Living on a Budget: Expectations vs. Reality

When you become an adult you think everything is going to be awesome. You will have money, and the freedom to do what you want with it. Sadly, we all come to learn this is not the case. In fact, it is most certainly the opposite. Once you have to actually adult everyday, you learn that rent, groceries, gas, insurance, and so much more costs the money you earn. Let’s face it, adulting is hard. To survive you have to use a terrible tool called a budget which will make your life much harder, right? Maybe not.

Before a Budget

So many, many, many, moons ago I was a young man who had just married. Life was amazing and free. However, by free, I mean cost a lot of money. We were living on a small $32,000 a year salary while trying to finish school. I didn’t want to spend any money, and yet, we were bleeding money. Our banks accounts were vacant, and I couldn’t understand why? Well, my new bride thought, “Because there is money in the account, it is extra.” She soon realized, in the countless fights, this is not the case. Hence the need for her to start following my budgeting system.

Starting with a budget together

One of the biggest mistakes was to try and setup a budget, and expect her to follow it blindly. It was like herding cats. She fussed and fumed about how it sucked and couldn’t buy anything. We couldn’t go out and spend money like we did before we got married. It was restrictive, at first. Once I brought her into the fold on how it all works and allowed her to make some of the budgeting decisions, life was easier. She felt empowered to be more practical with our limited money. There were still a ton of restrictions, but it wasn’t as terrible as without one. Plus, we stopped bleeding money

Living on a budget

Here we are two houses, 3 degrees, and nine years later and we are still on a budget. The pay has increased for both of us which helps, but having a strong foundation was the deciding factor. For me, a budget has always been an easy thing to deal with. Bringing your spouse on board is the harder part. What once seemed like a restrictive element in our relationship has allowed the fights to nearly stop and provide so much more freedom to do the things we love.