Navigating Adult ADHD – Episode #131: How to Make Money ADHD-Friendly (No Boring Budgets Required)

Podcast: Navigating Adult ADHD
Host: Xena Jones
Date: September 15, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Xena Jones focuses on making money management accessible and enjoyable for adults with ADHD—without relying on conventional (and often boring) budget spreadsheets. She shares four evidence-backed and ADHD-friendly strategies to manage finances, designed to work with the ADHD brain’s need for novelty, dopamine, and simplicity. Xena emphasizes practical, no-shame tools to help listeners feel empowered, reduce impulsive spending, and cultivate a healthier, more conscious relationship with money.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Money is Extra Hard for ADHD Brains [03:00]

• Recap of the previous episode’s exploration of ADHD-specific money challenges: impulse spending, dopamine-driven purchases, and shame.
• “It’s not about willpower. Our ADHD brains are wired for novelty and stimulation, all right?” – Xena [03:40]
• Understanding the brain-based roots of money struggles helps reduce shame and enables more compassionate self-understanding.

Notable Quote:

“If money feels messy, if it’s something that you have a difficult relationship with… you are not alone.” – Xena [03:13]

2. Four ADHD-Friendly Strategies for Managing Money

2.1. Make Money Visible [05:54]

• ADHDers often deal with “money blindness” (like time blindness): out of sight, out of mind.
• Practical Steps:
  • “Buckets” Method: Open multiple designated accounts for each type of expense—rent, utilities, car, health, cats, travel, dopamine fund, savings, etc.
  • Personalize accounts with names and visuals (cartoon icons, photos) for added novelty and fun.
  • Consider using cash for variable expenses—leave cards at home and take out only what you plan to spend.
• Reverse Trick: If you want to spend less, make your money less visible by storing cards away and using cash instead.
• Memorable Example:

  “When you know what your money’s going to… it makes it a little easier to see where our money is going and what is available in each of these accounts.” – Xena [07:41]

2.2. Self Binding — Making Overspending Harder [10:42]

• “Self binding is where we create barriers between ourselves and our, air quotes, drug of choice.” – Xena [10:43]
• Self Binding Tactics:
  • Unfollow shopping temptation accounts on social media to reduce FOMO-driven urges.
  • Lock credit/debit cards away or leave them at home.
  • Put savings in accounts at a different bank (with no attached card or app) for “out of sight, out of mind” protection.
  • Use a lockbox or safe to make accessing credit/cash more inconvenient.
  • Screenshot or “save for later” items instead of making instant purchases; ask stores to hold items overnight.
• This approach exploits the ADHD brain’s preference for ease: if spending requires extra steps, it’s less likely to happen.

Notable Quote:

“Our ADHD brains don’t like shit that’s hard, right? Our ADHD brains like simple and easy things.” – Xena [11:15]

2.3. Make Money More Enjoyable to Look At [15:19]

• Fight financial avoidance and shame by making finances playful, colorful, and nonjudgmental.
• Methods:
  • Allow for “dopamine/fun money” in your plan—guilt-free, planned impulse spending.
  • Personalize and brighten your financial tracking tools. Avoid boring spreadsheets.
  • Try financial apps like PocketSmith, especially designed with neurodivergent needs in mind.
  • Split business and personal finances across different banks for clarity and novelty.
  • Schedule regular “money dates” with a trusted, nonjudgmental friend, coach, or partner to decrease avoidance and add accountability/body doubling.
    • Use these sessions to look over recent bank statements, categorize expenses, spot unnecessary outflows, and celebrate positive steps.
  • Do a three-month bank statement review twice yearly.

Notable Moment:

“Plan for the impulse spending, plan for the dopamine spending. Don’t expect yourself just to go all or nothing here… Maybe we want to reduce it. Sure. But don’t take it away completely.” – Xena [19:15]

2.4. Halted 24 — The Pause & Reflect Strategy [25:26]

• Adapted from AA’s “HALT” model, designed for impulsive spending moments.
• H.A.L.T.E.D. 24:
  • Hungry
  • Angry
  • Lonely
  • Tired
  • Emotional (including hormonal)
  • Dopamine seeking
  • 24: Can I wait 24 hours before buying?
• Before purchasing, run down the checklist. If affected by any factor, address it first, then reconsider the purchase. Screenshot or save the item for later.
  • Most often, the urge to buy dissipates by the next day.
• Supports ADHDers’ struggle with urgent, emotion-driven purchases.

Notable Quote & Summary:

“Am I hungry? Angry, lonely, tired, emotional, dopamine seeking, and can I wait 24 hours before I buy it?... Nine times out of ten, the next day I’m deleting that screenshot and I’m not buying it. Pretty content with my decision.” – Xena [25:57, 27:06]

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “I have a car expenses account, a health and fitness account. I even have a dopamine fund money account… I literally have a cat expenses account. That’s right. So what is it? There’s pictures of cats.” – Xena [07:24–08:24]
• “Our ADHD brains are wired for novelty and stimulation, all right?” – Xena [03:40]
• “Our brains love a challenge, okay? But often there’s this real kind of sense of urgency that we’re feeling.” – Xena [29:20]
• On her son’s ambitious ADHD hyperfocus:

  “He said to me, ‘I’m going to make billions.’ I was like, good answer. How are you going to do that? He’s like, ‘I’m going to be an astronomer at NASA.’” – Xena [16:37]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• ADHD & Money Struggles – The Why: [03:00]
• Recap of Episode 130; Shame & Willpower: [03:00–04:16]
• Introduction to Four-Strategy Framework: [04:17–05:54]
• Strategy #1 (Visible Money / Buckets): [05:54–10:04]
• Strategy #2 (Self Binding): [10:42–15:19]
• Strategy #3 (Make it Fun/Novelty/Accountability): [15:19–25:25]
• Strategy #4 (Halted 24 Pause Tool): [25:26–29:20]
• Recap of All Four Strategies: [29:20–30:03]
• Preview of Next Episode: [30:03–30:40]

Summary Table: Four ADHD-Friendly Money Strategies

| Strategy | Key Concept | Practical Approaches | Timestamp | |------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | 1. Make Money Visible | In sight, in mind | Buckets, visual accounts, use/limit cash | 05:54–10:04 | | 2. Self Binding | Create barriers | Unfollow temptation, lock away cards, other banks | 10:42–15:19 | | 3. Make it Enjoyable | Add fun & novelty | Dopamine/fun budget, colors, accountability, new apps | 15:19–25:25 | | 4. Halted 24 | Pause & reflect | H.A.L.T.E.D. checklist, 24hr rule, screenshot/save | 25:26–29:20 |

Next Episode Teaser

Xena teases the upcoming part three of the Money series, where she’ll share her own biggest breakthroughs:

“I’m going to share with you the biggest shifts in my own money journey… how I’ve gone from being somebody who really believed that she was terrible with money, to being someone who’s not only good with money, but actually achieving their financial goals.” [30:03]

Takeaway

This episode is a toolkit for ADHDers who want to escape shame-based and boring approaches to money. Xena’s playful, compassionate, and evidence-based strategies emphasize self-awareness, dopamine, and novelty—making financial health not just possible, but actually more enjoyable for the ADHD brain.

For a downloadable episode cheat sheet: NavigatingAdultADHD.com/cheatsheet

Host’s Tone: Supportive, relatable, humorous, practical, and anchored in lived ADHD experience.