Crunchy Stewardship

Budgeting for a Crunchy Lifestyle: Medical Sinking Funds & Financial Stewardship

• Katie Jones • Season 2 • Episode 53

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:01:43

Send us a Message!

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! You’ve asked, and we are finally delivering! Today, we are taking a detour from our usual health topics to talk about a different kind of wellness: financial health. Since both of us are certified Christian money coaches, we decided to dedicate an entire episode to answering one of the most frequently asked questions in our Facebook group: How do you actually afford to live a crunchy lifestyle?

Let's be honest—buying organic food, sourcing fresh-milled flour, and swapping out conventional medicine for holistic remedies can feel completely out of reach when you are on a tight budget. We are sharing our personal financial journeys, from paying off debt by making homemade laundry detergent to viewing preventative health as the ultimate long-term financial strategy.

We break down how to track your spending, set up high-yield savings accounts, and create a "medical sinking fund" so you are fully prepared for those out-of-pocket holistic care expenses. Budgeting isn't about restriction; it is about faithfully stewarding the resources God has given you so you can live optimally for His kingdom!

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Random Revelation: Katie shares a tool to look up your county's exact agricultural glyphosate exposure (and the results for some areas are shocking!).
  • Our Financial Journeys: How Chrissy used homemade bread and $5 DIY laundry detergent to help pay off debt, and how Katie’s background in real estate and budgeting led to a passion for medical cost-sharing.
  • The Preventative Mindset: Why investing in organic foods and holistic health upfront actually saves you thousands in future medical bills and pharmaceutical costs.
  • Free & Cheap Health Hacks: From grounding outside to mouth taping to prevent cavities (yes, it really works!), how to maximize your wellness without spending a dime.
  • Medical Sinking Funds: What they are, why you need one, and how to use high-yield savings accounts (like Ally and Capital One) to let your money work for you.
  • Budgeting Tools: Our favorite apps (like Monarch) to track your spending and how to give generously as a reflection of the Gospel.

Resources mentioned:

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome & Why We Are Talking About Money 
02:15 Random Revelation: The Glyphosate Exposure Map 
09:10 Our Personal Journeys: Paying Off Debt & Going Crunchy 
14:30 The Preventative Mindset: Health as a Financial Investment 
18:45 Upgrading the Medicine Cabinet & Ditching Pharmaceuticals 
24:20 Free Health Hacks: Nose Breathing & Mouth Taping 
28:30 Budgeting 101: Tracking Spending & Monarch Money 
32:45 Creating a Medical Sinking Fund & Using High-Yield Savings Accounts 
38:10 Biblical Stewardship: The Parable of the Talents & Generous Giving 
44:00 Wrapping Up & How to Work With Us

Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Connect With Us: 

Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama

Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship 

FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Speaker

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Rombach.

Speaker 2

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We're cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Speaker

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Speaker 3

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship

Chrissy

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship. You are here with Chrissy and Katie, and today we are turning a little bit, and we're gonna talk about an aspect of health and wellness that a lot of people don't really think is part of it, but it's one of those things that we highly value. We actually talk about this very frequently, um, usually a little side comment here or there about this topic. But we decided today to spend an entire episode talking specifically about budgeting, and specifically budgeting in terms of health and wellness. How do we reorganize our money and create a strategy to make this crunchy lifestyle affordable and reasonable? Because as you all know, grow- going crunchy is not always the cheapest thing in the world. While some of it can be rather inexpensive or completely free, like sunlight or a bath, you know, um, some things do require a little bit of money, especially when you start adding in some certain supplements or essential oils, or even switching to organic foods. So by popular request on our, uh, Facebook group, Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget, if you're not a part of our Facebook group, you need to go join right now. It's a great place for everybody to continue these conversations and to bounce ideas off of each other, and I posted a few cute little bump pics on there, so you should go look at them because they're great. But anyways, so we have had quite a few recommendations on our Facebook group to do a budgeting episode pretty much talking about how do I restructure my budget in order to afford all of these things and to plan for potential health crises that might happen in the future. So that's what we're gonna be focusing on today, and I'm really looking forward to it. Katie and I both have a very deep passion for financial wellness in addition to, um, spiritual and physical wellness. So they all go together. As you've probably heard me say, health is more than just physical health. It's emotional, mental, spiritual, financial, and physical. So it goes in all five places. But before we get started on the main conversation for today, Katie is going to share with us her random revelation

Katie

Yes, I am. Today, uh, the random revelation should be quick and sweet. I stumbled upon, mm, I don't know where, probably in some email newsletter I'm a part of. Um, I stumbled upon a glyphosate exposure app basically, and by app, it's more just, like, an, a website, but when I looked it up, they call it an app. I'll put a link in the show notes for this if you'd like to go use it. But it's very fascinating. You can actually go and, to this link, and l- put in your county that you live in, and it will tell you your glyphosate exposure in your county by pounds per square mile. Now, this was really fascinating because I put in my little county that I live in here in Michigan, which is a farming town, and in my mind, I would have thought that the glyphosate exposure... Which, let me back up for a second. If you're new to our podcast, not sure what glyphosate is, glyphosate is, um, a, an agricultural pesticide that they use on crops, but it's also used, um, in lawns and in gardens, typically found in something like Roundup to help with, uh, weeds and pests and things like that. So it is a chemical that is used on all of these plants around our areas, and it's Uh, really, really bad for your health, basically, is the long story short. We have episodes where we've talked lots and lots about glyphosate, so if you're not familiar with it, maybe go back and listen to those or Google it and check out glyphosate. But just for the sake of this random revelation, can go and see your glyphosate exposure using this thing. And I thought that our exposure here was going to be very high, like very, like 'cause... So it's pounds per square mile. And so they have a low, medium, and high range. And here in my tiny little county in Michigan, it is actually extremely low. It's only 3.1 pounds per square mile, and it's a total of, like, 1.8. And this is in thousands of pounds. W- like, like 3.1 thousand pounds per mile. Um, you can go look it up. They have all the parameters and stuff. And so we are in, like, the 19th percentile here in my county, and it says that it's in the bottom third of US counties for agricultural glyphosate use, and it's estimated that about 1.8 thousand pounds of glyphosate were sprayed across our 564.8 square miles in, uh... And the, the results are from 2019, it looks like, so that's the earliest data that they have. um, okay. So this is actually provided by Seed Oil Scout, which is probably... I get their newsletter, and they have a lot of really great resources, so that's probably where I got this from. But then I went and looked up the county that I used to live in in Colorado, and it is off the charts terrible. It's 301 pounds per square mile, basically, and it's in the high, like, the red zone of glyphosate exposure. And I was shocked by this. And then I looked up even, like, the surrounding, um, counties that, one that I used to live in and then one that, um, is also near us. The f- like, one of our former ones where we went to college is on the, like, moderate but lower end of the moderate range. But then somewhere like Boulder, Colorado, um, they actually had somewhere in the moderate range as well. But I was, like, kind of shocked that the county that I used to live in in Colorado had such a high range, because it's, like, not very agricultural. So my guess is it's probably, like, golf courses that are using them. But then even I looked up my parents' county where they live in California, which is golf course central, there's tons of them, and it's not as high as our county in Colorado, which is very mysterious to me

Chrissy

So that's interesting 'cause I just looked up my county also, the county I currently live in and the county I used to live in. The county I used to live in is very not agricultural, but also relatively lower-ish income than the county I live in now. And the county I used to live in has a very low glyphosate rate, um, level in it, and the one I live in now has a moderate level. And so I wonder how much of that is contributed to, or is related to, like, even people, like,

Katie

Hmm

Chrissy

putting fertilizers and pesticides in their own yards and things like that, and which you would see more in a little bit more wealthy area rather than a lower income area. Have, are you seeing that also maybe in

Katie

not necessarily because my parents' county specifically in California,

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

zone.

Chrissy

true. So they probably spray all the lawns

Katie

Yes. And so it's like lots of golf courses, and they're, they're also in a desert there, so they have to be spraying lots of stuff in order to, like fertilizers and pesticides and all the stuff. So my only theory is that, you know, this is considered a glyphosate lookup, like exposure lookup, so maybe it's specific to glyphosate only. And like

Chrissy

Hmm

Katie

there's other ones that are somewhat replacing glyphosate more. Um, paraquat and diquat

Chrissy

Which might be the situation in California,

Katie

yes

Chrissy

make a lot of sense because California has kind of been leading the way a lot in the whole, like, glyphosate argument

Katie

Yes. So that's my theory. Where I live right here, even though it's very agricultural, we also have a lot of just forest, and so a lot of just underdeveloped area that even get touched anyway. And so that's my guess is, like, the pounds per square mile, even though some areas might be more concentrated, 'cause I know that they spray. Like, I've, I've asked lots of people, uh, the Christmas tree farms around here spray pesticides, things like that. So we, we have a lot of that and, and it's around us, but we also have just a lot of underdeveloped area that isn't touched by agriculture or by housing or anything. So I don't know. It was just int- interesting, and it was kinda fun to just play around with and see what the exposure's like for other people that I know, and so I was putting, like, my sister's county and other people and, and just stuff like that, where I was like, "This is kinda fun to mess around with." So if you want, I'll drop a link and you can check it out. It's pretty basic, uh, and kinda fun and interesting to look at

Chrissy

Fascinating. Then you have to figure out what you're gonna do with that information.

Katie

I know. I was actually, I was just very, it was very relieving that we moved away from h- such a hot zone

Chrissy

That's true

Katie

So I was kind of like, "Wow, that's extremely relieving for us,"

Chrissy

And like overall it's probably

Katie

would

Chrissy

less,

Katie

"Ugh."

Chrissy

now it's overall probably less in your water supply and things like that. So you have

Katie

Yeah

Chrissy

less concern about that one

Katie

Yeah. But if anyone is concerned about any kind of pesticide exposures that they are, uh, experiencing, check out our episode that we did talking about just a few weeks back. It was part of our fertility series, but it wasn't necessarily just... It's f- fertility also equals health. So when you see, like, fertility stuff, you can kind of ignore that and just think health-wise. So go check that out if you're curious to learn more about the dangers of pesticides too, so. But

Chrissy

Yes

Katie

should roll into today's topic, which is all about money and personal finances and budgeting. And one thing that I don't think you mentioned, Chrissy, is that you and I are both certified money coaches.

Chrissy

That is true

Katie

you've been certified through the Dave Ramsey stuff, correct?

Chrissy

Yes

Katie

And then, um, I myself have done... I have actually gone through Dave Peace University myself many years ago. But my certification is through the, um, Institute for Christian Health. It's a certified, I'm a certified Christian financial counselor, which is official thing that I have. But have for many years had my own coaching, money coaching program called Redeeming Your Finances, which does still exist. You can go out there and find the course that I have and get that and go through it if anybody's interested. But now recently, I actually started helping out with Bob Lotich's SeedTime coaching. So if you are into Christian personal finance stuff, you typically will stumble upon some of his content. And so I am now a coach through the SeedTime organization and help people there to do budgeting and, um, they have, they have a lot of different courses. So I do coaching through there, and I've been really enjoying it. And but yeah, both Chrissy and I are very passionate about personal finances. Actually, part of the reason this podcast started was because Chrissy and I were both talking about, like, how crunchy we had gotten in the last few years and stuff, and we were just talking about all these things, but how all these podcasts that we're listening to always talk about all these really expensive things that you have to do in order to get healthy. You have to, like, buy all these supplements and get these electrolytes, and then a, a sauna for your house and get a, a water filter and all these things that you're like, "This is now not even just thousands of dollars, but millions of dollars."

Chrissy

Which let's be honest though, a sauna like in my shower sounds like a dream, and it's definitely on the list of things to have in my dream home.

Katie

I would love that. I've been trying to convince my parents to get a sauna so that way they pay for it, but I can benefit from it. Hear that,

Chrissy

That's true.

Katie

Hint, hint.

Chrissy

I'm trying to get my parents to get a hot tub still. No luck. None

Katie

You know, okay, funny enough, and, and I'm sure there's healthier ways to do hot tubs. I don't like hot tubs, primarily just most of them are filled with, like, lots of chemicals and stuff, and the chemicals from hot tubs typically give me headaches and just make me feel blah afterwards. So like relaxing-wise and heat-wise and the massage from the water and stuff, I know that there's probably health benefits from it, but at the same time I'm like, for me,

Chrissy

And you don't need to use chlorine. Uh, we grew up with, like, uh, so growing up in Houston, I had a pool in our backyard because everybody in Houston has a pool in their backyard, and we had a saltwater pool. And so I, I actually do notice the difference. When I'm in a saltwater pool versus a chlorine pool, I definitely feel not icky afterwards. After swimming in chlorine, whether it's a pool or a hot tub, I feel just icky after. But saltwater is definitely superior to chlorine. I'm sure there's still probably chemicals in it, but less

Katie

Yeah, yeah. So anyways, everything seemed so expensive that it was kind of like, how do you get on this kind of health journey without necessarily spending an arm and a leg and needing to sell your children into slavery? It was one of those things that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I, I do really value my health and stewarding my health, and viewing my body as a temple, and I wanna take care of it," especially after understanding all of the harmful things that we are exposed to. Last episode we talked about detoxing from all of the toxins that we're exposed to in our daily lives. And so it was like one of those things that I'm like, "I really highly value this, but how do we do this in a way that isn't breaking the bank?" And so Chrissy and I's first conversation about this before we started our podcast, and what rolled us down into this journey, is that we're like, "Oh, well, we're finding all these ways that we're saving some money. And actually, if you kind of do it this way, then it actually is more cost-effective than the way that we were doing it before." And we just kind of were rolling different ideas off of one another. And then it, it would just be kind of, you know, this podcast has kind of been a journey of sharing a lot of the knowledge that we have, so that way you can make more informed decisions and just be a better steward in general of your health. But ultimately, like in all of our episodes, yes, we do share some of those more expensive things that you can do in order to steward your health, but we always try to add in the low-cost, the free things that you can be doing to just be healthier, to get healthier, to, yeah, to be on this kinda crunchy, healthy wellness journey breaking the bank. And so we really do try our best. I know that I can think back and be like, "Meh, we probably didn't do our best in certain areas." But that's why we kinda wanted to do this episode, because we have had many people requesting talking a little bit more about budgeting and planning, and how do we actually prioritize certain expenses over the other, and how do you make those decisions of like which things are more important right now versus other ones. So think to start us off, Chrissy, you know, I know we have like a somewhat of a general idea of where we're going, but I think, where, where do we, where would you like to

Chrissy

Why don't we start sharing, by sharing our personal journeys, the financial perspective of our crunchy journey? Because I feel like you and I share the story of our crunchy journey quite frequently, but from a financial perspective, we Don't really share the personal details. So how about that?

Katie

Yeah

Chrissy

I'll start. So when Max and I got married, we- I was still a student and he was a pastor, so he wasn't making very much money, and we were living in Dallas, and Dallas rent is stupid. Stupid high by that. Um, so needless to say, we were kind of living paycheck to paycheck a little bit, and so I was looking for any strategy to start saving money, and the first thing I came across was actually making my own bread. Um, I did the math and I was like, okay, buying flour, salt, water, yeast, however frequently, ended up being cheaper than buying a loaf of bread every week. And so I was like, okay, that's a way that I can save $4 a month, because at that point in our lives, like, $4 a month was not nothing. And so I started doing that, and we moved to North Carolina then after I graduated, and I came across a laundry detergent recipe that was all natural, make your own, and it made... It, it includes, um, Borax, washing soda, and a laundry bar. And a laundry bar costs $5, and then the Borax and the washing soda together costs maybe $10, but you only have to buy them, like, every, I don't know, four or five times you make laundry detergent. And this laundry detergent made an entire five-gallon bucket worth of detergent, which lasted us an entire year. And so here I am doing the math of like, oh my gosh, I no longer need to spend $20, $25 on laundry detergent every month. I can now spend $5 once a year, and that's how much money? Like 500 bucks that I was saving just by... Is it 500? Maybe 250. I did the math wrong. Anyways, $200 that I was saving every year by making my own laundry detergent instead of buying it from the grocery store. So that was the initial part of our financial journey, and when I was making the laundry detergent, Max and I were paying off debt. We were doing it the Dave Ramsey way, and so if anybody is familiar with Dave Ramsey, it's like you live in what he calls a wartime lifestyle in order to put as much money as humanly possible towards your debt to knock it down. And we did, and praise God, we paid off our debt in, like- I think I was like a year and a half or two years or something like that. It was pretty significant. And so I just think every choice that we made, um, slowly but surely, it start- honestly, my crunchy journey started off with I wanna save as much money as possible, and then it has transitioned into I want to save money and also I wanna maximize my health as much as possible. And so now it's a, a balance between the two because not every health decision is saving us money, you know? But in the long run, I truly believe it is because ultimately you're gonna have to pay for your health one way or another, whether you're paying for it now in terms of buying organic foods and choosing to, um, use more organic products and natural products, or you're gonna pay for it later in terms of medical bills and pharmaceuticals. And so it really is taking your pick. Like, which way are you going to pay for your health? Now, slowly but surely, or later all at once? So that's my main financial crunchy journey. What's yours, Katie?

Katie

Yeah. This is a really good question. I w- I was trying to even reflect on that even as you're sharing yours. My journey really started with personal finances in general. I I got into real estate investing even before and I got married. I was diving down that journey of wanting to become a real estate investor, because I was working as a property manager at the time. And when Wes and I got married, bought our first rental property a few months after that. And so I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna become this cool real estate investor and everything." And I started a blog at that time, and was b- like blogging about how to be a gospel-focused real estate investor and landlord, and all these things that were kind of like faith-based and real estate. And then eventually, I kinda started talking more about how to set up your finances, so that way you can actually go and buy a rental property one day. And then I had people asking me like would I do coaching and all this stuff. So I, I've always like had this very budgety-like mindset, and I've always loved finding new ways to save money, and I, I just have always really enjoyed that. Originally, it was always from a perspective of like, "How can I get the best deals?" And it wasn't e- even... Like I, I never really wanted to do a lot of things like DIY. Like I didn't wanna have to make things from scratch. But eventually, after kind of going through all of the financial hacks of like how to save money and different apps where you can get coupons and get discounts and things like that, I realized that I, it, that can only take you so far, and it can only save you so much. But you, if you really wanna start making bigger impacts, you kind of have to start looking things from a do it yourself perspective. And because you pay more for things that are pre-made, basically. I eventually got into my crunchy journey when I was pregnant. And again, looking at things from more of a health perspect- or more of a financial perspective of like how can I save money and all this stuff. And then I started realizing a lot of the things that I was doing order to save money was somewhat healthier. Um, I mean, I, I even think, I love anything that's reusable, but then it turns out a lot of reusable things tend to be the healthier option. So like reusable bags for food, instead of using plastic, one-time use plastic bags. And reusable mats for baking, instead of using any kind of like tin foil, aluminum foils, or using, uh, parchment paper that has like a waxy, plasticky coating to it. Uh, you know, a lot of these things that were saving me money because That's, I, that, that was my focus. I was trying to save money by doing reusable things. We even love, like, our reusable napkins and stuff. And a lot of these things, like, even, like, napkins, they're heavily bleached and a lot of chemicals in them, so like you're using them on your skin and wiping them around. And but it was like I always had it in my mind from more of a financial perspective first, but then eventually I learned, oh wow, this actually is healthier, and it's saving you money. Like, so then it's like a huge benefit. And so yeah, then just kinda diving into my crunchy journey in general, I've sh- like, like Chrissy said, I've, I've shared in many of our episodes that when I became pregnant, that really drove me into learning more about, like, food and nutrition. And then, um, after having Malachi and going through our crazy time in the hospital after he was born, that really put me into a different mindset of Trying to be as healthy as possible so we just don't have to spend time in a hospital ever again, basically, if we can help it. and so it's really kicked me into overdrive. And though I've been realizing that I've been able to save money and do the healthier thing at the same time. Another area that just kind of, again, it, it, it started from more of a financial perspective, was the whole medical cost-sharing ministry versus traditional insurance. And doing the medical cost-sharing has saved us a lot more money in the long run than doing traditional health insurance, but it's also helped us to start shifting our mindset on what is healthcare. Like, not just seeing health insurance as a way to pay for all of our medical expenses, but getting into the mindset of doing all of the maintenance and preventative care so that we don't even have to go to the doctor and spend more money there to begin with. So again, I've, I've really had this bent towards saving money, but at the same time, it's like they actually do perfectly align. And so it... I really do think it, it begins with a mindset shift of investing in our health does actually save money. But there are a lot of things that we can do we are trying to invest in our health that are already saving money, which do include things like, um, making things from scratch, like Chrissy talked about. And Chrissy, I feel like, has, like, I feel like you got into doing things more from scratch a bit more than I did. An- like, and now I'm kinda like catching up to some of those things. But then even, like, spending more time outside is completely free, but so good for your health in so many ways. Your circadian rhythm, helping with allergies because you're getting the natural pollens from the air. Um, it helps with your eyesight. It helps with, um, just energy in general, like keeping all of your cells in rhythm with ano- one another. Grounding/earthing and being barefoot outside and getting the microbiome boosts from the soil. Like, there's so many little free things that we can be doing that also help us to save money in the long run by keeping us healthier and out of the doctor's offices to begin with. So I think it's just starting to s- like, shift your mindset to, like- Oh, if I get sick, I can just... if something happens and I do get a chronic disease, or if I do struggle with migraines, or if I do struggle with obesity, then there's going to be something I can do. I can go to the doctor. They'll be able to give me something. Yeah, my insurance will pay for it, and it'll be fine. Like, I might have to pay some out of pocket with the co-pays. But it's starting to shift your mindset to, like, I just prevent those from the, the first place so that it's not a problem for me, and then I don't have to spend all the money later, and spending all the and the headache on all of it?

Chrissy

Yeah, I agree with it. I think the preventative mindset is very helpful to have because it's, again, thinking about, like, how am I going to spend my money on my health? It's not if I'm going to spend my money on my health, it's how is it going to happen. Is it going to happen through the tea or through, uh, like drinking tea, not like gossip tea? Um, talk about the tea. But is it gonna be through drinking tea and getting sunlight and things like that, or is it gonna be through pharmaceuticals and tests and things like that? So I agree, that's definitely a really great place to start off with in, like, creating a preventative mindset, and then allowing yourself to create a budget around that preventative mindset. So creating space in your budget to say, "Okay, we're gonna start buying organic food, and that's gonna cost us 25 to $50 extra per week, so how can we find 100, $150 in our budget to move towards our groceries?" And in the grand scheme of things, like that's not a ton of money, but it makes a huge impact on our health. Even my dad, who is anti-organic, which my mom called me today and we were laughing about it because my dad tried to fight me on it again that organic doesn't actually mean anything. Um, and, and I even told him, I said, "When you were over and you had my grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish, you told me it tasted better." He said, "Yeah, and it did, and it wasn't even cooked on the grill." And I said, "See? It is better." So anyways, um, yeah, so even just creating little strategies like that, or... And then also creating a sinking fund of, okay, so it's, the reality is we live in a broken world and illnesses are going to happen, so when I get a cough or a cold or a fever or a migraine or whatever, what am I going to use to prot- prevent those from happening and also to treat them? And so we need to start looking at our, um, medicine cabinets and, like, okay, I'm gonna be completely honest and straight up here. I have not invested in homeopathy strategies to replace the Tylenol and Advil in my medicine cabinet, and I do still have those. I know, I need to get on it. It's just one of those things, I bought the Tylenol, like, five years ago

Katie

during pregnancy

Chrissy

We're not going down that train right now. We're talking about money.

Katie

Okay, okay, okay

Chrissy

Anyways, but it's one of those things, like let's create space in the budget to trade out those things in our medicine cabinet and be like, "Okay, instead of this Tylenol, maybe I can get also peppermint oil and some..." Oh, what other oils are used for pain? My brain is blanking right now. It really depends on the kind of pain.

Katie

Mmhmm Yeah. I mean,

Chrissy

Things like that

Katie

um, even, I mean,

Chrissy

I feel like frankincense

Katie

oils. Yeah, frankincense helps with inflammation. Lavender helps just with relaxation. Um, Epsom salts help with, like, relaxing your muscles and can also help with pain relieving. There's a lot of... And, and you'll look to see that there's a small upfront investment for some of them, but not anything major. And again, when you, like, weigh that with, okay, I'm going to start treating this here and now from healthier perspective versus then using the Advils and Tylenols and other pain medications and drugs from the doctor, then lead to nutrient de- deficiencies or ruin your gut lining or destroy your brain health and then lead to dementia. Like, these are all things that can happen. In fact, I just listened to, um, a Josh Axe episode. It's actually really old, but it was, like, downloaded to my episodes, and I was like, "Oh, I should listen to this," 'cause this one actually sounded really cool. It's from like 25, 2025 or 2024. Anyway, was all about natural remedies that you can replace drugs that you typically go to for a lot of common ailments. And, and some of the things were even, like, how to get off of prescription drugs, but they're all things that, like, again, he talked about you stay on things, like, even, like, birth control. He didn't necessarily give, like, a, a thing to use instead of birth control, but it was more like get off of birth control. Do natural family planning if you need to because if you stay on birth control, your health will be impacted in these ways. And so he talks about all the nutrient deficiencies that birth control leads to and then how if you are on birth control for 10 years or more, you have a higher likelihood of getting certain types of cancers. And it's like the, the percentage he shared was something like 600% higher chance, and it's like insane. And so I'm like, okay. Stop doing the birth control. Invest in some other little things that you can be doing, like a thermometer. Like, that's an easy, like, taking your, what is it, basal,

Chrissy

The basal body temperature

Katie

Yes. And it's like there's natural ways of doing these things instead of resorting to a drug, which your insurance might be paying for, so you're like, "Oh, I'm paying nothing out of pocket if my insurance is paying for these things." But your health is going to take a hit, which then will lead to bigger complications later, which will cost you money and will cost you just enjoyment of

Chrissy

Mmhmm

Katie

So yes, it is changing your mindset, finding room in your budget. And even like, I guess we should back up even a step. If you don't have a budget, that is really you need to start.

Chrissy

That's true

Katie

I mean, for Chrissy and I, it, it sounds like... 'Cause we're like, we just assume like everybody has a budget, because we love budgeting. And so we're so nerdy in that way, that it's like, "Yeah, your budget. Do this

Chrissy

Gosh, my spreadsheet is my favorite thing, but my husband hates spreadsheets, and so the actual, like, line-by-line budgeting, item by item, he cannot stand it. And so that's a pink job in our household, um, because I love going through our credit card expenses and transferring them over to our spreadsheet and seeing how much money exactly we spent on every single area of finances each month, and, like, seeing how the months kind of relate to one another, and what happened? Why did we spend more here? Why did we spend less? What's going on exactly? And so I love that stuff. My husband can't stand it.

Katie

I would, and so n- I can, I can imagine people listening on the other end who are like, "Uh, both my husband and I hate spreadsheets. Neither of us wanna do this." There are methods out there. So like I mentioned, help with Bob Lotich's coaching now, um, Seed Time Money. You can Google it, or I'll, I'll put a link in the show notes so you can check him out if you're curious. But he uses this method. We actually switched from doing just straight spreadsheets. I still use my spreadsheets mostly 'cause I'm the same way. I like having the data. But we actually do our budgeting a little differently where we have, like, digital envelopes almost, and use... We have, like, several different bank accounts that have, like, one is for groceries, one is for gas, and one is for health. Like, we literally have a... We actually have two separate kind of like health-ish ones. We have personal care, which is more things like deodorants and toothpastes and shampoo, that kinda stuff. And then we have a health one that goes for anything like, our homeopathy appointments to appointments to actually buying homeopathy remedies or buying essential oils and things like that. So anything that's kinda like health-related, we have a whole budget for that versus, like, personal care. And so there's, there's ways to budget that don't necessarily always require spreadsheets, and I'd highly recommend that. And even, like, a step before setting up a budget is like you have to understand much you're spending on everything to begin with. And again, you don't need to use spreadsheets. There's lots of amazing tools out there nowadays. Two that I highly recommend, um, one is Rocket Money, um, and then the other one is Monarch, uh, I think it's Monarch Money, which is funny 'cause I u- I actually use Monarch, not Rocket Money, but I know that Rocket Money does the same thing. Monarch is awesome, and they even have, like, a bunch of AI tools now that you can, like, run these different, uh, scenarios and stuff with. And anyway, it's really cool. I can drop links to these things too so people can just easily check them out. it, it will... What you can do with Monarch or Rocket Money is connect all of your bank accounts, so your credit cards, your debit cards, all the things in one place. So if you have multiple, or if you and your husband have one, or I should say spouse, 'cause if you're a man and you're married to a woman. If you and your spouse are, have different accounts and things, you can put everything in one place, and it will categorize everything and then tell you how much you're spending in each category. Sometimes you have to, like, go in there and tell it exactly because if you, if you shop at Kroger but you also buy gas at Kroger, sometimes it doesn't categorize it properly. So you j- you have to double-check. But then you can easily get your averages to be like, "Wow, we spend a lot on, I don't know, coffee every month." That was my overspending area.

Chrissy

Did you know when Max and I started dating, he spent $300 a month on coffee?

Katie

Okay, I can believe that because mine was somewhere similar.

Chrissy

Yeah. It, that's literally like one cup of coffee a day

Katie

Yeah, yeah. It's, it was, my, my habit was bad too. That's when I was working as a property manager at the time, so I was driving around all day, and I would tell myself, like, "Oh, I'll just stop at this coffee shop, do some work here." But I'd buy, like, a coffee and a muffin or something like that, and those little tiny expenses add up so fast. I thought I was spending, like, $100 max, and it was, yeah, like two to $300 on average, and it was... It's embarrassing. Like, now looking back, I had no idea how much I was actually spending. But that's the whole point is, like, I wouldn't... Like, the first step isn't necessarily just to build a budget, but it's to first, like, understand your spending habits so that you have that information to then go and build a solid budget. And you have to give yourself grace because even building your first budget is going to be really clunky, and you're not gonna get it right the first time. Um, and that's where, like, working with a professional to help you with that is beneficial. So if you're looking for help, both Chrissy and I do offer services, so we can add links to that kind of stuff. But there's lots of people out there. I mean, like, your church probably has something that they offer. Um, again, there's lots of resources online that's free that you can check out. You can watch YouTube videos. understanding your spending, building a budget, then finding room in your budget to make a category for health expenses or to increase your grocery budget I think is important. But again, it's not like Chrissy and I are saying, like, you have to spend hundreds of dollars on all these things every month. It's like maybe adjust your grocery budget a little bit to able to pay for organic things. But here's the kicker. Wes and I learned that when we started doing more things from scratch, like actually cooking things from scratch, it actually evened out in our budget because we stopped paying for all the pre-made foods and started making food from scratch, and we stop- stopped eating out as much, and we made things from home that it actually... Like, our grocery budget looks a little bit larger, but our eating out budget, we spend, like, maybe $50 a month, and that's, like, on a high month of eating out.

Chrissy

Wow, that's impressive

Katie

really ever. But it's... And it's not even like, oh, we can't go eat out. I personally don't like eating out because the food I eat when I go out makes me feel like crap. And so I'm like, "I don't wanna spend $30 on a meal if it's gonna make me feel really bad afterwards. I'd rather just eat something that I made at home." So our grocery budget sometimes looks really large to other people, but then you see that we're not eating out, and a lot of it is because I buy things in bulk often. I, we do Azure Standard, so I buy lots of, like, large things. Like, I just bought six, uh, bottles of lemon juice this last month. And Wes was like, "What?" And I was like, "We go through, like, one of these a month," and when you buy it in bulk, you save more money by the bottle, basically. But have to... Like, we, I planned for that in our budget to, like, do that this one. It does save money in the long run, but it's like you have to have that upfront investment. So anyway, my point is, like, have a budget. Understand your spending. Make room for the things that are important, and cut out the things that aren't as important, um And you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on health stuff, 'cause there is a lot of ways that you can still save money. And Chrissy and I, again, like we've talked lots about free ways to be doing lots of stuff, and a lot of times it's really just very basic. I actually, I mean, I listened to another old episode on Alex Clark's podcast that's, that, when it was called The Spillover. It's all about mouth breathing and how when you start learning how to breathe more through your nose versus your mouth, this guy talks about literally all the things that it can cure by breathing just through your nose and not through your mouth anymore. he talks about training it and stuff, and it's all literally free ways that you can do this. But then, like, I mean, cavities is one of those things. Like, you will never get cavities again, as long as you're, like, brushing and not eating lots of sugar. But I mean, a really classic case is Wes and I. has better dental hygiene than I do. Like, he is very religious about flossing his teeth and brushing his teeth. Me, on the other hand, I do floss and brush, but there are some nights where I'm like, "Meh, I'm gonna skip brushing because I am so exhausted and I just wanna go to bed." But he will always brush his teeth. guess who's the one that gets cavities? Wes is the one who gets cavities. And why, I've learned over time, it's because he sleeps with his mouth open, and so he gets cavities more because he is a mouth breather at night, which is something that we have invested in, is mouth tape for him. Um, it's very super sexy, uh, when he goes to bed wearing this little, like, black piece of mouth tape. Malachi thinks it's the funniest thing too, and always tries to, like, rip it off of his mouth and stuff and... But Wes has even talked about how been using it now for probably three months, and there has been significant changes just in his energy alone. Um, and his mouth, he wakes up and it's not all, like, dry and crusty anymore because it's been closed all night. And so we're really hoping that it'll help with the cavity thing, because since we've been married, he has had a handful of cavities, and I have had none. But he is by far so much better at dental health than I am. Like, hands down. I will admit that, and he always has been. And so it's always bothered him so much that he gets the cavities and I don't, 'cause he's like, "I brush my teeth so much more than you, and I floss so much more than you," and all this stuff. And he doesn't drink sugary drinks, and he... I'm the one that drinks coffee, and I... Like, it's, like, so backwards. never get cavities. So anyway, there's free things. Then my point is, breathing through your nose is free, guys. And there are, there are lots of health benefits. link to that podcast, 'cause it actually was really interesting. Even just, like, your face structure and stuff, and

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

so

Chrissy

I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again. So Max is a mouth breather also, but... And he doesn't get cavities. I'm the one that gets cavities, and I'm the nose breather, so

Katie

That's weird.

Chrissy

Yeah, I don't know. I think it's, at least for us, it's genetics. But he would suffocate if I gave him mouth tape because he has a deviated septum. And so that is the only thing that I'm like, is like the downside of nose breathing is if you have a deviated septum, don't die. Breathe,

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

breathe please. Just breathe. It's better than not. As much as I tell Max, "Stop breathing, you're too loud." But anyways, it's kind of funny. So another thing that you can do in order to budget for your health is to create a medical sinking fund. So a medical sinking fund is exactly what it sounds like, a sinking fund. So it's a fund that doesn't have a limit to it. It's pretty much we're going to put money towards this thing every month, and when a larger expense comes up or something comes up that we need to pay for, now we have the money present to be able to pay for it. And so a lot of people will create a sinking fund for vacations or for, I don't know, date nights, or entertainment, or something like that. But to create a sinking fund for health related expenses is really important because when you wake up one morning and you have this new mark on your arm, and you're like, "Where in the heck end did it come from?" And you want to go to a homeopath to get it looked at. Or you hurt your back and now you need to go to the chiropractor to get your back adjusted frequently. Or you're trying to get pregnant and so you decide to try acupuncture to get pregnant. Things like this, like those things are not the cheapest things in the world. And so they do require a little bit more of an expense, which if you haven't added it into your budget, then it can be a little bit off-putting at first and make you not wanna do it. But if you have a sinking fund, then that will create a way for you to be able to pay for these, um, items when you need them, and then you can create a line item for it in your budget and move your money around again to allow yourself to be able to afford it on the long term. So this is something that Max and I have had in the past. Um, we actually don't have it right now because baby's on the way, so sinking fund has changed to baby fund. Um, and health sinking fund, put a cap on it for now. But in the long run, it's really great to have a health sinking fund. It, um, just creates freedom, you know? And takes a lot of the stress out of, "How am I gonna pay for this? I don't even know when I'm getting paid next, and how much money do I have in my checking account?" It's like- That suddenly becomes less of a problem because you have this savings account that is, um, prepped and ready to be used. Which reminds me, in terms of savings accounts, it is wise to not keep your money in just a normal savings account that earns you one cent a month of interest. It needs to be in a high-yield savings account or a CD some, of some sort, or a money market account or something where you still have easy access to your money, but also it's building interest and it's working for you. So you're making 3 or 4% passively every month without having to think about it, instead of a typical savings account through a regular bank will make you one cent per month, which is not very much. So that's another thing. If you don't have your savings accounts in a high-interest form, find somebody or figure it out a way to put your money there because it's much more beneficial. Your money then starts working for you and not against you

Katie

Yeah. A couple places to check out some, like, accounts would be Capital One or Ally, A-L-L-Y. Uh,

Chrissy

Max and I,

Katie

actually both of them, so

Chrissy

we use Ally, and the one thing I really love about the high-yield savings account in Ally is you can separate it into buckets. So similarly to how you were talking about your electronic envelopes for your budgeting, with Ally you can have budgets so... Or buckets. You have one savings account, but then you can have a emergency fund bucket, and then a house fund bucket, and then a car repairs bucket, and then a health expenses bucket, and then a vacation bucket. Even though, like, all the money is in the same account, it's all separated and you can see how much you have in each category, which is very helpful

Katie

Definitely. Yep. Yeah, we like Ally. We've been using them for m- many years now, and they have a really nice user-friendly app. Capital One is where we keep our emergency fund right now. So that's where we have that, 'cause it's out of sight, out of mind, and only for emergencies, which we have had to tap into couple times recently for our house here when we... Like the power or the boiler went out, which is, we have a boiler here for our heat system. we had to tap into that for, like, a $300 expense. But anyway, yeah, it's super helpful to have all these things and to have a budget to understand your own spending habits. I mean, honestly, I think if you've never tracked your money, that will give you probably the best insight to make the, the biggest changes. Because even if you just do money tracking and don't even build, like, an official budget after that, just knowing, like, "Oh my gosh, I spent $300 on coffee alone last month," will at least kinda give you that information to be like, "I need to stop going out for coffee all the time," and can make you a little bit more conscious about those decisions. I do recommend following up and actually building a budget, and then building all these saving funds and having plans for these things. And it really is, like... 'Cause sometimes, like, I, I get the question too of, like, "Oh, is saving money, like, not trusting God to provide for you and your future?" And I can understand where people come from when they ask those questions, but at the same time, we want to be and plan and be good stewards. Like, actually understand, like, "What am I doing with my money?" Because you think about, like, just a owner, h- he gives you $100 for a project. $100 doesn't sound like a lot for a business project. Maybe, like, $10,000 for some project that you have to do at your job, and he's like, "Okay, go and do this thing. Like, here's your objective." And then at the end of it, he's like, "Okay, how much did you spend? How much is left over? Where did you save money? Where..." You know. But if you're just like, "Oh, well, I got the project done," of course you, like, accomplished the goal, but then if you don't know, like, where the money went, how it was spent, if... He's not gonna ask you to do another job later because you didn't take good account of, like, actual money you were given. And maybe he wasn't even expecting you to spend all that money. Maybe he gave you a lot and was like, "Really, this project should only take, like, $5,000, and we'll see how wise they are with this money to spend it." But if you're just like, "Yeah, I spent all the money and, and the job got done," so you're like, "I accomplished that objective," but you don't have a record of, like, what- You've spent the money on, and if you don't have any left over and you don't understa- like, it's just, it looks really poorly. And so if you think about that from just now a gospel perspective, like, God is the giver of all money. Like, yes, He gives us the talents and abilities to have a job and to create wealth in our own homes, but that money n- is not ours. It's always God's. And so we need to have an account of where it's going, how we're spending it, even, mean, I think another, like, aspect to all this, if you're talking now, like, spiritual health, like, 'cause we, we talk a lot about spiritual health, too, like, not just health and mental health and all these things, but spiritual health, if you're not giving and if you're not being generous with your funds, you're, first off, really missing out on a lot of fun, because it is so fun to give and to be generous and to participate in gospel advancing anything, like ministries and, uh, just sharing funds and giving to neighbors and doing all these things to share the love of Christ with others. But also, like, that's something that God calls us to do, is to be generous. And the new covenant doesn't give us, like, a specific amount of, like, you must give this percentage. Paul tells us that we should be giving generously whatever amount that God is telling us to give. Um, I think I would challenge you, if you're not, to start giving 10% and then go beyond if you can. But that is one of those parts of financial health that tends to get pushed under the rug sometimes, even as Christians. Like, we all kind of know we should be giving, but I think starting from that spot of, like, if you're not giving, just start, and then see what happens from there and how God might bless you and open new doors, and even just how your heart changes. Like, even if you don't, like, all of a sudden some crazy financial windfall of, like, you've inherit a bunch of money all of a sudden out of the blue, and you're like, "Wow, I would have... I didn't even know Great Aunt Sally, and she just left me all this money", that doesn't, like, sure, sometimes that happens, but it's like, I think the blessing from that is just your heart posture starts to change, and that's oftentimes just what God wants. Anyway, I am just now rambling, I feel like. I'm just really, I love this topic.

Chrissy

No.

Katie

on and on.

Chrissy

I love hearing you talk about this topic. It's really honestly encouraging to me to hear, like, the Lord has given us these resources to steward well. And looking at the New Testament, so yes, technically in the new covenant there's no specific, like, thou shall give 10%, like there is in the Old Testament. But Jesus talks about money more so than he talks about anything else at any point in time. And the vast majority of his, um

Katie

Parables.

Chrissy

thing. Vast majority

Katie

I knew exactly where you were going. I'm like, "I know this. I know the answer. Yes."

Chrissy

The vast majority of his parables that he talks about is about money. You know, he tells about the woman who gave two coins versus the rich people who gave hundreds of coins, and the woman gave more because that was all she had. And he talks about the, um, the man- the talents. You know, how the business owner gives three men different amounts of talents, and two of them go, and they use those talents... By the way, a talent is, like, a quantity of money for those who don't know. Um, they use those to, um, make more money, and they come back with double. But the one person just goes and buries it and puts it in a savings account, and then brings it back and doesn't have any more. And so God i- Jesus is using these examples of like, okay, the Lord has given you resources, now use them to maximize the spread of the gospel. And for every single person, that's going to look completely different. It looks different for Katie and me and, like, by ourselves, and we live very similar lifestyles, to be honest, in case you haven't noticed. But, um, yeah, so figure out, pray about it. Where has the Lord given you a passion to use the money, use the resources that he has already given you, first off, to advance the gospel, second off, to maximize your health and wellness so that you can then work for the sake of the gospel? Because ultimately, that should be our focus in every single thing that we say and every single thing we do, is everything we do is for the sake of the gospel and nothing else. Whether it's being an accountant, being a nurse, being a laborer, being a mom, you know, whatever you do, it is for the sake of the gospel. And so how can we use these resources that God has given us for the advance of the gospel and to be the hands and feet of Jesus on Earth all the time?

Katie

Amen. I think that's really great place that can kind of conclude our conversation. Again, Chrissy and I love talking about this. And maybe if you have further questions about personal finances or budgeting for health, like message us, you know, send us an email, come join us on our Facebook group. Let us know what your questions are, 'cause maybe we'll do more podcasts about this if people want to hear more or dive deeper. But also, like again, if you are looking for any specific help and guidance for your situation personally, you can definitely reach out to either of us, because that is what we do. I mean, that is actually like my day job. It's like I am a money coach. That is actually what I do, and I don't even like talk about that that much on this podcast, because I just love talking about health and wellness. But how cool would it be to work with a money coach who actually l- like has a similar passion to you of like focusing on your health and also focusing on your faith, and planning for those things together? Because I think those two things are very important, and then obviously if you have a family, thinking about your family and, and in different aspects inside of your budget. And so it really should, your, your budget should reflect the values that you have in your life, and first and foremost should reflect the gospel. And, and I would assume that is a value of yours if you're to this podcast, because we assume... I guess we don't assume. We're, I mean, our audience is primarily, um, in the Christian So, but again, it is... My point is, if you want help, you can reach out to one of us, and we'll send, we'll put links and stuff. But you can always email us or jump on our Facebook group and send us messages and things. So we definitely would love to hear from you. But we will wrap up this episode. Chrissy, you wanna take us out?

Chrissy

Yeah, for sure. As you're going, just remember, um, as we have mentioned before in this episode and before, uh, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So keep that in mind as you are reviewing your finances and creating a new budget. We'll see you guys next time. Thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship