Surviving the Summer Splurge: Smart Budgeting Tips and Overcoming Financial Anxiety

Today's episode is going to be me just talking because I haven't done an episode in a little while , but I don't really have anything planned or prepared . So what's on my mind ? Well , it's coming in the summer and that's a very expensive time .

I've already noticed in my own budget that I said it and I'm thinking , oh , my goodness , this is so good , this is prepared , this is great , but in the summer , for me at least . Maybe it's a different season for you where this happens , but there's just little things that come up , Like just the little things that come up .

And so , like , what little things has come up for me recently ? A little thing that's come up for me is that we're members at the why And , first of all , this is something that we should have canceled a while ago , because we're only getting it for the summer , because we only use the pool . We don't go at all during the year , but we pay for it .

So that's stupid on my part . But we keep telling ourselves we will use it , but we don't . But what comes up is the pool this year , because it was overcrowded last year . There's a $300 family pool fee now . So we went to the pool with our daughter and we were ready to go in and they were like , nope , can't come in until you get the pool pass .

And they were like alright , get in the pool pass . So we got that for $300 . Well , there's $300 onto my budget that I don't know where that's going to come from . Well , i mean , i know where it'll come from . It'll come from the money that I was planning to save , but now I'm saving less because of that And it's like , ah , darn it .

And then we brought our friends there yesterday because they have a little , you know , an 18 month old baby , and we wanted to have them get a chance to check it out . It's a nice . It's a nice Y . So it's a great Y , a great big pool with slides and the beach style , ocean style sort of pool . But it's like 12 bucks a person for a guest .

So that's 12 bucks times 3 , that's 36 bucks , boom . So that's 336 on the Y right there . And then , while we're at the Y , they have food there . You know , i told myself yesterday I'm sticking to my plan , i'll go home and make a salad while we're done , whatever .

But then because everybody else was getting food and our friends were going to get food , you know it's like you know that's tough to tough situation . So I got food , we got food , so that's more money . So I'm up to like $370 . You know that I didn't initially plan for this month onto the budget at all .

I mean there is a budget for food and stuff so I mean that could work out still . But you know it's just a thing , i'm a yo-yo dieter . I'm trying to stop that , but I'm currently at not a happy place . So I'm trying to be healthier and that means the food gets more expensive .

It means I'm looking for like gluten free options , i'm looking for healthy replacements for stuff and that means more money . So I'm going to be spending more money on food . So things just get expensive . And then on top of that , you know , our freezer has a broken ice machine . It's been that way for a long time . I've been delaying getting a new fridge .

We have food trapped in the top drawer of our freezer , so there's all this food in there that's been trapped for like 6 months and I just it used to be that I would just the old me , would have just immediately put out my credit card and bought a fridge and said I'll just , i'll figure it out later . Like I am so different now I just do not do that .

I've been saving money into separate accounts . I have an account that's dedicated for large expenses . That it's basically whatever large expense I'm saving for at the moment . So right now it's a new dishwasher , because our dishwasher has an issue where when my daughter was little , she would chew on this part of it . It's like this weird rubbery stuff .

And now that's , i guess , accelerated the deterioration of this rubber stuff . And now every time we wash dishes this rubber stuff is like molded onto our dishes . So I have to like rewash them with my hands and it's terrible . So like I need a new dishwasher , i need a new fridge . They're both pretty old and I have money saved for them And then I got my .

Alright , i'm gonna finally pull the trigger on the dishwasher , first because I think that's for me that's more important , because they still have the freezer , the fridge still works , dishwasher you know It's a lot of extra work for me and I do the dishes at home , so I do not like I hate doing the dishes .

I've gotten used to it by listening to like 21 pilots of that band while I do them . And , by the way , i've been listening to 21 pilots , only 21 pilots , like only that band , for about three months now . It's all I listen to . It's been feeding my soul in a way I can't explain .

Usually I do that thing where I listen to the same song or the same band for a long time Never been three months of it , though This is the longest ever . But anyways , i've gotten used to doing the dishes just by putting them music on and jamming out while I do them . But I hate having to like look at the dirty stuff and clean it just like ug ug .

So definitely when the dishwasher solves like alright , i don't know how much longer we want to stay in this home , this house . We want to have a larger ish family .

Right , we have a two and a half year old and we have another child on the way and I want more after that , because I've , i really love being at that and I know those people out there that are like Don't want to bring a child into this crazy world . I think to myself I'm in control of how my child is raised .

I'm in control of how my child will perceive things to a certain extent , because I get to mold them and raise them to be a good human . I'm not as worried about that kind of stuff because I just not , because I think my kids I'm just , i just love being a dad .

So maybe it's selfish that I'm having kids , but I'm gonna make them be strong and loved and See that evil in the world but also recognize the good and all that stuff . Anyways , it's what happens . I just talk , i just go wherever .

So , yeah , i don't know how long I want to stay in this home because I want more kids And I only have a three bedroom house right now , just which is great . I mean don't get me wrong , i'm fortunate . I'm lucky to have a home , to have been able to buy a home , just so you guys know I did not . I did . I put 20% down on my home .

But it wasn't , it was , it was money that was well , i had it inherited . So I did it like save up when I was 27 years old for a home , like that did not happen . I was not financially responsible when I bought this house . Now I'm financially responsible . I was not financially responsible when I bought this house .

As you may have her from my earlier Make , like the first episode pretty much , when I kind of go through the Beepstorm that I went through .

So I'm not gonna buy like like yeah , of course I go and I see like the best dishwasher is like the Bosch , the Bosch is the Bosch 1000 , whatever they're like 1200 bucks , so I don't need the best dishwasher for a house . I'm not gonna stay in that long necessarily .

I mean , you know , i will probably want to move upgrade in a couple years , three years , four years , whenever Once we just really can't fit . If you have like four kids , well , like we can fit with four kids , you have kids share . But you know , this is part of why I love .

I've now fallen in love with being responsible with my money , because now I have developed the muscle of control of like I Will achieve this thing if I just do that , if I budget responsibly and I save , i will be able to get the bigger house And be able to transfer equity and have 20% down and still manage my payment and all this stuff and beard , you know

I can control . I get to save money for my daughter and my kids , for their college and for whatever I get to do that and provide that for them and the joy and the good feeling that gives me is Key to me . It's key That's become my drive . It's really supported my family .

So for anyone out there who wants a hack to getting good at money quicker , have kids that's , that's what I'll say . But um , i'm still talking about the dishwasher here . So I can't get that dishwasher , i'm not going to . So I looked for , i'm looking for like a middle of the road one .

I don't want the cheapest one , that's gonna just be a headache or break or whatever , but I don't want them as expensive one . So I found like a Maytag , like $700 one , great , and I have like $1200 saved for dishwasher into the fridge . I need to have a little bit more .

I think I go to like check out , i'm gonna put the dishwasher on my credit card and immediately then go to my credit card and submit an equal payment to pay it off immediately from the savings , like transfer the savings to the checking and then do it . But then installation is like 250 and that installation being 250 stopped me .

I was unable to pull the trigger . Like I said before , i would have pulled the trigger months ago if it was the old me . But even that 250 made me stop . I'm like I'm gonna save more because I don't want to go through my entire little savings right now . I want to wait maybe a week till I have enough for the fridge , and so I'm just .

I've developed that muscle to be able to say no , to be able to wait , to be patient , and that's really important . It took me a long time to figure that out . And yeah , so summer is expensive for me . There's always like ancillary expenses . You know we're going to be going on trips .

I have a trip coming up in July which I pre-saved a lot of money for it already , but I need to do a little bit more . I guess now that I'm like very cautious about my money and I'm very like I track very closely , i just I get this . you know , my anxiety has kind of switched from like how it used to be when it was like I am in so much debt .

I'm in such a how am I going to get out of this ? My income is not increasing like I thought I would . Yada , yada , yada .

Now my anxiety is I don't think I'm going to be able to save as much as I wanted to , but I know I'm going to be able to save money , just not as much as I maybe wanted to , which is a much better anxiety to have , and I'll always find a way to have anxiety because I have anxiety . So that's very much the comorbidity with my ADHD .

I believe my ADHD caused my anxiety from just a treacherously difficult childhood . Not difficult in the sense that I had those parented poorly or I didn't have friends or whatever , but it's just treacherous in the sense that just constantly invalidated and constantly being made to feel stupid , i mean that's the worst .

I mean that's why I'm like a perfectionist , that's why I'm all these kinds of things that that are frustrating . Like when I'm trying to like , do my job . It's very hard because I'm trying to help people and I'm trying to be perfect , i'm trying to build the perfect plan and make it perfectly formatted and do all , and it just drives me insane .

I'm like , why are you doing this ? It's fine , just make it simple , keep it simple , stupid . But I could say keep it simple , stupid a thousand times in my head , but I still won't make it simple . So I'm working on that . My philosophy on budgeting categories has changed quite a bit .

I used to be an advocate for keep just a few budget categories , just big buckets , just so make it not too complicated . I'm now much more granular and that's been very helpful for me because , first of all , i'm using Monarch money now , which I talked about in the last episode .

The rule setting is much better on this , so I can be granular but I don't have to make it the extra work . I'm one of those people that thinks that this is probably like narcissistic thing or something . I don't know . Dave stops saying that , um , but I think that if I think it's exciting , i think other people should think it's exciting .

But it's not how it goes . Like I think things are exciting , other people think are deadly boring . But what excites me is What's motivating to me to use a lot of categories now is I'm just looking forward to like three years down the road and I can look back and just see exactly how much I spent on a granular category , just to see .

I just want to see that and know that . But I want to feel good when I see that And this is the key to actually wanting to look at your budget And bar none . This is the key I'm telling you right now If you stick to the budget , just do it for one month . Just whatever it takes to make yourself do it . Just do the damn thing .

Stick to the damn budget . Put all the boundaries up you need . Tell your friends you're not going out this month . Your practice is experimenting with the weaning you know . Dispend , spend less thing . Stick to the budget for one month .

Save all that money you can save And look at your budgeting app , whatever you're doing , to tracking and see the progress and the success . And then you're going to get a swelling of relief And , like I , can do this . You just need the confidence to believe that you can do it .

So many , i think so much of the problem is we just don't believe that we can do it because we haven't yet . So , just for one month , just stick to it . You know the things you got to do . Just stick to it . And while you're doing that , you're going to want to look at your app . I'm telling you you're in your budgeting app .

You're going to want to because you're going to see that you're on track And that's a positive reward , that's a that gives you a positive feedback . When you're not looking at your stuff , it's because you know in the back of your mind you're messing it all up .

You know , you , you , you know that you , you made some impulsive purchases and you don't even want to see how that's affected your progress . So just don't . I know it's like the stupidest thing to say to someone with ADHD is just like , don't do it Just .

You just just try harder , but like , but seriously set up the boundaries for one month , for , like , literally cut up your credit cards for a month . You can just order a new one , say it's damaged , just cut them up . Just don't do it . Just do not use them . Whatever it takes , just don't do it for one month .

Make aggressive goals , practice being frugal , just just do it . I'm telling you it'll be so worth it . So that's what I'm going to say . So maybe that's really what this episode is about . But yeah , summer's expensive Things come up .

So , for those of you that are budgeting , find somewhere where you can pull back even more and then , to make room and add a little bit extra to those sort of mis like not miscellaneous , but like just in general categories just add more to the general categories of that usually come up in summer And then remember , as you're going through the month , you have to

be adapting to the budget . So if the month happens to be food , that's the month that summer's causing to be more expensive than you know . As a month goes on , like , make the budget bigger for the food but at the same time , pull it back in other places . That's what I would say to do And yeah , so let's leave it at that .

That's my podcast episode for today . There's some good stuff in there . I hope you enjoyed just hearing me talk about whatever's on my mind . That's what's on my mind . This was much easier for me , so I hope you liked it . This is me being a lazy podcasting , but maybe the lazy podcasting is a good thing .

Okay , so I hopefully I'll talk to you more frequently because I'm seeing the light at the end of my stressful work tunnel . So we'll talk to you soon .