Breaking the Diet/Budget – the similarities between dieting and budgeting

This Loose Change article is by Kerry from Money Saving Journeys blogs about her favourite things – debt busting, saving money, making money and travelling on a budget.

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Just recently I have been trying to lose weight.  I’d managed to lose some quite successfully about a year ago, but slowly the weight had begun to creep back on.  I decided to rein myself in and began to carefully watch what I ate.

Unfortunately, I have not been as successful as I was before and I began to wonder why.  I began to look at all the reasons and circumstances responsible and noticed similarities between me breaking my diet and breaking my budget.

The excuses I can come up with, unsurprisingly, rear their heads in both situations.  Here’s a humorous look at those excuses.

Be honest now, which ones have you used?

The Feel Good Shopper

You are in town shopping.  You have a list of items you need to buy which have been carefully planned and budgeted for.  You also have your healthy snacks in your bag for when the munchies decide to strike.

Then things don’t go to plan.  You have only managed to purchase a couple of items from the list and in your attempt to try and get your shopping finished, you skipped the slot when you could have easily found a seat and sat down to eat your healthy snacks.

There’s only one thing for it, head to the nearest fast food joint and take a bite into that burger.  Mmm, that hits the spot.  You are feeling much better now, in fact, you feel quite jubilant.  Whilst you are in such a good mood, it’s time to treat yourself to that fancy handbag you have wanted for ages.

The Boredom Buster

Boredom strikes and if you are anything like me my willpower disappears.  That’s when the rash food consumption or rash purchases are made.  All of a sudden I can’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t be eating that large piece of cake or buying that pair of shoes.

The Life Liver

Sometimes I have a conversation with myself.  I know this sounds like I’m a bit mad but you do it too, right?

This conversation usually goes along the lines of me convincing myself that it is ok to eat that bar of chocolate or buy that dress.  After all, life’s too short, you could be dead tomorrow!

The Pessimist

You have worked out your allowance for today but already you can see failure ahead.  You decide that if you are going to fail anyway then there is no point in even trying.  Next stop, the shop that sells your favourite food or that shop where you saw that massive TV you wanted that won’t even fit in your room.

The Sneaky One

This is one of those unwritten rules I like to use – as long as no-one sees you eat it or buy it, it doesn’t count.  It’s true!  If you sneak that biscuit when no-one is looking, then you can pretend you haven’t eaten it.  If you can sneak that dress into your wardrobe without anyone noticing, you can pretend you didn’t buy it.

Just One Won’t Hurt

This is one of my personal favourite excuses – just one won’t hurt.  I can be found using this whenever a ‘want’ arises.  It doesn’t even matter what the ‘want’ is.  It’s a good excuse to use for every occasion.

So when you fall off the wagon… as you will do…

I hope you enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek insight into the similarities between dieting and budgeting.  Neither are easy and we all fall off the wagon (either the diet wagon, debt wagon or both) at one time or another.  It’s normal and you don’t need to beat yourself up about it.  It’s important to dust yourself off and start again.

Kerry