The "B" word

What makes it such a foul word? Why do we shun the very thought of it? Why must it torment us so much? How can we conquer the fear of it? Yes, my friends, I speak of a BUDGET...
Budgets are so restrictive, they control us, they don't let us have any fun. They are kind of like a nagging wife, always there in the back of your head telling you how you need to improve (I speak not of my wife, of course. She is far from a nagger). Can a budget be something else? Can it be a teacher, a helper, or even a friend? I say YES!
What does a budget do for us? A budget helps us to see where our money is at all times. If we know how much money we have then we know how much we can spend, and on what it should be spent.
A budget helps us realize our priorities. By knowing how much money we have we can make better decisions on what is important to us, and on what we would like to spend our money. For example: I will NEVER have cable tv. I don't own a tv worth watching, and I think it is a waste of time and money. But you may never own a truck that gets only 10 mpg and runs on expensive diesel fuel. We each have our priorities, and a budget helps us realize them.
Who should budget? I had a close friend tell me the other day that she will budget when she has enough money to budget. She doesn't have enough income, and to many bills to worry about it right now. While I agree that only people with money have a budget, it is also true that only people with a budget have money.
Money is a funny creature. It can be very controlling. However it can also be very controlled. It has been written that one will never have enough money if he does not control it well. We are programed from early in life to spend and borrow on everything we want, and somethings we don't want. We are prone to spend every penny we have. Unless we take aggressive action to be in control of our money, it will control us.
The big secret to having money is that you have to spend LESS than you make. Wow! what a concept. George S. Clason said in The Richest Man In Babylon that if every day we gather a basket of eggs, and take out all but 1, that with in a short period our basket will be full of the left over eggs. Our money follows suit, if we keep but a small portion we will build a reserve.
As we develop a budget we will begin to control our money. We can begin to keep a portion of what we earn and use it to fill our own baskets. We will realize our priorities, and set them in place.