My Super-Charged Life

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Yesterday in Part 1, I wrote about how people often resist the idea of living on a budget and how I used to be one of those people until I learned that a budget is the path to a wealthier, freer, and simpler life.  Yesterday was about the big picture.  It was about how budgeting has impacted my thinking and attitude.  Today, I want to share a few of the more practical lessons I learned from the daily discipline of living on a budget.

Here are the first five items in this list.  I’ll post the remaining five in Part 3 tomorrow.

1. $100 is a lot of money. 
   I know that when I was a kid I thought $100 was a lot of money.  I remember being in awe of a $100 bill.  However, somewhere along the way, I lost my respect for the value for this sum of money.  It didn’t matter whether it was an expense or income.  I just didn’t feel like $100 mattered much.  Maybe it was because I usually didn’t physically see my money.  I mainly used plastic cards instead of real cash.  However, living on a budget and using cash has taught me to once again hold $100 in high regard.  It is amazing how far $100 goes and how much power it holds when you are in control of it and using it for a specific purpose.
2. Food tastes better when you eat out less often.
   My wife and I enjoy going out to eat.  Before we had a budget, we went to restaurants all the time.  It is a form of entertainment for us.  However, we were often less than excited about it.  We had a hard time deciding where to go.  We did it so often that it lost its feeling of being fun and special.  Once we saw what we were spending on eating out, we had to cut way back.  The unexpected benefit is that now it has brought back the excitement of going out to eat.  It is special again and the food just seems to taste better.
3. Shopping is not entertainment.
   When did going to the mall become America’s number one pastime?  It seems that shopping is now the way people spend much of their free time.  Marketers do a fantastic job of selling us the lifestyles we think we want.  However, after the buzz wears off, we are usually left with a feeling of emptiness and buyers remorse from our latest spending spree.  My budget has taught me to avoid going to the mall so I don’t fall into this trap.
4. Things can be fixed.
   We are a consumer culture.  There is no question about it.  We are misled into thinking that when something develops the tiniest of flaws that we should throw it away and go buy new.  Of course, retailers love this mentality.  However, my budget taught me that this was stinking thinking.  Several months ago, the agitator in my washing machine wouldn’t turn anymore.  I did a little research on the Internet and found the most likely cause was a $5 part that took me only 15 minutes to install.  It has been working perfectly ever since.  I am not that much of a handyman, my wife would testify to this, but immediately assuming that something needs to be replaced when it breaks will only lead you to the poor house not to mention what it does to the environment.
5. Getting a true deal is exciting.
   America is the land of the sales flyer.  How can retailers make money when they are seemingly always selling everything for 75% off?  They jack up the initial price knowing that they will need to lower it later to make us feel like we are getting a good deal.  Dave Ramsey suggests, “Never pay retail!”  This has been my motto for the last couple of years.  As Ron at The Wisdom Journal points out, it is possible to time the markets to get good deals.  Timing is probably the single biggest advantage we have as buyers to get bargains.  In business, if you buy near the end of the month, year, or quarter salespeople are always more anxious to make a deal to boost their numbers.  As an individual, I have sold several large items such as boats and cars at bargain prices when buyers had cash and were ready to make an immediate deal.  Now that I have better control of my money, I hope to use this same technique to my advantage.

Living on a budget has changed my thinking for the better on several fronts.  It is hard to understand how valuable budgeting really is financially and emotionally until you’ve done it for a significant period of time.  As I stated yesterday, I’ll never live any other way.  If you don’t have a budget, I hope this series of articles will inspire you to give it a try.  I included links in Part 1 that can help you get started.

I’ll wrap this up tomorrow with a list of five more items.  So far, it has been a great exercise for me reflecting on what I’ve learned.  It really drives these lessons home. 

Photos by Cayusa and ipanemic

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