In this video, we are going to be talking about finances. That was the next exercise that we did together. Udemy so God tell me what was your struggle with finances? Ah, budgeting, budgeting? Well, I don't know how much to really spend on things and I've never I've given a thought and I've tried to do budgeting over the years people different people tried to help you know financial planner. Friend, brother, but they get too personally involved but they want it their way.

Yeah. So I got to think about afterwards and, and nothing was resonates with me. And I thought I don't know if this is gonna work for you, but I'm going to try it now since I'm getting the help. Let's go do it. Because I didn't realize until I started doing it. That how much now Making a difference.

You can keep going that way. But I didn't. I didn't have a clue. Yeah. So when I was talking with you the during the session, I sensed a lot of frustration and a lot of stress, because she didn't know how much money she was allowed to spend in the different things, right. She was going grocery shopping, and she didn't know how much money she had for groceries.

And then she never knew how much money she could spend in clothes or in going out for restaurants and things like that. So she needed to bring clarity into her financial life. So what we did, we did, we started with a spreadsheet, and then we started tracking all the income, and then all the expenses, we went back three months. And then we kind of track all the categories like groceries, eating out, taxi, everything that you were spending, I mean, we try to kind of monitor everything. We try to create a budget that was for her, like, basically that she's not spending more than what she makes every month. And then one of the systems Have we created together?

Was yes tonight? Because I have I have to be able to see the cash coming in going. I have to see what how much. Yeah. And so I got really creative. Yeah.

And much more to say this week but it's working. It's working good now, but I I'm still struggling with setting each time I'm been. So she's somebody visual person and she loves crafting as you can see. So she created this amazing system. So what I did is I made up these file folders here and made up what each category was on the spreadsheet. That was amazing what you did for me there because I could never do stuff on the computer for it.

And I was even going back to the spreadsheet and and changing tweaking it, tweaking it and saying, oh, maybe I don't need that much for boss or whatever. But I got it together. Once again with that, I could never do that manually or even on the computer but you have no idea how grateful I am for that because just working with you on this, it just seems so comfortable and just it just comes to me whereas anything anyone else I've ever done this with I'm just I have a negative feeling Not this time. So then inside I'm using a back to DC I have one other thing, but I just got money for the first part of the month and I realized I really do have to the whole month but just getting started so just use these. I can throw you know, I just throw the passion here.

And I've got a box to play and it's for fire safety water safety stuff. So on the center dock, so if it'll run, you know, I won't listen to fire. But this is what I have to do. I have to actually see it. If and I have to count Yeah, all this arithmetic is not my specialty. So this took me a long time to figure this out.

Okay, but I just put here so the bus is in here is the money and then I'm putting notes in here when I've gotten like two rides already free that I would have taken the bus. Yeah. So I'm seeing Oh my God, I really get excited. You know, I have some extra money by the end of the month. I can't wait to enter the budget again. So yeah, so this is where I go and then and if I have to, if I'm in rush or something else, grab the whole thing and put it in my bag.

I carry an extra bag. Yeah. So then it goes back in here. And the day when I come home sometimes Yeah. So there's one for groceries. That's how much per month and yeah, I haven't even spent that much yet and it's over half a month already.

Taxi haven't even haven't used that yet. eating out. I still have some money left. And laundry. I'm still figuring that one out because I didn't do any for a couple months and miscellaneous I just want to say that we just set up the system this month. So this is the first month that she's testing the system.

Finding a system for every person is very unique. So it's very important to understand how everybody functions. And in her case, she's very visual, she needs to counting, she needs to, like make it this way. So we will have different ways to do things. This is the way that she can keep up on the system that she feels comfortable with. And you're still tweaking it right.

Yeah. So these are the numbers that are the real numbers that came out of out of the spreadsheet. So now she has a real number to follow. Basically, when when you before he did this spreadsheet to use it go through the last two or three months of your receipts. Yeah. And so I realized that helped so much.

And that's how I got my categories was from a few different places. We're actually groceries. Yeah, that's where I always struggled between equal to one place and you Getting groceries and extra things and, you know, stuff from Berlin or whatever. And it's, I mean, yeah, and your way of doing this and and just getting to go through it on my own. And so these were all the nuts. Got into that.

Yeah. And, you know, for my hairdresser, and now therapy right now I was able to take some money out from some money I have invested. And I have that for the year. So the money is actually already here, and I haven't touched it for anything else. So I've been able to pay for that. And ABG for my computer stuff.

That's how much that was. The other thing I had trouble with is, if I don't see it, yeah, I can't leave that. I can't. If I go into my account and say, oh, wait $12 of that $900 in errors for $12 a month to save up to the end of the year to pay for this. I didn't know how to do that. So to see this Yeah, I know.

Every month now $12 goes in here and I don't touch that. And by the end of the year, I can pay for that. And then of course, there's Merlin. And that's actually the amount for now doing monthly stuff for him, but also for his yearly thing. Yeah. So with Madeline, what happens is that she doesn't have like a $70 a month fee.

What she has is like, so much she needs to pay a bill that there may be $200. She buys food maybe every second month. And then so the expenses are up and down. But when you add up everything, and then you divide it by 12, you have the average of every month. So what she's doing, she's putting $70 away every month because that's a quantity that makes sense for her according to her expenses. And then one month she may not use $70 but the following month, she may use 140.

So that was the way for her to like account for that money. Now I have to have this envelope for two. Yeah, to know like, I've already spent some dollars this month. Yeah. And so I'm like, Oh my gosh, now what am I gonna do, right? But next month, I might not spend as I spent that $70 was partly a couple of months of food for him.

So next month it'll be next to nothing just giving his nails done probably. So this that I can see that now and plus what I did by I got a coupon. Yeah. That said, if I kept the coupon and brought their seat back a week later, they were having special on I got a gift card back. And I were using stuff out that store and it's not money. It's in a gift card.

So I just put it back in here. Yeah, I this and I can use it when I go for that stuff in a couple months for him. Another thing that I noticed from her when we were going through the numbers is that she started to become aware of her expanding behavior, right? And that's not something to feel bad about. This is something to become aware of life. Wow, I didn't know that I was spending this more so much money going out for dinner.

Again, I was spending so much money doing this or doing that. And now you're questioning everything that you are doing. wasting it. Yes. And and I'm, I'm feeling okay. So I want to show you the budget that we worked on.

So basically, I know it's small. I don't know if you can see it from there. But basically what we did, we brought the income with the different categories here. And then we brought all the expenses here. And then we brought the total. And then what we did is we did from January, all the way to December, so all the month, so now she can see how much money she's making every month.

She can see how much she's spending every month. And then on the left on the right hand side here but with it with the the average of everything, and that's her budget. So these numbers that you see here. $70 per million 12. She's been playing with these numbers until the expenses equal to the income or less. So basically that she's making sure that she's not overspending every month.

And once she came up with the numbers that she felt comfortable with, that's when she created the envelope system. And that's when she basically brought every quantity here for every month. So this is a great system to get started. Another thing that you were confused with was because you have a credit card, you have a debit card. So the expenses were coming from different ways. And sometimes it's difficult to track and to kind of understand what's happening because you don't have a centralized place, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So right now you are trying to avoid using credit cards for like, at least a first month. Yeah. And then just stick to the system. Yeah, until you kind of become familiar and then I do it for as long as I can.

Every few months, whatever. I I just don't need things. Yeah, I'm with a lot of stuff. The only thing I'm worried about are things for MasterCard is just something breaks down. Or there's an emergency with Merlin yourself. And right now that's the only thing that's going to go on MasterCard.

I'm going to be tempted, believe me, but and but it's gonna take a few months for me to just because those are just numbers, right? Oh yeah, I don't really doubt mine to know I'll probably get it wrong one of this and then, but it's but I get it now I get this like I'm looking at this I'm playing with it. I don't look at this as much but I'm looking at the numbers to see what I can, what I can work with and I'm still in flow and it's good. And everything that you are saving every month we're gonna be working on creating that emergency now is that emergency fund is basically extra money that you have, hopefully in a different account that you don't use unless it's a really an emergency something out of the ordinary and she's working towards that and then that will create a lot of Peace of mind for you.

Because if the coffeemaker breaks, something extraordinary happens one month, you have that extra money to do it, right? Yeah. But this is God, this is a reality for a lot of people. A lot of people are on very limited income, and we just have to make the benefit, right? We just have to try. And that's why systems like this, help you do the best you can with what you have.

Yeah. And I think you're doing a really good job. I think I'm very impressed with what you have created. And I think it's gonna work really well for you. And I think that once you use the system a few months, you're going to feel really comfortable you're going to know I mean, it's kind of become less of a hassle for you to try to follow us. Because cannot be become a habit.

Yeah, right. So I mean, we just keep this pronounced it works. And I was thinking about changing it there, but I'm gonna hang on to that because maybe down the road, they don't need to have such this sort of thing. Just keep them all in there and and that's all on me. So just reducing size space. Whatever, perfect, but no, this, this works good.

And you know, I don't think I was really, maybe I just never had been ready for this stuff. And this was something that you were planning on using Yeah, instead of that, because these are so big to put in my body. My friend gave me this to use, I thought this is good to put them all in, okay, but these are to wipe the box after this, okay? So I'm thinking, I'll still use this for a while maybe down the road, I'll tweak it and maybe just put the stuff in here. And then this will be easier just to pull it out in my bag and go perfect. Whereas right now, this actually makes me work out a little bit.

I think that's it, but that's good. So that's the thing, you create a system, you start using it testing it, and you have to start tweaking it when you feel frustrated. Like, how can I change this frustration and then for you now that this is a little bit too loud, so now you're tuning into this system, and it's gonna get better and better and better? The more you use it, right? Yeah, so it won't be perfect. From day one, but you are working your way from the beginning of doing the coating to is you've been constantly reminding me, which has been really good and encouragement of you, you know, don't have to be perfect.

It doesn't have to be right it doesn't you don't have to go fast at it go at your pace. However it works for you for to work with you. And how you say, you know, you might want to tweak it a bit, just test it for a while, the words that you're using this resonate for me to say, when I'm starting to feel anxious or something or that, I don't know if I can do it, like, you'll come up with the words like that of I remember that same starting stuff and just don't we're just gonna go for a month here and just, you know, take maybe, you know, take take a couple weeks to just play with it or whatever, but you gotta sit back and test it out. Because I do know that you are trying your best. And I know I do know that a system like this is My PC to implement right?

It takes a while. So that's why it's better to get started, even if it's not going to be perfect, but then you are getting used, you are running into those small challenges that you have to change. So the sooner you get started, the sooner that you will improve the system. Yeah. And the sooner that you will get to where you want to be now, we will have different bases. So you just have to do your best.

And sometimes your best takes three months. So for some people, for some people is two months. Doesn't matter. I'm learning all that stuff. Now. I'm 16 years old.

I'm just learning this stuff. Now. I've had someone say to me, I told him this even at the store on May 7 2019. I'm just learning budgeting. I'm 60 years old today and she goes, that's great. But yeah, it's not something you're saying.

And I was I was getting kind of perturbed a little bit with what people were saying and seeing means both seriously late to this. Yeah, yeah. But now that I am doing things manually implanting things feels okay for that to be said to me, You have nothing to hide. There's so many people that they won't be able to do something like this. And the fact that you are doing it is great. I was lucky that my family taught me how to do this.

But if they didn't, I wouldn't know how to do this either. That's the thing. I wonder how many people haven't had the chance to do this when you're younger, like myself? Might not my parents never did any of that stuff. And you know, they just never thought about it wasn't. Maybe they just didn't work for them.

I don't know how they did it. We made a video. But we managed and you know, secondhand stuff was all I knew back then. And I think all this stuff in between time I grew up to where I am now. And all things that were going on in my life because I never had that when I was younger. And I didn't have the skills and the tools to work with that to do better.

So I just went crazy over the years and things have happened to every part of my life that now with you know, I'm I'm on a better road in the last at least the last 10 years, you know, clarity after clarity on different things are happening and I guess that's where you see where I'm trying my best I really am because I do want to make something of my life for the rest of you. I have you are creating a lot of change in a few months. I have seen it so I think it was but I got to see it. Pretty amazing. Well, thank you. Thank you.

You've been great.