I Used to Budget but Gave It Up. Here’s Why — and What I Do Instead

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When budgeting became a huge drag, I stopped doing it. But doing so didn’t hurt my finances. Read on to see why. [[{“value”:”

When my husband and I first moved in together and combined our finances, we sat down to set up a household budget. And for a good number of years, we’d have monthly check-ins where we’d look at our budgeting spreadsheet, review our spending in different categories, and make changes if certain expenses wound up being more than we’d bargained for.

But after a while, that process got really old. A number of years back, we decided to put an end to that. So now, we don’t budget at all. But we still manage to save money every month.

And no, it’s not magic. It’s a simple change to our approach to managing money that’s worked wonders for us, and it may work well for you, too.

When you unload a tedious task and replace it with one simple move

Back in those early days of budgeting, my husband and I tried our best to make it fun. We would sometimes open a bottle of wine and make our budget review a date night of sorts (OK, fine, it may have been the world’s worst date night). Or, we’d have a “Hooray, we stuck to our budget” celebratory ice cream store run after (on the nights, ahem, when we didn’t first open a bottle of wine and it was therefore safe to drive to the ice cream shop).

But in time, budgeting became a huge time suck for us. And I’ll admit it — it was just so darn boring. Looking at line items on a spreadsheet and comparing them to credit card statements was hardly an enjoyable way to spend an evening — even when there was wine involved.

So we stopped budgeting and instead did something super easy — we decided on a monthly savings goal to strive for and set up an automatic transfer. And since then, that system has worked really well.

At the start of every month, a certain amount of money moves out of our checking account and into our savings account before we get a chance to spend our earnings. That sum has changed over time as our earnings have changed. But all told, it’s been a vast improvement over budgeting, because we don’t have to actually do anything.

Also, our current approach to saving money seems so much less restrictive than budgeting. When we used to budget, if we had a month when, say, our electricity bill would come in at $217 instead of $200, we’d try to spend $17 less on groceries or in another area to make up the excess. But who wants to do that?

With our current system of automating our savings, we don’t have to sweat the small details we used to when we followed a budget. Instead, we get the comfort of knowing our savings goals are being met off the bat. From there, the remaining money in our checking account is ours to spend as we wish — no guilt or number-shifting required.

Stop budgeting if it’s making you miserable

A 2023 SecureSave survey found that 63% of Americans couldn’t cover an unplanned $500 expense out of their savings. So if you’re in that boat, or if you’re trying to grow your cash reserves, then it’s important to manage your money to some degree.

But budgeting isn’t your only option. And if you’ve tried budgeting and hate it, try doing what we do.

Figure out what sum of money you can reasonably contribute to your savings each month, and set up an automatic transfer so you don’t have to think about it. If that system works for you, there’s no reason whatsoever to go back to budgeting.

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