One of the most important lessons I learned about money management was learning to manage the pennies.
There is no shortcut around this.
There’s an old saying: “Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.” I once heard a man I deeply respect say that, and it has stuck with me ever since.
The challenge is that managing every penny can feel overwhelming. Most people don’t fail because they don’t care about their finances. They fail because tracking every transaction, every purchase, and every category is exhausting.
That’s one of the reasons I built Budgit.
Budgit wasn’t designed to help people avoid managing their money. It was designed to make the process easier to stay committed to.
The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is consistency.
Because when you consistently manage the pennies, the dollars really do begin to take care of themselves.
Ever open your bank account and think: "There's absolutely no way I spent that much money this month."
Then you look at your transactions and realize you've somehow funded Starbucks, Amazon, and Chick-fil-A like they're all on your monthly payroll. For a brief moment, you convince yourself your account must have been hacked... then you quickly realize every single transaction was actually you 😅
Here's a finance tip I wish I had learned sooner:
Track your spending before trying to cut your spending.
Most people start budgeting by asking, "What should I stop buying?"
Wrong question.
The better question is:
"Where is my money actually going?" Because you can't fix what you can't see.
I used to think the big purchases were the problem. Turns out it was the dozens of small purchases that quietly added up and robbed me every month.
A coffee here.
A subscription there.
A quick trip to Target that somehow cost $87.
Those little expenses add up fast. That's actually why I built Budgit.
I wanted something that automatically tracks transactions and shows exactly where my money is going without having to manually enter every purchase. No spreadsheets. No complicated budgeting process. Just clear visibility into your spending.
The reality is that most people don't need more financial advice.
They need more financial awareness.
What's the most surprising thing you've discovered after tracking your spending?
A few months ago, I started building this bookshelf.
It was my first major woodworking project, and it taught me more than I expected.
The first lesson was simple: once it’s cut, there’s no going back. In woodworking – and in leadership, business, and life – some decisions can’t be undone. Measure twice. Measure three times. Be certain. Then act.
The second lesson came from the wood itself. These shelves were built from rough cedar slabs with live edges. Taking something wild and irregular and turning it into something square, level, and useful was far more difficult than I imagined. Even soft cedar fought back.
Progress wasn’t made through talent. It came through consistent effort, patience, and learning from mistakes. Little by little, what started as rough lumber became something structured and purposeful.
Then came another challenge: installing it in a 40-year-old building. As it turns out, perfectly square shelves don’t always fit into imperfect walls. Life is often the same. We spend years improving ourselves only to discover we still have to operate within imperfect environments.
But perhaps the biggest lesson came after the project was finished.
No matter how beautiful the shelf was, it had little value sitting empty.
My wife helped organize and place the books, and suddenly the project found its purpose. The real value wasn’t the wood, the joinery, or the craftsmanship. It was having decades of wisdom, ideas, failures, successes, and lessons within arm’s reach.
The shelf is something I built.
The books are helping build me.
A few months ago, I started building this bookshelf.
It was my first major woodworking project, and it taught me more than I expected.
The first lesson was simple: once it’s cut, there’s no going back. In woodworking – and in leadership, business, and life – some decisions can’t be undone. Measure twice. Measure three times. Be certain. Then act.
The second lesson came from the wood itself. These shelves were built from rough cedar slabs with live edges. Taking something wild and irregular and turning it into something square, level, and useful was far more difficult than I imagined. Even soft cedar fought back.
Progress wasn’t made through talent. It came through consistent effort, patience, and learning from mistakes. Little by little, what started as rough lumber became something structured and purposeful.
Then came another challenge: installing it in a 40-year-old building. As it turns out, perfectly square shelves don’t always fit into imperfect walls. Life is often the same. We spend years improving ourselves only to discover we still have to operate within imperfect environments.
But perhaps the biggest lesson came after the project was finished.
No matter how beautiful the shelf was, it had little value sitting empty.
My wife helped organize and place the books, and suddenly the project found its purpose. The real value wasn’t the wood, the joinery, or the craftsmanship. It was having decades of wisdom, ideas, failures, successes, and lessons within arm’s reach.
The shelf is something I built.
The books are helping build me.
“But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”
Matthew 6:3-4
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
Matthew 6:6
Ever open your bank account and think: "There's absolutely no way I spent that much money this month."
Then you look at your transactions and realize you've somehow funded Starbucks, Amazon, and Chick-fil-A like they're all on your monthly payroll. For a brief moment, you convince yourself your account must have been hacked... then you quickly realize every single transaction was actually you 😅
Here's a finance tip I wish I had learned sooner:
Track your spending before trying to cut your spending.
Most people start budgeting by asking, "What should I stop buying?"
Wrong question.
The better question is:
"Where is my money actually going?" Because you can't fix what you can't see.
I used to think the big purchases were the problem. Turns out it was the dozens of small purchases that quietly added up and robbed me every month.
A coffee here.
A subscription there.
A quick trip to Target that somehow cost $87.
Those little expenses add up fast. That's actually why I built @thebudgitapp.
I wanted something that automatically tracks transactions and shows exactly where my money is going without having to manually enter every purchase. No spreadsheets. No complicated budgeting process. Just clear visibility into your spending.
The reality is that most people don't need more financial advice.
They need more financial awareness.
What's the most surprising thing you've discovered after tracking your spending?
you said you'd spend less after memorial day.
welcome to june 3.
summer just opened a brand new budget line: concerts, flights, 'we never do this,' and 'it's a holiday somehow.'
i see everything. i'm not judging. but i see everything. 🐽
@WesleyLHuff@MikhailaFuller Oh yeah. And this. "For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit." (1 Corinthians 14:2 ESV)
Glad to hear that you are not a cessationist. The majority of your write up is focused on the post-Apostolic era and on. This isn't biblical exegesis.
Paul's indication that, if there is no interpreter, let the one speaking in tongues speak to himself and to God, indicates there is MORE value than providing "evangelistic" purpose. Rather, Paul talked about the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 being used for the "edifying" or "building up" of the church – NOT evangelistic purposes exclusively.
Honest question here: there may be some cultural component that I'm not aware of here. In 1 Corinthians 14:39, following your interpretation of "speaking in tongues", it seems odd that Paul would instruct the church to "forbid not to speak with tongues". Do you believe that he was instructing them to not forbid speaking in other languages? Why would that be forbidden?
I contend that the events that are described in Acts 2, 8, 10, 19, 21 are all different than the practice that Paul is providing governing frameworks for in 1 Corinthians 14. The gift (singular) of the Spirit is different than the gifts (plural) of the Spirit. I agree with your conclusion that the tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 has edifying purpose to both the church and can be inferred for the unbeliever as well.
The events recording throughout the book of Acts exhibit a consistent pattern of "tongues" that is associated with those who are "baptized with the Spirit" or "born of the Spirit" as Jesus explained in John 3:5-8 and John 7:38-39.
Claude Opus 4.8 is now available in Cursor.
On CursorBench, it's able to work much more efficiently than Opus 4.7. We've also found it to be more persistent on harder tasks.