Developing a budget? Watch out for Those Budget-Bursting Gremlins

If you've developed a household budget to get your spending back in line or to just reduce stress, good for you! Creating and sticking to a budget isn't easy by all means. But it represents the best way by far to manage your finances so you can relax and worry about other things.

A budget can also be a very useful tool for ending financial arguments -- assuming that you and your spouse agree how much to allocate for each of the categories in your budget.

The big categories are usually the easy ones. You know how much you pay for rent or your mortgage. Ditto other items such as your car payment(s), heating bill, phone bill and the like.

These are all fixed expenses. In other words, they are expenses that cannot be easily cut. They can be reduced but not without a major effort. For example, you could sell your home and buy one that requires a monthly mortgage payment.

However, many of the other items in your budget are discretionary expenses. In other words, they are expenses you can control and cut. This category includes items such as clothing, entertainment, insurance (yes, you can cut the cost of your car and health insurance), cable or satellite and groceries.

Some of these categories can also become budget busters or what I call budget gremlins if you are not really careful.

One of the biggest of these is entertainment ? which should include the cost of eating out. You may find there's only a little money left over for entertainment. Yet, it's very easy to overspend by "rewarding" yourself after a hard week or month by taking your family out to eat at an expensive restaurant. Or by treating you and your spouse to a night on the town, complete with a babysitter for the kids. If you're not careful, you can lose track of these spur-of-the-minute expenses. Come the end of the month, you might wake up and realize that these little "rewards" have cost you $100, $150 or even more over budget.

Another category that can be a budget gremlin is clothing. In the first place, it's a difficult budget category as it is next to impossible to forecast with complete accuracy what your family will need in the way of clothing over the next 12 months. Even if you budget very accurately, there is always that great suit or dress that's on sale, or that really neat athletic jacket your son is begging for. Again, you need to be very careful or you may find that what you spent on clothing last month was actually50% more than you had budgeted.

Here's another potential budget gremlin. If you have a pet, make sure you budget for pet care and supplies. Just one trip to the vet with your furry friend can cost big dollars. And what about gifts? This is also a category where costs can get away from you unless you watch them closely.

Finally, for a budget to work, you and your spouse need to have some "miscellaneous" money or money that doesn't have to be accounted for each month. For example, you might allocate $50 or $100 monthly for each of you. That way, you could each "splurge" on something without feeling guilty because you're breaking the budget or taking money away from other, more important things.

Creating and sticking to a budget isn't easy, but it can be a real life and marriage saver.

For FREE help with debt and credit, subscribe today to Douglas Hanna's free email newsletter "8 Simple Steps to Debt Relief" at http://www.all-in-one-info.com

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Google News Updated : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:51:51 GMT Aurilia, Vizquel help Giants rally for win - San Jose Mercury News Washington Post Aurilia, Vizquel help Giants rally for win San Jose Mercury News - 4 hours ago By Andrew Baggarly It would be difficult to claim that the Giants improved their playoff hopes when they rallied for a 6-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. Aurilia gets key hit, makes pitch for old guys San Francisco Chronicle Giants rally in eighth to edge Nats Sports Network Washington Post - The Associated Press - Washington Times - BlueRidgeNow.com all 455 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:43:04 GMT Obama to demand more from Europe in Berlin speech - Reuters BBC News Obama to demand more from Europe in Berlin speech Reuters - 26 minutes ago By Caren Bohan and Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - US presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to call on Europe to do more in hotspots like Afghanistan when he speaks in Berlin on Thursday in his only formal address of a week-long foreign tour. Berliners welcome Obama as they did JFK Christian Science Monitor Obama Starts European Trip With Stop in Germany Wall Street Journal Voice of America - The Associated Press - AFP - Washington Times all 686 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:25:11 GMT Sudan's president boogies on last Darfur pit stop - AFP BBC News Sudan's president boogies on last Darfur pit stop AFP - 36 minutes ago EL GENEINA, Sudan (AFP) - A dancing Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir paraded as a man of peace on Thursday during a heavily protected tour of Darfur defying accusations that he masterminded genocide in the region. Sudan counters charges with diplomacy Los Angeles Times Al-Bashir in Sudan peace pledge The Press Association Bloomberg - Monsters and Critics.com - New York Times - Workers World all 1,767 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:15:43 GMT Finding Bale's dark side - Chicago Sun-Times Times Online Finding Bale's dark side Chicago Sun-Times - 3 hours ago BY BILL ZWECKER Sun-Times Columnist 'The Dark Knight'' star Christian Bale's alleged ''assault'' in London against his mother and sister is part of a long-simmering family feud. Batman star stays silent in Spain BBC News Christian Bale's lady sidekick: Sibi Bale Los Angeles Times E! Online - hecklerspray - Times of the Internet - New York Daily News all 2,556 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:08:50 GMT Day After, WNBA Untangles Brawl - New York Times ChattahBox Day After, WNBA Untangles Brawl New York Times - 7 hours ago By MIKE OGLE Some of the WNBA’s biggest stars commanded national attention Tuesday night and into Wednesday - but not in a way their teams or the league wanted. Don't count on fights becoming WNBA trend USA Today WNBA may have a fighting chance Los Angeles Times ESPN - Detroit Free Press - Hartford Courant - Denver Post all 876 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:06:48 GMT Hunt begins for Karadzic helpers - BBC News BBC News Hunt begins for Karadzic helpers BBC News - 1 hour ago Officials investigating captured Bosnian Serb ex-leader Radovan Karadzic say they will track down and punish those who aided his false identity. Video: Karadzic plans to defend himself in The Hague RussiaToday Kenya: Karadzic's Fate a Lesson AllAfrica.com AFP - Telegraph.co.uk - International Herald Tribune - Hartford Courant all 5,884 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:47:45 GMT US cancer boss in mobiles warning - BBC News CTV.ca US cancer boss in mobiles warning BBC News - 2 hours ago The director of a leading US cancer research institute has sent a memo to thousands of staff warning of possible higher risks from mobile phone use. Cell phones: The next cigarettes? The Week Daily Group sees possible link to brain cancer Baltimore Sun ABC News - Los Angeles Times - dBTechno all 549 news articles Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:35:11 GMT Earn Money With Surveys RSS Parser

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