Try This Money Expert’s Simple Money Routine for People Who Hate Budgeting
Written by
Ellie Diamond
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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Budgeting is an important thing for everyone to do, but it certainly isn’t something everyone likes to do.
Money expert Christina Mychas has established a budgeting process that supports her philosophy of intentional spending. For those who aren’t the biggest fans of budgeting, she shared her system in a recent YouTube video, showing her audience how to follow it in as little as 10 minutes a week.
Step 1: Pair It With Something Fun
Starting a budgeting habit is always the hard part, so Mychas encouraged her audience to pair it with something easy and enjoyable. For her, that’s a cup of good coffee on a Sunday morning.
Step 2: Write Out Your Monthly Money Goals
In December 2025, Mychas set the goal of front-loading two of her savings accounts. Front-loading means maxing out your tax-advantaged accounts, such as your 401(k) or individual retirement account, as soon as possible.
Front-loading gives your contributions more time to grow, but it can have drawbacks. For example, some 401(k) plans include employer matches only for pay periods when the employee contributes. In that case, it makes more sense to spread out your contributions throughout the year.
Step 3: Write Down Your Expected and Actual Income
Mychas has built a template that lists her income sources, expected income and actual pay. This lets her plan realistically and leaves room for adjustments in case of any unexpected changes.
This method is particularly valuable for anyone who is self-employed or has a variable income. The key is using realistic numbers for your “expected” income, lest you plan yourself into a corner.
Step 4: Pay Yourself First
Mychas knows how easy it is to spend your savings allocations, so she sets up automatic withdrawals for all of her savings goals: her emergency fund, health fund, car fund and more. She recommended having separate bank accounts for specific savings goals so that money is harder to access from your main bank account.
Automating your savings is helpful if you’re forgetful or tend to spend impulsively. It takes discipline out of the equation and helps you make progress even if you forget to budget manually.
If you go this route, make sure your account balance supports these automatic transfers. If you underestimate your income, your withdrawals could put you into overdraft, which can lead to high fees.
The other potential downside is that if you’re completely hands-off with your savings, you might miss out on opportunities to find higher rates or more profitable options.
Step 5: Pay For Your Needs and Wants
Mychas separates her costs into fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are predictable bills, such as rent or phone service. Variable expenses change every month and are the categories where it’s easiest to adjust your budget.
For this stage, Mychas pulls out her calendar to remind her of any special spending needs, such as birthdays and vacations. She uses her plans to gauge where she’ll want to spend, and when she’ll need to cut back elsewhere: “This is the category where budgeting becomes awesome. If there’s something that you want to do or spend money on, you can put it in your budget and bake it in.”
When she’s accounted for all of her expenses, Mychas allocates the leftovers until she has nothing left to budget. This method is called zero-based budgeting, which many people love for its flexibility and focus on goals. It can take some effort at first and may require some adjusting, but the habitual element helps keep you on track.
Step 6: Track Your Spending
This is what “turns a budget from a nice idea to an actual habit,” Mychas said. She records her spending every day, but she also sits down once a week to go over anything she may have forgotten. She records every bill paid and paycheck received, and she genuinely looks forward to it.
“Making it cozy, making it cute, it takes under 10 minutes.”
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