Don’t Give Up On Your Budget

We tried several methods in the past to establishing our monthly budget, but we were never able to stick with it 100%.  It always seemed like something was coming up to bust it.  But the few month I took off from gainful employment really helped set us straight because we were forced to live on a budget (a strict budget) for those months.  Now we’re making about 40% more than we were at my last job, and this month was the first budget we’ve made with the new salary.  The lessons we learned while money was tight are definitely helping us now.

1)  Write it down.  We tried the spreadsheet, and Quicken, and keeping mental tabs, but that didn’t work.  Now we have a notepad that we write everything down on, just like a check register.

2)  The envelope system.  I always thought it was silly, but it works.  We now only use cash for our personal spending money, and use envelopes of cash for things like the grocery store and dining out.  Knowing EXACTLY what you have left to spend makes a big difference mentally when you go to shop.

3)  Practice, practice, practice.  Don’t give up if your budget gets busted early on.  Keep working at it, and it will get easier.  For instance we now know that $450 is not enough for our grocery budget, and $500 is too much.  $480 is the right number for us, and that usually lands us within $5 or so.

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