Budgeting Your Money without Feeling Depressed

 If you are like most people, you cringe at the thought of putting restrictions on how, when and what you spend your money on.  Since this is exactly what a budget does, most people don’t want to know anything about them.

Does this sound like you?

Are you in debt?

Then maybe you need to rethink your views about budgets.

The fact is, when developed properly and when customized to your specific, personal preferences and needs, budgets (or spending plans as they are sometimes called) can be quite workable. At the very least, a budget can provide guidance for you as you monitor your own spending habits.

Let’s forget about money for a moment. Let’s think about time instead.

There are 24 hours in a day. No one in the world can change this absolute fact. Therefore, each person must budget their time in order to do what needs to be done within each day. Each person must prioritize their activities, alter and rearrange the way they spend their time, in accordance with the changing circumstances of daily life.  You’ll notice that people frequently look at a clock or a watch a few times each day. This is to be sure that we are pacing the usage of our time correctly.

If we don’t look at a clock every so often, we can “lose” time. Have you ever experienced anything like the following? (it’s written about a man, but could just as easily be about a woman):

It’s Friday night. The weekend is here! Boy it’s been a long workweek. A hard-working man is finally relaxing after dinner. He begins to think about some things he wants to accomplish on Saturday. “I’m going to get up nice and early,” he thinks to himself, “so I can clean the garage, enjoy a picnic, see a movie and go out for a light dinner with my family. Yup. Tomorrow is going to be a fun and productive day.”

Scenario A. Saturday morning rolls around, and he ends up sleeping in late because he didn’t set his alarm clock. At 11 AM he finally wakes up to the sun bursting through his window. He hangs around for an hour sipping a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. A while later, he grabs some lunch and then talks to a friend on the phone. He flips the TV on because his friend just reminded him that the baseball game is coming on in a few minutes.  He watches the game, complete with extra innings, and when the game is over he watches the post-game show. He looks at the kitchen clock and notes that it is now 5 PM. His wife comes into the living room and asks: “I was just wondering – have you cleaned the garage yet?” He tells her that no, he hasn’t. “I just don’t know where the time went!” he explains. She becomes annoyed and a little hurt too, because he also hadn’t bothered to pursue having a picnic with her earlier in the day. She is in no mood to have dinner and see a movie with him and the kids.

Scenario B. The gentleman in our story decides that he is going to do things differently on Sunday. He guesses he needs about 3 hours or so to clean the garage. He thinks that a picnic at about 1 PM would be a perfect time of day. A movie at about 7 or 7:30 would work well because it wouldn’t be too late for the kids to be out.

Before he goes to bed on Saturday night, he sets his alarm clock for 8:30 AM. When it rings the next morning, he gets up, takes a shower, puts his work clothes on, grabs a cup of coffee and eats some cereal, and then heads to the garage by 9:15 AM. At around 12 noon, his garage is looking neat and clean. He takes a quick shower, finds his wife, and suggests they go out for that picnic. They leave with the picnic basket in hand at about 12:45, arrive at the park at about 1 PM, and enjoy a lovely afternoon together. They leave the park at about 3:30, and arrive Home at close to 4 PM.

He decides to take an hour long nap while his wife reviews the movie schedule in their Sunday paper. Before taking a snooze, he sets his alarm for 5:15. When the alarm goes off, he wakes up feeling refreshed. He and his family go to dinner by 6 PM and catch a 7:20 PM movie.  Everyone is happy.

Are you getting the idea? In Scenario A, the person did not schedule his time, and therefore it all drifted away. The goals he had set out to accomplish were lost. His wife and kids were disappointed. He himself felt guilty about not living up to his obligations and upsetting his wife.

In Scenario B, he took an extra moment to prepare by deciding in advance how to spend his time. He used certain tools: he figured out approximately how long each task would take, and then figured out the best time to do them. He set an alarm clock, and stuck to the basic plan, more or less. Important tasks were accomplished, and everyone had a fun day. He met his obligations, had been able to make time to enjoy himself, and felt a sense of accomplishment.
 

TIME IS MONEY
Schedule your Time; “Schedule” Your Money

Most of us work, or go to school or have some need of a schedule. We know we have to be somewhere at a certain time, and leave at a certain time. We routinely budget our time to accommodate these expectations.

We must readily accept and learn how to do the same with our money.

Please review the budget that follows. Complete it. Find areas that you may be able to save some money, or ways to re-allocate your money from one category to another. If you need help, please contact one of our certified counselors who will assist and encourage you.

Remember: with a little planning and by establishing some simple guidelines,
you can budget your money just as easily and routinely as you budget your time.

Housing	Current	Proposed	Transportation	Current	Proposed
Mortgage or Rent	$________	$________	Car Payment	$________	$_______
Second Mortgage	$________	$________	Gasoline (flex)	$________	$_______
Property taxes	$________	$________	Parking/tolls	$________	$_______
Homeowner's Insurance	$________	$________	Public Transportation	$________	$_______
Total	$________	$________	Total	$________	$_______
Utilities			Medical Bills
Electricity (flex)	$________	$________	Co-Pays Drs Visits	$________	$_______
Gas or heat (flex)	$________	$________	Co-Pays Pharmacy	$________	$_______
Water/Sewer (flex)	$________	$________	Other Medical	$________	$________
Telephone (flex)	$________	$________	Total	$________	$________
Cell Phone (flex)	$________	$________
Internet Provider (flex)	$________	$________	Miscllaneous for Household
Total	$________	$________	Clothing (flex)
			Cigarettes (flex)
Insurance			All hair/groomin (flex)
Health/Dental (out of pock)	$________	$________	Gym member (flex)	$________	$________
Auto	$________	$________	Union/profl member	$________	$________
Life	$________	$________	Charities (flex)	$________	$________
Total			Other major bills	$________	$________
			Total
Entertainment
Dinners out (flex)	$________	$________	Revolving Debt
Lunches out (flex)	$________	$________	Credit Cards	$________	$________
Movies (flex)	$________	$________	Student Loans	$________	$________
Other (flex)	$________	$________	Personal Loans	$________	$________
Total	$________	$________	Other	$________	$________
			Total	$________	$________
Groceries
Food (flex)	$________	$________	DEBT/INCOME SUMMARY
Health & Beauty (flex)	$________	$________	Total Income	$________	$________
Dry cleaning/laundry	$________	$________	minus	$________	$________
Lottery tix/OTB etc (flex)	$________	$________	Total Monthly Expenses	$________	$________
Total	$________	$________	equals	$________	$________
			BALANCE OF FUNDS	$________	$________

If your Balance of Funds is a negative number (deficit), review your flexible expenses for necessary adjustments. If it is a positive number (surplus),consider putting more if it into savings or use the extra money to pay down your debts.

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