12 Crazy Budgeting Myths You Probably Believe - Playing Perfect (2024)

Befuddled by the most effective budgeting practices and how they apply to you? Perhaps you’re letting your finances be ruled by budgeting myths you’ve heard but haven’t challenged.

There’s a chance you have a view of budgeting that is influenced by what you saw your parents do while growing up, what you heard from your friend after she just had another money fight with her husband, and that article you read that made budgets seem super complicated.

The word “budget” itself might even be a bit of a turnoff for some folks. If you are put off by the word budget (some find it too constricting), just rename that dreaded “b” word from”budget” to something perhaps more freeing like “money plan” or “financial system” or “spending habits”.

Or, if it inspires you, call your money handling “resource allocation” or “treasure chest checking”.

Whatever suits your fancy, call your dealings with money given to you, required of you, and desired by you, a name that makes you want to delve right in because the truth is budgeting can be fun, conflict-free, and easy!

Dealing with money can inspire you to your highest self, let you become more generous and philanthropic, and guarding over one’s money well can leave you with sound sleep and a life of gratitude and respect.

Just in case you’ve been skeptical of budgeting and haven’t found it beneficial for your finances, let’s look more closely at some commonly given reasons for ignoring budgeting bliss that may, in fact, be exaggerated or erroneous.

Budget Myths Exposed

Up ahead is pretty much a plea for budgeting to become more of an everyday affair.

Did you know that only 1 out of 3 Americans keeps a household budget? Yep, 32% of Americans are tracking their finances.

Another interesting fact, the more money you make, the more likely you are to keep a budget! Yeah, those making $75,000 a year or more are more likely to keep track of all those dollars. Hey, if the money-makers are doing it, we should all do it, right?

I get why one wouldn’t want to keep a budget though, and why most people aren’t.

• First off, if there isn’t much money in the first place who wants to be thinking about not having money and seeing those low, depressing numbers?!
• Also, if you’ve been going along in life budgetless why start now?

Both of these reasons are understandable but don’t make cents… yeah cents. As in, to make more money with your money no matter how much money you have, a budget/money plan/treasure chest checking system helps you know how many cents you own, how much you owe, and how not to let even one of those precious Lincoln-faced babies slip in the couch cushions unnoticed!

The first step in getting a workable budget is believing you can win with your hard earned money and realizing all those budgeting myths that have kept you from balancing your numbers at the end of the month, need to be banished.

Let’s let go of the bad things you’ve heard about budgeting, the thoughts in your mind that convince you budgets are unnecessary and let’s create a budgeting system that works for you, makes you proud and gives you a testimony of how life-changing a well-managed budget can be.

Key point here – make a budget/money plan/treasure chest checking system that works for you! Yep, make that money work for you instead of you just working for it.

Still not convinced about this budgeting stuff? Stillwant to be in the majority of nonbudgeting folks? Let’s see if these budgeting myths can get you going on the $75,000 and over budgeting habit.

#1 Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: I don’t need it.

BudgetingFACT: Anyone with any money can benefit from a budget.

If you spend money on anything ever than you owe it to yourself to decide where you want your money to go and what you will it to do.

If you have a budget of one dollar or one million dollars you want to intentionally decide how to spend your precious resources.

Your choices for how to use your funds could be to use most of that money for food, all of it for charity, save half for retirement, or perform any of an array of actions that imply decision-making.

The key here is that budgeting lets you decide!

You aren’t spending mindlessly; you aren’t living in impulse land, you are being the boss of your money and your life. You are being in control and not controlled by the numbers you are faced with every month.

If you are just out of high school or way past retirement, money in your ownership needs to be rightly ruled so that you are in control of your present and future.

Budgets help you plan, control and rule over your money.

If you’ve always wanted to be the boss of something here’s your chance, boss your money around in the name of budgeting!

#2Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: I’m fine.

BudgetingFACT: You could be better, or things could get worse.

Do you want to stay in the exact place you are now or do you want to have more, be more, or give more?

If you have no debt, have emergency funds and savings, you still can use a budget to save even more, know how much you could be investing, or start funding a college education for a loved one.

Sure things are okay now but will you have money to pay for medical costs if your dog gets sick? What if your family member needs to borrow money tomorrow? Do you know right now how much you could give without affecting your lifestyle or goals?

Try to be better than fine, aim to be sure, living the life of your dreams, achieving something new every day.

Let your budget be your roadmap to a life you love.

[bctt tweet=”Let your budget act as a roadmap to the life you love and let your dreams be the driver. #money #moneygoals #budget” username=”perfectplaying”]

#3Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: I don’t want to turn into a Scrooge or wear socks with holes.

BudgetingFACT: Budgeting does not mean hoarding your money or depriving yourself.

Budgeting is essentially a balancing endeavor.

You increase your awareness of all the money you have, all your needs, all your wants, and you determine where each and every cent to your name belongs in that array of needs and wants.

If you want to give away all your money every month except for what you pay for food, a budget will let you know how much you will be able to donate after you eat all you want at Whole Foods or make every meal a frugal rice and beans dish.

If you want to buy a new outfit every day next week, a budget will show you how much money you will be able to save even with lavish fashion expenditures happening.

A budget is a looking glass, not a judgmental gavel.

A budget lets you see how you can do X goal with Y resources. The amount of money you keep, give away, earn and need all become magnified during your budgeting time.

Budgets don’t mean you gotta do anything, but they let you see what you can do, might do, have done, probably should do, and give you ideas for how to keep going with things as they are or let you see how you want to change.

[bctt tweet=”A budget is a looking glass, not a judgmental gavel. #budget #money #goals” username=”perfectplaying”]

#4Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: I have few needs and accept what comes.

BudgetingFACT: Maybe you are happy with how things are going, but are you doing all you can to keep that happiness secure?

Ifyou broke your leg this week would your finances be the same next month? Would you like to buy your mom a house even if you don’t want one for yourself? Are you sure you’ll feel the same about your money situation and your happiness level in five years?

Even if your life is happy sailing right now, you might have an emergency, or you may want to help more people with your surplus of funds.

Perhaps in the future, you may want to consider how your needs will change such as your ability to care for yourself when you are in retirement. Or there might be a home purchase in your future or the need to expand for a growing family.

Always remember that your current desires might later be replaced by unforeseeable circ*mstances.

Budgeting can help you meet the needs of others and make sure that your needs will always be met.

[bctt tweet=”My new word for budgeting is treasure chest checking! LOL! #budget #moneygoals #millionairedreams” username=”perfectplaying”]

#5Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: My job and salary aren’t changing.

BudgetingFACT: No job or income source is truly secure.

Maybe you will get laid-off, maybe the owner of the small business you work for will die, and your job will die too.

Perhaps your salary will be cut, or maybe it will increase.

Maybe you’ll discover a new passion in life and start making money from it.

Having a budget will help you identify areas you can cut back on so you can work on emergency savings for that career change that may happen by choice or need. Budgeting can let you see how that the change in career and also in your income will affect your upcoming vacation plans.

If you see that you have more goals than what your current income can fund, using a budget can spur you on to discover new incomesources.

Start a budget before that emergency happens, or that bonus arrives; be ready to have a financial plan always in place.

Budgeting can help you freely accept a job that pays less or more; budgeting can help you survive a job loss that is expected or abrupt, budgeting can help you change your career trajectory as your goals and dreams change during life.

Budgeting is your secret tool in your toolbox that helps you live the life you want no matter what job you have, had or want.

[bctt tweet=”Budgeting is your secret tool in your toolbox that helps you live the life you want no matter what job you have, had or want. #budget #career #goals #dreams” username=”perfectplaying”]

#6Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: All my money will go to bills anyway.

BudgetingFACT: Knowing your bills is not a substitutefor knowing your budget.

Sure you got expenses to pay but having a budget can let you see that maybe you should find new ways to pay that school loan, maybe your water usage is too high, and maybe you don’t need that expensive car.

If you’re in school or paying for someone in school, school tuition may be a constant but things like books have a lot of wiggle room in price. A budget will let you know that you can either buy all new textbooks and not spend another dime on other purchases until next semester, or you could buy used books or rental books and have enough money to pay for your car insurance this semester.

Even though expensive school, high utility bills, and costly car loans might significantly impact our pockets, a budget can help us discover what might be found lingering in our purses, couch cushions, or overpriced latte purchases.

Just because you have major bills coming in that won’t change for a while doesn’t mean you should postpone all your financial goals or methods of tracking your money.

Budgeting is great for discovering unrealized room in our finances or seeing how if we just work an extra few hours this week we might be able to afford niceties we didn’t expect.

Budgeting can also encourage us to find lower prices for things we decide we have been paying too much for like cable, clothing, or child care.

#7Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: I don’t have debt, so I don’t need a budget.

BudgetingFACT: A budget isn’t just for paying off bills, it can be about saving money, investing for retirement, or finding ways to give more.

If you are debt free, congratulations!

How about being worry free for now and later knowing that you have enough money to cover any possible emergency and all your future retirement dreams?

Budgeting is for anyone who is dealing with money regardless of how much, obligations imposed, or goals achieved.

Just like a person who loses weight now needs to be on guard for gaining weight later, maintenance mode can be serious work.

If you aren’t worried about money that you owe, maybe you can focus more on making your money work for you later in life, maybe you can be more intentional about using the savings you have, and perhaps you want to start budgeting for that dream remodel, that elaborate vacation or that awesome gift idea.

Budgetsare about you and your money whether that means you are keeping it or sending it away. Therefore,the amount of bills you have or don’t have affects what you do when you budget, but not if you should budget.

No matter how much financial freedom you currently have known, budgeting can add another level.

#8Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: There’s no time for budgeting.

BudgetingFACT: 5 minutes every week isn’t too much time to gain financial victories.

Sure the first time you make a budget or your first budget meeting with your spouse might feel a bit long. But the first time of doing anything can take longer than usual and then overtime the time will decrease.

When a toddler learns to walk going from the couch to the door can take longer than it will take next week when he really has his legs figured out. Anything worth doing has a learning period so allow the learning to happen now so you can soon go new places because of it.

Some Tips for Budgeting Faster:

• Schedule– Some people have annual meetings about their yearly money goals and some people do monthly meetings of about 30 minutes, and others have weekly chats or daily check-ins. You need to figure out what works for you but ultimately time is not an issue for doing a budget, just making sure you schedule the time.

• Set Up – Decide the location of your budget meeting and where you will keep all your budgeting gear such as statements, pens, and paper.

• Organize –At first doing a budget takes a little organizing. You may have to spend a few hours collecting all your bills so that they are easily seen at one time and in one place. This could be a bit of a time taking task, but once it is done it is forever done!

• Regulate – If you ever do worry that your budget meetings are going on too long use a timer so that you and your spouse don’t get sidetracked. Focus during the allotted time given and talk only about money issues. Save all other topics for another time.If you are doing your budget alone, you can instill a time limit on your graph-making and interest rate researching so that you aren’t devoting more time to your finances than you intend to.

Keep in mind that setting aside specific time for your budget saves you from hours of ruminating about your money concerning issues that remain unresolved or get you nowhere but upset.

You’re going to think about money at some point so you might as well intentionally think about your money during your budget time instead of worrying here, there, and everywhere.

Your mind will be freed up to think about creative things and fun ideas, and your heart will feel at peace knowing your money is being handled. If you do have some issues to sort out you can do so on the appointed day and time you have your budget planned for.

Don’t allow your money woes to intrude on your everyday. Your budget saves you time by delegating your decision-making time.

Decide you will think about and act on all issues related to your money on regularly scheduled budget sessions that will give you more time in other areas of your life.

No need to think about your money all the time (unless you want to LOL) just use your budget time for money thinking time.

[bctt tweet=”Your budget saves you time by delegating your decision-making time. #budget #money” username=”perfectplaying”]

#9Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: Budgets are totally boring.

BudgetingFACT: Budgets can be fun or at the very least fund the fun.

What can be boring is staying at home daily watching TV to numb the pain of not knowing where all your money went last month or eating a tub of ice cream because you just realized you can’t pay for the car this month.

Creating goals and making measurable progress on those goals can be thrilling. Seeing your loan debt slowly evaporate can be the most exciting part of your week.

Budgeting helps you accomplish your dreams and lets you witness them as they unfold.

Don’t deny yourself your best life possible that is unlocked with managing your money as best possible.

You work hard for your money, don’t let it just slip away or sit idly by not used for the benefit of you, your family, and causes you care about. Take control of your budget and take control of your life and use that control for making happy times and happy memories.

[bctt tweet=”Budgeting helps you accomplish your dreams and urges you to witness them as they unfold. #budget #happylife” username=”perfectplaying”]

#10Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: The math will kill me.

BudgetingFACT: We have calculators on our phones, tablets, computers, and probably lurking in our junk drawers.

If you can add and subtract using a calculator you are probably going to find budgeting pretty doable.

In addition to calculator basics, you can get all fancy and let computers do the work for you by signing up forbudgeting appswhere you can pretty much just enter in some numbers like your salary or what you spent on a dinner out and then let the graphs and charts dazzle you.

Seriously, math isn’t actually a big part of the budgeting process.Discipline, commitment, and creativity are actually the traits needed.

Don’t let fear of something that is untrue keep you locked in financial bondage.

Certainly some money things are confusing as heck such as taxes or even retirement accounts. If you need help beyond what you can figure out with a bit of Google researching, see if you can talk with a financial planner or accountant for just one sit down to get your questions addressed.

Math isn’t a reason to not budget, in fact, you might just end up falling in love with numbers, especially as you increasingly add up more budgeting gains.

[bctt tweet=”Doing my budget is the best use of math I’ve ever done! #budget #math #mathskills” username=”perfectplaying”]

#11Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: My numbers are simple, I can do it all in my head.

BudgetingFACT: Unless you are a math prodigy you probably cannot keep track of all your income, bills, and little purchases here and there like that drink you bought two days ago with the money you found in your car.

Budgeting is known to blow people away with surprises of where money is going and what it is doing, especially for new budgeters.

Sure, maybe you know the price of that coffee, but do you know how much that coffee is costing you per month and how much you are spending on food throughout the month in total? Oh, and what about how much you’re spending on tips?

It is not easy to just figure out the percentage of income that quickly goes away each month from surprise spending on birthdays and eating out. The numbers may be simple but accounting for them all is not.

Do yourself a favor: get it out of our head, write it down, and see for yourself that the numbers only add up when a tracking system is involved.

#12Budgeting Myths

BudgetingMYTH: My credit card statements track all I need.

BudgetingFACT: A budget is not just looking at what has happened, it is about planning for what will happen too.

Sure, credit cards can be great for seeing what money is going to where. However, you might have expenses that are not included in your credit card statements, and also you don’t just want to see what you did with your money you want to decide what you want to do.

Take the idea of Christmas. In October you know the holidays are coming.

Instead of being shocked by how much you end up spending on Christmas this year, try tracking Christmas with your budget.

Maybe in October, you pull out your credit card statements to see how much you spent on Christmas last year (which includes more than gifts BTW, hello holiday decor and Christmas party dresses and cookie ingredients). Next, you up your budgeting game this year and decide if you will spend as much, less than, or more than you did last year.

After looking at the real numbers, you may decide to cut back on eating out this month, so Christmas is paid for before it comes. Thus, budgeting lets you know how to cut back this month in anticipation of your Christmas spending.

Such awareness brought on by budgeting may translate into bringing your lunch to work instead of going through the drive-thru as you remember how Christmas is going to be debt free as long as you budget for that freedom.

Here we have a scenario of looking forward to Christmas with a plan in place instead of a backward glance of regret. Budgeting lets you determine what will happen instead of wonder what did happen.

Credit card statements can be good for looking back, but budgets are your key to looking forward.

In fact, by doing a forward-thinking budget, you might just feel that your budget is the best gift you ever gave yourself and your family.

[bctt tweet=”Budgeting lets you determine what will happen instead of wonder what did happen. #budget #money #budgeting #goals” username=”perfectplaying”]

*Bonus*Budgeting Myths

Budgeting MYTH: It’s too late for me.

BudgetingFACT: As long as you are living you can benefit from a budget.

Whether a person just got their first dollar as a kid doing chores, or is someone in their 90s thinking about how to pay for their electricity bill, intentionally deciding where every cent goes and will come from and what will pay for what or what will be saved, given, or invested, there is always a reason to budget.

If you have money, are going to be getting money, need money, want money, are going to give money away or are going to get your hands on some money, all dealings with money by anyone at any point benefit from budgeting.

It’s never too late to budget.

You’re never too young, too old, too poor, too rich, too in debt, too out of debt, too lavish or too frugal to budget.

If you deal with money, a budget empowers you to be the dealer.

[bctt tweet=”If you deal with money, a budget empowers you to be the dealer. #budget #playingperfect #money #moneygoals” username=”perfectplaying”]

Your money is worth demystifying, myth busting, and debunking. Don’t stay away from budgeting because of what you’ve heard, read, or seen.

Try budgeting yourself, your way, and make budgeting work for you and your future.

Try budgeting and prepare to be its new advocate.

Stoked to be a present-day money maven?*Pin* this post for lifelong budgeting myths reminders!If you’re someone constantlyon the lookout for smart money lessons, followPlaying Perfect’s Pinterest Pagefor even more financial mastery!

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