Life Happens
Wanna know how often a typical family's monthly budget goes exactly as planned? Maybe 10% of the time if I'm being honest. This is a conversation I frequently have with clients as they begin their budgeting journey. There's usually this moment within the first few months of the process where my client feels defeated; a failure of sorts. In their mind, a budgeting win means that every category gets nailed right on the head.
Life doesn't happen on paper, unfortunately. It's messy. It's sudden. It's imperfect. We can have the world's best budget to start the month, but life has other plans. Success doesn't mean nailing the budget just as we've outlined it. Rather, success is our ability to track, be aware of our changing reality it in real-time, and make the necessary adjustments along the way to account for life happening in hopes of landing on even footing by the time the month concludes.
This month is a great example for my household. Due to my back injury, we're going to face significantly more out-of-pocket medical expenses than planned. Given the stress we've been under, we'll likely also blow past our planned dining out budget. Now, we can't just throw our arms up in the air and play the victim card; nobody wins under that scenario. Instead, we must take accountability for the life that's happening, first by being fully aware of its impact, and second by making the necessary adjustments.
What this looks like for Sarah and me is a combination of things:
A reallocation of the dollars we had already planned to spend. Some of our discretionary spending will be reallocated to the increased categories. We may also temporarily reduce the recurring savings we push toward a few of our sinking funds.
An additional allocation of funds from emergency savings. We don't typically touch our emergency fund (that's why it's called an emergency fund), but that's what it's for. It exists for exactly this purpose.
A deferral of a few other priorities. There are some decently important obligations in our lives, but for at least this month, those priorities must move down the list.
These newfound expenses don't deem December a failed month for us, but how we respond will. It's not ideal, and it's tremendously frustrating, but that's life. Life happens. Life always happens. It's just our job to adapt along the way.
Whether you're having the world's best budgeting month, or the worst, success or failure isn't determined until you decide how to handle it. It'll never be perfect, but you don't have to give up control.
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