Items You May Be Forgetting In Your Budget
- Subscriptions. Whether it’s music or video streaming or a magazine subscription, don’t forget to add it to your monthly budget. It’s easy to forget about them because they can be fairly small ticket items and because they are automatically drafted from your bank account each month. How you include it in your budget is up to you. We have one line item called “subscriptions” and we include enough money for all our different subscriptions. If you’re even more Type A, you can create a line item for every subscription you have, whatever helps you.
- Auto drafts. So many things can be auto drafted today and it really does make life easier. Rather than having to remember to pay your water bill every month and risking missing the payment, having it auto drafted can save you the headache. Don’t forget to add these items to you budget! Look through your monthly bank statements regularly and make certain you have included line items for all auto drafts. This could be vehicle and homeowner’s insurance, utility bills, debt payments and so on. Don’t fall victim to the out of sight out of mind budget busters.
- Online shopping. See Jacob, it’s in here! I’m committing to being better! Yep, this one is my biggest pitfall in budgeting. Leaving the grocery store or a restaurant, we immediately log our receipt in our budget app and toss it in the garbage. When you shop online there’s really no receipt, no cash to part ways with, no sitting in the car on the drive home giving you time to add it. The money is just gone. A quick one-click purchase on Amazon is often times done in haste and easily forgotten about. They knew what they were doing when they created the one-click purchase option. No need for a second thought! Commit to first checking the budget to be certain it fits and then logging the purchase as soon as you’re done.
- Giving. Giving looks a little different for everyone. You may give in the form of a tithe which comes out of “first fruits,” or maybe you’re exclusively a holiday giver, or it could be that giving is your love language (yep, I’m talking to you guys). It is so important to live generously and give joyfully, but it still needs to go in the budget. It’s easy to justify busting the budget for the sake of giving (trust me, I know!), but if giving is a priority to you, take it from somewhere else in the budget. We are going for a zero balance here, move what has to be moved to make your heart happy.
- Saving. I know, this one isn’t fun at all! That’s probably why it’s easy to “forget.” If you’re a believer in living a debt-free life, you’re definitely saving for something. It might be a new vehicle, a family vacation or even retirement (it better be retirement!); you should always be saving for something. If you don’t include it in your budget, it’s not going to be saved. I’d even recommend going a step further and moving that money into a different account earmarked specifically for saving.
Any opinions are those of Molly VanBinsbergen and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information contained in this report does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.
