How to Budget for Unexpected Expenses

The funny thing about this post is that once you get to the bottom of it, you'll see that there ARE no unexpected expenses if you budget wisely! 

Last week I asked my Twitter followers what unplanned and unexpected expenses always end up coming up and throwing off their budget and finances.  It’s quite awesome actually the responses I got, because each one has an easy solution, that I’ve already been doing…. The truth is there really is NO unexpected expenses if you budget for them, and here’s how I do it.

The responses on Twitter included Vet bills, House Repairs, and Car Maintenance.

That’s why in my envelope system, I put $20 away to each, from every paycheck.

If you put $20 away every 2 weeks, in 3 months you’ll have $120 in one of the 3 envelopes.  Can I just tell you it’s an amazing feeling when I realize my windshield wipers need replaced, because I no longer think “Oh crap, do I have money in the budget for them and when will I be able to buy them?”

Now I just look in my envelope, and grab the amount I need.

This also acts as a mini savings per category, so that you don’t have to tap into your main emergency fund as often.  

So, when you go to do your envelope categories, as discussed in my Budget Blog Post, you can think of what things have thrown your finances off in the past (do you tend to get flat tires often? That’s what the car envelopes for!) and then add that as a category.