When thinking of living on a budget or putting a budget together many people dread the thought, the process and think of only restrictions.

Budgeting brings you freedom to live intentionally, and accomplish things you desire to achieve.  Be that a family vacation you’ve been dreaming about, purchasing that piece of furniture you have been eyeing, living debt free and so much more.

This post is to encourage you that you can budget and stick with it!  If you have never budgeted just get started!  Do you know what you spend to operate your household each month?  Start there, don’t set any parameters, do what you always do, except, write everything you spend down.  This way you know what you actually spend on groceries, gas for your vehicle and utilities. 

It amazes me how many people I come across that don’t know what their utilities cost, they just go through life paying what they pay and living paycheck to paycheck wondering at the end of each month where did all my money go? 

I remember years ago when my husband and I had strayed from budgeting, we went back and reviewed our spending for that month.  We had spent more on going out to eat then we did our entire grocery and household items, we were shocked.  It wasn’t eating out at fancy restaurants either; it was fast food and those stops for a smoothie. 

When you track your spending habits, it helps you evaluate what is really important to you and has you contemplate are those restaurant trips desired more than going on a family vacation.  Do you really need one more new dress more than that new car you want to save for.

 I like to budget the old fashioned way, pen and paper.  I track our spending by writing it down in categories.  Our consistent monthly bills are already set and don’t change for example (rent/mortgage, utilities, vehicle maintenance, insurance bills, etc.)  The things that fluctuate are your grocery spending, your entertainment spending i.e. date nights, eating out, movies and extracurricular activities.  Those are the things that you have most control over and can change, improve, find more frugal ways to achieve which in turn will give you more money (without any change in your income) to apply towards debt or to save for that “thing” or family vacation.

If you are tech savvy or really great with apps there are a ton out there to assist you in budgeting here is a link I recently came across that has a great list of budgeting apps http://www.everythingzoomer.com/best-apps-for-your-budget/#.VBhv_fldXkU.   I like apps and technology but when it comes to tracking my spending, maybe it’s just what I am used to but writing it down each week works best for me. 

That is the key, find what works for you.  Can you set a day each week to go on-line to your bank account and track everything you spent that week or would having an app on your phone work better for you.  Many people use planners these days, many planners have a place to track spending right there for you, or at the least blank pages where you can allocate space for tracking your spending. Regardless of what method you use, you must track every penny you spend.

A major key in budgeting is consistency; as long as you are going to look at your budget each week and be aware of your spending then I find most people can make a budget work for them.  It’s when you have no idea how much you have spent the past two weeks that you find yourself in trouble.

Once you have evaluated what you spend your money on then move forward and set your parameters of what you want to spend where and most important you’ll know what your “actual” income is and what your “actual” outgo is and where you should be spending and not spending.  When you see the numbers it will be less of a restriction thinking mindset and more of I am taking control of my finances and this is what I want to spend my money on.

I hope this post encouraged you to get started and quit avoiding looking at the numbers.  If I can budget who grew up knowing nothing about budgeting and who had parents who didn’t budget then anyone can budget. 

I will post more information and more “how to” on budgeting in the future, please feel free to e-mail me at theblogaboutitall@gmail.com if you have any questions or anything specific you would like me to target in regards to budgeting.

Thanks for reading!

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