Like the title says, I can't keep a budget. I've tried, I really did. But it's so tedious writing and recording everything. Limiting the amount you can spend on something is like going on a diet, when you put a restriction on something, you want it even more. It just takes too much discipline. So, I'm done with budgeting, sort of. The book "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach really speaks to me because it tells me that it's ok to not have a budget, in fact, it's better that you don't; as long as you're automatically paying yourself first. I'm going to design a plan that works for me, now that I know what doesn't work.
I 'm already putting away 12% with a 3% match on my 401k. Forty percent of my take home goes to another bank account as emergency savings. Now, I'm going to create an account that takes care of the annual payments or payments that are infrequent. I tallied up my annual expenses, that is about $4k- this includes, our term life ins, car ins, car maintenance, and our dog (this is more just for medical expense that may arise). The goal is to put away as much as I can in the beginning of the year, once that account is replenished, I can breath a little easier knowing that there won't be any surprises.
I'm no longer putting a dollar amount on every category of spending, like $200 for grocery, or $100 for entertainment or $100 for clothing. That just doesn't work for me. Instead, I'll pay the fix expenses first, like rent, child care, car payment, and our other life insurance (I'm a big believer in life insurance) and our utilities ( this number varies month to month but not by much and it's there every month). With the left over money, I can do what ever I want with it. I might want to do a bit more shopping one month and when I do, I don't want this voice inside telling me I'm going over my set budget.
