Excuses. You name it and I bet Tom and I have used it as an excuse during our journey to Financial Freedom. Seriously, if making excuses were a sport, we would win the championship, hands down! There was always a reason why we couldn’t do it; then once we started, a reason why it wasn’t working. A reason to quit before we saw REAL progress. But not anymore! We finally took ownership of our mess, changed our mindset, and figured out how to work together to do REALISTIC monthly budgets. And let me tell ya… these changes have changed our lives! We were talking the other night about the whole process and came up with the top 5 excuses we tell ourselves to avoid budgeting. Take a look and see if any of these sound familiar!
The Top 5 Excuses we Tell Ourselves to Avoid Budgeting
1. “I don’t have time.”
I think this was our go-to excuse for sure ! I mean, life is busy right? Running to work, running the kids to activities, running to family commitments, trying to fit in some exercise, oh yeah, and we had to feed those kiddos, and maybe get some sleep, and and and … sound familiar? But the plain and simple truth is, you don’t have time to NOT budget. The added stress that comes from not paying attention to your finances is FAR more harmful than the lost time working on your budget. The freedom that comes from having a PLAN and “telling your money what to do instead of wondering where it went” is absolutely liberating!
2. “I don’t have enough money.”
Yup, we actually said that! Back then, we just thought, “well every cent we make goes toward paying bills and operating our lives and then some… what good would a budget do?” What we didn’t realize was we needed a budget even MORE then! When things were so tight, had we budgeted monthly for the clothes and the kids activities and the co-pays to the doctor for the umteenth time they had an ear infection, we wouldn’t have BEEN so tight at the end of the month! And we would have realized FAR quicker than we did that our house payment was way out of line with our income. (Not that we would have done anything about it at the time… see my previous comment about OUR MINDSET SHIFT!)
3. “I don’t like being restricted by a budget.”
AAAHHHHH!!! Seriously, I read that and want to slap myself upside the head! I can’t believe I actually said that. C’mon Jules… put on your big girl panties and be a grown up and tell yourself NO. What we actually learned once we were consistently budgeting and paying attention was that the budget gave us PERMISSION to spend money. We might have to wait and I’m definitely not shopping for entertainment or using it as a form of therapy anymore… but we’ve found that we are actually able to buy higher quality items when we save and plan for a purchase.
4. “I’ll never get to have any fun.”
I think I can pretty much just say – SEE MY COMMENTS FROM #3 ABOVE! Geesh.
5. “It’s too stressful.”
Yup. And so is being in debt, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and playing the rob Peter to pay Paul game. Once I got past the freaking out and “having a headache” stage every time we had a budget meeting (poor Tom), I learned that doing the budget actually reduced the stress in my life. Now I can honestly say I enjoy budgeting… now that I am seeing the savings and investments growing, and we are making plans to realize some our dreams and goals that we thought would never happen.
Stick with it, you guys. It’s not easy and it’s uncomfortable in the beginning, but it’s SO worth it! It was the best thing we ever did for our relationship. Each month it gets a little easier. Each month it’s a re-commitment to your dreams and goals and future. You CAN do this, I promise!