Dh and I were just having this very "in depth" conversation last night about why we feel like living on our budget makes us "feel" poor. We both feel like we have been living on a budget and feeling gulity about buying extras but we are saving for the wrong things. Like we lived since August on a very tight budget so we could put money away for Christmas. Now that all the Christmas money has been spent I look back and realize that we should not be living on a budget so we can save up for things.... but we should be living on a budget so we can feel financially secure.
I was thinking that if I am going to feel gulity about making extra purchases and live tight and not eat out then I want to be able to have a nice savings and own our cars for goodness sake (which we do not). Becuase then I feel like at least we will have tangabile evidence of why living on a budget is worth it......

Does anyone else get what I am saying??? Is anyone else tired of living on a budget to save for those small things, that really do not make us happy or more secure?

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CaRtEr
April 19, 2008

I hear you! I have always known about budgets- my parents used them- I did when I was a single mom and now in married life dh and i have a budget- so for me it is second nature. I have friends that don't budget their money and I can't fathom how they live not knowing where their money goes. I have one friend who is a single mom and she spends hundreds a month in cash and doesn't know where it goes and she isn't saving for retirement or anything. We have a budget for security mainly. Yes we save in some areas if we have upcoming expenses or big ticket things- like a vacation. I try not to think of our budget as a negative thing- but more positively. I am able to see each month how much we are saving for retirement, in savings and for the kids college. It makes cutting back on frivilous things much easier.

I know what you mean, MNMOMMA, about watching friends who are totally unaware of thier spending habits! We used to live like that, but since watching the Debt Diet on Oprah, we have made a huge effort to know what are means are and to live within them!

And, Aleise02, I think saving for Christmas is a great budget technique! Knowing what you would like to spend, and planning for it help keep the budget in line.

We have been on a serious budget for about a two years. We had quite a bit of debt, but we have knocked half of that out, and our first mortgage will be paid off at the beginning of 2008. We can already see the benefits of "feeling poor" -- it's making us rich!

Marlene

Aleise02 I think it was a really good idea to put back the money for Christmas in advance, my dh has a Christmas savings account set up at work, and when he gets paid the money automatically goes into it, so we never have to worry about spending it. Alot of times you do have to start out w/the smaller goals to be able to budget your monthly income. I think alot of it comes w/time, now that you have started to budget and have really cut back, you are moving on to some bigger goals, like paying off your vehicles. Sometimes living w/in your means does make you "feel" poor, I think it's just because of all the "wants" we have!!

Yes! It's not the stuff that makes you happy and content. Financial security and peace of mind is lasting, the stuff isn't. You can still have a great life and feel "rich" without having to spend a lot of money. That's really what this whole site is about. It's not so much saving up to be able to spend more, it's saving to enhance quality of life.

It's really great you've come to that realization. Now you can move forward knowing that.

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I absolutely know what you mean. I am trying to get dh and I on a tighter budget in order to pay off debt and build our savings. I don't want to have more things because we budgeted, I want to see bigger numbers in our savings account. That is what would make me truly happy.

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