Budgeting on Your Terms ft. Personal Finance With Leila

Welcome to Access Granted, the show that opens the door to real financial freedom.

I’m CJ Follini, and every week we cut through the noise to bring you practical tools, unfiltered conversations, and strategies that actually work so you can build wealth on your terms.

Today we’re joined by Leila, the voice behind Personal Finance with Leila. With over 43,000 subscribers, she shares her journey of mastering debt and budgeting, inspiring thousands to take charge of their finances through her coaching at Debt Over It, debtoverit.com. She guides people one-on-one to financial freedom. Her mission mirrors ours: to help you unlock your potential and live life on your terms.

Leila, tell us what sparked your passion for personal finance, how your channel and coaching are helping people rewrite their money stories.

Leila: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate this. For me, it started with having a lot of debt. I made poor financial decisions as a teenager, as a young adult, ended up in debt, made financial mistakes, and I was starting my debt-free journey. I realized I was watching YouTubers or listening to podcasts and I thought, I might as well create content around this too, just document my journey.

At the time I was a big follower of Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk, and he’s huge on “document, document, document.” I thought, I might as well do that because I’m doing all this anyway. I did want to monetize things eventually, but this really served as motivation. Just by me putting out my numbers, sharing my budget, sharing my debt-free journey, that held me accountable because I had this little community pushing me. I knew that I was going to create the content and that drove a lot of my motivation.

CJ: So do you feel like a DIY expert based on that?

Leila: I wouldn’t call myself an expert. I think I’ve educated myself quite a lot just by consuming all there is out there – podcasts, videos, books, all of that. Because I’ve learned from other people, from my own experience, and then by working with other people, my clients and hearing all of their experiences and having to learn more, I’ve come to grow and learn about many aspects of finances.

CJ: What’s the biggest mental barrier Gen Z and millennials face when they’re trying to achieve financial independence, and how do they change their thinking? I don’t love the word mindset, but how do they change their mindset to overcome it?

Leila: I think a lot of people my age or younger, we’ve been dealt some tough cards with the economy. We’ve experienced a lot of different weird things around finances. If you graduated college during the Great Recession back in 2008, those are older millennials – they really struggled then. Then going through the pandemic, a lot of Gen Z was going into the workforce at that time.

I think a lot of people ended up creating this mindset of “why even bother?” They would rather YOLO – just live life and enjoy life instead of paying attention to retirement. It’s “why even bother? Because things aren’t set up for me to succeed” and putting blame on… It’s okay to complain about things, it’s okay to feel that way, of course, but there’s a lot more that we can control. That’s the importance of budgeting and tracking – just taking control of what you can. Sure, you can learn about the things that are going on in the world, but at the end of the day, most of it we have no control of. So it just comes back to what you can control.

CJ: So in an uncontrollable economic, personal and countrywide situation, budgeting gives you a sense of control. Is that really a mindset shift? Is that a way of thinking, saying “hey, things are crazy, whether it’s then, now – look how crazy it is now with the tariffs” – is this a way of creating control in your universe, in your little sphere of influence?

Leila: Absolutely. Because I think sometimes people want to put blame on other people or the government or economy, but you also have to check yourself. Sure, there’s some people who are in very tough situations – they’re not buying anything and they’re still struggling because maybe their income is too low, whatever the case may be. But also a lot of people are buying left and right things that they don’t need, or they have 10 subscriptions for the same thing and aren’t paying attention to your money. So it does allow you to take control and become more aware of those things that may be leaking in your life. You’re “oh, I think maybe I am part of the problem” and then you reel that in.

CJ: As you can see, I am not a millennial, I’m definitely not Gen Z. So it’s so interesting to me to hear this – going from “F it, spend everything, YOLO, world’s gonna crash” to “Oh my God, I need to prepare for a long marathon.” It’s a very funny mindset shift. So where do they start? How do they start with a financial plan that keeps them grounded?

Leila: Everybody’s different, so there is no one-size-fits-all. I think it really comes down to tracking your spending. So budgeting is important, but if you don’t know where your money is going, I would start there. For a month or two or three months, or even if you have to go back, I would track your spending – every single dollar, every cent that you’ve spent. Write it down on paper. As brutal as that sounds, just write it out and keep track of it. See where your money is actually going. Then after you collect some data, you can be “oh, I spent this much on food out or this much on clothes, shoes.” Then you can shift from there. You can create a budget off of that and make it more realistic based off of that data.

CJ: That sounds like someone who doesn’t want to train for a marathon or train just to get in shape. They’re “wow, it’s going to be so hard, there’s so much to do.” And then all of the experts and trainers say start with one day, start with a short workout and then keep lengthening it. So you’re saying start with one week and then add to it and then you’re putting multiple weeks and months together so it doesn’t seem so daunting. That’s really interesting. That’s actually the first time I’ve heard that, because every time I go at something, it has to be big and comprehensive. I have to have a whole year and then I’m “I don’t want to do it” and then I never get started. So that’s a great how-to-get-started chicken and egg problem – just start small, start with the week.

Leila: Absolutely.

CJ: Do you have any tools you use, any favorite tools? I mean, we’ll give them a free plug.

Leila: I just use Google Spreadsheets. That’s all I use, just spreadsheets and I create my own custom templates. I actually have a link that people can get mine for free. I like that because I’m in control of the layout and I can customize it as I want to. I don’t have to pay for anything. It’s in real time, so I log my tracking in real time – any spending that I do, I basically track immediately, even still after all these years. It’s something I still have a habit of. I like that it’s on my phone, my iPad, my Mac – it’s everywhere that I go. So that’s all I use. I don’t use any other apps.

CJ: So you don’t want to basically spend for another subscription when you’re trying to find out how many subscriptions you’re paying for.

Leila: Exactly. I mean, I think that’s great. I have some clients who use other paid apps and stuff. That’s great if it works for them. But I’ve tried and it’s just a whole different learning curve and just more to deal with.

CJ: That sounds again… budgeting and I have done it, but I do it in a different scale – not because of wealth, just because I’m in financial wealth management. So it’s different – I’m not just doing it for myself but my family, I’m doing it for others. So I have to do it at a sort of multi-tier platform. So I never really had that issue of starting. I fell into it when my father got ill and it was a massive thing and it was also 30 years ago when there were no apps. So it started big and stayed big almost offline. Do you ever use You Need A Budget, by the way? I know you haven’t, but have you heard of it?

Leila: I have. I have some plans to use that and I’ve logged into YNAB, but to me it’s more overwhelming. I’m very used to sheets, so that just comes to me naturally.

CJ: And what would be… when you’re on a budget, when you’re building a budget, what habits are important? Is it just consistency? Is it the diligence? What do you see as important, especially if you’re on a tight budget? And maybe high earners are not on a tight budget, but you have a lot of debt and a lot of tax and you’re still on a tight budget. Even if you’re earning a lot, you’re spending a lot. So this is for everyone.

Leila: Consistency – the first thing you said, that is huge. I think that’s what people struggle with most often because they get motivated and excited about things at first. It’s just like going to the gym – you may go the first few weeks of the new year, but after that it starts to fall off. So being consistent is a big one.

Tracking your spending – I know we already touched on that, but it’s not just about budgeting. You’ve got to see where your money’s actually going.

If you have debt, having a plan around how you’re going to pay off your debt. I work with a lot of people who try to pay extra on all the different debts that they’re trying to tackle and it gets them nowhere. You should pick one of the plans – snowball, avalanche, minimum payment, whatever it is that you are most comfortable with.

And then I would say one more thing: work on increasing your income because there’s only so much you can cut back, but we can DoorDash or get a second job or start a YouTube channel. Just working on building your income is huge because that’s a lot of people’s problem as well.

CJ: The proverbial side hustle, right? What is… I mean, you have a lot of feedback from your channels and your audience. What is the biggest gripe they have when they’re trying to understand or do budgeting and to be budget conscious? What do you hear from them?

Leila: I think a lot of people that I work with don’t really have a problem with actually doing it – going into the spreadsheets and plugging numbers. It’s just sometimes people don’t think about it. It’s not a habit. It’s not a routine. And I think you have to be really intentional about that. So it just comes down to habit. Does that make sense? It’s just forming habits.

CJ: No, the intentional… You know what? So the only way to be intentional is to create priority. You’ve prioritized – this is important. I gotta do this, but not because I have to. I should. I want. I want to do this. I’m gonna be intentional. I’m making it a priority in my life. That’s it.

The problem that I’ve seen with that, and I keep using the workout analogy because a lot of people work out – actually probably more work out than they do budget. The problem I see is that they don’t see immediate gain. If you go work out and you still got that tire around you and you don’t feel better and you’re not losing weight, then you lose the momentum. So I think making it intentional, hoping that there’s… do they feel that there’s quick gains by budgeting? Do they say “oh, I had these five subscriptions, I got rid of them. I got another 30 and another 50 bucks a month”?

Leila: So I do have… when I work with somebody initially, that first call is always the most exciting, especially if somebody is brand new to budgeting and they have a bunch of debt. I think it’s really fun. Obviously, I don’t want people to be in that situation, but that’s the reality.

CJ: Oh, they are a good customer.

Leila: Exactly. And there’s always things that they can work on. So I’ll give them a to-do list. It’s “okay, you need to cut out this or make a decision. Are you gonna cut out this one or this one or both of them? Shop around for car insurance and you can reduce that. You can eliminate whatever is in their line items. Do you have stuff around your house that you can sell?” That’s a to-do list. They’re “oh, I have this, this, this, and I’m gonna post it for sale.” That’s something that we add to their to-do list. “Do you have credit cards that have a high interest rate? Have you tried calling them asking for a lower interest rate?” All of these things at the beginning – it’s very exciting. So they can save hundreds, thousands of dollars potentially in the year just by these tiny little adjustments.

CJ: That’s great. And that’s where it differs from working out because you’re saying you can get immediate gains right off the bat from just a few things you just mentioned. So they’re gonna get pumped, they’re gonna get excited and they’re gonna make it intentional. That’s how it works. They need those quick gains, that quick dopamine hit instead of working two months and losing 2 pounds. Interesting.

What’s the most common mistake you’ve seen? Clients who have been there for a while or even just new clients. What’s the most common budgeting mistake you see?

Leila: I’m gonna say… I think once people get started, I don’t see too many mistakes, but a lot of people when they come to me, they try to fit in a miscellaneous category. That doesn’t slide with me. I’m “nothing should be miscellaneous.” That’s too vague. We’ve got to categorize it and see what… because that can be anything. A whole shop at Target or it could fit anything. So everything can have a category and I think eliminating that miscellaneous is big.

CJ: It’s so weird. The miscellaneous slash general is the bane of any organization. That’s Marie Kondo. If you have this thing… when you don’t know what it clearly is, you say “just put it in the…” it’s never going to work. The miscellaneous will always be the biggest, right? So you have to be diligent about specific categories and detail, detail oriented. You’re right. That’s interesting. The miscellaneous category I have… I have a really big miscellaneous category and I can’t seem to shrink it for some reason. And you just make them label it and all of a sudden it becomes clearer, right? That’s how they fix it.

Leila: Even if you can’t fit it into a bigger category – housing or transportation, anything like that – just call it what it is. “Oh, you got a car wash, it’s a car wash.” Just put that on the line item or “you bought a pair of shoes.” I would put that under personal, but sometimes people will say “oh, that was something for work.” Put that under work slash business. Everything can be a line item. And that’s what I like about budgeting too – it’s in your control, whether it’s on pen, paper, on an app, on Google Sheets, it’s up to you what you put in there. And so there’s a lot of flexibility. There’s no set right way for you to do things.

CJ: Listen, I think the best budgeters are people with obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD. I mean it’s really a detail exercise. It’s the detail and the labeling exercise. Once you see it, you can then eliminate it.

Leila: And I love to organize and I do have OCD, which is why I think I’m pretty good at budgeting. But then I have that big miscellaneous category, so maybe I’m not.

CJ: What’s one underutilized tool or strategy? What’s one secret weapon that really helps a lot of people?

Leila: Just being resourceful in general. I don’t know if I’m answering the question, but I don’t think it’s a specific tool. But so many people have questions about things, but they don’t… it’s 2025, so you can just go to Google and ask anything. Everything that you want to know is out on the Internet, and I think that’s pretty amazing. So as much as people use the Internet and social media and all of that, I still think it’s underutilized, if that makes sense.

CJ: Are you telling me your clients won’t go to Google and ask a budgeting question?

Leila: They won’t. I’ve actually worked with some people who… they’re no longer my clients, but they still come to me for “how do I do this in the sheet or what does this mean?” Which is fine, I’m happy to answer, but you can even… in my comments, it’ll be a very general finance question. “What does that mean or what is this?” when… go to Google and use that.

CJ: Do you use AI for any budgeting guidance?

Leila: Not budgeting guidance, but I use ChatGPT for quite a few things.

CJ: We built a personal health management AI agent. It’s hard. It’s a small language model since I don’t have the billions. So, you know, we looked at… we only recently met and I’ve come to learn a lot about you and sharing your budgeting journey online. It’s inspiring and it’s inspired thousands. Aside from budgeting specifically, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about building wealth?

Leila: I think that you don’t have to be perfect and that’s big. I think a lot of people think they have to be perfect, even around anything with finances. “If you’re not budgeting and sticking within your budget, you’re screwed” or “if you’re not investing $1,000 a month or whatever it may be, you’re screwed.” That’s not true. If you can see my videos, I go over budget every month in one category or the other.

CJ: I didn’t watch all of them. I watched some, but that’s fine.

Leila: But I do. I always do. It may be groceries, it may be personal spending. There’s sometimes I spend money in a category that I didn’t even put for the month because something came up. But that’s okay because if I zoom out on everything, I’ve made all these small habits, all these small changes that… that flexibility works in my life now and I still can make progress. It’s just about small things on a regular basis that allow you to build your wealth and completely change everything.

CJ: Love that. You don’t have to be perfect. Don’t get discouraged if you’re not. And the small changes you have committed to making, the intentionality you’ve committed, give you the flexibility not to be perfect. That’s great. Thank you. That’s really… it’s macro, but it’s also so universal in its advice. Thank you.

Do you have a YOLO category on that? Sometimes once a month when things just want to go crazy?

Leila: I don’t, but I will. There’s sometimes where I do some personal spending… I you can see my book collection behind me. I love books, so I spend a lot.

CJ: You definitely like books.

Leila: And it’s just fiction books. That’s what I enjoy. So I have… now there’s things in my life that I prioritize or that I want to prioritize in that personal spending category that I don’t feel guilty about – workout clothes, books, things that do truly add value to my life. I think that’s a big thing too. People spend on things that don’t really make them happy, but I’ll buy things all the time and I may not have budgeted for it even some months, but it still works and I am happy to spend on it.

CJ: That’s great. Well, listen, I want to thank you for being here today and sharing your story a little bit and also what you’ve learned from not only DIYing yourself, but also now working on behalf of clients. So thank you very much. And before we close, do you have any final words, anything you want to say to the audience about getting their budgets right and getting their lives right when it comes to it?

Leila: Well, thank you for having me. I would say track your spending. As annoying as it is, that’s the key takeaway here. Be consistent. A setback does not mean you have to give up on everything, just… as early and as often as you can do things, that’s going to get you pretty far. So just keep it up.

CJ: Fantastic. Thank you. And thank all of you for watching. I know you don’t wake up in the morning thinking you want to do budgeting, but we’re here anyway to teach you little lessons that get you on the way to financial freedom. We have more experts to come, so stay tuned and always subscribe to our newsletter #1 in Personal Wealth Management category, Noyack Wealth Weekly. You can find the subscription at… wearenoyack.com.

Leila and her work, which is amazing and necessary. The links are in all of our channels. They’ll be in our newsletter, which is coming out this Sunday. Why don’t you give us… tell us what the URL is?

Leila: My website is debtoverit.com. That’s DEBT over it. And you can see I have coaching packages that are available there. And then my YouTube channel is Personal Finance with Leila and I should come up if you search that.

CJ: And this is the Access Granted podcast. And thank you, Leila.

Leila: Thank you.