Design Your Money To Serve Your Life, Not The Other Way Around

We share simple ways to earn extra money without burning out, where to park your savings for better interest, and how to run a no-drama budget that finally sticks. Trevor joins us with a clean envelope-style spreadsheet that turns chaos into clarity.

• side hustles that pay in real life, not on paper
• Offer Lab basics for zero-cost affiliate selling
• mystery shopping for gas, dining, hotels, and tours
• Made to Share for social selling and faceless content
• stacking skills with Next Level for growth
• why high-yield savings beat traditional accounts
• using SoFi-style transfers to boost interest
• budget as leadership, not restriction
• Trevor’s envelope spreadsheet for tracking and trends
• category discipline that reduces stress and drift

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Transcript

Welcome And Wheel Of Life

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each spoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you.

Home Upgrade Banter And Humor

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Hey Deb. Hi Denise. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. How about yourself? I'm doing good. No complaints. That's good. Have you been up to anything interesting lately? A little bit. So our house is about 20-ish years old. Oh, it's just a young thing. Yeah, not too bad. And I I told my husband it was time to replace the toilets. Make them more water efficient and all that stuff. So I was gone for three weeks, and during that three weeks, he decided to replace the toilet in our master bedroom. Bath in our master bathroom. Our toilet's not in our bedroom. And we had looked at one that was at Costco and it was a good price and it was looked all good. So he bought that and put it in. He was so proud of himself. How bad he was. Replacing a toilet's not an easy job. Those things are heavy, and he was moving it by himself. And, anyways, so he was very proud of himself. He got it all done. And then I came home from my trip and he's like, Go try it out. Because he was so excited about this new toilet. And so I sat down and I felt like a little kid. The toilet was taller than our last one. And so my feet are dangling in the air like I'm a three-year-old. Yeah, like you're a little kid. That's hilarious. So I said, he said, Well, I'm not changing. I said, I know you're not changing it. That's a big job. So I had to buy a toilet stool. Did you get a squatty potty? I didn't get a squatty potty. Okay. I got one that's similar to that, that was two pieces. So this the grandkids needed to use a toilet. They had a stool down. That's funny. Yeah. So I don't feel like a little kid with my legs dangling, but I felt bad because he worked so hard and it just wasn't quite right. It's good for him. He's 6'4, so it's perfect for him. Yes, it is. I just am thinking, I don't think my husband would dare to get one without me giving my stamp of approval. Well, uh, we had. We had gone to Costco and looked at it. And yes. Okay. I didn't think about measuring how tall it was. But I have learned my lesson. Yeah. We're replacing the other two toilets in our other bathrooms, and I will measure them to see how tall they are. There are a few of us that are few in my family that are over six feet, and that would be great for them, but they don't live here. Right. Anyways, so that's the adventure that we've been up to lately. That's a fun adventure. That was good for him, too, for taking that on while you were gone. He should be proud of himself. He was very but fine-tune a little bit for the next one. Yes. I'm proud of him. Those that's a hard job to do, so I know. Especially by yourself. We need ours and our house replaced. Our house is older than yours. Yes, it is. It was born in 74. That's as old as me. I know. So practically ancient. No, I'm just kidding. But the one that's in our master bathroom, which is the bathroom that my husband primarily uses, is like a child-sized. Oh, and he's tall. It's too short for me, let alone for him. So anyway, but they're they're old. They need to be replaced. Maybe I'll have your husband do it for us. Oh with some help. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. What do you have on the agenda for today?

Setting Today’s Focus: Money

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Well, today I would I thought we would talk about money. So the financial spoke of our wheel of life. Yes. Okay. And if you need to review the wheel of life, go back to episode four. We talk about it there. And there's a download in the show notes of every episode. So you can look in the show notes to be. Yeah, everything we talk about is based on the wheel of life. So finances are a big worry for a lot of people. And I think we can talk about a few things that could help people. Okay. I just am thinking as you said that in the last probably two weeks, I have had multiple people say to me, I just need more money. That's hard. I know. Because you can't always just go get another job. I I d I kind of look at them like a deer in that, like I don't know quite exactly what to say to you. There's a lot of stuff I could say, but every situation's a little different. That's true. So I I thought maybe we could talk today about some ways to increase your income that's not necessarily getting another job. Okay. A part-time job or a full-time job. Ways that you can save money that's more beneficial than just a regular old savings account. And then ways to budget, like a budget format that is easy to use. Good. They all come into play. They all do. They're all important in the scheme of things. Okay, so first things first. What's

Why Gig Apps Often Disappoint

SPEAKER_00 5:36

first? First is how to increase your income without getting a second job or a part-time job, maybe that you could do from home. So some of those ways are Uber, DoorDash. I've done both of those. Be a deliverer from Instacart or something like that. So you've done Uber and DoorDash? Yes, and technically also Lyft. Okay. But I didn't like I did more Uber than Lyft, but it's the same concept. Private taxi. Yeah, I I did that for a little bit when we lived in California. There was kind of higher, higher demand for that there. I didn't really like doing Uber or DoorDash. Okay. I didn't feel like and I've done DoorDash here. I did it one day and I lost money. Because it cost me. Sorry, that's not funny. No, like not even factoring my time. It cost me more in gas because we're so spread out here that I drove all over creation to take, you know, a $6 meal from McDonald's to someone. And then the tip is low because it's only a $6 per like it. I lost money on it. So I never did it again here. But I've done those and I generally don't recommend them for people. Okay. Well, let's talk about some things that do work. Never beat a dead horse. That saying has been around for a long time for a reason. People that are drinking energy drinks all day long just to stay functional, that's what they're doing. They are beating themselves up like they were a dead horse. We gotta stop doing that. The only energy drink that I recommend to my clients is update. It's clean energy without caffeine. So you don't have jitters and chaos and like the problems that caffeine causes in the body. And it also helps to give you focus and a clear mind. It's really the one I use and the one I recommend.

Sponsor: Clean Energy Drink

SPEAKER_00 7:37

To get a discount off of your order, go to drinkupdate.com and use the code DX2. That's D times two. That's us. So drinkupdate.com and then the code for your discount is DX2.

Side Hustles That Actually Work

SPEAKER_00 7:54

So some things that do work for people, some side hustles that you can do while you're doing what you normally do in your life, anyways. You've done a couple of those or you've learned about a couple of those, right? No, I'm I'm always looking. I just I'm always looking because I like to make extra money, whether it's for my dad's own little personal saving kitty, or I want to save up for something special to surprise my husband with, or we just need some extra to pay off some debt. Like I've I've done them for various different reasons, even though I've had a job, or even though I've had a business. Okay. So, and when you think of side hustle, for some people it's just their hustle because these are things that like a stay-at-home mom who's got a couple little kids at home could do. So I guess it's a hustle side hustle as compared to raising the family. Yes. But it's just simple ways to make some money in the nooks and crannies of your day. I think that would be great. Like if you could make over a month's time, if you could make a couple hundred dollars in the nooks and crannies without having to leave your house or have it disrupt your life completely. Yeah. That's great. And it's totally possible. And there obviously are different tiers, right? Right. Levels of where, like how how aggressive people want to be with it. Some people just want an extra hundred bucks. Some people just want to cover their groceries, some people just want to get their car paid off. Everyone's kind of different. But for getting into side hustles, there's different levels of entry. One of them that we already talked about in our education spoke episode that was episode number 11, is Offer Lab. You remember me talking about that with enthusiasm. Yes, and I went and checked it out. It's a fantastic deal. It's it's spectacular. In fact, I was just talking to my husband about it yesterday because he said to me, if I could just make a little extra money for blah, blah, blah. And I said, you've got to check out Offer Lab. It's literally free. Free to get in. It's free to open an offer lab account. You have to have a link to click. And we have that in our show notes, but you click that link, you can today open up an offer lab account. And on Offer Lab, there are people who have have things for sale, whether it's

Offer Lab: Zero-Cost Affiliate Start

SPEAKER_00 10:23

supplements or courses, courses, or recipe books, or whatever. Everything is up there. They're all there. You can go and grab whatever you want to sell or ask them if if they will let you. And then everyone will happily say, Yes, of course. Please sell my thing. And then you can share it with your friends or you can post it on your social media or you can share it however you want. But all of them pay commission and it costs you zero dollars to create an offer lab account. That's phenomenal. There is an option through there to get certified, like on Offer Lab, so that you I'm gonna say are fully competent in how to use it and how to do things if you've never done anything like that before. They'll train you how to do it. Yes. And the certification costs $475. But you can do it for free. Yes. Like you can start the account for free. You can do it for free. You don't have to get certified. You'll just do better if you do. But if you don't have $497, no, $75. $400, sorry, $440. Then you can do it for free. Find something that you like and and share it and get paid. That's a fantastic idea. Yeah. I love the offer lab. I I think it's really one of the best things to do. And then there's another one that I'm going to say sparked my interest. And when I told Tom about it, it sparked his interest too. Okay. And that is mystery shopping. Mystery shopping. Yeah. Does that mean you have to go to the store and like mystery shop? I'm going to say it depends on where the mystery shop is. Okay. So there is a course, a mystery shopping course that we'll link below. Sounds like a great idea. And I was telling Tom, he said, I have to fill up with gas all the time anyway. And I said, Yes. And these ones that are all nearby us are all wanting mystery shops done. So there are some that are like for apartments. You can go do an apartment tour, get paid. Those ones are usually like 60 bucks. There are hotels. So if you're going out of

Mystery Shopping: Get Paid To Explore

SPEAKER_00 12:34

town or want to go out of town, or even if you want to do a staycation, you can find a hotel. There are restaurants. There are restaurants here in our town. Our tiny little town. Where we can go do a mystery shop. They will pay for one or two of the meals up to whatever dollar and then pay you in addition. Wow. Yes. That's fantastic. There's buffets, there's fast food, there's sit-down restaurants, there's all sorts of stuff. There are some that I've seen where it's like get an insurance quote, and that's done over the phone. So you're not even going anywhere. Nice. There are like kids' museums and at zoos, and they're all there are all sorts of things. Interesting. So some of it could be just, I want to get paid to take my kids to go eat here and do that. You could do you could mystery shop and get paid to take your kids to places. That's awesome. Yeah. I like that idea. Yeah. I I really like that one because you can just do it when you feel like doing it or when there's one that speaks to you. You never have to meet a quota or anything. Like it's literally all on your own time. You don't have to post on social media. No. They just it's all behind the scenes. You're doing your thing and send in a little report. And they tell you beforehand what you need to look for and how you need to act. I like that one. Yeah.

Sponsor: Core Colostrum

SPEAKER_00 13:56

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Made To Share: Social Selling Basics

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Another one that I have looked at is called Made to Share. I've looked at it, I've bought it, I think it's fantastic. And that one costs $47. So it's between the zero of offer lab and the $87 for mystery shopping. Made to share is basically made to share on social media. Okay, so if you like social media, this one's a good one for you. It's perfect for you. Or if you want to get better, if you're either on there or you want to be able to do something that way, it's free to have social media accounts. But it helps like in that PDF guide where it's like 75 to 100 pages, it walks you through how to set up Instagram, how to set up Facebook, how to do, you know, how to set up TikTok and how to just how to do everything and then how to make money from what you're doing. It's a pretty simple one for people to do, but you have to like social media. I do believe I wasn't really interested in this part, but I do believe it also talks about how to set it up faceless. Because if some people want to do social media, but they don't want to be on camera. Yeah, that sounds familiar. Yeah, like that was me for a long, long time. Like I just don't want to be my face out there doing everything all the time. Yeah. So the faceless training, I believe, is in there as well. Because you can do just as well showing your face as not showing your face. That's true. Well, sounds great. The best though is if you do offer lab and made to share. And you can you combine them? You can get something from offer lab that you want to promote and then promote it on your social media. Oh, yeah. So you can do crossovers of any of these. Okay. I like that. Works harder, not harder. She's so good at putting things together like that. And like, okay, one track here, one track here. And she's like, no, combine things. Yeah. She's so good at that. That's how my brain is wired. I used to get made fun of it. I'll never forget. Way back in the dark ages, when I was working in dad's office, and our brother Andy was working there too. And there was a lot of computer work for entering patient visits and their charges and their services. And he was doing it. And I saw what he was doing, and I said, no, no, no, no. If you do it this way, you'll save yourself four keystrokes per patient. And he about fell on the floor laughing. Because you made it just a little bit more efficient. Oh, because he was like, four keystrokes. I was like, yeah, but four over the course of this many over the day and over the week. And he was like, Oh, that will save me a lot of time. It's just how my brain works. Yes. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm all about the efficiency. My efficiency works a little differently. So I'm glad that we can partner together and compliment each other. I like it. Okay, so we gave you three different ways, four different ways. No, I'm gonna give a fourth. Oh. If if you're open to one more suggestion. A bonus. I was gonna give you three. She's

Next Level: Advanced Growth Path

SPEAKER_00 18:45

got one more. Go for it, Dev. Well, because offer lab is free. I really think it's fantastic, but it's free. So I there are three that we'll give you that have a dollar entry rate. So the made to share is $47. And the mystery shop is $127. They are a one-time fee, and you can take the course and you can run with it however you want. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. The entry fee is not too great and not comparable to a lot of other things we do. I'm gonna say less than a trip to Target.

unknown 19:20

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Definitely less than a trip to Costco. Oh, for sure. But the third one is called Next Level. And that one costs a little bit more. It's $297. And it will literally take you to the next level for doing anything with the affiliate world, which you can do using Offer Lab or anything with the social media world. There's a lot of more advanced in depth training that comes with that one. So it's not necessarily for the absolute novice beginner, but if you were to take made to share. And stack next level with it, you would be set to go the distance and you could really make some life-changing extra income. I think that's that's great that you could add it to something else. Obviously, she's so good at adding and stacking things. But if you just want to dip your toe in and see what see if you like doing that kind of thing online or at the grocery store or or with offer lab, you like it and you want to increase your income you up level. Yeah, the next level I think would be for you, right? Or or if you are someone who's pretty savvy on social media already, that's who would want to do the next level. Okay. Because the other would be more basic. They wouldn't feel like they got really what they were after. Oh, somebody who's more advanced with social media. Yeah. Yeah. So somebody like me who's not great at social media would feel like drinking through a fire hose with next level, maybe. So dip my toe in the others first. Yes. That would be better. Awesome. I like that. Thank you. Okay.

Why High-Yield Savings Beat Banks

SPEAKER_00 21:10

So the next thing we're going to talk about is savings accounts. Have you ever checked out the savings account interest at a regular bank? Oh, of course. It's not very it is it's it's a pittance, basically. Absolutely a pittance. Yes. So they're you're putting your money in and they're borrowing your money for like 1%, maybe. Usually it's closer to half a percent. Yeah. Just a regular savings account. Yeah. So we I we want to talk to you about a high yield savings account. So what is a high yield savings account? It's a type of savings account that offers a much higher interest rate than a traditional savings account, helping your money grow faster while still keeping it safe and accessible. So money market accounts are checking accounts that offer you an interest rate like two or three percent on your checking. You have to have a minimum balance, and it's not as accessible as like a savings account. So a high yield savings account would be more fluid. Yeah. So the I think the money market accounts, they generally will only allow, like if you need to pull money or use the money, it's usually like three transactions per quarter. Yeah. Some of them it's three transactions per year. Yeah, not very fluid. So or accessible. Accessible. Some key features. Let's talk about what those are. They do have a higher interest rate, sometimes 4% or 5%, compared to, like we said, 0.1.01. They're usually at least 3.5. The high high yield. The high yield, yeah, are usually at least 3.5. Yeah. They're easy to access. You can transfer your money online to a checking account so that you can access your money. It's your money. Have a beef with that. It's your money. You should be able to get to it whenever you want. So these high yield things accounts, you can do that. Most of them. Yeah, we're we're wired for freedom. Yes. Very true. So it's our money. We should be able to do whatever the heck we want to with it. Yes. And a lot of them have no fees or low fees. So that's great. Fees to keep your money. That seems a little backwards to me. Well, independent, like a lot of them don't have fees. And my thing is if it's a no fee account with like, let's say, a 3.9% interest rate, or another account that has a fee and a little bit higher interest rate, I think over the course of time, the no fee account will do you better, even though the interest rate is a little bit lower because there's no fees on top of it. Sometimes in my head I think, well, why should I put my money in a savings account when the interest rate is going to be, you know, 0.01% when the rate of inflation is 6 or 7%? I don't know if you know that. So your money is losing value while it's sitting in that savings account. Yeah, historically, in Goodyears, cost of living increase, which is basically inflation, is going to be at 2.5% to 3%. Yeah. But we're above that right now. We

SoFi Details And Smart Transfers

SPEAKER_00 24:24

are. There's one company that we would like to talk about, and that's SoFi. So SoFi has a high yield savings account, and you can earn up to 4.5%. It's amazing. Yeah, that's fantastic. And they don't have, they have zero account fee, so you don't have to pay anything to open it. And you don't have to have a minimum to open an account. In my mind, it's it's the best one there out there. You can set up a an automatic transfer from your check from any account into that account. That would be a good way to build up a savings account without thinking about it. 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 30 bucks. Doesn't sound like very much, but it adds up over time. And when you add the interest to it, it really adds up. It does. So can I talk about one other way to use it? Of course. Because I've talked to some people who have SOFI high yield savings accounts, and they actually use it as their primary checking account. They have their entire paycheck deposited there. And then they distribute from there to where it needs to go. Interesting. So they have that higher balance, even if it's just for a little bit, from the entire paycheck going into there. And then they transfer their, I'm going to say operating expenses to their regular checking or however they need to do it. That's a great idea. There she goes, stacking stuff again. Yeah. So not everyone gets like a regular paycheck or like mom and dad, they're on social security. That's a regular paycheck. It could be deposited straight into a SoFi high yield savings account, and then they could distribute it from there where it needs to go. I think that's a great idea. And make more from it. From the interest. We're talking about good things to do with your money, ways to make money, side hustle, and how to save money. I think things like SoFi high yield savings accounts are a great idea. I say they set up the system. Let's use it to our advantage. I totally agree.

Reframing Budgeting As A Plan

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Perfect. So we've talked about earning extra money and how to save money in a smart way and earn money on the money you're saving. The next thing we want to talk about is budgeting. The budgeting word. Some people see it as a bad negative thing. I see it as you are the boss of your money, not your money running rampant like a tantrum two-year-old child doing whatever they want. And I see it as just having a plan. Yes. Because just because you set a budget, like hopefully you're setting a budget within your means. So you're being smart about it. But it doesn't mean you have to nickel and dime and be thrifting everywhere. You can set your budget as, I'm going to say, as judiciously as you would like, as liberally as you would like, to still stay within your means. You don't have to be pinching pennies everywhere all the time. That's not what budget means. That is not what budget means. So I'm going to use the United States government as an example. Their budget. They have not stayed within their budget for years. Years. I think the last time we had a balanced budget was when President Clinton was in office, which is when I think I was in high school, maybe, or young married. It's been a long time. They don't seem to want to keep themselves in a budget. And so the United States is in in deep trouble, as are countries all over the world for not staying within their budget. And that's, you know, billions and trillions of dollars. I don't know about you, but my household doesn't make billions or trillions of dollars. Well, either way, it sets the precedent for the people. Yes, it does. So I think if you make $20,000 a year or $20 million a year, you need to have a budget. So you get to tell your money where to go. Your rent or house payment is the same. Your insurance costs are the same. There are some things that are the same every year. There are some things that come up throughout the year that you can budget for. And there are monthly expenses you can budget for, groceries and gas and clothes and things like that.

Trevor’s Envelope-Style Spreadsheet

SPEAKER_00 28:46

And spending money. It's important to have spending money in there. Trevor is my son-in-law, and he came up with a fantastic spreadsheet on Excel. And we're going to talk to him about his spreadsheet and how he uses it. It's a budgeting template spreadsheet. Yes.

unknown 29:03

Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Hey Trevor. Hi. Thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Of course, happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

So uh you have a phenomenal budgeting program that you put together. Can you tell us a little bit about why you put that together in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah, so it kind of has its roots in a roundabout way back to Dave Ramsey. When I was growing up, my parents started using his envelope system of finances with us as kids. So when we would get our allowance for doing chores or we'd get money for whatever reason we got money, then they would help us learn how to separate out that money into different categories, into savings, into spending, into tithes, into all the different things that we felt were important as a family. They would help us learn how to separate that money out. And as I grew older and started actually making money for myself, and when I left the house, that was really the only system of managing my funds that I knew. And so I wanted to try to figure out a way to continue to do that, but without having to have a drawer full of envelopes with large amounts of money to help me pay my tuition and my housing and all the different things. Yeah, definitely not. I don't know that I trusted my college roommates quite that much. So I wanted to find a way that I could do it electronically, that I could have my money all in a bank or in multiple bank accounts, but still have a centralized location that acted as my envelopes to help me figure out what money was coming in, how it should be divided out, and then how the money was then leaving my accounts.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Can I ask a quick question? How old were you when you started doing that back in the day with the actual envelopes?

SPEAKER_01 30:47

You'd have to ask my parents on that one. It's as long as I can remember. Ever since I remember having money, we had I had envelopes underneath my mattress in my room. My brother had the same ones, and we knew exactly how much money was in each envelope. And that was just always the way money was handled.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

That's funny. So you were pretty young. I love that your parents taught you that like at such a young age. Yes. Big blessing. Okay, so as a college student, you decided to not use envelopes. And is that when you made your Excel spreadsheet?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

It is, yes. Not in the form that it's in now. It's had multiple forms of my needs have changed, and as my first iterations that I made were very much they made sense to me. And then when I would show other people, they'd be like, I don't know what you're doing or how this works. Or and so as I've moved on and people have asked me how I do budgeting, and I've shared it with them, I've kind of upgraded it to make it a little bit more user-friendly and hopefully a little bit more intuitive to use.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

You've fine-tuned it over the years.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Can you walk us through kind of the basics of it?

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, so essentially it works the same as the envelopes with the caveat that it also has a place where you can track things. So it has a landing page that kind of shows your summary of each envelope and how much is in there, the amount that you have for that category, and then down below it has some numbers showing you how much you've spent, how much you have for the month in that category, the amount that you have left, a whole bunch of summary statistics on your money. And then it has a page where you can track all of the money you spend. So anytime my wife and I spend money, it goes into the sheet with the date, a description of what it was, the category or envelope that it would fall into, and then the amount. And that just goes into a big list, and then our income as well. Right now we don't have any, but there's also a side for income where you can do the same thing: the amount, where the income came from, and then all of that gets automatically pulled into that summary sheet so you can see in real time how much money you have left in each category. And then also it has some tracking stuff in the background that each month as you move the money from one envelope into the next month's envelope, which I can talk

Tracking, Trends, And Category Discipline

SPEAKER_01 33:01

more about later. But then you can save all that information so you can see each month going back in the year how much you spent in each category and kind of help you gauge how you're doing with your spending, which has been really helpful for my wife and I because, for example, like groceries are something that are pretty cyclic for us. Like some months we'll spend only a few hundred dollars, and then the months where our peanut butter and our sugar and our flour and all of these different things run out, then we spend a lot of money, but that then works for the next few months. And so it was really hard for us to know and budget exactly how much money we needed, but having that previous history let us kind of see that undulation of the amount we're spending and kind of figure out exactly how much we really need for our budget.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

So you can do a generalized average over time to come up with a monthly amount to put towards that.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Right. Beautiful and let you evaluate if you need to increase it or decrease it. Like we just had our second kid and we didn't think about that with our budget, and all of a sudden our baby budget has gone up because we didn't account for more diapers and more of all the other things. And so now we can look back and say, okay, obviously we need to increase that now and figure out how we can make that work with the rest of the budget.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah, yeah. Well, that makes sense. And we've heard such great things about your budgeting template working well for you as well as for others. And you have agreed to share that with us so that we can make it available to our listeners. Thank you so for that. Like it's such a and I think it can help people really dial in better on their finances, whether it's just getting their budget dialed in, but also tracking income. Yeah, I like that you have it all tracked and you can go back and look over the months, over the year, and see where things went, how much he spent and how much he made. And like that's a fantastic tool.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Way to go, Trev. Oh, thanks. And my rationale for making the budget maybe isn't what people would expect. I grew up, as you can imagine, with me using envelopes from the time I was six years old. My parents are very conservative with their money. And that had a big impact on me growing up. I definitely learned how to save, but I never really learned how to spend money. So, like when I would get money for my birthday or money for Christmas, my first instinct always, even to this day, is to slide that straight into my savings account and never spend a penny of it. And so I think that a budget's really helpful, not only for if you fall on the side of not being good with your money in spending too much money, it helps you see that. But it also having those envelopes, my wife and I have a rule that we're not allowed to spill over money. Like our spending money is our spending money, and we're not allowed to say, we're running long grocery money, we need to move some spending money in there. Like our spending money is for spending, our date money is for dates, so that it forces us to spend that money for the things that we've talked about and feel like are important, so we don't just get scared and shove all of our money into our savings account and never actually be able to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Or slush it back and forth between and never learn to stay within a categorized budget. I think that we should forward this to the government.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

I'll charge them more for it.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Yes. So thank you so much for your time, for your explanations, and for uh allowing us to make it available to our listeners. We love that so much, and thank you so much for that for that. Yep. Thank you. Awesome. We'll talk with you later. No problem at all. Happy to help. Thanks. Okay. So we want to thank Trevor for his time and for his budgeting spreadsheet. We hope that you get to use that. We'll have a link to it in the show notes. Good money practices is but kind of what this episode's been about saving money and saving money in a smart way. Side hustling and telling your money where to go with a budget. Have a plan for it. Yeah.

Wrap-Up, Links, And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_00 37:03

So if you have found anything useful in this episode, we invite you to share it, like it, leave a comment. You can email us and tell us what you liked or what you didn't like. Or you could even tell us if you tried some of those money-making side hustles or any of the things that we suggested in this episode and if how they worked for you. We'd love to hear you back. Yeah, you can always find us on social media. We're at D Times2 Podcast on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok. So you can communicate with us there. You can also let us know if there are any things you would like for us to cover that we haven't yet. And then if you could leave us a review for the podcast, that also helps us to be found by other people so that we can help more people. In the meantime, keep your life rolling smoothly. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the D-Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us.

Closing And Disclaimer

SPEAKER_00 38:10

And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.