BBP REAL LIFE BUDGET | Single Mom + Savings Tips

It’s time for another Real Life Budget. I asked my readers to submit their REAL information. Real spending, real debt, and real savings goals.

I am taking those real-life numbers and showing you how I would organize and budget that information using my Budget By Paycheck® Method.

Diane is a single mom who is a Database Administrator for an IT Department at a local college. She lives in Queens, NY, and eventually wants to move to a lower-cost of living area in the future.

Diane submitted her information because she is struggling to organize and tackle all of her larger short-term goals.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
02:15 Why & Personal Story
04:20 Income
04:37 Fixed Expenses
05:48 Variable Expenses
06:31 Debt
07:53 Savings Goals
10:18 Budget By Paycheck Method
14:51 My Recommendations

ABOUT ME

Kumiko Love is a single mom who empowers women everywhere to regain control of their financial lives. An Accredited Financial Counselor with over nine years of experience in the finance industry, she founded The Budget Mom, a community of millions of women on a path to financial fulfillment.

She's also the creator of the wildly popular Live Rich Planner® and Budget by Paycheck® Workbook. Love has been featured on Good Morning America, the Today show, CNN, CBS, ABC and in USA Today, US News, World Report, Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Parents Magazine, the Washington Post, and Real Simple. She lives in Spokane Valley, Washington.

YOU CAN FIND ME AT:

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[rachelleblanc]

I would love a series where you circle back and check in on these people and how they are doing now with their budget, savings goals, debt repayment ❤️ amazing video. Thank you!

[andreamiracle]

I’d encourage her to check out free coding resources online, like W3 schools, for example. They offer free tutorials on programming languages like Python, Java, and C, plus other things like HTML, CSS, AND SQL. When she’s ready, she can take an exam (for a fee) to obtain a certificate (or certificates). The cost is significantly less than the coding course would be. Saying this as someone who looked at a coding bootcamp through a well-known university, but it would have cost well over $10, 000. I’m going this route instead, encouraged to by my software engineer husband.

[RayEmureMusic]

I love these real life budget planning. It makes me look at mine and see what else or better I can do.

[jomar]

I would suggest that she waits until after she moves and maybe extend out another 12 months before she buys a car. New York has good public transportation. Car insurance is very expensive and off the street parking is not cheap.

[EmsFitVenture]

The coding course seems incredibly expensive given there are other online coding courses and certificates you can take for far less.

[mizzelleve]

Diane you need to look into applying for some educational scholarships ASAP. There are always a lot of programs for single Moms, especially tech. Miko has given some amazing tips. Don’t let them fall on deaf ears!

[michellemorales]

Another great Real People Budget. This is a great example of how splitting up your payments, properly, can afford you to split up your paychecks to better accommodate your bills. I struggled with that in the beginning. Now, we're a month ahead and our due dates better accommodate our pay schedule.

[everythingkendra]

Idk how I was not subscribed all this time but im subscribed now. I have your book 'My money my way' soooo, why I wasn't subscribed beats me.

[dianr]

Great suggestions. Sometimes it just takes thinking it through with another person to get it all figured out.

[arthrodea]

I would call that 10, 000 the emergency fund and NOT use if for a coding course. She could probably get scholarships to cover at least some of that course. Also - 20K seems really high for a medical coding course (I assume that's the coding we are talking about?) - most would be around 3-5K. There is alot of extra she could cut in the budget for a short time (less than a year) - get rid of eating out, beauty, Spotify, YouTube TV (you can get regular YouTube for free), vacation savings. I have never spent $700 for a birthday - children will be happy with a simply fun celebration and simple gifts. $150 for a planner? Target sells beautiful ones for like $20. I would go bare bones for about a year and knock out all the debt. I personally did this for over 2 yrs and paid off 6 figures of student loans.

[MonicaPriceCMP]

A real life situation with a single mom! Love that

[BudgetingGranny]

I would never rely on child support. If they are offsetting his refund, the lump sum could come…or he could have been smart enough to adjust his withholding and she gets $0 as he no longer has a refund coming. Sometimes it’s a “one and done” type thing once their refund gets offset the first time.

[DebtFreeJessie]

Thanks Miko! I'm trying to balance debt payoff, savings and investing so it was helpful to hear your recommendations on how to approach balance between goals!

[monacarney]

I would love to see a lot more of these real life budget videos. I love them. It’s so helpful.

[moniquechelius]

I really love watching these. These help me out so much

[randomsarcasm]

Buying a vehicle, buying a home, and moving to another state don't seem to be realistic goals given her income and location. She's benefiting from some low income benefits (e.g. rent) so she should continue to utilize those. She should focus solely on the coding course and eliminating cc debt.

[rachelsurratte]

Great Job. Real life budgets are so helpful!

[lindacee]

These are my favorite videos 🤗, helps me figure out my own situation!

[saracor]

Good luck to Diane! This was a great video. I feel like I can relate in a way as I’m also from NYC. Love your content 😊

[yolandavazquez]

Just wonderful the way your able to breakdown something that looks complex to a very comfortable step by step process.