The Rachel Cruze Show - Find an Extra $400 in Your Budget in Just 24 Hours

Starting point is 00:00:01 Your income is the most powerful tool that you have when it comes to building wealth. And the good news is that the vast majority of people already have margin in their budget, they just need help finding it. So today, that is what we're going to do. And I'm going to take you through the 24-hour Money Finder Challenge, because on average, people that complete this challenge find an extra $400 in their budgets. But before we begin, make sure to click subscribe and share this episode with if friends. Now listen, anyone can create a monthly budget, but in order to be successful with it, you actually have to stick to it. So make sure to go download the Every Dollar app. So this is a budgeting app that is going to help you when it comes to your numbers and to know where your money's going.

Starting point is 00:00:49 So in order to find the margin we were talking about earlier, you want to be able to build out what you spend every single month. In order to do that, a couple of things you want to do. First, you want to go back and look at last month's expenses. So go and look at your spending from last month, and that's going to help you pull numbers to this month's budget. Because, again, you want to get this rough idea of, like, hey, here's what I think we are spending in each category. And listen, it doesn't have to be, like, specific dollar amounts. You have to type in every single cent.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Just kind of round up and get an idea of, hey, here's where our money is going. And so when you're able to look back at last month, remember, though, the numbers you're pulling from last month is when you didn't have a budget. So as you're pulling them forward to this month as you're creating your first budget, those numbers that you're putting in maybe a little bit. big. You know, when you're doing a budget, what you're going to realize is that you're going to be able to save money because you're purposeful with where your money's going. When you don't live with a budget, you're more natural to overspend and to go and just, you know, spend where you

Starting point is 00:01:47 want and when you want. But when you have a budget, it's actually a plan. So we do find that when people live on a budget, they actually save money and are able to cut back on some of those categories. So again, when you're looking at the budgets from the numbers you've already pulled from last month, put those in, but no, these are numbers from when you didn't have a budget. So the first area of the budget I want you to focus on, though, is food. So out of these food expenses, there's really three different categories. There's groceries. So again, you're going to go back and be like, okay, what did we spend on groceries, you know, throughout the month? Second is restaurants, and this is where you're going to be going out to eat. So, I mean, and I would include, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:25 again, restaurants, this could be fast food. Anytime you're going out to eat, make sure to put that in the budget. And then miscellaneous. So this could be like snacks. This could be like a Starbucks drink going to work. This could be like, I don't know, $15 for popcorn at the basketball game. Like whatever it is that you see that, you know, you are spending money on miscellaneously throughout the food category. You want to put that in. So within the food category, you're going to have groceries, restaurants, and kind of miscellaneous. So as you're pulling those numbers from last month, maybe you go through and realize, okay, you know, groceries, gosh, that's a pretty high number. If I really, you know, meal planned and focused on this, I probably could cut back a little bit.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Or maybe some of the miscellaneous categories, you know, in the food area, you're like, oh, yeah, we really didn't need that. We probably got too much there. You know, that could lower as well. So, again, you're trying to find some margin on what you could be doing next month better than last month. All right. Next is shopping and subscription. So you're going to write out all of these expenses that fall under these three categories and then actually

Starting point is 00:03:24 cross out some things that are unnecessary. So number one is just shopping. Think about all the target purchasing you're doing. Maybe you saw some shoes on Amazon that you bought. Maybe it was some little treats. Like whatever is going on in the shopping part of your life. Look at all those transactions from last month. Add them up. But then go through and think, okay, I didn't really need that. Oh, I could have gone lower here, here, here, and find some margin there. Number two is subscriptions and memberships. Go ahead and eliminate anything that you're not using. And I would even challenge you to cut down. maybe just one or two streaming services. It's amazing how often we can, like, add up all of these. And it's like, oh, yeah, HBO Max and Netflix and Hulu. And it's like you're adding all of these, but you're paying for them every single month. So condense those down and say, hey, let's just try to do one or two streaming services. And then any memberships that you're not using, go ahead and cancel those and cross those out.

Starting point is 00:04:16 There should be some margin in that category. Number three is miscellaneous in the shopping sphere of your life. So think, you know, movies or concerts, sporting events, like anything. thing that you went to or spent money on, it's a little bit miscellaneous kind of in that shopping genre of life. Maybe you say, hey, we could maybe cross some of this out, especially if you're needing some extra margin, you guys think through. Yeah, we don't have to go to that, this, this, this to find some margin. And again, there should be some money freed up there. All right, part three that you're going to look at, which is really big, is insurance. And this is also a

Starting point is 00:04:52 perfect time to tell you about one of our sponsors, Christian Healthcare Ministries. So, When you go against what society thinks is normal, like avoiding debt, for example, it might feel and seem a little weird, and that is totally okay. Because it's good to be weird if that means that you're doing things intentionally, including how you spend your health care dollars. One way to be intentional is with Christian health care ministries. CHM isn't health insurance. They're a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of health care costs without sacrificing freedom. program started as low as $98 a month. Find out more and join at chmistries.org slash budget. That's ch ministries.org slash budgets. All right. So the third piece of this pie, again, is insurance.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And our insurance checkup can really help you because when you go through it, you know, you're going to enter in lots of information. But what it's going to able to show you is what you need to be protected when it comes to insurance. So there's certain coverages maybe you have that you don't need. and some coverages maybe that you're missing. So again, when you're doing this insurance checkup, you're going to enter in a lot of information, age, marital status, dependent status, employed or unemployed, homeowner, renter, credit report. Like, there's so much there.

Starting point is 00:06:07 But then number two, it will ask you about your current insurance coverage. So it's going to ask you about auto, homeowners, renters, health insurance, and more. These aren't the only financial categories that matter when you're keeping a monthly budget and working towards building wealth. But these are the areas that people tend to overspanors. So again, remember the big categories, food. Number two is shopping and subscriptions, kind of that lifestyle category. And number three, it's insurance.

Starting point is 00:06:31 So when you tend to overspend on all those areas, it's hard to find margin. But when you tighten those up, you're going to find margin very, very quickly. Now, if you're following along and doing the 24-hour Money Finder Challenge with me, make sure to comment how much cash that you have been able to find because it's been so fun hearing from you guys. And if you are just listening or observing and want to see your own results like this, make sure click the link below to get started. All right, you guys, good luck creating some of that margin. And remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.

The Rachel Cruze Show - Find an Extra $400 in Your Budget in Just 24 Hours

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