I have a budget for my income and expenditure. Of course I do, I once ran the finance function of a decent-sized estate of pubs for a property company and produced five-year P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow forecasts for quite a few companies. Knocking out a forecast for Seven Dials LLC is a doddle.
Except there's one line that always trips me up. Other than holidays. Holidays always cost more than I plan, but isn't that the point of a holiday? I have lines for Gas Bills, Water Rates, the MoT, Road Tax and all my insurances. I have how much I spend at Caffe Nero on tea and coffee every week. The gym subscription is in there as is an estimate for lunch at work and food at home. Even the bi-annual visit to the dentist. Holidays count as capex projects, along with upgrading hi-fi and re-doing gardens.
Except for the new battery for the car the AA had to fit for me recently because the old one suddenly decided to die. That made for some standing around in freezing weather while they came and did their thing. And that visit from Dyno-Rod I talked about earlier. And replacing the broken Polti steam iron with a cheaper but just as decent Bosch (I take ironing seriously). And the service on the Dyson DC5 vacuum cleaner. And now I come to think of it, I replace my trainers every year and that isn't on the budget either.
It's all the random stuff. Fixing things that break, replacing things that tear beyond repair. I used to budget £100 a month for it, but that was back in the days when £100 could buy you things. Now I bet I have to budget about £200. Which is okay for you and me, but it can break someone who's on the edge, or on welfare.
They don't tell you this about life. It isn't the regular stuff that beats you, it's something random, that you didn't consider. That's what can leave you in tears of frustration and despair. Or at least it used to, before I got too old to have hormones that felt that way.
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