30 Reasons Why a 15-Second Spending Plan is Better than Budgeting

The reason you may be broke and in debt is you have tried to follow the typical advice of using a budget vs. a spending plan. Here are 15 reasons why budgets don’t work and 15 reasons why my 15-Second Spending Plan is a better solution than budgeting. My 15-Second Spending Plan template will give you complete control of your spending, get your partner to follow the spending plan, and put you both on the path to financial success!

Table of Contents

10 reasons why budgeting doesn’t work
10 reasons why you need a 15-Second Spending Plan
5 reasons why your partner won’t follow your budget
5 reasons why your partner WILL follow your 15-Second Spending Plan
Examples:
15-Second Spending Plan example in dollars
15-Second Spending Plan example in the 50/30/20 rule
Conclusion

10 Reasons why budgeting doesn’t work!

1. Budgets aren’t the solution to being broke and in debt
   Typically, the advice you get when you are broke and in debt is to start a budget! Because they believe budgeting will cure all of your problems and you will be debt-free in no time. But, there is one problem with budgets, nearly everyone quits budgeting in a month or two!
2. Budgets don’t show you the big picture of your spending
   Budgets are a series of estimates of what you think you will spend for a given expense. But are these expenses important? How are they impacting the ability to spend on the things that make you happy?
3. Budgets are too detailed
   Budgeting is a very detailed activity. First, you have to figure out how many budget categories you need, 10, 12, or 20? Second, you have to start assigning expenses to the categories. You could wind up tracking 20, 30, or 40 expenses! How manageable is that with all the other things you have to do?
4. Budgets are too time-consuming and require too much effort
   After setting up the categories and expenses, you then estimate every dollar you will spend on each expense. Next, you download all of your bank and credit card activity to track your actual spending against your estimates. Then, you move money around from one expense to the other because of your incorrect estimates. Lastly, you repeat the process over and over again.
5. Budgets are impossible to memorize and communicate
   Here is our budget for this month.  We have 12 category groups; Income, Housing, Utilities, Subscriptions, Food, Transportation, Insurance, Debt Payments, Fun Spending, Medical Expenses, Personal, and Savings. Under each category, we have every expense fully broken out. Under utilities, we have electricity, gas, water, sewer, and internet.
   Are you listening?
6. Budgets restrict What-if scenarios from being created quickly
   Life happens, and therefore, you need to be able to assess a change in your spending quickly! For example, the financial impact of purchasing a car or a house needs to be understood before making the purchase. That can take hours to figure out in a typical budgeting system.
7. Budgets don’t account for modern-day finances
   Budget systems are based on families combining their money in one joint bank and credit card account. Today families spread their money across multiple bank and credit card accounts. Creating and managing one combined budget is difficult to do. It often requires three different budgets, yours, mine, and ours!
8. Budgets don’t consider each partner’s share of the budgeted amount
   Budget systems don’t easily break out each partner’s share of the expenses and assume budgeted amounts are split 50/50. Splitting bills 50/50 is not fair; typically, the lower wage earner pays more than their fair share.
9. Budgeting “Wants” is a waste of time
   Budgets require you to track every little expense like lunch money, lattes, gasoline, groceries, and dining out. Tracking all these small expenses is a waste of your time and probably why you always quit budgeting. Generally, overspending on “Wants” is not why you are broke and in debt.
10. Budgeting doesn’t allow guilt-free spending
    Budgets are zero-based. Zero-based means every dollar you make must be assigned to an offsetting expense. Therefore, buying that extra latte makes you feel worse instead of better because you went over your latte budget! Do you want to live this way?

10 reasons why you need a 15-Second Spending Plan

1. A 15-Second Spending Plan is easy to manage and update
   My 15-Second Spending Plan is entered into one easy Google Sheet. There are no categories to worry about as they are automatically determined based on your entries. There are only four entry types: Income, recurring expenses, debt payments, and sinking funds. No “Wants” are entered in the spending plan, Wants are covered by the money to spend freely amount you are each provided monthly.
2. A 15-Second Spending Plan is what you intend to spend
   The 15-Second Spending Plan focuses on what you intentionally want to spend in each category. Is spending on one expense more important than putting the money towards your long-term sinking fund of going to Europe or buying a house?
3. A 15-Second Spending Plan focuses on key spending areas only
   Traditional budgeting systems and envelope systems focus on the smallest details and make you lose sight of the big picture. The 15-Second Spending Plan focuses on the key expenditures you are making. If your key expenditures and debt payments are too big and you aren’t funding sinking funds, no budget or envelope system can save you!
4. A 15-Second Spending Plan is easy to manage
   Your spending plan should only need minor changes once you create it. If you were honest with yourself when creating your 15-Second Spending Plan your actual expenses should not vary greatly from your planned expenses.
5. A 15-Second Spending Plan can be easily memorized
   Based on your entries I automatically generate your 15-Second Spending Plan. Simply read it and memorize it! Also, make sure your partner memorizes their 15-Second Spending Plan too! This will allow them to understand how their spending habits may need to change.
6. A 15-Second Spending Plan allows what-if scenarios to be done quickly
   Since you can rattle off your 15-Second Spending Plan off the top of your head you can quickly assess the impact of a big change.  Let’s say your partner wants a new car with a monthly payment of $600. Are they covering 100% of the debt payment and are they okay with reducing their amount to spend freely?  Or do they expect you to cover some or all the payments and reduce your amount to spend freely? See how all this impact analysis can be done in less than one minute in your head!
7. A 15-Second Spending Plan accounts for modern-day finances
   Unlike budgeting systems, the 15-Second Spending Plan is built for couples that maintain separate bank accounts and don’t pool all their money. For each expense, you can assign a percentage each of you is responsible for paying for the expense. Plus, if you are paying the full amount of the recurring expense or debt payment when will you get reimbursed for their share?
8. A 15-Second Spending Plan splits by partner and percentage of the total
   Splitting bills 50/50 is not fair in most instances. Many times the lower-earning spouse is carrying too much of the load. The lower-earning spouse may not be able to adequately contribute to their 401k and also be left with too little money to spend freely. By adjusting the amount each contributes to each expense you get an instant analysis of whether one partner is carrying too much of the load.
9. A 15-Second Spending Plan excludes entering “Wants”
   As you build your 15-Second Spending Plan you must try to break the budgeting advice of tracking every little expense. Resist the urge to track your lunches, lattes, and gasoline purchases. These amounts will fall under your amount to spend freely each month.
10. A 15-Second Spending Plan gives you a monthly amount to spend freely
    Once all recurring expenses, required debt payments, short-term and long-term sinking fund items, and reasonable debt snowball payments are covered the remaining money is yours to spend freely. No need to track every lunch, latte, and gasoline purchase. After a few months, you will get a feel for your spend freely amount. You will know when you swiped your credit card too many times for lunch without having to download every purchase to see what you spent.

5 Reasons why your partner won’t follow your budget

1. Budgets are usually drafted by one partner with little or no input from the other partner
   In most households, one person always takes the lead on the family finances. That person attempts to build a budget for the family to follow.  They then try to get the other family members to follow the complex budget with little or no success.
2. Not everyone is a numbers person
   As an accountant for over 40 years, budgeting was easy for me.  However, neither of my kids is a numbers person like me.  When I started helping them with their finances trying to get them to follow the complex spreadsheet I used was impossible.  They couldn’t understand all the details and weren’t interested in keeping up with the spreadsheet. My son even tried Quicken and my daughter tried Mint. But like everyone else, they soon gave up. Mint even gave up and is shutting down the app!
3. Do you really want to go on a budget date?
   One of the budgeting ideas I always hear about is to go on a budgeting date with your partner to go over the family budget.  That does not sound to me like a fun night out!  I am sure about 5 minutes into the budget discussion the other member is thinking about dessert!
4. Are you trying to reduce debt and your partner keeps adding to it?
   I see so many comments on Reddit and YouTube about how one family member keeps running up their debt despite the other trying to reduce debt.  It’s probably because the member increasing the debt cannot grasp the budget plan and therefore doesn’t know how their spending should fit into the family’s finances.
5. Budgets control every dollar and can make others feel too controlled
   Most budgets are zero-dollar based meaning every dollar in the budget must be accounted for in the budget.  Putting every dollar in envelopes for every little expense and trying to give your partner a weekly allowance is not the answer to long-term financial success. Too much control of your partner’s spending can lead to resentment and stress in your relationship.

5 Reasons your partner will follow your
15-Second Spending Plan

1. Instant analysis and automatic 15-Second written summaries
   As you enter data on the spending plan tab the dashboard plan is automatically updated. You can continually review the dashboard and make changes until you are 100% satisfied with the graphical analysis and the 15-Second written summaries.
2. The 15-Second Spending Plan was designed for non-financial minds
   My kids aren’t numbers people like me. Every time I tried to help them manage their money with a complex Google Sheet their eyes would glaze over. Therefore, I knew I had to take a new approach to get them to get full control of their spending. I helped my son set up an easy-to-understand spending plan as a new homeowner. He came over to our house for dinner one night and jokingly said, “I make X per month, a transfer Y per pay to my recurring expenses bank account, leaving me Z to spend in my checking account on whatever I want.” I nearly fell off my chair! He had 100% control over his finances and could rattle it off in under 15 seconds! I knew at this point I had to make it as easy as possible for everyone to have their 15-Second Spending Plan too!
3. No budget dates are needed with a 15-Second Spending Plan!
   Instead of trying to plan a dinner date with your partner to try and explain your monthly budget all you will need is a minute of their attention.  Sit down with them and review your 15-Second Spending Plan, their 15-Second Spending Plan, and your combined 15-Second Spending Plan.
4. Helps your partner understand how their excess spending impacts everyone
   Perhaps your partner is not a numbers person like my kids and cannot grasp the detailed concepts of a budget. However, after agreeing on and memorizing their 15-Second Spending Plan, I believe they will be able to control their spending and reduce their debts.
5. A 15-Second Spending Plan provides an amount to spend freely each month
   Once you are both aligned with your 15-Second Spending Plan you both will have an amount to spend freely each. If one partner is a “spender” I would suggest separate accounts for the monthly guilt-free amount. Once the account is empty, the guilt-free spending stops until the next month!  Each of you having an amount to spend freely each month can eliminate any resentment and stress in your relationship around spending.

15-Second Spending Plan example in dollars

15-Second Spending Plan example in the 50/30/20 rule

Conclusion

There you have it. 15 reasons why people quit budgeting and 15 reasons why my 15-Second Spending Plan is a better solution.

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