Aligned Birth Podcast
Episode 10 - Budget for Baby - Interview with Natalie Meeks
Welcome again to the aligned birth podcast.
Dr. Shannon
Unknown 0:08
here today and today's an exciting day because it is an interview day. And with these interviews we started like to try to stick to some birth related topics, and ways to help moms and families prepare for birth and parenthood and motherhood and I think budgeting for baby is a huge one and so I'm excited to have Natalie Meeks joining us today, and she is a branch manager at one of our local regions metro Atlanta area banks, and she's been there for 11 years, she's helped hundreds of hundreds of people with their financial goals, and helping people just reach those financial goals and feel comfortable and at peace, and less stressed about their financial goals. And so she's also part of this next step elite program to help communities prepare for their financial future and so she's also my banker, which is wonderful because she's helped me in developing my business. And then she's also a mom and a working mom, and juggles all of this well too and has some wonderful insight into budgeting for baby so I'm so excited to have you on today, Natalie.
Unknown 1:15
Thank you, Dr. Shannon, I am so excited to be here with you today. Yes, I am Natalie Meeks the branch manager for regions bank, and my favorite thing that I get to do at my job is help people reach their financial goals. People come to me in all different life stages, and I have to say that preparing for baby is very exciting and one of my favorite topics and my favorite times to help people because you get that beautiful baby there at the end so I want to just, again, thank you, Shana for having me. And, yes, and as you mentioned, I am a working mom, I will actually refer back to that point often throughout this because you know I had financial goals that I wanted for, for my baby and my future and you know I had to make some adjustments along the way. So, when you are thinking about starting a family, you do want to discuss with your partner what those financial goals are going to look like right you want to be on the same page. And so that is very important that you sit down together and talk about what it is that you want with your, your baby's future your maternity lifestyle your birthing situation, you know, do you want to breastfeed, long term, do you want to have a baby at home, do you want to have a doula with you throughout the process, you know, So these are expenses that you've got to consider. You know one of the things that I will say about myself is I, for short, was going to breastfeed my baby for at least a year, that was not going to change. That's what I was going to do, but I didn't consider the fact 10 years ago that my job, you know, only paid for six weeks of maternity leave, so I was eligible for the 12 week FMLA, but I did not get paid for that and had I planned a little bit better and saved a little bit harder, I would have been able to stay home with my babies so what that meant for me was I got to breastfeed for about eight months instead of one year because at six weeks, my child, my little newborn baby was going to her caretakers and so at five weeks, I had to begin bottle feeding, that also meant more expenses there with be the milk right so I had to come throughout work and I had to buy formula and so these are just little tips that I wanted to sort of,
Unknown 3:49
yeah,
Unknown 3:50
and that's huge because, I mean we could do a whole episode on the issues of maternity and paternity leave in the United States so I don't know that we can go down that route but that is huge right there in that aspect of having those plans but then realizing oh my gosh this needed to shift and change and how that really affected the rest of their journey, you know,
Unknown 4:10
that's right and she turned out to be just fine and everything is okay and you know it is what it is but just wanted to sort of put that out there as just something to think about, you never know what's going to happen. So, you know, think about your financial goals, put them on paper, and then write down exactly you know what you think that might cost you know, so once you start looking at that goal and you know how much you're going to need, you want to develop a personal spending plan, a lot of people think that they have to save, save, save, but they don't think about how much you need to spend less my areas that you should spend less so instead of, You know, spending $4 at Starbucks every morning you want to go to making coffee at home right little things can really take you a long way,
Unknown 4:55
and I know personally with us. We would try to hone in on like eating out, you know, that was, that was a big one for us and then I constantly rag on my husband, I'm like Why stop getting these powers and stuff from Qt all the time like this stuff adds up I think I actually added up for one month and I was like, Look, see, but those things, that's exactly what you're trying to say is like it's not necessarily saving more but it's like let's, let's hone in on the spending.
Unknown 5:24
Yes yes and if you, that's one of the little bits of advice that I was gonna give was write it now, and then multiply that out by a year and oh my word, you will be so surprised at how much money you're spending when you can be saving instead so careful
Unknown 5:38
how you present that to your spouse. They may be
Unknown 5:42
right. This is why the very first thing I said was discuss with your partner right and you might have to tell them over and over again because let's be real. Exactly. So know where your money is going right knowledge is power when it comes to your monthly cash flow. And so when you're thinking about cash flow. It's not just the money that's going out, it's also the money that is coming in so what is your income, look like, you know, what are you doing to support your family. Are you able to, you know, have a second job or is your spouse able to have a second job or they're a little things that you could do along the way to bring that income in just to sort of put that extra money aside right. And so it's good to you know keep track of that with a register or some sort of spreadsheet, You know you want to really try to find ways to decrease spending and and increase your income. And so when we talk about decreasing spending. It isn't just our money habits, it can be as simple as your utilities, you know, how are you keeping your your heating and air, you know, where are you keeping that thermostat at can you use cold water when you wash clothes and little things like that to make a difference in your utility bills. You know, I know that my gas bill comes every year once a year I get to call in and I get to, you know, lock in that rate so those things are ugly, yep, do that. Yeah, very important to do. So, you know, when you're looking at. That is legit. It's nice to sort of have something to look at so just want to let everyone know, As I am the manager for regions five we have a website that is got, it's got so many tools and resources that you can access for free, right, you do not have to bank with us that have this information and we've got calculators, and we've got budgeting worksheets so those registers that you know a lot of people don't really keep any more in their wallet you can create that through a spreadsheet and so I just want to let you all know that it's the region's dot com forward slash, next step, and I believe we're going to share that with you all is that right Shannon is there,
Unknown 8:04
we'll be able to link everything all the little freebies, in the show notes so easy to access. And that's good too because there's also that aspect of like having it written down, and the process of like, there's this book, What's it called it's by Kate Northrup
Unknown 8:25
and
Unknown 8:26
money a love story. And in that she talks about like setting up these like financial dates, you know like, where you sit down and you actually look at your finances because sometimes you know you just want to, like, oh, everything's fine, I don't want to have to look at it everything I don't know stresses me out. So the aspect of having a spreadsheet and actually looking at it.
Unknown 8:51
That's right, can make a big difference. That's right and if you don't like the computer, that's okay, there's so many options you can do the envelope system right so when you're paying your bills you can literally have envelopes that you have car payment on, and you know if you like to spend cash instead of online bill pay you can take the cash out of the bank and put it in an envelope and save until it's time to pay a bill. So, you know, really thinking about those monthly utilities and those expenses that are fixed, you know, making sure that you are able to pay those on time, you know a lot of budgeting comes from thinking about the full picture right so you also want to look at decreasing debt right those high interest debt so these are things that are going to lower there's expenses to help you have more money to save you typically want to try to save about 10% of your income and one of the advice that I give every single person no matter what stays in life there and as you want to pay yourself first and what that means is when you get paid, go ahead and put that specific dollar amount that you have set for savings. Put that aside, immediately, and then at the end of, you know, changing your money habits and decreasing those spending habits you know you might have a little bit left over, Go ahead and add that into the savings as well and I'm really help, and go a long way for you know,
Unknown 10:17
that's a good idea. That's a good idea.
Unknown 10:19
Huh. So, um, you know, one of the things that I also will. I would love to try to do this myself, but I you know, tell people all the time if you can live off of one income. If you're a working mom already, go ahead and practice that, because you never know what's going to happen right you never know what is going to happen when baby comes, or are you planning not to work right so you if you know you're going to have a baby, either in nine months because you found out you're pregnant or in two years, and you know that you want to stay home with that child, then go ahead and start living off of one income and, and then think about how much you can save that way if you're really able to do it. Now it might mean you have to call Comcast and lower that,
Unknown 11:10
yes, yes,
Unknown 11:11
Comcast, I tell you what, you know, and so different aspects of life we've done this too because I have several moms that come in the office and I always like to check in to see what their plans are. So of course this is a little like, you know, not necessarily budgeting for baby but it still is because it's after the fact though like you know they've come in the office they've had their baby, and wondering, I try to get an idea of are you planning on staying home or do you want to go back to work and those sorts of things because that can also affect that stress level as well to with mom and that parenthood journey and so it really is coming down to. Can you live off of one income. I think you can, and we even did that when I went back to chiropractic school, because I had been working full time and so then it really looked at like okay well can we live off of one income so that was definitely you know by by Comcast and we would just like stream things so it was like other other ways to do stuff, but you kind of get creative in that
Unknown 12:08
in that yes, absolutely, absolutely, and just really know what is coming right because when you think about your child and your family want to look at your, your company's insurance and see what is, you know eligible, are you eligible to have a doula Are you able to find a pump right because some insurance companies will cover those companies
Unknown 12:31
cover and it's always I work with lots of and it's always like, how do you do this and I feel like every insurance is different. It's so frustrating but it's worth it to look into that because that can be huge savings.
Unknown 12:42
That's right. And you know what, when you think about chiropractic care I will tell you that my chiropractor, doesn't take insurance so I use my health spending account, right, so my company allows me to you know put in up to 20 $500 on a card, they deduct it, you know, percentage out throughout the year so I'm paying for, but I don't see it so I'm able to give my chiropractor that card health spending account will accept that because it is medical related. Yep. So little things like that can really make a difference, I do.
Unknown 13:14
Yeah, I've talked to lots of people and tell them yes I do take those you know Flexible Spending Accounts health spending accounts, and it's always a good idea when having baby look at your insurance because you more than likely will end up using those funds within, you know, within those years with childhood, you know, just all the just the well checks and the well visits and all of these things in the hospital like all of that stuff, it's good to, to start with those health spending accounts.
Unknown 13:42
That's right. That's right.
Unknown 13:44
And I had a similar story though,
Unknown 13:46
in
Unknown 13:46
that when I had my first, I was, I had a fellowship, so I had a stipend, which meant like no taxes were taking out of my money, like it was, it was just a fellowship with the government contract that I had and I thought I was going to have paid time off like I thought I was, I had worked things out and then come to find out, just, just by before I gave birth, that that was not the case. And so we had not saved appropriately for me to be home for an extended period of time and so I too went back really early, went back at four weeks after my C section, and that was not ideal and I you know I was talking about those things there too, because it was also that planning on our part and being like, oh well. This really sucks. And so,
Unknown 14:37
yeah, could have been different,
Unknown 14:38
looking at those things, you know, And having that plan for those unexpected events.
Unknown 14:45
Well you know I gotta tell you, social media can be very helpful I mean and this right here, I mean, what a great way what better way to educate our mothers, you know, by having podcasts and people like you that are, are willing to put this out there to help mothers, think about this because it is so important and a lot of times, it's very unexpected you don't know what is actually going to happen that day, you know, to kind of get a little personal with myself, my parents both worked. Also, my mother was going to be a physical education teacher, and was working at Red Lobster as a waitress. During that time of getting her degree and my father worked at an auto dealer so I came. They thought everything was going to be just fine maybe came out and I had plus Allah and they had no idea. Yeah, so unfortunately my mother had. Well, fortunately, I should say, my mother had excellent insurance with Red Lobster excellent insurance with Red Lobster so you know a lot was covered there. But other expenses came right because now she had to definitely formula feed me and double time because I didn't take out the food and so other expenses like that came but also new insurance companies wouldn't take me back then it was like pre existing not happening. My mother stayed a waitress for 25 years until I was offered for insurance. Now throughout the process she found a love of her career and teaching martial arts and all as well it worked out for the good so she started doing that physical education aspect, but you know You just never know what's going to happen. You know and so that is why I think that this podcast and the education that we can teach and and just to prepare people, it's just so important.
Unknown 16:39
I know and that's why you know mentioning to the beginning as far as just helping alleviate that stress during pregnancy through budgeting because finances can always. Well, not always but they can present
Unknown 16:52
some stress, you know,
Unknown 16:56
couples within couples with it right, personal.
Unknown 17:00
That's right. And, you know, chances are your bank has something similar to this, you know, Shannon, Dr. Shannon had mentioned that I am in an elite program, I am the elite banker of the market doing these nighttime programs. Our bank realizes that that is such a huge factor in life, today's the main reason for stress is financial stress at home. And so that's why they've created this program that we have where we can teach this, these financial education courses from, you know how to save, how to, you know, save on debt, how to understand what your credit means and preparing to buy a home, there's so many things that are out there, and we present different seminars weekly. You can also find out on the next page again it is free to you so there's no stipulations, you don't have to come on board with regions you can simply log in and attend these webinars and learn even more about budgeting or about savings so I just want to share that with you because it's so important that you know where you can go. I also did a little research and found that nerd wallet dot nerd wallet had a great article on how to budget for baby, and then also mint.com had some information so there's, there's just lots of tools and resources that are out there for you, you know, you think about, just everything that's gonna come in your future, you've got to think about on that birthing weekend if you will, right, you got to think about transportation, you got to think about that overnight bag of what you're going to put in there, food and drink for the weekend. You know, if you have children already what is it going to cost you to send them to a neighbor's house or, you know how long are you planning to stay so think about those expenses are things that our fee is a big hit, you know you want to get the perfect little picture of that little newborn babies so
Unknown 18:56
thinking about exactly all
Unknown 18:58
those things you're mentioning it's like that. Really looking at those wants versus needs the two in the aspect of like when you're coming up with that registry.
Unknown 19:07
That's right. You know, absolutely right, It's very important that you're looking at, how important is it that I have the picture perfect room for a baby that may or may not be in there for the first year that is.
Unknown 19:24
That is exactly right, Rachel and I just did a recording the other day and we both talked about she was like, I had this beautiful nursery and she's like, and I didn't use that thing for.
Unknown 19:33
So it's like, we've
Unknown 19:34
got real. Yes, I will say that one of the things that I am so thankful for is my husband is a handy man. When I said I want my baby's room to be an aquarium. It was an Amazon aquarium and it didn't cost us a thing to go buy some paint and a paintbrush, and he Stancil whales and fish on that and I had, I said I had no idea if I was having a baby boy or a baby girl so I figured I can either put a little fish in there or a mermaid you know so yeah it'll work and it's just I have a mermaid.
Unknown 20:09
Yeah right out I've used it for a little bit but
Unknown 20:14
that's exactly right.
Unknown 20:16
You know, that's part of it too and looking at now I know a lot of times people can even register now for, they're doing, you know you can have a fund for getting a doula. And that's because I have a lot of moms that come in and I talk about you know creating our birth support team because I think that's so important to have those people on your side and so that's your provider, your doula chiropractic care and then looking at taking childbirth education classes to help you prepare for that birth to so just as you're preparing as your body is preparing to give birth, it's also that financial aspect of, you know, preparing the budget for the baby as well and so, you know, there's ways that you can even look at having that on the registry and people can donate towards those things that are important to you know, More and more clothes I mean, but the clothes are so fun to buy I get it and they're so cute, but setting up meal trains for people like there's are there are things that you know potentially don't necessarily have to cost the money. That's right, can make a huge impact in alleviating that stress and budgeting for mom as well.
Unknown 21:17
Absolutely and you know you mentioned the cost for doula and so forth you know if you're thinking about hiring a doula you know ask them what they'll provide you know some of them will provide that birth ball that you're looking to have for that labor scarf, you know, find out if they're going to supply that for you because then that might help with those expenses as well. And then you're talking about child birthing classes I went to one in the county that I listened and I will marry us so, and it was free, and that it was great it was provided through WellStar at the time and and you know I was able to go through all my pregnancy and and just prepare so if you are wanting to do the childbirth class, you know, don't hesitate to go with those free resources because they also will have, you know at the end, you know I've got like a basket with, you know different baby items that were just very helpful at the time so
Unknown 22:16
I know and it's, it's coming down to that searching around and I know that sometimes there's so much information out there so I
Unknown 22:23
totally understand
Unknown 22:24
that overwhelm aspect and so I appreciate your kind words about the podcast because that's the point too, is to help maybe hone in on a few things so like all the freedoms that we have in this this is like a good place to at least just start and then branch out if you if you want to and you need to and I know we've got other episodes on all the people that we have for like building that burst support team and being able to go look at those avenues for price and cost and map it out, and you know one thing too is, do you have a service industry as well and can you barter some of the things. There's unique ways for you to find ways to get things into that budget.
Unknown 23:06
That's absolutely right. And you know, again as I mentioned, if you are one that likes to put things on paper. One of the worksheets that you'll be, you know, able to access through this is a personal spending plan and it allows you to really put down, you know what you're bringing in what you're sending out and what you want to save your money for and you want to spend your money on and it helps you kind of really get a full picture so you know if you like to see things on a visual I have to put it on paper and add it up and then I can say okay this is where I need to be. I want to make sure that you know that that's available to you.
Unknown 23:43
And yeah, so go in more in depth to with some of the freebies that and websites that you do have listed here in the show
Unknown 23:51
notes so that people can
Unknown 23:52
go and kind of understand a little bit
Unknown 23:55
about, yes. So the the links that I have available to you are all within that next step pain so I just kind of went in and found the ones that I thought would be beneficial and got that hyperlink for you but it's just rage on site Comm, forward slash nest dash step. And within that this is going to be all the tools and resources that we have available to anyone and any life state so if you're thinking about having a baby and retirement Hey, there are some people out there that are right there.
Unknown 24:32
That makes. I don't know.
Unknown 24:34
I know my mom was 40 Once you have my little brother so I've heard of very good than that so could happen, but we gotta go for it is so easy to access, you will see that there's a place for calculators and those calculators are wonderful, you can put in, You know I want to say, you know, $1,000.09 months so I've got to put an X amount of dollars to get there and it calculates them for you. I was gonna say so the
Unknown 25:03
calculator, they have a how to make the budget, and then how to savings goals right, those were the two Yes,
Unknown 25:09
those are the two that I had, but there's so much more there's calculators on every topic and things and so just want you to know when you click on that calculator, you'll see just find this savings portion or the budget portion and there are some other ones I just gave you the ones that I thought were most critical, and then there is the more articles there they a mom blog that is out there so you might enjoy that, there are things for children we partnered with scholastics, so there are games that the kids can access for free. It's because region has partnered with them, you simply would go through our site there, you put in your child's elementary school, middle school, and it will allow you to access free scholastic game so while you have one baby in one arm, you can have your child next to you.
Unknown 26:00
After High. And you know mentioning that to, um, it's even good. You can even create that whatever you want to do there's UTMA accounts, there's a 529 savings account, there's all or even, you know, just little savings accounts that you can create, once you have your baby and then if family want to give things to you can even say hey, maybe we can give into this, and then can start saving you know in budget absolute or the child's future too so
Unknown 26:27
absolutely have. That's right, you know, if you have a loving family that likes to give money for birthdays and Christmas, when the babies, one and two, they don't know it so that's probably where it needs to go. Well, now
Unknown 26:41
my youngest knows it and so it'll be like yeah I got this check and I'm like no, this doesn't exist,
Unknown 26:48
then that means it's time for him to walk in with this money and open a savings account, kids love that and they get a little piggy bank. So if I do need to do that I do need to do that
Unknown 26:57
as a sidebar.
Unknown 26:59
Yeah sidebar sidebar.
Unknown 27:01
Okay, so we had the bio financial goals, there's the spending plan and then a 52 week savings challenge.
Unknown 27:07
Yeah, yeah, there's actually, you know, four different numbers there, it depends on how much you can contribute each week but it allows you to save a specific amount I think you can guess, if I can remember my numbers, it was like right around like 1300 for one and then I think there was a 5001 and a 10,001 Shannon you would like this it's a 5k Saving than a 10k Saving Yeah, incorporate that with your running, running,
Unknown 27:38
but yeah great I saved that much while running, that'd be great,
Unknown 27:41
wouldn't it be amazing. The amount of miles you run today you have to put in a savings account, we just created our own. There we go. There we go. I don't know, Dr. Shannon savings plan.
Unknown 27:55
I love it I love it.
Unknown 27:57
And then I saw there's also smart money habits, and then the importance of savings.
Unknown 28:02
Yes, so those are my two most popular seminar topics. And so with those seminars that I present those handouts are given to the attendees so I felt like it would be something just to sort of a quick little breakdown for the listeners here to sort of say, Okay, I remember listening to the podcast, let me go back and look at this, you know, one, two pager and kind of breaks it down like you know these are the steps that I need to take to create that budget or to save for for baby.
Unknown 28:37
No, that's perfect. That's perfect. Um, anything else you wanted to share with the listeners anything that may be, I interrupted you on or sidetracked, no,
Unknown 28:50
no, I mean, I just I agree I would love to say that, you know, congratulations, you know, if you're having a baby or if you're thinking about having a baby. What a special, special time. This is for you and I just wish you the best.
Unknown 29:06
Yay, and it's so true, you know, I like to say that how we give birth matters and how we feel about how we give birth matters and so it's so important to put forth the time and the energy and the effort and to making sure that you can honor and protect that experience and so this is just one way in doing it and so I love going over looking at that birth support team, and then you giving the tools today to say okay, what are the goals that I have, get my partner on board with this to to say hey I really want to do love because dads and spouses, You're gonna, you're gonna want that extra labor support there with mom,
Unknown 29:44
you know, speaking of in between and you're just gonna
Unknown 29:46
want that extra support there. So looking at that and then saying okay, how can we budget for it, you know what you've said today, how can we increase our savings but also decrease that spending and then go through some of the tools and see what kind of changes you can get with that so thank you so much for joining with me today, Natalie, this has been wonderful and I think lots of information for people today.
Unknown 30:09
Thank you so much and you know the last thing you need while you're having baby years stress in your life so you know, please don't hesitate to reach out if you want to have a one on one conversation and really kind of look at your financial picture I am available to help you. Perfect, thank you Dr. Shannon for having me.
Unknown 30:26
Yes, of course, we check out the show notes because it's got the links, so many so many good links here today. And then we'll also link to Natalie's information as well. So thanks for tuning in.