In order to lose weight, I always have to eat less. At various times in my life I had to give up fast food, big restaurant meals, ice cream and peanuts for dessert, chips, nachos, ranch dressing and other favorite foods. I like being lean and lightweight. The trade-off is that I cannot eat as much as I want of anything I want. I can’t snack on “just one” or have a “cheat day” Those don’t work for me.
When I made the decision to payoff our debt, live within our means and establish some semblance of financial security, I had to start with spending less money. Home renovations and upgrades were cancelled. Expensive dining out was eliminated. I stopped buying new clothes and looked for ways to reduce other discretionary spending. Instead, I diverted that money to paying debt. Eventually, over a period of 10 years, our debt was eliminated and my income grew. But, my income could never have covered unlimited spending. Cutting spending and controlling it was key. The pain of spending less, delaying gratification and owning less was worth financial stability.
I’m under no illusions about cutting. It’s painful. At times, I miss how things used to be. Sometimes, I daydream about being able to do whatever I want, eat as much as I want and spend mindlessly.
My life is better today not doing those things. But it took effort, sacrifice and compromises. It wasn’t (and isn’t) always pleasant.
With the Trump DOGE government cutbacks, almost everyone agrees that there is some level of waste, inefficiency, fraud and excessive bureaucracy in the Federal government.
Until the cuts begin.
We immediately see stories of staffing, department and budget cuts that will result in “negligible savings as a percentage of the annual budget”. This is said for savings that are only $5 million or $10 million or $50 million.
Here’s the thing I have learned from cutting back – every bit helps.
It’s why I don’t eat dessert every once in a while. It’s why I started borrowing books from the library instead of buying them new. It’s why I chose a low cost streaming service instead of keeping an expensive cable TV service.
It all matters – even if it’s only a few hundred calories, a few hundred dollars or a few million dollars.
And, just like my personal cutting back, it’s all going to cause some people some pain.
My approach to cutting back is to identify the big, difficult areas that will make the most impact and address those first. With spending for me those included costs for housing, cars and dining out. With my diet, it was junk food and binge eating.
If I was running DOGE, I’d use a more thoughtful, considered approach. I’d focus first on developing a plan to cut spending in military, social security, medicare and medicaid which we are frequently told are the biggest budget items.
But, I would also cut many of the small items like programs, departments and budgets that are outdated, redundant and no longer make sense.
It doesn’t matter if I agree with Trump and Elon’s plans or tactics. Some I might see as good and others as bad.
What I know is that there will be complaints and protests from anyone affected by the cuts because cutting back is always hard.