Why Budgeting Doesn't Work - And What To Do Instead! 

My son is in public school in Colorado. When he was in the 1st grade, I volunteered in the classroom. I was shocked with all of the bins that were filled with the school supplies that the parents dropped off. After that, I only bought the bare minimum because all supplies became community property.

I always felt that our public school was expecting us to provide supplies for all the students without funds. Not fair!

I managed to get my walmart receipt to *reorder all* from 2021. 2021=$135.36. 2024= $247.46 even with 4 items not available.

I am more of a spender so I find having a zero based budget very helpful. It’s still flexible, and I do use all of your grocery saving tips. But it really helps me to not overspend on other areas, and save up for future expenses. We started using You Need A Budget to budget and track our spending whenever Justin Trudeau was elected. I was panicked and scared that we wouldn’t be able to survive financially under his government. It was enough to snap us into being very careful. It made a massive difference in our finances. We went from only being able to pay off the credit cards by the end of the month, to having plenty of savings and two paid off houses. We are now working on paying off a second rental property. It’s such a relief to have finances under control!

My daughter brought her whole backpack home last year full of her supplies so we sent the same backpack back this year lol

I love you flower bouquet! Ahhh...ooohhh😮😅

Adult coloring is one of my hobbies. Generic colored pencils and crayons are not as good. They are frustrating because they are super waxy and not as vibrant in color.

Another note on school supplies. It goes back to the “everything has to be fair” /entitlement issue. I grew up having a 24 count of crayons. Yep, a few kids had the 96 pack with a sharpener and sure, I looked on with a bit of envy. But my parents supplied my every NEED, and I grew into a content adult! And some years I sat by a nice girl Who shared her 96 count colors when needed 😂😅

I'll try your brownies. I walked a long way to high school. My freshman year though, my neighbor was my squad leader, and we lived on the same street, so she always gave me a ride home. But I was in really good shape. My dad got me a pretty nice 1991 white Saturn. I learned to drive stick shift in 2 weeks. You two are soulmates. Ms. Tawra, I probably have 200 pens, it's a problem. My dad is probably right, I have too many.

The Square Food Gardening book by Raymond Nones saved me money by growing my own vegetables.

I do believe in a budget. I firmly believe that the first budgets cannot be kept, have incorrect estimates, and forget a thing or two; it often takes a few busgets so give yourself as much grace as your bills will allow you. My predjudice is that most budgets, especially beginning budgets, can have line items eliminated and others reduced. My priorities begin with mortgage/ rent, the things required to get to work, the utilities, and food.

As far as generic vs/name brand school supplies- I do notice that markers aren’t always as washable and do dry out quicker Cheap crayons are so waxy, also leave the ball/flake stuff on the paper And colored pencils the leads break easier…. They do the trick if needed though! Edit- I find it ridiculously the AMOUNT of stuff people say they ask to bring though!!!

I like she's in her apron🙂 And that story about the pow pow cracked me up!!😂😂

I just realized I was unsubscribed. You tube is the worst for this lately. Glad to see you all are still on.

LOL, I never use sticky notes. Also, the one school supplies I needed was a 4-color BIC pen for foreign languages, for conjugations. And a pencil pouch and a mini stapler. So, I wouldn't have to run to the library to use their stapler. Oh, and a watch because if you pulled out your phone you had to leave class. They were much more reasonable in college. I liked Step Up movies.

Exactly Tawra!! No extra until debt free!!

When I go grocery shopping and my clerk is impressed with how much I got for how little I paid, then I really know I did something right.

I remember being in public school mother would buy the supplies that I would need for the year and it was for me not the school. I guess I'm older than I feel

A lot of school districts give $$ to teachers to buy school supplies, as well as ask then students to bring stuff in. There can be so much stuff leftover at the end of the year. I used to collect it in a box for the next year for students who couldn't afford to buy supplies. It's crazy.

Yes that is absolutely correct 100 percent! Thank you very much Tarwa and Mike!

…”I’m just bring transparent here..”. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Love it! Can’t stop laffin’!

Your flowers are so beautiful!

$300 7th grade start year school supplies in 2022-we pulled and do homeschool-save on clothes and everything-this did not include fundraisers or other uniforms PE in public school and all the shoes x3 for PE and other things we had to have x7 3 ring binders, special winter jacket to fit in locker, water btls., and this went on and on-so much kiddo could not even keep up with everything, trapper, Kleenex, pencils, pens, special paper, paper towels, wipes, backpack, etc. I know when I was growing up in 60s-80s we just had our own paper and pencils that was it We can homeschool with accredited $1k school Christian based this is cheaper than just the clothes needed for public school, we figured we spent $3k-$5k for public school if not more like $10k Homeschool includes everything all supplies for high school which are more expensive years

Hello from Deadwood, SD! Catching your show after my Deadwood show. 😃

Mike should def start a channel ! He could talk about SO many things !!! 😊❤️

My husband remembers paying for football shoes and insurance for playing that sport.. And insurance was cheap...a step grandson and his family traveled to Spain with his team to play soccer!! Crazy!!!

Wow flowers 🌷

Yes! School supply lists have gotten insane and I agree about the paper and pencils, and just buy the basics and if they needed anything throughout the year, I will get it then. Imagine used to be so insane with their supply list!

Thanks! 🙏

Usually school supplies get SUPER CHEAP late August into September. Those are usually rock bottom prices. & if you stock up on them each year… you may have enough to skip a few years 😂~ like I can 😂😂😂😂

Tawra I liked your funny Florida story. Good thing that lady had her little bang bang.

Back in the day eating out, coffee and drinks out, tickets and entrance fees, sport leagues, enrichment activities, amd what would be most of the subscriptions today were all bundled under "entertainment" in all of the budgeting books. Entertainment was considered an extra.

Love you both ! Say hi to Ms. Jill! God bless y’all !!! ❤

Many years ago, 2 boxes of 12 count #2 pencils and 6 packets of paper were required. If you have 5 subjects for 180 days, then you need 900 sheets at a rate of 1 page per day per class for all of the notes, in class assignments, drafts, and homework. If ypu have 6 subjects youll need 1080 sheets at a rate of 1 sheet per day per subject.

At my local liquidation center they had composition books and notebooks for .25cents. They had hundreds of them.

I have been buying school supplies for 37 years. Yes prices have gone up but still not bad. If item is not in my buy price i look for something cheaper.

Hey Guys! Would love if you talked more about getting a house. I have no debt and I'm saving a down payment right now but I'm worried about having too much of my income going to a house. Would love a deeper look at your thoughts on housing.

Things have changed so much in the schools since our four kids were young! We would buy them folders, pencils, ink pens, rulers, notebook, etc.just for them..not for other kids. Schools would supply paper, crayons, and more. And even what we did buy was just to help them get excited for school...school provided so many things. Sports were reasonable for any family...not like now!

Crowd funded school supplies here in AZ as well. Over $100 for our 6th grader in school supplies.

I am dyslectic so math was more of a joke than anything else. I could never learn the multiplication table. My numbers were backwards.

It truly believe I'm living in a calm world.. lol

We always gathered all the school supplies that came home at the end of the year; and insisted they were brought home rather than tossed as used like many of the kids did. Everything unused or hardly used went into a box for the coming year. Everything well used got put into the arts-n-crafts box. Everything moderately used went into the box for doing the coming year's homework. We began shopping for school supplies the week of July 4th by buying wnat was on super sale that week. The school lists came out 2 weeks before school and by that time all of tne super sales were over. We also kept our eyes open for the late September through October clearance in school supplies, office supplies, art, and craft departments; sometimes decorative post-its, the better rulers and geometry sets, colored pencils withiut the crayola logo, etc... can be cheaper than tje same in back to school during back to school time. Now, that i do more thrift store and yard sale purchases, i woild be looking for all the things from the used market place too. Just for office supplies i used pick up stuff from the freebie boxes at garage sales with any partial package, used 3 ring notebooks, and anything that could be used; whether i had a known use for what i picked up or not.

Not only are kids sports expensive with the supplies etc…the bus will stop at McDonald’s for dinner. And families that go to away games spend money on gas etc…

Some parents just don’t care like I do as I have found. I thought there was a child in my kids class who was in severe need and bought them multiple pants from Amazon after seeing them on multiple occasions wearing pants with holes in both knees. Turns out it wasn’t financial need but lack of parental involvement. Learned my lesson 🥴

That joke was geat! 😂🤣

I never buy anything off a phone I’m not supporting anyone I don’t know I seen today ups brought seven boxes from sams walmart somebody on fix income

I’ve been seeing videos in the last couple days about real estate fee changes coming August 17. Would you be able to talk about that subject?

More often than not, I've alwaus had some type of larder or pantry. And usually, ive budgeted some stock-up, pantry, larder, or basic staples money separately from the regular grocery noney. Or, ive seperated money for these types of items from the grocery money. Unless im building a basic pantry or need a basic like say flour or oatmeal, I hold onto this money if i dont come across a sale or good deal. At the same time, when i do come across a great deal (like the $2.9?, 93% lean ground beef mentioned in this video) I will buy more great deal and less regular grocery. I will even take money from other spending categories if the deal is good enough.

My son loves the chicken Alfredo recipe!

The mobile app for Walmart is different and has a reorder button on the bottom. The desktop/website version looks very different

I have a photography business and was asked to help a nonprofit out. I already have a nonprofit I work with. When I see in a board meeting new computers, new phones, smoking parents, etc. and then you tell me you’re cheap for your kids.

When I added my and my husband’s eating out it came to 430$ a month and I was buying groceries on top of that at 180$ a week. Yikes

You can make a tasty cake with one cup flour, one cup sugar and a can of fruit cocktail

You are always inspiring ❤️

Thrift stores want a lot of money for what I can buy brand new at a tj maxx or Marshalls.

What do you recommend doing for car insurance for a family? That is a really big expense nowadays

Happy Upcoming Anniversary!

Crayons @ Walmart right now is 50 cents!

May I ask what Mike does at the library that sounds interesting

My 8 year old has been making fun of RayG all week. He thinks he could have done a better job and I don’t disagree. I think that’s going to be my Halloween costume 😂

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Well - you could live without new car and Netflix, say to yourself - get debt free, and after that enjoin yourself. Adult can wait. But children couldn't! They will grow out. Having no sport. But sport is good for them on so many levels: it is healthy, it develop character, it socialize, and it could help with scholarship or with part job. 20 thousands a year should be already professional level. For children on this level sport is life. I couldn't even imagine how I would say my child that we will not pay for her sport. She will not become a professional athlete, but she already working part time as a couch at 14. Yes, travels are expensive... but it is national level, after 8 years of hard work. Nobody begins children sport from 20 000 a year!

Generic school supplies crayons are not good.

Dorothy Smith