Hi, Reader!

I feel like Captain Obvious when I say everything has gotten so expensive. Didn't we spend all of 2020 and 2021 saying that, have it chill for a few years (not that prices went down, just that how quickly they went up calmed down)

And now 2026 has been another round of intense inflation.

Before I dive into the ways our budget has been squeezed and what I'm trying to do about it, I want to remind all of us:

This is really hard. And it is figure-out-able. Thanks, Mr. Rogers.

The Squeeze in our budget in 2026

• This isn't something that happened to us, but we opened and began college funds for our kids in January. I currently contribute $280/month total split between the 4 kids at pro-rated amounts based on how soon they'll be graduating high school. $280
• We filed our taxes in March and owed 5 figures. We adjusted Kyle's withholdings to pay an extra $700/month in taxes and we also increased his 401K contributions from 6% to 7% to help offset the tax burden a bit. This decreased our take home pay by about $800/month total.
• When gas prices spiked in March (and have only slightly come down since then), I increased our gas budget from $240/month to $400/month - an increase of $160.
• We started the older 2 boys in piano lessons 2 weeks ago (they are 11 and 9.5 years old). This costs $160/month. Again, this is something we've chosen, but it is an addition to our budget at the same time as everything else.

That's a decrease in available money of at least $1400 per month. 😞

• Three things that haven't hit our budget yet but will affect us soon:
  • We got a notice that our electricity rate for summer is increasing by 25% compared to last year. This will increase our electric bill by $50-80 per month starting in July.
  • Our property taxes increased by about $750. This most likely won't affect us until we get our escrow adjustment at the end of the year, but it is coming.
  • We used up our Health care FSA this year a few months earlier than we did last year even though we increased our contribution to it by $1,000. Any medical expenses for the next 4 months will be fully out of pocket.

What I've Done to Adjust to this New Normal

• Radically accepted what is inside and outside of my control. I cannot change gas prices, electricity rates, tax brackets, etc. As much as this truly sucks to come off of 2025 where it felt like we'd permanently turned a corner in the flexibility of our budget only to be hit with so much change in 2026 that I bring back several "debt payoff era" strategies -it is a complete waste of my time to wallow, envy, complain, or stew. That won't change a single number in my budget. But getting up and taking action will.
  • TIP: Draw a line down the middle of a paper and write the things related to your budget that are inside your control on one side. Then write the things that are outside your control on the other side. Choose 1-2 things inside your control to take action on.
• I had budgeted $250/month for someone to clean our house. I had her come clean one time and originally even though I wasn’t happy, I was going to keep her and give her a second chance. However as time went on I kept finding things that hadn’t been cleaned at all AND our expenses kept going up, so I decided to cancel that and remove that from our budget.
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• Fun money: (personal spending for Kyle and I) has gone down from $100/month each to $50/month each.
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• Eating out: I reduced from $300/month to $220/month
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• Coffee budget: $150/month to $100/month. It helps that I love iced lattes and my espresso machine makes a great one.
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• Roth IRA: Last year I was able to max out both our Roth IRAs. I won't even get close to that this year. I'm currently averaging about $150/month. We are contributing 7% to Kyle's 401K and he gets a 6% match so retirement is still growing, just much slower than in 2025. This is ok to do temporarily, but long term we need to prioritize getting these contributions back up.​
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• Home Updates: Last year, I was painting regularly, updating rooms, replacing furniture, etc. The further we've gotten into 2026 the less I've done those things.
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• Travel: We have a big road trip coming up in July. One week just the 6 of us headed out west and one week in an Airbnb with Kyle's family. This trip was really important to us so we said no to several other things including a Memorial Day weekend trip even though Kyle took an extra day off work. We also decided the kids and I would stay home this week instead of joining him on a work trip to Michigan. Even though the rental car and hotel would've been covered, the fun and food costs would take too much away from our other priorities.
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• Facebook Marketplace: I used this a LOT when we were paying off debt and living on a much smaller income. As time went on, I used it less and less. The past few months I've leaned back into both selling and buying on FB marketplace before looking other places. Just this past week, I sold a mirror, canvas prints, and bottle of perfume I didn't like. Total: $122 earned.
  • What I remind myself: I am never beneath the work involved in earning extra money. I remember chatting about this on Instagram back in the spring of 2024 when I started cleaning houses again and detailing cars. Kyle's freelance income had decreased and so had my DFM income and his job search wasn't going well. I was tempted to feel ashamed or embarrassed about "going backwards".
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• Give myself a timeline to adjust: This is something I've recommended to custom budget clients in the past. Life is wild and unpredictable. There are just going to be times when all we can do is keep the most important things running and that's about it. But we don't want to stay in that mode forever. So I ask myself "what's a realistic amount of time for these changes (job, new baby, move, illness, inflation, pandemic, etc. etc.) to keep me in survival mode?
  • My answer this time: October. That's 4 months from now. Four months of stagnation is not going to sink the ship. Ruby starts kindergarten in August and all my kids will be in school full time for the very first time. My ability to earn will change dramatically. Since that change is on the near horizon, I don't need to panic and make rash decisions that won't be necessary 2 months from now.
• Continue living below our means - even if the gap is a lot smaller: The only thing that allowed me to absorb so many rising costs while our income decreased was that we did not lock all of our income up in expenses that were hard to change. Even as our income rose last year, I resisted the urge to think we "deserved" to go big on our spending and our payments. It was this gap between our income and expenses that allowed me to absorb the blows.
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• Know Plan B if things continue getting worse: my plan is to continue living below our means and keeping a gap between our income and expenses even though it's shrunk by about 75%. HOWEVER I have been around the budgeting block long enough to know I don't know what's coming my way. We could have a financial emergency tomorrow. I need to think through how I would handle that in light of my drastically reduced budget.
  • What I'd do: if we had something like a car repair (my van currently has a few warning lights on, this is not out of the realm of possibility), I would pay for it using my emergency fund.
  • But here's the issue: because the gap between our income and expenses has gotten so much smaller this year, it would take me a while to refill my emergency fund. So if that happened in the near future on TOP of everything else described above, I would re-evaluate reducing expenses even further or getting creative with increasing income.
• Options on our back burner:
  • Kyle quit freelancing altogether in January. Last year that brought in an average of around $2,000 per month take home pay. We thought we could easily say goodbye to that given how 2025 went, but we've now had several conversations about bringing that back into our lives.
  • I get back into business growth mode, not just business maintenance. This wouldn't provide immediate relief. But growing a second platform, re-starting the podcast, reaching out to brands instead of waiting for them to reach out to me, etc. could all grow the business and therefore my pay.
  • Reduce our optional spending categories another time like I described above.
  • Reduce Kyle's 401K contribution down to the 6% match and pause contributions to college funds.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer in this newsletter, but I think it's important to be transparent and pragmatic about the stress we are all feeling both about the known expenses we've seen go up and all the unknowns about where we are headed.

Let me say this clearly: I know exactly how privileged I am to be facing this economic uncertainty with a list of options on how to adjust, dual income, about to send my kids off to full time school, and a full emergency fund. My aim in this newsletter is not to pretend that the problem solving I've had to do in our budget in the last 6 months is the same as someone whose bank account is overdrafted and their pantry is empty.

If you're in that spot right now, I see you. I've gotten messages from you on Instagram. I've noticed your posts asking "how is anyone affording this?!".

1. Divide what you're stuck on into what is inside your control and what is outside your control.
2. Choose a handful of action steps that apply to only what is inside your control.
3. Give yourself a reasonable timeline for surviving vs. thriving so that you have a point in the future at which you'll re-evaluate without being reactionary.
4. Find a way to be generous to someone else - no matter how small. It changes my perspective and grows my empathy for and connection to my fellow human beings. It's worth it every single time.

xoxo and happy budgeting (even in times of high inflation),

PS: Looking for something specific from me? You can probably find it here!​

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