It’s June 10th and already I’m seeing my budget suffer just a tad. Nothing too dramatic, but it’s all because of some expenses I wasn’t prepared for. And these are actually pretty rare for me. I usually anticipate what types of things will come up (birthdays, weekend trips, big dinners) and I create my budget vague enough to allow for some flexibility in those areas.
But the unexpected expenses I’m talking include:
- My boss had a birthday and we all had to pitch in $10 for flowers and a gift.
- My friend’s mom sent me a blank fabric square that I need to make into a quilt patch for a wedding gift. This cost me $15 in supplies and mailing.
- My coworker was leaving after ten years and we had to pitch in $5 for a gift.
- I am going to a lake house this weekend with some friends and was asked to contribute $8 to a gift for the family that’s letting us stay there.
All these things I cheerfully agreed to pay for and certainly doesn’t break the bank, but when I originally set a $100 gift budget for J’s birthday and two weddings this month (already over), this accumulated $38 really does affect the rest of the month. If I am trying to live within my means, then I’ll just have to cut back in other areas. Perhaps I should start a gift-buffer savings fund.
How is your budget going so far this month?
the un-expected things always get me too! I’m working on developing ‘planned spending’ savings accounts to help with these sorts of things.
I think tho – i’m starting to have too many (if that’s possible). Trying to think of every unexpected thing that comes up can be a bit overwhelming.
oh! I also wanted to ask you how you got that categories cloud on your left column! I would love something like that for my blog!
Mine is awful, and I went into every purchase totally knowing what I was doing. Luckily I track my clothes purchases through a separate account, but I was still not planning on spending anything!
I think the best place for a “gift savings buffer” would be a planned spending account. Or an “unplanned” spending account as the case may be. While its difficult to exactly predict what’s going to happen every month, if we set aside a little bit for these unexpected occurrences, we should be ok.