A guy at my credit union said my budget was 'wishful thinking' and he was right
I sat down with a loan officer back in March to talk about a car loan and he flipped through my budget spreadsheet and just said 'this is wishful thinking, not a budget.' He pointed out I had $340 marked for groceries but my actual bank statements showed $520 to $560 every month for 6 months. I was so mad walking out of there, but I went home and pulled every statement and he was dead right, I'd been budgeting for the person I wanted to be, not the one swiping the card. So now I build my budget from the last 3 months of real spending first, then trim from there, and I've actually stuck with it for 4 months straight. Has anyone else had a bank person or friend call out their numbers like that? Curious how you handled the redo.
That line about "budgeting for the person I wanted to be" really hits, and honestly the weird part is that the shame of being wrong is what makes the real numbers so hard to look at. Something nobody talks about is that your spending already tells the truth, so the fix is less about willpower and more about just building last month's real life into the plan instead of the fantasy version.