February 12, 2026 • 19 mins
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If you’ve ever made a budget and felt great about it, only to watch it fall apart, this episode is for you.
Budgets don’t fail because you don’t care. They fail because of sneaky habits that quietly drain your money month after month.
In this episode, Brad breaks down the top 10 budget busters he’s seen over the last decade — and how to fix them without making your life miserable.
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Episode Transcript
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Brad Nelson (00:00):
Hey, if you've ever made a budget and you felt
really good about it, but thenyou've watched it slowly fall
apart, this episode is going tobe for you.
You see, most budgets don'tfail because people don't care
or they don't try hard enough.
They fail because of a fewsneaky habits that quietly blow
(00:20):
up their budgets.
And today I'm going to walk youthrough the top 10 budget
busters, at least that I've seenover the last 10 years, and
hopefully try to help you fixthem without making your life
completely miserable.
Announcer (00:33):
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with
Brad Nelson.
Brad and his co-hostsexperience the anxiety of living
paycheck to paycheck beforelearning the fundamentals of
financial success.
They are now on a mission toempower regular people to pay
off their debt for good andenjoy happier, less stressful
lives.
Keep listening forinspirational interviews, tips,
(00:55):
tricks, and practical advice togain financial freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Welcome to today's show.
My name is Brad Nelson.
I'm the founder of Debt FreeDad.
I paid off about $45,000 ofdebt.
I've been debt-free now formore than 12 years.
I've also been fortunate tohelp thousands of other people
save and pay off tens ofmillions of dollars with the
work that we do here at DebtFree Dad.
Now, after listening to thisepisode, if you're someone who
is ready to take things to thenext level, you want to break
(01:22):
free from living paycheck topaycheck, you want to reduce
financial stress, build yoursavings, finally pay off your
debt for good.
But maybe you're like a lot ofpeople.
Heck, it might be why you'relistening to the show.
You're not sure where to getstarted.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources to
help you get there.
And I'll be sharing somedetails about how you can get
some of those later on intoday's episode.
(01:42):
Now, let me ask you something.
Have you ever felt like youknow what you're supposed to be
doing with your money or youcreate that perfect budget?
But somehow that budget justkeeps getting blown up month
after month.
And again, maybe not in somebig dramatic ways, although that
does happen from time to time,but it usually is in a hundred
(02:04):
little ways, right?
You start the month feelingmotivated.
You know, you're gonna make aplan.
You tell yourself, this is themonth, we're gonna do it, I've
got it.
And then guess what?
Life, right?
Life happens.
It's that dinner out where youtalked yourself into going out
to eat rather than cooking athome, even though you know you
have food at home, right?
(02:24):
There's that random purchase,that emotional purchase maybe
you made or impulsive purchase.
It might have been a bill youforgot about, forgot to put in
your budget.
Something breaks, flat tired onthe car, got to come up with
money for that.
It's just always something,right?
And suddenly your plan and yourbudget, it begins to feel
almost pointless.
(02:44):
And again, it's not becauseyou're being reckless or you're
being irresponsible or you'renot trying, but your budget
still feels like it's thisfragile thing, and you're just
never gonna get it.
So, today what I want to do isI want to talk about the top 10
budget busters.
And again, these are sneakylittle budget busters, these are
patterns, blind spots that tendto wreck a lot of people's
(03:07):
budgets, including myself at onetime.
And more importantly, I want toshare just a few ideas of how
to fix them.
And mostly a lot of how you'regonna fix them is just becoming
more aware of them.
And again, these are the top 10that we see on a regular basis.
So keep an eye on these thingswhen you're going through your
budget.
If you're finding that yourbudget is constantly, you know,
in the red and it's not workingout, this is a great place for
(03:27):
you to start.
Because the reality is if youcan eliminate just a few of
these, your financial life getseasier, right?
Budgeting becomes easier, youstart to see a lot more success,
and you'll become a lot moreconfident.
Now, again, keep in mind whenit comes to budgeting, you don't
need perfection.
You just need to know where tolook.
So let's talk about number oneimpulse spending.
(03:49):
I read a statistic, I actuallyshare it in my roots membership
on a regular basis with mymembers that Shopify did a study
and they found that anywherebetween 40 to 80% of all
purchases are made on impulse.
They even went ahead and said,even grocery shopping, like if
you shop in a store, I'm notsure online, but if you shop in
a store, 50% of all grocerypurchases are made on impulse.
(04:13):
This is a silent killer of mostpeople's budgets.
And again, it's rarely one bigimpulse of purchase that ruins
things.
It's the little decisions thatyou barely think about.
It's where you're having thatemotional moment of and that
thought to yourself and tellingyourself and selling yourself
this.
I deserve this.
(04:34):
Or, you know, it's only a fewdollars, or maybe it's only $20.
You tell us it's that onlyphrase.
By the way, you guys know howyou can waste $10,000 in a year.
Would you believe that it onlytakes $27.40 in daily spending
every day to waste $10,000 ayear?
It doesn't take much.
And again, it doesn't seem likea big amount when you're doing
(04:55):
it.
Or you might sell yourself onthe idea, well, we'll make up
for it later.
I had a bad day, right?
The kids are driving me crazy,had a bad day at work, your
spouse is driving you crazy,whatever it might be.
And you sell yourself on thisis just gonna make me feel
better.
None of those things are reallydangerous in the moment.
As I said, over a month, over ayear, all of those purchases
begin to add up.
(05:16):
The real problem isn't that youspent, it's that you didn't
pause and think about it.
So, my suggestion to you for afix on impulsive purchases, and
I've shared this many times onthe show, is before any
unplanned purchases, just wait24 hours.
Give it a little bit of time.
Or at least just ask yourselfis this planned or is this
(05:38):
emotional?
Most impulsive spendingdisappears with just a little
time.
And if you can give yourselfthat pause, I guarantee you 99%
of the stuff that you thoughtyou needed, you'll never buy.
Let's talk about number twoeating out too often.
This is by far one of the topbudget busters I see.
And for most households, thisis just one of the budget
(06:01):
drains, right?
And it's not because eating outis bad.
Well, it could be health-wise.
I probably could use lose a fewpounds, right?
It's because eating out is justso easy.
I really compare food and debt,like they're almost so linear,
the habits that we have when itcomes to it.
They've made debt so easy toget into.
(06:21):
It's the same thing when itcomes to food, it's everywhere.
You know, and it's easy becausewe're tired, we're busy.
Like I said, maybe your kidsare driving you crazy.
It's just been a long day.
You don't feel like going homeand having to cook and then
having to clean all that up.
And before you know it, whatstarted as a once-in-a-while
thing becomes all of a suddenmultiple times a week.
So, my suggestion to you iswhen it comes to eating out, is
(06:44):
don't eliminate eating out.
All right, but just add in someboundaries, add in some
guardrails, so to speak.
So pick something like we'regonna do a weekly limit, put it
in your budget, or maybe pick aspecific dining out day.
Set a dollar amount for everyweek, right?
Plan that you're gonna gettired.
One of the things that youcould do is just easily set up
(07:07):
some meal prepping time, getsome meals, put in the freezer,
get them in the refrigerator sothat way when you are tired,
it's not so much prep work onthose days where there are long
days that you know are going tobe coming throughout that week.
All right.
So sometimes a littlepreparation can save you a ton
of money there.
Number three is all aboutsubscriptions.
(07:27):
All right, and it's notnecessarily the ones that you
use, it's the ones that youforgot about and don't even
remember that you have.
Obviously, we all knowsubscriptions are a huge thing.
You've got Netflix and all theother streaming services and
apps and gym memberships andrandom $9.90 charges here and $4
charges there, and it justkeeps adding up.
(07:49):
I've seen statistics,statistics of the average person
now carries anywhere betweentwo to three hundred dollars in
subscriptions every singlemonth.
Individually, when you look atthat in your bank account, it's
easy to use that same old excuselike we used with budget buster
number one.
Well, it's only a few dollars,right?
They seem small, but together,again, they can add up to
hundreds of dollars per month.
(08:10):
So, my suggestion to you, andif you've been listening to this
podcast as part of our fivedaily financial to-dos that we
recommend you to do on a dailybasis, but one of the things you
should do, go through your bankstatements and your credit card
statements or anywhere you'readding and adding these
subscriptions, and go back overthe last three to six months and
look at all the subscriptionsthat you're buying, and then
question yourself do you reallyneed this?
(08:32):
Have I even used this stuff inthe last three to six months or
even in the last month?
If not, the easy choice is justto cancel it.
You can always resubscribelater.
Number four, conveniencespending.
And I see this one a lot.
All right.
This is the I didn't plan, so Ipaid more tax.
(08:53):
This is very similar to goingout to eat.
And it's not just the fastfood, uh, but it's the gas
station snacks, it's the sodas,it's the coffee runs, it's just
the last minute things becausewe forgot something.
You ran late, maybe slept in,it's a crazy morning.
It's not laziest, it's reallylack of margin, right?
(09:14):
So the fix for that is verysimilar to going out, is just
build in some preparation intoyour week.
If you're someone who likes tostop and get a particular soda,
can you get that cheaper at agrocery store?
Or if you pick up a particularsnack, can you get that cheaper
in other ways?
Because you are paying apremium, a high premium for that
(09:35):
convenience.
So start packing your snacks.
Start thinking about quick mealplanning, keeping essentials
stocked up in your home.
A little preparation is gonnasave a lot of money in the long
run.
Number five is emotionalspending, similar to impulsive
spending, right?
Because they go hand in hand.
But emotional spending, I kindof trigger to more of like um,
(09:57):
you know, you had a great day.
Maybe you got a raise, maybeyou got a promotion, maybe it's
you just feel good.
That feel-a-good feeling makesyou want to spend money, right?
Or it because it could bebecause you're sad, right?
You spend emotionally becausemoney is often the fastest way
to either enhance that currentfeeling or to get you out of a
slump, right?
If you're feeling down aboutyourself, temporarily can make
(10:19):
you feel better.
You get that little bit of arush, right?
So what happens is you'restressed, you buy something,
you're bored, you shop.
And that's so easy to donowadays because of apps that
are on your phone, shop online,right?
Stuff can be at your door, evensometimes same day, next day.
Celebrating something, we tendto spend money.
The problem isn't the emotionitself, it's using money as your
(10:41):
main way of coping with it,right?
A quick fix for this is to giveyourself a small planned fun
money category.
So give yourself somespontaneous money inside your
budget.
It's okay to have some emotionand want to spend money or be
spontaneous, right?
That's okay.
Give yourself permission to dothat in your budget if you have
the means to do it.
(11:02):
See, the problem with some ofthese things is that when people
start to budget, they cutthemselves out entirely from
everything that's fun.
And then life feels miserable.
Well, give yourself somepermission to have some fun with
your money.
You work hard for your money.
Put a little spontaneous lineitem in your budget of, hey, we
can use this if we want to.
And if you don't, use it forsomething else that month.
Number six, irregular bills youdidn't plan for.
(11:23):
So it's that car insurance,maybe that you pay quarterly or
biannually or annually.
It's the unexpected schoolfees, back to school, right?
Or maybe you have a sports feethat you pay for your kids, or
field trips that come upunexpectedly.
Annual subscription that youforgot, holiday expenses is a
huge one.
I can't tell you how manypeople say, Brad, the holidays
(11:45):
just snuck up on me, even thoughthey are the same exact time
every year.
These types of things are allpredictable, but people treat
them like they're surprises, andthen they use the excuse, well,
I had to go into debt becauseit was a surprise.
So when these things show up,though, obviously naturally
they're going to bust yourbudget in a lot of ways.
(12:06):
So the fix is just to break bigirregular bills into monthly
savings.
If you go is go on our podcastand listen to our episode list,
another big topic that goesalong with this is creating what
we call our sinking funds,right?
So a simple one is that.
Like if you have a $600 billthat comes out once a year, a
sinking fund would be as I justneed to put in a $50 line item
(12:27):
in my budget every single monthand put that money into my
savings.
So that way when that one billcomes out once a year, that
money will be there.
It's the same expense with justa heck of a lot less stress.
The other thing I wouldrecommend too, when it comes to
this, is as I suggested inprevious budget busters here, is
to go back and look at the lastthree to six months of your
expenses.
Look at your entire year ofthings that come up.
(12:48):
When are birthdays?
When are anniversaries?
Look at back to schoolexpenses.
What'd you spend last year?
Look at your Christmasexpenses, what'd you spend the
year before?
Get that all figured out, getit all ironed out so you can
start to come up with a monthlyplan on how you can take care of
those things because you arelooking at the entire year, not
just the next 30 days ahead.
Budget buster number sevenshopping sales and deals.
(13:10):
Right, here's the hard truthwhen it comes to this.
If you wouldn't buy it at fullprice, you didn't save money.
You spent money.
Sales are emotional trapsdisguised as math, right?
That's exactly what they are.
Retailers know how to make 50%off feel urgent and like you're
getting a deal and you can'tlive without it.
(13:32):
So the fix is ask one questionbefore buying on sale.
Would I buy this if it wasn'tdiscounted?
If the answer is no, walk away.
And again, as another step tothis, practice that 24-hour
rule.
If they're really tempting youwith a sale, just give it a
little bit more thought, alittle bit more time.
(13:53):
And you'll find time and timeagain, especially as you get
better at it, you'll be morewilling to walk away and not
spend the money.
Budget buster number eight, nottracking your spending on a
regular basis.
This is a big one.
This is why it's easy just todrift off of a budget because
you're really not payingattention.
Waiting until the end of themonth to check your spending is
(14:16):
like checking your speed afteryou've already crashed, kind of
in a way, right?
It's too late.
You're reacting instead ofadjusting.
So an easy fix for this.
This is part of our five fivedaily financial to-dos that we
talk about on the showregularly.
It's something that we teach inour roots personal finance
membership.
Do a five to 10 minute dailycheck-in.
And one of those check-ins islooking at your spending from
(14:39):
yesterday.
Where did your money go?
How did it compare to the planthat you created in your budget?
I know that this can seem likea maybe a little bit daunting at
first, but as you do it everyday, it becomes very simple and
very quick to do becauseawareness, that awareness of
where your money's going, thatbegins to change the habit.
That changes the behavior.
And that's where the realsuccess comes from.
(15:01):
Number nine, they have noemergency fund.
It's a huge budget buster.
This one ties everythingtogether.
And we just had a recentpodcast on the importance of
emergency funds.
Because without even just asmall buffer, every problem
becomes a crisis.
If you have a flat tire, yourbudget's blown.
(15:22):
You had an unexpected doctorvisit, it goes on the credit
card.
You had an unexpected bill popup, it's panic mode, right?
So an easy fix to that is toget your small emergency fund
built first and foremost beforeyou pay off any extra debt.
Now, our suggestion is to atleast start with a thousand to
three thousand dollars to getsomething going.
All right.
So just shoot for $3,000 as themax, $1,000 is the starter.
(15:45):
We understand that that's notgoing to fix everything, but it
gives you a lot more breathingroom, especially when you have
no savings at all.
And breathing room changes howyou make a lot of your decisions
moving forward.
Number 10, this is a big one,perfectionism.
And I think this is one of thebiggest budget busters of them
all, and sometimes it's verysilent because people don't
(16:07):
understand that they're doingthis.
But if they say or they thinkto themselves, if I mess up
once, I've completely failed andI can't do this.
So one-off days essentiallyturn into I blew it and you
quit.
And I kind of laugh at thisbecause people will ask me, How
did I get out of debt?
And it took me about four orfive years to do it.
(16:27):
I had a divorce in the middleof that, and that kind of
extended it.
But I say, uh, I failed my wayout of debt, and that's exactly
how I did it.
I didn't get there in a perfectjourney.
I did a lot of the same stuffthat a lot of you are trying.
I messed up, redid it, messedup again, redid it.
And essentially I just didn'tquit and I failed my way out of
debt, right?
(16:48):
So uh I want you to adopt thatmindset.
One day or one off day, itdoesn't ruin your entire future.
I want you to adopt the mindsetof I'm gonna fail at this, and
that's okay, I'm gonna failforward, and we're gonna fail
our way out of this.
It's gonna allow you to getback on track a lot more quickly
and allow you to keep going.
And remember that consistencyis what beats perfection every
(17:12):
day.
The more consistent you are,the better off you're gonna be.
So pulling this all togethergave you top 10.
Those are top 10 common ones.
The truth about budgets is thatthey don't fail because people
are just terrible with money.
They fail because life isn'teasy, life is messy, especially
when it comes to finances.
(17:32):
You're a human being.
We're our emotions are veryreal.
Sometimes our systems can beweak.
So if you want your budget toactually work, stop trying to be
perfect.
It's instead focus on addingthose guardrails and creating
awareness around these top 10things and looking at those
things on a regular basis.
(17:52):
And then just work on creatingsome simple rules, simple
systems.
We've been working on that allthe way through here, 2026 on
this podcast, reducing as muchfriction as we can, building
habits that make choices easier.
And remember, it's about smallchanges.
Small changes are gonna be big,dramatic overhauls every single
time.
(18:12):
So look for those small thingsthat you can do every day and
just improve every day movingforward.
All right, guys, if you'reready to break free from living
paycheck to paycheck, you wantto reduce financial stress,
build savings, and finally payoff your debt for good.
But again, maybe you're notsure where to get started.
Don't worry, we've got youcovered.
Simplify My Money is sent toyou each and every Sunday to
(18:33):
your email.
Simplify My Money isessentially your step-by-step
roadmap to helping you havebetter financial control.
And it's also gonna give yousome easy to follow strategies
to manage your money moreeffectively.
It's gonna help you makestress-free money decisions that
are gonna allow you to simplifyyour financial life with proven
tips that actually work.
And you're gonna gain the toolsand confidence to tackle your
(18:55):
financial goals head on.
You can sign up for Simplify MyMoney by clicking the link at
the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's episode, and we will see
you guys on the next show.
Announcer (19:10):
Thanks for listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast.
Connect with us on Facebook,TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
Just search Debt Free Dad.
If you found value in today'sepisode, please leave us a
rating and review.
We so appreciate it.
For resources, show notes, andlinks mentioned in today's show,
visit debtfreedad.com.
(19:31):
Catch you next week.
Hey, if you've ever made a budget and you felt
really good about it, but thenyou've watched it slowly fall
apart, this episode is going tobe for you.
You see, most budgets don'tfail because people don't care
or they don't try hard enough.
They fail because of a fewsneaky habits that quietly blow
(00:20):
up their budgets.
And today I'm going to walk youthrough the top 10 budget
busters, at least that I've seenover the last 10 years, and
hopefully try to help you fixthem without making your life
completely miserable.
Announcer (00:33):
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with
Brad Nelson.
Brad and his co-hostsexperience the anxiety of living
paycheck to paycheck beforelearning the fundamentals of
financial success.
They are now on a mission toempower regular people to pay
off their debt for good andenjoy happier, less stressful
lives.
Keep listening forinspirational interviews, tips,
(00:55):
tricks, and practical advice togain financial freedom.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Welcome to today's show.
My name is Brad Nelson.
I'm the founder of Debt FreeDad.
I paid off about $45,000 ofdebt.
I've been debt-free now formore than 12 years.
I've also been fortunate tohelp thousands of other people
save and pay off tens ofmillions of dollars with the
work that we do here at DebtFree Dad.
Now, after listening to thisepisode, if you're someone who
is ready to take things to thenext level, you want to break
(01:22):
free from living paycheck topaycheck, you want to reduce
financial stress, build yoursavings, finally pay off your
debt for good.
But maybe you're like a lot ofpeople.
Heck, it might be why you'relistening to the show.
You're not sure where to getstarted.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources to
help you get there.
And I'll be sharing somedetails about how you can get
some of those later on intoday's episode.
(01:42):
Now, let me ask you something.
Have you ever felt like youknow what you're supposed to be
doing with your money or youcreate that perfect budget?
But somehow that budget justkeeps getting blown up month
after month.
And again, maybe not in somebig dramatic ways, although that
does happen from time to time,but it usually is in a hundred
(02:04):
little ways, right?
You start the month feelingmotivated.
You know, you're gonna make aplan.
You tell yourself, this is themonth, we're gonna do it, I've
got it.
And then guess what?
Life, right?
Life happens.
It's that dinner out where youtalked yourself into going out
to eat rather than cooking athome, even though you know you
have food at home, right?
(02:24):
There's that random purchase,that emotional purchase maybe
you made or impulsive purchase.
It might have been a bill youforgot about, forgot to put in
your budget.
Something breaks, flat tired onthe car, got to come up with
money for that.
It's just always something,right?
And suddenly your plan and yourbudget, it begins to feel
almost pointless.
(02:44):
And again, it's not becauseyou're being reckless or you're
being irresponsible or you'renot trying, but your budget
still feels like it's thisfragile thing, and you're just
never gonna get it.
So, today what I want to do isI want to talk about the top 10
budget busters.
And again, these are sneakylittle budget busters, these are
patterns, blind spots that tendto wreck a lot of people's
(03:07):
budgets, including myself at onetime.
And more importantly, I want toshare just a few ideas of how
to fix them.
And mostly a lot of how you'regonna fix them is just becoming
more aware of them.
And again, these are the top 10that we see on a regular basis.
So keep an eye on these thingswhen you're going through your
budget.
If you're finding that yourbudget is constantly, you know,
in the red and it's not workingout, this is a great place for
(03:27):
you to start.
Because the reality is if youcan eliminate just a few of
these, your financial life getseasier, right?
Budgeting becomes easier, youstart to see a lot more success,
and you'll become a lot moreconfident.
Now, again, keep in mind whenit comes to budgeting, you don't
need perfection.
You just need to know where tolook.
So let's talk about number oneimpulse spending.
(03:49):
I read a statistic, I actuallyshare it in my roots membership
on a regular basis with mymembers that Shopify did a study
and they found that anywherebetween 40 to 80% of all
purchases are made on impulse.
They even went ahead and said,even grocery shopping, like if
you shop in a store, I'm notsure online, but if you shop in
a store, 50% of all grocerypurchases are made on impulse.
(04:13):
This is a silent killer of mostpeople's budgets.
And again, it's rarely one bigimpulse of purchase that ruins
things.
It's the little decisions thatyou barely think about.
It's where you're having thatemotional moment of and that
thought to yourself and tellingyourself and selling yourself
this.
I deserve this.
(04:34):
Or, you know, it's only a fewdollars, or maybe it's only $20.
You tell us it's that onlyphrase.
By the way, you guys know howyou can waste $10,000 in a year.
Would you believe that it onlytakes $27.40 in daily spending
every day to waste $10,000 ayear?
It doesn't take much.
And again, it doesn't seem likea big amount when you're doing
(04:55):
it.
Or you might sell yourself onthe idea, well, we'll make up
for it later.
I had a bad day, right?
The kids are driving me crazy,had a bad day at work, your
spouse is driving you crazy,whatever it might be.
And you sell yourself on thisis just gonna make me feel
better.
None of those things are reallydangerous in the moment.
As I said, over a month, over ayear, all of those purchases
begin to add up.
(05:16):
The real problem isn't that youspent, it's that you didn't
pause and think about it.
So, my suggestion to you for afix on impulsive purchases, and
I've shared this many times onthe show, is before any
unplanned purchases, just wait24 hours.
Give it a little bit of time.
Or at least just ask yourselfis this planned or is this
(05:38):
emotional?
Most impulsive spendingdisappears with just a little
time.
And if you can give yourselfthat pause, I guarantee you 99%
of the stuff that you thoughtyou needed, you'll never buy.
Let's talk about number twoeating out too often.
This is by far one of the topbudget busters I see.
And for most households, thisis just one of the budget
(06:01):
drains, right?
And it's not because eating outis bad.
Well, it could be health-wise.
I probably could use lose a fewpounds, right?
It's because eating out is justso easy.
I really compare food and debt,like they're almost so linear,
the habits that we have when itcomes to it.
They've made debt so easy toget into.
(06:21):
It's the same thing when itcomes to food, it's everywhere.
You know, and it's easy becausewe're tired, we're busy.
Like I said, maybe your kidsare driving you crazy.
It's just been a long day.
You don't feel like going homeand having to cook and then
having to clean all that up.
And before you know it, whatstarted as a once-in-a-while
thing becomes all of a suddenmultiple times a week.
So, my suggestion to you iswhen it comes to eating out, is
(06:44):
don't eliminate eating out.
All right, but just add in someboundaries, add in some
guardrails, so to speak.
So pick something like we'regonna do a weekly limit, put it
in your budget, or maybe pick aspecific dining out day.
Set a dollar amount for everyweek, right?
Plan that you're gonna gettired.
One of the things that youcould do is just easily set up
(07:07):
some meal prepping time, getsome meals, put in the freezer,
get them in the refrigerator sothat way when you are tired,
it's not so much prep work onthose days where there are long
days that you know are going tobe coming throughout that week.
All right.
So sometimes a littlepreparation can save you a ton
of money there.
Number three is all aboutsubscriptions.
(07:27):
All right, and it's notnecessarily the ones that you
use, it's the ones that youforgot about and don't even
remember that you have.
Obviously, we all knowsubscriptions are a huge thing.
You've got Netflix and all theother streaming services and
apps and gym memberships andrandom $9.90 charges here and $4
charges there, and it justkeeps adding up.
(07:49):
I've seen statistics,statistics of the average person
now carries anywhere betweentwo to three hundred dollars in
subscriptions every singlemonth.
Individually, when you look atthat in your bank account, it's
easy to use that same old excuselike we used with budget buster
number one.
Well, it's only a few dollars,right?
They seem small, but together,again, they can add up to
hundreds of dollars per month.
(08:10):
So, my suggestion to you, andif you've been listening to this
podcast as part of our fivedaily financial to-dos that we
recommend you to do on a dailybasis, but one of the things you
should do, go through your bankstatements and your credit card
statements or anywhere you'readding and adding these
subscriptions, and go back overthe last three to six months and
look at all the subscriptionsthat you're buying, and then
question yourself do you reallyneed this?
(08:32):
Have I even used this stuff inthe last three to six months or
even in the last month?
If not, the easy choice is justto cancel it.
You can always resubscribelater.
Number four, conveniencespending.
And I see this one a lot.
All right.
This is the I didn't plan, so Ipaid more tax.
(08:53):
This is very similar to goingout to eat.
And it's not just the fastfood, uh, but it's the gas
station snacks, it's the sodas,it's the coffee runs, it's just
the last minute things becausewe forgot something.
You ran late, maybe slept in,it's a crazy morning.
It's not laziest, it's reallylack of margin, right?
(09:14):
So the fix for that is verysimilar to going out, is just
build in some preparation intoyour week.
If you're someone who likes tostop and get a particular soda,
can you get that cheaper at agrocery store?
Or if you pick up a particularsnack, can you get that cheaper
in other ways?
Because you are paying apremium, a high premium for that
(09:35):
convenience.
So start packing your snacks.
Start thinking about quick mealplanning, keeping essentials
stocked up in your home.
A little preparation is gonnasave a lot of money in the long
run.
Number five is emotionalspending, similar to impulsive
spending, right?
Because they go hand in hand.
But emotional spending, I kindof trigger to more of like um,
(09:57):
you know, you had a great day.
Maybe you got a raise, maybeyou got a promotion, maybe it's
you just feel good.
That feel-a-good feeling makesyou want to spend money, right?
Or it because it could bebecause you're sad, right?
You spend emotionally becausemoney is often the fastest way
to either enhance that currentfeeling or to get you out of a
slump, right?
If you're feeling down aboutyourself, temporarily can make
(10:19):
you feel better.
You get that little bit of arush, right?
So what happens is you'restressed, you buy something,
you're bored, you shop.
And that's so easy to donowadays because of apps that
are on your phone, shop online,right?
Stuff can be at your door, evensometimes same day, next day.
Celebrating something, we tendto spend money.
The problem isn't the emotionitself, it's using money as your
(10:41):
main way of coping with it,right?
A quick fix for this is to giveyourself a small planned fun
money category.
So give yourself somespontaneous money inside your
budget.
It's okay to have some emotionand want to spend money or be
spontaneous, right?
That's okay.
Give yourself permission to dothat in your budget if you have
the means to do it.
(11:02):
See, the problem with some ofthese things is that when people
start to budget, they cutthemselves out entirely from
everything that's fun.
And then life feels miserable.
Well, give yourself somepermission to have some fun with
your money.
You work hard for your money.
Put a little spontaneous lineitem in your budget of, hey, we
can use this if we want to.
And if you don't, use it forsomething else that month.
Number six, irregular bills youdidn't plan for.
(11:23):
So it's that car insurance,maybe that you pay quarterly or
biannually or annually.
It's the unexpected schoolfees, back to school, right?
Or maybe you have a sports feethat you pay for your kids, or
field trips that come upunexpectedly.
Annual subscription that youforgot, holiday expenses is a
huge one.
I can't tell you how manypeople say, Brad, the holidays
(11:45):
just snuck up on me, even thoughthey are the same exact time
every year.
These types of things are allpredictable, but people treat
them like they're surprises, andthen they use the excuse, well,
I had to go into debt becauseit was a surprise.
So when these things show up,though, obviously naturally
they're going to bust yourbudget in a lot of ways.
(12:06):
So the fix is just to break bigirregular bills into monthly
savings.
If you go is go on our podcastand listen to our episode list,
another big topic that goesalong with this is creating what
we call our sinking funds,right?
So a simple one is that.
Like if you have a $600 billthat comes out once a year, a
sinking fund would be as I justneed to put in a $50 line item
(12:27):
in my budget every single monthand put that money into my
savings.
So that way when that one billcomes out once a year, that
money will be there.
It's the same expense with justa heck of a lot less stress.
The other thing I wouldrecommend too, when it comes to
this, is as I suggested inprevious budget busters here, is
to go back and look at the lastthree to six months of your
expenses.
Look at your entire year ofthings that come up.
(12:48):
When are birthdays?
When are anniversaries?
Look at back to schoolexpenses.
What'd you spend last year?
Look at your Christmasexpenses, what'd you spend the
year before?
Get that all figured out, getit all ironed out so you can
start to come up with a monthlyplan on how you can take care of
those things because you arelooking at the entire year, not
just the next 30 days ahead.
Budget buster number sevenshopping sales and deals.
(13:10):
Right, here's the hard truthwhen it comes to this.
If you wouldn't buy it at fullprice, you didn't save money.
You spent money.
Sales are emotional trapsdisguised as math, right?
That's exactly what they are.
Retailers know how to make 50%off feel urgent and like you're
getting a deal and you can'tlive without it.
(13:32):
So the fix is ask one questionbefore buying on sale.
Would I buy this if it wasn'tdiscounted?
If the answer is no, walk away.
And again, as another step tothis, practice that 24-hour
rule.
If they're really tempting youwith a sale, just give it a
little bit more thought, alittle bit more time.
(13:53):
And you'll find time and timeagain, especially as you get
better at it, you'll be morewilling to walk away and not
spend the money.
Budget buster number eight, nottracking your spending on a
regular basis.
This is a big one.
This is why it's easy just todrift off of a budget because
you're really not payingattention.
Waiting until the end of themonth to check your spending is
(14:16):
like checking your speed afteryou've already crashed, kind of
in a way, right?
It's too late.
You're reacting instead ofadjusting.
So an easy fix for this.
This is part of our five fivedaily financial to-dos that we
talk about on the showregularly.
It's something that we teach inour roots personal finance
membership.
Do a five to 10 minute dailycheck-in.
And one of those check-ins islooking at your spending from
(14:39):
yesterday.
Where did your money go?
How did it compare to the planthat you created in your budget?
I know that this can seem likea maybe a little bit daunting at
first, but as you do it everyday, it becomes very simple and
very quick to do becauseawareness, that awareness of
where your money's going, thatbegins to change the habit.
That changes the behavior.
And that's where the realsuccess comes from.
(15:01):
Number nine, they have noemergency fund.
It's a huge budget buster.
This one ties everythingtogether.
And we just had a recentpodcast on the importance of
emergency funds.
Because without even just asmall buffer, every problem
becomes a crisis.
If you have a flat tire, yourbudget's blown.
(15:22):
You had an unexpected doctorvisit, it goes on the credit
card.
You had an unexpected bill popup, it's panic mode, right?
So an easy fix to that is toget your small emergency fund
built first and foremost beforeyou pay off any extra debt.
Now, our suggestion is to atleast start with a thousand to
three thousand dollars to getsomething going.
All right.
So just shoot for $3,000 as themax, $1,000 is the starter.
(15:45):
We understand that that's notgoing to fix everything, but it
gives you a lot more breathingroom, especially when you have
no savings at all.
And breathing room changes howyou make a lot of your decisions
moving forward.
Number 10, this is a big one,perfectionism.
And I think this is one of thebiggest budget busters of them
all, and sometimes it's verysilent because people don't
(16:07):
understand that they're doingthis.
But if they say or they thinkto themselves, if I mess up
once, I've completely failed andI can't do this.
So one-off days essentiallyturn into I blew it and you
quit.
And I kind of laugh at thisbecause people will ask me, How
did I get out of debt?
And it took me about four orfive years to do it.
(16:27):
I had a divorce in the middleof that, and that kind of
extended it.
But I say, uh, I failed my wayout of debt, and that's exactly
how I did it.
I didn't get there in a perfectjourney.
I did a lot of the same stuffthat a lot of you are trying.
I messed up, redid it, messedup again, redid it.
And essentially I just didn'tquit and I failed my way out of
debt, right?
(16:48):
So uh I want you to adopt thatmindset.
One day or one off day, itdoesn't ruin your entire future.
I want you to adopt the mindsetof I'm gonna fail at this, and
that's okay, I'm gonna failforward, and we're gonna fail
our way out of this.
It's gonna allow you to getback on track a lot more quickly
and allow you to keep going.
And remember that consistencyis what beats perfection every
(17:12):
day.
The more consistent you are,the better off you're gonna be.
So pulling this all togethergave you top 10.
Those are top 10 common ones.
The truth about budgets is thatthey don't fail because people
are just terrible with money.
They fail because life isn'teasy, life is messy, especially
when it comes to finances.
(17:32):
You're a human being.
We're our emotions are veryreal.
Sometimes our systems can beweak.
So if you want your budget toactually work, stop trying to be
perfect.
It's instead focus on addingthose guardrails and creating
awareness around these top 10things and looking at those
things on a regular basis.
(17:52):
And then just work on creatingsome simple rules, simple
systems.
We've been working on that allthe way through here, 2026 on
this podcast, reducing as muchfriction as we can, building
habits that make choices easier.
And remember, it's about smallchanges.
Small changes are gonna be big,dramatic overhauls every single
time.
(18:12):
So look for those small thingsthat you can do every day and
just improve every day movingforward.
All right, guys, if you'reready to break free from living
paycheck to paycheck, you wantto reduce financial stress,
build savings, and finally payoff your debt for good.
But again, maybe you're notsure where to get started.
Don't worry, we've got youcovered.
Simplify My Money is sent toyou each and every Sunday to
(18:33):
your email.
Simplify My Money isessentially your step-by-step
roadmap to helping you havebetter financial control.
And it's also gonna give yousome easy to follow strategies
to manage your money moreeffectively.
It's gonna help you makestress-free money decisions that
are gonna allow you to simplifyyour financial life with proven
tips that actually work.
And you're gonna gain the toolsand confidence to tackle your
(18:55):
financial goals head on.
You can sign up for Simplify MyMoney by clicking the link at
the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's episode, and we will see
you guys on the next show.
Announcer (19:10):
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For resources, show notes, andlinks mentioned in today's show,
visit debtfreedad.com.
(19:31):
Catch you next week.
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