How to Stick to Your Budget

She's not alone. Most people who have budgets have problems following them, as evidenced by the fact that the average American savings rate is negative. Building a budget-with all its intricacies and possibilities-seems like child's play in comparison to actually sticking with it.

There are a few ways to make sticking to a budget possible. Follow these tips to help keep your budget on track.

1. Keep regular tabs. You won't stick to your budget if you don't track where you are regularly. Weekly or bi-weekly, take an hour to tally up which areas you're under or over. If you are over-budget in one category, you can make adjustments to keep your overall expenditures under-budget for the month. If you don't check in regularly, though, you won't know you're over until it's too late.

2. …But not too regular. Checking in daily not only takes a lot of time and energy, it also makes sticking to your budget seem arduous. Putting your spending up against your budget two to four times a month is plenty. Any more than that and you risk burning out.

3. Let it breathe. Your budget is a living thing that will change. Let it! You shouldn't hold yourself to a rigid budget. If you want to splurge in one category, don't punish yourself. Just make sure you take the excess amount from another category or categories to make up for it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, is an important element in sticking to a budget. If you try to make your budget too rigid, you will inevitably stop following it, just as trying to follow an extreme diet will eventually lead you to gorging on chocolate cake at three in the morning. Cut yourself some slack.

4. Make it fun. See how much you can save one month by not going out to eat. Try having a "No Spend" week. Post a picture of something you're saving up for-a house, car, or really cool vacation-on your refrigerator. There are a million ways to make staying within budget enjoyable. If you make it fun, you're more likely to stick with it.

5. Use plastic. If you can pay off your credit card in full, using it to make the bulk of your purchases will help you keep tabs on your spending. At the end of the month, you'll have a detailed list of everything you've spent money on. This is the first step in being able to stick to a budget: know what you spend on. However, if you can't pay off your credit card at the end of the month, steer clear of this one. It's better to be debt-free and put in the extra work than to get into debt for convenience. After all, the point of sticking to a budget is to get, be, or stay debt free.

Keeping these guidelines in mind can help make your savings grow and your debt shrink. Growing savings and shrinking debt can help you down the path to financial freedom, and it can all start with staying within your budget.