I’m focused on building wealth and working towards financial independence without giving up the good stuff that makes life fun. I don’t want to skip the travel, the nice dinners, and the occasional splurge just to get there faster.

Budget But Boujee is my way of documenting that balance. It’s a record of the choices, hurdles, and little wins along the way. It’s a transparent look at what’s working (and what’s not) as I chase financial freedom.

If it helps someone else figure out their own version of the same, even better.

A proper budget is a game changer and really should be the starting point for anyone wanting to start regularly saving and investing. It’s also the main tool that’s helped me get my wife involved in things and to give her piece of mind that investing aggressively doesn’t have to mean living off beans and rice. I’ve written a bit more about this here.

Having an accurate budget that you’re able to stick to will mean you not only know where you’re spending your money, but also exactly what you (hopefully) have left over to invest with.

It doesn’t need to be fancy, and this template is definitely not. The idea is that you can use it as a starting point and customise it for your situation, then once you get the hang of it you can always move on to more hardcore budgeting tools if you want.