As much as we’d like to tell ourselves we don’t need those school textbooks – you need those school textbooks.

While you can push these expenses off for a while, they’ll come sooner or later, and you’d be wise to plan for them. It’s easy to take your car for granted until your engine putters out on the side of the road. You’ll understand when you see these examples. Here’s the rub: periodic expenses are also necessary. These expenses don’t occur every month – but can happen quarterly or over a spread of months. Now, periodic expenses are trickier to plan around. Factor them into your budget plan – whether you use a spreadsheet or an app – to ensure you have enough money to cover them. Thankfully, fixed expenses arise month-to-month, meaning they’re predictable and easy to plan around. None of us want to sit in an apartment without lights, internet, or a working vehicle, so they’re essential. If you don’t pay these, you risk losing your property. These are the expenses that you just have to pay. Let’s go through each and determine why you’ll need each expense. We’re not expecting you to know any of this off the bat. Breaking Down the Three Types of ExpensesĮxpenses break down into three major categories. If you don’t pay these expenses, your bank account is at risk.Ĭlearly, they’re essential. Often, our expenses are the debts we don’t want to pay: a mortgage payment or a student loan. (You go, girl).īy this definition, a monthly expense is a required payment you must make monthly– think Netflix or Spotify. The “expense” definition is: “The cost required for something the money spent on something.” And that’s on Oxford. We’re not all masters of our craft here, so how do we define expenses– and why do we worry about them? By breaking these barriers down, you can get a better grip on where your money should go monthly. Lucky for you, there are only three major types of expenses. As much as we’d love to splurge on LuLulemon, the fact is you have to be wise about spending otherwise, you risk tanking your credit score. Getting and spending money sounds fun (and hey, a lot of the time, it is), but it’s stressful too.

3 types of flexible expenses