Every year in January, I try, like a lot of other people, to determine what I want to accomplish that year, create some goals to achieve, and I start the year with such intensity to conquer those goals.
It all sounds great on paper to have a plan in place, and all I have to do is stick with it. But, do you know what happens by March? Life happens. Things come up, and I don’t make the time to keep working at my goals. By November, I finally take a breather, reflect on how much progress I made on my goals, and realize I dropped the ball and I didn't achieve half as much as I wanted to!
The same thing can happen with budgeting. You start off great creating your monthly budgets and after month 5 or 6, you just start delaying it. It’s mid-month and you’re like, UGH! I forgot to budget. Now, I will say my husband and I are very disciplined people. When we aligned on our goal to get out of debt and we stuck to the budget each month, we were able to successfully pay off $130K in 32 months.
We continued to maintain our budget every month until…...we had our daughter Addison.
Oh boy, our world was like a tornado with debris hitting us left and right. We didn’t find time to budget because honestly, we barely knew if the sun was up or down. We were in survival mode and paid for whatever we needed to.
We had random doctor bills, we learned how much diapers cost, and we ordered out a lot because what first-time parents have time to grocery shop, never mind finding time to cook dinner. We were successful not going back into debt, but we certainly needed to get back on track and start budgeting again because our progress on the goals we set was slow to none during that time.
Has life happened to you where your budget just went out the window? Have you burned out from the month-to-month mundane stuff, and you can’t seem to make much progress when random expenses get in the way? Do you need help on how to stay on track with your budget? Well, let’s talk then because everyone falls off the budgeting bandwagon if they are not careful! But knowing how to get back on track is the KEY to winning with your money and succeeding on your goals!
1. Determine your WHY
First and foremost, you need to determine your WHY and write it down so you can always refer to it when times get tough. You are budgeting for a reason, right? I mean if you are budgeting because it’s fun, good for you. However, the main reason I budget is so I can travel to fun places, take care of my family’s needs with peace of mind, retire well, and give away sooooo much money.
I mean can you imagine traveling across Europe, living it up, and not having to stress about how to pay for it later?
Or how would you like to retire well, and I mean WELL, by having a couple of houses to live in (hopefully one is near a beach :)), visiting your family any time you want, traveling to exotic places, and even spoiling your family by bringing them all to Disney World (including the grandkids) on your dime! And let’s talk about giving money away. I want to be that person on the news you hear about who left a $1,000 anonymous tip to a waitress who was working hard for her family on Christmas Eve. You can’t disagree with me. To be able to do that would be wicked AWESOME!
So my question to you is, why are you budgeting?
You are diligently working to manage your hard-earned dollars so that you can ____________(fill in the blank).
As I said before, my WHYs are traveling, meeting my family’s needs, retiring well, and being generous. These reasons give me the fuel I need to keep going. So write your WHYs down, create a vision board, and make sure your WHYs are visible to you in your house so you remember WHY you are working so hard. WHY you are sacrificing your time and energy right now is so that you can __________(insert your WHY here).
Determine your WHYs now, so that it fuels you to keep going and NOT fall off the budgeting bandwagon.
2. Make a BUDGET!!
The second thing to do if you’ve fallen off the budgeting bandwagon is…..START budgeting again! I know it's scary, trust me. It’s the same feeling you’ll get
when you step on the scale in January after you KNOW you overindulged during the holidays. If you’ve been on track with your weight loss journey, and you just had a bad holiday season, you know you just have to put fear aside, jump back on the scale to see the damage, and start your weight loss plan again. But fear gets in the way. This is similar to budgeting. If you’ve budgeted in the past, had a rough patch in life where you stopped for a while, you know that once you start it back up again, it will get easier! You just have put fear aside and start budgeting again. So this is your financial coach telling you….START!
FYI: If you haven’t budgeted yet, check out another blog article I wrote called How to Budget Like a Champion!
3. Budget Every Month….Like EVERY Month
Once you’ve restarted your budget, you need to keep budgeting every month and I mean EVERY month. It is so important to stay consistent with your budgeting and if you’ve jumped off the budgeting bandwagon, you need to recreate the habit again.
Just remember, you cannot just copy and paste your budget each month and call it good. Why not you ask? Your expenses will NOT stay the same every month because life is dynamic. You may have birthday celebrations to plan for, summer may hit and your electric bill goes up, or you may have doctor appointments to pay for.
Whatever life throws at you, plan ahead by budgeting each month so there are no surprises!
A simple copy and paste action is not enough. You need to copy, paste, and tweak it to account for this month’s expenses coming up!
4. Find an Accountability Partner
In order to stay on track with the budgeting habit, you need an accountability partner. If you’re married, this one should, in theory, be easy as your spouse will be your partner that you budget with every month. However, I understand some spouses are not fully on board with this lifestyle as they don’t want to be controlled by a budget. In this case, make sure you communicate to them why budgeting is important to you as well as what dreams and goals you have for their family. Communicating and being clear on WHY you want to budget is important for success for this step.
If you’re single, identify a friend or family member that can keep you on track with your budgeting goals. Explain to them WHY it’s important to you and what you are working towards so they can help you stay with it and cheer you on. They don’t need to know all the numbers and details, but they can ask “Did you budget this month?” or “Are you on track with your goals?” These questions will help remind you of WHY you are working so hard towards your goals that have you budgeting in the first place!
Long story short, it doesn’t matter if you are single or married, having someone hold you accountable is a crucial step that will help you not fall off the budgeting bandwagon!
5. Assign your Dollars a Spot in the Budget
As you budget, you need to give every dollar a name. This is also known as a zero-based budget where every dollar is categorized somewhere in the budget. What I mean by this is there should be no extra dollars laying around unaccounted for. So if you go through your budget and all your bills/necessities are accounted for and scheduled for payment, birthdays are budgeted in, etc. and you still have money left over, go back into the budget and categorize that extra money towards your financial goals. If you are trying to get out of debt, put the extra money towards debt (but focus on one debt at a time). If you are saving for a new house, car, or other random expenses put the extra money in a savings account labeled as such.
Just do NOT leave extra money sitting in your checking account because it WILL get spent on something frivolous. I promise!
So now that you’ve read these tips to stay on the budgeting bandwagon, are you ready to restart your budget and stay on the bandwagon? Or are you close to falling off and you just needed these reminders to keep you from giving up on your financial goals? You can do this. Start implementing these tips and you WILL create a strong budgeting habit that leads you to success with your money.
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