Better. How much better would it be if you did that after? Right? Like you made sure that these things are taken care of and you're coming home to a house and she worked coming on to this being done and not having to worry about like, you know, again, robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like I did this, but then I don't have enough for this left.

And so it's like, that really is a mindset shift. Welcome to the money mindset podcast. We'll, 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 X, detective turn. Debt-free CEO of my fairy owned business and stay at home mom of three, not too long ago. My dreams of staying at home with my kids seem to possible. 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 jobs, 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 in today's budget strategy session. We are working with Brittany as she works through creating a budget that she can work with as a business owner and being able to pay herself consistently and an amount that she feels good about. Now, we are also working on her mindset about treating herself because as she grew up,

she was told that you better treat yourself because nobody else will and how that has really led to over spending and how we can shift that mindset into something positive. So she can actually say for her big goals. Now keep in mind, if you would like to do your own budget strategy session with me, you can go to budgets made easy.com/strategy to sign up for one of these calls yourself.

Now let's get started. Hi Brittany. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Hi, thank you. I'm excited to be here. I am really excited to dive into your situation. So you are like at the time of this recording, I think you're like my fifth person that we have, you know, this budget strategy session. It's still a little new.

And so we are, I just have, has been so good with really great actionable steps and feedback, and you know, it's just been very helpful for people. So thank you for being willing to come and share, because I know that's not easy for everybody, but I know that other people can take so much and learn so much from your story and your experience as well.

And just the feeling of not feeling alone, because we all feel that way. And that's been mentioned over and over in these budget strategy sessions. Is that like, can we all feel alone? And then we hear other people and are like, oh, okay, well I'm not alone because I'm feeling the same way she's feeling. So thank you for being willing to come and share.

So can you tell us a little bit about yourself? You know, just whatever you're willing to share and what is your biggest struggle with your finances right now? Yeah, absolutely. So I am a single mom of a wonderful a three-year-old girl and I am a business owner. So I do have my own mental health, private practice. I provide individual therapy.

I actually left my full-time job in April to pursue my practice full time. And so right now I'm trying to build out other revenue streams within my business. So my biggest struggle with budgeting right now is just having like that inconsistent income and I own the business, but I also have business expenses, things kinda got out of hand a little bit. And so I'm trying to figure out,

you know, how to maintain both my personal expenses and business expenses and trying to account for all of that tracking things appropriately. You know, I have the QuickBooks, I had a bookkeeper that I had to release this a little bit, cause I was like, oh, this is quite costly. And I don't know if I'm in the position right now in my business to really be able to have this as like an ongoing thing.

So I had to like it, but it's like, I also, as the CEO of the business, want to know how things work and want to make sure that things are on track and like I'm not just handing stuff off to people and then like, okay, you do it. And I don't know what's going on, you know? And that wasn't like the setup of her business,

but she's very much hands-on, but it was like stuff was happening. I was like, what's that? And then what's that age, you know? So as kind of my struggle right now, I mean, in both on the personal and the business side and for me, you know, I don't have a great relationship with money. I'll just be honest that like me and money,

we young, I say we only get along. Sometimes we get along too much and then it's like, oh, you're short somewhere. You don't have enough here. Or, you know, I have goals and ideas that I want to like plan and, you know, pay things off and like get out of some of these debts and then something else happens or a pandemic happens.

And you're like, oh, well, you know, so I'm trying to adjust my relationship with money in general. So part of it is like mindset and the other part of it is like actually seeing progress to, you know, some of the things that you do when it comes to the Bush thing. And I know it's not about, you know,

restricting life because I also have a very abundant mentality when it comes to being able to do certain things. And like, I don't want to feel like I have to limit, you know, like I like to travel, you know, I love to, you know, go places. I love to do activities with my daughter. I don't want to have too many limitations when it comes to that.

So I was like, I need to see some progress somewhere. I know that I have to make probably some sacrifices for like a shorter period of time so that I can really do the things that I want and have the money. And I have to be concerned about, you know, like, are we going to go to the zoo or am I going to be able to pay this bill or whatever,

you know? So I sat a lot. I'm sorry. I'm just kinda like, Oh no, you're fine. No, you're fine. And you know, we've kind of talked about this before and it is so much harder when you are, when your only income is your business, because it is, can be all over the place and for your situation,

you know, you're waiting months for insurance reimbursements. So that makes it really hard. And especially as a single mom, like if you don't have any other income coming in, it's like, whoa, it's a feast or famine, right? Like one month you may get a bunch of payments finally come through and then you've got all this money and then the next month you may not have any payments come through,

you know, are any of your clients, or do you have a system where are any of them paying you a portion up front or is everything you're having to wait on for insurance? No. And, and insurance is not as bad as people may think. It's only a little challenging when I take on a lot of new people at once and you end up waiting a couple of weeks for imbursed reimbursement from,

from insurances, but usually once you're established and like have had a good relationship, I get paid within three to five days. So as long as I am billing on a daily or weekly basis, like it's pretty much flowing. Okay. The only thing is the only issue is tracking when the money comes in to let's say like I had a client and there's literally the last day of the month.

So I may submit the billing for the last day a month, but I'm not going to get the money to same day. Right? Like I'm going to get like five days later. Well, that technically accounts for the next month income, not that month. So like to know what actually came in for that previous month so that I can kind of project in the next month.

That's what I'm trying to like sort through right now. And that's what I was like, kind of working with the bookkeeper around too. So, but a lot of people have deductibles or copays or coinsurance that I do take upfront. And then you just wait for the insurance reimbursement and I do have some private pay clients. So I do also get that right away.

Oh, awesome. Well, that's great because I thought that you were having to wait like a lot longer for a lot of the payments, so that's good to hear. Yeah. That is something that I can think handle. I think what I'm struggling with is, you know, since this is like my only source of income right now, I'm used to getting a steady two week paycheck and I know what I was getting paid.

And so I can kind of protect things from that. And then whatever I took from the business was just extra. And now it's like, that's not like that. So I'm figuring out how much I can pay myself, figuring out, you know, what I can afford in terms of like, you know, taking a salary or whatever, and like letting that be consistent and not,

not adjusting it too much. Cause I want to try to get to a point where I'm just like, okay, I know that I'm bringing this in pretty much every month I can take this much. And then this is what needs to stay for savings and expenses. And then we can kind of go from there. And so I'm not quite there yet.

And partially because I haven't created my own personal budget, I keep starting and then stopping and then starting and then stopping. And then I ended up taking on more stuff and I don't know, you know, not reasonably knowing if I can like afford to take on this thing or this project or whatever. And so like, that is kind of my issue.

So it's like, I do really need the strategy on getting on track in terms of budget and debts and personally, because what I do in the business, what kind of dictate what that looks like. I think to help me take care of that so that I can, oh, I can take out, I can take 5,000 a month from business and I can leave the other one at 3000 or whatever I've made and that'll take care of that stuff plus the savings.

And then I will be okay on a monthly basis, but I don't know that because everything is just so all over the place and I'm not really tracking what should be that way. So what I would encourage you to do is to create a basic budget. Okay. So it's not going to be as in depth as like, you know, how I teach with the sinking funds and all the things,

what you really need to get an idea of is what basic expenses what's like your, or your mortgage, your power bill water, like all the basic things that need to get paid every single month. So, you know, how much for food or gas. And do you have any like what your regular monthly expenses are, that'll give you kind of a baseline of what your business needs to be paying you and then decide how much you want for your personal savings.

Like, do you want to set so much aside to spend on your daughter every month just for, you know, school stuff or fundraisers, or just, you know, fun stuff for clothes, you know, kind of, you get to decide like what that category is and how much you want to say for Christmas. Like all the little things that may not come up month to month,

but getting that basic idea of like, okay, at a minimum absolute minimum, this is what I need to bring home from the business every month so I can live, pay the bills, survive, and then that the extra stuff. Okay. It would be great if I could add in, you know, $500 for these things. And if there's a good month where you can give yourself a little bonus,

it can go to different things, you know, maybe into the year or quarterly or something like that, where you can feel some of those other bigger savings projects. But once you get an idea of what your basic monthly expenses are and then fill in, you know, fun, do you want to save regularly for travel or vacation, or is that going to be more of like a bonus situation and you know,

Christmas, is that going to be more of a bonus situation? Cause there's a lot of these things, especially as a business owner, you know, when you have like a really good month, you can still save for the business. And yet you could still pay yourself a little extra for some of these other savings schools that you have. But at the bare minimum,

you need to know what your basic expenses are. And if you want to have something in there for fun every month, like that way, you're not feeling deprived, it could be, you know, 50 bucks, like it doesn't have to be a ton or a hundred dollars, you know, and put that into your basic, your basic budget, that at a minimum,

this is what I need to pay myself. And then that'll give you an idea and that's after taxes. So, you know, the business side pays the taxes and that's how I do it. Anyway. I, when I think of like what my bring home, what I need to bring home, I'm not including taxes, cause that'll just come out on the front end,

but there is a calculator from Belinda with own your money. And I believe it's free. Actually. I will include the link in the show notes and I will send you the link as well, where you can put in there the amount. So it'll calculate for you. So it's like, okay, I'm bringing in this much and then a midsize goal and your bigger goal.

So, and then it figures out how much for like taxes and stuff and your ex if you know your business expenses, and then it'll tell you like how much you need to make each month so that you can bring home that goal amount. And I I'll, and I'll send you that link and that will help you tremendously. If you just get an idea of how much like your baseline,

how much you need to bring home from the business, then you can figure everything else out. And maybe it's like, if the budget, like, what do you think is keeping you from doing the budget? Like, do you, does it make you feel restricted? Do you just hate the word budget? Like, cause some people just need to change it to something else,

like call it a cashflow plan and call it my spending plan. Like, you know, just budget make you like, oh, I hate budgets. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the term I think. And to me it just, it just equates, I guess my mind just goes to like restrictions and just like fear. But I think I recognize that,

you know, my fear really is kind of settled in not having enough or like having this mentality or idea that I don't have enough. Right. And so like, I will have to restrict myself or I can't get this thing or I can't go to the movies or something like that. And so I think that that is what I've kind of grew up.

You know, my mom, I love her to death, but you know, one of the things she used to say was like, if you don't treat yourself, who else will? And that's like a mentality that I've carried my whole life. Like if I don't treat me, no one else is going to treat me. So I'm going to treat myself and I'm going to give myself,

you know, unlimited whatever. Like, you know, I had a brunch on Sunday. It was my birthday. I went with a friend. It was just me and one other person. And I got whatever I wanted and I did not even. And I knew it was like racking up. But when I got my half of the bill, I was like,

you did a lot. That was nice. There was no reason why you should have eight, almost $200, like by yourself. Yeah. And this place granted this place has got, it was Alec card. So like nothing came together. You had to get everything separate the sides. And you know, the first drink I had was like $40, less not,

but anyway, like it was like, I didn't budget for this brunch. I just went. And I knew that I was going to be, I was, I wanted to have a good time and I got whatever I wanted. And I didn't like mentally think about what it was going to really cost. And so like, that was one of those things where I was just like,

well, you had a good time. Like now, when are you going to do like take on an extra two clients to cover it is brought you to that. I don't know, but it's the fear of not having enough. And it's the fear of it. Part of it is also that mentality that I have to take care of me and I,

and that's, I don't have any husband I'll have, you know, so like if I don't treat myself, no one else will do that. And so, you know, that looks like me being, you know, splurging sometimes that looks like me in the past taking vacations that I probably really couldn't afford to take at the time or life happened. And instead of me canceling,

I just like found a way around it. And then I just suffered later and I'm like, I don't want to keep living like that. I can't afford to keep living like that. And so, you know, now that I want to move out of state next year and I want to, you know, add other streams of income, I can't do that and manage it and not have some type of system.

And I'm like at minimum for the sake of my clients, for the sake of the work that I do and the people I talked to with other people that I support and in figuring out how to manage their stress, money is one of mine. And if I keep ignoring it and not really doing my part, like I can't keep living life like that.

And that's going to, I'm going to be in this like poverty mindset for the rest of my life. And I can't, I need to switch that to an abundance mindset. That money is flowing all the time and that I always have it and I can't always have it. And you know, spiritually, God's going to take care of me and not just me.

Like when are you just going to come from wherever it's like, you still have to do your part. And this is me needing to sort through doing my part. My kid is getting older. She's going to school now down at the budget in tuition expenses, like, you know, daycare, wasn't already expensive, but now it's like, now she's going to a Christian school and they have to wish him,

which is cheaper than daycare, but I still have to make sure that that bill is paid every month. You know? So Absolutely. Now you've talked about this, treat yourself mentality. What if we switch that from treating myself by spending money? I don't have, that's gonna make me feel like crap later to calling your budget, your treat yourself plan and focusing on treating yourself in such a way that it betters your future.

So it's kind of switching that mindset. I mean, cause you know, you're going to keep that treat yourself. Cause I want you to treat yourself. I want you to enjoy your money. It's just a matter of prioritizing how you treat yourself. So are you going to treat yourself with something like a savings account for your move? Is it so like when you were really wanting to treat yourself and maybe it's like,

you know, you're shopping online and you want to spend $20 on something that you just really want, so you can treat yourself sending that dollars instead to that savings fund, you know, just kind of flipping and you're, you're still trading yourself because that is a goal that you have. It's just a longer term tree instead of an immediate tree, but I kind of like call on your budget and the treat yourself plan instead of a budget is Yeah.

Yeah. I like being able to reframe it that way because it takes something that, you know, I was taught and it gives me a, it gives it a different assignment. And so, you know, because it would, you know, me being able to move out of state is, will be a treat like for me, it's something I've been wanting to do for like over seven years and just haven't come around to it.

And now I've like, so, but yeah, I liked the idea of changing that and being able to reframe it and think of it as you know, this is me, this is me treating myself, you know, being able to take care of myself and my kid and not be stressed about, you know, what what's going to get paid and what's not getting paid and pulling,

you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like we used to say in church, you know, I can't, I can't do it like that. So yeah, I like that Now, where are you wanting to move to Georgia? So what if are you going to like the beach or just a certain town? Ideally I would move to the Savannah area.

So as close to the water as possible, but you know, mid downtown Savannah or closer to Tybee island would be great. I know I can't afford to live on Tybee island, but it's close to the ocean. Yeah, exactly. Another thing I would bring up if you haven't already is maybe put some visuals of Savannah up where you can see it and remind yourself.

So, you know, another suggestion, Jen, who was on the podcast, she wanted her goal was to go to Hawaii. And so she put a picture of Hawaii on her phone and on her apple watch. So every time she looks at her phone, she sees her picture of Hawaii. And so that'll kind of help remind yourself, you know,

at different times. So maybe you can put up some visuals and then maybe even a countdown timer. So if you're wanting to move in a year, set a date, put that timer, there's, you know, countdown, widgets and stuff that you can download for your phone and put that timer there where you are seeing it. So you're kind of help.

And you know, if you can name it, if you get one where you can name, it's like treat yourself or something, you know, and put the date, you know, use that saying, get yourself into something positive instead of having a negative connotation to it. Because it goes both ways. Like you want to be able to treat yourself,

it doesn't have to be a negative thing. Ashley, you are onto something you are on. And you know, cause those countdown timers, they make real like for like a trip or some you live like, okay, I see this. I literally, by the end of June, early July, I want to be in Florida. So like, boom,

like you're right, I'm going to give me a countdown timer. Cause that, that, that makes it real. And it makes the work that I need to do around my home. You know? Like you got two months to get this done. You got too much to focus on that. Like get it together, come on. So your autism.

So is that going to be your action step for the next 24 hours putting a countdown timer on your phone? I love it. I love it. So I think that'll help you kind of get through those blocks of doing the, doing your, your treat yourself plan. And you can go into the dashboard if you haven't already for the money, success coaching.

And there are a couple I've got the seven day budget challenge in there. It's a little steps each day. Or you could do the budget workshop that we did as a group. And it was about a four hours, but I tell you what to do and then give you time to do it. And so it took like four hours to like do all the things,

but you can break that down too into smaller steps if you want. But you know, if you need that, that's in there for you as a resource. And I can't wait to get an update on your plans and how you are going to reframe the same for yourself. I'm excited. Yeah. I'm excited. I am. I am Well, I'm so excited for you and I'm going to follow up and make sure that you did the countdown timer for that extra accountability.

I'm about to, so I'm going to get my visuals and I'm going to rename my budget to match, rate myself plan. And you know, I think I'm going to create myself a CEO abundance fund is how, Oh, I love that name. Yes. That's a good way to think about it. I'm going to have to steal that. I like that.

It's fun. And I'm going to name it in one of my bank accounts. I don't know which one, but I'm gonna find one. I love that. Love that I can't wait for an update. Like I've got goosebumps. Like I'm so excited for you. I know you were going to do Yes. I need all of these things. So I'm writing down my tasks.

So I got them all numbered here, which one I'm going to do. I love it. That was the, I didn't even think, I never thought of that. Like, let me reframe this because this is the way that I've learned things for so long and that's, you know, how I end up splurging. That's how I ended up, you know,

getting these, you know, large orders. Like I love I'm seeing now I used to do big fashion Nova orders, and now I like Sheehan. And I'm like, you buy all these clothes and you are not going anywhere. Oh, what are you doing? You knows those. Like, okay, if I want to get something, I have something coming up,

you know, you don't have to do these hundred dollar orders, you know, like scale back ma'am and th and that's the thing it's like such an automatic thought. It's such a, it's immediate. Like, this is what that is, you know, and to have, it's really about a discipline. It's really about training my brain to think differently about what it means to spend money and not have it's very impulsive,

like a relationship. Cause I really think it is. I think it's really a lot of movement on impulse. And so, and that's where that thought comes from. She's like, oh, you ain't gonna treat yourself nobody else meal. Like, I don't even go, like I'll have group dinners or whatever. Like I don't even go anywhere with the idea that,

oh, people are gonna pay for me. Like, it's my birthday. Like, no, I do what I want. And if people bless me with I'll pay for your drinks, I'll do this. I'll do that. But at the most part, like I am prepared to pay for whatever I want to, and I will get what I want,

because that's what I want. I've never been taught to limit myself or to scale back or to minimize in that is, that's just not, but it's like, but you're not making that kind of money to be doing it like that. So I'm like, where's this coming from? Like, I have a beer income, but I have a champagne tastes like it's just,

you know, it doesn't add up all the time. Very expensive. It's like, I'm going to make myself happy by any means necessary. And usually that comes with money and sometimes it's a lie. So that impulsivity to just do it and not as like, I'll do it first and then think about it and deal with the consequences later and the consequences of stress,

frustration, anger. And then I ended up limiting myself somewhere down the line because it's like, you've spent too much last month. Oh, you can't do that now. You know, so yeah. It's, it's tough. Yeah. And you know, the whole mindset too of nobody is going to treat yourself. So you gotta treat yourself. You can,

you know, just like we talked about changing it, changing the perspective on that is, you know, you also had, you have to treat yourself and take care of yourself with, you know, your housing and your finances. Cause nobody else is gonna do it for you. Nobody else is going to invest for you. Nobody else is going to help pay for your child's college and things like that.

So you can kind of yeah. Just work on changing that mindset a little bit and you'll, you'll be good. Yeah, you're right. You're right. It's about her college and savings and you know, getting investments out there and it's like all the stuff that I want, but what comes, what usually comes before that it's like, no, I want to travel and see the world and take her on these like wonderful vacations.

And it's like, okay, those things are still treats. Like, those things are still things that you can work towards, but how better, how much better would it be if you did that after? Right. Like you made sure that these things are taken care of and you're coming home to a house and she worked coming home to this being done and not having to worry about like,

you know, again, robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like I did this, but then I don't have enough for this left. And so it's like, that really is a mindset shift. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're going to get there. Just know you're not, I mean, you're not going to be perfect at it. You know, that like,

you know, we're not robots, we're humans. And so, you know, you're not going to be perfect at it and it's going to take practice and it's going to take time. So give yourself that grace and that freedom to fail and try again and just keep going. So just know that it, you know, it's going to take practice. You're not going to be perfect at it.

So just keep you just got to keep going and keep trying and keep trying and you'll get better and better with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any recommendations for the staying and this will be my last question. Any recommendations for staying consistent because, and I don't know if it's, you know, I need to, I set timers, I put reminders in my phone.

I'm supposed to review my every Friday and you know, or my, you know, so it's just like how other things, cause I knew all that. And then it's like, oh, I shouldn't be looking at my money right now. And then I just, you know, swipe it away and I don't do it. So you know what any recommendations you have for staying consistent so that I can build the discipline because it's like,

this is a muscle, you have to exercise it just like anything else. And I'm just like, you know, What I would say is I feel like consistency and discipline people put too much pressure on themselves because of those two words. But what I like to say is creating a routine and a habit and the book, atomic habits, if you haven't read that yet,

there's a great book for that. And what I would suggest is to combine it with something else that you're already doing and put your budget, or put your reminder as a trigger, like something visually to trigger, like when you do one thing. So let's say, let's say that you're doing it at night. Like after you're getting ready for bed, you've put your daughter to bed and all the things and you put it like on your nightstand with,

you know, I don't know your phone, like where you would put your phone down to go to bed or you put it like in the bathroom by your toothbrush. So you remember like when you're brushing your teeth, oh, there's my budget. I got to do that next. Like put, combine it with something else that you already are in the habit of doing.

And so that it will trigger that because I do the same thing. I have all these things on my phone. My calendar alarms are all going off. And if I don't even remember what it is, I just ignore it. I just swipe it and ignore it. But if you combine it with something else that you're already in, like, you know,

something really basic, maybe it's your morning coffee. Like if you drink coffee, I don't drink coffee, but you know, you can put it right there with your coffee or tea or whatever you do in the morning. I do find that it's hard for me to do it at night because if it's not good, then I'm up stressing about it. So maybe you want to do it in the morning or maybe you do it before your first clients of the day.

Maybe if you have a lunch break, you get your lunch and then your work and then do it during your lunch break. Just try and combine it with something else that you're already doing. And have you trigger visual reminder there so that you will do it and then you can set a timer and all the things like, okay, I'm going to work on this for 15 minutes right now.

And then that, you know, you've, you've completed a commitment to yourself. So that makes you feel good because you followed through with a commitment that you've made to yourself. You've made a little bit of progress and then you can do it again and again. And that's really how you build those habits and routines. I feel like discipline is just like,

and consistency. Just to me, it makes me feel like you have to do something the same way every single time. And that's not realistic. Even when you get in a habit and a routine, there's going to be off days. Like things come up. It's just a matter of getting back to that habit and that routine and try not to stray too far and then create new bad habits and routines.

So really that's what I would say. Definitely read atomic habits is great. Same concepts that I'm talking to you about. And he does touch on a lot of the things he talks about. If you think about it in terms of finances, like it all applies. Like it's a good book. So definitely check out that one and another good book that I have started,

I need to finish it is let me, let me look up the author. Cause I forgot her name. No, that's a podcast it's called. We are A cabinet. Tech has been on my book list. So I definitely need to go ahead and get that. Definitely Heard it a lot lately in the last couple of months, but it's, I've been heard about it a long time ago and it's been on my book list for a while.

Yeah. I just grabbed that one and then we should all be millionaires by Rachel Rogers so far. It's really good. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So I haven't finished it yet, but so far it's really good. And it's a lot about mindset and finances and kind of getting out of that mindset, that scarcity mindset. So that's another good one. Definitely recommend those two.

And you know, don't put a ton of pressure on yourself. If the, if the words like consistency and discipline are like the word budget to you, maybe call it habit and routine instead. Or like this is kind of changing the way you think about it because yeah, like I said, I just feel like, cause I do the same thing,

oh, I gotta be more consistent with this, but then it's like, it just feels like you're setting yourself up for failure by just using the word. Right. Like that's what I would say for that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm excited. And I know that the budget is electronic. Okay. Last question for real, this is like someone who is like trying to create a routine and a habit.

Do you recommend doing the electronic, but then also tracking things on paper, pencil, you know, like by hand I recommend paper and doing it by hand. I personally feel like this spreadsheet is for later, once you already have a good routine and a good habit and it's like more to maintain in my opinion, that's how I view it. And when you're first starting out and really building those habits,

yeah. I'd say a notebook. You can place your notebook with whatever other thing you're going to attach it to other habit. And then that way you've got that visual. You're like, I don't know. It just feels more real right. When you can hold something and you write it out. So I feel like, you know, you said you're a visual person,

so I would not worry about this spreadsheet right now. I would just do it all on paper. And I have a little notebook that I keep for writing down my transactions. Cause it's smaller could fit in my purse easier if you don't. So it doesn't have like my budget and all that stuff on it. Like that's like I just print on regular sized paper.

So it gets too big. So I just have like a small notebook that I like track my spending in so I can carry it around with me. But yes, definitely would recommend that. Okay. And so I know that you have the budget like workbook. Is that something you think I've had it? I think a long time ago. I know you probably updated it since I purchased it,

I think the first time. But is that something you feel like would be a good of course you probably would say like, yes, good place for me to start, I guess. I mean, there's so many things out there you can buy and get and you know, I'm like, do you just start writing it in a notebook versus me? Like getting something that's formatted to actually,

you know what Completely up to you? I, you know, I wrote my budget and just a notebook forever. The, of course the planner's more structured, you know, it's pretty, I do have a new planner coming out next month. So if you want to wait for the new design, you might want to just do a notebook, kind of getting a good habit,

you know, kind of get stuff down on paper. And then if you choose to the new one will be coming out in a month. So, but that's totally up to you. Like in, there are some just simple worksheets should be in there with the budget bootcamp. I believe I put the workbook in there, but they're not, they'll help you get started.

But like the thinner has more, has a lot more to it, but like the concepts are the same, of course. So you could use those couple of worksheets, you know, to kind of get it all down. Yeah. And start working with it. Cause it's going to take some practice. So, but yeah, totally up to you.

I'm I'm not going to tell you spend money just because like, that's just not who I am. So, you know, that's totally up to you if you want the planner or not, but I'm so excited for this new design. So Thanks for the heads up on that. Maybe I will wait and force myself to do it the old school way and then I can treat myself when it comes out and get me a new,

Yeah, it'll be out in September. So I, I don't know if this episode will air, if like what the timing of it will be, but it'll be available in September. So mid September, I think so maybe the end of September. We'll see. What, well, is there anything else that you wanted to touch on before we wrap up?

Oh yeah, I do feel good. And I think walking through that half day budget treat myself playing workshop is going to help me get on track. That I'm a very much a visual learner. I need to like tell me what I'm supposed to do. And then I go and do it. I get overwhelmed really fast. So like that, that really would be where,

I guess if I had questions after that, then that's where it starts. So Absolutely. And I'm here. So let me know or post in the group as well. Do you have a questions while you work through that? Thank you so much for being here and being willing to be open and sharing your situation with us. Okay. Thank you, Ashley.

I appreciate you so much. This was good. Thanks. I hope you were enjoying these budget strategy sessions as much as I am. Like I am enjoying the so much. And if you were to, don't forget to follow the money mindset podcast so that you automatically get them downloaded to your podcast player and you can sign up for your own budget strategy session.

By going to budgets made easy.com/strategy. Now the money mindset podcast, we'll be going to two episodes a week, one being the budget strategy sessions. So be sure to follow and share. If you think that somebody else could really benefit from these episodes of the, we just don't feel so freaking alone. Don't forget to share it with them because I'm sure that they will appreciate it.

And I will talk to you guys soon.