What Budgeting Has Taught Me

Most of you know that I follow the common sense teaching of Dave Ramsey.  If you were not sure, you could have found out here.  My wife, Staci, and I have been budgeting pretty much since we have been married, almost 3 years.  We have looked at our monthly income, projected our expenses, and spent the money on paper (or Google spreadsheet).  I do not recall why we did it initially, other than it was recommended by Dave, but now, 3 years in, I see some added benefit to budgeting.

• When we budget together, we are forced to agree on our priorities in life.  I had a pastor who always used to say, "I can tell your priorities by looking at your planner/day timer and your bank statements." Staci and I are forced, every month to come to an agreement on where we invest or spend our financial resources.
• When you sit down and rationally plan your month ahead of time, your priorities change. 
•  My spending in golf has probably been the biggest change here.  I used to golf a few times per week, and since we started budgeting, I only go out on special occasions.  
• Another example is clothing.  This probably applies more towards Staci than it does me, but by planning out what we need for new clothing purchases ahead of time, we do not make impulse purchases that we regret later.  On the rare chance we do make a mistake on a clothing purchase, we have incentive to take the item back because our clothing budget is finite.
• When doing a 0 based budget, you cannot spend more than you make in a single month.  We have delayed purchases that we may have other wise jumped on earlier.  For example, the computer on which I am typing right now we had to save for.  With a credit card or in store credit we could have made an impulse purchase, but we saved for a few months, shopped around and got exactly what we wanted at a good price.  When you are spending future money it is easy to buy more than you need.  My sister, Jessica, told me that she was saving up for a Mac.  She wanted one for a long time, but now that she had the cash she wasn't sure if she wanted to empty her bank account for a computer (she already has a perfectly good one).  Saving up for something changes how you interact with it.
• When doing a 0 based budget, you also have to acknowledge that spending more on something also means spending less on something else.  We see this every month when one of us says, "we need to spend more on this" the other will say, "where is it going to come from?"  We can invest more, or pay down on the house more aggressively, but what will be neglected?

There is more, I am sure, but those are the biggest differences in the way I look at budgeting from 2007 until now.  What about you?  Do you budget?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?