I Hate Budgets

On a practical note: budgets are a source of both freedom and pain...

This time was an experience in panic.  I updated my personal finance budget projections and suddenly I'm predicting running out of money entirely in a couple months rather than barely holding stable like i have been for about a year.  After the initial panic passed, I started looking for why.  What changed?  What is different now that would cause the small reserves I have struggled to build to suddenly vanish so quickly?  It turns out that in my most recent projections, I accidentally doubled the mortgage payments on both houses.

(Yes, I own two houses... It is a long story; the really short version is that while I got the marital house in the divorce, my Ex got to live in it rent free... Not entirely certain what I will do with the extra house once the Ex-rent-free period ends...)

Having a solid budget has given me peace of mind that I have not had in a long time.  I know my bills are going to be paid, I know how much I can spend on various things, I even have a solid answer for how long I could go without changing my spending if I lost my job tomorrow.  HOWEVER, I hate doing the updates and projections.  I hate the fear and panic that ensues when I make a mistake (like this one) that severely throws off my projections.  And I hate the amount of time it takes to deal with the budget that I would much rather put into something more tangibly productive.

--- The Dancer in the Shadows