October in Review
By Lin Nguyen
October was another month of growth and support for the Community! We started the month off with our Fall Quarter Kick Off Party. During the party, we took the opportunity to announce our monthly themes and events, but we also reflected on everything the members have been through in the last quarter. Members voiced their appreciation for the supportive group of women they found, how lessons in the Community added to other areas of their lives, and how much they’ve grown their confidence around money!
At the event, we also previewed future guest speakers, like this month’s Carmen Perez of Make Real Cents. She specializes in debt-paydown and cash envelope budgeting, which fell perfectly in line with our October theme of value-based budgeting.
In order to help members develop their personal value-based budgets, Stephanie invited members to try the 30 Day Money Cleanse created by Ashley Gerstley of Make Real Cents. On top of the challenge, she suggested some exercises to help members get into a value-based spending mindset. For example, she suggested looking at last month’s transactions, picking out what purchases made you feel the best, and finding commonalities in those purchases.
After a few exercises and some reflective questions to think on, members jumped into our October Lounge & Learn with Carmen Perez. We discussed everything under the sun related to values-based budgeting, from the “no budget” budget method, the “go broke win big” method, and zero-based budgeting. In addition to talking about the different strategies for developing a budget, Stephanie and Carmen used their experience to warn members of some budgeting gotchas. To share a few, don’t be too rigid with your budget. It can trap you into constantly modifying different categories or checking on your money way more than you need you. Also, don’t make too many categories! Creating broad categories gives you some needed room to be flexible with your budget.
To encourage Community engagement, Steph created groups for each city we have members in. Members took advantage of this to meet up and connect with one another, building on the relationships formed during our monthly events.
To wrap up the month, we got together for our October Sip & Share, a time for everyone to reflect on lessons learned and goals moving forward. After sharing our Halloween plans, we shared things we learned this month that could be helpful for other members. A member talked about the magic that is grocery store pickup, a way to avoid grabbing items you don’t need, avoid a delivery fee, and save yourself from the stress that is crowded grocery store aisles. We shared other ideas, like capsule wardrobes, buying clothes second hand, and trying to sell items you don’t need instead of automatically giving them away.
Finishing off, everyone shared what they struggled with during the month of October and goals they set for themselves. One member candidly described her struggle with bringing down her food budget. On top of sticking to her values of shopping organic, she also enjoys ordering food in and supporting local businesses. To work on this, she decided to use the cash envelope budget that Carmen suggested. Once everyone shared their struggles and goals, we finished off our Sip & Share like always -- with a dance party!
Meet our members and find out more about what’s happening in the community here!