I have a routine now for expenses that come up once a year, or even 4x a year like our property taxes. Money goes into a specific account monthly or weekly, all year round. I set up the automatic deduction once, and I only have to change the amount if the bill goes up. The beauty of it is, I don't have to remember to do anything, or have the discipline to get the money in there every time.
Looking at our upcoming cash flow, I realized things are going to be tight in our main checking account all summer. Why? Mainly, lawn mowing expenses.
This is a different kind of bill--it's around $80 a month for six months of the year, then there's no bill at all for six months. In addition, the bill hits at just the time of year we'd also like to take care of outside projects and go on day trips.
There's got to be some simple way to even these expenses up throughout the year, but I haven't quite figured it out yet. I DO know I don't want to have to remember to set up automatic deductions for six months, stop them, and restart them again.
Quandary--how to budget for summer expenses
May 18th, 2006 at 12:25 am
May 18th, 2006 at 03:04 am 1147921480
May 18th, 2006 at 04:13 am 1147925622