How To Build Your August Budget: A Step-by-Step Guide

 All right. It is that time again for another budget. August is coming in hot and we are excited to start back into somewhat of a routine, don’t you think? Maybe a little bit. It could happen. It could happen. It’s a possibility. Yeah. So we are here to walk you through step by step building your August budget and we’re gonna get started.

 So the first thing that you wanna do before you actually make the budget that’s coming up is you wanna close out the current month’s budget. Yep. So, let’s go ahead and go over to July. Okay. And so when you clo, we wanna close out the month because we wanna make sure everything has been taken care of, that we’re not.

We’re, there’s not gonna be some random stray stuff that’s coming in August because we didn’t finish it in July. Mm-hmm. We wanna make sure that the amount that we have in each account is correct and just kind of close everything out. Yeah. So if you look here if you’re following us on the, the video, you see that some of this is already checked, so we wanna do is go, okay, I haven’t checked it off, obviously since like the fifth.

Now I wanna go back through and go, yes, all these bills did go through, all my transfers happened, all my savings happened. And if you look. It says that the total remaining up top is zero, meaning you have given every single dollar a job that month and it has gone somewhere specific. Okay. And now we’re gonna be real.

So this is what we do with our clients. We’ll go through, we’ll, we’ll actually we’ll start on the asset tracker and the debt tracker and check that. And we’ll be like, Hmm, that one went down. What happened? And they’ll be like, we had to get the wall changed. They’ll be like, great. Sounds like it worked perfectly, or.

Why is your emergency fund gone well, you know, and sometimes they might have answers, but I’m gonna tell you the truth. I have a lot of new clients, so the real, real on this. Is, we’ll come in here and I’ll just put extra spending and that’s what start. And then they’ll tell me, well, 80. And then, oops.

Wow. That’s a lot of extra spending. Vanessa, oh boy, I accidentally spent a little bit extra on Amazon. Yeah. And then, oh, this, I don’t know what this $37 charge is, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. Forgot about this thing. And yeah. And so we’ll close And that’s actually ’cause we’re going through the Bills account and seeing anything that actually wasn’t a bill.

Right. And so then we clo, let’s say we close everything out and. We did a good job. We tithed every week and now we have a new number. Okay. We’re not gonna be able to put as much on debt because we spent a little extra. So now we’re going to, instead of being able to put 1700, which they had planned, they’re only gonna be able to put 1500, which is still really great, but, yep.

So you wanna change out that number. You wanna make your last payment. Mm-hmm. I guess you could say on your debt. Close everything else out, and that way, you know. For next year, like for better planning, you can come back to July’s budget and go, okay, this is what actually happened. Now you can plan better for the following year.

So it really just gives you a great way to just track your stuff. Yeah. And you just want to update the, or close out the last month’s budget. The, this way you’re gonna go into your Bills account and go back, like Vanessa said, back to the last time you did this, and just check everything off and and, and then update like paychecks or update any amounts, like we just said, any extra spending that happened that your transfers that you made outta the bills account or whatever.

And just make sure everything’s good and zeroed out. Yep. Okay. So then when you’re going to make the upcoming months budget, the first thing you wanna do is start with income. So we’re looking at all sources of income and all the maybe if you know the dates that they’re gonna hit your account. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So now this in August, a lot of people, if you, if you’re military, then this will be, actually it won’t be the first. So it would be like I think that.

The 29th or no, the 30th. So a lot of people are gonna have paycheck the last week of July mm-hmm. That are gonna actually end up counting. So these ones will come in that day and then maybe this person has an amazing life. It’s very clean and clear and that’s exactly how all our clients are.

Right. But actually what really usually happens is the regular paychecks end up being. Like I actually had a bunch of people that July 24th or July 25th was their first paycheck for August. Mm-hmm. So, just understand if you’re a paycheck ahead like we want you to be, then you’re gonna wanna put that put, you’re gonna have those paychecks for July are gonna be sitting there in your Bills account, getting ready to pay all the bills for August.

Right. This person just happened to get paid on the first and the 15th. That’s just their, their company regimen. But like Shana said, if you get paid every other week, then you need to budget that last paycheck of July is actually gonna go for August. Because if your first paycheck isn’t hitting until like the 7th of August, you’re behind.

Yeah, you’re behind like a whole week. Because the first I believe is a Friday. It’s Friday. Yeah. So then you’re gonna be behind. And you have all these bills that are due, and so that’s why it always feels tight for you. So we really need to get to the point where the last month’s paycheck is funding your upcoming month.

Yeah. So so yeah, you just wanna make sure that that’s, that’s what you’re doing. And then, but the other thing, Vanessa, is like you said, just make sure you update any type of income. If you get a bonus, if you get. You know, whatever, if you get garage sale stuff or Yeah. Overtime, all of that stuff.

Or you know, maybe I have, I have some teachers that get like a random stipend in August or whatever. So that’s what you wanna update on the income, and that’s what we’re gonna fill in first. And it’s a great number. Yeah. You’re like, yay. Look at all the money I make. Surely this is gonna be fine. This is the positive column in your budget.

Everything else is negative. Yeah. Everything else is subtraction. Yeah. This is the only one that does addition. Okay. So after you have all of your income for the month, then we’re gonna do all of your debt. So we’re gonna list your debts and only their minimum payments. Yes. Okay. If you have a credit card and it’s actually the, the payment’s like 1 25, but you pay 200, we’re not doing that. Mm-hmm. We’re not doing that anymore.

You’re gonna go back and set every payment to the bare minimum. And that’s what we’re gonna do. And then later we’re gonna find out how much extra we can pay on debt. And we’re gonna do it intentionally. We’re gonna do this. A little bit here, a little bit there. ’cause that doesn’t get us anywhere.

Right? And if you look at this debt column, you see where it says mom twice on the first and the 15th for a thousand dollars each. This person’s their in-laws gave them money for a down payment for a house, and they’re paying her back. So when we say. You need to list all of your debts. And a debt is defined as any money that you owe anyone for any reason.

This is really important for them to be able to pay her back. So we have her listed on here. They wanna pay her back $2,000 a month . Following their husband’s pay schedule.

So that’s why we are paying her the mom back on the first and 15th, $2,000 a month. Yep. And then she’s actually gonna be done with that one and then that, so that’s exciting. Mm-hmm. In August. And then imagine. What’s she gonna do with $2,000? I know. Don’t worry. I know them and they will find a way to spend it, but either way, it’s really exciting. 

It’s gonna be a fun month for them. All right, so then after if, actually, here’s the fun part. If you scroll down, so fun. Watch it be so fun if you scroll down. To the bottom of the debt column, and it shows, you see the total there, it says $2,992.

That means this person, in minimum debt payments is paying $2,992 a month. Imagine what that person can be. Can do, yeah. With that money besides paying it on debt. Yeah. So that’s kind of the dreamy part here with this column. We know that everything in this column could eventually go away. Yep. And actually, what’s really funny about them is they, they used to be debt free.

So they know exact, well, they used to be debt free. They know exactly what that was. They had to get an another car and they decided to get a loan. And then this furniture loan is a joke. It’s fine. Like we’re all excited about furniture loan. We’re so excited because they just got the furniture and then decided to pay.

This is the payment they’re making to get it paid off by the time there’s no interest and it’s fine. We’re all working together anyway. They used to know what that was like, and we want you to know what that’s like and we want you to dream about it. Like Vanessa said, dream about the fact that you have 20, and that’s the other part as you see in, in our budget.

This couple is ma is bringing in $20,535 before they even get to bills. $2,992 are gone. Mm-hmm. Like that. $3,000 of their 20 is gone on debt. And then we have to go make the rest of the budget. And that’s what we want you to be able to see step by step. That’s why we say that we’re helping you build this budget step by step first with debts. 

Now we’re gonna move on to bills, which is another fun. Mm-hmm. How fun. How fun it is. To be an adult and have bills, right? Get to pay all the bills. So your bills column is anything that you get charged on a reoccurring basis every month. So groceries is not a bill. Your gas for your car is not a bill.

Bills are your mortgage, your utilities, your Spotify, your gym membership, auto insurance, health insurance, all of that. These are things again. You are getting charged for every month is the same, usually the same bill every month. Now again, we know utilities fluctuate. That is fine, but you’re still getting billed for those.

That’s why they go here. Yeah. And you can update your utilities, right? I mean, it’s just gonna fluctuate a little bit here or there. And, and because if you update it month to month, so yes, July is a lot more than December, but it’s not that much more than June. Right. So it doesn. So it sort of stays consistent ish.

Mm-hmm. But the other thing that one of the best practices you can see that we’ve done here is list them in due date. Li like filter order. Yeah. Order. We’re doing it. It’s happening. Okay. Start. Start that over. Okay. The other thing that’s a best practice is to list your bills in the order that they’re due.

The date due, the due dates are gonna be in, put in order with the bills. So it still didn’t, it didn’t get better. It didn’t get better. It didn’t get better. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. It’s gonna be great. Okay. One of the best practices that we like to do, if we can, is list all the bills in the order that they are due in the month.

Mm-hmm. So the you in this example, the mortgage and most mortgages seem to be due on the first of the month. And so that’s at the top and then it goes all the way down. And that way you can just, it’s just easier. It’s not necessary, but it’s just easier. And it’s also fun when you go to check it off. It’s fun.

Everything’s in order. It’s fun. So there’s that. Yeah. Like and everything. We like to make this as fun as possible and checking things off in order. It feels really good. It does. Alright, so let’s look at what we have so far. We have the income listed at $20,535. We have the debts and the bills. Okay. And then if you look at the top, the total remaining is updating as we go along.

Yeah. So they now only have, they’ve spent $7,000, so they did the 3000 on debt and they only have 4,000. Basically if we scroll down, we can see that 3,900 in bills. And the other thing that this can do, so you can list ’em by due date. But you know what, I also, I do, Vanessa, I put. Like blanks. And then I put this, I’ve started putting the subscriptions all together at the bottom.

Oh yeah. So like you categorize them. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So that you can see clearly how many subscriptions you have. And I have so many people that are like, what? I’m paying $300 for subscriptions a month. I didn’t really realize that. And I’m telling them. You know, everybody cut cable, right? So they could save money.

And I’m, I’m looking at everybody, we sure did everybody’s bills and I’m like, it didn’t, they won in the end. Yeah. Like they figured out how to come back around and make their money. So that’s also something you might wanna do, is just look at how much subscriptions am I paying a month? Mm-hmm. And is that what I wanna do?

Because I, we have several people. That maybe they have duplicate music or or they have so many TVs. I’m like, you, I know you don’t have time to watch that much tv. Mm-hmm. Like, I know your life. You’re not watching that much tv. Well, you know what’s interesting? A lot of people ask us, you know, ’cause they’ll buy our system.

They’re like, well, I don’t have any debt, so what do I do with this column? We’re like, whatever you want. Like make that column your subscription column. Mm-hmm. So that way. You can see how much you’re specifically paying on subscriptions like this. When you buy our system, it is yours to do what you want.

We have a template here you know, for people who, for the most, you know, the, the, mm-hmm. Majority words. Words. We got this today. We have a template here for the majority of people who need it this way. But the reality is, is if you don’t have any debt, then make that column what you want. Mm-hmm. And that, and I like, I love how you’re listing that out for your, your clients specifically, because it’s great to be able to see No, it’s so fun how much you’re actually spending on just subscriptions or just utilities or just, you know, just other little categories.

And then I wanna say this one thing we had a Facebook person, ’cause I, when I, when I coached last week and whoever had $300 and, and we were having that conversation, I put, I put something in Facebook anyway, there. Hack. This is great. I love this hack. Their hack is they do a different subscription for like a month and they watch everything that’s new or updated or fun on that, and then they change to a different service, right?

Yeah. And then they see whatever’s new and updated on that. And then, so they’re only ever playing, paying for one TV thingy at a time, but they’re, and they’re getting, I was like, that’s actually really brilliant. I think that’s a great plan. I wanna tell the world about it. So there, I’ve told everybody.

Oh, that’s really great. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, because it’s not like I just need to remember to cancel like my Audible subscription. Mm-hmm. That I have like seven credits on right now. On on business. Our business one. Their business one. Yes. It’s great. Yeah, that we definitely have been like, we’re definitely in this.

It’s fine. Summer hasn’t messed anything up next? It’s all fine guys. We’re, and so we’re in this boat with you, so it’s fine. Yes, for sure. All right, so after you have your bills, like Vanessa said, we are now. $20,000 has is what we started with. And we’ve got, they’ve got $13,630 left to figure out their spending mm-hmm. 

And their savings. So this is the next two columns we’re gonna go over. Yep. So the first part of your spending that we’re gonna look at are the things that happen all the time. So your gas, your groceries, your personal pocket money, your family, and your. So we wanna list those, you know, you can do your budget, how you want.

We kind of list them separately so you can see what’s really kind of reoccurring, especially when we set up those automatic transfers into the different accounts. And then kind of like what is month specific at the bottom. Yeah. And so this budget, as you can see is, I was gonna say conservative, but it’s not, it’s not conservative.

It’s, it’s, it’s normal. It’s clean. Yeah. It’s normal. Well it started off being some of it is Courtney’s and that’s not Courtney’s. That’s why I, I was expecting it to be Courtney’s and that’s what I was gonna speak to. Oh yeah. This is their method that I changed, but the spending’s not, their spending is way more than that for sure.

I don’t. Yeah, well, the one that I pulled, no, they have restaurants like 2000 or a thousand or something. I know for sure, but it’s fine. It doesn’t matter. I was just saying that’s what I was gonna say, how, how ridiculous they are. But it’s not that ridiculous. It’s just regular ridiculousness. Regular ridiculous.

Okay. Okay. So as, so for their spending for and this is a real budget. Okay, so they’re groceries, they’re a family of four. Their groceries, they do 2200 for gas. She homeschool stays at home with the kids. And he commutes but also can work from home too. Mm-hmm. So their gas bill is $500 a month.

And then they each have spending money for $400 each. They’re family funds, so they can go bowling, they can go out to eat, they can do whatever ice cream, it’s $700, and then their kids’ budget so that they always know they have money for whatever the kids wanna do or need to do. Or need is $400.

Mm-hmm. So, and like Vanessa said, these are the stuff that you know you’re gonna spend every month. Like, just be honest about it. Be honest with your budget as you can see. They have a good income. This was them putting this, these amounts for spending is not too unrealistic ’cause they have the money.

If they were ti more tight then we, they might have to shrink some of those numbers, right? So your spending needs to be adjusted based on your income. You may look at this and be like, oh my gosh, that is so much money. I would love to have that. But your income may not support it, and that is okay. You will eventually get to the point where you’ll be able to maybe afford some more, or maybe you have so much debt right now and you can’t do that.

And that’s also okay. You just have to kind of ebb and flow and, and you know, work with what you have. Now, what we will say is when you, you’ve heard us talk about automation, this is really important. So when you see the groceries, gas, their each pocket money, their family money, the kids we want you to open up separate spending accounts.

Mm-hmm. And if you see. Where it has the, or if you’re following us on the video, you’ll see where it has like a little debit card right there. Mm-hmm. That is basically insinuating. The way we make our budget is that that is a, that is a checking account, so you have the option to pick if you want cash or if you want a checking account.

So these are separate checking accounts that they are transferring their money into, so that way it doesn’t, it’s not affecting their bills. Yeah, and, and I think that’s, I’m really glad that you put, you pointed that out, Vanessa. It’s really, it’s not just about building the budget. We also want you to automate it.

So we want you to set all these things up to happen on your income’s going into the bills, the, the bills are getting paid automatically and all these transfers are happening. Mm-hmm. Once you’ve got this budget down, that is gonna happen. But that’s a really good point. These are all separate accounts so that everything can stay nice and tidy.

The rest of the spending for this month is not a separate account, so we’re talking about August. What do we need to budget for in August? Well back to school. Mm-hmm. Yep. So we have back to school budget because it’s really important to make sure you have the money that you need. When these things come up, especially like maybe you don’t have your your savings buckets like fully funded yet.

So a lot of these things that are coming up in the moment, like month specific, you may not really necessarily have to do as much when you, when your savings buckets are funded, but they’re still building their savings buckets. So we are, we’re budgeting in the moment for them.

 Yeah. So when it comes to August, what do we wanna think about that month specific?

, Back to school. So we’ve got school clothes, we’ve got school supplies. If you’ve got a college person, you might be doing something to help them get their dorm set up. Just think about all of those things you might need, haircuts, all of that kind of stuff to get everybody ready.

Mm-hmm. Physicals, like sports physicals. Oh yeah, for sure. That’s a good one, by the way. We have to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, mine are, yes. We have to do ’em every year. I have a client that a lot of things happen in, in July.

Mm-hmm. If that, if you relate to that, raise your hand if you’re driving, be careful. Okay. A lot of things happen. So what we did is when we set up her August budget, I told her, ’cause she was like I mentioned before, she’s gonna get that paycheck right. At the end. Mm-hmm. Of July. And I said, you’re just not gonna be able to pay these last two bills of July until you get your August paychecks, right?

Mm-hmm. Which will be at the end of July, quote, August paycheck. Yeah. But we’re putting them in the August budget, so we did go ahead and move two bills. And so. She has two extra bills, the same name of the regular bill, but the, it’s called, it’s got July in her budget so that she knows she has to make those two with the August budget.

Right. I have another client that’s going well. I was, she said, I, well, I have to put my triathlon. I was like, yeah, that’s so cool. Oh, that’s awesome. And then she’s like, don’t get that excited. It’s only, I don’t know what she said. It’s like a mini triathlon. I was like. Okay. I was, I’m so excited. I think that’s cool.

Yeah. So anyway, we put that, those in there. And then I have clients that live, I think, where do they live in like Minnesota or somewhere, and they don’t go back to school till after, till September. Mm-hmm. Because the state fair, you don’t go back to school until after the state fair. And they’re, or maybe.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. And so like, like everybody finishes the year, the summer with taking their animals to show or whatever they do. And, and I mean, it makes sense like back in the day when the farm, you needed the kids to be at the farm or whatever, I guess to help and then they can go to school.

So I’m gonna say priorities. Yeah. Like I love that. I think that’s great. Yeah. So we put the state fair in their budget. Yeah. For this, for, for this month. Yeah. I think that’s so cute. I wanna go back to the July bills really quick ’cause I think that that was really important. I think there’s somebody out there that may need to hear this a little bit more if you are trying to get.

A paycheck ahead in with your budget and you’re like, but there’s so many bills at the end of the month that I’m still relying on that last paycheck of the month to cover. That’s totally fine. Still put that paycheck in August like Shayna said, and then double like bring those bills to the August budget and know, okay, I have to basically pay these bills twice in August.

I’m paying them for July and I’m paying ’em for August. And then voila, now you’re a paycheck ahead. Like that’s, that’s how quick that can happen. Mm-hmm. But you have to make that happen. And we have to stop thinking that, okay I only have like five bills and then I can blow the rest of the money. And then the next paycheck that comes in, I’m gonna start stressing again.

Like, no, let’s start prepping now for the upcoming budget. So that way you’re fully prepared. Yeah. So you can, like Vanessa, make your budget today. Today’s the 30th. So you’re gonna make your budget. If you have anything outstanding, just put it in there. Mm-hmm. Anything outstanding from July, just put it in the August budget and just pay it.

And that way everything can be caught up and you can go ahead and start getting on that new pay cycle right. To where you’re a paycheck ahead. Yep. Some other things that we have is last minute summer plans and travel. We’re not doing that. I’m done with all my summer plans. We have had a great summer and we need to stay home for a little bit.

And then maybe you need a gro, you need to do a grocery restock that’s part of like that back to school, back to work, whatever. Maybe your, maybe your fridge is thinned out because nobody’s been home or everybody has been home and there’s nothing left. Mm-hmm. And then another thing is homeschool fees or supplies.

Well, I’ll actually say Vanessa. We have in August, we have a really big school bill. Like a really fun, exciting school bill. You might have that if you have tuition, you might have a deposit, you might have, like, it might pay in full pay in full. You might have your first tuition payment. Or like these people you might have homeschool curriculum stuff that you need to buy or whatever.

And so you wanna think about adding all of those things into your into your budget. And like Vanessa said. You will eventually have a savings bucket for that, right? Right. So you’ll say, okay, for school we need $20,000 a year, or for sports we need $10,000 a year. And you’ll just be saving and setting that all aside, and then you’ll just pull it over when the month comes to pay it.

Right. But for now, if you don’t have that, you’re gonna need to put it in your budget. Yeah. So with this budget we have back to school, we have sports gear. John has a birthday, and then there’s also their anniversary. Carolina and Matthew have an anniversary that they’re gonna. Go out to dinner for, and then they have a last minute camping trip planned before the kids start school.

Yep. Okay. So now at this point, remember we started with $20,000 income. They have paid three thou, almost $3,000 in debt, almost $4,000 in bills, and they’re spending is almost 6,000. And like Vanessa said, a good chunk of that $1,200 is there this month for fund spending. Their regular. All the time spending is 4,600 with gas and groceries and all that kinda stuff.

Mm-hmm. So now they’re down to 7,800, which is still a lot. Mm-hmm. They have 7,800 to put into savings buckets. Yep. Or to do anything else with, so we’re gonna go ahead and show you how to fill your savings buckets and. When you’re filling this out, I, I try to list them as like top priority to least priority.

That sometimes if, if it works out that way. But this person, they’re still, so maybe they had to pull from their emergency fund, so they’re putting a thousand dollars back in that they’ve got property taxes, they have a specific they’re paying that if you see that has a little cash. Little cash emoji there, which is saying that they are actually gonna take that in cash to be able to go in person and pay for their property taxes.

They have household stuff, homeschool, they have a specific homeschool account. They have a health account, which I love for like maybe protein shakes and supplements and things like that. Medical family support. I love this. Actually, this is probably our second client that we have who has a family account.

Savings bucket, not necessarily for them, but for like their other, other family that they need to help and support. Mm-hmm. And then they have holiday gifts, travel and some other things, and Bitcoin. Oh, that’s right. Bitcoin. And Bitcoin. I remember asking you like, what is BTC? And you’re like, Bitcoin. I was like, oh, okay.

And, and so, you know the, the point, like we’re showing you different budgets every month so that you can see like everybody’s different. Yep. The, and you can see what their pro, their priorities are. Travel. Yeah. They actually, that their actual budget is not emergency fund. It’s, it’s investments. They put that a thousand dollars to and they used to do more, but travel is now their new, like, here’s the, here’s the journey they went on, right?

Which is really good. They went on let’s invest all of our money. And then they went into debt and I, and then they decided, okay, maybe we’ll pay the debt off and then we’ll go back to investing. I’m like, well, that’s kind of, you know, they’ve been our clients forever. It’s fine. Anyway, so they. They, because as you, as you notice, they had a lot of money left over.

Mm-hmm. And so when he got this job, ’cause this is all new, them being rolling in this dough is all new. When they got this job, we had set up to put like $3,000 first paycheck or first of the month into their investments. Mm-hmm. And so it’s slowly dwindled down because they have actually never, they have never gone on a travel.

Trip since for four or five years that, that we’ve been working together. So they are going to, well, they, they have rental property, right? Yeah. And so they they have a lot going on. Yeah. And then they had a farm like, yeah. Yeah. Well, mm-hmm. That’s, that’s, that’s one time we did refund that emergency fund when they bought sheep.

But because sheep’s, their emergency don’t worry’s a long story. They are trying to go to Alaska anyway, so that the travel is, but anyway, like we said, this is a very, and then they’re medical. That’s another savings bucket that we don’t always talk about, but you, you have some different ways that you can do medical.

You can look at last year and just generally what we, what we paid in copays and kind of maybe prescriptions or whatever. And you can just set some money aside or set that annual amount aside. In your savings bucket you can do a deductible. In this case they’ve got a lot ’cause they’ve got a lot of health things going on.

And they’re just putting it aside ’cause they know that it, they’re gonna need to, they just really need to save for it. Mm-hmm. All of these. Savings buckets you’re seeing are in high yield. They’re not all in the same high yield. They’re obviously, I don’t know where Bitcoin goes in the world, but they are all in high yield because that’s a lot of money that they’re saving.

Yeah. So if you look, if you’re following us on the video, you’ll see that property taxes are in cash and so are holiday gifts, but everything else is a different account. And if you look, they’re saving $5,300 a month if you scroll down and see that. Mm-hmm. That’s awesome. Mm-hmm. Like that is huge. It’s a, it’s a really big.

Accomplishment. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s a lot. And then, so then with their last, they have $2,400 left over Vanessa, what are they gonna do? What are they? Well, they’re, yeah, like you said, their goal right now is to try to pay off some debt and then they’re gonna go back to having some, having some fun. Yeah. So they’re, you know, they’re paying the rest off to her mom, and then they’re gonna move on.

Dot com. So it’s exciting times. So now on purpose, this budget has gotten to zero, as you can see. So we started with 20,000 in income, and then we listed all the debts, then we listed all the bills. Then we listed spending. We thought about anything extra this month, because those are the things that quote unquote, will derail your budget.

So go ahead and plan for them over plan here. Think about it. And then their savings buckets are really making. Everything else possible. Right. And again, like you said, you like that they, that they, you said you like that they have the health and supplement one. We wanna take all the surprises out of mm-hmm.

Your your budget. And so they have this account so that when all of their things renew, all of their whatever essential oils, vitamins, whatever. And it’s like $600, you know, every two months or whatever the money is there. It’s not some surprise. It’s like, it’s not like, where am I gonna get this money from?

It’s not coming from my groceries. Like, they like that and we want that for you too, in your budget. Well, and you’re not setting yourself up for failure. I think that that’s really important too. Like you are acknowledging the fact that you spend this amount on whatever it is. And you’re saying, okay, instead of making myself feel bad about it or trying to figure out where I’m gonna find the money each month or pull from this or that, no, I’m going to go ahead and budget for it and say it’s a thing and hey, I’m saving.

They’re saving $5,300 Also. They’re putting $2,400 extra on debt. They’re doing both. You can do. You can do it both ways. Mm-hmm. You can save and pay on debt. You can go on vacation and pay on debt. You can have fun and live your life and pay for your anniversary and birthdays and all that and pay off debt.

Mm-hmm. Yep. You really can. And so the only other thing after you’ve done this, after you’ve done the step by step that we told you about that you’re gonna wanna do is just make sure if you, what goal do you have for August? What? Budget goal do you have for August? That’s what we want you to think about.

That’s what you wanna do. So you, it might be like them, they’re gonna pay off her mom, that loan is gonna be gone and she’s gonna feel really good about that. Maybe you’re gonna pay off a car. Mm-hmm. That’s gonna be fun. I do have a client that’s paying off a car and I also have another client that’s getting a new roof.

Sadly, they. Need one. And that was a huge damper in their budget. But you know what, it’s gonna be fine. I have a client. Yeah, it is gonna be fine. And you know what, those are the adulting thing, but as we always say, it’s so much better that you’re gonna actually be able to pay for it than have to use debt.

Mm-hmm. That is a huge accomplishment. Like, you’re such an adult, you paid for your roof with your own money. Big deal. I have a client that you know, I have several new clients, so really maybe August is just gonna be about actually getting the budget correct. Set up for the first time. Yeah. Set up doing, sticking to the budget.

If, and, and using the budget and seeing how it’s working and all of that kind of stuff. And if we get to the point where we can pay off debt or do some other stuff, that’s fine too. But, but sometimes it’s just about getting the system going ’cause it takes a little bit of time. It does. And I wanna say something really quick.

I had a, a session while I was in Portugal with a client and I literally logged on the computer. And the first thing out of her mouth, like 0.5 seconds later after I said hi, was I have a confession to make. And she was so bummed out by how like July just derailed itself with, they were trying to go on a trip and then they needed a new luggage.

It literally broke on their way there. It was a mess. And after I fixed everything, it took me five minutes to fix guys. I was like, girl, you paid cash for everything. Like it’s no big deal. Everything was, was recoverable and we were able to make August and she felt so good. So listen, summer may not have gone the way that you thought it was gonna go.

Mm-hmm. And that’s fine. We’re just gonna start August with a, a fresh, clean slate. Yes. Yes. So use this podcast. Go through, make your. Make your August budget, like Vanessa said, just give your, just whatever happened. You know, you, you know, that new movie or the second version of, I Know What You Did last summer.

We don’t, we don’t have to talk about what you did last summer. Just mark it down so at least you have. You know, for next year, like you can plan better, but you don’t need to dwell on it. Yeah, let’s just go and get August. Like you have the capability, the the possibility to get August started and, and right, and do it the right way and feel really good about it.

You’re going to wanna get our budget system if you don’t have it, because it’s gonna make it really easy and pretty and fun. Remember how we talked about how fun it’s gonna be to check the boxes off? You can go to budget besties.com/budget to get it. And, and you, and you really should. And they probably should, Vanessa.

Yeah. And we’ll see you next week for some more topics. But hey, don’t forget, we make this podcast every single month. So come back every month to make your budget with us.