A Single Budget: Those Unexpected Expenses

TFO - Table for One Ministries- Ministry for Singles and Leaders to Singles - Blog - A Single Budget- Those Unexpected Expenses

For some, it is pretty easy to stick to a Spending Plan except when some unexpected expense arises. Some of these expenses can be predicted, some are just pure, unwelcome surprises. It is important to have an emergency fund to take care of the unwelcome surprises that we know will happen from time to time.

However, there are many “unexpected” expenses that with a little thought and planning can be anticipated. Singles frequently tend to work more and socialize more because they often have fewer family obligations. In socializing, it is common to eat out a lot, celebrate lots of birthdays, weddings, babies and many other things. So we need to plan in our Spending Plan for things like gifts, dinner parties out, social events celebrating milestones like birthdays and graduations, etc.

We also have expenses that don’t occur every month. If we are not planning well, these expenses can be “gotcha expenses”. Examples would be things like oil changes, car tags and registration, children’s school Field Trip costs, Christmas gifts, etc. It is important to anticipate these expenses and work them into your monthly Spending Plan.

Take a calendar and go month by month to help you anticipate these expenses. Working these into your Spending Plan will help you have more confidence in your plan and therefore help you be more successful.

A Single Budget: How Can I Have a Life When I Have No Money?

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What a great church service you had this morning. Now all your friends from the Singles Group are heading out to lunch. You know your money is tight and a constant headache, but you just can’t take going back to your apartment and having something frozen. Besides you deserve to go out to eat because (insert reason here).

The truth is, if you don’t have the money in your budget for this meal out, then you don’t deserve it. In fact, you don’t deserve the hurt you are causing yourself by spending money that you don’t have. We all have a 5-year old living inside of us. That 5-year old doesn’t care about a Spending Plan.  That 5-year old wants what it wants, and wants it NOW!

Sometimes we have to tell our inner 5-year old “no.” That is harder to do when we don’t have a spouse or parents helping us keep ourselves in-check. So, does that mean we should put on a sack cloth and go home to eat our frozen dinner alone, never to have any fun again? Absolutely not! It just means that you need to be creative with a little discipline thrown into the mix.

Knowing that the group typically goes out, come up with some good alternatives. For example, you could pack a sandwich or a snack to eat on the way and then just fellowship with them once at the restaurant. This doesn’t mean go and order water and then fill up on the free chips and salsa. You need to do what is right and don’t forget to tip the server.  They are still serving you even if you just order a drink. Another idea would be to offer alternatives such as suggesting the group brown-bag it to a park one week, invite everyone to your place for a potluck, or share 2 for 1 coupons in order to reduce the cost of your meal.

Keep in mind, this is temporary. You won’t have to do this forever, just while you are getting to a better place in your finances. Keep your eye on the prize which is winning with your finances.

A Single Budget: So What’s the Plan?

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So, you are single, carefree and are thinking a week at a beach house with your buddies sounds like a great vacation. Or maybe you are a single parent who wants to give your 7-year old and your 9-year old the magical vacation that every child dreams of…a trip to Disney World! So you just grab a soda and jump in the car and go, right? Of course not! With no plan or thought put into it, that would just be crazy. So why do we treat our money any differently?

Have you ever gone to pay for something with a $20 bill only to find it isn’t in your wallet anymore? Yeah, me too. What happened? You just got $80 out from the bank ATM a couple of days ago. So where is it now? If you don’t have a plan for that $80, it vanishes.

Whether you are a planner or not, when it comes to money you have to have a plan. Otherwise, your money just goes and you don’t have control. As Dave Ramsey says, tell every single dollar where to go on paper before even one of them leaves your hand. Having a spending plan sounds constraining, but if you can do it for 90-days, you suddenly find it very freeing.

“The plans of the diligent certainly lead to profit, but anyone who is reckless only becomes poor.” Proverbs 21:5. Although having a spending plan is a little uncomfortable to start, it sets you up to have success with your money, to take care of you and your family, and to experience the joy of making others’ lives better.

So what is your plan?

A Single Budget: A Spiritual Revival

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Money is the root of all evil, right? Not even close. Money is neither good nor bad. Money is a tool that can be used for some very good things, like feeding your family or giving to support a ministry. Money can also be a tool to do bad things like spoil children or finance terrorists groups. It’s not the money. It’s how the money is used.

How do you handle money? As singles we are blessed to get to control all of our money! We don’t have to share with a spouse–we can make 100% of the decisions about our finances. However, the curse of this is we can also easily misbehave with money and not have someone nagging about it. If you find yourself struggling with sticking to a spending plan, find someone to help you with accountability. It can’t be someone who is an enabler and will not ask you the tough questions when needed. Look for someone who is doing well with money and loves you enough to be tough with your feelings when needed regarding your money.

As Christians, we know our money is not really our own. We are money managers for what God provides for us. He is our provider.

Does your money spending reflect your values? The answer is yes. Like it or not, where we spend our money says a lot about what we value. It doesn’t mean we should give all our money away and live in a tent and eat bread and water. It is okay to enjoy some things, but Believers should also be balanced in living, giving and saving.

When we start managing money God’s way, amazing things will happen. Your debt will be under control, you’ll experience more joy of giving and you’ll move towards a greater understanding of God and His love for us. He has many good things for us and wants us to have joy. Give thanks for the things He has provided and focus on how He wants you to manage His money.

An Emergency Fund Kind of Day

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I had a wonderful time visiting with family at Christmas. Due to my job, I traveled back from Tennessee to Texas on Christmas Day . A storm was moving up from the Gulf and another winter front moving down from Oklahoma. Eventually, these two storms would collide. No worries. I carefully planned to avoid the expected collision. According to the weather forecast, I would be in between the storms.

However, both moved faster than expected.

Halfway through Arkansas, I ran into the heavy rain storm that froze and turned to ice. About 15 miles later, I heard the noise. The noise was a tire pierced with a large piece of metal. I managed to ease off the Interstate at an exit with a Shell gas station. An abandoned Shell gas station. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Fortunately, my cell phone Roadside Assistance was able to help me. Within an hour, I was back on the road.

Another 40 miles and I was out of the storm. I had talked with family and they’d checked the weather–it was clear the rest of the way. About an hour later I called again for a check because huge snow chunks, not flakes, but chunks, were hitting my windshield with loud splats. The storm had shifted and taken an ugly turn. The next 100 miles seemed extra long and slow. As I approached the next town, I needed to determine whether to get a hotel room or press on despite the highway conditions. I pressed on.

I saw over 60 cars wrecked or skidded off the road, stuck in ditches. Each incident represented the possible need for Emergency Funds. My Emergency Fund could have been in play if I had decided to stop and get a hotel room. Because I had an Emergency Fund, I knew I could have made that decision. I had a choice.

Now, put yourself in this true story. Do you have an Emergency Fund set aside to tap into if you have a wreck, a snowstorm, an unexpected hotel stay? There’s many other emergency scenarios. You have a dead battery or bad alternator. A bout of flu that require $70 worth of prescriptions. A minor child who runs into a neighbor’s mailbox and it needs to be replaced.

Emergencies will happen, it’s just a matter of timing.

If you don’t have an Emergency Fund, it’s time to get your Emergency Fund in place as if you see the emergency coming. I assure you, at some point, it is. Start small, maybe $100 set-aside for emergencies. Then over time, grow it $500, then $1,000. From there you can determine how much emergency funds you need in your budget to avoid worrying about where money will come from when there is a time of need.