I Overspent this Weekend!!

 Photo by: Andretti Indoor Karting and Games. Great Place!!!

What a great weekend!! Between go-kart racing, bowling, and great food (and drinks!), it was a little hard to head back to work this morning. It’s funny how Monday mornings are my reality checks. It checks me back to the work week, and it sheds a BRIGHT light on my financial decisions over the weekend. I have a pretty good tracking record of all expenses and I keep all of my receipts. In addition, I have a spreadsheet that shows my monthly budget of estimated cost, actual cost, and the variance. But even with all of that, sometimes Monday’s reality is no fun to deal with.

I woke up an hour early today to organize all of my “naughty” expenses over the weekend. After I totaled up all of my receipts, I was $121 over budget in my “blow money” category. Yikes! The good news is, I had room in my budget in other categories to move some of that around. For instance, my gas category is usually always over-inflated (you never how these gas prices will be!!). My weekly budget for gas is $65 but this week I was only at $44. That extra $21 went towards my “livin it up” spending this weekend.

I went through my entire budget and made some adjustments to take care of the full $121. This definitely can’t be a regular thing…but you know what? It was worth it!!! I’ve never gone go-kart racing (which I suck at by the way…) and bowling with great company was priceless.

I think keeping up with my expenses with a detailed spreadsheet and recording every dollar that leaves my account, helps me adjust to the unexpected…whether it’s an emergency situation, or otherwise.  One thing to note: my overspending weekend was not an emergency situation. Savings stayed intact!!

What method do you use to overcome those unexpected expenses (non emergency?)