Why Our Family Budget Challenge Looks More Like A Crash Diet

I have never been one to diet. If my pants feel too snug I know I have to eat less and walk more. I have watched friends struggle with trying to lose weight and many have moaned to me about the horrors of a “crash diet” telling me that it seems like it is destined to fail before it even begins. Well, I sort of know what they mean now. As many of you know our family has been consumed with a budget challenge this month, and we are trying to live on $20 a day. It started well, we got half way through the month and all our pennies were accounted for and we did not go over-budget. Like all good crash diets though, this sort of radical change is difficult to sustain. Since the 15th we have felt disillusioned with our budget challenge, as so many different expenses have come up - putting us way over our $20 dollars a day budget. We have had medical bills, packages to send overseas, a trip out of state, and a good friend’s birthday to try and fit into our budget. And just like a crash dieter that decides to eat the bag of cookies because they just ate the ice cream - we too feel like it is all unravelling a bit.  The upshot is - although we are still on average not spending more than $20 cash a day on ”normal expenses” - we have spent way more money than we thought we were going to and have had to dip into our ear-marked savings to pay for it. That hasn’t felt good. Just like the crash dieter who skips a meal the next day to make up for the previous days over-indulgence, we are now trying to spend even less to help compensate for the other expenses we had.  The problem with crash diets is that they really don’t work for the long term.  So that we don’t “come of the rails” at the end of the month - our family now needs to assess how our budgeting can work in the long run by anticipating expenses, budgeting for them, and by being careful of where and how we spend our money.