<prompt> Human: On average my expenses run about 1200month. The median is about 1000. However, I have several months where I spent about 500 thanks to no extra costs like medical, car, or repair expenses and several months where I spent 3000 usually due to a combination of factors such as emergency vet bills, emergency travel, and car repairs. The budgets I see posted here are so clean and precise and thats just not realistic for me. How much do your expenses vary and what do you do about it? EDIT: I realize that the standard advice is to estimate my expenses and average by month. Issues 1 it is almost impossible to get an accurate enough estimate to be useful and 2 Even if I could...whats the advantage over my current lack of system?  <response>: Budgeting and spending arent the same thing. A budget isnt a spending transcript, its an allocation. Some months I spend less than I budget during that month, and some months I spend more. Everybody has irregular expenses. I budget for irregular expenses - so I budget 50month for car repairs. That doesnt mean I spend 50month on car repairs. Most months my car doesnt need any repairs. It means I put aside 50month for car repairs. Some months my car needs a 300 repair, and then I have the money ready to go from all those 50s I didnt spend. My goal in budgeting is not to spend exactly the same number of dollars every month, nor is it to exactly anticipate my spending with perfect accuracy. That would be impossible. I budget in order to have enough money available for things when I need it. 