Don’t Forget About These 12 Monthly Expenses!
As far as we can tell, budgeting is probably the most important financial habit you should try to develop. There are plenty of budgeting methods out there you can try, but this doesn’t mean that they’re all set up for financial success.
Instead, you should try learning how to budget as well as you can by using a list of monthly expenses, so you won’t forget about any other costs.
If you wish to build a proper monthly budget, it’s highly important that you first include all your monthly bills and costs in your budget.
However, it might be a little harder than it seems, and that’s because there are so many monthly expenses that we might forget to include in our budget. Here’s a list of things you should never exclude from your monthly budget:
Emergency fund
Listen, just because you don’t have a third party billing you monthly for an emergency fund doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself. You can build a contribution to your emergency fund into your budget, and this way, you will be able to afford any unexpected costs that might come.
The amount generally accepted for your emergency fund is 3 to 6 months of your living expenses. However, you could choose to include more money in it, depending on how stable your current financial situation is.
Retirement fund
Just like your emergency fund, nobody will be able to force you to contribute to your retirement. But you still have to do it. If you add a certain amount of money to your monthly budget, you will soon hold yourself accountable.
Besides, you will automatically put yourself in probably the best financial position when it’s time to retire. Naturally, there are 401k and 401k alternatives, IRAs, and many other options for investing.
There are also plenty of tips for retirement planning if you’re not sure where to start. It’s best to choose the one that works best for you, or even combine more than one retirement savings method.
Extra debt payments
If you still have credit card debt to pay, you probably would prefer to pay the minimum payment every month, at least. Also, if you want to reduce your credit card debt, you might want to make a bit more than your monthly minimum payments.
Don’t forget to include these extra tips for debt payments in your monthly bills. It could also help you come up with a plan to pay off your debt, such as a timeline for when you’ll pay off everything you owe.
Quarterly and annual bills
The vast majority of bills you have to pay probably come on a monthly basis. Well, comb through your past payments, then take stock of all the bills you pay less frequently.
For example, a quarterly water bill or even an annual professional association membership is due pretty soon. Well, just calculate how much that amount would add up on a monthly basis, and then include the figure in your monthly budget.
Home and renter’s insurance
The majority of homeowners decide to insure their belongings with proper homeowners insurance, and most apartment buildings oblige renters to carry renter’s insurance.
Well, if you think you could forget about that or simply want to make things simpler, you can combine your homeowner’s insurance with the mortgage payments. Renter’s insurance generally costs a little less than $20 a month, and you can choose to see it as part of your monthly rent payment.
Medical visit co-pays and HSA
Your health insurance is supposed to cover the cost of your medical appointments, but it’s still highly important to budget for co-pays. When you pay $25 per visit, these co-pays could easily add up, even if you only go to the doctor for routine check-ups.
If you visit the doctor quite often, at least make sure you correctly estimate how many times a month you need to go. Also, make sure you don’t forget to include these costs in your budget.
You could also choose to save money for an HSA (health savings account). There are certain amounts you can contribute, and whether this could be a viable option for you also depends on your health plan. However, if you contribute to an HSA, make sure you also budget for it.
Dental and vision costs
If you already have health insurance, vision and dental expenses might not be covered. Well, sometimes separate vision and dental insurance might cover a good amount of your expenses.
You want to make sure you include surprise charges, like teeth cleaning, new glasses, and even contact lenses. All these monthly expenses are listed in your budget. First, you’ll want to determine if dental insurance is what you need, but also a vision one. If not, just plan these costs in advance.
Prescription medication
Another important medical-related monthly bill that you might forget about is prescription medication. As you well know, prescription drugs cost the average American a little over $1,000 a year, which is a huge amount of money.
As your health insurance might cover a huge chunk of it, you need to remember to account for all the other out-of-pocket costs in your monthly budget.
Parking and toll fees
I know almost nobody forgets about their car payments in their monthly costs, but car expenses could imply many other things. Moreover, if you commute to work, you will probably pay tolls or parking fees, and that’s also something you need to take into account.
Just add up the total amount you’d spend in a busy month, let’s say, to get a proper estimate. It’s better to be left with more money, right?
Subscription renewals
Whether it’s your daily newspaper, beauty box, Hulu, Amazon, Prime, Netflix, or any other thing, there are endless subscriptions and membership options you need to consider.
Even if $12.99 might not seem like too much money, it can easily throw off a well-planned monthly budget if you forget about it. Learn how much your subscriptions cost and when the money is due, and make sure you get rid of any subscriptions or memberships you don’t need.
Beauty expenses
Well, when it comes to beauty expenses, it all comes down to how much women spend on makeup and beauty products. However, as you can imagine, it can turn out to be quite a lot.
There’s one survey that found that the average woman spends $300,000 on face products over the course of a lifetime. So even if you are on the low end of the average, you will probably replenish at least one beauty product every month. Well, make sure you include those monthly expenses in your budget, too.
Cleaning supplies
Grocery store items that don’t require weekly replenishment are often overlooked because, well, you only have to buy them once every couple of months!
Whether it’s cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, or paper towels, they could easily add to your expenses. Make sure you’re prepared for an extra expensive grocery shopping trip every other month to account for these costs, and try our frugal shopping methods during the other weeks!
If you need to make a list of all the things you need to include in the monthly budget, you’ll probably need a good notebook for that. Well, here’s what I recommend!
