Is Budgeting Really Just About Restriction and Deprivation?

Speaker A00:00:00

Does the word budget make you immediately cringe? Do you picture endless spreadsheets being told no and all the fun draining out of your life? But what if that common perception is totally wrong?What if it is? And budgeting is actually your secret weapon for financial freedom, not deprivation at all.Well, stick with me today because we're breaking down that misconception on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Welcome back to your daily Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph and I'm here to help you become a financially confident Christian.I'm so happy that you've chosen to join me today. And we're continuing our series of Breaking the financial chains. We're working on 30 days to overcome your toughest money struggles.And these are the things that listeners have told me, Ralph. These are the things that we're really struggling with now.Yesterday we tackled the frustrating question of why your money seems to disappear so fast every month. We talked about that vanishing act. But more importantly than that, we talked about how to gain control over its flow.So if you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to check it out.You can find all of our episodes@financially confidentchristian.com well, today we're going to build on that need for clarity and we're going to confront a major mental hurdle for so many people. And that's a really a false perception of budgeting. Today I'm going to answer this question.Is budgeting really just about restriction and deprivation? That's our goal for today. I want to answer that question because for so many people, you know this feeling all too well.You hear that word budgeting, it just brings up and conjures up all these negative emotions, things like dread, things like feeling controlled, picturing endless spreadsheets, just this mountain of restrictions.And for so many people, and I was one of these people for the longest time, you might think budgeting means saying no to everything, everything fun at least, or living on beans and rice or being a financial scrooge. Somebody sent me an email not too long ago. They said, ralph, you're like a financial scrooge. I was like, I don't know if that's fair.But for today we'll say that, okay. The problem is so many people associate budgeting with deprivation or being just overly complicated.And because of that, so many people avoid creating a budget and they live without a financial plan and they continue in that cycle of money stress. Because so many people believe budgeting is a punishment rather than a powerful tool.But I want to change that perception today, because without a budget, it really does prevent you from gaining true financial control and, hey, really gaining financial peace. Here's the thing I want you to understand today. Budgeting isn't about restriction. It's not about that at all. What it is about is.It's about control, and it's about intentionality. I talk about control and intentionality on the show all the time. Here's the thing I want you to hear. A budget is simply a plan for your money.Let's soak in for a second. A budget is simply a plan for your money. You're telling every dollar where to go. Hey, you are ultimately in control.So many people have said to me, ralph, the budget just makes me feel like I don't have any control over my money. But it's exactly opposite of there. See, it's a mindset shift. You're telling every single dollar where to go. And if you do it right. Here's the thing.It's all about empowerment. It empowers you to be the boss of your money. Hey, do you want to be the boss of your money?Because in so many people's situation, money is bossing them around. Well, let's look to the Bible for some guidance here. And the first Bible verse I want to talk about is what I use on this show, probably once a week.But it's all about diligence and planning. And it comes to us from Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 5. And it reminds us this.The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. What's it saying to us in the scripture here? Budgeting is a diligent plan that leads to financial profit.For sake of our discussion today, what do we call profit? It leads to freedom. That's really what we're talking about here, that diligent planning, that planning to put a budget together. It leads to freedom.Let's look at another biblical principle again. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 3, it encourages us this. It says, commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.See, this is where so many people don't understand the focus of this show. This show is all about bringing two worlds together. That's the world of faith and the world of finances. And we commit our financial plans to God.Guess what happens right here in the scripture? What does it say? Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will re establish he will establish your plans.Committing financial plans to God makes him establish them. The impact of this is amazing.It's an act of wise stewardship and it transformed that financial chaos, that lack of freedom, that lack of peace into order. And hey, in the end, it completely reduces your stress. And if you do it right, I'm gonna encourage you to do it.We're gonna talk about how to do it here in a second. It aligns your money with God given purposes leading to freedom and not deprivation at all. So now you might be saying, Ralph, what can we do?How do we refine and redefine budgeting to be about freedom and intentionality? Well, I've got a solution for you and it's all about redefining budgeting in your own mind as a tool for freedom and a tool for intentionality.So here's what I'm going to encourage you to do. Just create a simple purpose driven budget that reflects your values, not just what you think you can't spend.Because in the end, that's going to shift your perspective from dread to empowerment. So here's your one action step today with the goal of embracing budgeting as a tool for freedom.The first thing I'm going to encourage you to do and a lot of people when I was planning this particular show, I sent this out to some listeners and they said, oh, we like this idea, it's a great idea. But redefine your intentional language. Here's what I'm going to encourage you to do.Instead of choosing to use the word budget, think about words like freedom, because it's all about how you envision this. Instead of restriction, think freedom, think freedom plan. Freedom, power, intentionality. Remind yourself this, the budget is my roadmap to peace.Let's call it a freedom plan. And then I want you to start that purpose driven freedom plan. You can use your simple snapshot that we put together yesterday.That's a great way to start. And I want you to start giving every dollar a job. Say, hey, listen, you're the boss.You want to give every single dollar a job, assign it somewhere in that freedom plan, align that with your values. And for right now, I don't want you to get real detailed. I just want you to use some very broad categories.The categories I recommend you use are spend, save, give and then debt payoff. And ensure that every dollar has a place either in the spend, the save, the give or the debt payoff column.Because this is your money serving your purpose, you're making this decision.And here's one More thing I'm going to recommend you do, I want you to deliberately allocate a specific realistic amount for one fun or discretionary category that you generally enjoy. Because if you don't, you're going to live in that restriction. It's kind of like a diet.You know, when I go on a diet, I feel like it's all about restrictions.But with your freedom fund, what you can do, or your freedom plan, what you can do is you can set aside money for dining out or your hobbies or entertainment. And that helps you do this and spend this money guilt free, because you've already built that into your freedom plan.And if you do this right, it's going to fight that struggle of feeling deprived by a budget. So many people say to me, Ralph, the word budget just conjures up all kinds of negativity in my life. So call it your freedom plan.It's a plan for your freedom. Because it's all about transforming your mindset from that negative connotation to positive.It's all about empowering you to take control of your money. And it turns budgeting, we're not even going to use that term as much anymore.And it turns budgeting from a dreaded task into a powerful tool for your goals. Why don't we pray together now? Father God, we just thank you for the resources you provide us and for calling us truly to be wise stewards.And Lord, we have to confess that we often view budgeting as a burden and it leads us to avoidance and it leads us to stress. Lord, I just ask right now that you would transform our perspective, help us to see budgeting as a powerful tool for freedom.Lord, grant us discipline and grant us wisdom as we create and follow our financial freedom plan. Guide us in aligning our money with your purposes. Bring us peace, Lord, and joy. And we ask this with complete confidence in Jesus name, Amen.Listen, budgeting isn't about restriction. If you hear nothing else I say today, I want you to hear that it's not about restriction if it's done right. It's about freedom.It's about control and hey, it's about intentional living. So I want to encourage you one more time, take that step today to refine budgeting in your mind and create a simple, purpose driven freedom plan.Because here's the truth. You're moving towards freedom. And if this episode has resonated with you, I want to consider.I would like you to consider sharing it with somebody who might need to hear. There are so many people out there who are who are feeling the same as what you're feeling. And you've landed here. You've been listening to the show.Maybe this is your first episode, but you're like, ralph, I got to hear more of this. Well, there's somebody out there right now who needs to hear more of that also. And you can be impactful on their financial life.Just send them to our website.That's financially confidentchristian.com hey, share the wealth, because maybe you can help them break that cycle of financial shame and truly step into confidence. And hey, I got one more thing for you today. This is going to be fantastic. I just finished writing my next book.It's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. And today I want to give you a free copy of that book. Absolutely no strings attached. I just want to give it to you.You can go right to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming and you can download a free copy of the book today. Again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming now, here's what we're going to talk about tomorrow.We're going to talk about another common hurdle, why it can be so hard to actually stick to your budget. I'm going to tell you how to overcome inconsistency to stay on track. That's a show you don't want to miss. So make sure you put it on your calendar.Make sure you subscribe to the show. Make sure you join me tomorrow. Now let's all go out there today and be those financially confident Christians we want to be. You can do this.I have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself. Stay financially savvy. God bless you. And you have a great day today.