The Rachel Cruze Show - The Midyear Money Reset You Didn’t Know You Needed

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

💵 The simplest way to budget. Download the EveryDollar app for free!   You don’t have to wait for a new year to start fresh with your life and money! In this episode, you’ll learn five simple ways to reset this fall so you can finish the year strong.   Next Steps: 🎥 Watch my video I Didn’t Budget for 2 Weeks—Here’s What Happened. 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. Connect With Our Sponsors: Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries. Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've probably heard of spring cleaning, but hear me out. What about a fall reset? Yes, we are in that time of the year, you guys. So whether you have kids that are going back to school or maybe not, fall does always feel like a fresh start because we have the holidays coming up here at the end of the year. But also, you may be thinking, okay, how can I clean up my life and my money to really, like, end the year well? So we're going to talk about that.

Now, before I share more, make sure to like, subscribe, and share this episode with a friend. All right, if you need a fall reset when it comes to your life and your money. Number one, get back on budgets. I know. It is so easy to get out of the habit, especially in summer months, because you're just enjoying life. You're like, oh, it's fine. But listen, getting back on track and knowing where your paycheck is going is going to help you so much. So maybe you kind of slipped up some this summer, but don't worry, you can recover and you can do this. And every dollar is the best budgeting app out there to help you. But when it comes to your life and your money, again, getting back on budget, especially in the fall, heading into the holidays, it's going to be so great. Okay, number two, once you have downloaded every dollar, then go through and comb out some of your line items if you've had this budget and you've been using it and kind of clean it up. So what I mean by that is if you've been budgeting for a while and maybe again in the summer you kind of were a little bit more like lazy with it, go back and see, okay, realistically, what does life look like moving forward?

Are there areas that we have budgeted and we don't end up spending that much and that's been consistent for months and months and months. Is it that we keep going over in a certain category? So we're having to change it. Clean that up. Like, just kind of have a fresh start. Go through and it's going to feel good. All right.

Number three is also reevaluate your big spending, saving, and investing goals to make them more realistic. So if you had big goals in January, this is a great time to reevaluate. Because the worst thing is, is if you're like, I'm going to save $1,000 a month. You're like, nope, I've only been saving half of that. so my goal is going to come in a half, then change it, right? Maybe make it a little bit of a challenge for you, but don't go through with a goal that you know is not going to happen.

That's only defeating. So change some things if you need to be realistic about it because we're halfway through the year, and you can look into the phone and say, okay, what do I need to reassess when it comes to my goals? Now, one of the best resets that you can do is having delete me because they go in and remove your personal info from unknown internet sites.

Because if you don't remove your personal data, it's basically like a billboard with your name, your address, your email, even your kids' names are out there on sketchy data broker websites. And then those data brokers, then sell your data, which makes me so mad, they make money off you, and then that puts you at more risk for scams and fraud. But the good news is, Delete Me removes your data to help protect you from fishing, harassment, and other online threats. Winston and I used Delete Me, and it saves us so much time and worry.

So, you guys, your family safety and financial security are way too important to leave exposed. So sign up for it, delete me, and take control. Go to join delete me.com slash Rachel for 20% off annual plans, and that will bring your monthly cost to under $9. Or you can just click the link in the description. All right, number four, as we're kind of doing our fall reset, start planning for expenses coming up for the rest of the year. Okay, so you're going to be looking ahead. Back to school is coming. Be thinking about that. There's Labor Day if you have plans. Halloween is coming up soon. Thanksgiving, Christmas birthdays? I mean, those are you guys, it's insane.

The last half of the year just flies. So be looking and say, okay, as I am going into the fall, what are line items I maybe need to add to the budget so that we can be saving month after month to prepare for these things? Because, I mean, geez, Halloween now is so expensive. It feels like all the candy and the costumes, and then you get into Thanksgiving, and then Christmas is insane. So just make sure that you are planning ahead of time.

This is your fair warning. Plan ahead. All right, number five is to identify routines that you lost and bring them back. So I know for us, bedtimes out the window this summer, my kids are at the age, like they don't do naps anymore, they can stay up later. So it's been so fun, but they're up late. And I'm going to be honest, I'm very flexible in screen use when it comes to summer. So my kids, they do, they'll like watch shows or they'll do stuff. Like we play outside and do those kind of things.

But I also am like, eh. So usually I'm very strict when it comes to screen time, but not as much when it comes to the summer. So we got to get, bring that back. And then also meal planning. I'm usually pretty good at this, but sometimes summer it's like, oh, there's people over. We'll just order pizza. I do this all the time. I did this last week.

All the kids have friends over. And I was like, we're supposed to make spaghetti. And I was like, eh, it's fine. We'll just order some pizza. It'll be fine. So we're going to get back to our meal planning and stay on track, which is always helpful. So listen, I firmly believe that budgeting is one of the non-negotiables when it comes to winning with money. So that needs to be a part of your plan as we kind of talk about this reset.

And it really is key, you guys. So if you have fallen off the wagon, get back on. This is like the second part of the calendar year going into the fall, and we can do this. So if you do feel like you've been off budget, I get it because I did an experiment where I didn't budget for two weeks. So you can check out my episode all about that. You can click here, or if you're listening on a podcast, I'll put a link below. All right, you guys, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.