- I felt trapped, like I had no say
in where our money was going.
- I mean, I just felt, kind of oblivious.
You know, we'd get toward the end of the month
and I'd be like, why do we only have $100
in our bank account?
- I've always been budget-conscious.
I've always been aware of the finances.
I've always sort of managed the finances,
and it was easier to just do it
and not talk about it and avoid any potential fight.
It was just manage it and move on.
I was just finally so fed up,
and we had started communicating better about it.
- I think we both knew that a change had to be made,
but I think I was a little more reluctant.
It's not that I didn't want to budget
or to make a difference.
At the time, I didn't really think it was necessary.
But once we both got on the same track
it really sort of opened a door for us.
- Our income can vary up to $7,000 a month,
and that's crazy to try to manage.
You can't just say what's my annual gross,
and divide it by 12, and then live that way.
It just doesn't work.
With our inconsistent income,
it felt like we can't do anything about it this month.
We can't. We don't have the income,
so we're going to charge it, and then we're going to deal with it
when the income comes in.
It took us a few months to figure it out,
and the whole budget was completely crazy.
It was not even close to where it needed to be.
I had no concept of what we were spending where,
but we didn't add to debt that month,
and that was such a huge win for month one.
- Once you change your mindset,
or even your collective mindset, and you really look at this
as not that you're losing something,
but that you're gaining something much bigger,
which is like this peace of mind.
It's a complete game changer.
Now that we're budgeting, I really feel more in control.
It's done wonders for our relationship
and for our pocketbook, too.
- Even though we have an inconsistent income, I feel free.
I feel like I have control over where my money is going,
and it honestly feels like we have more money to spend
because we're telling our money where to go.
- Thank you guys so much for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
So, when we talk about budgeting, it is a tough topic anyways.
But you add inconsistent income on top of it,
and it's really difficult, isn't it?
- Really difficult.
- Yes, so you guys are in that boat.
So let's talk about it.
You guys started budgeting, so I'm curious:
What made you start budgeting in general?
- So, we've always been aware
of how we should handle our money.
But our most recent get serious moment
just came from looking at the numbers
and being like, we're done.
We're going to buckle down on this again,
and we're going to make it happen.
Because we've been debt-free, but then it all came back.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It came back.
- And so you looked and you said, okay, we're done.
We have to get out again.
And the budget is the main tool to help you do it.
So, when you started budgeting again, did you feel
the freedom come?
- Not at first. It's hard at first.
You fall into the normal traps of,
well, with my income I can't make this budget
because this month is a slow month,
and I don't even have enough for the Four Walls.
But if you look big picture . . . After a few months,
it started to fall into place.
- Yes, okay, so what was the biggest hurdle, would you say,
when it comes to having
an inconsistent income and budgeting?
- I mean, it's all the big changes that have to come.
Like, all the small, you know, no coffee trips in the morning,
and stuff like that . . .
Just all the small, little lifestyle changes
that tend to be a little annoying at first.
- [Rachel] Yes.
- I think, when you really start to work at it
as a team and focus and be like,
hey, we're doing this together.
We're making all these big changes now
so that we can make bigger, cooler,
awesome changes later on.
And just get our family in a more
financially healthy position.
- Totally, yeah. So when you started budgeting
and you realized, okay, the inconsistent income,
it's a real thing. Numbers are changing every month.
We don't know how to predict it, and it is hard.
How many months would you say it took
to kind of get a footing and kind of get your groove?
- I would say probably about three.
And I don't think we could've done it
if we didn't have all of the resources that we had
and supportive people around us to help us do it.
- What resources were those?
What did you guys use?
- Well, we started with your 14-day challenge.
- Oh, yes, the 14-Day Money Finder!
- It was excellent.
- Oh, good, good!
- That gave us enough to create like a little bump.
So that was great, getting us rolling.
And then we got the EveryDollar app, got it upgraded,
and that has been super useful.
Because before that, I was literally writing down everything—
writing it down from our bank account
and it was ridiculous.
- Yeah, it's hard, right?
And you see the convenience of like,
oh, this app—this makes it easy.
- [Sarah] It's so great.
Yes, so I know. I can speak for Winston and myself,
because we do this and it's like some months you're like,
oh man, it's just lower than you were expecting.
You have to go in, change the numbers.
Some months, it's bigger and you're like, oh that's nice!
You like those months!
So, do you still feel that
you have to change it month to month
because of not just life changes within your expenses,
but also because of your inconsistent income?
- Yeah.
- I definitely think we have to make a lot of changes
and be very aware of not just what is in this month,
but what do we have like three or four months down the road
that we have to prepare for?
Yeah, and with the income fluctuating it's a challenge.
- So tell people that are watching that are like,
okay, so, how are you doing this?
What would you say? What are a few tips?
Like, you look and you say, I'm going to just project
as close as I can of what I think we're going to make here.
- So the money we know is coming
because sometimes we have freelance jobs,
or commissions that we know are going to come in
at certain times, and so those are projected out.
And then, I look forward on the assumption of,
okay, there will be more.
There will be stuff that we don't know of yet.
You know . . . So, it's more of like saying,
these are the things that are necessary.
These are the things that come next
if it comes in, and if not, we roll them to next month.
And then these are the things that come after that.
We're in Baby Step 2,
so then everything else goes to debt.
- Yes, so the things that are necessary,
for people watching, it's what we call the Four Walls.
You mentioned that earlier.
So food, shelter, utilities and transportation.
- But some months, still, it's not even enough
for the Four Walls.
It's important that I have
the little bit of bump already in our checking account
so that I'm not going all the way back
into our emergency fund or something
in the event that we have a slow month.
- Yeah, I think that's a great point,
because on those slower months,
you have to be able to make sure your bills are paid,
and so you have to have that cushion.
So on the months that are good,
setting some of that money aside and making sure
you have that cushion is such a pro tip.
That's so good. So good.
So, someone watching, they've never budgeted before,
and they're thinking, okay, how do we get started?
Maybe they do freelance work.
I mean, their income is so inconsistent.
What's the number one thing you would say,
you have to do this.
- Track your expenses.
Because when you see where your money is going,
you change where your money is going.
Like when you see that you're spending too much money
at Chick-fil-A every month . . .
- You hurt the heart, Sarah.
You hurt the heart a little bit there.
- It's always Chick-fil-A.
- Yes.
- You say, okay, we need to make Chick-fil-A
an occasion situation and not a convenient situation.
Or you say, okay, I need to start making my coffee at home
instead of stopping at the gas station
or the Starbucks every day.
- It's liberating to have this feeling of control over,
with all of the income that we just don't know,
there's this feeling of helplessness sometimes.
Especially when you get in those low months.
And just being able to grab some of that control back
and being like, this is not going to change my mood.
I'm not going to—we're not going to—argue over money.
Understanding that you're not telling me
that I can't have coffee in the morning.
You're just showing me that $2 every couple of days,
52 weeks out of the year,
that adds up to a lot of money over time.
And seeing that I've been doing it for four or five years,
I'm like, oh, shoot, that's a vacation at the end of the day,
or something important that we need to buy—
school supplies, whatever.
It's got to be a team effort.
- I love that. And there's usually one spouse
that's not always on board.
I get that question all the time.
How do I get my spouse on board?
And you did one of the things I always tell
the spouse that is on board, usually the nerd,
to do though is run the numbers
and to visually be able to be see this is what's happening.
So would you say that that helped you a ton?
- For sure, 100%.
Being able to see the numbers . . .
And they may have done some floating and stuff like that . . .
But when you see, the colors help, you know.
She put deficits in red, and I understand colors.
As an illustrator artist, this makes sense to me.
There's a lot more red on here than there is green.
That's, you know . . .
- I would say, in those three months of getting lined up,
getting on the same page was a big part of that.
- Yes, and so how has that changed your marriage in general?
- Oh, it's so much more peaceful.
I mean, everybody fights about money.
It's the number one marital dispute is money.
I mean, that's been huge.
- Yeah.
- And the achievements— are our achievements—
they're wins together, and that feels good.
- I love that you're working toward a goal,
and it sounds kind of cheesy
to be like, set a goal together.
But truly, when you are and you hit it, it's like,
we did that as a team.
You guys. You are like . . . It's amazing,
It's amazing just seeing people that stick to the plan.
They do it—persevere— even when it's hard,
and there's months that it's like,
what in the heck are we doing?
But you stick with it because, at the end of the day,
you're getting that peace— you're getting that control.
And, ultimately, you guys together have a stronger marriage
because of it.
You're a living testimony to it.
Really amazing. Seriously, thank you so much for coming on.
- It was our pleasure.
- And sharing your story, it's filled with hope,
and you're doing exactly what you should be doing,
and I love it.
- Thank you for having us.
- And I'm glad you're getting the wins.
That's the best part.
All right, you guys. We mentioned it like eight times in there,
but it's true. EveryDollar Plus—
if you've not checked out that app,
make sure you do that.
Now, if you sign up for Financial Peace University,
you actually get the app for free.
So make sure you do that,
because it's going to help your budgeting journey
be so much smoother.
(upbeat music)