this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

We've taken the cost of our car insurance and divided it by 12 to figure out how much money needs to be allotted for that in the monthly budget so that we can pay for it when the time comes. We do the same thing for a few other things also. A great plan in theory, but in reality it doesn't always work that way.

If we go over in one category I'll tell myself, oh well, we didn't spend any money to fix the car, so it's all good. I mean, it's the bottom line that counts, right? We spent less than we earned. But it's not really, because if that money isn't earmarked for car fixing, should the car need repairs some month, we might not have the money.

In order to combat this, I've set up a sub-account within our ING account specifically for all things auto. Each month a certain amount of money from the paychecks will go into this account, so when it comes time to pay for car related things, the money really will be there.

I hope, at least.