1. Creating a budget is way too much work and takes up valuable time that you could be spending playing WOW or COD.

2. You feel loved when your phone rings so you enjoy getting calls from bill collectors.

3. A budget would show you where you’re spending too much money and you really don’t want to change your spending habits.

4. You love working so much that you never want to retire anyway, so why budget and save?

5. You live in your parent’s basement and have no plans on ever moving out.

6. You don’t care how much money you spend. If your checking account is empty you simply pull out the credit card.

7. You have no financial goals so see no reason to plan your spending and savings.

8. You’ve never used a budget before and think that you’re doing just fine, even if you do have $20,000 in credit card debt. I mean everyone has credit card debt right? So what’s the big deal.

9. If you had a budget you might feel accountable to stick to it and you hate feeling accountable for anything.

10. You’ve budgeted before and no matter what you put in for the expenses for each category you’re always wrong. The expenses are never what you thought they were going to be anyway and you hate being wrong like that every month.

11. You’re a free spirit who doesn’t believe in the whole planning thing. It’s too restrictive man, just go with the flow.

12. You need to hide money from your spouse and if you created a budget he/she would know how much you really make and where it’s being spent.

13. You perform better when you’re under stress and not know where you’ll get the money to pay your bills each month gives you lots of stress.

For those of you that disagree and think you should have a budget (I hope that’s all of you) here are 25 26 reasons why you should make a budget.

Hope you all enjoyed that and if you have any other good reasons not to have a budget please leave them in the comments below.

At its core a budget is simply a way to plan your spending so you can focus on putting your money to its best use. If you’re already under a heavy debt load then a budget could mean that you need to cut back on some aspects of your life such as eating out, partying or buying expensive toys. However you can always go back to those things once your debt is under control.

A budget makes your income and expenses much clearer and gives you a way to make conscious decisions about your spending. This is very different than spending on a whim and ending up broke at the end of each month. We all have things that waste our money, but with a budget you can eliminate the worst offenders. If you have financial goals (and all of us do) then a budget will help you to plan how you are going to achieve those goals whether they are short term goals like buying a new TV or longer term goals such as taking an exotic vacation with your spouse to even lifetime goals such as retirement.

Budgeting is very different for every person and the way your neighbor or co-worker budgets may not be right for you. Only you will know how to create a budget that you can stick with to help you meet your goals. Some people can make a mental budget and are fine following that. I’ve always found that small expenses tend to creep in when I try to follow a mental budget. These expenses seem insignificant at the time, but when added up can mean several hundred dollars of frivolous purchases by the end of a month. People like me need to write their budget down, use a spreadsheet or some other budgeting tool such as You Need A Budget. It helps keep us focused and accountable.

There are many good reasons to use a budget. Some of the most common are:

1. Working to get yourself out of a high debt situation
2. Saving for a major purchase like a down payment on a house
3. Working towards a large financial goal such as retirement or college education
4. Dealing with limited income
5. Trying to live more frugally and simplify your life

I’m sure you can think of others; which is the reason why everyone needs to plan their own budget that focuses on their own goals and what’s important to them.

No matter what goals you have with your budget, the budget exists to help you plan and most importantly to be conscious of how you spend your money. This may be a bit of a chore when you first start out, but you’ll soon find that a budget can also be enjoyable. It can show us how to have more money for the fun things we want to do.

Consider this:
If you buy your lunch out every day and spend $6 on average you’re spending over $1500 a year on take-out food for lunch alone. Add a dinner out on Friday and maybe a few drinks on the weekend and you’re easily spending over $3000 a year that could be put to better use. What if you saved that money and put it towards your retirement so you could stop working several years earlier. Or you could use it to take a dream vacation. Maybe you need it for your child’s education or even your own. In the long run you’re going to get more enjoyment from these things than you get from those fast food lunches.

One thing you should be aware of when you start using your first budget is that while it will give you a good guide of what you should do, it won’t be able to change your bad money management habits. Only you can take the steps to change your own behavior regarding money. Without the commitment from you to change your own spending and saving habits your budget isn’t worth the paper it’s written on or the bytes it takes up on your computer.

At the end of the day your budget should give you a clear picture of reality, the reality of how much you earn and how much you spend. Some people shy away from creating a budget for this very reason. They know that their spending is irresponsible and they are afraid of confronting the reality. Don’t be! The very best way to start enjoying your money and your life more is to consciously plan where your money gets spent and thus take control of your money, rather than letting it control you.

You’ll find that the act of writing down where your money goes will make it much easier (and more enjoyable) to make decisions about how to spend the limited amount of money you have. And if you can attach a goal to your finances such as paying off credit cards, retiring early, taking a well deserved vacation or whatever you value you’ll find that it’s actually very easy to make conscious decisions about how to spend (or save) your money.

• Maybe it’s the fault of our government who continues to propagate the idea that they will take care of us, that we are entitled to a certain standard of living and who continues to spend more than they make by a wider margin every year.
• Or perhaps we can blame the media companies who put all the latest gadgets, toys and shiny playthings in front of us continually with the message that if we don’t have these things we are missing out and somehow less successful than our peers.
• Or we can blame the entertainment industry; who tell us that everyone should be living a dream and push us to buy all the trappings of that dream life.
• Maybe it’s our neighbors fault because they keep buying new things for their houses, new cars and electronics and if they have a landscaping service don’t we need one too…

In all honesty we have no one to blame but ourselves if we are living beyond our means. We have control of our financial destiny and no one else is going to care if we are broke when we should be retired and enjoying our golden years. Take responsibility for your finances and block out all the noise from outside. Look inside yourself and take stock of what you really need to make you happy. Chances are it’s not a new iPod or a new BMW or new furniture. It certainly isn’t mountains of debt that only make the banks and credit card companies richer. Chances are many of the things that will make you truly happy require very little money.

It may seem painful initially and many of us shy away from taking a close look at our finances for fear of what we’ll find, but you need to start out by creating a budget to find out how you SHOULD be spending your money. Once that’s done track your spending for a month or two to see if that is really how you ARE spending your money. Chances are there are a lot of little things you buy that aren’t in your budget. These could add up to hundreds of dollars a month (I know in my case they did). By simply becoming aware of where your money goes you might be able to get to the point that you’re spending less than you make.

One thing I can guarantee is that if you’re living on less than you make you’ll have less stress in your life. Small emergency expenses won’t create a huge problem for you because you’ll have the money to cope with them. You won’t be dwelling on where you’re going to get the money to pay this bill or that bill each month. You’ll know that you’re building a solid foundation for your future and I can tell you it will give you both a feeling of relief and satisfaction.

Another thing you’ll find once you’re living on less than you make is increased freedom. When you’re trapped in the debt spiral or living paycheck to paycheck you often have few choices in where your money gets spent or how much of your time you need to trade for the money that you need. Once you’ve gotten to the point that you spend less than you make all sorts of choices become available. The choice to quit your second job or turn down overtime and spend more time with your family is priceless. The choice to get away for the weekend with your spouse or take your family on a week long vacation WITHOUT increasing your debt is wonderful. The choice to follow your dreams, whatever they may be, often only opens up once you have the freedom from living paycheck to paycheck.

If you’re still spending more than you make then I highly recommend you take a look at your finances and make a plan TODAY to get that under control and spend less than you make. It may be a struggle initially, you may feel overwhelmed or like you’ll never be able to make it work, but if you don’t make it work now you’ll end up in a much worse place. Plus I can guarantee that once you get your spending in line with your income you’ll feel more relaxed and more happy overall.