Budgeting

A Budget is Not a Constraint

When people resist the idea of budgets, the most common reason is that they view the budget as an unwelcome constraint. That's completely wrong. A budget is not a constraint. A budget is a tool for maximizing pleasure and satisfaction.

That's not to say that people don't operate under constraints. Everybody has limited resources. Everybody has limited time. Everybody operates with a whole constellation of other constraints: legal, moral, and social, from old obligations to family expectations.

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How to live on $12,000 a year

In my first job out of college, I was on 12,000 English pounds per year. That was back in London in 1996, i was single, lived with two friends and only had rent and travel to pay for. And I still remember how tough that was. Well, one person is doing that right now (right here in the US of course) and recording the experience for us all to share.

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Ponder it: to budget or not to budget

Some of us need or want a budget, some of us don't. Here are some tips for deciding which category you're in.

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Budgeting for the rest of us, or How to follow a budget without breaking down in tears

Budgeting can be difficult. For some people (like me!), it brings up things that they may not want to see. For others, it's a necessary but frustrating tool to curtail spending, or a painful reminder of how much they overspent, yet again. But there are a few people who live well on a budget. These few manage to record their spending and yet aren't overwhelmed by that. They see where they spend too much and yet don't give up the budget. Month after month they take the time to collect their receipts, enter them, and evaluate based on the results. They aren't overwhelmed or discouraged, and they don't give up. Instead, they plug away at it until they get their spending under control, and then they often keep at it to have a record of their money goes. Slowly, slowly, I'm becoming one of them, and here is what I've learned along the way.

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Balancing Act: The Perils of Budgeting

For years, I've not had a budget because I didn't think I needed one. I never spent more money than I made and I entered every transaction into my checkbook as soon as I made it (or, well, enough of them that it didn't much matter, anyway). I was sure to save some of my money (I even got a high-yield account from ING), and I even invested a little. I thought that budgets were for people who spent too much, and I simply didn't.

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SNL Financial Advice: Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford!

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