What's up, budget best dos it is Ashley with the Money Mindset Podcast and today is another budget strategy session where I have listeners just like you come on and we work through their biggest budget struggle and create some small action steps that they can start right away so that they can start making progress. So if you would like to come on the podcast and work through something that's holding you back in your budget,

maybe not helping you stick to it or not creating realistic expectations and goals for yourself, let's work through it together and get an outside perspective because it's very helpful to hear other people ideas and you will help others as well because I guarantee you there are other people struggling with the same thing that are listening. Just go to budgets made easy.com/strategy. In today's episode,

we are going to talk about how to stick to a budget, especially when you are a busy mom with little kids and you're working from home. It is so easy to get overwhelmed and if you don't have a plan that you can follow through with, ugh, you're just ordering DoorDash, ordering dinner because you're just tired and you've run outta steam by dinnertime,

right? Which totally blows the budget. So we are going to work through some things that Cameron can do to kind of help set herself up for success. Now don't forget, you can come on and do one of these too. The link is in the show notes and I will talk to you guys soon. Hey Cameron, thank you so much for being here for another budget strategy session.

How are you doing today? I'm great, how are you? I'm good. I, you know, it's just after Christmas and now I'm just excited and ready to start the new year. Right. Just hit the ground running. I'm ready to go. Yes, very motivated to get Organized. Yes, absolutely. So today is a budget strategy session,

which if you haven't listened to one of those before, we work through like your number one or your biggest budget struggle. So it's not a deep dive into the numbers or you know, all the things that you might be struggling with cuz you know, we gotta keep it to less than 30 minutes if we can. So what do you feel like is your biggest struggle right now with your finances?

Probably just sticking to a budget, like impulse spending, kind of sticking to a budget and feeling overwhelmed when I try to sit down and dig into the details. Gotcha. So what do you feel like is keeping you from sticking to the budget? Definitely the impulse stuff. I have three kids and you know, work from home and so things will get busy,

all the extracurriculars. So even when you kind of of plan for meals at home, something will come up and I feel like I'm getting DoorDash again, you know, or so just those kinds of things like just impulse and then not like taking the time to really check it, go back and like make sure that I'm sticking to it. It's just a things get in the flow and I go with what's easier and not,

not necessarily what's intentional. Gotcha. And what have you or have you tried anything to kinda work through this in the past that maybe didn't work or maybe worked a little bit? I've tried setting up budgets and I've tried using like apps that track everything in one place for you. But even then I just get overwhelmed with all the different places and, and then I still have the same issue where you know,

something difficult comes up and I stick with what's easier. Gotcha. So, gotcha. And you're in Money Success Club, correct? Yes. Okay, awesome. Yes, That was my, I signed up for the year cuz I was like, I'm doing this like I'm done. Yay. I've been listening to Brooke Castillo, I don't know if you Know Yeah,

I know her. I love Her too. So I'm the really in the like I'm taking action, I'm focusing, I'm doing it. And so I invested in, that's why I'm here. Awesome. I'm so excited to have you for the whole year. It's so exciting because I find that people that commit for the full year, they're just more committed and they're like more willing to take the time because it's not always gonna be perfect,

right? There's gonna be times you don't stick to the budget. So when you give yourself that grace of the whole year, it doesn't feel so like, oh I gotta make progress right now because it takes time. Right. So yeah. All right, so let's work through this a little bit. So you said you get overwhelmed with making a budget and having so many things,

you know, an app. And have you tried just outta curiosity have, so you said an app, what about spreadsheet or writing it down? Have you tried like what feels like too many different things for you besides the app? I'm not sure I, I've tried writing it down. I actually bought like a thing and then I just, I don't ever pull it out and do it.

Ok. So I'm kind of thinking this year that what might be best is, cuz I work from home and so I work from my computer so having a spreadsheet or something like that might be helpful because I'm constantly on this already, right. That just pulling something else up might be helpful. I get, I get frustrated creating my own and so that's what's hard.

But then using somebody else's and making sure it has all the pieces that I wanna track. Correct. Yeah. That can be just, Yeah. So I don't know if you've checked out the paycheck budget spreadsheet yet and I know there's a lot in it, but you do have that as part of the all in for the year so you do have access to that.

So that's something that we can work through inside of Money Success Club as well. Cause obviously people are listening here so we won't be able to like deep dive into that cuz you kind of get, you've gotta be able to see it it, so it might work for you to try this spreadsheet or to, and if it doesn't quite work for you, of course you can make your own.

And what I do for like my business expenses cuz I use a spreadsheet for that but I don't use, I don't use my own spreadsheet for my personal stuff. I just like having a notebook. It's just my personal preference. So, you know, and there's been times I've used both. I've used on paper and a spreadsheet cuz it, you know,

a spreadsheet does the math for you and you can kind of project ahead for the whole year a lot easier. So it is easier to use the spreadsheet to get the overall picture and kind of build it and copy it for each month so you can kind of plan out the year and see where you're going. But I just really, for me, I just really like writing transactions down.

Like kind of like the checkbook register. So that's how I use like my notebook is like a check, you know when we use to write checks, checkbook register and writing down each transaction like that. One thing that I do that may or may not be helpful for you is I have a smaller just plain notebook that I carry around in my purse or when I'm working at home a lot,

not really going anywhere. It'll be right there on the table by me and it's really about creating those habits and routines which we talked about the money playing bootcamp, which I believe you were in there too. Yep. And so deciding on a time. So I really like to do it at the startup of the day or at the end of the day and you know,

that's just how I've always done it. But Michael Hyatt has a book called Free to Focus and he does talk about that plus some other things. So if you like to listen to audiobooks or read, that's a good one to kinda help you kinda structure your day, especially since you work at home. I find when I work at home it's just like there's so many things I get distracted by the laundry and the dogs and cleaning up because I have three kids too,

so I totally understand and you know, it's just really hard to put structure behind your day and so that might be helpful for you. And so kind of what I'm thinking, do you have like set hours that you had to work from home? Sort of, not really. Like we're supposed to do eight to five in our time zone, but it,

it'll kind of, you know. Okay. Yeah. The owners of my company will be their kind of digital nomads and their, they have an online course. I'm a launch manager for a company with an online course. Sweet. So I'm very familiar with everything that you're doing. But yeah, so it's some days I'll be working like Pacific time but for the most part it's my Gotcha.

Okay. So what could be helpful for you is creating the routine of like once you get the kids wherever they're at, cuz I'm assuming you don't, if you're trying to work all day, the kids have, they're either at school or daycare or whatever, like they're taken care of, right? Cool. Yeah, so even just like 15 minutes before you start your workday,

you could check in on your budget and your spending. It doesn't need to take a lot of time and especially if you do it every day, it'll take you like five minutes. Yeah. And so that kinda sets your mindset for the day for what you have left to spend. And what I do when I write things down is, so I'll put the date where I spent the money,

the amount and then I check it saying that it had that it's posted cuz you know I write down my bills that may not post for like a week or two weeks or sometimes even three weeks. So you know, once it's cleared the account, I put a check next to it and then I have a column for category of course the category name. But then I have another column for the category amount.

So what I will typically do like periodically in my tracking ledger is I will put the category balance so what is left in that category after I've spent, you know, whatever, you know, like say food. So let's say I went to Walmart, got a bunch of groceries, so I'll put Walmart, the amount food or groceries, whatever you wanna call it.

And then I'll put, okay, category balance. So what is left in that category? And then I will put what I've spent in the category. So I have just a column, but I have two things that I put two numbers that I put there. And that really is helpful for sticking and staying on track because you can easily see, you don't have to go into the spreadsheet if you know,

if you don't want to. Of course you could do that with a spreadsheet fairly easily. And, but it's just like right there and there's something about writing things down that really helps remember it and it just cement it more in your brain than on a computer and on a spreadsheet. So that's why I like to do that, writing it down on paper.

Cuz even in a spreadsheet you still have to enter each transaction, right? So you're not necessarily saving a whole lot of time by putting it in the spreadsheet. But I don't know, something about the spreadsheet just feels like it's just numbers on the, on the screen. You know, when I'm actually writing down what I've spent, it just feels more real.

And then you have to really think about and pay attention. Cuz a lot of times we just avoid it and so it's like, oh I'll just put it on the credit card, I'll worry about it later and next thing you know you've overspent like hundreds of dollars. You know? Yeah. Or at least maybe I'm the only one that does that. You know,

even if I, if I'm not paying attention, I will still overspend. And so it is about being intentional with your routine. So I really like the idea or you could, so you could do it at the beginning of the day before you start your day and get your, you know, everything up and running for work. Or you could do it at the end of your day if you've got some time,

like once you kind of wind down and you shut work off, look at it real quick and then you know, it might be more fresh on your mind before dinner and the chaos of the activities and all the things, things that you've got going on at night. So it might be better for you to do it than as well. So you know,

things like that. I don't find apps work well it doesn't, they never work with how I budget anyway because I budget my paycheck so my month doesn't start on the first You can, but there's a whole lot of extra steps to it and you know, I like to keep things simple. So like why make it more complicated and make more work for yourself.

So my month starts on the first paycheck of the month and not the first. So the apps don't usually work, you know, they're just, I don't know, it's, it's just numbers on a screen again. Right. And it's like you have to check it. It's just another thing. I don't mess with apps at all. Like I don't have any apps that I use for this now I do have one that I use for just my overall net worth tracking and I check it just a couple times a year.

Like I don't look at it every day or anything like that. Okay. So I would, I would consider or think about how you can build 10, 15 minutes into your routine and where the kids are already at school, you don't have the distraction of them and just you can take a few minutes to check in on your budget that will help you stick to it.

But keep in mind you're not gonna be perfect. So like none of us are perfect and it has to become a habit and a routine and you will find that when you like something comes up, the kids are sick and you're not, like you get out of that route schedule and that routine you feel lost and it just feels like chaos. But when you have your routine and you can follow through with it,

I don't know, things just feel right in the world. Yes. Yeah. You Can do that. So how does, so what is something that, or, so what do you think you can do to kind of help fit this into your routine? Let's go ahead and put it out there. Like what do you think you can do? I definitely like the idea of doing it right before I start the day.

Like I like the idea of knowing where I'm at. I like the idea of preparing as opposed to reflecting afterwards. So I feel like if I look in the morning and then that kind of sets my mindset up for how I spend during the day. You know, I might be less likely to be impulsive if I've looked at here's how much is left on my eating out budget,

you know, or here's how much is left on my, that kind of thing. So I like that. I like doing it at the beginning of the day. Love that 15 minutes makes me feel better. I think I just always envision that I'm gonna have to sit there and spend all of this time and that it'll be, you know, that it'll feel like a Lot.

Exactly. And if you're doing it, if you build it into your day where you're doing it every day, especially in the beginning now as you go, you may not wanna do it every day but it won't take you like less than five minutes unless you're shopping like a hundred, you're buying like a hundred things every day. Like you know, you might buy one,

some days you might not buy anything you have, don't have to add anything to it, you know. So even five minutes, you know, maybe the first date might take you 15 to kind of get caught up a little bit or the first couple days even. But just 15 minutes and then it'll be like five minutes once you just have to do like one day.

Yeah. Or the weekend, the weekend might take you a little longer, you know? Yeah. So I love that idea. So if you even have 15 minutes and your transactions only take you like five, that gives you another 10 to think about dinner and prep it. You know, if you've got freezer meals you can throw something in the crockpot.

I mean that's what's great about working at home, right? Like you're not rushing Yes. To the office. So if you have, you know, you say 15 minutes to just kind of set up your day for your personal life, figure out what you're gonna do for dinner and, and if you've already made the meal plan, it's just, okay,

what can I set out? And you know, for me I like to even just set out the ingredients that you know, don't have to be in the fridge obviously. So it's there and it's reminding me, you this is what you have to eat today. Yeah. And I love the crockpot, you know, whatever I can put in the crockpot,

it's going in there. So that's the time too that you could throw things in the crockpot, you can set things out and if you, you know, if you have to run to the grocery store you can see that real quick. So you could do that, you know, after you pick up the kids from school you or before you pick up the kids from school,

you could go through, you know, the grocery store really quick. I feel like a lot of times we make things out, we procrastinate and avoid things cuz we make it out to be such a bigger deal than it really is. And then when we do it we're like, oh really Ashley? Like that took you five minutes? Like why didn't you just already do that?

Yes. It's like why were you putting that off for months? Like really Experienced that many times. Oh yeah I still do it, I still do it on things. It's like cuz you just don't wanna deal with it and it's just so you avoid it and then when you finally just do it, it's like, why did I put that off for so long?

Like That was never as bad as you were expecting. Exactly. So it's the same thing. So you know what you could do for, let's see today we're recording this on a Wednesday. So you could even kind of start practicing to Thursday, Friday, like your morning routine and then next with your budget and then next week you could kind of start doing the meal plan part.

Like if it feels like you could take the weekend, you know, I like to do a lot of meal planning and prep on Sunday. I don't know if you've got time on Sunday or not, but that might be a good time for you to kind of prepare for the week like and write down your meals and then in your morning when you've got those few minutes you can kind of,

you can pre prepare mentally and get the stuff out to remind you through the day and have it already ready as much as you can. Right. So yeah, how does that feel? Yeah, that feels good. I'm excited. Awesome, awesome. I feel like I can do that. I'm excited To ask for you. Yes, go ahead. I wanna ask a paycheck question.

One of the things that also like I, I guess it's like a lack of knowledge that keeps me from like moving forward sometimes. How do you do the paycheck budget when like you and your spouse's paycheck, you know are different or you're paid different? Like do you track it with just yours? Do you tr like how do you do that? So I do it separate.

So like I will do like my husband's first paycheck a budget or has the second paycheck when I got paid like biweekly on a regular schedule. I did the same for me. One my paycheck, one my paycheck, two, now I pay myself like once a month. So I just kind of do it whenever, but I still do it twice for him.

Now do you guys get paid the same week or opposite weeks or different days or? So he gets paid weekly because he's a CDL driver and so he gets paid weekly and then I get paid biweekly. Okay. So what I would do, cuz I wouldn't, it feels too complicated to do that when he gets paid week because that's six budgets or seven in a in a month.

So what I would do is just a weekly budget. So the week that you both get paid, just lists both your incomes and then write down the bills that you're gonna pay out of that for that week and just kinda do it as a weekly thing. And what I would want you to do is eventually, and this may take a little bit of time because depending on how you're paying your bills now,

but even though you're weekly, I would like you to get a week ahead. So let's say the first week of January, which would be I think like the sixth or the seventh maybe is a Friday, something like that. I don't have a calendar in front of me that week. Whatever you get paid between you and him, like whoever gets paid instead of that following week,

I would like you to be paying the bills. The, okay, so week one instead of week 2nd of January, I'd like to see you get to where you're paying the bills with for week three. So you're a little bit ahead, but that takes some time in planning and things like that just to kind of prepare yourself as you're planning out each paycheck. Because the,

obviously the weeks where you get paid too, you can pay more bills. So it makes it a little bit more work for you on the front end. But keep in mind once you get it set up and working how you want it to work, you're just copying it month to month and then you're just changing, you know, the extras for that month.

But like the bills will get paid the same week each time. And that's why I like budgeting by paycheck and getting a little bit ahead because it's not, you don't have to sit down every week and say, oh well what's due next week? No, you, it's the exact same every single month and it like it saves you so much time and just mental energy trying to figure that out.

Right? Yeah. So because each, each week the dates will change and then that way like if your bill's due on the fifth, then you're not having to worry about when is the payday in correlation to the due date. So it won't matter. Like whenever you get paid, whenever you get like two weeks ahead, it literally doesn't matter what day you get paid because it's already it,

it won't be late. Like no matter what, it's not gonna be late. So Okay. You know, that really helps with the whole managing it and sticking to it part two. Okay. And I do go over that, I don't know if you have had time yet with the holidays and everything to go through your dashboard, but I did cover that in the half day workshop.

So that's at like the top for stage one and that's in the core training. So it's just above stage one. It's near the top of your dashboard. So Okay. And you can fast forward through that because like we did it all together so I told people what to do and then they did it. So if you like can block off like an hour or two,

the whole thing is four hours. But that's because we like all did it together and you know, it took a little bit longer so you can fast forward and stuff, but I would, you know, look through that when you can block like maybe an hour to sit down and really get it set up. But like we said, once you get it set up,

it doesn't take much time at all. Like not much to ma to just do it for the rest of the months. Yeah. Okay. All right. Do you have any other questions for me today? I don't think so. Awesome. Well I appreciate you taking the time to come and share what you're struggling with and help us work through it because I know there's other people listening that have the exact same questions,

so I appreciate you for taking the time to be with us today. Yes, of course. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks to Cameron for coming on and sharing her money journey with us. If you would like to have your own session one-on-one with me at no cost, I mean it doesn't even cost you a thing, go sign up@budgetsmadeeasy.com slash strategy and I'd love to work through a plan that you can follow through with as well.

I hope you guys have a great week and don't forget information about the Money Plan Bootcamp that starts in a couple weeks is coming soon. It is also free and it's my five step plan to create a money plan that you can actually stick to. So details for that are coming soon. Keep an eye out, have a good week.