By Brandon Koll | Last Updated 8/18/2025
If you are looking to save more money, or you are looking to pay off debt, or several other things you might want to do with money, having a budget could help you reach your goals. A budget is going to highlight what you spend and let you adjust as needed. Most importantly, it will let you know the difference between what you spend and what you make. We are going to go through many aspects of the budget and how you can use it to succeed. Let’s start off with what I do.
What I do
I’ve done a budget on and off over the years. When I’m good with my money, I’m also pretty good at keeping up with my budget. When I’m not, I conveniently forget to do my budget. I’m still using a spreadsheet to do my budget, but I’m aware there are much easier and better ways to do it. I have some background in IT security, so it is hard for me to trust an app and especially anything that connects to my bank account.
I like to look at my budget in two ways. First off, I like to track all my assets and their current value and along with any debts that I have at the time. This gives me a quick way to see my net worth and make sure it is growing for the most part. The other thing I use a budget for is seeing my monthly expenditures and income to catch anything concerning or see where I can adjust. Now let’s look at how a budget can help you control your spending.
Controlling your spending
When you have a budget, you can capture everything you pay for and put it down in categories. After I finish my monthly budget, I’m looking at how much I spent in the different categories. As an example, I may notice that I spent over $1,000 eating out during the month. That would be a huge red flag for me, and I would have to talk to my wife about the two of us cutting back in this category.
As you do your budget you will have different things that you will notice or put emphasis on. Maybe you notice that you spent $55 on a gym membership that you didn’t use for the entire month. Now you know you must cancel that or at least start using it. Maybe you see that you have too many streaming services and decide that you will cut down to only two. The budget is going to help you see your spending habits and make immediate adjustments. In addition to the spreadsheet I mentioned above, there are also many apps available to make budgeting much easier.
Apps
There are a ton of budgeting apps available. Some of them are free or they have a free version that is missing some features. Some quick examples are Quicken Simplifi, Origin, Monarch Money, and Rocket Money. If you opt for a pay version, they look to run anywhere from $3 to $15 per month. Don’t forget to add that line item to your budget. Although I don’t use an app for my budget, if it will get you to do a budget, then it is a major win. Anything that will get you to look closer at your income and expenses is going to pay off. Next, we are going to look at some of the negatives to making a budget.
The negatives of doing a budget
Up to this point I have been pushing budgets hard, but over the years I have learned there are positives and negatives to everything. Since we have covered multiple positives let’s look at some of the negatives. The first thing to consider is the time. A spreadsheet will take a good amount of time to set up and put in all the formulas. An app will take some initial download and setup time as well. Then there is the time that you will spend reviewing it. If you are super busy this might be a deal breaker or at least an excuse for you not to make a budget.
Another negative could be for those working out of joint accounts and not being on the same page. If you are married and your spouse and you are not working together on this, or wanting to proceed in different directions, this could be a very painful endeavor. Hopefully you can get together and work through the differences and if not, maybe marriage counseling would be the answer. Either way, you will want to get on the same page because we all know that finances have caused way too many divorces. Let’s say the negatives to budgeting are just too much for you, maybe you can try some other options.
How to not budget (cut down considerably on the top 3)
One thing that you can do if you decide not to budget is to cut down on your biggest three expenses. Cutting down on expenses will help you have more margin to achieve your goals. For a lot of people, the most expensive thing is your rent or mortgage. For renters you can find a place with lower rent. Maybe you will move further out of the city or find a smaller place to achieve this. The mortgage is a little trickier. You could sell your place and rent or buy a cheaper place. Another option may be to rent a room to someone to help cover some of the housing costs.
The next major expense for many of us is transportation. Many people have car payments and some of them are very high. If this is you, maybe you can sell that car and get a cheaper car. Maybe you can go without a car all together and use public transportation. Maybe you have multiple vehicles, and you can cut down to one vehicle to save on maintenance and insurance.
Food is another expense with a lot of room to cut for a good number of us. You can stop going out to eat or cut down on it. You can skip going out for coffee and make a cup at home. You can go do your grocery shopping at a less expensive store and buy the store brand instead of name brand. You can meal plan and only buy what you need. Maybe something as simple as not shopping while you are hungry can save you a good bit of money.
When you are not going to budget there are a lot of options for cutting your expenses. The other thing you can do is raise your income. If you raise your income and cut your expenses, you will be putting yourself in a much better position and increasing the amount of money that you have available to invest or pay off debt.
Finance Hack – Keep track of where your money goes and adjust to reach your goals.
Overall, I highly recommend the use of a budget, but I realize it is not for everyone. When you make a budget, you are going to have a clear picture of your spending habits and be able to see areas for adjustments. If you don’t decide to use a budget, then cut down on your expenses and raise your income to generate additional margin to work with. Either way I wish you the best of luck when it comes to accomplishing your goals.
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