OK, so you know that feeling when payday hits and
everything's already been spoken for?
So whether that's your rent and your mortgage, groceries, gas,
those survival mode items, before you can even blink, it's
gone. So if you've been stuck in
survival mode lately, this episode is your road map to stop
that panic cycle and start rebuilding financial stability.
So I want you to know you are not alone.
Most families are one unexpected bill away from a huge amount of
stress. So today I will show you how to
move from barely hanging on to confidently setting aside your
first emergency fund without feeling like you're sacrificing
everything to make it happen. Hey there, I'm Jules the budget
nerd, and welcome to the Debt Rebel Show.
This is the place where working families like yours learn how to
stop living paycheck to paycheck, crush debt for good,
and build a life where money actually works for your family.
In about 15 minutes, I'll share practical family budgeting tips,
tough love strategies, and actionable steps to move toward
debt free living without the fluff, the shame, or the
confusion. And I know a thing or two about
this. My family and I have eliminated
over $107,000 in consumer debt and that was after I got my
degree in Economics. So stay tuned.
This is going to be a great episode.
So grab that coffee, your planner, whatever you need to
make this a great experience. Maybe a snack if you're like me.
And let's make your money work for your family.
All right, so if you got a chance to listen to the last
episode of the show, I talked about what happens when your
income is uncertain. So in specific reference to the
US government shutdown, as I'm recording this, it's still
happening. So it's on a day-to-day basis,
but a lot of families are shifting into survival mode for
their spending. And so that's what that episode
is about. And I want to talk about that
today. But what do you do after your
income returns or you want to create that financial stability
for yourself? So when this situation comes up,
it might look a little bit different next time you are
prepared. What survival mode looks like is
just being reactionary, living paycheck to paycheck and having
no margin for error. So when things come up, you are
putting him on a credit card, you are having to move money
around, maybe balance transfers on credit cards, that kind of
stuff. You're constantly in that fight
or flight financial mode. So I want to say I have been
there before. And I also want to talk about
what it looks like on an emotional and practical side
because sometimes we can just think this is the normal thing,
everyone does it. And I want to, I want to
challenge that belief and that thought because just because
other people are doing it doesn't make it right for us or
for our families. Some kind of things to be
thinking about, and I know I've been in this place before, is
checking our bank accounts before we ever make a purchase.
I remember one time I had checked the bank account, it was
payday and went grocery shopping and got up to the check stand
and swiped my card and it wasn't happening.
It was super embarrassing but I checked my account and before we
left and didn't realize that something else was had already
beat its way there and so it was.
Not only was it really embarrassing, but I had a cart
full of food. It's not like I was trying to
plan this amazing all inclusive trip to Mexico with my family.
I was trying to feed my family. It was a really unfortunate
situation. And so also maybe pulling up to
the gas pump and you're like, all right, let's hope I can fill
this thing up so you can get out of there and still actually be
able to pay for it, right? So all of those things are, I
want quote UN quote normal, but it's also when we are just
completely maxed out, when you're maxed out financially, it
does spill over in other areas. And so it doesn't allow you to
show up and be the best parent or the best spouse, maybe the
best team member, maybe the best employee.
It spills over in other areas. And there's a reason why I want
you to know that there is a way out.
And now that you have experienced the survival mode
budget and you've put that into place, which is the golden
ticket for helping you create this emergency fund is staying
in that a little bit longer. So if you listen to that last
episode, you created that the necessary expenses, so roof over
your head, food in your belly, in your family's bellies, and
then the necessities like medical and transportation to
and from work, those things are covered.
Everything else can stay paused until you get that emergency
fund set up. And that really is the key.
There's some other things we'll talk about too that you can add
in there. I have those also in my free
Debt Rebel starter kit that you can get on my website.
But this will help you create that buffer for yourself so that
when unexpected things in life come up, you can say it's OK, I
have an emergency fund. And also things change a little
bit when you have that emergency fund.
And I'll talk about that more in a little bit here.
But the one thing I want to encourage you is you're coming
out of survival mode. If we stay within that survival
mode budget for just a little bit longer, that's going to help
set us up for financial success in the future.
All right, so I want to talk about the OK, so your income has
come back. You are getting your regular
paycheck again, and it's super easy when you're coming out of
that survival mode time is to go back to your old spending
habits. And I really want to encourage
you to stay within that for just a little bit because this is
where you can create the massive progress in creating that
emergency fund. It's not time to, you know, go
splurge and go buy, you know, go buy that TV that you really
wanted. We're going to watch the TV that
we have and we're going to build this margin for ourselves and
for our families. One thing that I think sometimes
people, this is a common conversation that I have, is
that they'll create an emergency fund when their debt is paid
off. So I think that's a misnomer.
We don't need to be debt free to build an emergency fund.
And I would actually say this is the priority for you.
If you're thinking about being debt free at all or eliminating
the amount that you use your credit cards, It's the very
first step that my family and I took when we were getting out of
our debt. When we were eliminated,
$107,000 of our own debt was we made $1000 emergency fund.
Typically $1000 is going to cover these these things that
pop up in life. And so that's a great place,
great place to start. So how do you do it?
First off, when you're creating your budget, put that in there.
Put that as a line item in your budget and prioritize this along
with your survival mode expenses, those transportation
to and from work, your mortgage and utilities and food and then
put emergency fund in there. Now, this will help you make it
a priority. So let's break this down into
some actionable steps right now. Remember, this isn't for your
forever emergency fund. This is to help you get out of
that fight or flight mode when it comes to your finances.
It's the it's the panic. It's stop the panic button.
It is the piece that you need so that you can eliminate that debt
and you can create a little bit of a margin for yourself and
your family. Now the other thing is for
myself, this was very important is keep it separate from the
rest of your finances. So maybe it's at a different
financial institution. It absolutely needs to be
separate from your regular checking.
It could be at the same financial institution.
I found it's much easier to have it separate so that I'm not
just, you know, making these quick transfers to it.
You want to have access to it so that you can get to it within an
hour. So if it's something you need to
go to an ATM or something like that, or you can pop into the
bank to get the cash. But if it's out of sight, it's
out of swipe. And so you want to make sure
that it's accessible, but not right there so that you can just
make those make those transfers from that account to your
checking when stuff comes up that might not constitute a true
emergency. So now that's the other thing is
protecting it and making sure that defining what an emergency
is. So if you're managing your
finances with another person, talk with this other person
about what what an emergency looks like for you.
Now I love a fantastic deal and especially I love a great deal
on shoes and especially right now kids shoes because all my
stars and they grow out of them so fast.
But that is not an emergency. An emergency is I got a flat
tire and I need to be able to get to and from work.
An emergency is my sink is leaking and I need to call a
plumber and have someone come fix it.
Those types of things coming to an agreement on what a true
emergency is. And that's where having that
outside accountability is very helpful because we're not going
to say, you know what, I don't feel like cooking tonight.
And so that that counts as an emergency rate.
So I'm going to go get take out. So when you're in this, when
you're in this season, staying focused and deciding ahead of
time what an emergency, what constitutes an emergency will
help you stay in line with what matters and aligns with what
matters most to you and your family.
The other thing is if your income is back is setting up a
regular transfer on every payday, even if it is just $25,
that's going to be a separate line item in your in your put a
little bit towards it every single pay period and then
celebrate. So one thing I love doing is I
love celebrating with the members of the Alliance coaching
program is these small wins. It might feel like, Oh my gosh,
I only put $100 in my emergency fund this month, but that's so
huge. OK, let's celebrate that
together. Send me a voice note.
I'd love to celebrate with you on the show.
I'll leave that link in the show notes as well.
But every single bit celebrate, celebrate that because that is a
deposit into your family's financial future and it's going
to bring you Peace of Mind long term.
Now, when I say celebrate, I say don't go out and buy something
that's not don't do that as a celebration, but share it with
someone. Have a little celebration for
yourself and acknowledge that that is a step in the right
direction. And another one that I have
found it was very helpful for us is we started to is to go
through our home and get rid of things that didn't bring value
to our home anymore. And this one's a great way to
make some additional progress towards your emergency fund.
So we had one listener. If you check out episode 19,
this is how she created. It helped create her emergency
fund. She found $1900 from going
through the Debt Rebel Starter Kit and really focusing in on
the things that weren't bringing value to her family's life
anymore. So not only did she come up with
her $1000 emergency fund, but also helped get her debt
snowball going. And you can grab that Debt Rebel
Starter Kit. It's available on my website,
jewelsthebudgetnerd.com/starter Kit.
JEWLZ, the Budget nerd.com/starterkit, it's
totally free and it's going to give you a bunch of ideas on how
to create some margin in your budget so that you can put that
towards your emergency fund. Because we have a lot of money
that's hiding right in front of our face, OK?
So remember when we have a small emergency fund in place, even if
it, you know, 500 or $1000, we stop living in that fight or
flight mode and that is where we can breathe easier and we can
make decisions with confidence instead of that fearful mode.
It's also going to protect your family.
It's going to protect your Peace of Mind and it's going to break
that paycheck to paycheck cycle. And that's what this show is all
about is helping you line align your finance so it matter.
It matches that you're spending matches what matters most to you
and your family and breaking that dreaded paycheck to
paycheck cycle. So this is your this is your
ticket. This is the golden ticket.
Create not emergency fund. So I wanted to send a personal
invite. If you have been listening to
the show for a little bit and you've heard about the alliance
coaching program. We are now enrolling and so I
would love to have you join us for that additional
accountability. But there's also all of the
previous workshops that I've done and the teachings and you
can get those all on demand, but also you get monthly coaching
from myself and you can learn more about that on my website as
well. All right, Rebel.
So to wrap up today, I would love to know what your action
step is going to be for today from listening to this episode.
Are you going to grab that debt Ripple starter kit and get to
work on it? If you do, please send me a
voice note and let me know. And let me know which one of
those items you took some action on, whether it was calling your
credit card company and asking for a lower interest rate or
maybe it is just meal planning. But grab that Debt Rebel starter
kit. It's going to give you a bunch
of other ways. And so you can get to that $1000
faster and eliminate that debt even faster.
All right, thank you so much for listening and we'll 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 DEBT REDEL podcast.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
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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.