Sh*t will always happen
This past Saturday was one of those days. You know the ones, where things just seem to go wrong.
I went to start my Jeep to go out and nothing. It would not turn over. I start stressing a bit, imagining the worst, as we’re all good at doing.
After many calls to roadside assistance (fun fact #1: there’s a special type of tow truck to get into a parkade) and a boost later, we were operational and on our way. I thought this was just a minor blip and everything was fine.
Well, as I’m out running errands, I get a warning that “Battery Saver Mode” is on. Cool, that’s likely not good.
After doing some investigating, I determined the battery needed to be replaced. I called a local Calgary company and they came to switch out my battery. Fun fact #2: batteries are not cheap.
Could I have done this myself? Probably but did I have the tools to do so? Nope.
This had me reflecting that, no matter how good our budgets or plans are, sh*t will always happen. There may be one month where your grocery expenses are higher because you’ve decided to have a last minute dinner party. Your health expenses may be up because you pulled your back and need to see a chiropractor 4 times in a month. It’s better to be mentally prepared for a bit of variety as our monthly spending is rarely identical.
There are options to try to alleviate any variability in expenses.
- You could take the average of your last 3 or 6 months and assume this should be good enough
- You could set aside some funds in a miscellaneous or buffer fund and this can be on standby for any of those unforeseen expenses
- You could use the budgeting technique I previously described and set aside money each month, not spending it all, so you’re prepared when one month has a higher expense in the category than it did previously
It’s worth noting that I am assuming that this variability in expenses is in your normal everyday life. For things like job loss, vehicle repairs or appliance replacement, it’s highly suggested to have an emergency fund for that. I will go into more detail on that later.
One of the most important things to remember is not to shame yourself if you’re off for 1 month. That’s the thing about life, it’s not exactly predictable (trust me, I really did not need to be replacing a vehicle battery).