Making Financial Decisions For Future You

Welcome to the In Between Podcast.

I'm Astrid and I'm Alexis, and we're two best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between.

Hello friends and Welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. This is one of your hosts, Astrid.

And the other half, Alexis.

And today we're chatting about money. So it's the last episode of our discipline-themed month. So if you have been following along, we've done quite a few different aspects of physical, emotional, and then environmental discipline. And now we're wrapping up with our money. So all shopaholics, do not, do not close off from this podcast. We're right there with you, and we're gonna give you all the tips too.

You're in good company, okay? And I, as soon as you were like, we're gonna talk about money, I started smiling. Do you know what I'm gonna say? She take my dinero. Take my dinero.

Yes.

If you're a longtime stan of the pod, you will get that reference. And if not, welcome to the In Between Podcast. We like to have fun here. We like to talk about deep things. We like to talk about light things. So yeah, I'm excited to talk about money. But first, let's do a quick life update. What have you been up to the last week? You like— I feel like you shot so many photos. Ashford's a full-time photographer. I feel like you shot so many photos. How many photos do you think you shot in the last 7 to 10 days? Thousands? 10,000?

Oh, for sure. Probably, I'd probably say 7,000 because it wasn't full wedding. But it was like enough sessions where each session was about $1,000.

Girl.

So lots, lots of photos, lots of great things. It feels like fall season. It's supposed to be my slow season. Psych.

Psych.

Um, but yeah, I launched my team last week, had my team training. So that went absolutely amazing. It was very surreal to be in that moment, to have the girls together physically. There's something about just in person having the people that felt so different than being on Zoom with all of them and doing all the virtual things. So I'm so grateful for them. And then yeah, I work with the tourism board here locally. And so we had quite a few shoots lined up for different restaurants, different experiences, different festivals that they had going on. And it's so lovely. I absolutely love working with them 'cause it's full creative freedom. And so it's different than wedding days and I get to really just explore a different angle. So that has been really good. And life update, our Discipline series has really inspired me.

Ooh.

And so last week I created like a schedule of how to basically get my life back together in my house.

Okay.

And I just like, Went crazy on my laundry, on my room, my drawers, like my skincare, and started emptying stuff that I didn't need. And it just feels so freaking good.

I'm so proud of you.

Thank you.

Here on the pod, we practice what we preach.

Yes. Yes. We preach to ourselves and then we'll practice it. Exactly.

And then we'll tell you about how we practiced it. That's amazing. How are you feeling post-reset?

Like even just sitting down and getting all of that Honestly, I'm realizing that a lot of the things that I procrastinated on because I was like, I have no time, took me way less time than I expected.

What?

What I did was one night I did the timer thing that we talked about and I was like, I'm just going to go for 30 minutes because I was like, that's all I've got. I did 30 minutes and then my adrenaline was pumping and then I just didn't reset it for another 30 minutes and I got my whole house together in an hour.

Oh my God.

And I've been dreading most of those things for the longest time.

Imagine if you did that on a weekly basis. You did like a 30-minute, a 45-minute timer. That's amazing. I'm proud of you.

Thank you. And I just feel overall so much peaceful. Yeah, because my environment— like, my car is very clean, my room is clean. So when I step in there in the morning and at night, it feels peaceful. So I will continue to habit stack and just do a few minutes Every day and every week.

You go, queen. Pop off.

Thanks. What has been up in your life this past week?

Oh, well, um, it's been a very busy June. I have been just gone every weekend, and this past weekend I was in Knoxville at a conference with my mom. I am a coach. I'm a— I am not a full-time coach, um, but that is my, my day, my, um, side hustle. I'm a confidence coach. And my mom got her coaching certification like 2 years ago. And she went through this like life mentoring school through this woman named Edie Wadsworth. And she did her membership first and then ended up doing her like certified coaching certification program. I said certified twice, whatever. But she hosts these live events once a year. And so my mom was going to go meet with a bunch of like her coaching friends. And it's cool to have this like, my mom's a coach. And I'm a coach, and so she really wanted me to go, and it was really cool to meet a lot of her friends and just like have a fun weekend in Knoxville. So that was fun. I was really proud of myself. I like stayed consistent with my movement goals as well as like when you're traveling and you're especially at a conference, sometimes they don't always have like the best nutritious food options. But I actually came home feeling really good about like. I didn't. I don't feel off track. The only thing in my life right now that feels off track is like my energy. Like my energy is so low, and when my energy is low, I am more irritable. And so Matthew and I like sat down yesterday. We actually had the day together before jumping into the work week, and like I just talked about how I can better manage my stress and better manage my energy so that I you know. I'm not such a little Krabby Patty.

I'm curious, did you come up with that conversation or did Matthew ask that question?

I actually brought it to him because I feel like even though people that are really close to me can obviously tell when things are off, I also think I'm unfortunately really good at hiding it as well. I'm hiding the severity of it. Like, you might pick up on things being off with me, but you might not know the full extent to things being off.

Right.

So we had like such a good conversation at lunch and like just talking through it. And I feel so much better now that he knows like where I've been mentally and just feeling very exhausted and feeling very stressed and wanting to find a level of peace again through that. That was really helpful to just talk to him about it and come up with some systems. Like, here's some things that we're going to cut or cancel or reschedule so that we can have a little bit more margin and find that slow peace again. So that was helpful too. If you're feeling stressed, what can you cut? What can you cancel? And what can you reschedule?

I needed this conversation last week. Still a little bit this week. That's why I was asking, because I think that is such an incredible tip of talking with someone. And also our partners or the people closest to us, our roommates, can usually get kind of the burnt end of things. You know, when we're irritable, when we're stressed out, and it's just like you lash out at the smallest things. And I felt myself in that pattern last week, and I had to kind of take a second and be like, okay, like, this is not their fault that I overcommitted. It is my responsibility. So now I can't just lash out at the smallest thing. So asking for space, asking for those things. But I love learning from you in that sense of proactively before jumping into a busy week. Can we chat through things that we need to stop doing? Can we reschedule? Or how are we going to reduce the stress of that busy week?

Yeah.

So yeah, amazing all around. I'm so proud of you and this past week that you've had. You've been busy, busy, and I hope that Yeah, are you staying home for 4th of July?

No, uh, sort of. We're going to Arkansas this upcoming weekend. Matthew's, um, last living grandparent passed away. Yeah, I'm so sorry. Mom's dad. And he was very, very— like, Matthew and him were very, very close. So it's just been, you know, a hard couple of months for the family. And so they actually did a delayed memorial service. So we have his memorial service and celebration of life this weekend in Arkansas. So like the whole family, and then we come back on Sunday and then Matthew leaves for Wyoming for like a week and a half. So it'll just be me here, which oddly enough, I'm like, maybe this is when I'll write— finish the first draft of the book.

Oh yeah.

I'm like, Matthew's gone. Like, I don't have any— not that he's a distraction, but I'm like, it's just me. Like, what, what else can I— what excuses can I pull out of thin air?

Well, and then, you know, having a partner, you have quality time a lot. You go on dates, you do things together. And so not having that in the week, you're able to kind of get quite a few hours back, um, to recoup. So I'm excited. I love writer Alexis. Every time you tell me that you're writing, I don't know why I picture you in this like Grand vintage studio, kind of like that bar, that hotel cocktail bar that you took us to in Paris. Yes, I picture you there writing.

It's like the bibliothèque.

Bibliothèque.

Yes, yes, I love that. One day at a time with the book, but feeling good about it. What are you in between right now?

Oh yes, I genuinely forgot that we still needed to do that. I was about to jump into the theme.

If you're new to the pod, we always start off by like Doing a little life update and then doing a what we're in between right now.

So we're always in the messy middle of something. I am in between making different choices from my past self or even present self to my future self. And so I'm really focusing on what is the most ideal version of me? What is it that I aspire to be? And I feel like there can be so much tension whenever we know what we want, but we're acting in a different way. And so even cleaning up my house, I am actually a very organized person and have lots of systems. And if you jump into my Asana project manager for work, it's like everything's very organized. So I was having that tension of like, well, my home isn't reflecting that. And so creating that discipline of, okay, that is who I am. I am not a disorganized person.

Mm-hmm.

How do we get there? And even in like social situations, how do we navigate these hard conversations and setting boundaries? It's less about who I am right now or who I was and more of who do I want to be? I want to be someone that takes up space. I want to be someone that is kind. I want to be someone that I can just have a clear air with everyone or mostly everyone, or just have peace about not having that.

Right.

And so I think that I am just being more mindful of each interaction that I have. each habit, each little thing that takes up my life and auditing it and wondering, is that really how I want to spend my time? Is that really who I want to hang out with? Who do I want to hang out with? How do we do that? And so going in that direction. So I think a past version of me, this whole process would've been very exhausting to go through. But now I feel like I've built up my strength mentally that I can walk myself through that in different scenarios and I'm able to act in that. So yeah, so I've been just navigating that the past few weeks and it's felt really good to wrap up the month and feeling like I've been acting not perfectly, but definitely towards the path of who I want to become.

I love that. Honestly, same. I feel like we're both in similar stages in different ways, but we're both in a place right now where we have enough awareness and enough clarity of what we actually want that we're starting to chip away at the change.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that's the in-between right now for me is how can I make this a fun process? Because I am an 8 on the Enneagram with a wing 7. And if you're studying the Enneagram, the 8 is the challenger and the 7 is the enthusiast. And the enthusiast likes to have fun. And the challenger is very serious too. So it's interesting, the dichotomy of my personality at times. But I'm bringing this up because I know that if I walk into a big change or a big shift that I'm trying to bring into my life, And there isn't an element of fun, of good energy, like I'm not going to do it. And if I— I might do it once, but I won't repeat it.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm trying to find a way to like look at these changes that I need to make in my business and find ways to bring fun and play and like good energy into it so that it doesn't seem so like, one, life or death, because I can very much make like extremities. Okay, we got to do it this way or no way. It's all in or we're all out. And that's really tough. Like, that's tough for us to abide by that expectation. And then also, like, how can I do this consistently? How can I, like, show up in this way more consistently? And if I'm not having a good time, not that everything has to be fun, I'm not trying to, like, you know, romanticize every single little thing, but I do think that it can make change more enticing if we're like— whenever I wanted to go to the gym more, I was like, okay, I'm going to get a Fabletics membership and I'm going to go to Old Navy and I'm going to find some cute, colorful, fun matching sets that I feel good in. And even though it's going to be hard, I'm going to bring an element of fun into this process. So I'm going to wear a fun outfit. Or like, okay, I'm going to meal prep. When I first started meal prepping, it's like, how can I make this fun? I would pull up a show and watch a show, a funny movie, or listen to a good podcast while I was cooking. Because I'm like, I'm learning how to do this for the first time. How can I make this enjoyable? So I'm kind of in the messy middle of trying to figure out how to apply that to some of the business stuff too.

Oh my gosh. I love that so much because I think too, an aspect of it, At least for me, it's been looking back of where I've been before, and like I would have traded anything to not be you know in that position and then be where I'm at now. But now when I'm in there, I'm like, oh, I'm so stressed. I've got all this stuff going on, blah blah blah blah. And then whenever I'm like, actually, like this is this is what I used to do with my free time. This is what I chose as my hobby. It's gonna it's able to like shift that into okay, this is fun, and we're able to calm that down. And also it's okay to not have it figured out. Like, I, even with the associate training program last week launching that, I respect the women that are there so much and I think they're so much talented than me. And so for a while that held me back from launching it because I was like, what if I have this program to train them? But then the training, they're like, um, okay, we've learned this like 20,000 years ago. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a flop.

Mm-hmm.

And I was like, whatever, I'm just gonna do it. It's just, just one training out of however many we're going to have. And then all of them were just so complimentary at the end of it of how much they loved and they learned. I taught them certain tricks. I was like, okay, we were in our head about it.

Yeah.

But I loved so much being able to bring that lighthearted funness into the serious things that we're planning in our life and being intentional about and being like, okay, we chose this life and this is a part of the life that we want in the future. So, being able to have those fun things is amazing. And, I love that that's what we're in between because that goes so well with our topic for today and theme for the month of how to make discipline fun too.

Yeah, because discipline, we've talked about it already, but it can sometimes feel like a dirty word. I'm like, I don't like this. Discipline is like, it can feel very harsh. And so, it's like, how do we reframe the mindset around it? So yeah, great segue into today's topic around financial discipline. You and I have talked a decent amount on the podcast about money and money mindset and things like that, but we've never necessarily taken it through the lens of discipline and money together. So I'm excited to talk about this with you. First, let's do a— let's set the stage of—

Set the scene.

Set the scene. All right. Ready? Open curtain. What is your relationship with money?

Right now?

Yeah. Right now.

Okay. I would say—

Not even past you. Literally just you right now.

I would say my relationship with money right now is really healthy. And it is looking at money as an investment. So Whether I'm investing in entertainment, I'm investing in a relationship or a connection, I'm investing in my wellbeing and my nutrition and my health or whatever it may be. It's an investment. So whenever I'm able to look at it that way, I'm like, okay, is this vacation worth it? Yes. That falls in the entertainment category and I've been wanting to do that for a really long time. Or it's taking a bit too much of that bucket for many months. And so we need to balance it out with everything else.

Yeah.

And so I think my money mindset has shifted from lacking and I'm going to run out to now I have this limited amount of money. And so how can I invest it in things that are important to me? And so that shifts every year, what's important to me and what I want to work towards. What are you, what are you at right now with your money mindset or relationship with money?

Yeah. I'm definitely certainly more mindful of it than I think I've ever been. I feel like my relationship with money has continually month over month, year over year gotten more and more healthy. I love your framing around it as like, this money, I'm using it to invest in these different buckets of my life. I also think that over the last couple of months, Matthew and I have kind of stepped back and look at the larger vision of our life? Like, what do we want? What do we actually deeply want but think we can't have? Why do we think we can't have it? Like, what's that narrative? And so it's like looking kind of deeper into the life that we're building. Or what do we think that we should want but we actually don't want? And and how money actually plays a really big role into that. So if we want to grow the real estate side of business, like here's how much capital we actually need in order for us to do that. Well, we don't have seventy thousand dollars just sitting in a in an investment account somewhere. You know, aside from like four one Ks and things like that. But I'm saying like okay, so that changes the way that we're able to show up in our real estate goals right now. Or we shift and do creative financing, or we find other ways to get involved where we don't have to have like such a large amount of capital. Or, you know, with my side hustle and my daytime salary, in like full transparency, okay, I have my set day job salary, and then I have my income I'm making from my coaching business every month. What would it look like to double what I'm making in my coaching business to get it a little bit closer to what I'm making in my full-time job, what can I do with that money then? So I feel like before, money was used as a tool to get me mostly travel experiences, clothes, things that brought me joy. And I actually feel like my mindset around money has shifted to how can I live with what I have now in gratitude? And not actually feel like I need anything else material-wise so that I can use this money for the future that I'm trying to build.

Yeah.

Which is a big— I mean, you've known me for a while. That's a big shift from how I used to think about money. And so that requires a certain level of discipline and I'm definitely not perfect, but I am shifting towards that future money mindset of like, how can my money work for future me today?

Yeah, absolutely. I love that perspective so much. I feel like that has also been a huge breakthrough for me of even when you start making your quote unquote big girl money, you're like, oh my gosh, now I can buy all the things that my parents told me I couldn't, or the things that I wanted in college and I couldn't afford. And it's right there. And I only need this much, so I have all this much extra. And so I think that even when you get disciplined about your money and you're saving and you have a budget and all these things, there's a huge difference from lacking or having vision with your money to just living day by day with it, even if you are being responsible. And so I think that money is such a tool. And when we shift from it just being a thing in our lives that pays for the bills to it being a tool to obtain the life that we want, and that it truly is a privilege and it truly brings freedom. If you want to stay home with your kids more in the future, you need money to be able to do that because you still got to pay for your bills.

Right.

And so I love whenever we can start dreaming and start thinking about Okay, what do I like? What would be my wildest dreams as 50-year-old Astrid or 40-year-old Astrid? And then starting to backtrack from that and being like, well, can I make that happen? And if so, what do I need to sacrifice for it? And I feel like that has been the biggest difference in my financial discipline journey. And maybe you feel the same way is when you look at that big picture and you break it down and then you're saving every month for it. You're thinking, or at least for me, I was like, I'm thinking about that beach house that I want when I'm older. And so it's like, it's worth it. And it actually has held me back from spending on clothes. And before it was just like, it's just, oh, I have all these savings. I've done such a good job at saving. I deserve a new outfit. Like, why not? So it's just wild how our mindset can impact our relationship with money.

I know. It's like, oh, I've been so good with my money lately. Let me go spend it.

Let me just spend it all.

Let's go spend it all right now. Yeah. It's such a mindset trip. So something that has shifted for me is— so, okay, let me actually step back. So something that has helped me reframe my money mindset is I went to Europe last summer, like late summer, early fall. And I came back from Europe and we budgeted for part of it. And a lot of it we just paid out of pocket. Like while we were there, we were just like buying things, food, experiences, things like that. And I came back from that trip and I was like, wow, okay, we spent X dollars. We, I actually like, we need to reassess a budget and I need to reassess a budget out of my personal spending. So how Matthew and I have sectioned out our finances is 70% of our paycheck goes into the family account where we have a joint family account. And then 30% of our paycheck goes into our individual accounts.

Hmm.

From our family account is where we're paying for all of our family expenses and then family spending. And then out of our personal accounts is where we purchase things like Clothes, trips with our friends, things that we want, that we want to feel like we can just do whatever we want with that money. And I like that. And it's worked for us. That's how we set it up when we got married almost 4 years ago. So with that context, I was like, okay, here's where we are with family spending. Here's where we are with personal spending. I came back and in September I was like, I'm doing a no spend because I felt like I needed to shop for that trip. And I wanted all my outfits because I wanted all my content to look good. And I needed, like, I needed quote unquote new clothes for that that trip. And when I came home, I was like, wow, okay, not only did the trip cost me X, but planning for the trip and the clothes cost me X. So all that to say, I came back and did my very first no-spend September of 2022. And what I did is I went and I audited how much money I was spending in these different categories. And I saw that the categories where I was the most frivolous were clothing, accessories, and subscriptions, like personal subscriptions where I was paying for different boxes or Fabletics and things like that. So I audited all those subscriptions and cut back on things that only I actually need and use, like my ritual supplements. I'm going to pay for my supplements every month because they make me happy and it's good for my body. But I'm at a place with my Fabletics where I don't really need any new workout clothes. I'm good. The fitness closet Is full. With that said, I have now done 3 or 4 no-spends in the last like 8 to 9 months. And that has really helped me reframe the way that I'm buying things. So for you, like when you're thinking about implementing more discipline into your spending, we've kind of touched on like having a future, having a vision, But how does that break down into practicality? How do you practically not online shop? Or how do you practically— you see someone like, I like that outfit. I do have that event or wedding coming up. You click on the link, it opens up and you're like, I could probably add this to cart. How do you practically— what goes through your mind whenever you're trying to avoid that?

Oh, honestly, I think what's worked for me is I can't just say no. There needs to be a why am I saying no to this purchase? Because if it's just a no, I'm, I'm a marketer. I'll find a way to like fix, make it work in my brain about, you know, just like justifying it. Like, I can totally justify this purchase in some way. Like, um, we got a team shoot. Hey, I don't have to get it, spend it from my personal account, but I can buy it from the business because it's for a team shoot.

Right.

Like any kind of thing like that. I will find a way. And so knowing my tendencies, I have to have a why behind it. So if I say, okay, I really want to take a fun trip for my birthday, um, this year. So if I want to do that, this is about how much I've spent in past birthday trips. Then if I break it down, it's X amount per month. And so that's what I'm saving for. And so whenever I create my budget and I can see like That extra money that's supposed to go into not savings, but like that, you know, it doesn't go into your main expenses. I actually attribute it to fun things in the future. And I break down my savings account into other things. So my main savings is there. And then after that, I'll say, okay, shopping, X amount, and then a trip, X amount, and dates, X amount. And so then I can spend all my shopping this month, or I can save for one fun thing that I want later on. And so that's something new that I've been trying. But again, whenever I can have a why and a motivation of what's coming in the future and what I'm saving for, that has helped me. And honestly, like messing up before and having that regret of, oh my gosh, I just spent $1,000 on clothes for this trip that I'm probably not gonna wear that much again, if maybe like 2 more times. And then afterwards I'm like, that was not smart, Astrid. That is a lot of hours of work. And whenever you break it down per hours of work, it's like, was that really worth X amount of hours of my time for that one item of clothing that I wore for 1 hour for 2 pictures? No, right?

Yeah.

So I kind of talk myself through that. And those feelings that I've had in the past from making that mistake motivates me enough to be like, I don't want to feel like that again.

Mm-hmm.

And so now it's like, okay, well, if I budgeted for it and I have a fun budget and I want to splurge on a fun item, there's guilt-free. It's not about not shopping and it's not about not doing fun things. It's just let's plan for it. And then whenever you feel like things kind of have their own place, Then we're less guilty because we know everything else is covered as well. So that has really helped me.

Uh-huh. 2 things came up for me. One of them being like, try to recognize your tendencies for why you're online shopping too. Like sometimes we're jumping to online shopping or just consuming things in general Because we're bored, because we're numbing out, because we're trying to find a feeling through buying something. So we're stressed, we online shop. We're anxious or we're planning for this trip and we have to have everything just perfect and we need this new brand new perfect dress. Like, do we actually need that or is that just like what our brain or our circumstances are telling us? So something that's helped me is I don't have any of my payment options linked to my phone.

Hmm.

So I might find something cute from TikTok and go to someone's like, you know, like to know it and find this cute dress. I'll screenshot it. But guess what? I never really return to my screenshots. There's so many, there's an infinite amount of things that you can go out there and buy. I don't need that one thing. So I'll screenshot it and I'm like, oh, if I care enough about it, I'll go back to it. But I just delinked like Apple Pay and things like that. So If there really is something that comes up online and I really do like it or need it and it's filling this gap in my wardrobe that I've like, oh yeah, I've really been wanting— like right now I'm looking for a black skort. I'm looking for like the perfect black skort. So I'm not buying it. I'm not buying black shorts or a black skirt. It's like, okay, I'm looking for this. So if I find it, cool, great. Like we know that we're looking for that right now. And I'll have to physically get up. And go get my purse downstairs and like physically type it in. And there's something about that for me that helps. So find out what that is for you. Like, what's that discipline lever of let's put some boundaries around our spending that will make us kind of stop, pause, and be like, okay, do I need this?

Yeah.

Another thing that I recognize myself, and it's a, it's something I like, But something I need to reel in is like, I want to buy things for other people. I'm in a season of my life where like, I want to surprise you by taking care of dinner. I want to like, you know, oh, my brother liked this shirt and he didn't get it. I'm going to go back. I'm going to buy that shirt for him. And like, I like that about me. And sometimes it can get a little out of hand.

Yeah. It can get a little out of hand.

So I'm trying to put some boundaries around that. I haven't figured that out yet, but that's something I'm working on right now is the financial discipline around the gifting of things. It's like, okay, I'm thankful that I'm in a financial position where I can do that, but also there has to be some limitations to that too.

You bring up such a great point of depending on where you're at in your finances, it's okay to set boundaries. I mean, you're gift giving, so it's different, but that triggered my thought on Birthdays and holidays and Mother's Day and Father's Day, and you have 20 nieces and nephews and you have to get something for each of their birthdays. And that was something in my life that whenever I was in a strict budgeting season that like I really needed to measure out all my resources, I just had to say, I'm sorry, I'm not giving anyone gifts this year. And I love you. I'll spend time with you. We'll do something on a smaller scale. But this year I just can't. And I was paying for college at the time, so it's just not possible. So sometimes creating those boundaries too financially with friends, with people, with your family can be so hard, but having that discipline is important. And something else that has helped me is tracking all my expenses. I would underestimate how much I would spend on food and on eating out. So much. And then I still have to go back and track all of it and be like, oh my gosh, what the heck? I'm already close to $500 on eating out for this month. Okay, well now I'm gonna not drink, or I'm not gonna order appetizers next time. I'm gonna be more mindful of what I'm ordering. But for a long time there, I would never look at the price of food, look at the price of things. And that sounds very privileged, and it is.

Yeah.

And also, I feel like even if you're not in a season where money is lacking, we have a responsibility to steward our money at whatever level you're at. It's a resource. It's our time turned into a resource. And whenever we look at it time-wise, that's something one of my brothers did was like, okay, is that worth your 5 hours of work?

Yeah.

You really want it that bad? Or if it's worth it, great. But 5 hours of your time or it's a whole workday or a whole week of your work. Is that worth it? So for me, tracking all my expenses and seeing how they start adding up throughout the month is so useful. And then I'm able to adjust for the rest of the month. I might choose to meal prep something that's a little bit more inexpensive compared to chicken instead of shrimp type of thing, and then adjust to try to meet my goals as well. Yeah. Going back to your no spend, I meant to ask you this question. Like you went from a month of spending quite a bit to, oh my gosh, I need to do a no spend. How was that? And also like what helped you stay on track with it? Like, was it just pure discipline and like I promise this to myself or like what?

You know, it just came up for me was like, It's 5% pleasure, 50% pain, and 100% reason to remember the name.

That's amazing.

That's like pure concentrated power of will.

Yes.

Anyways.

I love that. She listened to that every morning as an affirmation.

That's how I started my morning. No, I think what I like about no spends is pick categories that cause you a lot of resistance. Like you recognize there is an emotional connection to the way that you're spending your money there. I'm personally never going to do a no spend on eating out. Matthew and I love to try different restaurants. We have pared back the type of restaurants that we're eating at and the amount of times that we're eating out every month, but we are still going to prioritize that. So that's never to me going to be like a no spend. Whereas Clothes and accessories and skincare are going to be like, those are going to be no-spend categories. So things that helped me, especially last fall when I did it for the very first time, it was very, very hard. I would, one, try to limit my amount of time on social media because social media is connected to consumption. Like no matter which way we go about it, social media is tied to our financial consumption. And so I tried to limit the amount of time I was on social media. I also implemented like the screenshot add to folder. So, hey, you know what? We're not buying this right now, but if we want to revisit this and it really is something that we want in the future, it's not a no forever. It's just a no for this month. And then if I would go back and look at the screenshots, sometimes I'd be like, I don't even like that.

Hmm.

Why did I— I don't need that. I don't even like it. And then I shared it on social media. And I find a lot of personal accountability through social sharing. So when I'm sharing that I'm doing a no-spend this month, I also tried doing a Dry June. It did not work. And I was honest about that.

Mm-hmm.

But my no-spend has stuck. I'm like, okay, I didn't spend anything on clothes or accessories this month. And that feels so good. So I'm like, I like being able to share that with my community as well and find a sense of pride in that. But I found a lot of, and I already said this, but a lot of my spending was tied to how I was doing emotionally.

Mm-hmm.

And so another tool that helped me with my financial discipline and still does is journaling and looking at what I already have and being like, okay, is this actually something I need? So for example, a car. We haven't talked about this yet.

Are you buying a car?

I'm not.

Okay. Shifting. Okay.

Shifting. So I started this year, I was like, I want a new car and I want a luxury vehicle, period. Which is fine. It's fine if you want a luxury car. And that's been a big goal of mine for the majority of my 20s. My car, Cecilia, turns 10 this August. So she's coming up on her decade around the sun.

Yeah.

And I'm proud of her. But we still have Matthew's truck payment. And we're like, do we really need 2 car payments on top of a mortgage right now? Whenever we have these other financial goals that we're trying to hit and other things we're saving for. Investing in? Like, do we really want to pay $1,000 a month on just car payments?

No.

You know, plus like student loans and things like that. So we really started to look at like what our fixed costs would be when we're looking at making a big purchase like that. So what we've decided is one, still having a savings goal, seeing if we could potentially save over the next like year or two. And buy a vehicle in cash or buy like 70% of it in cash and then have a much lower monthly payment or wait 2 and a half more years and then Matthew's truck payment is done and then I get a new vehicle and then we have one payment again.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, I think like I liked the idea of a new car.

Yeah.

And I liked, like, I'm at this stage in my career and at this stage in my life where like, I want a new car. I don't want to drive this Toyota RAV4, which is ego coming in too. So it's, I don't know, I've like shifted my perspective on how I want that money to work for me. And I don't think it's a car right now. And she's doing great. We just changed out her battery and, you know, she's doing awesome.

She has a new heart.

She has a new heart and soul. She's good for another couple of years. So it's like, Is it necessary? I think that's another thing, like when you're looking at finances is like, is this necessary?

Yeah. And I think that's such a powerful side of budgeting where when you start the practice and the habit of budgeting, then you start looking at each area and you say, okay, is this necessary to my life? Is this adding to it? Is this something that I want to continue having? And it's a constant thing of adjusting. So I think a lot of people will start budgeting and then they don't make that month. And they like fall and get discouraged, just like our movement practices. But the main thing is we're recognizing patterns. We're recognizing where we're spending our money and we're like, okay, I didn't realize that I spend this much more on eating out. So I'm going to adjust my budget if that's important to me or pivot for next month. And so I think that as we do that, we're able to get to those points of you might have been saving for this big thing that you want. And then you decide you want something different, but you've been saving for it. And that's lovely. Now you can move your resources to whatever's important to you in that season too. So yeah.

Agreed. I think it's like what I'm hearing as a common thread in this is don't be afraid to have financial visibility. Like go look at your finances, whether that be daily, weekly, every other week, like I think it's— when we take our finger off the pulse of our spending, it's difficult to know where we're overspending, where we're overextending ourselves. And there's nothing worse, and I've done this time and time again, than getting to the end of the month and being like, oh no, I overspent.

Mm-hmm.

But it's like, okay, well, what if I would have done weekly check-ins along the way to be able to course correct through my budget for the month? And that's something that Matthew and I have been doing more often. But just a tip, like, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to just like look at that bank account, check in with yourself however many times is like healthy for you. But I think when we avoid it, it's difficult for us to get ahead and actually start building new disciplines and systems with our money.

Absolutely. And we love a reward system too. I feel like looping it all back into your in-between from the start of the episode is How can you make it fun? How can you make it rewarding? How are you saving for something that you're excited for, or just a big goal that you're excited to celebrate and pay off something that's big on your list? So being able to shift our mindset from, you know, financial discipline is absolutely stripping us from freedom to it's actually creating that freedom. So hopefully you have enjoyed this financial discipline episode and our entire discipline series. We are so, so grateful for each one of you and your feedback and the lovely messages that we get. So if you have been loving the pod, please make sure to leave us a review on Spotify or Apple or wherever it is that you're listening. We greatly appreciate those. And you can always connect with us on Instagram @inbetween.pod or myself @astridreyes— or sorry, @astridjohannaphoto.

There's that too.

There's my personal IG too. I post there like once in a blue moon.

Yes, we love, we love both Instagrams. Um, or you can follow me or connect with me at Alexis Teichmiller. Thank you so much for being here. We're excited about the community that we're building. We love you and we'll see you next week.