BankScoop
Are you wondering why your budget isn’t working? Look in the mirror! WiseBread.com had a great article about sneaky ways you cheat on your budget. Like they said, “No one likes a cheater — your budget included!” In their article they list 6 ways you cheat on your budget (aka spending plan, as we like to call it). Here are the 6, with our comments added.
[quote_box_left]”A spending plan isn’t going to follow itself, so if you get into a pattern of cheating on your budget and making excuses, you might never stop overspending. An honest examination of your budget and spending behaviors might reveal clues such as these as to why your budgets haven’t worked in the past.” (WiseBread)[/quote_box_left]
- Overstating Your Income: Overtime pay and bonuses are not a given. Don’t assume you will get it every pay period or every year. When planning ahead list the pay you KNOW you will receive. After you get your actual paycheck you can add it to your budget, as long as you add how that money will be spent, too. It’s best to plan on using it to pay down your debts or add to your savings. Do not plan on using it to pay for essential expenses.
- Denial About How Much You Actually Spend: Yes, that chocolate milk and snack you purchase at the gas station every time you fill up the car adds up! And you probably spend WAY more on clothes/gas/groceries/etc. than you think you do. Be realistic.
- Never Reviewing Your Budget: Well, this seriously will not work. Expenses change, prices increase, unexpected or new expenses pop up. You need to constantly adjust.
- Keeping Your Money Too Accessible: “But I only took $20 out of the ATM…” Okay, so what did you spend it on, then? Do you have any idea? Carrying cash around, and not getting receipts so you know what you spent it on, is a budget killer. So is using credit cards whenever you find something you “have” to have that you didn’t budget for.
- Forgetting to Budget for Splurges: This is the “blow” category we talk about in Controlling Your Money. If you really, really want that chocolate milk and snack at the gas station, use your blow money for it!
- Stealing Money From Other Spending Categories: They aren’t talking about when you realize that you waaaay overbudgeted in one category. If that happens, you should reallocate the excess to debt payments or savings. They are talking about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Those times when you spent all your eating out money so decide to take money from the grocery category “this one time” to eat out again. Do. Not. Do. It. Just don’t, okay?
What other ways might you be cheating on your budget? If your budget always seems to fall short, it’s not the budget’s fault. You need to be realistic when setting up your spending plan, and you really need to follow it or it won’t work.
Click here for the full article from wisebread.com and “Nix these small budget habits that are causing big harm to your finances”.
