After Budgeting, How Do I Deal With Unexcepted Expenses?

[blockman]

These days it’s tough. Many are careful with their money but if there is something unexpected then they will most likely use a credit card to buy it. The issue is that the credit card interest is usually 20% if not paid off.

That's why those people that owns a credit card have to be responsible. Everyone who's used to shop with their CCs are aware of the possible drawback if not used properly.
I agree that these days are tough and even with your best way of budgeting, still, there are some difficulties on how tight budgeting is when sudden expenses came even how hard we try.
We're going to be out of the budget and pulling some money from our savings and pocket when necessary.

[Erumo]

If you have settled a budget, and still have question what to do when you get unexpected expenses, then you simply have failed at budgeting. Wasnt unexpected expenses should be one of the lines of your budget? Should not you create a money pillow every month for such case? The only thing you can do is to move other category sliders - cut somewhere to cover extra expenses. That is the only option I see. But what not to do is to take loans to cover wholes in your budget. It will only help you to win time now, but it will enlarge the amount of money you need to earn, save, cut in future. Definitely not an option.

[Iroh]

Well, that’s where your savings comes in. Unexpected expenses would always pop up after you’ve laid out your budget. Take for example, a business after laying out its plans and budget for the financial year would also allocate space for bad debt. Planning ahead for bad debt from some certain customers would make the reality easier to bear. Unexpected expenses would always come up.
That’s why having some money kept aside in form of savings is important. As after budgeting and all, whenever unexpected expenses pop up, you could beat it cause you’ve got some savings aside.

[mvdheuvel1983]

The answer to the question is simple. Emergency fund. What is it? Money that has been set aside for use in times of financial hardship is referred to as a "emergency fund." By providing a safety net that may be used to cover unforeseen costs like illness or significant home repairs, an emergency fund aims to increase financial security. And the thing with emergency fund is that you set it just like you set your budget every month. And these unexpected expenses should be into two categories - short-term and long-term.  This is so important such that if you do not do it, you run the risk of running into debts.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/emergency_fund.asp

[xSkylarx]

Unexpected expenses struck you when you are in tight of budget but my strategy with this is that there are budgets that will last you until your next pay, what I've done is I've cut it in there like our food, we have a budget of $4 per day for food for the whole month if we have unexpected expenses and it is not that big then I could cut it into $2 so that it will last us until a month but the problem is that we will be sacrificing that food that we like to it but again we needed money so we have no choice.

[Flexystar]

Talk about the unwanted expenses with the person who just got his first job and is on the way to settle with married life or may be their new business etc. The budget gets collapsed all the time. There might be unwanted expenses from someone’s perspective but it be very important in view of the budget setter. Many things really but in a family you have to take that extra burden all the time.

We can deal with this by cutting down the unwanted expenses by making a priority list. Always give a number to those wanted and unwanted reasons then do the expenses.

[freedomgo]

Unexpected expenses will always ruin your budget plan no matter how good the plan was.
Sometimes I do set aside a small amount for unexpected situations out of the original budget because life is full of unpredictable situations.

In order not to make this unexpected, i would always prefer to include this in my budgeting and save some extra funds for emergency funds for unexpected problem that will arise. That way, I won’t have to worry touching my personal savings as I have my own budget for that cases. But if you don’t include it in your savings since you only have enough amount to save, then maybe adjust your expenses so you will really have a budget for unexpected events.

[jostorres]

Unexpected expenses are normal in business but much more in personal expenses.
That is why we allocate a budget for "others" meaning that can be spent on those things that are not listed on our expected expenses. Remember that we can't predict everything for the incoming and the only way to deal with this thing which really possibly happens to allocate some budget like 10% of the overall expenses target. So, we don't have to worry about where to get funds as we already have money reserved for this thing.

We can't predict what can happen so yeah, this is why it's always better to have some extra cash so that we won't stress ourselves if where we will get the funds to be used on the thing that troubling us but unexpected expenses aren't always outside on our capacity but sometimes we intentionally do it. This can possibly be avoided if we already list the things if where we will use our money.

We should also practice to have a self-control if ever we don't have it yet because that can also negate everything that we are planning. More importantly is we should never give up once we failed at our first or earlier tries especially to you @op.

[carlisle1]

Talk about the unwanted expenses with the person who just got his first job and is on the way to settle with married life or may be their new business etc. The budget gets collapsed all the time. There might be unwanted expenses from someone’s perspective but it be very important in view of the budget setter. Many things really but in a family you have to take that extra burden all the time.

We can deal with this by cutting down the unwanted expenses by making a priority list. Always give a number to those wanted and unwanted reasons then do the expenses.

Cutting unwanted expenses will help you a lot to save some money, you can save it to make sure that if in case of emergency or unwanted
expenses take place you got something that you can use.

I like your argument and it's true that we can't easily separate portions of our money/salary for savings. We need to adjust in cutting
out extra expenses in order to save up.

Not easy, but if you are thinking about the possibility of emergency cases, you will adjust and make sure that you will save some.

[Alpha Marine]

While setting up your budget have a category you can title "other". This is set aside for future expenditures that you do not plan for. I am assuming you're not overspending because if the "unexpected expenses" you're talking about is just you overspending then what you need is discipline as @MK4 has said. Without discipline you can't even follow your budget, so you need a lot of discipline if that is the issue. If discipline is not an issue and the unexpected expenses mean things coming up that you did not plan for and you need to solve then keep a category for them. Use the money from that for any unexpected expenses and emergencies.

[milewilda]

Suggest ways to deal with unexpected expenses?

This is where savings would save you up and this is why its really that relevant for you to save up even a little portion of your income for the sake of these kind of circumstances because
if you dont really make some savings then for sure on the time these kind of unexpected expenses or emergencies then you would really be ending up on taking up some loan or debt into someone because
you dont have money to be spent off specially if its that necessary, but if you arent really that minding that much on that particular expense then its still an option for you
whether you would really be that trying out to deal with it or simple skip out.

[AmoreJaz]

While setting up your budget have a category you can title "other". This is set aside for future expenditures that you do not plan for. I am assuming you're not overspending because if the "unexpected expenses" you're talking about is just you overspending then what you need is discipline as @MK4 has said. Without discipline you can't even follow your budget, so you need a lot of discipline if that is the issue. If discipline is not an issue and the unexpected expenses mean things coming up that you did not plan for and you need to solve then keep a category for them. Use the money from that for any unexpected expenses and emergencies.

that's what i am thinking about here. if you think you always have unexpected expenses at the end of the month, then save or allot also for other expenses. at least, you have something to pull out from in case you need it. and after several months, you will have idea how much is you average expenditure for unexpected expenses. also, assess those unexpected expenses, is it really necessary or you just want to spend on those things?

[ChiBitCTy]

This is the type of topic that comes up a good bit with my clients.  Many financial advisors, or just a general consensus in the past is to have at least 3 months of monthly expenses saved up at all time.  I think it's best to try and do 4 or 5 (if you can).  The last thing you want to have to do is borrow from your retirement plan, but this could be a solid option for those who are really in need of some quick money. 

[RealMalatesta]

Even if I take all of these steps, "unexpected expenses" still throw off my budget for me. I will keep track of all my spending and costs, create a budget, and begin adhering to it, but before you know it, a huge unforeseen expense will ruin everything, leaving me discouraged and not budgeting for a while. This usually occurs when I spend excessively in one category or another and realize that the budget isn't working, at which point I give up.

Suggest ways to deal with unexpected expenses?

This is basically why I invest into bitcoin on good days, so I could cash it out on bad days. I had this before, I saved a lot of money on bitcoin before, and it was in profit and I had some unexpected and unwanted expenses to be paid and I ended up cashing out my bitcoin and had nothing left but had zero debts after that as well.

This happened as recently as September as well, I had to cash out on a bad time on bitcoin and yet cashed out all I got and bought something I do for my work and now I am working a lot easier. It has not improved the amount of work I do unfortunately because I have life stuff that stops me working 12 hours a day, but it surely made my life a lot better, because I have this now.

[Obari]

This situations are very common for an an unexpected condition to just cut in despite all the plans and budget one might have and most times it seems so impossible to make budgets with tis things happening especially when it's often.
Just as it seems, you also have to make budgets for the unexpected expenses as well and in some cases try to give it some reasonable budgets so if it doesn't happen at the end of period, one would also country that to his or her advantage.
Make budget is one thing and implementing this budgets is another thing altogether.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I as a man with a wife and two daughters, can indeed relate to what OP is talking about, like for example, I wrote my resolution for this year 2023 which also include things I plan to achieve this year and when I plan to begin each, this is a plan I draw based on how much I earn over all monthly, but even up until now, I discovered i have not started working towards achieving what I have written in my resolution, and January is almost coming to an end.
miscellaneous and unexpected expenses have not allowed me focus on my goals for the year, this is indeed very frustrating, and at times, it makes me want to just throw the resolution away as i see no need for it.
This is a topic that is indeed worthy of discussion and i really wish there was a long lasting solution to this problem.

[autumnleaf]

I believe that when you are creating a budget, you should be prepared for the unexpected. For this reason, whenever you make a plan, always keep money aside for unforeseen costs such as medical expenditures, unanticipated bills that must be paid, events, etc.

[Getmon]

It would appear that your unforeseen expenses are becoming usual. Perhaps it is truly normal, particularly for us family men. Therefore, we ought to treat that unexpected expense as anticipated. The best we can do is trim some of our budget spending on things not called necessities. We can also find another way to make more money depending on what opportunities there are in your area. Additionally, we can avoid having another child if we cannot afford the financial security necessary for our present family.

[Crypt0Gore]

I just leave around some extra money for unexpected expenses, this has nothing to do with food, medical and gas fee for transport and other expenses, that's why I call it an emergency fund, in fact I open a separate bank account for this, I believe this is an almost perfect plan for anyone that has a family 👪 to take care of, you can never know what a medical emergency will pop up, we are human and we often get sick too.

[RockBell]

Goals are also very important, but when it comes to anything financial, it takes discipline to be able to deal with the money budgeted for. There is a saying that goes, "If you don't plan, you are planning to fail, and from what you said about tracking your transaction is very important because most people can not even account for the money spent in a day which is not good at all.