Speaker 1: Budgeting is boring, right, It's all spreadsheets, hardmaths, and one
Speaker 1: hundred reasons you shouldn't go out for brunch anymore. But
Speaker 1: for She's on the Money founder Victoria Divine, budgets are
Speaker 1: anything but boring. Victoria's She's on the Money podcast gets
Speaker 1: over one million downloads every month and she's built a
Speaker 1: Facebook community of over one hundred and seventy thousand members.
Speaker 1: So why do we need to let go of the
Speaker 1: idea of using budgets purely as a restriction tool? And
Speaker 1: why does Victoria treat her budgets as an extension of
Speaker 1: her personality? And why do we need to rely less
Speaker 1: on technology when it comes to budgeting. My name is
Speaker 1: doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder
Speaker 1: of behavioral science consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work,
Speaker 1: a show about how how to help you do your
Speaker 1: best work. On today is my Favorite Tip episode, where
Speaker 1: you go back to an interview from the past and
Speaker 1: I pick out my favorite tip from the interview. In
Speaker 1: today's show, I speak with Victoria Divine and I wanted
Speaker 1: to know when it comes to budgeting, what are some
Speaker 1: of Victoria's favorite apps that she recommends to her clients.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, there are so many of them. When
Speaker 2: it comes to budgeting, though, before I tell you what
Speaker 2: my favorite apps are, I think understanding what a budget
Speaker 2: is is really important because there seems to be this
Speaker 2: idea that a budget is all about restricting what you
Speaker 2: are spending. It's all about saying, Okay, so I need
Speaker 2: a budget because I spend too much on groceries each
Speaker 2: week and I'm now going to cap it at one
Speaker 2: hundred dollars. So budgets make you feel restricted if you're
Speaker 2: not looking at them from an abundance mindset. So a budget,
Speaker 2: from that, she's on the money perspective, is much more
Speaker 2: about just really deeply understanding where your money goes and
Speaker 2: how it comes into your account and then how it
Speaker 2: leaves your account, and not so much around restricting exactly
Speaker 2: what the amounts should be, but rather looking at your
Speaker 2: account going Okay, I am a couple and I have
Speaker 2: two kids, and yeah, we spend three hundred dollars a
Speaker 2: week on groceries. Does that provide value to us? And
Speaker 2: if the answer is no, then cool, cut back your
Speaker 2: groceries and you know, be a bit more savvy there.
Speaker 2: But for a massive foodie like myself, I wouldn't want
Speaker 2: someone to cut my grocery budget. I'd want them to
Speaker 2: cut something else out before you tell me I can't
Speaker 2: have my fancy stuff. And I think that everybody is
Speaker 2: different in that way. So when you start to look
Speaker 2: at budgeting, it's actually making sure that your values are
Speaker 2: in line with the income coming in and going out
Speaker 2: of your account. And there are lots of different ways
Speaker 2: to manage it. So I've written a budget and cash
Speaker 2: flow course and I do that because or I've done
Speaker 2: that because I didn't feel like anything truly took you
Speaker 2: on the journey of understanding your money story, understanding what's
Speaker 2: coming in and going out, and creating a banking structure
Speaker 2: that really works. And I feel like it goes beyond
Speaker 2: what you could say budgeting apps do because it literally
Speaker 2: tells you, Okay, this is what you spend, These are
Speaker 2: the bank accounts I want you to have, and this
Speaker 2: is how I want you to manage it for success.
Speaker 2: Whereas a lot of my community also love apps like
Speaker 2: Pocketbook and we Money, and you know there are a
Speaker 2: million out there. It's just about what you actually value
Speaker 2: and what you want to track. Because some of these
Speaker 2: apps connect directly with your bank accounts and do data feeding,
Speaker 2: and some people aren't comfortable with that, so some people
Speaker 2: want to manually put it all into a spreadsheet. And
Speaker 2: to be honest, there's no right or wrong when it
Speaker 2: comes to budgeting as long as you are paying attention
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: If someone's just wanting to get started, and I love
Speaker 1: that explanation of a kind of a reframe of what
Speaker 1: a budget is, Like, what's a good go to app
Speaker 1: that's simple to get started if someone wants to, I
Speaker 1: guess we'll get more insight into where the money is
Speaker 1: going to me.
Speaker 2: It's actually the smart Money Go budgeting tool that you
Speaker 2: can download. I just feel like it's a free spreadsheet
Speaker 2: that you can fill in and get a good insight
Speaker 2: into what you're spending and saving. I'm not the most
Speaker 2: tech savvy person. There are lots of apps out there,
Speaker 2: but I feel like when it comes to money, you
Speaker 2: actually need to go back to basics and not rely
Speaker 2: on technology too much to tell you what percentage you're
Speaker 2: spending and reality. One of the most powerful things I
Speaker 2: find that my community is able to do is what
Speaker 2: I call a bank account audit, which is definitely as
Speaker 2: sexy as it sounds. And that's when you print off. Yes,
Speaker 2: print off, not do it online. I actually want you
Speaker 2: to hold the paper in your hands and have two
Speaker 2: different colors of highlighters, So printing off your bank statements
Speaker 2: from the last three months and then highlighting your discretionary
Speaker 2: costs and then highlighting your non discretionary costs. So these
Speaker 2: are the things that you don't really need to be
Speaker 2: spending money on and just having a good look at, well,
Speaker 2: where is my money going?
Speaker 1: Hello there. I hope you enjoyed this little excerpt of
Speaker 1: my chat with Victoria, and if you want to hear
Speaker 1: the whole interview, there is a link to that in
Speaker 1: the show notes. And if you're looking for more tips
Speaker 1: to improve the way that you work, I write a
Speaker 1: short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've
Speaker 1: discovered that helped me work better, which range from interesting
Speaker 1: research findings through to gadgets and software that I'm loving.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot cot
Speaker 1: That's how I Work dot co. How I Work is
Speaker 1: produced by Inventium with production support from dead Set Studios,
Speaker 1: and thank you to Martin Nimba who does the audio
Speaker 1: mix for every episode and makes everything sound much better
Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise. See you next time.