{"id":504,"date":"2021-06-07T21:10:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T21:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/?p=504"},"modified":"2025-06-24T12:36:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:36:58","slug":"money-real-talk-living-that-whole-foods-life-when-your-reality-is-trader-joes-tips-to-stop-the-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/money-real-talk-living-that-whole-foods-life-when-your-reality-is-trader-joes-tips-to-stop-the-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Living that Whole Foods life when your reality is Trader Joe\u2019s? Tips to stop the stress from an award-winning entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edited and updated April, 2022. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was in my early 20s, I started Nasty Gal, originally an eBay store for vintage clothes, which turned into a huge apparel retail business. Then I wrote \u201c#Girlboss,\u201d a memoir-slash-business book that led to a Netflix series and the creation of Girlboss Media, a content company focused on women\u2019s personal and professional progress. Over the years, I\u2019ve scaled businesses into the 9-figures\u2014and face planted like nothing you\u2019ve ever seen. Only to get up and do it again and do it better. So it\u2019s safe to say that I\u2019ve had plenty of adventures with money and the stress it can cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an entrepreneur, you often put aside financial security to pursue your passion, so not only are you worrying about your personal<\/em> finances, but you\u2019re also worrying about your business<\/em> finances. It\u2019s one of the reasons why I started Business Class<\/a>, an online course about entrepreneurship for founders who are serious about building smart and profitably. So I\u2019ve always been asked about how to manage financial wellbeing and stress. These are the top 3 actionable, practical tips that always come up:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n
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01<\/div>\n
Stay off the treadmill of financial stress<\/div>\n

It sounds so simple, but it\u2019s not always easy to live within your means. For the first several years of Nasty Gal, I bootstrapped the business\u2014I had no debt and no investors. I didn’t want \u201cthings\u201d\u2014I didn’t have a nice car, and I wore vintage clothing. I kept my lifestyle and material needs below the level of success in my business. But it\u2019s tough to not get caught up in this idea of \u201csuccess,\u201d especially with social media showing everyone\u2019s perfect apartments and clothes.<\/p>\n

Then once you have some money, you think, \u201cThis is great, I feel less stressed out.\u201d It\u2019s a slippery slope though because then you rent a more expensive place. You start buying luxury here and there. You leave Trader Joe\u2019s for Whole Foods. Now you\u2019re used to this new lifestyle, and you look around and say to yourself, \u201cWow, look at what I\u2019ve achieved.\u201d You keep going down this path and then all of a sudden, you\u2019re on this treadmill of financial stress because your income isn\u2019t scaling at the same rate as your lifestyle. You have to be very vigilant in recognizing that this treadmill exists\u2014and maybe it\u2019s better to just stay off of it altogether. Trader Joe\u2019s is pretty great, after all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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02<\/div>\n
Let technology work for you<\/div>\n

Recognizing that not everyone can afford an accountant or financial planner, I really believe in apps and online budget planners like Mint.com because you can visualize where your money is going. Mint can track and categorize your expenses, then tell you when you\u2019re over budget in a particular category\u2014not to mention all these features are free. In conjunction with using this type of technology to help you budget, I highly recommend writing everything down that\u2019s stressing you out about money\u2014and get super real with yourself: What are your fears? How is your job going? Can you get a new job if you need to? Then when you\u2019re alerted that you\u2019re over budget, you can truly assess how problematic that\u2019s going to be and realign your budget for the future.<\/p>\n

Also, one thing that I\u2019ve come to learn about financial wellbeing is that once you learn to manage the essentials of money\u2014like monthly budgeting with an app\u2014you then allow yourself the opportunity to make contributions to the planet and the people around you. Even if that means volunteering, not monetary donations, because you\u2019ve freed up that mental space of struggling with your personal finances. And being able to give back in and of itself can be a stress reliever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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03<\/div>\n
Money talks in relationships<\/div>\n

No, really\u2014have talks about money in your relationships. As anyone in a relationship can probably tell you, money can be one of the biggest sources of stress and friction. It\u2019s the number one cause of arguments<\/a> and often cited as a key reason for divorce. This is hardly surprising, given that money can touch practically everything in a relationship\u2014from your living situation to the food you eat every day to the type of soap you share in the kitchen. So if you\u2019re not transparent about it from the get-go, you can inadvertently dig yourself into a hole of bickering.<\/p>\n

For example, if you\u2019re an entrepreneur who\u2019s just starting out, you\u2019re probably constantly worrying or thinking about money. Your partner needs to understand this, and it shouldn\u2019t be disconcerting to ask for help, if you need it. There are always ups and downs when it comes to finances in relationships\u2014sometimes you\u2019re the one supporting your partner, other times, it\u2019s vice versa. The key is not to hide from this reality, so finances don\u2019t become a source of embarrassment for you or your partner. Money causes enough stress outside<\/em> of your personal life, you don\u2019t need it causing stress within<\/em> it, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edited and updated April, 2022. When I was in my early 20s, I started Nasty Gal, originally an eBay store for vintage clothes, which turned into a huge apparel retail business. Then I wrote \u201c#Girlboss,\u201d a memoir-slash-business book that led to a Netflix series and the creation of Girlboss Media, a content company focused on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mind"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1750793819:21"],"_edit_last":["21"],"primary_category":["2"],"_primary_category":["field_608c33bdd26d5"],"show_featured_image":["1"],"_show_featured_image":["field_609ee1cf1ce13"],"post_views_count":["3974"],"adobe_analytics_repeatable":["a:1:{i:0;a:2:{s:4:\"name\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"value\";s:0:\"\";}}"],"_thumbnail_id":["994"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["1"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["2"],"mobile_image":[""],"_mobile_image":["field_60bf7692abe28"],"_post_views_count":["field_6107dfafd6a27"],"sidebar_products_use_global_default":["0"],"_sidebar_products_use_global_default":["field_63a349a11086a"],"sidebar_products_title":["Related Products"],"_sidebar_products_title":["field_6408d62123449"],"sidebar_products_items":[""],"_sidebar_products_items":["field_63a349a110878"],"sidebar_products":[""],"_sidebar_products":["field_63a349a0dadad"],"_yoast_wpseo_title":["Healthy eating on a budget tips | Murad Skincare"],"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":["Eat healthy without breaking the bank. Money stress solutions for nutritious eating on any budget. Stop stressing about food costs."]},"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":{"primary_category":{"term_id":2,"name":"Mind","slug":"mind","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":76,"filter":"raw"},"show_featured_image":true,"post_views_count":"3974","mobile_image":false,"sidebar_products":{"use_global_default":false,"title":"Related Products","items":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4242,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/4242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnected.murad.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}