Women & Money: The Shit We Don't Talk About!

Budgeting + Mindset with YNAB with Lindsey Ciarrocca

• Barbara Provost & Maggie Nielsen • Episode 119

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Budgeting doesn’t have to feel like punishment, it can actually set you free.

This week, we’re joined by Lindsey Ciarrocca, a YNAB Certified Coach, Certified Money Coach®, and founder of The Exuberant Elephant. Lindsey is all about helping women use money as a tool to live their greatest life. She’s also the co-owner of Providers & Families Wealth Management, where she and her husband help clients with comprehensive financial planning.

Lindsey shares her journey from hating math in school to becoming a budgeting coach, and how she helps women break free from old money stories.  In this conversation, Lindsey breaks down the truth about budgeting, how to make it actually work for you, and the mindset shifts that transform money from a stressor into a tool for freedom. She shares how to use YNAB (You Need A Budget) to go from paycheck-to-paycheck panic to total clarity and why awareness is the most powerful part of financial change.

If you’ve ever felt like budgeting is something you “should” do but can’t quite stick with, this one’s for you. To reset your money mindset before the new year, join us December 4th for Money Talks: A 2026 Money Reset. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions! 

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Maggie: [00:00:00] So sometimes I feel like we sound like a broken record 'cause we're always like, know what's going in and know what's going out, And like, I don't even want to hear it or say it anymore, but we talk about like how important it is and people like, don't say the B word, a k budget, or all these different things, or like, I wanna call it a spending plan. You know what I mean? Like there's every way to go about it, but at the end of the day, it's like. it's just like anything else. We compare it to, if you wanna lose weight, you work out more and you eat less, blah, blah, blah. but it's just such the foundation and we see our story after story after story of people, like, they just don't know where their money's going.

 And so And so as much as we say it.

Dr. Barb: We gotta say it again.

Maggie: I gotta say it again. And 

so like if you're tuning in and you're like, wow, this girl's gonna talk about a budget, don't tune me out. It's a money podcast. We're talking about this shit.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, but in a fun, fun way. I mean, I know budgeting, it's like the broccoli of personal finance.

Maggie: [00:01:00] Okay, I love broccoli. So back off. 

Dr. Barb: Well, and broccoli's good for you, right? Some people don't like it, but it's good for you. Just like budgeting. It's good for you.

Maggie: And it's one of those like just super foundational things that you have to do and you really can never kind of stop doing. 

Dr. Barb: But you know, you can reframe it and say, you're in charge now, right? You get to make the decisions on how you wanna spend your money. You just get to make all the decisions because all those decisions empower you to put your money wherever you want it to go. You're in charge.

Maggie: you hear that ladies, you're in charge now.

Dr. Barb: You are, be brave. You're in charge. Even if you wanna overspend, that's your decision. You live by the consequences. Right? But that's your decision. So you are in charge.

Maggie: For better or for worse. Sometimes, you know, I'm like, will someone else do it for me? But tis is life. You got an adult. So that's why we're having Lindsey on today. We're talking an app she uses. You need a budget (YNAB). I know I like to use copilot. I know you don't use an app at all, I mean, everyone has a way of [00:02:00] doing it, which is also interesting.

I would love to do like a quick. 10 minutes of like all these different ways of people, how they budget 'cause there's a thousand different ways to do it.

Dr. Barb: You want me to tell you something about how I did it?

Maggie: Are you gonna tell me about how you gave it to your friend again?

Dr. Barb: No. Years and years ago, back in the stone ages when I worked for a bank, we had this thing called checking account where you had to write in all your checks when you spent things, right, when you paid for your utilities, when you paid for your phone bill, when you paid for your rent, when you paid for your mortgage.

That was your budget. I mean, everything was written out. So every single time you wrote your checks for all your bills or for cash or for whatever. We wrote that out for years and years and years, even after people stopped doing that, it wasn't till like 10 years ago that I stopped writing a check register and it helped me budget

'cause I saw exactly how much I was paying for all those expenses. I could memorize it in my head. So if you never had that experience of consistently writing [00:03:00] down every month, I pay this because you had to write a check. You had to register it subtract it from the balance in your account so that you knew how much money was in your account.

 I mean, I always did that. And so having that routine, that was kind of my budget flow 'cause I knew what was left in my account after I paid my utilities and what else I had left. No, I didn't get down to the granular on how much I paid for shoes versus how much I paid for food or whatever. I might've had like a general fund for

what I needed to get me through to the next paycheck, but for the most part, it was a way of budgeting your money when your money came in.

Maggie: Well now everyone just dips into your bank account without you knowing and you open it up every day and you're like, Hmm, 

Dr. Barb: Yeah, because it's too easy. It's too easy to take money out without recording it.

Maggie: I know. It just seems all imaginary sometimes And you don't see it even deposited. You know, it's like one day it's there and you just hope it's maybe the right amount

'cause no one even gets like a pay stub anymore.

Dr. Barb: I know it's all out in the

black hole somewhere. And [00:04:00] so because of that, it makes it kind of magical. Like those credit cards, they're magic.

Maggie: Magic cards. So either way we're getting back to it. We're talking with Lindsey about how you need a budget. I'm not saying you, but probably you do. And again, just hinting, you know, we're hitting the end of November, going into December, brand new year. Maybe this is something you wanna get started in the new year or just today.

We still have some weeks left. Don't wait for the new year. Get started now. Get a head start being a plus overachiever. I'm excited about this one and everyone can hear about my YNAB win. Not to brag. 

Dr. Barb: Maggie has a YNAB win. Let's cheer her on.

Maggie: You are gonna have to tune in and check it out. 

 

Gloria Steinem once said, we will never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth. Barbara Provost and Maggie Nielsen are the team at purse strings that will help you [00:05:00] navigate the ins and outs of financial independence so that you can be financially fearless. This is women in money, the shit we don't talk about.

Maggie: Let's get this party started. We are excited to have this podcast episode with Lindsey today. She's one of our Purse Strings Approved Professional. She runs two businesses and she also loves her cats. And that's what I know about Lindsey. No. So I'm gonna let you do your formal introduction, Lindsey, before we dive into all the fun.

Lindsey: Awesome. Thank you. Thanks Maggie. Yes, so my name is Lindsey Ciarrocca, as Maggie said, I actually have two businesses. The first one is with my husband. We are both financial planners. That is providers and families, wealth management, where we help our clients plan for their financial future, whatever that great life looks like we want to help them get there, and we want to be your lifelong partners to help you achieve your financial dreams. The second business I have is called the Exuberant Elephant, which is specifically for money and budget coaching. So I am a YNAB certified coach, and certified money coach, and I actually found my [00:06:00] way into financial services because a friend asked me to help her with her budget.

And I just kept coming back to this budgeting piece. So long story short, I ended up starting a whole second business for it, and that is now where I help people take control of their finances on a day-to-day basis. So they can figure out what's coming in, what's going out, and help them be intentional with their spending.

Maggie: And so like, why did you pick the name Exuberant Elephant? Every time I see it, I'm always like, I think I asked you this before.

Lindsey: Yes, there is a whole story to it and there's a whole page on my website, so you'll have to go check it out because I was working with a company to do the branding for my business and I wasn't really wanting to use my own name for whatever reason. I wanted a name. As you mentioned, I like cats and my favorite color is also purple, which you'll notice if you check out the website at all.

 So I had this thought about like, what about Purple Cat coaching? Just something super fun, super random, like, people would be like, oh, what is that conversation starter? Believe it or not, purple Cat coaching is taken.

Dr. Barb: Wow.

Lindsey: I think it's the UK at least there was five years ago.

Somebody in the UK has Purple Cat [00:07:00] coaching. As I was going through it, part of the process that the branding company did was they interviewed people that I had already worked with and one of my past clients, one of the quotes from her was her exuberance about it made me want to learn more. And slight side story, my degree is actually in graphic design.

So when I was in school. One of our projects was to create a company and we had to build out our business cards and logos, letterhead, business cards, envelopes, all those sorts of things. And my company was the exuberant elephant, and it was a kids' clothing company. So just reading that word exuberant, brought back the tie to my graphic design college days, and it was sort of like, oh, wouldn't that be cool to have that tie in?

So I started thinking about it a little more and I started doing some research into elephants. And elephants actually have a lot of symbolism for money as well. So I thought it was all just a perfect fit. It all just kind of fell into place that this was the original [00:08:00] name I came up with in college.

It's not the original branding. That's why I said if you go onto the website, you can see the logo that I designed for that company, but brought it kind of all full circle and I thought that was pretty cool.

Maggie: I like that. Some reason I thought it was gonna be about like, you know, one bite at a time. Like that's the only way you need an elephant 'cause you know, like it money seems like big to take on, but like elephants are sweet still. Who knows? 

Lindsey: Yeah, there's all kinds of layers to it, so that's why it's pretty cool too, because you can talk about the elephant in the room that, you know, money is often mentioned as the elephant in the room. But then also just in other cultures like elephants and the symbolism with the money is pretty deep. So it's pretty cool.

Maggie: I know you said before that you've hated math in school and then you share with us you have a graphic design degree. So what happened in the middle where we decided that yeah, we're gonna teach women how to budget, and they kind of came to you it sounded like. So you must have had some knack.

Lindsey: Yes. So that's kind of what it is. So, like I said, I [00:09:00] hated math in school. I remember crying over math and work in middle school because it was just like, I just don't understand it. Like, why do I have to solve for X and Y? 

Dr. Barb: Oh, I hate that

Maggie: Oh my God. Get me in there. I love it.

Lindsey: Oh, no, no, no. So by my senior year of high school, I had taken pretty much all my art classes. So I just was like, well, I guess I'm going into art school. And went in there, got a degree in graphic design. I took one math class, my first semester of freshman year of college, and it was math for the liberal arts major.

And I was like, never touching math again. Fast forward. Probably eight, ten years. Got my degree in graphic design, was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was working for a real estate photography company at the time, and a friend asked me to help her with her budget. To this day, I still don't even know why she decided to ask me.

I think it might have been because maybe she just saw that I had bought a house and I was, seemed like I was doing well. You never really know what their situation is on the inside. But to her, it seemed like I knew what I was doing. So [00:10:00] she asked me to help her and I said, sure.

Didn't even think twice about it. We sat down on a Friday night to look through her finances and at the end of it she was like, I'm so sorry to make you work on a Friday night. And I said, without even thinking. I was like, are you kidding? I love this stuff. I was like, oh. I should pay attention to this, right?

Because like I said, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life at that point, eight years after graduating college. So I did, I looked into it. I paid attention to it because you know, you're old saying of you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. So I was like, okay.

But at that point you think finances, you think financial advisor. So that's where my mind went to, and I started connecting with advisors on LinkedIn, asking to pick their brain about the industry, find out more. Pretty much one thing led to another. Everything just again clicked, fell into place, everything felt right. From the time I met with my friend to the time I signed on with my original firm to start studying for my licenses was less than two months. Yep, this is it, like, [00:11:00] this feels right. I'm all about feelings. You know, so I went into financial services, got fully licensed as a financial advisor, doing investments, retirement planning.

But again, people just kept gravitating to me for budgeting and I just kept realizing like, oh, I really enjoy this. So I just kept doing it and decided that, you know, there is so much power in having control of your budget and knowing your numbers, that was what I was really passionate about in the financial space.

I mean, that's an interesting story and I love how you kind of followed what you love to do and so having you from helping someone with their budget to being a financial advisor. And then now you are still an advisor, but you certified money coach. Can you share a little bit of the difference of the advisor role versus the coaching role and like why one person might go to, you know, that one hat versus the other hat? 

Honestly, we've had people in both situations. For the advisor role, that is really people that pretty much have a. A good [00:12:00] understanding of their day-to-day expenses, where their money goes, they're spending less than they're making, want to plan for their bigger goals.

So buying a house, having kids, retirement is always the big one, obviously for that piece of it. So those are the long-term planning aspects that we look at. For the coaching side, it is more of the day to day, every single day, where are you spending your money? What is it going towards? You know, the big question is, are you spending more than you're making?

'Cause most people are when they first come to me, like, it's a lot of handholding. I meet with my clients on a weekly basis to start with, and we really look into, where's your money going? But also, why do you spend the way you do? Or why do you think about money the way you do? How did you grow up with money? Because all of those deeper things are what's affecting how you're spending your money. So we can sit around all day long and I can say, oh, you shouldn't buy your lattes every day or you shouldn't buy presents for people. But until you [00:13:00] understand why you're doing those things, it has more of an impact.

So we dive pretty deep on the coaching side.

Dr. Barb: It sounds like coaching therapy or money therapy.

Lindsey: It really is, and there is actually a financial therapy designation. Which I've looked into many times, but never gotten so, so, yes, it is basically financial therapy. I just can't call myself a therapist because I'm not licensed. 

Dr. Barb: Yeah. Because so much of the reason why people kind of get themselves into trouble or whatever, first of all, it's because we weren't taught how to use money. That's a big part of it. And you know, no shame, no blame. And the other part is so much of our childhood experiences is woven into the fabric of how we think about money.

Our knee-jerk reactions to how we either spend or don't spend money. Our emotions around money, and it's so innate that we just think it's normal.

Maggie: You don't know any other way sometimes.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, you don't know any other way. And sometimes that, I think it roots its ugly head when you're [00:14:00] in relationship with somebody else who thinks quite differently about it.

And then you kind of come to heads on why, why? Like you might have a spender with a saver or you might just have things where people don't align and then they have to start thinking about unpacking, why do you think there's so much scarcity? Or why do you think we get to spend this way, or whatever it might be?

And then that's where they come to you, Lindsey, and you can start helping them unpack it and really realize what's going on.

Lindsey: Right. It's that awareness piece, and that's one thing that I say to my clients all the time. It's about becoming aware of what you're thinking, how you're feeling, how you grew up with it. Right? Where did these things come from? Because again, yes, you're exactly right there. These are habits you've built over decades and you don't even realize it.

So the first thing is we're going to find them, become aware of them, so then we can start to change them.

Maggie: And give ourselves that grace that it's not gonna change overnight. It took 20 years to build. It's gonna take a, you know, maybe a year or two to knock down at least. 

Lindsey: I say that all the time. You did not get here overnight. You will not [00:15:00] get out of this overnight.

Maggie: I wish we could.

Lindsey: I wish we could, which is so hard because, we're in such a instant gratification society.

Dr. Barb: Oh my God, yes.

Lindsey: We want to be out of it overnight, but it's just not gonna happen.

Maggie: But Instagram tells me I can be.

Lindsey: Well?

Maggie: So I know a lot of people kind of avoid the whole budgeting aspect because it usually leads to this like, old mentality of just being really restrictive. And so how do you kind of reframe that belief? So it feels freeing and happy versus limiting.

Lindsey: Yeah, That's a great question. That is one of the most common pushbacks I get is that budgeting is restrictive. It's all about saying, no, you can't do what you want. You can't spend money on fun things. But what if we flip the script around and say, instead of saying no to everything, budgeting is actually about giving yourself permission to say yes to the things that are actually important to you. So again, it comes back to that awareness piece. We start with looking at where you're spending your money really doing a deep dive and saying, is this important to you or would you [00:16:00] rather put it towards this other goal? So, it's really all about the clarity that you can get when you start budgeting, because then you can be intentional with your finances.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, and it's like, Hey, you know. Do you like when the lights go on? When you flip that switch? like when you think, oh, I have to pay all these utilities. Well, hot running water is really nice on a cold night when you wanna take a hot shower, so how lucky are you that you can just step in there and take it so you realize how lucky you are that you.

Get to pay your utilities. Right. And make choices like that for sure. That's great. And so talk about moving from reactive to proactive with money. So what does that shift actually look like in a day-to-day life?

Lindsey: So that's where I love the budgeting tool that I use with all of my clients, which is called YNAB, stands for You Need a Budget, and it's basically a virtual envelope system. our parents might have taken out an envelope and written groceries on it and put cash inside of it.

It's a digital version of that, so you [00:17:00] can only budget money that you have. But the key to that is it's a real-time system so you can connect it to your accounts so it pulls in your transactions. So when you spend money on groceries, you can see in real time, ' oh, if I put a hundred dollars in there and I spent 25, I have 75 left'. Cause I always like to describe it as kind of like the old way of budgeting would be, I'd sit down on the first of the month and I would say, I expect to get paid $5,000 and here's how I think I we'll spend it. Most of the time you put it away for 30 days, you forget about it. You come back at the end of the month and say, ' okay, how would I do?'

At that point, you can't change anything. YNAB is meant to be a system that you use on a regular basis so you can see, do I have money in this category or not? And that's one of the keys to being successful with it, is finding the money before you spend it.

Dr. Barb: So it's kind of like if you only have $75 in that envelope, even though it's virtual and you're at the grocery store [00:18:00] and you spend 82. You gotta find seven more dollars somewhere.

Lindsey: Exactly. So it's again, going back to being intentional with where can I move $7 from, or am I not going to spend $7 because this other thing is more important, and I'd rather keep the money there.

Dr. Barb: You're very, very close to watching your money every single day. Then.

Lindsey: And in the beginning, some people have to be like, my husband and I were there, there were times years ago where we would be in the grocery store. He would have his phone out adding prices up, and we're making decisions on whether or not we should be buying these things. Like what is our total going to be?

Maggie: And so like, what if it's the 14th, you get paid the 15th, you're going to the grocery, and so like, you know, more money's hitting tomorrow. Do you like restrict yourself then? Do you know what I mean? Like that kind of like cusp situation where you're like, I just need to get groceries for the week.

I'm getting paid tomorrow. It's all gonna wash out.

Lindsey: Kind of depends on the situation. So in the beginning you might have to be like, well, I have to buy [00:19:00] groceries, I have to put it on a credit card. I know I'm getting paid tomorrow. I'll fill the category up tomorrow. In an ideal situation, your paycheck that you're getting tomorrow is funding next month.

Dr. Barb: Oh,

Lindsey: So you're not even worried about what's coming up in the next week, the next two weeks. You are what they call in the YNAB world, you're a month ahead. So you've broken that paycheck to paycheck cycle. 

Dr. Barb: I like that. 

Maggie: That makes sense. I'm kind of interested of, like, you became a YNAB coach and you say it's kind of confusing to learn and so I feel like some people within an app, and if you're like, it's confusing to learn someone needs to coach me on an app like that sounds like a lot, like an app should be intuitive.

So like why is there so much coaching needed around it? And I feel part of it is like this whole mental game that we have with money. But like, can you give some more insight in there?

Lindsey: Yes, so like I said, it was confusing for me when I first started. I heard about YNAB for the first time in 2017. I think two people told me about it in the same day. And I was like, wait a minute. How have I never heard of this software? So

of course I'm going to [00:20:00] go deep diving into this. And the biggest thing is changing how you think about budgeting.

It's a zero based budgeting system, which to most people may not mean anything, but it's really goes back to that you can only budget the money you have. So if you have $2,000 in your checking account, or if you have $200 in your checking account, that's all you have to work with. Whereas going back to that old school budgeting, oh, I'm gonna get 5,000 this month, so I'm gonna just budget it all, budget it all. Actually just made a video on this, like the most common mistake I see people doing.

So it's just shifting the way you're thinking about budgeting from that first of the month doing everything and then putting it away to this real-time system we're interacting with on a daily basis.

Maggie: Yeah, that first month system never would work. Especially 'cause it's like, I forget that someone's birthday's on the 22nd, or, I didn't know I wanted to go out to dinner on the 27th. Like I didn't know Billy was coming to town. Like, who knows? Like, I was always like, how am I supposed to [00:21:00] predict what I'm gonna do this month?

I mean, I know vaguely, but not like per the dime, and so it was always very confusing and not very successful in that way.

Lindsey: where you can start to flip the script with YNAB Because you know you're going to go out to eat someday. You know you're going to have friends come, you know you're going to travel, you know you're going to have car repair bills and medical expenses, and vet bills. So you start putting money into all those buckets.

 Maybe it's not right away. Again, maybe you don't have that luxury right in the first couple months that you're using it. But over time, that key piece being, if you're spending less than you're bringing in. So let's say you're spending $3,500 a month and you're bringing in 4,000. So you're always gonna have a little bit more to start to build in those categories.

so the travel one, it just sits there for maybe three months until you do travel and then you have a pot of money to pull from.

Maggie: I've been listening to you for a while now on our money talks, on our different sessions. So I did make an account just for my [00:22:00] car and so I was like putting $50 a month in there and I was like, I know it's not gonna cover everything, but I went to go get my oil change and everything else and it was so great just taking that out of that bucket and like still having all my extra money left over 'cause it wasn't like a huge dent. Now they did gimme $6,000 more of work that they thought I should get done in the near future. So I might need to up that. But like for the tire rotation and the oil change, I was like, look at me, look at me.

Lindsey: That is called a YNAB win. You have the money waiting for a job. Like does anyone want to have pay money for their tires to be rotated? No, but

you have the money sitting there.

Maggie: And every time I'm like shocked how much it costs. Like even though I know every six months we're gonna be in there, we're gonna do the thing, you know? And so I was like, even if there's more in this account, I know they're gonna want it sometime. So I mean, and that's like with vet Bills too. Like I can't tell you when, but I know you're giving me that face for listeners who are just listening and not watching.

Lindsey: I think we've had this conversation about how [00:23:00] much I've spent on vet bills this year.

Maggie: And it's like you don't know when it's gonna come, but you know it's gonna come.

Lindsey: I will quote my dad here. He always told me, everything in your life needs maintenance.

Dr. Barb: Mm-hmm.

Lindsey: And that was always a thing. And it's like, okay, so, and that maintenance is gonna cost money, whether it's pets, cars, your own body, your house, any of those things.

So yeah, they're gonna happen.

Dr. Barb: But let me ask you this, so maintenance, so you wouldn't have a maintenance account, you would have a maintenance for your house, a maintenance for your car, a maintenance for your pets in YNAB?

Lindsey: It depends. I have all of those and more obviously, but how much work makes sense for you? I have some clients who I don't care what it is if it's travel related. It's just the travel category. For me, I break it down into, well, what's accommodation? What was transportation? What was food?

What was dining out? What was groceries like? I get a little obsessive with it, but you can also work up to that point, So maybe you don't have all these categories to start with because that's overwhelming and you [00:24:00] don't have all the money to put in it. But over time you can add a category and start adding your 25, 50 bucks to it a month because

that'll be something when that expense comes up.

Dr. Barb: are these just categories in the app or are these actual bank accounts with, all these different 

Lindsey: There are just categories in the app. So that is the beauty of it, is that you don't need multiple bank accounts. And it's actually more confusing if you do have multiple bank accounts, because YNAB doesn't care where the money is. Let's say if you have two checking accounts and you have a thousand dollars in one.

Yeah, and 3000 in one, and maybe your rent is coming out and it's $1,800. If you look at your categories, you have $1,800. But if it's coming from the account that only has a thousand dollars in it, you will likely overdraw that account. Does that make sense? So in the YNAB world, it's easier to have everything in just one checking account.

Maggie: And so do you recommend like [00:25:00] those longer, I'm gonna quote like longer term accounts like the pet fund and the car fund all kind of hold in a high yield savings account, and that way they earn some interest and it's not like your normal day to day checking account.

Lindsey: Yes, because I was gonna say, all that being said, caveat to say that as you start to use the system, you're going to build up money in your checking account, and all of a sudden you have few thousand dollars and it's earning nothing. So over the last couple years, as interest rates have gone up, yes, I have a high yield savings account.

It's just one bucket for all of the other categories. So in our checking account, I just keep, you know, a few thousand, but the high yield is sitting there with thousands of dollars in it, just making money. But I can see exactly what it's all earmarked for in YNAB.

Maggie: And then my last question on this, on this before we move to the next question is are you building an emergency fund on top of this? Because I feel like a lot of these things are kind of like your emergency fund for the pet, your emergency fund for the car, you [00:26:00] know your emergency fund for the house, and so are you milling an emergency fund on top of that?

And how the heck are you saving that much money?

Lindsey: So that is a highly debated question in the YNAB world, and you're exactly right that in the sense that if you're saving for all these other things, you don't need an emergency fund. 

Dr. Barb: Because that is your emergency fund. 

Lindsey: That is your emergency fund. That being said, I do have a separate emergency fund because my husband and I are both self-employed.

It's more of a paycheck fund if something were to happen and we couldn't pay ourselves this month, it's going in there or in the case that just happened recently, we had $3,000 in the vet bill, but we spent 3,900. So I took that 900 from our emergency fund.

Maggie: And I appreciate you kind of being honest of like those envelopes are not always as full as they need to be. I mean, those pet bills, I mean, you never know. You could have three grand and one day they need 10. You just never know. 

Lindsey: We could have a whole episode about the money we've spent on a cat this year and how our fund has gone up and down. Like I wrote an email on it, I think maybe in like February or [00:27:00] March where I was like, I started the year with $1,200 and vet bill funds, and we're at about 50 now.

And it's been more since then, so.

Dr. Barb: Wow,

Lindsey: The win being, I only took $900 from our emergency fund. Mm-hmm.

Maggie: Yeah.

You're prepared. Yeah. And so many women who are listening are juggling family, maybe businesses caretaking and you know, everything in between. So what's a simple budgeting habit that can help 'em make money decisions with less stress and more clarity.

Lindsey: So the very first thing that I have all of my clients do has nothing to do with numbers or money. It's about finding your motivation, finding your financial why or a goal that is more important to you than the discomfort of budgeting or looking at your debt numbers. So I always tell them like, find something that really resonates with you, that like punches you in the gut and you're like, that's why I am doing this, because that goal is more [00:28:00] important than all of these other things. 

Dr. Barb: What do some people say?

Lindsey: So the one client that came to top of my security, peace and joy, that is hers. Yeah. Some of it's just financial freedom, not having to worry about can I pay for groceries this week. Ours right now is a property in New Mexico, so my husband and I went to New Mexico a couple months ago.

 And both totally fell in love and we're like, we were joking around like, oh, wouldn't it be cool to like buy a property out here? And then we were there for a couple days and we're like, but actually, like, what would we need to do to make this happen?

Get our the YNAB. 

So while we were there, I put a category in our budget for a New Mexico property.

And just the other day my husband was going, my husband's a runner. So he had wanted a new pair of running shoes and he was running some errands and he was going out and he came back and he was like, I decided not to buy the shoes. And I was like, why not? He's like, well, I was looking at the category and I saw I didn't have enough money in my running shoe category 'cause yes, he has a running shoe category [00:29:00] and I was thinking about a New Mexico property. That was just like, I'm so proud of you.

Maggie: You are thinking about us.

Lindsey: So it just made the decisions easy, right?

Maggie: Yeah. I mean it's definitely your driver of what gets you every day. Right. And so, that's awesome. I love that. And we wait to come visit you in New Mexico. 

Dr. Barb: Wonderful.

I think this has been really interesting. I'm glad we dug into the YNAB, because I know it's such a unique, way to budget and you're the pro to ask and dig into it. So I've learned a lot already from it, so super cool. And what I love the most, I think, is it really keeps you financially conscious and focused on your specific goals.

I mean, on a day-to-day basis, which I love 'cause so often we get kind of, you know, yeah, I have this goal, and then when paycheck time comes, you kind of flub it a little bit or ebb and flow, but really with what you're doing, like your husband did, you look daily on what's the best way to really focus [00:30:00] on our funds, our limited funds that come in.

How am I making the best decisions for what we wanna do for our families, for our goals, short and long term, you know, you're really making conscious decision and I love it.

I've heard it said that the numbers around money are not emotional. The numbers are data. They give you information. So looking at the numbers and saying, I don't have enough for my shoes that I want, is helping you make those informed decision.

Maggie: I'm glad we're kind of doing this closer to the end of the year. So like people could, you know, maybe download the app and kind of start like a new year with the app and give it a try at least for a year 'cause these things, you know, they do take a second to implement.

They're not gonna have magic in a month. I mean, you might, but it takes a while to get into the routine.

Lindsey: The other thing I tell clients too, like kind of how you mentioned before, like how do I know what I'm gonna do this month or next month? Like it really does take a full year to see what you really spend money on 'cause there's always that Costco membership that comes up that you forgot about or that auto insurance renewal.

So it's okay to add those [00:31:00] to your budget as you go because it's a living, breathing thing that's flexible and not rigid and restrictive. 

Maggie: Yeah, if you could remember everything that you're gonna pay throughout the year, damn, that's impressive.

Dr. Barb: Well, yeah, within the whole year. Then the next year everything's been accounted for, for the most part. Right. You are strengthening that muscle right over a whole year and getting into that routine, which is really super cool.

Lindsey: Or maybe once you realize you paid off your phone, you start putting that extra into a new phone fund.

Because that will come up again. You're going to get a new phone, right? Does it need to be the newest, latest, greatest, most expensive one? No.

Maggie: Maybe

Lindsey: It 

depends. 

If that's your priority, maybe.

Maggie: The apple does not fall far from the tree. No. Um. No. Lindsey, this has been a great conversation and so I know you do coaching with people if they want, you know, more information on how to do YNAB. But you also do some videos on YouTube as well so people can get some tips to get started.

Lindsey: Yep. I have [00:32:00] recently started a YouTube channel so that I can do some YNAB videos, because like I said, it's a little confusing to set up, but if you have somebody walking you through it, it's so much easier. So I have a YouTube channel. I have a podcast that I've started for myself as well. And then everything I do is on my website as well.

And there's tons of free resources that you can find there to get you started.

Maggie: We'll have all that in the show notes, but before we close out, we have to ask you, Lindsey, what is your own definition of financial freedom?

Lindsey: Well, financial freedom, or as I like to call it, financial exuberance. It's really a place where you are using money as a tool. It's not a burden on your shoulders. It's a tool that helps you live your greatest life. You know, maybe that's a space where you can build a business. Donate to causes that you're passionate about, but really most importantly to me, I want to create a ripple effect around the world because money in the hands of women can have powerful impacts, [00:33:00] not only in our own community, but beyond.

So I want to get women to that place so that they can be impacting the greater good.

Maggie: Say it louder for the people in the back.

Dr. Barb: Amen sister.

Maggie: and Have you ever pet an elephant?

Lindsey: You know, I've actually been to Africa and was on an African safari, but did not see an elephant.

Maggie: Maybe we gotta get Africa back on the list or just the local zoo. This has been great. Thank you so much, Lindsey for coming on, sharing your expertise. Check out her podcast and all her good information in the show notes. And until next time, be financially fearless.

Outro: You've been listening to Women Money, the shit we don't talk about. Now it's time to take what you've learned and make bold moves towards financial independence. Stay in the know by joining our newsletter for exclusive tools, resources, and updates that keep you financially fearless. Head to PurseStrings. co and sign up today. Need a financial professional who gets it? Turn to PurseStrings Curated Directory, [00:34:00] your go to resource for financial experts who know how to put you first. Love this episode? Leave us a review and help us empower even more women to own their financial power. Until next time, be financially fearless. 



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Barbara Provost

Host
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Maggie Nielsen

Host