The Better Budgeting Podcast
The Better Budgeting Podcast is your go-to resource for mastering your finances without the stress. Hosted by Danielle Reese, this podcast breaks down budgeting, saving, and smart spending into simple, actionable steps. Whether you’re tackling debt, building wealth, or just looking to make your money work smarter, we’ve got expert insights, real-life success stories, and practical tips to help you take control of your financial future. Tune in and start making your budget work for you—without sacrificing the things you love!
The Better Budgeting Podcast
3 Ways to Know It's Time to Pivot in Your Finances
What if recognizing the right moment to pivot in life could lead you to greater personal and financial freedom? Join me, Danielle Reese, as I share a personal journey through unexpected changes in our family's life that urged us to reassess our approach to homeschooling and my husband's work schedule. We explore the emotional challenges of knowing when something isn't working and the liberating effect of making essential changes. From shifting educational paths to reevaluating toxic job situations, discover how embracing change can help you step away from stress and move towards a more fulfilling life.
Financial stress can be a sneaky trigger, disrupting our lives in unexpected ways. Hear how a simple act of canning chicken noodle soup became a metaphor for the importance of financial planning in my own life. We'll dissect the signals that hint at the need for a financial strategy overhaul and discuss the emotional toll of neglecting these changes. Introducing the "Better Budgeting Playbook," I offer practical tools and coaching options to help break free from the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, transforming your financial future. With a fresh year ahead, there's no better time than now to redefine your money habits and set out on a path towards financial wellness.
Danielle is a money coach helping women and couples who have been trying to figure out their finances FINALLY create a clear plan so they don’t have to worry about waiting to refill their bank account the next payday.
She is the founder of The Financial Freedom Society on Facebook and her signature money coaching program, The Better Budgeting Playbook. You can sign up for her newsletter by clicking here.
Take the first step towards financial freedom and sign up for a complimentary assessment call with me, Danielle Reese.
Grab your copy of "Let's Talk Groceries" Your Guide to Reducing Your Grocery Bill" This is an ebook with over 30 pages of tips, tricks, and guidance to help you save hundreds on your grocery bill!
Sign up for the early release of The Better Budgeting Blueprint for $99 with a $50 refund once completed. The release is scheduled for April 1st 2025.
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Hello and welcome to the Better Budgeting Podcast. I'm your host, danielle Reese. I'm a money coach and the founder of the Better Budgeting Playbook, and this is my one-on-one coaching program for women and couples who have been trying to figure out their finances, finally create a clear plan so they don't have to worry about waiting on payday anymore. I became a money coach in 2020 after paying off over $60,000 in debt, rekindling my marriage, becoming financially free and wanting others to experience the same. If you'd like to work with me, you can check out the link in the show notes there. Also, we have the Financial Freedom Society on Facebook. It's a free Facebook community focusing on debt payoff, saving strategies, budgeting and money mindset. You can find the link to that community in the show notes as well. One more thing, in case you didn't know, I love hearing from you all and in the show notes there is a link. It's at the very top of the show notes. It says send me a text message. It comes through anonymously, but if you have any questions financial questions or you want to tell me how awesome this podcast is or what episode you absolutely love, then please use that feature. It makes me so happy when I see notifications come through and, if you'd like, I can even read it here on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I want to welcome you to this week's episode. It is all about pivoting, and when do we know when to pivot in our finances? When do we know things are just not working, no matter what we're doing, it is time to change some things up. All right, so I'm going to give you three ways to identify that. But here is the inspiration of this episode this year is a new year for our family. It is well, every year is a new year, right, danielle Duh? But we have embarked on the homeschooling journey. My kids are in first and second grade. They have been in some type of schooling since they were 18 months old, between daycare and preschool and kindergarten, first grade, and I really felt God call me to homeschool our kids. Interestingly enough, I felt that call September of 2023, totally ignored it for a whole school year, and April of 2024, I felt confident that, all right, this is probably God saying you know, let's go ahead and move forward with this journey.
Speaker 1:So I did not, knowing what the heck to do, and I will tell you. I have researched endlessly curriculums, co-ops, learning styles, learning setup, areas for our home. It was so overwhelming. It was so overwhelming and we have been grinding since last July, because you can actually start homeschooling July 1st and run it all year round. And I was like that's what we're going to do, because we like having, you know, three or four days off a week to do whatever the heck we want, especially with my husband.
Speaker 1:At the time his schedule he was working three days 12 hour shifts or four days 12 hour shifts. That means he was off for three or four days a week so we would go and do things as a family quite often. Well, guess what? Right before Christmas my husband's schedule has switched up. It is now Monday through Friday, seven to five, and it is torture. Okay, and I know that sounds so terrible because there's so many people that that's just a normal schedule, but it is torture when you go from having so much family time to not having that and you really put in perspective of a new level of financial freedom for our family is to get back to that type of schedule.
Speaker 1:So with that change came the difficulty of me being the primary kind of caregiver for homeschooling, because before my husband would take one child and I would take the other and we would be done in an hour and a half, maybe even two hours, and we're on with our day and it was fantastic. It worked really, really well. It is not working well right now and we've had to pivot a lot. We've had to pivot so much, so much so that I'm leaving the homeschool traditional learning style and that being that you get to pick your own curriculum, you go at your own pace, kind of stuff and I'm moving more to a cyber school for my kids, that they're going to have actual teachers, they're going to have live classes that they're going to attend to online and then some work to complete offline as well. But it seems like this season that might be a better option for us.
Speaker 1:But what if I would have just kept hitting the hammer right and, like making this round peg, try to fit in that square hole right? And if you listen to last week's episode, kim Toko mentioned that phrase and I thought it was so good, so I'm using it here too. My kids would probably grow some resentments. They probably already are, to be honest, but it would have been so stressful unnecessarily right. We don't need to continue stress.
Speaker 1:If something's not working, change it. Right? If you're stuck in a job that you hate. That's toxic. Change it. If you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck, change it. If you are sick and tired of running around all the freaking time with your kids after school and only getting 35 minutes of actual alone time with your kids, change it. Right. I'm not saying that it's going to be able to happen overnight, but what are you going to do to put those steps into place so that it can be changed over time? So that's how this episode was inspired, because your girl was struggling with the homeschool and, I'm gonna be honest, I was feeling a little defeated. Okay, feeling a little bit defeated Because everyone was telling me at the very beginning, like you know, you should put your kids in school, public school.
Speaker 1:You know, all these kids are homeschooled or they go to these charter schools or whatever. They're always behind. Well, like if something wasn't working for my kid and I needed to put them in a different environment to learn and grow. Of course they're going to be behind. Of course they are. Same thing with you, okay, with your finances. Same exact dang thing. Of course you're going to feel behind when you start budgeting. Of course you're going to feel behind whenever you start saving and you see your. You know co workers or counterparts and they've got their 401ks all set up and ready to go, and so everybody's journey is different. You need to remember that.
Speaker 1:So here are three ways that you are going to know it is time to pivot within your finances. You are going to know, clear as day. Number one, it's so obvious you're not getting any closer to your goals. You are not getting any closer to any of your goals whatsoever. Wherever you are right now is the same place that you were last year and the year before, and it is a problem. Okay, we are meant and put on this earth to go and grow. Okay, go go and grow. And if you are not going or growing, you're not doing it right. Okay, you are feeling stagnant. You might feel like you don't have any purpose. We need to change that. If your finances have not changed, if you're still living that paycheck to paycheck life, if you are making the most amount of money that you have ever made in your life and you're living paycheck to paycheck, if you have no savings, if you are struggling with keeping money in savings, you need to pivot. You have to pivot. Stop trying to force the circle peg in the square hole. Number two this is how you're going to know if you need to pivot.
Speaker 1:You have no idea how to deal with unexpected expenses. No idea you are just like. This comes up and we just swipe the credit card and we'll figure it out later. That is a recipe for disaster down the road. You are just kicking that can of disaster down there, and I don't know if you've ever opened a can of bad stuff, but it is absolutely terrible. Okay, one time I decided to can chicken noodle soup and you're not supposed to put the noodles in there, I guess, and I did, and, oh my, it was rancid. All right, that's what you're doing. You're just letting the rancid roll down the road. Every time you swipe the credit card and you don't have a plan to pay for it, especially when it comes to unexpected expenses.
Speaker 1:And I'm not even talking about, oh, my gosh, you know the normal stuff. Oh, our tire went flat and we had to pay for the repair. Or you know, our window cracked or something of the sorts. That is kind of like emergency fund. I'm talking about kids shoes. Okay, I don't know what happened. I woke up one day and my son's shoes fit. The next day I wake up and his shoes do not fit. So tell me, how do we deal with these unexpected expenses If you do not know how, or if these type of things pop up and they just absolutely ruin your finances? We need to fix it. We need to fix it. It is time to pivot. It is time to change. Need to fix it. We need to fix it. It is time to pivot. It is time to change. All right.
Speaker 1:Number three is you are stressed about your finances. If this is you, this is not normal. Okay, people think that this is normal. This is not normal. Running ragged, being financially stressed, not sleeping, literally having physical reaction because of money worries and issues, is not normal. And I will tell it from experience. Because when we were financially strapped, I had the worst case of psoriasis all over my body and I don't have that anymore. I haven't had it in two plus years and I've been unemployed, self-employed, because those two kind of go the same some days. To be honest, sometimes you're like I don't know what we're going to do here, and sometimes we're like, oh, we made some money, yay, great. But there has to be a level of stress reduction in order to get rid of psoriasis. Okay, that is the major thing. Okay, that contributes to this autoimmune disease. So, one, I stopped drinking coffee and two, I lowered my stress.
Speaker 1:If it is not fun for you on payday, you're doing it wrong. If you are not feeling like heck yes, on payday, when you're paying off your debt, you're putting money in the savings then you are doing it wrong. It is time to pivot. The way that you have been managing your finances up until this point has not been working out Okay, and maybe it did at one point. Right.
Speaker 1:I've talked to clients before where they have done it a certain way. Maybe they were really great savers and then they got married and then they had kids and the systems and the beliefs that they were using back then do not apply anymore and it is turmoil. They are really struggling with their finances now, and there's also a link of guilt to that. So I'm going to address that as well. If you are guilty, because you should be doing better with your finances, you should have a handle of this. That ain't it, girl. That is not the space to be in. You are not going to get out of that and I will tell you. I tell this to my clients all the time. You made the best decisions that you could at the time, right? That's really what it comes down to. You made the best decisions that you could at the time with the knowledge that you had. But, listen, you got new knowledge now and you know that these three things, right, you're not getting closer to your goals, goals. You don't know how to deal with unexpected expenses and you're stressed, the freak out all the time about your finances. You know it is time to pivot. You know that you need better knowledge to get through this new stage of life. So what does that mean? Like, what do we do? Right? Well, we've got the better budgeting playbook. Selfish plug, right? Okay, we've got the better budgeting playbook.
Speaker 1:I have multiple ways to work with me. I've got a DIY program. I've got a one-on-one program. Both of them are going to get you where you need to go. One is kind of like a slow walk, right, that's the DIY. That's you going through the program on your own, doing the thing you need. And then also, there's a level of accountability there as well. If you want a coach to come alongside, great, that's wonderful. There's that option as well. If you are like, no, I need to run to these next couple of financial goals. Great One-on-one is for you. That is a great program to start with, because you're going to be having your hand held through it. We're going to walk through your money mindset. We're going to walk through how do we change our financial behaviors together. How do we really pivot our lives and our financial lives Other things that you can do financial knowledge right.
Speaker 1:You're listening to this podcast. Go back and listen to the other 75 episodes. Go and research money behaviors, money mindset behaviors. Don't be researching another Google sheet or another budget or an app or anything. Really dig into. Why are we the way that we are? Why do we spend money the way that we're spending money? What is keeping me in this cycle to continually spend money or not save or be in this paycheck to paycheck lifestyle? Yes, the budget is really, really important. I've talked about that many times over the course of this entire podcast library but you have to change your financial mindset. That's what keeps you on the rat wheel.
Speaker 1:If you are looking for help within your finances and you really love the message that I share and then also my coaching style or how I teach you here on this podcast. Go ahead and sign up for a meeting with me in the show notes Schedule a meeting. We'll talk about coaching where you want to go. What's keeping you from there? What does coaching look like for you? Can I help you? Because, I'm going to be honest, I'm not the type of salesperson I'm like yeah, my program's for everyone. Nope, there's some financial things that I just don't touch on and I refer you out to somewhere else, and I think that's what's really unique about me as a coach is I'm honest with you. I'm going to make sure that this is going to be a good fit for you, because I'm not going to set you up for failure. Okay, I don't let my clients come through here and set themselves up for failure at all. Nope, we don't do that over here. I want to make sure that you get all the tools and support that you need in order to move forward with your journey. If that sounds like that's something that you need help with and that is interesting to you, please go ahead and sign up in the show notes for a consultation with me and we will get started.
Speaker 1:It is not too late. It is the end of January, but listen, you've got all year left. We are just getting started with our finances, and now is a really great time to get started, because guess what's coming? Y'all the sunshine and the warmth of summer. Now, if you are the person that is listening in Sydney, australia, you are enjoying summer right now, but I need you to send it on up here because we just got eight inches of snow yesterday and I'm not cool with it. Okay, All right, thanks for coming along for this week's episode. We'll talk again soon. Bye-bye.