Impulse Buying With No Budget Equals Financial Disaster

“Let your life be a stepping stone to Christ and not a stumbling block.” 1 Cor. 8:13 & 10:31

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify God who is in heaven." Matt. 5:16

Impulse Buying With No Budget Equals Financial Disaster

By Rick Warren

Plan carefully and you will have plenty; if you act too quickly, you will never have enough. (Proverbs 21:5 TEV)

A budget is simply a plan. It's telling your money where you want it to go, rather than wondering where it went. And the problem many of us have today is that we don't know where our money is going because we don't have a budget.

But if you want to get out of debt, you have to nip it in the budget. Do you remember Barney Fife, from The Andy Griffith Show? He used to say, “Nip it, nip it, nip it in the bud.” We need to nip it in the budget.

Notice today’s verse says, “Plan carefully.” That means budgeting; a budget is simply planned spending. Planning carefully means you say, “This is what we're going to spend next year and next month,” and by doing that, the Bible says, “You will have plenty.” It's a promise of God. 

On the other hand, as today's verse says, “[I]f you act too quickly, you will never have enough.” This refers to what advertisers, marketers and retailers call impulse buying. You know what impulse buying is? Have you ever gone into a store without planning to buy something, but you bought it on an impulse? You didn't think about the purchase; it was totally emotion-based. You saw it, you wanted it, and you bought it.

And if you act too quickly, impulse buying plus no budget equals financial disaster. Have you ever bought something without thinking and later regretted it? Most of us have! And that's why you've got to have a plan.

When you make purchases this week, ask yourself if what you are buying is something you really need. Ask, “Is this an impulse buy?”

Rick Warren is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century.