Budgeting with ADHD: Why Complex Systems Drain You (And What Works Instead) | 115

If your money management system feels like it's complicated and something that you don't even want to get into because it's like untangling that necklace that's been sitting in your jewelry box, it's already broken. So today I want to talk about some ways to simplify our money management so that it's easier for us to see when things might not be working out, our plan might not be working out the way we want it to. That we can do some things that will allow our brains to just take a sigh of relief and make it simple.

Make it simple, make it simple, make it simple. So maybe your money management system, right now you have a ton of accounts, you're moving money from different places just to make sure that you have enough in this account and enough in that account. So when that auto pay comes through and all these things and you're just juggling money all over the place, or maybe you have two 3-4 different apps that you're tracking your money in. Or maybe if you look at your app or your categories, if you use a spreadsheet or whatever and you have too many, maybe it's best to simplify those.

When it comes to the categories for myself, I like to have them all out there. That part doesn't overwhelm me, but you have to do what works for you. One of the things that's really easy for that has made things easier for us is to have a few accounts set up. And I'm not talking about like a ton of accounts. I'm just talking ones that help us protect our money but also protect our money from ourselves. So what I mean by that is we have our bill pay account that all of our bills come out of and that's tied to our debit card because our family doesn't use credit cards.

And then we have our savings account which has that small emergency fund. But now that we've paid off all of our debt, it is that three to six months savings account. So we have that set up. And then we have another account that my husband uses for his stuff. And so we have that system set up because it allows everyone to stay in their lane. It allows us also to make those make it so that we don't we have access to that money, but not so it's not so simple that I'm swiping my debit card and I'm out and the next thing I know, I have, you know, spent our mortgage on some new clothes or something like that.

Like that money is separated because that is for our bills. So having, you know, having a very simple account system, having multiple accounts is fine, but having maybe if you have 567 accounts and it just feels chaotic for you, maybe your action step today is to simplify and consolidate some of those accounts and move that money to a spot where it's going to be easier for you to manage. Now, another thing that I love to do when it comes to simplifying the money is that budget is like that's like the right or die.

Because when I make those decisions at the beginning of the month or the month before, as we do in the membership is we come together and we make those decisions for our family the month before. So we're as I'm recording this, this is May. So towards the end of May, we're going to be planning June's budget. And so it helps me, I look at our month and I say, hey, what's coming up that I can pre plan for within our budget. And I look at that I'm going to be spending and then I can decide ahead of time so that when those requests come up, I know, OK, this is part of our plan.

And if those requests come up and it wasn't planned, then I can make that decision between my husband and I. We can say, hey, is this going to help us get us closer to our goals? And if it's not, then we can say no. And it allows me to follow through better with the budget and the things that I have set up for our family so that we can say yes to things that we want to, but also give us that freedom to say, you know what, this is more important to our family this month if you want to be a part of that.

Right now, we are in the middle of the summer savings challenge. You can find more at debtrebelpodcast.com if you want to jump in on that. And we, if you sign up for the VIP pass, you're going to get an opportunity to join me for that session where we just plan out the money for the following month. It's a body doubling type session. I talked about a few of the things at the very beginning that sometimes we forget for the month of June, you know, that's Father's Day and then there's graduations and we think through some of those things that just can pop up.

So if you want to learn more about that, hop on my website debtrebelpodcast.com. The other thing is when we simplify our money and we don't have to think about it necessarily on a daily basis, then that's going to give us some more peace. But it's also going to give us that confidence that our bills are paid on time. It is allowing us to have a little bit more peace and a repeatable system so that we don't feel like we're just constantly in the state of anxiety of is there enough in there? And so that's why I so love teaching budgeting because that is our road map.

That's your guide for how you're going to spend your money for the month. And then also helps you have the confidence to say, Hey, these things align with my goals for my family this month. And this is how this is how we're going to choose to spend our money. So again, if you have lots of accounts set up and things just feel kind of chaotic, let's evaluate what you have and see if some of those things just need to be consolidated or brought into maybe one, one account. So if you've got multiple accounts, different places that you have, I got a savings account here and I got a savings account there.

What if you put those all together and then you had I do highly recommend keeping your bills, your account for that you pay your bills out of separate from from any kind of, you know, additional spending so that you're not tempted to spend that money that's in there that's supposed to pay for, you know, water and that kind of stuff to keep the lights on for your family. And then that's going to allow you to feel confident to spend money the way that works best for you. So I hope that this episode was helpful for you.

And absolutely, I would love to see you at the challenge debt rebelpodcast.com. You can join us there. It's going till the end of May and it's gonna give you some quick action steps to take to help set this stuff up for you, but also find some money that might be hiding from you. So there's some there's some good stuff in there. I hope to see you inside the challenge talk soon. Thank you for tuning into the Debt Rebel show today. Ready to take your family budgeting to the next level? Stop that paycheck to paycheck grind and start living debt free.

Head over to my website, debtrebelpodcast.com. That's DEBTRE delpodcast.com to grab resources, tools and tips to make it happen. And don't forget, subscribe, leave a review. And if you know another family that will love hearing today's episode, it would be such a gift for both of us, your friend and me. If you share this episode and remember your debt free life starts with one brave step and I'm cheering you on every step of the way. We'll talk soon. Debt Rebel.

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