Yeah. Michelle, thank you so much for coming on our podcast. We have been so blessed to have you as a client these last six months, and we just can’t wait for you to share your journey.

 Well, thank you so much for having me. I am really excited.

 Yeah. Well, I mean, I don’t know if I am. I mean, we have nothing in common. It’s really hard for us all to have conversations and it’s really kind of boring. Probably everyone should just tune out right now. Yeah, just, just cough.

 Peace out. See you later. Yeah,

 Okay.

 No, this

 You know what?

 episode ever.

 Ooh, let’s go ahead and throw that, like speak like that.

Well, I’m actually gonna tell our audience too, we just recorded a podcast. It can’t, we just recorded a podcast for Michelle’s pod or an episode for Michelle’s podcast when we talked all about sex and money. Yeah. So you’re definitely gonna have to go over to the Rip It Off Podcast and listen to that.

 Absolutely it is good. That’s where

 absolutely.

 over here, where you’re just like money, like it’s fine, but you wanna get next level. Come on

 Yeah, you wanna take it to the next level? Uhhuh? Just double down on the things that are taboo. Let’s go, go, go to Michelle’s. Okay. Listen, Michelle, tell us what led you to the budget besties, like what had happened? Okay. We just need to know minus the social stalking. No, you can add that if you want.

It’s up to you.

 How far do you want me to go? No. Legit. I was Googling because like you said, I have a podcast I was researching for podcasts. Podcasts, Christian podcasts, and I think I had just put in. Kingdom women, Christian women, something like that. You guys popped up and literally I rolled my eyes. I was like, oh cool.

Yeah, another budget, podcasting. Boop, boop. I know what this is all gonna be like, track all the things. And then I listened to you guys and I was like, oh actually they have personality, actually they are really cute. And this, they’re saying like so many different things. ’cause I had done all the things like.

Like listening. If you’re thinking of like the top budgeting people, I did it. I did it all. Same with diets, like I’ve done it all. I like to do all the things. And so immediately I was like, I have got to talk to these ladies, and the thing about me. I may have like a little addictive personality.

I also, why I don’t drink because within like, I don’t know, a half an hour, I had stalked you on Facebook, on Instagram. I sent you an email and I think the title was a little scary. Maybe like, you know,

 It was all caps, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

 I,

 all caps.

 you in my life, or something

 Yeah.

 lines. You even had a phone number on your Instagram page I called it.

It went to

 Yep.

 nice lady in the Midwest somewhere who had no clue who you

 Oh, nailed it.

 Anyways, fast forward, I book a free call with you guys and I’m like, oh my gosh, I need this. And the timing could not have been any better because we had just gotten a check from a fire situation that we had had months earlier.

So we had this chunk of money that we were able to, I was like, we’re either going to like waste this money or we could use it really wisely. It’s like the first wise decision we made and we’re like, Hey. hire, you know, after 51 years, finally, whatever. Anyway, so that’s,

 goodness.

 in, in a nutshell, what led me to you.

 Mm mm Okay. Okay. So you accidentally found us and then convinced your husband to spend your money on coaching. Mm-hmm. But tell us a little bit, like, I know you said you did the, the person who will not be mentioned and all that. Tell us where you were financially when you mm-hmm. When like, you know, not, not like numbers, but like mentally, like, and, and in practice.

What was going on with your budget or non-existent budget.

 The only,

 Yeah. Yeah.

 way I ever knew how to budget was you itemize everything that you are spending.

 Oh, sounds fun.

 dreadful.

 is that like a normal thing to do? I don’t even understand why people want to do that. We were just looking at a Facebook ad that was scrolling on our, our, our feed and it was like, check every expense. And I’m like, why is that appealing to people? Yeah, I don’t get it. No. Thank you

 So I would

 for that.

No, it doesn’t work.

 would write down all the things that we were gonna spend our money on. And I would like quasi zero out the budget. ’cause it never really qua, zeroed out. And guess what? In life it never zeroed out, ever. I mean, it did zero out, and then I’d be like, oh, but I still have this stuff to pay. And so I didn’t really know how starved I was for a system that actually freed

 Mm-hmm.

 had taken things from the, the one who will not be named, and we had done it like twice in the second time that we went through it. I was like, oh, you know what, we need to set up a Bills account. So that literally was life changing because every month part would go over to that.

But the problem was when Vanessa and I started, I had, I don’t know what, six different accounts, seven different accounts in over like two different banks doing all these different things. It seemed to make sense. Like my husband would get a bonus check, well, that went into that account ’cause that paid, you know, tuition.

And in my mind. checking account was paying for all the other stuff, which really, I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but what happens to a checking account is money goes in and a millisecond later it all disappears.

 yes. It’s a magic trick. It is. It’s very common. Yep.

 set up

 Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

‘  cause I was like, well, tuition, I need to have the money for tuition, so that’s gonna go there.

So then that’s the only thing that goes

 Yeah.

 So where were we in? We were totally like. I, I don’t know, screwed up.

 Mm-hmm.

 didn’t know what to do. I

 think I remember that conversation I had with you. I was like, Michelle, I can see where you think this is helping, but actually this is what it’s doing. And I remember you going like, oh, you know, it’s just the idea of, and I get it people, and we have a lot of people that have like a mortgage account, like this account just pays mortgage.

And I’m like. But isn’t. But why? Like, what is that? I don’t understand. But it’s because they’re so stressed out. ’cause they know that that has to get paid for. It’s like you’re a mil, you’re like a 10th of the way there. Yeah. We just need to have one account that just pays bills. Mm-hmm. Right. Like it’s as simple as that.

 because the one account that you do have, the money just disappears. So you’re like,

 Right?

 crud. But it’s because you haven’t gone to the next level of like, okay, no, no, no. We’re gonna provide for spending and for, you know, all for gas

 Everything else. Yeah.

 and

 Well.

 it.

 So I, we, we, you know, we say all the time, things are more complicated financially you know, with all the things these days than they were before, right? Which is why people are trying to solve it with these random bank accounts and whatever. But what you’re not doing, and it’s not you, it’s all of them.

What you’re not doing is solving the actual problem. And so then you just have. You just have more problems now. Mm-hmm. You know, so the actual problem is my money’s disappearing and it’s not really in alignment with the way that I thought it was going to. I have to figure out that that has to get solved no matter how many bank accounts I open, no matter how many banks I choose to be a connoisseur of, I still have to solve that problem.

And, and, and so that’s, you know what, what really, hopefully you were you, we, we helped you guys with is to actually take ownership mm-hmm. Of the money, of the problem, of everything and see it all. In one picture and then make some changes. Well, and I, I love how sh you put it Michelle too, that when you were first introducing it, it was like, I had a enough, have a system.

And I think that’s where, you know, we love to differentiate ourselves from everybody else is, yeah, you’re fine. You can have a budget. A budget doesn’t numbers and words on paper can, can tell you anything you want, but unless you actually do something with it. You’re not being, you’re not gonna be successful.

So our budget system, it’s a whole thing. And that’s what you needed. That’s what you lacked. And until you had that set up, I think now seeing that like the fruit of all of it and how it works, and your husband not only has spending account for personal, but he also has his expense account for work because.

The way that he does his stuff is that he has to actually pay for everything upfront and then he’s reimbursed like a month or two later, which is really hard. Yeah, that’s hard. And it’s like 2,400, like it’s a lot of money for you guys. For him to be able to, to upfront pay for all that, and that was really throwing a damper in and probably why a lot of, you know, where your credit card debt stacked up from, from the beginning.

And so, and but knowing now that he has that and also just separate pocket money for himself, I think was really helpful for y’all to just like visually see.

 Well, and I will say, I think the hugest thing, like my husband’s great, he’s like, whatever you wanna do, like I’m on board. This is great. I know that things are a mess. But you do it like you figure this out, like we were on the same page, like, yep, it’s a mess. We don’t know what’s going on here.

 It can’t get much worse.

 can’t get much worse.

There’s the positive in it. I, I think we’re at the bottom. I think this is about it, but I, what was the like turning point for him? So, like you said, he has. His spending account. And I will say as a wife, my husband works, I do work ish. I don’t, yeah, I don’t, I don’t. I’m working on working on a business, creating a business and stuff.

And

 Listen, I.

 a stay at home mom, so I definitely work, but he brings in the financial income and he brings in a really good. Income, but we live in Southern California. It’s stinking expensive. And so what I feared was, I didn’t want him to feel like he’s doing all of this, but he gets 10 bucks. Like, here’s your $10, like go find something.

So when we created those separate accounts, like here’s his. Here’s his spending account and here’s his business account. That was awesome until the day he realized he had to go into his spending account to pay for a business expense because he wasn’t really paying attention. And he was like, oh yeah, I don’t like that. And I was like, well, that’s what you were doing to me every time you went into our personal checking account to pay for He’s like, oh yeah, I’m sorry.

 Yeah. Just puts things into perspective, I think. Well, and, and like I said, with the complication, you have, things are complicated. If you add a business to it, gosh, then we, let’s add, let’s just double down on something that we don’t really have a system for. Let’s just add another whole arm to it.

Mm-hmm. It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna make it better. No, no. It just, yeah.

 like our biggest struggle is we do have a business. And so simplifying it,

 Mm-hmm.

 has been, has been good. It’s like we’re still in the weeds of it. A little bit like still like. we have at least the structure set up. Like I can even

 Mm-hmm.

 to, I was trying to find some stuff in December, which we were still limping along on the old system before we could really move everything over to the business account and all that kind of stuff.

And I was like, was a mess. That was

 Mm-hmm.

 And there is, the great thing is I see where we’re going and while we’re still like figuring things out because the business situation, I’m like, okay, no, it is so much better than it ever was before. Yeah. Well.

 Well, and I think that’s, you know, a lot of people like to say, I want a quick system that I can put into place or coaching. They’ll try to come into coaching like, well, I just want coaching for one month. I’m like, doesn’t work that way. Like, and I think you be, you would be a good testament to that.

It’s not a quick fix situation. This is, we are making life. Changes here, like we are implementing a system that is going to change not just your life, but potentially your kids and your grandkids. And it takes a minute to set up. And, and you saw that. So tell me, what were your biggest break breakthroughs or wins through your coaching?

 Oh my goodness. So the first one that comes to mind is, I don’t know, maybe saving 60% on our credit card debt on

 Mm.

 that literally we were in debt because of business expenses. Because you’re just like, okay, well we gotta pay these things. Like we gotta do these things. And I, I just heard of a friend that hired somebody to go do, and I was like, I just did that.

Like, you don’t need to hire somebody to do that, but it’s. It’s so scary. It isn’t scary. It seems scary because you’re unaware and you’re like we talked about on my podcast, we’re just not educated when it comes to money. We’re told like, here it is, and this is what you, okay, that’s great. And you’ve kind like figure it out.

So we go into debt and we just think, okay, well now I’ve got this debt. I don’t, I don’t know what to do. And the reality is, in my experience, I call. Chase, chase bank, and they were very pleasant to work with. Like, they were very nice. The reality is it’s not the guy’s fault that I’m talking to on the phone.

Like I, we got ourselves into there, so I followed your script. And the guy, I was like, this is what I can afford. The great thing too is I went in and I knew our line item, like this is how much I can afford for debt. And I told him. Maybe I could afford less than that. And I was like, well, let’s, I mean, he is not looking at it.

Let me just see what we can do there. And so he’s like, okay, well the best I can offer you is we’ll, we’ll cut it, you know, off 60%. And, and then they broke it up into four payments and we just paid it off. And I went into my bank today and the credit card is gone. Like it’s done. Like I can’t even access it anymore.

 Yay.

 Oh

 That’s huge. It’s, it is huge. ’cause that was a, your,

 Monthly,

 payment when they broke it down was actually less than your min your monthly regular payment, right? Minimum, yeah. So your, your regular minimum payment that you had when they broke that 60% payment plan down for you was less. And so it was just so nice to be able to see you guys get out, out from under thought.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

 It’s really huge.

 Well, I think it’s I, I, I’m glad that you gave that very tangible thing is like the action item of calling them because, and I agree with you. I think people think it’s scary, but this, so the difference here is it’s not collections. We’re not at that point yet where people maybe that are getting paid $5 an hour to call you and, and it’s not, maybe they’re not pleasant and you’re not pleasant.

Nobody’s pleasant about it. This is you calling them. On your own before things have gotten really bad and they, as we’ve said before, they have a deal. He had a deal ready for you that was already assigned to your account that he was authorized to offer. So it’s not like, as scary as it seems. All they can do is Vanessa will say, is say no and then you’re, you’re not worse off.

You know, it didn’t get worse. So,

 Yeah, yeah.

 yeah.

 And then I called another company and it wasn’t the same result, but we were able to bring it down to 0% and take that

 huge.

 over. I think it’s five years, and it’s a very doable, like, ugh. just, you can breathe.

 Yeah. Yeah.

 That’s nice.

 Okay, so, so the credit cards, what any other breakthroughs that you think of or win, big wins that, that you experienced?

 it’s just simplified. I mean, I can’t say that

 Mm-hmm.

 It’s really taken everything, we have everything at one bank because we have a business account. We do it all through Relay. I really like Relay. There’s a few things that I don’t love. It takes a little time to deposit a check and whatever, you know, but you work through like the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

We’re looking at one bank, I can see it all right there. It’s so much easier, just so much more streamlined and I would imagine if you don’t have a business, you can set that up with whatever bank you’re gonna go through, really within month one and, and start seeing successes right away. We’ll have a

 have a link to relay in the show notes if you wanna take a look at that. But we yes, we’ve had some success with our clients working with their, because they do strictly business accounts, so having them set up and they do like transfers by percentage. There’s just so many options and it’s free.

It’s just really nice.

 Yeah.

 Yeah. Okay. So do you have any like funny or memorable moments through this journey?

 I, I was thinking, I’m like, are you guys licensed, like marriage and family counselors as well? Because half of our, our time is me, like spent in tears. Like I just, I trying. Vanessa’s, like, it’s okay, it’s fine. You’re doing the work. You’re, you’re like such a cheerleader. You’re like, it’s okay. Like, we’re getting there, we’re doing

 Yeah.

 I just, I just appreciate you guys so much and your encouragement and your patience of like, okay, but also your tough love. You know, there’s times where you’re like, okay, yeah, but we gotta figure out where did this money go? What happened, and I think our last time, you were so cute, Vanessa. You’re like, if there’s money you’re not telling me about, it’s okay.

There’s no judgment. tell me where it is. And I’m like, okay, I don’t know where it is, but, but it’s true. And it’s not just like this words that you say of like, there’s no judgment. There literally is no judgment. We gotta figure out where that is. If the money’s been spent and you had something, or you had something come up or like in my case, I somehow, my business card got attached to something else.

I think, especially when we first moved things over and I’m like, that’s not supposed to come outta that. Like, I gotta fix that and it’s okay. It’s okay. But I, I think too, as I like, I’m such a verbal processor of like, oh wait, these things, what I love is we have these accounts, gas and groceries. I have my personal spending account.

My husband has his personal spending account, he has his business account. It doesn’t matter how we use those. It that I don’t need to track any of that. If I wanted to, you know, if, if my groceries account ran loan, I wanted to spend it out of my personal account, I can do that. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to have everything out.

It’s just that my main account is for the things that it’s for. We don’t mess with that. If you want to, you know, move things around, wiggle things around in your other accounts, do that. I just love the flexibility of it.

 Mm.

 I

 I just think like keeping spending separate, right? So it’s like your spending accounts are separate from all of your bills and your savings, and I think that that’s just so important to be able to see where most people they don’t have that like visual, that, that visual budget, like really that’s what it is.

It’s making a visual budget on your bank account and being able to. Have it all laid out for you. And you being able to see that and like your husband, when he had to dip into his personal for business, he was like, absolutely not. So, hey, maybe if you. Spend a little extra on your groceries because you wanted something special and you didn’t plan for it ahead of time, and you have to pull outta your personal to do that, like, that’s gonna stink for you.

Or the answer is no. Like you have to decide, but you don’t touch your Bills account. Yeah.

 yep.

 So I’m going to quickly wrap up whatever I thought I thought about saying when you guys were saying all that. Okay. First of all, you asked, you said, are we licensed therapists? The answer is no, but we might as well be.

Mm-hmm. Although we don’t wanna be licensed. And I, I was thinking about when you said that because I was like, how do we treat, because it is, there is no judgment

 and

 I, I, I, it sounds corny. I was thinking like, do we, do we treat our clients like maybe their family? Yeah, or like maybe how you would coach your sister if, if she came.

But really what I thought was like, well, we are the budget besties and even though we are the besties, like we really I think we’re, we try to lead with, with love. And it’s just because I think God has called us to do this. It’s very easy to mix the

 Letting you,

 you cry, letting you, letting each you know, husband and wife have their own moments and their, and they, and loving them so much through it, but also.

 being

 honest and, and pushing them to, to do what they said they wanna do and all that. Like the accountability, like it’s definitely part of, of what we do. It’s,

 not

 it’s not even anything on purpose, it’s just, it’s who we are. I think it’s because this is what we’re supposed to be doing, so, yeah. So yes, we are your besties.

Well, and my client, I had a client that graduated in January and she was like, I told my husband that I wanted to book a trip to Navarro and come visit you. And he was like. She doesn’t wanna visit you. She’s your coach. And and then she was like, but yes she does. Yeah. Like she really wants me to come.

Yeah. Well it’s like we talked about on your podcast, which people can go check out on, rip It Off, you know, this is a intimate conversation, so we are gonna, we have to become friends and family because of all the, we’re, we’re navigating life with you. When you’re adding your daughter’s wedding to the budget, we are like here for it.

We’re excited. Yeah. We’re talking about it, you know, and when we’re talking about that, you guys had a disagreement about your money or whatever, like all of it, we, we are part of your life. But anyway, okay. We love you. We love everybody. Everybody’s great things are really great and awesome. What would you say, Michelle, to someone maybe who’s in a similar situation to where you were?

 Oh, do it now. I heard them

 Okay.

 go to budget besties.com right now and

 Michelle. I.

 and you’ll save 10%. No, but like, do it now because you will not regret it. And I will say to piggyback on what you said, you. Will only get out of it as vulnerable as you’re willing to get. So if you’re gonna hold things back, and I get that maybe on week one you’re like, I don’t know.

But if you’re gonna continue with that, and even if you’re doing it on your own and you’re not putting, you know, if you’re just downloading the system and doing this on your own you are only going to get out as much as you’re willing. To put in. So keep binging the

 a good,

 and,

 mm-hmm.

 even put that in your coaching contract of like, if you’re not going to do it, then that’s fine, but I, we can only go so far.

 Mm-hmm.

 goes in everything, you know, that we’re, we’re doing. But especially, I just, I, I would say do it. If you’re thinking, if there’s a like inkling in your heart that’s like, yes, this might be, it is. They are. You’re not gonna have to track all your expenses, throw that away. It’s stupid. Nobody needs all of those apps. You just need them.

 Aw. Well thank you so much. So sweet. You have been such a blessing to coach. You’ve been so fun watching your family journey and watch it evolve and all the wonderful things that you have going on in y’all’s life right now. So I’m so excited for you and excited to watch it watch it grow.

 you. Me too. I’m glad you guys are part of it.

 that was just, I thought that was a really good way to end it. Yeah, it was super cute.