How two people who hate budgeting actually budget

Sunshine and Savings, Issue No. 4

I have a confession you probably wouldn’t expect from a finance expert. I hate budgeting.

Don’t get me wrong, I like having money. I even like saving money. I like knowing our bills are covered and we’re making progress toward the goals that matter to us.

But the idea of sitting down every month with two spreadsheets and an abacus to assign a job to every last dime we spend? Hard pass.

I’m also, unfortunately, the kind of person who immediately wants to do exactly what she’s told she can’t do, even when I’m the one making the rules. Tell me there’s no money left for dining out and suddenly I’ve never wanted chips and queso more in my life.

Go figure.

Some couples have one person who likes to plan and crunch the numbers. My husband hates traditional budgeting too, so we had to find another way.

The important stuff first

We automate our bills, savings, and retirement contributions, and we set aside money for giving and sinking funds before we figure out what we have available to speak. That way, we’re not deciding every month whether we’d rather save money or spend it at Target. Past Michelle already made the responsible decision. Current Michelle doesn’t get a vote.

But once we’ve taken care of the important stuff, we turn the rest into a game.

We start the month with a set amount for variable spending and divide it into categories. Then the challenge is to see what we can do with it. Can we spend less on groceries this week? Do we care enough about dining out to use the money there, or would we rather save it for something else? If one category runs high, where can we make up the difference?

The goal isn’t to spend as little as humanly possible. It’s to beat our budget and decide what we want more.

That’s the part my brain likes. Instead of looking at a budget and seeing a list of things I’m not allowed to do, I see choices. And if we come in under budget, the money left over feels like something we won.

Sometimes the “winnings” go toward something responsible like debt reduction or additional savings. Sometimes we put them toward travel, Christmas, birthdays, or another goal we’re excited about.

And sometimes we buy a 12-foot skeleton.

Meet Indiana Bones. 💀

How we actually budget

Our variable-spending categories are pretty normal: groceries, gas, dining out, family fun, clothing, and our individual fun money. What happens to the money after we put it there is considerably less organized.

Because I can make my very best educated guess about what we’ll spend on groceries this month, and my children will still find a way to humble me.

So the categories move.

If groceries need more money and dining out needs less, we move it. If we’ve barely touched family fun but somebody needs new shoes, we move it. I don’t care whether we perfectly follow the plan we made on the first of the month. I care whether we’re making good choices with the total amount we decided we could spend.

That gives us enough structure to know where our money is going without making me feel like I’m being supervised by my own spreadsheet.

And since we’ve already established that my brain responds better to games than restrictions, I made you one too.

Give it a try

If you want to give the system a try with your own budget:

• Handle the big stuff first. Pay your bills, automate savings and retirement contributions, set aside money for giving, and fund any sinking funds you’re using.
• Set your variable-spending budget. Decide how much you can afford to spend on expenses that change from month to month.
• Divide the money into categories. Consider groceries, gas, dining out, fun money, and whatever else makes sense for your household.
• Let the categories move. If you need more money in one area, look for somewhere else you can spend less. The goal is to stay within your overall variable-spending budget, not perfectly predict every expense.
• Decide what you can “win.” Give any money you have left a destination you actually care about. Extra savings? A trip? Christmas? Something wonderfully ridiculous? You get to choose.

Not ready to overhaul your budget yet? You can start smaller with a similar concept. I’ve got a game for that too.

The Sunshine and Savings Fall Fun Challenge

Set a budget just for your fall fun spending. Then pick five activities: two free, two little treats, and one splurge. You get to decide which experiences are worth spending money on and where you’d rather save.

Come in under your fall-fun budget?

Decide what you “win” with the leftover money.

The good stuff

Saving money is part of the game for me. Finding a deal or spending less than I planned gives my brain that delightful little I won feeling. But underneath the game, the savings really do matter. Money I don’t spend on something I don’t care about is money I can use for something I do.

With that in mind, here are a few good finds that caught my attention this week.

🛒 ALDI is cutting prices on fall favorites

If your grocery bill has been hurting lately, you’re not imagining it. Grocery prices were 2.2% higher in August than a year ago, according to USDA data.¹ So I was happy to see ALDI announce another round of price cuts. The grocer says the reductions will save shoppers an estimated $86 million through at least Nov. 3, and nearly one-third of its everyday in-store products now cost less than they did last year.²

🧑🏽‍⚕️ This remote nursing job board just dropped its paywall.

Nurse Fern recently made its job board completely free, which caught my attention because it focuses on remote and alternative nursing jobs. And with so many people looking for ways to earn a living without working taking quite so much of their actual life, free access matters.

If there’s a nurse in your life who’s looking for a change, send them the link. This one could be worth considerably more than a few dollars saved at the grocery store.

You can follow me on Instagram (@creditwriter) and TikTok (@credit.writer), where I share Bright Deal Alerts when I find freebies and deals worth knowing about. Because if I find a way to get the iced coffee for free, obviously I’m telling everybody.

Want MORE of The Good Stuff? Sunshine and Savings subscribers get extra money, credit, and travel tips delivered straight to their inbox, plus free access to my growing CreditWriter resource library.

Spread the sunshine

Know someone who could use something BRIGHT in their inbox? Send this issue their way. Maybe they hate traditional budgeting, love turning saving money into a game, or need permission to move a little money around when real life refuses to follow the plan. If you think they’d feel at home here, spread the sunshine and invite them along. ☀️

P.S. A week is a long time to wait! Come hang out with me on Instagram (@creditwriter) and TikTok (@credit.writer) between issues.

More from CreditWriter

Sources

1. USDA.gov. “Food Price Outlook, 2026.” https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings

2. Corporate.ALDI.us. “ALDI Invests in Even Lower Prices this Fall, Offering U.S. Shoppers $86 Million in Savings.” https://corporate.aldi.us/newsroom/news/aldi-invests-in-even-lower-prices-this-fall