Welcome to the Money Mindset Podcast. Well, you'll find a judgment free zone to help you free yourself from overthinking and the fear of doing things the wrong way. It's time to shed yourself with the mom, guilt, procrastination, and perfectionism so you can start doing the things that you really want to do with your money instead of just working to pay bills.

I'm Ashley Patrick, ex detective Turn debt free CEO of my very own business and stay-at-home mom of three. Not too long ago, my dreams of staying at home with my kids seemed impossible. I thought I'd have to stay miserable in a high stress and demanding job just so I could retire someday. After gaining the confidence in my own ability to manage my family's finances and a simple step-by-step plan to make it happen,

I was able to pay off $45,000 in just 17 months, which then allowed me to finally quit my job, stay at home with my kids, and build a debt-free business. Now, my mission is to help moms like you conquer debt and free themselves from the mental load of handling their family's finances. If you're ready to shed the guilt and shame surrounding your past money mistakes and tackle your debt,

this is the place for you. Let's get started. Welcome to our very first budget besty meetup. So this is something new that we are doing in 2023 as a free community engagement kind of event. I will do a short training about 10, 15 minutes or so if I don't talk too fast. Anyway, that's kind of like the ideal timeline is about around 15 minutes.

And then those of you that are with me live, you can ask me any questions if you have any comments, anything else you wanna talk about, we'll have about 15 minutes or so for that. And then at the end, I would love for everybody to share a win from, you know, maybe the last week, last month, last year.

Whatever you wanna share and remember, know when is too small, right? So of course some people like Cindy, who's with us tonight, paid off a lot of debt last year. But you know what it is really like if you just created your budget and stuck to it for a month, like that's a win. If you meal planned for a week,

when you normally eat out every day, like that's a win. So we wanna celebrate, of course, the big wins, but we also wanna celebrate the smaller wins, especially, you know, the ones that help keep you making progress because you know the people listening are going to be struggling with kind of the same things. And when they can see somebody that is relatable and realistic and kind of struggling or achieving some of the things that they're doing,

it helps motivate them as well. And so of course that is our mission here with budgets made easy, is to really help motivate us busy moms as overthinking perfectionists to just keep going, keep making progress. So we are going to dive in and of course, as this evolves, it may change, the format may change. You can save your spot for either February or March,

just like two months at a time will be available for you to sign up. And you can go to budgets made easy.com/meetup to pick a time. The spots are limited, so please cancel it if you're not able to make it so that somebody else can sign up as well, because it's limited to right now just 10 spots. So we wanna make sure that everybody that wants to come can come.

All right, so during tonight's meetup, I am going to talk a little bit about changing your behavior because I talk about this all the time and I got this great question the other day from one of my one-on-one CL clients. And she asked me, you know, what does that mean, changing your behavior, what does it mean? And nobody's ever asked me that,

but when she asked me I was like, oh, that's true. Like I should explain that better because I say it all the time. And to her, the way she was viewing it is, you know, she was struggling with getting on track and getting things paid off because they had some really big expenses. This year, of course, everything comes in threes.

That's been my experience. Everything happens in threes. So she had three really big kind of emergency, like thousands of dollars in repairs three times last year. So, you know, before that they were doing really good. And so, you know, to her, when I was saying changing your behavior, it kinda sounds like, you know, stop.

You know, the things that I talk about randomly spending the overspending Dr going through the drive through, like excessively, things like that. Which some of that, but that wasn't really her issue. Her her issue was the big emergencies, right? And not having somebody save for those before they happen. So now we're trying to play catch up, right?

And so what I really mean by working on changing our behavior in the grand scheme of things and the overall picture of managing our finances is yes, of course spending habits if those need to change, saving for ahead of time as much as you can. Of course if you're early in your journey, that is harder because things will still be coming up. And so it's hard,

harder to save for those things when they come up before you're ready, right? So you know, it's tracking your spending, like that is a behavior, it's a habit, it's a routine that we wanna build and create as we're trying to change our behavior. So it's not always the impulsive spending, it's not always the overspending, but it's the little things that we do on the day-to-day.

Those habits and routines could also be said instead of behavior. I just always say behavior at is a ha at a habit, I guess. So, but it is those little things of what we do with our finances. Not always the big things of overspending and you know, shopping way too much on Amazon. Of course that plays into it as well.

But you know, mainly the habits and setting up the systems to really be successful in the long run. So setting up those automatic transfers for saving or automatic transfers for retirement and those things that you don't have to think about. And creating that routine and those habits so that you don't have to think about those either. Like you just know what you need to do.

You know, whether that's a weekly check-in on, you know, let's say Wednesday nights or maybe it's Sunday afternoon, it's kinda like, you know, meal planning on Sundays. I'll do a lot of meal planning or meal prep on Sundays. That way I know what we're doing for the week and I kind of get a plan. I kind of review the week to see what appointments I have,

what meetings I have coming up and that type of stuff. So, you know, that would be a good time to kind of review the spending and what we have left in the budget and things like that. So that is part of changing the behaviors. So it's also building those habits, those routines and creating the system, the overall system of your life with your finances working together.

So I hope that makes se it makes sense for everybody. And the second part of that, that really goes along with it and was also part of her question cuz they kind of go together. So you know, changing your behavior but also implementing, so implementing those systems and the tracking and things like that to start changing your behavior. So, you know,

really implementing that is, like I just talked about with setting up, you know, habits, stacking, if you haven't heard of Atomic Habits by James Clear, great book, great framework for creating new habits and new routines. So habit stacking. So do you have like, do you drink coffee every morning? So a lot of people I see will put like the medicines or vitamin supplements,

whatever that they need to take in the morning, they'll put it right by their coffee maker so they remember and it's together. So you're already in the habit and the routine of getting your coffee in the morning, you don't even have to think about it, right? You just do it because that's what you always do. So then you add a new habit that you want to do with an old habit for me,

you know, maybe when you're getting ready for bed, if you've got your nightly routine, you could add in one more thing that you wanna start doing to that routine. Maybe if you, you know, as another example, not necessarily finance related, but if you, you, you know, like for me, I need to start drinking more water.

I am addicted to Dr. Pepper and it's getting, it's ridiculous at this point. And I've done a lot better the last week or maybe less than a week. And you know, just setting out the water jug the water bottle that I wanna use for the next day where it's there, I see it. I'm reminded before I grab a Dr. Pepper.

That is helpful. Yeah. Sydnee showing me her big cup. I know. And I didn't even get one ready today. I have my Dr. Pepper hair. I know. And it's late. It's like eight 15. I should not be drinking one this late, but that's a whole other thing. Renee says, Dr. Pepper is my daughter's favorite.

Yeah, I'm, I'm just like addicted to it. It's, it's really ridiculous at this point. You know, my husband and I drank mainly me. I'll say I'll throw him under the bus too. He did not have as many as I did. But we drank like 2 24 pack Saturday and Sunday, like one 12 pack each day. It's like,

that's really ridiculous, Ashley. Like you gotta stop. So I have been doing better with that. So today is Wednesday, so maybe I had, I think I had one or two days last week and then maybe one or two days this week where I did really well. Like I didn't have any, or I had like one or maybe two compared to like six.

So that's an improvement, right? We gotta celebrate the small wins. All right, so starting to implement, I'll just co come back to this just in case I forgot to say everything I was thinking cuz I got distracted by the Dr. Pepper. Christina says Coke is my drink of choice. I don't like Coke. Yeah, I don't know, I just don't,

I, I'd rather have Pepsi, but I mean I'd prefer Dr. Pepper of course, but Pepsi's my second favorite. So you know, starting to implement. So we talked about the habit stacking, building those new routines, having like a weekly time block of time. We talked about that during the Timefinder workshop as well if inside Money success club. And so,

you know, just creating that routine that is really just one of what I wanted to touch on and talk about tonight was, you know, what is changing your behavior really mean and how to start to implement that. And really when you're implementing, remember to just start on one thing at a time. So you know, if you are just getting started with your budget and you want to start like really sticking to it,

start implementing this. I highly encourage you to start writing down what you spend like each day. You don't have to go backwards cuz that feels very overwhelming. But if you're wanting to start today, just get yourself a plain notebook and just start writing down when you spend money, whether you use a debit card or a credit card, just write it down so you can see where your money's actually going and not worry about anything else yet.

So that's like where you start, where you start implementing. You wanna hit the ground running, let's do it. All right, so now does anybody have anything that they want to talk about? Any questions? It could be about changing behavior habits, but of course if you have any other questions, you're free to ask those as well. You can just unmute yourself and ask your question.

Don't be shy if you have a question or just have something you wanna talk about. Ashley, the things like the, that, what was it called? Timefinder workshop you did and those types of things. Are those on the dashboard? Are they in the Facebook group? Where do we find those? Because I've, I have several that I need to,

to watch. They should be in, in both, but I have not double checked the Timefinder workshop to make sure it was added to the dashboard, but it is in the Facebook group. Okay. So And that's the budgets made easy. It's the BM e Money Success Club. Okay. Yeah. It's not the long big name. That's the free group.

Right. My goal is still to have taxes done by March 1st. How are you doing with that? I, I still have a few statements that I have to do, but I feel so much better that it's not the entire year. Yeah, it's just like October, November, December. And actually I think I might be just, I have my sensei stuff all done.

That account's done. My business one, it's the bills and the personal one and I think I have all four months I still have to do at the end of the year. But cuz the sensei one was the easiest one. And then I just start pulling my other stuff together and I'm, I'm feeling a lot better about it. But then I was feeling okay last January and then my mother-in-law fell,

then she was in the rehab and then she was in, it went downhill. So my fingers and toes are crossed cuz John's birthdays next week and that's when she fell last year. I know, but you, I mean you, Everything across, Well you're in a really great position because you were able to, you know, get caught up and kind of maintain for several months last year.

So I'm Excited You're gonna be able to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I am feel, that's why I said I'm feeling good about it, that I, I could get it done by March 1st, but if it's April 1st, okay, I'm my, my sensei group last night they're talking about choosing a word for the year, which I've never done before.

And I wanted to look at it. They'd sent out some information, a link to an article with suggestions. I, okay, I'll, I wanna look at those. Well then next thing I know the meeting's last night. And so I'm thinking, okay, I need focus because as you know, I am so scattered and I can't focus on things and I need to focus home stuff,

business stuff, budget stuff. And then I said, but I kind of have two words cuz then I need the grace that when I fail I can just pick up and start again. Yes. So I, I picked that as my word just like on a rebound last night during the group. I'm gonna think about it, but I think that's gonna be my first word of the year and just have to try to focus more and find out why I can't focus,

you know, that perfectionism, which I don't really have never thought of myself as perfectionist. Me too. I sure am a procrastinator. So I know when I heard that I was like, I am not a perfectionist. And then when I started diving into like what it really meant, I'm like, oh, okay, fine. I know we've talked about it on the,

on the groups. Yep. And I actually talked about on this Monday's podcast, so that was the 16th, I think it was episode one 16 if I remember right. The key to what is it the key to keeping your New Year's resolutions I think is what I called it. But it was a lot about giving yourself that grace and key and to just keep going.

So I did talk about that on there as well. Yeah. And Elizabeth says progress, not perfection. Definitely. Absolutely. Let's see, we have Shonda. Okay. She is All right Shonda, we are just open conversation right now. If you have any questions feel free to unmute yourself. Renee, I see you're unmuted. Did you have a question?

Not, well I don't know if it's really a question. I was just trying to figure out how to do the habit stacking thing to find a specific day of the week to do the check-in and everything, you know, so I'm still working on that. But to kind of shadow what Cindy was saying, my goal is March 1st. Cuz the last couple years I've had to do an extension for taxes and my And you're working your butt off on October 14th to get 'em done.

I know, yeah. That's what I've been doing the last five years. Yeah. I, except Last year, not last year, it was September last year. I, I'm self-employed as well and my business always kind of slows down in January. So I'm trying to be a little more diligent about getting that stuff done now instead of procrastinating and pushing it off.

So while I have time, I'm trying to do that. And I know also what Cindy said, I've never picked a word of the year and I decided to do that year this, this year. And my word for the year is worthy. I love that Because we are, you know, it's, it's hard to remember when we're like that procrastinating,

perfectionist overdoing that we are worthy to have like our house in order and our finances and no bills. And so that is really like to kind of kind of center everything I guess throughout the year to remember that, that that is the underlying thing. And I don't know, I know we're not giving our wins yet, but I did, we weren't able to,

we didn't have to put any Christmas gifts on credit cards or anything this year. So, yay. That was an exciting thing for me, so that's awesome. But yeah, I'm just trying to figure out how to do the habit stacking and try to get better. Like I have a, the the planner Yeah. That I won and I have all of my,

I use the monthly layout to put down the dates that the bills are due and the dollar amount and then I put a little check mark by them when I pay them so that I know that it's already paid. Awesome. But I'm just trying to figure out how to make that more of a routine. Cuz oftentimes I don't look at it and I'm like,

oh my gosh, it's the 16th this bill is due. And so I'm rushing at the end of the night. So I don't know if there's, I mean it obviously it probably just varies from person to person, but if there's a, any advice as that you could give as to like when to try to make that a habit. Like Sundays are usually my relaxed day,

so I don't know if I wanna do it on Sunday. I don't blame you. Yeah, I work Monday through Saturday so I don't really necessarily wanna add that to my Sunday, but I don't know if like Monday evenings, I mean that's kind of a weird time to do it, but if there's any thoughts about how to add that better. Yeah.

So since you're self-employed, what does your schedule look like during the day? Monday through Saturday? Mondays I work till seven and then Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I work till seven. I work until six on Wednesday and then till five on Fridays. And then Saturdays I'm at the office from nine to two. Okay. So it, it's kind of a,

yeah, really long week. Yeah, no kidding. I, yeah that does. So what time are you going in, in the mornings or start working in the morning? Eight o'clock. Oh wow. Yeah, that is a very long day. And I'm sure when you get home on those earlier days, slightly earlier anyway right? That's probably not something that you wanna deal with.

Do you have a lunch break? Do you give yourself a lunch break? Yeah, usually. So if I, would that be the best time, like once I finally get everything up and running, then to try to just use that 10 or 15 minutes for like a week. Do you drive to The, it's only 10 or 15 minutes. Do you work from home or do you drive to an office or Location?

I drive to an office. Okay. So my suggestion would be to think about your daily startup. So do you have, you know, maybe 15 or so minutes in the morning be as you're getting ready for your day to do it then when you're, you know, not tired and worn down. So I would, I would probably prefer that versus like trying to do it at night when you're tired after you've worked that long of a day,

six days a week. And so I would either say during that time in the morning and maybe just pick one day a week. Like you don't have to do it every day. So if there's a day where you start a little bit later or maybe you just happen to get up and, you know, add, get to the office maybe 10, 15 minutes earlier where you could sit and do that at the office without all the distractions at home.

Or maybe on your lunch break when you, cuz I think if with those kind of hours it is harder to do it at night when you're tired and then if you get stressed out from looking at the numbers, things like that, then you can't sleep. And so, and you don't wanna do it on your only day off, you know. So yeah,

I would definitely see if you can work it in before you go into the office or on your lunch break when you've got a few minutes just to Okay. Kinda look through it. So that, that would be my suggestion if, if you can figure out when that could work into your schedule. Okay. Awesome. I'm glad you're thinking about it and kind of trying to figure that part out because that's important.

Cuz if you don't then you just keep procrastinating. Right. But if you say, okay, I'm gonna do this on Wednesday morning. Yeah there's oftentimes I'm like, I'm like look at the date and I'm like, oh my god, something's due today. And so then I'm like trying to log in on my phone to get it paid right away instead of having it done ahead of time.

Although I am trying to get better that like, you know, checking to see like if we got extra income and this one paycheck to pay something that's not due for the next, until the next paycheck. Awesome. Ahead of time. So that's where the little check mark comes in where I know that I've already paid it ahead of time so it's not coming out of this paycheck so that I have Yay.

Yeah, so we're, we're getting there Steps. I love it. I love it. Are you able to, are you at a point where you could maybe put some of these things on autopay now I don't let people take money out of my account, but I'll set it up through my banking system to automatically pay things. Are you able to do that yet?

Well a lot of the bills are not the same dollar amount every month, so I kind of like to plan it out a little bit. Okay. Just cuz I, I mean I guess I could put it on autopay but then, I don't know, like for this amount, like where I could pay two bills early then if it was on auto then it wouldn't get paid early and we'd still be getting interest on that loan so.

Gotcha. Okay. It's more helpful I think for me to just manually do it at this point. But if we get debt free then of course, Yeah, it does get easier when you don't have as many bills to pay for sure. Yeah, no I, a lot of things like electric and stuff is auto. Oh okay, okay. And I,

I just get an email that says this amount's gonna be deducted on this day and then, but other like my student loans and stuff like that, that I'm still paying, I do those manually So. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, cuz I have, and through Bank of America I know, I don't know if other, I'm sure other bigger banks at least probably do this,

but I'm able to get it like sends my bill and how much it is to my bank account, like to my bill pay in my banking system. It's not an auto pay. I still have to go in and manually say okay, pay that amount on this day. So I have a couple like that and then like I just have a couple that I just pay the same each time cuz I just kind of round up so I don't need to know like the exact amount.

Cause I round up a couple dollars and then I just have that on auto pay. But yeah, I see when you're paying off debt and you're wanting to send extra and kind of get ahead and stuff where you still wanna manually do that. So. Awesome. All right. Does anybody else have any questions while we are here? I mean I am,

like I said, from before the holidays to basically this week, I've just been on, as long as the bills were paid, I have not paid attention to anything else and I need to get back on schedule cuz some things I think kind of got off kilter a little bit. And I had a couple of credit cards that I had like Kohl's, I bought some stuff at around Christmastime clothes for myself because I got some Kohl's gift cards to use.

But yet I got a bigger discount if I used my Kohl's charge. So I did that. You know, you get, use all those little rewards and things they give you. Yeah. So I had to put those back onto my list of bills because I'd taken them off since they were paid off. So I have a few of those I have to get back on schedule and that's what I started doing this week and started back to my statements this week.

So those are my little wins. Yay. It's just started to get back into the swing of things and trying to get my mindset together and this and my business and you know, John's back at school so I know it's been that All Together. Still vacation mode. I feel like finally this week because, because we've been sick too, you know, passing different viruses around.

I think we're finally at the end. Oh, I hope so. Let's hope. But yeah, it's just like, I'm still just not in the, I don't know, it's cold and dreary here, which normally it's not like we have pretty good weather here. North Carolina. We don't get a ton of snow like you guys do. And so it's,

we Haven't had any, you haven't? No. Oh wow. It's, it was, it's gonna be 48 degrees in rain tomorrow. Oh, that's, I think it's, no, I think it's gonna be warm. It's like gonna be up in close to the seventies this week. So I'm ready for some sun. No, I, I'm in Michigan and down around Detroit and usually we've had snow and everything.

Yeah. We had snow for Christmas and we had some bitter cold the few days before that ever since then. A few days later it was all gone and we've had rain. We've had some actual beautiful sunshine days. It was still in the thirties this year. Yeah. But I, I realize it's not the long nights and short days this time of year that get to me.

It's the no sunshine. Yes. It's the dreary drab house all the time. Yeah. And I realized this last week when we had some actual like two days back to back that were all sunny. I'm like, boy, make sure all those curtains are open and Yep. But the sun in the house and sage is laying in the shadows, you know,

and It's like, oh I do have energy. I can like, I just, it like the dre just sucks your energy But at the same time it's like I do kind of miss it, the snow and stuff. As long as it's not the bitter cold. That's what I also don't like about winter. But you know, usually by January is usually our worst month and we're like at 0.2

inches of Oh wow. Of, of rain. Yeah. No, it's, I think it was, wow. We said this is the, like the lightest snow we're in first place right now as of January. Wow. As far as the lightest snowfall. So it's like, okay well we've got another week and a half, let's see what happens.

And it's not, not hopeful this week. Oh wow. I'm surprised. Yeah. Hi TriNet, we are TriNet answering questions at this point and then we will start sharing some wins here in a minute. If you, do you have any questions for us tonight? You can unmute yourself if you want to, if your internet is working enough anyway. No,

no questions right now, but I would definitely let you know. All right. Awesome. All right, well let's go ahead if no cuz I don't think anybody else had any questions or anything they wanted to discuss for tonight. So let's start sharing our wins. I know Renee and Cindy are, have already shared some, if you have more you wanna share,

I'd love to hear it. Cindy or Renee or Christina TriNet, anybody that wants to share, feel free to unmute yourself and share a win. I'll go first. Awesome. About a week and a half ago I paid off one of my credit cards. Woohoo. Very excited about that. And husband and I just took a trip to Michigan last week and didn't have to use a credit card the whole time we were there.

So it was really nice. Awesome. You can just enjoy yourself but not worry about how you're gonna pay for it when you got home. Yeah. Yeah. It was really nice. Oh, I'm so excited. I love that. I love hearing about people travel cause I don't travel that much. But then hearing that like you didn't bring home any extra debt while you're traveling is like,

it's so exciting. Well We go up to Michigan once or twice a year cuz he has family up there. So that was on the way back to the only time this year we've seen snow. So it was kind of nice. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, we don't get much snow. Oh, and I forgot there was a question in the chat,

but I can't, for some reason it doesn't show me who it's from. So, sorry, we'll pause on the winds for just a second so I can answer this question, but how does the snowball method work for paying down debt? So there's a couple methods. The snowball method is you're focusing on the lowest balance toward and then you're taking, you're focusing on that to pay it off first.

And of course during any of the methods that you use, you wanna focus on just one debt at a time. And then when you pay off the smallest debt, you roll that extra money and that payment into the next, of course you're making all your minimum payments during that whole, the whole process. I like the impact method as well and that is deciding like what is will have the biggest either impact on your budget.

So what can you free up monthly in that payment or the biggest emotional impact. So that could be like, you've had your student loans for a while and you wanna really focus on that and just celebrate that you've paid them off. And it's kind of different for everybody. I've also heard of, you know, a woman that wanted to pay off her divorce lawyer lawyer because every month she had to pay that bill just like brought up all those old,

all that old baggage, right? And so that was like, just get it outta my life. So it could be the biggest impact emotionally or financially in your budget. So like if you could pay off your car really relatively quickly, cuz it, you don't want it to like still take years to pay it off cuz that's harder to maintain your momentum.

But if, you know, if your car payment's like 400 a month and then that'll really give you some breathing room and you can still pay it off relatively quickly, you know that that's an example. And then there's the debt avalanche method that focuses on the interest rate, not the balance. So that one kind of depends because if your highest balance is also your highest interest rate,

it's you're gonna, it's gonna be hard to maintain that momentum even though that does technically make the most mathematical sense. It doesn't always make the most mindset, or what's the word I'm looking for? Emotional. What is the, I can't think of the word that I'm trying, somebody help me out here. What's the word I was gonna say? Emotional.

Okay. I don't know that just that's, It's more rewarding. Yes. It's like it's more rewarding. Yeah, it's more rewarding and it's, it's easier to lose that momentum. So it just kind of depends. Now you can change the method that you wanna use as well. So just because you start with one doesn't mean you can't change it up.

So maybe you wanna start with the impact method and get that one bill out of your life and then you move to the debt snowball and then once you pay off some smaller debts, well then you wanna pay off your high interest rate credit card even though it's not next in line. So the important thing to remember is you don't have to follow any hard and fast rules except just focusing on one that's like the only rule I'll tell you.

Like please make sure that you follow. But the rest of it is really just foc, just focus on the one that you wanna pay off and then decide the next, but that is what the debt snowball method is. So, And that's, I kind of do a mix myself because if it's like, let's say under three or $500, I'll tend to try to get that one just out of the way quickly if I can.

And then I look at what's left. If it's got like, you know, I've got two accounts that are zero balance over a course of a few years, they're going to the end of the line. Yes. Because I don't have to worry about the interest on them right now. I wanna concentrate on the stuff that has interest and then I usually look at the balance,

look at their interest rate and then decide individually which one I wanna hit first and, and then go down from there. And then if I get some extra money, wipe one of those out, You know? Absolutely. Yeah. So you can use a combination. You don't have to follow it like one way or another. Just focus on one debt though.

Yeah. It's harder to make progress when you're splitting your attention. Right. So I get the question a lot too, like, how should I save and pay off debt at the same time? Well, yeah, you can, but you're gonna make slower progress on both because you're splitting your attention. So if you just focus on saving and then once you get the amount that you wanna save,

then focus on debt. So it's just, it, it just slows you down a little bit cuz it splits your focus and then your money is going to two places Right. Instead of just one. So in the end you're gonna end up in the same place, most likely if you keep going of course. But it might just, it's just mentally harder to kind of do both of them at the same time.

All right. Okay. Cindy, did you have any other wins you wanna share? Gonna get your taxes done early this year? Yes. Well, I, I really have to, cuz Brody's in this situation that I think he's gonna need some help to get outta that place. And the, he asked me today if, if the landlord has an appraiser coming out to the house on Friday,

what does that mean? I said, more than likely he's either looking to get what's the value of it, he's going to wanna sell it, he needs to do a new mortgage or a refinance on it. Something like that. That, and you don't wanna get hung up in that crap either. Yeah. So we're, we're still trying to figure out,

you know, we, we, he's set up for the escrow, but he hasn't heard from the city yet, so we're, he's just in limbo and he's hating every bit of it. His anxiety is just Like, oh, I bet that's Hard. So When you're living in a place that you don't wanna be like, that's emotionally draining. Well he's too,

he's he's Not even Staying there Right. Because they're afraid that there's mold growing and neither one of them need that right now. So he's actually staying with a girlfriend that they started dating just a couple months before Christmas and he stayed with her and his friend Anya is staying with another friend with the dog. And they're just, they're basically, they're homeless, like he says,

you know, they have a place to stay, but even couch surfing is considered homeless, You know, and that's not comfortable like you wanna be in your own space. Like you don't wanna have to do that and keep You feel like you're infringing and everything else. So I'm trying to get it done sooner so that if I need to help him, I've got the money from the return to,

to do that with. So we'll see. Hopefully he'll push you not to procrastinate then and get it done. Right. Right. But also I'm gonna send you the link to this article that they shared with my sensei group yesterday for Word of the Year. And maybe it's something you might find helpful for our group that you can Yeah, yeah. And share.

No, I've talked about that in the past. Like, I've been doing this the last couple years with picking a word of the year and now I've already forgotten what my word is this year. That's terrible. But I've done focus, consistency. Oh, I think, I think it was routine. I wrote it down somewhere. I'm trying, I cannot remember what it is this Year.

I wrote down the ones from last night, the one that I think I liked bo most other than your normal, your focus and that kind of stuff was sticktuitiveness. Ooh, I like that too. I like That. And it's just kind of like, you know, just stick with it, run the course no matter what area of life, because most of us are,

you know, have our business, we have a lot of people work outside their home. They have their kids, they have their personal lives, you know, and just trying to balance some, someone said balance, someone said action, endurance, you know, it was just a lot of different things that came up last night. So, but in case you wanna share it for people to read,

I'll, I'll Send it to you. Yeah, absolutely. And I'd love to see what other people put as, because I get ideas too, and now I'm gonna have to find where I, I wrote it down somewhere. Yeah. Elizabeth says, patience Renee, I was, I meant to comment on your word worthy because, you know, I hear all the time,

like, you know, some of the things we tell ourselves to justify going into debt is we deserve it. Like, I deserve this car. Like, you know, I do all those things. So really the, the way I try and flip that is basically just like what you said, where, well you deserve to be debt free and not stressed about money as well.

So just to kind of shift that mindset a little bit. So I really love worthy in doing it, doing that as well. Yeah. I think this is a, is somewhere in there, I didn't get a chance to read the article yet. It was I think 250 words for the year or something like that to think about, to look at.

Nice. See what inspires you. So I haven't gotten that far in the article yet. Okay. Well yeah, share that. Elizabeth says Patience and Sharona says clarity. I love that. Okay. Kathy says, my wins, we are on day five of eating at home. Awesome. Weekly work and school schedules written out to plan how to make it work a on the first weekly test in chem two.

Oh my gosh. Chemistry is so hard. That's awesome. That is awesome. Renee, I know you shared some of your wins. Do you have any other wins you wanna share? I don't know other than like, I have been tr I have not done a meal plan every week, but I have probably 50% of the time. Yay. Done a meal plan and tried to only grocery shop for what I need.

But the problem is then my husband goes shopping and buys other stuff. So we're trying to work on both of us, like only one shopping list. So yeah, it was a little harder. Our daughter's a freshman in college and she was just home for a month break. Mm. Yeah. So it was a little harder over this last month with her home to try to Stick bet for budget.

Yeah. But that's a, a sort of win, like a 70% win. It's a win. It's a win. Exactly. That's awesome. TriNet, do you have any wins to share with us tonight? Okay, well I posted in a group that, like my sellers package came in. Oh yes. Oh, That's with and without like my insurance and everything being taken out.

Like I'm bringing home like 3000 a month. Nice. Which is definitely, yeah. Which is definitely gonna help. I have paid off two small balance credit cards and I've put 'em away so that I'm not using them again. Yeah. Now my question is, because I wanna do this, I wanna do the snowball method. If the payments, like say that my regular credit cards came before the ones that I paid off,

do I just use those funds for the ones that paid off for the next month and applied the balance to the next, the next smallest debt? Since the payment has already come up? I'm thinking yes, but I wanna make sure, Say that again. My understanding. Say it again for me. Okay, So, so I have two credit cards that came out on the 13th or 14th And those are the Ones paid off.

Okay. Did I make regular payments? No, no, those aren't the ones paid off. Oh, Okay. Okay. So, so it's two credit cards that I paid just the minimum on and then paid that. The one I paid off came on the 20th, so I paid that one completely off. And so since I'm doing the snowball method,

do I wait to snowball that payment until the next month during the next highest bill and pay the minimums on the rest like I've been doing? Yes. So unless you've got some extra money that you just wanna put toward the other credit cards, but you would take, if I'm understanding you right, I'm sorry, I know with the internet it's kind of hard for me to hear you a little bit,

so I just wanna make sure that I'm understanding. So there are different dates and you paid one off. Now you may, depending on how long, like if you had a balanced carry over, you may still have an interest charge on the cards or maybe both of them that you just paid off next month. So you may wanna wait and see because if you carried a balance from the previous month,

they'll charge you interest again for how many ever days until you had paid off the balance completely. So next month you may still have a small payment of interest on those cards and then you would take that payment and roll it into the next debt that you're wanting to pay off. Right. Is that, does that answer your question? Yes, yes, yes it does.

Okay. I just wanna make sure because like I said, the other ones that I was just paying minimum on the payments came before the one that I paid off completely. Okay. So And so I'm waiting until next month to roll over the payments. Russ is trying to make an extra payment. Okay. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now if you already,

now if it's an extra payment, you could pay that whenever you want, because remember you're paying interest on the balance daily. So like if you already have the money right to like, you can make the minimum payment next month, you can still send the extra whenever you've got it. Especially with the credit card because you're paying interest like every day. But yeah,

you could wait so that you can make sure it works with your paycheck schedule. Did your schedule change with the severance or does it stayed the same? It stayed the same, fortunately. Okay. Okay, good. All awesome. So yeah, the Same patient. Awesome. Okay. And did you, did you share one yet? I'm trying to remember now.

I'm, yeah, So I paid off. Yes sir. I paid off, I paid off two credit cards. Yes. I paid off two credit cards this month. And so I'll be rolling those over two. That's the other ones, You know what, it's close to my witching hour, you know, it's almost nine o'clock. And my brain is like,

you're, you're ready for bed. Shut off. Like I thought you did and then I couldn't remember what it was. Oh my gosh. I Did. All right. And let's see, I think Kathy had already shared with us, Elizabeth Shawanda. Christina already shared. So Elizabeth or Sharona, if you have a window share, you can unmute yourself.

Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I actually gave my husband a to-do list. Awesome. Because he's not working, so I'm like, all right, well here you go. There you go. And I, I, I've been kind of keeping tabs on our finances and some of the stuff, some of our bills have been like,

they varied from month to month and I didn't know why. So I'm like, all right. You know, Collins C So he talked to Spectrum that we have for the internet and was able to get that brought down like $30 a month. Sweet. But he was able to get a discount for hate for his cell phone and my son's cell phone. So they're gonna pay like 30 bucks a month for that.

Awesome. And then was able to work with our garbage company and is save, you know, he was able to get like nine, we paid quarterly, so he was able to save us, I think he said like $90 for, for, you know, for quarterly Wow. Savings or whatever. So That is awesome. He really got to work.

That's awesome. Yeah, he Said $90 saving, $90 per cycle saving. So, yeah, so, and he's good at that stuff, you know, I'm like, I don't have the patience for that. And I'm like, you just spend the time on the phone, you get that going and I'll take, you know, but it's, it's,

it's been hard too because I'm the only one working. So all the stuff that I wanted to pay extra and I, I'm just maintaining, just trying to make sure we get money in, you know, and it, and it's hard, but that's why I pick patience because I'm like, even if it takes me a little bit longer, I have to be okay with that.

Absolutely. Because I can't situation right now, so. Right. And hey, you put 'em to work so that saving you some money, so that's awesome. We laugh for you for, for you guys, that's awesome. And that really helps like share the mental load of doing all those little things because that's a daunting task too, right? Yeah.

And so that's awesome. And I think it kind of gives him a, a true meaning of where we are, you know, like living that paycheck to paycheck is literally what we're doing and it's like, okay, so now he's getting a good idea of what's going on. So Yes. So you can't bury the he head in his in the sand.

Right. And so, right. I think it is easier that way to kinda get your partner on board when they actually see it versus just like you telling them. Right. So, yeah, absolutely. Well, I hope he finds a job soon. Please let us know when he does so we can celebrate. Yes. So that's awesome. One of the main grocery stores,

we have Wegmans here, I don't know if you have it. And they had a virtual hiring event today, so he, he went, he did that and you know, sent in his resume or whatever it was. So now we just have to play the waiting game and see what happens. But yeah, so Well good luck with that and Thank you.

You know, once he starts working, you're gonna be in such a great position to really make huge progress because you Know, I cannot wait for that. Yes. I'll tell you what, I've got it all worked out how it's gonna go and I'm like, all right, let's go. Well that's get it moving, you know, I mean of course it sucks and it's a setback,

but being able to kinda lay this foundation in this groundwork during this hard time, ugh, you're gonna be able to make so much progress. Like, I'm so excited. Oh yeah, I, I have it all mapped out. It's just a matter of just waiting for the other money to show up somehow and then I can start doing what we need to do and,

cause we don't really have a lot to pay off, you know, we do. Right now it's just like our mortgage and our home equity and then my Jeep, I have a truck loan and my student loans, but I haven't started on the student loans cuz I'm still waiting to see if there's gonna be any kind of forgiveness or whatever. I don't wanna start paying on it if I'm not gonna have to pay as much as whatever.

So, but that's basically all we have, you know, everything else is just the regular expenses. So we're in pretty good shape, but it's just a matter of playing that waiting game right now. Yeah. Everybody, it really sucks that everybody's kind of in limbo because it's like you don't like, you know, if it's something's gonna be forgiven, like why would you pay on it when it's this close?

You know, it's not something imaginary in the future. Like oh someday they're gonna forgive everything. It's like right now. So it's like you don't wanna pay it off but you know, if you're gonna get some forgiven. So yeah, I hope you Just keep pushing it off too. Cause I think the first notification I got, it said December, then they pushed it to March and then I just recently went on and now it's out till October.

So my right. Well but I do have, I, I did put money aside into a separate account for my schooling To pay Awesome. The student loan. So I have enough in there right now for about just under a year's worth of payments. So I'm like, you know, so I nice stopped that money going into there cuz I know I have at least the cushion just to be sure that everything else gets paid.

But once something changes then I can start building that back up again. That's awesome. You were in a great position if they ever make up their mind. I know, right? Yeah. Well now it's in the court system so who knows how long Exactly It's exist and because we're in the same boat with our parent loans plus my son's student loans. Right.

And I know right now it's depends if the court comes up with a decision that I think it's 60 or 90 days after the court decision and if there's, if it doesn't get affected by that, then it's June 30th and 90 days after June 30th or something like that. Which is why you have the October date. Yeah, I mean the best part is they're not charging any interest all this time.

Right. Yeah. So that's the best part of it cuz really that, you know, if it wasn't for the way they compound the interest on those stupid things, it wouldn't be nearly as bad. Oh I know. Yeah. I would a heck of a lot more debt than, you know. Yeah. If they added interest onto it. You know,

I, I graduated in June of last year, so Yeah, I think it was probably September was when I got notification as to how much I owed and everything. So from September to at least now I can't even imagine. Yeah. What That Oh yeah, yeah. You're in a good position if you, if they forgive anything and if you can,

you know, pay off. And I will tell you that if you do end up having to start making payments on your student loans, at least the way mine worked and of course they were a mix of subsidized, unsubsidized, but they were all, they were all governments or federal loans and when I paid like extra, it just pushed the due date out further,

but it did lower the interest rate it was accruing because it was occurring every day. And so you might even, even though you've got a year there, you might like send a big chunk to it to kind of lower that daily interest and then it'll most likely push your due date out anyway. So that's just something to think about. Yeah. When the comes,

I'm planning on doing that, trying to, you know, round it up to the next hundred or whatever it was, you know, maybe an extra 20 or 30 bucks. But I just have to figure out how to put that amount in. So. Yeah. And you may wanna, I'm sorry, I was gonna say I've been making monthly payments on the loans because our balance is more than what they'll forgive.

So Okay. At least that way I am not, you know, knocking away piece by piece. Right. A few hundred dollars a month and so that when it does kick back in and we do have to start paying back, even if they take 10 grand off the top, I'll still have 20 grand loft or roughly. So at least it'll be a lower amount for the interest rate because I'm still kicking over,

you know, in over the holidays I scaled it back to a hundred, but I've been doing like three to 500 the last few months before that. Right. And according to Great Lakes it should be around 3 54 I think my monthly payment from what they said. Right. So I figure anything over that is gonna be even better. Right. So yeah,

cause my monthly payment was gonna be about 3 75, so I was gonna put like 400. Not a lot, but I'm like, I don't know if I even wanna start paying it because I don't know what they're gonna forgive and I just, Yeah, I figure as long as I'm paying, I'm paying off that part that I know they'll, they won't cover,

I mean for my parent loans they'll only give me 10. They're not, there's nothing else. And Brody didn't have a Pell grant so I think he's only gonna get 10 too. Right. But then he has one year of grad school or a year and a half, which I didn't have to take a loan out or anything that's all on him. Right.

But again, he's waiting, he's a 10 99 employee so he doesn't get taxes paid taken out and he still still owes seven grand from 2021 from his first year of actually having to pay income tax stuff. And so he doesn't have extra to, to try to put toward his loans Right now he's just sitting and waiting for them to decide what they're gonna do.

Yeah. I just have to subsidize and unsubsidized. I don't have a bad one or anything else. Yeah. So I'm just kind of waiting to see what they're gonna decide to do. Yeah. So, Oh, I have one more minor win. It's actually a big win in my house, but you know, Ashley, you know I have a son with autism,

he's 24 and most of the time for dinners he wants McDonald's, Wendy's, burger King, chicken nuggets. So just around Christmas I was in the store and Purdue had breaded chicken nuggets that were fresh. They weren't the frozen ones. And I looked at those, I said, you know, those look really close to Wendy's or Burger King or whatever. I wonder if I can talk him into these.

So I brought it home and it has like 21 nuggets in the package. It's not in the refrigerated, it's not frozen. I thought, I've got my air fryer, I'm just gonna heat 'em up in the air fryer. And the first time I did it, he, I, I was trying to not let him see what I was doing. Yeah.

But he also knew I was not going to Burger King or whatever. True. He wanted that night. And so I put it on the stoneware that I had that fits right in there. Heated it up, cooked it up, and he loved it. He ate it. Wow. I've done that now for four meals that way. Okay. He Ate 'em And he ate 'em.

So then I also went to the frozen section and I happened to see Purdue has the frozen ones and they look exactly the same, but of course they're gonna be a little bit cheaper cuz there's more in there. They're frozen. So I got that as a backup And I took them out over the weekend, I think it was No problem. Same tonight.

Yay. So when he asks for McDonald's, I can make it more of a treat. Or if we're out driving and we're gonna just grab something for lunch, fine. But I don't have to go out every freaking night to go get something and he will eat it. That's awesome. Half the time he wasn't eating the french fries anyway. Yeah, he's got pop here at home.

So like tonight he said he wanted, I forgot, I think it was Burger King and I said, can mom just eat up nuggets here at home? Yay. That is a big one. That's huge. That's exciting. You Know how big daddy is that is as a kid with autism tear. Finally agree to that after all these years. Yeah,

that's Huge. I'm, I'm excited for you. Like that's awesome. No, I can just get the, get me not to go out as much. You know, Timmy's is still killing me. Well if you're not having to go out to get him stuff, you know, maybe it'll be easier though cuz you're not already out. Right? Yeah.

Well today, not good Tonight the same thing today. I had hit Timmy's twice. Oh twice. Once in the morning for a coffee to get going and then to help John deal with the couple errands we had to do, I ran through to get him some Timbits and a Coke and I had to get another coffee. That's okay. I went through Burger King twice today too.

I don't know what I'm talking about here because I went and got myself some breakfast. Just me, so it wasn't too, but then my daughter was home sick, you know, we're this, hopefully this last day. But anyway, then she wanted Burger King for lunch, so then I went through Burger King again and you know, it's like, you know,

they recognize you, right? Because it was, I'm there like two hours before. I'm like, yeah, it's me again. There you go. The Tim Horton's up here knows me. The one, it's like half a mile, three quarter of a mile down the road. And I, that's the one I usually go into and yeah, they know me.

That is funny. Do you need, no, he's Not with me today. Okay. Before we wrap up here, there were a couple more in the comments for Word of the Year. So if anybody needs any more ideas, one was free. Free from depression, stress overthinking. I love that too. That's cool. Yeah. Or invoke putting into effect.

So I love that as well. Yeah. And then I've been making my six year old her cherry Slurpees at home. Ooh, I hadn't thought about that. Because we do have like a slushy machine. I totally forgot. We have it and cabinet somewhere. Oh, I'm not have to do that too. That's a you cuz my kids love ice.

Yes. I use, I use my blender and I use it with like Kool-Aid and sugar and like some kind of juice or something. And that, that works really well. I do orange juice, I'm sorry, apple juice or water with sugar and like cherry Kool-Aid. And I, I blend it, it, I have a really good blend and she loves it.

She would rather have one of those than actually me going to 7-Eleven, but that works out pretty well. She was begging for one of those and I was able to, to make one of those for her. And so she's, she's good with it. That's saving me gas money going to seven 11 because I live like 10 miles off the main highway.

And, and also the cost of the slippers every time because she wants a large one, a big giant one and she doesn't finish it. So that way that's saving me some money and all across the board. So yeah, that's, I don't, haven't thought about that either. That's so, that's such a good idea. Alright, maybe I'll do that for my kids for a treat this weekend.

If I go, you go forget by them. You'll have to remind me. Just re-list to this podcast When I'm editing it. Oh yeah. Use the blender. Why didn't I think about that? Like that is awesome. All right, let's, let me double check the comments. I don't think, I think I got them all. All right.

You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for being with us for our first budget bestie. Meet up again if yay. Yes. Yay. If you're listening to this and you wanna join us for one of these sessions in the future, go to budgets made easy.com/meetup to pick your time. Remember, spots are limited, so if you c sign up and can't join us,

please make sure to cancel your spot so we can open it up for somebody else. All right, you guys have a great night. Thank you so much for being with us today. Bye. Good night, Ashley. Bye. Good night.