Despite what any corporate marketing company tells you, there’s nothing you NEED to buy on Black Friday or Cyber Monday that you don’t already know about.

In fact, we can fight back against corporate greed while still being generous to those we love. The first step is deciding to be intentional about the ways we use our money to support what we want to see in the world.

Reducing our consumption habits during the holiday season can be hard. Even if you’re not totally ready to stop gift-giving for the holidays (or have family that won’t let you off the hook), that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fall into the consumerist trap that is holiday shopping season. Instead of mindlessly clicking “add to cart”, take a step back and consider some alternatives.

Here’s a few ideas to help you get started:

For the Bookworm:

• Grab a book off their TBR wishlist or snag a gift card to Bookshop.org (a site that connects readers to independent booksellers all over the world).
• Purchase a gift card from your local used bookstore or ThriftBooks.com
• Give a paid subscription to their favorite Substack.

For the Outdoor Enthusiast:

• Give an America The Beautiful Pass ($80 covers the entrance fees for lands managed by the National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife, US Forest Service, and more.)
• Gift a State Park Pass (search your state + “park pass”)
• Create your own “passport” of cool outdoor locations they can explore (like labyrinths or nearby trails.)

For the Family with Kids:

• Annual memberships to a local zoo, botanical gardens, museums, or aquariums are a great gift. Many offer reciprocal benefits that allow discounted access to other locations.
• Ask if the family has 529 plans for their children – many plans allow friends and relatives to easily contribute toward future postsecondary education costs.
• Buy a round of mini golf, bowling, or other experience from a locally-owned family entertainment center.
• Offer to babysit while the parents go out on a date night.
• Dust off your skills from summer camp and teach the kids how to play games you used to love (many thrift stores carry used board games.)

For the Homebody:

• PBS Passport (a $60 annual donation to your local PBS Station grants access to the PBS Passport streaming service where you can watch tons of great shows. I do this every year for my grandmother and I get to enjoy it too since they do not restrict the number of devices that can use the service.)
• Gift a membership to someone’s favorite creator on Patreon.
• Create your own basket of snacks from your locally-owned grocery store or farmer’s market.

For the Foodie:

• Support local farms by gifting a CSA membership. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs connect consumers directly to local farms through weekly deliveries.
• Give a monthly pastry kit from The Pastry Project. This woman-owned social enterprise is based in Seattle and is working to make pastry education accessible to those with barriers to employment.
• Search your local thrift stores for cast-iron skillets or cookware. These will last a lifetime (and longer) with basic care and maintenance.
• Hit up your local beekeeper for some honey. It’s better for you, and often cheaper per ounce than from the grocery store.
• Stock up on slave-free chocolate for their stocking.

For the Person Who Has Everything:

• Donate in their name to a local mutual aid organization.

More Ideas:

• Support local queer-owned businesses using the Everywhere is Queer map.
• Shop at local farmer’s markets, craft fairs, art shows, and small businesses. Not only does more of your money stay in your community when you shop locally, but you also are helping the environment by reducing the impact of shipping.
• Postage Stamps are a gift that last forever, and there’s designs for just about everyone.
• You don’t have to buy anything at all. Be willing to share your skills, talents, and creations with those you love. DIY and homemade gifts are just as valuable as anything you can buy.

For many couples, their wedding budget is the first money conversation they have together. Whether you’re newly engaged, daydreaming about your perfect venue, or have been planning for months, money will touch every aspect of your big day (and beyond). Here are eight do’s and don’ts to help you stay financially focused and ready for your future together:

DO – Create a wedding mission statement. This mission statement should be used to guide how you’ll focus your budget. For instance, if your wedding mission statement is to “create a romantic, intimate, and unforgettable celebration for your closest friends and family”, you’ll know quickly to weed out the cheesy photobooth your sister-in-law insists is a “must-have”.

DON’T – Pull your wedding budget out of thin air. The “average” wedding budget is not a good barometer of how much money you and your partner can reasonably afford to spend on your big day. Your wedding budget should be based on the real numbers of what you can afford after you factor in your expenses, debts, and the time you have before your big day. Remember that many vendors will need a deposit in advance!

DO – Start a wedding sinking fund. A sinking fund is a special savings account where your money is earmarked for a specific purpose. Each paycheck or money, transfer a set amount into a high yield savings account. This way, it’s harder to transfer the money out for impulse spending, and you earn a little extra while you save.

DON’T – Put your wedding on credit. Transferring the financial burden of your wedding onto your future self is a recipe for disaster. Remember, after the honeymoon, you and your partner will want to start working toward the next goal (perhaps saving for a home or starting a family). You won’t want to be paying for your wedding, plus interest, for years to come. Plan ahead and take your time to save.

DO – Start discussing finances outside of the wedding. It’s vital to understand how you and your partner approach money before you say “I do”; financial issues are frequently cited as the reason for divorce. Are you aligned on your financial goals? Do you know exactly how much debt you’re both bringing into the marriage? What about assets (now or in the future)? Will you combine finances, keep your accounts separate, or have a hybrid? Remember – you’re on the same team; it’s time to get on the same page.

DON’T – Let friends and family dictate your wedding budget. From the moment you are engaged, everyone and their dog will have an opinion on how you should spend your wedding budget. This gets even more complicated if family members have offered to contribute to costs. Ask clarifying questions before accepting their generous gift to understand what expectations they have and avoid conflicts down the road.

DO – Consider professional help. Unless you have a background in event planning and management, investing in a professional planner can significantly reduce costs in other areas. Wedding and event professionals, like the members of SWEL, can help you navigate your wedding budget with confidence.

DON’T – Be afraid of Prenups (or Postnups). Marriage is, at the end of the day, a contract – one that is a lot easier to enter than exit. While a lot of people may think a prenuptial agreement is unromantic, it serves a very important purpose. A knowledgeable attorney will help facilitate discussions between you and your partner in a healthy, safe, and mutually beneficial environment before creating your documents. This will also give you a sense of security and confidence going into the marriage; feelings that are super sexy in my book!

(Note: This article was originally written for and published in the 2023 Suncoast Wedding & Event Guide)

One of the most harmful things about unfettered capitalism is the idea that you must always be striving to “improve”, “level up” or grind your way to greatness. Capitalism wants you to believe you’re not enough, or that some part of you is always needing to be fixed; because it’s easier to sell products and services to people that believe who they are is inherently bad.

We can reject all this by setting goals that are about fun, silliness, joy, and pleasure for the sheer sake of it. Instead of making goals for yourself that are about changing or fixing yourself, what if you sought out goals that were about making life enjoyable and exciting? Goals that let you experience life from a place of self-love and acceptance?

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Make it a QUEST. You can set a goal that is based on a grand, adventurous search. Maybe it’s a quest to walk every labyrinth in a 50 mile radius of home. Or a quest to learn as many back roads of your town as possible. You can make a quest to photograph yourself with every piece of public art in a nearby city. Food is also a great place to begin with quests. Make a quest to try every pasta shape you can get your hands on. Or a quest to figure out which restaurant in your city makes the best french fries.

Get adventurous with your palate. Your goal can be to try to expand your flavor horizons. Maybe it’s finding a wine tasting class. Or adding one new fruit a week to your grocery basket. You can also go wild experimenting with new spices!

Become an connoisseur. A “connoisseur” is someone that has an expert knowledge of something. Maybe you want to be a connoisseur of hamburgers. Or ice cream. Or kombucha. You can become a connoisseur of Disney queue line music, jigsaw puzzles, or Hallmark Christmas movies. Truly, you can become a connoisseur of anything you deeply love.

Switch it up with your wardrobe. Maybe your closet feels uninspiring. How might you zhuzh it up in a really fun way? Try theming one day a week around a specific color (think Mean Girls, “On Wednesdays we wear pink”.) Or consider having a signature accessory like statement earrings or brooches like Madam Albright.

Make your goals seasonal. It’s okay to have some fun goals that are only for part of the year. My friend, Hannah, does this brilliantly with her “Warm Drink Wednesdays” in the fall and winter, and then switching it up to “Cold Treat Wednesdays” when the weather heats up.

Revisit what you loved as a kid. There’s a good chance that the stuff you loved doing as a child is still relevant to you today. Loved rollerskating? See if there’s a roller rink in driving distance and take an afternoon to lace up those skates again! Did you beg for a giant art set for Christmas when you were 7? Sign up for an art class at your local community center. There’s usually a grown up version of most fun “kid” things if you’re willing to look for it.

Invite a friend. Having another person share in the silliness will not only hold you accountable to actually doing the fun thing, but will also add to your experience. Go ahead – ask your friend if they want to join you in the boxed mac-and-cheese taste test.

What goals will you set for yourself this year?

Welcome back to the Meadowsweet Money podcast! I’m Mimi Cirbusova, your money mentor and Certified Financial Education Instructor.

I can’t believe that this is the final episode of 2023. But don’t worry – I will be back in January with even more amazing discussions and shame-free financial education.

Because that’s what this podcast is all about. While, yes, we talk about money here, the goal is ultimately to help you live in more alignment with matters to you the most. Money is just a powerful tool to help you get there.

Today’s episode is extra special because today is my birthday! Well, it’s my birthday if you’re listening on the day this airs. 

This magical time where I can proudly say I’ve made it one more rotation around our Sun, is the time where I make my plans for the next year. I’m not a big New Years person, and I don’t make resolutions, so instead I set my goals and intentions for the next year around my birthday. 

In thinking about all that, I started to reflect on how important dreaming and visioning is in the process of becoming financially confident. The things that we daydream about, the stuff that we say (either old loud or just in our hearts), “gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if…?” That stuff matters. Because our dreams can tell us so much more about ourselves and the potential we hold than we might realize. And I want to share some ways you can bring more of your dreams into reality.

So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. And I know I say this every episode, but I particularly mean it today, for this final episode of the season. Thank you for listening.

The idea for today’s episode came to me while scrolling through Reddit. It was one of those late night, should be sleeping but instead, mindlessly scrolling with one eye closed, in bed kind of moments. I know – it’s really not good. Anyway, I saw a post from a subreddit that I followed a while back but hadn’t seen anything from in a while. The post headline posed the question, “Does wealth ruin you?”

This question is not new to me. I hear some version of it from many of my clients, and I see it all the time around the internet. But what’s interesting is that this question was asked in the subreddit called “If I won the lottery”, which allows people to share what they would do if they suddenly came into large amounts of financial wealth. People in this subreddit often share pictures of secluded mansions that they dream of buying, list the many countries they’d backpack through after they quit their jobs, and the charities they’d pour themselves into helping the moment that they became millionaires. So that question, “Does wealth ruin you?” felt…odd for this particular subreddit.

Now, I’m not going to tell you what my response was to that question until the very end of this segment, but I want to talk about the act of dreaming big, and why the barriers to our dreams aren’t always just for lack of funds.

To kick this conversation off, I want to talk about one of my dreams that I accomplished about 30 years earlier than I thought I would. For as long as I can remember, my parents brought us along to vote. I remember standing in line at our local library so my parents could cast their ballot; the same library branch my brother and I rode our bikes to on the weekends and all throughout the summer. I remember when they still had the big physical binders with the names printed of every registered voter in the district. And I remember thinking, when I am old and I am retired, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to be one of those people that helps you vote.

But I didn’t have to wait until retirement. About 5 months into becoming self employed, I realized that everything I needed to become a poll worker for our local elections office was at my disposal. I had the time. I had the scheduling flexibility. I signed up that afternoon, and was asked to complete training before the next election. And I’ve proudly served in both a primary and general election, working early voting, mail-in-voting, and on election day. 

But that dream wasn’t really about working as a poll worker. Not really. The dream I had was about the values I carry. Even as a tiny girl, barely able to see over the counter while my parents checked in to vote, I saw those poll workers as the kind of people I wanted to be. Someone that helped others do the most basic, yet critical, civic act you can do as a citizen. 

So I took it even further, and I started participating in Postcards to Voters. I have talked about this on my Instagram stories before, and I think on my TikTok as well. Volunteering to write postcards isn’t free. I personally pay for the stamps and postcards, and I give up my time to sit and write the pre-approved messages and addresses on each one. But I am happy to make this activity part of my budget because it means I am expressing a deeply held personal value.

To me, our dreams can powerfully tell us about our values. About the things that matter most.

Maybe you dream of someday quitting your job and opening a cat cafe. Or maybe you wish you had the funds to make a big anonymous donation every year to your favorite nonprofit. Maybe you dream of finally getting the dental work you’ve needed forever, or splurging on the super bougie skincare. Whatever your dreams, there’s hidden messages within them.

When I look at my dreams, the stuff I would do if I suddenly had so much wealth that I didn’t have to keep putting money away for retirement and saving for sinking funds for all the bigger stuff I prioritize in my savings…well, I see some really interesting patterns.

I have this list of the things I daydream about. The stuff that I’d put in a post on the “If I won the lottery subreddit”. There’s so much that revolves around spending quality time with my family and friends, but especially my husband. There’s a lot of dreams that emphasize taking care of my health, and setting family up for their long-term wellbeing. And I see a lot of dreams that are about being generous.

And seeing these patterns, recognizing the values that are interwoven through each specific item, causes me to wonder: “What would it look like to have this in my current reality?”

While I may not be able to treat myself to a big shopping spree on Etsy to clear out my favorites list, I can right now, decide to support artisans over big box stores. I can make sure my budget prioritizes taking care of my health. Maybe I can’t make a giant donation to organizations I love, but I can make small ones. And believe me, the nonprofits I support would much rather I send $25 a year now, than hoping maybe someday I can do a whole lot more.

The point I’m trying to make here is that your dreams do matter. They matter so much. Because even if you never achieve your dreams exactly the way you envisioned them, there’s so much you can learn from what you dream about.

You might even find that some of your dreams hold truths that you’ve had a hard time accepting or even believing. I hear from folks a lot that they don’t even have time or energy to dream. Their jobs have them so burned out that they only dream of rest. 

It reminds me of the story of the boy and the bicycle. There was this kid running along the side of the road as fast he could, and he was pushing his bike alongside him. He was panting and sweating, knowing he woke up late for school. He only had enough time to throw on some clothes, grab his bag and his bike, and run out the door. A car sees the boy, kicking up dirt as he sprints with his bike and backpack in tow. The car slows down, just enough to keep pace with the boy. Shouting out the window, the driver says, “what are you doing?!” The boy shouts back through panting breaths, “I’m going to be late for school!” The driver says, “but if you stopped and got on that bicycle, you could go so much faster!” The boy, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, shouts back, “but I’m scared that it’ll take time to stop running and get on the bike, I’ll miss the first bell!”

See friend, I know what it’s like to be that person, running as fast as I could, expending so much energy just to get where I thought I needed to be. Working myself to the bone, no time to really look around and see what was even available to me.

Sitting down and getting clear on my real numbers, that was my version of stopping to get on the bike. Asking the questions about what really mattered to me, figuring out the money mindsets that were impeding me from making conscious financial decisions, that also was part of stopping to get on the bike. As was getting clear about my goals and the circumstances of my life.

But here’s the thing – once I did that – stopped running and chasing, and expending all of my energy living in fear…fear of my money and the stories I had told myself about my money…once I let that go, suddenly I moved a whole lot faster! I wasn’t so gosh darn tired all the time. I had a new freedom.

And it was that freedom that got me to pay off five figures of debt. It was that freedom that helped me see that, yeah, I could fulfill my dream of being an entrepreneur. Which, most of my life I denied even admitting was even a dream I had. And despite still being in the growing phase of my business, where every penny matters a lot, and income is up-and-down, and up-and-down, the skills I have learned on this journey also means that I have the highest net worth of my life.

So I want to end this segment with this simple idea: take some time to hear what your dreams are really telling you. What about your dreams makes them special? What values are they communicating, and how might you adapt your dream to be a part of your life right now? 

Alright, I can hear you asking, “but Mimi, what was your response to the subreddit post? Does wealth ruin you?”

My answer is very simple: more money simply makes you more of who you already are.

If you’re a jerk, which I’m going to assume is not the case if you’re listening to my podcast, but if you’re a jerk, then more money will allow you to be a jerk on a bigger scale.

But I am guessing that if you’re listening to this right now, you’re a kind, generous, and caring person. I’m guessing that no matter how much money you have in your bank account or your wallet, whether you have a little or a lot, you’re going to always be the spectacular, wonderful, magnificent you that you already are. 

Are you ready for some in case you missed it? I sure am.

Oh my gracious friends – only a few more weeks to join the waitlist for my Patreon! That’s right, in January, I will be launching a Patreon so that you can get even more amazing shame-free personal finance education and content from me. 

Patrons will get access to exclusive events and workshops, discounts, access to our private Discord community, and so many other amazing goodies so you can climb the Money Mountain with confidence. By becoming a patron in 2024, you will be directly supporting the creation of this podcast.

When the Patreon opens, you will see three levels of support, starting at $3 a month. My goal was to make this as affordable as possible, because I know times are tough for so many. 

Every level of the Patreon has cool perks, including access to the digital Meadowsweet Money Magazine, a special monthly Real Numbers planner to help you stay on track with your money, and a shout-out on the podcast when you join.

But if you join at the $5 or $10 levels, you also get access to the Accountability Club – which has private Discord channels and a monthly virtual meetup where we will support each other in our financial goals. If you need that accountability and that community cheering you on, I definitely encourage you to check out the Wealth Wanderers and Money Mountaineers levels.

Again, the Patreon will open in January, but you will want to join the free wait list so you get in first.

Head on over to the link in the show notes or go to patreon.com/MeadowsweetMoney to sign up.

With all that said, let’s get to our final segment…back to basics.

Last episode I talked about the different ways to pay off debt, so I wanted to take the time to talk about savings. And specifically, how to save for all those big expenses without losing your mind.

Enter one of the most amazing tools in your toolbox: the Sinking Fund.

This is a special savings account that you contribute to, gradually over time, and plan on using for a specific future expense.

This can be for mundane annual expenses, such as insurance premiums, HOA fees, or holiday gifts, or planned expenses, like a vacation, or even as a way to say yes to unplanned purchases that really bring a smile to your face.

For instance, prior to COVID, I had a sinking fund called my “Fashionista Fund”. If I saw a beautiful piece of jewelry, or a gorgeous pair of shoes, or a dress I just could not live without, well, as long as there was enough in my Fashionista Fund to cover it…I had permission to buy it. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be, or I would get it later when that account had enough.  

The beauty of a sinking fund is that they help you handle the big, predictable expenses without taking on debt.

Now, I want to emphasize here…this is different and separate from your emergency fund, which I talked about in Episode 6.

So how exactly do you start a sinking fund? There’s really four basic steps.

First, you gotta know what you’re saving for, and second, how long you’re going to save. Third, you divide the total amount you need by the number of months or paychecks you have to save, and finally, you transfer that amount from your checking into your savings account.

Let’s say you need to save for a friend’s wedding in 10 months and you’re going to need $1,500 for the gift, something to wear to the wedding, and your portion of the bachelorette festivities. Okay, so that is going to come out to $150 a month (or $75 a paycheck if you get paid every other week) and you’ll put that aside. 

Now, in the case of something similar to my Fashionista Fund, where I didn’t have a specific amount that I was trying to save…well, in that case, you can decide how much you typically spend in that category and how often. For me, putting aside $25 a paycheck was usually pretty sufficient for my purposes. 

Something I will also mention here – if your bank or credit union allows it, I encourage you to change the name of your savings account to the name for your sinking fund. It is far less tempting to pull money out of an account named “Trip to Ireland” than one that is a random jumble of numbers. And if you need to, consider having your sinking fund in a separate bank completely.

If you have a sinking fund, or decide to start one, I’d love to hear about what you’re saving for. Hit me up on Instagram or TikTok.

Anyhow, that’s our last back to basics lesson for this year. I want to wrap up this episode by sharing my deep gratitude for you, dear listener. Thank you for leaving reviews wherever you listen to this podcast, sending kind messages on Instagram, and overall, just supporting the work I do here. There is no greater honor than to walk alongside you on your journey on the Money Mountain. 

Until next time, you’re doing great and I am so proud of you. See you in January.

Because our brains are story-telling machines, we often need to give our minds evidence to begin telling a better (and more accurate) story about our ability to manage money. If you often feel like you’re “bad with money”, use the checklist below to note how many statements are true for you right now. Disregard any that don’t apply to your situation:

1. I have a checking account
2. I have a savings account.
3. I have financial goals.
4. I pay my bills on time (always or almost always).
5. I look at my accounts on a regular basis.
6. I am aware that my emotions can impact my financial habits.
7. I have some money put aside in savings for an emergency (even if it’s a very small amount).
8. I signed up for my employer’s retirement plan (even if I didn’t understand it).
9. I am careful to watch for scams or anything that seems too good to be true.
10. I have checked my credit score.
11. I file my taxes each year.
12. If I have debt, I know how much and which companies I owe.
13. I have a pretty good understanding of what I can afford.
14. I make a conscious effort not to overdraft.
15. I know what makes me feel really good/happy and I spend money on those things.
16. I do my best to purchase what I know I will use and consume (not creating excess waste).
17. If I have to borrow money from someone, I pay them back in a timely manner.
18. I have the ability to pause and think it over before purchasing.
19. I actively work to keep my consumer debt to a minimum (credit cards, car loans, mortgages, payday loans, etc.)
20. When I receive a check, I make sure to deposit it before it expires.
21. I know what a credit score is and what it is used for.
22. I make payments toward my debt every month, even if it is just the minimum.
23. When making plans, I consider the cost before saying “yes”.
24. When applying for a new job, I consider the entire compensation and benefits and am willing to negotiate my salary.
25. I know my family, friends, culture, faith, and experiences can influence the beliefs I have about money.
26. I am willing to negotiate or research cheaper prices when appropriate.
27. When I make a purchase that does not suit me, I am willing to seek out a refund or exchange for the item.
28. I am willing to learn more about personal finance and apply what I learn.

How many of these statements are true for you? Are you doing better than you thought? It might be time to rewrite some narratives.

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the Meadowsweet Money podcast! I’m Mimi Cirbusova, a Certified Financial Education Instructor and shame-free money mentor. I am so glad you are here today.

One of the things I hear over and over and over again from people that consult with me for one-on-one mentoring is that they tried to budget, and it just didn’t work for them. Or that they can make a budget just fine, but can’t actually stick to it.

If you listened to Episode 2 of this podcast, we talked about the Money Mountain, and I did not use the word budget a single time in that episode. Did you notice that? While I think budgets can be a powerful tool when utilized correctly, most of the time we’re told to make a budget but never shown how to use a budget to make decisions, or how to align that budget to our goals.

Now if the idea of budgeting gives you that visceral, adverse feeling, I want to pause here and invite you to get curious about that. Where does that reaction come from? Perhaps your definition of budgeting won’t mesh with my definition of budgeting. I hope that you’ll hear me out, and give this episode a chance, because there’s going to be some nuggets that might challenge your current way of thinking and looking at budgeting, and maybe even inspire you to give budgeting another shot.

With that, let’s dive into the episode.

My parents are both really talented people. My mom is a master tailor. She not only can alter clothes – and I mean any garment – she also can draft patterns based on a person’s specific measurements. She’s retired now, so no, she’s not doing it as a job anymore. My dad can build and make just about anything out of wood, and repair all sorts of stuff.

Growing up in this kind of household meant I developed some really great fine motor skills, which I do not take for granted. Because my parents are so talented, I grew up learning how to use tools appropriately. They showed me how to safely use all sorts of craft supplies and woodworking tools when I was old enough to listen and follow their directions. And of course, they watched me the first few times I did anything.

And maybe it’s because of that experience, that it’s weird to me that so many people will say, “well, you just need to make a budget”. Because if budgeting is a tool, like a hammer or a sewing machine, you can’t just start using those things without a little bit of instruction. So why do we tell people to use the tool of budgeting without any instruction at all? Just assuming that everyone knows how to do it naturally? It makes no sense to me.

Budgeting, at least to my mind, is a tool that requires a few bits of knowledge from our journey up the Money Mountain. First, you gotta know your real numbers. I know I’ve been saying this a lot, but it’s so so true. I don’t care how good you are at the task of budgeting – if your real numbers aren’t reflected in that budget, it’s not gonna work. But you also have to understand your goals and circumstances. What is it that you’re trying to achieve with your money? What situations might you encounter that can impact what your real numbers are doing? Creating a budget without knowing your real numbers and your goals is like getting out a hammer and a wrench before ever deciding what you’re building. Are you making a birdhouse? Building a fence? Replacing a sink in the bathroom? When someone says “oh, just make a budget”, it sounds like a person that says “oh just use a hammer” when you tell them that your bathroom has flooded.

I digress. What I’m saying is, you have to get clear on foundational levels 3 and 4 of the Money Mountain before we ever start using a budget seriously.

The other thing I want to point out is that a budget is meant to be a close estimate. You don’t have to get every little expense right in your budget, but you should get within a reasonable range. The first time you make one, there’s a good chance it’s going to be off quite a bit – but you’re hopefully in the ballpark. As you practice, you’ll get better and better, and more and more accurate. 

There’s a ton of different ways to budget, and not every style of budgeting is going to work well for everyone. I knew someone that loved percentage budgeting -I mean, loved it. They put 50% towards their necessities, 20% went to savings and investments, and the other 30% is what they lived on. Cool. Great. Someone else might prefer more of the zero-based budgeting method, where you give every dollar a job, and consistently track your income and expenses. That’s great too! The point of this episode isn’t to dive into all the different budgeting methods that are out there, but instead to help you realize that you get to decide what is going to work best for you.

Now before I get too much further in this episode, I want to mention that my budgeting strategy has evolved and changed over time. And that is a very good thing. The budget you make at age 25 or 30 won’t look like, and SHOULDN’T look like the budget you made at 40 or 50. Your budget should pivot and change as you grow and change. When I first started budgeting, I was tracking every single penny (which worked really well for me), and carefully allocating for every expense. But as I got more data over time, and more practice, I loosened up a bit. I don’t track every penny anymore, but I have a very clear picture of what I am aiming to spend at any given time.

Just like there’s different tools out there, each person must choose the right way to budget for them So let’s talk about the six criteria of what makes up a good budget, regardless of what method you choose:

1. It must be easy to use. What’s easy for one person, may be really difficult and confusing for you, so take that into consideration. You want your budget to be something that isn’t so complicated or cumbersome that you’ll never use it. By the way, apps are great for helping you keep track of your budget and making it visual. But I will strongly argue that an app can only give you the information you feed it. And if you always forget to log into it or you’re not good at updating it when it is needed, well, that app isn’t going to be much more useful than good old fashioned pen and paper.
2. It’s genuine to who you are. We are budgeting for the life and income we actually have – not the one we wish we had. When it comes to our real numbers, we don’t have to like them to have them be useful to us. If you are making a grocery budget of $50 a week for a family of five, babes, that just ain’t gonna work. And it’s okay if you’re trying to cut back on really out of control expenses. So, start with reality, and then aim for small incremental changes as you get better at budgeting.
3. It must be aligned with your goals and circumstances. If you know you’re going to have to replace the roof of your house in the next 7 years, your budget should reflect that – even if it is going to take you 7 years to save up 50% of that. It’s okay. And if your goal is to fly to Paris for your anniversary, your budget better have a category to reflect that. Again, the point of a budget isn’t to punish you – a good budget is a permission slip to get you closer to your goals through aligned action.
4. It must make sense to your brain. I am a big fan of automating savings, investments, and anything else that I can. I knew someone who had set up so many automations for themselves that they had a special checking account separate from everything else that they knew all of their fun money came from. Whatever was in there each paycheck is what they had available to spend. Everything else was out of sight, out of mind, and they only checked on their automations like once a month to make sure nothing fishy was going on. So their quote-unquote “budgeting” was figuring out what was coming up between each payday and what they were willing to spend.
5. It’s flexible and personal. Your budget categories, meaning the specific areas of spending, should make sense to you and your life. If you need a “chicken coop maintenance” budget category, then it should be in there! I personally have a skincare and haircare category in my budget that is separate from my “manicure/pedicure” category, because that is what works for me. Heck, you can have a “spontaneous fun” budget category if you want to. When it comes to your budget categories, you can be as broad or as narrow as you like, but your categories should capture at least 90% of your typical spending.
6. It accounts for your due dates and deadlines. This is the last one because I think it’s one of the most overlooked criteria for a successful budget. Your budget isn’t just a spreadsheet of income and expenses. It should also be a timeline of when those expenses will occur. If you’re coming up short during a certain time of the month, it might be that you’re ignoring your payment due dates, or haven’t analyzed when those might be and how those dates relate to each other. Of course, there’s a lot of ways to address due dates for recurring bills, but even things like hey I’m going to be going to a friend’s birthday brunch on the 12th, but don’t get paid until the 17th. That’s helpful to have in your budget.

Those are my criteria of what makes a good budget, but once you have made a budget, how exactly do you stick with it? Everyone’s a little different, but here’s what I think can help:

Tip #1: Make budgeting a pleasurable experience. My money routine, which includes creating my budget and reviewing my expenses from the previous month, is more palatable because I make it so. I have a nice beverage, I make sure I am in my comfy clothes, I have some music playing and the lighting is good. This is like a money date – if I don’t spend a little bit of time each month with my money, we’re not going to have a very good relationship. So carving out 30 minutes a month to just open my accounts, review my expenses, double-check for anything out of the ordinary, and celebrate any progress I’ve made toward my savings and investing goals…well, I make a point to make it as enjoyable as possible means it’s not a chore. You can even enlist the help of a friend. Have a budgeting date night together over a glass of wine if that’s what you need to do. The point here is that you get to choose whether budgeting is a painful obligation or a pleasurable ritual. Personally, I choose the latter.

Tip #2: Use every tool in your arsenal. There is no reason to do math in your head if you are not good at it. I’m not good at it. When I am budgeting for the month, I have out my calculator, my agenda book, my digital calendar, and the little coloring sheets I use to track my savings and investing goals. And of course, I have all my accounts open on my computer. There’s no budgeting merit badge for trying to make a budget based on memory or doing mental math. So make it easy on yourself. 

Tip #3: Practice forgiveness and celebrate wins. As I mentioned earlier, a budget isn’t about laser precision, but about moving in the direction you intend. If you mess up your budget – please do not beat yourself up about it. For any fellow recovering perfectionists out there, my goal with my budget is 1) to stay out of debt, and 2) get at least a B+ when it comes to my savings and investing goals. That’s it. In the times where I mess up and spend money in regrettable or forgettable ways, I take a moment to sincerely forgive myself, and remember that I am a human being. And when I make any progress toward my goals, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, I take a moment to celebrate it. To remind myself that I am capable of achieving whatever I set my mind to.

Tip #4: Make sure your reason for sticking to a budget is actually motivating. Here’s the deal my friend – you could have the most beautiful, well-laid out, accurate budget of all time. But if your reason for sticking to that budget is an external obligation or because you feel like you “should” be doing it, or because you feel guilty, or because your partner wants you too…you’re just not going to stick with it! There’s a reason that the second foundational level of the Money Mountain is mindset and values. Every level above that is made stronger or weaker based on your work in that second level. When you are motivated from a deep intrinsic place, sticking to your budget is gonna be a little bit easier. And that means working on things like regrettable and forgettable spending. That means understanding the stories you have about money. And having a very clear vision of why you want to make the necessary changes to your financial landscape. And if your vision isn’t super clear yet, if you don’t feel a deep hunger to work towards that vision, that’s okay! That doesn’t mean you’re destined to fail. But I would encourage you to really set aside time to fine tuning that vision. Think of it like going to the eye doctor and they do that thing with the lenses – which is clearer, one or two? Can you tell I’ve worn glasses for a long time? What I’m saying is, having a super clear and provoking vision for your life and how your money plays into that, well it should feel like putting on glasses for the first time. Suddenly everything is sharp and in focus. 

Obviously I am super passionate about this topic. But if you have more questions about this, or want to share any thoughts about this episode, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you. I’m on Instagram @ meadowsweetmoney. Alright my friend, let’s move on to the next segment – and my favorite part of the podcast.

Whew! Who knew for an introvert I could be so chatty? 

In the last episode I announced that I am launching a Patreon in 2024! And it’s not too late to join the waitlist – I have left a link for you in the show notes. When you sign up for the waitlist, you’ll be the first to know when my Patreon is live and get all the details on the benefits you get by becoming a patron. 

Not only will you get access to exclusive events, discounts on workshops and classes, as well as access to our private Discord, you will be directly supporting the creation of this podcast – which means I can continue to provide shame-free financial education to the world. And because patrons are the ones that will be supporting this podcast, you’ll get a special shout out during the In Case You Missed It segment of upcoming episodes!

So please head on over to the link in the show notes or go to patreon.com/MeadowsweetMoney to sign up for the waitlist. There’s no obligation – but you’ll get the first notice of when my Patreon is live and ready.

Cool? Ok, let’s get ready to get a little mindful with our money.

How are you doing my friend? Have you taken a deep breath lately? If it feels good, I invite you to gently roll your shoulders. Take another deep breath.

Today’s mindful money moment is a short one, but I think an important one. It’s about the idea of being ready. 

Being ready is a decision. It’s not an emotion or a feeling. Feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, joy… those are conscious mental reactions that often have a physiological connection. We smile when we’re happy. We might ball our fists or feel tightness in our shoulders when we’re angry. 

Many of us are looking to feel ready before we take action on our financial dreams. But because ready isn’t a feeling or an emotion, we will never actually feel ready. We can only decide we are ready.

So what does it take to decide? How do we know that we are ready?

Well, that’s going to be pretty unique to each person, but here’s a few clues.

Ready requires a balance of ingredients, like a good cocktail or recipe. To decide you are ready, you might need to know you have the right resources and timing to move forward, or at least a desire to seek out the resources. 

You probably need some enthusiasm, and maybe consent to take action (whether that be your own consent or someone else’s.) Readiness might require skills or capacity, or at least the willingness to learn some new skills. 

But perhaps the most important, and maybe the hardest for us to be totally honest about, is that you have to want to. Deciding that you’re ready really takes having the desire to take action. And that desire has to be strong enough to sustain beyond the first step. 

The moment I decided to tackle my debt and stop ignoring it, nothing external had changed. There was no dramatic phone call from the bank telling me to pay up. There was no one nagging me or trying to convince me this was a problem. And I certainly didn’t have any new knowledge from one day to the next. In fact, I probably could have kept right on going with my debt.

What changed was that I decided I was ready. I had a deep desire. I had a willingness to learn. And I had just enough time, energy, and motivation to really give it a go. 

So this is what I leave you with today my friend. Maybe a certain money goal has been rolling around in your head for a while but you haven’t taken action on it, or someone else has told you should be working toward a specific goal. Whatever it is, stop looking for the feeling of being ready.

Instead, I invite you to look at your goal at be able to say one of three things:

1. I have decided that this goal isn’t right for me
2. I have decided that I’m not ready for that goal quite yet, or
3. I have decided that I am ready.

Declaring that you’ve made a decision is powerful, because decisions mean ownership. They mean accountability. And it’s okay if the decision is no, or not yet! What matters is that when you are ready to say yes, it’s with your full chest.

That’s all for today. Thank you for listening, and friend, I am so proud of you.

Episode Transcript:

Welcome back to the Meadowsweet Money podcast! Happy Halloween, or happy Samhain for those that celebrate.

I’m Mimi Cirbusova, your host and shame-free money mentor.

It only seemed appropriate if I was going to have a podcast episode air on Halloween to use this time to talk about financial fears. Because I don’t think there’s a single person on this earth that is completely fearless when it comes to money. Ok, well maybe the uncontacted tribe living on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, because we’re not entirely sure if they have currency within their society. But for anyone listening to this podcast, I would bet you have some financial fears somewhere.

Heck, I am a Certified Financial Education Instructor, and I still have some financial fears from time to time.

My goal today is to help you face your financial fears – make them just a little less spooky and a little less powerful in your day-to-day life.

I know what it’s like to live in financial fear; to feel your hands shake and your heart race when logging in to check your account balances. I know what it’s like to feel lightheaded and queasy when people around me would begin to discuss money.

And I’m also here to tell you – it doesn’t have to be that way. So if you’re ready, let’s dive in and realize there isn’t actually a monster lurking under the bed…or in your bank account.

Thank you for being here.

I will also note that I have a very, very, VERY big announcement coming up this episode during our “In Case You Missed It” segment. Something I have been DYING to share with y’all. Ok, that was cheesy, but if you got the pun, then…well, we should be friends.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that in July of 2020 I made my final payment and became completely debt free. After about 15 months of really hard work and dedication, I had paid off $20,881. It was both thrilling and a little scary. As happy and as proud as I was to pay off my debt, I was terrified it wouldn’t last. That I’d fall back into debt and not know how to get out of it a second time.

I shared this fear with my therapist, and her response was perfect of course. She simply said, “You don’t have to”. What she meant by that was I had learned so much, and I had gained so many skills in managing my finances that going back into debt was a choice, rather than an inevitability. And I could choose to stay debt free. I wasn’t doomed, and even if something drastic or tragic happened, I could start my debt free journey over a second time – but better equipped with experience and knowledge. Having an emergency fund helps as well.

Our financial fears all have roots somewhere. Maybe they started because there’s a generational trauma around money in our family line. Many of us grew up being told that money is taboo to talk about, that it’s shameful or egotistical or tacky to discuss. Or we had something happen in our childhoods or early adulthood that made us afraid of money. Somewhere along the way, we soaked up the message that money is evil or bad. Sometimes the roots of our financial fears are obvious and easily traceable. But more often than not, our financial fears stem from things we can’t quite wrap our arms around.

These fears, regardless of where they come from, hinder our ability to make savvy financial decisions. They halt or slow our progress toward our money goals. This might mean you put off investing for retirement, saving for a big expense, or protecting yourself through an emergency fund. Financial fears also make us more susceptible to scams and fraud. When we’re operating from a place of fear, we’re often defensive – making decisions with haste and anxiety.

I don’t want that for you, my friend. And I know you don’t want it either. Addressing our financial fears allows us to move into a position of possibility and strategy, being proactive and forward-thinking.

Before we dive too much further into this topic, I want to share the concept that I learned in my time working for a child welfare nonprofit. It was my first “big girl job”, and I was working in the prevention and education department, teaching about child abuse prevention. We used this phrase all the time: “What is mentionable is manageable”. If you can talk about something – no matter how scary, or uncomfortable, or unpleasant – you can deal with it. Once you open the door to discussion, to shine a light on the stuff that we’re most scared to talk about, suddenly we can deal with it.

And I think that phrase, “what is mentionable is manageable” lends itself to anything that we are scared of, but particularly money.

Because money is so taboo in our culture. For something that touches literally every aspect of our lives, whether we know it or not, making money taboo to talk about feels an awful lot like a way to keep most of us oppressed. Just sayin’.

So what can you do if you’re a financial-scaredy-cat? If you’re tired of feeling like you have your head in the sand, and want to stop being so gosh darn stressed about money all the time?

I think the first thing is to figure out exactly what you’re scared of, and acknowledge it. Much of what we’re afraid is just stories we have in our mind. They might feel very real to us, but aren’t the reality.

Some of my mentees have shared their fear of building wealth, and I don’t mean getting crazy rich. I mean, putting enough away for retirement to sustain themselves in old age. They are scared that investing to have a million dollars in retirement (which, by the way, would only be $40,000 a year to live on if you’re following the 4% rule), they are afraid that having that much money would make them greedy or mean. And I’m here to tell you, more money just makes you more of who you already are. If you’re a kind and generous person (and I’m gonna assume you are if you’re listening to my podcast anyway), having more money will empower you to be even more kind and more generous.

Lots of us have financial trauma from childhood. Growing up poor, particularly if your family experienced a lot of instability because of financial hardship, that sticks with you. We know the tension, the fighting, and the despair that comes with growing up poor. No matter how much money you make now as an adult, you might be afraid that it could all go away in an instant.

I want to mention that fear has a biological function – its purpose is to signal dangers or threats and trigger appropriate responses. The challenge is that often when it comes to money, we don’t always know the most appropriate response to take – particularly because a lot of our financial fears aren’t tangible. We might not even be fully aware of what our fears are exactly. We just know that money freaks us out.

So what can we do to become financially brave?

Like I said, the first step is acknowledging your financial fears. What freaks you out may not worry me in the slightest, and what keeps me awake at night might never cross your mind. What I’m saying is that all of our financial fears and worries are going to be different. But there’s some common ones out there.

Maybe it’s the financial emergency, or sudden job loss. Perhaps you’re terrified you’ll never get out of debt. Maybe you’re scared to start putting money away for retirement because you’re scared you’re going lose it all if the market goes kablooey, or you’re convinced that you’ll never be able to retire, or afford a home of your own, or pay for your kids’ college.

Like I said before, what is mentionable is manageable. It’s important to take some time to acknowledge exactly what your fears are. I would encourage you to write them down. And I mean that literally. Get out a journal or a notepad and write out exactly what you’re afraid of. My journal would probably read that I am scared that I would have a health emergency that would bankrupt us and put us out on the streets. Or that I am terrified that I will fail in my business.

Once you acknowledge what your fears are, it’s important to ask how likely it is that your fears could come true? Even though I do have some health stuff that I deal with, it’s well controlled and being closely monitored by my doctors. And, sure my business could fail, but it’s highly unlikely we would end up on the streets because I can still go out and find work if I really needed to. And thankfully, we do have family that could take us in if things got really bad.

Now maybe you’re listening to this and you’re in a situation that is pretty dire. You’re experiencing unemployment, or you are dealing with an emergency, or you’re facing eviction, or anything else that is super duper hard. Being in the midst of a scary situation isn’t the same as being afraid of a possible scary situation, and I’m going to be the first to tell you 1) I’m so, so sorry that’s happening, and 2) you need resources and support.

But if your current reality is pretty okay or relatively stable, then there’s something you need to do once you have acknowledged your fear.

The second step is getting clear on your real numbers.

Ok, I know that this is the part that is the scariest for a lot of us. But I’m not going to mince my words here. There is simply no way around this step.

Your real numbers aren’t good or bad. They’re not a judgment on who you are, and they can’t tell us a single thing about our value as human beings. And our real numbers are often changing, so taking time to learn about your real numbers is simply getting a snapshot on this moment in time. Not your past, and not your future; only this moment.

Your real numbers clarify. They illuminate reality and give us important information so we can make sound decisions. No one likes coming up with solutions to things that aren’t actually problems. Your real numbers are here to say, “hey, this is the problem right here.”

One of my favorite quotes is by Charles Kettering where he says, “A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” Your real numbers will show you where you most need to draw your attention, and help you find potential solutions.

Knowing my real numbers allows me to have a baseline so that I can tell if my business is going to be able to support me long term. Knowing my real numbers means I have a reasonable goal for an emergency fund, and I make small steps toward that goal.

Nothing kicked my butt into gear on investing and saving quite like looking at my accounts and realizing I needed to figure out how investing worked so I would be protected in my old age.

To get your real numbers, you need to understand your income, fixed and variable expenses, debt obligations, and savings. And this doesn’t mean guesses or estimations. This means opening your accounts and writing down the actual numbers down to the penny.

Here’s the truth: you do not have to like your real numbers for them to be helpful to you.

Once you know your real numbers, the third step is taking action. Actions are going to look different for everyone, but overall I find that many of us are looking to create a bigger gap between our income and expenses. Maybe your fear is really trying to tell you to save more money, or start investing, or to just have more space for spending joyfully. Whatever it is, there’s really only two levers you can pull: Increasing your income or decreasing your expenses.

There’s a ton of ways to do these things, and I’m not going to belabor all the ways to increase your income or decrease your expenses here. But I want to give you some permission slips.

First, you have permission to make your actions small. You don’t have to make huge leaps to make changes.

You have permission to take your time and do one thing at a time. In fact, I encourage you to do just that.

Maybe you have acknowledged your fears and taken a hard look at your real numbers, and maybe you feel overwhelmed by all that you really need and want to do. Remember my therapist’s advice… you don’t have to. All of this is a choice. Deciding to save money or not. Deciding to invest or not. Deciding to get a handle on your spending triggers, or not. It’s all a choice, and every choice has consequences – both positive or negative. But, you are in control here.

Here’s the last thing I want to say on the taking action portion of this – your reason why has to come from deep within. It must be intrinsic, or you won’t be able to sustain change for the long term.

Whew – I had a feeling this was going to be a longer one. So why don’t we jump into the big announcement in our next segment?

Friend, I am over the moon to be telling you about this. Starting in 2024, I am launching a Patreon! And you can get on the waitlist now to be the first to know when my Patreon is live.

The Meadowsweet Money Patreon is for anyone that wants easy-to-understand, heart-centered financial education, encouragement, and helpful tools to support them on their journey up the Money Mountain.

As a patron, you support the Meadowsweet Money Podcast. And by joining, you help me keep this podcast ad-free. So as a thank you, you will get access to exclusive content, patron-only discounts and events, as well as benefits of my private Discord server community. If you love my work and want to support this podcast, please sign up for the waitlist. You’ll also get a shout out on the podcast when you become a patron!

If you’re ready for a shame-free money mentor that can walk alongside you on your financial journey, I am excited to be yours.

To sign up for the waitlist, check out the link in the show notes, or head to patreon.com/meadowsweetmoney and enter your email. There’s no obligation to join…you simply get first access when the Patreon goes live.

So that’s the big news! I have lots more to share with you about this in the coming weeks, but I hope you’ll consider supporting my work to bring financial education content that is rooted in kindness.

Thank you for your support, and I look forward to talking with you soon. As always, you’re doing great and I’m proud of you.

Generic and blah “should’s” aren’t welcome here!

Check out the list below for 101 creative and low-cost ways to infuse more fun, ease, and enjoyment into your life:

1. Keep a small reusable bag in your purse or car, and commit to using it when shopping. (I love this one from Target.)
2. Pick 3-5 spices you rarely use in your pantry and pledge to use them up.
3. Learn about the Wheel of the Year, and pick up fresh flowers to correspond to each seasonal holiday.
4. Set a daily reminder on your phone to take a 15 minute break for “afternoon tea”.
5. Add some whimsy to your morning coffee and experiment with adding a sprinkle of cinnamon, swapping out honey for your sweetener, or a drizzle of chocolate. Keep a list in your phone of your favorites.
6. Plan to add more art to your home. Throughout the year, look for artists locally and online. Pick up pieces that make your heart happy.
7. Build a habit of turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth. It’s good for the planet and your water bill.
8. Select four times a year to have an unplugged week, and put it in your calendar. Remove social media from your devices, log out of sites on your computer, or set up site blockers.
9. Create a Google My Map of nearby parks and walking trails. Dedicate time each month to explore a new park in your community.
10. Download the iNaturalist app to begin identifying native plants in your area. Impress your out-of-town friends and family with your new knowledge!
11. Make a list of low-cost attractions in your area that you can visit on one tank of gas. Make it a goal to visit all on your list by the end of the year.
12. Start a “stocking stuffer” box. Throughout the year, add product samples, free goodies from the dentist, and any other random items that come your way. Come the holiday season, use the items in this box to round out your Christmas stockings.
13. Open a High Yield Savings Account and set up an automatic transfer each month or each payday to kickstart your emergency fund (Note: a $1000 emergency fund is $19.23 a week).
14. Plan out your holiday cards in advance. Pick one or two holidays in the year, set up your address list in a spreadsheet, and set up calendar reminders to order your cards and stamps.
15. Turn all your hangers in your closet backwards. At the end of the year, donate the clothes you didn’t wear.
16. Add some whimsy to meal planning by creating 1-3 theme nights. For example, you can make spaghetti and meatball night more fun by playing an “Italian Restaurant” playlist on Spotify, adding a red and white checkered tablecloth, and lighting a candle.
17. Get familiar with your spending triggers, and pick one or two to create systems around.
18. Learn one new way to wear your hair or makeup and practice it once a month.
19. Pick four “clutter collecting” spots in your home to build better organization systems.
20. Learn the actual lyrics to a commonly misheard song.
21. Dedicate an hour to pitching single socks and worn-out/too small underwear.
22. Find 30 minutes to review the apps on your phone and delete any you never use.
23. Develop a habit of cleaning out your sink to make meal prep easier.
24. Practice ways of cleaning up your kitchen as you cook to make post-dinner clean up less overwhelming.
25. Save and freeze veggie scraps to make your own vegetable stock.
26. Intentionally select a word of the year, and create wallpapers on your phone with Canva to keep your word top of mind. You can even add a symbol to your word of the year to add more meaning!
27. Make a list of locally-owned restaurants and create your own rating system as you try them (for example, rankings for atmosphere, service, menu design, and overall experience).
28. Select a favorite dessert and pick one recipe a month on Pinterest to taste test and review.
29. Organize family movie nights with snacks that correspond to the movie.
30. Order a Seasonal Enchantments Workbook from Hannah’s Enchantments and complete the activities to add more magic to your year.
31. Pick one color for the year, and intentionally add more of it to your home, wardrobe, office space, etc.
32. Think about what you wish they would have taught you in school. Create a plan to study this subject and master the basics.
33. Select a weird holiday and build a family tradition around it.
34. Write down a list of tiny annoyances (the can opener that sticks, the remote control that got chewed on by the dog), and set up calendar reminders to replace/repair/donate/etc.
35. Discover 3 services your local library offers that you didn’t know about before.
36. Create a YouTube playlist of seasonal background music to play while working, cleaning, or studying. (I’m a fan of videos by Nemo’s Dreamscapes and Disney World queue line music, like this one.)
37. Set up a project pan for products you need to use up.
38. Master one or two cocktail or mocktail recipes to master when your friends come for a visit.
39. Figure out a new signature accessory to sport for the year (neck scarves, seasonal brooches, colorful hair clips, or statement earrings are all good options).
40. Join Postcrossing to send and receive happy mail from others all over the world.
41. Visit your local library and re-read your favorite books from childhood. Research the authors and illustrators.
42. Pick up a new low-cost hobby.
43. Dedicate yourself to finding the best sandwich in town (or fried pickles, iced tea, ice cream, etc.)
44. Find all the labyrinths within driving distance and walk them. Film yourself using the time-lapse setting on your phone.
45. Open up your jewelry box and do a swap with friends. Or just clean your jewelry – you deserve it.
46. Learn a new card game.
47. Spend an afternoon clearing out the digital clutter. Delete/move files in your downloads folder, unsubscribe from emails you never read, and update software.
48. Develop your own opening and closing rituals to transition from work to home.
49. Learn ways to extend the shelf life of your produce to reduce food waste through proper storage.
50. Discover what sell-by and expiration dates actually mean so you don’t toss perfectly edible food.
51. Make a travel plan for a bucket list vacation. Research costs for hotels, activities, and restaurants. Even if you have no immediate plans to go, it might motivate you to begin a sinking fund to visit!
52. Devote 1 hour to setting up the appointments you keep putting off (dental cleaning, annual well-woman’s exam, vision check, etc.) and be sure to spread them out through the year so you don’t get overwhelmed.
53. Clean and detail your car. You’ll feel much more luxurious while driving, and feel less tempted to upgrade to a more expensive ride.
54. Change your scent with the seasons. Get small or travel sizes of perfumes to wear for each spring, summer, fall, and winter.
55. Upgrade your meals by learning the art of food plating.
56. Theme your days of the week. For example, “Sunday Reset” could mean cleaning out your purse, changing the sheets, and airing out your home. Get creative with it!
57. Explore the wonderful world of simmer pots. Not only do they make your home smell amazing, they don’t produce soot or warm up your home the way candles can. I love making simmer pots in my tiny crockpot.
58. Find the best spots in town to go “dog watching”.
59. Get a daily digest of what’s headed to your mailbox using USPS Informed Delivery.
60. Create a list of movies you want to watch/re-watch in the next year. If you’re a weenie like me, use DoesTheDogDie.com to check for common triggers.
61. Download apps like SuperCook or Mealime to find recipes that work with what you have on hand and reduce your grocery bill.
62. Pull out all your kitchen utensils and sort through them. Donate any you don’t use, pitch and replace any that are broken, and put back your favorites.
63. Subtlety dress up as your favorite characters, a la “Disney-bounding“. Use clothes from your own closet to mimic the vibe. You don’t even need to be going to the parks to enjoy this act of whimsy.
64. Focus on low-effort, low-cost holiday decorations. By switching out dishtowels, your daily mug, or throw pillow cases, you can create big impact on a tiny budget.
65. Start a low-budget collection. Pressed pennies, hag stones, sea glass, weirdly shaped paper clips…these are all ways to start a special collection without a lot of cost.
66. Take a class from your local agricultural extension office. You can find classes on everything from safe canning, gardening, home maintenance, and much more!
67. Create a “smile file” to store kind memos, emails of encouragement and appreciation, and thank you notes. I screenshot messages of gratitude from my Instagram and save them in a digital smile file!
68. Comb through your social media and unfollow accounts that make you less-than-happy. Set aside an hour to mute, unfollow, or block any accounts that make you feel bad about yourself, raise your blood pressure a little, or lead you into the comparison trap too easily.
69. Teach yourself the at-home, copy-cat version of your favorite takeout order. Personally, I’ll take my homemade version of beef and broccoli over carryout any day.
70. Get adventurous and try out a new produce item. Ever had a jackfruit? A pomelo? How about mamey sapote? Pick up a single fruit or veggie you’ve never tried before…you never know what you might like!
71. See if your local library participates in Kanopy – if so, you can stream thousands of films for free!
72. Reduce your junk mail by signing up for Catalog Choice. They’re a nonprofit!
73. Did you know your chocolate can be unethical? Check out this list of chocolate companies working to disconnect from sources that use slavery.
74. Join your local Buy Nothing group! Not only can you help the planet through the sharing economy, you can find unique items that you need without buying new.
75. Sharpen your skills for free.
76. Update your direct deposit form at work to have a small percentage (2-3%) of your paycheck to go into a high yield savings account. You can use these savings as the start of your emergency fund, travel fund, or other savings goals.
77. Think about your large goals and seek out podcasts with interviews of people that accomplished that dream. Dedicate 15 minutes a day to listening, and picking up tips and tricks.
78. Get into the practice of writing “open dates” on your beauty products. This helps you to know how old your lipsticks/blush/eyeshadow palettes really are, and toss anything that’s been sitting around for far too long.
79. Thinking about starting a business? Check out the free resources and connect with a business mentor through SCORE – a program of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
80. What’s that thing you’ve been putting off? Get out a timer and set it to the amount of time you think it will take to accomplish the task. Chances are, you’ll be finished with the task long before the timer goes off.
81. Create a menu of struggle meals to keep in rotation for those nights cooking feels extra overwhelming.
82. Start integrating the seasons into your daily life. Select foods that are in season, go for walks in all weather, and discover the magic of living in tune with nature. You can even upgrade your daily routines to reflect the seasons.
83. Become a connoisseur. If there’s something you love (coffee, cheesy romance novels, heirloom tomatoes, tea, etc.), find a way to become more fluent in that topic.
84. Have a list of No’s. What’s the stuff you absolutely refuse to participate in? Maybe it’s workplace gossip, solving problems after 9pm, or loaning money to family.
85. Ditch the complicated holiday decor for simple and easy-to-store solutions. Tea towels and throw pillow cases with holiday designs are a personal favorite.
86. Pick one thing to stop doing forever. Always buying planners in the new year, but forget to use them by March? Give yourself permission to give it up entirely.
87. Rename your savings accounts. It’s a lot less tempting to pull money from your “Bougie Italy Trip” fund, than a random jumble of numbers.
88. Thank your home. Each time you leave your house or apartment, say out loud or in your mind, “thank you”. It not only boosts your good feelings toward your living space, you might be more motivated to complete the maintenance work that comes with home ownership.
89. Buy yourself a gift card. Struggle to do something kind for yourself when you really need it? Make a commitment to buy yourself a gift card for the services that make you feel your best. I do this with pedicures, and it has made it so much easier to say yes!
90. Search your email inbox for the word “unsubscribe” and then go through and purge yourself of those marketing emails.
91. Have a solo holiday. If the holidays are a stressful time filled with nosy relatives and eye-rolling conversation, pick another day to go it alone. Pick your favorite activities, food and drink, and indulge yourself. For instance, Christmas is a stressful and overstimulating time for me, so I celebrate Yule (December 21) all on my own.
92. Swap honey-do tasks with a friend. Does your bestie love painting, while you love reorganizing the pantry? Schedule a day to visit one another and swap those tasks you dread.
93. Pick a sustainable swap that makes sense for your lifestyle. A few years ago I started replace my plastic chip clips with some made of steel. Not only with they be far less likely to break, they hold a lot better too.
94. Have canned responses ready to go. If you find yourself responding to the same questions over and over, save a template to your computer of responses. Then you can copy, paste and customize.
95. Start a “In Case Emergency” binder at work. In it, outline tasks you regularly do, when, and instructions if the task is complicated/uses software others may not be familiar with. Not only does this help a colleague that might need to step in if you get sick, but it can also show your clueless boss just how much you’re managing day-to-day.
96. Keep a brain dump list next to your computer. If you have random thoughts throughout the day (“Call the plumber”, “find out what that sandwich was Julie had for lunch yesterday”, “return books to the library”), write them down on this list. Then spend 20 minutes at the end of each day to check off as much as you can.
97. Block out sensory distractions. My husband recently let me borrow his noise-cancelling headphones. Sorry, but these are mine now.
98. Do a 5 minute sweep each evening before bed. Set a timer on your phone (or play one of these songs) and do a quick tidy. Whatever isn’t picked up can be dealt with tomorrow.
99. Work with a therapist. If therapy is a challenge for your budget, or you don’t have insurance, check out Open Path Collective – they’re a nonprofit network of therapists that offer $40-70 sessions.
100. What’s the stuff you’re constantly forgetting? Pair the task with something you already have a strong habit of doing. For instance, if you’re always forgetting to take your medications, set your pill organizer next to the coffee pot so you see it each time you make your morning cup.
101. Revisit what felt like magic from your childhood. Take a pottery painting class, set up a bubble machine in your yard and draw with chalk on the driveway, or spend a Saturday morning watching cartoons while you eat cereal on the couch.

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Episode Transcript:

Welcome back to the Meadowsweet Money podcast! I’m Mimi Cirbusova, a Certified Financial Education Instructor and shame-free money mentor. This podcast is all about walking alongside you on your personal finance journey – because, like the old saying goes, if you want to go far, go together.

Side note: that quote is often cited as being an African proverb, but the origins of the phrase are actually pretty fuzzy. The meaning is awesome though.

I am here, recording and sharing this podcast because I believe personal finance is one of those things that we have been taught to be secretive about by systems that wish to oppress us. And my way of fighting back against those systems is sharing stories and ideas with you. Bringing the subject of money into the light. Money doesn’t have to be taboo or scary. And for something that touches pretty much every aspect of our lives, it really should not be.

Today we are talking about a topic that I think can be rather polarizing, and that is side hustles. Some folks say that everyone should be working and grinding your way to greatness. Then there’s folks that say side hustles are a scam. So I want to share a slightly different perspective as both a financial educator, and someone that owns multiple businesses and has had a few side hustles in their time.

Thanks for being here.

As I mentioned, I have a few ways that I personally make money – some more profitable than others. And on more than one occasion, I have been asked by friends to list all the, quote, “things I do” as they count along on their fingers. It’s just the reality of being a multipotentialite.

I’m going to share a few of those things here with you, but I also talk about what I’ve learned along the way.

Most of the time when I hear about someone wanting to pick up a side hustle, or find a way to make some extra money, it’s because there is pressure on their financial resources. They’re needing to pay down debt faster, or trying to save up money in a pinch, or they just aren’t making enough in their day job to meet all of their needs – which is a major problem of capitalism, and is a whole conversation for a future episode.

When we are looking at our financial resources – meaning, our income or other assets (like savings and investments), versus our financial obligations – like our debt and expenses, the goal is to have some kind of gap. Some breathing room, right? If we’re bringing in $3000 a month, but it costs us $3500 a month to live, well, then there’s a big problem. But if we’re bringing in $3000 a month, and it only costs $2700 a month to live, well, we’ve got $300 of breathing room. Which isn’t a whole lot, but it’s better than being in the negative.

The goal of side hustling, second jobs or gig work, or what have you, is to widen that gap by providing more income.

The alternative method of widening the gap would be to cut back on expenses, but the caveat is that there is only so much you can cut. Tightening our belts to the point we cut ourselves in half certainly isn’t an option. Obviously, today we’re going to be talking about making more money through side hustles, but I wanted to lay out the logic behind it.

Besides my business of Meadowsweet Money and providing workshops and mentoring and lots of other services as a financial educator, I have some other ways that I can bring in a little extra income.

The first being working as a dresser for our local union Opera for the months of February and March of each year. My job is to basically get opera singers in and out of costume, do some hand sewing if there are urgent repairs, and make sure everyone goes on stage looking like they should. This is a little side hustle I really love doing and I am great at it. It doesn’t make a ton of money, particularly if I only work a couple of shows, but I love it.

In 2023, I earned just over $2700 in this job, which sounds awesome! And it was great money. But this job also costs me money too.

To start, this job is at a union theater, which means I have to remain a member of the local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (also known as IATSE) to even be considered for the position. Power to the unions, by the way. Thankfully, that is only $20 a year to remain a member.

Now I am expected to come to the job with all black clothes – shirt, jeans or pant, and closed-toed shoes, all black – as well as a stocked apron of supplies that might be necessary to help me do my job, like scissors and a neck light (which is very handy when you’re trying to quickly close a row of snaps in the dark of the backstage).

To also do my job, I buy a parking pass for the public garage behind the Opera House, which makes it a lot cheaper than paying each night I’m there. So for two months of parking, that’s $40.

Then there’s little hidden costs. The gas to drive to-and-from the Opera House. Snacks to have on hand because a lot of performances go late into the evening past dinner time.

Then there’s the time tradeoff. While I’m working in the Opera, I can’t do anything else. I’m not working on my other businesses because I can’t be on my phone or my computer. Sometimes I’ll bring an embroidery project, but that’s for fun and to keep my hands busy while folks are on stage.

I should note here that if you’re thinking about starting a side hustle, especially if it takes you away from your home, you have to consider drive time as part of the costs of doing that job. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to get to our Opera House, plus another 5 minutes or so to get a parking spot and get into the building. Then the time it takes to get dressed and ready. It all adds up, and it’s all time I can’t dedicate to my primary source of income, which is Meadowsweet Money.

I love the work I do for the Opera House, but I need to be really clear about why I am sharing this with you. The fact is that it costs money to make money. Period. In this case, the amount I earn from this very seasonal side gig far exceeds the obvious and hidden costs of taking it on. But that’s not always the case.

Before you take on a side hustle, or try to start a side business, or whatever it is you want to do to increase your income, I want you to consider the following costs:

First, will you need to purchase a uniform or other clothing to do the job? Maybe you need to get new shoes or clothes that are workplace-appropriate.

Secondly, what about transportation? Will you be using public transit, a personal vehicle, or ride-sharing to get to and from this side hustle? You might need to think about the cost of gas, vehicle maintenance, and your time spent commuting.

Third, what about technology or equipment? When things shut down during the pandemic and my employer at the time moved us to nearly 100% work from home, suddenly I was using my personal cell phone to receive work calls. The internet and electricity my husband and I personally pay for became critical to my ability to do my job, and is critical now because I have a full-time, entrepreneurial, working from home situation.

Next, food costs are something else to consider. Schedule changes that impact your ability to cook at home, or losing precious time to prepare meals can negatively impact your grocery and take out budget. You might have to get creative about how to keep the costs of food down while earning more with a side hustle.

Also, consider the impact of your mental and physical wellbeing, and the costs of childcare or pet are.

And of course, you need to remember that everything you say “yes” to means saying “no” to something else. Opportunity cost is a real thing. The hours I spend at my side hustle means fewer hours working on my business or resting. The time I spend commuting means less time for working out, or spending time with my husband, or pursuing hobbies.

The point of this episode is not to bash side hustles or other means of earning a little extra income. What I really hope you get out of this episode is to help you weigh the cost of these income-boosting efforts with their benefits.

This is why knowing your real numbers is so very important. If you factor in all the costs, you might realize that the side hustle someone on social media is promoting as a quick way to bring in extra cash isn’t really worth it. Or you may realize you need to focus on negotiating more money at your day job, or it might be worth more to cut back on extra expenses.

At the end of the day, my friend, only you can know what’s right for you.

But part of that knowledge is being able to take off the blindfold and really look at the numbers. Being able to say, with confidence, that every dollar you earn in your side hustle is worth the energy and hours of your life that you are putting into it. It’s being confident that your side hustle is earning you more money than it’s costing you.

So that’s my take. If this resonated with you, please be sure to leave a review so other people can find this podcast. Not only would it mean the world to me, but it does actually people to see this show, and you know, get what they need out of it. I do read every review too, by the way.

Alright. We haven’t done an “Easier and Better” segment in a while, so let’s do that next. And stay tuned because at the end I’ve got a “Mindful Money Moment” for you.

This is the Easier and Better segment of the show, where I share something that is making my life easier and better, and you might enjoy it too.

It’s no secret that I love sending and receiving snail mail. I participate in something called Postcrossing, which is a very cool project where you can mail postcards to people all over the world and receive postcards in return. I also volunteer for Postcards to Voters, which is a cool grassroots organization that gets people like me to send friendly, pre-approved, handwritten reminders to targeted voters all over the United States. In 2022, I sent 350 postcards for that. I’m hoping to send 600 postcards to voters in 2024, so wish me luck.

Anyway, something that makes my life easier and better is the USPS “Informed Delivery” emails. This is not sponsored, I promise. I get a daily digest email every single morning that shows a little preview of the mail and packages that are scheduled to arrive in my mailbox. It’s really neat! The easiest way to sign up is by going to USPS.com and clicking on “Informed Delivery” at the top. It’s completely free too. Even Amazon or other packages that get sent using the postal service will show up. It’s really a great service.

Ok, I’m not going to geek out on you any more. Let’s get to our Mindful Money Moment.

How you doing, friend? Are your shoulders up by your ears? Let’s wiggle ’em out a little bit.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I talk a lot about regrettable and forgettable spending – the idea that if you’re going to cut back, it might as well be stuff you don’t actually care about, right? Cutting out the stuff that makes you think, “gosh, I wish I hadn’t spent money on that”, or “what on earth did I spend $170 on at Target?”

When we are first starting to address overspending, waking up to the areas that we tend to go overboard, I think it’s important to bring mindfulness practices into the mix. And one mindfulness strategy is that of spending speed bumps. These are questions that help us to slow down and make more conscious decisions in the moment.

The spending speed bump questions I’m going to share work really well if you have a tendency to overspend on tangible stuff. Things like clothes, home decor, makeup and skincare, craft supplies, online shopping…that kinda thing. In a future episode, I’ll be diving more deeply into dealing with hunger spending triggers, which I know many of us struggle with, including myself.

If you’re not sure what areas you tend to overspend on, there’s a couple ways to figure that out. The first, and most effective way, usually is the one people are most scared to do. And that’s going back and looking through your bank and credit card statements. Where are you making purchases, and how much are you spending? This isn’t to punish or embarrass you. The goal really is to get curious about where your money is going and flowing.

If the idea of going through your bank statements truly freaks you out much too much, don’t worry, I’ve got two more places you can look. First, walk around your home. Look through your drawers, cabinets, closet, vanity. Everywhere. What do you notice? Do you have a lot of duplicates of any items? Do you have a lot of unopened, or barely used products? Maybe it’s the box of nail polish where you used the colors once or twice and haven’t touched it again in well over a year. For me, it was the sunscreen graveyard.

The next place to look won’t apply to everyone, but if you do this, I bet you’re going to chuckle a bit when I say it. Look around at your doorknobs. If you have a shopping bag with the items you bought still inside and it’s hanging on a doorknob of your home… you need to look in that bag. It’s gonna give you a lot of information. Maybe you have craft supplies in there, or books, or goodies you picked up at the thrift store, or whatever. But, friend, I am telling you as someone that used to have the shopping bag on the doorknob – that bag is a strong indicator that you have some spending triggers you have not dealt with yet. It doesn’t make you a bad person; it just means you need to bring some new awareness to your shopping habits. By the way, if online shopping is more your thing, the boxes of stuff you still haven’t opened, or haven’t put the items where they belong in days or weeks prior might be your version of the shopping bag on the doorknob.

So what do we do? When you’re shopping, I want to get you to slow down and really think before just adding to cart – both in person and online. I’m really talking about unplanned purchases, but you can ask these questions about any purchase really. Here are four questions you can ask yourself to help you slow down and get mindful:

• Number one: Would I still want it if I had to wait until tomorrow to buy it? If you had to schlep yourself home, and then come back tomorrow, or remember to log back in to this website to finalize your purchase, would you still want or need this thing?
• Number two: Where will I put it when this item enters my home? Really think about this. Is there a place for this item to live once it gets through the front door? Are you willing and ready to find a dedicated space for this item to be if you don’t have a place for it already?
• Number three: Where will it be one year from now? Will it be in the landfill? Sitting in a drawer? Collecting dust on a shelf? Loved and used, and well-worn?
• Number Four: How many hours of my life does this cost? If you make $20 an hour, and that fancy face serum costs $80, well that is 4 hours of your working life to buy it. If that feels good, awesome. Go for it. But if it gives you pause, then maybe it’s time to take a step back.
• Number five: How does this purchase support my vision of a joyful and fulfilling life? This question obviously means having a clear vision of what makes you joyful and fulfilled, but I’m going to tell you now, this question made me realize that having a collection of fancy shoes I wore once or twice because they were gorgeous but hurt like hell to wear drastically changed my shoe-buying habits. Yes, I like wearing sexy heels, but I like my knees and my feet a whole lot more.

So there it is. Five questions you can ask before you make an unplanned purchase.

Remember, you’re asking these questions without judgment. They’re here to bring a new mindfulness to your spending. You can even write these on a sticky note and put it near your computer, or put it in your wallet.

Last thoughts on this. If you are really on the fence about an unplanned purchase…like, you are super tempted to buy it but it doesn’t really work with those questions, consider taking a picture of the item on your phone. I do recommend moving the object away to another shelf in the store, because product merchandisers spend a ton of time and energy grouping products together to make them more appealing to purchase. So if you see the cute candle on the shelf with all the other cute candles, move it over an aisle or two. This is a good way to help you be more objective.

I hope that was helpful for you. And remember my friend, you’re doing great and I am so proud of you. Until next time.