Loud budgeting: Does it really work?

Quick insights

• Loud budgeting is a social practice of publicly prioritizing your budget.
• Loud budgeting could help you build a supportive network to help keep you on track toward meeting your financial goals.
• Rather than using this alone, loud budgeting might work best as one part in a combination of financial strategies.

What is loud budgeting?

Loud budgeting may be a recent TikTok trend, but behind the hype lies a relatively simple concept. It refers to the practice of turning down social events and other money-spending opportunities when they don’t fit into your budget – and being upfront that your financial goals are the reason for saying no.

How loud budgeting works

This relatively new financial strategy is geared toward empowerment to achieve your goals by being upfront about your budget and hopefully creating a support system of friends and family. Let’s say you’re on a strict budget while saving for a vacation and your friend invites you out for dinner and drinks. The loud budgeting strategy encourages you to both decline the invitation and open up about the fact that your budget is the reason, rather than making up an excuse.

This practice can also encourage people to think about alternative social options that are more wallet-friendly and help strike a balance between maintaining a healthy social life and saving for the future. By normalizing the prioritization of saving and keeping a budget, even at the expense of social activities, loud budgeting can empower you and your friends to save money even as prices rise.

Perks of loud budgeting

There are a few perks to loud budgeting, which include:

• Friends might be more understanding of your turning down their invitation if your budget is the reason.
• Loud budgeting can invite your friends to actively support your budgeting goals, increasing the chances of achieving them. Much as you may be more likely to use a gym membership if you have a friend to go with you, sticking to a budget is often easier with the support of friends and family.
• It allows you to focus on your own priorities while ideally reducing feelings of guilt, fear of missing out or spending your money on other people’s interests. Rather than spending half of your weekly social budget at a restaurant you don’t even really like, loud budgeting may make it easier to find a compromise activity that is both less expensive and more aligned with your mutual interests.
• Being mindful about your finances is an important step toward financial well-being. For example, in the first few weeks after setting up a new budget, the practice of loud budgeting can be one more tool to help keep your financial goals front of mind.

Drawbacks of loud budgeting

Loud budgeting has some potential drawbacks as well:

• Support is not guaranteed, and the practice of announcing your financial situation might make some people – including you – uncomfortable. While one of the goals of loud budgeting may be to rethink the cultural taboo of talking about money, this might be easier said than done, and the initial awkwardness can be a tough hurdle to overcome.
• Saying no too often can have unintended consequences. Friends might stop inviting you to things you would want to attend, and if you deny yourself too much social interaction, that could impact your relationships with others.
• Balance is important, both in terms of knowing when to practice loud budgeting and in terms of working it into your broader financial strategy. Loud budgeting might not be the best way of achieving your budgetary goals, and it may work better in combination with other strategies.

When to consider using the loud budgeting technique

Loud budgeting may not be the best option for every person and situation. Turning down a happy hour or preparing lunch instead of eating out with friends might be one way to help keep you disciplined to achieve your financial goals. That said, loud budgeting likely wouldn’t work well as a response to being invited to your best friend’s wedding.

As previously mentioned, balance is important. It can be more useful to pick and choose what events and activities to prioritize and combine loud budgeting with other budgeting strategies for best results.

Alternatives to loud budgeting

Loud budgeting is just one strategy for helping to save money, but it’s hardly the first or only option. Here are some other methods to consider:

• Traditional budgeting: Whether it’s your first attempt at a budget or you want to build on what you’re already doing, there are plenty of methods for making and keeping a budget. Investigate more traditional budgeting strategies that can be used in combination with, or instead of, loud budgeting and pick the approach that works best for you.
• Free online tools: There are numerous free online tools for budgeting, financial planning, credit score tracking, and more. Your own bank might have options to help get you started with budgeting and keep you on track, such as Chase Credit Journey^® and the budgeting tools on the Chase Mobile^® app.
• Strategic deductions: Automatically set aside a portion of your paycheck each month for the thing(s) you most want to do, buy, or achieve. Some banks and employers might allow you automatically reroute part of your paycheck to a specific account, so you aren’t even tempted to use that money.

Bottom line

Whether you’re a budgeting novice or expert, loud budgeting can be a useful tool to help achieve your financial goals. From the potential for building a base of support to the additional help in keeping your budget at the forefront of your mind, loud budgeting can aid in ways that other methods might not. While it may not be the right practice for everyone or a holistic budgetary strategy, it can be useful when used in combination with other methods.