 TITLE: How to Budget for One-Time Expenses CONTENT: When you make a budget, the first steps are to determine your monthly take-home income and then list all your current expenses. This can help you understand how much of your available income you're spending daily, monthly and annually.\nWhen you list your expenses, don't forget to include those that occur infrequently but that can still take a bite out of your budget: Common examples include homeowners, renters and life insurance premiums; membership fees for professional organizations; car registration; licensing or certification fees for your job; annual home maintenance; and holiday and birthday gifts.\nThese aren't monthly expenses, but they are ones you can plan for by setting a little bit aside every month. Take a look at your spending on these items from last year, either by viewing your bills or your credit card or bank statements, and identify how much you spent annually. Then, take the amount of each cost, total them all up and divide by 12. This is the amount you'll want to save per month in order to stay prepared.\nSaving a little each month for these major expenses can help prevent you from putting them on a credit card and accruing interest on the balance if you don't pay it off right away. Consider setting up a specific savings account just for annual expenses, then automatically transferring the monthly amount for each expense to that account. When the expense comes up, you'll pull from that account. Or, simply transfer the monthly portion of each expense to your general savings account and make payments from there when needed. END