How’s Your Budget Working For You?

How’s your budget working for you? Is it keeping you organized, saving money, and revealing where your money’s going?

It is possible to have a budget you love! Truthfully, a budget is empowering; it helps you to control your money and bring order out of chaos.

Living by a budget strengthens our stewardship, though sometimes we mess up. In fact, I’d venture to say everyone who’s kept a budget for more than 6 months has probably experienced failure at some point.

Things come up. Life happens. And sometimes you overspend. It may be just a few dollars here and there, or it may be a big-time “oops”.

When this happens, how do you bounce back to keep your budget on track?

First of all, you don’t just give up and spend whatever you want for the rest of the month.  

If you accidentally stub your toe, you don’t intentionally stub the other nine! There’s no benefit in that!

Instead, you learn from it, identify why it happened, repent and keep going. If you overspend in your Eating Out category, then “borrow” from another – like Recreation & Entertainment or Groceries.

Faithful stewardship addresses the root issues that cause our problems. If you only treat the symptoms, and never let God’s principles transform your heart, you’ll never experience the freedom that Christ offers.

A budget is not permanent – it should be revisited and adjusted from time to time. If you consistently overspend in one category, then put more money there and less in another.  Or, use cash only for the categories you frequently overspend.

Give your budget the time and attention it needs and you will discover it works!  After all, your budget is a tool to set you up for successful stewardship.

If a large portion of your monthly spending is dedicated to paying off credit card debt, get in touch with Christian Credit Counselors. They can help you create a debt payoff plan that works for you. Visit crown.org/ccc or call 800-722-1976