This Simple Budgeting Trick Allows You to Splurge

What we really don’t like about budgeting is the fact that it is something that makes you feel as though you cannot spend money on things you don’t need. If there is one way to guarantee that I will spend money on things I don’t necessarily need in life, it’s telling me I cannot do it. Budgeting is not something I’m good at. I could save a lot more if I put forth the effort, but I don’t like the idea of depriving myself. We save, we pay our expenses and then we have a lot of fun. I don’t like hearing I can’t do something when I know darn well I can. That’s why this little trick is amazing. It’s called the rule of 3, and it is amazing.

Basically, you make two lists of three things. The first list is of things you love that you could never give up without feeling as if life is not worth living anymore. For me, I’d choose travel (we try to do a weekend away every month either with the kids or without as well as two or three bigger vacations throughout the year), wine and shopping. My husband and I love to travel and we love to provide our kids with that experience.

We also love good wine and we love great shopping for ourselves and for our kids. On our list of things we enjoy but don’t need to spend money on, I’d say drive-thrus and take-out since we never really care for the food, just the convenience. I’d also say satellite since we don’t watch a lot of television and prefer Netflix when we do, and I’d also say my car detailing service since I feel I do a much better job myself.

Now you just stop paying for the things that you don’t really want but spend money on, put that money away and then go ahead and allow yourself to indulge – within reason – on the things that you do love a lot. You’re eliminating budgetary problems without really depriving yourself since you still have the things you love the most to look forward to every day. Now let’s see you try it.

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