In The Budget Binder, I touch on the Weekly Miscellaneous Allowance. I wanted to elaborate further on this allowance.
A Weekly Miscellaneous Allowance is meant to cover any expenses that you have that do not fit into the Grocery/Dining Out, Entertainment or Gas Budget. This includes things that crop up during the week like fees, vet bills, pocket money, doctor visits, prescriptions, etc. But you can also delegate a portion of this money to expenses that crop up during the year such as clothing, shoes, school dances, portraits, gifts, new eye glasses, etc.
In the Budget Binder, I recommend that you roll week #1’s Miscellaneous Allowance into week #2’s and then at the end of week #2, you put the remaining balance into your fund (using the My Fund worksheet). However, if your budget needs it, you can apply any (such as half or a third) or even all of the remaining miscellaneous fund into a yearly miscellaneous fund.
Store your yearly miscellaneous fund in your savings account and use the Savings Account Breakout sheet to keep track of how much you have saved. When larger expenses crop up, you’ll be able to deduct the amount from the yearly Miscellaneous fund instead of having to trying to rearrange your budget to find the money.
If you want to take it a step further, you can set a monetary goal for each item that your Miscellaneous Yearly Fund would cover. For example, if you wanted $300 a year for new eyeglasses and $400 a year for new clothes, you could set your goal for your Miscellaneous Fund at $700. Once you reach that amount, you could resume applying all remaining balance of your Weekly Miscellaneous Allowance into your main fund using the My Fund Worksheet.