Why There Is No Perfect Month in Budgeting

Be willing to budget, and you’ll quickly discover that there is no such thing as a good month. Instead, there are often a lot of unplanned costs – at least initially.

Your kid comes home and needs $20 for a field trip, or your car starts making funny noises. Then the next month, the cat shows mysterious symptoms and needs a trip to the vet. The month after that, there is a series of wedding and birthday gifts to send. It feels like it’s never ending.

In short, there is always something. But it doesn’t have to be like that.

Budget disruptions are incredibly frustrating

It’s frustrating. Every month, it seems as if the “extra” money you were supposed to have already disappears. Worse, you find yourself borrowing money and getting deeper into the hole because you didn’t have much to begin with.

This is where people throw up their hands and give up.

They think that budgeting is not for them. Or worse, they are bad with money.

But if you keep at it, you will find that the budget starts to smooth out all those unexpected problems. Mostly if you don’t aim for perfection, but instead use what happened to fine-tune using a zero-based budget.

Less than full moons are NORMAL

If you’re having “one of those months”, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure or don’t like budgeting. But again, it doesn’t mean you have to write off what happened as unusual. Instead, take it as an opportunity to learn, and prepare for the coming months.

For example, if you’re stuck for car repairs, make a note to start a car repair fund – and do it, even if it means you need to make more money somewhere or cut back on other areas. If you find that you usually spend $300 on birthday gifts over the course of a year, build that into your budget again by starting a gift fund that you put $25 into each month.

Organize your spending plan so that the things that are most important to you are funded first. Things like accommodation, food, and which is basic transportation should be at the top of the list. Prioritize, and when do you have extra money, save some of it to make up for those incomplete months.

Give yourself some wiggle room

Budgets should have some wiggle room in them though. They should not restrict and limit you.

Instead, they should help you do the things you want to do – whether that involves taking control of your finances for the first time, or saving up to buy the latest expensive gadget as a treat.