Let’s set up a new One Month Ahead Binder!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00][music] >> Hey hey savvy friends, it's Stephanie.

[00:00:08]How's it going? Welcome to if you're new, welcome back if you've been here before. Today we are starting a new one month ahead and I'm so excited. So this video is going to be just that, only the one month ahead and I'm going to show you how I do all the things to set it up. So I don't even know where to start. I didn't plan this. I never script my videos. I don't plan whatever. We just going to wing it cuz that's how we do.

[00:00:35]So this is the last one. I have to save it. Like I had to save it. Ah, anyway, um and I have to tell you that while I was if you saw this video me opening it up and counting it out, I had more money than than I was supposed to. Uh if you didn't see that it's kind of comical.

[00:00:50]You might want to go scroll back through some of my videos and watch it. But I figured out why and where that extra money came from. So anyhow, I'm better prepared for this. So this was the old one. Out with the old and in with the new. So on my coffee, I will link it down below, are these one month ahead pockets. There are 26, 27 some odd categories for your for you to pick from and um you just print out the categories that you need. You don't need to print them all. I just wanted to make sure that whoever purchased it could it was uh you know, um oh my god, words are so hard this week friends. I'm so sorry. It was you you could pick whatever you want. Custom make it to yourself. So these are already set and ready to go because you do not need to see me make 10 envelopes. However, I am going to show you how to do it. Oops, sorry for the bump my friends. So when you print out your challenges, uh print out your pockets, there's a fold line here. So you fold it on the line. Unfortunately, I did not get it so it folds end to end.

[00:01:55]I don't I don't know what happened. but you fold it on the line and then you cut it. If you have one of those fancy cutters, you can use that, too. I do, but I'm not very good at it.

[00:02:05]So, um I never seem to be able to get that right. So, you just cut around like this and that makes your pocket.

[00:02:16]I know these aren't pretty and I the intention of making these black and white were so they were available for everybody. Like, not everybody has a color printer and you can color these different colors just like I did in the other one. Not everybody wants to go buy more pockets. So, this That's what this is for. Not everything budgeting has to be pretty. So, I use Wait, first I punch it.

[00:02:39]So, this is a six-hole punch and I'm not going to move um the Come on.

[00:02:47]I'm not going to uh Clearly, I can't talk and do this at the same time. Um You can move these to fit A6, A5, A7, all that jazz. I'm not going to move it cuz it's set for the A6 right now. So, you punch your holes and then you take a little bit of packing tape or regular clear tape or gift wrap tape or whatever and you tape it You If you do it down here, the ends are going to open. So, if you do it up as close as you can to the edge and then just fold it over like this, it will keep the top of the pocket closed. It doesn't really matter if this is open, but it'll keep the top of the pocket closed. And you do that on Sorry, that's loud. You do it on both sides. You also want to make sure you don't cover over the icon or the the uh amount here so you can you can write that in. But again, go right to the bottom and right to the edge. And I could say you could use some of the uh some Scotch tapes are really wide. This is just what I have on hand. And then that's it. There's your pocket. So, we're going to do one more real quick, my gas and groceries. You fold it in half. You cut it along the line.

[00:03:58]Um and then you put it in your book. I did do my figures in advance so that um I will explain it my figures, but I didn't I just didn't want to take up time in this video. I'm a little OCD about the middle, so I took a little gray marker and I put in the middle and there's a little tick here.

[00:04:18]That's the middle of the punch. So, that's what I'm looking at here.

[00:04:23]Um so, you slide it in. Let's see if we get it in the middle. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I kind of like them to all be uniform, if you know what I mean.

[00:04:32]Um let's take Whoops.

[00:04:36]A little bit of tape here. This one's a little longer, but that's okay cuz we're going for progress, not perfection with this. Don't get me wrong, there are some challenges which just need to be absolutely beautiful and perfect.

[00:04:51]And I love the beauty and the creation and I love all that, but for this, mhm, this [clears throat] is for function.

[00:04:57]This is not for fashion.

[00:04:59]Okay, so here we go. So, we have those two. These are the last two in my binder.

[00:05:05]And excuse me, this also is I printed the other ones. You can probably see the difference. Let me show you.

[00:05:12]This is on like 32-lb paper, which is just a little bit thicker than your normal copy paper is 20-lb, 24-lb, somewhere around there. This is 32, so it is thicker. However, it was getting a little bit tattered after, you know, 6 months of use and this time I printed it on 80-lb uh it's not quite cardstock. It could be cardstock, I guess, but it's 80-lb paper.

[00:05:38]Um so, if you go to Staples or you're looking on Amazon, 80-lb paper is what I chose for this because it's going to let It's got to last me much longer because I'm not going to be doing it so aggressively this time.

[00:05:51]Okay, so here are my categories. Last time I did it in It was supposed to be 30 weeks cuz there's 30 icons, but there were two or three weeks that I skipped because we just didn't have it or the money needed to go someplace else or I just forgot or whatever the reason. So, it probably took me like 35 weeks. This is This way um I'm going to do snowball is probably going to take much longer.

[00:06:14]So, I have my marker here. So, my cable and Wi-Fi, this is how I did it. There's 30 icons on each pocket. Um my cable and Wi-Fi is $150. I also changed the numbers of little bit just to cuz things have changed, gone up, gone down, whatever to make it work better with the icons so I don't have extra money. It's just going to be what's here. So, for this cable Wi-Fi is $150.

[00:06:40]So, it's going to divided by 30 is going to be $5 an icon.

[00:06:45]All right, cell phone is is $210.

[00:06:49]This is where the extra came from because I had $7 in here, but I only had it totaling up to 210.

[00:06:56]I mean 200. So, there was an ex- There was extra money in this one.

[00:07:00]All right, let's see. The next one I can't really see this. The next one is pets and this is the same thing 210.

[00:07:07]So, this is going to be $7 an icon. I am going to do the snowball method with this one. Miscellaneous, oh I probably should explain a little bit of the fees.

[00:07:15]Well, cable and Wi-Fi is pretty explanatory. Cell phone is pretty explanatory.

[00:07:19]Um pets, this is This will cover a month's worth of food and a bag of cat litter and my kitty's meds. They're on special food. It's like 160 bucks every six or eight weeks. All right, next is miscellaneous and this is to I'm going to do 210. It was 200 last time. Um and this is $7 an icon. This is going to be like a buffer if anything comes up just to have a little bit extra in it as a cushion for any of the other bills. All right, common fees I'm marking at uh 360. The last one it was 330, which was fine, but it goes up every year, so I know it's going to go up again. So, that's why we're making this one a little bit more. So, that's going to be $12 an icon.

[00:08:03]Um next one is electricity, which is 300.

[00:08:10]Oh, I put these out of order. I tried to do the lowest to the highest. 300 is my average for my electric bill.

[00:08:17]Um it can go up to 450. It can go down to 150 depending on the season.

[00:08:22]So, I'm doing these in order from least to least expensive to most expensive. Um so, the the miscellaneous will be kind of like the buffer. If that month happens to be that the electric bill is 350 or 400, the miscellaneous will cover that. Okay, the car loan is 450.

[00:08:42]And each icon will be $15.

[00:08:46]So, I had to play with it a little bit just to figure out how to make it so like the icons were the right amount.

[00:08:52]Car insurance is 525 right now, but I'm making it 540 um just in case it goes up cuz it will happen.

[00:09:03]All right, 540 for that. Next is mortgage, which this does not change.

[00:09:08]It's actually 744, but I'm making it 750 just to keep it round.

[00:09:13]Um so, that's $25 an icon for that.

[00:09:16]And um I make an escrow payment every year uh so, there's no shortage. So, that will prevent the mortgage from going up. Gas and groceries I had it set at a thousand and that's in this cat this envelope had extra money. So, I made it a thousand fifty. So, each one is Oh, I didn't do the other side. Um each one is 35 instead of 33. Like I just was a little bit smarter. You know, you go through things one time and [snorts] you learn as you go, right?

[00:09:49]So let me Ah, come on.

[00:09:52]There we go.

[00:09:53]I'm sorry that tape is just so loud.

[00:09:56]>> [laughter] >> All right, here we go. Let's stick this on here.

[00:10:00]Fold it over.

[00:10:01]There we go. That's done. Okay. So now I am going to do $5 a category and I have the $5 here. I also decided what I'm going to do for coloring. I'm going to do red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Huh, see? So that's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to keep this red in here so it's always the same red. So I have $5 per category and I'm going to do this as a snowball. So once this category is fully funded, the $5 that went in here is going to go in here so then it will get $10 and so forth and so on. When this is full, the $10 will go into here one will get 15 and all the other categories will get five. So that's how I'm doing this one. I'm $5 a week a $5 a category minimum. It's 50 bucks a week.

[00:10:47]I might do 10 if the budget allows. I am going to use one of my mini challenges um to help fund this, you know, if I like at the mini in the minis. So anyway, that's how I'm doing it a little bit different. So let's go ahead and stuff it so you can see how fun it is to stuff it. And this is $5 and I know for a fact that this is the only icon I will be able to color because this one is $7 so I won't be able to color it till next week when I have $10 in there. Same thing with this. So we're just going to quickly go in and stuff each one. And like I said, it might be $5, it might be $10 depending on the week and the budget, but I'm not going any higher than that. While I loved it doing it as aggressively as I did the last time, I really did and it was so I'm so glad we have that money aside now. There were definitely things we sacrificed in order to make it happen.

[00:11:39]Um but it was it was totally worth it because I just feel so much better. And I actually my husband I gave him my bank bag, which uh I don't have it up here. I have a little zip bag that says bank bag, and it's a little zip. I get I put the cash in there, and I gave it to him, and he deposited today, and he was like, "Yo, where did all that cash come from?"

[00:12:00]>> [laughter] >> Kind of blew my mind. So, anyway, that is the one month ahead. If you would like to go get one for yourself, it's on my coffee. I will link it down below.

[00:12:10]But even if you're doing a dollar an icon and you're saving $30, you know, whatever, a dollar an envelope, a dollar a pouch, just save something. Save something. You you have to be able to save something.

[00:12:24]Anything. Anything. Like I said, even if it's a dollar. Um Steph's on a budget.

[00:12:29]Started I don't I think she's like the OG who started the snowball method for this, but she did $3 an icon, and it's taking her like a year and a half to 2 years to have it done, but she's doing it. And not an icon, $3 an envelope.

[00:12:42]Like just you have to do some a dollar, $2, $3, $10, whatever. You got a little extra, stuff it in an envelope. Like it's so important to have one month ahead. Yes, vacation money would be fantastic, but in this day and age, a little bit of a buffer, like do you have enough in your savings where you could cover an emergency? Emergency as in your washing machine craps the bed, or your hot water tank goes, or you need new brakes, or you get a flat tire. Like this doesn't have to just be one month ahead for bills, it could also be emergency. Like the it'll just be there to be used. Anyway, enough about that. I hope I've I've stressed it enough. But anyway, thank you so much for joining me today for this quick little tutorial. I don't know, was it quick? I'm not really sure.

[00:13:23]>> [laughter] >> I'll see you in the next one. Bye, friends.