My online banking has an interesting service in which they’ll send you a text message if it appears you’re going over budget in your budgeting plan. How handy.

Yesterday I got a text telling me I’m $500 over budget for vet bills this month. What they failed to realize is how I’ve been underbudget for the longest time. Well, the technology’s new, what can I say.

But yes, it’s important to budget for vet bills, especially emergency bills. What I did was take a year’s average, add $1000 for an emergency (we didn’t have any last year) and then divide by 12.

$1000 sounds like a very small amount, but keep in mind the budget you have to work with, as well. My budget is fairly small, so if some very major emergency occurred, I’d have to pull from somewhere else. But having money put back for such a time- especially if you keep things underbudget usually, helps tremendously.