RECENT PROJECT
After doing a lot of breads, I realized, “You know what, I should actually get to baking some other things.”  It is with that, then, that I tried my hand at some chocolate-dipped cookies; to be specific, this recipe from Food Network.  I quickly learned that, if you act like an engineer and just blast out several exact “1/2-by-3-inch strips”, you kind of get a tiny little cookie.  Thus the mixture of two-in-one cookies, narrow cookies, and kind-of-OK cookies shown below (pre-dipping).

OK, so lesson one was learned:  Take a couple extra seconds to create nice, thick cookies.  Lesson two followed quickly when I realized I don’t do the most even dipping in the world on cookies, as you can see in the image at the top of this post.  Still, even with the inconsistencies and imperfections, these were quick to make and tasty to eat–and some of them did turn out alright.

Now, you can leave these cookies undipped and they’ll taste alright, but they really are way better when you dip them in chocolate.  Hey, that’s like finances:  They’re alright without a budget, but it’s way better when you do a budget.  What a timely parallel given that today’s post is about why we budget.

TOPIC FOR TODAY
The word “budget” is a funny thing.  For some people, me included, it’s a happy word:  It’s exciting  to think of looking at your spending, seeing where your money is going, and then figure out where you can cut back in the future.  For others, and my wife originally fell into this category, it’s more of a “Really?  Do we have to?” response.

To be completely honest, the reason we had a budget initially was because I had one set up and I led the way in making it part of our activities as a couple, too.  Given the choice, Mary probably would have thrown the budget out the window within the first year of our marriage and been completely fine with it.  For that first year and even into the second, there was that bit of tension every time we sat down, pulled up the spreadsheet, and started going through where she and I were spending money–and, in some cases, overspending money.

Given the tension, why did we do it?  And why should anyone and everyone do it?  It’s simple, really:  You need to know where your money is going so that you’re not wasting it on useless things, which then lets you save more for your future goals.  This is something that, at least for Americans, we’re not doing such a bang-up job of.  This article from 2017, for example, indicates that 57% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts, with 39% having nothing at all.  I would hazard to guess that many of those people don’t have budgets in place.

For my wife and I, the goals part of budgeting was certainly the primary item that kept us going.  It was also what helped us understand each other better.  As we went through items and realized areas that we could improve on, there were also areas that I realized were important to her:  A nice coffee from a coffee shop once a week, or having a little room to replace older clothes a couple times a year.  Those are things that seem superfluous to me but, knowing they matter to her, it makes me want to work our budget so that she can have them.  Similarly, she was able to see how happy it was making me to pay off debt and to push for an increased savings rate–which helped her begin enjoying the thought of being debt-free as well.

There you have why we budget:  A common goal of eliminating debt, increasing savings, and getting the chance to enjoy some small pleasures in life.  I’ll do another post about how we budget because that can provide insight for what works for you versus what really does not work for you.  The “how” of budgeting is not nearly as important as making sure you just go and do it!