What Do I Do When My Budget Falls Apart?

Speaker A00:00:00

Have you ever built a careful budget only to have one price increase blow the whole thing up? Grocery prices go up, an insurance bill goes up, and those utilities spike, and suddenly your good plan just feels pointless.And you think to yourself, why do I even try this? Friend, the problem isn't that you can't budget. It's that you're trying to build a rigid plan in a very flexible world.Well, today we're building a budget that bends without breaking. Hello, friend. Ralph Estep Jr. Here.This is financially confident Christian, where every day my goal is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and truly live in confidence. And today's topic is just like, right in that point, and that's, what do you do when your budget falls apart as costs rise?Well, let's get right to our listener question today. The listener question says this, Ralph. I sit down, I plan my money carefully, and then prices increase, and I'm right back to where I started.I'm stressed and I'm behind. I'm exhausted from feeling like no matter what I do, I can't get ahead. How do I build a plan that actually works when life is unpredictable?I don't need perfection. I just need something that won't fall apart the second something costs more than expected. What a great question.And it's a question that I think all of us can appreciate. I don't know about you, but it seems like every time I turn around, things cost more.My wife and I were at the grocery store not too long ago, and she kind of laughed, and I said, is it really true that these prices are this high? And she said, yeah, Ralph, you're a little disconnected. My wife handles all the shopping around our house. But today's big idea is this.How do you get past that? And my main takeaway today is you've got to build margin into your plan and not perfection.Because, friend, most budgets fail because they assume stability. But life changes. Life moves. Prices change. Your needs shift. Surprises happen. So let's talk about how to build that resilience. Here's the first step.You gotta stop budgeting exact numbers for flexible categories. If you're like me, groceries are not exactly $500 a month. Depends what you're buying. It depends on the prices. It depends on the time of year.Gas, that's another thing. It's not exactly $180 a month, is it? Maybe you've got a road trip planned, or maybe just the price at the pump has gone up.So instead of using tight numbers, specific numbers, I recommend you Use ranges. For example, let's talk about the grocery budget. We did a great show about groceries. We'll put a link to that in the show notes.But maybe for groceries, instead of just saying $500, say between 500 and $600, the same thing goes along for utilities. Instead of saying $150, maybe you say 150 to $220. Because when you live in those ranges, they absorb that reality, they absorb those price changes.But if you've got those exact numbers, they just completely shatter and fall apart when there's pressure in the system. Here's the second thing I'm going to recommend. Create a shock absorber category.We love shock absorbers on our car so we don't feel like we're being bounced and knocked around. This is just a small monthly cushion, even if it's $50 or $100, and really label it unexpected increases. Now, this isn't for emergencies.This is not your fun money. This is just breathing room for when rising costs happen. This is your plan that bends without breaking.Here's the third thing I'm going to recommend you do. Review your spending mid month, not just at the end. So many people wait till the end of the month and then they panic because they've overspent.And if you wait till the 30th of the month, all you're doing is reacting. So check in around the 15th of the month. Ask yourself, hey, are we trending higher anywhere?Because you might be able to make a small course correction to prevent that end of month panic.For example, if you notice that your grocery budget's gone up a little bit, you may have to cut back on eating out or you may have to cut back on some entertainment expenses. But if you wait till the end of the month, it's going to be too late to do that. So think about that mid month check in.Here's another thing that is absolutely critical. You've got to prioritize the essentials in their tiers.I'm going to give you a set of three tiers here that I think will really make your life easier. Tier one is the things I call survival. These are things like housing, utilities, food, transportation.You got to have a place to live, you got to have lights and water. You need to eat, and you need to have transportation to get to and from work. So that's number one. That's the number one thing. Survival.Second tier is stability. These are things like insurance, those minimum debt payments and setting aside money for savings.Yeah, they're important, but they're not survival, they're more stability things. And the third tier, this is the place where if you have to, you can knock some things out. And tier three is lifestyle.That's those streaming expenses, the dining out, all those extras. I really think that three tier approach works. Survival, stability and lifestyle. And when costs rise, you just adjust tier 3 first.You don't adjust everything else. And when you live in that reality, it prevents that emotional overcorrecting.And finally, the last thing I'm going to say about this is we've got to do a better job of redefining success. Success isn't, nothing ever changes. If you think that's going to happen, it's not going to work. Success is this. I adjusted calmly.See, because the truth is you're not failing when prices rise. You're adapting. And adaptation is wisdom. So here's my one piece of encouragement for today. Flexible plans survive real life.So here's your action step for today. I want you to add one new line to your budget. We're going to call it our shock absorber.And even if you just add $25 into it, you're going to see a dramatic change because that single change will make your budget sturdier starting this very month. Well, let's get into some sturdiness in the word of God. Let's go to the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 9. And I just love this one.It just goes into exactly what we're talking about again, Proverbs 16, 9. In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.See, we have to plan faithfully, but we've got to stay humble and flexible because life unfolds in ways that we can't fully control. That's just part of life. How about we pray together? Lord, you know how very discouraging it feels when careful plans fall apart.So right now, would you please give us resilience, help us build wisely, help us to adjust calmly and help us to trust you completely. Must have replace frustration with flexibility. And remind all of us that adaptation is not defeat, it's actually growth.So Lord, we ask that you will guide our steps as we steward what you've given us. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen, friend. You don't need a perfect budget, you just need a flexible one.And if you've got a question for this show, I would love to hear from you. Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question now. We'll put that in the show notes, but I'm going to give it to you again.In case you want to write it down, it's financiallyconfidentChristian.com/question. And I just want to thank you so much for joining me today. Stay financially savvy. May God bless you. And you have a great day today.