“I Can’t Go Back”: 30 Expensive Purchases That Really Paid Off, As Shared By People In This Online Thread

Of course, pricier purchases are impossible if you don't have the money for it. Right now, more than three in four Americans (77%) are feeling anxious about their financial situation. So it's probably the right time to rethink our budgeting.

At first glance, what's so hard about it, right? You just put together numbers and stick to them. But we humans are flawed creatures, full of expensive urges and impulses, and as Doug Nordman, who retired at 41 and now runs the website Military Financial Independence and is the author of The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement, pointed out, changing our habits is hard.

"Our ancestral hunter-gatherer brains have not evolved for today's society," he told Bored Panda. "Behavioral financial psychology wants instant gratification instead of providing for future you — let alone for your freedom."

Indeed, for many households, sticking to a budget is way easier said than done.

A 2019 study found that even though most consumers (74%) have a budget, 79% of them fail to follow it.

On average, the weekly amount that people spend — not including bills like mortgage or rent, utilities, etc. — is $340, or $143 more than the average $197 budgeted. That extra spending adds up to roughly $7,400 each year.

So it might be best to start with little changes and take it from there. "The biggest mistake people make (early in their financial literacy) is not knowing where their money goes," Nordman said.

"Track your spending for a few months (whatever way is easiest for you), cut out the waste (you get to decide what’s wasted), and automate as much of your spending and investing as you can."

At its core, good budgeting is not about depriving yourself or being cheap. It's about being honest with yourself on what's important to you and then putting your money into your virtues.

It's basically aligning your spending with your values and cutting back on areas that don’t reflect them.