In today's episode of the Money Mindset Podcast, we are answering your question. So during the money plan bootcamp, I had members of the bootcamp send me in a question and boy were they, Great question. So I am going to answer them today in part one. I don't know how many parts this is yet because this is gonna take me some time to answer a lot of questions.

So it might be spread out. But today is part one. I don't know if they'll be two or three parts but know that they are coming. But anyway, let's dive in and get started now. If you would like me to help you with something that you are struggling with in your budget or with your money, go to budgets made easy.com/strategy and sign up for a budget strategy session here on the podcast so that we can get you into progress mode and taking action.

Let's not have these little things holding us back anymore. 2023 is around the corner and now is the time that you start preparing for your best year ever, not January. Believe it or not, it is not January. So come join me for a budget strategy session on the Money Mindset podcast. The link is in the show notes and again it's budgets made easy.com/strategy.

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 of 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 turned 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 of 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 families' 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. Happy Sunday. This is Tina. My question today is for those of us that get paid biweekly, those months where we get the third paycheck, how do you handle that? I always seem to get out of routine. Thank you. This is a great question and I know a lot of you struggle with this because it is so easy to think of it as extra money and if you are not using the budget system the way I teach how to use the paycheck system,

then you could easily get behind on bills because you've got this extra paycheck and you aren't thinking about the next month and what needs paid before your next paycheck. Now I teach to budget by paycheck. So my budget starts with the first paycheck of the month and ends with the paycheck, the first paycheck of the following month. So when you have that extra paycheck,

you still need to pay for food and gas and once you get on the routine as I teach it, it is extra money aside from food and gas. But if you are not on that schedule yet and you have bills due at the beginning of the following month, you have to pay those bills too, right? And then whatever you have left is extra.

So you can put it toward debt savings, anything that you've been putting off purchasing cuz you don't have the money yet, that's where this paycheck can come in. It can kind of get you a head start on savings funds like Christmas, birthdays, holidays, vacation clothes, school supplies, like those kind of things that come up and ruin your budget through the year.

You could put the money towards that as well. So I hope that is helpful. I would encourage you to try and get on the budget by paycheck schedule and what you will do is the first paycheck of the month, you pay the bills at the end of the month. The second paycheck you pay bills at the very, very end. They may overlap a little bit depending on your income and your bills and all that.

So you gotta kind of write it out in pencil on a calendar, kind of figure that part out. And then the bills do at the very end of the month in the beginning of the next month through the 14th so that when you have that third paycheck, it is extra money comes out of the second paycheck of the last month. Now that extra paycheck and that the months where you have the third paycheck,

that is where you can do that and kind of get caught up and get on that schedule if you don't have the money to pay some bills twice in a month or it'll, you can kind of get caught up that way to get on the schedule with the first or you know, it might take you a little bit depending on your situation, but the sooner you can do that then you won't be paying bills late and I want you to get like two weeks ahead.

That's what we're doing. Especially for biweekly. If you get paid weekly, it's not as big of a deal. I still want you to get at least a week ahead and if you get paid monthly, I mean it is what it is, you just pay the bills at the beginning of the month and then try and work out a budget each week.

For variable items like food and gas, I have issues tracking my expenses like daily. What are some ways that I can make that a habit so that I can keep better track of my daily expenses? Should I like keep a notebook in my like purse some I, I usually have like a big notebook and so that won't fit my purse. So I,

I just need some suggestions so that I can make that a better habit so that I can keep better track. Thanks Another great question. So thank you so much for asking this. Now with tracking I do keep a smaller size notebook in my purse to make it a little bit easier. I carried around with me. If you use the spreadsheet then you can easily track in the app as well.

But if you are using like a big notebook for your planner, for your budget, like to write it out, I know that's a hassle. So that's what I still do as well. And so I have a small notebook that I carry around with me now it's thicker, the last one I bought because they last forever, but it's like maybe, I don't know,

three by five maybe like it's a smaller size. So I would definitely suggest that and I would encourage you to set a time that you in a day of the week or how many times per week that you want to actually track. Like make it a very specific goal and one that you can realistically follow through with. So if you aren't tracking it all right now,

you know maybe three times a week is more realistic instead of every single day. And then you can build from there. You can, you know, the next week, okay that went well. I can maybe I can do four days this week and specifically think about when you can take five, 10 minutes, get caught up and then put it back in your purse.

So I used to do this before work, I'd get there a little bit early, I would catch up in the notebook and then I'd put it in my purse. So you know, you just have to figure out when is a good time for you to actually do it that way that you are setting yourself up for success. Because if you just think,

oh I wanna do it every day and then you don't really have a plan to follow through with that, you're not going to be successful and then you're gonna beat yourself up and you're gonna quit. And what's the point of that? That doesn't set you you up for success, right? So do as much as you can to set yourself up for success,

not failure. And by doing that is to create a plan and create specific measurable goals. So how many times a week, when do you want to try and build that habit? Because you do need to make it a habit. So just like I said about you know, doing it before work or you could do it on your lunch break or maybe you do it before you go to bed after the kids have went to sleep,

you know, whatever works for you that's key is to figure out what works for you and it may take practice in trying different things, right? So just cuz I've said it here, does it mean you can't try other things and see what works for you? Hi, this is Denise and I am wondering how would you record child support payments and household reimbursements in your budget?

Would that be extra income or put it on the actual? Just wondering what the best way is to do that. Thank you. All right, now this question I actually answered in my weekly newsletter, I have started adding in a question of the week. So make sure you're getting my emails if you would like to see what questions people are asking and have them answered in text as well.

Cause I won't always do these episodes recorded. But I do love to answer your questions here on the Money Mindset podcast. Now I think that she's specifically asking me about the spreadsheet because she said actual, but I'm gonna give a general answer here. So when you are factoring in child support payments, especially when they are not consistent, then you can do whatever you want with that money because you're using your own money to cover the bills and the housing and the food and the clothes and all the things on a regular basis,

right? So when that child support does come in, you can use it for whatever you want without feeling guilty and feeling like you have to give it all to the kids. Cuz you've already given the kids everything out of your own money, right? That money is to help support the children. So more or less it's reimbursement to you for what you have already paid.

So you can do whatever you want with it. But I would have a specific plan for what you do want to do with it though. And whatever that is, is fine. Like don't feel guilty, don't feel like you have to spin it on your kids cuz you don't. And don't feel guilty about it. I don't care what anybody says, don't feel guilty.

Like you can spin it on whatever you want. Including paying off debt, including saving for a family vacation, including putting money aside for school supplies, birthdays, Christmas, like if you don't need the money, definitely put it to use, right? Like you can save it for the kids kids to make your life easier in the future, okay? Or you can pay off your debt or you can save it for our emergency fund,

just decide ahead of time, Okay, these are my lists of priorities of where I want any extra money to go. And as extra money comes in, including reimbursements, including child support, work your way down the list, make sure you put them in order that you want to prioritize. And as the money comes in, just follow your list. That way you don't have to think about it,

you don't have to feel guilty about it, you don't have to like put it off and then it goes towards something you didn't want it to go towards, you know, like eating out and just mindlessly spending it, right? So I love this question cuz she's already thinking ahead. Now on the spreadsheet you can actually enter it as income on the control panel and then when it comes in you would put it in the actual,

just like you do your regular paycheck, you just wanna sign a budget number to it or well you could, you could, you'll, you'll have to change since it's not consistent, I really wouldn't do that, do that because it messes it would mess up each month. So I would leave your income schedule on whatever it normally is and then I would add in the child support or reimbursements and just add it to one of your paychecks on the actual sheet.

Now if you don't have the spreadsheet, you have probably have no clue what I'm talking about and that's okay. Just ignore me right now cuz I don't wanna confuse you any further. If you're just writing this out, don't worry about it. If you have the spreadsheet, make sure it's listed on your control panel and then add it to whichever paycheck you wanna do in the actual,

and then it'll just add the income and then you can adjust your spending and your budget where you want it to go. What is your favorite place to sell things? If you're going through your house and you wanna sell stuff off that you don't use or whatnot, There's obviously Facebook marketplace and all these other good spots. Where has been your favorite and easiest spot to sell?

My favorite and easiest place to sell has been Facebook marketplace and mom groups on Facebook. That is where I've had the best luck cuz obviously I've had the best luck with kid toys and clothes and some home decor. Some things I just can't seem to sell. But the majority of things that I have had luck selling have been kid stuff in mom groups or Facebook marketplace.

I haven't really tried anything else lately. I know like way back when we'd try, we had luck with like Craigslist, but I don't know if anybody uses Craigslist anymore. And so I think like everybody's still on Facebook, even though like we hate Facebook, we're still kinda, we're still there because that's where everybody else is. So I would definitely try that.

Now there's some other sites where you can sell like your clothes and things like that, but I have had like when I just wanna get rid of something, I wanna get rid of it. Like I don't wanna just have it in my garage for months trying to sell it. So I'll try and sell something and then if it doesn't sell, I just give it away.

And I'm in several Facebook groups that are like, buy nothing, everything is free. And man, those women will come and pick things up like right away and then I don't wanna deal with it anymore. And there is a benefit to that, right? Like I don't have to look at it, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to try and post it somewhere else.

So right now I'm just using Facebook between groups and Facebook marketplace. All right you guys, that is a wrap for today's questions. Now I only answered four questions and we have like 40 something questions. So this is gonna be a several part series. It's gonna take me a while. I'll probably just end up being able to batch these for a couple months cuz I know you probably don't wanna just hear only these kind of episodes over and over and over.

So I will sprinkle them in. This is part one. If you have a question that you would like answered, come join me on the Money Mindset podcast. I don't know if you know that I do that, I haven't talked about it in a while actually, but I do a budget strategy session live with you. You just have to sign up,

you just have to go and select your time. You can come and join me on the podcast and work through your biggest struggle, your biggest money struggle. So if you're not sure what the heck I'm talking about, go listen to episode 83 with Lisa because she was struggling and feeling stuck because she kind of got off track a little bit like early in the spring and she felt like she hadn't made any progress.

And guess what, you guys, we got off a little while later she sends me a message, actually it may have been like a couple weeks. She went through, totaled up her debt cuz I had been talking to her about making like visuals so you can actually see the progress that you're making because we always feel like we're not making progress, but we are.

And guess what? Since she started working with me in January, she had paid off $19,000 in 10 months and she had no idea. Like she thought she was stuck. That's why she came on the budget strategy session. She's also one of my members inside Money Success Club, which she's been in since January and she is kicking butt. Oh my gosh,

I'm so incredibly proud of her and it's just, it's kind of funny that she didn't even know because she hadn't been like tracking. And that's what we talk about in her episode. So that's episode 83. All the budget strategy sessions are labeled with bss, so you can quickly pick them out. All of those sessions are with, you know, busy moms,

busy women just like you. They're not people that have already paid all their debt off. They're not other experts. You know, it's not that type of an interview. It's people that are struggling, they feel stuck, they feel overwhelmed, and we work through some action steps that they can take and so that they can get going and make progress, right?

Because progress is better than perfection. We're all a bunch of overthinking perfectionists and that is what keeps us stuck. So come join me on the podcast, let's work through whatever you are struggling with. Let's get over the overthinking and get to work. I will see you in the next episode.