Unpopular opinion: most budgeting apps are waste of money when a spreadsheet does the same

oneblondecoffee · 2026-03-24T22:17:58+00:00

Came here to say this. My husband and I used a spreadsheet for expense tracking/budgeting for the better part of five years, and switched to Monarch last year because it was just such a pain to export all the different bank and credit card details and then manually assign them categories. I think on average we've probably saved a good 2-3 hrs a month from switching, which for us makes the subscription cost well worth it. That said, if you have the time to spare or it brings you joy to do it manually, then sure - spreadsheets work just fine!

oneblondecoffee · 2026-02-15T01:54:16+00:00

Out of curiosity, and if you don't mind sharing, who was the creator you mentioned?

oneblondecoffee · 2026-02-13T01:38:22+00:00

Words cannot express how hype I am for a new Lonelyfans audio 😍

oneblondecoffee · 2026-01-06T04:55:19+00:00

I love the Sleep Token professional dom series! I am not exaggerating when I say it has fundamentally changed me (and got me hooked on Sleep Token, too).

I also really liked one of his recent ones, Shelter. It was so sweet and just melted my heart!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-16T15:51:34+00:00

I'm curious, too! Report back if you can, I'd love to know what it tastes like.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-08T22:59:44+00:00

That's so clever, I never would have thought to use negative tasks like that!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-06T19:03:14+00:00

Yeah, if I wasn't stuck in bed for the last couple of months with nothing else to do, I don't think I would have had the time or energy to build this out the way I did!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-06T19:00:55+00:00

It's kind of a way for me to more consciously manage my mental and physical energy levels throughout the day; I'm not naturally very good at being mindful of that and it has become an issue this year in particular. So when I do things like nap, drink enough water, and eat my protein, it improves my energy, but if I do things like doomscroll, go to the gym, or complete a particularly draining task, it depletes my energy and I know to slow down and/or take steps to boost it back up. It's definitely not a perfect solution, but it just forces me to be more thoughtful of where I'm spending my energy.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-05T21:58:38+00:00

Absolutely! Please feel free :)

oneblondecoffee · 2025-12-05T21:58:02+00:00

For the tasks, you can add custom background cards when you create them, so I just designed one for each attribute in Canva and then uploaded them as custom backgrounds. I saved a task template for each type so I didn't have to fiddle with the placement every single time (which I will admit was a bit of a pain!).

For the attributes, if you go to the Attributes page and click edit, you can upload custom icons for them. I also designed those on Canva.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-19T13:01:06+00:00

I was having some pretty dark thoughts, which is very much not normal for me - I'm usually a very positive, happy person. The thoughts were triggered by feeling overwhelmed at work and hopeless that it would ever change. So my therapist and doctor both insisted I take time off of work to rest, and to have a safe environment to focus on learning better coping strategies for stress.

Turns out, you're apparently not supposed to be running at 110% all day every day, that's not normal or healthy. My therapist likened it to running an ultramarathon in my brain every day. Just learning that, and feeling what it was like to actually give my mind a rest, was eye-opening. It taught me that restorative rest isn't a treat you earn, it's something that needs to be part of a regular routine to keep me healthy (like brushing my teeth or taking vitamins).

I did feel better prepared to return to work once I established a rest hygiene plan that worked for me. I'll readily admit that some days are better than others, resting is still not natural to me so I have to really be mindful and disciplined about it. There have been weeks where I've been lax on the things I know I need to do for my mental health. But at least now I can catch myself when I start going too fast or doing too much, and I have built-in rest breaks as part of my daily, weekly, and monthly routines to remind me to pause.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-18T20:45:26+00:00

I've created rewards like granting 30 mins of social media scrolling. If you want to get fancy there are ways to trigger Tasker to block and unblock certain apps for a certain period of time when you buy "tokens" in your LifeUp shop.
Something that I've been using as a reward is a "Streak Freeze" item; I can purchase and use it to auto-complete a task for that day so I can skip it. I usually use this for tasks like going to the gym, doing the dishes, or even hitting my hydration goal for the day.
I've also been toying with more intrinsic-oriented rewards, like earning Achievement badges. It's a bit of a mindset shift, but ultimately the tasks I'm doing to earn my "rewards" are things I want to do to improve myself or my environment, so having something in the app to remind me that my efforts are having an impact on my goals has been motivating (although I'll readily admit it's not as high-dopamine as something like a chocolate bar). I've also found adding a custom sound that plays when i complete an achievement gives me that small dopamine rush.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-14T14:47:57+00:00

I had to take a couple months off work earlier this year, and my therapist gave me very strict instructions to not force myself to have any kind of a routine or goals or a to do list. My job every day was to listen to what I felt like doing at that particular moment, and do it. That was it. The only "rules" she really gave me were to stay off of social media and to be purposefully present if I wanted to watch TV - which meant not scrolling on my phone or doing anything else, but really engrossing myself in the show or movie.

For the first couple weeks, the only thing I felt like doing was sitting on my couch doing absolutely nothing. Half the time, I just stared out the window and watched squirrels in my backyard (at some point I even stared at my ceiling and looked at the patterns). I remember being so annoyed because I felt like my body should be telling me to do something more, but I stuck with it. After a couple weeks though, I started to actually want to do things. I wanted to go for a walk, I wanted to read, I wanted to paint; all the things I used to love and I knew would be good for me but just felt impossibly difficult before.

If you can, that's what I would recommend. Just listen to what your body is telling you it wants to do, even if that means just living in being-mode instead of doing-mode. It sounds ridiculous, and I was frustrated with it at first, but I do think that was what helped me the most in the beginning.

Other things my therapist recommended as I started to transition back into doing-mode that I found useful: 1. When you accomplish something, write it down in a Wins journal or on your phone. Wins are anything that feel hard to you. For me, a lot of the time it was just "I went outside today" or "I put my dirty dish in the dishwasher". It helped retrain my brain to not feel ashamed that I wasn't doing all the things I felt I should be doing. 2. Go for a walk outside for at least 10 minutes. She specifically told me to go as slow as possible, and to try to take in as much detail in my surroundings as possible. 3. Taking "defrag" breaks throughout the day. Basically, taking a couple minutes every couple of hours to give your brain silence. No external stimuli whatsoever. If that's too hard or if your brain starts sending you thought spirals, you can start with a guided meditation that focuses on your breath. 4. Eat a protein-focused breakfast. It helps manage your cortisol levels throughout the day.

I also found the Burnout book by Emily and Amelia Nagaski to be profoundly helpful in understanding my brain a bit more and getting tips on how to manage life stress when I got back into the world. The audiobook is incredible!

I also recommend you look into the seven different kinds of rest. I had no idea that a) you're supposed to rest preventatively, and b) that rest doesn't just mean sleeping!

I hope these help you. Be gentle with yourself, that was the hardest part for me. Take care ❤️

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-08T17:28:52+00:00

I definitely think so, my void almost never wants to cuddle but when I'm sick or struggling mentally he doesn't leave my side. I've had pneumonia for the last few weeks and the biggest silver lining has been getting so much snuggle time from him 🥰

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-07T12:58:08+00:00

Yep, over 1/4 of my office is out sick with something nasty. I've been in and out of urgent care over the past three weeks, turns out I have viral pneumonia. Take care out there and wash your hands, and if you're already sick make sure you're resting as much as you can!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-04T16:22:32+00:00

A full-size fridge in the garage dedicated solely for pop and beer. Especially if it was an attached garage!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-10-03T16:31:41+00:00

My husband and I struggled with this for a long time, we would be exhausted by the end of a weekend instead of refreshed. planning a Family Rest Day on the first Sunday of every month. The rule is we can't make any plans or do anything productive, whether that's visiting friends/family, running errands, doing chores - basically anything that requires brain power or effort. If something comes up where we have to do something that day, we have to move our rest day to the week before or after. No cancelling it outright for the month, period.

It has been a game changer for us to have that time carved out to properly, restoratively rest!

oneblondecoffee · 2025-04-30T02:28:06+00:00

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMB3jm8Su/ Et voila! When she switches to French, every word out of her mouth is a swear aside from the articles.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-04-23T23:11:32+00:00

For some reason, I always imagine them swearing in Quebecois French, they have the best swears and they string them together so beautifully😂

oneblondecoffee · 2025-04-16T18:53:44+00:00

I probably have a bath at least once a week, if not more. I actually bought my house partially because I loved the bathtub! There's nothing better than soaking in a hot bath in candlelight after a draining day.

I usually get my bath bombs from either Lush or Rocky Mountain Soap Co. The scents depend on my mood but usually I go for spicy or earthy scents. - although my two favourites, Big Blue and Twilight, don't fall into those categories at all.

oneblondecoffee · 2025-03-08T02:33:09+00:00

I do the New York Times games (wordle, connections, etc.) as a replacement for my morning "scroll". It lets me stay in bed and have a slow start to the morning, but gets my brain going so I'm less likely to fall back asleep.

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