The One Money Lie Most Couples Believe (That Keeps Them Broke)

What if the real reason you’re stuck isn’t a small paycheck… it’s the lie you keep telling yourself?

In this raw, funny, and eye-opening episode, we spill the tea on our broke days: calculator in hand at Publix, coupon chaos, endless eggs and sodas, and putting stuff back because the budget said no.

We expose the #1 money myth that traps couples: “If we just made more money, everything would fix itself.”

Spoiler: More cash without better habits just means more spending. We did it the hard way — paid off $203,000 in 27 months while raising kids. It sucked sometimes, but it worked.

You’ll laugh, relate, and get simple fixes:

• Track every dollar for 30 days (no judgment)
• Plug one sneaky leak (hello, eating out)
• Set tiny weekly wins together

Stop the cycle. Build real wealth as a team.

Grab our free Money Date Night Kit at matrimonymoney.com and start talking money tonight.

If you’re tired of feeling broke no matter what you earn, this episode is your wake-up call.

Listen now. Share with your spouse. Tell a friend who needs this.

New episode drops weekly — don’t miss it!

FREE RESOURCE:
The Couples Money Date Guide — the exact step-by-step conversation format Sherman and Cristina used before paying off $203K. Download free at the link below.
matrimonymoney.com/links 

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As seen on The Dave Ramsey Show · Fox News · Fox Business

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:00

I know one of the big things that crushes people's budget. Eating out. Eating out is the one that crushes.

Speaker 2 0:10

Okay, okay, okay. Let's ask this question. If you guys had one unlimited luxury that you could have for the rest of your life, like you had endless amounts of money for just one thing. One service, one thing for the rest of your life, your answer would be.

Speaker 0:32

I don't know.

Speaker 2 0:33

If you could have one servant your whole life for free.

Speaker 0:38

He's a lion. What is it? That's not what he would have picked. Well, what is it? Think about it. I don't know. He would pick a chef.

Speaker 3 0:49

Alright, guys, here we go. Another episode of Matrimony and Money. And guess who's back? She's back. Um, did a couple episodes solo. Wanted to do something for the men.

Speaker 2 1:03

They were so good.

Speaker 3 1:04

Um, and ladies, if you listen to this, send it to your husband. Two episodes. Four men by a man.

Speaker 1 1:11

They were so good.

Speaker 3 1:12

So, um, guys, today I'm gonna talk about the one money lie that couples believe that keeps them broke, right? We're gonna talk about that today. We're gonna dive into it. But um, I think we should, you know, reminisce a little bit, go a down, go down memory lane, because I think a lot of people look at sort of where couples are when they meet them. You know, some people mean us now lately, you know, that I used to hear about sort of the stories, you know, that entrepreneurs, business owners, they paid off $203,000 in 27 months, but that's not how we started. So let's give a little story about how we used to grocery shop, right? When we used to go to the store, because we had a budget, it was cash, and uh the grocery store was kind of stressful because we would go around, everything that we put into the car, yes, we're still shopping at Publix, we're shopping as a pleasure.

Speaker 2 2:11

That's what made it harder. So he wouldn't do Walmart meets or you're bougie. Right? He was zoozy on a budget.

Speaker 3 2:18

Listen, if you're ever looking for a great grocery store, Publix is the place. So, but uh but we ever go to the grocery store and literally we would put something in the cart, Christina's calculating on the calculator to the sale down to the penny because we know exactly how much we had to spend.

Speaker 2 2:37

Yeah. Um, and if by any means I zeroed out by mistake or messed it up, I had to start over. I had to be like, that's what mess us up. It'd be like when I would make a mistake with my feet, you know, like tapping, and I would put something in and I couldn't go back and I try to like calculate, well, I put this extra in, so that's another extra hundred dollars, and all this mental math. It was just stressful. But I do remember after a while, I got smart and I got my little coupon book. Yeah, and then it had like a section where you could put pieces of paper. So I would put a paper and then I keep track of it manually.

Speaker 3 3:12

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 3:14

Because I already knew what I was buying, and I knew how much the coupons were for. So before I would go, I mean, this took hours of my life just to grocery trip. Let's say like he saw something that was BOGO, and I'm like, no, you can't buy that BOGO item because now I don't know, and I don't have a coupon, and that's just gonna add whatever many dollars to our total, and maybe, and then he'd be like, hey, let's not do this, let's do that. And I'm like, oh, well, I don't know. So we guesstimate. So they were ties and gotta put stuff back, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 3:46

Yeah, we hey, we get out there, you know how it is, and me, I just try to put the meats first. I want to get the big stuff out of the way. And then she started like, oh boy, hey, hey, we may have a cave. Let's stop.

Speaker 2 3:58

By the time we got some ice cream, there was no budget.

Speaker 3 4:00

There was no budget for ice cream. We eating beef and rice.

Speaker 2 4:05

Miserable. We're it we're eating miserably. And that's what we're eating.

Speaker 3 4:10

It's it wasn't miserable. It was it was a right way. But um, and now we'll go in the grocery store too many times per day. Don't look at the price.

Speaker 2 4:18

What are the two items we bought the most of?

Speaker 3 4:21

Eggs and sodas. So they split it up.

Speaker 2 4:25

You know how they say beans and rice, eggs and soda.

Speaker 3 4:27

So there's a story about stuff. So when we used to coupon, we were really into coupon. It fritter life, we would coupon thing. Um I can't remember. Oh, I do coupon books. Uh Christina used to spend time on the internet trying to punk, you gotta print them all, and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 4:44

My sister-in-law actually became like a couponing queen. And that's when uh I'd say coupon, coupon.

Speaker 3 4:50

Coupon cute coupons. Um, so shout out to all people that really uh coupon because it is a like it's a thing. But anyways, um the job. Someone someone gave us these coupons for uh like coat products.

Speaker 2 5:08

Free 12 pack.

Speaker 3 5:09

Free 12 packon. But then you have to buy one, do you got one free or something? I don't know. It was a free 12 pack. So it was a free 12 pack, and then they would also someone also gave us a a coupon for eggs.

Speaker 2 5:21

Eggland's best. Three dozen.

Speaker 3 5:23

Eglin, Eglin's best, right?

Speaker 2 5:25

Three dozen.

Speaker 3 5:26

Now, my wife, being the rule follower that she is, before because we go to the same public. Before she started.

Speaker 2 5:32

I would make copies of these coupons.

Speaker 3 5:34

Yes, before she started.

Speaker 2 5:34

So it never had an aspiration on only those two. There was no aspiration.

Speaker 3 5:38

Before she started using them, she went to the manager because we know him, and she was like, Are these coupons real?

Speaker 2 5:44

17.

Speaker 3 5:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:46

Um, so she was about faces of something and 2,000 eggs, and then go up there and try to use all my coupons and be rejected in front of everybody. No, that wouldn't happen.

Speaker 3 5:55

So she went and asked them, Are these coupons real? They looked at them, blah, blah, blah. Yes, they're real.

Speaker 2 5:59

You can I copied them, I printed extras out. They don't have an expiration. So many times they said, Yeah, they're legit.

Speaker 3 6:08

We we probably use those coupons for a year. Probably for a year. It was a year, probably for a year. I mean, so you could imagine that you can get free eggs and keep free sodas.

Speaker 2 6:18

Our fruit was to the biggest, so we took what we couldn't. That's the soda. How I have not died of some illness yet. I had no idea.

Speaker 6:27

We used to kill it.

Speaker 2 6:28

We used to kill it. Breakfast, lunch, well, breakfast, luncheon, dinner, luncheon, dinner.

Speaker 3 6:32

Worst case scenario. Worst case scenario that I have six bowl eggs and two sodas for dinner.

Speaker 2 6:38

Yeah. Um, but then eventually, you know, I think we're we're getting into the health industry at this time too.

Speaker 3 6:45

And then uh again, like some people are like, some people are anti-cuponers. I didn't know that because people get people get mad, get pissed off and get behind you because they're not at a wait for you to do all the couponing.

Speaker 2 6:54

We used to, we used to even have the manager walk us out because like the jealousy, like what? They got all those sodas and all that never once until the final moment a year later when I went up and I'm like, hey, just making sure like we don't take them anymore. Yep, they won't refund us, the company. So these Pepsi companies, soda companies were refunding. It was Coca Cole, we're refunding our yeah, I mean it might cost us hundreds of thousands of medical bills later. Yeah, but we had our protein and our carbs for sure.

Speaker 3 7:29

Yeah, it was that was disgusting.

Speaker 2 7:31

It's disgusting.

Speaker 3 7:32

So, okay, so we'll just give you guys a little story because um hilarious. I just want you guys to know that we all had to start somewhere, and that's what we started for eggs and sodas, eggs and best eggs and Coca-Cola. You know, it was all a coke product, so we would mix it up, lemonades, everything.

Speaker 2 7:48

But anyway, I've ever cooked it, how much could sit in our pantry and fridge?

Speaker 3 7:53

Let's talk about let's talk about the one big lie. And the one big lie is if we just made more money, that would just fix all the problems. And guys, I cannot tell you how far that is from the truth, right? Yes, in the short term, you think if you made more money, you're going to just pay off all your debt and pay all the bills and go on vacations. And for a little bit you will do that for sure. But but the issue is that really doesn't most people don't just come across a windfall of money, some do, but you have to start building the habits so that when you had more money, you'll be able to handle, right? You have to be a good steward of your money. So, you know, um, I think that's the biggest lie, right? You have that if you make more money, everything's gonna get better. So if you're in that stage now where you want to make more money, you have debt, you have stuff you want to pay up, you have things you want to do. I challenge you guys to really sit down and create a budget, right? A zero-based budget.

Speaker 2 9:08

It'll be like what does that mean, zero-based budget, you might ask?

Speaker 3 9:11

Okay, so a zero-based budget is let's just say I'm gonna make numbers up. Let's say each month you're gonna be you're gonna bring five thousand dollars home, right? You're gonna bring five thousand dollars home. So that is going to be the top line's five thousand dollars. Then you can put it in your little Excel sheet or you put it on your pencil and paper, however you want to do it, and now you start listing out all of your expenses, right? And you wanna make sure that your income equals the outgoing, right? So let's say you're gonna have a mortgage, you're gonna have hopefully, you're gonna have a car payment, you're gonna have groceries and all of this stuff, you wanted to equal zero dollars. Now, here's the thing: even if you have excess, you still want to make sure you know where that money is going. So a zero-based budget is really key because here's the thing: if your money doesn't have a plan, it's just gonna like it's just gonna go. Because I cannot emphasize this enough, guys.

Speaker 1 10:10

I thought you were gonna say like a cool little like motto. All right, money doesn't have a plan, like a puncher.

Speaker 3 10:15

No, if your money doesn't have a plan, it's just gonna end up everywhere. There's no it's just gone. That's the puncher. Yeah, it's gone.

Speaker 1 10:24

Bam.

Speaker 3 10:24

Oh but here's the thing, because I know again, I I think I talked about this last week. There's a reason that most people they start off when you most times you start off when you're younger, you make less money. As you get older, your income sort of goes up a little bit, whether that's through, you know, you become a better at your job, you get better jobs. But the thing that doesn't change, this is why some people live this way their entire life, they always spend every single dollar that they make, right? Um, and again, whether you're single, spouse, you have to know your money personality so that you can start setting things up for you to be free from this eventually, one day, right? Because if not, you're gonna make, you know, while you're making $40,000, it's gonna be stressed. When you make $100,000, you're gonna get strips because the habits don't change. Correct. The habits don't because there's always gonna be more stuff.

Speaker 2 11:18

I would know.

Speaker 3 11:20

She would know there's always going to be more, right? Right.

Speaker 2 11:24

There's gonna be that always been wise. I know we joke about that, but I ain't wise to them.

Speaker 3 11:28

Yeah, but I'm just saying that always gonna be more. There's always gonna be more clothes, more vacation. No, there's sales, more bills, more sales.

Speaker 2 11:36

Once in a lifetime sales. You have the once-in-a-lifetime sales, you're that will never come back, I'm telling you. People don't blame me. It's true.

Speaker 3 11:45

So, what are you gonna do with that? Yeah, what are you gonna do? I challenge you to don't.

Speaker 2 11:51

And what's what's crazy about the budget is also you have to plan for worst-case scenario. Like if your water bill, you know, was $100 less this month or $50 less, you still base it off the most expensive it's ever been. So I used to always base everything off like the most gas that we'll spend, the most um on electricity we'll spend. And I used to put the worst case scenario, and if there was anything left over, we'd either dump it into our bills or extra spending money or entertainment budget. Um, but that's how we did it. So that's your debt, if you know that sounds like bills, debt. Yep. Um, yeah, so that by the end, um you're not getting like what happened to us the first time. We started this, we got really serious about it. And of course, a car, like our faithful car that there's been no issues besides oil change this whole time. Like, was it the like the there were some pipes or something that needed to be replaced? And I'm like, wait, like, even if I do the worst case scenario and save a little bit, that's still not gonna amount to like $700. Um, so you don't ever want to get like so then we put a car maintenance budget. You remember that line edit? And he's like, What's this for? I'm like, for the next time this happens, we're gonna keep that money in there in case something else breaks or whatever.

Speaker 3 13:15

So, like it does take discipline. I know a lot of people talk about, you know, a lot of people try to talk about, oh, it's not the five dollar coffees and this and that. Well, it is the five dollar coffees when you're doing that every single day, right?

Speaker 2 13:30

And that might mean the difference between like if one of your appliances goes out, now you can buy what if you add up all the coffees you spend five dollars a day. I mean, adds up to a brand new washer if something happens in three months or whatever.

Speaker 3 13:44

Yeah, so I I believe that, you know, again, I'm not not to be strict. Correct. You there is a you know, like there is a suck factor that goes it sucks that that goes along with finally getting control of your finances. I don't want to sit here and tell you that it's always been, you know, for instance, I'll give a little story about when we paid off the 203,000 OBS, right? Again, by that time, obviously we, I shouldn't say obviously, by that time we had become accustomed to living on a strict budget, right? So when our income increased, and it increased a lot, we didn't go out buying stuff, doing more things, going to different places. It was okay, we're gonna live off this, like we've been doing. Now all the excess is going to go towards this debt. And we did that for a couple years. And it sucked because sometimes I'll sit there and look at it's sucked for you. I look at these big papers. We're not living differently, it's fine. We're paying $10,000 a month to these people. Like, man, that's $10,000. We could do stuff, or we could be putting it in retirement or going on a vacation and all that.

Speaker 2 14:52

He was really better.

Speaker 3 14:53

There was a lot of things you could have done.

Speaker 2 14:54

It was in the shulda wulda cuddas.

Speaker 3 14:55

Could I was in the shoulda wulda cuddas. But but we did it, right?

Speaker 15:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3 15:02

Again, a lot of people when they hear, you know, when they hear these type of stories, I mean, we had tons of people talking about also that, well, if I made that type of money, I would do it. And that's not true because whatever money you're making, if you're living on a budget now, you would be paying at least something on your debt, right? Because we all have extra, right? Like, I say all, that's a strong word, but for the most part, everyone goes out to eat some, buys some stuff that they really don't need.

Speaker 2 15:31

And we talked about this before. What if you aren't doing any of those things? There's no luxuries in your life, including going out to eat um movie theaters, uh snacks outside of whatever you spent on your groceries or whatnot, right? Let's say you're being strict and you still come down to zero. We've talked about it before. Yeah. And you're like, what do you think I would say? I say get a second, get a third job and another job. It's true. Like, that's what we had to do. There was a time where I worked three jobs just to make a little extra so that we could do stuff with. Um, so there has to be some sacrifice, and there are some jobs that don't pay much. That's the reality for some people and most people, especially now with you know how the prices are going and inflation, etc. But that means that you have to hustle more. Um, unfortunately, right?

Speaker 3 16:21

Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 16:22

And pray for increase.

Speaker 3 16:24

Yeah, pray and work for increase. Pray and work for increase. For sure. Because that's I think that's one of the biggest things. Uh like that girl that reached out to us, reached out to me. Uh, I put you, put us all in contact. Was she was she was saying, hey, I'd like to talk to you, this and that. Yeah. Then I asked her the question, well, how much because she this this lady that reached out was saying, I I have all this debt, I'd like to talk to you about how to get it under control. I'm like, okay, yeah, no problem. I was like, How much debt do you have? She says, I don't know, a lot. And I say, no, no, no. Step one is figure out exactly how much debt you have down to the penny. That was three weeks ago?

unknown 17:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:05

I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't have known either. Like, I didn't know down to the penny. I would have had to call. There's only your seat alone. It would take time. It wouldn't take time to figure it all out. And that's probably what she's doing right now, is trying to figure it all out.

Speaker 17:17

But three weeks?

Speaker 2 17:19

Yeah, I ain't got time. I got kids. I gotta go shopping. I got no.

Speaker 17:23

You don't have any money in the shop?

Speaker 2 17:24

Yes, I do. For now, I do, and so I find out how much debt I have. Then when I figure it out, then I'll do the math. But for now, ignorance, it's bliss. So I'm gonna do a little a day. I'm gonna find out how many how much student loan debt I had, then credit card debt, then any other random credit cards I might have opened. Is it truth? What if you got what if you just spent balling on a budget your whole life? Well, yeah. You had a lot of research to do. I ain't judging.

Speaker 3 17:54

I'm not judging, but it's not gonna fix it. The problem, not gonna.

Speaker 2 17:57

No, I know. Oh, uh, we're eventually gonna get to it, but if I just need to live in denial for a little bit and until How about longer?

Speaker 18:04

How much longer?

Speaker 2 18:05

I don't know. You can't put a you can't put a time limit on denial, especially in the summer. Listen, let me just get over the summer, and when the school year starts, I can refocus.

Speaker 3 18:16

That's not how it works.

Speaker 2 18:18

It's not how it works. I'm taking you through the mental steps.

Speaker 3 18:21

There's gonna be another later.

Speaker 2 18:24

It is mind-boggling when you start saying, Oh my god, you not that like it's so overwhelming. It is for me, it was. It was just like a slow death.

Speaker 18:35

A slow death. It's a flow.

Speaker 2 18:37

You're like, okay, this is it. No, but we have more. Uh uh.

Speaker 3 18:42

It's a flow death death to get your finances in order. Yes. First world problems. It's not a flow death.

Speaker 2 18:48

It is to get your finances because it is a surprise. It's like, I forgot we sent that much on my wedding ring. Oh, I forgot I bought my dress from this designer. Like, I'm just giving real world examples. That that didn't happen to us. We didn't have those had ours was pretty much only suit-along. But I mean, if you live like some of the people that we've met with, the sky's the limit. People take lavish vacations and trips without money, just on credit. So you're like, oh, I forgot we went to New York and spent $20,000. And we're like, oh, okay, let's add that to the total. I mean, it happens quick, is all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 19:27

It does. No, it does.

Speaker 2 19:28

And I it's mind-boggling sometimes.

Speaker 3 19:30

Um, and I believe that, you know, like it's funny you would say that, like, about a New York trip, like the big trips, you know. But a lot of times it's the little things, it's the small to mean size things that add up consistently.

Speaker 2 19:43

And I know which is a lot of the little things, which takes time to figure out.

Speaker 3 19:48

Listening to this, if you listen to this, I know one of the big things that crushes people's budget eating out. Eating out is the one that crushes.

Speaker 2 19:59

Okay, okay, okay. Let's ask this question. If you guys had one unlimited luxury that you could have for the rest of your life, like you had endless amounts of money for just one thing, one service, one thing for the rest of your life, your answer would be I don't know. If you could have one service your whole life, somebody do something, like you just for free.

Speaker 20:28

Uh uh clean the house? I don't know. He's a liar. What is it? That's not what he would have picked. Well, what is it? Think about it. I don't know. I don't think he would pick a sh a chef. Oh, see, I would oh yeah.

Speaker 2 20:41

One thing. Oh one one service, one like somebody do that to go the rest of your life, like one luxury you can spend all your money.

Speaker 3 20:48

No, but oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 20:50

Yeah, but uh but that's why is because it's the one thing. Like, if I had somebody, you know how fit I would be if I had a personal chef and I'm like, listen, I just want to eat paleo, but make it all get like Yeah, I wish I had a chef.

Speaker 3 21:03

I mean, I'd be like Laura City Tree, so I'd have a personal chef that would cooks.

Speaker 2 21:09

I think that would be your only luxury. You wouldn't spend up any more money on anything else.

Speaker 3 21:14

I think cooking is for poor people. We're super poor. It is for poor people. But it just takes up so much time, man. You gotta think about your.

Speaker 2 21:27

Is it because you're not exposed to like people with money or beyond, and they all have personal chef. If I knew nobody had that.

Speaker 3 21:34

If I have a personal chef, man, oh my god.

Speaker 2 21:37

Now you're a personal chef, and the way we're spending money on food right now, it might add up. Just hit us up. We we need to do the numbers because if it adds up, it adds up. But it's the one this is why, because it's the one thing people don't want to have to do. Yeah. I would I would argue that yes, cleaning, I'd rather clean than have to figure out a meal for every single person that everybody's Love and be creative every single night of my life, especially when you have children. Yeah, and then that's healthy, and that as much as we know now being in the industry for so long, Coke ain't gonna cut it. No, yeah, I guess it'd still cut it, but Coke's not gonna cut it.

Speaker 3 22:14

No, for sure. And I think that Pho, I think that the eating out is one of the things that's the hardest to cut because everyone, quote unquote, everyone sort of does it, right? It's a social thing.

Speaker 2 22:27

It's so fun. Somebody surgio, then bless them.

Speaker 3 22:31

Um I'm sorta, not sort of, I'm cleaning up my nutrition right now, blah blah blah. And some friends were here the other night and they're like, oh, we should go out to eat to this restaurant. And no, no, we just jump to go, but I'm like, I'm locked in. Like I'm locked into my plan.

Speaker 2 22:47

I'm like this.

Speaker 3 22:48

And there, yeah, see the halfway out the door. And they were like, I was like, Well, I'm not going.

Speaker 2 22:53

I don't care if you're like, oh, okay.

Speaker 3 22:55

Like, I'm not going.

Speaker 2 22:56

Okay.

Speaker 3 22:57

So bye. And everyone was shocked. Christina. I'm like, he's kidding. Full transparency. Christina gets upset at me, like, well, I guess you've spoken so much.

Speaker 2 23:06

So you still love us? You don't want to be out with us? I was like, I didn't say eating. You don't want to share a meal.

Speaker 3 23:12

At home.

Speaker 2 23:13

The Last Supper? I'm like, when is this?

Speaker 3 23:15

So the eating out is definitely a big thing.

Speaker 2 23:18

Okay, biblically, eating together was a thing.

Speaker 3 23:20

Yeah, we eat at home. The groceries I got from public. Oh so eat at home. So guys, listen, like if you listen to this, seriously. Look at your uh look at your eating out, right? Don't be afraid of look at that's the one I'm afraid of. Because that's the one that'll for us.

Speaker 2 23:35

But I supporting local businesses. You're welcome. And you're dude is fantastic.

Speaker 3 23:40

Yeah, supporting the local businesses.

Speaker 2 23:42

Yes, me and my children.

Speaker 3 23:43

There's one way to look at it.

Speaker 2 23:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:45

Oh, guys. Yes, you make money too. Let's talk about some ways to fix this, right? The first thing, the first one is you need to track every single dollar that you spend for 30 days. No judgment, track every single dollar, right? Like you can get an app to do it, um, you can do it manually, but you need to track every single dollar that you spend. Because when you do that, you just go again, don't try to change anything. Naturally, you're gonna sort of change it a little bit because you're gonna say, well, I don't want to put that down. But but like tracking your tracking your finances for 30 days strictly really goes a long way because it's very eye-opening, right? It's very eye-opening.

Speaker 2 24:28

If you're like I would argue that even during that month that you're doing that, you start rethinking things so you're starting to see the numbers, buddy. At last week and a half, you're not, it's not like a true account. You should probably have somebody else track you because you start doing like I started making decisions that I wouldn't. I'm like, oh, we're not gonna go to Chick-fil-A today.

Speaker 3 24:49

Or what you could do, you actually retroactively go back and track your previous 30 days. Just to sit down and do that. Like, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 24:57

You're gonna be fake, and we don't like fake. You definitely will definitely getting Chick-fil-A and then getting your nails done. So we're not doing that.

Speaker 3 25:05

You definitely will switch it a little bit.

Speaker 2 25:07

The stop by Sephora. We're all doing that.

Speaker 3 25:08

So maybe a better way is to look at your last 30 days, look at everything you spent, categorize it, and you're gonna see how much money you're sort of literally. You're looking at how it's making it gonna leak out. So I challenge you guys when you do that, track your finances, look at the previous 30 days, look for one small leak that you can stop, right? That's it's not gonna kill you. You're not gonna. So maybe it's eating out, maybe it's I don't know what you people do. Well, what do you do? Maybe it's going to Target. Maybe you say a leak. Judge eat much. Jumpy said, I eat everything.

Speaker 2 25:46

I get your deodorant and body wash from there.

Speaker 3 25:49

I'm just saying, maybe you don't seen call you one.

Speaker 2 25:51

I don't care.

Speaker 3 25:51

Maybe you don't go to the thing, right? Start. Look at one little leak. Because again, when you I mean, tell the truth. Like when you really, like, when you really sell into a budget, a lot of times people have, well, they should have more money left over than they're really having, right? I mean, we were having someone, and they were like, so you know, we we did the whole zero-based budget, and they had about a couple thousand dollars left over per month, and they were blown away. And they were basically flushing it all down the toilet, doing, eating out, and just doing whatever they wanted.

Speaker 2 26:29

That happened at us, too. Yeah. I mean, with as little as we pay. So we were shocked to see how much we were spending.

Speaker 3 26:34

So when you have that zero-based budget, it really is an eye-opener because you see that. Oh, so I can really do this. And again, once you get into the groove of things, it's just gonna make everything.

Speaker 2 26:46

Then you set your boundaries, then you set your rules. Okay, we're only gonna go out twice a week. Once for lunch, we can do that. And then twice per week? We did that. We act personally did that.

Speaker 3 26:56

Me and you did that twice per month or twice per week?

Speaker 2 27:00

We went out to eat twice per week. We wouldn't have one lunch at like a Chick-fil-A or whatever or a Chipotle. We would we were allotting ourselves in our budget.

Speaker 27:10

Okay.

Speaker 2 27:10

One one lunch a week and one dinner a week as a family.

Speaker 3 27:13

Let's think I go up. She's like a little up.

Speaker 2 27:16

We were also running a gym and working our butts off.

Speaker 3 27:19

Well, oh, there's excuses, guy. There you go. Look, we deserved it. We're working hard.

Speaker 2 27:24

Well, the same thing.

Speaker 3 27:25

What into America?

Speaker 2 27:26

I was cooking every other meal. Breakfast at the dinner.

Speaker 3 27:30

You should be cooking.

Speaker 2 27:31

I told Sortenato get punch on here. Because I literally will do something. Anyway.

Speaker 3 27:37

Oh. So yeah, guys, so here's the thing here's the three easy fixes. One, track your finance, look at your previous 30 days, right? Once you do that, two, figure out one sort of leak that you can stop, right?

Speaker 27:49

That's good.

Speaker 3 27:49

Like whatever the thing is, figure it out. Look at like look at your budget, say, Oh, I'll be coffee every morning.

Speaker 2 27:55

Cut it out, make your own.

Speaker 3 27:56

Correct. And then three, if you're single, you know, talk to a friend. If you're married, you guys set a win for the week, right? Set one thing that you want to be about, hey, I don't want to spend more than, you know, X amount of money this week, right? Whatever it is. I I want, you know, hold me accountable. I don't buy coffee this week. Whatever it is, that's good. You guys set a win together so that you can so you start getting some wins. That's the reason I like the debt snowball. We're not gonna dime that. That's the reason I like the debt snowball, the way it rolls. It sort of just gives you more motivation as you pay out more debt, and it starts to get like a game, sort of gamify the next day, you know, you're crushing it. Same thing with the same way, the same thing with not spending every down that you get, right? Like a lot of people just say, oh, just just like make more money, this and that. Like, yes, that you definitely want to increase your income, that type of thing. I'm all about making more money. I love to make more money, I love to make a lot of money, but before you get to that point, you have to figure out how to level what you make, right? And I think that's a you know, I think that's an underutilized thing that's going on now because everyone's just like more and more and more, because you can spend more time with your family if you didn't have to make as much money, right? Like, really think about that, right? If it only cost us, I'm just making numbers up, if it only cost us three thousand dollars a month to live, well, I really don't need thirty thousand dollars a month. Like it'll be nice, but I don't necessarily need it, right? Um, so I challenge you guys, figure out how you can live on what you're making because that is going to be the one thing that's gonna help you as you become wealthier, as you start making more money, you gotta know how to live on a budget and be okay with it. Because here's the thing one of the things that we do, like everything is based off of percentages. Like about like I love percentages because that just keeps everything fair. So, like, fair, um, that just keeps everything in check, right? So if our splurge budget is 20% of our income, well, if I make a million dollars a year, 20% of that is $200. Sounds crazy, right? It is. Well, for someone making a million dollars a year, that's their 20%. Someone making $20 a year, their 20% is totally different, right? It's totally different. And that's the thing I believe that like social media sort of hurts us because we get on there, we're looking at everyone's highlight reel, and then we feel like we're not doing enough when you are, because you don't know if Christina and her friends are out there doing all this stuff, having a great time, uh skiing, shopping, uh flying first class if they're doing it all with debt, all with credit cards, right? You don't know.

Speaker 1 30:57

Right.

Speaker 3 30:58

So don't worry about what they're doing, run your game plan because it's a beautiful thing to be on the other side and be in control of your finances, right? Again, like one of my great buddies, he always tells me, hey man, prepare for times when things are going great. And you're prepared for times when things are going down. Because it's always gonna be ebbs and flows, right? So you wanna make sure that you're prepared when things flow down, right?

Speaker 2 31:25

So at the time of planning, just like the Joseph story, you prepare for those times when things aren't be gonna be going so great, when they're more scarce. Um, that way you always have a reserve, and that's the biblical principle behind that. So, guys, because it is gonna happen.

Speaker 3 31:41

It is no matter how much money you make, it's gonna be ebbs and flows, right?

Speaker 2 31:45

No matter how much money you make, because you think you're used to something and then it correct.

Speaker 3 31:48

It's gonna be ebbs and flows. Yeah, sweet creases again. Um I want to challenge you guys to, you know, you couple listening to this.

Speaker 2 31:55

Can I say, can I say?

Speaker 3 31:57

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 31:58

I like that last point that you made. What you made the point about give yourself some wins because I remember when we were doing this, we did the same thing. And one of my wins was I was gonna go however long as possible, like till a certain goal. Because we used to have this sheet with all the balloons on it, and every time we paid off a certain amount of debt, we would clip $1,000.

Speaker 3 32:18

Every time I paid.

Speaker 2 32:20

We did a thousand dollars, we would circle a balloon, and then at the end, that was our whole debt paid off, right? So I remember I was like, okay, until the next thousand dollars, my sister-in-law had and I had talked on the phone and we were like, okay, I'm gonna help you coupon for makeup. Now I have highly sensitive skin, very, very sensitive scars easily, and I have what's called psoriasis, and it shows up on my face if I don't use the right things or whatever. So I was always religious about a certain extensive brand, just for my foundation, and I love makeup. So my foundation was a certain brand, but everything else could be whatever, you know, low budget items, and I would just do my makeup with that stuff. So, anyways, I was like, okay, I'm gonna go all the way down to the extensive item, and I'm gonna do drugstore for a while. Since they got remaining all that, I still got skies all over my face.

Speaker 3 33:13

What was the point of that story?

Speaker 2 33:15

Because I ended up using so low budget I know it was a sacrifice. I won, I did the win, but I'm squawking. It was the one thing I regret. The only one that I was like, I had psoriasis, breakouts, rashes, my face was constantly burning and irritating. But the makeup makeup was awesome. And then the more I irritated, the more makeup out, I'm like, oh my god, please let's get to the thousand dollars. So I can go back to Mac. Yeah.

Speaker 33:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2 33:48

That's that's my time it didn't go away. The most of the time your wins are gonna be so clean them out. I think a thousand dollars is all nice. I just I don't know. It took us a while to get that thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 33:59

So, yeah. Um, so guys, um, you listen to this. Here's the thing. If you like, I just want to get started again. I'm gonna get that free money date night kit off of our website, matrimonymoney.com. There's all those resources on there because I want you guys sitting down, really talking about this, right? It is going to be a game changer for you if you actually start it. Right, right? You have to start it. We want to make it's easy for you. So get started. Because again, in six months, you'll thank yourself if you really started, get on the track. Right? And awfully, we love to celebrate with you, walk alongside you to do the thing because we've been there. And again, it's a great thing to be on the other side. There's a little pain when you're going through it, but hey, that's part of life, right? To reach new levels, you have to do what you do what you have to do. What do they say, uh, new levels, new devils?

Speaker 2 34:55

My motto has always been make the necessary sacrifices even when it hurts.

Speaker 3 35:00

So be dead. So make the necessary sacrifices even when it hurts you guys. It'll be worth it. So we're gonna get ready to get out of here, guys. So as always, tell a friend to tell a friend to tune in, and we will chat with you guys next week. Alright.A