When Your Budget Starts Working

It’s a wonderful feeling when your budget starts working!

I’ve been working hard on our budget for the last several months and things are starting to come together. Because we are being careful with our spending, our financial situation is improving bit by bit. And I am so happy!

An “Oh, no!” moment.

Here’s a little money story for this week…We drive older vehicles. They are reliable but like all vehicles, things wear out and need replaced. That happened this week. My husband’s truck needed a repair. So, we called several repair shops. Estimates ranged from $350.00 to $470.00. Ouch.

Then we talked to our friend who does mechanic work. He and my husband went and got the part (and a couple of other related parts he suggested we replace). The parts cost $112.00. We paid our friend $100.00 for his time (and it took a lot less time than the shops we talked to quoted.) So we got the whole thing done and some extra stuff for $212.00.

What this means for our budget…

As far as our budget…Back in the old days, before I was a diligent financial manager, an expense of this type would have been put on a credit card. And we likely wouldn’t have tried to find a less expensive way to fix the truck. Terrible, I know. But now, I have money set aside for car repairs. Not a huge amount of money, but enough to cover the repair. I will continue to work hard to eliminate unnecessary spending so that I can replace the money that we used.

Never underestimate the power of a plan.

I think the most important thing for me about managing money is having a plan. If I have money just hanging around, it’s going to be spent on whatever comes up. And if there is no plan, there is no limit on the spending that can happen. That was my old method of managing money. All the bills were paid, but we weren’t intentional with our spending or saving. And we certainly weren’t well-prepared for emergencies.

Now, I get almost silly when I come in under budget on our groceries, because I know that all the money I didn’t spend on groceries is going to go to something important. Something we need. Or at the very least, it will go into our savings to help us scoot back another little step from that scary financial cliff of not having enough in savings to cover things that happen in life. And things will always happen. Always.

It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.

I’m finding that living within our means is very satisfying. It’s much more satisfying than staring at a stack of bills and thinking they will never go away. Rather than complaining about not having this or that or not being able to do something, I am happy that our finances are improving. There is, as they say, a light at the end of the tunnel! It really is a wonderful thing when your budget starts working.

I’ll admit that it’s a little disappointing when something happens, like a car repair, and I see our savings go down. But I know that I can replace that money by being careful with our spending. I will happily spend time budgeting, meal-planning, bargain-hunting and cooking from scratch because I know all of these things help us save money and pay off bills.

Just keep swimming…

Setbacks will happen. Cars will break down. Doctor bills will come in the mail. It has taken me a very long time to find a method of budgeting that works well for me and that I will stick with. I’ve made money mistake after money mistake. Sometimes I feel frustrated with myself for all the money I have wasted over the years. But right now, we’re making big efforts to improve our finances. And we are starting to see results.

So keep trying. If your current budgeting system isn’t working, try something new. Any effort you make is better than giving up. And then, one day, your budget starts working. And you’ll see that all your hard work is worth it!