Money Habits & ADHD: Consistency Isn’t Discipline—It’s This | 112

Forget discipline—your ADHD brain needs rhythm, not willpower. Learn how to build family budgeting and ADHD money habits that actually stick by ditching all-or-nothing cycles and choosing ONE repeatable system. We're breaking down why motivation fades, how to build a rhythm your brain trusts, and the single weekly habit that unlocks consistency without burnout. Stop restarting your budget. Start building rhythms that work for your neurobiology.

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Podcast Disclaimer:

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only. As a financial coach, I share insights, strategies, and tools to help you make more confident decisions with your money—but personal finance is personal. Your situation, priorities, and goals are unique, and what works for one person may not be the right fit for you.

This content should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. I encourage you to seek guidance from a trusted financial professional who can understand your full financial picture and provide personalized recommendations.

Additionally, while we may discuss topics related to stress, habits, and behavior, I am not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Any insights shared are based on personal experience and research and are not intended to diagnose, treat, or replace professional medical or psychological advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider for support in those areas.

By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are responsible for your own financial and personal decisions.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome back Debt Rebels.
This is the Debt Rebel show, andI am Jules the budget nerd.
I'm so glad that you're here. We're in the middle of a little
series about just the most commonly asked ADHD and money
questions. And so the last few episodes
we've talked about why our brains want to avoid our bank
accounts. We talked about figuring out

(00:22):
where our money is actually going.
So maybe impulse spending some of those things.
So if you haven't had a chance to listen, go back and check out
those last few episodes. They're super helpful because if
you're like me and you're managing ADA symptoms as well as
your personal finances, it can be a perfect storm and not in
the best way possible, right? This is the kind of stuff where

(00:44):
our brains can be our own worst enemies, but we can help set
them up for success. And so today, we're going to be
talking about staying consistentwith our money even if we have
to manage those ADHD symptoms. But before we jump in, I want to
say a special thank you and hello to Carrie and Amanda.
Thank you so much for joining mynewsletter recently and just
want to say thanks for listening.

(01:05):
And I am so part I'm so glad that you're a part of our
community here staying consistent with our money
habits, right? This is the spot where we're
like, how do we do it? Because the only thing we can
stay consistent with is our inconsistency, right?
So we don't need to try and get more discipline.
What we need is a rhythm that works for our brain that we can

(01:26):
rely on. So this is for that person.
If this is you, you set up a budget and then and you're like,
I'm going to do this and then itfalls apart.
Sometimes it's that same week, maybe you make it a couple of
weeks, maybe you've made it a couple months before and then it
just doesn't work out. This episode is absolutely for
you because I'm going to show you why consistency feels so

(01:50):
hard and what actually works instead of trying to push a rock
uphill like it feels like consistency can be sometimes.
So let's think about this. So maybe you start out strong,
you've got that brand new budgetand you've got some fresh
energy. Maybe you have a new app or
you've got a notebook, a plannerthat you're using to manage your
money. And it feels really good, right?

(02:11):
This is the part where our brains get that dopamine and
we're like, yes, we're doing this, we're tracking things,
we're checking it. We're feeling like this is the
moment, this is the time things are going to work out.
And then life happens, which this is, this is a guarantee
right now. And for anybody that's listening
to this, life is going to happen.
And so then maybe you missed a day, then a few days, and then

(02:32):
it feels like your system is completely falling apart and
you're suddenly avoiding your bank account like you hadn't
been in the past. And so we're going to change
that today because you didn't forget.
You just emotionally unsubscribefrom that system.
OK, so one of the things that I found myself getting into is
that all or nothing cycle. And this is really, I see this a

(02:54):
lot, especially in the ADHD world.
I saw this a lot in myself before I was diagnosed.
I just didn't know that that's what was getting in my way.
And so we think that consistencyhas to be, we think consistency
means doing it perfectly. And you know, like I just said a
little bit ago, the one thing that we're consistent with it,
we're consistent with. And So what if we just change

(03:14):
what consistency looked like in our minds?
We don't have to do everything perfectly.
Actually, I'd say we don't have to do anything perfectly.
That's not our job. But when we feel like we have to
do things perfectly, that's whenwe complete we, that's when we
check out and that's when we quit the whole system.
So that's not discipline, but that is turn out dressed up in a

(03:37):
cute planner or a cute a cute thing that is not going to allow
us to have the success that our brains crave.
So one of the things too is thatthat motivation that we have is
based on feelings and emotions. And those things are very
unreliable for us. So our brains love the novelty,
they love the newness and not repetition.

(03:59):
So when we use an old system like that, it sets us up for
failure and not because we're lazy, but because it requires us
to feel motivated every day. So that's why inside our
membership, we set up a system that manages itself in the
background. So when we don't feel that
motivation that it's still not going to allow us to go back
into debt. It's going to help us keep

(04:19):
aligned with our goals. So if you're planned event, if
you're depends on that motivation, it's already broken.
OK, so how do we get consistent from our systems and not for
motivation? So consistent people are not
more disciplined. They just have more automation
set up and especially with our ADHD brains, having that

(04:40):
automation outside of our brainsand having those things work in
the background is going to be much easier for us to handle.
It's going to be much easiest for us to maintain and allow us
to be more consistent. So we don't have to decide every
single day. We just follow a rhythm.
So here's here's some things that can help us wrap our brains

(05:00):
around this and that is to make it simple.
So if we have to decide something every single day,
that's relying on us having thatsame motivation, that same level
of energy every single day. And that's too much if we don't
have a consistent plan. So if we just pick random days
or times to manage our money, then it's not going to happen,

(05:20):
right? Because our brains are craving
that dopamine, that fun thing. So if we create a weekly rhythm,
that's going to be more sustainable.
And so it's not an everyday thing.
It's a once a week thing. And it doesn't have to be for a
lot of time. So maybe it's Friday morning
because that's payday is Friday.You check, make sure
everything's in there, or maybe you have another day or time

(05:41):
that works better for you, but make sure you're picking the
same time, the same trigger so that that reduces the amount of
decisions that you have to make.Now, we are not going to rise to
our goals, but we're going to fall to our systems.
And that's why having a system set up for you and your brain
and your family that works for you is going to make this
process so much easier for yourself.
So how do you build a simple rhythm that isn't overwhelming

(06:06):
and that's doable, right? Because we've got a lot of other
things going on. We've got a lot of other systems
in our worlds that we need to maintain.
So how do we set up a money one that works for us?
So one thing that was really helpful for me is realizing that
it took, I didn't go from 0 to $107,000 in debt overnight.

(06:26):
And so getting away from that, getting out from underneath that
and reducing that is not going to happen overnight either.
So we're not trying to rebuild your entire financial life today
in this one episode. It's a whole system.
And so we're going to pick 1 anchor habit.
So pick one thing, one habit to help get you closer to that

(06:46):
financial life that you crave. So an example is having that
weekly check in, maybe meal planning in the grocery budget
is way out of control. So I know that's a lot for a lot
of my families that I work with.That's one area because if you
think about it, after your mortgage and after, you know,
paying for housing and things like that, your meals, those are

(07:07):
the food for your family that's going to, that's going to be one
of your biggest reoccurring expenses.
So I've created the grocery reset playbook to help you with
that. But one thing that you can do
right now to create that habit is the meal planning before
grocery shopping. So if meal planning is a
challenge for you, there's an added bonus in that grocery
reset playbook as well. That's going to help you.

(07:27):
Some amazing feedback about thatis like having.
So a friend of mine that grabbedit, she said this is stuff my
son will actually eat and this makes grocery shopping so much
easier. So helping you reduce the
decision fatigue and allowing your family to continue to eat
healthy foods that they'll actually eat.
That's available too. So maybe it is reviewing your

(07:48):
upcoming bills. That's the one habit that you're
going to start today and see, hey, I have the money in my
account to do that or my upcoming paycheck is going to
cover that. Maybe you're trying to grow your
savings. So transferring some money to
savings on that, that date and time that you have set up,
that's another place so you can put some automation in.
And that's also helped us grow our savings and our emergency
fund. So the thing that makes this

(08:10):
successful is it's predictable. So our brains know it's coming.
We know when it's coming and we can, we can file that away.
It's also small. So that means that there's going
to be less resistance and less hesitation to follow through
with these tasks because, or follow through with this habit
because it's small, right? We can do small things, but when
we start to think about overhauling our entire financial

(08:33):
life, we're like, that's way, way too much.
And so we don't do it. But if we pick One Financial
habit that we can start today, that is going to help create
that consistency for yourself. And then we want this to be
repeatable. And so that's where that trust
gets built with yourself is because our brains want to lie
to us and tell us that we're notgood at this.

(08:53):
And that that's part of the ADHDtalking.
And so I want to encourage you today that when you create this
is, is keep it, keep it going. And that's going to build that
trust with yourself. Again, that says, hey, I can do
this, I can do things, I can do this, I can do this often, I can
do this when I've scheduled thattime with myself.
So consistency isn't about doingmore, it's about doing less more

(09:15):
often. So it's just, you know, have you
heard that saying, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a
time? That's what this is, is we're
just going to eat that elephant,that financial, creating that
financial system, but we're going to do 1 habit right now.
We're going to make that goal. The action step for this week's
episode is just to choose that one weekly money habit.
Pick a day, pick the time, and that's it.

(09:37):
We're not going to add five other things.
We're not going to overthink it.We're going to pick one thing.
So as you're listening to my voice right now, I want you to
grab your phone, set a timer right now before you forget, put
it on your calendar. For us, we schedule this on our
calendars because for me, if it's not on my calendar, it
doesn't get done. That's part about creating an
outside my external brain because I can't rely my memory

(09:59):
to keep those things. So I have that written down or
scheduled in my calendar, I should say.
So here's the truth though. Consistency is a lot easier when
we're not doing it alone. So that's why I've created the
alliance coaching membership just the way that I have because
it allows us to focus in on these simple real life systems
that fit our real life rhythms and actually have some

(10:20):
accountability because knowing what to do isn't necessarily the
problem. It's sticking with it.
So if consistency is one of those areas that you're like,
hey, I need some extra help in, I would love to help you with
that. So if you're tired of starting
over every single month, the alliance is always, always open
for you. I'll have the information in the
show notes for you and we'll walk through this together.

(10:42):
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
I hope that this episode was helpful and you can find more
information on my website as well, debt rebelpodcast.com.
You can find out more about the alliance there and any other
resources that you would like. All right, we'll see you in the
next episode. Thank you for.
Tuning into the debt. Rebel show today.
Ready to take your family budgeting to the next level?

(11:04):
Stop that paycheck to paycheck grind and start living debt.
Free head over. To my website Debt Rebel podcast
dot com that's DEBTRE. DEL.
Podcast.com. To grab resources, tools.
And tips to make it happen. And don't forget.
Subscribe. Leave a review and if you know

(11:26):
another family that will love hearing today's episode.
It would be such. A gift for both of us, your
friend and me if you share this episode and 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.