Sept 18, 2024
Episode Description
Does the word budgeting send you into an instant shame spiral? Are you tired of starting (and quickly falling off) every budget you’ve tried to implement? In this episode we dive into the unique challenges neurodivergent folks face when it comes to budgeting and how to create a money plan that actually works for your brain. You’ll learn tons of tips and tricks for making budgeting more approachable, sustainable, and FUN!
Thanks for listening to Dopamine Dollars! If you enjoyed the episode, I’d love it if you could leave a review 💚
Important Links
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts HERE.
Listen to this episode on Spotify HERE.
Check out Lina + Lubna’s GoFundMe HERE.
Get the Dopamine Dollars budget template HERE.
Learn more about the Neuro$picy Money Method HERE.
Download my free Financial Audit template HERE.
Download my free spending tracker HERE.
Listen to the financial audit podcast episode HERE.
Listen to the 5-account system podcast episode HERE.
Let’s Stay Connected!
Follow me on Instagram: @ellyce.fulmore
Follow me on TikTok: @queerd.co
Check out my website: www.queerdco.com
Stock Music provided by LevelUpMusicSolutions, SunSmileMusic, LeChuckz, goodmoodmusic, and SoundKit, from Pond5. Music: Dreams – Bensound License code: XCGCFKGCETKYVIX8 Support by RFM – NCM: https://bit.ly/3c8WxMf Music: Divergence by Filo Starquez is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Support by RFM – NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM
Transcript
A big issue that I see is people create a budget based on either estimated numbers or ideal numbers. As you can probably guess, they struggle to stick to these budgets.
We’re back. Did you miss me? Because I missed you. That is literally the audio playing in my brain right now because we are back for season two of dopamine dollars.
I’m your queer AuDHD host, Ellyce Fulmore, and today we are talking about everyone’s favorite topic, budgeting. Just kidding.
I know that even mentioning the word budgeting for a lot of you is probably sending you into fight or flight mode, but that is exactly why it is so important for us to talk about it and why I decided to do an episode on it.
We are going to talk about how to actually create a budget, different budgeting systems that you could use, some general neurospicy budgeting tips, and then end off with some ways to gamify the process and make budgeting more fun.
A very exciting update right off the bat of season two is that we now are going to have video. So this episode that I’m recording right this moment, I’m also filming it and it’s going to be on YouTube.
So if you are someone who likes video podcasting and you like watching the video instead of listening to the audio, then you’re in luck because you can now watch the podcast.
So you can find it by either typing Ellyce Fulmore into YouTube or typing in dopamine dollars. Either one, and it should pop up.
Once you find my page, make sure to hit subscribe so that you can get notified every time I post a new episode.
For right now, I’m just going to be posting my podcast episodes on that YouTube channel. In the future, I hope to do other videos on other topics and do actual like, YouTube videos.
So yeah, that’s something fun to look forward to. Another very exciting update for all of you is that I will be running a cohort of the neurospicy money method very soon.
If you’re interested in the neurospicy money method, which is a six week group coaching program for people who are neurodivergent to help you manage your money, then definitely go to the show notes and join the waitlist.
I’m really excited for this cohort. I think it’s going to be really awesome and really fun.
If you want more information on it, just follow the link in the show notes. It will take you to the page of my website that gives you more details about the program and what it looks like, including the pricing and everything like that.
And then if after reading through that you’re interested, you think it might be a good fit, then definitely go ahead and join the waitlist.
Another very exciting update is that we raised over $1,600 for the family in Gaza that we are fundraising for from the sales of the dopamine dollars budget template.
So thank you so much to everyone. Everyone who purchased the template during the month of August, 25% of the sales went toward Lena and Lumna’s family who we are fundraising for.
And if you do want to contribute to their fundraiser, I will link it in the show notes there’s a GoFundMe link.
We are still a long ways out from our goal and so if you have the means to donate that would be amazing. But otherwise, thank you so much for everyone who purchased the template. It really goes a long way with this family. So when you hear the word budget, you might automatically think of boring spreadsheets and tracking every single dollar and just tedious work that you have to do.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. A budget is simply a plan for your money, and it can be as specific or broad as you want, and there are endless types of systems that you can use to budget with.
The endless options and approaches to managing your money is actually part of what makes budgeting so overwhelming.
One study found that people with ADHD are three times more likely to find it difficult to stick to a budget than those who don’t have ADHD.
Traditional budgeting doesn’t always fit with how our brains work. Neurotypical advice can feel restrictive or overwhelming, and then comes the shame spiral when we can’t stick to our budget.
Whether it’s executive dysfunction, time blindness, or impulsive spending, we’re up against some unique challenges. So let’s talk about why budgeting is so hard for us. Number one is executive dysfunction.
For those that don’t know, executive function is a set of cognitive processes that enable us to plan, organize and execute tasks. They include things like your working memory, impulse control, time management, and more.
Your executive function is basically like the manager of your brain. Executive dysfunction is actually one of the characteristics of neurodivergence that is present in almost every diagnosis under the neurodivergent umbrella.
The degree to which they are affected and how that shows up in your life differs from person to person. Research shows that executive dysfunction can impact your finances by making it difficult to initiate and follow through with tasks like budgeting, tracking expenses, or planning for the future.
You might struggle with consistency when it comes to your finances due to challenges with maintaining routines or the ability to adjust your budget in response to new information.
Our next challenge is time blindness. Time blindness is when you experience a skewed perception of time, and it can result in difficulty estimating how long tasks will take or the ability to prioritize between short term and long term goals.
Now, the thing with budgeting is that it often involves thinking about the future and planning for the future, whether that’s just planning for for the bills that you need to pay later this month, or whether it’s saving up for even just like maintenance on your vehicle or the vet bills that you have every year.
And then, of course, things like retirement or other long term financial goals. For those of you who struggle with time blindness, you might find that the future feels too abstract, which can make it really hard to save money or track expenses over longer periods of time.
Another challenge is dopamine deficiency. People with ADHD and other types of neurodivergence may have lower dopamine levels, which affects motivation and reward processing.
This connects to budgeting because typically traditional budgeting doesn’t give you any sort of immediate rewards because it’s probably boring.
And without that quick dopamine hit, it’s easy to lose interest in sticking to that plan.
This deficiency can also lead to impulsive spending because you can get that quick little dopamine hit from spending money.
The act of impulse spending or engaging in other impulsive behaviors can be a way for you to combat boredom, stress, or those low dopamine levels.
This behavior can lead to financial instability as these unplanned expenses can really derail your budgeting efforts.
Next is emotional regulation, and this refers to difficulty managing emotions. The thing with budgeting is that it’s not just about the numbers.
Your financial decisions are likely very emotionally charged as well, which ties into basically my whole philosophy around money is that we really need to understand the person first and like your own unique situation identity and why you care about things, why you want things like that is a really important piece of the puzzle to understand before even talking about the numbers.
When we’re talking about budgeting in specific, it’s really important to understand how your emotions play into the decisions that you’re making or the behaviors that you have, because that is likely a big indicator of what might need to change in the future.
You might be engaging in emotional spending as a coping mechanism or be struggling with feelings of shame or guilt around money, which can result in avoidance of financial planning and budgeting altogether.
Another challenge is task initiation which shows up as an inability to start tasks due to feeling so overwhelmed.
Budgeting requires breaking down complex tasks like organizing expenses, categorizing your spending, and tracking your progress.
It can feel overwhelming and scary to start, which leads to you freezing when faced with the task of budgeting. Now, obviously different types of neurodivergence have different challenges, and one in specific that I want to highlight is difficulty with numbers, percentages and calculations.
This is really true if you are someone who has dyscalculia, as this affects your ability to understand numbers and math. This might make it hard for you to calculate your expenses and income, or to plan out savings and debt repayment goals.
Your brain just doesn’t process those numbers in the same way. I want you to take a moment to reflect on which of these challenges that I just listed show up in your finances and how they affect your ability to budget or manage your money.
Thinking about these challenges may make you feel a little discouraged, and I get it. I’ve been there too, and I know that the guilt and the shame from not being able to follow a budget can feel really bad, really overwhelming, really scary.
But it’s important to remember that it’s not a personal failure. The purpose of me highlighting these challenges that neurodivergent people often face when it comes to budgeting is to really help you understand that so much of your budgeting struggles are not your fault.
Your brain is just wired differently, and if anything, this is just a sign that we need a different approach.
The key to overcoming these challenges is to understand how they show up for you and then creating budgeting systems that support those struggles, like making budgets that are highly visual, automated and reward based, providing immediate feedback and structure to support your long term goals.
So what can we do instead? How do we budget in a way that actually works for our brains? Before we dive into strategies, we have to start with the basics.
A budget is simply a plan for your money and the system in which you use to stick to that plan. So the first component of a budget involves you understanding how much money you have coming in and where you want that money to go.
The second component of a budget is the system you use to actually implement your money plan so that you’re able to stick to it each month.
Before we talk about the systems and how to make budgeting more fun, first we have to know what numbers we are working with. A big issue that I see is people create a budget based on either estimated numbers or ideal numbers.
Either they are guessing approximately how much things cost and how much they are spending or they are using numbers that are based on an idealized version of their financial behavior.
So almost like what they wish they were doing, but not actually what they’re currently doing, because those numbers aren’t based on where their money is actually going.
As you can probably guess, they struggle to stick to these budgets. So this is why it’s important to take inventory of your current income, expenses, debt, savings and spending, which will allow you to create a more accurate money plan.
Now, I have a few resources to help you do this, so I will link them in the show notes, but the first two are my free financial audit and my free spending tracker. Now, the financial audit is essentially you just taking inventory of your income, expenses, any bank accounts and credit cards that you have, savings and debt.
So you’re taking note of where you’re currently at and what those numbers actually are and basically track your spending from the past month to see kind of an idea, at least, of where you’re putting your money each month.
And you can also backtrack so you could pull up your statements from the previous month if you don’t want to track in real time. So if you haven’t done these already, I highly recommend starting there.
There also is an entire podcast episode talking about the financial audit and walking you through it, which you can listen to while completing the financial audit yourself.
Now, in my new budget template, which is not free, it’s $15. But in that template, I’ve actually designed it specifically to help you with this exact thing as well.
It’s going to show you all your numbers, so it’s going to show you, here’s how much income you’re getting a month, here’s how much your expenses are per month, here’s how much you want to put toward saving, how much you want to put toward investing, how much you want to put toward debt repayment.
And then it will subtract all those numbers from your income, and the last number you’ll get is how much you have for spending. And if that number is in the negative, then you’re currently planning to spend more money than you’re making.
So you’d want to adjust that, basically end up with at least a positive number for that spending because you want to have at least some fun money per month. Essentially.
Like, I designed the whole template to help you with that because I feel like this is such an important part of budgeting that can be really difficult to conceptualize.
As you collect this information, I encourage you to try and approach it with a neutral lens we are simply gathering information that will help us make changes moving forward.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this task, try breaking it down into sections, like just auditing your income on one day and then doing your expenses on another day, etcetera.
You can also try turning it into more of a positive, fun experience by putting on some good music, surrounding yourself with comforting items like whatever that is to you.
Maybe weighted blanket, a heating pad, your favorite cozy pajamas, things like that. Grab your favorite beverage or snack and set a timer and see how much you can get done in 20 minutes or 30 minutes or ten minutes.
And then once the timer goes off, if you’re feeling like you want to keep going, you can, but you also have permission to stop when the timer goes off.
Basically, you want to start with making sure that your monthly expenses are covered. Then allocate money toward your financial goals, whether that is debt repayment or savings or both.
And then lastly, you want to ensure that you have a little bit of money left for spending, but that’s essentially kind of your last priority.So you’re really considering your expenses like your essentials and then your current goals.
First, if you are someone with an inconsistent income, you’re going to want to get an idea of your average, lowest and highest income months over, like at least the last six months.
So there’s a section in the financial audit for this, as well as my budget template that will automatically calculate your average and highest and lowest income months as you input the income from the last six months.
And I personally recommend creating a budget around your lowest monthly income to ensure that your basics are covered and then have a plan in place for months when you make more.
One way that you can do this is by having three different budget plans. So one for low, medium, and high income months, so that you know exactly ahead of time where to allocate that additional money.
So you’re kind of creating your budget around the low income month. So the low income plan. But then on months where you make that, like medium income or high income, obviously those numbers will be based on what’s medium for you and what’s high for you, but you’ll have those plans.
And then maybe that involves, like, putting more towards savings or putting more toward debt repayment, or maybe giving yourself a little extra spending money, however you want to allocate that.
But it’s set in place ahead of time, which can really help because I think when we get a little bit extra money that we weren’t expecting, it’s easy to just spend that money without thinking about it.
And so having these plans in place can really help you avoid that, maybe like impulsive action with that extra money. Remember that doing the financial audit and tracking your spending will give you your current numbers.
So it’s important when you create a plan from this that you’re being realistic about the changes that you want to make. So, for example, if you’re currently spending $800 a month on variable expenses, like that’s kind of your spending money right now, you probably don’t want to immediately cut that down to $200 a month because that’ll likely be hard to stick to.
So essentially, by the end of this, by doing this financial audit, tracking your spending, figuring out what your numbers are right now, you’re going to want to, at the end of it, come out with a clear idea of your income each month.
Whether you get a consistent income or a fluctuating income, the cost of your monthly recurring expenses, how much you’re contributing to your financial goals like savings and debt repayment, and how much money you’ll have left over for spending. As you are manipulating these numbers, keep in mind what you are budgeting for.
So what is the goal that you are trying to reach and how does your money plan reflect that? Is your goal to get out of debt? Is it to save for a trip? Is it to have more money for fun, without guilt? Your main goal was, say, to get out of debt.
If I were to look at your money plan and the way that you’ve broken down where your money is going to go, would it be obvious and clear to me that debt repayment is the focus beyond covering your essential expenses, is that kind of the main place that you’re allocating money? If not, then maybe something needs to be adjusted, right?
You want to make sure that the numbers are actually referred reflecting what the goal is. And that is essentially the first part of your budget. You have that money plan.
Now that you have a plan, it’s time to find a system. One of the biggest issues I see with budgeting systems is that people are trying to follow a method that just doesn’t work or make sense for their values, goals, lifestyle and the way that their brain works.
We want a system that is sustainable and easy to implement into your life. So before picking a system, there are some things that I want you to consider your situation systems that work your values and goals.
So when it comes to your situation, I want you to think about, first off, the time commitment. So how much time do you realistically have every week or every month to commit to a budgeting system.
Your answer to that might change the type of system that would work for you. So, for example, I am currently following my budgeting template, which does involve me tracking my variable spending every month.
So I do have to go in and input that. I really enjoy doing that and it keeps me really connected to my numbers. But if you are someone who is hearing that and is like, oh my gosh, I already know that, I don’t have time for that, I don’t want to do that, then you might want a system that is more automated or just like easier to do on the go, like an app or something like that.
Another thing to consider about your situation is your income schedule. So how do you get paid? Do you have a consistent or inconsistent income? Do you get paid weekly, bi weekly? Monthly?
This payment schedule, again, might impact what kind of system you want to use and whether or not you want to budget monthly, budget per paycheck, or some other structure.
I also think when we’re talking about your situation, it’s also important to consider, just like, who you are as a person, how your brain works. Which of those, like, neurodivergent challenges do you face when it comes to budgeting?
Being brutally honest with yourself at this stage and not picking things based on an aspirational version of your yourself. Like, I think it’s great to want to improve ourselves and to, you know, achieve a different kind of life than maybe we have right now.
But I think a lot of times we get caught up in, like, dreaming about who we could be, and that actually in itself does it gives us a hit of dopamine when we’re like, setting goals and imagining daydreaming all these things.
But if you’re constantly, like, choosing tools based off an aspirational version of yourself, what’s actually going to happen is it’s probably going to be too big of a jump right off the bat, and then you’re going to struggle to stick to it, and then there goes, like, the guilt and the shame spiral, and it’s just not going to feel good.
Try to really be honest about where you’re at right now, and that’s what we’re going to pick a system for. And you can always update it in the future. Right.
But we want to really meet ourselves where we are at. Okay. The next thing to consider before we pick a system is systems that work.
I want you to think about in general in your life, what systems or tools work well for you. And you can think about this in relation to all areas of your life.
So, like, if you go to school or your job or when it comes to, like, moving your body or cooking and cleaning, you know, anything in your life, maybe things that help you are having items visible so that you remember them.
Maybe you need to write things down or you’ll forget. Maybe you like using colored pens. You like rewarding yourself. Often you use sticky notes. You really excel when body doubling or having external accountability.
You love setting deadlines for yourself. Like what are things that have worked for you? You also want to think about what type of budgets or aspects of a budget have worked for you before, what hasn’t worked for you?
And you can use that information when selecting a budget system to kind of pick one that might play to the things that have worked well in the past and not include the things that haven’t worked well now.
In addition to that, I also want you to think about whether you’re the type of person that prefers specific guidelines or whether you’re someone who likes more freedom.
And you can think about this in terms of like, planning out your day like a day of work. Are you someone who time blocks everything and plans out exactly when you’re going to accomplish each task and has like a really detailed to do list and schedule and all those things?
Or are you someone who prefers to have more freedom with how you tackle tasks and when you tackle tasks throughout the day, basically you’re just thinking about whether you like more freedom or more structure.
And this might be helpful when we think about budgeting. The last thing to consider before picking a system is your goals and values.
Think about what is the most important financial goal that you want to accomplish in the next year. What does your budget need to include in order to help you achieve this goal?
Let’s say, like me in specific, as many of you might know, because I shared on social media, my partner and I set the goal of saving $80,000 in eight months for a down payment on a house.
That is like my number one financial goal in the next year. And in terms of what my budget needs in order to help me achieve this goal is that it needs a way to track my savings.
Like a very clear way that I can see my savings progress, a visual of my savings progress. And also it needs to be just like very enticing and colorful and dopamine inducing in order to basically incentivize me to keep coming back to it and tracking my numbers, because I know that I’m going to have to be really strict and tight with my budget and my numbers in order to reach this goal.
So I really want to stay on track with the budget. So the budgeting system needs to kind of support that. So that’s an example for me personally, but you just kind of want to think about that and you also want to think about your personal values.
So what type of budgeting system would support and align with your values, or what type of system would allow you to use your money in a way that aligns with your values? Things like that.
All right, so now that you’ve reflected on those different aspects, it’s time to actually dive into what budgeting system you are going to implement to stick to your money plan.
Keep in mind that there are endless options and I’m just going to give you some ideas, but hopefully that will give you a jumping off point to find the system for you.
You may also want to use a combination of some of these suggestions. So one option for budgeting is just using automation paired with like my five account system or some sort of account system as your budget. It’s like a digital envelope system.
So you’re separating out your money into different categories and then setting up automation so that as soon as you get paid, your paycheck is then distributed and split up into these different accounts and essentially like siloed out so you don’t have like a lump sum of money sitting somewhere that you can spend.
Instead, it’s like all being accounted for. And then in those individual accounts, you also have automation set up so that all of your bills are paid automatically and money is put into your savings accounts automatically and things like that.
It’s just running on autopilot for you. And that is in itself a budget. You could also use spreadsheets and there’s lots of options for this. You can create your own. You can use some free ones online.
I know, like Google Sheets does have like a basic free template available. You can use a template like dopamine dollars that I created. You can also purchase endless options off of etsy. Really, there’s so many different options now that you can really find one that meets your specific needs.
And as I said earlier, you can also use a combination of techniques. So I personally use a combination of both of these things I just mentioned.
I use the automated system and then I also use my dopamine dollars spreadsheet because I like having my money run on autopilot, but I also like tracking where it’s going and seeing whether or not I’m staying on track. Some other budgeting systems you could use are a notion board.
Basically, you can have different pages for different things. There’s so many things you can do with notion. I know there people who have finance notion boards for sale out there, and there also is, I believe, quite a few, like free ones that have some finance features in them.
So that’s definitely something to look into first. But that would be another one, especially if you’re someone who already uses and loves notion. You can also use budgeting apps, things like you need a budget or rocket money or there’s other, a lot of other apps out there and use apps like that to track your progress and to set different goals and essentially stick to your budget using those budgeting apps.
If you are someone who doesn’t want a digital version of a budget and you prefer more of like physical or pen and paper, you could do a bullet journal budget.
If you are someone who likes bullet journaling, if you’ve never bullet journaled before, then this probably might not be the best way to dip your toes in.
But if you are already doing it, that’s a great way to implement a budgeting system. You can also use a printable budget template. There’s free ones available on canva or other ones that you could buy and download from different creators where basically
it’s like your budget for the month or for the week and you’re just writing it out. Pen and paper, but it has like sections for you to kind of organize it and track your expenses and things like that.
You can also just do like a basic pen and paper system where you decide what that looks like, whether that’s just like writing down your expenses and looking through, you know, your transactions.
Whatever you know kind of works for your brain. When it comes to finding a system that works, you may need to experiment and try out a few different options. As you’re trying out these different systems, pay attention to aspects that you do and don’t like.
Make sure that the system is one that feels doable more long term, and not something that would become super overwhelming in a few weeks time.
And as I often say, remember that tools expire. Don’t be discouraged if a system that was working for you is no longer working. Just ditch the shame, move on, and switch to a different system instead.
Something I do personally recommend that I found helpful is basically having like a roster of two to three budgeting tools or techniques that I have already kind of vetted and tried out that I know work with me to some extent and that I enjoy to some extent, and then basically like cycling through those.
So I use one until it’s no longer working for me, no longer stimulating my brain, no longer exciting me. Then I’ll switch to the next one and kind of rotate through that way.
And then by the time I get back to the first one, it feels a little bit more novel and exciting. And that’s a way to kind of keep it freshen, but also be prepared because you have this like roster essentially.
Woohoo.
Okay, now you’ve got your plan and your system, so let’s talk about some general neurospicy budgeting tips and then we will end off with ways to gamify budgeting a bit more.
Tip number one, use automation to reduce your mental load. So I talked a bit about automation already, but just to kind of expand on it, you can set up automatic transfer transfers for things like savings contributions, investment contributions, or debt payments.
You can also set up automatic bill payments so things like your phone bill or Internet come out automatically from your account instead of you having to go and manually pay them.
You can also set up auto pay for your credit cards so that at least the minimum payment is automatically paid each month and so you don’t run into any late or missed payments. Removing the need to remember these things or to take action even on times when you’re struggling with your mental health really helps to combat executive dysfunction and overall just reduce the mental load of money altogether.
And any way that we can do that as a neurodivergent person is a big win. Now I will say that automation doesn’t work for everyone.
For some people it is more. It feels more stressful to do that. So if it does feel really scary to do that, then you definitely don’t need to.
You can also start really small by setting up like an automation to your savings of like $5 a month and then slowly increasing it as you feel more comfortable.
Also, if you are someone who’s in a very tight like paycheck to paycheck situation, automation might also note work the best because you might end up in a situation where you have an automation coming out of your account, but the money from your paycheck, say, hasn’t hit your account or something like that.
Now, of course, that could still happen even if you’re not living paycheck to paycheck, but I think it’s just it can happen more often in those really tight financial situations.
Automation can still work well in those instances, though, it’s really just up to what you feel good with. Tip number two is to implement visual tools so neurodivergent brains love visuals and using a visual budget template.
Like, not to butter my own bun here, but like the dopamine dollars budget template. It’s so good. Okay, it has color coded trackers, spending calendars, and debt payoff visuals.
Like finding some sort of system with a lot of visuals is really helpful because seeing everything at a glance and being able to like, actually visualize, you know what that $500 toward your savings actually looks like just makes it easier to understand. You can also achieve this by having like a visual bill calendar.
By like having a calendar on your wall where you’ve written out when bills are due throughout the month, or when you get paid, or when automatic transfers happen.
You can also have colorful trackers for your debt and savings progress. These also help create just like instant dopamine hit when you fill them out, which helps increase motivation.
Tip number three is to try micro budgeting. So what this means is that you break your budget into smaller and more manageable chunks, like setting a weekly or even daily budget instead of monthly.
Some of you might be doing this already, but this could be an option for those of you that feel overwhelmed by setting a budget for the entire month. It can be less overwhelming to do a micro budget.
And this way, if you say you have a daily budget and you mess up one day, you can just easily reset the next day. And sometimes it’s harder to kind of get back on track on a monthly level.
However, for me personally, this doesn’t work super well because my spending just ebbs and flows too much throughout the month to make sense for me to try to stick to the same budget every day. But everyone’s different, so this might work really well for you.
Tip number four is to set up notifications. So turn on banking alerts or notifications to remind you of important deadlines or metrics, or like when your account drops below a certain amount or whenever a bill is withdrawn or things like that.
It does depend on your financial institution which sort of notifications and alerts you can actually set up, but definitely worth looking into it and seeing what options there are because some of them might be really helpful for you.
Tip number five is work toward budgeting for the month ahead. So how this works is that you would work toward saving up one month worth of income into a high yield savings account, and then you start budgeting one month ahead of time once you have that amount saved up.
So, for example, the income that you receive in September will actually be used to cover October and so on. So you’re always kind of operating one month ahead.
And this is especially helpful if you are someone with an inconsistent income because then like, the money that you’re getting this month is actually going to be used to budget for next month.
But that way you know ahead of time exactly how much money to budget with instead of just like going through the month and like waiting to see how much you make. Right. So obviously this takes some time to like save up one month ahead of time.
But this is definitely a great goal to have because it can really help create consistency even if you are someone who experiences a lot of inconsistency, which actually ties in amazing to my next tip.
Tip number six, which is create consistency within inconsistency. So if you have a fluctuating income, you can create some consistency for yourself by depositing all of your income into a high yield savings account and then paying yourself a consistent income each month.
So during the months where you make more, you’re holding back a portion of that extra income and it’s just staying in that savings account. And then in low income months, it’s evening out because you’re there, then taking that extra money to still pay yourself the same amount.
And this turns your irregular income into a more predictable stream, which makes budgeting easier.
Tip number seven is create flexibility by setting annual goals instead of monthly goals. So if you have a fluctuating income or you just don’t like placing strict restrictions on yourself and you like having more freedom, you might like this approach to goal setting.
How it works is that instead of setting a goal of like, I want to invest dollar 500 a month, you would set a goal like, I want to invest $6,000 a year.
So this way you’re not putting the pressure on yourself to like, contribute the exact same amount per month. And really like, the monthly amount you contribute doesn’t matter, matter to an extent, as long as you reach your annual goal, right.
And I found this really helpful because certain months, like, especially in the summer, I spend a lot more. Or like, there’s more things that I want to spend on.
I don’t know, we go out for dinner more, we’re hanging out with friends more, we’re like doing more events, maybe we’re traveling more. And so I would rather allocate more money toward those things and like, put less into savings on those months.
But then for like December, January, February, I’m basically a hermit and not doing anything. And so those are months where I can ramp up the savings and basically reduce how much money I’m spending and increase my savings to kind of even out and by setting that annual goal, I was, like, still reaching my goals, but it wasn’t hinging on me doing the exact same thing every month.
Tip number eight is to implement budget reset days. We all know what it’s like to fall off of a plan that we’ve set, and it’s okay to start fresh. And I think actually implementing specific days to do this can be helpful.
So what you can do is set up regular budget reset days. Maybe that’s every week, twice a month, once a month, you know, whatever you want to assess what’s working and what’s not working without the shame attached to it.
So if you did fall off your system, be honest about whether or not something needs to change or whether it was like something else. Like, is it the budgeting system that needs to change? Or were you just going through a lot in your life? And maybe the support system or the coping mechanisms in your life need to change, right?
So, like, be honest about what needs to change and then make those changes if you need to, or make other changes in your life and just jump right back into it. It’s kind of like you’re giving yourself a permission to hit reset on the budget for the month and start again based on the day that you are at currently.
And I think that, like, having those planned ahead of time helps remove some of the shame because you’re like, oh, it’s my budget reset day. I was a little bit off, but it’s okay. Now it’s time for a reset.
Tip number nine is to create sinking funds for irregular expenses or off months. Some expenses don’t come up every month, like things like car repairs or holidays or people’s birthdays or medical expenses. And sinking funds can help you save up gradually for these irregular costs.
So how it would work is that you would put a small amount in every month to this sinking fund. So it could be like $5, $10, $20, depending on how much you need to have saved for that thing.
But you’re putting that in each month. You’re like, hardly even noticing it because it’s a small amount. But then when those irregular expenses come up, you have money, you have a little nest egg for those things, and so it doesn’t completely throw off your budget.
I also really recommend having a sinking fund that’s either like a mental health sinking fund or I like to call it an, oh, sinking fund. Basically a sinking fund for times where you’re going through a tough mental health month and you do impulse spend or you spend more on takeout or you need to get more medication or go to therapy or something like that, and it was costs that you weren’t anticipating.
This mental health sinking fund can help cover those costs and again, keep you consistent with your budget.
Tip number ten is to set reminders. So use your phone or apps like notion or teemo to send budget reminders or automate tracking for you so you don’t have to remember every little detail.
If managing money feels draining, something you’re not excited about and you don’t want to like, schedule a chunk into your calendar, what I recommend instead is like scheduling out little short, manageable bursts of like ten minutes, five minutes throughout your day.
So it can be like a short little budget check in or like a quick little moment where you, you know, input as many expenses for the week that you can like, it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as like, I’m going to go sit down and budget for like an hour.
It’s like, oh, I could just have to do ten minutes. I’ll set a timer and bang it out before I go for lunch. That can be a way to kind of break it down into a little bit of a more manageable task.
Budgeting when you’re neurodivergent or just when you’re anyone is not one size fits all. You really want to personalize your system based on your unique challenges and goals and what motivates you.
And budgeting also doesn’t have to be boring. So here are some ways to gamify the process. I’m just going to kind of rapid fire go through these first one, implement a reward system.
Give yourself a dopamine hit by rewarding even the tiniest progress. So break down your goals into tiny little milestones and action steps.
Then set up a system where you get small treats or experiences for sticking to your budget for a week or hitting a safe savings goal.
You could also try a gamified money app like Fortune City, which is a really fun app where essentially as you track your expenses, you get to build a little city and it’s really fun and cute.
You can make your budgeting system more colorful or implement color coding. If that’s something that really just, like, itches your brain, you can use fancy pens or stickers, pair visual trackers.
With a reward system, you could tackle your budget with somebody else. If you are someone who really thrives off of body doubling or like external accountability, create a budgeting system with your partner, with your friend, and like, have it be like a fun hangout time where you tackle this thing you tackle your budgeting and then you move on to like a fun activity together.
I’ve mentioned the timer a few times, but racing against the clock is a great way to introduce some competition against yourself. Another way to make budgeting more fun is to work in your hyper fixations or special interests.
So things that you love and enjoy, like see how you can work those into your budget. For example, I created a savings tracker based on the different eras of Taylor Swift where like, as you went through the tracker and colored in different things, there was like different sections for each of her albums.
That is a fun way to like work in something that you like into your budgeting system. Okay, I have been yapping for so long, so we’re gonna wrap it up. If budgeting has felt impossible for you, I hope this episode and the tips that I provided help make it feel a little bit more doable.
Remember that it’s about finding what works for you. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new systems until you find a your flow.
One last thing I want to remind you of is that budgeting is a learning process and it’s okay if you don’t get it right the first time.
You likely won’t get it right the first time. It’s going to probably take some trial and error, some experimentation. You will likely need to adjust and tweak your system to fit your lifestyle or to adjust to changes that happened.
And that’s totally okay and totally normal and really part of the process.
And as we’ve mentioned, one system may not work for you forever and that is also okay. Be gentle with yourself and remember that we are aiming for all or something, not all or nothing.
All right friends, that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening to dopamine dollars.
And remember, you’re not bad at budgeting. You’re just neurodivergent.
If you liked today’s episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with any of your neurodivergent friends who might benefit from learning a little bit more about budgeting.
