Welcome to the 52 Pearls Weekly Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and founder of Pearl Planning, and I'm Melissa Friedenberg, financial advisor with Pearl Planning. Pearl Planning is a financial planning and investment management company located in Dexter and Gross Point, michigan. We work with clients all around the country.
Speaker 2:The purpose of our podcast is to explore specific financial topics and provide advice you can use in your everyday life. Hello and welcome to the 52 Pearls Weekly Money Wisdom Podcast. This is Melissa Friedenberg and on this episode the last episode of the summer of 2023, just before Labor Day weekend I'm going to be covering three things you can do to clean up your budget right now. The last few episodes we've talked about a fall cleanup, getting kids back to school and this idea that really fall, especially for moms, is sort of a refresh start over, get things organized from your coat closet to your wallet, and I'm going to stick with that theme. Now, sometimes I fall into a do as I say, not as I do, and all this chatter about cleaning up your finances. My budget has gotten a little out of control myself. One thing for me has been groceries, so I've had to kind of reassess what I'm doing. Two kids in a full sport, so dinner is kind of like a harder thing to sit down and have together as a family. Obviously, back to school, shopping makes you look at your spending and go. What in the actual is going on? Here I identified three areas that I need to kind of clean up, and those three for me yours may be different are again groceries. The second one, apps or automatic reoccurring through Apple purchases. I don't know why, but it has been a long time since I've looked. My kids do need to notify me before they purchase anything, but I am the culprit here. So let's share just real quick kind of how I went through that. And then, lastly, my weaknesses. So stores where I just tend to splurge or buy things I don't need and just sort of cut that out for a few months in order to really kind of bring that budget back down and really prepare for things like Christmas funding. And then often here in Michigan we go away in February just to get out of the cold. So those are two things that I have expenses coming up that I would like to kind of cut back on other stuff that's unnecessary.
Speaker 2:So first things, first groceries. I was going in and this actually is one of the ways that you can cut back on grocery spending is to really plan your meals. So meal planning for us in the fall, especially in fall sports, really has started for my two kids. The practices are at different times, so it's really hard for us to sit down and eat as a family. I was buying stuff to make a meal and cooking it at one point and then somebody eating them cold later. What I realized is that maybe for a few months we're not going to sit down and eat one big meal. So my new goal is just to have two family meals per week, and that may just be like Friday night and Sunday night. I'm buying some things that are lighter meals and maybe two meals so one before your sports practice and then one at eight o'clock at night when we're all home as well as some things that my teenagers can cook on their own.
Speaker 2:But what I was doing was buying like the infamous, like biasing of spinach or salad and throw it out in three days because nobody touched it. What really helped me? Instead of going in and to the store and thinking what looks good, what's on sale, what am I going to buy this week? What am I going to cook? Kind of on the fly, I'm doing the Kroger Click List for a majority of my groceries, which I'm a huge fan of. You can do it where you know it's shipped to your house, or use one of those services where people shop for you and deliver. There are extra fees associated with that. I pretty much get the free Click List, because I get enough groceries at a time that it doesn't cost me anything to do. They put it right in your trunk. You can schedule a pickup on the way home from work and you can put everything in your car at like 11 pm and that's what I like about it.
Speaker 2:But really thinking about okay, instead of doing the it's called Start your Car, at least at Kroger, where you kind of just get things you always get every week. I'm actually taking an inventory and you're probably listening and going yes, melissa, this is how most people grocery shop, but again, everybody's case is different. For me, this is where my kind of grocery budget got out of control, because I would just be like, oh, we probably need this, we probably need that, probably need paper towels, and just throwing stuff into the cart. So it really for me was taking a look at what do we actually need, how many rolls of paper towels do we have left, how much laundry detergent do we have left? And really being aware of what we need and then not putting in the things that we don't need and again just not going into the store for me keeps me from buying like, oh, we need vitamins, or maybe we're low on Advil, right, like these things add up. So I'm really just thinking about what it is that we need. And then, to be honest, because there's so much food waste at this season for our family, I'm doing some cheaper meals, I'm doing less protein because my kids aren't huge fans of meat, and what was happening is I'd buy a thing of turkey and then it was like oh, not tonight Tonight's pizza night, oh, not tonight, so-and-so ate here, and the other person just made themselves this right. So I'm not buying like five meals worth of protein. Instead I'm buying again one or two, making sure that the dates will last throughout the week, so if dinner doesn't happen on Tuesday night, we can have it on Friday night, and this is very specific to my case.
Speaker 2:But just looking at where your budget's getting out of control and identifying those areas and then coming up with a way to really kind of bring that back to a comfortable level is what it's all about. You don't have to do a spreadsheet. Trust me, I love spreadsheets for budgets, don't get me wrong. But this is just kind of touching back and saying okay, what's going on here? Where's the overspending? Why is it happening? For me personally, it was groceries and tossing out groceries that didn't get cooked, not doing a big weekly thought out grocery order Instead stopping at the local little market every night for a meal half an hour before I cook it. So I was buying things from this little market that I should have been getting from a major grocery store chain out of convenience. Now, if your budget's not out of control and you have the money to just do it, I get it. Just survive, however you can, but for me, I was looking at my spending and the groceries had to change. That's where I'm at Number two. I got a notification, like I always do, that something was renewing for Apple or that it had renewed. Of course, it lets you know that you just paid $19.99 for something.
Speaker 2:I also I'm in a book club and I sometimes couldn't finish the book. I love reading a book, like the paper version. I subscribed to Audible to help me so that I can listen while I do stuff around the house. As I said, I prefer to read a paper book, so I have the subscription to Audible. I went in to get my book club book for the month and I realized that I have like four books available. So I paused my auto subscription to Audible and it got me thinking, like what else do I have in these reoccurring monthly fees? I went into my phone and, just for those of you who maybe haven't done it in a while, I mean obviously a quick Google search you can pull it up. But I'm going to go through the steps because it's so easy. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you go into the settings, you tap on your Apple ID, like so either the name or if you have an avatar, and tap subscriptions, and I will tell you.
Speaker 2:It was very eye-opening to see what I'm paying. Some of them were annually and some of them were monthly, but I would say I was only using half of them and that's sad. So I ended up finding ones that are renewing in October and they're annual ones and they're like 1999, a year, which when you're buying an app, it doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're buying something that's 20 bucks a year that you never use, so like, for instance, one of the things I was paying $20 a year for is an app for swim meets. My kids did not swim this summer. They do summer swim this is the first summer because they're getting older and focusing on other sports where I just said, okay, you don't have to do it, I am still paying for this app that really helps you Follow along with your swim team at meets. Love the app. Worth $20 a season to do. But, as I said, I paid for it in the last year and my kids have not even swam. So I Just want to say I realize that I tell people all the time to check these things. I myself had not checked it. So I had audible which was like 1599 a month. I was paying and not using for the last four months.
Speaker 2:I had an annual for 1999 and then this one was like how did I let this go on? I have one that's $50 a year. It's an app to send out text invitations to parties. I Purchased it for Jay's 50th and it was an auto renew, so Jay is now 53. That one sat. I mean, that's 150 bucks over three years.
Speaker 2:It's not gonna make a huge dent in my monthly budget. But why? Why did I have that reoccurring and just not know. I don't know why. Then there were some smaller ones, and I say smaller like or 99 a month, right, but if if you're able to get rid of three of those which I did so like, let's call it $15 a month. There's that, it all adds up. So again, you're gonna go to settings, click on your Apple ID or avatar name, tap subscriptions and it will show you. It won't necessarily say right there whether they're monthly or Annually. It'll tell you when they renew again one which was $50 a year and I'm very happy that I caught that one Not gonna make a huge dent in my overall monthly budget.
Speaker 2:But why would I just throw money away on apps? I'm not using the other area, which is an issue for a lot of people not so much for me personally, because I'm not a huge TV watcher the TV apps, right. So if you have a show that maybe you can only watch on Hulu and Then you're done watching that show and you haven't revisited Hulu, you're probably paying 10, 11 bucks a month for it. So we do have Netflix. That's the only reoccurring monthly. But if you have Disney Plus, if you have Hulu, if you have Apple TV, I mean, are you using these things? Because if you're not, it's time to really tighten that down and think about what you're paying for on a monthly basis and what you're actually using.
Speaker 2:And, lastly, the category for me of Things that I spend money on, that I don't need to spend money on our household decor, rugs, pillow covers and I love to refresh these things at change of season. But this year, with my kids needing so much back to school stuff, I decided to really just cool it, and that, for me, is an easy way to kind of say alright, I'm spending a lot in these areas. What do I not have any self-control on? For a while, it was J crew and all I did to identify this is look through my credit card expenses and be like, okay, so every month I'm spending like a hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars here and I don't even remember what I purchased. So for me, right now, in this season of my life, it was TJ Maxx and HomeGoods.
Speaker 2:And for those of you that know me know it kills me to do this, but I just decided that I'm not going to click on the new arrivals email when it comes to my inbox and I'm not gonna go there. When I happen to be in a shopping center that has a TJ Maxx, I'm not gonna pop in and just let TJ Maxx tell me what I need to buy, because that will save me hundreds of dollars over the course of three months or so, and so that's all I'm doing is I'm just saying you know what. These things are not necessary. There are other things that I would rather have with this money, like more money in my budget for Christmas and also a nice warm weather vacation come February. So I am gonna furgo the pillow refresh because, lord knows, I have a linen closet that has pillow covers. I haven't seen in years and I can make myself feel good about those pillow covers or the throw rug pile in the basement that I could refresh the rug at the entryway with that.
Speaker 2:So again, this is particular to my spending pattern, but the theme here is check and see what areas are you overspending and how am I gonna rain that in? What are some things I can do to kind of bring that down? What are my reoccurring expenses, whether they are streaming services or apps, am I using them? I don't want you to furgo your new season of whatever it is. For me. I'm really looking forward to the new season. Southern Charm is my like guilty pleasure and the new season's coming up at the end of September For me. I don't have to stream that, it's on. We have Comcast, so it's just through there. But however you watch, whatever show it is that you watch, make sure that you're not paying $5 a month for something you're not using. And check your Apple iPhone for those reoccurring apps and make sure you're using them.
Speaker 2:Lastly, what are your extra things that you spend money on that? If the budget really, if you need to make some room in it for other things, what can I cut back on and just avoid it? And maybe it's just limiting the temptation Again saying for the next month or two, I am not gonna step foot in a TJ Maxx, like I had to do, or in previous years it's been JCrew, and I just unsubscribe from their emails and unfollow them on Facebook so that I don't get ads with cute tops that I don't need. So those are the things that I have to do for my own self-control, because I realize that it's hard to have self-control, so I know my own personal triggers.
Speaker 2:I hope that you found this episode helpful and, if you are struggling with some things in your budget, like I have, make those changes. The fall is a great time to reset your budget, and those are my three tips for the day. We do have a little special clip here at the end, melissa Joy kind of talking about an exciting refresh for the 52 Pearls Weekly Money Wisdom coming at you after Labor Day. So take a listen. You can access our first two seasons of this podcast on our website at wwwpearlplancom or on Spotify.
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