Budget.  Budget. Budget.  Everyone talks about budgets and why you need them and what you can do once you have one, but how do you actually make yourself follow one?  How do you actually stick to your budget?

We all have weaknesses in our behaviors which are typically the root for budget failure, but there are some strategic things we can do to ensure you stick to your budget every month.  

A budget is a super simple guide for your money.  We tend to overcomplicate it and try to “outsmart” it.  It seems so silly. We design the budget for ourselves, but then try to trick the budget system to not actually have to make any sacrifices.

We try to trick ourselves!  It’s the same concept as me setting my alarm with a 9-minute buffer.  I do this in the hopes of having more time in the morning because I am late every single day.

I know I set my alarm for 5:36 am, but I know I don’t actually HAVE to get out of bed until 5:45 am.  I know I gave myself a 9-minute buffer, and then I act like I’m not going to hit snooze every single morning until 5:45 am.  I can’t outsmart myself.

Do you see the insane logic in our behaviors?  YOU design YOUR budget. There is no outsmarting.  There is just good planning. Stop trying to deceive your budget.

That’s really all it is that is keeping you from sticking to your budget.  Aside from those true emergencies that blow you out of the water, the rest of the reasons you can’t stick to your budget all boil down to you (or your spouse) trying to deceive the budget…..again, that YOU created.  So silly!

Life isn’t perfect and you aren’t going to be perfect with your budget every month, but there are some things you can fix to give yourself the best possible chance to stick to your budget month after month.

6 Things Holding You Back From Being Able to Stick To Your Budget

1.  It is Unrealistic.

This is probably the number one reason people fail to stick to their budget.  You have amazing intentions of slashing those expenses and budget according to your dreams.

Hold up!  Back to reality!

If you have been spending $800 on food every month, you CAN NOT budget $200 on food next month.  It is totally unrealistic. You will not change your food behaviors overnight just because you want to.

It definitely doesn’t work that way.  You will not go from eating out, hitting the drive-thru and not cooking at home to suddenly flipping a switch and eating at home every single day for the next month.

You aren’t going to know how to grocery shop for it, you won’t know how to meal plan for it, you won’t know how to execute it.

If you have been eating out every weekend for the past year because it is what you do for entertainment, you can’t cut that out completely and expect to follow through with it.  Your behavior patterns will not change that abruptly.

You have to be realistic with your budget and give yourself some grace.  Be honest with yourself about what you can actually achieve every month.

If you have previously spent $800 on food last month, make it your goal to spend $700 this month.  That is a realistic goal. You can slowly work this down month after month, but you can’t expect to make a drastic change overnight.  You will fail.

Start small and make little changes over time.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.

WANT TO SET UP A REALISTIC BUDGET?  SIGN UP NOW FOR OUR FREE BASIC BUDGET SETUP SHEETS TO GET STARTED TODAY!

2.  You Lack Will Power

This one is a huge limitation for so many people.  They make a budget, they are on track, but two weeks into the month, they make their Target trip and spend $200 on stuff that wasn’t planned for.

Everything was purchased on impulse.  There was no will power to say, “no.” We are human and marketers and advertisers are paid to come up with ways to get us to spend more money.  Millions of dollars of research are performed to then use that research to get us to spend more money.

There are some big box stores that will pay employees to move items one aisle over just so that the next time you are there you stay in the store that much longer looking for an item in the same spot it was in before.  You have to spend just a little bit more time in the store to locate the item you need. This puts you in a position to potentially spend more money if you run across another item you need while you are looking for the one you went in for originally.

It’s science!  They hire people to move things so you spend more time in the store!  Obviously, it works if they are paying someone to do this full-time. There is science to how stores are laid out to get you to purchase more items and continue your walk through the store.

So how the heck do you overcome the lack of will power in a world designed to make you spend money?

You can either quit going into stores.  There is now the availability to shop online pretty much for everything, everywhere.  This will help you avoid the temptation of impulse shopping completely. Also, there is no urgency.  You can leave your online shopping cart and come back to it if you need “sleep on it” to make a decision about a purchase.

Or if you are wanting to still physically go to stores, you must be using the cash envelope system.  This is where you only use cash to purchase certain things. When the cash runs out, it’s gone and you are done spending money.

The cash envelope system removes the risk of overspending because when the money is gone; it’s gone.  You can’t overspend what you don’t have.

At the beginning of the month when you make your budget, you will have cash envelope categories (food, gas, clothing, entertainment, etc.).  You will put the cash in each envelope (one envelope per spending category). You keep these with you.

You can spend all of the money within the month, but once it is gone, you are done spending money.  When you use this system there is no risk of overspending because you have a finite amount of money available.

If you have trouble with impulse purchases, you need to be using the cash envelope system.  If you continue to use your debit card and will power, you will continue to overspend and destroy your budget every single month.

Related Post:

What Is the Cash Envelope System?

Self-Control Training for Impulse Shoppers

3.  It’s being ignored.

This one kind of boggles my mind.  There are folks out there who take the time to make a budget, but then ignore it for the entire month.  Then they act surprised at the end of the month when they completely blew their budget.

How did this happen?!  Uh, you ignored it, duh.

If you are ignoring your budget, you aren’t going to be able to stick to it.  Seems obvious right?

If you aren’t paying attention to your spending, your budget is just a nice idea you had.  It was a thought at the beginning of the month that isn’t helping you move closer to achieving your goals.

If you have a budget and want to stick to it, you have to track your expenses!  The best way to do this is not with an app.

If you have a tendency to ignore your budget, then you need to re-train your brain to make it a priority and pay attention to your spending.  This means you need to track your expenses by hand.

You will sit down once a week for 15-20 minutes and write down all of your transactions for the week.  Then you will see where your category totals are for your spending to keep you in tune with how you are doing with your budget.

You have to train your brain to pay attention to your spending.  This will take three consecutive months of sitting down once a week to write down all your transactions.  Your brain will start to understand this is the new normal for your life and tracking your expenses is important.

USE OUR FREE EXPENSE TRACKING WORKSHEETS TO GET STARTED TRACKING YOUR EXPENSES TODAY!  GET THEM INSTANTLY WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

4.  Your Spouse Isn’t On Board.

This one is so frustrating!  If you and your spouse are not on the same page with your budget, one of you is going to be sabotaging it.  This could be intentional or not. Either way, it’s going to happen.

If you do not make a plan together, one of you won’t be following the plan.  This means it definitely is not going to work.

For example.  When we first started budgeting, my husband really wasn’t 100% on board.  He looked it over and said it looked fine, but he wasn’t really invested in the process.

This led to him buying lunch at work every single day for $6 a day.  I would then nag him about it and we would fight over $6 lunches. He wasn’t on board with our budget so sacrificing the lunch purchase wasn’t worth it to him.

I felt disrespected, he felt controlled and the budget was blown.  Awesome, right?

Not so much.

You need to both be on the same page if you want your budget to work.  If you are struggling with this, you can read my best tips for overcoming the gap and building your budget together.

Related Posts:

Essential Tips to Get Your Husband On Board to Budget

The Key to Get Your Husband to Budget With You

5.  Lack of Planning.

Planning.  Music to my ears.  How do you avoid things sabotaging your budget?  You plan!

I’m not talking about planning for every little thing in life, that would be impossible.  What I am talking about is creating sinking funds for those expected expenses that tend to surprise you.

Sinking funds are little saving accounts you build for those expenses you know are going to happen, they just don’t happen every month.

You know these things I’m talking about:

• Christmas
• Birthdays
• Life insurance premiums
• Oil changes
• Car registration
• Soccer pictures
• Back to school shopping

If you have no idea what some of your infrequent expenses are, the easiest way to figure this out is to look back at your past year of transactions (have the bank print these out for you) and highlight any random expense that you know you will have in the upcoming year.

Once you know what your common infrequent expenses are, you can begin to save for them.  Then the month they actually come due, you already have the money. No surprise!

These expenses won’t blow your budget, you don’t have to stress and you don’t have to kick yourself for not remembering it was coming.

You will be prepared and your budget will thank you for it!

Related Posts:

5 Reasons You Need Sinking Funds

13 Sinking Funds Categories You Need In Your Budget

How to Effectively Use Sinking Funds

How to Track Your Sinking Funds

USE OUR FREE UNEXPECTED EXPENSES PLANNING SHEET TO DETERMINE YOUR SINKING FUNDS FOR THE COMING YEAR, THEN USE OUR SINKING FUNDS TRACKER TO MONITOR YOUR SAVINGS FOR THE YEAR!  GET STARTED NOW TO AVOID STRESS LATER!

6.  No Emergency Fund.

This may be the dumbest thing for people to do.  If you don’t have an emergency fund, you are living like a gambler.

You KNOW emergencies will come up.  It is just a matter of time. Why wouldn’t you be prepared for that?  Who wants to suddenly be in a panic when a part on their car goes out?  Why wouldn’t you want to be able to get it fixed and not worry about the cost because you have it?

Without an emergency fund, you will be scrambling to find the money when you need it, you may take on more debt because you feel like you have no other choice and you will definitely blow your budget.

The best emergency fund to have in place is $1,000.  Most emergency expenses can be covered with $1,000. Now, this is not a buffer in the case of job loss, but if you have your AC go out, a car part needs replacing or something of that caliber, $1,000 should have you covered.

Save $1,000 and put it into an account where it won’t be touched.  This may mean you put it in a completely separate bank or have it hidden in your home somewhere.  Whatever you need to do to make sure you leave it alone and only use it in case of emergency.

Not sure how to save $1,000 fast?

Check out some of my best tips:

15 Effortless Changes to Quickly Save $1,000

What to Do If You Need Money Now:  A 30-Day Plan to $1,000

20 Weird Things I Did To Save Over $17,000 in One Year

You can absolutely stick to your budget, but these six things could be holding you back.  Keep your budget realistic, use cash envelopes, pay attention to your spending, get on the same page as your spouse, plan for infrequent expenses and always have an emergency fund.

If you can get these things on track you will be unstoppable.  Budgets are easy. Our behaviors are the hard part. Start changing today and you will be on the path to financial freedom.

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