Daily writing prompt

Write about your approach to budgeting.

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We’ve worked with a budget mindset, but only in the broadest sense. There has never been a formal plan, one where we sit down on a regular basis and talk things over or chart things out. Somehow, we made it through all the years of paying too high a percentage of monthly income on a mortgage, but not without occasional animated discussions and frayed nerves.

Budgeting has always been my Achilles heel, much to my wife’s chagrin. I understand the wisdom of it, I guess, along with the importance of saving for a rainy day, but I’ve never really taken it to heart. Fortunately, I had a built-in savings plan during my years in the ministry, with money being set aside for a pension, along with what had accrued in the way of a monthly Social Security benefit. If my retirement had been solely dependent on disciplined personal savings, we would be in trouble. Or I’d still be working.

As things stand now, and perhaps all along, I have lived with a sort of financial radar, some level of awareness regarding our financial limitations, or what we have to work with on a monthly basis. I pay attention to income v. expenses, but I will always be dealing with an inner voice that’s grown from a whisper to something more audible: “You only live once, and you’re not getting any younger.”

To be honest, I’ve always lived with a mix of selfishness and throwing caution to the wind, when it comes to things fiscal.

Daily writing prompt

Write about your approach to budgeting.

View all responses

I should let my wife do it. I’ve always figured that we’d somehow get by, even though this laissez-faire attitude has caused a few angst-filled moments over the years.

Most everything we pay on a regular basis is done via automatic withdrawal, and I’ve always shown enough discipline from month to month to maintain a sufficient balance to cover expenses. It’s more that there’s never been much of a surplus. Apart from the congregations’ contributions to a pension fund over the years, I never made additional contributions and we were never able to save anything from my salaries.

We were, and still are living beyond our means, in a way. Pretty much paycheck to paycheck, on the church pension and our Social Security, though there might be a bit more breathing room lately.

When it comes to unexpected out-of-pocket expenses, I prioritize the payment schedule– medical bills in particular. I rationalize that the bottom line is such an arbitrary amount to begin with, I’m gonna be equally arbitrary in paying it off. In other words, they’ll get their money, but it won’t be in an exhorbitant lump sum like they sometimes bill it, and it may take a while.

I understand the importance of and wisdom in budgeting, but I’m not getting any younger and I figure I didn’t work all those years just so I could retire and only keep up with monthly expenses. If I want to splurge on a cold brew with a shot or a meal out, or a trip to see the kids, I’d like to be able to do that. Toward that end, we’ll have to communicate a bit better regarding where we actually stand. And we should probably be reviewing our monthly commitments and seeing if there are places ripe for cutting some waste.

And, depending on how things pan out with what’s going on in Washington, I may end up having to go back to work. That would be a revolting development.