Abundance mentality makes you feel like nothing is holding you back. How do you balance that vs the principles of sound budgeting?
Abundance mentality budgeting is a way of sound accounting combined with being able to receive all the abundance that is offered to you! It’s a difficult balance.
I have written some very hard-line budgeting posts. And frankly, it’s been hard to write this one for a while. I don’t want you guys to think that I’m a spendthrift.
But, I no longer follow strict rules of budgeting {can you hear the subscribers hitting unsubscribe?}. But wait, read on — maybe this post can help your mindset.
After my husband left his job, I started taking some classes on abundance and really being open to new veins of income. But, the one thing that I really felt was limiting me was those hard numbers.
I felt that the hard numbers left me in a scarcity mindset.
What would we do if we ran out and how could I "keep my budget" if I was consistently going over and buying all the things we needed?
Abundance Mentality Budgeting
My new budget is running off of 4 principles:
- I have cash on me all the time.
- We have enough money for our needs and plenty of our wants
- We will get more cash, it is a steady flow that is increasing
- Money is a tool that allows us to do the things we want to do
- Cash only
Let’s explore those a bit more in-depth:
I have cash on me all the time
I took Carol Tuttle’s Money Makeover a few months ago and it really helped to change my mindset on a few things. I have always been concerned that someone would steal my money if I had too much in my wallet. Now, I don’t go to her lengths where she keeps 100’s in there, but I always try to have a little cash on me. It’s a physical reminder that I have money, and I can get more.
We have enough money for our needs, and plenty for our wants
If we truly need something, I just buy it. There is no reason for us to be limping along with something that is truly a NEED when I can have it shipped to my home from Amazon in just a couple of days (or grab it at Walmart).
Of course, you do need to be very honest about what your needs are. I had a cell phone charger that had exposed wires. I was going to keep limping it along — but that really didn’t make sense. Just buy a new charger instead of getting electrocuted. 🙂
Previous to this, I would have limped along with it until the budget $$ renewed.
And I, personally, felt like that made me just want more and more things (and, I’d spend more and more once that budget money was “renewed”). I also just felt like we never had enough money… and that wasn’t how I wanted to feel. You can read about that in my post on the magic of having enough.
As for wants I really evaluate them.
We have recently really started paring down on the things we bring into the home. I hate organizing them and I feel bad when I throw them away — so I’m really trying to bring in “wants” that I’ll value.
And frankly, by having enough you often find the wants aren’t as bad. 🙂
We will get more cash, it is a steady flow that is increasing
I always felt like money was a finite principle. There was a set amount and I could just get that amount.
But, now I believe that money can come in many forms and ways.
Now, having your own business makes that all a little easier, but I think that money can come in many ways to people.
I think that when we lived off a nurse’s and a teacher’s salary we felt like we just had a fixed amount of income and could never increase that. And that, my friends, never did us any favors.
Believe that money can come to you in new ways. I envisioned money flowing to us like a river, and it really did start to!
It really does sound insane, but I felt like it calmed me down enough to let it work it’s process.
Money is a tool that allows us to do the things we want to do
That’s all it is. It’s not a measure of success or something that makes us prideful and arrogant.
It’s just a tool.
I never worry about having enough air. It’s always there.
I don’t worry about using my screwdriver. It’s a tool. I’m using it to get work done.
That’s it.
That really takes the stress out of it.
Money is a tool. Use it. Don’t be worried it won’t be there. Don’t over-use it, or use it in times that another tool would work better.
Cash Only
I also follow a 100% cash principle as well. I NEVER believe you should spend money you don’t have. You may have to tighten to actual needs for a while and hopefully, as your abundance increases you can loosen for your flow. I know it’s worked that way for us.!
This doesn’t mean that we only USE cash — but we use debit and credit cards wisely (love my cash back) and make sure we have the money to back it up.
So, that’s our budgeting in a nutshell. I made a hand printable with these reminders – maybe you could make it small and put it somewhere you’ll see it frequently. And, check out my other family finances posts below that:
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