All On Board

When one person is doing something for his own benefit and of his own accord, then he just simply has to decide he’s going to do it and stick to it. So, if you are a single person who has decided that you are mismanaging your money and are having a hard time bringing your spending habits under control, then the information presented here is for you. Following the advice we have laid out can help you get your spending under control. But you do have to make a commitment to lay out a reasonable budget and then FOLLOW IT. Those last two words are the key. FOLLOW IT! Just like any other decisions you might make in life to better yourself, they do no good if you wander off the path you have determined for yourself. If you need to diet to lose weight, then you can’t regularly binge on cookies and ice cream. If you need to lay off the alcohol because you have embarrassed yourself one too many times at “social” get-togethers, then you can’t drink a bottle of whiskey every day. Likewise, if you are spending money faster than your job is feeding it to you, something has to give. It’s time to lay out a plan and FOLLOW IT!

But what if you need to budget for a household? This can potentially be more of a challenge. One person in the household cannot simply decide to create a budget and then tell everyone else involved what to do. The others may not agree with how you have allocated the money. Hey, they may not even agree that a budget is even necessary. If everyone involved is not on board with the budget, then bad things can happen. We have heard of families where one spouse is trying to do the right thing in the way of budgeting, but the other spouse, not seeing the rationale behind it, just keeps on spending in the same way that caused the financial problems in the first place. Even worse, the not-on-board spouse may attempt to conceal his or her spending habits so as not to anger the on-board spouse. Of course, this cannot go on forever. But by the time the on-board spouse discovers the deception, the family budget may be in such dire straits as to take a much longer time to get it back on sound footing. So, it is very important for every relevant person to understand the importance and purpose of having a budget and to be totally on board with actually FOLLOWING IT. These people could be spouses or significant others, but can also include elderly parents living with you or even older children who have been given spending leeway, especially when this involves debit or credit cards.

In upcoming posts we will be explaining why it is important to create a home budget, how to create a budget, and then specifically how to implement it easily using spreadsheet software on a computer. But until you have completed the step just presented, getting everyone on board, then don’t even bother working on the these things. You can read the information so you can make your case for a budget, but setting one up without everyone else being on board will most likely be an exercise in futility.

Okay, so you say you have everyone on board? Good! Let’s get started.