The Budget of Idiots

I never really understood the full weight of budgeting until I was forced to do it myself. To my unexperienced mind, a budget is a balancing of rent money and transportation money for spending money. But of course, that would mean I was a nudist who survived off of looking at the blank walls of my empty apartment. There is so much more that is added and compressed into a budget than I initially realized. Everything that we touch, feel, and see is paid for using a budget. Clothing, food, electricity, heating and cooling, utensils, cooking ware, appliances, entertainment, transport to and from work, gas money if you have a car, and of course housing. And these are only the basic things that almost every person in America has, not including a gym membership, going to the movies, getting a manicure, haircut, going shopping, eating out, library card, things that every middle class and upper class resident takes for granted are factored into the elusive 'budget'. In a class organized simulation, my 'family' and I were given a yearly salary, a number that equated to the cash in our savings account and the free reins on where we placed our hard earned money. We were an upper middle class family of four with a yearly salary of $200,000, around $17,500 a month and about $210,000 in our savings account. We started out slow, not exactly knowing how to attack a budget, did you come from the front? Go around the side? Deciding to start at the beginning of the list with housing we initially wished to live in the city, close to the workplace, but quickly realized it was cheaper to live in the suburbs and commute. We spent our entire first day discussing the pros and cons of buying a house that was a little more expensive and skimping in other areas or buying a middle class house and being able to spend more money else where. We settled on a middle class suburban house and moved on to cares which took just as long. I could only image being in a situation where my life and well being depended on making the right decisions that would inadvertently affect my entire life. As a group we had trouble deciding merely on what car we wanted, in reality, its a lot more than what a car looks like that factors into the purchase of a car like its practicality for the number of children you have, the trunk space, the gas mileage. I was continually astounded by the unthought of question that arose in my mind upon merely mimicking that of a family. Later, I discovered costs that had not originally entered into my mind such as putting money away for college and allowances for the children, twice as much because there was two of them. Averaging all costs out and adding them up, we were left with over $12,000 per month. Then came our first "Life Happens" card. It stated that we had been audited for $15,000. That was when I got my first shock of really life. We not only ended up finishing off all the rest of our monthly reserves but our savings account to pay for the last $3,000. I realized that this actually happen to lots of people, that life does happen and we are given unexpected gifts and curses, whether that be winning the lottery or needing to call a plumber for a busted pipe. Life happens and sometimes, it sucks!