Past Accounted For, Future Planned

My budgeting and tracking are caught up. It feels great. I had gotten a bit behind on my record keeping. But it’s all good now that my 30-day personal challenge is pretty much complete. I worked on my budget for 15 minutes per day. The past is accounted for, and next month is planned, which is exactly how I like it. Now it’s just daily budget updates.

Budgeting has been life-changing for my husband and me. It’s time-consuming, oftentimes boring, and kind of a pain in the ass, but it has given us incredible clarity, control, and effectiveness in improving our financial situation in recent years.

I’ve worked on my budget and record keeping for about 8 hours so far this month. That’s a lot. But it was worth it. I’ve realized a few key things about why I find budgeting so powerful and worthwhile. And I’d like to share those thoughts with you.

Best Reasons to Budget

• Budgeting is Freeing: Some people avoid budgeting, because they don’t want to limit themselves. But in reality, budgeting frees you up to make smart, conscious decisions about how to use money, however you want. You can allocate money in your budget for exciting things like trips, meals out, or pursuing your dreams. At the same time, you can do responsible things like pay off debt, save money, or limit spending in certain categories. Using a budget gives you freedom by putting you in the driver’s seat, where you can decide exactly how your money will be used.
• Budgeting is Enlightening: I’m always amazed how expensive it is to live a normal life. With a budget, and by tracking what’s actually spent, you can see just how much you’re spending each month and on what. Sometimes I’m shocked and appalled by how much we’ve spent on groceries, internet, or on miscellaneous expenses for example. As a result, we’ve systematically reduced our expenditures in these categories. Seeing the numbers helps put things into perspective, so reality can be faced, and spending reductions can be implemented. Our budget and tracking has enabled us to make sense of the numbers, reduce expenses, and pay off huge amounts of debt and significantly improve our overall financial picture in recent years.
• Budgeting is Great for the Bottom Line: When it comes to money, in my opinion, the big goal is to reduce debt, build wealth, and enjoy life along the way. Since we’ve been budgeting, that’s exactly what has happened, and I feel more confident about our economic future every year. It seems financial conscientiousness leads to financial health. Of course nothing is guaranteed in life, but I’m all about playing the odds carefully.
• Budgeting is Worth the Hard Work: It’s not easy, but I find budgeting to be worth the work. For me, reviewing my bank statements is not enough. Personally, I find I get the best results when I manually budget and track all my household’s expenses, and discuss the big picture and details with my husband. The proof is in the pudding. The hard work pays off. The more we pay attention to what’s going on with our finances, and get on the same page with a written plan, the better things get.

Moving Forward Financially

Again, I’m really happy to be totally up-to-date on my budget. I plan to keep up my progress. It seems I have the best results when I update my budget almost every day. So I plan to stay current on my budget moving forward, until the end of my 30-day challenge and beyond.

If you have tips on budgeting that you’d like to share with me, please do. And if you are inspired by this article to make the most of your own finances by beginning or continuing a budget, that’s fabulous. I wish you great abundance.

Next Week: Work on My Book for an Hour per Day – 30-Day Personal Challenge