The Rachel Cruze Show - I Didn't Budget for 2 Weeks – Here's What Happened

Starting point is 00:00:05 Budgeting was the one part of personal finance that took me. I feel like more efforts to get on board with because I'm a natural spender. I'm a free spirit. And budgeting was always just like an eh. But it's been, gosh, a good 14 years. And I have been budgeting consistently. When Winston and I got married, at first we didn't budget, even though I know I should. I grew up knowing you should, but we just didn't.

Starting point is 00:00:28 And then about a year in, it was like, okay, we need to start budgeting. And ever since then, I'm not going to say we were perfect at it, but pretty much have done it every single month. Like, it's just been part of our rhythm. And so recently, I decided to introduce a little drama to my life, and I didn't look at the budget for two weeks. Now, some of you are like, Rachel, it's not that big of a deal, but it is for me. And it was fascinating what happened. So, listen, we're going to talk about that in a second, but make sure to like, subscribe to this channel, or I am to show this video with a friend. All right, so something that happens. One of the first things was I overspent on food.

Starting point is 00:01:06 Yep. When I was not thinking about the money and I was just trying to live without a budget and like, I'm going to just live my life, do what I want. Of course, our grocery category ended up going like crazy high. I was like, I didn't realize it. And I did Instacart a couple of things, which I usually don't. But I was like, you know what? I'm not going to worry about it.

Starting point is 00:01:24 I'm going to just do it because it's convenient. And I'm not going to think about the money I'm spending on it. I'm just going to do it. By the end of it all, we had overspent and blown. our food category, which we do sometimes when we stick with the budget, but it's not usually that bad. Number two, my stress level skyrocketed. So I used to be stressed about budgeting back in the day, and now I found myself stressed without a budget because I was thinking, like, is this probably too much? Or like, can I do this? Or like, there was a couple things I wanted to buy

Starting point is 00:01:52 for a trip that was coming up. And I was like, I mean, I think I have it. And I think we have the money for it. Like, I know we do, but is this in the constraint of what I would normally? I don't know. I just was so off track and I just found myself more stressed about our money and I didn't like that at all. There was not a lot of peace. Also, I underspent out of fear in other areas. So I was paranoid about losing control in certain areas. So food, not as much, obviously, because we overspent, but things like my shopping that I normally have a certain amount of money and I enjoy it. So I will spend within that. But when I didn't know what I had in that category, what was left, so I found myself just like, okay, I'm just not going to spend it. And again, that can be good because I feel like

Starting point is 00:02:36 I did probably save some money because of that. But there also wasn't like this freedom and this permission to enjoy my money because that's all about this. You guys, you live like no one else. So later you get to live and give like no one else. But I found myself, again, underspending because of that fear. Now, speaking of fear and scarcity, one area of your life that doesn't have to have either of those things is health care. And that's because Christian health care ministries is incredible. So when you lose your employer-sponsored health insurance, there may be a better option than COBRA. So consider Christian health care ministries. CAHM is an affordable, biblically based alternative to health insurance that could be a third of the price of COBRA. Yes,

Starting point is 00:03:18 CHM programs start as low as $98 a month, and CHM has helped hundreds of thousands of families take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. CHM members are also supported spiritually with prayer when they have a medical event. So try getting that support with Cobra because you won't. Now, whether you're going through a job loss, a life change, or you just want to consider other options to save on health care costs, check out CHM. So learn more at ch ministries.org slash budget.

Starting point is 00:03:50 That's CH ministries.org slash budget. Number four is I realize how much of a habit I have looking at my every dollar app. So I'm not kidding. do you ever like open your phone and you're like how did i get here like for me it's instagram a lot of times i'm like i'm just going through instagram and i don't even remember unlocking my phone and i don't even remember clicking into the app like it's just it just happens it's crazy and i found myself opening every dollar during this experiment the same way i would be like looking and i'm like oh wait don't look don't look

Starting point is 00:04:21 you're not supposed to be budgeting right now but i found that i do have a habit like it sounds so nerdy but it's true because i open that app almost every day to track transactions and to look at our money and as we're planning things. Like, it is a part of my rhythm. And when you take that and remove it, I realized, I'm like, I'm addicted to Instagram and every dollar. And that is my life. So, because it's a good thing. But also, I was like, get out of it, Rachel. What are you doing? Okay. And lastly, I did find it hard to jump back in and get back on track. So when I did, you know, not try to look and not do anything with my money for two weeks. And then I was like, okay, the two weeks is up. I'm going to get back in. There were so many transactions.

Starting point is 00:05:00 that I hadn't tracked. Again, I was not organized. I didn't feel like things were matching up the way that I wanted them to. And I just found like this like, it just was a heavier boulder, if you will, to like push up the mountain versus when it's in your rhythm. And so that's one of the most important things I realize is when a budget becomes part of your rhythm, you don't think about it. It doesn't take a ton of effort because it's just part of how you do things. You know, you're tracking transactions, you're looking. If something comes up, then, you know, you're putting another category in, so you're adjusting other stuff. But it just, it just takes a few minutes. but when you don't do it for a long time,

Starting point is 00:05:32 it does take more effort to get back in, which is, you know, not always fun. So, again, overspending on groceries is something that is so common, whether you are budgeting or you're not, at least budgeting helps you stay on track. But if you still struggle with it, be sure to check out my episode,

Starting point is 00:05:46 How to Survive Grocery Shopping in 2025 for money-saving tips. You can click here, or if you're listening to on a podcast, click the link below. All right, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love. You know,

The Rachel Cruze Show - I Didn't Budget for 2 Weeks – Here's What Happened

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.