Why is your budget not working?

Even if you buy the best budget planner available, you still need to go through the steps of tracking your income, expenses and savings, understanding your financial situation and setting budgeting goals every month.

Buying the budget planner is just the first step. The easy step. Using the budget planner, plugging in the numbers - those are the hard and necessary steps to make your budget work.

While you may have every good intention of budgeting throughout the year, you might not make it past a month or 2. You might stop. For a variety of reasons, you might not know how to restart your budgeting plan.

Why is your budget not working?

Here are the most common reasons why people stop budgeting.

1. Your budgeting system is too complicatedIf you're just starting out budgeting, you probably don't want to get a budget with all of the bells and whistles. You don't need fancy spreadsheets, charts or analytics. As a beginner, you just need to understand the basics to make it as easy as possible for you to continue budgeting. It's all about creating the budgeting habit.

For beginners, I often recommend going with the traditional paper and pencil system and not a digital system. Gather your income and expenses on a monthly basis and see what you're saving, and then go from there. Once you know the fundamentals of what you're saving and what your cash flow is each month, you can start looking into debt strategies, passive income opportunities and other ways to optimize your budgeting.

1. You quit too earlyThis often happens because you haven't made big goals. While you can make a monetary savings goal of $5/month, that might not be the motivation you need. Don't be afraid to dream big. Make a savings goal like buying a house or going on a luxurious vacation. You need to have an end in mind and most importantly, track your progress regularly so you're motivated to stick to it.
2. You've left out some numbersWhile there are your regular monthly expenses like your mortgage, utilities and phone payments, don't forget about your irregular annual expenses like gifts, holiday spending, annual car insurance premiums etc. Think about everything you spend money on realistically throughout the year and account for this in your budget. Your budget won't be useful if it doesn't reflect real numbers. Don't forget about putting money aside for an emergency. Emergencies happen all the time. While you might not know how much it'll cost, you can put aside a small rainy day fund to account for these unforeseen situations.
3. You're not changing it regularlyThings in your life will change. For example, if you have a baby, your budget is going to change. Babies are expensive. Children are expensive. Make sure your budget reflects your changing situation or lifestyle.
4. You're overly strictWhen people decide to start budgeting, it's natural to want to cut as much as they can in their expenses. If you deprive yourself - if you don't give yourself some discretionary fun spending, budgeting will feel like a drag. You'll want to quit. Give your budget some room to do fun things so you don't stop before you've even made progress.

Hi! I'm Jacqueline. I write about making and saving more money, frugal living, and parenting money tips at www.mommoneymap.com.