We often hear that budgeting means "making sacrifices".

It is true that you can't have your cake and eat it, too. But this is not the same thing as making sacrifices. When you view budgeting as a financial "ball and chain", of course you're not going to look forward to doing it.

No rational person enjoys making sacrifices. When we give up something of value to us to obtain something of lesser (or of no) value to us, we become angry, bitter, disillusioned, and sometimes even depressed. Saving money is often framed this way-as "giving up" the pleasures of today so that you can enjoy a "better tomorrow".

To rebel against this perceived "sacrificing" involved with saving money, many folks refuse to make a budget. Instead they live by the seat of their pants. In essence, they are saying "if saving money means making sacrifices, then I'm simply going to forgo saving money, live for today, and not worry about tomorrow".

The real reason saving money is perceived as a sacrifice is that no financial goals are made prior to saving money, no purpose for those goals is considered, and no evaluation as to whether the goals are rational is made. With no goals, or poorly defined goals, savings become a dreaded monetary "black hole" that clients fight over with their financial advisers. 

The advisers attempt to get their clients to fill a bottomless pit of savings while the client sees no reason to do so (or little reason to do so). No evaluation of, and no consideration for, the future is ever made. In this way, saving is made into a sacrifice because there is no known reason-or no good reason-for saving money. You truly are giving up the pleasures of today for no concrete benefit tomorrow.

When you sit down and seriously think about what you would like for your future, and for your life, and spend time analyzing this with a financial adviser, you gain a whole new perspective on your life. You are able to assess whether your future goals are worth more to you than the immediate moment's pleasures.

If and when you determine that your future goals are more important than some immediate pleasures, you make a rational decision to set aside a portion of your savings for the long-term. When this happens, savings is not a sacrifice.

Think of it this way: when you go to the grocery store and buy a carton of eggs, you don't think of it as sacrificing the money to the grocery store. You think of it as a trade. You are getting the eggs, which is more valuable to you than the money in your pocket (or bank account). When you save up for something-be it a house, car, or your future retirement-you're operating under the same premise. You're trading the immediate moment (at least some of it) for a future of security, or a future of transportation, or of shelter, and that-you deem-is more important to you than whatever the pleasures of the immediate moment are.

Only when you have fully come to the realization that this is in your best interest (you come to this decision on your own), will you accept savings as both necessary and good. What is the process which helps you organize and calculate your savings? Budgeting.