I just found a stupid mistake on my budget - in our favor

[disneysteve]

We do not operate on anything resembling a strict budget, but I do like to keep a general record of our spending habits for overall planning purposes. About 3 months ago I did an updated list of our regular monthly expenses. I've tweaked the numbers a couple of times since as more YTD data has come available. Just tonight, I was looking over the numbers again and suddenly realized I had made a big mistake. I thought the total monthly spending seemed high but I am making a lot more money than I used to so I wasn't tremendously concerned.

What did I realize? I had double counted several items. I had them listed as individual line items (cable, cell phone, alarm, etc.) but I also listed our average monthly credit card bills which already includes those things since I pay them all with the credit card. Well that was a nice surprise. Once I adjusted for the things that were in there twice, it lowered our projected annual spending by about $10,000.

It was a stupid mistake but at least it was in our favor. So the teaching point is that when you are tracking your spending, make sure there isn't anything you are accidentally counting twice in two different places.

[Jluke]

I caught myself doing the same thing when I was budgeting for our house purchase
to see what that would do to the finances.

I had a category just for credit card spending because that was quick and easy to ballpark. Back of envelope type approach.

I also had the standard expenses like cable, cell phones etc as separate line items but later realized they were already part of the credit card category when my numbers weren’t lining up.

Good catch

[kork13]

Yep, I've done that multiple times in the past as well. The trouble is that it's insidious -- you don't think about what you have on automatic payment to the credit card, but when you think about what you're spending, you know to include it. This, the double-tally happens. I did that for a long time with utilities, life insurance, and a few other love items. Always feel silly when I recognize it.

[disneysteve]

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

[creditcardfree]

I've never done it in a budget, but definitely have recorded a deposit as a withdrawal and vise versa before in our checking account. Glad it was in your favor!

[Like2Plan]

You've inspired me to take a look at our latest budget figures. Like you, we don't operate on anything resembling a strict budget either.
The last time I did a review was in 2016 as there aren't usually that many big changes year to year. But, we cancelled DH's life insurance last Dec
because we didn't need it and I just made a pretty significant change to our cell phone service. So, I am curious to see how that changes things.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Yes. I found that a problem reconciling mint as well.