Planning for Periodic Expenses

Periodic expenses are foreseeable and unforeseeable expenses that do not happen on a monthly basis. Periodic expenses are things like; vehicle registration, birthdays, holidays, taxes, unexpected health problems, and car maintenance or repairs.

Even though we usually know when periodic expenses are due, many of us have a hard time planning for them. What happens then? We may use our credit card, skip a bill, or use a payday loan and all the plans for living within our means and reducing debt goes right out the window.
Identifying and planning for periodic expenses will help prevent an ordinary life event from becoming a crisis and will also help you stop the vicious debt circle.

To plan your periodic expenses you need to identify them.

Use the Periodic Expense Sheet to get you started. Add any other periodic expenses you may have to the list.

Published Apr 9, 2009.