Budget Clutter

Every January I have the good intention of having and keeping a budget and expense book. By February, it is abandoned. As I cleaned out my desk drawers the other day, I came across a two year old budget book that is mostly empty of entries. I asked myself why I could never keep it up. Part of it is just the busy of every day life. Another part is the growing receipt-free culture where receipts are either refused or sent electronically. Also, online purchases are another reason, as they are so easily done and forgotten, the tally never really noticed. Same with bills. Many are automatic or done online. But, the main reason, I concluded, is "budget clutter." Because of the ease of purchasing these days, it's no big deal to "swing into" Target, or the gas station, or a yard sale, or what have you. We end up not seeing the individual purchases and bills; we only see the balance remaining in our accounts. We don't handle tangible money sitting in our wallets. We swipe a card and our invisible monies are deducted with little thought. So long as that remaining balance is on the positive, we don't think about the amount truly spent. It'll be replenished on Friday. As I work on decluttering and minimizing stuff in my house, I think, begrudgingly, about the budget and spending. I spent much of my life counting pennies and doing without, passing up the treats and cute bargains, the new products, the latest trends. I actually get a bit angry at the thought of telling myself "no," again, in order to streamline our budget and spending. Recently, I told my husband that our medical debt might have been paid off by now if I was as careful and austere as my mother was in my youth, but, both of us having dealt with relative poverty, we felt entitled to buying what we wanted. After all, we're not absolutely careless, but surely we could treat ourselves to a new hobby piece or Starbucks once in a while. Hubby wants quality meat when I grocery shop. He doesn't want the cheap stuff on sale, and I don't blame him. We both grew up on a steady diet of cheap, processed proteins, and, frankly, our digestive systems hate us for it. I cringe when saving money advice say to eat rice and ramen and beans and franks. We grew up on that stuff, and are now paying the price and seeing a grastroenterologist. That being said, I am sure, just like every drawer, cupboard, closet, and storage box, there is something I can cut out or simplify to make our budget less cluttered and easier to maintain a budget book. One last thought, another reason I have a hard time keeping the budget book is actual clutter. Who wants to sit at a cluttered desk, pull out a buried budget book only to cause an avalanche, and already be too stressed to bother writing in the entries quickly before starting dinner. I do prefer an old fashioned book over computer programs. Computers are clutter for me. Instead of sitting down and opening a book, computers take more steps, and that adds to my mental load. Plus, my husband is old enough to be pre-computer, so he doesn't want to try to figure out a program. He'd rather glance at a book.