The Vault with Financielle - UNLOCKED: Reset & Rebuild – How to Create a Budget You’ll Actually Stick To

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Send us a textUNLOCKED Week 2: Reset & RebuildThis week, we’re talking about the budgeting tool: the heart of your routine and the thing most people get wrong.In this episode, Laura opens with a mini rant about how budgeting gets framed as restrictive and punishing… even though we build routines for everything else in life but somehow still wing it with our money.We get into:- Why people don’t stick to budgets (hint: they’re not built for *your* life)- Why a budget isn’t about being strict- How the Financielle budgeting method actually works- The psychology behind it: structure → safety → confidence- Breaking the “new year, new budget I’ll never look at again” curse- How to make budgeting sustainable and enjoyable- How Laura and Carl approach their own check-ins and what really matters each monthYou don’t need the perfect plan — just one you can adjust each month to fit your life, your season and your goals.And your budget tool? It’s the heart of your 2026 routine.If you’re enjoying the Unlocked series, subscribe to The Vault, leave us a review, and tell us how you’re resetting and rebuilding in the comments or the Financielle App community.Join the community by downloading the Financielle App 💖📲 #moneystory #Financielle #TheVaultUnlocked #budgetingroutine #personalfinanceforwomen Connect with our Partners*🫶 Get life insurance with our friends at Lifesearch. Speak to a female advisor here.🏡 Meet our Financielle approved Mortgage Brokers.💸 Get cashback that reduces your mortgage interest with Sprive (£5 extra for you using code: FINANC)*The above are tracked links, which tells our partners we sent you and may in future result in a payment or benefit to our site.The Vault is an entertaining yet thought provoking podcast that answers our community’s dilemmas and confessions surrounding women and money.Visit https://www.financielle.com to download our app.Watch the podcast on YouTube.Follow Financielle for more:▶︎ TikTok▶︎ InstagramAbout Financielle:Financielle is a female focussed finance app helping women to take back control of their money, ditch debt, increase savings and invest in their future.Recorded and Produced by Liverpool Podcast Studios▶︎ Web ▶︎ Instagram▶︎ LinkedIn

Welcome to The Vault Unlocked. You have Laura here from Finan Shell for part two of our five-part series that we are doing to help you win with your money goals over the next year, over the next 10 years. So the rest of your life, we are here to do it with you. And thank you so much for the great response that we had to the last weeks. So looking at reflection. And I think that I definitely found it helpful. And it seems that lots of you also found it really helpful. back on the year, on your money history, on your money journey. So if you haven't listened to that one, it is called unlocked reflection. So see if you can just search for that on YouTube or on Spotify. And as ever, please do continue to like, subscribe, interact, message us because it is so, so helpful to us to know that, you know, you're into it and you're enjoying it. And it also helps hopefully the podcast grow anything as ever more confidential or more lengthy please do email the vault at fanishell.com and um that's where you know we you make our day usually we get some really deep stories we will only ever share things publicly if you say so otherwise if we share

it will all be anonymously uh anonymously shared um but yeah we've told you about it before the main vault we've got a slack channel called wins and it's where our dilemmas go it's where the winds go, the frustrations, lots of different things. So this is a two-way thing. Make sure that if you are listening to this, you do think about sharing that with us because you know we love it. So let's jump straight into this week's Unlocked. And this is about reset and rebuild. And it's going to be focused on budgeting. Now, you may be someone who is listening to this and you're a financial OG and you budget religiously. And I don't know, maybe you'll find this one a little more boring. Maybe you'll be all over it.

You may be someone at the other end of the spectrum that does not budget, that finds it overwhelming, that listens to the pod, but kind of thinks, oh, I've just not quite taken that next step when it comes to my money. But I always find these super, super helpful for delving into the plan for your money. And it's, the budget is the end to end money story for your money at this point in time at that specific point in time which I find really cool budgeting always gets framed

as this kind of like restrictive punishment oh God we're on a budget and oh yeah there's not in the budget or I don't want to budget because I just like living my life I like living my life I like FOMO not FOMO sorry I like living my life I like YOLO I'm mixing up my acronyms

but just that you love you don't like control and structure and it kind of like the two can exist. It's really weird that we have all these different routines when it comes to money, we wing it. You know, people have like morning routines and they like food routines and their favorite breakfasts and the same running route or same walking route.

Like we like tradition and habits for so many things, but for some people it is hard to do for, it has to do when it comes to money. And I think that it is, there's a few reasons to why people don't like budgets and they don't stick to budget. So making sure that a budget is individual to you, you know, you cannot copy someone else's budget. If you see it online, if you listen to mine, like we are all different people.

We're at different stages of our money journey. We're also like physically different. We have different interests. We live in different geographies. We have different costs. We have different choices. And so making your budget super tailored to you is really, really important. and you see you have to think about that.

Secondly, a budget isn't about being strict. Now, sometimes it is, again, we've just said it is personal to you. So sometimes we are being metaphorical fat cats. We are not matching our budget with where we're at in our life. We will be spending more than we make. We will be, you know, living someone else's Instagram ideal. we will try and mirror other people if one of the friends

in the friendship groups gets a new car oh should we get a new car one of the friends to redecorate or should we be redecorating one of our friends or someone from work goes to the Maldives

oh should we go to the Maldives and it is super super difficult but in your budget or how you live your life may not mirror where you're actually at and maybe it should be strict

so I've one of the team shared me a TikTok of a wonderful girl who's going on a money journey and she's trying to pay off debt. I think she was like, and then I've got to go to Dubai. It's like, then I've got to go to Dubai. And it wasn't I've got to. It was a complete choice. And so there was this mismatch between her budget and where she's at in her money journey. But generally, budgets are not always about being strict. And because we want this to last, because we want you to make lasting change, because we want at least the budget to work for the rest of the month or however long your budget lasts, there's no point it being too strict. Because you just don't.

won't stick to it. What's the point? And so I have seen people do their first budget and like, right, we could definitely spend £300 on food. And that's just a finger in the air. It's not with any kind of evidence or any kind of research. It's just basically like plucking a number and going, we could do this. Same with like cutting things. So you may decide to not pay for your membership or pay for like you know that you go to with your friends and it's a bit of a hobby or you may decide you know all I'm not going out anymore not going out for dinners with the girls like I can't afford it but then you don't do it at all and then you've missed that social connection and that was a thing that might have kept you on track financially to just do that

one thing um so yeah making sure it's not too strict and then there's a lot of psychology that comes behind budgeting when it comes to when you have a structure in place and you have boundaries and you have frameworks that you can work within you get a feeling of safety like you feel like I've got a plan like I know what I'm doing it's not I'm out of control it's not I don't know what's happening it's very much like I've got a plan and when you have a plan and you've got that safety net and those like I call them like the bumpers do you know like when you I always need them bowling I'm an awful bowler I will either get a strike or it goes and on the gully. So I always want the bumpers up and my husband laughs at me and I don't care.

I hate bullying anyway. But when we do it, I'm just like sublime to the ridiculous, like rubbish. So I want bumpers and a budget is like a bumper because you will go from side to side and you will just lob a ball down and not know what you're doing. And it'll keep you on track and that's how I see a budget. But with that, that brings confidence. So so many people when they just say they're not confident when it comes to money, they just don't feel confident. And I'm like, lots of the time we don't know what we're doing, but if we've got a rough structure and a rough strategy and a rough framework,

then confidence will come. It really will. And so this is about making sure that we build a budget that's fit for purpose, that's tailored to your own life, that changes every month because every month is absolutely different and it shouldn't be the same every month.

You know, December's budget is not the same as January's and it's also not the same as July's. And so giving it, the time and attention it deserves to make it a successful budget but not like new me new new year new me new budget this is like just a note it can't be unrealistic I guess is what I'm going to say it needs to be right and appropriate and sustainable you know we want to be able to sustain managing our money this way living you know in in a certain way and you can have intense months and they're allowed and they're good so we do like you once and

going on a no spend month or I'm going to go really frugal, that's okay as long as it just isn't sustainable. So making sure that you pick the right month for it and you're all geared up and maybe build a challenge around it as well. And so ultimately, before we'd like dive into budget, because I'm going to go into budget and hopefully should be a good refresher for you, making it an enjoyable routine. So our mini routine, we don't tend to do a money date night for budgets, but they can help. Sometimes. we will do a budget sat on the sofa once the kids were in bed or maybe in the morning if we're not working out or at the gym and one of us will get this is easy in a two-person routine

by the way so like I'm just sharing my routine but you know I appreciate you can't always do it just like this but I um one of us will get the budget up on the app and one of us will get bank accounts up and we'll kind of move money and do stuff that way look at the calendar the calendar is important having the calendar up for each month sometimes we will do it remotely and so you know maybe he's gone into work early or I'm at the BBC studio and he's at home and there's just a minute we're having a cup of tea or quiet time or maybe at lunch time we will do the budget remotely and what to have each other sometimes one of us and it's actually usually him will dive in and do the budget they'll do the first draft

and we can do that because we've been doing it a lot a long time and it's definitely not something that one person should do and Eve it's like the first pass and it's someone's done the legwork and that's quite a nice thing like I um you may have done a video for financial showing our budget last month um which you might be able to find on YouTube um I don't think I've posted it yet showing the chaos that is my vlogging and life and trying to trying to be good at um creating content that's actually useful for you but the the budget that we did I went in to do the budget live on the um the the vlog video that I did and he'd been he'd got in there and done it already and it was like a pleasant surprise it was the first pass and we just not sat down and

caught up with it yet and it was really nice because I'd had quite a big high rocks race that month and he'd put the picture of the budget because in the financial app you can personalise the budget he'd put the picture of me and then in the name if like November budget you know he'd put um some fireworks and some Halloween stuff and maybe that wasn't Halloween because it was November. I'll get it up in a minute. I need to have a look. But it brought a smell to my face. Had gone in there. It started it the first pass. And then we go through it together. Sometimes actually we do it at lunch. When I think about it's on a sofa or at lunchtime, like sometimes we work from home at the same day. And if we do, we do try and eat lunch together

in a gap. And we'll eat up at the breakfast bar and we'll do it then. So having a nice, making it an enjoyable thing, an enjoyable conversation. If you're on your own doing it, and I remember doing the budget on my own for years, I would create that space where, you know, I feel like I've always had children, so I've never had that peace and quiet where it's just you in your, when you're in a nice, nice environment,

but trying, I would do it in quiet time, but for those people that, you know, may live on their own and create an environment where you're happiest, like, are you cozy, are you in pyjamas, if you're in a track suit, have you got a candle lit, have you got a hot drink,

have got glass wine, like whatever it is for you, have TV off, Give yourself that moment and just build the budget. It really doesn't take as long as you think. And once you've done one, you can just rinse and repeat. You copy it and then tweak it because, as I said, every month deserves their own budget. But that's how, you know, that's how Carl and I approach it.

We do check in, like, we have this constant discourse about all the payments come in. Like, we didn't really think about that at the budget. What should we do? I've shared before. When I get to the end of the month, I've never got something right. And we kind of have to move money around. but it's only ever moving money around from sinking funds or flexible expenses. You know, it's almost never dipping into savings because usually there's enough in it

kind of, you know, beg from one, beg borough and steel? I don't know. There's a phrase that I'm rubbish it phrases. Yeah, just like Rob Peter to pay Paul. I'm not really just at all. But we do to keep checking in. Some people track actuals as the month goes on then. So when the budget is set, then in the app, you can do an actual and the track to the penny.

We do some months and not all this. It depends if we're going really intense on a particular money goal. And if we've got a particular lean month, I'd definitely do if it. It's a no-spend tracker time. But that's our routine. And then I want to jump straight now to really thinking about your budget. And especially for people that you've been with a long time, have you got into lazy habits? Have you not done it in a while?

have you got it in your notes app on your phone like you know get in there and use the financial app and do this budget because I promise you it will literally change the way that you manage money and you'll be forgetting something you'll be low balling something you're like for it's going to make a noise now because it's stuck my phone stuck to the table so

that was like the octopus thing on the back of my phone and you'll be forgetting something and you know we we do the app is a premium feature it's I think we're 3999 for the whole year sometimes it's offer codes not that often and I think a lot of people don't realise that of the 3999 like we only keep our gross revenue from that

so like after we've paid Apple and VATs that's £23 so like Finan and Shell are getting £23 for the whole year which is kind of you know less than less than £2 a month we get for you using that subscription and that is a premium feature so that we can keep putting money back into the app and keep redeveloping it and we've got some new exciting features planned for the coming year but it's a premium feature a lot of people don't always like the fact that it's premium but we do have to get revenue from somewhere to keep building it and making it better and better

but also like because once you've paid for it I promise you'll do it more and I know like let's say it's 50 pounds for you guys for the year year. If you budget properly, you'll make that 40 back. You'll probably make it back in one month. You will be leaking money somewhere. You will be not conscious of something. There will be a subscription that you've not remembered. There'll be an overpayment of something. There'll be a credit card like interest that you're paying. And if you kind of use the budget to pay off your debt, you'll be able to save it. I promise you'll you'll save it back. And thousands of you do obviously budget this way. So get in there. And if you are not, if you're not doing it a while,

get creating your first one and let's let's have a little chat about the things you should be considering I'm not going to go line for line that would be completely dull for lots of you but I'm going to open up our November budget and it's designed like a P&L so like a profit and loss account like a business which means your income goes at the top your expenses next and then your excesses like your personal profit and if you have a negative when you do this budget If you're in a minus, it means you're spending more than comes in. And that tends to happen when you're using credit to fund lifestyle. So are you using overdrafts or are using credit cards or loans, buying our pay later especially?

But if you have a negative, that's what's happening. And that's not sustainable. You know, I really want you to think about if I'm in a negative every time I would do a budget. Not only am I not going to get ahead, I'm actually going backwards. And that upsets me like I do not want any of you going backwards with your money. If you're breaking even, like, not bad, but you're not going to move forward. You're just going to kind of tread water and you're, you know, one or two emergencies away from going backwards.

Where we want to get to as a positive excess, we want to get that profit high, that, is it £100, is it £1,000? Is it more than that? Like, what is it? Where do you think you can get to? And the secret and the key to all this is in the budget. I was really happy actually recently, the BBC let me do a, um, a one of our topics was budgeting and they'll let me explain this budgeting method and

honestly we got like an amazing response and people were downloading like a little template that we'd done and a super super simple template not really not a financial one but um it helped to frame up how you can build a budget that will look after you in your life look after your goals look after the basics and help you move forward so let's have a little think about the different elements to this budget and just have a think about how good you're doing in each particular area first up it's your income and we talk about having all sources of income in that budget in the app do not just put one salary if you have two jobs if you get child maintenance or child benefit do not disregard that include it because the minute you start siphoning off money here oh my

oh yeah my weekend job money or that's for like Christmas or child benefit I save it up for when they need clothes or child maintenance oh I'm going to put into savings because it doesn't feel right whatever it is, it is all income and a strict budget runs off its revenue, like it's income and it should all be together at the top. Now, to think about how you budget, like do you budget with a partner, do you budget on your own, if you are with someone, what things are in the budget and what things aren't, because again, that can be where it can get very messy. You don't have to combine accounts. You don't have to combine all figures. But especially if you're married and you've been together quite a long time and or if you have children, the tighter you can be

financially the most successful your relationship is going to be I absolutely promise you but you have to like you do you and tread carefully with that but make sure you're thinking about all these sources of income and also think that if you get to numbers that you don't like you know that's a really good checking point to go I I want to wear more this year like I've been I've been what's it called like coasting I've been coasting financially I've been I've been playing it safe like what more can I do? What more could I earn? What more can I offer? Who could offer me more? And really back yourself a little bit more because your income is the key to all this. Like everything that follows from this conversation comes from income and the tighter that income, the tight of that

income, the tighter the math problem we have. But the larger the income, the bigger the opportunity with, you know, moving through the playbook stages, paying off debt, building emergency savings, investing. So income. Have a real think. Where are you at. And I also have you think about the sporadic income or the one-off incomes that you could bring into a particular budget. So you could switch your bank account and get £200 today, 175, 150, something like that. In fact, two of you in a relationship, you could do. You could sell the, I'm looking at a screen under my desk. And there's a screen that we, is from, I don't know what it's from, maybe like for my husband's old job and then he got a new one. And it's, I don't even know, maybe it is, I'm

looking at it. It looks really good. It's under my desk. I kick it every hour. It annoys me. Why haven't I sold it? Because I've got my screens, my financial ones. Like I don't, I just, I think I waited to Steve Antio Ruth. He needed it. And she didn't need it, did you, Andrew Ruth? And so, why haven't I sold it? In a particular month, that could go on Facebook marketplace. Kaching, I make some money. So having a little think about in that month, where else could I make money from? I, when I was in my debt payoff days, if I got birthday money, it was going in my income. It did not go on a treat for me. I'm a grown woman. I do not need a treat if I'm paying off debt. My treat is paying off debt. So if I got cash or have I got like a

refund, a refund was definitely like free money. God, I've had it or a compensation or a tax refund, whatever it is, it goes in the top. So that's income. Next, you're going to look at your fixed expenses and the easiest way to do this. Like I said, once you got it in the app, it's amazing because they do pretty much stay fixed, don't they? Apart from if prices go up a little bit or your rate changes on your mortgage or your rental payment changes, but go through your fixed expenses and have a real look at what you're paying. And are you optimising it? Like, you know, are you paying the right for accommodation? Are you paying the right for childcare? Do you get any benefits or any tax discounts that can kind of impact that positively? What are you paying? Are you doing like your gym? Are you doing

your council tax? You're in the right band for that. I'm looking through hours at the moment. Like one things that's drummed out to me, we've just redone our life and critical illness cover. We obviously, you know, we have amazing partners in life search. And when you, if you go on phauchel.com forward slash protection and click the banner at the top, you'll get to our landing page with our partner life search. You ring, you will get one of a handful of amazing women who just are there to hold your hand. They'll do a free life insurance review and they did that with me and with Carl.

and we realized a couple of things, for example, we realized that we had life insurance, but it was ending like mid-50s, which at the time we took them out felt a long way away. But our youngest will still be quite young then or like still be a teen or whatever. And it didn't, we've got friends in their mid-50s and late 50s that I know that if something happened, they would want a payout to help them out still at that time of life. Like they've not got it sorted. but I think when I was younger it felt a long time away so we got that reviewed and balanced

and that was one of our fixed outcomes outgoings that it's the budget that helps you remember oh I should probably look at that like so that's changed in it because we've also got a more enhanced critical illness policy which is something that we I've made room in the budget for and I didn't have and again walking it through with them saying

this is that sounds a bit too expensive that doesn't sound expensive enough I always say like think about if the worst to happen, how would you feel? And at what level in your budget are you happy paying that makes you sleep a little bit better at night? And we came to a figure and it was right. And Carl and I were completely aligned on it. And so we have increased our insurance budget. But that's in our fixed expenses now. So that'll just stick there. What else? We've got lots of different sports and stuff. Netflix and Spotify subscriptions. They all go in there. And so having

a real think about are you paying the right amounts for things? Are you not overpaying? what do you like do you is a room in there for fun you're having a break for fun for a period of time whilst you crack down and because these these subscriptions do add up they really really do and I literally went cold turkey on loads and then I think I'd gently introduce a couple when I was paying off debt um because I needed that like you know Netflix helped me stay in and not go go out to the cinema or something and next up is your sinking fund so sinking funds saves lives and they are pots of money that you build up for planned expenses so these are you you know, Christmas is the same time every year, so let's put some money aside for it.

If we want to travel, we should be putting money aside, we should be working backwards. How much are we going to be spending on travel and work backwards and build a pot of money that when you need it, you're not pulling from savings, you're not having to pay for it on credit, aside from like protections and stuff, just you're funding it with cash that you have. So have a review of your sinking funds. Obviously in the app, you can track them. So we've got a feature where you can put all your syncing funds into one bank account. really good rate on it and then have the tracker in the app or you could use one of those bank

accounts that has pots, whatever you prefer. But really think about things like, you know, whether it's TV license, whether it's a car maintenance fund, whether it's insurances, building up a pot of money for when not if you need it. This is not emergencies. This is like planned stuff is a really good idea. And then lastly, we've got flexible expenses. So these are the things that you will pay for every month. You don't tend to build up a pot for them. You will spend it in the month. But you can kind of choose so we have a charity and giving pot we have a clothing pot um which more recently has been a little light actually and i think that we um you don't buy stuff you don't need but also you do need to update um i need to update my wardrobe for work sometimes and i need to buy things

that a quality that lasts that don't like you know aren't awful for the environment and a bit rubbish holly's been doing quite a bit on vinted recently i just i've not got the time or the patience but maybe i should have a go so i can optimize that line in my budget um what else stuff for like the kids lunches because that's flexible um we have cleaning an amazing cleaner that looks after us once a fortnight and that's in there and it's in there because it's not like a fixed expense because depending on the month like she may do more or less um fuel dining out fun money groceries so you need to pick amounts that are right for you go off historic spending if you breach them like i often breach groceries

is my groceries now is up to um i'm sharing with you can all judge me i'm at 700 i was at 600 and sometimes 550 and i just kept breaching it we're a family of five and we're very very busy we have we have we don't have a lot of supplements but we do have protein and we have creatine we don't have any other supplements um not for me but we like we spend a lot on food what can i say and this is like asda this isn't like loading it an ms although i would like to explore buy more food possibly from M&S. I think they've got much better with the budget range recently. I've not got the time to go to Aldi or Lidl.

I could make the time. Again, this is all about choices, so I could make the time if my budget was so much of a priority and it needed to be a lot leaner because when I can grow it doesn't, but I absolutely did like hack that budget and Liddle and I'll do it all day long. When I was paying off debt and when I was saving for the house and do the house renovations when I was on Matt leave. I love, I can jump.

If you need me to jump over there, I'll do it. But for now, we're middle of the road. but like as the delivery so that I don't have to take like the toddler and and find time to go and do the shop it gets delivered to me so I pay for that convenience but like I have to be realistic about my grocery budget. So those are flexible expenses and then what's left is your excess and your excess as I said is your personal profit and it's the money that you put towards the goals that you're working towards and so obviously we're going to come forward in the next coming episodes in this series and talk about setting goals but these are financial goals all life goals that do require money

usually to facilitate. And so for that reason, we have to start with knowing where we're out with money. There is no point jumping straight to let's set our 2026 goals or whatever goals you want to set and then be linked to money and you not know where you're at with money. And you not know what excess money you have every month, if any, because there's no point saying yourself like an ambition and investing goal or ambitious paying off debt goal and you've no idea what you have to put towards it. So we've done our reflection. and then you look at your actual money situation and you build as robust an all-rounder budget you can, which is sustainable and achievable, but that does not derail your money progress

and actually moves you forward. So your excess is the money left over. So if you do it in the app, it shows it quite clearly your access and it asks you how you're going to spend it. If you're doing this on a piece of paper or on a spreadsheet or whatever, you've got all, your income and then you kind of had your fixed expenses, sinking funds, which are the monthly amounts, not the totals, the monthly amount, and then the flexible expenses, and you total all that up, and then you take the expenses from the income. And so what you've got left over, if you've gotten a leftover, is your excess. And so this is your chance to really think about that's what I've got to play with. If it's too low a number, then we need to mess around with the budget.

We need to earn more money. Easier said than done, but we do. We can bring you more income. Or we can be leaner with our expenses. But either way, that, that's how you increase that excess and that excess, you know, whether it's, like I said, £100,000 or £1,000 is the thing each budget that you're going to put towards overpaying your debt, or it's going to go into your lifetime ISO for your first home, or that's going to go into your, you know, F off fund to leave a relationship or a job you hate or a family situation that you're not happy with. Or it's your IVF pot that's super, super important to you and that you're going to have to grind and pull together and pay for. Or it's your investing. And, you know,

for me and for our excess, you know, what we do with it is. is we put extra into our pensions and we put money into junior Isis. And that doesn't obviously advance our net worth, but it does advance the net worth of our children. And then we, if there's a, in our actuals, if there's extra money in that month, whether it be some extra self-employed work or a bank switch or something like that, Carl and I will sit down and have that conversation and go,

okay, where else? And I think I shared a bit last week, but I am enjoying a little bit of, extra stocks and shares isa um i've got a lifetime icer um and carl doesn't because he missed the boat he was past 40 when we finally decided to pull our finger out and open one so if you're under 40 it's a good side to go and have a look um i've got um i've got one and overpaying the mortgage it's something that we're playing around with at the moment we're um enjoying seeing that figure just be like sprinkled at it's not being hacked at definitely not because if it

was and that this is where the goals come in like we could sit down and go we've changed our goals we're not going to fill the kids jices we're not going to put extra into our pensions we're happy with the defaults we're going to put you know a thousand pound excess every month onto the mortgage you know and across the year that I'd be 12,000 pounds off the mortgage and if that was our goal if that's what car and I sat down and decided that's the key to it and I really want to land that point with you for your goal that the budget is not just about getting to the end of the month once you've done it a couple of times it is about next level it's about what I'm am I doing with my money? Am I living my life? I'm building up a pot of money to go on holiday with

and am I building up a pot of money to renovate my living room? Am I, have I got a big enough fund to go and buy my kids some clothes if they need some clothes or to fix the car if it needs fixing and to not feel like that that's stressful? But am I advancing my net worth? Am I building up my savings? Am I paying down my debt? Am I investing? Because that's what the excess cash does and the bigger that is, the better you feel. And so when it comes to, you know, when next in the series, when we're thinking about building those goals and get into a point where we can really hit what we want to hit

and achieve what we want to achieve, so much of this is connected to your budget. No budget, no dramas, but you're going to hopefully do things by accident at best, but at worst you'll do nothing. In fact, no, middle, you do nothing. At worst, you'll go backwards. And no one, financial, is going backwards. You are all going forwards.

So thank you for letting me share a little bit about how I budget, how Carl and I manage the budget, why the excess is super important, the tools that you have at your disposal, the tools that you have at your disposal to accelerate your goal. progress or accelerate um your your net worth growth and that they're not always strict and they're not a fun hoover they're a there are there a tool and the budget is permission to spend it's not

restrictive if it doesn't it doesn't need to be um it only needs to be of your reality and your um your perception of reality is off so like what what you think you can afford and what you can actually afford what you know the maths is wrong but other than that it is permission to spend and I love my budget. And so I'm looking forward to doing the next one and hoping that I can get in there before Carl and think about what emojis I could use, what picture I could use. And, you know, for just practical reasons, we share an account because we fully, fully combine our finances and we don't have part of functionality and stuff. It's just much simpler. If you do fully budget together, we literally just log in using my login details. Obviously, if you have separate

budgets and separate finances and you track your net worth and stuff and you want to keep that for you, make sure it's in separate ones, but I want to see if I can beat him and get in there and create the budget. And then I'm looking forward to you. I've done a bit of a reflection after last week's episode, but I've not done that with him yet. So we do have a date and I planned in a week. And once we've talked about life admin and kids and routines and holidays, we will talk about money. And so I will let you know how that goes. But in the meantime, if you've anything to share, any questions, email the vault at fanshel.com. And please do tune in for the next episode of The Vault Unlocked in our series

and catch the regular vault with the girls in the meantime. Have a good day. Thank you.