The “B” word…The Budget

Proverbs 31:20

She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.

The amazing success of the Whole 30 sparked us to take on additional challenges in our life. One of the first challenges that Kyle and I tackled together was the scary “B” word…the BUDGET.  Kyle and I had tried to establish a budget in the past...with not a lot of success.  We talked about it and without a full proof plan quickly went back to our comfortable ways.  I should be straight with you.  Kyle and I both have full time jobs and are blessed to be able to make decent money and live very comfortably.  This blessing can also be a temptation to squander at times.  I’m embarrassed to tell you that we didn’t follow a budget until fairly recently.

A budget seemed so constrictive!  I think Kyle was scared to start because he “didn’t know what he was doing” and I was scared to start “because I didn’t want to do it unless we were going to do it right.”

Many things factored into finally biting the bullet and doing it. We have the goal of paying off my car.  We want to do better about saving for the future.  We like to be able to help people and I am so proud to say that my husband is a very generous man…but we want to be in a situation where we can give more freely and generously.  Also, Kyle started a new job this past year and we needed to watch our financials a little more closely.

Step 1:

We read Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover. I highly recommend it.  It provides a map to follow.  It is littered with great examples and results of people who were successful (and who were a lot worse off than us I might add).  It helped us to build the excitement, to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to go for it. 

Step 2:

Create the budget…and FOLLOW it! This was a little bit of a painful process. It isn't fun to talk about a budget. And two people are bound to have differing ideas of what to spend money on and what to budget for. BUT...we worked it out...and we are still speaking to each other. So that is a good sign, right? (sarcasm!) We decided the best route for us was to use cash.  Every Sunday we pull the cash out for the week.  Basically…If we don’t have the cash to buy something…we don’t get it.  That simple.

Panic starts to set in…what if there is a great sale!

(I’m my Grandfather’s grandchild…if something is on sale I feel compelled to buy it! I can remember going to the store with Grandpa and coming home would go a little something like this:

Grandma: “Why did you buy 500 cookies….No one even eats those cookies!” 

Grandpa: “It was only $2!” 

Grandma: SIGH! “It isn’t a good deal unless you are going to use it!” 

I blame Grandpa for the clothes in my closet with tags still on them. J Sorry Grandpa!)

What if I mess up? What if it doesn't work? What if we FAIL!  Breathe!  Just follow the plan! You were able to do it before with the Paleo and are reaping the amazing benefits of self-discipline.

We finally came to a point where we said …let’s just try it for the month of July. (Which happens to be 31 days!) If we need to tweak things we can.

I’m not going to lie…there were some challenges.  We were completely changing how we operated.  Before, if I wanted something…we got it.  If we wanted to go somewhere…we went.  Now we had to stop and think, do we have the cash for this.  How can we make this happen? Do we really want to do that…or is something else more important? It took a little adjusting to.

July went well and we have been following the budget ever since. It hasn’t been that long, but we are already seeing a lot of progress.  Kyle has been taking some extra shifts at work.  Anything extra we have goes toward the car.  I have cash in my wallet! WHAT?!  I find that I tend to save up more and think…is this something I really want. I have far less items in my closet with the tag on it that I bought and never wore because, “it was on sale!”

I’m not going to go on and on about how wonderful this has been for us or all the details of how the process works. I recommend getting the book and trying it for yourself!  It has done a lot of really great things for our relationship.  We’re telling our money where to go and in charge of our money.  It is very empowering. I feel like we are using God's blessings a little more wisely these days and putting ourselves in a better position to be able to help others.

If you haven't already...check out the book…hold yourself accountable…and TRY IT…even for just 31 days! J