Three years ago, my husband and I were living in a hotel on money we borrowed from family while waiting to close the sale of a home we couldn’t afford.  I had just landed my first “adult” job after spending my whole life in school and realized my income was about to TRIPLE. This led up to a moment (I remember vividly) when I became terrified about our future.

I knew I had debt (I didn’t know the exact number because it scared me to think about it – ballpark $250,000+) and that we would have all kinds of expenses coming up with life.  In the past, our idea of budgeting was just watching the bank account throughout the month and when we had less than $1,000, we knew we needed to implement a “spending freeze” for a bit.  This method worked, but it caused insane stress every month when we had to “freeze,” and we never had money left over.

This time period is when I found Dave Ramsey, decided to face my debt head-on, change my future and begin budgeting.

When I first started budgeting, I used a handwritten budget.  THIS IS KEY. The first budget I attempted did not go well. It was hard at first and I don’t think I really got the hang of it until about 6 months in.  I am now 3 years into hard-core budgeting and I STILL write my budget by hand every single month.

Why do I do this?

A written budget leads to greater accountability.

If you are taking the time every month to write down what you intend to spend, then hand tracking what you actually spent, you will be accountable for your actions.  The truth about your spending habits will be staring you in the face in black and white. You can’t deny the fact that you spent $50 on fast food during the month when it is written in front of you.

I find this concept to be very similar to paying cash for something vs. a card.  If you pay with cash, you feel that money leave your hand. If you pay with a card, you don’t feel anything because all that happened was the swiping of a card.  A written budget makes you mentally process what you have spent so you feel every purchase.

Today you will find there is an app for EVERYTHING.  This even includes budgeting. Apps make everything easier for us, which in theory, should make us stick with something.  What actually ends up happening is we get lazy with it because there is minimal effort involved. There is no emotional attachment to you just looking at an online budget.  There is definitely a time and place for budgeting apps, but it isn’t until you are truly “trained” to budget regularly.

A written budget will reveal your spending habits.

We’ve all been there, it’s the end of the month, food at home has run out…..so we eat out.  There goes $50, and now you are over budget. If you start really paying attention to your budget and what you are spending every month, you will be shocked at how predictable you are.  I know we will buy new dog beds every 6 months, I know my husband will need new tennis shoes every 12 months, I know on average our toilet paper will last us 2 months, I could go on and on.

I have found our weaknesses in our budget – not planning for birthday expenses and overspending, eating out at the end of the month, buying more alcohol when the family is visiting (NOT IN THE BUDGET!), etc.  Once I identified certain habits we had, I could figure out how to prevent them from happening again (hint: better planning).

The goal of budgeting is not to punish yourself, but to allow for better planning to reduce financial stress in your life.  A written budget will show you where you can plan better.

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A written budget trains you to set time aside to budget.

A budget has to be intentional.  You are going to make a plan to tell your money where to go.  This is something that takes time and effort, and will not just happen on its own.  When you are handwriting something, it is going to take time.

I sit down with my husband before every month starts and we decide what our budget will be for the coming month (our Family Budget Meeting).  Now that we have been doing this for so long, these budget “meetings” don’t take as long as they used to. Initially, these may take a little bit of time.

Then mid-way through the month, I write down all of our current transactions and track where we are at (how much money we have left in each category) and update my husband.  Then at the end of the month, I do the same thing and let him know how we did, where we can do better, etc.

This may seem time intensive at first, but on average with the initial meeting and me writing down all expenses, total time spent is ~45-60 minutes pending how many transactions we had that month.  One hour over the course of a month is not that long. You spend more time brushing your teeth throughout the month than that.

Making time to budget consistently creates a monthly habit to keep you financially balanced and in charge of your money.  If you commit to this, you will develop a habit in no time that will feel like it requires no extra effort. Budgeting will become your “normal.”

A written budget is tangible and easily accessible for uncomplicated planning.

Once you have been doing written budgets for a year (yes, I believe you should do handwritten budgets for that long), you will have all the information you need to better plan for the following year.  Something you should know is when some irregular expenses will come up in your life so you can budget for them. Example: oil changes, clubs/membership dues, insurance dues (if annual), car registration, yearly kids pictures, etc.

Instead of having to get online and scan through all your transactions, page-by-page with your bank, you can pull out 12 sets of budgets from the past year.  It took me about 15 minutes to flip through all my budgets and write things we paid for outside of our “normal” categories and the dates that these happened.

Boom!  Now you know when these “unexpected” expenses are going to happen so you can plan and budget accordingly.

A written budget is visual.

This is super important for you to have a visual of what your budget is doing.  At the end of the month, you will have your categories in front of you with what was budgeted and what you spent.  I LOVE this part! I can put this paper in front of my husband (who is not a budget nerd….AT ALL). He can see the summary of where we ended up.  Then if he has questions like “how did we go over by $100 on groceries??!” I can flip to the more detailed page and show him every “food” category charge (instead of having to scan through our online bank account).

The “secret” to becoming a successful budgeter is having a handwritten budget.  If you are handwriting your budget you will be accountable for your spending habits, you will be trained to set aside time to budget and you will be able to easily plan for “unexpected” expenses.  There are so many benefits to putting your budget on paper.

Do you need to hand write your budget forever?  Probably not, but it is definitely the best way to do it when you are trying to form a new habit.  If you are taking the time to write out your budget and track your spending, you WILL be successful!

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Have I convinced you yet?  Have you tried a handwritten budget?

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