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You don’t need a budget to meet your savings goals. Read on to see how I was able to pull that off.
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When my husband and I moved in together and combined finances, one of the first things we did was sit down to map out a household budget. That budget then evolved through the years as we took on added expenses, like child care.
But essentially, we used to have all of our bills mapped out on a spreadsheet. We had a certain amount of money allocated to our mortgage payment, another line item for gas and tolls, another for groceries, and so forth.
It was a reasonable system, and it worked fairly well for us. Basically, if we stuck to our budget, we’d have a certain amount of money left over for our savings account every month.
But a few years back, my husband and I decided it was time to ditch our budget. And thankfully, that hasn’t hurt us financially.
Another way to stay on track with your financial goals
Following a budget is a good way to keep your spending in check. And if you do that, you’re more likely to be in a position where you can add money to your savings at the end of the month.
But the reason my husband and I stopped budgeting is that we frankly found it too restrictive. Let’s say that in a given month, we had $800 allocated to groceries. Well, what if rising food costs or extra houseguests put us at $840? Suddenly, we had to go into our spreadsheet and actively take that $40 out of another category.
That felt like an annoying step considering that we were generally saving hundreds of dollars a month. So rather than stick to a budget that would allow us to add to our cash reserves at the end of the month, what we did instead was start sending money into our savings at the beginning of the month.
It’s called an automatic transfer, and you can usually set one up out of any checking account. We decided on an amount we wanted to save every month and had that amount land in our savings right off the bat. From there, we were free to spend the rest of our money, and it didn’t matter how we spent it. And that’s been a lot easier.
A savings approach you may want to try
Although my husband and I don’t stick to a strict budget anymore, we still have a really good sense of what our recurring bills look like. We also have a good handle on our variable expenses.
A Mint survey conducted a few years back found that 65% of Americans weren’t particularly aware of their spending. If that sounds like you, then you may want to at least set up a loose budget just so you can see where your money generally goes month after month.
But you should also know that you’re not doomed to fall short of your financial goals if you don’t want to budget. If you automate your savings instead, you can stay on track without having to keep your receipts to see how much you spent at the supermarket or gas station.
Of course, these days, there are plenty of budgeting apps that could make tracking your spending a lot easier. So before you give up on budgeting completely, you may want to give one of them a try. But if you’ve dabbled in the world of budgeting before and have decided that it’s just not for you, don’t sweat it if you’re able to put your savings on autopilot instead.
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