4 Reasons Why I Do Not Budget

The word BUDGETING can stir up many emotions – depending on who you are. The thought of budgeting may be completely overwhelming. For others, it screams “organized” so therefore you can’t survive without it. Then there are others who budget out of a self-realization that if they didn’t, they would be in a heap of trouble.

When my husband and I were first married, I attempted time and time again to keep a budget. I would say I was the money-savvy one in the relationship, yet it was my husband who kept a budget on his computer. It didn’t really make sense and you’d think that combining those two minds – the money-savvy and the budget keeper – that we would still budget.

Well, I am here to tell you that we are not perfect and we do not budget.
What made us decide NOT to budget? Isn’t that an oxymoron in the world of organizing?
Not really…

Here are a few reasons why we have chosen NOT to keep a budget:

1. We do not spend money like it’s going out of style. Really, we are not big spenders. Trust me, if we allowed ourselves to be, we would be. When we first got married, we came out of college with a good amount of college debt. It made us sick to think about how much we were spending on our school loans. That is what sparked our desire to pay them off as soon as we could. That meant cutting spending or doing without, at times when we least wanted to. Yet we look back at that time and realize that it was that life experience that taught us that we can live without some things and guess what? We are still alive and we are happy. So how do we save?

• We do not go out to eat very often
• We do not have cable and try to keep our bills at a minimum
• We do not go shopping to just go shopping
• We do not buy something unless we have thought about it and have convinced ourselves that it is something that we really want (I would say “something we really need” but typically it isn’t something we absolutely NEED).

2. Budgets take a LOT of time. When I was first trying to budget, I was always getting behind. Then I realized that as I was writing everything down, it would typically only be expenses that were needed, such as groceries and gas. Spending time writing down all the things we had to spend money on anyways, just wasn’t worth it. We knew in our hearts that we were doing the best we could with our money, while still trying to live. We also would rather spend our time trying to save money, than constantly trying to figure out where our money is going through budgeting.

3. We always know how much money we have. We keep each other accountable. As much as I appreciate online banking, I still keep a register of all of our purchases. Making sure I write down EVERY SINGLE RECEIPT (in using our debit card), it makes me question whether I would feel guilty writing down the amount on that receipt or not. It helps to have a guilty conscience like I do, but needing to physically write it down, helps.

4. We always know what we are spending our money on. Having to write down our receipts and also showing each other what we purchased, also helps us keep each other accountable. If we are worried about what each other might think of our purchase, then we should question whether we should’ve bought it in the first place.

If budgeting is something that is too time-consuming for you, think about ways in which you can ditch the budget, but still stay on track.

Do you budget? If so, what are some tips you have for budgeting?
If you do not budget, why not?
I would love to hear your thoughts!