8 Personal Finance Bloggers Tell You How to Stay Motivated

I’m super excited you guys!

I emailed some fantastic personal finance bloggers and asked what advice they would give to this question:

How do you motivate yourself to stick to your budget when you’re tired, or feeling overwhelmed, or you need to make a change but can’t get started?

It can be so hard to stay motivated when you’ve been on a tight budget for a long time. You can just get tired and exhausted from the effort that it takes. I’ve been there many times.

Or when crazy things happen in your life that make you overwhelmed, and your budget is the last thing on your mind. Been there too.

Sometimes, you know that you need to make a change, but you just can’t get your butt moving to make it happen. It’s tough!

Side note: If you’re new here, welcome! Feel free to check out my Popular Posts Page and About Me Page to get to know me and what I write about here.

So here’s what these talented bloggers have to say:

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Latoya from Life & a Budget:

I stay motivated to stick to my budget when tired or just plain lazy because I remember what it’s like to be broke and flat out disgusted. I’ve been through bankruptcy before and most of the debt in my younger years came from lack of preparation. To stay prepared, I automate my savings and bills and give myself a spending allowance. It helps keep my spending in control and is an easy, low-pressure way to stick to the budget.

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Andrea from Andrea Dekker:

For me, the key is keeping it as simple as possible, because if it feels complicated or time-consuming, I’m not going to do it. I use an extremely basic Excel spreadsheet to track my income and expenses and make sure I stay on budget. It is quick and easy to use and hardly takes up any time at all. Also, allowing myself mini splurges every once in awhile helps keep me motivated to save more the rest of the year.

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Michelle from Making Sense of Cents:

A great way to keep yourself motivated when trying to stick to a budget is to think about your end goal. What exactly will sticking to a budget help you with? A vacation, career, happiness, etc.? You may even want to create a vision board so that you can visually see your goal every single day!

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Karissa from A Fresh Start on a Budget:

Great question. Especially when I’m feeling overwhelmed and stressed about our budget, I make sure that I focus on my why. Why I’m saving money or making good decisions with budgeting. To help my family get out of debt, to get a bigger home, to have less stress. Remembering those answers keeps me focused and motivated during the hard times.

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Stefan from The Millenial Budget:

Sticking to a budget for a number of years can be a daunting task. I think it is important to start by setting goals and realizing the benefit you get from the budget. One of the best ways to stay motivated though is to reward yourself periodically. I have a travel fund set-up in my budget so I can travel and do fun stuff. Living life at all stages is important as long as everything is done in moderation!

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Caroline from Cow Country Housewife:

For me, the biggest thing is to budget for some fun. Even if it’s only enough for a bagel at Panera or a new shirt from the store, making the room for fun things in your budget helps get you out of a funk without killing your budget. By planning ahead for fun money, it takes away the guilt of feeling like you’ve just blown your budget because you needed something to make you feel awesome.

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Hayley from Disease Called Debt:

These days, the only time I really stray away from my budget is when I lose interest in tracking my expenses for some reason. Tracking my expenses and monitoring what’s happening in my bank account isn’t the most enjoyable task but I find that I need to do this for two reasons. Firstly, on a practical level, doing this helps me to stick to my budget as I can see what I’m spending and where I need to cut back. Secondly, tracking my expenses makes me WANT to stick to my budget. I love seeing my bank balance increase every month! It’s very motivating for me as I was in the opposite situation for such a long time when I was in debt.

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Related Post:

Our Actual Monthly Budget: Less Than $1500/Month

13 Ways to NOT Spend Money

The Huge Financial Benefit of Staying Home

The #1 Mistake You Don’t Want to Make When Buying a House

The Simple Way We Track Our Spending on a Tight Budget

Great answers right? Make sure to click the links to check out each of their blogs. They all write some awesome stuff about personal finance!

Just to round things out, I’ll answer the question too.

When I’m tired or overwhelmed, I stay motivated by making it as easy as possible to stick to my budget. That means that I simplify whatever I can. I know I’m likely to blow our eating out money in a heartbeat, so I plan super easy meals to make eating at home more appealing. I also try to look at my budget worksheet more often so that I know exactly where we’re at. I struggle with staying motivated at the end of the month, so I try to make sure we have money left over by the end of the month for a treat.

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⇒ Your turn to answer! Leave a comment with your answer to the question:

How do you motivate yourself to stick to your budget when you’re tired, or feeling overwhelmed, or you need to make a change but can’t get started?

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