Welcome to my January 2026 budget with me — I truly have not done a budget video in ages, but I’m back. If you’re new here, I’m walking you through my debt free journey paying off over $229,000 (yep, six figures of student loan debt), which I started in 2020. Going into 2026 is wild because it’s basically year six, but I’ve made a lot of progress, and this budget is me getting “locked in” again after budgeting off of vibes for most of 2024 and 2025. In this video I build my January plan in the free EveryDollar app (easy UI, forces me to manually enter things), and I also use Rocket Money to track and categorize spending—even though the auto-budgeting isn’t quite right for me. I go line-by-line through housing (mortgage, utilities, HOA, lawn care), transportation, and food, including why my grocery and restaurant budgets look high as a family of one. A big reason: I’m doing the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World, staying on property, and I’m budgeting realistically for eating out during race weekend. I also share the “luxury but improves my life” categories (lashes, Peloton, massage membership for injury management), plus my minimum private student loan payment ($1,550.43) and how I’m handling extra debt payments separately from monthly income. This is my starting template for January—flexible, honest, and built to keep me moving forward.