5 Budget Busters Challenge

Posted on April 11, 2008
Filed Under budget |

I thought I would start a bit of a challenge to personal finance bloggers or anyone to list 5 things big or small that bust your budget. You would think that the bigger the budget the bigger the buster would need to be but that’s not necessarily so. Small things add up quickly and tend to break my budget wide open before I have caught on to them.

1. My kids tend to be my biggest budget buster. Even though they don’t live with me full time right now when they come to visit it is that much harder to say no. The last trip they made down was when I was squeaking by until the end of the month. I was thrilled to see them but paying for their gas to come down on top of the extra food really killed my budget. They are both in high school though and it would have cost me twice as much to go pick them up and return them.

2. Eating out while shopping. It is way too tempting to grab a burger when I go out shopping. I don’t have the opportunity to eat fast food often and it’s kind of a treat. However it’s also a double hit to my budget.

3. Soda on road trips. Everything is a half hour to an hour away. I have been in the habit for years of grabbing a soda for the trip and it’s proving a hard habit to break. Somehow they just jump into my van before I realize it.

4. Late fees. These absolutely kill my budget and there is not much I can do about it right now. I can’t pay bills with money I don’t have so things tend to be late. The extra monthly charge is killing me not to mention my credit.

5. Overdraft fees. Again, there is really no excuse for this. However, it does happen now and again usually due to me trying to avoid late fees and deposits not getting posted to my account when I think they should.

I have been on a campaign to eliminate the last two but I can tell you it’s a challenge right now. I don’t know how they can get a payment in the mail and have it post to my account before the deposit that I made at the bank on the same day as I mailed the check. I guess the postal system isn’t as slow as they say.

So those are my 5 Budget Busters. The rules of the challenge are that you have to tag 3 people to carry it on and link back to the person who tagged you. Please also use the graphic at the top of this post. You can link to it or copy and paste it.

I am tagging:

Lynnae at Being Frugal.net

Peter at Bible Money Matters

Mrs. Micah at Mrs. Micah

Anyone else who would like to join the challenge is welcome!

10 Steps to Budgeting with Irregular Income

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Comments

14 Responses to “5 Budget Busters Challenge”

Mrs. Micah (19 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 3:54 pm

Hrm. I shall have to ponder this one for a while…I don’t know if I can come up with a all 5, but I’m sure they’re there.
Pete @biblemoneymatters (8 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 5:12 pm

Only 5 things? wow, this should be easy !
CindyS on April 11th, 2008 5:17 pm

I thought it would be fairly easy. I could have listed 25 but thought I would just hit the big ones.
Pete @biblemoneymatters (8 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 5:47 pm

p.s. as far as late fees, have you asked the credit card companies to push your payment date back a couple of weeks, or into the middle of the month? some of them will do this for you - and it can give you an extra couple of weeks..

I have posted my 5 budget busters!

http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/2008/04/5-budget-busters-challenge.html
CindyS on April 11th, 2008 5:52 pm

Pete, I wish I got a paycheck on a regular basis so I could schedule things. It’s a problem with starting a business. You just pay when you have money.
What Busts My Budget on April 12th, 2008 12:16 pm

[...] of Oh My Aching Debts asked me to list my top 5 budget busters. On the one hand, it seemed like an easy assignment. Then again, I’m not sure what qualifies [...]
Jeannee on April 12th, 2008 7:17 pm

My top five budget busters:

When I am reminded - the week before - of a birthday I completely forgot about.

When my daughter came to live w/ me - and I had 12 hours notice that she was - and she had no medications, no clothes (she’s a size 8, I’m a size 22!), not a stick of furniture, not even a bottle of shampoo ; not a car ; not a job (I got her that, too).

BOOK SALES of any and all types!

A friend whose daughter is adopted from abroad and she has several birthdays - her “document birthday”, her “actual birthday” - and I’m expected to remember each one. And see the first one on how well I remember birthdays ;-

Not a single tooth left in my mouth hurt me, but that was yesterday. Then I woke up this morning ….
Chasing the Bull » 5 Budget Busters Challenge on April 12th, 2008 9:03 pm

[...] ran across an interesting challenge at Aching Debts. The concept is simple; list 5 things big or small that bust your budget, then tag 3 other people [...]
Lynnae (6 comments.) on April 16th, 2008 1:37 pm

How did I miss this???? Oh yeah, I was sick & marked my whole feedreader as read. ::embarrassed::

I can relate to some of your budget busters. I’ll write up a post real soon about mine.
My Budget Busters on April 19th, 2008 2:48 pm

[...] bloggers are dying to hear what things bust my budget, because I got tagged not once but twice for CindyS’s “budget busters” meme this week. Peter from Bible Money Matters hit me first, then Shanti over at Antishay Ventenne got [...]
Frugal Babe » Archive » Budget Busters on April 22nd, 2008 12:37 pm

[...] NtJS has tagged me to post our five biggest budget busters. We try really hard to avoid budget busters. For the most part we do a pretty good job, but [...]
What busts your budget? - Smart Spending on May 9th, 2008 5:14 pm

[...] S at Oh My Aching Debts, who started this meme, listed her kids, eating out while shopping, sodas on road trips, and late [...]
Daily Accounting: Why Goals are Awesome « My Daily Dollars on May 10th, 2008 9:49 am

[...] “Smart Spending” blog. Donna Freedman included my budget busters in her roundup of Oh My Aching Debts’ meme. Be sure to check it out. I agree wholeheartedly with ChouChou at Debt Non Sequitur who said: [...]
Five budget busters « Funny about Money on November 25th, 2008 1:02 am

[...] budget busters April 13, 2008 Oh My Aching Debts has issued a PF Blogger’s challenge to list our five biggest budget breakers. Here are [...]