Recently I was over on the Finance Your Life blog and asked Doctor S, the blogger there for his opinion on the following question:

“Do you become a financial failure when you break the budget just trying to get a bit of fun in your life when everything else around is stressful at home, at school, and with the finances?”

Here is what he had to say.

Dealing with my own personal finances has been an up and down journey. There were times before when the debt and spending mistakes really took its toll on myself and I felt extremely sorry for myself. While I was depressed with my situation, I never thought that I was a failure. I could not get any lower and decided that I had to start taking control of my finances. This was about a year ago and I had many things going on in my life, including a very serious relationship. My girlfriend was always on me about my spending and wondering why I would go out on the weekends splurging on big nights out in the city.

I guess it finally hit me one day that I had to make changes because I would not be able to progress, both personally and financially, if I did not make any changes. Fast forward to the present time where I have a monthly budget going on and I am making strides to stick to my budget. Months ago I was spending on average $450-500 per month on my weekend activities. Most of that spending was going on my credit cards which made my situation worse because I was continuing to accumulate credit card debt. I have reduced the amount I spend on the weekend to $225 last month and currently $149 for the current month of September with a little over a week left in the month!

Life is busier now and with that, much more stressful. I work from 8 AM till 5 PM and then two nights a week I have night classes as I am pursuing my masters degree. I usually get into the gym every day whether it is after class or after work. With all these things going on, I have so much time where I am busy which means less times to go astray on spending sprees.

I do not go out during the week or drink either. I have come a long way from the way I lived my life a year ago. Throughout it all, I know there will be times where I miss my spending amount that I budgeted for the month, but never will I use the word failure. That word is just too powerful to be used to describe anyone, let alone yourself. That type of mindset can’t be healthy for a person’s emotional state either. When we make mistakes we must realize that it is just another opportunity to learn from and make sure that we never make the same mistake twice.

So what do you think about the question? What’s your answer? Tell me what you think in the comments section below.

Steve

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Read the full article at GetOutOfDebt.org, click here: This Time I Asked “Do You Think You Are a Failure When You Break Your Budget?”