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One of they things you can do to save money is create and follow a budget. I’ve heard Dave Ramsey say many times that when you start following a budget, it’s like getting a raise. I’ve found that to be very true. When you start tracking and pruning your expenses, you find money that you were previously just blowing.
What I’ve seen is that many people don’t follow a budget. The reasons why vary, but here are just a few I’ve come across:
Don’t know how to create one
This is actually a very good reason and one that I in fact struggled with for many years. I kept trying to use Quicken and MS Money to do a budget. Both of these tools have you create a budget that is the same across all months of the year. While this strategy may work for some, it didn’t work well for me at all, but I continued to try every so often, finally just giving up.
I then somehow stumbled upon Dave Ramsey’s book, which had this extremely obvious way to do your budget: do one for each month and create it a few days before that month begins. What baffles me is why I never thought of doing this before? I’m often amazed at how when we are in the thick of things, it’s difficult to see the forest for the trees.
So if this is your problem, head over and read my article on creating a budget. I think it will really help.
Too time consuming or complicated
This one is a myth. Many times people don’t want to follow a budget as they thick it’s too complicated or time consuming. In reality, they aren’t complicated at all, especially if you use a software package like You Need A Budget, Mvelopes, or Pearbudget. These packages all guide you through the process and make your budget easy to update and track.
Honestly, even without using these packages, budgeting doesn’t take much time at all. For myself, it takes about 15-20 minutes to layout the budget for next month. Now, if you are creating your budget for the first time, plan on maybe 30-60 minutes, but once you’ve done that, subsequent months will take far less time.
I recommend updating your budget daily. This should take all of 5-10 minutes and consists of entering the transactions for the current or previous day.
If you are married, I also recommend meeting with your spouse to review the budget. We do this weekly, but some of my readers say they only meet once a month. Do what works, but in any case this shouldn’t take more than 15-20 minutes either. The side benefit is that you will be communicating with your spouse and spending some time together!
Don’t want to be controlled
Many people don’t want to be controlled. To be blunt, feeling this way about a budget is just immature. To me, it’s the same as saying I know I have a problem, I know it’s causing me difficulties and holding me back, but I don’t want to do anything about it. If you know you have a problem, and you don’t feel that problem is important enough to fix, than a budget won’t help you. You must first recognize the you a problem AND be willing to take steps to solve it.
If you are married or in a relationship, the really great benefit of having a budget is that the budget itself becomes the control point. I know in the past when trying to cut our expenses, I would get upset with my wife for spending what I considered too much. If I did the budget and she had no input, she felt like I was controlling her, and sure enough I was. This was the source of many money disagreements. When we do the budget together, we both have input and we both agree on the amounts on it. Then, if either of us overspend, or can’t buy that thing we want because we didn’t budget for it, the budget becomes the controller, not me, not her. Since we both agreed on the budget, getting upset with each other is a bit difficult. Being able to “blame the budget” has resolved many of our money disagreement issues.
Plenty of money left over
“I don’t need a budget, I have plenty of money left over each month” or “I already spend less than I earn and save the difference, I don’t need a budget“. First off, if you are saying either of these, kudos to you! Both of these statements are keys to wealth. Now, with that being said I ask, if you were on a budget, how much more would you have to save or invest? Don’t know? A budget would tell you.
Don’t forget, a budget is about managing and tracking your money, not just controlling it. A budget is about telling your money where to go rather than your money telling you where to go. Don’t forget too, you set the budget limits and you can make them be whatever you want as long as your outgoing is less than or equal to to your incoming.
They don’t care
Unfortunately, this one is also a very popular reason. I don’t believe it though, how can you not care? When you go the grocery store to buy food and your debit card is declined, you care. When your child needs lunch money and you don’t have any, you care. When your utility bill comes due and the balance in your checking account is less than the bill amount, you care.
I could go on and on with examples like this, but the bottom line is that unless you have some mental health issue or have a severe addiction, you care. You can deny it all you want, but you do.
Want to quit being afraid of the ATM…you know, that feeling you get when you need money, you go to the ATM, and then the whole time wonder if you are going to get the dreaded “Insufficient funds available for that transaction” message? Ever watch the total for your groceries come up, swipe your debit card and pray the transaction will be approved? Or worse, ever had to start removing items until the transaction approves all the while the people in line behind you just keeps getting longer?
Create a budget and follow it. As if by magic all of the above problems go away. When you budget and track your money, you know how much you have, you know how much you can spend. Simple as that.
Don’t follow a budget? What is your reason? Did you fight budgeting and now do? What caused you to fight the process for so long? Add a comment!
译文:
人们不做预算的主要原因
可以使你省钱的其中一个方法是建立并落实预算。我曾听说大卫拉姆齐说过，开始落实预算的多数时候，如同涨了工资。我发现，这说得很对。当你追踪和修减费用的时候，你就会发现以前被滥用掉的钱了。
我了解到很多人不做预算的，其原因各式各样，但以下所列举的，仅仅是我遇过的少数几个原因：
不懂怎么做预算
实际上，这是一个很不错的理由，其实我也为这个挣扎了很多年。我一直试着用Quicken和MS Money来做预算表。这两个软件都是帮助你做预算表---一年当中月月相同的预算表。对部分人而言，它也许管用；对我，却一点不奏效，但我还是一如既往地尽一切努力（使之奏效），最后也只是以放弃告终。
后来，我偶然看到了大卫拉姆齐的书，它非常清楚地告诉你该怎么做预算：每月做一次预算，每次在月前几天做。郁闷的是，怎么我以前就没有想到要这样做呢？我常惊讶于阻挡视线的东西多了，我们往往就只见树木不见森林。假如你也有这样的难题，那么请你仔细阅读我的文章《做预算》，我想，它会给你带来帮助的。
太费时或太复杂
这是个神话。很多时候人们不想做预算，因为他们认为这很复杂、很浪费时间。实际上，它一点也不复杂，尤其是如果你使用一个软件包的话，比如“You Need A Budget”,“ Mvelopes”, 或“Pearbudget”.这些软件包帮助你运行程序，使得你的预算表易于更新，易于追踪。
老实说，即使没有这些软件包，做预算表也花不了多少时间。就我自己来说，做出下个月的预算大概也只是要15-20分钟。如果你是首次做预算表的话，估计是30-60分钟，但是一旦你完成了第一次预算，随后几个月做预算所花的时间会更少。
我建议，每天花5-10分钟去更新预算表，它是过去与现在的过渡。
如果你已婚，同样建议你和你爱人一起审查你们的预算。我和妻子每周都这样做，但是我的一些读者说，他们只是一个月一次。有效地去做，无论如何也不会花超过15-20分钟。另外的好处是你能和你的爱人交流，共度时光。
不想被束缚
很多人不想被预算束缚。老实说，有这样的想法是不成熟的。就我而言，它就跟“我知道自己有一个难题，并且会给我带来困难和障碍，但我却不想对此做任何事情。”是一样的。假如你知道你有难题，又没意识到解决难题的重要性，那么预算是帮不上你什么忙的。你必须首先意识到难题，再主动采取措施去解决难题。
如果你已婚或正在交往，那预算的真正意义便在于它本身就是一个控制点。以前我们尝试减少费用时，总为了费用太多而苦恼。如果只是我做预算而妻子没有参与，她会觉得我控制了她，而且非常肯定地这样认为。这就导致了许多关于金钱支配的分歧。如果我们俩一起做预算的话，彼此参与，共同在数额上达成一致。这样，无论我们任何一方超支或者买不了想买而预算没有的东西时，我和她都不是支配者，而是预算。由于预算是彼此商量出来的，这时便不会那么容易苦恼了。能“埋怨预算”已经解决了我们之间不少的分歧。
有很多剩余的钱
“我不需要预算，每个月我都有很多钱剩余”或“我花的不但比收入少，而且还存下了其中的差额金，我不需要预算了。”这两个都是富裕的关键，假如你是其中一种情况，那么立刻恭喜你。既然那样，那么我想问，要是要节省费用，你能多节省多少，或多支出多少钱？不知道？预算会告诉你的。
别忘了，预算并不只是控制钱，它还支配钱、追踪钱。预算决定你该怎么用钱，而不是钱决定你该怎么用。同时也别忘了，你设定预算限制时，只要支出少于或等于收入，你都可以随意设定。
他们不在乎
不幸的是，这也是一个很普遍的原因。可我不相信，你怎能不在乎呢?当你去杂货店买食物而借记卡被拒用的时候，你在乎;当你的孩子问你要午餐费而你没钱的时候，你在乎；当你的有效账单到期而你帐户余额不足的时候，你在乎。
我可以继续了列举类似的例子，但底线是，除非你心理有问题或你吸毒成瘾，否则你是在乎的。你不能否认你所想要的这一切，可你否认了。
想终止对自动取款机的恐惧……你需要钱，去自动取款机提款，然后一直怀疑会不会出现“余额不足，交易不成功”的提示，你是知道那种感觉的。以往任何时候总盼望杂货到来，然后刷借记卡，心里祈祷着能成功交易。或许更糟的是，以往任何时候都必须取消交易项目直至该项目交易获得批准，而此时排在你后面的人只会越来越多。
做一个预算，然后去落实它，好像是用魔术把上述问题驱散了一样。当你去预算、追踪支出的时候，你就会知道你有多少钱，又有多少钱可以花。事情就这么简单。