So even if you plan your spending with a monthly budget, it can still feel like that your money is just disappearing.

So here's how to sharpen up your budget categories to avoid overspending and some common spending traps,

because let's be honest, they're everywhere. And make sure to like, subscribe and show this episode with a friend all right the first category that may need some attention is

the miscellaneous category i am guilty of this a lot which is what it's for but it's kind of

the category that just everything gets tossed into where you're like okay i don't really know what

this is just throw it in throw it and throw it in and i get in a bad habit sometimes of something happening, like the kids' sports, for instance.

Like sometimes I'm really bad at putting just a line item for that. So I'll just dump a bunch of expenses over the, you know, over a month or two where I'm like, I should have planned that as an exact category.

Because then it helps you plan more to be able to see exactly

where your money is going because that miscellaneous category is kind of like a black hole

of stuff that just gets put in and the other thing I'm guilty of is if a transaction comes through

every dollar and I don't know exactly like what it means but it's like $7.49 or like $18

whatever like if it's like I don't I, I don't, I don't know, just

throw in the miscellaneous category where people could be stealing money from me. And I'm not

checking in on it. I just throw in the miscellaneous category if it's not that much. So I just

need to do a better job diligently looking at it. And if there is an area of life where

expenses continue to get into that category,

just create its own line item. Practicing that. Next up is food. Yes, food. I mean,

let's be honest, it's a non-negotiable. We have to have our food. But it does tend to be one of

the largest categories in our budget, not only that we spend money on, but also that we go over. So what I do

is I'm kind of specific about our food. So we've learned that, and gosh, we've been doing this

for like over 10 years. So we actually have three categories for us in our food budget. So we have

groceries, eating out, and then I have a Costco line item now because it's usually

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