Right off the bat, there is no such thing as a universally loved budget.
Some people are good at budgeting and they use very simple ones. Some people are good at Budgeting and they want all the bells and whistles.
Some people are poor at budgeting so they want one as simple as possible. Some people are poor at budgeting and no matter what they just don't want to do it.
Some people are paid monthly and some people are paid every second week. Monthly is more consistent but some people need the super consistency of two weeks every time, no matter what. But what happens if two people live together and one gets paid monthly and one get paid every two weeks. Money alone causes enough grief but to have to two systems where the twain never meets is enough to make a person scream "I can't take it anymore".
To top that off, some people like computerized budgets and hate manual budgets. Some people will only do manual budgets and some people refuse to use a calculator when they can use a computer.
There are the two campls. The people that have found nirvana and have a budget they can understand and not curse at and those that just never seem to find a budget that they like or understand fully. Just reading blogs or questions and answers about budgeting on the internet tells how detested budgeting can be. But the fact is that budgets are the only way to truly keep good long tern track of your finances whether it be Expenditures (where did all of the money go???), Savings (We never have enough money left over or we never save enough to get anywhere), and debt (how did we ever wind up with such a moutian of debt - how will we ever delete it?). Budgets, even well organized and explained ones, simply befuddle some people.
Keeping track of expenses is no fun at all.
Categorizing expenses is boring.
Adding up expenses is tedious.
What a waste of time!!!
Yikes, my expenses say that I’m spending a fortune on coffee. I love my coffee. I can’t give up my coffee!
Who wants to deal with such information?
That seems to sum up a lot of people’s idea of budgeting.
People can spend hours on the computer playing games but an hour of budgeting and they are ready to jump off of a bridge.
Yes, starting a budget and getting it off the ground is a bit of grueling work. It includes all of the initial work of keeping track of expenses, organizing them and totaling them up.
Yes, many families have financial problems that may take many months or even years to fix.
Yes, many budgeters falter, even badly, and have to start over again.
But remember this, if done correctly, it is only done for a few months. When proper attention is paid to the process and budgeting actually done, then the system will start to take care of itself.
Eventually, budgeting will be simple and through Saving First, the savings will start accumulating.
If you slack off, then you may have to start the process over again as mentioned above.
So, start working on the budget, follow the process, execute the process and it will all start working for you.
What Good is a Budget?
Yes, there are some good features to doing budgeting!
While the list of good things looks small they are very powerful points.
1- Checking expenses does point out real flaws that when corrected can save money
2- Learning to budget teaches people about cash flow – knowledge is always useful
3- Financial planning teaches people to create wills – so many people don’t realize their need until it is too late
4- Stopping bad credit and paying down credit will lead to a better credit score that leads to lower interest rates on loans (creates more savings in the long run)
5- Learning to use ‘Save First’ is a superior way to save and get to those financial goals
6- Knowing about finances should make communication with your spouse easier to handle
7- Knowing about finances helps when making decisions regarding loans
8- Good budgeting includes creating an emergency fund – comes in very handy when most needed
9- A balanced budget helps reduce stress and create a more livable life.
Some Basic Budgeting Concepts
Using envelopes or jars to handle money is not a bad idea, especially for some people. Some people like the manual method as well. They can write down all the lists they want in any fashion they want, because they understand most of their writing.
But with computers, it is now so much easier to follow a budget. The better ones can be customized and editing information is easier to do. They add more info, provide more info and show more results that can help quickly find some of the problems.
The real deal though, is not that you have to keep records of all of your bills, it is learning about what you do and what is really happening to your money. Understanding your money flow is half the battle. If you have to go through your bills, then you start getting a much better idea of what you are spending on. The budget needs to include the actual costs and savings versus planned costs and savings. Then there is a way to compare real monthly activity and a way to see where adjustments need to be made. This action is needed to get to a balanced budget (without excess expenses or bad debt).
Remember that it is necessary to go through the full budget steps to prove that good budgeting is being followed and that will take some time to master. From this information, it is easy to tell what is happening and what kind of action should be taken to remedy the situation
Once budgeting is done correctly then after a while the expenses become less important, in fact only debt expenses need to be recorded and watched over. Then, guess what? You won’t have to do all of the dirty work of sorting the expenses and adding them up. Keep the records of course just in case something needs to be looked up, but that is it.
YBP will show you how successful budgeting leads checking only your savings and debt.
What a great savings of time.
The overall results are:
- savings that are on target and expenses that are on budget.
- financial goals are much easier to attain and will be greatly appreciated when they are reached.
- less time spent on the budget and finally.
- less overall financial stress.
That leaves a family plan with reasonable financial goals like a car or big screen tv or the needs of a new child in the family. Financial goals are your savings and they are the nice things to budget for.
Your Budget Plan in fact has a great set of calculators that are attached to the budget. If you decide on a goal, then it is saved directly into the savings category. It’s that simple with Your Budget Plan.