I’ve been asking those that subscribe to grab my free workbook what their biggest challenge is and oh my goodness! I’m loving the responses so far! So, I thought I’d pose this question to all readers….
What is your biggest budgeting challenge?
So far, the most common response seems to be sticking with a budget. Now, I wish I had a magical formula that I could share with you that would make every budget you ever create perfect and super easy to stick to, but the cold-hard truth is that there is no magical formula.
I still fail with sticking to a budget and my entire blog is devoted to helping others budget and manage their money well….I believe that’s the definition of irony. 
So then why? Why do we fail to stick to our budgets?
For me, most of the time it’s because the budget is either too complicated or it’s done but it’s in my head (i.e. not on paper just floating around in my brain somewhere).
It’s Complicated….
I mean, who really wants to have to organize and categorize expenses into 20 million different categories?
Not me.
Sometimes having several different categories can be beneficial for your budget but other times, it’s way too complicated. For us, I just have a clothing category with two separate categories listed – back to school and special occasions.
I used to have several different clothing categories and that just made entering in transactions way too much to do and I’d end up pushing it off for as long as possible until eventually I just never entered the transactions.
The problem was that by having to divide all of our purchases into these tinier categories, I was avoiding managing our money because it simply took way too much time. So now, I have as many board categories as possible and only small more specific categories where needed.
For example, instead of breaking our auto fund budget into numerous different categories like oil changes, tires, maintenance, emissions, etc. We just have a budget line item of $75 a week that is drafted to our auto fund. This allows us to build up a reserve of money for all auto related expenses without stressing over, “do we have enough room in the budget for this $140 car battery?” because yes, we do have the money – in our auto fund. And so long as we leave the auto fund for only auto-related expenses, we’ll always have the room in our budget.
If you’re struggling to stick to a budget because it’s too complicated try and simplify it so you’re not having to enter in a bazillion transactions into all these tiny categories.
Outta Your Mind…
Believe it or not, I still struggle with this one. I’m a firm believer that in order to budget well, you have to start by writing down your budget. Now, this doesn’t have to be perfect. There have been several seasons in my life where I just kept our budget in a notebook – a regular ol’ college ruled spiral-bound notebook. Nothing fancy but having our budget written down has saved our tails more than once. And any time we fail to have our budget written down, we fail with our money.
There is no right or wrong way to keep track of your budget, but I do suggest that if this is your first time really trying to stick with a budget that you physically write it down. As in, you don’t put it in a Excel spreadsheet or use software – you put pen to paper and write it out. Why? Because something happens when you force yourself to write down the numbers and to think through the process. I can’t really explain it, but it helps you to take better ownership of where your money is going.
After you’ve gotten the hang of doing this for a couple of months then switch to another system that you feel more comfortable with like a spreadsheet or software.
If you’re finding sticking to a budget difficult, I want to encourage you to go through your budget and determine what categories do you really need? And then, write down your budget on piece of paper and make a point to stick to it by pulling out your spending cash for that week and recording your transactions that day (we call this a “money minute” in our home).
Spend a little time today going over your budget and make sticking to it a priority.
So, what’s your biggest budgeting challenge?
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