How to Blow Your Budget in 5 Easy Steps

The best way to ensure that you blow your budget when something unexpected happens is to do absolutely nothing to prepare for the unexpected.

Take for example an emergency tire-replacement.

Step 1: Get Your First Indicator of the Problem and Completely Ignore It.

When you go in to have your leaky tire checked, and the guy tells you the rim was dirty, but you also should think about replacing your tires soon, ignore him, because he’s probably just trying to upsell you on four new tires.

Step 2: Get Your Second Indicator of the Problem (Usually with More Concrete Information) and Think About Maybe Acknowledging the Problem. Maybe.

When you take your car in to have the catalytic converter replaced, and the repair shop tells you that you should really replace your tires because they’re cracked and starting to wear, take it under advisement, but don’t agree to the replacement at this time. You just spent $900 on the damn converter, and can’t afford another $500, which is what they’re predicting it will cost.

Step 3: Do Nothing – Do not Follow the Any Advice You Got, Do Not Save $50 a Month Toward the Eventual Cost of the Problem.

Despite the fact that you now know roughly how much replacing your tires will cost, and that you’ll need to replace them in the near future, do not, under any circumstances, start saving money toward to eventual cost of replacing the tires. You need that money for other stuff, and maybe if you don’t think about it, the problem will go away.

Step 4: Continue to Ignore the Problem (The “I Can’t See It So It Doesn’t Exist” Approach) Until Something Goes Wrong

Let a few months go by, and notice that you’ve started losing gas mileage on your car, a possible indicator of many things, but in this case it’s indicating that one of your tires is leaking again. Have your dad check it out and look at you in shock because by now your tires are in a bad way, and pretty desperately need to be replaced. Have your dad threaten to take away your keys because he’s worried about you driving on such bad tires.

Step 5: Decide that You’re Going to Address the Problem and Realize You Have No Money to Do So

Finally buy a clue and decide that you’re going to buy new tires, but then you look at your bank balance to see that you only have a few hundred dollars, and you need to use that for bills and things.

Bonus Step 6: Rail Against the Injustice of the World, and Wish That You Had Done Something Sooner.

Sadly, $500 is not going to materialize in your account over-night, so now you have to decide if you’re going to use a credit card (not the best plan, especially if you already have credit card debt) or start saving now and stop driving your car (better, except for the not-driving-the-car thing).

Now you know the Five Steps to Completely Blow Your Budget when an emergency situation arises. It works for any situation, really, not just tires. You can follow these steps for any potential car repair, house repair, health issue, and so forth. The possibilities are pretty much endless. Just follow the steps; it works every time.