Not Ready To Let Go Of My Training Wheels
I was reading The Simple Dollar’s Mailbag yesterday, and Trent talked about how he sees a budget as training wheels - it teaches you the skills to use to keep your spending, savings, and investing in balance. That’s a great analogy, except I wonder if it really works that way for everyone. Does there come a point in every person’s life where they no longer need a budget, and can move forward with the same financial purpose and goals without sliding backwards into old habits?
If there is, I know I’m not there yet. When a week goes by, and I haven’t really looked at my budget or entered my expenses as they come in, somehow I slip into spending just a little more here and there, and find that when I do check in, I’ve gone over in one category or another. Not by much, and I don’t completely blow my budget, but I find that I still don’t do moderation well. I go from feeling like enough money is coming in to take care of some miscellaneous needed expenses, to feeling like I am spending money left and right and begin to panic. There still doesn’t seem to be an internal barometer for me that steers me along the correct course.
I’m not ready to let go of my training wheels. I have hope that I will internally learn to balance, and be comfortable with spending when I need to and saving what I want to, but I know that I have a long way to go to get there. Any spending makes me feel panicky, and no amount of saving puts my mind at ease. I don’t know what it will take to turn that corner, but I look forward to finding out.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
It’s all about the state of mind. We check our budget once per week. You just eventually learn, “hey, I can’t spend more than $50 this week at the grocery store.”
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
I look at my budget several times a week and make entries when they come in as well. If I don’t look at my budget, things will start to slip my mind. I think not looking at your budget has more to do with how much slack is in your budget. If you have more slack, then yeah it doesn’t matter if you spend an extra $5 here or there.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“Any spending makes me feel panicky, and no amount of saving puts my mind at ease.”
That’s exactly how I feel. The tricky part is harnessing that feeling for good (i.e. making better choices) and not evil (i.e. worrying, feeling deprived). I also need to be careful about checking my budget weekly; my mind constantly overestimates.
Oh, and I wanted to let you know that I tagged you for a “four things” meme. Feel free not to reply, but as they say… it’s a pleasure just to be nominated?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I’ve been tracking my budget since September 2006 and I still feel out of control when I am not able to update it daily or every few days, like during the past month. I think of it like a pair of golden handcuffs, because it’s really useful, but also a restraint.