Suzy and Brian made an extra $500 payment on their debt last month.
Five hundred dollars. On top of the regular payment.
They high-fived. They felt like they were finally winning.
Then, three weeks later: the dog needed emergency vet care. Their son’s soccer registration was due. And somehow, in the same stretch of days, a birthday party invitation showed up with a gift they hadn’t budgeted for.
All three hit the credit card.
One step forward. Two steps back.
Brian said it out loud during our session: “I don’t even know why I try.”
We sat down and looked at the next month. Just the next one. We brainstormed everything that could reasonably show up. Not “what will happen,” but “what could happen.”
Then we did it again for the three months after that.
Some of those expenses are easy. You know the number and you know the date. For instance, say it’s $2,000 for a family trip, six months out. Divide it. $333 a month, automated into its own bucket, and the trip is already paid for by the time you book it.
Other expenses aren’t that clean. A vet bill doesn’t come with a due date or an invoice in advance.
For those, you make your best guess and you start anyway. Look back at what you actually spent last year. If that’s not an option, pick something reasonable. $1,200 a year. $100 a month. Somewhere to start.
Will you be exactly right? Probably not. At first, you might land under. You might land over.
Even so, that’s fine. The goal isn’t a perfect number on the first try. The goal is a bucket that exists, getting a little fuller every payday, instead of a bill that ambushes you and lands on a credit card.
Then we built all of it inside their HYSA. One bucket per category, funded a little every time they got paid. Automated. No thinking required.
So by the time the next sneaky expense showed up, the money was already sitting there. Waiting. Not a scramble. Not a card swipe. Just: “oh, that’s covered.”
Here’s the truth: most budgets treat every month like it’s identical. Same income, same bills, same everything, forever.
That’s not how life works. It’s not how your life works, and it’s definitely not how Suzy and Brian’s works.
Are you going to nail this on the first try? No. I promise you won’t catch everything.
Still, if you can see 70% of what’s coming, the other 30% stops feeling like a crisis. It just feels like a Tuesday.
Their debt payoff slowed down a little once those buckets started filling.
The money that used to go straight at the balance now splits. Some to debt. Some to the bucket that keeps the next vet bill off the credit card.
Slower and steady beats fast and defeated every single time.
The real cost of skipping this step was never the interest. It was the moment Brian said out loud in our session: “I don’t even know why I try.”
One step forward, two steps back. Even when the first version takes longer.
As I’ve said, you won’t get it 100% correct your first time. In fact, I recently had an expense popped up for me not too long ago and I turned to my husband and said, “not sure why we didn’t have a bucket for this, but I’ll create one now.” Buckets like this live right inside my own HYSA at Ally — that’s my referral link, full transparency, and also just genuinely where I keep mine. Oh and you get a $100 bonus when you open an account.
HOA dues, ski passes, a new tooth. Sneaky non-monthly expenses don’t discriminate.
That’s not failure. That’s the system working exactly like it’s supposed to. You get better at seeing around corners every time you do this.
So now I’m curious:
What’s the non-monthly expense that catches you off guard every single time, even though some part of you always knows it’s coming?
Talk soon,
Morgan
Morgan J Brown is a financial coach for self-employed and variable income earners. She helps people who make good money but still feel broke build a money system that works no matter what the month looks like, drawing on 20 years of self-employment and a personal climb from six figures of debt to a seven-figure net worth.
Your Money Project. Stop Surviving. Start Building.
