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

• An Interesting Look At Where Many Paychecks End Up
• 4 Budgeting Tips For Newlyweds (of all ages)

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

Similar Posts:

• Learn why Jonathan started Withinmeans

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.Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story
• 4 Budgeting Tips For Newlyweds (of all ages)

Photo by: enea

(Yes, I was trying to think of a super cheesy post title.)

Over the weekend my wife and I discussed making good choices with some teenagers. I posed the question “How does being ‘good’ affect those around you?”

It was a broad question and I wasn’t getting much response. In these situations I sometimes explore the flip side of a subject to see if it’s a little more obvious.

• What if I spent less time helping around the house and replaced that time playing video games?
• What if I picked up a filthy vocabulary? Would that affect my wife and kids?
• What if I started using our credit card to spend money we really didn’t have?
• What if I spent our paychecks on wants, and ran out of money for the mortgage that month?

It’s easy to take for granted the small simple work we each put in every day for those we love because they’re not as obvious sometimes.

They may be every-day things we do, but they’re still good choices, and the people we care about depend on us to keep doing them.

Think of the quiet “good” you do every day and take a moment to appreciate how it affects your friends and family.Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story

Photo by: Gilles Gonthier

If I learned anything from elementary school, it’s that groundhogs have the cosmic ability to predict how long winter will last depending on their shadow.

This supernatural event only happens on the 2nd of February every year. If the groundhog sees his shadow he goes back down his hole to hide from six more weeks of winter. The universe will have spoken.

We have no ability to change whether winter will last another six weeks or not – that is up to the cosmic groundhog – but you do have the ability to choose to follow a budget for the next six weeks. Try signing up for One Month of Budgeting for some extra help:

If you’re reading this in a reader, you can click through here to see the form.

(Ok, the One Month of Budgeting emails only last for five weeks, but you still get six emails.)

—

PS – I was going to include a bunch of mildly obscure references to the movie Groundhog Day, to drive my wife nuts, but I deleted them.

Oh what the heck:

Watch that first step… it’s a doo-hoo-sie! Am I right, or am I right? Right? Right?Similar Posts:

• Keep your budget in front of you
• Budgeting your paycheck gets easier every month

Photo by: Md Zaq

On your marks, get set…

My parents hold hostage a VHS tape containing various clips of me as a child. One of those clips is my infamous presentation of “The Tortoise and The Hare,” with popsicle-stick puppets. I think it must have been for school.

We’ve all probably heard the famous moral of that story: Slow and steady wins the race.

I can’t help but think that if Aesop wrote that fable today, he’d highlight the word “steady” and then click Bold and Italicize.

Steady month-after-month budgeting does a couple of things that off-and-on budgeting can’t. It helps you make sure you’re always spending less than you earn – it can only take one awkward month to slip beyond your means. And it gives you current data to review, to help tweak each new budget – so your budgets are always better, and your money is going where you know you need it.

Keep it up, you’ll see steady progress, I promise.

PS – WithinMeans is six months old this week. Thanks for being a part of it!Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story

Photo by: laurakgibbs

A simple question:

A while ago I stopped by Ask500.com and threw out a very simple question to all the world:

Do you follow a budget?

That’s all I asked – no qualifiers. If someone felt like they followed a budget or not they could respond Yes or No.

A little under 130 people answered, so it’s not the worlds biggest sample size, but it was fun to watch answers pop up around the world.

You can see the results here:

I believe the question is “closed” on the site, but please drop your own answer in the comments.

Do you follow a budget?Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story
• Learn why Jonathan started Withinmeans

Photo by: Darby Elizabeth Photography

Stacy and Erik have recently finished their first full month of budgeting and were helpful enough to share some of their thoughts with us:

How has budgeting helped you so far?

I love that budgeting keeps us accountable for where we spend our money. I am a compulsive buyer by nature, so knowing that I have a limit and that I have to enter that number into the budget has really helped.

What’s the toughest part of budgeting?

The toughest part is when you overspend in one portion and you have to adjust the budget and take money from something else.

Are you making better buying decisions because of your budget?

Yes! It helps to reign in my compulsive buying nature as I step back and say, “Do I really need this?” or “What is more important to me? A candy bar now or Halloween candy later?”

Any tips for “sticking with it?”

Just do it! It takes time, but not that much, and it is so worth the time for that peace of mind. I have my GoogleDoc open on my computer all the time. Every time before I go to the store for groceries I check to see how much we’ve budgeted so I am sure that I can stay within the limit.

What advice would you give a first time budget-er?

It’s hard to give advice when we are still in the learning stages and I still consider myself a first time budget-er. But I would say be really vigilant especially that first month.

It took us 3 months to make it through ONE full month of keeping it updated. That first month is the hardest I think. If you are like me, you only have a vague idea on how much you actually spend on groceries, gas, etc. So keeping track that first month you may be suprised at what you find.

It was much easier to “cut” back and re-adjust things when we knew how much we were actually spending. It’s hard to be frugal if you don’t know what you spend. It’s become a game for us. Can we spend less on our grocery bill this month than we did last month? We’ve come up with different activities to do for dates so we can cut back on the cost of eating out every week. It’s been fun.

Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story

Photo by: picsbycam

Once upon a time…

A woman and her husband discovered their favorite band (ever!) was in town. It was a chart-topping-mainstream-band so they charged quite a bit for their concerts.

The couple spent a long time thinking hard about the cost of the concert, debating the pros and cons, and worrying about what it would mean for their bills this month if they went. In the end they went and paid a decent chunk of money and felt guilty (and a little tired), but still had some fun.

In the same town…

Another woman and her husband wanted to go see the same band, but they followed a budget.

They looked at their budget and in less than a minute decided they could afford to go. Their “Fun” category didn’t quite have enough to cover the entire evening (they hadn’t planned on the band being in town), so they moved some funds from something they valued less than the concert (a small but growing “new couch” fund). So they went and paid a decent chunk of money, and had a great time, created a memory together – and didn’t feel guilty or worried at all.

And they rocked happily ever after.

The EndSimilar Posts:

• You are the boss of your budget, leave room for fun
• How To Turn Emergencies Into Inconveniences

I’ve wanted to post this quote for a while:

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
— Oscar Wilde

Ouch, Oscar… mega ouch.Similar Posts:

• Real newlywed’s share their budgeting story