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Discuss how to save money.

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How do you stay consistent with a budget? My financial management is a rollercoaster. (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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How do you manage to stick it out long term with budgeting? I use YNAB in periods for my economy. And every such period, they usually last 3 months to 1,5 year or so, my economy is in amazing condition.

Then I forget about if for a while, sometimes I find it a bit cumbersome and lose track. Suddenly I stop using it, and at that point I start splurging on stuff I really shouldn’t.

So then I start budgeting again.. rinse and repeat. It’s a stupid cycle I’d like to get out of. Any tips and ideas, how do budget pros in here keep at it?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

This may or may not be relevant to you, but I found I had a much better time with a budget when I "honestly" budgeted for my fun stuff, instead of trying to say it was all completely unnecessary and cutting it out.

I had somehow gotten an idea that if you have to track money, you gotta be "disciplined" and cut ALL the fun stuff away so you live like a monk. So, inevitably, I'd get stressed, I'd do something fun to cope with the stress, and then I'd fall into a spiral of shame and blame.

When I was older, I learned that if I looked at my "natural" spending habits honestly...for example, I like to buy books, music, and tea, so when I splurge it's usually in one of those areas...and actually set aside some budget room for those, I'm less likely to go "over" my budget, and thus less likely to fall into a spiral of guilt and shame that makes me throw the entire budget out the window later on.