I have a budget that is working towards paying off my debt which is great………however I’ve been invited to a wedding of a friend I’ve known for 10+ years. This is an expense to me and my budget didn’t plan for, naughty budget.
When an unexpected expense happens and you haven’t planned for it, or other people or organisations are good at spending your money for you is when you’ll lose track of your costs.
I’ve worked out the costs and with the wedding presents, travel, hotel booking and beer consumption the cost will be around £350.
If I choose not to go and say “no” to seeing his marriage it will be sad and I’ll need to think of a really good excuse like I’m on holiday in Africa, I’m in hospital for a sex change operation or I plan on being dead that weekend.
I’ll also be a bit of an arsehole by declining to witness him getting hitched because my budget says “NO WAY”. Sure that £350 quid would be nice to pay into my debt but I’m not a cheap stake, I don’t intend to miss his and his soon to be wife’s big day, her body is sweet and seeing her in a tight wedding dress would be a nice sight. However I digress.
There is a time and a place to be frugal and a time and place to spend money, am his friend not a tight jerk, therefore I’ll be there for this big day despite the unexpected costs. Along your debt journey you need to factor in some fun, treats and celebration or you’ll go insane on your debt journey.
There have been times when I’ve had to say no due to the terrible state of my finances and I couldn’t afford it no matter how appealing a budget strip club is. You may feel forced to spend money on these unexpected events and you’ll need to learn to say no if you’re to succeed with your money management. Living in the moment isn’t always a smart choice. As for this wedding, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
While you can include expenses like birthdays, Christmas that happen every year when it comes to your budget the fact is you can’t plan or allocate for every unseen expense. Therefore it’s important you plan for unexpected costs. I suggest you budget for surprise expenses by adding a entry in your budget for them. It will also avoid turning to using your credit card to pay for stuff like this.
I suppose I could use my some of my emergency fund to pay for it. C’mon on surely getting married is classed as an emergency.
Dam, I just realised he’ll want a stag do too. That’s another £100+ gone, maybe I’ll tell him that I’m dead after all. Dead people save a lot of money.
