Money Gal Coaching: Don't forget the most important items in your budget

Kelly Blodgett launched Money Gal Coaching with a goal of serving people who, like her, were burdened by debt. You can get her tips for paying down debt on a regular basis at Bring Me The News, in addition to the Money Gal Coaching website and Facebook page. Here is her latest story:

Before I started on the path to figure out my debt, I was completely in the dark about a budget. What is a budget for? Who needs a budget? What am I supposed to include in my budget? Once I have a budget, now what do I do?

I started making a list of my bills and the sort of obvious things, like groceries or restaurant spending. That made sense, right? I quickly hit a brick wall when I bought a present for a friend’s birthday that didn’t fit into any of the categories I created.

So there it began. I would add categories to my budget as life happened, and I was missing a lot of things! I didn’t account for bachelorette parties, weddings, insurance premiums, attending Twins baseball games or annual events like the Minnesota State Fair.

How was I so far off? The idea of saving for these “smaller expenses” didn’t even cross my mind until they started adding up. One summer I remember being a bridesmaid in three weddings and attending 10 more. I was broke!

This is what got me looking at my calendar and creating space in my budget for the things that were already scheduled and I wanted to attend. I would quickly add up what I thought that event was going to cost to calculate how much I had to start saving with the time that I had left.

Sure, spending $200 at the Minnesota State Fair wasn’t necessarily going to break the bank; I could pick up another shift at work and be fine. But when I started saving just $17 a month year around, that affected my finances so much less!

That is when buying all the beer at the fair and eating all the fried pickles, corn and donuts became really fun. Because it didn't matter if I also went out to eat that week, because I planned for this.

So I challenge you, take a look at your calendar and what can you start saving for right now. Make a list and figure out how much you should save a month. Here’s a free tool to get you started on all those categories you might be forgetting in your budget.

Schedule a free call today and let’s chat. This is an investment into your future. Your future self will thank you.

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