I am preparing a little game for 4H tonight about finance and money. However, it had my thinking today, for Motivational Monday, about budgeting.
Budget: An estimate of "income" and "expenditure" for a set period of time.
Outside of the monetary concept of budgeting, I was thinking of other things we "budget." You know, like money, time and emotions.
Budgeting Money:
It is easy, in this "cashless" society to lose sight of what something actually costs. Whether you debit or credit - using 'plastic' - diminishes value. At least that is how I see it. I'm a cash kinda gal, I like to see where my money goes. In fact, while cashing a check at the bank, the teller told me; "Jacky, you aren't going to be able to do 'this' forever." No more checks? No cash? What?! I plan to hold on to my "cash" as long as I can! I recently went to pay a rather large invoice, I asked "if I paid in cash, would you 'knock something' off the bill?" Yes, they did and it was significant. It was something we were "budgeting for" for 3 years. I squirreled away some cash to pay for it, not that I was going to pay in cash, but it saved me. I wanted to spend that cash on so many other things....but, I wouldn't let me. So, in this case, budgeting paid me...teehee.
Budgeting Time:
This is where budgeting is fair to start with. As we all have the same 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year - 365 days. This "budget" of our days, may be determined by work, family, hobbies, etc. However, how we spend that time and plan to budget it, is up to us. Time, they say ... "is or isn't" on my side. We've all heard it said both ways. How do I make my time work for me. I started last year with "Myonday" - where, Monday is my day. I would love to spend all day doing everything I want to...but, that's not realistic. However, I still plan for this day for me. Whether I get 1 hour or 5 hours to do what I want, I've budgeted that day. Start by looking at what you spend your time on. Are my expenditures positive or negative? If I am going to expend my time doing something, I surely want that experience to be worth it. I've been feeling guilty for "netflixing" - but, this is January in Wisconsin...no, stop it, you have plenty of other more productive ways to spend your time!
Budgeting Emotions:
Our emotional response to things, ultimately costs us. It could be with our time, money and mental status. That is the part of emotional budgeting I want to share. O.k. we all know the one person (truth be told, I'm guilty of being it at times) that just takes so much out of us to be around. We all know of situations that are hard to deal with. We all know of places that may take the "wind out of our sails" to go to. We even, or maybe it's just me, have examples of things we do that just totally wipe us out. We need to budget for them. Yes, we do! If I know I'm going to need to (_____), next week Tuesday at 3 p.m. I can budget for it. An hour of that (check). Or, if we get into a disagreement, words are said, feelings hurt - only you can budget for the emotions that are needed to expend yourself thought it. Have a "savings account" for that one. Either way, emotional spending needs to be budgeted for.
I know this is a simple post, written by a simple author. I do all things openly and haven't always been good at budgeting. One thing that comes with age, is experience. I have lived through some experiences that have helped me budget for my future.
My motivation for you today, would be to look at these areas in your life too. Plan a budget for them. Find where you need to put more in savings, squirrel away some cash, schedule some time for you or even not spend time with a person or thinking about a past hurt. After all, we can control what we do and how we do it - budgeting for "it" is the key to getting through "it" - whatever your "it" is. Good luck!
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
Budget: An estimate of "income" and "expenditure" for a set period of time.
Outside of the monetary concept of budgeting, I was thinking of other things we "budget." You know, like money, time and emotions.
Budgeting Money:
It is easy, in this "cashless" society to lose sight of what something actually costs. Whether you debit or credit - using 'plastic' - diminishes value. At least that is how I see it. I'm a cash kinda gal, I like to see where my money goes. In fact, while cashing a check at the bank, the teller told me; "Jacky, you aren't going to be able to do 'this' forever." No more checks? No cash? What?! I plan to hold on to my "cash" as long as I can! I recently went to pay a rather large invoice, I asked "if I paid in cash, would you 'knock something' off the bill?" Yes, they did and it was significant. It was something we were "budgeting for" for 3 years. I squirreled away some cash to pay for it, not that I was going to pay in cash, but it saved me. I wanted to spend that cash on so many other things....but, I wouldn't let me. So, in this case, budgeting paid me...teehee.
Budgeting Time:
This is where budgeting is fair to start with. As we all have the same 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year - 365 days. This "budget" of our days, may be determined by work, family, hobbies, etc. However, how we spend that time and plan to budget it, is up to us. Time, they say ... "is or isn't" on my side. We've all heard it said both ways. How do I make my time work for me. I started last year with "Myonday" - where, Monday is my day. I would love to spend all day doing everything I want to...but, that's not realistic. However, I still plan for this day for me. Whether I get 1 hour or 5 hours to do what I want, I've budgeted that day. Start by looking at what you spend your time on. Are my expenditures positive or negative? If I am going to expend my time doing something, I surely want that experience to be worth it. I've been feeling guilty for "netflixing" - but, this is January in Wisconsin...no, stop it, you have plenty of other more productive ways to spend your time!
Budgeting Emotions:
Our emotional response to things, ultimately costs us. It could be with our time, money and mental status. That is the part of emotional budgeting I want to share. O.k. we all know the one person (truth be told, I'm guilty of being it at times) that just takes so much out of us to be around. We all know of situations that are hard to deal with. We all know of places that may take the "wind out of our sails" to go to. We even, or maybe it's just me, have examples of things we do that just totally wipe us out. We need to budget for them. Yes, we do! If I know I'm going to need to (_____), next week Tuesday at 3 p.m. I can budget for it. An hour of that (check). Or, if we get into a disagreement, words are said, feelings hurt - only you can budget for the emotions that are needed to expend yourself thought it. Have a "savings account" for that one. Either way, emotional spending needs to be budgeted for.
I know this is a simple post, written by a simple author. I do all things openly and haven't always been good at budgeting. One thing that comes with age, is experience. I have lived through some experiences that have helped me budget for my future.
My motivation for you today, would be to look at these areas in your life too. Plan a budget for them. Find where you need to put more in savings, squirrel away some cash, schedule some time for you or even not spend time with a person or thinking about a past hurt. After all, we can control what we do and how we do it - budgeting for "it" is the key to getting through "it" - whatever your "it" is. Good luck!
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
Certainly made me think, a great post.
ReplyDeleteYour budgeting post reminded me of when my kids were little. They wanted to go to McDonalds one night and I told them that I did not have any money. They proceeded to tell me just to use my card and put it in the machine and money would come out. I tried to explain you needed money in an account or money would not come out, but beinglittle they did not understand, because every time I did use my card out came the money. LOL Thanks for the memory! LOL Janice
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