Key points

• Cutting your budget can help you better accomplish your financial goals.
• Budget cuts only work if you can stick to them.
• Common mistakes, such as being unrealistic in spending limits, could hurt your ability to accomplish your objectives.

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When you are hoping to accomplish important financial goals, cutting spending is often necessary. This means reworking your budget to limit expenditures.

Unfortunately, many people end up making mistakes when trying to change their budgets to prioritize savings or investments for the future. These errors could end up hurting their efforts to accomplish their objectives since it could mean they don’t end up sticking with the new spending limits they’ve set.

So, how can you make sure this doesn’t happen to you? Be sure to avoid these three big errors to maximize the chances your budget cuts will pay off.

• Being unrealistic about your expectations

If you’re anticipating that you can slash your grocery spending by 50% or get rid of all recreational spending from your budget, you’re simply setting yourself up for failure. The reality is, there’s typically only so much you can cut from your budget when it comes to necessities. And a budget that doesn’t give you a chance to enjoy any leisure activities probably isn’t one you’ll stick to for long.

To make sure you’re proposing budget cuts you can live up to, you should track your current spending to get an idea of where you are and then look at what you can give up over the long haul.

• Not consulting with a partner

If you’re married or in a committed relationship, it’s not just your spending that’s going to affect your budget. You need to get your partner on board with your proposed budget. This is true even if you maintain separate finances. After all, if you decide to slash your dining-out budget but your partner still expects you to go out to dinner every weekend night, that’s going to be a big problem.

If you and your partner can work together to identify budget cuts that you’re both in favor of, you are far more likely to be successful at reducing spending. Not only will you both be willing to look for cheaper options, but you can also help hold each other accountable since you have a shared goal of reducing certain expenditures.

• Cutting out splurges you value

Finally, while it can make sense to cut out some fun spending, you don’t want to set yourself up to live a life of deprivation. You’re likely to end up splurging even more once you get tired of denying yourself everything you enjoy.

Instead of stripping out all of the enjoyable spending you do, consider what splurges have the most value. This will be different for everyone. For example, some people may prioritize buying their daily latte, while others value being able to dine out at work because it gives them an important break during the day and a chance to socialize with coworkers.

By carefully evaluating the spending that means the most to you, you can identify other areas to cut that are more superfluous and you’ll find that keeping on your spending plan isn’t as difficult. Hopefully, by taking this step as well as by working with your partner to make realistic cuts, you can sustainably reduce your expenditures and make a budget you can live on over the long term.