So, obviously, I fell off the wagon. For a long time.
And I’ve realized a few things: things I would tell to other people nonchalantly as if they were obvious, and things people could tell me and I would agree wholeheartedly because they are obvious.
For starters, when I say I fell off the wagon, what I really mean is: I stopped budgeting. I just bought whatever I wanted and figured that some windfall somewhere would cover it. I was impulsive and never said, “no” to myself. I needed someone to stop me and say, “for real? This is what you’re working for?”
But there are a few victories here:
- When you set yourself up for success, even if you fall off for a while, you will still make progress.
- You may come to your own realization that you need change, and your resolve may be stronger than the first time (which I am feeling it is now, both in budgeting and in blogging).
So although I pretty much stopped budgeting altogether in July of 2018, we still made some progress. Did we save as much as I would have liked to? No. I floated some things on my credit card while being impulsive, and now I’m aggressively paying that off, thankfully floating it a bit longer in order to avoid interest charges.
However, in 2018, we did still save just over $11,000 toward retirement. It didn’t quite meet our goals, but if you would have told me 3 years ago that we would casually save over $900 a month toward retirement and not meet our goals, I would have told you that was insane. There was a point where we were saving $600 per month for retirement, and I felt like we were elite and unstoppable. So looking at a a year where we saved $900+ per month and feeling inadequate: not cool.
And my big realization of all of this is: you have a budget whether you look at it or not. Your dollars have jobs, and you have responsibilities and goals, and even if you don’t want to admit that you have higher priorities, you do.
So with that, we dove back into YNAB, started with a Fresh Start on December 31 (had to, just so I could see the one month change at the end of January), and I’m fully back in to reaching all of our goals.
To go with this, I have also followed my own advice I’ve heard myself give within the last 6 months: when creating my budget categories, above all I am realistic. When helping young sailors budget their funds, I’ve asked them before questions like, “are you planning to go home anytime soon?” and when they say yes, I help them create a plan to save up for it because they’re gonna do it no matter what.
So I took a good look at my budget and realized, “What would I do no matter what, whether or not the money was saved yet?” Well, obviously, pay my bills. But what else? I know we want to finish some gardening stuff this spring, and there is no way I am just not gonna do it, so that has a category. I know I want a new woodstove in September, and that’s absolutely going to happen, so that has a category. I 100% know my husband wants to finish the basement in the winter (wanted to this winter, but that is 100% not happening, so I made a category so next winter it can happen for sure). I realized that other things like vacations and a trip with my mom and even having outlets installed outside on the deck are all going to happen, and I would do them whether or not I saved up for them, and then I would float it on a credit card and stress and go “oh my gosh, we shouldn’t have done that!”
In 2019, I am promising myself to be more responsible and realistic, saving for things I have no intention of saying “no” to. And some of the goals are very hard. Between the woodstove and the basement, we have to save over $700 per month.
However, in doing all of this, I’ve realized that these are my priorities. I have already thought in depth about it, and I know these are the most important things in my budget to me. In order to meet these goals, I will have to sacrifice in other places, and maybe be a bit creative with some other things (see my Facebook post about saving $194 per year on insurance by changing companies).
This was a really long post to say just a few things. In short:
- In 2018, I became an ostrich, but still saved some money.
- In 2019, I plan to not be an ostrich, and to legitimately follow the budget to save toward my real priorities.
- In 2019, I would like to eliminate all of my credit card floating, pay off my car, and make a significant dent in paying off E’s car. How I plan to do that while also saving up for some hefty goals? Not sure yet.
Here’s to an honest and productive 2019!
