💰 How to figure out your money values

The values-based budget framework: stop budgeting like it's punishment

You’ve tried budgeting before. You’ve downloaded the apps, color-coded the spreadsheets, promised yourself this time will be different.

Then three weeks later you’re stress-buying skincare at 11 PM, wondering where your willpower went.

Here’s the thing: Your willpower is fine. The problem is that traditional budgets treat money like math when your brain treats it like emotions.

Most advice tells you to cut “unnecessary expenses” — which usually means the things that actually make your life feel livable. No wonder you can’t stick to it.

This framework flips the script. Instead of starting with deprivation, you’ll start by identifying what you actually value — not what you think you should value — and build a spending plan around that.

What’s inside

This 32-page workbook walks you through:

1. Identifying your authentic values (not the ones you inherited or absorbed from Instagram). This includes a values exercise that separates what genuinely matters to you from what you think should matter.

2. Analyzing your current spending through a psychology lens. I map out seven psychological spending categories that show you what needs your purchases are actually trying to meet.

3. Finding the gaps: I.e. where you’re overfunding things that don’t actually matter to you, and where you’re starving what you genuinely value (and feeling guilty about wanting more).

4. Realigning your money: Giving yourself permission to spend on what matters (yes, really), and a reallocation strategy that feels like optimization, not deprivation.

5. Your 30-day action plan: Week-by-week implementation guide and a decision-making framework for when you’re unsure about a purchase.