I have a thing inside me that just unnerves me when I hear the word budget. Year after year our government has a budget. That is how it is suppose to be in life. We as civillians have a spending plan. As the woman in Creative Living that I borrow my lifestyle from now said that spending plans require a ledger to track what we spend, where we spend, and what we are saving. I have a book folder with rings in it that snap together all three of them. It is green which stands for money. I have two catagories 1. NEEDS, and 2, WANTS. I make a list on a sheet of paper of what i can't live without. Then I check off and divide the list into needs and wants. I put each one on a separate sheet and snap it into my folder under its catagory. I need toilet paper and I want pop. I shop from the needs list first. Whatever money is left over after I am done. I go out and buy one want list item. I sometimes don't have any money left, but change, so I save it and buy an item from the want list later when I have enough money. I never say I can't afford what I am buying at the checkout any time now. I say yes I got what I need and want will come later. The store clerk usually smiles at that statement because she/he knows I will be back later to buy the want item. I do this strategy at the Dollar Store too. Spending is a defense art I have mastered, and now I will tackle taming my children spendthrift habits at home and school. Well I hope to never hear the word budget from civillians again, but I guess that falls on deaf ears. LOL

Tanya

Since this post is a rant about budgets, I am moving it into the budget folder, hehehe.

On a more serious note, the word budget refers to a spending plan, it's not just for the government's use. Many people have simply developed negative opinions and feelings towards the word itself however and feel less intimidated by the use of a different word that essentially means the same thing.

Do you find you have better success with maintaining your plan when you refer to it as a spending plan.

Budget reminds me of Diet....eek! I like spending plan better.

 Cinnamon Huskies- Michelle-

How's your spending plan going with a drop in income?  Hanging in there?

Tracy 

Spending plan is now spending just what cash we have on hand, rather than following my Dave Ramsey envelopes...since there's nothing to fill the envelopes at the start of the month anymore. Unemployment covers only the mortagage, the insurance, the electric, and the minimum on credit cards(-whereas before I was able to take major chunks out of that debt). That does not leave anything for gasoline, groceries, livestock feed, or anything else. So aside from the $ we have left in savings...which will be gone at the end of this month...I have been using my egg and cheese $, consignment store $, and survey $ each week for whatevr is needed. My son took some of his cash and filled both our vehicles with gasoline so we should be good for quite sometime, aside from driving 4 days a week to drivers ed 40 miles away. We had signed up for it before the layoff and would lose our $100 deposit if we backed out now. Ds is paying the balance of $185, he agreed to that when he took a summer job this year. My car insurance won't go up until he turns 16 and gets licensed. That is year away yet.

There is no side work even able for Dh. Usually he has side jobs going but that dried up months agao too. That was my first inkling that something was going on with the economy. He spent $20 on a DNR wood permit, so he and the boys are out cutting wood down the road from here in state land. Aside from my almost becoming a widow when he rolled the tractor completely over UGH, it's been a blessing. We only need 12 cord of wood a year for heat and hot water.

Spending plan? To spend as little as possible.

I don't have issues with either word, lol. But I do get that people associate and it's important to go with something that is comfortable and motivational.