The real secret to succeeding with your personal finances (ok, to be fair I say start sentences off a lot like this) is compromises. If you say ‘yes’ to one thing, you’ll have to say ‘no’ to another.

For most of us, we have a fixed income level each month. Most of us get paid twice a month, and so we can more or less know what we have to work with each month. On the expenses side, we have some fixed costs each month; rent/mortgage, auto insurance and utilities. So it’d be safe to say that each month we have a decent degree of certainty about how much we’ll be able to spend on groceries, gas, eating out and any sort of fun we’d like to have in a month. Learning to be successful with a budget (aka what I just described) requires discipline. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of zero-based budgeting, which means that I run my budget on a monthly cycle. Each month I have an amount that I make, which is the amount that I will either spend or save in the month. If I have leftover spending, I’ll either carry it over to next month (say perhaps I know the next month will be an expensive month) or have it as an extra contribution to my savings account. Therefore, I always try (with a decent amount of success) to ensure that I don’t spend/save more than I make in a given month.

It’s certainly not always easy staying within the budget each month. Sometimes larger purchases (our dog had his annual vet checkup this month) will come up. Other times it feels like every weekend is a birthday weekend, and you’ll find yourself celebrating out for dinner 4 weekends in a row. I get that! I live in the real world just like all of you do. Sometimes life gets in the way (also the name of a solid article I wrote back in 2014!). What you have to do is learn to stay disciplined. If you’re going out to eat this Saturday night, make plans to cook and watch Netflix this Friday night. Or maybe next weekend is a lake weekend and so you should take it easy this coming weekend.

Sometimes saying ‘yes’ to one thing means saying ‘no’ to another. That’s just how it’s got to be. This is a separating line between those that are able to master their money and control their finances vs. those that can’t. Personal finance is all about discipline, learning to control your money. So next time you’re forced with making a decision that you know could strain your budget a little, just make a commitment to cut something else out to help make room for to go for it!