Categories: Personal Finance

Prioritization in Budgeting

I was recently asked for my best tip on budgeting, and I immediately thought of how Mr. BFS and I prioritize almost every expense. Whether we’re talking about a one-time purchase or an ongoing service, we make sure that we are okay with where the money must come from to make it happen.

The First Craving

For example, Mr. BFS thinks we would both benefit from owning smart phones. Since we do receive $150 phone credits every 18 months and our current phones were getting to be about 2 years old, we looked into the cost last October.

Other than the one-time additional charges for the phones themselves, we’d also end up spending at least another $50 a month on the new data plans.

So we had to ask ourselves, are smart phones more important to us than something else we were already spending on? What were our priorities? What will have to get cut?

We had a few conversations and decided we would hold off for a while since our phones were doing okay and Christmas was around the corner.

Decision Time

Sadly, his phone has started having some major issues a few weeks ago and my battery won’t last more than a day. It’s like our phones are giving up. Since we now need new phones, we were forced to bring up the subject again. It would be pretty sad to use our phone credits for some regular phones and then turn around and pay full price for smart phones down the road.

After a few more conversations over the last 2 weeks, we have decided that having useful smart phones is even more important to us than contributing $250 a month to a vacation fund. Our current cell phone bill is about $80, so we will take out the difference between the new plan and the old one from our vacation fund contributions.

That said, if we can use our hobby jobs to make up the difference each month, then we’ll pay back our vacation fund, so I won’t need any debt advice from you guys lol. If our hobby jobs fall flat, then we’ll just have to deal with contributing less.

My View

I personally support this decision since we will have the extra expense covered no matter what. I enjoy looking at our budget and making sure we aren’t wasting our money on anything that doesn’t add value to our lives based on our own personal opinions. Prioritization allows my husband and me to use our expendable income in the best way possible for ourselves.

Do you have a prioritized budget or spending plan of any sort? Have you looked at all of your expenses lately to make sure your money isn’t being wasted on anything you don’t personally value?

Sweating the Big Stuff

Recent Posts

The Best Books on Getting Out of Debt

Debt can be a heavy burden, but with the right knowledge and tools, you can…

10 months ago

Does Debt Consolidation Affect Getting Mortgage?

Does Debt Consolidation Affect Getting a Mortgage Most of us don’t realize that so many…

10 months ago

5 Signs You Are Buying Too Much House

For anyone working through their career, one of the main objectives is to build or…

11 months ago

Why adjustable rate mortgages are risky

Rising interest rates and home prices are making adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) more attractive to…

2 years ago

What the Fed interest rates may mean for you

In light of the increasing cost of living and rising inflation, the Federal Reserve raised…

2 years ago

How Savvy Savers Adjust for Inflation

The economy feels like a little bit of a roller-coaster these days, with the one-two…

2 years ago