How to Create Your October Budget (Step-by-Step Guide)

  All right. Welcome to our monthly budget guys. Have you even made your October budget yet? Because if you haven’t, be ashamed. No, I’m just kidding. You shouldn’t be, it is time. We’re going to do it together. And that’s why we do these every month so that you know that this is a good trigger for you to make next month’s budget.

Wait, we have to find out a better word than trigger cause triggers trigger. It’s going to prompt. It’s going to give you the budget vibes. Yes. Budget by. Good budget by. Okay. Good budget buys. So we’re going to dive into how to create your October budget, what to not forget about October, because it’s happening and and we’re going to, we’re just going to do it all together. Okay.

So what is the first thing that we want to look at when you are creating or you’re thinking you’re about to create. Your next month’s budget, you know? Well, contrary to popular belief. It is last month. Yes, that’s right. So what we want to do is go, go ahead. And in this case close out September, we want to make sure everything got finalized the way it was supposed to, that everything the, the numbers are all correct. And, and everything.

And, you know, especially if you’re in the beginning, this is super, super, super important because I can’t tell you how many times I ha I have to pull a September bill that didn’t quite make it, or we weren’t on automation yet. And we have to pull it and put it into the next month October so that we have two on that month, just so that we can get the system running.

So you just need to go, go through and make sure everything got handled and take care of. Yeah. And a lot of people will ask, listen, why doesn’t your simplify budget system have an actual column versus budget. And we’re like, here’s the quick fix to that. Just replace the number. So replace the budgeted number with the actual number and then your entire budget updates.

Like that’s the whole goal. And guess what? Your next month already has the number in there because it auto-populates like that is. The bonus guys are similar by budget system when you’re using it. Yeah. You want to go ahead and put, replace the actuals with the budget? Hold on now, now you’ve got my brain going. We’re going down a rabbit hole. I’m for like a special segment, it’s time for today’s rabbit hole.

But why, what is the purpose of looking at the plan versus actual. There’s no good information. That’s coming from the plant. It means you, you didn’t do a good job planning. Sorry. Do you want, you don’t need that shame in your life. Okay. What, what you need is what actually happened. That’s the number that you’re going to look at.

Even if you have both of those columns, that’s never going to look at anyway, what actually happened. And then I can use that moving forward. For whether it’s bills or spending or saving, like that’s the number I actually need to look at. Well, and here’s the deal. We’ve had so many people message us go, where is your actual column?

And then we tell them the reason they’re like, oh, that makes sense. And, and the other part of that is when we, when we did, like, when we first started coaching years ago, we did have an actual column. I never filled that out. No. Oh buddy, not just us, but our clients, like nobody used it because it was pointless.

All we did was just replace the budgeted amount with the actual amount. Like it just made it that much. It’s simpler. Yeah. Okay. So, oh, hold on. Much more simple. Okay. Much more simple. That’s what it made it. You guys, okay. Here’s the deal you’ve updated September. You got, you know, the information.

Now, the next thing that we like to do is go ahead and update your account balances on your On the simplified budget system. There’s an asset tracker let’s go through and do those numbers. I love this part of a session. Because we just, the, most of the numbers I’ll go up. Right. And you know what I really love.

I love it when they get to the point where they actually are like a month ahead. And the Bill’s account always has like thousands of dollars. Like it’s just rolling constantly. And that is so different than when we start with them. And they have like $0 or they’re like, I got a hundred dollars. And two weeks, how’s it going to go?

You know, so it’s, that’s a really good one. And then obviously the savings buckets are going and. Yeah, all your filling, all your savings buckets and you’re, you’re tracking all that. So in the asset tracker, you’re tracking not only maybe your investments, right? But you also have like your house in there, your vehicle in there, but you have all those savings buckets in. Like Shannon said you were watching the amounts to go up. With updating your account balances, you also want to make sure you’re updating your debt tracker.

So right next to the asset tracker on our simplified budget system is your debt tracker. So go ahead and update the current balance column of that. So that way you can see there’s a wonderful little chart. It shows you how much debt you’ve paid off. You know, year to date. Yeah. And going back to the asset tracker, which is way more fun than that tracker, and let’s be honest. You okay. I don’t know. Absolutely.

It is. I don’t know if the colors though, like they’re both so pretty. Okay. The debt’s tracker is not scary because it’s pretty, it’s true. I think that’s all your debt problems are gone because it looks pretty, not really. We’re really trying to help you. Okay. But the other thing I love about when we’re updating all the account balances, which you guys should get the same effect when you put in our, so put our system in place and you get to log into your bank, account you at the same effect. Is, I love seeing the groceries suspending not be at zero because you’re living this new life where you always have money and you’re not even worried about it.

And like, it might be, you may have a whole week left and you still have $400 in your groceries. Like go girl, come on. And that’s where I get excited, because then when we see those numbers being heavier than they start. That means it’s working well. How many clients do we have? And they’re like, oh my gosh, there’s $3,000 in my bills account.

And it’s not even the first of the month. And that’s because they’re a paycheck ahead. So it’s so nice. And my client. Earlier this month, he said, this is the first time my paycheck got deposited and it didn’t matter because normally they need that money. They’re like Clinton, their fist, and waiting for that paycheck to drop, to be able to do everything else.

And because they’re a whole paycheck ahead, like, it just doesn’t matter. When he comes in, money goes out and he’s not even worried about it. Yeah. And you’re able to spend money, whatever, like, however you’re going to anyway. So you’re not restricted. And, and playing the paycheck to paycheck game anymore.

Okay. Hit that nail on the head, right. Let’s move on. So now it’s time to make October spa. I did a jingle. You’re welcome. And so you guys know there are five categories when you’re making your budget, income, debts, bills, spending, and savings. We have broken it up like that just to make it as simple as we possibly can. And like how your brain have a way to like, declutter all this noise about budgets and money and what’s happening and all that.

That’s the way we’re going to write five columns and you’re going to fill those up. So the first one guys, make sure you’re putting all of your income, even if you have a garage sale as the perfect weather for it now. Okay. You’re having a yard sale. If you have commissions bonus, if you, some of our clients. Are just getting tax money back because they filed late or they extension, right.

They had an extension. So if you have tax money, any type of income that’s coming in to your household, even if your kids are paying you back for their phone bill, whatever it is. Make sure you list it all here. That’s very important. Very good. Very good. Okay, so the next what’s next is debts. Okay.

And we love to tell everybody about this because it seems counterintuitive. And it is because when we were using Dave’s system, that’s what’s at the end, it was really weird. It was like last, at the very, very bottom, right? Like. Second thought like, you know what I mean? Yeah. And it’s like, no, no.

So we’d like to put those next very right after the income. Why? Well, first of all, we want to keep it front and center because it’s something that you can get rid of. Right. The debt column and every little line item on the debt column is something that you will eventually be able to pay off and not have to put in your budget anymore.

And that’s exciting and seeing it right there is so good for you to be reminded of that, but you know, what else is good to see, is the number. And especially in our system, it adds up your minimums. It adds up how much you’re paying in minimums. And that’s good to know because you can look at that number and say, Hmm, How would I rather spend $1,300 a month or whatever your minimum is total up to be.

Right. And so that’s a really good way to keep it front and center and cognizant of what’s going on there with your. Yeah, I was just doing a I’m reading, an email from a listener and her debt. I think Hertz, minimum debt payments were like over $4,000. A month and she’s really strapped right now.

And so we were emailing back and forth and I was giving her some strategies and some tips and stuff. And I was just thinking like, gosh, this, can you imagine not having to pay $4,000 a month on minimum debt payments? Like, what can you do with that? That. And it would completely change your life.

Yeah, absolutely. So that’s what we want you to do is like you have the best number, which is your income. Then we immediately go to the worst number, which is your monthly minimum debt payments, but pause right there for a minute. Envision. Like, what would my life be? What. And my budget look like if that number wasn’t there.

Right. And make sure you’re only putting the minimums for this step, right? We’re on step two. Income was one. So you’re basically already done. Debts is two, and we’re just putting the minimums, which maybe you don’t know. Cause you put a little extra on everything all the time we’re done with that.

That’s not happening. Go back, find not the minimums. And that’s what you’re paying. We’ll tell you why when we get there, but just put the minimums in the column. Then the next one. Bill’s it’s just Bill’s guys. It’s not scary. So these are all the things that you’re getting charged for on a reoccurring basis, your subscriptions, your utilities, your mortgage, your auto insurance, all that stuff.

If you are getting billed for it, make sure you are putting it in this column and that way at the bottom it’ll total that up to yeah. And so, by the way, if you listen to our podcast, you know, that we want you to have a bills account where all of these bills and debts are coming out of. So that’s that’s what part of the system that you want to, you want to incorporate with this, but when you’re just setting up your budget, this helps, you know, now I’ve gotten, I put my income, I’ve gotten my dad’s and my bills done.

And now I know. All right. How, whatever number is left, this is what I have to work with when it comes to spending on what I need to spend and saving on what I want to say. Yeah. So the next column Shannon alluded to is spending. So this is where you live in your budget. This is where you are actually spending money doing either your hands.

What are you doing with your hands? That you’re getting hair cuts that you’re going to, the restaurants you’re getting gas, groceries. Maybe you have a fall festival. Maybe there is, I don’t know, a concert or something happening if weddings. If you have some events and stuff happening this month. This is where you put all of that in that column.

So what elephant, hold on. What was I gonna say? Spending is what we’re talking about, spending what you do with your hands events. Yeah. So you’re the, the bulk of this is going to probably be your groceries, right? And then your gas, those are the main ones that we’re gonna put in there.

And then we and those can be. Those you can track. So we usually have you start with a, like, overestimating what you’re going to spend there. And then if you, once you get super diligent and maybe do a really, really good job, you can take it lower. But So you’re gonna put those in there.

And then, then that’s what Vanessa’s talking about after it’s all the discretionary spending is one of the words that people use. But you have to spend money on gas and food. It’s important, but then there’s other stuff that you’re going to spend money on. So we’re going to budget for an on purpose, which is like she said, the personal money, the money for the kids, the money for the haircuts, all of that goes in the spending column.

Right. And then once. Just like every other column in our budget, it tells you at the bottom where, how your money is being divided. How are we doing with our money? And maybe you’re going to find out that you’re, you’re spending. Like 75% of what you make. And that’s going to be an interesting moment for you to see if that’s what you want to be doing with your life.

But anyway, It’s interesting. You said that I was just thinking, like, I don’t know if I’ve ever looked up how much my client’s spending as compared to their bills and stuff. Like. So the math, well, I don’t, I don’t do it specifically, but there’s a, you know, and they know it there’s a few clients and I said, your budget, your bills are like more frugal than mine.

Okay. Your saving is conservative. Oh, you’re staying column. The spending is just, it’s a little bougie. And, you know, it’s fine. If that’s what you want to be, if that’s what you, if you’d rather be spending more than, than saving more, that’s your budget. And you’re allowed to do that, but it’s good to be able to see it. At a glance like this is actually, oh, maybe that’s not, maybe we want to say more for our house than we do want to spend. Doing, going out or whatever.

That’s what I was going to say is all about looking at it and seeing it in. You know, we like to also tell people or ask them, does this align with your goals and your vision? Like, what do you want to do with your life? And what do you want to plan for? And if your spending column is taking up all of that money, then we kind of cut back somehow.

Yeah. Okay. So then the last column. So, so what’s happened is you took your income, you subtracted the debt minimums that you have to pay. You subtracted the bills. And now you’ve subtracted. The, like Vanessa said, where do you live in your, in your life? The things like taking the kids to there, to do the sport. All the sports activities and you know, you getting your haircut and then getting your nails and all of that’s taken care of spending.

Now you have a, maybe, hopefully you have some leftover, if you don’t, let’s revisit that another time. But you might have a number leftover and that number is going to go for saving. Right? So you might have different savings buckets for your annual bills for your house maintenance, for travel for Christmas.

There’s all kinds of different savings buckets, but that’s where that money goes. Yeah. And then you want to make sure that elephant at it. Now we’re going to do anything else I need to say about that. I thought maybe you were going to say about debt, but I didn’t, I don’t know where you were going, but. SO I elephant it. Did he do that? Okay. So the next thing you want to do is really put in specific items for the month, which we kind of already alluded to before. Maybe you have an event wedding, something happening specifically in October that you want to plan for. So put that in, but then the next thing, the best part. If you have anything left over after you’ve done your. Your debt, minimum payments, all of your bills, your spending your savings. Then you want to make an extra on debt section section line item elephant, make an extra on debt line item in your spending.

So that way you can put that money on debt. If that’s your goal, some people that’s not their goal and that’s okay. But if paying off debt is your goal, this is the time when you’re creating your budget that you want to account for that. Yeah. And it’s going to ebb and flow. There might be months where your main goal is saving for a vacation.

You’re not necessarily putting as much on it or saving for anything. Really. Yeah. But then there’s months where you’re like, okay, let’s really hit the, hit this set thing. So that’s what you do at the end. Okay. So that’s all good. Let’s talk about some things that are going to happen specifically in October that you might want to to add to your budget because that’s what our clients are doing and we want to help you because you’re our friends.

And we want to tell you what they’re doing. So hopefully. Jog. Wait, what did we say? Prompt your memory to your memory, to a budget for them yourselves. So even though all of the stores have Christmas trees out. Okay. We still have. We still have two holidays before that. So one this month is Halloween.

So don’t forget to budget for Halloween. You probably gonna need some costumes for the kids, maybe for yourself, maybe for a Halloween party, maybe for an office party or an office event that you guys have, but definitely for candy. Okay. So that I’m glad that you paused there because. I was doing a budget with somebody earlier this week and she has five kids and she’s, She had a really cute, well, so I loved her.

She was like, we’re going thrift stores for, we’re not doing like brand new classes. I don’t believe in that. I’m like, yes, girl preach for it. Then she’s mentioned she was going to do $50 for candy. And I said, I love that you think. I love that. Like I literally said, where do you live? Cause I forgot.

And then she was in the Midwest somewhere. But anyway, so the trick here is to be realistic. That’s where I was going with this because we have she did the same thing for her, for her husband’s birthday. It was like, oh, I get 200. I’m like, Really. Cause there was going to class too. For the. As I mentioned the throat, thousands of people in our family to go out, to eat for his birthday. Oh student, I’m gonna get him.

Get. So it’s like when you plan for these things in the budget, make sure you get the whole picture. Like, don’t just think I’m going to get one costume for this kid. Well, no. Then you also need, I feel like my husband, you wanna get decorations and then you, you need to be realistic about candy.

Cause I don’t know what happened, but it is so expensive. Oh, it does. Yeah, it does. Yeah. It’s so expensive. Well, and

hold on. I was just saying. Where are we saying you were saying something about I okay. That kind of goes along with when people. Our budgeting for like grooming and getting their hair done. And the next question I ask is, does that include tip? And they’re like, oh no. Yes. You have to get the whole picture, make sure you’re planning for the entire event.

Get as much as you can. Right. It’s progress, not perfection, but we want to get as close as we can. Right. I wanted to put this one in, because it’s been buzzing around, which is cotillion, which is so cute, so fun, like etiquette class, for, for the kiddos that ends with, you know, and I know they have dinner and dance and stuff.

So, I, we put that in my client’s budget and I really liked it. So I was like, let’s make sure we bring that up. Just in case anyone else is thinking about that. Okay. So I have three different clients budgeting for weddings. In October. I know it’s the season for it. So make sure you’re not only budgeting for the wedding, maybe you’re in the wedding, so you need things and then also gift to write, travel.

All of that, that is incorporated, that comes with going to the wedding. It makes sure you’re budgeting for it. Well, that is so fun because I have a client we’re maybe we’ll eventually budget for the wedding, but she I loved, she just put it in there at the end of our sessions. She’s like, Oh, I need the next session.

We need to talk about how I can. Go see my boyfriend, my new, her new boyfriend. So they have to fly. So they’re each budgeting one once a month to go see each other. And I was like, oh, Let’s get that in the budget. It was really fun. Super sweet. So another thing that I put in a budget for our client this month was home chef. And I, I haven’t ever done any of the hello fresh or any of those things.

I don’t know anything about them, but we talked about cost per meal and Cause she’s single, which so anyway, so we put it in the budget and it’s not bad. It’s not a bad thing, especially if you’re. If that is going to keep you from eating out, which is your normal go-to, it’s actually really great.

And then we have friends that their kids can make it because it comes so easy. Like their kids can like do all of it themselves. And that’s really important with a lot of this on the go family stuff. So I think it’s a good idea, but it’s just an interesting to think about like, what is the cost for middle?

And they actually market it that way. So think about how much you can feed yourself versus how much they can feed. And it might be totally worth the time exchange for you. To have it, but it’s just an interesting, And do your research because we’re all about being healthy. And there are so many healthy options now, which I love that are available to you.

Yeah. So do your research. Look at em, look, all of them. Compare, ingredients. And then the nutrition facts, like all of that, and then the cost and see which one makes sense for you. If that is like Shanna said what you want to do. As a lot of people right now, we don’t have time to choose, sit down and make a dinner like full on because kids are in sports and. And be husbands are working late or whatever, and we just have a busy schedule. And that’s okay.

And like Shannon said, if it’s keeping you from stopping at Chick-fil-A every night, we probably need to give this. Yeah. Let’s, let’s check it out. Okay. Another one that people might need to be putting in their budget is home maintenance or whatever you want to call it. I was thinking like more like, winterizing your home.

If you’re up north, you’re going to have to maybe do something with their sprinkler. If you have a pool, you’d have to do something with your pool. You might have a lot of leaves. October is the month of leaves. So you might be budgeting. It’s crazy. The leaves in the Northeast, like, and the, the system, like the system that they have, it’s like, it’s just crazy.

And then it’s like services strict. Like Steve’s city services, like, cause it’s so necessary because they’ll clog the drainage. Yeah. That you have to plan your life. And the same goes when we lived in Alaska, the way that they deal with. The snow and snow is coming in Alaska. So you might have to get your. Oh, is there by October by Halloween. Oh, so you might need a winterize, your tires or whatever.

So it was just think about anything home or vehicle maintenance that you might need to do for the weather that actually brought me back to when I used to live in New Hampshire as a kid, and we would write the leaves and this massive pile, and then we get to jump in and mess it all up. And you don’t get that in Florida. So sad. Okay.

One of my clients is budgeting for a trip to Sweden. Her daughter is over there doing a student exchange program. And so we we finally put it in the budget now. I think she’s going to go, I think June or July next year. But anyways, never it never early. Right. But it also didn’t occur to her that she can afford to go.

Oh. And when I showed her her budget and she’s saving an IML and multiple savings buckets and also paying off debt and she’s an entrepreneur she’s doing so well. And she’s like, I just never thought that was possible. So it’s really cool for her to be able to do that. And she’s saving a thousand dollars this month.

So that’s a lot of fun. That is a lot of fun. Okay. So we have a bunch of different goals. So we want you once you, so what you’ve done is you’ve you’ve closed that last month. You’ve looked at your updated, your balances are tracker, your debts and your assets. You’ve created. October’s. Budget with everything, the income that Bill’s spending savings and then anything different for this month.

Now I’m going to talk about your goals. Just like this particular person is. Her goal is to go to Sweden. What is like, what do I want, what is our goal for our money this month? Right? What is the big thing? And there’s usually it does sometimes change month to month. So I have three new clients. So their goal for the month of October is to get the system up and running.

They’re not allowed to set any other goals. We’re not going to try to pay off debt. We’re not gonna try to do anything crazy. We’re just going to get the system and feel confident that we know where our money is going. So when people tell us, like, I think I just want coaching for one month and I’m like, Well, it doesn’t really work that way because it just takes, it takes a minute to get everything set up. And, but you will be so thankful once we’re done right. So that is a good goal for them.

That’s not too much. And I remember when I have new clients, like I literally put like three things on their action, unless I’m like, I don’t want to overwhelm you. We’re going to take baby steps and just start, like literally just start the process and get going. And then they’ll just be able to see the fruit of it in a couple of months.

They’ll be fun. Okay. So let’s talk about goals. We said that your money has to master goals, right? So my client, one of my new client, I say new elephant. Well, let’s go all the way back. Cause I already said let’s talk about goals. That was my client’s goals was to start the, get on a budget. Yeah.

So let’s talk about bullets, but we had, I had already transitioned into goals. So just, yeah, I know. I was just going to, I was just going into mine. Why? No, but you said let’s talk about goals, like, but we were already talking about goals. Anyway, whatever. Just say whatever you’re gonna say. So my client paid off her mortgage at the end of September, so I’m so excited.

So her goal was to be mortgage free by October 1st check, I noticed check. So we made a whole new budget for her. That’s so fun in October. So that was a lot of fun. It was really oh. That’s going to be a high, what is it like a high. T to, to beat that, to beat that you. At that moment with a client. She sent me a video like video message and said, just pay off the mortgage.

Can’t wait for husband to get home as we can go. I told her. You need to pay it off and they go out to dinner and celebrate and she’s like, oh, that’s a good idea. And I said, yeah. So she said that she was waiting for him to get home so they can go celebrate. So anyways, can you imagine making your budget without your mortgage guys? It’s so, but here’s the thing is it was possible for them months ago, but they didn’t believe that it was possible because their money was everywhere and it wasn’t organized.

And now because we created the vision and the budget to be able to match like what their goals are like, it was just so easy for her to write that check. Yeah, that’s cool. So we have lots of other goals that our clients very typical. Like they’re trying to save up for Christmas, they’re paying off debt, all kinds of stuff like that.

It’s, it’s a big month for a lot of, a lot of them. I have a client who her main goal for October is to get her husband to sit down and then to look at it together so they can get on the same page. I have another client because of because we have a lot of entrepreneurial clients because of what we did in the session in September, she realized she could not change her short term. To long-term because it wouldn’t be financially, really viable.

So her goal is to not do that. And so she’s got to rework her strategy for short term rentals, and then I have another, client, they have a, they’re getting they’re upping their rent, right. So they’ve got to get a new renter in the, in there for the new amount. So. That’s all good. Those are all adulting goals. Do you have to, you have to do them.

You have to focus on if you want him to get done. Because we have a lot of clients, obviously they’re focusing on Christmas. They’re really starting to put that in the budget. If they hadn’t already. Making sure you, so guys have you, this is your first time really getting on a budget start now.

It’s never too early. And then for all you entrepreneurs out there, listen, it is the end of the year. So if you haven’t paid into your quarter for fourth quarter taxes yet, make sure you do that. And you get that in your budget. And if you need to budget it over three months, make sure you do that because if you wait until 2025, you’re going to be, Hit with penalties and fees.

So get those payments. And now. All right. So that was the whole system. Okay. That was the whole Elephanta all right. That was exactly how to build a budget. We gave you all the steps. Exactly what to do. So it makes sure that you do it. Okay. This is your reminder. So set, set up your budget for October and, if you want help, if you want to make it easier, if you wanna make it simple. I have it be pretty, have it, do the math for you.

All of these are good things. Then you can go to budget, ss.com forward slash budget, and that’s where you can find our system, our simplified budget system, guys that does it for you. It’s all automated. It rolls over into the next month. It’s pretty, it’s easy. It’s got all the videos there for you and let us know if you need any help.