The pig pen water leak

I couldn’t believe the mess I’d made, and it was all because I simply wasn’t paying attention.

Back in high school, my brother and I showed hogs a couple years. Because we didn’t have a hog barn or proper swine facility at our house, we made an outdoor pen from wire hog panels and built it under a shade tree in the calf lot. Of course, this meant we had to haul water from the hydrant by bucket because the hose wasn’t long enough. So we put our hogs in the pen, took part of a plastic barrel and wired it to one of the posts.

I filled the barrel up with water, poured feed in the trough and watched them go to town eating and drinking with squeals and grunts of satisfaction.

The next morning I went out to do chores and saw they had drank a good bit of water, so I hauled more down to the pen. Over the course of about a week, this routine happened every morning. And I started to notice the pen was muddier than before. But you know how hogs are-they love to splash and toss water everywhere just so they can lay in it. So I figured they were making a mess of the water barrel and that’s just the way it was.

But then something odd happened. The pen never seemed to dry up. In fact it seemed to continually get muddier. After a couple weeks I realized the pen was basically a mud hole-especially around the water barrel.

So I did what I should have done the first day. I emptied the barrel, flipped it upside down and there it was…a small hole about the size of a pencil in the bottom cap. Water had been consistently leaking out of the barrel for days, and now the pen was a mudhole.

I replaced the barrel with one that DIDN’T have a hole, the pen eventually dried up and I quit hauling water as much.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited with couples that have a hole in their money barrel. It’s not a big hole and it doesn’t leak very fast, but it continuously lets money leak out. The result is a muddy mess and empty barrel. It’s usually a slow process that starts with you noticing that there is more month than money left with each paycheck. Or maybe you have a good income, but struggle to gain any traction in your debt free journey or savings goals. So you decide that you need more money to pour in the barrel.

But the situation never changes and one day you look up to realize you’ve got a muddy mess around you. You’ve spent months or years doing the same thing and have nothing to show for it except minimal to no savings, student loans that won’t go away and now you have to take on more debt because your car needs replacing or the house needs a new roof. It’s because all your extra money leaked away.

It leaked away on groceries, eating out, fun money, clothes, a family vacation, doctor bills and cell phones. It leaked away on $5, $10 and $20 purchases that you didn’t even realize you were making. It leaked away on subscriptions you never used and the autopay you forgot you had.

Typically your first instinct is to work more jobs, make more money, figure out some way to cut expenses and increase income. Which is a great approach. But it won’t stop the leak. It won’t stop the expenses you don’t realize you’re making.

The only way to plug the hole, stop the leak and keep more money in the barrel is to manage, track and control your expenses. Because as soon as you track every expense, you realize that you’re spending money on things you don’t need or want. And it’s keeping you from getting what you DO need and want. It’s keeping you from paying down debt, saving for retirement and making a better life for your family.

Every time I help a couple create their first budget, they are amazed (and sometimes a little embarrassed) at how much money they are spending that isn’t accounted for. As soon as we find the leaks and plug the holes, the money sticks around a little longer and they meet their financial goals a little sooner.

If you’re new to budgeting or have tried without success, join me for a free training next Thursday, Sept 23rd at 5:30pm. We’ll discuss how to setup a simple and easy budget that you can stick to every month. Click here to register.