Comments on: I Don’t Have a Budget

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:45:12 +0000

Budgeting is a strange thing. There is no “one Size fits all” approach. Any budget has to be tailored to the individual. There is no point trying to do something that you just know won’t fit with who you are and with your lifestyle.

By: Monty Loree

Monty Loree — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:11:47 +0000

I don’t have a budget either.
I always live way below my means .

I’m practicing being content with what I’ve got, which means that I don’t feel it necessary to spend every penny I’ve got.

If you’re conscientious, you can live without a budget.

It is nice to know what you are making and what you are spending, if you aren’t sure. Spending time knowing about your personal finances is something I recommend to everybody.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:27:10 +0000

@ Diane

- You’re absolutely right. My purpose in writing this entry was to show people that a budget does not have to involve some kind of software, and it doesn’t have to be grand or restrictive. So many people don’t have a hold on their finances, because they hate traditional budgets. My point is that you don’t have to use those - something very basic can work very well, especially if you have irregular income.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:51:14 +0000

The meaning of budget is ‘an estimate of probable income and expenditures for a given period’.

So, you ‘budget’….

If you weren’t tracking and planning, then you’d be giving no thought to your financial situation - that would be ‘neglecting to plan and review and make adjustments’.

As you describe what you do, you do budget.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:47:16 +0000

When you ‘review and plan’ - you budget.

If you follow that ‘plan’ - you budget.

Obviously you track; you get information - you adjust; you budget.

What you ‘allow’ is what you budget - if you didn’t allow, and it just happened - you track and adjust; you budget.

By: Steward

Steward — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:51:11 +0000

I think I agree with TV Girl, what you do is budgeting if you define budgeting as coming up with earning and spending plan like I do. But if you think of budgets as these ominous documents that meticulously categorize every single purchase you ever make and have 254 categories so that can run in an depth analysis to see if you can save more money by shopping at discount store 1 or discount store 2 then you don’t budget. I guess even budgeting isn’t safe from our preconceived notions about what they are an aren’t.

By: Tight Fisted Miser » Blog Archive » Tracking Every Penny and My Non Budget

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:23:42 +0000

[...] my spending gets out of line in a certain category I adjust my spending accordingly. Stephanie at Poorer than You uses a similar system and Nick at Punny Money has his own variation of the system. This system [...]

By: Budgets Are Overrated | Punny Money

Budgets Are Overrated | Punny Money — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:56:00 +0000

[...] then there are people like Stephanie over at Poorer Than You—someone who doesn’t have a budget or a million dollars, and she’s doing just fine, thank-you-very-much. Oh, and before you ask, I do have a budget, [...]

By: TV Girl

TV Girl — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:30:42 +0000

You’re definitely right that one of the reasons people don’t budget is that they think it’s too complicated and/or rigid. But in my experience, a budget not only CAN be simple and flexible, it MUST be that way in order to work at all. Even a math nerd who thought complicated and rigid sounded like fun would find that it wouldn’t work in reality.

Life is never the same two months in a row, and things can come up in the middle of the month. If your budget doesn’t reflect reality, there’s no point in having one. It simply won’t work.

Just my $.02.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:47:38 +0000

@ TV Girl -

I guess you could call what I do a “budget,” but it’s not a traditional one. And I think a lot of people don’t think about their money at all, because they think it would mean sitting down and doing all the math on a complicated budget and then trying to stick to a really rigid set of rules.

My whole point what that you can manage your money without having to do all that, and maybe if some people knew that, they would take the first step and get started.