Watching your budget?

This is something I’ve always thought to be a myth. I would say to myself, “What does it matter, I have to pay bills and then barely have anything left over, I just live paycheck to paycheck!” This is probably the main reason why I absolutely needed to begin budgeting and tracking my spending.

There are a few apps out there that you can use which can be very helpful if you spend the time updating them correctly, you can’t just log-in, add your bank account and expect it to work miracles for you. I have heard that mint is a great one, but I use personal capital. To be honest, I use that app but I still seem to gravitate back to my excel file I’ve made for my family a long time ago. I don’t know why exactly since the app can show growth and look at all kinds of different areas of spending and track it all that way, but I seem to like the “pen to paper” approach. This is important, I think because you should find what works best for you.

There are many reasons you can talk about as to why tracking your spending is important. I think the main one we should focus on is, if you do not set a budget and stick to it, then you probably will overspend and feel like you’re not making any financial progress in your life. This is because without proper tracking we tend to buy a little of this and a little of that in all aspects of our lives. Whether it be going out to eat and getting the extra appetizer or grabbing a couple extra yummy items at the grocery store or even something extra for lunch. Over the course of the month, these things start to add up quite a lot. Setting your budget will mentally prepare you and help keep you on track.

Believe me, I really do hate the fact that I have to set myself to a limit, especially when I work hard all week and want to enjoy myself on the weekend. But I find that with budgeting, it gives me even more to look forward to because I know that I’ve set aside a certain amount to be able to go grab breakfast on my Saturday and go out to eat somewhere during the week. It helps encourage me to stay on track and almost tricks my subconscious into wanting to stay on the right track for the week. I would still go out to eat and buy kind of whatever looked good at the grocery store before budgeting, but it was so sporadic and at the end of the month I was way overspent and wondering why I was always feeling broke.

Set your budgets, stick to them the best you can and make sure you carve out enough for you to enjoy your life with the people around you that you love.

Thanks for reading!