It seems like a lot of people like to think of budgeting as this dirty topic and something that is just going to take all of the fun out of their lives. I’ve had people email me telling me that I shouldn’t recommend budgeting because it’s just not feasible for some people.
Every single person out there can benefit from having a budget that they actually stick to. This isn’t a topic just for people who are making under $50,000 a year and may need to pinch pennies once in a while.
This topic is for everybody, even those who are making over $100,000 per year and seem to have it all together. Budgeting isn’t something that is just for frugal people and people who are trying to pay off debt.
Everybody out there knows what a budget is, but people don’t really talk about the ways that budgeting can be helpful to you and how it can affect your life. So, let’s dig into some of the reasons why you need a budget!
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Table of Contents
What is a Budget?
A budget is a plan that is created for your money that helps you plan for the things you need, and the things that you want. A budget lists your total income and your total monthly expenses and it creates a plan of where you’re going to allocate that money before it all disappears into the depths of cash registers and your couch cushions.
5 Reasons Why You Need a Budget
1. Budgeting Forces You To Have a Real Conversation About Money
When you sit down and start creating your first budget you have to really take an honest look at what you can afford and what you probably shouldn’t be spending your money on.
A ton of people (including me) live about their means from time to time and a lack of a budget is a huge contributing factor to people being out of money before the end of the month.
It’s really important to start figuring out where you can cut things from your budget to stop living above your means because it’s only going to hurt you hater on, and you’ll never be able to have the life you truly want.
During your budget creation you’ll be able to think of all the ways you truly want toimprove your life and you can create ways that will help you get to your goals!
#2 – Budgeting (surprisingly)Makes You a Happier Person
Money is one of thebiggeststressors in so many people’s lives and giving your money a plan can take sooooo much stress off of you and especially off of your relationship. So many couples end up fighting about money at least a few times a year depending on their situation, and most of the time this can be minimized by just having a budget and being able to openly talk about money stuff with your partner.
Sticking to a budget reduces stress for a single person as well, everybody worries about money on the daily, so it doesn’t matter who you are. Not having a budget will severely impact your happiness! When you have a budget you know exactly how much money you have to spend, and you’ll never walk up to that cash register wondering if your card is going to get declined again…
#3 – Budgeting Helps You Prepare for the Future
The best part about a budget is that you can take the time to imagine youridealday in 5 years and work backwards from that. What does your ideal day look like? What kinds of things have you accomplished? You can work all of theseidealsituations into your budget.
How do you plan for the future? Well, there are these awesome things called Sinking Funds that allow you to save up for things by putting a small amount of money away each month towards a specific goal. Let’s say in 5 years you see yourself with a gorgeous downtown apartment and a puppy. You would create adog sinking fund and afirst & last month’s rent sinking fund. These two things will help you work towards your goal without it making a big dent in your daily life because you’ve budgeted monthly for these things.
Another awesome thing that budgeting helps you with is being prepared for unwelcome emergencies. You can budget a certain amount of money each month to go into a specific account that’s just meant to cover these expenses that you can’t be prepared for, this account is called your Emergency Fund.
#4 – Budgeting Stops Impulse Purchases
Budgeting makes you atonmore aware of your purchases which means you won’t be buying an extra box of cookies or buying an extra bathing suit that you don’t really need. If you’re a chronic overspender, you should check out this blog post that will help you break those habits!
Having a budget (especially if it’s a cash budget) ends up making you think harder about theseunnecessaryimpulse buys. Think of it this way, if you know you’re digging into your grocery budget when you buy that extra bathing suit, you aren’t going to have enough money to eat for the rest of the month. This will teach you areallesson in self-control when you’re starving and eating saltine crackers for dinner.
#5 – BudgetingActuallyMakes You Healthier
The thing is, when you start budgeting the very first thing that gets cut is junk food & other unhealthy habits. For example, if you’re a smoker you may try and cut back on your habit. If you’re a snacker you’ll try and cut back on the candy and chips.
Budgeting will make you drink more water, because water is cheaper than soda or redbull. You’ll also cook at homemuchmore often because eating out is way too expensive!
Just think of all the crazy parts of your life that budgeting will help when it comes to your health!
So, Which Budgeting Method Should You Try?
Personally, I’ve tried every budget in the books and failed a million times. It’s honestly like a diet and exercise regimen, you just have to try everything until one sticks.
The budgeting method that has worked best for me is the Zero-Based Budget because it’s so straight forward and doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. Zero-Based gives you a plan for every single penny which makes messing up a lot more difficult.
Final Thoughts
Budgeting is one of the absolute best ways you can improve your finances and I highly suggest you start working towards a budgeting system that works for YOU, don’t just try and use one for a long time because someone else says it works. You budget doesn’t have to be perfect, but I promise it’ll be worth it.
