at the beginning of this year, i started a budget. a REAL one, unlike the ones i kept starting and failing at at the end of 2019. i'm using the everydollar app from dave ramsey, and so far i love the idea of a 0-based budget, aka, giving every dollar a job. i have been doing great at logging my spending and now that i'm a couple months in, i'm getting the hang of how much i need to allot to each "job". by next month, i think i'll have it down pat.
however, i keep going back and forth on the idea of keeping a strict budget at all. on the one hand, it helps me stress less because i'm the type of person who feels the sting every time i pay for something; i just picture my bank account getting lower and lower, even though i know i'm not overspending. so having budget there gives me the freedom to spend it all, because i already made sure that it's not going to put me in the red. on the other hand, i am constantly thinking about how much i have less in each envelope. constantly remembering to log every purchase, feeling bad when i overspend in one area and have to move money around. but that's the point! it's not extremely rigid; i leave money for "oopsies" like that. i don't know, sometimes i just think it'd be easier if i paid my necessities when i first get my paycheck, then leave x amount to spend freely, and then not think of it again vs. having 20+ categories to worry about. maybe i will get there in a few months when i can get a good idea of how i spend overall.
so then i read articles like this and it makes me rethink everything. why can't i be more like keanu, or mary, who just doesn't worry about the dollar amounts so much, but uses money to really LIVE? after all, i could die tomorrow. it's just hard to balance "smart" money habits with using money as a tool to live your life and ENJOY it. i'm so very practical and careful and i'm wondering if i'm wasting my precious time.
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