Budgeting is a vital part of managing your finances. After all, the simplest way to grow your wealth is to spend less than you earn. However, it can be easy to forget to incorporate smaller, unexpected expenses in your household budget, which then leads us to ask ourselves, “where did all the money go?”
In this post, you will be introduced to seven expenses you are probably forgetting to budget for to ensure you don’t forget them next time round.
Keep an eye on your credit card interest costs
1. Credit card interest
If you have an outstanding balance on your credit card, it is easy to forget to add the interest costs of your credit card debt to your monthly budget. Budgeting for credit card interest is especially important if your credit card debt runs into the thousands.
2. Medication
Trips to the pharmacy to buy prescription medication or painkillers, after a late night, can easily be forgotten when drafting your budget. After all, it isn’t something we really like to focus on. But medication can be pricey, so remember to add that item to your monthly budget.
Even fairly regular expenditures get forgotten about
3. Repairs
Home repairs and car repairs are two unexpected expenses that arise more often that we would like. Therefore, it is important to adjust your budget for potential repairs.
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4. Junk food
Those late-night stops at McDonald’s, after a fun night out, or cheeky stops at Domino’s Pizza on the way home from work is something we can easily forget to add to our monthly budget. But junk food actually isn’t that cheap, so it’s even if we may not want to admit to ourselves how much junk food we consume, it’s important to remember to add that your budget too.
5. Household supplies
Household supplies, such as cleaning detergent, pool chemicals or bulk items like pet food can sometimes also slip your mind when drafting your budget, as some of these items don’t need to be purchased on a monthly basis.
6. Gifts
Birthday and wedding gifts for friends and family are expenses that almost everyone forgets to budget for, despite being a fairly regular expenditure. Keep your closest friends’ and family member’s birthdays in mind and decide on how much you will spend on their gifts each month.
7. Unplanned events
Unplanned events, such as weddings, bucks or hens parties, birthdays or weekend getaways come up almost every month. However, they are expenses that many of us forget to consider when drafting our budget.
Unplanned events, such as weddings, bucks or hens parties, birthdays or weekend getaways come up almost every month. However, they are expenses that many of us forget to consider when drafting our budget. Depending on how much of a socialite you are, you should adjust your budget accordingly to accommodate unplanned social events expenses.
While some of the above expenses, such as medication, household items, credit card interest and junk food, can be accurately budgeted for, there are also unforeseen expenses. For these, it is hard to agree on a fixed amount. Hence, it is smart to allocate a small amount each month to unexpected expenses. In doing so you’ll be on track to achieving your goals sooner.