Money and Finances: How to Live on a Budget

by Mango Chutney on July 19th, 2019 | No Comments »

It is important to be conscious of your lifestyle and spending when you are on a budget. Unless you are one of the Real Housewives of the Universe, you have to be practical in your spending choices.

How to Live on a Budget

Regularly ask yourself, "Is it totally necessary to buy this/spend that?" I went to a friend's house the other day who moved to my "dream neighborhood." Whenever I'm there I began to think of at what I would be willing to spend to move into an almost 5,000 sq. ft. home. This friend also has a credit card for EVERY store on the planet and I know can't afford her high cost of living. I used to do her finances, and let's just say, they have a credit card for every problem. She and her hubs have high dreams, which is fine, but they are kind of living their life on a wing and a prayer.

So how would you rather live—on credit cards or practically? If you want to sleep easy at night, you have to build some fail-safes for yourself. I know from experience that life has a few more monkey wrenches than it knows what to do with, which means you might have one ready at your door step. My family has exercised its financial muscles so our only luxuries are iPhones and cable. Maybe we can eat out a few times a month, maybe a splurge once in a while instead of any time money is around.

I have a practical, but well working, washer and dryer set that don't match because my dryer had to be replaced after it stopped working. I want to get the front loaders, but it's not reasonable. The ones I have now, are cleaning and drying my clothes effectively.

I'm proud to say that I have little debt. The debt I have is because my hubs is still in school, but almost done (Hooray! this spring). Once he graduates and starts making more money, we should be able to get caught up on our debt. We have ONE—yes, ONE—major credit card that could help us in a jam, like an unexpected expense/food/bill etc. But don't worry, you don't need to collect every credit card at the checkout counter.

If you have multiple credit cards in your wallet that you don't NEED, run to your kitchen, fill a pitcher with water, and put every credit card in, except one, and freeze it! Remember, you don't want to cancel them right away because it will kill your credit score.

Don't get me wrong, It's okay to splurge SOMETIMES, but not everytime you get money. You have to ask yourself, "Do I NEED/WANT this? Will this bring confusion to my overall situation or will it be beneficial?"