Balancing with Beckah
Balancing all things in our daily lives. Starting with Life, Fitness, food, & all of the stuff in the middle! We will laugh and we may cry, but it's all in balance.
Balancing with Beckah
Embracing a Mindful November: A Balance Babe's Guide to Sobriety and Saving
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Are you ready to take on a mindful November? Fresh off the heels of a successful Sober October, we're now set to embark on a mission to not only continue our journey to sobriety but also put a check on our spending habits. With the festive season around the corner, it's imperative to maintain our financial balance and not land ourselves in a post-holiday financial frenzy. We're standing at the doorstep of a No-Spend November, promising a better and stress-free December.
This episode is brimming with practical guidance on how to create budgets, practice the 24-hour rule before non-essential purchases, and plan your meals wisely. We also delve into why it's important to share your goals with friends and family for support. As we tread this path, we'll explore how we can still keep the festive spirit alive, celebrate togetherness, and even reward ourselves without breaking the bank. As Balance Babes, we are not just cutting corners but consciously making decisions that'll add to our overall well-being. Hop on board for a month of balance and mindfulness!
https://linktr.ee/beckaah
Welcome to the BWB podcast, balancing with Becca. I'm Becca. I'm in my 50s and I'm still trying to find balance in all of the ways. If you're looking to balance your relationships, your food, your fitness, your lifestyles, join me here on the BWB podcast. Let's get started. Hello Balanced Babes, welcome back to Balancing with Becca. I'm Becca.
Speaker 1We are just finishing our sober October. How many of you joined in and did a sober October? It's been a good month, it's been a great month. So I have decided to go ahead and carry it through to November dry November. So if anyone wants to hop on, hop on in to our group. We are not only doing dry November, but we're doing no spin November for a better December. You know who came up with that? Joe the husband. He says no spin November, but for a better December. Think about it. We have one big family thing this month that's Thanksgiving. So it should be a pretty good month to do another sober month. And I mean honestly, if you did sober October, keep going. You're going to feel amazing. I promise I will not do a sober December. That's on you. But if you want to be a part of this crew, this group, hop on in.
Speaker 1We're doing that dry November and no spend November. And I'm not saying no spin, I'm saying no spend. We're not spending any money that we don't absolutely have to in November. And I'm going to give you a few tips on how to do that. Because here's the thing balance babes.
Speaker 1None of us probably got raises, but we're all paying more for everything. In California, we're paying almost $6 a gallon for gas, and it's been a little over $6 to. It's just recently gone down to 550 or five something. Groceries I just read something the other day that we're paying 20% more for groceries than we did in the past years. Did you get a raise? Because I didn't. So we've got to really start thinking about this, and I am one of those people.
Speaker 1I love to have a ton of presents around the Christmas tree. I love for all the grandkids to come and open up presents, but honestly, there's just this is not there. We have a new grandbaby coming, it's my daughter's first and they don't have anything yet. So we are concentrating on a baby shower and trying to set these kids up. So that's all good news, but what we've decided this year is we're not buying other adults presents. Normally we would do a pick a name on Thanksgiving, everybody would pick a name, and we're not going to do that this year. We're just going to concentrate on the kids, but we're still going to spend family time together. We're still going to have a great day. We'll probably prepare a lot of good food and play games and just have a good time together, and that's what we're going to do. So no spend November for a better December. So that way we won't be stressing out so bad in January and February when all the credit card bills come in right.
Speaker 1So think of creative ways to save money, especially at Christmas time, and think about this challenge of no spend November. I've got a few tips on on doing this. Just a few things. Set clear goals for yourself. Define your reasons for participating in this no spend November with us, whether it's to save money, reduce your debt or just change your spending habits. Having the clear goals is going to keep you motivated. So have it in your head why you want to do it.
Speaker 1Create a budget, make a detailed budget for the month and I know none of us hardly do this seriously. I understand it, but let's just try to do something. Make that detailed budget for the month outlining your essential expenses, like your bills, groceries and transportation, and just stick to this budget. Avoid any unnecessary spending. So for me, I unsubscribed to a bunch of stuff like coach, like skims, like tillies, like Disney Store, all these different text messages that come to me I haven't done it with my emails yet, but I'm going to but the things that bring my phone constantly, and a famous footwear. There's just so many stores that I get text messages from when they have deals. My husband gets world market constantly unsubscribed, most of them. You can just push stop and they'll stop sending you stuff.
Speaker 1Another way to help you in November is to plan your meals. Okay, we already are planning the meals if you're in a fitness program, right, so let's plan our meals. Plan your meals, grocery shopping ahead of time to avoid dining out and ordering takeout, which obviously you guys all know. Uber Eats, door Dash, all that stuff. It's so convenient and it's so amazing, but think about what you spend in a month on those services, even Instacart, okay. Again, avoiding temptation by unsubscribing from promotional emails. You can unfollow shopping sites on social media. You can avoid window shopping or online browsing. All of this to prevent that temptation. It's just for a month, okay, take it day by day.
Speaker 1Another suggestion is using cash. So consider using cash. It's different when you physically see the money leaving your wallet. You might be more conscious of your purchases. I know when we swipe the ATM card and stuff, you don't realize until you're actually looking at the bank account. You're like, oh my God, what did I do? Practice the 24 hour rule. This one's a good one. Before making a non-essential purchase, give yourself 24 hours to think it over. You might find that you really don't need or want the item. I do this all the time. I will put shoes or whatever in my shopping carts online and then I X out of it so I can think about it for a while and then pretty much I forget about it. So just practice that 24 hour rule. If you still want it, super bad. The next day, because it's no spend November you're going to give it another 24 hours and hopefully you forget.
Speaker 1We got all of December and don't forget, guys. You know after Christmas everything goes on sale. So if you can just mindfully mind your spending in November, december is going to be amazing. Here's the thing too, guys. I'm sorry about that. Here's the thing too, is that really the Black Fridays and stuff are not as big of a deal as you think they are. So really research certain items, because we all think that we're getting a super good deal on Black Friday and it's not always the case, and at the end of the year they really want to get rid of all this stuff. So that's when you really want to purchase that stuff is when they're getting trying to get rid of it. They know you're going to buy this stuff the day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1Find free activities. So look for free or low cost activities to keep yourself entertained during the month Hiking, visiting museums on free days, having a game night with your friends Remember, we're doing dry November too. So get those mocktails. Get the right beverages around you. A support system is super helpful. Share your challenge with friends or family who can help hold you accountable and also help provide that encouragement that you need.
Speaker 1Now this is super huge for our sober months, right? You got to tell your friends that you're doing a sober month. You got to let them know, or else they're going to be like I have a drink, have a shot, why aren't you drinking? You got to let them know hey, I'm resetting, I'm restoring, I am trying to be healthy this month, if you don't mind. I mean, I still want to hang out with you girls, still want to hang out with you people, but please don't mind me, I'm going to order the Pellegrino, or I'm going to order a mocktail. I'm going to have a soda, water and cranberry. Whatever it is. It's really fun watching other people drink too, by the way. I never thought it would be, but it actually is.
Speaker 1Hey, keep our journal. Track your progress or use a budgeting app. We have a ton of apps on our phone. Go ahead and spend the money on that. That's a huge thing. This is going to help you stay on top of your finances and, lastly, reward yourself. Consider setting a small, non-monetary reward for yourself at the end of the month as an incentive for sticking to your no-spin challenge. Remember balance, babes. The key to success is discipline and mindful spending. All of the same holds true for our sober months too. So, taking our sober months, get the support from your friends. Find that support system. Track your progress.
Speaker 1I used to always just mark it right on the calendar, old-fashioned calendar hanging up on the wall. Put an X on it every day you don't drink. You can write it in a journal. You can use an app there's apps that you can get for not drinking also and reward yourself at the end of these sober months. If you have had your eye on something, you can add your eye on something, but you haven't spent the money on it. Not November, but in December. Get yourself that something.
Speaker 1Figure out what you spend when you go out. What I did was I averaged $15 a day, give or take, because obviously sometimes you're going to go out to dinner and have two drinks or two glasses of wine and there's 30 bucks, or some days you're just gonna have nothing, or one day you're gonna just have a beer, whatever it is, average it out. So what I did was I averaged it out. I have an app that I used on my phone and I think I've told you guys about it before. It tracks your spending, of what you would have spent. So I put $15 a day was what I, on average, felt like I spent and at the end of like let's see.
Speaker 1So it was September when I started this. September, october, november, december, december, january, so seven months into it that app is called I Am Sober, by the way. At $15 a day, I had saved almost three grand. Isn't that nuts, that you would spend that much on just something to drink. So I bought myself a very, very special purse from a place called Louis Vuitton and I love that purse and I will always remember that when I was it was in Italy I spent the money on that Louis Vuitton purse with the money that I saved from not drinking alcohol. I just checked into that I am sober app and I am at $6,000 right now. So a year and a month into it and I've saved $6,000. Amazing, right? So think about that during your sober months, because even if you were to say I don't know, say you averaged it, I don't care. Say you averaged it. $20 a day times 60 days, that's $1,200. Is there something that you would really love to buy yourself for $1,200? Think about it like that.
Speaker 1So here we go on our big adventure guys. No, spend November, dry November and guess what? We're still doing our squat challenge. Only this month we're doing sumo squats. So take it out a little wider, point those toes out a little bit and get in those sumo squats. You can do 25 regular squats, 25 sumo's, or you can go to 50 sumo's. We just we've been doing, we're going on like over two months for squat challenge. So we're keeping this one going and sumo squats are amazing. You're gonna really get into those inner thighs, so get into those muscles sumo squats.
Speaker 1If you want to join in our community, balance Babes Fitness Food you can go on our website. You can join us on Instagram and let us know that you are joining the challenge on either one of those. That is what I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for joining in. I hope that you have some interest in trying these challenges. I hope that you will have fun with them and I just want you to know that I am. I've got your back. I'm 100% supporting you in both of these challenges. So find your little community. If you don't have a community, then join our community. We'd love to have you.
Speaker 1By the way, I have good news I must tell you. I did pass my certification test for personal training. So now your coach is certified in fitness and personal training. Community is certified in nutrition, certified in yoga degree, in psychology. So with all of that, know that I am your coach. If you want any information on personal coaching, online is where we're going with this online training. You have a training app that you can use at home or at the gym. As part of my program, I will come up with a meal plan for you and I will be your personal coach. We will have one-on-one meetings once a week and I will help keep you accountable. So if you're interested in that program, let me know. You can email me at balancedbabesfitnessfood at AOL or you can DM me on Instagram at balancedbabesfitnessfood. I will talk to you soon. Keep on balancing, babes. See you later.