Feeling disorganized with your money? Try spring cleaning your finances / 71

Spring cleaning isn’t just for your closet — it might be exactly what your finances need, too. In this episode, we talk about why April (not January) can be the most natural time to reset your money habits, especially as your energy shifts, your spending changes, and tax season gives you a clearer picture of your finances.

We walk through how to take that “fresh start” feeling and turn it into simple, actionable steps — from deciding what to do with your tax refund to decluttering subscriptions, organizing accounts, and checking in on your bigger financial goals. If your money has felt a little messy, neglected, or just out of sync lately, this is your permission slip to reset — without pressure or perfection.

Think of this as your financial reset checklist — approachable, flexible, and designed to help you feel lighter, clearer, and more in control going into the rest of the year.

✨ Episode Highlights ✨

• [00:00] Why spring might be a better time than January to reset your finances 
• [02:15] How seasonal shifts impact your spending habits (and why it’s normal for them to change) 
• [09:05] What to do with your tax refund — from saving to spending with intention 
• [10:20] Using your recent tax experience to make smarter decisions this year 
• [12:30] Turning clutter into cash by selling unused items 
• [14:45] How to organize financial documents and simplify next tax season 
• [16:40] Where to check your credit score for free — and what to look for 
• [17:50] Why freezing your credit could give you extra peace of mind 
• [19:10] Subscriptions and recurring expenses to review this season 
• [20:30] How to lower your bills (and what to say when you call) 
• [22:45] Which accounts to close — and what to keep open for your credit score 
• [24:05] Checking in on your emergency fund and adjusting your goals 

✨ Resources ✨

•  Episode 69: 7 smart ways to use your tax refund in 2026 
•  Episode 70: Rethinking the emergency fund: How much do you need to save?
•  Episode 35: Cassidy's moving budget: The cost of starting over
•  Episode 3: Q&A: Choosing the right bank accounts 
•  Free credit report: Annualcreditreport.com 
•  Take our quiz: What Type of Finance Girlie Are You?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I just spent last weekend spring cleaning my house and it felt so good. But spring cleaning isn't just for dusting behind the bed and sorting through your closets. It's also the perfect time to clean out the financial cobwebs. It's time to spring clean those finances. Welcome to the Finance Girlies, a podcast for millennial and Gen Z women who are curious about money but have never quite felt at home in traditional finance spaces.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We are Emily Batdorf and Cassidy Horton, our podcast host, longtime friends, and finance writers for brands like AOL and Yahoo Finance.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Rather than giving you prescriptive advice, we talk about money the way friends actually do. But stories, questions, and a lot of figuring it out in real time. And as a reminder, this episode is brought to you by us. We have no sponsors, so if you want to support the finance girlies and earn our undying love and eternal appreciation, you can become an insider for just five dollars a month, or basically one dollar twenty-five cents a week. You'll help us keep the podcast ad-free. And you'll get one insiders only episode every month. We'll put a link to become an insider in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Society makes us think that January 1st is the time to get our lives in order, build new habits, evaluate who we want to be as we head into the new year. But honestly, the more that January 1st rolls around, the more I realize that everything is still dead in winter, and so are we a little bit inside. And sometimes you just want to keep hibernating, and it feels like such a push and a pull to get yourself to like form goals for the year that you feel excited about. And I think because of that, as we move into spring, the weather's shifting, things are blooming. I naturally find myself also kind of blooming in that way and having this bigger desire to set new goals, reevaluate my systems, and make plans for the year. So Emily and I are pitching that spring is honestly a better time to look at your finances than January 1st.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah. Today is the perfect day, I think, also to be talking about this because I don't know about you, but today is like one of the first days that it's actually felt like spring. I mean, it's still cold, but it's sunny and the birds are chirping.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah. And it just we're also having a a clear blue sky day here and it's fueling me.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Okay, so the goal of decluttering and spring cleaning is at least for me to like feel lighter, feel more organized, gain clarity, and it also just kind of gives me more energy. Like if I wake up to a clean and organized home, I feel more energized to like take on the day. I don't feel like bogged down by clutter or mess or just like things left unattended. And I think it's kind of the same for our finances.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

I feel like I have noticed even through winter, like my financial habits are just a little bit different than they are in other parts of the year because you're like more hunkered down. You might be spending more time like at home, watching TV. So also as I'm reflecting on like my winter finances versus things that I need to change, I do feel like there is a little bit of clutter, so to speak, that I need to like clear out. Whether that looks like canceling some subscriptions or just like shoring up different budgeting categories or something. But I I feel this too. I'm like, things feel a little maybe like disorganized, a little disheveled, and I'm feeling the pull to be like, okay, let's refresh everything as we move back in. I also think that this kind of naturally happens too as we uh like move through tax season because you're you're kind of forced to get all your documents in order and log into all of your accounts and make sure everything's organized. And so I feel like that kind of gives you some forced momentum in a way to be like, well, I'm already looking at all of this stuff. Maybe now looking at other parts of my finances doesn't feel quite so like sticky or overwhelming as it probably would have otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, and like for people like us potentially who are self-employed, like filing your taxes might be the first time you like actually see your numbers from the previous year in terms of your income and business expenses. Ideally, you're like, you have a pretty good idea of that, but you know, that brings additional clarity and maybe some reflection and natural inclinations for the next year. So that's kind of another perk of doing this type of reset at this time in the year, as opposed to winter when you're still like kind of gathering all of that information.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Also, in that same vein, like I, you know, I think tax season has already given you a little bit of momentum, but I also think that I know this is true for you and I, that like our spending naturally shifts throughout the year depending on the season. And like on one hand, if you spent most of your winter indoors, like maybe you were dining out less, and spring is this natural transition where you might be looking to like spend more on travel or go sit on more patios because it's like sunny and the birds are trooping and it's warm, or you're just like getting outside of the house more, maybe you're nurturing more outdoor hobbies that cost money. So there could be this like natural shift that happens where you're like, okay, I've been kind of la lying dormant this winter and like now I'm about to be in a season where like I might spend a little bit more money. Or the opposite could be true, where you could realize that you spent like way more this winter to try to cope with the darkness and the cold. And maybe in summer, you know, you're like, I'm gonna pull back a little bit more. There are like more free activities to do outside. There's more like free entertainment options. I'm gonna do like more, maybe less expensive road trips or something. And so I feel like it's so natural. Like we we kind of want to assume that we spend the same amount of money every single month, no matter what. But there are these seasons naturally where you're like, okay, I'm gonna spend a little bit more money potentially in this season for these reasons, or maybe I'm not. And so it's good to kind of use this like spring cleaning opportunity to evaluate that as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Which of these two camps do you fall into? Like, do you tend to pull back in the winter or spend more?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

You know what? I would need to look at the data to confirm, but I do feel like I'm more inclined on one hand to spend a little bit more in winter just because I'm like, it needs to be cozy. Like spend money on the cozy things, like bring a little bit of joy into your life. But at the same time, I don't know if I looked at the numbers if it would break down that way, because I do know myself in summer, like especially as there are more art fairs going on and like more farmers markets and stuff. In that way, I'm much more inclined to be like, I'm gonna go to this fair or this market or this whatever, and I'm probably gonna spend at least$50 and it's fine. So there there's almost no opportunity to do that in winter, and so I would be curious to see how my math actually breaks down. But do you do you feel like you lean one way or the other?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Um, I think I generally spend less in the winter, although this this past winter I did more trips than normal. Uh and so those added up. And usually like summer travel, I don't know, tends to be more like road trips as opposed to flying somewhere. But like you, I'm definitely going out more in the summer. In the winter, we don't go out to eat much, so that's definitely an area we spend more. We also like naturally have more visitors in the summer, so we're just like doing more things. And then I kind of feel like I have this tendency every spring as like everything's thawing out and the weather's getting better to like get excited about some outdoor hobby and spend money on it. Like canoeing. Yeah, like we bought our canoe this spring. Last spring I finally got like a real bike. I had been riding this like beach cruiser kind of thing before. And a couple years before that was like I tried to I did like a little herb garden on our stoop. So like some gardening supplies. So there's always like something that I'm like, ooh, new thing I'm really excited about. And I tend to spend money on it around this time of year.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So yeah, I I also did not take into account like how many trips I went on this winter. Um we are recording this episode in April and November through March, I flew at least once every single month to to go somewhere. And so those those were definitely trips, you know, where you're like, I'm on vacation, it's fine. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Mm-hmm. Um so what I'm hearing is we just we're spending left and right all year round.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Maybe. I I think just like what you spend on shifts, you know. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And in reality, it's probably not totally true, but yeah. Anyway, let's get into how spring cleaning your finances actually looks like in practice so we can start getting organized.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I think the very first thing, we have already talked about tax season. If you are going to get a tax refund this year, I think a good first step for spring cleaning your finances is to figure out what you're going to do with that tax refund. And Emily and I just recorded an episode a few weeks ago on seven smart ways to use your tax refund. So you can go back and listen to that if you have some ideas. It's episode 69. Okay. Episode 69. Like, like, depending on your financial situation, you might decide, I don't really have an emergency fund. That's one of my goals this year. Like, I'm going to use my tax refund to beef up my emergency fund, or maybe you want to put it toward high interest debt, or maybe you want to spend money on things that are going to make your life a little bit easier this year if you're in a very busy season, and maybe that could look like hiring a house cleaner, like giving yourself permission to do that, or giving yourself permission to use a meal delivery service for a little bit. So, or or you could just put it in a high yield savings account for now if you're really unsure of what you want to do and sit on it for a little bit while it earns some interest. So you have a lot of options in that realm, and chances are you're hearing me rattle through this list, there might be one that jumped out at you that makes you go, yeah, that is actually a good idea. Like maybe I should do something like that. So yeah, that's kind of step one.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Step two also kind of builds off your like tax filing for the year. So this is a good time to reflect on any changes you want to make in this coming year based on your tax situation or earnings situation over the previous year. So, for example, if you like had a large tax bill this year, like a couple friends and family members, I know we've been talking about this, had like unexpectedly big tax bills. Maybe you decide to either adjust your withholdings at work so you're paying more of those taxes throughout the year this time around, or maybe you focus on funding a traditional IRA instead of a Roth IRA, which is something a change I've made in previous years to kind of cut down on my tax bill and get that deduction up front. So if if you had an issue pop up or something didn't quite go as planned, or you want to make changes, talk to uh your tax preparer or accountant or whoever, whichever professional you you work with, and talk about what changes you could make to improve your tax situation for next year.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

I actually did a similar thing a few years ago where I had a really large tax bill, and up until that point, I think I had been funding a Roth IRA. And the next year I opened up a solo 401k and maxed it out instead so I could get the tax deduction on the front end, and I definitely f feel like taking advantage of all those like tax savings on the front end uh has helped me have a better tax filing experience each year when it comes to like how much I owe. So it's it's felt good.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah. I guess one more thing I did this year, kind of under this category, is I opened a SEP IRA. So that's for self-employed people. That's not what SEP stands for, but it's definitely um like in preparation for um like my tax filing and being able to make a contribution before the tax deadline. So that was just like a quick easy little thing. I knew I wanted to do that based on my earnings for the year and like what taxes have looked like in previous years. So that was one little step I took.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Step number three, or third thing you can do to spring clean your finances, is to sell any unused items that you have for some extra cash. I've talked about this on a previous episode, but whenever I was moving from Washington State to Minnesota last summer, I went hard on the garage sales and selling things on Facebook Marketplace. And you feel like such a boss when you like take something in your house that is just sitting there and you're not really using it and you don't even know it's there half the time, and then all of a sudden you get like$40 for it, and you do that 10 times, and you're like, oh my god, was this a very easy$400 to make? Maybe. And you get the added benefit of spring cleaning your actual house in that way too, because you're decluttering physically, but then you're getting a financial benefit as well because you are making money off of those things. And truly, I will say, you will be surprised at what people are willing to spend money on. So if you have something and you're like, I don't really know if I should put this on Facebook Marketplace or whatever, just do it and see what happens. And you might be surprised.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

The episode we did about your move was episode number 35, and it's a fun one. Kasti breaks down like exactly to the dollar how much money she made selling a bunch of stuff on Facebook Marketplace, and some tips on like how to price your items and yeah, what that looked like. So definitely take a listen.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yeah. I ended up making multiple thousands of dollars if that if that piques your interest enough to go listen to the episode. Um, it was quite a whirlwind.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Also, a quick side note, we had like at least a couple listeners message us after that episode saying they took your advice and like sold stuff on Facebook Marketplace for more than they thought. Okay, step number four, as you're getting all your documents ready for tax season, go ahead and shred old documents you know you don't need anymore. Be careful, don't like shred, you know, your tax returns from last year. You should I think the rule of thumb is to hold on to those for seven years, but definitely check with your accountant if you are wondering if you need to hold on to something. But, you know, I feel like every year I uncover things that I'm like, oh, why am I holding on to this? So it's a great time to shred documents you don't need. And then uh kind of on that same note, if you found yourself like scrambling, going through different files and cabinets and rooms in your house to like get all of your documents together for tax season, this is the perfect time to set up an easy system to keep track of everything. So I know a few years ago I just created a desktop folder on my on my computer with like tax year, you know, 2024. And anytime I had anything I knew I would need to submit for tax season, I just dropped it in that folder. That was one little easy way to make tax season a lot quicker and less painful, but organizing your physical files is helpful as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I did the same thing a few years ago. It was like I was like a very brutal taxier trying to scrounge up all the documents because I hadn't been organizing them at all. And I was like, where did I put this thing? And I was digging around and I was like, there's gotta be a better way. And so I did like the similar to you, the digital folder on my desktop, and then a physical folder in my filing cabinet. And then I think I also created a folder in my email to where if I got emails, uh it would just be labeled like taxes 2025 or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

What I find tricky some years is like you get some tax documents electronically and some physical, and like I find myself panicking, like, where is this thing I'm looking for? Because I assume it's like digital, and then I actually find it in my physical folder. So maybe you take it a step further and like, I don't know, put dates in your calendar, like scan documents every quarter and like file those away digitally. I can't say I'm that organized, but it sounds like a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Okay, the next thing you can do to spring clean your finances is check your credit score and report. Um, and Emily, I will ask, whenever you go to check your credit score and report, how are you typically doing that personally?

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I'm gonna have to admit that I like rarely do this. But I have accounts with like Experian and TransUnion and Equifaxed. And so I'll get email I don't know about you, but I'll get emails that notify me of changes to my credit score. So I'll just log in there and take a look. But you are entitled to a free weekly online credit report, and you can find that at annualcreditreport.com. Don't get tricked into paying for your credit report. You do not need to. But that is a great resource for checking on your credit report, making sure there aren't like accounts you don't recognize or any other suspicious information. And if you do find something like that, you can dispute it.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

I will also say that I usually just use the credit karma app to keep tabs on my credit most of the time, which isn't perfect. I think it uses like a little bit of a weird scoring system. So whatever the credit score is in there, like if you go to get a loan, for example, that you the score that they run might be a little bit different. But for me, I feel like it's it's enough. So I find myself doing that a lot of times. I will say in the realm of credit too, if you have at all been curious about freezing your credit, this could also be a good opportunity to do this. All of my credit is personally frozen, and I decided to do that after I think two different times over the years. Like my credit card number was obtained some weird way. So I just froze all of my credit just for my own peace of mind to be like, if someone ever gets my information, like they can't open up an account in my name. And it if you've never frozen your credit before, it really works because there have been a lot of times where I've needed to run my credit for something and it's been like your credit's frozen, and then I'm like scrambling to unfreeze it real quick. But it's really good peace of mind if you are at all concerned about like identity theft or just like accounts being opened up randomly in your name. So and it those are like all pretty easy to set up.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, you just need to make accounts with each of the three big credit bureaus, and it's as simple as like clicking a button, really.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, yeah. Click that big old button that says freeze. Mm-hmm. And done.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Okay, number six, and Cassie kind of mentioned this in the intro, but it's a great time of year to comb through any subscriptions and maybe, you know, other regular purchases to see if there's anything you want to pause or like anything you're not using anymore. So maybe you have been watching more TV on the couch this winter. Um, and so you have, you know, a few streaming services and you know you're gonna be out of the house a lot more in the summer, it's a great time to pause those and pocket that extra money. Maybe you have a gym membership and you don't want to be inside all summer, you'd rather run outside or what other sports do people do outside? Play tennis, I don't know. Whatever. And you don't want to go to the gym in the summer. Cancel that subscription and you can always re-up it in the fall. So things like that. Are there any subscriptions or other purchases you typically pause this time of year?

SPEAKER_00 20:07

I feel like my TV streaming services have gotten a little out of hand, especially for someone who doesn't actually watch TV that much week to week. Like I don't need to be paying for four of them. So I just need to go through and like pick some to cancel or pause for the time being. I feel like that's the big one for me. So I don't really have any other streaming or like subscription services outside of that. Nice. Up next, you can call your utility companies and try to lower any bills that feel overwhelming. And Emily, you have attempted to do this before. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah, I did this with success with our internet in our old apartment. Now, where we are now, our landlord pays the internet, so that's one less bill to worry about. But um, yeah, we lowered it from like$85 to$50. Like big, big savings. So highly recommend. The worst that'll happen is they say no. So what was that conversation like? It was a series of conversations. The first one was unsuccessful. I told them I had a better offer with a different provider, which I did. Went ahead and like set up the new internet with this new provider. They had a free trial, so I didn't have to pay anything. Then I called back to the old provider and had them like to ask them to cancel my account because I had set up a new one with a cheaper provider. And they said, wait, we can give you a better deal than them. And so it was like a bit of a headache because then I had to go back and cancel the new one. But I didn't pay anything for it. It was just some of my time, and we ended up with a really good deal.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

That's amazing. I mean, you're you're saving$35 a month, or you were saving$35 a month. That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah. Yeah. Other things could be like your phone, your what else if I negotiate?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Internet's the big one. Not to go back to streaming services, but I've noticed that this is something that they will do a lot of times. If you're like going through the steps of canceling, they'll be like, wait, but what if we give you like X number of months for X dollars? Or, you know, what if we give you four months free? And I feel like that's indicative of a lot of these other companies too. It's like they would rather give you a really good discount or deal if you're gonna walk away than to lose you as a customer completely. And so a lot of times just being willing to be like, I'm gonna switch and actually start the process to do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

They'll be like, no, but wait, come back, stay. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I have done that with like a newspaper subscription. I was like, I don't use this enough to justify the cost, what to cancel. They were like, wait, one dollar a week. And I was like, okay, sure, I'll do that. It's not necessarily a bill per se, but this is also a good time of year if you if you have a credit card balance and you're paying interest on that every month and you're struggling to pay it off. You can always ask to lower your interest rates on those credit cards. So you might try that too. Okay, step number eight is to close any old bank accounts that you just have sitting open. The more accounts you have open, the more risk you have that someone's gonna get that account information and, you know, do something with it. So it helps to just get those accounts closed out if you don't use them anymore. The one exception is generally like credit cards that you don't use. Be careful closing old credit cards because doing so will likely lower your credit age, which can have a big impact on your credit score. Casty, I know you have personal experience with that. Yeah, but with bank accounts, like if you're not using them, especially if they charge a monthly maintenance fee, there's no reason you need to hang on to those.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Closing a bank account does not affect your credit score in any way. I do think that's maybe sometimes like a common misconception that people can have. But you are not impacted at all for closing an old bank account.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

And it just feels good to like streamline things, not have that like extra password, extra account number taking up space in your brain or password manager. On the flip side of that, if you have been meaning to open a new account, like maybe you don't have a high yield savings account yet, this is a perfect time to do that. It's really easy, it takes like a few minutes online. We did uh one of our first episodes was about how to choose a bank account, and we cover high yield savings accounts in that episode.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And that is episode number three. The very last step to spring cleaning your finances is just to check in with your emergency fund number. And Emily and I just did an episode last week on this. It is episode number 70. So in that episode, we talk about, you know, how to figure out exactly how much money you need to save, whether you need to follow the traditional advice of like three to six months expenses, what does that even mean? Like, do you do all of your expenses? Do you still do you strip it all down to essentials only? So we go through all of that in that episode. If you need help kind of finessing or fine-tuning, like what emergency fund number feels right for you. But if you do feel like you want to make adjustments to that number this year, this season where you're kind of spring cleaning your finances could be a good opportunity to come up with a little game plan for uh how that needs to look for the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

And getting clarity on that, like maybe you find out you actually have saved enough and you can kind of start redirecting money towards something else, and that can feel really good. Or maybe you're not where you want to be, but you at least have a plan moving forward, and that that can also feel good. So yeah, that's a great thing to check on and make adjustments moving forward. Yeah. That's it for today, girlies. If you are feeling inspired with all of this brain cleaning energy, go to our website at thefinance girlies.com and take our new quiz to find out what type of finance girly you are. You will receive a personalized playlist of podcast episodes and resources to help you continue on your financial journey. That's a wrap on another episode of the Finance Girlies Podcast. Nothing in this episode is meant to be taken as financial advice.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Please do your own research and talk to a professional if you need advice. If you liked this episode, consider leaving a review. Better yet, send the show to a friend who might enjoy it too. Love ya. Bye. Nailed it.