How to Overcome your Biggest Money Obstacle

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I admit it. I—the queen of all budgeting—the one who LOVES sitting down to work on my budget and track my money—ran into a huge money obstacle last week regarding the budget. This doesn’t happen often for me, so it was a BIG deal.

I was not feeling it. I had put it off for days. I did NOT want to sit down and work on the budget. So, first, I procrastinated. Then, when I finally did sit down to do it, I was ready to pull my hair out trying to figure out why it didn’t all match up. The numbers kept being “off.” It took too much time to find the information I needed. My mind wandered to wanting to work on other things, other things that were easy and much more fun!

“Why do I have to keep up with this silly budget anyway? Is it really going to make a difference? I feel like I’m just wasting my time. This is dumb.”

Now, let me clarify, this was not actually my household budget. I am the finance coordinator for a mom group I’m in. This budget I was procrastinating on and stressing over was that budget.

But it got me thinking. This is probably how the majority of people feel about budgeting! And just dealing with their household finances in general. It is not fun or easy or even remotely interesting, and sometimes does seem like a waste of time.

Spending time on our personal finances is really just a necessity to life if we want to actually gain some financial freedom–if we truly want to be able to gain control of our money. And to be able to use our money for more than just the day in-day out parts of our lives. Like any part of our lives, we can just coast and get by, or we can really put forth the effort to make a difference and to reach our dreams and goals.

So how do we face our finances and work on our biggest money obstacle if we don’t WANT to?

Like anything else in my life that I don’t want to do, but need to do, I have to make it a priority. I have to put those dreaded, yet necessary tasks first, otherwise they keep getting put off.

First, decide on what it is that you need to tackle. What is your biggest money obstacle? You probably already know what it is without thinking about it for very long. What have you been putting off for awhile? Most likely it is dealing with some part of your household finances. So decide on what it is. Creating a budget? Really digging into where your money is going every month? Facing the balance on that credit card bill that keeps growing and growing? What is YOUR biggest money obstacle?

Second, decide on a plan of action and make that plan your priority. Here’s what I did. I generally plan my days the night before. This allows me to wake up the next day with a plan to tackle the day first thing. I purposefully put my most dreaded, but important, task on the top of my list and resolve to do it FIRST thing before I can start doing anything else (except fix my coffee, of course!)

Then when my alarm goes off, I fix my coffee, and start working on that very thing. No social media, no checking email, nothing else until that task gets done. I make that commitment to myself, and it has to happen. Period. I WILL make it happen.

And guess what happens? It gets done. And if it ends up taking longer than the time I have that day, I put it on the top of my list for the next day and keep chopping away at it, one day at a time.

This is what I ended up doing with my mom group budget. I knocked it out before anyone else in my household was awake. It felt great! And it set the tone for the day. No longer was I thinking about needing to do it, or dreading to do it. It was done!

Celebrate your wins, no matter how small! 

Think about how you will celebrate after you finish your much dreaded, important task. Every little step that you can take toward one big task should be celebrated! Check it off your list, do a happy dance, eat a piece of dessert for breakfast, have a glass of wine (but maybe not for breakfast!), do whatever it is you do to celebrate a victory! Because it certainly is! Even if you just made what feels like only small progress.

My celebration was getting to truly enjoy breakfast with my family without my mind feeling guilty about still needing to do it. I was able to focus fully on my boys and husband. (And maybe I had a donut with icing and sprinkles too…) Talk about a win!

In fact, that celebration may end up being the very thing you look forward to after completing something important. Use it to move you forward in your finances.

You know what you have to do. If you don’t, check out this post to start your first budget. Or this one to know what to do next with your money once you’ve already established a budget and had some practice budgeting. Start with the first step one day then move on to the second one the next. Or plan a longer session and get it all done in one sitting.

You CAN do this! I know it seems easier to just ignore your finances most of the time or only do the most immediate things, like keeping bills paid. But you were meant for more! When you have control of your money, it does not control you or your life, and opportunities will open up for you that you never could have imagined.

That financial stress that you feel all. the. time. will change into a relaxed, freeing state. No matter how much you make and no matter what “mistakes” with money you have made in the past, you can move past it and gain this feeling. What would it feel like to not worry about money? What would it feel like to have a plan and be working that plan? It puts YOU in the driver’s seat!

Sure, it will probably take longer than you like, but, after all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The longer and more regularly you plug at it will have the biggest of gains! You will be surprised at the opportunities that come your way, your clear mind, and your motivation to work your plan and overcome those obstacles!

What if my biggest money obstacle is way bigger than just sitting down to face and deal with my finances?

What if bill collectors are calling me every hour? What if my house is about to be foreclosed on? You may be dealing with some of these very large issues. The stress and overwhelm surrounding these can literally paralyze you from making any decisions. But you have to. Your obstacle is to deal with these issues.

You need to devote some time to researching and brainstorming what you can do in these situations. So decide WHEN you can do this. Make your appointment with yourself (and perhaps with your spouse too) just like I described above.

I haven’t written a bill collector post yet, so I will tell you about a great resource, Dave Ramsey. If you haven’t heard of him, his advice is honest, real, and to the point. He has helped tons and tons of people become debt-free and figure out their money! Here’s a brief post on how to handle those pesky bill collectors.

If there is another bigger issue you are dealing with, he most likely has a resource on his website that can help you. Start there. Make your appointment to do the research on your options, but then ultimately, you still have to decide to put in the work to actually deal with it.

The majority of the time, not putting in the effort is the root of any money obstacle we have. It is hard to put forth the effort when we don’t want to, and we know things are tight anyway. But we have to start somewhere, and that somewhere needs to be NOW.

Many women (and families) feel their finances may be out of control, and it is just easier not to deal with it, because it will take some time. There are times when I can relate to “out of control” when it comes to my home. I LOVE to procrastinate on cleaning. But if I spend 15 to 30 minutes a day keeping things picked up and doing some of the deep cleaning, it sure is easier than spending a whole day later!

Finances only take a couple of minutes a day if you keep up with them regularly. Just take that first step to get started and you WILL get to that point! I mean it.

Do I have to deal with my biggest financial obstacle alone?

My last piece of advice is to let someone else help you. At a minimum, find someone to be your accountability partner. Someone who will help push you through the hard parts but still be an encouragement. This could be a close friend, someone through your church, a counselor, or even someone in a Facebook group that you have become acquainted with, mesh with, and can be accountable to.

You could also consider seeking the help of a financial coach. I am currently helping a motivated, hard-working client through debt collections, and she is seeing some huge wins! Email me at pennystewardmama.com if you’d like a free 15 minute consultation to see if we’d be a good fit for each other!

Whoever you decide to let in on your financial obstacles, let that person help propel you forward to successfully hurdle it. If you can’t find someone else to be this person for you, please please reach out to me. I am here to see you succeed!

What financial obstacle will you conquer TODAY?

Go back to those posts linked to earlier if you need to decide on the first obstacle to conquer. It could be beginning your budget, or it could be a financially-related task that you have been putting off for awhile. Or it could be something much bigger. Decide when you will do it and make that commitment to yourself as if it were an extremely important appointment you set up with your doctor, or other professional. Make sure NOTHING else takes priority over that. Put it on your calendar, set an alarm, and prepare ahead of time to make this successful. Enlist the help of an accountability partner and then celebrate your success–no matter how small! 

What obstacle are you facing and what step will you take today? Let me know at pennystewardmama@gmail.com so I can help keep you accountable! Also, join our Accountability Group on Facebook to see what others are doing as well!

As always, continue to steward your money intentionally.

Heather

P.S. We host a 5-Day Budget Challenge at the end of every month in order to have your budget set up and ready to go by the 1st of the next month! Sign up for the email list here to join the next budget challenge!