Unexpected Expenses

Managing money would be a whole lot easier if everything was a fixed expense. We’re finding that we do great at planning for normal bills, like the mortgage, credit card payments, and services like TV and phone, but struggle a bit with things that vary or that we don’t buy on a monthly schedule. We spend pretty much the same each month on important things like gas and groceries, but then there’s a bunch of miscellaneous things are hard to plan for. Like printer ink, wasp spray (we had a horrible nest under the eave in our backyard), a picture frame for my office at work, makeup, or Scotch Guard for the furniture (you can only clean baby puke off of things so many times before it starts to show…) Not only are these things hard to plan for, but they also don’t tend to fit nicely into the categories of our budget.

It’s easy to take a receipt from Woodman’s and put it in the Groceries category or a receipt from PDQ and put it in the Gas category. McDonald’s goes in the Dining Out category, and most of the time, JC Penney goes in the Clothing category. But where does Wal-Mart go? It could be any combination of groceries, clothing, baby stuff, personal care items, or the miscellaneous things I mentioned above. I find it frustrating to try to divvy things up from these receipts to assess how much we’re really spending on what, especially when you have to deal with sales tax on top of it. Do you have any good ideas on how to handle this? I’m really curious to hear if others have found things that really work for them as far dealing with mixed receipts and budgeting for these miscellaneous expenses.

We also got our water bill last week. Just a reminder that we need to come up with an extra $200 twice every year. Because it’s been six months since we thought about a water bill, we hadn’t really planned for it this time around. I just checked the city water website, though, and it looks like you can set it up to pay monthly. I might look into doing this—at least then we’ll be budgeting for it each month.

Comments

[Cassie]

I should have clarified that Willie wasn't gone 4 nights a week because he was bowling--he only bowls 2 nights a week and once every other week with me and his parents. The other nights he is gone because he is helping his dad at the pro shop.

John- We have talked about bowling expenses and are budgeting for them each month. And as I said in a previous post, we have managed to eat almost all of our meals at home. It would be unrealistic for us to say that we are never going to eat out, so we've just made a smaller budget for it.

[Erin]

Like other people have said, I have a $200 a month "miscellaneous expense" category. That can be used for many things, and at first, I thought $200 was a lot. But, it works for wedding gifts, baby/bridal shower gifts, purchases at Target, and any other miscellaneous category.

Also, maybe your husband could go bowling less (2 times a week instead of 4), so not stop all together, because $170 a month is a lot of money!

[John T]

While you are getting out of debt, why do you even have a eating out category? If you want to eat out, use your blow money (which should be something like $10 a week for each of you). To quote Dave Ramsey, "you shouldn't see the inside of a resturuant unless you're working there".
Second, bowling is a hobby, and not a necessary expense or a need. If he has to have it, budget for it if you can afford it as a sinking expense where a set amount is set aside every month, year round.

[Rachel]

Michele, I like the misc. household and misc. personal care category! I was having the same trouble, Cassie - figuring out how to categorize those Walmart trips :)

[Michele]

Hey Cassie! I used to have that problem too when I was sticking to a strict budget. I learned to have a little broader categories, not to broad but a little less specific. I now have: fixed payments, food, gas, utilities, misc household and misc personal care. The last two basically encompass everything else. So, for example, wasp spray and scotchgard would go into household...and makeup, along with other stuff like kleenex, allergy meds, etc go into personal care. That way, if you have a bunch of different items on one receipt, you're really only pulling from two envelopes (and I would just split the tax in half from each envelope.)

It's worked for me... you may need to look at your budget categories and see if there are some that can be consolidated so you don't drive yourself NUTS in the process.

You guys are doing a GREAT job! Congrats!