Budgeting

Budgeting

Budgeting

Saving Hacks

Helpful Terms
& Tools

Snowball Method

Budget – The Dreaded B Word

Budget. The dreaded “B” word. Everyone hates making a budget. It gives you feelings of dread, cold chills up your spine. But it doesn’t have to feel that way. In fact, budgeting can be rather empowering. Remember, you are in charge of every single dollar you earn. And making a budget helps you spend those dollars where you want to spend them.

Fair enough – when you pay the rent, the light bill, the water bill, etc., it doesn’t feel like you are in control… but, you made the decision to live where you live, to have running water at the lift of a finger and lights at the click of a switch. How lucky are you? The more you practice noticing all of the things you own, have and enjoy, the more you can create a feeling of abundance instead of dread.

Think about it: in Haiti, 78% of people live on less than $2 a day. More than half of rural households and about a quarter of urban households in sub-Saharan Africa lack easy access to drinking water. In the US, the average household net-adjusted disposal income per capita is USD $41,355 a year versus Mexico which is $13,085. We have a lot to be thankful for here in our country!
So as you take stock of all the things you have, we want to give you some tools on how to make your income work even more in your favor. This handy guide will help you change your mindset about budgeting from dread to empowerment. It will turn it from a chore into something that you do to help take control of your life. You will learn about some tools that can help you track expenses – there are many apps out there, for free, that can give you economic power at your fingertips. You will also get some tips on being conscious about spending your money and ideas on how to save some of that hard earned cash. Finally, we’ll share some tips on debt reduction that can make small amounts of money snowball into big payoffs!
Let’s reframe how powerful you really are and how you wield your power with your money.

Here You
Will Learn

  • To think about budgeting as making empowering decisions about how you want to manage your life (as well as your paycheck).
  • To identify apps and tools that can help you easily track spending.
  • Tips on how to be financially conscious about how you spend your hard-earned cash!
  • How to identify and stop the leaks in your budget.
  • How to use snowball payments to reduce (or eliminate) debt.

Rethinking Spending

When we want to manage our weight, we log what we eat so we are conscious about how we are spending our calories. Budgeting uses the same concept – it’s being financially conscious of where your money is going.

You may feel trapped by your paycheck, but budgeting gives you back the power and control. Creating a budget makes you think about “needs” vs “wants.” When we talk about needs, we’re talking about the bare necessities – food, shelter, etc.​Wants are things like​a new pair of shoes or handbag.

wants vs needs
needs vs wants

We know, despite the best budgeting in the world, its sometimes difficult to stretch your money between paydays – so the first step is to see where the money is going! Once you’ve assessed that, we’ll help you figure out the next steps you can take to financial empowerment. 

Did You Know

If you buy a $5 coffee every day it adds up to $150 a month! If you make around $40k per year, that’s about 5% of your monthly income. On coffee!

Course Content