Financial Encouragement for Sticking to a Tight Budget

by Reader Contributors

Encouragement for Sticking to Tight Budget photo

Tired of the tight budget? When you’re ready to throw in the financial towel, here’s some financial encouragement to help you keep pinching those pennies until you reach your goal.

Dear Dollar Stretcher,
I have been on a self-imposed debt repayment program for the last four years, reducing my debt from $20,000 to $5,000. According to my figures, these debts should be paid off in about one year.

This is great, but I have been having discouraging thoughts. It’s been four years of pretty tight living. I do not want to charge or buy anything extravagant. I just think I need a few words of encouragement. Has anyone else felt this way?
Kathy

Words of Financial Encourage for Those Trying to Stick to a Tight Budget

Our frugal readers are always ready with advice and encouragement for those struggling financially or just trying to better their financial situation. Read on to find some words to help you stick it out until you reach your financial goal.

You also might find helpful this article: Sticking With a Frugal Lifestyle Month After Month.

Be Proud of Your Accomplishments

Wow! You say you need encouragement. Would it help you to know you have encouraged me? I’m a single mother of six, and living frugally is a way of life, but I know it can get old after a while. I have almost $20,000 of debt in one school loan left over from helping to put my ex-husband through school, and it seemed so impossible to bring down that I have been just paying what I have to each month and forgetting about it otherwise. But seeing how you brought that amount down in just a few years makes me want to start paying extra again.

If nothing else, you can feel like you have accomplished something tremendous. You set a goal and stuck to it, and that calls for determination, perseverance, self-discipline, patience, consistency over the long haul, wisdom about finances, and several other skills that I bet you didn’t realize you possessed. If you sat down and thought about it, you would realize that you have accomplished something much greater than just saving money.

Maybe a fun thing to do now would be to take your new-found skills and apply them in a new direction. Maybe there’s something you’ve wanted to do but didn’t think you were capable of accomplishing. If you could bring down that much debt in that short of a time, just imagine what else you could do if you put your mind to it!

It’s important to realize that saving money is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Money is useful for what it can do for us. Hope this is on-target for where you are. Thanks again for being a wonderful example of accomplishing a difficult goal!
Amy

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Allow Small Luxuries Along the Way

I know what it is like to live on a tight budget for a long time.

I suggest allowing yourself a small luxury every once in a while. By doing this, the tight budget won’t affect your emotions as much, and you won’t feel deprived.

By small luxury, I mean anything from 50 cents to $50. For each person, the luxury may be different. It may be allowing yourself to buy a fountain drink on the drive home, buying a book on sale instead of borrowing one from the library, or going to a movie or out to dinner.
Anne

A Boost From a Budget Counselor

Look at what you have accomplished! My goodness, you should be so proud of yourself.

I am a budget counselor. I sit across the table from people every week struggling with the $20K of debt, not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Plan how your spending will change when you pay off your debt completely. Please plan to take some portion of what had been going to debt and spend it on you. Reward yourself! But do it with funds that are available, not credit. You have been through a lot, but this can be such a wonderful, freeing experience if you take what you learned and make your future so much better.

I know it sounds old-fashioned, but a budget is actually a very freeing thing. It plans out your spending such that you can have “fun money” without worrying about paying the bills. If you are on a budget, that is great. If you are not, please consider getting on one. Everyone thinks a budget is for people who are struggling to pay bills. They are not. They are for everyone. They truly make your life easier once the budget is established and going.

I don’t know you, but I am very proud of you. I’ve been in your situation and came through it. I’m better for it. I now share my “wisdom” with others. You might want to consider doing the same.
Anita

Expert Interview: Creating a Budget You Can Stick To: Tips From a CFP

Reflect on What You’ve Accomplished

You have done a great job paying down your debt. Now is not the time to get discouraged. You are almost there! Your goal is within reach.

I’m sure that when you began your journey to become debt-free, it must have seemed nearly impossible. For most people, it takes a lifetime to pay off $20,000 in debt. Most of us are lazy and would have just filed for bankruptcy.

But you didn’t. You lived frugally and hung in there. And now, you’re just a year away from your goal! Surely, you have become much wiser and disciplined along the way. Now is the time to reach deep inside yourself and reflect on all that you’ve accomplished. Write down your feelings, and this time next year, you can publish a book for the rest of us!
Twana

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

Congratulations, Kathy! Your self-discipline to reach your goal is very admirable. Perhaps, besides “words” of encouragement, a “picture” of your accomplishment might inspire you to the finish line. Prepare a colorful graph/timeline that shows your debt amount (vertical axis) decreasing over time (horizontal axis). Hang this where you will see it daily or weekly.

Now that you’re coming into the home stretch of reaching this goal, you might want to consider new goals, such as saving up for a very nice vacation and researching how to do it frugally.
Loretta

Imagine Your Possibilities

Be encouraged! You are at the threshold of true freedom! Four years represent 80% of your goal already attained. Getting rid of mind-numbing, stress-inducing, anxiety-producing debt is like running a marathon. So, take a minute to refresh and rehydrate. Splurge a little on a new book or a manicure and pedicure, and continue on with the race. At the end, you will be able to say that you finished. You will be so empowered that nothing will intimidate you again in your life!

We recently paid off more than $90,000 in credit, loans, school, and other debt. We looked back a lot at the balances and goals for each year and marveled at how good God has been to us at each step of the way. The worn towels and pots and pans and furniture and clothes that annoyed us so much during that time don’t seem so bad now because we know they represent our commitment and attainment of a goal that seemed so insurmountable.

Write up your new future budget without debt and dream about the possibilities. And you are almost there! Look back at where you were and vow never to go back again. Press on toward your goal, and know that your steadfastness will be rewarded. Congratulations on your faithfulness!

Your new reality in twelve short months will be to control all of your income and owe no one unless you choose to. The peace is sweet and the absence of pressure and stress is unbelievably wonderful. Be encouraged and splurge a little while you imagine what your possibilities will be soon!
Ellene