Frugal Intuition

If you’re just now tuning in, please check out Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3. 

Part 4 of writing a budget is figuring out what you’ve forgotten.  The stuff that’s recurring is pretty easy, and even the things that aren’t set in stone (like groceries and stuff) at a particular amount are fairly easy to think of.  It’s the once in a while, quarterly, or annual things that will come back to bite your budget in the fanny.  Things like car tags (this one always sneaks up on me), property taxes (irrelevant to renters and likely included in your mortgage if you are a homeowner, but still, if it’s not, you should remember it), car insurance (we pay every 6 months), holiday spending, car maintenance…  And that doesn’t even include the kinds of unexpected expenses that pop up like emergency trips to the vet.

So this is the portion of our program where you wrack your brain and try to think of EVERYTHING.  This is a lot easier if you have check registers and bills going back for a year (I find it very helpful to pick up one of those expandy files with a slot for each month and keep everything in it).

Now you think you’ve thought of everything, even money that should go in your contingency fund (that’s to cover those unexpected things so you don’t have to put them on those blasted credit cards).  What about discretionary spending?  As much as I would like to advocate living like a monk and giving up every frivolity and extravagance until you get out of debt…it’s not realistic.  I tried to make my husband do it for years and it only blew up in my face.  Sometimes you just need to do something for yourself.  You get bored at home.  So build in an entertainment budget.  This should be something small, like maybe going to a matinee and dinner a couple of times a month or bowling or whatever.  Whatever your favorite activity is, use it as incentive, as a treat for doing well the rest of the month.  Add that into your budget.  Though don’t forget to take advantage of whatever free or cheap entertainment opportunities are available in your community.  They do exist, I promise.  But I’ll come back to that later.

Anyway, then there are also things like clothing, home maintenance costs, membership fees (if you’ve got any)…

It might be helpful to make a list of major areas that require spending: home, car, kids, pets and think of everything that is associated with those areas.

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you how were’ going to put all these piles and lists together into a workable budget.

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