Transcription
So, what's going on over there? You just paid the minimum on your card and you need that to hurry up and clear because you need to put some gas into your car, your paycheck that you're about to get. You already know where all of it is going and there's actually a little bit more that needs to be paid, but those things are just going to have to wait until your next paycheck.
Do you feel like you just don't know how to get out of this cycle that you ended up in? Maybe you had a medical emergency or a house or car repair came up, maybe even a job loss. Whatever it is or was, you could use some help. Yeah. Well, welcome. Because showing beginners how to save their money and start paying off their debt, that's exactly what I do here.
Do you know why you feel stuck? Because paying off debt seems utterly impossible to you and you don't know which way is up anymore. Someone recently told you, "Just start saving your money." What money? And another person said, "Just write down a budget." No, thank you. That sounds awful. We just seem to associate saving our money with pure misery, don't we?
But here I show you that that doesn't necessarily have to be entirely true. I mean, if you want it to be, then you're right. But if you want to see a completely different way, a way that got me out of $300,000 of debt, and more importantly, it keeps me out of it. A way that has taught my husband and myself very clearly, by the way, that it has nothing to do with how much money you make. It's what you do with it. Then keep watching because I found a way that actually makes me want to save my money.
Is this going to be work? Yep. Is it gonna take up your time? Actually, a pretty good chunk of it at first. Is it tedious? Oh, come on. You know, it is. Anything that is going to be worth anything in the end is not going to come easy or I don't know. We'd all be debt-free and have plenty of money, right? I always like to ask people, how much time did you spend at work to make that money? Now, I want to ask you, how much time have you spent paying attention to where it goes? Jeez, Jen, why you got to do me like that? The truth hurts, doesn't it?
Now, if you've been watching me for a while, you already know what I'm going to say here. You guys ready? My girls that are already doing this, say it with me. I want you to think of everything I'm about to show you as a form of working for yourself. And what does that mean? It means that we will spend minimum, right? Minimum 40 hours a week at work, but we will not sit down for 15 minutes and figure out where we want it or need it to go. Why are we like this? Because we've never been taught.
So, let me tell you something a little personal here. My husband Jason, his job is physical. It is hard, not to mention dangerous. He is a journeyman lineman. And if you don't know what that is, he is one of the guys that keeps your electricity on by climbing poles and towers. And he hangs from helicopters. And no, I'm not kidding. So this past week he has worked very long hours on top of a very long commute and that's fairly normal for his job. He's been driving 2 hours one way and working around 13 hours each day. So that is a very long workday. And as I said, he is outside. We live in Florida. So he's in the Florida heat. I don't even know how many feet he is up in the air. I don't want to know. They use very heavy equipment. They are near voltage. I mean, yikes. Right.
So not so long ago, he was doing all of that, that very difficult job, solely, almost solely to turn around and give all of that hard-earned money to banks. Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, you name it, we owed them. But now that we're debt-free, that money is for us. We get to keep it so that we can do much bigger and more important things, right? Like put more money into retirement. We're able to help out our adult kids when they need us. You guys, things like groceries, I mean, let's be honest here for a second. Some of us are putting our groceries on credit because of credit. And once I show you, once you have your plan, once you are being consistent with this, then you might be able to relax a little bit. And I bet you have not felt that or done that in a long time.
When it comes to your finances, we got to learn how to crawl. Then we'll walk. And then you can run far, far away from debt and interest payments. And look, you guys, I'm not trying to be whatever here, but there are plenty of channels and podcasts that will talk and talk and talk about how Americans can't afford their housing payments. Student loans are crippling. We can't afford our food. And I call that fear-mongering because it makes us feel like there's nothing we can do and that we're stuck. And it honestly makes me angry. I mean, what's the point? I never understood that. It's actually why I have never been a person to watch the news. I don't know about you, but I cannot just sit and listen to that negative echo chamber. I'm the type of person that I need to get up and do something about it.
So, if you are ready to do something with me, I'm going to show you how and you will make progress. And then you could be just like Christy who says, "I managed this month to pay off two debts." Or Jeb Budgets who says, "Between expense tracking and cash stuffing, I am always surprised on how much I have saved." Or Irene, who says, "I found Jen and it changed so much that I do. I took my insurance on my house. I divided by 12 and I put that much in an envelope each month. Cars and tags and property taxes, all of it." Right. She's doing everything. It was all due within two months of each other. And normally they struggled really bad to pay those. And now when they come due, she pulls it out of her envelope and she pays it stress-free. How do you like that? And then our last one is Kim and she says, "I am beyond grateful that I found your channel and started cash stuffing with my two categories, gas and groceries. I realized I could start saving for car insurance, too, and it has grown from there." She goes on to say this has changed her life and it's a relief to be able to pay for things like oil changes and car insurance without having to fret over increasing credit card debt.
So, is this unorthodox and maybe unusual? Yeah, but so what? Look, there are people who watch and see what we're doing here and they say things like, "What are these ladies doing? They are wasting their time." And they will. I started with a $100 envelope challenge. It took a while. My family thought I was crazy, but when I had a stack of bills over $5,000, they quit laughing.
Okay, so here comes Jen's honest opinion on people like that. So, you might want to cover your ears if you're a little sensitive. Those are probably the same people who are putting their groceries on credit and saying they have to. The same people that finance a car payment for $1,000 a month for seven years. The same people who say they can't pay their bills, but that's because their bills are 70% debt payments that they're not telling you about. And it's the same people that drive around with a car that has tires needing replaced and all kind of other things wrong with it, but yet you still see them posting their photos from their Disney vacation. And those are usually the same people that are wasting their time listening to the echo chamber.
Now, does what I just said apply to everyone out there who is struggling financially? Of course not. But you know if this is you and that's why you're still listening. And I can say that because we were you. We were in debt. A lot of it for no real good reason other than we weren't paying attention and we were worried about everything being so comfortable and convenient. And you guys, this is so easy to do right now, especially with this perfect storm that's going on around us. Costs are going up. Absolutely. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that they're not. But what else do we have? We have Amazon vans stopping at every single house on our block to drop off packages. Never-ending Facebook reels with nothing but salespeople in our face. We're swiping our cards for the life that we want instead of the life that we have. And then we tell ourselves as we're doing it, deal with that later. We've got subscriptions for everything. Expensive food delivery. Should I continue? Okay. Celebrating everything and anything so that we can get those worthy Instagram pics. We have the highest car payments ever. Credit cards that reward us for spending. Buy now, pay laters paired with frictionless shopping.
In the end, this unorthodox way got me out of debt. And doing something that is considered unusual gave me back control of my own money. So now it's your turn. Come on, let's be weird. Okay, weirdos. Let's see. What is this? Oh, we've got some cash. Cash. Cold hard cash. Yes, that is what is up over here. And getting reacquainted with our paychecks by actually cashing the paycheck like it's 1989. This actually works and that's why I do it.
Now, this money, this is what I have left after we've paid into our retirement. I've done some off-camera savings and all of our bills have been paid, of course. Now, let's look again really quick. I have $1,147 here. And this is how much we have for those expenses that we used to act surprised about when they became due, even though we totally knew they were coming. Yeah, those. And what else? Oh, yes. Our budgeted grocery amount that took me 2 years to figure out. That's in here, too. Yes, some of these things are going to take a while for you to get them situated. And none of it is ever going to be perfect. So, just forget about that. But a plan of any sort is better than no plan at all. Right. Of course, it is.
Okay. So, you're going to see all of my categories and all of my amounts in just a minute. But first, I want to take a look at this with you guys. We're just going to go over this really quickly so you can see what my process is. So, as you can see here, each week I check on my bills. I go through and I make sure whatever is due has been auto-paid. Most of these are on auto-pay. As you can see, only two bills are not on auto-pay. So, I make sure that they go through. I write down when they were paid. And I want to show you guys this. This is exactly why I do this. So, I noticed that my Wi-Fi payment, it is supposed to be $80.58. Oh, not anymore. Apparently, it is $114.58. So, the old Jen would have had no clue and I would have just been happily paying $34 a month more. And nope, I wouldn't have even known it. But I know now. And I also know what we are spending. And I mean all of what we are spending. There it all is. I plan out, as you can see, cash plan. I plan out every dollar of what's left of our paychecks so we don't overspend. Now, do we overspend? Of course, sometimes, but a lot. No. No. Never. Never a lot.
And let me show you really quick. I've got some more. I've got this emergency fund going on back here. And this is what is called savings challenges. Now, these you'll have to watch a savings challenge video to really see what that is, but I do show a couple of them on these weekly budgeting videos. So, let's go ahead and get started with this. Let me show you. See it, like it, want it, save it. Okay. Actually, I changed my mind. I sat it right there. We're going to do that in just a second. I wanted to show you this is my old debt. I keep this laminated on purpose so I never forget, never forget, Jen, what you did, right? So, here is my debt list. Oh my god, I'm so glad this is over. It took us a little over two years to get all of this paid off.
Now, a lot of people misunderstand when I say that we paid off $300,000 of debt in a little over two years. And they put things in the comments like, "Oh, you must be rich to pay off $300,000 of debt in two years." which honestly makes me laugh because we wouldn't have been in debt in the first place if we were actually rich. But what really happened, see what happened was we actually sold a lot of big ticket items. I think people forget that part. Sometimes you can sell things and make money, right? So that did happen for us a couple times. Now we actually had some of these big ticket items that we were upside down on, right? Um, one of which was an RV. This one right here. We were $15,000 upside down. So, we had to hand that over, give them the RV and $15,000 in cash to get rid of that debt. And yeah, that that hurt. But that's the debt payoff process, right? It does hurt at first. At first, it hurts. After a while, it starts to get pretty good.
So, I want to show you there is other stuff related to debt in this particular packet that I'm showing you. I don't use it obviously because I'm out of debt, but let me show it to you really quickly. So, we've got these two pages. This is where you write down all of the creditors that you owe so you can see it and you know what you're going to be doing. You're you're planning this out, right? You're going to write them from smallest to largest and you're going to start knocking them out here on your debt snowball sheet. So, yeah, this packet that you see me using, it does have some debt stuff attached to it. However, I want to show you I also have this budgeting packet. Now, this one is free. It is linked below. You can print it out right now and get started. It has everything else that you just saw except for the debt sheets. So, if you want to, you can get started with this one, the free one, and make sure that you're doing it and you're getting things together. And there is a video that actually goes with this um budgeting packet. And then once you're doing pretty good and you got your little system together and you're ready to tackle that debt, then you can come back and pick up this one.
Okay. So, while we're going through today's video, I want you to pay attention to holding the cash and counting the cash, being one with the cash. I'm just kidding. But seriously, this whole thing, as you can see, yeah, this is very, very different. How how is cash so different? Well, you know what? This is the only, only form of final payment. This is it. This ends all transactions. You give me that and I give you this. No, you don't need my email. No, I don't have to sign up for anything. You may never see me again. You're never going to send me a bill. I'm never going to send you another payment. Nothing. Oh, that sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? Because it is. And planning where your money goes. And I don't mean the "I got to pay rent and my car and my two cards this week." That is not a plan. This is a plan. I sat down last night with this. I do this every week and you can too. And if you're new, this is what I worked on last night. This was part of it. This is every category that you're about to see and the budgeted, the budgeted amounts that I'm going to be putting in each one. And I keep this to the side. Let's start with this.
Okay, so this is a game savings challenge we call them. And this one, I really, really like it and I want to start it again. As you can see, I just started it. And what I do is if I see something that I want, right? I want it. I don't need it. I want it. Okay. What I do is I write the item down instead. It says Steve M shoes. I don't know if you know Steve M, Steve Steve Madden. I was scrolling on Facebook, which is always a mistake, and there were some shoes there for $100 and I loved them. I almost bought them. I had them in the cart and everything, not going to lie. And I decided, you know what, Jen, you got shoes you don't even wear. So, what, what are we doing here? What are we talking about? So, I wrote it here instead and I can decide whether I want to save 25 or 50% of that amount. I went ahead with 25% and instead of spending a hundred, I am saving $25. Right? Much better.
So here is the cash envelope that I'm going to be putting this money in for these 10 items that you can watch me save each week because you know there's always at least one thing a week, right, that you want. I mean, come on. So, every week I will have some new item here to show you guys that I did not buy. I'm going to save it instead. Okay. So, let's get rid of this.
And I also want to mention that I have an exact amount that I put aside every week for all of our bills. And I don't have to change it. It's not like 500 this week and 1,700 next week. It's $950 every week. And I have an income, you guys, that varies wildly, and I mean wildly. And the reason there's no weird fluctuating and I'm not at the mercy of what's due when, is because I am one month ahead on all of my bills. Yes, it is nice. And it makes budgeting a lot easier. And that 30-day buffer in your checking account is just the biggest stress reliever ever. And yes, of course, you can do that, too. You can make that a goal for yourself once you get going with everything. Just stick with me and we're going to get you there. I promise.
Okay, so groceries is $150. And it was funny. Somebody commented, I think last week, and said, "You better up that grocery budget." No, actually, I don't have to up the grocery budget. 150 works for me. It has worked for me for a very long time. And you know why? Because we eat the same things pretty much every week. We know how to stay within the 150. And as I said earlier, it took us 2 years, I'm not kidding, of craziness. We figured it out. And we know that sticking with a grocery budget is saving us a ton of money. This is one of your biggest money savers right there, you guys.
So, next up is household, and this gets 25. And this is for things like, you know, laundry detergent and cleaners and all the household stuff, right? So, it is now up to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240, 250, 255, 256. And as you can see, I just want to show you in case you're new, you just put small increments in each week. And it will, it'll build up. Okay. Health, we're actually skipping. There's plenty in there for now. 176. The kids emergency fund. We're rebuilding that. My youngest daughter needed a cell phone right here. She's paying me back. She hasn't started yet, but she'll start making payments very soon. 100 is back in there. Get that built back up. And Two Sister Bees is getting $50. This is just me. Anytime I need anything for the channel or for my Etsy shop, it comes out of this envelope. And we're up to 50, 70, 90, 110, 130, 150, 170, 190, 210, 230, 250, 270, 290, 300, and 310, 320, 321. Next up is Utrid, and that is my dog. This is 50. I hate even calling him my dog. I don't sound so weird. He's my baby, right? Okay, so Utred has 150, 170, 190, 210, 230, 250, 270, 290, 300, and 1020. Wow, this one's really getting up there. Okay, toiletries 30. This is, you know, come on, guys. You know toiletries are, right? Of course you do. Stuff like deodorant and toothpaste, all that kind of crap. So, it's up to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240, 250, 255, 256. Nice. Uh, miscellaneous is also getting 30. and is up to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 150, 155, 160. Tolls is getting 30. This is for my husband. He He's out there on them streets running up the tolls. All right. And two days. This is takeout food and I am skipping it over the takeout food for a while, you guys. Okay, shipping is also getting skipped. There's plenty in there. Lawn care is getting $50. We were talking about the lawn today. We 150. We already know some things that we need to do. We had like a cold snap um I don't know, three weeks ago, a month ago, something like that, guys. It killed some of our hedges and it just made a mess out there. It's not good. So, we've got some work to do. Clothing is getting 100 and now it is up to 200. I'm going to tell you guys, too. This is probably going to end up like being my clothes for my daughter's wedding. That's probably where that money is going to go in June. So, I'm glad I'm kind of saving up a little bit at a time now so that guess what? Doesn't go on any kind of credit cards, right? Don't want to pay interest on clothes. I mean, who does that? Not us, right?
Okay, let's get to the second binder. And this is this is actually my um like men, I don't even know. It's like menopause stuff, right? And I don't even know if I'm going to keep it. I told my sister I'm going to. I don't even know if it's really working for me. It's I feel like it, it some days I, I don't, I don't know. I don't know if it's working. So, I'm kind of giving it these next three months and see, see what I think. But anyway, it is up to 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52. And what I do is I put $17 a week in here so that in three months I will have exactly $200 to pay it. See what I'm doing there? Just little, little amounts over the time. And then when it's due, voila. Right there it is. Okay. Care is getting $50. And here it is. Now, if you see these, this just means just like it says that money has been put in the bank. Okay? It is collecting a little bit of interest in that high-yield savings account. Yippy. So, we've got 500, 600, 20, 40, 65. And my car does need to go to Volkswagen. It is due for like a tune-up and an oil change and all the stuff. So, definitely be using some of that. Okay. Okay. Utrid. Utrid has two envelopes. Yes, he is a bougie little boy. He's very expensive. All right. Utrid is up to 1, 2, 3, 4, 450, 470, 490, 500, 1023. Oh my goodness. 523. And birthdays is getting skipped this week. Bean and squid. This is for my daughter's wedding that I just mentioned. I'm putting $90 every week. And by June, I should have Oh my goodness, it's so stuck in here. I should have what I need for the hotel and rental car and what else? The flights. Yes. Can't for I got to get there. It's in Pittsburgh, so I live in Florida. Got to get to Pittsburgh. All right. So, we've got $1,100 is already in the bank. Yay. I love that. And we have 1, 2, 20, 40, 60, 80, 130. Nice. I don't know what it is about the prop money, but it makes it like difficult for me to count it. I don't know why it just is. Tags is getting skipped. That's once a month. Okay, this is saving up for a future phone so that when the phone breaks, cuz we know it will, we will be ready. And I'm going to I've been going in order on this one. I'm not skipping around. So, we've got these three that I'm going to put in today. And that is $40. So, let's put that there. And we're going to mark these off. Yeah. Love it. Can't wait till it's like down here. It's always such a good feeling. Completed trackers are the best. Okay. So, phone is now up to 50, 70, 90, 110, 130, 140. Man, that stuff happens quick. It really does. Okay, emergency. This goes with that emergency tracker that I showed you earlier. And I have budgeted out $50. And each circle, as you can see, is worth 10. So, let's mark off five of those. And I should have 560. All right, let's count this up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 560. Perfect. That's always a good thing. Right. Vehicle insurance. This is paid every six months. And I need to save up. Why do I feel like something's wrong? Because something is wrong. I gave Utrid 50 on this one. He's supposed to get his budgeted 135. 120, 35. This envelope is different from the other one. This one is consistently 135 every single payday. I know that sounds crazy. I always say that he, he is a car payment. So, I'm really glad I don't have a car payment because here it is. All right, Utred is now up to one, two, three, four, five, 20, 40, 60, 70, 80, 90, 6, and 8. Okay, so now we're back on track. Let's go back. I apologize for the issue there. Okay, vehicle insurance gets 75. I was missing that 50. Here we go. And it is now up to 500, 600, 7, 8, 25. And again, I want to show you guys because this is usually pretty motivating for the new people, right? You just keep putting in. As you can see, a couple of them have 150 and those were for weeks that I was behind. So, it does happen, right? But there it all is. Small amounts adding up and I'm going to need 1512 and we are getting there. And medical is getting this last $100 and it is up to 56, 725, five.
And don't worry you guys, this is not hard, okay? Yes, I said it was some work. And yes, I said it was tedious and it's going to take up your time, but I never said that it was hard. So, what I want you to do is watch the video that is in the pinned comment and more if you want to, but start with that one. I have a beginner welcoming guide. It is also linked in the description for you. Now, that does have some clickable links on it. So, be sure not to miss those as you're going through it and reviewing it. Then, just show up. Yes, that's it. Just show up here on the channel. So, go ahead and subscribe if you haven't already. And the most important part, you got to hit that bell so that you know every time I upload a video. I want you to be vocal. Yes. Get in those comments and tell me what is going on. Ask your questions. I read every single one and I use your questions for future content. You are going to be doing your best, right? But I'm not going to lie to you. You are going to struggle. You're going to go through it, sis. Believe me. But it has been 4 years. I am still here. I am still doing it. So, I'm not going anywhere. And you've always got me to help you. I want to welcome you to your new accountability. Yes, me and all of the rest of the hive in the comments. We're going to be watching you.
And speaking of the hive, let me get to checking in with you guys. I recently did a video where I talk about how the January like woohoo, we're going to do all of these things, that momentum has started to fade and now we're into the like, yeah, whatever phase, right? We're getting kind of about everything. I want you guys to get in the comments, too, and tell me how you're feeling. What are you doing? You got some struggles going on? Are you doing really well? Get in those comments and let me know. Okay, so I'm going to link that video that's in the pinned comments. It's right there. That is for anybody that's new. You're going to have a lot of questions, right? You probably do. And this is going to answer a lot of them. And I will see you all on Sunday.