Budget Busters
Dave Ramsey's website offers insights on identifying budget busters and how to get them under control.
"Budget busters are those categories that always seem to kill your perfectly planned-out budget. It's the categories you just can't seem to get under control month after month.
Typically, stuff like eating out, gas, kids’ activities, entertainment, personal spending and even housing can get out of control pretty quickly.
And right now, quarantine has many people struggling to keep their grocery budget under control. The kids are eating more meals at home (and asking for 80 snacks a day). You’ve started new hobbies like baking bread and perfecting those chocolate chip cookies. On top of that, your normal go-to items at the grocery are out of stock, leaving you with the expensive name brand stuff or bulk goods that will take you a year to get through. (Who needs this much cheese?)
So, what do you do if you’re always blowing the budget? Cut back in other areas. This is where you start to ask yourself some trade-off questions: Where can I flex my planned categories in order to stay on track? What can I sacrifice more of in order to keep that grocery bill from steering me off course?"
“(My grocery bill is) definitely higher. But my other bills are much less. Such as gas, eating out, not paying $1,050 a month for day care. So we are definitely ahead, even with spending more on groceries.” — Ashley S.
Does any of this sound familiar? Identifying the issues and then make some adjustments. Budgets are guides and meant to be adjusted for life changes.
You can master your money... and I can help!
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