I recently received this from a reader and wanted to share.
Hi Lulu,
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy reading your budgeting tips. I was afraid of budgeting before I actually started reading your blog but now I am all for budgets. In fact having a budget is such a relief to me. My budget frees me to do what I want because I know where my money is.
My best example is when a friend of mine asked me to go to a show at the last minute. I looked in my ‘Entertainment’ budget and saw that I had $500 in there. I was able to purchase a ticket for the show and pay for gas and drinks without having to worry about the cost at all. I have been putting $40 a month into my entertainment budget via automatic transfer so it was easy for me to build up a hefty sum over the last few months.
Two of our other friends said they could not make the show because they did not have money for it but I was able to go without blinking an eye. I thank you once again for getting me hooked on budgeting!!!
Well this is is certainly a cool little story to share and I am glad that I have a reader who seems to love budgeting and is no longer afraid of the word ‘budget.
How has budgeting freed you up?
That’s great. I do the same approach not with entertainment but with utility bills and other recurring costs. I put the same amount earmarked toward the gas bill, electric bill, water bill, etc. every month. Some months are higher bills than others but by putting money aside, I never have to worry about paying for an abnormally high month.
Well since that system works so well for your bills you might want to try to apply to your fun money. You can start small…maybe $5 a month if you have the funds and see where it leads to.
Unfortunately, I’ve had some budget busters in the past few months but I’m back on track. I do love my budget because when something comes up, I’m able to dip into the “slush fund” for that category that I’ve set up and not bat an eye.
Now it’s time to replenish my slush funds. Good topic!
Hi Sabrina!!!
I also have a ‘slush’ fund called my Fun Money Fund and I use to to have fun when there is enough in the account. I too had some recent expenses that were not covered by the Emergency fund so I used the Fun Money to pay for them…and now I have to rebuild mine as well.
It really is freeing to know that you have a little set aside to have fun and not just have a budget to pay bills. We need to have little rewards every now and then to keep going. Good luck on rebuilding your slush fund…I can only put in $3 a month now (sad I know) so mine will take a long time before it can get to where I can actually have fun….