The Freedom of a Budget

It may sound backwards, but a budget really allows you the freedom to spend your money however you want. I know a lot of people hear the word "budget" and automatically associate it with constraint and boundaries, but my experience has been quite the contrary. With a budget, you can spend your money however you want, as long as the spend is budgeted for and your total spend for the month comes in at or below your take-home pay. For example, last night I went out to a nice dinner for a girlfriend's birthday. It ended up costing me about $50, and normally I would have been freaking out about spending this much money for one dinner. But at the beginning of the month I had budgeted for this night because I knew her birthday was coming up. So at the end of the night, signing the bill was not painful or frightening. My budget allowed me the freedom to have a nice night out with my friends... all due to the fact that I had anticipated the cost and allowed for the spend.