t know what to do or begrudgingly do it but they feel that it is helping. And it saddens me because I know that the primary issue they are struggling with could be easily solved by simply switching their tool, the method or their mindset.
With this podcast, I want to help you to change your view on budgets as a necessary evil to being an empowering tool. One that can help you make better decisions. I want to help you to stop dreading budgeting.
Let’s rewind to when I was a newlywed over 20 years ago. we tended to run out of money what seemed like consistently every few weeks if I was honest before our next check. The sad part is, I never saw it coming. I just felt like it would be ok to go out to eat one more night, or buy that one extra thing we had wanted. I used to beat myself up for allowing us to get to this point. Well, we had BUDGETING METHOD problem.
You know what happens when you run out of money? You guessed it, Money Fights! Unnecessary Stress, unkind words, thoughts and feelings that wouldn’t have crossed our mind if we weren’t in this situation, well maybe…men can be stubborn. We’ve all done it at some point. The unexpected happens — Life. It’s an all too common trap that we fall into because we don’t know what we don’t know yet. But that’s ok. once we know better, we can do better.
Then later in our marriage, we were faced with a health crisis, cancer. Hmm…we weren’t as prepared for that as we should have been. We had two young boys and my husband didn’t have a salary job. So no work meant no check. Before this happened, we had a budget, but it didn’t include a plan. We didn’t know how much house or car our income could afford. We definitely had a budgeting TOOL problem. In fact, if there was a budgeting rule to be broken, I’ll venture to say that we’ve been guilty of breaking just about all of them. Simply put, we didn’t have the knowledge enough to know that we didn’t have tools.
As life went on, we learned from each experience, became wiser and overcame our challenges. The Kids grew up and so did our income, albeit more slowly than we would have liked. As a corporate career professional, systems and processes became my strengths. Unfortunately, I failed to recognize that I needed to have a systematic approach for my career too. And, well there was a lot holding me back, internally. I had some MINDSET problems.
All of these areas roll up into your finances and into your budget.
Luckily I’m here with this podcast to share all of those discoveries with you.
It’s been on my heart to teach my budgeting methods and to share the tools that I’ve created and have been using for years for a long time. Recently while at the doctor with my husband, the nurse who was assisting us started opening up and talking to us about our brand of tennis shoes. She wanted to know how we liked them because he had the same brand. She shared that she was a new mom with a toddler and only allows herself to buy one expensive gift per year on her birthday and that’s a pair of $100 tennis shoes. As a nurse, since she’s on her feet all day, comfortable shoes were very important to her. She was very open about her feelings and said that the shoes she was wearing made her cry every day when she first bought them because they hurt her feet. She couldn’t return them and couldn’t afford to go out and buy another pair. After leaving that doctor’s visit, I told my husband that she was chosen to be his nurse to send me a message that I need to share my insights with others. Moms are struggling, probably unnecessarily, and they could use guidance, easier budgeting tools and to give them hope. Budgeting doesn’t have to frustrate or paralyze you. I want to help you see how freeing having a budget can make you feel.
Let’s get real for a moment…Budgeting your best life isn’t about being fancy, living in luxury. Shoot, if you don’t budget currently, your best life could be no longer running out of money before the end of the month, being able to pay for Christmas without using credit cards, or being at a place to allow your bills to be setup for autopay. For some, budgeting your best life could mean having a cushy guilt free spending account that you can spend money on that cute new outfit, fresh haircut and nails, outing with the girls. If you are further along in your career, living your best life could be having an fully funded emergency fund, planning big dreams with the hubby into retirement.
Whether you are struggling from paycheck to paycheck to make it or you just need an easier budgeting tool, I’m here for you. Every step, holding your hand, together. I want to help you to develop a better budget and better relationship with money. If you’d like to learn from someone with some umph lived experiences so you can avoid the same pitfalls or maybe you need support to dig yourself out of similar unfortunate situations. I’m here for you.
I promise you this— We’ll talk about your debt in a way that will open your eyes to new perspectives that you hadn’t thought about before. It’s going to be an enlightening journey and some laid back conversations with a friend as we talk about money, debt, savings, careers and mindset.
So back to my original question – How does budgeting make you feel? I hope that together, you’ll soon say: empowered, confident, excited. And with that, come join me, and let’s go Budget Your Best Life.
