So, what did we miss?

Every paycheck, we both put money into an account dedicated to paying for our kids’ sports. The total is based on the amount we estimated when we started Project Money. But as we go through the fall soccer season and look ahead to the soon-to-start hockey season, we’re realizing that we missed some things when we set those budget numbers.

First off, we forgot to include the cost of soccer uniforms – all three kids needed them this fall. We also didn’t expect to buy any new soccer balls this season, but now we will be getting two – one child lost their ball at a tournament and another strangely saw theirs run over by a car. (We didn’t see it happen, only the aftermath, but we imagine it looked something like this.)

And all three kids enjoy playing futsal, a fast-paced version of soccer played indoors on a court, during the winter, but we forgot to include those costs in our sports spending budget. That might have been because the local futsal league was canceled last winter because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Hey! Did you know that the FIFA Futsal World Cup concludes this week in Lithuania?)

So, now we’re looking for where the money for those things will come from. In the past, we would have put expenses like these on a credit card. But we have better financial options now, thanks to the changes we’ve made while working with financial coach, Aidan, during Project Money.

It’s a good lesson that we need to be more thorough in the future when we decide what costs are included in budget categories. With sports, we’ll be sure to add in related costs such as new equipment, uniforms and travel to make sure we’re putting enough aside for each season.