Don’t Stink. Budget!

If you’re a regular reader of Our Journey to Zero, you know I’ve been on a serious fitness kick now for over 8 months. Getting in shape is all about getting in the habit of exercising. Now that I’m in the habit of exercising, it feels wrong to not work out every day. It just feels like something is missing. Recently I skipped two days in a row for probably the first time this year. I was downright cranky.

There are a lot of people who want to get in shape and lose weight. So why don’t they? They say things like “It’s hard to get into the habit,” or “I don’t have time,” or my favorite, “It’s not fun.”

Really?

How many of us are in the habit of brushing our teeth or bathing? I hope everyone raised their hand. So, maybe each of us goes the occasional day without taking a shower. I’m not sure I could go a day without brushing my teeth.

The thing is, when I’m brushing my teeth, I don’t think to myself, “Wow, this tastes awesome, and boy, am I having a rockin’ good time!” When I’m getting ready for my day, I sure could use an extra 10-15 minutes to do something else instead of taking a shower. But I do these things anyway.

Why?

Because I think of these actions as necessary.

If I don’t shower or bathe, eventually, I’m gonna stink. If I don’t brush my teeth, my breath will smell like hot garbage and my teeth will rot. If I don’t exercise, I’ll gain my weight back and most likely cause a decline in my overall health.

But what about budgeting? By budgeting I mean creating AND sticking to that budget.

For my overall financial well being, budgeting is very necessary.

My wife and I didn’t budget for years. Well, that’s not quite true. We created a very loose budget, but we didn’t feel the need to stick to it by any stretch of the imagination. What we had was a piece of paper that had a list of the bills due at the beginning of the month, and at the middle of the month. I knew I had enough money to pay my bills, and I knew how much money was left over. But at that point it was a free-for-all. We didn’t have a clue how much we really spent on groceries. Sure, we had a budgeted weekly amount, but did we pay attention to that? Nope, we just went and bought whatever groceries we wanted. We said we had a budget amount of entertainment. Did we pay attention to that?   Nope, we just went and did whatever we felt like.

If the checking account ran close to zero, we’d just pull out a credit card.

It was like I hadn’t taken a shower, brushed my teeth, or exercised in 14 years. I was fat, stinky, and my teeth had completely fallen out.

Even through the first year and a half we were enrolled in our debt management plan we really didn’t do a great job of budgeting. We struggled to find a system that really worked for us. Earlier this year my wife and I came up with a system that we really like. With a budget:

  • We know exactly how much our bills are.
  • We know exactly how much we want to spend on potentially variable expenses like groceries, gas, and entertainment
  • We are disciplined such that if we go over budget in one category, we have to make an equal cut in a different category.

There’s no guesswork as to whether we can afford something – all financial decisions are made with our eyes wide open. Just being able to say the words, “We cannot afford that,” and to have the math to back it up, is very comforting.

How about you? Do you know where your money is going? When you make a purchase is it pure guesswork as to whether you really have the money to do so or not?

For goodness sake, don’t stink. Budget!

photo credit

 

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10 Responses to “Don’t Stink. Budget!”

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  1. Suzanne Cramer says:

    Some people forget that without a budget nothing is holdng you accountable allowing spending to get out of control. Just the simple act of writing down “actual” expenses puts you one step closer to reality, and your “true” spending.

    Congrats to you and your wife for finding and more importantly sticking to a system that works for you!

    • So true, Suzanne! When we started actually writing down where our money was going, we were shocked to find out where much of it was going – eating out! Which is crazy because I love to cook. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that by finding this out, and making the decision to cook more at home that not only did managing our money become easier, but so did managing our weight!

  2. Keeping your budget out on the refrigerator helps my wife and I. When you see those responsibilities in your face each day it helps you make better spending decisions. No one can use the “I didn’t know” excuse when the budget is clearly posted in your house.

  3. Great analogy. I love it.

  4. Ralph says:

    Good stuff. It took me FOREVER to learn how to budget. Its almost embarrassing. The good thing is once I learned how to budget effectively, it changed my life.

  5. Thanks CashFlowMantra! I do admit, though, I probably do enjoy brushing my teeth more than the average person. 🙂

  6. Oh, yes. It’s important to not stink! lol You make a good point that just having a limit for a spending category isn’t enough. You have to actually stick by it. Congrats on making important changes.

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