Living Without A Budget: Round 2

Last week I wrote about our brokest season, when we accidentally got ourselves $12,000 deeper in debt. All because we didn’t have a plan and just hoped for the best.

Now let me share the other time we tried to manage our money without a plan. It was after we’d paid off all that debt.

Actually it was long after. Two years after. We’d paid off $112k, had saved an emergency fund with 6 months worth of expenses, and we were finally making some strides in our investments to grow wealth.

I can’t pinpoint one thing that spurred the lack of a spending plan. But I think it was a combination of two years in the Covid pandemic, finally paying off our debt and feeling free of the burden, and making a bit more money.

As the sole manager of our household finances at the time, I was burned out. I was tired of watching every penny. And since we were earning more and had checked several of the “right things” boxes in our personal finances, the budget became an afterthought.

The two years during the height of the Covid pandemic were hard on all of us around the world. The mental load of that time was exhausting. And in 2022, pent up demand spurred consumers into a revenge spending phenomenon that I’ve heard called a “sugar rush.” Like many others, we let loose and participated in some free-wheeled spending that year.

We didn’t budget or save habitually for vacations — we just went and figured it out later. We did some home renovations. Plus there were several little things and experiences that quickly added up. Christmas was especially expensive for us that year, far more than we’d saved for. All because I wasn’t monitoring.

Lifestyle creep had kicked in, and I almost let it knock us down by simply ignoring it. I’d rebelled against using a budget. And we weren’t making the best of use of the money we were making.

What did we learn?

A budget isn’t temporary or only for tight times. A budget should be the through-line for all financial seasons. It changes — it can grow, shrink, and pivot — but it should always be the plan. To paraphrase a famous quote, a failure to plan is a plan to fail.

If I could go back two years and start over I would have only changed a couple of things and would have seen better results.

Instead of abandoning my budgeting habits entirely I would have simply adjusted them to the new season.

And I would have engaged my husband in the process more. I know that if I’d he’d been equally invested in the budgeting we would have been less likely to fall off the wagon.

So, after realizing the errors of my ways, I did exactly that. Better late than never. We dusted off the plan, made the necessary adjustments, and got back up on the wagon with new lessons learned. Now we have an investment-heavy budget that aligns with our goals, and we’re both very involved in managing and monitoring the plan.

And if you’ve fallen off or let loose recently, that’s okay. You’re human not a robot. Give yourself some grace, gather your tools, and hop back up. You’ve got this, friend.

Contact me for help and guidance along the way. I’ve been there and made it through. Now it’s your turn.