What is September's Budget Buster?

[LuxLiving]

This was an old thread and I'd be interested in seeing what everyone's budget buster challenges are...just so we can all use these to help us preplan for the unexpected.

I'll go first.

My water bill has gone bonkers since we moved here six years ago. Almost doubled. I had it down by 10.00 last month and this month it 'somehow' jumped back up by 10.00. Not a big budget buster but I was counting on it being low again! Especially since I did not water outside at all from the hose, but only with my 'shower bucket' water.

Yours?

[Snoopy2645]

well in sept our car ins is due & plates are due for renewal paid ins last month welll end of august that was around $600 now registration is around $400 so that will be paid with the next paycheck

[Ima saver]

Ours is always a trip to Gatlinburg to see the car show. We spend 2 nights!

[lrjohnson]

On my Minimum Wage Challenge I made the mistaken assumption that I would have no federal income tax liability. I'd actually owe $569. Since I didn't budget for it in the first have of my Challenge, now I am stick budgeting an extra $95 dollars a month until my Challenge is done. On $1073, that $95 is a huge hit. And it was all my fault for not checking at the beginning of my challege; $47 a month would have been significant but not horrible.

[Sivart5]

We have a leak under our van that needs to be fixed. Those things usually end up running $200-300. Ugh!

[Ima saver]

i forgot, my husband's van is not running right and needs to be fixed too.

[Bookie]

Car insurance is due Sept. 15th, but it's not a budget buster because I expect it to come around every six months and plan/save accordingly.

What will bust the budget is the dental work I'm going to have done the last week of the month. That one wasn't expected, and the hit will run about $1300.

[Dido]

My budget buster will be the credit card bill--currently at $1213 and likely to go a bit higher before being paid off. As a teacher, I had to budget ahead for the summer pay hiatus and didn't do a great job of including unexpected expenses, like the $500 car repair, etc. I've picked up a part time evening teaching job one evening a week in addition to the full-time day job, so income will be sufficient to pay off the bills, but the emergency fund is then in dire need of resuscitation.

[disneysteve]

DD is getting her braces put on this month. So $250 down and $150/month for the next 2 years.

However, we just discovered that DW has a 403b plan at work. We will be signing up for that ASAP and maxing it out. That will save us several thousand dollars in taxes each year. So the budget impact of the braces won't be as bad.

[jodi]

We had the car inspected 8/31 and had to pay $300 to get it up to speed. It went on the cc and will have to be paid this month. Yuck.
I also have to pay for my splurge - season tickets for next summer to out local theatre. My friend and I ordered them now to get the early bird discount. $128 for four shows.

[cashqueen]

Labor Day. Yikes, we decided to have a cookout yesterday and ended up spending a ton on food, drinks etc. We will have to be very good the rest of the month.

[DivaJen]

Hmmm...September is pretty decent, actually. I think I'm due at the dentist. No foreseeable budget busters this month. **knocks on wood**

[pearlieq]

I'm looking at 2 new tires tomorrow. There's a small chance that they might still be under warranty--I'm really hoping!

[Great to be Debt Free]

Labor Day! We had guests come in and had to buy a bunch of food and beer and stuff (not a BUNCh of beer, but it's more expensive than I thought).

Pearlieq -- I just started a thread about tires bc I read a blog post of someone's and she needs em and you need em and I need em -- maybe there's a cheaper way...

[med12]

Our budget buster this month will be to get the furnace/water heater replaced. We've known about it for a while but have been unable to save a significant amount of money for it. So, we'll scrimp and do it later on this month/early next month before the winter hits. We could *almost* make it through another winter but I don't want to take the chance.

Our other budget buster is property taxes. We don't do escrow because we normally have the cash on hand but this year has been particularly tough and we have to get them caught up/paid by Oct. 17.

Hopefully nothing else comes up!

[PrincessPerky]

Ill ditto that knocking on wood...

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by med12

Our budget buster this month will be to get the furnace/water heater replaced.

At least the silver lining to this is lower energy bills as the new units will be much more energy efficient than the old ones. When we replaced our furnace, our gas bills dropped in half.

[Ima saver]

Ah yes, it is about time to fill the propane tank. Ours is 1000 gallons, ouch!

[creditcardfree]

Girl Scout dues and school fund raisers. I always know they come this time of year, but for some reason I don't plan for it. I will need to do better next year.

I think I may go back through the checkbook to see how much we spent last year on various school items and girl scouts and start putting money away for that each month. At least that will help soften the blow.

[Ima saver]

We have car ins. due in 8 of the 12 months. (4 cars) sept. is not one of them. Yeah!!