Tips like these helped us pay off $127K in debt. You can read our story in Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After.
Here’s my little Happy New Year gift to you. Each day in January, I’ll bring you a simple, concrete and easy to put in place tip to fuel your efforts to Save Money, Pay Off Debt, and Be Awesome this year. Looking for a quick plan? Well this might not to be the right place for you. Most things down well take time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t begin to implement systems in your life that will help you achieve your goals. I’ve said it many, many times before. Paying off debt isn’t complex. It’s just not easy. You have to punch the clock daily and do the hard work. Here’s another way to make that happen
Day 6: CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT BUDGETING
Oh the budget. There was once a time when budget was the worst “b” word you could have thrown at me. I hated budgets. I hated the idea that anyone (including me) was going to tell me how I could spend, how much I could spend, when and where I could spend it.
Budgets were out to get me. They wanted to strip me of all fun. They wanted to rain on my parade. They wanted to zap the joy of life right out of my very soul. All of this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, budgets are what can free you from the stress and weight of managing your money so that there is plenty of fun, parades, and joy to go around.
It took me a very long time to learn to alter my lens on budgeting. Until you do, you’ll never truly have success with the practice and discipline of budgeting. Budgeting isn’t a process of choking but of resuscitation, breathing life into your money.
I can’t sum up the process of budgeting in one post. There’s an entire chapter in Slaying the Debt Dragon devoted to just that and it’s quite possible that I could have written an entire book on budgeting. I will tell you that no matter how many great forms (Have you seen my FREE Printable Budget Forms?) or what software you own, if you don’t change your mind about budgeting, it will never ever work. You might get a modicum of success in the short term, but until you see the practice as one of release instead of restraint, you will continue to fail and hate budgeting.
There was once a time in my life when I rolled the dice at the grocery store checkout, wondering if we had enough money in the bank to cover the cost just rung up and placed in bags. While budgeting certainly takes effort and places stops in my life, the peace it yields far outweighs the uncertainty of not knowing.
Put on your big kid pants and begin to wade through the process if you don’t already budget. Realize that a budget isn’t a joy squelcher, but a joy bringer. Change your mind and your money will follow.
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I’m so looking forward to sharing this month of challenge and inspiration with you. Together, we can show debt who’s boss and give it a swift kick in the teeth this January and throughout the year in 2016. Away we go!
Miss the previous posts? Check out:
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: BELIEVE
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: STOP IT
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: SELL, BABY, SELL
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in The Teeth: USE CASH
- 31 Ways to Kick Debt in the Teeth: PLAN YOUR MEALS
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out Inspiration to Pay Off Debt: 30 Days of Encouragement from the Queen of Free
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal or maybe even something for free, you also help our family pay off our mortgage early. And for that, we royally thank you!
I love my budget! I love even more coupling it with cash! since I have the money in my hot little hand I’m determined to keep it. I want change back so bad the more of it I get the more I feel like I’ve won. The change goes in a tub I have in my closet and it will make saving for the “debt free trip” even shorter
I have never had a successful budget. Part of my resistance is that MO teachers get paid on the 20th of every month, and I am a 1st of the monther fresh-starter. 🙂 Excuses. I have had your printable budget sheet on my clipboard for a couple weeks, and am going to fill it out before the 20th of January. I heard you and your husband on Focus on the Family, and you did totally inspire me to budget. You have a great voice!
You are so sweet! I’m sure it’s good to put a name/face with a voice. You never know, I could have sounded like a troll or something. 😉 YES. You can do this. Give it a whirl. Totally worth it.
I use the EveryDollar app for budgeting. We agree on the budget before the month begins and then I input each purchase or bill as it’s paid. When we started out, we had very little savings, were in debt, and using credit cards for everyday expenses. We destroyed the credit cards and got on a budget.
Just shy of 8 months later, we are debt free, haven’t touched credit cards since April, and have a balance of around $1,500.00 in our savings account. What’s amazing is that we keep on finding ways to reduce our expenses now that they’re written down every month.
I really can’t imagine going back to not budgeting. It’s really peaceful and freeing.