I’ve had conversations with many of you listeners on why budgeting is so hard. The number one reason is that it is overwhelming, stressful, and downright boring.
And I completely agree 100%. Looking at your budget on a daily basis, reconciling your expenses and income on your budget tracker is not fun.
I would much rather be watching something on Netflix or Disney Plus than look at my budget on a daily basis.
I remember in college I would plan out my day hour for hour from the time that I got up to the time that I went to bed. There was absolutely no free time in my schedule. When I woke up in the morning, I had to drop off my son to parent’s house, go to work, use my lunch hour at work to finish my homework, go to school at night, then pick up my son after class and do more homework at night.
I remember I went to the doctor one day because I wasn’t feeling well and she flat out told me to chill out and take a break. It was funny because she was so black and white about it. No sugar coating, no saying “poor you”, just flat out .. TAKE A BREAK.
I can remember she was kind of like rolling her eyes at me… like dude, you are taking life way too seriously and you just need to relax.
Now when I think about it, it makes me laugh. Because I was taking life too seriously and not giving myself a chance to breathe. Yes, as a single mom at the time I needed to take care of my kid, go to class, go to work so I could support myself but I didn’t need to structure my day hour for hour with tasks that needed my brain cells every minute of the day.
So I say this because I don’t want you to hate your budget. It is not your budget’s fault that you are so stressed out about money and feel overwhelmed. Listen, if your current budgeting technique is not working for you, give yourself permission to change it. I use an excel spreadsheet because I like using excel formulas but if you want to do a paper budget or an app, do it. The method really doesn’t matter. It just matters that you do a budget.
Think of it this way. I watched The Imagineering Story on Disney Plus and did you know that that middle circle area in Disneyland is called the plaza or the hub?
When Disneyland was being built, they had built the hub and that was the heart of Disneyland. Out came four themed lands (Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Frontierland) that made up Walt’s interests.
As I was watching this, I thought hey this is just like your budget. Your budget is the plaza…. Your heart… and from the hub where it houses your income, you tell your money where to go. You can tell part of it to go to groceries, part of it to go to savings, debt, and so on.
It’s been many years since I’ve started budgeting, but I also have budget burn out from time to time. And when I watched this, it was like PHEW.
You know what? My budget is not bad because I’m going to tell it what to do. And it was like this weight that was lifted off of my shoulders.
So I hope that gives you a good framework of how to overcome the overwhelm and lessen the grief from budget burnout.
Here are three practical tips that I want to leave with today.
1. Take the day off
Just like my doctor says, you have to just relax. Take the day off from looking at your budget.
I don’t want to look at my budget on a daily basis. I love my budgeting spreadsheet but I don’t want to go in every single day and look at my numbers.
On the days that I don’t want to update my spreadsheet, I just don’t spend money. When I think about it, I don’t even need to spend money on a daily basis anyway. I have food in my fridge, if there are any bills that are withdrawn automatically from my bank account, I can update it the next day or a couple of days later (just make sure that you have the money in your bank account).
Then I can focus on other things. One of the things that I love to do is read cozy mystery books cause it takes my mind off of the real world and even though I try to read at least one non-fiction book a month, sometimes I just want to get lost in cozy mystery fiction book.
So tip #1 is to take the day off from your looking at your budget.
2. Remember the end goal
If your current goal is to get out of debt, that is not the end goal. The end goal is to have the freedom to do what you want with your money. It took us 4 years to pay off $90,000 of debt but just one year we paid off $41,000. The difference was that in that last year, we focused on the end goal which was to do whatever we wanted with that money. Sure, we had goals to move to a bigger place, increase our emergency fund, get takeout whenever we wanted… but that wasn’t the END GOAL.
We had goals that were bigger than just supplying our basic needs. Someday, I want to visit the children that I sponsor through Compassion International. I want to be able to give more money to my church and other charities that I care about. I want to be able to leave an inheritance to my children’s children. I wanted to build a business around helping people get out of debt so that they can achieve their dreams too.
Having money makes the mission possible.
Tip #2 is remember the END goal
3. Reward yourself when you reach a milestone.
So one of the things that keeps me from budget burnout is setting a goal to spend some of the money that I’ve saved on things that I really want. I told myself that when we paid off the last of my student loan, I was going to buy an espresso machine. And it was so worth it.
It wasn’t a ton of money but it definitely wasn’t a small expense.
I do not regret spending that amount of money on coffee because that brings me joy on a daily basis.
The milestone doesn’t have to be huge. Celebrate when you paid off your smallest debt. Go treat yourself to a pedicure or go out to eat.
One of my weekly goals is to work out at least 5 times a week … working out with Jillian Michaels on her app.
And her workout HIIT workouts really kick my butt. This is how my day goes. After I get off work, I put on my workout clothes. Then I get out my workout mat, put my socks on.
Then find 585, 378 things to do as an excuse to delay my workout and by the time I know it, it’s two hours later.
But I do it because I know in the end, I’ll feel better… I got all of the stress from the day out of system…
And on the weekend, I can reward myself with a treat.
There’s this place called Waoli Kitchen and Bakeshop that makes an amazing chocolate croissant.
It’s like the best thing ever. Do you remember those Milano cookie commercials where the actress just rolls her eyes back cause it’s so good.
Anyway, my point is that if I work out 5x a week to a gruelling Jillian Michaels workout, I can reward myself with a special treat and not feel bad about it
Or feel like I just wasted a whole week of working out and I might as well just forget about the whole thing.
Set a big goal to take a trip somewhere.
If you need inspiration, listen to my friend Melanie Yamaguchi’s episode on the podcast where she gives you her best travel tips.
After I read all of her blog posts, I made a list of places I want to visit once I start travelling again.
The third tip is to Set a goal and a timeframe and reward yourself when you’ve reached that goal.
Your brain will thank you and you’ll be like phew! Now I can breathe again and budgeting doesn’t seem so draining anymore.
ENDING:
I hope you have enjoyed this episode. If you like the content, would you do me a favor and subscribe and share this episode?
Also, for a limited time I am offering a free 20 minute strategy session where we can put a plan together to help you take action on your next step. Whether it is getting on a budget or how to increase your income… let’s chat on where you are stuck and get you back on track so you can take the next step to move forward. All you have to do is email me at jennifer@budgetdivas.com and say I’d like to redeem my free strategy session. Because the key is not to do all the steps at once, the key is find out where you are stuck so you can take the NEXT step.