Money Tracker - Day 22 of 30 - Things That Make My Life Easier

Each day I talk about one thing that makes my life easier as a neurodivergent mother raising neurodivergent kids while going back to school full time in my 40s.

I'm not sure why, but it seems like every ADHD friend of mine struggles with keeping track of their money.

I get it.

1) If you're an elder millennial like me, you most likely weren't taught how. I learned by searching out and following budgeting gurus on social media obsessively for years.

2) Money, for some, is also less interesting if you don't have it, or you have enough to get by but not enough to save the way we've all been told to. (In this economy? Puhlease. Wages haven't exactly gone up in proportion to the cost of living over the last 40 years...what the hell are we supposed to do? Asking because I've been working my ass off my entire life only to return to school because AI killed my last career.)

All this to say, I know how stressful it can be to think about money, to figure out how to track it, what to do with it, how to grow it, etc.

So in today's post, I'm telling you that using a money tracking app makes my life so much easier because I don't have to worry about overspending.

I am currently using Good Budget (I've used YNAB - You Need A Budget), and various others throughout the years. This is NOT an ad, btw. I'm just sharing what I'm using currently, and I have to say I love it. This is a great ADHD mom hack!

Here's how it works:

1) First, you create a zero-based budget, meaning every dollar is given a job and organized into categories. For more info on how to do this, ask AI (you know, the one I just complained about).

2) Once you have your categories accounted for (ex: $600/for food, $250/for going out, $200$/month for transportation, etc.), plug those details into the app.

3) Every time you spend money, simply input the amount spent to the category it belongs to, and the app will automatically deduct it from the monthly allowance you set for yourself. It then gives you an updated total so you know how much is left every month.

Why it works for me:

It gamifies my spending. My monthly mission is always to spend less than what I budgeted, and when ADHD Jaren gives up and stops caring about money tracking, autistic Jaren is always there to finish the job with at least a single penny saved because she's fixated. At the end of the month, everyone wins!

So, that's what I do these days.

How about you? What works best for you?

-Jaren

If you have teens or kids at home and you are interested in helping them learn about money, check out my budget binders for kids and budget binders teens here! And if you enjoyed this post, you might like this one about online grocery shopping to stay on budget.

You might also like this one about ways to make tax season suck less as a neurodivergent.