Spoon budget, or simply spoons, is a metaphor used to illustrate how the need for energy budgeting affects the lives of people with disabilities and/or chronic diseases. The metaphor arises from Christine Miserandino's article '"But You Don't Look Sick Because of the author of the metaphor talking about lupus the "spoons" terminology is perhaps most often used by people with invisible fatigue and/or pain disorders, but it is also used by people with other types of disability including mental illness.