budgeting for overspend, yay or nay?

its_maths_not_magic

This week has been a tough one in the overspending department. Mainly through poor planning on my behalf, not planning for the hubby's b'day and overspending on the groceries, not going through my cupboards thoroughly enough while planning the shopping and today my husband needed an emergency dental appointment. Which not only meant paying for the appointment, but also the petrol to get there.

Luckily I had been putting money aside so we actually could get it done. I was talking about it with my husband to see how I could do better next week. And he bought up planning for an accidental overspend. Say putting aside 5% extra on the budget for things like that.

Im a bit unsure about it, what I like preferrably is to take these lessons and learn from them and eventually get my budget spot on. Im worried that that extra bit of money might get spent simply because its there (in the past thats the sort of thing that got me into financial trouble). On the other hand, it does make sense, while Im still learning how to plan properly, to have a bit of leeway that can be put back into savings once the week is finished.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Tixy

Hi

A lot of people do try to budget to build up a small emergency savings pot whilst paying off debts.
I think I'd prefer that route rather than budgeting for a continency every month, because, as you say, I think that there would be a tendancy to spend the contingency every week.

Ideally you want to eventually get your budget to allow for all items that should be predictable, such as christmas, birthdays, vehicle maintenance etc but still having an emergency pot set aside for those items that really could not be foreseen. If the money is saved in a separate bank account there should hopefully be less temptation to spend it except for when really needed.

its_maths_not_magic

Thanks for reply. I think thats the way Im going to go. If money is not there I tend not to spend it, so keeping a small emergency pot somewhere out of sight (like I do atm, keep my savings in another account that I never use) makes a lot of sense. And in the meantime, keep learning and planning so I know whats coming up and whats not. I never thought of budgeting as a skill, but now I see it is and like all skills, the more you practise at it, the better you get at it.

hummingbird

Yes maths, definitely put it in a separate account, then also if you don't need to use it, it will grow very nicely to cover larger situations as it goes along.

I think I may do the same myself :beer:

strandedinaber

I keep what I call a "buffer" of around 5% of my salary unaccounted for (well, I have for the past 2 months that I've actually bothered to budget in full, rather than watching the money merrily disappear out of my account...). Mainly because of unexpected costs rather than over-budgeting. I don't use it for things like going out but essential and unexpected or unplanned costs. Not doing that just makes me too nervous; it's impossible to know when you are gonna need emergency dental treatment, for example, or the car's going to break down. Unfortunately I've ended up spending it in full on (legitimately unexpected) costs over the past two months, but I live in hope that it'll eventually make its way to its intended destination in the savings account!