Episode 93: Turning Your “Why” Into Real Money Decisions

Your money goals don’t fail for lack of desire—they stall because the plan doesn’t match your life. We take your why and show how to turn it into a flexible money system that holds up when schedules get busy, holidays hit hard, and emotions run high. Instead of white-knuckling a strict budget, we walk through a simple framework—values lead to systems, systems guide decisions—so your spending protects what matters and guilt takes a back seat.

We break down what different whys look like in practice. If you crave peace, you’ll hear how fewer categories, auto-pay, and a checking buffer reduce mental load. If freedom drives you, we map a focused debt payoff and explain why saying no to upgrades can speed progress. Family-first listeners get a plan for monthly experiences and space for spontaneous moments. If security is your anchor, we explore building the emergency fund and choosing stability over speed without losing momentum.

You’ll also get one powerful habit to use before every purchase: ask, does this move me closer to the life I said I wanted? That pause shifts choices from emotional to aligned. We talk about consistency over intensity, why a system you can follow imperfectly beats a perfect one you quit, and how to adapt any framework—cash, cards, or hybrid—to fit your reality. Walk away with a small action for the week: pick one category and redesign it to support your why.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a quick review. Want hands-on help? Tap the show notes to join our free Financial Freedom Society or book a call to see if the Better Budgeting Playbook is a fit. Your next aligned step starts today.

Danielle is a money coach helping those 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 Better Budgeting Blueprint for $99.

Grab your free copy of The Bank Statement Exercise.

You can connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.

Transcript

Welcome And Last Week’s Why

SPEAKER_00 0:07

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. Welcome back to this week's episode of the Better Budgeting Podcast. I'm happy to have you here. And if you listened to last week's episode, we talked about something that's super duper important. And it is finding your why when it comes to changing your finances. And today I want to answer the question I know many of you are asking. And that is, okay, now what? What do I do, Danielle? Now, now that I have my why, what next? And I love that you're asking that because even though you're inspired, you need some structure, right? And also, since you have some clarity now on what you want and why you want it, you need action, right? And if you don't act, then it's frustrating that you did all that work and you're like, it's not working. But we got to have action. So today we're gonna be talking about how to take that why and turn it into real life, everyday money decisions that are actually gonna stick. At the beginning of the last episode, I talked about how most people don't struggle with money because they don't care. They struggle because they jump straight into the budget. They jump into the rules, the restrictions. You know, they never really have anchoring in those decisions to something meaningful. So your why gives you the money direction, but direction still needs the path, right? Like you're like, hey, head north. I'm like, cool, great. Um, am I going through the weeds? Am I going by ocean? Am I like, what's happening here? Come on, like give me a path, all right? Path is the structure. So we need the structure. So why isn't enough on its own. Okay. That's the part no one tells you. Having a strong why doesn't automatically change your behavior. Okay. You can deeply really want some peace. You can deeply really want some freedom. And you can deeply, really, really want to stop starting over. But if your money still has no system, you're gonna default to old habits anyway. Especially, oh my gosh, especially when life gets busy. Okay. Think about the holidays, right? You you probably are looking at the credit card statement at this point, maybe even the bank account, and you're like, what the heck happened? And some of that might not be a discipline problem, but rather a design problem, because your finances need structure that supports your why, not one that fights it. Imagine if your why aligned with you wanting to give generously at Christmas time and you want to give all these gifts and you want to do all these great things, there's not a problem with that, except when you didn't build the structure that supported that. You get what I'm saying? You can go do all of these amazing things, but if you don't have the structure, aka the why and the budget in alignment together, you're gonna go do these things, buy lots of Christmas gifts, get the credit card statement, and have guilt and shame and all these other things. We need to start building that structure so that when we loop around from 2025 to 2026 Christmas, that you have such an amazing time that aligns with who you are, what you want to accomplish, and how you want to give. So here's the framework that I want you to remember, okay? Values lead to systems, systems guide decisions. Your budget isn't meant to control you, it's meant to protect what matters most to you. And when your money systems align with your values, decisions feel clearer, okay? They're less emotional. I had such an amazing conversation with some clients last week. They've been with me for about three months. All right. When we started three months ago, I think that is like October, September, October, there wasn't a whole lot of time to save up for Christmas. There wasn't. And they were going to be putting a ton of money into their emergency fund around December, like Christmas time. And in between our sessions, mom had some guilt. Mom had some guilt of, I want my kids to have more to open under the tree. And so they went out and they, you know, bought some stuff. They bought some stuff so that their kids had more to open around the tree. And then after dissecting that with them last week, we kind of figured out, hey, you have this pattern of impulsivity, but more of like spontaneity, impulsivity. It's not like, oh, I want that, let's go get that. It's more of this thing is happening and it's with my kids, it's with my family, and I want to soak up this moment so much. How can I build out this moment to be bigger? And then again, there's nothing wrong with that. You need a system that aligns with that value because then your emotions kind of go to the wayside and you know, hey, I've saved up for this because I know who I am and that I love to go crazy at Christmas time. I love to go crazy at birthday times. So I'm going to align my money decisions so that I have the availability to do those type of things. Let me give you another example. Okay. If your why is peace, your system might include fewer spending categories. You might not have 13 subscriptions. You might not have a lot of debt, because that's more to manage, more to take care of, more payments to make, right? You might also include a buffer in your checking account, right? The unknown that could happen. And it's not necessarily emergency fund, but just like a little buffer, 100 bucks or 200, 500, whatever is comfortable for you. I usually tell clients, don't do anything over a hundred bucks as a buffer in your checking account, but it really just depends on who you are. But if you, if you love peace, in which I have some clients that love peace, that buffer is a thousand dollars and there's no way around it. That's what they feel comfortable with, and that's okay. Um, other thing that your system might include would be automatic bills, right? We're gonna reduce the mental load. So if you value peace and your why is peace, these are a couple things that you might have in your system. As for freedom, next example, freedom. Your system might include a focused debt payoff plan. If you're like, I need to get rid of this debt, I want to be free. I don't want to have my money tied up in all of these places, then you're gonna have a focused debt plan. Okay. The system also might include, if you're looking for freedom, temporarily saying no to lifestyle upgrades. Oh my gosh. I don't know how many times I've said this on the podcast, but maybe you guys remember. But my husband has a motorcycle. We've been dumping money into this motorcycle. Um, it's older, but it's like not enough dumping money into it to warrant to get a new one. So we temporarily kind of say no because I love the idea of freedom with our finances and not a motorcycle payment or taking a lot of money out of our savings and putting it towards that specific thing. Next example, if your why is family, you probably have planned spending experiences. Okay. I have a client that they have family days. They don't take family vacation, but they have family days every single month. And that probably equals out to a very decent week vacation for a family, but every single month they have a family day and they put money aside for that family day every single month because that is so, so important to them. Another thing that your system might include if you really love family, and that's like your why, is margin for experiences. Okay. Not just planned spending experience, which was the first one, but like margin so that when things popped up, great, I can go do all those things. If your why is security, your system might prioritize an emergency fund before anything else, right? It's like we got to get money in that bank account right now, today, because I value being safe and secure in our finances, right? It might look like conservative spending, right? You're like frugal. Maybe you're couponing in a lot of things and you say no to a lot of other things. And you also might prioritize stability over speed. Okay. I have this conversation a lot with clients of stability versus speed. Okay, especially with the ones that they're starting to build an emergency fund and they're also at the same time trying to pay off debt. We weigh the pros and cons of each side. Okay, if we don't have the emergency fund in place and this happens, this is the road we're gonna have to take. If we do have the emergency fund in place and we start working on debt later, and this happens, this is the things that are in place. If you value security, you're probably gonna have that conversation. So let's say like you're really in it, okay, and you're about to make a decision about your finances, about something that is reflecting your finances. Here is a simple habit that can change everything for you, okay? Before the spending decision, you're gonna ask yourself, does this move me closer to the life I said I wanted? Does this move me closer? Not can I technically afford it? Not can I get a payment plan? Not do I deserve it? But does this align with my why? Okay, this isn't about guilt. This is about alignment. All right, everything comes back to alignment. And the more you practice this pause of asking that question, does this move me closer to the life I said I wanted, the easier decisions can become. So let's talk about decision making, okay? Because we want consistency over intensity. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people going all in and then burning out. All right. Extreme budgets, perfect plans, unrealistic expectations. And when they can't maintain it, they think they failed. And you didn't fail, okay? You just tried to sprint when you should be just lightly jogging. Maybe not even that, maybe walking. Okay. Progress comes from consistency, not intensity. One of my goals for 2026 is to be in the Word of God almost every day. All right. And I say almost because if I say seven days a week, no rest, no nothing, blah, blah, blah, I know it's not gonna happen. I know I'm gonna get to that first day. By the way, we are many days in and I'm doing pretty good. I I've done it really well, okay. But if I get so many days in and I don't get into the word of God that day for whatever reason, I'm I'm gonna feel like I failed it. And like I might as well just not even bother, keep going. But here's the thing: someone said four days a week. If you get into God's word four days a week, you're gonna see transformation. If you go to the gym four days a week, you are going to see progress. But if you go to the gym one day and lift all the weights and do all the things, you are gonna get hurt. You're gonna get hurt, but more so, you're not gonna see progress if you just sprint to do the dang thing, okay? So, in the word of God, like if I just read, you know, all day one day, it would not pour into me the way that I'm asking God to pour into me. So we do not want to sprint, we just want a light jog, okay? We want consistency over intensity. And when it comes to your finances, a system you can follow imperfectly will always out be a perfect system that you quit. So let me give you a little bit of permission today, in case you need it. All right. You're allowed to adjust the plan, you're allowed to simplify it, you're allowed to change what isn't working. That's not quitting, all right? That is learning. Financial confidence grows when you learn that you need to adapt and not just try to force yourself into the box of whatever program it is. Even with the better budgeting playbook and the better better budgeting blueprint, like I tell people all the time, this is a framework. This is not the plan. This is a framework to see how it works with your life and we're gonna move things and adjust things to what works with you. I've got clients that only use credit cards, I've got clients that will not touch a credit card and only use cash. I have clients that use a mixture of credit and debit. I've got so many different things. The plan is set up one way and then we morph it to fit the lifestyle and the goals and align with the values that you have. And if you're not using a system like that and you feel like you're put in the box and you feel like you're super restricted, I encourage you reach out to me, sign up for a meeting with me, meet with me about the better budgeting playbook. Let's see if this is a good fit for you. So let me leave you with a little bit of an encouragement for the week. Okay. If you feel like you've been starting over again and again, right? We're into the second week, third week of January, and you feel like, oh my gosh, like again, I thought I was gonna fix this last year. Or maybe you've reached out to me before and it's been years, and you're like, oh, I just I don't, I don't like I feel kind of guilty or I feel shameful to have to reach out to her again. Nothing's changed. I thought I could do it on my own. Listen, that doesn't matter to me. As long as you come to me and you're like, hey, I need help, I'm gonna help you, regardless if you worked with me before and you decide that you didn't want to do it anymore, or if you've worked with somebody else and it didn't work, I'm gonna welcome you with open arms. Okay. And I want to share that you're not behind, you're building your awareness, and awareness is the foundation of change. All right. Your why matters, your structure matters, and small aligned little decisions add up faster than you think. Okay. So here's your action step for the week. I want you to choose one category of your money, just one, okay. And I want to ask how can this better support my why? So if your why is I want to spend more time with my family, I want to quit my part-time job, I want to not have to work so much overtime. Maybe we look at the eating out budget. Maybe we look at the subscriptions, right? I want you to look at one of those this week. Not everything. I don't want a full reset, but at just one item and be intentional about it. All right, thanks so much for listening to this week's podcast. I'll talk to you again soon.