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Here are some pointers for trying to get into the budgeting game. A lot of us have a resistance to budgeting so just decide in the beginning, that we’re going to give it say three or four months before we see results. Of course it won’t be perfect the first time we do it but that’s expected. When remaking a monthly budget write down every dime we’re going to use. Put more in some accounts then you usually use, like groceries and other areas that we may skimp on.

Of course for in a family we need to be judicial about the budget, not use it as a whipping tool to make others do our will. If you’re just married, and haven’t done the budget together before, and just remember what the preacher said, that you are one, and both need to come together in agreement on the budget. When were doing the things we truly want to do, and we feel good about the things we want to do, they’re a lot more likely to get done.

When it comes to budgeting, you hear a lot of people say I don’t have enough time to work on a budget. Well the truth of that is you don’t have enough time to not make a budget. A lot of people fear the dreaded word budget, and I guess the only one that is worse is the word bankruptcy. These be words have given each of them a bum rap. Because basically all a budget is a plan. It’s a way for you to put down on paper or perhaps on a computer program, what you plan on doing for the following month or year.

It’s too bad a lot of us feel that a budget is like a straitjacket is going to keep us from doing the things we want to do. The truth is the budget is actually going to give us more freedom to do the things we really want to do. Unless we’ve planned for something, set aside money, even set aside the resources to do it in time and effort and many other avenues, we will probably not do it. We have to change our mindset about budgeting if we wanted to work for us. It’s a great tool and we need to use it.

I was working on my budget the other day, and I have a column for vacations. I haven’t put much money into the vacation column because lately, mostly because of the economy, there’s been less income coming in. But I decided that’s not going to stop me from doing what I really want to do with my money. I think we should all should be willing to be able to say what we want and if it seems hard to get it, then I should be the work were willing to do. Nobody’s going to give us the things we want in life except ourselves; if I put it into the budget that I’m going to be reminded of the thing I want to do.

If I keep it in front of me long enough I’ve come to find out, but it usually happens. If I think of something once, and then I go on to the other things that always seem to pop up, I never get that one done, it seems to disappear and it never happens. So the budget is a key part of bringing to us the things we really want. It isn’t just paying bills; it’s to create the life we want.

Going to the corner market is always an experience I look forward too. Not just for the great produce and food it has but for the people that I run into there. It is an eclectic bunch of people that I wouldn’t expect in some places. It seems when it comes to fresh food, people from all walks of life seem to gravitate to where ever they can find it. Maybe people do the same thing when it comes to money. Those who really know what they want, seem to gravitate to the source of money and seem to know how to keep it.

People who have money have learned some of the basic and perhaps advanced ideas about money. The most common one to be found among this group is the use of a budget. People in business would never attempt to run it without a budget, and more specifically a budget that works. These same successful business people are the ones who have a working budget in their person finances too. A budget that matches the goals of business or personal finance is the key to success.

Since the last book I read was a novel, I think this time I will find a non fiction book. I like to read, but I don’t want to read the same thing again an again. Like life, if we do the same old thing over and over we soon lose interest. When I think about my money situation and see that I have been stuck in this less than perfect way of handling money, I think it is time for a change. Knowing how to change is the next challenge.

What could I do to improve this old stuck way of handling money? First I see that I could earn more money and that would great. I could also just improve the way I handle the money I already have. That would be called having a budget and following it. A good budget and a plan for following it is probably the best way to improve ones money woes. If more money can come in easily, you still need to have a way not to just spend it. The budget is the key to positive change over time, so get one that works and make sure it works for you.

If you are in a relationship with someone else then how we handle our finances becomes a little more complex. Unless we each do our own buying and making money, we will have to learn how to get along. The first thing to do is to get organized. Decide on saving and checking accounts and what can be spent and what can’t. Learn to compromise and give in when the other one is right, and learn to speak up for what you see is right.

The harmony in the relationship must be equal. Put things in writing in the beginning until both are fully aware of the rules we are going to be obeying. Have regular meetings to discuss what is working and what isn’t. If the objective is to be happy then we will find the balanced solution and be ok with it. If things get out of hand and you both don’t know how to solve it, then get help right away. Ask a friend or go to a professional and get help. It will only get worse, so solve it. The main thing is to be happy and have fun; don’t make it a police state, make it a dream come true state.

There are times in a person’s life when one has to just sit down and take a little time to contemplate ones navel. One just has to stop what has been going on for a while and see things in a neutral vein. To see from the outside perhaps what life looks like instead of the same old rut of everyday routine? A new squirt of juice into the daily routine of newness is what makes energy and power available to excel and succeed in accomplishing our goads and desires.

If our money situation is not what we want, then we need to change something. We need to let go of something old and let something new come in. If our present budget is not working, then we need to change it, we need to stop what is repeating and let a new element come in. Shake up the status quo and let the budget evolve into something that will be able to give us what we want. If the old budget is a headache, why would I keep doing that to myself? It is my job to take care of myself it is my job to change things when they need to be changed.

Since the economy has taken a nose dive there are a lot more people being thrifty. Thriftiness is driven by the twin movers of action, fear and necessity. We climb back into a familiar cave and only want to risk the bare minimum to be able to survive. Survival has it good points when we are really threatened, but sometimes we jump into survival mode before we really have to. Sure good planning for the future is paramount, but planning a future of survival is maybe a little more than we really want to be doing. If we plan on it, it will probably happen.

If we want something and visualize it we are more likely to realize it, the same goes with visualizing things we don’t wan to happen. Constant attention to our fears and worries will bring them to pass. See the future in a positive light, see what you want, being sure to keep it realistic. If you get too crazy with your dreaming you will not believe it, it won’t work. But by believing in getting something that is possible and probable; that stuff will work. It will come to us.

Funerals, it seems like we honor the dead more than the living, and they cost a ridiculous amount.  In some Asian countries, I know they require at least so many water buffalo, and it’s in a way their last chance to say goodbye and honor their parents or something like that.  So there are plenty of people who will spend everything they have and then go into debt that will take half their lifetimes to pay off just to honor one parent when they die. 

It seems a bit ridiculous to me, and honestly I am more in favor of taking care of the living.  I mean obviously don’t just put them in the cheapest pine box you can find.  But at the same point in time, they have these $15,000 caskets that the coroner recently told me that basically they are there because a lot of Asians even here tend to follow the same pattern of spending ridiculous amounts of money on funerals. 

I mean we spent more on a simple funeral than we did for a recent wedding, and we did not go with the $15,000 coffin to be sure.  But it’s just amazing to me how much people make off of something like a funeral.  Hence why my plan is just to be cremated and that will be the end of it.