BREAK YOUR BUDGET: A Resolution to Change

With January 2020 at a close, I have been doing some thinking on “Resolutions”. New Year, new everything right? Although, the traditional “resolution” has become less main stream, the alternative “life style change” is similar. I like the idea of change better than a resolution. Rather than a challenge to beat, change sound like a positive statement. This year, I have a goal to change my perspective by initiating “BREAK YOUR BUDGET”. More on this in a bit.

Resolution vs. Change

At first, a New Year’s resolution and an attempted lifestyle change sound the same, but look closer. How often do resolutions mean definitive statements? I will… go to the gym, eat better, do cool things, or I won’t… be lazy, eat worse, be the same.

Resolution

It is easy to break a resolution as if you broke your ability to claim it.

“In 2020, I will not eat chocolate!”

*Eats Chocolate*

“Well, I guess I ate chocolate in 2020, so there goes that idea.”

Resolutions can feel like a restriction or task that needs to be accomplished all year. It can be a burden.

Change

Changes are more friendly. In 2020, I started…insert hobby, habit, or other cool thing here.

Changes set sights on who you want to be and they give you a whole year to start doing that cool thing. There is no quitting a change the way you can break a resolution. You can always pick back up where you left off.

So what is your change that you are making this year?

Break Your Budget: An Introduction

Lately, I’ve been thinking about all of the joys of life. The good things. I have been reflecting on the things that are important to me. I firmly believe that more of our resources, our time, talents, and treasures, should be dedicated proportionately to the things that are important to us.

I also want to be less focused on my money. Just as time, talents, and treasure should be divided relative to importance, so should our attention. What ever is most important to us should be what we are thinking of the most in our day. In 2019, I think our finances got too much of my attention.

The engineer in me would just love to put some numbers to this so that I can measure exactly what percentage should be dedicated to each area of my life, but I will put that off for now. I want to get started with a step towards change rather than waste my time over optimizing something that doesn’t need analysis.

Instead, I will just create a series of posts titled, “BREAK YOUR BUDGET: on….” and then I will decide an area of my budget to wreck that month. This will be some increase in average spending for the month to put more emphasis on the things I love and care about.

You Need a Budget to Break

In order to break a budget, there has to be a budget to begin with. Already a budget pro? Feel free to jump to step 4. Need a budget? Start here or check out You Need a Budget.

1. Track Your Expenses

For the past 4 months, I have tracked every expense that Katie and I have spent any amount of money on.

When you do this, it will open your eyes. We used Mint to do this. Amazon and Walmart tend to sneak up on us for baby items and miscellaneous items for around the house that I would have never thought to budget for. But once you know what is coming out you can make an active choice.

2. Build Your Budget

Put your expenses into categories and add them up each month.

Once you know exactly what you spend for a few months, you can be realistic. If you didn’t track your expenses, you might be able to tell me how much you pay for rent or gas each month, but what about household items or even food? I would have been way off, but now I have a real basis to go off of.

Next I can look at that and decide if I like the numbers I’m seeing.

3. Adjust

The first step of tracking your money that leaves and enters your account helps you to actually make a conscious decision in each area of your life. This is a good time to take each item and ask if it is worth that cost. Here is an example.

It is easy to sign up for five different streaming services. You have had Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney Plus, Vudu, Apple TV, Youtube TV, Xfinity, and Super TV X-Stream Unlimited Family Plus Plus Deluxe Titanium for months now. At $10-15 each per month, you add up the numbers and you might be spending more here than on that hobby that you wanted to start years ago! This is where you can ask yourself which of these services have you gone a month without using but paid for anyway? That is kind of a waste and should be the first to go.

You can go all out and slash the budget down if you want to save for a big expense some day, or you can just cut off some of the fat. But making a knowledgeable choice about will make you a happier person.

4. BREAK YOUR BUDGET

So you’ve been living on a budget for a while. Great! If you have made it this far, you have probably thought about optimizing or choosing to spend in each area the way you want to.

Once you have done this, the hard work is over. You will find that there will be some months where you spend way more for various reasons, but the next month will always settle back down to around your average. Especially if those recurring expenses, rent/mortgage, car, and insurance make up a big portion, the extra snack from the vending machine at work wont blow that up.

Now what?

Pick an area that is important to you. Maybe set a cap on it, maybe don’t. And decide how you want to throw a little extra money at that area to show your love and appreciation for it!

Budget Cuts and Budget Ups

This is the fun part. By cutting out X-stream Unlimited Super Plus HD, now you have all kinds of cash to spare each month. This is a great thing!

So often, budgets are put into a negative category. People hate it! Sure, part of it is cutting out what you spend too much on, but that area is over emphasized.

If budgets are for cutting out, they should equally be for adding in.

Choosing to Change 2020

At the heart of “BREAK YOUR BUDGET” will be the choice to change something. It will be choosing joy, choosing goodness, and prioritizing.

In the midst of my reflecting on this topic, I came across this funny but thoughtful reflection by Tim Ferriss titled Where Are You Still Using Single-Ply. This explains exactly what I am getting at with this.

I could not tell you the difference between a cheap or expensive TV. I can tell you the difference between cheap or expensive beer. There are so many places in life where a little extra money could make a huge difference! The cost of extra joy does not have to be very high, you decide.

Breaking things is fun as long as it is done intentionally!

With that, I am going to get started making my list of what I want to break the budget on in 2020!