What is your budgeting personality?

Quiz Questions

• 1.
  If someone recommended that you track your spending, you’d think…

  • A.
    It’s never going to happen
  • B.
    I’m open to trying but I doubt it will work
  • C.
    I’ve done it before and I’d do it again!
• 2.
  When you hear the word budget you…

  • A.
    Feel guilty. You know you should have one but never really got it down
  • B.
    Want to discuss and trade tips. You're always looking to make your budget better
  • C.
    Physically cringe and break out in hives
• 3.
  Do you know where your money is going?

  • A.
    I can tell you very generally which categories I spend the most in but it’s not a full picture
  • B.
    I can tell you pretty accurately what I’ve spent each month since I started budgeting
  • C.
    I know it goes quick but I have no idea where
• 4.
  When it comes to your money, which animal best resembles you?

  • A.
    Ostrich with my head in the sand - I can’t bear to look at what’s going on
  • B.
    Squirrel counting my acorns in delight - I love tracking my progress
  • C.
    Giraffe reaching for the tallest branch - I’m so close but not quite there
• 5.
  Which would you prefer?

  • A.
    To manually track my own spending in a spreadsheet or google doc
  • B.
    An app that does some tracking for me and I generally oversee what’s going on
  • C.
    I want nothing to do with tracking my spending. If it's not taken care of for me it’s not happening
• 6.
  Your main goal with budgeting is to…

  • A.
    Stop the bleeding. I am overspending and need more awareness
  • B.
    Maximize my goals. I know there are always tweaks I can make to improve
  • C.
    Get an idea of how much I can realistically save for my goals. It’s still murky
• 7.
  Is saving money motivating to you?

  • A.
    What savings? I wish I knew what saving felt like
  • B.
    Yes, I just wish I didn’t have to pull from my savings when an expense came up
  • C.
    Yes, saving money feels better than spending!
• 8.
  If you’ve tried budgeting, what was that experience like?

  • A.
    It changed my life. I have a good system in place but I’m always looking to level up
  • B.
    I feel allergic to budgeting. Even if I’ve taken the first step or two, I end up giving up
  • C.
    I have tried setting up a budget but it ends up taking a lot of work and/or giving me an incomplete picture
• 9.
  Do you have budget or spending plan that gives you peace of mind because you know it'll happen?

  • A.
    I’m confident in my spending plan
  • B.
    I have a spending plan but I’m not confident it will happen
  • C.
    What spending plan?

Quiz Outcomes

• 1.
  You are a "Budget Despiser"

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  You detest budgeting and may even feel physically ill at the thought of tracking your spending. You may even describe it as being allergic. You might want to benefit from and believe in the results of budgeting but to take meaningful action feels almost impossible. If you are a 'Budget Despiser' all is not lost and you are definitely not alone. I have you covered. Here are 9 ways you can get some of the results of budgeting without actually budgeting. 1. Look at the total. Forget breaking down your expenses into categories. What was the total amount you spent this month? Try to set a goal or target for the month. Note: If you have many large, irregular expenses, skip this strategy and move on to #2. 2. Set up a “spending only” credit card. Use a separate credit card to track variable spending like groceries, dining out and shopping. You can track how much you’re spending by looking at the total each month. No tedious tracking needed. 3. Start with one category. If setting up an entire budget sounds way too overwhelming, start with one category. Start with a category you're most curious about or that could make the most impact. For many it's groceries or dining out / takeout. 4. Set up a small automatic transfer to savings. Sometimes we have to see it to believe it. Open a HYSA if you haven’t already and set up a small automatic transfer to your savings each month. Even as little as $5 can kickstart the habit! 5. Set up sinking funds for larger, irregular expenses. Larger irregular expenses like our health insurance deductible, travel costs or attending wedding, can wreak havoc on our accounts if we don’t plan for them. Make a list of some larger irregular expenses you have coming up and set up an automatic transfer to a separate savings account so you have funds for them. 6. Have a monthly money party. I know, I know. You want to spend less time with your money but hear me out. Dedicating a little time each month (or even each week) to take an action in our money lives will make it more likely to happen and less painful. Plus, you can make it fun. I have a full guide for you here. 7. Celebrate a money win each week, no matter how small. It’s easy to focus on all the things we haven’t done or aren’t doing right but it’s important to call out our wins and celebrate them, even if they are super small. We can see that we’re making progress and it give us motivation to keep going! 8. Tell one friend about what you’re doing each week in your money life. Because money isn’t something we often talk about even with our closest friends and family it can feel very lonely and like we’re the only ones struggling through it. Share a tidbit with a friend and see if they blossom into a money buddy. If you need a conversation starter, share the link to this quiz! 9. Come up with one spending goal for a specific category. If you have tracked one category (via tip #2 or #3 above), set up a goal for that specific category. Can you reduce the amount you spend each month in that category? What are some specific actions you can take to do that? Let me introduce myself...Hello, hello 👋 My name is Ashley Feinstein Gerstley.I’m an author, CFP® professional, money coach and founder of the Fiscal Femme.After studying finance in college (at Wharton) and working in finance (as an investment banker and in corporate finance), I still knew nothing about my own money.When I switched from my high paying investment banking job to a job with a better lifestyle, I took a big pay cut and had to figure my money out. I started a blog (back in 2011) to share what I was learning and the rest is history.I now spend my days talking about (and thinking about) how to get you wealthy. The Fiscal Femme community has grown to over 200K and I have two books - The 30-Day Money Cleanse and Financial Adulting. P.S. I love hanging out on Instagram, so c’mon over and join me if we’re not connected yet.
• 2.
  You are an "Almost There-Budgeter"

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  You’re open to budgeting and probably have given it a whirl or two (or four) but for some reason, it doesn’t stick or the result isn’t there. You know that something’s missing or something isn’t quite right but you’re not sure what. Let me tell you that you’ve put in the work and are SO close to having your budgeting dreams come true. Usually it’s a small fix that will get us to the finish line from here.Here are 7 ways to improve your budget so you get the results you deserve. 1. Make sure you're tracking what you spent money on, not just your total credit card payments. If you have line items in your budget for your different credit cards - i.e. Amex, Chase, etc, you are not alone. But unless you’re paying off credit card debt without spending more on the cards, this isn’t giving you the info you need. Instead of tracking your credit card payments, we want to track the charges on the credit cards in their respective spending categories. For example, a grocery expense on a credit card should go in the grocery category.2. Make sure every expense is in the budget. Instead of searching your credit card or bank statement based on your budgeting categories, go line by line on your statement starting with the 1st of the month. This ensures ALL expenses are accounted for and no expense gets missed or falls through the cracks. It’s also a great way to catch fraud. 3. Look at what actually happened, but also, set up projections for the rest of the year. We want to track our actually spending each month AND we can use that information to project (or guesstimate) what will happen each month for the rest of the year. For example, if my dining out is $500 in a typical month, that could be a good estimate for the months that haven't happened yet. If you know certain months are more expensive, be realistic and add to it accordingly. For things like an electric bill that varies by season, I like to use the same month last year to estimate what this year will be. 4. Build in the larger irregular expenses and set up sinking funds. Larger irregular expenses are the number one budget culprit. We feel like we have extra money every month UNTIL it’s time to book a flight for our vacation. Plan proactively for larger irregular expenses like travel, annual subscriptions, your health insurance deductible and anything else that could throw your spending out of whack. Then set aside money every month or paycheck so the funds are there waiting for you. I have a great tracker for you here. 5. Keep a list of the accounts for easy reference each month. Make your monthly budgeting sesh (or money party) as easy as possible. Have a list of accounts on the ready to scan through each month so you don’t forget a credit card or bank account. Then you can check off the list as you go through. 6. Make a list of any to-do’s that come up as you’re putting together your budget. As you go through your spending there are usually to-do list items that inevitably come up like canceling a subscription or looking into why a monthly charge increased. Instead of doing those things right away, write them down so you can come back to them later. When we stop budgeting to tackle other to-dos it’s all too easy not to come back to finish the job. 7. Come up with spending goals for specific categories. Tracking what you spend and what you plan to spend is a huge feat. KUDOS! Take it to the next level by creating spending goals for each category. If you’d like to spend $100 less per month on dining out, put that in your budget plan. Even better, think about ways you can make that happen. Will you cook one more night per week or choose less expensive restaurants? Let me introduce myself...Hello, hello 👋 My name is Ashley Feinstein Gerstley.I’m an author, CFP® professional, money coach and founder of the Fiscal Femme. After studying finance in college (at Wharton) and working in finance (as an investment banker and in corporate finance), I still knew nothing about my own money. When I switched from my high paying investment banking job to a job with a better lifestyle, I took a big pay cut and had to figure my money out. I started a blog (back in 2011) to share what I was learning and the rest is history. I now spend my days talking about (and thinking about) how to get you wealthy. The Fiscal Femme community has grown to over 200K and I have two books - The 30-Day Money Cleanse and Financial Adulting. P.S. I love hanging out on Instagram, so c’mon over and join me if we’re not connected yet.
• 3.
  You're a "Budget Enthusiast"

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  You’re a budgeting aficionado who’s put together a budget and it’s made a tremendous difference in your life and for your money goals. You ENJOY budgeting and are always looking for ways to maximize what you’re doing and make it even better. Kudos to you Budget Enthusiast! Here are 6 things you can do to level up your budgeting (if you haven’t already). 1. Organize your categories. Want to easily see how much your home costs or what you spend on your dog each year? Bucket related expenses together in their own section with a subtotal. Then, voila! You can easily see each month what these larger categories cost. 2. Reflect on what you’ve learned and reorganize for what you’d like to see. When someone starts budgeting, I always recommend keeping it as simple as possible. That way it’s less daunting and tedious to keep up with tracking each month. That being said, a budgeting aficionado doesn't have to shy away from more detail if there is something you're curious about. Want to get your food bill even lower? Separate takeout from dining in and drinks, or separate your categories by meal of the day like breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Reassess in a few months to see if the new categories answer your questions and if not, try something else. 3. Come up with spending goals for each category. Or better yet, play the money game. Set spending goals for each category and come up with some realistic actions to get you there. For example, if you’re looking to decrease your food spending by $100 per month, what actions can you take? Maybe you cook one more meal per week at home or try some bulk recipes. The money game is also a way to make saving more fun. Come up with a goal for your variable spending each week. If you spend less, you win the money game and can distribute that directly to your goals. For example, if you try to spend less than $300 and end up spending $250, you won $50 in the money game! You can now put that $50 towards a top priority money goal. 4. Enlist a money buddy or group of money buddies to chat with, share budgeting tips and cheer each other on. Money is something that many of us don’t feel comfortable chatting about even with our closest friends and family and that can make our money journeys lonely. Make a point to chat with close friends or even colleagues about what’s going on in your money life. You don't have to share your net worth, just what you are working on or learning. If you need a conversation starter, send them this quiz! 5. Get detailed with your sinking funds. Larger irregular expenses are the number one budget culprit and even Budget Enthusiasts can hone their sinking funds. Plan proactively for larger irregular expenses like travel, annual subscriptions, your health insurance deductible and anything else that could throw your spending out of whack. Then set aside money every month or paycheck so the funds are there waiting for you. Get as detailed as possible and check in on your sinking funds throughout the year to make sure you’ll have enough of the funds when you need them. I have a great tracker that you will LOVE here. 6. Try budgeting for $0. There are many, many ways you can set up a budget but one strategy many Budget Enthusiasts love is to budget for $0. That means, your goal is to have your income, minus your expenses, sinking fund contributions AND the amount you are saving and investing equal $0. That way you’re maximizing the amount of money you can put towards your goals each month. Let me introduce myself...Hello, hello 👋 My name is Ashley Feinstein Gerstley.I’m an author, CFP® professional, money coach and founder of the Fiscal Femme.After studying finance in college (at Wharton) and working in finance (as an investment banker and in corporate finance), I still knew nothing about my own money.When I switched from my high paying investment banking job to a job with a better lifestyle, I took a big pay cut and had to figure my money out. I started a blog (back in 2011) to share what I was learning and the rest is history.I now spend my days talking about (and thinking about) how to get you wealthy. The Fiscal Femme community has grown to over 200K and I have two books - The 30-Day Money Cleanse and Financial Adulting. P.S. I love hanging out on Instagram, so c’mon over and join me if we’re not connected yet.