Self Care September: Financial Fitness

Hey good people!! I hope you all have had a fantastic start to the new month. Work has been extremely busy lately so this past weekend I took the time to do absolutely nothing. We are going forward into our month and its time for a refocus and restart of sorts. After the fun summer I had, I knew the first priority for September for me was to refocus budget wise.

Finances. Not all that sexy to talk about but it’s something that has really taken a place in my self care routine for a while now. I have talked about budgeting here before. I have been transparent in the past about struggling financially and just not being great with money. Finances and budgeting have never been intuitive to me. After stumbling into the budgeting/planning world on YouTube a few years ago, I really got invested in it. Once I started budgeting however I feel my entire relationship with money changed and I made amazing strides with managing what I had and what I needed to do with it.

Many relationships and transactions that take place in life revolve around money. We are either trying to come up with a plan to get more of it, stressed because we don’t have enough of it, or seeing how others are flossing theirs on the gram. Money is so emotional and personal and I can say that from my own experience. I whole heartedly subscribe to the “treat yourself” movement but that can get a little fuzzy. Especially when you (talking about myself) will treat yourself to something if you are happy, sad, mad or any other gamete of emotions that you may feel in a day.

I got really lax within the last year or so with budgeting, especially over the summer. Back in 2019 when I started, I was very strict. I did an overall monthly budget and then split that budget up based on each paycheck. I was tracking every transaction twice, once on my phone and then again with a written ledger. Over the top much? I know right, but I had to jump in being serious. I had goals! Some have been accomplished (my car is paid off baby! I don’t want another care note for at least 7 years. Me and D are going to be riding until the wheels fall off! Preferably not when I’m driving, but you get it.) I am tend to be more of a spender than a saver. I have even more goals in sight and I don’t want my reformed bad spending habits to interfere with what I see myself accomplishing. So for September I am going to ease myself back into my practices with these two steps.

Monthly Budgeting

I want to start back with my budgeting. I looked through my budget book and hadn’t touched it since March! Personally having an outline of where my is going is so satisfying. You really have to make your money work for you, no matter how much or little you have. With the extra funds that I have now with no car note, I want to make sure that I don’t just blow through it if I can help it. I want to make some strides in the last quarter of the year to set myself up nicely for 2022. I plan to decrease frivolous spending, increase savings, and doing some investing – which will be new for me. I budget everything out from bills and groceries all the way down to entertainment.

No Spend September

Yea, yea. You read that right. For the month of September I am on a no spend. I know a lot of people who do this, like a fast for your finances. The goal for me is to not spend on anything outside of necessities for the entire month. Now I did not want to feel a full deprivation, so I did allow myself (and budgeted for) a movie day this past weekend. One movie ticket with snacks. I won’t be buying any clothing, miscellaneous items etc. If there are things that I feel I really just must have, I am sitting on it and if I still really want it when October hits I will go for it. I think this will give me time to really see what are purchases that really bring me joy or things that I just buy because I can. I am also refraining from getting pedicures or my hair done (these gray hairs really upset me) and opting for doing those things at home for the month. Finally I will not be indulging in dining out and eating at home. Will something come up that I may end up spending on? Possibly, but putting the parameters in place so it’s not a free for all will help mentally stay in check. Progression over perfection.

So that is where we are starting with our Self Care September. Being mindful of your financial journey really can be a form of self care. This is a form of making sure that I control my money and I don’t let it control me. It is gratifying and extremely rewarding for me! What say you? Are you into budgeting? Do you correlate spending to emotions or is it not that deep for you? Let me know in the comments below!