Budgeting can be quite challenging. It has the tendency  to make us feel deprived, especially when we work hard and we know we deserve a treat once in a while. How can we figure out what we should actually be spending our money on? What will our children learn from our budgeting efforts? And how can we make budgeting work for our unique situation?

In this episode, Allison Baggerly talks about how she got out of debt and made saving money second nature.

Maybe I deserve it, but is that really necessary for my life? -Allison Baggerly

3 Things We Learned From This Episode

What to do when we feel we deserve something but we can’t afford it (04:21-06:25)

Cutting unnecessary costs can be tough. We feel like we deserve certain things when we work hard. We have to ask ourselves this question: Is the purchase necessary? There are many things we do deserve, but sometimes we need to make a compromise now to be financially secure later.

Your children will learn the value of work and money from you (13:00-15:00)

Your children will imitate everything you do, including your spending habits. Make your children save and work for their money. When they do end up making a purchase, they’ll cherish it more because they actually worked for it.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to budgeting (18:20-19:00)

Not everyone has the same journey when it comes to budgeting, so it’s important to look at your current lifestyle and ask yourself what things you can live without and what you can’t. For example, if you don’t have an emergency fund, you might want to cut a portion of your budget to make one as soon as possible. Once you have one, you’re less likely to have to make major budget cuts when something comes up.

Guest Bio

Allison Baggerly started learning about budgeting after she found herself in debt and with a child on the way. In the past few years, she paid off all of her debt but she made budgeting her second nature. Now she writes about how to save money and pay off debt on her blog, and she put together a course for families who want to achieve financial freedom.

You can find her free basic budgeting email course here as well as her budgeting course, along with printable spreadsheets and access for life, here.