Free to Be Intentional

Have you ever made a special trip to the grocery store to buy a loaf of bread but ended up leaving with two bags of junk food? Have you ever gone to the mall to buy a new pair shoes, but also went home with a new jacket and three pairs of jeans? Have you ever taken $40.00 out of the ATM with a plan to only use $25.00 and save the other $15.00, but quickly spent it all?

Don't get me wrong; it's okay to enjoy the fruit of your labor by buying things you haven't planned for in your budget, but there's a proper way to do it. Budgeting isn't meant to be so serious that you can't stray from your plan; instead you have to be intentional in your planning so that you can take advantage of opportunities to spend what I'd like to call stray money.

Who says you can't budget for that unexpected sale or that deal of a life time? Sure, it's hard to define an expense when you don't know what it is or when you'll encounter it, but that's why you allocate funds for it in your budget. You set aside stray money so that when you come across an exciting opportunity, you can indulge in guilt-free spending because you know your financial plan is still intact.

Too often, we purchase items frivolously, picking up a candy bar here, coffee there, and fast food every where...all without giving thought to our budget. The bottom line is that we have to become intentional about how we spend and how we save if we're ever going to become as successful as we'd like to be with handling our finances.

Remember, change doesn't just happen. We're not going to make better financial decisions without being deliberate about them. If we budget $20.00 for eating out this week, then we shouldn't be spending $40.00. If we have $100.00 set aside as stray money but want to buy a new I-Phone that could cost more than $400.00, we have to exercise restraint. We will need to discipline ourselves to save for it and purchase it at a later date instead of whipping out the credit card to make up the difference so we can have it now.

Since our new year is set to begin in less than three days, let's enter into it embracing the freedom to be intentional. Instead of throwing caution to the wind, let's catch new determination in the stillness of December's end and allow our financial lives to be changed forever!