We all say that we are going to do it, but we never do…well, some of us might, but do we stick with it? Probably not. What are we talking about?  A budget, of course. Everyone has great intentions when it comes to starting a budget and some people will even stick to it for a few weeks.  However, unless you really buckle down and remain serious about it for the long term, you probably won’t be successful. So, to help everyone along, here are 3 secrets to a successful budget:

1. Make an Attainable Goal
It should be no surprise to anyone that the first step is to make an attainable goal…the key word here is “attainable”. Truth be told, this is the main reason why many budgets fail…there is no attainable goal. What is an attainable goal? It is a goal that you are absolutely, 100% positive that you can reach. Having a goal to save $500 is going to be a lot more attainable in the short term than saving $5000. Do you want to save $5000? Great! Make smaller goals until you reach your big goal.

2. Automatically Track Your Spending
One way that you can easily keep a budget it to automatically track your spending. Many banks have budgeting programs bundled into their online banking sites, for instance. Don’t do online banking? There are some free internet based programs that can automatically track spending too. Of course, if you only use cash, you probably won’t see a lot of benefits from tracking spending unless you do it manually.

3. Don’t Lie to Yourself
Probably the most important part of a successful budget is that you shouldn’t lie to yourself. Though you may have great intentions to give up your $25 a week premium coffee drink habit, are you seriously going to do it?  What the majority of people find is that they may do it for a few days, maybe a week, then go right back to their habit.  What does this do? It puts you $100 over your budget each month. It is best to just add things like this into your budget and take out other things that you are sure you can go without.

These are just three of many things that you can do in order to actually stick to a budget. If you find that a budget is simply not working for you and need cash fast, consider contacting Embassy Loans for a car title loan. You can get the cash you need quickly, sometimes within hours, to get you through the tough spots.