In this episode of Your Money Playbook, a new dad calls in looking for guidance on how to budget with one child at home and twins on the way. Joined by Coach Morgan Bouyer, Battle Creek and Galesburg Office Manager, the conversation walks through practical ways to take control of family finances, from separating needs, wants, and savings to building an emergency fund. The discussion also highlights ways to reduce stress around money, involve kids in budgeting conversations, and use digital tools to stay organized. It’s a supportive, real‑life look at how families can plan ahead, stay flexible, and still enjoy life while sticking to a budget.

0:00:04.9 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: It’s time for Your Money Playbook. And today we are on location in Battle Creek with our Coach Morgan, who is our office manager not only in Battle Creek, but also in Galesburg. Ready to serve you. We’ve got a serving of family budgeting coming up. Let’s listen into our caller first, Morgan.

0:00:14.8 Coach Morgan: Absolutely.

0:00:24.7 [Caller] Ken: Hi, this is Ken. I’m a new dad with a one-year-old boy and we just found out that we’re having twins. I’m excited, but honestly, I’m scared about our finances. Things have already been tight with one child, and my wife works as a freelance marketer, so her income is all over the place. My job as a warehouse manager is steady, but I make less than she does. I want to make sure that we can budget for necessities and still have some fun when the twins come. But I have no idea where to start. Please let me know of any tricks to get off on the right path. Thanks.

0:00:53.5 LJJ: Wow. I’ll tell you what, Ken, first off, congratulations. I mean, that is such a blessing.

0:00:56.8 CM: Absolutely.

0:01:00.1 LJJ: But, boy, that’s a lot to unpack. All of a sudden, you have twins. Our producer Jake is sitting here just shaking his head. He’s got twins behind the camera there. So, Morgan, okay, let’s unpack this. Now, before we get rocking, do you mind if we check in with Coach Bobby to see what he has to say?

0:01:09.0 CM: Yes, please.

0:01:17.9 Coach Bobby: So, your family budget feels more like a mystery novel than a game plan. Let’s fix that. First, compare your monthly income, what’s coming in from all sources to everything going out. Rent, childcare and even surprise pizza nights. Now break it down into three playbooks. Needs: things like housing, food and daycare. Wants: things like movie nights and takeout and that extra toy that somehow finds its way into the cart. And savings: your family’s safety net. Start building an emergency fund. Aim for a few months of expenses. And at the end of the month, set up a family huddle. Look at what you spent, what you saved and communicate where you can improve. And remember, budgets aren’t about cutting fun. They’re about making your money work for your family’s goals. Wanna learn more? Let us know. Consumers, we’re your team to count on.

0:02:09.5 LJJ: Coach Bobby is spot on. Let’s dig a little deeper on this family budget because I think one of the things that comes out to me is that fear. You already know maybe that money is tight. Well, how in the world … Even though Bobby said it’s not fun, but how can you make it relaxing? I love the family huddle idea.

0:02:29.2 Morgan: Yeah, I love the family huddle idea. We actually do that too in our family. So, I have three kids, 5, 10 and 15. So it’s crazy all the time and they always want everything. My oldest is going to be driving soon and he’s in all the sports. So, it’s always something, right? But I think to unpack fun, it doesn’t always have to cost money, right? You have libraries. Use your local library. They have different events all the time. I think you could do a local park or even join in on the family fun events with Facebook.

0:03:01.8 LJJ: Coach Bobby talked about wants and needs and then those emergencies. And when you look at those buckets, how important is it to really have transparency in the family about what things cost and this is why we are doing a budget every month?

0:03:19.4 Morgan: Absolutely. We talk to our kids about that all the time because I know going to the grocery store, the kids are like, “Oh, I want this, I want that.” But is it a need? Yes, I think some of the things are when it comes to cookies and their snacks, right? But you can prioritize those things. And so, when we talk to our kids, we lay out the entire budget of how much things really cost and what our grocery bill is. And so, utilizing and prioritizing all of those things really helps our family.

0:03:45.3 LJJ: Morgan, you are in the stage of life where you have various stages of kids, you just mentioned, and that is an incredible fun time. So, they’re growing older. That gets them into sports. You just mentioned driving …

0:03:52.5 Morgan: Yes.

0:03:59.6 LJJ: College is coming up. It’s not that far away.

0:04:01.4 Morgan: No, it’s not.

0:04:03.2 LJJ: So how do you as a mom …

0:04:05.6 LJJ: You know, and here you work with Consumers. How are you really balancing that act of feeling stress and yet, man, enjoying life?

0:04:15.4 Morgan: Sure. It is daunting, especially with all the kids at different ages, but I think what we do is we’ve already set up savings tools for our kids and for our household. So, we have tons of different accounts. So one is like the top needs that we need, right, like our housing and all of those things, our utilities, our groceries. And then we go to like our emergency fund, and then we have our fun account, right? And then we have our kids’ account. So, every month we put $20 in the kids’ account. So, every time we get paid, $10 goes in there, and they don’t even know how much is in there, thankfully, right? So hopefully it’ll be enough to put towards a car or college books, you know, so we continue to grow that, and we’ve done that before they were even babies.

0:04:58.0 LJJ: And that’s a small amount that you’re really not even paying attention. Is it a set it and forget it with those accounts?

0:05:03.4 Morgan: It’s a set it and forget it, absolutely. So, every time we get paid, it automatically comes out.

0:05:08.1 LJJ: So, Morgan, you’re mentioning these digital accounts, these accounts that you have set up that money just goes into every month, and you’ve set it and forget it. There’s things called the envelope method, and a lot of people will actually still, I know some people that use just a real envelope and real cash that they have in their home. But this is a safer, secure way. Tell us, how is it that you set that up? And then Consumers has this complimentary.

0:05:37.1 Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. So, we actually do it with our members, but with my husband and I, what we did is when we went through our entire budget, we categorized each thing that we wanted or needed, and then we set those up as an account. So, like I said before, we did the mortgage, and then we did the utilities, and we did gas and groceries, and then we set up other ones. And so, Consumers makes it super easy for you to actually create those accounts in online banking, or you can just stop into an office and one of our personal bankers can actually help you.

0:06:06.0 LJJ: It’s really an amazing way to get in touch with your budget, and it’s transparent and real-time.

0:06:09.8 Morgan: Absolutely.

0:06:13.6 LJJ: How important is that?

0:06:14.8 Morgan: Oh, super important. I think it’s hard for people when they have the money in the envelopes because then they’re not fully budgeting in their accounts, and we see that people do overdraft their accounts and then they’re asking for us to reverse those fees, which we’re more than happy to help. But I think if you have those accounts already set up and you’re already budgeting, the money’s already coming out, and you don’t have to worry about the envelopes and then coming to the bank and depositing that money.

0:06:39.3 LJJ: So, tell us about family budgeting and how important transparency is, talking with your kids depending on the age and stage that they are, and focusing on not having money be a scary thing to talk about.

0:06:53.0 Morgan: Sure. I think it all stems from like birthdays and things like that, too. So, when they get money in an envelope from grandma or grandpa or aunts and uncles, we do the budget of you put half of that in your account and then the other half they can keep. So, then they focus on the things that they want or they need. And so, for instance, my son who’s 15 wanted these $150 track cleats, which absolutely not as a parent, I am not buying those. But he had birthday money, and so he actually bought the $100 and I took the 50. And so, I bought him $50 in cleats and he took the other hundred because he wanted them that bad.

0:07:28.2 LJJ: And look at that, what that builds, right? It absolutely builds that integrity of understanding money and feeling good about it.

0:07:36.7 Morgan: Yes. Yeah, and trying to figure out like their priorities, right? Like once you blow this hundred dollars, how much money do you have left? Is this something that you really want to spend your money on and how much is it going to cost you?

0:07:50.1 LJJ: You know, Morgan, you mentioned having accounts, and I have accounts for our six grandkids and they never see that money, but it’s again, a set it and forget it and it just goes in and when they graduate from high school or sometime, they’ll be able to have a really nice gift.

0:08:06.9 LJJ: So how do you though, then decide, especially with your own kids, when is it that you let them know, hey, there’s money that we really want you to be able to use and here’s how we can use it?

0:08:18.6 Morgan: Sure. So, we have the three savings accounts for them, and so my two, my middle and my youngest can’t actually access those accounts. So, Bryson is my oldest, and since he is 15, we actually got him a debit card, I think probably eighth grade when he started traveling. So, we opened up a checking account for him. I actually hid the savings account in his online banking so he can’t see that because that’s a feature that you can do in your online banking, which works wonders. So, then we have the capability of transferring money from our account to Bryson’s account whenever he needs to utilize that debit card.

0:08:51.6 LJJ: And then when it’s time, you’re going to be ready to say, hey, Bryson, we have the savings account for you, but that’s a parental decision on when you want to.

0:08:59.6 Morgan: It is. Absolutely. And they know about it. It’s completely transparent. They just don’t know how much is in there because then they would want everything in the world, which they already do.

0:09:03.4 LJJ: Ah, kids.

0:09:07.2 Morgan: Yes. Yes.

0:09:11.1 LJJ: Well, Morgan, what an absolute joy to talk with you today on Your Money Playbook. I want to just recap quickly. You’re a wonderful coach for consumers. Tell us your three tips for family budgeting.

0:09:22.7 Morgan: Absolutely. I definitely think it comes down to transparency with your kids and your wife or your husband, your significant other. And then I think about prioritizing and just making sure that you have all of those accounts and then don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it because life is too short. We only get to do this once.

0:09:38.3 LJJ: Love it. Thank you so much for listening in on Your Money Playbook. And if you have questions like Ken did, you can call into 269-273-3360. That’s 269-273-3360. Call in with your question. And guess what? We have our coaches that will be ready to help you with anything that you are facing on Your Money Playbook.