The Enduring Myths of Budget Culture

Last month, I published an interview in the newsletter with Dana Miranda about “budget culture” — and it became one of the most popular (and discussed) interviews I’ve done since I first launched the newsletter. At the time, I asked for questions for Dana about specific myths of budget culture for us to unpack. We got dozens of those — plus a bunch of compelling follow-up questions, like “what’s the difference between knowing how much money goes in and out of your account and ‘budget culture’” and “is YNAB budget culture?”

We tackle all of that and much, much more, with a bonus prolonged guest appearance from Melody about her experience with Dave Ramsey (which included cutting up her credit card in front of her class and sparked the worst fight of her marriage). I loved this conversation and have been thinking about it for weeks; I think you will too.

Show Notes:

• Read the original interview with Dana over on the Culture Study newsletter

• Sign up for Dana’s really wonderful newsletter here

• Buy You Don’t Need a Budget here

• I reference Dana’s post about retirement — “This country doesn’t have a retirement plan for most of us, so we have to rethink what “retirement” means in our lives”

• Here’s the Elise Granta piece I reference re: “Venmo Brain” (SO GOOD)

• I also mention hunting on private land, which is a common practice in rural areas in the West — Montana Fish & Wildlife has a good overview of how it usually works

• Worth listening to/reading: Virginia Sole Smith’s conversation with Dana about the similarities between diet culture and budget culture (their conversation also received a lot of pushback….interesting!)

• The piece Dana wrote for Culture Study back in 2022 about Dave Ramsey specifically and how his thinking has infused budget culture

• Melody found the photographic evidence of cutting up her (canceled) credit card in a Dave Ramsey class

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• WTF is going on with contemporary/everyday men’s fashion (will Dockers make a comeback? How should we think about the business casual fleece/puffer vest? What’s going on with swimwear? HATS? I’m so excited for this one, with the great Jason Diamond)

• Dark Academia (as in, the literary genre)

• How cookbooks get made (we’re interviewing a cookbook author and their editor)

• Van/Skoolie/RV Life

• Spiritual care for non-religious people (as in: is there a way we can think about spiritual care even for people who aren’t religious? IS THIS POSSIBLE? Take this wherever you want!)

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here

For today’s discussion: What part of budget culture is the hardest for you to let go or reconsider?

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