Silently Screaming Inside About the “Loud Budgeting” TikTok Trend
“A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.” — William Feather.
Business intelligence posted an article on loud budgeting — influencers on TikTok are citing that they are budgeting for a “no spend 2024”. Lukas Battle can’t go out to dinner since he only has $7.00 in his pocket.
This article made me tell my inner voice to stop squealing in agony since it was ridiculous. I guess I’ve been “quiet budgeting” for all these years by estimating my bills, recording what I spend and keeping a tally of when real life expenses deviate from the budget.
I don’t go on TikTok and brag about it.
“Man, it was cold this month, so my heating bill was over by $20! But, I didn’t go out as much since it was so cold, so my discretionary spending covered it. Excellent!”
Budgeting is budgeting — whether it’s loud or soft, you learn to spend within your means
It’s creating a plan and sticking with that plan, but you don’t have to announce to the world that you’re budgeting. The increase in the amount in your savings account should be enough of the bragging rights.
Standing on a digital street corner and broadcasting it to the world isn’t going to help the ordinary guy — it will just earn you a lot of shrugs and sideways glances.
The problem is that people are overspending and not budgeting
Budgeting takes discipline and in our world today there are diversions that can prevent you from budgeting properly.
TikTok, Instagram and Facebook make people want to spend to keep up with the Joneses (and possibly one up them), and our society encourages it, so possibly a “no-look 2024” would be the best avenue to avoid checking out what other people are doing and avoiding the impulse to spend.
Lifestyle creep is another way to drain your bank account- eating out once a week evolves into eating out every other night — to getting DoorDash four times a week and then you don’t have enough cash at the end of the month.
Online shopping is always just a click away on your phone, but so are many budgeting apps (including one that is free from NerdWallet). The next time you are almost going to complete that impulse purchase — check out your discretionary spending budget on the app.
Credit is always a problem — getting notices in your email that your credit limit has increased acts like a dopamine rush. How much can we really spend now? Let’s go see! Hold on there — you don’t have to rack up mor e credit since they increased your limit. The proportion of the credit that you have and the amount you use affects your credit score. It’s better not to rack up more debt.
The trend isn’t “Loud Budgeting” — it’s “Crash and Burn Budgeting”
The new way to look at the problem of overspending is not declaring a “no spend 2024” — it’s like crash dieting. What happens when you go on crash diets? You regain the weight after only a couple of weeks. You strain to keep from eating and then give in and the diet goes kaput.
Well, the same thing is that you need to control your spending gradually, and throttle back month to month. Little extravagances are trimmed out of the budget and it’s key not to go all out and cut everything at once.
Budgeting takes planning — you need to:
- List your income
- List your fixed expenses (most people have monthly, yearly and possibly quarterly expenses)
- List your debt
- List flexible and unplanned expenses
- Track your expenses for the month — Google Sheets is free
- Look at where you ended up for the month and put the extra into savings
- List what can you save — save for short and long term goals
- Redo your budget for next month and start all over again
- Learn where you overspent and control it, list new expenses that you missed or popped up.
It’s 2024 and a new year — start with a plan to set a budget or an action plan to get spending under control. Take baby steps — eliminate unnecessary expenses gradually and record the results. It’s the small steps that count.
Then you won’t have to wonder where you are going to eat dinner on your last $7.00 on some random night.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
