Hi there! I was wondering if any of you have any experience with one since I am considering getting one for Christmas. I want to start creating a budget, but I’m not sure where to begin!
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Many Kakebo guides tell you how to fill it out and are easy to follow. The trick is to stay consistent and stay motivated. It teaches you to be responsible with your spending, because life’s short, right? Eventually, you might move on to tools like Excel for more options.
But I always remember the good old days with my Kakebo.
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I went the other way!
I started with Excel, but found it too cumbersome. I don’t hate Excel—I use it every day. I even set up my budget spreadsheet with conditional formatting and ran pivot tables over my quarterly expenses. However, I drew the line at using VBA for my budget spreadsheet!
About 18 months ago, I switched to kakeibo and brought my wife on board in July. One thing I noticed was my savings rate significantly increased after switching from Excel to kakeibo. I was saving 20% of my income with Excel, but now I’m at 40%. This was even before my wife and I combined our budgets. We still usually hit 40%.
For me, it’s the simplicity of kakeibo that I like. My wife and I touch base every day about what we’ve spent and track how much we need to stay on track. That was much harder with Excel.
The good thing is, there are many approaches to budgeting. I wish I had a book for kakeibo, but I’ve relied on YouTube and some free printable resources I came across. I don’t use those now but still enter our budget and track every day using the kakeibo approach I learned.
The biggest takeaway from kakeibo is to identify what you’re going to save and set that aside before any expenses occur. While this concept isn’t unique to kakeibo, it’s where I learned it.
Best wishes to you!
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