Eight (8) Reasons You're Struggling with Budgeting

Today's topic is eight reasons you're struggling with your budget. I will dive more deeply into each of these eight, but first, if this If this idea topic is of any interest to you, join me for my free workshop, March 28th, where we will be talking about the five budget phases, how they correlate with the seven, um, levels of financial freedom, and how you can avoid budget burnout, um, things that are going wrong, all of the, uh, Things associated with budgeting link is down in the show notes to register or can be found on my website at elevatefinances. us and we can dive more deeper into these challenges and hurdles and some other reasons other things to think about as you are budgeting. All right, back to today's topic. Eight reasons you're struggling with your budget. All right, the first one, and it's probably the more common, is your budget is not tied to any goals. It is only a way to make sure you have enough money to pay the bills, enough money for your spending, which is your groceries, your fuel, and then after that, it just kind of is there, right? Really, it's not got any direction towards any goals, short, mid, or long term. What is it that you desire from your money? A budget should definitely be directing, you know, your money to all of these different things for you. Not only just to make sure the bills are paid and you have enough money, and to make sure that you're not, quote, overspending. But it needs to be able to support you in what you truly want. One way to think of this is as you approach a four way red light, they're blinking, right? We've been in this situation before. You drive, you pull up, there's nobody directing traffic. All four are blinking red and you're just hoping everybody pays attention. You're waiting, you're trying to figure out the timing, who's going when, you know, taking kind of life into your own hands, it feels like. But now think about that same situation. The four lights are blinking red, and now we have a traffic cop in the middle. Even though we have the four way red, he is directing it more simply, more easily. People are flowing, and everybody can pay attention. This is the same thing that goals do. for your budget. You're not just, okay, well, you know, this is going to come here and this is going to go there. No, your goals are actually directing where you want your money to go. You're being able to grow and, you know, provide stability and then provide some enjoyment and, you know, be able to plan for the future and do all of the things for everybody. So really get, you know, dreaming. We talked about that in January. And then get more specific to your goals and how you're going to feed them, how your money is going to support you, and build that. Make sure you include that traffic cop in your budget, so that money is not like, uh, I'm gonna go here instead. So, have some sort of control mechanism and that would be your goals. Alright, number two. You don't have the right tracking tool or method. Right? Some people use an app on their phone. Some people use cash envelopes. Some people use a spreadsheet. I could go on and on and on. But essentially, you need to find what works for you. I love working with my clients and helping them figure out what method is going to support them best. How does our brain work? How does our mind work? How do they want to wrap, you know, their head around all of these numbers? Some people are numbers like me and we want to get in the nitty gritty. Then you get to the creatives and they're like, I just need to know everything's covered, you know? And so that's two different methods. That's two different tools. Um, and it creates a whole new, um, system for each and every individual. The basis is the same. The way we build it is the same, but being able to track and forecast and move ahead is something completely different. So here you want to understand that there's not just one right way. There's not just an app on the phone. There's not just a spreadsheet. Heck, my sister, she uses a check register and writes everything in there because that's what worked for her from day one and she still continues that. So just dig deep and find what works best for you. Explore. Ask around. What are people using? What are they doing? Does that sound like something you could do? Um, just really find what resonates with you and makes it flow easily. Alright, number three. There's nothing fun left in your budget. As a financial coach, I believe every budget should have an element of fun. Even my client who came to me upside down with debt and was literally creating debt to live from month to month, I made it a point to be sure that he had an element of fun. Now it needs to be relative to how much money is available. But if you have restricted yourself back so far, this is why people think the budgets are restrictive, because they take out everything. They force themselves into a box to create massive change that they are not ready for. Right. So experiencing that things are going as is. This is how I work my with my clients. We change nothing about what they're doing unless there is a small exception, and that would be my client who came to me upside down in debt, creating debt month to month. It's going to take a little more work, but all of my other clients. Nothing has changed. No change in spending, no change in bills, no change in, and everything kind of ends up flowing to an easy change. We don't do it at the beginning. And I always make sure they know what their element of fun is going to be and how that's going to sustain them and stay in there as they start making these changes. Alright, number four. You are not spending enough time with your money. Because you have a budget, and because you think you have that tracking tool and method, you still need to spend time with your money. You still need to, um, create that awareness that things are still going the right way. Things are still happening. So, number 6 are going to kind of go together here as I, as I speak. But We just experienced inflation. Now, if you were not spending time with your money and you were not aware, recognizing that 50 at the grocery store every week has now turned into 75. That is an important concept to have in your mind. It's not that you spent more, I mean you did, but not just because you chose to. You're buying the same exact things, but it's taking more money. That meant you are spending enough time with your money at every aspect that you need to. Your budget does not mean your money is going to be self driving. We talk about automations and automations are good. It does the heavy lifting for us. It takes away a lot of those decisions that we've already made being on the automated. But it doesn't mean that we don't need to spend time with our money any longer. My current client is struggling with trying to find enough time, um, with her money. And so I challenged her to do three times a week for 15 minutes. Now that 15 minutes may be too long in one session and not long enough in another, but creating that habit of spending time with your money often is very, very important. Why did I tell her three? She's not used to it, number one. Number two, I don't believe that we spend a lot every single day. Now some people may. Right? But if you get on payday, you take care of it then, you take care of it after a weekend, if that's when you go out with family and spend, and then you follow up one other time, that should be enough time to kind of correlate the expenses, see what's going on, stay aware of all of the things in the parts and pieces. But as I said, like even at the grocery store, paying attention and seeing what's going on is, that's not going to take any time. You're already grocery shopping. Alright, I'm going to move on as we continue to kind of tie 6 together. Number 5 is not being flexible with your budget. I don't know how many times I have heard somebody say, I put my budget down and it wasn't what I had that month. Nope. It never is. And it never will be. So you have got to learn to be flexible. These are suggested. These are, if life was perfect, this is exactly how it will go. Now, as you continue to work with budgets, and as you continue to build your own, it will get to be very, very much the same. You refine it, you keep moving forward. Um, when I worked in my, uh, government job, and we did budgeting, and we did it eight months before we were actually using it, those Uh, chiefs and stuff who had done it longer could create a better budget. But what happens is the environment changes, the political, you know, everything changes. And so things shift as to where your needs come in. This is the same thing with your personal budgets. Life happens. Uh, maybe somebody now has an illness that they've got to take care of. You know, a disease or something. Um, just on the milder side, right? But you've created a new expense. Well, as you budget, You didn't have that until it was a diagnosis. So learning to be flexible, learning how to be flexible and refine that budget is huge. We go really deep into that in the workshop under one of the phases. It's definitely a huge growing part and getting good at budgeting. Alright, number six. Your budget numbers are not realistic. When people set out to make a really good change with money, really good change with what they're doing, and they create them a budget and it might be so super restrictive, like I said, that Or their goal is to pay off debt, so they have X number of dollars going to that, but the numbers just are not realistic. And as you keep working at it, you keep getting frustrated because you're like, but I want it to be this number. In reality, You know, this is where, you know, going, like I said, going to the grocery store, if it is going to cost 500 for groceries, even though you want it to cost 3, it is not going to happen. So you've got to be realistic. You've got to be realistic in what life looks like to you. What is an enjoyment level and really how restrictive you want to go in certain areas again when I work with clients, no changes are made on the forefront. Um, I show them how to build off of a third bucket to provide the stability that no spending on fuel, eating out entertainment. None of that is changed. That comes as a, you know, as a by part of working through the goals and working through building stability and them seeing the pieces start moving together. So be realistic, understand what the true expense is and give yourself grace to accept that. Number seven. If you are If you're, you know, combining money with a spouse or partner, if they have not been on board for any of the numbers, you're gonna run into problems. For example, if your husband comes in and he's like, I gotta go buy the part for the car for this, and you're like, wait, it's not in the budget. You probably should have got with him about what needs were coming up with the cars. What things do we buy, right? Or if you're expecting him to only spend 100 a month on fuel, you got to tell him that. You got to tell him that. So make sure if you have a spouse or partner that they understand the numbers. Even if you're the one keeping track of it, building it, supporting it, present it to them, sit down with them, talk with them. I know I did this many, many times on my journey, my budget journey with my husband. And how many times, probably 50 50, it would be, well what about this? Or why couldn't you do this? Yes, and it's just because you get so myopic with your numbers, having another person put their advice in and their support in can be huge, can be such an eye opener for you. Plus, it keeps you on the same page and you can both agree because you've talked about it, there shouldn't be any, hopefully any bad blood there and we are able to maneuver and keep going through. Alright, number eight. You're not allowing your budget to hold you accountable. So after you've done all of the others, you're realistic, you're being flexible, but you're not, at this point, you're not staying within your lane, right? You have said, I am only spending this much on X, and you end up spending a little bit more. And then why can't I just spend a little bit more here? And it goes to pieces because you're not allowing it to hold you accountable. Even though your budget numbers are realistic, you know how to be flexible. You are spending enough time. You're just giving yourself a little more buffer room than you really should. So make sure, again, that ties back to number one. Make sure you're remembering your goals, remembering your why, and this will help you keep accountable. I had a client come to, um, a session, um, it was my bi weekly session, and she says, Um, I overspent. I'm like, okay, so what could you do differently next time? You know, those are the check ins that you can have individually with yourself, um, and or with your spouse or partner. Really just let, allow it to hold you accountable. You're the one that set out these numbers. This is where people who say budgets are restrictive, no, they're keeping you accountable. And you created the rules. You created the boundaries. If you don't like them, and if they're not working for you, go back to step one. What is your goals? What is your why? How are you going to make this more enjoyable and work for you.