Am I the only one who doesn't budget.
As I read through all of my favorite bloggers, it seems they all budget in some way, shape or form. Does it surprise you, that I am completely aware of the benefits of a budget and I even teach my children to budget, but I do not budget?
I have never felt the need to budget. I don't over draw my accounts. I have never overdrawn my accounts, except for a bank error and an ex-husbands dirty deed. I have always covered my minimums and played the numbers game successfully.
I know for most, a budget is a necessity and I by no means want to down play a budgets ability to help a person succeed financially. It is just I am not a "waster" on the whole. I have never felt I needed a budget, because there has never been money to budget. That is not to say that my income has not been larger than my expenses, it has.
Where my plans of a budget always get stalled is in the fact that I automatically, without a budget, pay all bills. After which, all extra is immediately applied to debt. Period. Until recently, I haven't been one to save at low rates when there is debt charging interest. So, there were no percentages to calculate. All my dollars are utilized for debt repayment.
Now, you could say "well, you should be budgeting your monthly spending on your credit card". And you would be correct. Except, without all that work necessary to implement a budget, I just keep the charges below a certain number. An easy guideline. Now, some months may be way lower and some months, like December, may rise a little higher, but overall, I live a steady eddie kind of cash flow.
I do anticipate a change. When the line is paid in full, I expect to fully fund a savings account for annual expenses - roughly $18k. Then I will begin an aggressive savings in tax free accounts, while paying extra on my mortgages to pay them down. Where the budget will come in, will be to break me of this locked in financial place where I live to put the money in a particular place. My future budgeted life, will be there to enable and force me to "live". Something I do not feel I could do, as long as I owe money.
6 comments:
I've just started my own blog and journey to my debt reduction -- and in thinking about the blog and my plan and such this afternoon, the nagging voice telling me "it's time to start a budget" reared up. I have never budgeted either.
I pay the bills twice a month when I get paid...but the difference for me has been that whatever was left (if anything, ugh) was "free" money.
I've had no discipline. And of course, if there wasn't enough, hello credit cards! Pretty dumb.
I'm trying to get over that and will likely do some digging on easier budget methods.
I don't keep a budget either in the traditional sense. I do check my credit card balance nearly every day, and like you there is a # I would like to stay below. But some months I go over, some months are under.
I guess I am better at keeping a running total of everything in my head than most people.
D - I don't have one either, I tried once and was frightened at the result - I need to try again though. I think it will make me more disciplined. As for you, I think you are VERY disciplined....
CC
i'm same with Lauri. I pay bills twice a month...even make payments to my credit cards twice a month to pay them down as low as possible...but whatever's left over is a free for all for money. which leads me to live paycheck to paycheck sometimes because by the time the next check comes, I would only have had $50 left in my checking. Not good...so i'm trying to cut down on my spending on whatever's left over so i have a bigger checking balance to carry over when my next check comes around. I'm trying to have a $500 balance in my checking at any one time. So far it is so not happening.
You'll find that most of the investment and business oriented bloggers don't budget formally. Or at least they never mention. Some discuss how they don't budget. I don't budget at all.
I have tried and tried to budget, it works for a brief time and then life gets in the way and there you go.... budget out the window! Woosh!
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