Budget Breakdown: Episode 5 - Guest K.F.

Watch The Full Episode

‍

Listen To Full Episode

‍

K.F.'s Budget

‍

Full Transcript

‍
Zach Whelchel (00:01)
All right, welcome everyone to budget breakdown. This is the podcast where we get to know our guests by their numbers. We're not going to have them introduce themselves at the start of the show. Instead, we're going to look at their financial priorities. We're going to look at their budget. We're going to look at their line items and kind of piece together who they are and what they care about through those numbers. I'm your host, Zach Welchel, the founder of My Budget Coach. And today we have a guest with us and guest, I'll let you say hi, but don't give us too much more beyond that.

Kayla Francis (00:28)
Yes, hello, my name is Kayla. I'm excited to be here and just dive into the numbers and just start talking all budget stuff.

Zach Whelchel (00:36)
All right, cool. All right, so I've got your numbers here and we'll just go ahead and dive right in. So first up in your budget, you've got your budget categories set up where you have fixed personal expenses first, then you have debt and investments, and then you have miscellaneous spending and then some savings. So if you want to just start by telling us why you kind of broke down your categories that way, I'm always curious to hear why people are breaking down their categories.

Kayla Francis (01:06)
Yeah, so I like to keep my budget as simple as possible because I get overwhelmed when it's just too specific, but at the same time, I do like to track exactly where my money's going. So I like knowing what it is that I have to pay my obligations every month. And so that's why I have it where you have the due date, you have how much it is for the fixed personal expenses. And then obviously, I want to make sure that I'm getting my debt paid off. So as I go through my budget, I like to start with the fixed personal expenses, making sure I get those bills paid.

then I move on to making sure I get my debt paid off. And then I go down to anything else. So any miscellaneous spending, anything that's, have money left over that I can use for kind of just the discretionary spending. I go through that. And then obviously if I still have some more money after that, I want to make sure that I'm putting it into my savings buckets. And so I kind of have it in a way where it's by priority is the way that I laid out my budget.

Zach Whelchel (02:00)
Cool, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so like when you get your income or paycheck or whatever that looks like for you, you kind of just go down the list and make sure that the things on top are taken care of and then you kind of make your way down.

Kayla Francis (02:12)
Exactly. And so that's also why I like to have the due dates there. I come from a background where I kind of ignored my accounts, ignored my numbers. And so I would miss out on when I actually need to pay my bills, which was a bad habit that I used to have. So now I actually like to see what's coming up. I have it in my calendar too as reminders of this bill's coming up. Make sure you pay this bill on this day. Cause I don't have automatic payments set on everything. I like to actually go in and make payments.

Zach Whelchel (02:22)
Okay.

Kayla Francis (02:41)
So yeah, I'm coming from a space of having that bad habit of I'll just, when I get the bill paid, I get it paid. And then obviously that comes with negative consequences.

Zach Whelchel (02:51)
For sure. Yeah. mean, for some people like it's, it's such a win just to even get to the point where you're like staring your accounts in the face and like looking at your money, right? Because like it's when you don't feel like you're in control, it's like easy to just kind of try to avoid it. Right? So like even just getting to a point where like you enumerate all these things, you put the numbers on them, you get ready for them. Like that's, that's great.

Cool, okay, so let's look at your first one you've got here in the fixed personal expenses. You've got a stash card. It looks like it's due on the third and it's $3, so I'm curious what the stash card is.

Kayla Francis (03:25)
So the stash card, it's like an investment card. It's where I put money in for stocks, but I also use it as my spending card. So every month I have a certain amount of money that I like to put on my spending card. I do use my debit card, my personal debit card for expenses, but I like to have a separate card for like if I want to go get a snack from the gas station or if I just want to take a random coffee trip.

I know that I have this amount of money on this specific card. So that way I don't have to feel guilty or have to check my budget. Can I afford this $5 coffee right now? Can I go out to dinner right now without having to think too much about it? I have this specific card that I know is for those times where I just want to spend my money how I want to and not have to worry about it. And so the $3 charge is just to use that stash card. it's like I said, it's like an investment thing too. So you get stopped from any purchases that you make.

Zach Whelchel (04:21)
Got it, okay, so this is kind of like a budget within a budget, or it's like a line item in here that you want to kind of feel a little bit outside of the budget, and the three dollars is just kind of the extra money you put in, or that's the fee to use the card.

Kayla Francis (04:34)
Right, it's the fee to use the card.

Zach Whelchel (04:37)
Okay, cool. So the stash card obviously has like its own kind of balance that sits on it that you kind of keep separately just so you kind of have that separation between the these things on your budget and kind of that as like kind of fun money or like more like free money.

Kayla Francis (04:52)
Right, which the reason why I have it is because this was before I actually started budgeting and looking at where all my money was going. I needed a place where I knew I could just spend as I wanted because I would just spend frivolously, not really thinking too much about it. So I started with this card for that specific reason. And now that I am budgeting more seriously, I am tracking everything, I decided to just keep it because it's been helpful. It's been useful to have that card there just in case.

Zach Whelchel (05:21)
Cool, sweet, okay cool. Well the next up you've got is the Google One subscription, $1 .99 on the fifth. So I'm assuming this is like what, 10 gigs a month or something like that?

Kayla Francis (05:33)
Yeah, I can't remember the amount that I get, but I know it's extra gigabytes because I have a lot of photos, I have a lot of videos, and yeah, it's just to get that extra space.

Zach Whelchel (05:46)
Yeah, we pay for that too. We use the Apple iCloud or whatever, but it's so worth it just to know that your photos are backed up and stuff. cool. And I love that you enumerate it, right? Like you're enumerating these like little things, but like it's part of having everything in one place. So you don't like lose track of stuff. So that's great.

Kayla Francis (05:54)
Yeah.

Zach Whelchel (06:04)
Okay, cool. Your next one is your phone bill. It looks like you it's at $180 a month on the 20th. So I'm curious like what's what's that 180 like what kind of plan are you on? Like how did you make that decision?

Kayla Francis (06:18)
Yeah, so I actually use a family plan with my mom. And so she pays half of it, I pay half of it, but she gives me the money for her half and then it comes out of my card. That's actually an automatic payment. So I just have to make sure that 180 is there. So when they do take it out automatically, I'll make sure that it's there. But for what we pay for, it's for phone, our phones, the internet, and then having mobile hotspot, because I work

kind of all over, and so I need to make sure I have that.

Zach Whelchel (06:55)
Cool, okay sweet. does she pay you like monthly? I'm curious. Or does she like pay you like upfront and then you just kind of front the cost or how does that look?

Kayla Francis (07:03)
Yeah, she pays me monthly. It's almost like she's paying me her phone bill. She's like, okay, I'm paying my phone bill now, but it's coming to me. I just make sure the whole phone bill's.

Zach Whelchel (07:10)
Got it. Now are you paying it on a credit card and getting those extra points for her money she's paying?

Kayla Francis (07:16)
No, I'm using just my regular debit card. But that's good idea.

Zach Whelchel (07:20)
Okay. Yeah. So sometimes like we have a friend, a lot of us pull together to do phone together. And so he ends up paying like a large amount, but he's going on his credit cards. He's getting points for it. So it's like, is it worth the extra administrative work in order to get the points, you know, that type of thing. cool. Okay. This next one you got is a Zin cert. Z -I -N cert. It's at 43 .94 on the 23rd. I'm curious what that is.

Kayla Francis (07:35)
.

So that's the Zumba Instructor Network certification. So I became certified as a digital instructor this year, and obviously I have to keep up with the certification costs. So that's been a new cost for me this year, and it's been worth it because I've been having a lot of fun as an instructor. And that's also why I pay for Apple Music. That's also one of the charges on my fixed expenses, because I need that music for my classes.

Zach Whelchel (07:51)
Okay.

Okay cool, yeah, so what does that look like as a zoom button structure? I don't know that I've done zoom before, but is this like a structured thing? Do you get paid regularly for this? Or is it kind like a side gig you do on the side? Like what does that look like?

Kayla Francis (08:18)
you

Yeah, it's definitely a side gig right now and I'm a substitute. whenever teachers need someone to fill in for their class, I'm just a post like I can take this class a certain day and I like it like that because it's random. I don't have to feel pressure that I have to do it consistently every week. So I'm just a substitute where it's just random when I teach classes, but I'm always prepared. I go to Zumba myself at least two times a week and what it is, it's just dance fitness. So you're exercising.

But it feels fun because you're dancing, the choreography, great music, and I get paid once a month for any classes that I teach.

Zach Whelchel (09:02)
Yeah, okay. Now that you say that, like I think I see people doing Zumba when I go to the gym and I walk back by them to do my more lazy things and they're doing like the really active thing. So good for you. Yeah, yeah, okay. I think the Zumba classes are like free with my gym membership. So maybe I should, but cool. Okay. So next up you've got the car insurance. It looks like it's at like $1 .12 a month. I'm curious, do you pay your car insurance monthly or do you do like the six month thing?

Kayla Francis (09:13)
You should try it once.

Yeah, I pay it monthly. So I'm one of those people that whenever I see them start to raise the cost of my insurance, I will switch. I insurance hop when it comes to car insurance because I don't feel like I need to be paying more than what I need to be paying. So whenever they start to raise it and it's like, okay, I'm going to start looking around and I have no shame in switching whenever I need to.

Zach Whelchel (09:45)
Nice, nice.

I love that attitude. That's great. I think like so many people miss out on so many opportunities because they don't shop around or they don't bid things against each other. So I love your mentality of like, you know, there's a lot of offerings out there for a lot of these things. So the ability to jump around is great. Yeah, we do that, but like not as intensely like we do the six month thing. We don't do as intensely. So I love that you do it monthly. That's great.

Okay cool, the next one you got, and this is the last one on your fixed personal expenses, is Advent Health on the 27th. Looks like it's $27 on the 27th, so that's easy to remember.

Kayla Francis (10:32)
Yeah, so that's another automatic payment that comes out and it's just paying off a hospital bill. Super simple because I have to pay whatever my insurance didn't cover and luckily there's no interest on this. just, they take that $27 out every month and it's slowly going down. But that's definitely one, I guess, debt or investment. Well, not really an investment, but I guess a debt that I don't worry about too much just because there's no interest on it.

Zach Whelchel (11:01)
Got it. Yeah, no interest is great. Do you keep track of that total debt somewhere or is that kind of off budget and you just kind of keep track of like the money you put towards it each month?

Kayla Francis (11:11)
I do. So on my debt tracker, which I use on a spreadsheet right now, I do pay attention to any loans and credit card payments or anything like that on the debt tracker to see every month what the new balance is. And whenever they give me the statements, I also check to make sure that the number I have matches up with the number that they have on the paper.

Zach Whelchel (11:31)
Cool. Yeah, another great habit because you'll be surprised like how often like things get messed up or like things get dropped. So like the fact that you're double checking those is awesome. So I'm curious when it comes to your... Okay.

Kayla Francis (11:41)
Yeah, the papers.

I was just going to say the paper statements are very annoying because I feel like they're wasting paper, but it comes in handy because if there was a tech glitch or anything like that, it's nice to have the paper.

Zach Whelchel (11:56)
Yeah, for sure. So it sounds like you keep track of your debts in like a separate spreadsheet, which is great. What is it kind of like your strategy for paying down debts? Are you one of the like snowball method people? you more of the like, there's a couple different methods, like what's kind of your motivation or like what's your strategy?

Kayla Francis (12:16)
So mine is there's not really much structure. I've tried it where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try this method, I'm gonna try this method. And what happens is I don't stick to it. So what I do is I kind of look at what extra money do I have left over? And if I have this chunk of money, I'm putting like 50 to $100 at least towards the debt. So I don't remember what the name of that strategy would be for paying off debt, but I pretty much just take

What money do I have left over after my six personal expenses are taken care of? Anything that has a due date and then I throw that extra money towards the bill.

Zach Whelchel (12:58)
And like if you have multiple debts, which one do you try to pay off first?

Kayla Francis (13:02)
Yeah, that's a good question. Sometimes it's the one that has the highest interest and then sometimes it's the one where I have a promotion on it where it's like you don't have to, there's no interest for the first year or two. I just did a balance transfer for one of my cards and I don't have interest for, I think it's two years. So I try to tackle that one first sometimes. Sometimes it's whatever has the most interest and sometimes it's the one that doesn't. So that way I can take advantage of that promotional balance.

Zach Whelchel (13:31)
Cool. Sweet. Okay, cool. So speaking of debt, looks like your next category here is debt and investments. So it looks like you've got student loans that come out on the third and it looks like you, pay about 50 bucks per month.

Kayla Francis (13:47)
Yes, at minimum. Sometimes it's more.

Zach Whelchel (13:51)
Okay, cool. you, have you done like any of those like fancy student loan, like options or anything like that? And you just pay the minimums? Like, I feel like there's so many options with student loans these days.

Kayla Francis (14:03)
Yeah, I did the one that's pay as you pay what you make. I forgot what it's called. It's buy your income. And so I applied for that and I apply for it every year. And so because my income varies, I've been able to get a really good deal on my student loan. And I'm chunking, taking off a lot of interest because of that too.

Zach Whelchel (14:09)
Okay, cool.

Awesome. Yeah, I think during COVID, they were allowing you to like apply for that, but you could like self -report your income. And I think that just fell off now to where like you have to like show your last year's tax statements or something. But my friend did this and ended up saving a ton of money because like it was just much easier to do it based on your, the amount you're making. So that's great. You've taken advantage of that.

Kayla Francis (14:38)
out.

That's what I thought too.

Zach Whelchel (14:49)
All right, so next up we've got a couple different credit cards. looks like we've got Best Buy, Bank of America looks like, and then a Chase credit card. And it looks like you set aside 300, 150, and 250 for those each month, or maybe it varies a little bit. I'm curious what's your kind of usage of those cards.

Kayla Francis (15:11)
Yeah, it does vary on how much I put towards each. So back in my overspending days, I was, like I said, just spending frivolously. I would use my credit cards whenever I didn't have enough money in my bank account. I just like, I have this much balance in this credit card. I can use this credit card. So that obviously trickled down to negative consequences. And it kind of brings me back to the fixed personal expenses too.

You'll probably notice under that that I don't have a lot of housing expenses and that's because I've had to cut down on my living situation to make sure that I'm making conscious choices. I don't want to put myself into more debt and so if I can't afford to rent this place or move to this place, it's better to just live in a situation where I can just pitch in when I can instead of like worried about can I afford this utility or that and I've been very grateful.

Zach Whelchel (15:42)
Yeah.

Kayla Francis (16:06)
that my family has allowed me to just stay in a place where I can save up money and pay off my debt. So pretty much it comes from me making really bad spending decisions when I was younger. And so I don't have the typical budget of someone of my age or my age bracket, I guess, just because I'm in this transition of phasing my life out of making bad decisions and spending how I want to spend, not thinking about the future too much. And

being more structured and making better decisions, being more conscious. And I wanted to start a business so bad that I was just taking out loans. was taking out or spending on credit cards, investing in all of these business courses, in certifications, becoming certified in this thing, that thing. I was just trying to live the entrepreneurial life, not really thinking about the consequences when it came to money. And now I'm paying it all off, which before,

I just cry when I think about it. I'm like, you spend how much on a business loan? I did end up making the money back with my web design stuff. So it did work out in the end, but now I'm still paying it off. And so that's why I have all these credit cards and these things that I did pay off alone. So congrats on that. I paid off my car. So I'm making better decisions now. That's the story behind all these credit cards.

Zach Whelchel (17:24)
Nice. Okay. Yeah. Well, first of all, like, awesome, right? Super impressive. Like a lot, a lot of people are not smart with their money, right? It is very rare for somebody to then say, you know what, I need to make a change and I'm going to cut back in ways and I'm going to like be intentional about this. So like kudos to you for like having this transition. and also like you've got a budget, you're like allocating money towards this debt every month. Like you're, you're working on it. like,

I think it's awesome that you're doing that and you're willing to share it. I'm curious, when was that moment that you're like, okay, I used to live this way, but nah, I can't do it anymore. I've got to change. Did you hit some bottom number or was it just a psychological change? Was it a friend or family member that was like, hey, you should switch to that? I'm curious, what was that moment for you that you made that change?

Kayla Francis (18:19)
Yeah, so I've always been very self -aware and I have different goals and milestones for myself based on age. So I put a lot of pressure on myself by the time you turn 20, you need to be in this income bracket. You need to be doing this, doing that. So I'd say when I reached 25, I realized you're not making as much money as you thought you would be right now, which I was a freelancer. I still am. So it kind of came with the territory, I guess you can say.

Zach Whelchel (18:29)
Okay.

Kayla Francis (18:49)
But I realized you're not making as much money as you want to. Then I made changes to bring more money in. And when that came, I kind of freaked out a little bit. So I'm like, shoot, you have all this money. Now what do we do? Do we go find a house? Do we go find an apartment? Do I do this? It's like, what do I do with all these things? And then that's when I realized I need to reach out to someone who can help me with what do I do with all this money? I had like $5 ,000, $6 ,000 months and I had no idea what to do with it. So I reached out to a financial coach.

And that's where it all started as far as like, I just decided I need help because I'm panicking with all this money. And I reached out to someone who could help me and it kind of just started from there. And that's how my journey with making better decisions started with my finances.

Zach Whelchel (19:34)
Awesome. That's so cool. So, so encouraging to hear and especially that you're like willing to share that and like help others with it. So, well done. Okay. So let's move on to your next kind of area or it looks like there's two more credit cards. I think that didn't, or maybe one more of this. There's a care credit card and maybe a chase credit card, or I think we did the chase one. So I guess it's just kind of a similar story.

Kayla Francis (19:57)
The care credit is just specifically for healthcare stuff. So I had a rabbit a long time ago where I needed help with paying for her bills. So I got the care credit card and now I just use it. I pay my dental and eye vision out of pocket. So I just use the care credit and then I pay the bill off. But that's a much smaller chunk of how much I owe just because I use it for those two things. And I don't go outside of health.

Zach Whelchel (20:23)
Okay, cool. Yeah, it looks, it looks like you're not like budgeting or spending too much for that in like the current month. So I'm guessing it's just like a lower balance. You don't need to worry about as much.

Kayla Francis (20:32)
Yeah, yeah, definitely a lower balance.

Zach Whelchel (20:36)
Cool. All right, well, let's move on to miscellaneous spending, which is kind of your next group here. So the first one that you have up is car repair and you haven't budgeted anything this month. So I'm curious, you, like, how do you treat car repair? Are you trying to like save up a certain amount over time? Do you just going to try to address it when it happens? Like what does car look like for you?

Kayla Francis (20:56)
I do address it when it happens, which is funny because now it's like everything's starting to happen. So like I mentioned, I paid off my car. I think it was last year. And now that that's happened, it's like, okay, now this is going wrong, that's going wrong. So what I decided is I need a separate savings bucket for car repairs. So I need to be pitching in for that. I haven't budgeted for it, but I'm gonna start saving for it. So that way when I need car repairs, I can just pull it out of that savings bucket.

Zach Whelchel (21:18)
Thanks.

Cool, yeah, and this is kind of lower on your priority list, right? Because you've got your debt above this, you've got your fixed stuff above it, so it's something that you're working your way towards being able to bump that up a bit more, but it's not as important to you maybe as paying off the debt or meeting your fixed bills or whatever. Cool, yeah, isn't it terrible how cars just, the second you pay it off, then it starts needing all that repair. I just feel like that feels not fair.

Kayla Francis (21:52)
Yeah.

don't know how is, but it seems to be a common thing.

Zach Whelchel (22:00)
Yeah, for sure. Amongst my peers, it just seems like you buy an old new car, you buy an old car, it doesn't matter what you do, there's always problems with cars, you always have to pay for it. Cool, okay, so next up is entertainment. Curious, you don't have anything budgeted in this month for it, but what does that look like for you? How much do you try to set aside? Do you have specific things that you enjoy for entertainment, or is it just month to month?

Kayla Francis (22:11)
Yep.

Yeah, I'd say for entertainment it's kind of month to month just because when I created that category it was mainly for subscriptions for like Netflix, 2B, or not 2B because that's free but anything that's like subscriptions to watch movies and stuff like that. But with my phone plan I've been able to get some of these things for free so I don't really have to put money aside or make sure that they're getting paid for.

Zach Whelchel (22:50)
Nice.

Kayla Francis (22:54)
I found deals, I'm constantly canceling things, so if they start up charging or if I end up having to pay the full price, I'll cancel and then I'll wait until they give out a deal or a discount. So when it comes to stuff like that, like in my miscellaneous spending, I will just cancel if I have to and then renew whenever I can find a promo code online or if they offer a discount that's sent to my email, I will sign up for it. So for entertainment, it's kind of just random. If I know I have something going on, if I...

plan on going out to lunch with someone and I'll budget for it under that category, otherwise it's just random.

Zach Whelchel (23:33)
Cool, yeah, and I'd imagine that your income is like, because you're a freelancer, right? You do kind of a bunch of different things. So I imagine your income is not very fixed. It's not like you get a check that's consistent every other week or whatever. So like, you're kind of getting it when you do and allocating it when you do, right? Is that probably a good assumption?

Kayla Francis (23:56)
Yeah, so my income does vary a lot and I have very slow months and I have very high months and I also started a part -time job but it's really not that much money compared to what I make from my freelance work so the part -time job is kind of just like extra money that I do get steady and I know I will have that so if I have a slow month or something besides saving money for those slow months I have that extra income that's just kind of there that I can pull from.

Zach Whelchel (24:24)
Okay, so that's nice. You kind of have the best of both worlds. Then you have some flexibility from working for yourself, but you have a little bit of stability, and then you have a little bit of stable income, but then you also have flexible income, so you have kind of the best of both worlds there.

Kayla Francis (24:37)
Yeah, and I like my life to be a little chaotic. I don't like chaos, but I like having something where it's like, it's not the same thing every day. I like difference and variety in my

Zach Whelchel (24:51)
Cool, yeah, I'm curious, like when you said, like, I love how intentional you are about like your life, like your years and like where you want to be. We're part of those goals, like non -financial goals as well, like, cause it seems like you've really achieved this concept of like kind of living the lifestyle you want or like having the amount of freedom or like the, you know, the healthy chaos that you want or whatever. So it seems like you've reached like some of those other goals that maybe aren't financial.

Kayla Francis (25:16)
It's weird because a huge part of my identity is career, working, making money.

turns pretty much everything I do into a way to make money. Like I love going to Zuba and I like, I'm gonna get certified in teaching classes. I love teaching people about how to set up systems for their business. I'm gonna get certified in being an online business manager. So it's like everything that I find joy in, I found a way to make money from it. And so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm like, okay, I like doing this. How can I make money from it? And so I'm trying to think of any

Zach Whelchel (25:34)
Nice.

Kayla Francis (25:55)
hobbies or anything that I like to do and where I am like not charging to participate in it, which I guess it would just be walking outside in nature would probably be. But as far as...

Zach Whelchel (26:02)
Sure, sure.

Sure, it's hard to monetize walking in nature. Although I saw an article this past week, have you heard of these Strava jockeys? Have you heard of this concept?

Kayla Francis (26:12)
Yeah.

Zach Whelchel (26:20)
But there's apparently there's people in like big cities who will give their Strava accounts to people who will go and run for them just to kind of make it look like they're more active on our Strava account. So that might be a way that you can get paid to like run in the forest or something. But I don't know how ethical that is, but.

Kayla Francis (26:35)
there really is a job for everything.

Zach Whelchel (26:38)
I know right? It's crazy. Alright cool, let's go to the next category. You've got toiletries. looks like you set aside $60 a month -ish or maybe it was just this month. What does that kind of consist of for you?

Kayla Francis (26:51)
Yeah, it does vary. I spend a lot on skin care, obviously the regular toiletries like your toothbrush, your body wash. I probably don't buy that stuff monthly because I tend to stock up whenever I shop for those things. I'll buy multiples so that way I don't have to really buy it monthly. Cleaning supplies, I'd say for the most part when it comes to toiletries, it's kind of random on how much I

want to budget because I kind of just look at what do I need and like I said I learned from my grandmother to just stock up on things we are couponers so you get coupons you buy a whole bunch and you don't need to buy it for like another three to

Zach Whelchel (27:32)
Nice, yeah, it looks like you set aside 60, but you only spent like 16 so far this month. So you've got like 84 bucks, like just sitting in that category ready for when you do need to restock up again, I guess.

Kayla Francis (27:37)
Yeah.

Yeah, that was my Target trip, I think, is where I spent that money. I love Target, so sometimes I'll walk in there, plan to buy these things, and then I end up buying stuff that I don't need because they have those dollar sections now where it's like, look at this cute thing or that cute thing. So that's when the spending card comes in handy for when I see stupid things that I don't really need. But they look cute in the moment, and I felt like I needed it.

Zach Whelchel (28:08)
Yeah, you are not alone in falling prey to the target dollar bucket. My children, every time we go to Target, it's just like, yeah, we have to get something there. So cool. Do you consider like other like haircuts or other like hygiene stuff to be a part of that category too, or do you have like a separate concept?

Kayla Francis (28:11)
you

you

Yeah, I would say so. I haven't had a haircut in so long. I actually need one. So I've actually been thinking about how much I'm willing to spend for that. I've kind of been asking around to find people who can actually cut my hair. But I don't do haircuts often. I probably haven't had one in maybe three years. I often wash my own hair, do my own hair. So I don't really go to the hair salon. I do my own nails whenever I want to do my nails. So I don't really.

Zach Whelchel (28:38)
Okay.

Okay.

Okay, wow.

Okay, okay.

Kayla Francis (28:57)
than money when it comes to outsourcing that stuff.

Zach Whelchel (29:02)
Cool, awesome. Yeah, so I'm getting this vibe that like you're like super diligent, super coupon savvy, super like switch when you need to or cancel when you need to. Like, I feel like you're just like super like efficient with your money, which is great.

Kayla Francis (29:17)
Yeah, I try not to be too restrictive. So when I'm talking to other people, I'm like, you don't have to be restrictive. But for me personally, if I can find a good deal or a good discount, I'm going to do that. I'd rather spend less on certain things so that way I can spend more money. I'd rather splurge on coffee than something else. So I'd rather find discounts on like toilet paper or paper towels than to have to sacrifice my coffee trips.

Zach Whelchel (29:43)
Which is awesome, right? Like that's the point of a budget, right? Is that you can basically allocate your money to what you value, right? Like if you value coffee and you can save in other areas, then like that's what you're doing here is you're moving money to that category. So that's really cool. Okay, next up we got tech and gadgets. Looks like there wasn't any spending this month. I'm guessing this is just like phone, computer, that type of stuff.

Kayla Francis (29:56)
Mm

Yeah, just random. Sometimes I'll buy a new pair of headphones. But that's also another random expense where it's not something I'm spending monthly for. It's just if I see a new... I used to be a huge techie when I was in my overspending days. I would just go out and buy a $2 ,000 laptop because, story, I bought a $2 ,000, maybe over $2 ,000 MacBook, which I still use. I love it, don't regret it. But I'm still paying that off just because I put it on a credit card. The interest went up.

And then I started putting more stuff on that credit card. So be careful if you're gonna go out and just be like, I got this new shiny credit card. I can go get this new thing. Even though it's lasted me forever and I love it, best investment ever. I'm still paying it off because of decisions that I made before. So now I'm just preparing myself and adding that in my budget. So I'm like, if I do wanna buy a new mouse or headphones or whatever it is, I'll have that money allocated.

Zach Whelchel (31:04)
Awesome. That's so cool. Yeah. mean, obviously like ideally when you're spending on credit cards, it's you want to take advantage of it, right? Like you want to like get the points from it, but then have the money sitting there ready to pay it off. Right. And so like a lot of people look at their credit cards and they think of that balance as they're like balanced. can spend when really you should probably be looking at like your budget line item, right? And like how much you actually have in cash ready to pay off that card for it. So super cool that you've like kind of made that switch and now you're like pre -planning for your next.

budget, your next tech thing, instead of treating your card balance as something you can just kind of lean into. So that's cool. Eating out, you've got 142 .65 here.

Kayla Francis (31:46)
Yeah, that also varies, but I'd say at minimum I probably spend $100 a month at least on eating out. And I kind of put eating out and groceries lumped together, even though I have a separate section for groceries. If I go just specifically grocery shopping, then I'll use that category. But if I go to Publix and I buy a frozen dinner or I buy a pasta from the Publix bar, I will put that under eating out.

because I look at it as I bought dinner from Publix. So that's how my eating out in groceries kind of works is where I will go kind of, I guess, grocery shopping slash buying my dinner for the night is how I look at those categories.

Zach Whelchel (32:32)
Okay, cool. And you got $17 left in eating out for the rest of the month. What is it? The 27th? You got a couple days left there.

Kayla Francis (32:37)
you

I won't start.

Zach Whelchel (32:42)
Okay, yeah, you'll make it. That's great. Cool. Yeah. Also, I love on this podcast when, because we're trying to figure out about you, the audience is trying to kind of guess maybe who you are or where you live or what you do. I love it when somebody drops the name of their grocery store. You just said Publix, right? That gives you like a regional map a little bit, right? Because we don't have Publix where I am. So I know it's, guessing it's either South or West of me. I can't quite remember where I've seen a Publix before, but that's maybe a hint for those who are listening.

Kayla Francis (33:02)
okay, yeah.

Zach Whelchel (33:13)
Okay, cool. So next up we got groceries, which has zero dollars in it, but you mentioned like you kind of grew groceries and eating out. And the next one you've got is coffee trips. So it like you put 25 bucks aside for coffee trips, but you haven't spent any this month. So you just let that kind of roll over or how do you kind of treat that category?

Kayla Francis (33:30)
Yeah, so that definitely needs to be updated just because I have used more money out of that category. go to, there's a specific coffee truck that I love going to and I spend about $5 each trip and it's about twice a week. And then when I go to the flea market, that's also another way I get some income is I help my mom at the flea market. So when I go to the flea market every weekend, I buy coffee there as well. I buy an Americano. So I make sure that I want

Zach Whelchel (33:46)
Okay.

Kayla Francis (34:00)
the coffee at least twice a week from the coffee truck and then I want to get coffee when I go to the flea market so I just make sure I have that money set aside in my budget.

Zach Whelchel (34:11)
Okay, how many income sources do you have? I feel like we've already covered, like, you help your mom out at the flea market, you're a Zumba instructor, you have like a steady job on the side, you web design freely, like feel like you have so many sources of income, that's a lot.

Kayla Francis (34:25)
Like I said, I find things that I like to do and I'm like, how can I make money from it? And I probably, the way my life is going, don't think there's, I don't see any other way. I just like to do so many different things. I'm trying now to find my things so that way I can stop jumping all over the place, but I think there will always be my side gig. They're just these extra things where I'm bringing in income. I just find it enjoyable.

Zach Whelchel (34:51)
Yeah, I mean, it's cool. Like you've found a way to monetize what you enjoy or what you're passionate about, which is awesome. I mean, at some point, like it might make sense to specialize, but like maybe not too. Like if you just enjoy this, like it's pretty cool.

Kayla Francis (35:07)
Yeah.

Zach Whelchel (35:09)
okay, sweet. So I think we've got one last category group and it's the savings. So you have like an extra kind of section for savings. What does, what does that look like for you?

Kayla Francis (35:20)
Yeah, so I have a separate personal budget versus my business budget. And so with my personal, I just kind of have a cushion money savings contributions bucket. Then I want to make sure that I contribute at least $100 every month. If I can put in more, then that's great. But my target is to put in $100 every month towards my personal cushion money. And then when it comes to my business, I have a lot of different buckets for saving for taxes. If I want to buy client gifts, I save for that.

Also just having an overall savings bucket so when I have slow months in my business I can pull from it for business expenses and then I also save for yearly subscription costs. So instead of having to pull out a huge chunk of money when my yearly expenses comes up, I just make sure that I have the money in my bucket to pull from and it won't affect my current balance.

Zach Whelchel (36:16)
Nice. Cool. Okay. So I guess a couple last questions and I'll let you go ahead and like do the thing and introduce yourself. I'm curious. You said you had a budget for your business as well. Is that for like kind of all of your side, like your businesses and, is this mainly just for that like freelance business?

Kayla Francis (36:32)
Yeah, I'd say it's mainly for the freelance business. For the other side incomes, I kind of lump it into personal stuff. So my budget is mainly for the freelance work that I do because there's more, there's just more coming out of it. There's more expenses, there's more income coming in more frequently. So that's, I lump it all for the freelance stuff.

Zach Whelchel (36:57)
Cool. Okay, well that was all of your categories. So I'll officially let you go ahead and introduce yourself. So if you want to let our listeners know like who you are, where you're from, maybe like what area of the country you live in, maybe some more details on some of these jobs that you do. Yeah, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Kayla Francis (37:15)
So like I said, I'm Kayla Francis and I'm from Call Money Collective. So another source of income is I'm moving into financial self -care coaching and budget coaching. I am from Florida, originally from New York, but I live in Florida. I've been here for about 20 years now. So some people would consider me a Floridian, but I'm always a New Yorker at heart. And pretty much what I aim to be is

I learned all these skills and gained all the resources and tools on how to manage my money and how to get over overspending emotional spending. And now my goal is to help other women do that as well. So I'm looking to just target look for other women who are like, you know what, I have all this money and I'm just like the same way that I was you're almost panicking because you're like, what do I do now? Or you're in a space where you're spending more than you're bringing in and you may be an emotional spender.

And you're just trying to figure out how can I spend more wisely? How can I start saving for things that actually matter to me, my life, my values, my goals? And just making sure that your money is working for you versus having your money work against you and cause you a lot of anxiety and stress.

Zach Whelchel (38:28)
That's awesome. I love it. And I imagine like you have a story that you can relate with a lot of these women as well, right? Like I'm sure a lot of people have been in position where maybe they weren't happy with how they were spending and now they're making more money and don't know what to do with it. So like the fact that you can share that story and like kind of connect with those, those women in that way is awesome. Where can people kind of find you? I think you're pretty active on Instagram, right? Is that kind of your main spot?

Kayla Francis (38:52)
I'm getting better. I'm not too active on Instagram, but I'm definitely trying to get better. Excuse me as being more active. So you can find me at Calm Money Collective. Or if you'd like to send me an email, you can reach out to me at Kayla at CalmMoneyCollective .com.

Zach Whelchel (39:07)
Awesome. Cool. yeah, for those of you who are watching the show or listening to the show and are interested in kind of creating a budget of your own, Kayla is also a coach on My Budget Coach. So she helps people kind of set up their budget, similar to the one she just went through with us here today, and helps you kind of get over the learning curve, kind of the mindset shift change, some of that that she talked about of like how she used to live and how she lives now that she kind of keeps track of those numbers. So I definitely encourage you to check out her profile on My Budget Coach too.

maybe sign up for a free trial and kind of get to interact with her in that way. Kayla, I always give people like a chance to give kind of like one last like word of advice or like tip or anything that you want to leave our audience with. if there's anything you want to kind of leave our audience with, I'll give you a chance here.

Kayla Francis (39:52)
Yeah, I definitely want to say it's never too late. So no matter where you are, no matter where you're starting from, you may feel like you're in a position where you've done all these things. if you look at, listen to this interview, look at my own story, where I've come from, look at how much debt I've accumulated, and now I'm working on it. I'm working on slowly tackling everything that I've made mistakes on before, but they're all learning experiences that I'm using to move forward. So it's never too late to start budgeting.

or to return back to it. It's never too late to start tackling anything that's kind of on your mind when it comes to your finances. The best thing is to just get started and also celebrate any small wins. Just remember that you're human at the end of the day. So even though it may feel like you're alone in this process, we're all going through our own own money stories and having to adjust to, know, not having for the most part, most of us don't get that financial education that we probably should be getting from when we're younger. So.

Just take it day by day, celebrate small wins and it's never too late. That's the most important thing.

Zach Whelchel (40:54)
Awesome. Yeah, couldn't agree more and super inspiring. So thanks for coming on, sharing your story, sharing your numbers with us. For everyone else, we'll see you next time.

Kayla Francis (41:04)
Thank you.