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The Treasurer · № 07

Budgeted for Real

Made a budget, lived within it for 90 consecutive days, tracked actual vs. planned, and hit it within 10% in at least two of those months.

The idea

Budgets work when they're built around real spending, not idealized spending. Use the tracking data from last month, not a clean spreadsheet. The budget has to hurt a little. If it's too tight, they'll abandon it in week two. Hitting the plan within 10%, two months out of three, is mastery for an adult, not a teenage starting point. Adjust toward reality, not perfection.

Steps
  1. Start from the spending data, not from an ideal.
  2. Set category limits tight enough to require choices.
  3. Track actual vs. planned weekly.
  4. Hit within 10% in two months of three.
What counts

90 days of a real budget with actual-vs-planned tracking, hit within 10% in two months. The tracker is plenty.