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Budget Busters and my Plans

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 77 Comments

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Kauai 2012

Kauai 2012

Budget busters, we all have them. There are a lot of things that I want to do with my money, and they tend to ruin my planned budgets.

Last month, Daisy made a post on things she wants to do as well. I’ve had this post in draft mode for quite some time, but once I noticed that Daisy posted hers, I finally had the push to finish it.

Also, over at Savvy Financial Latina, she talked about how they are spending money because they are young and want to enjoy themselves. Budget busters are everywhere!

This is kind of how we’ve been feeling as well and there are just so many things that we want to spend our money on. We are young NOW, so I want to enjoy it now as long as it is all truly affordable.

Writing (or typing) things out is really helpful for me. I can realistically see how much I plan on spending and therefore how much I also need to save.

Recently, I made a post of my $38,000 student loan payoff plan, and while I have figured out that most of my money next year will be dedicated towards this, there are a ton of other things that I want to do with my money next year and the year after as well.

1. Student Loans

I’ve already talked about this in my recent post, but this is a big one and just wanted to give it some more lovin’! This is definitely a budget buster and a lot of our income will be going towards this in the beginning of next year.

2. Go on vacations

Yes, that is vacations with an “s.” I want to go on at least one with the Boy of course (I feel like I should give him a fake name soon, what do you all think? I think saying “the Boy” is getting rather annoying. I’ll start calling him W from now on).

And I also already have one vacation planned for my friend’s bachelorette party on Beale Street (we’re excited for this trip!) Anyone else been there?

Me and W also both need passports, so we need to pay for this as well. Mine expired when I was 16 (or 18? Not sure), so I definitely need a new one. We really want to go out of the country to places such as Spain, Italy, Thailand, South Africa and everywhere else. Our list is endless!

Vacations are expensive, but they are definitely something that I value.

3. Buy a new house

Yes, you all can kill me. We will beginning saving for a down payment for our next house once my student loans are completely gone.

Why do we want a new house? Well, we bought our current house at the age of 20 years old and we are just outgrowing it. While we still really do LOVE our house, and it is nice for us, we just want something bigger with some land. We know exactly what we want (see the picture above as an example of my DREAM house), which is a log type home on at least 10 acres. Of course the picture above is of a house that is most likely millions of dollars, but you get the idea 🙂

I plan on making a post further on this soon, and I LOVE talking about buying homes and plans for that, so be prepared for a scary long one.

Do you think we are crazy? We don’t plan on buying a new house until 2014, and aren’t positive whether we want to rent our current one out once we move or just sell it. What would you do?

4. Wedding

Even though we are not engaged, we have of course talked about getting married. Yes, it’s not romantic but I really do not care since I am someone who believes that marriage doesn’t truly change anything. That’s what happens when you’ve been with someone for over 6 years, lived together for over 5, have a mortgage and fur-children who you love.

We’ve always known that we would get married, but it was mainly bad timing because of family problems. I DO know that I want a big wedding and I would really love to reconnect with my dad’s side of the family. I haven’t talked to them much since he passed away, and this is definitely something that has been holding back the wedding because I want to have a closer relationship with my grandfather and everyone else, it is just hard to talk to his side of the family without crying! But it is something that I am working on.

We have talked about getting married next summer as well, and have budgeted for this and plan on saving for it as well. We already know where we want to get married (which is actually the place where the first picture in my Extra Income and Life Update post was taken).

We have an idea of how much we want to spend and it is definitely possible, but we do realize that we will have over 300-400 people at the wedding and the planning will be crazy, so that will have to be thought about as well.

How much did you spend on your wedding? I promise my blog won’t turn into a wedding blog!  🙂

What are your budget busters?

Any big purchases that you are planning?

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    Well, we LIVE for vacation. We take 3 or more a year and they are worth every penny. And we always budget throughout the year and make sure that the funds are available. We do that because its important to us!!!

    Nothing wrong with that. And you KNOW I want a new hours but we are trying to wait until our house is paid off to buy because we want to end up in house that costs about the same as this one, just a smaller house, better lot, and different floor plan.

    I hear ya on the expensive stuff. Some things are just worth it though! That's why we work so hard, right?
    My recent post Things I’d Rather Hire Somebody Else to Do

    Reply

  2. Christine says

    Since I'm still without a job, I've basically cut out all of my budget busters. But that's no fun to talk about so here's what my budget busters used to be (and probably will be again)!

    Sephora: I love nice makeup. I was kind of a late bloomer to the whole makeup obsession but it's nice because at least I was old enough to buy myself some nice stuff. 😉

    Target: I can ALWAYS find something I "need." I particularly love their shoes (and scarves and bags…).

    Gift for Others: I LOVE buying people presents. I love spending money on people I know they would not spend on themselves. For example, each Christmas I buy my mom some indulgent body washes/lotions that I know she would never buy for herself.

    Ps, I LOVE weddings and can't wait to hear about planning! We got married last year and invited almost 300 people. It was really expensive but didn't put us in debt and I know other PF people may disagree…but it was totally worth it. 🙂
    My recent post How Much Pressure Should You Put on Yourself as a Blogger?

    Reply

  3. DC@Young Adult Money says

    Oh boy, as I read through that list I went (check, check, check, check). They are definitely all drags on your budget. I was actually happy we had our wedding at relatively young ages, because we took the financial hit then (we got some help but paid for about 2/3 of it ourselves). Student loans are a drag but it's something people either have to stomach or just pay off like you plan on doing.
    My recent post How to Make the Most of Yearly Reviews

    Reply

  4. Julie says

    What's the plan for your friend on Beale? We went there for our mini honeymoon and loved it. I highly recommend Silky O'Sullivan's as one of your stops, as well as Coyote Ugly. Silky's has the major hurricane bucket that you can share amongst your friends (or drink it all yourself) and they always have entertainment.

    Where are you staying? We stayed once at the Courtyard by Marriott and then at the Hampton on Beale. Personally the Courtyard was a lot nicer than the Hampton and less noisy.

    You'll have fun!

    Reply

  6. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    We have a couple of house renovation items that we have to take care of as well as starting to save for a newer car as we're quickly outgrowing our current one. So, saving for both of those is pretty key right now and of course I want it done now. 🙂

    Reply

  7. Chloe Moon says

    I want a great wedding. I have a boyfriend but the idea of scrambling to pay all the wedding bills terrify me. I don't want to use wedding gifts to pay for the actual wedding. I also want to save up for a new home in 2013. Biggest budget buster of them all. 2013 I'm going to be really counting my pennies! =)

    I'm glad I found your blog! Your ideas & goals are right up my alley!

    Ergo-Blog

    Reply

  10. CrazyTragicAlmostMagic says

    Everything seems to be a budget buster for me. I get paid semi-monthly so budgeting is something I have to have in stone, which is difficult because life is unpredictable.

    Reply

  11. Ashlee says

    My current budget buster is just debt in general. But I'm working on it! Hoping for an all debt pay off in 2013 {minus the mortgage}! And maybe some little wedding bells in my future too 😉

    Reply

  12. LenaAtOnMySide says

    Our wedding was small, pretty and inexpensive 🙂 But our biggest budget busters right now are traveling (it gets more expensive with kids) and home decor. I love decorating!

    Reply

  13. Brian says

    Our main budget buster is vacations. We go international at least once a year. My wife's old boss said, when you are young and have no kids there really is no reason you can't travel international once a year if you want. He is totally right. We pay $245 a week for day care… that is a ticket to Europe (on a higher fare) once a month! So while the little guy is going to make it more expensive to travel we will find a way.

    The other big budget buster for us is, we kind of want to move to another country in a couple years. So we are in the process of saving for that move. We want our son to experience another culture first hand so he has a more rounded world view. The good news for us, is that we know when we leave, we can probably get around $1200.month to rent our home, so that will help while we are looking for work abroad.

    Reply

  14. Frugalista Married says

    I did my wedding in 11K BUT I only had 75 guests. I did it on a major budget and that's what it costs so you could probably expect to triple that for a low cost budget wedding for that many peeps. If it's worth it to you don't let people tell you not to. Personally for me; I knew my budget and as long as I stuck to it I had no regrets. That being said; if the wedding I wanted cost much more then that I probably wouldn't have done it. Try not to be a landlord if at all possible. In general it's a headache that you probably don't want. Most landlords I know have horror stories including me!

    Reply

  16. Living Debt Free Rocks! says

    We'll be saving towards a home (minimum $30K for down and closing costs) and we will definitely be travelling in 2013 so that'll be around $5K. Congrats on the wedding to be at some point 😉 As you know we got married this year and we only had 4 guests but still spent $7500 which by most accounts is expensive. We saved for it and we don't regret a penny spent as we got married exactly how we wanted to as should you and W. That log home is gorgeous!!!

    My recent post Debt Freedom Day

    Reply

  17. SavvyFinancialLatina says

    Thanks for the mention Michelle!
    Well, we definitely want to buy a house in the near future like 1 year from now. We are planning to save $30,000 for a down payment by then. Which means we will need to save about $3,000 a month for the next year….Like we want a lot of things in life!!! 🙂 House, investments, vacations, etc. 🙂
    As far as a wedding, we had a small one. It was only suppose to be a civil wedding, and we were going to have the actual wedding later. But due to my in laws request it turned into a small wedding. At first we thought we were going to have a bigger one later on, but I think we have decided to spend that money in the future on an awesome trip overseas for ourselves. I think we would enjoy it more.

    Reply

  18. Anne - Unique Gifter says

    Heh – I will share in confidence what our wedding cost, but the PF world is scary and I'm not keen to disclose it! The most important part is that we could afford it and our parents could afford their contributions. Weddings get ridiculously expensive in short order, I found it upsetting.

    That house looks awesome. I say go for all of your goals. You're hauling in the coin with your side hustles, that alone should take you where you want to go 🙂

    Reply

  19. Little House says

    I want that house in the photo! 😉 Two or three of these things are on my budget busters list as well. Of course, since I don't jump into things, I'll just have to wait, save, and then plan. Maybe these are not so much budget busters as life planning.

    Reply

  20. debtandthegirl says

    Wedding costs scare the crap out of me too. It is one of the biggest reasons we have not gotten married yet. When we do get married, it will more than likely be a small affair with only family members-or maybe we will elope! I haven't decided because I get overwhelmed just thinking about it. If it were me, I would try and save and have a really great honeymoon instead. I have seen too many people who blow a ton of money on the wedding and then forego the honeymoon when I think it should be the other way around. Whatever you choose, I am sure it will be nice.

    Reply

  24. Veronica Hill says

    My income is too low to have any budget busters 🙂 Hopefully that changes soon so I can report to you on the types of spending that makes me broke. Right now, we're walking a tight rope…
    My recent post 10 Habits of People Who Are Well Off

    Reply

  26. Sam says

    All of this sounds great! You have to allow yourself fun stuff (like vacations – plural!) in your financial journey in order to succeed 🙂 I don't think you're crazy for wanting a new house. I know you will plan accordingly. I would recommend selling, unless you desire to own rental property. Then I would rent it out, assuming that you can afford both mortgage payments without struggling. That way, if something were to happen to your renter, you would still be in good shape 🙂 I follow you on Instagram now! Follow me @ samgeorge01
    My recent post My Holiday Weekend

    Reply

  27. Chelsea says

    At this point in life, student loans are my only budget buster. I am also a shopper…I like to buy things. Doesn't even matter what, I just like shopping.
    My recent post OOTD: All The Bloggers Are Doing It….

    Reply

  29. C The Writer says

    I want to travel. It really really bothers me that I can't! : (

    The idea that I have to stay where I am and work at a crappy job for years just to pay off student loans, it seems like traveling is never going to happen.

    It's not fair.
    My recent post Working and working out.

    Reply

  30. Kim@Eyesonthedollar says

    I have to have vacations, and we built our dream house 8 years ago, so I'm right there on that one. We had a pretty cheap wedding, outdoors for the ceremony was free and we spent under $3K for everything else, but it was no where close to 300 people. I lived in Memphis for 4 years, so I have very fond memories of Beale Street. If you blow it out and aren't ready to be done when the bars close, there used to be a dive bar called Ernestine and Hazel's that was a bit down from Beale that stayed open forever. I'm not sure if it's still there, but I spend many a late night there.
    My recent post !Obesity: Taxes In and Taxes Out

    Reply

  32. Deacon says

    I am not sure how much our wedding was as my in-laws paid for the whole thing. I believe it was under $10,000 though. As far as big purchases that we are planning, we like to go on international trips every couple of years. This year we went to Hong Kong and Singapore and boy did it cost a pretty penny. Thankfully we did research beforehand and saved up cash to pay for it

    Reply

  33. Crystal @ PET says

    Our big spend was on our new house this year. Our budget busters have actually become savings things. For example, by April of 2013, we are aiming to max out both our Roth IRA's. By the end of 2013, we are pushing ourselves to pay off our rent house ($23,500 to go). And we also want to fit in vacations – specifically a fun summer one like a cruise or a trip to Vegas, my annual trek to the Financial Blogger Conference, and a trip to the 2013 Board Game Geek Conference since this year's was awesome.

    I like your goals. I would suggest not going to nutty on the wedding though. It really doesn't change anything and a super expensive party isn't going to be any more memorable than a super fun but cheap one. 😉 Our wedding was a total of $3000 and was split almost equally between us, his parents, and my parents.
    My recent post How To Re-Use Common Items

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  34. Emily says

    My budget busters are about the same as yours, with student loans being the biggest one right now. I'm with you on paying them off ASAP! The Mister and I were about the same (at least it sounds like it) as you and W – we talked about getting married for quite a while before we did it. We made a decision together, which makes sense because we have a partnership. It was OUR decision, not his alone. Good luck to you and wedding planning is fun AND exhausting! 🙂
    My recent post My ‘Black Friday’ Bargain

    Reply

  35. Mandy@MoneyMasterMom says

    We got married 7 years ago and paid $8000 for everything. Although we didn't go on a honeymoon (we postponed for the impending arrival of a nephew and well 7 years later.. haha Oh well. We made our wedding theme fun which was a great way to save money because we weren't going for super fancy, showy, or anything at all stuffy. Wedding costs can get out of hand fast, it's one day, planning for the rest of your life is a lot more important.
    My recent post Are you a witch, wizard, or middle class?

    Reply

  36. plantingourpennies says

    We spent next to nothing (about $250) on our wedding and it was perfect in every way!

    We don't have any huge budget busters at the moment, though we did do some spending on restoration of an heirloom piece recently that was a bit unplanned.

    Reply

  38. Budget & the Beach says

    I think the one thing I WISH I could do more of right now is a vacation. I shouldn't complain as I went to NY and Hawaii last year, but my friends travel SO much it's just hard to hear about it and not feel jealous. But right now I'm just trying to hang on to where I'm living, and building up my emergency fund. I DO have miles on SW for a free ticket somewhere domestically, so I'm trying to combine that with somewhere where I can stay for low cost/free next year. I just don't know where yet, but it needs to feel like a vacation because that might be the only one I get.
    My recent post Bah Humbug: Why I don’t really do Christmas

    Reply

  39. Happy_Homeowner says

    I vacation like crazy,. so I'm with you on that one! I think it's very important to balance financial goals with life goals–in that sense, I'm all about the experience. I keep a close eye on all of my finances, but I also have given myself permission to enjoy life in small doses (the latter is key–can't overdo it and still expect to make progress!).

    I couldn't agree more with your idea of a dream house—swooning over that picture!!!

    Reply

  40. Canadianbudgetbinder says

    I was going to say that is a pretty awesome log cabin in the picture. We would love to move to a bigger house with land in the future but we want to finish renovating our house and then see what we will do. That is a big budget buster for us but if we stay we want to do it right because we do love our house. I am a BIG traveller and haven't been able to do that since moving to Canada. I would like to see us book more trips in the future and enjoy life on a budget but while enjoying what we both love to do and that's travel. This list could go on and on.. but really like you the house is the big one at the moment. As for the wedding under 1k. Great post. Mr.CBB
    My recent post Budgeting With Mr.CBB Got Us Back On Track!

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      Hey! Well I don't have a post yet but that is a great idea for one. I will definitely make one soon. I've worked full time since I was around 16 (and worked as a nanny before that as well) and saved up a lot of money.

      Reply

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