10 Simple Steps to Fix Your Budget in 30 Days (Even If You're Broke)

Episode Description:

Hey bestie! If you're feeling overwhelmed by rising costs and money stress, I totally get it. In today's episode, I'm breaking down exactly how to get your finances back on track with 10 simple, actionable steps you can start right now.

Here's what I'm sharing with you:
• How I calculate my real monthly income and expenses (even when it's all over the place)
• My 3-step formula to see exactly where your money is going
• How I identify non-negotiable expenses vs. spending habits that need to go
• Simple strategies I use to cut costs without feeling deprived
• The 30-day reset challenge that's building my money confidence
• My weekly check-in system that keeps me on track without obsessing

This episode is perfect if you:

• Have never made a budget that actually works
• Are tired of living paycheck to paycheck
• Feel like rising costs have thrown your finances completely off track
• Want to take control before we hit 2026
• Need a judgment-free approach to money (that's my specialty!)

I'm getting real about my recent spending struggles—yes, I was that person making daily UPS returns from Amazon! I want to remind you that budgets aren't about perfection—they're about intention and taking back your power.

Ready to boost your income while you budget? Grab my FREE 7-Day Mystery Shopping Blueprint: Get Paid to Shop and Crush Your Debt—Start Today! It's the perfect side hustle to add extra cash to your budget reset. Grab it here: www.budgetdivas.com/getpaidtoshop

I mention: Side Hustle Nation, my weekly budget routine, and the 30-day money reset I'm doing

Ready to stop the money stress and start the new year with confidence? Let's get your finances back on track together, bestie.

Transcript

Jennifer Trinidad (00:00.952)
Hey bestie, welcome or welcome back to another episode of the Budget Divas Podcast. I am so glad you're here today. If you clicked play on this episode, it probably means you've been feeling the weight of everything happening around us. Rising prices, increased cost of living, unexpected expenses, and just the general overwhelm of trying to keep up. And listen, you are not imagining it.

The financial landscape this year has been a lot for all of us. Groceries cost more, gas costs more, housing costs more, and just life in general costs more. And on top of that, you're probably juggling work, family, grief, stress, busy schedules, just trying to make it through each week without feeling like you're falling behind.

And even though we can't control what's happening in the economy or the world around us, we can take control of what's happening inside our own homes and inside our own bank accounts. So that's why I wanted to create this series. This is the first episode of the Back to Basics budgeting fundamentals, and it's all about slowing down.

getting honest about where our money is going and getting back on track before the new year begins. Because when we're grounded financially, we get to enjoy more of the life happening around us. Our families, our friendships, our experiences, and our peace. When we understand our money, life starts to feel a little lighter and a lot less chaotic.

Jennifer Trinidad (01:46.36)
When we understand our money, life starts to feel a little lighter and lot less chaotic. So think of this series as us sitting down together, talking through what's going on and creating a plan that makes you feel steady instead of stressed.

Jennifer Trinidad (02:16.864)
If we haven't met before, I'm Jan Trinidad. You might know...

Jennifer Trinidad (02:30.926)
If we haven't met before, hey, I'm Jen Trinidad. I'm a financial habits coach who helps hardworking women simplify their money, take care of their lifestyle, and get ready for whatever life throws next without all the shame, guilt, or scarcity mindset. After paying off $90,000 of debt, losing my husband in 2023 unexpectedly,

and rebuilding my entire life, I learned that money isn't just about numbers, it's deeply emotional. So now I mix real life tools with real life empathy to help women move from survival mode to financial peace. My goal is to help you face your finances with truth, grace, and habits you can actually stick to so that you can live with more clarity, confidence, and breathing room. So let's dive in.

So as of this recording, it is mid-November and I don't know about you but I feel like this entire year just flew by. In the last few podcast episodes, I've talked a lot about how money is emotional and how it affects us in ways we don't always expect. Mentally, emotionally, and yes, financially.

Jennifer Trinidad (03:59.032)
So before we start getting into the numbers and giving you the tactical things on what to do next to get into your budgeting financial fundamentals, what I want to say is that you have to give yourself permission to be human. Don't use this episode as a chance to beat yourself up. You might look at your spending and see that there are

things that you regret buying, might think, oh, why did I spend so much or I should have known better? Because let me tell you, as the budget diva, someone who has been budgeting for several years, 2024 was not a great financial year for me as far as my spending. When I lost my husband in November of 2023,

it just spiraled into 2024 into doing everything that I could to make me feel better. And that definitely included running high amounts on my credit card. Of course, I paid off that credit card every single month, so I did not have any credit card debt, but just overspending in general.

going on so many trips, going on Amazon and having to return so many things after the shipment came because I simply did not need it. There was just this high of ordering fun stuff on Amazon, seeing all of the sales come and go.

Hitting that click button faster than my fingers could handle and then once it arrived I realized that I didn't need it. In fact, I would go to the UPS store almost every other day and The girls probably thought like what is this person doing like buying and returning like all the time? so if You're thinking about I just spend way too much

Jennifer Trinidad (06:20.078)
I wish I could just get my budgeting, get it handled and have it be perfect every single month. Let me tell you, your budget is not going to be perfect every single month. My budget looks so different from five years ago, even just two years ago. So as you grow, as your situation changes, your financial situations,

will change, your lifestyle will change, and so will your budgets as well. So here's the truth. You are not your past spending habits. You're a human who has lived through life, stress, exhaustion, grief, emergencies, and everything in between. And although we cannot change the past, and sometimes we can't undo old purchases or choices,

There were many times when I would look at my Amazon cart and see if I could return something and it was past the return date. So I had a choice. I could either give it away, sell it, or simply keep it. But I had to realize that that was a mistake that I made and I just had to learn from it and move on.

And so that's exactly what this episode is going to be about. It's if you have never done a budget before, if you've never made a budget or you've made a budget, but you have not stuck to it because of life circumstances or budget just didn't work for you or you just hate the word budget. Well, in this episode, we're going to break it down step by step.

to help you get back on track and so you can take immediate action today. So after this episode, you'll know exactly what to do step by step to get your budget heading into the right direction.

Jennifer Trinidad (08:30.412)
Okay, so the first step is to grab a piece of paper and just write down your monthly income. The amount that actually lands in your bank account after taxes, insurance, retirement, and everything else that is taken out. All we want to do is know what is that number that hits our bank account every single month.

So if you're paid every two weeks, all you have to do is look at your last two paychecks. If you're paid once a month, just look at that paycheck and write it down. Even if your income changes every single month, you can still do a budget that works for you. All you have to do is take the last three months, add them together, divide that number by three to get your average.

And listen, if your income is unpredictable or it's seasonal income, maybe you're self-employed, you're a freelancer, if you don't have a stable income that comes in every single month, just use the lowest amount you made in any month this year. It's better to plan with a number that feels safe and real.

Alright, so now that you've got that number, I don't want you to do anything else. Don't look at that number like it's a bad number or it's not what you thought it was. Maybe you thought it was more. It's just information, black and white data that we'll be working with to get ahead with the next steps. Okay, so.

Step one again is just to write down your monthly income. And also if you have any side income, maybe you have some side hustles that you do, write that number as well and look at what you made in the last month. If it varies from month to month, again just take the average of

Jennifer Trinidad (10:49.056)
what you made from your side hustles and just use that as your base number for now. Okay, so the next step is you're going to list your fixed expenses. Now your fixed expenses are your bills that pretty much stay the same every single month. And that could be your rent or your mortgage, your car payment, car insurance, phone bill, internet, utilities.

daycare or childcare, subscriptions, and anything else that is a predictable monthly amount. I know that my insurance, my car insurance, tends to be not the same number every single month, but it's around the same number. So what I will do is I will just take the average of that number

and use it as my fixed expense. Okay, so after you list it out one by one, then I want you to total this. And if you don't remember what your monthly fixed expense is every single month, then all you have to do is quickly go through your bank or your credit card statements, peruse that information, look for that number.

quickly because what we want to do is get a really really fast result. I don't want you to be analyzing that number right now. Now is not the time to be thinking that this number is too high. I should have never signed up for that. I made a mistake on this. I'm looking to cancel this subscription, etc. Just write down that monthly expense and then we're

going to get a great financial landscape of what it looks like as of today. Okay, so this is not about judging yourself. This is not about feeling guilty. All we want to know is what is that black and white data?

Jennifer Trinidad (13:04.278)
So step three is going to be your variable expenses. So this is gonna be where it's a little bit meaty. When I say that, I mean that you're probably going to have to dive in deep into your credit card statements and your bank statements to see what are these expenses that we're spending every single month.

You know, when my husband and I first started budgeting, we did not know how much we were spending on groceries every single week. And when I looked through those statements, sometimes it looked like it was a mile long. Like, what are we doing going to the grocery store almost every single day when we have perfectly good food at home? So having said that, there are

some tips that you can do to make this a little bit easier. So if you have an online banking account and you can access your credit card statements online, some of these companies will have a download button. So it'll download it into like a spreadsheet for you and already have it categorized. So for example,

everything that you buy at the grocery store might be categorized by groceries. Anything that is considered gas will be in the gas category, entertainment category, so forth. So this will make it a little bit easier for you. But what I want you to do is instead of just looking at it on your computer, I want you to print this out.

It's very important that you print it out so that you can write notes so that you can see it clearly and you're not looking at it on a computer and maybe missing one of the line items. It's also helpful to have a highlighter. When I first started, I had different color highlighters for every single category. So if I needed to know...

Jennifer Trinidad (15:26.776)
how much I was spending on food every month. I could quickly just highlight, okay, this is how much we spent at Costco. This is how much we spent at Sam's Club, at Walmart, et cetera. And if you have that capability of your statements being able to be categorized into a spreadsheet, then that'll make it a lot easier for you to just look at how much you're spending every single month.

groceries and all of the other categories and what I want you to do is I want you to print out the statements for the last three months. So the last three months will give us a good idea of what life is like because life changes every single month. There may be times when groceries are a lot higher because maybe it's Thanksgiving, maybe it's Christmas, maybe it's someone's birthday.

or gas might be a lot higher because you're taking kids to their sport games or their sport practices or wherever you need to be uber mom to. So the last three months will just give you a good idea and then you can just take the average and see how much exactly are you spending on food, groceries,

dining out, entertainment, et cetera. And make sure that you're also looking at your Amazon account and your target account. Even though these might be already on your credit card, it makes it so much easier to see what exactly did I spend it on. So I love doing this when I'm looking at all of my Amazon transactions when I'm doing my budget.

because I can't remember what I $54.62 on. So once I pull up my Amazon account, I'm like, okay, got it. This was actually for groceries or this was actually something that I had to replace for my home, such as maybe light bulbs or something else that I use on a regular basis. So this will just give you a good idea of

Jennifer Trinidad (17:55.05)
what's happening in your life and help you to categorize that by which months are a little bit higher and a little bit lower. But like I said, I don't want you to analyze any of this at the moment. All we're doing is writing down the black and white numbers so that we can analyze it later.

Jennifer Trinidad (18:24.364)
Alright, so now that you have your monthly income, you have your fixed expenses, and you have your variable expenses, it's time to calculate it. So the formula is just going to be your income minus your fixed expenses minus your variable expenses equals, and that number will be how much you have left over every single month.

So breathe in and breathe out because this number might make you breathe a little bit easier. You might think that your financial situation was way worse than you thought, but it's a lot better than you thought. Or this number might stress you out. It might show you that every single month you're in the negative.

and you're using your credit card to cover these expenses. Or it might be neutral. Whatever it is, it's okay because like I said, this is just your starting point. This is not your future. And seeing the truth about these numbers helps you take your power back.

Jennifer Trinidad (19:50.796)
Okay, so this is where we're kind of going to get into the nitty gritty. Now when you're looking at your transactions and looking at your numbers, I want you to ask yourself, what matters most right now in this time of my life? For most people, the basic necessities matter. Housing, food, utilities.

transportation and basic debt payments. So once you have those categories, cover these first. These are going to be the expenses that are your non-negotiables. For example, we all need a car to get to our job so that we can get paid. So if you have a car payment, you want to make sure that you're covering that car payment.

every single month and you're adjusting your budget to be sure to cover that car payment as well as the gas that you need to fill up your car every couple of weeks or once a month or whatever it is. Also housing, we need to make sure that we have enough money to pay our rent, to pay our mortgage and also our utilities, keeping the lights on.

Internet is something that is a non-negotiable for all of us, especially if you are working from home or your job relies on having good internet. So also if your kids are in school, they'll probably need internet for their schoolwork. So this might be a non-negotiable for you as well.

So once you choose your priorities, once you have your non-negotiables, just write it on a separate piece of paper, or you can write it on that same piece of paper that you did your budget, and just make a line down the paper and write it in a different section. We just want to know what exactly do we need to make sure that we're covering what we need in everyday life.

Jennifer Trinidad (22:19.03)
And then you can look at your variable like spending. For us, when Alden and I were looking at our finances, we did not know how much we were spending on food and dining out and gas. you know, sometimes even though gas was a non-negotiable for us, it was a matter of just why are we driving

all over the place in different grocery stores just to save a couple of dollars. So one of the things that we did was to cut down our grocery runs. If we needed to go to Costco, maybe we were going once a month or twice a month versus every single week and limiting our

groceries to just two to three stores.

Jennifer Trinidad (23:51.487)
and limiting our choices to just two to three grocery stores every single day.

Jennifer Trinidad (24:07.859)
and limiting our grocery stores to just two to threes.

Jennifer Trinidad (24:21.397)
And also just limiting our groceries to just two to three stores that we would go to every single week or every single month that would help us to save money on gas and not be spending money on groceries every single day. So that's how we were more intentional about it.

And then also when we were looking at our variable expenses, we saw that we were dining out a lot and it was for things that really wasn't healthy or did not really matter to us. mean, spending $50 at McDonald's for a family of three probably wasn't the wisest decision and probably wasn't great for our waistline either.

So just looking at those transactions and really analyzing what was our non-negotiables, what was important to us in that time of our life helped us to make better decisions. So while you're looking at these transactions and as you're analyzing, what I don't want you to do

is to point fingers. If you're doing this with your spouse, if you're doing this with your family members, everything that has happened in the past is in the past. You can't change it and all you can do now is just move forward. So leave the

Jennifer Trinidad (26:16.907)
So leave the judgment at the door and just confidently map it out on what is important to each other. What are your things that you want to be spending on and what you can let go for just a little while while you get your budget on track.

Jennifer Trinidad (26:43.285)
Three questions that you can be asking yourself when you're analyzing your budget is, where can I be more intentional? Where am I spending out of habit and what can I adjust just a little? This is not about cutting out everything that matters to you. It's about making choices that reduce stress. All right, so step six.

is to make a simple plan for next month. Now, when we first started budgeting, it took us about three to six months to really feel like we got a handle on budgeting. And realistically, three months was where we felt we were making progress, but it was really at the six month mark where I could kind of see, okay,

This is how much we should be spending on groceries every single month without feeling like we were wasting a lot of food or feeling like we did not have enough food in our kitchen to make healthy meals and so forth. So using your real numbers, starting with your income, subtracting your fixed expenses, and then giving

each category a simple realistic amount is going to help. So what I want to say is if you see that as a family of four for example if you have a grocery bill of a thousand dollars a month and you might be feeling well when we go to Costco we have every intention of eating healthy

buying lots of fruits and vegetables, but really at the end of the week, we are throwing it out because it's just going to waste. So maybe you might say, all right, let's start with $900. And I don't want you to cut it out too much because that is the one mistake that our family made when we first started budgeting.

Jennifer Trinidad (29:02.209)
we went from like $800 a month down to $300 a month. And guess what? That $300 went out the door the first week we started budgeting. And then I thought, well, budgeting doesn't work anymore because I just threw my whole budget out the window. So just start small. Like I said, if your budget is $1,000 a month for your groceries,

maybe start with 900 and then the next month you can go down to 800 until you find that middle point that definitely you're not throwing away good food into the trash because you just can't eat it enough and you're not starving yourself either but you're able to make healthy economical meals that work for you and your family.

Jennifer Trinidad (30:07.167)
And this is really, the goal is not to be perfect. It's just to be intentional. So write down your new plan next to your averages so that you can see the shift. You're not aiming for perfection. You're just practicing awareness.

Alright, so step seven is to give yourself a timeframe. Think of it like a 30 day reset. Now I love giving myself challenges just for fun. In fact, in October, I decided that, you know what, I'm going to challenge myself and not eat pork or red meat for the entire month. And you know what?

It's now mid-November and I still don't miss it. In fact, I had some red meat over the weekend and I did not feel well after eating it. So you don't have to go to that kind of extreme challenge. But for me, I like to see a challenge. I like to do a challenge just to see if I can do it or not.

In this 30 day reset, maybe you do want to put a challenge together for yourself. Maybe your challenge is instead of shopping on Amazon when you're bored or you're emotional or you're going through something deep, then the challenge will be to do something else. Go for a walk outside, go to the gym, call a friend and have a long

three hour chat while you're also cleaning your house, which is one of the things that I love to do with my friends. They all know that we could be talking for three to four hours at a time. And by the end of the conversation, I have had my laundry done. You know, I'm running my dishwasher and all of my clothes are folded.

Jennifer Trinidad (32:19.835)
could do something like that and that will keep your mind off of scrolling aimlessly on amazon. The goal is that you're not committing to the 30 day reset forever. You're not promising that you're never going to do it again. You're simply just being intentional for one month.

And like I mentioned, like you might decide to just stick with that goal even after the 30 day reset, or maybe do some, have like a middle ground so that it's more manageable instead of spending $500 on Amazon every single month. Maybe you're going to limit to 200 or maybe.

you will go clothes shopping and shoe shopping a lot less than what you're currently doing. So these short-term goals need to feel doable and once you're able to do it, you will build so much confidence.

Okay, so step eight is to schedule a weekly check-in with yourself. Just pick one day each week for a 10 to 15 minute check-in. And during that time, you can look at what you spend, can see what's left in each category and make small adjustments if needed. For me, I schedule this on my calendar Saturday morning at 7 a.m.

before the day begins, I'll just quickly look at my budget and input in my budgeting template what I've spent for the entire week and see if I need to be making adjustments as needed. I'll also look at my bank statements and my credit card transactions to see did I overspend this week? Am I doing well this week? Just a

Jennifer Trinidad (34:31.393)
quick check in just to see where you are on track. And I don't want you to feel bad about it. If you had a bad week and you went to Starbucks five days instead of two, that's okay. You will just make that adjustment for the following week to maybe just go to Starbucks once a week or make your own coffee at home. Whatever it is, everything can always be adjusted.

And so let your emotions just ride with it. Just ride with the waves. Let it go and just plan for a better week next time.

Jennifer Trinidad (35:16.097)
Okay, so step nine is if you're short, just make one small change. So when we first started budgeting, we saw that we were in the negative, which that's why our credit cards were so high because we were using that money to cover everyday expenses. So you can just reduce one category. Like we definitely needed to

reduce our food budget. And then if you do have a side hustle, add one small income boost. If you're already mystery shopping, do one more mystery shop this week than you did last week or that you did last month. Sell something on Facebook Marketplace or pick up an extra shift. You know, there are so many ways to make money.

in 2025 and going into 2026. There are so many side hustles. One of the sites that I like to use all the time is Side Hustle Nation. Side Hustle Nation has a lot of ideas of what you can do to make a little bit of extra money. And you might want to look it on YouTube because my episode

with Nick Loper is on the Side Hustle Nation YouTube channel as well. So just throwing in that tip. Okay, so the last step, step 10 is to just give yourself credit. Bestie, you are doing a lot right now. You have a lot on your plate and most people avoid looking at their money out of fear.

but you are facing it. You're learning and you're figuring it out step by step. And that's really all that matters. You are not behind. You're not bad with money. You're just growing. You're learning and you're taking control of your future. So I know that was a lot of steps. Let's just go through the steps very quickly.

Jennifer Trinidad (37:38.175)
The first step is to write down your monthly income. The second step is to list your fixed expenses such as your rent or mortgage. The third step is to find your variable expenses, groceries, gas, eating out, et cetera. Then step four is to put it all together. Your income minus your fixed expenses

minus your variable expenses. Step five is to choose your non-negotiables by asking yourself what matters most right now. Where can I be more intentional? Where am I spending out of habit and what can I adjust even if it's just a little? Step six is to make a simple plan for next month. Using your real numbers,

just looking at where you can cut even if it's just a little.

And step seven is to give yourself a timeframe of a 30 day reset. You might decide that for this month, you're going to try to do your own nails instead of going to the nail salon or maybe just eating out once a week with your coworkers instead of five. Just these simple little changes will make a huge financial impact in your budget.

Step 8 is to schedule weekly check ins. And what I like to do is like to also write down my wins in my journal. You know when I'm doing my daily devotions and I'm doing this weekly check in, write down what happened this week that was really good. And it doesn't have to be just about money. could be maybe you had a 3 hour

Jennifer Trinidad (39:47.195)
girl time chat with a friend and you went out for coffee with a girlfriend to just catch up. Whatever it is, write down those wins. For me this week, my win was eating a lot healthier, not going out to eat because I know that I have a trip that's coming up. And so I would rather save that money and

use it to dine out at restaurants on my trip than to have it here. So that was a huge win because I know that I'll be able to use that money towards that trip income.

Step nine is if you're short, just make one small change to your budget.

And step 10 is to give yourself credit. Tell yourself that this is new. This is new to me. This is something that's going to help me get back on track for 2026. And just the small tiny changes will make a huge impact, not only in your financial life, but also make you a lot happier and a lot less stressed.

And so I know that life can get overwhelming. know money can feel heavy, but that's what this episode is all about. I just want you to know that you don't have to look back and beat yourself up because you cannot change the past. All you can do is look forward and make new choices. And I am there in the trenches.

Jennifer Trinidad (41:41.057)
with you. am walking alongside you. I am cheering for you. I am crying with you when things don't go well and you just need that Starbucks as a pick me up or going to TJ Maxx because you need a little glitter in your life. So just know that you are not doing it alone. Right? So until the next episode,

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today bestie and I'll see you in the next one.