Not Your Grandma’s Budget: How to Budget When You Hate Budgeting | Reair: Money Magnet Mama with Masha Goins | 559

Want to pay off debt but don't know where to start? Stop making random extra payments and hoping for the best. Let's build a debt payoff strategy that actually works. Join us Thursday, May 28th for our debt payoff workshop so you'll know what you owe so you can pick your debt payoff method and you can start getting out of debt. We'll help you organize your debt, understand your balances, interest rates and minimum payments and help you choose what to pay first. Discover all three payoff methods including the snowball, avalanche and minimum payments and we'll also tell you what to know before applying for debt consolidation. No shame, no finance bro nonsense, just your next right step. Grab your spot at budgetbesties.com forward slash debt workshop. Hey Besties, we're replaying one of our favorite chats from another podcast with our friend Masha from the Money Magnet Mama podcast. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free but you don't want to live on beans and rice? When you don't want to give up this pumpkin spice latte? If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. If you want to seem like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shayna. And Vanessa, we're best friends, business partners and master financial coaches trained by Dave Francie. We've been in business since 2019 helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages and even bring your kids in and out of conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at whether you're the single mom who's never had $500 in their savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate workers. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. And honestly, before I met you guys before and signed up for private coaching with Vanessa, I really had a lot of resistance to the word budget because I had this baggage attached to it like it means restriction. It means frugality and I'm such a rebel. I was like as soon as I'm in a cage, I'm like I want to bust out of it. And then I realized that, oh, contrary, there is freedom through the system and this is not a typical budget. This is a budget system. I know I'm basically to say not your mama's budget or something like that. Not your grandma's budget. Not your grandma's budget. Exactly because it is there's liberation and financial freedom in your budget and in your budget system. And I think that's the thing that it took me so long to get my head wrapped around it and I knew when I started listening to your podcast, I was like, this is the system that I need. These are the people that I want to learn from because I have tried other things. I have done all the tracking apps. I have done all of the things and I'm like, this is that is not the problem. And my solution always was make more money, make more money. It's like a good solution. Right. And I remember like when we had our first coaching because I was already so sold before I got on that discovery call. I was just like, here's my credit card, right? Which now I don't even use credit cards anymore. But at that time I'm like, charge it anything you want. Let's just do this. But yeah. And I was like, I had an okay Vanessa was like, okay, tell me all about the situation. I was like, yeah, I had an okay month. I was like, made 90 grand in my business. And but it's where it's all gone. It goes into this like sieve this colander. So no matter what I was making, it would be like sand running through my fingers. I remember when you came on the call, I think you had listened to the podcast, sign up for the call, sign up for coaching. Like you were just all in from the beginning because you knew that this is something that you needed not just for personal, but for business and not for just for you, but also for your husband's business. And just everything together. Like you all needed a way to funnel your money properly so that way you could see it working for you. Because like you said, the month that you joined coaching, you had just had a huge launch and you did fabulous. And then I was like, okay, great. And I was excited as a coach. I'm like, yes, there's so much money to work with at the very beginning. And you're like, yeah, no, it's not there. It's gone. And I was like, oh, okay. So it was. I was like, yeah, it was there yesterday. And I want to go back to your comment about being a rebel. And I think that's really important because I completely identify with that. I think Vanessa does. Oh, I am such a rebel. We want to break all the rules. We know better. We can we are going to do a better way. And so everybody listening just to accept that this is the version of that we were rebels too. We didn't like the regular way that people were doing it. The continued like scarcity and you can't you're not allowed. We didn't like all of that. And we also didn't like that the budgets were ugly. Let's be really honest. They had stupid words like fixed and variable expenses. Nobody actually knew what to do with their hands. So we did rebel. We rebelled for you so you can come join us in our resistance. And somebody has called some people have called it the anti budget because we do want you to be bougie on a budget. We're not trying to restrict you, but we want you to be able to feel good about your money and also go get your pumpkin spice or actually right now. Peppermint, peppermint, peppermint, peppermint, for lean. I know I and the whole bougie on the budget thing. I think that really spoke to me because yeah, it is really a movement. And I maybe you should use that sort of rebel for rebel women. I don't know. Yeah, I might work. We're good. Yeah, we're heading in the direction. I feel like we're starting a movement because I'm definitely a nerd. Like I do love my color coded spreadsheets. I love that systems in general. But when it comes to budgeting, I always prided myself on the fact that I want to buy whatever I want at the grocery store. And if I want the stinky expensive cheese, like I'm not going to be like, oh, I can't have that because my budget is $2 for snacks or something. But now I'm like, wait a second, this is this concept really works because what it gives you is that incredible clarity, right? And and the budget system is so pretty, right? It is super. Like I we've been doing the six months of coaching, private coaching, which I highly recommend if you're somebody by the way, who wants that extra step. And I'm a coach who always is investing in herself, right? So I like, I feel like that's where all of that big expansion happens. If you're like a DIY person, just get the budget system from Vanessa and Shayna and just do it on your own because there is support there as well. But for me, we had a very complicated situation because both me and my husband Bill were business owners were entrepreneurs. So there's his business budget. There's my business budget. There's our personal budget. And there was a lot of math. And when we first started, I was just like, oh my gosh, are we like going to be the worst like clients ever because it was it's complicated. It was complicated. And I think that complication sometimes you're like, it's so complicated. I can't deal with it. Yeah. And I think it's hard to see when it's all together and it's yours because you've done it a certain way for so long and you really don't know how else to look at it. So when you have somebody else come in, we can very easily separate it all and see it as separate entities. And when you first started with the budget, I will say you grabbed it or took the bull by the horns. Yes, faster, a little faster than your husband did just because you were already ready. And so you immediately implemented it for your, your business and then with the family and then your husband, we were, we're just trying to get everything organized so that way he could see the bigger picture because it was a little harder for him because he had been doing it a certain way for so long. And to him, it was fine. There was no system in place, but to him it was that was his version of working. And it was fine. And it was just like, all we needed to focus on is you make more money and then we're eventually going to get out of a situation where that feels stressful. And I'm like, no, the reason that it's stressful, we're actually making really good money. I'm like, that's the thing we're actually doing. The reason it feels stressful is because there are these expected but unexpected expenses that keep popping up like the car, $3,000 here or the dentist, another two grand over here. And no system in place to help that. Exactly. I want to pause there as well because I remember one of Vanessa's clients, we used her, I think her husband was a lawyer or whatever. And so we use their budget on one of our podcasts every month we make a budget with you, right? So just walk you through so you can make your budget. And they made a lot of money as well, like you guys. And we had comments in our Facebook group who were like, that's not realistic. I feel unseen or whatever because I don't make that much, which I totally get. But her client commented and said, hey, actually what I feel like is what I can tell is it doesn't matter how much money you make. The problem isn't that it isn't the income. It's the habits. It's what you're doing. It's how you're being intentional, how you're planning for the quote unquote unexpected but extremely 100% expected expenses. All of that is actually what we need to address regardless of the income level. And so you guys were right on that. And I have another thing I want to go back again, because I feel like there's a theme here. You did something that I have heard lots and lots of people do when it comes to pretty much diets and money. I've heard both, which is to blame the budget or like you. It's like we disassociate like what when you're talking about getting the stinky cheese at the grocery store. You're like, if I want to get the stinky cheese, the budget's not going to tell me no. And I'm here in a lip. I'm here in a lip. I'm here in a like the neck is like moving. We're really attitude about this. Okay. And people do the same thing with their diet. That's why they rebel is because you're disassociating it. It's this thing over there that's telling me what to do like my mom. It's telling me to clean my room and I don't want to do that. And you've got to like to put your big girl panties on and we can't do that anymore. We like now, Masha, you have made this budget to include the stinky cheese because you're in charge. You get to say yes or no to every decision in your life. You are in charge. Everyone here, you're in charge. You get to decide, Hey, my grocery budget is banging. Okay. Like I spend more on groceries than most people do on their car or whatever. I didn't care. That's not even enough. We need more, but you get to be in charge and don't disassociate it. Don't blame the thing over there because that makes it really easy to walk away to say it's not working and to blame something else other than taking ownership. Well, and I think it's a different way to look at the budget because like we've said for so long, it's been this taboo word. It's been the no, it's been restricted. Then I can't do this. It doesn't work for me. I'm terrible at it. I'm the only person who's ever verbiage that you're putting in your mind. So you don't do it. And then the whole, it's basically my mom telling me, no, I can't do this. But what if you made a budget that brought you, if you made a budget that allowed you to do everything that you wanted to do, but I think people don't know how to do that because they don't know what that means. And they haven't had a budget that has allowed them to do that. And that is the difference. That is why we created our budget system. Yes, exactly. And I feel like it really, it clicked for me and I was just like, like rainbows and butterflies. It was like a Lisa Frank collection. Hey, I still have some of that in my ad. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. And then I was so excited. I kept sending, but I sent like the links to the podcast and I was like, listen to this one. And he was just like, oh my God, here she comes with another thing, imaging that she wants me to look at some silly reel or something. But I was like, no, I was trying to explain how this is different. And it's really hard to make it tangible until you actually look at the budget. And so that's why I know you guys have a freebie. Actually, I think it's like you get one page or something like that. So I'm going to link to that as well in the show notes because I think that the visual can be really powerful, really helpful for people because that's one of the things that I love that it's really simple. Right. It's not complicated at all about keeping things simple and streamlined. And you can see it at a glance. Like I can see what's happening in my business at a glance. And it's so nice because I have such a like little lean, mean profit machine. And I remember when I was like, when I went through it in our preparation, I was like, oh my gosh, there are some overhead expenses that I have very low overhead, but there was some stuff that I was paying for. Literally, I remember Vanessa when I was like, turns out I was paying for this email for the last 12 years that I was using. Yeah, you clean house. Yeah, I really want to reiterate that you clean house on unnecessary expenses that you realize that you didn't need to be paying for. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, I need to cut cut cut. That wasn't it. It was I want to be paying for things that I want to be paying for. It was like a hydro facial. I don't know. The extractions were like really satisfying because it was not like a exactly wasn't this like strangulation. It was more like we're cleaning up, we're decluttering, we're organizing and that sense of organization, I think is what is so satisfying. Yeah, I was listening to a podcast yesterday and I actually was listening to one of your podcasts this morning. And it's I think what we've done is made it, I really do think we've made it feminine. And so there might be a little like what you guys are talking about with husbands and stuff and they don't quite get it at first. But we have organized it the way we would organize anything else in our house, right? Like it makes sense to the female brain. And by the way, after it's organized, after we get organized, why does it make it look pretty? Like why would we not? Why would we not make it this calming, beautiful thing that we have to do? And then by the way, it's also super functional, like you said, because you're not the only one. Probably every single person we've ever budgeted with this is the first time they're seeing everything that they actually spend their money on in one page. At one point, they don't know. And that's why there's like this mysterious, I make good money, but I don't know where it goes. Now we can see and you then you get to decide, like Vanessa said, if there's anything I don't that I don't want and something I'd rather have, then I can make the decisions. But you can't do that if you've never seen it, which most people haven't. Exactly. And I think there's two things that I want to mention. Like one is this inherited feeling of like shame that women have that they feel stupid because they don't know about personal finance. And the reality is, nobody taught us. We are, we've been socially conditioned to not learn about it. Now, like where I live in Connecticut, we have amazing public schools with incredible teachers. My girls who are nine and 11 are actually learning about what is a mortgage? How do they're learning this from their math teachers who are like these incredible women who are teaching them real life personal finance, which is super cool, right? Outside of the curriculum. But I didn't have that growing up. Math was completely abstract. It had nothing to do with real life. And so it was only in my journey as I became an entrepreneur that I started going into this deep dive of like financial literacy and trying to educate myself. So I think that if people just accept that this is a really fun thing to learn as well. And if you love crasta learning, like this is a great thing to do because it's actually not procrastinating. You're actually super productive when you learn the system and it's easy to learn, right? The learning part is easy. The implementation can take a minute depending on how complicated your situation is. If you have a business or multiple businesses in your family. But yeah, I think the shame thing is one of those things where women are just like, I don't know. And I'm going to stay in this ignorant state of not knowing, which doesn't help anybody. And I love how you said that is something that we end up wanting to do because and it's something that we're proud of. Because when you have had your head in the sand for a really long time and you don't want to look at it, it's usually because nobody taught you, you don't know how you're shamed. You're ashamed to tell anyone you don't know how, right? But now when you finally pull your head up and go, OK, I'm going to take a look at this. I'm going to understand what I'm looking at and you use our budget system to do that. You can feel really proud of your numbers. And normally it's a bunch of wrecking balls in your brain because it's messy and it's scary and it's awful up here in your head. But once you put it on paper like Shayna said, it's maybe the first time you've ever written it down and seen it on one page. You can actually not be scared and you know exactly where your money is going. And most of the time people are excited and they have money left over, but they didn't know that they had it before because they did not know what was going on with their finances. Yeah, exactly. And I think that mental load like now the way our lives are, we have subscriptions to everything. It's like we can't keep track of every single thing. There's so much. That's why it's so important to have it like listed. And I love how it's the budget is organized where you have these savings buckets. That's like such a game changer, right? Being able to plan for vacations. OK, I feel like we're talking around this and maybe your audience is not intimately familiar. So real quick, let's just break it down. Our budget is very simple. It actually matches what you do with your hands, with your money in your real life, what you really do. And it's income minus your debts. We list your debts first. Nobody really loves talking about it, but it's fine. We're going to face the music. We're going to get that part of your life over with. Then we have all of your bills listed. And not only do we have all of your bills listed, you're going to have your bills in only one account. Because like you just said, it's so much easier if it's just that I'm dealing with. And I'm just looking at that and I can be very clear. Yeah. I mean, so a bill is considered anything with a due date, right? So all of your bills will be listed and anything that you are paying for on a monthly basis. Then after that, you have your spending section. This is where you live in your budget. Because you're going out to eat, you're going to buy a coffee, you buy a gas. Stinky cheese. Girl, buy all the stinky cheese you want. Groceries. You go to all your groceries, your gas. You're going to the market. There's a fall festival, things like that. That's where all your spending. And then the last section of our budget is your spending. And that's where your... I'm sorry. It's fine. It's all fine. Your savings buckets. And that is what you're talking about, where you're saving up for things, these quote and quote unexpected expenses that happen like Christmas and travel and gifts and pets, medical visits and all of the things that we forget to budget for, which is usually why we're going into debt. If you were to go look at all of your credit card statements and you saw what was on there, it's either A, all of your gas and groceries of things that you need to pay for because you spent it on unexpected expenses or it's all the unexpected expenses because you've used your regular money for all of your gas and groceries, right? Not like we're taking these massive trips or going to buy Gucci purses or anything. It is literally we're just trying to live day to day, but we forget to budget in these unexpected expenses. And that's really quick, but that's where the savings buckets come into place. And like you said, that is the game changer because most budgets are just having you look at this month, which is a great start. It really is a good start to see, what do I cost in a month? But what we want you to do is really look at what do I cost in my life? What do I cost throughout the year? Because those are all very important things too. You going on that trip, your kids doing that summer camp. Christmas, your birthdays, all of those are part of the budget too. And we can break those down into little bitty bites each month and start saving for them instead of having these big emergencies that it feels like you have every month because you forgot about it. So our budget tries to look at all of it to your point. And so I just wanted to run through that because I feel like we're talking about it like everybody knows, but maybe they don't know yet. And I want a huge epiphany moment with one of my, a free call actually with a lady and she said, but I have this HOA due that's due every month or excuse me, every January is $800 a year. And I said, girl, break that down, divide that by 12. And every month you're going to be putting money aside. So that way when January comes around, you have the money to pay for it. And she had never thought about doing it like that. But the small little wins like that that you can incorporate into your budget. And like Shayna is saying, we don't want you to just budget for a month. We want you to look at what do you cost in a year? And we need to break that down and put it in your budget. So that way you're prepared for this stuff. It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah. Imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do. No guesswork, no confusion and absolutely no judgment. It's a done for you system that actually works. You don't know what to don't know. And that's not your fault. And that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps and after hour support, you can text an email. So you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together, we're going to build your budget, set up your system and tackle any challenges that come up along the way, which by the way, they always do. If what you're doing isn't working and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up and we will help you go further faster. Six months from now, you'll wish you started today. I think that's exactly it. Thank you for giving the overview because I'm so deep into my love for, I'm just bathing in the budget. And yeah, and one of the things I was actually telling my dog Vixen how excited I was that he's moving from the builds category into the annual savings buckets. He's going into his insurance. I'm going to pay for it yearly and it's coming up in January. And I was like, I can't wait to delete that one line out of my monthly budget. And I was like that where I know his pet insurance is coming up every year, right? That is not an unexpected thing. I just don't think about it every single day. And then I'm like, oh, it's due. Oh gosh, okay. Let me grab $700 from over here. And the same thing was like swim. Both of my kids are competitive swimmers and it's, you guys have kids in sports as well. It is correct, right? I was just thinking how much you spend on food for swimmers, but anyway, keep going. Yeah, I, a lot. But that's why we got a budget. It's the reality of your life. And that's what we're budgeting for. We're not. And that's the other thing I think that your listeners need to hear a lot of times that restrictive budget that you've been used to trying and failing has is unrealistic. It's not a budget based on reality. We want your budget to really, truly match your real life. And you love that your kids are competitive swimmers. It's making them into disciplined, amazing adults in the future. And it's awesome. And we want it to be able to afford that. We don't want it to be like it's already stressful getting them for practice and back and forth. Some of that can be stressful. Let's not have the budget part of it also be stressful. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the thing, like taking away that mental load. So you're not having to carry all these things that are rattling around in the back of your brain. Oh, the car, I think I need to bring it in. Like it's rattling again, or I need to do this and that you don't have to worry about that stuff anymore because it's just there on that piece of paper. And it is so clear and you have a plan for it and you know what's going to happen with it. That's the part that appeals to me as a planner like so much. Like I am just like geeking out over that part immensely. Yeah. Shayna has a story about we had a client who had a flat tire and she went in to get it repaired and the guy said, actually you need all new tires. You need four new tires. And she said, okay, here's my card. Here's my debit card because she had been saving for it in her vehicle fund and the guy was shocked because most people put it on a card or they conveniently offer a credit card at the auto repair shop for you to just sign up for in cases something like that happens. And when we have clients come on and they say, okay, I want my grocery budget to be a thousand dollars a month when they're normally spending $3,000 a month on groceries. And we're thinking that's not the point. You're missing it. We don't want you to be restrictive. We want it to match your life because the minute you try to cut back on what you've normally been doing, it's not going to work and you're going to hate it and you're going to say this, I can't do this. So we want you when you're making a budget, put realistic numbers in there. Otherwise it's not going to work. It's going to fail. And then you're going to feel like it's all on you. Yeah, exactly. It's like dieting, right? Only 3% of diets actually work, right? And so I think that's why this is so different because it has the space for the life that you want to live now as well as the life that you want to live in the next five years, right? It's got that space for both. And it has this amazing feeling of like we're working towards something. I just want to give the example of how we're having our first credit card free Christmas. Yeah. What we want you to do is set up a open a separate savings account called Christmas. Call it whatever you want. Santa's Little Helper, whatever it is that you need to do to make it. You can rename your accounts in case you didn't know. And then start setting aside right now. So you guys have worked really hard to have a credit card free Christmas, which is awesome. And we want all of your listeners to do the same. So again, look back. December was last month. So look back. How much did I spend? And then let's start setting that amount divided by 12 aside right now in January. And then you will be able to also have a credit card stress free Christmas. You can buy it all in July and be done if you want, girl. Because it's going to be fresh in your mind. You're going to know right now how much you had just spent on Christmas. So go ahead and take that number like Shannon said divided by 12, put it in your budget. So that way this may be this upcoming 2026 could be the first time that you could pay cash for Christmas and think of what a relief. Think of like the difference it's going to make for your life and your family. It's such a cool feeling. And honestly, there was no need to actually use the cards, right? It's like we all get sucked in. I keep seeing now, of course, that I'm on the other side of not using credit cards anymore, how they suck you in with their points and their this and their that. And like I was in home goods spending my like trying to do my personal. I have my MG spending and I was like, I have to use this money. So obviously I'm going to have a little home goods holiday trip with my pumpkin spice latte on by myself, right? I did. And then she was like, if you open a home goods credit card, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And I was like, I could see how this is super appealing. You get 20% off plus you get points every time you shop there. And I was just smiling. I was like, no, I'm good. Thanks. And but that's how they suck you in with the cards. And then you can't keep track of it. And then it's like the rates are counting. Yeah. And it's like, it becomes this like super complicated system where you're trying to shuffle money around from the credit cards and you're like, why are we even doing this to ourselves? Like you don't need to have them. And I think people always feel like I need to have a really good credit score. I need to have credit cards just in case. It's a game that they want you to think that you're winning at, but you're, but it's once you're on the other side, it's like you've woken up and you're like, no, I see it. I get it. I'm not falling for this because it's not worth it in the end. Yeah, exactly. It's not worth it. And it's so nice. I also to just know that you have the power to do it all cash. And now when I look at my account, I can see like, how much do I have in groceries and we're good. Like it just takes away that stress of everything is vague and mushy and foggy. And I don't really know how much I'm spending on what. And real quick again, for the listeners who aren't immersed in it, what is you okay bathing in the budget? That's another B word. What we want to do is your spending is going to be separate from your bills, which is why she knows when she goes to home goods that she has so much in her MG account that she can spend and she knows there's money for groceries. There's money for kids to eat because they're so hungry. There's money for Christmas and the other account. There's money for gas. There's the bills are all getting paid and I have this sweet little account called MG and I can spend this all I want. It's very exciting. And so that, that's why it's different and why we're different. And what we want for you to have that freedom, to have that easy decision in the moment to make, not having to sort through all of these different things to see, can I get this pillow at home goods? Yeah. So we've talked about simplifying it, seeing it on one page. Now the separation part is what Shane is talking about as far as having your bills separate from your spending, which is really the game changer. It's, we have clients who join on it. It's when they do that step, when they do that and they actually separate everything, that's when all the magic, everything comes together. And the last part of our system is to automate it because we want it to be as hands off as possible. And we know that if you're in it, we're in it. We're messing it up because you don't have time for that. And nor should you even need to feel like you have to be in it all the time. But if you can automate everything and then you know, it's running on autopilot and you can focus on your family on Christmas time, on the new year time, setting goals, you can focus on your business. There's so many things that your time is already spoken for and you don't have to be in your finances and feeling like it's a, it's a burden for you. Yeah, exactly. And that, like my business budget now, it's all automated and it's so nice. And I just, it gives me such a sense of peace and safety and comfort when I look at it. And I was thinking like, I can't believe it. I could have had this feeling for like the last few years as my business was growing and I was doing well. And instead, like I was like, yeah, I'm doing well. And then I'm like, oh, this came up. Oh, another tree is down. That's another 5,000. Like now we've got to do this. Like where we are, like we have four acres where we live. And so we have storms all the time. As soon as a tree comes down, usually my husband like cuts it down if he can, depending on the size, but there are constantly things happening, right? And like maintenance of the property that you're like, wow, I didn't even think of that as an expense. And then it's, oh, that's another 5,000 and another 5,000 and another 5,000. And now I don't have to feel stressed about it because I'm like, hold on a second. What did we actually do in the last year? What did we do in the year before? What do we expect is going to happen in the next year? So it's like, you don't have to be reactive anymore. I think that's the key. It's like you feel this amazing sense of peace and clarity and control as well. Yeah. No, that's good. I love how you put that. I think that's really important because you can gain control over it. And the fact that it's automated, like you were saying, and that you don't have to worry about anything, I think that really allows you to then. Okay. So now your business is automated and now you're able to focus more on your personal because we're almost getting that part. It's like 99.9% done. And so it's, and it shows you how your money is flowing from one to the next. But when you said that I could have been doing this all along, that's the point of coaching, right? I think you're in it. It's your budget. It's your money. You're looking at it a certain way and only that way for so long having, and that's the importance of bringing an outside person in, being able to look at it in a completely different light, being able to suggest different things that you would have never thought of. Cause I'm sure when people join your program at Mashup, they say the same thing. Oh my gosh, this huge light bulb moment happens. And they were like, I could have done this the whole time. No, probably not because this is something that you needed a coach for. You needed that outside person to look in and to help you see it in a different way. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's exactly it. We need to not only accept, but seek out that help and support and stop pretending like we can figure it all out on our own because we're wasting so much time and so much money doing it, like trying to hack it ourselves. And that goes to like building a business as well as figuring out our finances around it. And I think that's part of the problem. Like people just thinking like the problem is not that I don't have a system. I just need to like make more sales or I need to get more clients or I need to do this. And it's a hold on a second. First, you need to get your, your socks organized and matched. And then we can talk about, do you need new socks? Do you need to upgrade your socks to like bomb us or whatever? Like wool socks or something like smart wool, not down in Florida. You guys don't even know what, what that works. Hold on. I wear fuzzy socks in July, but anyway, yeah, I love bomb us. I have bomb us. So yes, let's move on from and put bomb us in the budget, whatever you need to do. All the new words are going in the budget. But I think when, when I hear you say, I just need to make another sale or get another client because a lot of our clients are entrepreneurs and we hear them say the same thing. And so how do you know? Like you don't know what you actually need. Honestly, you don't really know. You just know more. And that's never, you're never going to be able to fill that bucket. That bucket is always going to have a hole in it. Right. But what we like to do is let's look at your personal budget. See what do you really need? What does your business really need to bring in to the personal budget? And then we can look at the business budget because like you said, there's all kinds of, depending on how long you've been in business, you know, what kind of business you have all kinds of expenses and we need to pay. Those have to get paid first. We need to know how much your business costs. We also need to know how much you cost personally. Then we know how many clients you need or how many more sales you need. You actually need to do all of that math so you can say, Hey, and I love doing, I love doing this with our clients every month. Okay. You already at 70% you could just need to go out and get one more client or you just need to make $3,000 and you have, and you're, you're good for the whole month or whatever, but having like ownership in those numbers, knowing your numbers, that, that is part of the entrepreneur game. I think we get into it and think, I'm just going to do this one thing that I really good at, but you need to be okay with owning your numbers and knowing your numbers and looking at your numbers. The CPA can do the boring stuff, but you've got to know that stuff. Yeah. If you're out there just trying to make money, but you don't know for how much and for why and for how long it can get really exhausting. But when you know your numbers and you can say, okay, I'm doing it for this reason, this month, or I only have to hit this goal or, and you have set those goals for your business, then it just makes it, I just brings it to life. I feel, and it makes it, it gives you a purpose for what you're trying to achieve versus this endless amount of money that you think you have to make because you don't know what's going on financially in your business. Exactly. And it's so empowering because it's not a black hole anymore. Right. You're moving away from the, the colander and you're actually getting to a place where you're like, wow, this is like super color coded and organized. And I actually don't need to do, I'm actually doing really well over here. So what about this? And then you can start like doing the dreamy like vision stuff. Right. Okay. I want to plan this next vacation. I want to plan this next thing. And I think that's really nice. Like that part where you can really start savings towards something specific because I think that's part of the problem when people are like, I know I should be saving, but it's so intangible. What are you actually saving for? And now, like getting your annual bills covered, like that, and then going beyond that to like the fun stuff. I think that's so exciting. And the flip side of that really quick, and I say this all the time, maybe not necessarily to entrepreneurs, but to my, a lot of times to my husbands that are working overtime or they're doing, they're picking up the side hustle or they're doing this, that or the other. I say, at least you know what, you know exactly what you're doing that for. Every one of those dollars is going to your Christmas fund or every one of those dollars is going to pay off that credit card. And so when you're putting in that work, when you're working hard and you're maybe doing, when you're not curled up on the couch watching Christmas movies, making ornaments, no, just me. Okay. That's really what my goal is right now, but nobody will let me. Anyway, when you're not doing that, when you're working hard, you know exactly why and where it's going. Instead of the other thing, when you're working not 12 hours a day and nonstop, and you don't really, you're hoping that it's all for a purpose and where it's going and instead you're very clear on it. I think it makes it more motivating. I have a husband right now and I actually honored him on the call and I just told him how admirable it was that what he's doing is because his, their budget works on his regular salary, but they know that every minute of overtime that he works goes all towards debt and he worked on Thanksgiving and his wife was a little sad and he said, you know what, babe, it's fine. It's one day and all this, we need the money. It's all going to go for the, for good. It's going to pay off our debts sooner. And it was just that moment that he had, this isn't forever. This is the, the short season that we're in and there are young couple trying to get everything in order before they buy a house and have kids. And so they're just so excited to know their numbers and then to know their why and they understand when they do work overtime or she takes, because she's a teacher. So when they do, when she has like summer job, summer camp jobs and stuff in the summer, like she knows the reason she's doing it and every single dollar extra is going all towards debt and they can see that tangibly because now they know their numbers. Yeah. And the same thing with entrepreneurs, which I know is your audience. I have a client that worked on Friday. She was with her family. They enjoyed Thursday and they enjoyed Saturday, but Friday, she was working and making calls and doing all of her things. And it's, you know, what it's for. It's not just wasted time. When you take still time from your family and it's wasted because you're just whatever, but it's not wasted. You know exactly what you want to do and you know where the money is going to go when you make it. Like it's just a different feeling. And that's what we work for all of us. We want you to have ownership over all of this and being in control. Like you said, peace, clarity, all of that. And I will say really quick, our budget is so amazing that it works both for personal and for business. So just want that in there. Exactly. No, and it's been huge. And honestly talking about wasted time, like that's the doom scrolling for seven hours that I know so many people are doing, even though they don't realize. But yeah, instead you could be like clicking through on the super pretty like pink and green mint green budget system and just geeking out on it. I just want to say thank you guys so much. And I want to have you come back because actually we didn't even have time to talk about the whole process of me and Bill merging our finances, which was a huge part because we always kept our finances separate. And I think that's something that will be really interesting for people to hear as well because everyone has different like relationship challenges. But that's definitely been a huge part of ours. And it's been amazing to go through that. And Vanessa has been so incredible. And by the way, Vanessa, I have to say that you are like a name in our households. Bill's like, what would Vanessa think about this? And I'm like, yeah, do you think Vanessa would approve this one? So we're constantly like saying your name and vain. And it's so funny because we're joking about it now. Like it's, it's like a funny, it becomes this like thing that. Is not scary anymore, but you can just talk about it. And I think the point of coaching too is to you have a coach that's going to ask all these questions and it teaches you to ask yourself those questions once you graduate. It's okay. What is this new way? Cause it's not just so I'm in for six months and I'm out and then I'm going back to doing what I'm doing. It's I'm in for six months. I'm learning a new way, new habits, new mindset, new, all of this. And then that way when you go to do it, right, you're asking yourself those things. So that way, you know how to work through those situations on your own. And I think that's been the big benefit that we've seen from our clients when they graduate is they have all this knowledge and information in these tools in their back pocket from our conversations that they can now help make them make themselves successful or continue, right? For years to come. Oh yeah. I am definitely like budget bestie for life. This is, I'm just getting started. Like now that it's been unleashed, like I'm just getting started. It's so exciting. So thank you guys so much for coming on. I have been just love listening to your podcast all the time. It keeps like new things come up all the time. Like if this is a journey, right? It's not just you just learn the system and it's not boring. That's the thing like budgeting sounds so boring, right? If you're not an accountant, you're just not going to be excited about it. But this is something when you're a creative person, it's actually there's a lot of creativity and beauty in it as well. Thank you. Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. I'm not into boring math either or boring number of things at all, but this is a different, it's different for sure. Yeah. Thanks guys. Oh, thanks for having us on. If you're tired of feeling like your finances are all over the place and you're ready for a simple, set it and forget it, way to budget. We have something special for you. Watch our automate your budget masterclass at budgetbesties.com. Ford slash automate. We'll show you step by step how to finally organize your money to set up your accounts and put your budget on autopilot. So your bills, saving and spending more like my work. Imagine less stress, more savings and the freedom to spend money without having to track every dollar or babies that your bank account. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash automate to start today.