Budget Burnout and How to Avoid It

🐷Last week I shared a GoBankingRates.com article I was featured in on socials.

The article is titled "Budget Burnout: What To Do When You Are Sick of Saving". but I want to dig a little deeper in case you're feeling burned out when it comes to your budget.

In order to be supportive, a budget needs to be realistic and functional for YOU, so if you are getting burned out by it, that tells me your budget is probably NOT realistic.

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A budget is also a reflection of:

✨your values,

✨what's important to you,

✨what you desire in life,

which means if you're sick and tired of saving, it's time to reevaluate your budget to ensure that it still reflects the life you want to live - which includes life in the present.

Savings are, of course, future-oriented, BUT a budget isn't meant to make you give up everything you love in the present.

Here are some questions to help you reassess:

💵 What am I currently saving for?

💵 Do I have short, medium AND long term financial goals?

💵 How can I make space for spending in the present so that life is enjoyable and not all about saving?

When it comes to budgeting and achieving financial happiness, it's important to remember that the journey is just as important as the destination.

🌈Financial happiness can mean spending on things like your daily coffee or a weekend away - and deciding on where to spend and where to save is based on your values, what's important to you and what you desire in life.

This will probably sound weird, but savings are meant to be spent - whether now or later, and it's important to remember that.

Here are a few tricks to avoid savings burnout:

✅ Reward yourself. "When I reach $xx.xx in my savings, I will treat myself to a __________."

✅ Make it a game. Print our a fun savings tracker or enlist the help of a savings buddy or accountability partner.

✅ Reevaluate your savings goals at least once a quarter to make sure they still align with what you want.

✅ Buy something for yourself once a week or once a month just because you want it.

Do you ever feel burned out by your budget or feel "savings-poor"?👇🏻

The Why Behind the BFF

🐷I pulled out the grocery bag hidden in the back of the closet and threw the unopened envelopes into it.

I shoved the bag stuffed full of unopened bills back into the darkness.

If I can’t see them, they don’t exist.

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It was the summer of 2009, I was 24 and I had just left my fiance.

🏚️We had bought a house the year prior, but it was way more house than we could *actually* afford.

But that was February 2008, so we were able to wriggle our way into a mortgage before the collapse occurred that Fall.

💸For reasons I don’t need to get into, I was left paying for the $1,200 mortgage (plus everything else) on a $2,000 per month salary.

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The envelopes I threw into the closet were full of credit card bills and student loan invoices.

I didn’t have the money to pay for them, so why even open them?

🎯Side note, that still didn’t stop me from heading over to Target after work and whipping out the Visa to try to feel a little bit better about my situation.

I spent the summer ignoring my problems and living on coffee and credit cards.

I was just so mad at myself because I had done this same thing with credit cards 5 years prior, and here I was doing it all over again.

🤓Even though my finances were a MESS, I was still obsessed with personal finance and subscribed to all the blogs.

📺I would watch Suze Orman late night infomercials to learn as much as I could.

🧮I would project out my weekly budget even when it showed a deficit every single week.

I had all (literally ALL) of the tools, but nothing was happening to improve my situation because I wasn’t actually taking action.

I lost 10 pounds that summer because I was so stressed out.

Anxious all the time.

😵‍💫Feeling guilty and full of shame that I was ruining my life, financially.

It finally hit me before Christmas 2009 that I just couldn’t do this anymore.

Enough reading blogs.

Enough watching Suze Orman infomercials.

Enough with the tips and tricks - it was time to take action.

So what did I do?

• I put the house on the market.

• I got a new, better paying job.

• I called every creditor and made things right by making a plan to get back on track with payments.

• I opened a credit card and did a 0% balance transfer for what I could.

• I got a less expensive car.

I did everything that was in my control.

But it wasn’t just that….

😱I faced my fears.

💪I took responsibility.

🥹I forgave myself.

I had been in survival mode, and my actions reflected how scared I was that everything was falling apart.

The decisions I had made were all based in fear - so of course my finances reflected that.

My new decisions were based in forgiveness and grace. 

It was more difficult for me, though, because I was alone.

I didn’t have someone helping me along the way, holding my hand, telling me it was going to be OK...

…and this is why I do what I do.

😔I know how hard it is to make changes by yourself.

🧱I know the crushing weight of guilt, shame and anxiety.

☀️But, I also know what’s on the other side:

🩷I know how it feels to be in control of my finances.

I know the hopefulness, the contentment, the excitement.

I’m not only here to help you through the dark parts, but I’m also here to cheer you on as you work toward the good parts.

The parts that light you up.

The credit cards and student loans you pay off.

The homes you buy.

The trips you take.

The cups of coffee you enjoy.

The goals you make and the milestones you hit.

I’m here for it all, because you deserve someone in your corner through the good AND the bad.

Someone who gets it.

Someone who’s been there.

Someone who cares about your success.

A bestie.

I’ve got you, friend.

xoxo,

Caitlin