I. The subject of budgeting is not unscriptural-Jesus spent a lot of time talking about money and material possessions. He also gave His approval to the budgeting process in Luke 14:28 when He spoke about “counting the cost” of completing a project before starting it.
II. Failure to plan is essentially a plan for failure. You must have goals in life, because without them, you will have difficulty achieving desirable outcomes. In many cases, financial goals will enable life goals to be accomplished.
III. A budget is a useful tool to tell your money where to go, and when and in what amounts. You will make more progress with a budget than without one.
IV. If you are married, both spouses must be in agreement concerning their household budget. If you are not married, a budget is still an essential tool for you.
V. The first 90 days of operating according to a budget is crucial. Be patient and give your budget time to work. You didn’t get into financial difficulty overnight, and it will take patience and perseverance to get out of it.
VI. The main reasons people don’t develop budgets:
- They think budgets are too restrictive
- Budgets have been used to shame people for even the smallest expenditures
- People are afraid of what they will find about their spending habits (this is called denial)
VII. The main reasons budgets don’t work for people:
They leave things out that need to be included
They overcomplicate their budget (start with one page)
They talk about developing a budget, but don’t do it
They don’t live according to the budget they develop—remember, the math is not as important as the behavior
VIII. Four Fundamentals
- Food
- Shelter
- Clothing
- Transportation
IX. Zero-based budgeting
- Fixed expenses
- Variable expenses
- Using envelopes to pay for certain categories with cash
- Allocate all your income to get to zero every month
X. Irregular Incomes
- This budget will look more like a list, with the most important items first and the next most important item second, etc.
- Irregular incomes make budgeting more important, not less important