Four tips for dealing with budget burnout

/

I am tired of budgeting. I am tired or living frugally. I am tired of pinching pennies and tracking dollars. I am just exhausted of the whole thing. 

I know I am not alone in these feelings. I can't be the only one who feels this way. In fact, this afternoon I approached Jason with it. 

"Aren't you tired of trying to save money and budget for every dollar?" 

Jason didn't even take a second to answer with a resounding yes. 

It is like the budgeting equivalent of senioritis. The sun is shining, the days are longer, it's hot outside. I just want to run through the sprinkler and not be an adult and think about all the numbers. 

But that's not reality. The reality is if you want to build your emergency fund or get out of debt or plan for the future you need a budget. 

1. Let go of the things that save money but not time. I quit clipping coupons. There I said it. There just reached a point where the amount of money I was saving was not enough to offset the amount of time it took me. 

I do still use print coupons on occasion and I will use money saving apps, but I no longer make the time to clip the coupons. And guess what? My grocery bill has been largely unaffected. 

Our family also quit using cloth diapers. There just came a point when the stress was no longer worth the savings. 

2. Set small goals. What is your end game here? Really think about it. What do you want? 

Is it to get out of debt? Great. But that's too general of a goal.

So instead of saying "I want to pay off my house early" or "I want to pay off all my student loans" set a smaller, more immediate goal. 

Instead set a goal like "I want to put an extra $500 this month toward my student loan" or "I want to put an extra $50 toward my credit cards."

3. Don't do what others are doing. It is not a competition to see who can save the most money. You friend might clip all the coupons, make her own laundry detergent and feed her family all organic for just $50 a week (jest, y'all, jest). 

But she is not you. I

It is not a competition to see who can be the most frugal. 

Find what works for your family and do it. 

I have a friend who LOVES spreadsheets. She puts her budget on spreadsheets and absolutely raves about them. 

Jason is the same way. But I HATE spreadsheets. I hate them. Just thinking about them makes me hate them more. 

4. Reevaluate your system. For a long time we used a composition notebook to track our spending. 

And then Jason started traveling for work. He was no longer home to balance the budget and we needed to come up with another tool. We started using an app that we can plug our items into right away. 

Our system was no longer working and we had to develop a new way of doing things. 

What about you? Do you suffer from budget burnout? And how do you deal with it?