Change Your Spending Strategy to Avoid Burnout
Budgeting can be hard to get used to, especially if you’re not good at money. It takes time to adjust to your spending plan, but if you continue to fall short of your budget or feel stuck in a rut, it’s probably time to change your strategy.
Of course, budgeting really comes down to discipline. But it’s easy to get stuck with finances. You keep saving, but it takes forever to reach your goal, so you get tired of working towards it and give up. Making changes can help you stay motivated and engaged.
In an article for Wise Bread, journalist Mikey Rocks explains her own experience in this regard:
I’ve been making an envelope system for a couple of years. And while it worked, I ended up getting tired of filling envelopes with cash every two weeks. To make matters worse, I always forgot my envelopes at home when I went grocery shopping and ended up using a credit or debit card anyway. I then switched to keeping all of my money in the bank, but quickly found that I didn’t have the patience to track every debit card transaction, and this method made it too easy to overspend. Now I put a reasonable amount on groceries, vacations, gas and contingencies on a prepaid debit card and keep the rest in the bank. Our checking invoice is purely for expenses, and because our invoices are billed on autopilot, budgeting is much easier.
Recently I also kind of went through this. Bored with my financial goals and my budget in general, I found myself giving up on them without even realizing it. For several weeks in a row, I spent a lot on restaurants. In an effort to regain control of my spending, I switched places: I implemented the envelope system and it worked. Much of this is probably due to the nature of the envelope system (we tend to spend less when using cash), but novelty played a big role as well.
Budgeting isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but changing things can work wonders when you’re feeling overwhelmed. We’ve written about all sorts of budgeting strategies , so read them and find the one that you think works best. Check out the full Wise Bread post for more on how to deal with burnout.
5 Ways To Fight Budget Burnout | Wise bread