8 Biggest Challenges of Sticking to a Budget

When you are first starting out budgeting, there are so many challenges that can pop up and make your financial journey harder.

In general, challenges that keep you from sticking to a budget come down to preparing and planning ahead. Almost every challenge can be overcome if you want to beat it. The main issue is usually a mental speed bump and not an actual roadblock. Let’s go over the 8 most common and biggest challenges of sticking to a budget!

Never the same amount of income every month

If you are self-employed or have hours that greatly change week to week, it can be difficult to budget. Not knowing how much money is coming up every paycheck can be difficult to overcome.

The easiest way to work with an ever-changing income every month is to get one month ahead on your bills. This way, you are actually working with money that you already have and not waiting to see how much you will have.

Another way to tackle this different income every pay period is to budget on the minimum amount that you usually get every paycheck. For example, if you look over the last 3 months of paychecks you should be able to see what the smallest paycheck amount was and use that as the base of your budget.

This base amount for your budget is mainly going to go towards your 4 walls of bills. This is your rent/mortgage, utilities, minimum debt payments and minimum food.

Now if your smallest amount of base pay will not cover these 4 basic categories every month, it may be time to either start a sinking fund for low months or to consider a different job. If you choose the sinking fund option, you will basically keep adding money to this account on high pay months, so on low pay months you will be able to use it to help pay those bills.

Unexpected large expenses

I hear all the time that as soon as you start to budget, your car breaks down or your dog has to have surgery. This doesn’t just happen to new budgeters; this happens to experienced budgeters too!

First, it is essential to have an Emergency Fund. I like to start with a $1000 baby emergency fund in place before I start tackling bigger goals. Check out this article all about “What Happens when you don’t have an Emergency Fund?”

That $1000 emergency fund is a starting point. You may realize that you need to have more depending on your situation. If you have an older car that is prone to repairs, if you have a medically complex child, or if your home is older and requires more upkeep.

How much will your family need in an emergency fund? Take a look at your credit card bills and your savings account for the last 12 months. How much did you spend on unexpected expenses? This will give you a great idea about how much your expenses tend to be.

Paying the minimum monthly payments on debt while building your emergency fund is essential to get to a good financial foundation. Keep in mind that an emergency fund is for actual emergencies that prevent you from going to work to continue to earn.

A broken microwave is an inconvenience, but it is not an actual emergency because you have other options like your stove. If it doesn’t have to be replaced right this minute, it can be saved up for before purchasing another one.

Inconvenience is a total pain in the butt, and I get that, but an emergency is more life or death or can’t get to work. Not being able to work for a week because you had to stay home with a sick child is an emergency. Buying a new couch because yours has a hole in it or buying a new washing machine because yours broke is an inconvenience, but it is something that can wait.

Look outside the box for options to cover your inconveniences, like getting a used couch from someone you know or Facebook marketplace. Use a laundromat for a few weeks while you look for a suitable replacement washing machine and save up for it.

When you do have to use your emergency fund, your next priority is to fill it back up again in case of another unexpected emergency expense.

Food Prices and Gas Prices constantly going up

We as consumers cannot control the price of the goods that we buy on a regular basis. We have to find ways to make our money stretch further!

For gas prices, we can start working on alternate plans to save money like carpooling, using gas apps, and combining trips when running errands. Ask other parents to switch off picking up kids from sports, time your errands with school pick up time, and checking gas prices all along your commute.

My friend Brad used an app and found a gas station that was in the middle of his 12 mile commute to work. He was such a creature of habit and always used the same gas station every few days. It never occurred to him to check along his route to see if any other stores offered cheaper prices.

Food and Grocery Budgets are a huge complaint for most people, but this too can be helped! If you are not currently meal planning, you need to start. This one step before going grocery shopping can make the biggest impact on your food spending.

When meal planning, try to utilize everything that is already in your pantry, cabinets, and freezer. Also check your stores flyer for what is on sale. I fill in the holes in my meal planning with what is already on sale at the stores that week if it is a good deal. Remember that everything on sale is not always a good deal. I also compare prices of name brands on sale to the cost of generic store brands. Just because Kraft salad dressing is on sale, doesn’t mean that it is cheaper than store brand salad dressing.

Meal Planning doesn’t have to be a rigid strict schedule of meals. At our house, I usually make sure that we have breakfast options for the kids like muffins or cereal. (Check out this article for how I am going to save money on muffins this month!) I almost always have lunchmeat and bread for sandwiches if leftover dinners are not available for lunches. Then for dinners, I just list out 5-7 ideas for dinner like ground turkey tacos, baked chicken breasts, etc. Each morning I look at the list of dinner ideas and pick one, then usually grab the meat out of the freezer to defrost before dinner.

Another way to save money on food spending is to prepare for nights that you don’t want to or have the time to cook. We always have a package of hotdogs, a few ready to make meals, and a frozen pizza in the freezer just in case. I save these meals for when I really need them and try to cook mostly from scratch on the other nights.

Lately, I have been mixing fresh fruit with canned fruit to save some more money. I prefer to use fresh fruits and berries for meals, but the prices have just been way too high for me. I will put a can of peaches in a plastic container to use for a few days. At dinner I will add some fresh blueberries with a few pieces of peaches for the kid’s plates. This little shift has saved us a ton of money.

Not enough income

There are times that when we sit down and do a budget, we realize that we just don’t make enough money to support our lifestyle. The only real options to fix this is to change your lifestyle or to get a different job or income.

For lifestyle changes, I always look at what we can do without first. These changes don’t have to be permanent. It is okay to just do temporary lifestyle changes if you know that your income will increase soon.

Examples of lifestyle changes would be skipping a vacation, smaller Christmas celebration, cancelling gym memberships, cancelling streaming channels, and delaying purchases.

If you are already on a super tight budget and have nothing more to cut out, then you will need more income. This could be changing jobs, picking up an additional part time job, selling unneeded items in your home, or starting a side hustle.

Adulting is not always fun and even though working more than just a full-time job is not enjoyable, sometimes it needs to be done. This too can be temporary until you get back on your feet or it can help until you find a new full-time job.

Before getting an additional job, it may be time to ask your boss for a raise or if there is any additional overtime that you can work. Some bosses would rather you work more at your current job than work somewhere else. If they know you are struggling, they will help you if they can in order to keep you.

Spouse not on board or supportive

This is one that we hear a lot about too! Whether you’re in a spender-saver relationship or your spouse is just not on the same page on budgeting, these situations are usually a big problem.

I’m sure you have heard that love can fix anything, but unfortunately love will not get you out of a financial hole. Way before I met my husband, I was in a relationship with someone who was a HUGE spender and it almost led us to eviction. He could not stop buying CDs and partying with friends, so there were times that we had to take out pay day loans to pay the rent and utilities.

No matter how much I made, or how many side hustles I did, we always got behind. The more money I brought in the more he spent. This cycle was beyond frustrating, and we would have huge arguments about it.

After a few years of this situation of drowning a little further in debt every day, I had enough. I figured out I would rather be broke and alone, than in constant worry about being evicted from our apartment.

We split up and I moved out to a super small apartment over 30 miles away. This led to getting a new job that was closer to the apartment I could afford and working myself out of my huge debt hole.

Sometimes love will not solve all your problems. Now I am not telling this story to advise you to get divorced and break up your family. I am telling you this story because by leaving this situation, I realized that I wasn’t even happy in the relationship. Yes, I loved him but there were so many problems that we had that were just ignored or blamed on finances. Our priorities and our focus were incredibly different and neither of us wanted to change.

If you sit down and discuss your financial issues and your spouse is not on board or continues to sabotage your finances, it may be time to look and see if there are other issues that you are dealing with as well.

According to the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, 22% of marriages end due to money issues. Their data shows that the biggest cause for divorce at 43% is incompatibility, and that incompatibility can be caused by other issues like infidelity, money problems, and addiction. So that means probably more than 1 out of every 5 marriages end due to financial problems.

Is it better to really look into your relationship now when you are a little in debt and struggling? Or is it better to wait and look at your relationship when you are under a mountain of debt?

Another friend of mine admitted to her husband that his spending behind her back made her feel the same as if he was cheating on her. She explained to him that this betrayal of her trust and their finances had made her think of divorce as possible option. Her husband finally woke up and realized that he was causing major damage to his family with his spending. They agreed to go to counseling and work on changing their relationship.

Without clear and honest communication, it will be impossible to really improve your finances and your relationship. If you find that every conversation ends in an argument, seek some outside help like a marriage counselor, a pastor, a financial coach, or a family therapist.

ADHD

ADHD is starting to come up more and more in adults that are having trouble with their budgets. According to the NIH, it is estimated that 4.4% of adults in the age range of 18-44 have ADHD. I expect this number will continue to grow as more children and teens are diagnosed every year.

ADHD typically includes difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior, and hyperactivity. As adults you see this in the form of uncontrollable spending, missing payment due dates, and having trouble keeping track of expenses.

Most people that have ADHD already know where their problem areas are, so we will give some suggestions that may help these most common mentioned issues.

First, we have to identify your problem areas and make a new plan (for example if you are having trouble remembering payment due dates try setting up autopay or adding alarms to your phone to remind you.)

If you know that your issue is impulse buying and overspending, then we can remove card information from websites like Amazon and online stores. Another great idea is that you can make a list of spending money alternatives that include things like going for a walk, reading a book, or taking a bath. (Check out more ideas in this article all about “How to Control Overspending!”)

If you have trouble keeping track of your spending, try setting up a planner or start keeping a list of every time you spend money. I know that when I go lay down to sleep at night, I start to remember where all I spent money, so I keep a notepad near my bed so I can jot it down. If you combine a new habit with an existing habit, it will be easier to do it. For example, keep your tracker in your car, and before you start the car write down any money that was spent at your current location. Combining the habit of tracking with turning on the car, will keep you from forgetting to accomplish your task.

Overcoming past habits

Past habits are sometimes not easy to change. It does sometimes take extra preparation to keep you from falling back into habits that you are wanting to change.

These habits can be using DoorDash instead of packing a lunch for work or cooking dinner at home. The best way to combat these old habits is to make a list of alternatives. You could include things like having a can of soup in your desk drawer for when you forget to bring your lunch or buying ready to cook frozen meals in your fridge for dinner.

When you have a list of alternatives to your past habits, it is much easier to avoid slipping back into them. You won’t have to think about alternatives on the spot, you will already have a list ready to go. This will make it much more likely for you to not go back to your old habits.

Losing Motivation/ Not seeing improvement

You are working so hard on your budgeting and financial freedom, but every time you look at your balances, they are just not moving very much. It is so easy to lose your motivation when you don’t get the gratification you really want.

This challenge is exactly why I love coloring trackers. These printouts help you visually see your hard work in motion and keep you motivated to keep going!

You can use coloring trackers to help with saving an emergency fund, paying off debt, building a retirement account, or just paying for upcoming expenses.

I have a whole section of free printables that you can download and print at home. You can also make your own if you have some design skills.

I like to hang my trackers at my desk or on my fridge. Just pick a spot that you will see often and keep working on your goals. Whether you work on one tracker at a time or have 12 ongoing ones is totally up to you.

This is a very motivating tool to keep you going and it also shows all the hard work you have been doing! Even if you don’t meet your deadline, you still accomplished something. Give yourself grace and know that just because it takes you 45 days to complete a monthly challenge, you still hit your goal!

Financial Journey not a Single Destination

Any financial goals and plans that you make are a journey and not just a single destination. There will always be challenges, but it is up to you to turn these issues into just a speed bump and not a full-on roadblock.

Sometimes your plans will have to shift and adjust to family circumstances and that is okay. Sometimes your priorities will change and that is okay too.

We don’t abandon financial planning and budgeting just because we have a setback. We can learn from our unexpected hiccups in the plan so we can prepare better for next unexpected speed bump.