Finding a Budget You Actually Love: 3 Ways to Envision How You Spend, Save

After a long winter, it’s not difficult, at least not for those of us in colder climates, to envision the seasons that lie ahead. Especially as we get into the late winter, there are signs abounding that these days are on the horizon: the melting snow, more activity and new songs from returning migrating birds, a warmer sun, and later sunsets. 

So, as we see signs around us of changing seasons and we’re caught envisioning those days ahead, let’s channel that energy into envisioning with our money. We don’t get to harvest the fruits of our labor without several precursory steps. And one of the first steps toward a bountiful harvest is planning. 

How does this analogy translate to our money? Without uttering a “B” word that can turn many people away from this idea, I’ll simply say planning for saving and spending. 

Yes, I’m talking about budgeting. But before you stop reading, there is more than one way to budget, and it doesn’t necessarily involve line-by-line documentation of spending and saving.

Let’s explore three different budgeting methods so we can find a budget you love to envision what lies ahead.  

The Importance of Having a Budget, Not Just the Idea of One

Saving more money can sound straightforward in theory. You just need to spend less money, make more, or both. But there always seems to be a surprise expense every few weeks or months—the refrigerator died, your car needs new brakes, or your dog got into something they shouldn’t have, and now you have a giant vet bill.

That’s where budgeting comes into play. In addition to helping you understand how you spend your money, budgeting paves the way for more intentional spending habits and, ideally, saving more money. 

That said, it’s safe to say that not everyone enjoys the process of budgeting. It can be tedious and time-consuming to initially create the budget, and, like our gardening analogy, budgeting requires discipline and a long-term commitment. Does anyone really want to weed every day?

But there is more than one way to budget, and the options have varying degrees of time-intensiveness. So, before you jump into one and then jump out, let’s look at three different ways of budgeting to examine which route may be the best for you. 

1: The “Don’t Bother Me”: Reverse Budgeting

Our final type of budgeting takes the categorial approach to budgeting and, as the name makes it sound, flips it around. 

Instead of allocating money toward expense categories, reverse budgeting puts saving first and spending second. Boiled down, you follow these three steps to determine your reverse budget: 

1. Savings goal: Determine how much you can realistically afford to save on a monthly and annual basis as a percentage. 
2. Pay yourself first: When you receive your paychecks, take the savings percentage out of the paycheck first and put it into the account, or accounts, meant for saving. 
3. Spend the rest: After paying yourself, the remaining money can be spent on essential and discretional expenses

Going back to our example, here’s how reverse budgeting would look: 

1. Savings goal: John and Jane determine they want to save $40,000 per year, a 33% savings goal. 
2. Pay yourself first: John and Jane are both paid semi-monthly, so they receive $5,000 each payday. They put $1,667 into their savings account each payday, which they then transfer to their various investing and long-term savings accounts. 

Spend the rest: After paying themselves, John and Jane have $6,666 left each month to spend on essential and discretionary expenses. 

2: The “Keep it Super Simple”: 50/30/20 Budgeting Rule

There are lots of rules related to personal finance, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the main routes of budgeting falls into that category: The 50/30/20 Rule. This method takes your income and divides it into three main budgeting categories: 

• 50% essential expenses: Half of your monthly income should be allocated to the things you can’t go without, such as your rent or mortgage, food, and transportation. 
• 30% discretionary spending: A little less than one-third of your income should go toward items that are non-essential, like going out to eat, attending concerts and sporting events, or spending money on your hobby
• 20% saving: The remaining fifth of your income shouldn’t be spent. Rather, it should be earmarked for saving, whether that’s in a savings account, retirement account, or brokerage account. 

The 50-30-20 Rule is arguably the most straightforward of the methods we’ll discuss because of the limited categories. The main hangup may be in discerning between what’s an essential expense and what’s a discretionary expense. Unfortunately, it’s a difficult case to make that your daily trip to your favorite coffee shop (or treat of your choice) isn’t really an essential expense. 

Let’s take a quick look at a practical example of the 50-30-20 Rule in action before moving to our next budget type. Together, Jane and John bring in $10,000 per month in income ($120,000 per year). Here’s how they should allocate their money according to the 50-30-20 Rule: 

• 50% essential spending: $5,000 monthly / $60,000 annually
• 30% discretionary spending: $3,000 monthly / $36,000 annually
• 20% saving: $2,000 monthly / $24,000 annually    

3: The “Give Me All the Details”: Categorial Budgeting 

Because of the rise of all kinds of budgeting apps, along with budgeting features built into our credit card and banking apps, categorical budgeting might be the most common method. 

This method involves allocating every dollar of your income to a specific category, such as housing, food, transportation, entertainment, savings, and investments. The goal of categorial budgeting is to spend no more than the goal for each category. 

Now, there are several ways to go about categorizing your expenses. You can get into the weeds or keep things to just a few main buckets. We won’t go into the weeds for the sake of this article, so here are some of the main buckets to think about: 

• Bills & Utilities 
• Entertainment
• Food & Dining
• Health
• Housing
• Kids
• Personal Care
• Saving/investments
• Shopping
• Transportation
• Other

While making a categorical budget is a common approach, it also may be the most time-intensive. Not only do you have to determine the budget for each category, but you also have to ensure you categorize all of your expenses to monitor how you’re faring. 

The good news is that there are a plethora of budgeting apps available, and many will do a solid job of categorizing for you once you’ve connected your accounts with the app. Here’s a NerdWallet piece that goes through some of the top budgeting apps of 2025.   

Choosing the Best Budget Method

The best budgeting method for you will depend on your individual needs and the way you like to think about money and spending. 

You can also deploy multiple approaches for your budget. You may reverse budget to determine your overall savings and spending categories and then subdivide your remaining spending into individual categories. 

Here are some final tips for creating a successful budget that you can stick with:

• Be realistic about expenses: If you’ve never spent less than $500 on groceries in a month, don’t put your budget for groceries as $200. You can still shoot for a lower amount than you typically spend, but make sure it’s something you can realistically achieve. 
• Set attainable savings goals: We’d all like to max out our retirement accounts each year. But you shouldn’t have to do things like take on credit card debt for your other expenses just so you can meet your savings goals. Start small and build from there. 
• Track your spending: We’ve already discussed some ways to track your spending through an app. You might prefer something like a spreadsheet to do it yourself. Either way, get into the habit of tracking your spending. It may be tedious at first, but it will get easier the longer you do it. 
• Review your budget every few months: You’ve done all the work to set a budget and track your spending, but don’t forget to check in on your budget regularly to get a feel for the bigger picture. Do you have a hard time staying under budget on dining out? Do you have money left over each month that you could be putting toward saving? Checking in will help you understand trends and make adjustments. 

Creating a budget is not always easy, but it is worth can be rewarding both financially and emotionally. A budget can help you save money, understand your financial goals, and live a more financially secure life. 

If you’d like to have a personalized conversation about your money and how you’re putting it to work to achieve your goals, you can schedule an introductory call with our team here.