Imagine transforming your financial life from confusion to clarity – that's the journey we're embarking on today. We'll explore the power of budgeting, not as a way to restrict yourself, but as a tool to take charge of your money.
In this episode we dive into the importance of proactive budgeting for upcoming expenses and looking back at past spending habits, something that has greatly influenced my personal financial journey.
We'll also uncover the fantastic features of the Simplifi budgeting app, showing how it can revolutionize how you manage your money while making things easier and more collaborative.
This episode isn't just about budgeting mechanics; it's about the discipline and financial awareness that come from tracking your expenses. With Simplifi's user-friendly interface, categorizing transactions is a breeze, helping you build better spending habits.
As I share my own journey towards financial discipline, you'll see how the app's reporting features let you analyze your spending patterns, preparing you to meet future financial goals with precision.
Whether you're navigating finances on your own or with a partner, the insights and tools we discuss today are here to give you the confidence to take control of your finances and lead a stress-free financial life.
Check out the Simplifi App
You Might Like:
Imagine transforming your financial life from confusion to clarity – that's the journey we're embarking on today. We'll explore the power of budgeting, not as a way to restrict yourself, but as a tool to take charge of your money.
In this episode we dive into the importance of proactive budgeting for upcoming expenses and looking back at past spending habits, something that has greatly influenced my personal financial journey.
We'll also uncover the fantastic features of the Simplifi budgeting app, showing how it can revolutionize how you manage your money while making things easier and more collaborative.
This episode isn't just about budgeting mechanics; it's about the discipline and financial awareness that come from tracking your expenses. With Simplifi's user-friendly interface, categorizing transactions is a breeze, helping you build better spending habits.
As I share my own journey towards financial discipline, you'll see how the app's reporting features let you analyze your spending patterns, preparing you to meet future financial goals with precision.
Whether you're navigating finances on your own or with a partner, the insights and tools we discuss today are here to give you the confidence to take control of your finances and lead a stress-free financial life.
Check out the Simplifi App
You Might Like:
It's not our planned bills and expenses that throws us off. I've never known anyone that overpaid on their rent or sent too much money to Netflix. No, it is that discretionary spending where we go overboard. So when you log into Simplify's spending plan, it's wonderful because you can see exactly how much money you have after your bills. Hey, this is Allison, and welcome to the Inspire Budget Podcast, where we talk all things budgeting, debt and saving money. Now, if you have debt, or if you're just sitting here thinking, oh my goodness, I want 2024. I want this year to be different. When it comes to money, you're not alone.
Speaker 0:I remember whenever my husband and I totaled up our debt. It was our wake up call that led me to face our finances, to deal with our money and learn how to write a budget. And a budget is one word that I thought meant that I had to cut back on what I enjoyed spending money on, like vacations and little luxuries. I honestly viewed budgeting as a punishment for my financial mistakes or just a really harsh reminder of the debt that was weighing us down. But here's the beautiful truth I discovered Budgeting isn't about restricting, it's about empowering. It's about giving your money a mission and a purpose. It's about peace of mind that comes from knowing you're in control. You'll have no more anxiety over unexpected fees, no more just getting by. I learned that a well-planned budget doesn't take away. It gives. It gives clarity, it gives goals and, yes, it even gives room for enjoying your life. Now, I am a big paper and pencil budgeter, mostly because when I first started budgeting, I didn't have any other way that I would budget. That's exactly how I personally learn, but I know that there are so many people out there that see paper and pencil budgeting as a barrier to them. It's this roadblock they would have to overcome to make a budget work or manage their money better, which is why I think apps are such a wonderful tool when it comes to managing your finances. That's exactly what we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker 0:I'm going to give you a little behind the scenes of my favorite budgeting app. Now, if you've been here a while, you know that I personally use and love Quickin to track my spending. I've been using Quickin for probably over 10 years now, and it has been instrumental in helping me know my money better and make more informed decisions when it comes to my money. Now, I love Quickin, and a few years ago they came out with a great app called Simplify. So I signed up for it and I've used it to write my budget for this month and really dive into what this app offers, and it is incredible. I do want to mention that this episode is sponsored by Simplify, but everything I'm sharing are 100 percent my own opinions.
Speaker 0:Before I dive into using a budgeting app, I want to talk about the benefits of it, because, as technology advances, budgeting apps are becoming so much better. They are nothing like the budgeting apps I downloaded more than five years ago. They are so incredibly intuitive, and when I was working on the Simplify app, one thing I liked about it was that it's an app and I can go online to the dashboard there, which means that I can work on my finances on my phone or on my computer. This makes it really easy and simple to track where your money is going, recategorize everything and just have an overall great picture of your finances. Another benefit with a budgeting app that I don't have as a paper and pencil type of person, because I budget with paper and pencil is the app goes with you everywhere. I never leave my phone here at home and go off somewhere. I always have my phone with me, but I don't always have my budget with me. I don't always have my spending plan or my money plan with me, but when you have your spending plan or your money plan on an app like Simplify, you can take it with you wherever you go. This is a benefit that people who just use paper and pencil just don't have the option of, or it's really annoying to have to carry that around with you and worry about it getting wet or lost or ripped up. Another thing that's really great about an app, especially this one, is that you can share the data with a partner. So, for example, my husband can log in to the Simplify app and we can see our joint finances right there, all in one place. A lot of apps don't offer this, but Simplify does, which is great, and it doesn't cost you anything extra, which is a big plus in my book.
Speaker 0:I wanna break down three really important things to look for when it comes to a budgeting app or a budgeting program in general. The first one is the ability to actually create you guessed it a budget or a spending plan. So when I was going into Simplify's app, I loved how intuitive it was. You see, whenever I personally budget, I write out my income and I have to list out all of my expenses, and I total up my expenses to see if I have gone over the amount of income I have. Well, simplify already has your income in. You can set your income. It categorizes your expenses.
Speaker 0:What Simplify does is the first number you see is how much income you have after your bills and savings have been paid. This is incredible because a lot of times we get paid and we think, oh my gosh, I have all of this money I get to keep all of my paycheck, where, unfortunately in life, when we have to pay bills, we don't get to keep all of that money. Some of the money goes to our utilities, some of the money has to go to rent, some of the money has to cover Netflix or any subscriptions we have, and so the amount we have left to actually truly spend tends to be a lot less. With this app, it's wonderful because when you go into your spending plan, which is essentially the budget when you go into your spending plan, it gives you the number of how much money you have left after those bills are taken into account, after those bills are paid. I love that because then now you have the number that you need to decide. What am I going to do with the rest of this money. How much of it am I going to spend on groceries? How much of it do I need to plan for gas? How much of it am I going to spend on restaurants? See, the thing with budgeting, the thing with spending money, is so often it's not our planned bills and expenses that throws us off. I've never known anyone that overpaid on their rent or sent too much money to Netflix. No, it is that discretionary spending where we go overboard. So when you log into Simplify's spending plan, it's wonderful because you can see exactly how much money you have after your bills and savings are set aside, and now you know this is the amount I need to be dealing with for my discretionary spending. It really helps you separate it out and make that mental separation and, I guess, physical separation inside the app to make sure that you're staying on track with your budget.
Speaker 0:One thing I love is that Simplify gives you a calendar view and lets you know when any upcoming bills are going to hit. This is a big thing for me. Years ago I did not anticipate a bill coming out on auto draft, and so I thought, when I was looking at my checking account, I thought I had more money than I actually did. Let's say I had $500 in my checking account, but my car payment was coming out at $250. Well, I don't have $500. $250 is already spoken for, and so I don't want to walk around thinking I have this $500 and going through and spending it and not have enough left for that car payment. Well, simplify's calendar view helps you see coming up any bills or spending you have. It breaks it down into any income you have, coming up any expenses, and you can even customize and look at the calendar for the next 30 days, the next 60 days, the next quarter. There are so many options for you to just get this great forecast of what your money is going to be doing and what your spending plan is going to look like, so that you don't find yourself running out of money because you forgot that your bill was going to be auto drafted out of your account on Friday and now you're left with not that much money in your account. So this is a big one. I love this part of the Simplify app. I think everyone should look at it and use it in some way, because it can really just help you not run out of money or find yourself in a situation you don't want to be in. So we talked about the budgeting portion of the Simplify app, the spending plan but now I want to talk about tracking your spending.
Speaker 0:If you know me, you know that I am a big proponent of tracking your spending. But what's the difference? What's the difference between budgeting and your spending and tracking? While budgeting, or creating your spending plan, is very much forward thinking, you're saying, okay, I'm going to be paid on Friday. When that money comes into my account, how do I want to spend it? What are my goals? How much do I want to send to debt? How much do I want to spend on restaurants? That's your budgeting, or your spending plan. You're making this forward thinking planned, whereas tracking your expenses looks back and categorizes your actual spending. This is when you're looking backwards and you're saying, okay, last week or last month, I know I said I wanted to spend $400 on restaurants, but what did I actually spend? It really helps you open up your eyes to your spending patterns and really look back at the habits of your money.
Speaker 0:I personally have seen three really big benefits when it comes to tracking my spending. The first one is I have better financial awareness, just straight up. I know that tracking my spending helps me gain a clear understanding of my financial habits. I can start seeing oh my gosh, I really am overspending on Amazon. Maybe it's time to cut back a little bit or have an Amazon spending freeze. It allows me to see exactly where my money is going not where I think it went, not where I wanted it to go, but actually where it went. It allows me to make decisions on where I want to cut back or save or increase my budget in any areas. Another benefit that I've experienced is that it gives me this enhanced budgeting precision.
Speaker 0:Here's the deal. I am not a math person I don't enjoy math but I am a data person, meaning I want to know the truth. I want to know the numbers of my money. I want to know exactly where my money was going so that I can adjust my budget moving forward, so that way it matches my real life. If I'm sitting here and saying, oh, I'm only going to spend $600 on groceries next month for a family of four, and then I'm actually spending $900 a month. I want to know that. I want to be able to set a budget that is realistic, not one that sounds good or was written for someone that doesn't have any kids. I want to write a budget that matches my real life, because I know that's the way I'm going to be able to stick to my budget. By looking back at my expenses and tracking them, I'm able to see how much money did I spend on groceries. Okay, let's make a goal moving forward, that is in line with my habits. Tracking your spending just basically ensures that your budget that you're writing aligns with your actual spending pattern, which is ultimately going to help you budget better from here on out.
Speaker 0:The third benefit that I have personally noticed from tracking my spending is one I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but I'm going to go there. It is improved accountability and discipline. Now you know me. I love spending money and I can get into these spending cycles, but when I'm tracking my spending, I start identifying and noticing those spending cycles and I develop more discipline and I have more accountability for my financial choices because I'm looking back and seeing where my money went. I'm no longer just sticking my head in the sand or ignoring it and pretending like it's not a problem. Instead, I'm able to own up to my habits and say, hey, I can hold myself accountable and have more discipline with my money because I'm more aware of where it's going and my expenses coming up.
Speaker 0:Now I will say, when I was going through and tracking everything, in simplifying categorizing my expenses, it was very easy, very intuitive. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever track their expenses using paper and pencil. I feel like that is such a time suck, but I loved that I could go in and create my own categories. For instance, I created a category for tutoring because I do pay for a tutor for one of my children and we pull that money out in cash every single month and I wanted that category. There Makes it really easy to categorize everything and when something comes in recurring, it's going to automatically remember that category, so you're not having to go in and manually categorize everything. For me, it's always going to categorize Amazon as shopping, but I can easily switch it. If I ended up ordering a gift for someone on Amazon, I can easily switch that category for that single transaction to gifts. Another great thing about categorizing and tracking your spending and simplify is I am still a cash envelope user. I know I have an episode on the past about what our cash envelopes look like. Now we have about three to four categories that I still pull out cash in every single month. Those include my housekeepers, the tutor that I just mentioned. It also includes a clothing sinking fund and a car maintenance sinking fund. So when I go to pull out cash, it's coming out as one lump sum, but all the cash wasn't just for tutoring or just for housekeeping. So simplify allows me to actually split transactions into multiple categories so that when I go back and look at my reports or my data or my spending, it's really accurate. This is so important for anyone who really wants an accurate look at their transactions and their spending.
Speaker 0:The third thing I want to cover with this budgeting app and something that every budgeting app should have I'm just going to say it. I don't think every budgeting app has this, but they should have it is there should be a way to look back and analyze. I know that sounds so boring, but analyze your data, your money. Basically, look at a report view like a report card, if you will of your money and where it went. Here's the deal. You can't just budget. Just budgeting, just writing a budget for what's coming up, is not enough. You have to actually look back at where you spent your money.
Speaker 0:Looking back at where you spent your money at reports or breaking it down into categories gives you the opportunity to identify patterns in your spending and it gives you information on how to make your budget match your life better. It's not all about just finding out what you're doing wrong. I know that so many times with money, that's what we tend to do, but by looking back at reports, it can also highlight your strengths and areas where you are spending well or you are saving a lot. It's also a great way to look back and say, hey, I'm really proud of myself for prioritizing saving money for my car maintenance fund or setting aside money into my emergency fund.
Speaker 0:There are two areas of the Simplify app that I love. The first one are the reports, and this is when you can just look back at trends and patterns over time. It puts it into this handy dandy pie chart where your spending is broken down into categories and it allows you to see exactly how much you've spent over the course of the month, and this allows you to think forward and say, okay, if this is how much I'm spending, what is my goal for next month or the next time I budget, how much I want to spend in a certain area? Now I may have saved the best for last, and that is Simplify's watch lists. This is incredible and something that the spender in me could have really used about 10 to 15 years ago. Simplify's watch list feature is this super easy to use tool that helps you track and monitor specific areas of your spending, and what's so cool about them is that they include these interactive graphs that instantly show you your spending for the month to help you stay on track. They are incredible.
Speaker 0:I recently set up a simplify watch list for Amazon, which means that it's going to tell me how much money I have spent on Amazon every single month for the past 12 months. Give me my average, and then I can set a target amount, meaning I can set OK, I don't want to spend more than $200 on Amazon next month, and not even that now. I'm going to get notifications alerting me hey, you're getting close to that targeted amount, which acts as a little yellow light in my eyes like, hey, allison, slow down. And then, when I do hit that amount. It acts as my red light and I can say, ok, we need to stop spending. We've reached our boundary for the month. I don't want to go over this watch list amount, this target goal that I set for myself. For anyone who struggles with overspending, these watch lists are incredible, honestly, just for anyone, for anyone. They are great because they give you this boundary and this notification so that you can stay on track with your money goals. It's incredible.
Speaker 0:Overall, I think that finding a budgeting app that fits for you is definitely a personal and unique thing. I would highly recommend making sure you find one that fits your needs and finding one that allows you to create a spending plan or write a budget, one that works. I think it's very important to have one that you can share with a partner, especially if you do have a partner or you have joint finances, you're working together on the money. Find one that you can share it with them at no extra cost, just like simplify. Also, make sure you find one where you can go in and categorize the expenses, because the categories that automatically come up might not be what matches what you spent that money on. So we want something that allows you to track your spending and categorize it and, of course, find something that gives you back information on your spending, because it's one thing to just create a budget, it's another thing to track, but it's something completely else to look backwards and say where did my money go? Do I like where it went and, if not, what can I do moving forward, so that way, I feel better about where my money is going and how I'm spending my money. And that's exactly what simplify reports and watch lists offer. That, I think, is just so unique and incredible.
Speaker 0:If you're looking for a budgeting app that will help you in 2024, just manage your money better and know where your money is going check out simplify you can go to the link in the show notes. I have a link there for you. For a limited time, you can get your first three months free. Or, if you are a former mint user, you can actually import your mint data and get a whole year for free. Now I want to know what is your favorite budgeting app and do you have any questions about budgeting that you want me to cover in a future episode? As always, if you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a rating and a review. It helps other people just like you find the Inspire Budget podcast. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. See you then.