How to Review and Adjust Your Budget Regularly

With six businesses across healthcare and industrial sectors, I run what I call a “cash position Monday” every two weeks. I pull up each entity’s operating account balance and compare it against a simple threshold: do we have 45 days of payroll and fixed costs liquid? If any business dips below that, I immediately know something shifted–maybe Memory Lane had an unexpected facility repair, or CCI’s receivables stretched longer than usual.

The specific number I watch is days of operating runway, not percentages or ratios. At Memory Lane, our monthly nut is roughly $85K between staff payroll, food service, and facility costs for three homes. If I see our account sitting at $110K instead of the usual $130K+, I dig into whether we had a delayed private pay, an insurance reimbursement holdup, or if we’re carrying staffing overhead we don’t need. I’ve caught expensive problems this way–like when we were accidentally double-paying a contracted podiatrist because two different staff members scheduled the same service.

The other flag is any month where one business subsidizes another. Early on, I let Trinity Medical Consultants cover a cash gap at Responsive Visiting Physicians, thinking it was temporary. Three months later, I realized RVP had a broken billing process that was costing us $4K monthly in unbilled home visits. Now, if I transfer money between entities more than once in 90 days, I treat it as a red alert that there’s a structural revenue or expense problem that needs fixing, not more cash.

The one action I take to regularly review our budget is to hold a brief, fixed “Zero-Based Review” meeting with my operations manager every Monday morning. We don’t just look at variances; we look at every single line item like it’s a new expense that needs to be justified. This keeps us from getting complacent about recurring costs. I’ve learned that a lot of wasted money isn’t from huge mistakes, but from a dozen small subscriptions or legacy costs that nobody questioned for years.

When reviewing, I look for two main things: efficiency killers and revenue disconnects. Efficiency killers are costs that aren’t directly translating into better service or faster response times for our San Antonio customers—things like overpriced vendor contracts or software we’re not fully utilizing. If it doesn’t help my technicians do their job better or faster, it needs to be cut or renegotiated.

The revenue disconnect is crucial. I check if our major expenses are actually aligned with where the revenue is coming from. For example, if we spent big on a marketing channel that brought in zero high-value service calls, we drop it immediately and reinvest those funds into something proven, like training or stocking a specialty part. Our budget has to be a living document that directly reflects the reality of running Honeycomb Air, not just a spreadsheet we look at once a quarter.

Every quarter, I pull our landed cost per SKU and compare it against what we charged customers 90 days prior. I’m specifically watching for drift–where our actual cost (factory price + tariff + freight + compliance testing) creeps up, but our pricing hasn’t caught it yet. When nitrile glove tariffs jumped from 7.5% to 25% in 2019, we caught it in week three because a $9.20 box suddenly cost us $11.80 landed, but we were still selling at $10.95.

The second thing I track is product-level gross margin by customer segment. We learned this the hard way with our EZDoff gloves–we were selling them at $11.95 to everyone, but our sample program was giving away 40 boxes a month to prospects who never converted. That was $478/month in pure loss that didn’t show up in our P&L as a red flag until I built a simple spreadsheet that tagged every outbound box as “paid,” “sample,” or “warranty.” Now samples get a hard cap of 15 boxes monthly, and we haven’t seen conversion rates drop.

I also flag any line item that moves more than 15% month-over-month without a planned reason. Last year, our Shopify transaction fees jumped $340 in one month. Turns out a developer had accidentally enabled an extra payment gateway during a site update, and we were paying double processing fees on 60% of orders for five weeks before I caught it during review.

After 40+ years in restaurants and running Rudy’s Smokehouse for nearly 20 years, I’ve learned budgets only work if you actually look at them weekly–not monthly. Every Tuesday morning before we calculate our charity donation, I review our food cost percentages against last week and last year same week.

What I’m hunting for is waste patterns. If our pulled pork numbers look good but we’re tossing too many ribs at close, that’s a $200-300 weekly leak that compounds fast. Last summer, I caught our green beans with bacon creeping up 8% over three weeks–turned out our supplier changed packaging sizes and we were overordering without realizing it.

The other number I watch religiously is our catering-to-dine-in ratio. When catering drops below 30% of revenue for two weeks straight, I know we’re not pushing our boxed lunches or variety packs hard enough. That’s when I’ll personally call five corporate clients we haven’t heard from and just check in–usually books $2,000-3,000 in orders within days because people forget you’re there.

The key is catching small problems while they’re still small. A $50 weekly waste issue becomes $2,600 annually, and in the restaurant business, that’s the difference between giving staff Christmas bonuses or not.

One action that transformed how I review my budget is a simple rule we now follow year-round. No bad months. Instead of accepting slow periods as normal, we plan for them before they show up on the calendar. At the start of every month, I look at the same month from the prior year and ask three questions. How much revenue did we bring in? What dragged it down? What can we control this time?

This gives me a clear spending target for the month ahead. If history tells us sales will dip, we adjust early. Managers get updated spending limits by department, hiring plans slow down, and marketing gets a clear challenge to outperform the same month as the previous year. The goal is not perfection. The goal is to remove surprises.

Working this way has tightened our budget more than any software or dashboard ever did. When you expect a dip and shape your spending before it arrives, the month rarely ends up as bad as it looked on paper.

I’m an estate planning attorney, not a traditional business owner, but I review our firm financials monthly with a specific eye on cost-per-client-served. I track how much attorney time each plan type actually consumes versus what we estimated when we set flat fees three years ago.

The biggest reveal came when I broke out “simple trust for couple” into subcategories by how many follow-up calls they needed. Turns out clients with legal insurance made 3.2x more calls than paying clients, but our fee from insurance was $500 versus $3,000 direct. We were losing $847 per insurance client in unbilled time, so we capped follow-up calls at two and built an FAQ library–our average call volume dropped 64% in eight weeks without a single complaint.

I also flag any month where refunds or plan cancellations exceed 2%. Last year we hit 4% in July, and when I dug in, every single one had the same associate attorney who was rushing intake calls. We added 10 minutes to his calendar blocks and the problem vanished. That tiny scheduling change saved us $14,000 in lost revenue over six months.

I sit down with my team lead Kallum every month and compare three things on one page: which job types are actually profitable, where we’re losing time, and what’s eating our materials budget. In the early days I thought all fencing jobs were equal money-wise, but boundary fencing was taking twice as long as quoted while our custom feature work and automated gates were massively underpriced for the value we delivered.

The biggest shift came when I tracked that our large commercial jobs were generating better margin per day on-site than doing three small residential repairs in the same time. I was saying yes to every $800 picket fence repair because it felt like easy money, but those jobs killed our schedule and burned out Austin and the crew with all the driving between sites.

Now I specifically look for where we’re undercharging compared to the complexity involved. I noticed our timber-and-steel hybrid fences–where we combine both materials for that natural look with a foundation that lasts decades–were taking our best craftspeople’s time but priced like standard timber. I bumped those quotes by 20% and we haven’t lost a single client, because the ones who want that quality aren’t shopping on price anyway.

Here’s how I handle our paid media budget. Every week I dig into the data, tracking each ad channel to see what’s actually bringing in sales, not just clicks. For instance, last month I spotted a campaign that was underperforming, so I moved that money elsewhere and saw the results right away. I also run holdout tests to make sure our changes are working and it’s not just a fluke. Ignore the shiny numbers and ask what’s really making us money.

One very minor thing I do that has helped so much is to do a light “check-in” on my budget every Sunday morning. I’ll grab myself a cup of coffee and take 10 minutes to review how my money was spent the previous week. I’m not checking in against some sort of strict budgeting rule; I’m simply observing whether things feel “aligned” or not.

I tend to notice smaller patterns such as buying something on impulse while tired, or monthly/quarterly charges I had completely forgotten I’d even signed up for. If I catch these behaviors early enough, they don’t have time to build into anything bigger. It’s a very casual, daily routine; however, it has assisted in keeping my financial decision-making processes a lot more grounded and more deliberate with both my own finances and how I make decisions at Cafely.

One action that keeps the budget grounded is a monthly line by line review tied to actual outcomes rather than forecasts. At Best Direct Primary Care, spending is compared directly against patient volume, staffing needs, and care delivery activity. The goal is to see where money is supporting the mission and where it is simply drifting out of habit. Small overruns are addressed early before they compound.

When reviewing, the focus stays on alignment and efficiency. Are marketing dollars leading to the right patient inquiries? Are technology costs reducing administrative load or creating it? Are staffing expenses matching demand patterns? Best Direct Primary Care looks for trends instead of one off fluctuations and makes incremental adjustments rather than sweeping cuts. That regular rhythm keeps finances predictable and responsive. Budgeting becomes a management tool, not a once a year exercise.

Every month I compare supplier costs and see what’s moving. We decided to change our order sizes with the seasons, which helped our cash flow and storage. For example, this past spring we cut back on slow items and put that money into trending products from Japan instead. I think we should focus on turnover rates and use our sales data to negotiate. You’d be surprised what you can get just by asking.

Water safety for children is a major contributor for our success. Each month I zero the budget against one question: does this spend improve water safety for children in our community? I cut anything that does not move that needle and reallocate to hyperlocal outreach, parent education, and seasonal safety messaging. I watch enrollments, completion rates, and community response to decide where to double down next.

I don’t do traditional budgets anymore–I track my “sobriety ROI” instead. Every week I calculate what I would’ve spent on alcohol (easily $300-400/week in my drinking days) and compare it against what I’m actually investing in recovery tools, therapy sessions, and self-care. If that gap shrinks below $200, it’s a red flag that I’m either overspending on unnecessary things or not investing enough in my wellbeing.

The specific metric I watch is my “present time percentage”–how many hours per week I’m genuinely engaged versus just existing. When I was drinking, I tracked maybe 15% present time despite appearing functional. Now I aim for 70%+, and if that number drops, I know something’s financially or emotionally draining me before it shows up as a crisis. Last month I noticed I was buying excessive takeaway again ($180 in one week), which was my old pattern of avoiding discomfort, so I redirected that money into meal prep supplies and an extra group session.

I also flag any spending that recreates my old drinking routine–fancy coffees replacing wine at 5pm, online shopping during my former drinking hours, anything that fills time rather than builds life. In my accounting days I was obsessive about spreadsheets, but recovery taught me the most important line item is whether my money choices are moving me toward the life I’m building or back toward the one I escaped.

When someone asks for a new tool or service, I write down how much it costs on a sticky note and stick it to my screen. It stays there until I look it over.

If it’s clear that the cost is worth it after a month, I add it to our long-term spending. We cancel if I’m still not sure. A picture helps a lot more than people think. It’s easy to forget what you added to your costs when they live in your email or billing dashboard. When you see how much it costs every day, you think more about what it does for the team. This easy-to-understand system keeps getting bigger, and each tool has to show itself quickly.

I check the project budget every couple of weeks, especially if we’ve had weather delays or can’t find enough workers. A few months ago at Truly Tough, we moved some people from solar to electrical jobs. That kept us on track, but I had to go through the budget line by line again. I watch for overtime hours and sudden jumps in material costs. If you start falling behind, you have to move people around right away.

I schedule a short, recurring monthly budget check where I compare actuals to plan by channel and initiative, then re-forecast the next 60-90 days based on what performance is telling us. I don’t want to rely on just gut feel. I want to make sure every dollar is still tied to a clear outcome.

When I review, I look for three things: early variance signals (spend pacing, rising costs, scope creep), ROI and leading indicators (conversion rate, pipeline quality, retention), and any shifts in priorities that require reallocating budget, cutting what’s no longer working and doubling down on what’s driving measurable growth.

Every few weeks, I look at our SEO costs and compare them to actual results, like better rankings and traffic. Doing this recently showed me that one of our tool subscriptions wasn’t worth the money. I moved that money to better keyword research instead. When you’re reviewing your own tools, focus on real improvements like higher local keyword visibility.

Every week I look at sales and labor costs against what we planned to spend. After a big event, I’m all over those numbers. When something’s not working or a cost suddenly spikes, I call a quick meeting with the managers to fix it. Being perfect isn’t the goal. Spotting this stuff early is why my restaurants are still here.

Every Friday, I go through our cash flow forecast. It’s how I caught those rising event costs last quarter and got on the phone with vendors to negotiate a better deal. I just have a recurring calendar reminder for it. That simple habit stops small budget issues from turning into big headaches. It’s one of the most practical things I do.

Here’s my monthly routine: I check our AI bill against how many people are actually using the product. If costs jump, it’s usually because we just launched something new or ran an ad. So I shift our budget to reward the regulars, especially the ones who love our TruLike tool. What I’ve learned is to ignore the totals. Find the specific actions that actually work and put more money there.

When I look at our budget, I check which parts of the business are actually making money. A few years ago I realized our events business was using all our best gear but not bringing in enough cash. We moved more of that gear to home and office rentals, and our profits got a lot more consistent. Shifting things around isn’t always the answer, but it helps us adjust what we offer and stay nimble.

I’m running a monthly visibility audit; I treat my finances the same way I treat PR performance. On the first business day of each month, I pull revenue, marketing spend, and ROI metrics and compare them against planned goals. The thing I look for is whether every dollar spent is producing visibility, authority, or revenue. If an expense doesn’t support one of those three outcomes, it’s cut or reallocated immediately.

For example, I once realized I was spending on multiple software platforms that weren’t improving conversions, so I consolidated and funneled that budget into high-impact PR outreach and strategic partnerships instead. That single change doubled inbound client leads in a quarter. The discipline of reviewing performance alongside spending enables faster, smarter decisions and ensures every investment aligns with long-term growth and brand equity.

One thing I do regularly when reviewing our budget is look at it through the lens of CAC versus margin. It’s the simplest way to know if our spending is healthy or if something needs to be adjusted.

Every week, I check how much we’re paying to acquire a customer and whether that number is still below the margin we make per policy. If it is, great, we can keep reinvesting. If it’s creeping up, that’s a signal to dig in.

When I review the budget, I’m not looking for line-by-line perfection. I’m looking for movement:

– Did CAC spike?

– Did a funnel step drop?

– Did a product segment suddenly get more expensive to convert?

Those shifts tell me where to adjust, whether that means fixing friction in the funnel, reallocating spend to better-performing cohorts, or pausing certain campaigns until we optimize them.

It keeps the budget review extremely practical. I’m not trying to control every dollar; I’m trying to make sure every dollar is pulling its weight.

One action I take to review and adjust my budget is setting aside time each month to look over all expenses line by line. I pay close attention to anything that’s increased, anything unnecessary, and areas where small adjustments could save money. This habit keeps Moving Papa running efficiently and helps us stay prepared for busy and slow seasons.

Twice a year I review our company’s vendor spend and look for opportunities to move accounts to something better or save on our existing accounts. Staying diligent with this has helped keep our credit card processing rates competitive, helped us move to a CRM that suits us better, and helped leverage AI to our advantage with tools that didn’t previously exist.