I’ve read all the budgeting tips out there.
They don’t work.
Not when it comes to my budget (or lack thereof) at least.
I desperately want to save and be a responsible adult and all that stuff, but it’s incredibly hard.
Right before payday, I have this goal and tell hubby that before we buy or pay anything, we will draw up a budget and make the cash stretch to the next payday.
Never works.
Before I even know there is something in my bank account, my phone starts its beeping and I’m just watching the money roll away.
Then I go out and buy the necessary monthly stuff, just to give me some pretend semblance of control over my own life (and bank account).
Before I know it, there is nothing left to budget for anymore.
Then I’m adamant to change all that come the next 25th.
Only to be faced with the devastating reality again, month after torturous month.
It’s incredibly frustrating.
I find these budgeting tips useless in this situation, even though it sounds so very plausible, the execution thereof is very much not.
You still get by with what you have, but it’s those little extras one craves that’s always out of reach.
Like, “Just… a… little… further…” and then poof, it slips through the budgetless cracks.
Then I have to go to hubby with puppy-dog eyes and my tail tucked between my legs.
How does one get over this budgeting hurdle?
It’s not like I go out on a limb and buy whatever I fancy, I wish!
It’s literally a case of buying the bare minimum just to bloody survive.
Paying a necessary car and putting in necessary petrol and you’re done.
And this one per cent VAT increase really is not contributing toward saving.
If it was a mission before, it has now become mission impossible infinity!
What makes me feel slightly better, is dumping all the small change in a bottle.
Feels like I’m at least doing something with my life in the form of saving.
But come the 20th calendar day, I dive into that bottle like a raving lunatic.
“Give me the money!”
Then it all goes to hell again.
I’ll daydream about winning the Lotto and how much saving I’ll be able to do then.
But alas, I don’t even play Lotto … because there is no budget for it!
It’s an endless pull-out-your-hair frustrating circle.
Other people find it so easy and I’m like: “Tell me your dark secret!”
In this aspect, adulting is my worst enemy and I feel like running to my very budget-able mother.
But I do not, because I am a damn grown woman and I will get this budgeting thing sorted, even if it kills me (or my childhood).
Something so silly as this makes me realise that it really is not fun growing up and having to be independent and stuff.
Where oh where are the days when you were a burden to your parents and you didn’t give a flying squirrel about responsibilities?
In my defense, I did have many chores and things I had to do in order to receive an allowance.
Failure to comply resulted in enormous deductions which I still feel was harsh.
But those chores and responsibilities didn’t truly prepare me for this unforgiving world.
I vote they need to implement classes in schools which teach students how to be a responsible adult.
Budgeting, paying bills and all the other stuff we have to learn the hard way.
This will never happen, I know, but it’s an interesting thought.
How to budget should be common sense, but when is anything ever that simple?
I hate finances and anything related to financial planning, due to my incompetence of budgeting.
If anyone has any cool ideas and ways of budgeting, I will be ecstatic to learn them, so please let me know.
