Your budget is not meant to be static.
Your budget is intended to reflect your priorities in your life. It represents the things you care about and those things you need to support that which you care about. If our budget were always the same, it wouldn’t represent our growth, our change, or our desires.
When I think about who I was a decade ago and what my priorities were then, I can say with certainty that my priorities have shifted. I have changed partners, careers, and become a mother. Clothing, something I loved in my early twenties, hardly makes the cut these days. Today, our budget prioritizes our family – our wellbeing now, and our future wellbeing.
Because our budget reflects where we are, we must monitor it and make sure it represents where we are and where we want to be going. It’s okay to change – in fact, change is often good. Monitoring our budget means checking in on it regularly and ensuring that we are spending in alignment with our values and our goals. And, to know if we’re spending in alignment with our values and our goals, we must know what our values and goals are.
Part of this work is being realistic about where you are now. Perhaps right now you are in a season of life which only allows for so much. It may not be exactly where you ultimately want to be. By being mindful of this dissonance, you can work towards getting to where you want to go. Even better, you can utilize your budget as your tool to get to where we want to be.
Changes to our budget should be deliberate – not done as after-the-fact justification for unconscious spending. Changes to our budget should precede spending changes. If we anticipate life changes, our budget must anticipate and reflect those changes proportionately.
Understanding that the budget isn’t stagnant can help identify your values and goals. It also serves as hope that with mindfulness we have control to change whatever isn’t working. Spend a little time with your budget. Use it to support you, to reflect your desires, and to show you and honor the change inherent in life.