How to Budget for What Matters—Without the Guilt
When sitting down as a family to create our first ever budget my partner and I decided on our non-negotiables. These are things in our budget that we wouldn’t budge on.
Things on our list included travel, entertainment (eating out, gigs), a reasonable grocery spend, hair and beauty etc.
As the months and years go by, our non-negotiables ebb and flow. Now we have kids, we have categories in the budget dedicated to their wants and needs like football camps and days out and as we hit the 5 year mark living in our home, we’ve started to include home maintenance within the budget – not fun but necessary.
If you reflect on your own budget what type of non-negotiables do you see? Are they reflective of your lifestyle and how you want to live? Or are you in the trenches trying to squeeze every part of your budget to get to the end of the month with money left over?
Do your non-negotiables contribute towards your personal wellness or just those around you? As women, we’re sometimes guilty of not ring fencing money or time for ourselves. I wouldn’t think twice about putting a new activity or club in my budget for my children but the thought of setting money aside each month for just me seemed unfathomable, until recently.
I recognised the struggle of some community members navigating their debt free journeys, the guilt they were carrying around and their past financial decisions weighing heavily. So much so, they were depriving themselves of things that brought them joy. I’m not on a debt free journey, but I have been. I was in the debt free trenches like them but haven’t since ‘rewarded’ myself with non-negotiables in the budget that truly benefit me.
After much persuasion from my husband I committed to a month long Reiki membership, this made me take out an hour each week for me and I’ve since realised the benefits of this investment. Not just for myself but for those around me. You hear the phrase about putting your life jacket on before you help others and I totally appreciate this sentiment now. Before I was stubborn and a martyr and didn’t truly believe I was worth the investment in myself and that other categories in our budget were far more important.
Now I’ve shared my non-negotiables with you, it’s time to sit and reflect on your own budget, ensuring there’s meaningful categories in there to help you live the life you love.
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