Learning From A Failed Budget

If you’ve ever had a month {or even a few months} where you had a failed budget, you know it’s a feeling of dread.  It leads to neglecting your upcoming budget, and spending money without care because you’re no longer in a frugal mindset.  And so starts another viscous cycle of falling off track, and possibly wracking up more debt.  Does this sound familiar?  Let me tell you my friend, you are not alone!

A few months back, I been slacking going over our October budget.  We had just come back from a trip to Tennessee with the Hubs’s folks.  We budgeted out our portion of the trip in the months prior, and were able to use cash while on the trip.  After we returned, things came up left and right that needed done around the house, for school, and then throw in a few emergency orthodontist appointments for Bookworm too.   Honestly, when I got that moment to sit down, the last thing I wanted to do was run numbers to see how we did on our budget for the month.  Because I knew it was probably another month of a failed budget.

If I’m being really honest, part of it is because when I set up our budget each month, I have grand schemes to set aside a large chunk of money to go towards debt the following month.  And it almost never happens.  Consistently for the last few months, that savings hasn’t happened.

Sometimes our budget fails because we go over on our miscellaneous expenses.  Other times groceries went over.  Or, like the case for October, our fuel and groceries for the month were insane with the travel for Bookworm’s emergency orthodontist appointments.

I felt so aloof when it came to what we had on hand.  This led to me having to make more trips to town than usual.

But today, as I was cleaning out some paperwork, I found our budget sheets for the end of 2014 and it reminded me of something.

A budget is never set in stone.  It’s constantly changing.  And I have to change the budget with it.

I already knew this, but I desperately needed that reminder.

I kept setting up our budget to be one for all 5 of us to live on that was comparable to 2 years ago.  This time last year, our income was $19.69 less a week than it is now.  In 2013, our income was $65.83 less a week than now.  We were barely making ends meet in 2013.  That is what prompted our move; our mortgage is nearly half of what our rent was.  Shortly after our move, Hub’s was promoted and in turn had a decent pay raise.

What on Earth made me think that trying to save for a time when we were barely making ends meet would help our budget now?  While our income did increase between 2013 and now, we’ve had a lot of different expense changes.  No wonder there have been months where the budget has failed!

 

I can’t compare 2015 to 2013, or 2018 to 2015!  Our situation is constantly changing year to year, and even month to month.  While we can prepare for it as best as we can, our budget needs to change to match our current situation.

 

It reminded me that what I need to do is re-evaluate each month’s budget, and set up the next month’s with any future changes in mind.  I simply cannot stick to a budget breakdown that we were barely breaking even on.

Enthused with that reminder, I ran some new scenarios on getting the remainder of our consumer debt paid down.

If I’m not putting anything extra aside, I will have our car, my private student loan and credit cards {and Bookworm’s trumpet} paid for by February 2017.  From there, we can continue to build up our savings and hack away at our student loans.

But… if I take just that $19.69 raise Hubs got in the last year, I can have the same paid off 4 months sooner.

So, if you’ve been setting up a budget and it hasn’t been working lately, take some time to step back and re-evaluate what is going wrong, and why.  And then make a game plan to change it!

Have you had months where you budget wasn’t going as planned?  What did you learn from it?  Share your experiences below!