What would you do if three major home repairs fell in your lap all at once? Can you think of a possible plan of action easily, or would this kind of life event paralyze you financially? Today, Jackie comes on the podcast to share about this happening to her family. Jackie is a mom of three who works in medical sales. She's always budgeted in some form and has used the Debt Free Mom template for a little over a year. Listen to her story of navigating these major expenses that all happened in the middle of job change!

If you'd like to start pay period budgeting like Jackie, you can get the Debt Free Mom Mini Course & Template for just $9! You'll get the signature spreadsheet template to plan out all your income and expenses, plus several explainer videos to help get you started. Head over to debtfreemom.co/template to get the Mini Course today for just $9.

If you have a story of how you handled an unexpected expense, or if you're in the middle of dealing with one and need some guidance, you can apply to be a guest on this season of the Debt Free Mom Podcast. Just fill out the application at dfmpodcast.com.

Welcome to season two of the Debt Free Mom podcast! Kicking off our next season, we have Mya on the podcast today. She is younger than our average listener base and she's here to share about being a Gen Z budgeter and trying to find financial advice that works for a younger generation. She's going to share her story about graduating from college, looking for jobs, and establishing herself independently with her finances and career. I am thrilled to have her on today.

On season two, we're going to continue these conversations, sharing stories, and asking questions about finances. This season, we specifically want to focus on making room for unexpected expenses, handling things that weren't originally part of the plan and finding our plan B with our finances.

If you want to apply to be a guest on the show and share your story or ask a question, you can go to dfmpodcast.com.

Book your Debt Free Mom Custom Budget today at debtfreemom.co/custom

Last week, we wrapped up our June theme learning to enjoy eating most of our meals at home. To close out this month, today's episode is with our first ever expert guest! Amy Cross is an expert in food storage and preservation. She shares practical approaches to reducing food waste and spending even while accommodating food allergies, sensitivities, picky eaters, and everything in between. Listen to what Amy has to share today about making the most of our grocery budget.

You can find Amy on Instagram @thecrosslegacy, and on her website thecrosslegacy.com

I put together my own guide for enjoying food at home called Feed the Family. You can find it on my website at debtfreemom.co/store

Summer with kids can be one of the most expensive times of the year. For some reason when they're all home and they're all eating meals at home all the time, it can end up being even harder to stay on budget. In today's first summer episode of the Debt Free Mom podcast, we'll talk through how to manage our finances and our time with kids at home for the summer. First, we'll cover ways to spend money wisely during the summer to boost our enjoyment (and our sanity!). After that, I share my tips on how to road-trip with kids - it's not as scary as you might think!

We'll be back in the fall with season 2 of the DFM Podcast full of interviews and answering your money questions. If you'd like to apply to be a guest on the show when we return in September, visit dfmpodcast.com

This is part three of my money story spanning over 11 and a half years of personal finances in our family of growing of learning from our mistakes of finding our way through the advice and rules of other people to what worked for us. In this final installment of our money story, I'm going from March of 2019, which is when Debt Free Mom began up to today in the spring of 2022. 

This is also the season 1 finale of the Debt Free Mom Podcast! We're planning to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming for the summer, but we'll do a mini series or two throughout the summer so that we're not just leaving you high and dry until the fall. We'll take the opportunity to do something fun, do something different than what we have been doing, and then start back strong in the fall with our guests coming on to talk about money, frustrations and money goals.

Would you do me a favor as we close out season one? If anything in this podcast has encouraged you to persist in your budget or empowered you to get off the fence with a money decision you needed to make and take action, or simply made you smile instead of worry about a topic as heavy as personal finances, would you do us a favor and rate or leave a review? Those numbers help our podcasts become visible to even more people just like you who are out there maybe confused about their money, but afraid to take action for fear of what other people will think of them, or for fear that they'll make the wrong move. We want them to find relatable and realistic advice here at the Debt Free Mom podcast, and your reviews can help us accomplish that goal. 

This is a special bonus episode of the Debt Free Mom Podcast. This episode is from a recording of an Instagram live sharing with my audience why a monthly budget might fall apart even when it looks right on paper. I also share why a pay period budget might be better instead. So the audio might sound a little different than what you’re used to here on the DFM podcast, and you’ll hear me answer a few questions from audience members. So just know that this was originally a live video. 

You can join Pay Period Budget Academy today at debtfreemom.co/pba

How do you pivot your relationship with money when you had one singular goal, you finally accomplished it, and you realize you haven't at all prepared for what life on the other side of that goal might look like? Today's episode is part two of My Money Story, right after we became debt free. What did we do next?

I started Debt Free Mom in March of 2019. We were debt-free, we had three kids, and we were about to buy our first house. But we had also been married for over seven years, and the way our finances looked over those seven years was nothing like it looked when I started Debt Free Mom. So I thought to close out season one of the Debt Free Mom podcast, I would take three episodes to break down our story, Kyle and my story of money management and learning what we needed to do with our money no matter where our income was at from the time that we got married in December of 2011 all the way up to today. The big picture story I want to tell is from debt, to debt-free, to Debt Free Mom.

Visit debtfreemom.co/template to start budgeting by pay period today with this best selling template and mini course for only $9. You'll receive four tutorial videos on setting up a budget by pay period, a worksheet to help you gather your numbers into one place, and the signature budget by pay period template with space to plan out your money, no matter what pay schedule you have or how many income streams you're working with.

How do we sort through our money goals? When we have big deadlines, like a baby due date, a car that won't fit the whole family, and then just a general desire to be investing more today? Jenny and I talked through a game plan for financially preparing for a new baby and then which goal is to focus on after baby arrives. Do we do the goals that just feel good or should we run the numbers first?

The Debt Free Mom Custom Budget provides you with a one-time service for building your pay period budget. We'll gather all your real numbers, your frustrations, and your goals into a plan for your next 6 pay periods. The pay period budget system cuts out the confusion for every situation:

• If you're paid weekly, monthly or anything in between,
• If you have one stream of income or 5 part-time jobs,
• If you live within your means or watch your debt grow each month,

a Custom Budget will give you clarity and confidence around your home finances. Book your Custom Budget today at debtfreemom.co/custom

Lacey is a full-time accountant who has been married for nine years and they have floated in and out of being debt free, most recently a move in 2021, putting them back into debt. She lives and breathes numbers and spreadsheets professionally, but didn't find a budgeting system that stuck until trying the Debt Free Mom template. Lacey comes on today to talk about sinking funds, saving, setting aside money in advance and organizing bank accounts.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show to talk with Carly about a money issue or share your story of taking charge of your home finances, go to dfmpodcast.com and fill out the guest application.