People often drag themselves into my office because things have gotten so bad that they have resigned themselves to the fact that they will have to go on a budget. They longingly look at their credit cards as if they were a child going off to college for the first time. Oh how they are going to miss having them around. There were so many great times. Then they glare in my direction, daring me to try and take their precious children (credit cards) from them.

Obviously, this is a dramatization. But it represents the attitude that people often have. Getting on a budget is the end of life as they know it. It is a last resort to save their financial life. But a budget is not meant to make your life miserable. A budget is not meant to say you can no longer spend Money. A budget is not meant to make you the worst parent to walk on the face of the earth. A budget is meant to empower you. A budget is meant to eliminate the stress and tension of your family finances. A budget is meant to improve the communication in your house. A budget is meant to eliminate the guilt of spending money. A budget is meant to help you decide how to spend your money.

Many of my clients have said “we tried a budget, but it didn’t work.” While it may be true that the budget didn’t work, was it because budgets don’t work or because that budget didn’t work. If a budget is such a valuable tool, then why do most of them fail?

Budgets fail for many reasons. In fact, I guarantee that your first budget WILL not be a complete success. Everyone’s first budget will be off because of expenses they forgot and expenses they were not anticipating. If you have kids, the beginning of the school year is the perfect example. We all know we are going to have book fees, school supplies, new clothes and school lunches. But we may have forgotten about activity fees, Boys/Girl Scouts dues, athletic fees, school pictures… Then add the list of unanticipated expenses to the list of forgotten expenses. This list may include: auto repairs, speeding tickets, medical expenses, pet expenses…

So what steps can we take to prepare ourselves better for these unanticipated and forgotten expenses?

Step 1: Talk to your spouse.

(I’m sure we can all improve in this area.) Get their input on areas that need funding in the coming month.

Step 2: Prioritize.

Just because new expenses occur, it doesn’t mean that our income has increased. We must be willing to prioritize. Determine if that expense needs to be paid now or can it wait and be placed in our next budget. If it needs to be paid now, what expense can we trim or delay?

Step 3: Pay down your debt as quickly as possible.

This will allow you to increase your Emergency Fund savings and also allow you to save for categories such as auto repairs.

Step 4: Use a Memory Jogger List.

This is a list of items that will help jog your memory when you are preparing your monthly budget.

Step 5: Learn from your mistakes.

This obviously goes for everything we do. Remember what works, but more importantly, remember what doesn’t.

Step 6: Do a monthly budget.

By doing a budget more often, it allows you to concentrate on a smaller period of time and makes it easier to handle adjustments.

While you may never achieve that perfect budget, you will get better and better if you do a written, monthly budget and use that budget to guide your financial decisions.

“We cannot direct the wind…but we can adjust our sails.” John Maxwell

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