alright guys I want to talk a little bit about some of the unexpected benefits of
budgeting and I didn't always budget maybe you do budget maybe you haven't
budget maybe you've never budget whatever so the first one is having
peace in my marriage with Linda and this is one of those things I never expected
to happen I had no idea that this was gonna happen but you can think of a
budget like an agreement between you and your spouse and so it normally happens
for a lot of us when you don't have a budget is one spouse will go spend money
on something that the other one is not interested in or thinks is not a good
idea and then tension arises or fights arise and so for us Linda would spend
money on clothes that I just didn't think we're necessary or I would go over
to Lowe's or Home Depot and spend money on a tool or something that she would
think isn't necessary and both of us individually are thinking well we had to
pay the bills we had to pay the groceries and then he just spent $50
over there at Lowe's on something we don't really need you know or me the
same thing with her buying a pair of shoes and so it inevitably caused some
sort of frustration but when we created a budget in more or less had our plan
where we came together and decided this is how we're going to spend her money it
eliminated that tension and there was no more friction there you know there were
no more surprises and there was no like hiding money or trying to hide purchases
so that she didn't find out about it we were clear on what was being spent and
we had talked about it and agreed upon it beforehand and so then it just kind
of eliminated all those fights and all that friction and ultimately just led to
a whole lot more peace in our marriage and that's a really good thing so the
second thing that really surprised me was that we actually had more money when
we started budgeting kind of without even trying and it was so long ago now I
don't remember the exact numbers but I distinctly remember feeling like I feel
like we have more money I feel like we have more money I feel like this is
easier just because I was starting to budget and if you've ever done any food
journaling this was the same thing for me to where I did a little food
journaling and you know which is basically just writing down every single
thing to eat and instantly just by writing everything down you begin eating
better and you eat fewer of the bad things because you're aware of it and
you're you're conscious of your decisions that you're making and it's
the same way with budgeting and so funny story here a few months
I finally convinced our senior editor Lauren to start budgeting with our
recommended budgeting method and she finally agreed and she did it and about
six or eight weeks after she started she came to me and said hey you're not gonna
believe it I spent about $800 less this month than I did the previous month you
know I haven't even tried like we didn't even make any major changes you know and
this is just really common that people start a budget and just because they're
paying attention they instantly spend way less money than they were before and
this third one was really unexpected and really defies a lot of the myths about
budgeting and that is that you actually have more freedom to spend money so the
reason that almost everybody doesn't budget is I think that it's restrictive
that it's going to take away their freedom but the reality is is that for
most of us it actually creates more freedom so the way this works is let's
say you have $3,000 a month coming in from your paycheck or whatever and
typically each month you just spend money like however you feel and you're
hoping that by the end of the month you still have some money left over so for
most of us when we spend money this way we are constantly feeling the pressure
of not knowing what's gonna happen at the end of the month and therefore we
will say no to all the things we want to do so if our kid wants a toy from the
grocery store we feel like I can't really afford that because I don't know
what's gonna happen or if you want to go on a date night with your spouse but
you're like I can only afford babysitter because I don't know we're going to buy
groceries next week and I'm not really sure you know or even buying a gift for
somebody where it's like I'd really like to give them a nice gift but I'm
probably just getting a cheaper one because I don't really know what's gonna
happen and just living with that unknown is really what strips us of a freedom so
it's not at all the budget it's the fact that everything is just a jumbled mess
and we don't know what's happening when and that's where the restriction
comes from that's where the chains are on the other hand when you designate
upfront that things are important to you so maybe that's going on a date twice a
month or maybe that's having money to buy any kind of book that you want to
improve your education or maybe that's you know money set aside specifically
for giving when you find a situation that you want to give in to and when you
do this you find that that money is just sitting there waiting to be spent and so
you can spend it without any guilt and without any apprehension of not knowing
what's going to happen and I'll tell you the first few time
I experienced this it was amazing where I would see oh wow there's $50 in my
education fund here so I'm gonna go to Amazon to buy a couple books or as we're
getting in towards the end of the month I'll find that there's money in our
entertainment or date night account and I'll be like honey we can go on a really
nice date we got money just sitting there waiting to be spent specifically
for this purpose and it's really liberating and it's the complete
opposite of what I always thought budgeting was being this really
restrictive thing that was going to take away my freedom and it actually provides
you a whole lot more if you do it right and the next one I list is that it
provides you a plan to reach your financial goals and this may not be
unexpected or maybe it is I'm not really sure but but it is really important
because when you have a budget that works it ensures that you aren't going
to spend more money than you earn and if you don't spend more money than you earn
then you are on the path to financial success and so see my other video about
the seesaw principle for more on this and it's really exciting when you start
to understand how these pieces work together but ultimately unless you're in
a situation where you have a really high income and you are a person who just
naturally doesn't spend much money then you're gonna benefit from having a
budget so anyway those are my four reasons for why I will never not budget
and why it will always be a part of how we handle our money in our house and
hopefully maybe I've convinced you just a little bit the budget you might not be
as terrible as you initially believed and if that is the case and you are
looking to get started I will tell you a little bit about our budgeting course
and it's fairly unconventional and different than anything else I've seen
and the reason that we do it is because it's the most effective way in the
simplest and the most likely to succeed kind of method of budgeting that I've
ever found and I've tested and tried a lot it is far easier to stick within any
of the budgeting software tools I've ever tried and it doesn't force you to
use only cash like the cash envelope system does and so anyway if you're
interested in checking it out we will have a link up above I never know if
it's this side or this side but one of these so at the time of this recording
enrollment is currently open and so you can join us but it might be closed when
you watch it depending on when you're watching it because we're only going to
be opening enrollment probably about two times a year so you can check over at
SeedTime.com/RMB and stands for Real Money Budgeting that's the name of the course
and so you can learn more about the course over there or you can get signed
up and get enrolled and we would love to have you with us but regardless of
whether or not you join us in the course I really hope that you decide that
budgeting is something worth trying out and that you give it a go
so that's all for today be blessed to be a blessing and I'll see you next time