On WithinMeans, I consciously try not to dwell too much on debt and retirement, etc.

Not only are there plenty of sites that do that (and it’s not that those things aren’t very important), but I’d rather have WithinMeans be about small achievable steps that make a difference in your daily and monthly life, right away (using a simple, self-made, family budget).

So forgive me from breaking that rule today as this chart focuses quite a bit on the negative – also, I found some of the wording needlessly snarky.

Some of these issues are symptoms of  putting wants before needs, a lack of a prioritizing budget, and not living within means. All things anyone can try to start doing today.

I’ve shared an infograph from Visual Economics before and found it quite interesting; I hope you find this one enlightening as well.

Click the picture to go to the original source for a bigger look:

Source: Visual Economics

It’s true, I haven’t really posted anything lately.

I hope you’ll accept the following 7 lbs and 19 inches as a partially acceptable excuse.

Photo by: ikkoskinen

Let’s say you decided to take action and start a budget today. You really want a new garage door and want to budget for it so you can buy one this year.

As you keep your budget updated week after week, you start to notice a leak in your money. You’re spending more on eating out than you want to. You feel like you’d rather spend less and eat in more often, so you shrink your “eating out” category and put that money towards your goal. Now you’re even closer to the garage door.

After a few months you reach your goal and your garage looks great. Congrats!

While getting the garage door was the ultimate goal, you may have experienced some other “side effects” from this experience.

By budgeting less for eating out, you might eat less fast food. You might be eating better as you make your own meals. You may have even learned how to make a new meal you love.

Using a budget can have more positive (sometimes unintended) side effects in your life than just saving money or achieving goals.

My wife and I have been budgeting for years, and we still find these little side effects all the time.