To stick with your budget, remember that it's the little things that count. The big things count too, of course, but it's a lot harder to overspend on company cars than it is to overspend on office supplies such as pens and paper. Believe it or not, many businesses overspill their budget because they nickel and dime it away. Businesspeople are like everyone else in this respect. A student, for example, gets lured into spending ten dollars a day on snacks and soda pop because they cost only about a dollar a round. He's spending only a dollar each time, and it feels like it's the first dollar a day each time. He spends a couple hundred dollars a month on Mountain Dew and then wonders where he's going to get the money when textbook season comes around.

Now take this example and apply it to your business. What in your business's spending habits is equivalent to "a dollar a round"? You might be surprised (but probably not) to learn that businesses waste hundreds and even thousands of such dollars on a daily basis. Therein lies the true function of a budget, of making a budget-you see what you're really spending and you finally have, if not the means quite yet, at least the awareness necessary to staunch the wound.

But what if you do overspill your budget? It's not like spilling milk, obviously, but there are ways of cleaning it up. In fact, you maybe should think about exceeding your budget in those terms-you've spilled a little milk and now you've got to clean up. What do you do? Well, you don't refill the cup-your business can't afford to do that. Your business will have to go with "a little less" is all, whatever that means to you. The way you clean up the milk is by making sacrifices and using the money saved to fix your finances. E.g., let's say you spend a hundred dollars a month on office supplies. Well, why not seventy-five? Do that, and go down the line and find little places where you can tighten your belt. Use the excess money to pay debts, bills, etc., until the mess is cleaned up, and next time be more careful when filling your glass.

Sticking with a budget, then, is first and foremost a practical matter. It takes the caution and patience and hand-eye coordination, so to speak, of pouring a glass of milk and carrying it to the table. When you were really young, such a feat was impossible; but you gradually picked up the skills necessary through practice. Learning how to make and stick to a budget is less instinctual, of course, but the principle is the same.