I am always slightly “shocked” when an unexpected bill shows up on our statement messing with our already tight budget. You know those “bills” like the AAA yearly membership or the Costco Annual Renewal Membership.
I made a list of every subscription/yearly due bill that we have and divided it by 12. This is the amount that needs to be saved into a miscellaneous Irregular bill account so I am not without.
I used a blank sheet of paper and went through all our accounts and listed them by month:
Thrive Market (I am actually just starting this one) $59
Consumer Reports $20
Inshape $35
Amazon Prime $99
AAA $90
Costco $110
Dropbox $90
Lifestyle Perks $69
Credit Card Fee $95
Learning Ally $89
Barnes & Nobles Membership $25 (very worth it)
As you can see, they easily add up and sneak up. By adding them all up I can see that I need $60 a month in our budget to cover these expenses. Now there is a few that I might be able to bring down or get rid of, but for the most part, I think this is pretty much the list. I will be keeping this list handy just in case I missed any and need to readjust my numbers.
Next step includes going through all my Irregular Bills and coming up with a monthly amount to cover all those irregular bills like car maintenance, home maintenance, etc. I have done this before, so I have a skeleton to work from. This subscription/membership amount will be part of that magic “amount” that I need to set aside for Irregular bills.
I have also signed up to participate in a course called The Financial Renovation by I am that Lady. It starts in January. Check it out here.
Ligia
