Wow, January hit us with a few surprises that has kept us juggling the bills we were sure we could pay fairly smoothly:

None of these have to do with holiday bills -

Ex-husband and I trying to come to an agreement about ending his child support he sends to me for two older children. Started okay, then he says he won't agree unless I return two months child support. Ouch.

Future rockstar son needed a special effects pedal for his bass. I'm thinking $30 bucks. Was $300. (but he promises to take care of me in my decripitude.)

Had 10 hours per week cut from one of my jobs. (at least it was the lowest paying job)

Car needed new tire, new head lamp bulb, and still has mysterious knocking sound. (blech)

Two of my jobs are contract work jobs which means no tax is taken out of pay and oblivious me didn't think it would matter. Worked on our taxes last night and guess what? IT MATTERS. thank goodness for my stash of savings $$ although it's hurts to use emergency fund to pay taxes. (It's embarrassing too).

Daughter's computer needed repairs before she went back to college this month.

To take care of these things: I'm going to be hitting our savings pretty hard and cutting out non-necessary purchases for February, plus selling some extra furniture. And I'll plan better and pay taxes on a quarterly basis in 2008.

Anyone else feeling the pressure of unexpected budget busters? What are you doing to keep it all together?

peace

I need a new tire for my car that I still haven't been able to get yet.

Washer went out and had to be replaced.

Food budget went up because dog food went up.  Plus eggs and bread.  (I have to budget more for groceries!)

And we still don't know anything about my meds.  I've been on PAP but they are wanting my new insurance to pay (understandably).  Insurance is saying they won't cover it.  If insurance does do the emergency pay I think we will be paying around $240 a month for my meds as opposed to $0 before. And that will be a stretch.  If insurance won't pay and I can't get back on the PAP, I just wont be taking the meds. ($1400 per month).

And I've been colder this winter than ever before so the heating bill went up.  I think it's a by-product of the psoriasis.

re-tiredf

 Gas for the car has hit us the hardest. DH drives a lot with work. DS keeps asking to use my car......he ran out of gas and money. Food budget keeps going up. Eating out of the pantry has helped with the food. Trying to cut down the driving but dont find that easy. Working with DS to get his budget established. That should help keep gas in my car. Two of my DS work in food service. Both business have increased prices this past week. Not going to get any better. Babs

Well my budget buster is my cat $1500 and counting.  Minivan needs new tires. Especially now in the snow!!  Of course everything going up in price.  In one way getting the free trailer was great but there went my bathroom vanity money for the hitch etc. The money we got as gifts at xmas was the starter fund. Can't really complain about that.  Was a few more parties then normal.   The rest of the stuff we know about like money  needed for the roof shingles that need replacing.   Taxes should be ok but it is not tax season until April here.  Bills coming up but we know about them like property taxes etc.

January went ok mostly except for some unplanned medical costs.  Both of my kids and me got a bad cold; my infant's turned into ear infections and my son's turned into croup.  So had to go to the doctor and since the calendar year has started over again, our deductible has started over so the visit and subsequent perscription will be pretty much out of pocket.  Plus had to buy a humidifier for the baby and some OTC cold medicine for me so all said, about $200+ in medical costs.  Oh well!!

So should we be budgeting or saving for these kinds of things - not always unexpected or emergencies? I try but as soon as I get $200 put aside, we blow it on a luxury item like gas, ha. I am working three jobs now to help us catch up but the flip side of that is that I've been dragging around with a cold, cough and fever since the first of November. I didn't mean this to be a downer thread but I guess I feel a bit stuck as to how to get to a place where fixing my daughter's computer for $96 doesn't make me feel defeated because that money was supposed to pay for groceries for two weeks!

Well, my solution is to track the unexpected expenses throughout the next three months and then find a way to put some money aside each month for the extra repairs etc. Once our consumer debt (not including our mortgage) is gone, we'll have more room to maneuver (i hope).

Any other ideas on how to deal with the budget busters without feeling like our lives are somewhat out of control? Would love to hear them.

hugs, Pam

I've broken what I had as a budget for the train tickets (see the daily stretcher for today) but since that is paid now I am now on a complete spending freeze (just like the weather). To me the trip is worth it for sanity sake. Medications are the only things I will be paying for. The only time I go out in my car is for church (20 miles round trip) and this Sunday at my parents (12 mi round trip) so it will take me awhile before I need to buy gas, and even then, I have a gas gift card from Christmas. I know I'm going to be dipping into my money moreso in a couple months since my energy credit runs out (these arctic blasts are killing it!) but I'm going to have to put up with it. The one non-medication expense that I see is laundry detergent in a couple months. The only relief in some sorts that I see coming up are checks for doing surveys ($20) in a couple months. I'm saving MyPoints for my friend's wedding gift so I won't have to spend $$. (I'm at over 1400 points right now and will cash them in in July).  Hopefully I'll hear something from my lawyer and get some more $ soon from the deal with the ex and I get a tax refund quick.

Pamelaw:

Any other ideas on how to deal with the budget busters without feeling like our lives are somewhat out of control? Would love to hear them.

Pam, I think those times hit everyone now and then. Planning ahead as much as possible is the best way I know to deal with expected or unexpected expenses, but I know it's not easy to put aside money sometimes. Maybe you could try a "fiscal fast"? (See the thread in the Money Management forum.) That might help you find a little relief.

January was pretty tame and we didn't really bust our budget. But we were on a spending freeze in a way. I didn't buy meat in January so I could keep our grocery amount under budget and we saved average of $20 per week. Our biggest budget buster (but we paid cash) was going out for dinner a couple of times with family and a good friend in town. Luckily, I had a $30 rebate check that showed up just in time, plus one dinner just turned out to be a morning coffee and roll which set me back $4.

As for what to do now, keep saving money. Even having $40 cash tucked away is a blessing when you need groceries or gas or have another unexpected expense.

We lucked out with a potential expensive car repair. We have about 6 months left on our warranty for our 7 year old Jeep and a $800 epair ended up costing only the $100 deductible for the warranty. THAT would have busted even my best budget. I think I was blessed with that one!

$ for mission trip not covered by church as promised. solution-grin and bear it.

dramatic increase in animal feed costs (20% in one week!) solution- feed less animals (you don't want to know)

increase in gasoline (yeah right always going up)  solution- ds keeps paying gasoline as long as he keeps being driven to work.

a couple vet bills , solution- plan on it as a yearly expense from now on

birthday party and bible study in January required extra food not planned on , solution- don't have a birthday party every year and schedule our home for study every 8 weeks, not 4.