Hey there, before we start this episode, I just wanna let you know that this is the last week that you can join the Money Mom Club at $33 a month, because starting Friday, our membership prices are going up to $47 a month which is exactly why I brought in a member of the Money Mom Club today to share her experience with you, and I'm hoping that you can hear and feel the transformation that happens when you get yourself inside the club.

It's only $33 a month for the last time this week, and Debbie's going to share her experience of how everything changed for her and how simple and easy this can be.

I want you to trust your instinct and trust the process.

Trust that there is a coaching container that is out there that could significantly change your life for forever, and Debbie's gonna share all about her experience in this episode.

But I wanted to let you know before the episode starts that this is the last time you could join the Money Mom Club for $33 a month, and if you're ready to look at budgeting differently, if you're ready to cut your grocery spending in half, if you're ready to feel different about money, the Money Mom Club is where you need to be.

We'll put the link in the show notes for you to join us, but please reach out if you have any questions so you could make a decision before that price jumps up to $47 a month.

Okay, let's get into this episode with Debbie.

I can't wait for you guys to meet her, so stay tuned.

Welcome to the Money Mom Podcast, the show where we empower moms to take control of their finances, break free from money stress and build a life of freedom, confidence and abundance for their families.

I'm your host, rachel Koons, mom money mentor and your personal cheerleader on this journey.

Whether you're here to save money, pay off debt or dream bigger for your family's future, you're in the right place here.

We believe that being a mom is already a full-time job, but your role in shaping your family's financial success is just as important.

And the best part, you don't need to sacrifice everything to start winning with money.

Let's get started.

This is the Money Mom Podcast.

Hello and welcome to the Money Mom Podcast.

I'm your host, rachel Koons, and today I have a special guest for a very special episode.

I asked a newer member of the Money Mom Club to come on today and share her story with you, because I've seen her transformation in just the short time she's been with us.

I've noticed what's kind of changed for her and I think a lot of moms will resonate with the struggles that she was having, and I really think her journey is really powerful.

So, debbie, welcome on to the podcast.

Thank you for inviting me, I'm so excited.

Okay.

So, debbie, let's get to know you a little bit.

Can you tell us about yourself, tell us about your family, all of that?

I'm a mom to four.

They are, let's see, 17, 14, 12, and 10.

And I homeschooled them, and I have homeschooled them since the beginning.

So we're on our 13th year of homeschooling.

My eldest is a sophomore, or a senior, this year actually, so I'm going to graduate my first one.

So that's exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.

Yeah, and does your husband work out of the home?

Does he work in the home?

Do you work at all?

I don't work at all.

No, I'm a full time job and it's taking care of those kids.

Yes, I'm taking care of yes, yes, yes, I work outside the home.

Yeah, my husband works outside the home, okay, so he's, he's provided financially for you guys and you're kind of the on the backend of that, cool.

I mean, I I'm just always one of my best friend homeschools her kids, but she has younger kids and I am just always so impressed at all.

You handle it is.

It's a full-time job in and of itself to be a teacher but then to teach different age groups and different you know personalities and all that stuff.

It's, it's a lot of work.

Yeah, it's kind of like having your own little like old time school house.

You know where they had multiple grades in one Exactly.

Totally, totally so.

Obviously you.

You joined us in the money mom Club about a month ago.

Was that it Okay?

Yes, so tell me what.

I feel like when I look at a homeschool mom, I'm like they've got it figured out because they probably have systems in place, they probably are, like you know, so organized and they have everything figured out.

But tell us what kind of caught your eye and where you were maybe six months ago and what has happened.

Okay, well, you were maybe six months ago and what has happened?

Okay, well, it was a few months ago, probably three months ago.

I was on Facebook and I saw your ad about how you said that the average family spends about $1,200 a month on groceries and I just thought that was so intriguing and I thought, well, I don't spend anywhere close to that.

And I started listening to your podcast and you encouraged people to, of course, go through your money and find out how much you spend.

And when I actually looked, I was spending close to $1,500 a month on groceries and I was totally flabbergasted.

I just couldn't believe I was spending that much money.

So I listened to every one of your podcasts and I started following your suggestions and I was just amazed at how fast and how much money I was saving and the simple changes that I had to make.

That made a really, really big impact.

And that's something too that okay, first off, you didn't say where you live, because I do think that matters.

We both live in Northern California, so we live close to each other, which we didn't know until we jumped on this call.

But you have four kids, three teenagers, correct?

They're older kids.

Your oldest son is 17.

So you say you're spending $1,500 a month and I think most people would be like, yeah, of course she is right.

Like she has six people in her family and she's feeding three teenagers.

That doesn't, that doesn't seem overly crazy.

And you also live in a high cost of living area.

So Northern California is an expensive area to live in, live in a high cost of living area, so Northern California is an expensive area to live in.

So I'm just impressed by you to even recognize, first off, that like you did the work and you went and looked at your spending which most people don't want to do and then that you were like you believed that, oh, I could spend less than that the amount that I'm spending right now.

So how much are you spending now on groceries?

Well, it's been the last three months, I think.

I spend an average of about 700 to $750 a month now.

So I've saved an incredible amount of money.

Yes, you cut your bill.

You cut your grocery bill in half.

Yes.

Wow, wow, okay, so everyone's going to want to know what changed.

What did you do I?

just followed the shop method.

I mean, I literally just followed the shop method.

The first, very first week I did the shop the shelf thing.

I thought, oh, that's amazing, like I've got a nice full pantry.

So I did an entire week of I just shopped the shelf and I didn't have to go grocery shopping at all.

And then I loved the idea of not going grocery shopping every single week.

That really caught my eye too.

I hate grocery shopping.

It was the bane of my existence.

So, between shopping online and shopping for two weeks and just meal planning, yeah, that those three were some of the biggest ones, biggest changes that I made.

Wow, $700 for your family of six, that is fantastic.

What else has changed for you since you've started?

Like you know, the money savings Awesome.

Anything else?

Yeah, I've been going through the money mindset um part of your of you know the whole system, and it's's really really fascinating stuff that I just didn't know that was going on inside my head.

I didn't realize I would have thought I had an abundance mindset, but I really don't when it comes to food especially and money in general.

So that was a big eye-opening experience for me to know that I had an insecurity around food, having enough food in the house and those kinds of things.

So I keep less in the house now than I used to, which is also very freeing.

Yeah, yeah, monetarily and emotionally, I'm sure, yeah.

And have you done so?

You've done the grocery budget bootcamp, which is inside money mom club, and you've started the money mindset, and you've only been here for a month, so you're really rocking and rolling, you're, you're making it happen.

Yes, I was just so excited with all of the opportunities that you offer.

So, yeah, I did the lunch, the school lunch mini course, which was amazing, and so now I never used to completely schedule lunches, but with that it just made it so easy All of the printouts that you provide and all of that up there up on my, on my refrigerator, so the children know what they're going to eat every day, so they're not just going in and grabbing whatever, which, when there's six of us in the house, just grabbing whatever when you're meal planning can be frustrating, because then you go to make pepperoni pizza and somebody's eating all the pepperonis, right, Exactly, yeah, so we don't have that anymore, now that they know what to eat for lunch, because we were just eating kind of whatever they wanted to grab for lunch, and now they know what they can eat for lunch and for the snacks, and I actually have food at the end of the week and I have my food available for the meals that I've prepped.

And do you feel like you're saving like time and energy as well?

Oh, 100%.

Like it's become easier.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Mondays or, excuse me, Sundays are my prep days for the for the week.

So if I'm going to do any freezer meals, when I look at my calendar and see if I'm going to have any crazy nights, you know where I'm.

Just we're going to get home late or whatever.

So I'll plan out how many freezer meals I'm going to need to make and I just prep all of the lunches ahead of time, because so so many of the ones that you have offered are very freezer friendly.

So, you can stick them in the freezer, you don't have to worry about them, and I can prep them for a full two weeks and then they're done and they just go grab what they need to grab, according to the day.

It's just.

That's an amazing transformation.

Actually, it makes it much shorter process.

Anyone who homeschools knows we talk, we people will tease about each other.

You know you have breakfast and second breakfast and lunch and second lunch you know, because we have access to food like 24 seven.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been able to cut that down a little bit.

Yeah, and that's one of the things that I want people to recognize, and I think why you're such a beautiful example of this is the whole system that we have created budgeting money, groceries, meal planning, money, mindset, all of these things is we've tried to make your life easier, right, like?

And so many times I think, as moms, we just get into the rhythm of life or the chaos of life and we just think that that's how it's supposed to be.

But introducing maybe a new way to look at things, a new system to implement, can change everything, and we are very intentional.

You know how I created the money mom club, how I created all the materials in it.

I was very intentional of, like, how can I make this so that busy moms can do this, so it doesn't feel overwhelming, so it's not adding something to your plate.

Nobody needs anything added to their plate, right?

Nobody wants that.

No one's going to sign up for that, right, and I think we have a lot of homeschool moms, um, in the money mom club, and I think it's because we're making it easier Like we're.

We're we're trying to make this process easier for you, would you?

Would you agree with that?

I thought, okay, good, yes, planning all of these things is going to take so much time and so much energy.

And really it it doesn't, because at the end of the day, I'm not scrounging to figure out what am I going to make?

How am I going to make it?

Do I have all the stuff to make it?

All of that, I already know what I'm going to make for the week.

I don't schedule every single day dinner, um, but I do know for the two weeks what meals I'm going to make for the two weeks.

So I have all the things that I need when I go to make it.

Yeah, yeah, and maybe I, maybe I need to be better about like it may feel in the first, like little bit that you are putting some investment into it to like change things up, but but just trust me that within a month it's going to be easier, you know it's so fast?

Yeah, so my first time I did the meal planning it probably took me an hour, and now that I've done it for a couple months, it's 15, 20 minutes yeah.

We just had a post yesterday on the Facebook group I don't know if you saw this in our community where she was, like I just sat down for the first time and it took me an hour to do this Like, is this going to happen every time?

And I went in there I was like no, I promise it's going to get so much easier.

Yes, I responded to her as well yes, well, that's it always is helpful because I know I can come in here and scream things from the rooftop, but it's always nice when somebody else in the community is like, yeah, she's right, you just just keep doing it.

Yeah, yeah, so this episode is actually coming out next week.

When we are doing so.

It's this week, september 9th is when the episode's coming out we're doing a special promotion because we are raising prices to the Money Mom Club, our monthly membership.

So could you speak to a mom who I understand?

Finances can be stressful and I understand how hard it can sometimes be to invest in yourself or jump into something that costs money and you're afraid that I'm going to spend this money and then nothing's going to change, or I'm, it's going to be wasted.

Could you speak to someone who is afraid of that happening to a mom?

For sure.

I can totally understand where somebody would come from that.

I know I felt that way too.

Like I said, I saw your advertisement and you had a little free miniature.

Course that.

I did and I was hesitant to actually invest at first.

But when I saw just the little results that I had obtained from the free lessons and it's just not even it's not even a second guess now like literally saving hundreds of dollars a month is worth the little amount that you charge every month or the yearly amount which I think I would probably.

I was talking to my friends saying I don't think I'm going to do the monthly thing anymore, I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and do the whole year save overall.

Yeah.

You know there are more things that you can access and I'm just to bite the bullet and do the whole year save overall.

And you know there are more things that you can access and I'm just, I'm in it for the long haul.

So I can totally understand the hesitation because, like I said, it can seem like totally not only are you paying money, but then you're also investing a little bit of time but, over the long haul.

it's just not the investment is.

I have got the most return on this investment than I've ever of any investment I've ever made.

Hands down, Wow yeah.

Wow, I mean, that gives me chills.

That's so, so cool.

Yeah, the annual investment is much more affordable, honestly, than the monthly.

So that is, that's available as well, and I just like thank you for saying that it is.

It is something that I am so passionate about, right, like I, because I've seen the change in my own family and I've seen the change in the families that we've worked with.

But hearing that is like yes, like it's true, and I know that.

I know that if someone invests in themselves just a small amount right, $33 a month right now, if they just said yes to themselves, there's not very many things that I could say.

I'll put $33 in and in one month I'll have made that back times 200, you know, like, like, there's not very many things that I could invest in, and this is one of those places that's why I scream it from the rooftops Cause, cause, like, this is the place where that can happen, and you don't have to go out and get a job, right, you didn't have to go make money in order to significantly, I mean, you're saving your family $700 a month on groceries alone, just that.

And I'm really curious to see in the long run, you know, as you go through this money, mindset stuff and as you start to tweak things, what else changes for you guys?

What other domino ripple effects happen from this experience?

what other domino ripple effects happen from this experience.

Me, too, I'm super excited for, for, yeah, all of that.

You have so many options available inside the money mom club.

There's so many things to learn.

There's the investments that you can learn about and all different types of things.

It's just, it's kind of like this cornucopia of information.

Well, honestly, props, honestly.

Props to you, props to you for doing the work, for making the changes, and you are.

You have four kids that you're teaching as well, and so this is not just affecting you, it's affecting you know your kids' lives, your grandkids' lives Like this is.

These are things that will that will last for forever.

So thank you for trusting us and thank you for coming on here and sharing your experience with us, because I think that there's probably some moms that are listening, that have been on the fence about it and hearing an outsider's perspective an insider outsider you're an insider, but you know what I mean is always really helpful as well.

So thank you for taking the time to do this.

Is there anything else that you want to share before we wrap up this episode?

Yeah, for the moms who have children who are a little bit older, I did find that being able to plan the lunch meals.

The children are so much more self-sufficient when they know what to eat.

So even if you don't all eat, you know.

At the same time as they get older and they start to have jobs and are out in and out of the house all day long, it is nice to just know that they know where to get the food.

They can do it themselves.

I don't have to stop everything and make sure everyone gets their things, and so it really does save time for the homeschooling mom throughout the day, not just at night for the dinner meal.

Yeah, and that's something that we could have talked about too.

A little bit is because you do have older kids.

My oldest is 11 years old, and so I think sometimes people think, well, I have teenagers, it's going to be completely different, and so you are a good, a good example of like no, I have teenagers and it's you know, I'm still able to create that structure with them.

Yes, yeah, for sure.

Well, and they and they are very opinionated, those teenagers.

So, but bringing them on the journey with you, where they can start to think about, okay, what meals do we like, what snacks do we want to have on hand, like that's a, that's a co-creation together with them, right, it doesn't have to just be you creating this, it can be them as well.

Yeah, they helped me make.

Like you know, when we make the granola bars or we make the you know the, the things that we put in the freezer, they're helping me make those things, and so I think you get a lot of buy-in from your children, especially when they've helped make something.

Yes, yeah, I don't know if you find that to be true A hundred.

Well, yes, with my older kids, a hundred percent.

And you're teaching them life skills for when they go off and start their own families or live on their own.

Like, nobody really teaches you how to do this, and unless your mom does so, you're.

You're teaching them these important life skills before they.

I agree.

Yes, yeah, it's been like.

I said it's just such a blessing on so many different levels.

Yeah, Cool, well, thank you, thank you.

Thank you, debbie.

Thank you for being a part of the money mom club, thank you for coming on here and um, you're just so awesome.

Thank you very much.

I'm just I just so, so, very grateful.

So sweet.

Okay, that's it for today, you guys.

We'll see you in the next episode.