Every time we’ve written about working on your budget, or even other articles you might have read on the subject, it always talks about reading yourselves of your favorite luxuries. Maybe it’s spending the extra money buying the expensive cup of coffee versus making your own. Maybe it’s cutting off Netflix are some of the other subscriptions you’re paying a lot of money on each month.
Is this always the right answer? Some of the things you’re considering cutting might be very important to you, like that first cup of coffee in the morning. Should you remove every single guilty pleasure from your life, where is there a middle ground? You certainly should put certain priorities in order. If you need to cut things from your life, you don’t have to cut every luxury to save money.
Let’s look at several ways in which to keep in mind the metal ground when preparing your budget.
1) How Important Is It to You?
First thing you should ask yourself when going down your budget is seeing what items are actually important to you. You pay for cable TV, yet you rarely watch it. Is this a luxury that you can cut out of your life? Is it really important to you to have something that cost so much money that you barely use?
This is where this question comes in. You barely use it, but when you do use it, it’s usually for family time. That’s very important to you. Are there other ways to enjoy family time without cable TV? Of course! But we can’t make that decision for you. Were simply saying you should ask yourself which is important enough for you to keep and what you can cut out of your life for a period of time.
2) Are There Any Benefits to Keeping It?
Another question you should ask yourself is do you benefit from keeping the luxury. Will it pay off in the end? Does it improve your life? Sure, going to get a monthly massage can be expensive. But does it help you with life in general? Most likely the answer is yes. It can give a boost of energy and make things a lot more tolerable. If it makes you really happy and it relaxes you, you don’t have to cut out every entertainment expense. But maybe there’s something else you can cut out to help pay for the luxury want to keep.
3) Will You Really Miss It?
Using cable TV is another example, would you really miss it if you cut it out of your life? You can get a regular antenna that gives you all of your local network stations, you can subscribe to Hulu and Netflix which offer plenty of shows and movies, and then cut the $100 cable bill from your life. Will you really miss cable? Probably not. Apply the same idea when going over your budget.
