Have you been struggling with paying down debt? Or maybe there’s just too much month at the end of the money? And somehow, it seems to happen month after month.
You’ve been trying to budget and spend carefully, but things happen. Life gets in the way. The car breaks down, the kids need lunch money, and your coworker is collecting money to get a gift for Sharon’s new baby. (Even though you aren’t even exactly sure who Sharon is.)
You may even have made the time to put together a careful budget, only to find that you’ve gone so far off course within a few days that you just give it up. After a while, you begin to think that there is just no way to get ahead.
Don’t give up just yet.
Creating that budget was absolutely the right move. It put you on the right road to your destination (getting better control of your finances). You just didn’t realize how many potholes were on that road.
I’m going to help you fill those holes in your budget. Once we smooth out your path, you’ll find it much easier to reach your goals.
There is No One Alive Who is Youer Than You
…to borrow a Dr. Seuss quote.
There isn’t going to be a one size fits all solution to this problem. Let’s talk about your unique situation.
Your Budget
You cannot do a Google search and find a budget that will populate for you. No one can. Your income, your types of bills, the amount of money your particular family in your particular situation, those things are unique to you.
That’s why it’s so important for each family to create their own budgets. Not only that, but to do a new one every month to meet that month’s special needs.
In my home, we need more money for propane in the winter time, and more money for kid’s activities in the summer. I can’t just set up a budget one time and expect it to work automatically.
Your Habits
Another part of what makes you, you, is your habits. For better or for worse, we all have our own habits when it comes to spending money.
I guarantee that most people have budget busters. Those habits that have crept into our lives and now have such a stronghold that they are automatic. We don’t consider whether we should buy an item or not. At this point, it’s assumed that we will buy it.
Once a habit reaches that level, it’s hard to even see it for what it is. And if others try to point it out to us, we are resistant to acknowledging any truth in their points.
How to Have a Breakthrough
How do I know about this? Because I’ve done it myself. Our family had developed some bad habits that were leaking money everywhere. We couldn’t gain any traction on our goal to pay off debt until we faced those habits and made lasting changes.
It wasn’t easy, but slowly we gathered tools that, together, helped us to gain more ground in a few months than we had done across previous years of trying.
[Tweet “Find financial freedom! Identify and destroy your budget busters. #debt #money”]
How to Identify and Destroy Your Budget Busters
I’ve put together a short course to help you identify your own unique budget busters. I’ll help you find them and give you tips to destroy them. Once you eliminate those budget busters, you’ll find that your path to financial freedom feels a lot more…free.
Speaking of that great word, the course is absolutely free. No gotchas or hard sales. It will arrive in your email inbox and give you simple steps that you can take immediately. You’ll have access to a special Facebook group for extra help and encouragement.
I promise that your email is safe with me! I will never sell it or give it to anyone. My readers are far too important to me for that.
You will also receive a free weekly email subscription with extra money saving tips and encouragement. Opt out easily at any time.
The challenge begins on Wednesday, June 8th. Sign up at any time, and it will automatically come to you when it goes live.
You can learn more here (including my first ever blog video…gulp!).
Or, if you are ready to sign up for the challenge now, just enter your email below.
Are you ready to take control over your budget busters?
It’s like you knew I needed this this month xD Can’t wait! 😀
Yay! Happy to have you along for the challenge. 🙂
This is great! You are going to motivate so many people!
Thank you! I definitely hope that others can learn from our experience.
First time visit to your site! Thanks for these wise words!
So happy to have you here! I hope you’ll visit again soon. 🙂
Ooooh, sounds awesome. We’re always working on our budget… shifting, making changes, assessing. We’re coming up on our mid-year review – it will be interesting to see how things change afterwards.
Thanks for sharing (and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop).
Wishing you a lovely day!
xoxo
Great post. There are so many things that can take our money and we don’t even know it. Thank you.
I like how you pointed out that everyone’s budget busters are going to be different, and nobody is going to find the magic article on the Internet that tells them exactly what they are. Depending on your family shape/size/age and where you live, what your lifestyle is like, they’re going to be different for everyone.
#SHINEbloghop
Yes, and I think that the method for fixing those leaks that works best for each family will look a little different, too. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations on the new course and the video! I am still resisting video as long as I can. ha ha. Thanks for sharing on #FridayFrivolity.
My worst budget busters are just being forgetful. I usually forget to budget things like the optometrist and contacts every year and raid my emergency savings to pay for them. It’s pretty stupid – especially since it’s happened more than once!
I love that you stressed that one budget strategy doesn’t fit every person. We are all different so there is no one size fits all strategy. You need to find the system that will help you be successful otherwise budgeting will just be another habit that ends up getting abandoned after a few weeks.
Really sensible advice- especially how your budget needs are different at different times of year. Spot on. It’s planning ahead for the pricier months that we all need to remember!
You are going to help so many people Jamie! We’ve finally agreed on our budget for our house, and even though there have been kinks, it helps so much to have a plan in place when the temptations arise. Thanks for sharing on the Homestead Blog Hop, I pinned!
Thanks so much for the pin! You’re definitely right about the plan, because those temptations are always there.
This post definitely has me thinking about what my budget busters are! What a great idea for a course!
Great information and tips. Thanks for sharing.
I totally agree with you! I love how you assess everyone as an individual and realize that everyone has different ways of managing their finances. It really puts things into perspective! Thanks so much for sharing your tips!
This is great! I can think of a couple of things that are probably budget busters for us. I just don’t think that hubby would be on board to eliminate them. :/
My Hubby and I have definitely had to compromise on some things. And others, I just go ahead and budget for because it’s not worth fighting about something that important to him. Marriage is definitely all about compromise!
We had to do this and it helped us see exactly where our money was going. It’s easy to forget the little items, but saving our receipts for a month really opened our eyes. It’s amazing how the little things add up and how eliminating the un-needed things can help your bottom line!