Budget, Smudget!

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Common wisdom has it that if you create a budget you will save money. Creating a budget also is a responsible adult thing to do, blah, blah, blah. "They" also say you should balance your checkbook, well I don't do that either. I never even thought about a budget until I got married and had to combine finances. My idea of a budget was when I ran out of money then I quit spending, which isn't quite as irresponsible as it sounds. I didn't have a credit card that I charged things on so I was just spending what I had.

Then I got married and my husband was giving me money when I needed it, that was a pretty cool situation for a little while. However, when I spent $200 in one day and wanted more money let's just say my husband was "concerned". I wanted more money (I mean I hadn't even bought any books yet, come on!). Well of course my husband wanted to know where I spent the money, a reasonable request I thought. So I told him I spent $30 on gas, $50 at the doctors, $40 at the grocery store (on his cigarettes if I recall correctly), $30 on a birthday present for my nephew, $20 on these really cute shoes, and I still had some money left.

So he was relieved and offered me more money. At this point I could have just taken the money and moved on but, I wanted to know how much money I could spend. Since this wasn't just my income and my bills anymore I didn't want to spend $20 on really cute shoes if we hadn't paid the water bill yet! So I kept asking, "How much is my money?". It took a while before my husband understood the question but, I wanted to know. If you give me a goal I am pretty good at meeting it but, I didn't know the goal.

This opened a whole new discussion! So we started talking about how much we made together and things we had to pay (car, rent, etc.).

Guess what, we were creating a budget and I didn't even know it! Okay, now let me tell you the very best thing about a budget. When you get all the have-to pays out of the way, then you can decide how you want to spend what's left. Vacation in Tahiti? Save for retirement? Lunches out with the gang? Books? This is the beautiful part, you decide. I now have a book budget, I mean how cool is that?

Okay, you have to ask yourself - How often is it that the "adult responsible thing to do" also works out as the thing that is best for you? (You don't have to admit the answer out loud if you don't want to). I know in my case it happens way too often. So now the girl who still doesn't balance her checkbook is touting the effectiveness of budgets, who knew?

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Wendy Pitts has 1 articles online

Wendy and Ronnie Pitts, own and operate Austin Valley Software Corporation, a web software development business. More information about AVSC can be found at http://www.austinvalley.com

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Budget, Smudget!

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Effective Budgeting

Publisher: BMcBride

It is important to keep ahead of your budget and develop a plan for you to invest each month in your business and in your personal life. Out of all of the money that you earn plan to invest a percentage of it for each of the different things that you want to do in order to make you get the maximum happiness out of your life.

Budgeting Rewards

Publisher: John Steely

A goal like financial freedom takes a long time. You need to reward yourself along the way, or you will lose the energy needed to complete the task.

Performance budgeting

Publisher: Carrol Rogers

Planning is the primary function of any management and most of the planning relates to the individual situations and individual proposals. However, this has to be supplemented and reinforced by over all periodic planning followed by continuous comparison of the actual performance with the planning performance.

Capital Budgeting

Publisher: Benny

A firm may be interested to invest its current funds most efficiently in the long term assets in anticipation of an expected flow of benefits over a series of years. This decision by the management is called as "Capital Budgeting"

Performance Budgeting

Publisher: Ishan Goradiya

For government organizations it’s always a pressure kind of a situation to maintain the transparency of their accounting activities to show how well and efficiently they are managing and using the public’s hard earned money .

Budget Shmudget

Publisher: i-to-i TEFL

If you have an urge to travel the world and see what more is out there – great! But, are you put off by not having enough money to do so? If you're thinking about travelling the first thing you'll want to work out is your budget and the first question you'll ask yourself is how can I afford to do it?

Budget Travel

Publisher: Willis jeff

Have no worries about how are you going to spend your summer or spring vacations. It is supposed to be a real break for you, so stop the bother and just hang on to what all inclusive vacation deals have in store for you.The Grand Canyon is an amazing place, so I have dreamed to visit it since I was a little girl. And I has fulfilled my dream in June this year.

Holiday Budgeting

Publisher: Laura Hartson

Holidays are a great time to relax and chill out; forgetting the stresses of our daily lives and sunning ourselves, or indulging on some extreme sports. Whatever your choice of holiday, its a chance to get away. But we save for them all year round, beginning the process of saving for next year as we get off the plane from this year's holiday.

Budget Cuts

Publisher: Beth

The New York Times has recently reported the loss of almost $38 billion in Obama administration. The government is of course trying its best to gain the trust of the people due to the ailing economy t...

Budget Decorating

Publisher: Rena Bullard

Let's face facts, the economy is not what it used to be so, consequently, it is affecting everything from how we entertain to how we decorate our spaces. People are spending more time at home with their families, and are entertaining friends at home more so than ever before, so, it makes sense to want to spruce up your space and make it as inviting as possible. But, be sensible otherwise you will defeat the purpose.

This article was published on 2010/03/27