I Don’t Know Where My Money Is Going

[Music] brought to you by the every dooll app start budgeting for free today right up next we have Larry and Evansville hey Larry welcome to the show hey guys thanks for taking my call today how you doing we're doing great how can we help so um I'm recently found you guys and I'm really trying hard to figure out budgeting type things uh I grew up in a family that you know didn't really care about it you know and I'm trying to figure it out and I've looked at every dollar and I I'm just overwhelmed with things like I try and budget and then something comes up and it's just very overwhelming and it's just I'm to the point of I'm tired of you know living every paycheck to paycheck and you know the next week I'm broke and it's just hard and I'm I just need help budgeting I need to figure out like what where do I start like what's the problem right now when you say I feel broke and are the are there too many bills after your paychecks show up so what happened is um you know a couple years ago I got I I I did some bad things I got addicted to some things after an accident I hadn't you know I I I I screwed up our family and when I did that it meant a lot of debt for my family I'm sorry no you're okay and I'm trying to get out of it and I I try so hard I work you know 65 hours a week and it's just I don't know I I honestly can't tell you exactly where it's going you know I I I am paying down the debt that I'm doing but then also you know car repairs come up uh my kids need something yeah yeah how many kids do you have I have three how old are they uh two five and eight wow so you guys you guys have been through you've been through a lot Larry for over the last what how how long has this journey been for you guys and are you sober now I've been I've been sober for over a year now a great guy from Boston you know took me up there and helped me out and yeah uh it's just the last six years before that you know I was working but I leave the job because you know something would happen or I would to go to work and you know I'd get behind on things and you know I'd say oh I'll push this off for now and it's all this coming back to Hart me and I'm I'm trying so hard to budget money okay so tell me this Larry how much how much do you guys make in a year or just household income uh so uh my wife makes about 30 about 28 before taxes um and then me uh you know I just started back working about a year ago and this past year I made about 51 you know consistent staying you know with the same employer that's great what do you do I I work in home healthcare I work with like mentally handicapped individuals there okay it's uh something I've I've Loved for a while yeah that's great that's great so you guys are making around around 80 81,000 and what debt do you guys have uh so uh we have a a car that got repoed a couple years ago that I because of me that I'm working to pay off just to you know get that out of there yeah um we got my wife's car now that you know we had to have because we had to have reliable transportation for her how much is that how much is that um it's about eight uh right now ,000 okay and how much is it with that you're repaying for the the repossession I'm about 14 um okay I had bought it for about 16 but uh I owed 14 and you know just basically stopped paying yeah okay so the two cars what else and then uh we have uh combined between like just little loans that we tried to get to get by um you know and Loans to family we have about you know 15 there okay um you know and then medical debt we have about 6,000 but I'm trying to get some assistance from like their financial aid there but you know that's just a process of trying to get that figured out right now for sure anything else any credit card debt uh student loans that's that's with like the the 15 you know there's some credit cards uh which is about uh you know 1,500 of it okay the rest is loans for like family little loans just here and there that you know I I thought would you know get me by to where I need to be then I found you guys and you know realized that like there's something I'm doing wrong and you know I I finally built up the courage and then Al the embarrassment that I have to you know call you guys and you know just figure it out and yeah I'm tired of it yeah well I'll tell you this I think you've won probably the hardest battle money is nothing compared to fighting and becoming sober and walking that whole journey Larry so if you can do that you can do do this okay so just hear me say that it's it's an amazing thing when people find Freedom in one area of their life it seems like it opens up the door in other areas that they they long for that same level of Peace and Freedom you know that you've found and that part of your life and now that's transferring to your money and money you know was and is possibly in the present still a stressful a stressful place but we want to be able to to walk with you and and give you just some peace for a plan you know and I think it's one of those things too Larry that this can it can carry a lot of Shame and a lot of guilt because the hard thing with money is that you see the numbers of the past that stay with you and you have to you know face those and figure out what to do but but just know what you've done in this last year you can do this like you guys together can do this process is your is your marriage in a good spot you and your wife or you guys on the same team just at least from the financial standpoint that you guys are wanting to work a plan together yeah I mean we we've talked about it a lot and she just you know not the best with math so she leaves it up to me I don't want to you know stress her out too much but you know I I talk to her about it but I'm just still ashamed of it to you know talk too much okay okay so um yeah what I would suggest as we start working through the budget is I do want her to be involved and she doesn't have to be the one that you know is all excited about it and like gets in there every day and all the things but I want you guys to be in a constant communication and be on the same team uh cuz that's going to help with these day-to-day things because if the kids pipe up and want something there's a good chance you guys are going to look at them and say the famous words I always heard growing up it's not in the budget it's not in the budget like there's going to be times that you guys as a family are going to have to make some hard decisions to make these numbers work um and that's part of the process right that you're that you're learning how to do this and to find margin so so in every dollar we talk about yeah and as and you said you've walked through it but your income minus those expenses equaling zero and we have on every dollar premium which will give you after this call um if you don't have that one already it's our paid subscription part of every dollar but what's so great is they have a payment a paycheck planning application within it and so what ends up happening Larry we find that what's difficult is you plan out your month and you say okay we're going to spend you know 600 on groceries and then but then all of a sudden the the mortgage or the rent hits the electricity bill like how all the bills are lined up one paycheck of the first isn't going to cover it all right and you run out of money before those bills are paid so it'll help you figure that out yeah and it feels like you're broke in that sense and so what the paycheck planning part of every dollar does is it's able to show you hey here's where you're getting close to the red so what can you rearrange in your budget to make sure that that paycheck goes as far as you need it to go with some cushion even till you're paid again on you know the 15th or however often you're paid and so that that money then is going to be able to take you through it and then there is a goal Larry I would say from budgeting at least for me George is that you're kind of a paycheck ahead so you always have that cushion so instead of using the money that just hits your account you're kind of using the money from the paycheck before even um just to give you some breathing room to not feel like oh my gosh our count is getting down to zero right and so that may take a few paycheck Cycles to get in that place but um do you guys have any money saved at all do you have an emergency fund no um okay you know I I've been trying and anytime I do it and then you know something comes up and yeah what are the things that are coming up you've mentioned that a few times what are those kind of things you know just at the beginning of the school year school um you know my son you know has gained weight and lost a lot of weight and you know so we had to buy him a whole new you know wardrobe of clothes and his mother who is not my wife currently you know there's just a lot of you know stuff going on there like she you know I feel like sometimes I have to replace her because she CH other people over him and you know I try and overcompensate I'm not GNA lie to nobody yeah and I'm trying to get past that but yeah I hate seeing the way he's broken because of it and yeah it's just messing with me so yeah which is very understandable I mean I I see that and we see that a lot with families that there is that overcompensation of buying things for kids or wanting that and and I'll tell you Larry though at the end of the day what he needs and what he wants is is love and acceptance from the people in his life and that's you and so I mean and so that that is something that you you are going to have to be the adult in those situations and say you know that this toy is not going to be the thing that brings him lasting joy and acceptance and love like it's it's just not and so knowing that even though it is so easy just to run to stuff and buy stuff to make someone feel good for a moment you know there Pro there will be a boundary there so so I think that there's going to be a level of discipline that you and your wife I want you to get on the same page with her and say okay you know once we do this budget it's done and the kids are going to ask stuff is going to come up and we have to say no we have to stick to this because I want you to get $1,000 quickly if you guys don't have any money saved even getting a starter emergency fund of $1,000 it's going to free you up and as you go through every dollar again those are places where you're going to be able to say in categories okay we used to spend this much and not to eat we're not doing that and we're putting that aside here like you you really do sit there and take things away lower those expenses and then for you if there is a way to up some income for this season um I think it's one of the best things that you could do just to bring in some extra money too to get that ,000 and then start working your way through this debt and working your way to pay this debt off and and I mean there there is hope in this I mean we get these calls all the time you make 80 and you owe 43 this is a very fix fixable problem and it might take 2 years but we can get out of this so tactical things Larry uh you can add a miscellaneous category to the budget for some ankle biters you can also do it print out your bank statement and that way will you'll see a real picture of what was spent in the last few months that's going to help with this budget as well yeah and give it three months Larry I mean we're in February March April give it April May okay don't give up keep sticking with it but hold on the line Austin will pick up we're going to give you financial piece university our seven lesson course on money and every doll premium uh just to make sure that you guys um have the the knowledge that you need as you start this journey we're cheering for you create your free every dooll budget today the simplest way to budget for your life