Unexpected Expenses To Keep In Mind (and Avoid) In 2013
Even after you’ve set your budget for the New Year, chances are you might overlook certain expenses: you know, the busted transmissions and extra fees that creep up, and before you realize it, you’re out hundreds of dollars. While some experts say you should have nine months to a year of income saved for emergencies, we know that’s not always possible.
But you can still prepare by putting aside money each month for these incidents. Soon you’ll end up with a flexible spending plan that will withstand even these unexpected expenses.
- Gifts: If you’re someone with a large extended family or big group of friends, it can feel like it’s someone’s birthday every other week. Curb costs by suggesting that everyone pitch in for one nice present.
- Electronic repairs: A hard drive crashing or a phone screen cracking is never fun. But the way we rely on our electronics, we don’t hesitate to shell out whatever it takes to get the problem fixed. Consider checking out smaller mom-and-pop shops before major retailers for repairs and seeing if they’re worth the savings.
- Health-related bills: There are major medical costs, like emergency room visits, and other ones, like filling prescriptions. Either way, they’re not cheap, but sticking to routine checkups and detecting problems early on will save you money in the long run.
- Home and car repairs: New brakes and tires, roof patch work: it all adds up. If you own an older model or live in a fixer-upper, think about creating a budget just for this category.