Budget Better with This Japanese Concept

Happy November, Friend!

We’ve heard it time and time again:

“What’s wrong with me? Why did I spend that much on the holidays AGAIN?” 

The holidays seem to be a time of chaotic spending for many of us, leading us to wrap up the season feeling more shame and guilt than we do joy.

Guilt for overspending and shame for not being able to “keep up with the Joneses.” (Um, are the Joneses like immune to inflation though, cuz come on). 

One of the reasons we think there’s so much guilt associated with spending is that most financial experts explain their methods as if they're the best and only course of action. 

Frugal Friends isn’t here to tell you how to spend your money.

Instead, we’re here to teach you about Values Based Spending and the skills to decide how you’ll spend with less shame.

To improve your spending, you need to brush up on a variety of skills like problem solving, decision making, creativity, and planning, among others. 

⛩️ How can you budget better with the Japanese concept Shuhari?

If you want to hone your spending skills it helps to first have a framework for learning a skill in general.

We use the Shuhari philosophy—a Japanese martial art concept that describes the stages of learning to mastery, and it’s extremely helpful to remember when learning your best strategies for budgeting. 

Shu Ha Ri roughly translates to “follow the rules, break the rules, transcend the rules.”

Shu means to follow a teacher fully without question. When you’re a total beginner, it can be overwhelming to hear many different opinions on a subject, especially with a subject like managing money that does have many right ways.

Following one teacher and all their rules isn’t bad, it’s encouraged, but you shouldn’t spend much time here.

Ha means to break away. Once you have an understanding of basic principles, you should experiment with breaking the “rules.” 

This is where you can start to compare your desires, lifestyle, and season to that of the teacher you’re reading or listening to and change things that just don’t feel right.

Ri means to transcend. At this stage, you’ve “mastered” your skill (not to be mistaken for perfected!). It’s important to get to this stage, but not to rush it.

Pretend you’re there too soon, and you could lead yourself (and others) down a path that could be destructive to your finances.

🎐 Putting it into Practice

You know we love a good action step at Frugal Friends, so we want you to consider your current budget strategy and the concept of Shuhari. 

When it comes to budgeting, what stage of Shuhari do you feel like you’re in? Are you ready to move on?

Our challenge for you: This week, do one thing that helps you become a better “master” of your money.

For example, you may be a total newbie (and that’s okay! Welcome!) or feel like you’re totally lost in the weeds when it comes to finding a budget template. Spend five minutes and just pick one and test it out for a week. 

Or, you may have found you never update your paper budget or Excel spreadsheet. Might it be time to test out a budgeting app like YNAB? **

Embracing Shuhari in your budgeting approach can transform your financial experience.

With a little practice, you’ll experience less shame and way more financial freedom!

Kindly, 
Misti

⭐️⭐️ P.S. Want to share all this goodness with your friends AND earn cool Frugal Friends merch?

**Means this is a sponsored or affiliate section. We may earn a small fee or commission when you choose to try one of our sponsor or affiliate partners. But opinions are still 1000% our own.