Introduction Your Budget Will Help You Get What You Want Establishing a budget is the act of deciding how much of your money you’re going to spend on one item, how much on another, and so on, before you’re actually in the position of spending the money. Sticking to a budget is the act of following through on those decisions.
Creating a budget isn’t easy, but sticking to any budget is extremely difficult. The trick is to focus on the word realistic. It doesn’t take much research or many difficult decisions to decide that you’re going to spend $200 per month on food. But if you’ve never spent less than $500 per month on food, you’ll blow your budget right out of the water the first week. Instead,
before you begin deciding on the numbers in your budget, you’ll need to fully assess your current situation, take a hard look at where you can cut back your financial obligations (both large and small), restructure your debt (if necessary), and see whether you can add income.
Only then are you ready to decide realistically where every
penny will be spent.
A budget is a tool, and like all tools, the results you get from it will be
determined by how you use it. If you make a realistic budget and stick to
it, you can watch your life move forward. If you set unrealistic
budgetary expectations and don’t even bother to follow through with
them, don’t think your financial problems are over.
