Smart Spending for Busy Women

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0:00:43 - (A): Get ready to uncover the tools and strategies that can help you thrive financially. So without further ado, let's dive into today's episode of Money Roots.

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0:01:23 - (Kate Welker): Hi Becky. Hey Kate. Glad to have you back on. And me, and I'm actually excited because you and I don't get to hop on and chat as often either. So it's been fun exploring different topics and getting we thought the listeners would enjoy different perspective, number one, different voices, so it's not the same voice in your ear every single week and different perspectives throughout our team and things we're seeing with either clients or out on social media and kind of just in the world, things we're reading and then our own personal experiences. So today we really want to talk about how busy women are spending their money.

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0:02:28 - (Kate Welker): We hopefully never want to judge or shame anyone, how they're. How they're spending their money, but just more focus on being intentional. Think about what you're spending brings to you, and it's okay to spend money. Like, that's the part that I think today we want get into first setting goals, really making sure you're achieving those. You've got to be able to pay your bills. You want to be saving, you want to be set. But beyond that, what are some of the things you can spend your money on?

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0:03:15 - (Kate Welker): So this one is going to be more applicable to those of us with children. But childcare is a very large expense and also an area of concern. It can bring some pain and stress in your life. Also, just handling when you have children, they are a responsibility and making sure that they're handled appropriately so you can focus on the things that are important to you. So, Becky, since I've been chatting away, I let you jump in and talk a little bit about childcare, whether your experiences or what you're seeing with clients and how they're spending their money there.

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0:03:47 - (Becky Eason): So for myself, in my experience, is that I tried getting my daughter into daycare and there just wasn't any availability in the area that I live. And so, thankfully, I have family that, you know, we just divvy up and divide and conquer and, you know, fortunate in the aspect of families watching over my daughter. But also this cost of daycare, I mean, it's a pretty astronomical cost, but having family be able to help out has brought that cost down dramatically.

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0:04:57 - (Kate Welker): I am myself a little bit at the opposite stage, actually. And my children are now beyond the age of typical daycare, which is wonderful. And when those cost savings come in, then it's time to have more fun planning about. If you have been spending money on daycare, what can I do with that extra money? College planning, sometimes a seamless transition. Put a little plug there, not to get too sidetracked, but also camps and activities. So I'm at the other end now where we are into, like, day camps, summer camps, activities, just partly for their enrichment, but also partly to give me a little brain space. So for me, it's a way to spend resources to keep them busy.

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0:06:36 - (Kate Welker): So moving on. The next area that we see people spending money on is outsourcing housework and services. Becky, do you want to discuss anything that you see people spending money on that maybe brings them a little extra time in their lives?

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0:07:15 - (Kate Welker): Yeah, I think so. Often it's like, what should I be doing when I get home, when we are talking about kind of areas of satisfaction in life. And we're finding for a lot of women, leisure is a struggle because we're pulled in so many extra directions if there's something we can take off the plate. And I also think a big part of this for certain people is letting go of the guilt. Like, I should be able to do it all.

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0:08:01 - (Kate Welker): You mentioned laundry. This is something that takes a lot of time. I've actually timed it myself because, I don't know, I'm nerdy that way to see how much time I'll spend doing a little laundry when I'm figuring out things. But I did have one person once tell me they had decided to hire out laundry, and we were talking about work balances. Their phrase was, I will continue to work as hard as I need to, did not have to do laundry.

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0:08:49 - (Becky Eason): Yeah, I think, you know, things like cleaning and laundry, it's so hard to justify being able to spend the money on it because it's something that you're capable of doing. But once you're able to flip that switch, it's so worth it in so many aspects because you are essentially buying time.

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0:09:36 - (Kate Welker): And they were talking about, in their case, it was mowing the lawn. But the friend had said, you seem stressed about it all the time, and you're taking 2 hours to mow these lawns. You have to mow. Why don't you just hire a teenager to do it? And he goes, in that time, you could be making four to five times likely in your service versus what you'd pay somebody to do it. And it was really, again, maybe a male female perspective of thinking in numbers that way of, hey, if I'm doing this, I can do this instead. Not so much that I tend to think for myself about what does it give me in time and leisure, but also that gives me extra resources to be able to.

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0:10:26 - (Becky Eason): Yeah. Meals and meal planning. That's a huge fun.

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0:11:00 - (Kate Welker): But we've also utilized, I've attempted to, in the past, at least, meal delivery services, and I've tried a few different ones. We. We tend to sometimes get a little bored of the food, but having that box show up that has all of the ingredients perfectly portioned out with instructions and I don't have to think. For me, that has been hugely helpful, because I just say, like, hey, tonight we're having, like, whatever it is, I pull out the card. Everything's right there. There's still a little prep involved, and I really enjoy cooking. Like, I really do.

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0:11:49 - (Becky Eason): Yep. I use meal delivery as well. We'll go in spurts, you know, where we sign up and then take a little break. But during the break, what I like to do is actually on the weekend, go through and pull some cards and then kind of make my own meal delivery service, because then I can order the groceries, have them delivered without having to do this meal delivery.

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0:12:40 - (Kate Welker): Life has changed. That time block is no longer available. So I am finding ways to, like you said, make it more concise as well in that, and I was mentioning before, like, my, the planning for me. So I did find a service that was just meal plans. You can log in, and I paid for a subscription. So you log in at the beginning of the week, and there's maybe 15 meals available. So you pick the ones that you want, and it generates a list for you. So it generates the shopping list and then the recipes. And for me, that was great, because, again, it took the thought out of it. I had to think for about 20 minutes to figure out what my family enjoy, what do I want?

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0:13:45 - (Kate Welker): Um, next area, we want to chat a little bit. This is. I'm. I think I'm trying to move through things that are, like, more fun and more enjoyment. So getting down into personal care and this, I mean, we always talk about taking care of yourself is really important. You have to take care of yourself before others on the necessity side, but also, as you start meeting those basic needs and you have some extra income allowing yourself or having fun, spending money on some of those personal care areas.

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0:14:26 - (Becky Eason): One of the top ones that comes to mind is exercise. You know, that has multiple benefits for, you know, it gives you time to yourself. And then the exercise in and of itself also creates endorphins that make you feel better and, you know, reduce stress. So it's great on two fronts of.

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0:14:56 - (Becky Eason): You know, gym memberships and kind of circling back to childcare. A lot of gyms actually have childcare. So if you are able to find the time to go to the gym, you know, someone's there to watch your kids at a lot of spots. So a win win.

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0:15:33 - (Kate Welker): We'll get back to exercise, but for, well, this is personal care, they would go just use the sauna. If there was a sauna at their space, they'd go sit in the lounge and have a cup of coffee. They wouldn't take advantage of it. Wouldn't be forever, but they'd also utilize it just for a few minutes of me time. So if you are a busy woman with small children and you need a few minutes, look into your gym and see if they have childcare option.

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0:16:24 - (Kate Welker): Well, massages always feel good. Or take a few minutes to get a pedicure. So you looked on, and you just always feel your best going, kind of going out into the world, personal care into, even if it's salon services. We were chatting the other day, and I said one thing for me was kind of being like, hey, it's okay to actually spend money on my hair. That's one thing that, for me, I like having my hair done. And as I'm aging and different colors pop up on my head that I don't always.

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0:17:17 - (Kate Welker): I am busy. These things will either make my life easier or just bring me enjoyment. It's okay to just spend a little money on yourself to enjoy, enjoy life more. All right. And then I maybe save the best for last. But an area that I think is important for a lot of people, and we see for sure busy women spending a significant amount of money on, and I'd say significant, is travel and entertainment. Becky, any thoughts around travel or entertainment or what you're seeing?

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0:18:17 - (Kate Welker): I just had someone do a, quote, trip of a lifetime, and they came back, and it really was a trip of a lifetime. It was just so, for me, rewarding to hear about their experience. And I think getting away when you are. When you are busy getting out of your environment is so important as well, just to help you kind of come down from all of it. I just came back from a week off. I love my wonderful team that supported me.

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0:19:08 - (Kate Welker): For me, anywhere on or near the water is very relaxing. I could sit there and read for 3 hours and not feel guilty the least bit about it because I'm just out of the environment. So I think those trips to get out and decompress, and I think for some people it's really essential if you are many professional women are in high stress, high demand roles. And just for our overall health to be able to get away and decompress and bring all of those stress levels down is very important. So it's going to look different for everybody. For some people, it might just be a little cottage or, you know, it could be different things where some people might be an international world class spa to go to and encourage that.

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0:20:15 - (Kate Welker): If we have local listeners in our area, we can chat. There's just a lot of shows that we're torn about. We do have a limited pool to that area and what do we want to do? But also thinking about, all right, we do have a lot of enjoyment is a season ticket at some point something we want to consider as our family and also like, is it bringing enrichment to our whole family? So those things to just, again, get out of your environment for a while, let you have fun, enjoy all the hard work that you do all the time, and again, kind of bring it back to some of your values, things that are important to you, and just be intentional with where those extra dollars are going.

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0:21:16 - (A): You've been listening to money roots, your go to podcast for making personal finance accessible and approachable. Thanks for joining us today. Amy and her guests have enjoyed guiding you through the roots of your financial journey. Remember, whether you're planting new seeds of financial knowledge or nurturing the growth of your existing financial plans, money Roots is here to support you every step of the way.

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