I’ve been using Goodbudget for a few while now, and overall, it’s been super helpful in keeping my spending more intentional. That said, I’m still trying to figure out the best way to handle irregular expenses, stuff like annual subscriptions, car maintenance, or gifts that only come up once or twice a year.
Right now, I’ve set up individual envelopes for those categories and try to add a bit to them each month. It mostly works, but sometimes it feels like I’m juggling too many envelopes, or I forget to fund one and get caught off guard when something comes due.
For example, I recently needed new shoes and hadn’t really planned for it. I ended up pulling from my clothing envelope, but it made me realize how easy it is to overlook some of these expenses. I did find a discount online that helped a bit, this page had a few Zappos deals, which made the purchase sting a little less.
Curious how others are managing these kinds of expenses. Do you plan for them separately? Just roll with it and adjust? I’d love to hear how you make it all work without overcomplicating your budget.
I have several different approaches.
First, annual subscriptions are not irregular. They are regular but infrequent. I have drawn an arbitrary line at $100 and create an envelope for each annual expense over $100. For example, Amazon Prime is paid in September and is over $100. Microsoft 365 is paid in January and is over $100. These envelopes have due dates so GB helps me add enough each month that when they get paid automatically it doesn’t affect my monthly envelopes. When I do my fill at the start of the month, GB calculates how much to add to these so they stay on target.
Annual expenses under $100 I treat as miscellaneous expenses. Consumer Reports Digital subscription is something like $30 once a year. It’s not worth managing an envelope for that so I just assign it to Miscellaneous envelope when it happens.
Car maintenance is quasi-regular (i.e. oil changes) and quasi-irregular (new tires, unexpected repairs) and varies from inexpensive (car wash) to very expensive (new engine mounts). For this I keep a Goal envelope with no due date and try to keep $1000 in it. It’s just a savings fund for car stuff. Same goes for Veterinary expenses which is a combination of small regular expenses (the dog’s prescription meds) and costly irregular expenses (the cat’s dental extraction).
Gifts are budgeted as “Other” at the start of the month. We know when everyone’s birthdays are, so we set aside an amount for each “social” gift as necessary. For “family” birthdays we keep annual goal envelopes, same as the regular annual expenses above.
Sometimes you can plan for new shoes (back to school shopping) and sometimes you can’t, or just don’t think about it until it’s too late. In those cases you just pull from the best envelope (clothing) and backfill as needed from another envelope, or postpone other clothing expenses until after a fill. Or if you’re a “shoe person” you could start a Goal envelope and treat it like a reserve for such things.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I really like how you explained everything, it makes a lot of sense. I never thought about calling yearly bills “regular but infrequent,” but you’re right, that’s a great way to look at it. I’ve been trying to track every little thing with its own envelope, and it’s honestly gotten kind of stressful. I like your idea of only making separate envelopes for the big stuff and just using Miscellaneous for the smaller things. Also, keeping a set amount saved up for car and vet stuff is super smart, those surprise costs always throw me off. And the part about shoes made me smile because that just happened to me too! I might start a little goal envelope just for that kind of thing.