Hello, my budget besties. Welcome back to another budget strategy session where I help listeners like you work through their biggest budget struggle so they can get unstuck and start making progress. Today's strategy session is with Gwen, who is in New Zealand. So she does call a few things something different than we do here in the us but we explain what they mean to us here in the US so that you can know what she's talking about.

But I love her mindset and how excited and ready to go on tackling her debt and managing her finances that she is. So you've got some inspiration here in her story as well. As well as, you know, some action steps for her to stay focused and get over her biggest struggle. Now, if you would like to have your own strategy session with me one on one for about 20 minutes,

walk away with some actionable steps to help you start making progress. Get unstuck so you can start paying off your debt, saving money and all the things you can. Sign in for a budget strategy session with me. A budgets made easy.com/strategy. And of course it's no cost to you, you just gotta sign up and show up so that you can take away some actionable steps that you can get started on in the next 24 hours.

All right, let's dive into Gwen's episode. All right, we have Gwen today for another budget strategy session. She is a new member of Money Success Club and we are going to work through the one thing, the biggest thing really, cuz there could be more. But we're gonna talk about one thing that she is struggling with with her budget and her finances.

But before we dive into that, Gwen, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself that you're comfortable sharing and a little bit about your financial situation that you wanna work through today. Sure. Kiata, I'm Gwen and I live in New Zealand and I work as a midwife and I am the sole earner in our family. This, my son and I currently in our home and I have three other adult children I get by week to week and I currently have a,

a spending pause on and I do wonder how, to be honest, how I manage to spend, just spend so much in the past because I feel like now I'm like living week to week, but I, I don't. Okay. What else about me? I work, yeah, as a midwife. So I do some, I'm a midwife manager,

so I have three set days at work and then I do extra shifts on the, the floor to get a bit of extra money. I am really fortunate that I have that, that capacity to take it, to do extra work. That's Awesome. That's easy. So you work for emergency then and not for yourself, so you're not self as a midwife.

Okay, awesome. So I work for a hospital, well it's called our new, it's a new health system in in New Zealand. And so it's, they, they're hospitals but where I work as a primary birthing unit, so it's midwifery lead, so there's no doctors or anything there, just midwives. So Wow, that's cool. And then I Yeah,

it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no epidurals, there's nothing like that. Oh, thank you. No, we get No thanks, Women love it. So we're about 50 minutes away from the base hospital. Yeah. So yeah, our community love our plans, so, and then I do, I can do extra work at the,

at the base hospital or as self-employed as well. I can do that if I want to. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So what do you feel like is really your biggest struggle for yourself right now? Cuz you mentioned spending and kind of living week to week, but what do you feel like you're struggling with specifically that we could talk about? I think I,

patience is my, That's for all of us, right? Yeah. I want, I want it to be done and I want, like every fortnight I'm, oh, I just want that to, I just wanna be, have that money saved so then I can just move on to the next thing. So, but I think what I did so specifically was I,

I had paid my credit card off and then I got it again because I needed to buy, put some flights on it to, cause I'm going to Japan and I did that and then I paid it off again. Awesome. But then I don't know what happened and I went a bit crazy and money and, and I've also used a thing called, I dunno if you've heard it,

it's called after pay and in the states you call it probably something else. No, I think it has the same name, but there's a couple other things. But Yeah, I think there's one that's that same name or a firm. There's like a couple different ones. Oh yeah, we love those here too. But you buy it. Yeah. And then you pay full payments.

Well I was like, oh, and I bought the stuff and admittedly it was, it's springtime here and I was getting a, I'd moved house with no garden and so I was getting my garden sorted and so I was like, yeah, yeah, it's, you know, justified because it's the end result. And so I, I have all these after pays and,

and then I, I have this credit card that was almost up to its limit and, and I connected the after pay amounts to the credit card because if I connected it to my normal account, there's no way I would've that much, I'd be, no. But I put them and then the credit card was up to that amount. Now, so this is,

so I've, I actually, not cuz I wanted to, but I felt like short term I, I increased the limit of the credit card. I've also got a lower rate credit card as well and that, that's because the one I was using is, is really high. It's 26% or something, 25, 20 6% I think. And I've got one now 12 9 9.

So I've increased it to cut, be able to cover those amounts. Okay. But then looming over here is Christmas and Just Like other stuff that's gonna come in. So I guess managing whether I actually try and I think cuz I'm managing to save actually. Okay, That's good. Yeah, I get paid fortnightly, you call it biweekly. Fortnightly I get paid fortnightly and I lately have been able to save two what,

200, 2 50 a fortnight. So I'm building up a little savings account and so I guess, I guess I'm wondering where next time instead of using that credit card for those payments as to my as would I be better to not save that next fortnight and use that money? That's my, that's my dilemma. And the patient. Yeah. So the items, well you're normal,

don't worry. So the payments, the Afterpay payments that are going on the credit card, have you made all of those or are some of them still coming off of the credit card? Some of them are going to the credit card. Ok. Some's still coming but I've actually, I actually went and changed it all to my bank account but, And can Okay.

All and you's see, see have that so I'll Oh yeah, I, yeah, based on what we comes out of this I'll, I can change a bit. Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Well I would encourage you to save a little bit, you know, if you're able to do two 50 a fortnight every two weeks, so that's about 500 a month.

And then when do you get, do you have an extra paycheck in December? Cuz some people will have an Extra November actually. Oh okay, awesome. On the 30th. Yeah, the 30th is The number three. Oh sweet. Okay. Yeah. So I would personally for to save, cuz you still have to plan so that third paycheck you still have to plan like food and gas and anything that you need to pay in between the pay days,

right? Yeah. But whatever extra you have, I would love to see you put the money on the credit toward the credit card after you've saved a little bit more. If you can kind of do both since it's of a bonus paycheck depending on what you've gotta cover for the beginning of December, excuse me. But I would see if you can maybe put some of that money on the credit card that it or set it aside cuz now you have it coming outta your bank account.

I want you to be able to cover the Afterpay payments that are still left and then just like take it out of your bank balance. So what I'm gonna encourage you to do if you're not doing it already is to, you know, track your spending, actually write it down like a checkbook register and so, you know, write it down like you've already taken the money out when you have that little extra money out of your bank balance.

Okay. So you're already doing that. Awesome. That is a great start and probably why you've been able to save some money because you're actually like looking at the numbers, right? And so it feels so different when you're not swiping a credit card versus it coming out of the bank account, right? It does. Yeah, absolutely. So I would encourage you to save a little bit more.

Okay. At a minimum 500 if you think that you, it sounds like your job is pretty stable and you can work extra if you want to. So you know, I would like to see you at a thousand saved and then start tackling the debt as you know, as much as you can. But I do wanna have see you save a little bit first and you know,

you're building these habits already with the tracking and the no spending and you know, and I would encourage you to not use Afterpay at all. I know it doesn't like have interest. Okay, you're good with that. Okay. So from now on moving forward, I want you to be able to just pay for it outta your bank accounts if you want something because it's so easy and you don't realize,

oh, it's like 10 bucks a payday, 20 bucks a month or whatever. But it adds up when you have so many of those coming out. It's like swiping your credit card, $20 here, $10, it adds up. So same thing with the after pay and they, that's how they hate you. They get you to spend more money that way.

And I was at something like, you know, it comes up with the, in the app, you can never look and it this oh 600 and something in the next fortnight. And I was like, Jesus, how'd it get to that? And so like we're down to now three something for it all to be done possibly. And, and my yes.

And I have made that, which I, I can, you know, like you say, I can actually probably, I had never thought about that third pay because I, a lot of my stuff comes out for every two weeks regardless. And so I, I heard you say a wee while back about all the payments coming out and I want to get away from that and be able to,

to put my money into an account that you call thinking funds or you saving Accounts or whatever. Yeah, yeah. And actually be able to, oh look, here's a bill, pay it. Rather than companies being able to just, not that, you know, I do a lot of automatic payments, which I set up, but I wanna be able to have that control where I'm not gonna spend it and do it.

Yes. Yeah. So actually my, what's the word? My awareness I think came before I met you, I did a budget for a, for a friend at work for her budget and I was, and that I'm gonna you June and I did her budget and I looked at it and thought, and I have noted I don't what like Yeah, yeah.

I dunno. The were to honest anyway. They did and, and and she and I did, I was really blown away at her outgoings and it inspired me to do my own. So I started writing everything down back then and I was like, whoa. It came out very similar to her outgoings. And these aren't frivolous things. This is, you know,

power and fuel and all that stuff. Normal stuff, food is expensive here, everything. So, yeah. And oh that, that's right. I dunno if you remember me saying about the takeaway thing. I was like, I added up all the money I sent on takeaways plus coffee and out for lunch or buying little snacks here and there. And I was like,

I couldn't believe it really. So, so we stopped. We haven't had the, I bought him last night actually just not me, but just my son. A takeaway cost me 10 bucks. And I thought, but it was real conscious, conscious spending. It comes out the money that I would use for fuel and groceries. So if that, that's my punishment in a,

not my punishment, but if that gets low, it's like, well you did that yourself. You knows I'm, I just love your attitude about all of this and you've already made tremendous progress. I'm like, well you're already doing the things I'm telling you to do. So, you know, I think you should be proud of the progress you have already made and you know,

pat yourself on the backboard. You've made tremendous progress. Yes. And so thanks, you've got a clear path to where you wanna be, you know what you need to do and you're cutting out the after pays and you're getting your budget written down. You're tracking your spending. Are you doing or are you open to doing like cash envelopes? Are you gonna do like the separate bank account thing?

So I don't really know what cash envelopes are, to be honest. Okay. I I heard you talk about it, but I'm, I'm waiting for that to, to learn what actually they are at the moment. I did, I won't, I've got, got a couple of different banks and that's been from, I had my own business and then from a few reasons.

And one, one of them is really easy to open accounts. So I use that one, but I'm open to anything. So tell me. Yeah, tell me more. So the cash envelope system is just like the separate bank accounts, but you have actual physical cash. And I know, I don't know how New Zealand is, but I know some countries like hardly anybody uses cash.

So I don't know if it's like that there or not, but No, we can, we can use it. Yeah. And so what you can do is decide, okay, I want this for takeaways, which for my Americans that's like fast food carry out. It Takes me a minute to realize what you were saying when you were in the group talking about takeaways.

I was like, what's the takeaway? And then I realized what you were saying or what it meant. So what you would do is you would say, okay, for this payday I'm gonna set aside $30 for takeaways and you just put it physically put the cash in an envelope, but you could do it digitally, like with your separate bank accounts too.

So it's just like actually physically having the cash and having to hand it over is just so different than swiping even a debit card. I mean a debit card is harder than the credit card, but even cash is like, oh I don't want to swipe, you know, I don't wanna hand over the cash. Yeah, it works well I have done that.

Yeah. And, and it makes you think twice about this, More than twice. I like doing that for like fast food, for takeaways and for, I used to do it for groceries, but now I do grocery pick online so it's not as, you know, it's not convenient. Yeah, yeah. So I don't really do that anymore. You could also do it for just a spending category that you typically overspend on.

So if you want some spending money, like for yourself, you know, for if you want something that you would normally put on after pay, but you wanna save up for it, you could have an envelope for that. And as a reward, like, oh I put the, I saved, it's such a different feeling when you save up the money for something you want and it helps you build the patience instead of having that instant gratification of just ordering it.

Right. I think that's a good idea because often if I see the money sitting there, it's too easy to transfer it to another thing. Whereas I, I, cause I, one of my, one of my goals, one of my plans for the future with all the things is to have a, a dress fund Nice. So I can buy a new dress.

Awesome. So, and I thought, oh I just wanna buy an dress but I've, I'm not, I'm wearing all the dresses in my wardrobe actually. I'm like that's awesome. But, but I think a cash envelope would work really well for things like that because I'd be less inclined to spend it because I'd be like, no, I don't wanna take it out there physically,

I don't know, it's got 60, I wanna leave it, this sort of thing. So Yeah. So how much are the dresses that you usually buy? Are they kinda expensive? Two to 300. Okay. So you could do even, you know, depending on your budget, 10 $20 a payday, You're gonna say I have to pay. No,

I mean like you could just put the money in the envelope and build it up, you know, if you've got it, you know, if you wanna start just reward yourself, you know, $5, $10 and then you're saving it for a new dress. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean there's something that's, if that's what you wanna spend your money on,

there's, there's some problem you can spend your money on whatever you want. But I love the idea of like kind setting it aside is kind of a little trait for yourself and so that you can pay for it and cash and you'll feel amazing when you can just walk in and pay cash for A dress. Yeah, I will. I might bagging, I don't think so.

Do you, is that a lot of money? Does that sound like a lot of money there For a dress? For me, yeah. But I don't, I'm not, I don't wear dresses like I don't really even dress up like so just for me, but I don't think like for a really nice fancy dress that's not expensive. Yeah, no,

they'd probably be about the same price here for like a really nice dress. Right. Okay. So that, so you, your, at the moment you two to 300, there would be about five, 600 here exchange. Like our dollar is like Oh yeah. And your Is really strong at the moment so anything's just double. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

That's a change because I think for a while there the, well cuz I, the exchange rate was a little bit better than that. So are you saying two to 300 in Australia? What Do you New Zealand dollars New Zealand? Yeah. Or two to 300 American? No, no New Zealand. Like I'd go, I wouldn't do it online. Oh then yeah,

that's, that's definitely not a bad price at all then. Cause that'd be what like a hundred hundred 50 ish US dollars. Am I doing that Math? Yeah, yeah. Oh, Oh yeah. That's like, that's not a bad price at all address. No. Yeah. Yeah. So you should come here for a holiday. Really check for you guys.

Yeah, no kidding. My daughter wants to go to Australia someday I keep or she wants to move there. I'm like you can't move there. It's too far away. I won't fly that far. Don't be doing it. Sorry, I just had to move to plug in. You're fine. Oh you already got your Christmas straight up. That's awesome.

Well I guess you guys don't celebrate Thanksgiving. That's an American holiday And we have Christmas and summer. I was listening to you all. Yeah, It's so crazy. It's no stuff. It's snow business and I'm thinking but yeah we have hot, yeah it's steaming hot on Christmas day and and we, yeah I did Turkey last year but gen this year it's a barbecue.

It's just always that We've done barbecue, we don't even like Turkey. So we're like why, why are we spend all this time cooking a Turkey that nobody likes. And so we've changed it up. We've done barbecue, we've done ham, we, I'm doing fried chicken this year. Oh yeah. It's like why bother? Nobody wants to even eat it.

I just want this aside. So why am I wasting my time cooking this stupid Turkey? But anyway, do you, okay so what is one thing that you could do in the next 24 hours? Cause it seems like you've already doing everything I suggested. So what could you do in the next 24 hours to kind of get through your struggle? Cause it sounds like you're kinda already doing everything.

I think the impatience I need to just breathe and lean into that. Yeah. And I think what I might do is go and get the some cash out. Yeah, I like that. Put a few put make a few envelopes for it. Yeah. Or envelopes, whatever you think. Yeah, If you, yeah and you can just put it in a regular envelope too.

It doesn't have to be any fancy, but if you're crafty or if you have like any stickers you could put some dress stickers on the envelope or something. You know, just kinda make it a little bit funner than a plain envelope for your dress. So I love that idea of just doing the cash and maybe, you know, getting a little bit out to put in your dress fund and you are doing great,

like you are doing really well and you have the right attitude. Like it seems like something is just clicked for you and you are making progress. And so I just, I know you are going to make progress on paying off the debt and doing all the things cuz I can just tell from your attitude and speaking with you that it's clicked for you and you are like ready to do it.

Yeah, Well my, my, my trip to, and this may be a little bit sort of optimistic, but my trip to Japan is in April. Okay. And by then I want to have 2000 yen cash ish Cashish on a, on a, it's a debit card. It's not a credit card, it's a card that you can load cash onto and to have paid off my credit card.

Nice. So is Paid off all the other debt too, but, which doesn't much but I may, I might just put that aside for Yeah. So you can set money aside for the Japan trip and then once you get back you can focus on the rest of the debt. So I love making that more of a priority. Yeah. Just so that you're not adding to any debt to go on your trip and you'll have,

it'll be like a different experience when you've already have the money before you even go. Like it's just different. You can enjoy it so much more. Right. So it's 2000 yin, is that more or less than the New Zealand dollar? Actually fairly similar the moment. So there's, I think it's about, I think it's about a dollar 84. So does that make sense?

80? Yeah. It's almost, I Have no idea. So, So it's very close. Okay. Must be 80 cents a you won't be used to that. A my Kiwi A isn't that right? It's about, yeah, it's almost the same. Okay. 15 cents difference. So you can almost say that it's the same. Okay. And have you done the math yet to make sure that's a realistic goal for what you're working with?

Or are you No. Do you plan? Okay, well we go that Monday if you haven't watched that yet cuz I know with the time difference you probably, you may not be able to watch us live every time I've Oh you have? Okay good. So day one, you know we talked about the smart goals and making sure it was a realistic goal by doing some math.

So I would encourage to kinda work on that as well to make sure that you can actually achieve that goal because if you don't then you're gonna feel like, you know, that's just gonna mess with you mentally. Yeah. You know when you, It's, yeah I think fortunately I've got, I'm doing some locum work, so I've got three lo three locums coming up and they pay quite well.

So I've kind of earmarked those. Okay, awesome. But I'm just again impatient on the site. Let's just do this. Can we just get this done? I don't want it to be matched. I'm not saying it but the, the other thing is Christmas. Yeah, Yeah, that's coming, its coming at the time we're recording This. I've got,

I've got, I've got the grocery money put aside but it's the present. Yes. So, So how old did you tell me how old the youngest one is? That's still at home. He's 14. Okay. So he's old enough. I would do the math and see kind of like what you can realistically afford and you know, just tell him that,

you know, it may not be as extravagant as it usually is or something, you know, come up with something like that, that they're still gonna get something. But you know, you might need to be a little bit more low key this year with the presence, but it could also depend on how much extra you're able to work or if you are able to save some more money and things like that.

So I would definitely start thinking about that. Kinda write it out if you haven't done your written out, your actual expenses, your income, just your baseline income is where I would start. And then as make a priority list as you work extra or have these local jobs that you make a list of priorities for where you want that money to go to so that it doesn't just get mindlessly spent but it can go towards your goal.

So Christmas, then Japan, then you know, whatever debts you wanna start paying off or savings. So I would definitely make a priority list so you can kind of stay focused on what you want to do with the money. Okay, cool. Alright. And you can also, I've suggested this in a couple other budget strategy sessions. So you've probably already heard me say this,

but you could also make like some visuals of the Japan or of Japan for the Japan trip to kind of keep you focused on, that's what's your goal right now? That'll help a little bit with the impatience and so that you can remind yourself what you're working towards. Yes. It's important to kinda keep those visual reminders around for that. Cause I know how,

I know it's like I just wanna be down with this already, but when you have that attitude that helps you keep that momentum going cause you're ready to like get it gone and, and do the things right instead of just, oh well someday all paid off. You know, that's a totally different mindset. So I love that you have this mindset because now you just gotta do it.

Yeah. You already have half the battle one with that, with the mindset and the attitude like, I just want this outta my life. So I love that. That that is, that is progress. That is progress. Yeah. So Maybe we've catch a few babies I think to people there Like where's the, where's the Christmas babies? Come on.

Yeah, they're there. So do you have any other questions before we wrap up? I can't. I think we covered quite a lot actually. Yeah, we Did. We really Did. Yeah. And you can ask in the Money Success Club group as well. And then we've got a couple sessions this week in the group too. So if you think of something else,

feel free to ask in there. And I appreciate you taking the time to come on and on the Money Mindset podcast with me. Oh my pleasure. Thanks. I cannot even tell you how freaking excited I am to see Gwen's progress. Because you know what the number one indicator of success with any goal is, it's how excited you are to reach the goal.

And if you can't tell that she is super excited and she's ready to get it done, then you need to re-listen to that episode. She is going to rock it out because she is excited and she just wants it done. And you know, she said her biggest struggle was impatience, but in reality that's what's going to drive her. That is what is going to get her to her goal.

And so I hope that you can find the inspiration in her story so that you can finally get going and get unstuck too. If you need some help with that, you can come join me for your own budget strategy session as we work through your biggest struggle is keeping you stuck right now. So sign up for your own session@budgetsmadeeasy.com slash strategy. And if the thought of coming on the podcast makes you nervous and scared,

send me a message cuz I promise you it's not as bad as you think. It's actually a lot of fun and you get to come hang out with me for a little bit and talk about, you know, some things you can do to start taking some action. So come join me. Budgets made easy.com/strategy.