How One Family Saved Money Using a Free Budgeting Course (Picket Your Pennies)

Have you ever felt like you were drowning in bills, expenses, and financial stress? For Sarah, a hardworking mom and wife, this was an all too familiar feeling. Despite her best efforts, creating and sticking to a budget seemed like an insurmountable task, until she was scrolling through Instagram one night and stumbled upon #Picketyourpennies.

You read that wrong, that says pennies. Let's meet Sarah.

"So, picture this: I'm a busy mum, juggling work, family, and about a million other things. The last thing on my mind was setting up a budgeting system. Every time I tried, it would eat up all my time and brainpower because I just didn’t know where to start. It felt easier to just keep winging it because we weren’t struggling financially, but we definitely weren’t saving or getting ahead either.

I’d seen the budgeting crash course pop up on Instagram a few times and liked that Iryna shared her own spreadsheet that she’s used for years, so I decided to give it a go. I’m so glad I did, because that one little decision completely changed my financial situation.

I remember watching her stories as she entered all the numbers and broke down other people’s budgets, showing exactly what was coming in, what was going out, and where their money was actually going. It made me so curious because I wanted to see my own totals and I was definitely nosey about others finances. Everything was calculated automatically, and by the end, it was so obvious where the gaps were and where money could be saved.

That’s what made me finally sit down and try it for myself. After putting our numbers in, I realised we were living well above our means which explained why often it felt like we were playing catch up.

Straight away, I could see exactly where we were overspending. With just a few small changes, we were able to reduce our expenses and start putting money aside into savings which is something we’d never been consistent with before.

Setting up the system took me about 30 minutes, and now it takes maybe 10 minutes a week to maintain. It tracks everything in a really simple way without feeling overwhelming or high maintenance, which is what always made me quit budgeting before.

I’ve also completely changed how I think about budgeting. I realised it isn't about constantly being a tight arse, or feeling guilty for spending money but knowing exactly what you can spend while still covering your bills and growing your savings.

I’ve been #picketingmypennies for a year now I'm so happy I started." 

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