We do not exactly have a budget. After my pay hits the bank we take out money for savings and precious metals. Retirement money comes out automatically. After that as long as we don't go broke we don't worry too much. Of course since our bills are very reasonable and we spend a relatively small amount of money on food and are generally cheap the checking account usually builds up some most pay periods. I have come to see at least one emergency every other month not as something which will come from the emergency fund but just as a normal expense.
We seem to have something random happen which costs us about $400 every other month.
If every unexpected expense means you have to raid savings you're going to keep taking two steps forward and then one or two steps back. Saving money every pay period is great but if you put it in then pulling it out in a week or two there is no point. If the balance in the bank or the cash under the bed or the silver in the bottom of the bag of flour isn't accumulating (and you aren't at your stopping point where the emergency fund is fully funded) then you are doing something wrong.
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"We seem to have something random happen which costs us about $400 every other month."
So, essentially, you're spending about $2,400 on "emergencies" or "unforeseen expenses" every year? That figure seems quite high to me personally (but I'm an old school penny pincher). What do you consider to be an emergency?
"Emergency" to us means:
1.) job loss
2.) death
3.) lack of food (or food inflation)
4.) lack of water (our landlord cut off our water and refused to relocate us to a hotel...we had to get code enforcement involved....get a hotel....long story)
5.) health care catastrophe
6.) lack of heat
7.) something terrible and unforeseen has happened to the car which is not covered by insurance
8.) natural, manmade disaster, or war on native soil
9.) lack of housing (i.e. the house has burnt down and we need temp. shelter)
The question that needs to be asked is: what constitutes an emergency vs. what constitutes a normal expense?
I don't think a budget should be soooo tight that you can't go to KFC once a month or give a co-worker a birthday card. I do think there needs to be some discretionary spending built into the budget that is NOT for bona fide/life vs. death emergencies.
I could babble on about this topic but I'll spare everyone....
Gosh, It isn't exactly that every 2 months something happens which costs precisely $400. Something seems to happen every couple months or so and that rough amount seems to be a common one. Note that I didn't say emergencies. In today's world there are bunches of things which can happen which will cost money and are very difficult to predict and plan for. Unexpected car repairs or suddenly needing to get a plane ticket to go to a funeral and the like happen sometimes. I have this in sort of a different category than discretionary spending because this stuff is not really discretionary. Deciding to go get new clothes or a new TV is discretionary but fixing a car you need or going to a funeral or whatever else isn't to me.
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