Brought to you by

Hello!
If you’ve ever felt like you just needed someone in your ear telling you exactly what to do to get your money (and
your life!) under control, then you’re in the right place.

But we’ll do you one better.

Not only do we tell you what to do, we’ll also teach you how to get the results you want while working WITH your
personality. While that might seem like a small detail, it makes a world of difference. Because budgeting is pretty
easy… it’s elementary school math at best. Sticking to a budget though? That’s ridiculously hard. That’s the
reason why 77% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

The only way to get out of the cycle, pay off your debt, and start living the life you’ve always imagined is to find a
way to change your behavior. After years of trial and error, I discovered the three life skills you need to master
BEFORE you can manage your budget, and I learned how to work with my personality instead of against it.

That changed every aspect of my life.

And when I started teaching it to others, word kept spreading farther and farther. At the time of this writing, this
program has changed the lives of more than 65,000 people and counting. I tell you all of this because I want you
to know that this is worth your time and attention.

You can do this. I can help.

P.S. If you’re struggling with both your budget AND keeping your house picked up, you can upgrade to our
extremely popular course, Hot Mess to Home Success which teaches you how to go from hot mess with both
your money and your home to successfully budgeting and keeping a clean house in super small baby steps.

With this signature course, you’ll learn each step through videos, workbooks and additional printables that help
you get your home (and your budget!) organized.

busybudgeter.com/hot-mess-express

“My countertops are clear! For the first time in my life my husband comes home and compliments the
house. I can’t believe I’m now a person who can have people drop in. Like, no big deal.”
-Addie

P.P.S. If you need a planner that works with the chronically disorganized brain, you can grab the Home Success
Planner at busybudgeter.com/planner which lets you track your simplified meal plan, simplified cleaning system,
household budget, and your goals and plans.

“It’s the only planner I’ve ever found that actually helps me organize every aspect of my life. Rather than
being something else I have to keep up with, the Home Success Planner tells me what to do every single day
and I do it. I have more free time and a lot less stress.)”
Get ready. You'll never be the same again.
Challenge 1:
Take a look around you.

The debt. The stress. The mess. The fear. The hopelessness.

Own it.

This is your life right now.

The choices that you’ve made up to this very moment have created this.

I know what that feels like because I was you.

I wasted money. I spent more than I made. I had life kick me while I was down. I was so
disorganized that any attempt to change just made it worse. I remember how that made me feel.

It feels hopeless.

Like the problem is so much bigger than you are. Like you're drowning in the day-to-day dishes and
laundry and kids and work so that you can't possibly find the time and motivation to make this better.

It’s an awful feeling.

Take a look at the world around you. We have billion-dollar marketing budgets slamming debt and
credit cards in your face 24/7, telling you that debt is OK.

We have society telling us that talking about money is rude. We likely have parents who never
taught us how to manage our money. We go to school and have one economics class if we are lucky
and graduate having no idea how to make a budget.

We get job training in our chosen career for years but no one ever teaches us how to manage our
salary.

1
This mess isn't all your fault. I realize that.

But own it anyway.

Because taking a look around and saying ​“This is a nightmare. This is MY nightmare. No one
else will fix this for me”​ is what will get you out of this.

I’m going to lead you through the next 90 days step by step. You and I are going to completely
transform your life.

You have ​one job in this partnership. Complete the challenge that I send to you every week.

No matter what.

You have 7 days to complete each week’s challenge. ​They won't be hard. They won’t be
impossible. But they will change you. We’re looking for small, ​SUSTAINABLE change that will
completely transform your life in 90 days.

Everything that I’m going to ask you to do, I’ve done.

I was a mess. Likely worse off than you.

I was an organizational and financial walking disaster who couldn't get any aspect of my life
together.

I did everything that you’re going to do. I learned how to live on a budget, reduced our spending by
over $23,000, paid off all of our debt (over $40k!), quit my job to stay home with our kids, made up
my old income from home, and then started this movement to help you do the same.

I know what it feels like to live paycheck to paycheck. To be scared to look at the bank account.

I know you do too.

But that ends today.

You’re taking control of it right now.

And it will ​never control you again.

2
This is the first day of the rest of your life. Look around.

Because you will ​never be here again.

Challenge 1: Own Your Mess

You have exactly 7 days to complete this challenge.

Sit down, grab a notebook or a binder, and write down every single debt that you have.

This includes money that you owe a relative or a friend, credit cards, medical debt, bills you need to
catch up on, and late fees at the library. EVERYTHING.

List the following for each debt:

● The total amount of the debt.

● The payment date.
● If you’re behind and how far.
● The interest rate.
● The monthly payment.

What is the total amount of your debt?

Now let’s write down your assets.

An asset is something that you could potentially sell to have money in a pinch.

I’ll give you an example. If you own a house, you could potentially sell it and make money. If your
house is underwater (meaning you owe more than it’s worth), then it’s still an asset, but it offsets the
debt. Like you can have an asset of a house worth $100,000 but a debt for the same house for
$125,000.

Other common assets:

● Cars (use ​Kelly Blue Book value​).

3
 ● Furnishings (unless you have something of extreme value, I use $3,000 for all furnishings
and “stuff”).
● Retirement.
● Savings accounts.
● Boats, motorcycles, ATVs, etc.

Don't count cash in your checking account if you know that you’ll need to use it to pay bills this
month.

What is the total amount of your assets?

Take the total amount of your assets and subtract your debt. What do you have? This is called your
net worth.

Here’s an example:

Assets:

● $290k House
● $3,000 Home Furnishings
● $1,500 Car
● $3,000 Car
● $50,000 Retirement Accounts

Total Assets: $347,500.000

Debt:

● $10,000 Credit Card 1

● $9,000 Credit Card 2
● $10,000 Credit Card 3
● $40,000 School Loan
● $5,000 Car Loan
● $320,000 Mortgage

4
Total Debt: $394,000.00

Total Net Worth of the Above Example: $347,500 - $394,000 = -$46,500

That means that in the above situation, they have more debt than assets by $46,500.

What is your Total Net Worth?

Write this number down in your notebook.

Your debt matters. But so does your net worth. Our goal is to improve that number significantly in 90
days.

From this day forward, at the start of every month, you’re going to sit down and calculate your new
net worth. Mark that in your calendar or set a reminder on your phone.

Now create something that signifies the amount of debt you need to pay off. We used a ​simple debt
thermometer​ (I’m not known for my artistic ability). Write down your tick marks so that as you pay off
debt, you can fill it in more and more. Post it somewhere that you will see it daily.

That’s it for the week. Get this done and be ready to roll next week.

Need accountability? ​Come join the private Facebook group​ and tell us that you completed the
challenge and what the results were.

I’m proud of you.

This isn't a journey that most people will take.

Which makes you pretty awesome in my book.

5
Challenge 2: Create a budget.
Got your homework done?

Awesome. Let's get back to work.

You don’t need complicated, you need easy. You need step-by-step instructions on how to start a
budget that will actually work for you. Done. Grab a seat, a coffee, and a notebook… we have work
to do.

Unless you have a healthy cushion in the bank account, it’s not only important to have a budget, it’s
important to know when money is going in and coming out. If you skip this step, then you run the risk
of overdraft (when you spend more than you have in your bank account and get charged a fee). This
simple way of budgeting solves all of those problems.

There are a million different ways to ​track your budget​, but for right now, I want you to be able to do
it on paper. This is important. Just trust me on this one. One or two months on paper, and then you
can use any online tool or app you want. Stick with me.

Quick note: ​If you head here, there are photos of each step​ as they're being done to help you see
how it will look.

Challenge 2: Create a working budget.

Follow these instructions.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

How to Start a Budget Step by Step.

Step 1: Determine your monthly income.

6
For some, this is easy -- they have consistent paychecks and no additional overtime. They can just
add up their paychecks in a month. If you have irregular income, this is enough to create headaches
on its own.

If you have irregular income, then write down your ​minimum amount of income this month. This is
the amount that you’re very sure you will be making this month.

Example: If you work from home doing data entry and you make anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500
every month, write down $1,000.

We’ll deal with your extra income in a few minutes.

Step 2: Create a Monthly Budget Outline.

Grab a sheet of paper. Label the top of it with the month and year. On the top of the paper, list the
income you just wrote down. I call that dependable family income. You may make more than that in
overtime or more sales, but that’s the amount you feel comfortable relying on.

Now write down your pay dates. I’ll walk you through this using an example of being paid twice a
month on the 1st and 15th. List those pay dates on the paper like this:

Start to list every bill you have, no matter how small. Separate them by when they are due and list
the name and amount due under the 1st or the 15th on your paper.

Step 3: Set a Grocery Budget.

Now decide on a reasonable amount to set aside for groceries. If you’ve never tried to limit your
grocery spending, aim high for now and reduce it later. The worst thing you can do is budget one
hundred dollars a week, spend three hundred a week, then give up. If you need a basic idea, you
can do ​15-minute convenience meals​ at home and spend no more than $120.00 per week, including
lunches for two adults (we could feed a small child on that same budget). You can see the ​menu
plan for that here​.

7
Total your groceries and your bills and subtract that total from your total dependable income. Don’t
panic if you don’t have a lot of extra money to work with -- we’ll work on that next week. This week,
just write the numbers down and have an idea where you are now.

What if I have absolutely no idea how much to set aside for groceries?
If you typically use a debit/credit card for all of your purchases, go through the last 30 days of
spending in your online bank account and add up the amount for every food-related purchase you
made (include eating out). If it was over $1,000, then shave off 20% and write that number down as
your next month’s grocery budget. If that amount is still more than you can afford, you can attempt to
shave it down more. However, I would caution that it’s incredibly hard to create lasting change with
drastic cuts.

If you’ve been spending $1,600 a month and eating out several times a week, it’s going to be really
hard to suddenly go to $500 a month because spending $500 a month in groceries involves a ton of
new routines. I want to transform your entire life over time, not drastically cut your spending in a
month and then have you relapse into exactly where you are now or worse. Always go for baby
steps if you want a change to last.

Step 4: Substitute, Substitute, Substitute!

Are there any exchanges you can make that would reduce your bill amounts right now? Look for
things that are cheaper but are the same or better than what you’re using right now. Here are a few
of the most popular examples…

Exchanging Hulu or Netflix for cable.

Exchanging Straight Talk or Ting for an expensive cell phone plan. (Hint: T-Mobile seems to be
offering competitive rates as well).

Using the library instead of buying books.

You can read about how we made ​$23,000 worth of substitutions here.

Choose one bill you can reduce and do it. Call and negotiate a new rate, or make a substitution.
Reduce it and then change your list to reflect the new amount.

8
Your goal in the next few weeks is to continue making substitutions, but leave it at that for right now.

Step 5: Create Funds.

There are quite a few purchases that only need to be made infrequently, like Christmas gifts or
vacation. The best way to handle these purchases is by creating funds. List these purchases and set
a realistic frequency for which they need to be purchased. Here are a few examples from our funds
list:

Haircuts, oil changes, vehicle inspection, vehicle registration, clothes, personal property tax, doctors
appointments (if you don’t use flexible reimbursement), gifts, and vacations.

If you have room in the budget, you can add things like entertainment, date nights, kids’ sports, or
even a “good deal” fund into your budget.

The easiest way to save for funds is to open as many bank accounts as needed. We have eight
bank accounts for things like “Vehicle Expenses” and “Vacations.” That allows us to put aside a
small amount every month to have a large amount available when needed without the risk of
keeping cash in the house or the confusion of having everything in one account.

Step 6: Decide about Retirement.

If you don’t already do this, contributing to retirement will be your first goal after creating the budget.
We need to set the amount now, though.

In “theory,” it would be smartest to pay off all credit card debt first before you start saving since your
return on your investments is unlikely to be as high as interest on your credit card debt. However, if
you’re having trouble keeping your finances straight, then forcing yourself to contribute to a Roth IRA
(mine through USAA starts at $50.00 per month minimum contribution) forces you to save. In the
event of a true emergency, you can take contributions out (but not profits), and if you take every
penny you have and pay off debt, there is no guarantee that you won’t just run up that debt again,
undoing all of your hard work.

Start contributing to retirement right now unless you’re in a unique situation where you’ve already
paid off a ton of debt and plan to be debt free in the next few months.

9
If you contribute to retirement, add this to your budget. (If you contribute pre-tax, there’s no need to
add it to your budget.)

Step 7: Add in Necessities.

Are there any other things you need to buy every month?

If you drive a car, you’ll need to buy fuel at least monthly. Factor in how much you need to pay for
fuel. If you’re not sure, check fuel purchases in your online bank account for the last 30 days.

Determine what your costs are to run your household. Do you ever think of the costs of all the little
things needed to run your home? Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, laundry detergent,
deodorant, light bulbs, batteries, etc? Without being able to predict the cost of these things, a
workable budget is a pipe dream. You can​ head over here and follow the instructions​ to create a
home stockroom​ inventory and price list. Determine the dates that you will stock up (I go for every
three months) and write down the total cost and the dates of your stock-up trips.

If you’re not sure, aim for monthly and then go from there. What do you need right now to run your
home for the next month? Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, garbage bags, etc. Set an amount
monthly to purchase all of the things you need to run your house and enter that amount into your
calendar.

What if I buy all of my groceries and household items together? (Commonly done
at Walmart, Costco, and Target?)
Easy! Just combine the categories. Instead of having a “Grocery” and “Home Supplies,” you’ll have
“Grocery and Home.”

Step 8: Create a Calendar Budget.

Go out and buy a 12-month calendar with giant writing blocks. The one in the photos is an ​Erin
Condren Life Planner​, which is gorgeous and popular but pretty expensive. ​This one from Me & My
Big Ideas is AMAZING​ and way cheaper.

You can also try the dollar store. I've seen a few of them there.

10
Do the following steps in pencil:

In your calendar…

Write in your paydays. Then, on your paydays, list the estimated income and list your bills.

Go through your list of necessities and start adding those amounts in on your pay dates preceding
the date the money is needed. For gifts, leave at least a month before the event. For instance, my
dad’s birthday is on Halloween (October 31st for my foreign readers), so I’m going to list $15.00 on
September 1st to buy Dad’s birthday present.

Your budget will be tracked on your payday blocks. If you need additional squares, you can spill
over.

Subtract the amounts of each bill/necessity from the income.

What if I don’t have anything left after bills and necessities?

If you don’t have anything left, go back to your lists of bills and necessities and figure out how you
can reduce your bills for a while. Canceling cable is the most bang for your buck, plus it forces you to
spend time together and (gasp!) talk to each other!

If you need to make money, selling things on eBay is a great option. I would sort through your
clothing and grab all of the jeans that don’t fit you, sell them in a lot. Lots of clothing in the same size
sells particularly well. Make the listing end on Sunday evening at about 10 pm ET (statistically the
most active time for sales). You can also fill in a small amount with Inbox Dollar earnings, or Ibotta
refunds on groceries. You can see more ways to earn additional income here.

The leftover amount each date is your extra income.

Step 9: Goals and the Fun Stuff.

Next, have you and your family make a list of future goals that cost money. Vacations to Disney
World, buying a larger house, ​opening a brewery​, staying home to be with the kids full-time, a new
car, living debt free, etc. Assign a cost value to each item.

11
Now think of the smaller goals. Think of things like sending out Christmas cards (that costs money,
right? Most likely, it wasn’t in your necessity list), adding a few throw pillows to your living room,
getting a new tool for your workshop, visiting your family in Kentucky, etc. Assign a reasonable value
to those things. Have each member of the family pick their top 3 priorities.

List the goals in order, 1 being the most important, 3 being the least. Do you see a pattern? Are the
same things in the top three? Together determine the family’s top 3 goals and the order in which
they are achieved. For instance, if your goal is to purchase a house, you may want the Disney
vacation first, since it will take less time to achieve that goal. Consider alternatives. Maybe you
would rather vacation somewhere less expensive so you can get the house quicker.

Next, determine how strict on the budget you want to be as a family (we choose very strict, with the
occasional late-night pizza meltdowns). Work together to remind each other of your goals and how
to stay on track. Seek other sources of income to create income for additional things that you may
want (a blog, an Etsy shop, reselling items on eBay for a profit, etc.)

At the end of each date (the 1st and the 15th), write the first initial for your goal (like H for house),
then write the leftover amount. That’s the amount in your “bank” for that goal. If you want to work on
a few goals at a time, separate them out and distribute the amount as you please.

Step 10: Update Routinely.

MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that you keep track of your actual bank account as well as your bill
calendar. If your hubby forgets that he bought something, your bank account will reflect differently
than your calendar. Every Monday, review your account online and note any discrepancies from the
budget and adjust that date accordingly. ​Updating daily is even better until you get used to
doing it.

I strongly suggest a ​“cash only” budget​ if you’re new to budgeting. It takes the guesswork right out of
this.

Make your transfer to savings on the last day of the month. I make mine right before bed. I transfer
every cent in my checking account over to savings so I start fresh the next day with the new month’s
income.

12
An added benefit of having your budget in your calendar is that when you check your calendar every
day, it automatically reminds you to update your budget.

Need accountability? Come join ​our private Facebook group​. Let everyone know that you've
completed the challenge and what your results were.

13
Challenge 3: Plan Ahead
Got your budget?

How'd it go? If you're already struggling to keep to it, you're not alone.

That's what we'll fix today.

Saving money comes easy to some people. They have willpower. That means they can delay
gratification for a larger reward at a later time.

I’m not known for my strong willpower. I’ve never met a brownie I didn’t like and when I want
something, I’m a force of nature until I get it.

So… How in the world did I transform our family’s finances, pay off debt, and reduce our spending
by over $23,000?

Easy. I know my weaknesses and I work around them. I don’t try to change a personality that’s been
set in stone for 25 years.

Here’s the secret…

You can’t easily change the way you feel about something. Your willpower is set when you’re in your
formative years along with the rest of your personality. I am who I am and I will never be the girl that
sees a brownie and says, “Looks good! I’ll skip that and have a carrot instead.”

You can’t easily change the amount of willpower you have or the way you react in certain situations.
It’s almost impossible without an extremely strong motivator (usually fear). Thankfully, most of us will
never have a strong enough fear motivator to change our willpower.

The secret to work​ around this is to trick yourself into saving money. I do this by reducing the
situations I put myself in where strong willpower is needed.

The second part of this solution is to recognize that we’re looking for progress, not perfection. This is
a huge distinction! If you don’t recognize that you will absolutely have moments of weak willpower

14
and make bad decisions (and that’s OK!), then you end up in a cycle of making bad choices and
then more bad choices because you feel bad about the first bad choice (say that three times fast).

Everyone has moments of weak willpower and strong willpower as they go through their day. Our
goal going forward is to prepare for the weak moments ahead of time by creating an easier path to
take that leads to our desired result.

Your moments of weakness will have a trigger. A trigger is a situation that usually results in you
overspending. It may be a trigger that you didn’t even realize you had.

Let me give you an example…

My trigger is when my husband is away for a work trip. Almost the second his foot is out the door, I
start to feel overwhelmed and sorry for myself. (Totally putting myself out there… I’m a wimp! There
are so many amazing moms out there who are rocking single-mom status or who have husbands
who are always away for work -- you guys are amazing!)

I see countless days and hours with too much to do and no breaks and the thought of cooking and
cleaning without anyone who will appreciate it (because my kids would be thrilled living in a pigsty),
and it makes me just want to drive straight to Target and buy things until I feel better. That feeling
will likely never go away. It’s who I am.

With 6 years of good financial decisions and a total life makeover, I still struggle with wanting to
make myself feel better by spending money.

You have to understand that’s OK. That doesn’t mean you’re a failure, or bad with money, or
hopeless. It means you’re human. You need to accept that you will always feel like that when your
trigger happens.

That doesn’t mean that you have to go blow money that you’d rather save when that feeling strikes!
The key is to identify the triggers that make you want to spend and come up with a plan to head
those moments off.

Here’s how I handle that now…

15
When my husband goes away, I plan ahead. I leave treats in the house (homemade brownies, a
new journal, a book from the library I’ve had my eye on), so I can get that dopamine release from
things without spending. Even in cases like the new journal -- I’d rather spend $5 ahead of time in an
effort to prevent the $70 trip to Target when he’s gone.

If I do run to the store while he’s gone, I take photos of things I want and make the agreement with
myself that I can come back and buy them the second he’s back home. (It rarely happens that I
choose to buy them when he’s back.)

I make a plan with a friend to leave the house and meet up at a park or playground, so I know I’ll be
getting out of the house in a place where I can’t buy things.

Making dinner when he’s gone is another trigger. To counteract that, I plan SUPER simple
15-minute meals​, that are easier to make than going to Chick-fil-A. I even stock up on paper plates
so I don’t feel stressed out about dishes.

I’m not changing the emotions I’ll have while he’s gone. I’ll still feel overwhelmed and sorry for
myself. I’m substituting my natural solutions with my desired solutions.

Is it wasteful to get paper plates? Yep. Are brownies bad for me? Probably. Do I really need a new
journal to write in? Nope.

But that’s exactly my point. I’m sacrificing a few small things in order to get the results I want. I’d
much rather spend $10 on a journal and paper plates and suck up the 300 calories for the brownie in
order to save myself that $70 Target trip and three straight nights of Chick-fil-A.

After years of trying to do it right, I realized that it’s better to minimize damage. That’s OK! We’re
after progress, not perfection.

Here are a few common triggers that weaken your willpower and lead
to overspending along with a simple solution or substitution.

● Taking the kids grocery shopping and buying too much food.

Eat before you go. Have a list and pick out one treat that isn’t on the list.

16
 ● Being asked out for lunch with friends when you didn’t budget for lunch.

Budget $20/month cash in your wallet to say yes when you really want to, have an excuse ready to
go to say no when you don’t, or offer an alternative that saves you both money and still lets you
hang out (like meeting up tomorrow instead for a picnic).

● Having an unusual amount of stress and wanting to feel better.

Reduce your stress before it gets out of hand, focus on more sleep, give yourself a task to complete
before you make the purchase. ​Ex.: If you really want to redecorate a room, make yourself scrub the
room clean and completely organize it first while you make a list of the things you want to buy for it.
Look online or go to Polyvore to create an idea board of the things you want to put in it. By the time
you do all of that, you’ll feel much better about yourself and the urge to spend will have passed. If it
doesn’t? At least you put a ridiculous amount of thought into what you’re buying instead of random
things you found on your shopping spree.

● Gaining weight or losing weight and wanting new clothes to fit better.

Same as above. Clean out your closet and start selling clothes on eBay. Create a ​Polyvore board ​to
start thinking of the perfect wardrobe (may I suggest a ​40 hanger closet​?)

● Being alone with the kids all day and wanting something to do.

Get a routine. Write down the perfect routine. Go overboard with details: ​8:15 am -- Drink chai tea
and do some yoga in the dining room while the kids play in the toy room; 9 am -- Breakfast!; Etc. Try
to stick with it for 2 weeks. Have yourself be constantly occupied. As time goes by, you’ll change
your routine and it will be more relaxed, but you’ll reset the expectations of your day and never be
bored again.

● Seeing an amazing deal and wanting to take advantage of it.

Create a “Good Deal” category in your budget. Put aside some money so that when you see
something amazing come up, you can choose to get it and know that you might miss out on next
week’s deal because of it, or you can pass and wait. Knowing that ​you can grab it often helps you
say no if you’d rather do something else with the money.

17
 ● Feeling like your family doesn’t have enough and wanting to give them more.

Give them more, but give them more of the things they need. Head out to the park with some
sandwiches and chocolate chips… you’ll be mom-of-the-year in their eyes.

● Having a messy house and wanting to buy products to organize it.

Make yourself a deal. You can buy the products, but you have to clean first. You’ll either put off
cleaning (and buying), or you’ll clean and make the decision in a better mental place.

Keep in mind, it’s an important distinction to note that none of the above purchases are bad
purchases. This is only a problem when you don’t have the money to make those purchases -- like
when you made a conscious decision to save for good reasons and later regret making the
purchase.

Your game plan should include several of your triggers and solutions, since most of us have many.
Work on them one at a time until they’re mastered instead of bombarding yourself with a ton of new
changes.

Our goal is to create change in the way you spend money. Not instantly, but over time. We want to
completely transform the way you spend money in your everyday life. The best way to do that is to
understand who you are, why you spend money, and then decide what you ​really want.

As long as you remember that you’re looking for progress instead of perfection and give yourself
grace, you’ll do awesome!

Challenge 3: Plan Ahead

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

What are your triggers for spending? Write them down in your notebook and list how often they
occur.

Brainstorm things you can do to reduce the impact of the trigger. Think outside the box.

Choose one trigger to focus on this week and implement the solutions.

18
Need accountability? Join ​the private Facebook group​ and let us know how you did with this week’s
challenge.

19
Challenge 4: Putting out the fire.
How did last week go? Brush off the fails and focus on the wins you had...

Here's where things get weird.

Your finances don't end at your bank account.

They're affected by every aspect of your life.

I had to work at both my organizational habits and my finances at the same time in order to get the
results I got.

Here's the secret... organization doesn't mean what you think it means. At least when it comes to
budgeting.

It's not boxes and bins, Pinterest-worthy pantries, and having a clean house.

It's 3 things.​ Schedule Book. Dishes. Laundry.

I could care less if the rest of your house is covered in Cheerios and breadcrumbs.

I promised you that we would change your financial life in 90 days and I meant it.

To keep my promise, I only need you to organize those 3 things. We'll do them one at a time.

By organize, I mean set up a routine.

You can clean every article of clothing in your house, iron them, fold them, and display them in a
$4,000 custom-made closet (complete with recessed lighting). If you don't set up a routine to do
laundry, though, then by next month... you'll be staring at the same pile of dirty laundry you've had
your whole life.

Organizing doesn't make you organized. (Ironic, right?)

Routines make you organized.

20
Specifically, routines that matter.

This week, we're tackling your schedule book.

You NEED a schedule book. It's not optional. It's a requirement.

Challenge 4: Create a Schedule

Figure out if you'll do better with paper or a cell phone schedule. ​Hint: If you write in journals and
make lists on paper -- go with paper.

Find a schedule book (or app) that you love. If you already bought one to create your calendar
budget, this is easy. You already have one.

Go through and mark upcoming vacations, appointments, a reminder to calculate your net worth
every month, a reminder to balance your budget either daily or weekly, upcoming birthdays or events
that you'll need a gift for, and ​ANYTHING that will cost you money (vacations, dinners with friends,
etc.)

Make a note in the budget for the month before any upcoming event that you'll need money for.

You're now thinking ahead.

Your schedule book is your central command. You check in with it daily and it will always have
everything you need to know in it.

Hint: Checking off boxes always makes me more productive than crossing off things in my schedule
book. Weird, right?

That's it! Easy, right?

21
Challenge 5: Tackling the dishes.
You're doing awesome!

I know that you're excited to get to actual numbers and reducing your spending, but the fact of the
matter is that if we don't set up a basic foundation for routines in your life, then we'll never truly tackle
that budget.

The very core of your home routine should consist of dishes and laundry. Everything that you do in
your home stems from those two things. It’s imperative to have both a laundry routine and a dish
routine that works in order to have a well-run home. ​There’s no way around it.

I don’t care if your floors are sticky and your end tables have a fine layer of dust. Get the dishes and
the laundry done first ​always. Let the other things go if you need to, but make sure that you keep the
dishes and the laundry going.

The problem with doing dishes is that you start over every single day. It doesn’t matter how amazing
you did the dishes last night, if you don’t do them today, you’ll be back in crisis mode before bed.

Why is a routine to wash dishes so important if I’m trying to save

money?

You need to establish the routines in your home that support your efforts to save money. Cooking at
home is a huge way to reduce your spending. Being able to keep up with your dishes ensures that
you can cook at home every night, pack lunches for work and even picnics for family outings.

Few people understand the way that organization, home routines, and budgeting are intertwined.
When most people set out to save money and fail, it’s because they don’t have the support systems
in place for things like dishes and ​laundry​ to help make saving money easier. Taking the time to set
this routine up will make a huge difference in your efforts to save.

The Simple Dish System: The easiest routine to wash dishes.

Step 1:​ Every single night, the sink is left clear. ​Every night. Without fail.

22
Step 2:​ Leave the dishwasher empty for the start of the next day. This is the hardest part. You need
to make this happen for 28 days in a row for this to become a routine -- 28 days in a row and you’ll
never have to struggle with dishes again.

Step 3:​ As you use dishes, give them a quick rinse and put them straight into the dishwasher.

Step 4:​ At the end of every meal, set a timer for 5 minutes (as a family -- everyone should be
helping) for clearing the table, doing the dishes, and sweeping up (assuming you have toddlers like
me who leave a mountain of food on the floor).

Step 5:​ If you work out of the house and you’re eating a quick breakfast on the go, you should only
need to do one load a day. If you have more than one load, leave the large items (like pots and
mixing bowls) out for a second load. It’s much easier to find the motivation to empty the dishwasher
that second time when you know that there are only 3-4 pots in it. Alternatively, you can also
hand-wash those larger items.

Step 6:​ Before bedtime, set a 5-minute timer and empty the dishwasher. If anyone has added
something dirty to the sink (late-night ice cream bowls?), add those to the dishwasher to wait for
more dirty dishes tomorrow.

What if I stay at home/work at home or cook every meal from scratch?

If you stay at home, you’ll likely need to do more. I ran a home day care for four kids and packed
lunches for everyone, and I was doing 3 loads a day. I did one load after every meal.

Depending on your situation, I’m asking you to spend 10-20 minutes a day on dishes every single
day so that you never have to struggle with this again. It’s a fair trade.

What if I don’t have a dishwasher?

Having a dishwasher is convenient, but it also means you have to come back in an hour and unload.
Tons of people (including my mother!) swear that hand-washing is quicker and easier than using a
dishwasher. The easiest method to hand-wash the dishes:

● Fill the sink with soapy water.

● Add dishes to the soapy water as you use them.

23
 ● Go through and wash them as you cook (as you have a few minutes available).
● Wash your dinner dishes as soon as you’re done eating.
● Set them on a drying rack and put them away when they’re dry (a quick swipe with a
microfiber cloth dries them quickly).

My favorite trick: Use lunch containers.

I use lunch containers to pack lunches the night before (we use leftovers for lunches). Whether you
stay home or work, having lunch already packaged and stacked neatly in the fridge makes your life
so much easier. We​ use these containers exclusively​ because they’re extremely thick and high
quality. We’ve used ours for a year and they still look brand new despite daily washing. They come
with color-coded tops and stack on top of each other.

Have a backup plan.

There are moments in your life when even 15 minutes a day to do dishes won’t work out. Have a
container of plastic cups, forks, and plates waiting in the pantry for hectic times. We break these out
for major changes in our routine… situations like new babies, moving, remodeling, etc. Maybe you’ll
never have to use them, but it’s nice to know that they’re there!

Challenge 4: Establish a Dish Routine

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

24
Get caught up on all of your dishes today. Every single dish in the house should be clean.

From here on out, every single day follow the steps listed above. For the next 28 days, this will be a
pain. You'll hate me and want to cheat and just let the dishes slide for one day. Don't do it. Once you
get past the 28 days, you're establishing a routine.

It becomes easy.

That's our goal. To hit the "normal" routine where this doesn't take effort.

Hang in there. You can do this.

Need accountability? ​Join our private Facebook group​ and let us know how you did on this week’s
challenge.

You're doing great!

25
Bonus Challenge: What happens when you can't
pay your bills?
This bonus challenge won't apply to everyone, but it's an extremely important step for those that it
does apply to. If this doesn't fit your situation, carry on with the last challenge and you'll get a new
one next week.

What happens when you can't pay your bills?

When you can’t pay your bills, you feel embarrassed. Because you’re embarrassed about the
situation, you make poor decisions about dealing with it. Instead of taking steps to correct the
situation, you take steps to hide the situation.

That’s the worst thing you can do.

Whatever you’re going through right now does not define you.

Being late on your bills, unable to pay your bills, or facing foreclosure does not describe who you are
as a person. Whatever got you in this situation will not define the rest of your life. You will pull out of
this and get this under control.

Stop thinking about yourself as a victim and start thinking of yourself as the person who will change
their life and never be in this situation again.

If you need encouragement on the three things to tell yourself when you feel like your family doesn’t
have enough, ​you can find that here.

What you need to fix this is an action plan. Follow these steps in order and as quickly as you can do
them. Aim to have all of these steps done within a week. Don’t put them off or feel guilty about them.
It is what it is. What’s done is in the past and you’re working to make things better.

1.​ ​Calculate how much extra money you will need to have in order to
be able to pay that bill on time.

26
Grab a piece of paper (or use the free website ​calendarbudget.com​) and write down all of the
income that you know will be coming in for the rest of the month. Then write down your expenses,
including a projected amount for things like groceries and other necessities.

2​. ​Calculate when you would be able to catch up on that bill.

When you live paycheck to paycheck like this, the free budgeting website ​calendarbudget.com​ is the
best recommendation I can give for sorting out your finances. You can see on an online calendar
when you have money coming in and when you have money coming out and project out for as many
months as you need.

Add in a “projected” due date for groceries every week (what you need to spend on groceries) and
add it in like a bill. Also, make a projected amount for “home supplies” (things like laundry detergent,
toilet paper, deodorant, etc.), and if there are other unofficial things you need to pay for (kids’ field
trips, etc.), add them in as projected amounts.

Type all of your projected amounts like this so it’s easy to see later and delete:
XXXfieldtripprojectedXXX. You want to delete that later because it’s not an actual withdrawal of your
account. It just lets you project out quickly your basic necessities and your income. Using that
method, you can tell when your bank account will be back in the clear and you’ll be able to pay that
bill.

3.Tell your spouse the situation.

Apologize if it’s your fault and tell them that you’re taking it seriously and will have it fixed as quickly
as possible. You need them on your side. It does no good for them to be buying lunches out every
day if you can’t pay your electric bill. You need them to know the situation so you can work together
to fix it.

Accept responsibility and move on. If you’re the only one doing the finances right now, schedule in
weekly budget meetings so that everyone is on the same page. You need to be doing this together.

4. Determine which bill will be paid late.

27
 ● Pay the bills of things that are essential first (house, water, electricity, child care, food, and
water).
● Call or email the bill company.
● Let them know that you won’t be able to make the payment.

5. Ask for help.

Be polite and explain that you are taking this matter extremely seriously. Ask if there is anything they
can think of that would help you -- giving you a 15-day grace period, waiving a late fee, etc.

6. Look for ways to cut costs quickly.

Try out a spending freeze, look for ways to reduce your grocery budget quickly, cancel cable for a
few months, or reduce your cell phone plan. Have a few nights of ​Santa Fe rice and beans​ or
homemade mac n cheese​ (it’s not even a sacrifice -- both are delicious!)

Look for fast ways to make money (legally of course!). Sell things in your home on craigslist, ​Close
5,​ eBay, or Facebook yard sale groups. I made $45 in an hour this afternoon by cleaning out a closet
and doing just that.

7. Follow up with the company until you can get the bill paid off.

In many situations, a late payment wouldn’t be reported to the credit bureau until the payment is over
30 days late, so your goal should be to get that payment in before it’s 30 days late. While that
doesn’t guarantee that it won’t be reported, it makes your chances of it not being reported much
better.

8. Think longer term. What can you do to make sure this never
happens again?

Get a working budget. You can ​find out more here​.

If you tackle those steps as quickly as you can and start working on making better decisions going
forward, then you can avoid these situations in the future.

28
There are two ways that you can handle something like this. You will either hide it and ignore it and
continue down this path, or you will meet it head-on with fierce grace and let this be the moment that
you decide you will never be in this situation again.

A situation like this can either break you or build you.

Let this build you.

29
Challenge 6: Adjust as you go.
And here we are...

This is the week that will be the hardest. It won't be fun. But if you do this, your chances of success
are almost 100% from here on out.

It's worth it.

You're going to learn how to make tough choices.

Everyone who has ever started a budget has ended up asking themselves “What do I do when I go
over my budget?” There’s a reason for that. Every single person that has created a budget has also
went over their budget. ​Every. Single. Person.

That’s one of the biggest problems you’ll encounter when you start getting a handle on your financial
life. When you set up your budget and “fail” to stick with it the first month, you’ll feel like the budget
isn’t working and want to abandon it.

Don’t.

This is a very normal part of budgeting.

This is a new skill that you’re learning. As with any skill, it gets better with practice.

Telling someone to start a budget and not telling them what to do if they go over it is an awful idea. I
am totally telling you to ​start a budget​, so I want to make sure to cover what happens if you go over
the budget. ​(Because it will happen!)

How do I prevent going over my budget?

Let me cover how to make it easier to stay within your budget because that’s the ultimate goal. In
order to stick to your budget, you’re going to need both a plan (which is your actual budget) and
willpower. I can walk you step by step through how to “trick yourself” into having willpower by
planning ahead in this post​.

30
The best tip I have to help you stay under budget is pretty weird, but it works every time. You can
read about that here​, but I warn you that it’s hard to wrap your mind around.

Challenge 6: Adjust as you go.

If you're over budget in any area, complete the following step in 7 days. If you aren't over budget,
print this list off and attach it to your budget book. Make the commitment to complete the steps if you
do go over budget in the future (which you will).

Step 1:
See if another budget category has extra that you can take it from. If you have discretionary funds
like entertainment or eating out, that should be the first place to look.

Step 2:
Tell yourself that credit cards are not an option. They just aren’t. This is how you got into debt in the
first place. I would rather you not pay a bill than to use your credit card. At some point, you need to
feel the effects of not being able to pay your bills.

Once that happens, your situation will change quickly. I don’t believe that credit cards are evil. Plenty
of people use them wisely and make them work for them. That’s not us. You wouldn’t be reading this
article if that was the case. Under no circumstances are you going to use that credit card.

Step 3:
Call your bill providers and tell them you’re behind. Our goal is to make up the amount of extra
spending we have in our budget. While we do this, though, we want to keep our bill providers in the
loop if we’re going to be late.

You can ​read more here​ about what to do when you can’t pay your bills, but call your bill provider
and let them know that you’re taking this matter seriously and are doing everything possible to make
sure that your bill will be paid at the end of the month. Ask if there is anything they can do to help
you, such as waive late fees or push back a due date.

31
Step 4:
Reduce your grocery spending as much as possible. Your grocery bill has the most potential for
“finding” a large amount of money, but it’s also the most difficult to reduce if you struggle with a
hectic schedule or weak willpower. Your best bet is to find super cheap, very easy recipes that you
like to eat for the rest of the month.

I’ll warn you that these likely won’t be the most nutritious meals. Think ​Santa Fe Rice and Beans​, ​$5
Dinners’ Mac and Cheese​ (actually $5 Dinners’ anything!), and the good old peanut butter and jelly
sandwich.

Step 5:
Return your extra purchases if you can. I know you don’t want to do this. You bought it because you
really wanted it. If it’s possible, though, see if you can return those purchases so you don’t even
have to worry about this.

Step 6:
Look for ways to make up that extra money by the end of the month. (Hint: The sooner that you start
on this, the easier this will be! Don’t wait until the last day of the month!). There are two surefire
ways that I know of to get money quickly:

1. Gather up everything you don’t use or need in your house and sell it on eBay for a 7-day
sale. (Lots of similar-sized clothing does particularly well here. Example: Size 12 jeans, lot of
6 – Gap, American Eagle).
2. UserTesting​ pays $10 for a 15-minute test and pays you via PayPal 7 days after your test.
You need to qualify for the tests but I make about $100/month doing this without really trying.
I just leave the website running in the background when I don’t have anything else going on
so I can hear the ping of a new test available. You can find out ​more about UserTesting here.

Step 7:
Feel the effects of your mistake and make tough choices. You’re training yourself just as you would
train a child. Your goal is to feel the consequences of your actions so that you choose a different
path next time.

32
When you go over budget, you want to just brush it off like it’s no big deal and move on.

If you’re in a tough financial spot, though, that’s the worst thing you can do. If you just stick it on a
credit card and continue life as normal, you will never break this cycle. And you are so much better
than that.

I want you to make tough choices. Cancel your internet for next month, cancel your cable, get rid of
data and texting on your phone (GASP! Yep -- totally went there). Say no to everything that you
don’t NEED. If you do that, then I promise you that you will stop exceeding your budget.​ It’s not the
popular answer… but it’s the truthful one.

Ultimately, depending on how close your budget is, your answer of what to do when you go over
your budget may be really simple. If you have a lot of discretionary funds, then you just move some
money over and move on. If your budget is incredibly tight and you’re fighting serious willpower
issues, this could be a really tough phase for you. I get that.

Stay the course. It gets better. Once you start making those tough choices, sticking to your budget
gets so much easier.

That's it for this week! Get this done within 7 days and get ready for the next challenge.

Need accountability? ​Join our private Facebook group​ and let us know how you did on this week’s
challenge.

33
Challenge 7: Get in the kitchen.
We've tackled some foundational basics and NOW we finally get to "the good stuff".

Your grocery budget has the most potential to reduce your monthly spending. Unfortunately, it’s also
the hardest to reduce because it takes an enormous amount of preparation.

If you do it wrong, you’ll spend $120 per week for 21 meals and then spend another $400 per week
eating out every day because you didn’t plan accordingly. It doesn’t have to be hard, though!

Follow these steps to do it the right way and make a significant cut in your budget:

Challenge 7: Get in the kitchen.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

1. Grab a meal planning sheet with the days of the week on it. (You can print my ​free one by
clicking here​).
2. Look at your weekly schedule. What’s going on this week? Do you have to work late? Do you
have plans for dinner with friends or a party?
3. Mark the days that meals will be difficult with a small “X” in the corner.
4. Put breakfast and lunches on autopilot until you get used to meal planning for a few weeks.
Write down 2 or 3 options for breakfast and lunch (bagels or cereal for breakfast, leftovers or
sandwiches for lunch). Plan mostly for dinners.
5. Choose easy dinners (​check out the 6 types of dinners I serve below for ideas).
6. On a separate sheet of paper, list the items that you would need to create those meals.
7. Make sure that meals that need fresh ingredients are being eaten in the beginning of the
week.

The 6 meal types that we use to master meal planning.

1. 15 Minute Meals:
Best for: When the week is extremely hectic or when you’ll be frequently working late and out of the
house and tempted to eat fast food, 15 minute meals uses convenience foods sold in stores to make

34
super quick and easy dinners. This may not be the healthiest food, but it’s crazy quick and easy, and
costs less than the drive-thru.

I love these because it tastes better than eating out, is quicker to make than it is to go through a
drive-thru, and if needed, we can use paper plates to minimize dishes. You can ​find my favorite 15
minute meals here.

Examples: Pepperoni Pizza Bagels, Chicken Parmesan Pasta, Broiler Steaks, and Greek Salad.

2. Slow Cooker Meals:

Best for: When I won’t be out of the house for more than 10 hours but want to take a break from
making dinner. Slow cooker meals use a ​slow cooker ​to cook dinner slowly (in about 8 hours but you
can also warm for an additional 2 hours), so you can throw something into the Crock-Pot and come
back 10 hours later to dinner being done.

I love this because slow cooker meals tend to be comfort food (read: delicious!) and I can pair it with
a simple side to have dinner ready to go. You can ​see my favorite slow cooker meals here.

Examples: BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Chili, Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Salisbury Steak, Beef Stew,
Cranberry Chicken.

You can also ​check out my Pinterest slow cooker recipe board here.

3. Freezer Cooking:
Best for: When I have a little extra time or an extra day off (and my husband is willing to watch the
kids patiently!). Freezer cooking allows you to make large batches of your favorite foods to create
your own convenience foods! You'll ​need two hours to make 10 meals.

So instead of buying convenience foods filled with preservatives at a high cost, you cook them
yourself and freeze them for super easy meals later. I love freezer cooking! I love being able to cook
without distraction when I batch cook. I love how when we eat our freezer meals we can avoid
kitchen cleanup (my least favorite job!) and how easy dinner is.

You can find the ​program we use to freezer cook here.

35
Examples: BBQ Beef Cups, Quesadillas, Hamburgers, Tater Tot Casserole, Chicken and Broccoli
Casserole.

4. Freezer Dump Cooking (Freezer to Slow Cooker):

(My husband is convinced I’m the only one that calls this dump cooking. It just means you “dump”
the ingredients in a bag and freeze it. Then thaw and “dump” it in the slow cooker when you’re ready
to cook.)

I do this all the time! This is probably my favorite way to cook. It combines freezer cooking and slow
cooker meals to make super easy, effortless meals with very little work.

In about 2 hours, you can prep 20 dinners this way. You freeze them in gallon Ziploc bags, thaw
them overnight and dump the ingredients from the bag into the Crock-Pot in the morning. Then you
come home to dinner already made!

I love how crazy easy this is, the healthy ingredients, and how much time this frees up for other
things. You also have the added convenience of no kitchen cleanup.

We even ​invest in slow cooker bags​ so we don’t even have to clean out the slow cooker. We use ​$5
Dinner Moms already prepped meal planning packs​ to do this. You can see our favorite ​planning
pack “20 Freezer to Slow Cooker Meals” here (it’s a steal for $5!)

Examples: Beef and Broccoli, Beef Stroganoff, and Orange Pork Chops.

5. Backward Meal Planning:

When I have time and I’m in the mood to cook from scratch, I hunt through my fridge, freezer, and
pantry and make a list of what I have that I want to use up. I then list meal ideas based on those
items. If you have a freezer full of meat that you bought on sale, this is a great time to save a ton of
money.

With a few simple sides and extra ingredients, I can often buy groceries for the week for about $20,
leaving the extra money that we budgeted for groceries towards our longer-term goals like debt
reduction or savings.

Examples: Homemade Bread, Muffins, Chicken Noodle Soup, Grilled Meats.

36
6. Plan to Eat Out:
There are totally situations that happen in life where it makes more sense to eat out than to cook at
home. Eating out is not bad in itself. The problem is mindlessly eating out and not understanding the
sacrifice we make when we spend money on that.

One example of a time when we chose to eat out was when our little girl was born. My husband had
just returned to work and we were really overwhelmed by our new responsibilities, lack of sleep, and
losing our familiar routine.

We just budgeted for him to grab a sub every day at Subway for about $4. The high cost of eating
out usually isn’t with the Subway sandwich; it’s when you buy a foot-long, add a drink, chips, and a
cookie. Suddenly you have a $10 meal. Do that for 5 days a week and you’ve spent $50.

If you grab a case of water (or just pack some from home in a Nalgene bottle) and a large sack of
chips and a chip clip to keep in your car, you’ll spend less than half of that.

Over a month that adds up to $100 savings a month and you’re eating the same thing. I’m not saying
that trips to Subway should be an everyday event for you, I’m saying that you shouldn’t be afraid to
think outside the box when it comes to your schedule.

If you’re going to have a hectic day and will likely give in to the temptation of fast food anyway,
planning ahead to minimize the damage is a smart move.

List the recipe source and time to thaw on your meal plan.

As you fill in dinners, list the recipe source and page, and how long you need to plan to cook dinner
(i.e. 15 minutes versus 12 hours for a slow cooker). Adding the time needed to cook is a huge time
saver and prevents you from going to make dinner at 5pm and realizing that the ribs you bought take
4 hours to cook. When you can tell at a glance when to make dinner, it helps minimize the times that
you abandon your menu plan.

Limit Sides

You get one “recipe” per meal. That’s it. Unless it’s a holiday. Until you get better at meal planning,
stick to steamed veggies and salads and leave the loaded baked potato salads.

37
Limit your trips to the store.

You’re busy. I’m busy.

We all have way too much stuff to do. Let’s not add in extra grocery trips to make the situation
worse. Plan to only go to the grocery store once a week. This helps you manage your time better
and can help you stick to your meal plan and use up all of the food that you bought.

Go through your menu plan. Are there meals at the end of the week that need fresh ingredients? If
so, move the meals around so that those meals get eaten first. By the last day of the week, we’re
usually eating out of our freezer. Some foods just don’t keep for a week no matter how hard you try.
Plan to have those dishes first so the ingredients don’t spoil.

On that note -- serve what you have planned. Even if there’s something else you like better. If you
don’t do this, then you’ll end the week with a pantry of veggies and not a snack food or bowl of ice
cream in sight.

Serving the healthy stuff increases the chances that it actually gets consumed and helps you stretch
your grocery budget.

Grab your free meal planning printable!

You can grab your free PDF copy of ​this meal plan by clicking here.

Get it done! I know it seems like a lot, but you can do this!

38
Challenge 8: Combine your forces.

You are ROCKING it!

Seriously! I'm so impressed. Stick with it, we're almost there!

Now, It's time to make the magic happen.

Having Jon and I on the same page working towards the same goals wasn't easy. He was reluctant
to say the least. But when things finally clicked and we started working together...

We were unstoppable.

The key to this is budget meetings.

Just like a business relies on a budget meeting to be successful, a family budget meeting is an
essential part of getting your finances under control. You need these quick weekly recaps to stay
motivated, stay on track, and to get everyone working towards the same goals.

I’m willing to bet that your partner isn’t interested in the budget. Most couples are made up of a
natural saver and a natural spender. Considering that you signed up for this, I'm going to assume
you’re the natural saver.

If you’re tempted to do these budget meetings on your own, hold that thought! You may be thinking,
“Why involve him if he won’t be interested?”

You need your partner! Your potential for wild success skyrockets when you get your partner on
board. If he’s reluctant, ​go through the steps found in this article first​ before you set up your budget
meetings. Trust me on this, a little extra work up front to get the reluctant spouse involved will pay off
in a huge way.

39
Let’s cover the basics and then I’ll give you step-by-step instructions you can follow to set up your
own meetings.

What should be accomplished during a family budget meeting?

There are 4 core purposes of the budget meeting:

● You want to establish how much you are allowed to spend and in what categories.
● You want to review prior spending and whether you stayed on budget.
● You want to identify problems and brainstorm solutions.
● You want to mention your goals and track your progress to them.

How long is a family budget meeting?

20 minutes. If you both love chatting and want to make it longer, that’s okay too. As a rule, cap it at
20 minutes to keep it on pace and fun. If it’s longer than 20 minutes, it can become something that
the “natural spender” dreads.

How frequent should a family budget meeting be?

Weekly. The first weekly meeting of the month should also cover a quick monthly recap (about 5
minutes) of the previous month.

Meetings should be consistently on the same day. For example, Mondays after dinner, Saturdays
after breakfast, etc. This is important because without consistency, it’s hard to make this a habit.
Remember, this doesn’t have to be a huge event, though. It’s just 20 minutes.

Who should be involved in a family budget meeting?

You and your partner. It can be incredibly empowering for older children to be involved as well, but
make sure you keep it positive if you do that. You want them to walk away from the meetings feeling
like part of a team, not having them worry about money.

Who prepares for the family budget meeting?

40
The natural saver. The person who is “in charge” of the budget (I use that term loosely since you’re
both responsible for the budget). If neither of you enjoy doing it, then assign it to whoever has more
free time.

How do I prep for the family budget meeting?

Follow the instructions​ found in this article to create your budget.

Bring the budget to the meeting in a way that can be reviewed and changed by your partner. That
can be on paper, a printed report from a website or spreadsheet, or just an app on your phone that
you can pass back and forth. I will say that I love having paper and pen for this. Even now, 6 years
after our very first budget, we still use paper and pen for budget meetings.

If this isn’t your first budget meeting, make sure that your budget is “up to date” with actual spending
so you know what you spent versus what you planned to spend. (You can find instructions on how to
do that in our ​creating a basic budget instructions​).

Do I need a budget binder? Where do I track my budget?

You certainly can have a budget binder. My caution would be that sometimes we’re more interested
in “getting organized” than actually being organized. You can ​track your budget in a planner​ (my
favorite way to do it), or even a piece of paper.

If you have some experience in budgeting, you can look into my ​recommendations for tracking a
budget here​. My preference is that you would wait on the budget binder until you’ve been through a
few meetings.

That lets you see what you actually need and prevents you spending hours of your life (and money)
setting up a binder “just perfect” and then not actually budgeting. I want your focus to be on the
budget, not the binder. If you just can’t help yourself… here’s a ​good example of a budget binder.

What happens during a family budget meeting?

41
1. Have your partner review the budget and suggest changes. Be open to changes that they want to
make. The worst thing you can do is to shut down every suggestion they make. This is a partnership,
not a dictatorship. If you struggle with that,​ this article may help you​.

Example: Wife: Here’s the budget I came up with. Can you look it over and make any changes you
think need to be made? Husband: $20 for lunches out?! That’s insane! I’ll spend that in one meal! I
need at least $50! Wife: Okay, where should we take the extra $30 from? The debt repayment is
really important to me. I don’t want to touch that. Husband: How about we take $15 from the clothing
budget and I deal with $35/month. Wife: Consider it done. (I’ll warn you that it’s never actually this
easy!)

2. Agree on a final budget with any changes needed. Transfer any money needed right there during
the meeting (i.e. if your budget has discretionary money or “fun money,” you can give that out right
then so it’s consistent and they know when to expect it).

Example: "I can stick to this budget. I’ll go through and set up auto pays for the bills through the
bank. Here’s $100 to spend as you like this month."

After your first meeting, add in these steps for future meetings:
3. Review your spending from last week and give a “state of the budget address” (I’m only kind of
kidding). Just mention if you’re on track, any unnecessary spending (without being angry or pointing
fingers) and brainstorm ideas to prevent the unnecessary spending in the future.

Example: We did great in other categories last week, but we spent $60 for Suzie’s field trip that
wasn’t budgeted. Why don’t we start budgeting in $25/month for school expenses for the kids to
cover things like bake sales, field trips, musical instruments? That way we aren’t surprised when that
happens.

4. Quickly mention your goals and any progress towards them. ​Example: We’ve got $4,500 left on
our credit card! That means we’ve paid off $18,400 in the last year!

5. If it’s the first budget meeting of a new month, give a quick monthly recap. Were you under budget
or over budget? Mention how your goals were affected.

42
Example: Last month, we were under budget in groceries by $100, so we put that $100 to an extra
debt payment! That moved our projected “debt free” date up a month so we should be debt free in 8
months!

Important note: It is completely normal to be over budget, especially in the beginning. Budgeting is a
life skill. And just like you don’t get mad at your 1-year-old when she doesn’t immediately know how
to walk the first time she stands up, don’t get mad at yourself if you struggle.

Accept what happened, make changes to get a little bit better, and move on. I’m not looking for
perfection the first time; I’m looking for you to be better than you were last month. That’s it. Next
month I want you to be better than you were this month and so on. You can ​read more about what to
do if you’re over budget here.

Challenge 8: Combine your forces.

Complete each step within 7 days and then schedule weekly meetings in your schedule book from
here on out.

1. Decide if your spouse is reluctant… if he is, ​read this first and then come back.

2. Schedule a time to hold your first budget meeting (about a week from today to give yourself time
to prepare).

3.​ Head here if you don’t already have an established budget​. Create your first budget based on
those instructions.

4. Track your spending at minimum weekly, but daily makes it really easy to stay on top of it in just a
minute or two. (​Not sure how to track your spending? Read this).

5. Set up some guidelines for your meeting. The meeting won’t be more than 20 minutes. Write out
what you’ll cover: Review the budget and make needed changes; review last week’s/month’s
spending; problem solving through pitfalls; and goal progress.

6. Bring your budget to the budget meeting and get ready to see some major changes!

43
Challenge 9: Substitute without sacrifice.
Ready for the big savings? This is where it happens.

Since we’ve been married and I began tracking our spending, we’ve made a lot of changes. None
were dramatic, but they led to some pretty dramatic figures.

The following list was implemented over our first year of tackling our debt and led to us saving
$23,537.00 in that year.

I also think it’s important to point out that I didn't sacrifice to save this money. I spent less to get the
same thing, or something that worked better.

The first year’s substitutions...

1. Eliminated eating lunches out at work for better packed lunches that save time, calories, and taste
better.

Savings: $7,200 (70.00 per week per person) – $2,080 (40.00 per week for lunch ingredients) =
$5,120.00 saved.

2. Began menu planning and strategic shopping using Wegmans online tools to reduce grocery
spending.

Savings: $10,400 (200.00 per week) – $6,240.00 (120.00 per week) = $4,160.00 saved.

3. Began using the library exclusively and stopped buying books at all.

Savings: $3,600 (about 70.00 per week on average) – 0.00 = $3,600.00 saved. (The embarrassing
part is that I thought this was normal and that my husband's spending was the problem.)

4. Stopped drinking bottled water and switched to filtered water in reusable bottles exclusively.

Savings: $42.97 per month (from water bottles and Deer Park delivery – cost of filters and
purchasing high quality water bottles and the occasional gallon water bottle to bring to work to refill)
x12 = $515.64 saved.

44
5. Established a home stockroom, researched best unit price for all items. Also saved significant
time running errands and shopping. Click ​here​ for more information on my home stockroom and
here for my free inventory workbook​ to keep track of it.

Savings: $1,357.43 per year.

6. Cancel cable and use Hulu Plus for TV exclusively (Jon also hooked up our seldom-used desktop
computer to the TV so that you can watch the free full episodes on the network sites in the TV). ​You
can read more about that here.

Savings: $2,220 (185.00 per month) – $1,092 (for EPIC Internet - 91.00 per month) = $1,128.00
saved.

7. Canceled the gym membership and began using the community association gym and pool for
free.

Savings: $600.00 (50.00 per month) – 0.00 = $600.00 saved. (I added this back into the budget
when we paid off the debt.)

8. Began using moderate coupons on items I was already buying.

Savings: $260.00 per year (an average of $5.00 per week). Increased this ​significantly with Ibotta.

9. Switched to Suave Rosemary and Mint shampoo and conditioner from Pantene:

Savings: $101.65 per year

10. Signed up for RX by mail through my health insurance company:

Savings: $360.00 (30.00 per month) – $120.00 (10.00 per month) = $240.00

11. Began the $10.00 Christmas tradition with my extended family. Click ​here​ to learn more about
that.

Savings: $300 per year – $80 per year = $220.00 saved.

45
12. Purchased clothing needs at thrift stores and discount stores. (Not exclusively -- still a few pieces
purchased at retailer.)

Savings: $620.00 less spent this year on clothing than last year.

13. Stopped purchasing music on iTunes and began renting all of my CDs from the library(which can
be turned into MP3’s by hooking up to your computer). Note: While likely unenforceable, please
delete MP3 after CD is returned to the library to avoid copyright infringement. While no one would
ever find out, it’s the honest thing to do. Also, no one (except me), even rents CDs from the library,
so you can just keep re-renting it if you love it. Learn my ​tricks for that here​.

Savings: $14.95 per month for Rhapsody and $40.00 in iTunes purchases (approximate -- I can’t tell
from iTunes which is apps and which is music) = $219.40 saved.

14. Implemented a ​Spending Freeze for two weeks​.

Savings: About $400.00 (though this is highly debatable – just my assessment).

15. Cancelled Netflix and switched to Amazon Prime.

Savings: $300.00 per year ($25.00 per month) – $70.00 (also get free 2-day shipping on most
products purchased on Amazon) = $230.00 saved.

16. Refinanced mortgage to historical low interest rate. (I’m just using our monthly mortgage
payment to calculate savings, not savings over the life of the loan, which is considerably higher.)

Savings: $274 per month; $3,288.00 per year.

17. Talked Jon out of purchasing every single video game that his group of Xbox friends want to play
in favor of finding games that have longevity.

Savings: Last year we spent $380.00 on video games; this year we spent $35.00 (Thank you Dayz
and Minecraft!) = 345.00 saved.

46
TOTAL SAVINGS IN ONE YEAR FROM SUBSTITUTIONS?

$23,537.00!

And that was just our first year! Then we created ​The Ultimate Money Savings Workbook​ (which you
can ​get for free here​) and researched every substitution possible to save money.

We slowly went through the list, making substitutions until our debt was paid off.

While occasionally we chose to sacrifice in order to pay off more debt (living without paper towels
was probably the most dramatic change), usually it required no sacrifice from us at all.

Challenge 9: Substitute without sacrifice.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

Search through the ​Ultimate Money Saving Workbook​ and find 4 substitutes to implement this month
and going forward.

Calculate the savings on the sheet. Make a note in your schedule to choose 4 more substitutions
each month going forward.

47
Challenge 10: Build your dreams.
Who's sick of budgeting?

This is statistically the part of the challenge where you're ready to throw in the towel. Maybe you
went over budget, maybe your husband got mad and spent $50 for lunch at Ruth’s Chris
Steakhouse to spite you (true story!)... It's all normal!

Totally normal. This is just the messy middle. That frustrating period of time when you can't see the
end goal to save your life and everything feels overwhelming.

Everything in life has a messy middle.

Everything.

In the beginning, budgeting is fun. "We're going to save boatloads and go to Greece every summer
and live debt free and this will be ​so awesome!"

In the end, budgeting is REALLY fun! "Yawn, yeah... let's do $700 for "personal spending" this
month." ​(Okay, I'm not quite there yet, but we're getting closer!)

Then there's the messy middle.

The messy middle sucks. There's no nice way to say it. You're tired of trying and not seeing results,
you're frustrated, you feel overwhelmed and hopeless. It's not a fun place to be.

You can't see a future where things will get better. You want to give up.

Don't.

I know how much right now sucks. But I also know what life will look like for you later. I know that the
only way to get to that amazing "later" is by struggling through this part.

I never promised that this was easy. I don't have a "transform your finances in 3 weeks!" challenge
because that's impossible.​ That's a marketing gimmick that will do nothing for you.

If you want to change, I'll help you.​ But it's going to take time. A​ LOT of time. And perseverance.

48
It also takes a great goal. I want you to be able to see what you’re working toward. Not just the end
result, but the progress as you fight your way there every single day.

That's what we'll do in this week's challenge.

Before we set that goal, though, I need you understand something with absolute certainty.

I need you to know that how you feel right now is normal. The messy middle is a normal part of
literally everything in your life from relationships, jobs, goals, and even businesses.

Ever read a book where everything worked out wonderfully by page 100? ​Me neither.

I know enough to know that if you burn the book in the middle of the story, you'll never have
a happy ending.

So how do you get through the messy middle?

Keep going.

That's it. Some days will be better than others. Some days will be horrific. Just keep going. One step
in front of the other. Do the best you can and stay the course until you can see the other side.

Don't give up on me, and I won't give up on you.

Challenge 10: Build your Dreams.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

Write out what your perfect life looks like. Be detailed. Be ridiculous. Feel free to be overly ambitious.
(I actually made my list public last year; ​you can see it here)​.

Brainstorm all of the possible ways that you can achieve that goal. Every single thing you can think
of. If you need help (and your perfect life involves you working at home or for yourself), then ​look at
this post​ for inspiration.

Choose the path that balances the most possible with the most exciting to you for quick results or
just the most exciting to you for the longer approach.

49
I'll give you an example. I wanted to be able to stay at home with our kids. I didn't care about fancy
vacations or new homes.... that's all that I wanted. There were so many paths that we could have
taken to reach that goal:
● Reduce our spending and live on Jon's salary.
● Have both of us work until our debt was paid off, then stay home and live on Jon's salary.
● Raise capital for a brick-and-mortar business and quit my job to run it.
● Start a home business with no capital and constant income (long-term-client based).
● Start a side job (like a hobby) with the potential to make money and then invest all profits
back into it as it grows.

Want to know what happened?

We did everything except for the second one. I quit my job exactly one year after I wrote that. We
paid off our debt while I ran a home day care and worked on blogging as a side business. Jon quit
his job to open a brewery two years later after raising capital for it.

In 3 years we went from being crippled by $40,000 of debt and stuck in jobs that didn't fulfill or excite
us with a combined monthly income of $6,000 to completely rewriting our lives, being self-employed,
and having a combined monthly income of over $16,000.

I don't just want you to work the numbers and make a budget work in a situation that you aren't
happy in.

I want you to realize that there are billions of paths in this world and every single one is open to you.

Build your dream life.

Then work your butt off until you get it.

I want a dream life in writing from you and a list of possible ways to make it happen in 7 days. Then I
want to see you start working towards it.

Get to work!

50
Challenge 11: Crush your grocery budget.
How'd last week go? You're doing awesome and I'm SO ridiculously proud of you for getting to this
point. Stick with it!

This will be another big savings week. We already went over how to create a meal plan in Challenge
7; now we'll take it a step further.

There are 6 major ways to reduce your spending on groceries. Here's a breakdown...

1. Stop eating out (or plan the times you eat out and adjust your
grocery budget accordingly).
Eating out can instantly kill a great grocery budget. $10 at Chipotle or $60 at a nice sit-down
restaurant could buy half a week’s meals at home. You can eat just as well (or likely even better) by
planning to eat at home.

Start by packing easy lunches for work. Invest in an ​insulated cooler​, a f​ew cooler packs​, and a
water bottle​ (Fun fact: ​This is the only water bottle I recommend​ -- all of ours have lasted more than
4 years).

Make it a habit to pack your lunch after dinner (even if you think you’ll have the motivation to do it in
the morning, doing it the night before is a great habit to get into).

Plan to spend a set amount for a monthly date night, or our favorite -- a Saturday morning breakfast
at Chick-fil-A while the kids play on the playground.

2. Start batch cooking or freezer cooking.

This is such a game changer! I get it, you’re busy and exhausted. You don’t have time to cook all of
your meals for a month in a day. You don’t have any free days. No sweat!

Do you have an hour to save yourself the trouble of cooking eight dinners? I bet you do! There are
so many ridiculously easy freezer cooking options that will save you a fortune! Here are a few of my
favorites:

51
 ● Hot Dog Packs: Hot dogs, buns, hot dog chili, and cheddar cheese -- freeze in separate
quart bags, then place the quart bags into a gallon bag.
● Pancakes: Make 40 or even 80 with an electric griddle (you ​buy these for as low as $38 on
Amazon​) and almost no extra effort. We freeze the leftovers in packs of 3 wrapped in wax
paper, then place the wax paper packets in a gallon freezer bag (or several). Then just
microwave from frozen in the wax paper for 90 seconds.
● Slow cooker meals: Gallon bags filled with a raw slow cooker recipe that you can just thaw
and dump in a slow cooker for a super easy dinner. Things like baby back ribs, stew, chili,
chicken dishes, etc. We use ​these planning packs​ to make these and super easy freezer
meals.
● Check out my ​“Super Easy Freezer Cooking” Pinterest board here​ for more easy ideas.
● Bagels freeze beautifully and make easy breakfasts!

Don’t write off once-a-month freezer cooking, though. At some point, you should really try this. You
can read ​my review here of once-a-month freezer cooking​. In the end, if you’re looking for a
ridiculously low grocery budget, few dishes during the week, and no kitchen cleanup, this plan’s for
you!

There are even websites out there that will do the “prep” work for you. I’ve used ​“Once a Month
Meals”​ and loved their program. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to save time and
money.

If you want to freezer cook the easy way, then ​Freezeasy​ does the same thing but every meal is
cheap and easy. You can ​find out more about them here​. (We've gotten away from Once a Month
Meals and now use ​Freezeasy​ more.)

By batch cooking, you're grabbing the best price you can find and buying in bulk. To make it simple,
if chicken thighs are on sale for 99 cents/pound at your local grocery store, instead of buying pork,
ground beef, steaks, and chicken like usual, we’re going to buy 30 pounds of chicken thighs.

Some of that chicken we’ll freeze plain, some we’ll make into super easy slow cooker freezer meals,
some we’ll make into frozen bags of prepped stir fry packs, and some we’ll cook fresh.

52
Then next week, when they have a huge sale on ground beef, we’re going to do the same, and buy
tons of that beef to mix in with our chicken thighs. Get it?

3. Pay less for more using a method that works for you.
There are 4 basic ways to pay less for more. Coupons (specifically coupon matching), a discount
grocery store (like Price Rite or Grocery Depot), sale cycles, and ALDI (I have no idea how to
classify ALDI except as “Awesome!”)

Strategic couponing can be a great way to reduce your spending, but most of my readers don't have
the organizational skills to make this successful. I suggest ​Ibotta​, which is easier and still adds a few
hundred a year back into your budget.

You can ​read more about Ibotta here​. If you really want to try couponing, you can h​ead here for
Couponing 101​.

Now check your local area to see if you have a Grocery Depot or a Bread Depot. This is a fantastic
place to find great deals.

We bought 5 pounds of pepperoni at our local Grocery Depot for about $3. They expired in a month.
We took them home, packaged them out and froze them in dinner-sized portions. Those pepperonis
have been pizzas for quite a while!

Always check expiration dates and don’t buy things you don’t need (like the 10 boxes of chocolate
wafers that were expiring in a few days that I convinced my husband we had to buy because they
were only a quarter).

ALDI​ is a pretty safe bet (they aren’t selling items close to expiration dates) that requires almost no
work. ALDI is a grocery store that sells their own products at much cheaper prices than a regular
grocery store.

It’s a little unique in that you have to “rent” your shopping cart for a quarter and pay for grocery bags,
but the savings are well worth it. If you have an ALDI store within an hour, stock up there on staples
once a month and fill in with dairy, etc. at the local stores.

53
You can ​find out if you have an ALDI close to you here​... They're all over the east coast but
expanding rapidly.

4. Stockpile the basics.

I live by my stockpiles. They save me a ton of money, but much more important is how much time
they save me! No more running out to grab something you’re out of. You always have more in stock!

Make a list of the basic things you use. Be honest with yourself about what you use. My stockpile list
would be different from yours.

Don’t buy a ton of flour and sugar if you aren’t a baker. Buy what you use. I don’t care if it’s Kraft
macaroni and cheese or imported German mustard.

Stock what you use a ton of and will buy again if you run out… ​DO NOT STOCK THINGS THAT
YOU HAVEN’T TRIED AND EAT ROUTINELY.​ Sorry for the shouty caps, but that was super
important.

Even if you see a good deal on cereal that you’ve never had before, don’t stock up on it. If you pay
$1/box and buy 10 and hate it, you just burned up a $10 bill.

Make a list of things that you use routinely, that you like, and that will never go to waste in your
house.

My list includes: pepperoni, chicken thighs, ground beef, shredded cheese, tortillas, hot sauce,
ketchup, mustard, duck sauce, Chinese noodles, rice, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar soup,
canned fruits and veggies, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, spices, flour, soy sauce, sugar,
chocolate chips, baking powder, frozen veggies, baking soda, cocoa powder, white cooking wine,
seasoned rice vinegar, and pasta.

Keep the items from your list in your pantry at all times. Get them at the best possible price and
never worry about running out.

As a bonus, these can make what I call “​backup pantry meals​.” I can make stir fry, pizza, pasta
bakes, or macaroni and cheese based on what’s in my pantry alone. If something goes terribly
wrong with my dinner plans, I don’t need to order pizza... I’m covered.

54
5. Start having meatless Mondays (or a list of super cheap meals).
Protein is almost always the most expensive part of your meal. If you go meatless just one dinner a
week, it can really add up in savings over the course of a month.

Our favorite meatless dinners are...

● broccoli cheddar cheese soup with asiago cheese bagels

● pizza
● macaroni and cheese with butternut squash mixed in
● cheese tortellini or spaghetti with pasta sauce
● ravioli with a butter sauce, yellow squash, and zucchini

If you can’t get your hubby into this idea (Hint: Don’t call it meatless Monday; ask how he feels about
having a pizza night every Friday -- it’s all in the presentation, folks), then start a list of really cheap
meals that you can include once a week.

The ​$5 Dinner Mom Cookbook​ is a great resource, and likely your library has it stocked.

6. Exchange junk food for homemade snacks.

This is the very last step. You’ve already seen a complete transformation in your grocery budget if
you've done the above steps but you can go lower. Chances are you still buy snack food.

Things like cheese sticks, cookies, brownies, chips, popcorn, and trail mix. These are all things that
you can make at home.

Granted, you need time. It takes about 30 minutes to bake a batch of cookies (although my personal
philosophy is to spend 40 min and bake 3 batches to freeze). By replacing the high cost of
convenience foods and packaging or making them yourself, the savings add up quickly.

Not to mention the benefits of losing all of the unpronounceable ingredients. You can buy large
containers of snacks and then package them individually, or make them from scratch at home.

55
Also, if you find yourself buying water bottles while you're out running errands, buy a case and leave
it in your car (depending on the climate where you live!). Now at least you’re paying 20 cents for
something you were about to pay $2 for. Here are a few of our favorite snacks:

● carrots and blue cheese dip

● yogurt, bought in a large tub or ​make it yourself
● cheese cubes
● popcorn made on the stove
● chocolate chip cookies
● fruit
● trail mix that you mix yourself
● banana boats made with chocolate chips and peanut butter (just slice a groove out of the
middle of the banana and stuff with a nut butter, then sprinkle with chocolate chips, raisins,
or chopped nuts)
● pita and homemade hummus

Follow those steps and you’ll see a drastic reduction in your grocery bill. This is a marathon, not a
sprint. Give yourself grace if you end up caving and ordering Domino’s at 11 pm.

We’re looking for a transformed grocery budget and a completely different way of feeding your family
as an end result, not perfection every single day along the way. Just start, don’t give up, and don’t
get upset with yourself.

Keep taking steps in the right direction. Once you learn the skills, you have them for life.

Challenge 12: Make more money.

We’re getting closer to being done and you’re doing amazing!

The fact that you stuck with it this long says a lot about you. You’re really going to make this work!

Today, we’re going to tackle increasing your income.

How to increase your income:

56
It’s actually easier than you think. If you’re struggling to get control over your finances, then making
more money won't fix your problems (you’ll just spend more).

That being said, learning how to make more money is one of the best skills you can have for
yourself.

It not only makes a huge difference in your long-term budget, but it gives you the ability to hit your
goals much faster and in many cases it gives you the opportunity to set your goals much higher than
you ever thought possible.

There are 5 ways to increase your income:

At your current job:

Finding a way to increase your income at your current job should be your first step. Asking for a
raise takes a little knowledge and preplanning, but ​this is a good guideline for how to approach that​.

While you shouldn't be asking for a raise if you’ve been there less than a year and a half (or if you’ve
had a raise in the last year and a half), most employees don't even think to ask for a raise.

If a raise isn’t possible, see if there are overtime assignments available that you can take to make a
little extra money each month. It’s imperative that the money you earn from overtime doesn’t go to
pay for necessities since you can't rely on it.

Use overtime as “bonus” money to help you build your emergency fund (which we’ll be talking about
soon) or pay off debt (or later on, fund fun extras like vacations).

The reason that's important is that if you get hurt and can't complete it or the overtime stops being
available, then you won't be able to pay your bills. This is actually a heartbreaking and frequent
problem of readers in jobs (like police officers) that have consistent overtime availability.

Switching fields or jobs:

Next, I want you to think of your career progression. Do you plan to stay with your current job until
you retire?

57
If you aren’t excited about the career progression you’re looking at in your current company, then it’s
time to start brainstorming. Can you switch jobs? Where do you want to end up in 5 years?

Do you want to switch fields? Would you need to go back to school or get extra job training?
Research to answer those questions and make a plan if that’s what you want to do.

Starting a side hustle:

If you’ve never heard of a side hustle, I’m about to blow your mind. A side hustle is a hobby. It just
happens to be a hobby that makes you money and even has the potential to replace your full-time
job and make a TON of money.

So, let's say you love to scrapbook. You spend $30 a month on Jolee’s stickers and photo
processing. Then you made a commitment to stop scrapbooking and ​instead you started a blog​ (just
an example -- there are about a zillion side hustles). You’d still be able to spend your hours doing
something creative and that you love, but instead of scrapbooks you could end up with a business
that you’re insanely passionate about that replaces your actual job.

I’m in a unique position to tell you that your blogging hobby can turn into a blog that replaces your
full-time job.

Mine did. Just 10 months after I started The Busy Budgeter, it turned into a full-time job for me.

As a blogger that ​currently makes over $20,000/month running a blog​ (not a typo) where I get to help
people completely transform their financial lives, I can't tell you how much this opportunity means to
me.

The income from this blog is pretty insane, but it pales in comparison to the emails from readers
where they finally paid off their debt and for the first time in their lives aren't worried about money.

And it wasn’t hard. I love blogging just as much as I’ve loved any of my other hobbies.

It’s not quite as easy as that, though -- there’s taxes, expenses, and a team (we currently have a
team of four), and that's why you should want to start it as a hobby. Because all you're doing is
replacing a hobby that's costing you money and structuring a new hobby in a way that it could
provide you income.

58
Then you can​ learn as you go how to blog as a business.

That being said, blogging is one of the cheapest hobbies you can have (you can ​start your own
website for only $3.49 a month​) and has the most potential for full time income.

You can ​learn how to start a blog (the right way!) here.

You have to love writing, though, or blogging won’t work for you.

There are tons of other side hustles, though!

Word of caution… invest in a good class if they have one available. Trying to figure out how to grow
a business from a side hustle can take years of trial and error if you don’t invest in training.

If your budget can’t handle that now, start researching any free information you can find while you
build up the funds to invest in a class. I’ll note the best class to take for each below if there’s a class
that I would recommend.

Here are a few examples of side hustles that I’m familiar with:
Proofreading:​ Proofreading is when you take a document and scan it to fix errors. The most
common form of proofreading is for court reporters, but authors and even bloggers also use
proofreaders. ​Proofread Anywhere​ is currently the best course for learning how to proofread.

You don't need to have perfect grammar now, but you need to have the capability of learning perfect
grammar (not everyone does). They have a test on their site to weed out if this definitely isn't a
possibility for you. You can ​find that here.

Proofreading is done remotely and on your own schedule so is pretty popular with people who love
to travel.

Voiceover actor:​ I have two friends that do voiceover work, one of whom does it for full-time income
and one who does it on the side to make a little extra money. Another friend has a pre-teen daughter
who does voiceover work for her college fund.

59
Basically, this involves everything from radio ads, to commercials, to website videos and more. This
would work for all ages and is a GREAT gig for a kid or teen to help build up their college fund
without the pitfalls of modeling or acting.

Most of my friends ​took this voiceover course to get started ​and highly recommend it.

Freelance Writer:​ This is actually really similar to blogging, as you’ll be writing articles for other
people to post on their sites, but you don't have to spend the time to build your own platform as you
write. The other difference is that freelance writing usually involves a bit of research and blogging is
usually more from your own experience.

The stand-out class for freelance writing is ​30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success​,​ which you
can get here.

Tutor or online teacher: ​Check ​this article from The Penny Hoarder​ for more information about
earning money as an online tutor.

Dog-walking or pet-sitting: ​Take advantage of being home while others are at work and start a
dog-walking or pet-sitting business. It can grow quickly by word of mouth, and you (and your kids!)
will get the added benefit of sunshine and exercise. Use ​this book to get started.

Photography:​ If you love photography, then there are tons of ways that you can make that into a
side hustle. From family portraits to stock photography and everything in between. ​CreativeLive has
the most comprehensive photography classes​ available right now and they’re highly recommended.

(Note -- I’m linking to the ​photography starter class​ which is super cheap and perfect if you need to
learn the basics of photography to work up to specialize in an area, but they have comprehensive
classes in everything from portraits to landscaping.)

Etsy shop owner: ​If you’re lucky enough to have a hobby that you can market, look into opening an
Etsy shop​ to supplement your income. This book walks you through how to do that in easy steps.

Fun fact: Planner stickers (like ​Planner Kate’s shop​) on Etsy seem to have a cult-like following and
have low overhead.

60
Virtual Assistant:​ Virtual assistants help business owners run their day-to-day operations. Tasks
can be anything from handling emails, scheduling clients, formatting and scheduling blog posts,
handling social media, and processing data.

Organizational skills and computer knowledge will go a long way to make you successful in this. ​30
Days to Virtual Assistant Success​ is the course you’ll want to take to get started.

Graphic design artist:​ Graphic design artists create things like websites, social media graphics,
book covers, advertisements and more. You ​can get started here.

Blogging:​ We already covered this above. You can ​learn how to start a blog here​.

eBay Business:​ You can buy things from the thrift store and resell them on eBay for a profit. I did
this successfully with jeans for about 9 weeks and made a little over $1,500. Plenty of people have
turned this into a full-time gig; it’s just not for me. Listing items was pretty boring, but the work wasn’t
hard.

You can​ grab an eBay account here​ and take a tutorial on how to sell.

Rebates and small amount of money

While these won’t replace your job, there are a few other ways to make smaller amounts monthly
(but that take very little time). While there are ​tons of money-making apps reviewed here​, I’ll hit the
highlights for you…

UserTesting: ​UserTesting tests the user experience of websites from small to huge. They need real
people to log on, perform given tasks, and think out loud as the screen recorder captures your voice
about how difficult the task is to complete.

They pay $10 for a 15-minute test and most of these are really fun. I make about $100/month,
although I’ve done much better other months.

Ibotta​:​ This is a crazy easy way to make a few dollars every time you go to the grocery store. It’s like
couponing, but without actually having to coupon or buy name brand products.

You can earn small amounts for generic items at the grocery store (like any brand of milk or any
brand of frozen vegetables, etc). While it’s only 25 cents or so for each, those small amounts add up

61
and we’re able to pay for Christmas with our Ibotta and Ebates income combined. You can s​ign up
for Ibotta here.

Ebates​: ​The other app that’s worth it to use is Ebates, which gives you cash back on all of your
online purchases. Just go through Ebates before you make the purchase and they’ll give you a small
percent of your purchase back. This is especially lucrative if you do most of your purchases online.
You ​can get Ebates here.

Challenge 12: Make More Money

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

1. Grab the goals you created a few weeks ago in the “Build your Dreams” challenge and determine
which methods of making extra money would work best for you: Making more in your current job,
changing jobs or fields, side hustles, or easy (small amounts) of money from cash back apps.

2. Make a plan on the steps you’ll need to complete in order to start making more money. If you start
a side hustle and you currently have a hobby that costs you money, replace that hobby with the side
hustle (if you can afford it) and let the money that was going to that hobby now go into your side
hustle for training and tools.

3. ​Assign​ goal dates to each of the steps for when you want to achieve them. When I did this, I set a
goal for full-time income in a year.

4. Sign up for both ​Ibotta​ and ​Ebates​ and leave notes in your schedule book so that you remember
to use them.

Don’t get overwhelmed by all of the possibilities here. Just go through the steps above and do
something. Get to work!

While this challenge can help reduce your budget… it can also transform your entire life.

I’m forever grateful to the woman who told me that it was possible to blog from home full-time. I had
no idea that was even a thing and it’s my passion in life to make sure that you do.

62
Maybe you love your job and wouldn't ever want to leave, but I want you to make that decision
knowing that you have options.

63
Challenge 13: Start an emergency fund.
After this week's challenge, you'll finally have a little much-needed relief from money stress!

If you’re struggling to get control of your finances, it’s an absolute necessity to figure out how to build
an emergency fund. That’s because you need to stop using credit cards. You’re in debt now
because you used credit cards.

Credit cards aren't a solution, they're a problem.

If you want your finances to be different, you need to change something.

You tried using credit cards. Credit cards brought you nothing but debt and “junk” filling up your
house. So, now we’re going to change that. No more credit cards. ​Ever.

Without an emergency fund, as soon as something goes wrong in your budget (which it will
frequently), you’ll go right back to the credit card.

Let me be perfectly clear. If you’re in debt, you ​must stop using credit cards. You will never dig
yourself out of this mess without ditching the credit cards. You are not the exception to the rule. You
are the statistic.

If there’s one thing I can promise you that will happen, it is that you will go over budget. If you’re new
to this, you will go over budget frequently.

You need to be prepared and know exactly what to do when that happens. BEFORE it happens. You
can​ find your game plan for that here.

You also need to have money set aside so that when life doesn’t go as planned, you have options
other than the credit card. Hence, the emergency fund.

The secret to actually creating and keeping your emergency fund is to feel “poor,” even when you
have money.

You and I, we got into debt because we spent what we had, plus a little extra. Sometimes, a lot
extra. 76% of Americans today are living paycheck to paycheck (​Source: CNN​).

64
That means that 76% of us have no idea what would happen if we had a true emergency and had to
come up with a lot of money quickly.

While my own finances don’t keep me up at night any longer, that statistic does. That 76% consists
of parents whose babies are counting on them and whose children are learning from them. They’re
men and women who have worked their whole life and have nothing to show for it except Coach
bags and Ikea furniture.

I know how scared they must be, and how much they want to change but they don’t know how.

Here’s the secret. Life will never be predictable. Ever. That’s okay. We can handle that if we think
ahead.

Why you spend your emergency fund:

Most people can’t figure out how to build an emergency fund because they’re used to living
paycheck to paycheck.

They’re totally okay with a checking account that has $100 in it until the next payday. They’re used
to it.

When they get extra money, it makes sense to spend it. They earned it, they deserve it. I know
exactly how that feels because that was me.

We can’t change the way you feel about that. Your views on money were set in stone long before
you met me and they won’t change without a strong motivating factor (usually fear). Even if you
swear right now and commit yourself to saving your extra money into an emergency fund, you won’t
do it.

Right now, you’re committed to this because you’re reading this. In a week or two, when you have
extra money and your friends ask you to go to the movies, you’ll think, “I can probably swing that”…
and so on, and so on.

This is why you’re poor.

65
There is nothing wrong with you. This thought process is normal and doesn’t define you. But you
need to accept this about yourself.

You will not change your life with a sudden burst of discipline. You ​will change your financial future
by knowing your weaknesses and then working around them.

How to not spend your emergency fund:

You’re going to pay your emergency fund like it’s a bill. It’s non negotiable. Sit down right now, and
open up a “hard to access” savings account. By hard to access, I mean that it will take you time to
transfer the money to your regular account.

My favorite one is an online bank called ​Aspiration Summit​ because they give you an unheard of 1%
interest on your balance and have absolutely no fees, but there are other options like Capital One
360 Savings (make sure it’s an FDIC-insured bank obviously).

The worst thing you can do is to keep your emergency fund with your regular checking. It's way too
easy to press a button quickly and transfer money over if you need it. I want you to think of getting
access to that money as a hassle, but to have it in a true emergency.

You’re going to set a date on your calendar and auto pay a certain amount every month to that
checking account. Then you’re not going to think about it in the slightest. If you can set it up as a
direct deposit at work (before you even see the money), even better.

If an emergency happens, you’re going to do your best to handle it within your budget. I want the
emergency fund to be a last resort, just like your credit cards used to be.

What happens in an emergency?

True emergencies happen, but most of us have a skewed idea of what an emergency is. Is there a
way that you can make extra money this month to take care of that emergency?

66
When we were in that situation, we would go through and declutter the house to sell anything we
weren’t using, we rolled change, we did extra tests at ​UserTesting​ (they pay $10 for a 15-minute
test).

Does your work have overtime available? Can you pick up a side job? Look for those solutions first.

Can you reduce your spending in a budget category and use the savings to handle the emergency?
Reducing your grocery budget is the easiest place to make up the extra money, but can be the
hardest if you aren’t organized yet.

If all of those won’t cover it, then I want you to sit down and think long and hard if this is an
emergency. I’ve heard of a lot of “emergencies” that aren’t emergencies.

Here’s a few examples:

● We’re supposed to go on vacation with friends.

● I promised my daughter a laptop.
● We need to buy Christmas presents.
● Wedding expenses
● Bridesmaid expenses

What will happen if you don’t pay for this? Are you afraid to disappoint friends and family?

If they were truly friends and family, they would want you to get your money under control. If they’re
upset at you… you haven’t lost a friend, you’ve just gained clarity.

If it’s definitely an emergency, then go ahead and use your emergency fund.

What if even my emergency fund won’t cover it?

If you’re 100% certain that it’s an emergency (feel free to​ email me​ if you aren’t sure… I’ll tell you!),
then use the emergency fund, reduce your budget, make as much money as you can, and see if the
company you need to pay will work out a payment plan.

67
If they won’t take a payment plan and this absolutely cannot wait… Do what you need to do and
mitigate the damages as much as possible.

How much should I have in my emergency fund?

$1,000 is pretty standard, but some people may need more than that. $1,000 was plenty for us, but
you may need more.

A reader's family has 2 teenagers, a very old house, and they are going through a divorce and child
custody battle. The potential for financial disaster and really expensive emergencies with them are
extremely high.

For them, they would need to aim closer to $5,000 to have the same amount of peace that we had
with $1,000. In fact, they saved $1,000 and then had the top floor of their house cave in and got an
unexpected $2,000 bill from an attorney.

Start with $1,000 but if you have a situation that could get expensive, I want you to aim a little higher.

What if this plan didn’t work?

Then you need to distance yourself from the money even more. Talk to your employer about direct
depositing a percentage of your paycheck in the savings account. That way you never even see it.
You’ll adjust to the new paychecks and move on.

I know this doesn’t sound fun, but the things that this will bring you are so worth it. Once you have
your money under control, there are no limits to what you can have or achieve. If you want to spend
a month backpacking through Europe, you can. If you want to have a lake house, you can.

This won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

You can do this. I can help.

Challenge 13: Start an Emergency Fund.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

68
1. Determine the amount of money you need for your emergency fund. $1,000 is standard unless
you have pending situations that could lead to expensive emergencies such as:

● Divorce
● Legal proceedings
● An older house in need of repair
● Health problems

2. Add savings into your budget for a minimum of $20/month. No matter what. Make at least that
amount work. I'd prefer $250/month until you have $1,000.

3. Set up a hard-to-access bank account (that's FDIC insured) like ​Aspiration Summit​ with a
minimum starting deposit of $10.

4. Set up automatic transfers either through Aspiration or through your direct deposit at work to
make monthly payments into that account.

5. Forget about it as quickly as possible.

That's it! Easy, right!

69
Challenge 14: Have a Spending Freeze.
Hi guys!

We are SO close to the finish line! This week we're going to save a lot of money in a very short
amount of time to help us fund that emergency fund!

One of my favorite money-saving tricks is to use a spending freeze to save about $1,000 quickly.
Usually, you can save $1,000 in less than a month. Depending on your current spending, saving
$1,000 in two weeks isn’t unheard of.

What is a spending freeze?

A spending freeze is simply a commitment to not spend a single dime that isn’t necessary. You
would cut out all unnecessary spending for a predetermined amount of time. Your bills would still get
paid, and you would still make sure that your family is fed and medically taken care of, but no other
spending is allowed.

What are the benefits to a spending freeze?

Even families who think they spend very little can usually save a lot of money in a short amount of
time. It really resets the way you think about money.

Before a spending freeze, I wouldn’t think twice to grab a cup of tea at Wegmans or buy a clearance
lip gloss for $1.50. After a spending freeze, paying $1.50 for lip gloss makes you feel like a
millionaire throwing Benjamins in the air. No joke.

Learning to make do with what you have and appreciate what not having money feels like
completely transforms your spending habits (and also makes you incredibly grateful). In fact, you
can usually see the benefits of a spending freeze for several months in your budget with reduced
spending.

What are the spending freeze rules?

● Decide what you’ll do with the money.

● Make a reminder (I cover my debit card in tape, since I pay my bills through bill pay online).

70
 ● Decide what you can buy (usually bills/housing/medical emergencies, sometimes a small
amount for needed groceries after you eat through your pantry and freezer).
● Talk to your family and commit to this.
● Decide on a length of time. (I recommend two weeks -- no longer than a month).
● Don’t spend money on anything except the things agreed.
● Don’t prepare for the freeze ahead of time by buying things (that defeats the purpose).

We don’t have extra money at all. What’s the difference between not
spending money and a spending freeze?

Great question! Even the people on the tightest budgets usually spend money on something that
they don’t actually need. A spending freeze makes your commitment to not spending money an
event. It’s easy to remember not to spend and it’s impossible to rationalize a purchase. Stick to the
spending freeze rules and you can’t lose.

Even if you think you don’t spend money, I strongly suggest you try this for two weeks. I think you’ll
save money anyway.

How much will this suck?

Likely a little bit, sometimes a lot. But the benefits far outweigh the hassle.

The worst part is thinking up solutions to last-minute problems or opportunities. The first one I did, I
thought it would easy. It just meant saying “no” to buying things that I didn’t need like lip gloss and
spicy chicken summer rolls, right?

Wrong!

What about your kid’s last-minute field trip? When your best friend invites you out to eat and you
haven’t seen them in forever? What about a crazy, INSANE stock-up sale at your favorite store?
When you run out of paper towels?

These are all things you have to be committed to saying no to. Find a way to get what you want
without spending a dime. Follow the spending freeze rules no matter what.

71
How to make sure you actually save the money.

As you go through the month, transfer the money that you would have spent to a hard-to-reach
savings account so that you aren’t tempted to use it. The hardest part of this isn’t after the challenge
is over (which is when most people think you’ll spend extra), but before the challenge begins.

We fear “missing out” and “not having enough,” and your instincts will say to stuff your freezer and
your pantry to the brim to help you make it through this. Resist the urge! It defeats the point, and you
can do this without that!

The three secrets to spending freeze success.

Tell everyone.
Seriously, tell everyone that you’re doing this. Our society is super weird about money. We all want
to keep up with the Joneses and most of us would never tell a friend that we can’t afford something.

Yet, most of us are living in debt and with limited income. Which means that every time we say yes
to drinks out and a popcorn the size of a toddler while watching the new sci-fi flick, we say no to
what we really want.

The spending freeze gives you a reason to tell people that you’re saving money. When we did this
for the first time, Jon was spending over $70/week on lunches out at work. We thought we had to
budget that in because all of the guys ate out together.

After the spending freeze, he got used to eating on his own, or going with them and not eating and
then eating his own lunch later. In fact, he inspired a few others to bring their lunch in too. It’s been
about 5 years now and we’ve saved over $10,000 from Jon bringing his own lunch into work.

What once seemed like something we couldn’t do became easy thanks to the spending freeze. More
than one friend asked us to explain the spending freeze rules so they could start their own freeze.

72
Make a list.
Make a list of everything you want to buy when the freeze is done. A Chipotle burrito bowl almost
always tops my list. By the end of the month, you’ll have a ridiculously long list. I tell myself through
the freeze that the second the freeze is over, I’ll go right out and purchase everything on that list.

It’s the only way I can make it through the freeze.

But every single time, by the end of the spending freeze, I don’t even want any of those things
anymore. Either I’d forgotten about them, found a substitution, or just don’t feel as strongly about it.
(I do usually get a burrito bowl, though.)

Clean out your pantry.

Plan ahead for your schedule but don’t plan ahead for purchases! You really want to make sure that
you use up all of your pantry items and frozen items. If you take the time to clean out both of expired
items and organize as best you can, it will make this go so much easier. Make a list of what you
have that can be used in meals and set yourself a very small budget weekly (about $30 is what we
use for our family of 4) to fill in the food gaps if you need it.

How often should I do a spending freeze?

You can do them as often as you get benefit from them. We do them about twice a year. I would
recommend them at least yearly and not more than once every three months (it takes a while for
your spending to return to “normal” anyway, so you’ll likely see less spending for about three
months).

How long should a spending freeze last?

The most popular length of time is a month. I suggest that you do two weeks for your first few and
then switch to a month. If you really struggle with a month, switch back to two weeks. We do them
for two weeks and love them. A month is really hard for us.

73
How much extra can you save in a month?

A lot. I mean, a whole lot! Each family is different. In two weeks, we save about $500. In a month, we
save over $1,000. We have a pretty strict budget without a lot of discretionary spending, though I’ve
had readers save over $2,000 in just a month!

I also can’t say that I’ve done this since I’m more about baby steps than extreme changes, but I had
a reader save almost $3,000 in a month to fund an emergency savings account by taking “vacation”
from day care, cancelling her internet and cable for the month, doing the spending freeze, and solely
eating out of her pantry and freezer (think cake and broccoli for breakfast).

While I don’t recommend this, I have to admire her drive.

Challenge 13: Start an Emergency Fund.

You have 7 days to complete this challenge.

● Decide how long you want the freeze to be.

● Talk to your family to get them on board.
● Set a start date and a completion date.
● Decide on what the money will be used for. Be very specific!
● Wrap a strip of tape or another reminder around your debit card.
● Go through your pantry and freezer to try to come up with a bare bones menu plan with what
you have. Plan for no more than a week at a time and fill in with cheap items at the grocery
store.
● Transfer the money to a separate hard-to-reach account (we like ​Aspiration Checking​ since
we use it for our emergency fund) as if you had spent it when you normally do, i.e. if you
usually spend $250 on groceries a week and this week you’re spending $30, then transfer
$220 to the separate account.

74
You finished! What's next...
I am SO proud of you!

For the last 14 weeks of your life, you've dedicated yourself to a financial overhaul. I know it wasn't
easy.

But you did it.

The funny thing about money and budgets is that they only have power over us when we're scared
of them. As soon as I went through the steps you just went through, I was no longer scared of
looking at our bank account.

I felt empowered.

Like no matter what life threw at us, we would find a way to make it work. We knew how to adapt
and work a budget. That led us to paying off all of our debt, creating an emergency fund, starting
businesses, and never being scared of money again.

And that's what I want for you. Every day, I get emails from people who are scared to death of the
financial mess they're in. And it's so hard to read those emails and know that the solutions will take
longer than just a 30-minute email.

That's why this course was created. To give free step-by-step help to anyone that needs it.

You've officially graduated but I have two more steps for you to complete. Ready?

Email me your results.

Reply to this email with how the course changed you. Did your net worth change? Did you finally get
your spouse on board? Do you finally feel in control of your money?

I'm a total budget nerd and those emails make my whole day brighter. :)

75
Keep Going.

Your budget, just like the dishes and the laundry, is something that is never truly finished. We still
have weekly budget meetings, and so should you. Going forward, I want you to continue doing the
following:

● Calculate your net worth monthly.

● Create a new budget monthly.
● Have a budget meeting weekly.
● Track your spending either daily or weekly.
● Continue finding 1-3 money-saving substitutions every month. Remember you can print out
the ​money saving workbook​ to help you go through the list.

And don't be a stranger! Reply to any of my emails, ​check in with the Facebook group​ and get
advice or input from the rest of us.

You aren't alone anymore. :)

76