how do you budget for this Coupons, Savings & Money Matters Message Board

Susan · 08-31-06, 10:46 AM

i was wondering for those that have strict budgets..

for example: I need a few things but am not ready for my big weekly food shopping.
I need..bathroom cleaner, hair gel, laundry detergent, cake making supplies for this weekend and a few other things

Now i know that i will go buy them but not count that in towards my weekly food budget (that I haven't set yet but i am thinking about it)

If i was to buy these things when i did my food shopping then I would I guess but little things here and there is going to sabotage my budget..do you have any idea what I mean?

range · 08-31-06, 10:47 AM

good question, can't wait to see what they say...

~Christy~ · 08-31-06, 10:53 AM

That is my biggest problem when I try to budget. I always fail and then get discouraged. Maybe Deanna has a good answer.

Dopey406 · 08-31-06, 10:54 AM

Yes, that happens to us, too. We shop for lots of those things at Sam's Club and we allot for that in our budget. When it comes time and we have an extra expense that we forgot about, that's why we budget a miscellaneous envelope each time. Inevitably, with a last name like Murphy, it's only responsible of us to expect Murphy's Law to wreck our plans (and it often does

) but we've learned to smack Murphy in the face by allotting $20 each month for instances such as these.

If we KNOW we're going to have an extra grocery expense, we budget extra for that.

The idea is to make a written budget, on paper, on purpose, to spend your money on paper before you ever get the money out of the bank.

The Miscellaneous money can be put toward something fun, if we so decide, or it can be used toward a purchase that we didn't expect.

But--shopping at Sam's has cut down on the emergency toilet paper runs and stuff that used to draw us to the grocery and inevitably cause us to spend more than we anticipated.

Does that makes sense??

~Christy~ · 08-31-06, 10:56 AM

Completely makes sense!