MW I'm a personal finance reporter who never budgeted. Then my boyfriend got laid off.

By Genna Contino

Plus: A 30-minute Financial Literacy Month money challenge to whip your finances into shape

My boyfriend and I had to stop burning through our cash ASAP after our household income took a serious hit.

Welcome back to Don't Short Yourself, where we share smart money moves each week, often drawn from our own financial wins - and yes, our occasional mistakes - to help you make better decisions with your money.

Subscribe to Don't Short Yourself for free to receive it weekly.

With Financial Literacy Month kicking off this week, I've had to take a hard look at something that I've long avoided: figuring out my monthly spending habits. It's a reality that I was forced to confront after my household income took a serious hit. (More on that below.)

Everyone talks about "budgeting" - but I've found the real challenge is clearing the psychological hurdle to sitting down and auditing where your cash actually goes each month. It's intimidating to see how much you spend, but truly understanding your habits is the only way to build a smart financial plan that survives when things go south.

- Genna Contino

BIG MONEY TIP OF THE WEEK: I finally confronted my spending and made a budget - and you can, too

For the past two years, my boyfriend and I had a financial system that worked perfectly for us. We split rent and utilities down the middle, took turns buying groceries, and Venmo'd $(PYPL)$ each other when something else came up. It felt fair, it felt easy and it felt sustainable.

Then, last month, he got laid off - and suddenly our system didn't work anymore. Even factoring in unemployment payments, we now have $1,600 less to spend each month.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm better at giving financial advice than following it. And while I'm not bad with money - I have a credit score in the high 700s, I don't carry much debt and I make healthy 401(k) contributions - I have guilty pleasures just like anyone else. I still really enjoy shopping. I like to DoorDash $(DASH)$ when I don't feel like cooking. I'm hooked on my $80-a-month YouTube TV $(GOOGL)$ subscription. Sue me!

And, yes, my most embarrassing money mishap goes against the personal-finance advice I hear most often from the experts I interview: I am among the 38% of Americans who do not have a budget, according to a recent YouGov poll.

When our household income dropped overnight, that lack of a budget quickly became a problem. Without my boyfriend's paycheck buffering our vibes-based accounting, it was time to face the scariest part of managing your money: the spending audit.

Analyzing your monthly spending is the essential - and admittedly uncomfortable - first step to building a budget. There's a unique kind of embarrassment in seeing exactly how much you've "invested" in late-night takeout or the subscriptions you haven't opened since 2024.

But you can't build a house without a foundation, and you can't build a budget without the data.

My financial planner (yes, I have a financial planner), Rob Bacharach, recommends using an automated tool to track spending. Apps like Rocket Money can link bank accounts, categorize spending habits and flag unused subscriptions. It runs between $7 and $14 a month (on a pay-what-you-think-is-fair model), but "if it helps you save $200 a month, it's worth it," said Bacharach, a Charlotte, N.C.-based certified financial planner. There are also plenty of free budget apps available, such as Goodbudget and Credit Karma $(INTU)$.

While I'm keeping the app option in my back pocket for later, we decided to go analog for our first budgeting rodeo by staring down our raw bank statements. I had so much built-up anxiety about facing my own numbers, but seeing my boyfriend lay his cards on the table gave me the courage to finally log in and look at mine. So if you're also struggling to get started, consider teaming up with a partner, friend or family member so that you don't have to face it alone. You could even throw a party around it.

Ripping off the Band-Aid and auditing myself was a massive relief. Honestly. I had spent so much mental energy worrying about it that the reality wasn't half as bad as the monster I'd created in my head.

First, we checked our banking and credit-card accounts and logged every single purchase we made in February in a spreadsheet. Then we broke them down into categories:

-- Must-haves: housing, utilities, transportation, debt, and health and wellness

-- Variable essentials: groceries and household maintenance and supplies

-- Savings: automatic savings withdrawals

-- Lifestyle: dining out, entertainment, subscriptions, shopping and self-care

Doing this made it easy to identify which expenses we could cut and the ones we couldn't touch. Unsurprisingly, most of the cuts came from our lifestyle budget. We decided ChatGPT, Amazon Prime (AMZN) and Apple Music $(AAPL)$ were subscriptions we didn't need and canceled them immediately, for example, which saved us about $50 a month, or $600 a year. And a lot of the money that went to takeout (which added up to several hundred dollars in February alone) will be redirected toward groceries in our "variable essentials" category.

After making a couple of tweaks like those, we were able to immediately identify several hundred dollars in savings. And the good news is, after calculating how much will go to nondiscretionary expenses like rent and utilities, we're still able to designate a good chunk of what's left over toward those "lifestyle" expenses I'm not ready to give up. The budget we landed on looks something like this:

-- Rent and utilities (45%): This is our biggest fixed cost. It's higher than the recommended 30%, but it's the price of staying in the city we love (and where I work).

-- Lifestyle and discretionary (20%): This is our shared "fun" fund. It covers the $80 YouTube TV subscription, an occasional DoorDash order and shopping. By capping this, I can spend it all without wondering if I'm ruining our future. This is also big enough to cover unexpected expenses that pop up.

-- Savings and investments (16%): Even with a tighter belt, we kept my monthly brokerage transfer. It's the pay-yourself-first rule I refuse to break.

-- Groceries and essentials (11%): We've shifted the cash we're saving by cutting back on takeout over to this category. It's enough for a well-stocked fridge, if we shop smart.

-- Transportation and health (8%): This covers our subway swipes, occasional Ubers UBER and out-of-pocket wellness costs.

With our bills covered and savings automated, the guilt that usually follows spending money is finally gone.

Now determining whether I can afford something has shifted from a guess every time I click "buy" to a math equation I actually know how to solve.

YOUR MONEY MISTAKES

Now that I've laid out my budgeting baggage, we want to hear from you: What's the biggest money mistake you've ever made? And what did you learn from it?

We're looking for your most relatable stories to include in next week's edition of Don't Short Yourself. We'll include advice from experts on how to move past the guilt and actually fix our finances. Email your money mistake to dontshortyourself@marketwatch.com.

Join Don't Short Yourself Live to ask MarketWatch's Christine Ji your AI and investing questions on Wednesday, April 8 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

JOIN THE DON'T SHORT YOURSELF LIVE Q&A

What's the smartest way to use artificial intelligence to lower costs and be more productive - and is the tech's promise living up to the hype? Join our next Don't Short Yourself Live on Wednesday, April 8, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time to ask MarketWatch's Christine Ji and IBM's vice president of AI Foundations, David Cox, your AI questions in real time.

KEY MONEY READS

Budgeting is more important than ever for drivers feeling squeezed by gas prices hitting $4 per gallon.

It's not just gas prices that are on the rise - the Federal Reserve hasn't hit its 2% inflation target in six years.

And here's a look at how financial markets are faring a month into the war in Iran.

Plus: To show how complicated and expensive it's getting to watch sports on TV, we looked at the New York Yankees - and you won't believe how much it costs to see every one of their baseball games this season.

30-MINUTE MONEY CHALLENGE: Unsubscribe from temptation

We'll leave you with one last tip to help curb your spending - which you can do right now in 30 minutes or less.

Standard money advice tells you to unsubscribe from paid services, but unsubscribing from the temptation to spend can save you significantly more in the long run. Nearly 90% of shoppers say they have some history of impulse buying, which accounts for 20% of total e-commerce sales, according to Capital One Shopping $(COF)$ research. This common behavior can get expensive: The average consumer spent $282 per month on impulse purchases in 2024, adding up to $3,381 a year. That's extra money that could be going into your emergency fund, which serves as a safety net when your finances take an unexpected hit the way mine just did. We'll get into even more savings strategies with next week's newsletter.

But for now, here are three quick ways to build a digital barrier between you and mindless unchecked spending:

Mute the noise: Unfollow retailers and influencers whose content is primarily ad-driven. While you can't escape every targeted ad, you can certainly cut out some of the noise.

Audit your inbox: Search your email for the words "sale" or "deal" and unsubscribe from the five retailers you shop at the most. (There are AI tools that can automate this to save you even more time, too.) Those email promos are too good at winning over consumers - 72% of online shoppers have made an impulse purchase after seeing an advertised discount, according to Capital One Shopping.

MW I'm a personal finance reporter who never budgeted. Then my boyfriend got laid off.

By Genna Contino

Plus: A 30-minute Financial Literacy Month money challenge to whip your finances into shape

My boyfriend and I had to stop burning through our cash ASAP after our household income took a serious hit.

Welcome back to Don't Short Yourself, where we share smart money moves each week, often drawn from our own financial wins - and yes, our occasional mistakes - to help you make better decisions with your money.

Subscribe to Don't Short Yourself for free to receive it weekly.

With Financial Literacy Month kicking off this week, I've had to take a hard look at something that I've long avoided: figuring out my monthly spending habits. It's a reality that I was forced to confront after my household income took a serious hit. (More on that below.)

Everyone talks about "budgeting" - but I've found the real challenge is clearing the psychological hurdle to sitting down and auditing where your cash actually goes each month. It's intimidating to see how much you spend, but truly understanding your habits is the only way to build a smart financial plan that survives when things go south.

- Genna Contino

BIG MONEY TIP OF THE WEEK: I finally confronted my spending and made a budget - and you can, too

For the past two years, my boyfriend and I had a financial system that worked perfectly for us. We split rent and utilities down the middle, took turns buying groceries, and Venmo'd (PYPL) each other when something else came up. It felt fair, it felt easy and it felt sustainable.

Then, last month, he got laid off - and suddenly our system didn't work anymore. Even factoring in unemployment payments, we now have $1,600 less to spend each month.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm better at giving financial advice than following it. And while I'm not bad with money - I have a credit score in the high 700s, I don't carry much debt and I make healthy 401(k) contributions - I have guilty pleasures just like anyone else. I still really enjoy shopping. I like to DoorDash (DASH) when I don't feel like cooking. I'm hooked on my $80-a-month YouTube TV (GOOGL) subscription. Sue me!

And, yes, my most embarrassing money mishap goes against the personal-finance advice I hear most often from the experts I interview: I am among the 38% of Americans who do not have a budget, according to a recent YouGov poll.

When our household income dropped overnight, that lack of a budget quickly became a problem. Without my boyfriend's paycheck buffering our vibes-based accounting, it was time to face the scariest part of managing your money: the spending audit.

Analyzing your monthly spending is the essential - and admittedly uncomfortable - first step to building a budget. There's a unique kind of embarrassment in seeing exactly how much you've "invested" in late-night takeout or the subscriptions you haven't opened since 2024.

But you can't build a house without a foundation, and you can't build a budget without the data.

My financial planner (yes, I have a financial planner), Rob Bacharach, recommends using an automated tool to track spending. Apps like Rocket Money can link bank accounts, categorize spending habits and flag unused subscriptions. It runs between $7 and $14 a month (on a pay-what-you-think-is-fair model), but "if it helps you save $200 a month, it's worth it," said Bacharach, a Charlotte, N.C.-based certified financial planner. There are also plenty of free budget apps available, such as Goodbudget and Credit Karma (INTU).

While I'm keeping the app option in my back pocket for later, we decided to go analog for our first budgeting rodeo by staring down our raw bank statements. I had so much built-up anxiety about facing my own numbers, but seeing my boyfriend lay his cards on the table gave me the courage to finally log in and look at mine. So if you're also struggling to get started, consider teaming up with a partner, friend or family member so that you don't have to face it alone. You could even throw a party around it.

Ripping off the Band-Aid and auditing myself was a massive relief. Honestly. I had spent so much mental energy worrying about it that the reality wasn't half as bad as the monster I'd created in my head.

First, we checked our banking and credit-card accounts and logged every single purchase we made in February in a spreadsheet. Then we broke them down into categories:

-- Must-haves: housing, utilities, transportation, debt, and health and wellness

-- Variable essentials: groceries and household maintenance and supplies

-- Savings: automatic savings withdrawals

-- Lifestyle: dining out, entertainment, subscriptions, shopping and self-care

Doing this made it easy to identify which expenses we could cut and the ones we couldn't touch. Unsurprisingly, most of the cuts came from our lifestyle budget. We decided ChatGPT, Amazon Prime (AMZN) and Apple Music (AAPL) were subscriptions we didn't need and canceled them immediately, for example, which saved us about $50 a month, or $600 a year. And a lot of the money that went to takeout (which added up to several hundred dollars in February alone) will be redirected toward groceries in our "variable essentials" category.

After making a couple of tweaks like those, we were able to immediately identify several hundred dollars in savings. And the good news is, after calculating how much will go to nondiscretionary expenses like rent and utilities, we're still able to designate a good chunk of what's left over toward those "lifestyle" expenses I'm not ready to give up. The budget we landed on looks something like this:

-- Rent and utilities (45%): This is our biggest fixed cost. It's higher than the recommended 30%, but it's the price of staying in the city we love (and where I work).

-- Lifestyle and discretionary (20%): This is our shared "fun" fund. It covers the $80 YouTube TV subscription, an occasional DoorDash order and shopping. By capping this, I can spend it all without wondering if I'm ruining our future. This is also big enough to cover unexpected expenses that pop up.

-- Savings and investments (16%): Even with a tighter belt, we kept my monthly brokerage transfer. It's the pay-yourself-first rule I refuse to break.

-- Groceries and essentials (11%): We've shifted the cash we're saving by cutting back on takeout over to this category. It's enough for a well-stocked fridge, if we shop smart.

-- Transportation and health (8%): This covers our subway swipes, occasional Ubers UBER and out-of-pocket wellness costs.

With our bills covered and savings automated, the guilt that usually follows spending money is finally gone.

Now determining whether I can afford something has shifted from a guess every time I click "buy" to a math equation I actually know how to solve.

YOUR MONEY MISTAKES

Now that I've laid out my budgeting baggage, we want to hear from you: What's the biggest money mistake you've ever made? And what did you learn from it?

We're looking for your most relatable stories to include in next week's edition of Don't Short Yourself. We'll include advice from experts on how to move past the guilt and actually fix our finances. Email your money mistake to dontshortyourself@marketwatch.com.

Join Don't Short Yourself Live to ask MarketWatch's Christine Ji your AI and investing questions on Wednesday, April 8 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

JOIN THE DON'T SHORT YOURSELF LIVE Q&A

What's the smartest way to use artificial intelligence to lower costs and be more productive - and is the tech's promise living up to the hype? Join our next Don't Short Yourself Live on Wednesday, April 8, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time to ask MarketWatch's Christine Ji and IBM's vice president of AI Foundations, David Cox, your AI questions in real time.

KEY MONEY READS

Budgeting is more important than ever for drivers feeling squeezed by gas prices hitting $4 per gallon.

It's not just gas prices that are on the rise - the Federal Reserve hasn't hit its 2% inflation target in six years.

And here's a look at how financial markets are faring a month into the war in Iran.

Plus: To show how complicated and expensive it's getting to watch sports on TV, we looked at the New York Yankees - and you won't believe how much it costs to see every one of their baseball games this season.

30-MINUTE MONEY CHALLENGE: Unsubscribe from temptation

We'll leave you with one last tip to help curb your spending - which you can do right now in 30 minutes or less.

Standard money advice tells you to unsubscribe from paid services, but unsubscribing from the temptation to spend can save you significantly more in the long run. Nearly 90% of shoppers say they have some history of impulse buying, which accounts for 20% of total e-commerce sales, according to Capital One Shopping (COF) research. This common behavior can get expensive: The average consumer spent $282 per month on impulse purchases in 2024, adding up to $3,381 a year. That's extra money that could be going into your emergency fund, which serves as a safety net when your finances take an unexpected hit the way mine just did. We'll get into even more savings strategies with next week's newsletter.

But for now, here are three quick ways to build a digital barrier between you and mindless unchecked spending:

Mute the noise: Unfollow retailers and influencers whose content is primarily ad-driven. While you can't escape every targeted ad, you can certainly cut out some of the noise.

Audit your inbox: Search your email for the words "sale" or "deal" and unsubscribe from the five retailers you shop at the most. (There are AI tools that can automate this to save you even more time, too.) Those email promos are too good at winning over consumers - 72% of online shoppers have made an impulse purchase after seeing an advertised discount, according to Capital One Shopping.

(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2026 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

MW I'm a personal finance reporter who never -2-

Kill the convenience: Delete any one-click shopping apps or saved credit-card information on your phone. These shortcuts make impulse buying "almost effortless," Florida-based VyStar Credit Union says, and removing the ease of a one-tap purchase forces a moment of hesitation that could save your budget.

-Genna Contino

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2026 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.