Can you imagine running a business without a budget? Have you ever worked for a company that didn’t have a detailed, even grinding, process for developing an accurate budget for the coming year? No, probably not.
Yet most of us run the business of our personal lives without a spending plan or a system of tracking our actual spending. Just 39% of Americans operate on a budget and track their outflow.
Too many of us think of budgets as a set of restrictions that will suck the joy from our lives. In fact, a budget is liberating and can bring peace of mind. Here are 19 joyful things about being a budgeter, as inspired by everydollar.com.
Related: If Budgets Are Depressing – TSL Is The Cure
1– You have never said to a waiter, “Huh. Maybe try this card?”
2– Infomercials are nothing but entertainment, especially that Magic Bullet one with all the neighbors in the kitchen, half of them apparently hung over.
3– People ask you for money advice, not money.
4– No Christmas spending guilt or debt.
5– You know the exhilaration of buying something after saving up for months so you can pay cash for it.
6– Amazon’s One-Click feature has never been activated on your account.
7– Air conditioner died? No sweat (literally and figuratively), you have an emergency fund to cover that.
8– You plan grocery-shopping trips like NASA plans a rocket launch. Nothing left to chance or impulse.
9– You don’t care what the salesman thinks when you say, “Thanks, I’m gonna sleep on it.” Clarity comes with time and thought.
10– Unlike most people, you spend more time comparison shopping than driving to the store to buy the item. A lot more time.
11– Some of your best date nights with your spouse are spent budgeting. Hot. Seriously.
12– Because you are mindful of your resources, you have enough money to help others.
13– You spend the trip home from vacation planning/budgeting for next summer’s great adventure.
14– You check your budget on your phone more often than a fantasy football guy checks the stats and injury reports.
15– Your kids are never heard whining in the toy section of Target. They know the answer already.
16– You’ve never paid an overdraft or returned check fee.
17– Hmmm, there doesn’t seem to be a Grande Latte line in the budget. No need to sit in this drive-through line. We’ve got coffee at home.
18– No, it’s not a 2016 but it’s paid for.
19– You’ve got 99 problems, but money ain’t one. You know how much you have and where it’s going.
