Budget busters

Budget "busters" are small expenses or habits that can easily go unnoticed, but when added up over time can have a big impact on your budget. Here are some common budget busters:

Spending habits

Our spending habits can help or hurt our budget. How and why we choose to spend our money can determine how well we can stay accountable to our budgets. To figure out your spending habits:

Track your spending for 3-6 months. When doing this look to see if there are patterns or habits in your spending that you may not have noticed before. For example, do you usually buy gum, a snack, or soda when you stop at the gas station? Are these common purchases values, or are they simply a habit? Reviewing our spending allows us to re-evaluate. If purchases are just a habit, we can come up with ways to change those habits. With the gas station example, we could avoid going inside or pack a snack or soda from home to avoid that habitual spending. If it is of value to you, incorporate this spending into your budget.

Impulse buying

Impulse buying is when we buy things that we do not need or may not have wanted before we got into the store or opened that online shopping site. It helps to know which stores you feel you have control in and which ones you do not. Keep in mind the following to avoid impulse buying:

Stores put a lot of money into marketing. Store layout, item location, and how shopping appeals to your senses are all intentional and are designed to get you to spend more than you planned. Knowing their tactics can help you avoid unplanned purchases.
Having a plan when going into the store can help you stick to your budget. Making a list is a great place to start.
You can also try ordering online so you can see the total as you go or asking yourself what is in your cart to check to see if you've made any impulse purchases.
Online stores will also use psychological tactics to try to encourage you to spend more. Stores will often make a product seem scarce or advertise a time-limited sale to encourage your habit of impulse buying. It can help to avoid "window shopping" and check your values when facing these scenarios.

Retail therapy

Sometimes making a purchase makes us feel good when we're feeling down. However, this can become an expensive habit to maintain. Having "wants" is part of your budget that you want to include, but we also want to make sure this type of spending doesn't become a budget buster. Like with our spending habits, take note of when and why we are retail therapy shopping can help you stop the habit from forming.

Starting a purchasing or spending journal can assist in assessing whether or not you are using retail therapy when you are having a bad day or even a good day. To start one, write down what you purchased and what you were feeling before and after the purchase.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions can easily build up over time and take up a significant portion of our budgets. Subscription services include entertainment subscriptions, gym memberships, meal prep kits, and much more. Ask yourself: Do you know how many subscription services you have right now? If not, take the opportunity to tally your total. If you find that your subscriptions are hard to monitor and could be impacting your budget, keep the following in mind:

According to a 2022 study done by C+R Research, 74% of people say it's easy to forget about recurring subscription charges. It is helpful to find a way to keep track of what subscriptions you do have, so those charges don't go through unnoticed. You can set reminders in your calendar reminding you of the recurring charge so you can decide if you want to cancel or continue the service. You can also use a subscription monitoring service, though we recommend finding one that is free so it doesn't become another subscription.
42% of people continued to pay for subscriptions they were no longer using. When you review your spending, take a look at your subscriptions and note which ones you are actively using and cancel or pause the ones you aren't currently using to save some money.

Click "Next" to see what else to watch out for when maintaining your spending plan.