As a budgeter, I know that sometimes there are a few important things that are missing from the budget because these are irregular expenses that most of us don’t even thing about. I have been managing my own budget for over 10+ years and still there are items that keep falling in the ‘miscellaneous’ category because after the time I don’t budget for them. The important things that are missing from the budget for most people range from personal medication to pet care for those with pets.
Over the last few weeks I have shared my personal budget on the blog {January + February} read countless budgeting books and also shared a link to my personal budget template which I sell in my Etsy Shop. But even then, there are important things that are missing from the budget not because i don’t plan for them but rather they are not a regular feature. For most people, these irregular expenses often come as a surprise when they have to pay for them but I prefer to budget for them offline.
So, what are some of the irregular expenses that you have probably forgotten about? In this post, I share important things that are missing from your budget and these are the most common one.
5 Important Things that are Missing from your Budget
When I was at university, my budget consisted on my rent, food shopping and utility bills and whatever was left, I spent on whatever I wanted. More often than not, the ‘whatever I wanted’ category was not satisfied by the small salary i was on and ended up being supplemented by the payday loans and credit cards. I mentioned these financial mistakes that I regret on this blog and as you can tell, I did not have much of a budget.
Fast forward 10+ years and I have a more detailed budget plan that I follow religiously and I use the zero-budget model which simply means I account for every penny in my budget. As I mentioned above, I still save for miscellaneous spending so that I never have unexpected bill that I can not afford to pay and this is why I think budgeting is so important. For those irregular expenses that are often forgotten from your budget, I list a few of them below.
#1 – HOME MAINTENANCE
Until recently I did not specify a budget for home maintenance because I figured this would be covered in my food shop and for big expenses, I would use my emergency funds. But after learning about how others budget for home maintenance I thought this was a god idea to have a budget of its own. Others save at least a £100 a month whilst others base how much they save 1% of the value of their property i.e. if the property is £360k 1% = £3600 then divide this by 12 = £300. For your home maintenance budget you can use this for buying toiletries etc.
#2 – CLOTHING
Clothing is another expenses but most of us don’t budget for, in my budget template I actually have a £100 shopping budget for every single month. If I don’t spend the money I roll it over to the next month and this builds up because most months I don’t spend money on clothing that often. For most people shopping is a spontaneous activity and they don’t often plan for it and 90% of the item its categorised as miscellaneous which is not a bad idea. But if you are someone who loves shopping I recommend adding a small amount to your budget.
#3 – MEDICATION
For those with medical conditions not covered by your insurance, I recommend including this in your budget. Because for most of us this is not a frequent expense, I recommend saving a small amount every month that medication that you might need throughout the year. I know that i always get a dentist bill every 3-6 months so I make sure to include a small amount in my miscellaneous budget on the budget template but on my offline template I spell out the medication budget so I know hw much I need to spend for any medication.
#4 – GIFTS
I must admit that even I don’t have gifts on my budget and often lump this into miscellaneous because it is not frequent enough in my life. Apart from birthdays we rarely give each other gifts in my family so each month I use some of my personal spending money and use it to purchase gifts. But I think for those with young child it makes sense to have gifts in your budget because its not just gifts for your kids but for your kid’s friends whom you are close to and possibly their parents. For my circle of friends, we all put something together and buy a gift for one of our friends and we do that every year.
#5 Memberships & Subscription Services
Thankfully for me, I don’t have any memberships or subscriptions that I do not account for in my budget. For the most part when I was paying off debt, these were the first to go as they were an unnecessary expense that I could not afford. So, if you have subscriptions or memberships to organisation that you no longer follow or can afford to support, I would either remove them and stop payments or include them in your budget if they are still important to you.
And there you have it, some of the important things that are missing in the budget for most people. I know that often people don’t budget for hair or beauty but if like me, you often include that in personal money and that covers everything I do for myself as a treat include hair and beauty. I have shared countless reasons why budgeting is so important but I also know that there are some things that ultimately will not make it on your budget because its either irregular and you wish to keep it separate from your home budget and that is ok so long as it is accounted for somehow somewhere.
Are any of the aforementioned items in this post already on your budget tracker or have they been missed out?
Tasheena says
This post is really informative, It so easy to forget about gift giving.
Blair Villanueva says
These are so true! Although I don’t worry about clothes coz I often shops at op-shops and samples from many brands, house maintenance took over my clothing budget, lol.
Add the insurance, and monthly council fees for my house.
Anne-Kathrin says
These budgeting tips are so useful! Will definitely give them a try, thank you!
Josh Mckenkey says
Such a perfect post for me to do the budgeting and its hard at first.
Catalina says
Yes, we always forget about home maintenance, but it’s a very important part of our budget.
DESTINY says
Everything here is on point. I need to keep on reminding myself about budgeting and these things are so helpful. Thanks!
Kita Bryant says
These are all great things to keep in mind. Home maintenance can really catch people off guard.
Shristi says
I have a single parent and time to time I save money to give my dad some gifts or gift cards. It’s a new thing I learned because of this pandemic. Meeting close ones is not easy but gifting them something totally worth every single penny. 🙂
Renata says
I truly admire how organized and focused you are. I’m all over the place with my finances – especially at this time 😀
Rebecca Smith says
I have most of these budgeted for except gifts! I always budget for medication as I am usually aware of what I will be needing.
Mandy says
Exactly. Gifts and unexpected maintenance on house and car typically mess up my budget!
Rosey says
Gifts can knock us out of the ballpark on our budget if we forget to add them. For instance, we have many family birthdays in March!
Roshanna21 says
I can imagine how gifts can take a lot of money especially in a large family but for the rest I usually deduct from my saving especially when there is a lot of sales going on, I take those as opportunities.
Rosey says
Gifts will knock you out if you don’t budget in our family. For instance, we have 6 birthdays in March!
Agnes Dela Cruz says
It has been a year now since my budget gone crazy! Losing a job and being unemployed made things worse. Thank you for these tips!
Bethel says
Gifts should be totally included!! This is my love language
Everything Enchanting says
Such great points! I don’t have any credit card, never took loan. I have been using cash or debit card since my job days and by God’s grace, have never faced any financial issue. However, I agree at times unplanned shopping did cause misbalance in my budget 😛😞
Beth says
Those are good things to consider when making a budget. We have to include visits to the vet in our budget. We know what it will normally cost if the dogs are healthy, but preparing for an illness or accident is trickier. I wish I would have gotten pet insurance when I first got my dogs.
Yeah Foodie says
I just realised after reading your post that I never budget for my clothes so always end up spending more than I can afford for it, so maybe best to include that into my budget in the future.
Beth (Tales from the Marches) says
Good points. I often forget household maintenance when I work out my budget. It’s like a weird non-thing for me.
Kira says
Some really great points! Especially medication, I’ve been on that many antibiotics over the last month it’s cost me an absolute fortune
Jenni says
Ahh I’m pleased that o actually budget for all of these, I have various standing orders set up going to different savings accounts
Lynndee says
Yeah, we totally missed those except for subscriptions. They’re definitely on the budget.
Rhian Westbury says
Gifts is the one area we have started budgeting for and saving throughout the year. We do a weekly save towards Christmas and a lump sum every single month towards all the family birthdays x
clairelomax2018 says
These things are so easy to overlook but you can almost guarantee that in any month you’ll need to spend in one of those areas.
Great reminder to budget x
Nikki Wayne says
I agree to all your points. I’m gonna keep these 5 things in mind.
Di Hickman says
Great points, Especially home maintenance. Easy to get caught out with repair bills and have to fall back on emergency funds
Ben says
Great stuff here. So many of us forget to add at least one – if not all – of these to our budgeting.
melissa chapman says
As I became an adult , moved away and now live with my family home and car maintainancee are a big part of my budget. Kids are by far the biggest expense as an adult you will find.