Home
>
Personal Finance
>
Developing a budget? Watch out for Those Budget-Bursting Gremlins

Developing a budget? Watch out for Those Budget-Bursting Gremlins

If you've developed a household budget to get your spending back in line or to just reduce stress, good for you! Creating and sticking to a budget isn't easy by all means. But it represents the best way by far to manage your finances so you can relax and worry about other things.

A budget can also be a very useful tool for ending financial arguments -- assuming that you and your spouse agree how much to allocate for each of the categories in your budget.

The big categories are usually the easy ones. You know how much you pay for rent or your mortgage. Ditto other items such as your car payment(s), heating bill, phone bill and the like.

These are all fixed expenses. In other words, they are expenses that cannot be easily cut. They can be reduced but not without a major effort. For example, you could sell your home and buy one that requires a monthly mortgage payment.

However, many of the other items in your budget are discretionary expenses. In other words, they are expenses you can control and cut. This category includes items such as clothing, entertainment, insurance (yes, you can cut the cost of your car and health insurance), cable or satellite and groceries.

Some of these categories can also become budget busters or what I call budget gremlins if you are not really careful.

One of the biggest of these is entertainment ? which should include the cost of eating out. You may find there's only a little money left over for entertainment. Yet, it's very easy to overspend by "rewarding" yourself after a hard week or month by taking your family out to eat at an expensive restaurant. Or by treating you and your spouse to a night on the town, complete with a babysitter for the kids. If you're not careful, you can lose track of these spur-of-the-minute expenses. Come the end of the month, you might wake up and realize that these little "rewards" have cost you $100, $150 or even more over budget.

Another category that can be a budget gremlin is clothing. In the first place, it's a difficult budget category as it is next to impossible to forecast with complete accuracy what your family will need in the way of clothing over the next 12 months. Even if you budget very accurately, there is always that great suit or dress that's on sale, or that really neat athletic jacket your son is begging for. Again, you need to be very careful or you may find that what you spent on clothing last month was actually50% more than you had budgeted.

Here's another potential budget gremlin. If you have a pet, make sure you budget for pet care and supplies. Just one trip to the vet with your furry friend can cost big dollars. And what about gifts? This is also a category where costs can get away from you unless you watch them closely.

Finally, for a budget to work, you and your spouse need to have some "miscellaneous" money or money that doesn't have to be accounted for each month. For example, you might allocate $50 or $100 monthly for each of you. That way, you could each "splurge" on something without feeling guilty because you're breaking the budget or taking money away from other, more important things.

Creating and sticking to a budget isn't easy, but it can be a real life and marriage saver.

For FREE help with debt and credit, subscribe today to Douglas Hanna's free email newsletter "8 Simple Steps to Debt Relief" at http://www.all-in-one-info.com

Wood Dale Chicago prom limo .. Lockport Chicago limo O’Hare

In The News:

Fueled by artificial intelligence, CyberDog the robotic dog is designed specifically locate fire ant nests, which are endangering ecosystems.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents

Internet browsers are useful, but they can be dangerous. Clicking on malicious links can direct you to dangerous websites that steal information or infect your device.

Apple's latest iOS update introduces advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, which may be capturing and analyzing sensitive information.

Breach site confirmed 56,904,909 Hot Topic users' data leaked online. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says the company's silence makes matters even worse.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson discusses how an innovative Easy-Way kit turns standard strollers electric, simplifying navigation for parents.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about T-Mobile being hacked in broad cyberattack on global phone and internet companies.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson shows you how to add, customize and manage widgets for quick access to apps and info from your iPhone home screen.

Wrong Google searches can not only compromise your device and personal data. They can also bring law enforcement to your doorstep. Hackers are targeting Google searches.

China's Shanghai Kepler Robotics has developed a new humanoid robot that can carry up to 35 pounds per hand for commercial applications across various industries

Checking your hearing has gotten easier with the new hearing test feature in AirPods Pro 2. You can take reliable hearing tests using your iPhone or iPad.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson explains how a VPN — virtual private network — works and how running it can slow down the operation of your device.

The WalkON Suit F1, an exoskeleton developed to help people with disabilities, can actually walk over to a person in a wheelchair, solving a major problem.

ClickFix, a new scam targeting computer users, is on the rise in the U.S. The scam prompts its targets to click on a link to fix a problem.

Skydweller is the world's largest unmanned solar-powered aircraft that can stay airborne for weeks, and even months, without refueling.

The U.S. government said it is investigating after People's Republic of China hackers targeted commercial telecommunications service providers in the U.S.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated ways to lure unsuspecting victims, and some are impersonating an email help desk or support team.

You can unsend or edit your iMessages with the latest iOS updates. Kurt the CyberGuy explains how you can save yourself some potential embarrassment.

Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says there’s been a rise in cybercriminal services using hacked police and government emails to send subpoenas and data requests to U.S. companies.

Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson discusses how Axiom Space and luxury designer Prada are collaborating on NASA's Artemis III spacesuit design.

Voice assistants may cause confusion across devices. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson offers some solutions to fix it.

Shameless scammers trick veterans into giving personal info or cash. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson explores five common scams.

Developing a budget? Watch out for Those Budget-Bursting Gremlins

Personal Finance